karendipity cooks: gougeres

april and lennon gave us a lovely "bride and groom's cookbook" as a wedding gift. it's meant to be used by a couple to cook together in the kitchen. there's lots of entrees, salads, pastas, but what caught my eye was the recipe for gougeres, those fabulous cheese balls that they serve at churrascarias like pampas. my gougeres did not turn out as puffy and light as the picture in the cookbook, but they're still delicious. the secret to these was a pinch of cayenne to the mix for a hint of spice.

karendipity cooks: black bean orecchiette with spicy pork and broccoli

this is one of derek's favorites. another recipe from ming tsai's cookbook. this one is super easy to make. one thing to keep in mind is that you should chop up the broccoli into bite-sized pieces, otherwise it can become unwieldy.

not going to post the recipe, but i will explain my modification. the recipe calls for fermented black beans. as they do not sell fermented black beans in our whole foods, i had to go with the garlic black bean sauce. this sauce does not have as strong of a flavor as straight black beans, so i use more than the recipe calls for.

karendipity cooks: asian spaghetti

it's been quite a while since i've posted about something that i've cooked. i do cook, especially now that i don't live in the land of seamlessweb -- but it's rarely something post-worthy. (lots of quesadillas ...) this dish, however, is definitely post-worthy. asian spaghetti! my brother chris bought me ming tsai's latest cook book simply ming one pot meals for christmas. this book is perfect for people who like to eat asian food, but need very simple recipes that don't take a lot of ingredients, precision, or time.

i'm not going to post the recipe because presumably there's copyright and whatnot involved, but i will hint that there's canned tomatoes, soy sauce, beef, and pork. a lot of beef and pork. the recipe calls for spaghetti, but i prefer to use capellini pasta which gives the dish more of a mai fun feel. the flavors are a strange hybrid of italian and asian, but it works perfectly. yum.

karendipity cooks: burgers

after watching the barefoot contessa prepare sliders and corn on her grill on foodtv, i was inspired to replicate the meal at home. i combined some recipes i found on the internet with one in my barefoot contessa cookbook to come up with the following recipe. she suggests putting a pat of butter inside each patty, but that's a bit much for me.

mix ketchup, chopped onions, chopped garlic, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, lemon juice, and brown sugar in a small bowl. make about 2 tbsp of sauce and make sure it tastes okay. then add 1 lb. ground chuck, 0.5 lb. ground sirloin, 3 egg yolks, salt and pepper. form into patties, grill on a hot pan for about 3-4 mins a side. after flipping, i add a piece of swiss to each of derek's patties. in a second pan, i fried some mushrooms with onions and garlic to make his mushroom swiss burger. i prefer mine with arugula and a slice of tomato. i also fried some corn with my fake butter for a side dish. the burgers turned out pretty good, although nowhere as good as the shake shack. i think i need to figure out the "smashing" technique they use.

karendipity cooks: steak

new year's day, we decided to eat at home for dinner. derek went downstairs, picked up some steaks, salad, and frozen ore-ida french fries. derek likes rib-eye, i like strip steak. pretty straightforward and easy.

salt and pepper steaks - cook on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes a side. the french fries crisped in the oven in 10 minutes and ended up tasting like mcdonald's french fries (in a good way). i realize that this isn't very impressive other than the fact that i cooked at home instead of eating out, but it was quite delicious.

karendipity cooks: congee

unfortunately i came down with a nasty cold after my trip to asia (thus the lack of updates). my mom used to make me congee whenever i got sick, except we called it "xi fan" and it's usually thicker than the HK-style congee. my friend CR mentioned that the steam from boiled chicken is a natural decongestant so i decided to get some chicken stock and make myself congee. ingredients: ground chicken, rice, chicken broth, scallions, soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, sesame oil, olive oil.

stir together soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, and a smidge of sesame oil. pour over ground chicken and thoroughly mix. heat olive oil on stove and cook chicken, breaking it up into small pieces while cooking. in a large pot, add chicken broth and rice (go easy on the rice - it expands a LOT when cooking into congee.) add whole green scallions for flavor (i remove these before serving). bring to a boil then simmer for at least half an hour. cooking time depends on how much you want the rice to break up - i usually leave mine on the stove for an hour or so. stir every 15 mins and add chicken broth or water as needed. it is very important that the heat is low, otherwise the rice will stick to the pot or burn. once the congee has reached the desired consistency, add chicken and sliced thousand year old egg. add soy sauce to taste. cook for another couple of minutes then serve. i like to top mine with marinated turnips. yum!

karendipity cooks: kimchi fried rice

lest you think that my kitchen is used solely for storage and reheating leftovers, i will from time to time post items that i have cooked myself...

made a giant pot of kimchi fried rice, which derek loves. not as good as the restaurant version but that's probably because i use a little bit of olive oil instead of the sticks of butter that koreans prefer. ingredients: kimchi, sirloin steak, green onions, olive oil, eggs, rice, soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, garlic, sesame oil.

chop kimchi into bite-size pieces. thinly slice steak, mix with cornstarch, then season with soy sauce/sugar. heat a bit of olive oil, add onions, then add steak. chop up cooked steak into bite-sized pieces. separately, do the same thing with the scrambled eggs. in a giant pot, heat onions and garlic in olive oil, add rice, season with a bit of soy sauce, fry for a while. add kimchi. add sesame oil. continue frying to preferred crispiness level. try not to burn anything. eat.