Sunday, February 21, 2010

At Your Service



Let me begin this blog with a disclaimer: this post will contain no recipes. Why? Because I had no time this week. In fact, just to post this I must force myself to multitask. I am on one hand typing, and on another analyzing NYU and Syracuse water polo strategy. So let me make this short and sweet—not for you, but for me.


If by any chance you have been reading this blog and have consequently started wondering what food you can make (or you might have been this thoughtful before), well you should know that I’m here to help. If you post a certain ingredient or a list of ingredients (perhaps from your dining hall… or not), I will gladly do my best to try to make a delicious dish out of said ingredients. It makes your life easier and mine… more interesting.


I apologize for such a short and foodless post, but alas I have been spending too much time with my boyfriends-of-the-week: Butler (library) and the Water polo team (haha, I bet you thought you were going to get some juicy gossip... Nope. I cite case No 1238: Private vs. Public life.) As midterms approach I will definitely need, and want, to do some more cooking. Stress Relief and Relaxation.


In any event, I hope you had a stress-free and relaxed weekend. And if you can only remember two things, here they are:
1. I am here, at your service.
2. Live Well. Eat Well.

(p.s. Aren't I an adorable child in my robe that's blatantly a million sizes too big? The photograph is from when I used to "have a cafe" called Cafe Wacko. My friend and I would dress up in non-traditional garbs and serve my family dinner. "Well I hope you enjoyed your stay at Cafe Wacko!")

Friday, February 12, 2010

ValenTHYME's Week (Pretty Pictures Included)


In celebration of the week leading up to Valentine's Day and my friend Angela's birthday, I made red velvet cupcakes. It's so very in-theme of this week's mood. (Also, please don't be intimidated by the length of this blog. It's mainly recipes... but make sure you go to the end so you can see all of the pretty pictures.)

But before I get to the velvety cupcakes, you must know about the dinner I helped cooked with Kelsey and her boyfriend, Shawn.

Tuesday night, Shawna and Kelsey invited me over to Furnald for "Pesto Pasta". I met them at Morton William's, our local market, and bought ingredients.
We got:

-1 package ground turkey
-1 package whole wheat penne
-parmesan
-whole wheat bread
-garlic
-cilantro
-salt and pepper
-pine nuts
-olive oil


With this, we made garlic bread with parmesan and pesto pasta with turkey and pinenuts. It was a simple spontaneous meal that turned out quite well. So well, that almost all of Furnald 7 stopped by for a sniff, and sometimes a taste. (Forgive me for the bad quality photos. They were taken on a friend's iphone.)

Garlic Bread with parmesan
-You want to start up the broiler for this recipe

-lay whole wheat bread on a baking pan and drizzle olive oil over the whole pan.

-smash garlic (to release its flavor) and cut up into small pieces.

-Then spread the garlic over the bread. Sprinkle some parmesan over the bread.

-Broil for 2-3 minutes. Et Voilà!

Whole Wheat Pasta with Pesto, Turkey, and Pinenuts

We made the whole wheat pasta according to the box. Except we put some oil and salt in the water before it boiled.

We then chopped up the cilantro and put in in the ground turkey, as well as with some garlic, salt, and pepper. We mixed it all up, and put it to the side.

In a pan, we warmed up mashed garlic in a very little amount of oil. Allow the garlic to heat up in the oil first, as it will infuse its flavor with the oil (thus adding it to the meat as a whole). Allow the pinenuts to roast in the oil and garlic. Then add the meat. Watch closely as you stir and flip the meat. Make sure every piece is fully cooked. It should take about 7 minutes.

Then take out the pasta and drain. Put in the pesto, and the meat/pine nut mix (from the stovetop). Mix it up and serve with some parmesan.

(
feeds 6-7 people) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was quite the delicious meal, as usual. This week I could feel the oozing love in the air. The very next night I was invited to eat again. Paul made some delicious pasta and steak. The steak was very simple, but incredibly rich in flavor. He cooked it on the stovetop in a mixture of butter and oil, after marinating it in cayenne pepper, herbs, and oil. That's all it took for a delicious steak. I don't mean to overwhelm you with recipes, so Paul will have another post dedicated to him making a delicious steak.
So now you have something to look forward to...

The rest of my cooking this week involved baking.
I don't only love to cook, but I also love to bake.
I made red velvet cupcakes, funfetti cupcakes, chocolate cake, and brownies. The last three were out-of-cardboard-boxes, made-for-bakesale material. I had a waterpolo bakesale which was pretty successful. Five hours of public hassling and begging later, we made a satisfying amount of money to begin to help make up for the fact that Columbia University Club sports has suffered from the nation wide necessity for budget cuts. But no worries, we understand.

The red velvet cupcakes were for a less-wholesome-more-selfish--but nonetheless important--reason: Angela's birthday. But because the recipe I usually use was given to me by my best friend's family, I feel like I do not yet have the right to distribute their recipe.
Copyright issues.
However, here is an incredibly delicious recipe for red velvet cupcakes that should
blow your valentine's mind. (This is the recipe I tested out for the cupcake campaign pictures... with a few of my personal touches) (Don't worry. I put them in the recipe... )
Red Velvet Cupcakes (makes 24+ cupcakes)
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
  • 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 5 tablespoons red food coloring
  • 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting
  • 1 package Cream Cheese
  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp rose water (or citrus zest, or whatever suits your fancy)
  • 1 16oz package powdered sugar

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

-In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.

-In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer. (It makes things easier to have an electric mixer, but it is possible by hand... It just requires a little more effort)

-Add the dry ingredients to the large bowl. Mix until smooth and thoroughly combined. (WARNING: Do NOT overmix the batter... This causes your batter to get tough)

-Fill the cupcake pan until each one is 2/3 filled.
-Bake in oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. You can turn the pans once half way through, but I never do... (Some argue they cook more evenly. depends on your oven).
-The cupcakes are done once you can remove a clean toothpick from the middle. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting
.

Frosting

-Mix the butter and cream cheese until they are smooth and creamy. Slowly add powdered sugar and mix. This is easiest with an electric mixer (my broken hand mixer and sore arm muscles can prove that).
-Add the vanilla and rose water (or zest). If the icing is too thick, try adding milk (1 tbsp at a time) until it's the right consistency.

Et Voilà!! Red Velvet Cupcakes... or "mo-cakes" as Angela has now coined.


I have yet to introduce you to Angela. (Hint: She has a headband on in the last post...) She has been taking my deliciously beautiful food photographs. So the day after her birthday, Columbia University and Barnard College cancelled all classes due to a blizzard. Now my Angelino self has never actually experienced this thing called a "snow day," so I took advantage of this day to have a Cupcake Campaign Photoshoot.

We popped a bottle of Martinelli's from Angela's birthday celebrations (oh, the life of an underaged college student...)

Well here are the beautiful pictures that Angela took that will soon adorn lovely posters across Barnard and Columbia's campus.




















Good food is delicious, so that's my current adjective for life. And as always, live well. Eat well. And in the spirit of ValenTHYME's day, please love well.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Therapy Cooking: the Unfortunate Occasional Necessity


My original plan for Friday was to have an impromptu-of-some-sort "launch party"--AKA an excuse to dress up and make an excessive amount of food.

As Friday morning came upon me, I realized that neither myself nor anyone I knew was ready for a Friday night extravaganza. Almost everyone I know is sick and still in recovery-mode. Anyone fortunate enough to have a stronger immune system had something they needed to work around--a gig to play, a game to cheer, some kids to babysit... (all real excuses, may I add). Unfortunately, no set time could work; so instead, the rest of us cooked an easy dinner and enjoyed ourselves.

7h00. February 5, 2010.
Hewitt Dining Hall/My Barnard Hall Communal Kitchen Lounge.

I was inspired by some fresh looking oranges in the dining hall and a recipe from the 2001 edition of Sunset Magazine's Recipes. (One of my favorite things about cooking is that a good recipe never goes out of style. I also like to change up recipes a bit for experimentation)

How does this meal come out price-wise?
Well, any good chef (or anyone who wants to make good food) should always have a few spices in their cabinets. This is a much cheaper meal once you make those few original investments:
-cumin, chili powder, oregano, olive oil

The risotto mix ($2.39), the salmon ($12.42), the cilantro ($1.29), and the orange ($0 on a Hewitt Dining Hall mealplan). Those are the only things I had to buy for this recipe. Everything else is something I already have that I use for any random experiments I am making.
TOTAL: $16.10 to feed 5 people.


This is the final product: Mushroom and Herb Risotto and Oven-Roasted Salmon

Serves 4-5 people.

(Next blog post I promise not to make salmon. I LOVE LOVE LOVEEEE Salmon, and it's incredibly healthy. And although I only eat it about once a week, that "once" happens to be every Friday, which leaves you guys with nothing but salmon recipes... my bad)

Oven-Roasted Salmon (with Orange rub)

Ingredients:
- 1 orange
- 1 tbsp (estimated) dried oregano
- 1 tbsp (estimated) cumin seeds (or ground cumin)
- 1 tbsp (estimated) chili powder
- 1.5 lbs Salmon Steaks
- Cilantro Sprigs
- Olive Oil

  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  • Grate the orange peel into a bowl. Get as much of the peel as possible.
  • In the bowl, combine the peel, oregano, cumin, chili powder, and chopped cilantro sprigs.
  • Put a pan (a baking sheet or a cake pan will work fine) with a little oil (to grease the pan) in the preheated oven while you finish preparing the salmon.
  • Rinse Salmon and pat dry. (This is very important especially when cooking in an oven. Simply run a little cold water over the salmon, and using a paper towel you pat--don't rub!!--the salmon. Don't pat too hard. Just do it so the top layer is dry.)
  • Rub the seasonings on the cut side of the fish. (Avoid any scales. Having skin on the bottom can help seal a flavor at times... Honestly, it's a personal choice).
  • Place the salmon on the pan in the oven for 8-12 minutes. (the recipe originally says 8-10, but mine took a little longer. Also it depends on the size of the salmon).
(TIP: Salmon is very easily over-cooked or under-cooked. Here's how to tell when Salmon is baked perfectly. The salmon is opaque but still moist-looking in the thickest part. Make a small incision to test it out. You may be hesitant because the salmon looks moist--and therefore, undercooked--but as long as it isn't too pink, it means it's perfect!)
  • I cut orange wedges (peel off the membrane and take out any seeds) to garnish, along with some leftover Cilantro sprigs.
yummm....













Mushroom and Herb Risotto

So I know this may count as cheating, but when you're on a budget and your planner has no free time, you do what you have to.


The directions are as follows (for the low-fat recipe, which does NOT taste like low-fat):

(TIP: Trader Joe's Risotto also has microwave directions! If you're pressed for time, many boxed risottos have the easier option.)

-Heat up about a tablespoon of oil in a medium saucepan for 2 minutes over medium heat.
-Pour in the rice and sautee with the oil for a few minutes (2-3).
-Pour in 3 cups of hot water, along with the packet of seasonings.
-Bring to a "vigorous boil"
-Cover and reduce heat to a simmer (low heat. think between the "2" and "3" setting out of "10" on a stove's dial)
-Stir Frequently until the water is almost completely absorbed and the rice is tender.

(TIP: I take the rice off the heat when it's a little watery/moist-looking, but leave it in the pan. It will continue to cook a little bit based off the leftover heat of the pan.)

So when all is said and done, a good dinner is a satisfying one. All of my sickly friends in our sickly outfits felt a little stronger after our delicious meal. And despite a possible scolding, here is some photographic evidence leftover from the night.

My kitchen is quite simple and bare. A stovetop, an oven, a sink, a microwave, and enough counter space for 3 plates (tops).

Our existence is one of a college student. Nothing too fancy; interested in the fun, the easy, and the delicious. (And preferably we would like to get some homework done in the meantime, while spending the rest having fun...)

Well here we are, living our lives. Living Well and Eating Well.