Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Easy Miso Soup

I've been cooking dinner with Betsy all the time recently and she wanted to know how to make the soup they make at Inoko's restaurant in Athens, GA.  Their miso is a bit odd because it's peppery but still pretty good!


Easy Peppery Miso Soup

3½ Cups water plus ½ cup
1½ tsp miso paste (toasted)
1½ tsp peppercorns
1½ tsp hon dashi dried stock
1-½ clove of garlic chopped into about 4 pieces
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1”x2” piece of kombu kelp
Pinch of ground black pepper
Small Pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)

Toast the miso paste first in a pot for about 30 seconds to a minute or spread on a spoon over an open flame until it slightly browns and becomes aromatic.  Add in the 3½ cups of water and dissolve the miso.  Add in everything else but the kombu.  Bring it to a boil.  Brush off any sand or dust from the kombu piece.  Add in the boiling soup for about 30 seconds and take it out and throw it away.  After cooking the soup for about 20-30 minutes, then take it off the heat and let it sit for about 20 minutes.  Add in the final ½ cup of water that cooked out during the boiling process. 

Now drain the soup through a wire strainer or a coffee strainer.  Serve with small pieces of tofu warm with green onions on top.


I ate this soup with some nikuman and fried tofu dipped in ketcup mixed with sriracha chili garlic sauce.  I freaking love tofu...you don't even understand!!

That's about it!
~Kyle~

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Simon and Garfunkle Bread

There is a funny story behind this bread. When I was really young, like 6th grade I started to get interested in bread making. Of course I didn't want to use a recipe, but my mom insisted. I got out a taste of home cookbook, and found a recipe for Italian Herb Bread. It was pretty good, but I wanted to make my OWN bread recipe. So about a week passed and for some reason I was listening to the song by Simon and Garfunkle Scarborough Fair.

From there I thought it would be a good idea to make bread based on the song using Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.  I was SO proud of myself, that I didn't care that my bread barely rose and was like a giant amorphous maelstrom reeking of sage. Plus my knowledge was barely developed back then, very limited.

But today I decided to revisit that good old recipe and try it again!  This time, with MUCH more success.  So without further adieu, Simon and Garfunkle Bread.

Simon and Garfunkle Bread


2 Cups bread flour
1 Tbsp oil
½ - ¼ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp powdered parsley
¼ tsp powdered sage
¼ tsp powdered rosemary
¼ tsp powdered thyme
½ Tbsp Yeast
¾ cup scorched milk

First you need to take your milk and scorch it.  Heat it up in a pot or pan until it boils and cook it for about 1 minute.  Take it off and cover it until it cools.  This assures that the microorganisms in the milk won't keep the dough from rising. 

Now you need to pulverize the herbs if they are not already powders.  I usually use a mortar and pestle and then pass them through a fine sieve.  You can do them all at once if you'd like and then just add in 1 tsp of the herbs mixed.

Then you mix your dough up.  Make sure all the ingredients are mixed well and then knead the dough for about 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth and doesn't tear easily (very elastic).  

Cover the bread with a damp towel and let it rise for 30 minutes. Once it has risen roll out onto the table and knead about 1 minute. and place it on a piece of parchment paper.

Cover and let rise in a warm place again for about 1-1½ Hours and make sure the TOWEL DOESN'T STICK!!! You can keep checking how wet it is or cover the top of the bread with flour, but it's important.

Now heat the oven to 350F and cook the bread for 15 minutes.  Once you hit the 15 min mark, turn the heat up to 425F and let the outside barely crisp and brown for 5 minutes more.


Take it out and enjoy!!

This recipe that I remade holds a special place in my heart because it was my first conscious, official recipe I ever made!! ^_^  I enjoy it and hope you do too!!

Sincerely,
Kyle!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Egg and Salmon Sushi

If you know me well enough, then you know that I love to cook Japanese style foods and enjoy making sushi because it's so easy.  Well, last night that's what I did; I made some tamago nigiri (sweet omelet on a rice ball) and yakisakemaki (grilled salmon roll).

Sushi rice

There are two ways to make sushi rice the traditional way and the lazy way.  They both work btw.  I did the easy way.  

First I take about 1½ cups of short grain white rice and about 2 cups water.  First I wash the rice and drain the water about 4 times or until the water runs clear.


Then I simply cook it in a rice cooker with about 1½ tsp rice vinegar, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar.  Once all the water is cooked out I immediately take it out of the rice cooker and place it covered to sit until the water is absorbed.

Once the rice is ready you have to shape it into small rice balls by making a small nigiri about the size of the palm of your hand.  It often helps to coat your hands with a bit of water so the rice doesn't stick to them.  also you will need a thin strip of nori to keep the tamago (sweet omelet) piece in place.

To cook the tamago you will want to take an egg and beat it.  Then add in some water, about ¼ tsp salt, ½ tsp sugar, and 1 tsp water.  The oil a non-stick or seasoned pan, preferably square, and heat it up to medium to medium-low. and let it slowly cook all the way through.  Once it is cooked, then start rolling it up into about ½-1 inch width into a roll.  Now that it is a rolled up omelet, cut it into 3-4 pieces and place it on top of a nigiri and secure it with a thin strip of nori

Yaki Sake Maki
Basically you can make this salmon several ways.  You can do it like unagi (freshwater eel) where you dry it and soak it in and baste it with a mixture of soy  sauce, mirin, sake, sugar, and salt and grill it on sticks whilst cut thinly.  or you can use a mixture of char siu, hoisen sauce, soy sauce, ginger, soy sauce, sugar and salt.  And if you want you can also pan-fry it.  

What I did was mix some ketchup, sriracha chili garlic sauce, soy, 5 spice, garlic, sugar, char siu, and hoisen.  Then I cut and squeezed the salmon dry in a paper towel and coated them.  Then I fried them.  Lastly I spread rice on a full sheet of nori except for a half inch which I dotted with rice.  I spread toasted sesame in a line on the rice towards the part near me and placed the pieces of salmon down and rolled up the maki.  That's it. 

Here is a pic of it. It was yummmy!!!


That's about it y'all!!! I had a previous blog post showing you more of what to do with sushi...instructions and what not!

Love,
Kyle!!!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The Elven Relm of Kæleðia/Kæleðian Nectar

My friend Lauren wrote me the other day talking about when they play DnD (Dungeons and Dragons), and the Dungeon master talks about Eleven Pudding every time they go to a street vendor.  She wanted me to make up a recipe for Elf Pudding.  I thought that doing fiction inspired recipes would be a really cool idea, so I ran with it.

I thought about what elves would eat and compiled a sort of spread-sheet of what I thought would be feasible for elves to eat.  From there I developed a lot of other ideas of elven culture.  I even went as far as to ask people what they thought about elves and what their perceptions were.  There is a thread on my facebook group discussing what people think elves eat.

I've gotten some good ideas from people and have thought about expanding it a bit.  I want to have an elven culture night in which I get every person to do some research and develop their own elven recipes based on what they think elf culture would be like in the world that they think elves live in.  I want the recipes to be original and show a true universal flair for elven uniqueness.  

I have made my first recipe from the realm of Kæleðia (Kay-lee-thee-uh). Kæleðian Nectar is a drink made seasonally and drunk by the elves in celebration of the coming fall.  It's made using osmanthus flowers, a fragrant flower common as an ornamental around the world.  They smell of very sweet nectarines and are commonly used to make tea in china.  I easily get them every fall equinox at the student Center of the church I used to attend.

Kæleðian Nectar

½ cup fresh Osmanthus flowers
2 Quarts of Water
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp flavorless citric acid
¾ cup sugar

Soak flowers in 1 cup of water for about 2-4 hours and try to keep it cool.  Also try not to bruise the  flowers too much as it can mess up the flavor.  Once they have soaked you can remove the golden liquid from them by straining it through a fine sieve or mesh strainer.


 This liquid is a very high concentrate of osmanthus essential oils and is great for adding to tea, can be used to make Kæleðian nectar, and could be used to extract osmanthus essential oils for perfumery (although you would need a lot more flowers for that).

If you want to make Kæleðian nectar then you need to take about  50 mL of the concentrated stuff and mix it with the ingredients in water.  Another method is to simply add the flowers into the 2 quarts of water and let them sit about 6 hours before straining them and mixing in the other ingredients.

Serve it the temperature of tap water in a wine glass, A) So you can drink it like the elves and B) Because if it's the temp of tap water, them it helps you taste the essential oils in the osmanthus better.


I imagine you can do something like this with other flowers like roses, jasmine, and maybe even honeysuckle, but I've not tried it yet (also MAKE SURE THEY ARE FREE OF PESTICIDES and are organic).  Trust me...there will be more elven recipes to come, including some elven desserts and hopefully one day Elven Pudding.

Bon Appetite! 
Kyle S.


Cornbread Breakfast Casserole

I've been working on school stuff recently, so I was unable to post anything, but now I'm free to do so.  As you may know, the last post I made was soul food. and I made some killer soul food.  But I had a lot of left over cornbread, like about half a pan.  So I decided to make some breakfast casserole from it.


Cornbread Breakfast Casserole

½ a pan of cornbread cubed or 1½-2 cups cubed corn bread
1½ cups milk
2 eggs beaten into milk
1 tsp salt
2 strips of bacon chopped up
¼ Onion chopped up
¼-½ cup cheddar cheese shredded or match-sticks
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp garlic powder
Dash of all-spice
1 tsp mustard (optional)

First cut up the corn bread carefully place it in a chaffing dish or casserole dish.

Next cover with cheese.

Sautee onions, bacon/sausage, and spices. Add on top and pour over the milk and egg mixture.

Cook at 350 Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes before eating.


Huggsies!!!
Kyle

Friday, October 8, 2010

Soul Food (Black-eyed Peas, Cornbread, Tarte Tatin, Fried Chicken)

Okay-..so today I killed on my Spanish midterm, the weekend is here, and  feel altogether good today.  So for some reason I was listening to awesome music and decided out of the blue to make soul food...idk...I was raised in the south and love me some soul food.

I decided to make black-eyed peas, corn bread, and fried chicken and on the side for dessert apple pie.  But since I watched Julia Child make a Tarte Tatin the night before...I decided on that instead, especially since I had already made apple pie many times before. 

I'm going to start by showing you how to make Black-eyed Peas.

Kyle's Southern Black-Eyed Peas


½ lb Black-Eyed Peas
3 strips bacon cubed and fried in:
1½ tsp brown sugar
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp garlic powder
Dash of nutmeg
Dash of all-spice

First get some black-eyed peas (about half of a 1 pound bag) and soak them in water anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.  Now chop up 3 pieces of bacon into chunks.


Add the bacon into a heavy-bottomed  pot and add in the spices and sugar.  


Sautee the bacon in the pan until it cooks through and browns.


Now add in the beans and water...or drain the water with and add new water just to cover the beans before pouring it in. Keep all the fat in the recipe.


Basically just boil the beans for about 1 hour covered, replacing water as they cook.  Once they are cooked through and are soft, remove the lid (or if it has holes on the side, turn it) to continue cooking them until almost all the water has been cooked out.  Take it off the heat and recover them until they are eaten.


Okay now I'm going to show you how to make some fried chicken. 

Kyle's Fried Chicken

Egg wash:
¼ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp salt
Dash ancho
Dash all-spice
Dash of nutmeg
Dash of ginger (small)
2 - 4 tsp pickle juice
1 egg
1 - 2 Tbsp corn starch
1 tsp water

Breading:
¾ cup of bread crumbs
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black powder
Dash of allspice
Dash of nutmeg
1/8 cup flour
1 tsp season-all
1 Tbsp melted butter cut in
First mix up the egg wash really well.


Now mix up the breading in a bag really well and defrost the chicken.  


Next you need to dry the chicken with a paper towel to remove excess moisture.  It helps the chicken have more egg-wash coating on it.  Now take the chicken tenderloins, wings, or legs that you dried off and place them in the egg-wash.  Coat them well and them immediately transfer them to the bag with the crumbs and shake them to coat. 

After they are coated, you need to fry them.  I tend to have one oil for frying savory things like chicken, one for fishy things like fish and chips, and one for frying sweets like doughnuts.  Also it helps to have oil that is pre-used or seasoned.  When you use oil it makes natural 'soaps' (according to alton brown) that help make the fried foods fried in them taste better.  My favorite oils to use are peanut and corn, but any flavorless oil that can take heat well (soy bean, high purity olive oil, rapeseed/canola oil, and vegetable oil) are excellent fofr frying.  

First heat up the oil on medium to medium high until it is hot enough to where when you drop in a piece on an onion or potato it fries a little under the oil and then floats.  Once it gets there turn it from Medium to Medium-low and put the chicken in.  Cook them until golden brown and cooked all the way through.  


It's a pretty okay fried chicken recipe by southern standards...fried chicken is just hard apparently...

Another way I find that works out well  is to make a batter by adding in little bits of the crumb mixture to the egg wash until it's a thick batter and them coating the dried-off raw chicken in that before frying them.  It makes a much thicker fried chicken crust and is what I prefer to do. (use chicken tenders instead of chicken breasts....truuuuuuust me on this one...it makes a difference).

Now onto the cornbread. Cornbread is a quick bread (using baking soda or baking powder instead of yeast) made in the South and Southwest using corn meal, oil, wheat flour, and milk.  It's super easy to make but can dry out easily if not cooked well.

Kyle's Cornbread

1 cup Corn flour
¾ cup of all purpose flour
¼ cup (4 Tbsp) of butter (melted)or fat drippings from bacon or sausage (etc.)
1½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp baking soda/powder
1¼ cup milk or buttermilk
1 egg
(all the following are optional)
2 Tbsp cheddar cheese
Dash of nutmeg
Dash of ground all-spice
Dash of ancho chili powder
Dash of black pepper
Dash of garlic powder

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Basically mix up the butter, flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking soda/powder in a bowl and mix it well, cutting in the butter if necessary.  Next add in the egg and beat it.  And last add in the spices, cheese, and milk if you'd like.  Move it into a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet.





Now simply cook the bread in the oven for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Immediately after taking it out cover it with foil so it does not dry out.  Serve it with soul food! Omnomnomnom...(fun fact...not a big fan of corn bread for some reason...never have been... >_>;)



And now lastly but not leastly...TARTE TATIN!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! (amazing and simple dish)  It's actually a French dish and most southern homes would serve peach pie, pecan pie, apple pie, or sweet fried sweet potatoes (commonly called sweet potato souffle..it's sweet, buttery sweet potatoes mashed and cooked with cinnamon and a wonderful pecan and pie crust on top. suffice it to say....it's gooooood).

Tarte Tatin


6 apples peeled sliced (preferably golden delicious)
6 Tbsp butter
½ cup sugar
2 tsp starch
Pie crust or puff pastry

Pie crust:
1 cup flour
4 Tbsp butter
1-2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
enough water to make the crust mix and be pliable

Now first you need to peel, core, and section the apple.  Place them in a nice design arranged around the bottom of a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet.


Next you sprinkle on starch softly, sugar, and lumps of the butter.





Next you have to be very careful because cast-iron conducts heat very well.  Place the skillet over heat and cook the apples well on the heat WITHOUT stirring them at all.  In the mean time roll out a pastry to place over it.  When the apples have seeped juice and it starts to thicken the tiniest bit (about 3-5 minutes) place the crust on top of the tarte and place it in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. 


After it has cooked a while, keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn.  You may not want to cook it the full 10 minutes.  If the juice caramelized and is turning brown, I would take it out.  After it has cooked a while, then turn on the broiler and place the tarte close to the broiler until it barely crisps on top.  Let it sit for about 10-20 minutes to cool before you try the next part.  Take it and place a plate or something that is heat-proof and place it over and flip it so it comes out on the plate or dish.


Once it's out scrape off any pieces of apple that stuck and put them on top of the tart.  Cut and serve! It's the best simple dessert I've ever made!! >:D  If the tarte isn't brown on the bottom, you can broil it for a short while.



And that's all she wrote....I'm spent for the night.  I spent a whole 2 hours writing this that I should have spent on my latino gender paper that's 6 pages long...oh well. I'm drinking a glass of red wine to help atone for my fat-based sins tonight. :'(

On a last note,in addition to these foods, soul foods can also be brisket, chitlins (chitterlings), collard greens, mac and cheese (which I have a recipe for earlier), barbecued pork and chicken, biscuits and gravy, sausage patties, gravy, mashed potatoes, and more.

Love,
Kyle

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Kyle's Pork Rib Stew

Since I've been studying Baltic and Scandinavian food cultures a bit during classes and cooking them later the same day, I decided to make my own stew from the region. So I decided upon pork rib stew because I had it readily along with a giant bag of potatoes. So on with the recipe!!

Kyle's Pork Rib Stew


1½ cups of mixed beans
3 potatoes
½-1 Yellow Onion
2 Ancho chilies diced
6-8 pork ribs (spare ribs)
½ Bay Laurel
¼ tsp black pepper
1 pinch of all-spice
Pinch of thyme
Pinch of Oregano
Pinch of dill
Pinch of sage
Salt to taste
1 tsp vinegar
2 tsp sherry
1 tsp garlic powder

Basically all you need to do is put everything into a crock pot.  Peel and dice the potatoes to desired size and add to the pot.  Cut the onion into pieces that are bite-sized and put them into the pot.  Soak the beans ahead of time for an hour and then drain them and add them to the pot.  I used black beans, pinto beans, and lentils.  Dice up the Anchos and add them to the pot.  Cut the pork ribs into individual rib pieces and set them in the bottom of the pot surrounded by everything else.  Pack everything in tightly and add in the spices and such. Cover the ingredients with water until they are barely covered.  Turn the pot on and cook it all for about 6-8 hours in the crock pot until the pork and beans are thoroughly cooked through. 


Bon appetite!!
~Kyle~