NOM NOM on a budget

CRANBERRY ORANGE SCONES

scones remind me of a dear friend and ex-roommate in college who used to bake these at least once a week. her scones were always devoured right out of the oven, before they even had time to cool down!

i absolutely love how the orange zest in these scones provides an aromatic overtone to the tartness of dried cranberries and crumbly butter—so good! and best of all, it’s pretty easy to make, save for one time-consuming step. 

this was made from allrecipe’s simple scones recipe with a few changes:

• no need to freeze butter and then grate. i simply cut the butter into small chunks (about 1cm by 1cm by 1cm) and used a spoon ad fork to blend into the flour mixture. this is very similar to what needs to be done for butter cookies, and as long as you end up with a crumbly, dry mixture, you’re good to move on.
• added cranberries instead of raisins. i definitely took the liberty of adding more than the recipe called for.
• instead of the egg (i was out of eggs and realized this after i had cut in the butter) i used a little bit of milk + extra baking powder.
• i also definitely went overboard with the orange zest since i love the smell of citrus. try 4-5 tablespoons instead of the called-for 1!
  
  

serve warm. delicious with black tea. after baking these the entire house smelled warm and citrus-y. love it :) 

BREAKFAST FOLLOW-UP

made the pancakes (see previous post) again for brunch today, this time without compote, and paired it with scrambled eggs and bacon. 

the eggs are simply scrambled with a little milk, sharp cheddar, and parsley. salt and pepper to taste. i have fond memories of similar scrambled eggs with pineapple sage straight from our balcony plant (thanks anna <3)

a fantastic weekend meal. had to shower promptly after frying an entire package of bacon, though!

PANCAKES

my middle cousin did well on his report card this term (semester? six weeks? two years out of school and i’m already this far removed from education terminology) and sometime in car, during the conversation about getting a new hat or tshirt as a reward, pancakes were brought up as a more desirable alternative to waffles. (i don’t know if i agree—a very special food-place in my heart is reserved for chocolate chip waffles fresh out of the waffle maker…)

i’ve always wanted to do breakfast *right*—pan-cooked breadgoods, fruit compote, clotted cream, not-aunt-jemima maple syrup—like a plate of ihop’s rooty tooty fresh and fruity, but homemade and with less fake fruit. this is a nice first step :)

for the compote, i sliced strawberries, heated them on the stove with butter and sugar (next time i will use less sugar and less time on the stove - i think these came out overdone) and a dash of lemon juice.

for the pancakes, i followed allrecipe’s good old fashioned pancakes recipe (4.5 stars from 3,717 reviews!) they were fantastic!

FORMALITIES FRIED RICE POST

this is the formalities as-expected fried rice post. i have heard of SO many ways to do fried rice, each similar in preparation yet diversified in ingredients. frankly, fried rice is a dish that chinese people traditionally use to get rid of their leftovers, so everything is fair game. it’s a return-to-pot hodge podge dish, like frittatas and stone soup. pictures above feature salty duck egg and chinese sausage.

general template recipe: 

• make an egg omelet/scramble (like scrambled eggs but with only 50% of the scramble)
• remove egg from pan
• in emptied pan, stir fry garlic + choice of meat
• add rice (old, refrigerated, and stale rice works best i have found)
• add sauces, generally soy sauce, or satay, or oyster. whatever. this is fried rice. do as you please.
• add green onions last. mix and serve.

*in my case i skipped the egg omelet thing and added salty egg after rice and before sauces. also, i used brown rice and that was not fantastic.

THAI-FLAVOR COLD NOODLE SALAD

i hesitate to call this thai because, well, the extent of my knowledge of thai food is red curry and papaya salad. but i can safely say this is thai-flavored!

got the inspiration for this from a night market food stand in taiwan. on weekend evenings, my family and i would browse our neighborhood night market—how awesome is that, that i can say i’m going to leisurely take a stroll in our “neighborhood mecca of delicious, cheap, and prepared on-spot food”? our go-to stop was a thai papaya salad cart, manned by a lady in a red apron who would mix fresh papaya salad by the order in an authentic-looking wooden bowl. 

i absolutely love the spicy/sour combination of that papaya salad, and after watching this preparation a few times, i started to catch on to what was in it, and decided to try it out on my own with a few customizations. 

the noodles: green bean or mung bean thread noodles. these are so very cheap and readily available at any asian grocery market. make sure to purchase the thicker width ones; the thinner ones will clump and are more difficult to mix. cook these as instructed on the package. after they are cooked, drain and run with cold water until cool. 

the sauce: one part fish sauce. two parts lime juice. one part vinegar. a dash of soy sauce, chili oil (cayenne pepper works too, actually), and two spoonfuls of peanut/sesame paste (you can also try peanut butter. i’m willing to bet that wouldn’t be so bad.) mix vigorously and pour over noodles.

the toppings: minced garlic (just a teensy bit), crumbled peanuts (didn’t have them on hand in photos, but were fantastic the second time i tried making this dish), chopped cilantro (think it’s better alone with cilantro; pictures above depict green onion.) chop a wedge of lime and squeeze over the whole thing before eating.

mix everything, sqeeze lime, and nom!

PEAR AND AVOCADO SALAD

one of my absolute favorite salad staples. 1, because my kitchen-gifted friend and ex-roommate fed it to us as part of a memorable roommate feast where everyone contributes one dish, and 2, because it is DELICIOUS and NUTRITIOUS and SUPER EASY to make.

do i even need to explain? pick out a soft pear (the softer the better, in my opinion!) cut pear and avocado in 1-to-1 ratio and mix with spring/herb/dark greens. i usually cut more pear/avocado so that i can do greens + one pear piece + one avocado piece per bite—the pear and avocado are just so damn good next to each other! as with all cooking, adjust to your taste accordingly.

original recipe as my roommate made it drizzles basalmic vinegar and olive oil over the whole thing. tried it today with trader joe’s orange champagne vinegar instead—fantastic as well!

BREAD PUDDING

cooking has been more challenging in taiwan, since the kitchen is small and BELONGS TO MY G-MA. i’ve nevertheless found a way to temporarily satiate my low-budget, experimental cooking desires—via toaster oven!

this was adapted from a recipe in a book that my mother bought for me (she came home one day, enthusiastically waving “handmade breads and baked goods”, which really seems more like a gift for herself than for me—i’m just the cook.) the recipe is actually written for cooking in toaster ovens (seems like many taiwanese families don’t have conventional ovens.) the measurements are a little off as the book uses grams and i had to convert to cups (how the fuck anyone would measure sugar in grams, i have no idea. do you have a strain gauge scale in your kitchen? NO. NO YOU DO NOT.)

fill bake pan with old bread broken into little pieces (think croutons.) i used fake french baguette (taiwanese people seem to think that all elongated plain breads are baguettes.)

beat 2 eggs (or 1 if your pan is smaller) with 30g (1/10 cup) sugar and 1 cup milk. you’re supposed to heat the milk and sugar, but honestly i was too lazy.

pour liquid mixture over bread pieces and gently press the bread to soak all the liquid. make sure all pieces of bread are wet. sprinkle with cinnamon and 60g (1/5 cup) sugar.

bake at 350F for 20-30 minutes. let cool and arrange with fruit. i poured some honey over the fruit instead of glaze, but would really like to try a glaze next time. COOKING REVIVAL YAR!

POTATO LEEK SOUP

recipe courtesy of epicurious.com, here (also to dchen for making it for us that one time. was delicious! thank you!)

i took a simpler approach to this soup than the recipe details—no tarragon, replaced yogurt/whipping cream with milk, olive oil instead of butter (reason for the floating oil atop the surface. attempt to cook health-consciously visually looks less healthy. what do they call that, irony?)

as for the bread: trader joe’s dollar loaf (pugliese, i think?), sliced, drizzled with o. oil and a little bit of garlic powder, toasted in the toaster oven, dipped in delicious soup. works well with most all dips/cheeses/soups/etc. too!

CORN SOUP

seriously my comfort food. also one of the easiest recipes ever, as well as one of the only things my mother taught me how to cook (coincidence?).

you’ll need:
1 can cream of chicken
1 can corn cream style (yes, it has to be cream style)
2 eggs
salt/pepper/etc.

heat the cream of chicken and one can-ful of water on stove until combined. add the cream-style corn. stir until combined. if too thick, add another 1/4 can of water. bring to a boil, stirring vigorously (to prevent sticking at the bottom of pot).

beat the two eggs. once liquid starts boiling, make egg flowers in the soup (yes, like egg flower soup). with one hand, stir the soup in a circular motion while the other hand slowly pours the beaten eggs into the pot. the trick here is to pour a controlled, consistent stream of beaten egg into the liquid (as opposed to dumping the whole thing in or breaking the flow). the stirring of the soup should cause the raw egg to cook in flowing strings.

season with salt and pepper. lots and lots of pepper. can be served over rice or just as a soup. enjoy!

CHICKEN SOUP

there are probably as many ways to make chicken soup as there are chinese families in the bay area. here’s mine that i’ll be imposing on my children.

ingredients involved: chicken (i use drumsticks), mushrooms (pictured are dried mushrooms, you can use fresh shitake as well), goji berries or wolfberries, green onion, carrots, one dried scallop.

parboil chicken by heating up a small pot of water and boiling the chicken for 1-2 minutes. this gets rid of the nasty dirty stuff on the exterior of the meat. remove chicken and dispose of water.

heat up another pot of water (enough to just cover all ingredients). in the meanwhile, peel and chop carrots, green onions. soak dried mushrooms in sugar water (this helps them inflate faster) and chop. once water is boiling, throw everything in, largest to smallest. bring to boil.

cover and simmer on medium-low heat for 1-2 hours or until flavors are released. season with salt/pepper, garnish with green onion, and serve.