Back to December

Last December seems so long ago. Last December I graduated with my Bachelor of Science in Food Science and Human Nutrition. Last December was filled with the archetypal milestones of a college kid. Last December I had no idea what was next. Last December a local dim sum restaurant opened. Last December I ate turnip cake.

Just the Beginning

The day before my graduation, my HD planned a lunch with me at the new dim sum place. I’m not sure if anyone had been there yet, but rumor had it that it got packed pretty fast, had a small parking lot, and had customer’s cars towed when parked next door. So many logistics went into one lunch. The majority of them lived on my side of town and we planned to drive together, and the other one who lives closer to the restaurant was going to get there early to grab a table. Now this restaurant typically has a line at the door even before it opens, and dim sum is only served at lunch time.

Let me explain something first – dim sum is a Cantonese Chinese term used to describe bite-sized portions of different foods carried in small steamers and pushed around a cart.

In the Middle of the Street

But of course knowing the Etas, silly things were bound to happen. One of them (who didn’t drive a car) would always wait 5 minutes before the meet up time to ask someone (who would already be there) to pick her up. One didn’t wake up to her alarm and had to meet us there. The girl who went to save a table, grabbed the family style table at open, sat there by herself for a good 30 minutes while other families would glare and give her dirty looks for saving it. The rumors weren’t rumors – it was teeming!! Where were the rest of us? Looking for parking. Lo and behold the tiny parking lot was full and we parked across the street. Selfie while crossing the street!

Quickly we all took a seat while calming down the slightly panicked one and then the carts came. Grabbing dishes and dishes of char siu bao (pork stuffed buns), ha gao (shrimp dumplings), phoenix claws, shaomai, and spareribs, we feasted. One of them goes, is that a peanut in the fried rice? It was a peanut, and her lip swole. Then all of a sudden, this small plate with three speckled white squares with a golden brown coating lands on our table. “Turnip cake!” someone said.

I split mine with the girl next to me, and I wished I hadn’t.

Daikon, not Chinese Radish

Turnip Cake

• 2 ½ pounds shredded daikon
• water (enough to cover daikon in pot)
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp dried shrimp
• 3 whole shiitake mushrooms
• 1 tsp garlic
• 4 oz. ground turkey (traditionally Chinese sausage is used)
• 1 tbsp white pepper
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 ¼ cups rice flour

1. Place the dried shrimp and shiitake mushrooms in a bowl of water to rehydrate for at least 2 hours.
2. Meanwhile peel the daikon and use a food processor, mandolin, or (as I did) a grater to shred the daikon into matchsticks.
3. Put the daikon in a large pot and fill with enough water to submerge the daikon. Heat the pot to medium to high heat for 15 minutes – daikon should soften.
4. As the daikon cooks, remove the shrimp and shiitake mushroom from the water. Remove the stems of the mushrooms and mince the caps and shrimps together.
5. Saute the garlic, ground turkey, minced shiitake, and shrimp together in a large pan with a splash of oil until the turkey is cooked (or Chinese sausage). Add the white pepper and soy sauce into the pan.
6. Drain the daikon and reserve at least 1 cup of the water. Place the daikon and cooked mixture in a separate bowl. Add rice flour and stir – you can add water if a paste does not begin to form. The mixture should be thick and is ready when it no longer falls off the spoon.
   

   Bain-marie

7. Fill a 9 inch loaf pan with this mixture and place in a bain-marie for 45 minutes. Bain-marie = place loaf pan in a pot larger and fill large pot with water 1 inch high. Heat to medium heat.
8. Once turnip cake is done, remove from bain-marie and cool to room temperature.
9. At this point, you can eat the turnip cake, but a lot of people refrigerate it overnight and pan fry ½ inch slices the next day.

The Food Scientist ❤ HD

At graduation

A-Vada Kedavra

A couple of nights ago, sitting at our dining table/laptop desk/circuit shop (like woodshop but with circuitry), I was telling μChip that I was beginning to think our random ingredient generator idea was becoming stale because it seemed to be generating the same ingredients every other week. I mean given that it probably works based off some algorithm there is a high probability that was bound to happen sooner or later. So I said to her (jokingly), “I think I’ll google random country generator (hoping that it wouldn’t result in one of those make-up-your-country’s-name generators, rather one that came up with real countries) and cook something from their culture.” I was looking for new foods to taste and new methods to learn. Without questioning me, we both googled “random country generator” and tried our luck at the first hit.

Interesting, right? I didn’t even know #3 was a country (on its own), and #2 seemed like the easy default in case nothing else worked out. Easy way or the high way? I took the high way, and as a result I chose Suriname. Looking up recipes I found out Suriname is kind of a melting pot just like America – a variety of Asian, European, and African influences. Staying away from desserts (since I dig the umami :P) I came across this Surinamese snack called “bara” which reminded me of one of my boyfriend’s favorite food by description. Huh, I thought. Due to much Indian influence, it turns out they are the same exact thing as my boyfriend’s favorite food, “vada.”

Flashback! So my brother used to work as a body removal specialist for part of the Southeast United States. Basically he would remove dead bodies from crime scenes, suicides, or less exciting nursing homes (he worked for a funeral home). And I used to work in a gross (meaning macroscopic body parts) pathology lab where excised tissue would be analyzed, and my sister, well she thought that maybe she, too, should work in something death related (soon to study nursing) so we could all cross paths. I suppose this seemed kind of eerie or creepy if our parents were to ever discuss with other people what their children were doing. Through my brother I learned that my favorite flower, lilies, are the most commonly associated flower with funeral services. While jokingly teasing at my boyfriend to take me to funeral homes to see them, he mentioned that he, too, would sort of enjoy it because his favorite food is only served at “death celebrations”. What a match! 🙂

Vada in short are savoury lentil doughnuts and can be for breakfast, a snack, or part of another meal. In southern India, at least in his region, they are doughnut shaped with a hole in the middle; while in other areas they are just round saucer shaped. He likes to eat his with green and coconut chutneys, but he’s not here, so I only made coconut 😛

Let me make a disclaimer: This is the first time I have ever made an authentic Indian food, ever. Some people think I make/eat Indian food all the time – I eat it when I get the chance, but that’s about it. One time I made butter chicken in a crock pot, but my boyfriend says that doesn’t count because butter chicken is essentially American. Oh. Lol.

Vada

• 1 cup urad dal (split and skinned black gram lentil)
• Water
• salt
• oil for frying

These following items I added for flavor, but the first three ingredients are the main components technically.

• ½ bird’s eye chili (chopped) – (more for more heat!)
• 1 small diced onion
• 2 tbsp grated coconut
• 3 tbsp cilantro (roughly chopped) – I ❤ cilantro
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1 tbsp coriander (dried)
• a pinch of asafetida (hing)

Method

1. Soak urad dal for at least 3-5 hours or overnight. Drain the dal but reserve the water in another bowl.
2. Place the dal in a food processor (though other recipes recommend a wet grinder) to form a thick paste. You can add a few tablespoons of water – one at at time – to help form the paste. CAUTION: You do not want this to be thin and runny. Minimal water is best 🙂
3. Once paste is formed, empty paste into a bowl and add your mixins for flavoring, or just the salt to taste.

Shaping – This is supposed to be the most difficult part of the recipe, but I found making the paste the hardest. This was my favorite part!! (next to eating)

1. Wet your left palm (if you are right-handed) to leave a thin film of water on it, and place a tbsp. of the thick batter on your palm.
2. Using your other hand, wet one finger to form a hole in the middle of the dollop to form the doughnut shape.
3. Use your wet fingertips or a butter knife to slip the newly formed vada into hot oil. CAUTION: the oil may splash due to its reaction with the water.

Note: Some sources recommend using parchment paper or plastic wrap with a thin film of water to start.

Frying

1. Heat up oil in a small pot to medium heat. Drop vada into the hot oil and fry until golden brown.

Eating – Piping hot vada with coconut chutney? I think yes!!

❤ The Food Scientist

Calaman-see Calaman-do

Some people say μchip and I sound the same. Some people say we are the same person. Some people have actually gotten us confused (in person). Some people may wonder why I am talking about our “home” relationship so much recently. I don’t know – we’ve both been home at the same time, which rarely ever happens – and maybe because I will be receiving a new roommate soon enough, “KPharmEr.” Returning from this wedding, Chip not only brought back mangoes, but another Filipino favorite, calamansi. Calamansi, calamondin, calaman-sih, tiny-looking-lime – whatever you want to call it is native to the Philippines, and its flesh is sour like lemon/lime citrus, but its rind is sweet, just sweet. For some perspective here is some calamansi next to an American penny.

We spent the next hour deciding what to do with all the calamansi, from sorbet to iced tea to candied calamansi rind…at this point the hits on google seemed to fade. We even contemplated just replacing calamansi juice for lemons or limes to create calamansi pie vs. key lime pie or calamansi meringue vs. lemon meringue, etc. Then we came across a treat that was possibly worthwhile – the world renowned “Boracay’s Real Coffee Calamansi Muffins.” Boracay is an island in the Philippines with white sandy beaches, crystal clear waters, explorable caves, and an escape from reality. I recall it being a little piece of paradise back in 2000, but I can see it as a hot vacation spot for the tourism industry. According to Wikipedia it ranked in 2012 as best island in the world by an international travel magazine. Anyway apparently there is a small shop called Real Coffee and Tea Cafe which sells calamansi muffins that are supposed to be divine. It has become so popular that they are purchased as pasalubong from the area! (Pasalubong meaning “a gift to give to others upon returning.”)

Calamansi Muffins (adapted from pepper.ph)

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2  eggs
• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup calamansi juice

1. Mix flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside. Then mix milk and calamansi together in a separate bowl, and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes in another bowl, and add eggs one at a time mixing well after each addition.
3. Add the milk and flour mixture into the butter/sugar bowl and mix until well blended. Make sure not to over mix!
4. Scoop batter into muffin pans about 3/4 full as they will rise. (I greased mine in case)
5. Bake at a preheated 350 degrees F oven for 20 minutes or golden brown.

Before baking these, μchip mentioned that she had a surprise that was perfect for the occasion. A muffin-top-only baking pan! Who doesn’t love muffin tops? She knows me so well! Check out the differences! Toasty and golden around all sides with a fluffy, buttery center, and a zesty punch!
I should try eating these with coffee tomorrow morning…

❤ The Food Scientist

twohappypancakes.

The Story.
Now, this is a story all about how
My life got flipped-turned upside down
And I’d like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I’ll tell you how I used to have a hard to describe default username with a typographically unpleasing mix of letters. So I decided to switch it up a bit with a new one composed of common words and a balance of ascenders and descenders.

The Food.
So I decided to make pancakes this morning! I pulled a recipe from one of my all time favorite TV personalities, Alton Brown (Food Network) and picked up any ingredients at Shaw’s that my brother and didn’t have.

Recipe.

Initial prep.

I tried to mix together everything very gently, to prevent gluten formation (not beating out any of the lumps, just making sure things were mixed). Lumpy was my goal and I succeeded gloriously. Next, I tried to make happy faces.. and didn’t succeed gloriously! See below.

One happy! One er.. something.

You can kinda see the faces..

Well, after that my brother used some Star Wars pancake molds and..

:D.

-Chef Springfield

Om-nom-omelet

Well….its been quite a while since I’ve posted, and now that activity has sky-rocketed, I feel obligated to return again.  To be completely honest, I’ve been eating out more than cooking, and so I have plenty of pictures saved up from that, but I don’t think that’s what we’re going for, so I’ll save those for myself.

As you know, our ingredient this time was: onion, mushroom, bell pepper, and cream cheese.  If you know me at all, you know I’m a huge procrastinator, so by the time I decided to create this post, it was Saturday and we have new ingredients Sunday!  And I was also leaving town to go to Dave and Busters for the first time here in Houston, so I decided to make a quick and sloppy omelet for breakfast!

Ingredients:

• eggs
• mushroom
• bell pepper
• onion
• scallion
• butter (if you want)
• garlic powder
• salt and pepper to taste

To start, I diced up the pepper, mushrooms, and onion.  I even tried to make it pretty.

Afterwards, I just tossed in a lot of garlic powder, salt and pepper to add some flavor.  I just like this picture.

Add some oil and bam, start sautéing your fillings.  I decided last minute to add some butter, because honestly, who doesn’t like some butter on all their foods?

Moved that unto a bowl and threw in the mixed eggs and let it form its base.  Then FLIP!  Proceed to pour in your hard work and spread it around the pan.

Biggest regret, I forgot cheese.  Spinach probably would have added a nice touch of healthiness as well.  But there’s always next time!

Breakfast is served!

 

I know everyone knows how to make this but I had to get something down as a post!  I’ll post a better one soon.  Until next time!

-Chef jKwong