Kumqwhat?

Kumquat.

Kumquats have the kind of kick I need to wake me up in the morning. Well, that and a cup of coffee so strong it can benchpress 180 (is that a lot? I have no idea.) With that in mind I decided to make kumquat marmalade.

The recipe is sosupersimple. Cut up the kumquats in halves or quarters and coax out all those little seeds. Then it's just a 3-1-1 ratio: for every 3 cups of kumquat add 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar. No gelatin necessary! I used part raw sugar and part white, because that's what I had, but I'm sure either/or would be fine.

Throw it all on a pot with a splash or two of orange juice and then let it boil away over medium-low heat until it's reduced, stirring during commercial breaks or whenever you think of it. It should be thick enough that it'll sit on a piece of bread without spilling off onto your work clothes.

Other than toast I think you could add it to a vinaigrette for salad or even incorporate it into a sauce for pork and it should last a while too, I've had mine in the fridge for a couple of weeks now with no signs of spoilage.

In other news, I bought like a pound of mussels for $3.50! I don't actually know if it was a pound but it was waaay too much for two of us to eat and then I had the rest for dinner the next night. So many mussel recipes to come...

Bake Bread Break Bread

I love fresh from the oven bread. I love the smell as its baking, I love the steam as you break it open, I love the puddle of melted butter on a freshly cut slice. My lack of oven clearly puts a damper on this little lovefest though. Korea has fine bread, don't get me wrong. It's fine. It's prefunctory, but fine. White, sliced, holds jam when toasted, these are rudimentary qualities of bread. Which is fine, but I want more.

Enter rice cooker. Blessed rice cooker. I can't emphasize enough how happy I was with my rice cooker bread. Hand on heart, I think it's the best bread I've ever made.

I bought a bread-mix from the grocery store (think cake mix but bread) because I couldn't find yeast sold otherwise. I mixed it all up, guessing at the liquid amounts because I couldn't read the directions, and let it rise. Normally I would turn the oven on low for a couple of minutes and then let the dough rise in the warm oven but, alas, not possible. Solution: microwave. I noticed that the microwave was pretty warm after I took something out so I threw the dough in there. Genius.

I punched the dough down once after it doubled in size and let it rise again then transfered carefully to my lightly greased rice cooker. I did about one and a half 'hot' settings, but I wasn't paying really careful attention so I'm not sure how long it sat on 'warm' in between. I also flipped it over becuase the bottom was browning and the top wasn't. In the end this meant two crusts and was kind of an oblong shape which might not look as pretty but it's not a beauty pagent.

I made the bread to go with my mystery squash soup. It looked like a mini-green pumpkin, with orange flesh that was a little dryer than a sweet potatoe but not stringy like pumpkin. It can be roasted in the microwave in not too much time and tasted great as a curried squash soup. Any ideas what it might be?

The Price of Rice

When my father thought I didn't know what I was talking about he used to say 'what do you know about the price of rice in China?' Well in Korea it's cheap, but not crispy. Apart from your regular steamed rice and dishes made with steamed rice like sushi they've also got rice wine, rice dumplings, rice tea, rice vinegar, glutenous rice cakes, and rice liqour. I'm sure I'm missing at least another dozen things. You might think in such a place Rice Krispies (or Korean equivalent) would be a no brainer. You'd be wrong. The closest I found was puffed rice, which more closely resembles puffed wheat, particularly in that I can eat an entire bag for breakfast and still be hungy. I decided to use them instead to make faux rice krispy squares for my teachers. After they tried them I was told that Koreans would like them very much because they contain rice. Yeah, not the caramel or the chocolate but the rice. Always the rice.

Puffed Rice Squares

- puffed rice (or wheat)3 or 4 cups
- butter 1/2 cup
- sugar 1/2 cup
- corn syrup 1 or 2 tbsps
- chocolate

Melt butter, sugar and corn syrup in a pot. Simmer gently for several minutes, remove from heat and let cool for just a second then pour over puffed rice, stirring to combine. Press into a pan lined with parchment without burning your little fingers. Pour melted chocolate over the top and let cool in fridge several hours.

Ginger Beef

So I accidentally spent $30 on beef the other day. I thought the butcher and I agreed on three pieces of the meat, but apparently we decided on three times ten thousand won worth of meat. It's okay though, I hear if you buy the cow you get the milk for free, right? Something like that.

My recipe for ginger beef can be found here, but I've made a few modifications. Some are good, some are bad, I'll share them all.

1. Instead of breading the meat I tried to do something more like a tempura batter and it was pretty much a fail. The batter just slid off of the meat and cooked in a partially attached puddle in the pan. I'm assuming there was just something off with the batter, but I think I'll stick with the tried and true method in the future.

2. After sauteing the onions and carrots, push them to the edges of the pan and then pour the sauce ingredients in the middle. This saves the veggies from getting soggy in the sauce while it's simmering (on the sea shore).

3. Some tips on ginger. First, Chef at Home and in my Dreams Michael Smith suggests keeping your ginger in the freezer. It turns into a powder with less stringy bits when you grate it. Second, instead of futzing around with a peeler you can simply scrape the peel off with a spoon. Finally, if texture isn't crucial Nigella Lawson, babe extraordinaire, suggests just leaving the damn peel on; it's just roughage after all. If it keeps Nigella regular then it's good enough for me.

4. Blanche - not just a Golden Girl. Blanching is great if your burners are full becuase you can do it without a stove. Just boil some water in the kettle and pour over a colainder of veggies, in this case I used baby bok choy. I put a second bowl under the colainder so they could have a set in the water for a couple minutes. When they soften up a bit just pull them out and shake them off.

I also tried my hand at green onion cakes. I am without a doubt certain that the best green onion cakes can be found in Edmonton, Alberta. I'm going to sound older than I'd like, but I have such fond memories of eating green onion cakes on the street at the fringe festival, trying to balance the puddles of soy sauce and hot sauce, running from show to show, buying strange jewlery from the vendors. Sigh...okay, trip down memory lane is over. These cakes were pretty darn close to the ones back home. Here's how you can have a taste of Edmonton:

- mix 1 1/2 cups flour with 3/4 cups hot water. Work into a dough, adding flour until it's not too sticky.

- divide into four pieces, roll each out and spread a little oil over the surface. Sprinkly with salt and green onions and roll it up like a log then roll it up like a snail. Log then snail, great analogies Brittney.



- Roll it out again into a circle(ish) and the onions should be distributed evenly throughout. Fry on each side in a little oil, dunk it in some soy sauce and go take a dip in the fountain at Churchill square.

Gnocchi? Yescchi Pleasecchi!

I fear my groanworthy titles may condem me to the Dad Joke's Club.

I recently figured out which bag of white powder was flour so I decided to try my hand at gnocchi. I've never made gnocchi before, and while it wasn't perfect I think I know where I went wrong for next time.



You need:
- 3 medium sized cooked potatoes(or 2 large or 4 small or 1 big and 3 small...)
- 1 egg
- 1 - 1/2 cups flour
- salt and pecker

When the potatoes have cooled down enough to work with, run them through a fine cheese grater. Throw the flour down on your work surface, with a well in the middle for the flour and egg.


My well floweth over.

Mix the egg and potatoe together, gradually incorporating the flour. Don't try to get too much flour in and don't overwork the dough, I think this is where I went wrong and my gnocchi was a little tough instead of pillowy balls of heaven. The dough shouldn't be too dry, I think...

Roll the dough out into long strands and cut into about 1" dumplings. Roll each little guy along the edge of a fork to get the ridged sides. Boil in salted water until they float and then a few more seconds.


Put it in your mouth. Chew. Swallow. Repeat.

Spatch-what?!?

Spatchcock. Spatchcoooooock. Spatchcock, spatchcock, spatchcock. Okay, got that out of my system. It's such a funny word.

A spatchcock is a chicken with the backbone removed so it can't stand up to you in a fight. Plus it lies flat in a pan so it cooks quicker and you can have 'roast' chicken without an oven!

My 'butcher' (old Korean lady) cut out the backbone herself on the tree stump/cutting board in the market but you can easily do it yourself with a pair of sturdy scissors and some gumption. Just cut along either side of the backbone and then squish clucky out flat. Spatchcocked!


Not much about meat grosses me out, but leaving the neck gives me the heebily jeebilys. I hacked it off right away.

I marinated my birdie in some lemon juice and garlic. To really get the flavour packed in I like to slide some butter and crushed garlic under the skin of the chicken. Just peel it up away from the meat to make a pocket of sorts and shove in some pads of butter and garlic. Salt and pepper all over and then just let it set and absorb all the goodness.

I used the 'brick chicken' method for this chicken which involves putting pressure onto the meat so it cooks quickly and crisps the skin. It's called 'brick chicken' becuase you're supposed to get some bricks and put them in a second pan on top of the chicken. Now I don't know about you, but I don't do a lot of bricklaying in my tiny urban apartment. What I did have was a case of canned tomatoes from a recent trip to Costco. Done and done!


I threw a can of baked beans in too, just for good measure.

Throw it in skin side down for about 10 minutes and then flip it over for another 20 or so until the juices run clear or you're nosy and cut a piece to check. I also cooked some carrotts in the pan juices which was delicious.


When you're done just throw those old bones in a pot of water, add a couple bay leaves and some veggies and you've got chicken stock for the next day. Now if only I could get it into those little cubes...

Easter of Sorts

Easter came and went this year in the back seat of tiny Asian car belonging to a tiny Asian woman. Her kindness is nearly overwhelming and her English is nearly non-existent. We were bound for the east coast and after seeing a Buddhist temple that looks remarkably like all the others we headed to Yeongdeok, a town on the East Sea known in South Korea for having the 'best' crab in the country. They also have the 'best' statues of crabs, an unrelated coincidence I'm sure.



Dinner is served!


Struggle...


Success!


Carnage...


I wouldn't eat you if you weren't so tasty.


The crab was delicious but I was less stoked on eating the guts that look like runny poop. Just mix with rice! All in all a nice way to spend Easter, although much quieter than last year. There is an overbearing, possibly Jewish, grandmother somewhere inside me that wants to feed people. My tiny shoebox apartment does not accommodate such wishes.

Fun With Fusion

After a much needed trip to Costco for some western essentials I'm ready to start blending some old favorites (cheese, spices) with some new ingredients (Asian sweet potatoes) and mix in some things that are the same in both places (Eggs. Can't really change eggs, can you?) The result? A quiche of course.

I actually bought the sweet potatoes expecting the regular sweet, yellowy-orange insides but peeling away their rough skin exposed bright white insides. Quelle surprise! Asian sweet potatoes are actually pretty similar to potatoes, but with a dryer, more creamy texture and just a hint of sweetness. Not a bad surprise at all.





The prescious feta that I found at Costco was actually a lot more mild than I expected, resulting in a fairly bland quiche so if you attempt this either make sure you've got a cheese that can stand up for itself in a fight or add some other flavours. I'd also be lieing if I said I didn't dream of a rich, buttery, flaky crust but such is life.

Zucchini Asian Sweet Potatoe Quiche with Rice Crust
(Inspired by this little number)

Crust:
1 cup cooked rice
1 egg
2 tbsp melted butter

Quiche:
4 eggs
1 zucchini sliced thinly
1 asian sweet potatoe, cubed (you could use regular potatoes)
Cheese. As much as your budget or current location permit.
Salt and pepper.

Combine rice, egg and butter. Press into the bottom of your pan. I cooked it for three minutes in the microwave but please use your lovely ovens if you have them. The microwave just doesn't crisp things up.

Steam sweet potato and zucchini and allow to cool slightly. Lightly beat eggs, add cheese, cooled veggies, salt and pepper and pour overtop of the rice crust. I cooked this for about 7 minutes in the microwave until the centre was firm. Again, oven, oven, oven.

Then eat it, dummy.