Dinner Party Menu!

So during a boring synthetic chemistry seminar, constructed a menu for this party that I'll in my randomly-concocted terminology call "Modern American cuisine of French influence"...or something :P
In any case it was a lot of fun!

The courses were a salad with nusslisalat (couldn't find fresh enough baby spinach!), candied pecans, sliced crisp pear, and bleu cheese (it was a really soft variety, so i ended up needing to mash it into more crushed pecans in order to get it to "crumble" ), and a reduced white-wine viniagrette .... which was a dish I forgot to take a pic of :P

Then soup course:
Two-color bell pepper soup-- this time used red bell peppers and yellow... a recipe prevoiusly detailed in another blog entry :) This time exclusively used onions and bell peppers as the veggie ingredients, besides some white wine, boullion and olive oil. Also with a basil cream decor, and some pull-apart flax&sesame seed bread rolls for dipping

Main course:
Exotic mushroom (chantrelle, shitake, Oyster)-stuffed poppyseed crepes, with sides of cherry tomatos, rosemary polenta, and a vegetable gratin (inspired by seeing a great batch of Fennel in Migros the day before) consisting of pre-steemed potatos and fennel bulbs, then sliced and dipped into an herbed egg&cream-wash, and stacked with beetroot slices, with one middle and top thin slice of gruyere to melt-ooze out over the top and sides while baking to hold it together-- then baked at a low temp for another hour or so... (I really liked this flavor combo!!)
One thing I shouldn't hvae done with the mushroom-crepe-souffles is that at the last minute I decided that it'd be fun to throw in some red peppercorns into the mushroom mix (as I do love that flavor complemented with fish and other dishes..) and thought the sweet-spicey flavor of the corns would be good...but I turned out strongly disliking that flavor-pairing... after steaming in the oven, I found the flavor was quite distasteful from the peppercorns.... tasted good after picking those out though :P

Dessert course:
.... I totally abandoned ship on my creme brulee's... for reasons of not having enough cream on hand...and discovered that they just don't thicken replacing cream with skim milk even after an hour in the oven :D hahah.... BUT I did have enough 'side-dessert' dishes already planned for that, not to mention the lovely desserts that our guests brought, too! ;) But for the cremes I had wanted already to have some fruit complementing the creaminess of a creme brulee... so I just took out the creame brulee component, and left it as is with the tropical-fruit shish-kebabs, drizzled with dark chocolate and blackberry sauce and the merengue cookies on the side. They had a nice selection of pretty decent fresh tropical fruits at the grocery, so picked out some Kumquats, Mango, kiwis, and cape gooseberries (related to tomatillos....they look the same except are orange and sweet!)


I think for next time on the creme brulee's I'd experiment with still not using more high-fat cream content, but instead maybe add one more egg yolk to the proportions, or maybe one egg white, too, to help thicken it, without relying on the cream's heaviness for that.. Next time though! :)

Chocolate Tart

..... what I do most of the time when I have leftover pie dough from some other cooking project....
Chocolate tarts!


Filling:
melted 100g dark chocolate, add some sort of creamy something--this time 1/4-fat mascarpone, beat in 1 egg, a pinch of salt, and some sugar--adjusted to how sweet you want it and based on the chocolate sweetness...
Pour it in, bake until puffy all the way through--will make big cracks (like in pic below), then settles down w/in 3 min out of the oven :)

Plated Salad Course -- Asiatisch Nusslisalat

I really liked how my asian-themed salad course came out for this dinner :)
(fyi picture is pre-dressing so that it wouldn't get soggy from the leaves sitting in vinegar)

Components:

(1) boiled soybeans, then marinated for the day in soy sayce, vinegar, some salt and pepper and a dash of sugar

(2) Springrolls (see a previous posting), except I also made 3 flavors out of these-- in addition to the regular filling, also put in one giant thai basil leaf into one type, and the others, put in some soy-sauce-garlic-marinated woodsear mushroom strips, and in the third did a combo of a rice filling with some basil and the mushroom strips. All types I thought tasted quite nice! then lightly sauteed on both sides till golden brown

(3)Used a combo of what here is called "Nusslisalat" which I don't know a direct translatin for to English..but can describe as young but thicker/juicier spinach bunches, and also some Rucola (Arugula)

(4) Marinated some firm tofu in some soysauce, then seared it in the skillet with some olive oil, and after crisp on two sides, then sliced as a topping.

(5) Dressing: first a white wine reduction (I don't have sake ;) ), then added about equal volume soysauce, and only barely reduced that in addition, a tablespoon or so of sesame oil, also a tablespoon of olive oil, then added some white wine vinegar and sugar, and emulsify.

Potato Skins, my style!

Also get cravings for those cheesy, flavor-loaded potato skins appetizers at "TGIF's"? mmmm....

BUT in efforts to satisfy that craving, ended up with a much healtier version that I think is fantastic!

Here are two versions I've made so far: ( haha also with a load of carmelized onion-garlic & chive mashed potatos--cause gotta do something with the innards):
My *lieblings* toppings:
* some sort of turkey, sliced or slightly dehydrated or something, then I sear it in a pan and it does nearly develop the flavor and texutre of bacon... hah! I just remembered teh product "Turkey bacon" in the US! I love that stuff!!! I guess that's essentially what I'm trying to re-create with other sliced turkey products...
* carmelized onions
*sauteed bell pepper
* green onions
* diced tomato
* one time I had some leftover sour cream from having made a creamy sauce for fish tacos the night before, so I made this herb sour cream mix to drizzle on and it was delicious, to
* And some cheese-- honestly just using a small amount of somehting sharp and flavorful to me ahs teh same effect, minus the greasiness-- for me using a small amount of a flavorful cheese then gives me the sensation of it being cheesy without the masses of it present, ie..mounding on heaps of mozzarella or mild cheddar or something. So I've used things here like Sbrinz, Parm, Gruyere even... all sharp versions..

drool...

Pile me up!

nothin like a nice homey stack of pancakes.... yet, darn tasty using a mixture of soy-flower with regular wheat, as well as protein powder... hence some very high-protein pancakes! Delicious!
Overall essentially I make them like so:
2 beaten eggs, about 1 cup of milk, a spoon of sugar, a few Tbsp of oil, (2 scoops of protein powder), and about 1-1.5 cups of flours (I used a mix of whole wheat and soy flour, sifted with about 1-2 tsp baking powder and 1/4tsp salt), beaten all together (add more flour or milk if too thin or thick, respectively)

Doppelt-Schoggi Mandeln Gebäck!

haha that's a title in Schweizer Deutsch (swiss german) = double-chocolate almond cookies

Made these cookies the other day, just based on what ingredients I hadn't run out of, and ended up being very pleased with how they turned out :)

*my midnight-halloween cookie pic! looks spookie eh?*

Directions:
1) Beat together 2 tablespoons butter, 6 tablespoons light olive oil, 1/2-3/4 c almond butter (I grind my own from plain unroasted almonds--just needs a good food processor), 3/4 tsp salt, and 1 cup brown sugar-- beat well, then add and beat in 3 tablespoons pure cocoa powder, then beat in 2 eggs, and 5-6 Tablespoons Amaretto.
2) Sift together 1.25 cups flour with 1 tsp baking powder into another bowl, then add to mixer, and briefly stir in.
3) Lastly stir in ~100-125g dark or bitter-sweet chocolate chips, or chopped chocolate bar ( they don't really sell chocolate chips like well known in the US! amazing..)

Spoon out dollops of the whole mix to something non-stick, bake for ~12-15 min at 180 C, just until puffs up fully, but it's nice to leave them so the outside is dried out and crispy but the inside still soft!

Walnuss Torte

Here's my random-adapted walnut tart version of pecan pie, using olive oil, that I made for a work gathering recently... and was quite pleased with the result.

Ingredients:

Crust:
1 1/4 c flour
2/3 c cream cheese
1/2 tsp salt
2 T olive oil

(alternatively, second time I made it, as mini-tarts for a party, just made regular pie-dough with 1.5-2 c flour, ~3-4T olive oil, salt, and a bit of water)

Filling:
1 1/3 c brown sugar
1/2 c water
1/3 c olive oil ( a LIGHT-flavored olive oil, though olive oil will loose a lot of its olive smell and taste when heated, hence in something baked or stir-fried, etc, but still would use a light-colored&light-flavored one)
3 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
~ 2/3 to 1 c walnuts (coarsely chopped, and maybe some whole pretty ones reserved for top-decoration)

Crust-- mix all ingredients with a pastry blender with a drizzle of water, until it comes together in a good mass of dough (just enough water will make it the right amount of elasticity so it won't break while rolling it out, but not too much otherwise it will become stretchy like breaddough, and contract when baked), roll and fit to a tart pan (i had a mini-tart's-worth of leftover filling when using 24cm/9.5" tartpan). slightly pre-bake it if you want it crispier, otherwise it'll stay pretty soft from the filling's juices.

Filling:
First in a small saucepan, combine 1 c sugar and 1/2 c water, stir to dissolve over low heat, then wihtout stirring put to medium-high heat until sugar carmelizes to a rich brown (when carmelizing brown sugar, it's easier for me to smell when it's gotten carmelized to the right amount rather than visually, since it starts out as a brown solution anyway). when done (should give nearly 1 c solution, add the olive oil (helps to cool down the sugar before adding it to eggs--you don't wnat to get scrambled eggs, and also helsp cook out some olive flavor in advance. Beat eggs and salt in another bowl, add walnuts & rest of sugar, then add&mix in the carmel&oil.
Pour into crust, and bake at 350F/175C until the center is solidified, probably at least 30 min, (the top crust of floating walnuts will harden and rise up (but will settle back down slowly when removed from the oven).


Made them into mini-tarts the second time-- I think it's even better this way, being bite-size!!

...... and... John caught red-handed with his escapade in the cookie pot!!!

Now that's what I call a TV dinner...

Jalapeno-veggie cornbread with mushroom-chicken 'stroganoff'

mmm... i love me a tasty cornbread!

Cornbread:
finely dice 1 large onion, 1 medium carrot finely diced, a 1/2 c of corn
-sautee onions and carrot till soft and starting to carmelize (set aside to cool a tad)
-over a bit higher heat, sautee the corn to get slightly golden and more flavor

chop some jarred-pickled jalapeno slices (to spiciness desired)
In another bowl:
~1-1.5 c cornmeal
~ 3/4 c flour
~ 2 tsp baking powder
~ 1 tsp salt
~ some seasoning (pepper, garlic powder, paprika,
chopped chives
(mix)
Then whisk in :
2 eggs, 1/3 c olive oil, ~1.5 c milk
Pour into pan
( I topped mine with a sprnkling of grated Sbrinz :) )

I put some in muffin cups, some in a big cake-pan... bake at 180C/375F till starting to golden brown.

"Stroganoff" ingredients:
* 1/2-lb chicken
* 2 onions
* 1/2-lb mushrooms
* red wine
* boullion
* something to thicken (eith erflour, starch)
* more seasoning!
perfect accompaniament to the movie "Iron Man" on that night :)

First Attempt at Bagels!

I MUST learn to make a good bagel! I so so enjoy them, and maddening lack of availability here is not supportive! This first batch wasn't a total disaster, but definitely not yet the ideal product. Texture wasn't too bad-- fairly good crispy outside, soft-chewy inside.... but flavor was off for sure... I think this is for the major part due to that while I was planning to use "Ruch-mehl" here which is a decent protein-rich flour, more processed than a whole wheat one, but didn't have any and didn't feel like going to buy a few kilos on top of the few sacks of whole wheat flour I had. So these were 100% whole wheat bagles. Mind you that a "whole wheat" bagle when chosen as among the flavors in a bagle store is NOT 100% whole wheat... but a finer-ground flour and some rougher whole-wheat-grain flour mixed in. So overall they were very Dark bagles with a very whole-wheat flour taste, which is great on one side, but when aiming for one specific idealized USA-style bagel.... then not quite satisfying that craving.I already have some Ruchmehl ready and waiting, maybe for next weekend :) I still have 2 frozen from this batch to finish.

Oh! And second thing I found (not indicated in the recipe that I almost accurately followed with the biggest exception being the whole wheat flour), was that the toppings do not actually stick on all that well when just applied to the wet bagles straight out of the boiling water (these were boiled bagles, by the way, not steamed ones!) ... so next time I'll definitely have an egg-wash ready also so that when eating them, just barely touching the top of the bagle wouldn't send all the poppyseeds careening off! :)

Here's half-way through the process, forming the shapes before they finish 'poofing' overnight:

And here were the final results:

Asparagus Pinenut Roulade

I did this one a while ago, but am looking forward to asparagus being at a good price again here-- it's fairly expensive (if even in stores) at about 13.-/kg...

Whole-wheat dough (a slightly-more-levening pie dough like dough preferrably)
Filling:
one egg beaten
plentiful herbs
slightly-roasted pine nuts
diced sharp Gruyere cheese
minced garlic
Seared in a skillet: chopped onion, and asparagus spears--searing them quickly with salt, pepper, olive oil, a small dash of chicken-broth, and a dash of soysauce (I tend to like the flavor that soysauce seared onto asparagus leaves)

Alligned all into the roll, baked at 170C/350F until beginning to golden on top.

The time in this pictures, didn't make the dough as puffy as I would like, so next time will make it so that it will puff up a bit more during baking on the outside than this which was more like a soft pie-crust dough, which also worked. Yet, I think a slightly more bread-like or light puff-pastry-like crust would be even better
...... AND come to think of it, I should really make an attractive color-contrast in the presentation of it, via a drizzle of a red-wine reduction sauce..hrmm!

Olive Bread with Gstaader

Was craving olives, yet I don' t like olives plain. I do however really enjoy an olive bread!! So made a rolled-olive bread, with chopped up marinated olives, which I found wonderfully complementary to a new among-my-favorite cheeses of Switzerland--- Gstaader! Particularly this one brand of it, which they coat with herbs... it's phenomenal. Made a grilled-cheese sandwich with it all-together and it was spectacular.

Turkey or Chicken Sloppy Joes

First time making this among-my-fav American "comfort foods" abroad! Sloppy Joes, zurich-style... I made them using chicken (and turkey the second batch this weekend), instead of pork or beef. Cooked slowly in a dutch-oven pot (in the oven) for a few hours loaded with herbs, garlic, some onion, and olive oil. ANDdddd... had a first-time adventure with making barbeque sauce, which essentially does not exist here! Went fairly well! The sauce I did with a can of stewed tomatos in tomato sauce, an additional 3-4 tomatos, 2 onions, 2 celery stalks, 1 green bell pepper, 1 red bell pepper, 2 hot chilli peppers, loads of roasted garlic, herbs, cooked down till the veggies were soft and falling apart, then adding some mustard, Worsteschire sauce, vinegar, molasses and sugar, loads of pepper and salt. Then blend!
damn good sloppy joes, I didn't know how much I missed them till that first bite!

OH! And discovered that I can make some half-decent hamburger-bun substitutes (since those are also hard to come by here....) soft, light, and even made them as 3/4 whole-wheat flour ... warm and fluffy out of the oven..

Turkey-pepperoni pizza party!

Mmm... I was quite pleased with the results of this last pizza! One thing that I love is that I found turkey pepperoni here!!! I LOVE that as a pizza topping....
In any case this time I also got the crust really close to how I like it, still with using a higher-protein fuller-grain blend of flours. The dough had a mix of whole-wheat flour and here what is called "Ruchmehl" which is a darker high-protein flour, which I think helped also with some extra kneading to get a good stretchy dough that can get thin and crispier. Did a bit extra yeast in it than normal, a drizzle of olive oil, some sugar&salt, and for the liquids did half milk and half water. I pre-baked it for a couple min at 300 C go relaly develop the crispier bottom.. And then with a thin bit of sauce, chopped artichoke hearts, onions, bell peppers, quarter-fat mozzarella (salted, then it tastes more normal :P) , a sprinkling of a sharper cheese I had(i find that just a little bit of somehting sharp and flavorful really compensats for a lower-flavor low-fat mozzarella), and the beloved pepperoni... Finally resulted in a pizza near to my ideal home-pizza preference...Next time will definitely get mushrooms too which are another fav topping! .. and it was a lovely balcony meal in the sunset --->

Smooth veggie soup with a side of Wasabi-garlic Broccoli!

This may not look quite as inspiring just as an orange soup, but I promis it was surprisingly delicous! Inspired by which veggies happened to have escaped consumption during the day...
ie:
cauliflower
some sweet red peppers (bell peppers, or the long-pointy sweet red ones)
remains of a clump of celery
onions
(the second time I also added in a big fat white zucchini)

Cooking it:
heat a few tbsp extra virgin olive oil in a big pot (don't worry, it's the only fats goign into this soup, so be generous enough with 4-5Tbsp to coat the bottom), and toss in 2-3 onions diced, and about 4-5 stalks of celery also diced small. Over medium heat let them cook till tender, stirring to ensure none burn. Then trim the base of the head of cauliflower, and chop slice the whole head up, giving fairly thin pieces of the veggie. Toss into the pot and mix that up. Season with a tidbit of salt, (later will add boullion-water or chicken broth, which is salty, so not too much). Then still over medium heat, I poured in 1 c white wine over this, and let the alcohol steam off, and it cooked down until barely any liquid visible at the bottom. Then toss over the chopped sweet red peppers (3 in my case). Then pour in a good 2 cups of chicken broth over it-- enough to reach the top of the veggies. And about 1-2 tsp of dried thyme, 1 tsp ground pepper, and 1tsp garlic powder. I let that stew covered over medium-low heat for about 30 min-- or to the point that the cauliflower is very soft, so that if you stab it with a fork it'll break apart rathe than stay on the fork. Pour the whole soup slop into a blender and puree on high speed until very smooth--a few minutes. Really when you leave it in a bit longer, the cauliflower clumpy texture goes away and blends it into a really smooth soft soup.

I think the highly-blended cauliflower makes the soup a bit creamy, or as though there were a potato puree in it, except, cauliflower is wayy less caloric than potato to get the same effect ( 23 Calories per 100 g cauliflower, versus 87 Calories per 100 g in potatos which is prettymuch all more starches)

The whole meal... (nicely outlined by my knives on the wall ! )

Both times i've done this soup, i've happene dto serve this on the side, too--
Wasabi-garlic broccoli (or cauliflower like tonight's version)

super easy--> steam the broccoli or cauliflower chunks, and in somehting you can vigorously mix/shake mix a few spoons of olive oil, a hefty dollop of wasabi paste, and some smashed roasted garlic cloves, salt and pepper, then when the broccoli's done, just toss in the sauce... just enough sauce to make a very light coating and that classic wasaib flare in the nostrils when enjoying it :)

Whole Wheat apricot Coffee Cake with almond crumble

Instructions:

Clean and cut out the pits of about 300-400g fresh apricots. Leaving the skins on, slice into small bite-size chunks and toss together in a bowl with 1 tablespoon of sugar

Using an electric mixer, add 2/3 c flour, 1/2 c ground almonds, 2/3 c sugar, and then beat in a mixture of oil and butter (all of either would really work, but I try to use more of the oil, preferrably a non-flavored olive oil to get some good fats in it rather than just saturated fat-butter---> so I put in 2 Tbsp butter and drizzled in just enough oil to bring it together to make the crumble topping) Then set this aside, and use the mixer to make the batter:

1/3-1/2 c oil, into a mixer (stand mixer is best!) and beat with 3/4 cup sugar, beat for several minutes on high, and should turn light and creamy-looking. Add 3 teaspoons of lemon juice. Sequentially add in four eggs, letting each fully beat in before adding the next. Then beat in one tablespoon of vanilla extract, and just a pinch of salt.
Sift together 2/3-3/4 c whole wheat flour and 1.5 tsp baking powder in another bowl, then beat it into the egg mixture quickly.

Pour half of mixture into a pan of about this size--> ( I used a 10" / 25cm diameter springform pan), preferrably non-stick :)

then distribute half of the chopped apricots over this 1-2cm thickness of batter, then pour over the rest of the batter covering the first layer of apricots. Then sprinkle over the second layer of apricots, and the crumble topping over on top of that.

Bake at 350 F/ 175 C for about 45-60 min...depends on your pan size/oven so use a toothpick in the middle to test when done (and the crumble on top around teh outside will maybe start to look like it's browning some. Mine took 50 min, and in the last few min I turned up the oven temp a bit more and it got the crumble topping just lightly golden-looking which I like..

The apricots get all nice and soft inside and have a really great tartness to balance out the sweet crumble... quite pleasantly surprised with the results on this one!

Bi-color Bell Pepper Soup

Soup fetish recently!
Among my recent soup dinners was this one:
The orange-side was 3 red bell peppers and one onion, finely chopped and cooked in 1Tbsp olive oil until soft, then a dash of hot red chili pepper powder, salt, pepper, and in this case a small dash of curry for an interesting twist on the flavor, and one clove of garlic crushed. Then add in 10-20mL white wine, cook off the alcohol (ie, when it sizzles down a bit, and no longer smell alcohol in the steam from it), then a good cup or two of chicken broth, and into the blender, pureed till smooth.

The green side was 2 green bell peppers, one onion, and 100 g of ocra, cooked the same, then with salt, pepper, one clove garlic crushed, and the 10-20 ml white wine again, and ~1c broth, also blended.

Pouring them smoothly and evenly into the bowl from either side at the same rate gets the nice clean divide down the middle.

And I found a nice basil cream very complementary to the soup (ie the swirl decor on top, using a good pouring-ladle) Made from heating a small amount of cream till steaming hot, then mixing in finely chopped basil and a pinch of salt, and lightly cooking to infuse with the basil flavor.

I'll have to do this one again soon... I'm getting hungry for it again writing about it now, after eating dinner and dessert ;)

Apple--Pecan Pie Trial!

Apple-Pecan Pie!
.... and a second mini one!
I need to do this one again and remember to standardize a recipe for it-- was one of those complete random spur-of-the-moment invention ones.... BUT here's the jest of it-- kind of a mix of a pecan pie and an apple pie :) Whole wheat crust, then layer in some thin-sliced apples (with the nutritious skins left on--it doesn't disturb the texture) and then a sprinkling of chopped pecans, then pour over just enough of an egg mix to cover the layer. For the egg mix, I blended 1/3-1/2 a pack of cream cheese with some brown sugar and a pinch of salt, vanilla, and 2-3 eggs, and a spoon of oil. Then repeat the layering till it reaches the top. Then I baked it at 170 C / 350 F for around 30 min till it started to golden-carmelize on top (and should have puffed up through to the middle due to the egg rising a bit) Then raised the temp to 200C to further golden the top, just for 5ish min...

With the right amount of egg-filling (analogous to pecan pie filling), it made just the right texture of holding together but moist/juicy, too... next time I make it i'll actually write down the portions of things that worked out right for it :) (Hopefully soon! Yum!)

Vanilla chai latte... the fast&easy way!

One quick post for tonight! I've gotten sadly out of habit of posting my bazillions of pics, so time to catch up soon!

...I always really liked getting vanilla chai lattes at cafes in the US... and here found a way to make them which tastes good and is very easy w/o a milk-steamer! Just microwave a cup of milk until steaming hot, brew the chai tea directly in the milk until you can tell it's gotten darkened/lightly tan with the tea, and then some flavorful raw sugar and a splash of vanilla extract, and to me it tastes like I had just paid 3 bucks for it at the cafe like the good ol days... :) this tends to be my pre-workout breakfast each morning!! With skim milk and not excessive sugar it's just enough to not feel heavy but enough energy to do my workout... and a delicious start to the day sipping my latte with a view of the lake on the train.... darn i'm spoiled!!

Back at long last with...... Vegetarian Springrolls!

Mmmmmm..... so last weekend I finally decided to put to good usethe springroll wrappers which had been patiently waiting in my freezer since my eagerness buying them at an asian store here in Zurich, and so I estimated the basics to make a simple version of vegetarian springrolls which I was soo pleased to have gotten a very satisfactory result! And the next week made them 3 more times because was craving them so badly :)

Ingredients:

springroll wrappers

1 egg

olive oil
1 head white cabbage (med-small size)
2 carrots
3 medium onions
soy sauce
salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper (or something else spicy if desired!)

your favorite sweet-sour-chili dipping sauce


Directions:
I used my food processor to super-fast grate the carrots, and then thinly slice all the cabbage and onions.
Heat a skillet with a couple tablespoons of olive oil, and over med-low heat cook down the whole mix of veggies until soft and mostly translucent.

Add in seasonings, and just a dash of soysauce, stir, then filling's done.

Thaw the wrappers (while filling cools down enough to handle).

Beat the one egg in a bowl (just used for sealing the wrappers.
paint the outside of each wrapper with the beaten egg, plop in an appropriate lump of filling on the diagonal, fold in the sides, the top, then roll the whole thing over onto the final corner (dabbing once more wiht egg to get it to stick nicely).

Once all assembled, I heat the skillet again with just a little olive oil, spread very thinly in the pot, and lightly sautee them till turning golden-brown on two or so sides..

sooo tasty.....
Easy to make other versions, too... I had leftovers from making some other asian dishes the third time, so added in slices of babycorn, or tofu, or mint or basil leaves... all delicious!

hrmm... I think I know what's for dinner tonight!!

Soy-encrusted sweet&sour chicken

A recent favorite dish of ours has been this dish here...what I'll call "Soy-encrusted sweet&sour turkey" (or chicken)

I grind up a ton of dried soybeans to make a chunky-grained soy flour with my awesome Cuisenart food processor, then with a good cup of this, seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Then I beat one egg, and I toss in some fairly big but bitesized cubes of turkey breast in the egg to get them 'sticky'. Then I toss all the coated cubes into the big bowl with the soybean coating, and toss it around and it gets all the soy flour and bigger crunchier bits to coat it. then in a skillet, i heat up some olive oil to about medium, and plop in the coated turkey cubes sizzling in there, turning them to lightly brown each side. If there was a lot of extra coating that fell off in this process (which starts to burn at the bottom) then after hte turkey is done, I take out the turkey pieces, dump out the excess coating, and put the turkey back in and just for hte very last minute, I toss them around with just enough Sweet & sour chili sauce (spicy-hot), and voila!
So essentially it turns out to be a somewhat improved/healthier version of fried chicken you get in asian stir-fry dishes-- first off turkey has a mildly better proportion of amino acid quantities compared to chicken, and it does not use regular carbohydrate-loaded flour as a batter-- instead soybeans ground up have an excellent larger proportion of proteins and some good lipids, and delivers that extra bit of crunch without it having to be deep-fried. Just some good ol olive-oil sautee work gets it just right!

Here's Jojo claiming ownership of his third bowl of this dish (over a bed of veggies and rice noodles) :)

"Garlic Butter"

mmmmm....
great random thing for garlic-onion lovers..

Decided to make a sort of "garlic butter" based on taking a head and a half of garlic cloves (better to pre-roast in oven wrapped in foil and a drizzle of olive oil--then they get a tad sweeter, and will maintain color when made into this spread), and sliced onions carmelized in a bit of olive oil, then blended this ton of garlic and slightly greater portion of teh carmelized onion with more olive oil, fresh ground pepper and salt, blended until it created a spreadable "butter-like" paste....

So far, it's come in handy just as an addition when making other sauces for dishes, and also as a "glaze" spread onto some 300C/500F fast-baked whole wheat pitabreads for some veggie open-face sandwiches...

haha it's sure a delicious way to get bad garlic breath fast though!

Real Protein Bars Act 1

I finally prepped a real batch of high-protein energy bars, using pure protein powder as a key ingredient. And this batch of protein bars turned out better than a couple other energy bars I had whipped up before.

Took a look at what goes into many protein bars, from many sources, and then came up with my own combining the elements I thought worked well together–so here goes:

Ingredients:

5 egg whites (into a big heat-proof bowl for cooking over a double-boiler)

~10 heaping Tbsp homemade almond-butter (ie take almonds in a food processor with a pinch of salt and grind them up until turns into something much like peanut butter, except almonds have a healthier array of fats than peanuts)

2 one-ounce squares of Bakers unsweetened chocolate

~1/2 -2/3 cup of skim milk

6 scoops of vanilla protein powder (100% protein, mix of whey protein and something else I think)

3 packages of pure gelatin powder (unflavored, also pure protein– each little pack was 7 g, so about 21 g )

1/2 cup ground dried soybeans (I make my own soy bean flour here since I haven’t found pure soy flour in Swiss stores)

1 cup of high-protein whole wheat flour

1/3 - 1/2 cup of nonfat dry milk

1/4-1/3 c dark brown sugar
Preparation:

In a double-boiler boiling with medium-high heat, beat the egg whites and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy and cooked (a few minutes). Then put the chocolate cubes in the milk microwaved to melt the chocolate, by stirring it into a thick chocolatey mixture when milk is hot.

Then pour in all the dry ingredients, almond-butter and melted chocolate into the egg whites and stir (a bit of an arm workout near the end, itself!)

Onto wax paper or parchment paper, scrape out dough, hten roll it out into a slap, and I sprinkled on a very light layer of finely grated toasted coconut to help make the outside less sticky.

Also… I left them out on the counter to 100% cool down for about 2-ish hours, which I found helped slighly dry out the bars which would help for preservation, and to keep them less sticky in storage. (flipped them over once, too, to dry both sides)

They turned out quite good for a first try! Texture was just right, firm enough to hold togeter in nice bars but fairly soft and chewy inside. And with the ~1/3 c sugar, they were just very lightly sweet and seemed to be the perfect amount.

Overall made 20 bars plus some trimmings…already all gone….hrmm. This weekend will make another batch!

Spiced up Salads

I wanted to share some favorite salads…. I admit that I’m a bit low on average at eating enough fresh, water-rich, low-calories, high vitamin and beneficial fiber greens, compared to the daily portions I should be eating—Largely because I’m a bit of a salad snob and can’t stand to eat a boring salad. So, combining my love of vegetables, and exciting flavor combinations, I’m able to still find rich salads that I find exciting and entertaining!

So maybe you can also benefit from some spiced-up salad ideas …
Asian Tofu Salad:

Contains:

Chunks of romaine lettuce and other mixed greens, soy-sauce marinated thin strips of firm tofu (then seared in a hot skillet with sesame oil, and coated with sesame seeds and crushed garlic), halved fresh baby corn spears seared also with a dash of soy sauce and sesame oil, halfed cherry tomaos, strips of red and green sweet peppers, fresh bean sprouts, thin long strips of very lightly cooked shitake or regular mushrooms, sometimes a small topping of roasted pine nuts for fun, and a dressing made of soy sauce, oil, white vinegar, and a dash of a dark sugar. (Watch out for too much salt in this one…soy sauce can make a dish very salty, so for sure don’t add extra salts to any component)

Chicken Salad:

Contains:

Marinated chicken breasts pan-cooked till edges crispy then diced (marinade 2+ hrs: in this time, a mix of tomato paste, minced hot pepper, chili powder, crushed garlic, some oil, herbs, and vinegar), over a bead of chunky romaine lettuce, cherry tomatos, a bell pepper, thin-sliced slightly cooked onions, thin-sliced radishes, steamed broccoli peces, and some thin slices of a sharp cheese ( I find it takes the flavor much further w/o taking the fat-calories just as far, by using small quantities of a potent cheese). I sometimes make my own croutons from a bread hanging around by dicing the bread, then heating olive oil in a skillit till quite hot, and tossing/quickly braising the breadcubes in the olive oil till edges start to brown and get crispy, and tossing in herbs and seasoning at the last minute to coat them. I frequently do a balsamic-mustard viniagrette for chicken salads (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and some generous scoops of a spicy mustard shaken up to emulsify).

Spinach Salad: (no elegant picture of this yet, just from a huge half-consumed serving bowl I dished up at a recent party)

Contains:

Freshly washed spinach (i’m always suspicious about sand in spinach…major salad turn-off to bite into grains of sand while enjoing a juicy good salad!), thin-sliced carrots, a few types of sweet peppers cut into chunks, a whole-grain wheat pasta (like these spirals, or a macarroni, and cubed feta cheese…
For the dressing (hence to make it a slightly warm salad) :

dice up a big bundle of tomatos, and finely dice an onion or two, and cook in a skillet with a fair amount of olive oil, until onions are transparant, and the mixture makes a fairly homogeneous paste. If dried up too much, add some water to get it to a thick moist paste (similar to a pasta tomato sauce), add in some salt, pepper, chopped basil if you like or other herbs, and while still very hot, I douse in some red wine, cook the alcohol out of it, then remove from heat. Then add in enough vinegar (I use a white vinegar with this one) to make a very tomatoy viniagrette. Mix into salad and ready to go!

Easy healthy snack or meal..

I do this as a snack pretty often... Anyone else make and eat the snack "ants on a log" as a kid? Well, I sure did in pre-school! (celery sticks filled with peanut butter and raisins as "ants" on top)

But here’s an ‘adult’ version that I think tastes better, and is definitely healthier:

Fresh celery sticks

Fresh-ground almond butter (peanutbutter made with almonds– you’ll need a good food processor to grind it to a paste)

dried figs, cut into small pieces

Almonds have a much healthier assortment of fatty acids than peanuts do, and if you have a good food processor, take the non-roasted almonds (non-heated products keep the good types of fatty acids intact), Just add 400g and a teaspoon of salt and blend for a long time until peanut-butter consistency.

Secondly, using figs rather than raisens is better, because they are much higher in fiber (so having enough fiber, and water, swells in the stomach and makes you feel much more full than just the nearly pure-sugar raisens on top). The good fats from the almonds also send signals to the brain telling you that you're satiated and don't want to eat more, so it makes it easier not to snack extra when you have a reasonable amount of good fatty acids in the food, too.

This this batch size above, and with a plentiful spread of almond butter (60g) onto 4 huge celery sticks (235g), and 70g of figs, comes out to a large-feeling meal, which provides 20 g protein, 45 g carb, and 30 g of good quality lipids, 225g water, and 15 g fiber. Delicious and keeps me feeling full for longer than any other meal or snack (when in smaller portions)