Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

  The cucumber is hiding. I made my first kimbap as an accompaniment to  tteokbokki , which I recommend as a pairing. I combined ideas from several internet recipes, and I inauthentically prepared the rice with rice vinegar instead of sesame oil because I prefer it that way. I also skipped the part about brushing the outside with sesame oil. I don't think it needs it. For my fillings, I used crunchy baked tofu, pickled cucumber, and seasoned spinach. I like this combination a lot. I think kimbap is supposed to have carrots, but I don't like carrots in this kind of context, so I skipped it. The Recipe: 4 sheets nori 2 c uncooked calrose rice 1 tb rice vinegar 1 tb sesame seeds 1/2 bunch spinach 1 tsp sesame oil 1/2 tsp soy sauce 1/3 english cucumber, sliced into strips 1 tb rice vinegar 1 tsp soy sauce 1/2 tsp sesame oil 1 tsp sugar 1/2 block firm tofu 1 tb  Korean dipping sauce  or a mixture of soy sauce and sesame oil 1 tb cornstarch Rice: Rinse well. Cook according to your ri

This was the end of the evening with much of the sauce absorbed... imagine it 70% saucier. I've tried 3 recipes for tteokbokki and this is the clear winner. Sorry, Maangchi and Korean Bapsang...  this recipe from My Korean Kitchen  is the only one I will make going forward. My only changes were to use dashi broth instead of kelp/anchovy broth, and more green onion. I like it with kimchi and pickled cucumbers on the side.  The Recipe: (from My Korean Kitchen) (serves 4) 12 oz cylindrical rice cakes, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes 6 oz fish cakes 2 c stock (kelp/anchovy or dashi) 1 small onion, sliced thin 3 tb gochugang 1.5 tb sugar 1 tb soy sauce 1 tsp garlic, minced 1 tsp gochugaru 1 tsp sesame seeds 1 tsp sesame oil 3 green onions, sliced Mix gochugang, sugar, soy sauce, garlic, and gochugaru in a bowl. Bring stock to a boil, then stir in the gochugang mixture. Add rice cakes, fish cakes, and onion. Boil about 5 minutes, then simmer a few minutes until the sauce thickens. St

Day 2. I'm very excited about this. Excited enough that I got brave and fermented for the first time. I've been watching a lot of  Maangchi videos , and she's always talking about how much she loves this radish kimchi. So I got my hands on a korean radish and tried it, and now I'm going to try to always have some in the fridge. I've also made it with a daikon radish, and it's note quite as good (less sweet and more radish-y), but it's still good. She says that one can eat it immediately or let it ferment for a few days.  The first time I made this, I tasted it immediately and it was amazing. I could have eaten the whole jar. The second time, I let it ferment for 24 hours, and the third time, I let it ferment for 48 hours. I think 48 hours is my favorite. Maangchi's recipe is  here . The only change I made was to reduce quantities. The Recipe: 1 lb Korean or daikon radish, peeled and cubed 1/2 tb kosher salt 1/2 tb sugar 1/2 tb garlic, minced 1/4 tsp ging

I wanted to keep eating food so I could keep dipping things in the sauce I made this sauce to go with  enoki mushroom pancakes . It's delicious, and I'm excited about the leftover sauce in the fridge. I need to acquire some dumplings asap. I followed  this recipe  from A Spicy Perspective (just the sauce, not the pancakes). I'm going to try their pancake recipe sometime too. The Recipe: 1/2 c soy sauce 1/4 c water 1 tb rice vinegar 2 tb sugar 1 tb sesame oil 1 clove garlic, minced 1 tsp sesame seeds 1/2 tsp gochugaru Mix. The Verdict: Overall grade: A Overall reason: Easy, versatile, and delicious. Time to prepare: 2 minutes Husband quote: "I didn't know this was supposed to go on the pancakes until the very end, but it was delicious on the rice."  

Basically a latke. In looking for something hearty to round out a meal of banchan and rice, I always turn to some kind of vegetable pancake. This time, I was excited to have enoki mushrooms from a rare pandemic trip to the Asian store (turns out Christmas Eve morning is a good time to be the only person in the store). These are good. The mushrooms are very stringy, which makes them a little bit unwieldy to eat and also causes the baby to gag because he doesn't have enough teeth to break them down. I might experiment with chopping the onions a little bit shorter, but maybe that's blashphemy. I followed  this recipe  from My Korean Kitchen, and the only change I made was to increase the amount of salt, which I recommend. The Recipe: 200 g / 7 oz enoki mushrooms, stems removed, rinsed and patted dry, and optionally cut into slightly smaller pieces 2 tb flour 1 tsp sesame oil 2 eggs, beaten 1/2 medium carrot, minced 1/3 medium onion, minced 2 green onions, sliced finely 1/2 tsp sea

Future goal: A photo of actual plated food, out of the pan. I've finally learned in quarantine how to make enough different kinds of banchan that I don't crave going to Korean restaurants anymore. I like meals of just banchan and rice, and this one is warm/filling enough to help it feel like a real meal. There are carrots in the above photo, but I didn't like the carrots in it, so I removed them from the recipe.  I followed  this recipe  from Future Dish, and they have a much better photo on their page than I do. It also looks like I used a different kind of fish cake than I was supposed to, but that's what we get with hurried pandemic shopping. The Recipe: 125 grams fish cake (odeng), sliced 1/4 medium onion, sliced thin 1 green onion, sliced 1 clove garlic, minced 1/8 c water 1 tb soy sauce 1/2 tb honey 1/2 tsp mirin sesame seeds for garnish Heat a bit of vegetable oil in a pan over medium heat Add fish cake and garlic, and stir to coat evenly. Cook until fish cake is

It bothers me that the sour cream fell off center. I realize that nachos are maybe the sort of thing that doesn't require a recipe, but it's taken me 40 years to finally make the perfect (for me) nachos, and I want to save the details. The keys: 1) Homemade refried black beans . They are so much better than the canned kind, and maybe even more importantly, they don't explode in the microwave like the canned ones do. I don't know why this is, but it makes the effort worthwhile. 2) Fresh chips. I don't deep-fry things at home, and my oven-fried tortilla chips have never turned out well. But one day, we accidentally ended up with a large bag of extra chips from Mucho Gusto  takeout. The next day, I turned them into nachos, and they were a revelation. This is going to be our tradition every time we get Mexican takeout now.  3) Pico de gallo. I used to do a drizzle of green salsa, plus diced tomatoes, but it wasn't quite right. I've replaced these two items with

  Not too shabby for my first pie ever that didn't start with buying crust already in a pie tin. Next time I'll tuck in the edges better, and also maybe use an actual pie tin. View of the inside. For my first ever apple pie, I knew I wanted something simple, something with a lattice top, and something that started with just layering raw apples inside the crust, rather than cooking the apples into a saucy filling. I decided to use  this recipe from Allrecipes , thinking that maybe I'd step things up to make a fancier pie in the future. But it is SO GOOD that I think this will be my forever pie recipe. I watched YouTube videos to learn how to do the lattice top, and then the 5-year-old actually carried out the work of doing it. It's a fun project to do with kids.  So good. The Recipe: 6 cups peeled, thinly sliced granny smith apples (I used 7 medium-small apples) 1/2 c white sugar 3/4 tsp cinnamon 1 tb butter, plus more for greasing the pie dish dough for 2 9-inch pie cru

  This is what the cold leftovers look like, because I forgot to take a photo on Thanksgiving. This is my perfect stuffing. I wanted something basically like boxed Stovetop Stuffing but fresher and generally better, and also with bigger pieces of bread. I used  this recipe from Mel's Kitchen . All I changed was to double it, and also to substitute fresh rosemary and sage for dried thyme and sage (because I had them in the garden).  I will probably eat all of the leftovers cold with my fingers before they ever make it to our plates. Too good. The Recipe:  2 16-oz loaves of crusty Italian bread, cut into large cubes 5 cups vegetable broth, warmed (unless you're making the stuffing ahead and keeping it warm in the oven) 1 tsp salt 12 tb butter  1 large onion, chopped 7 stalks celery, chopped 6 cloves garlic, minced 3 tb poultry seasoning 1/2 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped 1/2 tsp fresh sage, finely chopped Dry out the bread cubes by some combination of leaving them out for a f

Over a bed of shredded cabbage, strongly recommended.  I'm slowly but surely learning how to make all of my restaurant favorites during this pandemic. This was one I hadn't bothered with because I assumed that I would need to fry the tofu, and I really hate frying things. But  this recipe from She Likes Food  gave me the confidence to try it baked, and it works! This one is now going into the rotation of favorites. The original recipe for the crispy tofu calls for coating the tofu in soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, garlic, rice vinegar, and maple syrup before adding the cornstarch. I kept it simple and only used soy sauce and sesame oil, since I was planning to top it with teriyaki sauce. I think this was the right choice, but I'll try the full list of ingredients another time. Whenever I get tofu teriyaki in a bento, it's over a bed of thinly sliced cabbage, slightly wilted from the warm tofu and sauce. I love this and I think it's the perfect accompaniment to teriyak

  Next time I'll broil it a bit toastier This is another keeper from the Martha Stewart meal kit. This one is very easy to do without the kit, since it doesn't use many ingredients. I also love that it's a one-pot meal, and it comes together quickly. The original recipe uses mascarpone, which yes, is delicious. But I've substituted cream cheese twice now, and it's still yummy. I remain fascinated by how perfectly the broccoli and spinach end up being cooked using this method. I'm curious about branching out and trying other vegetables, but I lack confidence that the vegetables would turn out so well. Also, I love the sheer quantity of vegetables in this recipe! We very easily eat the entire crown of broccoli and 3 oz of spinach in 2-3 servings, and it doesn't feel like a chore.  The Recipe: 1 small crown broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 oz parmesan, grated 3 oz baby spinach 1 package cheese ravioli (the refrigerated type) 3 oz c

  One day when the children aren't pulling me in 5 directions, maybe I'll take a cleaner photo. The schools are doing free lunches (plus breakfast for the next day) to go while closed for Covid. Miles loves the novelty and I love having new fresh fruit and vegetables every day. But it's leaving us with a LOT of milk cartons in the fridge. It's all skim and 1%, which isn't the best for making yogurt or cheese. So I had no choice but to try chocolate pudding. This recipe uses pantry ingredients and doesn't require me to melt chocolate, and it's delicious. I may experiment with making it more gourmet, but there's nothing wrong with a basic chocolate pudding with cornstarch. I followed  this recipe  and didn't change anything except to decrease the amount of butter. The Recipe: (makes 6 half-pint servings) 1 1/3 c sugar 2/3 c cocoa powder 1/3 c cornstarch pinch of salt 4 1/2 c milk 1-2 tb butter 1 tsp vanilla In a saucepan, whisk together the sugar, coco

  With the last of the garden basil I'm pretty sure I tried this recipe once before and failed at it. I probably undercooked the cauliflower and I definitely didn't puree it for long enough. I'm glad I tried again. I'd forgotten how delicious fettuccine alfredo is, and I'm so happy to have a healthier, dairy-free version. It's yet another amazing recipe from  Pinch of Yum . I only made small changes: I replaced the heavy cream with almond milk, omitted the nutmeg, and inadvertently doubled the butter and oil because I halved the recipe and forgot to halve those, but it's delicious that way and still quite healthy. Oh, and I didn't add any pasta water because the consistency was perfect without it.  The Recipe: 1/2 lb fettuccine noodles 12 oz cauliflower florets 3 c vegetable broth 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 tb butter 1/2 tsp salt pinch of black pepper 1 tb olive oil 1/8 c almond milk Boil the fettuccine according to instructions on package.  In a large sa

  I feel very proud of this. After trying a number of meal kits, I've settled on Martha Stewart's kit, which I won't name or link here in case they don't like their recipes being posted on the internet. But it's easy to find. We've gotten two boxes so far, and nearly every recipe has been amazing. I wasn't planning to blog/keep any of the recipes, but this one was too good and I want to remember it so I can duplicate it on my own. I've never made pot pie before, since I don't like meat and it never seemed appealing enough to bother with all of that work just for cooked vegetables. My mind is changed. It's worth it. The Recipe: 2 medium carrots, diced small 1 large handful green beans (the recipe says 4 oz), cut into bite-sized pieces 1/2 medium onion, diced small 1 c corn 1.5 oz parmesan, grated 1 yukon gold potato, diced 3/4 tsp chopped fresh rosemary 1.5 c vegetable broth 1 c plus 2 tb self-rising flour 2 tb butter 1 tb vegetable oil 3/4 c plus

  Bigger slices would hold the sauce better, but I like surface area. One of the experiences that I continue to miss in quarantine life is going to a Korean restaurant and eating lots of different banchan. I've been exploring making various banchan with the help of  Maangchi's  YouTube videos, and serving meals of rice plus as many banchan as I could make with the ingredients in the garden and fridge that day. This one is a keeper, and it could either be a side dish or a main dish.  I used  this recipe , with the only change being that I cooked the tofu in the oven instead of frying it, because I'm awful at frying. I actually set out to pan-fry it, and I was feeling good until it came time to flip the pieces over, at which point half of them crumbled or stuck to the pan. I think maybe I'm not using the right kind of pan (stainless steel), or maybe I need a smaller metal spatula to be able to angle in there better. Anyway, I abandoned the frying plan after the first batc

  With the precious last bits of green onion from the garden I prefer shrimp in one of two ways: Completely simple and unadorned (with dipping sauce), or coated in sweet stickiness. This is the latter. I worked from  this recipe . It's easy and delicious. Tonight, I also mixed a bit of the reduced sauce into some mayonnaise (well, Veganaise) to make a creamy dipping sauce for zucchini fries, and it was the perfect side dish. The Recipe: (from  Simply Recipes ): 1 lb shrimp 1 tb olive oil 3 green onions, sliced 1 tb toasted sesame seeds Sauce ingredients: 1/4 c soy sauce 2 tb rice vinegar 2 tsp brown sugar 2 tb olive oil 1 tsp sesame oil 3 cloves garlic, minced or grated 1 tb ginger root, grated Whisk together the sauce ingredients. Pour it over the shrimp and marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Heat 1 tb olive oil in a pan. Add marinated shrimp but not the sauce yet. Saute shrimp for a few minutes per side, until cooked through. Remove the shrimp and add the sauce to

I should have gotten some of the caramelized onions in the photo. The last food that I really have been missing in quarantine and hadn't been able to recreate is the tempeh dip at the Bier Stein. (It's a regular dip sandwich, but they have an option to substitute tempeh in any sandwich). I hadn't found a way to prepare tempeh that tastes like the Bier Stein's tempeh, and I had no idea how to go about making au jus without having to touch meat. When my neighbor told me that you can buy instant au jus packets, I decided it was time to make this happen. Maybe the packets are blasphemous to anyone who makes real au jus, but I'm no connoisseur. In fact, if it tastes a little less like it came from real meat, I'm all for it. I did some searching for tempeh marinades and decided to try  this one from Food 52 . It didn't come out exactly like the Bier Stein, but it's close enough. It works perfectly in this kind of sandwich. This tempeh is also deliciou

My strawberries are better than your strawberries. I had some very ripe strawberries and leftover simple syrup, so I was just FORCED to try this cocktail. It's delicious and refreshing and perfect for summer, especially when you've bought sake to steam clams and you have extra in the fridge. I worked from  this recipe , substituting lemon for lime because I had lemons and omitting the mint, because I had none but also I think it would overcomplicate the deliciousness of the strawberry and sake flavors. The Recipe (adapted from  Serious Eats ): 2 ripe strawberries 3/4 oz freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice (probably half of a lemon or 1 lime) 1 oz simple syrup 2 oz sake 1 1/2 oz seltzer water In a glass, muddle the strawberries with the juice and simple syrup Fill glass with ice Add sake and top with seltzer water The Verdict: Overall grade: A+ Overall reason: Feels special and restaurant-y Time to prepare: 5 minutes Husband quote

SO COMFORTING. I first tasted Japanese curry over 5 years ago, when a friend dropped it off after Miles was born. I loved it, but I never had it again, because restaurants always have meat in their Japanese curries.  So finally, I decided to figure out how to make it myself. It turns out it's very easy (at least with the store-bought curry roux), and it's amazingly delicious. It's the rare kind of comfort food that lets you still feel good after you've eaten it, which seems to be less rare among Asian comfort foods than among American ones. This is the curry mix that I buy. There are an overwhelming number of options at the Asian store, but I saw someone else grab this one, so I thought I'd try it. I'll probably stick with it until someone suggests otherwise. I worked mainly from  this recipe from Just One Cookbook , modifying quantities a little bit according to the box of curry, and substituting my choice of vegetables and protein.

No, I don't have the fancy stone bowls like the Korean restaurants. It's just a black bowl. I've been easing into making my current favorite Korean soup, doenjang jigae, by making  this miso soup with Korean flair . It's become a frequent enough meal that I decided it was worth investing in a tub of doenjang. I'm glad I did! Rather than just reusing my old recipe, I initially worked from  this recipe from My Korean Kitchen . But I'm sticking with dashi as the base, since I still have no interest in working with either beef bones or dried anchovies.  It's delicious! Preschooler hasn't tried it yet, but I have a feeling I'll just be making him a separate bowl of miso soup whenever we have this, even if I kept the spice out of his bowl. The doenjang definitely has a stronger flavor than miso. The Recipe: (adapted from  My Korean Kitchen ) (makes 3 servings) 3.5 c rice water (from rinsing rice) 1.5 tsp hondashi granules 3 tb

Seasonal secret weapon: garlic scapes instead of green onions This is one of the child's all-time favorite foods. He will eat any quantity of it that I put in front of him. I like it too. I follow  this recipe from Kimchimari , making no changes except that I either leave out the chili powder completely, or I set aside only a small portion to get the chili powder, since the 5-year-old will be consuming most of it. I also increase the amount of sesame seeds. The Recipe: 1 small English cucumber (if bigger, I double the rest of the ingredients), sliced 1 tb soy sauce 2 tb rice vinegar 1 tb sugar 1 tsp sesame oil 1/2 tb toasted sesame seeds 2 green onions, finely chopped optional: 1/2 tsp gochugaru Mix together soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar Add the rest of the ingredients Toss to combine The Verdict: Overall grade: A Overall reason: Simple and delicious Time to prepare: 10 minutes Child quote: "FAVORITE FOOD!"

Photo is the leftovers in the pan, because we finished our bowls immediately. I've been in a rut with fried rice lately, and I've struck out on a few recipes that I thought would be good but weren't. I'd seen this  Cookie and Kate recipe  before and I hadn't bothered with it because I felt like something with oyster sauce and/or fish sauce would be better, but I was wrong! I finally tried it and it's delicious. Partially its success I think came from the experience that I finally have making fried rice and adjusting the seasonings at the end. I used the recipe as a guide, but I did a lot of adding and tasting at the end until it was just right.  My only real change, other than seasoning to taste, was that I added a splash of the pineapple juice (from canned pineapple) in the seasoning process. We like a bit of sweetness in our fried rice. This is the one! For now, at least. I'm curious about some of the recipes I've seen that use curry powder, so

I'm excited about the whole oats. One food that I've been missing in quarantine is Laughing Planet's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I tried one previous recipe for vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and it wasn't quite right, but it led me to believe that I was on the right track with flaxseed and coconut oil. So I tried  this one from Love to Be in the Kitchen , and I'm a fan. It's not vegan - it has egg - and I think the egg is maybe the thing that does set it aside from the Laughing Planet cookies. I might try to experiment with eliminating the egg in favor of more flaxseed. I also think that maybe they could have even more oats in them. But aside from a slight obsession with figuring out EXACTLY how Laughing Planet makes theirs, I really like these and they fulfill my craving. I made no changes to the original recipe except that I cooked them 11 minutes, despite the recipe's warnings not to exceed 10. But I'm glad the recipe emphasize

This was Jess's sandwich. I scooped my bread so I could fit it in my mouth. It took many years away from New York (like 22 years) to suddenly realize that I missed a really good east coast eggplant parmesan, particularly in sandwich form. So I've made this a few times, and it's successfully fulfilled the craving. I hate frying things, so I searched for instructions for a baked version and found  this one from Gimme Some Oven . The only change I made is to omit the fresh basil (because I usually don't have it on hand) and also omit the Italian seasoning in the breadcrumbs. I like to keep the flavor on the eggplant simple, and pack my sauce with those flavors instead.  I usually pick up fresh bread to turn it into a sandwich, but we're in quarantine and Fred Meyer was out of the french bread that I tried to get in my last pickup order. So out came the flour and yeast, and I followed  this recipe for french bread , and it's SO good and not terribly

The best yogurt. I tried this when I first got an instant pot and decided it wasn't worth the effort, mainly because the amount of yogurt that I was left with after straining was the same price (or slightly more expensive) than just buying a tub of Nancy's. But I now realize that where I went wrong was that I used 2% milk instead of whole, and I probably didn't let it "set" fully, and then I had to strain it too much to get it thick. I'm better at it now, and it's totally worth it. I'm glad that quarantine led me to try again; it's been hard to find good yogurt through grocery pickup, so I've taken to just buying extra milk and making the yogurt myself. In addition to now using whole milk and making sure that it actually sets, I also follow a tip that I read somewhere: After completing the "boil" step, I take the lid off and boil the milk for an extra 5 minutes. This makes the yogurt thicker. My instant pot is a Duo M