Next time I make a batch of dough I'll do a making of the pizza post. Just the end product this time.
Showing posts with label Cooked. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cooked. Show all posts
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Random Pizza
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Dumplings
Dumpling making time! Stocking up the freezer. I love freezers.
Dumpling Dough - Made from just flour and water, amazing! When the dough is ready, take some of the dough and roll it into about a 1 in wide log and then cut into even sized pieces. I find it best to make a small batch of wrappers and then fill and wrap them one by one. Laying them out like I did in the above left pictures dried out the wrappers and made them harder to seal. I learned that is not the best way to do it. Also use flour to keep the wrappers from sticking to each other and place a piece of plastic wrap over the dough and wrappers to keep them from drying out.
Pork Dumpling filling - I like this recipe, though I didn't add the cilantro or ginger as I'm not a fan of either. I also made a second batch where I used chicken and shrimp instead of pork. Experiment and make your own filling! I had a few extra wrappers at the end so I rummaged in my fridge and made a few grilled chicken and hot habanero cheese dumplings.
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Dumpling Dough - Made from just flour and water, amazing! When the dough is ready, take some of the dough and roll it into about a 1 in wide log and then cut into even sized pieces. I find it best to make a small batch of wrappers and then fill and wrap them one by one. Laying them out like I did in the above left pictures dried out the wrappers and made them harder to seal. I learned that is not the best way to do it. Also use flour to keep the wrappers from sticking to each other and place a piece of plastic wrap over the dough and wrappers to keep them from drying out.
| Wrapper rolling - Roll out a basic circle shape then hold the wrapper in one hand and with the other hand roll the rolling pin from edge to center rotating the wrapper after each roll. This helps make wrappers that are thicker in the center and thinner at the edges. |
Pork Dumpling filling - I like this recipe, though I didn't add the cilantro or ginger as I'm not a fan of either. I also made a second batch where I used chicken and shrimp instead of pork. Experiment and make your own filling! I had a few extra wrappers at the end so I rummaged in my fridge and made a few grilled chicken and hot habanero cheese dumplings.
| Dumpling folding - This is a classic way to seal the dumplings. You can fold them in any manner that works for you, just make sure that the edges are sealed so the juices don't come out when you cook them. Also if you make different fillings you could use a different fold for each filling to differentiate them. |
Saturday, February 20, 2016
Random Pasta
Whole wheat penne with red peppers, zucchini, onions, italian sausage and red pepper tomato sauce.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Catfish Three Ways
Fish is one of those things I feel like I should become more familiar with because it cooks so quickly and therefore makes for an easy, delicious meal. So one week when I was particularly bored with my usual foods, I decided to add catfish to an Arganica food delivery order. When the catfish was delivered, there were three very nice pieces of filet so I decided three meals, with the catfish cooked three different ways. The first choice was an easy one. Blackened. My favorite way to eat catfish.
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This was indeed an easy dish to make. All you have to do is mix together the spices, dredge the catfish in the spices, get a pan with oil hot, then cook on each side for two to three minutes and you're done! Next time I make this I think I'm even going to make extra spice mix so that I can jar it to make the process one step quicker (and who knows maybe I'll find some other dish that the "blackened" spices will work well with). |
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For dinner the next night I knew I could go with the other classic way of cooking catfish of grilled, but I wanted something a little more than that. As I looked around my kitchen my eyes fell upon some corn tortillas. Bingo. Fish tacos. After doing some recipe searching I discovered that catfish is not a normal fish to use for fish tacos; I think because it's not a flaky white fish. Also cabbage, of the red or white kind, seems to be a common ingredient in fish tacos. Although I didn't have any red or white cabbage, I did happen to have some napa cabbage (another item I had picked up
because I wanted something different from my norm). So as I had a white fish (albeit not flaky) and I had cabbage (albeit not white or red cabbage) I decided that this could still work and so I forged ahead. Catfish tacos with napa cabbage it was. Using this recipe as my guide, I marinated the fish in some oil, chopped up jalapenos, lime juice, cayenne, and chilli and then since I don't have a grill I pan fried the fish. I also sauteed the napa cabbage as napa cabbage raw seemed strange to me. To the taco I also added some salsa and a line of Sriracha (a.k.a. rooster sauce). Overall the dish was tasty, but could be better. The fish would have benefited from a longer, heavier marinade and the dish needed some texture. In hindsight since the cabbage is supposed to give the tacos some crunch texture I should have tried to make some sort of slaw with the napa cabbage. 
And lastly I made an oven baked version of a battered fried catfish using this recipe as a guide. I don't like to deep fry things in my kitchen as I don't have a deep fryer and I find deep frying makes such a mess with the hot oil popping out of the pan and also I never know what to do with all that oil afterwards. Seems such a waste just to throw it away. My solution always is to bake things instead. Does anyone have any other good solutions? Or any other good ways to make a catfish dish? For me the overall winner is still catfish blackened. So yummy.
| Recipe Links: | Not Lackin' on the Blackenin' Catfish |
| Fish Tacos | |
| Oven Fried Catfish |
Thursday, September 15, 2011
"Gourmet" Pizza
Pizza time! I really enjoy making my own pizza so I again ordered pizza dough from Arganica (a food delivery company). Pizzas are a great medium to be as creative as you want or be as simple as you want depending on your mood. This time I was definitely in more of a creative mood. I had this interesting roasted zucchini pesto recipe sitting around that I've been wanting to try out. I figured this would be a perfect opportunity to use it, making it for the sauce of the pizza. Then I rummaged around in my fridge and decided to use cheese, tomatoes, and potatoes as the toppings. And voila just like that homemade "gourmet" pizza. Though this one did not turn out well enough that I would put it on a menu. My pizza making still needs some more practice.
Recipe Links: Roasted Zucchini Pesto
Recipe Links: Roasted Zucchini Pesto
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Pastina
I have found a new great pasta recipe as well as a fun new pasta. While searching for a dish that uses carrots, I came across Giada's Pastina with Peas and Carrots. This is definitely a recipe I shall add to my recipe collection to make again and again. It has many of the qualities that I look for in a recipe for it to be a regular. It's easy, it's tasty, and it has room for additions and substitutions such as adding blue cheese or substituting broccoli for the peas. Here are the (original) ingredients for this dish.
This recipe was a perfect place for me to try out this new pasta shape that I had come across called ditalini. I found the little, short tubes to be so fun and cute that I had to pick up a box. The ditalini was perfect for this recipe, as first of all, it is a pastina, which literally means, according to wikipedia, "little pasta" (check out these other fun little pasta shapes!), and secondly because the size of the ditalini matched up well with the peas and the diced up carrots and onions which makes you almost want to eat this dish with a spoon versus a fork. It's funny how using a different size, shape, style of pasta can affect how a dish tastes. I find that doing something simple like that of just changing the type of pasta you use in your regular dishes is an easy way to make your dish a little bit different. Well, it's not really the taste that changes, it's mostly just a change in texture, but still that bit of change in texture can make the dish feel not as boring. Now to find in what other dish the ditalini works well in so the ditalini doesn't become boring.
Recipe Link: Pastina with Peas and Carrots
This recipe was a perfect place for me to try out this new pasta shape that I had come across called ditalini. I found the little, short tubes to be so fun and cute that I had to pick up a box. The ditalini was perfect for this recipe, as first of all, it is a pastina, which literally means, according to wikipedia, "little pasta" (check out these other fun little pasta shapes!), and secondly because the size of the ditalini matched up well with the peas and the diced up carrots and onions which makes you almost want to eat this dish with a spoon versus a fork. It's funny how using a different size, shape, style of pasta can affect how a dish tastes. I find that doing something simple like that of just changing the type of pasta you use in your regular dishes is an easy way to make your dish a little bit different. Well, it's not really the taste that changes, it's mostly just a change in texture, but still that bit of change in texture can make the dish feel not as boring. Now to find in what other dish the ditalini works well in so the ditalini doesn't become boring.
Recipe Link: Pastina with Peas and Carrots
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Arganica Box Number 2
My second Arganica delivery:
These items from the box were my inspiration for my meal that night.
These items from the box were my inspiration for my meal that night.
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A citrus salad and stuffed peppers. I used this recipe for the stuffed peppers with my usual various substitutions and/or deletions depending upon what my pantry held. Nothing fancy this time, just didn't add ground pork, sour cream or green onion tops and used chicken bouillon cubes instead of beef, and shredded cheese instead of jarred cheese. The stuffed peppers were much easier to make than I expected and also much tastier than I expected as I'm not a huge fan of peppers. I will definitely go back to this recipe to make stuffed peppers again.
The citrus salad was also very easy to make it just being the beautiful lettuce from the Arganica box, a grapefruit also from the Arganica box, and some canned mandarin oranges topped with a dressing made from red wine vinegar, lemon juice, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper (the dressing being from this recipe). I also had a lot of fun "plating" the salad. Trying to make food not only taste good but also look pretty is quite a challenging task. Hopefully my many years of incessant watching of the food network channel and seeing the many beautiful plates the chefs make will help me in this endeavor. One tidbit I have taken away recently is from Anne Burnell on the Worst Cooks in America. The first step in having a pretty plate is that your plated dish MUST be clean to look nice. Here was my finished product for the night.
The citrus salad was also very easy to make it just being the beautiful lettuce from the Arganica box, a grapefruit also from the Arganica box, and some canned mandarin oranges topped with a dressing made from red wine vinegar, lemon juice, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper (the dressing being from this recipe). I also had a lot of fun "plating" the salad. Trying to make food not only taste good but also look pretty is quite a challenging task. Hopefully my many years of incessant watching of the food network channel and seeing the many beautiful plates the chefs make will help me in this endeavor. One tidbit I have taken away recently is from Anne Burnell on the Worst Cooks in America. The first step in having a pretty plate is that your plated dish MUST be clean to look nice. Here was my finished product for the night.
| Recipe Links: | Stuffed Red Peppers |
| Grapefruit Salad and Dressing |
Friday, March 11, 2011
More Mystery Produce
More mystery produce from the Arganica box. This produce box has made me realize I am a little bit produce illiterate. Not being able to identify a bunch of the items in the box made me feel like the kids from Huntington, West Virgina shown on Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Jamie Oliver brought a bunch of fresh fruits and vegetables to a first grade class in Huntington, West Virginia, statistically one of the unhealthiest cities in the country, to see if they even knew where food came from and what fresh food looked like. The kids had trouble identifying the most basic of produce. Watch the clip. Well this produce box has been my Jamie Oliver educating me to identify produce such as swiss chard, purple potatoes and these two items:
beets and turnips. The beets took me a while to recognize. I guess I hadn't seen beets without their stems. I also thought the turnips were rutabaga (yellow turnip) for a while before deciding that it didn't have enough purple in it and so they were probably normal turnips (white turnip). As I barely knew what these vegetables looked like I certainly didn't know how to cook them. So with some research on my trusty google and my trusty food network's website I noticed a common way of preparing these root vegetables is roasting them. I settled on using the baby root vegetable part of this recipe as a guide to roast the beets, turnips, and also some carrots (also from the Arganica box). I've found this is an easy tasty way to cook up any mix of root vegetables. The steps are just to: In a bowl season the vegetables with salt and pepper, drizzle with some olive oil, lightly mix, place on a sheet pan, and roast in oven for 30 minutes at 475° F turning once midway during cooking to ensure even browning. I served this with the Creole fried pork chop and carmelized apple portion of this recipe with a maple syrup and sherry substitution for the cane syrup and bourbon to cook the apples (again from the Arganica box).
I really like Emeril's Creole seasoning (the seasoning to the pork chop). I first came across it in this recipe and found myself constantly coming back to the shrimp part of the recipe and mixing it up by throwing the shrimp creole in with different types of pasta sauces (like an alfredo or a tomato sauce). I now make a decent amount of the seasoning and store it in it's own spice container so it's easily on hand. I might have to make some more now that I know this seasoning also works well on pork.
beets and turnips. The beets took me a while to recognize. I guess I hadn't seen beets without their stems. I also thought the turnips were rutabaga (yellow turnip) for a while before deciding that it didn't have enough purple in it and so they were probably normal turnips (white turnip). As I barely knew what these vegetables looked like I certainly didn't know how to cook them. So with some research on my trusty google and my trusty food network's website I noticed a common way of preparing these root vegetables is roasting them. I settled on using the baby root vegetable part of this recipe as a guide to roast the beets, turnips, and also some carrots (also from the Arganica box). I've found this is an easy tasty way to cook up any mix of root vegetables. The steps are just to: In a bowl season the vegetables with salt and pepper, drizzle with some olive oil, lightly mix, place on a sheet pan, and roast in oven for 30 minutes at 475° F turning once midway during cooking to ensure even browning. I served this with the Creole fried pork chop and carmelized apple portion of this recipe with a maple syrup and sherry substitution for the cane syrup and bourbon to cook the apples (again from the Arganica box).
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I really like Emeril's Creole seasoning (the seasoning to the pork chop). I first came across it in this recipe and found myself constantly coming back to the shrimp part of the recipe and mixing it up by throwing the shrimp creole in with different types of pasta sauces (like an alfredo or a tomato sauce). I now make a decent amount of the seasoning and store it in it's own spice container so it's easily on hand. I might have to make some more now that I know this seasoning also works well on pork.
| Recipe Links: | Roasted Baby Root Vegetables |
| The King's Creole Fried Pork Chops with Caramelized Apples | |
| Shrimp Creole | |
| Emeril's Essence Creole Seasoning |
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Leek Potato Soup
Leek and purple potatoes, two more items from the Arganica box that I had not cooked with before or eaten much of. I decided to make it even more of a learning experience by making leek potato soup, making soups being something else that I didn't have much experience with.
What I learned. First of all that purple potatoes even exist. I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that these potatoes are not only purple on the outside but are purple on the inside as well. Really cool. I was hoping that they would give my soup a purple tinge, but instead the beauty of their purple color was lost. Next time I have purple potatoes I will have to find a dish that showcases the unique color of the potatoes.
Another thing I learned was that soups are not that hard to make. The basic steps seem to be just to soften the vegetables and then blend. I even made a bunch of substitutions to the recipe because I didn't have all the ingredients and the soup still came out fine. The substitutions I made were purple potatoes instead of Yukon gold potatoes, chicken broth instead of vegetable broth, and for the buttermilk I used 1 cup minus a tablespoon of milk mixed with a tablespoon of white vinegar. I also left the dark green sections of the leeks in because I didn't know what to do with them otherwise, and since I don't have an immersion blender I just poured the contents into a blender. The final result:
The only minor issue was that I probably should have left the dark green sections of the leeks out because those didn't break down and blend quite as well leaving a few pieces of stringy leek in the soup. This didn't affect the flavor of the soup which was something else I learned. I like the flavor of leeks. I was originally hoping the soup would have more of a potato flavor as I love potato soups, but in the end I was happy with the main flavor of the soup being leek. I was definitely surprised to find I honestly liked the soup and its leeky flavor. This recipe will be saved to be used again.
Recipe Link: Leek Potato Soup
What I learned. First of all that purple potatoes even exist. I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that these potatoes are not only purple on the outside but are purple on the inside as well. Really cool. I was hoping that they would give my soup a purple tinge, but instead the beauty of their purple color was lost. Next time I have purple potatoes I will have to find a dish that showcases the unique color of the potatoes.
Another thing I learned was that soups are not that hard to make. The basic steps seem to be just to soften the vegetables and then blend. I even made a bunch of substitutions to the recipe because I didn't have all the ingredients and the soup still came out fine. The substitutions I made were purple potatoes instead of Yukon gold potatoes, chicken broth instead of vegetable broth, and for the buttermilk I used 1 cup minus a tablespoon of milk mixed with a tablespoon of white vinegar. I also left the dark green sections of the leeks in because I didn't know what to do with them otherwise, and since I don't have an immersion blender I just poured the contents into a blender. The final result:
The only minor issue was that I probably should have left the dark green sections of the leeks out because those didn't break down and blend quite as well leaving a few pieces of stringy leek in the soup. This didn't affect the flavor of the soup which was something else I learned. I like the flavor of leeks. I was originally hoping the soup would have more of a potato flavor as I love potato soups, but in the end I was happy with the main flavor of the soup being leek. I was definitely surprised to find I honestly liked the soup and its leeky flavor. This recipe will be saved to be used again.
Recipe Link: Leek Potato Soup
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Pizza
Dinner number two inspired from the Arganica order... Pizza!
This one was kinda a cheat since I didn't make the pizza dough, it was ordered through Arganica. Though making pizza dough actually isn't that hard, it does take some time as you have to let the dough sit and rise. If you do have some time I would recommend trying it out because it is pretty satisfying making the dough from scratch. I did it once with D using a recipe from American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza
. It was delicious.
This one was kinda a cheat since I didn't make the pizza dough, it was ordered through Arganica. Though making pizza dough actually isn't that hard, it does take some time as you have to let the dough sit and rise. If you do have some time I would recommend trying it out because it is pretty satisfying making the dough from scratch. I did it once with D using a recipe from American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza
. It was delicious.
Friday, February 4, 2011
First delivery from Arganica
So J and I decided this year to stay in and cook dinner for Chinese New Year partially because I realized that my first delivery from Arganica arrives today. I had always wanted to try out one of those local produce deliveries so when the deal of the day for LivingSocial was for a membership to Arganica Farm Club I decided to take the plunge. Here is the result of my first order:
One of the items I ordered was a produce box which is whatever produce they have available for the week. This made the delivery even more exciting as I wasn't sure what I would receive. In fact even when we did open up the crate we still weren't sure of some of the things we got. But with a little help from the good ol' internet we think we identified the mystery produce to be swiss chard, purple potato, and rutabaga.
So it being Chinese New Years I decided to try to make a somewhat asian dish with what arrived. What I came up with was a noodle stir fry (the noodles not being part of the crate) with sausage, onion, and tomato, a side of swiss chard, and peach wine to drink.
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