Quiche Lorraine

Sauteed Leeks.

This is such a decadent recipe with a lot of cream and cheese and butter. It's based off the Le Pain Quotidien Quiche Lorraine recipe. I've never had the quiche there, but I've had a lot of soups and bread there and their super delicious Nutella-type spread.

Browned custard.

Mine turned out a little runny because I used "light" sour cream, which is runnier. It took me (and friends) several days to finish because it is SO rich and heavy. I cheated and used puff pastry- I didn't want to make dough on a week night when I only have 30-45 minutes to cook. But the dough looked delicious, so it's worth a try if you have time.

This photo doesn't do it justice- sorry my kitchen lighting is terrible!

Chinese Tea (or Soy Sauce) Egg

This is one of my favorite things to eat- they sell them at 7-11's in Taiwan in big crock pots. I think they sell packets of pre-measured seasonings at asian supermarkets, but I haven't tried those. I got the recipe here. I really love the internet and finding great recipes like this for asian foods that I love, but don't have recipes for. I was surprised to find cinnamon on the ingredient list and the star anise I found at Whole Foods.

The ingredients (minus the eggs).

Post-boiling and sitting overnight.

Well it definitely helps to simmer them longer. My eggs turned out pretty pale compared to the ones you find at 7-11 (although those are probably in the pot for a day). Anyways- a great thing to try if you haven't already. I really liked the licorice-ness of the eggs (even though I hate licorice).

I have to share my favorite root beers: Virgils. You can find it at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and it's the best root beer ever. (Not that I've tried many fancy ones, but this is wayyyyy better than A&W). Also pictured: BLT on honey whole wheat with basil mayonnaise (just blend mayo and basil). Sometimes simple is good.

Mac N' Cheese (with Bacon!)

Taking a great recipe and making it more awesome. Bacon can do that to food. Recipe adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chucks-Favorite-Mac-and-Cheese/Detail.aspx

Added about 10 strips to bacon, 4 more oz. of elbow macaroni and adjusted the rest of the recipe to fit the extra macaroni added. Instead of using bread crumbs I decided to go with the lighter, Japanese bread crumbs: Panko.


Also used Tillamook Extra Sharp Cheddar. Freshly grated by hand:


Here it is after going into the oven! SO MUCH MAC N' CHEESE.


Nom nom nom.

Macaroons and Blondies

Well, I had a good first attempt at macaroons. But they still didn't come out quite right- I think I need to watch some you tube videos. I tried to make David Lebovitz's chocolate macaroons and I was going to sandwich them with some nutella.

Ta-DA! a stiff peak!

The good:
- they have (uneven) feet
- they taste good

The bad:
- they are pointy
- they are not circular
- a lot of them cracked

My very poor piping skills.

I will try and tackle this again. I think one of the problems is that I was using almond MEAL, not almond FLOUR. Unfortunately I could only find almond meal and I sifted it as much as I could, but I could still see bigger chunks. And I don't think I'm properly folding the egg whites + chocolate mix. The biggest problem though? I have no idea how to pipe batter... this will be another thing to tackle in the future. At least they tasted good.



I still have leftover macadamia nuts so I made some blondies! Yum, they're from Use Real Butter. Next time I think I might make 2x the batter and keep the same amount of filling- like I said before, I like a 2:1 ratio of dough to nuts/chocolate chips. Other than that, they were GOOD. Toasting the nuts made them nuttier and with that much butter in a 8 x 8 square- you know it's going to be good.

Right now I'm trying out new recipes for my apartment's thanksgiving dinner. I want to make something besides the requisite mashed potatoes and baked mac and cheese. Also one of our friends won't be able to make it so I have to make her sweet potato pie- I'm going to need to practice. I'm thinking a brussel sprout salad with figs. It has to be vegetarian, buffet-style, and maybe kinda healthy too.

Mexican Flan

I. Love. Flan. This recipe I got off of Recipezaar and it's better than some flans I've had at restaurants. Very simple and easy to make. The recipe can be found here: http://www.recipezaar.com/Mexican-Flan-Baked-caramel-Custard-12354

Slight adjustments: You WANT to put 1-2 tablespoons of water into the caramelized layer (heated sugar), or the top will come out like a hard glass sheet! I also did not put orange rind and added a little extra vanilla extract. Actually, thinking about making this one again tonight with MEXICAN vanilla extract. (Real yummy Mexican flan calls for authentic ingredients!) I just bought some in Mexico and it's so much more aromatic than the American vanilla extracts...

Char Siu Stir Fried Rice Noodles

Hiatus. Over. Time to get serious with more food. To start, let's catch up with what I've been cooking up the last few months.

I don't really know the name of this one, so I kind of just made it up. It's a not-so-common Chinese dish, perhaps exclusively Cantonese, and it has always made a yummy meal for my family. This recipe is adapted from my mother, but of course I spruced it up quite a bit for flavor and enjoyment. :)


Ingredients

4 eggs, scrambled with 1 tsp salt, or to taste
2 packets of the Banh Boc Loc noodles
¼ cup canola oil
1 lb char siu meat, chopped (can substitute with shrimp)
(everything below is “or to taste”)
1 bag or 3 handfuls of soy bean sprouts
¼ cup soy sauce
4 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp seasame oil*
a pinch of white pepper*
1 tsp ginger powder*
3 cloves minced garlic*

Directions
1. I starred* the ingredients you probably can go without and it will taste relatively the same.
2. Heat oil in pan at medium to medium-high heat until it is less viscous/can move around easily.
3. Add garlic; when it starts browning throw in noodles and sprouts. Cook for 2 mins.
4. Add char siu. Continue adding the rest of the ingredients in no particular order, and stir well as you go.
5. Total cooking time should be about 10-15 minutes. Taste the noodles--when they are soft then the dish is about ready.
6. Lastly add in the pre-scrambled eggs and oyster sauce. Stir for a minute before turning off heat.

Makes about 6 servings. It's really good. So my question is: why hasn't AllRecipes.com accepted my recipe? Maybe because they haven't tasted it yet...

Margherita Pizza

This pizza is so freaking good- I made it three days in a row! Thank you Ms Kapser! I'm glad I joined KPCC now- this recipe is amazing. It doesn't make Pizza Hut type dough- it's Neopolitan style, aka cracker thin crust. When Jojo and I were in Rome, our hostel was a block from an amazing delicious and cheap pizza shop. They had their pizzas laid out like this:

Huge rectangles of crunchy deliciousness. They sliced it according to how much you were willing to pay. I think it was 3 euros for a pretty big slice.


And this recipe is FAST. Make the dough and let it rest for an hour or so, then roll it out until it's very very thin. I sprayed Pam on the tray before hand and used a wine bottle since I don't have a rolling pin.

I used my favorite tomato sauce- Trader Joe's marinara. I use this in everything, even as the base for soups.

Add mozzarella cheese.


Add some julienned basil (save the rest for later), sliced raw garlic, tomatoes and some olive oil. I based the toppings off of one of my favorite pizzas at Palomino's, especially the thin slices of raw garlic. SO GOOD!

When it's done and the cheese is nice and brown, throw some more basil on top. I like the basil slightly fried on the pizza with the fresh basil on top.

The next few days I made it with artichoke and salami. I'm going to try and find a good recipe for a dough-y pizza now, with cornmeal on the bottom.