February 2012
1 post
Spinach & mushroom lasagna
I love lasagna. I’ve been making lasagna for about 10 years and have my own recipe mixed together from favorite flavors and methods from other lasagna recipes.. This weekend I made the best lasagna to date with some methods from Cooks Illustrated (who can do no wrong, in my eyes!). I really dislike ricotta, hence the cottage cheese usage here.
Ingredients
Enough lasagna noodles to make 4...
November 2011
2 posts
Cranberry apple crumble
We had perfected the cranberry apple crumble last winter by modifying this recipe, but then I never wrote down our modifications. Last night was our first cranberry apple crumble of the season and we are still puckered from the tartness. Modified version below, to remind ourselves..
For pie shell:
1 uncooked pie shell (frozen pre-made, frozen dough, make it yourself, whatever you want)
For...
Thai red curry
The Thai red curry recipes from Rasa Malaysia and Steamy Kitchen are drastically different. After going through a whole jar of red curry paste, we have developed our favorite version from both recipes.
In a medium saucepan, sautee 2.5 tbsp red curry paste in olive oil over medium heat until aromatic (~2 min).
Add 1/2 can coconut milk and whisk into the curry paste, so the curry paste breaks...
September 2011
1 post
Skillet penne alla vodka
My favorite dish, only quicker! Modifications made, original recipe from Cooks Illustrated.
INGREDIENTS
3- 14-1/2 oz cans whole peeled tomatoes -OR- diced tomatoes
2 tbsp EVOO
1/4 cup onion, minced
1 tbsp tomato paste
salt, to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 - 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 cups water
1/3 cup high quality vodka
12 oz (about 3-3/4 cups) penne
1/2 cup heavy cream
...
June 2010
1 post
1 tag
Quiche
After having my first quiche in Paris about a week ago, I decided to make my own! I read about a dozen recipes before mashing it up and making my own version.. With a ready-to-bake pie shell, the quiche took about 15 minutes to put together, 30 in the oven, then my mouth!
I made two and one is going into the freezer.
April 2010
1 post
4 tags
A fabulous brunch
It’s spring and asparagus is in season! I went nuts in Chinatown when I saw that the most beautiful asparagus was only $0.79/lb and bought two huge bunches. Then I had to decide what to do with the asparagus, so the first night I made a tomato sauce with zucchini, onion, mushroom, asparagus and kielbasa sausage for my spaghetti. Plenty of sauce was left over and this brunch was born.
Hash...
February 2010
3 posts
3 tags
Eggs three ways
What do you do when both you and your roommate bring home 2 dozen eggs each? Go egg crazy and make eggs three ways!
One: (more) Chinese tea eggs
I made 15 more Chinese tea eggs as my first attempt to use a lot of eggs. Yum!
Two: eggs en cocotte
I’ve read many, many recipes for eggs en cocotte, but never made them before because I rarely have heavy cream in my fridge. This Saturday...
3 tags
Chinese tea eggs
On a recent visit to SF Chinatown, street vendors were selling Chinese tea eggs as a Chinese New Year specialty. I decided to make my own as a treat for myself since eggs are one of my favorite foods. I adapted from a few recipes I saw online and came up with my own method for the recipe.
I love eggs and eat them like candy if I can’t help myself, so I decided to up the recipe to 10 eggs...
1 tag
Roasted leg of lamb
Lamb is one of my favorite meats to cook because it’s one of the hardest meats to perfect. It can easily be overcooked, under seasoned (leaving a heavy gamey flavor in the meat) or poorly cut (you end up chewing through fat and muscle more than meat).
Julia Child has a few marinade recipes that work for lamb, but I think the marinade matters less than the cooking method. If you’re...
January 2010
7 posts
1 tag
Japanese curry in 2 meals
My latest obsession is Japanese curry. I had it at Curry House in Cupertino and looooved it so very much. Of course, new obsession means I’m going to cook it at least a dozen times until I perfect it.
You can make Japanese curry from the S&B curry bricks or make your own curry roux base and freeze it. Either way, you’ll have curry bricks ready to melt into water for a quick meal...
Wontons, shui gao and ramen
Every time I tell my friends I eat ramen a lot, they seemed shocked because I’m the active chef amongst us. However, my ramen is often a feast!
The most important part of a delicious ramen meal is to start out with a good brand of ramen. Choosing ramen can get to be a lengthy process as there are different types of noodles, flavors and even the difference between the “instant”...
3 tags
Char siu fried rice & garlic honey eggplant
I haven’t made fried rice in a while and was inspired this past Sunday afternoon as I was strolling through Chinatown. I went into my favorite to-go shop and got 1 lb. of char siu, chopped up. The fried rice was made loosely following Rasa Malaysia’s Chinese fried rice recipe with the following changes:
Substituted overnight fried rice with fresh cooked rice that was cooled...
3 tags
Vegetable soup for the sick
Since I’ve been eating a B.R.A.T. (bananas, rice, apple sauce, dry toast) diet for almost a week now and felt a bit better last night, I attempted to have some canned chicken noodle soup. That didn’t sit well with my stomach and I had another miserable day.
My doctor told me it was because canned soups are high in fat and sodium, as well as preservatives, which my body wasn’t...
2 tags
Miso eggplant
Inspired by the cheapness of eggplants at the market, I decided to try my hand at miso eggplant from this recipe. Everything was fine, except the following changes:
2 cups of miso mix for 4 eggplants? No way. I didn’t know what to do with 2 whole cups of the miso mix and decided to distribute it evenly over the eggplants. WAY TOO SALTY. Ended up scraping off the excess miso and eating the...
3 tags
A Christmas lamb & mushroom orzo
My family has a traditional “special” meal during holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, which usually consists of seafood. This year, we decided to have a go at boneless leg of lamb since the demo station at Costco had excellent samples. They had a very simple recipe - sauteed cubes of lamb with Montreal steak seasoning. We bought the smallest leg we could find - 3.5 lbs for...
1 tag
Buttermilk waffles & variations
The most used kitchen appliance in my house, next to the stove, is the waffle iron. My roommate loves to mass make waffle batter, store it in a container in the fridge and have fresh waffles every morning. Over Christmas, I made buttermilk waffles twice from Cook’s Illustrated “The Best Buttermilk Waffles” recipe. I prefer to make waffles ahead of time and then pop them in the toaster for an...
December 2009
3 posts
1 tag
Chicken tikka masala with potatoes
My favorite Indian dish is tikka masala because I love rich, creamy foods that have a hint of spice. When I moved to San Francisco, the Costco’s in the area started carrying Maya Kaimal Indian sauces, which included a quart of tikka masala. Most recently, they renamed it to butter masala. Still the same sauce though.
The tikka masala is very easy to prepare - start some rice in the rice...
4 tags
Frosted Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
Dark chocolate cupcakes from recipe, with no changes. I follow Cooks Illustrated almost religiously; they have never done me wrong with a recipe. It’s worth the $35/year subscription.
The batter came out with the consistency of chocolate mousse and I wanted to eat it right then!
Frosted using Wilton Star Tip #1M. I’ve never used the star tip before, but I was inspired by the...
6 tags
Leek Potato Soup & Shitake Mushroom Pizza
The leek potato soup was surprisingly flavorful despite having only 3 base ingredients: leeks, potatoes and vegetable broth.
Changes I made:
Used a can of broth in addition to 1 qt
Used only 1/2 c. of buttermilk
Generously salt and peppered the soup when in bowl
Shitake mushroom pizza used fresh shitake mushrooms from the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market ($4 for a box), Trader...