China

Okay, so writing this post is making me crave these dishes. Seriously. I realize it's dinnertime, but don't these dishes look so good? I'm going to have to stop in HMart when I visit my parents tomorrow - I wouldn't buy seafood there, but I will for sure buy noodles, spices and vegetables there.



Pork and Ginger Potstickers
Dough: Mix flour and salt. Slowly add hot water to flour in 2 oz increments. Mix until a ball is formed and dough is not too hot to handle. On a floured surface, knead dough until it becomes a smooth, elastic ball. Place back in bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rest for at least 1 hour. Working on a floured surface with floured hands, roll out dough to form a long log 1 in in diameter. Cut 1/2 in. pieces and turn them over so the cut sides are facing up. Flatten with your palm and roll out thin using a rolling pin. The dumpling wrapper should end up about 3 inches in diameter.
Filling: Sprinkle cabbage with half the salt and let stand for 30 minutes. Place the cabbag on a clean dishtowel or cheesecloth and squeeze out any water. The dryer the cabbage the better. In a large bowl thoroughly mix the cabbage with ground pork, minced ginger, minced garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil and egg Cook 1 T to check seasoning. Reserve.
To put together: Put a tiny bit in the middle of the wrapper, and seal with water. Pinch all the air out - just like ravioli, this is key to them not exploding. Press fork tines into edge to make the pretty border.
Sauce: Soy, dijon, honey, sesame oil, minced giner, water, and minced scallion.

Mapu Dofu
Re-hydrate tree ear muchrooms in boiling water. Stir fry the minced ginger in oil and add minced pork and chili garlic paste. Then add scallions, tofu, peppercorns, soy sauce, sugar, and cornstarch. Drain the mushrooms. Deglaze with sake. Stir gently to coat.

Pork Fried Rice
Use day-old rice. Use a wok. Heat egg in oil, then take out. Fry pork 2 minutes, remove and set aside. Heat 1/2 T of oil in same wok. Add rice, mix well, toss in mushrooms and scallions. Add soy sauce. Add egg back in, break with rice. Add sprouts and sesame oil. Add pork back in, toss. Serve hot.

Yet again, I have another dish I don't have a recipe for. Shoot, I am only screwing myself, since I remember liking this - wish I knew how to make it again! Anyone have any ideas what it might be?

Lessons Learned:

I'm trying to increase my tolerance to "heat" in dishes - it's getting better, but I'm still a weakling compared to lots of people. But, now, I mostly just keep stuffing my face even if it burns because it just tastes so good. That's how it'll get stronger, right?

India

I love Indian food. I tried it for the first time several years ago when I was hanging out at a friend's house - his dad is Indian. But the person who really made me love it is my sister's husband. He's an amazing cook, and he really knows how to make any Indian dish. I love eating over there.

Seriously, is there any region whose food I don't love? No. No, I don't think there is.

Mmm... Rico made the most amazing black tea... this was so good. But since we get out at 11:30pm and I have to get up at 5:45am, I had only one sip and then took it home. I had it the next day, cold - it was fantastic!

Black Tea

4 c water, 1.5 c milk, 14 cardamon pods, 6 whole cloves, 1 in. piece fresh ginger, 3 cinnamon sticks, 2T honey, 2T black tea, 2 T vanilla

Boil 10 min, strain

Naan

(see photos below)

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and mae a well in the middle. Dissolve fresh yeaast in 1/2 c of warm water. Mix the water and yogurt in a bowl. Pour this, plus yeast mixture, into the center of the flour and knead, adding water if necessary to form soft dough. Knead the dough again and cover and leave for 2 hours.

We grilled these, but they can be baked similarly to pitas if you want them to puff up a litle bit.

Tomato Chutney

Um. Yeah. So I'm blanking again on which dish is which. Whoops. I seem to have photos of additional dishes, but not the recipes...

Mix tomatoes, creamed ginger, creamed garlic, minced cilantro, chile powder, sugar and salt. Simmer until a saucy consistency is reached. No oil is required for cooking. Remove from fire, cool and serve. Sprinkle with minced mint.

Tandoori Chicken

Blend half the plain yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, ground cardamon, ground cumin, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, ground mace, ground aniseed, saffron, red chili powder, red pepper flakes, black salt, pepper, salt, orange food coloring, and yellow food coloring. Can be either mixed by hand or in a blender. Fold in remaining yogurt, and reserve 1/4 c for basting. Add chicken to marinade (remove skin). Reserve. Grill chicken until done, basting occasionally with yogurt mixture then butter. Serve with onion and cilantro.

Aloo Gobi

Fry potato in oil until golden and tender. Reserve some of the oil used to fry the potato and begin pan roasting the cauliflower (add small amounts of water to steam near the end of cooking). When the cauliflower is tender, return the potatoes to the pan. Add the minced ginger, minced garlic, turmeric, cayenne, ground cumin, and ground coriander. Cook to heat the potatoes through. Add small amounts of water to prevent sticking.

Remove from the heat and stir in the yogurt and chopped cilantro. Adjust the seasoning with salt.

Lamb Curry

Toast whole cumin in oil. When brown, add minced onion and minced tomato and cook to brown. Add yogurt, chili powder, coriander, turmeric, and garam marsala, and simmer for 2 minutes. Add 1 in. cubes of lamb and continue simmering until cooked, about 15 min. Add water as necessary. Add onion gravy, and simmer 10 minutes more.
Onion Gravy: sliced onion, sliced tomato, yogurt, cream, cashews, cumin, cardamom pods, whole clove, ground cinnamon, ground mace, ground coriander, turmeric, chili powder, paprika, and salt.

This is a lentil dish. I love lentils. But I don't know the recipe. Sorry!

Oh, and everything is served over basmati rice. I buy all my rice and noodles at ethnic grocery stores - I feel like finding those in every city or suburb is the key to finding quality food at reasonable prices. I love me some Trader Joe's and Aldi, but I love exploring Indian and Asian grocery stores. Next step is Mexican and African grocery stores. I've located them, but I haven't had as much of a reason to go into them - I'm more likely to make Indian or other Asian dishes at home.

Lessons Learned:
There are a lot of things I have learned to really enjoy over the past year, both because of and before culinary school. One of those is tea. Coffee. Alcohol. I realize this could just be because as we get older, we are earning more money (hopefully) and therefore have more disposable income to buy better quality... Mmmm. Tea. Sitting in a sushi restaurant, waiting for my food to be ready, I love to sip on hot green tea. It's just so good.

South America: Brazil & Argentina

I apologize for my photography lately... lots of blurry shots for some reason... maybe I was eager to eat and took the photos too fast...

There are lots of Brazilian restaurants in Chicago... steak places, but I've never been to one. A little out of my price range, and since meat isn't my life, I figure I can wait.

Vatapa

Sweat onion and a quarter each of red and green pepper (brunoise) until translucent. stir in tomatoes, salt, pepper and cook 2 minutes more. Pour in the clam juice, bay leaf, and scallions, and make a slurry with the coconut milk. Add to the pot. Bring to a simmer over med-high heat. Reduce and adjust consistency. Cook 10-15 min, stirring occasionally, until peppers are tender. just before service, add the scallions, scallops and monkfish and season with salt and pepper. cover and simmer 5-7 minutes, lifting cover twice to stir gently. Add the lime juice, dende (palm oil) and cilantro and simmer 2 minutes more. Ladle into large bowls and garnish with the toasted coconut and lime sections.

Churassco con Chimichurri salsa and Yucca Frita

Beef Flank Steak and plantain chips

Pat steak dry. Stir together salt, cumin, coriander, and pepper in a small bowl and rub mixture onto both sides of steak. Broil steak to desired doneness. Let stand 5 minutes before cutting.

Meanwhile, with motor running, add garlic to a food processor and finely chop. Add cilantro, parsley, distilled white vinegar, oil, cayenne, and salt, then pulse until herbs are finely chopped. Slice steak thinly on the bias and serve with sauce.

[we grilled the steak instead of broiling, and also chicken]

Chimichurri: 1/2 c chopped parsley, finely mince 3 cloves garlic, 1t oregano, 1t chili flakes, 1/2 lemon (juice), salt, black pepper, paprika, bay leaf, olive oil to thicken. Marinate one hour.

Feijoeda Completa

Soak dried black beans overnight. Drain and add ham hock and fresh water. Simmer until the beans are soft. Shred meat from hock. Reserve beans, water and meat.
Render bacon, remove when cooked.
Brown pork butt and andouille sausage in the bacon fat. Remove.
Sweat onion and garlic in the bacon fat, add tomatoes then bay leaf. Return all meats to the pot, simmer, in addition to beans, orange juice, and bean water to cover. Simmer for 1 hour to combine flavors.
Tastes good with braised collard greens.
Okay, so I did not help with this dish. Once I saw what a ham hock looked like, I could not bring myself to help. I didn't even taste it. It was just too much pork for me. Rico happily took my plate.

Lessons Learned:
Either meat is extremely popular in the majority of the world's cultures, or these are just the recipes I'm being exposed to through this program...

Mexico

Sadly, I was not present on Mexico night, much to my dismay. I had to attend conferences for work. You know, where I sit at a table playing on my laptop or walking around catching up with people - in my role, I don't have any parents that want to speak to me. How many parents want to be caught sitting at the table clearly labeled "psychologist." Not too many.
But then you know, luckily, Chef K made two of the midterm practicals recipes from this night... awesome Chef. Love you. I burned all the stuff. Oh, and the chicken wasn't cooked. ha. Whoops.
But I really was disappointed because I love Mexican food and I didn't get to learn how to make it. But then I was told if I had seen how much lard they put in the tamales, I would never want to eat Mexican food again... so maybe it worked out in my favor!
But I would have really liked to have learned how to make a good mole... guess I'll have to teach myself when I have time to myself again...

Lessons Learned:
Getting angry at the chef doesn't help one cook better... in fact, it may make you burn things.

Spain

This night we visited Spain. I love tapas. But I like to balance with lots of vegetable dishes - tapas can be pretty meat-heavy.

Gambas al Ajillo

I made this dish twice - I think I burned the garlic the first time. But it was kind of nice making it twice, one because it's so easy, and then two because there's only four shrimp and I wanted more!

Cook garlic, red pepper flakes, and sea salt in olive oil over moderately low heat, until garlic is pale golden, about 4-5 minutes. Increase heat to moderately high, then add shrimpa nd saute, until shrimp are just cooked through, 3-4 minutes. Finish with lemon juice.

So simple and so good!

Borrego en la Parilla con Salsa Romesco I don't really think the sauce is supposed to look like this... but Chef K said that's how he likes it.


Sweat garlic until fragrant and light brown. Remove and add bread slice and fry until golden. Remove and gently fry the almonds. Remove and cool oil. Place garlic, bread and almonds in mortar and pestle and work to form a paste. Add peeled and roasted red pepper, tomato, paprika, and cayene pepper and continue to work into a paste (we used the blender). Add vinegar. Slowly drizzle in oil to form an emulsion, adjust seasoning with salt. Should be the consistency of a light mayo. Serve over grilled lamb steaks.

Paella

Looks good, right? I didn't actually have any of this - I was getting restless by the time it finished cooking.

Warm the while wine and add saffron, steep for 10 minutes. In a separate pan, sear chicken (leg, breast, and thigh) to golden brown on all sides. Remove. Repeat with sausage (andouille or chorizo, bias cut), then remove. Add onion and garlic, sweat to golden, add rice and paprika, toast for one minute, then deglaze with tomato. Degalze with wine mixture. Add stock, chicen and sausage to pan. Cover. Simmer paella until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. In last 8 minutes, add red pepper, mussels, clams and shrimp. Arrange the seafood, chicken, and sausage, alternating in a spiral around the dish. Add peas just before serving.

Serve in dishcooked in. Garnish with parslep and a dollop of Aioli in the center of the dish.

Oh, and by the way, it was my birthday! Whoops, I have clearly been too busy to post, since my birthday is in the middle of November...

Here's what Irish brought me:

Not to be ungrateful. But. Pound cake is nice. But it's not my "favorite" cake like she claimed I told her. Just because it's low fat doesn't mean it's healthy - it's loaded with sugar! And, really, I guess yellow cake would be my favorite. With pilsbury frosting. It tastes like cake. Like my memories of cake. But whatever - she claimed I mentioned that one night. Considering I haven't eaten pound cake in years, and she never asked me what kind of cake I wanted, I'm going to guess that she misremembered. What I do like, though, is all the fruit on the cake. That is my idea of a good dessert!

But the whipped cream Chef K made for me tasted excellent. Whipped cream and strawberries. Yum!

Lessons Learned:

I'm starting to get a little... I don't know. I go through these stages where I don't know if I can trust people. And I'm just starting to doubt my friendship with Irish and Tennessee. I just don't think we're really friends. For example, this cake - compare it to what she made Rico or Tennessee. Or Nemo. Which, whatever, if she doesn't really consider me a friend, that's okay, that's the beauty of adulthood is you get to choose your friends. But there's no need to fake it, and I'm pretty sure that's what they're doing with me. Granted, I have major trust issues, but usually I'm pretty right about who is faking it. 6 months. 5 nights a week. That's a lot of time to spend with the same people. But it is possible to be friendly without pretending to be a friend. True, I am writing this months later, with lots more history to support this theory. You'll see when I get around to January.

Anyway. Spain has good food! I've been wanting to visit Spain for years. Someday...

Italy

And we make it to Italy... I wish we had practiced more with making pasta, I really enjoyed that. But we made Gnocchi Piedmontese (which I realize is kind of like making pasta), Insalata di fruiti di mare, and Saltimbocca. Oh, and just for fun, we got to make pizza.


Meet Mr. Octopus. He has a mouth! and an Ink Sack! Yum!





Gnocchi:
To be honest, I don't like gnocchi. I really wasn't that motivated to learn this. Also, I was really tired this week - I was starting to hit a worn out phase again. So this really isn't a good example of what they should look like. No need to judge - I already did.
Boil potatoes whole with skin in salted water until soft and peel. While very hot, pass through food mill, until smooth. Add olive oil and when it cools slightly mix in egg well. Gradually kneed in flour to form a stiff but slightly tacky dough. This is similar to pasta: make a pile of the potato, form a well, and add the olive oil and egg. Add more flour as needed. Roll, cut and score. To score it, press lightly against the back of a fork to indent, then peel away. Cook in boiling salted water for 5-10 minutes or until they float. in a warm saute pan, lightly toss with butter, olive oil, garlic, sage, salt and pepper. Here, we just tossed with browned butter and sage.
Beurre Noisette a'la Sauge (browned butter): in saucepan, melt butter and cook till milk solids at the bottom of the pan start to turn brown - do not burn!!! Take off heat, and add sage.


Insalata di Fruit di Mare
Cook seafood (shrimp, squid, clams) in poaching liquid. Par cook octopus in water and white wine, enough to cover. This will allow you to remove the skin. Bring to boil, shut off, add octopus, and leave 30 minutes.
Combine with red onion, celery, carrot, red pepper, and green olives. Marinate in extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, white wine vinegar, garlic clove, capers, oregano, basil, parsley, salt and pepper:
Marinate at least one hour, but ideally overnight.



Saltimbocca di Pollo alla Sorrentina
Slightly pound chicken out after removing skin and wing joint. Season with salt and pepper and dust in flour. Top each piece of chicken with sage, salt, mozzarella, and then proscuitto. Pound out. Saute, then place in oven until cooke.
For tomato sauce: Render bacon, remove bacon, then sweat mire poix. Add tomato puree, chopped tomatoes with juice, salt, sugar, fennel, oregano, thyme, and chili flakes. Simmer 15-30 minutes, then put through food mill.


Meanwhile, T. made some pizza.
He went for the classic. This was good, but I ate it when it was too hot. Like I always do. And then I end up with a burned tongue instead of being able to taste how good pizza is...


Look, it was Rico's birthday!
Okay, well, actually her birthday was the night before, but she had taken the evening off to be with her mother.


Lessons Learned:
I learned some nice recipes that were a little different from the pasta variety. I'd like to try make the polenta recipe we were given sometime. And maybe figure out how T made that pizza from scratch...
mmm cake. now I want some again!

Russia & Eastern Europe

This night we made Russian and Eastern European food. Food from cold countries - not really up my alley.

Salmon Kulebiaka with Lemon Veloute

Poach salmon in cour bouillon to par cook, then chill. Cook rice, and mix with sour cream, lemon rind, and dill. Lay out puff pastry, and lay crepe over the pastry. Slice a hardboiled egg and lay over the crepe. Spoon rice over the egg. Spoon the duxelles over the rice. Lay salmon over the top. Fold remaining pastry to seal package - decorate with scraps of dough. Egg wash for seal and good color. Bake until golden brown. Make lemon veloute supreme using poaching liquid as stock.

As you can see, Nemo and I went all fancy. I cannot take any credit here - Nemo was the one that really wanted to do this, so I let him have at it. I thought he did a pretty good job - it made it more fun to break in to.

Being a huge rice fan, I really loved just eating the scraps of rice - I like sour cream a lot more than heavy cream, and it added a tanginess to it. Actually, really similar to the plain yogurt and dill we spooned over rice growing up. Yum!

Court Bouillon is just water, white wine, lemon with rind, mushroom trim, carrot trim, onion trim, celery trim, parsley stem, thyme stem, black peppercorn, and bay leaf. We actually used vegetable stock instead.

You remember duxelles, right? Nemo loves doing this, so this dish was all his. Melt butter, sweat shallots, add minced mushrooms and reduce cream.

The crepe should be rested for one hour before putting it into the puff pastry - so plan ahead when making this dish!

Goulash Soup

Ha. This does not look that appetizing. Mostly because I did not make the vegetables small enough. So partly I fault Chef here - he didn't give us any instruction on this dish, and I thought, well, once I actually get the seven sides for the tourne, I'm not touching them again - but, apparently, and this made sense once I saw the final dish, the vegetables should be much smaller.

Dredge beef in flour and paprika. Saute in olive oil until brown on all sides, remove and reserve. Add onion, caraway seed, and saute until onion begins to softn. Deglaze with stock and add beef back in. Bring to simmer. Simmer until meat is just tender, about 40 minutes. Stir potato, parsnip, carrots, and garlic into soup. Simmer until vegetables are just tender. Stir in tomatoes, celery and bell pepper. Simmer until vegetables and meat are very tender, about 15 min longer. Cool slightly. Reserve beef and transfer 1/2 of vegetables to blender. Blend until smooth. Return pureed vegetables to pot with beef and reserved vegetables. Stir in parsley, season to taste. Garnish with sour cream.

Golabki

Cut core out of cabbage. Parboil cabbale whole in salted water. Drain and dry. Sweat onion in butter until translucent. Let cool. Combine raw meat, seasoings, cooked rice and eggs. Add sauteed onion. Stuff cabbage leaves and roll. Bake, basting with tomato juice. Tomato juice should be reduced to almost a sec.

Some tips - cook off a piece of meat mix before stuffing cabbage rolls to make sure it tastes right. Also, we stuffed the filled rolls in these tiny aluminum pans - that way they wouldn't unroll while they cooked.

For the sauce, render bacon in butter (wow, could it be any more unhealthy?), remove excess fat, add onion and mushrooms which are sauteed until golden and tender. Add stock and reduce to consistency. Season and serve with cabbage, under rolls.

We were also supposed to make pierogis, but nobody had the time. Too bad - I would have loved to have learned how to make them. I hear all the time from people of Polish ancestory who say no one makes pierogis like their grandmother...

Lessons Learned:

In lecture we learned about caviar - in France and the US, only roe of sturgeon can be called caviar, but the US allows it to be called caviar as long as the type of fish is printed on the canister. One of the reasons caviar is so expensive is directly related to the age and size a sturgeon must reach before developing the valuable roe. Beluga - as long as 20 years and weighing up to 2000 lbs; Osetra - 12 to 14 years and weighing 500 lbs; Sevruga - 8 to 10 years and weighing 150 lbs. I've never had caviar - is it good? Is it worth the expense?