Day-after-Christmas Breakfast

Being the procrastinator that I am and the fact that The Husband was working on Christmas Day, I didn't buy groceries with the intention of making a trip on the day after Christmas. However, surprise surprise I woke up to this...

So much for grocery shopping. But because The Husband was coming home this am, I decided to whip up breakfast. I would consider this more an "organized assemblage" of food rather than "cooking."

1-inch thick sun-dried tomato bread + basil pesto spread + mild cheddar cheese + thinly-sliced honey ham + poached egg + lightly sautéed tomato slices + parmesan cheese and salt + pepper =

Of course, you can't have poached egg without capturing the delicious ooze... soooo good and easy!

Happy holidays!

Sunchoke au Gratin

Who actually knows what sunchokes are? Being the start of winter, most of the veggies at the farmers market were of the "root" variety (turnips, radishes, sweet potatoes...) and sunchokes.

At first glance, they look like mini-nubbins of ginger. However, the taste is similar to a potato, but grassier and sweeter.

I was able to practice my knife skills since I couldn't figure out how use our mandolin... doh. So after slicing what felt like a million little sunchoke nubbins... I finally had the main ingredient for this dish, which comes from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything iphone app.

Ingredients:

2-3 cups cream/ half and half/milk/ or a combination

1 pound sunchokes (or potatoes) - washed, thinly sliced, and dried

1/2 cups grated Gruyere or Swiss cheese

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

Directions: 

1. Heat oven 375 degrees. Put the cream in a pot and heat until it's hot, but don't let it boil.

2. Layer the potatoes and cheese (with cheese as the final layer) in a large, clear ovenproof dish. I decided to use Gruyere because I simply love this cheese. Sprinkle every potato layer with a bit of salt, pepper, and thyme. Once all the layers are complete, pour enough hot cream/milk to come about 1/2 way up the dish. 

3. Put in oven and cook, undisturbed until the sunchokes are tender. A thin-bladed knife will be able to cut into the layers with little or no resistance. Bake until the top is nicely browned, approximately 45-50 minutes. 

This recipe required a little troubleshooting because the original recipe called for the milk to come up 3/4 the way up the dish. This was way too much liquid and made the gratin soupy. I had to pour the extra liquid out and return it to the oven to get rid of the liquid.  

Next time, I would also consider using another herb (or no herbs)... mostly because thyme is not my favorite. 

Regardless, the final product was tender, sweet, and savory all at once. Not bad for a first attempt at trying this interesting vegetable. 

Next up... trip to Taiwan!

Israeli Couscous

I saw this at our local Trader Joe's and decided to give it a try. After raiding my fridge, I found some yellow and orange bell peppers that were on their last leg and some spinach and acorn squash.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove of garlic - minced
1 cup Israeli couscous
chopped bell peppers
steamed acorn squash - cubed
frozen spinach
1-2 cups chicken broth
Parmesan cheese - grated

Directions:
1. Steam or microwave the acorn squash until tender, but not mushy. Cube into bite sized squares.

2. Heat oil in pan and lightly brown couscous until fragrant. Remove from pan.

3. Sauté bell peppers, garlic, and acorn squash.

4. Return couscous to the pan and pour in chicken broth. Let everything come to a full boil and then turn down to medium low heat and let simmer for 15 minutes or until liquid as been absorbed.
* You can always add more liquid if the couscous is not al dente.

5. Grate parmesan cheese into the couscous and mix well.

6. Plate and add salt and pepper to taste. Grate more cheese if desired.

Tender and chewy with great texture! Try it next time instead of your standard grain.

Happy couscous making!

Rum Raisin Ice Cream

The Husband decided to make run raisin ice cream... in the beginning of winter... I don't know why. So after a confusing trip to the liquor store, which apparently in NC are all owned by the government (oh, how I miss Texas), we got our ice cream underway.

The ice cream recipe can be found in Mark Bittman's "How to cook everything," which I've mentioned before.

Rum raisin soakage.

Many egg yolks... for this recipe.

Egg and run raisin mixture combine.

Into the ice cream machine for churning! 

Gingerbread cookies a la mode. 

Happy ice cream churning! 

Chewy Gingerbread Cookies

Spicy gingerbread cookies bring warmth to any holiday dessert, but I particularly like chewy gingerbread cookies. So, I decided to give this recipe a try given the great reviews.

This weekend I learned that "Blackstrap" molasses is very different from "Full Flavor" molasses. Blackstrap molasses was smokey and rather bitter, which I later learned is not good for gingerbread recipes. So make sure you check what kind of molasses you have before baking! 

Happy gingerbread making! 

Inspire me: Scallion Pancakes

I received several responses for what people wanted me to make over this weekend. 

Here were the nominations:

1. Stinky Tofu

2. Sticky rice with mushrooms

3. Pork and mushroom congee

4. Ma poh tofu

5. Green onion pie = scallion pancakes

6. Gua bao

7. Shi zi toh

In all fairness, Saturday was our first snow so I didn't have a chance to run to the asian store. Therefore, scallion pancakes were chosen because I had all of the ingredients at home. Simple as that. ;)

A friend and I ended up eating these as an appetizer for Sunday night dinner. I followed this recipe because they had pictures and good instructions. These are my instructions based on what I did.

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1 cup hot water

1/2 bunch scallions - sliced thinly

Salt and ground pepper

2 tsp Sesame oil

Peanut oil for pan frying

Wax paper for storage

Directions: 

1. Place flour in a bowl and add hot water. Stir in the same direction with two chopsticks until the four is mixed in. It will seem extremely dry. 

2. Pour flour and water mixture on to lightly-floured countertop and knead for 10 minutes until dough is smooth. 

3. Place dough back in a clean bowl and cover tightly and let rest for at least 30 minutes. 

4. Prepare sesame oil, salt, pepper, and scallions in 4 separate small bowls. 

5. When dough has finished resting, roll it into a long rope of 1 inch thick. Cut dough into 1.5 inch pieces and roll into small spheres.

6. Place all pieces back into a covered bowl until you are ready to flatten. 

7. Flatten dough spheres into flat pancakes approximately 1/8 inch thick. 

8. Then dip two fingers into the sesame oil and paint on to surface of the pancake. Sprinkle salt and pepper on top of oil and add scallions on top. 

9. Roll dough into a cigar and coil into a snail shell shape. Flatten snail coils with heel of palm and roll flat with rolling pin. 

10. Lightly cover wax paper with cooking oil spray and set pancake on top. Spray top of pancake and place wax paper on top for next pancake when ready. These pancakes are very sticky so make sure they are well oiled between each pancake and wax paper layer. 

11. Now, you can freeze your pancakes or pan fry them to eat in some peanut oil. 

Happy scallion pancake frying! 

Inspire me: Taiwanese Cuisine

Since people seemed to like this Taiwanese cuisine theme, I am taking suggestions!

Question: What is a Taiwanese dish that you want to learn to make at home? 

Taking nominations from now until tomorrow December 4th at noon.

As long as I am able to find the ingredients of the suggested dishes, I'll pick one to make this weekend.

Happy weekend!!

Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

My Ah-ma, taiwanese for "grandmother," is one of the best cooks that I rarely get to enjoy. But since we're making a long-waited trip to Taiwan in 2011, I decided to dedicate this post to her. 


Edit: Given that my sister claims that this recipe is a family secret, our family recipe has been removed. Sorry! Should have asked about internal family copyright laws. ;) 


But, you can find a great recipe here. 

Happy slurping! 

Taiwanese Oyster Omelette

This is a night market street snack in Taiwan often called "Taiwan Small Eats" 台灣小吃. It's savory, ocean-y, and creamy all at the same time. After finding fresh oysters at our local "Fresh Market," we decided we would try to recreate this dish to pay homage to our favorite past times in the mother land.

Ingredients:
1/3 lb fresh oyster (we ended up using almost 8-9 oysters per omelette)
3 eggs
several leaves of napa - sliced thinly
leeks or green onions  - chopped

Flour batter:
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 Tbsp black vinegar
4 Tbsp yam/potato/tapioca starch
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp flour
1 cup water

Directions:
1. Rinse leek/green onions and chop finely. Then add the flour batter ingredients and stir well.

2. Heat oil in frying pan and cook 1/3 of the oysters for a minute, then add 1/3 of the flour batter and cook until batter becomes translucent. Add vegetables and 1 egg into the pan. Fry until golden on one side (especially if you like this dish more creamy).

3. Serve on plate with side of sweet chili sauce.

Happy oyster munching!

Crème Brulée: "Burnt Cream"

Another classic french English dessert that is always a crowd pleaser especially when your guests get to flambé it themselves. 

The full Mark Bitmann recipe can be found here or below: 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy or light cream, or half-and-half
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar, more for topping

Directions:

• 1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. In a saucepan, combine cream and vanilla bean and cook over low heat just until hot. Let sit for a few minutes, then discard vanilla bean. (If using vanilla extract, add it now.)
• 2. In a bowl, beat yolks and sugar together until light. Stir about a quarter of the cream into this mixture, then pour sugar-egg mixture into cream and stir. Pour into four 6-ounce ramekins and place ramekins in a baking dish; fill dish with boiling water halfway up the sides of the dishes. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until centers are barely set. Cool. Ramekins can be wrapped tightly and refrigerated for a couple of days.
• 3. When ready to serve, top each custard with about a teaspoon of sugar in a thin layer. Place ramekins in a broiler 2 to 3 inches from heat source. Turn on broiler. Cook until sugar melts and browns or even blackens a bit, about 5 minutes. Serve within two hours.

Crispy sugary crust, smooth sweet cream with a touch of tartness from strawberries and blueberries.

Happy Flambéing!

*Edit! 

Thanks to Patrick, I have been informed that Crème Brulée is actually an ENGLISH dessert. A fun fact that you can now mention at stuffy dinner parties. ;)