May 22, 2009 at 11:19 am (Cooking, Food, Recipes)
Tags: Cooking, Recipes, Thai food
I’m going to show you how to make this next week.
I don’t know why it’s called Waterfall Beef. My mother calls it yum nuk, without the “k” sound. I call it beef salad. You’ll call it delicious.
Some people eat lots of spaghetti and meat balls. We eat a lot of beef salad. Until then!
May 4, 2009 at 8:36 am (Cooking, Food, Recipes)
Tags: Cooking, Food, Recipes
As I sit here and wait for the air conditioner repair man…I’m writing this.
I used to go to the grocery store religiously every week. I would cut coupons. I would price compare. I would wait for sales.
Now I don’t do any of those things. I go to the store five times a week to pick up something to cook for that day. I’m not planning well now. When I was a stay-at-home mom, that’s what I did. Plan my weekly menu.
Now I open the refrigerator and say, what can I make? Or rather, what can I throw together? I’m in the process of lessening my out-of-home obligations. So now I hope I have more time to plan. I didn’t realize how much time it takes to plan.
The other day, the family was hungry and looking at me with big hungry eyes.
I threw together this.
I cut some fancy bread and lightly toasted it. I put on some left over sword fish from dinner two nights before. I threw on some fresh spinach and some cheddar cheese. Lots of cheddar cheese.
And I broiled it. It was great.
Always keep handy some fancy bread and some sword fish. That’s the moral of this story.
Now go here and see another gastronomic delicacy. It’s Monday.
He’s here.
May 3, 2009 at 4:31 pm (Food, Recipes, Thai Food)
Tags: Food, Thai food
A family favorite around here is sticky rice. I’m not going to go into great detail on how to make it. I’m not feeling particularly long-winded, go figure. I may at a later time. It’s a staple around our house. We have it all the time. The kids love it because they can eat it with their hands. They can literally play with their food, and it’s okay.
Another reason I’m not going to go into minute detail about how to make it is because you can’t get it anywhere outside of an Asian store. I know. I’ve looked. And Neighbor Yvonne has looked. So that’s bad news if we run out. I drive to civilization to get it. Around here that means, an hour drive or more. If you ask, and if I know you personally and if you live within 10 minutes of me, I’ll get you some the next time I’m at either of those places. Just let me know.
That was the worst grammar. Mrs. Brush my old English teacher is turning in her grave. At least I think she’s dead. She was pretty old when I was in high school. Anyway…moving on…
If you happen to be out and are looking for it, make sure you buy the package that says “Sweet Rice”. It’s not Jasmine rice, or short grained rice, or any other kind of rice except sweet rice.
Soak the rice in some water for about an hour. Sometimes I’ll put it in water in the morning then go do what I need to do the rest of the day. That way it will be ready when it’s time to cook dinner.
I also have this contraption that I bought at a Vietnamese store specifically to steam the rice in. I think you can just use a regular pot though.
Fill it with water and then put the rice in a bamboo steamer thingy. I don’t know what it’s called.
I told you I wasn’t going into great detail. I have no idea what some of these things are. I just have them. You can probably use any bamboo steamer. You can buy those anywhere. Just remember that it has to be porous but the pores have to be small enough so that the rice doesn’t fall through. But I probably didn’t have to say that, duh.
It takes about 7-10 minutes to steam. Just keep checking it. If you steam it too long it will get soggy and too sticky. Once it’s done, I dump it all onto my counter top and spread it out to let it cool. Then I put it into a bamboo rice keeper thingy.
I’m going to let my mother demonstrate the dumping out process since I couldn’t take pictures while I did it. Really. Just dump it onto the counter.
My mom blows on it too, to help the heat dissipate.
pssst…these photos are from last Thanksgiving.
My mom has a nicer collection of rice keepers. Every time she goes to Thailand she gets a couple of pretty ones. Almost everyone at the table has their own.
Once I argued with a street vendor in Chaing Mai, Thailand over how much I was going to pay for a rice keeper. She wanted $4.25 and I thought it was too much money so I didn’t buy it. The husband said “Do you know you were haggling over 25 cents?” It’s the principle.
I know that you’re not going to rush out and make this after this dense explanation. I may have a sticky rice making party. Yes, I think that’s a great idea. Hmmm…
We’re not having sticky rice for dinner tonight. We’re having lemon chicken and pasta instead. The boys are watching the hockey game which is in over-time right now. That’s why I have time to write this post. If the game isn’t over soon, I’m going to eat without them.
April 15, 2009 at 10:20 pm (Cooking, Food, Recipes, Thai Food)
Tags: Asian food, Food, Recipe, Thai food
This is just one of the sauces that I use for the eggrolls and for so much more. I watched my mother make this sauce before I knew what ponzu sauce was. Now I make it all the time.
That’s what I get for living in Japan.
When you google ponzu sauce you see that you’ll need, mirin, sake, dashi, bonito, lemon juice, etc, etc, etc. I like to drink sake (and some of you can attest to how much I like to drink it) but I don’t like the taste in food. Mirin is hard to find, and dashi broth takes too much time to make.
Take it from me, you don’t need all that. You need just three things (can’t deviate from these three) and you will need a spice option, like peppers. And you need pretty bowls. You can’t make ponzu sauce unless you have pretty bowls.
Ok, ok, here’s the ponzu recipe…
You will need:
Soy sauce
Rice vinegar
Sugar
Hot Peppers (optional)
I use reduced sodium soy sauce and now can really tell the difference between that and the full strength. The full strength soy sauce is not a bad thing. It’s just better for your blood pressure to use the reduce sodium. But I don’t want to preach. It’s up to you and up to your circulatory system.
I don’t have quantities, it depends on how much you want to make. I do two part soy sauce to one part rice vinegar. I like a lot of sauce, so I make a lot. Most of the time, we tend to run out.
Put in about 1 teaspoon to sugar to about one quarter cup of soy sauce. Those of you who are persnickity about details like measurement will find this a little frustrating. I’m sorry. Just keep tasting it. If it tastes good to you, stop putting in sugar.
That’s it…except.
There’s this. Hot peppers. I normally use dry peppers to put in sauce. We’ll talk about different kinds of peppers another time…if you can’t take the heat, don’t put it in.
Now that’s really it. You’re done.
Tonight we are putting the ponzu sauce onto pan fried gyoza since the husband and I had a huge – I mean huge – hamburger with Roquefort and bacon for lunch. We shouldn’t even be eating dinner. I’ll show to I make gyoza another time. You won’t believe how easy it is…really you won’t believe it.
I have two other sauces to show you…but I won’t be able to until next week. I have a horsey project for the girl I have to finish by this weekend. And I may actually have to go into work…
Bon appetite.
April 14, 2009 at 5:00 am (Cooking, Food, Recipes, Thai Food)
Tags: Cooking, Food, Recipes
If you want to see the first part of this eggroll process, click here.
How do you get them to look like that? It can take a little bit of practice but it’s pretty easy really.
Take a sheet of eggroll skin and place a small amount of the mix on top of it and close to one corner. About a spoonful.
Take one corner and fold it over the mixture.
Roll it over once to get the mixture secure.
It looks like this.
Hold it securely and fold one end over, then the other.
Like this.
Roll the rest around and leave a little bit of the corner.
I put a little egg in a tiny cup or sometimes I’ll just put it right in the mixture. Then I take a little bit in a spoon to use as “glue” so that it keeps it together. I put a little bit of egg on one corner and fold it over.
There it is! A perfect little eggroll. One down and 99 more to go.
I deep fry these until they are these beautiful golden brown yummy rolls. I use a paper bag and place paper towels on top to soak up the excess oil.
The family loves these. Except for the boy. I make him mac and cheese.
Try them, try them now! And tomorrow, I’ll show you how to make the sauce. Actually, I have several sauces. I’ll show them all eventually!
Bon appetite!
April 13, 2009 at 5:00 am (Cooking, Food, Recipes, Thai Food)
Tags: Asian food, Cooking, Food, Recipe
I received some sage advice from someone I respected deeply last week. I was bemoaning the fact that haven’t been cooking a lot lately and I love to cook. He said, “Well, then cook. If no one is home, cook anyway. Someone else could always use a good meal.” He was nice enough not to have added, “Duh” at the end of that statement.
So this is food week! I have been cooking, but not taking pictures. It’s hard to cook and photograph at the same time. I’m not much one for staging.
So here’s the first of two post on making eggrolls. Or rather, how I make eggrolls. How my mother taught me how. These are really simple, the wrapping can be somewhat time consuming but it’s fun. If you can wrap a present, you can make eggrolls. I may have left out half the population with that stipulation…anyway, here goes.
You will need:
1lb ground beef
1lb ground pork
1 yellow onion
1 package of carrots (about 6 or 7 individual carrots)
1-2 eggs (it depends)
salt
pepper
eggroll skins
Here’s the eggroll skins. Giant may have them. I found these in the commisary at Andrews AFB. I know not everyone can get there, I’m sorry. If you can’t find something similar at Giant, try Whole Foods.
Put the pork and beef together in a big mixing bowl.
Season it with salt and pepper and stick your hand in there and mix it up. Then put an egg in and mix up the goo some more.
Chop up the onion into small diced pieces. (I cry every time.)
Wash and peel the carrots. Cut off the top and bottom and grate it. This takes muscle…
Put the veggies in a bowl and set aside for a moment.
Throw the veggies into the bowl of meat…
and mix together with your hand. It’s the best way. Just mix it all together. Don’t be afraid to get a little dirty. It’s all love I tell you.
How easy was that?
Tomorrow, we’ll wrap the egg rolls. See you then!
November 5, 2008 at 10:00 am (Food, Recipes, Signatures)
Tags: Cooking, Food, Recipes, Thai food, tom yum soup
Whomever the President is today, my life will be what I make of it. And today, I’m making tom yum soup.
I know a lot of people like Thai food, they tell me so. You too can cook it. You can. You just have to have the tools, or ingredients. If you are going to do anything, you need the right tools.
As you can tell by now, I don’t give quantities unless I know exactly how much you need. It’s really practice, practice, practice. You will soon know … Right now, lets just say, it’s a handful, i.e., 1 Handful lemon grass. 1 Handful cilantro. Yes?
So in addition to what I said you should have, here’s some more things you should get. These are perishables so just like buying any vegetable, buy it with the idea that you will eat it soon. You can make this soup, you just need these things…
Lemon grass,
Galangal,
Kaffir leaves.
Again…
Lemon grass,
Galangal,
Kaffir leaves.
I know what you are thinking, where in the world would I get this? At an Asian store. At Whole Foods. Sometimes you can get lemon grass at Safeway. Hey, if you want to make a salad, you need lettuce right?
Now in addition to those exotic ingredients, you will need…
Cilantro,
Shrimp,
Green onions,
1 Lime (ha! there’s that quantity),
Fish sauce (you should have this in your pantry by now. You can get it as Safeway.)
After you get those things, do the following.
1. Boil a pot of water.
2. Throw in some roughly chopped lemon grass, some roughly chunked galangal and a few kaffir leaves.
3. Bring to a boil.
4. Put in shrimp, the biggest and the best you can afford.
In the bowl that you are going to use for the soup, put in a splash of fish sauce, a squeeze of lime (not lemon), some chopped onions and cilantro.
Then scoop the soup broth and shrimp into the bowl.
My mother serves the soup with papaya salad (recipe another day) and…
an entire beef tenderloin. Did I tell you that I love going home?
Bon appetit.
November 3, 2008 at 6:00 am (Diet, Exercise, Fitness, Food, Recipes, Signatures)
Tags: Diet, Exercise, Fitness, health, nutrition
Although my life and my fitness regiment are intertwined, I’ve decided to separate the two in my blog. Introducing – Fit Signatures. I’ll post exercise tips, yoga poses, nutrition tips and among other things over there. It’s my stab at being serious. You may see the design change from time to time in Fit Signatures. It’s because I can’t make up my mind.
So here’s to life and health. May the two join harmoniously.
http://fitsignatures.wordpress.com/
Be well.
October 27, 2008 at 10:00 am (Fitness, Food, Recipes)
Tags: Cooking, Fitness, Food, Recipes
I think there are only two kinds of people in the world, those who work to be thin and those who admit they work to be thin. I will admit to constantly working at it. Either I conciously choose the right food, conciously make myself stop eating, conciously don’t walk down the cookie aisle, or conciously force myself to work out. I am always doing something in order to watch my weight. It’s not burdensome, I just look at it as a part of life, like doing laundry.
Here’s one of the things I do, I eat colorful foods.
One of the things you should look for in planning your meals not only if it’s going to taste good, but whether it’s going to be good for you.
This summer my mother planted a tomato plant for us that is still giving out beautiful yellow pear tomatoes.
Just look at the color, it’s gotta be good for you.
What did I put in this salad? Anything I had in the kitchen that had color.
Salad
Heirloom pear tomatoes
Red Onion
Yellow Pepper
Shrimp
Dressing
Balsamic vinegar
Olive Oil
Anchovies
Feta cheese
I literally threw the salad together (after some chopping), threw the dressing together, then threw them all together. It took about 10 minutes.
Bon appetit.
September 10, 2008 at 12:13 pm (Food, Recipes, Signatures, Thai Food)
Tags: Thai food
So on top of cleaning the house, I had time to cook while Tropical Storm Hanna was pouring rain on the Mid-Atlantic states. I know, I know, golf clap. I really do cook just about every night, whether we are having a weather phenomenon or not.
Anyway, tonight we are having steak with red curried rice. Remember I told you that the best way to starting cooking Thai food is to start getting some things for your kitchen? Well here’s one thing you will need.
This red curry paste and you will not be ablet to get this particular brand at the local grocery store, but I have seen it at Giant. It’s in a smaller can and it says, well, Red Curry. It’s not as spicy as the green curry and I think it has more flavor than the Indian curries that you can get at Giant and Safeway.
I start with these things, red curry, vegetables and cooked rice. That’s my rice cooker and I’ve used it for so long that I don’t remember how to cook rice in a pot. The yellow squash was a gift from Neighbor Leigh who brought it from the University of Maryand where he works. I hope it didn’t come from the research labs there…it’s huge. The peppers are from my garden, the broccoli was left over from last night’s meal and the carrots are from a bag that the girl had for the horse. My point is, you can get fiberous vegetables from anywhere, and it almost doesn’t matter what the vegetables are. Choose vegetables with lots of color, I love yellow vegetables, and they are good for you. Go ahead and chop them.
I heat some oil (this time I used canola oil) and the red curry together in a pan. This is the same pan I used to fry my fish. It’s used a lot. I can’t give you exact measurements, so when I say “some” use about 4 tablespoons. Adjust as you go. After the oil and curry is heated, throw in the rice, throw in the chopped veggies and stir, stir, stir. If it’s too dry, pull the contents to the side and add some chicken stock. And stir some more.
Now, the secret ingredient. Remember I told you to go get some fish sauce? Well, it’s the secret ingredient in almost every Thai dish. Turn off the burner and add the fish sauce over the rice. Not too much, it may be too salty. Just enough to taste.
I served the rice with steak this night, but any protein will do. I try to have lean proteins but sometimes, a girl just has to have a big steak. The husband loved it, the kids had mac and cheese. One day, I’ll have to put that recipe up.
Bon appetit!
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