June 14, 2010 - Baked buffalo wings and double tomato bruschetta

I love chicken wings!  Yet I rarely make them.  Why? Because deep frying is difficult, messy, and often causes burns on my arms.  I hope to own a deep fryer some day, but with the space in our kitchen, it is just not feasible at the moment.

But now that I discovered this recipe, chicken wings might become part of my dinner repertoire after all.  The best part about this recipe is that it creates crispy wings by baking.  I used Frank's RedHot sauce as suggested and turned out great.

While I was shopping for chicken I looked around for a blue cheese dip to go with, but couldn't find it, so I decided to make my own.  This dip was nice and creamy, and not overwhelmed by the blue cheese flavour.

I made bruschetta to complete our bar-themed dinner.  This recipe is one we've had for years now, and is our favourite.  Two things that make this bruschetta unique are the addition of balsamic vinegar and sun-dried tomatoes, both of which add bursts of flavour.  I'm especially in love with sun-dried tomatoes.  It amazes me how heat from the sun can turn a simple tomato into something so delicious.

June 13, 2010 - Fresh squeezed lemonade

As a school kid, I participated in bake sales but never lemonade stands, so until now I'd never made lemonade.   I went straight to allrecipes.com and picked out a recipe with a confidence-inspiring title - "Best Lemonade Ever".  I was shocked by how many lemons were needed just to make 2 liters of lemonade!  I had recently purchased a lemon reamer (until now, juicing was done by squeezing with my hands), so it was time to test it out.  This simple wooden tool was so efficient I regret not having purchased one earlier.  I served the lemonade in a champagne glass to celebrate summer in elegance.

June 8, 2010 - Pico de gallo chicken quesadillas

I think quesadillas are perfect for weekdays because they're not too time-consuming, yet this one dish covers the key food groups.  Normally I serve quesadillas simply with a dollop of sour cream, but tonight the addition of "pico de gallo" from this recipe added a refreshing touch.  Pico de gallo is a fresh uncooked condiment made from tomatoes, onions, and chilies.  I used spinach tortillas in hopes of adding some extra colour and the slightest Popeye effect :)

June 7, 2010 - 鶏肉のしょうが焼き (Ginger chicken)

Shougayaki, meats marinated in ginger sauce and fried, are typically made using thin slices of pork, but tonight I decided to try it out with chicken using this recipe.  With the bed of red and green pepper, to me the dish looks more Japanese-Chinese and traditional Japanese, but it was tasty nonetheless.

I went on to adding more colour to the usual hiyayakko (cold tofu) by added tomatoes and avocado using this simple recipe.  

Last but not least, to celebrate our first meal on our balcony this summer, we opened up a bottle of namazake that we brought back from Japan in May.  Namazake is a type of sake that hasn't been pasteurized and therefore has to be kept refrigerated.  To those who are new to sake drinking -- when you look for sake in a liquor store, try to find the freshest one.  Most sake should not be aged, unlike wine!

June 2, 2010 - Salad of curried cashews, pear, and grapes with Italian wedding soup

Salads can be interesting.  Before I got into cooking, making a salad meant tossing together some lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, and corn out of a can (yes, you heard me right, corn.  Japanese people do this).  But since then I've discovered that fruits, nuts, and meats all make great additions to a bowl of leaves.

This recipe was great because the curried cashews added heartiness, while the pear and grapes added juiciness.  I think the curried cashews would be a good snack on its own.

The soup and salad combination seemed like the obvious thing to do, so I decided to try making Italian wedding soup with this recipe, since I've had this soup many times in restaurants but never made it at home.  While researching for recipes, I found out that this "wedding soup" has nothing to do with weddings at all!  It has to do with the "marriage" of meats and vegetables - how well they go together in this soup.  

May 31, 2010 - Chicken satay with spicy peanut sauce and cucumber relish

It is now July (yes, I'm a bit behind, still..) but I am still constantly thinking about how good this was!  It was that good - definitely on my unofficial top 10 list.  A great recipe from the Food Network.  The chicken was marinated really well, so well that it was enough on its own and the peanut sauce was just icing on the cake.  As usual, I substituted chicken breast with thighs.  The cucumber relish was a refreshing touch too - similar style to Japanese sunomono.  I can't wait to try this again with other meats.  

May 30, 2010 - Pineapple fried rice

I was browsing for a fried rice recipe when I came across this recipe from Closet Cooking.  I glanced through the ingredients and started imagining the wonderful combination of fruits, nuts, and a hint of curry flavour.
Pineapple boat!! I was very excited when I remembered about food being served in whole pineapples in some restaurants. Fun and fresh!  After a couple of 'how to videos' on YouTube we were ready for a tropical evening.

May 25, 2010 - Seafood Paella

A nice weekend out in Vancouver in May is rare, so we decided to make the most out of it by crabbing at Ambleside Park.  Our track record crabbing in Vancouver had been unimpressive, so we didn't go with high expectations. But, as you can see, it was a success!  We caught one red rock crab that was exactly the minimum size we are allowed to keep.  Not a millimeter bigger.  I think he's posing quite nicely for the photo, isn't he?

Being on the dock all afternoon made us crave a good seafood paella.  Using this recipe, I made it special by using a Spanish rice called bomba rice, which authentic paella should be made from.  Usually I use arborio rice since that's the only type available in my local grocery store, but today I found a store that carries bomba.   I can't wait to get an actual paella pan some day.  I know I don't really need it considering how many times I make paella in a year, but I just think it'd make a big difference in the texture of the rice.

As a finishing touch I let Mr. Crab be the centre of my paella. Don't forget to drizzle fresh lemon juice on everything. Yum!

May 18, 2010 - Molasses Coffee Marinated Pork Chops

Trust me, it's not burnt.  Ask Alton Brown!  Molasses and coffee sounded too intriguing not to try his recipe, and what else was I planning to do with all that molasses leftover in my kitchen anyway?  The pork tasted better than it looks in this photo, but I'm not sure if I'll ever return to this recipe.  A lot of molasses was used, and I'm not sure that the coffee added anything.  Because of all the molasses, it's also hard to grill without charring.

May 10, 2010 - Taste of India

If you have some leftover lamb in your freezer, it's a good opportunity to make some lamb curry.  Tonight I picked this recipe.  For us, making curry doesn't involve rushing to the grocery store with a long list of ingredients, since we already have most Indian spices in our pantry.

As a side, I decided to try this Kachumber recipe.  Apparently "kacha" means raw or uncooked in Hindi. This dish is made from raw vegetables cut into small pieces, reminiscent of Mexican salsa. It was a simple yet refreshing contrast to the curry.  

My impression of Indian cuisine = spicy food + really REALLY sweet desserts

I am usually not a fan of their sweets, but rice pudding is an exception!  Prior to immersing myself in Indian cuisine, I remember being very hesitant to try rice pudding.  Rice and milk just seemed like a weird combination to me.  I'm glad I tried it.  Unfortunately there is no link to this recipe because it's from my Vij's cookbook (Vij's is a fine-dining Indian restaurant in Vancouver).

And why not complete the meal with some cold mango lassi?  Sorry, no link for the same reason as above.  If it's mango season, use fresh ataulfo mangoes (the yellow ones, not the red and green ones - huge difference in flavour!)

April 21, 2010 - Scallop and chorizo pasta

You can't win 'em all.  Sometimes I pick recipes that don't turn out the way I had hoped for, and this recipe was one of them.  There was nothing wrong with it, but it just lacked the oomph that I was looking for.  It also seemed more like a stir-fry than pasta sauce.  Oh well.  Time to move on.

Slice up some tomato and avocado, drizzle some olive oil, and sprinkle with freshly ground salt and pepper, and voila!  A quick refreshing salad.  Even quicker if you don't meticulously place each slice on the plate like I've done here.

April 12, 2010 - えびとホタテの天津飯 (Tenshinhan with shrimp and scallops)

Japanese people like to do crazy things to other countries' cuisines.  Have you tried rice cake on pizza or fish roe in pasta?  Teshinhan is not as crazy as these but it is a dish we created as part of our interpretation of Chinese cuisine.   Good simple recipe for those busy weekday nights.

April 11, 2010 - Moussaka

This recipe is the best! I've tried a lot of moussakas in restaurants, but so far none of them have beaten the moussaka we make at home.  Yes, it's time-consuming (couple hours for prep and cooking), but definitely worth it, and an excuse to celebrate with some red wine!  It reheats really well too, so you can enjoy this luxurious dish for lunch while your co-workers sniff their way from the microwave to your plate.

April 5, 2010 - 味噌 ヒレカツ (Miso hirekatsu)

I'm originally from a city in Japan called Nagoya, where we are proud of our regional cuisine, and this is one of the most well-known dishes.  It's basically pork breaded with panko (Japanese-style bread crumbs), and deep-fried, and served with a miso sauce.  Here's the recipe (sorry, again in Japanese - future improvement for my blog!).  I like to use pork tenderloin because it's usually more moist and tender than other parts of the pig, but you can use other parts if you wish.  However, it is important that you go to your local Japanese/Asian grocery store to look for panko, because normal bread crumbs won't create the right texture.

March 31, 2010 - Pad Thai

Pad thai is a relatively simple dish - preparing the ingredients take a while, but putting it together at the end happens quickly in one pan.  Here is the recipe.  I've seen pad thai done wrong in so many restaurants that I'm very skepital to try them in restaurants where authenticity is not a sure thing, so it's nice to be able to make it at home.  I've even seen ketchup used as a base for the sauce, and that is just wrong...

As a fresh touch to the dish, I used the chives from our "balcony garden" which consists of a couple planters with mostly unsuccessful plants.

March 25, 2010 - Hainanese chicken

After making Hainanese chicken at home, I have now have a higher appreciation of this seemingly simple dish.  This recipe includes instructions on how to make the chicken, rice, and the chili sauce.  Poaching the whole chicken was the most difficult part because it was my first time.  It takes about an hour, and I had to be careful that the temperature of the water was maintained (hot but not boiling).  My conclusion is that poaching is one of the best methods of cooking chicken breasts!  I was very happy with how moist the chicken was.

March 22, 2010 - 肉じゃがとほうれん草お浸し(Nikujaga and hourensou ohitashi)

Nikujaga (literal translation: meat potato) is a stewed dish that commonly appears on the dinner table of Japanese families.  It's definitely comfort food, especially for the winter months. Even here in Vancouver, where Japanese restaurants are now ubiquitous, home-style dishes such as these are hard to find.  This is the recipe - sorry it's in Japanese (hopefully the Google translation function will help).

And of course, when preparing a Japanese meal, you can't just have one main dish, but a bunch of smaller side dishes.  I decided make hoursensou ohitashi, a simple but healthy dish of spinach flavoured with dashi and soy sauce.

March 18, 2010 - Palak paneer

Who says vegetarian food has to be boring? This is another recipe from Manjula's Kitchen, my default source for vegetarian Indian recipes.  I love cooking with paneer because no matter how long you cook it, this cheese never falls apart.  Making homemade paneer is still on my to-do list.

When cooking basmati rice, we usually put a blob of ghee (clarified butter) and sprinkle some cumin seeds in to the uncooked rice for extra flavour and shininess.

March 16, 2010 - Grilled chicken caesar salad

I usually put together caesar salads for a quick weekday meal, but his time I wanted to make it special with homemade croutons and homemade dressing.  I used Alton Brown's recipe for the croutons, but looked for another recipe for the dressing because I noticed it didn't have anchovies in it.  Isn't caesar dressing supposed to have anchovies in it? Anyways, I tried this dressing recipe.

In my honest opinion, the croutons were definitely worth it to make from scratch (incomparable to store-bought ones!).  The homemade dressing was good as well, but I think spending a little extra to get quality store-bought dressing is just as good and less time-consuming.  Making things from scratch usually saves money, but I'm not sure that was the case here.

March 14, 2010 - Bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese

This is a classic!  Smoked salmon, cream cheese, and capers on a bagel.  Usually this is where I stop, but since I had some leftover baby dill in the fridge, I thought, why not.  And what a difference it made!  It added a nice fresh flavour.  After taking a quick photo we packed the bagels and had a picnic at the Nitobe Memorial Park at University of British Columbia.   I wouldn't say the bagels matched the Japanese traditional garden atmosphere, but it was a peaceful afternoon of good food and no rain.

March 10, 2010 - Maple salmon with spinach tagliatelle

Every time I searched salmon recipes on allrecipes.com, this maple salmon recipe came up with the highest rating and the most number of reviews.  Usually this is how I pick recipes to try, so I don't know why it took me so long to try this one.  Maybe it just looked too simple?  Just marinate with a few ingredients that you probably have in your kitchen, bake for 20 minutes and done!

The tagliatelle with spinach, mascarpone, and parmesan that I picked from Jamie Oliver's recipes took longer though. I had a craving for creamy pasta so this was perfect.  Butter, cream, mascarpone, parmesan.... sounds like too much dairy, but it was creamy goodness!