Inspiration

This week I went to my trusty on-line bookstore, Amazon.com, and purchased two new cookbooks for my collection.  These particular books are special to me as I bought them to serve as inspiration.  Both cookbooks were written by women who, like me, starting a cooking blog on a whim.  What they have done though is take their blogs one giant step further and created beautiful cookbooks from their entries. Maybe someday for me???

The book I am cooking out of today is called The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook by Jaden Hair.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  The picures are beautiful, the recipes look very easy to follow and Ms. Hair covers a wide variety of Asian cooking throughout the book.  I love Asian food...Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, all delicious.  Sometimes when I have wanted to try cooking one of my favorite Asian restaurant meals I have found it somewhat daunting with huge lists of ingredients, many of them hard to find in my town.

This cookbook has simple lists of ingredients and it appears that most of them can be found at  the local supermarket.  No need to search out an Asian market, though that is a good excuse to take a trip to the big city!  I look forward to trying many of the recipes in this lovely cookbook and it appears that all of them are as easy and straight forward to prepare as was this Shrimp Fried Rice recipe.  I added a few additional ingredients to mine such as bamboo shoots, bean sprouts and some diced barbecued pork but that's one of the beauties of fried rice, it's very adaptable to what you have on hand.

No recipe posted today, but what I am going to do is direct you to Jaden Hairs' Steamy Kitchen blog so you can not only get this recipe, but also puruse a great blog on your own.  Enjoy.

Rice Pudding and Poetry

"What is the matter with Mary Jane?

She's perfectly well and she hasn't a pain,

And it's lovely rice pudding for dinner again!

What is the matter with Mary Jane?"

My brothers and sisters and I grew up on the poems of A.A. Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh and wonderful books of poems such as Now We Are Six and When We Were Very Young.  One of my favorites was called Rice Pudding, with the last stanza quoted above.  What was the matter with Mary Jane not absolutely loving rice pudding???

The pudding I made today was baked for three hours and the results were tremendous.  After mixing all the ingredients in a bowl, it was just a matter of going in every 20 minutes or so while it was baking and giving it a stir.  This ensured that the rice didn't all float to the top and a brown crust didn't form.  The recipe I used called for raisins but I opted for dried cranberries for a different twist. The pudding was creamy and sweet with just a hint of the nutmeg and cinnamon spices coming through.  Let me tell you Mary Jane, you don't know what your missing!

Baked Rice Pudding

1/3 cup long grain, uncooked rice

4 cups whole milk

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup dried raisins (or cranberries, or wouldn't dried cherries be good too??)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Butter a 1 1/2 quart baking dish.  Pour in all of the ingredients and mix well.  Place in oven for 3 hours, stirring with a fork for the first 2 1/2 hours every 20-30  minutes.  Leave alone during the last 30 minutes of cooking.  Let cool on a wire rack and serve warm or at room temperature.

A Spring Risotto

When fresh asparagus becomes available in the stores you know Spring has officially arrived. I found some wonderful bunches of young fresh stalks at the local market and had to grab some with no particular recipe in mind.

What I chose to make as a side dish was Roasted Asparagus and Lemon Zest Risotto. I roasted off the asparagus first by placing them on a parchment covered cookie sheet and sprinkling some olive oil, salt and pepper on them and cooking them at 425 deg for about 15 minutes until they were just turning brown. Like other roasted veggies, this technique really amplifies the flavor. The main course was grilled chicken breast paillards seasoned with salt and lemon pepper. I served dinner with a great Chardonnay called Robert Mondavi Private Selection 2006. It was one of those impromtu dinners that turned out great.

I don't really follow a recipe for the risotto but I will try to write down the approximated proportions I used as follows:

Roasted Asparagus and Lemon Zest Risotto

1 cup Arborio rice

1 quart of low sodium, low fat chicken broth

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1/4 cup dry white wine

2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup finely chopped onions

2 Tbsp butter

3/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

2 Tbsp. lemon zest

1 bunch of roasted asparagus, cut into bite size pieces

Salt and pepper to taste.

Heat up chicken broth in a separate pan. In a medium saucepan over medium high heat, heat olive oil. Add onions and saute until translucent. Add white wine and lemon juice and cook for 1-2 minutes until almost evaporated. Add rice and stir in around in onion mixture until rice starts to look translucent, approx. 2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of chicken broth and stir rice occasionally until broth is nearly evaporated. Keep adding chicken broth in 1/2 cup intervals until rice is tender and creamy. It is important to taste test rice toward the end to make sure it is thoroughly cooked through. Add butter, Parmesan cheese, lemon zest and asparagus and heat through. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Barbecued Beef (Korean Style)

Yesterday I had the urge to go to one of my favorite food shopping destinations, Uwajimaya in Beaverton. While living in Seattle I would occasionally drop by the original store when I was wandering around the Pioneer Square area. I was not a very adventurous cook in those days though, so the store didn't excite me as it does now. For those of you readers who aren't familiar, it's a huge grocery store that encompasses many Asian food cultures. It is quite an experience going up and down the aisles looking at products and not having a clue as to what they are or what they are for.

I had no menu in mind as I walked in the door and was delighted to find a large kiosk filled with recipe cards of all sorts. After glancing through them, I decided on the following recipe for something called Bulgogi or Korean style barbecued beef. It didn't indicate on the recipe what type of beef to use so I chose the beef pictured below. I found the labeling to be quite humorous regarding the 100% vegetarian diet statement. It's good to know this cow had low cholesterol, even if I don't. Anyway, this was a very easy meal to prepare and I grilled the beef on my cast iron grill pan as opposed to a charcoal barbecue which would be the more traditional way to go.

Bulgogi Barbecued Beef

1 lb. beef steak, thinly sliced

Sauce

1/4 cup Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp. honey

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp minced fresh ginger root

1 Tbsp sesame seed oil

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1 tsp (or more to taste) red chili flakes

1/2 tsp black pepper

Combine all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl. Add sliced beef and allow to marinate for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight. Cook meat until rare. I served this with jasmine rice, grilled green onions, and a side salad of cucumber ribbons dressed with seasoned rice vinegar which was a nice cool compliment to the hot beef dish.