So, that's it. A printed version is on display in my kitchen.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Berry Chart.
This is just something I made for fun; a vector chart done with Illustrator, listing health benefits, or propsed health benefits, of a few misc. berries;
So, that's it. A printed version is on display in my kitchen.
So, that's it. A printed version is on display in my kitchen.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Fried scallop couscous.
This was a nice meal;
Kind of an experiment, making couscous the same way you make fried rice, adding scallops and vegetables to the mix, with some pine nuts and spices.
http://exham-priory.deviantart.com/
http://www.myspace.com/kittynboi
http://kittynboi.livejournal.com/
http://conconcooking.blogspot.com/
Kind of an experiment, making couscous the same way you make fried rice, adding scallops and vegetables to the mix, with some pine nuts and spices.
http://exham-priory.deviantart.com/
http://www.myspace.com/kittynboi
http://kittynboi.livejournal.com/
http://conconcooking.blogspot.com/
Shrimp in back bean sauce.
No recipe this time. Just some photos of a shrimp stir fry in black bean sauce;
This was awesome, and it left the apartment spelling great for the rest of the evening!
http://exham-priory.deviantart.com/
http://www.myspace.com/kittynboi
http://kittynboi.livejournal.com/
http://conconcooking.blogspot.com/
This was awesome, and it left the apartment spelling great for the rest of the evening!
http://exham-priory.deviantart.com/
http://www.myspace.com/kittynboi
http://kittynboi.livejournal.com/
http://conconcooking.blogspot.com/
Chicken and birds eye fried rice.
Birds eye chilies, also known as thai chili peppers are small, usually green, and have a thin fruit surrounding darkish seeds, connected to their plants by long dark stems. At 50,000 to 100,000 on the Scoville Scale, they are among the hottest peppers in the world. I love them, and they went VERY well with this fried rice recipe, giving it quite the punch, especially when you bit down on one of them!
You will need;
1/2 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut in to strips.
1 and a half thai chilies, chopped
3 scallions, chopped
1/5 onion, chopped
generous 1 tbsp shredded ginger
1 tsp 5 spice powder
1 tsp corriander
1/4 yellow bell pepper, cut in to strips
About 10 snow peas/pods, as seen in the photo below.
1/3 cup raw cashews
1-2 tbsps seasame oil
1 cup cooked jasmine rice
2 garlic cloves, chopped.
1 tbsp fish sauce
1-2 tbsp soy sauce
1.First, heat the first tablespoon of oil in a wok over medium high heat. Fry the chicken quickly, and when done, remove and set aside.
2.Stir fry the Add the onion, garlic, and scallion. Sautee until cooked, and golden brown. Be careful not to let them burn. Keep stirring and moving them with whatever you use.
3.Add the bell, snow peas, ginger, and cashews, and stir fry for about 3-4 minutes, stirring quickly so they don't burn.
4.If you need more oil, add the next teaspoon now. After that, add the cooked rice, stiw well, then add the corriander and five spice powder. Return the chicken to the wok, stir it in, then add the fish sauce.
5.Finally, add the soy sauce, stir the rice well to make sure the sauces and spices all get mixed in well and the ingredients are stirred in with the rice.
6.Continue to stir and cook for a few minutes, and then remove from heat, still stirring.
7.Let cool and serve at once.
This is a great entree, and very spicy. It makes about 2-3 servings, 4 or 5 if you want it to be a small side to accompany something else.
http://exham-priory.deviantart.com/
http://www.myspace.com/kittynboi
http://kittynboi.livejournal.com/
http://conconcooking.blogspot.com/
You will need;
1/2 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut in to strips.
1 and a half thai chilies, chopped
3 scallions, chopped
1/5 onion, chopped
generous 1 tbsp shredded ginger
1 tsp 5 spice powder
1 tsp corriander
1/4 yellow bell pepper, cut in to strips
About 10 snow peas/pods, as seen in the photo below.
1/3 cup raw cashews
1-2 tbsps seasame oil
1 cup cooked jasmine rice
2 garlic cloves, chopped.
1 tbsp fish sauce
1-2 tbsp soy sauce
1.First, heat the first tablespoon of oil in a wok over medium high heat. Fry the chicken quickly, and when done, remove and set aside.
2.Stir fry the Add the onion, garlic, and scallion. Sautee until cooked, and golden brown. Be careful not to let them burn. Keep stirring and moving them with whatever you use.
3.Add the bell, snow peas, ginger, and cashews, and stir fry for about 3-4 minutes, stirring quickly so they don't burn.
4.If you need more oil, add the next teaspoon now. After that, add the cooked rice, stiw well, then add the corriander and five spice powder. Return the chicken to the wok, stir it in, then add the fish sauce.
5.Finally, add the soy sauce, stir the rice well to make sure the sauces and spices all get mixed in well and the ingredients are stirred in with the rice.
6.Continue to stir and cook for a few minutes, and then remove from heat, still stirring.
7.Let cool and serve at once.
This is a great entree, and very spicy. It makes about 2-3 servings, 4 or 5 if you want it to be a small side to accompany something else.
http://exham-priory.deviantart.com/
http://www.myspace.com/kittynboi
http://kittynboi.livejournal.com/
http://conconcooking.blogspot.com/
Thai style pear and pom salad.
I made it just this morning, and it rocks! Refreshing, sweet, and colorful are all apt descriptions.
What you will need;
1/4 Yellow Bell Pepper
1/4 Orange Bell Pepper
1/4 cup Pomegranate Arils
1/8 White, Red, or Yellow Onion, sliced
juice of 1 and 1/2 Limes.
1-2 tbsp Fish Sauce
Salt
Coriander
1 Pear, cut in to slices
1/2 Cucumber, skin removed, cut in to slices and then each slice halved
1 thai chili pepper aka birds eye chili
First, make the dressing.
1.Combine the fish sauce, lime juice, and chopped thai chili pepper in a bowl, then add a pinch of salt and a pinch of coriander. Stir and the set aside.
Now for the salad.
The bell should be cut in to thin strips, as should the onion, pear, and cucumber. Simply combine them in a bowl, add the aril, stir so tehy're nicely mixed, pour the dressing in, stir again so it's all nicely coated, and that's that!
It makes 1-2 servings as a light meal, perhaps with a spring roll or soup, and 3-4 as a small side dish.
IF the thai chilies are somehow not hot enough for you, sprinkle dried red pepper flakes over the salad before serving. It will heat it up and make it look even more colorful and festive!
http://exham-priory.deviantart.com/
http://www.myspace.com/kittynboi
http://kittynboi.livejournal.com/
http://conconcooking.blogspot.com/
What you will need;
1/4 Yellow Bell Pepper
1/4 Orange Bell Pepper
1/4 cup Pomegranate Arils
1/8 White, Red, or Yellow Onion, sliced
juice of 1 and 1/2 Limes.
1-2 tbsp Fish Sauce
Salt
Coriander
1 Pear, cut in to slices
1/2 Cucumber, skin removed, cut in to slices and then each slice halved
1 thai chili pepper aka birds eye chili
First, make the dressing.
1.Combine the fish sauce, lime juice, and chopped thai chili pepper in a bowl, then add a pinch of salt and a pinch of coriander. Stir and the set aside.
Now for the salad.
The bell should be cut in to thin strips, as should the onion, pear, and cucumber. Simply combine them in a bowl, add the aril, stir so tehy're nicely mixed, pour the dressing in, stir again so it's all nicely coated, and that's that!
It makes 1-2 servings as a light meal, perhaps with a spring roll or soup, and 3-4 as a small side dish.
IF the thai chilies are somehow not hot enough for you, sprinkle dried red pepper flakes over the salad before serving. It will heat it up and make it look even more colorful and festive!
http://exham-priory.deviantart.com/
http://www.myspace.com/kittynboi
http://kittynboi.livejournal.com/
http://conconcooking.blogspot.com/
Friday, November 20, 2009
The Joy of Reviews and whats next for Oishinbo?
NOTE: Oishinbo is a manga about Japanese cuisine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oishinbo
Well, I finished the most recent edition of Oishinbo last night; The Joy of Rice. I had been looking forward to it with great curiosity; while editions like Ramen and Gyoza, and Fish, Sushi, Sashimi were titles that I had a fairly good idea regarding what to expect, Joy of Rice, like the previous Vegetables title, was a book that I was less certain about regarding it's content. I knew there was going to be a story about brown vs white rice, and I figured rice balls would get their moment in the sun, but beyond that I wasn't sure what to expect.
Well, all in all this was a good book, leaving me quite satisfied with what was covered. The politics of rice importing and exporting, the history of short grain rice, varieties of rice balls, and various types of Maze Gohan type dishes made for great reading, and, as always, the recipe in the front of the book looks great. I would like to try it, but like some of the previous ones, I've been a bit slack in searching out the ingredients.
I was also a bit pleased that Kaibara Yuzan had little page time in this edition, only showing up in the final story in the book, and even then he made none of the absurd outbursts, threw no temper tantrums, and generally did not act like an overgrown two year old.
The Rice Ball chapter was probably my favorite, although the brown vs white rice one was good as well. It's also noteworthy that this edition had a good deal of environmentalist sentiment in it; almost all of the Oishinbo books do, but this one seemed particularly explicit in some parts. The rice ball chapter has left me eager to try making some rice balls in the future, as it has been a long time (six years) since I last tried, and the results weren't that bad back then either.
The next edition of the series is Pub Food, which sounds fascinating because I know nothing about Japanese pub food and did not even know it existed as a distinct concept until I saw the preorder for this title on Amazon a while back. It's also notable as this one will be coming out about a year after the first edition, which was Japanese Cuisine. So, it comes full circle, in a sense, as both titles are about a STYLE of cooking and presentation, while the rest of the series has focused on either a specific dish (ramen, gyoza, sake, sashimi) or ingredients (rice, vegetables, fish).
This leaves me wondering where they will go from here. I really hope there is more to come, but I can't find any information on titles after Pub Food. So, I decided to make a speculative list on topics I would expect to see covered in the future;
Tea and Sweets.
The Sake edition made it clear that Viz is okay with doing a focus on beverages, and it's kind of surprising that an edition devoted to Tea has not been released or solicited. I would imagine Sweets would fit in with this well as many traditional Japanese sweets, as I understand it, were not deserts per se, but were made for the tea ceremony.
Udon and Soba.
We've already got one on Ramen, but Udon and Soba are pretty important noodles in Japanese cuisine as well. I wouldn't be surprised to see two books, one for each noodle, or perhaps both noodles covered in one book.
Meat, Poultry, and Pork.
I imagine a single volume could cover meats, which, historically, were less common in Japan than other nations, but still make up some famous dishes, like beef pots of various sorts.
Tempura.
One of the most famous Japanese dishes around the world, I think I would be a little let down if the Oishinbo translations finished their run without a Tempura editiion.
Teriyaki.
Another famous Japanese food, I think Teriyaki could merit it's own volume, or perhaps share one with Tempura.
Festival Food.
Flip through an Japanese cookbook and you will find a number of items that are described as being prepared primarily for specific festivals, celebrations, holidays, etc. And many items seen in Oishinbo so far are mentioned as being common for some specific occasion or festival. So it seems a book entirely on festival food would be a cool idea, and a nice companion to Japanese Cuisine and Pub Food.
Will the future editions look like any of the above guesses? If the series goes in, I imagine there will certainly be some similarities, as the translations are six books in and still have a lot of well known ground that can be covered, and given that Oishinbo has ran since 1982, I presume there is more than enough material to work with.
http://exham-priory.deviantart.com/
http://www.myspace.com/kittynboi
http://kittynboi.livejournal.com/
http://bloody-edge.blogspot.com
http://conconcooking.blogspot.com/
http://incredibleicarus.blogspot.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oishinbo
Well, I finished the most recent edition of Oishinbo last night; The Joy of Rice. I had been looking forward to it with great curiosity; while editions like Ramen and Gyoza, and Fish, Sushi, Sashimi were titles that I had a fairly good idea regarding what to expect, Joy of Rice, like the previous Vegetables title, was a book that I was less certain about regarding it's content. I knew there was going to be a story about brown vs white rice, and I figured rice balls would get their moment in the sun, but beyond that I wasn't sure what to expect.
Well, all in all this was a good book, leaving me quite satisfied with what was covered. The politics of rice importing and exporting, the history of short grain rice, varieties of rice balls, and various types of Maze Gohan type dishes made for great reading, and, as always, the recipe in the front of the book looks great. I would like to try it, but like some of the previous ones, I've been a bit slack in searching out the ingredients.
I was also a bit pleased that Kaibara Yuzan had little page time in this edition, only showing up in the final story in the book, and even then he made none of the absurd outbursts, threw no temper tantrums, and generally did not act like an overgrown two year old.
The Rice Ball chapter was probably my favorite, although the brown vs white rice one was good as well. It's also noteworthy that this edition had a good deal of environmentalist sentiment in it; almost all of the Oishinbo books do, but this one seemed particularly explicit in some parts. The rice ball chapter has left me eager to try making some rice balls in the future, as it has been a long time (six years) since I last tried, and the results weren't that bad back then either.
The next edition of the series is Pub Food, which sounds fascinating because I know nothing about Japanese pub food and did not even know it existed as a distinct concept until I saw the preorder for this title on Amazon a while back. It's also notable as this one will be coming out about a year after the first edition, which was Japanese Cuisine. So, it comes full circle, in a sense, as both titles are about a STYLE of cooking and presentation, while the rest of the series has focused on either a specific dish (ramen, gyoza, sake, sashimi) or ingredients (rice, vegetables, fish).
This leaves me wondering where they will go from here. I really hope there is more to come, but I can't find any information on titles after Pub Food. So, I decided to make a speculative list on topics I would expect to see covered in the future;
Tea and Sweets.
The Sake edition made it clear that Viz is okay with doing a focus on beverages, and it's kind of surprising that an edition devoted to Tea has not been released or solicited. I would imagine Sweets would fit in with this well as many traditional Japanese sweets, as I understand it, were not deserts per se, but were made for the tea ceremony.
Udon and Soba.
We've already got one on Ramen, but Udon and Soba are pretty important noodles in Japanese cuisine as well. I wouldn't be surprised to see two books, one for each noodle, or perhaps both noodles covered in one book.
Meat, Poultry, and Pork.
I imagine a single volume could cover meats, which, historically, were less common in Japan than other nations, but still make up some famous dishes, like beef pots of various sorts.
Tempura.
One of the most famous Japanese dishes around the world, I think I would be a little let down if the Oishinbo translations finished their run without a Tempura editiion.
Teriyaki.
Another famous Japanese food, I think Teriyaki could merit it's own volume, or perhaps share one with Tempura.
Festival Food.
Flip through an Japanese cookbook and you will find a number of items that are described as being prepared primarily for specific festivals, celebrations, holidays, etc. And many items seen in Oishinbo so far are mentioned as being common for some specific occasion or festival. So it seems a book entirely on festival food would be a cool idea, and a nice companion to Japanese Cuisine and Pub Food.
Will the future editions look like any of the above guesses? If the series goes in, I imagine there will certainly be some similarities, as the translations are six books in and still have a lot of well known ground that can be covered, and given that Oishinbo has ran since 1982, I presume there is more than enough material to work with.
http://exham-priory.deviantart.com/
http://www.myspace.com/kittynboi
http://kittynboi.livejournal.com/
http://bloody-edge.blogspot.com
http://conconcooking.blogspot.com/
http://incredibleicarus.blogspot.com/
Monday, November 16, 2009
Thai style pepper and mango salad.
This is an idea I had recently, and it turned out very well.
You will need the following;
1/2 Avocado.
1/3 Yellow bell pepper, cut in to thin strips
1/3 Green bell pepper, cut in to narrow strips
1/2 cucumber, peeled and cut in to narrow slices which are then halved
1/4 Yellow onion, diced in to moderate chunks
1/3 Mango, sliced in to chunks
1 tbsp pickled lemongrass
1 Lime
2 Green thai chili peppers
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Small bowl
1 large mixing bowl
Makes 2 servings.
Now, the dressing is what really makes this dish, and it's best to make it first and let it sit while you do the rest. So, first, the dressing;
1.Cut the lime in half, and then halve those. Squeeze out the juices and scoop out the fruit inside, placing it all in to a the small bowl.
2.Cut the thai chili peppers in to small pieces, add to the lemon juice.
3.Add the fish sauce and lemongrass, then stir well. Set aside.
4.Add all the diced vegetables to the mixing bowl.
5.Cut the avocado in to decent sized pieces and add to the bowl.
6.Mix the vegetables, mango, and avocado in the bowl well.
7.Add the dressing to the bowl, then stir well, coating the salad with the dressing as much as possible.
Despite the use of thai chili peppers, the dressing isn't too hot. It should have a little kick, but nothing searing.
Add to a plate and serve.
I found it colorful, refreshing, and deightful.
It makes a great light lunch or a breakfast, and could really hit the spot on a hot day.
So, give it a try!
You will need the following;
1/2 Avocado.
1/3 Yellow bell pepper, cut in to thin strips
1/3 Green bell pepper, cut in to narrow strips
1/2 cucumber, peeled and cut in to narrow slices which are then halved
1/4 Yellow onion, diced in to moderate chunks
1/3 Mango, sliced in to chunks
1 tbsp pickled lemongrass
1 Lime
2 Green thai chili peppers
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Small bowl
1 large mixing bowl
Makes 2 servings.
Now, the dressing is what really makes this dish, and it's best to make it first and let it sit while you do the rest. So, first, the dressing;
1.Cut the lime in half, and then halve those. Squeeze out the juices and scoop out the fruit inside, placing it all in to a the small bowl.
2.Cut the thai chili peppers in to small pieces, add to the lemon juice.
3.Add the fish sauce and lemongrass, then stir well. Set aside.
4.Add all the diced vegetables to the mixing bowl.
5.Cut the avocado in to decent sized pieces and add to the bowl.
6.Mix the vegetables, mango, and avocado in the bowl well.
7.Add the dressing to the bowl, then stir well, coating the salad with the dressing as much as possible.
Despite the use of thai chili peppers, the dressing isn't too hot. It should have a little kick, but nothing searing.
Add to a plate and serve.
I found it colorful, refreshing, and deightful.
It makes a great light lunch or a breakfast, and could really hit the spot on a hot day.
So, give it a try!
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