The V-Day

That inevitable day of the year has come and passed. People with significant others get droopy-eyed and dreamy, try to prepare something special, and also expect something special. All the shops, stores, restaurants try to capture these desire with special prix fixe deals and tackily packaged boxes of sweets. Not that I have anything against those deals, but usually within those boxes are sweets you could buy at any other time of the year,  just without the pink and sparkly wrapping. And the prix fixe deals are usually infused with unnecessary chocolate flavors (cocoa nib rubbed short ribs with chocolate cherry sauce, anyone?) and often disappoint people who would rather have the restaurant's essential dishes by locking them into the obligatory 3-course meal. 

I'm sure the people in the service industry probably had a hard time coming up with those menus. They receive my minimum credit. Then again, it was probably the poor waiters and waitresses with minimum wages who had to work their back off to cut out red paper hearts and decorate the chalkboards with inspirationally sweet quotes singing of everlasting love. Then there's the line-up chefs recreating those dishes all day with ridiculously sweet sauces, creating that last caramelized-golden touch to heart-shaped crème brûlées. Who said Valentine's Day was miserable only for singles? Think of all those people behind the counter, trying to scrape up more tips by offering another glass of champagne topped with chocolate covered strawberries. 

Enough complaining for now. My this year's V-day dinner was spent gloriously with a few of my girl friends at a neighborhood restaurant (started off by annoying our manager by informing him that it would be a party of four than the original six -"I will have to seat you guys at the communal table, as we are extremely fully booked tonight."). We feasted on a brussel sprouts salad with smoked trout, bacon, cherries, truffle deviled egg, and a lobster paella dish. 

The lobster paella did not have that crust that usual paellas finished in the oven has (neither did it come in the traditional cast-iron paella pan, as you can see below), nor did the rice have the chewy texture but was more on the soft side, but overall the paella was tasty. There were huge chunks of lobster, a few mussels, a shrimp or two and some clams. 

At the restaurant, we were met with a few oddballs (first our server-"Oh, my best valentine's day was also spent with the gals!" *wink*-unnecessary. Then this slightly loopy lady who came to us and started rambling, later I even saw her down one of our leftover cocktails- the shock!), but overall it was fun. An evening filled with mindless gossip, passionate ranting about school and the future was well called for. Oh, a few of us did not fail us by ordering those rosé sparking cocktails with that quintessential chocolate covered strawberry. 

I also lived up to the spirit of Valentine's day by baking a chocolate stout bundt cake, recipe credit to seriouseats.com. I used the 2X stout from Southern Tier brewery, which was quite hoppy and strong for a stout (7.5% alcohol). The cake itself was dense and chocolatey, with a slight alcohol scent to it due to the strong alcohol content of the beer. The crust was slightly crisp and chewy. It paired nicely with the Chunky Monkey Ben & Jerry's ice cream which it was served with later in the evening. 

This is actually my first baking project ever in my new house! If you don't count that one instance when S brought her dough and baked cookies. Now, that time was the first time I used my oven, and I had no idea the bottom drawer actually heated up (I thought it was for storage!). Then my oven mitten inside caught on fire (yes, I was using that space for storage!). Then my entire apartment started to fill up with smoke. And that was a night of girls' get-together so all the girls started panicking and it turned into chaos... okay, that's a story for another day.

The oven didn't really cooperate with my own baking project this time either. I pre-heated my oven to 350F, and halfway through the batter I could not feel any heat from the oven. The janitors took forever to arrive; I got frustrated and started calling up all the neighbors I knew to borrow their oven. When they showed up at last, they said: "Wait, this place is reeking of gas," the moment they walk in the door! They started opening all the windows, it became freezing cold and I started freaking out because I hadn't even noticed the gas smell. What if I had tried to light a candle and the spark just caught the gas on fire?! I would have met my end with only my chocolate batter to keep me company... The story of the girl and her stout cake...

Fortunately, I am alive and well, the oven was fixed, and my bundt cake came out beautifully, too! I made a quick chocolate glaze and drizzled it on top. A nice touch, eh? 

The cake did break into two pieces while I was tapping it out of the pan. But I swear, I was thinking of making a glaze before that happened. The glaze is not a cover up. Cakes need glazes. Always. Glazes and love stick everything together. xoxo, Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Meet and Eat: YJ is Back

Following the short survey done by one of my favorite food blogs which I follow devoutly, I will also conduct this survey about myself to welcome myself back to the food blog world!

Name: Yoon Jeong Lee
Location: Cambridge, MA
Occupation: Law School Student
Website/Twitter: ahungrycookie.blogspot.com

Guilty Pleasures? Opening a bottle of wine solo poured in my favorite wine glass, sourdough toast dipped in olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt. Cheese, nuts, creating my own snacking plate. Oh, and in bed. Watching my favorite shows. 

Describe your perfect meal. A group of close people, friends or family, who love food and love talking about food together. Everyone helping out in the kitchen, chop-chop, sizzle-sizzling all around, and everyone sipping on their drink of choice. Meal starts. An exquisite bottle of wine is poured, and everyone comments on it. Specifics on food would be: if its with family, it would be ssam, which is a Korean version of do-it-yourself wrap with korean vegetables, roasted fish, and korean lettuce and fragrant sesame leaves. If its with friends, a simple caprese salad, main dish would be beef bourguignon served on pappardelle, brussel sprouts on the side. Dessert would be chocolate mousse served with ruby port. 

What food you won't eat? I am down to try everything. Before high school, I refused to eat bananas, kiwis and random ugly fruits. Before that, I was a very picky eater, being that usual problematic kid who would not eat vegetables including beans in my rice. During my years at my boarding high school,  I was exposed to a lot of random foods not in my family meal repertoire, and generally came to appreciate various types of food. Now, I am a transformed girl. I have tried everything from chicken feet to durian. 

Favorite food person. David Lebovitz is one, his writing style has a special type of humor that appeals to me. Kathy YL Chan, Alton Brown, Aaron Sanchez, random names come to mind at the moment. I don't usually follow people, I follow content and recipes. 

When did you first realize you were a serious eater? I started reading food blogs during my time at boarding school, which was in the middle of nowhere and where freedom of food choice was not available. Getting sick of just food pictures, I started to dominate the kitchen whenever I was at home, and started baking cookies and cakes and bringing them back to school to feed my roommates. It became and obsession and now I'm yelping and instagramming and can remember every food we ate at every place. A photographic memory when it comes to food..


What do your family and your friends think of your food obsession? My mom just treats me like some weirdo whenever she sees me fussing over food and what to eat and how to eat and what to drink with it. Now I know how to handle her by cleaning up as I go whenever I am experimenting something new in the kitchen. She still doesn't understand me trying to bake something in the oven when its sweating hot outside. My friends are all super passionate about food-there's a reason they are my friends and still are my friends. 

Favorite food sites or blogs? I usually gain ideas from seriouseats and thekitchn, but also like to browse through smittenkitchen, David Lebovitz, etc. for fun. 

Everyone has a go-to person they call for restaurant recommendations. Who's yours? I mostly go to my local friend at whatever place I am visiting. If there are no locals, then I mostly go to yelp and food blogs like Eater, seriouseats for recommendations. 

What is your favorite meal of the day and where do you get it? My favorite meal used to be breakfast when there were multiple options available - I can't believe I am saying this- during undergrad I could concoct whatever I wanted at the Val, my undergrad one and only cafeteria, toast, eggs, bagels, cereal, oatmeal.... but now that I live off-campus alone my breakfasts have toned down to a mere yogurt and granola, blueberries. Now, I think dinner, where I have more time to be creative is my favorite meal. 

Do you ever cook? What's the best dish you make? The dish I have made most often is shakshuka, an Israeli brunch dish which is equivalent to eggs poached in tomato sauce, with added spices and topped with feta cheese. My sister does love all the sandwiches I make for her though. 

Sister and Mom

For those who might be interested, this summer has been a great leisure for me. I scraped my cutline score for an important test (barely, mind you) after wandering around breathing and living the test, resembling a ghost, and after that it has been.... free time!

Okay. Not exactly. I still have to figure out how to work with this complicated LSAC website, which is in charge of the whole law school application process. I still struggle with the FAQs and How-To-Dos and all those clicks and transcripts and recommendations and of course, the essay. The personal statement. My frivolous attempt to express myself in words, trying to appeal to law schools with something I hope I have, dreams and futures, and racking up whatever I have tried to achieved in college. And high school. Overall, my life.

Now other than these meager aspects of my life which should have do not occupy an overwhelming portion of my life, I have spent this time meeting old friends, trying to revive this blog, and spend with my mom and my sister Yoonmee.

When I am at home, not to brag, we try out so many new dishes. With two people, you can only eat a certain amount, and cooking small portions aren't always worth it. Then you always need to be up for a challenge, to go through a scorching afternoon fiddling with the oven and washing, chopping, roasting, stir frying whatever ingredients while peeking at new recipes after comparing multiple ones and picking the perfect recipe and pulling through it without any doubts (I should have used her recipe it had more sugar, no his had more spunk, no his was more unique ...)and then you have a new repertoire for dinner.

This one on top is not a new repertoire. A little messy, but don't miss the details. A soft-boiled egg, noodles mixed with pepper paste, veggies, cucumbers, kimchi, more kimchi, and sesame seeds!

A peach salad I tried out. The peaches were roasted, mozzarella cheese ripped, almonds and pine nuts tosssed, pesto made with pine nuts, mint, basil and olive oil. The peaches were still juicy, and went well with the pesto :)

And with talks and dinners with mom and sis, we never miss out on the wine. This wine from rioja was compared with another spanish one, but tempranillo is still a grape varietal we have to get used to. :)

Next to that is another dinner, just mom and me. Roasted grape tomatoes, almonds (chopped), mozzarella, olive oil and salt. With white wine :)

I made my sister cocktails often this summer, with gin, white wine, plum wine, tonic water. She always loves them! Definitely not a picky drinker when it comes to sweet cocktails. 

We talk about future, English, college, random news, gossip, and when it comes to the second bottle, we just don't remember anymore. 

Ah, I will miss these cooking sessions/talking sessions with my mom and sister. Only two more days and I am off to dear Amherst...

Olive Oil and Salt.

Now as I am getting into habit of posting habitually, I save the pictures first, in hope that these pictures will lure me into writing my post quicker, and give me more pressure will power.

I woke up once early, looking through the fridge, and was wondering what I should do. I have always dreamed of baking somethings savory and sweet and with olive oil. Olive oil is one of my favorite everything. As a condiment, as a spread, as a dip, as a flavor itself (olive oil ice cream!! Otto in NYC puleazzee come to me!! SQUEAL.) I have tried it in granola, spread on toast, on bread in peanut butter sandwiches (instead of butter), with baguettes and salt, in spain, in salads, ahh the list goes on. But, always with salt. Salt and olive oil go together like sisters, twins, best friends, like bread and butter, like peanut butter and jelly, granola and yogurt, milk and cookies, like honey and gorgonzola, dark chocolate and port, and on.........

At last, I have tried it in cake. 

This rosemary olive oil cake was born. Leftover rosemary intrigued me. (why did I buy this? I forgot.... I think it was due to some cookies I wanted to make. <coming soon I will upload pictures first -.^) Found some leftover pear and almond studded dark chocolate, chopped them up and mixed them in. 

Only those who have tried the warm cake with gooey chocolate with moist crumb with a spike of savory olive oil will know how delicious this cake was. 

Even my mom who does not approve my baking, said she would have another slice. (Okay, I finished cleaning up the kitchen even before she woke up. So there.)

Afternoon was another cooking project. Making homemade dumplings! We looked up some recipes. My mom was so confident that homemade dumplings had a different touch to it. Her dumpling memories were always warm and yummy. 


And chopping raw pork was so tough. You chop them roughly, chop them again, then finely so the flavor of the pork can integrate into all of the ingredients. My sister started off and then left them droppings to me. 

We add pork, chives, tofu, kimchi, sesame oil, and on. And then we mix with hands. 

Experimental dumplings being steamed. 

They were okay. Mediocre. Ah. Our disappointment. Then we were on a roll. We ripped apart the original dumplings we were making, went out and bought more wrappings. We added more kimchi. Made another few. Steam. Eat. Added more kimchi. More chives. All of the leftover tofu. Then wrapped them all and just ate them whatever. We were never cooks anyway.

What is the secret to amazing dumplings? 


And I love dumplings. I love dimsum, not only because of their variety, but maybe because you bite into one and then you can taste whatever secret insides juice out. Chives, chicken, shrimp, duck, tofu. There are fried dumplings, steamed, in soup, soup inside them, in noodles, the varieties are endless! And I love varieties, like korean banchan. I love picking around different dishes, different choices, even if takes forever for me to choose. 

From that one bite, you can grasp the flavor of the dumplings makes it more fun too! I don't know exactly why I started to love dumplings. My mom still thinks my sudden crave for dumplings is weird. 

To satiate our somewhat dissatisfaction/disappointment, we go back to our nostalgic snack. Cream BBang! It is an old school snack, which even my mom remembers. The cream has a slight citrusy flavor and a slight factory mass-production smell. The bread is soft, but not that soft. Just like I remembered. One bite is enough, but that leave you enough crave it a few years later. 

Grandma

Ah, I think around our age, our grandmas and grandpas are slowly getting old. I know we are all in the process of getting old, but they are slowly getting old to the point where you can actually feel it everyday, you can see it everyday, and it slowly materializes into this big blurry cloud which numbs your knuckles and bones and everything inside. Sometimes even makes your mind fuzzy! And from what I have been experiencing,  this is not a pleasant experience.

For my mother's mom, who had a light stroke a few years ago and is in a rehabilitation hospital, she visits our house once every month. So last week we visited a temple and stayed there for a day, as she is a devout buddhist. It is my second temple stay throughout this summer, as I visited with H a few weeks ago. Even though I am not buddhist, waking up to clear sounding of the monk's moktak is a somewhat enchanting experience. Not to mention the 108 bows... which you deeply bow up and down for 108 times, remembering your actions? sins in the world? Around the end your legs (at least my legs were) are shaking and beads of sweat drips from your thighs, arms, forehead.. And for the next few days, your legs wobble whenever you try to walk down the stairs. And the temple is all about going up and down stairs to enter the main sanctuary. 


Oh, but the temple food makes everything so much bearable. It is so simple, with just plain rice and a few side dishes, but maybe it is just the experience of eating in a quiet room where only people's spoons and chopsticks clicking can be heard, but every bite with kimchi, or some sort of greens stir fried with sesame oil, cold refreshing soups with seaweed.... you can feel what you're eating, at that moment. 

Every week, my mom also visits my grandma's hospital, with more sidedishes to share with the hospital food. It is often abalone porridge or pine nut porridge,  once she stir fried some mushrooms with onions, beef and garlic broiled in soy sauce... Now that I, the declared cook of the house, she comes to me to help her with ideas.
"Yoon Jeong, what should I take this week? I can't think of anything new.."
And my grandma used to be an amazing cook as well. I remember when I was young, visits to her house meant a full satisfied belly. I would giggle in joy to myself, "Good food coming!!"

So to satisfy my grandma, I looked up some recipes and we created:

This is eggplant stuffed with beef! Added chopped onions for more flavor. hehe. 

Stir fried beef (bulgogi! for those who know famous korean dishes) and stir fried mushrooms and onions. Simple, I know. 

This one of my favorite dishes! 찰밥. Its rice, but not just any normal rice. We add mung beans, dried dates, chestnuts, red beans.... So it is sweet, savory and salty and sticky rice! I love this rice. It is good eating with side dishes, but also just good enough on its own. 

And you see the crystallized burnt bits on the bottom. The ultimate chewy goodness!

The sticky rice dish is what my mom always makes for me before I leave Korea, which makes it more special. I remember last winter she made a huge pot full of this rice, and packed it nicely in a small Tupperware, but we realized we forgot to pack it with me to the airport... :( Almost cried that day, and I didn't cry when I was just saying bye to my mom...just kidding.

I am never going to forget that Tupperware again. First thing I am going to pack in my bag. FOR SURE. 

Back to grandmas. Honest reviews. The eggplant was a bit underseasoned, the rice wasn't as salty as she wanted, but she is still bragging about her temple stay to her roommates at the hospital :) Yay!

Home Dinner

Lo and behold! A rare day when Dad comes back home early. My sister and I take over cooking dinner, and let our parents take a nice walk outside. Woohoot! We decided on making a simple Korean dish, Kimchi Stew! 김치찌개.  

Even when planning a simple meal, so much preparation goes into it. Chopping green onions, washing the vegetables for our wraps....... cleaning and chopping mushrooms for a simple stir fry... 
The green onions were chopped and mixed in the mayo with crab meat, as toppings on fresh thickly cut cucumber slices! Simple appetizers. 

          

And washing and cleaning huge razor clams! 

 One was roasted in the mini oven with cheese, one just in its juice. But a bit over cooked... More experience needed. 

While adding kimchi, onions, garlic cloves to the stew, I wanted to try adding something creative and added....

Guess what those chunks are... sweet potatoes! My mom later tasted the soup and was like, why does this stew taste SWEET? Oops mom...it was just an experiment. You know, kimchi and sweet potatoes go so well together, like in kimchi sweet potato donkatsu (pork cutlet), you put them in together in 닭갈비 (spicy chicken..stir fry??), um........ yeah. 

 The wine which accompanied our meal, decanted. The second label from Chateau Chasse-Spleen, a wine that was described as Pegasus?? in the famous Japan wine cartoon, The Drops of God. The title sounds super cheesy, but it is super famous in Korean and Japan. It is rumored that once a wine appears in the cartoon, the prices skyrocket, its that influential. 

I was not too serious to take tasting notes, will do them next time. 

Dessert Truffles! Decadent end to our meal.

pizza party!

Wow. I have abandoned this blog for a long time, haven't I? It has been almost a year since my last post, and I have been procrastinating on recording my food and cooking adventures to a mere excuse that I do not have enough time, or I want to make my long-time-no-see post perfect.
But, I have at last(took me a long time, I admit) accepted the fact that, hell no! it does not have to be perfect! I will write unorganized scribbles and doodles and maybe just upload my pictures, it will be just worth it to have an archive where my memories and my thoughts will all be saved and for me to treasure later on. This moment never returns!

Now a lot has happened. I have decided on a law school path, the full package with taking the LSAT, getting over with it, brainstorming my personal statement, researching law schools. Now, under the excuse of I-must-inspire-myself-through-human-interaction, I have met old friends, new friends, basically talking and eating with a lot of people. And I hope, in that way, this break has been fruitful!

I have done bits and bits of cooking at home, mostly catered to my sister's taste (she is the most powerful eater in our house. the most powerful preference, the most powerful taste, you name it) so it has been cheesecake, stir-fried chicken(닭갈비) and a lot of seafood based dishes for my mom, and then a lot of fresh salads since its the summer, I like salads, my mom likes salads, and it is healthy!

Yesterday, my sister and I took upon a grand mission to make pizza at home. We once made it last summer.

HeHe. This time, it looks like this:

Okay, it looks kind of similar to last year's, to admit. But! It has improved! If you look carefully, I thought last year's dough was a bit undercooked (so it tasted a bit soggy) so this time I baked it longer in our oven. And, you see it is a customized pizza! My sister and I decided to go with our own toppings, half and half. She decided on the popular Korean toppings, potato, tomato sauce, black olives and shredded dried mozzarellaa cheese. Since I am the claimed  unique one, I modified the Deb's recipe from smittenkitchen and slapped on grilled eggplant, leftover smoked gouda cheese, edam cheese, roasted onions and green olives, roasted garlic gloves, parsley, and more cheese!

Sorry Sis. But anyway as you may observe from this picture, the bread is puffy! It has rose correctly and it was chewy and moist and just right! I do not have a lot of experience with making bread compared to cookies and cakes, so it was excited to see the bubbles in the dough when I was giving it rising time. Just like in the pictures !!! I was saying to myself. 

The weather is just smoldering nowadays. You take a shower, you busy yourself doing washing the dishes or moving the fan the way you want or rummaging for dessert after stuffing yourself with two huge pizza pieces which you have cut yourself and you are already drenched in sweat again. And if you know the my family, this only means more drinks. Just make it more refreshing. I am in charge of drinks as I am also always in charge of the food, so I mixed up a drink for my sister, also referring to the blackberry gin fiz from smittenkitchen (okay, it is my go-to blog). I blended mulberries and plum syrup, poured them in to a wine glass, stirred in soju and topped with tonic water and ice. Yum! My mom and I enjoyed our whiskey tonic. And of course finished off with leftover wine, which we always have. 

So for leftovers. We wish to have small stomachs, so we froze the leftovers, left a few slices out for my dad! (Just for you, dad). So this morning, heated them up for my dad with his daily smoothies (mulberries, tomatoes and yogurt, oh and the smoothies are not heated). 

Dad: I do not eat pizza for breakfast. 

Me: Puleaze? I made them just for you. 

(Dad eats a bite of the potato pizza)

Dad: There you go. 

Me: Daaaad you have to try my toppings too.

Dad: Okay, okay. 

He tries a bite of my side. 

Dad: Okay, I will take a piece of that one. Give another piece. 

YES SUCCESS!  I win the ultimate pizza battle (which the sole judge is my dad whom I nominated). 

Thank you, thank you for everyone's support I dedicate my honor to my loving family.