Thursday, October 30, 2008

Iron Chef Competition

This Saturday, I'll be cooking against two other foodies at Bloomingdales in an Iron Chef competition. Needless to say, I am very excited. So much so that I went to Whole Foods tonight, bought the ingredients that I'd be using during the competition and practiced this evening using a borrowed waffle iron. The thought of doing a cooking demo in front of a few well-known chefs tickles my ribs.

By cooking and figuring out plating issues prior to the competition, most of the major issues were resolved, and the recipes turned out pretty well. I am going to make a triple decker breakfast sandwich from pumpkin waffles, with bacon, tomato and cheddar. I'll also serve some ginger-orange yogurt on the side.

Wait, have I told you how excited I am?

Here are some photos from tonight:





Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Miso Soup

Miso soup is one of those extremely simple soups I like to make whenever I'm in the mood for something salty and hot. Usually I end up drinking the broth straight from a large coffee mug. I have made this so many times, I simply eyeball the amounts to add.

However, for you miso neophytes, and measuring fanatics, here's a pretty good recipe (with measurements):

Easy Miso Soup

For the dashi:
4 cups of water
2 large pieces of kombu
one handful of shaved bonito

One large, rounded tablespoon of either red or yellow miso paste

Optional ingredients:
1 tbsp of chopped scallions
3 oz. small soft tofu cubes
1 tablespoon of dried wakame or dulse
A few thin slices of daikon radish
2 or 3 reconstituted shitake mushrooms, sliced

Bring the water to a hard boil, then remove it from the heat source. Place the kombu pieces in the pot and cover for 8 minutes. Once the water acquires the kombu flavor, toss (or eat!) the kombu and bring the pot of kombu-flavored water back on the heat source at low-medium heat.

Once the water gets warm again, but before a boil, add the bonito flakes and steep for a minute or two. Skim off any foam or scum that accumulates on the top of the broth, then pour the broth through a fine sieve. You don't want the bonito flakes, just the pure dashi broth. Toss the bonito in the trash, the flavor is mostly gone and the soggy flakes are rather useless now.

Place the dashi back on the stove at medium heat, and in a small bowl, put the miso and a few tablespoons of the broth together to thin out the paste. This will prevent it from clumping in the soup when you mix all of the ingredients together.

If you are adding daikon, wakame, shitakes or tofu, now is the time to throw those in the broth and cook for 3-5 minutes until hot.

Finally, turn off heat, mix in the thinned miso paste, add your other optional ingredients and enjoy.

I always do in my giant green coffee mug!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Napa Cabbage Casserole

One small head of Napa cabbage cut into chunks
One can of cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup of whole milk
1/2 onion rough diced
10 reconstituted shitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 30 min, sliced, keeping 1/2 cup of the mushroom water
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp fine white pepper
1 cup of shredded gruyere or swiss cheese
1/4 cup flour
Vegetable oil for cooking

Cook the cabbage and onion in vegetable oil until cooked through and wilted. Take out of large pan. Add more oil, then flour and make simple roux. Add mushrooms, salt and cabbage/onion mixture. Stir fry until thick, and then add mushroom water, milk and cream of mushroom soup. Cook down until thick.

Put mixture in casserole dish, spread cheese over top layer. Sprinkle white pepper over and then broil until cheese browns.

I added crimini mushrooms and pumpkin in this particular photo. I also had some really old cheese in the fridge I wanted to use. Turned out more stew-like than creamy casserole, but still pretty freaking tasty with steamed brown rice.