Rainbow moments--Steak with Horseraddish cream and roasted carrot, roasted garlic parsnip puree

Woke up, accidently touched the pandora icon on my phone, surprisedly  it was a beautiful  'Somewhere over the rainbow' by Rufus. I have been stressed out, it was like a little hope that comforted me. Maybe...

Even if in the world over the rainbow, it is still difficult to find a job, I am sure it is a wonderful world, hmm... it should be under the strawberry system with a strawberry in the sky ,instead of a sun.

I can't go over the rainbow, and actually there were not too many rainbow moments in my life, I tried to record all of them ( since I had a camera). I even don't have a good picture under the rainbow. But I still remember the exicitement at each signle time. It's about the beauty of life. I hope I will have a job(full time, spornsoring h1b)  at the next rainbow moment( this summer?)

11/23/2007 Maui, HI

11/26/2007 Maui, HI

08/23/2008 Cambridge, MA

05/01/2009 Olympic National Park, WA

The food:

Steak: coffee spicy rubbed, rare cooked

horseraddish cream: horseraddish sour cream, dill

roaste carrot: fennel seeds, thyme, fennel, truffle oil

parsnip puree: roasted garlic, parsnip, cream

ps: I am craving for big meat sometimes and the dish was from many days ago, no interview, no appetite~~

Cooking in San Diego( a Cantonese kitchen )

The original mission for the SD trip is to meet gaogao, but I couldn’t make it. I got to know gaogao is getting old (only 17 years old) and he is a little weak ,not good for him to go out to meet people, so the supers stars in the zoon are the second generation, gaogao’ daughter(su lin) ans son (zhen zhen)and the newborn baby yunzi is a most pleasant news in the zoo. It was disappointing, but anyway, it was a fun trip. As I was told, he would have liked to see me too.

We stayed in a friend’s apartment and it is a classical Cantonese kitchen, no herbs on hand. But I still cooked there, with something I could grab from the WFs, in a very fusion way.

• T-Bone steak(coffee , galanga ginger, Chinese five spices rubbed) with sundried tomato blanc:
• Three-cups of octopus(oyster sauce, sesame oil, rice wine) with polenta cake( jalapeño, sweet corn, cheddar, celery)
• Baked apple with dates and maple walnut stuffing.
• Roasted red pepper, mushroom and orange cauliflowers.( I so wished I had thyme and truffle oil!)

It is so weird, after I travelled so many places, I still love Boston , love Cambridge most. I have been loving the words from ‘the little prince’:

If you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. All the stars are a-bloom with flowers...

I guess it must be that I was captivated by a flower, a leaf , a coffee shop or a street corner or.. ,then every glance at the city is so joyful. But right now I even can’t remember what it exactly is. Recently, I have been instinctively feeling that I will eventually leave this city, it was always sad when it got to me. After I move away, this place will not be called as 'Thorndike Kitchen' any more, I should have knew it when I created it. ‘Thorndike’, it sounded so weird when I first heard it, but now it is such a sweet name for me. I am just a passenger…

                           

Taste vs. Original(Iron Chef won?!) --Beef Stroganoff

It was Battle Almond. I didn't watch the beginning ,not sure if Chef  Phan is from China, but from the ingredients he used and the way he cooked, I guess it was about Chinese cuisine. Very excited, it is not usual to see Chef playing with wok in 'Iron Chef America', I felt proud. When chefs presented their dishes, apparenly, judgers liked the Chef Phan's food more, But to my surprise, Chef Cora won. In face , in the taste aspect, Chef Phan was 6 points more, but he lost a lot in the original aspect, which leaded him lose the challenge.

Food is for eat after all,  the taste is the most important over all the other aspects, isn't it? 

I kinda think the competition is not very fair, it is unfair to assign each aspect equally 10 points, taste should account for more weights ( See, I am taking 'Data Mining' class right now :)

Yes, the classic Chinese cuisine is a little boring, it has been there thousands of years. But it comes from several centuries to today, but still mostly keep the orignal way, it means it is the BEST way to do it, it's not people don't want to be creative, but they can't find a better way to make replacement.

( My aha moments came....)

I kinda got to understand why SK likes the most orignal ways about food, becasue it is classic and nothing can be wrong with it. Although the world is rapidly changing every second, the definition about good taste still stay almost the same, I guess. ( I am not talking about the healthy issues here)

So maybe I should practice more on how to make perfect KongBao Chicken, instead of trying to start some adventure about Kongbao Chicken Lasagna.

Beef Stroganoff can be counted as a traditional dish from Russia . I checked several recipes and decided to make the roxy version. I browned the beef in the way borrowed from Chinese cuisine (medium heat ,wash with starch water ahead)and it turns out super tender! Also I like the idea of using dill to match the sour cream/ yogurt

Sauce
Basic roux plus yogurt and Dijon mustard brandy ( confession: I forgot nutmeg)

Beef
Rubbed with salt pepper Ginger powder brown sugar oregano. Washed with starch water before cooking under medium heat with ENOUGH oil, cooked it until 80% done.

Saute mushroom and onion .dill about 10mins, add beef,  add sauce.
One more declaration, it's not I wasn't cooking, I did make some interesting things but only for testing and of course my weekly squash soup, I have made four kinds so far:

1. Squash sage nutmeg maple syrup with white bean
2. Squash carrot Ginger
3. Squash curry
4. Squash apple cinnamon allspice white bean

I think I like No1 and No2 most.  And this beef stroganoff was a failure last weekend, so I made it again. Although I still took good pictures for it, I don't think I could post them, they were not good eats, it's a food blog but not a photograph blog.

I just want to be better , but not perfect--Quick Beef Jerky(Fruit and Ginger Flavor)[Assignment]

Sometimes, you have to spend a lot of time to figure out a problem, but some other people are just able to have it done much quickly. It is definitely frustrating. But it looks like I am not as upset as I was when it happens, it's not I don't want to fight any more, but I get to realize I am not perfect, so I think I just want to be better, which already can make me cheerful.

So, now when I hear the complements like ' you are doing (MUCH) better...', I will smile and  know I can still grow, to be the 'perfect' gaogao in your imagination.

This is a quick beef jerky, by using deli rost beef. Usually, I make beef jerky from beef shoulder chuck, boil it first, then cut into the cube or sliced it whatever you want. Boil /marinade  it  in the teriyaki or spicy sauce. Bake them to the texture you want.

Trader joe's deli roast beef is a good deal but very bland, well, it is not a very thin , but thin enough for beef jerky. And it turns out very alike the real beef jerky in stores.

Remember the beef skewers in some bar with some secrete sweet flavor, I thought about it afterwards and got to know marinad is made from fruit juice/preserve(apricot, or pear) as well as ginger. So I call this as an [Assignment] , since I wanted to make it come true here.

1. Saute onion and garlic

2. Add a kind of juice( I used the leftover apple cider reductions), julienne ginger, soy sauce/teriyaki sauce, aslso some red wine if you like

3.Add deli roast beef

4. Boil to reduce the water, until water is gone.

5.400F, Bake them until dried to be like a jerky, turn in the middle

Fruit juice and ginger, that is the secrete, got it?

1st secrete ingredient is always

affection and love,

so I appreciate every chef that cook with care
 to bring us the wonder food

Best well-done steak ever and my favorite steak sauce-coffee rubbed rib eye with tomato sauce

This piece of rib eye is left from the birthdayS dinner. Since I already rubbed it with salt and coffee rub, I was so worried about it would be degraded. So I asked Jaden from steamy kitchen
and she responded me in a short time, I was so surprised as well as encouraging. I got the instructions from Jaden! She told me it would be fine, then I got to be relieved and didn't cook it until 3 days later. But still nervous and a little unsure...

Yeah, it is different. I timed it in my usual way to make a medium one, but it turned out to be almost well-done( the picture is from the leftover, so one more cook). But my disappointment went away right after I had the first bite... It was soooo tender, even well-done, if I cut it thinner, it would be like deli rost beef :P I guess salt and rubs had contributed a lot, and it is easier to be cooked.
So next time, if I dry-marinade it overnight or for a couple of days, I am going to the skip the oven step, only use the cast iron pan. CAN'T WAIT~~

The tomato sauce is something I read long time ago from bon appetite, it is called pizza sauce for steak. It sounded interesting for me. So I just use the way to make tomato sauce but without meat: onion, mushroom, garlic, tomato sauce, sherry vinegar, basil, oregano, Ketchup , remeber to melt a little bit butter at the end.
It is very savoury and goes well with steak, and the part that makes me happy is unlike those butter sauce, mayo sauce, I can enjoy my steak without any guilty : DD

Happy Birthday China(10/1),E(10/2), and Moon Festival(10/3)-- a no-cake birthday dinner

A chocolate greeting from Gaogao for the coming winter

It is getting cold and I was thinking about doing something that can warm my friends. So I came up with an idea of a hot chocolate kit. I shaved two kinds of chocolate: dark chocolate, Mexican chili chocolate. I made it as a gift box, I put it cinnamon sticks, dried chili pepper, marshmallow. And when I was going to give it to E , I just found her birthday was coming. It was like anther' dreams come true' surprise. :)

So let'a celebrate"

China's birthday, E's birthday, Moon Festival's birthday

1st course: Pork tenderloin nugget with apple sage onion sauce

2nd course: Proscuitto wrapped fig

3rd course: Apple Pecan Fennel Salad with Apple cider vinaigrette

4th course: coffee rubbed rib eye with horseradish butter

About the mashed potato:
It has to be yukon potato, then you can just play it with milk, butter, cream(optional). Super creamy
Horseradish butter: butter, horseradish, soy/worcestershire sauce, wine

To Cindy: Happy holiday ( somebody asked to remember to wish you a happy national/independent day, plus a coming moon festival :)

I know you care about me, thank you. Gag_gao is going to :

~~Viva La Vida~~

Low carb tortilla-- pulled ox tail and port pear mushroom salsa taco from last meal

For the leftover, the only thing I could think of is taco. But the sauce and pear is almost gone, so I have to make more. Can I call it salsa?

Sauté some onion, mushroom, pear with butter add port, beef stock or paste, honey, thyme, rosemary, boil until the water is gone.

The surprise is I found a low carb totilla in the store, only 120 cal /piece and 11 fibers, unbelievable, and it is so soft, unlike those whole wheat ones. I had been afraid of tortilla because of the carbs. Now I think I am free to have taco, burrito, maybe I can make burrito for lunch. Everything is going up, it is kind of torching me to pay for some awful food . I told E my cooking is getting better and I am more confident about myself, IT IS! ( XGs said he eventually saw me look confident and that was when I talked about my cooking; He knows how awkward I was about school last semester) And last night, I went to my friends' house and made them awesome steak. It came out so good, I am proud of myself.

PS: Thanks for XGs' supporting, he told me he checked my blog in different places to increase the unique visitor number of my blog. But for some reason, google analystic looks not working well recently. Still, thank you, I will remember to call you when I have gourmet plans : p

the 2nd day of Labor day holiday, feed a hunger--Braised ox tail with pear

Today is the second day of Labor day holiday, unbelievable, I still stayed at home, ( I ruled out the walk in Cambridge area). Oh, I visited veggie planet yesterday, because there was a show there, so it was natural to take away and eat alone. the pizza dough reminded me Kissa( sK's invention about pizza) , it should be flatbread, but very alike. No surprise, but very delicious. and they do use some tofu mash (something like my tofu caesar). I have a little concern about vegetarian food, because it is delicious with the cost of a lot of oil.

XGs told me he had been hungry for days and would come with a super big appetite. Nothing is better than braised meaty short rib to fed a hunger. This recipe is called braised beef with ginger and pear, which I saw it from last month's bon appetite. it also calls for pig feet as the secrete ingredient. I guess it would release collagen which is amazing. When I was shopping pig feet, I found ox tails, it was like a bonus for me, I didn't have to drive over to the whole foods for short ribs, but could get wonderful ox tails here!

It is called ginger pear, but it doesn't look like it calls a lot of ginger. so I doubled the ginger.
And it also calls 3 hrs braised time, I just followed, and I was completely free during those three hours, which was not bad. When I was back , my house was full of braise aroma~~

It also says discarding the pig feet, but in China, almost everyone likes it, and because of collagen, women all go for it. I also pulled out the meat from those larger ox tails but kept the little ones. at the end pour on the reduction sauce.

Served with mashed potato. I had a mistake here, I should have use Yukon golden potato ~~
Not sure when I can make mashed potato again, I can't stand that much creamy carbs!
BTW, I have to admit I do admire XGs's ablity to eat meat :P

2nd round-- Rasin, cilantro lamb-beef meatball with curry sauce on Naan bread

Last meatball, I got the comment is 'too dry' . I agree, I thought it was only because meat is too lean. Then I did some research and found out the magic secrete!. Besides it should be at least 20% fat ground meat, also needs bread crumb and egg to hold the fat and prevent it from going away when being cooked. The most magic part is add water!! I know, it's difficult to believe , but it is definitely true. so my plan is:
1. 80/20 ground beef, ground lamb=2:1
2.2 eggs, about 1/2 cup panko
3. mix beef broth and coconut milk . finally soak meatball in the coconut milk.

Sauce : curry
For meatball:
using whichever herbs you can think of to make it get along with lamb and curry sauce:
coriander, cumin, turmeric , cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder,
(salt , pepper)
also minced cilantro , golden raisin( after soaked)

Using pan to cook meatball until it's done.

Curry sauce is Japanese curry cube, I mixed in carrot, mushroom, onion, potato, ( no surprise)

After curry sauce and meatball are done, throw meatball into sauce. and it's done.
I don't like cook meatball in the sauce, one thing is curry sauce is kinda heavy and needs low-head which is not good to make meatball cooked, the other is it would make curry sauce too greasy.

My original idea was to use some pita bread to wrap meat ball( like greek , Mideast style), but I found nann bread in store, it’s more Indian. But it came out not easy to eat : )

Zhao is so sweet, she complements everything I make, she also eats it in a way that makes you feel like she is enjoying it very much. I love that!
I remember I was going to do the meatball in this way, but sK didn’t agree, so we quitted. It’s really good, and lamb meatball should be treated in this way. I am happy that I make it come true again ( besides zhaozhao, my roommate also gave endorsement).
Although sK always discouraged me to be adventure, still it is sK that made me realize I love cooking so much and gave me the initial passion that still drives me to try, to learn, to explore.
So every time I got success, I would feel grateful.

Tamarind journey comes to the end--tamarind glazed scallion pecan meat ball with pineapple and red pepper

In Simply Ming, he made a chicken pineapple red pepper with tamarind sauce. I used meatball instead of chicken. sK so loved to make meat ball, he enjoyed it so much, but I have never told him, he put into too much bread crumbs, which made it less juice:) Our Chinese version meatball never adds bread crumbs( we don't have this stuff actually). I am kind happy with how it came out. My way is:

egg, scallion, five-spicy powder, garlic power( too lazy to do minced garlic), minced ginger, soy sauce, a touch of sugar;
bacon grease^-^ , a little bit starch, pecan!!( bring you the surprising crunchy!
Roll the meat ball, brown it in the pan, then take them out of the pan, let them sit on the side on paper towel. Prepare pineapple chuck as in BBQ, rub them with cayenne pepper powder, brown sugar.
Saute garlic, scallion , onion in the pan, add red pepper, pineapple, stir for while. then add meat balls, stir, tamarind sauce.
Sprinkle with mince basil~~
This is for appreciating Richard, I eventually make my words come true. Hope he will enjoy it :)

And the tamarind journey comes to the end too. I am not saying it is not good stuffs, but it is eating my teeth all the time, I can't do it any more. ( You know what, literally translated from Chinese, it is called sour bean)

Chili Ginger Honey Glazed Sirloin steak and asparagus risotto

I was going to make duck breast, but I couldn't get it either. So I use the same glaze sauce for steak. But steak doesn't have a skin as duck breast, so it is diffult to form the glaze layer.

Ancho Chili is very subtle,most of the flavor is honey giner, may I should have used more. But it is still good, as long as you don't tell people it is using the complicated fancy glaze sauce :)

I like to make risotto for my friends, we are great Chinese people and have been feeded by rice so long . Today's risotto is asparagus panchetta and pine nut version( with a touch truffle oil and white pepper). Still, it became dried after I added cheese at the end. I have to remember it!!

Thanks for his hard work today. Also I guess it would feel horrible for me to be alone in a rainy day.

Starbuck Adventure: Coffee Rubbed Bone-in Rib-Eye

(PS: it is not burned!!)
I have read many recipes about coffee rub, it's so interesting, it's something that I am not able to imagine, so I must have a try to know how it tasteS like.

Using a recipe from foodnetwork, basically besiedes Ground Coffee,

Chill powder, paprika----so it is spicy, I was afraid too spicy, so less chili powder, more paprika

Coriandor

Sugar

Groun ginger

Oregona

Dry mustard( I don't have that by hand, going to get some and mix in later)

Fresh ground pepper

Salt

I was so nervous, because it smells OK after mixed them together.

When I cooked it using my GRIDDLE, it sent out a lot of smoke, I think it was from coffee, or from smoke paprika, I don't know but it is actually like a smoker!

I used thermometer, 130F or so .

I know it sounds horrible for sK, but you know what, there is no coffee's bitter at all but bold, smoky, like a blacken style( it's not burned!) . I like it. But I still want to have another try, because there are too many ingredients, I am afraid the others cover the coffee flavor. so I wll have another try later, with only coffee, salt pepper, so I can know how coffee exactly work here.

My rub:

Safe Choice: Braise Rosemary Zinfandel Beef short rib

I had guests today, I was afraid I would screw it up, so I needed some safe choices. Braise, it only needs TIME, never goes wrong.
Followed a recipe from Bon appetite, I was going to make it for sK, but didn't get a chance. So my guests got the first try.
Brown short rib using my GRIDDLE. In my braise pot, butter, onion, garlic, parsnips ( I couldn’t find it in stores, bummer!, so I uses sweet potato and several radish), rosemary. After all the stuffs get browned, add short ribs, zinfandel ( the whole bottle), beef broth). Oven 350F, 2.5hrs ( I think we did it almost 3 hrs).
After it is done, drain the juice, add starch to make a gravy. That's it all, simple but super savory. See braise is such a good way that actually saves your time. PS: I didn’t taste too much from rosemary, not like thyme, which always uses its aroma to claim itself. Maybe rosemary just doesn’t have intense aroma??

Sirloin Steak with Balsamic Teriyaki Glaze

I still remember that frustrating steak salad, but sK still said that was perfect. So you know~~~
Then he would say ' we are not restaurant' , NO, we are not. So it becomes our little excuse when something is wrong :)

But this time, it is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood.
And we definetely will cook it again.
PS: I do performance better in my kitchen, but it doesn't matter, I will let sK take my orders in his kitchen;)

whole foods sirloin on sale, good time !

1. Soak steak in balsamic ( about 1/4~1/3 cup), rub salt, pepper, sesame on top. After 2mins , turn over to the other side, rub salt, pepper sesame, again.

2. Heat skillet, oil, cook steak t0 your desired degree. after steak is done, let it sit on rack

3. Put minced garlic into the same skillet, medium heat, until garlic is cooked

4. Pour in balsamic( that used for soaking steak), Teriyaki soy sauce(trader joe's), honey, higher heat, until the sauce is thick.

Served with mashed potato( actually here is mashed taro :)

------Mashed potato/Taro:
Butter, milk(or cream , half &half, I think anyone will work:), garlic powder(lazy version), parsley, WHITE PEPPER( one of gaogao's magic ingredient, usually when we don't want to affect the appearance of dish , we can use white pepper instead of black pepper, but actually white pepper has more intense aroma than black pepper, it works perfect here, add a little bit spicy)

I guess sK probably won’t like Taro, don’t worry, I will remember to get potato when we do it.

-----Broiled Romaine and red pepper with banyuls vinaigrette( will post later)

West-East, Simply Ming, one of sK's favorite show. But this time is my infusion .
( sK. remember the rib on my Beetle's bad day, basically they use the same sauce, I can do east-west too :)