So it seems i’ve run out of batteries on my camera and i can’t find my spare battery or my charger. Sucks because i have been cooking some random stuff.
I have to say that i’ve been watching two awesome shows that have pretty good recipes and ideas.
First i’ve been watching the TLC show “Take Home Chef“. Every so often it’s on and some dude basically finds people in the grocery store and cooks for them. They have pretty simple dishes but they look great.
I’ve tried the Pan-fried Escalope of Pork Wrapped in Prosciutto with Sage and Capers which turned out pretty tasty. Though i have to remember to add less lemon. First time i made it, i think i put too much lemon but other than that it was really good. But i’ve been surfing around and have found some other pretty good recipes that i’ll hopefully put up.
The other show i’ve been watching is “Throwdown with Bobby Flay” on FoodTV. Though i don’t really like Bobby Flay i have to say this show is pretty good and makes me like him more i guess. It’s pretty cool how he tries to make a better version of the other dudes signature dish. I was watching the Arroz con Pollo episode and i really wanted to make the Arroz con Pollo he made on the show. The other show i recently saw was the Sticky Cinnamon Buns. It looked awesome and looks incredibly tasty.
Well when i find a way to charge my camera batteries i’ll take pictures of what i’ve been cooking recently. I’ve been doing regularly this simple Shrimp Green Curry with Bamboo and also Mussels in Saffron White Wine. I bought a bunch of Mussels from Costco for like 1.99 a Pound and wanted to make different Mussel dishes.
My brother asked me one day if i would make beef noodle soup. He said he wanted to learn how to make the best beef noodle soup in the world. I don’t know if i can deliver that but i hope i can. When we were small my dad used to always take us to eat this one restaurant called Chung King. We only ate lunch there but that’s what he ate for lunch probably everyday at work. Anyways the only thing we ordered was their 红烧牛肉面 (Spicy Beef Noodle Soup) and their 榨菜肉丝面 (Pickled Mustard with Pork Noodles). So my brother wants me to figure out an awesome Beef Noodle Soup recipe. I think i’ll go looking for the best of both noodle soups. I may take a while but i’ll do it for my brother!
So far i’ve found a couple good links as a starting point
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=5462
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/TAIWANESE-BEEF-NOODLE-SOUP-231502
http://mmm-yoso.typepad.com/mmmyoso/2005/10/niu_rou_mein.html
http://eatdrinknbmerry.blogspot.com/2005/10/notorious-nrm.html
and finally
http://www.tbnf.com.tw/m_diy.htm
all those links have really good starting points and recipes. I’m still reading them and seeing what i should do.
So yea! This was another one of my back dated cooking adventures. Cinco De Mayo passed and i was like DAMN i feel like something spicy with a Mexican flavor. I looked around for what i would like and I saw this article on Brown Rice in May’s Saveur. There was this recipe called Chicken and Brown Rice with Chorizo. It looekd so good on the page that i wanted to cook it. The ingredients were simple and they sounded good! It’s kind of like Arroz Con Pollo but not. Though i might just make Arroz Con Pollo next time! I love Saffron! Anyways back to the food.
Here are the pictures of my little adventure
The Ingredients are
- 4 Chicken Thighs with Skin and Bone
- 1/2 Link of Chorizo (I think it was about 3/4ft Long) Sliced into nice 1″ diagonal slices
- 2 tbsp of Oregano
- 1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
- 4 Cloves of Garlic
- 1 Large Yellow Onion, Thinly Sliced
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 1 Cup of Long Grain Brown Rice
- 1/2 Cup of White Wine
- 2 Roma Tomatoes, Sliced into quarters
- 3 Cups of Chicken Broth
- 1 Cup of Frozen Peas
So basically start off by preheating the oven to 400F. You need to then find a dutch oven or iron pot which is oven safe. You first season the Chicken Thighs with Salt and Pepper. Heat up the pot on medium-highish heat add some olive oil and sautee the chicken skin down till the skin is a nice brown color about 8 minutes or so. Take the Thighs out and put it aside. Dump out the oil inside the pan. Then sautee the chorizo in the pan. Cook it till it’s lightly brown on both sides, about 5 minutes. Then take out the chorizo onto a plate but leave the chorizo oil and juices in there. Throw in the Oregano, Red Pepper Flakes, Garlic, Onion and Bay Leaf and let it cook for a while until the onion is soft and brownish, about 8 minutes. Then add the rice and stir it around coating rice with the oils inside the pan and all around, about 2 minutes. Add the white wine and bring it to a boil to cook off most of the alcohol. That should be around a minute or so. Then throw in the Chicken Thighs, Tomatoes, and Chorizo and pour the chicken broth in along with some salt and pepper for seasoning. Cover the pan and bring it to a boil. After it starts to boil transfer the pot to the oven and let it bake for about 1hr-1hr 10min. By this time everything should be cooked nicely. Be careful about the pan!! I burned myself many times touching the pan because i forgot it was in the oven! Then uncover the pot and throw in the peas. You want to mix them in gently so you don’t shred up all the chicken. The heat of the food will cook the peas. Recover the pot and let it rest for 10 minutes. Everything should be ready to serve! Bon App!!
So yea. Back long time ago i went to Japan with my best friends. We had an awesome time there and one of the best meals we had was a really traditional style Sukiyaki. I was so nice and there was some lady that cooked it for you and everything. The beef was so good and everything was just great. Well i felt like i had to make it. Since no where in Ann Arbor which i have seen has a good sukiyaki it was my goal to make an awesome sukiyaki. This was my take at sukiyaki. I took a bunch of recipes all over the place and my memory of japan and did this. The ingredients might not be exactly what is in sukiyaki but it worked. Hopefully i can make it even better as i keep making it!
here are the pictures of my sukiyaki adventure
So the ingredients i used are
- 5-7 large Sukiyaki sliced beef (Thin slices of really tender marbled beef)
- Half a package of Shirataki (Konnyaku noodles does matter color)
- Half a package of Firm Tofu
- 2-3 Naganegi (Japanese Bunching Onions, they are in between a leek and a green onion)
- Handful of Shungiku (Chrysanthemum Leafs)
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 1/4 cup of soy sauce
- 1/4 cup of mirin
- Slice of Beef Suet (Fat from the kidney but any fat would really do)
- White rice
- 1 egg
You first want to start out by cooking the Shirataki. First chill the shirataki (or take it right out of the fridge) and then boil it for about 5 minutes. You should notice that it has gotten a little stiffer now. After you cook it cool it really quickly to stop it from cooking and to chill the noodles. Cut them into nice lengths so you don’t have to slurp it. Next chop up all your other ingredients. Slice the Naganegi ince long diagnol slices. Wash the Shungiku and then slice the hard root part. Usually it will come with a longer stem which is really hard to eat. You want to cut that off. Finally cut the firm tofu into nice 1-2 inch blocks or so. The blocks should be big enough so they don’t fall apart when picked up with chopsticks but not too small. Oil a pan on medium heat and fry it on all sides so you get a nice brown on all the sides.
Now it’s time to start the actual Sukiyaki cooking! Start out by heating a nice pan on low-medium heat. A iron sukiyaki pan would be the best but i didn’t have one at the time so i used a frying pan. First melt some Beef Suet so there is enough oil to cook. The Beef Suet provides a really nice flavor. Then turn the heat up to medium heat. Start cooking some of Naganegi in the pan. You want to get the flavor of the Naganegi in the oil. Turn it so both sides of the Naganegi get cooked. Right before the Naganegi starts to brown slightly put the slices of beef on top of the Naganegi. I moved the Naganegi around so that all the slices of beef would lay on top of it. I let it cook till the meat was still red but also turning color. Then i put the sugar on top of the beef and also the soy sauce and mirin. I carefully mixed the sauce together in the pan, in order not to break apart the pieces of meat. Then i added all the ingredients in except the Shungiku. I positioned all the ingredients so they would each be in a region of the pan. Right before the beef was just about done i put in the Shungiku because it cooks really fast. Voila! the Sukiyaki part is done. Eat it with a bowl of rice and 1 beaten egg. You have to dip the Sukiyaki into the egg then eat it over the rice! That’s the best way to eat it!!!!!!! Don’t chicken out and not use the egg! Bon app!
I have no idea what i made. Yesterday i was talking to Mojtaba about Persian food and i was like damn i should make some Persian Food. I usually do the generic saffron rice but i wanted to play with some spices today. I went through a bunch of different spices and smelled them and tasted them to see if they fit into what i thought of Persian food. Well at the end i came up with Allspice, Cloves, Cumin and Cardomom seeds. It worked out great but i have a feeling they all had similar flavors. I don’t know if that’s suppose to be a good thing or a wasteful thing.
I first preheat the oven to 400F. I didn’t really take pictures of everything this time but basically i made a dry rub of all the spices (minus the shell of the cardamom) and also some fresh peppercorns and salt. I have a spice grinder which is one of the best things i’ve ever bought. I put the dry rub all over some chicken thighs and then let it sit for a while. I then browned the skin of the chicken and then put it aside. I used the left over oil and threw in a bunch of sliced onions. I added some more of the rub mix to the onions. Then i threw in basmati rice, and some blanched almonds. I really like eating basmati with almonds. After tossing it for a while i poured the water to cook the rice. I then put the chicken back in. I grinded a small pinch of saffron with sugar and then melted it in some hot water. This brings out the most of the saffron. After the water in the rice has boiled for a little i poured in the saffron mix. I swished the water around once and then threw it with the top on in the preheated oven. I let it stand for like an hour. I took it out cut up some roma tomatoes. I took out the chicken and then mixed up the tomatoes with the rice. The nice thing about this is that you get a nice crust of rice on the bottom that isn’t burnt but when you stir the rice the crust comes off and you get a really nice crunch with the almonds and rice in the rice. That’s basically it. You can try it and see how it goes. But it was really good. Next time i make it i’ll take pictures. This time it was really just a test.
