Inari sushi

Ask and you shall receive. It is kind of crazy how this works out sometimes.

Inari sushi is one of those things that only Japanese and Korean people eat/like - amirite? I mean, try explaining what it is is to someone unfamiliar with it ("it's rice stuffed into a fried tofu pocket that has been soaking in a sweet liquid"), and just see if they will take a bite.

Accidentally vegan thumbprint cookies

I do not seek out vegan, or gluten-free, or even vegetarian foods (even though I don't eat beef or pork). And despite the name "vegan thumbprint cookies", these cookies appealed to me because they sounded really yummy and very easy to make.

And they were quite yummy - a lovely nutty, oat-y, soft yet crunchy base, perfectly balanced with the sweet and tart jam.

Leftover green curry

In my never-ending quest for the meal for one, I've encountered several challenges, including how to use up an ingredient (herbs are usually the main culprit), and how to make a single portion out of a larger recipe (clearly never going to happen with roast chicken, although - maybe a cornish game hen?).

A new spin on this last one is, how can I make manageable leftovers? As I've said before, leftovers are my frenemy - sometimes they are totally awesome, and sometimes they are the bane of my existence.

Strawberry scones, and a baking mishap

Have you ever wondered what happens if you mistake baking soda for baking powder? I have not.

But, now I know. In the grand tradition of Anne of Green Gables, Jo from Little Women, and the going-blind cook from Downton Abbey, I mistook one ingredient for another, resulting in some very dry, nearly burned, metallic-tasting scones. My error was not as egregious as theirs, I think (salt for sugar, blech), and at least I discovered it before I served it to anyone else.

The thing is, I've made these scones before! This was probably my fourth or fifth time making them, that's how much I like them. I was over confident? Or just distracted? Who knows.

Spinach egg

I went to California recently, to spend some time with relatives and also to get away from work/New York. I came back with a long list of food ideas.

For one, spinach and egg for breakfast. I've had spinach and egg together for dinner in a simplified bibimbap, even kale and egg on toast for lunch or a snack (or a late night dinner), but it never occurred to me to have it for breakfast until my cousin made it nearly every morning I was there.

Pantry pasta with marinated feta

My first rule of summer cooking: no oven usage allowed.

My second rule: only one burner can be turned on, and only for less than 20 minutes.


With that in mind, I bought some feta recently, hoping to make a watermelon and feta salad, which is possibly the perfect summer meal - no stove usage required.

But the feta I bought totally sucked.

Cilantro coleslaw, two ways

Good grief, it's hot.

I've been eating a lot of this Asian noodle salad lately - it's great for weather like this since it is fairly light and refreshing. I'm one of those people who can eat the same thing over and over again, but after my umpteenth bowl, even I got a little sick of it. Also, I ran out of soba noodles.

Lemony pasta with greens and mushrooms

Julia Child said, don't crowd your mushrooms if you want them to brown nicely (ok, I learned this from the movie Julie & Julia, so what?) - but I disagree!

So do these folks, in fact. In practice, it always seemed to me that mushrooms end up leaking tons of moisture as they cook and virtually de-glaze themselves from the pan, negating the need for any cooking oil. And if you did use oil, the mushrooms would just absorb it too quickly.

Not-ready-for-summer butternut squash

Is it just me, or did winter leap-frog right over spring and turn straight into summer? Sigh, poor spring.

In defiance, I am sticking with winter foods such as butternut squash.


Ok, not really. I made this a while ago and never got around to posting it.

Back when it was still cold out, I happened to roast some butternut squash, just very simply with olive oil, salt and pepper. I also tried a version with some Indian flavors, like coriander and cumin. Unsurprisingly, both ways were quite delicious. The thought occurred to me that butternut squash might go well with sausage, so that's what I tried here.

Even better easy cocktail sauce

Thanks to Ina Garten and Canada, I am now in possession of an even better cocktail sauce than this one.

First of all, oh Canada - the one thing I brought back from a recent trip is a bottle of ketchup aux tomates because a) the label is in French, and b) I like it better than the American version. My first taste, on some breakfast potatoes in Montreal, I thought, hm different. On the second taste: wait, is it different? Third taste: definitely different. Fourth: omg yummy this is the best ketchup evah!!! I think it's because they actually use more sugar than the U.S. (The label says they use "liquid sugar" but upon some Wikipedia research, I think this is a euphemism for high fructose corn syrup, boo.)

Yogurt accessory

Because I like to eat and cook a variety of food, my pantry is filled with a lot of different types of ingredients - soy sauce and sesame oil for Asian foods; garam masala for Indian; basil for Italian; etc.

It's a bit overwhelming, so I like when ingredients have some crossover appeal. For instance, cilantro is great for both Indian, Mexican/Tex-Mex, and some Asian-inspired foods. I use canned tomatoes for everything from soup to pasta sauce to chana masala. Even instant espresso has some dual usage - I've used it in chili and cupcakes.


Now I can add yogurt to that list. I wasn't sure exactly what to call this yogurt accompaniment - it's not exactly a dressing, not just a dip either. It's kind of a hybrid between ranch dressing and raita. I start with either plain yogurt (full fat or low fat), sometimes strained using a coffee filter (or you could use already-strained yogurt).

Sometimes... coriander rice and beans

Sometimes when I feel like my finances have gotten out of hand, I resort to eating rice and beans, which have developed a reputation for being cheap eats. Here is one of the ways I cope with being poor.

Balancing act

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with food. If I could, I would probably sit around eating pastries, cheese, fried chicken, and white rice all the time. But I always feel a small pang of guilt when I do. I blame society.

So sometimes, when making meals for myself, I try to balance out the "bad" with a little "good" - like in this quick mac and cheese, with spinach. Who knows if the added healthy elements make a difference, but it comforts me nonetheless.

Quick chips

I started making these "quick chips" using corn tortillas because sometimes I am in the mood for some pico de gallo or guacamole but don't have any chips around. I never have a bag of chips around because I usually devour it right after buying it.


Take a corn tortilla and cut it into wedges. If you freeze your corn tortillas like I do, give them a quick defrost in the microwave, just to soften them a little.


Lay them flat on a baking tray (I use parchment paper just in case there is any sticking). Overlapping results in uneven baking so I don't suggest it.


Toast in toaster oven (I've ranged from 400-450 degrees) for about 5 minutes. I like to toast them until they show little hints of brown on the edges, so sometimes this requires an additional minute. Watch carefully - they burn easily and will turn to ash.


When you can touch them without burning yourself, start munching! These are quick to make, but you've got to eat them quickly too as they do not last like packaged chips.

I've tried it with flour tortillas too, though I feel like corn tortillas produce sturdier quick chips. I've only ever attempted these in my toaster oven because I usually just need a few chips to eat with some chili or for some guacamole. Really if you need a lot of chips, it's better just to buy a bag, but this method is a quick and easy alternative, and also another way to use corn tortillas.

Pasta puttanesca

After trudging through a few hits and misses, I decided to revisit a dish that I hadn't made in a while: pasta puttanesca.


I first learned about pasta puttanesca from watching one of my cousins prepare it for another cousin who was going to be arriving late at night. I believe it was around Christmas, and our family was gathered at my aunt and uncle's. She chopped olives and capers and mixed it into some tomato sauce while the older relatives praised her in Korean about how quick and efficient she was (they love doing that).

I didn't even taste the dish (she had added some meat, and at the time I was diligently vegetarian) but the combination of ingredients had me hooked and I've been making my own variation of it ever since.

Hit or miss

Here are some other recipes I have attempted recently.


Beans baked in tomato sauce
I primarily chose to make this recipe because it required items I was trying to get rid of in my pantry/freezer purge. Also, sometimes I like making things that just sit in the oven for a while - after a flurry of prep work, you can sit back and relax or do other things while it finishes cooking.


The end result was a dish kind of like baked beans - after all that time in the oven, the beans and tomato sauce melded together into a thick, stew-like consistency. I must admit, this cooking method has me intrigued (I wonder if I could make chana masala like this), but overall it was a little too sweet for my taste (I could cut down on the honey next time) and I kind of got sick of the leftovers. It could be a good make-ahead side dish though.
Hit or miss?

The Bean Chronicles: Chickpeas II

My quest continues, looking for the best, most consistent way to make beans.


The bean: Chickpeas
Amount: 1-pound bag
Method: No soak in the oven. I really liked the black beans I made in the oven - a very easy process and yummy beans to boot - so I thought I'd try it with chickpeas. Also, I'm trying to use filtered water instead of tap. I had heard that if you use hard water out of the tap, sometimes it takes longer to cook the beans.


Cooking time: About 2 1/2 hours. After checking the beans at about the 1 1/2 hour mark (the beans were not quite done), I forgot about them in the oven. I meant to check them at the 2-hour mark, and they probably would have been perfect. But at 2 1/2 hours, they were very soft. Some might say overcooked; I say, perfect for hummus.
Storing? Fridge and freezer
Result:

Chunky cream of broccoli soup

Did you make bechamel? You did, right? And now you have some in your fridge and you're wondering what to do with it?

You've come to the right place.

I think my favorite revelation about bechamel is that it is more or less like those "cream of" condensed soups that we ate as kids (or at least I did). I sort of stumbled upon this in one of my earlier attempts at a simple mac and cheese with mushrooms - I sauteed some mushrooms then added some bechamel and lo and behold, cream of mushroom soup!

Bechamel, and simple mac and cheese

It's March. And, as I usually do at about this point in the year, I drifted off my health plan which, this year, consisted of calorie counting. Because of this:

Bechamel.

Swiss chard and poached egg, two ways

I'm having a bit of an identity crisis... in my kitchen. It's what happens when you are Korean and you spend the first decade of your life in Kansas - you grow up eating Korean food at home and 'American' food at school or friends' houses.

Years later when you're stocking your own kitchen, you discover that you have two or three versions of everything - Western (i.e. balsamic and champagne vinegar, olive oil, basil, rosemary, etc.) and Korean (sesame oil, rice vinegar, gochujang, etc.). Even rice! I currently have basmati and Japanese, and only by sheer will power did I resist buying some brown rice and wild rice. Couple this with living in New York, a can of coconut milk and a jar of chipotles in adobo sauce and you have one overwhelmed pantry.

Polenta in a rice cooker

That's right - I made polenta in my rice cooker. And it was fantastic.

I used to complain about this rice cooker because I felt like it was really slow, taking nearly 40 minutes for a batch of rice, whereas I only needed 20 minutes to make it on the stove. (My mom said that was the sign of a really good rice cooker, but I think she was just trying to make me feel better.) Certainly I can make polenta on the stovetop, as I can with rice, but you have to pay attention more (and I burned the last couple of batches of rice that I've made on the stove, which, as an Asian, is kind of embarrassing). So I like this method because it's totally hands-off and I can do other things while it's cooking.

Sardines and cream cheese

When my brother and I were younger, we would make a snack of crackers topped with cream cheese and green olives, the kind with the red stuff on the inside. I'm not sure what he was thinking, but I considered this haute cuisine back then. Meanwhile, we'd be watching DuckTales or the Smurfs.


I'm still topping stuff with cream cheese. But I'm not watching DuckTales anymore! Because I've graduated to Pretty Little Liars.

Wait - these are my favorite pancakes

I have mentioned pancakes before, even claimed that these pancakes made with whipped egg whites would be the only kind I would ever make again.


I take it all back though - these are definitely the only pancakes I will ever make. The key? Buttermilk.

Roast pork

I know what you're thinking - what could I, someone who never eats or cooks meat, possibly know about roast pork? Well, admittedly not much. I was hoping the Mexican Chef would do a guest post for me, but I think he might still be nursing a hangover.

Nonetheless, here are some tips I got from him before he passed out:


1. Be sure to place your rotisserie machine on your balcony overlooking a little bit of the Hudson River.

Pesto bechamel lasagna

I know, I know - I'm making a lot of lasagna these days. I've made more lasagna in the past couple of months than I have in a decade. But that seemingly bottomless box of no-boil noodles was kind of driving me nuts and I had to use it.

I had bookmarked this recipe for pesto lasagna with spinach and mushrooms ages ago, because I thought it was a contender for using up pesto. I also had a bit of crushed tomatoes sitting in the fridge so this seemed like a good opportunity to use up a decent portion of my stockpile of food.

Mexican-ish chicken soup

My goal of clearing out my pantry is mostly going well... except for those times when I design a dish specifically for a certain ingredient (ahem, canned green chiles) then proceed to omit them entirely. Sigh.

This soup is based on the Barefoot Contessa's Mexican Chicken Soup, which I loved the first several times I made it. I loved the combination of what is essentially chicken soup, but with a twist: the addition of tomatoes as well as a nice kick from some spices. Over the years, I have varied it slightly, cutting down on some of the ingredients, or sometimes making a vegetarian version with beans. This is my latest.

Lasagna with Swiss chard

I came *this* close to using up all of the no-boil lasagna noodles I had while making this lasagna with Swiss chard, tomato sauce and ricotta but still managed to have a few sheets left. Argh!

Nonetheless, it turned out to be a nice, lighter lasagna (no mozzarella), similar to the spinach lasagna I made a while ago.

Salmon frittata

This meal was built entirely around a small can of salmon that I had languishing in my pantry. Canned salmon is not something I would usually buy, but my mom sent it to me. We Seattle folk are rather drawn to salmon. The town where I went to high school even has a salmon festival every year when the salmon would "run" (i.e. spawn). In person, this is quite the sight - the creek would fill with these enormous salmon, all crowding and jumping around each other trying to swim upstream. So crazy.

Anyways, when my mom sends me a care package, there is always some sort of salmon product. And when I visit home, there are at least one or two meals involving salmon. (It's kind of like in 'Mystic Pizza' where in Mystic, as a lobster hub, all they eat is "lobstah, lobstah, lobstah.")

Pantry purge: Miso ramen with shrimp and corn

Mmm, I just love miso-based noodle soups, especially the kind that use the potent Korean version of miso. This ramen is based on a version I had at Momofuku Noodle Bar. The Momofuku restaurants are all very meat-centric so usually I only eat their ginger scallion noodles - which are super yummy, so I don't mind.

But over the summer, I went for lunch, during which they have a rotating menu, and had a delicious shrimp and corn miso ramen, and have been attempting to replicate it ever since. This is my homage.

Cutting the fat... literally and not so literally

I already admitted I am addicted to the farmer’s market. I have one more, somewhat related, confession: I am a food hoarder. I stockpile foods in my pantry and freezer “for future use” and while I slowly use up a can here or there, I continue to buy and stock up more.


For instance, right now in my pantry, I have, among other things:

• white rice
• soba noodles
• Israeli couscous
• fish sauce
• vacuum-packed gnocchi
• 3(!) types of pasta (lasagna, spirals, spaghetti)
• a can of sardines
• dried chickpeas
• a can of green chiles
• coarse-ground and fine cornmeal
• stuff for Korean stock (dried shiitakes, kelp, etc.)
• chocolate chips
• steel-cut oats
• rolled oats
• a can of coconut milk
• dried blueberries
• chicken bouillon
• a can of salmon
• sesame seeds
• canned pumpkin
• panko
• etc.

In my freezer:

• several containers of chicken stock
• corn
• peas
• shrimp
• mixed seafood
• puff pastry
• tortillas
• rice
• leftover chana masala
• some cannellini beans
• walnuts
• pecans
• pine nuts
• jjajangmyun-style noodles
• anchovy powder
• frozen cubes of cilantro, parsley, and pesto
• chicken bones and random veggies (for future stock)

And don’t even get me started on my fridge!

Rice vinaigrette

Of course I have to start the new year with a salad. Like eating ddukguk on New Year's Day, it's tradition to attempt to start the new year with some healthy eating.


This is a vinaigrette that my cousin taught me years ago. It's a very simple formula - 2 crushed cloves of garlic (which I mash to a paste with a sprinkle of salt), 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar, black pepper and about 1/4 cup or so of olive oil. In fact, this is a general formula I use for most salad dressings, substituting the rice vinegar with other types (balsamic, champagne) and adding other extras (shallots, dried basil, oregano, thyme, etc.), maybe a little more or less of the dijon depending on my mood. Sometimes I add a little sugar to balance out tang of the mustard and vinegar.

Happy new year!

Ah, the annual feast. New Year's Day is the only day of the year that I wake up and eat Korean food for breakfast. Oh sure, I could have had one of those oranges sitting on the table, but I couldn't think of a better way to start the year than by overindulging on some ddukguk.