Ok, 2010, here I come with my completed list of dishes to make before 2011.
Malaysian Roti Jala (Net Bread)
Homemade cheese of some kind
Kuih Bahulu
Jasmine Rice Pudding with Mangoes
Pocky
Tortillas
Vegetarian Tamales
Shoyu Tamago
Crunchy Roasted Chickpeas
Dandelion Bread
Vegetarian Big Macs (for Ryan of course)
Matcha Shortbread
Real actual bread with yeast and everything
Thalipeeth
Spinach and Wild Mushroom Souffle
Falafel Pitas with Cucumber-Yogurt Dressing
Crepes
Fried Plantains
Pasta of some kind?
Wish me luck!
xoxo
me
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Fresh start, coming right up.
A new year and a new decade start in just a couple of days. New Years is never a big deal for me, in fact, I volunteered to close the restaurant this year and will probably be at work until 12am or later. But it is nice to have a little time for reflection and goal-setting. Well, and for wondering why it's 2010 already and I don't own a hover car or a house on the moon.
My goals for this year involve budgeting, and organizing and getting better at focusing on my projects. Essentially, un-cluttering my life from all perspectives so that I'll have a little more room for creativity. I started early by re-organizing the whole kitchen, and it got me thinking about what goals I need to set for myself in the kitchen for the next few months. Some new products to use, some new recipes, new techniques. I'm excited to be making time for cooking again!
So, wondering what I'm excited about? Well, I'll tell you anyway. For Christmas my wonderful family who treats me to so many goodies to use in the kitchen gave me some new toys, most notably a mandoline slicer and an 11 cup Cuisinart. I also got a food scale and a dough scraper, some adorable molds for cupcakes and petits fours, and lots of food products to try - truffle cream, balsamic/fig syrup, cheeses and salts and snacks and so on! There's so much I want to make right now I thought I'd compile a list and try to make everything on it by the end of the year. If anyone actually reads this, try to hold me accountable, ok?!
Malaysian Roti Jala (Net Bread)
Homemade cheese of some kind
Kuih Bahulu
Jasmine Sticky Rice with Mangoes
Pocky
Tortillas
Vegetarian Tamales
Shoyu Tamago
Crunchy Roasted Chickpeas
Dandelion Bread
Vegetarian Big Macs (for Ryan of course)
Matcha Shortbread
Real actual bread with yeast and everything
I will add to this list over the next couple of days before the new year, and will include recipe links as I check them off.
Happy New Year!!
xoxo
me
My goals for this year involve budgeting, and organizing and getting better at focusing on my projects. Essentially, un-cluttering my life from all perspectives so that I'll have a little more room for creativity. I started early by re-organizing the whole kitchen, and it got me thinking about what goals I need to set for myself in the kitchen for the next few months. Some new products to use, some new recipes, new techniques. I'm excited to be making time for cooking again!
So, wondering what I'm excited about? Well, I'll tell you anyway. For Christmas my wonderful family who treats me to so many goodies to use in the kitchen gave me some new toys, most notably a mandoline slicer and an 11 cup Cuisinart. I also got a food scale and a dough scraper, some adorable molds for cupcakes and petits fours, and lots of food products to try - truffle cream, balsamic/fig syrup, cheeses and salts and snacks and so on! There's so much I want to make right now I thought I'd compile a list and try to make everything on it by the end of the year. If anyone actually reads this, try to hold me accountable, ok?!
Malaysian Roti Jala (Net Bread)
Homemade cheese of some kind
Kuih Bahulu
Jasmine Sticky Rice with Mangoes
Pocky
Tortillas
Vegetarian Tamales
Shoyu Tamago
Crunchy Roasted Chickpeas
Dandelion Bread
Vegetarian Big Macs (for Ryan of course)
Matcha Shortbread
Real actual bread with yeast and everything
I will add to this list over the next couple of days before the new year, and will include recipe links as I check them off.
Happy New Year!!
xoxo
me
Friday, December 11, 2009
Back.
Took a break. A long break. Didn't feel like writing much, and didn't have much time to cook either. But the mood has struck again, and maybe it will stick around for at least a little while.
So what's going on right now... well, it's winter. No snow yet, and none on the forecast, sadly, but it's been in the 20's and below all this week. Usually I'm quite alright with that, but during last summer's heat wave the heat seals melted on our computer and now if the temperature around it reaches a level that is, say, comfortable to humans, it shuts itself off. So here we are, it's 22 degrees outside, and the compy is propped up on the windowsill next to me with the window cracked and a vicious draft coming in. If anything it's a blessing in disguise because it keeps me from sitting at the computer for too long.
Anyway, back to food.
This week I've been experimenting with various recipes for this or that, hoping to find something cheap and easy and at the same time pretty and unusual to give out as gifts for Christmas. My coworkers are my guinea pigs and they were treated to 3 dozen cookies a few days ago. They were all delicious, but they didn't quite meet my gift requirements.
The next item on my list was some form of candied citrus peel. The basic idea is this: peel the citrus and scrape off some of the pith, then blanch, boil in sugar syrup, dry, and roll in sugar or dip in chocolate. But while looking for recipes I noticed that every site I went to suggested a different number of times to blanch, amount of time for blanching, thickness of pith to leave on the peel, etc., and some recipes did not recommend blanching at all. I could spend anywhere from 1 hour to 2 days preparing the candy. So, I decided to go with a rather time intensive, but easy method, and then I would continue with trial and error from there if it didn't work out. And what do you know, the first try was a pretty good success.
I found this recipe on Unfussy Fare which was originally from The Joy of Cooking. The unique aspect of this method is that it uses salted water to remove the bitterness from the citrus peel rather than repeated sets of blanching. No saltiness is retained in the final candy.
Grapefruit-ettes
2 medium pink grapefruits, with lovely skin
Salt
2 cups sugar
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
water
6oz 70%+ cacao chocolate
Trim the peel off the grapefruits. To do this slice a little off the top of both ends to give yourself a flat surface to hold them in place while you slice off the peel. Cut the peel off, vertically, taking off plenty of pith, but not cutting so close that you get any of the fruit. You should be able to do this with about 6 slices. This is all much more easily explained with pictures of course, but I forgot to take any, so if I do attempt this again I will snap some photos and put them in the post. Cut each big piece off peel in half lengthwise (this allows you to press them flat, which makes it much easier to trim off the pith). You should have slices about 1" thick. Press them flat, peel side down, and use a very sharp knife to skim off as much of the bitter pith as possible. Don't worry, some will remain, and you want there to be a little bit anyway, otherwise they won't have much chewiness to them. After trimming the pith cut each piece again lengthwise so that you have little strips about 3-4 inches long and 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide.
Put the peels in a bowl, and cover with water, about 3 cups. Add 1 teaspoon of salt per cup of water. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at least 24 hours. Then drain and rinse the peels and soak again in fresh water for 20 minutes. Bring another few cups of fresh water to a boil, add peels, and boil for 20 minutes, draining again.
Mix together 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of water in a saucepot and bring to a boil. Add peels, reduce heat to a low simmer, and let simmer for 45 minutes until peels are translucent. If you left the pith especially thick you may boil up to an hour and 15 minutes.
Remove peels from syrup one at a time using a fork or slotted spoon and place on a rack overnight to dry. Make sure you put something underneath to catch the syrupy drips.
Once peels are perfectly dry you may do 1 of two things. Toss them in a big bowl of granulated sugar, or leave the sugar off and dip them in chocolate. If you intend to sugar them just throw a cup or two of sugar in a plastic container, add the peels and shake, and then you can simply put the lid on and tuck them away - the extra sugar adds to their shelf life. If you want them chocolate-y just melt 6oz of good, dark chocolate (I prefer at least 70% cacao) in a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water (make sure the bowl doesn't touch the surface of the water), and dip the peel in, leaving a little tip sticking out as a handle. Lay them on parchment paper, refrigerate, and then store in single layers between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container. If you allow them to sit out in the air the chocolate will get a white bloom on it and they won't be so pretty.
Now I tried these rolled in sugar, and let me just say that I thought I had ruined a whole batch of citrus peels. This was my first time trying candied citrus peels and I wasn't expecting them to be so firm and slightly bitter still. The sugar did nothing to counter-act that feeling that I was chewing on gross grapefruit peels, and I felt like I had been tricked somehow into eating something I normally throw away. But I did like the slight grapefruit flavor, and I had bought chocolate just for the occasion, so I melted just one tiny square in the microwave, dipped the shortest peel in it, and let it cool in the fridge. 10 minutes later I took an apprehensive bite, and found that it was delicious! The strong flavor of the dark chocolate hid the slight bitterness well, and it perfectly complimented the citrus-y flavor, while also adding a softer texture to my too-thin peels. So if you have your heart set on traditional candied and sugared peels, but aren't sure if you're going to like them or not, keep some chocolate around just in case.
xoxo
Me
So what's going on right now... well, it's winter. No snow yet, and none on the forecast, sadly, but it's been in the 20's and below all this week. Usually I'm quite alright with that, but during last summer's heat wave the heat seals melted on our computer and now if the temperature around it reaches a level that is, say, comfortable to humans, it shuts itself off. So here we are, it's 22 degrees outside, and the compy is propped up on the windowsill next to me with the window cracked and a vicious draft coming in. If anything it's a blessing in disguise because it keeps me from sitting at the computer for too long.
Anyway, back to food.
This week I've been experimenting with various recipes for this or that, hoping to find something cheap and easy and at the same time pretty and unusual to give out as gifts for Christmas. My coworkers are my guinea pigs and they were treated to 3 dozen cookies a few days ago. They were all delicious, but they didn't quite meet my gift requirements.
The next item on my list was some form of candied citrus peel. The basic idea is this: peel the citrus and scrape off some of the pith, then blanch, boil in sugar syrup, dry, and roll in sugar or dip in chocolate. But while looking for recipes I noticed that every site I went to suggested a different number of times to blanch, amount of time for blanching, thickness of pith to leave on the peel, etc., and some recipes did not recommend blanching at all. I could spend anywhere from 1 hour to 2 days preparing the candy. So, I decided to go with a rather time intensive, but easy method, and then I would continue with trial and error from there if it didn't work out. And what do you know, the first try was a pretty good success.
I found this recipe on Unfussy Fare which was originally from The Joy of Cooking. The unique aspect of this method is that it uses salted water to remove the bitterness from the citrus peel rather than repeated sets of blanching. No saltiness is retained in the final candy.
Grapefruit-ettes
2 medium pink grapefruits, with lovely skin
Salt
2 cups sugar
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
water
6oz 70%+ cacao chocolate
Trim the peel off the grapefruits. To do this slice a little off the top of both ends to give yourself a flat surface to hold them in place while you slice off the peel. Cut the peel off, vertically, taking off plenty of pith, but not cutting so close that you get any of the fruit. You should be able to do this with about 6 slices. This is all much more easily explained with pictures of course, but I forgot to take any, so if I do attempt this again I will snap some photos and put them in the post. Cut each big piece off peel in half lengthwise (this allows you to press them flat, which makes it much easier to trim off the pith). You should have slices about 1" thick. Press them flat, peel side down, and use a very sharp knife to skim off as much of the bitter pith as possible. Don't worry, some will remain, and you want there to be a little bit anyway, otherwise they won't have much chewiness to them. After trimming the pith cut each piece again lengthwise so that you have little strips about 3-4 inches long and 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide.
Put the peels in a bowl, and cover with water, about 3 cups. Add 1 teaspoon of salt per cup of water. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at least 24 hours. Then drain and rinse the peels and soak again in fresh water for 20 minutes. Bring another few cups of fresh water to a boil, add peels, and boil for 20 minutes, draining again.
Mix together 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of water in a saucepot and bring to a boil. Add peels, reduce heat to a low simmer, and let simmer for 45 minutes until peels are translucent. If you left the pith especially thick you may boil up to an hour and 15 minutes.
Remove peels from syrup one at a time using a fork or slotted spoon and place on a rack overnight to dry. Make sure you put something underneath to catch the syrupy drips.
Once peels are perfectly dry you may do 1 of two things. Toss them in a big bowl of granulated sugar, or leave the sugar off and dip them in chocolate. If you intend to sugar them just throw a cup or two of sugar in a plastic container, add the peels and shake, and then you can simply put the lid on and tuck them away - the extra sugar adds to their shelf life. If you want them chocolate-y just melt 6oz of good, dark chocolate (I prefer at least 70% cacao) in a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water (make sure the bowl doesn't touch the surface of the water), and dip the peel in, leaving a little tip sticking out as a handle. Lay them on parchment paper, refrigerate, and then store in single layers between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container. If you allow them to sit out in the air the chocolate will get a white bloom on it and they won't be so pretty.
Now I tried these rolled in sugar, and let me just say that I thought I had ruined a whole batch of citrus peels. This was my first time trying candied citrus peels and I wasn't expecting them to be so firm and slightly bitter still. The sugar did nothing to counter-act that feeling that I was chewing on gross grapefruit peels, and I felt like I had been tricked somehow into eating something I normally throw away. But I did like the slight grapefruit flavor, and I had bought chocolate just for the occasion, so I melted just one tiny square in the microwave, dipped the shortest peel in it, and let it cool in the fridge. 10 minutes later I took an apprehensive bite, and found that it was delicious! The strong flavor of the dark chocolate hid the slight bitterness well, and it perfectly complimented the citrus-y flavor, while also adding a softer texture to my too-thin peels. So if you have your heart set on traditional candied and sugared peels, but aren't sure if you're going to like them or not, keep some chocolate around just in case.
xoxo
Me
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