My Thoughts On Cooking: Past and Present

I remember this scene from Spiderman 3 and thinking "Wow, cooking looks so fun." Laughing and dancing around in a light and spacious kitchen, and having all of the ingredients prepped. (So what if they're just making omelets?) Go ahead, watch the clip.

(Case in point of ambitious recipes-popovers. Popovers used to frighten me, they always seemed so tricky.)

Back then (circa 2007 when Spiderman 3 came out) I enjoyed cooking because it was a novelty to me, you know pull out a special recipe here and there when I was feeling ambitious (homemade bagels or marshmallows or how about a whole filet of salmon stuffed with herbed butter with ratatouille on the side?) and all the other times I would just eat vegetables, eggs and cheese. But now that I have a little family, cooking has kind of become a dreaded chore and I find myself staring into an open fridge waiting for a prepared meal to materialize before my eyes - come on fridge, help me out! And my kitchen, well, unlike the one in the Spiderman clip, it is kind of a dark hole that hasn't been updated since the Brady Bunch was really groovy. Not to mention there are always bits and bobs of toddler toys (and non toys that he just likes to play with - right now there is about 30 clothespins on the floor) strewn about and a pile of dishes in the sink. Inspiring. I hope the cooking fairy comes and sprinkles magic cooking dust on me because I have to eat for the rest of my life so I better get my act together! I hope this cooking apathy is just a temporary thing...

Yummy Soup

Last year as a wedding present, I was given a year's subscription to Martha Stewart Living but sadly this is my last month to receive the magazine. (I can't believe I've been married almost a year already!) 

The current issue has a delicious recipe for Chinese Broccoli and Soba Noodle Soup. My honey and I decided to make it the other day and it was sooooo good!

The empty tea cup was soon to be filled with ginger tea, which was the perfect compliment for the Asian soup.

Topped with limes and chilis. We are fortunate enough to live close by an Asian grocery store so we easily found the Chinese broccoli (I never even heard of it until I made this recipe) and the soba noodles. The soba noodles were quite tasty and rather filling since they are made out of buckwheat flour. If you happen to pick up the current issue, you won't be disappointed in this yummy soup!

I decided to have a fun little feature where I post what I've eaten. Here is the first one:

I made this meal for my honey, right before he left for work. It was super fast and easy peasy.

Potato Leek Soup

1 Onion Diced

2 Leeks, cleaned and chopped

3 potatoes, peeled and diced

4 cups vegetable stock

Simmer all 10-15 minutes until tender

Blend this with 8 oz. soft tofu

and

8 oz. low fat cream cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

I modified this recipe a bit based on what was in my fridge. We are on a budget you know and can't frivolously go running to the market (plus I am way too tempted to pick up more than what I need when I go to the grocery store). I didn't have any leeks, so I guess this is potato leek-less soup. I didn't have the tofu and the idea of putting a whole block of cream cheese in my soup weirded me out, I used about 4 oz. This soup was quite yummy with salad, it would have been good with some rolls of some sort but alas, my oven is broken. Oh, maintenance man...

Dinner

I had a yummy dinner and I thought I would share it with everyone, by that I mean dearest D. and Kira :)

Vegetable roll with fried tofu dipped in rooster sauce.

Scrumdumptious.

Rooster sauce is magical. It isn't really called rooster sauce, but it is what I always have called it. You can buy it in the Asian section at the grocery store. It is good over noodles and used as a sauce for tofu. dearest D. was dipping his pretzels in it, which I think is a little sick-o. Eww, yuck!

Steamed Lemon Pudding

The other night I was in the mood for a lemon flavored dessert, it seemed the perfect thing to eat on a hot summer day. I found this scrumptious recipe on www.nymag.com  (via google) and made a few modifications to it; the lemon pudding turned out wonderfully. The pudding also called for a berry compote which was perfect since there were two pints of berries in the fridge just waiting to be eaten. I made the desserts in my little Fire King ramekins that I bought at the market a month ago, and I am glad to say that they held up to the test and did not crack in the oven.

Steamed Lemon Pudding With Berry Compote

Pudding
Softened butter for ramekins
3/4 cup granulated sugar plus additional for ramekins
1 cup buttermilk (I did not have buttermilk; I substituted plain yogurt)
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 eggs, separated
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest of 2 lemons, finely chopped (I used zest of one lemon)

Berry Compote
2 cups blueberries
2 cups raspberries (I used strawberries)
1/4 cup sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Pudding
Grease the insides of eight 4-ounce ramekins with butter and coat with granulated sugar. Combine in a mixing bowl the buttermilk, lemon juice, and the egg yolks. Mix the flour, remaining sugar, salt, and lemon zest in another bowl. Whip the egg whites in a third bowl until soft peaks form. Whisk the dry ingredients with the buttermilk mixture, and fold in the egg whites gently, a third at a time. Ladle the batter into the prepared ramekins, filling them almost to the top. Place the puddings in a roasting pan, and pour warm water around them until it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover with foil, and bake for 18 minutes or until puddings begin to rise slightly. Remove the foil, rotate the pan front-to-back, and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, until pudding is golden and springs back when touched.

Compote
While the pudding is baking, place the blueberries in a saucepan with the sugar and cook over medium heat until berries just start to burst. Remove from heat and fold in raspberries. Serve puddings at room temperature, or reheat in a warm-water bath before inverting onto plates and surrounding with compote.

The recipe says that it yields four, but I was able to fill five ramekins.

I will definitely be making this recipe again, they were good the next day too; cold out of the fridge.

Rosemary and Potato Pizza

The other day while driving back from work, I concocted a recipe for a rosemary potato pizza with goat cheese and caramelized onions, and to my delight it turned out delicious! Some people might think that potatoes on pizza is a little strange, but trust me it is wonderful!

Rosemary Potato Pizza

4 8'' Boboli Whole Wheat Pizza Crusts
4 oz. Goat Cheese
3 Red Potatoes
2 tsp. Rosemary
1 Large Red Onion
Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Scrub potatoes, cut into 1/4'' slices, lightly coat with olive oil and toss with one teaspoon of dried rosemary. Place potato slices on cookie sheet and bake until tender, about fifteen minutes, flip slices once during baking. Drizzle olive oil in a pan and slice red onions into rings; cook over medium heat until soft. Spread 1 oz. of goat cheese on each pizza crust. Sprinkle remaining rosemary equally on four pizza crusts. Top pizzas with potatoes and onions. Bake at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Serves four.

I put fresh rosemary on the pizzas, in addition to the dried. Next time I want to try to make my own pizza crust, but I was pleased with the way it turned out on the Boboli crusts.

New Discoveries

I have been wanting to make Thai Coconut Lemongrass soup for some time now, but I was having the hardest time finding lemongrass stalks. Yesterday my manager at work told me about Allgreen Market, a grocery store that sells Asian and Latino groceries. Well, I certainly had fun in there yesterday! Not only did I find lemongrass stalks (for $0.39!) but I found an entire houseware section full of Asian goodies, the things they sold reminded me of my time in Korea. The soup recipe I made with the lemongrass turned out so delicious that I have decided to post it.

Tofu Coconut Soup with Lemongrass
4 cups chicken stock
4 slices peeled fresh ginger
1 large lemongrass stalk, cut into 2 inch pieces and crushed
Grated zest of 1 large lime
2 (14-ounce) cans unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 cup lime juice, freshly squeezed
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon red chili paste
1 package of firm tofu, cut into bit sized pieces
1/2 pound fresh enoki mushrooms
5 small fresh green or red chilies, sliced crosswise, paper-thin
Fresh cilantro leaves
1 Package of rice noodles

In a large saucepan, combine the stock, ginger, lemongrasss and lime zest. Place over medium heat and slowly bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Reduce heat to low, add the coconut milk, stir to combine and bring to a simmer. Add the lime juice, brown sugar and chile paste. Mix well and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the tofu, mushrooms, and rice noodles and simmer until tender.
To serve ladle soup into warmed bowls. Float the chili slices and cilantro leaves on top.
Serves 4 to 6.

Yum!

I saw this cute little bunny bowl at Allgreens (it has a plastic cover for it too, for delicious leftovers) and dearest D. bought it for me. :) Isn't he nice?. I couldn't wait to put my soup in it, somehow that bowl made it just that much better.

These little Hello Kitty containers are also from Allgreens, they're the perfect size for my Healing Bar face soap from Union Street Soapworks

Wasted Time

I thought it would be fun to make homemade marshmallows, I heard wonderful things about how delicious they are, and how they are so much better than store bought. Well, I used a popular domestic homemaker's (*cough*cough* Martha Stewart) recipe, and all I got was a sick-o gelatinous mess. I tried to eat one, but it was so bad I spit it in the rubbish bin. I was very disappointed. I will try making them again some day in the future, but I will NOT use that horrid recipe.



I found this sad little marshmallow on etsy.

Baking Delectables

I realized that I enjoy making sugary treats in the kitchen, but that is all I ever seem to make. Well, that and biriyani. I think I need to graduate into making entrees. Here is a wonderful crepe recipe that I discovered over the weekend. They were surprisingly easy to make. Of course, I had to make it into desert by topping it off with homemade strawberry ice cream and powdered sugar.