Catching Up

Wow, that last post was really depressing. But I had to put it up. Other bloggers have to see that other bloggers have real-life problems too and it's not all just pretty food pictures and baking heaven. Also, I needed to get a load off my chest. Since then, things have been going much better. I feel more confident, but that is also because some things in lab are working now. It's a slow process, but it's something I have to learn and persevere through. I understand that graduate school and research is not easy, but the difficulties seem to overwhelm me at times. I will learn to handle stress and anxiety better, but it will take time. First, I have to get a hold on my emotions and allow my self-perception to change. I think I am happier and mentally healthier now. :-)

Now, to food-related things!

As usual, I have been cooking lots and taking pictures of food lots, but being too lazy to pull out my computer and type up something entertaining about it. I will create individual posts for each of these with recipes next time. Until then, enjoy these quick bites of my last semester!

Cinnamon (raisin) rolls (with yeast!) - Sept 9, 2012

 

I once made cinnamon rolls before, but those didn't rise well and were overbaked. This time around, I tried the recipe at Two Peas and a Pod. I switched out half of the all-purpose flour for white whole wheat flour. I also added apple juice-soaked raisins to half of the dough.

These were better texture-wise, but my addition of whole wheat flour and minimal cinnamon-sugar-butter filling made it not as decadent as I hoped. It rose better than my very first batch, but was still not as fluffy as I wanted. Nevertheless, it was tasty and would serve as a good breakfast without the sugar-rush and super-unhealthiness of Cinnabon and the like.

I iced them with a lemon vanilla frosting, simply made from fresh lemon juice, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar.

Homemade Spring Rolls (Goi Cuon) - Sept 26, 2012

Rice paper is soaked in water briefly to soften, then wrapped around fresh Vietnamese herbs, roasted shredded chicken, surimi (imitation crabmeat), and fresh roasted peanuts, and served with peanut sauce. Typical Vietnamese herbs wrapped inside include Vietnamese mint, Vietnamese coriander, fish mint, chives, and lettuce. Homemade, pan-roasted peanuts are a must. The flavor of freshly roasted peanuts surpasses that of storebought.

Honey Buttermilk Cornbread - Sept 21, 2012

 I have been trying to perfect my cornbread recipe. This one comes pretty close, but I can never achieve the pure heaven that is Smart Alec's cornbread (in Berkeley). Theirs is a huge golden square served up with their salads or soups. The top is slightly sticky and the texture is slightly crumbly but still maintains shape. It is sweet and moist, not dry like cornbread mixes. I have not replicated that but I found a recipe that really delighted me. The use of buttermilk is a must for achieving a really creamy and more flavorful cornbread.
 

I sprinkled the top with my organic cane sugar. This sugar is less refined and therefore composed of larger crystals than regular granulated sugar. It adds a slight sweet crunch to the top.

I really like this recipe but believe it still needs some adjustment before it can be anywhere close to Smart Alec's. Next time, I may add more honey to increase the moistness and sweetness more.


Raisin Oat Scones- Sept 29, 2012

I love scones. Not the crazy sweet ones you get from grocery stores or chain coffee stores. I like homemade or artisan bakery scones, where the emphasis is on the good butter or cream and the simple combination of flavors. I love to see oats or seeds top my scones instead of icing. I believe, as a breakfast food, it need not have icing.

These are healthy scones made with oats, whole wheat flour, flaxseed, and raisins. Coming straight from the oven, they are warm and tasty and delicious. A couple days later, they get dry, but that's why they are wonderful accompanied by tea!

I made about 8 wedges, which came out very large. They are satisfying, wholesome, and sweet enough, especially great with some vanilla almond milk.

Mushroom Mataar - Oct 7, 2012

In College Station, there is only one Indian restaurant (although I've heard about many Indian mini-marts inside gas stations and convenience stores). Coming from Berkeley, and even Southern California, I had many options for Indian food (although, sadly, I did not indulge in enough while I was there). Every now and then I get a craving for Indian food. Tikka masala, samosas, korma, jalfrezi, curry, mango lassi...

I also really like peas, and Indians know how to make peas taste awesome. I looked online for an Indian pea recipe, and I had mushrooms on hand. I came across this recipe and made this!

The flavors were good. There was a warm complexity, thanks to the melding of the mushroom umami and the spices. I served it on whole wheat couscous, which is what I had on hand, but it would be much better with naan or rice (brown or basmati). Whole wheat couscous has such a strong flavor that I would not recommend eating it with anything really. Sorry, Bob's Red Mill, even your awesome brand cannot make whole wheat couscous better. It tastes like play-doh to me...bleh.

Anyways, I really liked this. Probably not authentic and lacks some degrees of flavor depth key to Indian food, but tasty enough for me.

Gingerbread Donuts - Dec. 13, 2012

I finally remembered to buy molasses, so to celebrate its induction into my household, I made gingerbread donuts. They were very tasty. I was really pleased with this batch of donuts. I often have trouble pulling the donuts out of the mini donut pan, even after greasing it up. These came out so beautifully, without breaking the top halves! I was ecstatic!

I iced these with a lime cream cheese frosting (lime+vanilla+powdered sugar+cream cheese). Lemon typically goes with ginger pastries, but I had bought too many key limes and needed to use them. The flavors actually went well together. One of my favorite donuts yet!

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I have more, but I don't want to unveil everything now, lest I blow all my secrets! Or, in other words, it's late and I don't want to type anymore. You can see my other adventures...probably not soon. When I feel like posting again. Ok, toodles!

Peanut Soba Noodles

The beginning of my senior year at UC Berkeley, I "sat in" (audited) on the Vietnamese language class taught by the extremely nice Tay (teacher/professor) Bach. I have sit in on this class several times throughout my 4 years of undergraduate study at Berkeley, but have always faded away as the time went on. As each semester wore on, I would feel too busy with classwork, research, and other various things (cough, laziness) and would stop going to class. Whenever I did go, it was fun and enjoyable. Fun to learn the cute little Vietnamese songs that kids would sing; fun to learn how to write. But because I stopped going, I have lost my ability to write and speak. Nowadays, I speak very basic Vietnamese phrases to my family but it is at a very elementary level. I hope to get better, but it takes a lot of practice and effort to grasp a language once you pass that young critical age.

This post is related to a dish I made for a beginning-of-the-year potluck we had last fall. I knew most people would bring simple and quick food items to the event, as is typical of time-pressed (and maybe a bit lazy) college students. As a personal effort, I usually try to bring something that acts as a main dish and with vegetables. For this potluck, I wanted something fast yet tasty to make. I searched for peanut soba noodle recipes and used one of the many recipes out there to act as the base of my soba dish.

Generally, you mix some peanut butter, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and either chili garlic sauce or Sriracha (chili garlic sauce is more salty, spicy and garlicky, whereas Sriracha adds a mild and sweet spiciness) to create the sauce base. You boil the soba noodles and then mix it with the sauce. Chop some fresh onions (cilantro would be nice too) and sprinkle them and sesame seeds on top. (To get the basic proportions right, you can try this recipe and adjust as you feel necessary.) A little sesame oil added to the peanut butter mixture is a small addition that enhances the flavor profile.

This is a really quick recipe that has good carbs from the buckwheat noodles, some green from the green onions, and protein from the peanut butter (even better if you get the all natural, no salt, no oil kind). Every one who tasted the noodles at the potluck couldn't help but approach me later and say how good the noodles were. Given, the only comparisons were just chips and dips and some takeout dumplings, but I'll take the praise where I can get it. *wink*

Enjoy and hope you all are enjoying your summer as I am now.

A Cornucopia of Winter Fun

Disney Downtown, New Years' Eve

Winter Break is a blessing in the middle of the school year. After a long semester of studying and work (along with bits of fun thrown in here and there for good measure), it's nice to come back home and not worry about the next onslaught of midterms and homework. Even better is the warmth of my hometown compared to Berkeley. Down south, it feels like a warm spring! I remember the chilly air on those sunny Berkeley days reading out 50 some degrees Fahrenheit. Despite it all, it was a refreshing walk through the city and campus, but once I got inside a warm classroom, nothing else could have felt better.

Now, back home, I watch the news and see the weathermen talking about subzero conditions elsewhere in the US (frozen lizards falling from trees, people dying from cold), and then compare it to our wonderful conditions here in SoCal. Wonderful 70-80 degree weather. My insulating-lacking body loves it! But, I just saw that there will be cooler weather coming in soon, along with some rain on Wednesday. It'll be a nice change, I suppose, and the dry SoCal terrain needs it.

In my long hiatus from blogging, I've done a lot of experimenting and taste-testing. As is the usual case with me, I felt too lazy to post; rather, I read other bloggers' posts and went on Facebook to pass the time. This morning, I decided it's finally time to post up my collection of Winter experiences. These will follow in subsequent postings after this one. Enjoy!

Nov 8, 2009: Asian Christmas Veggie Mix-Up

 
Ha, my attempt at an original name for something I made. This is something I quickly cooked up in Berkeley to replicate a dish my mom always makes. I didn't have the par-fried tofu we usually get from the Asian supermarket, only the silken tofu from the American stores. The problem with this tofu is that is crumbles at the slightest touch, which really changed what I was going for. Nevertheless, the dish came out still good and refreshing, as my mom's is. The other thing I was lacking at that moment was green onion and cilantro to garnish with. I served this with brown rice for a very healthy yet delicious lunch.

 Ingredients
Garlic, minced
Frozen or fresh green beans
Plum tomatoes, sliced into thick wedges
1 pack firm tofu (if you want to do it like in the picture) or semi-fried firm tofu
Soy sauce
Sugar 
Olive oil

Directions
Saute the garlic in olive oil until yellowish-brown. Add the green beans next if using fresh, otherwise, add both the green beans and tomatoes. Saute for a bit longer until the juices of the tomatoes comes out and the vegetables are soft. Add in the tofu. Add in some soy sauce and sugar to taste, not too much sugar. Saute until tofu is cooked as well. Garnish with sliced green onion and cilantro.

Sauceless, Yeastless, but Delicious Pizza

Again and again, the predicament in my home is an over-abundance of food that needs to be eaten before they expire or mold. The case this week consisted of a Costco pack of Provolone cheese, a couple of tomatoes, mushrooms, and eggs. The back of the BelGioiso cheese pack had a recipe for Provolone, Tomato, and Basil pizza, so I decided to try my hand at that. I never have yeast in the house (yeast breads are really daunting, as many of you would agree!), so I looked up a no-yeast pizza dough recipe online. I adjusted the recipe slightly to include 25% whole wheat flour, which turned out well. We have a jar of pesto spread in the refrigerator, which I thought of using, but I felt too lazy to get it out yesterday morning. I was also too lazy to slice and cook the mushrooms and onions to put on the pizza as well, so it just became Margherita-style for all my laziness. ;-P My aunt and parents liked it, so I'm pretty proud of this, especially since it's healthy.

(Pacman Pizza?)

Tomato White Pizza (serves 8)
Dough: (adapted from here)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
1/2 olive oil
Toppings:
3-4 roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
Italian seasoning, bay leaves, oregano, or thyme (your choice!)
Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
7-9 slices mild Provolone cheese

1. Mix together flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, and salt. Add milk and olive oil. Stir thoroughly until mixture leaves the sides of the bowl. Roll into a ball, then knead 10 times. Divide into 2 balls.
2. Preheat oven 420°F. Roll out dough to a 13" round on a lightly floured surface. Move to a baking pan (I used parchment paper so the edges wouldn't burn). Brush with olive oil. Pinch up edges to create a crust so the cheese doesn't run over. Sprinkle grated Parmesan or Romano cheese on top. Layer Provolone slices on top, then place tomato slices cocentrically. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and your choice of seasonings to taste.
3. Bake about 15 minutes in the center of the oven, until the crust is brown but not burnt. Make sure the dough is baked through. Cut into 8 slices, 2 slices per person. Then do the same for the other dough ball and enjoy!

Homemade Vegetable Dumplings

This was not just an experiment in making dumplings; this was an experiment to use up vegetables sitting unused in the refrigerator. My mom bought some mushrooms last week to make stir-fried egg noodles, but we made Bun Bo Hue instead. So, the mushrooms were just sitting there for a while and I kept saying I'd make something with them. I decided to try my hand at dumplings! There were also leftover cabbage, carrots, and onions that I knew I could use. So, this morning, I got up, made myself another french toast with cinnamon apples and began preparing the dumplings!


It took 3 whole to get it all done. I didn't really measure anything out; rather, measured using my eyes. I felt so pro by not using a recipe, because that's how real cooks do it. Good food comes from feeling, not written instructions. At the beginning of making the actual wrappers, it was difficult and the dumplings were shaped funny. Eventually I found a better way to fold the seams together. Since I didn't measure, I can only rough out the recipe for you guys here. Just add what seems necessary to make it work! This made about 20-25 dumplings for me, with a little filling leftover which I just ate with my lunch cause I didn't have time to make more wrappers.


Ingredients
6-7 large mushrooms, diced
2 carrots, finely diced
1/4 white onion, diced
1/4 head of cabbage, diced
(Use less onion and carrot compared to the mushroom and cabbage. Also, make sure sure sure! that you cut the carrots small!)
Soy sauce (2-3 teaspoons?)
Sesame oil (1-2 teaspoons?)
Rice vinegar (1-2 teaspoons?)
Black pepper
Flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
Water

Directions
1. Mix the vegetables together with the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and black pepper, adjusting the seasonings to taste.
2. Mix flour with enough water to produce a dough ball that sticks only a little but also slightly recoils when stretched.
3. Take an approximately 1 1/2 inch ball of dough and stretch out to a thin oblong shape. Place 2 teaspoons of filling in the center. Starting from one side, pinch up both edges up and over the filling. Pinch up the seams outward so the dough isn't too thick there.
4. Prepare a steamer and steam the dumplings. I think I steamed them for 5-8 minutes.
5. Enjoy by themself, or with soy sauce or sweet chili dipping sauce!