Recipe: Mushroom Mataar

Mushroom Mataar - Oct 7, 2012
(from my "Catching Up" post on Jan 19)

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.

(Because I made this so long ago and because I did it based on the ingredients I had on hand, I can only estimate the amounts that I used, based on the recipe I referenced)
 
Matar Mushroom (4 servings)
Adapted from Khana Khazana
Ingredients
1 container of mushrooms (1/2 lb, I think), halved
1/2 bag of frozen peas (small bag)
3-4 fresh tomatoes, chopped and pureed
3-5 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 onion chopped
1/2" ginger finely chopped
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp or more of garam masala
Some chopped green chili or red pepper chili paste if you want spicy

Directions
1. Heat oil in a pan. Saute the cumin seeds and garam masala till fragrant, then add in the onion. Saute till light brown. Add ginger, and garlic and saute till light brown.
2. Add in the mushrooms, green peas, and tomato puree and saute until mushrooms have released their juices and green peas are no longer frozen.
3. Add salt and adjust spices to your liking (I think I add to add more garam masala because I could barely taste it)
4. Serve with rice or naan (avoid the whole wheat couscous!!! D: D: D: )

Recipe: Raisin Oat Scones

Continuing from my "Catching Up" post, where I put images and brief descriptions of my recent cooking and baking experiments...

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. These rose gorgeously in the oven. 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. You can see how big they look! It is not a trick of the camera. They are actually that huge! Like Starbucks or Panera Bread huge, but not overly sweet that you feel comatose after eating one. They are satisfying, wholesome, and sweet enough, especially great with some vanilla almond milk.

Unfortunately, I did not write where I got this recipe from. I just wrote "Blueberry Oat Scones" in my recipe booklet and forgot to write the site. So, if this is your recipe, please call me out so I can cite you! Thanks! As you can tell, I used raisins instead of blueberries, because that's what I had on hand.

Raisin Oat Scones (8 servings)
Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oats, ground
2-1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tbs cold butter, cubed
2 Tbs maple syrup (I used honey)
1 egg, separated
1/4 cup buttermilk (or 1/4 cup milk soured with 1 tsp fresh lemon juice)
1/2 cup raisins (or blueberries or cranberries or dried apricots...)
1 Tbs flour
1 Tbs lemon zest (I didn't use this)
1 Tbs water
(I added some brown flaxseed for texture)

Directions
1. Mix flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (and flaxseed). Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
2. In a small bowl, beat the egg white, syrup/honey, and buttermilk. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and pour the wet mixture in. Stir to combine.
3. Toss the dried or fresh blueberries with the 1 Tbs flour and lemon zest. Fold into the batter.
4. Pat the dough out into a circle on a floured surface. Cut into 8 triangles.
5. Preheat oven to 425 deg F. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper. Place the triangles 1-2" apart.
6. Lightly beat the egg yolk and 1 Tbs water. Brush over scones. Sprinkle with oats (and flaxseed).
7. Bake int he oven for 15-18 minutes till golden.
8. Cool on a wire rack. Eat slightly warm, fresh from the oven for yumminess!

Notes:
1. The egg yolk wash gives it that nice golden color and sheen. Love it!
2. The texture and taste of this scone is more for the health-appreciating. It still is sweet, but just enough to satisfy. If you like sweeter scones, feel free to drizzle with icing or add more syrup/honey.
3. To up the creaminess or moistness next time, I my add another Tbs of syrup/honey or up the buttermilk just a tad (maybe from 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup).

--------------------------------------------------------------------
The next scone recipe I want to try is this pumpkin "farl", or a slim scone originally made of butter, flour, and mashed potato and cooked on a skillet. I snapped a photo of the recipe from this cookbook on display at the local Pecan Farm.

Next recipe: Mushroom Mataar

Recipe: Honey Buttermilk Cornbread

Honey Buttermilk Cornbread - Sept 21, 2012

I gave you the preview in the last post. Now here is the recipe, complete with nutrition facts.

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.

Honey Buttermilk Cornbread
Ingredients
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 cup white whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
5 Tbsp honey
1/3 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 cup (lowfat) buttermilk
4 Tbsp canola, vegetable, corn, or grapeseed oil
3 tsp organic granulated sugar

Directions
1. Mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar.
2. In another bowl, mix buttermilk, 1 beaten egg, oil, and honey.
3. Pour wet mixture into dry mixture. Stir till combined.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 8x8 inch pan with parchment paper and lightly grease with oil or butter.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle some coarse sugar on top.
6. Bake for 10-15 min till golden on edges and toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. 

Notes: 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. I may try using sour cream instead of buttermilk next time, to achieve that creamy texture I remember of Smart Alec's cornbread. Or use half butter, half oil. So many variables open for me to play with!

Next up: recipe for my raisin oat scones.

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!

 ---

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!

Christmas Presents and Hanukkah Challah!

I am so excited. It is 6 days till I fly home to Cali and 9 days till Christmas!

These last two weeks of work have been and will be good training for me. MB has been training me on polymer synthesis and functionalization. I am rather slow and doubtful with everything I do, so I endlessly ask MB questions. Really, I'm asking for confirmation that I'm doing each and every step correctly. Every time I ask, I feel bad for asking. I know I should not feel this way for making sure I am doing things correctly, but I feel like I come off as confused, childish, forgetful, and slow. As someone who is used to getting things off the bat, slow understanding is hard to get used to. Most of all, due to my personal desire to not be a burden to anyone, I hesitate from asking because I do not want to bother others. This is a learning process, but to be effective, I need to learn to how to open myself to help and asking for help. Nothing is overnight, but I wish I was a bit faster...

Little snippet of my life, but back to fun holiday stuff! That's what ya'll want to read about, right?

So this weekend, I mostly took for holiday present shopping. I'm super excited. I have all my gifts almost ready for my co-workers and boss, and I managed to find some stuff for my family. One cool new thing I'm doing this year is doing glassware painting. I bought some glass cups from Target and a glass paintset from Michaels and will do some cute designs unique to the giftee tomorrow! I hope I have retained some of my painting skills from high school. It's been a while.

After watching "The Hobbit" today (which was very good and much recommended! Only, my eyes were sore after staring at the big screen for 3 hours...), I went home, ate, rested, and then mourned the fact that I was out of bread. I have a professed love for Blue Baker and their amazing baked goods and their half-price day-old breads ($2.25 for an artisan loaf, hellsyeah!), but I actually got tired of forcing myself to eat two loaves of their yummy beer and multigrain breads before they went bad for the past two weeks. So, I decided to make challah.

Challah, if you do not know, is a Jewish egg bread. It is slightly sweet and soft and pillowy. It makes an awesome French toast and goes well with raisins, nuts, or other things mixed-in. You will see it has a nice golden crust and is most often presented as a braided loaf. The special Sabbath and holiday meals begin with two loaves of challah. Each loaf is a braid of six strands, and the two loaves combined represent the twelve tribes of Israel.

The choice of challah was also prompted by the recipe on the side of my bread flour bag. I saw it, read the rise time (1 1/2 hrs) and the fact that there is only 1/4 cup of oil and said, sure! I love making things with less oil and less sugar to try and bake healthy. This was my first time making challah, though, and the process went rather well...at least, up to a point. I made the dough, kneaded it by hand (I'm getting better at this!), let it rise. I punched it down after an hour (an a nap!), kneaded it, rolled out three strands, braided it, and let it rise again. I came back and was super excited. It was rising beautifully and looked gorgeous! But then I realized my mistake. I put it into too small a baking pan so the edges were right up against the side of the pan. Knowing what I would do next would cause some detriment to my risen dough, I quickly shoved/threw the loaf into a larger pan. My loaf immediately deflated. Saddened but not discouraged, I let it rise again. Lo and behold! The loaf rose again, albeit not as high as before, and I finished the preparation and baked it.

The smell was so good throughout the baking process. But then, I noticed the smell was cutting too strongly through the air. The baking time on the bag said 35-45 minutes, and I had put the timer on for only 30 minutes. I rushed to the oven, pulled open the door and saw the unquestionably dark brown crust on my challah. After pulling it out of the oven, I let it cool down and hoped for the best. Luckily, 28 minutes was just long enough to make it harder than desired but not burnt. I sliced off a piece, tasted it and did a little body shake of joy! My challah tasted amazing! For having just 1.5 Tbs of honey, it was surprisingly and satisfyingly sweet. The top crust provided a nice crunch to accompany the soft airy inside. The only things I could tell, was that the bottom crust was too dark and hard for enjoyment, the loaf could have been airier and higher rising had I not deflated the loaf and let it rise for another half hour, and there may be a slight dryness from being baked too long. Other than that, I am super proud of this yeast baking experiment and will probably make another challah loaf again soon!

Challah (adapted from recipe on HEB Bread Flour bag)

Ingredients
2.5-3 cups Bread flour (do not use all-purpose or wheat)
2.25 tsp instant yeast (1 package)
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp turmeric (adds the nice yellow color - no artificial food coloring necessary!)
3/4 tsp organic granulated sugar
1/4 cup oil
1.5 Tbs honey
2 eggs (room temperature)
1 egg + 1 tsp water (for egg wash)
Sesame seeds or poppy seeds for topping (optional)

Directions
1. Combine 2.5 cups of the bread flour, the instant yeast, salt, turmeric, and sugar in a bowl. Stir till well-mixed.
2. In a small bowl, beat eggs, then add in oil and honey and beat till combined.
3. Make a well in the center of your dry mix. Pour in the wet mixture and stir with a wooden spoon till just combined.
4. Measure our 1/2 cup of the remaining bread flour and sprinkle some onto a clean surface. Knead the dough (7 minutes by hand, 5 minutes using machine), adding more of the remaining bread flour as necessary to get a smooth and elastic dough.
5. Lightly grease a bowl, place the ball of dough inside, cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let rise till doubled in size (about 1 hour). Punch down the dough and knead till smooth.
6. Separate the dough into 3 (or 6) equal-sized balls and roll each one out into a long rope. Place them next to each other and carefully braid from one end to the other (handle the dough lightly). Pat in the ends to make them nicely rounded and to seal the pieces together. Let rise till doubled in size (about another hour).
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease and flour a large baking pan.
8. Beat the remaining egg with water. Lightly brush the top of the challah with the egg wash and sprinkle on sesame seeds or poppy seeds, if desired.
9. Bake the challah in the center for 20-25 minutes. The challah is done when you tap the top and it sounds hollow. Let the loaf cool on a rack.
Makes 1 loaf.

I hope you try this easy bread recipe. I think it will get you into yeast baking as it has done for me. It's easier than cinnamon rolls, I think, and tastier than wheat bread loaves. the braiding was not hard at all, either!

In the meantime, don't get too stressed out with holiday shopping, crazy holiday shoppers, and getting things ready for the holidays. Take things easy and remember: this season is about enjoying your time, your life, and your friends and family.

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.

Forgot to thaw your meat? Try...Tofu Sloppy Joe's!

Oh no. You've done it again.

After a long day at work (or school, in my case), you return home in the evening and realize that you never put out your frozen meat to thaw out. It is sitting nice and frigid in the freezer, encased in frost and icicles, hard as a rock.

Source: What's Cooking America

You don't want to try and thaw it now. Nuking in the microwave would just result in an exterior of tan-white cooked sections over a still-frozen nucleus. Darn, why does that cell have to have both a membrane and a cell wall as barriers!

...But I digress...way too far into biology.

The matter is that you have no centerpiece to your dinner tonight? What do you do?

This is where tofu comes to the rescue. Yes, all you carnivores. Tofu. Although many people cringe at the thought of tofu, prepared correctly, it can be the shining star of a dish. The great thing about tofu nowadays is that it comes it so many varieties and can keep in the refrigerator for one or two weeks without going bad. Even then, you can just freeze it for use later.

Source: Restaurant Widow

Last week, I had come home and had nothing for quick dinner options but ramen, soup in a can, or buying out. Luckily, I had a pack of firm tofu in the fridge, which would complement well with the abundance of tomatoes I had. The idea for tofu sloppy joes came up. Healthy, quick, and not too warm for these hot summer nights (which are fading soon!).

I started off by looking up recipes for tofu sloppy joes, coming across this and this, but nothing was really satisfactory to me nor to the ingredients I had at hand. So I improvised, which means the recipe below is a rough estimate of what I did. I admit, what resulted did not have the original smoky, hearty flavor of a classic beef sloppy joe, but it was very flavorful and made a great sandwich filling that was not sloppy at all. Maybe I should call these Tofu Clean Joe's, instead!

Tofu Sloppy (or Clean) Joe's (serves 4-6)
Ingredients
1 block (12-16oz) silken firm tofu
3-4 tomatoes, diced, some seeds and liquid innards removed
3-4 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2-3 Tbs Gochujang sauce (Korean red pepper paste, *see Notes)
1 Tbs ketchup
1 small white or yellow onion, fine diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 stalks of green onion, chopped
Sprinkling of sugar
salt and pepper

For assembly:
8-12 bread slices (Whole Food's organic multigrain is a great one)
8-12 green lettuce leaves
2-4 tomato slices per sandwich if desired

Directions
1. Drain the tofu and mash. Set aside.
2. Heat a medium skillet pan over medium heat. Add in some oil and saute the onion till yellow. Add in half of the garlic and saute until fragrant and lightly tanned. Add in the tofu and cook, stirring occasionally for 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. In a large pan, saute the garlic until lightly tanned. Throw in all the tomatoes and simmer. Add in the Worcestershire, Gochujang, and ketchup. Add in sugar, salt, and pepper until you get the taste you want. For more spicy, add more Gochujang. More tang, add more Worcestershire. More sweet, add more sugar or molasses or brown sugar.
4. Add in the tofu onion mixture. Simmer about 5-10 minutes. Adjust seasoning further as desired. Sprinkle top with chopped green onion.
5. To assemble, spread the tofu mixture 1/3-1/2 inch thick on one bread slice. Place tomato slices on top. Place two lettuce leaves on the other side of the bread and serve (let guests see the wonderful filling before they place the sandwich it all together!).

Notes:
*This came out super tasty and my two housemates really liked it. Really try the Whole Food's organic multigrain small batch bread. Its texture, thickness, and taste is great for pretty much anything. I would definitely make this again when I have some extra tomatoes and silken firm tofu lying about.
* If I had more ketchup laying around and had the made the effort to cut one or two more tomatoes, it would have made more sauce, which I think would have added to the dish overall.
* If you don't have gochujang, you can probably just use some tomato paste from a can and add in pepper flakes or powder.

The BEST Sweet Cornbread

I had previously titled the last post as "Sausage-Kale Bread Pudding and the BEST Cornbread" but I finished the bread pudding recipe and totally forgot to add the cornbread. I remembered now and will correct that, by giving the BEST Cornbread its own post - which I believe is fitting.

Before coming to Texas, I imagined that I would be fed baked beans, barbecue, and cornbread at every turn. After 5 weeks here already, I have found cornbread only sold at the grocery stores and minimally at one or two restaurants. I was quite appalled. Cornbread, I guess, is more of a Southern thing in Georgia or South Carolina, whereas Texas is considered "West".

With this horrible, relentless craving for cornbread (and resisting purchasing the 8" cornbread round at WalMart), I decided to purchase a small pack of cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and baking soda. The basics of baking so that I could make some of my own cornbread.

A couple weeks ago, one of the other interns at the apartment made some Jiffy cornbread, but it was absolutely delicious. Nothing like any Jiffy cornbread I had eaten or made before. The trick, she told me, was to add sugar. Well now, fancy that.

So, heeding her advice, I looked up some "sweet" cornbread recipes online. I came across this recipe that has been tried repeatedly by so many people across time and space. I read some of the comments below and made the revisions they suggested. Also, I was restricted to what pantry items I had on hand in the apartment, so my take on the original is a little different as well.

What resulted was a delicious, moist, sweet (but not too sweet) cornbread that didn't crumble upon handling. I was overjoyed. I hope you try this out yourself as well. It's definitely a keeper for when a cornbread craving hits you as hard as it hit me.

Brown Sugar Cornbread
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3-3/4 cup of dark brown sugar (I mixed some Sugar in the Raw)
1 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 cup lowfat milk
1/3 vegetable oil

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Lightly butter/oil an 8" square pan.
2. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. Combine wet ingredients, then mix into dry ingredients.
4. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle top with brown sugar.
5. Bake for about 25 minutes, until golden on the edges and light golden on top, and a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean. Let cool in pan 5 minutes. Cool completely on wire rack.


Makes 12 squares. Each serving: 173 calories, 7 g fat, 26 g carbs, 3 g protein

Notes: I might leave the cornbread in there for 25-30 minutes next time to get a little crispier crust and bottom. Also, flecking the top more evenly with Sugar in the Raw crystals might be prettier than those crumbles of dark brown sugar (humidity made it clump). Adding chopped jalapeno, chives, corn kernels, or even cheese might make for a more savory bread. Either way, this bread can be eaten as a snack, breakfast, or an accompaniment to vegetarian chili or corn soup.

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.

Vegetable Empanada

Cooking with friends is both fun and time-saving. Not only do you get a few extra hands in the kitchen, but you get enjoyable company that gets to taste the delicious product when the cooking's all done! This is what I finally got to do two weeks before going back to school. I invited five of my friends over to have a cooking/ice cream/crafts party. I said I'd make them vegetable empanadas for lunch, and then we'd make chocolate gelato, and then we'd crochet or do whatever else they wanted to do at my house. I always wanted to make empanadas (it's not just because I went to that Tapas place earlier!), and finding a baked version peaked my interest.


I didn't have any of the Mexican spices on hand, so I sub'd in a good amount of tabasco sauce. I also used whole wheat flour because I was low on normal white flour. I also made some other tweaks, which you'll find in the recipe below. One of my friends who came over was really helpful with the preparation. She helped make and roll out the dough. When she asked for a rolling pin, I gave her a wine bottle wrapped in a cookie sheet because I didn't have one. She laughed at my paucity of baking tools, but I was laughing too. I'm used to it. ;P

Baked Whole Wheat Vegetable Empanadas (adapted from here) Serves 8
Ingredients
3 carrots, chopped (I recommend using less. The carrot flavor overtook the empanadas)
2 medium zucchini, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 - 2/3 can of whole sweet kernel corn (low sodium, preferred)
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
3 minced garlic cloves
4 Tbs (?) Tabasco sauce
2 tsp (?) sea salt
2 Tbs flour mixed with 1/4 cold water
1 cup (?) shredded Mexican cheese
3-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1-1/2 Tbs baking powder
8 Tbs chilled butter
2 tsp soy sauce
1-1/4 cups ice cold water
1 egg mixed with 1 Tbs water

Directions
1. Boil carrots over medium heat until tender.
2. Mix tomatoes with Tabasco sauce and salt. Blend in the 2 Tbs flour-water mixture.
3. Saute onions, then add zuchinni and saute, then add garlic and saute, then add corn. Stir in tomato mixture, bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer 3 minutes; uncover and constantly stir until sauce is thickened.
4. Stir in carrots and cheese. You can add more salt, cheese, and/or Tabasco sauce to taste.
5. Remove from heat, cover, and refrigerate.
6. Preheat oven to 400°F. For empanada crust, combine 3-1/2 cups flour and baking soda. Cut in butter and mix into a coarse meal. Make a well in the center.
7. Mix soy sauce and water and pour into the well of flour. Stir with a fork until the dough rolls away from the sides of the bowl.
8. Knead dough on lightly floured surface for 30 seconds.
9. Divide dough into 8 pieces (we made 7). Roll into an 8" circle.
10. Spoon generous amount (3/4 cup) of filling into center. (You'll have extra leftover. You can set these out at the table if anyone wants extra.)
11. Moisten edges with egg-water mixture. Fold dough over into half-moon shape. Pinch and flute edges.
12. Transfer empanadas onto ungreased cookie sheets on baking pans.
13. Prick tops with fork multiple times and brush with egg-water mixture.
14. Bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Let cool before serving.

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!