Seared Ahi Tuna

LJ was out of town this weekend visiting friends so I decided to make something that I really like but didn't think she would mind missing out on.

Since LJ took the car on her trip I pedaled my bicycle down to visit my favorite fish mongers and arrived right as the doors opened.  Arriving early at the fish market is necessary because popular items often sell out by mid-day and I knew from the email newsletter that the Ahi was on sale.

I explained to the man behind the counter (who I believe is also the owner, we aren't on a first name basis, yet) that I needed a piece just for me so he sliced one of the steaks in half, packed it in ice, and I was back on my bike pedaling home.

When I got home I realized I had forgotten something important for my ability to create a blog post.  LJ had taken our camera with her to capture the memories of catching up with old friends.  I debated my options as I poked around on Facebook and Twitter.  I could wait until LJ got home on Monday but I thought the fish would be best at it's freshest.  I then realized the answer to my problems was staring me in the face, literally.

When using high quality fresh tuna you really can eat it raw but I wasn't feeling that adventurous. I liberally seasoned each side with salt and pepper and then coated it in sesame seeds.  I heated my trusty cast iron pan on medium high heat with a coating of sesame oil until the pan was scorching hot and smoking.  I dropped the tuna in and seared each side for only a minute each.  After removing it from the pan I sliced the tuna thinly, served it over rice, and added some homemade sauce.

Now about not having a camera.  I realized our laptop has a built in web cam so I set it up to record the process.  It really isn't that interesting but since the fish cooks so quickly, if you have a few minutes feel free to watch.  You can really see how beautiful the rare tuna is.

Quality Source: The Asian Market

Walking in to an ethnic market or grocery can be intimidating.  Often times the first language you hear spoken will not be English and reading signs or packaging can be impossible for the monolingual.  In my experience though these places are hidden gems and more often than not the staff is incredibly helpful in explaining what items are used for and pointing out things that are worth trying.

LJ and I were feeling adventorus one weekend so we decided to check out the Arirang Oriental Market and we were not disappointed.  It was all a little overwhelming and we wandered up and down all the aisles a number of times looking for things that caught our fancy.  I was specifically looking for rice seasoning (see below) but couldn't pass up the bag of extra course sea salt.  It has been excellent for using in cookies and I can't wait to try it on salt bagels.  LJ found a packet of our favorite curry mix at an excellent price and we picked up a couple of cans of coconut milk for popsicle season.

I was looking for rice seasoning, which I didn't even know what it was called before I found it.  In college a group of students from Japan made rice balls one evening and sprinkled a seaweed flake mixture on them before we devoured each ball.  I do enjoy rice so I figured this would be a good way to spice it up.  The market had easily 20 different varieties of rice seasoning and after at least 10 minutes of contemplating my choices I settled on the simplest choice which contains sesame seeds and seaweed.

I'm looking forward to making a return trip to pick up seasoning options for my first attempt at kimchi.

CSA Week 8

LJ is out of town for the next few days so I have a big load of greens to eat by myself.  We received mizuna, tokyo bekana, kohlrabi (hiding under the cabbage), napa cabbage, lettuce, peas, green onions, and basil.  Before she left LJ made up a big batch of pesto so the basil is taken care of.  I'm planning a batch of kimchi with the cabbage, kohlrabi, and green onions.  If I manage to eat a salad for every meal I should be able to use up the rest of the this weeks delivery but for the following week arrives.

Strawberry Shortcake

This is one dessert that I can't let the summer go by without making.  I picked up half a flat of strawberries from a local farm and used this recipe (the biscuit one).  Since the in-laws were in town, they helped us eat some which is probably a good thing because otherwise I might have tried to convince HH to eat it for dinner.  Sadly, I failed to take a picture of the finished product; I guess I was too interested in devouring it.

The flour and butter mixture gets worked with a pastry cutter.

Note the FAT FREE half-and-half on the left.  I am incredulous about the existence of this product, which may explain why I have mistakenly purchased it on multiple occasions.  The fat is replaced by HFCS.

The cream mixture gets added to the flour and butter.

Mix until it just comes together.  Don't overwork it or the biscuits can become tough.

Measuring the depth with the bench scraper.

Preparing to refrigerate.

After refrigerating, almost ready to go into the oven.

Topped with cream and sugar before baking.

HH can't wait to get his hand on one as they come out of the oven.

Prepping the strawberries.

Add sugar to macerate, which helps to release some juice.

After they have been sitting with the sugar for a while. 

Not pictured is the homemade whipped cream, which is made by pouring heavy whipping cream into our KitchenAid mixer with a little vanilla and sugar.  The mixer does all the work; I just had to watch it to make sure the cream didn't get whipped too much and start to turn into butter.  I am not a fan of store-bought whipped cream, but the homemade stuff gets me every time.  I want to just hover over the bowl and eat it straight up with a big spoon.  But, as an integral ingredient in strawberry shortcake, I was able to restrain myself and make sure everyone got their fair share.

Upgraded Kitchen Storage

Now that I have a job, LJ and I have made the commitment to stay in this area for at least another year and continue to rent our apartment.  It doesn't hurt that it is only a five minute walk from my office and our landlords are pretty nice.  So nice that they even let us perform a few upgrades to the storage situation in the kitchen.

Below is the before photo of a weird counter space in our kitchen.  It only seems to be there to provide a little more counter space but what the kitchen really is lacking is pantry space.  As you can see we were stacking a lot of dry goods, cans, and spices in this area.

LJ and I made a trip to Ikea and picked up a couple of shelves and a few stack-able storage containers.  They made all the difference in allowing us to use what was a lot of wasted vertical space above the counters.  I did have to put a few holes in the wall to hang the shelves (which is why I needed to talk to the landlord) and used some special plastic screws that help hold things in drywall if you can screw in to a stud.

LJ loves assembling things from Ikea

You can see the shelves on the wall allowed us to move all the small containers off the counter.  We also were able to stack all the white wire racks we already had together to store heavier items.

Though we went to Ikea just to look for shelves, the real find was these clear storage containers.  Since we buy a lot of things in bulk (rice, flour, lentils, beans, pasta, oatmeal, etc) we really need a better storage system than piling the plastic bags on the counter.  These containers easily allow us to see what is inside and come with dividers so we can store multiple items in one container.

Overall we are quite happy with the upgrades.  It has made it much easier to keep the kitchen tidy and find what you are looking for when cooking.

CSA Week 7

This week we were given peas, green onions, chard, basil, lettuce, savoy cabbage, and kohlrabi.  Anyone know of a good way to use the kohlrabi?

Pupusa

I was inspired to try making pupusas after reading an article in the Seattle Times about searching for the restaurant that makes the best ones.  I'd never heard of a pupusa but the description of a corn tortilla stuffed with cheese and beans had me intrigued.

I scoured the internet for recipes but found that there was a lot of variety in what you stuffed them with.  For my first attempt I wanted to keep it simple so I just used beans and cheese.

In my attempt I found that getting the dough the correct consistency was the most difficult part.  I picked up a bag of masa from the Mexican grocery and followed the instructions on the bag but the dough was too dry to work with easily  After adding more water I had much more success (also watching the video of this experienced lady shape the dough really helped me figure out how it should work.  I'd be lost without YouTube instructions sometimes).  Keeping wet hands was really helpful in getting the filled ball flattened at shaped.

  

  

 

You can see the difference between my first attempt and later attempts.  The first one in the middle broke apart because the dough was too dry.

I'm not sure if this is something I'd try again.  They seemed like more trouble then they were worth, but they might be better with some leftover taco meat as filling and packed up for lunches.

Lentils

LJ has a serious liking of lentils.  If you tell her a dish has lentils in it, she is predisposed to liking it.  One of her favorite ways to eat them is as a very simple side dish.  Every time I've made these she raves about how "rich" they seem, which seems crazy to say about a legume, but she is right.  They couldn't be simpler to make either.

For every cup of dry lentils, use 2.5 cups of water (we have found about 1/4 cup of lentils is the right amount as a side per person).  Simmer gently with a bay leaf, salt, pepper and any other spices you would like (I usually use some garlic powder and cayenne).  You can also add a chopped onion and garlic if you want but it isn't necessary.  The cooking time can very depending on what type of lentil you are using (LJ prefers the green lentils) but in about half an hour they will be ready to go.  We think they are best if they haven't gone to mush and still hold some of their texture (you could say al dente but I think that is only used for pasta).  I finish them with a splash of malt or red wine vinegar right before they are served.

That is really all there is to it.  We usually enjoy them with a bratwurst but they go well with all sorts of dishes.

Every time I think of lentils I think of my friend Sam who worked in a grain elevator while going to school in Pullman.  Pullman is in the Palouse, which is the region that grows the most lentils in the world.  Sam used a snow shovel to spread lentils in the grain elevator while they were poured in above him.  He said it wasn't uncommon for lentils to pour down through the collar of his shirt and travel all the way down along his body until they came out the cuff of his pants.  It can get quite hot on the Palouse in the summer so I'm sure the lentils picked up a bit of Sam's perspiration during the trip, which is a good reminder of why you should wash lentils before using them.

Pants for LJ...

...that actually fit!  Hoorah! I was a little intimidated to try to make pants for myself given how difficult it can be to fit all the curves and angles on a woman's body compared to a man's.  I have felt confident in making HH's pants for a while now, so I figured it was time to try it out for myself. 

A lot of women have a hard time finding pants that fit, and I am no exception.  Most pants have always been too big in the waist or too tight around my hips, but now I have a pattern I can use to just whip up my own whenever I want.  Okay, it's not as easy as that, but it's really not as hard as I was anticipating.  I think I got pretty lucky when I scored this pattern on Listia for free using the credits I got just for signing up. 

 When working with this pattern for the first time, I compared the measurements to this pair of pants that do fit me pretty well, to make sure I was on the right track, and I was for the most part.

I used a brown polyester that was in my "test stash" for when I need to test out a pattern before actually making the real deal, so I wasn't expecting these to look as nice as they do. There were a few adjustments to make for the second pair but nothing major. I will definitely be wearing these to work as long as the weather isn't too cold for my exposed ankles.

The second pair of pants from this pattern was made from a grey linen-y fabric, and I lined them to make sure there would be no see-through because I intended them to be more fitted than the first pair.  I had just enough fabric to make pedal pushers.  The fit is pretty good, though I always seem to have some extra fabric around the back of my legs.  I'm not sure if that's common or if it's just a quirk of my body. 

Regardless, I quite like both these pairs of pants and am glad I finally decided to go for it.  Some nice, warm wool pants are on the agenda for fall/winter.  HH doesn't get to have all the fun any longer. 

Cabbage Tacos

Now that I am at home for the summer while HH brings home the bacon (well, technically I also continue to bring home the bacon even though I'm not physically working - gotta love working for a school district!), the responsibility to figure out what to have for dinner falls primarily on my shoulders.  On this particular night, I knew we had a head of cabbage that needed to get used up, as well as some cilantro and marinated/seasoned pork that HH had picked up from a local Mexican restaurant/deli/grocery.  I searched for a cabbage and cilantro salad recipe, and found a recipe that would work as a nice taco topping.  For the life of me I can't find the recipe now, but it basically consisted of sour cream, cilantro, olive oil, lime juice, salt, and pepper that, once mixed, got added to the shredded cabbage.  The tacos were delicious and a little different from how we usually top them which was a nice change of pace.

CSA Week 6

This week's bounty consists of lettuce, cilantro, arugula, cabbage, daikon, pink beets, and snap peas.  We already have a plan for everything but the daikon, since we've never cooked with it before.  On the agenda is cabbage salsa, arugula pesto, pickled beets, sesame snap peas with orzo, and of course, plenty of salads incorporating the leftover greens from last week.