Daring Cooks’ Challenge: Sushi November 14, 2009

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

This challenge comes in four parts: Making proper sushi rice, Dragon sushi roll, Decorative sushi, and Nigiri sushi.  I also decided to make a Spicy Tuna Roll and a California Roll, with the extra rice and ingredients that I had.  I found a local Japanese market call Tokyo Market that had everything that I needed (fish/seafood wise).  I already had all of the other necessary components to make sushi because back in college I use to make Spider Rolls and California Rolls for me and fiancé (husband now) so that made it a little easier.

Daring Cooks: Indian Dosas September 14, 2009

This months Daring Cooks Challenge is brought to you by Deby from The Healthy Vegan Kitchen.  She chose  Indian Dosas, the only rule we had to follow was to keep the recipe vegan (no animal products whatsoever).  If you read my blog you know that I dabble in vegan cooking and baking so this wasn’t too hard, and I actually had most of the ingredients on hand.

Or so I thought…..

I purchased all my ingredients last week and kept putting off making this because I kept getting home from work and being too tired.  Cut to Monday morning when I decided that I would make them for lunch for Mike and I.  I get all my ingredients out so that I can start chopping.  Then I realize that I don’t have any curry powder.  I swear I had some.  I guess I little gnome stole it.  Mike runs out and gets me some and then I start making the sauce and realize I am out of oregano.

WHAT IS GOING ON!!!!

There must be a family of gnomes running around my apartment stealing my spices and herbs.  Mike ends up getting that for me too, my savior

The recipe didn’t call for it but for the filling I sautéed the vegetables in 2 tbsp vegetable oil, and for the sauce I used 1 tbsp of vegetable oil to sauté the onion and garlic.  For the filling I ended up substituting one jalapeño for the hot banana peppers because I couldn’t find any.  Also, the filling ended up being a little THICK, so I added 1 cup of vegetable broth to thin in out a little.   I garnished the Indian Dosas with toasted coconut and slices of cucumber.

This were so tasty and I love them.  That actually reminded me of a bean burrito and the toasted sweetened coconut on top added a slight sweetness that was nice.  I really enjoyed making and eating these.  It actually didn’t take too long for the whole recipe to come together.  At most it took one hour from start to finish, chopping and everything.

I made these for lunch today, and I loved them.  I will post more about what I did to the recipe and my full opinion but for now the picture to prove I made them

Indian Dosas

Source: reFresh: Contemporary Vegan Recipes From the Award Winning Fresh Restaurants by Ruth Tal and Jennifer Houston

Dosa Pancakes
1 cup (120gm/8oz) spelt flour (or all-purpose, gluten free flour)
½ tsp (2½ gm) salt
½ tsp (2½ gm) baking powder
½ tsp (2½ gm) curry powder
½ cup (125ml/4oz) almond milk (or soy, or rice, etc.)
¾ cup (175ml/6oz) water
cooking spray, if needed

Dosa Filling
1 batch Curried Garbanzo Filling (see below), heated

Dosa Toppings
1 batch Coconut Curry Sauce (see below), heated
¼ cup (125gm) grated coconut
¼ cucumber, sliced

Dosa Pancakes
1.Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth.
2.Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed.
3.Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes.

Curried Garbanzo Filling
This filling works great as a rice bowl topping or as a wrap too, so don’t be afraid to make a full batch.

5 cloves garlic
1 onion, peeled and finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 green pepper, finely diced (red, yellow or orange are fine too)
2 medium hot banana chilies, minced
2 TBSP (16gm) cumin, ground
1 TBSP (8gm) oregano
1 TBSP (8gm) sea salt (coarse)
1 TBSP (8gm) turmeric
4 cups (850gm/30oz) cooked or canned chick peas (about 2 cans)
½ cup (125gm/4oz) tomato paste

1.Heat a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the garlic, veggies, and spices, cooking until soft, stirring occasionally.
2.Mash the chickpeas by hand, or in a food processor. Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through.

Coconut Curry Sauce
This makes a great sauce to just pour over rice as well. This does freeze well, but the texture will be a little different. The flavor is still the same though. My picture of this sauce is one that I had made, had to freeze, then thaw to use. It tastes great, but the texture is a little runnier, not quite as thick as it was before freezing.

1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
½ (2½ gm) tsp cumin, ground
¾ (3¾ gm) tsp sea salt (coarse)
3 TBSP (30gm) curry powder
3 TBSP (30gm) spelt flour (or all-purpose GF flour)
3 cups (750ml/24oz) vegetable broth
2 cups (500ml/24oz) coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, diced

1.Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.
2.Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.
3.Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally.
4.Let it simmer for half an hour.

Vegan Adventure #26: Roasted Acorn Squash and Black Bean Empanadas June 24, 2009

I have been a huge slacker in the pasted few months.  I have made dishes, taken pictures, and then never posted about them.  So I am FINALLY get around to doing a few more posts so that I can catch up   Here is another chapter in my Vegan Adventure, Acorn Squash and Black Bean Empanadas.

The Daring Cooks’ Challenge: Gyoza aka Potstickers June 14, 2009

This months Daring Cooks’ Challenge is brought to you by Jen from use real butter.  She chose Gyoza/Chinese Dumplings/Potstickers.  The rules for this challenge were that we had to make our own dough (no store bought wonton wrappers), make a filling, and chose a cooking method.  YAY!!!

I was so excited to make these because I love gyoza or whatever you want to call it and I have never made my own dough for them before.  For the filling I decided to stick with just the plain pork filling and for the cooking method I decided to do two: steaming and pan frying.  The dough was easy to make the only thing I needed to remember was to flour each round so that they don’t stick together.  I had this problem when I would roll/cut out all the rounds and stack them and when I started filling and I was on a roll I would get to the bottom of the stack and the last 5 would be stuck to each other :/ Grrr

The Daring Cooks Challenge: Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi May 16, 2009

This months FIRST EVER Daring Cooks Challenge is brought to you by Lis and Ivonne!  They chose Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi fromThe Zuni Café Cookbook by Judy Rodgers.  When I saw this challenge I was very happy because I have made Gnocchi before; however, I have never made Ricotta Gnocchi.  It was actually pretty straight forward and easy to make.

I did have some problems: 1) I kept putting off making it so, 2) I am late , and 3) I experienced the dreaded busting of the gnocchi.  Which is a ritual all cooks like to preform to put them in an extra bad mood :/  So yeah, it happened.  Which really means too much moisture in the little guys.  When I finally got my little guys not to explode for joy, I made a lime cream sauce to go with them.

LIME!!! you ask.  Yeah, I ran out of lemons :/ So lime cream sauce it was and it actually turned out pretty good.  I garnished the gnocchi with chopped parsley.  The whole entire time I was tasting the gnocchi, I kept thinking CHEESE!!  They were yummy, but I couldn’t eat too many because the sauce made it a little rich.  So all in all, it wasn’t a complete disaster for the first ever Daring Cooks Challenge.

Below is the original recipe for this months challenge.  For the gnocchi flavorings, I actually used sage.  Enjoy

Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi

Source: From The Zuni Café Cookbook.

Yield: Makes 40 to 48 gnocchi (serves 4 to 6)

Prep time: Step 1 will take 24 hours. Steps 2 through 4 will take approximately 1 hour.

For the gnocchi:

1 pound (454 grams/16 ounces) fresh ricotta (2 cups)
2 large cold eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon (1 ounce) unsalted butter
2 or 3 fresh sage leaves, or a few pinches of freshly grated nutmeg, or a few pinches of chopped lemon zest (all optional)
½ ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated (about ¼ cup very lightly packed)
about ¼ teaspoon salt (a little more if using kosher salt)
all-purpose flour for forming the gnocchi

For the gnocchi sauce:

8 tablespoons (227 grams/1/4 pound/8 ounces) butter, sliced
2 teaspoons water

Step 1 (the day before you make the gnocchi): Preparing the ricotta.

If the ricotta is too wet, your gnocchi will not form properly. In her cookbook, Judy Rodgers recommends checking the ricotta’s wetness. To test the ricotta, take a teaspoon or so and place it on a paper towel. If you notice a very large ring of dampness forming around the ricotta after a minute or so, then the ricotta is too wet. To remove some of the moisture, line a sieve with cheesecloth or paper towels and place the ricotta in the sieve. Cover it and let it drain for at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours in the refrigerator. Alternatively, you can wrap the ricotta carefully in cheesecloth (2 layers) and suspend it in your refrigerator for 8 to 24 hours with a bowl underneath to catch the water that’s released. Either way, it’s recommended that you do this step the day before you plan on making the gnocchi.

Step 2 (the day you plan on eating the gnocchi): Making the gnocchi dough.

To make great gnocchi, the ricotta has to be fairly smooth. Place the drained ricotta in a large bowl and mash it as best as you can with a rubber spatula or a large spoon (it’s best to use a utensil with some flexibility here). As you mash the ricotta, if you noticed that you can still see curds, then press the ricotta through a strainer to smooth it out as much as possible.

Add the lightly beaten eggs to the mashed ricotta.

Melt the tablespoon of butter. As it melts, add in the sage if you’re using it. If not, just melt the butter and add it to the ricotta mixture.

Add in any flavoring that you’re using (i.e., nutmeg, lemon zest, etc.). If you’re not using any particular flavoring, that’s fine.

Add the Parmigiano-Reggiano and the salt.

Beat all the ingredients together very well. You should end up with a soft and fluffy batter with no streaks (everything should be mixed in very well).

Step 3: Forming the gnocchi.

Fill a small pot with water and bring to a boil. When it boils, salt the water generously and keep it at a simmer. You will use this water to test the first gnocchi that you make to ensure that it holds together and that your gnocchi batter isn’t too damp.

In a large, shallow baking dish or on a sheet pan, make a bed of all-purpose flour that’s ½ an inch deep.

With a spatula, scrape the ricotta mixture away from the sides of the bowl and form a large mass in the center of your bowl.

Using a tablespoon, scoop up about 2 to 3 teaspoons of batter and then holding the spoon at an angle, use your finger tip to gently push the ball of dough from the spoon into the bed of flour.

At this point you can either shake the dish or pan gently to ensure that the flour covers the gnocchi or use your fingers to very gently dust the gnocchi with flour. Gently pick up the gnocchi and cradle it in your hand rolling it to form it in an oval as best as you can, at no point should you squeeze it. What you’re looking for is an oval lump of sorts that’s dusted in flour and plump.

Gently place your gnocchi in the simmering water. It will sink and then bob to the top. From the time that it bobs to the surface, you want to cook the gnocchi until it’s just firm. This could take 3 to 5 minutes.

If your gnocchi begins to fall apart, this means that the ricotta cheese was probably still too wet. You can remedy this by beating a teaspoon of egg white into your gnocchi batter. If your gnocchi batter was fluffy but the sample comes out heavy, add a teaspoon of beaten egg to the batter and beat that in. Test a second gnocchi to ensure success.

Form the rest of your gnocchi. You can put 4 to 6 gnocchi in the bed of flour at a time. But don’t overcrowd your bed of flour or you may damage your gnocchi as you coat them.

Have a sheet pan ready to rest the formed gnocchi on. Line the sheet pan with wax or parchment paper and dust it with flour.

You can cook the gnocchi right away, however, Judy Rodgers recommends storing them in the refrigerator for an hour prior to cooking to allow them to firm up.

Step 4: Cooking the gnocchi.

Have a large skillet ready to go. Place the butter and water for the sauce in the skillet and set aside.

In the largest pan or pot that you have (make sure it’s wide), bring at least 2 quarts of water to a boil (you can use as much as 3 quarts of water if your pot permits). You need a wide pot or pan so that your gnocchi won’t bump into each other and damage each other.

Once the water is boiling, salt it generously.

Drop the gnocchi into the water one by one. Once they float to the top, cook them for 3 to 5 minutes (as in the case with the test gnocchi).

When the gnocchi float to the top, you can start your sauce while you wait for them to finish cooking.

Place the skillet over medium heat and melt the butter. Swirl it gently a few times as it melts. As soon as it melts and is incorporated with the water, turn off the heat. Your gnocchi should be cooked by now.

With a slotted spoon, remove the gnocchi from the boiling water and gently drop into the butter sauce. Carefully roll in the sauce until coated. Serve immediately.

Cinco de Mayo – 2 days late May 7, 2009

I was actually unable to celebrate Cinco de Mayo this year because I was working that night

For the past couple of years I have celebrated Cinco de Mayo by making Chicken Tortilla Soup, Refried Beans, Mexican Rice, and Homemade Tortillas.  This year I celebrated it on the 6th and made a completely different assortment of food.  Well, except for the tortillas.  I can’t stand store bought, so I always cave and make my own.

It’s BACK: Vegan Adventure #24: Seitan and Stroganoff April 2, 2009

Oh, yes.  I am finally bringing back my Vegan Adventure.  I have actually made a bunch of items lately, and I have just been putting off writing because I am lazy.

There I said it.  I am lazy, but I have been cooking

I have always been intrigued by fake meat products.  I had never actually heard of Seitan until I was reading through Vegan with a Vengeance.  I still really didn’t know what it was, but I had all the ingredients to make half a batch.  Which was perfect for the Seitan-Portobello Stroganoff

The Seitan was actually very easy to make.  The only mistake that I made was using vegetable bouillion cubes instead of either water or low sodium vegetable broth.  Because of that the Seitan ended up being a little bit salty but in the end it turned out great   The Seitan reminded me a little spongy piece of meaty goodness, but nothing will be able to replace real meat for me.

The sauce for the stroganoff was very straight forward; just had to do a good amount of chopping.  In the end, I loved the stroganoff.  It was very tasty.  Since the Seitan was already a little salty I didn’t add any to the sauce and it really evened out the seasoning in the dish.

The Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna March 29, 2009

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

The posting date for this challenge was originally today, the 29th of March, but then I got completely confused because members started posted on the 27th.  Come to find out the posting date moved to accommodate the new rules for the DB when the new website launched earlier this month.  Of course, I was completely oblivious to this since I just assumed we would post the 29th and all following months would follow the 27th ruling.  Thankfully, we were forgiven if we posted today. 

Cabbage Rolls aka Stuffed Cabbage March 2, 2009

A couple of weeks ago, I was watching my friend’s dogs while he was out in CA and I was a little bored one night and decided that I was going to make my Grandma’s Cabbage Rolls.   I hadn’t made them in awhile, so I had to check her recipe to make sure that I had everything.  I have only changed two things in her recipe I use fresh garlic and brown rice.  You know I am trying to be a little healthier.

The Cabbage Rolls are extremly easy to make and just take a little bit of time since you have to pre cook the cabbage a little just so that it softens enough so that you can wrap the beef and rice mixture up.  If I would have had more time I would have made my Great Grandma’s Pierogies and Haluski.  Well the Haluski is really easy to make but the pierogies take a lot of time since I make the dough and everything else.  Hopefully one day soon I will take some time and make the pierogies and haluski and post about them

Back to the Cabbage Rolls

Before the oven

Cabbage Rolls aka Stuffed Cabbage

Source: My Grandma

2 lbs ground beef

1 large onion, diced finely

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups cooked white or brown rice

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 Large cans Tomato Sauce

All Done

1 head of Cabbage

Cut the core out of the bottom of the cabbage.  Place the cabbage in a large pot of boiling water and cook for 10 minutes.  Take cabbage out and let cool until you can handle it. Pull the leaves off of the cabbage and set aside.  All of the extremely small leaves place in the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

For the filling combine the ground beef, onion, garlic, rice, egg, salt, and pepper and thoroughly mix.

To put together place a scant 1/4 cup of filling on one end of the cabbage leaf.  Roll once, fold in the sides, and then roll up the rest of the way (like a burrito).  Place the cabbage roll in the baking dish.  When all of the filling is gone pour the tomato sauce on top of the rolls and cover the dish with foil and place in a 350°F oven and bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hrs until the rolls are cooked through.

Lamb and a Flan January 9, 2009

The other day….by that I mean two weeks ago