Ebisu on Broadway

Work's been eating my life, and I haven't really cooked in the last little bit. I made stew the other day, but it's an old recipe. All I did was add a can of diced tomatoes and it enhanced the flavours.

Cindy, Will and I went to Ebisu on Friday night. Poor Eddie was recuperating from a wisdom teeth extraction, and could not join us.

The food was good, but I still the old Hapa menu better.

The more interesting parts of dinner:

Mango California Roll

Healthy Dynamite Roll (brown rice and bean curd wrap)

Yam Tempura Roll

Enoki Beef and Bacon Asparagus

Tuna Taco

Thunder Fries (really good with mayo)

Banana Bread

We're kinda out of food this morning, so I decided to make banana bread, even though the bananas probably aren't over-ripe enough yet. (I could've made banana pancakes, but that would've ruined all the patience of waiting for the bananas to ripen.)

Ingredients (for a 9x5 loaf):
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
0.25 tsp salt
0.5 cup butter, softened
0.75 cup packed brown sugar
3-4 ripe bananas
2 eggs


Method:
Preheat oven to 350F.
Lightly grease the pan
In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt to mix.
In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar.
Beat in eggs.
Thickly slice in bananas and beat until mostly smooth. You might need to use a mashing motion at first  to break the bananas.
Add dry mix and stir until moistened.
Bake in pan 1 hour and check with a toothpick.

Comments:

The recipe I looked at called for eggs that were already beaten, and 2.3 cups of bananas that were already mashed, then stirring (I think this means by hand) into the cream. I didn't want to do the extra dishes, so hence my odd method, and rather thick batter (air gets incorporated into the eggs like this).

It probably matters whether you stir the dry into the wet, or vice-versa, but the bowl with the wet mix was already icky, so I just added the dry to it and stirred, keeping the dry bowl pretty clean. I'm bad, I know.

Our place is smelling really good as I type this!

Holy dense, Batman! This bread has a lot of heft to it. And, after cooling, it shrank vertically.


Verdict:
Yum! The inside was moist, and the top was crispy! The intact banana bits were nice surprises as well.

Pasta: Chicken and Spinach in Rose Sauce

It's nice to plan for some variety during the week, so last night, we bought a rotisserie chicken from Save-On with the intent of trying to polish off the mashed potatoes from the shepherd's pie. It didn't happen, as I think there was a good 6lbs of potatoes left. (oi.)

Anyways, we also picked up Olivieri Picante Rose sauce and a bunch of spinach, knowing that we would have leftover chicken. I don't like eating roast chicken on its own the next day, so into the sauce it goes, along with chopped spinach to add oomph.

Yay for lunch tomorrow!

Oh, and Will protests the "lazy food" tag. However, seeing how he did all the food prep, it was lazy for me =PP

Shepherd's Pie

I recently saw a picture from my cousin-in-law of 'lazy shepherd's pie'. With all those potatoes leftover from the pot roast (we bought a 10-lb bag for cheap), this was the perfect way to use em up. And I get lunch for a couple days!

This was all stuff we had on hand. Use fresh ingredients as desired.


Ingredients (fills a 12x8 pyrex):
0.8 kg ground beef
0.25 cup dried onion flakes
1 tbs chili powder
1 tbs powdered thyme
1 small can tomato paste
equal volume of frozen veggie mix as beef, heated and ready to use
equal volume of mashed potatoes as the beef/veggie mix
2-3 cups finely shredded cheddar cheese

Method:
Cook the beef in a skillet over medium-high heat.
Add in onion flakes until they rehydrate.
Drain away the fat.
Add chili powder and thyme and whatever spices/seasoning to taste.
Add tomato paste. Stir well.
Add veggies and heat through.
Pack the mix into the bottom of a baking dish.
Sprinkle with about half the cheese.
Cover with an equal amount of mashed potatoes.
Top with cheese.
Broil in the oven at 450F until cheese bubbles and browns.

Comments:
The tomato paste is optional. You can opt for a gravy taste if you use beef buillion.
If you are using leftover mashed potatoes, bake in the oven at 375F for 15-20 minutes to heat through before broiling to brown the cheese.


Verdict:
Good, if a bit bland. We're trying not to use much salt in our cooking. We should also probably get into the habit of taste-testing =P

Slow Cooker Beef Pot Roast

We got a great deal on a beef roast at Safeway, so into the crock it goes ^^. I've made this on several other occasions, and it's great, because it could be a one-pot meal--meat, veggies and carbs in one! It's also really cheap because you can use the cheapest cuts of meat, the the slow cooker makes it tender.

Ingredients (serves 3-5):
3 lb beef chuck roast
5 russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
3 medium carrots, cut 1" thick
5 stalks celery, cut 1" thick
2 medium onions, cut into wedges
water
maggi seasoning
worcestershire sauce
dried parsley and oregano
flour for thickening


Method (for a 6qt crockpot):
Trim meat of excess fat.
Rub beef with maggi and worcestershire sauce.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Rub on dried parsley.
Place a layer of carrots on the bottom of the crock, followed by onions.
Place beef in the middle and top with celery.
Fill the area around the meat with potatoes and remaining veggies, keeping potatoes to the outside.
Fill the crock about 1/3 full with water (if you know your crock won't dry out, use less liquid).
Sprinkle on oregano.
Cook on low for 7 hours and check for doneness. If it is just a bit pinker than what you want, take out the meat, cover loosely and let rest 20-30 minutes. The residual heat will cook the meat the rest of the way.
Mix the remaining items in the pot and use the liquid for gravy, if desired.
Season gravy to taste.
Goes great with red wine. (We had Merlot)


Comments:
You can brown the meat first for more flavour. I only had 25 minutes before work, so I didn't bother.
The heating element is on the side and bottom of the crock, so carrots and potatoes are preferentially put there.
I had originally inserted a meat thermometer, and I'm not sure how well that turned out, because Will reported over the phone (I was in transit) that the temperature was 85C when he took it out. Yet, it was not cardboard-y. Weird.


Verdict:
So tender, and nothing beats roast potatoes ^^. It was a bit bland, but you can add salt to the gravy, or do as Will did, and have it with HP Sauce.

Chicken with Sweet Sauce

After reading Nicole's blog, I was going to make oyako don, but then I realised that I'm lacking all ingredients, other than the chicken and egg.

So, needing dinner on New Year's Day of all days, and with Will napping away, I basically had to use whatever was on hand.

This is a sweet dish that goes well with rice. My family tends to have it with pork belly rather than chicken (super fatty, I might add). I'm not sure if it's a Vietnamese, Cambodian or Teochew dish, but we also have it with a sour fish soup as a two-course meal.


Ingredients:
0.5 cup sugar
fish sauce
chicken, cut into short strips.
soy sauce
pepper


Method:
In a heavy saucepan, mix sugar with just enough fish sauce to barely dissolve it.
Cook on high, stirring constantly until the sugar caramelizes.
Add in chicken and stir fry, reducing heat to medium-high.
Season with soy sauce and pepper to taste.
Serve with rice.


Comments:
This is all done from a hazy childhood memory.
I actually added in water before adding the chicken, and ended up with a very soupy mixture. Oi. It's supposed to be this dark brown dish of meat that's coated in a thick sauce/glaze.
My mother always used an earthenware pot. We don't have one, so I used a glass pot instead.
I should've used diced chicken. The strips did not lend itself to mixing.


Verdict:
Fail for trying to emulate a certain dish, but the taste was fine.

White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

We're headed over to Abe's for New Year's Eve. Originally, it was to be an after-dinner party, so that's why I made cookies. I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, in case these experimental ones don't go over so well.


Ingredients:
0.5 tsp baking soda
0.25 tsp salt
1.5 cups flour
0.5 cup unsalted butter, softened
0.5 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup white chocolate chips
0.5 cup dried cranberries


Method:
In a bowl, whisk together salt, flour and baking soda to mix.
In another bowl, cream together sugar and butter.
Beat in egg and vanilla.
Mix in flour mixture.
Mix in chocolate and cranberries.
Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
Bake at 350F for 17-20 minutes, until golden brown.
 
Comments:
The basic recipe is from the chocolate chip ones I'd been making. I was afraid that I should've cut down on the sugar, since both white chocolate and cranberries are sweet, but it turned out fine.


Verdict:
Good, but I still like the chocolate chips with pecans better.

Turkey and Gravy

I really have to remember to take pictures of food.

Making turkey with all the trimmings was a first for me, but I took it on, mostly to have full control over dinner. When I'd first sent out the invite to my friends for dinner here on Christmas Eve, the idea of my making the turkey and their bringing the sides was bandied about, but in the end, I figured if I made everything, the chances of having a massive amount of leftovers would be greatly lessened.

And I was right. (Yay! ^^) The only thing left in great quantities is the mashed potato, but that's due more to my poor spatial skills than anything else. I can also blame Eddie for having such a late lunch so as to eat like a bird when he got here. I'll forgive him, though, since he's always so nice about my cooking.


Ingredients (Serves 8-12):
14lb turkey
celery tops leftover from the stuffing
rosemary
parsley
sage
olive oil
salt
pepper


Method:
Preheat oven to 325F.
Rinse the turkey and pat dry, inside and out.
Drizzle on olive oil and spread around the skin.
Season generously inside and out.
Set the bird breast up on a roasting rack in a pan.
Place celery leaves and herbs inside the cavity.
Put some lukewarm water into the pan.
Bake for 3 hours.
Check the meat temperature. If it is almost at 165F, broil at 450F to crisp the skin (if it isn't already).
Remove from oven and let rest for 20-30 minutes before carving.


Gravy:
Use drippings, anything from the cavity of the bird and the crusty brown stuff scraped off the bottom of the pan.
Simmer together with giblets and leftover stock from the stuffing for as long as you can. Depending on the quantity of gravy needed, you may need to simmer with more water.
Remove from heat.
To reduce the amount of fat in the gravy, use a baster to pipe out the liquid under the layer of fat, into the gravy container.
Season to taste.
Whisk in flour until the right consistency.


Comments:
If I had an onion, I would've stuffed it into the bird for extra flavour.

I added water to the pan in hopes that it would help keep the bird from drying out. I am not sure how well it worked. Some people tent the bird in foil, but I try not to use disposable things if I don't have to.

I read that some people roast it breast down. The reasoning was that the juices would drip into the breast, rather than away. I'm a bit skeptical about this. I noticed that juices collected in the cavity. Had I roasted it breast down, it would've gone directly to the pan.

There was considerably less liquid in the cavity after resting, prior to getting drippings for the gravy. Whether this was due to evaporation, or re-uptake by the meat is unknown. I should've covered the turkey while it was resting.

I generally try to do things in as few steps and with as few items to wash as possible, so I skipped the brining. (We didn't have a container large enough, anyway). The turkey, while not too dry, was not juicy, either. I do admit to losing track of the bake time, so it could very well have been fine had it not been in the oven as long.


Verdict:
Yummy with the cranberry sauce!

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 =)