Yucca Pun Intended Last Letter and Ingredient of the Year

My final challenge of the year was yucca.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to really figure out what to do with it and with back to back business trips after Thanksgiving, it made it increasingly difficult to put the yucca on the plate.

I wasn't able to get a picture of the boyfriend's plate before he started eating this less-starch like root vegetable and so to that, picture unavailable.  I sauteed the yucca in some butter and salted it.  To add a little bit of flavor and color, I added some turmeric.

The results were well, tolerable on my end but the boyfriend liked it.  I'm almost starting to think he's being a bit too generous in likes this year.

As a result, it made picking our top dishes of the year rather difficult.

In the year 2013, I set out to do 52 different ingredients for each week of the year.  With the number of issues we faced, the boyfriend's apartment getting remodeled due to mold and a quick move, and new job of mine having to travel virtually every other week, we completed 34 of the 52 ingredients.  We narrowed it down to our top 10.

Want to know what our top 10 were? Well, that's a going to be for another blog to close our the year in style and to help us ease into a new challenge for 2014.  The theme of 2014 will be reveled at that point too.

Meanwhile, my final challenge of the year: cooking a belated Christmas lunch/dinner for my parents.

Eggnog is an Egg Not

Southern Style Eggnog from the American Women's Cookbook 1938

Thanksgiving came and went after getting back from a business trip and I found myself with the challenge of preparing Eggnog.

I have never been a fan of eggnog but since it was part of the challenge, I had to make it.  I found a recipe out of one of my vintage cookbooks (The American Women's Cookbook) that I thought I'd experiment with and to say I actually have used my investment in American culture.

That's one thing I have learned about American culture that I can truly appreciate.  There are many things but this is one of the things that I really value.

I'm an avid reader and when it comes to reading about this hobby of mine, I am overwhelmed with the amount of information that is out there.  I am also amazed at how much of the American culture is overwhelmed with the release of food trends.

In any event, written record is a great way to get an indepth look at a past culture.  I couldn't say the same of my Indonesian roots so any time I see a book designated specifically for Indonesian cooking, I'm in, but for now my shelves are filling up with American and various other cookbooks.

Blast from the past. The result of the eggnog round one was a lot better than the round two I tried to prepare for the boyfriend's brother's in-laws.  We all determined it was a bit too egg-y and too much brandy.  I also told the boyfriend I don't intend to make eggnog again due to the stress involved.  Separating eggs just ever so slightly only to get them to come back together, eh, not exactly the most least-stress involved recipe.

Twist without Stain

Pomegranate Relish

For this week's challenge, pomegranate came to mind of the boyfriend.  We still had a couple of left from our first Farm Fresh to You delivery and we thought, why not use them for the challenge.  Besides, what is there to do with a pomegranate aside from just opening one up and eating it.  That's normally how I handle my fruit, no matter how complex it is.  Pomegranate on my list of fruits that I enjoy but dislike in getting into.  Simply because when you open a pomegranate you face it staining things.

I have ruined a few things from opening up a pomegranate but it doesn't stop me enjoying one.  The juicer they are, the more trouble they are.

Anyways, as far as the challenge, it wasn't enough to just get one open and call it a day, so I found a recipe that didn't require much in terms of preparation or extra ingredients.  I also figured, it is getting close to family food gatherings so I better see what I can prepare to satisfy even the most picky of tasters.

For this pomegranate relish, it took only a shallot and some cilantro to add an extra boost of flavor to the pomegranate.  It also was a relatively quick dish to "cook" once all the pomegranate was extracted from the fruit itself.

Hopefully the challenges for the remainder of the year will be one of less mess.  Fortunately, the mess of this dish was minimal since the pomegranate was just under full ripeness and wasn't too juicy.

We've All Gone Bananas!

Roasted banana with brown sugar walnut glaze

In the spirit of the return of the weekly food challenge, the boyfriend picked the magical ingredient: banana.  I could have done banana bread or banana walnut muffins, but I wanted to go beyond the standard banana fare of taste.  I also wanted to keep the dish light since it was also the night the boyfriend cooked.  He is known for at least one dish: pasta with pasta sauce.  Fortunately for me, and for him, he didn't cook his standard of when I'm out of town or before I moved into his life.

He prepared chicken with shredded carrot and mushroom served over mash potatoes.  Now before the carbohydrate police get onto me about the amount of carbohydrates the standard amount of mash potatoes, he put the remainder of the leftover low sodium vegetable broth from my experiment of broccoli cheddar soup (broccoli and spinach with minimal cheese, gluten free and vegetarian) instead of cream or milk.  See, we can be healthy when it comes to certain foods.  Especially now that I'm gone nearly every other week and my choices of "fresh food" come close to nil.

Anyways, for the banana.  I chose to do a roasted banana and roasted walnut brown sugar glaze dish.  The low amount of brown sugar was quickly masked by the amount of lemon juice and minimal butter coating the roasted walnuts.  The roasted banana also heightened the sweet taste factor, so if you were to do this recipe, make sure the bananas are ripe but not ripe enough to want to make banana bread or banana muffins ripe.  The banana should be firm not overly squishy since it has to hold up to 450 degrees for 5 minutes.

Farm Fresh to You: apples, pears, grapes, oranges, kiwi, pomegranates 

This week was also the first week our "Farm Fresh to You" delivery showed up to our door.  I picked out the smallest box, and since the delivery date doesn't come around until Wednesday, we opted for the fruit box.  I just didn't expect as many apples in the box.  Either way, about a 1/4 of the contents within the box is already gone.

My $9.99 do-it-yourself brew kit

What's also cool about this box is that there's a recipe within the box for one of the contained items in the box.  Maybe upon the next delivery, I'll try out the recipe and it can be part of the challenge of the week.  We shall see, what the boyfriend decides, because he's still the guinea pig in all of this.

On another note, the boyfriend took my parents and I to brunch last weekend.  Which was a nice "welcome home," and it also meant no dishes for either of us to do.  It takes a bit to get my parents to get out of the house during the 49ers football season, or at least my dad anyways.  We also had to meet the mom's friend's daughter later in the day in Oakland so we decided to make a day outing.  Between brunch and the bookstore, the boyfriend and I had to get back to the apartment to take care of the pups.  But before we headed back, we all hopped into Beverages and More.  I picked up a beer brewing kit.  Now before I have the anti-drinking wagon on me, hear me out a little.

I enjoy my beer and wine on occasion and my brother took up the hobby within his one bedroom apartment.  My brother-in-law and sister decided to open a hard cider brewery.  So perhaps it is in the blood.  Though my taste buds on beer isn't that refined compared to the boyfriend or the brother or the brother-in-law, so I refused to invest so into a kit when I'm not so sure if I had the gene or the blood to do it.  The average 6 pack of beer costs $8-9 USD, so I took that into consideration when buying the brewing kit.  The listing price was $42.  Absolutely RIDICULOUS if you ask me!  So I am happy to announce this Do-It-Yourself kit was only $9.99 for Beverages and More Club members!!!!

So, I figure, why not?  It will take 2 weeks to brew, and if I put it to set tomorrow (Friday), by the time I have to leave on Tuesday, it'll be ready to set.  Who knows, maybe by Thanksgiving we'll have our own IPA microbrew to present to the families...to be continued.

Farm Fresh to Begin Soon

In spirit of keeping things fresh, local and in challenge requirements, I finally signed up for a service that should be fun: Farm Fresh to You (http://goo.gl/clbMZV).

I ordered the smallest possible fruit box for both the boyfriend and myself.  I also ordered it for the frequency of every other week since I'm still learning a new job and not always around to enjoy the fruits of my labor (pun intended).  This doesn't mean however that the challenge halts, just makes it even more challenging, I think.

Budget wise, I think it will be okay since I don't spend a lot of superfluous or access on stuff.  At $25.00 every other week, I think it is going to be a nice treat and bargain.

Progress not Perfection

Since moving into a new place, I have been trying to get everything organized to where I know where things are, including my numerous spices.

The OCD of Spices, err, I mean my spice collection thus far

I tried to label them with masking tape, but the masking tape didn't quite stick very well to the jars on hand.  As a result, the boyfriend bought me some dot stickers to put on top of the spices.  Fortunate for the both of us, I have the small and neat handwriting.  At the same time, my OCD took over me a little with the multicolored dots. I almost wanted to say, the purple mean this type of spice, the yellow this type and the green another type.  Sadly, my OCD didn't kick into overdrive.  The different colors don't signify any difference in spices, just the labels themselves.  If you look carefully, the writing is actually legible.

Cornstarch Pudding Pie

After about a two month forced break from the food challenge of 2013, I think we are back.  I was to do lychee before the whole mold and moving apartments fiasco, but by the time things got settled within the new apartment, fresh lychee became nonexistent here and canned lychee was not a favored option to me or the boyfriend.

Cornstarch Pudding Pie

As a result, the boyfriend sent me his grandmother's cornstarch pudding pie.  I have to admit, cornstarch pudding doesn't exactly entice me much.  If we added a little bit of rum, I think I would've been okay with the taste of it.

The results of this brought back a number of memories for the boyfriend.  Which I think is ultimately the point of the food challenge.  The memories he has growing up in the Midwest before moving to Washington D.C. for Graduate School then back to the Midwest to now the San Francisco Bay Area, result in him opening up a little more.

We are both onions when it comes to our emotions.  Every layer that is peeled is every layer exposing our inner selves.

Either way, the food challenge of 2013 is back for the remainder of the year.

Fresh Japanese Eggplant from the Garden of a Friend

Today I had lunch with an old friend of mine from school and with her gluten allergy, we had to determine what she could and couldn't have.

I am fortunate that I don't have food allergies and my friend is fortunate that she is able to manage her food allergies with her a lot of better and a lot more places know a lot more about gluten intolerance than they use to.

We chose to have Vietnamese food and even though things were rice based, sauces tend to be a concern for the one with allergies.  Fortunately, the sauces predominately used in Vietnamese food are gluten free.

After lunch, we went by her house for her to get ready for work.  She showed me around her newly landscaped yard and had me sample some of the goodies that the yard produced.  I tried out a couple of different varieties of strawberries, super sweet, and took home some of the overabundance of Japanese eggplant from her yard.

Fortunately, I don't mind Japanese eggplant and it is one of the few veggies with a high protein content that allows vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike to take part in a tasty vegetable.  That is assuming one likes vegetables or eggplant.

As far as this batch of fresh Japanese eggplant is concerned, I'm at a loss as to what to do with it for now.  Fortunately, the boyfriend is at class tonight so I took off cooking detail so I have some time to figure it out.

Return of the Waistline...

After about a month of no cooking challenges due to the mold in the boyfriend's old apartment and getting settled into our apartment, yes that's right, we moved in together, the return of the challenge is to start next week.

I spent a good deal of the afternoon resorting the cabinets in the kitchen for easy access of spices and other kitchen essential items.  It isn't perfect, but for the time being and sanity sake, it will work for both of us.

I'm still looking for the "perfect" spice rack that will make my challenges a little bit easier since as of now, we are using an old lazy Susan to host the 20+ spices with have.

I might also add that with the sorting of the "pantry" I found the maple syrup that my parents gave the boyfriend from their quick trip to Canada.  For awhile, it had gone missing into the forest of disorganization and I had been making fresh fruit compote as a substitute for syrup for the pancakes.  We've  been good and only eat 2 medium sized pancakes per week so our waistlines aren't expanding because of it.

I've also been reading more into my friend's textbook (Le Cordon Bleu's Professional Cooking) to better enhance this blog.

Onward, the more I talk on food, the hungrier I'll get to want to experiement and my food intake for the night is done.

Until next week, Silly Beans will have her nose in the books.

Postponed Challenge...NOOOOOOO!

As some of you might be aware, the great food challenge of 2013 has been temporarily suspended due to circumstances out of the boyfriend's and my control.

After the great spicy mango fiasco, he discovered a leak under his kitchen sink resulting in a quick departure of the apartment.

Management had found mold and moved him to a two bedroom apartment within the same complex.

As a result, we have been trying to get our lives back to a somewhat normalized routine.  However, its a very slow process.  He is still sorting his old stuff out, and I'm no where near moved in.  Between working full time, him going to class in the evening, and I started a new job in June, we haven't had much evening down time.  I'm also traveling every other week at the moment for training so that makes things difficult to do anything related to the apartment until the weekend.

It is our sincere hope we are back to somewhat normalization of the challenge by October, but when I see the current state of the kitchen, I'd be lucky to get anything challenging out of it but remembering where I put dishes and serving flatware.

Do not loose hope in that we will have the challenge back in full cycle mode before the year is up.  If not, well, there's always 2014, right?

Keep posted as I will try to get at least a challenge in by October!

Forever me,

Silly Beans

Spicy Mango Fiasco

This challenge left me a bit sore.  Not in the sense that I had a tough time make it, but preparing it yes.  Mango isn't meant to be spicy, but sure as hell, not painfully spicy either.

I mistakenly cut the jalapeno and touched my eyebrow with my finger after sweating a little.  Felt a little tingly so I stopped with that idea and continued prepping the rest of the spicy mango shrimp.  I kept tasting it to make sure it wasn't too spicy for the boyfriend, not realizing that the jalapeno was still on my fingers.  I had washed them in between tastes and thought it was completely gone, the jalapeno part.

The dinner itself by this point was too spicy for me to handle and I was beginning to think, I need some milk.  The milk didn't sit right so I opted to take a shower since that normally makes me feel back to normal.

BIGGER MISTAKE!  I tried to take my contacts out.  As I did so, I didn't get all the jalapeno out of my fingers!!!!  I quickly hopped into the shower and with the running water, I flushed out my eyes with contacts in.  I was able to get my contacts out after drying my eyes out completely.

The next day, I stupidly tried to put the same contacts in (after a night of soaking in their solution).  Dry eyes and contacts don't mix, especially after jalapeno contact.

I've learned my lesson and to that, and found that if I am going to have any contact with chili from here on out, I was going to wear gloves and my glasses, JUST TO BE SAFE!

Peaches, Custard, Meringue

I finally got the whisk for my kitchenaid!  The right size too!!!

I also picked up an old and I mean, old cookbook from one of the antique stores nearby and decided, why not experiment.

I found a recipe with fresh peaches, custard and a some-sort meringue.  The recipe dates over 80 years and old and is probably just as tasty today as it was when it was first published or even served. If I've learned anything on this experiment, it was that old recipes are a great way to keep history interesting.

Spinach is Tasty

The boyfriend returned from Japan, and was craving something non-Japanese.  A friend of mine also had just recently moved to Austin, and I was feeling nostalgic for a dish that she always craved with a mutual friend who is Peruvian.

The boyfriend requested spinach and so I prepared a Peruvian spinach pesto.

Not bad, just had a hard time getting the Peruvian spinach pesto to stick to the spaghetti for some odd reason.  Nevertheless, it was a good welcoming home dinner for the boyfriend.

Red Pepper isn't Hot

Red pepper.  Tough call.  Again, the boyfriend was out of town for this ingredient.  I decided to experiment once again with something I hadn't before.

I did a gnocchi with with red pepper cream sauce.  Not of the traditionalist recipes I followed, but I did make a fuddy duddy's day with this one since he was getting sick of goat being an option for food.

Goat Goes Bahh Like a Lamb..

Goat.  Seriously?!  The boyfriend requested I do goat while he was away.  Goat to me is the tougher game meat.  Lamb to me is a lot more tender and tastier than goat, but while he was away, I was tempted to to just use lamb.

I thought better of it, and besides, I was given a recipe to use for the goat.  The Indonesian traditions knocked at the door for this tradition.

As tasty as it was, I was only able to get one serving out of it since the mother decided that this dish was designated just for her.  Which was fine by me, because I don't mind trying to give a small portion of what I've learned back to her.

Kale a Healthy Green but Difficult to Chew

Now I'm not entirely certain as to why, but the boyfriend picked the ingredient kale while he was gone.  Just because he was gone, didn't make my challenge lighten up any that's for certain.  If anything, I was trying to feed a more difficult crowd.

He requested kale and I was to cook it for some old folk.  I visited my parents for this dish, and was restricted to the ingredients I'd find in the mother's pantry, including the kale.

The kale was fresh from the mother's garden so I knew it was organic, and I combined it with white beans and bacon for a southern green dish.  I do have to admit that kale was a bit tougher to cook, literally, and not like mustard greens that wilt as the heat continues to cook it.

In future, kale takes a little more to get down the stomach and a little more heat to cook to a chewable consistency.

Roman Chicken for the Japan Bound Boyfriend

This Roman chicken was the last of the challenges before the boyfriend left for a company trip to Japan.  This was also out of his grandmother's cookbook.  An oldie but goodie that's for sure.

I found this dish to be rather tasty as well, surprisingly, though if I were to improve the dish any, I'd use fresh apricots and not canned.  Although the recipe calls for the apricots' juice to be used, I'm sure a standard Chardonnay would've done just fine in terms of using for a rue.

Served over couscous instead of standard white rice, I am going to try to substitute some of the ingredients on the next go-round.  Either way, this dish made the day of the boyfriend after a long day's work and before having to leave for Japan. 

Tofu the Meatless Wonder

Tofu is one of those ingredients that is vegetarian and vegan friendly.  Supposedly the healthier version of protein.

I experimented with making a vegan cheesecake.  I can't say I was overly impressed with this experiment due to the graininess in texture but the boyfriend like it.  However, its not on the highest priority to repeat.

Tofu will be left to taste another day...this day was a bit of a flop in my mind.

Ground Pork isn't Grounded

Ground pork is one of those ingredients I sometimes don't always understand the purpose of.  Aside from the constant comments from the boyfriend and the boyfriend's brother saying, "its just tasty," I really haven't cooked pork.  The boyfriend requested that I ground the pork in his meat grinder.

While researching what cut to ground, I found that the best cut to ground was the shoulder.  I also decided to do a bit of an experiential meatball with the ground pork since I really just had no idea what to prepare with it.  Egg rolls were a bit overdone in my history of ground pork so I experimented with Italian meatballs and fresh spaghetti.

I combined the ground pork with ground beef to make meatballs, and fresh spaghetti consisted of egg, flour and salt.  I cheated when it came to the sauce, but the rest tasted pretty darn close to what I have tried in an Italian restaurant.  I was personally impressed and don't mind trying to do this again!

Just as long as the boyfriend isn't in the mood for quick fresh pasta for a challenge...

Shot of Whiskey is a Shot in the Dark

A shot of whiskey will cure any aliment you have.

Don't quote me on it since I'm not a doctor.  I have a hard time cooking with alcohol since I never know what its paired with.

I tried a baked brie with apple, apricot and walnuts.  I nice little combination with fresh oat cakes.  Since the oat cakes didn't go very far, I picked up a loaf of fresh French bread.  Never knew how much I missed fresh baked bread until I took a bite out of the sliced piece with warm brie.

Nevertheless, the baked brie didn't last long and we have since had this again on the nights we feel like something rich but way too lazy to really cook anything extravagant.

Yogurt not so Plain

Sometimes I wish that the challenge I set before myself was as simple as pouring something out of the container and call it finished.

Unfortunately, that's not how my brain functions.

For this ingredient, the boyfriend picked plain yogurt.  Smoothies and my favorite lassi were out of the question due to a broken blender so I picked an Indian dessert: bhapa doi

A nice light dessert that isn't overly sweet despite the sweetened condensed milk incorporated into the dish itself.

Rosemary...California's Herb Abudance

I didn't realize that picking a dish with fresh rosemary was harder than picking a needle out of the haystack, no pun intended. Well maybe a slight pun since the rosemary I picked up was out of the boyfriend's apartment complex.

In California, rosemary can be widely found and so I don't ever find the need to go and buy it for the various dishes I prepare that call for fresh rosemary.  Also, fresh picked rosemary to add to some olive oil and fresh garlic adds the extra kick to most dishes without being over powerful.  If the rosemary is dried, it is just as potent.

In any event, I was at a bit of stumping point when it came to choosing something I hadn't done before when I wanted to cook with this ingredient.

I chose to do a batch of cookies.  It isn't often I feel like baking since it is an art form out on all its own.

These cookies are essentially sugar cookies with rosemary added to them.  A Victorian era favorite and apparently, instead of rosemary, one could use lavender too.

Either way, a good cookie to pair with a spot of tea.

Green tea isn't easy being Green

Green tea.  Can't just boil water and add green tea to it.  I think it would've tasted better than this green tea cake I made.  The reality of this was that it looks too much like a Pacman.

I wasn't too impressed with the results of this cake simply because it tasted a bit too dried out.

Cake to me needs to be moist or at least have some bite to it to be tasty.  At least to me anyways.

Tuna

Fresh tuna.  Why ruin it? Sushi is always a fun experiment, but when the knife isn't sharp, the sushi looks a bit sloppy.

Perhaps the next time we do sushi, we don't do it when really hungry.  Takes a bit too much time to be considered a "quick fix."

Comfort Food

Comfort food comes in all forms.  In the land of America, comfort food involves a possible childhood favorite.  Unfortunately, the only time I ever had this childhood favorite was in the school cafeteria since my mom never cooked it.

I decided to get a little adventurous and tried making sloppy Joe's with oven baked fries.  I was ridiculed a little for making oven baked fries, but with the amount of oil the boyfriend used, it might as well have been fried.

Eh well, served with a cold beer, this childhood classic made the boyfriend happy and it honestly tasted better than what I remember.  Then again, my memory of cafeteria food as a kid almost would make anyone's stomach turn a different direction.  Where's Jaime Oliver when you need him?

Ginger to be Revisted...

Ginger.  Given on one of the hottest days of the year.  I really didn't have the motivation to cook.  I mean, cooking on a hot day in a hot apartment (despite the AC on, two dogs and the boyfriend don't cool it :) ).

I decided to make a vegetable smoothie with ginger and serve it with cucumber sandwiches.  Light and healthy just like this entry.

Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar

Strawberries are one of the many fruits I don't mind just eating straight out of the carton once washed of course.  Thinking of what to do with strawberries is also a bit of a challenge.

I chose the simple route for this one since I was hitting a roadblock.  I chose strawberries with balsamic vinegar.  To complicate the challenge though I paired it with fresh vanilla ice cream.  I had never gotten the chance to make ice cream out of my Kitchenaid and thought, why not?

A good pairing even though the ice cream was more like frozen yogurt since we were too impatient to taste it.

Ooey Gooey Butter Cake

Have you ever had one of those moments when you wish you understood the American culture better?

Okay, so maybe its just me.  Either way, the boyfriend wanted a taste of St Louis.  I have never been to St Louis, so I'm not entirely sure what the flavor of St Louis entails.  He handed me a piece of paper with a recipe on it.  It consisted of minimal ingredients and even more minimal instructors on how to prepare the infamous Ooey Gooey Butter Cake.

We had to cool down this cake before tasting it.  We also had to figure out a way to keep it out of the boyfriend's dog Cheever from eating it.  For Thanksgiving 2012, the boyfriend wanted to take a "pake" to his brother's.  A "pake" consists of a pie inside a cake.  He was in the middle of cooling the pie when he left it on top of the stove top.  Big mistake, Cheever ate half the pie by the time we got him to stop!  No "pake" for Thanksgiving to say the least. It was this instance that we decided to cool anything off the stove top.  We've gone to the lengths of putting things in a cabinet to cool and away from the dogs.

Though I have to admit, some of things might be better off not on my waistline.  Who am I kidding?!  A foodie has to find balance.  The balance for me is going to the gym 3-4 times a week to keep these challenges from appearing on my waist.

The results of the Ooey Gooey Butter Cake was tasty and to see the boyfriend weak at the knees over it was more than enough to see Cheever pout a bit.

Celery Root at its Finest?

There are weeks when the boyfriend suggests something totally ordinary, and then there are weeks where he suggests something out of the ordinary.  He suggested that I work with celery root.  Earlier in the week, I decided to see what the not so ordinary vegetable had to offer.  I made the mistake of going to Ralley's to pick up a celery root.  I say a mistake because the celery root was the size of a small rock.  I don't have a problem with it being the size of a small rock, but paying over $3.00 for it was the mistake!  I'm a true believer in buying good food for cheap.

When I actually went to get the ingredient of the week, I went to a place called Sprouts and spent $3.00 for the celery root.  The kicker was when I found the celery root at the size of small boulder, I was a happy camper.

I used the celery root for a Jacques Pépin recipe called, celery root and carrot with fresh Dijon mustard.

Hollandaise dresses up Asparagus

So the challenge continued, but my creativity had hit a roadblock for this one.  Asparagus came into season and I'm all about using fresh ingredients and while in season.  Asparagus also has the after the effect of turning one's pee green.  I know, too much information, but tidbits are part of the appeal of the blog, no?

For the asparagus itself, I oven roasted them and attempted to do a Hollandaise sauce to drizzle over it.  Hollandaise sauce is a challenge, and when not equipped properly, it can easily make Hollandaise into scrambled eggs.  There's a reason I dislike electric stove tops, and that tends to be because it over heats the items you're cooking too quickly and results become either burnt, or in my case, scrambled.

Once I managed enough sauce, I wrapped the asparagus in smoked salmon and poured the Hollandaise over it.

Results proved to be tasty and satisfying.

Bravery..

Every once in awhile, I feel brave and want to completely experiment with something that isn't on my designated "ingredient" week or "recipe" week because I crave for something different.  With limited funds, going to a five-star restaurant is out, but it doesn't make my taste for something extravagant diminish, if anything, it makes me want to work harder towards achieving the goal.

At the same time, the more I pay for a meal, the more I feel somewhat disappointed.  I can't explain this well so I will try my best.

When my dad turned 70, he had the dream of eating at the French Laundry, like my brother and his wife did for their honeymoon.  The French Laundry is one of the top eateries in the San Francisco Bay Area, and also pricy...Instead of sending my dad to the French Laundry, my brother sent him to Bouchon, another Thomas Keller restaurant for a slightly lower price tag.

In any event, I was more in the mood to try going the Italian route on this particular test of mine.  I was also limited to what was in my fridge.

The results weren't French Laundry or Bouchon but close enough to gourmet quality that I will try to do again at some point.

I made fresh  Egg Yolk Ravioli (Uova da Raviolo) with Bacon-Sage Sauce Recipe

I guess the Remy in me said, "anyone can do this," was a bit too ambitious for this one, but nevertheless, its one I plan to do again.

Back to the near Middle East

Back to the land of Israel for a different take on couscous.  I like couscous but never had Israeli couscous.  The boyfriend picked this ingredient while at a different shop than we normally would shop at and said, "looks interesting, let's have you cook it."  His infamous last words, "looks interesting."

Israeli couscous with Mediterranean chicken

I decided to pair it with a Mediterranean chicken.  To me, the Mediterranean chicken had lot more flavor than the Israeli couscous, but then again, Israeli couscous is a bit of a bland side dish.

Back to the Roots

In light of the possibility of "ignoring" my mother's culture of richness of food, the boyfriend, a Midwestern, in every sense of the word requested that my dish of the following the great Easter desert mishap, he requested I do chicken.  Not just chicken any way I wanted, but he wanted Indonesian chicken.  So, I turned to my mother and said, "Indonesian chicken requests the boyfriend."  She looked surprised back at me, and said, "really? is he really wanting an Indonesian dish?" I said, "apparently bule (white man in Indonesian) food isn't acceptable this week."

I did my fair share of research, and my mom of course upped the ante to include an ingredient that most bule dislike, including my own father, fermented shrimp paste. Normally, when she uses her shrimp paste it comes out in the form of sambal terasi --Indonesian chili paste made of fermented shrimp paste.  Sounds as horrible as it almost tastes, but the BOYFRIEND, likes it, even if it has fermented shrimp paste.

She handed me the recipe of chicken rica or as my cousins fancy, rica ayem. I probably should've gone as far as serving rice with this dish as it normally is, but decided to only serve lightly blanched green beans.  I also figured, go bolder with serving with a Heineken since I couldn't find the Indonesian beer of Bintang (a subdivision of Heineken).

Passover, the other tradition around Easter time

In the spirit of trying new things and exposing myself even further into other cultures, I figured, I try dabbling into the Judaic traditions since I was curious about Passover.  It was a tradition surrounded by food and family for a friend of mine, and Easter for the rest of us (at least for the boyfriend and I).

broccoli kugel 

The boyfriend gave me the ingredient broccoli, so I figured, broccoli is a pretty bland vegetable.  It looks like a tree, and tastes just as fibrous, not that I would know what a tree tastes like, but that's my guess.  Since I always push my former church members to the edge to try new things, why not push them to try something of the Jewish tradition.  My former church members are non-denominational (Baptist) conservative Indonesians that try to say that they are inclusive church by welcoming those of other cultures.  I only went to keep my mother happy but with the risk of my happiness and faith dwindling, I've stopped going as regularly.  In any event, I pushed my limit with trying to satisfy the curiosity of my exposure to other cultures, and upholding the occasional contribution to the church's potluck.

broccoli kugel with chipotle

Easter Sunday was probably not the best time to introduce a kugel, let alone leave it for someone to question what it was.  I didn't know that a good friend of mine, the resident chef, was catering the Easter meal, so I put my kugel back in the fridge and left a note on it saying, "side dish to a Passover meal."  I also didn't know how much disregard one of the church members had for my courteous plate. She threw the note out and served my dish with the BROWNIES!

When I asked her about it, she said, oh, broccoli?! I thought you were being weird with your cooking so assumed it was desert.  I looked at the dish one more time to say to myself, it looks like desert.  No such luck, the bits of broccoli with evidently was still peaking through, and it even smelt of cooked broccoli.  The smell of almost "rotten" socks?

Normally, yes, I'm a very forgiving person, but when I'm called weird for exposing others indirectly of a new culture or idea without given much of a choice, I'm taken a back.  In any event, the dish was barely touched and the boyfriend took back chipotle broccoli kugel for the week.

Lesson learned: chipotle broccoli kugel is a desert to a small group of Indonesians

Sole as a Soul

So I had to experiment this week at the boyfriend's brother's house.  They had a project to work on, and so since I offered to cook, the boyfriend suggested that I do my experiment while they worked on their project.  A little overwhelming to me since I know very minimal about his house's kitchen, and cooking in someone else's kitchen without their knowledge of cooking except what's good and not is difficult.

Paupiettes de Sole

For the experiment itself, the boyfriend picked another recipe from his grandmother's cookbook.  He picked Paupiettes de Sole since it sounded "interesting."  Sometimes I don't like when he says, "oh, this looks good.." I say how do you figure, "because its interesting..."
Interesting I'll say because it means I have to decipher what a recipe dated 1970s means for one, and figure out how someone else's stove and oven works!

The last time I cooked in the boyfriend's brother's kitchen was when I offered to help with Thanksgiving dinner for the brother's in-laws and wife.  As much as they boyfriend's brother and wife love food, neither of them cook very much.  So Thanksgiving in itself posed to be a challenge.  We called it the great pumpkin fiasco of 2012 because of how they boyfriend's brother prepared a pumpkin.  Normally when I prepared pumpkin pie these days, I do it from complete scratch.  But, when you're in a time crunch and want it easy, you can buy the pre-made crust, canned pumpkin and sweetened condensed milk.  Simple, right? Not difficult when you have the proper ingredients...however, the pumpkin fiasco of 2012 wouldn't be if it was simple.  The pumpkin fiasco involved evaporated milk in the pie.  The pie was so bad that the boyfriend's brother's wife spit it out.

Having said all of that, the pressure of me cooking in her kitchen was a bit daunting.  Fortunately for me she was gone for this particular weekend so I only had two hungry guys to worry about.

I prepared Paupiettes de Sole, since both of them like seafood and seafood for me to me is still a challenge and uphill battle.  Sole is a very delicate fish and can flake very easily even before its cooked.  Paupiettes de Sole required the sole to be folded over the stuffing and placed in the sauce prior to steaming in the oven.  Another challenge when you steam fish such as sole, it doesn't change color when it is fully cooked.  Its hard to tell when it actually sole is done without actually cutting it or breaking the fish.  I tested the sole by getting a nice little steam bath to the face...

By this time, the creamed spinach and my test of mushed artichoke hearts were done and the project the guys were working on was complete.

It all came together and another cooking challenge complete, but I do have to say, the next time someone wants me to cook in someone else's kitchen, seafood may not be something that is served unless I have gotten better at by then.

The Chinese meet the Indian Saag

I haven't put recipes on this blog for a reason.  Yes it is a cooking blog, but blogs with recipes are a bit overdone, and my purpose is to try and experiment with the food around me.  Though, if you as the reader, would want the recipes I used, I can release it.  Otherwise, its more of a sociological take on cooking as opposed to the art of cooking.

The boyfriend challenged me with the ingredient of bok choy.  Otherwise known as Chinese cabbage.  I had watched an Iron Chef episode on bok choy and feared that my challenge would involve my ice cream maker.  Thankfully, it didn't, but the request of a non-Chinese dish did come up.  I was definitely stuck on this one, until I thought to myself, if it has the same composition as spinach in the leaves, why couldn't I use it like a spinach?

Bok Choy Saag

I challenged myself to think a little further.  What is a spinach dish that I love?  Okay, maybe love is too strong of a word, but aside from wilting spinach and calling it a meal, what could I do?  I kept on the Asia continent for this dish, which made it even more interesting since I was specifically told, no Chinese style to the Chinese cabbage.

I reverted to Indian.  Yup, Indian.  Indian Saag.  I love the flavors that come out of saag when I have it in the restaurants and I thought, why not try making it out of bok choy.  The results were hardly different from spinach saag, in fact, I almost had to do a second take myself when I tasted it since it was almost no different.

Rued by Cornstarch but not Overruled

Gluten free mac and cheese rued by cornstarch

The adventures continue and so does the little hamster that could.

I found myself with the ingredient cornstarch and thought well, this can't be too hard, right?  Well, its not per say, but originality was probably the tricky part of this ingredient.

Cornstarch is used as a thickener when it comes to a variety of dishes, including egg drop soup.  I could've known egg drop soup, but I chose not to.  I could've done a lot of things, but wanted to to go to the other side of what cornstarch substitutes.

My sister recently found out that she has a gluten allergy, and with the fear of the possibility, my mother figured, that I too, must be gluten intolerant.   Now I could understand that possibility if my sister and I were fully related.  We share a father, and we look completely different from each other that people have a hard time saying, "oh, that's your sister," or even, "oh, that's your father." So the remote possibility of me having a gluten allergy are fairly slim since she did say one of her relatives on her mother's side has it.  I've never met her mother, and no way related to her so my chances are that much slimmer.  Still, I owed it my sister to experiment.

So, I figure if cornstarch was used as a thickener, could I do a gluten free dish and it still taste similar to a regular gluten dish?  I opted to make gluten free mac and cheese since the pasta is always a bit tricky being gluten free.

The results were good, a little on the tough side, but gluten free pasta isn't as springy as regular pasta since it depends what its made of.  I used the brown rice variety for this dish.  I also figured, while on the "healthy" route, a side salad would compliment it quite well.

Whether I use gluten or no gluten for mac and cheese, it seems to go away quite quickly.  Cornstarch is definitely a good stock item to keep in the pantry.

Retro...

Every so often, the boyfriend requests something out of his grandmother's cookbook, The Doubleday Cookbook Complete Conteporary Cooking, Volume 1 and 2, 1975, Jean Anderson, Elaine Hanna.

Queen of Puddings

Hesitation sets in since I'm not one of following directions well when it comes to cooking and the expectation of cooking like his grandmother scares me even though I've never met her.  Would I ever be able to cook as well as her? Would it compare to what the boyfriend remembered as a child? 

The boyfriend revealed that he didn't remember the cooking so much of his grandmother's so everything was fair game.

His first request out his grandmother's cookbook was Queen of Puddings.  Sounds too English to be true, but its as English as the Queen herself.  Traditionally this dish is prepared at England County Fairs in Honor of her Majesty.  Though, for the boyfriend and I, its a bit too much sugar.  Shortly after eating a small bit, I experienced a sugar crash.  I've never been one of sweets so my body doesn't react well with processed sugars.

Chickpeas are peas I like..

I am one not to like peas, no matter what you do to a pea in terms of cooking, it tastes of nothing.  I disown my English roots on this matter.

Though chickpeas are a different matter.  The boyfriend requested that I did something with chickpeas that didn't involve humus.

Curried Okra and Chickpeas served with curry chicken

Chickpeas can either be bought dried or in cans, at least from what I could find immediately.  For time sake, the canned chickpeas isn't overly filled with sodium like most canned goods.  I'm kind of anti-canned goods when at all possible due to the sodium content and well, fresher is better taste wise anyways.  Its also cheaper in the long run.

Anyways, for this dish, I decided to go to an Indian favorite of mine growing up. I lived next door to an Indian family and they always invited me over for Indian food.  The aromas that came from their house every day would end up on my clothes and I seriously didn't mind since I liked Indian food.  It was also more incentive for me to figure out how to cook Indian food since I was moving from the area and soon to be on my own.  I could've easily gone to the Indian restaurant but that would've involve more money than I was able to spend.  Poor college student was never truer than living in the San Francisco Bay Area post North of Houston high school wages.

Upon reflection, I probably should've given the boyfriend some traditional naan or Basmati rice to go with his chickpea to ward off the excess heat. Either way, the dish brought back some memories of mine and the challenge continues.

Liking Elk

So the food experiment continues and finding items that are within budget and figuring out how to cook them also continues.

The boyfriend went from something so easily found (shrimp) to something only certain markets carry, elk.

I honestly didn't give too much thought into how to prepare elk, so I'll probably redo this part of the challenge at some point when I give a little more thought into it.

Elk patties with potato and cabbage 

We didn't mind the taste since its a lot milder than beef, and if I did my research a little more, we probably would've had better results than elk patties served with potatoes and cabbage.

Further research to be done on this elk...

The Project Begins with a Small Ingredient: Shrimp

A small ingredient but mighty enough to fill even the biggest appetite? Protein wise, its shrimp! I'm not about to go into the various of forms of shrimp because I'm sure I'd bore everyone and no one quite does it as well as Bubba Blue (goo.gl/7W1SF).

At the beginning of the year, as said in my previous post, I was to challenge my cooking style as much possible, which meant trying new things since well, that's the challenge, right?

My first challenge was a shrimp scampi with risotto since the boyfriend requested: shrimp, light, and Italian.  To those who grow up with seafood, this would be way too easy, but for me, lack of seafood as a family food, gave me a disadvantage early on in this challenge.

shrimp scampi with risotto

Shrimp comes in various forms at the supermarket: veined, de-veined,  once frozen, pre-cooked, shell on, shell off... of course, part of this challenge for me is to de-vein the shrimp and cut the tails off without taking too much of the actual shrimp with it.  Also, the challenge of not over cooking the shrimp.

To say the least, the boyfriend was quite pleased with the results.  I found that cooking shrimp is a quick way to cut cooking times and a good form of protein.  At least this form of shrimp and not the way mom prefers it: sambal terasi (dried shrimp chilli sauce).

In the Beginning...

In the beginning, we all start with basic nutrients in order to survive.  Think about it, from the time we're conceived, we are fed nutrients to help us grow to full term.  Whether we are given the right nutrients, that's a whole different topic in itself and not the purpose of this blog.

I was born into two different cultures, but more so into a multicultural smorgasbord of foods.  My father, a proper Englishman in all accounts, had traveled the world quite a bit before meeting my mother, who is Javanese Indonesian, who had also traveled the world quite a bit before meeting my father.  Between them, their pallet of food is one of diverse richness.  At the same time, growing up, as a family, we rarely ate seafood since my father just "doesn't like the taste."  So much for being English since England is, after all, known for their cod fish and chips with malted vinegar wrapped in newspaper.

Having said all of this, my food pallet was already a multicultural smorgasbord of foods from the very get-go.  Fortunately and unfortunately, I have developed a taste for not just food, but good wholesome food.  I don't go to fancy restaurants to get this experience, but go to my local supermarkets and pick up the necessary ingredients and try making the "fancy" stuff at home for WAY cheaper.

Hence the purpose of this blog.  At the beginning of 2013, I found myself wanting to become a better cook after re-watching Ratatouille for the umpteenth time.  After all, Auguste Gusteau, claimed, "anyone can cook."  I knew I could cook since I haven't died from starvation OR gone completely broke from eating out.  I wanted a challenge, and I also found myself wanting to give my boyfriend the gift of a multicultural smorgasbord since he grew up in the Midwest and always claims that his bland pallet is because of the Midwest.

So we came up with some rules for my cooking challenge of 2013:

• An ingredient a week will be chosen and I must prepare one dish containing that ingredient
• Specifications on how to prepare that ingredient is not required
• Type of dish prepared with that ingredient are allowed; for example Italian versus Indian
• All food must be from scratch and not prepackaged boxes; for example, mac and cheese from store bought box
• Dishes can be picked from a cookbook rather than a solo ingredient but I am not allowed to pick that dish (in other words, if it comes from a cookbook, the Guinna pig, aka boyfriend has to pick the dish)
• Once a week, the ingredient or dish is tested (prepared, cooked, and served)
• A type of beer or wine must be paired with the ingredient or dish (if appropriate) 
• Final cost of prepared food must cost under $20.00 and serve a minimum of 2 people (our allowance to eat out if I pay :) )
• I am not allowed to pick the ingredient or specific dish of the week, but I am allowed to cook within set parameters of the idea.  For example, the ingredient is shrimp but a request of Italian and light was requested, so I must cook according to, but if the ingredient was just shrimp, I could cook it how I felt could challenge my range.

To date, the challenge has been successful.  Kind of like my mini Iron Chef moment of the week as it were, but less dishes to prepare as they normally have to prepare 4 to 5 different dishes with the secret ingredient in all of their dishes.

I also have found something to hit my sociological brain in this challenge too.  I can't help it, I majored and graduated with a degree in Sociology/Anthropology so I'm always thinking of something critical.  The boyfriend's go-to cookbook has been his grandmother's The Doubleday Cookbook Complete Conteporary Cooking, Volume 1 and 2, 1975, Jean Anderson, Elaine Hanna (1080-08)) and it got me to thinking.  Some of the recipes thus far have been pretty easy preparation wise, which surprised me since all of my visions of cooking come from the notion of the typical 1950s housewife who spends all day in the kitchen.  So if they take minimal time to prepare for, why don't more people prepare them in 2013?  Is cooking that lost of an art? Have cultures shifted from tradition so much that food has been McDonaldized (term used by sociologist George Ritzer in his book The McDonaldization of Society (1993). He explains it occurs when a culture possesses the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant. McDonaldization is a reconceptualization of rationalization, or moving from traditional to rational modes of thought, and scientific management from Wikipedia)?

These are the questions that keep me thinking and my hamster running at full speed some nights. So hopefully, in this blog, I'll be able to articulate what goes on in my head and how I find cooking to be.  With fad diets coming and going, I plan to explore the sociological impact of how we view, taste, and enjoy food.

For the record, Silly Bean, was a nickname given to me because I tend to "act silly" with my sociological brain, not for the Urban Dictionary definition of "A light hearted way of telling someone they have been a bit stupid," as my boyfriend discovered when trying to come up with a good name for this blog.