Food adventures: Teriyaki salmon

Salmon is my favorite fish, both cooked and uncooked. Here's another one of my mom's recipes, which was probably one of my favorite 'quick meals' when I was in high school. (I'll post some other quick recipes here too, eventually.)

It's simple really - just some rice, salmon filets, olive oil, and teriyaki marinade. Cooked in the oven until the salmon is tender and the sauce that remains is mildly sweet and a perfect complement to whatever vegetables you have at the moment. At my parent's house we always seemed to have corn; this time around, I had some mixed vegetables in the freezer and popped those in the microwave.

While I made this meal, I was on a cooking kick so I was cooking a few other meals at the same time. I boiled some potatoes (description to follow in another blog) and made some mashed potatoes in an experiment, so those went on this plate for dinner too.

So here's my (my mom's, really) simple 20-minute dinner:

Food adventures: lemon chicken

My dad got me a cookbook pretty recently, so I've been trying out a bunch of the recipes (if I can eat them, that is) and this was the first dish, besides the pho, that I made for other people. It was somewhat of a mini dinner party with my friends Matt and Ethan, and my housemate Julie. I was actually super worried when I was cooking because lately, I only cook for myself, and cooking for other people scares me. I can deal with my own failings as a cook but when cooking for other people I feel a lot of pressure. All my woes disappeared, though, when my dish was very well received, especially with Matt's apparent love for lemons and chicken, as well as the parsley that was included in the dish.

Here's what it ended up looking like.




The original recipe called for orecchiette, which I didn't have, so I used medium shells instead. The recipe itself is pretty simple, just some pan-fried chicken cooked in a sauce of lemon juice, oil, and parsley. I added more lemon juice than the recipe called for and it worked out great because then I had a little more leftover sauce for the pasta. I ended up cooking the chicken for longer than I had thought it would take so some of the parsley was burnt, but I still think it tasted great (and so did Matt, who loved the parsley). Next time I'll go for smaller pieces of chicken and pound them down a little bit more so they're thinner and cook faster.

I also had a decent amount of pasta leftover (I cooked a whole pound) - not really a big deal, since I'm a pro at eating leftovers, but I could probably only cook half a pound next time and be fine with that amount of pasta. I microwaved some frozen vegetables so I could have a little color, and because no matter what recipe I'm making, I still feel a need to balance my starches with meat and vegetables. All in all, first dinner for multiple people = great success!

Food Adventures: Penne with roasted tomatoes

In case you haven't noticed, I get most recipes from my mom, who I think is one of the best cooks out there. She puts together these great meals, using recipes and tweaking them, and has always made something that I like. I only hope that when I'm a mom I can cook as great as she does.

This most recent dish I made for my friend Tamra when she came to visit. I forgot to take pictures while actually cooking, so all I have is the end result, and here it is: Penne with roasted tomatoes and bacon.



The recipe involves some roasted grape tomatoes, and then some bacon (original recipe calls for pancetta), chili pepper flakes, onions, garlic, basil, and penne of course. My parents have served it as a "light pasta dish" at family parties we've had, with a small portion on an appetizer plate, and it's not too heavy but really flavorful. It made about 6 portions, plenty of leftovers for me to take to work for lunch with me.

I didn't like how burnt my tomatoes got, so next time I'll roast them for less time or maybe at a lower temperature. I also didn't like how spicy it got (I don't really do spicy food, not my thing) so I'll use a little less chili pepper next time.


In other news, I've started a recipe binder so I have all my recipes in one place. I'm putting all my sheet protectors to good use, finally! I find recipes everywhere so I figured it's a good place to keep them all organized. I put a post-it on the back of each recipe so I remember when I made it, and add general comments about the recipe or what I liked or didn't like. That way the next time I want to make it, I know what to do!

Food adventures: Fried Rice

I don't have pictures to share this time, unfortunately, because I spent so much time cooking that I completely forgot that I wanted to do this food blogging business.

Last night, with a few clarifying text instructions from my mom, I set out to make her fried rice. She always surprises me with this dish when I least expect it, and it's so much better than fried rice you'll find anywhere else.

I took a trip to the Hamilton Filam Food store (what Filam means is beyond me) and luckily, they had the Chinese sausage that I was looking for. I got a package bigger than I expected on buying, but it worked out since I burned the first batch of sausage.

Once I burned the first slices of sausage (four links went to waste, so sad), I cooked up another batch and was pleased with the result. I scrambled some eggs and microwaved the freezer 'vegetable medley' (peas, carrots, corn, green beans).

Then I got to use the enormous wok that my mother so generously gave to me - it's big, heavy, and really hard for me to maneuver. I sauteed some chopped onions and ginger (I forgot the scallions, whoops), and then dumped in 3 cups of rice. The rest of the ingredients went in - the sausage, egg, and vegetables, plus some salt for flavor. Lots of stirring and attempting to move the wok around later, I had fried rice! It made about five servings, which I'm really pleased with - I shared some with a friend of mine and he loved it!

Even though I could probably eat fried rice all day long at PF Chang's, it's so much more satisfying knowing that I can make it myself, and that it's not even that hard! Next time I'll try a little harder to not let my ingredients get stuck to the bottom of the wok, not burn my sausage, put in even more eggs and onions, and not forget the scallions. I'll be making this soon for sure, since it's so easy!

Food Adventures: Pho

So I recently moved into a house of my own (living with four other people) and will totally admit that I have been spoiled by campus life for the past four years. Cooking has never been my strong point, mainly because I'm picky, and because I'm so limited in what I can eat because of all my food allergies. When I did cook it was probably once every two weeks, because I got used to having mediocre food from dining halls for the convenience factor.

So this summer has been about getting a little creative about what I make for myself, figuring out what I can eat AND cook, and making every dollar stretch so I can eat healthy on a tight budget. Most recently, I made pho, a popular Vietnamese noodle dish. In Viet Nam, you can find pho sold on carts on the street (so I'm told), and in Vietnamese restaurants, my family and I judge their pho very seriously, because my mom makes the best pho in the world.

So with some help from my mom, she told me the recipe (I didn't have time to watch her make anything, so I had to try and remember watching her years ago in the kitchen) and gave me some the harder-to-find ingredients (the asian spices) so that I wouldn't have to search too hard. All I needed was a big pot and some beef and I would be all set. So here's what came out of it:


First I had to boil the beef ... for 3 hours. Mind you, this was early July and it was about 95 degrees in my kitchen (horrible ventilation) and I had to watch beef and skim the fat off for a painstakingly long time. However, this is the short version of the recipe - other recipes you'll find call for 6-8 hours of cooking the meat, so I was happy this didn't take as long as my mom normally does it.



Once the beef was done, it was nice and tender, and the broth was already ready flavorful. I sliced the beef to add back to the soup later.



Then came all the other stuff - star anise, ginger root, onion, black pepper, and cinnamon. Plus chicken stock too. I let that simmer for a while, and at the same time soaked my rice noodles (vermicelli) in cold water for an hour to get it ready for the soup. I added some fish sauce to taste, and voila.. four and half hours later .. PHO!


So I brought the broth back up to boiling, boiled some water in a separate pot and boiled bunches of the noodles for about 20-30 seconds each, enough to cook but not make them too slimy. The noodles went into the bowl, along with the beef, raw beef eye rounds, and onions. I ladled the broth over the noodles and meat, added some cilantro, green onions, and lime, and I had my bowl of pho!




All in all it was a great experience and I would totally do it all over again, with the exception of the horrible heat. Now that I have the recipe down I can play around a little more with the spices, meat, and overall flavor of the broth and how I can change it. I shared the soup with two of my friends, and they both seemed to like it. I even impressed myself! I didn't think it would be so easy. My mom bought me pre-packaged spices for the next time I make soup which is a great help, since the Asian food store around my house is about 30 minutes out of the way and it's hard to find time to get there.

I'll continue to blog about my food adventures as much as I can - today I used the wok my mom gave me and her recipe to make homemade fried rice - with peas, carrots, egg, onion, garlic, and chinese sausage. It came out pretty good and I can't wait to make it again - unfortunately I forgot to take pictures so I'll just have to share those next time I make the dish.

For someone who doesn't think they can really cook, this summer has really been about teaching myself how to do it all. Let's hope I can keep it up once school starts!