Potato Hot Cakes

If you guys and gals do not care too much about my super duper fun stories then you can skip right to the recipes which is right under the picture =].

I hope everyone is not too bored with me just posting on nothing but family dishes or just food pictures with no recipes. If it was anything special and I want to share it with the world then I would gladly share some recipes. But please level with me as it is the first time I’ve tried these dishes with my own recipe. On another note, I do not even know how people keep taking pictures as they cook. I can understand v-blogging but not e-blogging where people just take like a million pictures explaining every procedure. A picture does explain a thousand words and I must admit, it is rather fun looking at those pictures than to hear people blabber on. But I do not have “that” much time to razzle-dazzle my pictures. However, I do have plenty of time to type these amazing essays =].

So for this week, I wanted to do something a little more hip and refreshing by making hot cakes. I tried to follow directions by not adding anything that can make the batter unstable. While I was making the hotcakes I realized that by adding even more starch to the potatoes you give it this stringy texture if you tried to fry it. This is similar to taro dumplings (芋頭角).This is very useful information as I plan to make croquettes as soon as I can figure out what I can stuff inside the croquettes to make it as delicious as possible. Without further digressing, here is the recipe I used.

 

Potato Fish Cakes

·         5 medium to large potatoes

·         3-4 flat tablespoon corn starch

·         2 tsp salt

·         ½ cup spinach

·         1 can Trader Joe’s wild Alaskan pink salmon(this is just what I used, you can try something else but this salmon has salt in it already just to let you know)

·         1 tsp cumin (optional)

·         1 tablespoon green curry powder (optional)

·         1 tablespoon rosemary

·         4 tables spoons of butter sliced (half a stick)

1)      Boil potatoes in a pot for 30 minutes switch from high to low heat once boiling starts

2)      Peel the skin off and pre-mash potatoes for homogenous mixing. Add in butter, cornstarch, cumin, curry, rosemary, and mix again until it starts to come together from initial stage.

3)      Add spinach and pink Alaskan salmon, and then mix again.

4)      Preheat pan coated with oil to med-high until the oil is practically running on the pan. (if it looks less like a cascade and more like a wave, then you added too much oil J) Before cooking, lower heat to a spot between Medium and High to insure no burning.

5)      Make the potato mix into 3 inch diameter patties and pan fry them on for 3 minutes on each side (I used a spoon to round it like making meatballs and squash it down on a plate before putting it on the frying pan) Because there is no liquid to stick the potato together it will fracture if you tried to make your patties while it is on the pan.

6)      Serve while hot!

 

Even though you probably don’t want to hear me ramble on, if you are afraid of oil splashing on you, don’t add too much oil. It makes flipping the patties that much more scary. I used canola oil for this dish.

Enjoy till next week ! Also also also, I throw the rest that I do not plan to eat in the fridge until I want to cook it again, because it wont be good if it's not super crispy fresh. 

Bye!

  

Sweets for Lunch

          I know this is a bit late but I said I would do something with the butternut squash I had. Tadaa! Raisin + Butternut Squash fried rice.I like Butternut Squash I like raisins in rice; so why not mix it all together? I find butternut squash to be as sweet if not sweeter than candy and it happens to be one of my favorite root vegetables of all time. (purple sweet potatoes might be next on the list.
           There are a lot of ways to use the Butternut squash in cooking but just plain baking is good enough. Although the next time I bake it I should flip them squash over on it's flat side to bake because the sweet syrup or whatever could be inside was splashing around in my oven. 30 mins baking in a 350 degrees oven is good enough for a regular size squash. It is better to over-cook the squash than to under-cook it because once you refrigerate it the squash will stiffen up giving it just the perfect texture as a snack, in a meal, or even dessert. (or you can just cook it perfectly at 30 mins or just when juice starts flowing out of the squash, you know the insides are edible.
          For this fried rice recipe I also used brown rice instead of white rice. Cooking with brown rice is actually not bad, brown rice has this texture on it that might not feel so pleasant to eat by itself. However, when brown rice is mixed with a sauced based dish, the sauce gives it that right texture to be scarfed down. I have made brown rice with a chicken curry topped on it and it just taste so delicious that I could not stop eating. The point is, brown rice has this grey taste that can be colorized by having dishes that can compliment it. It does not necessarily have to be a sauce. Also brown rice does not have this starch present in white rice which makes me waste a a few grains as they are stuck on the wok. (Those farmers worked hard to harvest my rice) Actually I will tell you few followers something interesting next time I write about stir-frying with starch.

Peace

Trader Joe's Cream line Yogurt

I just have to give a shout out to this brand of yogurt from Trader Joe's which I picked up today. This yogurt reminds me a bit of those yogurt parfaits I used to get when I went to Mcdonalds.
          What's so special about it that I have to devote a blog page for it? I tried to Google up what this cream line yogurt is made of and did not get a clear answer except for the fact that it is top creamy layer that comes off in milk fermentation. I also found a bunch of people complaining that Trader Joe's stopped replenishing these yogurts in stores. (key word to look for is "cream line") Well guess what? I see them in stores again so if every single Trader Joe's is the same it should be in the store nearest you too.
          This is probably the third time I went out to the market in hopes of buying a bag of chips to settle my stomach and instead spent 10+ dollars on groceries and neglected the potato chips-.-. (I said to myself if the need arises, I will buy that bag of chips the moment I want to eat them) Well it was not a total waste since I got to try something new today and it was out of the world amazing as it fills my stomach at night time. Although I think it is bad to eat yogurt during the night, or so I have heard. If you have not tried it yet, the texture is even softer than pudding. It is sort of like premature yogurt, if you want to call it that haha. What I had was a couple of spoons of yogurt mixed with the almond granola cereal mix which is also available on Trader Joe's, and raisins for dessert. (I ate dinner earlier)

           This is definitely one of those snacks that are perfect after getting your wisdom teeth pulled out. Except made trade in the granola and raisins for Jam preserves. I should make a list for these moments as I don't even know how people get by eating half the things I hear people mentioning. I sure couldn't at the time, but that's another story.

           What I really wanted to do this weekend was put together a recipe using the butternut squash I bought like a month ago, since it is Halloween and all but was short handed HA! .... I also have a noodle cooking tips to share with everyone from this weekend but that will have to wait another time since it is late.

Grab that yogurt while you still can!

Who like steaks?

Ox JC reporting live at 4:18 AM. I figured I would Go as far as possible and finish writing tomorrow. Long school day today, I stayed in school for the normal amount of 12 hours, but I didn't go today till 2 pm ... So here I am now! Back home to write yet another entry of my big meal today. No real recipe because I'm pretty sure everyone knows how to make stew. That and I just practically grabbed everything that would go well with stew. I wasn't crazy enough to add red pepper into my stew.
But today the most interesting thing I discovered was how to cook beef without making it bleed. Everyone says to just use high heat to sear the meat, and you have to check the time to see how much time is left before you flip it over. Even then, I still manage to make it bleed no matter how many times I've tried cooking beef. Ah.. My hair dried, I'll finish it tomorrow. I'll leave a picture behind.Whoops guess blogger is not iPod friendly.

Good night San Diego!

I've finally got my computer turned on, So here is the beef I was talking about. I need to try out this out with an herb crust recipe I'll do when I have time again. I really wanted to make stew last week but I didn't have time but I saw a fatty cut and couldn't resist buying it. So I threw it in the freezer for about a week and pulled it out for cooking. Beef needs about 12 hours of defrosting if you want to transfer it from the freezer to fridge. I went to create a base for the stew by frying the flour-covered beef in oil and after four minutes this is what I got. If I didn't under-cook it for the stew I would have tried one piece to see how it tastes.

In the end I threw everything in and presto, Beef stew for the whole week.
In case anyone asks, this is the main dish for me, I would only cook a main dish that I would not mind having for a whole week (food you could never get tired of) That doesn't mean I would just be mal-nutrional and eat nothing but this. During the week, I cook complimentary dishes or already have complimentary dishes to serve with this. This stew does taste great, but it's nothing special for this week :(

midterms coming up
Peace

The Fat Shepard

What I think of when I want to eat Shepard's pie is layers of potato filled with loads of ingredients and the crust on top to make it a complete meal. This was a quick a simple meal I made which taste delicious, there is a "load" of oil but I did not feel disgusted by it for once. Also it's all frozen and canned food practically.

 Although this recipe looks quite long, everything is quite gather-able from your nearest food station, (most should be in your stock and shelves if you planned to cook) and some herbs and spices can be substituted to your own favorite mix of marination. I like to have everything mise en place, french for everything all prepared before cooking as it makes you less likely to forget to put things in your recipe. Of course, not everyone has a big kitchen as I certainly do not so try to at least get all the cutting done. This big meal should be ready in about 2 hours or less including prep time and cooking time. 

Here is what you would need:

• 1 pack of ground beef (approximately 1 lb)
• salt and pepper season to taste (I like using fresh pepper and grounding it down)
• 1 tbsp spicy curry powder (medium)
• 1 tbsp cumin powder
• 1 tbsp Mesquite seasoning bland 
• 2 tbsp oil (approx)
• 2-3 leaves of bayleaf

the powder part is really arbitrarily. I just know that I put enough to cover the meat with flavor

• 1 jar 16 oz Marinara sauce (I just like using this one, you can use anything you want)
• 1-2 can of non-salted corn
• 1 can garbanzo beans
• 3 medium sized onions
• 1 tbsp oil (for grilling onions)
• 3-4 medium sized potatoes sliced 1/8-1/4 inch
• 2 bags of frozen pea+carrot mix
• half cup mayonnaise (optional)
• enough milk to dilute the mayonnaise down to tomato sauce texture

• 2 cups Biscuit mix, (enough to cover the top to prevent burning)
• salt to season
• 4 tbsp oil or 4 tbsp of butter
• cinnamon (optional)
• paprika for top (optional)

1) After you cut the potatoes make sure you soak them in water to keep them fresh looking

2) Finish cutting the onions and defrosting the frozen peas and carrots if they are frozen

3) add the oil to the pan and heat it up, add the ground beef and just marinate on the go, season with the marinades first to get the flavor to where you want it and just before you finish, add the bayleaf, then the curry powder. Pour the ground beef out but do not wash it yet.

3) preheat oven to 350 F

4) I used a 8-12 baking dish for this but you can use anything you want as long as it can hold all the ingredients inside. Layer the bottom layer with potatoes and work your way up with the ground beef, marinara sauce, thawed peas and carrots, corn, beef, mayonnaise mix (the mayonnaise mix only has milk in it), garbanzo beans and everything i did not mention in the middle section of the ingredients. The order does not really affect anything but you will want the potatoes on the bottom layer, after that it does not really matter too much how you order it. The top layer should have sauce to prevent burning. 

5) slice the onions into rings and grill the onions now for about 2 minutes or until they are transparent and add them to the casserole dish

6) after preheat is done, bake dish for about 25 minutes as the potatoes need time to cook. You want to bake it at the lower rack as the potatoes should be the only thing you need to cook at this point. Prepare the biscuit mix during this time, the biscuit mix should have the same consistency as a thick cake batter.

7) Take the casserole out of the oven and turn the oven to 450 F. Pour the biscuit batter on top of the dish until mostly covered. These biscuit mix should expand to fill the whole dish so you don't really need to worry about covering it all up. 

8) Bake for another 10 minutes and dinner is ready!

The beginning of fall

This will mostly be a food blog with me late night rambling about pointless subjects. There are several things that I want to accomplish with this blog. I don't want to write in essay format whenever I can so I'll make this as simple as possible.

    I want to tell the whole world:

• I love life
• I love art
• I love food
• Family is important

• However, time is not infinite 
• So, I really want to tell everyone how I enjoy life!

I have seen quite a lot of other people vblogging about food that it makes me feel like starting my own blog. What I want to do is to create dishes from what I feel they are suppose to be like instead of throwing other people's recipes on my site. By the end of this, my goal is to create my own icon dish, something that can be meaningful and contribute significantly to the culinary world.