Skimming forward a year or two…

Well, since my last post, I’ve gotten married, moved into a new flat in HK, visited Colorado 3 times, and – it seems – neglected blogging.

My new year’s resolution (keep in mind that i think in “school-years”) is to maintain at least one of my blogs with reasonable regularity… and the food one is a lot more fun to update! So here’s an incomplete overview of some of our home life:

Homemade pizza – one of our favourite things these days, and so easy with a bread maker to make some great dough.

—

Homemade tortilla shells - this is one thing i’d much prefer buying, but my husband is into DIY of all sorts a fun attempt.

—

Simple Roasted Veggies – lots of oregano, basil, and some salt, pepper, olive oil – so hearty and good.

—

Lasagna, made with ground Elk Meat – from my dad-in-law in Colorado. Elk meat is a very healthy meat. It has a similar consistency and taste to beef, but it is low in fat, cholesterol, and since this elk was from the wild, very low in artificial hormones and chemicals, except perhaps what it would pick up in its environment. I used to dislike hunting, but I had never been around that culture. I’m still not huge on the whole culture-gone-wild surrounding it, but my father-in-law’s attitude towards hunting (shoot one wild elk in a season, and manage to use every part of it) is to me more humane and respectful than factory farming.
Another recent discovery that I can’t believe I hadn’t used before with pasta sauces is: grated carrot!!! So good for flavour and colour!!

—

a delicious spread of food from a market in Bangkok (just the essentials: tom yum, pad thai, etc)

—

And our FAVOURITE thai place in Hong Kong – Ping Kee – thankfully just around the corner! Here, a grilled fish – rubbed down in sea salt, stuffed with herbs, grilled on a charcoal grill, and served with a delicious tangy/very spicy chili-ginger-lime?? secret sauce and a pork neck salad (also grilled pork, tossed with the secret sauce and thinly sliced red onion, cucumber, celery, and some other stuff)

More to come, I hope!

Asian “Salsa”

I had a craving the other day (and by day, i mean month since it’s taken me so long to update…) for something tart and salsa-like, but I didn’t have any cilantro, onion, or lime at home to make the proper stuff. Here’s an adaptation using:

• tomato (1 medium)
• red & yellow bell pepper (1/2 or 1 small each)
• garlic
• ginger
• soy sauce
• chinese vinegar
• a touch of sesame oil

Veggies: Finely dice the peppers and tomato.

Marinade: Mince (or grate) a knob of ginger (knock off a piece about an inch long from the root). I can’t remember if I minced a clove or two of garlic either for this particular meal, but I usually would! Mix these strong flavours with 3-4 Tbsp of light soy sauce and an equal part of vinegar (chinese vinegar – dark like soy sauce – works best in terms of matching the flavours, but another type of vinegar or even half a lemon would work well). This sauce here is an excellent salad dressing or marinade!

Mix the diced tomato/peppers with the marinade, add some diced spring onion/chives, and a few drops of sesame oil. Serve over crackers, bread, tortilla, or anything you like!

Served here over soft pumpernickel rye… mmm….

Excuses for not blogging

• I’ve been working like crazy
• Everyone eats out in Hong Kong
• I live with my parents, so I’ve stopped cooking anway
• etc etc etc

Anyway, all just excuses. I do have a large backlog of photos I wish I’d posted. Here are a few from recent travels and unique eateries around Hong Kong.

a vegetarian restaurant near ngong ping, hong kong

a delicious steamed tofu dish with chinese olive leaves – made a slightly sweet, salty mixture on a very smooth fresh tofu.

Singapore Travels

Delicious savory pastries: a baked shell stuffed with shredded turnip and carrot, topped with shrimp, loaded with chili sauce…. oh it was SO good.

A rich bowl of laksa noodles: fresh noodles in a thick spiced coconut broth with shrimp – cheap, and so satisfying. I love that they cut up the noodles too so you can eat it all with a spoon – i’ve never seen anyone do that in Hong Kong, but I guess Singapore has the real laksa deal.

South Indian (Malayali, I’ve been told!) food – delicious roll stuffed with spiced potatoes, with loads of sauces and chutneys to dip from. The uncle who owned the shop kept stopping by our table and loading our tray with more sauce!

Thick, creamy kulfi (North Indian ice cream) in the clay pot
- pistachio flavoured. Beside it, a kalamansi (lime) and honey drink. Both so lovely.

Breakfast in Singapore – I could eat this every day! Rice and dried salted fish wrapped up in a banana leaf, loaded with chili sauce. A satisfying start to the day! Add a cup of kopisi (malaysian style coffee) and a coconut jam toastie, and it was perfect!

(Singapore was a great trip, if you couldn’t already tell)

The P-Party

A bon voyage Potluck Party at the Penthouse…. priceless!

Pineapple & Proscuitto Petit-Pizzas

Proscuitto & Cantoloupe

Provolone Portobello Pepperoni Pepper Pizza (with Pesto)

Potatoes

Porcupine! (pineapple, pork, pumpernickel)

(Before)

(near After)

Sign reads: Edification by Alliteration
Panna de Casa (House bread)
Poulet de Barbecue
Peppers (Red, Fireroasted in Garlic, olive oil)
Peameal Back Bacon
Provolone Cheese
Peppercorn Ranch (sans peppercorn)
Piles o’ Greens

a.k.a. “Sandwich”

Personal Platter (clockwise from bottom: pizza, p-alliteration sandwich, pita, proscuitto&melon, “porcupine”, potatoes, pig)

Pimms

Pomegranite Sorbet

Pistachio Ice Cream

Not pictured here:

Pig
Pomegranite Punch
Peanut Butter Cookies
Pita & Hummus
Peas (in a can)
Pepsi
Pumpkin Pie
Popcorn (homemade caramel)
Popcorn (smart food)
Chili Pepper Chips
Pralines & Cream Ice Cream

and most importantly…
People

fresh greens omelette with havarti

No picture for this one. This was a delicious 2-egg omelette I ate last night for dinner. I have to say, omelettes are quickly becoming a favourite thing for me. They’re quick, delicious, satisfying, and the possibilities are endless! (sort of).

I chopped up a few sprigs of cilantro and spinach and a clove of garlic, finely minced. I also sliced a few thin pieces of havarti cheese. I beat two eggs with a splash of milk.

Then I heated a pan with just a bit of oil, cooked the garlic, and poured the eggs into the hot pan. Then I spread the cilantro/spinach in a thin layer into the egg. When it was mostly cooked through I added the havarti cheese, folded the omelette, and cooked on both sides till slightly golden. I ate this with two slices of brown bread and a side salad.

I love omelettes.

update: i made it again, and served it on a bed of chopped greens with a tangy vinaigrette. delicious! except next time I would add some minced onion, or some green onion, to the salad bed.

organic cilantro, spinach, garlic and slices of havarti.

here is a photo. not a great one, and the omelette was a little bit over-done. but you can see the havarti cheese leaking out – that’s the best part!

frankenfowl

The frankenfowl I made is not the kind with a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey (I have yet to try that – it sounds more than a little intense!). It is a bird made up of separate turkey parts – some assembly required. It’s cheaper than buying the whole thing! My roommate introduced me to the concept, and the post-Easter abundance of dismembered turkeys in the supermarket prompted me to buy a few bits and put together my own Frankenfowl.

I made it as I would normal turkey (just without stuffing) – wash and dry turkey parts (thighs, drumstick, breast), rub with garlic powder, salt, pepper, dot with butter, and bake at 325F mostly uncovered, and covered once skin has browned – baste every 20 minutes with melted butter and/or pan juices. I also lined the roasting pan with chopped carrots, onion, and garlic nubs.

Frankenfowl before (checkout my roommate’s cool roasting pan!):

Frankenfowl after:

Frankenfowl on plate with carrot rice (by LM), roasted carrots/onion from the pan, and peas:

Spinach Chickpea Cream Soup

I had spinach and chickpea and did a quick allrecipes.com search to see what can be made with these ingredients (other than salad). I found this fabulous-sounding soup recipe, and it is actually fabulous-tasting too. I ended up modifying it a bit because of different ingredients available.

TO START, the soup base involved:

1 medium onion, diced
5-6 cloves of garlic, chopped
5 small-med potatoes, diced
1 head of broccoli, diced (optional)
2 tsp of cumin powder
2 tsp ginger powder
6 cups of chicken/vegetable stock (I used 1.5 cans of chicken broth, made up to 6 or 7 cups of stock)

In a large non-stick pot, I fried the garlic and onion in olive oil with cumin and ginger until the onion was transluscent and tender. Then I added the stock, potatoes, and broccoli and brought that up to a boil.

I let that simmer away for a while, maybe 10-15 minutes, and then added a drained can of organic chickpeas, which I ordered accidentally from Green Earth Organics. I thought they were offering dried chickpeas, but I read the order sheet wrong. But the organic ones were great! Less salty and a bit more flavorful than the usual chickpeas of the canned variety. Anyway, I added the chickpeas and let that bubble away for another 10 minutes, or until the potatoes were quite soft. At this point I chose to blend the mixture in a blender (i wish I had a hand-blender!) which made the soup more consistently thick.

NEXT, to make a creamy soup, I mixed together:

1 cup of cream
1 tbsp natural unsweetened peanut butter
2 tsp corn starch

After it was thoroughly blended, I stirred this into the soup. A few modifications:
1) I used P.B. because I didn’t have any tahini (almond butter). I was cautious, so I only added 1 tbsp. It was great, so next time I would go for 2 tablespoons.
2) I definitely DID NOT NEED 1 cup of cream!! That is a lot of cream, but I decided to follow the recipe! It ended up being a very thick and heavy soup. Tasty for the first few bites, but I was keeling over by the time I got to the end. 1/2 cup of cream and 1/2 skim milk would be plenty.
3) Next time I would remember to dissolve the corn starch in some hot water/soup before mixing it in with the cream, since my corn starch clumped together when added to cold liquid.

FINALLY, once my potato-broccoli-chickpea-cream-P.B. concoction was simmering, I added a few handfuls of spinach. I would have added more spinach (the original recipe calls for 1/2 lb.) but I didn’t have any. Finally, I seasoned with some cayenne pepper, a bit more cumin, and a sprinkle of nutmeg. The soup is ready when the spinach is just cooked.
The number of spices in this soup and the nuttiness from the peanut butter make it very unique and flavorful. I will definitely make this again with less cream and more greens. Very tasty!

Good Friday

Last night for supper my roommate and I realized that many grocery stores were closed because of Good Friday. Pooling together our pantry hoards, we put together this meal. It’s a reminder too that we often jump to thinking “there’s nothing to eat…” when there is really abundance.

Butternut Squash Soup (Baxter’s canned)

Grilled cheese sandwiches – cheddar cheese and grilled onion on whole wheat bread.

Salad – baby spinach greens with thinly sliced onion, mushroom, feta, and a fantastic caesar dressing (not the creamy kind, but a light parmesan caesar vinaegrette by a brand called Renée’s). We both really enjoyed this salad and would love to make it again!

Finally, a glass of Shiraz/Cabernet, from an Australian winemaker aptly called “Promised Land”. There is a seahorse on the bottle! If I didn’t mention this earlier, we collect wine bottles with animals on the labels. I should take a picture of our collection sometime…

It was a simple meal, one that I didn’t think we possessed, and so I felt very blessed. Very fitting for a meal to celebrate Good Friday when we first received a gift we don’t deserve.

yogurt and tomato

+ = good

I don’t really keep cream around for cooking. I do, however, keep plain yogurt around, which I eat with honey, jam, fruit, cereal, etc. I’ve also found that yogurt is a great light substitute for cream when cooking. It’s slightly more sour, of course, but sometimes that can work really well.

For instance, with tomato! The other night I was very hungry but all I felt like having was soup. I had a can of tomato soup in the cupboard, so I chopped up an onion, added a clove of minced garlic, and stirred in a few tablespoons of yogurt into my tomato soup. I ended up with a delicious cream of tomato soup.

Another good yogurt modification is to add it to tomato pasta sauce and make a simple rosé sauce. I do this all the time, and it makes the pasta sauce richer without being much heavier, as it would with full cream. I also like to add something like pancetta or bacon, where the saltiness will balance the tartness of the yogurt.

Oh yes! Make sure to add the yogurt at a lower temperature and to stir frequently (if not constantly) until you bring it up to a bubbling temperature. Otherwise the yogurt hits the high heat and tends to… well, curdle. And, no, we don’t like curdling!

artichokeses and delivery

That was a typo, but i actually enjoy the look of that word. It looks Greek. Speaking of Greek, I want to make Greek-style potatoes because I have MANY potatoes that are waiting to be transformed into something delicious. The Greek potatoes I am thinking of are the lemony ones packed with herby flavour. I should probably ask my Greek colleague.

Anyway. Artichokes. I had some, and I always enjoy trying to make them, but they are always a little disappointing. I’ve tried steaming, pan-frying, oven-roasting… roasting is probably the best. The other night I pan-fried them with olive oil, garlic slices, and a bit of dry white wine for moisture. It wasn’t bad… it just wasn’t great! I just put them on a plate and had them with some leftover fettucine stir-fried in the leftover oil from the artichoke with some spring onion, balsamic vinegar, and a bit of soy sauce. Balsamic and soy is not a combo I usually go for, as it can be hit-and-miss, but it worked fairly well with these noodles with the spring onion helping balance the flavours.

I’m not sure how appetizing that looks to you. It was done in a hurry. The brown and the sheen of the oil makes it kind of strange, yet also very earthy. I love the shape of artichokes though and the numerous patterns they can make. As I said earlier, I find it very difficult to cook artichokes WELL. Artichokes have some hidden flavour that is very difficult to get right because they oxidize so quickly… Does anyone have any suggestions?

Also, a new delivery! This time I couldn’t be bothered to take them out of the bin.

spinach, broccoli, garlic, naval oranges, tomato, spartan apples, PEI potatoes, yellow onions, lemons, kiwi, and a missing romaine lettuce – to be delivered next time.