Hungarian Mushroom Soup

I saw this recipe while trolling the Internet, as you do, and I chose it to make because 1. It said “warming” and I was cold, 2. I love mushrooms, and 3. It looked really easy and I was busy. I wasn’t expecting too much from it but it definitely hit the mark on all three points. Mushrooms and soy sauce provide lots of umami flavor, and the paprika does not overwhelm the soup as I was afraid it would. All in all, this recipe was a welcome surprise and I will definitely make it again.

This is how I made it.

Warming Hungarian Mushroom Soup (6 servings)

2	ounces	unsalted butter
1⁄2		onion diced
1		(8-ounce) carton of white mushrooms sliced
1		(8-ounce) carton of cremini mushrooms sliced
1	tablespoon	paprika
2 1⁄2	cups	vegetable broth
2	tablespoons	soy sauce
3	tablespoons	all purpose flour
1	cup	milk
1⁄2	cup	sour cream
1⁄2		lemon juiced
2	tablespoons	chopped fresh dill + more for topping
1⁄4	cup	chopped flat leaf parsley
		Salt and pepper to taste

Add the butter to a large soup pot and bring the heat to medium.

Add the onion and mushrooms and sauté for 8 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the broth, soy sauce, and paprika. Reduce heat to simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine the flour and milk with a whisk.

Add this mixture to the pot, cover, and stir well. Add the sour cream, lemon juice, dill, and parsley. Stir and cook for 10 more minutes on low heat. Taste and add salt and pepper, if necessary.

Top with more fresh dill, and serve the Hungarian soup.

Korean Ground Pork

This started out as a way to use up some ground pork. It turned out to be something I loved and will make again. And it goes together in no time.

I found the recipe here and made it as written. I didn’t realize till later that it is supposedly in the “slimming” category so that was an unexpected plus.

You will need Gochuchang Korean chili paste for this recipe.

This is how I made it.

Korean Ground Pork
serves 4

455 g (1lb) of extra lean ground pork (can also use chicken, turkey or beef)
1 onion finely diced
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tablespoon grated ginger root
2 tablespoon Gochujang Paste (use 1 if you don’t like food too spicy)
2 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
¹⁄₄ cup water
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
pinch sesame seeds
2 green onions (spring onions) sliced
Spray oil

Add the ground pork to a frying pan over a medium high heat and cook until browned, breaking up any large clumps as it cooks. Remove and set aside.

Spray the pan with cooking oil spray, add the onion and fry until lightly golden and softened.

Add in the garlic and ginger and fry for a further minute.

Add back in the ground pork, along with the Gochujang paste, soy sauce, maple syrup and sesame oil and water and cook until it reduces down and coats all the ground pork and starts to caramelize on the edges.

Sprinkle with a pinch of toasted sesame seeds and chopped green onions

Green Thai Chicken Coconut Curry

This was my first time making this dish, but I will definitely make it again. So easy and delicious!

I found the recipe here. The only things I changed were that I used vegetable oil instead of coconut oil, and didn’t add sugar, which is optional. I did use Thai basil and I would definitely recommend that!

This is how I made it.

Green Thai Chicken Coconut Curry
6 servings

2-3	tablespoons	coconut oil   (olive oil may be substituted)
1	medium/large	sweet Vidalia   or yellow onion, diced small
1-1.25	pounds	boneless skinless chicken breast   diced into bite-sized pieces
3	cloves	garlic   finely minced or pressed
2-3	teaspoons	ground ginger   or 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely chopped
2	teaspoons	ground coriander
1		14-ounce can coconut milk   (use full-fat for a richer/thicker result but lite may be substituted)
1-1 1⁄2	cups	shredded carrots
1	large	zucchini   diced into bite-sized pieces
2-8	tablespoons	Thai green curry paste   or to taste (I used the whole jar for this recipe, but prefer bolder flavors)
1	teaspoon	kosher salt   or to taste
1⁄2	teaspoon	freshly ground black pepper   or to taste
1-2	tablespoons	lime juice
1⁄4–1⁄3	cup	fresh cilantro   or to taste, finely chopped for garnishing (basil may be substituted)
1-2	tablespoons	granulated sugar   optional and to taste
		rice jasmine   or basmati) or naan, optional for serving

To a large skillet, add the oil, onion, and sauté over medium-high heat until the onion begins to soften about 5 minutes; stir intermittently.

Add the chicken and cook for about 5 minutes, or until chicken is done; flip and stir often to ensure even cooking.

Add the garlic, ginger, coriander, and cook for about 1 minute, or until fragrant; stir frequently.

Add the coconut milk, carrots, zucchini, Thai curry paste, salt, pepper, and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to medium, and allow mixture to gently boil for about 5 minutes, or until liquid volume has reduced as much as desired and thickens slightly.

Add the lime juice, cilantro, and stir to combine. Taste and optionally add sugar, additional curry paste, salt, pepper, etc. to taste.

Chinese Green Beans with Pork

I think I finally got this right. I’ve tried several recipes for these Chinese green beans and they never quite met my expectations. To be clear, my expectations were to have a close approximation of the dish as I’ve experienced it at Chinese restaurants over the years, and so far it’s been close but no cigar. This time I nailed it. The recipe is here and I followed it closely. I did cook my beans just a little longer than the recipe specifies because I didn’t think they were quite done to my liking, so take that into account and just keep tasting them.

Here is how I made this dish.

Chinese Green Beans with Pork

1	lb	green beans washed and trimmed
1	lb	ground pork
3	tbsp	light soy sauce
1	tsp	dark soy sauce
1/2	tbsp	sugar
2	tbsp	shaoxing wine
1⁄4	tsp	msg optional
1⁄2	cup	dried red chilis 15-20 pcs; deseed if you want less spice
1	tbsp	garlic minced
1	tbsp	ginger minced
		salt to taste
4	tbsp	neutral oil I prefer avocado oil

Wash and cut your green beans to equal 2″ pieces.

Mix together light soy, dark soy, sugar, and msg in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat 1 tbsp of neutral oil to a pan, add your green beans and season with salt. Sauté your green beans over medium high heat for 4-5 minutes or until nicely blistered. Remove and set aside.

In the same pan, heat 3 tbsp of neutral oil over medium high heat and fry your garlic, ginger, and chilis for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Move them aside in the pan and fry your pork until browned and slightly crisp.

Deglaze with 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine, then add back your green beans and premixed sauce and continue cooking for 2-3 minutes until the sauce as absorbed into the pork and green beans. Serve with rice and enjoy!

Roasted Carrots with Garlic and Balsamic

While going through some old photos I ran across this one that I took in 2016. I had forgotten all about this recipe, but now I remember how delicious it was! After a little more searching, I unearthed the recipe that I had saved in a remote corner of my hard drive.

Lucky I never throw anything away, even if it isn’t organized particularly well. Now I have to get some carrots and make this again.

   

24		baby carrots, tops trimmed to 2 inches
2	tablespoons	olive oil
2	tablespoons	balsamic vinegar
5	cloves	garlic, minced
1	teaspoon	dried thyme
		salt and pepper to taste
2	tablespoons	chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or coat with nonstick spray.

Place carrots in a single layer onto the prepared baking sheet. Add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and thyme; season with salt and pepper. Gently toss to combine.

Place into oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until tender. Serve immediately, garnished with parsley if desired.

Dan Dan Noodles

This recipe is about as close as I’ve come to the flavor of this dish served in restaurants. Very easy to make and super addictive. I love to eat the julienned cucumbers with these delicious noodles.

Dan Dan Noodles
(serves 2)

2	ounces	low sodium soy sauce
1	ounce	Chinese Shaoxing cooking wine
1	teaspoon	oyster sauce
1	teaspoon	sugar
7	ounces	chicken stock
4	ounces	ground chicken
1	teaspoon	oil
1⁄2	teaspoon	chili paste
1⁄2	teaspoon	minced garlic
2	tablespoons	chopped green onions
2	teaspoons	cornstarch
2	teaspoons	cold water
14	ounces	Asian egg noodles, cooked

Combine the soy sauce, wine, oyster sauce, sugar, and chicken stock in a 2 cup measuring cup or bowl. Mix well to dissolve the sugar. Set aside.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add the ground chicken and cook, stirring, until cooked through.

Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet over medium high heat. Add the chili paste, garlic, and green onion and cook, stirring for 5 seconds.

Add the cooked chicken to the wok. Stir over medium high heat for 10-15 seconds to mix it with the chili paste mixture.

Add the reserved soy sauce liquid to the wok. Stir well then let simmer for 20-30 seconds. 

Mix the cornstarch with the cold water and pour into the wok. Stir well and let the mixture simmer, stirring constantly until thickened. 

Place the cooked noodles on individual serving plates. Top with the chicken mixture. Garnish with bean sprouts, chopped green onions, and/or julienne cut cucumbers.

Biscotti

I love having these around. They keep for a long time in an airtight container, they aren’t too sweet, and they’re great with coffee. They’re not difficult to make, but they require you to be present to shape, bake, cut, bake again, turn, bake again.

The recipe came from here, and I make them pretty much as written. I’ve tried other recipes but I always come back to this one.

This is how I make the biscotti. This recipe makes about 12 cookies, but it really depends on how thin you slice them.

Almond Biscotti

4	Tbsp	butter   (softened at room temp; salted or unsalted can be used)
3⁄4	c	granulated sugar
3		eggs
		vanilla extract   a splash of
2	c	all purpose flour   (plus an additional tablespoon or two set aside, for shaping the dough)
1⁄8	tsp	salt   (if you’re sensitive to salt, you may want to omit this if using salted butter)
1	tsp	baking powder
1⁄2	c	coarsely chopped almonds

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prep one cookie tray with parchment.

In a medium bowl, combine the butter and sugar using a hand mixer. Mix until light and fully incorporated.

Add the vanilla & eggs and mix for about 1 minute.

Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.

Add the flour, salt and baking powder. With the mixer on low speed (do not switch to a higher speed), begin to incorporate the dry ingredients. Stop mixing once all the flour is absorbed. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.

Using a spoon or spatula, mix in the chopped almonds.

Once the mixture comes together, sprinkle a bit of flour onto the cookie tray that is lined with parchment. Carefully dump out the bowl onto the tray and gently form the dough into a log. The dough will be a little bit sticky and soft.

Continue to flour your hands as you mold and shape the dough.

Once the log is ready (it should be about the length of the tray), press down so that the dough log is about ½ inch thick. You may need to shape and square up the edges again.

Mix the egg and water for the egg wash in a bowl using a fork.. Brush the top of the dough with the egg wash.

Bake for about 30 minutes until puffy, golden brown and firm.

Once the cookie log is done baking, remove from the oven and set aside. Drop the oven temp to 300°F.

Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes on the tray. Once the cookie log is done resting, use a serrated knife to slice the log into about 1 inch cookies (or slightly thinner or thicker if you wish).

Place the cookies on their flat sides and place back into the oven for at least 10 minutes* (or more time if desired, SEE NOTES).

After the cookies are done baking on the one side, flip them over again and bake the other sides for at least 10 minutes (or more time if desired, SEE NOTES).

After the last bake, remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool on the tray.

Triple Chocolate Pie

This pie is absolutely decadent. Smooth, cool, and intensely chocolatey, it will become your go-to chocolate pie, I guarantee you. It’s also very easy to put together.

I have had and been making this recipe for a long time, and my source for it has been lost in the sands of time, or the mists of my memory. Sorry, long-forgotten person; even though I don’t remember your name, I salute your pie.

Serve this with tons of whipped cream. Because why wouldn’t you.

Triple Chocolate Pie

6	tablespoons	cornstarch
1	cup	sugar
1⁄2	cup	unsweetened cocoa powder
3 1⁄2	cups	half and half
3 1⁄2	ounces	bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3	ounces	unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1⁄2	tablespoons	unsalted butter
1		crust of choice

Combine the cornstarch, sugar, and cocoa powder in a heavy medium-size saucepan. Whisk in 1 cup of the half and half until the mixture is smooth Add the remaining half and half and bring the pot to a boil, whisking constantly. Continue to cook the mixture over medium high heat, whisking, until the mixture thickens, 3-4 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in both types chocolate and the butter, continuing to whisk until all the chocolate and butter have melted and the pudding is very smooth.

Place the pudding in the prepared pie shell. Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the filling and refrigerate the pie until the filling is completely set, at least 6 hours and up to one day.

Cover with whipped cream to serve.

Lemon Dill Potato Salad

This is a really light, fresh take on potato salad. I love lemon and this salad showcases that fruit. The dill should be fresh and abundant–the flavors of the dill and lemon should really shine.

It’s a really simple salad, served at room temperature, and I think it would go well with almost any food. I snagged the recipe from the wonderful Chetna Makan. You may recognize her from one of the early seasons of the Great British Baking Show, but baking is not all she’s good at. I love her cheery nature and her obvious enjoyment of the food she makes. Check out her website and her YouTube channel for more goodness.

This is how I made it. This recipe will serve about 4 people as a side dish.

2	Lb	Baby potatoes, cooked until soft and drained
1	Lemon, juiced
1	Tsp	Mustard
1⁄2	Tsp	Salt
1⁄4	Tsp	Pepper
2	Tablespoons	Olive oil
	Large handful	Fresh dill, chopped

Mix dressing ingredients and add to potatoes while potatoes are still warm. Serve at room temperature.

Crying Tiger

I had to do some planning to make this dish, but as soon as I saw the Youtube video in which one of my favorite Youtube chefs, Pailin Chongchitnant, presented it, I knew I had to make it. I had most of the ingredients, but Pailin stressed that the ingredient that could not be substituted for, the signature taste in the sauce, was tamarind paste. I can go to either of the two Mexican markets just down the street and get all manner of tamarind products, but the tamarind paste in this dish is Thai, and I had to make a trip to get it. It was completely worth it. The beef (I used flank steak) is good but I have made grilled flank steak many times before. The sauce was the thing I wanted to try.

After acquiring the tamarind paste, the rest was easy. Pailin’s website provided the recipe. The sauce exceeded my wildest exceptions: it is rich, spicy, sweet, sour–all the things.

Wikipedia provides two possible sources for the name of this dish:

The ancient Thai culture teaches that life depends on the forest, which is the food source for the people. There are many cows in the forest which are eaten by tigers. People would come across the remains of cows that were hunted down and eaten by the tigers. They personified the tigers as having emotions and feelings like humans. If this was true, they imagined the tigers would have cried because most of them left the brisket cut to rot instead of eating it. People used this cut to cook a delicious dish and named it “crying tiger”.^[1] On the other hand, it is the imagination of the ancient people that compare the appearance of the brisket cut to the skin of a tiger and called it “tiger meat”. When the meat is grilled, the fat that accumulates in the muscle fibers is melted by the heat and drops like a tear. Using their imagination, they named the dish “crying tiger”.

This is how I made it.

Thai Marinated Grilled Steak with “Jeaw” Dipping Sauce (Crying Tiger)

Marinated Steaks
1.5	lb	steaks   see note
1⁄2	tsp	black peppercorns
2	cloves	garlic
2	Tbsp	soy sauce
1 1⁄2	Tbsp	oyster sauce
2	tsp	sugar
1	Tbsp	lime juice
2	Tbsp	neutral oil
		Sticky rice   for serving, see note
		Nam Jim Jeaw Dipping Sauce
2	Tbsp	tamarind paste
1	Tbsp	fish sauce
1	Tbsp	lime juice
1	Tbsp	palm sugar   very finely chopped
2	Tbsp	minced shallots   or chopped green onion
1⁄2	teaspoon	roasted chili flakes   or to taste
1	Tbsp	uncooked jasmine   or sticky rice, (for toasted rice powder)
3	sprigs	cilantro   or mint, chopped

To make the marinade, pound the black pepper in a mortar and pestle into a powder, then add the garlic and pound into a fine paste. Add all remaining marinade ingredients and stir to mix well.

Place the steaks into a dish just big enough to hold them in one layer, or put them in a freezer bag. Add the marinade and move the steaks around to ensure they’re thoroughly coated.

Marinate the steaks for a minimum of 3 hours and up to overnight. Bring the steaks out 1 hour before grilling so they will not be too cold and will cook more evenly.Note: Marinated steaks, especially ones with sugar like this, are better suited for the grill. Pan searing is fine but the marinade will more easily burn with direct contact to the hot oil. So without a grill, I would recommend doing a quick sear on the pan just to get it nice and browned, then finishing it off on a rack in the oven.

Grill the steaks to your preferred doneness. I like grilling them on high heat with the lid open to ensure they have nice grill marks. See the video above for more grilling tips.

For the Nam Jim Jeaw dipping sauce

In a small bowl, combine the tamarind, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar and stir until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Stir in the shallots and the chili flakes and set aside while you make the toasted rice powder; don’t worry about any undissolved sugar chunks.

Make the toasted rice powder: In a dry skillet, add the rice and toast it over medium high heat, stirring constantly, until the grains are deep brown (see video for the colour you’re going for). Pour onto a plate to cool, then grind in a mortar and pestle or coffee grinder into a mostly-fine powder.

Close to serving time, stir the sauce; the sugar should now be completely dissolved, and if there are a few stubborn chunks, they can be easily smushed with the back of a spoon. Stir in the toasted rice powder and cilantro or mint.