Bigoli Con Salsa

I'd been wanting to try out a different anchovy-based sauce for pasta after having tried a puttanesca-like sauce a long while ago. Plus, I was eager to taste some organic garlic I'd purchased so why not try this recipe from Nigella Lawson since it used both ingredients? I found it not too difficult to make at all. It was quite stick to your ribs and thick though the latter was probably due to not thinning it out much. Not being a huge parsely fan, I found the amount called for to be a bit too much but otherwise, the taste was OK. I don't think I care to make it again though if it were made for me, I'd still eat it.

I was also very eager to try out some organic kohlrabi that was the size of a softball. I'd never purchased one so large but was assured it had no bearing on the quality. I was also told it tastes wonderful raw and chopped into a salad so I decided to do just that since I had some fresh, young organic romaine lettuce. Well, the romaine was great but the kohlrabi was not. It was like eating raw, unadorned cabbage (though I love cole slaw)-pungent and incredibly unpalatable. Thankfully, I didn't cut too much so I just cooked the rest up. Sauteed in a bit of oil and salt, the kohlrabi tasted fine, but raw is definitely not for me.

In addition to all this, I was also eager to try out some beautiful organic leeks. Can you tell I got a baggy of organic produce that'd been just picked a few days prior? Anyhow, I simply sauteed the leeks with some butter and salt. Yummy!! I could just eat all the leek like that but I saved the rest for other dishes. Sadly, the leeks (cooked this way on a whim) were the best part of the meal. I wish I had made more. ;)

"Ku-ku" For Piping Hot Takoyaki

So if you didn't already know, I've a thing for takoyaki balls. As I told a friend, if I see them, I have to buy them and eat them. You'd think such an uncontrollable urge would be reserved for sweets or gourmet, specialty foods and not a funky ball of dough and octopus. Well, I never claimed I was "normal."

Today, I got a performance AND fresh takoyaki at the same time at Mitsuwa. I'd been dying for great, fresh-off-the-griddle ones for the longest time and finally did! What reward for the long wait! They were way better than the overcooked (or did it just sit around too long?) ones from the street vendor in London. These were so fresh and authentic, I burned my mouth trying to consume them right off the pan (the way you're "supposed" to eat them)! Interestingly, they were softer on the inside than I though they'd be. Of course, they also tasted much better than the frozen stuff though I've found the JFC brand to be decent. However, it's not like I have too many options in the freezer section. ;P

It was a learning experience watching the pros make the balls as I waited in the long line. In my impatient and hungry wait time, I got greedy. They looked so yummy, I ended up ordering two packs. I thought it was just a 6 pack but it's a 10 pack! That meant I ended up with 20 balls! =O The first ten, I wolfed down burning everything from my lips straight down to my stomach. ;P Then I rested before starting on the 2nd pack. I had 5 and had to rest. Then I had to rest between eating single ones. It came down to 2 left. I forced my mom to eat one and downed the other. Such over indulgence but it was a great indulgence nevertheless! I look forward to the next time these guys come out from Japan to serve these up! Yummy! Apparently, these takoyaki-meisters are from Kukuru Takoyaki a chain or some such from Japan. =9~ It'd be interesting if there were a takoyaki cook-off with different vendors vying for our tastebuds' approval. I'd always wanted something like that with ramen, but that would stray from this topic. The packaging-box containing the takoyakis, chopsticks cover and "tote" bag:

Now that I've watched the preparation of these tasty morsels, I feel ready to tackle my own takoyaki session at home! I'm optimistic and hungry for more. Takoyaki nabe, here I come! Though I wish I had a goat to eat all the yucky stuff I churn out from the kitchen. ;) Behold the beauty:

Make Mine a Jacket

I'm one of those. You know, the ones who'd starve if they went on an Atkin's diet. I love my starches and carbohydrates particularly in the form of potatoes, rice and bread. So I was delighted to find out that in the Britain, they adore their jacket potatoes with a chain food joint that caters to us addicts.

What's a jacket potatoe? Quite simply a baked potato with the jacket being the foil wrapping. They don't just throw the standard old fare of sour cream, butter, cheese and what not. They turn it into a MEAL. A wonderfully cheap meal which is very important when you're a poor student. They throw all sorts of goodies on top both hot and cold...all delicious. My particular favourites were curry on top...Brit-style curries of course. It's like when you eat any Americanized food. You know it's "fake" but it's just so good anyway. ;) Anyhow, I also often had it with some sort of tomato-based sauce as well. Just use your imagination. Anything goes. ANYTHING. On the cold side, I often saw tuna salad as an option. I can't remember what else but not my style. I like mine hot hot hot!

Back to the States. I'd been making a lot of mine with spaghetti sauce since it's cheap and easy. Plenty of flavours to choose from as well chock full of chunky veg (or meat/cheese/etc). When I came across a recipe for Jacket Potato with Shrimp and Marie Rose Sauce by Jamie Oliver, I had to make it.

Well, it's not hard to make at all. Unfortunately, I ran out of ketchup and overdosed the brandy as I couldn't quite pour it out properly. Oops. Nevertheless, I found it surprisingly tasty given the list of ingredients. In the end, I would have preferred more ketchup in the sauce, but I found I particularly liked the shrimp in the puddles of butter that had been slathered on the potatoes. ;9 Ah, a simple and quick yet tasty meal. Behold my creation below. The way I tore up the shrimp made it look almost like lobster meat. Next time, maybe I should enhance it a level with lobster and plenty of butter. ;)

Whole Foods: Spiced Apple Pie

I'd been meaning to use this "special" stoneware pie plate gifted to me for my birthday. I'd promised I would test whether it will produce the most phenomenal crust ever. I scoured my recipe collection for an apple pie recipe and decided to try out the Spiced Apple Pie recipe in a Whole Foods Cookbook.

At first, I didn't like it. I found it too gingery. Plus, all the spices were left behind in the soupy mess of sliced apples after tossing the mix together. =( After baking, I also had to pour off the soupy mess that cooked up. =( I suppose all that loss of spices would only accentuate the ginger flavor.

For apples, I used Cortlands not the Fuji called for in the recipe which may have been a factor in my problems. Nevertheless, this pie has grown on me. It's got a very light and clean taste; not the heavy and sweet version of normal apple pie. I also liked how the apples remained "crisp" with a nice bite to them instead of turning to mush. Another plus is that they weren't sour either. I know lots of folks love use granny apples for that tartness but I can't enjoy a tart apple pie.

What I most liked about this pie has nothing to do with pie. Rather, it has to do with the "accessory". During my extended stay in London, I discovered what they've always known. Custard makes everything better. This isn't the thick blocks of custard you'd find IN dessert but a runny (but thick) custard you pour OVER the dessert. Yes, everything tastes better with custard. So I slathered some custard on top of the pie. =9~ I actually prefer it to ice cream. Mind you, it has to be good custard or it won't have the same effect.

As for the pie, I will try again but next time, I might use powdered ginger to tone it down a bit, while upping the other spice amounts. I liked how the spices made this pie very fragrant. The crust was easy to make in that as a "rustic" crust (their terminology), I only had to fold over the edges. No crimping and beautifying. Flavor-wise, it was nice, almost grahamy with the whole wheat mixed in. I was surprised that it was actually flakey and that it held up relatively well despite the soupy mess though that may have been due to the superior stoneware pie plate. I suppose I will just have to make another pie in this plate...

Neverending Lax Adventures

That's right. More gravad lax creations. I'm getting tired of the stuff. =( This time, I made those tuna breads you find at Asian bakeries except I replaced the tuna with lax. My version had bits of lax, diced onions and diced hard-boiled eggs in a mayo base that topped a soft bread. I'd actually tried this recipe out once before but it was an absolute fiasco. I only recently figured out why a lot of my attempts at baking are fiascos. I'd been using a digital scale that measured out troy ounces!! Big difference.

The time, I weighed everything out in grams. Honestly, I prefer metric when it comes to cooking. Regardless, this attempt was a success! I gotta say it was pretty darned good. Strangely, it didn't taste like the Asian bakery ones when it was hot out of the oven. After it cooled though, it tasted like the real stuff! Wow! Thankfully, this turned out to be a great way to use some of the lax up because the eggs complemented well with the lax. The original tuna recipe didn't call for eggs but I decided to throw them in based on experience in Iceland. I'd had their gravad lax with mayo and a hard boiled egg, and it was great. So I think in this bread, the success hinged heavily on the addition of the eggs. Hooray! =9~

I was so happy with the success that I forced some upon my sister to try it out. She too said the bread part tasted real which was a pleasant surprise. She was most doubtful of my creation. The only problem with my results is that they are too small. I was in a rush and didn't have time to let them double before baking. They were supposed to look like "wreaths" but instead, I got snails. Haha!! It didn't help that I could remember what they were supposed to look like, and I was unable to interpret my shorthand notes.

Another Chip Off the 'ol B-Lax

I wanted to give my mom a break from having to think up what to make my dad for lunch. She was running out of ideas so I offered to make him Pigs-in-a-Blanket since he loves sausages so much. I'd also found some Irish Bangers at the local supermarket and wanted to give them a try. My parents really enjoyed the English bangers we had on a trip to London so I was hoping they could have something similarly tasty back home.

First off, about those bangers. I was quite scared by the intensely bright and artificaly pinkness of them. I've never seen any meat, even the highly processed Oscar Meyers stuff look this awful. I asked one of the workers and she said people loved them and she did too. Now, I purposely went to this market because of the high Irish population of the town. So I gave them a shot. My parents said they not only tasted very piggy in a bad way, they were tasteless. So much for that.

As for the "blanket" part of this concoction, I'd actually made this recipe before (prior to the start of this blog) from Nigella Lawson using plain old Nathan's brand of mini sausages. It turned out pretty good as the dough was soft and tasty unlike the processed flavors of the average pigs-in-a-blanket I've ever had.

And finally, I figured I should throw in some of the gravad lax for variety and to chip away at the 6lb stash. The conclusion is I'd do this again, but not with these Tommy Malone bangers. Maybe there's a special way to serve them up but I'm definitely not using them in my next Toad-in-the-Hole (which is what I'd planned for them). Here they are in their glorious pinkness. Actually, the photo doesn't do it justice. They were way scarier than this:

And the finished product with the lax on the left (just peeking out):

Lax Adventures Continue...

Trying to knock off another chip in the 'ol gravad lax mountain (6 lbs of the stuff!!). Today, I made a potato and lax gratin inspired by a recipe for a potato and kippers gratin. Since both kippers and my homemade lax are salty, it should more or less work, right? It's also another stab at figuring out the plokkfiskur recipe from 3 Frakkar in Iceland. I don't quite have the gratin down right so let's see if I can get a step closer with this attempt.

Well, I am now just a bit closer, but not quite so it's needs more tweaking. I'd say this was a successful step in that the recipe doesn't call for cheese like most of the ones I've seen out there. I'm thinking the plokkfiskur I had either had no cheese or very little. Regardless, this turned out quite good! I guess you can't go wrong with stick-to-your-ribs (and arteries!) comfort foods like gratins.

Doublesoft Bread

It's officially called Cream Cheese Bread...probably since it's one of the ingredients, but it tastes like those Japanese breads. Or for some, you'd identify it as the rich tasting Asian bread. Either way, it's not your standard white bread. When it's fresh from the oven (or in this case the bread machine), it's super soft. As it gets old, just toast it and the cream cheese and butter contained in this bread gives a nice golden brown and delicious crust. Yum! No longer do I need to shell out $4 or so for a dinky loaf. I can make my own! It's super easy with the bread machine too. It does all the work which means I'm going to get fat since I won't have to burn any calories making it. ;)

Behold the fluffy white goodness inside. The hole is from the paddle of the bread machine:

Lax Adventures Begins!

So I've got a ton of too salty lax sitting in the freezer now for long term consumption from trying to recreate the deliciousness from my trip abroad. Might as well get started! I looked into the fridge and decided I had enough ingredients to make a quiche. And a quiche I did make. More specifically, one with bits of lax, slices of mushrooms and plenty of swiss cheese. Recipe for it? None. I just threw it together until it sorta looked like the consistency I wanted. I didn't even have to make the crust! It was in the freezer ready and waiting. Was it good? It was ok. I'm not a huge fan of quiche nor do I make spectacular ones. This one was on par with the average quiches I end up eating. At least it used up some of the lax! One chip at a time shall I attack this mountain...

Gravad Lax With Cognac

Since I was not too pleased with the last experiment into making gravad lax, I tried a different variation on the theme that uses cognac or something similar. I also threw in some coarsely crushed peppercorns. In an attempt to reduce the intense saltiness, I used a bit less salt and washed it more thoroughly. Nevertheless, it still turned out rather salty, though it had a cleaner taste which was nice. This time, I used some organic Scottish Pearl Salmon which was nice, but whether it made a noticeable difference...I'm not too sure. If my preparation were better, I may have noticed but alas, the experiments will have to continue...