Greg Cooks

Drink your veggies

2011-05-22T12:06:00.003-05:00

I have been eating more raw foods lately. Not that I am a raw food vegan by any means. I just think it is healthier to have a high percentage of plants in your diet. And raw plants tend to have higher nutrient content and think about all that good fiber. There is the added benefit that your stomach is satisfied without all the added calories and fat that often accompanies cooking. You can eat bushels of greens and not gain an ounce.

Anyway, my green smoothie of the day is a blend of cucumbers, broccoli, romaine lettuce, kale and spinach. I blended it up with a cup of Silk brand coconut milk and a bit of water. Yes, I drank the whole pitcher full and feel very full right now.

Shrimp with garlic and soba

2011-05-06T07:44:00.003-05:00

I love Spanish tapas and one of my favorites is the classic Gambas al ajillo, or shrimp with garlic. I like it really garlicky with lots of crushed red pepper and a bit of lemon to finish it off. It is great on its own but just as nice tossed with soba noodles.

The great thing about this is that it is easy and quick to prepare. I heated up my wok and added butter and olive oil. I threw in a half teaspoon of a nice crushed red pepper in oil. This was an Asian jarred chili in oil that I found in my local market. You could use just dried red pepper flakes too but I find the chili in oil tends to infuse in the cooking oil better. In went the shrimp and lots of chopped garlic. This was tossed in the pan for a minute or two until the shrimp were just cooked and then a couple tablespoons of lemon juice were added. The cooked soba noodles were mixed in and everything was plated up.

Dinner Plans

2011-04-23T09:25:00.002-05:00

I'm trying to put together a gourmet meal for my friends who are coming over tomorrow. I considered making rabbit but thought it was not quite appropriate for Easter. But I am tempted. Anyway, here is the menu I have come up with. I'll try to update with pictures as I go along but I may be awfully busy.

Atipasto Platter: a variety of artisan cheeses and charcuterie with homemade olive bread, crackers and other small bites. I will add some boiled quail eggs in honor of Easter.

Scallops with saffron cream sauce: These will be toped with a bit of masago fish roe.

Black sesame crusted tuna: This will be seared rare, served on top of a mango plank and garnished with edamame, pickled green mango cubes and some crushed wasabi peas.

Rhubarb sorbet

Lamb ravioli with a rosemary cream sauce: The filling will be made with ground lamb and parmigiano reggiano cheese.

Tenderloin Filet with shitake red wine reduction: Served on top of a pan-fried polenta round, the tenderloin will be seared and served with a reduction of red wine, beef stock and shitake mushrooms. This will be garnished with asparagus spears.

Chipotle chocolate panna cotta with cinnamon whipped cream

Chicken and polenta

2011-02-18T07:39:00.004-06:00

This dish turned out so much better than I expected. The hormone-free chicken was pan seared with just a bit of salt and pepper until nicely browned and crispy. Meanwhile the polenta was prepared by sweating out onions and garlic in a pan. Four cups of chicken stock went into that and a cup of coarse corn meal was whisked in once it reached the boiling point. This was cooked with frequent stirring for about 40 minutes until it was smooth and thick. The sauce was made in the pan that was used for the chicken. After the chicken was browned and set aside, chopped garlic and onions were added to the pan followed a minute later by sliced mushrooms. These were sautéd until softened and the pan, with all those wonderful chicken drippings, was deglazed with a half cup or so of white wine. The juice of one lemon was added. The sauce was reduced for a few minutes and then mounted with a pat of butter to give it a rich texture. The chicken was plated on top of a bed of the polenta and the sauce was spooned over it.

Basil Pappardelle with Lamb Ragu

2010-09-19T20:42:00.003-05:00

Dinner fell in to place so nicely this evening. I picked a bunch of heirloom tomatoes from the garden today - eight different varieties. So I set about to make some tomato sauce. I sautéed some onion and garlic in a pot and added a cup or so of red wine. I cooked it down until the wine was completely evaporated. Into the pot went a bit bowl of the chopped tomatoes along with some thyme, bay leaves and a few handfuls of fresh basil. Salt and pepper were added to taste. This was cooked down for about an hour and then strained through a food mill. The tomato sauce was added back to the pot and cooked down for another hour and a half until the sauce was thick, sweet and delicious.

I was trying to come up with something to make with the sauce when I spied a package of ground lamb in the freezer. Aha! Lamb ragu! I just need some pasta to go with it. Why not make some fresh pasta tonight? So I did. This is a simple pasta dough. I just threw 1 cup of semolina, 1 cup of all purpose flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp of olive oil, 1 egg and about a half cup of water into my food processor. I wanted to flavor it up and give it a nice color so I threw in a large handful of basil leaves as well. The dough was kneaded in the processor for a few minutes and then for a minute or two by hand. This was wrapped in plastic and allowed to rest for 30 minutes. I rolled out the pasta into sheets using my pasta roller and then cut wide pappardelle noodles using my pizza cutter.

Here you can see the fresh pasta being gently simmered in a pot of hot water. Some of the green color disappeared on cooking but a subtle basil flavor remained in the pasta.

The ragu was made with some finely chopped carrots, onions and garlic in the sauté pan. The lamb was added and cooked through. The pan was deglazed with a half cup of red wine. The meat mixture was flavored with some corriander seed and dried and fresh rosemary. The tomato sauce was added and the mixture was simmered for about 40 minutes.

Once the pappardelle were cooked, they were tossed in the pan with some of the ragu to coat the noodles. About 60% of the ragu was removed from the pan prior to adding the noodles.

The pasta was plated up and topped with a good portion of more ragu and some freshly grated parmigiano reggiano.

This dish was SO good. Not a morsel was left!

Blueberries and Arugula?

2010-08-27T08:42:00.003-05:00

I like to mix it up with my morning breakfast smoothies and today I tried something new. It certainly pleases my palate and it might tickle your fancy too. This is a very simple smoothie - 1 cup light soy milk, 1 cup frozen blueberries, 1/2 cup water, 1 scoop of whey protein powder (unflavored) and a handful of fresh arugula. The greens are from my garden and are particularly peppery this time of year as the August sun starts to wane. The drink is remarkably good with a subtle hint of spicy arugula providing an undercurrent to the berries.

Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps

2010-07-04T13:08:00.003-05:00

I made these tasty pork wraps and just have to share it with you all. It is really easy to make and is so delicious. Not only that, it's a nice light and healthy appetizer or meal.

For the pork filling I combined 1 pound of ground pork, half of a red onion, finely chopped, two Thai chilis, finely chopped, a couple tbsp of toasted sesame oil, a couple tbsp of rice vinegar, a couple tbsp of soy sauce and some black pepper. If I had some green onions, those would have gone in too. Oh, I also added a tbsp of minced ginger. This was simply cooked in a sauté pan until cooked through and then served in bibb lettuce leaves.

You can see I accompanied this with some shredded carrots and daikon radish. I also made a cucumber and pickled bamboo shoot salad with a little rice vinegar and mint. I found the pickled bamboo at my local Asian market. They were pickled with some small red chilis which provided more depth of flavor.

A Very Berry Breakfast

2010-07-02T21:04:00.002-05:00

I love smoothies for breakfast. I have one almost every day. It's the perfect thing after a brisk morning run. I have been playing around with different combinations of fruits, vegetables and whey protein. I stumbled on this one which is a winner. This is a Blueberry Mint and Protein smoothie. It's very simple. I used one cup of light Silk soy milk, 1 cup of blueberries, 1 scoop of protein powder and about a dozen fresh mint leaves. The mint and blueberry works so well together. It's refreshing and nutritious. Chock full of wonderful vitamins and antioxidants.

It's About Sprouts

2010-06-29T09:34:00.005-05:00

It seems I've been obsessed with sprouting things lately both in the garden and in the kitchen. I love the typical bean sprouts that you can buy in the grocery but I love even more to eat seeds that have just sprouted. I use them raw in salads or sauté them with all kinds of dishes. On the plate above are some sprouted seeds that are just a few days old. From left to right we have sprouted green peas, sprouted mung beans and sprouted brown lentils. As they get bigger they grow shoots and will grow their first leaves. I simply soak the dried seeds overnight, drain and then rinse them two to three times a day.

I used these sprouts to make an egg white scramble recently.

I cooked the sprouts with some shredded carrots, a thai chili and some dried chipotle pepper for a bit of smokiness.

After a few minutes in the hot pan I added beaten egg whites and scrambled them all up together. It was a wonderful quick and easy dinner.

You can sprout all kinds of things including many grains. In addition to those depicted above, I also love to sprout radish and kamut.

Four Courses

2010-06-26T15:44:00.005-05:00

I was inspired reading food blogs to make a light and healthy multi-course dinner that would please the palate but not pack on the pounds. I think I succeeded.

First up: Tomato and Rhubarb Salad with Taragon

This salad exceeded all my expectations. For two servings I used one half of a tomato, chopped, and two thin stalks of celery. To this was added a couple tablespoons of fresh French tarragon - the kind that has that nice anisey bite to it. A couple tablespoons of olive oil, a splash of rice vinegar, a sprinkle of sugar, salt and pepper and that was all it took to create this salad. I served it on a bed of shredded romaine lettuce. The tarragon married beautifully with the tomato and rhubarb.

Second course: Eggplant and Tomato over Shiratake Tofu Noodles

I have fallen in love with Shiratake noodles. They are made from soybeans, have very low carbs and essentially no calories (20 per serving). I took one Asian eggplant and the other half of that tomato and stewed it up with salt, pepper and garlic. I added a splash of balsamic vinegar and finished the dish with fresh oregano.

Third course: Chicken and Herb Sausage with Sprouted Peas and Carrots

I have been experimenting with sprouts lately. One of the things I have discovered are the dried green and yellow whole peas from my local Indian market sprout beautifully. I just soak them overnight in water, drain them and then rinse the peas two or three times a day. After a few days the start to show their roots. I love them at this stage. They are not quite as sweet as a fresh pea but not as starchy as the dried peas. They are alive and the starches are being acted upon by enzymes to convert the starch to the plants food, sugar. They cook up nicely. This dish was a simple sauté of the peas, carrots and sausage. What really made the dish was the addition of dried chipotle pepper. It provided a wonderful spicy smokiness that tied it all together.

Last but not least: Spicy Garlic Shrimp and Soba

I just threw together some shrimp, garlic, commercial chili flakes in oil, salt and pepper and flash sautéed them. Just as the shrimp were about done I threw in cooked soba noodles and tossed them all together in the pan. YUMMY!

Hope you enjoyed this. You CAN make great tasting food without the fat and calories.

Eggplant Curry with Tilapia and Shrimp

2010-05-10T19:53:00.004-05:00

Hello dear cooking blog. I have to tell you about an experiment I made tonight that turned out pretty darn good. Oh, certainly there are ways to make this even better and some of them would up the calories and fat, but this was quite satisfying.

You may know that I am trying to cook light and healthy and take off some of this winter blubber. It is possible to cook healthy but still have tons of flavor. I stopped by my local Asian grocery on the way home from work and happened to find some of those small little round purple eggplants. So I grabbed some. All the way home I was trying to figure out how to make a curry without the fat. I came up with this.

For my curry paste, I made a purée of one onion, 6 cloves of garlic, 2 tbsp of ginger and a couple of thai chilis. This was simply thrown into a hot pan along with a tbsp of oil, a tbsp of curry powder, salt and pepper.

I cooked the paste down for about 5-6 minutes with constant stirring until most of the water from the onion had been cooked out and it began to brown a bit. This gives great color and flavor. You want to cook out the raw onion bitterness. This paste will help thicken my sauce. If I had thought ahead, I would have also thrown in a couple of the raw shrimp into the purée. This would have added another level of flavor to the overall dish. This is a great trick to do in dishes where you want the flavor of ingredients that you really don't want to stew for a long time.

Once the paste was cooked out I added a cup of water and 6 small eggplants cut into quarters.

The eggplant and sauce mixture was cooked covered for about 15 minutes until the eggplant became very tender and the sauce thickened a bit. About 3 oz of tilapia and 4 oz of peeled raw shrimp were added to the pan. This was covered and cooked for just a few minutes until the seafood was cooked through.

I think the dish turned out great. You could make this even better if instead of water added to the cooked paste you added a can of coconut milk! I thought about it but I didn't want the added fat tonight. That would take this dish over the top! If I do this again I would also add some fresh curry leaves when I throw in the eggplant and finish it off with some fresh cilantro leaves and a squeeze of lime. Oh, some Thai basil would be a great last minute addition too.

Wasabi Sesame-Crusted Tuna

2010-03-28T20:09:00.003-05:00

Here's a quick dish I threw together. It's easy and so tasty. I marinated two 8 oz tuna steaks with a marinade made of a few tablespoons of soy sauce, a teaspoon of sesame oil and a teaspoon of prepared wasabi paste. The fish was marinated for 15 minutes. I pressed the tuna steaks into a bowl of sesame seeds and pan seared it for about 2 minutes on a side in a bit of olive oil. It was tasty and delicious! I served it with quinoa and green beans.

Chicken Satay

2010-01-15T08:00:00.002-06:00

Finally we come to the end of our New Year's Eve feast. We'll finish in Thailand with some chicken satay. I marinated some thinly sliced chicken breast in yogurt seasoned with curry powder, turmeric, garlic and ginger for about 5 hours. The chicken was skewered and cooked in my grill pan. I served it with a Thai peanut sauce made from creamy peanut butter, soy, sesame oil, sriracha chili oil, rice vinegar, a pinch of sugar and some water.

Potato Jalapeño Poppers

2010-01-14T08:00:00.004-06:00

Admit it. You love those fried jalapeño poppers you get at your local sports bar battered, fried and oozing with cheese. I didn't make those for New Year's Eve. Instead I created a potato bite spiced with jalapeño peppers. I made a dipping sauce with some yogurt, mayo and a splash of sriracha chili sauce.

How did I make them? Well, it all started with six large potatoes. I used yukon gold potatoes and boiled them just until fork tender. I didn't want them too soft. I let them cool and then passed them through my ricer. These went into the fridge to be well chilled. When it came time to make the poppers I mixed in some finely diced jalapeño peppers, salt, pepper, a couple of beaten eggs and a couple tablespoons of flour. The mixture was rolled into 1 inch balls, coated with bread crumbs and deep fried in hot oil (375 F) until golden brown.

Curried Chicken Salad

2010-01-13T08:00:00.003-06:00

Chicken salad spiced with Indian flavors were a hit on New Year's Eve. I started by poaching some boneless skinless chicken breasts in salted water just until cooked. This was diced up with some celery and carrots. Walnuts and dried cranberries were added. I made a homemade curry powder with cumin, coriander, turmeric, chili powder, asafoetida and salt. This with a little bit of mayo was the dressing. I served it in bite-sized portions wrapped with romaine lettuce leaves.

Cheese and Crackers

2010-01-12T08:00:00.002-06:00

You can't have a New Year's Eve party without cheese and crackers. No easy cheese on ritz crackers here. I found some very nice cheeses from my local market and paired them with some not so plain crackers. My favorites were the triple cream St. Andre and the Humboldt Fog.

Garlic Shrimp

2010-01-11T08:00:00.003-06:00

Here's an other classic Spanish tapas that I served on New Year's Eve. It couldn't get simpler. I just heated some olive oil in a pan, added some red pepper flakes and lots of chopped garlic. This was cooked for just a few seconds and the shrimp was tossed in. It only takes a couple of minutes of stir frying to cook the shrimp through. Near the end I squeezed a lemon over the shrimp and plated it up. It is important NOT to skimp on the olive oil. Use a good amount so you'll have a little bit of heaven to dip your crusty bread into.

Chipotle Spiced Almonds

2010-01-10T08:00:00.003-06:00

I was in the tapas mood so I made some Spanish inspired dishes for New Year's Eve. These snacks are reminiscent of some Spanish spiced almonds I once had at a tapas bar. These were crazy easy to make. I started by toasting some cumin and coriander seeds. These were ground and mixed with some coarse salt, sugar, paprika and wonderfully smoky chipotle pepper powder. The almonds were baked for 1o minutes in a 400 degree oven then mixed with a bit of olive oil and the spices and roasted for another 10 minutes. See! Easy as spiced almonds!

Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Sushi

2010-01-09T13:58:00.001-06:00

On New Year's Eve I hosted some friends for an evening of appetizers and drinks. Over the next few days I'll be posting some of the items I made throughout that night. I love to celebrate the diversity of cuisines on New Year's Eve so let's go to Asia. Well, sort of. I've never had this particular combination in Japan but my guests really enjoyed this East meets Pacific Northwest sushi roll. I used Korean rice and cooked it with some konbu (kombu - seaweed). The rice was seasoned with rice vinegar and sugar. I used strips of smoked salmon and cream cheese. The combination was fantastic. The flavor of the salmon permeated your mouth and the cheese provided a wonderful creamy texture. I'll definitely make this again.

Fried Rice

2010-01-09T13:07:00.003-06:00

Leftover Christmas ham and leftover rice = a hearty and tasty meal. I made this the day after Christmas but am just getting around to posting it for you all. Fried rice works best with cold day-old rice. It is pretty simple to do. I fired some chilis, garlic and ginger in my wok for a few seconds then added diced onions and carrots. These were fried for a few seconds and diced ham and frozen peas were added. After this had warmed up a bit I added the rice and fried it up with constant stirring until it was heated through. I seasoned it with some sesame oil and soy sauce. Near the end I made a well in the bottom of the wok and fried up a couple of beaten eggs and stirred this all together.

Cranberry Pickle - Indian Style

2009-12-27T15:10:00.004-06:00

Fresh cranberries are abundant in the grocery stores these days. And for me that means spicy flavorful Indian style pickles. I love Indian spices and flavors and really adore the tangy spicy pickled fruits and vegetables that are a staple in India. They don't have cranberries there but if they did I'm sure they would use them for pickles.

My pickle started with a tablespoon of fenugreek, cumin and a teaspoon of mustard seeds. These were dry roasted in a hot pan and then ground up.

Here you can see the ground spices and red chili flakes. I used Korean red chili pepper since that is what I had on hand.

The next step was to coarsely chop the cranberries. A few pulses in the food processor does a wonderful job.
To make the pickle I heated a couple tablespoons of oil in a pan and popped some mustard seeds in the oil. I added a pinch of tumeric and a teaspoon of hing (asafoetida). The oil was allowed to cool and then all the ingredients were mixed with the chopped cranberries. I also added a bit of lemon juice for some added tang. I jarred them up and put them in the fridge. After a few days these will be tasting great.

This pickle looks absolutely gorgeous when mixed with hot steaming rice.

Christmas Eve Coq Au Vin

2009-12-26T08:50:00.003-06:00

Nothing says comfort food better than coq au vin. And no time is better for comfort food than the night before Christmas.

I took one whole chicken and butchered it up into pieces. These were lightly dredged with seasoned flour.

Into the pot I started with some bacon. Once the fat was rendered I tossed in a whole head of garlic.

The garlic was removed and some onions and mushrooms were sautéed in the pot with the bacon fat.

The mushrooms were removed. A bit of olive oil was added to the pot and the chicken pieces were browned on all sides. Then in went a cup of red wine. I used a nice Chianti for this one but a Pinot Noir would be great too. When the pan was deglazed I added two cups of chicken broth and some dried thyme. The chicken was stewed for about 15 minutes and then the bacon, garlic, mushrooms and onions were added back to the pot. This was stewed for another 15 minutes or so. The gravy was thickened with a bit of butter and flour and everything was served on a bed of mashed potatoes. YUMMY!

Squash Risotto with Chicken Sausage

2009-11-15T19:19:00.002-06:00

Hello dear cooking blog. Please accept my apologies for being away for so long. But I am back and I thought this dish would help make up for my long absence. I just love a nice savory stick to your ribs risotto. While I was rummaging through the fridge looking for something to throw together for dinner I spied some leftover roasted squash. I am growing weary of the typical squash soup and thought maybe I could incorporate this into some risotto. Yes! I still have some decent fresh sage in the garden - a perfect match with squash. And for some protein I have these delicious chicken sausage with asiago cheese and spinach in the freezer. Perfect!

I made a chicken broth with water and some Korean chicken dashi powder. Not quite homemade but it will do in a pinch for this dish. Altogether it was about 7 cups of broth. I chopped up a medium onion and sauteed it in a hot pan with olive oil. Once they were softened I added about 2.5 cups of Korean rice. I use this rice for everything. It has a fair amount of starch which lends itself well to risotto if you don't rinse it. I tossed in the rice, some chopped garlic and some sliced fresh sage. I started slowly adding the broth with stirring over the next 15 minutes. I added some frozen peas for a touch of sweetness and color and added a pound of the chicken sausage. Cooking was continued for another 5 minutes or so until the rice was the perfect texture - not too soft and not to crunchy. It was nicely savory and really filling

Zucchini Kimchee and Fried Rice

2009-08-12T07:57:00.008-05:00

If you have a vegetable garden you know what this time of year is. Yes, zucchini overload! Now, there are tons of recipes out there for zucchini that are terrific. But I thought, why not do something a little bit different? I love Korean food and kimchee in particular. So, why not try using this wonderful summer squash in a spicy Korean relish? I looked around and there are few examples out there of zucchini kimchi but I do know that in Korea they make spicy pickles from all kinds of vegetables including summer squashes. What can be wrong with fresh vegetables, garlic, ginger and spicy red pepper? Nothing! I am happy to say my little experiment worked.

I started with about 4 cups of zucchini sliced into 1/4 inch rounds. If the zucchini was too big around I split it into smaller pieces before slicing. The zucchini was sprinkled liberally with salt and left to stand for about an hour after which I rinsed the squash and drained it well. To make the kimchee sauce I used about 1/2 cup of Korean red pepper flakes 8 large cloves of garlic, 1 inch of ginger, minced, a tbps of sugar and about 2 tbsp of fish sauce. Green onions would have been best but I didn't have any so I slivered up about one half of a large yellow onion into this as well. The pepper mixture was mixed well with the squash and it was placed in a jar to ferment for about 24 hours. I put it in the fridge after one day. This kimchee is not sour at all and I think I like it best freshly made. I used an Italian Costa Romanesca variety of squash that is my favorite. It has a great mild flavor when raw that matches well with the kimchee.

One of the things I like to do with kimchee is to make kimchi fried rice. I had this for breakfast this morning. I just sautéed some of the kimchee in a bit of sesame oil, added some pieces of cooked chicken meat and then fried some leftover white rice with the whole mix. A breakfast only an Asian (and I) could love.

Chicken sausage with peppers and cannellini beans

2009-07-13T20:21:00.006-05:00

When I moved from California to the Fargo-Moorhead area way back in 1996 there was a great little Italian restaurant in Dilworth, MN that I used to frequent. It was called Paisano's, had a nondescript decor and was situated in, of all places, a Howard Johnson's motel. Although the casual atmosphere was nothing to write home about they had a dish on their menu that was absolutely scrumptious. It was a chicken dish served with peppers, sausage with a tangy bean sauce. If I recall correctly it was called country chicken and peppers but I may be mistaken. Sadly, Paisano's closed many years ago but I still remember this hearty delicious dish.

Inspired by the Paisano's dish I created a chicken sausage and peppers meal with cannellini beans. It is lighter than the meal from the restaurant as that one was swimming in butter.

Ingredients:

2-4 chicken sausages (I used 2)

1 red bell pepper, 1 green bell pepper, 1 yellow bell pepper chopped

4-5 chopped pepperoncini peppers

1 medium onion chopped

1 medium carrot chopped

8 cloves garlic, more or less to taste

1 19 oz can of cannellini beans with liquid

juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp dried oregano

2 tbsp fresh tarragon

salt and pepper to taste

I started this dish by sautéing the carrots and onions in a little olive oil, salt and pepper for about five minutes, just until tender. The dried oregano was added at this point. I then added the garlic and peppers to the pan and cooked them down for another few minutes. Next I added the chicken sausage and the beans with their juice along with the fresh tarragon. The pan was covered and this was simmered for 4-5 minutes until everything was heated through and the flavors were married. The lemon juice was added at the end of cooking and everything stirred together well.

I ate this dish as is but it would be terrific with some good crusty country Italian bread.

Coffee Roasting at Home

2009-07-12T10:14:00.004-05:00

There is nothing better than the smell of fresh roasted coffee except, perhaps, the smell of freshly brewed fresh roasted coffee. Some may call me a coffee snob but after roasting my own coffee beans at home for the last three years I have a hard time quaffing any other sludge that comes from beans that were roasted more than a few days before. Ground coffee from a can? I'd rather have instant. Even the whole bean coffee from the grocery store tastes like cardboard to me. You see, coffee is very much like wine. There is a great range of flavors and profiles depending on where it was grown, how it was harvested, the soil, the climate and finally how it was roasted. If you truly want to explore the subtle nuances of coffees you need to roast it yourself. Coffee flavors peak about 48 hours after roasting and then go on a decline - a much shorter lifespan than wine.

So, how does one roast their own coffee? There are several home coffee roasters on the market either using a hot air method (like a hot air popcorn popper) or a heated drum. The air roasters are the least expensive and can roast enough beans for a couple of pots of coffee. The least expensive is the FreshRoast Plus. It is simple enough but does not give you good control over the roast levels and it is easy to burn the coffee. You can find several places selling it for about $90 by doing a little bit of searching on Google. A step up from the FreshRoast is the i-Roast. It is also an air roaster but with a better design and it can roast up to a cup of green coffee beans. That is the one I have used for most of the last few years. It will set you back about $180 but it is worth it.

I finally moved to the next level - a drum roaster and I couldn't be happier. The HotTop coffee roaster is the cadillac of home roasters. It has much better control of the roasting as you can specifically set the temperature and time of the roasting. This one should last me for years.

Raw coffee beans, so called "green beans" are generally cheaper than roasted beans and are much better quality. I usually order my beans from a place called Sweet Maria's who go around the world sourcing small crop coffee. They have wonderful tasting notes and information on optimal roasting levels. You can find many other sources for green beans by doing a little searching.

Here are some beans in the roaster. It has started its preheat cycle.

The temperature is rising and you can see the green color of the beans turning over into a tan and eventually brown color.

The HotTop will automatically spill the beans out into the cooling tray when the desired temperature is reached. These beans were roasted to a "Full City" roast which is just before they become very dark and shiny from extruded oils.

Spicy Watermelon Soup

2009-07-04T14:00:00.004-05:00

At a friends house several years ago I had a soup that just knocked my socks off. It was orange in color and the flavor was interestingly savory with a kick of heat. We all had fun trying to figure out what the base of the soup was. When my host revealed to us that it was made from watermelon I was blown away. I couldn't imagine that watermelon could make such an interesting savory soup. I am having some friends over for a 4th of July cookout tonight and I thought I would make this soup or at least a variation on the theme. Searching the web I found just the recipe that my friend used over on the Epicurious web site. You can see it here. I did make a few changes to that recipe but what turned out was a wonderfully delicious and refreshing soup.

Ingredients:

~6 cups of chopped seeded watermelon

Zest and juice from two limes

3 tbsp of caramelized onions (I had them prepared for burgers later)

2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger

2 tbsp chopped garlic

1 tsp Thai hot and sour soup paste

2 Jalapeño chilis, seeded

Salt and pepper to taste

The watermelon was puréed in a blender until smooth. A heavy bottomed pot was heated and a bit of olive oil was added. Into the pot was added the chopped garlic, chopped ginger and the soup paste. This was sautéed for about 30 seconds until the aromas were rising from the pan. The lime zest was added and about 1/3 of the watermelon purée was poured into the pot. The mixture was heated to a simmer and cooked for about 5 minutes. Salt and pepper was added to taste. The hot soup was placed into a blender with the chopped peppers and lime juice. This was blended and the rest of the watermelon was added. After blending until smooth the soup was strained through a fine strainer.

The combination of cooked and fresh watermelon marry perfectly in this dish. The heat comes through and the Thai soup paste gives another dimension to the flavor profile. I added the soup paste in part because I did not have lemongrass on hand and that is one of the ingredients in the paste. I absolutely adore the bright orange color that cooked watermelon takes on. This could be served warm but I plan to serve it cold. Either way it is delicious.

Kicked up pizza bianca

2009-06-28T19:48:00.003-05:00

I had a hankering fro some chewy bread like substance tonight so I whipped up some of my 5-minute bread dough using 2 cups whole wheat flour and 4.5 cups of all purpose flour. I was thinking of the Roman pizza bianca which is typically a simple flatbread made with a high hydration dough topped with olive oil, salt and rosemary. I added a few other ingredients to this no-cheese pizza. The dough rose for about 3 hours before I took a hunk of it and stretched it out into a square. I doused the dough liberally with olive oil and topped it with sliced garlic, fresh rosemary, fresh tomatoes and arugula leaves. The whole shebang was sprinkled with kosher salt and baked in a hot hot oven until crisp and bubbly. It really hit the spot.

W. C. Burger

2009-06-12T17:20:00.004-05:00

Greetings my poor neglected food blog. It has been a while since I've posted. Yes, life gets in the way sometimes. But I'm traveling in Colorado now and just had to share this burger that I found at the Whistler's Cafe in Nederland, CO. This is a charming old mining town just west of Boulder at the end of Boulder Canyon Drive. The views were spectacular and this burger was great. It starts with a bacon cheddar cheese burger kicked up with jalapeños and cream cheese served on a toasted bagel. It sure hit the spot for a very nice brunch at 8300 feet.

DS Cooks Grilled T-Bone Steaks

2009-04-17T15:56:00.002-05:00

My son is 11 and I'm very happy that he has enjoyed his FACS class at school. FACS (Family and Consumer Science) is modern vernacular for what I used to know as Home Economics. Anyway, in his class he has been learning about food and nutrition and they were assigned to make dinner for their families and report back about it. Well, I'm delighted to see that DS is picking up some of my love for grilling. We planned out a meal consisting of grilled T-bone steak (medium rare), grilled sweet potato, grilled potato wedges, grilled onions and grilled asparagus. He made a terrific meal (with only a little bit of help).

He learned the wonderful joys of cutting onions!

In addition to the grilled foods mentioned above DS wanted to make a special appetizer. I think it was quite creative, myself.

The veggies came out GREAT.

And the steaks! Yummy.

I think I'll let him cook more often.

Morning Medley

2009-04-09T08:08:00.002-05:00

The sun is shining and work is calling. I made a quick and healthy breakfast before I headed out the door this morning. I love to flash sauté vegetables and then cook them with eggs. This has fresh asparagus and canned garbanzo beans in it. I added just a tiny hint of an Indian hot lime pickle for some depth of flavor. The eggs were scrambled with the vegetables. I used one whole egg and three egg whites to cut down the fat of the yolk. Sometime I just use all whites but I find a little bit of yolk makes for a more satisfying egg dish that is less watery and rubbery. It was SO good. Now I'm off to work.

Country Style Pork Ribs

2009-04-04T08:55:00.004-05:00

Nothing says lovin' like slow cooked, dry rubbed, country style pork ribs. I started with these thick cut bone-in country ribs.

I made a dry rub with freshly ground cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, red chili powder, brown sugar, salt and pepper.

These were rubbed into the meat and the ribs were placed in a zip lock bag and allowed to sit for about four hours in the fridge.

Meanwhile, I made some skillet corn bread. I followed this recipe from Cookworm but I left out the herbs. It is a nice recipe. Not too sweet and the yogurt adds a nice acidity to the bread. I did use skim milk and nonfat yogurt but I didn't skimp on the butter.

I "smoked" the ribs in the oven. I placed a rack on a sheet pan and placed the ribs on top of the rack. Into the pan I poured some liquid smoke and wrapped the whole thing in foil. I thought the smoke aromas would rise up and flavor the meat and I was right. The ribs had a wonderful delicate smoky flavor. I cooked them covered at 375 F for two hours and then removed the foil and crisped up the ribs at 400 F for another 30 minutes. The meat was falling off the bone delicious. I didn't cook any bbq sauce onto the ribs but I did dip the meat in some on the plate. With a side of cornbread and coleslaw, this rib dinner sure was satisfying.

Not your typical Pot Roast

2009-03-31T08:23:00.003-05:00

Here I sit in Fargo, North Dakota. We've been all over the news lately for our record flooding. We are winning the battle against the water. The river is coming down. Unfortunately, so is about two feet of new snow. Yes, once again, we are socked in with a blizzard. Sometimes I think I want to just go to sleep and wake up in 2010. But the high water and blizzard just make us work harder up here in Fargo. As much as I yearn for spring (and I saw my tulips coming up a week ago) I am slapped by mother nature again reminding me that she still thinks it's winter.

Since I can't get out and the sandbagging has ceased (for now) I made a slow cooked pot roast. But this isn't your typical pot roast. I loaded this one up with strong Asian flavors and served it with rice. It all started with this grass-fed rump roast from a local farmer.

I love to slow cook meats in my Turkish clay pot. I really appreciate my dear friend who gave this pot to me. It has been used a lot.

I made a sauce from strongly flavored Asian ingredients. Of course I didn't measure anything but let me try to approximate it for you. Into a blender I put in 6 garlic cloves, about an inch of fresh ginger, a tbsp of hoisin sauce, 3 tbsp of red miso paste, 2 tbsp of fermented black bean sauce, 1 tbsp srirach hot sauce, 1 tbsp of nuoc mam fish sauce, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tbsp mirin and 2 tbsp of sugar, give or take.

This was all blended up into a thick marinade.

The meat was drowned in the sauce and it was rubbed into every crack and crevice of the roast.

Into my pot I put a large cut up onion and 6 large carrots, cut into large chunks. I plopped the roast onto the vegetables and poured any remaining sauce on top. This was covered and placed in a 250 F oven for about six hours to slowly cook. After the first three hours I basted the roast with the pot juices every hour or so. As you can see from my first picture I served it with the carrots on rice with a side of asparagus.

At least someone is enjoying the snow.

Pizza and high water

2009-03-29T10:28:00.003-05:00

Well it has been a tough week of sandbagging in blizzards and watching the mighty Red River of the North rise. But we still have to eat. Saturday we got some good news. The river was starting to go down. We may have reached our crest just under 41 feet which is a foot or two less than they predicted. While many people have already lost so much in the rising waters much of the city of Fargo is holding on by a thread. I had a little time on Saturday to make some pizza. The first is a pesto pizza with summer sausage, olives and asparagus. The second one you see is a pepperoni pizza with asparagus.

This morning I was interviewed by Susan Hendricks from CNN's Headline News about the flooding in Fargo. I posted some of my photos to CNN's iReport and they wanted to talk to me. Here's the video.

I have some new photos of the river and dikes as the river reaches it's crest near 41 feet.

The taste of sand

2009-03-27T07:46:00.002-05:00

As the Red River of the North reaches biblical proportions I have not had time to do any cooking. Instead I have been sandbagging for the last week. Even with temperatures as low as 10 degrees and blizzard like conditions, we will win this fight against the rising waters. Please be reassured that I am being well fueled by lots of kind folks bringing food and hot coffee to the front lines. I'll be back in my kitchen as soon as I can.

Cross your fingers and wish us luck. It all comes down to NOW.

chicken wrapped asparagus with lemon sauce

2009-03-22T21:53:00.001-05:00

Dinner tonight turned out much better than I imagined. I was thinking about how to use chicken and asparagus and I came up with this concoction.

I started with two boneless, skinless chicken breasts that I pounded flat. I seasoned the inside of the chicken with salt, pepper, pureed garlic and the zest of a lemon. I added about 6 asparagus spears and rolled the whole thing up.

The chicken rolls were seared in a hot pan to give it some golden brown color.

After searing for about 4 or 5 minutes on each side I added a can of chicken broth to the pan. The chicken was covered and cooked on low heat for about 10 minutes until the chicken was fully cooked through. I then added the juice of one lemon and some corn starch paste (1 tbsp corn starch mixed with cold water). This was cooked until the sauce was thickened. I plated the chicken with white rice and topped everything with the delicious lemony chicken sauce. It was very very good.

Blueberry ovaltine and peanut butter protein smoothie

2009-03-22T13:23:00.003-05:00

After a good long Sunday run I usually refuel with my favorite smoothie and after a brisk 8 miles this morning I needed some superfood. Blueberries are absolutely packed with antioxidants and healthy vitamins.

Here's my recipe for my super delicious super power smoothie.

1 cup skim milk

1 cup frozen blueberries softened in the microwave for 1 minute

1.5 scoops of non-flavored whey protein powder

2 tbsp ovaltine chocolate drink mix

1 tbsp natural creamy peanut butter

That's it! Blend until smooth and serve in your favorite Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville glass!

Cellophane noodle salad with Thai peanut sauce

2009-03-21T20:43:00.003-05:00

This noodle salad was perfect to take to a party this evening. Inspired by Thai cuisine, this dish used Korean mung bean cellophane noodles. These are usually used in the Korean dish called chop chae but instead I made a Thai style salad. I cooked the noodles until tender and cooled them under running cold water. The salad contained grated carrot, cucumber and green onions. The Thai peanut dressing was made from 3 tbsp natural creamy peanut butter, 2 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tbsp fish sauce, 4 cloves garlic, and 1 Thai chili pepper. The sauce was pureed in the blender until good and smooth. This was tossed with the noodles and vegetables. It was quite a hit at the party!

Capitol Eats

2009-03-18T15:43:00.003-05:00

Today I spent on Capitol Hill. Yes, I'm in Washington, DC this week. Hence the slowdown in my cooking posts. My wonderful Congressman Pomeroy's office arranged for special tours of the Capitol and the spectacularly beautiful Library of Congress for us. It was a great day. The photo shown below was taken from Pomeroy's office window in the Longforth House Office Building. But I digress. This is a blog about food and cooking. For lunch we made our way underground to the maze of tunnels between the office buildings and the Capitol to the cafeteria where the nation's leaders often take a break to dine. I had a really good (and cheap) Asian Beef Wrap. It was chock full of thinly sliced meat, napa cabbage slaw, mangos, roasted red peppers and a ginger dressing. It really hit the spot. Oh, it's a gorgeous sunny and warm day today in DC!

More Pizza

2009-03-15T17:00:00.000-05:00

What pizza did we have last Friday? A darn good one. The pie shown above has a standard pizza sauce base topped with diced summer sausage, chopped garlic-stuffed green olives, and sliced pepperoncini peppers. On top of the cheese was some pepperoni slices.

How about something completely different? How about a cheeseless Asian-style pizza. I used hoisin sauce as the base along with some sriracha hot sauce. This proved a sweet and spicy underlay for the ingredients on top. A layer of fresh mung bean sprouts, some sliced leftover Asian meatballs, and fresh pineapple finished off this healthy lowfat pizza.

See how nice it cooked up? The only drawback was the amount of moisture in the pizza. I think that comes largely from the bean sprouts and maybe the pineapple. It was a little bit drippy and hard to eat. But it tasted really good.

Meatballs with an Asian influence

2009-03-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

No, it's not spaghetti and meatballs with a tomato sauce. It's better! This dish has flavors of Vietname and Thailand. The noodles are Japanese udon noodles. I love their silky texture. The meatballs were made using sirloin roast and pork loin ground together with garlic and green onions. The meat was seasoned with some soy sauce as well and bound together with an egg and bread crumbs. The meatballs were cooked on a sheet pan in a 375 oven just until cooked through. I had plenty leftover that I used for a pizza. I'll post more on that tomorrow.

To create the sauce, I started with garlic and ginger in a hot wok and stir fried some finely julienned carrots. To the pan I added a teaspoon of Vietnamese sour soup paste. This is a blend of spices that gives a tangy kick to the dish. More soy sauce went in along with some milk that had a little bit of corn starch stirred in for thickening. To give it a bit of Thai nuance, I added a tablespoon of creamy peanut butter. Yes, this is a spicy, tangy peanut sauce. I added enough water to keep it liquid as it cooked. I added the cooked meatballs to the sauce and simmered them for a few minutes. Meanwhile my udon was boiling. Once it was cooked to almost done I threw the noodles into the sauce and cooked them for another minute or two and coated everything with the sauce. I finished it off with some lemon juice at the last minute to give it even more tang.

Empanadas Argentinas

2009-03-14T16:35:00.002-05:00

I'm heading out to a wine tasting this evening where we will be sampling some torrontés and malbec wines from Argentina. So I threw together this appetizer to take along. Searching the web I found a really nice recipe from the Cooking with Teresita blog for empanadas. I pretty much followed the recipe on her web page so I won't repeat it here.

I started by cooking the onions and meat together. Then cooked the spices in. I allowed that to cool and added chopped green onion, chopped boiled egg and chopped green olives.

I didn't have the time to make a dough so I went to my freezer and pulled out a package of pot sticker wraps. These were perfect for making appetizer sized empanadas.

Here they are all stuffed and sealed. I brushed them liberally with olive oil and baked them in a 350 °F oven for 35 minutes, until the turned golden brown.

Ah, the smell is heavenly. I can't wait to bite into them.

Good old midwestern chili to cure the blizzard blues

2009-03-14T08:26:00.004-05:00

Last Tuesday was quite the day for our region. After receiving 5 inches of new snow on Monday, Mother Nature decided to wallop us with a full out, horizontal snow, 30 below zero, batten down the hatches blizzard. Now, I love a good blizzard - in December or January. But it's March! It's time for all of this snow to melt! The whole region was shut down and we had to deal with another almost foot of snow that had been blown up into huge drifts aftermath.

What better on a cold ~~spring~~ winter's day than a big steaming bowl of midwestern ~~hamburger soup~~ chili. Mine is pretty typical but I do like to add a few things that make it a bit more interesting. I started with ground beef and onions, of course. But I added chopped carrots as well. I use more than just kidney beans if I have them on hand. In this chili you might see some garbanzo beans in there as well as some black eyed peas. I like corn in my chili. Frozen corn tastes fresher than canned corn. For spices I don't just reach for chili powder. I make my own mix. I ground my own blend in my trusty ~~coffee~~ spice grinder made from cumin seeds, coriander seeds, red chili flakes, a touch of oregano and, the secret ingredient, a cinnamon stick. This blend of spices went in near the beginning just after the meat was browned. Some canned crushed tomato and tomato sauce were added and the whole thing simmered up until good and cooked. I added a splash of sriracha hot sauce near the end. That's at least one version of my midwestern chili.

Hummus

2009-03-13T05:00:00.002-05:00

This middle eastern garbanzo bean dip goes great with fresh made pita bread. And, it is so easy to make. I start with two cans of drained garbanzo beans. You can certainly cook them yourself but a can is so easy. I add a couple of cloves of garlic, juice of one lemon, 2 tbsp of tahini, salt and pepper. I place everything into the food processor and turn it on. I drizzle in olive oil until it is the right creamy consistency. You can add some water or some of the water from the bean can of you want to cut down on the amount of fat. This is garnished with kalamata olives and a sprinkle of ground sumac.

Chicken sausage and beans

2009-03-12T05:00:00.000-05:00

I actually made this dish during Mardi Gras week but am only just now getting around to blog about it. It was Cajun inspired and thrown together at the last minute for a quick meal. This has some sliced chicken sausuage, red kidney beans, carrots, onions and garlic. I flavored it with some Old Bay seasoning and red chili powder. Some tomato paste and chicken broth helped create a wonderfully flavorful sauce to cook everything in.

Tofu and eggplant stir fry

2009-03-11T05:00:00.000-05:00

If I may say so, this stir fry was absolutely fantastic! I love the slender Asian eggplant and it was perfect paired with tofu.

Here you can see my pan cubed tofu. I first threw in chopped garlic and ginger into the pan. That was followed by the tofu which I seasoned with a little soy sauce and some of that wonderful chili flakes in oil. You can see what half a teaspoon of it does to color this dish.

I stir fried the tofu on high heat until it was browned on all sides. This was removed from the pan and set aside.

Into the pan, still with the flavored oil from frying the tofu, I added more chopped garlic and ginger, onions and that delicious Asian eggplant.

The eggplant was fried until it began to get tender. The tofu was added back to the dish and it was seasoned with some sesame oil and soy sauce. One last thing I added was a teaspoon of Szechuan black bean and garlic paste. Oh, what a flavor! I was pleased with how the sauce clung to the food and not the pan! I definitely have to make this again.

Chicken and vegetable stir fry

2009-03-10T05:00:00.000-05:00

Another stir fry with chicken breast this time. I flavored it with garlic chili paste and used carrots, bean sprouts and napa cabbage. Perfect over a bowl of sticky Korean rice!

Quick vegetable stir fry

2009-03-09T05:30:00.000-05:00

Hang on to your hats because I'm going to be posting some stir fries over the next couple of days. The are so easy to prepare and with just a few simple ingredients you have a quick and delicious meal. Let's start off with a simple vegetarian stir fry.

I used bok choy, carrots, celery, onions and bean sprouts for this dish. Many times I flavor my stir fries with some red chili flakes in oil from the Asian market. I like the brands from Szechuan. I start with a hot pan and add some oil. I drop in a bit of the chili in oil or sometimes a garlic chili paste along with some chopped garlic and chopped ginger. These vegetables all cook pretty much the same so I tossed them all in together.

I can even toss them! When the vegetables were just starting to wilt I splashed in some soy sauce and rice vinegar for seasoning and that's all! Simple and tasty.

Salmon with red miso

2009-03-08T15:00:00.001-05:00

On the island of Hokkaido, in Japan, they make a simple and tasty salmon dish by flavoring it with miso paste and mirin and cooking it in foil with cabbage and onions. At least I knew a student from Hokkaido who prepared it that way, and it was delicious! My dish is nothing like the tasty original I had before but it does bring back my memories of that succulent fish.

I didn't have any cabbage on hand but I did have plenty of onions. I sliced one up into good sized rings and layed it out on a sheet of heavy foil. I seasoned them with salt and pepper.

I took a whole salmon filet and marinated it with a mixture of red miso paste, mirin (a sweet Japanese cooking wine), a tiny bit of soy sauce and a splash of sesame oil. More onions were placed on top.

The salmon and onions were wrapped up tight in foil and cooked simply on a hot griddle. I cooked it from start to finish in about 20 minutes - until I saw steam coming out of the foil at a good rate and it felt hot all the way around.

Here's what it looked like when I opened it up. I wish it had the same dark color that it had before I cooked it but it was tasty never the less.

Braised Carrot and Daikon with Chicken

2009-03-08T05:00:00.001-05:00

Brimming with Asian fusion flavors, this braised vegetable and chicken dish certainly warms things up on a cold winter's day. I was looking for a hearty stew-like dish to accompany some cooked barley and bulgar wheat. While foraging around in my fridge I found some boneless skinless chicken breast, carrots and a big fresh daikon radish. Sweet vegetables require a savory, sweet and flavorful sauce. I knew I wanted to do a braise and let the root vegetables get nice and tender sweet. The only question that remained was how to season the dish.

I opened up my cupboard of Asian goods and found some of this fish flavored dashi powder. This is like Korean bullion but made with fish, not beef or chicken. That provided a nice undercurrent of flavor.

I also spied my bag of dried Chinese goji berries. These would make a nice addition to the dish as they would provide a bit of fruity sweetness to go along with the carrots. And I love the color.

I started with the dashi powder and goji berries in a large pan.

I cut some carrots and daikon into large cubes.

These were added to the pan with some water, mirin and soy sauce. This was cooked, covered, for about 20 minutes until the liquid reduced down and the vegetables were beginning to brown and caramelize.

I added some water back ot the pan to make a sauce and threw in some cubed chicken. This was covered and cooked for about 10 minutes until the chicken was cooked through and all the flavors were married together.

Daikon Kimchee

2009-03-07T14:58:00.005-06:00

Kimchee is a Korean staple and I really love the crunch of the vegetables and the sweet spice of the Korean red chili. Quite some time ago I posted a kimchee tutorial for making the classic fermented napa cabbage. There are many kinds of kimchee in Korea and daikon is another favorite vegetable for pickling in this way. I really enjoy the Korean daikon, which is more round and shorter than the typical daikon you find in most grocery stores. But you can use either for this dish. I actually used one large regular long daikon to make a batch. Two Korean bulbs would be about the same amount.

The process I used to make this is similar to the cabbage variant. I diced the radish, salted it and let it sit for about an hour. After a good rinsing the diakon was tossed with one bunch of green onions, sliced; 5 cloves of garlic, chopped, 1 inch of fresh ginger, minced; about half a cup of Korean red chili flakes, and about a tablespoon of nuöc mam fish sauce. I prefer the Three Crabs brand. You don't want to know how this is made! But it isn't kimchee without some fermented fish. Traditionally, kimchee is prepared with chopped fish or fermented shrimp. This sauce makes it much easier to add that hint of fish. I also added a pinch of sugar. Mix everything well and let it sit out for at least a day then store it in the fridge. Unlike the napa cabbage kimchee, which I like well fermented and sour, I prefer my diakon kimchee fresh and sweet.

Friday Pizza

2009-03-07T13:46:00.005-06:00

Friday's are Pizza Night in our house. My son has been a just cheese please pizza guy until just recently. He's now branched out to eating pepperoni. Small steps. Some day I hope he will eat my more robust pies. I've been making a lot lately due to having my 5 minute bread dough constantly in the fridge. Like last night's pizza shown above. This one has a tomato sauce topped with leftover ground beef from tacos, chopped green olives, fresh mushrooms, roasted red peppers and finally sliced cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes were SO sweet when cooked on top of the cheese.

Let me share some of my other recent pizza creations. I have a bit of summer stored in my freezer in the form of delicious homemade pesto. Perfect for pizza! No tomato sauce on this one.

A bit of ham, kalamata lives and roasted red peppers make for toppings that are nice and flavorful.

Look at how nice it cooks up on my oven tiles!

The pizza that follows had a combination of pesto and tomato sauce. A bit of roasted red peppers and topped with pepperoni, this Friday night feast really pleased.

Mediterranean Meditation - Greek Salad

2009-02-23T19:26:00.002-06:00

In the middle of winter when the temperatures are hovering near 0 °F a little bit of Mediterranean can make a salad appetizing. Hence the inspiration for my Greek salad with tuna. Glistening with a lemon/olive oil dressing, this salad really hit the spot tonight.

On the bottom is a bed of chopped romaine lettuce. This was seasoned with the dressing and some dried oregano. I also mixed some carrots, cucumber and tuna together and dressed that. An onion was sliced into rings and the bite was taken down by soaking for a few minutes in ice water. This also does a great job of crisping up the onions. These were tossed in the dressing and placed on the lettuce. The carrot/tuna mixture was added on top of that. Finally I added feta cheese and kalamata olives. The whole dish was seasoned with some salt, pepper and more dried oregano.

It matched perfectly with a crisp, citrusy New Zealand sauvignon blanc.

Rustic lemon chicken with peppers and butter beans

2009-02-22T11:21:00.005-06:00

We used to have a local Italian restaurant many years ago that would serve a rustic country dish made with sausage and peppers. I remember the wonderful tangy lemony broth that the dish was cooked in and how it mingled with the Italian herbs and the sweetness of peppers. This isn't quite the same but I was inspired by that dish when I made this for dinner the other evening.

My dish was composed of two boneless skinless chicken breast cut into slices; one each of red, yellow and orange sweet bell peppers, sliced; one onion, sliced; six cloves of garlic, chopped; one can of butter beans, drained; dried Italian mixed herbs; juice and zest of two lemons; salt, pepper and a bit of water.

I started by sautéing the seasoned chicken breast in a hot pan with a bit of olive oil.

The onions and peppers were added followed by the garlic and lemon zest a few minutes later. These were cooked until they just started to soften.

I then added the beans along with about a half cup of water. You could add chicken broth or even wine at this point. I put in about half of the lemon juice. The cover was placed on the pan and everything was simmered together for about 5-8 minutes.
After the vegetables were tender I uncovered the pan, added the rest of the lemon juice and cooked it down for a few more minutes to concentrate the liquid to a flavorful broth.

This rustic stew-like chicken was served with a big slice of 5 minute wheat bread to sop up the juices.

Pappardelle with mushroom and eggplant ragu

2009-02-20T06:00:00.007-06:00

I know ragu is traditionally a meat-based sauce but I think these mushrooms are 'meaty' enough to consider this sauce a ragu. Combined with homemade semolina pappardelle, this was a home run hit for dinner. My sauce started with a combination of baby portobello and button mushrooms.

They were halved and sliced.

I also cubed up a whole eggplant for this dish.

Of course you can't have a pasta sauce without garlic and onions!

First the onions and the mushrooms were cooked down until softened and tender. Then the garlic was added to the pan.

The eggplant was combined with the cooked onions and mushrooms.

Everything was sautéed until the eggplant began to soften.

A bit of red wine was added to the pan.

And a can of tomato paste was stirred into the sauce.

The ragu was covered and cooked down until the eggplant dissolved and the sauce was rich and delicious. A little water was added during the cooking to keep the sauce from getting to dry.

Meanwhile, a pasta dough made from all purpose flour, semolina flour and eggs was prepared and rolled out into sheets using my pasta roller.

The pappardelle was cut by hand into wide noodles.

The noodles were boiled until al dente and tossed with the ragu. Finally I topped it off with some parmigiano reggiano.

Soba stir fry

2009-02-19T17:00:00.001-06:00

Can you stand more soba noodles? I can. This time I put them into a stir fry dish. I cooked up some carrots, cauliflower and red, yellow and orange peppers with some garlic and ginger. I quickly boiled the noodles and added it to the stir fry pan. The whole dish was seasoned with soy sauce, a bit of garlic chili sauce and sesame oil.

Broccoli Soup

2009-02-19T07:25:00.003-06:00

Ok, I know it doesn't look like much but it did taste pretty darn good. I started with a hot pan and sautéed an onion and some garlic. Once the onions started to soften but not brown I added a ton of broccoli and covered it with water. All the while I was seasoning with salt and pepper. The broccoli was simmered until tender and then puréed with a little milk using my hand blender until smooth. I added a pat of butter to the soup for some extra creamyness and flavor. Nothing special but a pretty good way to get your veggies.

Cold Soba Noodles

2009-02-18T09:36:00.005-06:00

Soba - そば - Japanese buckwheat noodles

I love cold noodle salads. It doesn't matter what kind of pasta for me. All that matters is that it is flavorful. Japanese cuisine is so amazing in it's complicated simplicity. The Japanese like attention to detail and have a knack for combining just a few flavors with textures so that everything is clean and harmonious. Soba noodles have a subtle earthy buckwheat flavor that you really don't want to completely cover up. So, this noodle salad I made combines a few Asian influences that highlights the buckwheat rather than snuffs it out. It is so easy to prepare and so satisfyingly flavorful.

I boiled the soba just until tender but still slightly al dente. You don't want them soft and soggy. I rinsed them with cold water to chill and let them drain. I mashed up one large clove of garlic finely. I thinly sliced a few green onions. These were mixed with the noodles along with a splash of toasted sesame oil, a splash of soy sauce, a splash of rice vinegar and a few drops of nuoc mam Vietnamese fish sauce. No, I didn't measure anything. I just added what I thought would be enough. You don't want the noodles swimming in dressing. You just want to coat the lightly with these flavorful ingredients. That's it! Plate it up and enjoy. I think the garlic flavors are better if you let the salad chill for a few hours before eating.

Ancho chili chili

2009-02-16T15:18:00.005-06:00

I like chili. I like any kind of chili. I like the Texas chili that is just chilis and beef. I like New Mexico green chilis with pork. I like the midwestern hamburger, beans and tomato soup like substance that we call chili here. Everyone has their favorite. I don't have one. I make it different every time depending on what I am feeling on that day.

So, here I was on a cold day last week looking in my cupboards for some dinner inspiration when I spied a bag of dried ancho chilis. I thought, why not make a midwestern/Texas/whatever chili fusion with ancho?

So, I started with about 10 chilis that were seeded and crumbled up.

I poured some boiling water onto the chilis and left them to soak for a while. For a bit more heat I also added a couple tablespoons of Korean red pepper flakes along with the anchos.

When everything was well hydrated I added about 5 cloves of garlic, salt, pepper and a chopped onion and whirred it up in my blender to make a smooth paste. I added some lemon juice and more water until it was the right sauce like consistency. My blender was almost full to the top.

To season the dish even more I toasted some spices. Here is my favorite mix of cumin seeds, corriander and a few cardamom pods. These were ground up in a coffee grinder.

For the beef I used a round roast and cubed it up into about 3/4 inch cubes.

To make my chili, I started by searing the beef in a hot pan with some salt and pepper for a few minutes, just until it started to get brown on the bottom of the pan. Next went in the ground spices. I then added the chili sauce to the pan and covered it. This was simmered for about three hours until the beef was drop dead tender. To finish the chili I added chopped carrots and a can of kidney beans and cooked it until the carrots were tender.

My chili was served over white steamed rice with a side of 5-minute artisan wheat bread. The ancho flavor was wonderful.

Shabu Shabu at home

2009-02-16T08:00:00.005-06:00

It has been almost a year since I've made shabu shabu at home. Although I did report about a wonderful shabu shabu dinner I had in Japan in December. I actually made this meal a few weeks ago but am just getting around to blogging about it now. Please forgive me for being so late with my offering.

Shabu shabu is traditionally made with beef that is sliced paper thin. The name comes from the sound the beef makes as you swish it back and forth with your chopsticks in a pot of boiling broth. This is a wonderful family meal where everyone gets to share in cooking the meal at the table. My sirloin is not as marbled with fat as is usual for shabu shabu. I have some lean grass fed local beef that is still flavorful but also much healthier for you. Since the beef is only barely cooked, the texture still comes out tender even without the fat.

Shabu shabu also requires that you cook vegetables in the broth after you eat the beef. Here are bean sprouts, enoki mushrooms, shitake mushrooms, carrots, baby bok choy and napa cabbage ready to be cooked.

The table is all set with my nabe pot on the burner.

Before we sat down to eat the shabu shabu I fried up some frozen gyoza and served them with a spicy chili vinegar sauce.

The pot is heating up.

I have been soaking this kombu in the pot of water for a few hours to flavor the broth. This was removed once the pot came up to boiling.

I served two dipping sauces for my shabu shabu tonight. The first has soy, vinegar, green onions and grated daikon radish.

The second sauce is made from sesame paste, soy and vinegar.

We've eaten the meat and now it's time for the veggies.

After you have had your fill of meat and vegetables, the broth that has been flavored even more intensely by all the food being cooked in it is used to prepare noodles. These udon noodles were made from scratch and cut just before cooking.

The udon is cooking nicely.

Yum! Comfort food all the way. Perfect on a cold winter's evening.

Curried Cauliflower and Potato Soup

2009-02-15T17:00:00.005-06:00

It's like aloo gobi in a bowl. This curried cauliflower and potato soup turned out creamy and delicious.

Of course it starts with the spices. Toasting in the pan are cumin, corriander and cardamom.

These were ground up pretty finely into a spice mix.

Also flavoring the soup is some tumeric powder, mustard seeds, hing and (not shown) Madras curry powder.

Onions, garlic, ginger and a couple of medium potatoes (not shown) were cut up to be cooked with the cauliflower.

Here's the big bad boy.

I first started with a hot pan and a couple teaspoons of oil. I added some mustard seeds and cooked them until they popped. First into the pan were the onions. Of course salt and pepper was added to season the dish at every step of the way.

The onions were followed by the garlic and ginger and after being sautéed for a couple of minutes the spices were added.

Next the cauliflower and potatoes.

Water was added to cover the vegetables.

Everything was simmered together until the vegetables were very tender.

A blender stick made quick work of puréeing the mixture.

Potato and Spinach Frittata

2009-02-15T09:53:00.005-06:00

I have not really made a frittata before and I sort of followed this recipe I found for my first one last night which called for adding beer to the mix.

The frittata, of course, starts with potatoes. I sliced about 6 good sized potatoes into 1/4 inch slices using my mandolin. These were tossed with one medium onion, some olive oil, salt and pepper.

This is a good 3 handfuls of baby spinach.

I took a large skillet and cooked the potatoes and onions in olive oil for about 5 or 6 minutes until they just started to get some brown color. Once things were getting to be pretty brown on the bottom of the pan I added about 1/2 of a bottle of a dark cream stout. In hindsight I should have used a light beer as the original recipe called for. The dark stout added just a bit too much bitterness to the dish and the dark color made the eggs in the end look dirty brown. Tasted good but certainly could have looked better.

After the beer was added the potatoes and onions were simmered with stirring every now and then until they were cooked through - about 10 minutes. I added a little water along the way to keep the pan from drying out and scorching. Once the potatoes were tender, the spinach was tossed in.

Immediately after the spinach was added, 8 beaten eggs were poured in and distributed evenly through the potatoes and the whole mess was topped with a cup of shredded cheddar cheese. This was simmered on the stove for just a few minutes and then placed in a preheated 450 °F oven with the broiler on.

After 6 or 7 minutes under the broiler, the eggs were set and the top was beginning to brown.

I garnished these simply with some green onions.

I have to say the frittata turned out pretty tasty and everyone in the family got to enjoy some!

Bread Oven

2009-02-15T08:00:00.005-06:00

My wife knows I always love to get cooking related gifts. And with all the bread making we've been doing lately she went out and got a great gift for my birthday a couple weeks ago. This is something I have been wanting for a long time but haven't taken the time to go out and get. I'm talking about unglazed quarry tiles to make a bread oven!

These tiles came from a local flooring store in town. It is important to use unglazed tiles to avoid any offgassing of various chemicals used in the glaze during heating. The store even looked up the MSDS (material safety data sheet) on these tiles to make sure there was nothing toxic in them.

Of course I tried out some of our 5 minute bread dough as soon as I could. The tiles worked perfectly!

One of the reasons I wanted the tiles to replace my standard pizza stone was the size. The tile lined oven has enough room to bake more than one loaf at a time. And the pizza stone was too small to bake a large pizza like the one shown here.

Believe it or not, the
Roasted red peppers and kalamata olives were great together.

See how nicely it fits int he oven?

The 5 minute dough makes great pizza crust!

My forray into 5-minute bread

2009-02-14T18:00:00.001-06:00

I'm sure you've heard about the book 'Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day' by Zöe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg. There methods have some similarity to the no-knead bread method - like no kneading - but there are some significant difference. A high hydration dough is made simply by mixing the ingredients and storing the dough in the fridge for up to two weeks. Actually waiting a few days before baking improves the flavor immensely and it makes for quick work to make all kinds of bread creations. I've been playing around with the basic recipe (1.5 T yeast, 1.5 T salt, 3 C water, 6.5 C all purpose flour) and having some fun making breads and more.

The dough you see on the peel below was made with the basic recipe but I used 1.5 C whole wheat flour and only 5 C of all purpose flour. I cut off a pound or so of the dough and pulled it into a ball forming a skin on top by stretching the dough underneath.

After raising for a couple of hours, the boule was dusted with flour and scored in a scallop shape.

Here's the result after about 25 minutes in a 500 °F oven on my pizza stone.

I was very pleased with the texture. The crust was chewy and not too hard and the inside was moist and tender. There was a distinct flavor of the whole wheat flour but it was not tough at all when used in this small proportion.

Here's another one in a batard shape. This dough had 2.5 C of whole wheat flour and 4 C of all purpose flour.

It baked up nice. It still maintained a pretty tender texture inside but it was more wheaty than the prior batch of dough.

You can do all kinds of things with this dough. Here is a flatbread I made with the whole wheat dough. I just stretched it out, brushed it with extra virgin olive oil and topped it with some good Bulgarian feta cheese and kalamata olives.

It didn't last long!

Please stay tuned for more bread escapades.

One Minute Cake

2009-02-14T11:21:00.003-06:00

The other night we were finishing dinner and my 11-year old son said he wanted to make us dessert. He is taking FACS in school now. Of course everything has a new fancy name. When I was in school it was called Home Economics. FACS stands for Family and Consumer Science. He has been learning a bit about cooking in FACS and I hope it helps him expand his palate. Anway, he ran to the computer to look up quick desserts and stumbled across a 1 minute cake recipe on CDKitchen.com. It has no eggs but combines flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa, oil, milk and vanilla to make a quick batter. The batter was poured into a greased coffee cup and cooked for one minute on high in the microwave. The texture was a bit chewy and not cake-like at all but it certainly tasted ok. I added some walnuts to my batter before he cooked it. I helped him plate them up and served the warm chocolate goodness with some vanilla ice cream.

Bibimbap - Korean Comfort Food

2009-02-14T10:08:00.004-06:00

Bibimbap literally means 'mixed up rice' and is a traditional comfort food in Korea usually served in a warm stone bowl. I first tasted this delicacy many years ago at a Korean restaurant in Santa Clara, CA. I fell in love with the dish.

It starts, of course, with warm rice. I use Korean rice as it always cooks to the perfect sticky texture.

There are many varieties of bibimbap and when made at home it usually includes whatever vegetables that are on hand at the moment. It also includes some grilled marinated beef. Our sirloin was marinated with soy, sesame oil, vinegar and a little sugar before grilling. Most of the vegies here are quickly sautéed and some are raw. We have cucumbers (raw), zucchini, red onions, carrots, spinach and garlic, and shitake mushrooms.

The vegetables were carefully placed on top of the rice putting complimentary colors next to each other to show off the variety of foods. The beef was placed on top.

I like the traditional way of seving a fried egg on top with a runny yolk, of course.

The dish was garnished with green onion. It is also served with sesame seeds and a spicy chili sauce made from gochujang paste, soy, sesame oil, vingegar and sugar.

That's it! Mix it all up together and eat.

Bento Lunches

2009-01-14T15:27:00.005-06:00

Lately I have been using my Zojirushi bento lunch jar to take my lunch in to work. These are great to portion out food for healthy eating. Of course you don't need to put in just Japanese food!

Here is one of my recent lunches. This consists of mostly vegetables. On the left is some left overs that I slow cooked over the weekend. It has ham, soybeans and barley. Front and center is baby bok choy that has been steamed until tender. It was seasoned with ginger, soy, sesame oil and a bit of rice vinegar. On the right is a Korean style bean sprout salad made with steamed and cooled sprouts, garlic, sesame oil and a bit of gojuchang paste. I added some extra raw bean sprouts for the crunch. The largest container on the top contains just raw broccoli and carrots. Healthy - Low Fat - and Delicious. That and an orange makes for a pretty filling and fulfilling lunch.

Homemade Pita

2009-01-10T15:29:00.004-06:00

If you love pocket bread as much as I do you will probably try to make it at some point. It's really not hard and it's magical to watch. The dough puffs up in the oven when it bakes to create the pocket inside.

This pita is made with a dough from the wonderful Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. The recipe makes a wonderfully soft dough that works perfectly for pita or pizza. Here is her recipe.

Unbleached all purpose flour - 3 cups plus 1/4 cup (16 oz, 454 g)
salt - 2 tsp (0.5 oz, 13.2 g)
instant yeast - 2 tsp (6.4 g)
olive oil - 2 tbsp (1 oz, 27 g)
water - 1 1/4 cups (10.4 oz, 295 g)

The dough should be kneaded very well. We used a kitchen aid with the dough hook and kneaded it for 10 minutes. Key to getting wonderful flavor is to let the dough rise long and slow in the fridge. Once kneaded the dough is covered to keep the air out and placed in the fridge. Let it rise slowly. After one night we let the dough rise on the counter then put it back in the fridge for another day. You can keep the dough for up to 3 days chilled. If you have the time the long slow fermentation creates a wonderful flavor.

After the dough has risen as long as you like, divide the dough into 12 equal balls and flatten them slightly. Cover them with plastic wrap and let them rest for 20 minutes. The dough will relax and make it easy to roll out.

Roll out your dough into rounds about 1/4 inch thick. If you like a thicker, more bready pita roll them thicker. I found using my pasta roller machine makes the pita with a consistent thickness. I rolled them up to setting 4 on my machine. Once rolled out let the dough rest for another 10 minutes before baking.

You must have a pizza stone or a cast iron skillet to make the pita. You can do it on top of the stove but I have found best results using a stone in a 475 °F oven. Preheat your stone for about an hour before baking. Slap the dough onto the stone being careful not to let it fold or have air pockets underneath. To get a consistent puff you want the entire bottom of the dough round to be in contact with the hot stone. See how the pop up after a minute or so? The steam insides puffs them. Bake for about 3 minutes or until you just start to see them begin to brown. I bake two at a time and place them on top of each other under a towel as they come out of the oven. After they have cooled for a couple of minutes I gently press them down to flatten them. They probably would flatten by themselves though. Be careful not to burn yourself from the steam inside.

See how nice they turned out?

A wonderful pocket inside.

Talk about a clash of cultures. How about a middle eastern pita with kimchee inside?

Grilled Chicken Dinner - Low Carb

2009-01-09T07:37:00.004-06:00

It's not much to look at but it was tasty and healthy. I'm talking about my chicken dinner. Looks (and taste) can be deceiving. I have here a grilled chicken breast which has been split and stuffed with garlic slices and kalamata olives. Fresh steamed broccoli provides the vegetable component. But what is that the chicken is resting on? A pile of mashed potatoes? Well, it looks like potatoes and tastes pretty much like potatoes but it is all cauliflower! A great tasting, low carb alternative to mashed potatoes.

I started with a head of cauliflower which I steamed until it was very tender. This was puréed in my food processor along with a splash of milk, a dollop of healthy olive oil, salt and pepper and just a tsp of butter for flavor.

To make the chicken I cut a pocket in the side of these hefty sized boneless, skinless chicken breasts and stuffed them with lots of sliced garlic and chopped kalamata olives. They were grilled in my Le Creuset grill pan until just cooked through and still moist. I didn't make a sauce for this but that would have been great on top.

I also served it with a light and healthy slaw. This has cabbage, carrots and green peppers. The dressing is made with just a scant amount of mayo and rice vinegar.

New Year's Stir Fry

2009-01-04T09:44:00.002-06:00

On New Year's Day I wanted to use black-eyed peas. There is a tradition in the South that black-eyed peas should be eaten on New Year's Day for good luck. Instead of the typical peas cooked in a soup or with ham or something, I decided to make a mixed grain and legume base for a vegetarian stir fry. I first just tossed together some Thai brown rice, kamut, spelt, wheat berries, mung beans and black-eyed peas in a bowl and soaked them in water for a couple of hours. I then put everything into my rice cooker and put it on the brown rice setting. An hour and a half later I had this wonderfully healthy grain/legume mixture.

For the stir fry I used baby bok choi and cauliflower. I first steamed them for a few minutes just to start getting them tender and make the stir fry easier. I fried these up with garlic, ginger and red chilis in oil. Near the end it was seasoned with soy, sesame oil and thickened with just a bit of corn starch. It was oh so tasty.

Okonomiyaki at home

2008-12-31T10:10:00.006-06:00

After having this in Osaka I wanted to try making okonomiyaki at home. It turns out that it was quite easy to do. For two large okonomiyakis I started with about half of a medium head of cabbage chopped up. I added some chopped up green onions - about 4 of them. I had about 3/4 cup of cut up cooked shrimp and half of a cooked chicken breast that I cut up into pieces so I added that also. The batter was made from one cup of flour, 1/4 tsp of baking powder and some salt. I flavored that with just a bit of a fish dashi powder. Everything was mixed together along with two eggs. The mixture was piled onto the griddle to cook.

After cooking on one side the pancake was carefully flipped over to cook on the other side. This was repeated twice to make sure the inside was fully cooked.

The okonomiyaki sauce I made is pretty similar to what I had in Osaka. I made it from about 4 tbsp of ketchup, 1 tbsp of soy sauce, about 2 tbsp worschestershire sauce, a splash of mirin and a couple tbsp of brown sugar. This was heated in a pot just until everything mixed together and the sugar was dissolved. On top of the sauce is just mayo. Unfortunately I haven't found bonito flakes yet so we ate these unadorned. But they were tasty.

LIght and Healthy Japanese Food

2008-12-29T08:00:00.001-06:00

Ok, so the Japanese food bug is not completely out of my system. Last night I was in the mood again for some light and healthy food. I had plans to make a miso/soy marinated chicken breast and serve that with a Japanese inspired soup.

To start I filled a pot with some water, kombu (or konbu) which is a dried seaweed, and some Korean dried fish pieces. These are not strong flavors and were used just to make a light broth that reminded one of the sea. I soaked these together at room temperature for about an hour then heated it to boiling. Once the broth boiled for about 5 minutes I removed the kombu and fish. The fish I discarded. The seaweed I used for a salad.

Meanwhile I marinated some boneless skinless chicken breasts in a mixture of grated ginger, soy, mirin, a splash of sake, sesame oil and red miso paste.

Here is the broth after removing the fish an seaweed. To flavor the broth just a little more a couple tbsp of soy sauce were added along with a splash of mirin, a splash of sake and some salt.

The kombu was cooled and shredded finely.

This was mixed with finely shredded carrots. To flavor the salad, rice vinegar, soy, sesame oil and mirin were added.

The plate ready for chicken. The green is a napa salad seasoned with rice vinegar and mirin.

The chicken was just cooked under the broiler in the oven until nicely grilled and cooked through.

For the soup I added carrots, green peppers, green onions and somen noodles to the delicately flavored broth.

Now that hits the spot!

Aloo Gobi

2008-12-28T22:05:00.004-06:00

After eating Japanese food for so many days I was in the mood for something with a bit more flavor tonight. I really love Indian food - especially the food from Southern India. This dish, although seasoned with spices from the South has its origins in Northern India. This is Aloo Gobi or potato and cauliflower.

The ingredients are:

3 cups of cut up cauliflower
3 small potatoes, cut into small wedges
1 tsp brown mustard seed
1 tbsp urid dal
1 tsp cumin seed, whole
a dash of hing (asafoetida)
2 tbsp coriander powder
about 1 inch of ginger, minced
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chili powder
2 tsp Madras curry powder
1/4 cup water
2 tsp oil
Chopped fresh cilantro (I was out of cilantro tonight)

To start the process, the coriander, ginger, turmeric, chili and curry powder were made into a paste with about 1/4 cup of water and set aside.

A pan was heated with a couple of tsp of oil until hot but not smoking. The mustard seed, urid dal and cumin seeds were added to the oil and fried until the mustard popped and the urid started to turn brown. Once that point was reached, a dash of asafoetida powder (hing) was added.

The water and spice paste was then added to the hot pan and fried for about 30 seconds. The water in the paste helps to keep the spices from burning during this process and is a good trick to making a nicely flavored base for many types of dishes like this.

The cauliflower and potato were added to the pot along with some salt and pepper to taste. This was stirred together well and the pan was covered. The mixture was cooked for about 15 minutes until the vegetables were tender. During this time the mixture was carefully stirred three or four times. If it is a little dry you can add a bit of water to it (I did).

Once it is cooked, just plate it and you're good to go. If you have fresh cilantro that should be sprinkled on top.

This aloo gobi was served along with some fresh baked bread (some naan or other Indian bread would have been great with it!). I also made a yellow split pea and onion soup which was made in the pressure cooker with a similar spice mixture base that I used for the aloo gobi.

Soup and Aloo Gobi.

See those wonderful yellow split peas?

This was a French style bread that was perfect for mopping up the spicy soup.

Happy Holidays Xmas Tree Cake

2008-12-24T16:29:00.002-06:00

My son and I made a Christmas Cake to take to a friend's house tomorrow. It is glaringly obvious that I am a poor cake icer but it was fun and it tastes good. I used a vanilla cake recipe that I found here. One and a half times this recipe was the perfect amount to fill a half sheet pan. I cut the cake in half to make two layers and then cut it in the shape of the tree. We made a simple buttercream frosting (#4 on this list of frostings) and it turned out great. The cake was moist and tasty and the frosting whipped up nicely.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday Season.

Refrigerator Beef Stew on a cold day

2008-12-23T20:41:00.005-06:00

It is a cold snowy day here in Fargo. I arrived home from Japan on Saturday but I wish I was still there. Never the less, I was faced with firing up the snowblower today and getting out in the cold. So a warm hearty dinner was just the ticket. I call this a Refrigerator Beef Stew because it was made from a hodge podge of leftover ingredients I found while cleaning out the fridge today. I had about a half pound of sirlion that I didn't use last night when I made my own shabu shabu. There were also some leftover cut up vegetables consisting of cabbage, green onions and bean sprouts. I added some celery and chopped garlic. I found a couple tablespoons of red thai curry paste, some red miso paste and a cup of garbanzo beans. The meat was browned and everything else was added. I threw in a couple handfuls of sticky Japanese rice and then cooked it all until it was thick and bubbly, about 25 minutes. It was slightly tangy, delightfully spicy and thickened nicely by the rice. Perfect for a cold evening.

Shabu Shabu in Kobe

2008-12-21T10:49:00.010-06:00

Shabu shabu is another nabe dish made by taking paper thin slices of beef and dipping them into a pot of boiling water or broth for just a few seconds to cook. More on the food in a second. Let me first describe my Thursday in Kobe. This is a wonderful city just west of Osaka. Kobe Pharmaceutical University sits on the hillside looking down upon Kobe's numerous narrow winding streets. This picture shows one of their WIDE streets! Imagine a street as wide as one car twisting and turning through densly packed homes up the side of a hill. Their big taxis climb those hills every day.

In the morning my host Naito Sensei took me to the Hatsukura sake factory for a tour of their sake museum. There I learned all about how rice is polished, infused with koji spores to convert starch to sugar, and then fermented with yeast. Of course we left with a taste and a bottle!

Dinner that evening was a slighly formal shabu shabu dinner. We ate at a traditional low table on the tatami mats. Actually there was a hole under the table for your feet so you didn't have to sit cross legged for hours. See the nabe pots ready for action?

This sake is made especially for this restaurant. I have to say it was quite good.

We started with a small appetizer of marinated raw fugu. I would call it a Japanese seviche with its vinegary marinade.

This is onion, garlic, radish and chives to garnish the dipping sauces for the shabu shabu.

A sashimi course, of course!

A bite of crab, seaweed and cucumbers.

This is a bit of fried monkfish. The chili was not very spicy. I've never seen a pink batter before. Very festive for the holiday season.

Our sever brought the plates of beef and vegetables.

I am always in awe of the wonderfully marbled beef. Makes for tender shabu shabu.

Our server demonstrated the shabu shabu technique. Grasp the beef slice with your chopsticks and swish it back and forth in the boiling pot for just a few seconds. The dish is names shabu shabu after the sound of the beef swishing in the broth.

The flash cooked beef is immediately plunged into a bowl containing a sesame sauce and eaten.

After the meat is eaten, next come the vegetables. Here you can see tofu, enoki mushrooms, green onions, bean sprouts, mushrooms, carrots, some greens and napa cabbage. The noodles are for the end of the meal.

The veggies cooking away.

We had two kinds of noodles - the clear ones you see served with the vegetables above and these wider noodles that were brought to the table after the vegetables. Also in the pot are some sticky rice cakes cooked along with the noodles.

A perfect end for a wonderul meal - a bowl of macha green tea ice cream. I like the fact that this ice cream is not as sweet as our American versions.

Japanized Chinese

2008-12-21T10:25:00.004-06:00

On Wednesday evening I went to dinner with my friends from Osaka University. They took me to a Chinese restaurant way up on the top of a skyscraper with an incredible view of Osaka. I would say some of the things in the restaurant may be traditional Chinese but this was definitely Japanized. Our meal was served in many small courses. I would say the flavors were quite bland compared to what you would find in China but it was pretty tasty.

First course was a variety plate containing some barbequed pork, jellyfish, some kind of roll with vegetables and rice, and I think the fried piece was chicken.

Second course: Shark fin soup. Not nearly as good as the shark fin soup I've had in China.

The third course tasted pretty good. A piece of fugu was accompanied by a scallop, mushrooms, and baby corn.

For our fourth course we had a lightly battered and fried shrimp served with pineapple and a beef and vegetable dish.

These steamed delights were our fifth course. They looked gorgeous and tasted so so.

Another soup to top off the meal.

Finally we had dessert. It was some kind of mango pudding I think.

And me and my hosts. Professor Mishima on the right and Professor Ohshima standing next to me on the left.

Osaka Eats

2008-12-17T05:00:00.000-06:00

On Tuesday I arrived in Osaka. My hotel is right next to the Umeda station in a busy, bustling part of town. This place is a maze of underground shopping malls and department stores and it is hard for even the local people to find their way. But I have been managing ok. After my train ride from Kyoto I was hungry for some lunch. In the underground maze I found a ramen shop with an advertized special of pork and ramen with a bowl of rice for only 700 yen (~$7). It was quite a deal and filled me up.

Here is a photo from my hotel room looking down on the Umeda train station. Yes, that is a ferris wheel on top of the Hep Five building.

After spending the afternoon exploring night was falling and I was starting to get hungry for dinner.

The Hankyu department store is just one of the many huge shopping conglomerates here. Actually I think all of Japan is one large shopping mall. They certainly are in the christmas spirit here.

I wandered around and found many of these narrow streets lined with all kinds of resaurants, pachinko parlors and shops.

I could have gone to She's Bar or spent only 500 yen and be served by Ladys staff.

Although I think the idea of throwing darts and looking at girls is more appealing, I was looking for an Osaka specialty for dinner and it wasn't to be had here.

I did pass by this place on the way. It was snorting at me as I walked by. I presume you can get pork there!

Finally, in the underground Umeda maze, I found a very nice okonomiyaki shop. This is an Osaka favorite. Kind of like a pancake but different, okonomiyaki literally menas cooked as you like it. The base is a mixture of cabbage and a batter. You can add all kind of things to it. Mine had pork, squid and shrimp. Some places have you cook your own at the table side griddle but at this place the server came over every so often to tend to my meal. So all I had to do was watch as she expertly shaped it into a perfect round using a wide spatula.

Ah, it's crisping nicely.

Topped with okonomiyaki sauce and mayonaise, it's ready to eat. This was further accented with dried bonito flakes and seaweed. It was as delicious as I remember.

More nabe in Kyoto

2008-12-16T17:00:00.000-06:00

Near to Kyoto University on a narrow dark out of the way street sits a wonderful little soba-nabe restaurant called Kawamichiya. I had dinner there with my hosts from KU on Monday evening. The restaurant is actually located next to the house of the president of Nintendo. I think my son would be more impressed with that! The entrance through this gate leads to a small Japanese garden and to the door of a 130 year old building. Dining is done in small cozy individual rooms.

Of course we had nabe at this restuarant. You an see my friend, Prof. Tomioka watching as the server fills the pot with chicken, fish cakes and vegetables.

Bubble, bubble, I think it's ready to eat.

This nabe did not have the noodles in the pot in the beginning. After we ate everything out of the pot we then cooked the soba and udon noodles in the flavorful broth.

From left to right, Prof. Ohno, me, Prof. Takemoto and Prof. Tomioka.

A keiseki nabe dinner in Tokyo, and more

2008-12-16T07:00:00.000-06:00

Nabe (or nabemoto) is the Japanese name for any of the hot pot dishes where all the ingredients are cooked in one vessel and shared at the table. I want to share a nabe dinner that I recently had in tokyo on Friday with my hosts from the Tokyo Science University. After dinner my friend Hayashi san took me to a "working man's" soba shop where we had a few interesting dishes and a drink.

This was a nice evening of food starting with some appetizers, as usual. On this plate is some octopus, a piece of tempura, walnuts, some kind of pate like fish cake and some chicken. It was served with some pickled vegetables as well.

Next came the sashimi. This fish was extraordinarly fresh and tasty!

They also served another piece of cooked fish as a course.

This was kind of a pudding or custard and I'm not sure what it was made of. It was tasty.

Here is the nabe pot! You can see lots of vegetables, some seafood and quail eggs. On the bottom are noodles.

My hosts - Prof. Hayashi on the right and Prof. Soai to the left of me.

After dinner Hayashi san and I walked around for a little bit. As if I didn't get enough food for dinner, he took me into a local soba shop where working men gather after work on Fridays to drink and eat. We had a few bites of special food. Here is some fried squid. Very good.

We also had some cooked pig stomach. I know it sounds bad, but it was really good! Not tough at all. It was tender and really tasty. Topped with some red chili pepper it was even better.

This is an interesting soba shop. We drank shoju which is a kind of a distilled rice liqour. The way you prepare it is most interesting. At the table is a kettle of water used to cook the soba in the shop, so it has many of the buckwheat nutrients and starches. You pour this hot water into the glass with the shoju. We also crushed some salty pickled plum into the drink. Unusual and delicious.

Me and Hayashi san.

And our server! :)

Kaiseki dinner in Tokyo

2008-12-16T00:44:00.005-06:00

Kaiseki dinners in Japan are more formal set menus. On Saturday night my hosts from Gakushuin university took me out for a particularly delicious, light and healthy kaiseki dinner.

The dinner started with appetizers. On the plate are some fried shrimp, a snail (which was particularly difficult to remove from the shell) and a pickled plum.

Next came the sashimi course. You just can't go wrong with raw fish in my opinion!

Interestingly they served mushroom and broth in these individual tea pots. You poured it out and drank it like tea then you ate the mushrooms from inside. It was delicious!

The main meal was a piece of cooked fish. Elegant and simple in a truly Japanese style. It was delightful.

We also had a vegetable tempura course.

And finally to end the meal, some soup, rice and a few pickled vegetables. Along with some beer and sake, it was a nice meal.

After dinner with my hosts, Profs. Nakamura and Akiyama.

Living on the edge with Fugu

2008-12-11T17:06:00.006-06:00

After a day spent at the Tokyo Institute of Technology my hosts took me out for dinner at a local favorite of theirs. This being the start of winter , Fugu is the specialty of the season. Last night's meal was all about this dangerous fish. If you don't know, Fugu is the Japanese name for the pufferfish. This fish contains a very deadly toxin in its organs and sometimes in its skin called tetrodotoxin. This is a neurotoxin that can paralyze your muscles. If your diaphram becomes paralyzed you will suffocate - all while being fully conscious. Fugu is highly prized in Japan due to its inherint danger. Chefs must have special training to cut the fish to avoid contaminating the edible parts.

It seems every meal in Japan starts with beer but quickly moves to sake. This 1.8 liter bottle was barely enough for us! Now I do like sake and I am always surprised at how many different sakes there are all with their unique flavors.

Japanese meals often start with a sashimi course. Last night I was treated to my favorite - raw crab! If you've never tried it, you must. It is absolutely the sweetest sashimi I have ever tasted.

Next we each had a tray full of various appetizers I don't know what everything was but it was all very tasty. I know we had some snails, some mushrooms, the thing on the bottom right was a most delicious oyster, and on the bottom left - lotus root.

Now comes the Fugu! First up was a fugu tempura - lightly battered and crisp on the outside, delicious and soft on the inside. It tasted like fish, of course, so I don't know if the taste is really anything special.

The main meal was a hot pot cooked at the table. Here it is before everything was cooked. Inside there are pieces of fugu, vegetables, tofu, mushrooms and cellophane noodles. The pieces of the fugu are carefully cut so as to enjoy the most tender cartilage near the bones. I have to say the fish cooked this was was absolutely delectable.

Even the fins of the fish are used in a special sake drink called Fugu Hire-zake. They slightly char the fin and place it on top of the sake in the cup. When it is served at the table the ignite the cup with a flame briefly to impart a very interesting smell and taste to the sake. This sake was served warm and tasted very interesting with the charred fin flavor infusing the sake.

Japanese meals usually end with a rice course and a soup. The rice tonight was served in the form of a crab maki roll. I'm not quite sure but I think the curled round pieces in the soup was the skin of the fugu. This night we ended with pineapple and sort of a coconut jello pudding.

So, I enjoyed the fugu very much and I lived to tell the tale! Next time I must try fugu sashimi.

Tokyo eats on the cheap

2008-12-10T15:23:00.005-06:00

Yes, even cheap sushi. This was had for about $10 at a department store market. More on that later. On Tuesday I arrived in Tokyo and I visited Chuo University on Wednesday. This is not a great picture but I did manage to snap a skyline view of Tokyo from one of the tall buildings at Chuo. It certainly does not capture the immenseness of Tokyo.

The interesting thing about Japan is that many of the private railway companies are owned and operated by huge department stores. These are unlike anything in America. Many major train stations in Tokyo (and all over Japan) are a maze of department stores, shops and train entrances. Once you figure that out getting around is not too difficult. Every major department store has a floor for each type of goods they are selling. Generally the bottom one or two floors are dedicated to food, both prepared and fresh produce. There are cases filled with delectable sweet treats and gyoza stands. It is like a huge market with super attentive staff at every station. The sushi you see above was my dinner on Tuesday. Yes, $10 from the Tobu department store at the Ikebukuro station.

Here is one case filled with fried meats of all kinds. Oh, I wish I had better pictures. I will try to get some better ones when I get to Osaka.

Here are a couple of pictures just outside the Shinjuku train station.
And in Ikebukuro I was tempted by the Colonel.

Instead, for lunch, I treated myself to another local cheap favorite. This is a small fast food shop that has a variety of rice bowls topped with grilled meats. It is an interesting process. You must first buy a meal ticket from the vending machine near the entrance. You can choose a variety of things from their limited menu and you choose by pressing the button for anything within the price range of what you've put into the machine. You sit at a counter, there is only one thin counter at this place, and hand your meal ticket to the server in front of you. Within a minute or two a hot steaming bowl of meat covered rice and a small bowl of miso soup appears. You eat quickly and leave. For less than $4 you can be satisfied. Quick, easy and you don't even need to hassle with trying to order off a menu written in Japanes. Many of these places have a picture of the food next to the buttons on the vending machines.

Here is a photo of the street that I am staying on near the Mejiro station.

Sendai Beef, and I do mean beef

2008-12-10T15:02:00.005-06:00

On Monday I had the good fortune to be treated to a very nice Sendai meal. Even in a small country like Japan regional cuisines abound. In Sendai the local favorite is Sendai beef. Of course they try to rival Kobe beef and I have to say my meal I had recently with my hosts in Sendai was incredible. They brought me to a restaurant that specialized in Sendai beef cooked Korean style on a table gas flame grill. They eat many parts of the cow here and one of the most prized parts here in Sendai is the tongue. Here you can see beef tongue being grilled. I found the taste to be quite good but the texture was a little tough.

After the tongue was all gone, they brought out a plate of nicely marbled meat. This was more to my liking and it was tender and delicious.

Now the thing that makes beef tender and tasty is how well marbled it is with fat. Take a look at the fine grain marbling of this shoulder cut of beef. It was melt in your mouth tender!

Next came the ribs. These were also quite good.

After all that meat I thought we were done until they brought out yet another plate. I said they eat all parts of the animal. This is marinated liver and intestines. They also tasted pretty good but I'm not much of a liver eater. I found the intestines to be very chewy. I guess it's good exercise for your jaws.

Sendai Eats

2008-12-08T06:49:00.004-06:00

On Sunday I traveled from Narita to the Tokyo station and then took a shinkansen fast train to Sendai. Here is the local Narita station on a beautiful sunny morning

Here is the Tokyo station shinkansen platform. See everyone queuing up for their cars? You have to know the Japanese system in order to understand it. Instead of questioning it you jut have to go with the flow and everying is ok.

On the way to Sendai it is apparent that every inch of space is utilized in Japan.

Near Sendai you an see mountains in the distance.

They are crazy for this game here.

This is a food blog, after all. So I guess I should talk about some food. Below the Sendai train station there are many restaurants. I found one in particular that did not have a picture menu. I had to drag my server outside to point at the food I wanted in order to place my order. As you can see I found some pretty good shrimp tempura and noodle soup for a very reasonable 880 yen. That's less than $10 US. Pretty good deal.

Onigiri

2008-12-07T01:14:00.002-06:00

I've just arrived in Japan for a two week trip. I am looking forward to many wonderful Japanese meals while I'm here. But after being up for 24 hours and finally getting to my hotel jetlagged and stuffed full of awful airline food, I was not in the mood for a fancy restaurant meal. Fortunately the Japanese have convenience stores on just about every corner. I grabbed a quick snack before I passed out from jetlag. A Sapporo and a couple of onigiri hit the spot. Onigiri is a rice ball, usually stuffed with something, wrapped in a crispy sheet of seaweed. The packaging is ingenious as it has layers of plastic to separate the nori from the rice so that it does not get wet and soggy. You peel the package open from top to bottom then pull the two corners and the plastic pops off. You end up with a perfectly wrapped onigiri. I had one with shrimp and one with tuna inside. Wash that down with some good Japanese beer and you can't ask for much more.

Szechuan Green Beans with Pork

2008-12-01T08:26:00.003-06:00

I think stir fried green beans are my all time favorite dishes and they are so easy to make. This Szechuan inspired dish is not too hard to make. I started by quickly steaming some green beans in a hot pan with a splash of water and a cover just until they turned bright green. That takes only a minute. You don't want to overcook them. Once flash steamed the beans are quickly cooled in cold water and drained. I like to precook the beans a bit as it makes it easier to stir fry without burning them. Next I took some chopped pork and seasoned it with salt, pepper and Szechuan peppercorn. I added some chopped garlic and ginger to the meat. I heated my wok until it was almost smoking, added some oil and threw in a half teaspoon of red chili in oil. This was the kind of chili that is like red pepper flakes that have been cooked in oil and placed in a jar. The meat was added to the wok and it was fried with constant stirring just until cooked.

The meat was removed from the pan and set aside.

The wok was heated again and the beans were tossed in. The beans were seasoned with just a dash of salt and pepper. They were stir fried for 3-4 minutes until they started to get browned on the sides. I like to add my ginger and garlic near the end so it doesn't burn. So, once the beans were almost ready I tossed in more garlic and ginger. This was stirred for just a few moments and the meat was added back into the pan. A teaspoon of garlic chili paste and a splash of soy sauce. That's it! Serve hot over rice.

Leftover Turkey Soup

2008-11-30T08:56:00.003-06:00

On a cold November day after Thanksgiving, nothing is better than a warm hearty bowl of turkey noodle soup. The roasted turkey carcass was converted into nectar of the gods and the noodles were homemade. Thick, rich and creamy, this was the perfect thing to warm the soul. Not much too it, really. I cooked all the leftover turkey bones and carcass with carrots, celery and onions to make the broth. Strained it off. Peeled whatever meat was left on the bones off and cooked it all together with more fresh vegetables and noodles.

Divine Dining Redux #5 - Blueberry Lavender Ice Cream

2008-11-29T08:00:00.001-06:00

I have an on-line friend from California who contributes regularly to the recipes and cooking forums over at Gardenbuddies.com. This year she has started her own fantastic blog where she shares her little piece of heaven in California. If you haven't seen Jain's Once in a Blue Moon, you MUST. Last year on Gardenbuddies she shared a recipe for ice cream made from fresh lavender and blueberries. Can I say, this recipe is truly divine? The perfect ending for my Divine Dining dinner. Another Gardenbuddies contributor, Mary, has posted her recipe on her outstanding blog, Once Upon a Plate. You can find all the recipe details there. I only made slight changes.

It starts with 1 cup of blueberries. I used frozen blueberries. Fresh or frozen, it doesn't really matter. They are both excellent. These are cooked with sugar and just a bit of water until the blueberries begin to pop open.

Once the blueberries have broken down I pureed them in a blender and strained it using a fine sieve. The blueberry liquid was returned to the sauce pan. Recipes call for just the flowers but I didn't have enough flowers in my garden so I just chucked in lavender leaves as well. This was cooked gently for a few minutes ton infuse the lavender flavor into the blueberry syrup. This was strained once again and vanilla and cinnamon were added.

Once the blueberry syrup was well chilled, half and half was added and the mixture was frozen in the ice cream maker.

Divine Dining Redux #4 - Meatballs in a Creamy Mushroom Sauce

2008-11-28T09:01:00.005-06:00

It's been two months since my Divine Dining dinner and I have yet to post all the details of that wonderful meal. I can't believe I've let this lag so long. I have another dinner to tell you about too so let me finish this up so I can move on. Let's talk about the main course we enjoyed back in September. I served a homemade meatball on top of a bed of garlic rutabaga and potato mash with a rather simple sage-infused creamy mushroom sauce. They were excellent if I do say so myself and really not hard to make.

The meatballs were made from a mixture of ground beef and ground pork. I used 2 pounds of beef and 1 pound of pork. To this I added 2.5 cups of bread crumbs, 4 cloves of chopped garlic, 8 chopped sage leaves, 1 cup loosely packed fresh parsley, salt, pepper and Italian herb seasoning to taste. I also accentuated the flavors with a dash of worschester sauce, a dash of nuoc mam Vietnames fish sauce. This sauce smells really strong but you don't notice it in the dish. It just ads a dimension to the overall flavor that is almost imperceptible. Don't be afraid of nuoc mam. Finally I added a dash of hot sauce. I used a homemade habanero sauce I had on hand.

It couldn't be simpler. I just mixed all these ingredients together well in my KitchenAid and formed good good-sized meatballs by hand. They were placed on a baking sheet and cooked in a hot (425 °F) oven until browned. Be careful not to overcook them as they could get dried out.

The sauce was made by first sautéing chopped mushrooms, onions and garlic. You can use as much or little as you like of these ingredients. I don't recall exactly my proportions but I guess I used one small package of white mushrooms, one small onion and 3-4 cloves of garlic. Season with salt and pepper as these are cooking down. Once the mushrooms and onions were softened, I added a healthy branch of sage to the pan and added heavy cream to cover the mushrooms. This was cooked for just a few minutes until the sauce thickened a little bit. You could added white wine to this dish also. That would be good.

I was fortunate this year to have a bumper crop of rutabagas in my garden. I love the combination of this hearty root vegetable with potatoes. I just diced up both the rutabas and potatoes and boiled them until tender. To that was added a healthy dose of roasted garlic, milk and cream, salt, pepper and butter. Mash just like you would do to the potatoes.