Since I haven’t posted in a long time like I said I would this summer, here are some clickable links to past posts. Each post has pictures (and sometimes recipes) for your viewing pleasure. Thanks for stopping by. Let me know what you think!

The Amazing Burger Cake (and cupcake pops)

Cantonese Style Mayo Shrimp

Homemade Char Siu (Chinese BBQ pork)

Sushi (raw)

Rustic bread and Scones

Coconut Macaroons

Caramel Apples (and Halloween stuff)

Nobu Miso Codfish

Horchata

Snickerdooles

Red bean and Green tea Madeleines

Chorizo Empanadas

Capresse Salad

Homemade Fortune Cookies

Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cute Bento lunches and Jalapeno Poppers

Crochet Hat

Stuffed Elephant

I’m very bored at work and I actually have some pictures to post so maybe I’ll get back into blogging for the summer. If you haven’t noticed, I have a bad habit of not blogging for months at a time then starting up again. Here’s a random quiz thingy to start things off.

The Very Good Taste Omnivore’s 100 List

Rules:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros yum!
4. Steak tartare yum
5. Crocodile does alligator soup count? nasty stuff
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue – ! why haven’t i tried yet *gasp*
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush yum
11. Calamari yum
12. Pho yum
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns yum
20. Pistachio ice cream – still waiting to try this one
21. Heirloom tomatoes – this one too
22. Fresh wild berries in ithaca!
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters yum
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl great in san fran and seattle!
33. Salted lassi – cool, would try this.
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O – why have i not had this??
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict yum
83. Pocky orange or strawberry are my faves
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef – sadly no =(
86. Hare – does rabbit count?
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab yum
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano – sounds delish
96. Bagel and lox yum
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

A simple dessert that is super easy to make and super satisfying. The texture of this egg custard is very smooth and can be eaten warm or chilled. Sweetness level can be adjusted to your taste. This Chinese dessert is similar to the Spanish flan!

Unfortunately I ate it before I took a picture. Plus mine were in white bowls so they weren’t that pretty to photograph anyway. Here’s a pic I found online of what they look like.

Steamed Egg Custard Dessert
Makes 4 Chinese rice bowls, will serve 4-6 if using ramekins.

4 extra-large eggs
2 cups milk
~4 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk (optional)

1. Mix all ingredients together trying not to form bubbles. Let mixture sit if a lot of bubbles form so they can pop.
2. For a super smooth consistency you can strain the mixture but I didn’t bother.
3. Pour into bowls/ramekins.
4. Boil water in steamer (or whatever steaming contraption you create). Once boiling, place bowls in steamer and turn heat to medium-low. Steam for 20 minutes. To check if it’s done, stick chopstick into surface of custard, if no liquid custard wells up then it’s done. Custard will feel very soft.
5. Let it sit uncovered until it’s cool enough to grab out of the steamer. Enjoy warm or chill for a few hours until really cold, then enjoy.

This was so yum. I made everything except the noodles from scratch because I was craving basil. Summer come already so I can grow my basil plants again!!

Recipe:

1 lb fettuccine, cooked per package directions
1 lb chicken thighs or breasts, sliced to bite sized pieces
2 cups fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
2 cloves garlic, minced
~1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup heavy cream (optional)
2 tsp AP flour (optional with cream)
1/2 tsp garlic sirracha sauce (optional, can sub. with red pepper flakes)
1 medium onion, sliced
~ 10 button mushrooms, sliced
salt and pepper to taste

1. With blender, blend basil, cheese, pine nuts, garlic, and olive oil to make pesto sauce.
2. With large pan, heat up ~ 1 tsp of olive oil or butter. Add chicken and brown. When chicken is ~80% cooked, add onions and mushrooms. Cook until onions turn translucent.
3. Mix cream with flour. Add pesto sauce, cream with flour and sirracha sauce to the chicken mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook until sauce thickens.
4. Serve over hot fettuccine noodles.

This dish can reliably be seen at large birthday parties or wedding parties in Chinese restaurants. It normally has candied walnuts served alongside too but I was too lazy to make those. And the shrimp is usually fried but we don’t tend to fry things in my family so we just sauteed the shrimp and mixed it in with the sauce.

Sauce Recipe:
1/4 C mayo (use kewpie for more authentic flavor)
2 tsp honey
1 tsp sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp rice vinegar
1/4 tsp salt

Mix everything together and toss together with about one pound of sauteed shrimp. Arrange with broccoli and candied walnuts (recipe can be found online).

So easy, so delicious and tastes just like the ones from the restaurants!

Aloe stands for A Little Of Everything. I went only because it sounded good and I got a $25 gift certificate for only $2 from restaurant.com with the only restriction of minimum $35 and 18% gratuity. So I went with my sister when she was canvasing the lower east side for her internship. That day was sooo cold so it was nice to sit down to a yummy meal.

The restaurant was empty except for two other ladies when we entered and there was only ONE guy we saw working the restaurant, heck he could have been the chef as well. Ambiance was nice, dim and cozy with a rustic brick wall and wine racks. Don’t sit upstairs, there are only three tables, all visible from the outside and is very dead. Downstairs looks much better.

I ordered the crispy duck with gingerbread waffles and it was delicious. I only wish it didn’t cool down so fast, wasn’t as satisfying at room temperature. I blame the plate, it was not hot enough! The duck was cooked perfectly, medium as per my request and the waffles paired very well with the duck. My dish also came with what I thought were baby potatoes but it turned out to be parsnips (I think they were parsnips).

Sorry the pics suck! It was very dark.

My sister ordered the roast brisket which also cooled down very quickly. It came with mushrooms and what we decided were sweet potatoes. They could have been carrots, for some reason we could not tell. =/ how sad. But they were delicious, slightly sweet and very savory in the sauce.

The portions were very decent and we were glad we didn’t order an appetizer even though I really wanted to try the sweet and spicy calamari everyone was raving about on yelp. The service was excellent. The prices would have been unaffordable for me without the discount. However, restaurant.com offers the 80% sale quite often so grab some certificates when you see it.

I was craving sushi so I decided to make sushi with raw salmon this time. Half a pound of wild salmon was ~$8 so it’s not cheap but for the amount of sushi it’s cheaper than eating out. I got the fish from the local fish monger who said it was safe to consume raw.

I took a lot of pics so here they are. If you have any questions, leave a comment!

The salmon:

Eggs, ham, avocados:

Crab, cucumber, blanched carrots:

Cooling seasoned rice, soy sauce, soy with wasabi and spicy mayo (garlic sirracha and kewpie mayo):

Salmon nigiri:

Left: Salmon rolls with spicy mayo sauce, cucumbers and avocados. Right: My family’s “California Roll” which has crab, ham, cucumbers, carrots, avocados and eggs.

Salmon hand rolls with spicy mayo sauce, cucumbers, and avocados. These were really good.

I got a pizza stone!! Now I can make delicious crusty pizzas and crusty breads.

Some tips, don’t put the stone on the bottom of the oven if your bread/pizza is larger than the stone. It will hang over the flame (gas stove) and burn. Also, make sure your corn meal is COARSE ground. My bag said coarse ground but it really wasn’t.. it was more like corn flour. Flour burns!! I sprinkled it onto the hot stone and it instantly started smoking. Very, very gross.

When making bread it’s importatnt to use a pre-ferment, aka sponge. Doing so gives the bread much more flavor and is worth starting the mix an extra few hours. I let mine ferment for 12 hours instead of four because I went to bed and forgot about it. Came out really good. Gotta practice some more but this was definitely a learning experience. Turned out pretty well I think even if it’s not perfect.

I also made scones! Cranberry orange scones to be precise. These were yummy but really on the high fat side and not as crumbly as I would have liked. Here’s the recipe if you want to try it, it has no eggs. I think I prefer ones with eggs.

Cranberry Orange Scones

2 c. all purpose flour
1 tbs. baking powder
3/4 tbs. salt
6 tbs. cold butter cut in pieces
1 tbs. white sugar plus some for sprinkling on top
2 tbs. honey
1/3 c. heavy cream, plus more for brushing tops
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 c. dried cranberries
1 tsp. orange zest

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Cut in butter using a pastry cutter, two knives or your finger tips until the texture resembles bread crumbs. It’s important to keep the butter cold so you can put it in the fridge if it melts to much.
3. In a small bowl, mix honey, cream and sour cream until well combined. Add to flour mixture and stir until just combined. Do not over mix or you will get tough scones.
4. Pat all of the dough into a 6×6 inch square, cut into 4 equal squares and then into 8 triangles.
5. Brush tops with cream and sprinkle with sugar.
6. Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Optional glaze: mix 1/2 cup confectioners sugar (powdered sugar) with 1-2 tsp of orange juice and drizzle over tops of cooled scones.

I made turkey chili based on this recipe. Randomly bought some polenta at the grocery store while shopping for this dinner and decided it would be perfect with the chili.. and it was!

Here’s my recipe:

Turkey Chili (adapted from above link)
Makes a huge pot.. probably enough for 6-8 servings.

Ingredients:
Olive oil to coat pan (about 2 tbsp)
1 medium onion, small dice
1 red bell pepper, small dice
2 stalks celery, small dice
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 Jalapeno peppers, chopped (remove seeds for less heat)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
2 Tbsp chili powder
~ 1 lbs ground turkey
½ cup corn (fresh if possible, frozen if not)
2 – 14 oz cans red kidney beans
1 – 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 – 14 oz can cannellini beans
1/2 – 32 oz carton chicken stock
Fresh cilantro, chopped
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Sour cream, as garnish

Directions:
1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Sweat onion, pepper, and celery until translucent, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and Jalapeno peppers and cook for an additional 2 or 3 minutes. Add spices and stir to evenly distribute in the pot.

2. Meanwhile, brown ground turkey in a separate pan and into bite sized pieces. Add to pot when fully cooked.

3. Add corn, beans, tomatoes, and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered until chili reaches desired thickness. (You can thicken with corn starch dissolved in cold water.)

4. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Serve with cilantro and sour cream.

Cheesy Polenta
Serves 4-6 as a side.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup polenta
1 cup milk
1 cup chicken stock
salt and pepper
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese (i used the green can stuff)

Directions:
1. In medium pot heat milk and chicken stock. Stir in the polenta while the liquid is still cool to prevent lumps.
2. Add some salt and pepper. Stir often until almost to desired consistency.
3. Add cheeses and stir until melted. Serve immediately.

I had coconut and I wanted to make something out of it. So I made macaroons. First time I used a whole can of sweetened condensed milk!! I LOVE this stuff but never baked with it. So here you go.

It was easy. They kinda pooled a bit on the bottom but I don’t know why so I can’t help you there. Maybe I should try the recipe on the back of the coconut bag next time. It uses sugar instead of sweetened condensed milk. These cookies are a nice chew.. and of course really sweet.

Coconut Macaroons
14 oz sweetened shredded coconut
14oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 egg whites, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1/8 tsp kosher salt

Directions:
1. Whip egg whites with mixer until soft peaks form. Add salt and extracts and mix.
2. In another bowl, mix the coconut and sweetened condensed milk.
3. Fold egg whites into coconut mixture.
4. Drop golf ball sized pieces of “dough” onto parchment paper covered cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 325F for 25-30 minutes or until bottoms and tops are lightly browned. Remove from cookie sheets immediately and cool on wire racks.