Bahn mi

Okay this is the egg version of banh mi since we all know I'm secretly Asian on the inside. This gem has been in my rotation for about 2 years or so, and even those it's supposed to be grilled Chris and I still love it. The best place to get your pork tenderloin is trader joes. It will set you back about 10$ but its got two strips in there and usually lasts Chris and I at least 6-8 full meal sandwiches. And everything else is cheap. Adi, I'm looking at you. Lien, everything's super fast too! Truth be told this recipe has some what ruined me for real banh mi too. So lets get down to business.

Ingredients:

1 pack of port tenderloin, very thinly slices. 

1/4 cup Asian fish sauce (is there any other kind?!)

1 tbs honey

2 tbs sugar

1 tsp freshly ground pepper

6 (or more if you like sautéd onions) green onions [scallions]

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 baguettes (if you aren't eating it all tonight cut the other baguette into sandwich size portions, freeze, reheat in the oven/toaster and slice in half)

Hoisin sauce and Sriracha chili sauce

1/2 seedless cucumber cut into matchstick pieces or thinly sliced width wise

1-2 grated carrots

1 cup chopped kale leaves, torn and massaged with a little salt

Cilantro for serving

1. Mix together the fish sauce, honey, sugar, pepper, scallions, and garlic. Transfer to a bowl with the pork and mix till the pork is coated. Refrigerate for 2-4 hrs.

2. Heat a skillet on high, and add the pork cooking until heated through and opinions are soft. There should still be some sauce. About 3-5 minutes.

3. Assemble your sandwiches. Drizzle hoisin and Sriracha on wag half of your bread. Put carrots, cucumber, and kale on the bottom half. Load up with pork, and top with cilantro. Then eat!

Andalusian Chickpea and Spinach Soup

Thanks to my father and his quest to always be healthy, as well as his professed love of the NYTimes, Chris and I have now added this fantastic recipe to our evening line up. It's ridiculously easy, and a great soup to make in under an hour. It's also very easy to modify. What follows is my slightly adapted more twenty-something version of the NYTimes actual recipe

Ingredients:
1 can of chickpeas (The real recipe wants dried and soaked chickpeas, which no one ever remembers to do in the middle of the week)
2 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced (or just get the good old store bought minced ones)
1 14 oz. can of chopped tomatoes, or 1 lb fresh chopped tomatoes. (I used TJs fire roasted tomatoes this time, which added great flavor)
2 tsp sweet paprika (really whatever paprika you can find. I go back and forth between smoked and sweet)
1 lb potatoes, diced (multicolored for me this time)
1/4 cup dry white wine (like a Pinot Grigio)
Salt to taste
Pinch of Saffron (adds good flavor but you could get away without it, TJs also has it for very cheap)
1 pound spinach, well washed (This is where Costco comes to the rescue!!)

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a soup pot. Add the onions and cook until tender about 5 minutes. You will need to stir these from time to time, but its a great thing to do while cutting your tomatoes and/or potatoes. Add 2 of your garlic cloves and cook until fragrant, roughly 30 seconds. Add your tomatoes, paprika, a big pinch of salt (a.k.a. 1/8 a teaspoon), and cook for 10-15 minutes. Stir it often so nothing sticks to the bottom. You want it to cook down to a really fragrant sauce.

2. Add the chickpeas and their liquid. Now remember with canned chickpeas you can drain them and rinse to get rid of some of the gas, or just add them with all their liquid. Also add your diced potatoes (the smaller the faster they cook!), wine, salt and pepper to taste, and 2 cups of water. Bring it all to a boil and cook until your potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes.

3. Stir in the remaining garlic, the saffron, and all your spinach. The spinach is easiest to do in batches as they cook down in size. Otherwise you'll have it flying all over the stove. Cook for another 5 minutes or until the spinach is tender. Season to taste with pepper and salt.

(Btw look at that beeeeeeautiful hard boiled egg!!)

Optional: Add some sausage or meatballs when you put the potatoes in, so they cook through. Serve with boiled eggs and toasted bread, as well as white wine vinegar for those who would like.

Enjoy!

Braised pork belly

Hello everybody! It's been a long time since Rachel and I have updated this cooking website. You thought it was dead, huh? Well now that I have fewer distractions in life, what with wedding planning being done and all, I hope to update the site more often. 

...Starting with pork belly. Delicious, luscious pork belly. While this recipe does take a while to make, it it worth it in the end. It also makes lots of leftovers, leaving you with many no-cooking days ahead.

Braised pork belly:

2 to 2 1/2 pounds pork belly

1 cup water
6 tablespoons fish sauce
6 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 cinnamon stick (or substitute 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder)
1/2 tablespoon whole peppercorns
1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
1 inch piece of ginger, sliced
8 cloves garlic, peeled
2  large chili peppers
4 pieces star anise
3 tablespoons cornstarch

2 bunches green onions, thinly sliced
1 bunch cilantro, chopped

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Browned butter, I've found is practically the only way to make a chocolate chip cookie. If you love that slightly salty, molasses, buttery tasty of raw cookie dough, take that and magnify all the goodness in it by 100 and that's how it is with browned butter. Plus the cooked cookies are fabulous too.

I've found a couple different ways to make these cookies and switched it up every time...though mostly I skip the chilling, because who wants to wait a day for their cookies?! Also, excuse the photos, the whole post has been a lovely 6 months in coming up, since it was an impromptu, "I want chocolate, I want cookies!!!" by Andy while I was home. Then while we were cooking he said "you should blog about this!" not knowing where my camera was though, I settled for iPhone photos. So these will have to satisfy your craving till you make these for yourself.

Ingredients:
2 sticks of UNSALTED butter --- Lien, salted butter = salty cookies.
1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flower
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
1 sm. bag (or less) of chocolate chips (you know some times I mostly just want the dough!)
1 cup of chopped pecans/almonds/etc.
1 cup of oats (optional) if you include this add before you add the flour so you can see if you should add less flour, based on the consistency of the dough after 2 cups of flour.

1. Melt the butter in a silver or light colored pan, this is ideal for seeing what color the butter is. Cook over moderate heat until it turns a beautiful amber color, whisking constantly. Now every recipe tells you this will take like 5-8 minutes, it always takes nearly twice that for me, so don't get discouraged. I'm always impatient and hate standing there whisking, so turn on some music or the tv and zone out for a little bit while you whisk since it makes it all the better. My brother stood there the whole time once whisking, and man, that was the best browned butter I've seen in ages. If you don't whisk while it does it's thing then it gets little burned bits in it. You can tell the butter is done when it has an especially nutty smell, and the color matches. I also go all out and get a flash light in there too to help with the color. :)

2. Now your supposed to let the butter cool to room temperature, I let it sit while I get the other ingredients ready, and then just dump it in even if it is still warm. Remember, impatient here. So combine the butter, sugars and whisk until smooth. Then add the vanilla and the eggs. Should look about like this:

3. Then add the baking soda and salt. Then the oatmeal, if adding. Then the flour. Mix after each addition, this is so the smaller and more important for baking/fluffing/rising all that chemistry gobbly gook, like the baking soda get evenly dispersed through the mixture before the flour goes in. Yes, I know most pro chefs just sift the dry ingredients in another bowl together, but again, impatience here, and one less thing to clean.

4. Then stir in the chocolate chips and the nuts.

5. Here's the part where you're suppose to chill it for 24 hours. Choose to do as you wish!

6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, then scoop nice spoonfuls on to ungreased cookie sheets. There's already butter in them, hence no greasing. Bake for about 8 minutes, in the center of the oven, I always rotate the sheets half way. Take out based on your desired doneness, i.e. semi gooey cookies the Ashlee/Rachel way, or harder crunchy cookies, etc. No matter what you want, always take it out when you think they are slightly underdone as they will continue to cook on the cookie sheet.

7. Let them sit on the cookie sheet for a minute or two and then take off and put on a baking rack or a cut up brown paper bag, absorbs the grease.

8. Enjoy!

Bacon Jam

Hello! I am back from the dead. Last post was on November of 2011. I am quite a lazy cook these days. When I cook food, I just want to eat it, not take photos of it and then blog about it. Well let's see how long this keeps up.

Okay, so everyone knows about how crazy sweet and savory food combinations are now. Combine that with America's obsession with bacon. ...Bacon jam!

Bacon Jam
makes 1.5-2 cups of spread 

1 package of bacon
2 medium onions, chopped or cut into slivers
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup coffee (I used 1 instant pack of coffee with 3/4 cup water)
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar (optional)
3-4 dashes of Maggi soy sauce or 2-3 dashes of fish sauce (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1. Cut the bacon into small 1/4 inch pieces. Cook in a pot on medium heat until the bacon is browned. Alternatively, cook the bacon strips whole and crumble later.

2. Strain the bacon out of the pan. Discard some of the oil (or use it for something else). Reduce the heat the medium-low and add the onions and garlic. Cover the pan and let the onions caramelize. Stir occassionally, every 2-3 minutes. This step will take the longest--about 20-30 minutes.

3. If you want the bacon jam to be smoother, turn the heat off and let the onions cool down. Then process the onions and bacon using whatever you have, such as an immersion blender or food processor. I decided to keep my bacon jam chunky.

4. Smooth or chunky, add the onions and bacon back into the pan on high heat. Add the brown sugar and stir, allowing the sugar to melt. Then add the vinegars, maple syrup, coffee and secret ingredient (wink wink). The secret ingredient being the soy sauce or fish sauce. A little bit adds some depth of flavor but keeps people guessing. Same with the coffee.

5. Allow sauce to reach a boil and then reduce to medium or medium-high heat. Let the sauce thicken till the liquid is no longer runny and instead coats the pan. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Allow the bacon jam to cool and enjoy it warm or cold. Crackers and toast are a good start. I have also seen it as a condiment for burgers. Yum!

Lentil flatbread

A few weeks ago, I was reading about the Paleo diet, in which people consume a very low/no-carb, high protein, high fat diet to lose weight. I thought I'd try out some recipes. Well fast forward to today: I miserably failed on the no carb. However, this flatbread is very tasty and healthy.

Lentil flatbread:

1 1/2 cups dried lentils (I used red lentils)

2 tablespoons whole flaxseed

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons oil

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1. Grind the lentils into flour using a blender or food processor.

2. Mix the remaining ingredients together. It should resemble a very thick batter.

3. Pour into a 13x9 pan or a smaller square pan. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes.

Indian spiced wings

Indian Spiced Wings:

2 lb chicken wings
3/4 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder (optional, it's for color)
1 1/2 tablespoons garam masala
5 cloves garlic, grated, diced, or mashed
1 inch piece ginger, diced or grated
1 cup plain yogurt

1. The night before, mix all of the ingredients together and marinate overnight. If you can, roast 2 tablespoons of whole garam masala spices in a pan for 2 minutes, then grind. However, you can also use ground garama masala and use that.

2. Place the top rack of the oven on the 2nd row to the top. Set the oven to broil. Broil turns on the heat only on the top of the oven and is used when you want to brown the top of whatever is cooking.  Broil the wings for about 15-20 minutes, then flip over and broil for another 10-15 minutes until the other side is browned and you have some blackened spots. Yum.

I also made crispy potatoes and roasted broccoli with my chicken wings. If you want to make those too, follow these directions.

Crispy potatoes:

5 potatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried rosemary (or 3/4 teaspoons fresh)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1. Cut your potatoes into thirds, lengthwise. Then take each slice, cut those into thirds, lengthwise, then slice into small cubes (about 1/2 inch).
2. Place the potato cubes into a baking pan or dish, add the oil and seasonings, and mix well.


Roasted broccoli:
1 head broccoli
1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1. Cut the florets off of the stem and into uniform pieces, about 1 inch. You can also roast the stems too. Peel the thick skin off of the stem, it doesn't have to be perfect. Then cut the stems into 1/2 inch cubes.
2. Place the broccoli into a baking dish or pan. Add the oil and seasonings, and mix well.


Place the top rack on the 2nd row to the top, and the 2nd rack one row below that one. Heat oven to broil. Set the veggies on the top rack and the wings on the bottom rack. After 5 minutes, the broccoli should have some browned (but not blackened!) spots on it. Now place the broccoli on the bottom rack and the wings on the top rack next to the potatoes. Stir the potatoes around but keep them on the top rack.  After 15-20 minutes, the wings should be browned so flip the wings over. Stir the potatoes again and add more oil if they are looking dry. If you broil heats unevenly, you may have to rotate the pans so that the back doesn't burn before the front browns all the way. Broil for another 10-15 minutes until the wings are done.