Tamales, made fresh, made easy

Tamales really aren't that hard, but they do take some time to make and cook. They are especially EASY when you by the pre-mixed Masa dough at your neighborhood Mexican supermarket. 5 pounds for 5 bucks. I made 28 veggie tamales. Enough for a very large family or for a small family like mine to eat for 3 days.
What else do you need? Corn husks (be sure to soak them in a pot of water for an hour before you try to work with them), and fillings: I used roasted green chiles and cheddar cheese and green salsa. You can use anything you like.

 

Open the husk, spread a handful of dough in there, lay in a bit of filling, and fold it up like wrapping a present.

 

I stood mine all up in a large stock pot with my old metal steam tray in the bottom. Make sure the water is below the tamales. Keep adding a bit of water, every 15 minutes or so, add a cup. Do not let the pot run dry. Cover the pot. Steam for an hour, or more as needed.

YUM!!!
And it's the season for Tamales -- their are a holiday staple in Mexican families. Enjoy some today! :)

Thai Noodle Soup: street food recipe

Still enjoying the Lonely Planet Street Food cookbook. Travel photos, stories of food culture around the world and recipes... combines some of my favorite things. This one is a tasty easy soup-- a staple in Thai street food and home-cooking.
My recipe...
Boil chicken stock (32 oz) (or veggie stock, but add a bit of oil).
Add white pepper and ground ginger, 1-2 tsp each.
Add 1 cup of sliced mushrooms.
Drop in meatballs (1 in. in diameter) made with pork or turkey, or a mix of both, or use tofu.
Let meatballs boil 5 min.
Add rice noodles, which you have already soaked for 5 minutes.
Boil 5 more minutes till noodles are soft and meatballs are done.
Garnish each bowl with cilantro, green onion, Bamboo shoots, and lime juice.

Yummy breakfast I made for Mia the next day... half of a mini chocolate croissant, ham&cheese scramble and melon. The picture is too delicious not to share.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Korean Tofu Salad with Citrus Dressing

When I was in Korea, I had this amazing salad at the Hancook Restaurant at Seoul Tower. So I tried to recreate it. Thinly sliced firm tofu, fried in a bit of oil, then cut in triangles. Very thinly sliced green peppers (and red and yellow and orange if you like) and red onion sauteed for just a few minutes to soften them just a bit. The dressing was veggie oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar and lemon juice. Toss it all together and let it sit in the fridge to marinate as long as you want. I served it over a green salad.
Mine wasn't as good as the one I had in Korea. Their dressing was a bit sweet. Maybe I'll add agave or brown sugar next time I try to make it. I've also read about some soy+sesame+orange juice dressings -- that sounds good too. Happy cooking.... <3

Sweet Potato Muffins

I'm heading off to Korea and Japan for a work trip. Blog posts may be spotty, so I hope this will keep you satisfied for a bit.

I made this a few days ago for breakfast -- Sweet Potato MuffinS!!!!!!
It was gonna be carrot cake, but I decided to sub sweet potato for carrots and a banana for the 2 eggs. Why not go vegan when you can? It was so good and moist and sweet. I cut the sugar down in the recipe because of the sweet fruit/veg. I recommend this.

2 cups white whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I like 2 tsp)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 banana
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cups chopped or mashed sweet potato (I steam mine in the microwave for 5 minutes, then dice -- 1 big one will work)
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; whisk until blended. In a separate bowl, mash banana and sugar with a wooden spoon or fork. Add oil and orange juice, then combine with flour mixture. Fold in sweet potato.
2. Divide batter among prepared liners(each about 3/4 full). Bake 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Vegan Mango BBQ Beans & Garden Salad

Delicious Dish! And Healthy too!
Mango BBQ Beans, recipe from Appetite For Reduction.

I haven't posted about food in a while. We ate this delicious "chili" over rice and had corn bread on the side. I also left out the red pepper flakes and added just a bit of chili powder. I wanted it mild (I prefer spicy, but my family doesn't :(
This has fantastic flavor -- make it ASAP!!

As for other veggie delights... Our garden is struggling. Cucumber and zucchini just did not take off, but our lettuce and potatoes did. And you'll see we have some sad looking broccoli and a bunch of uninvited mushrooms growing in there. How is your garden doing?

Home-grown lettuce

Form the garden to the table in just minutes!

Homemade Delights: Part 2

The Lemon Cake.
I tried this Martha Stewart Recipe:
http://www.marthastewart.com/632498/lemon-cake

Martha's is very pretty.

But as usual (I also skip/omit/change something), I skipped something -- the whipped frosting. I did make the syrup and glazed the cake and topped it with some leftover lemon slices soaked in the syrup. It was so dense and delicious. Lots of butter (YUM) and citrus-y (lots of Zest! and extra juice too.) The extra lemon juice kept the cake very moist. Sadly, I had to retire my spring-form cake pan as the bottom doesn't fit tight and there was a lot of dripping onto the bottom of the oven which led to a VERY smokey house. :(  But the cake turned out fine. YEAH!!!

Baking is fun and the rewards are fantastic!
Get on Board!!! :)

Homemade Delights: Part 1

I made two sweet treats this weekend. Kettle Corn and a Lemon Cake. It was pouring rain so it was nice to cook and eat some comfort food (ie. sweets :)
Please make this Kettle Corn ASAP! It is easy and really satisfies!!!

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup unpopped popcorn kernels

Directions

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium heat. Once hot, stir in the sugar and popcorn. Cover, and shake the pot constantly to keep the sugar from burning. Once the popping has slowed to once every 2 to 3 seconds, remove the pot from the heat and continue to shake for a few minutes until the popping has stopped. Pour into a large bowl, and break up large clumps.

Part II: Lemon cake details coming tomorrow...
Have a happy Monday.

Baked French Toast

OH my Oh my! This is some delicious "French Toast"! It's actually more like a bread pudding that isn't too mushy-pudding-y and I really enjoyed it. (I doubled the recipe and made a big casserole dish full of baked french toast and we ate it for days.) YUM!

My ingredients -- I used milk instead of heavy cream, and vanilla extract instead of freshly scraped vanilla beans -- I am SO lazy! hahahaha

From "For the Love of Cooking"- a great recipe/cooking blog... (originally borrowed from the Pioneer Woman -- another great cooking blog):

Ingredients:

1/2 loaf of French bread, cut into large cubes
4 eggs
1 cup of milk (I used 2%)
1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, seeds removed
Streusel Topping:
1/4 cup of flour
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup of unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Directions:

Cut the French bread into large chunks then place them evenly into an 8x8 inch glass pan that has been coated in cooking spray. Combine the eggs together with the milk, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla extract, and seeds from the vanilla bean. To remove the vanilla seeds from the pod, slice the pod down the center lenghtwise being careful not to cut all the way through the pod. Using a knife or your fingernail, scrape all of the seeds out from the center of the pod. Whisk the egg mixture until really well combined then pour evenly over the bread cubes. Cover with saran wrap and place into the refrigerator for several hours or overnight.
In another bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together. Add the butter and cut into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter or your hands until crumbly. Cover with saran wrap and place into the refrigerator until ready to use. When you are ready to bake the French Toast, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the baking pan from the refrigerator and sprinkle the top with the streusel mixture evenly.
Place into the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the French toast is set and golden brown. Let it cool for a few minutes before slicing. Top with butter if desired and drizzle with maple syrup. Enjoy!!

My streusel was not crumbly. I let my butter get a bit warm. Lesson learned - keep that butter cold for good crumble!

New Vegan Cookbook

Our friend Matt Ruscigno is a dietician, and foodie, who is also vegan and an endurance athlete and trainer - check him out at TRUE LOVE Health. He worked on this awesome cookbook called Appetite for Reduction -- get it for a veggie-lover YOU love!

I made a few AMAZINGLY tasty dishes last weekend. Super YUMMY! Cook this tonight!

1. Chickpea Picatta and Caulipots:
Picatta : http://www.theppk.com/2010/09/chickpea-picatta/
Caulipots are Cauliflower Mashed potatoes - creamy even without butter or milk. Especially tasty with Picatta gravy on top! The lemon/wine/caper richness of the picatta is just insanely delicious. Enjoy!

2. Chili Verde con Papas -- basically a tomatillo stew/vegetarian chili without tomatoes -- really different. I loved it. I love the flavor of tomatillos but had never cooked them before. They seemed intimidating to me somehow, I'm not sure why.

 Bon Appetit!

Clean-out-the-fridge fritatta

I love this frittata - from Taste of Summer -- but I decided to, of course, alter the recipe to use what was in the fridge. I love trying new recipes, but I am not afraid to leave something out or replace an ingredient. No food goes to waste at my house, so we use what is in the cupboards before we go buy a bunch of new stuff. Especially fruits and veggies.

Preheat the over to 400, and use a cast iron pan so you can move from stove to oven in the same pan. I started by frying up 5 chicken sausages, then set them aside to cool/drain on a paper towel. In the oily pan, I cooked broccoli while 8 small golden potatoes were steaming in the microwave. Once the potatoes were soft I chopped them and tossed them in with the broccoli, sliced the sausages and laid them on top. In a large bowl I beat a dozen eggs with a 1/2 cup of milk and a healthy dash of garlic salt. Pour the eggs over the meat and veggies, sprinkle the top with cheese; cook in the pan till the eggs are a bit solid on the bottom, then move the whole pan into the oven for 15-20 min.

Sophie Dahl's Chicken Stew

This stew recipe ...

...was in Glamour last winter and I ripped it out long ago and finally made it. OF COURSE, I did not follow the recipe exactly... adding extra this and that... But it came out great. Really, it's the wine and the olives that made it so tasty. I didn't even add a bit of salt or pepper and it was very very flavorful. Make this tonight!!!

 

From Sophie Dahl's cookbook...but I altered it a bit...

In 3 tbsp. olive oil, brown the chicken pieces. I used 8 thighs (about 4lbs) but the recipe calls for a whole chicken. Once they are browned, sit aside. It's ok if they aren't done; the chicken will cook through when you let the stew simmer. Add another tbsp of oil, "sweat" a diced onion and 3 cloves of garlic chopped. Sweat means cook on low, covered until soft but not browned - about 5 min. Add 2 cans diced tomatoes, 1 cup of white wine, 1 can of chicken stock, and 3/4 cup of green olives (I like mine sliced). Put the chicken back in. Lastly, I added a tbsp of dried basil and about 8 small golden potatoes, diced. Cook for 30-40 minutes on med. heat till potatoes are soft.

YUM-YUM-SUPERYUM!!!!!

Poulet Roti

I made this one-pot-meal last night. Super-yum. Super-easy. I used small golden potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, and onion for my "bed of root vegetables." Chop and toss with olive oil and diced garlic (and a bit of S&P).

Lay the chicken on top, rub with butter (and sprinkle w/ S&P); bake at 475 for 20-25 min, then at 400 for 45-50 min.

I used this recipe as inspiration, but pared it down to bare essentials...

The best part is the veggies which cook in the chicken drippings and butter. OMG- absolutely DEEE-licious!
Bon Appetit!

Delicious Dishes

Two fantastic dishes were cooked up this week (at my house, by me :)
1. Pasta Ponza (recipe from Giada De Laurentiis' book Giada at Home)
Instead of capers, I added chopped zucchini, and instead of Romano I used Mozzarella. It's not quite the same dish, but I wanted to use what I had in the fridge. And it was still delicious!

2. Cottage Pie (aka Shephard's Pie)
Boil 5-6 chopped potatoes for your mashed potato topping.
In a large skillet, melt 4 tbsp. butter; brown a diced onion for 5 minutes or so, add chopped carrots (3-4), then add 1-2 lbs of ground turkey or soy crumble if you want to go veg. Brown the meat. Add 1/2 - 1 cup of chicken stock or veg. stock, and 1 bag of frozen corn and 1 bag of frozen peas. Cover and simmer on low for 10-15 min. Dump the meat and veggies in a large casserole dish, cover with mashed potatoes (I mashed mine with 1/2 cup chicken stock and 1-2 tbsp of butter). Sprinkle the top with shredded cheddar if you like. I like.

Happy dining!

Chile Stuffed Chicken

I tried this recipe from my favorite cooking blog. It was so delicious. What I love about Pam's blog most (besides good recipes) is her food photography. It's great. I'm still practicing on food styling. It'll take me quite some time to get where I want to be with that. But in the meantime, let's enjoy some good food!
Eat this: 

I roasted my own pasilla and poblano chiles. So good! And I used Mozzarella instead of jack because that is what was in the fridge. Use what you got! Improvise! I had an extra chile so I just stuffed it with cheese and some corn and tossed it in the pan with the other chicken breasts. It was amazingly delicious.

Bon Appetit!