Category: Cooking

Spicy Miso Ramen

When you can have handmade ramen noodles, you can forget about the instant stuff that is like wilted cardboard in styrofoam cups. Why make your own when you can get instant noodles in a cup for less than a dollar? That’s because traditional handmade noodles have a beautiful texture that…

Family Brunch

Brunch this morning is a family event, featuring made-from-scratch dishes. Much of this is experimentation, but it all turns out nicely. Spinach and mushroom crepes Asparagus and mixed greens salad Broccoli artichoke bacon frittata Blintzes with blueberry sauce

Scallion and Ham Frittata

Ingredients: A bunch of green onions (12) Half pound vegetarian ham 8 eggs, beaten Salt and pepper Half cup Parmesan cheese   The process: Pre-heat the oven to 350°F. Cut up the green onions and ham. In a well-seasoned cast iron skillet, sautée until the scallions are reduced and the meat…

Summer Figs

Yan brought back fresh figs, and we decide to make the most out of them. First, there are quartered figs with blue cheese and walnuts drizzled with honey. Then, there’s fig flatbread with more blue cheese and arugula. All this turned out so well.

Tiramisu in Shot Glasses

Assembling this dessert in shot glasses is similar to making tiramisu in a pan. The only problem was that all the stores were out of ladyfingers. Apparently, those ladyfingers are seasonal. This time, instead of using store-bought ladyfingers, I made them into disks instead of fingers: separate the yolks from the…

Cooking on Boxing Day

This holiday season came with a lot of cooking. Tonight’s menu: Red pepper, root vegetables, and smoked gouda soup with oregano Grilled portabello mushrooms, marinated in red wine, olive oil, and rosemary Roasted beets, Brussel sprouts, and shallots Quinoa with pine nuts, onions, and garlic

Christmas Lunch

Christmastime is here! Although we haven’t really had a holiday tradition, the closest we’ve come to having some sort of tradition is in the kitchen. On this year’s menu: Satsuma mandarin salad Vanilla avocado and kale smoothie with brown sugar Cranberry almond spinach salad with honey mustard vinaigrette Puttanesca pappardelle…

Pumpkin Ravioli

Here’s an experiment in cooking for Thanksgiving potluck. Find some scrap wood. Carve out indentations for the ravioli mold. Make dough with 00 semolina flour and eggs. Cut pumpkin from the garden patch and cook. Mash pumpkin, and mix in Parmesan cheese. Roll out dough into sheets. Lay pasta sheet…

Wing Bean Salad

It’s Saturday afternoon, after church service about peace, and I’m so excited. I’ve been trying to grow wing beans for a long time, and in all previous attempts, although the beans grew into stalks, the plants refused to produce fruit. But today, there are six beans; I picked all of…

Cedar Planked Salmon

My uncle brought us salmon from the northernmost California coast. Having extra cedar planks from a yard project, I had what I needed for cedar planked salmon. After planing the planks, I soaked them for two hours in water. In the meantime, I skinned the salmon, chopped garlic, grated ginger,…

Tiramisu

This is the tiramisu made from a combination of recipes. After sampling many variations, and having a problem with raw egg, this turns out to be the best version without the Salmonella. In a saucepan, whisk egg yolks with sugar; then whisk in milk. Cook over medium heat while whisking…

Christmas Dinner

As in most years, we all took part in making Christmas dinner. On the menu was minestrone soup, baked brie, pappardelle pasta with puttanesca sauce, and seared cod with asparagus.

Marinated Baby Artichoke Hearts

The three artichoke plants produced a lot of baby ones this year. The artichokes were picked today. After lunch, I trimmed, steamed, and marinated them with garlic, black  pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, and thyme. They should make good addition to salads.

Grilled Artichokes

This afternoon, I prepared and grilled some artichokes. Every since my first time having some grilled artichokes at the Rutherford Grill in Napa Valley, it’s been a favorite. Here’s the version with lemon thyme marinade. Cut artichokes in half, trim, and de-choke. Dip the artichoke halves in lemon juice mixed…

Christmas Rack of Lamb

It’s just before Christmas, and rack of lamb is perfect for the season. My parents brought home a rack for me to grill for them. I tried the sous vide method, adding garlic and herbs at the beginning of the cooking process. It happened that I also had to go…

Grilled Portabello Mushrooms with Sides

For lunch today, I had some leftover mushrooms and zucchini that I decided to put on the grill. And, there was a container of cooked quinoa as well; with this, I put together a pilaf. To season the zucchini, I combined olive oil, chopped garlic, black pepper, and salt; I…

Rustic Olive Bread

Last night, I put together ingredients for a nice loaf of bread—for today’s picnic lunch. It’s a slight modification of the wonderful Sullivan Street no-knead bread made popular by the New York Times. I reduced the recipe to two-thirds so that the bread would fit into my Pyrex glass covered…

Halloween Brain Pâté and Chips

For this year’s potluck at the clinic, I thought it would be a nice change to make a savory dish instead of dessert. First, I chopped up garlic and a quarter of an onion. Then, I sautéed it in butter. In the meantime, I heated up cream cheese, mayonnaise, milk,…

Filet Mignon

I made lunch for my parents today. First, I got some filet mignon from Stater Bros. I also cut up some zucchini and seasoned with garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil. The onions were simply sliced and oiled. For the steak, I used pomegranate juice, Chilean Cabernet, coarse sea salt,…

Seared ahi

I had been wanting to try making seared ahi. From the looks of it, it shouldn’t be that difficult. Anyways, I decided to try two recipes. Trader Joe’s had nice ahi steaks, and the first recipe was ahi encrusted in five spice powder served with a salad drizzled with wasabi…

Barbeque by the Pond

We had a group of friends over for a simple barbeque by the pond. The main course was vegetarian burgers, and the sides were grilled zucchini and corn on the cob. I also grilled top sirloin steak seasoned with a Dijon mustard vinaigrette marinade. Afterwards, some people suggested that I…

Dim Sum Party

We had a group of friends over to make Dim Sum to celebrate Chinese New Year. Menu   薑汁皮蛋 Thousand Year-Old Eggs with Ginger 豬肉燒賣 Pork Shumai with Minced Mushrooms 羊肉白菜餃子 Lamb and Cabbage Potstickers 紅燒烤麩 Braised Gluten with Daylily Knots 蝦餃 Shrimp Dumplings 雙菇腸粉 Stuffed Flat Rice Noodle Rolls…

Rack of Lamb

To celebrate the New Year, I decided to try making rack of lamb. For this occasion, I seasoned the lamb with salt and pepper and seared all sides. Then, I coated the meat with Dijon mustard followed by a light coating of Parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs. In the meantime, I…