Don't let your strawberry feel lonely

Strawberry, Greens, Roasted Pecan and Goat with Rhubarb Dressing

It is said before we came to the world, each of us and  his partner were glued together back to back, and we won't stop feeling lonely until we find the other parts of ours. Because our partners and we couldn't see each other, so we can't recognized them, we can only let our heats to tell us we find the right person.
All the living creatures are looking for their partners, not only human being, like tomato and basil, I guess they were stick to each other on the back.They are good by themselves, but when they meet their partners, the reunion comforts their loneliness and makes them taste better than solely either of them.
I think the partners of strawberries are rhubarbs, they come in the same season, both in red color , after boiling rhubarbs, they show the similar texture as strawberries, rhubarbs are sour , which is the tartness of the taste of strawberries. That is why most of the strawberries recipes has rhubarbs in them.

So I made this strawberry salad with rhubarb dressing:

(it's more cream color instead of this peanut butter color :-/)

Method:

rhubarb , cut into half inch length(3 sticks, half pounds)

sugar: 1/2 cup

water(enough to cover rhubarb )

Boiling them together until it 's like syrup

Making vinaigrette

Dijon mustard 2Tbs

Apple cider vinegar : 1/4 cup

Olive oil: 1/3 cup-1/cup

rhubarb syrup

put them into  a blender to make vinaigrette

I want to be a pâtissier with the sweet smell and take the risk of becoming a fat girl

Strawberries parfait with Fig balsamic syrup

我叫金三顺（Sam Soon）is my favorite Korean show,  she is not skinny , not pretty, but she is so adorable and lovely with all kinds of nice characters, if I was a guy, I would love her. She is a talented pâtissier, so she always smells sweet and she is sweet. She said the she likes to make cake in the early morning when she is unhappy, which is the sweetest way to heal in the world. I love this, and I believe she is right, so I want to be a pâtissier like her !(*Reason No 1*)

(BTW: she also said " my job is to make chocolate and cake , how could I not be fat?!" > <)

And my name is gaogao(糕糕), it's cakecake, so I have to be able to make cake, I am supposed to.  (*Reason No2*)

It is said  " when you look at a cupcake, you are supposed to smile', so being  a pâtissier  means people always smile at her, how lovely!  So it's so tempting to be a pâtissier.(*Reason No 3)

I know it will take a while to be able to make the best cake, but I can still smell the sweet during the whole process even if my cake doesn't come out well. I hope one day all the world will smile at me because I can make best cake  : D

Strawberries parfait with Fig balsamic syrup

Making whipping Cream:

Mascarpone Cheese (8oz)

Whipping Cream

Lemon Juice(2 tsp)

Sugar 4TBS

vanilla extract(1tsp)

Making fig balsamic syrup:

black mission figs

a bottle of 750ml balsamic vinegar

honey(optional)

Boiling a bottle of 750ml balsamic vinegar, after about 15 mins add 4-5 dried black mission figs, keep reduce the liquid, use a spoon to test when the syrup can be coasted on a spoon, it's done. If the syrup is too thick, you will get trouble with pouring it out. and it will keep reducing when you move it away from the heat. When it gets cool(not too hot), put it into a blender, let it grinded

Use honey to adjust the sweetness.

** Balsamic syrup is the first professional thing I made , and it intrigued me about the cooking !

How to serve:

Mix strawberries with balsamic syrup about 30mins, then one layer of cream, one layer of strawberries, alternatively, there will be some juice in the mix of strawberries and balsamic syrup, drizzle it onto your parfait, at the end add some fig balsamic syrup on top, decorated with mint or basil leaves

Thorndike Lab-poached chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese and sun-dried tomato pesto

Temperature kills our chicken breast's juicy flavor, so basically I think there are three ways to fix it:

1. punch the chicken to break down the muscle

2. low temperature cooking（like steam, poach)

3.high temperature +short time cooking( like fried, cook it in the way in  Chinese cuisine 

4. acid( lemon , lime, vinegar） 

Today, I use the healthier way 1+2+4

Sun-dried tomato pesto

1 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes (about 6 ounces)

1/2 cup grated Romano cheese or Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil or 1 tablespoon dried

2-3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted

3 garlic cloves, pan roasted

1/4 cup olive oil

method

1. pan roasted garlic in olive oil

2. use a blender, blend all the ingredients together

Poached chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese and sun-dried tomato pesto

1. make stuffing: mix sun- dried tomato pesto and goat cheese,1: 1 or so , depends on your preference

2. punch the chicken breast, make it thinner 

3.sprinkle both sides of chicken breast with salt pepper, drizzle with lemon juice on one side, which you are going to put stuffings on。

4,because your chicken breast is really thin, so you can wrap them as making a taqueria, the using cooking string to tighten them, then using plastic wrap  wrap them, then put them in a zip bag

5. boil a pot of water, after boiling, reduce the heat and wait until it simmer, then put the zip bag in the water, poach, covered

the differences between poach, simmer, and boiling 

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/PoachingSimmeringBoiling.htm

6. 14-15mins, take them out and let them cool

7. I would like to pour the juice that in the zip bag on the chicken roll, to keep them juicy and add more flavor

8. enjoy~~

I hope the above is a good recipe...

Recipe-Miso Glalzed Salmon, Miso peanut butter eggplant, mint green tea rice

I don't write recipe in my blog, because it's difficult to say, each time before I try some new stuffs, I will have to look up several similar recipes to get the inspiration and figure out how I am going to cook it, and for the measurements, I usually just remember the proportion,   so it will be more flexible for me to cook it in the future  with different sizes, and and taste the sauce as I prepare it and adjust the proportion accordingly and gradually.

But today, I am going to write a recipe  a very thorough recipe and method for this dish, because it is a requirement.

Miso Glalzed Salmon, Miso peanut butter eggplant, mint green tea rice

Miso Glalzed Salmon*:

(sweet part:)

1TBS Brown sugar

1TBS Mirin**

(salty part:)

1TBS Miso

1TBS Ponzu( =1TBS low salt soysauce +1 TBS orange juice)***

1/2" fresh ginger granted**** including all the ginger juice

1TBS sesame oil

*basically, start from sweet part and salty part as 1:1, adjust it accordingly 

**Mirin is sweet, most of the ingredient is corn syrup, but it rends the glaze and special flavor

***Ponzu is a Japanese soysauce with some orange flavor,  the substitution should work, but I add orange juice concentration anyway even with Ponzu, if you don't buy orange juice regularly, just squeeze the fresh orange

**** this is very important , can't be substituted with ginger powder 

Method

1.Take the salmon out of refrige and let it warm up to room temperature 

2. make the marinade sauce

3. Marinade the salmon, I did it in this way, put the salmon into marinade sauce and skin side up, let the weight of itself to absorb the sauce, and for the skin side, seasoning with a little bit salt ans pepper

4. for all seafood, the marinade time can't be longer than 30mins

5.usually you can just go to step 6 to broil it, but I prefer to pan sear it to create a crispy skin

when pan is very hot, add oil( hot pot, cold oil), put salmon in the pan, skin side down, sear it, don't move it, see when 1/3-1/2 meat is cooked, use a big flat spatula to move it on to a rack( use the toast oven rack if you  don't have a big one)

6. set oven on broil( this should be done before step 5), put the rack with salmon in to the oven  4-6inched from the top of the oven ( in my oven it is the second level from the top), broil it( time depends on the thickness of your salmon)

10-12min if skip step 5

6-7 min if you have done the step 5

but you have to check , when the glaze is formed , it indicates your salmon is ready, 

7. let the salmon sit 5mins or so before serve

Miso peanut butter Eggplant:

Usually miso eggplant is just miso sauce without peanut butter, but I like peanut butter so and have read a recipe called peanut butter eggplant, after made two versions with and without peanut, I think peanut is a great complement here

(Miso: Rice vinegar: sweet stuffs=2:1:0.7)

2TBS Miso

1TBS rice vinegar

1tsp brown sugar+1tsp mirin( adjust accordingly)

2-3TBS sesame oil, more for brush

1. Cut the eggplant either lengthwise or into round slice( it means you have to brush the sauce to both sides)

2.Marinade the eggplant at least 15mins ahead

3.same oven setting as in salmon above, brush the skin of eggplant with sesame oil

4. Broil it for about 10min, check in the half brush with sesame oil to the edge and surface, (if your eggplant is round sliced, turn them over in the half)

5. when the brown glaze is formed, it's done

6.when hot,sprinkle with green onion

Mint green tea rice

It can use all kinds of tea, either basic green tea or  jasmine tea, I used mint tea here to pair the miso sauce.

the proportion I used is:

3 tea bags( 3tsp loose tea)

1cup rice

1tsp olive oil

salt if you want to season it

cook it in the rice cooker in the normal way you cook rice

I hope the above is a reader-friendly recipe and I have them very clear

Attach another mobile picture from the dinner, surprised it turns out that thorndike kitchen looks romantic!

Sundried-tomato pesto, parmesan, mozzarella, marinade tomato, crispy prosciutto, fresh basil pizza

Sundried -tomato pesto: sundried tomato, basil, pine nut, roasted garlic, olive oil, make it in a pesto way

marinade tomato: red wine vinegar, sugar, garlic, thyme, sugar, marinade at least 1hr

  

Friend--All in one cookie(oatmeal, raisin, walnut, chocolate, date)

These are  the steps around the Colin Tower in San Francisco. Some commercial things, you pay, then you get a  brick that you can put your name on it, but these two are so special, they are for *friend*. So I am the one on the left, and you are on right, we are remembered by San Francisco.

Cookies

all in one cookie: oatmeal, raisin, walnut, chocolate, date

Besides this one, the last time I made cookies was several years ago, when I was shocked by how much butter and sugar in it, then refuse to make it and even have some fear to eat it. One day, in a bakery, I was asked 'what kind of cookie do you want?' , I just said ' I don't want cookie', then a smiling old guy in front of me, turned around and said' how could you not want cookie?!', yeah, how could I ? then I get the white-chocolate-macadamia-nut-cookie and a smile ...

I am not an expert for cookies, there are some tips I want to write down for memo:

1. use 1/4 cup(or so) less flour as required

2. vegetable shortening can make it more chewy, so I use both butter and shortening

3.chill the dough before making

4.longer the bake time, more crispy, I will use 10mins @350F

New England Ice Cream Trip(I) -Massachusetts

Ice cream is exquisite.  What a pity it isn't illegal.  ~Voltaire

In eating  ice cream ,  we meet God, and lose God, eat God, as it were, become God( as in 'You are what you eat') and lose God(as in 'You can't eat your cake and have it too')

Coordinator

Yiwen Gao

Judge committee

Hongmin Fan,
Yiman Hou,
Yuqian Li,
Creence Lin,
Wanyu Wang
,Sheng You,
Yue Zhang

Time
05/02/2010 11:00am-9:00pm
( including a lunch@Top Garden - Tewksbury, MA)

Mission

As the first trip of the significant Ice cream tasting trip, we only stopped by the stores in Massachusetts. Due to the time limitation, there are still some famous stores that we missed out,  we will try to stop by in the future trip. For each store, the candidate flavors we pick up are: vanilla flavors, chocolate flavors, fruit flavors, nut flavors and featured flavors. After tasting, the judger graded the ice cream from 1-5(5 is the highest).

Confession

Our judger tried to grade equitably and objectively, but it's difficult not to involve individual preferences, for example, most of the judger don't like the pistachio flavors, which results in the overall low grading of pistachio ice cream. And since the judgers all prefer Asian flavors, it's not surprised to see the Green Tea flavor is extremely popular, so does Adzuki bean (red bean). So I hope you are reviewing our report with awareness of those points.

View Larger Map

Ice cream Stores Profiles:

Report( with grades)

Kimball (Carlisle, MA *multi-locations)

Vanilla:       Vanilla Cherry chip    (3.7)

                   Big , plentiful of cherries, with chocolate chip

Chocolate:  Chocolate Almond    (2.2)

                   Very disappointing ( Maybe I should not have it as the candidate flavor)

Fruit:          Vanilla Cherry           (3.7)

Nut:             Pistachio                   (2)

                    Very disappointing, very few pistachio

Featured:     Kahlua Crunch         (4.2)

                     Coffee flavor with fudge swirl, chocolate crispy(or something) , very good 

** we didn't go to the Westford store, which is famous with those mini golf,  the Carlisle store is not facilitated well, but with tables

-------------------------------------------

Richardson (Reading, MA, * multi-locations)

Vanilla:       Vanilla Cherry                  (3.3)

                    not very pleasant, fake cherry, with pink color(seems artificial) vanilla ice cream

Chocolate:  Death  by Chocolate         (4)

                    This is really chocolate ice cream, rich, very good

Fruit:          Vanilla Cherry

Nut:             Pistachio                          (3.1)    

              loads of pistachio, it claims itself as the green color of ice cream is naturally from pistachio, but  most of the judges are not fans of pistachio ice cream :(

Featured:    Reversed Chocolate chips (3.8)

                    this white chocolate chip with chocolate ice cream

** we visited the Reading store in the Jordan furniture, got to watch some musical fountain show :))

------------------------------

Christina(Cambridge, MA)

Vanilla:      Vanilla Bean                (3.5)

                    Rich, but no surprise

Chocolate:  Mexican  Chocolate    (3.4)

                   with cinnamon that brings in the spiciness, I am a Mexican chocolate fan( Spicy!), I love it, but if  you are not into that, you probably feel weird 

Fruit:          Mango                        (4.5)

                 Very creamy,  Mangony , which is not created by cream, but taste like lots of mango puree,  I can't believe it's a fruit ice cream, but it's definitely ice cream but not sorbet  

Nut:            

Featured:    Green Tea                   (4.2)

                    We all love it, not very sweet, characteristically Asian ice cream 

                    Burnt Sugar                 (3.6)

                    Rich, intense, but only if you like burnt sugar 

                    Adzuki Bean               (4.4)

             this one got raved right away, since I actually only got one spoon of it, I subconsciously feel it is the best :-|

                    Gingersnap Mollassa   (3.8)

                    I love Ginger ice cream and this one is absolutely cold gingersnap mollassa cookie in the form of ice cream. But not all of our judger loves gingersnap, so it doesn't hit a very high score

** the staffs are not very friendly, which is kinda expected, but the long waiting line is always there

      a folk waiting in the line also recommended carrot ice cream to us

*   expensive than all the other stores

---------------------------------

Peaceful Meadow(Whiteman, MA)

Vanilla:       

Chocolate:  Coconut Chocolate Almond   (4.5)

                this one could be the super star of that day, it 's actually not chocolate ice cream but vanilla ice cream with  mini chocolate chip, coconut, and almond, everything is balanced so well there, everyone loves it!

Fruit:          Black Raspberries   (3.3)

                   not very impressive

                   Orange pineapple    (4)

                   our girls loved it, very fresh

Nut:            Maple Walnut          (4)

                 this is the best maple flavor ice cream I have ever had so far, the maple flavor is so intense, love it!

Featured:   Coffee Fudge           (4.2)

                    very coffeey, bitter coffee balanced well with sweet fudge

* After traveling so many stores, eating so much ice cream , we all kinda were surprised we loved this place so much(right after Christina!)  but overall, ice cream there is  sweeter than in Christina, but I don't rule out the factor that we ordered some Asian flavors in Christina. 

**You can also see cows there, but not smell good. 

***The lines are all long, no tables that you can sit down and enjoy your ice cream though

-------------------------------------

Racantore (Belmont MA)

Vanilla:        

Chocolate:  Bittersweet Chocolate   (3.4)

                    sweeter than 'death by chocolate' in Richardson

Fruit:          Strawberries                  (3.4)

                    no surprise

Nut:            Hazelnut                        (3.7)

                   a little bit subtle

Featured:   Espresso                         (4.2)

                   this is the best coffee ice cream I have ever had

But in this place, the super surprise is: 

Chocolate chop Cookie cone, Pretzel cone!!

Unfortunately the  cookie cone were sold out

Pretzel cone was unexpectedly good to be served with ice cream

Do we look fatter than in the first picture??

(this is the last stop-)

Prize

Best Chocolate Ice cream

Coconut Chocolate Almond from Peaceful Meadow

( this doesn't count actually, it's not chocolate ice cream)

Death by Chocolate from Richardson

Best Fruit Ice cream

Mango from Christina 

Best Nut Ice cream

Maple Walnut from Peaceful Meadow 

Best Coffee Ice cream

Coffee Fudge from Peaceful Meadow 

Espresso t from Racantore

Best Special Flavor Ice cream 

Adzuki Bean(Red Bean) from Christina

Best Ice Cream store in this trip

Peaceful Meadow (4)

Christina(3.9)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to

all the committee members

SPECIAL THANKS TO

Hongmin Fan

(One of the driver,

the only guy in the team)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brain storm Time

How to select candidate flavor to make sure they are characteristic , best representative?

How to grade ice cream with involving minimum personal preference?

what should be the standards to represent the best ice cream?

......................................

"I had always thought that once you grew up you could do anything you wanted - stay up all night or eat ice-cream straight out of the container. "

Thanks god, we have grown up and you do too

I hope you can help me think about those questions when you are in bed and eating ice cream straight out of the  container.

Let Google calendar my life, then I can save some memory to remember the value of Pie

Roasted Balsamic Mushroom, Arugula pesto, Cherry wood Smoke mozzarella Pizza(Naan bread)

If I have Google calendar completely guide my life, helping me work, help me love my beloves, I wonder how much memory it can free from my brain in my whole life, what should I do with the 'extra' memory ??? 

Will I be able to remember the value of Pie ? Quite possible,then at the moment before I die, I will be able to recite it, but can't remember my beloves' birthdays, because my calendar may not be on hand....

part of pie value

Not sure if I want to do that, but I do check my own blog for recipes of the food I made before

Arugula Pesto: 

Roasted garlic

Arugula +basil (2 cups)

3-4Tbsp nuts( pine nuts+pecan)

lemon juice

oliver oil

Parmesan