white gazpacho with pickled shrimp

white gazpacho with picked shrimp

A bad news, I think I have a procrastination problem. Overwhelmed by my new job, new life, still confused and unsure about the future, . Never stop planning, but really start doing anything. In the aspect of cooking, usually it's like when I do grocery shopping for a particular dish, I will come up with many other plans, some of which sound more exciting than my initial plan, then I buy them all. After I get home, I don't know which to start, then I probably only make one of them, all the other remain as 'planned'. Before, it seems I can cook anytime, but now, it becomes a very big thing, I have to be in a right mood, even need some 'determination', like ' OK, LET ME COOK today! i MUST'

This is not the only thing I cooked since my last blogging, I made some not pretty stuffs, had some failures in experiments, all those frustration are really killing  me , even this dish, I am not 100% satisfactory with it..

Before this, I also made a regular roasted pepper gazpacho, then I discover the white gazpacho, got intrigued, I have no resistant for pretty dish.

white gazpacho usually use grape ,bleached almond and stale white bread, some of them include cucumber too, so does mine, I also add Greek yogurt.But the problem here is I was too lazy to bleach almond , used tahini  and pine nuts instead. so maybe it was an  'wrong' substitution.

Also next time, I would blend all the ingredients expect bread first, then blend the filtered liquid with bread, that will make the soup thicker.

White gazpacho:

cumber: grape: bread:nut=1:1:1:0.5

Pickled shrimp:

Boiling sherry vinegar and water with sugar(1.5:1:1), add cumin, coriander , mint leaves, cilantro leaves, add shrimp, move it away from heat, chill at least 1hr. Or leave them in an airtight jar , can be used within two weeks

Paprika garlic oil:

heat oliver oil , add paprika add garlic , medium -low heat. 5-7mins

Waiting for a superman(by Iron and Wine)

Saffron Cod soup

(parsnip,carrot, tarragon, saffron,celery, tomato paste)

It becomes more and more frustrating, when will my Savior come?

Waiting for my superman, not has to be very powerful, just right will be fine

Addiction--cauliflower , Roasted garlic and Parsnip soup

Went to Mohegan for super band's concert, only for 华健，other guys are fine, I think I have addiction to his voice, it is something magical that can reach my heart.  it has been almost 15 years, I kept liking and unliking different ones, but the favor for him, never lessened.
Very disappointing, they didn't sing '抱着你' .

Since last year, when I addicted to a song, I would listen to it again and again, for the whole day,  the first is love story meets viva la vida  by jon schmidt,  Relient K's ' this is the (end if you want it)', then “最天使”， Rufus‘emotional commontion,  now is '抱着你' .

And also since last year, I started to addict to soup,I have to make sure I have soup in refrige all the time. This is a cauliflower , roasted garlic  and parsnip soup , topped with Dijon mustard and shaved parmasan.
Maybe I am just too tired and lazy to chew, : D

Plant--Beet Ginger Pear soup

I like pretty stuffs, so whenever I see something beautiful, I will try to re-produce it. Love it and it is very delicous too. I added pear which gives it a fresh sweetness and also increase the amount of ginger.

Beet Ginger Pear Soup:

Beet, ginger, pear, leek,  chicken stock, thyme, parsley, bay leaf

Use blender.

And next time, I will roast beet first,  it was a 'bloody' work to cut them : p

This is a *Giant* Josh Tree seed I got from Josh Tree NP, let me plant it at the beginning of 2010. It’s all about hope, good luck, my giant josh tree, let me make a record for you here.

Brighten your day by doing outdoor workout --Slow Cooked Salmon with Creamy Broccoli Sauce(soup)

Yesterday, I talked with a friend, he told me he started  a weigh loss plan, including  a swimming in the morning and the change in diet. I can see he is very serious, since he did a lot of research in the mechanism  about weight loss and  food nutrition. I like seeing people working on their the weight loss plan in a scientific way, it means they are serious and determined , which predicts success. He said it felt so good to drive to the pool in the early morning, I said ' then your whole day is brightened, you feel proud of yourself from the most beginning of the day' 'yeah, exactly' he was so excited.  It was his excitement that reminded me the  amazing pleasure from running outside, and I confessed that I had been cheating myself by playing in gym and I knew I didn't enjoy it very much.

So... I ran, today!  And it felt unbelievably  wonderful. I guess it is so impressive that will drive me miss the feeling so much , thus I will run more often .It is not winter yet, it is fall, the most beautiful season in Boston, go out and enjoy it as much as you can...

I learned this slow cooked salmon from steamy kitchen and the sauce is created by myself. Slow cooked salmon is to bake salmon at 200F about 25min, and it will be as pink as before it is put into the oven, but it is cooked and warm. And you will never overcook it unless you leave it in the oven for several days. I guess smoke salmon is made in the similar way. I love it to the death, seriously.

The sauce is from a soup I created, it is a no-dairy creamy broccoli soup, ( dairy is kinda banned in my diet , it is such a pain!) I used Tofu and unsweetened soymilk instead of milk and a LOT of cheese. It comes out  very good, HAPPY. Use starch to adjust the thickness.

Slow cook salmon:

Rubbed salmon with brown sugar, garlic powder, salt, lay the ginger slice on top, about 30min

( you will find out how wonderful it is when brown sugar meets ginger..)

200F  baked about 30 min, test it using a folk.

Tofu Creamy broccoli soup

Garlic

Broccoli

Silken tofu

Unsweetened soymilk

chicken bouillon paste

Starch water

Parmesan(optional)

 Saute garlic , add broccoli,  then add siken tofu, soymilk, chicken bouillon paste, boil until broccoli is tender.

Use starch water to adjust the thickness

Use blender to make a soup, melt a small piece of butter at the end~~

A close look at the silky salmon

Legend of Fall Series II -- Let us warm you up!

 Whit Bean  Butternut Squash Soup

It looks like this year, the winter can't wait until fall finishes its glory and just sneaks in, so when you are wandering along the Charles' River, enjoying the full color of mid-autumn, you can only obtain the warmth from the vision. Although I am amazed by the people that are still in shirts or shorts, I just put on my big coat and hide my face in the scarf. But when I see those little flowers are still blooming in the chilly wind, I can’t help questioning myself, “Should I be more tough?” I really don’t know…

It is often the appearance of squash, pumpkins that reminds me Halloween is coming! Actually in the early September, stores already put up boards with ‘Limited Time, Pumpkin….”, I like seeing those pumpkins flavor coffee, cake, pie…and they often come with cinnamon, nutmeg…it makes me feel like relaxing around the fireplace in the holiday, and they are orange, the color you like, spontaneously my heat will smile.

So let those lovely orange sweetie warm us up! It is a soup.
Ingredient: butternut squash(1), white bean(1 can), red onion(1 medium or smaller), butter
Maple syrup(1/8 cup), nugmet, sage(4-6 leaves), chicken broth (3cups or so)
After boil until butternut squash gets cooked, process in a blender.
I garnished it using fried sage leaves.

I guess I will be more savory if come with butter sage croutons, I might try it when I have guests.
But it is already ‘WOW’ed me, the subtle sweet brought by maple syrup, the creamy texture brought by the white beans, sage and nugmet are perfect machted her. It is really some kind of soup that can make you lip the plate.
I did some research about butternut squash soup, there are many versions, besides this subtle sweet version , there is also a curry flavor which often can be find in grocery, also something like squash+apple, squash+pear+, squarsh+apple+carrot , all sounds interesting.
Since it is going to be my regular soup for this fall , I think I can definitely try them all.
Also, I would like to try different kinds of squash in person, to see the differences of the flavors, textures, and make my own squash notes.

Cook with care: gaogao' Chicken noodle soup

sK likes regular things, not too much fancy, solid color shirts, Converse classic version, original flavor special K, vanilla ice cream; and the most amazing part is sK just is able to get your great food only using salt and pepper. So there is no reason sK doesn’t like chicken noodle soup.

I never had chicken noodle soup from stores, because they never look delicious for me. So let me just make my own. The first time was for sK( so the was second time), it was unacceptable to use chicken stock for stores. so I made my own chicken stock, and the chicken has to be Cornish game hen.
The stock recipe is from foodnetworks, all normal stuffs:
garlic, onion, carrot, celery , turnip (only a little) and ginger(inspired from Chinese soup)
and thyme(amazing!) , not too much water and we have to make sure there is enough flavor there.
1.5-2 hrs, chicken will be very very tender (the lovely part of Cornish hen is even chicken breast meat is never dry) Take the chicken out , throw away the skin and shred the meat very very thin.
Drain the stock, discard those vegetable.
Now it's time for chicken noodle soup. Noodle is home-made egg noodle, egg -noodle can keep firm even soak in soup. I use those big pieces ones

Oliver oil +minced garlice+onion+carrot+celery, stir fried for a lit
Add my own stock, after it starts to boil, add noodle and thyme(again: p)
After noodle is cooked well, add shredded chicken and cooked shrimp.
Garnish with fresh parsley ( It is actually celery leaves in the picture)
Very delicious and hearty, all nature flavor!
PS: I also will cook noodle in chicken stock separately, add them into soup afterwards. it depends on how much water do you want in your soup.
I think it is one of the simplest food that everyone can make, nothing fancy and complicated, as long as you do it with care, you can make the most delicious chicken noodle soup in the world

Protecting my eyes: Lemon Ginger Carrot Soup

So tired from work, and my Dad asked about my eyes every time I called him. Yeah, I am afraid too. Honestly, my only memory about ginger carrot soup is from the sample in trader joe's. It was fine. This time, I followed the recipe from epicurious; the other day, when I cooked for my guests, I made a lemon ginger dressing noodle, which turned out every good, so I kinda like the combination of Lemon and Ginger.

This version of carrot soup is very very delicious and refreshing. I think the secret is it doesn't only have carrot and ginger, besides onion and garlic, ginger, it has tomato in it , which brings in sweet. And the highlight is lemon zest. Actually after I added lemon zest to hot soup, I was a little disappointed. But after it got cold, I squeezed in some lemon juice(from recipe) it was fantastic, very refresh!!
So my suggestion is no lemon if serve warm , lemon if serve cold.

And the garnish is also very unexpected. I really don't know what is usually used to garnish carrot ginger soup, and I only have basil leaves, so I just picked up some. But again, it goes great with cold soup~~~

Sadly, sK doesn't like carrot ginger soup. I love basil, so I love basil in any form. But he likes carrots very much, why doesn't he like carrot ginger soup? But it's OK, when it gets really cold, I know he loves my chicken noodel soup ; p