Nothing Like Mom's Soup!

I've been feeling under the weather lately and wanted something warm and comforting. As I was browsing through all the wonderful things I wanted to buy at Uwajimaya, the oxtails jumped out at me. I can make my mom's awesome luo song tang!

Luo song tang tastes a lot like borscht but without beets. The sweetness of the beets is replaced by the sweetness of the carrots, and in my mom's version, daikon radish. It looks like you can find different variations of this Chinese recipe. Many incorporate potatoes and more tomatoes than my version of ma's recipe.

My mom never wrote down her recipes for me. Everything I learned about Chinese cooking was by watching my mom cook from when I was a toddler through college. She never measured her ingredients, and I never stopped and asked her how much she's putting in. Instead, we chatted about other things going on in life while I served my time as her sous chef. Chinese cooking became second nature to me. By the time I had to cook my own meals, I didn't have to ask her for a collection of her recipes. I bought the ingredients for luo song tang based on my memories of the look, smell, and taste of the soup.

Luo Song Tang with Oxtail Bones

Ingredients

1 small cabbage, chopped into 1 inch cubes

1 medium daikon radish, chopped into semi-circles

3 carrots, chopped

1 large white onion

3 roma tomatoes, chopped

4-5 slices of ginger

2 bay leaves

salt to taste

I remembered that we preferred the lighter and sweeter taste of boiled daikon over potatoes, and I remembered that you need to have good chunks of beef bones to give the broth depth. Whenever my mom was going to braise meat or boil them in a soup, she always par-cooked the meat in water to get rid of the blood and fat. In Western cuisine, you would usually brown the meat in a pan on all sides to seal in the juices. That's really tasty, but I boiled the oxtail chunks this time because I didn't want a rich broth. I wanted a clear and soothing broth.

I chopped all the veggies while the oxtail bones where boiling and dumped them all into a slow-cooker along with the bay leaves and ginger. I added water to the slow cooker about a third of the way up the pile of vegetables. The vegetables release a lot of water, so don't pour too much water!

After the oxtail bones cooked for about 10 minutes, I pulled them out and placed them on top of the veggies in the slow cooker, sprinkled some salt, and I let it cook on high for 8 hours.

Oxtail chunks

Halfway through, I nestled the oxtail bones underneath the veggies. Once the soup is done (trust me, you'll know when it's done by the aroma that fills the kitchen), pull out the ginger slices and bay leaves, and skim out the beef oil.

You can serve the soup with or without the meat from the oxtail. My mom used to reserve the bone meat for the two of us to share after a hard day in the kitchen, and we would dip the meat in Chinese black vinegar. It was a simple but delicious treat!

Thanks for making me feel better, mom, even though you're not here in person!

Crispy Skin Salmon and Experimenting with Beets

Continuing on with the whole salmon I purchased from the previous post, I wanted to use one of the fillets to try to achieve a true crispy skinned salmon. All my past oven-roasting attempts failed to crisp the skin. This time I cooked the salmon in a pan skin-side down for 80% of the cooking time, and achieved the perfect crunch!

For the side, I forced myself to experiment with the golden beets (roots, stems, and leaves) I got at the market. Beets have always been intimidating to me because of the color and the raw earthy taste. I couldn't resist buying the golden beets because they were so pretty and the leaves looked really fresh. I chopped the beets into half moon pieces and roasted them in the oven with sliced onions. I chopped the beet stems and leaves into quarter inch pieces and sauteed them with sliced garlic, cooking the stems first then the leaves. The beet stems and leaves are surprisingly tender! I actually prefer it over spinach because it doesn't leave an irony after taste.

To bring the dish together, I made a blackberry reduction with fresh blackberries, white wine, blackberry jam, salt, and pepper.

Crispy Skin Salmon with Blackberry Reduction, Oven-Roasted Beets, and Sauteed Beet Greens

Dinner was sublime! I was able to use the leftover salmon and sauce for a salad the next day. The blackberry reduction served as a delicious dressing!

Crispy Skin Salmon with Blackberry Reduction

Ingredients

Salmon fillets (4 oz pieces)

1/2 cup fresh blackberries

1/2 cup white wine

1 Tbs blackberry jam

Blackberry Reduction

Put the blackberries, white wine, and jam in a small sauce pan on low heat. Let the sauce cook uncovered while you cook the fish. Season the sauce with salt and pepper once it has reduced.

Crispy Skin Salmon

Sprinkle salt on the skin side of the salmon and let the fish sit for 5 minutes. The salt will draw out moisture. Pat the skin dry with a paper towel. Heat up 1 Tbs of vegetable oil in a medium sized pan. Cook the fish one or two at a time so you don't crowd the pan, which will steam the skin rather than fry it. When the oil is shimmering, place a piece of salmon in the pan, skin side down. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the flesh side of the fish in the pan. When the fish starts to looked cook halfway up, flip the fish over flesh side down. It should only take a minute or two at this point. 

Oven-roasted Golden Beets and Sauteed Beet Greens

Ingredients

Beet stems and leaves, cut into 1/4 inch

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

Golden beets, cut into half moon 1/4 inch thick pieces

1/4 onion, sliced

Beets all prepped!

When you prep the beets, make sure to separate the stems from the leaves because you'll want to cook the stems first before the leaves to soften it enough without making the leaves mushy.

Beets ready for the oven

Place the half moon beet pieces in a rimmed baking sheet with sliced onions and toss with olive oil and salt. Make sure all the pieces are arranged in a single layer and bake at 375 F. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

Sauteed Beet Greens

Heat a pan with 1/2 Tbs of olive oil. Saute the garlic until fragrant then add the stems. Cook the stems until the stems are shiny then add the leaves. Season with salt and pepper.

When you plate the dish, make sure to put the reduction at the bottom of the plate to keep the salmon skin crispy!

One of my favorite meals!

Philly Cheesesteak Two Ways

In an attempt to save money without compromising on eating well, I've been cooking a lot in my new tiny galley kitchen. I miss our custom kitchen in Madison for its size and the many beautiful memories we made in our first home. But it's somewhat amusing/frustrating figuring out how to make the most of my now limited work space. At least it's bigger than my Paris kitchenette!

Galley Kitchen in Seattle

Our Kitchen in Madison, WI

My Paris Kitchenette

Some of the challenges I face in the kitchen now are the inability to spread out ingredients as I prep, the lack of dish drying space (and it takes a long time for dishes to air dry because of the humidity), and the inevitable exiling of Mike from the kitchen when he offers to help because he ends up being a literal road block (love you, honey!). I've learned to extend my kitchen space by using our dinner table as an additional counter space. Another cool trick in a small kitchen is to cook dishes that have only a few ingredients, and the leftovers can be converted into another dish with just a few more additional ingredients!

I recently purchased a stack of old Cook's Illustrated magazines from Half Price Books and found a simple Philly Cheese Steak recipe that I knew we would appreciate. Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen tend to offer extremely efficient recipes with a limited list of ingredients that taste like the best version of whatever you're making. That's perfect for us!

The recipe is so simple that you can easily give it your own spin without compromising the integrity of the dish. Instead of the traditional sub roll, I used a brioche bun and Swiss cheese instead of white American cheese. I made one more addition to the recipe by sautéing some sliced onions and half a bag of Trader Joe's frozen green chiles in a separate pan.

Green Chile Philly Cheesesteak

(adapted from Cook's Illustrated)

Philly Cheesesteak on a Toasted Brioche Bun with Green Chiles and Swiss Cheese

Ingredients (Serves 4)

2 pounds skirt or flank steak, trimmed and sliced with grain into 3-inch wide strips

4 Buns, sliced

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

4 slices Swiss cheese

1/2 bag of Trader Joe's green chiles, defrosted

1/2 white onion, sliced

Place steak pieces on a large plate lined with saran wrap and freeze until firm. Carefully shave the steak pieces against the grain with a sharp knife.

Sauté onions in a lightly greased pan. Once the onions are translucent, add the green chiles and season salt and pepper. Set aside.

Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a separate skillet and cook the meat in separate portions to avoid overcrowding the pan. Transfer cooked meat to a colander set in a bowl to remove juices. Repeat until all meat is cooked, then return all the meat into the pan and season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat and add the grated Parmesan cheese.

Toast buns in the oven. For dinner, I put a slice of Swiss cheese on each pair of buns before putting them in the oven so that the cheese would be crusty rather than melty, but for lunch the next day, I added it when assembling the hot sandwich so it would be melty. Either way is delicious!

Seeing how I cooked twice as much flank steak as specified in the recipe, I saved the remainder of the cooked beef strips and sautéed onions and green chiles for our Sunday brunch omelet! Voila! Philly Cheesesteaks two ways with only half the effort!

Philly Cheese Steak Open-faced Omelet

The Best Going Away Present: Amazing Friendships and Delicious Kapoon Noodles Recipe and Kit!

I cherish the friendship and love our friends in Madison have shown us as we enjoyed our last meals before our move. You know who you are, and please know that we can't wait for our next reunion in Seattle or Madison!

One of our last memories of Madison is when Pakou and Shri came over to give us a much needed boost during our last few hours before the long haul. Not only did they make a huge difference in helping us pack and clean without us asking, but Pakou also gifted us a basket of ingredients for the Kapoon Noodles that we never got to make together. We had grand plans of cooking together ever since we became neighbors, but we simply ran out of time. This was an incredibly thoughtful gift. I hope I did justice to this dish!

I gave the dish a Pacific Northwest twist by using cod instead of catfish and adding some king crab meat that happened to be on sale. Even with the seemingly elevated seafood ingredients, I still preferred the traditional bone-in catfish version that Pakou shared with us back in Madison, though Mike struggled with the bones. The bones from the catfish created a slightly more gelatinous consistency in the broth that made the flavors adhere to the noodles better.

Pacific Northwest Kapoon Noodles adapted from Pakou

Ingredients:

4 cod fillets, cut into 2 inch pieces

King crab meat, shell removed and reserved

1/2 can red curry paste

1/2 can - 1 can coconut milk

Bamboo shoots, sliced into 3 inch strands

Kaffir lime leaves/Galangal (optional)

Fish sauce, to taste

Sugar, to taste

Rice vermicelli noodles, cooked and drained

Garnishes

Green onions

Cilantro

Cabbage, shredded

First removed the king crab meat from the shell and boiled the shells in 4 cups of water. Chill the crab meat in the fridge until ready to use for garnish. Remove the shells after 20 minutes and boiled the cod pieces in the broth for 15 minutes. Take out the fish and reserve it in a bowl.

King Crab Meat

Broth made from crab shells and then fish

Cook half a can of red curry in 2 Tbs of oil in a wok until fragrant. If using kaffir leaves or galangal, you can cook them in the curry at this point. Add half a can of coconut milk and stir the mixture thoroughly. Once the mixture is heated through, add the fish to the curry. Add a couple ladles of fish broth into the curry until you've reached the desired amount of soup for the noodles. Add more coconut milk if you would like a thicker consistency. Once the curry soup comes to a simmer, add the bamboo and season with fish sauce and a little pinch of sugar.

Cooking the curry and stirring in coconut milk

Fish, broth, and bamboo added

Portion out rice noodles in what I like to call "pho bowls," and ladle the soup and seafood into each.

Top off each bowl with the shredded cabbage, cilantro, crab meat, and green onions.

Pakou, thank you so much for sharing this recipe with us. This dish brought us a lot of comfort this winter! I can't wait to share some Seattle culinary adventures with you when you visit us!

What to Do with a Whole Salmon for Two

I recently came upon an incredible sale - whole wild sockeye salmon for $3.99/lb! I just had to jump on this deal! It's impossible to get salmon at this price in Texas and Wisconsin! The piece I got was about 2.1 lbs.

Mike and I recently watched an episode of Cook's Country where they recommended brining salmon fillets in salt water to retain moisture and flavor in the fish. I figured that it may also work with a whole fish.

Brining the Salmon in Salt Water

 After an hour of brining, I patted the fish dry, cut slits on each side of the salmon and inserted sliced lemons. I smeared a thin layer of sour cream on the insides of the fish and stuffed the cavity with parsley, dill, and more lemon slices.

Dill, Parsley, and Lemon Stuffed Salmon

I popped the salmon in a 350F oven for 45 minutes. I think in a normal oven, it may take 1 hour, but the oven at our apartment tends to overheat, so I always have to cut down on the time.

Oven-Roasted Salmon

Since I was already using the oven for salmon, I figured I would use the same heat source for the veggies. I seasoned some broccolini with salt, pepper, and olive oil and set them on the lowest rack in the oven right after I finished cooking the salmon and turned off the heat.

This turned out to be a simple and delicious meal, but we still had a lot of leftover salmon.

Oven-Roasted Salmon and Broccolini with

Pike's Place Alder-Smoked Walla Walla Onion Tartar Sauce

I deboned the remainder of the fish and made panko-crusted fish cake sandwiches for another meal!
I mixed the leftover salmon with one raw egg, capers, mustard, sriracha, dill, and garlic powder, shaped the mixture into patties, and dipped them in egg then panko crumbs.

After I pan-fried the salmon cakes, I still had some egg mixture left in the bowl that had accumulated some loose flakes of salmon and capers. I didn't want to waste these delicious ingredients so I made one tiny egg crepe to put on our sandwiches!

I placed the salmon cake on a Blazing Bagel jalapeno cheese bagel with lettuce, Tillamook smoked black pepper cheese and topped it off with the Pike's Place tartar sauce, egg crepe, and sliced tomatoes.

The remainder of the salmon cakes went on top of cobb salads for another meal!

Salmon Cake Sandwich

Salmon Cake Cobb Salad

Weekly Eats 1/13 - 1/17

Week 2 of low-carb weekday dinners has been successful!  I'm learning that it isn't that hard to come up with low-carb meals.  And I don't feel deprived when we allow ourselves to have bread and starch in the daytime.

In preparation for the work week, I made 2 bulk meals on Saturday and Sunday so leftovers can be used for lunch.

On Saturday, I made a simple fried rice with eggs and frozen veggies (tip: adding fish sauce and lemon juice makes this dish out of this world) and a quick miso and chili garlic baked chicken tenders with sauteed Chinese greens and mushrooms.

 

Miso and Chili Garlic Chicken Tender with Fried Rice and Chinese Greens

Inspired by Lidia Bastianich's spaghetti and meatballs recipe from an episode of Lidia's Italy on Create TV, I made a ridiculous amount of her unique and veggie-filled meatballs.  What makes these meatballs unique is that you create a vegetable paste, pestata, to mix in with the ground meat.  This breaks up the meat and provides moisture so that the meatball isn't a tight wad of dry meat.  Lidia's recipe uses 3 kinds of meat (beef, pork, and veal) and carrot, celery, and onion for the pestata. 

I used just ground beef and four veggies for the pestata - carrot, fresh shiitake mushrooms, celery, and onion.  Instead of bread crumbs, I used corn meal because I didn't have bread crumbs or bread suitable for turning into bread crumbs. 

The result is delicious, juicy, and light meatballs that we ate throughout the week!

Sauce: Sauteed Onions with Salt, Red Pepper Flakes, and Crushed Tomatoes

Veggies for Pestata: Carrots, Celery, Onion, and Shiitake Mushrooms

Meatball Mixture: Egg, Ground Beef, Pestata, Salt, Red Pepper Flakes, and Shredded Italian Blend Cheese

Oven-baked Meatballs (400F for 45 min)

Sauce and Meatballs

Whole Wheat Spaghetti and Meatballs

Weekday Lunches of Meatball Sliders with Jack Cheese on Onion Rolls

Served with Sweet Potato Baked Fries with Buffalo Wild Wings's Chipotle BBQ Seasoning

With my weekday lunches prepared, the next things to tackle are the breakfasts and actual low-carb dinners!

 

1/13 Monday Meals

Homemade Pork Sausage: Pork, Shallots, Garlic Salt, Maple Garlic Salt from Spice House, Crushed Red Pepper, Fennel, and a touch of Hennesy (marinated overnight)

 

Breakfast: Homemade Pork Sausage Sandwich with Chipotle Cheddar, Fried Egg, and Mustard served with Fresh Pineapple

 

Dinner: Tofu, Shrimp, and Bok Choy Stew with Pear Slices for Dessert

 

1/14 Tuesday Meals

Breakfast: Homemade Pork Sausage Sandwich with Chipotle Cheddar, Fried Egg, and Avocado Slices served with Apples

 

Dinner: (no photo) left over Tofu and Shrimp Stew

 

1/15 Wednesday Meals

 Breakfast: Homemade Pork Sausage Sandwich with Spinach and Cajun Remoulade (Boar's Head) served with Apples and Fresh Pineapples

Dinner: Chipotle BBQ Seasoned Chicken Thigh with Tofu and Shrimp Stew and Sauteed Bok Choy

 

1/16 Thursday Meals

Breakfast: Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Loaf (Reese's Boxed Muffin Mix) with Jiffy Peanut Butter Filling

Dinner:  Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms, Bean Curd Noodle Salad, and Leftover Chipotle BBQ Seasoned Chicken

 

1/17 Friday Meal

Breakfast: Chili Garlic Paratha Bread (Pre-made Frozen) with Bits of Homemade Sauage, Egg, and Sriracha served with Fresh Pineapples