Week 2 of 52 Weeks of Cooking: Chinese Week, Mapo Tofu.

Note: The end result was actually much saucier and a bit redder, but my cousin’s camera died.

We’re going at a steady clip here! Week 2 of 52 weeks of cooking. At this rate the year will be over before it starts. This week’s theme is Chinese.

Ma-po Tofu, or possibly Mai-po Tofu according to one of my friends, has been one of the most heavily pushed recipes upon me to try by friends and family alike. This was a multiple front war where I was attacked from many sides before relenting and saying, fine, I’ll make the tofu dish!

It’s not as though I dislike dishes with tofu in them. It’s actually a pretty regular part of my diet. But for some reason I wanted to try something different for Chinese week. The immediacy with which so many people suggested it made me think many others would be trying the recipe. I see that bassposaune has beaten me to the punch.

I try to strive for the obscure and original when possible, but given how great this dish is, I think it is worth repeating..

Week One of 52 Weeks of Cooking! Theme? Eggs! Dish? Pannukakku!

Happy new years again everyone!

 We're well into the middle of the first week of a Reddit challenge, 52 Weeks of Cooking, so I thought I'd buckle down and bang out this post. This week's theme is eggs, a fantastic ingredient in its uses, taste and texture. I just love eggs, and the first thing I ever cooked was the scrambled egg at the age of 14. Or maybe it was 13.

The versatility of the egg lends itself to many different preparations. If I were to list the things that it is essential for but not a major player in, it would take an enormous amount of time, so I won't even try. To list the dishes that focus primarily on eggs alone takes a bit of time, with the immediate things being boiled eggs of varying degrees, fried eggs of many styles, omelets of many fashions, poached eggs and preserved eggs for starters.

It was probably a bit of serendipity that led me to this recipe in time for this week's challenge. One morning when I found myself with a bit of free time to devote to breakfast, my dear friend Virginia suggested that I make pannukakku, also known as a Finnish pancake, or perhaps a Finnish Oven Pancake. Immediately intrigued, I set upon making use of her great grandmother's recipe.

Observe the mise en place: salt, water/milk or some combination of the two (milk preferred, I ran out) butter, flour and of course eggs. Virginia admits to making a slight error in relaying the recipe to me, advising me later that two tablespoons of sugar were optional but recommended. According to her sister, the sugar is mandatory, and I can see how it would lead to a different end product. That said, I still greatly enjoyed the end result!

A New Year for Cast Iron Therapy

2011 was a memorable year for me on a personal level. So many of my friends reached major milestones in their lives, getting engaged or married, finding new jobs, and so many other good things. There have been many trials and tribulations as well, for them and for me. It was a very memorable year, and I am hoping that 2012 will be even better.

So for now, I am going to make some public Cast Iron Therapy specific New Years Resolutions:

1. Learn more healthy recipes.
2. Do more to pick up Vietnamese cooking at home.
3. Blog at least 8 times a month (But ideally 12+)
4. Read all of my food related books cover to cover.
5. Stick it out through all of the 52 weeks of cooking challenge on reddit.

There are some other things I want to do, but I think they fall more under goals than actual resolutions given the relative straightforwardness of the tasks.

1. Brew up a batch of beer.
2. Learn how to butcher a pig.
3. Try out every formula in Michael Ruhlman's Ratio.

Sorry about not making this a recipe post, I am in the process of applying for a rather exciting sounding position, and this is all the time I can spare for a few days.

Look for exciting things coming toward the end of the week though!

Sautéed Su Su–No guarantees your kid will like it, but it’s good!

The Chayote, or as my family refers to it in Vietnamese, su su is a very versatile vegetable. Well, technically it is a fruit, but as with tomatoes, it’s treated not so much as a fruit but more like a vegetable or squash.

This year, my family has a vine in the backyard, with a fair number of fruits. Due to a combination of perhaps bad luck and horrid squirrels, we haven’t been harvesting as much as some of our other friends have done, who have been abled to boast harvests of hundreds of the fruit this year.

Happily, one family was generous enough to grace us with a big box of them, freeing me up to pursue a slightly different take on su su than is typical for my family.

Japanese Christmas Cake! Week Zero of 52 Weeks of Cooking!

First of all, hi to reddit and those taking part in the 52 weeks of cooking challenge. This is indeed my first entry for week zero, with this “week’s” theme being holiday food. After perusing the very helpful wiki link on Christmas dishes around the world posted by rach11, I settled on Japan, because Japan is awesome, and the Japanese Christmas Cake seemed very appealing. On that note, I send my holiday wishes to r/japanesefood and r/asianeats!

As an admittedly big time anime fan, I find great humor in the trope of the Christmas cake as a metaphor for women in their mid twenties fearing becoming one. No matter how delicious a Christmas cake is, no one wants it after the 25th. If you still don’t get it, the saying means that women won’t be able to marry if they haven’t married by the time they are 25. It is an utterly ludicrous and highly old fashioned sentiment, but still pretty funny in anime format. Ok, on to the Japanese Christmas Cake!

How to Make Your Kids Eat Their Veggies: Roasted Broccoli!

In the common experience of many former vegetable avoiders, one trend seems particularly: A mother who does not know how to maximize the deliciousness of the ingredient she has been given. While I have never truly hated broccoli, for a long time it was simply a vegetable I was forced to eat, and nothing I really looked forward to.

This recipe makes broccoli something I could almost make an entire meal out of. And sometimes I do.

For the recipe, I used two cloves of garlic, a tablespoon or so of olive oil, pepper and salt, and a three pound bag of broccoli from Costco, though you can certainly just buy a head of broccoli and use the stems too.

First preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Then cut the broccoli into medium sized pieces if you’re using a head, and any oddly huge pieces from a bag if you find any. Place pieces on a baking sheet.

Mince the garlic cloves and toss onto broccoli.

Sprinkle a tablespoon of olive oil onto the broccoli. Add a bit more if it won’t be enough to coat the pieces.

And finally sprinkle some salt and pepper on. You want each piece to have some flavor, but don’t go overboard. If you need a measurement, then a scant teaspoon for three pounds should be plenty. Then a good shake of pepper, a scant half teaspoon.

Place the tray into the preheated oven and roast for at least twenty minutes, tossing at least once halfway through. Once the broccoli takes on some brown around the edges you are set.

If you’re feeling particularly decadent, toss in some grated parmesan cheese! It’s still delicious without it though.

Just a Sunday Dinner with Friends

Friendship is a wonderful thing, and manifests in many forms. Chums, associates, buddies, pals, pirate crews, fellowships, bowling leagues, partners, lovers, acquaintances, barflies and comrades to name a few such relationships. To have friends is to have fellow human beings (and pets) with which to combat those hours of solitude together, hopefully pursuing constructive activities with one another. Though being lazy with friends is perfectly fine too.

One of my favorite ways to spend time with friends is preparing a group dinner. One of these past weekends I was able to visit some friends who are just a month into their marriage. It is really strange to think of it that way actually, I mean they’ve been together forever, but now they are actually married!

It almost makes me feel self conscious of my enduring bachelorhood. Almost.