reclaiming the kitchen

now i have been whining recently how i do not have the time to utilize my kitchen, to discover the nooks and crannies of the fridge and cupboards, not a chance, to become the once-again master of my house's kitchen. oh well. 

i have not have any problem discovering where the wine is though.

 

through helping out in the kitchen every chance i had this weekend and the lastlast week (oh memories of ultimate freedom! food at home breakfast, lunch and dinner! the joys i did not know was mine until it was brutally snatched away by the monster company named ACCENTURE) i now know where the little dishes and kimchis are, and this weekend realized with joy that all my baking equipments are exactly where they were (which also means nobody has been using the oven..... the only baking freak in the family)

so this weekend, under my sister's request(she has recently gone through a major (minor in my opinion, but ok she's still a baby) disappointment, a little babying for my baby sister) i set on to make oreo cheesecake!

my ingredients! mine!

cheesecake is so easy to make, yet so satisfactory despite it. i remember visiting my friend at the hospital due to a broken angle with freshly baked oreo cheesecake (her favorites are actually cream puffs but hey, cream puffs are hard to puff up). after fussing over her bandaged ankle and hearing the details of the breaking-ankle story, i opened my bag and gave her the little package containing my proud creation. the moment she opened it her mouth dropped open in surprise. i panicked.

was it murphy's law at work? did she had oreo cheesecake for breakfast? somebody had already gave her an enormous oreo cheesecake the day before? or....were she allergic to oreos?

fortunately, it was nothing of those. her expression was that of shock, since she had just mentioned to her friend on facebook (of course, facebook) that she had wanted.....oreo cheesecake. whew. so she devoured the piece in one stand, me watching with a contented smile only cooks and bakers know when people yummily eat their food.

so on my way for another smiley satisfaction, i started rummaging through the cupboards, i found two! unfinished packages of oreos (one oreo korean version), threw away the cream sandwiched between the black cookies, and coarsely crushed them.  whipped up some cream cheese and sugar, eggs which made a very watery mixture, and poured it into the cheesecake pan. left it in the oven for forty minutes, and popped the cheesecake out of its pan.



cant resist taking bits before pics. im just not that professional enough.



the surface was cracked and all but this time, it was creamy and thick, decadent new-york-style (not the soft light souffle style) that stays in your mouth, fills your mouth with cheese-cheese-and mmm cheese! due to the fact that i did not use low-fat cream ch eese (not easily to find in korea) and did not skimp on it. all the oreos goes in, and there you get, a cheesecake that a fork sinks slowly in (not gliding in, mind you. 

yum yum we all went for more.


of course, instead our friends' doggie who was visiting couldnt have a bite. cheesecake is apparently not healthy for little doggies. or maybe we just all wanted the extra bite.




hi doggie! among the pots and pans.

 

p.s. my sister is a weird thing. whenever she spots something unique, weird, good, expensive, fancy looking, something different she stores it away in her secret hiding place. previous examples have been coffee beans my dad brought back from indonesia (she secretly showed it to me hidden inside her old book boxes on top of her bookshelf), fleur de sel (this i confiscated), random chocolates from cousins, and and this yummy cheesecake was no different. she tucked it away in the back of her side of her fridge, chopped up into pretty slices. like we can't find that.

fishies fishies and more fishies!

how do you eat your fish? if you are american, the options you might have encountered might be: pan-seared, grilled, broiled, blackened (i first saw this version at miami, FL at Joe's Sea Crab. weird, it sounds like burnt to me), and you get a small portion of fish flesh on your plate cooked to your matter of choice, either buttered or with some creative sauce that often masks the true fish flavor. other popular options are sushi, a raw, thinly sliced fish flesh artfully placed on top a small oval shaped ball of sticky rice, or sashimi, which is literally raw fish. or, if you are from amherst, you might have seen the bland, dry chunks of something called fish served at our infamous Val.

do any of these look like real fish? they might smell super fishy and taste super fishy, but do they look like fish? now, if you come to korea(as i did a week ago) you order fish anywhere, and what you will get(not including sushi) will be a dish that actually looks like a fish with its head, tail, gills all vividly observable, complete with goggling fish eyes and fish eggs and intestines inside. now thats the ultimate wholesome fish-eating experience.

nobody sells fish chopped up. they sell it whole!

i believe this general style of eating fish in korea is so simple and yet economical both for the environment and for us. no fish going to waste! able to taste all different parts of the fish! and you can actually see for yourself what part of the fish you are eating. generally, the fish we eat this way are not that large, we're not talking about tunas twice the size of my arm sitting on the dinner table or hairtail(갈치 in korean, or cutlass tail, king-of-salmon according to naver dictionary, do they not eat this fish in the US? its very common in korea hm.... we usually chop this up and boil it with korean spices) but mostly moderately sized fish about the length of my hand: mackerel, yellow croaker (ok i dont think naver dictionary useful here:

selling fresh fish at nearby department store.

조기 for those who can understand), pomfret/butterfish (ok, 병어)..... i decline to explain more. come to korea people.

so the usual way is: you clean the fish, sprinkle it with simple salt (or sometimes a simple sauce concocted from soy sauce, ground red pepper, sesame seed, etc.) and pop it in the pre-heated mini oven. the fish roasts in its natural oil (the infamous fish oil) and comes out with crisp, crackly slightly golden skin ready to be devoured with our eager chopsticks.

todays morning fish. (:

other ways might be boiling the fish in a red bean paste spicy sauce with chopped potatoes, daikon and garlic. the sauce integrates into the smooth flesh and becomes moist and flavorful. yum.

a sad update is that i have been spending most of my time at my new internship and haven't the time to utilize and reclaim the ownership of our fully-equipped kitchen, nibbling away at cold burgers and limp fries trying to ignite an awkward conversation with new people. but the silver lining is that my mom takes pity on me and provides me with the most hearty, extravagant breakfast ever. for instance, yesterday i met with hot, steamy bowl of rice, mallow (아욱...) stew with huge shrimps, roasted mackerel, freshly steamed mini-squids, and other banchans. of course, before this i had already drank a full cup of blueberry, kiwi, tomato, banana smoothie and after this i had half a grapefruit. so i guess that makes up for the rest of my day.

i would have loved to include some pictures to share my experience, but i own a simple folder phone in korea (not fully equipped with a high-tech camera) and my camera is currently out of order after my brave attempt to shoot myself ziplining (i did it successfully with D's camera afterwards harharhar). will try to upload at least more lively photos later after my camera is fixed. to be continued...

staying simple

while i try to integrate cooking into my daily routine, it is sometimes hard to acquire the mindset that cooking is simple, and keep on with my goals.

oatmeal with cinnamon, cranberries, almonds, bubbling in soy milk.

well, i guess our school does make it more difficult for me, getting rid of all the kitchens when renovating the dorms, not letting anybody get off the meal plan while providing us with lower than low quality food which makes us swoon with suffering.

but still. sometimes cooking doesn't even require ovens, or stoves, or even a knife or other kitchenware. for that bowl of steel cut oatmeal (not instant add-boil-water-and-you're-done quakers oatmeal, mind you) i let the oats soak in water overnight, and just sprinkled cinnamon, some berries, and added a few almonds and my hearty breakfast was all set. 


but if you do let me rant for a while, it is a bit annoying to drag all my ingredients, olive oil, salt and also stealing additional ingredients from val (hey, i pay my tuition, im going to get the most out of it) to one of the few dorms that does have a decent kitchen. and i have to bear with all those random people who poke around curiously and suspiciously as this small, unknown, non-resident girl bustles and hustles around their kitchen which in my opinion, is not being properly utilized. so it is left to me to keep my chin up, keep my sense of taste high, and march around with forks and knives as my armor. 

and its not too bad to walk around in such beautiful weather like nowadays. so in order to pay greetings to my hellful finals week to come, i decided to whip up a simple dish of scrambled eggs and shrimp! 

the best part i like when chopping herbs is that with every slice you make with your knife, a fresh, unique fragrance billows up to fill your nose. slice, whish! slice, whish! chop, chop away i go. 


h is often in charge of the stove nowadays. i prepare and chop(more chopping!) up all the ingredients, hand it over to the master, and he stir fries them, mixes them, seasons them, and voila! we make a good combo. so today he started with stirfrying the garlic and shrimps, and just about time they were about to turn pink and plump and yummy looking, added the eggs. when the eggs started to turn creamy,  i added my chopped up cilantro. 

scrambled eggs and shrimp, with cilantro.

i personally eat the shrimps whole, as i like everything whole and crunching through the shrimp, shell and all is quite satisfying somehow. H had a bit of a hard time trying to shell the shrimps, and also fight with me to get to the last morsel of creamy eggs. all of this was done in less than thirty minutes ! (we are fast eaters thats also true)


so, go simple! and you can go simple too! if i can do it in this poorly qualifying amherst, i believe anybody can start anywhere. 


*another lesson of the day: always follow the recipe's ratio. a little bit of tinkering around is fine, but the ratio of the ingredients are important to achieve the adequate blend the cook intended. today we added 2/3 of the eggs (it did call for eight eggs... the idea of eating so much eggs made us chicken us out. pun not intended (: ) and we did have some lonely shrimps left in the pan afterwards. 

Another glorious evening w mussels!

Another beautiful weekend. But when does this weekend has to come? Right before our deadly finals week. After a day spent in front of a computer nonstop(switching between physics problem sets, physics lab report, compsci assignment, yes, and of course food blogs), only after one o'clock in the morning could i relax. only after panicking that my compsci program was not catching exceptions, only after realizing that my compsci program was not line justificating, but just deleting all the lines except the last line, only after fixing it again multiple times and sending in multiple drafts of my program  and sending an email to my professor that i-did-send-my-first-draft-in-time-could-you-please-understand-?, i could drop into an endless sleep. 

but what else did i have? of course more work. but that did not stop me from cooking a lovely meal celebrating my hard-earned rest at least for a day (or i insisted i had to earn some rest). 


wholefoods were on a clam sale, so we started off with two pounds of clams, garlic, parsley, an a spanish albarino.

it was hard to find some nice chorizo, so we at last set on some portuguese hot sausage, which turned out to be not that hot, not that chewy, not that firm and juicy as expected. oh well. 


we sauted the sausages, garlic, chopped up some onions, poured in a cup of wine and mussles and set to simmer. and they ..

opened up! yumm, hi clams! 


we took our food outside to enjoy the sunshine, and the crisp, dry albarino was worth every sip.

the parsley added a nice green touch to it, the clams were extremely juicy, the broth was clear and just hit to spot. ahh.. at least i could create an illusion for myself that finals week was yet to start. 

 

blackberries for dessert! and some soft creamy cheese, and i was all set. 

* oh we had some baguette of mopping up the broth, but this time the wholefoods baguette's crust was not crispy enough, the texture not chewy nor fluffy, just not up to expectations :( why does wholefoods quality vary so much? very disppointing. we need our bread, not cake! 

 

making the best (hidden) deal in amherst even better- another banh mi rant

is this really from amherst? yes. is it under five bucks? yes. is it really not from black sheep? yes. does it really come with the fried egg? no. 

so apparently many people do not know the best, fresh, most scrumptious deal in our quaint amherst town is this sandwich, the so called banh mi, (which i went on a rage recently) from nonetheless the infamous miss saigon. miss saigon is definitely one of the popular asian restaurants which makes close-to-decent asian food, people looking for spicy asian fare, pho for horrible hangovers, or rumors tell me some people even go to see the attractive waitress. however, not many go for this sandwich, which is actually seemingly pretty authentic compared to the many banh mi i have tried in nyc, boston chinatown areas. the good part about it is that you can make customize it to your liking, for me less mayo, more cilantro and more veggies. they come in four flavors, bbq chicken, pork, beef and vegetarian. i usually go for the vegetarian, as the meat here tend to be a bit dry and flavorless, and the creamy avocado and tofu in the vegetarian wins over anytime. however, guys who are meatlovers should go for other options, which is not too bad. 

ah, now comes the ultimate question of, where did the egg come from? H was in charge of today's lunch, and he gave me the mystery message to only steal some oil, cucumbers and jalapenos from val. cucumbers and jalapenos? what kind of food needs these ingredients? i was clueless. 

marching into drew, i saw additional thai chili peppers (what??), eggs (scrambled eggs?? with cucumbers??), but the real main course was revealed from a plastic bag, which was still concealed in two paper wrappers tied with a rubber band, and sticking out of that was some sort of bread....... sandwich? banh mi! his idea was to create our ultimate banh mi by adding fried eggs (we saw a youtube video 'no reservations' clip that featured banh mi with fried eggs on top that looked amazing....... ), thai peppers to create some heat, and fresh cucumbers. 

it was... the best banh mi i ever had. i wolfed down this banh mi sandwich, adding another fried eggs after i was halfway through. lips burning from thai peppers, covered with bread crumbs and our hands sticky from oozing yolk, i say, the best idea H came up with. I dare you to top this!

the art of pasta

the art of pasta is hard to perfect. The first time you try making pasta, you're like, "oh my god its so simple! all you need is to cook the pasta for 10 minutes, sautee some vegetables, garlic, onion in a heated pan for a few minutes, dump in some sausages, meat, or whatever pick of your choice, mix the pasta in and voila! you're done!" but after a few tried, you realize there is much, much more. 

i've tried cooking pasta a few times, glancing contstantly at the online recipe and as it was for my sister who doesn't like cream sauce, but since i like cream sauce, i tried a rose pasta, tomato sauce and cream mixed in together, producing a light, pink sauce. it was okay, just that as i put in too much wine (ah, my love of alcohol coming out there, can't resist, can i) there was a bit of an alcoholic tang to it that might seem a bit unpleasant (but my sweet sister devoured it, thank sweetie). 

once the seafood ingredients were overcooked, making it not tender but chewy and tough. when i was trying a fried egg pasta (one of the nyt's mark bittman's best 20 recipes, such a sorrow this column ended) i had to match the cooking time for the egg, the pasta, and the garlic, and in the end overcooked the egg, which made the yolks not runny and smooth but was just left with a specks of egg whites all over (of course i still finished it).

after i learned the beauty of al dente pasta, mastering it was also a great obstacle (not that i mastered it yet). how many minutes to cook ?(8 minutes, but shorter if you're supposed to sautee the pasta with the sauce longer) and there's always the issue of the right amount of salt. 


you can never emphasize enough about just the right amount of salt. there are loads of recipes, techniques about when to add the salt to the pasta water (when the boiling starts, before it boils, after adding the pasta, etc. i prefer to put it in before the boiling), how much salt to add to the sauce which also depends on how much salt is in the other ingredients, for instance salted salmon, salty sausages, anchovies.... 


oh well, i guess the more you try, the more you'll get what a 'pinch' of salt means, when you can feel the 'aldente-ness' of the pasta. which is why we tried a new salmon broccoli pasta today!

We first set the water to boil, steamed the broccoli and after setting the cooked broccoli to the side, we added the dry pasta. Today's special pasta is ribbon pasta, also called farfalle. We mixed up the fafalle with the leftover linguini. When the pasta was almost done, H sauteed the onions, added some cream and boiled it with canned salmon. While he was busying himself with the pasta (constantly glancing at his iphone for the recipes, I confest we are not professional cooks -or at least not now for me), I was preparing this:

 

we also steamed asparagus with the broccoli. asparagus is in season, popping up all over the market nowadays, and blogs, and in recipes everywhere. a light vinaigrette made of olive oil, mustard, lemon juice and sprinkles of pepper was drizzled over asparagus, proscuitto, and shaved parmesan. So fresh and good!

Complimented with:

the pinot noir we bought at bacco's in boston! it was smooth and easy going wine, not too light. we watched 'pasta', the cheezy tv series that was aired a year ago in korea. the characters are just plain ridiculous and the story line is so obvious and just makes you laugh out of not-knowing-what-to-say, but just about right for a simple evening with simple food and wine. 


*the pasta was cooked al dente, but the sauce was a tiny bit on the bland side, due to lack of salt (but where! we added enought salt in the water and the sauce... a matter needing investigation), and the salmon to pasta ratio was way off, as somebody was really hungry and added too much farfalle. oh well, we have yet to master the art of pasta.

Banh Mi competition

Boston's chinatown may be shabbier and smaller in size compared to NYC, but it still holds its stand as a small but impressive piece of the city, full of shops and restaurants with their own integrity. Personally, I have found it hard to discover a place that sells smoothies, let alone places that actually do them well. 

 Alas.... the avocado smoothie ($3) at Dom Khuanh included icecream as well as real avocados, which takes the smoothies to a different level was definitely up to satisfactory, while the usually so chewy and flavorful bubbles were actually mushy this day. Were we unfortunate? Were they playing tricks on us? Why give us so much bubbles but have gone mushy, mushy and has no chewiness that we can go on and on and feel with our teeth? 

However, we dropped the bubble tea tour today to start a banh mi taste test of Boston Chinatown, which first led us to Sub City, a small shop situated in a large building filled with other sushi shops and electronic shops. 

The #1 coldcut banh mi was okay, the bread crusty and chewy inside, making crumbles fall with each bite. The coldcuts were definitly more fresh than those of Miss Saigon of Amhersttown, the spicy jalapeno peppers added a kick which made additional siriacha sauce unnecessary. The smiling Chinese lady made us more at ease too while we were deciding on the sandwich of our choice. 

The tofu banh mi at Mei Sum, at a different street but pretty much the same area heated up the bread nicely, and showed more greens which made it more promising. However, while the tofu and mayo ratio was satifying that made the otherwise bland tofu soft and creamy, did not work perfectly with the bread that was heated but otherwise lacked the cruncy crust, but was somewhat stale and did not contribute much to the sandwich. We concluded that with banh mi, the texture of the bread and the combination of the vegetables held a great role in the overall flavor. 

As our stomachs could hold no more, we stopped our banh mi taste test until there, but we vowed to return to try much more. Boston chinatown may be small, but there are still enthusiastic tastes to verify who rules this small jurisdiction, as there are always small gems hidden in the rough. 

*we tried another mango boba at Rainbow cafe, which also used fresh mangos but mushy bobas. the mango tea was very refreshing. ah..fresh fruits in smoothies are a must. Even though only people in this cafe were two sketchy chinese dudes who were sucking on cola through straws and all the menu were written in chinese on the walls, we were brave enought to ask the tired, annoyed-looking, im-tired-with-life-do-you-guys-really-want-something attitude lady. I checked the fresh mangos, just in case. 

Boston, long time no see!

Long time no see, Boston. 
Of course, it is time for YJ to enjoy her freedom as a legal twenty-one and pay a friendly visit to the Boston local brewery, Harpoon brewery. A $5 tour for a full look around of the brewery and unlimited beer tasting was definitely worth it. Starting off with sample IPA in a free glass (we get to keep this glass yay!), we saw the huge fermented tanks filled with their patented yeast and unfiltered liquor, and had a sample of their 30% carbonated IPA, which had a weaker flavor but smelled strongly of alcohol, a bit murky since it was unfiltered. 

We heard the grand story of the founders at the warehouse filled with endless stacks of Harpoon beer. They were Harvard grads, who went bar-hopping around Europe and decided to start a legacy of beer, a beer culture filled with stories and history, a beer house that went on for thousands and thousands of years and that's how it all led to Harpoon. 


What? Some random Harvard grads have all the luck to begin a brewery, have all the beer they wanted, go on yearly trips to Europe with their employees on so-called investigating the European beer (I say it's there modern version of beer-hopping, continuing their legacy after more than thirty years), while Im plowing away on random problem sets in middle-of-nowhere Amherst? I call this unfair. 


At least I got a chance to have a 30-minute beer heaven with endless fresh beer on tap. 

Now what do you think about that! Their 36th of their 100 barrel series was a Harpoon Oyster Stour, brewed with oyster shells, which was an extremely creamy and foamy, dark beer with none of the fishy smell. UFOs were comparatively light, the one with infused raspberry puree tasted like a fizzy raspberry soda, which was too fruity for my taste. The Leviathan, despiter their high alcohol content (10%) where a bit weak and less flavorful, while their new hit Belgium ale was light, but still full of fresh spice and hop was a nice treat. The only problem was while I wanted to try them all, they at least gave you half a glass for each tasting, compared to a little puddle they pour you in the tiny plastic glasses at wine tastings, so after a few tastings your belly is churning full of beer. I have never tasted so much beer in my life! H and I hold our stomachs flowing with beer back to maintown Boston. 

And we continued on traveling to three more wine shops, all complete tours with tastings, and buying a pinot noir from carneros, CA, and a cow's milk cheese called cave-aged Marisa from Wisconsin, a buttery but rich, not too salty cheese from Wisconsis. My taste has been swerving towards hard cheeses nowadays, after havling the flood of soft, rich, triple creme cheeses on my birthday. And blue cheese with craisins or beets are also decadent for a few bitefuls. Ah. Tastings are the best, suits perfectly my taste for trying tiny bits of good nibblings of this and that, and the fact that you can't take them all, tuck all the goodies you're tasting in you bag back home might be givint you more lure and pleasure and that longing satisfaction. 

 

the pinot noir we bought. Fruit forward. I tried the aerator MJ gave me during tasting, and it produced more brightness and something...acidic? Interesting. But want to try it one more time though. I will trust the Italian guy at the wine shop. Hard to find smart-talking and good wine advisors these day. *sigh*

A very unknown Gem

It seems like the recent trend in food production is all about local production, local foods, local produces, local products. Wheatberry is another cafe situated in the quaint area of Amherst that is quite, but produces a strong voice. It uses local ingredients to produce rustic breads and pastries. I tried the mini scone($1) which was not in the least buttery, but filled with a nutty and grainy(in a good way) flavor and crumbled in your mouth.

I

 I would like to return and try their baguettes, which crusts look crisp and crunchy, and split nicely and tastfully. 

 It seems like a place you come when you only know about it, as it is situated not in the central town, but along side the road nearby the Emily Dickenson Museum, with small books related to what they believe (okay, local ingredients again), recipes using local ingrediens (we got the message) and other local people who stop by for an occasional copy and chat, or a peaceful reading. 

 It was a nice walk in a beautiful weather. Hi!

Red, pink, and another Rosé

We gave Atkins farm a visit a few days ago. What met our eyes the moment we walked in were srawberries on sale, and bright, blooming colors were just too hard to resist to plop a few into the cart. Despite my recent resolution to save money on unnecessary splurges(I mean, they do have frozen strawberries at the smoothie bar at Val) it would have been a tragedy for me to leave those fresh, fragrant, succulent strawberries behind(and its only frozen! a total different level from fresh). 
Somebody was still on a rage for a decent Rosé, so we took a chilled Oregon A-Z Rosé with us outside to enjoy the a bit windy, but spring-scented weather. More fresh and dry on the palate, it was a perfect match with the strawberries, apples, and a piece of brie at room temperature, creamy and oozing. The Wholefoods guy was right. When we asked for half the portion it was displayed, he swore that we would come back for the other half. There is no such thing as too much of this....

Jim's Burgerworks - juicy but unseasoned

We took a trip to Easthampton this week(to get my liquor ID! Hey, I'm twenty-one now? Why not). It was a struggle, as they wanted an additional identification for my signature and was not reluctant with the financial certificate I had. Only after a few 'asking my advisor' did the lady announced they would be sending my ID next week. 

The moment we walked out of the office with the crisp tingling of accomplishment spreading to the tip of our toes, we smelled.. burgers! Walking along the the forlorn hallway we were met with a large opening of a restaurant, the air filled with the grilling and sizzling meat. 

Quite random name, but we decided to give it a try, and ordered the simplest burger, coming with onions, tomatoes, lettuce and pickles. I insisted on ordering the meat medium.

According to the burger fanatic H, the burger's quality wasn't to bad. I took a bite, and it was pretty juicy, the bun and veggies balance just about right. But the problem was... There was no seasoning in the meat at all. While there were salt and pepper prepared at each table, there's a limit to one trying to add these condiments after the meat is cooked. More thought needed there. 
But the homemade ketchup, given when asked for, had a nice kick. The hot sauce wasn't too bad either. 


We finished off our trip with toasts of beer at another random pub we discovered at the other end of the corridor (I admit, we did explore this building from top to bottom). H got a honey pale ale which was way too watery, and I got a Porter Ale from Haverhill which was creamy and thick, guinness style but more flavorful! They didn't check my ID though, which I thought was amusing.

Memoirs of Granola

Granola will always have a special place in my heart. 

It all started on my grand Camino de Santiago, a pilgramage that began as a whim with me and my best friend D. On our first day, after tossing and turning in bed at the dark stone-floored room of an albergue (the pilgramage dormitories), we woke up at the peak of dawn, full of hope and anticipations-but most of all, hungry. 

Tiptoeing around the kitchen, we rummaged through the cupboards and shelves, searching for the so-called 'gratis' breakfast. It was only us and another fellow traveler, who seemed to have prepared his own meal and milk. 
The poor hungry, true pilgrims as we seemed, he took pity on us and reached into his bag, and motioned us to cup our hands. Naive and clueless, we did so and was met with golden rewards: one large handful of granola each. It was love at first bite (or crunch?).


So called 'museli' in Spain (in the US, museli is usually a dry, grainy cereal with no crunchiness or sweetness of granola), this granola became our daily snack. We would buy a pack and add this 500g sack to our already heavy luggage (6kg) because we loved it so much. After a one or two hour walk, sitting down, munching on granola, savoring the nuts and sharing another bar of chocolate would be our precious moments of the day. When we found a supermarket (a rare instance in the middle-of-nowhere countryside), we would scavenge the store for this precious snack. 


At college, my love for granola has continued. It is good that they only serve cereal at breakfast and lunch, or I would have been munching on granola all day. However, ever since Val(our sad school dining hall) changed their granola brand to nature valley granola which is too crunchy to the point that it gives strain to your teeth, I have been suffering from a granola deficit+dissatisfactory problem. 

Now comes the stage I try to make my own granola. My best granola was the Earlybird Granola that uses olive oil and has a salty crunch that is so addictive you can finish one bag in one instant. 
 
Therefore, when I saw the Olive Oil granola recipe in the NYT, I knew I had to try it out. Pistachios, pumpkin seeds,almonds,sunflower seeds oats, maple syrup, olive oil, and leftover dried apricots, I mixed them all together in one big bowl, sprinkled loads and loads of cinnamon and a little bit of cardamom (H disapproved, he didn't like the smell), spread it out on two baking sheets and popped it in the oven. 

The result was.......... unsatisfactory. It was a too oily (since I added more ingredients to the recipe, I thought I would need more oil.... but I guess it was too much oil..), and burnt (I thought the recipe called for 50 minutes, but it was actually 40. I never knew 10 minutes could make such a difference). I was devastated. All my ingredients, my anticipation, my effort only resulted in a huge bagful of oily, burnt granola. Oh well, my friends finished it off in a week though. Oh, what would hungry college students not eat! 


Of course, I did not give up. As the end of this semester was approaching, I mustered up my courage, scraped up all my leftover ingredients from my first batch and charged to ** kitchen this weekend with H. This time, I decreased the oil and sugar and also added cranberries (credit to val), chopped up almonds, hempseeds (val), steel-cut oats, wheat germ (val) mixed it up, only to discover the baking pans at Drew had disappeared. Alas! What to do with a big bowl full of pre-baked granola and no sheets to make it on! But we were not discouraged. We set our mission to steal the baking sheets at * kitchen, justifying ourselves that the * people were nasty rascals who 1) only liked to utilize their kitchen to party (always chips and mixers in the fridge) 2) acted like owning a kitchen was some sort of new college-breed royalty always suspicious of anybody (more so to Asians is one of our guesses) who dared to step into their precious kitchen. So be it! Mission was easily accomplished without even a pinch of guilt. 

Success was mine! The smell in the kitchen was so good all of the passing people curiously poked around the oven, asking what was this amazing aroma. The oats were crisp, salty, chewy, not oily at all and just fantastic. I really liked the crunches coming from the baked almonds and slight nuttiness coming from the hempseeds and steel-cut oats, and a little bit or sour and sweetness coming from raisins and craisins. And with the granola baked just the right amount of time, I could taste the fragrant olive oil and the sweet and salty combination working perfectly. It's all about balance these days. The foods are not just strictly divided into the sweet or savory category, but now integration is the key. I think this was one of my best accomplishments in the kitchen. We proudly marched home with our tupperware full of sweet, warm, golden granola, leaving the people at ** drooling.



I happily munch on these every morning on ricotta cheese, blueberries and more cinnamon. No such thing as too much cinnamon! Ah... my glorious triumph over granola!


*The baking sheets are still in H's car. I will return it when I feel like it. 

잠깐 반짝 - a peek of spring

 

Spring is the time of Rosé, and of course that is why probably H was had a sudden crave for some when he saw the delightful array of Rosé wines on shelves of Wholefood wine corner. Of course, we had to go through the process of which Rosé would be ourfirst pick of the season. First, have to go read all of their labels, their logos, their names, their region ('I'm sure French Rosés are light!') and then ask the clerk (who himself, did not seem to have a clue what he was talking about - oh, I miss good old Amanda who had her own distinct style of wines!) then going through each and every one of them skepticism and trying to prevent with our feeble experience from wasting the few pennies leaving our pockets. In the end, the most popular-according to the clueless clerk- Rosé from Province, France was our choice. 

To color-code our spring picnic meal, a creamy avocado and grapefruit salad with tripleberry jam mayo was chosen for our appetizer (of course we could not ignore the fact that there was one lonely grapefruit waiting for us in the fridge, new meals are all about old leftovers :)) with the simple artichoke dip. And we can absolutely not go without our daily bread, oh so nicely accomodated by Hungry Ghost Bread from Northampton, our new friend recently excavated nearby our middle-of-nowhere Amherst. A simple French sourdough - it was warm right out of the oven, and you could smell it through paper bag it was tucked into (H and I immediately had to tear a bite off, cannot resist! Yum, our mouths and car seats were gradually covered with white flour that had covered the rustic bread, but it was oh-so-worth-it! We had to refrain ourselves from finishing before we even started cooking the meal.)

Aha, but today's highlight was not the Rosé (which was a little bit sweet for my taste, H enjoyed it), nor the avocado-grapefruit combo (this salad absolutely needs no effort- the fanstastic ingredients make it all.), nor the bread (but it came as very close second), but the clams. 

Yes, yes, yes! These little morsels were the true homerun of the day, credit to H. After a brief shower, these presents of the sea were popped into the oven. After thirty minutes or so, the tray was brimming with clam juice and wide open clams, showing their yellow flesh inside. A little hot sauce, melted butter, clinking glasses filled with pale Rosés (yes, roses!) made us just sigh with happiness. We devoured them all! 

What happened to the brimming clam juice? We soaked our crusty bread into it, the clam juice giving a slight saltiness and moist to the bite. We were so full after finishing a full loaf of bread with this full three course meal, and only the bread crumbs and empty clam shells could speak of our sheer satisfaction. 

* the artichoke dip could definitely be improved though. Parmesan cheese, a slight squeeze of lemon juice, got everything in there, but don't know exactly what was missing. I thought cheese and brown crusty cheese, and more cheese could just not be unsatisfactory, but will experiment more in the future! 

* oh, and the hunt for a perfect Rosé will continue! Spring is yet to come (literally - it started raining later in the afternoon and is continuing till today, which is three days after this wonderful day).

A Hungry Cookie Starts

A Hungry Cookie starts. 

What I eat, what I cook, what I  bake, who I meet and what I think, short pieces of how my cookie crumbles and on. 

Maybe, maybe this might be the 'thing' I have been looking for and what my life really needed. An experiment for myself and my friends, recipes and ingredients about my life recorded in the modern form is going to start today!


I remember writing diaries everyday in elementary school to get the prize given at the end of the year, doodling about the weather to adorning my title of my day. This can be my college version, now not out of obligation but necessary or desire, which one it might be. 


Let it begin!