Squash blossom tempura

The orange and yellow squash blossoms caught my eye at the Poughkeepsie Farmers Market today. I got 10 for $2! I had heard you can fry them, or stuff them and fry them. When I came home, I looked for recipes on the Internet.

What I found is that male zucchini or squash blossoms are desired because they're bigger and easier to stuff. Some people like Lynne Rossetto Kasper of The Splendid Table prefer the male blossoms for cooking.

I have female squash blossoms because the flower is attached to a mini squash. Male blossoms have a thin stem. For more background and photos, click here.

I didn't have goat cheese or cream cheese to stuff the blossoms and I thought they were on the small side. I decided to make squash blossom tempura instead and fry them in tempura batter. (You can find tempura batter mix at Asian grocery stores.)

When I say tempura, I say it the Korean way and curl the "r." Or, if you learned Spanish in school, you basically roll the "r."

My husband teases me about it.

I'll say the word and he'll tell me, "Say that again?" just to hear me pronounce it one more time.

I pronounce Spanish words like they're supposed to sound. I just think they sound better!

Anyway, I digress.

The fried squash blossoms tasted good. Everything tastes good fried anyway. Next time, I want to stuff them with cheese.

Squash blossom tempura
Ingredients:
10 squash blossoms
1 cup tempura batter powder
3/4 cup ice cold water
salt and pepper

Gently open the squash blossoms and take out the pistil. Detach the female blossom from the squash. Or, if you have male blossoms, cut stem to about one inch. Season with salt and pepper.

Pour canola or peanut oil in a saute pan, about a half inch to an inch high. Heat the oil.

Mix batter powder and water together. Coat blossoms with batter. Let excess drip off. Lay the flower in the oil. After blossoms harden a little on the bottom, flip them over. Do this in batches.

If you have female blossoms, you can fry the mini-squash they're attached to.

If you don't have tempura batter powder, you can dip the blossoms in egg, then flour and fry them.

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There's plenty of other sexier recipes for zucchini and squash blossoms. Here are some links.

Nonna's pan-fried zucchini flowers
Seasonal cook: squash blossoms cross cultures
Quick! It's zucchini blossom season!
When squash blossoms bloom (Stacey Slate on Mark Bittman's blog)

Chicken mango wraps

I didn't feel like an elaborate dinner. I had leftover chopped chicken, one mango, some basil and lime. What do I do? I turned it into a wrap!

I'm not even going to write a recipe. All I did was layer the chicken on a wheat tortilla, added the mango and basil and squeezed lime juice over everything. I didn't really feel like adding any condiment because I just wanted to taste the mango. I rolled everything up and that was my dinner.

Pomegranate glazed chicken

Pomegranate glazed chicken and couscous with pistachios and raisins

I had been watching the split chicken breasts defrost for a few days in the refrigerator. It takes a long time!

After watching Everyday Food on PBS a week ago, I definitely wanted to try the pomegranate glazed chicken and couscous with pistachios.

But in my haste and hunger, I overcooked the chicken and I didn't simmer the pom juice long enough for it to thicken to a glaze. That's what I get for being super hungry, while I cook. I get impatient and I rush things.

I still saved the chicken though. I can probably use it for quesadillas or tostadas.

The couscous I loved. My husband is slightly allergic to pistachios (non-fatal). Since he was working late, I figured I could throw in the pistachios. I threw in some raisins, too. I like to add sweet ingredients to couscous.

I'm sure this recipe will be better once I do it right!

Pomegranate glazed chicken
Source: Everyday Food on PBS
Click here for the recipe.

Couscous with pistachios and raisins
Adapted from Everyday Food on PBS
Click here for the original recipe without the raisins.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 scallion, white and green parts thinly sliced and separated
coarse salt and pepper
3/4 cup couscous
1/3 cup shelled pistachios, chopped
handful of raisins

In a medium saucepan with a lid, heat oil over medium. Add white part of scallion; season with salt and pepper, and cook until soft, 1 minute.

Add 1 cup water; bring to a boil. Add couscous, remove from heat, cover, and let stand for at least 5 minutes. Add pistachios, raisins and remaining scallions. Season with salt and pepper; fluff with a fork, and serve.

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Sausage and peppers

M. loves sausage and peppers. The juicy sausage, the sweet peppers and garlic. They all go so well together. Plus, there's one more good reason to like the dish— it's easy and fast to make.

We also had sweet corn to go with our Sunday dinner.

I didn't want to risk grilling the sausage indoors for fear I wouldn't cook it all the way through. (I haven't mastered grilling and we are not allowed to grill outside in our apartment complex.) So, I followed a technique a farmer told me, which is to boil the sausage.

Sausage and peppers
Serves 2
Ingredients:
1 pound spicy Italian sausages
1 onion, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced or crushed
salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water to boil (just enough to cover the sausage). Poke holes in the sausages. Drop them in the water. Cook for 10-12 minutes.

Saute onion and red pepper in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Add garlic. When the sausage is done, add it to the pan. Then serve.

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Blueberry and peach crepes

Crepes always remind me of the food truck at my alma mater's campus. "La Petite Creperie" used to be parked on a certain street on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia. I used to wait 45 minutes in between classes to get a massive chicken Dijon crepe. It was as big as two huge slices of pizza. I would be too full to get a banana nutella crepe. But I'd come back on another day and get a dessert crepe.

The crepe truck guys made the crepes on a flat circular crepe griddle. Then they held a batter spreader and turned it around and around to coat the griddle evenly with a huge crepe. The cooks worked fast and a crepe was in my hands in a few minutes.

The crepes were the best street food on Penn campus.

The truck has since closed. (Click here for the background story.) But the owner opened a cafe in Houston Hall on campus. I've had crepes there, too. They're tasty, but I don't think it's the same. There's something about waiting for your food out in the street. The anticipation almost kills you. But when you get the crepe, it is AWESOME.

Today, I made crepes for the first time. They weren't as awesome as food truck crepes, but they were good.

I searched for crepe recipes on the Internet. I found one on No Recipes. I wish I had gone through my cookbooks because I found another crepe recipe in "I'm Just Here for More Food" by Alton Brown.

I thought of different kinds of ways I could make the filling, like blueberry sauce with whipped cream or sauteing fruit in brown sugar. But, I really just wanted to enjoy the flavor of peaches and blueberries from local farmers. I used blueberry flower honey because I knew it would complement blueberries. The honey has a fruity flavor.

I made the crepes for breakfast. It took me until the third one to get a decent-looking crepe. I just couldn't get the batter to spread. But then I sort of got the hang of it. I think my crepes are browner than they're supposed to be, but they still tasted good.

M. loved them. He ate two and then slathered one with nutella. He ate a fourth crepe by drizzling honey in it.

I couldn't help but spread nutella all over a crepe. I rolled it up and ate it. Yummy!

Crepes
Adapted from No Recipes and "I'm Just Here for the Food" by Alton Brown

For the crepes:
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
a pinch of salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Put everything in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and let the batter rest for at least an hour in the refrigerator. (You can let it rest in the fridge overnight).

Putting the batter in the refrigerator eliminates all the bubbles in it. If you make the crepes right away, the bubbles would pop and you'd have crepes with a bunch of holes in it, according to Alton Brown.

How to make crepes:
Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat until it's hot. Add butter to melt on the bottom and sides of the pan.

Ladle the batter into the pan. Swirl the pan to make the crepe. Use the ladle to gently move the batter to cover empty spots. Cook until the edges are browned or about 30 seconds. Loosen the edges of the crepe with a plastic spatula. Shimmy the spatula underneath the thin pancake and flip it. When the crepe begins to bubble, slide the crepe gently onto a plate. There should be brown spots on the bottom side of the crepe.

Blueberry and Peach crepes
For the filling:
4 small peaches
1/2 cup blueberries
blueberry flower honey or regular honey for drizzling.

Peel peaches or blanch them to get the skin off. Cut into sections. Toss peaches and blueberries in a bowl.

Assembling the crepes:
Lay filling on a quarter of the crepe. Drizzle honey on the fruit and the rest of the crepe. Fold crepe halfway. Then fold it over again. Repeat until you make the desired number of crepes.

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Tomato soup with garam masala

After coming home late last night, I decided to make tomato soup. I was way too hungry and impatient to make anything more elaborate.

I love the taste of Tuttorosso Crushed Tomatoes with Basil. The tomatoes have a lot of flavor even though they're canned.

I cooked the tomatoes and added vegetable broth. But the soup needed something more. I added some garam masala, a mix of Indian spices. I took a sip.

There. That was it. The flavor I wanted.

Next time, I would add garlic and toast the garam masala because it can be bitter.

Tomato soup with garam masala
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon garam masala, toasted
1/2 medium onion, diced
olive oil
1 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes with basil (use any brand)
1 cup vegetable broth
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 cup heavy cream to start, plus more to taste

Toast garam masala in a small pan until fragrant, about one minute. Set aside. Saute diced onions in a saucepan with a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Cook until translucent. Add crushed tomatoes and vegetable broth. There's no need to puree the tomatoes unless you prefer them to be really smooth. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until you're satisfied with the taste. Pour in heavy cream. Add as much as you like.

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Ham fried rice

We had been eating fast food this past weekend and I didn't feel like picking up Chinese food. I decided to make fried rice, not that it's any better, but because it's easy to make.

We had just gotten home on Monday from visiting the in-laws and I just wanted to cook something.

Sorry for the badly lit photo, but I made the dish late at night.

For fried rice, I usually throw in any vegetable that's in my fridge. That's why the recipe is pretty versatile. Anything is good with an egg on top.

This time, I made spicy ketchup to go with the fried rice because my husband loves it. Ketchup, whole grain mustard, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco and other ingredients are all mixed together. The condiment goes really well with eggs.

I'm afraid I don't have exact measurements, but the following recipe is merely a guideline. You can use chicken, beef or pork and any vegetable you prefer. The recipe is similar to one in an issue of Everyday Food magazine, but fried rice recipes are founded on the same ingredients of rice, soy sauce and chopped vegetables.

Fried rice with ham
1 pre-packaged, pre-cooked ham steak, cut into cubes
garlic scapes, cut into 1-inch lengths, or use scallions
1 carrot, diced
1 cup frozen peas
2 cups rice
soy sauce to taste
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons ginger, grated
rice vinegar to taste
1 egg for each person
Salt and pepper to season

Make two cups of rice. Saute garlic scapes in sesame oil in a large skillet. Set aside. Microwave carrots for less than a minute to soften them. Defrost peas in the microwave. In the skillet, saute garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add rice. Pour in enough soy sauce to change the color of the rice, or add enough to your liking. Add rice vinegar to your liking. Mix in ham, garlic scapes, carrots and peas. Cook until heated through. Season fried rice with salt and pepper, if needed.

Cook eggs sunny-side up in a separate pan, seasoning them with salt and pepper. Serve fried rice with an egg and spicy ketchup.

Spicy ketchup
Adapted from Cuisine at Home

2/3 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon fresh minced parsley
1 jalapeno, seeded, minced (optional)
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons Tabasco, or to taste

Whisk together all ingredients. Use leftovers for egg sandwiches.

Print recipe

A weekend with family

Bartlett pears. Aren't they cute? My in-laws have a pear tree in their backyard. M. and I visited his parents and grandparents in Illinois last weekend.

Bartlett pear tree

These flowers are my mother-in-law's lillies.

My father-in-law said the pears are "buggy." I think they look real pretty.

Shaved ice

Strawberry shaved ice with sweetened, condensed milk already absorbed in the ice

I never had sweetened, condensed milk drizzled on top of flavored shaved ice until recently. The first time, I tried the condensed milk with mango. I dug my plastic spoon in the shaved ice. I took a bite. The ice tasted sweet because of the milk. It definitely added another layer of flavor to the mango. Very addictive. I liked slurping every last drop of the flavored syrup.

M. and I get our shaved ice fix at The Grasshopper in Beacon, N.Y. It just opened in June. The owner makes all her own syrups. Shaved ice is also known as piraguas in the Caribbean and raspados in Mexico.

The Grasshopper

315 Main St.
Beacon, NY 12508

(845) 831-0700

Cannoli moment

I worked the early shift 7 -3 Thursday. Constant phone calls, while I'm trying to get work done. Hurrying to the bathroom and back so I could finish my stuff on time. Leaving work finally, but then needing to get gas. Rummaging in my purse for my phone only to remember I left it on my desk. Going back to my office to retrieve it. Commuting home.

As I drove closer to Nonna Concetta, a family-owned Italian restaurant, on the way home, I remembered they had damn good cannoli. I imagined licking the sweet filling and chomping on the shell. I turned into the restaurant's parking lot just then.

One way to know a place has really good cannoli: Look in the case. Are the pastry shells empty?

I hate it when I eat cannoli and the shells are soft. If a restaurant or bakery fills your cannoli to order, the shell will always be crunchy and your cannoli fabulous. An already-filled cannoli in a case will get soggy in a few hours.

The folks at Nonna Concetta fill your cannoli to order of course. The ricotta filling is perfectly sweet and it has the right consistency — very, very close to cannoli I've had in Rome.

I came home, sat on the couch and ate my cannoli, one slow lick after another. Now this was a cannoli moment.

Nonna Concetta
1458 Route 9D
Fishkill, NY
(Mailing address Wappingers Falls, NY)

One Lovely Blog award

Someone thinks I have one lovely blog! Rebecca of Chow and Chatter gave me this award. Thanks, Rebecca! I kind of mentioned several blogs already when I got the Kreativ Blogger award. Plus, this award has no rules to follow. But I do want to tell you guys about Diana of A little bit of Spain in Iowa.

Her mother is from Spain and her father is from Mexico. She has wonderful Spanish recipes and all other kinds of recipes.

Alton Brown's Peach Upside-down Cake

Peaches, peaches, peaches. They're one of my favorite things. I usually can't wait to see them at the farmers' market. I take peaches home, put them in a paper bag and wait 1-2 days until they're ripe. I try to eat them right away, or I put them in the fridge.

I made Alton Brown's Individual Peach Upside-Down Cakes last night when I had pesto pasta. I figured I could do two things at once: make pasta and blanch my peaches.

I heated a large pot of water on the stove. While I waited for it to boil, I washed the peaches and tried to rub off some of the fuzzy skin. When the water boiled, I blanched the peaches for 30 seconds and shocked them in a bowl of ice-cold water. Then I was able to peel off the skin of each peach.

With the water still boiling, I added salt and cooked my pasta. Cool, huh? I didn't mind seeing peach fuzz in the pot because it's organic material anyway.

I had a great dinner with pesto pasta and individual peach upside-down cake for dessert.

I love this recipe. There are the sweet peaches and the cake underneath them. AND, it's all in a ramekin made just for you.

Here is a photo showing the cakes just out of the oven before you turn them over.

Here's to peaches!

Individual Peach Upside-Down Cake
Click here for the recipe. I've substituted heavy cream for buttermilk. Heavy cream makes the "cake" part of the dessert more like a cookie topping.

Kreativ Blogger Award

Sometimes I'm a little slow. I've only started blogging since the end of May. When I saw these Kreativ Blogger badges on people's blogs, I wasn't quite sure what they were all about. Diana of A little Bit of Spain in Iowa nominated me for the award a little while ago. THANKS, DIANA! It's my first blogger award!

All right, here goes... 7 things about me:

1. Sometimes I leave half-empty glasses of water all around my apartment. I'll drink a glass, leave it in a room and fill up another glass.

2. I love making lists, like this one! I just like to be somewhat organized, even though there's clothes and blags strewn all over the apartment. Microsoft Excel is one of my favorite software programs. I'm not kidding. I write lists about my favorite restaurants, places I want to visit, future trips, and of course groceries.

3. I'm from Wisconsin. Yep. I'm a cheesehead.

4. I actually don't mind washing dishes as much as I used to. It's just easier to wash most of my dishes after I make a massive meal and dessert than having to clean everything the next day before I cook. A year ago, I'd leave my dishes in the sink for a whole week.

5. I was in 8th grade when I made it to third place in the Wisconsin State Spelling Bee.

6. I don't handle caffeine very well. I can handle chocolate, but not a whole bottle of Coca-Cola. I get very, very jumpy. I think it's because my father forbid my brothers and I from drinking coffee and soda. Maybe that's why I have such a low tolerance for caffeine.

7. I can wiggle my ears. Seriously, I can. I don't know what it is, but I can move those tiny muscles in my ears.

If I nominate you for an award, here are the rules:
1. Thank the person who has given you the award
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog
3. Link to the person who has nominated you for the award
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting
5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate
7. Leave a comment on which of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

The award recipients are:
1. Cooking4carnivores
The Happy Couple are a vegetarian and carnivore. They've learned how to coexist with each other's tastes.

2. Soup Belly
Candy of Soup Belly has recipes like dumplings and Asian honey glazed chicken wings. I love her blog because she has awesome photos. She posts tips on how to be a better food photographer.

3. Ravenous Couple
This blog is written by a couple who carry on a long-distance relationship. They spend their visits together making mouthwatering, utterly delicious food. I can relate to the long-distance thing because my husband and I did it for about four years before we got married.

4. Peach Kitchen
Peachkins blogs about Philippine street food AND makes wonderful Philippine dishes. She makes me want to visit her home country.

5. Adventures in the Pioneer Valley
ValleyWriter blogs about how she uses up her CSA farmshare. Although I don't get a farmshare, I like reading her blog to see what she does with a lot of zucchini.

6. Filipina loves food
Janice has yummy recipes like turkey enchiladas and pork kabobs.

7. Blurp and Slurp
Sophia is so inspiring with her chronicles of coping with an eating disorder, yet making sweet and savory dishes that I have to try.

I also want to give shout-outs to Bread + Butter, Girlichef, Heavenly Housewife, Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice and Chow and Chatter.

I also received another award, but more on that later!

Pesto pasta

Pesto is an everyday dish. It's not as spectacular as steak with a wine reduction sauce, but it's fast and easy. I made pesto last night just before I went to bed. When I came home from work today, all I had to do was make the pasta and saute some onions. I used Giada De Laurentiis' recipe from her book Everyday Italian.

Basil pesto
Source: Everyday Italian by Giada De Laurentiis
Makes 1 cup; serves 4 over 12 ounces of pasta

2 cups (packed) fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1 garlic clove
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a blender, pulse the basil, pine nuts, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper until fined chopped. With the blender still running, gradually add enough oil to form a smooth and thick consistency. Transfer the pesto to a medium bowl and stir in the cheese. Season the pesto with more and pepper to taste.

The pesto can be made two days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.

De Laurentiis said the secret to making pesto into a great pasta dressing is to get the sauce to the right consistency. Pestos are too thick after being mixed in a blender or food processor, she said. You need to mix in just enough pasta cooking liquid to get the pesto to coat the pasta.

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Banana blueberry muffins

I had overripe bananas sitting on a shelf, getting spottier and spottier. I had fresh blueberries in my fridge. I woke up this morning and decided to make banana blueberry muffins for breakfast. I heard about the recipe from cooking4carnivores who got it from cooks.com.

My husband ate one muffin, then grabbed another.

"I have decided these are delicious," he said.

He ate five or six.

The dominant flavor was definitely the banana. The blueberries added tartness. I had beat up the blueberries a little when I mixed the flour mixture into the batter. When we broke open the muffins, the blueberries oozed out.

Banana Blueberry muffins
Adapted from cooks.com
Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
2 medium overripe bananas, peeled and mashed
2 large eggs
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup blueberries
1 teaspoon vanilla extra
2 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine bananas, eggs, sugar and butter. Stir in blueberries and vanilla extract. Mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add flour mixture to the batter in portions until all blended. Fill up a 12-muffin pan

Bake muffins for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Print recipe

Blueberry muffins

I made blueberry muffins for the first time yesterday! I bought blueberries the same day from a farm. I used a recipe from Simply Recipes. It called for plain yogurt and lemon zest. The zest made the batter so good I couldn't help but lick the sweet batter off my fingers. The yogurt made the muffins super moist.

Click here for the recipe.

Tofu soup

I came home around 6:30 p.m. today, changed out of my work clothes, started chopping tofu and the soup was done by 7 p.m.

For the soup base, I used doenjang— Korean fermented soybean paste. Doenjang is the equivalent of miso, Japanese soybean paste. Korean soybean paste is used as a condiment. For instance, if I had bulgogi, Korean marinated beef, I'd add doenjang to the beef and wrap it in lettuce.

Japanese restaurants hand out miso soup as a complimentary appetizer. But I've always noticed the miso soup has a few tiny cubes of tofu and miniscule slices of scallions, if any.

I like my tofu soup to be hearty. Tonight, I plopped in a lot of soybean paste because I love the taste. I added spinach, tofu and scallions. I would've added shiitake mushrooms if I had some. It's a soup I can have for lunch tomorrow.

Tofu soup
Ingredients:
5 cups water
3 heaping tablespoons to start of doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste) or white miso, add more to your preference. (You can start off with 1 tablespoon to taste, then drop in more to your liking.)
14 ounces or 1 package of firm tofu, cut into cubes or rectangles
1 cup spinach leaves, loosely packed
2 scallions, chopped
2-3 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
salt

Heat water in a saucepan. Add doenjang or miso and mix well. Add spinach, tofu, scallions and mushrooms. Simmer until spinach has wilted. Season with salt. Taste the soup. If you think it's done, ladle yourself a bowl.

Note: This soup doesn't take that long to make at all. I actually added 4 tablespoons of doenjang, but not everyone likes it that strong.

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4th of July meal for two

We decided to have a cozy 4th of July with just the two of us. We had grilled bacon and cheese burgers. We also had homemade french fries with roasted garlic mayonnaise. We grilled slices of summer squash and zucchini with olive oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

We decided to take the advice of a cooking magazine and chill the fries after the first fry to get better crispiness.

M. became militant about cooking the fries. He guarded the pot of oil with a spider strainer, watching the fries turn golden on the first fry. He already had a set schedule in his head. We would cook the fries first and chill them. Then we'd work on the garlic mayonnaise, bacon and burgers before we fried the fries a second time.

French fries- The better way
Adapted from Cuisine at Home Issue No. 52 August 2005
Ingredients:
Russet potatoes
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a sturdy pot with peanut oil to 325 degrees F.

Cut potatoes to preferred width.

Drop the fries into water. Then blot them dry with a paper towel as much as possible. Drop batches of fries into the oil. Drain onto a rack that has paper towels underneath or some kind of paper to soak up the oil. Blot fries again to catch excess oil. Chill for 45 minutes or more in the fridge.

Then heat oil in the pot up to 375 degrees F. Drop fries in batches in the oil. Drain them. Season with salt and pepper.

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I plan on reusing the oil a couple more times. I strained the oil through a mesh strainer and poured it in unused bottles and jars. Click on this link to read tips on how to reuse the oil from Bon Appetit.

Roasted garlic mayonnaise
Adapted from Cuisine at Home Issue No. 52 August 2005
Makes 1 cup
Ingredients:
1 head garlic, the top cut off
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to season

1 cup mayonnaise
Juice of 1/2 a lemon or 1-2 tablespoons lime juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Trim the top of the garlic head to expose the cloves. Place on foil, drizzle with oil and season.

Wrap in the foil and roast for 30 minutes, or until soft. Cool, then squeeze cloves into a bowl with mayonnaise and juice.

Mash cloves into mayonnaise to combine. Cover and chill.

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Our lemons had gone bad, so we used lime juice instead. The mayonnaise still tasted great! It was garlicky with a citrus punch. I can't wait to make french fries again just to taste the garlic mayonnaise.

Kalbi jjim Korean braised short ribs

Kalbi jjim— Korean braised short ribs Version 1
Note: This is a working recipe. I may try a different version later.

Ingredients:
2 to 2.5 pounds English cut bone-in short ribs, 3-5 inches long
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup soju or sake (rice wine) or mirin, Japanese cooking wine with lower alcohol content
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ginger, grated
2 cups water
2 cups daikon radish, cut into 2-inch chunks or use potatoes
3 carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces
6 shiitake mushrooms, sliced thick

Make rice.

Slice off and discard extra fat on short ribs. Make short incisions 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch apart parallel to the bone on both sides of each short rib, like each rib has fringes (see photo below). Put ribs in a large pot.

Whisk soy sauce, sugar, rice wine, garlic and ginger in a bowl. Pour over meat. Add 2 cups water or more to cover most of the ribs. Add radish and carrots, but not the mushrooms. Bring to a boil. Taste the stew. If it tastes thin, add soy sauce, sugar or rice wine. Then lower heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour.

Turn heat to medium high. Add mushrooms. Cover pot partially. Cook for 30 minutes to an hour until the meat falls off the bone. The time depends on the thickness of the ribs. Serve with rice.

What the incisions should look like:

Note: Kalbi jjim can be spelled galbijjim, Kalbi jim, galbi jim and Kalbi chim.

Print recipe

Growing up, I never fully learned how to make the Korean dishes my mother made. Now that I'm married, I find myself cooking more of my ancestors' food. My red-headed husband is happy to oblige.

I headed to the largest liquor in my area to find soju, Korean rice wine. The employee said they only had the Japanese kind. He showed me a shelf with bottles of shochu, Japanese barley wine. I was puzzed because soju is a rice wine and it's spelled differently, but I thought maybe shochu was a Japanese translation. I bought a $10 bottle.

After looking up both wines on the Internet, I figured out shochu and soju are really not the same thing. I bought sake, Japanese rice wine, to use for the kalbi jjim recipe. Even though I'm Korean-American, I'm not going to pretend to know everything about Korean food and drink.

I looked up recipes for Kalbi jjim and there were a lot of variations. Some people boil the short ribs before they make the stew because they say the beef becomes more tender. Some people throw everything in a pot and let the stew simmer. Another recipe called for marinating the ribs before braising them.

I did marinate the ribs before stewing them, but I don't think it matters and I've written the recipe to reflect that. I bought short ribs that were pretty huge and they took a little while to cook. You can go to your butcher and ask for 3-inch uniform short ribs if you want.

Friday's dinner was my first try at making this dish. I took a quick picture of the braised short ribs much to the impatience of my husband. He gobbled the ribs in silence and went back for seconds. I loved eating the beef by pulling it apart with my fork. I drowned the rice in the sweet stew.

Next time, I may try boiling the ribs first, add the other ingredients to the ribs and continue to cook them just to compare tastes.

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

Finding short ribs

English cut short ribs (regular cut)

For the past couple weeks, I've been thinking constantly about Kalbi jjim, Korean braised short ribs. The dish is also spelled Galbi jjim, Kalbi jim or Kalbi chim. Recipes I read mentioned getting English cut short ribs, 3 to 5 inches long. For English-style ribs, butchers cut parallel to the bone.

When I called grocery stores asking for English cut, the butcher would be like "Wha?" Then I figured out that butchers in my area already cut them into blocks and I didn't need to request anything special.

Short ribs for barbecued Kalbi are cut English style or flanken. For flanken cut, butchers cut the short ribs across the bone like this. Korean flanken ribs are cut thin. They are really easy to eat with your hands. The bones can be used to make soup.

Looking at those short ribs, I can't wait to make Kalbi jjim today.

Veggie burgers

Tonight, I made veggie burgers of bulgur wheat and pinto beans in honor of my recently married cousin and his wife, who is vegetarian. (Congrats again!) The recipe came from the Everyday Food TV show. The patties were the first vegetarian burgers I have ever made.

When I took a huge bite of the burgers, I grinned. They were utterly delicious, so much better than store-bought frozen patties. The best non-meat burgers ever!

What made them even more delectable was the tahini mayonnaise I made with it. I didn't know adding lemon juice and tahini (sesame-seed paste) to mayonnaise could lift up my tastebuds so much.

These burgers are heavy-weights for sure.

Veggie Burgers with Tahini mayonnaise
Source: Everyday Food TV show
Click here for the recipe.