Mapo Tofu (Mabo Tofu)

I made this ages ago, but it's actually on the menu for tomorrow night. Mapo (or mabo, as I know it) tofu from SCRATCH! =D yes, baby!

I used the Cooking Light recipe that I found after browsing blogs. I increased the chili sauce to about 4 teaspoons because I knew how much Damon liked spicy. And we used white rice because, hey I'm not healthy. :P

Tempura

I used Shirakiku brand mix to make this -- AGES ago. Yes, I used a mix darn it. It's a lot of work, this dinner!

I made miso soup, a pot of rice, and fried up:

- carrots
- shrimp
-broccoli
- eggplant
- zucchini
- green beans


The key is to keep the batter extremely cold -- on a bed of ice, so that it stays lacy and crisp. It's yum, but oh is it a lot of work. Not for a fast weeknight.

Chicken Karaage

I didn't take a picture of tonight's disaster. Ugh.

Chicken Karaage is Japanese style fried chicken -- it's sort of sweet and has a soy sauce base. I found a recipe on justJENN's blog and tried it out. Made the marinade last night, put the chicken in the fridge, and fried it up when I got home.

The one thing I have NEVER been able to make is fried chicken. I can bake a "fried" chicken okay, but actually fry it in oil? Forget it. And of course, one of Damon's favorites is...what else? Fried damn chicken. -___-

The marinade was fine (1/4 cup cornstarch, 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 10 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 eggs, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, garlic, and pepper). It even smelled good (since when do marinades smell good?)

The problem is always the frying. I used drumsticks, heated up the oil, and popped those suckers in. Within two minutes they were verging on dark brown to black. The first two I left in there longer than I should have and they were...uh...crispy. The next two I pulled out as soon as they were a nice golden brown color, but when I cut them open they were RAW like sushi. DisGUSTING.

I microwaved them all for another 15 minutes to "save" dinner. That was pure crap. (But the parts that weren't burned were yummy).

I need to use smaller pieces of chicken so that I don't burn them. But how do other people make fried chicken without burning it?

Bobby Flay is doing a fried-chicken competition as we speak. I will watch and hopefully learn.

Lemon Oregano Chicken

I found this recipe on the internet at a blog I like to browse, justJENN. It was relatively simple, I made the marinate the night before and just cooked the chicken once I got home.

1. Mix: olive oil (1/4 c.), the juice of half a lemon, pepper, garlic salt, and 2 teaspoons oregano. (The recipe called for 2 teaspoons of garlic salt, but this savory-loving girl will add more next time).
2. Bake in the oven at 450 degrees, 15 minutes on each side, pouring the extra marinate on top.

This one came out only okay. The lemon taste was really strong -- I think I need to lighten up on the marinate time, the amount of lemon juice, or increase the other flavors. I'm wondering how a little butter would be on top. I think part of the problem was that I used chicken breast instead of chicken thighs. Que sera, sera...

Served with white rice and something green -- green beans probably. And a zucchini dish that I will blog about later because it deserves it's own post. :)

Tri-Tip turned Burritos

Damon apparently showed his co-workers my cooking blog. I now feel the pressure to be entertaining. Crap. =X Hi Sonal! :)

Yesterday I was talking about how hard it is for me to use up leftovers. We seriously toss out TONS of food from week to week because there's j/too much of it to eat. My coworker asked me why I don't just serve it again, but I told her I get bored easily. Take that tri-tip I made on Monday. It's been sitting in the fridge because I don't want to microwave it and serve it again. Damon took some of it in a sandwich on Tuesday and there's still a huge hunk left. She told me to just change it up -- serve it with a different side dish, throw it in another main dish, whatever. She says she always uses her meat to do tacos, fajitas, flautas, whatever, and a roast will last her to Wednesday. Genius, I say!

I had put some leftover chicken drumsticks that I had frozen to defrost yesterday -- I was planning on trying out a recipe for chicken karaage (Japanese style fried chicken). But when I came home today (an entire hour late), I found that it was supposed to have marinated for 5 hours. Oops. So here it was, 5:50, Damon's going to be coming home in 10 minutes and I had nothing to make for dinner. But then I remember my conversation with said co-worker. After rummaging through the pantry and the fridge I came up with dinner:

Tri-tip burritos with Spanish rice! And it took all of 10 minutes:

- I cut up the leftover tri-tip and heated it in a skillet for about 10 minutes with some paprika and cuming to make it more burrito-like.
- Damon chopped lettuce
- heated a can of beans
- made the spanish rice
- took cheese and salsa out of the fridge



Super low-budget, entirely unhealthy and not at all gourmet. But hey, it's food!

Note to self: I should've added some chopped onions to the meat to really pick up the flavor of the paprika and cumin. The meat didn't absorb the flavor as much since it was already cooked.

Pork Chops with Lemony Bread Crumbs

I've been feeling very uninspired in my cooking lately. I was having trouble coming up with fresh ideas so over the weekend I pulled out my cookbooks and decided that I'd try at least one new recipe once a week.

This week's try-out is from my Real Simple Cookbook: Pork Chops with Lemony Bread Crumbs. The recipes in this cookbook are by no means gourmet -- they're j/simple recipes that can be done ahead of time or with minimal preparation -- which means it's perfect for my day to day cooking experiments :)

This one was very simple, and pretty good --

1) Season some thin cut pork chops with salt and pepper, and pan fry in olive oil, 2 minutes on each side.

2) Transfer to a baking pan, cover with a jar of tomato sauce.

3) Top with a mixture of bread crumbs (1/2 c), the zest of one lemon, 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh sage, salt and pepper.

4) Bake in the oven (350 degrees) for about 10 - 15 minutes.

I added some green beans and a Parmesan rice (instant, but again, free!!!).

One of these days I have to do a post about my coupon-ing. I am seriously obsessed with lowering the grocery bill.

Poached Salmon

Okay, one last post for the night. I made this I dunno HOW long ago. It was hella good, though!

Salmon filet, adapted from a recipe by Giada of the Food Network. Take the filets and coat them in some olive oil, salt and pepper. Wrap them in foil with a squirt of lemon juice, chopped tomatoes, chopped shallots, and sprinkles of thyme and oregano. Seal the packets closed and cook them in the oven, 400 degrees for about half an hour. So yummy and so healthy!!

I served it with wild rice and soup.

Easy Chicken Dinner

Last week I was SO tired but I needed to cook. I was low on the groceries and so uninspired -- so I threw the meal together and it ended up being a really great meal that was so easy to do. I'll have to remember this for the future when I am short on time.

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees and put in --

1. a casserole dish with betty crocker au gratin potatoes (instant, but it was free!)
2. a casserole dish with asparagus, drizzled with olive oil, salt, and cracked pepper
3. a baking pan with chicken breasts seasoned with salt, cracked pepper, oregano, and a drizzle of lemon juice and olive oil

Soooo easy! And minimal dishes! Perfection, I tell you! Everything finished at different times, so you've got to be careful. My asparagus were tiny and thin so they only needed about 10 - 15 minutes roasting time. The potatoes I think were 20 minutes and the chicken about...half an hour or so? Definitely a repeat for a lazy weeknight.

Roasted Beef Tri-Tip

Tri-Tip was on sale this weekend, $1.99 a pound. I bought a smaller cut of meat, about 2.25 pounds and set off to experiment. This was tonights' dinner. We just finished eating and I wanted to blog before I forgot what I did.

I consulted with my dad, my cooking expert, who told me how he cooks it and sent me some recipes. All of them called for a marinate of some sort which I obviously didn't have time to do, but I did end up following one recipe's method. So, here goes...

I seasoned the meat first with seasoning salt, sea salt, and cracked black pepper. Rubbed it on all sides, then popped it in a pre-heated 450 degree oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, I turned the oven down to 350 degrees, covered the roasting pan with foil, and put it in for another 15 minutes. Then, take off the foil and let it cook another 20 minutes. Take it out of the oven, cover with foil, and let sit 15 minutes. Slice thinly. For dinner I served it with a side of mushroom cream sauce pasta (instant crap that I burned -- oops), a salad, and corn.

Next time, I want to season it with some herbs or something. It was missing a good flavor. Or perhaps I will rub it with a clove of garlic. Yes, that might be delicious. Timing worked out pretty well -- the smaller edges were a bit tough, but the inside was a perfect medium rare -- still a little bloody. mmmm....