Tom Yum Nam Khon

Our main course tonight is going to be a Thai-flavoured slow cooker beef, and I love Thai soups, so here it is.

I'd actually wanted to make tom kha gai, but after some researching, it turns out that that is chicken galangal soup, and I don't have galangal on hand. Nothing wrong with tom yum. I just love coconut milk.

This is completely bastardized, I'm sure. Tom yum nam khon is usually made with shrimp, but I'm mildly allergic. I'm also cheating and using tom yum paste.

Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk
1-2 tbs tom yum paste (I used cock brand, found in a jar at T&T)
1 can straw mushrooms (buttom mushrooms if you don't like straw)
1 green pepper, sliced
1 chicken breast, cut into strips or bite-sized pieces


Method:
In a pot, bring coconut milk, 1 can of water, and tom yum paste to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium, add in mushrooms, chicken and pepper and cook until chicken is done, and peppers are to your liking.
Serve alone or over rice.


Comments:
I LOVE THAI SOUPS!

This can be an easy main. Just add more chicken/protein and less water.

I was very pleasantly surprised that the paste really didn't need any embellishments. However, as with all mass manufactured foods, it had MSG, and preservatives. I tried to pick the one with the fewest, but still. You can expect a recipe from scratch in the future.


Verdict:
YUM! ^^

Balsamic Roast Veggies

I'm usually really lacksadaisical about making veggies. As far as I'm concerned, Chinese stuff just needs to be flash-boiled and drizzled with oyster sauce, and other veggies just need to be steamed with a bit of Mrs. Dash.

For Thanksgiving, however, I thought I'd spare my friends, who always have to eat the same things when they're over, especially if it's Western food.

This recipe really is just for reference.

Ingredients:
6 plum tomatoes, quartered
1 zucchini, sliced into thick half-moons
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
1 red onion, cut into half-wedges
1 eggplant, quartered lengthwise, and then thickly sliced
4 carrots (small-medium), cut into 1" pieces

olive oil
balsamic vinegar
dried parsley
salt
pepper


Method:
Cook carrots in water until they can be pierced with a fork.
Preheat oven to 375F.
In a large baking dish, pour enough olive oil to coat the veggies.
Add balsamic vinegar, parsley, salt and pepper to taste.
Add veggies and toss to coat.
Cover and bake for 30 minutes.
Stir the veggies and bake another 15 minutes, or to desired tenderness.


Comments:
I am not sure if onions add flavour. I might try next time without the onion, because I found that a lot was thrown out.

The picture to go with this would've been really pretty, but alas, we didn't take any.

Verdict:
You practically can't go wrong with balsamic.

Corn Bread

Some time ago, I made cornbread to go with pulled pork and mentioned that it was too dry, to the point where if I inhaled through my nose with it in my mouth, bits would end up in the wrong pipe.

This time, there is cream-style corn involved. Should be more moist. The original recipe is here. I only cut down on the sugar and salt.


Ingredients:
1 cup corn meal
0.5 cup flour
2 tbs sugar
2 tsp baking powder
0.25 tsp salt
0.25 cup butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten with a fork
0.75 cups (about half a 400mL can) cream style corn


Method:
Preheat oven to 400F, middle rack.
Whisk together dry ingredients in a bowl.
Add wet ingredients and mix until just blended.
Transfer to a greased 8" square pan and bake until toothpick comes clean, about 17-20 minutes.
Cool, cut and serve!


Verdict:
I definitely like this better than my other batch. The sides were crispy, and corn kernels provides some interest. The flavour is stubtle.

We had this with chili, and it was only ok. I liked the chili and cornbread separately. The chili was a matter of browning beef, and throwing it, along with a giant can of kidney beans, about half a bag of frozen veggie mix, a jar of pasta sauce, and a diced onion into the slow cooker. Seasonings were thyme, basil, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper, all to taste. High power for 6 hours, and all was good to go. Should freeze well. (I am going to make great use of our new chest freezer ^^)

Daikon and Carrot Pickles

I LOVE this stuff! Conveniently found a recipe here.


Ingredients:
Daikon, cut however you like
Carrots, cut however you like

2 parts water
1 part white vinegar
1 part sugar
salt



Method:
Over low heat, mix water, vinegar, sugar and salt until dissolved.
Place veggies in a glass container with a cover.
Pour liquid over veggies.
Refridgerate overnight.
Enjoy!



Comments:
Make as much liquid as you need to cover the veggies. It is best to submerge the veggies to get the best pickling action. Use a bowl on top of a dish if you need to weigh it down.


Verdict:
LOVE IT!

Hash Brown

I'd never really thought to make this, but have always loved it. Potatoes are totally awesome! Will's made hash brown before, so I left it up to him.


Ingredients:
Potatoes, about 1-1.5 per serving.
Seasonings to taste.


Method:
Boil potatoes until just barely cooked.
Drain, let cool completely and peel.
Coarsely grate and pan fry.
Enjoy with condiments!


Comments:
Using a non-stick pan is not so good, because you don't get the super heat transfer that allows the outside to crisp. So, just use a regular pan with some oil. I am almost certain that a wok would be awesome for this.

We didn't have spring onions, but I think lightly frying some up with the potatoes would add loads of flavour, too.

The pictures turned out really crummy, so sorry!


Verdict:
Easy peasy and yum! I love breakfast for dinner ^^

Yogurt Potato Salad

We were having a couple friends over for bbq, and Will suggested potato salad as our carbs. I've had more than my share of store-bought stuff (2 or 4 times this season--yelch), and so off I went to find a recipe. There's a totally awesome sounding dijon potato salad (LOVE dijon mustard), but it required mayo. Since my bamix broke, and neither of us use mayo, I decided to try yogurt instead of buying mayo and letting the rest of it go to waste. It's not earth-shattering or anything; lots of people use yogurt when a recipe calls for a creamy smooth texture.



Ingredients:
3 lbs potatoes, peeled (Yukon or red would work better than russet)
1.5 cups plain yougurt
Fresh dill, chopped
1 cucumber, diced
1 small red onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
3 tbs dijon mustard
sugar to taste
salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste


Method:
In a large bowl, combine all ingredient except the potatoes.

Put potatoes in a pot and cover with water by 1 inch. Bring to a boil and cook just until tender when pierced with a fork, about 25 minutes.

Drain and leave in warm pot, uncovered. Letting cool in the warm pot helps get rid of excess water.

When cool, cut into 1-inch cubes and mix into dressing.

Enjoy!


Comments:
The orginal recipe said that refridgeration causes the potatoes to lose some of their creamy texture, so you might want to plan it so that you make this only a couple hours before serving. I'm sure it'll still be good, but I love potatoes, so that might be a biased opinion.

I honestly don't know what the proportions should be, since I took a portion of potatoes from a large bag.

The onion we had was way too young. It was super sharp, and I actually picked out the pieces. I think the onion could be optional, or it might be a good idea to soak them in a bit of vinegar or something to take the edge out. It was also a large amount of onion to potato.


Verdict:
Ok. I'd probably like it a lot more without the onion. I loved the cucumber-yougurt-dill, and probably could've happily eaten a cucumber salad.

Spinach Gomae

I've always loved this, but really only ate it at all-you-can eat places because only then could I eat to my heart's content. A simple, refreshing recipe for the coming summer.

Ingredients:
1 bunch spinach
0.5 tsp sugar
4 tbs white sesame seeds, toasted and ground
1 tbs soy sauce


Method:
Dissolve sugar in soy sauce. Add more sugar if you like it sweeter.
Mix with sesame. Add more soy sauce to taste, if desired. Set aside.
Wash spinach and cut into 3 cm pieces.
Boil spinach and rinse with cold water.
Drain well, gently squeezing out excess water.
Mix with sesame sauce.
Cover and chill until serving. This step also allows the water to creep out and thin the sauce. Serve immediately if you want the sauce to stay chunky.


Comments:
It is tastier to toast the sesame yourself. Just heat it in a pan, stirring to prevent burning, until fragrant and golden.

I also ground the sesame myself, using the dry mill of my bamix hand blender.



Verdict:
We used two bunches and ate it all in one go, one bunch for each of us ^^

Red Oil Wontons (红油抄手)

These have got to be my favourite item in a Taiwanese or Shanghai restaurant. More so than the coveted siu loong bao (Will's Demon Baos) or the deep fried bun with condensed milk.

Been meaning to try to make them for a long time, and Nicole emailed me three recipes a while back, and after a bit of googling, I found a very similar one to the easiest one here. (I was too lazy to post the email here. Linking is so much easier =PP)


Ingredients:
Wontons:
wonton wrappers
ground pork (probably about 0.5 lbs)
1 egg
sesame oil
salt
ground black pepper


Sauce:
chopped garlic
chopped green onions
peppercorn chili oil (red oil)
Chinese sweetened black vinegar
soy sauce
ground black pepper



Method:
Wontons:
Beat the egg with a fork. Mix with the seasonings. Add pork and mix well.
Put a small amount of pork in the centre of the wrapper and bunch the dough around it.
Boil a pot of water with some oil to prevent sticking.
Boil the wontons until they float, then leave for 2 minutes to ensure thorough cooking.
Drain and set into a bowl.


Sauce:
Mix everything together in the proportions that you like.
Pour over the wontons.


Comments:
I know, this was a horrible 'recipe'. But I was being really lazy and really based it on taste.

The amount of pork was way too much for just the two of us. We froze some for later.

I added in a bit of tahini (sesame paste) for texture. I don't think it contributed much to taste.

I also think I should've bought the chili oil with the ground chili bits, rather than the pure oil.


Verdict:
The wontons were overcooked, and the sauce, while good, was not quite right.

Mushroom Tamagoyaki

Tamagoyaki is a super popular dish in Japan. We ordered it almost every time we went to an izakaya. It's basically a sweet omlette, but with thin layers rolled up. It's fairly easy to make, and I decided to add mushroom because we love it around here.

I didn't have dashi (fish stock) on hand, so I cheated and used fish sauce with some water.

Ingredients (makes 2 rolls):
4 eggs
3 tbs water with a 2 splashes of fish sauce
2 tbs sugar
150g mushrooms, sliced


Method:

Sautee mushrooms and set aside.

Beat eggs in a bowl.

Add water, fish sauce and sugar and mix.

Heat a non-stick pan on medium.

Pour some egg in the pan and allow it to spread evenly.

If you are using a circular pan, spread some mushrooms along the diameter.

Fold the egg over and roll to cover the mushrooms.
Move the roll to the far side.

Pour some egg, lifting the previously cooked egg so a new layer will cook under it. Roll the egg towards you. Repeat as needed to make a smooth, egg roll.

To serve, cut thick cross sections.

Optional: Swirl some Japanese mayo on top. Soy sauce, and ground daikon also make great condiments.

Comments:

If you use a regular pan, be sure to oil the pan before each egg pour.

There's actually a special rectangular pan to make this. Makes it easier, and prettier.

I clearly don't know how to use blogger, so these pics'll hafta do.

Verdict:

A bit sweet, so you can cut down on the sugar.

Turkey Stuffing

So apparently, stuffing that isn't stuffed into a bird is called dressing, but dressing, in my mind is for salad, so hence the title.

After looking at a couple of stovetop recipes, and most calling to cook for a while, I decided to save myself a bit of grief and make it in the crockpot, though truth be told, there's a lot of cooking happening out of the crock first. At least I wouldn't have to worry about burning.

Ingredients (serves 10-14)
3 cups turkey stock (simmer giblets for 1 hour with a bit of salt)
1 loaf day-old french bread, cut into 3/4" cubes
butter
2 cups chopped onion
2 cups chopped celery
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and chopped
1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
dried sage, rosemary, parsley to taste
salt and pepper to taste


Method
Prepare the crockpot with a bit of non-stick spray.
In a large pan, melt some butter. Toss bread in and toast in the pan. Transfer to crock. Repeat as necessary.
Sautee the onions, celery, apples until onions are cooked.
Add walnuts and season to taste.
Transfer to crock and mix with bread.
Drizzle in turkey stock and mix.
Cook on low for 4-5 hours.


Comments:
I had started with one cup of stock, as that's what the recipe called for. Over the course of the day, I noticed that it was a bit dry, so I added stock a couple times (and I seasoned then, too). I think it was just shy of 3 cups in the end. Whether you should add the stock in increments or all right at the beginning is something I'm not sure of.

I recommend cooking in the crock, as it completely filled up my 6-quart pot and reduced down to about half of that. Making it on the stovetop would've been an hour of anxiety, as we don't have that large a heavy-bottomed pot. Plus, the slow cooker keeps it nice and hot up until serving.


Verdict:
My friends liked it, Eddie especially. I'm on the fence on whether or not it's worth all that work. I do like knowing what exactly goes into my food, so making stuffing from scratch has that merit. Hmm...

Cranberry Sauce

Ange said in her blog that it was super easy, so I bought a package of fresh cranberries, and waddaya know, there's a recipe right on the back!


Ingredients
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
3 cups fresh cranberries (1 pkg)


Method:
Bring water to boil, and dissolve sugar.
Add cranberries and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and let simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Cool at room temperature, then chill if desired.


Comments:
Such a beautiful red!
It is kinda odd to have your food hiss while it cooks.
It also has a bite. The bursting fruit got me a couple times.


Verdict:
Definitely better than the canned stuff. Easy to make, and the price is comparable. I think I'll experiment more next year =)

Borscht - HK Style

With half a head of cabbage just sitting in my fridge, and cubed beef from the beef stew possibly in danger of freezer burn, it occured to me that borscht would be a great way of using it up. Hot soup during the winter sounds mighty good to me!

Since I had Russian borscht not too long ago, I went with this. (It's also cheaper)

Ingredients (fits 8qt pot):
2 onions, cut into 1" squares
4 tomatoes, diced
2lb beef bones
1lb beef
Maggi seasoning or soy sauce
2 russet potatoes, 1" cubes
half a head of cabbage, cut into 2" squares
1 small can tomato paste
salt
hot sauce
pepper


Method:
Marinate the beef with some Maggi.
In a pot, boil the bones in about 4L of water. Skim off the foam as it appears. When the foam formation has slowed, add beef. Continue to skim off fat and foam while it boils. Remove from heat when the foam formation slows considerably.
In a larger pot, sautee the onions and tomatoes until cooked. This is the soup pot.
Transfer the beef bones to the soup pot, taking care not to transfer cooked blood and crud.
Mix, so most of the bones are on the bottom of the pot.
Strain the beef broth into the soup pot.
Take the beef, rinse with water and cut into 1" cubes. Add to pot.
Add all other ingredients except for salt, hot sauce and pepper.
Bring to a boil and then simmer for at least 2 hours.
Taste and season.


Comments:
The 2lbs of bones is a guesstimate. We had some leftover from when I made pho.

You could make the soup stock ahead of time.

You could cook the beef bones with all ingredients, but it'll look rather nasty. 

I put the bones back into the soup, but it's not necessary. I just don't think you can get all the flavour with just a quick 10-minute boil.

Some people like to rinse the bones before putting them into the soup pot. Entirely up to you. I don't do it because it means washing yet another bowl.

I season at the end because the cooking/simmering process often reduces the soup, and therefore increases the concentration of the seasonings.

Other veggies often seen in this are celery and carrots. I was so fixated on the amount of cabbage we had that I forgot about them.


Verdict:
Good, and much better the next day.

Coleslaw with Rice Vinegar

I try to have some sort of veggie with every dinner, and coleslaw is often mention with pulled pork, so I went a hunting for recipes. I usually like coleslaw with mayo, but since the amount needed is ridiculously small, it wasn't worth it for me to make a batch. (Neither Will nor I would use it for anything else). Found this recipe here, which has both a mayo and non-mayo version.

Ingredients (6-8 side portions):
0.5 medium head of cabbage, shredded
1 medium green pepper, thinly sliced
1 jumbo carrot, coarsely shredded
2 tbs sugar
0.25 tsp salt
0.25 cups rice vinegar
2 tbs white vinegar
ground pepper

Method:
In a bowl, combine the sugar, salt and vinegars. Adjust to taste. Add water if needed to dissolve the sugar.
In a large bowl, toss veggies together.
Add dressing and toss.
Sprinkle pepper on top.
Cover and chill until serving.


Verdict:
Subtle flavour, which is what I like. Will added copious amounts of white vinegar to his.

Cornbread

I like preparing a meal with a theme in mind, so with pulled pork naturally comes cornbread. I remembered making cornbread in highschool, but I couldn't be bothered to dig out the recipe, which I am certain is somewhere in one of my binders, so again, the internet comes to the rescue! The original is here.

Ingredients:
2 cups cornmeal
0.75 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbs sugar, or as desired
1.5 cups milk
2 large eggs
0.25 cups butter, melted


Method:
Grease a 9" square baking pan.
Heat oven to 400F (375 if using Pyrex)
In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
In another bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and butter.
Add wet mixture to dry and stir until blended.
Pour into the pan and bake for 25 mintues.
The toothpick test is your friend.


Comments:
I originally used 1tbs of sugar, and it was definitely not sweet enough, so I changed the recipe to 2.
I did not grease my non-stick pan, but it's probably a good idea to do so.
This was a bit dry, so be careful not to inhale with this in your mouth, or you will end up with crumbs down the wrong pipe.


Verdict:
Not bad. I think I like my cornbread a bit more cakey.

Mashed Cauliflower

Cindy found this alternative to mashed potatoes, and wanted a chance to try it out. (I know, why mess with something as perfect as potatoes, right?)

Being the foodie that I am, we got together for a dinner at home. I'd provide the pot roast (remember the leftover sirloin tip from a few days ago?) and dessert, and she'd take care of the sides.


Ingredients:
1 cauliflower
1 cup milk
salt to taste
paprika for garnish


Method:
Core the cauliflower and steam it until it can be pierced easily with a fork (~20 min).
Puree with the milk and add salt to taste.
Move to an oven-safe deep dish.
Sprinkle with paprika.
Bake at 350F until bubbly and some of the moisture evaporates.


Comments:
You can use whatever seasoning you would use for mashed potatoes.
The original recipe called for only 1/8 cup of milk. I couldn't get the blender to go with so little liquid.
I would mash it by hand, to get more texture and to make it drier. This felt like baby food because it was so smooth and almost liquid.


Verdict:
Surprisingly good. I suspect it would be better with the above adjustments. Will, unfortunately, does not like cauliflower, so the chances of this being on the menu again would be slim. I'll put up a post if I happen to trick him into thinking it was mashed potatoes.


For those interested, one of our desserts was Turtles Ice Cream--With mini caramel-filled chocolates shaped like turtles! ^^

Eggplant Roulade

I got this from the show "Fearless in the Kitchen" on the W network. LOVE the show, especially since it makes me feel better about myself. (The people on that show start off as EPIC failures as cooks, but they get really good at the end).

They are little rolled eggplant appetizers, with cheese, dried fruit and nuts on the inside.


Ingredients: (makes about 12 bite-sized rolls)
1 long eggplant
4 oz cranberry bleu cheese
pecans
olive oil for frying


Method:
Cut the eggplant in half so you get two short halves.
Slice into 1/4" slices lenghtwise, so you have about 12 slices all together.
Fry them in batches, about 3 minutes per side.
Let cool.
Just before serving, roll a bit of cheese and nuts into the eggplant slice. Hold with a toothpick.
Warm in the oven set to 325F until cheese is softened.


Comments:
It was diffiuclt to cut the eggplant into equal thickness, which then makes it hard to cook all of them without overcooking. Once the eggplant is overcooked, you can't really roll it.

Keep a close eye for when the cheese just starts to soften; you don't want all that cheesy goodness to ooze onto the pan and be forever lost.

The original recipe called for currants and pine nuts. Currants are hard to find here, and pine nuts are crazy expensive. I was originally going to substitute the currants with dried cranberries, but the cranberry was already in the cheese, so I skipped it.


Verdict:
Good. I liked the cheese-fruit-nut combo. Would be mm mm good, but the bleu cheese was a bit too sharp, even with the mellowing effect of the cranberry.


Next time:
I would use a less crumbly cheese that is great with fruit, like havarti or brie. It was rather messy to get the bleu cheese off my knife and onto the eggplant.

I would also consider roasting the eggplant in the oven, because I got really impatient waiting for them to fry. Maybe also, to get that nice browned flavour, I would set it on the top rack and broil it at the very end of the roasting time.

I am also curious as to whether or not this would be good as a round... as in cut them into round slices, roast them, cool them, then top with cheese and nuts and bake in the oven. I'm not entirely convinced that toothpicks are compostable, so this would be one way to get around that.

Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

If I had known how easy and cheap it would be to make my own salad dressing, Will and I would not have thrown out so many half-bottles of dressing gone bad.

Found out via web the approximate ratios. Most of this was mix and taste until it tasted right, so I'm not even sure that this would qualify for the tag 'recipes' =P


Ingredients:
3 parts Olive oil
1 part Balsamic vinegar
1 part Dijon mustard
1 part Honey
Pepper
Dried parsley


Method:
Mix vinegar, mustard and honey with a fork. Taste it and make sure it is to your liking.
Mix in the oil, about a third at a time until it is the right consistency.
Season with pepper and parsley.


Comments:
The parsley will expand and give the dressing nice flakes.

Adding in more of any of the ingredients will not kill the dressing.

The emulsifying agent is the mustard, so if the oil keeps separating, even with a good mixing, use more mustard.

Olive oil is apparently somewhat delicate, so if you use an electric beater to mix the dressing, be careful not to overdo it, as the oil will turn bitter.


Verdict:
Thumbs up! I tossed it into a super healthy salad of red and iceberg lettuce, topped with orange peppers, grated beets, tomato, cucumber, boccoccini, and basil. I hit up 4 differ colours in one dish ^^


Next time:
Probably try out a sundried tomato vinaigrette.