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2020-05-12: Indian Potato Pea Curry - Aloo Matar

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The finished Aloo Matar dish Today was a nice, but cool, day without much wind. We did not have a lot of leftovers from the prior day. It was time for a nice Indian curry dish. Lets start. My prepped ingredients. I peeled 4 Yukon Gold potatoes and cut them into 2cm cubes. We had some leftover canned tomatoes (I my particular case 3 tomatoes and their juice). I also chopped a small onion, 3 garlic cloves, a knob of ginger (about 2 to 3cm long) and 2 Thai birds eye chilies. I took some frozen peas out of the freezer (1 cup give or take). Last but not least I chopped a handful of cilantro leaves (not visible in the above picture). To that assortment I added the spice and salt containers and voila, everything was ready for the actual cooking. Frying the cubed potatoes in the wok with some oil. The potato frying phase in the picture is close to its end. I started with frying the potato cubes in some oil in my wok over medium heat (typically I try to avoid overheating wh...
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2020-05-03: Swiss Chard with Rice

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Swiss Chard with Rice Making Swiss chard with rice is maybe the recipe that made it out of no-where to my top three list of dishes I cooked in the last year. Before that I did not even know what a Swiss chard was or what todo with it. The dish is easy to cook, if the ingredients are available. It is a vegetarian dish that can serve as a light lunch. It can be eaten as a cold or warm dish. I picked up the basic recipe from one of Deborah Madison's vegetarian cookbooks. But I have seen similar recipes with other greens as pilaf rice dishes in Persian and Afghan cooking books. Here is a picture of the red Swiss chard I used in this recipe (after I washed the leafs): The Swiss chard I used for this recipe. So lets get started with my preparation: I chopped a medium-to-large onion and some cilantro (I could have used more cilantro). I also poured about 3 to 4 tbsp of vegetable oil into my Dutch oven pot and layered the chopped onions into the oil and salted the onions with ...
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2020-05-01: Chinese Three-Sliver-Tofu Salad

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My Chinese Three-Sliver Tofu Salad We had from the previous week some rehydrated and quick boiled kombu (edible kelp) sheet leftovers from making dashi type soups. Originally I thought I would use the kombu to make a mushroom-kombu relish. However this morning I decided to use all I had up as part of a Chinese style Three-Sliver Tofu salad. First I started with my initial preparation steps: I cut 2 larger carrots into matchsticks (about 250g carrot matchsticks). I cut the kombu sheets, which were already rehydrated and short-term boiled a while ago, into very narrow 1.5 to 2-inch length strips. This is not necessarily straight-forward, because the kombu sheets often develop a quite slippery surface after rehydration. The amount of kombu sheets I used, were about 3 10x10 cm sheets. Finally I cut about 200g of tofu skin sheets into similar length strips. Afterwards I blanched the carrot sticks for about 30 seconds in boiling water, removed them from the water, and after a brief st...
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2020-04-28: Fish Fragrant Eggplant

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The finished Fish-Fragrant Eggplant We had some Chinese eggplants in the fridge that needed to be used up. One of my standard recipes for Chinse eggplants is Fish-Fragrant Eggplant, a Chinese dish. On top of that, we had a nice sunny afternoon (we did not have many nice sunny afternoons this April) that allowed me to use our outdoor wok gear to make this dish. My first step involved cutting 600 grams of eggplants into 2-inch cylinders. And then I cut the cylinders into batons by cutting them into quarters or into sixth's pending on the thickness of the eggplant. Afterwards I put the batons into a bowl, salted them, to draw their liquid out, and set the bowl aside for 30 or more minutes.. A good chunk of cooking with a wok is about preparing everything before-hand. There is typically not enough time, once the actual frying or cooking starts, to prepare additional ingredients. I minced about 1.5 tbsp of garlic cloves, 1 tbsp of ginger, prepared 150 ml of stock or water (I us...
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2020-04-28: Roasted Peanuts

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Roasting Peanuts in the Wok Today was a nice afternoon without much wind. I used the time to make a few dishes with my wok outdoors. This post is about roasting peanuts, which are intended to eat as a snack, but also being used as an ingredient for some future Chinese dishes. Frying or roasting peanuts in oil is simple: I poured about 6oz of raw peanuts with their skin into oil that was heated in a wok to a temperature between 200F and 250F (about 95C to 120C). Then I roasted the peanuts in the oil for about 20 minutes or so. Toward the end I tasted a peanut and was not entirely happy, so I increased the heat of the oil to about 135C and continued to fry the peanuts for another 5 minutes. I took them out of the wok with a strainer device and soaked off the remaining clinging oil with some paper towels. It is important not to overheat the oil. The peanuts can burn easily and then taste no good. These days I use a cheap infra-red based device to measure the temperature of the oil ...
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2020-04-04: Tofu Mushroom Pickles

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The finished tofu pickles I made some Korean-style mushroom tofu pickles today. We typically serve them as a side dish in a simple bowl.  I started with cutting 1 pound of firm tofu into suitable cubes with about 1-inch side-lengths. Then I fried the cubes on all sides in a non-stick pan. Frying the tofu cubes in a non-stick pan with a little oil. Afterwards I poured 1.5 cups of water, 0.75 cups of soy sauce and 0.33 cups of apple cider vinegar into a pot. I also added 2 sliced garlic cloves, 5 dried shiitake mushrooms, and three-quarters of an apple to the liquid. I put a lid on the pot, brought the whole thing to a boil, and then simmered the pickling liquid for about 30 to 40 minutes. Preparing the pickling liquid. Once everything was completed, I moved the tofu pickles into a storage glass jar. Then I sliced a shallot and put it on top of the tofu cubes followed up by the sliced (and now well hydrated and soft) mushrooms from the pickling liquid. Finally I ...
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Made a Lasagne

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The finished Lasagne It is a while since the last post. Today is lasagne day. The lasagne I make typically consists of several meat sauce layers and 2 or 3 layers of blanched spinach mixed with an egg and some Parmesan cheese. Both types of layers also have more or less Bechamel sauce sprinkled in. So lets get started. This evening I decided to follow a new recipe when making the meat sauce. I finely grated 1 large carrot and I finely diced 1 large onion. I sweated the diced onion for 5 to 8 minutes in some olive oil to get it into a translucent state, but not browned (I used medium heat). Then I added the grated carrot and stirred that mixture for another 3 to 4 minutes. Afterwards I added about a half pound of ground beef and stirred that mixture for about 10 minutes (maybe at medium-high heat). The meat was at this stage no longer pink, but definitely not browned. Then I de-glazed the whole concoction with about 0.25 cup of red wine and cooked the wine completely down. This w...
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