Kitchen-ly dilemma

Twice a year I have my big grocery 'shopping' at my best friend's apartment. The Swedish trio always have their big fridge clean-up in mid July and mid December, right before they go back for their month long (sometimes 6 weeks) summer/Christmas vacations. The chosen person to be getting the load is unmistakably yours truly.

The problem is, I am actually going to go to spend the long weekend in Niigata. This means the rather big basket of produce containing several types of mushroom, potatoes et al is facing the harm of going bad. As well as a few containers of fresh cream, sour cream, frozen peas and a few other frozen vegetable. OK, the frozen fruits problem that I'm having is due to the very small capacity in the freezer - considering that I have just done my own fish and poultry shopping a few days prior.

At 10 pm last night, I was facing a dilemma as to what to do with them. Seriously, I have no intention of lugging them all to Niigata tonight; but I cannot possibly eat them at one sitting, I am just one small person.

So, I decided to cook them all. haha. Once cooked and kept in the fridge, the food should keep for another week. Which is kind of cool, too, this means that I don't need to fuss about cooking lunch at all for a week! How's that for a back-up plan?


In my fridge right now:

Potato and mushroom bake (completed with all frozen veggies and half of a zucchini)

Tiramisu

Blueberry and raspberry pudding

Mmmmmm.

I'm hungry again now.

*Image is of my potato and mushroom bake. yummmmm!

Insalata Caprese

One of my favorite dish in the world is Insalata Caprese, otherwise known as Tomato Caprese Salad. It is one of the easiest dish in to prepare, the ingredients that I always use is:

tomato, fresh
mozzarella cheese, fresh
Italian sweet basil, fresh
sea salt
black pepper
extra virgin olive oil

How to make:
1. slice the tomato (some people get rid of the core, I do, too when I remember)
2. slice the mozzarella cheese
3. chop the Italian sweet basil
4. organize number 1 and 2 on the platter
5. add salt and black pepper to the virgin olive oil, and then sprinkle it on top of the platter, put a little bit aside
6. sprinkle the chopped sweet basil on top of the mix, and sprinkle it with the remaining olive oil mix
7. refrigerate prior to eating

I know some people often smear the mozzarella cheese with balsamic vinegar, but I honestly don't think it's necessary.
And some people also like to salt the tomato to bring out the taste. If you have a good fresh tomato, it's really not necessary either, if anything, it will make the tomato really watery.

Ultimately, the key to make this super good lies on the kind of olive oil you use. I've traveled the world and back (not literally, but olive oil wise, I have tried every country's olive oil), all those Mediterranean countries claim that they all make the best olive oil, but it's not necessarily true. The best one I've ever tasted is Greek's Lesvos olive oil. I have just one bottle left from a purchase in Athens - and I can't remember what the brand is - it's written in Greek. All I know is that it's organic and from the province of Lesvos.
Next in line will be Italian olive oil. Olitalia will definitely do the job, and it's available everywhere.

My lunch today

Food Obsession

Friends often ask me what my favorite food is. The answer to that is... none. I don't have any favorite food. What I do have is temporary obsession, when I'm into some food, I will want to eat that food everyday as a staple, for about a month or so, and I will stop once I'm sick of it and move on to the next food obsession.

So, last month I was obsessed with tofu and broccoli, now I am obsessed with two foods: tiramisu and macarona bel bashamel.

Häagen-Dazs has recently come up with this fantastic tiramisu special, but there is no way I can eat that everyday without splurging. One small cup costs nearly 400 yen, which frankly I think is too much, even for a Häagen-Dazs (a regular price for Häagen-Dazs ice cream is 260 yen per cup, normal brand costs 100 yen per cup, see what I mean?).

Now, this macarona bel bashamel is this fantastic dish that is originated from Egypt (Iftar). On Sunday I went to a friend's gathering, and was introduced to this lovely Egyptian couple, who brought this lovely Egyptian dish. This dish is very simple, you cook the macaroni (penne would do fine) and then you put a layer of meat in between with some spices and onion, and then you top it with the special bashamel sauce (milk/heavy cream based mixed with flour) and then you grill it in the oven until the bashamel sauce turns brownish. This food is a delight!

So, to cater for my obsession, I came home yesterday and started making some tiramisu, with a killer recipe from Penny Lane Kitchen (natural cooking club). I woke up this morning well after the requested 4 hours wait, and tried my first home-made tiramisu, and it was HEAVENLY. Finally I found a reason to use up my Kahlua bottle collection. I have like 3 bottles from a research that I did for them and for one who's not keen on liqueur, having 3 bottles of Kahlua is truly a waste.

This is my first attempt to make tiramisu. I need to get more sponge cake/lady finger thing to use up all of the mascarphone and whipped cream mix. And I need to get a wider diameter pan, as it seems. Otherwise the tiramisu will be very tall!

Now I am waiting for macarona bel bashamel's recipe from the lovely Egyptian lady so I can make it!

Gosh, I need to spend more time at the gym, this current food obsession will undoubtedly need some shedding away. Yeah, a move to tiramisu from tofu and broccoli is dangerous!

Delectable Books

On this fine Monday afternoon, I began my delicious daydreaming on foods. The trigger of it all was simply because I am supposed to be cooking for the Tuesdays tomorrow. The last time I had people over for dinner was in March (EEEKKK!), so it's time to pull my sleeves and dive into the kitchen!

While thinking of the menu, my mind kept on being transported back to the top of my kitchen cabinet, where I had some 20 cookbooks. Ah, the joy those books have brought me!

Yes, it is time. It is time for me to divulge the cookbooks that I simply cannot live without.

1. Jamie Oliver's "The Naked Chef"

You need to go to page 120 where he had his amazing roast chicken recipe. I have made this chicken so much over the years. The multiple herbs that are used for this dish brought out the best flavor from the chicken. If you can, try to always use sea salt in the mix, it brings out the best taste from the chicken.

Another thing that I began doing recently every time I cook this chicken:
put aside the chicken broth and oil that comes out after you roasted it for 1 hour

For an easy-to-prepare lunch: take 2 tbsp of this broth, heat it up, and then mixed some of the left over chicken and some chopped tomatoes.
Add in pre-cooked linguini/ spaghetti/ vermicelli/ capellini, anything rod and long, mix it well. Buon appetito! You got yourself a delicious lunch!

The other recipes here in this book are all equally simple and so easy to make. For muslims like Taiko Tari here, substitute all Miss Piggy related stuff with chicken, or for broth you can always use mushroom broth. I have no idea what pork/lard are supposed to taste like; but I can assure you replacing them with chicken/mushroom base are very very tasty! Really, really!

2. "Vegetarian" by Fiona Biggs

I found this book 50% off at Barnes & Nobles in San Diego back in 2003. I remembered at the time paying only $5.00 (or something ridiculously cheap like that) and was sincerely hoping that the book could somehow make my life easier. You see, at that time I was dating a very picky vegetarian who liked to eat quality food. This book had ultimately saved my kitchen and is solely responsible in expanding my horizon to vegetarian cooking and eating.
Now, said boyfriend is history, but the cookbook remained going strong in my kitchen. Over the years, I have gone through literally half of the cookbook of some 175+ recipes. This book has opened my way to hummus, vegetarian pâté, baked pie, baked pasta, tortilla hors d'oeuvres, turnip soup, potato soup, mexican omelet, desserts.
The sad news about this book is that I don't think it is anywhere in circulation anymore. Been wanting to give this book as presents to fellow food and cooking enthusiasts, but they are nowhere to be found. Kind of making me feel special for actually owning it and using it religiously.

3. "The Essential Asian Cookbook", by Whitecap Publications

This book is a lifesaver for me to be living overseas and wanting to cook the foods from home. Early in the days where my foods and ingredients vocabulary were limited to the Indonesian language, I was ever clueless each time I am looking for the stuff in Japanese. Heck, I didn't even know the words in English, and back in those days there was no good source for localizing it based on the local market availability. Enter came this book with the pictures of those odd "gallangal", or "coriander", or "cumin", or "bawang merah" (Thai pearl onion), etc - since then grocery shopping has become so much easier, I can actually strategize a substitute for the impossible ingredients. The book smartly divide the books based on the countries the recipes came from, makes thematic party planning so much easier!

4. Mi madre
Last but not least... if all roads failed, such as no books to refer to,
nothing online that is trustworthy and all attempt led to a dead-end: I will pick up the phone and call my mother. She always has the ultimate answer to all my culinary questions.

Ah.... and for tomorrow night, I've decided to finally use my paellera and make some paella, as well as some rotisserie chicken and some tomato caprese. Yeah, that'll do it.