O.G. cookbook
Over the years the question I get asked most from readers is:
“When are you going to write a cookbook?”
Well – this is as close as it’s going to get for now…
Yep, that is the cover for the new comic book/cookbook of O.G.’s favorite recipes. This is a big deal because many of the recipes she’s been making over the years and she’s never really written them down properly. And getting them out of her was NOT EASY. Some are secret recipes and it was like pulling teeth, frankly. However – O.G. was behind this 100% and was very involved in everything from the recipes to the design.
Home cooking was a big influence on me early on, and helped establish my love of cooking and eating easy and delicious meals. I’m pretty proud of this one, to get O.G. to give her blessing on anything is amazing, so the fact that she was so behind this is a shocker.
Not your typical cookbook, it is short and sweet, full of recipes, anecdotes and as usual, our very frank conversations. This will be out in limited release for Mother’s Day and available for purchase in July at the San Diego Comic Con. Self published, 28 pages, full color – all for you to enjoy. More info to come.
Top Chef Korean Food Challenge
My family and friends in Hawaii are obsessed with Korean dramas and I can see why. The characters, the stories, the culture, it’s all consuming.
I feel the same way about Korean food – it’s one of my favorite kinds of food to eat, either at a restaurant or if I cook it at home. Of course my recipes aren’t authentic, they are just *my* take on them – and that’s what is so fun about cooking, making your own interpretation of flavors.
Luckily for my love of Korean food, I was honored to be a guest blogger judge for the Top Chef Korean Food Challenge. It was a live event hosted by Cathlyn Choi, host of Cathlyn’s Korean Kitchen and buzz KOREA to promote the discovery of Korean food and culture. Not only that, it would be aired on television!
There were six blogger judges, (The Food Addicts, Gourmet Pigs, Mad Hungry Woman, Taste With the Eyes and Wine and Dine) as well as three main judges – Barbara Hansen of L.A. Weekly, actor James Kyson Lee best known as Ando on Heroes, and Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee -a fantastic Korean cookbook
There were three teams of paired chefs who were to compete to make their take on traditional Korean dishes. Each team pulled a scroll which revealed their dish and were given 30 minutes each to complete it.
The first team, the Red Team, was Chef Javier Plascencia and Chef Adria Montano from Villa Saverios in Tijuana, Mexico. Their dishes were Dak Galbi and Kalbi jjhim, both stews!
The chefs cooked and prepped as we watched, using everything they received from a secret basket of ingredients.
Both stews were warm and flavorful – they incorporated a lot of the same elements of their traditional Mexican cooking, like infusing fruit and juices into their dishes. Chef Plascencia even brought out a smoker to add a finishing touch to his stew.
The Dak Galbi, the chicken stew – definitely had the heat of Mexican/Korean cooking. While the Kalbi jjhim was rich and flavorful, a real feat to make such a comforting dish in just 30 minutes.
The second team, the White team – was Chef Bernard Guillas and Chef Ron Oliver from the Marine Room in La Jolla. Their dishes were Bibimbap and Tteokbokki, two of my favorites.
Bibimbap is such a traditional dish and Chef Guillas paid homage by making a traditional bibimbap in a stone pot for presentation, and then for serving he made the most lovely, individually deconstructed plates.
By using variations like a quail egg, a mixture of barley with the rice, and fennel powder – he definitely took hold of the challenge and made the dish his own.
I was particularly fond of the way this team was all about the little details. They added finishing touches like sakura rice crackers from Japan and check out the hand carved zucchini ‘buttons’! Adorable and deliciously playful. My kind of food.
Chef Ron really did his homework on Korean cooking and came up with a modern, delicious Tteokbokki. His take on the spicy rice cake was chewy and delicious, and it left me wanting more. But there was so much more to eat…
The final chefs – the Blue Team – was Chef Brian Hirsty and Chef Graham Norton of Blue Water Grill in Tustin. These chefs had their work cut out for them, as they randomly pulled the two hardest dishes: Gu Jeol Pan and Kimchi.
Making kimchi in 30 minutes? Not possible. But the chef did his best and came up with a nod to kimchi in the form of a salad.
Chef Brian had Gu Jeol Pan – Gu means 9 which means, you guessed it, he had to make NINE dishes. That’s rough going in 30 minutes. All eight ingredients are supposed to be laid out to be placed into a thin pancake and eaten. The components were a little thick, making it difficult to eat, but this traditional dish is hard to make even without time limits.
Considering they were making dishes that they weren’t completely familiar with, all the chefs did an amazing job. Food bloggers that we are – we had a great time taking pictures, tasting and judging all the fantastic food.
Starting on March 2, go to buzzKorea and vote for which chef you think will take it all in “Who Will be the Winner?” and you can also vote for this blog post!
Then on April 7th on PBS/KOCE, you can watch the show to find out which chef is the winner of the Top Chef Korean Food Challenge!
Lemon Mousse
Well, Lemon Fest week is coming to a close. Sad. Are you lemon-ed out yet?? I hope you enjoyed the lemon recipes here and on Food Librarian’s blog. What should I do next, artichoke week? Hm. I think not…
___________________________
I love the taste of fresh lemon, and this light as a cloud dessert is great for dinner parties or just to savor on a day when you deserve it.
ingredients:
3 large eggs, plus 3 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
Juice of 3 lemons or ½ cup
Zest of one lemon
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar
Fresh lemon juice is the best, but often FULL of pulp. So when I juice them, I do it over a strainer over a bowl, to catch all the pulp and seeds.
Whisk together the sugar, eggs, yolks, salt and lemon juice.
Pour the mixture into a saucepan. Start it off on low heat, then raise it to medium high and cook – stirring constantly until thickened. Be careful to not boil it.
Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in lemon zest. Pour the lemon mixture into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic wrap sits on the surface. Chill in the fridge until cooled.
In a mixing bowl, beat the heavy cream and powdered sugar until you get soft peaks.
Fold the chilled lemon curd into the whipped cream until just combined.
Spoon into serving dishes – it should fill about 8 parfait glasses. Keep in the fridge til you’re ready to serve.
BLT (Bacon, Lemon, Tomato) Pasta
It’s Lemon Week, still going strong! Check out the Food Librarian’s daily lemon posts too!
_________________
Bacon, LEMON and tomato. Yep. Hey it’s not lettuce week! These are some of my favorite ingredients and I think they come together really well in this dish – fresh lemon, salty bacon, it’s a great combination.
ingredients:
2/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
zest of one lemon
1/2 cup reserved pasta water
6-8 slices bacon
2 cups tomatoes, diced
one package of pasta
Cut the bacon in small pieces so that you don’t have to crumble it later. Cook it until crispy, let drain and set aside.
Boil the pasta according to directions. I like these tiny farfalle, they are too cute, and just the right ‘bite.’ When draining the pasta, set aside 1/2 cup of the hot pasta water. Using this later will help the dressing stick.
While the pasta is boiling, in a bowl, whisk together the olive oil, cheese, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Toss the dressing (you may not need all of it) with the pasta, adding the reserved pasta water. Add in the tomatoes, bacon and lemon zest. Toss and serve.
Lemon Broccoli Slaw
It’s Lemon Fest 2011! Day 3 – pucker up!
________________________
Sometimes I build entire meals around side dishes. This salad is fresh and crunchy and a great accompaniment to Root Beer Pulled Pork, a great summer meal. What. It’s still winter? Phooey.
ingredients:
1 bag broccoli slaw
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
Juice of one lemon
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
Salt
pepper
Sure you could make your own slaw, no biggie, but since I happened upon this bag from TJ’s I went for it.
Combine the brown sugar, mustard, lemon, olive oil, sesame oil and cider vinegar. Toss with the slaw, season with salt and pepper.
Lemon Blueberry-Sugar Muffins
It’s Lemon Fest 2011, people!
Get your pitchforks, storm the castle and ask for lemons!
____________________________
One of my fave places is the Spice Station in Silverlake, they have an amazing array of sugars and spices that all make for great recipe inspiration.
The last time I was there I picked up some Blueberry Sugar. A nice large granule of sugar infused with fresh blueberry. Amazing! I thought it’d make a great topping for some lemon-y blueberry muffins. While not pretty, they sure are tasty. But hey, looks aren’t everything.
ingredients:
1-3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup oil
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
juice of one lemon
zest of one lemon
1-1/2 cups blueberries
1 Tablespoon flour
blueberry sugar
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prep a muffin pan with liners. (you will only get about 10 muffins.)
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and baking powder, whisk to combine.
Add the oil, egg, milk, lemon juice and lemon zest. Stir until JUST combined.
In a small bowl toss the blueberries with the flour, that sort of helps keep the blue color from bleeding into the batter.
Add the blueberries to the batter and just fold until combined.
Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 of the way full. Top with a sprinkling of blueberry sugar.
Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.
Lemon Fried Chicken
It’s LEMON FEST!! If you remember from years past, the Lemon Fairy drops a giant bag of lemons on my porch this time o’ year and then I cook and bake until they are allllll gone.
So I’m putting up a new lemon based recipe everyday and even the Food Librarian has joined me in Lemon Week, so check her blog daily too! Hopefully by the end of the week the bag will be empty. Fingers crossed. There’s a lot of lemons in there…
___________________________
I love fried chicken and this recipe is sort of my take on the Japanese fried chicken : chicken karaage, which they always serve with a little piece of lemon, so I thought it’d be nice to incorporate it into the dish itself.
ingredients:
3 boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1 Tablespoon mirin
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
2 eggs
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
juice of one lemon
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
oil for frying
In a bowl mix together the mirin, soy sauce, eggs, cornstarch, baking powder, lemon juice and zest. Stir together well.
Add in the chicken pieces, cover and marinate for 2-4 hours.
Ready a large skillet or fryer with oil, and bring to temp. Fry the chicken pieces until golden brown, let them drain and cool on a wire rack.
I love this dish – the lemon gives it a little extra something that makes this a fresh take on fried chicken.
Peanut Butter & Jelly filled Mochi
For my big New Year’s Day party this year I did something different and in addition to family I also invited specific people I wanted to thank for being in my life when I needed them most. There’s nothing like the support and love of family and friends, it’s comforting and that’s what food means to me – comfort and love.
I am the self-proclaimed Queen of Mochi (can I get a what what??) and I tend to go overboard with desserts for New Year’s but I think I topped myself with this. There’s nothing better to me than fresh mochi and when you fill that with classic peanut butter and jelly? That’s love right there.
ingredients:
3-1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp food coloring
1 box mochiko
peanut butter
jelly
potato starch
peanut butter
jelly
Prep a cutting board by sprinkling liberally with potato starch. This needs to be totally ready to go since you will be running over to it with boiling hot mochi. Set aside.
*this image by the Food Librarian
In a large pot, boil the water and the sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Add the food coloring and stir.
Now the work – add the box of mochiko to the tinted sugar water and stir like crazy!! HURRY – if you don’t work fast it won’t come together and you’ll get the dreaded lumps.
Now quick, dump it on your prepped cutting board and sprinkle with potato starch so it doesn’t dry out. DO IT! If this recipe sounds hectic, it is. It’s a heck of a lot of work, all based on timing.
Pull off a piece of mochi, round it out in your hand and flatten it. Fill with about 3/4 teaspoon of peanut butter, and just as much jelly.
Pinch the edges closed and flatten it into a little mochi shape.
One bite and you get a little pocket of pb & j plus some nice chewy mochi, the perfect comforting snack to show your family and friends that you care. Aw.
Hawaiian Beef Stew
Just as I bust out shorts for the kids, in comes Stormwatch. Oh well. It’ll be 75 again in a few days. L.A. is the Sybil of weather.
Why is this stew Hawaiian? I dunno, just every plate lunch place/hawaiian cookbook/mother/auntie makes it in Hawaii, plus you HAVE to eat it with rice – a Hawaii state law (not really) so there you go. So here’s my version. Rich, warm and flavorful – and a perfect meal even in the best of weather.
ingredients:
1-1/2 pounds stew meat
2 Tablespoons flour
4 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 cups water
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
2 carrots
3 potatoes
2 stalks celery
Coat the stew meat with flour, and in a large pot, heat the olive oil and brown the meat. Add the onions and the garlic, for just a few minutes to soften the onion.
Add the water, salt, pepper, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, carrots, potatoes and celery. Stir well and let simmer for 1-1/2 hours until the meat and potatoes are nice and tender.
Serve with rice, of course!
Walking Dead cupcakes
My friends and owners of the Comic Bug, wanted cupcakes for a 40th birthday. We talked about a lot of geeky ideas – which is turning out to be my thing. Huh. I should open a geek themed bakery.
Anyway we finally settled on a ‘Walking Dead…at 40′ theme. Here’s the thing. I hate zombies. They scare me. I truly believe there WILL be a zombie apocalypse and just in case I have cans of Spam in my pantry to wait it out.
So I wanted to come up with something that honored the comic
I made some chocolate cupcakes similar to the ‘Back from the grave‘ cupcakes that I made for Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s birthday.
Then I printed out images on cardstock to serve as banners for the back to give the cupcakes some 3D/billboard type elements. I cut them out and attached them to skewers.
I tested out the length of the skewers because I wanted varying heights for the text, images and the hands.
They came out pretty cool, like a little diorama of cupcakes. Personally I don’t think 40 is over the hill, but hey I also believe in zombie apocalypses.
