Hello!
Trav and I have been cooking up some scrumptious food lately. I thought I would share some new recipes we have used that have turned out great.
When Trav and I first started dating, I gifted him a copy of How to Cook Everything by one of my favorite foodies, Mark Bittman. I refer to this book as "the Bible", because it's that good! It's a great recipe book with all kinds of simple recipes from how to make hard boiled eggs to couscous. The only problem is that Bittman was a big fan of ingredients like butter, cream, salt, and bacon. We LOVE all of these ingredients, but we are trying to make sure they aren't our go-to staples. We are in luck, because the library got copies of his two new cookbooks "The Food Matters Cookbook" and "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" which take the Bible's recipes and make them a little more vegetable and fruit-centered and take out some of the animal products.
This last weekend I woke up craving cornbread and waffles. I started leafing through the Food Matters Cookbook and immediately found a recipe for "Anadama Waffles" which are based off of a popular bread made on the East Coast. There was an option to add frozen corn, so we had a perfect recipe, and since my Christmas present was a Belgian waffle maker, we were set! (This was the first batch of waffles I made with my new iron, sans corn)
I don't want to violate copyright and post the recipe, but it is on page 283, and if anyone wants it, I would be happy to email you!
It's a really unique taste, and I would imagine if you were from New England, you might find it to be familiar. We liked the mix of sweet and savory from the corn kernels and the molasses and applesauce.
We also made a banana pancake recipe from the How to Cook Everything Vegetarian this morning, and it was excellent! We modified it a little bit by adding vanilla and some extra baking powder and some whole wheat flour.
Overall, both cookbooks are easy to use, have delicious creative recipes, and I would love to invest in copies of both when I have to return them to the library in a few weeks.
To read Mark Bittman's posts on the New York Times website, click here
Besides breakfast foods, we also made turkey gyoza (asian potstickers) last week based on a recipe from a friend. They are a little bit time consuming, but we made extra to freeze so we could enjoy them again. We used turkey instead of pork because we had stocked up on it during a recent sale. You couldn't even tell the difference, I promise!
Gyoza (adapted from our friend Alicia's recipe)
1 package of gyoza skins (use a cup or small bowl and a knife to make circles)
3/4 lb. ground turkey (or pork)
4-5 green cabbage leaves, boiled
1 green onion, chopped
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tbsp sesame seed oil
1 tbsp mirin (sweet rice wine)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp salt
Dipping Sauce:
Soy Sauce
Rice Vinegar
Chili garlic paste
Boil the cabbage leaves. Drain and chop the leaves. Drain well by pressing on them with your hands. In a large bowl, mix the meat, green onion, chopped cabbage with salt, soy sauce, Sake, and sesame seed oil. Put the mixture (about a teaspoon worth) in the center of the gyoza skin and put water around the edge of the skin. Close the skin (don't forget to pinch the edge of the skin the way you see in restaurants; this keeps the edge from separating while cooking). Heat a frying pan, add oil, arrange the gyoza and brown the bottom. Add water (enough to cover 1/3 of the height of the gyoza). Cover and cook until the water is gone. Take the lid off and cook a little longer to make them crisp. Dip the gyoza in a mixture of vinegar, soy sauce and chili garlic paste.
(Travis making gyoza)
(Pretty little gyoza all in a row, ready to cook!)
Happy Cooking!
E&T
