Oxtail Soup

I adapted this recipe from my mom, who I think got it from my grandma. Over the generations, it's changed a bit here and there (I'd like to say for the better :P). Just a note--this is semi-homemade! I used a bit of canned ingredients, but this can be made entirely with fresh ingredients. I am using canned stuff for now until I can figure out how to flavor the soup correctly.

Ingredients (Makes a huge pot... probably serves 10+)

• 2 cans ITALIAN diced tomatoes (the Italian flavoring is the best I've found)
• 1 can chicken broth
• 1 can corn, drained
  
• 1 can long green beans, drained
  
• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2-3 potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cauliflower, chopped
• 1 package oxtail (usually about 4 small and 4 larger pieces)
  
• 2 tbsp basil
• 1 tbsp oregano
• water to fill over ingredients
  
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions
I just threw everything in, brought it to a boil, and let it simmer on low-medium heat for two hours. (Lazy-person's way.)

Ideally though, you want to throw in everything except the cauliflower and long green beans up until about 30 mins left in the cooking process--this is because these soften up a bit and break apart if you cook them for too long! You know when the soup is ready when the carrots and potatoes are soft and oxtail is very tender/falls off the bone easily.

Other comments: most of the flavoring will come from the Italian-flavored canned tomatoes and the oxtail itself.

Enjoy!

Cherry Blossom Festival

Last weekend I went to Japan town's Cherry Blossom Festival in San Francisco to try some new good eats... and boy, did I find some surprises!

SPAM MUSUBI

(Can't tell too well from the picture, but this is wrapped in seaweed.)

This savory treat is absolute genius. It's probably among the simplest of creations and yet it tastes so amazingly good! I bought 3 (took two home) of these from two different booths but I noticed there was a difference in taste. So far I can tell you that the sauce is the biggest determiner of a "good" spam musubi, and that too little seaweed can be a bad thing. I even went home and bought a musubi molder off eBay for about $10 including shipping. I'll be making these in the near future.
*One small note about these: they're not Japanese! I wikied it and it actually turns out that these are a Hawaiian creation, probably Japanese-influenced. Still good, though.

BEEF BALLS

What the heck are those?? Beats me. Really beats me. I waited in a half an hour plus line for these so-called "amazing" beef balls and when I took a bite I tasted... starchiness???? Beef balls my butt! Most of the ball is made of a doughy-sponge cakey-batter, and there was maybe a tiny piece of meat here and there. What you really taste is the batter, the sauce (some kind of teriyaki sauce I believe), and the ginger. Below is what's actually in it:

All I can say was that I was pretty disappointed for the nice list of ingredients they had above. If only they had focused on the beef!

GREEN TEA ICE CREAM

No pictures here for this once; it was a basic two-scoops of green tea ice cream on a regular cone. It is honestly some of the best green tea ice cream I've ever had, and I've had green tea from quite a few restaurants and quite a few ice cream brands. This was some good stuff I had... it's possibly where many Japanese restaurants get their green tea from (because it tastes quite comparable if not the same). What has two thumbs and knows the source of great green tea ice cream? This one! *Points thumbs at self* I found out where it's from. Hard to find in your local markets, but definitely available through special-order. Guess where it's from. You'd never believe it. It's Dreyer's.

Red Velvet Cake

food coloring going into the liquids

This is my 2nd favorite cake EVER (1st favorite is chocolate stout cake). My favorite is from Sprinkles and I'm still looking for the perfect recipe. I've had this recipe bookmarked for awhile and I thought I should finally make it.



I do not know if my cocoa is dutch-process or not. It's the generic cocoa from Ralphs and I didn't have white vinegar so I substituted apple cider vinegar. I used half the amount of food coloring because I read some scary articles about it. I guess originally it turned red because of the cocoa they used back in the day and how it reacted with the vinegar and buttermilk (wikipedia), but now it's just food coloring (or beets).


I also added some slivered almonds because I had them on hand and I liked the crunch. I also think that next time I'd make either a 9 inch cake or make 3 layers because the layers were a bit tall.

The oil was great because the cake was moist and dense, but I didn't like the slight tang that it had from the buttermilk and vinegar. I'll probably add less of them next time. But this is a very moist, not too sweet, slightly chocolately cake that you should try and make. This is my favorite recipe for red velvet cake so far. Other ones have turned out dry or too chocolate-y.


Instead of their recipe for frosting (which looked interesting- I just didn't have most of the ingredients), I made a regular cream cheese frosting. It's just a matter of taste- some people like the frosting slightly tangy still, I like mine sweet (but not sweeter then the cake). (And Joanne made this awhile ago too and she had a really really good vanilla bean frosting that went so well with the cake!)

Oh, also helpful is a crumb coating, which I didn't do because I was impatient. This is great when you have to slice the top off because your layer isn't completely flat. You basically frost the cake with a very thin layer of frosting and then put it in the fridge or freezer for a bit until it sets up. Then take it out and put more frosting over. So the first layer catches all the crumbs so the second layer is crumb-free.

Mixed Berry Galette

This recipe comes from one of my favorite blogs, Use Real Butter. Especially check out the recent kitchen tours.

Here is the recipe for the mixed berry galette. First some definitions:

Galette- "a general term used in French to designate various types of flat, round or freeform crusty cakes" (from wikipedia)
pâte sucrée- "A French term for a rich, sweetened short pastry used for desserts such as pies, tarts and filled cookies." (from epicurious)
how to "cut" butter into flour- I found a great link here... AFTER I made it. ):

Rolling out the dough.

So this was my first time "cutting" butter into flour and I sort of mushed it around so there were small bits of butter in the dough. I also made 3 instead of 4 galettes. It was really good although I think the pastry dough could've been better if I'd done it correctly. The berries were so warm and bursting with flavor when they came out (the butter probably helped...).

about to go in the oven

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese

Carrot Cake

I finally found a baking recipe that I truly love--to the point that I literally have to stop myself from eating it (and that means a lot coming from a non-sweet-tooth individual). It's so good I'm not even sure if I (or anyone else) can make better. It's possible perhaps, but generally "better" in baker's language is interchangeable with "fattier".

Recipe adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Carrot-Cake-III/Detail.aspx

Pretty much followed exactly. Like I said, I don't really mess around when it comes to baking.

Notes:
I added cinnamon very generously. Quite possibly at least double what the recipe called for. I do this a lot in recipes that call for cinnamon. I also tend to add more vanilla extract than described. All other ingredients I keep to pretty well.

I took it out at around 40 minutes (the earlier time period). I'm kind of a snob when it comes to cakes/brownies/cookies--I like them moister and denser and I absolutely hate it when the texture is, well, dry and cake-y... so I tend to slightly undercook my desserts on purpose. (And I absolutely despise American-made cakes, or at least the ones I've tried because of their cake-y characteristics.) 40 mins was good enough time in my oven to take out a toothpick clean.

I also let the cake half-cool before I started throwing the frosting on. I know you're not supposed to do this until the cake is completely cooled (because frosting melts from the heat emitted by the cake and makes it too difficult to spread an even layer, or you can spread too fast and you'll remove a thin delicate layer of cake with your tough frosting), but I wanted to go for a more "melty" look of frosting and I did it anyway in spite of the rules--with extreme caution. You know what I mean by "melty": when it doesn't look like the frosting and cake are completely separate layers--it looks like the frosting is slowly creeping into the pores of the cake, becoming united as one. I actually have no idea if this method really works, but I got what I was going for in taste and looks and it was absolutely phenomenal.

Carbonara

Rules, rules. I hate following rules, and that is exactly why cooking in my opinion beats baking, anytime (--I know Angela will disagree with me on this one). Flexibility in recipes is key to the evolution of great recipes! Also, I am lazy and don't like to use measurement cups when I don't have to (less dishes to wash too). So instead of just re-posting good recipe finds, I'm going to attempt to change up what I find when I cook (if I one day become a better baker, I will do this for baking too).

Carbonara


Recipe adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spaghetti-Carbonara-II/Detail.aspx

• Ingredient changes made: scratch that bacon! Use 3 oz. (or more) pancetta instead. Also, in place of onions, use chives, chopped in 1/2 inch long pieces. Use 3 cloves garlic, no white wine, no parsley (although parsley would have been nice).

Turned out very tasty and pretty looking! :) Although I'll have to try more carbonaras to fix this one up to be "amazing"...

(Notice today I cooked earlier in the day and was able to capture some beautiful natural sunlight outside... and you can also see the pool and vegetation outside my apartment window :p)

NY Times Cookie

It wasn't until I had a Kayak cookie at Teaism in D.C. that I realized salt on cookies was THE BEST THING EVER. Then I flew back to LA where there are no Kayak cookies (plus they're pricey. You can purchase a 6 pack for $15.95 online + shipping). I looked and tried every recipe I could find online. There are rumors that rice flour is the key. I never made a good duplicate...Months later there was The New York Times Cookie. It was blogged everywhere and I had to make it.

I didn't have the "1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note)" so I used chopped Valrhona 65% cocoa instead and I even refrigerated it for 36 hours. It was really good. I don't know if the resting did anything, but... it was good. It browned much faster then a regular cookie.

Next time I'm going to use the chocolate disks and some fancy fleur de sal. It's not a kayak cookie at all, but it satisfies my salt+sugar craving.


*sorry for the blurry, weird colored, not so great photos. I will work on it!