Green Papaya Salad

I can't take credit for this, because JW was kind enough to bring his entire green papaya ensemble to my house yesterday to assembly this work of art. Shredded green papaya + fish sauce + jalapeno + dried shrimp = brilliance invented by Thai people. I made BBQ chicken & tomato salad; JW made sticky rice in the microwave.

The completed dish, above.
And because it's summer.... heirloom tomatoes. Mmm.

quarter rack + portabello shrooms in white wine reduction

So I splurged a few weeks ago on truffle salt which was the best luxury investment I've ever made to my spice rack. Grilled up some lamb and shrooms and am kicking back before surgery orientation starts tomorrow. Made extra for lunch... for the next two days. Happiness abound. The colors suck, unfortunately, but use your imagination.

Recipe: salt + peppa, sear rack on both sides; bake at 380 for 8 minutes each side for medium rare. toss a few sliced shrooms, basil, white wine, & 1-2 tbsp water together in a high heat pan (separate from the seared lamb so it doesn't taste burnt). It's maybe 10 minutes of work, with ~20 minutes of waiting around and ordering books from amazon.

lime meringue tarts with repurposed gingersnap cookie crust

so i decided since the gingersnaps i made were a semi-fail due to their too-delicate texture, i would use them instead as a shells for mini lime meringue tartlets to bring to a bbq. basically i threw them in a food processor with some extra whole wheat flour and beat it into crumbs and pressed the crumbs into a cupcake pan and baked for 10 min at 375F. i followed david leibovitz's recipe for the lime filling component, which involved lots of manual labor since i didn't have a juicer. since i also don't own a candy thermometer, i decided to go with good old fashioned meringue topping instead of his marshmallow topping and used the broiler to brown it. the gingersnap crusts were a bit soggy/oily because the cookie crumbs weren't dry enough, but i felt the flavors went well together, so all in all i was pretty satisfied with the results.

photo provided by the most excellent jeff chang.

gingersnaps!

im getting too lazy to post up the recipes. but i made gingersnaps out of the "good to the grain" cookbook. its dedicated to baking recipes with whole grain flours. this recipe used a mix of whole wheat flour and all purpose, but i was forced to sub whole grain pastry flour in for the all purpose as it was all i had. came out extremely thin and delicate as a result, but incredibly tasty.

i do believe gingersnaps are my favorite cookie.

yes, that is my foot.

no knead wheat bread and spinach-salmon dip

made for a potluck. no knead wheat bread and dip. sour cream, nonfat greek yogurt, fresh spinach, diced fennel and some flaked canned salmon. nothin fancy. tasted good though!

yogurt custard with mixed berries

a recipe i found in food and wine. mixed berries baked in a vanilla/cinnamon yogurt based custard. tried unsuccessfully to make a sugar crust on top; my broiler just wasn't able to get close enough to the surface. i need to buy a brulee torch. i heart kitchen gadgets.

whole wheat apple pancakes with homemade syrup

parents came to visit during mothers day, so for breakfast I made us some healthy whole wheat apple pancakes! they were really fluffy and yummy. i used fuji apples because thats what i had in my fridge, but they were too sweet i think and the apple flavor was lost in the pancake. so i recommend choosing a more tart apple, maybe a jonah or honeycrisp when they come back in season.... mmmmm i cant wait for honeycrisp season!

since i didnt have any syrup, i looked up an online recipe to make my own, which turned out surprisingly tasty. I did tweak a bit by adding some cinnamon and didn't have maple flavoring so i used vanilla extract. it continually amazes me the things that i always thought i had to buy in the store, that you can make from everyday items in your pantry.

adam perry lang

bbq tips from adam perry lang. excuse me while i wipe the drool off my keyboard.

also here's his website.

blackberry whole wheat ricotta pancakes

had some random ingredients left from cake making, so i decided to cook myself up some ricotta pancakes! i halved this recipe from eating well, subbed blackberries instead of blueberries, and of course, tossed in the obligatory handful of minichocolate chips and sprinkle of flax seed. had no buttermilk on hand, so i used the standard sub of milk and a squeeze of lemon juice.

the whole wheat flour made these pancakes extremely filling, but they were still nice and fluffy and browned well. the recipe needed a touch more sugar, i thought, but maybe that was just because i didnt have maple syrup to douse it with.

to make up for my syruplessness, i threw in a half can of mandarin oranges with juice, a squeeze of honey and some dried cranberries into a small saucepan and reduced it until it until it turned syrupy. next time i would maybe throw in some ginger to give it more dimension.

devils food cupcakes with cannoli cream and chocolate ganache frosting

photo courtesy of dan chiang

so for a k's bday, he specifically requested devils food cake with chocolate cannoli cream filling. since i had no round cake pans, and cupcakes are all the rage, i adapted the recipes i found to cupcake form.

devils food cake and chocolate ganache recipe from david guas. i halved the recipe and it made 11 cupcakes and more than enough ganache frosting. reduced baking time to 25 minutes to adapt to cupcake form, which seemed right. the cake turned out an extremely tender crumb, was just sweet enough, and the ganache frosting was out of this world!

cannoli cream filling recipe from giada. i just omitted the fruit part. had no whipping cream, so i used milk, which i think was the reason the filling wasnt fluffy or smooth enough. it still had the grainy quality from the ricotta, and was slightly runny so i had to firm it up in the fridge before stuffing the cupcake. i also threw in some mini chocolate chips into the final cream mixture.

to fill the cupcakes, i waited for them to cool, used a small sharp knife to cut a conical section out of each cupcake top, spooned in some cream filling and replaced the cut out piece of cake. then i frosted. the ganache set up nicely, but i recommend putting it in the fridge for at least an hour before frosting just so its easier to spread.

Banana bread... again?

I LOVE BANANA BREAD. I am sure I posted this already but I couldn't find my own recipe for it, so here's the brilliant one I used: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread/

Faux Paella

Done with didactic medical education. Onto the Socratic Method after the board exam this June. Made a faux paella to celebrate, out of wild rice, chicken, mushrooms, onions, white wine, and American saffron. Something was missing; perhaps the fact that I didn't use real saffron (which is more expensive), or the wrong rice, or... lack of sausage? Who knows. I don't mind eating it for the next three days though. Hurray!

i don't even know what's in this but i'm eating it

so. tired. in this: whole wheat pasta, free range chicken, frozen cilantro, roasted beets with dill, and artichoke hearts out of a can. approximately. no measurements. just do it. school, and my hemoglobin count, is kicking my ass.

Flaxen Strawbanana Smoothie

Shake shake shake! I'm all about the hand puree gadget these days. Pictured above: 6 strawberries, 1 whole banana, a cup of milk, a few dollops of vanilla yogurt, and ground flax seed. Yields 2 or 3 cups, or enough for a light lunch and dinner dessert.

Borscht (beet soup)

Modified DD's recipe, and drew it through the fandangled hand puree-er toy. Prep time: 20 minutes; stewing time: 30 minutes. Above, pictured with couscous/parsley, and the last of AB's venison.

Roasted Chicken with Zucchini

New favorite cooking method: throw drumsticks, chunks of veggies, and herbs in a dish, and bake.

That's it. 5 drumsticks, thick zucchini halves, julienne onions, parsley, herbs --- drizzle with salt, pepper, olive oil, white wine, and vinegar in liberal, non-measured proportions - 45 minutes under 375 degrees covered with foil --- and done.

Salted Fudge Brownies

Mmmm salty and sweet. Followed this recipe from food and wine mag. Except I have to admit that I put a smidge less salt in than written because I was a little wary at first. But after tasting, I actually wish I had put MORE than what was in the recipe! I ended up sprinkling some more sea salt on top of the brownie to really get that salty sweet yumminess. Definitely a dense fudgy brownie, just the way I like 'em!

Spinach Pesto on Whole Wheat Pasta

Tried out the whole wheat pasta at the Coop last night/this afternoon. It keeps surprisingly well in the fridge with a bit of oil, and I topped it with a homemade pesto. This hand-held puree thing (for soups, tampenades, etc) has changed my life.

DIY Vanilla Extract

4/1/10
UPDATE: Finally got around to getting the supplies to make this. Here she is, a week later. 1 madagascar bean, sliced lengthwise, in 1 cup of unflavored vodka.

1/3/10
I am cheap. So when I found out that vanilla extract was nothing more than vanilla beans soaked in vodka for 3+ months, I had to try it. It's gonna be a long wait for this photo op. Check the Italian Dish's post on the subject til then.

DIY Chocolate Truffles

Geektacular MIT students explain how to make chocolate truffles --- going into excessive, painstakingly researched detail on the 6 crystalline states of chocolate. Horribly sinful and awesome to watch. Click anywhere below to play, via howtoheroes.com.