Japanese Sweet Potatoes

I made these Japanese sweet potatoes recently. Putting something sweet (sugar) on top of something already sweet (sweet potato) might sound odd, but the result isn't cloying at all. Frying the potatoes with honey or sugar gives them a wonderful crunch and sugary glaze. I deviated from the recipe somewhat by steaming the potato first and then pan frying the pieces in olive oil/honey. Click here for the full recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound sweet potatoes
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
• Vegetable oil for frying (I use olive oil)

Buckwheat Tabouli

My friend recently got me hooked on buckwheat, which is actually neither wheat nor even a grain. It's the seed of a fruit! It's high in protein, quick to cook, and really light and tasty. My favorite way to cook it lately has been in a tabouli in place of bulgur wheat. I got the recipe from the back of the Eden foods packet, but you can access the recipe here.

Ingredients

1 cup Eden Organic Buckwheat, rinsed
2 cups boiling water
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 Tablespoons fresh mint leaves, finely minced
3/4 cup fresh parsley, finely minced
2 medium organic tomatoes, diced
1 small cucumber, quartered
1/2 cup green onions, finely chopped
3 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup Eden Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 teaspoon Eden Sea Salt

I soak my buckwheat overnight in filtered water and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to make it more digestible and to neutralize the anti-nutrients. It gets a little slimy, so you have to wash the slime off afterwards. This is normal!

Bamboo and Shiitake Mushroom Rice

I went to Nijiya the other day and picked up a whole bunch of unusual vegetables that I have never cooked with before. One of them is familiar to anyone who eats Asian food--bamboo shoot. It's quite labor intensive to get raw bamboo shoot and prepare it, so I bought the pre-cooked one. When you cut the bamboo in half, there will be a white powdery substance in it. Just wash that out. I was worried what it is, but looked it up on the internet and I guess this is normal.

This recipe makes a quick and healthy vegetarian breakfast. You can add thinly sliced meat if you wish. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1/2 young bamboo shoot, cooked and washed
6 shiitake mushrooms, fresh
1 cup cooked rice
1 Tb soy sauce
1 Tb mirin
salt to taste

Cut up the bamboo and mushrooms into small pieces and sautee everything together for 3-4 minutes over medium heat.

bamboo

More Everyday Asian Meals

I've been on a Japanese/Asian food kick for a month or so. When I don't feel like going off of a recipe, I have been whipping up these instant stir fry meals that are so easy and delicious.

Here are the ingredients I typically use:

bean sprouts

thinly sliced carrots

napa cabbage

onion (white or green)

egg

thinly sliced beef or pork

japanese greens like mizuna or turnips

soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste

you can garnish with...

shredded nori

bonito flakes

sriracha sauce

sriracha and mayo mixed

Harumi's Carrot and Tuna Salad

I've recently discovered Harumi, the Japanese version of Martha Stewart, and I've been trying out some of her easy Japanese recipes. This one is one of her most famous dishes and although the name sounds boring, it's a show stopper. Here's my version.. Click here for the original version (although the measurements are in grams).

Ingredients (serves 4):
1 cup julienned carrots, peeled
half a tin of tuna
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp oil (I use olive oil)

Dressing:
2 tbsp white wine vinegar / white vinegar (I use rice wine vinegar)
1 tbsp mustard (I use dijon although they recommend french grain mustard)
Salt and pepper to taste
Soy sauce to taste

Directions:
1. Cut the carrots into lengths of 5-6cm think juliennes.

2. Saute the carrots, onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes over medium heat. (When you’re done the carrots should still have a little bit of crunch in them.)

3. Once the carrots are lightly cooked, add the drained tuna and then the dressing and mix well.

4. Serve hot or cold.

Okonomiyaki Recipe

Version #2

I did a post recently about okonomiyaki. I finally made my own version (twice) and it came out really well!

Ingredients

• 2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cup dashi soup stock or water (you can make your own dashi stock by simmering kombu kelp and bonito flakes in water. This is what I did.)
• 4-6 eggs
• 1 - 1 1/4 lb cabbage (Napa or Chinese Cabbage is the best)
• 6 tbsps chopped green onion
• 2/3 cup tenkasu (tempura flakes) (I didn't use this)
• 12 - 18 strips of thinly sliced pork or beef
• For toppings:
• Ao-nori (shredded green seaweed)
• Okonomiyaki sauce (or tonkatsu sauce)
• Mayonnaise
• It is also customary to have some shredded red ginger as a topping

NOTE: You can buy all of these products at an Asian market.

Preparation:

Pour dashi soup stock in a bowl. Mix the flour in the soup stock. Rest the batter for an hour in the refrigerator. Chop cabbage finely. Take about 1/2 cup of the batter (to make one sheet of okonimiyaki) in another bowl. Mix chopped cabbage (about 1/4 lb), chopped green onion (about 1 tbsp), and tempura flakes (about 2 tbsps) in the batter. Make a hole in the middle of the batter and add an egg in the hole. Stir the batter. Heat an electric pan and oil slightly. Pour the batter over the pan and make a round. Fry meat or your choice of toppings on the side (I didn't do this. I placed the raw meat on the top of the pancake, flipped the pancake and cooked it like that. Either way works)

Cook 5-7 minutes and place meat (toppings) on top of the okonomiyaki. Flip the okonomiyaki and cook for 5-7 more minutes. Flip the okonomiyaki again and spread okonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise on top. Sprinkle aonori over the sauce. Sprinkle katsuobushi (bonito flakes) and beni-shoga (red ginger) if you would like.

Makes 4-6 sheets.

The original recipe without my notes added is here:http://japanesefood.about.com/od/holidaytraditionalfood/r/okonomiyaki.htm

Version #1, Mayo on the side

Smoke Roasted BBQ Rubbed Whole Chicken With Cider BBQ Sauce

Here's a chicken recipe that imparts that sweet and sour bbq flavor to the bird, but kicks it up with the addition of a good amount of celery seeds, orange zest and apple cider. The result is vinegary, sweet, and smokey. This recipe is from Gourmet's June 2008 issue. I cooked the chicken in the oven instead of the grill, and it still came out tasting great.

The side dish is roasted red peppers and cauliflower with caper vinaigrette, from Gourmet's June 2008 issue. It's so simple to make, and I even broiled the red pepper in the toaster! This was a perfect accompaniment to the chicken.

Click here for the chicken recipe:

http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2008/06/smokeroastedchicken

Ingredients:

FOR CHICKENS

• 3/4 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 whole chickens (3 to 3 1/2 lb each)
• Kosher salt to taste

FOR BARBECUE SAUCE

• 1 cup apple cider
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons minced orange zest
• 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon celery seeds

Click here for the red pepper and cauliflower recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Red-Peppers-and-Cauliflower-with-Caper-Vinaigrette-242872

Ingredients:

• 4 red bell peppers
• 2 heads cauliflower, trimmed and cut into 2-inch florets
• 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup large capers (not salted), drained and rinsed
• 
  

Rachel Ray's Eggplant "Caviar"

Today's recipe comes again from Rachel Ray's Classic 30 Minute Meals. The seeds of the eggplant look like caviar, so Rachel calls it "poor man's caviar". I thought this dish was pretty good, but it needed a little something else. I decided to kick it up a notch by adding the juice of half a lemon and some mint leaves.

I served the eggplant with carrot sticks instead of a baguette. Unfortunately, the carrot sticks didn't really "pick up" the eggplant like I thought they would, so I just ended up eating the dip by itself. :P

The recipe can be found on page 223.

Ingredients

1 medium, firm eggplant

1 clove garlic

2 pinches ground allspice

coarse salt and pepper to taste

handful of fresh flat leaf parsley leaves

a drizzle of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

1 whole grain baguette or other long crusty bread, sliced at bread counter

Preheat oven to 500 F

Cut 2 or 3 slits into one side of whole eggplant. Put the eggplant directly on the oven rack in the middle of the oven and roast for 20 minutes. It should look like a flat tire when it comes out. Make sure the slits face up so it doesn't lose liquid.

When the eggplant cools, remove the skin with a knife. Throw away teh skin. Add the cooked eggplant flesh to the food processor and combine with garlic, allspice, salt, pepper, parsley and EVOO. Pulse grind the mixture into a paste. Serve with crust bread rounds.

The eggplant after coming out of the oven

Rachel Ray's Cauliflower with Red, Green and Black Confetti

Orange Cauliflower with Red, Green and Black confetti

Rachel Ray has done it again! Why did I ever doubt the Yum-O queen in the first place?

Last night I made this delicious side dish in only 15 minutes. I stuck to Rachel's recipe, but I used organic orange cauliflower instead of the usual white ones you see in the store.

That's right! Orange cauliflower! I got mine at Whole Foods for about $4. They also had a purple variety. They taste the same as regular white cauliflower, from what I can tell.

The dish itself was full of flavor, as I've come to expect with Rachel Ray. The taste of the anchovies definitely came through, but Rachel notes that if you don't like anchovies, you can omit them from the recipe. The combination of salty olives, roasted peppers and fresh green parsley gave the usually "boring" cauliflower a nice kick.

Here's the recipe. It's from her cookbook Classic Rachel Ray 30 minute meals and is on page 199.

Ingredients:

1 head cauliflower, separated into bite size florets

2 Tb EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

3-4 large cloves of garlic, chopped

4 anchovy fillets (optional)

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 jar (14 oz) roasted red peppers, drained and diced into small bits

16 oil cured olives, drained and chopped into bits (I used green olives)

1/2 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Fill a pot with 1 inch of water. Bring to a boil and add the cauliflower, cooking for about 6-8 minutes until tender, covered.

Drain the water and put the cauliflower to the side.

Put the pan back on the stove, add EVOO, garlic anchovies and crushed red pepper flakes, and cook on medium heat. Break up anchovies so that they dissolve into the oil. Add roasted peppers, olives and parsley. Add cauliflower and toss. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Voila!

Organic Orange Cauliflower

Confetti in a pan!

The finished dish

Marinated Eggplant with Capers and Mint

Marinated Eggplant with Capers and Mint, Taragon Scrambled Eggs

I am used to always eating eggplant with tomato sauce, so when I found this recipe in an old issue of Gourmet, I knew I had to try this intriguing tomato-free version of eggplant.

The results exceeded my expectations; the eggplant was light and refreshing thanks to the mint leaves, with just a little tartness from the vinegar and capers. Surprisingly, the mint complimented the eggplant perfectly and didn't overpower the dish at all. This just might be my favorite way to eat eggplant now!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound thin Italian or Asian eggplants (2 to 3), cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup chopped mint
• 2 tablespoons small capers, rinsed
• 
  

Recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Marinated-Eggplant-with-Capers-and-Mint-242842

Devil's Chicken Thighs with Braised Leeks

This is a recipe from the cookbook Sunday Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin. Lucques is a famous upscale restaurant in Hollywood. I have not yet had the opportunity to dine there, so making this dish at home is the next best thing to dining at the restaurant.

Though the prep work was at times daunting, the effort was well worth it. The result is a moist, flavorful, mustardy chicken infused with thyme and topped with heaps of crispy buttery breadcrumbs.

Brad had originally volunteered to cook this recipe all by himself, but after going through the first few steps, we realized that it really was a two person job.

Here's the links to the recipe:

Chicken thighs: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/09/dining/091grex.html
Braised Leeks: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/09/dining/092grex.html?_r=1

INGREDIENTS:

FOR CHICKEN

2 chicken thighs, trimmed of excess skin and fat
1 cup thinly sliced onion
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon thyme leaves
2 chiles de árbol, or other small dried red chilies, thinly sliced
2 fresh bay leaves, thinly sliced, or 2 dried leaves, crumbled
¾ cup dry vermouth
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups fresh bread crumbs
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
½ cup finely diced shallots
½ cup Dijon mustard
1 extra-large egg
2 teaspoons chopped tarragon
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Braised leeks (recipe follows)
¾ cup chicken stock.

FOR LEEKS:

6 large leeks
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
About ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup sliced shallots
1 tablespoon thyme leaves
½ cup dry white wine
1½ to 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock.

Braise seasoned leeks:


Marinate chicken in wine, onions, chiles, thyme, bay leaves:


Create mustard mixture with tarragon, egg, shallots, wine, pepper:


Toss chicken in mustard mixture and top with breadcrumbs:


What it looks like after coming out of the oven

Julia Child's Ratatouille

I have to admit that I was expecting a "prettier" dish. The movie Ratatouille made this famous dish look like a work of art. The eggplant, zucchini and such were cut into coins and then laid out in a casserole like a deck of cards. Not so with Julia Child's version.

The trick to ratatouille, according to Julia, is cooking the elements separately first and then combining them in the end to simmer. This method retains the "shape and character" of each ingredient. If you don't own the book, you can find the recipe here, straight from the publisher (it's a pdf):

http://knopfdoubleday.com/marketing/cooking/Ratatouille-condensed.pdf

I would also highly recommend watching this entertaining and informative video. It's an "homage to Julia Child", and an excellent demonstration of how to prepare the ratatouille.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efQlr1RYgrk

The dish I made was pretty good and it only took an hour or so to make. I think it would have been better if I had salted the eggplant ahead of time to get out the bitter taste (I just didn't have time for this--I was hungry!). Also, I didn't have onions on hand, so this was a missing element of the dish.

Cook the zucchini and eggplant first, one minute on each side, then cook the onion and bell peppers.

Peel the tomatoes. This is the first time I did this and I was surprised how easy it is! Drop the tomatoes into boiling water for exactly ten seconds. Then peel!

Layer everything together and simmer.

Bon Appetite!

Pea Soup with Honey Sweetened Eggplant

Today I came across this recipe for split peas with honey sweetened eggplant on Epicurious:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Split-Peas-with-Honey-Sweetened-Eggplant-232481

I thought it would give me a perfect opportunity to make use of my frozen chicken stock and to prepare myself for the ratatouille I'll be making tomorrow. Not having split peas on hand, I used frozen petite peas and changed the soup recipe a little. In making these changes, I was inspired by Michael Chiarello's recipe for Spring Pea Soup:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-chiarello/spring-pea-soup-recipe/index.html

Here's my version.

Ingredients:

1 cup frozen petite peas

1/4 cup cream

2 cups chicken stock

2 garlic cloves

1 medium onion

olive oil

1 bay leaf

1 tsp thyme

salt and pepper and lemon juice (about half a lemon) to taste

Saute the onion and garlic in a pot with olive oil over medium high heat. After 8 minutes or so, add the stock, bay leaf, peas and cream. Bring to a boil. Take out about 1/4 cup of peas and set aside. Puree the rest of the soup in a blender, adding more stock or cream if necessary. Add the whole peas back into the soup. Salt and pepper and lemon juice to taste.

The pop of the whole peas in the soup as you eat it is just wonderful. I don't even like peas that much, but I would eat this pea soup any day--even on a scorching hot day such as this! (Note: It was even better cold the next day) The lemon is a nice finishing touch that brightens up the soup.

Here's the honey sweetened eggplant served over quinoa..

I didn't add the capers because I didn't have any on hand, but even without capers it was great. This is a pretty simple rustic dish. The addition of honey is a nice touch; it was surprising that just a dab of honey could change the flavor of the whole dish.

Radishes, Butter and Sea Salt

I have never been to France, and I desperately want to go. My main motivation is the food, of course!

I read in Gourmet that a common French snack is radishes served with a lick of soft butter and sea salt. This simple combination seems so elementary, yet it's a perfect trio that showcases the best of each ingredient.

If you use good quality unsalted butter (Plugra's European style butter is great. You can buy it at Whole Foods) and coarse sea salt, the result is heavenly. The peppery radish is tempered by the creamy butter, while the coarse sea salt adds a nice crunchy texture.

If you want to serve this at a dinner party, try these open-face butter and radish sandwiches from Bon Appetite:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Open-Face-Butter-and-Radish-Sandwiches-241634

THE Meatloaf

Today Brad and I made THE meatloaf. This is the best meatloaf I have ever had, and it's our third or fourth time making it.

The recipe is from Gourmet February 08 issue. You can find it here:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Meatloaf-241512

Yes, that's prunes in the meatloaf. Trust me, it makes the dish, and yet you don't even taste it.

To accompany the meatloaf I made Gourmet's unstuffed sweet and sour cabbage, which you can find here:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Unstuffed-Sweet-and-Sour-Cabbage-350572

I made it without the meat, and with raisins substituting for cranberries.

The finished dish!