Techonological Troubles

Have you ever been in that situation where it feels like every single electronic item you own is suddenly on the verge of death and no longer working correctly? That's me right now.

I'm afraid it's slowing my blogging down, and will continue to do so for a little while. And I've been making some neat stuff, too! My pictures of it may be lost, sadly. Soooo, hopefully, after Christmas, I shall be back...

Eggnog Cheesecake

Cheeeeeeeezecake. I've been asked before to post about this most decadent of deserts (well, most fattening, anyway), but haven't gotten around to it. I don't make cheesecake very often, but when I do...prepare to die of a deliciousness induced heart-attack.

There are many, many versions of cheesecake out there! And multiple ways of making them, too. I make mine the old-fashioned way - with a waterbath. The waterbath is the secret to preventing cracking (although it can happen anyway, to my personal frustration.) It also helps prevent over browning, by keeping the humidity up in the oven. Bakes the cake evenly, preventing the pulling that creates the cracks.

I'd never made an eggnog cheesecake before, but I'd seen the idea  floating around on allrecipes.com, and put it on my 'to try' list. Tis the season, so why not? I made this for a meeting, my cheesecake went like hotcakes! I replaced the cream I'd normally place in my cheesecake with eggnog, plus about a 1/2 cup extra. That's a lot more moisture in the cake, so I added 2 TBS flour to help it firm up.

If you're going to do a waterbath for a cheesecake, get one of those aluminum big turkey roasters to do it. Perfect size! And cheap. The water needs to be hot already when you add it, too. Otherwise it will really slow the baking down.

Cheesecake should NOT be fully cooked through when you turn the oven off - needs to be jiggly still in the center. Simply leave the cake in its hot water bath in the oven for another hour. The water's and the cake's own heat will finish cooking it. This prevents over-browning from occurring.

I made homemade eggnog whipcream to go with it. Literally, instead of all cream, I whipped eggnog FOREVER, added some cream and fine sugar, and then whipped some more. Eggnog did not want to turn fluffy. Had to stop because my arm was tired - the results are what you see above.

So delicious. I can't even begin to describe. Sends off small fireworks on taste buds, which catch brain on fire. That kind of tasty.

Venison Soup

That's right, venison. As in meat of deer. I recently received several pounds as a gift, and am now trying to put it to use. I'm placing this recipe in the 'Kentucky' file in my recipe box. It's a hunter's soup, and using turnips (hunters plant it to attract deer) and venison (Bambii should've stayed away from the turnips) simply, well, feels of this state.

Game meat recipes are few and far between, but uniquely, one of Owensboro's Junior League cookbooks is loaded with them. This soup is one, with some modifications. (Gave it the Katie touch.)

It's gotten to be so cold down here in Kentucky! I wanted it to get frosty, simply so it could feel like winter. After a few hours of bone chilling horribleness, I've changed my mind. Sixty degrees again, PLEASE!! I'm sorry for thinking cold thoughts!

I tasted no 'gamey' flavor at all in this delicious soup. John ate two bowls with no comment (and no knowledge that it wasn't beef. Never did reveal, even afterwards.) The red wine and lemon juice could have a lot to do with this. One of my mottos - Add liquor, whether wine, vodka, rum, bourbon. Makes food taste better. Also nice to sip on while cooking. ;) The addition of a can of tomato soup sweetened it up, too. If you don't have venison meat, beef will do just fine too. Or lamb. Or even bison.

Turnips are a vegetable I've never worked with before - turns out, I really like them. Taste and consistency like daikon radish, which turnips are a cousin of. Peeled it, chopped it, placed in pot. Will have to use them again soon.

While my soup cooked I worked on an eggnog cheesecake, and basted my Kentucky Bourbon Fruitcake again. Only one will eventually appear in Smalltownkitchen... 

Baked Broccoli

Allow me to introduce you to today's lunch. Baked broccoli is the most amazing thing on earth. It's like eating candy. Or a hamburger, or filet mignon. Amazing.

I was at my friends TW and SW's house, and SW asked me if I'd ever eaten baked broccoli before. She'd found the recipe off of Pinterest (something of which I don't spend much time on, surprisingly), and fell head-over-heels in love with it. TW and SW apparently are eating baked broc 3 times a week!

I'm one for hype, so I tried it out on my own. WOW. John and I are eating this vegetable all the time now, too. Who knew that vegetables could be so dang tasty? Never steaming again! (Well, we'll see about that.)

After doing some research on this recipe, it looks like the original came from one Ina Garten's cookbooks, aka the Barefoot Contessa. I don't follow her, but this recipe blew me away. Will have to look into her more of her recipes!

Some tips - to get the best crispiness and browning, the broccoli needs to be dry. That means no washing. Ewww, I know. But I haven't died yet, and your going to be baking this in a 425 degree oven. What kind of bacteria is going to survive that?? If it's pesticides you're worried about, buy organic.

The original version of this called for lemon juice, but I have used balsamic vinegar instead. It's very good.

Try it. You will never view vegetables the same again.

Chicken Tikka

An Indian Restaurant is coming to Owensboro!!! For. Real. Behold photographic evidence below. It's called Basant, and is located by the Frederica Wal-mart. (I've got marked off with a big X on my map). John and I tried to go and check it out yesterday, (having received info that it was already open), but were forced to turn around when it wasn't. 

In the mean time, since we wanted Indian NOW, and didn't want to run to Evansville, I decided to make Chicken Tikka myself. Chicken Tikka and Chicken Tikka Masala are not the same thing. Chicken Tikka is actually an ingredient in Chicken Tikka Masala - the orange colored chicken pieces. (Obviously, it's also a dish by itself). The masala part is the accompanying gravy, (well, it more complicated than that - a masala is an Indian word for 'a blend of spices') which is a delicious, creamy, spicy recipe all of its own, of which I have made before on this blog, here. 

Like the masala sauce, it took me several tries to figure out how to make Chicken Tikka. 


The first trick I couldn't fathom was HOW IN THE WORLD DO THEY MAKE IT ORANGE? (This really bothered me). I started out by looking up a recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala on Allrecipes, which was similar, but no cigar. Watched informative videos on Youtube. Finally, just tried using some good old fashioned creativity. The secret to the orange color is to add the colorful spices to the chicken first, especially the paprika and Indian chile, then let it marinate, and add the yogurt later, before marinating some more. My chicken doesn't come out as orange as the restaurant versions do, but it's very close.

Another absolute must with chicken tikka is - cook it on the grill! Grilling makes for chicken tikka that tastes like heaven (but burns like h**l. This dish is quite spicy, fyi!)

Please, don't be intimidated by the number of ingredients on this list. All your going to do is mix them together! To get the color right, however, you need to do them in a specific order, as though your baking. Here is what I do: lemon juice, paprika, Indian Chili powder (similar to cayenne pepper), minced garlic, fresh ginger, cinnamon, cumin, black pepper, MDH Kitchen King Masala, poppy seeds, garam masala.  I've included links to where I bought the unusual ingredients listed here. Kitchen King Masala is some of the most amazing stuff I've ever come across. I use it in so many things that aren't even Indian! Smells amazing. So does the nuts.com garam masala.

When you've mixed all of these ingredients, cover the bowl and refrigerate for about half an hour, then pull out again and add the yogurt. Give it longer, if you can. This allows the chicken to better absorb the spice flavors, and to pull in the color. Ideally, your chicken tikka should be allowed to sit overnight, but I wanted to eat my chicken tikka right NOW, so it only received a few hours.

Serve this with masala sauce, basmati rice, and if you have the time, naan bread. (Didn't have that kind of time, sadly).

Lentil Soup with Cumin and Celery Seed

Yesterday was Vegetarian Monday and Thanksgiving is now over! Thank goodness, cause my figure can't handle much more meat and dressing and pie. John and I just finished spending a week at home in Nebraska with my family. Was so happy to be there, even for such a short time. Mom and I cooked up a storm while I was there. Sadly, I'm not going to post about any of the amazing deserts and dishes we made! (Well, at least not right now).

This delicious lentil soup came from Fatfreevegan, a cooking blog devoted, as I'm sure you've guessed, to vegan style cooking. Making vegan dishes, ones that actually taste good, is a heck of a challenge. Especially when using no oil or butter, like in this dish! But as soon as I saw the recipe for this soup, I had to try it. Not so happy with this photo... Needed more light. I'd like trying to take it again sometime. Since this recipe is soooo worth it.

Truthfully, my version of this soup isn't fully vegan, because I didn't have vegetable bouillon on hand (and I was NOT going back to the store), I wound up using chicken instead. Also, Fatfreevegan's version included coriander seed... I don't dislike many things, but coriander (aka cilantro), is of the devil. I can't really describe what it tastes like to me. Soap, maybe. I can think of harsher words, but they are inappropriate to a blog about cooking!

So, instead of coriander, I substituted celery seed. Not exactly the same. Not really the same at all. Made for a spicier soup, which I further enhanced with a 1/8 tsp of white pepper and a 1/2 tsp of paprika.

In the end, it turned out a very flavorful dish. The lentils still came out strongly, despite all of the spices.

Mom's Sloppy Joes

With the onset of colder weather, my cravings for comfort food become irresistible. My favorite comfort food is sloppy joe, a loose meat, saucy sandwich, which I grew up with served on either a piece of bread or a bun. This recipe really is my mothers. Wouldn't eat anything else!

Just let me say, Sloppy Joe doesn't photograph well. Not that I'm a great food photo taker. (I've been practicing!) But don't be fooled - it tastes like heaven on a bun.

When I say 'sloppy joe is my favorite food' to most people, they grimace and then look at me like I smell bad. Trust me, this is NOT that school lunch horror on a stale white bun you're remembering.  That is this stuff, <---, and it comes in a can. Just looking at this picture gives me a stomach ache. Not like momma makes! A junior high flashback-nightmare, that's what manwich is. (Sorry, anyone who's a lover of this horror. I'm sure you're out there.) John gets excited when I tell him I'm making sloppy joe (he gave me the 'you smell funny' look before I converted him), and eats more than he should. If that doesn't convince y'all on its tastiness, I don't know what will.

Anyway, making real sloppy joe, which does not stick together like a salty, glutinous mass from a can, is very simple. Hamburger, a can of tomato soup, water, brown sugar, ketchup, mustard, cracked pepper and meat seasoning ala Lawries. (Mom and I have a secret seasoning. It's a SECRET, however.) If you're like me, and you want left overs, double it.

This is one of those recipes I'm so familiar with, I don't need a recipe. A little bit o' this, a big glob of that, smells right, tastes right, done!  Too ketchupy, add some mustard. Not sweet enough? Add ketchup. Should be nice and sloppy when done, so it dribbles all over the place if you actually are foolish enough to pick it up with your hands. True sloppy joe is only eaten with a fork, and is very saucy.

If you make anything off this blog, make these! I promise you will not be disappointed.

Must be served with mac-n-cheese on the side.

Fresh Vietnamese Spring Rolls

The difference between 'Fresh' and regular spring rolls is that one is fried, the other is not. Watching my waste line as we come into the holiday season, I opted to make the fresh version of these. (That and I'm horrific at frying food. Someday, soon, I shall try frying again.)

While with my friend SW last Saturday night, she mentioned making Fresh Spring Rolls to me. My mouth watered at the thought. I've made these once before, and they are surprisingly easy to make. The only challenging part is getting them to wrap up nice and tight! (I give myself a 6 out of 10 on tight wrapping skills. Completely ripped one, much to my frustration.)

Spring rolls, like all Asian cuisine, are 70% preparation and 30% actual cooking. (You could argue its 80/20, honestly.) First I made and prepped all my ingredients: pan-fried shrimp for extra flavor, boiled rice vermicelli (available at Kroger, fyi. A similar noodle is mai fun), avocado slices, lettuce leaves, basil leaves, julienned carrots, and then the dried rice wrappers (also available at Kroger. If you can't find these ingredients at your local grocery, then head to an Asian grocery store.)

To fold them: have you ever been to a Chipotle before? Did you watch how they make the burrito? Pile up all the goodies in a line in the center. Fold two of the sides in. Turn it and start rolling, keeping the pressure constant. Rice wrappers are sticky, a bit like saran wrap, so it won't be as easy as tortilla rolling, but the idea is the same. Dip the wrap into a large bowl of hot water (don't burn yourself, people), for just a few seconds. It'll go limp immediately. Lay it out on a dry surface, place your ingredients, and Chipotle roll. Should be a short, round, chubby little thing when finished, about the width of your palm.

These are a delicious appetizer, any time. I pulled the original recipe off of Allrecipes.com. The hoisen/peanut butter sauce I make to go with it came from there too, but from the comments, not the actual recipe.

Two shrimp cut in half to each roll is how I make these. Some versions you see the shrimp left whole, which makes for an interesting image from the outside. I think that cutting them in half makes the layering and rolling easier, however, and spreads the shrimp per bite ratio better. These would be excellent with tofu, or no meat whatsoever, too. Cucumbers, bean sprouts, pickled daikon, thinly sliced beef... I can think of many ways to change these up!

So good! Crisp, refreshing. John loves these, he ate the majority.

Nebraska Runzas

Though I sound like a Kentucky girl more often than not now, (I lost my battle against the local accent a couple of years ago), I will always be from Nebraska.

Omaha is famous for a few things: Warren Buffet (everyone in Omaha knows someone who knows someone who knows Warren), the NCAA Men's World Series Baseball (a giant drunken party), and indie music (311, Bright Eyes). Runzas should also be added to this list.

Anyone who grew up in Nebraska will be familiar with the fast-food chain called Runza, where you can pull up to the drive-through and get your runza craving filled in five minutes. I, on the other hand, live about 11 hours from the nearest Runza restaurant. If I'm going to have a bun stuffed with meaty goodness, then I've got to do it myself!

The runza came to the US through Germany, when the Volga Germans (who many Nebraskans are descended from) adapted it from the Russian Pirogi. It's pretty simple: meat, cabbage, onion and cheese rolled into yeast dough and baked to golden perfection. The version I grew up with, seen in Nebraska (and other parts of the great plains/mountain states) is made in a rectangular shape.

Sorry, interruption for a kitty picture! Princess is relaxing after a hard day of going in and out. Another cat showed up in the yard the other day, was quite the traumatic experience. Doesn't stop her from wanting to go back out! Princess is also from Nebraska - she was born in the parent's barn, raised with lots of love, and driven all the way down to Kentucky, just to be with me.

Back to business. Runza's are not exactly easy to make, despite the simple ingredients. There are many steps to it, but making the dough is the hardest part, mostly because it is time consuming. It's not something I can come home from work and whip right up.

There are secrets to making yeast-based dough. #1. You've got to activate the yeast. If you don't do this, then your dough won't rise properly. Don't just dump the yeast into the flour mixture! Activate it by taking pouring 2 TBS warm water into a bowl, make sure it's not hot, that'll kill it. If you put your finger in and pull it out going ouch, then it's too dang hot. Add some sugar, at least 1 TBS. Yeast is a living thing, and needs food. Pour the yeast in. Stir it, leave it alone. When foam forms on the top, it's ready. You'll probably hear it fizzing! I warmed the milk too, in this case, and placed it in the yeast mixture. #2 Once you've made your dough and kneaded it to death, then you must allow it to rise in a warm place. I like to turn the oven on, and then set the (metal) bowl holding the dough on top, near the ovens edge. Crack the oven door open, and then the leaking heat keeps the bowl warm, encouraging the yeast to do its work.

Roll out the dough, cut it into rectangles. Place a half a piece of American cheese (or more, if you like cheesy cheesy) on top of the dough. Fry up the ground beef, the cabbage and onion, and place on top of the cheese. Roll the dough around it, folding similar to a burrito. To make the seams stick better, wet your finger with water and brush it along the dough edges. Place in a 13" x 9" pan seam side down.

Bake. Eat. Be happy. Tastes like Nebraska. Reminds me of home.

Spaetzle with Goat cheese and Jarlsburg

John went to a Titan's game today with friends, leaving me behind. He woke me up this morning (way too early), and while departing, just before I rolled back over, he told me he WILL be back for dinner. So: Katie has time + John is coming back for dinner = Katie has herself a cooking challenge.

Today's adventure was German cuisine. German cuisine has developed something of a bad rep here in the US, for some reason. It's unjustified. German foodies are out there, however, and one of them is part of my inspiration for trying this! (Had dinner with her the other day, along with some other good friends I haven't hung with in a loooong time. I should be prosecuted for friend neglect, it wouldn't be unjustified.)

Spaetzle (pronounced schpetz-lah), a egg-noodle/dumpling, are a very popular German dish, originating in Bavaria. There are many shapes and sizes for these tasty little things, but all varieties have a few things in common - flour, eggs, and nutmeg. It's the nutmeg that gives them that unique taste.

I stumbled across spaetzle the first time by accident. While at the Taste of Owensboro a couple of years ago, I bet on a basket of German food goodies in a silent auction. I won (naturally), and included in my prize was a bag of spaetzle. Ever the food explorer, I didn't hesitate to make them, following the little recipe included, which was for Kaese Spaetzle, which is like a German mac-n-cheese. WOW was my recorded response after first bite. Kroger sells these little German gems, so I've made the dish many times since.

The challenge today is to make spaetzle from scratch. I've wanted to do this forever now! A while ago I bought myself a spaetzle-maker, but just haven't had the time to actually do it. No longer. It's game time!

Figuring out how to make it took some time. Messed with the batter forever, trying to get it right. The consistency of the dough is very important. It must be elastic, but not thick and stiff like bread dough. I took a photo of what it looked like when I felt it had reached the right state. Hopefully you can see the swirl of the dough, it needs to hold its shape somewhat when you pull out your mixing spoon, but not hold it hard. (Like soft peaks, when whipping egg white. Eventually it will lose it's shape.)

Here's a photo of the noodles as they cook and rise to the surface, ready for me to scoop them out. (Kind of blurry, sorry).

And here's a photo of the finished dumplings, ready to be mixed with parsley and cheese.

Besides nutmeg, I mixed a dash of white pepper and cracked black pepper into the mixture.

For the casserole: once I'd finished the dumplings, I placed them into a bowl, and immediately mixed in half of the shredded Jarlsburg and all of the goat cheese. In total this recipe uses a little over 2 cups of cheese! 3 TBS of goat cheese, and then an entire package of Norwegian Jarlesburg. If you can't find this cheese, or anything similar, than swiss cheese will work in a pinch.

I cooked some onions in butter until glassy (don't brown or caramelize them), and mixed half in with the spaetzle and cheese mixture. Next I greased a deep casserole dish, and placed my spaetzle mix in it. The rest of the jarlsburg went on top, and then the remainder of the onions.

Baked uncovered at 325 for 40 minutes. The result is what you see on top.

Lazy Spaghetti Sauce

Are you worn out? Worked all day? Out of time? Or maybe just good old-fashioned lazy? Despite all that, you still want awesome tasting spaghetti sauce? Then I've got the recipe for you!!
 

OK, setting used car salesman voice aside. This really is an awesome Italian tomato sauce (sunday gravy, posted about in an earlier blog, is the from-scratch version of what we American's call spaghetti sauce), and is extremely easy. You need only three things: a can of pre-made spaghetti sauce (blah), your favorite Italian salad dressing (Newman's Own Sun-dried Tomato), and red wine (have a glass on the side, while you're at it. Ain't nothing wrong with drinking on Wednesday). Mix these things together, and bam, from blah to tasty! People will think you're a cooking genius!

I, of course, add a few more ingredients to any version I make, but those three are the base. If it's too acidic, I add a little sugar. I always add some sort of spice, but not so much that it dominates the other flavors. For me, its a dollop of Sriracha. (Adding a touch of heat does amazing things for any tomato sauce.) Fresh herbs, yanked off my own plants. Dash of white pepper, some cracked black pepper. And I always add some sort of fresh vegetable: onions, bell peppers and tomatoes this time. Version before - fennel bulb, orange bell pepper, tomatoes, onion. Anything goes, I've even added carrots.

The version seen in the pan here is vegetarian, but normally I would add some sort of meat, like ground turkey or beef. Typically I'd make it in a deep sauce pan, too, but this batch of lazy spaghetti sauce was being prepped for 'Eggs in Purgatory'. Someday I'll have to blog about that recipe - very traditional, but rarely seen in these here parts.

Done quickly, and turns out beautiful. Lazy spaghetti sauce: good on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Saturday - John take me out to dinner please... I want sushi...

Panang Curry Chicken

Ah, tasty, tasty Thai food. Best food on the planet! (Well, if it's not the best, it's way up there.) John and I are both lovers of Thai cuisine - his favorite would be the traditional Pad Thai, mine the slightly less common Panang Curry.

There are five types of Thai curries that I'm aware of: Red Curry, Yellow Curry, Green Curry, Panang Curry, Massaman Curry. In a Thai restaurant you will see a sixth, 'Jungle Curry', but this is simply one of the above (massaman typically, I believe), without the coconut milk. Panang curry is by far my favorite, because of the peanuts. The differences between them are simply ingredients, with massaman being a combination of Red, Green and Yellow.

I've blogged about Panang curry on here before - Panang fish. This version is the classic 'stew' variety, like what you would see in a Thai restaurant, with chunks of chicken, vegetables (zucchini in this version, egg plant is another common addition), and carrots. More traditionally (aka how Thai people really make panang), it should use beef.

Besides peanuts, you can't have panang curry without Kaffir Lime Leaf. I ordered these delicately scented leaves from Importfood.com, my favorite shop for Thai food ingredients. The leaves were delivered fresh to my door just two days after ordering. They freeze perfectly. Cut them into thin strips and add near the end of cooking. I used scissors to slice them. Some Thai restaurants leave the leaf whole, like Bay leaf. 

I also ordered palm sugar and fish sauce from importfood, requirements of most Thai recipes. (Homemade pad thai sauce, here we come!) The palm sugar is soft and easy to chop up. The shape of it kind of reminds me HFS from 21 Jump Street, however...

John found this recipe a little too spicy! I, on the other hand, am a glutton for punishment. At a restaurant I would have ordered it 'Thai Hot' and been dieing from the inside out. Literally. Could have been spicier, is what I'm getting at. 

If you want it less hot, use less curry paste. More hot, add some more. The original recipe for this, adapted from SheSimmers, originally called for 1/4 to 1/2 cup of paste!! Poor John, (and perhaps myself), would have died. THREE TABLESPOONS. That is all you need of panang curry paste. Add some ground up red chiles, or jalapeno slices (this can be reduced too, for the super sensitive). I buy ground up chili paste in a convenient little tube at my local Kroger. It's in the produce section. 

So goooooood. Makes great leftovers, too. Like chili - curry gets better with time.

Cake Batter Cookies

Yes, that's right. Cake Batter cookies. Everybody likes cookies, everybody likes cake, why not do both??

Can you see the soft yellow coloring on these? I wonder what a white cake version would look like... Or red velvet, with white chocolate chips. Or spice cake cookies. Pineapple cake cookies!! OMG, too many thoughts at once.

Spent all day last Sunday, letting the cat in and out. Most important job ever, in case you didn't know. Poor thing, she only wants a cat door for Christmas. (No. She drags enough leaf bits, grass, and who knows what else in as it is. I can't keep up!) She is wearing her 'let me in' look here. About 15 to 30 seconds later, she's on the other side, wearing the imperious 'let me out' face. This one makes it all worth it. ;)

I read about making cookies with cake mix on Eat at Home, a fellow Kentucky based blogger.  She posts some awesome things. This one caught my eye, mostly because of the word 'cake', but also because of how simple it was! Only four main ingredients - a box of cake mix, eggs, canola oil, and yogurt. Then whatever add-ins you want. I used white and bitter-sweet chocolate chips. Yum yum yum.

Used Duncan Hines 'Butter Yellow' mix this first time.One of my worries was that they would turn out 'cakey'. Not at all! As you can hopefully see in the picture above, they spread like a Nestle Tollhouse cookie, and have a crisp exterior with soft interior. Everything a person wants and expects!

For my yogurt, I used Noosa Honey flavor. (I have to apologize to my friend M. She claims the right to all honey flavor in town, yet here I am, posting evidence of purchasing some.) Kroger in Owensboro recently started carrying this yogurt brand. If you've never tried it, I HIGHLY recommend. Best yogurt, ever, period, dot dot dot, etc. However, it's not exactly easy on the calories. To cut down on those (if you want. I mean, you're making cookies, might as well go for broke), use a low fat yogurt instead. For additional healthiness, replace some of the oil with apple sauce. Not sure what that will do to the cookie consistency, however, so be careful with the sauce.

They disappeared quickly, and that's just between John and I! Need to get back to the gym, stat.

As an addendum: what about brownie batter cookies??

Garam Masala, Sichuan Peppercorn and Pecan Encrusted Salmon

That's a loooong title! This dish came out really interesting, to say the least.

I purchased Sichuan Peppercorn recently, from importfood.com. Sichuan peppercorns are a relatively unknown spice here in the States, I found out about it reading food blogs. It is used prominently in Sichuan cooking, hence the name. It is also one of the spices in Chinese Five-Spice. In Chinese it is called huājiāo, meaning flower pepper. Sichuan peppercorns are NOT actually peppercorns, but rather the seed and husk from a plant related to citrus trees, and native to China. What's unique to this spice is the 'numbing' effect it creates on the tongue, creating a tingly sensation. You could clearly feel it doing so in this salmon dish!

On a canoeing trip in the ozarks, I purchased this beautiful mortar and pestle, and immediately had to put it to work on coming home. My camera phone does no justice to how beautiful it really is. (After some studying, I'm now saving for one of these. The camera makes a mountain of difference in the quality of photos, as I've been discovering. Photography is a complicated world, and I am but a beginner - I have no photography experience at all!! I feel that the road ahead is a long one.) Sichuan Peppercorn should be toasted and then ground, a perfect first crushing task for my new tool!

After toasting and crushing 1 TBS of peppercorns, (which gave the kitchen the most amazing aroma) I added 1 TBS garam masala, a dash of white pepper, a dash of cayenne pepper, and 1 TBS cinnamon. Cinnamon should be the dominant spice flavor. Feeling the urge to use my really-pretty mortar and pestle some more, I grabbed a handful of pecans, and crushed them up, too. Total pecans would have been about 2 TBS worth, very finely crushed, with just a few pea-sized chunks of pecan visible.

I briefly brined the fish before hand, using 1/4 cup sea salt, 4 cups water (half of that ice cubes) and 2 TBS rice wine vinegar. Ideally, meats should be brined overnight, but I only did mine for about 2 hours.

Also, you'll notice in the recipe that I did not dip in egg before applying the coating. There is no need to! I simply brushed some maple syrup on for sweetness, and then rubbed on the spice mixture. Once I had done that, I then turned on the oven and allowed it to warm up, so that the fish could rest. Doing this causes the mixture to adhere to the flesh. This will work for any coating. Even when doing an egg coating beforehand, I would recommend allowing the meat to rest with its breading on before baking or frying. It's the secret to getting coatings to stick.

Came out delicious, will make again some time. Served with baked acorn squash. I look forward to using my sichuan peppercorns in more dishes, soon!

Baked Acorn Squash

There are so many things to love about fall, especially down here in the hills of Kentucky. The colors are gorgeous this year! I just returned from a float trip in the Ozarks, meeting up with my father and a couple of his friends. My camera phone just doesn't do justice to how beautiful the trees were down there, so I left it out. Instead, I give you dad and I! (Photos of family is what's most important, anyway.) We are tiny, but it's really me.

*I just noticed that the title for this was misspelled. Looked at this thing just about 100 times, and still missed it. Whoops....

Another of my favorite fall things is the appearance of acorn squash in my local grocer's. I LOVE this vegetable, especially when it is baked with cinnamon, sugar and butter. Plus, it's shaped like a heart! Must eat more cute food.

I wanted to keep this recipe as simple as possible, so that the spices don't outdo the rich, nutty flavor of the squash. I do use real butter, but in this case, I substituted the classic brown sugar for a medium-colored agave nectar and pure maple syrup instead. Sugar is much worse for you than butter, amazingly enough. Agave nectar and maple syrup, not so much.

To speed up the cooking process, I poke holes in the squash, marking a line to where I'm eventually going to cut it in half.  Not only does this speed up the baking time, but it also makes it easier to cut through.

I place it in the microwave for 2 minutes, flipping it over half-way through. You should let it rest a few minutes before cutting it in half, (unless you're impatient like me. Then you'll be cutting it going Ow! That's hot! Ouch! Geez! Ow!)

Another trick - to prevent the halves from tipping over and dumping all the goodies out, cut off a small part of the shell beneath, cutting slightly into the fruit.

Simple. Delicious. Every time.

Yakiudon with Chicken

Many years ago, like, half a decade or so, I studied abroad in Japan. It was, in a word, AWESOME. Good food too. One of my favorite dishes remains yakisoba, a common street cart and festival food that I saw in Tokyo.

Yakisoba, of course, is made with chinese egg noodles. I didn't have any of that on hand, but I did have a bunch of udon. Unorthodox it may be, (I never saw pan fried udon in Japan, but this version, with thin udon, will be closer than if I used actual soba noodles), but I wanted the flavor of yakisoba, and without leaving the house! So, yakiudon it was.

No tonkatsu, either. Tonkatsu is the traditional sauce used to make yakisoba, and is a thick, rich, dark caramel-colored sauce, like sweet Worcestershire. Using Worcestershire sauce mixed with sugar would have been one way to go about this, but that would have been too easy. So, this is what I did, working with the sauce until it 'smelled right'. (Granted, this is a five year old memory, so who knows what it really smelled like. But I have faith in myself: I have a great nose for food.)

To get that thickened, caramel look, I used tamari, a type of sweeter, thicker Japanese soy sauce. Yakisoba has a bit of a spicy bite to it. I used a little bit of my always-on-hand Thai chile paste, but that didn't give the right kick. At the very end I added two big dashes of ground white pepper. Perfect. I also added mirin and hondashi, two essential Japanese cooking ingredients. Mirin give Japanese dishes that shiney appearance. It's a type of cooking sake, for the trivia nerds out there.

Turned out delicious, if not exactly authentic. You can't qualify it as anything but 'Japanese', however. Not with hondashi in it! :)