stalling: stuff I cooked over break
Sorry, Grant, that I didn't make Jambalaya, but I did have a chance to use the rents' kitchen/grocery budget to do a little cooking over break. Now that I'm back at school, and far from any kind of well-stocked kitchen, I thought I'd give myself a little dash of food-related nostalgia.
-I tried turkey enchiladas one night, because turkey cutlets were on sale. Cooking with the adobo (the sauce in which some varieties of chiles are canned) added a lot, but the peppers themselves would have been WAY too hot for my family. Broiling them did a pretty good job of getting the flavors into the tortillas, although if I did it again I'd add a bunch of cheese or something to the filling to try to keep the turkey a little more moist.
-I gave pad se iew (or however you anglicize it) a try one night. This turned out badly, mostly due to the noodles. We found some frozen "homestyle" rice noodles (not packaged as being specific for asian food or anything), and after thawing they just bled off a ton of starch--I don't know if I got it all rinsed off. Then I undercooked 'em. Oh, and I just sort of made up a lot of the specialized ingredients. And we were out of cornflour. But other than that, they were ok, I guess. I think I'm better off trying to make curry if I try Thai food again.
-I made pesto-stuffed chicken breasts another night. These turned out pretty well, if not particularly memorable. Admittedly, we just bought pesto rather than making it, since the food processor isn't a central part of our kitchen. I discovered that pounding chicken with the flat of a cleaver is really enjoyable on some visceral level, even if they didn't end up thin enough to roll the way I sort of thought they would.
-At one point, we found this amazing deal on an absolutely huge package of pork cutlets, so I decided to make ton katsu with some bok choy as a side. We put out this huge serving platter with a layer of shredded lettuce, and the pork literally in layers on top, there was so much in that package. Hammering pork cutlets with a cleaver was again a highlight, but they flattened more evenly this time. It turns out that, with the panko-style breadcrumbs (secured the last time my mom was in a town with Trader Joe's), it's really really easy to make tonkatsu that looks and tastes like it's supposed to. It would have been an all-around win if I hadn't made so much--all the leftovers made the meal feel like less of a success somehow. The bok choy also turned out well--we didn't find baby bok choy, so we just made do with trimming and cutting up normal-sized bok choy, which, after the braising, turned out just as tender.
-Using recipies from our Family Cookbook (something my mom had never previously told me about), Steph's mom, and some Martin Yan thing (I think), we made potstickers from scratch-minus-the-wrappers. We got this really amazing fresh shiitake mushrooms from an Asian grocery store near where we always get dim sum, and I think they added a lot to the filling. Reminding my sister that the potstickers had mushrooms in them also gave her pause, which was a fun lesson in being a more adventurous eater.
-In the past week, I got the stomach flu, which sucked. As I was recovering, I tried to minimize my meat intake, especially red meat, since it's so hard to digest. This happened to coincide fortuitously with our purchase the previous week of some portobella caps, which I then stuffed with shrimp and such. After broiling, they had a great balance of flavor and texture. We also had some pasta for that meal, with the extra shrimp, artichoke hearts, and stewed tomatoes in the sauce. I don't know that the portabellas were enough to stand on their own as a meal.
-I made this really really crazy complicated caramelized salmon dish, the recipe for which I got from a friend (whose family, I believe, got it from a restaurant). The carmelization worked ok, I guess--I rolled the salmon in sugar and pepper, and then seared it off--although the texture wasn't quite what I was expecting, it didn't taste overly sweet or anything. The other exciting part was the beurre blanc sauce, made with lemongrass and green onions. Maybe I had a lackluster understanding of chemistry as a kid, but reducing sauces still fascinates me, especially the way all of the complexities of the butter, vinegar, cream, lemongrass, rice wine, and white wine came together and mellowed each other out as they cooked down. It was fun, but an awful lot of work. Also, I have a lot of trouble with pieces of fish falling apart in the pan as I cook them. That's what practice is for, I guess.
My mom and I also made some other stuff that was pretty good--prime rib, something with tuna, something with halibut, I'm sure some other chicken and pork stuff, but I don't have it right in front of me, so I can't remember exactly. It was a good break, food-wise, in any event.
-I tried turkey enchiladas one night, because turkey cutlets were on sale. Cooking with the adobo (the sauce in which some varieties of chiles are canned) added a lot, but the peppers themselves would have been WAY too hot for my family. Broiling them did a pretty good job of getting the flavors into the tortillas, although if I did it again I'd add a bunch of cheese or something to the filling to try to keep the turkey a little more moist.
-I gave pad se iew (or however you anglicize it) a try one night. This turned out badly, mostly due to the noodles. We found some frozen "homestyle" rice noodles (not packaged as being specific for asian food or anything), and after thawing they just bled off a ton of starch--I don't know if I got it all rinsed off. Then I undercooked 'em. Oh, and I just sort of made up a lot of the specialized ingredients. And we were out of cornflour. But other than that, they were ok, I guess. I think I'm better off trying to make curry if I try Thai food again.
-I made pesto-stuffed chicken breasts another night. These turned out pretty well, if not particularly memorable. Admittedly, we just bought pesto rather than making it, since the food processor isn't a central part of our kitchen. I discovered that pounding chicken with the flat of a cleaver is really enjoyable on some visceral level, even if they didn't end up thin enough to roll the way I sort of thought they would.
-At one point, we found this amazing deal on an absolutely huge package of pork cutlets, so I decided to make ton katsu with some bok choy as a side. We put out this huge serving platter with a layer of shredded lettuce, and the pork literally in layers on top, there was so much in that package. Hammering pork cutlets with a cleaver was again a highlight, but they flattened more evenly this time. It turns out that, with the panko-style breadcrumbs (secured the last time my mom was in a town with Trader Joe's), it's really really easy to make tonkatsu that looks and tastes like it's supposed to. It would have been an all-around win if I hadn't made so much--all the leftovers made the meal feel like less of a success somehow. The bok choy also turned out well--we didn't find baby bok choy, so we just made do with trimming and cutting up normal-sized bok choy, which, after the braising, turned out just as tender.
-Using recipies from our Family Cookbook (something my mom had never previously told me about), Steph's mom, and some Martin Yan thing (I think), we made potstickers from scratch-minus-the-wrappers. We got this really amazing fresh shiitake mushrooms from an Asian grocery store near where we always get dim sum, and I think they added a lot to the filling. Reminding my sister that the potstickers had mushrooms in them also gave her pause, which was a fun lesson in being a more adventurous eater.
-In the past week, I got the stomach flu, which sucked. As I was recovering, I tried to minimize my meat intake, especially red meat, since it's so hard to digest. This happened to coincide fortuitously with our purchase the previous week of some portobella caps, which I then stuffed with shrimp and such. After broiling, they had a great balance of flavor and texture. We also had some pasta for that meal, with the extra shrimp, artichoke hearts, and stewed tomatoes in the sauce. I don't know that the portabellas were enough to stand on their own as a meal.
-I made this really really crazy complicated caramelized salmon dish, the recipe for which I got from a friend (whose family, I believe, got it from a restaurant). The carmelization worked ok, I guess--I rolled the salmon in sugar and pepper, and then seared it off--although the texture wasn't quite what I was expecting, it didn't taste overly sweet or anything. The other exciting part was the beurre blanc sauce, made with lemongrass and green onions. Maybe I had a lackluster understanding of chemistry as a kid, but reducing sauces still fascinates me, especially the way all of the complexities of the butter, vinegar, cream, lemongrass, rice wine, and white wine came together and mellowed each other out as they cooked down. It was fun, but an awful lot of work. Also, I have a lot of trouble with pieces of fish falling apart in the pan as I cook them. That's what practice is for, I guess.
My mom and I also made some other stuff that was pretty good--prime rib, something with tuna, something with halibut, I'm sure some other chicken and pork stuff, but I don't have it right in front of me, so I can't remember exactly. It was a good break, food-wise, in any event.
posted by sam at
7:51 AM
2 Comments:
It's all good. We made Jambalaya and thats really all that matters to me. It was a pretty rockin good Jambalaya too, despite being made with shortgrain Japanese rice. Oops.
Btw. Tonkatsu rocks. You should put it on rice and smother it in Japanese curry and make Katsu-curry rice. That would be a staple of my diet these days.
By
Travelingrant, at 1/15/07, 8:26 PM
Can I marry you? All of that sounds so amazing. And really... as much as I've heard about it I still have yet to try the oh so famous Stromberg family guacamole. Perhaps next time you're in town we should have some party of food... :D
--Jessica
By
Anonymous, at 1/17/07, 11:08 AM
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