Popovers!

Happy 2015~!!

A couple of weeks ago, I dined at a restaurant with friends and they served popovers instead of bread as starters. The popovers were lightly crisp on the outside and soft, fluffy, and eggy on the inside–Reminded me of a combination of soufflé and mochi bread. They were so delicious, and quite frankly I was mind blown that it was the first time that I had ever heard of popovers!

The very next day I started researching for a good recipe and came across Chef John’s recipe on Allrecipes.com. The recipe seemed pretty easy and had many positive reviews, so I decided to try it out. After I made it the first time, I decided to experiment and make different flavors. Here is my version of the recipe with my personal tweaking.

Ingredients:

• unsalted butter (for greasing the pan)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk (2% or non-fat would probably work too)
• 1 cup cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I used a little less of this since cheese has salt)
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup thinly grated mild cheddar cheese
• garlic, granulated and unsalted (optional)
• parsley (optional)

(makes 9, using a cupcake/muffin pan)

Directions:

Grease the muffin tins with butter.

Place the eggs, milk, flour, salt, and cayenne pepper together in a small mixing bowl.

Whisk with a hand mixer until smooth. You may need to manually mix in the sides.

Pour the batter into each of the muffin tin, filling them about 3/4 of the way up the sides.

The first row (from left to right), I sprinkled about 2 teaspoons of grated cheddar cheese over each of the batter. The middle row, I sprinkled about 3 pinches each of granulated garlic, and added about 2 teaspoons of grated cheddar cheese over each of the batter. The last row, I sprinkled about 3 pinches each of parsley, 3 pinches each of granulated garlic, and then added about 2 teaspoons of grated cheddar cheese over each of the batter.

Place the pan in the cold oven (not preheated), and turn the heat to 450F. Bake until puffed and well-browned. For me, they took 23 minutes to bake.

The parsley/garlic/cheese combination is my favorite. Enjoy!

Brussels Sprouts

Growing up, my family rarely ventured out of the Asian cuisine, so brussels sprouts were rather foreign to us.

The first time I’ve ever had brussels sprouts was at a potluck a couple years ago. I actually really like the taste of them-Just didn’t have the chance yet to try making them myself. But during one of my lunch breaks at work last week, I strolled to the nearby farmers market..bought my usual items, and then I came across brussels sprouts at one of the stands and randomly decided to buy a lil less than a pound of it at $5/lb ..omg yes, that was pretty expensive, but it was one of those days that when I put my mind to do something, it must be done. And that day’s mission.. was to make brussels sprouts!

I had no idea how to cook this thing, so when I got back to the office, I researched a couple of simple recipes and came across some that uses balsamic vinegar or lemon juice, salt or sea salt or kosher salt, and black pepper was a common ingredient for the recipes. I was lazy to buy the items that I didn’t have, so I just ended up making these sprouts with what was already in my kitchen, essentially making up my own recipe.

Ingredients:

• ~1 lb brussels sprouts
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 (or more) teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Clean and cut the stem off of the sprouts. In a large bowl, place the olive oil, salt, black pepper, and lemon juice in. Mix and stir.

Boil a pot of water. When the water reaches a boil, place the sprouts in and boil for 5 mins. Drain.

Make sure the sprouts have been drained pretty well. Place them immediately in the olive oil, salt, black pepper, and lemon juice mixture. Mix thoroughly.

Cover a shallow roasting tray with foil. Place the sprouts on top along with all the mixture.

Bake for 7 mins. Take it out of the oven and flip the sprouts over so that the browned side is showing at the top. Then drizzle a little more olive oil over the sprouts.

Bake for another 7 mins. Then take it out of the oven, flip them over again. Add the chopped walnuts to toast them.

Bake for another 7 mins. Take it out of the oven and let the sprouts and walnuts sit for about 5-7 mins. It should then be ready.

(I’ve learned from this that brussels sprouts taste better after sitting out longer-texture is less mushy than when you first it eat out of the oven.)

The taste of it was surprisingly pretty good! ..given the fact that I improvised with only what I had in my kitchen :)

Momofuku Style Chicken Wings

I’m extremely happy that I came across this recipe: http://steamykitchen.com/6902-momofuku-baked-chicken-wings.html.  (Momofuku is a restaurant group in New York).  I’ve gotta say, the chicken wings were heavenly.

I pretty much followed the whole recipe with only the baking time being different.

The chopped ingredients for the Octo Vinaigrette (including the cilantro. and I even cut a full chili for garnish just like SteamyKitchen did. haha):

The Octo Vinaigrette mixture (I used regular soy mixed with water instead of the low sodium soy. turned out fine):

I baked it for 35-40 mins instead for extra crisp:

Mixing the awesomeness:

Even with the chicken wings being drenched in the octo vinaigrette, they still maintained a slight crisp.

*There will be some vinaigrette left over. I tried to make good use of it and poured it over baked cod and salmon. Chicken is still better, but it worked.

Three Dishes in 30 Minutes

For dinner the other night, I decided to make salmon, vegetables, and an eggplant mushroom dish. All this surprisingly only took me 30 mins! And then I had leftovers for 3 more meals.

I decided to make fish because I heard on the news a couple days ago that eating fish may lower the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.  ^_^

Dish 1: Baked Salmon

Before you start anything in the kitchen, preheat the oven to 350F!

Ingredients:

• 2 wild alaskan sockeye salmon 5-7 ounce fillet (frozen and individually vacuum packed, from Costco. *Defrost the night before in a tub of water placed in fridge)
• salt
• black pepper
• vegetable oil
• lemon (optional)
• soy sauce (optional)

1) Wash the salmon fillets. Semi dry them. Rub two thin layers of salt on both pieces. Then rub on black pepper.
2) Place the salmon on foil in a baking pan. Add a small splash of vegetable oil.
3) Wrap the foil over and completely cover both pieces.
4) Place in oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.

In the meantime, while the salmon is baking, make the other 2 dishes!

*After the salmon is done baking, you could add either soy sauce or squeeze some lemon juice over it.

Dish 2: Sauteed Chinese Broccoli

Ingredients:

• A handful of chinese broccoli stalks (about 8 stalks)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 large cloves of garlic, longitudinal slices
• 1/2 cup shiao hsing wine.
• salt

1) Wash and separate leaves from stems. For the stalks portion, thinly slice off the outer layer (may be too fibrous). Then slice the stalk in half (or thirds, if stalk is pretty thick).
2) Place pot on stove and turn temperture to high. Once the pot is warm, add the oil. Once the oil is hot, add in the garlic. Stir fry the garlic until it is light brown.
3) Add the chinese broccoli. Quickly stir it around and add the shiao hsing wine. It will sizzle, so quickly cover the pot with a lid.
4) After 1 min, open lid and add a few dashes of salt. Stir for about 2-3 more minutes and it should be done. Remember that you can also try it to see if it is cooked to your liking.

Dish 3: Eggplant and Oyster Mushroom

Ingredients:

• 3 chinese eggplants
• A bag of oyster mushrooms (about 6 mushrooms)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoon rice vinegar

1) Wash the eggplants and mushrooms and slice them into small pieces.
2) Mix the sauce. In a bowl, add the sugar, soy sauce, and rice vinegar.
3) Place pan on stove and turn the temperature to high. Once the pot is warm, add the oil. Once the oil is hot, add in the garlic.
4) Add the eggplants. Stir fry for 30 secs.
5) Add the mushrooms. Stir for 1-2 minute or until all the oil is soaked up by the eggplants.
6) Add the sauce in and stir. After the sauce has been evenly distributed, place the lid on the pan.
7) Open lid every 3 minutes to stir the contents around (don’t want the eggplant/mushroom at the bottom of the pan to get burnt). Repeat about 3 times or until the eggplant becomes soft and almost mushy.

I didn’t actually time myself when I was making these dishes, but when the salmon was done baking, the other 2 were done cooking as well. :D

Herb Roasted Pork Tenderloin

My boyfriend decided to try to make this and I was a bystander for once (kind of) :P. Here’s the recipe we followed: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/09/herb-roasted-pork-tenderloin-with-preserves/.

For the preserves, we thought it meant preserved dried fruit (haha), so we bought dried figs. It’s actually a jam that you buy.. something like this. Oh wells!

This is how the dried mashed figs turned out. Still tasted good with the pork tenderloin.
We basically smashed/chopped/infused the fig with the vinegar water.

For the pork tenderloin part of it, we followed the recipe and it was fairly simple.

Up close. Pretty liberal with the salt and pepper and herbs indeed.

The tenderloin we bought seemed to be a much larger piece compared to the pieces in her picture. It took us 30 mins to bake instead.

It was so tasty and juicy!