A Bunch of Amateurs!

Friday my friend Vivienne invited me over to make Takoyaki....and I have to say....for a bunch of amateurs we did really well! The first batch were kinda misshapen and rather ugly.....but tasted great....by the time we started the 2nd batch we had a plan and by the third batch on....they were coming out beautiful.....just like the ones you get in the night markets of Taiwan and HK. For those of you who don't know what Takoyaki is..... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takoyaki

Here is the recipe....there are a lot of ingredients for these little balls of yummy-ness.

50g Boiled Octopus
50g Cabbage (diced very small)
30g Green Onion (cut very small and thin)
250g Flour
2.5 eggs (I used 3 cuz I don't know how to do 2.5 eggs, lol)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Roasted Seaweed, crushed
Bonito flakes
Japanese Mayo
Teriyaki sauce (you can make your own: Soy sauce, mirin, sugar,1:1:1 ratio cook....)
(there were some other ingredients on the list, but we couldnt find it so we made do without it)
Takoyaki plate/maker

Directions:

1. Cut octopus into very small pieces
2. Beat egg
3. Add flour, baking powder and salt, mix
4. Pour the batter into a water carafe or even a condiment squirt bottle....this will make it much easier to control and pour
5. Heat Takoyaki plate/maker
6. Brush with oil (make sure you give it a good brushing so the takoyaki dont stick to the pan)
7. Fill each mold about 1/2 way with the batter
8. Add octopus, cabbage, green onion, and picked ginger to your liking
9. Once the batter browns on the bottom, use the stick to flip it sideways
10. Pour extra batter into the mold
11. Flip the cooked piece on top of the newly poured batter to get the 2 halves to "stick" together
12. Once the bottom half forms and the 2 halves are sticking together, you want to continue to rotate the each ball until it gets brown and to ensure even cooking. 
13. Once they are done, drizzle with terriyaki sauce and japanese mayo
14. Add crushed seaweed and bonito flakes
15. Enjoy!

And as always....stay consumed! 

  

You Don't Always Have to Go It Alone

So this blog is partially because someone, Goosey of Glamour of Tragedy, says she can never try my recipes or cook things I put up cuz they always have meat in them....sooooo.....this is an all vegetarian meal.

Although I have to be honest, I cheated....just a little bit....I let Wegman's help me out...but no one said everything on here had to be made from scratch right? Just delicious :P and this it was.

 I started with a box of Wegman's Mushroom Pierogies. I put them in salted boiling water for 5 minutes, take them up and put them in a frying pan with a little bit of olive oil. I also heated up some frozen mix veggies....












Doesn't it look delicious? The Pierogies were deelicious! The dough was not too thick, and perfectly flavored. I like pan frying them because it gives them a little bit of extra flavor and crunch....but you could just as well boil them and eat them like that. The filling consisted of mashed potatoes and mushrooms. The potatoes were smooth and had a fragrant mushroom taste and aroma.

The entire meal cost me about $5 AND i had enough left over for a 2nd meal (so really...the meal cost $2.5--score!) 

Goosey...go give this a try :) and here's to hoping you're all (all 6 of my subscribers...haha!) are consumed by life! 

Ribs a-la-twitter!

okingI was actually going to wait until later in the week to blog this....but since Bou from Proof I Eat and... (who has some really great/innovative/amazing recipes!) said she was craving ribs and curry I'm posting this early.

Yesterday, was my brother, Warren's birthday and every year for his birthday, I usually make him dinner. He loves ribs so I thought I would try out this Curry Ribs recipe I saw a couple of weeks ago. This recipe is actually from Eat Tweet--whose author, Maureen Evans, takes recipes and condenses them into the 140 characters allowed for each tweet. I have been wanting to try some of the recipes and this turned out GREAT!

The entire recipe reads:
Curry Ribs: mix1/4c ketchup&cocntmilk&OJ/2T peanutbuttr/T honey&hotcurrypdr&soya.Top2lb porkrib,chill>2h.Cvr2h@325℉;uncvr~h (brush occas).

I did change the recipe just verrry slightly. I added about 1tsp of sesame oil and a pinch of Asian Five Spice Powder. I also rubbed some salt and pepper on the ribs prior to adding the marinade/sauce. I was worried that since I didn't have time to let the ribs marinate as it says in the recipe, that it wouldn't taste as good--but it turned out great!




The ribs covered in the sauce, getting ready to go into the oven.

While it was cooking, it filled the house with smells of curry....man--it smelled soooo amazing. I couldnt wait to get my hands on them. The ribs were done in about ~3H.  They came out delicious! Moist and juicy and flavorful. I did keep a little of the extra marinade (of course, not the marinade I used on the raw ribs) as a dip for the rib meat. Delicious!! 

There aren't a lot of pics as this was a very easy recipe....enjoy the pics below and as always....stay consumed!! :)

In Search of Inspiration

Lately, I have been feeling very uninspired to cook, to do much of anything....so I thought maybe I need something to "jump start" my excitement. I have been meaning to actually start writing in here for a while...so...I thought....OK....today is the day. I am going to write my first post...so here it is. Enjoy and try not to drool on your keyboard :)

So I have been craving stewed tomatoes with baked eggs for a while now.....

I decided that I would go all out and get the Organic Farm Fresh Brown Eggs. Brown eggs do taste better, but they are also more expensive so i rarely buy them, but i figured since the Eggs are the "star" of this dish, might as well.

(Hello...my little pretties.....destined to be sacrificed for my baked eggs ;P)

You can start with tomatoes from scratch and stew them, but it was late and I was getting hungry, so I used the can stuff :O I started with 2 cans of stewed tomatoes (the basil, garlic, oregano ones). 

I also wanted to use chorizo, but the market didnt have it, so I used a spicy andouille. I sliced it super thin and then pan fried them in a little tiny bit of olive oil . 

Now, on to the assembly. Pour the stewed tomatoes and sausages into your baking dish. The dish should be thick enough that you can "bury" your eggs in the sauce (like I've done here). {Don't ask me why its in this disposable metal pan >:{ the pan I was originally going to use is MISSING, but thats another story...grrrrr} Anyways, once you have poured the tomatoes in the pan, crack the eggs one at a time into a bowl/dish and using a large spoon dig a hole in the stewed tomatoes and pour in the egg. Bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes then broil for about 4 minutes

I couldn't resist! Had to peek in the oven ;P












Done.....mmmm...doesn't this look delicious??

 Added a little bit of parmesan.








This turned out sooooo delicious :) I had 2 of the eggs for dinner, with a couple of pieces of crusty bread. I'm glad I pushed myself to go do the grocery shopping and cook this. My goal is to try and do at least 1 post a week--lets see how it goes! Stayed consumed! :)