Another great YouTube video find. I made this using a vid posted by "startcooking." I think it really turned out great. If you want to view the vid, it can found here Chicken with Broccoli

Bitter melon is an odd little vegetable. Most don't know what in the world to do with it. Even it's appearance is a bit...well...odd. Imagine a cucumber that has erupted with the worst case of warts you've ever seen. Don't believe me? See for yourself.




My favorite method of cooking this mysterious "melon" is by stirfrying it with pork and garlic. It's a recipe one of my mother's Chinese friends taught me, and I've loved eating it this way ever since. Plus, it's super easy to do.

The first thing you need to do is clean and blanch the melon in a couple of changes of water. This softens the melon and also takes some of the bitterness out of it. They don't call this vegetable bitter melon for nothing. I always like to compare the flavor to the white inner pith of a grapefruit. Imagine chowing down into that for fun. Some cooks prefer to simply sprinkle the raw bitter melon with salt to get rid of the bitterness...that works too, but I like my melon softer than usual, so blanching works best for my preferences.

Next, cube some lean pork into bite sized pieces. If you prefer a more pork to melon ratio, I'd suggest using ground pork, which thoroughly covers every piece of melon when cooked together. Also, make sure you have some finely minced or crushed garlic. Use fresh as garlic powder won't taste anything like the real thing in this recipe.




Add oil to a hot wok or skillet. Add your pork, then the garlic and stirfry until pork is almost done. Add bitter melon and stirfry some more until pork is done and melon reaches desired consistency. I don't like mine falling apart, but I like it softer than al dente. There should be very little to no resistance when I bite in.

All done. Pardon the fuzziness. It was still hot when I took this shot, and the steam kept fogging up my camera lens.

I have distanced myself from a friend whose political views differed from my own but only when the differences crossed a moral and ethical line in my mind that made me lose respect for that person. There are things that I simply can't overlook or tell myself "we have to agree to disagree." However, a difference in view is nothting compared to inconsistency. I can at least respect someone who has an opposing view, but I cannot abide a person who circumvents their own ideas for money or convenience. And the friend whom I mentioned earlier was guilty of this as well, so I don't know if they would still fit the criteria as my loathing for them grew as much out of their hypocrisy as their actions.

Here in the south, we go (or at least I do) nuts over stewed red potatoes. Love, love, love them...especially with copious amounts of butter. Throw in some fresh green beans to boil with them, and it's even better.

However, I found a new and interesting way to prepare the delicious little gems in a Korean recipe book. Instead of butter, the baby reds are stewed in a mixture of sugar, soy sauce, garlic, and red pepper. A great little appetizer to go with some hot, steaming rice.

One of my all time favorite Korean snacks is a portable seaweed roll called kim bap. Now, a lot of people will assume that kim bap is sushi, but while they look aesthetically similar, Kim bap doesn't have the vinegared rice that makes sushi...well...sushi.

Instead, kim bap has a savory assortment of fillings and unseasoned rice (except for maybe a bit of salt). It gets the bulk of its taste from the combination of tastes and textures provided by the fillers (sweet, salty, crunch, savory) and from the liberal amounts of sesame oil that coats the seaweed wrapper.

Surprisingly, though kim bap is a personal favorite...I didn't learn to make it until this past year. My mother, who is Korean, does not cook. As a result, I've had to teach myself Korean culinary skills via cookbooks and various Korean food blogs. The best of these is the one authored by Maangchi. She has great videos that I turn to time and time again to help me understand techniques that aren't as easily translated from a page in a cookbook. Kim bap and kim bap rolling are definitely two things that need a visual to truly get the hang of.

Fillings:

dak kwang (pickled Korean radish...the bright yellow stuff)
seasoned spinach
thin strips of egg omlette
Spam (we Asians love our Spam)

More "traditional" kim bap uses artifical crab meat instead of the Spam and also includes carrots, but I'm not a fan of either. There's no harm at all in changing up the fillings as kim bap is one of those flexible recipes...like pizza.

Kimbap Recipe

There is untapped potential in YouTube vids. Not only do I find entertainment on the video hosting giant, but there are several delicious recipes and a wide range of amateur chefs who post simple cooking tips. Tonight's dinner was comprised solely from recipes found via YouTube...their links are listed below.

On tonight's menu: cubed steak (inexpensive but delicious cut of beef) with avocado salsa/salad and brussel sprouts sauted with bacon.

Cubed steak with avocado

Brussel sprouts with bacon

As most of you have probably felt, we are chest deep in one of our country's worst recessions. While this has caused much sorrow for many families, there is a silver lining to the story as some of us have learned to become more frugal. One decision I made to cut back on expenses was to try powdered milk. Now, I had heard about powdered milk from various people, but the consensus was that the stuff is awful and good for nothing except baking. However, a quick websearch found several products that garnered rave reviews and unconvered a small population of the country that actually liked drinking it.

Some of you might wonder why I would consider this option. After all, I have no children (who seem to inhale milk by the gallons everyday) and don't drink it straight. My uses for milk are limited to occasional cereal and cooking/baking. Yet that's exactly why I was intrigued by the concept of a shelf stable milk. I don't use milk often and the quantity of milk I need will often fluctuate. Some weeks I might use a quart...others a pint or not at all. With powdered milk, you can make a quart's worth to keep in the fridge for when there's cereal in the house or make it by the glass to use in your mom's mac and cheese recipe.

For this experiment, I decided to go with Honeyville products. They have pretty solid reviews on all of their products, carry a large variety of dried and powdered food, and offer a flat rate 5.00 shipping fee regardless of how many items you purchase. After browsing, I decided to purchase a tin of powdered milk, a tin of powdered chocolate milk, and a tin of powdered eggs.



Today's post will be a review of the milk products only. To make things convenient, I had already purchased two quart sized Mix Master containers from Rubbermaid. Very convenient. Yesterday, I made a quart of regular milk and one of chocolate. I made the chocolate by the pour and shake method: filling the quart bottle with a cup of warm water and powder, shaking until thoroughly incorporated, and then adding enough water to make a quart and giving a few more shakes to mix. The white milk was made per instructions: using a blender (a stick blender in my case), I blended a cup of warm water with powder and then added enough water to make a quart before giving a good couple of shakes. Both were set in the fridge to cool.

Verdict?

The chocolate milk product is not a favorite. A lot of reviewers on the Honeyville site said it tasted like a Yoohoo. I love Yoohoos...and this tasted nothing like it to me. Actually, it strongly reminded me of the premade Slimfast shakes in a can. Rather thick and slightly chalky. Not good eats.

The regular milk, on the other hand, was pretty good. It's not a perfect imitation as tasting it straight showed. It has a slight reconsituted flavor...very subtle though...and is slightly sweeter than regular milk. However, I happily enjoyed it with my morning cereal, and will no doubt have no trouble mixing it with various odds and ends while cooking. Let me go ahead and forewarn about the consistency though: it's watery. Now, I'm used to this as I drink Horizon's Organic Milk, which has a very thin consistency as well, but those of you who drink whole milk by the gallons will probably be put off a bit by the almost water-like consistency. Purchase fat free to get an idea of what it's like.

How would you like to see one of these growing in your yard? I've been ever so interested in wild mushrooms, but never so much as now with our current rainy season sprouting fairy rings everytime I blink. Though pretty, the "fairy" rings are actually clusters of green-gilled Lepiota...very toxic. In fact, all of the mushrooms I found growing around my neighborhood have been toxic, including some Jack o' Lantern mushrooms that had me hopeful that I had stumbled upon a cache of chanterelles. Alas, it was not to be. However, after some particularly heavy rains, I happened upon this whopper in my neighbor's yard. Just the strange look of it had me taking it home for research, despite its unknown status as an edible or not. Imagine my surprise when I found that it is. In fact, this odd looking "creature" is a brain puffball. Though this particular specimen was past its prime and had already served a feast up for some ants, there are a couple of younger ones in the same location that I plan to go back for tomorrow. I've always wanted to try a puffball mushroom. I remember seeing scores of them as a child. They were so much fum to stomp on and watch the spores scatter. Now that I'm an adult, of course, finding them is like duck's teeth, and I'm not about to let this opportunity go. Tomorrow it's puffball on the menu. Maybe with a nice parsley butter saute and served over pasta. Hmmmmm....I can hardly wait.

I had purchased some spicy bellflower banchan in Atlanta a few days ago and loved it. Only problem was that I couldn't find an online recipe for it, nor was the list of ingredients on the packaging any help. It was made by the grocery store, and the ingredients were sparse and generic at best. So I set out to taste and adjust until I came out with a reasonable fascimile.

One of the things I noticed about the storebought version was that it came with thinly sliced cucumber. I didn't have any cucumber at the time, but what I did have was a nice, juicy watermelon. I knew that Koreans had used watermelon rinds for kimchi before, and a quick taste revealed the flavor and texture to be similar to cucumber, so I decided to give it a try. As with my previous bellflower sidedish, I soaked and prepared the roots. This time, I also included some thinly siced watermelon rind.

Aren't they beautiful. I love the two-toned color...looks like a bowl full of watermelon tourmaline.



I added these to the bellflower root, then experiemented with flavors. I added salt, hot pepper flakes, seasame seeds, and garlic, vinegar...all of which I tasted and saw in the store bought version. But what stumped me was the thick, almost paste-like consistency. This might have been accomplished by adding sweet rice flour (which I didn't have), so I tried by adding a bit of gochujang. A teaspoon to start with...adding more gradually until it reached the desired consitency.

Bingo! Other than being a bit more vinegary (a concious decision on my part as I like a little more zip than most), the taste was identical. I suggest allowing it to "age" in the fridge for at least one day to get the maximum flavor...though it was perfectly good minutes after being mixed together.

Chinese bellflower (also known as platycodon) is a tasty little root. Found here most commonly in its dried form, it's a classic ingredient in making banchan and bibimbap. The root is simplicity itself to prepare...though you have to follow the instructions so as to get rid of the bitter flavor that it possesses. The end result is something that's crunchy, slightly chewy, and with a very light almost potato-like taste that matches beautifully with seasame oil.

Here's the package I picked up in Atlanta. These have already been shreded into more manageable strips, so they're very convenient to work with.



To prepare, rinse bellflower roots in hot tap water, then cover with enough hot/warm water to cover them by two to three inches. Allow to soak overnight. In the morning, rinse roots, drain, and then sprinkle on some salt and toss to leech out any remaining bitter flavor. If you don't soak overnight, the playcodon will have a taste similar to the pitch of a grapefruit. NOT good eats.

After an hour or so, rinse salt off playcodon. Squeeze out any excess water.



Heat skillet or wok to medium high heat, Add a little bit of oil oil (or any other cooking oil), a few drops of sesame oil, sesame seeds, and bellflower roots. Stirfry for a few minutes, tossing constinuously. Add minched ginger, garlic, chopped scallion, and salt. Stifry two more minutes or until fragrant. Remove from heat and plate.




My apologies about the lack of measurements, but I never use them when cooking. I usually just taste and adjust.

I'm in a funk, and I need Korean food. For the past couple of months, I've eaten nothing but steamed green beans, hamburger helper, frozen entrees, and a variety of other "All-American" meals. Nothing against them, but I can't go solo on burgers, fries and such. After a while, I start hallucinating about dried anchovies dipped in chili sauce, cold buckwheat noodle soup, spicy tang jang jigae...hhhmmmm.

So it's off to Atlanta tomorrow to stock back up on Korean basics. During the move and the complications involved with it, I lost almost all of what little groceries I had left. I'd tried to pare down to eliminate a lot of packing, so it wasn't a huge amount, but now I'm stuck in a house with an empty fridge. Seriously. The only thing in there right now is a jar of miso, a jar of chili paste, a package of mushrooms, some ice in the freezer, and I think a bottle of mustard is lying in one of the bins. It's a sad sight.

So off I go to pick up squid jerky, Ramune, soybeans, tofu, brisket, chicken feet, and all the things I've missed during the last couple of months of school. Yum.

Hopefully I'll make something post-worthy, but there are no guarantees.

Well, it's official...I'm moving back home. The budget cuts at school have eliminated my position, and the job at a surrounding county fell through at the last moment. Despite promising me the job, the board felt it was in their community's best interest to look for and hire a local for the position. I can't fully blame them. This recession IS taking a toll on a lot of families, and they want to look out for their own. However, it would have been nice to know this information before I was offered the job and informed two other schools I had accepted another position. :sigh:

Oh well, water under the bridge.

On a bento note, I've decided to sell all of my plastic boxes. Well, most of them. I still have the Zojirushi and Lock and Lock bento box, but the rest are going on ebay. I just don't use them anymore, having found and prefer my wooden bento boxes. I've never been good at kawaii or artsy bento, and the wooden ones suit my more formal and somber designs. This is going to be a HUGE auction as my collection spans several years and includes hundreds of dollars worth of boxes, bags, and accessories. I'll just be glad to have the extra space and know that they'll help someone else start their bento collection. If the auction gets too pricey, I'd even suggest going in with a friend or two and then splitting the boxes up between you. I'd really prefer the buyer to be a bento fan and not just a bulk reseller, however, I'll have to go with whoever wins the auction. If you're bidding...I wish you luck and hope you win.

Almost all of these boxes have been used once or twice by me and the pictures posted on this journal...feel free to browse the archives in order to get a better picture of each individual box.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110394168532

and I just want to tell the world how great he is and how much he will be missed. I can't stop crying. I knew something was wrong but thought he threw out his back again. I keep wondering if I had taken him to the vet earlier, could he have been saved? He was so old...in his late teens and possibly even his twenties...but the greatest dog in the whole world. He was my best friend and I miss him so much that the lonliness feel like a cold sort of numbness that won't go away. When I got home, I threw away everything except his favorite squeaky toy and his collar. I just couldn't stand looking at the empty dog bed. I can't bring myself to wash his blankie and I just can't stop feeling empty inside...like someone carved out my heart and I'm hollow. You might think this is a strange reaction for "just a dog." But he was my best friend. He was there for me when others weren't. He would seek me out when I was down and cheer me up again. Some people think dogs are just dumb animals and don't have souls, well I don't want a heaven that doesn't allow Poppet in it. I hate myself for every minute I didn't have time for him, ignored him, gave him a harsh word. I love him so much, and no one will ever take his place in my heart.

In light of the horrid economy (I myself have fallen victim as one of the million layoffs as soon as my contract is up), I thought I'd post a couple of pics detailing my favorite meal: portabello mushroom linguine. It's so simple and costs just a little over three dollars in raw ingredients...this is assuming you already have some essentials at home such as olive oil, salt, pepper, dried parsley (add another dollar if buying fresh). One package of baby bellas cost me around 2.00 here. Purchase and bring home. Clean under running water. Some purists refuse to have their mushrooms touch water, but I watched Dirty Jobs and know just what that substrate they grow in started out as: I'm NOT eating it. After thoroughly washing, slice mushrooms however thick you like. I prefer three to four slices per shroom, but you do whatever tickles your fancy. Pour one to two tablespoons olive oil in hot skillet, add mushrooms, saute, add salt, pepper, and dried parsley. If using fresh parsley, I'd wait until everything is almost cooked so as to retain the clean taste and color of the herb. Saute. Dump in linguine. Toss. Plate. Viola!



If I had some fresh parsley, I'd have included a garnish, but I rarely use parsley in my cooking so prefer not to buy a fresh bunch as I'd end up wasting more than half.

Love, love, love my wooden boxes. I'm using my two-tiered cedar box here and the furoshiki just folds beautifully around it. Here, the tab peaking through has two frisky little rabbits leaping along. Very joyful and cute!




What has these rabbits so ecstatic is obviously the contents: homemade shrimp stirfry, apples sharing their space with a sirracha pig, and piping hot rice. Yum! My only regret is that the glorious stirfry which I had put up earlier in the week has lost most of its beautiful color. Maybe it was the reheating, or maybe it was the refridgeration process, but as you can see, it's no where near as vibrant as the original pic below (taken shortly after making).

Not as pretty as I'd like. Just some rice with seasoned seaweed clumped in the middle. Very tasty btw. To the side are some sweet glazed potatoes. A rather drab meal but filling nonetheless.

For a long time, I've wanted to be a vegetarian. Wanted it very badly, in fact. The problem was that everytime I began my journey on the road to meatlessness, I started craving a big, juicy t-bone. This isn't meant to be insensitive or amuse...just the truth. Whenever I told myself to abstain, I started to crave the very thing I was abstaining from, and as a result, I failed time and time again. So months later and I'm here again, trying to eat healthier. Several weeks go by and I start noticing that I haven't eaten red meat in a while...then I can't remember when the last time I ate pork was...and chicken hasn't touched my plate in days. I'd gone without mammal and bird flesh for two straight weeks and hadn't felt like running to a steak the entire time. Who would have thunk it? My one concession to meat was the consumption of fish and seafood. Not a lot, mind you...I've never eaten loads of meat anyways, but a can of tuna in some soups or stews, a few clams in an omlete or two, or a shrimp added to a vegetable stirfry now and then...these are the things I enjoy. I'm also lucky in that our town has a local fish monger who gets them straight from a small boat fisherman on the coast...very fresh! I don't eat them in excess: a pound of shrimp, two cans of tuna, a small bag of croakers or mackerel will tide me over the course of a month or so and many, many meals. Mostly my diet consists of vegetables, fruit, eggs, seaweed, rice, and soy products. And I've been doing this for a long, long time now. So imagine my surprise when I find that there's a name for it. Pescatarianism. Who knew? Now, I know I'm not a vegetarian; I never claimed to be. I don't have the will for it...yet, but one day I'd like to get there. I've even fallen off the pescatarian wagon a time or two (chicken broth and beef dashima being the culprits as I'm still looking for a comparative soup base that can replace these. The traditional vegetable broth that you can in stores is a bit too carrot and tomatoe tasting for my purposes.) But hopefully this will set me on the path.

Working for a short while at a Chinese restaurant, I was shocked to discover that some of the most complex looking dishes were actually extremely easy to make and didn't involve lots of foreign ingredients. Fried rice, beef with broccoli, and stirfried vegetables in white sauce all utilized ingredients I can find at my local Walmart these days. My favorite by far is the white sauce, which curiously enough is just chicken broth thickened by corn starch. All you do is stirfry your vegetables in a little oil on high heat...my favorite combo is chinese cabbage, carrot matchsticks, sugar snap peas, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, and baby corn...until the cabbage becomes barely limp (around 2-3 min.) Then add chicken broth until a small pool forms at the bottom of the vegetables, reserving some cold broth. Mix together cornstarch with the reserved broth; the amount varies on how big a batch you're making but if you've ever made gravy you now how to eyeball it. If you're a gravy newbie, I'd start with around a tablespoon to begin. You can alway add more later if it's not enough. Continue to stirfry until veggies are coated with a sumptuous, creamy glaze. I immediately freeze mine in smaller batches without any meat. Then when I defrost, I simply stirfry the meat first, then add the vegetable stirfry mix, and stirfry until hot. My favorite meat "garnish" is shrimp, but chicken is also a good choice. Or you can eat just plain as I did here...with just a squirt or two of sirracha to add a spicy kick.




If making to eat immediately, use the same formula as if frozen. Stirfy the meat first until done, remove from wok or pan, stirfy vegetables, then add meat back in. Do not cook them together as the meat requires more time and you will risk overcooking your veggies or eating undercooked meat. Gross! Also, searing and cooking the meat in the pan first creates beautiful flavor which it then imparts to the veggies afterwards.

Ever since reading about an elm wood bento box on Just Bento, I've been dying to get my hands on one. Well, now my wish has come true. I had placed this order before my current financial situation came to light, but in hindsight it's just what I needed to give myself a little cheering up. The wrapping paper doesn't hurt in that department either.




Here's the cute little thank you note they left. I love the origami swan. Nice little detail that shows you the quality of this company.




Last but not least, here are the pics of the box itself. Not pictured is a small wooden insert for separating the inner compartment. The wood has a nice heft to it, the woodgrain just pops at you, and everything is seamless as it's made from a single block of elm. Thanks so much to Maki for her review of this box! ^_^





I used a purchasing agent to actually complete the sale. Fantastic company with a low comission. The box itself shipped directly from the seller.

For the longest time, I had been struggling with the plastic taste of modern bento boxes. Every plastic container I could get my hands on (Glad, Lock and Lock, bento boxes, etc...) imparted the taste of plastic to my food, especially unflavored rice. I've tried microwaving them with vinegared water, soaking them in soap, cooling the foods down before putting them in...nothing worked. Actually, Tupperware was the one exception to this but all their containers were waaaay too large for me. So I Here's the latest addition to my collection: a cedar, urushi coated, wooden bento box. It's a little large being double tiered and all, but just beautiful to look at. I received a tons of compliments on it at work, and it just had the most wonderful nostalgic feel to it. So much so that I couldn't bring myself to use the included elastic band and just wrapped it "old school" in a furoshiki.

On the menu today: Korean style tamago (my favorite and a bento staple), steamed sugar snaps, stirfried zuchinni, and two Korean dumplings. Delicious! My only regret was that there was no room for dessert.




Here it is all wrapped and ready to go. Just threaded through a pair of teak chopsticks that have that old-fashioned look about them, and I was ready to go.