Alchemy in the Kitchen

An eater's manual

2010-05-28T13:05:00.001-07:00

As you may have noticed in my sidebar, I have added some links and the third one down is titled "Food Rules" by Michael Pollan. I actually own the book, which I bought at the college book store over a parody book of a popular piece of work, and I must say it's a very good read for anyone who loves food and/or is going on a diet.

There's four sections, including the introduction, that talk about the "rules of food"

"What should I eat?" -- Eat food.
"What kind of food should I eat?" -- Mostly plants.
"How should I eat?" -- Not too much.

The link below the one to "Food Rules" is to another one of Michael Pollans books, "In Defense of Food", which came before "Food Rules"

I really do suggest "Food Rules" for anyone and everyone seeing as since my mother has read it, her thought process in what we need from the market has changed pretty drastically. Now, as the book suggests, even if you read it you can or should only take one rule from each section of the book.

Even if you don't change your eating habits, you'll be surprised at what you find out.

Happy eating everyone!

BokChoy and Rice.

2010-05-28T12:48:00.000-07:00

^{^{Bok Choy Image by Urban Talk}}
BokChoy, or Chinese Cabbage as it may be known in the normal supermarket, is one of my favorite vegetables. It's got this bitter flavor that isn't too strong but when cooked correctly it can be delicious. I suggest trying to find an Asian Food Market near you that sells Baby BokChoy because they are usually much cheaper to buy in a group bag than buying one giant head of Bokchoy at the local supermarket.

A week or so ago after going to the Hana Asian Market down in the valley where I bought some BokChoy, I was hungry and I remembered some left over rice we had from our stir fry from the weekend. So I decided to make myself something that was filled with veggies.

Ingredients;
2 Heads of Baby BokChoy
1 small head of Broccoli
6~7 Baby Carrots or 1~2 normal carrots
About a tablespoon of butter
About 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water
Soy Sauce
1 Cup [or more if you want it] of Rice [any kind, I used white]

Directions:
1- First make sure that all of your veggies are clean, I need to emphasize this because at a local buffet where I first had bokchoy, they didn't clean it completely and I found a ladybug in my food.
2- Slice the Bokchoy in half and then cut it into slivers as small as you'd like. I personally cut each 'leaf' in half. Chop up the Broccoli so you have the florets [the flowering part] and the stem if you like the fibrous section of it. I suggest adding it in because it is good for you. Then chop the carrots into about 1/4th inch sized circles.
3- Grab a pan, preferably a sauté pan, put the butter, water and as much soysauce as you'd like into it and put it on medium. Wait for the butter to melt, stir it slightly before adding the veggies.
4- Put a lit onto the pan so everything can steam and wait 4~6+ minutes depending on how large you cut everything. The time can be shorter if you like more crunch to your veggies or longer if you like them to be mush.
5- Once the veggies are done to your liking, add the rice and mix it up!
6- Taste it, add salt and pepper [or more soysauce. I suggest adding the soysauce first if it needs more soy and salt if you're using normal Kikkoman Soy] to your taste and enjoy!

Alterations on Classics : Stir Fry

2009-10-12T10:08:00.001-07:00

^{^{Stir-fry image by domestifluff}}
By now almost everyone knows what a stir-fry is and pretty much knows what goes into one.
Meat
Veggies
and Rice.

But that can get very boring very quickly when you live in a family of four and you try and change your weekly eating habits every so often so everything doesn't just run together into one big sloppy mess.

So last friday my dad and I decided to change up our usual stir-fry.

He made it like usual, but used some Chicken Breast that was on sale and the 'European' blend of frozen vegetables over the Oriental ones [my sister loaths onions and the oriental style veggies has onions] but the one major thing we changed up was the starch.

Thats right, we didn't use rice!

We used Rice noodles.

Thing is, Rice noodles have a specific flavor to them that not everyone likes so my mother was quite disgruntled by the fact we used rice noodles over normal rice.

Baking: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

2009-08-16T15:19:00.000-07:00

Cant get your kids to eat carrots because they love sweets? Well the Carrot Cake is your answer!
Sweet, Delicious, and you can get at least half of your daily dose of vegetables from it!
This recipe is a mix of two that I found; one from a cook book in my kitchen and one from food network.
Many of the recipes had either yogurt, pineapple, raisins, or some other weird combo that made it sound unappetizing so I mixed one that was just carrots, cake batter and walnuts.

Carrot Cake Recipe
1 Cup of Sugar
3/4ths a Cup of Brown Sugar, packed down
2 Cups of All Purpose flour.
1 Teaspoon of salt, preferably not Kosher salt.
2 and 1/2 Teaspoons of Cinnamon
1/4th a Teaspoon of Nutmeg
1 Teaspoon of Ground Clove
1/2 Teaspoon of Allspice
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of Baking Soda [or bicarbonate of soda]
1 and 1/2 cups of Canola/Vegetable Oil [can be substituted for Apple Sauce]
4 Eggs, room temperature to help with mixing.
3 and 1/2 cups of Carrots, Grated [3~4 Carrots depending on the size]
1 Cup of Chopped Walnuts

Directions
This is in the order of how I did things;
1. Mix the dry ingredients [flour, sugar, baking soda, spices] with the oil, stir to mix.
2. Peel and Grate the Carrots.
3. Chop the walnuts.
4. Add in the four eggs one at a time. Once mixed, add in the Carrots and Walnuts.
5. Before mixing the Carrots and Walnuts in, Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
6. Grease and flour a 13x9 Pan. [Note: If your using Arisol spray, make sure you keep the can sprayer pointed down unless you want a mouthful or arisol. Turn the pan to do this.]
7. Pour the cake batter into the pan and bake at 350F for 60~70 Minutes.
8. Once done, Put on a Cooling Rack or you can keep it in the pan.
9. Let it cool before you add the icing.

Cream Cheese Icing
What Carrot cake is complete without the icing?

Recipe
4 Ounces of unsalted Butter [a little more than one stick], Make sure its room temperature!
4 Ouncess of Cream cheese [Room temp as well]
2 Cups of Sugar
1 Teaspoon if Vanilla Extract.

Directions
1. Beat the Butter and Cream Cheese with a Mixer [electric or otherwise, electric saves your hands.]
2. Once beaten, put the mixer on low and add the sugar and vanilla Extract.
3. Once it has completely been mixed together, slather and smooth it over the carrot cake.
4. Enjoy!

Don't like the measurement your cookbooks use?

2009-08-16T15:18:00.001-07:00

I found this handy site a few days ago because my mind works in cups and not ounces;
Cooking Calculator for Home Cooks
Its super handy!

Baking : [Grilled] Pork [Tenderloin] Buns

2009-07-27T21:57:00.001-07:00

Original Recipe Here

Today I was asked by my sister to make another set of Pork Buns, but using the Kimchi Cucumber we got from the Hana Asian Market down in the valley next to Bogo. The recipe below is what I used and what I had to do to make it work with soymilk. You can click the link above to get the full original Recipe but you can always alter the filling like I did!

Dough:
3 tablespoons of Sugar
1/2 cup warm Soymilk
1/3 cup warm water
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 to 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (Bread flour or a mix of the two works fine too.)
1/2~1 teaspoon of salt

Filling:
5~6 Slices of Grilled pork tenderloin
One green onion, finely chopped.
1/4th a stick of butter
1 Teaspoon of brown sugar
2 Spoonfulls of Hoisen Sauce (it was an old hoisen sauce)
3/4ths a cup of Kimchi Cucumber

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, dissolve 2 tablepsoons of the sugar in milk and water. Sprinkle yeast over top of the milk mixture and let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes or until frothy. Gradually mix in remaining 2 tablepsoons sugar, flour and salt.
2. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough for about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic As an alternative you can use the dough hook on your mixer and let it spin until everything has mixed in. Shape into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for an hour or an hour and a half.

Cooking:
1. Put a large pan on the stove on low~medium low if you havent already cut up the following items, medium if you have. Put the butter in the pan and let it melt before you put in the Onion, the grilled pork (cut up and pulled appart), Kimchi Cucumber (cut up as well), Hoisen and the sugar, mix well until it sizzles. Put it on a plate to cool.

2. Punch down dough, then roll on a lightly floured surface into a 12-inch long cylinder. Cut cylinder crosswise into 1 to 2-inch pieces. Shape each piece into a ball; let rest for 5 minutes.
3. To shape each dumpling flatten one ball of dough with a rolling pin to make a 4 to 6-inch circle; keeping remaining dough covered to prevent drying. Place 1 heaping spoonful of filling in the center of each circle. Gather the edges of the circle over the filling; close top by pleating, pinching and twisting edges together. Place buns, pleated side down, on a baking sheet, allowing enough room for rising. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes or until light and puffy. Brush tops of buns with beaten egg. Let rise 15 minutes more.
4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes up to 12 buns.

Delishous Leftovers - Makeshift Gumbo

2009-07-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

Everyone has leftovers at one point or another and you end up needing to use them! Well heres a quick and easy way to make something fun out of your leftovers.

A Makeshift Gumbo.

Gumbo is a stew or soup originating in Louisiana which is popular across the Gulf Coast of the United States and into the U.S. South. It consists primarily of a strong stock, meat and/or shellfish, a thickener, and the vegetable "holy trinity" of celery, bell peppers, and onion. The soup is traditionally served over rice. A traditional lenten variety called gumbo z'herbes (from the French gumbo aux herbes), essentially a gumbo of smothered greens thickened with roux, also exists.

Now, my Makeshift Gumbo doesn't really have any vegetables, though the rice did originally have some frozen veggies mixed right in.

Makeshift Gumbo Recipe
2/3 Cup to 1 Cup of Leftover Rice (whatever it be, white rice, mexican rice, whatever)
1~2 Leftover Smoked Sausages
1 Teaspoon of Soysauce
A few drops of your favorite flavor additives (mine was Roasted Sesame Seed Oil)
Leftover Veggies (if wanted)
and
About 1 Teaspoon of Vegetable Oil

In order to make it, its a simple deal; Just cut up the Smoked Sausage to your desired size, add in the rice, soysauce, and flavor additives before adding in the vegetable oil. Then depending on your microwave, you put it on medium power (or high, I have a quick minute button on mine) for a minute to a minute and a half.

Stir, let it cool and enjoy!

Welcome

2009-07-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my creative cooking blog, Alchemy in the kitchen! Here is where I will post all my random and fun experiments that I tend to do when I cook. From Baking Bread to making Ramen, I can make almost anything different with some simple ingredients, the know how on how in the kitchen, and the randomness that comes with my age!

Sit back, Relax, and enjoy the show!