trick-or-tempura?

genesis today, the company where i work, just launched a new cranberry goji juice. since the goji berry comes from china, i've had the idea to make a sweet or hot and sour sauce from the sweet-tart juice for a few weeks, and tonight i let my idea take fruition: tempura tofu, chicken, and broccoli served with white rice and hot and sour sauce. the broccoli worked especially well - it turned out soft and chewy on the inside, and the pungent flavor is an excellent compliment to the bready panko crust. oh yes.

tempura is bad, you say? deep fat fried food is bad? well, almost anything you cook using fat is bad in high amounts. the trick is to use moderation, or earn your dinner. and don't use butter or lard if you're trying to be healthy, for crying out loud! animal fat is loaded with saturated fat. canola oil is not. just make sure to pick a canola oil that works with high heat. is it still ok to eat the fried food? yes! for example, after a full day of doing laundry and cleaning your house from top to bottom, you've earned some tempura (go me!) enjoy a small serving with light steamed rice, and savor every single taste. a little fried food never killed anyone - especially if you stick to light and lean ingredients like tofu, vegetables, and lean meat. also make sure that your oil is nice and hot - the oil will then make a nice crust on the outside of the food, but the food won't soak up any of the oil.

crispy panko tempura:
flour
soy milk
panko bread crumbs
plenty of canola oil
sliced veggies, chicken, meat, or whatever your heart desires to be tempura'd!
salt
garlic powder
deep cast iron skillet

start oil heating in the skillet, about half an inch deep. it's hot enough when you drop cool water and it immediately sizzles. make sure to be patient and wait for the oil to get hot enough, or your food will absorb the oil.

mix the salt and garlic powder with the flour and put into shallow bowl

in two more shallow bowls, pour about a cup of soy milk in each bowl

take one more shallow bowl and fill with about a cup of panko bread crumbs

dredge your tempura ingredient first in the soy milk, then the flour, then the second bowl of soy milk, and finally the panko.

immediately immerse your dredged yummyness into the oil and brown each side (a lovely golden brown).

some tips:

don't crowd your ingredients in the frying pan. be patient and allow at least a quarter of an inch between each piece of tempura, and it will brown much faster and will be crispy all over.

keep your food warm as you go by setting your oven to 180 degrees and set a cast iron pan on the top rack, add your pieces to the pan as you go.

leftovers are delicious re-heated in the oven, so don't over-indulge just to clean your plate!

hot and sour sauce:
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1-2 tsp flour
1 cup genesis today cranberry goji juice
1 tbsp soy sauce or bragg's liquid aminos
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp chili paste (or more, or less to taste)

heat the sesame oil on medium-low until hot

add garlic and simmer briefly

sprinkle in flour and start whisking to make a roux

immediately pour in cranberry goji juice, and turn up heat to medium to start a fast simmer, whisk as you pour

keep whisking until roux is fully blended with juice, and allow to simmer until juice is reduced by half

add soy sauce and rice vinegar, simmer for 2-3 minutes

add chili paste, whisk in, and simmer for another 2-3 minutes

finito! the sauce is fantastically tart, and hot enough to make your nose run but not enough to burn your lips. and if you don't want to use genesis today cranberry goji juice, you could substitute another cranberry juice, but i strongly recommend the goji - it has a wonderful earthy flavor and thickness that compliments the tempura oh so well.

perfect pesto

store-bought pesto is expensive, and in texas, you can grow a ridiculous amount of fresh basil very quickly. so i gathered together a mass of olive oil, parmesan cheese, pine nuts, walnuts, pepper flakes, peeled garlic, washed basil, and kosher salt. i don't think i needed the pine nuts, because i used mostly walnuts (much less moolah).

the recipe is simple and tres on the cheap when you have your own basil plant. start with the freshly washed basil leaves and add all the other ingredients to a food processor except the olive oil. start the food processor running on low, and emulsify the olive oil into the pesto sauce. keep pulsing until it reaches that perfect, creamy, herbalicious state. it will smell absolutely amazing.

how to store your two million batches of pesto? my sister-in-love inspired me with her idea to store sauces and stocks in ice cube trays. once the sauce is frozen, remove from the trays and freeze in a tupperware or ziplock freezer bag. voila! bring out a cube for every 3-4 servings of pasta or rice and you're in delish-land. people will think you spent a fortune when you actually didn't.

the need for crepes

the first weekend of this month, i made the short journey to texas wine country: fredericksburg. it was also oktoberfest, aka international excuse to drink beer at all times of the day for a weekend, so naturally i took my husband and some family, and we stayed in a dog-friendly, quaint little bed and breakfast. i even convinced my mother to drink beer (after several glasses of wine).



we decided to follow the advice of paul giamatti in sideways and start at the winery farthest from us and work our way back to the bed and breakfast. the first visit, at pedernales cellars, resulted in somewhat snooty customer service, but a great 2007 merlot. the second winery, woodrose, was the result of giving a redneck a license to run a vineyard. everyone wore cowboy boots and cowboy hats, and sat people on the huge deck of what resembled a giant barn to be served tastings one by one at their table. hokey, yes, but it was a lovely day and we received stellar customer service, and the woodrose mascot golden retriever paid us several laid back visits.

after woodrose, we visited becker vineyards, probably the largest of the fredericksburg wineries. it was uber-touristy, but i escaped with several bottles of excellent wine.

the last winery, torre de pietra, was the most fabulous by far. imagine a spanish villa: the smell of herbs in the air, lovely stucco architecture and terra cotta tiles, and a warm friendly sun. there were hundreds upon hundreds of acres of grapes decorating the landscape. away from the outdoor tasting bar was a veranda with a band and dancing stage. i bought a bottle of ruby port that tastes like creme brulee at the end for my father and we sat at the veranda after tasting with a bottle of wine, pellegrino, and a cheese plate. bliss. you could come to fredericksburg to shoot a commercial about the texas hill country and it wouldn't be more beautiful than that day. a band whose vocalist rivals joni mitchell crooned away to us and stole our hearts as the sun shone bright and the breeze blew. i could not imagine up a more divine way to spend a saturday.

what does this have to do with crepes? well, that weekend i bought my crepe pan in fredericksburg (and a brioche pan) at a little kitchen shop, der kuchen. yes, once again, hokey, but it's housed in a lovely old building and you can't help but visit a shop that has le creuset cookware displayed in the window.

i waited for a while for the perfect crepe weekend to come. this past week, i watched an episode of fringe from season 2 when walter tells peter, "of course you need crepes... you were abducted!" having been through a fair deal of my own duress (which can hardly be compared with kidnapping, but we all have our struggles), i decided i needed crepes this past weekend. in the midst of preparing brioche for beef wellington (a two-day ordeal that will soon be featured in the epic style it deserves), i squeezed in time to prepare crepe dough, then cook crepes one night for dessert.

some things i learned are that the julia child crepe suzette recipe comes out fluffy, sweet, buttery, and exceeds the expectations of any faithful french pancake lover. secondly, if you do not have your crepe pan hot enough and do not let it cook, it will be sticky and fall apart (i threw out about 6 crepes, thank goodness i made a big batch). finally, if you want an easy crepe filling, start with a roux of butter and flour, add a bit of port, then some strawberries. let simmer for a few minutes then bless your crepes with the fruit, roll them up, and top with turbinado sugar for a nice crunchy surprise.

ratatouille, part 2

when you set out to create your own version of a recipe, you have to be prepared for it to be unsatisfactory. my ratatouille did not make the cut - not seasoned well enough, and i was impatient and didn't let it cook enough. however, i did make a fantastic wine and veggie blast reduction sauce that i'll triple in quantity next time.

two lessons learned:
do not multi-task during your first attempt at a new recipe - focus exclusively on what you're doing. you can multi-task later, when you've mastered the recipe and can do it in your sleep.
be patient. allow your meal the time it needs to cook, and taste along the way.

the best part of dinner tonight was the company (husband), and the dessert he made. inspired by my culinary pursuits today, he decided to make a masterpiece of his own. he thinly sliced a honeycrisp apple and let it brown in a skillet with butter, turbinado sugar, and cinnamon. our kitchen smelled like thanksgiving, and i sat relishing the aroma while sipping on my tempranillo. we shared a dish of the crispy, sweet, spicy apples with a little bit of whipped cream and for a little bit, we were in apple pie heaven. my husband is going to make an apple pie for his contribution to thanksgiving this year, and i couldn't be happier. who else can i convert to chefdom?

ratatouille, part 1

why do we love comfort food oh so much? disney and pixar got it right, when they showed the coldest hearted of food critics brought to his knees by ratatouille, a "peasant dish." at the company where i work, the ceo and founder (also a naturopathic doctor) says that food is what we should use to give our bodies the nutrients they need to heal ourselves. think back to what you were served in times of sickness, the smells and flavors and memories that brought you back to health. think of your body and soul coming back to life from a special spice, herb, or broth.

i can't count the number of times when i've come home brought down by cold weather, allergies, illness, or even just a bad day and i call my husband begging him to pick up masman curry with tofu from madam mam's. just the thought of steaming hot coconut curry, creamy peanuts, and fried squares of soy bliss makes me start to feel better. when i think of comfort food, i recall steaming pots of my mother's home-made chicken and dumplings. i close my eyes for just a little bit longer and remember the toaster waffles my father used to make me, topped with bonne maman cherry preserves. mornings swaddled under the covers of my mother's bed getting to take a sip of her delicious eight o'clock coffee with cinnamon, cream, and sugar from a brambly hedge china cup. the root beer floats my great aunt meticulously crafted for my brother and i in an equally meticulously frosted glass mug. aunt mae also made the most delectable rice, creamy without being gummy and just a bit spicy (i hated spicy food back then) with flecks of black pepper. she served it with fresh-brewed strong iced tea in real carnival glass. let's go back a few years more, to when i was a very little girl and had such a sensitive system i couldn't tolerate most meats and any corn. my mother hired a house cleaner who also looked after me from time to time and could boil an egg with a soft, orange, velvety yolk. she would serve it to me sliced in half with salt and melting butter.

with all these memories fresh in my mind, i embark upon a quest to perfect a savory and comforting ratatouille.

wine, all clad, double stoves, and real estate

they say that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. i think the same is true with kitchens. today, i shopped for houses (the fun kind of house shopping, where it's not for my house, and the shoppers have a much higher budget than i do). i saw the most amazing kitchen - viking range, double oven, two sinks, and this dream of an island shaped organically to embrace the grins of waist lines gathering over tapas, fresh pizza, and intensely delicious wine. the kitchen table section of the island was a thick butcher's block, adjustable by height. tucked in to the other side of the island was this pull-out butcher's block on wheels that could transport your seasonal cheese and chutney plate next to your living room guests ensconced in the glow of the fireplace.

i drooled. then i saw that the house had an outdoor kitchen and i wanted to cry.

this weekend has been pretty significant so far. i inherited an impressive collection of california wines, and a fantastic wine rack to display it. i think it was meant to be, because it fits perfectly in the spot where our recycling can used to be (now the ugly eyesore is hidden in the garage where it should be).

to console my split pea soup green kitchen envy, i went on ebay to check out their listings of allclad 13" stainless steel french skillets. i love my cast iron, but i can't properly saute in the fancy fling style. they're just too heavy. alas, all clad is still expensive on ebay, so i think a trip to crate and barrel stands in my near future to test out the merits of a variety of stainless steel skillet price points and find out which one will best withstand messy food flingings, and perfectly sear such delicacies as vegan "tuna" coquettes (once i come up with that recipe i promise to share), scallops, and yes, the beginnings of julia child's boeuf bourguignon.

seasoning the skillet

there has been an amazing breakthrough in kitchen innovation: a multi-use pan that scrambles my eggs, sizzles my bacon, fries my okra, and bakes my corn bread. it washes instantly in nothing but hot water with a nice wash rag and a wipe-dry with a little bit of canola oil. it transfers flawlessly, without so much as a squirm, from the stove top to the oven. it looks beautiful cooking my dinner and serving it on the table top. it's non-toxicly non-stick and infuses my predominantly vegetarian meals with a jolt of iron. amazingly enough, this breakthrough in delicious nutritious cookware occurred over 2000 years ago.

cast iron has become so popular lately, i saw it at sur la table for an extravagant price. world market has it for a much-needed bargain, along with their dumbed-down enamelware salute to le creuset and makes gorgeous flap jacks on its flat, beautiful, double-burner griddle. but you can find it for even less on freecycle or in your grandmother's kitchen, already seasoned and ready to go.

i brought home my first cast iron skillet after a trip to my local sporting goods store to pick up a pair of running shoes. having been inspired by a recent viewing of "essence of emeril" where he spent about half the episode showing his loyal fans exactly how and why to season and clean a cast iron skillet, i stopped by the camping gear. lo and behold, for a fraction of the cost of my eco un-friendly calphalon everyday pan, i found a lovely small lodge fry pan. it came home with me and went right into the oven with a generous slathering of oil and a sprinkling of semolina. about an hour or so later, i turned off the oven. my first cast iron skillet sat in the oven overnight, seasoning and rendering.

since that night, i have purchased a lovely dutch oven (also from the camping section - it's fantastic, the top doubles as another skillet!), a griddle, and a larger fry pan. because they're heavy, dark, ponderous, and beautiful (and yea mainly because they're heavy) the two fry pans spend most of their time sitting proudly on my stove top. they gleam as these beacons of haute cuisine, begging me to make risotto, sear a chicken breast, simmer a blisteringly spicy coconut curry. i fried juila child's potato crepes, roasted her casserole style chicken with thyme, and deep fried fish and okra to lovely shades of golden shining brown. and each time with love and pot holders i run hot water screaming steam over the skillet right after i finish cooking, cleaning out the mess, then massaging oil into the pan for next time.

and so i bring my journey of kitchen rituals - cast iron and non cast iron related - to your computer screen. i have a set list of a few things in my life that i really love: my husband, my father, running, cooking, and writing. really there's not much that i enjoy more than cooking a meal that i serve for the people i care about and watching them savor every bite. maybe one day you'll sit at my table and we will share a bottle of wine over a meal and talk about the things we love because when it comes down to it, life revolves around love. and so for me, life very much revolves around cooking food.