Angel Hair Pasta Salad

Quick Main Pasta Dish for warmer weather

Hello Microsoft and Google people, please fix the ‘Live Writer’ program fast! Unable to post my blog since last week,  ‘Copy and Paste’ approach is not so cool! I thought the smart people who work there can all straighten up the problem in the matter of couple hours but….really?

The temperature was pushing upper-80’s last weekend, we turn on the air-conditioning rather than endure…The month of May’s hasty departure, I wasn’t ready for…a basket full of clean clothing ready to be folded…three days ago…in my defense, visiting sick friends take priority. I hope they like this weather appropriate light meal…even though it doesn’t look pretty in a plastic container.

Ingredients and Instruction for 3-4 servings (Print Recipe Here)

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar, white balsamic preferred if you have it.
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 10-12 cherry tomatoes halved
• 1/2 peppers, I used yellow, thinly sliced…to bring bright color in!
• 10 or more basil leaves thinly sliced
• 4 slices of thick cut bacon roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic thinly sliced
• Angel hair pasta, about 3 oz. per person
• Parmigiano reggiano cheese thinly shaved

1. Make dressing - In a medium bowl vigorously whisk olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.
   
2. Add tomato, pepper, basil (leave a little bit for garnish) and toss to coat. Chill it in the refrigerator until needed.
   
3. Cook pasta my way - Lay the pasta (break in half if the pasta is too long) in large skillet and barely cover with cold water. Cook the pasta on medium heat, stirring occasionally so that pasta won’t stick together until al dente. Drain water through colander.Set aside.
4. Heat the same pan on medium heat; sauté bacon until it renders the fat and begins to brown, add garlic and cook for a few minutes longer. Note: do not brown garlic. Turn off the heat.
   
5. Bring the drained pasta back in the pan and combine with bacon and garlic.
   .
6. Divide pasta in 4 bowls. Top with chilled vegetables. Don’t forget to spoon over the dressing. Garnish with shaved cheese and basil. Salt and pepper to adjust flavor.
   

Arrangement #1: Add red pepper flakes (about 1/4 teaspoon) in the dressing for accent.

Arrangement #2 If you like lot more green then use salad green mix that comes in a bag.

From the TAPAS (#todaystapas) – Incredibly soft, light yogurt bread dough recipe from a Australian blogger Bake for Happy Kids…my husband made into cinnamon rolls…Fabulous! He took some to his office and got nice reviews…he will make more for the other critics/ foodies.

More of garden jewel – dangling earing like Gumi tree

Although the temperature dropped 20 degrees yesterday, still no complaints here. My sincere prayers are with those affected by terrible weather…

Homey

Omelet rice/オムライス

My kitchen is a disaster! Not really, wait, yes it is. We’re getting ready for remodeling and taking out all the stuff from our kitchen. The inconvenience is driving me insane! I am constantly mumbling “Where in the world did xxx go?” I open boxes which I just packed to hunt for it. No, not here. I move on to box number two. OK this is not a really good system. The other boxes that my husband packed he written its contents - Above fridge cabinet - Honey, I don’t want to play the guessing game. When I cleaned out pantry I saw something. What are those specks of black thingies? Kylie! I yelled to our 18 year old cat. She does not care for mice either, as matter of fact she doesn’t care for anything except vacuum cleaner. She jumps when I turn it on. This is the only time that she moves very fast.

Everybody knows what omelet rice is in Japan. It’s fried rice wrapped in an omelet. Though it’s a staple menu in many family style restaurants, it is better to make it yourself, to create your own version of it. Today is a good day to make omelet rice because I need to clean the refrigerator too. Also my friend gave me fresh eggs collected from her hen house. Earthy looking eggs are a real charmer. The yolks were very bright. I wanted to make something extraordinary with these but I am hindered by missing gadgets and pans. Her chickens look healthy and plump… I mean nice.

In the refrigerator, I had one green and one half-used red pepper, onion and bone in ham but anything goes with this recipe; bacon, sausage, mushroom, frozen peas… breast chicken is another popular people’s choice. I mentioned this in an old post blog but I don’t like onion so I mince it really fine. I don’t have to but my guys like it so I usually include it in the fried rice filling. Although I like frozen peas, that has to be excluded because my son despises them. I’m so nice!

Ingredients for fried rice filling for 1 person (times how many in your household).

• Oil and butter 1 teaspoon (or more) each.
• Roughly 1/4 cup each of 3-4 vegetables. minced or chopped.
• Your choice of meat. chopped
• Cooked rice
• 1 teaspoon (or more) chicken bullion paste or tomato ketchup
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat oil and butter in a non stick wok or pan at medium high.
2. Add vegetables and sauté until onion is transparent.
3. Add cooked rice and quickly combine and keep stirring. You could also shake the pan back and forth to cook like Iron chef.
4. Add bullion paste or ketchup and stir to combine.
5. Salt and pepper to taste.

Ingredients for omelet- 1serving

• 2 large eggs
• 2-3 tablespoon milk or cream-egg mixture should not be watery.
• Salt and white pepper
• Butter 1 teaspoon-may substitute vegetable oil.

1. In a medium bowl whisk eggs and milk together.
2. Add salt and pepper, whisk to combine.
3. Heat butter in nonstick frying pan over medium heat.
4. Pour egg mixture and rotate pan to distribute egg evenly over the bottom of the pan (I used a 12 inch pan).
5. Bake for about 10 seconds to slightly set but egg is still raw.
6. Filled with fried rice on the center of egg. 
7. Gather the egg around rice and turn over to encase the rice.
8. Flip onto the plate -  you could use paper towel to shape omelet neatly. Put some demi-glace sauce or ketchup over the rice. I like ketchup personally.
9. Eat with a spoon!

Before packing

After packing

We had faint snow this morning. 

I took a break from boxing. I loved raspberry truffle chocolate from friends.

What can I make for next week without kitchen? Eat out? That sounds about right.

90 days

Yakiniku dinner and Rice flour cake

My son is now officially single. After only 2 years of marriage. His now ex-wife wanted out. He wandered in sadness, loneliness and embarrassment for 90 days and now the wait is over. He requested yakiniku dinner to acknowledge the point-of-no-return. He is not smiling but he is not in the deep sorrow that he was in before so this is good I guess. I wish this never happened but what can you do or say really. There was no fights, abuse, unfortunately no good communication either. Simply, love dissipated at her end. My son took her rejection very hard. Helpless is what we felt were too much and while packing his stuff in his apartment in April, I was bowled over and cried. While my husband was holding my shaking shoulder in a bear hug, my son apologized as if he doesn’t know what else to say. My daughter cried with me too. “What if” questions were useless yet my mind go there all the time. After my daughter and I fly separately to our homes, my husband and my son drove, pulling a tiny Uhaul trailer two days to get back home.

His suggestion of yakiniku is easy to make since I have painting class on Thursdays that means I usually home after 4 PM. In the morning however, my painting teacher called me to say that her daughter is in town from another state and that she wants to cancel class today. Suddenly I had all day to prepare meal yet I lost focus then wasted time doing nothing. I still needed to get some good yakiniku meat for tonight. I drove 25 minutes to Japanese market. I finally got home at 4 PM. Oh heck!

My son’s lovely friend joined us for moral support. Since she could not have gluten, I made rice flour cake. I made two mistakes though, I didn’t realize that the pan in the Japanese cook book was a lot smaller pan and that I should double the recipe to make up for the big sized one I was using. I should spray the pan too. I had a hard time taking cake out of the pan. OK, three mistakes. The end result was not pretty but it had good flavor and a light, soft, springy texture. I thought this paired well with sweet azuki beans. Covered with two big scoops of ice cream and strawberries from our garden, sprinkled on some nuts, then chocolate to dress it up for a photo opportunity. But darn Japanese cook book! No wonder there are lots of skinny people in Japan! Hmmm, if I live there, can I lose weight too?

For yakiniku, I chopped up vegetables I like. Peppers, pineapple, zucchini, erengi mushrooms, Japanese pumpkin (かぼちゃ）and satsuma sweet potatoes. I cooked the pumpkin and sweet potatoes slightly ahead of time so that won’t take as much time on the grill. With two kinds of store bought dipping sauce, leaf lettuce to wrap the meat in and cooked rice, dinner is ready. That pricy Kobe beef was good but is it really that much better? I don’t know but today is to celebrate his being a bachelor again. He needs to have good eats.

Rice Flour Cake

Make one 7 inch diameter angel food cake pan.*

Meringue

• 4 large egg white
• Sugar 40g

Egg yolk batter

• 4 egg yolk
• Sugar 30g
• Milk 4 tablespoons
• Vegetable oil 2 tablespoons
• Vanilla essence 1 teaspoon
• Salt 1/2 teaspoon
• Rice flour  70g

1. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer with whisk attached, put egg whites and scramble at medium speed about 30 seconds.
2. Gradually add sugar and whip until stiff peaks form. Put in another bowl. Set aside.
3. In the same electric mixer bowl, put egg yolks and sugar then scramble at low speed for 30 seconds.
4. Increased the speed to high and continue to mix for 3-4 minutes.
5. Gradually add oil while still mixing on high speed.
6. Lower the speed to low, add milk, vanilla and salt.
7. Add rice flour a little at a time mixing till it is well incorporated, stopping  the mixer for each addition.
8. Heat oven to 350F.
9. Add 1/3 of  meringue into the egg mixture. Using a spatula, scrape up from bottom and cut in motion and mix evenly but don not over mix. Do the same for rest of meringue adding 1/3 at a time.(I did it backwards – put the batter into the meringue…)
10. Spray the pan with non-sticking spray. Pour the mixture into the pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.
11. Cool in pan over the cooling rack then remove from the pan.
12. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream if you like.

* I think you could use a 9x5 loaf pan but don’t quote me on that. I’ll experiment using it next time and I let you know.

My son is still coping with the loss and him being freeter (Japanese trendy word for a person who doesn’t have a job). It is like being lost in a thick fog. You don’t know which way to go or which way is out. I hope when the fog has cleared, he finds himself standing on the right path. I pray the he has enough faith to patiently wait for that time (and me as well).

I’m  grateful for his friends who are helping him in this difficult time. Especially this friend who he could talk about his feelings openly and make his healing process much faster. Despite it all, the pain may never go away but I want him to get married again and find a job that he enjoys. I dream of the day that I can I baby sit his children. 

Easy does it

Fried Rice with left overs

It seems like summer is here finally. Strawberries went wild in our back yard and we harvested three times already. Roses are gorgeous! Longer day light means more activities. I need to make quick dinner before heading out the door. No time for fancy dinner (sounds as if we make proper meal every night?).

I have left over peppers from my last post ’Wrapped’ and cooked rice from last night. I started mincing peppers and onion but almost anything goes in fried rice. I didn’t have it but mushrooms are beautiful in this dish too. But does not matter, really. I look through the refrigerator for more clues, daikon? Nahh!  Like I said before “almost’. I omit frozen peas because my son does not like them. Oh for heaven’s sake! It’s good for you, you know? If I put them in, he just eats around it. Oh heck!. Why start the battle with an already adult child? At least he is always pleasant in his refusal and he does dishes. I used to have electric wok but it broke. I miss my wok when I am making this kind of dish or vegetable sauté (野菜いため). I wrote a memo to my husband for adding that to my birthday wish list.

I mince all the vegetables, just because I don’t like big chunks of onion in it so the other vegetable must be minced too, right? For that uniform look? If you don’t mind chunkiness, you save lots of time by not doing the task.  I found mincing vegetable somewhat therapeutic though. Soy sauce is my usual flavor source and curry or ketchup are also nice but surprisingly, the ultimate flavor comes from simply salt and pepper. Fried rice flavor, at least in my case, is dictated by left over ingredients and the chef’s mood.

Today’s Fried rice

Ingredients for 3 people

• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon mirin
• 1/2 each of medium size green, yellow and red peppers minced
• 1/2 of onion minced
• 4 slices of Canadian bacon also minced*
• Cooked rice (I used brown rice)- about 3 cups
• Oil-  vegetable oil,butter or sesame oil about 2 tablespoon.
• Sesame seeds – toasted, crushed using a pestle**
• Soy sauce
• Salt and pepper (I prefer white pepper for this dish)

1. In a cereal size bowl, scramble eggs. Add teaspoon of mirin and pinch of salt.
2. Heat large frying pan over medium heat. Put 1 teaspoon of oil in and use a paper towel to coat inside of pan.
3. Pour half of egg mixture into the pan and tilt pan to coat bottom of pan and cook 1 minute or less till egg is manageable yet not dry. Transfer to a plate. Repeat for other half of egg mixture. Cut baked egg in half inch square( it’s not crucial that how big as it will break in sauté process anyway). Set aside.
4. In a same pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Add all the vegetable and sauté, stirring with wooden spatula until onion is transparent.
5. Add meat and sauté till cooked. Salt and pepper. 
6. Add cooked rice in, then using edge of spatula (not the flat side) move the ingredients around quickly to combine. You want fluffy rice so do not smash the rice.
7. I added 1 tablespoon of butter here then poured soy sauce around the edge of pan. Move spatula quickly as you can to combine.
8. Add prepared sesame seeds and baked egg, still moving the spatula fast to avoid mushy texture.
9. Salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with minced green onion if you like. Serve immediately.

* Any kind of meat is fine. I like bacon in it too, no oil necessary if you are using bacon.

** Crushing sesame seeds is for nutrient reason. The body absorbs more good stuff in sesame seeds if you crush them.

The harvested strawberries from our back yard are gleefully used in crepes my husband made one morning and as a topping for ice cream. There are still plenty available and slugs will love them too. We just need to be careful not to eat a slug accidently.

Wrapped

Spring roll 生春巻き

I was bad lately; not sticking to my diet and posted three sweets recipes in a row! I promised myself that I will be good for rest of my life eating nothing but organic fruits and vegetables which I seeded and watered with rain water collected in water barrel and fertilized from compost bin enriched by worms. When the time comes, I will pick the glorious harvest with my own hands!,,,ahem!  Time to go back to reality. Anyhow, for rest of this day, I will be good.

This salad roll is one of my favorite to order in Chinese or Thai Restaurant for a starter. Some restaurants, especially in Thai eateries, however put too much cilantro in it which I don’t like.  But go ahead and put it in if you prefer the strong aroma & taste. The roll's rely on mainly on dipping sauce for flavor. I made a couple sauces and dipped away to healthier meals and me!

Ingredients for 6 rolls

• 1 bundle( about 3 ounces or 62g) of saifun (mung bean thread), reconstitute by soaking in very hot water for 10 minutes or cook in a pan for 4-5 minutes. Rinse with cold water and drain well and cut with scissor 4-5 times.
• 1/2 of Red pepper thinly sliced
• 1/2 of Yellow pepper thinly sliced
• 1/2 of Green pepper thinly sliced
• 6 inches of Cucumber seeded and  thinly sliced
• Butter lettuce- 6 leaves
• Large (9 inch) Spring roll skin

1. Prepare two very wet paper towels and lay one wet paper towel on a clean flat surface. Put water in a shallow dish and dip one spring roll skin and lay it on the wet paper towel. Cover with the other wet towel until the skin gets soft about 2-3 minutes. 
2. Lay the softened skin on a dry paper towel, Add colorful vegetables first then saifun thread and butter lettuce last.  Gently but firmly fold from front and sides and roll. Do not put too much on it or you won’t able to close or will break the skin. Cover with moist paper towel to keep from drying. Repeat the process one at a time.

Dipping Sauce #1

• Fish sauce 2 Tablespoons
• Apple vinegar 2 Tablespoons
• Sugar 1 teaspoon
• Tobanjan (豆板醤）-spicy red bean miso paste. About 1/2 teaspoon
• Sesame Oil 1 teaspoon

Mix all ingredients. Soy sauce may be substituted for fish sauce.

Dipping Sauce #2

• Rice Vinegar 50CC
• Sugar 1 teaspoon
• Soy sauce 1 teaspoon
• Tobanjan 1/2 teaspoon
• Sesame Oil 1 teaspoon

Dipping Sauce #3

• 2 Tablespoons Fish sauce
• Juice of half lemon
• 1 teaspoon Sugar
• 1 clove of garlic minced
• 1 dried red chili pepper (唐辛子）sliced or minced
• Water 1-2 teaspoon for thinning

Dipping sauce # 4

• Sweet chili sauce
• 1 dried red chili pepper sliced.

Dipping sauce #5

• Unsweetened peanut butter
• Soy sauce to taste

#6 Ok, Store bought jar of Plum Sauce is nice and simple!

You could go wild on the ingredients. I like to put cooked shrimp or butter sautéed eryngii mushroom even fruits roll is very refreshing in summer. Just wrap in the spring roll skin. That makes this dish special and will elevate your status as gourmet chef!? Not really but it looks great.Roses from our garden

I could stop here but we went to friend’s house for dessert. The made from scratch carrot cake was really pretty and yummy. They offered some for us to take home. Ahhh, why not. I could start that organic fruits and vegetable diet tomorrow,

The cake tasted good the next day too.

The Peko Peko cookbook really turned out well! I hope you could buy one.