Day 31: Chocolate for breakfast

Day 31: Chocolate

Breakfast is the smallest meal of the day in Spain. The typical breakfast is a cup of coffee and a roll. Tourists are encouraged to eat hot chocolate and churros. Churros are long pieces of fried dough; they are dipped into the hot chocolate. It is similar to eating a chocolate covered doughnut for breakfast, but the chocolate is really good and comes on the side. While I rarely eat doughnuts at home, I happily consumed churros with hot chocolate for breakfast in Spain. One adjustment to being home is not drinking chocolate every day.  I loved the thickness of Spanish hot chocolate. It reminded me of the fancy hot chocolate served in places such as San Francisco's  Dandelion or New York City's Jacques Torres. It is amazing.

After breakfast in Granada, I watched bullfighting in Madrid

What is your typical breakfast at home? How does it change when you vacation?

Eats: Blackened Okra and Tomatoes

Blackened Okra and Tomatoes

Ingredients

onion
garlic
okra
tomatoes
mushrooms

Okra is a strange and slimy vegetable. I've been told that I'm an adventurous eater, but even I have trouble with the slime. I never cooked okra until a friend made this dish for me a few weeks ago. He said the trick is to blacken the okra and then stew in tomatoes. There is no exact recipe but it's simple: brown onion and garlic over medium heat. Add okra until blackened or softened. Add the mushrooms, tomatoes, and liquid. Cover and simmer until the sauce thickens.

More detailed explanation with suggested variations:

1.  Dice half an onion and garlic. I used about 6 cloves of garlic; adjust to your taste. Brown the diced onion and garlic in a pan with hot oil, medium heat.
2. Slice the okra into even pieces. I used 1 or 1.5 pounds. I lopped the tops off the short ones, and cut the long ones into halves or thirds. Add the okra and cook over medium heat until the okra blackens. My friend's version was more black; he stirred less often than my version. I stirred occasionally and cooked it until the okra was soft. Next time I may remove the garlic and onions before adding the okra to prevent burning, and add them back with the next step.
3. Slice the mushrooms.  My friend used a handful of shitake mushrooms. I used button mushrooms. Add the mushrooms and cook until they have softened.
4. Add tomatoes and enough liquid to cover all the vegetables. My friend used canned diced tomatoes, and added salt, pepper, and another spice (maybe cumin). I diced two roma tomatoes and added tomato sauce which had previously been adulterated with onions, garlic and mushrooms.
5. Cover and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, leave the lid ajar, and simmer until the sauce has thickened. I simmered until it tasted delicious. I like this on rice but it would be good with bread too. Enjoy.

How have you cooked a new vegetable recently?

Day 17: Cut your Own Apple

Day 17

This is my first time working with watercolor pencils. I went over it with actual watercolors. Below is a quick colored pencil sketch on how to make attractive apple slices. Like the pineapple, I learned this from a college friend. I only do this when I'm sharing an apple with a friend and want a nice presentation. Otherwise, I eat apples whole.

Day 17: how to cut apple slices

How do you cut your apples? With an apple corer, with a knife, or do you eat it whole like I do?

Day 5: Cut your own Pineapple

Day 5

Pineapples look intimating. They are spiky and hard. How can you tell when they're ripe? The only form pineapple was eaten in my household was from a can. Moving to California exposed me to fresh pineapple.  It was love at first bite. Fresh pineapple is sweet, juicy and tastes nothing like its canned counterpart.

I also love pineapples because they remind me of friends. A college roommate taught me how to cut a pineapple and I think of her every time I do so. My amended instructions are below.

Day 5: How to Cut a Pineapple

The same friend taught me to soak it in water for a bit to reduce the acid in the pineapple. Another friend taught me how to pick pineapples. Turn it upside down and check the bottom for mold. No mold is best, a little is fine but a lot is not fine. A lot of mold means the pineapple is too old. Then pluck a leaf from the top. If it comes out easily, then the pineapple is sweet. If it does not come out easily, then try another pineapple. My information may be scientifically inaccurate but they're tradition. Also, I've chosen and eaten some darn good pineapples over the years.

This poster was inspired by a pineapple purchase this week and the fact I really enjoy pineapples. It seems straight-forward but I felt as though the poster was about self-reliance and the phrasing seemed familiar. Then I remembered this wonderful article about the owner of Trouble Cafe. On the menu, there's an item called Build Your Own Damn House. It's a cup of coffee, a whole coconut, and toast. The menu may seem like a gimmick at first but the story behind it is compelling. It's about building connections and stability while living with a mental illness.  Each item represents something that has sustained her over the years. Pineapples remind me of friendships and knowledge sharing.


Do you have a memory associated with a particular food or food preparation? What is a favorite skill you learned from a friend?

Daikon Pork Soup: a Taste of Home

There are endless dishes to eat at a Chinese restaurant: deep-fried, stir-fried, savory, sweet, noodles, meat, vegetables. My favorite dish is none of the above; it is the complimentary plain broth at the beginning of the meal.  I am disproportionally excited for this broth because it reminds me of my parents' cooking. All the Chinese foods that were rare and thus special as a child growing up in the Midwest have become commonplace as an adult living in San Francisco. Conversely, the everyday foods of my childhood have become rare.

What most probably consider as a boring, bland broth is a nostalgic food for me. Do not feel slighted if you have not encountered this broth as not all restaurants serve this. Whenever it does make an appearance at a restaurant, I savor it. Sometimes it comes with a few pieces of daikon or if you're lucky, a chuck of pork. In the past, I have haphazardly cobbled together ingredients to make it but the attempts resulted only in boiled water and inedible chucks of meat.

Then, I stumbled onto this pork rib soup recipe while looking for a lotus root recipe (my current vegetable obsession). It was relegated to my to-try-someday list.  On the same day, I stumbled across the honey dates at the Asian supermarket. Since the honey dates are absolutely essential to the recipe, I decided the universe was telling me to make the soup. That and I did not have dinner plans.

Honey dates and red dates

I purchased a half-rack of baby back ribs, cut into thirds lengthwise across the bones. At home, I further cut the ribs into 2 rib chucks. I used daikon instead of lotus root since it was a fraction of the price and added a carrot. I also parboiled the ribs.

And then boil. With love, of course.

The hardest part of this recipe was resisting the urge to adulterate it. I’m glad I resisted as the recipe yielded a wonderful, light broth that instantly reminded me of my parents’ soup. Cooking does not need to be complex to be meaningful.

Chinese New Year’s cake is another home-cooked food that I was surprised and happy to learn how simple it was to make. Happy Lunar New Year to all those who celebrate.

What simple dish reminds you of home and have you learned how to recreate it? Do you celebrate the Lunar New Year and what are your plans?

Belated Thanksgiving

Being as I created a blog rather than tumblr, I resisted the urge to induate you with pictures of everything I've read (mainly textbooks), ate (and saw Alton Brown, yes, I'm totally bragging), and drew in October and November (landscapes and a persimmon). Instead, I will present 3 pictures only.

First, I washed these and other vegetables... 

Daylight: making every picture look more professional

...and made this vegetable tray. I discovered the recipe last year and I absolutely love it. It is fun to bring to a party, healthy, and involves cutting vegetables. I left out the celery legs this year because I can never use up celery. I use raisins for the eyes because I'm more likely to have that laying around than olives or two black beans.

As a side note, the leftover cucumbers weren't good enough to eat raw this year (they were more to prop up the head than to eat). I remembered the sodium-free sauerkraut I made before so I decided to marinate the leftover cucumber in apple cider vinegar, caraway seeds, and red pepper flakes. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it turned out. Try it if you have too many cucumbers. It may be too sour for some and not salty enough (at all) for others, but I loved it. Mix in whatever proportions and soak for as long as you desire. My first batch marinated for 1 day in the fridge. For my second batch, I added garlic cloves, diluted with 50% water and allowed it to sit for 3 days while I was out of town for Thanksgiving.

Sorry for my lack of posts. I hope you (my American readers) had a lovely Thanksgiving. Maybe you could make this veggie tray next year to balance out the candied yams, creamy mashed potatoes, and buttery rolls?

Gobble, gobble!

 What's your favorite dish to bring to a party and how did you find/create the recipe?