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.

Taro Coconut Milk with Tapioca (西米露)

Summer is a time for cool, refreshing desserts. Xi mi lu is a popular Asian dessert commonly served after dinner at restaurants, and it is suuuper easy to make. The only difficult part is waiting for the damn thing to cool enough to count as “refreshing”. I burned about fifty layers of skin off the roof of my mouth by tasting it as it cooked.

PSA: Coconut milk fresh off the stove is Very Hot.

Taro Coconut Milk with Tapioca (西米露)
Adapted from Eupho Cafe (Recipe in Chinese)

Ingredients
2/3 cup mini tapioca pearls
600g (about one med) taro
2 cans coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar

Cook the tapioca. The original recipe says to boil water, turn off the heat, add the tapioca, and cover for 20 minutes. Reboil, turn off heat, and cover for 10 minutes. This doesn’t make any sense to me because when you cook tapioca, you have to stir constantly to make sure the pearls don’t stick to each other.  However, I followed the directions blindly and ended up with a solid block of tapioca. I spent the next hour or so trying to separate the pearls. Go Christine. You’re a smart one. Also, I don’t know why my tapioca is green.

SO. Let’s try this again.

Cook the tapioca. Bring about 3 cups of water to a boil and reduce to medium heat. Add the tapioca and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. The pearls should turn clear when they’re cooked, with no opaque white dots in the middle. Cooked tapioca is slightly chewy (or “QQ”), neither hard nor mushy. Immediately drain and transfer to a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking.

Now, taro is a PAIN to work with. They’re tough little buggers to peel, and bleed starch all over your hands. Do you best to cut them into 1cm cubes.

Toss them into a pot with the coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Add the sugar and cover, stirring occasionally until taro becomes soft, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and chill in the refrigerator. When ready to eat, drain the tapioca again and add to the taro/coconut milk soup. Mix and serve.

Length of Procrastination: 50 minutes of hands-on time, forever and a half to chill.
Ways to Prolong Procrastination: Cook the tapioca wrongly and spend forever trying to separate the chunks.

do you wok the wok

recently i watched a movie called “taste of happiness” that had a shanghai chef in japan who cooked all these dishes in this huge wok. my mom also cooks with a wok and every time i go home to eat, i marvel at how well scrambled eggs come out. other things seem to cook differently in a wok too – green veggies always come out more colorful and less wilted, and meat gets cooked thoroughly and tenderly without ever sticking to the side. so for a few weeks i was raving about how awesome a wok is. then, christine bought me a wok as a present, and last night i broke it in and made my first meal in the wok.

i also used a new wok scoop that i bought in chinatown, and a butcher’s knife christine bought for me. the butcher’s knife is great – it is heavy and sharp and cuts vegetables completely differently than western chef’s knives. the wok scoop, surprisingly, is all you’d need to cook anything in the wok. you can stir the ingredients being cooked, spoon in broth or spoon out soup, you can use the edge to cut meat or veggies into smaller chunks in the wok, use it to serve single servings of rice, you can even scramble eggs using the scoop.

i made cucumber with scrambled eggs (i would have done the traditional tomato and eggs but my haymarket cucumbers were looking a bit overripe) and a large batch of garlic green beans. i made half of it with marinated tofu leftover from our barbeque last night, and another half with beef (from leftover hamburger). so christine, here’s to cooking together to procrastinating together.

Cucumber and Scrambled Eggs

Ingredients

two eggs
one asian cucumber

scramble two eggs in a bowl. sprinkle with salt. heat wok with a bit of oil. before oil gets hot and starts smoking, pour the egg into the wok. occasionally stir until egg starts to firm, then scoop the scrambled egg back into the bowl.

peel and slice cucumber at an angle into elongated oval slices. heat oil in wok. put a bit more oil so that the cucumber doesnt become burned or dry, and will come out with more color. stir-fry cucumbers for two minutes. add the eggs back in, stir fry and add salt to taste.

Tossing the ingredients in the wok

Garlic Green Beans with Marinated Tofu or Beef

ingredients:
1 lb green beans
1/2 package (1 cube) extra firm tofu
1 clove garlic
1/2 lb ground beef
soy sauce and salt

marinated tofu:

slice extra firm tofu into 1/4 inch slices. prepare a marinade of soy sauce, sesame oil, and furikake, and soak the tofu in the marinade. be sure to flip the tofu once so both sides get covered by furikake. after marinating, cut the tofu into bite size squares.

beef:

take 80% lean hamburger (1/4 to 1/2 lbs, about the size of 1 burger patty). hand mix garlic powder, adobo powder, salt, pepper, and cumin.

wash and prepare the green beans by pinching off both ends, then breaking the beans into 1 to 2 inch long segments. peel and dice one clove of garlic into larger, rough slices. heat oil in wok, and toss in the tofu or the beef. if using beef, break the meat into small chunks as it cooks. remove the tofu when the sides barely start to brown, and the beef when it is almost thoroughly cooked.

heat some oil and toss in the garlic. stir for a few seconds for the garlic to start flavoring the oil, then toss in the green beans. stir fry the green beans, making sure that everythings gets a slight coat of oil and starts to get a bit tender. toss the tofu or beef back into the wok and stir fry together, adding salt and soy sauce to taste. remove when the green beans are tender but still slightly crunchy, and still have a bright green color to them.

cooking time: 15 minutes to prepare green beans and cucumber while rice is cooking, 15 minutes to stir fry.
ways to prolong procrastination: cook a large batch of food. the wok is huge.

no recipe needed

because all i’m making is fresh, squeezed orange juice. when i was in Serbia for the Summer World Universiade Games one of the things i got addicted to was freshly squeezed orange juice from the local SuperMaxi. The total cost was 295 dinars for a huge litre of the delicious stuff, or a bit less than $5. of course, i’d down the whole thing between the time we left the SuperMaxi and when we left the mall.

recently, i got a hand oj extractor, and went to Haymarket and bought a bunch of Florida juicing oranges. I’d never noticed but since the juicing oranges had really thin skins, they were hard to eat, but easy to juice, compared to navel oranges. and the juicer practically gutted each orange half, taking out all the pulp and leaving only a dried, empty shell. it was also alot easier than i expected. just think, while making juice you’re also getting in a good arm exercise. freshly squeezed orange juice is always a win-win situation.

Length of procrastination: 10 minutes

Ways to prolong procrastination: Make lemonade. Then make limeade. Then make a strawberry banana raspberry smoothie in my new Magic Bullet.

Pan-fried Tofu with Napa Cabbage and Vermicelli

The weekend before last, I took a short trip back home to California for my dad’s birthday. Usually when I’m home, my mom doesn’t ever let me touch the stove because, in her words, she doesn’t like eating food made by people who don’t know how to cook. Ouch…burn.

To be fair, my mom is the best cook in the entire world.

This tofu, napa cabbage, and vermicelli dish is one that she taught me that weekend. And because she was swamped with cooking a banquet-sized dinner, she actually let me pan-fry the tofu! (Under her careful supervision, of course.) Progress is being made.

Pan-fried Tofu with Napa Cabbage and Vermicelli
From my momma’s kitchen

Ingredients
1 package of extra-firm tofu
1 medium-sized head of napa cabbage
2 rectangular prisms of vermicelli (they usually come 3 to a bright pink mesh bag in Asian supermarkets)
cooking oil
sesame oil
soy sauce
salt, white pepper, Asian seasonings to taste
corn starch or other thickening agent (optional)

Put vermicelli in a bowl of cold water to soak.

Cut tofu into small, flat blocks, about 1/2″x2″x3″, and lightly pan-fry with sesame oil. Set aside.

Slice the napa cabbage and stir-fry for 5-10 minutes. They should still be crunchy and undercooked. Add in the tofu along with about 1/2 cup of the water the vermicelli has been soaking in and cover.

While you wait, remove the vermicelli from the water and cut into 6″ strands. This step is skippable if you don’t mind long strands of vermicelli or if, like me, you just forget. Add in the vermicelli when the napa is almost cooked through. It’s important not to add the noodles in too early because they’ll turn into mush if cooked for too long. Season to taste. I usually use soy sauce, salt, white pepper, and some Asian “vegetarian seasoning” from home. The thing is like MSG–it makes everything taste like magic–but has to be all-natural because I bought it at an organic/health food store. But I digress.

If you prefer your sauce to be a little thicker, feel free to add in some corn starch or flour.

When your napa is soft, it’s all done! Nom to your heart’s content. Or until it’s all gone.

Length of procrastination: 20 minutes

Ways to prolong procrastination: Cook some rice to go with it!

Meet My New Toy

She was sitting on the shelf at Rite-Aid with a little $19.99 tag in front of her. I walked past her and stole a glance. She glanced back. I walked past again, this time looking pointedly, but trying not to act too interested. She looked pointedly back. On the third pass, I stopped in front of her and stared. She stared back, flashing her cardboard box seductively so that the light bounced off the words “delicious versitility” and “fully automatic”. I nervously shifted my weight from one foot to the other, then stooped down to look her in the eye. She cocked her head and winked at me. I caved.

Yes. I bought an ice cream maker from Rite-Aid. I dare you to judge me after eating some of the ice cream that comes out of it (I feel like using the feminine pronoun here would be inappropriate for some audiences). I don’t have $50 to blow on some gorgeous Cuisineart supermodel. My cute little Hamilton Beach does the job and does it well. Sure, her extension cord is only about a foot long. Sure, it takes an entire freezer full of ice, plus half a carton of salt, for her to freeze ice cream properly. Sure, she’s a bit bulky and unwieldy, but dangnammit, she makes a gallon of ice cream in the flavor of my choice. And that, my friends, is true love.

I’ve made two kinds of ice creams so far: green tea and raspberry+apricot. The green tea was the honest-to-goodness best green tea ice cream I’ve ever had. It’s not made with a custard base (no eggs!), so it’s got a much lighter texture–just like green tea is supposed to be. I’ve always thought that the store-bought versions were too creamy and too sweet, but this ice cream is absolutely perfect. Plus? No heat, so you can go from mixing bowl to mouth in less than an hour.

The raspberry and apricot ice cream came out with a consistency more like frozen yogurt than ice cream, probably due to the amount of water in it. This didn’t bother me, but the apricot syrup did come with a whole ton of sugar, making the final product really crazy freaking sweet. Not that I’m complaining or anything, but I’d probably cut the amount of granulated sugar I put in by half if I were to make this again.

Green Tea Ice Cream
From Jason Truesdell

Ingredients
4 cups heavy cream
4 cups whole milk
2 cups  sugar
4 heaping tbsp matcha (green tea) powder
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk the matcha with the milk and sugar, making sure the powder dissolves. Stir in the cream and vanilla. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes, then freeze and churn according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

Makes about 3 quarts.

Raspberry and Apricot Ice Cream
I made it up! Seriously.

Ingredients
5 cups milk (I used 2%)
3 cups + a sprinkle of sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 large eggs, beaten
4.5 cups heavy cream
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 can of apricot halves (12 oz.)
2 cups frozen raspberries

Combine milk, sugar, and salt in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Do not boil!

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs as you pour half of the hot milk mixture into it. This tempers the eggs so that you get custard instead of scrambled eggs when you pour everything back into the saucepan. Cook over medium heat while stirring until the mixture coats the back of the spoon. It’ll be nice and thick and almost gooey. Chill in the refrigerator (or freezer).

While you’re waiting for your custard base to cool, scoop out your apricot halves and dice them. Save the syrup! Size doesn’t matter a whole heckuva lot. Just make sure you’re okay with that size apricot going into your mouth. Add the syrup and apricot pieces into your cooling custard.

In a small saucepan, heat the frozen raspberries with a sprinkle of sugar so that their juices come out. Stir and squash them as best you can, then pour the raspberries through a strainer into your apricot-flavored custard. This’ll remove the raspberry seeds and residual pulp, but feel free to skip this step if you like the crunch.

When everything’s cold, stir in the heavy cream and vanilla. Freeze and churn according to your ice cream maker’s directions.

Makes one gallon.

Length of procrastination: 50 minutes  (green tea), 1.5 hours (raspberry apricot)

Ways to prolong procrastination: Repeatedly open the freezer door to check whether the custard is cool yet. The answer is no, and it probably prolongs the cooling process. Oops.

Also: Bobby’s back! All the nice, high-res artsy-fartsy photos were taken by him. Visit his blog for more pictures and general awesomeness. ^^

I’m submitting these to the Ice Cream Social hosted by Savor The Thyme, Tangled Noodle and Scotty Snacks.