Savory Crepes

Back in high school, I worked for a few months at a PMT (boba, to all you non-NorCal-ers) shop taking orders, making drinks, and, most deliciously, making crepes. There’s this big, flat, heated stone…thing that you’d ladle crepe batter onto and spread with a wooden T-shaped stick. All the Californians know what I’m talking about.

Sorry. I get re-infused with NorCal pride every time I go home.

Anyway, I was given a lovely can of Williams and Sonoma crepe mix this past Christmas, and couldn’t wait to try it out. In the absence of a conveniently flat and crepe-sized stone-oven-rock-thinger, I just used a frying pan.

Avocado and Portabello Crepe with Tomatos and Alfalfa Sprouts

1 cup crepe mix (plus water, eggs, oil, etc. as stated in the instructions)
1/2 avocado, sliced
1/4 tomato, sliced
1 portabello cap, sliced
alfalfa sprouts

Mix water and the crepe mix according to instructions. Over low heat, pour the batter thinly onto an oiled skillet. When the crepe solidifies, carefully flip the crepe to heat the other side. The second side cooks quickly, just as the second side of a pancake does, so watch it carefully!

In another skillet, lightly sautee the portabello slices. Place the slices onto a quarter of the crepe, then layer avocado slices and tomato over them. Fold in half and slide onto a plate for easier handling. Feel free to add any type of spread before folding the crepe. At my PMT shop, we used a secret sauce of mayo, sugar, and other stuff you probably don’t want to think about putting in your body. Hummus would make a wonderful substitution.

Fold again into a quarter piece, and stuff some sprouts in the empty pocket. Don’t worry about it being pretty…it’s all going to the same place anyway.

Length of procrastination: 20 minutes

Lazy Daisy Ramen

This post is a result of Bobby being incredibly lazy. All you get is a picture, but damn, doesn’t that picture look tasty? :)

Deliciously chewy noodles in a shiitake mushroom, enoki mushroom and daikon broth with an egg on top and bean sprouts for texture. I tried adding chopped spinach for color, but failed. Will definitely spring for the fresh leaves next time.

Eggity noggity nog

Eggnog! Nothing screams Christmas and then rubs it in your face quite like eggnog. I have missed out on this age-old tradition for my first twenty Christmases because I’ve always been suspicious of drinking eggs. It’s an abomination reserved for opera singers and stupid people in dares.

It’s not bad (Bobby was appalled that angels didn’t start chorusing; he froths at the mouth at the thought of eggy goodness). Hot chocolate will still be my holiday drink of choice, but give this recipe a try. There are a ton of baked good recipes that call for egg whites only, and it’s a delicious use for those sad, unwanted egg yolks. Plus, it’s ridiculously easy.

Eggnog
Modified from Williams and Sonoma

5 egg yolks
2 cups milk, divided
1 cup sugar
generous sprinkling of cinnamon
smaller dash of nutmeg
bourbon (amount depends on what exactly you plan to do after drinking the eggnog)

Beat the yolks together with sugar and one cup of milk. Simmer on low heat, stirring frequently. I tempered my yolks first, but I’m not sure if this was necessary. Better safe than sorry, though…I didn’t want to end up with scrambled eggs.

When the concoction thickens (it took me about 7 minutes), remove the pot from heat, add the second cup of milk, and let cool. Pour through a sieve to remove errant bits of cooked egg. This is the most frustrating part and will take you the better part of ten minutes. Grr.

Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, and bourbon to taste.

Length of procrastination: 20 minutes

Thanksgiving dinner

Some of you may have seen this post already. Bobby was logged into my WordPress account and accidentally posted it to my personal blog instead. His bad.

So!

Here are a few of the dishes we had for our Chinese-Taiwanese-American Thanksgiving dinner. Recipes for this meal as well as the post-Thanksgiving dinner Bobby and I cooked for his parents are forthcoming.

Cindy (fluffy) and Boss (slightly less fluffy), while not edible, were there too. :D

homemade yogurt and granola

Homemade yogurt is easy. Amazingly easy. I had been waiting for a long time to make yogurt because I wasn’t sure if I had everything needed to safely turn milk into yogurt. Turns out you don’t need any fancy temperature setting heater or even a thermometer. Just take milk, a pot, some plain yogurt, and a jacket and you can make it yourself.

The great thing about homemade yogurt is that you can experiment. The first batch I made with skim milk, and basically it turned out to be a somewhat bland, tasteless yogurt that worked well with granola and frozen fruit. In the near future, I plan to experiment with higher fat milk, and even something like goat or sheep milk. And, if you have a half gallon and you don’t expect to finish it soon, turn it into yogurt before it curdles in the fridge.

Plain yogurt with homemade granola and frozen fruit

Ingredients:

Yogurt:
1 quart milk
1/2 container of plain yogurt with live cultures
1 pot
1 glass jar
1 winter jacket or blanket

Granola:
1 cup Quaker steel cut oats (or instant oats)
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup crushed pecans or walnuts
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup brown sugar

Pour all the milk into a pot, and bring to a boil. Then, let the milk cool until you can stick your finger in it. Move the milk into the glass jar. Add the plain yogurt and mix briefly. Close and seal the jar (if it has a lid with a silicone seal that is the best) and wrap it in the blanket. Let it sit overnight, and you’ll have yogurt in the morning.

For the granola, mix all the ingredients (try to make sure the brown sugar isn’t lumpy) and spread over a sheet of aluminum on a cookie tray. Toast in an oven until brown sugar is melted. I left everything in for about 30 minutes in a small toaster oven. This granola recipe was made up on the spot and perhaps a better one will be coming in the near future.

To top the yogurt parfait, add yogurt, a layer of granola, then a layer of berries. Frozen raspberries and blueberries work great, and if Haymarket fruits are available, fresh strawberries would be delicious as well.

Length of procrastination: 45 minutes
Ways to prolong procrastination: Turn it into frozen yogurt using Christine’s ice cream maker

fall eats

and just like that it’s fall again. the weather’s becoming chilly and the school work is piling up. (at least for christine, not for me XD) so what else can you do but cook something warm and put off those psets!

to start, i made more hearty stew. this is still basically take what you have the the freezer, chop it up and put it in water to boil. and with the drop in temperature, having a nice rich brothy stew to drink is wonderful.

beef and pork stew with hearty vegetables

Ingredients
1 lb of beef or pork shoulder for stewing, bone in
1/2 celery heart
1 large size potato
1 cup baby carrots
2 bay leaves
paprika
salt and pepper
garlic powder

Start 6 cups of water to heat in a wok or pot. Place lid on for faster heating. When water starts to boil, put in the meat. Make sure you have enough water to cover the meat. Toss in bay leaves and reduce to a simmer.

Cut potato, celery, and carrots to bite size chunks. After meat has been in the water for 3 minutes, toss in the vegetables. Also add in the salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder to taste.

Let the stew simmer for 20 minutes, occasionally stirring and flipping the meat. When carrots are tender, the soup is ready to serve.

Wow, I realized that the directions really didn’t teach you anything. Mostly, it’s me with a pot of water, leftovers from the fridge, and a collection of spices. I think experimentation is important, and as long as you don’t add too much of anything, a meat stew will always come out smelling and tasting great.

For christine, we also made a veggie stew and appetizer. Since she’s competing at the MIT tournament in a week. we kept it low calorie by using a lot of tofu and veggies.

Tofu slices with sesame seasoning

Ingredients
1/2 block tofu, firm or soft
furikake (rice seasoning)
sesame oil

Slice the tofu into small, thin slices. Arrange the slices onto a plate for serving. Drizzle sesame oil lightly over the tofu, then sprinkle furikake generously.

Tofu and seaweed soup with soy noodles

Ingredients
1/2 block tofu, firm
1/2 cup baby carrots
1/2 celery heart (about 4 stalks)
1 packet seaweed soup seasoning
1 packet soy protein noodles (or rice noodles)

Bring water to a simmer in a pot. White water is heating up, slice carrots and celery heart into small chunks. Toss the vegetables into the water and let cook until celery is soft. Cut tofu into small cubes.

Add in seaweed seasoning. (Seasoning can be made just from 1 sheet of sushi seaweed and 1 shitake mushroom, diced.) Add in the tofu cubes, and flavor with salt and pepper to taste. Add in the noodles, and let the soup simmer until the noodles are the desired softness.

Length of procrastination: 30 minutes per soup
Ways to prolong procrastination: sit and enjoy the soup!

Taiwanese pastries tasty and sweet…

This post is for Shen, who gave me the recipe for these pastries and who had a hilarious “OMGSH” moment this past summer as to who Bobby and I were. It is also several months tardy. Sorry for falling off the face of this earth, guys.

MIT’s Association of Taiwanese Students (aka my life and love) is known campus-wide for our monthly pastry sales. We wake up obscenely early to make a trek out to Chinatown and bring boxes and boxes of fresh pastries back to campus. Back in July, I thought I’d try making my own.

The pastries were absolutely delicious and a big hit with both my housemates and Bobby. I made custard and scallion buns, but I’m definitely going to try making red bean and hot dog (I have some excellent veggie meat) in the future.  This time, the crust was a bit crunchy and the inside rather tough, probably because of the high gluten content of the all purpose flour. I’ve found some pastry flour since, and am looking forward to trying this recipe again.

Taiwanese Pastry Buns
Recipe from the illustrious Shenwen who adapted it from House of Annie

Ingredients
1.25 cup warm water (300 mL)
4 tsp active dry yeast
5 to 6 cups all purpose flour (600 g)
0.5 cup + 1 tbsp sugar (110g)
1.5 tsp salt (10g)
2 tbsp + 2 tsp milk powder (20g)
1 egg
4 tbsp butter (60 g)

Mix the dry yeast with the warm water. Add a pinch of sugar. Let the yeast activate for 10 minutes.

Mix together 4 cups flour, sugar, salt, and milk powder. Add the egg, then the water and yeast mixture, and knead until it forms a dough. Add more flour as needed. I used roughly 4.5 cups of flour. Add the butter and continue kneading to form a smooth and elastic dough. Dough is ready it passes the windowpane test.

Gather dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. Flip dough around to oil the entire dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest until it doubles in size, preferably in a warm place, where it will double faster. I microwaved a cup of water for about a minute to steam up the inside, then stuck the dough in and closed the door.

After the dough has risen, divide it into small balls – one batch will make 18-24 buns, depending on the size you want your buns to be. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes (often your first balls are done by the time you finish the last ones), then shape (see recipe for fillings below).

When all the buns are done, cover loosely and let it rise a second time until doubled in size again. Then, brush the buns on the top with eggwash gently. Bake buns at 350°F for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Custard Filling

Ingredients
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp all purpose flour
2 tbsp corn starch
4 large egg yolks
4/3 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the sugar, flour, cornstarch, and egg yolks until thick and yellow (~2 minutes with a mixer on high speed). Meanwhile, heat milk and vanilla over medium heat.

Gradually add 1/3 of the milk to the egg mixture to temper the eggs; mix well. Add the egg/milk mixture back to the pan and the rest of the milk. Cook, whisking constantly. Make sure you scrape the corners and bottom to prevent scorching. After the custard starts to thicken, cook for another 45-60 seconds.

Pour the custard into a clean bowl and cover. Refrigerate until cold; custard may be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

To make the bun, flatten each ball of dough and put 1-2 tsp custard in the center. Be careful not to overfill, or they filling will spill out while baking. Bring the edges around and pinch closed all the way around. Place the buns pinch-side down on a baking sheet.

Scallion Topping

Ingredients
scallions, roughly chopped
2 tbsp oil
salt
pepper

Lightly fry the scallions with oil, salt, and pepper.

Shape the buns into slightly elongated spheres let rise. Brush the tops with eggwash and sprinkle scallions on top. Place on baking sheet.

Length of procrastination: 3 hours (total, including rise time)
Ways to prolong procrastination: Make more flavors of buns! Nom nom nom nom…

the joy of haymarket

every time i go to haymarket i come home with a backpack and two large bags full of produce. and the first thing i do when i get home is to process the fruit, because they will go bad within 3 days even if left in the fridge. so what do you do with a bunch of strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and oranges? make a smoothie. add in a leftover yogurt, and you have what looks like a yogurt parfait with fruit before you blend it into something that jamba juice would be jealous over.

berry smoothie with yogurt and hand squeezed orange juice

ingredients:

3 large strawberries
about 1/4 cup black berries
about 1/4 cup blueberries
1 container of yogurt
2 oranges

Slice and juice the oranges. layer the berries, then the yogurt, then the juice. see first picture. blend the berries with the yogurt and orange juice until it is a smoothie. see second picture.

since that last recipe was filling neither for your stomach nor for this blog, here is the real treat of haymarket and boston summers.

basil on tomato and mozzarella

ingredients:

1 medium tomato
3 cherry tomatoes
1 ball of mozzarella
10-12 leaves of basil
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

slice the medium tomato thinly. halve the cherry tomatoes.

slice the mozzarella to the size of the medium tomatoes. for the cherry tomatoes, slice the mozarella in half again if needed.

for the medium tomato slices, layer tomato, mozzarella, and one or two basil leaves.

for the small tomato slices, layer a smaller size of mozzarella, half a leaf of basil, and cap with a half slice of cherry tomato.

drizzle plate with olive oil. sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.

beat the heat

summer in boston might be more rewarding than summer anywhere else because it seems so short. and when it happens you completely forget that boston winters suck. because sometimes boston summers suck too, and you need something cool to make it through the day. so here are a couple of things that do wonders in a hot boston weekend.

cucumber and avocado soup with mint

ingredients:
1 large cucumber
1 ripe california avocado
1 sprig of mint
1 stalk green onion
1/2 cup heavy cream or milk

peel and dice the cucumber. in a food processor, blend cucumber by pulsing for a few seconds. slice the avocado in half and remove the pit. scoop out the avocado with a spoon, and add to the food processor. pour in the heavy cream and four leaves of mint. blend the mixture until it is smooth.

pour the mixture into a container and let sit in the fridge for 5 to 10 minutes. after the soup is chilled, garnish with chopped green onion and mint.

haymarket mojito

ingredients:
1 lemon
1 lime
1 sprig of mint
sugar
bacardi rum
lemon lime soda or club soda

cut the lemon and lime into small cubes or half wedges and put them into a highball glass. add about a tablespoon of sugar and three leaves of mint. pour in 1 shot of rum, and muddle until the mint and citrus have released their juices and the sugar is somewhat dissolved into the juice and rum mixture. fill the cup with ice, then fill with soda. for a less sweet mojito, fill with club soda.

Length of procrastination:cucumber soup: 10 minutes. mojito: 5 minutes to make, ?? hours to just sit and chill
Ways to prolong procrastination:drink it.

and btw, here are some pictures of the other stuff i have going in my garde.

revolutionary mac and cheese

when washington’s troops came to the delaware river, they knew they had to cross it in order to save the fledgeling nation of america. it was one of those things that weighted on general washington’s mind heavily night and day. so naturally, when the time came to actually do the deed, washington found himself procrastinating by cooking this revolutionary mac and cheese. would you rather wade through freezing water or munch on gooey cheesy goodness?

actually, the name comes ty: “o.O you have revolutionized my concept of mac and cheese!”

Baked Penne and Cheddar Cheese (adapted from alton brown)

ingredients
1/2 lb penne pasta (or, as pictured above, macaroni)
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
3 cups milk
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
1 or 2 stalks celery, roughly diced
1 large egg
12 ounces sharp shredded cheddar
italian or panko bread crumbs
4 oz starkist tuna (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil pasta in a pot of salted water to al dente, then remove from heat and drain.

While pasta is boiling, heat the butter until it melts. mix in the flour for about 5 minutes until mixture is smooth. add in milk, diced onions and celery and let simmer for about 10 minutes.

Temper in the egg. (Add a bit of the hot liquid to the beaten egg mixture, then slowly add the egg mixture to the rest of the liquid slowly without cooking the egg into lumps.) Add about 3/4 of the cheese to the liquid. Fold in the pasta.

For a tuna mac & cheese, add the canned tuna to the cheese and pasta.

Pour the pasta and cheese into a casserole dish. Top with a layer of cheese, a layer of breadcrumbs, and another alternating layer of cheese and bread crumbs.

Let bake for 30 minutes.

This recipe was different from Alton Brown’s due to missing a few spices, and the addition of a few macro ingredients. Also, the pictured mac & cheese was from a different day and recipe, but both bring similar joy.

Length of procrastination: 30 minutes of preparation, 30 minutes more of baking
Ways to prolong procrastination:
Three hours before starting mac and cheese, starting baking cookies. Make the following: 25 macadamia nut white chocolate cookies, 25 chocolate chip cookies, 25 oatmeal raison cookies, and one large brownie cake. This should continue for about another 30 minutes after the mac and cheese is done, for a total of 4 to 5 hours of not doing the pset, or crossing the delaware.