Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

Not green apples The mu succeeded in the garden this fall, which means it's time to use them all up! I came across  Maangchi's recipe for radish salad , and decided to make it as a topping for some rice bowls. It's delicious and easy, like a simpler version of the  radish kimchi  that I love so much. It's a perfect component of a rice bowl / bibimbap, or it would be good as a side dish on its own. I made no changes except skipping the step of peeling the radish. Maybe I would be more inclined to do this with radishes from the store, as opposed to the garden. The Recipe: 1 large korean radish, cut into matchsticks 1 tb kosher salt 2 cloves garlic, grated 1 stalk green onion, chopped 1 tb rice vinegar 2 tsp gochugaru 2 tsp sugar 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds Mix radish and salt, and let sit for 5 minutes Squeeze out excess liquid Mix in remaining ingredients to the strained/squeezed radish The Verdict: Overall grade: A Overall reason: Easy and delicious Time to prepare: 15 m...

  I now realize that I should have take a photo when they were looking beautiful in the pan. We eat a lot of meals of just various banchan with rice, and I'm always looking for more protein options to include. I recently tried these in lieu of my usual rolled-egg omelet thing, and I'm hooked. Both kids devoured them too, so it's a keeper. I followed  this recipe from My Korean Kitchen . I made no changes. The Recipe: 6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled 4 tb soy sauce 2 tb brown sugar 1 c water 2 tb mirin 1 stalk green onion (preferably the whites) Place all ingredients except the eggs in a pan, and bring to a boil over high heat. When it comes to a boil, remove the green onion, reduce the heat to medium, and add the eggs. Simmer 15 minutes, occasionally rolling the eggs around. Cool the eggs in the sauce, and eat cold. The Verdict: Overall grade: A Overall reason: Easy and cheap and healthy and so delicious. Time to prepare: 20 minutes, plus time to cool Husband quote: "Oh, the...

  TOO GOOD. This recipe is now my motivation for growing bok choy in the garden this summer. I could eat it every day with every meal. It's easy to make, keeps in the fridge for a few days, and is so so so good. It's yet another  Maangchi recipe . Last night I served it with her recipe for radish kimchi, her recipe for vegetables pancakes, and rice. She's the best. The Recipe: 1 lb bok choy 1 garlic clove, minced 1 green onion, minced 2 tb doenjang 2 tsp gochujang 1 tsp sugar 2 tsp toasted sesame oil 2 tsp toasted sesame seeds Cut the bok choy into bite-sized pieces. Boil bok choy 1-2 minutes until stems are starting to soften, then immerse in ice water. Remove, and squeeze out excess water. Mix all other ingredients in a bowl, then add the cooked bok choy. Mix well. The Verdict: Overall grade: A++ Overall reason: One of the most delicious and easy ways to eat a green vegetable. Time to prepare: 10 minutes Husband quote: "Yes, it's good." (I think he's a l...

I make small pancakes instead of one large one to cut, for flipping ease. It's another  Maangchi recipe ! I watched her make this and wanted it immediately. I've since made several variations, including non-Maangchi recipes, and hers is my favorite. It's a great way to use up extra vegetables, and also a good way to use frozen vegetables. My favorite combinations include lots of onion (green and/or otherwise) and zucchini. Sweet potato is also really good in it. In the above photo, I used green onions and edamame, and that was good too. Maangchi's dipping sauce is just 1 tb soy sauce, 2 tsp white vinegar, 1 tsp gochugaru, and toasted sesame seeds. It's good, but I like  this one  better. The Recipe:  2.5 c sliced vegetables (green onion, other onions, zucchini, sweet potato, edamame, mushrooms...) 3/4 c flour 3/4 water 1/2 tsp salt vegetable oil, for frying dipping sauce, for serving (I like  this one ) Combine vegetables in a bowl. Add flour, water, and salt. M...

  If we weren't eager to eat, I would have taken the time to remove crumbs from the photo. I've made toasted ravioli periodically since my time in St. Louis, but this was my best. I think the key is fresh ravioli. They puffed up and the breading became one with the pasta. Perfect. It's pretty straightforward. Egg, seasoned bread crumbs, bake until browned.  The Recipe: 1 package fresh cheese ravioli (about 10 oz) 1 egg 1 c panko breadcrumbs 2 tb parmesan, grated finely 1 tsp salt 1 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp dried basil 1/2 tsp dried oregano 1/2 tsp ground black pepper tomato sauce, for dipping In a shallow bowl, beat egg with 1 tb of water In a second shallow bowl, mix panko, parmesan, and spices Dip each ravioli in egg, then panko mixture. Place on baking sheet. Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes on lower rack of oven, until golden brown. If they are browning too quickly, place foil loosely over the top. The Verdict: Overall grade: A Overall reason: They feel special to eat,...

  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...

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...

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 se...

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...

  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 fi...

100% worth the effort to boil and egg-wash them before baking. For New Years' Eve, I like to make party appetizers for just our family dinner. This year, we had cold veggie pizza (on crescent dough with sour cream and cream cheese) and pigs in blankets, which are one of the few items that I like. I've made them before and I know I prefer them with pizza dough. But when I searched online to remember how long to bake them, I noticed a trend. There were many mediocrely-reviewed recipes that involved just wrapping and baking, as I had previously done. And then there were some really well-rated recipes that involved an extra step of boiling them before baking. Like bagels, if you live in a place where bagel stores serve actual boiled bagels instead of rolls with a hole in the center. So, I worked from  this recipe  and it was just right. I mean, look at them! I was also armed with extra-special malden salt (my new love) and good local mustard. Success. The Reci...

Addictive. I hadn't heard of shishito peppers until they showed up in our CSA box. I searched Pinterest, and it was clear that the right thing to do was to blister them in a pan with some seasoning. I was intrigued by  this simple recipe from Gimme Some Oven , and I followed it exactly. I thought that maybe I shouldn't make the whole container of peppers at once, but the original recipe author claimed that they could easily be eaten in a single sitting, so I made the plunge. I ate more than half of them in about 10 minutes and I forced myself to stop only so Jess could have some when he got home. Otherwise I could have happily eaten them all myself. I will be looking for shishitos again. The Recipe: 6 oz shishito peppers 2 tsp canola oil salt and pepper 1/2 tsp sesame oil 1/2 tsp soy sauce 1/2 tsp sesame seeds Heat oil in heavy-bottomed pan (I used my dutch oven) Add peppers and a generous pinch of salt and pepper Saute for 3-4 minutes, to...

Celery, not mold. I used to not understand the attraction to deviled eggs, until I started putting crunchy additions into them: celery, raw onion, bacon, etc. Then they became one of my favorite things. The downside of adding crunch is that it makes them more addictive to eat, and I want to stand in front of the platter and down several of them at once and ruin my appetite for dinner. But I guess that's an ok problem to have. I used to improvise something involving crunchy things, mustard, and sometimes pickles or capers. Sometimes it would turn out great and sometimes it wouldn't. So for this Thanksgiving, I looked for a recipe that sounded similar to mine and found  this one on Food.com . And now I'm documenting it so I can replicate it in the future, because they were delicious. My changes from the original recipe: I omitted celery seed and added celery. I used white onion instead of scallions. I used caper juice instead of pickle juice, because it's w...

The goodness of wings without the chicken. This post is brought to you by my obsession with the tempeh "wings" at  Hot Mama's Wings . Ever since discovering them, they are a constant craving. They are delicious, and it makes me so happy to get the buffalo taste and the blue cheese and the celery (they even serve it in a basket, like REAL WINGS) without the actual chicken.  The problems with their wings are that they require going to a restaurant, and also this is a restaurant where I will be tempted to eat fried pickles or tots or garlic fries. Plus the wings themselves are fried under the sauce, I assume.  Problems solved. I followed the same super-easy method as my beloved  BBQ Tempeh , lightly browning each side of the tempeh in a pan before covering it in sauce. And in this case, since I don't have to make the sauce (because Frank's Wing Sauce is perfect already), it's my new easiest recipe ever. The hardest part is rinsing and trimming a fe...

Envision the sprinkle of paprika that would make this more photogenic. I've had a hummus breakthrough. Thank you,  Inspired Taste . I've been making hummus on and off for a while. It's always been better than most store-bought hummuses, but not better enough to get really excited about it. It's mainly been a texture issue... it's been kind of clumpy and not very rich-tasting, and I always figured that the rich creamy ones in stores and restaurants were laden with fats and/or chemicals to make them so. Turns out it's just a matter blending the ingredients in the right order. Tahini and lemon go first. Blend them for a good minute until they're kind of whipped together. Then comes the rest, minus water, and then the water. I also squeezed fresh lemons this time instead of using bottled lemon juice, and it makes a big difference. It's worth keeping lemons on hand. I briefly glimpsed something in the original recipe that debates the merits...

Charred cheese! Unintended and wonderful. Jess and I often get joint cravings for a few specific things: sushi, ice cream, and the jalapeño poppers at  Cafe 440 . Today was our first effort at re-creating the poppers, and I must say, it was a success. They were at least as good as the restaurant version. Maybe better, because I like our turkey bacon better than their prosciutto.  Their sauce is listed in the menu as "mango-lime coulis." So I took out the mini food processor and blended up a mango with lime juice, garlic, honey, and salt. I imagine they cook the sauce down and/or strain it, because theirs is smooth, but ours tasted great. We think it would be good on smoked-salmon sushi, too. About to become sauce. Some important things unless you enjoy pain: 1) Wear gloves while working with the jalapeños. 2) Be thorough about removing the ribs and seeds from the jalapeños, and also rinse the insides to remove any hiding seeds and mouth-burning residu...

Oops, the serving platter is full and I have 5 left? What to do, what to do... These are so simple and delicious. Just get some good-quality ingredients, put them together, and you've got a crowd pleaser on your hands. There's no cooking involved here, unless you get par-baked bread and bake it yourself at the last minute (recommended). Just layer bread with goat cheese, pear, honey, and cinnamon. I'm going to pull an Ina Garten here and specify that you should get "good honey." I don't think this would be good with your standard store-bought honey; I'd probably skip the honey in that case. Get yourself some truly delicious honey from the farmer's market and showcase it here. My honey of choice. My sister agrees; this bottle was mostly full before her recent visit. The Recipe: 1 baguette, sliced into rounds 4 oz goat cheese 2 tsp good honey 1 pear, sliced into as many pieces as you have rounds of bread cinnamon, to ...

The Fried One. But the baked ones were good, too. Recently, in an effort to have some New York style Chinese food on this coast, I tracked down a bottle of duck sauce at the Asian market. None of this dipping-egg-rolls-in-sweet-and-sour-sauce thing that West Coasters tend to do. However, I failed to find any good NY-authentic egg rolls to go with the sauce, so I decided to make some of my own. I pretty much followed  this recipe , except that I baked mine. Except for the one that I fried. And ok, the fried one was way more delicious than the others. But if you want to bake them instead, you can do that, and they're still good. I'm not too vegetarian to admit that I really like the little salty red specks of pork that are usually in egg rolls. For the 2-ish tablespoons that I'd probably put into one batch of egg rolls, I didn't bother figuring out how to get pork like that. But if you're making a big batch, or if you really like pork, maybe add...

It was SO hard to take this photo before digging in. Snow days definitely bring out the "ish" in "healthy-ish." But they taste so good. I got hooked on rarebit sauce during college. We used to get it at this Welsh pub where they served it with homemade potato chips. Heaven. Since I had a baking bug today, soft pretzels seemed like a good accompaniment. I turned to Alton brown for both recipes:  pretzels  and  rarebit sauce .  The pretzels are outstanding. They're done the REAL way: boiled, then baked. It brought me back to my bagel-shop-managing days. It's a process, but it wasn't difficult and it really didn't take as much time as I thought it would. It's worth it if you can spare a couple of hours. Alton Brown's instructions are great and I followed them exactly, so I won't regurgitate them here. In confidence that his recipe will never disappear from the internet, I say  read Alton Brown's original recipe  if you wan...

Delicious simplicity. A friend brought these to a party and I loved them so much that I demanded the recipe. I couldn't believe how easy they are... they make for a perfect quick appetizer. There are three ingredients: mushrooms, cream cheese, and crescent rolls. Okay, four if you include salt. It would be very easy to spice up the mushrooms (garlic salt? sage? cajun seasoning?), but they're really good just plain, and they make for good contrast if you're serving other food with stronger flavors. If you have the time to roll each crescent triangle separately, you'll have cute smaller rolls than the ones I made. If you do this, you'll end up using less filling and therefore you will probably need three cans of crescent rolls. The easy route, as pictured here, is to mush together two crescent triangles into a rectangle and just fold it over a big heap of the filling. I tuck the messy ends together and make that the bottom of the roll. Note to sel...