Ichiro's Rice

This is my version of my mother's version of a recipe she learned from someone like 35 years ago. There's almost something profound going on there.

Well here you go, anyway: Ichiro's fried rice.

Ingredients

• 3c leftover rice (or fresh cooked rice, chilled for two hours or so)
  
• 1/2c carrots, chopped
  
• 1/2c edamame
  
• 3/4c chopped cremini mushrooms
  
• 2tbsp sesame oil
  
• 2 eggs
  
• soy sauce
  
• 2 cloves garlic
  
• salt and pepper
  

The exact things in the vegetables are totally optional. Use whatever you have on hand, preferably leftovers. Suitable vegetables include (but are not limited to) peas, carrots, broccoli, scallions, mushrooms, edamame (we just had some in the freezer at the time), onions, bell peppers, zucchini (yes, we've done it), or whatever else.

Sautee edamame and carrots in oil with garlic. Throw in some salt and pepper. When they're suitably cooked, throw in the mushrooms (as they take much less time to cook). Add about 1-2tsp of soy sauce for added liquid. After about 1 minute, throw in all the rice. Break it up with whatever cooking implement you happen to be using, and throw in just a little more soy sauce. Keep in mind - it's easier to add than to take away. Once the rice is broken up, crack in two eggs directly into the mixture. Break the yolks and stir with the rice. Continue to turn the rice over so the egg cooks, about 1-2 minutes. Take it off the heat and serve.

Thoughts: This is really good with a little Sriracha, and it's barely any work. It's adaptable since you can use pretty much any ingredients. We've considered adding chicken cut into strips, though have yet to try it. Tofu works really well.This is your basic "fried rice" base recipe, and to it you can add just about anything. It's fairly spare on seasonings, though it could use additional ginger. Works better with leftover rice - if you're using chilled fresh rice, cook it a little longer to counter the added moisture.

Claire suggests that next time we use the egg as a protein rather than a binding agent - that is, we move the rice & veg aside and crack the egg into the bottom of the pot. Stir the egg around until it's cooked, and then scrape it off the bottom and cut into slices using the spatula.

Disaster Index: 1-2/10

Carmelized Pear Risotto

A recipe inspired by something I had at Le Chardonnay restaurant in Madison.

Ingredients

• 2 ripe pears, chopped (we used Bartlett, but Bosc would probably do REALLY well)
  
• 1 medium red onion, chopped
  
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
  
• ~1.5c arborio rice or medium grain white rice, or some combination thereof.
  
• 2c chicken broth (we used bouillon) (or veg)
  
• ~1tsp dried basil or about 1tbsp fresh basil
  
• salt and pepper to taste
  
• ~1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  
• Boiling water, as needed
  

Risottos are pretty easy to put together, actually. Start by sauteeing the onions in the olive oil (with the basil and some salt + pepper) over high heat. You're looking not only to get them soft (a little transparent) but also to caramelize them a little bit. Once they're just a little brown, throw in the chopped pears, and again let them sautee until they're caramelized just a bit. Now add the rice and chicken stock (or, in our case, two cups of water and two teaspoons of bouillon). Let the mixture cook down, stirring often. Make sure you have a kettle of boiling water at the ready. When most of the water has cooked off (it shouldn't be DRY, but more a creamy consistency, and the rice will stick a little on the bottom of the pot) add another cup of boiling water. Repeat this process, cooking the water off and then adding more water until the rice is cooked through. When the rice is done, let the water cook down and don't add more. When it reaches the desired consistency, season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Thoughts: The risotto was delicious, but we've already thought of ways to improve on it. First, before you cook anything else, caramelize one additional pear (chopped) and set it aside. Cook the risotto as usual, and then at the end re-add caramelized pear as a last step. Another idea is to use canned pears in juice to get a slightly more powerful pear flavor. If you were really into it you could even add a little pear juice in addition to stock, but I think that might be a little excessive.

We served our risotto with Romano cheese, but there's almost certainly a more elegant pairing possible. I'm thinking Brie. Anyway, there are options you can experiment with.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Oat, Raisin, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Extravaganza

Makes about 24 cookies.

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp butter
• 2/3 cup superfine sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 capful of vanilla extract (what is this, like, 1/2 tsp? a full tsp? Not a full. Probably a half)
  
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1&3/4 cup rolled oats (NOT INSTANT)
• 1 cup raisins, soaked in water for 15 minutes
• 1 cup chopped chocolate (or chocolate chips)

Preheat the oven to 350F
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Gradually add the beaten egg and vanilla.
Beat in the salt, baking powder, and flour and gently mix to combine.
Add the rolled oats, raisins, and chocolate pieces.
Place spoonfuls of the mixture on a greased baking sheet. About 12 should fit at one time.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. These won't really turn golden brown, so you can't use that as an indicator. Poke them with a knife or toothpick or something and make sure that it comes out clean.

Thoughts: Well, these were much better than that other oatmeal cookie recipe, I'll tell you what. But I don't think we were entirely pleased with the oat: flour ratio. These cookies, like so many other oat and raisin cookies, were too much oat and not enough batter. So I think we'd probably change the recipe to include something like 1 cup flour and 1 cup oats or even 3/4 cup oats or something. I don't know. We'll mess around with it. We used shredded chocolate pieces because that's what we had on hand, but I think actual chocolate chips would probably have been better.

Disaster Index: 2-3/10 not too shabby

Roasted Chestnuts

This wasn't REALLY worth the hassle.

Ingredients

• Chestnuts. Whatever you got.
  
• Butter. How much? I don't know.
  
• Cinnamon. Probably 1/4 tsp.
  
• Salt. A pinch.
  

Cut an x in the flat sides of each chestnut shell. Put them in a baking pan, and place that pan in the oven at 375 for about 30 minutes. Take the nuts out and let them cool, and then proceed to peel them. If you did it right, and we apparently didn't, the inner skins should come off pretty easily. If you over or undercook them, they won't. This is the part that isn't worth the hassle. If you can master this part, then you should do this recipe.

Now, toss the chestnuts with butter, salt, and cinnamon. Put them back in the pan, and back in the oven for a good 5 or 10 minutes, until just golden. Take them out, and serve!

Thoughts: Like I said, this was kind of arduous. If I could buy pre-shelled chestnuts, I'd consider doing that instead. I bet there's a better way. I've seen some recipes put them in a skillet and then after frying them they put them in the oven - this sounds like it might work better, but we don't have such a skillet.

Disaster Index: 7/10 - They were pretty good tasting, but the peeling thing was just ridiculous.

Tostones with Cilantro Mayonnaise

Tostones:

Ingredients

• Plantains, cut into 3/4" to 1" slices
  
• Oil for frying
  

Cut the plantains and put them flat-side down in hot oil over medium heat. Cook two minutes per side, and then take them out of the oil to drain on a bed of paper towels. When they've drained, place them one at a time between two sheets of waxed paper and smash them to about 1/2 the original height with a potato masher, frying pan, or just anything with a flat side that would make a good smashing implement.

Now, re-fry them until golden, again over medium heat, making sure to turn them half-way through the cooking process. Place them back on the paper towels to drain. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, chile pepper, thyme.

You can also use this dipping sauce to dip the tostones in. Recipe follows:

Ingredients

• 2 tbs mayonnaise
• a lot of cilantro. Like, 2 cups.
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• liberal salt
• liberal pepper
• 3 tbp vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic

Grind these things up in a food processor or blender or whatever, until the consistency looks like mayonnaise, but with cilantro in it.
Tostones are also delicious with salsa.
If you have leftover cilantro mayo, you can use it as a dipping for chips! It's great!

Thoughts: Make sure that the oil temperature isn't too high when you're frying the tostones. Try to keep it at medium. There's still a little something missing from the cilantro mayonnaise. Maybe more salt? Pepper? Not sure yet, but it was pretty darn delicious for being completely made up.

Disaster Index: Tostones = 1/10, Cilantro Mayonnaise = 3/10

Acorn Squash Ravioli

Ingredients

• 1 acorn squash
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 small onion, chopped
• salt
• pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp rosemary
• 1/8 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 package wonton wrappers
  

Preheat oven to 375. Cut acorn squash in half, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Bake in oven for 25-35 minutes, or until squash is soft.
In the meantime, sautee garlic and onion until onion is translucent. Set aside.
Once squash is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool for several minutes before attempting to carve out the squash. If you don't wait, you will burn your fingers. Trust me.
Combine scooped-out squash, ricotta cheese, and onion mixture in a food processor with the nutmeg, rosemary, and breadcrumbs. Pulse until smooth.
Boil a pot of salted water. Place 1/2 tbs of the squash mixture in the center of the wonton wrapper. Dip your fingers in water and moisten the edges of the wonton. Fold it over into a triangle and press the edges of the wonton together. If you want to be all fancy, you can use a fork to crimp the edges of the wonton to ensure that stuff won't come out of it while cooking.
Place all the completed wontons in the boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Stir every once and a while to ensure that the wontons aren't sticking together.
Using a slotted spoon, remove the wontons.
Garnish with parmesan/romano, pesto, olive oil, or whatever you want. These are delicious.

Thoughts: When removing the wontons from the water, try placing them on a plate that has been sprayed with a little bit of cooking spray. I would also recommend spraying each successive layer of raviolis with cooking spray so that the layers don't stick together. Because they will. And then they'll tear when you try to take them apart.
You could also use butternut squash for this recipe.

Disaster Index: 1/10 OMG

Greek Honey Cookies - Melomakarona

Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• grated rind and juice of 1 large orange
• 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 6 tbsp superfine sugar
• 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1.75 tsp baking powder + 3.5 cups flour (combine these)
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup shelled walnuts, chopped

for the syrup

• 1 cup honey
• .5 cup superfine sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Mix baking soda and orange juice (not the rind).
Mix the olive oil and sugar together until well-blended. Beat in the cinnamon, then add the orange juice mixture.
Mix the salt and flour into the mixture and add the orange rind. Knead for 10 minutes.
Pinch off small pieces of the dough and shape them into 2.5 inch-long ovals and place on ungreased baking sheets.
Using a fork dipped in water, flatten each oval a little bit.
Bake for 25 minutes. Cool slightly and then let harden.
To make syrup, place honey, sugar, and 2/3 cup water in a small pan.
Gently bring it to a boil, stirring continuously. Try to skim off any surface foam, lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Immerse the cold cookies, about six at a time, in the hot syrup and leave them to cook for 1-2 minutes. If the syrup doesn't completely cover the cookies, turn them every so often to coat both sides.
Lift them out with a slotted spoon and place on a platter in a single layer.
Sprinkle with cinnamon and chopped walnuts.

Thoughts: This is a pretty complex recipe and it is also very dangerous. When boiling the syrup, BE VERY CAREFUL. As it nears the boiling point, the mixture will start to rise rapidly. When this happens, REMOVE THE POT FROM THE HEAT AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN. Otherwise you risk getting honey and sugar ALL OVER your kitchen. CHRIST. I don't even think you need to boil the mixture. Just get it hot enough to dissolve the majority of the sugar. Dan would recommend mixing the cinnamon and chopped walnuts into the dough rather than topping the cookies. I personally disagree. He would also use butter instead of olive oil and would use one more egg because he wants them to be more like regular cookies. I also disagree there. He would also use the kitchen aid. I've got nothing against the kitchen aid.

Disaster index: 1/10 - delicious

Spanikopita

Ingredients

• 2 pkgs frozen spinach
• 4 small onions or two large onions, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
  
• 1 pkg feta cheese, 8 oz, crumbled
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 4 scallions, chopped
• liberal amounts of dry parsley (fresh is obviously better)
• equally liberal amounts of dill
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• ground black pepper
• salt
  
• several sheets of filo pastry

Preheat oven to 375F. Take filo out of the freezer to thaw, if frozen.
Thaw the frozen spinach in a pot. Chop the onions and scallions.
Put the onions/scallions in the pot with the spinach and add some olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic.
Cook until onions are translucent. Set aside and let cool.
Crumble the feta into a bowl and combine with the 2 beaten eggs. Once spinach mixture has cooled enough to not cook the eggs, combine them.
At this point, also combine all the herbs you have. Stir well.
Layer a few sheets of filo pastry into the bottom of a glass pie dish (or a baking sheet or something). Add the filling. Fold filo sheets over the top to cover the pie. Brush top with olive oil
Pake for 40 minutes. Eat.

Thoughts: Fresh herbs definitely work better than dried, though dried will do in a pinch. If you want a moister filling, do not drain the spinach after thawing. If you want a slightly drier filling, drain the spinach after thawing and then mix it back in with the onions. This recipe also works well with pearl onions instead of regular onions. Use about 2 cups of these.

Disaster Index: 1/10

The Pancake Method

This is something my mother taught me, and then I changed the ingredients and messed it up.

Ingredients

• 1 c flour
  
• 1 tsp baking soda
  
• pinch salt
  
• 1 tsp sugar
  
• little cinnamon (optional)
  
• 1 egg
  
• Buttermilk / soured milk until it's done.
  
• Fruit of your choice (sliced) / chocolate chips / whatever
  

Put the flour in a bowl. Add the baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and sugar, and stir to combine. Crack the egg into the bowl, and then add about 2/5 c buttermilk (eyeball it) and mix. Add more buttermilk and keep mixing until you get a loose batter, the consistency of... batter. Maybe like honey? How does that sound?

Now just make pancakes. Pour a big spoonful of batter (about 1/8c plus or minus) into a hot pan (we're looking for ~300-350 degrees). Distribute fruit / whatever on top (we used strawberries, and then apples when we ran out). When the cake looks dry around the edges, flip it. You'll get the hang of it.

Thoughts: I felt that these came out just the tiniest bit rubbery for my tastes. I think it's because I didn't have buttermilk, and so I soured my own milk (with milk + lemon juice) and it just didn't work very well. Next time if I'm out of buttermilk I'm switching the baking soda for baking powder. I'm still adding some lemon juice, though. The other theory for rubberiness is that the sugar is the culprit. It helped with browning, though, I think. Anyway, these turned out great. It's hard to mess them up. This recipe makes about 6-8 pancakes.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Dal and carrot soup

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup red or brown lentils
• 5 cups vegetable/chicken bouillon
  
• 2 cups carrots
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tsp vegetable oil (or ghee, if you have it)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
  
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• salt
• 1 and 1/4 cup milk
• unsweetened yoghurt, to serve

Place lentils in strainer and rinse well under cold running water.
Drain and place in large pan along with carrots, onions, 2.5 cups of the bouillon, tomatoes, and garlic.
Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the oil/ghee in a saucepan and add cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper, and turmeric and cook over low heat for 1 minute.
Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice. Season with salt.
Put batches of the soup in a blender and blend until desired consistency is achieved.
Return soup to pan, add the spice mixture and the remaining 2.5 cups bouillon, and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.
Add the milk. Serve with a swirl of yoghurt.

Thoughts: Pretty much a no-fail recipe at this point. Good with buttered toast. Would also be good with cilantro. Dan thinks that this soup doesn't really qualify as "dal", texture-wise. He recommends blending half of the soup and leaving the other half un-blended, in order to provide a rougher texture. Also the cayenne may have been a little much. It was pretty spicy. The original recipe calls for cilantro, but we didn't have any on hand. But we should have, because I think it would have made a good addition.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Sauce

The proportions for this are a little specific because we used four 3.5" ramekins. If you have that, go ahead, otherwise you're going to have to adjust things. If you want to make one big 8" chocolate cake, you multiply everything by 21/16. Yeah. Math.

Ingredients

• Cake
  
  
  
  • 2 eggs, beaten
    
  • 1 c plus 1.5 tbsp granulated sugar
    
  • 3oz chocolate chips
    
  • 6.5 tbsp dutch process cocoa (5 normal plus 1 heaping tbsp is fine)
    
  • 4/5 a stick of unsalted butter (a little more than 6 tbsp)
    
  
  
• Strawberry Sauce
  
  
  
  • 1/4 lb strawberries, washed, stems cut off, and halved
    
  • 1-2tbsp granulated sugar
    
  • 1/2tsp lemon juice
    
  
  

For the cake, preheat oven to 375. Put some water to simmer on the stove, and melt the butter along with the chocolate chips into a metal bowl in the simmering water. (The idea is to make a sort of double boiler. If you actually have a double boiler, go for it.) Take the bowl out and whisk in the sugar. Now (careful that the chocolate is not too hot) whisk in the eggs. Finally, whisk in the cocoa one tbsp at a time.

Line the bottoms of four 3.5in ramekins with a round of wax paper. Spray each liberally with PAM. Distribute the batter evenly between the four ramekins. Place ramekins evenly on a baking sheet with about 1c water in it. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, until the top of the cakes has a bit of a crust. It could take shorter or longer, depending. I had a pizza stone in my oven that I forgot to take out before I baked these. They came out fine, but it probably messed with the temperature.

For the strawberry sauce, throw the strawberries into a sauce pan with the sugar and lemon juice. Better to have less sugar and then add it as needed, I think. Turn it on high and stir until the sugar dissolves, then turn it down to medium and cover for three minutes. Uncover, adjust sugar and lemon juice. Le voila.

To serve (at least the way we did) put a little puddle of strawberry sauce in the center of a plate. Flip a ramekin over on it and then, lifting the plate and the ramekin at the same time, slam each back onto the counter (not TOO hard) so that the cake dislodges. Take the piece of waxed paper off the top, and top with more strawberry sauce and fresh raspberries.

Thoughts: This was a first experiment, and I think we all felt it was an unqualified success. It was amazing. Really good. Seriously. Only difference is, next time I do it I'm going to let them cook just a little longer. I took them out JUST when the crust formed on top so they wouldn't be too dry, and it worked - they were very nice. But they could use to bake up just a little firmer. All the same, this was delicious and surprisingly easy. As an aside, it would be clever to use a pyrex liquid measuring cup (or something heatproof with a lip) instead of a metal bowl in the double boiler because pouring the batter would be easier. That was the hardest part of this dish.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Matzo Ball Soup

My own recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2c matzo meal
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 2 tbsp olive oil
  
• 1/2c fresh parsley, finely chopped (or maybe 1/4c dried?)
  
• salt and pepper (but mainly pepper)
  
• ~6c chicken or vegetable stock
  
• Whatever vegetables you think go in soup (I tend to use carrots and peas)
  
• 2 chicken breasts, cut into smallish strips or chunks (optional)
  

First, prepare the matzo balls. In a bowl, combine the matzo meal, the eggs, the oil, the parsley, and add a liberal amount of salt and pepper. Now you have to add some water to this mixture so that it will loosen up. ~2tbsp minimum. The more water you add now the fluffier the matzo balls will be later. This is a personal preference thing. Some people like them more compact. You pick. Anyway, once you've mixed up the matzo ball batter, put it in the fridge.

Now, bring the stock to a boil. Add the vegetables and, if you're using it, the chicken. By now, the matzo ball batter should be nicely chilled. Get it out and spoon it into the boiling mixture. I use a small ice-cream scoop with a quick-release, though you could use two normal spoons if you're good. Once you've spooned in all of the matzo balls, turn the soup down to a simmer and cover. This prevents them from drying out on top.

After five minutes, you can check on them. I couldn't tell you when they're done, I just keep looking until they look right. They don't take very long, but also you can pretty much over-cook them as long as you want and nothing too bad will happen. At some point they'll start to fall apart.

Thoughts: I've made this a lot. One thing you can do is add cayenne pepper, paprika, or, hell, I dunno, curry to the matzo balls. Go crazy. One time we put peas in the matzo ball batter itself. I didn't really like that. Anyway, there are a lot of options if you aren't excited about just parsley. Still, this recipe is hard to screw up and if you keep a thing of matzo meal on hand you'll pretty much always have the ingredients you need.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - it's kind of a standard at this point.