farmers' market

Downstairs from my new apartment there's a farmers' market once a week. It's a very small one, which I would expect since it's downtown and across from a bus station, but it's nice that it's there. I love looking at fresh fruits and vegetables. I think that these are the prettiest onions ever.

Here are two meals I made from the fresh vegetables. The first was a salad with green leaf lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, and pumpkin seeds, topped with olive oil and black pepper.

Later that day, I turned leftover tomato pasta sauce into a pseudo-curry by adding toasted Madras curry powder and a heaping spoonful of sambal oelek. I used it to cook the eggplant and some corn, topped it off with fresh basil and served it over brown basmati rice.

the solution to carb hangover

It was my friend's birthday yesterday, and I made her a spiced chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and a cherry-berry compote. While it turned out pretty nicely (I've had some very bad cake disasters in the past, so I approach special-occasion basking with a bit of trepidation), along with the noodles and calzone I'd also consumed earlier in the day, it was a bit of a carb excess.

So this morning I was trying to think up a good way to use the leftover compote, and all the usual recipes came to mind-- pancakes, waffles, shortbread, french toast, etcetera-- and nothing sound appetizing. Don't get me wrong, I'm a breakfast/brunch food fan, but this morning the idea of mixing up more flour and butter just seemed kind of... gross.

After searching up and down my very understocked fridge, I came up with a head of lettuce, some broccoli sprouts venturing near their expiration date, and eggs. And thus this salad was born.

Arguably one of the most important skills I've learned in college so far was self-taught-- how to make the perfect soft-boiled egg. Growing up, I never was an egg person, and I always preferred my eggs scrambled or in an omelette over their straight-up boiled cousins. I finally gained an appreciation for the boiled egg after marveling at the impeccable soft-boiled ones that ramen shops churn out to top their steaming noodle bowls.

Last fall I became convinced that I too could boil these exquisite specimens, and began boiling egg after egg in search of soft-boiled perfection: tender but fully cooked white, intact but creamy yolk. The eggs I remembered hating as a kid were either rubbery, with pale, greying yolks, or so runny that the white was still oozing and disintegrating on the plate. After many attempts, I've settled on a successful formula.

1) Bring water to a boil in a roomy pot on the stove. As water is heating, leave eggs out at room temperature to warm slightly.

2) When water is rapidly boiling, carefully lower eggs into water with a large metal spoon/spatula/pasta server, or whatever you have.

3) Let boil for 7-8 minutes (depends on your stove and your heat setting-- I keep my electric on medium). While boiling, grab a large bowl and fill it with cold water.

4) When the eggs are done, lift them out of the pot and place them in the cold water. Roll them around to cool. Crack, peel, eat. (Peeling them underwater in the bowl makes the shell come off much more easily.)

I'll admit that I've never been huge on salads-as-meals, but there's definitely something rather refreshing on eating a plateful of greens... and berries.

spaetzle + soup

A few weeks back I saw this recipe feature on Design Sponge, was intrigued, and planned to eventually make it. It wasn't until tonight, though, that while scouring some of my favourite food blogs for lentil soup ideas that I happened upon Smitten Kitchen's latest post and remembered that I needed to try making spaetzle.

My limited knowledge of German food doesn't extend far beyond schnitzel, Bavarian sausages and Black Forest cake, and so spaetzle is something new to me. Though it took me a Google search to figure out how to pronounce it properly (shpets-luh?), it's incredibly simple to make. One-line recipe: mix flour, eggs, milk; let sit; spoon into boiling water; remove when floating. I actually used almond milk, since I don't keep regular milk around, and it all turned out perfectly fine.

As for the final dish: Butter-Sauteed Thai Basil Mushroom Spaetzle garnished with Wasabi Fumi Furikake. Basically, fusion at its oddest. But hey, it ended up delicious.

And no, I didn't forget about the lentil soup! A fairly faithful (by my standards) adaptation of this recipe because it used so many things that I had in my kitchen already, but I started it from homemade chicken stock I cooked up yesterday instead of water. It seems like I'm at the point where I make stock from scratch every week. It's a beautiful form of homework procrastination.

okra + eggplant

I've been told by fellow college kids that I eat ridiculously fancy food. I guess if you compare the types of things that I cook for weekday dinners with say, a cup of instant ramen or Easy Mac or slices of takeout pizza, I am practically gourmet. But really, it's all pretty simple. While I do love reading gorgeous food blogs (like these), I'm not much of a recipe follower-- I'm more of a throw-all-the-stuff-in-the-fridge-together type of person. Cooking is essentially my dorkily domestic method of procrastination.

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This brings me to the meal that I whipped up last night. Okra and eggplant are two vegetables that I hated as a youngster and have now magically become some of my favourites. The change of heart might have had a little bit to do with maturity and a lot to do with at a kickass sambal rendition at Malaysian restaurant back home in Vancouver.

Admittedly, my kitchen is a fledgling one, and I sadly lack the dried red chiles, tamarind, lemongrass, and candlenuts needed for that Malaysian authenticity. I do, however, have a package of dried shrimp that travelled cross-continentally with me in my suitcase, and it makes a world of difference in flavour when you've got sparse pantry shelves.

And after soaking them, I sauteed them with yellow onions, garlic, and ginger... which produces a decidedly heavenly aroma. Throw in some Thai fish sauce and it's a pretty damn good attempt for a college apartment kitchen.

From what I've seen and read, some people like to chop up their okra into diagonal slices. I prefer them whole (though with the tips and caps trimmed), so that they keep their crunch and all their slime intact. Whatever floats your boat.

La-dee-dah!

So there are probably reasons why I abandoned this blog, and why I'm (hopefully) back at it, but isn't it more fun to talk about food? I have ideas for some other things going forward... right now, I'm starting fresh.