Cooking with Alison

Posts Tagged ‘recipes’

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Best Blueberry or Cranberry Bran Muffins

In Breakfast on February 1, 2011 at am

I really like muffins but I avoid buying them because they’re deceivingly high in calories from fat and sugar.  Since muffins are convenient for breakfast, I decided to make healthy muffins.  Besides containing a lot of fiber, health-benefiting sweeteners (molasses, cane syrup, honey) are used over the typical white or brown sugars.  Vital wheat gluten and buttermilk give these muffins a soft and moist texture.  Bursts of fresh fruit help too, but feel free to substitute with raisins, dried cranberries, or chocolate chips.  These are freezer friendly, so you’re not resigned to eating healthily every day for two weeks.  😉  (Photo of the cranberry orange bran muffins are at the bottom of this post.)

 

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Quick and Easy Chicken Pesto “Pizza” on Bread

In Pasta, Rice, and Doughs on January 30, 2011 at am

I roast chicken breasts often because they’re a healthy source of protein.  However, I find them bland and boring.  So I’m always looking for flavourful ways to use the leftovers.  One day, I was craving chicken pesto pizza, but didn’t have the time, energy, or the motivation to make pizza dough.  So, I threw together a few things that I had on hand and put them on toast.  It was so delicious that I started roasting chicken breasts just for this.  When I’m really lazy, I use the microwave to melt the cheese so dinner literally takes seconds to make.

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Quick and Easy Salmon and Asparagus Penne

In Pasta, Rice, and Doughs on January 28, 2011 at am

Since I started taking professional courses outside of work, cooking regularly during the work week has been a challenge.  So I used this as an opportunity to try various foods that I wouldn’t normally buy.  For example, I discovered that I like canned Atlantic salmon.  It’s closer to fresh salmon than canned tuna is to fresh tuna, in my opinion.  I used it in this quick and easy, delicious pasta dish.  Even Ed liked it and he doesn’t usually like cream-based sauces.  Feel free to substitute the asparagus with any vegetables that you like.

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Curried Beef Brisket, Tendons and Daikon Radish

In Meat and Eggs on January 23, 2011 at am

We love ordering braised beef brisket on rice or soup noodles from Cantonese (Chinese) restaurants and cafes.  One of the variations that we like is the curried one.  The best parts are the connective tissue and the tendons that get broken down and become soft and chewy.  🙂  (See the plain, braised beef brisket and tendons recipe here.)  If you have leftover daikon radish, see here for a list of other recipes.

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Braised Beef Brisket, Tendons and Daikon Radish (Chinese Restaurant Style)

In Meat and Eggs on January 21, 2011 at am

We love ordering braised beef brisket (nguw lam / ngow lam) from Cantonese (Chinese) restaurants and cafes.  It is served over rice or noodles in soup.  The best parts are the connective tissue and the tendons that get broken down and become soft and chewy.  🙂  Although it’s very easy to make, I had failed several times to recreate the restaurant flavour.  Then I heard that the secret ingredient is chee hou sauce, so I bought a jar and tried again.  It was exactly what I had been missing (other than MSG).  The closest substitution that I can think of is hoisin sauce, but chee hou is more acidic, has more punch, and tastes more like fermented black beans.  So, I don’t recommend substituting anything for chee hou.  (See my curried braised beef brisket and tendons recipe here.)  If you have leftover daikon radish, see here for a list of other recipes.

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Cranberry and Almond Cake (2 variations)

In Cakes on January 19, 2011 at am

I was still craving cranberries after the holidays, so I did more baking while I could still get them fresh.  This cake looks beautiful and has a light flavour.  It is moist, dense, and subtly sweet with delicious bursts of juicy and tart cranberries.  I’ve made this two ways by making a tiny adjustment.  The first time I made this, I used amaretto like the original recipe suggested.  Personally, I don’t like artificial almond flavouring, so it was a bit overpowering for me.  But if you like an almond flavoured cake, then use the amaretto because it provides a nicer flavour than almond extract would.  If you’re like me, and prefer a simple pound cake base, use the milk instead.

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Cranberry Sauce Recipe (it’s not just for turkey)

In Sides and Sauces on January 17, 2011 at am

I love cranberry sauce with turkey, so I’m not sure why I waited so long to make it from scratch.  I will never buy canned cranberry sauce again.  It is very easy to make and can be made a few days ahead of time.  I made it for Christmas, 2010 and Ed – who doesn’t like cranberry sauce – surprisingly really liked it.  Now he understands why people pair cranberries with turkey.  🙂

The great thing about this cranberry sauce is that it’s not just for turkey.  You could add it to baked brie crostini or baked brie on crackers, use it as an accompaniment for pâté de canard (duck pâté), spread this on top of cheesecake (garnish with almond slices), or use it as a filling for layer cake or trifle.  You could even use this like jam on french toast, plain toast, pancakes, scones, muffins, or sandwiches.

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Cooking with Alison’s One Year Anniversary!

In Random on January 15, 2011 at pm

Cooking with Alison was created one year ago, today!  So, like I do every year on my own birthday, I’m going to reflect on the past year’s lessons, appreciate the people that made a difference, and make plans for improvement over the next year.  Here’s to you and, hopefully, to another year of Cooking with Alison!

Statistics From the First Year of Food Blogging:

Total number of views:  58, 764

Number of views on the busiest day (Jan. 13, 2011): 529

Number of posts:  232

The most popular posts were:  Four Different Sauces for Mushroom Ravioli, How to Steam Cook Food, and Cheong Fun (Rice Noodle Rolls) With Shrimp

Number of email subscribers:  45 (plus 8 wordpress.com subscribers)

Number of email subscribers lost:  4 – It is at this point that I’d like to give a shout out to my dad, because he is one of the people that unsubscribed, haha.  (I was posting too frequently for him.)  Love you dad!  🙂

Unfortunately, I don’t currently have a way of knowing how many RSS subscribers there are (or how many I’ve lost).  😉

Number of websites inspired by Cooking with Alison:  1  (My love affair with everything)

Most Importantly, Thank Yous:

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Coconut Mango Rice Pudding

In Other Desserts on January 13, 2011 at am

I serve this rice pudding warm, because it contrasts beautifully with the cool chunks of mango.  I also love the added texture that the toasted coconut gives to the creamy pudding.  (See my recipe for basic rice pudding here.)

Note:  The texture of your rice pudding will depend on whether you’re using long or short grain rice.  According to the Joy of Baking, using long grain rice will result in a pudding that’s chewier and slightly drier.

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Pad Thai Recipe

In Rice and Noodle Dishes on January 11, 2011 at am

There are so many different ways to make pad thai authentically, that it really annoys me when restaurants don’t make it properly.  The worst is when the “pad thai” is made with a thick, red coloured sauce.  I rarely order it so as to avoid disappointment.  Luckily, pad thai is very easy to make at home.  It usually contains rice stick noodles, bean sprouts, Chinese chives, fish sauce, and sugar.  White vinegar or tamarind are used in Thailand for the sour component of this dish.  More information on tamarind has been posted here.  Depending on the street vendor, other varying ingredients include eggs, tofu, pork, dried shrimp, fresh shrimp, preserved raddish, and/or dark thick soy sauce, etc.  So add whichever ingredients you like.  Ed and I prefer a mildly and lightly flavoured pad thai, but you can adjust the sweet and sour balance of the recipe below to your preference.

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How to use Tamarind

In How-To on January 10, 2011 at am

Tamarind is a pod-like fruit that is used in Southeast Asian and Indian cooking.  It is also available candied.  It has a hard, dry, light brown exterior and several hard seeds.  The flesh is reddish brown in colour, slightly chewy in texture, and unique and tart in flavour.  If you’re not familiar with tamarind, you might be surprised to learn that it is an ingredient in Worcestershire and HP steak sauce.  On a side note, I like tamarind, but I dislike those sauces.

If you’re starting with fresh tamarind, discard the shell, the seeds, and the fibrous thread that runs along the outside of the flesh.  Otherwise, tamarind can be purchased in other forms.  There doesn’t seem to be a consistent use of terms that distinguish between those options.  So depending on the source, it can be very confusing as to what a recipe actually calls for.  Here is my general understanding:  Wet tamarind or tamarind block is shown on the right side of the photo above.  This is often simply labeled as “tamarind”.  I have even seen this referred to as tamarind “paste”.  But in general, tamarind paste, tamarind juice, and tamarind water usually refer to tamarind that has been prepared for cooking.  To add further confusion, the term tamarind pulp has been used to describe both the flesh of tamarind (wet tamarind / tamarind block) and, contrarily, the parts of the tamarind that do not “dissolve” or mix with water.

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Apple Pie Recipe (using bacon fat in the crust… or not)

In Pies & Tarts on January 8, 2011 at am

Apple pie is one of my favourite desserts, but since even most store bought and restaurant apple pies disappoint me, I spared myself the time and money that would surely be wasted on testing homemade apple pie recipes.  I’ve always settled for making apple crisps and tarts (recipe here) instead.  But when Bob Blumer won third place in a pie baking contest after never having made a pie before, I knew that his recipe would be well worth the effort.  (Check out his Food Network show, Glutton for Punishment.)  I made this for Christmas and everyone loved it.  Even my dad, who doesn’t like pie, asked for seconds.

Bob Blumer suggests using bacon fat in the pie crust.  I was so excited about this fantastic use for bacon, but I substituted it for butter since I was making a healthy meal for my family.  I will update this post when I make it again properly (I can’t wait!).  I love using bacon in interesting ways and I plan on making bacon cupcakes and chocolate covered bacon some day.  See my bacon jam recipe here – it’s Delicious!  The only combination that I don’t like is bacon mints.

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