tequila lime salmon 11/5/07

tequila lime salmon
i felt like having some fish. i've been getting my protein lately from very varied and unruly places, so i figured something healthy and tasty would be nice. salmon was on sale, bought half a pound, a good cut for a bigger dinner.

cut of salmon
1/2 shot tequila
juice from a lime
salt
pepper
minced garlic
lemon zest
bit of olive oil
bit of butter

so the marinade i made by combining all the ingredients save the butter, and combine with the salmon, to let marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes. i preheated the broiler, and when hot, took the salmon out and placed on a top rack in a baking dish, skin side down, to broil for 8 minutes. meanwhile, i placed the used marinade in a pot with the butter to reduce to an almost glaze-like sauce. once the salmon was done and cooked through (i undercooked mine!), poured the sauce over the salmon and served with cornbread.

tea time

so i discovered ann arbor spice merchants today, which apparently just opened up the other week, and bought a few teas and tea blends to try. i spent a long time looking through all their varieties, but decided on a classic darjeeling, good for taking to class. then there was a berry black (a mix of dried raspberries, strawberries, hibiscus, rosehips, and darjeeling) which sounded interesting, but upon further inspection and steeping, was difficult to maneuver because the berries would so easily come to the top of the bag and be hard to work around and get an even distribution with the tea. but very fragrant and sweet. then a ginger-blended green-based tea which i have yet to explore. its called "ginger twist" with a mixture of ginger, orange and lemon slices, lemongrass, mint, papaya, apple, ginseng, and licorice. supposedly it "promotes focus" and is a powerful antioxidant. who knows.

but what i finally broke into is my dried chrysanthemums that i picked up at the asian market a few weeks ago. i spoke of "flowering" teas to tristan, which i've since discovered to be black tea leaves tied in intricate patterns so they "bloom" but are merely black tea leaves with some colorful petals in the middle to resemble flowers. chrysanthemums, however, are a staple of many chinese tea-houses (authentic dim-sum restaurants during mid-day always have this as an option, either alone or mixed with pu-erh). they're truly the "flowering" tea that i had in mind because they are purely the dried flowers of chrysanthemums. they are not very pleasant looking when dried (or pleasant smelling for that matter), but when steeped, truly bloom (seeing a handful of bright white flowers with vibrant yellow centers floating aimlessly, mingling in your cup/pot) and become deliciously aromatic. perhaps its an acquired taste since i've grown up with it, but it's really pretty.

cornmeal-sprinkled dijon chicken 10/23/07

cornmeal-sprinkled dijon chicken
i had some chicken that i needed to make before it went bad, but i wasn't sure, so i made this concoction based partially on what i had, what i knew, and the ability to not get out the chopping board

• 4 chicken pieces (thighs, breasts, or whatever, I prefer dark meat)
• touches of olive oil
• tad bit of dijon mustard
• coarse cornmeal (roughtly 2x more cornmeal than combination of other ingredients)
• dried poultry spices (sage, thyme, rosemary)
• coarse sea salt
• lots of ground black pepper
• little bit of dried parsley
• cayenne pepper to your liking

place chicken in a roasting pan. preheat oven to 375. (i'm all about letting meat warm up a bit before cooking it) coat lightly (!) with olive oil depending on fattiness of pieces. salt each side lightly, pepper generously. spread on top (skin side up if using skin) with a knife a thin layer of dijon mustard. in a separate small bowl, mix cornmeal with dried spices, salt, pepper, maybe cayenne, and parsley. mix well, and sprinkle lightly over dijon-ed sides of chicken. not so much that it forms an entire crust, but enough to be able to taste the flavors and the crunchiness of the cornmeal afterwards. bake for 40-50 minutes, or until juices run clear when poking through thickest part of chicken piece.

dinner with tristan 10/19/07

what better way to revive this blog than with recipes from a dinner tristan and i just made together. well. i made all of this one. but you get the idea.

we started off, with what other than cheese. the cheese was very distinctive. a bright orange french pave de (something?) which was described to us as almost a french cheddar, slightly salty. the other cheese had a hazelnut flavor, slightly peppery, and a lingering bitterness when eaten alone. but when paired with a cracker, was very smooth, but again, french.

unnamed steak.
i found a random large cut of beef in the market that looked very tendonous (i love tendons in meat that just melt in your mouth) and very fresh, came up with a simple marinade for a sweet, flavorful finish to a simple sear. not very expensive either.

• 1-1.5 lb steak-like cut of beef, very tendony, about an inch thick - enough for 2-3 people
• half a head of garlic, smashed and minced
• 4-5 shallots, peeled, smashshed, minced
• generous sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• .5-1 c. cabernet sauvignon (mondavi's woodbridge in this case, quality is not of the essence)

place meat in shallow baking dish (about the size of the steak), and rub dry ingredients lightly over meat, pour in red wine turn a few times to mix everything well, and cover with plastic and marinate overnight in fridge

in a large nonstick pan, heat pan on high, add a few tablespoons olive oil (and butter if desired, but not only butter) and with tongs, place steak in to sear, about 4-5 minutes on each side (or until medium-rare). cover meat with a slightly smaller pan lid while searing to let steam/smoke escape but to prevent splattering if desired. when finished. let rest, or to keep warm, wrap in foil before serving/slicing.

sauteed balsamic green bell peppers.
just taking advantage of pan drippings to flavor some relatively bland green bells into something a little more tasty. fresh sauteed green vegetables (asparagus, green beans, snap pease etc) and balsamic vinegar are always a good way to go.

• 1-2 green bell peppers, seeded, sliced into strips
• pat of butter, some more wine
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (or more if you'd like)

with the same pan above, add in leftover marinade (including garlic and shallots), and a little extra wine and a tablespoon of butter, let reduce, or not. allow pan to get hot. add cleaned and sliced bell pepper strips to saute for a few seconds, add balsamic vinegar. cover for a minute, stir, cover, stir, up until bell peppers are cooked through while still green. once cooked, immediately remove from heat and serve.

risotto-style orzo with sauteed mushrooms, orange bells.
i do this recipe pretty often, with many variations. i love the idea of risotto-style orzo because it is so quick, so manageable and comes out pretty creamy and flavorful just because if its own natural pasta starches.

• 1/2 head of garlic, smashed and minced
• 1 medium red onion, small-diced
• 1 lb white mushrooms, sliced
• 1-2 orange bell peppers, seeded, large diced
• fresh oregano
• dried oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil (to your liking)
• olive oil/butter
• 1 cup dry orzo
• 1-1.5 c. chicken stock
• generous sea salt/freshly cracked black pepper
• fresh shaved parmesean cheese (doesn't need to be fresh, its all i had on hand)

using a wide, shallow pot (5-6 qts), or a deep , walled, frypan with a lid, add olive oil (and butter if desired) on med-high heat. add garlic and onions, and saute until onions are slightly translucent and fragrant. add mushrooms and saute until mushrooms are soft. add bell peppers, along with the fresh oregano, and generous dried italian herbs to your liking. saute a minute or two more until everything is cooked through. add a pat of butter, and once throughly melted in center of pot, spread vegetables to the side of the pot, and add dried orzo to the melted butter in the middle of pot to saute. stir and scrape (a little sticking is okay) until some more liquid is evaporated up to a minute. add enough chicken stock to slightly more than submerge the orzo and ingredients. stir and scrape off anything that is sticking with a spatula, and wait to boil. once boiling, cover with lid, place on low heat (just so it barely boils) and let cook for 12 minutes. at 12 minutes, check, done-ness of the pasta, if a little dry, add more chicken stock, or add more just because. add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. salt brings out the flavors of this dish. and, still on low heat, continue stirring until any excess fluid is absorbed. (about another minute or two with the lid off. once orzo looks dry and creamy, add parmesean to your liking, and stir in while removing from heat, until parmesean is well incorporated.

this all was paired with Riparosso Montepuliciano d'Abruzzo, Vintage 2005. supposedly a dry wed wine that pairs well with meat and the strong cheeses we picked out, we found this italian wine to be very acidic, and not that great. oops.

dinner was finished off with chewy ginger snaps (recipe to come later, when i manage to make a second batch) and an australian muscat from R.L. Buller & Son. very sweety and syrupy, a good close to a nice diner.

Pavlova!

Backlog.. so busy lately!

Been so busy with crew, classes and such. Seems like I have a pretty significant workload this year. But today was my first day after crew practice where I got to come home, since dropping 9am French C&C. I managed to whip up some chicken and asparagus, in the bacon I'm still trying to get rid of. Not the healthiest thing, but whatever, it's tasty. Lined everything with some cucumber and just some plain rice. Simple, quick. I didn't even manage to eat this until dinnertime cause I was so busy with class and stuff and crew physicals. Ate in the new Charles Commons dorm place thingy. They certainly have a problem with lines, but the place is nice. Very comfortable seating and it certainly doesn't look like a dining hall. I think I'll hang out there for more than just the food, do some studying there sometime over dinner.


This one was from a while back, on the 8th. Made some fried rice with egg, mixed frozen veggies and of course bacon again. Then sauted some green beans with bacon, and then took one of my frozen scallion pancakes and heated it up and cut it up. Fast and easy. Sounds like the theme of my unfortunate eating habits lately...

Fishies!

This is my new bento box! It's way cute. and the little chick at the bottom holds rice seasoning. But anyway, my bento for today was just some rice, some tortellini with alfredo sauce, bell peppers, and italian sausage, then for some more vegetables, I took a little bit of bacon in a pan and kinda stirfried that up with some frozen mixed veggies. I know, it's all way fat, but it was super good. Here's the pic:

MY FIRST BENTO!!!

Ohmygosh, my bento box came in today! It has fishies and says "Happy Together"... I'll take a pic of the cover later. This was my bento for today, I only had like 45 minutes to make it because I was in a rush to get to the DMC to work on crew dvd stuff. But made some sushi rice, sprinkled with nori furikake, stir-fried some chicken, asparagus, onions and garlic with some dark soy and a tiny bit of corn starch to make it thick. I also tried out my new egg molder, so I have half a hard-boiled egg there between the cucumber slices, in the shape of a teddy bear! Apparently JUMBO eggs are too big to fit in the mold, so next time I buy eggs I'll downgrade to large so I don't do a lot of nasty squishy squishy to the side of the eggs.

On another note, I'm glad orientation is finally over with. So over being an SA and stuff, now I gotta concentrate on school, GRE's (i mean, start), and of course crew. And crew's already starting to be a bit of a bore. Maybe it's just cause we're not on the water yet and doing all the usual pre-crew buildup crap.

Who knows... I don't need any more drama right now. Save it for later. Or I'll break down. I'm already sick, at least it's not strep like J had... I was really worried the reason why I wasn't getting better was because it was bacterial, in which case I would need to take antibiotics, which would really make my system shot. I can't mess it up anymore right now, my goal is to eat healthy and smaller portions, go to the gym more, and study lots. School is starting, I need to get my act together. And be where I need to be in crew too.

Red Bean Paradise

So if you've ever been through an asian grocery store, or an authentic Chinese place, area, people, whatever.. You might've heard of this infamous "red bean" stuff that we people use as dessert. Beans? For dessert?

Well to first start off, it shouldn't be THAATT weird of a concept. Beans are treated like a basic starch oftentimes. Their texture, mushiness (yuck) etc. And besides, JELLY BEANS? HEHEELLOOOOOO! Haha. And vanilla "bean"? So the concept of sweet/dessert with the word bean isn't completely unfounded and exists in even Western food culture. But back to my concept of a starch, many types of starches can be both savory and sweet. Rice pudding is a prime example.. since the basic flavor of rice is pretty simple and modifiable, adding some shuga n' spice is all that you need to kick it up to being a dessert. Same things with beans.

I grew up with red bean soup, Cantonese style, all my life. Its one of the standard desserts that they give out after Cantonese banquets, or something to have on the chill at home for whenever, or to mix into ice cream or milk to make a red bean ice drink. ANything to sweeten it up will do well. J even suggested putting it on greek yogurt.

But until recently, I only knew of it as some bean.. just as red bean. But apparently it has a real name: azuki beans! They're tiny and much smaller than typical beans (more on this later and its implications on the flavors), and are dark red like so:


So to make red bean soup, one washes the beans first, they're relatively clean to begin with, but just for good measure. Then let them soak in water for however long you like. The longer the better, just makes cooking time that much shorter (or maybe that's just a myth). Then into a big pot, with lots of water, and boil. Sooooo simple. BUT from how I learned, not through the hard way, but just being taught, you boil for several hours, more like simmer, until they reach the desired softness.. I like them as mushy as.. well.. cooked beans, but my mother likes a little chew, so you can actually feel like you're eating the bean. At that point, you add sugar to taste. I went through almost half a pound of sugar on my last batch, but it was big.

Another thing you might want to add is some sort of citrus peel. My mom adds orange peels, a little bit, supposedly to offset the unfortunate side effect of beans (you know.. GAS). Perhaps there's an interaction between the citric acid, or some other chemicals in the skin. I like zesting a lemon, finely mincing the zest, and tossing it in with the beans once they're a little more concentrated. It ends up being fairly sweet (to your taste of course) and interestingly, to me it doesn't taste like beans. My THEORY on this is the fact that these beans are so small, so their surface to volume ratio is much greater than normal beans. As a result, its the inner starchiness that gives the bean flavor, and because these have less, less bean flavor! Voila!

Yoochoy, choy sum.. hiza-wha?!?!?

Mothers always tell you to eat your vegetables in American culture right? Well, my mom always told me to eat my choy. Choy, in Cantonese (maybe other dialects as well), refers to most types of leafy greens that the we, Cantonese people, often steam. Well, its not so much steaming, but quickly boiling.. like parboiling without the cooking afterwards part. The use of really hot boiling water, and throwing washed and picked greens, like the above choy sum (literally, heart of the greens), until they're just cooked through yet still very tender and crisp, and quickly taking them out again. A light coating of "cooked oil" (my mother always made a huge pot of boiling oil, would fry up a bit of potatoes or garlic into it just for flavor, and then reserve the oil in a bottle specifically for use in this purpose), and soy sauce would complete the dish. It leads to a very pure taste in the greens, not at all overcooked, and leaves a lot of texture to be savoured. Unlike many Western cooked greans, they're not a mashed up pile of.. who knows what. No cheese, no excessive use of cream. Pure, simple, healthy. Its the Cantonese counterpart to a crisp salad, nutrition wise, and is often the primary side-dish to most meals.

I was surprised to find this at Korean grocery store.. not so much cause it would be an unlikely candidate of their produce department, but simply that I hadn't seen much of this at all since not living near Chinatown. On my receipt from HanAhReum, this was named yoochoy as well. Never seen it like that before, but perhaps... I looked it up on wikipedia, and apparently its sometimes referred to as yu choy sum, as a whole. Interesting...

Well, this was a half of my lunch.. I made more onigiri today as the starch component of my meal. This time instead of splitting the rice into 3 obscenely large triangles, I went with 4 and decorated each differently. No need for pictures, they were gone immediately :)

Why Splenda is Safe

I finally looked it up on Wikipedia, and this is why sucralose, or otherwise known as Splenda, is safe.

Safety

Sucralose has been accepted by several national and international food safety regulatory bodies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Joint Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives, The European Union's Scientific Committee on Food, Health Protection Branch of Health and Welfare Canada and Food Standards Australia-New Zealand (FSANZ).The acceptable daily intake for sucralose is 5 mg / kg of body weight per day.

"In determining the safety of sucralose, FDA reviewed data from more than 110 studies in humans and animals. Many of the studies were designed to identify possible toxic effects including carcinogenic, reproductive and neurological effects. No such effects were found, and FDA's approval is based on the finding that sucralose is safe for human consumption." (FDA Talk Paper T98-16)

There is evidence that Sucralose can cause cancer. "Sucralose was weakly mutagenic in a mouse lymphoma mutation assay" (from DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, Food and Drug Administration, 21 CFR Part 172, Docket No. 87F-0086 http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/fr980403.html)

Concerns have also been raised about the effect of sucralose on the thymus gland, a gland that is important to the immune system. A report from NICNAS cites two studies on rats, both of which found "a significant decrease in mean thymus weight" at a certain dose.^[1] (These and other studies were considered by regulators before concluding that sucralose was safe.)

It should also be noted that the chlorine atoms are covalently bonded to the carbon atoms in the sucralose molecule, essentially making it a chlorocarbon. Many chlorocarbons are toxic; however, sucralose is unlike these chemicals because it is extremely poorly soluble in fat and does not store in fat like most chlorinated hydrocarbons. Sucralose does not break down or dechlorinate either.[1]

The bulk of sucralose ingested does not leave the GI tract and is directly excreted in the feces. The small amount that is absorbed from the GI tract is removed from the blood stream by the kidneys and excreted in the urine. Sucralose is digestible by a number of microorganisms and is broken down once released into the environment.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucralose

But according to this following website, in which the above graphic was taken, splenda is oh-so-not-safe-because-it-contains-chlorine and is written by some hippie named Shirley.. :) source: http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/nutraswt.htm

It just pisses me off how people don't understand science and can make claims that something is unsafe based on scientific animal-modeled studies in which dosages are often 100-1000 times more than normal human consumption. Not only that, but they take those results out of context, for food safety tests have completely separate guidelines than toxicity level tests. EVERYTHING we eat has a certain toxicity and is consequently studied, and I have full confidence in the FDA for determining that sucralose is perfectly safe. Sure, no long term studies have been made regarding it, because it's only been in research for less than a few decades. But if it were a drug that would save your alcoholic hippie friends from killing their livers, would you wait for long-term results (postponing a much needed thing for half a century) before you released the drug, just to make sure it's safe, despite conclusive animal models and short term clinical trials that determine its safety?

In response to the thymus gland shrinking, well.. it naturally does that after you reach a certain age, and in response to weight loss as well. So naturally, one can say.. splenda causes severe weight loss and thymus shrinkage over time. OH NO! ;) Well, of course the rats were losing weight, it's calorie-free! WHatever their normal diets were, the calorie content of those sugars were being offset by splenda so naturally this would occur in studies. Noone's telling you to eat Splenda all day. And the fact that these were all taken into consideration before the FDA approved Splenda means the circumstances in which the studies were performed were not directly comparable to typical human consumption. Duh.

What BSt :) Get over your natural foods kicks, people. Food chemistry's where it's at.

My First Onigiri

I MADE MY FIRST ONIGIRI! This was my lunch today :P So with the Kokuho Rose medium grain white rice, I cooked it in my little rice cooker, mixed a bit of sushi rice vinegar, and folded it all in well. Then when it was cool, I wet my hands and formed these little triangles, and the whole time I couldn't help but exclaim to myself how cute they were :P THen I wrapped two of them in laver and well.. yum. I didn't feel like starting a new sheet of laver so I just sprinkled some nori fumi furikake on it.

Oh yeah, and I re-cooked some of my leftover beef stew to go along with it. I must say.. there wasn't much beef in it but that didn't really matter.

When You Were Young! New Killers!!!

Ah.. so poetic. The imagery in this music video is truly different, and although looks very traditional/old, it invokes a lot of timeless emotion that's out of the ordinary for music videos these days. Seeing this video really changed the meaning of the lyrics to me. Really refreshing. Adultery, what a lovely thing :)

HANAHREUM!!!!

I went to HanAhReum in Catonsville with J today. H-Mart (what they call it now apparently) is this big chain of big asian (more like Korean) supermarkets along the East Coast. They had so much good produce and I bought some choy sum and snow peas and super cheap chinese garlic. Dried udon noodles, chacharoni ramen, kokuho sushi rice, and rice vinegar for sushi. What's funny is that they call nori "laver".. I've never heard of it referred to as that before, but I got some of that too. Perhaps it's a Korean thing. Anyway, in addition to tofu, red bean daifuku, and pickled radishes.. I found these little fish wiener/sausages in the refridgerated section, and I was so intrigued by them that I bought them. I'll update when I finally decide to make them.... OH YEAH! and the most exciting part was that I found super cheap, frozen masago!!!!! Wow.. I really am on my way to bento boxing. Man, I should've brought my camera... but unfortch they didn't have any bento supplies there at H-Mart.

Then afterwards, the double T diner right across the intersection. I think the waiter was offended by the fact that we asked him if this was a Greek diner, and then consequently deciding out loud that the chicken souvlaki would be good there. Well, that's surely what I got and it was amazing. What disappointed me, however, was that in my mini-greek salad, there was definitely way more uncrumbled feta than there were vegetables. Naturally, I only ate about 3 of the blocks of feta and the rest of the veggies. But the souvlaki was really good. I really really wish I'd brought my camera.

They're OVER!

Never in my life have I had to deal with so many incompetent people for such an extended period of time. First.. those stupid other test takers, are so freakin' unassertive, they just stand there in line while the whole world passes them by, wondering if they should move forward.

ARgh.. and secondly, I was at the Wyndham from 7:15 AM until 6:40 PM. That's fucking ridiculous. They decided to throw all 200 of us in a big room, and then hand out each section of the exam individually, and only have 2 people doing it. I must've spent at least 3 hours sitting in that room, combined, just waiting for something to get picked up or something else to be passed out. Fucking retarded.

But it's over!

Octodogs!

Mmm.. yeah... so I've had a recent intrigue into the world of bento boxes, and apparently in the art of bento, cutting little hot doggies into cool shapes like squids and prawns and stuff, is pretty popular. But I ran across this American website that has this tool, called the OCTODOG maker, and it essentially turns it into this awesome thing...

Only the funniest part, was the instructions! Need I really say more?

But it's pretty awesome, go check it out!

http://www.octodog.net

New Title Image...

I'm trying to figure out how to put this pic up as my new title..



anyone know how?

Oooh, Can't Wait!

I've been watching too many of these.. types.. of movies lately, but I'm way excited for this one. It's more than sappy romance and shit. It's opening tomorrow at NYU and at the landmark in SF, but.. hopefully it'll come to something like the Charles soon.

The Conservative Agenda now has a Gay Son. Henry Kray is a young and sexually active student in college, fully enjoying his life on his own. However, things are not as convenient for his father, Jack Kray, a legendary right-wing Senator in a tight race for re-election. In a strategic political move, Senator Kray enlists Henry to be the “poster boy” for his campaign, hoping to attract the young vote. Unable to stand up to his father, Henry finds himself in a dilemma since he has yet to come out to his parents as a gay son. Henry's mother offers no refuge, as she has long been quiet and loyal, standing by her husband and his political career. With no one to turn to, Henry finds comfort in a stranger, a new friend named Anthony. But there is more to Anthony than Henry realizes. Anthony is a young activist determined to bring down the Senator and prevent his re-election. When Anthony discovers the truth behind the Senator's “poster boy” gimmick, he seizes the opportunity to expose the hypocrisy by getting close to Henry. However, complicating the situation, Anthony begins to develop a genuine relationship with Henry and is forced to choose loyalties between his cause and his new friend. Poster Boy is a timely and provocative story set against the explosive intersection of radical right-wing politics and increasing gay visibility. Inspired by the real-life story of lesbian Mary Cheney, daughter of conservative Vice President Dick Cheney, Poster Boy attempts to answer several volatile “what if” questions: What if you were the gay son of a right-wing Senator torn between family loyalty and your own moral compass? What if you were the wife of the Senator, having to choose between standing by your husband or standing by your own moral beliefs on truth, respect, and family? What if you were a gay activist holding a piece of information that would aid your cause but at the same time potentially hurt someone you have developed feelings for? Poster Boy is that exceptional film in 2006, a film unafraid to examine the stormy cultural wars that define the times in which we live.

http://posterboy-themovie.com

And while I'm at it, here's the trailer :P




Oh.. btw, I just noticed that in the movie Accepted, the initials for south harmon institute of technology, are S.H.I.T.... haha.. wow, am I that oblivious?

This is why I love where I live.

My grandmother, and the pescado en salsa. Amazing...