Pan Seared Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Chestnuts

This is my adaptation of Gordon Ramsay's recipe.  I made these to accompany my Kabocha Risotto.  It is super quick and easy, but also is impressive enough to serve to company.  If you're not fond of brussels sprouts, this method of preparing them may just change your mind.

This recipe is delicious even without the chestnuts.  The sprouts will still want some kind of sweetness, so just add a bit of sugar as you're searing them.  You can also experiment with using an acid other than lemon juice at the end.  I'm fond of using apple cider vinegar if I don't have lemons on hand.

You can see Kabocha Risotto in the background.

Ingredients:

Brussels Sprouts

3 pieces of thick cut bacon cut into 1 cm wide strips.

at least 5 large peeled, chopped chestnuts

1 lemon

Butter

Salt

Pepper

Equipment:

Spatula

Iron Skillet

Knife

Cutting Board

1. To prepare the brussels sprouts, cut off the bottom of each sprout, peel away the outer leaves, then cut the larger ones in half.  If the sprouts are small enough, leave them whole.  You're trying to make everything roughly the same size, so it will all cook evenly.
2. Heat a pot of salted water until boiling, then blanch the prepared sprouts for 2 minutes.  
3. Simultaneously, heat your iron skillet, melt the butter, and fry the bacon until it is crispy.  Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
4. Add the sprouts directly to the skillet with a slotted spoon and sear them. 
5. Right before your brussels sprouts are ready to eat, add your chestnuts.  Next, add some lemon zest and a squeeze of lemon juice.  Give your dish a stir, then plate and enjoy.

Curried Cabbage with Raisins

I ignored a head of cabbage for three weeks before I finally decided what to do with it.  A few of the outer leaves had been used for coleslaw, but one can only eat so much slaw per month.  The recipe needed to be easy, quick, and warm, and I finally found something that fit the bill.  I like the sweetness of the raisins, but the recipe is fine without them since you'll get some sweetness from the shallots.  Serve this festive dish over rice with a few other brightly colored veggies.

The great thing about this method of cooking cabbage is that it will be fine with any number of substitutions.  If you don't have curry powder, use garam masala.  Also, if you don't have fresh turmeric, use powdered and reduce the amount to 1 tsp.  Finally, if you don't have mustard seeds, use about two tablespoons coarse mustard and reduce the vinegar a bit, since mustard has vinegar already.  If you do this substitution, don't use a type of mustard with horseradish, as it won't play nicely with the other flavors.

That yellowness is great for stimulating your immune system.  Turmeric for health! :)

Ingredients:

1 tbs cooking oil

1 c. shallots, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbs turmeric, minced

1/2 tbs. cumin

1 tbs mustard seeds

1 tbs curry powder

1 cabbage, sliced

1/4 c. rasins, soaked

1/2 c. chicken broth

1/4 c. apple cider vinegar

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Sliced tomatoes

1. Chop all the veggies.  
2. Heat oil in a large skillet (I use a wok), and heat the cumin and mustard seeds until they pop.   
3. Add the curry powder, tumeric, shallots, and garlic and saute until onions are translucent and the tumeric releases its color.
4. Add the chicken broth, and once it warms add the cabbage and raisins.  Cook until it is the texture you like, stirring to distribute the color.
5. Dress with the acv, and add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Serve over rice, topped with tomatoes.  Enjoy!

Tomato and Parsnip Soup

It has been colder than usual this week, so I've been craving soup.  This recipe is inspired by the one in The New England Soup Factory Cookbook, and if you like parsnips you'll most likely enjoy this soup.  I love parsnips, but K apparently does not.  Now I have something like four cups of it to myself as of day three.  This stuff is deceptively filling, so I should probably can some of it and expand my collection.  Yes--should.

Mellow, delicious, warm-you-up-fast goodness.

About Parsnips:

The best time to eat this carrot relative is during winter, as cold temperatures stimulate the plant to produce more sugars to ward off freezing.  This vegetable is very sweet and hardy, so it is one of my favorite winter vegetables.  Some people dislike the radishy/turnipy flavor.  To be honest, I wasn't a fan the first time I had them, but things have changed.

Most of the good stuff is either in or right below the peel, so to get the maximum nutrition from this veg don't peel it.  Speaking of peeling, parsnips brown when cut.  To prevent this, soak freshly cut pieces in cold water, as you would potatoes(this will prevent oxidation).

This recipe makes quite a bit of soup, so I recommend making half of it if you're not sure about parsnips.

 Ingredients:

2 tbs cooking oil

4 cloves garlic

1 large yellow onion, diced

2 ribs of celery, sliced

12 parsnips, sliced

6 cups peeled tomatoes (I used canned)

2 cups tomato or V8 juice

4 cups vegetable stock

1 cup cream

2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped

salt and pepper, to taste

Equipment:

blender

knife and cutting board

large, heavy-bottomed pot with lid

1. Chop the veggies into pieces--the smaller they are, the faster they'll cook.  This soup will be blended, so don't worry too much about the cutting.
2. Heat oil in the pot, then saute the fresh veggies for 10 minutes.
3. Add everything else except for the cream, dill, and s/p, then simmer, covered, for 35 minutes.
4. Puree the soup.  If you have one, use a hand blender.  If you don't, then work very carefully in steaming hot batches.
5. Stir in the cream, dill, and s/p.  I added a bit of 100,000 SHU cayenne (which, according to the scale, shouldn't exist), because hotter is better.
6. Garnish nicely.  I used fresh tomatoes and some cilantro, but would have used fresh dill if there'd been extra.  

Yulan (Korean Chestnut Dessert)

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...  The song inspired me to learn to cook with chestnuts.

Aren't these chestnut shaped bite sized snacks just adorable?  Bet you can't eat just one!  They're addictively delicious, and while you may have more self control than I do, they're hard to resist if you like chestnuts.  They best part is that they're incredibly simple to make--so easy, even a child could do it.  Here is the video that taught me to make this treat.

Ingredients:

15 to 20 large chestnuts

Honey

Pinch of salt

Cinnamon powder(for dipping)

Equipment:

Deep Pan 

Medium sieve

Small spoon

1. Make sure your chestnuts are clean, then cover them with water and boil them for around 30 minutes.
2. Cut the chestnuts in half, and use the small spoon to scoop out their meat into the sieve.
3. Press the chestnuts firmly through the sieve to make chestnut flour.  It will look a bit like sawdust, but trust me, it is delicious!
4. Add a small pinch of salt to bring out the sweetness of the dish, then add honey to your taste and mix.  You don't want it to be too wet, just to come together.
5. Now shape your chestnut dough into tiny chestnut shapes, and dip their ends in the cinnamon powder.  You're finished.  Yum!

Kabocha Risotto

You can see Pan Seared Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts and the dessert, Yulan, in the background.

I love squash, and of all the squash, I love kabocha the most.  It is a pleasing, radially symmetric green thing of beauty.  Kabocha is a Japanese pumpkin, and if you're living in Japan during the holidays, you can use it to make the best pumpkin pie.  Ever.   If you're stateside, these days it is relatively easy to find in Farmer's Markets, health food stores, and even some of the larger chain grocery stores.  Here in Texas, I've found it at HEB exactly once.

To pick out a good kabocha, you need to keep a key fact in mind.  Just like sweet potatoes, kabocha needs to be cured to bring out its best flavor.  If your kabocha is freshly harvested, the texture and flavor will be substandard.  Therefore, you want to pick a squash with dull skin and a very dry stem.  Also, you should pick an evenly formed squash.  Misshapen squash is usually caused by uneven watering, and nobody wants that.

Kabocha skin is thin and nice to eat, unlike that of my second favorite squash, the Delicata.  The only reason
I can think of to remove the skin when you eat Kabocha is if you don't want the green pigmentation in your dish.  If you steam, bake, or stew Kabocha, it provides a lovely contrast with the pumpkin's orange flesh. The first way I ever ate Kabocha was as tempura. I don't make fried food at home, other than krupuk, so one of the healthier ways I usually prepare Kabocha is nimono (煮物), which is slightly sweetened soy sauce and sake flavored  vegetables stewed in dashi (出汁, だし).

I've been interested in finding other ways to use the delightfully creamy, yet flaky, and sweet pumpkin, so I decided to try to make some risotto with it.  Naturally, I hadn't come up with the idea first, and my recipe is based on this one that I found at the Amateur Gourmet site.  It is über delicious.


A friendly reminder:  Always completely read the instructions before beginning any recipe--including this one.  If you're careful to get the timing right you can significantly reduce the time it takes to make this recipe in particular.

1. Chop the onions and start caramelizing them.  Do it now!  Cutting the squash will take a while, but not nearly as long as properly caramelizing your onions.  In a large non-stick pan, add a bit of oil and the onions.  Cook on low as long as you can--30 minutes at the absolute minimum.  They will turn a deep golden color and smell like oniony heaven.  Caramelized onions are the gold of Western cooking.
2. Halve and de-seed the squash, then cut into crescents.  Peel the crescents, then cut into 1cm wide pieces.  For the love of your fingers, use the sharpest knife you have.  Sharpen it right before you cut the squash if you can!  Blood isn't without nutrition, but we're going for a nice light color with this risotto, and cutting open your hand will ruin it.  
3. Add the water and stock to a pot and bring it to a boil.  Use the best chicken stock you can get.  I make my own double strength stock with a pressure cooker and can it, but I suppose you can buy yours.  It won't taste as good, though.
4. Simultaneously, in a covered iron skillet, steam the kabocha on low for a few minutes.  Then, turn up the heat and lightly sear the pieces.  Remove the pan from the heat before the kabocha is done.  It will continue cooking because of the iron skillet's high thermal capacitance. 
5. Add the rice to the onions and cook until it is slightly translucent, then add the marsala.  Once it is absorbed, add the stock one ladle at a time, gently stirring and allowing it to absorb before each subsequent addition.  Adding the liquids slowly will prevent you from making watery risotto.  You don't want it to be too thick, but it is better for it to be too thick than for it to be too watery.
6. Your risotto is nearly done.  Add the sage, toasted pine nuts, cheese, and stir to combine.  Plate, and garnish with more sage and pine nuts.  Lovely!

I served the kabocha risotto with pan seared brussels sprouts with bacon and chestnuts.  So delicious!

Kong Jang (콩장): Korean Sweet Soybean² Side Dish

There are different ways of making Kongjorim, but I like to go the health-nut tree-hugger route, meaning no overly processed ingredients.  And, true to form, I also follow the incapable-of-planning-ahead route of not soaking the beans overnight.  If you don't have honey, you can use 1/3 cup sugar instead.

Ingredients:

1 cup dried soybeans (black or tan is fine)

2 cups water

2 tbsp chopped garlic (I usually leave the smaller cloves whole)

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup honey (more or less as you like)

1 tsp cooking oil

1 tsp toasted sesame seeds

a sprinkle of sesame oil

1. So, now that you're jonesing for this deliciousness, go ahead and add your soybeans to your water and soak them for 1 hour.  Yeah, I know--there's a bit of time involved, but it could be worse.
2. Dump the beans and water into a saucepan, then bring to a boil.  Cover it, then reduce the heat enough that the foam won't boil over. (On my stove, this is just one setting above simmer.)  Now ignore it for 15 minutes. 
3. Add the garlic, honey, and cooking oil to the pot.  Why add cooking oil at this point?  It keeps the bean foam from boiling over and giving Mr. Clean nightmares.  Give things a good stir, and vigorously simmer uncovered  for 20 minutes, stirring as frequently as you can bother.  For me, this is about every 3 minutes.  The trick is to keep the beans moving and if your heat is set correctly this will happen automatically, at least until the water level decreases too much.
4. Cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.  At this point, you'll have to start paying attention or the beans will burn.  Stir them lovingly as long as it takes.  The softness of the bean depends on how much liquid you let evaporate.  Leave more liquid for a softer bean.
5. Your beans are now glossy, wrinkled, and delicious smelling.  Add the sesame oil, stir, and plate.  You may want to add extra honey, or you may not.  Garnish with sesame seeds.  Eat!

                                     

A word about pan choice:  I use a small nonstick saucepan with a diameter wider than the height of the vessel for this recipe.  You need to balance between high sides and large surface so area the beans won't boil over, and so it won't take forever for the liquid to evaporate.  Choose your weapon wisely, because cooking time will be affected more than you might think.

As for bean choice, get the best quality available or you'll find yourself spending too much time picking out the bad beans.  When eating in restaurants I've always had this with black soybeans but, since I can't easily find them at a good price, I use tan soybeans.  If finding dried soybeans of any color is an issue, try making the dish with black beans (your typical frijoles negros).

In closing, I like my kong jang with most of the water evaporated, until the beans are quite chewy and the sauce is more like a glaze.  If you want them softer, try soaking the beans overnight and add the soy sauce after you've evaporated some of the cooking water.  Either way, these keep well in the fridge for a while.  How long?  I've heard two weeks, but I really don't know, since we always eat them all before they've gone off.