Cauliflower Puree garnished with Pickled Onion Relish

This is a simple dish with a little splash of pizzaz.  The acidity of the relish cuts through the butter in the puree extremely nicely so that you can have a bold and exciting dish while retaining the richness of the puree.  Again, no measurements.  If there becomes a large demand for measurements, I will meet it, but this  is the way I enjoy cooking.  Cooking this way feels like art with a scientific spin. I hope you all enjoy!

Cauliflower Puree:

Equipment:
Blender or Food Processor (Processor would be better)
Steamer

Ingredients:
1 head cauliflower
Water
about 2 Tbsp Butter (change this according to taste)
Salt
Black Pepper

Method:
1. Cut the cauliflower into medium, uniform pieces.
2. Steam cauliflower until fork tender.
3. Add cauliflower, the steaming water, and butter to a blender and blend until mostly smooth
     - add more water for a thinner puree and less for a thicker one (to your preference again)
4. Add salt and pepper to taste

Pickled Onion Relish:

This is a red spring onion

Equipment:

Jar or Bowl

Ingredients:

1 Whole Red Spring Onion (remember to peel off the outer layers)

White vinegar

Water

Salt

Sugar

Black Pepper

Red Pepper Flakes

Method:

1. Slice off the stem of the onion.

2. Cut the bulb in half lengthwise, then proceed to (as thinly as you can) slice the onion widthwise. (discarding the root)

3. Slice the stem widthwise as well.

4. Put all ingredients into a container (I used a jar), mix, and let sit for one hour.

     -The vinegar to water ratio should be about 1:1.

     -The other ingredients should be added according to your taste.

5. Strain out the pickling liquid and enjoy!

The two products combined

Foods you all missed out on because I was lazy

So these are some pictures of food I made over a year ago.  Sorry I'm lazy... and enjoy!

This is pomegranate rice pudding.  I got the recipe off of some European blog.  It was good.  It was essentially risotto made with milk instead of stock and sugar instead of cheese.  I added some sprinkles because the pomegranate didn't add as much color as I would have liked.

This is pan fried salmon sticks over mustard greens with chitlin (the leftovers of rendering fat).  There carrots are really there just to round out the meal.  I've got to get my veggies.  The name pretty much sums it up.  I remember this being pretty tasty. P.S. I'm not 100% sure those are mustard greens

This is mustard greens and tomatoes over salmon poached in gingery coconut milk over cucumbers.  The cucumbers were there to, again, round out my meal.  The tomatoes and mustard greens were cooked in the coconut milk as well, so I'm betting that coconut milk was fully of nutrients.  This was tasty as well if I recall.  I definitely recommend at least attempting to poach fish.  It isn't too difficult.

This is a orange, parsley, jicama, radish salad.  This, I did not enjoy.  I just don't like raw radishes.  (cooked radishes are another story)  The dressing is made with the orange juice resulting from supreming the oranges and some other standardy stuff.  I really enjoyed the supremed oranges though.  On occasion, I still supreme citrus fruit for my self.  Did it with a lemon once... not too bad.  Better than raw radishes.

These are pickled cucumbers... er ... pickles.  Anyways, I thought they were cool because they looked like watermelons, the rind and everything.  I got this result by doing a light pickle in a liquid I had just pickled beets in, also delicious.  I really enjoyed pickled vegetables.

Those were all in chronological order.  I hope I'll never have to do a post like this again because it will have meant that I wasn't keeping up, but I suppose it's better than nothing.

Recipe: Curry Carrot Puree

I have a quasi potluck thing going down tomorrow, so I decided to through together some puree.  I just threw in flavors on a whim but it turned out well.  The orange zest was a last minute add because the puree needed a bit of acid.  No measurements on the recipe, I'm not so good with those.  I also had a potluck over my spring break, where me and a couple of friends made ravioli from scratch and a tomato, lentil, pork stew.  I knew the ravioli was gonna turn out tasty, but the stew was surprisingly popular as well.

Equipment:

Steamer

Pot

Knife

Blender

Spatula? (to scrape out the blender)

Ingredients:

Carrots

Clean Water

Butter

Curry Powder

Cayenne

Dill

Kosher Salt

Pepper

Orange Zest

Method:

1. Steam carrots until they are fork tender.

     -Check for fork tenderness with a knife.  It should go in easily, but not come out.

2. Blend steamed carrots with butter and the water used for steaming.

     -Add water "to taste" so that the puree is that the thickness you desire

3. Add the remaining ingredients (curry powder, cayenne, dill, salt, pepper, and orange zest) to taste.

3.5. Top with something (like dried dill) when serving if you don't want your puree to look like a pile of baby food (which I don't really mind myself)

Recipe: Kimchi Pork Stew

Hello everybody!

This recipe is going to be extremely vague! I sorta just threw together this dish.
For the kimchi, it should be mostly pickling liquid with some of the vegetables left.  I inadvertently  used kimchi with msg and I feel like the integrity of the dish suffered for it.  I recommend using kimchi with no msg.

Ingredients:

coconut oil
2 pork hocks
rice wine
kimchi w/ liquids
water
chicken stock
1head of napa cabbage
salt and pepper to taste

Equipment:

One pot
Knife
Cutting Board
Tongs
Forks

Method:

1. Heat the pot with coconut oil on high heat
2. Brown the hocks in the pan, deglaze with rice wine
3. Once the alcohol has cooked off, pour in kimchi, pickling liquids, stock, and water so that the hocks are just covered.  The ratio for the liquids should be about 2:2:1 (It really depends on how spicy you want it though)
     -I don't think the stock would be necessary. If I were to do this dish again, I      would skip it.
4. Bring the liquids to a simmer and continue to simmer for around 40 minutes, until the hock is cooked through and is shreddable.
5. Remove the hocks from the liquid and shred with whatever tool you think is best.  I used two forks.
6. Do a rough chop of the cabbage and rinse it.
7. Add both the cabbage and pork back to the liquid and let simmer for 5 minutes.

8. Add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

Nutrition By Tradition

Hello Everybody.  This last quarter, I've been a part of a video project on food.  This is less about the deliciousness of food and more about the talk of it in politics, science labs, and life in general.  I hope you all enjoy it!

This is our introductory video.

If you enjoyed this at all, please visit our website for the rest of the videos.   And please subscribe!

Thanks

Recipe: Blueberry Lemon Biscotti

I'm quite fond of biscotti.  I've been making them for 4 years or so now.  Not consistently or anything.  In fact, this is the first batch I've made in a while.  I was concerned that they wouldn't turn out well; that I was rusty.  Thankfully, they were quite delicious and popular.  It was my first time using this recipe, adapted from Biscotti by Lou Seibert Pappas, but I think I prefer my old recipe, which I'll have to dig up.  Biscotti are are interesting to me because the ratios of the ingredients greatly effect the end texture of the twice-baked cookie.  This may have inspired me to go on another biscotti rampage.  We'll see.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp grated lemon zest
2 1/4 cups AP flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup freeze-dried blueberries

Method:

0. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit
1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
     -Butter should be at room temperature
2. Add eggs, vanilla extract, and zest.  Stir till combined
3. Mix flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt in a separate bowl
4. Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet mixture as mixing
5. Continue to mix until nearly all of the flour is integrated, then add blueberries and continue mixing
     -You should do as little mixing as possible. No kneading!
6. Mold dough into two loaves, each a foot long, 2 inches wide, and and inch tall.
     -Flour your hands for this step
7. Place the loaves onto a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake for about 25 minutes to a light golden brown
8. Cool loaves for 5 minutes
9. Cut loaves at about a 45 degree angle to your desired thickness.
     -I like to cut to a little less than an inch
10. Lay slices back on the baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes on each side.
     -For a less browned biscotti, bake with the rounded side up
11. Let cool and enjoy! (or store... I guess)

Mutant Kiwis

So I was at the farmer's market by me on Saturday buying delicious produce when low and behold I find someone selling organic kiwis, 3 for a dollar.  But these weren't any ordinary organic kiwis, the were MUTANT organic kiwis.  They were like siamese kiwis.  I'll post up picks later.  I hope they give me super powers haha.

UPDATE: So... its been over a year now.  Thankfully, the goat cheese ladies at the farmers market still sell mutant kiwis and here is what they look like!

And here's me trying to be artsy and whatnot.