A little bit of me

You asked for easy, and here it is. 

We live in a world where there is not enough time for anything.  Not enough time to clean the house, play with the kids, do the laundry, cook dinner, etc.  The past few recipes have been on the slight “fancier” side, I will admit.  I had to make special grocery trips to gather all the ingredients and had to plan in advance.  However, believe you me, those are not recipes I make on super busy days (which is what the majority of our days are like.)  Last night was one of those nights where I wanted to whip up something super quick and easy, using ingredients we already had in the house.  It actually came out pretty great.  I will share the exact ingredients I used (aka the collection of remnants of what I used in other dishes this week), but you can use any ingredients your pretty little head can think of.  Cooking well, is in part creativity, not to mention that’s what makes it fun!

I don’t have an official name for this dish, and since this is my 5^th blog post, I am endearingly calling it “Mambo #5”.

Mambo#5

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

¼ cup chopped onions

2 Tablespoons minced Garlic

1 lb of chicken breast cubed

1 zucchini chopped

3 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

1/4 cup chopped sundried tomatoes

½ bag spinach

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 cup of water

5 Tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese

3 cups of cooked rice

Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan.  Add onions and garlic.  Cook for about a minute without browning them.

Add the chicken breast and season generously with salt and pepper. Cook the chicken for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Then add all of the vegetables to the pan.  Cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently.  Add the cream of mushroom to the pan with the water. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes.  Check the chicken for doneness and be sure the veggies are tender. 

Then, add the cooked rice & parmesan cheese and mix it well.  Done!

This is not super fancy recipe, but it is a super quick, easy, and nutritious dinner solution.

Route 107

There is a portion of Route 107, in Hicksville,  that I endearingly label as “India Town”.  It is a strip of stores, primarily restaurants, and tons of Indian owned businesses.  There is really only one Indian restaurant we go to on 107 for lack of knowing any better.  I order the same thing every single time, again, because I don’t know any better.  Every time we go there I have to ask the waiter what the difference is between the myriad of bread options…  some are leavened, some are soft, some are crispy, some are crispy and soft…  sigh, I will never get it right. 

I recently saw a “Tandoori” Food Truck parked outside of Costco, with a giant line coming from it.  Out here in suburbia, food trucks are definitely not the norm, and a Tandoori one is absolutely unheard of.  It peaked my curiosity  - I slowed down as I passed it, but definitely could not convince myself to stop.  But it did spark my interest in trying to make my beloved Chicken Tikka Masala.  How hard could it be?

Guess what, Archer Farms (the Target enthusiasts are familiar with this brand!) makes a Tikka Masala sauce.  However this would definitely not be post worthy if I said, sautee chicken, pour jar of sauce, serve with rice…  The public wants to know the crazy long way I like to do things right??  And so you shall be served… (sorry for the grainy photo, I had to use my old crummy camera that day)

Chicken Tikka Masala

Adapted from a recipe from food.com

1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast, cut in 1 inch cubes (if you like dark meat chicken, boneless thighs will work great!)

Marinade

1 cup plain yogurt (I used Danon greek yogurt)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons ground cumin2 teaspoons ground red pepper

2 teaspoons black pepper

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons minced ginger 

Sauce

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon paprika

2 teaspoons garam masala (you can get this @ Whole Foods or an Indian Market)

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 ½ cup whipping cream

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

Mix all the ingredients for the marinade in a large bowl.  Put the chicken in the marinade and coat well.  Put the marinated chicken in a gallon size zip lock bag.  Try to get out as much air as possible.  Put it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

To make the sauce:

Melt the butter in a heavy pot on medium heat.  Do not let the butter brown, otherwise you’ll have a big old bunch of burned butter.  Add garlic and cook for about a minute.  Do not burn the garlic or else you will have a nasty burned garlic taste in the sauce, that is not fixable!  (That is something we did learn in culinary school!).  Stir in the coriander, cumin, paprika, garam masala, pepper, and salt.  Add the tomato sauce to the pot and simmer for about 15 minutes on medium low heat.  Stirring occasionally.  Stir in cream, and then cook for an additional few minues.

Saute, broil, or grill the chicken.  The original recipe said to grill the chicken on skewers, but that seemed to require a little too much effort for me that day.  So I just threw the chicken in a pan and sautéed the chicken with a little bit of diced onion.  Cook the chicken how it is most pleasing to you.  Just remember to lightly shake off any excess marinade before cooking it.

Once the chicken is cooked, add it to the sauce.  Allow the chicken to sit in the sauce for at least 5 minutes so the chicken can absorb all the aromatic flavors of the tikka masala sauce.

Garnish your Tikka Masala with the chopped cilantro.  You can serve this with rice or naan (Indian flat bread that you can buy at the store OR can make yourself – that recipe is definitely for a different day!!).

If you like your food on the spicier side (which Fuss and I do not), you can throw in some jalapeno when sautéing the garlic for the sauce.  You can also add a little red pepper to the sauce when sautéing all the spices.  

And that's it!  Enjoy.  I think we will move out of Asia next week!  :)

BTW, don't forget to sign up to be a follower of my blog!  That way you can get notifications of when I post new recipes!  I mean how could you not want to be updated!  

Cheers!

Stuck on an Asian Kick

This week has been an Asian Food Palooza at our house!  There are just so many things to try to tackle.  The Asian food restaurant options (particularly from the Orient) are mediocre at best. I mean where is the variety?  I understand that the local Chinese take out place has about 200 options on their menu (although I must say that chicken with broccoli, beef with broccoli, roast pork with broccoli, and shrimp with broccoli should definitely not count as 4 different options), but there are just so many more options out there!  We are however privileged enough to have a pretty decent Asian Supermarket nearby (although a little on the expensive side, but I will take what I can get) that opens us up to a wealth of possibilities.

Benny and I have always loved going to Pho Bang in Elmhurst (although definitely out of the way), which is a hole in the wall Vietnamese restaurant featuring Pho, Vietnamese BBQ, and who could forget the Vietnamese Spring Rolls!  The Spring Rolls are not entirely different than the Filipino Lumpia that I grew up with, but they do have a certain clean and unforgettable taste.  Whenever we’d go to eat at Pho Bang, Benny and I would challenge each other on what we think is in this little roll of pure goodness.  We’d tell each other that we would try to make it one day, however those aspirations would quickly go down the toilet when we would just ask for an order of Spring Rolls to go.  So, I finally took the plunge, the big Kahuna, the climb to the top…  I attempted to make Vietnamese Spring Rolls at home!

This recipe is a little labor intensive, but it is worth the work.  

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Adapted from a recipe from epicurious.com

Dipping Sauce

5 ½ Tablespoons of Sugar

¾ cup warm water

¼ cup + 1 Tablespoon Asian Fish Sauce (Patis)

2 Tablespoons Rice Vinegar (don’t get the seasoned stuff)

2 Tablespoons Lemon or Lime juice

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 carrot, shredded

For Spring Rolls

1 package (about 8 oz) very thin bean thread noodles (in small skeins, also known as cellophane or mung bean noodles*)

2 oz dried wood ear mushrooms (easily found at the Asian Market), roughly chopped (dried shitake mushrooms might work also)

1 medium shallot, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 cups grated carrots (4 to 5 carrots)

1 lb ground pork

1/4 cup Asian fish sauce

1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons black pepper

2 teaspoons salt

1 lb raw shrimp (I am a big fan of frozen shrimp from target it is super cheap, just defrost them in some cold running water)

25 (8-inch) square frozen spring roll pastry wrappers  

1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten

About 6 cups vegetable oil for deep frying

For Dipping Sauce:

Mix Sugar and warm water together, until sugar is dissolved.  Add the rest of the dipping sauce ingredients.  Put it in the fridge and chill until ready to serve (at least 2 hours).

Preparing the Filling For Spring Rolls

Soak the noodles in warm water for about 10 minutes or until they are tender.  Pull the noodles apart, and drain the water.  Then with a pair of great kitchen scissors, cut the noodles into 2 to 3 inch pieces.  Just Keep on Cutting! 

Soak the dried mushrooms in warm water for about 15 minutes until they are tender.  Coarsely chop them up with a scissor or a knife until they are about the size of a penny.  Add the mushrooms to the noodles.

Pulse the shallot and garlic in food processor (or you can just as easily do this with a knife, just be sure to chop them super fine).  Add the shallot and garlic to the noodles along with the carrots, pork, fish sauce, sugar, pepper, and salt.  Throw the shrimp in the food processor and give it a few quick pulses.  Don’t over chop them or else you will get shrimp glue!  Again, you can just as easily do this with a good kitchen knife.  Add the shrimp to the noodle mixture.  Mix up all the ingredients.  Don’t bother with using a spoon or a spatula, it will never work.  Get your clean hands in there and mix it up well.  Throw it in the fridge while you prepare the spring roll wrappers.  The meat will be easier to work with, the colder it is.

The fun part: Assembling the Spring Rolls

Take a few spring roll wrappers at a time and cut them on a diagonal across the middle with your kitchen scissors.  You should wind up with 2 isosceles triangles (hahaha, you know, 2 congruent sides…  1 long side…  oh boy, time to whip out the protractor!). After all of your wrappers are cut up, start to separate each wrapper from each other.  Sometimes they are stubborn and stick together.  Wrap them up in damp paper towels or a damp kitchen towel to prevent them from drying out.

Now we are ready to roll!  With the long side of the triangle nearest to you, put about 2 Tablespoons of the filling in the middle of the triangle and shape it into a mini log.  Then take the bottom left and fold it towards the center. Repeat with the bottom right corner.  It will sort of resemble an open envelope at this point.  Dap the top corner with some egg yolk, and start rolling the bottom towards the top, making sure that all the edges are tucked into the roll.  Your first few might look a little wonky, but you will get the hang of it, I promise!  Place all finished rolls on a tray or plate lined with wax paper (or if you are like us, and don’t have wax paper, putting the on a plate with saran wrap works also!).  If you are starting to realize that you have way too many, put them in an airtight container (or neatly in a ziplock bag) and freeze them for a different day.

Now it’s time to fry! 
Heat the oil in a small sauce pot.  You will know when it is hot enough when you throw in a tiny splash of water and the water sizzles (or the formal way, get it to 365 degrees…  or the super awesome way, breakout your Fry Daddy and set it for  365 degrees and wait for the preheat light to go off – that’s what we did!). Fry rolls in batches of 5 or 6, keeping rolls apart during first minute of frying to prevent sticking, until golden brown and cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes. (Return oil to 365°F between batches.) Transfer as fried to a colander lined with paper towels and drain rolls upright 2 to 3 minutes.

In a restaurant they give you some romaine lettuce leaves with the spring rolls, and you wrap the roll with the lettuce leaf.  However, if you decide that the lettuce option is not for you, just serve it alongside the dipping sauce that has been chilling in the fridge.  This can be the perfect appetizer or accompaniment to a meal.  Again, the preparation time can be a little intimidating, but the results are well worth it.

Indoor Grilling? OH YES!

My first recipe post!  Get ready, it’s a good one!

Anyone from Long Island can attest to the fact that there are no Korean restaurants…  well scratch that, there are like 2.  I have had some excellent Korean BBQ in Korea Town in Manhattan, however unless I put my commuting hat back on and schlep to Manhattan, the chances of satisfying the Korean BBQ craving are zero to none.  Well until now…

I actually found a recipe online for Kalbi (Korean Marinated Grilled Short Ribs) and made some adjustments, and presto an amazing Korean BBQ dinner for me and my family!  It was so easy, it was ridiculous.  There is really no substitute for it, the sweet smell of the meat grilling is intoxicating!  I actually made this twice this week.  I made it for my family at home, using my Pampered Chef Grill Pan.  And then I made it again last night (because we were SO in love with it) on my sister’s indoor grill she has in her kitchen.  Both cooking methods produced absolutely phenomenal results.  Try this one, I promise you will not be disappointed!

Kalbi (Korean Marinated Short Ribs)

Adapted from a recipe by foodnetwork.com

MARINADE:

½ cup of soy sauce

1 Asian Pear, shredded or if  your don’t find one a regular pear or apple can be used also

2 Tablespoons of apple juice (optional)

1 carrot, shredded

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 small onion, minced

1 inch of ginger root, minced

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

1 Tablespoon honey

2 Tablespoons dark sesame oil

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 scallions, sliced thin

4 pounds of LA short ribs (you might need to do some searching to find this cut, you can also use “Beef Choice Meat, Flanken”)

Directions:

Whisk together all the ingredients for the marinade in a large bowl.  Add the meat and mix to coat the meat well.  Transfer the meat into a ziplock bag.  Be sure to get as much air out as possible, and seal the bag.  Refrigerate for at least an hour (overnight works well also).

Heat your grill (hey you can even whip out your George Foreman grill for this one!).  Remove the short ribs from the marinade.  After the grill is super hot, proceed with placing the ribs one by one on the grill.  Wait till the first side has some prominent grill marks and flip over.  Since the meat is already cut super thin, cooking time should be quick, less than 3 minutes on each side.

Enjoy your Kalbi served over rice!

The Beginning

So after much contemplation, it has been decided.  I am going to start a food blog. 

It has been so long since I have had an intimate relationship with cooking and food, and hopefully the creation of this blog will help me with a little soul healing.  Throughout my college life I was certain I would work in the food industry, it was my true passion.  So why did it not pan out that way?  I graduated from culinary school, and after my externship I was certain of one thing, I am not cut out to work in a food service environment.  But I did want to stay connected to food in some way shape or form.  So I got great office jobs at great food companies which somewhat filled the void.  And then about one year ago I decided, I needed to leave my fabulous Godiva job to be closer to my little girl.  I thankfully landed a great job 20 minutes from home, and now I got to spend loads of time with Fuss (my daughter) and the rest of my family.  However the move completely took me out of the industry I held so dear to my heart.  I love my job, but consumer electronics is no milk chocolate pecan pie truffle.

Cooking with Fuss was inspired by my daughter, who we endearingly call “Fuss”.  One night I was cooking dinner for her – macaroni and cheese from a box (Lord save my soul) and I thought to myself, I can do better than this, what the heck am I doing?  So my main mission of this blog is to break out of the convenience food trap that so many of us fall into, and cook some simple, tasty, home made food for my family (and of course share the recipes with you!).  I will admit I will try lots of outlandish things (to justify the thousands of dollars I still owe in culinary school loans!), but be inspired by the simple principle that with food, sky is the limit!

I hope you enjoy taking this journey with me, I do promise tons of great recipes and of course my wit and charm.