The other night I had a few friends over.  I decided to make a slew of food, including drinks and desserts.  Usually when I’m cooking a lot, I don’t have time to take pictures for my blog simultaneously, so I just took some shots of the finished products.  I’ll link the recipes to the food below…but I don’t have a picture of the mojitos we made because…well, we drank them too fast.

Pea Crostini Appetizers*

Ceviche, which I learned to make in Cancun.  Will have a post about the recipe.

Fish Tacos with Arugula and Wasabi Yogurt*

So I suppose I was on a Mediterranean kick, but I wanted to make some falafel after having some amazing food back in DC.  I found this recipe* online, and since it was my first time I decided to try to follow it as closely as I possibly could.

You’ll need chick peas (I used 1 can), 1/2 of an onion, fresh parsley and cilantro, salt and pepper, dried hot red pepper, 4 cloves of garlic, cumin, baking powder, cooking oil, and flour.  However, instead of using the ingredients they used for their garnish, I used a different recipe for cilantro yogurt*.

Let’s start with the falafel.  If you’ve ever made meatballs before, its pretty much the same process.  Chop up your parsley (2 tablespoons), cilantro (2 tablespoons) and onion. You don’t need to dice these ingredients too finely because the food processor is going to help you out a lot.

If you are using dried chickpeas, you will need to soak them overnight before.  Instead, I used canned chickpeas.  All I had to do was drain and rinse them.  Place the chickpeas, onions, parsley, cilantro, hot pepper, 4 cloves of garlic, and cumin into a food processor.  Process until just integrated.

Since I have a relatively small food processor, I had to blend in batches.  Add 4 tablespoons of flour to the mixture in the food processor.  Place the mixture into the refrigerator for one hour.

While this is cooling, you can prepare your cilantro yogurt.  The recipe is outlined after this recipe is complete.

After your hour, take the dough and form small balls the size of walnuts (about 1.5 inches in diameter, I would say). Heat 3 inches of cooking oil in a pot.  If you don’t have a thermometer, a good way to test if the oil is ready is to drop a small piece of bread in.  If it starts to bubble, it is ready.  Prepare a place with a paper towel on it for when the falafel is fried.

Place one falafel in the oil.  If it disintegrates, then add more oil to the flour mixture.  The recipe says to fry about 6 at a time – it actually affects how the falafel will come out, because the more or less of the flour balls you add to the oil, the more or less you will affect the temperature of the oil.  So we want to try to keep it consistent.

Now for the yogurt…

You’ll need some plain yogurt, freshly chopped cilantro, chopped onion, chopped garlic, lemon juice and cayenne pepper.

Super easy.  Chop all of the vegetables and herbs up, and whisk together with the pepper, yogurt, and lemon juice.

I ate my falafel with Israeli couscous (here*) and some roasted brussel sprouts (here*).  This whole meal ended up being completely vegetarian, which I enjoyed.

Ok. I definitely went rogue on this recipe…and I couldn’t be more pleased with the results! I have never made Israel couscous before, so I read a few recipes online (here* and here*) in order to reference how to make it.  It looked like it was very similar to making quinoa, which I have made before (here*).  So after I figured out the basics, I decided to make couscous the way I wanted to. I was very pleased with the results.

You will need:

1/2 to 1 teaspoon of Paprika

1/2 to 1 teaspoon of cumin

1 lb/package of Israeli couscous

3 cups of chicken stock

1 bunch of Basil

3/4 cup of Heirloom Tomatoes

1/2 lb of Asparagus

2 garlic cloves

1/2 a lemon

salt and pepper

Sorry, the ingredients aren’t all in the picture because I added some of them at the last minute. :/  Spices were flying everywhere!

We’re going to start off with your beautiful asparagus.  After you have washed and drained about a 1/2 pound of asparagus, you are going to cut them into bite sized pieces.

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large sized pan.  Add your 2 minced garlic cloves, and stir in the pan until they are just heated through, but not yet crispy.  Add your asparagus.  Add salt and pepper.

Once your asparagus has been cooked so that they are softened and heated through (you can ensure this by trying a piece), remove them from the heat, place in a bowl and set aside.

Next, add a little more olive oil to the pan, maybe about 1-2 tablespoons.  Take your package of Israeli couscous and add them to the pan.  Using a spoon, stir the couscous over the course of the next few minutes until they brown nicely.  Once they have browned, add 3 cups of chicken stock.  Squeeze the juice of half of a lemon into the pan.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cover.  Cook for 10-12 minutes, until the couscous becomes soft and fluffy, and has absorbed all of the liquid.

In the meantime, you can prepare the rest of your ingredients.  Take a bunch of basil (probably around 1/4 of a cup), remove the stems and chop the leaves into small pieces.

Also, take a handful of heirloom tomatoes.  I used around 3/4 of a cup. Slice them in half.

When the couscous has absorbed all of the chicken broth, add the asparagus, basil, and tomatoes.

Stir gently, making sure all of the ingredients combine.  At this point, I added some paprika and cumin (around 1/2 of a teaspoon each), to give the couscous a bit of a warmer flavor.

As you can see, this recipe is very simple! You can really dictate how your salad will taste based on the other ingredients and the spices you decide to use.

“To make good food, you have to eat good food.”

As a sushi lover, I have wanted to go see this movie ever since I saw the trailer for it coming out.  Tonight I finally had the chance with Juan, my lovely and sweet friend.  We went to eat dinner before (we had some sushi of course!) at Torafuku, a Japanese restaurant nearby, and then we went to watch the movie.

Yummy salad to whet the appetite!

Sake.

Fried yucca.  I was intrigued because I remembered learning about the yucca plant during a tour of the grand canyon when I was a kid.

Udon noodles.

Fried chicken.

Salmon skin roll.

Pretty rose before the movie.

The movie was…spectacular.  The beauty of the food was complimented and enhanced by classical music that was beautifully integrated into the film.  At first I thought that this movie would only appealed to foodies, but I really did find that the different themes of family, culture, history, devotion, and vocation appealed to a wide array of people.  I loved how this documentary really allowed audiences to catch a glimpse of the personalities of each person involved, the various subjects it touched upon, including overfishing.

Did I mention the shots of the sushi?  I was drooling.

Since I have been sick, the girls at work have been lovely in helping me cover my shifts as well as do everything they can do to help.  As a thank you, I thought I would make some Chocolate Hazelnut Drop Cookies* for them.

It was a simple recipe, with a few key ingredients.

You’ll need flour, 2 sticks of butter, vanilla extract, powdered sugar, and chocolate hazelnut spread.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

The recipe calls for combining the 2 sticks of butter and 1/4 cup of powdered sugar in a electric mixer.  Since I don’t have one, I just used my GUNS.  Seriously I used a wooden spoon and a bowl and hand mixed them together. I figured people have been baking for centuries before electric mixers existed.

Once the butter and sugar have combined – it should be puffy and full, but not liquidy – add the vanilla.  Add the flour in batches and continue to stir the batter.

Now add in the chocolate hazelnut spread.  Of course, I licked the spoon when I was done. And it was delicious.

Once the hazelnut spread is fully incorporated (you can tell because everything should become a uniform light brown color), roll the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls.  Line your baking sheets with parchment paper and place them 2-3 inches apart.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until the shape of the balls transform every so slightly, like they melted a bit.  Remove from the oven and leave to cool.  You can either place the cookies in a bowl with the remaining sugar to coat them, or I just used a sieve and sprinkled the sugar on top.

Hints*:

I wish that these cookies had a little bit more texture. After making them, I found myself wishing there were tiny chocolate chips embedded inside, or perhaps some nuts.  I feel like hazelnut chunks would be a lovely addition.

Whenever I am sick, I always crave warm soups.  One soup I crave in particular is Ox Tail Soup.  This is a recipe that I got from D, and it has served me faithfully many a winter.  Although it doesn’t take a lot of ingredients, it does take a bit of time (up to six hours, but at least three), so prepare yourself if you plan on making this.  It’s perfect for those that are recuperating at home with not much to do.

You’ll need:

2 russet potatoes

1 package of ox tails (Mine was about 2 lbs, or about 11 sections of cut up ox tail)

green onions

1 head of garlic, or 8 peeled garlic cloves

About 1 inch of ginger

salt and pepper

Simple ingredients, no?

The first step is to take your ox tails and submerge them in water for about 1 hour.  This is so all of the blood will be pulled out through osmosis.  I used the pot that I was planning on making the soup in, to save on dish washing.  It’s a good idea to put this in the fridge as you are dealing with raw meat.

I had a helpful little timer (a cute gift from my sister!) to help me keep track of the time.

While you are waiting, peel your potatoes and cut them up into bite sized pieces.  Set aside – you won’t need these for a few hours, yet.

Take three green onions and cut off the ends, then slice them up.  Set these aside as well.

And finally, peel some ginger (about an inch and a half) and slice them up into thin pieces (about 1/4 of an inch thickness – that should do it).

When your hour is up, rinse out the water from the bones a few times (much like when making rice), until it runs pretty clear.  Fill your pot with enough water to fully submerge the ox tails, and add your eight garlic cloves to the pot.  Cover the pot and put on high heat.

Once you have brought your water to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer.  Now simmer for the next three hours.  You can start to skim off the fat that accumulates at the top.  There is a lot of fat in ox tail, so I did this several times throughout the course of the next few hours.  Once I got my soup going to a good simmer, I covered the pot only partially – the point is to burn off the water so that the flavor of the meat remains in the soup.  If so much water evaporates that parts of the ox tail are exposed, add a bit of water, but only a little at at time so that the ox tails remain submerged but you don’t risk losing the flavor you have accumulated.

After 2 hours and 20 min, add your potatoes so they can cook for the last forty minutes.  After three hours, you have two options.  You can either continue to boil your soup for another three hours, or you can eat the soup as it is.  I was starving by this point, so I made myself a bowl and continued to simmer the rest.  Patience was never my best quality.

Top your bowl with some of the fresh onion, and season with salt and pepper.

If you decide to simmer the soup for the additional three hours, you can use this time to remove the meat from the bones of the ox tail.  Using tongs, I took out the pieces of oxtail and cut away the meat.  Be careful, its hot!   The meat is so tender at this time that it will easily fall away from the bone.  You can also cut out the fat that is still attached to the meat.  Add the meat and bones back to the soup.

The more you boil the soup, the milkier the soup will become.  And the tastier!

Here’s what it looks like after the full six hours.  As you can see, the broth is much thicker.  So good!

While I have been battling a terrible cold (I’m still sick!), I had the glorious opportunity to travel to Cancun.  It was there that I ate some truly spectacular food.  What I loved even more was that a lot of the presentational aspects gave me ideas for how I could present my own food in a more artistic and aesthetically pleasing way.  We’ll start off with some non-Cancun dishes, then jump right in…

The journey begins with some bing soo, a korean dessert. This is one of my favorite desserts ever!  There is shaved ice, ice cream, fruit, mochi rice cakes, and condensed milk.  How could you go wrong?

This was from a restaurant called Roti which serves Mediterranean food.  I am inspired to make roasted vegetables in the same way they did (they were slightly crispy), as well as falafel.

Now we begin with Mexico!  The buffet was pretty spectacular.  A wide range of seafood, fresh fruit, and food cooked to your specifications.

While this may look like humble ice cream, it was actually one of the best coconut ice creams I have ever had.  Not only was it light and sweet, but it had coconut flakes in it.

One of the best meals I had in Cancun, this was lamb prepared in a Thai Mexican fusion style.

Breakfast was my favorite meal of the day.  They would make the most delightful, fluffy delicious waffles right in front of you and slide them onto your plate.  They had syrup, nutella, peanut butter, sugar and cinnamon as optional toppings for your waffle.

Look at this presentation!

Nom nom ice cream

For the past few days, I have been pretty sick. I am not the kind of person to be incapacitated by disease, so the past few days have been pretty frustrating and torturous.  I have been holed up in the bat cave , and Bruce Wayne is not coming out!  Thankfully though, it gave me some time to catch up on blogs from the past few days that I hadn’t been able to post.  Like this Beet and Goat Cheese Arugula Salad.*

To be honest, I don’t really like beets.  But I never want to write off any food, because I think a lot of times people’s dislike stem from the way a certain food is prepared, not the way the actual food tastes.  I wanted to make these beets from scratch, but my local Trader Joe’s didn’t have them available.  Since they only had steamed beets available, I went with those.

You’ll need beets, greens (which I used instead of arugula), goat cheese, balsamic vinegar, honey, olive oil, dried cranberries, 1/2 of an avocado, sunflower seeds (which I used instead of walnuts), shallots, and salt and pepper for seasoning.

Take the beets and cut them up into quarters.  Beets are notorious for staining clothing, so I wore an apron.

Place them on a baking pan and bake at 450 degrees for around 12 minutes.

While the beets are baking, we can make the dressing.  Thinly slice around 3 tablespoons of shallots – I used about 3-4 cloves in order to achieve this.

Measure out 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar…

And add the shallots and 1 tablespoon of honey.

Add 1/3 cup of olive oil.  Stir everything together.  When the beets are finished, place your greens (or arugula) in a bowl.  Allow the beets to cool.  Add the sunflower seeds and the dried cranberries to your bowl.  Sprinkle the beets on top, and drizzle the dressing over the whole thing.  Add chunks of goat cheese along with pieces of avocado, and season everything with salt and pepper.

Like I said, beets ended up not really being my thing.  I am curious to see if I will like them any better if I make them from scratch.  The nice thing about this salad though, is that you can really substitute the beets with anything, like tomatoes.

After my TV debut*, I was completely filled with absolute love from all of the support, encouragement and congratulations I received.  Thank you all so much, it means so much to me!

In order to celebrate, I invited my best friend Natalie over for a hearty breakfast.  And look what she brought me!

What a sweet girl!

I decided to make some Steel Cut Oats* using blogger Cookie and Kate’s recipe.  Like I said, I am a huge fan of Cookie and Kate.  When I saw how delicious her oats were, I knew I would have to try some for myself.  She makes her oats in two parts – making the oats themselves, and making the sauce.  I modified her sauce recipe just a touch based on what I had.

We’ll start with the sauce.  You’ll need some frozen fruit (I used frozen blueberries and raspberries, around 2 cups), honey (4 tablespoons), cornstarch (1 Tablespoon), the juice from a half of a lemon, and water (1/3 cup).

Combine all of the ingredients into a pan and bring the whole thing to a boil.

At the last minute, I decided to add some lemon juice. I squeezed half of a lemon into the mixture in order to bring out the flavor.

Boil the mixture for a few minutes until the sauce thickens, giving it a quick stir every so often.

Now for the oats.  You’ll need almond milk (1 cup), water (2 cups), steel cut oats (1 cup), salt (1/4 teaspoon), and the zest and juice of one orange.

Steel cut oats have a much creamier texture than regular oats, you can see the difference in the grains.

In a saucepan, combine the water and milk.  Bring to a boil.

In the meantime, melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.  Add the oats and stir until they are toasted slightly and brown.

Stir the oats into the simmering milk and water.  Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.  While this is simmering, zest your orange.

Your oatmeal should be relatively thick by now.  Add the salt, continuing to simmer your oatmeal for an additional 10 minutes.  Add the orange juice and zest, then let the oatmeal stand for a bit before serving.

You can top your oatmeal with a number of options, but I decided to use some almond milk and of course the berry sauce.