Cooking with Alison

Posts Tagged ‘recipes’

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How to Make Puff Pastry From Scratch, The Quick and Easy Way

In Appetizers, Hors D'oeuvres, Snacks, How-To, Main Course, Other Desserts, Pies & Tarts on November 10, 2013 at am

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In the past, I often used store bought, frozen puff pastry for special occasions and parties.  Although I had been planning to attempt making puff pastry from scratch for years, I put it off, because the process requires many steps and resting times.  So imagine how excited I was when I found a time-saving technique for puff pastry in The Modern Baker.  Not only is this puff pastry easy and relatively quick to make, it is freezer friendly, too.  So you can make several batches in half a day, freeze them, and have your own instant puff pastry for future uses.  This puff pastry bakes up beautifully flaky, buttery, and crisp.  I’ll probably never use store-bought puff pastry again.  When I used this dough to make cheese danishes, my dad said that they were better than the ones that he buys from a bakery. I’ve also used this successfully for savoury tarts (see recipes here and here) and beef wellington. Here are a few other recipes that use puff pastry: Hong Kong egg tarts (see recipe here), apple turnovers (see recipe here), chicken or turkey pot pie (see recipe here), and vol au vents.

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Pickled Daikon Radish and Carrot Recipe

In Asian, Other Asian Foods, Sides and Sauces on November 3, 2013 at am

One of the reasons why I love love love Vietnamese sandwiches (banh mi), is that they contain pickled daikon radishes and carrots.  These pickled daikon radishes and carrots are very easy to make and are a great side dish to almost any meal.  Enjoy them with a bowl of Vietnamese beef noodle soup (pho tai) (see recipe here), or a dish of meat and rice, or add them to your rice paper rolls (see recipe here).  These are also a great accompaniment to Korean food (see my beef short ribs (kalbi) recipe here).  I love making my own pickled vegetables, because I can control the salt and sugar content.  If you are not sure what to do with your leftover daikon radishes, you will find a list of different recipes that use this radish here.

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White Daikon Radish Soup Recipe

In Asian, Soups, Soups and Salads on October 29, 2013 at am

When white daikon radish went on sale for only 9 cents per pound, I made soup, among several other dishes (see a list of daikon radish recipes here).  My family, John, and John’s mom really liked this soup.  This soup is mild, light, and very versatile.  I’ve included a few variations of the recipe below.  I made this broth using pork bones.

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What to Cook When Daikon Radish Goes on Sale for 9 Cents per Pound

In Appetizers, Hors D'oeuvres, Snacks, Asian, Dim Sum, How-To, Meat and Eggs, Other Asian Foods, Rice and Noodle Dishes, Soups on October 26, 2013 at am

When white daikon radish went on sale for only 9 cents per pound, I did what I had to do – I bought pounds and pounds and pounds of it, found different ways to cook it, and ate nothing but daikon radish for two weeks.  It was awesome!  🙂  So here is a list of dishes that you can make using white daikon radish.  Let me know if you can think of more items!

  • braised beef dishes (see recipes here and here)
  • Vietnamese beef noodle soup (pho tai) (see recipe here)
  • steamed cake (lo bak go) (see recipe here)
  • pickled condiment (see recipe here)
  • soup (see recipe here)
  • pan fried dish with beef

If you’ve never cooked daikon radish before, I should warn you that the cooking process releases an unpleasant odour.  But once the radish is fully cooked, the smell goes away, and the radish has a mild flavour.

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Brownie Cookies Recipe

In Cookies on October 19, 2013 at am

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I’ve made these brownie cookies a few times, now, and they are always a big hit.  They are chocolatey, rich, and dense.  I love that they resemble brownies that come in a cookie form.

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Chinese Hairy Gourd Soup Recipe

In Asian, Soups, Soups and Salads on October 15, 2013 at am

Cooking with Alison’s Mom (Part 2)

Hairy gourd is a Chinese vegetable that resembles a cucumber with fine, white fuzz on the skin.  This hairy gourd soup is light and simple and, like most Chinese soups, it allows the subtle flavour of the vegetable to come through.  We make this soup all year round, because my mother grows the hairy gourd in her garden.  This soup is normally made with a Chinese salted egg, but we recently discovered that this soup is even better when you use drippings from steamed lobster instead.  Both variations have been provided in the recipe below.  [On a side note, according to the teachings of Chinese medicine, this is a neutral vegetable (neither a ‘hot’ food nor a ‘cold’ food), so it is suitable for everyone.]

Chinese hairy gourd vegetable

Chinese hairy gourd vegetable

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Best Cornbread Recipe

In Appetizers, Hors D'oeuvres, Snacks, Breads, Breakfast, Sides and Sauces on October 9, 2013 at am

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When I set out to find the best cornbread recipe, I learned that there are people that prefer sweet cornbread, and there are people that prefer savoury cornbread.  Personally, I prefer cornbread that is savoury and plain.  I tried a few cornbread recipes that were, in my opinion, far from appetizing and had almost decided to give up on cornbread.  But when I saw a cornbread recipe in The Modern Baker (a cookbook that I received from an old neighbour), I thought, let’s try one more.  I am so glad that I did, because this cornbread recipe put all others to shame.  This was very flavourful, and the texture was the perfect balance of crumbly and moist.  I finally understand why so many people love this stuff.  John, who is much more familiar with southern food than I am, said it was the best cornbread he’s ever had, and my dad couldn’t get enough of it.  According to Nick Malgieri, this recipe is a Southwestern American version of cornbread.  Another great thing about this recipe is that it works well with added ingredients, such as chedder cheese and jalapenos.

More recently, I turned this recipe into finger food for John’s housewarming party, by baking it in a 9 inch x 13 inch pan and cutting it into 36 mini wedges.  I recommend freezing the cornbread first, as it was much easier to cut while it was still semi frozen.  I had a lot of cornbread leftover after the party and people were very happy to take extras home with them.

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Herb and Pistachio Crusted Rack of Lamb Recipe

In Red Meat and Eggs on October 4, 2013 at pm

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I love rack of lamb, but the idea of cooking it myself was intimidating, because I was worried that I would undercook or overcook it and waste an expensive cut of meat.  Although I prefer my beef steak blue rare, I find that lamb is best enjoyed medium or medium rare.  I decided to take on this challenge for Mother’s Day and, luckily, it turned out beautifully.  I used the touch method (also known as the finger test) to check the doneness of the meat every 5 to 10 minutes to ensure that I didn’t overcook it.  Since I kept letting the heat out of the oven, it took about 40 minutes for my roast to reach medium doneness (20 minutes longer than expected), but it was delicious.

Note:  I personally don’t like the flavour of mint, but since mint is a common accompaniment for lamb, you could add a couple of fresh mint leaves to the other fresh herbs in this recipe.  I’d also like to note that using nuts instead of the typical bread crumbs for the crust happens to make this entree gluten free.

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How to Determine the Doneness of Meat Using Touch Test

In How-To, Red Meat and Eggs on October 1, 2013 at am

Regardless of what type of meat you’re cooking or how you’re cooking the meat, the biggest mistake you can make is overcooking it.  Unfortunately, the required cooking time for each cut or piece of meat can vary greatly depending on the equipment used to cook it, the size of the meat, the starting temperature of the meat, and the ratio of meat to bone, etc.  Therefore, it is very important to rely more heavily on the touch test or meat thermometers than general cooking time guidelines.  Determining the doneness of meat is the most difficult part of any recipe, but luckily, it gets easier with practice.  

Over time, you will be able to tell whether or not the meat is cooked through simply by smelling and looking at the meat.  (Hint:  The meat will be opaque in colour and it will have shriveled away from the bones.)  Until then, you have the touch test and meat thermometers.

Although using a meat thermometer will give you precision (as long as it has been calibrated properly), you end up losing some of the meat juices when you poke it into the meat.  You also end up with unsightly holes or tears in your meat.  So I prefer to use the touch test.  Below, I’ve shared three different variations of the touch test for checking the doneness of meat.  Note that I have also heard this being called the “finger test”.  Let me know if you know of any other touch methods.

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and the delicious cakes just keep getting… uglier (Strawberry and Vanilla Cake Recipe)

In Cakes, Desserts on September 24, 2013 at am

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After incredible success with turning Sweetapolita’s vanilla birthday cake into a lemon layer cake (recipe here), I knew that I had to try her fluffy vanilla cake with whipped vanilla frosting as originally intended.  Especially after she validated my preference for homemade vanilla cake that resembles boxed cake mix!  But since I only like vanilla cake that has fruit in it, I couldn’t help but add some fresh strawberries.  The tartness of the strawberries contrasted the not-too-sweet vanilla frosting beautifully.  You could always omit the strawberries and whipped cream filling.  I made this for my sister’s surprise 28th birthday party.  In my opinion, it was quite ugly up close.  John said that it was even uglier than the cake I made for his birthday (see photo here), haha.  🙂  Personally, I like the lemon cake more (probably because it uses lard in the cake batter), but the flavour and texture of this strawberry vanilla cake won’t disappoint, as long as you don’t overbake it.

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Favourite Lemon Layer Cake Recipe

In Cakes, Desserts on September 20, 2013 at am

Although this may be the ugliest cake I’ve ever made, it is the best lemon layer cake that I have ever 1. eaten and 2. made.  This triple-lemon cake consists of four layers of cake, two layers of lemon curd, one layer of whipped cream and fresh blueberries, and a covering of whipped frosting.  There is lemon in the frosting, the cake layers, and, of course, the lemon curd filling.  I know it sounds like a lot of work, but many of the components can be made days in advance and it truly is worth it.

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Tonkotsu Ramen Recipe (from scratch)

In Asian, Rice and Noodle Dishes, Soups and Salads on September 13, 2013 at am

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As you can tell from my ramen eating tour through Toronto, ON, and New York City (see my reviews here), I was kind of obsessed with ramen for a little while.  It’s been a longer while since I’ve last eaten some, haha.   Ramen is a Japanese noodle dish in broth.  Traditionally, you are supposed to finish the entire bowl of noodles, including the soup, but I would never drink more than a few spoonfuls of the soup served in a restaurant (unless they specifically claimed that they do not use MSG).  Although I was loving the restaurant served MSG-laden bowls of ramen, I still wanted to be able to enjoy ramen with controlled sodium and fat levels, so naturally, I made my own.  I happily drink every drop of my home-made ramen broth.  It is very easy to make and you could make a large batch and freeze some for quick and easy future meals.  My favourite ramen broth is tonkotsu, which is made with pork bones.  For those that prefer a lighter broth, see my chicken ramen broth recipe here.  Once you’ve made the base stock, you can tailor individual bowls of ramen broth with seasonings such as shio (salt), shoyu (soy sauce), miso, mayu (burnt garlic oil), etc.

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