Ambitious Delicious(ness)

[I want to thank each and every one of you for clicking away for Haiti! Unfortunately, I'm unable to know how much was raised until later. I promise to keep you all posted!]

I recently came across this interesting article in the Huffington Post called Why My Food Is Always Gonna Look Better Than Yours. The author, Denise Vivaldo, states that her food pictures look so good that they “make vegans crave meat and forget about their animal friends.” Sounds great, right?

But if try to eat her food, “you will die of food poisoning.”

She points out that a lot of inedible ingredients are used to get the photos to look just right. After all, her goal is to get people to go out and buy the food she photographed! Fortunately for me, there is no shoe polish or glue in my kitchen, and I’m glad that I can eat the food afterwards!

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Happy Friday, everyone!

Continuing with my Thai meal from my last post, I’m going share a recipe for chicken satay with peanut dipping sauce. K did a great job putting the skewers on and grilling the chicken while I was running around making the entree . It made me happy that everyone seemed to enjoy the meal!

A while back, long before I started blogging, my friend J gave me this cookbook called Kao’s Thai Cuisine for my birthday. It contains some really easy to follow and delicious recipes. I finally got to use a recipe from the book. Thanks again, J!

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[Thanks to everyone for your support in helping me raise funds for Haiti. I can't thank you enough! Please keep clicking!]

Last time I made green curry, I added too many bamboo shoots, causing the curry to be extra sour (gross). This time, I got rid of bamboo shoots altogether and focused on slow cooking a flavorful curry. I achieved this goal by slow cooking the curry for about 3 hours total. The end result was a thick, hearty, harmoniously flavored curry that I am super excited to share about!

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In June 2009, I went to Haiti with a great team to work with a few organizations there. We distributed food, visited a few schools, and spent time with a lot of children. It was a great experience! I fell in love with the Haitian people – they are warm, kind, and hospitable. In light of the recent earthquake (and another aftershock), I’ve found a meaningful way to contribute.

Food distribution.

Marc of No Recipes (norecipes.com – great recipes, beautiful photos!) began an effort called Blog Away Hunger(blogawayhunger.com). The funds are donated to World Food Program(wfp.org), which aims to end world hunger. How appropriate that food blogging can help end world hunger! As a result, I’ve agreed to donate my January ad revenue to this great cause to help Haiti.

Since the amount is determined by the number of page views on this site, I sincerely need your help!

Here’s how to help:

- Go to the recipe index pages (here, here and here) and read through older recipes.
- Send links to friends, encouraging them click on recipes. (Maybe it will inspire someone to try a recipe in the process!)
- Help spread the word! Tweet, post on Facebook, or send out an email to friends, encouraging them to click away!

Beautiful mountainside in Haiti

I will update at the end of the month with the total amount raised. Thanks in advance for your help!

I went to Momofuku Noodle Bar a while back and sat at the bar, watching the chefs at work. As dinner went on, I noticed that one of the chefs was grilling three pieces of dduk(rice cake) on the grill. Then I watched, as they added the sauce to make ddukbokki, which looked very similar to my version.

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Happy Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a safe and memorable start to 2010! I’m humbled and honored that people want to read about my recipes. Thank you so much for reading this site!

I’ve been fortunate enough to receive a Dutch oven (aka French oven) for Christmas! I wanted to buy one for a while, as they are perfect for braising and cooking stews- something my stainless steel pots can’t handle. Modern dutch ovens are made of ceramic that is coated in enamel, distributing heat evenly once the lid is closed. It comes in handy for making wonderfully warm soups for bitterly cold winter days (like today).

After some research, I decided to go with a 5-quart Fontignac oven, from the same makers of Staub (since 1929!). I considered going with a Le Creuset, especially because of the lifetime warranty, but I think I’ll just wait to get that a little bit later.

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[Happy birthday to my dad, my cousin, yours truly and a few friends who are born two days before Christmas, and to anyone out there gets one combined gift every year. I feel your pain. Let us commiserate with peppermint bark. I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable break with loved ones! Merry Christmas! ]

Peppermint bark is one of my favorite holiday treats! It only contains only four ingredients (dark chocolate, white chocolate, peppermint extract, candy canes) yet tastes amazing!

Use high-quality dark chocolate, and you won’t be disappointed! Also, be careful while tempering the chocolate. I like to slowly melt it instead of shocking the chocolate into submission, especially since burning good chocolate would be a travesty.

The challenge here was to spread out the chocolate as evenly as possible. One of the things that I would do differently next time is to crush up the candy canes more carefully, and mix them into the white chocolate so that they don’t fall off.

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At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’ll say it again: I love all things that taste similar to pumpkin! The good thing our fall butternut squash is that it’s here to stay, even through the winter months. That’s how versatile they are!

This dish is going to quickly become one of my favorites; a good candidate dish to make for guests so that I can take all the credit for its tasty goodness while pretending to have spent all day slaving over it. A simple sauce is features the sweetness of the squash, mixed with earthy spices, then a hint of milk. I would recommend going easy on Parmesan cheese, as to not overpower the delicate flavors.

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My participation in the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) came to an end around Thanksgiving week. It’s hard to believe that 26 weeks went by so quickly! Since many people have been asking me questions about my experience, I thought I’d dedicate a post to the positives and the negatives, as well as share some photos.

Generally speaking, it was a good experience. I enjoyed anticipating what I would get each week by refreshing the Golden Earthworm website a bazillion times every Tuesday morning. The type of seasonal crops varied each week, as we received the best crops from that particular week. I looked forward to Tuesdays and planned my menu around the vegetables would get.

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I was trying to recall how I came to make brownies. But truth is, do you ever really need a reason to enjoy some brownies from scratch? Butter and chocolate, baked with some flour – what’s not to like?

The first time I made it, I thought it came out a bit too crispy. I adjusted my oven rack and cooked it for about 50 minutes exactly. The second batch resulted in a crispy, gooey, caramel-like consistency, which I love. I thoroughly enjoyed every single crumb!

Since I didn’t have a brownie pan, I decided to bake them in cupcake form. This comes from Martha Stewart. And of course, I used my favorite dark chocolate from Ghirardelli (get in my belly).

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