bits and pieces

I spent the afternoon baking and making cookies and candies with my friend A, and we ended up with quite a pile of sweet things. We melted chocolate candy chips and covered dried cranberries and balls of marzipan with them. There was also a batch of caramel that has to sit overnight (though we’re not sure if it made it through, as it’s rather hard). And then there were the cookies.

They’re called Chocolate-Mint Truffle Cookies, a recipe from a magazine called Taste of Home, and they are quite potent. You basically smash up Andes mints (A did the honors), mix them in with flour, cocoa, melted chocolate chips, and other bits, and then after baking them, you dip them in chocolate and add sprinkles. Plenty to make them sweet.

We were a bit haphazard in our baking, not entirely following the order of how to blend things, but everything got into the bowl in the end. And I think I mixed it well enough. When all was said and done though, they didn’t quite look like the photo.

Exhibit A: Official recipe photo

Exhibit B: Photo taken in my kitchen (after the cookies had traveled home in a plastic sandwich bag)

A and I thought that perhaps we used bigger portions per cookie, but they ended up looking vaguely like brownies in cookie form when they came out of the oven. And then we followed the instruction to “dip” the cookies in the melted chocolate chips and shortening mix, but the photo looks like they were dunked and soaked in it. But appearances aren’t all that important, as long as the food tastes good.

As for these cookies, they are potent! The mint is especially powerful, but the cookies are also pretty sweet. I think both come from the Andes mint chunks, but the sprinkles (we used peppermint-flavored) may have a hand in this as well. I can’t see how you could eat more than one in a sitting, they’re so sweet.

All in all, this afternoon sugar fest has made me think more about baking, in addition to the cooking I’ve been doing lately. I think the last time I baked anything before this was about a year ago, when I made kolachkies (Polish cookies), so I might have to do some again. I’ve already pulled out the kolachky recipe, but I’m already thinking about chocolate chip cookies (they must be chewy!) or homemade marshmallows or maybe even cupcakes. As long as I can find someone to share them with, of course.

Continuing to work my way through the book Noodles in 60 Ways: Great Recipe Ideas With a Classic Ingredient, I decided to go with one that was even easier than the last one.

For dinner tonight, I made Linguine with Tuna and Tomato Salsa, with the only cooking being the prepration of the linguine. The rest of the ingredients became a salsa and topping for the pasta, and it only took a bit of chopping and mixing everything to get that together.

The ingredients are very simple, including cherry tomatoes (I had to use sugar plum grape tomatoes, since that’s what I was able to find at Whole Foods), red onion, fresh herbs (basil and parsley, the latter of which I left out), olive oil, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. And then tuna from a can, which they suggest having separately. You mix up the salsa, flake the tuna, and then put it all together with the pasta.

Everything came together nicely, though I’d definitely recommend mixing everything up together a bit more than I did. I sort of just plopped it on top of the linguine, which was pretty to look at, but then I ended up with patches of plain pasta.

I think I’d make this one again, since it’s pretty easy, though it seems more like a spring or summer dish than fall or winter one. The recipe also suggests using tuna and dill instead of tuna and basil as an alternative, and that sounds pretty good.

Here’s a close-up of the salsa on its own, since the colors are so nice, and then the recipe following:

Linguine with Tuna and Tomato Salsa
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 13 1/2 oz linguine
• 9 oz canned tuna, flaked into chunks
• Salsa
• 9 oz cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 5 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• 5 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
• Salt, to taste
• Ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation

1. Prepare salsa. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
2. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Add linguine and cook until al dente. Drain and transfer to a large bowl.
3. Add tuna flakes and salsa to pasta and mix well. Serve warm or at room temperature.

As I currently have a bit of time on my hands, I’ve decided to do a bit more cooking and try out some new recipes. I picked up a few cookbooks about noodles and Japanese food, and have picked out a bunch of them to work my way through. We’ll see how many of those I get around to, but first up I went for an udon dish that seemed simple enough.

The recipe is Udon with Chicken and Spring Onions and it comes from the book Noodles in 60 Ways: Great Recipe Ideas With a Classic Ingredient. I wasn’t entirely sure about the book after noticing some poor editing and possibly translated content, but I went ahead anyway.

The ingredients were fairly easy to gather, though I had to stop by the local Chinese market to track down light and dark soy sauce (not be confused with low-sodium and regular soy sauce). Oh, and I had to settle for baby shiitake because Whole Foods didn’t have larger ones. But then it’s simple.

You basically boil dashi, then add the soy sauces, mirin, salt, and sugar. Next comes the pieces of chicken breast, then the veggies (cabbage, green onions) and mushrooms. Heat up some udon noodles, pour the broth and toppings over it, and you’re done.

As you can see in the photo, the end result didn’t quite look like the photo in the book. The broth was much darker than I thought it would be, which made the chicken end up looking like fried tofu (it’s chicken, really!). The flavor was all right, not too salty, not too sweet, just sort of in between. But it wasn’t really anything remarkable. Maybe even a little underwhelming. Ah well. :)

Here’s the recipe if you’d like to try it out:

Udon with Chicken and Spring Onions
Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 8 cups dashi
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp mirin
• 1 lb chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 6 spring onions, halved lengthways then cut into 2 inch pieces
• 6-8 shiitake mushrooms, wiped clean and stems discarded
• 1/4 head cabbage, cut into squares
• 1 lb udon

Preparation

1. In a large pot, bring dashi to the boil. Add salt, soy sauces, sugar, and mirin. Stir until sugar dissolves.
2. Bring broth back to the boil and add chicken. Simmer for 10 minutes or until chicken is tender. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface.
3. Add spring onions, mushrooms, and cabbage and simmer for another 2-3 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add udon, stir, and cook for 3 minutes or until udon is tender. Drain and rinse under cold running water then drain again.
5. Divide noodles equally among 4-6 serving bowls. Ladle hot dashi broth over udon and serve immediately.

Has it really been nearly two months since I last tried a new recipe? Oh dear. I’ve certainly collected a number of recipes I meant to try, even going so far as to clean out some that I knew I would never try. But of the ones I kept, I just couldn’t find one to get me going, or they didn’t look as good as the first time I’d seen them.

That even happened with this recipe that I did finally try. At first glance, it seemed interesting, even with the use of chicken broth in an “Asian” dish. Later, it seemed less appealing, but I ended up going for it anyway. I substituted a few things and added other ingredients, knowing it might not work. I don’t think I did too badly though.

The most obvious substitution for me was to use dashi instead of chicken broth. Especially with such a lovely fish as salmon as the main ingredient, I had to use a fish and seaweed-based broth for sure. Next, I swapped out the long-grain rice and used the regular short-grain rice I normally have on hand. (I don’t remember the name, but it’s one of the house brand varieties from a nearby Japanese market.) The recipe had a note about this possibility, but what it didn’t say was anything about adjusting the liquid content of the soup. Which ended up causing minor problems later.

For good measure, I also added some seaweed (I had a packet of dehydrated kombu in the cupboard) and a little bit of spinach, just to have something else besides the rice and salmon. The garnish of green onions and cilantro stayed.

I boiled and simmered and eventually got what was more of a stew or gruel consistency than soup. I usually like heartier soups or stews, but this was a little too heavy for me. Very filling, but it tasted fine. I think it was a problem with the short-grain rice and amount of liquid. The instructions said short-grain rice can soak up more liquid, but I didn’t realize it would be this much. I even added a little water while it was simmering, but it was pretty thick even so.

The salmon was done perfectly, and I liked the slight crunch of the green onions, though it wasn’t something I expected. The cilantro added a nice flavor, though I didn’t fish out the stems, as they suggested (good luck with that!). In addition to sorting out the liquid/rice issue, I think I’d also leave out the spinach but keep the seaweed.

We’ll see how this reheats later, but for now, here’s the original recipe:

Asian Salmon-and-Rice Soup
Serves 4

A quick-to-make meal-in-a-bowl, this soup is inspired by similar one-dish wonders popular in China, Thailand, and Japan. The rice is sometimes cooked for so long that it completely dissolves, making a smooth gruel. Our version doesn’t go that far; we like the rice to be soft, but still retain its shape.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup long-grain rice
• 1 1/2 pounds salmon fillet, skin removed, fish cut into 8 pieces
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil
• 10 cilantro stems, chopped, plus 1 cup cilantro leaves for garnish
• 1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth or homemade stock
• 4 cups water
• 3 scallions including green tops, chopped

Preparation

1. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Stir in the rice and boil until almost tender, about 10 minutes. Drain.
2. Coat the salmon with the soy sauce and sesame oil.
3. In a large pot, combine the cooked rice, the cilantro stems, the ginger, salt, broth, and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes.
4. Add the salmon to the pot. Simmer, covered, until the salmon is just done, about 5 minutes. Remove the cilantro stems. Serve the soup garnished with the cilantro leaves and scallions.

Notes: We used long-grain rice for our soup. In China and Japan, it would be made with short-grain, which is starchier and dissolves into the soup more readily. If you want to go the short-grain route, arborio is readily available.

I’ve really been craving noodles lately, and had a very specific picture in my head of the sort of dish I wanted to eat. Something Asian, without broth, and with a variety of meat and/or vegetables mixed in. And with some good flavor to it. I looked through my clipped recipes and a few recipe web sites before settling on one for Spicy Asian Noodles with Chicken from Cooking Light magazine. (I would add that this magazine goes overboard on pharmaceutical ads, so you’re better off viewing the recipes online.)

The recipe itself is fairly simple, since it’s mostly a salad. There’s only a little bit of sauteing at the beginning, softening up rice stick noodles (they describe it as cooking them), and then mixing it all together. It did take a little bit to find the sambal oelek (thank you, local Chinese market), as well as some minced ginger in a jar (so I’m lazy). Also, it listed roasted chicken as an ingredient — which seems lame to me, since that’s a bit of work in and of itself — but I cheated and used a rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods. Easy.

Though it doesn’t look quite as pretty as the photo in the magazine, it was really tasty, with a nice spicy flavor. I let the chicken sit for a bit, so I think it picked up a bit more flavor, and mixed with the peanuts it just all worked well. I would definitely make this one again, though I’d get the rice stick noodles softening before sauteing and blending, since that didn’t take much time. Also, I should have cut the noodles a bit, to make it easier to eat. But I’m glad that I made the full recipe, since now I have leftovers!

Spicy Asian Noodles with Chicken
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon dark sesame oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups chopped roasted skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 2 teaspoons sambal oelek (ground fresh chile paste)
• 1 (6.75-ounce) package thin rice sticks (rice-flour noodles)
• 2 tablespoons chopped dry-roasted peanuts

Preparation

1. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add ginger and garlic to pan; cook 45 seconds, stirring constantly. Place in a large bowl. Stir in remaining 1 teaspoon oil, chicken, and next 6 ingredients (through sambal).
2. Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water; drain. Cut noodles into smaller pieces. Add noodles to bowl; toss well to coat. Sprinkle with peanuts.