the glimmering sesame

A staple item of a traditional Chinese breakfast is dou jiang or soy milk. Soy milk can be served either salty or sweet (my personal favorite is sweet), hot or cold. In addition, you can make your own soft tofu (dou hwa) from the soy milk with the addition of agar agar.

To make your own soy milk, you need the following: a blender, a large pot, large bowl, dried soybeans (black or regular, white ones), large spoon, cheesecloth bag, salt, and sugar. Rinse the beans and soak them overnight (at least 8 hours). Blend the beans and water. Using the cheesecloth, strain the mixture into the pot. Simmer the mixture on low heat, stirring often. Keep on eye on it because if the bottom burns, you’ll ruin the entire pot of soy milk; that burnt flavor will permeate the entire pot of soy milk. Adjust the amount of water to your liking. When it comes to a soft boil, add a pinch of salt and sugar to your liking for sweet soy milk.

This cookie contains one of the world’s greatest ingredient combinations ever. Actually, it’s probably the ultimate combination of perfection. Chocolate, peanut butter, and banana… all rolled into one delicious chewy cookie! Doesn’t that sound delightful to you?

So, if you have any bananas that are about to go funky, instead of making banana bread, try making these. Especially if you live with one of those “I-won’t-eat-anything-with-cooked-bananas” people (*ahem* like I do, which is a travesty in itself), these cookies will definitely win them over. 

A chewy peanut butter, banana, & chocolate chip cookie. With a glass of milk, these cookies will blow your mind. So much for that diet… Well, at least you’re getting your daily intake of calcium and vitamin D with those accompanying glasses of milk!

Recipe: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/04/peanut-butter-banana-chocolate-chip-cookies/

A simple dinner of simply dressed baby lettuce greens, soft boiled egg, brie cheese, and sunflower wheat garlic toasts. The sunflower wheat bread and greens are from the local Farmers Market.

The perfect vinaigrette is based on the right ratio of ingredients. It’s usually 1 part mustard (an emulsifier which binds together the oil and acid parts), 1 part vinegar (an acid), and about 2 parts of extra virgin olive oil (fat/oil). This ratio makes it easy to manipulate the vinaigrette for your tastes.In the simple vinaigrette I made for this salad, it includes: dijion mustard, finely minced garlic, black pepper, salt, extra virgin olive oil, champagne vinegar, and a touch of honey.

To make garlic toast, just brush olive oil on bread and toast them. When they are finished toasting, take a clove of garlic and rub the clove on the toast. This is a fast way to make garlic toast. A lovely side to salads, pastas, stews, or soups to sop up those lovely sauces and juices. For a garlic-phobe boyfriend, this is one of his favorite things to eat with saucy dishes.

Buttery Brown Sugar Pecan Cookies

Recipes: http://www.heathersdish.com/1/buttery-brown-sugar-pecan-cookies/

On days that I want something warm to fill my tummy, but fast to throw together, certain soups fit the bill.

I usually have dashi on hand. I have the dried version of this fish stock. It packs delightful, umami touch, which adds depth to any soup. A touch of soy for some color and taste helps too. Here, I just added fishballs, spinach, and swirled in some beaten egg. Another version, with soft, silky tofu cubes, spinach, beaten egg, sliced shittakes, and pieces of tomato. The base of dashi can also be used as the basis for miso soup. Add a bowl of rice to any of these soups and you have a comforting and filling meal.

Squashed, crispy new potatoes

New potatoes are those cute little potatoes; in a sense, they are the baby version of regular taters. They cook up relatively quickly since they are so small and the skin is quite thin, so you can eat them in their entirety. Just be sure to wash them well.

I boiled mine in salted water until fork tender. Strain them and let them cool a bit. Pat them dry and using a flat-bottomed item (I used a small plate), gently squish them. Pan fry until crisp and season liberally with crushed black pepper and salt.

This is a quick side dish to whip up. Leftovers toast up nicely in the toaster oven and make for great breakfast potatoes.

Lately, I’ve been on this smoked salmon kick. Some of my favorite ways to eat it is on a bagel with onions, cream cheese, and capers or in a salad with a poached, runny egg. For a quick, but filling breakfast/brunch, I usually eat it on a piece of toast (in this case, Asian Milk Bread) with onions, baby arugula, a smear of mustard, and ground black pepper.

Cleaning out the pantry: Beef Empanadas

In efforts to use up what is in my pantry and refrigerator, I decided to make beef empanadas filled with green olives, ground beef, golden raisins, green pepper and onions. I had pie crust dough in my freezer and needed to utilize it. Likewise, the premade pie dough found at the supermarket will work for this recipe if you don’t fancy making your own dough (though it’s not too bad if you use the food processor to help you). SX is always complaining how I bake lot of sweet items (though, he always ends up eating a good amount of it despite claiming he’s not a dessert person) and nothing ever savory. Empanadas seem like the perfect item. Empanadas can be savory or sweet hand pies that are easy to eat for those on the run, or make for great appetizers.

I’ve had quite a few empanadas and I really like the savory ones that are balanced with a touch of sweetness of the golden raisins. There’s a nice balance of flavors with the salty olives and the sweet raisins. I pretty much followed the filling recipe. Though, for the egg wash, I applied it twice (once at the beginning and once in the middle of baking) to ensure that rich, shiny sheen on top of the empanadas.

Recipe: http://www.recipegirl.com/2010/04/15/how-to-make-classic-beef-empanadas/

Salt & Pepper Squid

It’s a lot of fun to clean squid for some reason. Almost cathartic in some ways. If you don’t know how to clean your own clean or what you should be looking for when you buy squid at the market, I highly recommend checking out Youtube. There’s quite a few videos that give a great run-down on how to clean squid.

Anyways, though my coating didn’t really work out too well… the dish was still flavorful from the spicy pepper mix and the squid was quite tender to the bite (not overcooked = yay!).

Recipe: http://userealbutter.com/2011/01/03/chinese-salt-and-pepper-squid-recipe/

Hui Guo Rou (Twice-Cooked Pork Belly)

The boyfriend requested that I make this (first-time ever), but I think it came out quite well. Literally translated, the dish means meat returned to the wok/pan. The reason why the dish is called Twice-Cooked Pork is that the pork belly is boiled with  ginger and scallion, cooled and sliced, and then returned to a hot wok with more aromatics (scallions, ginger, serrano peppers, green frying peppers, & garlic) in a stir-fry. By boiling the pork belly, it gives you the chance to render out some of that fat and also remove some of that strong animal/meaty taste that certain cuts of meat can have.

Green Tea White Chocolate Swirled Almond Blondies

Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of the sliced bars. When sliced, you can see the distinct swirls of creamy green matcha batter against the almond, white chocolate chip batter. Very simple recipe that is easy to throw together. I didn’t have almond flour, so I substituted with almond meal (not as fine as flour and, in my case, unblanched). In addition, I increased the amount of matcha powder by 1 tablespoon because I really like that flavor to hit you front on in the face. These have a the texture of cheesecake brownies, which has a nice balance of chew and transport well.

Recipe: http://hungryrabbitnyc.com/2011/05/whatmatchacallit/

Bucatini All’Amatriciana

A dish I really loved when I visited Italy. It’s not easy to find guanicale in my area, so I substituted uncured bacon (odds and ends) and pancetta.

Chicken Piccata and Artichokes over Angel Hair Pasta

The cousin dish to one of my favorite Italian American dishes, Chicken Francaise/French.

Cleaning out the Freezer and Pantry: Pork and Mushroom Dijon

My pantry is pretty much overfilling and has accumulated various odds and ends over time (never go food shopping when hungry, lol). So, it was time to clean out the pantry! Armed with Uncle Ben’s rice (leftover from some other cooking escapade), Campbell’s condensed Cream of Mushroom soup, and a freezer stocked with lots of pork, this recipe fit the bill. Not super fancy pants, but extremely easy and quick to throw together. Pork isn’t very ideal for this recipe, but it’s what I had on hand. I would suggest chicken or beef for this dish.

Simple, not 100% homemade dinners can be pretty too!

Recipe: http://www.campbellskitchen.com/RecipeDetail.aspx?recipeId=5&ref=%2fSearchRecipesResult.aspx%3fq%3dcream%2bof%2bmushroom%26filter%3d%26page%3d2