It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Ever since I’ve moved to Boston, life’s been a bit busy and I haven’t found too much time to practice my favorite pass-time that is cooking. So without further ado, here’s a quick update…
My girlfriend and I found some motivation to cook this past weekend and made a couple of wonderful dinners with recipes stolen from Bon Appetit. One of the recipes called for a whole Striped Sea Bass, so we ventured out into Astoria on Saturday and found a wonderful fish market called Best of the Sea on 31st and 30th.
This fish market is simply fantastic. The fish we bought was wonderfully fresh, the price was right, the seafood selection is huge, AND they clean the fish for you with not extra charge.
I’ll post some pictures on the dishes we cook later on.
Ladies and gentlemen, as you can tell from the long time lag between my posts, I’ve fallen off my 52-weeks challenge. Life’s just been a bit busy lately. Even though I don’t have time to cook a new dish every consecutive week, I do get in a new one here and there.
Instead of tracking my attempts at cooking something new by week #, each dish cooked will be numbered in sequential order until I get to #52. So without further ado, I will now showcase dishes #7 and #8:
Dish #7 - Mom’s Spareribs
As you can guess form the name of the dish, this delicious recipe for spareribs is an original from the lady who taught me how to cook. When I was a kid, I would sit on a stool in the kitchen and watch my mother work her magic on the stove. Simmer small pieces of spareribs in a mixture of dark soy, light soy, rock sugar, ginger slices, and garlic for at least one hour and then serve hot over some jasmine rice.
It just can’t be any easier for a great tasting Asian style dish.
Dish #8 - Roasted Chicken by Jamie Oliver
This roasted chicken recipe comes straight from Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef cookbook. The spices used underneath the chicken skin are basil, parsley, and marjoram. Lemon, bay leaves, and rosemary were stuffed inside the chicken. And the chicken was patted with kosher salt and ground black pepper and drizzled with olive oil.
For a 2.5lb - 3lb chicken, cook at 425F for about an hour. Served with some whole wheat couscous and grilled vegetables.
I’ve been MIA and it’s time to catch up on postings for my 52 Weeks Challenge.
Inspiration for week 5, Jalapeño Turkey Burger, came from a restaurant called Fatty’s Cafe in Astoria, NY. While dining there with my girlfriend, I had one of the most amazing turkey burgers ever. It was moist and full of flavor. Bites of Jalapeño provided that extra oomph. Here’s my attempt using this recipe, served with provolone cheese, grilled bell peppers, and a side of greens drizzled with a cranberry vinaigrette dressing.
The dish for week 6 is one of the traditional dishes of the Louisiana/Creole influence. Using a rather tasty and authentic recipe found on gumbopages.com, I made a huge pot of Jambalaya.
The color, the taste, the bold flavors, the awesomeness of Jambalaya.
And then the bowl was all empty…
During week 3, I had some buddies over for some warmth-inducing udon noodle bowls. I’ve been making udon noodles bowls quite often lately trying to get the soup base just right and the right mixture of extraneous “stuff” to accompany the udon. So that’s not the new dish. The new dish was the shrimp tempura that went alongside the noodle bowls.
First, I peeled, devined, washed and drained about 40 medium sized fresh shrimps. That took a little longer that I would’ve liked. Next, dip and coat the shrimp in the sequence of flour, egg, and Japanese breadcrumbs. And finally, deep fry in 350 degrees Canola oil or Corn oil for less than a minute on each side. (Stay away from vegetable oil because it gives fried foods a burnt oily taste)
The color was a little dark, which means the frying time could’ve been reduced.
On week 4, I made an experimental fish dish for my girlfriend. First, I made a couple of tin foil pouches. In the pockets, lay down slices of onions and chunks of garlic, add fillets of tilapia (or some other white fish), add slices of tomato and chopped basil, drizzle on some olive oil, add some salt and pepper, and finally add light/sweet white wine. Use decent wine for this because the fish will absorb the flavor of the wine you chose.
Seal up the pockets to make sure they’re air tight and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 15-25 minutes. The time really depends on the thickness of your fillets and there’s a bit of trial-and-error with this. When it’s done, serve each pocket with some whole wheat couscous that’s cooked with chicken broth.
Dishes for weeks 1 and 2 of my 52 weeks challenge (cooking a new dish every week) were of Japanese origin. Week 1 was chicken and egg on brown rice, where the sauce is a blend of mirin, soy sauce, onions, dashi, and sugar.
Week 2 was all about curry beef with Japanese short grain rice, with some extra onions, peas and carrots.
In an effort to expand my culinary know-how, I’m going on a personal challenge. I will be cooking a new dish every week for 1 year, which means that I’ll be learning to cook 52 new dishes by the same time next year.
Would you join in on this challenge as well? I really don’t think you can go through life without knowing how to operate in the kitchen and creating something really special. Week after week, I will be submitting a post for each new dish. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up with this challenge.
Platinum Chef Mo
A quick post about a couple dishes from this past weekend. First up is the awesome casserole baked by my girlfriend. Loads of handmade potato hash browns, broccoli chunks, Italian sausages, eggs, soymilk, and cheese all come together for this fantastic Saturday morning brunch:
Then comes a hearty and healthy Moroccan stew (The recipe is stolen from my roommate). The main ingredients are vegetable stock, chick peas, zucchini, carrots, and onions. And pinches of cummin, celery seed, salt, pepper, and hot pepper were added to taste. The soup was complimented by some fresh bread from a local bakery.
I’ve been snacking like crazy on these addictive dried sweet potato wedges that I get from the nearby Chinese supermarket. They’re chewy, slightly sweet, filling, and apparently ranks #1 in vegetable nutrition. I’m sure they’re way better than all the fatty potato chips and candy you’ll find in the regular supermarkets and vending machines.
Next time if you’re looking for a new snack, try to find yourself some dried sweet potato. They’re wonderful for snacking and I’m sure you’ll be able to find some in your nearby Whole Foods or other specialty store. But if you’re feeling inspired, you can make them yourself as well.
Well, sort of. I came across the Tastebook website and thought that it was a very interesting idea. A way to compile all your favorite recipes into your own custom cookbook, talk about a great gift idea. The only problem is that you can’t use your own recipes.
But then again, I could just head over to Target and get material for my own personal customized recipe book. :p
In the past few weeks, I’ve been busy fiddling with a variety of pizza creations. I sort of cheated by using pre-made Pillsbury Pizza Crust stuff because I didn’t have the time or the talent to make my own.
First off, there’s the classic Hawaiian pizza (pinapple and ham) that I’ve made numerous times in the past. It’s the one on the right in these pictures. Then there was the teriyaki chicken (chicken bits, teriyaki sauce, onions, garlic, and pinapple chunks) on the left:
And then there was this one that I made with my girlfriend. The toppings are spinach, ham, mozzarella, and onions. Slices of the pizza were served with a side bowl of homemade leek and potato soup. The brilliant green color is from the peas we added to the soup:
