Category Archives: Food

Turn It Up!

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Four weeks ago, I had dinner with some friends at a Korean bbq restaurant next to a Chinese grocery.  Afterwards, we all went to the store to walk off the several pounds of grilled meats we had just stuffed down our throats.  It was exciting for me because as I’ve mentioned before, it’s rare that I go to Asian grocery stores since I live so much closer to a Giant and Costco.  I was walking through the produce section, and I saw a bin of daikon radishes.  When I see daikon radishes, my first thought is LUO BUO GAO!  Or in English, turnip cakes.  You see this dish at dim sum restaurants.  Tender cakes made out of radish, Chinese bacon or sausage, and dried mushroom, and then the outside is fried to golden crispiness.  I don’t know why they call it turnip cake when it’s made out of radish, but whatever.  Although important note: DO NOT use regular white turnips for this dish.  I tried it once.  Daikon radish ≠ white turnip.  Sad face.

My friend who was walking around with me had recently sent me a picture of daikon radishes that her mom was going to use for turnip cakes.  When I saw the bin of daikons and my friend, my initial thought was that I wanted, no NEEDED to eat turnip cakes.  I impulsively bought a daikon radish, but then I regretted it immediately afterwards.

Flashback!  Several years ago, I had a craving for radish cakes.  But it’s not like I live terribly close to dim sum restaurants, and the wait times to get a table on the weekends can be ridiculous.  To satisfy my craving, I went to the Asian store and got some ready to fry turnip cakes.  They were disappointing to say the least.  Maybe I got the wrong brands, but regardless, they were no good.  So I did a search for turnip cake recipes to see if they are something I can make at home.  I mentioned this before, but I am not well versed in producing Chinese cuisine.  I’ve eaten Chinese food all my life, and growing up, I watched my mom cook it everyday, but I never really learned how to make it.  I make my Americanized version of Chinese food sometimes, but it’s difficult for me to reproduce the flavors found in authentic home cooking or restaurants.  I’m sure I can improve if I practice…but man!  Chinese food takes so long to make.  Depending on the dish, there can be so much freaking prep work: washing, peeling, chopping, soaking, marinating, rolling doughs, wrapping shit up.  Not to mention the lengthy lists of aromatics and seasonings to obtain: ginger, garlic, green onion, chili peppers, star anise, cinnamon sticks, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, cooking wine, chili sauce, oyster sauce, etcetcetc!  It can be daunting to take on Chinese cooking, and it’s just not something I prioritize in making, so alas, I am still a newb.  Ok, back to the story. I took on the slightly intimidating task of making turnip cake at home.  Good news is that it tasted fantastic.  I experimented several times and came up with my own recipe, and it brings a joyful tear to my eye that I was actually able to make Chinese food that tastes like something from a restaurant.  Actually, it tastes even better than some restaurants I’ve been to.  YEEEEAH WHAT.

Now to the bad news.  It took sooo long to make.  After I bought the blasted daikon radish, I remembered that it takes forever to make the damn thing.  Ok I exaggerate, but it does take some time to make them.  But it was too late.  I told myself and my friends that I would make turnip cakes.  I had to commit.

I threw my daikon in a fridge drawer, and after I closed the drawer, I closed it out of my mind.  I could not deal with daikon drama yet.  After two weeks, I finally uncovered my poor rejected daikon.  It was in a sad state, all soft and limp.  But I rescued it!  I gave it the veggie viagra treatment.  I put the radish in a glass with a couple inches of water, asphyxiated it, and refrigerated it.  It got all hard and happy again, and it was ready to get some.  However, I was not ready for some radish fun, so I left it in the water glass for two more weeks.  After four weeks of loneliness, the radish was still good!  The asphyxiation method works for other veggies too, I’ve tried it on green onion, carrots, lettuces, herbs.  I wrote about how I preserve herbs and veggies before, take a look for more tips.  Don’t waste food!

Happy daikon on veggie viagra

By the way, to be clear, this is a chunky turnip cake.  My favorite part of the turnip cake is when I get meaty bites.  I feel cheated when I eat turnip cakes that are all batter and no substance.  My obvious solution is to pack in the meeeat.  If you don’t like chewing, or prefer a smoother turnip cake, then decrease the amount of filling, or mince them finely, or puree the shit out of it.  Whatever.  You do you.

There are many steps to this dish, and there were times when I was doing several things at the same time, so bear with me, and hopefully this isn’t too confusing.  This is a good dish to practice your multitasking skills.

Here is my happy daikon finally ready for some action.  It was a tad over 2 pounds.

Hefty forearm length, good for beating robbers on the head, especially after it’s viagra treatment.

After I peeled the radish, I used my mandolin to shred it up.  Please use the hand guard once you get close to the end of the radish.  Shredded fingers would totally ruin this dish.  If you don’t have a mandolin, then use some other tool to shred this baby up.  My hefty radish came out to be around 4.5 cups packed.

Shred radish, not fingers

Put the shredded radish into some kind of pot or wok.  I have my rarely used nonstick wok.  Add enough water to cover the radish, cover the wok, and simmer the radish for around 20 minutes.

After the radish is done simmering away, drain it and put it in a big bowl.  DO NOT discard the turnip water.  We will use it soon enough.

After a soak in the hot tub, this radish is ready for some friends to join the party.

When I was at the Chinese store, I got the other fixings that go with the turnip cake.  Actually, my friend helped me get them.  Have you all seen the selection of Chinese sausage at the store!?  Dude, it’s always a crapshoot for me since I don’t know which brands are the good ones, and since I get them so rarely, I forget which brands I like and dislike.  So my more experienced friend selected a package of Chinese sausage for me.  I like how each portion is wrapped.  Usually the whole mass of sausages are clumped together, so they all need to be used up once open.  This brand was a little lean for my taste, but the flavor was good.

Finely chop up the sausages.  This was around 4 ounces of sausage.

Even with my lack of experience, I am still more accustomed to using Chinese sausage in my cooking.  My friend was like, you have to get Chinese bacon too!  So I was like, um ok, and she picked out a pack for me.  The last time I used Chinese bacon was four years ago, so I was rather rusty with my bacon handling.  She warned me that I have to soften it first, and I was like, eh…? and then I forgot about it after I threw the bacon into my fridge with the radish.  Note: If you only want to use bacon or only want to use sausage, that’s cool.  Still damn tasty.  These are also portioned, so I don’t have to use everything once the pack is open.  I hate the over usage of plastic, but in this case, I won’t use up the whole pack before they go bad, so I need to pick and choose my environmental battles.

I remembered my friend’s warning to soften the bacon first.  The package had instructions to steam the bacon, but unburying my steamer was a pain, so I turned to the internets, and Serious Eats had a post about Chinese bacon, and they soaked the bacon for several hours to soften it.  Grabbing a storage container was a lot easier than finding my steamer, so score!  I left the bacon covered with water overnight.

After the overnight soak, I cut off the hard rind and chopped up the now much softer bacon.  I ended up with around 4 ounces of bacon.  I didn’t want to just throw out the rinds, so they’re still in my fridge.  I’m going to cook it with some vegetables and hopefully give an extra boost of flavor.

Now on to more soaking.  I got six dried mushrooms and covered them with freshly boiled water.  I have no idea what kind of mushrooms these are.  The dried mushroom section at Asian stores are quite mysterious.  Many of the labels just say mushroom.  I just picked a pack.  They have served me well, so, yay!  I let the mushrooms soak up the hot water for about 20 minutes.

I also got 1/3 cup of dried shrimp and also soaked them in boiling water for about 20 minutes.

After their hot soak, I squeezed the water out of the mushrooms and shrimp, and chopped them up.  Cut off the ends of the mushrooms if they are too woody and hard.  I very finely chopped the shrimp because I don’t like chewing on big pieces of sharp shells.  DO NOT discard the mushroom and shrimp water.  That there is crucial umami water.  We will be using it in the dish.  Any leftover water can be added to soups, cook your rice in it, make a sauce, something.  Just don’t toss it.

Finely chop up a bunch of green onion.

Here is my mess of various dishes taking up my counter top.

Finally, we are done with the soaking and chopping!  Pour a little oil into a pan and cook the bacon on medium-low/medium heat for around 3 minutes or until the fat begins to render.  If my sausage was fattier, then I would have cooked it with the bacon to render some of its fat.  But since it was so lean, I just waited to add the sausage.

Add the mushrooms, shrimp, sausage, and green onion.  Cook for around 3-4 minutes, or until you get hit with some serious savory aromatherapy.

Add 1 tbs of cooking rice wine and 2 tsp of sugar.  You’ll get hit with a sweet boozy scent at this point.  Cook for another couple of minutes.

Combine the meat mixture with the cooked radish.  It’s getting real in there.

Here’s another Asian store find.  We’ll need 2 cups of rice flour.  When you are buying rice flour, you might see glutinous rice flour next to the regular rice flour.  DO NOT use glutinous rice flour.  I’m actually a little curious how the dish would turn out if sticky glutinous rice flour is used, so if anyone does it on purpose or by accident, let me know how it is!

Remember the umami water?  Mix the mushroom and shrimp water together and use 1.5 cups for the batter.  There will be some sediment at the bottom of the bowl.  That’s like dirt and bits of shrimp parts, you can toss that.  Stir the water into the rice flour to make a smooth thin pancake like batter.  Add 2 tbs soy sauce and a generous pinch of salt.

Pour the batter into the radish mixture and combine well.

We will need to steam the cake.  I do not have a steamer big enough for this purpose, so I will do what my mom does and Macgyver that ish.  Man, I miss seeing Richard Dean Anderson, maybe I will watch Stargate again.  Remember the wok full of radish water?  That will be the steaming water.  I inverted a small heatproof bowl, and placed it in the wok.

The recipes I’ve seen for radish cake use a loaf pan.  But my loaf pan will not fit in my wok, so I usually use a regular cake pan.  This time, my eyes fell on my bundt pan, and I thought what the hell, why not?  So I sprayed my bundt pan with Pam, and poured the batter in.  The water was touching the cake pan, but that is ok.  As long as the bottom and sides of the pan are not touching the wok.  I have no idea what the serving size of this dish is, but it is enough for one bundt cake.

Cover the wok up and steam on low heat for 1 hour.  The cake is done when the batter firms up and it’s not all wet and mushy.  I just poked at it a bit to check the mushiness level.  Check the water level periodically and refill if necessary.  Don’t be like me and try to burn down the kitchen.  Segue to a helpful tip!

I forgot to refill the water, and I was left with this crusty shit.  But it’s ok!  I fixed it!

Do not despair!

I wrote a post about this before, but if you have a crusty burnt mess in your cooking vessel, you can clean it without any scrubbing.  I sprinkled about 1/3 cup of baking soda into the wok, covered the bottom with water, and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.  Then I used a rubber spatula and scraped the burnt bits right off.

Tadaa!  This is after I poured out the burnt baking soda water.  The crusty shit is gone, the white spots are from the baking soda.

Crusty shit no more!

Back to the main story.  Here is my beautiful turnip bundt cake.  Ok, so about the bundt pan.  I  used it for the hell of it, but note that when you slice the cake to fry, one side of the piece will be a bit thicker.  But that didn’t matter much to me, so whatever.  After the cake is done steaming, loosen the sides from the pan.  I let mine cool down slightly before dumping it out of the pan.  The cake will be too soft to slice for frying, so again with the waiting game.  I sprayed some Pam on the cake and wrapped it with some plastic wrap and stuck it in the fridge.  A few hours should be good, but I just left it overnight.  Note, turnip cake freezes well.

Now for the most anticipated part!  Once the cake is cool and firm, slice it for frying.  I sliced mine into 0.5 inch pieces.  Fry each side for about 3 minutes, or until your desired golden crispness.

YES.  YES.  Finally.  After literally days of preparation.  I like eating my turnip cake with a bit of garlic chili oil.  Mmm.  Was it worth the work and wait?  Hell yes.  Will I do it again?  Maybe in a few years once I’ve forgotten how annoying it is to make.  It’s like having another baby after a few years of respite.  Yes cuteness and more cuteness, oooooh wait, sooo much work…

This is my first time using my new kitty cat plate and dog chopstick holder!

Turnip Cake

Ingredients (Remember, chunky!  Decrease meats or find another recipe if you don’t want this)
– 2 pounds of daikon radish (around 4.5 cups packed)
– 4 ounces of Chinese bacon
– 4 ounces of Chinese sausage
– 6 dried mushrooms
– 1/3 cup of dried shrimp
– 1 bunch of green onion
– 2 cups rice flour
– 1 tablespoon cooking rice wine
– 2 teaspoons sugar
– 2 tablespoons soy sauce
– salt
– oil

Directions (Do the prep work in whatever order works for you)
– Peel the radish and shred with your choice of kitchen tool.  Put the shredded radish into a wok and cover with water.  Cover the wok and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.  Drain the radish and place into a large bowl.  Keep the radish water in the wok.
– Soak the Chinese bacon or follow the steaming instructions on the package to soften the meat.  Cut off the rind and finely chop the meat up.
– Put the mushrooms in a bowl, and cover them with hot water.  Soak for 20 minutes.
– Put the dried shrimp in a bowl, cover with hot water, and soak for 20 minutes.
– Squeeze the water out of the mushrooms and shrimp, and finely chop them up.  Discard the woody ends of the mushroom if they are too hard.  KEEP the soaking water.
– Finely chop up the Chinese sausage.
– Finely chop up the green onion.
–  Oil a pan and cook the bacon on medium low/medium heat for 3 minutes or until the fat starts to melt.  If your sausage is very fatty, cook it with the bacon to melt the fat.
– Add the sausage (if lean), mushroom, shrimp, and green onion to the bacon.  Cook for another 3 minutes or so.  You’ll smell a very fragrant aroma after a few minutes of cooking.
– Add the sugar and rice wine to the mix, and cook for couple minutes.
– Mix the whole lot into the bowl of radish.  Combine well.
– Mix the rice flour with 1.5 cups of the mushroom and shrimp water until you get a smooth and thin pancake like consistency.  Add the soy sauce and a big pinch of salt.
– Mix the batter into the bowl of radish and combine well.
– Grease a heatproof vessel of your choice and pour the mixture in.
– Put the heatproof vessel into a steamer and steam for 1 hour.  Check the water level periodically and refill with water if necessary.  The cake is done when the batter firms up and the batter is no longer mushy and wet.
– Cool the cake and remove from the pan.  Store the cake in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight until the cake is completely cold and firm.
– Slice the cake into whatever size pieces you want, and fry for 3 minutes on each side, or until it is as golden brown as your stomach desires.

Ice Cream! Ice Cream! We All Scream For…No Churn?!

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Now that I’ve stepped into the dangerous zone of no churn ice cream, there’s no turning back.  The cherry cheesecake ice cream I made was damn good, and the kid and I have been steadily chipping away at it.  As luck would have it, I got a bunch of fresh mint from the CSA last week.  Fresh mint = mint ice cream!!  I tried making fresh mint ice cream a few years ago, but it was a more complicated process where I steeped the mint in cream, cooked it into a custard, used the ice cream machine, etc.  It was a pain in the ass, and I didn’t even like it that much.  Now that I have a pretty good grasp on the no churn method, I wanted to try again.  I decided to add Oreos into the mix, because, why the hell not?!  Cookies and Cream Mint Ice Cream!

I picked up my CSA loot on a super hot and muggy day.  It was such a gross day, that during the drive home, my mint wilted into a sad, limp handful of nope.  BUT.  I saved them.  There is an easy way to rescue wilted vegetables and herbs.  I wrote about it in my Efficient Like a Boss post.  I put the mint into a cup and poured enough water to cover the bottom of the stems.  Then I put a plastic bag over the mint and wrapped a rubber band to secure the bag to the cup.  After a few hours in the fridge, the mint perked right back up.  This method keeps herbs and vegetables fresh longer, and also works to rescue limp produce that you might otherwise toss.  Actually, at this very moment, I have a large cup full of Swiss chard, kale, and fennel in the fridge keeping fresh and perky.

Anyways, back to making ice cream.  I’m not actually sure how much fresh mint to use for the ideal minty flavor.  I only had the bunch I received from the farm, and that came out to be about a half cup.  So, if you have access to more mint, then by all means, use more.  If you don’t have any fresh mint, then you can use mint extract.  I ended up using both fresh mint and mint extract.  I used my old fashioned mortar and pestle to grind up my mint leaves.  I added a tablespoon of sugar.  Honestly, I don’t think the sugar was necessary, but I was making stuff up as I went, and it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.  So, we’ll say, sugar is optional.  You can use a food processor, but I like the mortar and pestle because using them make me feel like an alchemist.  Plus, the food processor ends up mangling and ripping the leaves and does not extrude all the minty goodness out of the leaves.

It only took a minute to mash up the leaves into a dark green paste.  Set that aside.

I whipped 2 cups of heavy cream with a teaspoon of vanilla extract into whipped cream.  I started on low speed to avoid splatter and worked my way up to high speed as the mixture thickened.  Mix on high speed until stiff peaks form.

Stiff peaks.  Put the whipped cream in the fridge if you’re not ready to use it yet.

I strained the mint paste and used a spoon to squeeze out as much minty liquid as I could out of that clump.

I added a can of sweetened condensed milk to the mint liquid.

Then I got the whipped cream out and gently folded it into the minty condensed milk.  Don’t be too rough and mix vigorously, or the whipped cream will deflate and get too liquidy.

Smooth creamy ice cream base after the folding is complete.  Give it a taste.  If it’s not minty enough, add mint extract.  To me, the mint flavor was too gentle, so I added half a teaspoon of mint extract.  If you decide to add more, add a little at a time because mint extract is potent stuff.

I chopped up about 8 Oreos to make a heaping cup of cookie chunks.

I gently folded the cookie chunks into the ice cream, and then poured it into a freezer-safe container.  It’ll take a few hours for the ice cream to harden.

Needless to say, the ice cream disappeared very quickly.  The dainty Hello Kitty cup and saucer made it even more enjoyable.

No Churn Cookies and Cream Mint Ice Cream

Ingredients
– 1/2 cup packed mint leaves
– 1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
– 1/2 teaspoon or more mint extract (optional)
– 2 cups heavy whipping cream
– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
– 1 can sweetened condensed milk
–  8 Oreos 

Directions
– Chop up the Oreo cookies into small chunks, set aside.
– Mash the mint leaves and optional spoonful of sugar with a mortar and pestle until a dark, wet paste forms.  Strain the clump using whatever method (strainer, cheesecloth, etc) and get as much of the mint liquid out as possible.  Set aside.
– Whip the heavy whipping cream and vanilla extract until stiff peaks form.  Store the whipped cream in the fridge until ready for use.
– Mix the strained mint liquid with the can of condensed milk.  Gently fold in the whipped cream.  Avoid vigorous mixing so the whipped cream stays fluffy.  If the mixture is not minty enough, add half a teaspoon of mint extract at a time until you’re happy.
– Fold in the chopped cookie chunks.  Pour the ice cream into a freezer-safe container.  Put it in the freezer for about 4 hours or until the ice cream hardens.

Time To Pop Your Ice Cream Cherry

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We started getting our vegetable and fruit share from a local CSA (community supported agriculture) a few weeks ago.  We were with a different CSA for a couple of years, but we had to part ways when we moved.  We were CSA-less last year since we were busy with the move and getting settled in.  I finally got around to looking up what is in the area, and not too surprising (we now live near a lot of farms), I found a bunch of CSA’s.

For those of you who are interested, but not sure about taking the plunge, I urge you to give it a try.  Obviously, do your research first, but we had a great experience with our first CSA, and this new one has been great.  They are a sustainable farm, using integrated pest management.  They are being responsible farmers, minimizing their impact on the environment, and keeping things healthy for people, the land, and animals.  We get to support a local farmer, and get a box full of freshly picked produce for a very reasonable price.  We also get interesting varieties of vegetables and fruits that you probably wouldn’t find at a regular grocery store, along with heirloom varieties.  I also really like how every week is a surprise, and it forces me to try new things.

This is our loot from three weeks ago.  I love it, but I have to say, this sudden increase of leafy greens and fiber in my diet, wrecked me pretty bad.  But that is a personal issue that I have to work out.

Ok, enough of my plug on CSA’s.  Back to the really important part.  Home made, no churn, CHERRY CHEESECAKE ICE CREAM.  Yes, you can make ice cream at home, and NO ice cream maker or messing with rock salt and ice is needed.  It is a fairly simple process, and only requires a few ingredients.  The only special equipment you need is a mixer.

Last week, I got a carton of cherries from the CSA.  My friends also wanted to go to a different local farm to pick berries, so I ended up with more cherries.  I have no idea what kind of cherries they are, but these bright and beautiful little suckers are mouth puckeringly tart.  I had to cook them into something because it was a bit painful eating them plain.

I do not have a cherry pitter because I just do not get cherries often enough to justify getting another gadget.  So I sliced each cherry in half, and had my daughter dig the pits out.  It’s not very pretty, but they’re going to get mashed and mixed into ice cream anyways.  This was about 2 cups of cherries.

I mixed a heaping quarter cup of sugar with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.  You may need to adjust the amount of sugar you use depending on how tart your cherries are.

I first simmered the cherries for about 10 minutes, until they deflated and let out a lot of juice.  Then I added the sugar and cornstarch and cooked the mixture for another 2-3 minutes.  You’ll notice the mixture thickening.  Don’t forget to stir often or you might end up with a burnt mess.  After I turned off the heat, I stirred in about half a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Let the cherries cool down.  They are ready for ice cream, or pie, or whatever.  They are still tart, but in a good way now.

On to the ice cream.  I got a package of regular fat cream cheese, a can of sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, heavy whipping cream, and graham crackers.  And of course, the cherries.

I first made whipped cream.  I poured 1.5 cups of heavy cream and 1 tablespoon of vanilla into the mixing bowl.  I started on low speed so as not to decorate the kitchen with cream.  I worked my way to high speed and let it go for a few minutes until I got stiff peaks.  I transferred the whipped cream to another bowl, and stuck it in the fridge.  No need to wash the mixing bowl, on to the next step.

Drop the block of cream cheese into the bowl.  I had first let the cream cheese sit at room temperature for about an hour.  This way, it mixed smoothly and easily.

I mixed the cream cheese on medium until it became smooth.  Then I added the whole can of condensed milk.  Make sure you use condensed milk, NOT evaporated milk.  Totally different ingredient, totally different results.  The dark yellow stuff in the bowl is the condensed milk.

Mix the condensed milk and cream cheese together until you get a smooth, liquidy goop.

Get the whipped cream out of the fridge, and scoop the whole lot into the mixing bowl.

At this point, get a spatula out.  Fold the whipped cream gently into the cream cheese mixture.  You don’t want to stir or be too vigorous, or the whipped cream will deflate and become too liquidy.

Pour the finished ice cream base into a freezer safe container.  I used a small Pyrex dish.  I’ve seen a lot of ice cream recipes use a loaf pan.  That’s fine and all, but I don’t have a lid for my loaf pan, and I prefer to keep my ice cream tightly covered in the freezer.  Next to my ice cream are the cherries, and 4 sheets of graham crackers that my daughter helped smash.

So originally, I was going for a swirly look, but my daughter and I had different ideas of what a swirl looks like.  We did not hold back with the cherries and graham crackers.  We threw everything in.

The ice cream is now ready to go into the freezer for a few hours to firm up.  We had some overflow so we had to eat it up.  It tasted really good, like a cheesecake milkshake.

Look at this gorgeous home made ice cream.  It tasted like frozen cheesecake.  I got fancy and drizzled some chocolate balsamic vinegar over my ice cream (not shown), and it was freaking delicious.

Cherry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Cherry Filling

Ingredients:
– 2 cups tart cherries
– 1⁄4 – 1⁄2 cup sugar (depends on how tart your cherries are)
– 2 tablespoons corn starch
– 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Directions:
– Wash and pit the cherries
– Simmer the cherries on medium low heat for about 10 minutes until they release their juices.
– Mix the sugar and corn starch together, then add the mixture to the cherries.  Cook for another 2-3 minutes.
– Take the pot off the heat, and stir in the vanilla extract.  Let the cherries cool before using.

Cream Cheese Ice Cream Base

Ingredients:
– 1.5 cups heavy whipping cream
– 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
– 1 block of regular fat cream cheese (8 ounces)
–  1 can of sweetened condensed milk (14 ounces)

Directions:
– Let the cream cheese sit at room temperature for an hour.
– Pour the heavy cream and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl.  Start on low speed, and work your way to high speed.  Whip on high for a few minutes until the cream forms stiff peaks.  Remove from the bowl and place in the fridge.
– Put the cream cheese into the mixing bowl.  Mix on medium speed until it’s smooth.  
– Add the condensed milk to the cream cheese.  Mix until smooth and liquid looking.
– Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture using a spatula.  Fold until everything is incorporated, smooth and kind of fluffy looking.  
– Pour the ice cream base into a freezer safe container.

Mix or swirl the cherries and 4 crushed graham crackers into the ice cream base.  Put the ice cream into the freezer for at least 4 hours. 

Shrimp Spaghetti…Squash Alfraudo

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Today, my dinner experiment was a success.  In fact, I am so excited about it, I am writing about it instead of playing Final Fantasy XIV.  If you have any idea what the extent of my gaming addic…I mean passion is, then you know this is serious.

I’ve mentioned before that my husband and I are on a low carb lifestyle.  My husband is hard core cutting out carbs left and right.  I have a more difficult time because, bottom line, I am just not as strong willed, and I really love carby foods.  One food I really miss is a creamy, cheesy pasta dish, with extra cream, and extra cheese.  Did I mention that cream and cheese is crucial?  Luckily, I discovered the amazing spaghetti squash a few years ago, thanks to the CSA (community supported agriculture) we were a part of.  It is absolutely fascinating to me that a squash can be pulled apart into noodle like strands.  Ok, so it’s not the same as eating a bowl of fettuccine.  But it is a healthy and delicious alternative, and it does not leave you super full and bloated like pasta.

Today happens to be Friday, and it is the Lenten season right now.  I don’t know about other denominations, but for Catholics, we abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent.  I have little experience cooking seafood.  My aunt, who lived near me, was an amazing cook.  I have very fond memories of going to her house to eat ginger and scallion stir fried crabs and spicy whole shrimp.  Unfortunately, she passed away a few years ago, and I always regret not asking her to teach me when she was healthy.  So for seafood newb me, it is always a bit of a struggle trying to figure out what to cook on Fridays during Lent.

Giant happened to have a serious sale on frozen shrimp a couple of weeks ago.  What was normally a $20 for 2 lb bag of shrimp, was $5 with a coupon stacked with the sale price.  Too bad the limit was 1 bag per person.

So I decided to break out my super cheap bag of frozen shrimp and make shrimp alfredo with my spaghetti squash that’s been sitting in my kitchen for weeks.  I decided to defrost the entire 2 lb bag because I don’t mess around.  It really irks me whenever I go to restaurants, and an $18 shrimp dish only comes with 5 shrimp.  Should have gotten the steak.  While I am no pro at cooking shrimp, I do know that shrimp shells make an excellent stock.  After I defrosted the shrimp and peeled them, I threw the shells back into the freezer for another day.  Obviously, if you are short on time, get the already peeled shrimp.

While I was prepping the shrimp, my spaghetti squash was roasting away in the oven.  I split it in half, and as you can see it was a sloppy job.  Spaghetti squash are really hard, so it can be a little scary cutting them up.  Be careful please.  I drizzled olive oil and sprinkled salt, pepper, and garlic powder on the halves.  Then I turned the squash over, skin side up.  Roast them in a 400°F oven for 40-50 minutes, or until the flesh is easily pierced by a fork.

Here is my cooked squash after I dug out the flesh.

My shrimp were wet, so I dried them in several layers.  I salt and peppered them.

I heated up olive oil, then I cooked the shrimp on medium heat.  Shrimp cook super fast, it only takes a couple of minutes on each side.  Once they turn pink, take them out.  Overcooked, rubbery shrimp are no good.

Bowl o’ shrimp

Remember how I wrote about cleaning crusty shit off pots?  Well this time, the crusty shit is a good thing.  The brown bits left from the shrimp help give the alfredo sauce a bigger flavor punch.  Plus, it would be a stupid pain in the ass to clean it off.  So, throw half a stick of butter right into the pot.

Once the butter melts, throw in about 1/3 of a head of garlic, minced.  It takes seconds, so don’t let the garlic burn.

Once the garlic is cooked, pour in 2 cups of heavy cream.  Look, it made an artsy swirl.  Let the cream come to a gentle simmer.  It takes a few minutes, maybe 3 minutes or so.  You will also feel the crusty burnt bits peeling off.

Once you see tiny bubbles, add the parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese.  Stir them in and let the sauce gently cook for another few minutes.  Taste it, and add salt and pepper if necessary.

Easy shrimp and spaghetti squash alfredo, just like that.  And I ate 15 extra large shrimp.  YEAH.  Warning: the spaghetti squash does let out a good amount of liquid.  If you don’t want a watery sauce, squeeze the excess liquid out before mixing the squash into the sauce.

Shrimp Spaghetti Squash Alfredo

Ingredients
– 1 spaghetti squash
– 2 lbs shrimp
– half a stick of butter (4 tbs)
– 1/3 head of garlic minced
– 2 cups heavy cream
– 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese (NOT the grated crap you pour out of a canister please)
– 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
– olive oil
– salt
– pepper
– garlic powder

Directions
– Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.  Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Turn the squash face down on a baking sheet.  Roast in a 400°F oven for 40-50 minutes, or until the flesh is easily pierced.  After the squash is cooked, scoop and fluff out the flesh.
– Rinse and dry off the shrimp.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook in a single layer in olive oil over medium heat.  Cook each side for 1-2 minutes, or until the shrimp turns pink.  Remove from the pot.
– In the same pot, melt the butter.  Add the garlic once the butter is melted.
– Once the garlic is cooked, add the heavy cream.  Let it come to a simmer for a couple of minutes.  Gently scrape off the burnt bits from the shrimp.
– Add the parmesan and mozzarella cheeses and stir them into the sauce.  Cook gently for another couple of minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
– Mix the squash and shrimp into the sauce, and get ready to eat.

“He Who Controls the Spice Controls the Universe”

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Any fellow scifi fans remember the quote in my title?  Haha, that also made me think of the Shokugeki No Soma (Food Wars) episode where they had to use spices to make their own curry.  Ok, so my spice usage level is probably still at a beginner/intermediate level, but, they make my stomach happy, and that is a large part of MY universe.

My apologies for being MIA on my blog for a while.  Over the Christmas holiday, I got caught up with playing a new Mario and Zelda game.  I finally beat those games, and I was ready to go back into my regular routine and actually get shit done and be productive.  But my husband…THAT guy…  He built himself a new computer recently, so he passed on his old computer to me.   He also recently started playing Final Fantasy XIV again after a 3 year hiatus.  I used to play too, but I stopped shortly after I started.  He kept bugging me to play again, since I now have a computer capable of playing it, thanks to him.  Sooo, I’ve been sucked back into the world of gaming, and obviously it is all his fault.  Once again, I have a long backlog of photos and ideas for this blog…but I’ve been a little busy leveling up.  And my husband hasn’t even played WITH me.  We sit NEXT to each other, but his character is more than 20 levels higher than mine.  Ugh.

But on a more productive and healthy note, we both recently started an athlete training class at a local gym.  It’s similar to CrossFit, and it is kicking my ass.  The first time I went, I kid you not, I puked during my work out.  At least I made it to the bathroom.  But, my body has gotten so weak, stiff, and flabby since I had my daughter, and it is really weighing me down, mentally, and physically.  So even though I really dislike exercising, I will give it my all, since it is necessary for my well-being.

So back to the main point of this post.

When you ask a Chinese person about favorite comfort foods, one response will likely be niu rou mien, or beef noodle soup.  There are so many kinds of beef noodle soup.  Even within one restaurant, there may be several kinds on the menu.  They may have a clear and light soup, a spicy and heavier soup, soup with just beef chunks, soup with tendon and beef, etc.  There will likely be a selection of different noodles too, like thick and chewy, thin, hand pulled, etc.

I don’t live very close to any good Chinese restaurants that serve beef noodle soup, so I wanted to try making my own.  Since I am lazy and don’t always make it to the nearest Asian grocery store, I wanted to make a soup out of ingredients found at mainstream grocery stores.  However, the spices and sauces I used were all previously bought online, or from Asian stores, so I don’t know if you’ll be able to find everything at regular stores.  The recipe below is for my take on spicy niu rou tang, or beef soup.  It is a rich, hearty, and slightly spicy beef soup.  I did not add noodles since we are on a low carb lifestyle (sniff sniff), hence niu rou tang, instead of niu rou mien.  But, if you are not watching your carbs, Chinese beef soup is delicious with noodles and rice.

I got 4-5 lbs of beef short rib.  I patted them dry, then rubbed a five-spice blend all over the meat.  I’ve used chuck before, and it tasted great and was a lot cheaper, but I prefer the fattiness, taste, and texture of short ribs.  If I’m going to comfort myself with food, and can’t include noodles or rice, then damn it, I’m going to splurge on the meat.

This is part of the backbone of my soup.  I have bay leaves, black peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, star anise, Thai chili pepper, and Szechuan peppercorns.  I went easy on the spicy components since my household is not into painful, numbing, and ulcer forming spicy foods.  There is a kick to my soup, but it’s more of a warm feeling and maybe drippy nose spicy level.

I wrapped the spices in a bit of cheesecloth for easy retrieval.

Here is another part of the backbone of my soup.  I roughly chopped up some green onion, ginger, shallot, and peeled some garlic.

This messy bowl of mystery liquid is the last part of the soup’s backbone.  It’s a mixture of soy sauce, chili oil with black bean sauce, rice wine, chili crisp sauce, sesame oil, and sugar.  Again, I went easy on the spicy sauces, but if you like your mouth, throat, and stomach to be on fire, then knock yourself out.

For the vegetable part, I chopped up mushrooms, onion, and carrots.  If you get a beef noodle soup at a restaurant, it will likely only come with a few pieces of leafy greens.  The focus is on the beef soup and noodles.  But, I wanted to make my soup heartier and more nutritious, so I added a lot more vegetables.

I first browned the beef short ribs in bacon fat, because… bacon fat.  It took a few minutes to brown each side.

After the beef browned, I added the soy sauce mixture, a quart of beef stock and enough water to cover the beef.  I also added the pouch of spices, and the other aromatics.  Let it come to a boil, then I turned the heat to low, covered the pot and let it simmer for about 2 hours.

After about 2 hours, I skimmed off the oily scummy stuff floating on top.  Then I added the vegetables and covered the pot again.  I let it cook for another hour or so, until the beef was super tender.

This is my giant bowl of comfort.  I garnished my bowl with some green onion and cilantro.

Chinese Beef Soup

Ingredients
– 4-5 lbs beef short rib
– five-spice powder blend
– 1 lb of carrots (about 6 carrots)
– 1 onion
– 1 large family pack of mushrooms
– 1 shallot
– 1 bunch of green onion
– about 3 inches of ginger
– 1 head of garlic
– 1 Thai chili
– 3 bay leaves
– 1/2 tsp whole Szechuan peppercorns 
– 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
– 3 star anise
– 2 cinnamon sticks
– 1/2 c of soy sauce
– 2 tbs chili oil with black bean sauce
– 2 tbs rice wine
– 1 tbs chili crisp sauce
– 2 tbs sesame oil
– 3 tbs sugar
– 1 quart of beef stock

Directions
– Tie the cinnamon sticks, star anise, black peppercorns, Szechuan peppercorns, bay leaves, and Thai chili in cheesecloth.
– Reserve some of the green part of the green onion for garnish.  Roughly chop the rest of the green onion, ginger, and shallot up.  Peel and leave the garlic cloves whole.
– Chop the mushrooms, onion, and carrots into big bite size chunks.
– Mix the soy sauce, chili oil with black bean sauce, rice wine, chili crisp sauce, sesame oil, and sugar in a bowl.
– Pat the beef dry and rub a five-spice powder blend all over the meat.  Brown each side of the meat in a heavy pot.
– Once the beef is browned, add the beef stock, soy sauce mixture, spice bag, and aromatics.  Pour enough water to cover the beef up.  Bring it all to a boil, then turn the heat to low, cover the pot, and let it gently simmer for about 2 hours.
– Skim off any oily scum floating at the top of the pot.  Add the vegetables, cover the pot, and let it gently cook for another hour, or until the beef is super tender.
– Garnish the soup with green onion and cilantro.  
– To make my Chinese comfort food dreams come true, cook some Asian style thick noodles to add to the soup!  

Celebrating the Cock, CNY Style

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Xing Nian Kuai Le!  Happy New Year!  This year, we celebrate the year of the cock, or rooster.  I get a lot more excited for Chinese New Year than regular New Year since Chinese New Year is celebrated for 2 weeks.  In Taiwan and China, many stores close for days, and people are off school and work, so they can spend the time with family and friends.   For me, Chinese New Year usually means lots of family meals, parties, and lion dance.

This is my lion dance troupe, East Rising, at the Library of Congress, for a performance last Saturday.  Lunar New Year is our busiest season of the year, and we get invited to perform at various functions every weekend for a couple of months.  It’s not a rockin’ New Year party without a noisy and exciting lion dance ushering in good luck and happiness.  For more information on East Rising, check out our website and Facebook page.

Friday was Chinese New Years Eve, and my family came over for dinner.  We had a large meal of roast duck, crispy pork belly, whole steamed fish, braised pork belly, shrimp and tofu, chicken stir fry, snow pea shoots, pickled vegetables, and nian gao (rice cakes).  I will share with you my whole steamed fish, braised pork belly, and pickled vegetable recipes.

A traditional dish to eat during Chinese New Year is a whole fish.  The saying nian nian you yu means may you have an abundance every year, and the word for abundance is a homophone for the word fish.  I wanted to try making the whole fish this year.  I rarely cook fish, and when I do, it’s usually frozen and already in fillets, so I was a little nervous.

I went to Wegmans on Friday morning to get a fresh fish.  The seafood counter was pretty intimidating for an inexperienced fish cook like me.  Luckily, the staff manning the counter were friendly and knowledgeable, and hooked me up.  I asked for a whole white fish without a strong fishy taste, and the lady steered me to the bronzini.  I picked one and it was already gutted, but they scaled it and removed the fins per my request.

I prepped my aromatics earlier in the day so they would be ready for cooking.  I thinly julienned (or in other words, cut them into matchsticks) ginger, green onion, garlic, and chopped up cilantro.

When I was ready to cook the fish, I rinsed it and wiped it dry.  Then I seasoned the inside and outside with salt and pepper, and stuffed half of the cilantro, garlic, ginger, and green onion into the cavity.  This was not the ideal steamer to use for a whole fish, but it worked.  I sprayed cooking spray on the steamer first.  You can also MacGyver a steamer by placing the fish on a heat proof plate, and place the plate on top of a small bowl to keep the plate above the water.

I poured a little water in a wok and let it come to a boil.  Once the water boiled, I turned the heat down to medium low, and I placed the steamer in the wok (make sure the water does not touch the fish), and covered the wok.  I steamed the fish for 10 minutes.  If you don’t have a wok, a big pot will work fine.

While the fish steamed, I got the sauce ready.  I let oil, soy sauce, rice wine, mirin, and sesame oil come to a boil.  Then I added the rest of the cilantro, green onion, garlic, and ginger.  Let it cook for a few minutes until everything smells absolutely fantastic and the aromatics get cooked.

Here is my steamed fish on the serving plate.

Pour the hot sauce and aromatics right over the fish.  I love eating this dish with white rice.  The sauce tastes so freaking good poured over rice.  I was very pleased with my first attempt at steaming a whole fish.  This looks like an impressive dish to serve at a dinner, but it’s so simple and you really can make this anytime.  When my grandma was alive and we visited her in Taiwan, she made fish for every dinner.  If I lived closer to a grocery store with a decent selection of fresh fish, I would definitely make this more often.

Meat is also a big part of a Chinese New Years Eve dinner.  I decided to make a braised pork belly.  It takes about 3-4 hours of cooking time for the meat to become super tender, but it’s low maintenance and quick to put together.  This recipe was inspired by Serious Eats’ chashu pork for tonkatsu ramen.  The braising liquid is gold.  DO NOT throw away the braising liquid after you finish cooking the pork.  I often make extra so I have plenty of liquid to marinate soft boiled eggs afterwards.  After I finish marinating eggs, I will pour the marinade over rice, noodles, or in rice porridge (congee).  The sweet and savory sauce with that deep, rich, porky goodness is absolutely delicious.  If you don’t plan on using the sauce immediately, then freeze it in portions for future use.

I got a 4.5 lb tray of sliced pork belly from Costco.

I roughly chopped up green onion, ginger, shallot, and garlic

I dumped the aromatics into a large pot with water, soy sauce, mirin (sweet rice wine), rice wine, and sugar and brought it to a boil.  Then I added the pork belly that I cut into 1 inch pieces.  The pork will probably not be submerged.  That is ok.

You can cook this in the oven, or on the stove top.  If you continue in the oven, transfer the entire pot with the lid on, but slightly ajar, to a 275ºF oven.  Let it cook low and slow for 3-4 hours.  Give it a stir every hour, and take it out once the pork is cooked to your desired tenderness.

If you cook this on the stove top, just cover the pot, but leave the lid ajar.  Turn the heat down to low, and let it cook low and slow for 3-4 hours.  Give it a stir every hour, and turn off the flame once the pork is cooked to your desired tenderness.

Here are the unctuous, melt in your mouth morsels of fatty pork.  You can serve it as is, or if you want to kick it up another notch, broil or use a blowtorch to char the surface.  They are delicious wrapped in steamed buns, over rice, in ramen, etc.

As I mentioned earlier, I keep the braising liquid.  There will be a thick layer of pork fat on top, so use whatever method you want to get rid of that.  I like to let the liquid cool in the fridge, then just peel the hardened fat off in pieces.  It’s gross, but effective.

I soft boil eggs, but if you prefer medium or hard boiled, knock yourselves out.  Once the eggs are boiled to the desired doneness, put them in ice water to stop the cooking process.  Peel them, and then marinate them in the braising liquid for at least a day.  They’ll turn into a shade of light brown, and taste infinitely better than plain boiled eggs.  Once the eggs are ready, I like to keep the liquid to pour over hot rice, noodles, or mix it into a pot of congee (rice porridge).  There are plenty of other tasty applications as well.

Whenever I make this braised pork, I usually make a side of pickled cucumbers to go with it.  This is a quick pickle and it’s NOTHING like the dill pickles you are used to seeing served with sandwiches.  I really dislike dill pickles, they just taste nasty to me.  This Asian pickle is sweet, sour, spicy, and salty, but with flavors of rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil.  This tangy pickle goes well with the fattiness of the pork belly.

I thinly sliced an English cucumber.  I prefer English cucumbers because their skins are thinner, their seeds are smaller and more tender, and they don’t get as watery as regular cucumbers.  I happened to have carrots, so I also sliced up a couple of carrots.

I heated up the water and dissolved the sugar and salt in it before mixing in the rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, chili oil, and sesame seeds.

I let it marinate for at least a day before serving.

Ready to eat with my braised pork!

Happy New Year!  Happy Eating!

Steamed Whole Fish
Ingredients
– 1 whole white fish, I used bronzini (cleaned, gutted, scaled, fins removed)
– 1/3 bunch of cilantro
– 1/2 bunch green onion
– 3 cloves of garlic
– 2 inch knob of ginger
– 1/4 c soy sauce
– 2 tbs rice wine
– 1/4 c neutral tasting oil
-1 tbs sesame oil
– 1 tbs mirin

Directions
– Chop up the cilantro.  Divide the cilantro into 2 piles, one of the stems, the other of the leafy parts
– Thinly julienne the garlic, ginger, and green onion
– Rinse and pat the fish dry.  Season the cavity and the skin of the fish with salt and pepper.  Stuff the cavity with the stems of the cilantro, and half of the ginger, half of the garlic, and half of the green onion.  Place the fish on a greased steamer basket or heat proof plate.
– Pour a little water into a wok or large pot.  Once the water comes to a boil, turn the heat to medium low.  Place the steamer or plate in the wok, but make sure the water does not touch the bottom of the steamer or plate.  Elevate the plate with a small bowl if necessary.  Cover the wok with the lid, and steam for 10 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily.
– While the fish steams, combine the oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, and mirin in a small saucepan or pot.  Once it comes to a boil, add the remainder of the garlic, ginger, green onion, and cilantro.  Cook them for a few minutes until they wilt and smell fragrant.
– Once the fish is cooked, move it to the serving plate, and carefully pour the hot oil mixture on top of the fish.

Braised Pork Belly
Ingredients
(Note: this makes a lot of braising liquid, enough to marinate about 2 dozen eggs.  If you don’t want so much liquid leftover, you can scale down the amounts, just keep the proportions approximately the same.)
– 4.5-5 lb sliced pork belly
– 1 c water
– 1.5 c soy sauce
– 1.5 c rice wine
– 1.5 mirin
– 3/4 c sugar
– 1/2-1 bunch of green onion
– 1 head of garlic
– 1 shallot
– 3-4 inch knob of ginger

Directions
– Roughly chop the green onion, quarter the shallot, slice the ginger, and peel the garlic.
– Cut the pork belly into 1 inch pieces, or to whatever size you want.
– Combine everything but the pork belly into a large pot.  Bring to a boil, then add the pork.  Cover the pot with the lid slightly ajar.
-If you are using the oven, put the pot into a 275ºF oven.  Stir the pork every hour, and cook for 3-4 hours until the pork is extremely tender.
-If you are using the stove, turn the heat to low.  Stir the pork every hour, and cook for 3-4 hours until the pork is extremely tender.

Asian Pickled Cucumbers and Carrots
Ingredients
– 1 English cucumber
– 2-3 carrots
– 1 c water
– 1/2 c sugar
– 1 tbs salt
– 1/2 c rice vinegar
– 2 tbs soy sauce
– 2 tbs sesame oil
– 1 tbs chili oil
– 2 tbs sesame seed

Directions
– Thinly slice the cucumber and carrots, and place them into a bowl
– Microwave the water until warm, and dissolve the sugar and salt first.  Then add the rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, chili oil, and sesame seed.
– Pour the mixture over the cucumber and carrots.  Let it sit in the fridge for at least a day before serving.
– The liquid can be reused to pickle more vegetables, but note that it will be watered down due to the water released by the vegetables.

Say, Man, This Salmon is Fatty AND Healthy!

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Contrary to the impression you may have gotten from most of my posts, I do cook healthy food.  When I tell people about the high fat low carb diet we are on, most of them think we always eat fatty foods like bacon and cheese.  While bacon and cheese are indeed high fat and low carb, salmon and broccoli are also perfect for the low carb lifestyle.

Tonight, I baked salmon in a sesame, soy, honey sauce, with a side of broccoli.  It is a simple and quick dish to make, and only requires one pan.  It is also very versatile, and you can use whatever sauce, seasoning, and vegetable you want.  This is a good dish to make on the weekdays when you are just trying to chill after work, but still want a healthy and hearty meal.

I like to keep a pack of frozen salmon fillets in the freezer.  They sell these already cut and packaged individually so they are convenient and quick to defrost.  You can also use fresh salmon and cut it into pieces yourself.

I used to make individual foil packets for each piece of fish.  While foil packets make clean up easier, I don’t like how much foil is wasted.  So I started putting all the salmon on a baking dish, and covering the top of the dish with a piece of foil.  Here are four salmon fillets on a greased 9×13 baking dish.

I mixed up a marinade of soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, mirin, and honey.  For those of you who are not familiar with mirin, it is a Japanese sweet rice wine.  I poured the mixture over the salmon and marinated it for about an hour.  If you are short on time or patience, a 15 minute soak will be good, but 60 minutes is even better.

I used parboiled broccoli.  Sometimes I buy large family packs of pre-cut and pre-washed vegetables and end up not using it all.  If I know I won’t be using the vegetables up before they rot, I parboil and freeze portions for future use.  Parboil means I dropped the broccoli in boiling water for a few minutes until partially or fully cooked.  Then I drop them in ice water to stop the cooking process and to preserve that bright green color.  So basically, I am pre-cooking the broccoli, so the next time I use them for a dish, they don’t take so long to cook.

If you use raw broccoli or another vegetable, be sure to cut them into small pieces so they cook through and you don’t end up with crunchy raw chunks.

I kept the broccoli simple and just seasoned with salt and pepper.  Then I put them directly on top of the salmon.

Wrap the top with foil, then pop it in a 400°F oven and cook for 25 minutes, or until the salmon is cooked through.

Tasty, healthy, and simple

Here are some other ideas:
– teriyaki salmon, top with green beans, carrots, and broccoli
– lemon pepper garlic seasoning, thinly slice a lemon over the fish
– miso paste, soy sauce, sesame oil, minced ginger marinade, top with diced tofu and spinach, sprinkle cooked salmon with sesame seeds and green onion
– white wine, lemon, herb sauce, top with diced tomato and mushroom

If you are not watching the carbs, this meal would be excellent with a side of rice, quinoa, other grain, noodles, or pasta.

Baked Asian Style Salmon with Broccoli
Ingredients
– 4 salmon fillets 
– broccoli florets 
– 2 tbs soy sauce
– 1 tbs sesame oil
– 1 tbs mirin
– 1 tbs rice wine
– 1 tbs honey

Instructions
– Place the salmon on a greased baking dish.
– Mix the soy sauce, sesame oil, mirin, rice wine, and honey in a small bowl, pour over the fish.  Let it marinate for 15-60 minutes.
– If using raw broccoli, make sure the pieces are small.
– Drizzle a little oil over the broccoli and season with salt and pepper, then pour the florets over the fish.
– Wrap the top of the dish with foil, then bake in a 400°F oven for 25 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through. 

Oh Snap!

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Cheesecake.  How I wish I could have some.  But alas, I am back on the low carb lifestyle for the time being.  I ate too much cheesecake (amongst other things) over the holidays.  Sure, a little extra insulation is helpful for the bitter cold winter days, but it’s not so good when my actual winter clothing can’t fit comfortably over my natural insulation.

But, that doesn’t mean YOU can’t make and enjoy this delicious cheesecake.  For my family’s Christmas lunch,  I made a gingersnap caramel cheesecake.  It had a spiced gingersnap crust, creamy New York style cheesecake, and topped with a layer of sweet and buttery caramel sauce.  It was very good.  I miss it.

For this cheesecake, I used a water bath.  I’ve mentioned that I prefer crispier crusts, and every time I’ve used a water bath, I found that it made the crust softer.  But, they still tasted fantastic, and I wanted to show you all how to use a water bath.

In my Peppermint Bark Cheesecake post, I listed some of these cheesecake making tips.  Since they are pretty helpful, I will write them again.  Or in this case, copy and paste them. 
-Let all the ingredients sit to room temperature first.  
-Don’t over mix.  Too much air in the batter can cause cracking.
-Don’t over bake, the middle of the cheesecake is supposed to be a little jiggly.  It will set as it cools down.
-Let the cheesecake cool gradually.  Once the oven is turned off, just leave the cheesecake in the oven with the door ajar for at least an hour.  Sudden temperature changes can cause cracks.
-Chill the cheesecake before serving. 
-Even if the cheesecake cracks, no worries.  Get creative and delicious with sauces and toppings.

Here are about 6 oz of gingersnaps.  I’m no expert on commercial gingersnap cookies.  I just grabbed whatever box I saw at the grocery store.  They tasted ok, but nothing special.  So I added some turbinado sugar, ground ginger, and cinnamon to the food processor.

After pulsing, I ended up with about 2 cups of cookie crumbs.  If you don’t have a food processor, you can always pound the cookies with a rolling pin or hammer.  Just, don’t crack your counter.

I mixed the cookie crumbs with melted butter, and pressed them into a greased springform pan.  I did pre-bake this crust, but it’s not necessary.  You can see I wrapped the bottom and sides of the springform pan with foil.  In fact, I used 3 layers of foil as a precaution.  Later, when I bake the cheesecake, I’ll be placing the cheesecake in another pan of hot water.  The springform pan does not have a watertight seal, so the foil will keep the water from soaking into the cheesecake.

Like I mentioned in my Peppermint Bark Cheesecake post, I found a great cheesecake recipe a few years back.  Sometimes, I’ll switch up the ingredients depending on what I’m making, but this time, I followed the original recipe pretty closely.  So here is my cream cheese and sugar in the mixer.

The milk joins the party.  Mix gently, you don’t want to beat too much air into the batter.

The eggs go in.

Last up is the vanilla extract, flour, and sour cream.

Here is the cooled gingersnap crust already covered with foil and on top of a pizza pan.  You can use a different pan, just make sure the cheesecake sits flat on it, and it’s high enough for a layer of water.

Pour the cheesecake batter in.

Put the pans into a preheated oven at 325°F.  THEN pour hot water into the pizza pan, or whatever pan you use.  This is much safer and cleaner than trying to balance and shuffle a pan full of hot water and cheesecake all the way to the hot oven.

After an hour, turn the oven off.  Don’t take the cheesecake out yet.  Instead, let it gradually cool in the oven, with the door cracked open.  So, this time, I did not end up with any cracks in the cheesecake.  However, there were a lot of ugly air bubbles that popped on the surface, and I was a dumbass and accidentally gouged out a hole.

Good thing I had a jar of caramel sauce ready to go.  Remember when I made truffles and caramels to give away over the holidays?  I made several batches of caramels that I screwed up, and as a result, I have a lot of caramel sauce in the fridge.  You can use your choice of caramel sauce for this cheesecake.  But don’t be intimidated in making the sauce yourself.  Actual caramel candies piss me off, but caramel sauce is quite simple to make.  Try Ree Drummond’s recipe, it’s yummy and easy.

Gingersnap Caramel Cheesecake

Gingersnap Crust
Ingredients
– Approximately 6 oz gingersnap cookies
– 1/4 c turbinado sugar
– 1 tbs ground ginger
– 1 tsp cinnamon
– 6 tbs melted butter

Directions
– If using a water bath, first wrap the sides and bottoms of the springform pan with a few layers of foil.
– Pulse the cookies, along with the sugar, ginger, and cinnamon until they become crumbs.  They will make approximately 2 cups of crumbs.
– Mix the crumbs with the melted butter.  Press the mixture into a greased springform pan.
– Bake at 375°F for about 10-11 minutes.  Let the crust cool.

Cheesecake (Original recipe here)
Ingredients
– 32 oz of regular fat cream cheese (4 blocks)
– 1.5 c white sugar
– 3/4 c milk
– 4 eggs
– 1 c regular sour cream
– 1 tbs vanilla extract
– 1/4 c flour
– caramel sauce

Directions
– Let the ingredients sit out to room temperature.
– Mix the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
– Gently mix in milk.  Then mix in the eggs.  Then mix in the sour cream, vanilla extract, and flour.  Careful not to over-beat the batter.
– Place the springform pan onto a pizza pan or other pan.  Pour the batter onto the cooled crust.  Gently knock out air bubbles. 
– Put the pans into a preheated oven at 325ºF.  Pour hot water into the pizza pan.  Bake for one hour.  After an hour, turn the oven off, and leave the oven door cracked open.  Let the cheesecake sit in the oven for at least an hour.
– Run a knife around the pan to loosen the cheesecake before opening the pan latch.
– Put the cheesecake in the fridge to chill until ready to serve.  Pour the caramel sauce over the cheesecake prior to serving.

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun

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It’s been a while since my last post.  The holiday season was a ridiculous rush of parties, activities, and visits as usual.  It’s also the peak of the sick season, where we lovingly pass the current popular ailment around and share in its misery and various bodily fluids.  Living with a five year old who goes to school provides us with an endless array of fun family ailments.  My husband gave me two new games for Christmas and my birthday.  I’ve already rescued Princess Peach, but I am still working on saving Hyrule.  I haven’t had much time to game over the last few years, and I’d forgotten how obsessed and addicted I can get.  It was very hard to put down that controller.

But enough with the excuses.  It’s about time to get back into a routine.

Let’s talk about cheesecake.  A few years back, I’d been obsessed with baking cheesecakes.  Then I discovered how easy no bake cheesecakes can be, so I obsessively made no bake cheesecakes for a while.  Baked or not baked, I love them both.  Over the holidays, I made a couple of cheesecakes that were pretty freaking good.  The one I will share in this post is my Peppermint Bark Cheesecake.  It’s a rich minty cheesecake on a chocolate mint cookie crust, covered with a thick layer of melt in your mouth peppermint bark.  Ok, I will admit, it was a screw up that turned this cheesecake into “peppermint bark cheesecake.”  It was supposed to be a regular mint chocolate cheesecake topped with a chocolate ganache.  But I used too much chocolate in the ganache, and it turned out really thick, and the result was more of a peppermint bark.  It worked out quite well though, because come on, it’s two luxurious and delicious desserts in one.

You might be thinking, oh, the holidays are over, I’ll save this recipe for the next holiday season.  I ask you this: When is it ever a wrong season to eat chocolate and mint?  This is also a good way to get rid of a few of those candy canes you somehow acquired.  Yeeeeah, pantry cleaning is a good reason to make this cheesecake.

Oh yeah, this was the first time I ate a slightly warm cheesecake.  I made the cheesecake for some friends, but it had not chilled enough when I served it.  It was tasty, but the flavors were kind of muted.  I ate some of the leftovers after it chilled overnight, and it was like I was eating a different cheesecake.  So I learned an important lesson.  Always make cheesecake ahead of time with plenty of chill time.

Here are a few other tips on making cheesecakes:
-Let all the ingredients sit to room temperature first.  
-Don’t over mix.  Too much air in the batter can cause cracking.
-Don’t over bake, the middle of the cheesecake is supposed to be a little jiggly.  It will set as it cools down.
-Let the cheesecake cool gradually.  Once the oven is turned off, just leave the cheesecake in the oven with the door ajar for at least an hour.  Sudden temperature changes can cause cracks.
-Chill the cheesecake before serving. 
-Even if the cheesecake cracks, no worries.  Get creative and delicious with sauces and toppings.

My sister gave us a box of Trader Joe’s mint chocolate sandwich cookies.  I decided to use these instead of my usual Oreos.  But if you have mint Oreos, those will certainly work too.  Or you can also add a little mint extract to regular Oreos.  I smashed a bunch of cookies up with my rolling pin, the creamy filling included.

Here are my smashed cookies mixed with melted butter that I pressed into a greased spring form pan.  I pre-baked my crust.  You don’t have to, but I prefer my crust to be crunchier.  Oh another important lesson here.  I forgot to put the springform pan on top of a baking sheet before placing it in the oven.  My springform pan does not form a tight seal due to a few dents, and some of the butter leaked out and dripped to the bottom of my oven.  Burning butter smokes and stinks.  It was not pleasant.

The cheesecake I made is based off a recipe I found a few years ago on Allrecipes.  This here is my cream cheese and sugar getting beat up.

Then I added the milk.  From this point on, don’t go crazy with your mixer.  Keep the mixer on a speed that is just high enough to mix everything together.  We don’t want to beat a lot of air into the batter.

Here are my eggs joining the party.  A lot of recipes tell you to mix the eggs one at a time.  I get the reasoning that one at a time allows each one to become fully incorporated.  But I am the lazy sort, and I usually dump them all in at the same time.  I have not noticed any significant difference in taste or texture.  I’d probably get a bad grade if I went to culinary school though.

Here we go, mixing in the sour cream, flour, mint extract and vanilla extract.

I poured the batter into the pre-baked crust.  I gently knocked the springform pan against the pizza pan to try and get some of the air bubbles out.  I did not use a water bath.  Many people recommend placing the springform pan in a pan of hot water while baking.  The steam is supposed to keep the cheesecake from cracking.  But water baths also make the crust a lot softer than I like.  Plus, I’ve had cheesecakes crack even when using a water bath.  So, whatever.

After an hour of baking, I turned off the oven.  The cheesecake is still a bit jiggly in the middle, but that is ok.  It will set as it cools.  I left the cheesecake in the warm oven for at least an hour (I’ve left it in there for 5-6 hours before).  I ran a knife around the cheesecake before popping the latch open.  Ok, so here you can see a nice big crack.  It happens.  No problem, because I will be covering that up with a thick layer of chocolate.

Here is a simple ganache.  I heated up heavy cream, and poured it over dark chocolate chips.  Stir it until the chocolate melts.  You can add some mint extract if you want an extra hit of mint.

After I poured the chocolate over the cheesecake, I topped it with crushed candy canes.

Tadaa!  Peppermint Bark Cheesecake.  This is not very sweet since I cut out some of the sugar, and I used dark chocolate.  But I will warn you, it is rich.  This is not a case of the bigger the better.  A small slice is probably enough to satisfy most of you.

Peppermint Bark Cheesecake

Mint Chocolate Crust
Ingredients
– Around 26 mint chocolate sandwich cookies
– 6 tbs melted butter

Directions
– Crush the cookies into crumbs with whatever method you prefer, be it the food processor, rolling pin, or wine bottle.
– Mix the cookie crumbs with the melted butter.  Press the mixture to form a crust in a greased springform pan.  Place the springform pan on another baking sheet in case of leaky butter.
– Bake at 375°F for about 10-11 minutes.
– Let the crust cool before pouring cheesecake batter in.

Mint Cheesecake
Ingredients
– 32 oz of regular fat cream cheese (4 blocks)
– 1.25 c white sugar
– 3/4 c milk
– 4 eggs
– 1 c regular sour cream
– 1 tsp vanilla extract
– 2 tsp mint extract
– 1/4 c flour

Directions
– Let the ingredients sit out to room temperature.
– Mix the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
– Gently mix in milk.  Then add the eggs (all at once, or one at a time.  You decide)  Then mix in the sour cream, mint and vanilla extracts, and flour.  Careful not to over-beat the batter.
– Pour the batter onto the cooled crust.  Gently knock out air bubbles. 
–  Bake at 325ºF for one hour.  After an hour, turn the oven off, and leave the oven door cracked open.  Let the cheesecake sit in the oven for at least an hour.
– Run a knife around the pan to loosen the cheesecake before opening the pan latch.
– Once the cheesecake is mostly cooled, pour the ganache over the top.  Put the cheesecake in the fridge to chill until ready to serve.

Peppermint Bark Ganache
Ingredients
– 3 c dark chocolate chips
– 1.5 c heavy cream

Directions
– Heat the heavy cream on the stove until it starts to boil.  Don’t let it keep bubbling or it’ll boil out of the pot and you’ll have a mess. 
– Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips.  Stir until you have a smooth chocolate sauce.  Pour over the cheesecake.
– Top the chocolate ganache with crushed peppermint candies.  Smashing them in a Ziplock with a rolling pin works well.

Oompa Loompa Doompety Doo Aww…!@$%

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I’ve always appreciated homemade presents.  It shows that someone put effort, care, and time into creating something special for me.  During Christmas time, I like giving homemade presents, and I usually have a lot of ambitious ideas.  But going into sweatshop mode from November (or even earlier) to December can be pretty stressful.  Over the years, I’ve been experimenting with fun projects that are also fairly easy to make, especially since time is so limited with a little kid around.

A couple of years ago, I made Minion ornaments for my friends’ kids.  It was fun, but filling the plastic balls with yellow paint was a bigger pain than I expected.  I messed up several, so I couldn’t give away as many as I wanted.

Another year, I made jars of homemade hot chocolate mix.  That was an easy present to prepare.  I used Alton Brown’s recipe and made several large batches to fill a bunch of jars.

This year I decided to venture into the world of confections.  I will not pretend to know much about making candy.  In fact, I was quite nervous since making candy requires a lot of attention to details, and it’s harder to recover from any screw ups in the process.  In the past, I’ve made truffles and peppermint bark…and I had a 50/50 success rate haha.  But I decided to give it a shot and make dark chocolate truffles and soft caramels.

I searched for various truffle recipes, and I decided to use Ree Drummond’s truffle recipe.  She has a great step by step photo tutorial, so check it out.

The truffles were not difficult to make.  I got a can of condensed milk, vanilla extract, 8 oz of semi-sweet chocolate, and 8 oz of dark chocolate.  That will be for the soft ganache interior.  For the hard chocolate shell, I got more dark chocolate, in the form of chips.

I used the double boiler method to melt the chocolate.  Basically I put a small amount of water in the pot, place a glass heat proof bowl over the pot.  Heat the water and keep it on a simmer.  The steam melts the chocolate in the glass bowl.  I melted the 4 bars of chocolate and can of condensed milk.

Mmmm, it’s coming together.

Here is the big blob of melted chocolate and condensed milk.  Stir in 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract.  The vanilla will make the chocolate blob glossy looking.  It kind of looks and feels like a huge wad of melted Tootsie Roll.

I covered the bowl up and put it in the fridge for about 2 hours until the ganache hardened, but was still soft enough to scoop and form into balls.  I used a melon baller to scoop out little balls.  I also used exam gloves so I didn’t make a mess of melted chocolate.

Here is a tray of what looks like large rabbit poop.  At this point, you can roll the ganache balls in various toppings, and be done with it.  But I wanted to cover them with a hard chocolate shell.  Ree Drummond used milk chocolate for her coating, but I had a bag of dark chocolate on hand, so I used that.

I melted 2 cups of dark chocolate chips in the double boiler.

Then I dropped the ganache balls in the melted chocolate, rolled them around, and fished them out with a fork.

While the chocolate was still wet, I sprinkled some of the balls with sea salt, chocolate sprinkles, and Christmas sprinkles.  Making the balls bite sized gave me around 70 truffles.  I stuck the trays in the fridge to harden, and then I transferred them to a container.  They will keep for weeks in the fridge, but they should be brought to room temperature before serving.

Now on to the tricky caramels.  I finally bought myself a candy thermometer, which can also be used for deep frying (yay!), so I wanted to break in the thermometer.

I looked at various caramel recipes, and decided to try the Kitchn’s soft and chewy caramels.  If you are interested in making the caramels, read the instructions closely.  The Kitchn has a good guide with photos.  It’s not a difficult process, but it does require close attention.  Like I mentioned earlier, I have very little candy making experience and knowledge.  I followed the recipe as closely as I could, although my first batch says otherwise.  My first batch turned out to be a caramel sauce, even after a night in the fridge.  It tasted ridiculously good, but it’s not what I had in mind.  So after some cursing and reviewing the recipe, I made a second batch.

This is my heavy cream, butter, and salt warming and melting in the small saucepan.

Here is the corn syrup, white sugar, and water bubbling away.

Here is the candy mixture after I added the warm cream, butter, and salt.

I poured the finished mixture into a 7×11 glass dish with a greased piece of parchment paper.

After cooling and hardening for most of the day, I was pleased to see a solid block, instead of a dish of mush.  The caramels were still a lot softer than I wanted, but they tasted super delicious, all buttery, sweet, and melt in your mouth.  If I attempt another batch, I’ll have to see if I can make them a little firmer.

I cut them into little bite sized squares, and wrapped them into squares of wax paper.  I ended up with around 70 squares of caramel.

I ordered a pack of 24 little boxes from Amazon for the candies.  The boxes were a perfect size for 4 truffles and 6 caramels.  More could be crammed in, but I was going for a nice presentation.

One reviewer on Amazon decorated her box like snowmen, and I thought it was a cute idea.  Of course a classic gold ribbon is also elegant and easy to do.

I am not going to write recipes for the truffles and caramels.  I followed the original recipes very closely, so check out Ree Drummond and The Kitchn for their recipe and guides.  Maybe in a few years, I will have more experience to try experimenting with my own candy recipes, but for now…I’m done.  Happy holiday crafting!