Hot chocolate and salabat

During the holidays my lola makes hot chocolate and salabat, or a spicy-tasting, sweet ginger tea. Winter in SD this year feels colder than usual, more like a Bay Area winter.

For hot chocolate:
8 oz good-quality dark or milk chocolate (cocoa that wasn't processed with alkali)
2 cups milk
2 cups water
1-2 pinches chili powder
1 pinch cardamom
1 pinch cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a medium pot, heat milk and water over medium heat until the milk begins to bubble. Turn the heat down to medium-low. Break the chocolate into bite-sized pieces and add to the pot. Add spices and vanilla extract. Stir until all the chocolate melts, and let simmer for at least 10 minutes or until you can't stand the wait any longer and simply must have a sip. Serve in mugs.

For salabat:
1 palm-sized piece of fresh ginger (fresh is important--powdered lacks juices)
Brown sugar to taste (I used 1/4 cup + 1 T Splenda--my lola uses 1 cup brown sugar)
4 cups water

In a medium pot, bring water to a boil. Meanwhile, peel and slice ginger. Smash each piece with a mortar and pestle or the back of a spoon to release the flavorful juices and add to water. Stir in sugar until it dissolves. Let simmer over medium heat for at least 10 minutes. The longer you let the ginger steep, the stronger the flavor will be. This stuff will warm you up inside and out.

Mulled wine

When torrents of rain start pounding my window, I like to watch French movies and drink mulled wine.

You will need:

1 bottle Charles Shaw chardonnay, or any fruity wine (e.g. merlot)

For the sugar syrup, you can substitute 2 cups of port, brandy, or sherry. Any sweet fortified wine will do.
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 T vanilla extract

These spice measurements are approximate. I usually season to taste.
1 1/2 T cinnamon, or 2 cinnamon sticks + 1/2 T ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp black peppercorns

Slice the following into 1/4"-thick circles:
2 oranges
1 lemon

1. Start off by making a simple syrup:
   Bring water to a boil in a 3-quart saucepan. Add sugar and vanilla, then stir to dissolve sugar. Once the sugar dissolves, boil the mixture until it thickens, about 1 minute. If you're using fortified wine instead, bring it to a simmer over medium heat, stirring carefully. Do not boil it, as you will wreck the flavors in the wine.
   
2. While the water is coming to a boil, toast the spices in a dry pan. They're done when you see a little steam come off the pan. They should be quite fragrant.
3. After the syrup thickens (or the fortified wine comes to a simmer), add the spices to it.
4. Add wine to syrup, then bring to a simmer over medium to medium-low heat.
5. Add fruit slices one by one so that they don't stick to each other, then reduce heat to medium-low to low.
6. Simmer 1 hour.
7. Garnish with an orange slice and a cinnamon stick, then serve.

Breakfast for Dinner

Tonight for dinner we decided to make breakfast, albeit a savory one. I haven't done savory French toast since college. Inspired by a scrumptious appetizer we had at Sushi Deli earlier this week, Paul picked up ingredients for Korean barbecue tofu at Seafood City in National City. I picked up some monay (uncut round sweet bread) and pan de coco (sweet bread filled with coconut shavings) at the Filipino bakery next door.

For the French toast:
4 eggs
6" round loaf of monay bread, cut into 1/2" slices
1/4 cup flat beer
1/2 cup toyomansi
1/4 cup vinegar
1 Tbsp sage
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano

3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 cup Napa lettuce, chopped in fine strips
1/2 zucchini, diced

In a medium-large bowl, whisk eggs until yolk and whites are blended. Add beer, toyomansi, vinegar, and herbs and whisk until well-blended. Set aside.
Heat a pan, then add just enough oil or ghee to cover the bottom of the pan. After oil is heated, add garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add onion and zucchini, then saute until onions are halfway transparent, about 2 minutes. Add Napa cabbage and stir until just heated through.
Add sauteed vegetables to egg mixture and whisk until well-blended.
Heat a clean pan, then add just enough oil or ghee to cover the bottom of the pan.
Dip a slice of bread in the egg mixture, ensuring that both sides are moistened. You do not want soggy bread, so don't dip for longer than about 2 seconds.
Place slice in pan and brown both sides, turning as necessary. Repeat with other slices. Serve hot.
After all the slices are done, I like to make scrambled eggs with the rest of the egg mixture. It's great over rice, or just by itself.

For the Korean barbecue tofu:
1/2 block extra-firm tofu (it holds its shape better)
1 Tbsp Korean barbecue sauce (we used Lee Kum Kee brand)

Drain and press water out of tofu. Marinate tofu in sauce for at least an hour (longer is better).
Heat a pan over medium heat. When pan is hot, add just enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan.
Add tofu and sauce, and heat through. Serve hot over rice with sliced mushrooms and caramelized onions. Much cheaper than the restaurant version, and just as good if not better.

To accompany all the comfort food, we drank Thai iced tea. Paul found a rather large bag of loose-leaf Thai tea at 99 Ranch during our Asian cooking class field trip and we've been addicted ever since.

4 Tbsp loose-leaf Thai tea
4 cups freshly drawn cold water
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk

Bring water to a boil. Just after it boils, pour over Thai tea and let brew for 5 minutes. Remove leaves and stir in sugar. Half-fill a tall glass with ice. Pour tea over ice. Stir in condensed milk and serve.

Preparation time was probably around an hour from start to finish. My Winamp playlist alternated between Oingo Boingo and Andrew Bird the entire time.

The best thing about today? Petrichor after the first fall rain.

Pumpkin soup, Thai Iced Tea, and Blue Stone

One of my all time favorite soups I've ever had was a pumpkin soup I once had at someone's house. Although I've never found the recipe, I've since loved pumpkin soup. It being October and pumpkin season, we decided to try making pumpkin soup ourselves. Unfortunately, when we tried in the beginning of the month, stores had not yet stocked canned pumpkin so we made a corn chowder (to be blogged about later).

Tonight, however, we were trying to decide what to make, and we realized that we hadn't yet made pumpkin soup. I found this recipe online and decided to try it: http://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/pumpkinsoup.php

Though of course, with a few variations. I'll walk through the recipe.

Before I came over, Christina roasted 2 red peppers with olive oil and vinegar in the oven for 10 minutes.

After picking up 6 carrots, a large onion, and a pint of nonfat half and half (though they were out of the pints so we got a quart), we came back and starting chopping ingredients. The onion we tried mincing in the blender, but it didn't work so well so we got biggish (about dicing size) chunks (which we later discovered was better anyhow). We also blended the red pepper pieces to a mince. And then we minced 8 cloves of garlic in the blender as well. For the carrots, after peeling them we tried grating a couple of them but then gave up and blended them as well.

We then heated our wok, and added about 3 tbsp of ghee, and then the onions/garlic/pepper. Once the onions were about transparent, we added the carrots, two 15 oz cans of pumpkin from TJ's, some salt, pepper, thyme, paprika, and sage. After mixing, we let it simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Last, we added the pint of half and half and let that heat up. Christina came up with the brilliant idea of adding a tbsp of curry powder, which really improved it. I needed more salt, but that was easily added in the bowl. Quite yummy recipe, and definitely to be made again.

To accompany the soup, we made Thai iced tea from a tea mix we bought at 99 Ranch. The directions called for 4 tbsp of tea per cup of water, but that was obviously a typo -- we added 4 tbsp to the 1 litre pot, and that was plenty strong, even after icing. Filled a collins glass with ice, poured in tea, added 1.5 tbsp sugar, and a spoon full of condensed milk. Yum!

For our auditory pleasure, we listened to Blue Stone (http://www.blue-stone.cc/), a band I discovered today on Pandora.

Salad for potlucks

Whenever we have potlucks at work, I'm invariably signed up to bring salad. This is a basic one that I usually do since I can grab the ingredients at the grocery store near work and throw it together once it's time for lunch. It takes all of five minutes and feeds about ten people.

Salad:
1 head green lettuce
1 head red lettuce
1-2 handfuls pepitas
1-2 handfuls sunflower seeds
1-2 handfuls cashews
1-2 handfuls dried cranberries
1 handful sundried tomatoes (if I feel like it)
2 apples, diced (pears work too)
1/2 to 1 cup feta cheese (nonfat works just as well as full-fat)

Toast nuts in toaster oven for three minutes on medium if available. If not, buy roasted.
Wash lettuce in cold water and pat dry. Tear into bite-size pieces. I like to discard the tough base of some of the leaves so that the whole salad isn't an exercise in chewing.
In a large shallowish bowl, combine all ingredients and toss. Try to distribute the goodies evenly--they tend to sink to the bottom.
Dress and toss again just before serving.

As far as dressing for this salad goes, I've had success with raspberry vinaigrettes, balsamic vinaigrettes, and orange and lemon vinaigrettes. I've also tried an Asian-themed vinaigrette with sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and a touch of sugar--leave out the cheese for this one. My basic vinaigrette ratios are 1 part oil to 1.5 parts vinegar, and everything else to taste (garlic, salt, pepper, spices, herbs).

Pasta in a pinch

It seems that pasta is our fallback dish whenever we're pinched for time and want something more substantial than a scrambled egg. I like to keep angel hair in my pantry because it cooks the fastest (it's done in less than five minutes) and works well with a variety of sauces.

This time I decided to flavor the pasta with extra-virgin olive oil, instead of the requisite jar of pasta sauce. Just about everything in the following recipe can be substituted. If I were to make it again, I would add shiitake mushrooms.

Ingredients:
Cook pasta according to package directions and drain well. Toss drained pasta with olive oil so that it doesn't stick together.
Meanwhile, in a skillet, heat just enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan over medium heat.

Saute until transparent:
1/4 onion, diced
1-3 cloves garlic

Stir in:
1/2 cup fennel, diced
1/2 zucchini, chopped into 1" strips
2 roma tomatoes, diced

Drizzle about 1 Tbsp olive oil over the top, and stir in:
1 tsp basil
2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup kalamata olives, diced

Correct the seasoning. Once zucchini is soft, stir in the pasta and some more olive oil, to taste.
Stir in:
1/4 cup asiago cheese, grated
I like to grate it myself with my nifty Microplane zester.

Correct the seasonings once more, then serve warm with more grated cheese on top.

Decadent Challah

Ever since the first time Christina and I made Challah together, we've acquired a reputation for ginormous Challot. Two times ago, we decided to add chocolate chips. Last time, I decided to add apple chunks in addition, and nutella. It disappeared quite quickly.

Starting with a modified version of Reina's wholewheat and honey recipe, this time we added a few tablespoons of nutella (and extra honey). 2 cups wholewheat, 6.5 cups allpurpose flour. We're letting it rise overnight, after which we'll add the chocolate chips, and apples and pears that we picked ourselves out in Julian.

Summer meets Fall

For dinner tonight, we made two dishes that transitioned between the seasons. For our first course, we had a gazpacho soup. We followed this by a dish with roasted root vegetables: beet, turnip, yellow squash, and fennel.

Gazpacho:
In a blender, throw in 1 clove of garlic (we learned the hard way that raw garlic is a lot stronger than in stirfries -- 3 was way too much), some olive oil, and vinegar
Once the garlic is minced, add in tomatoes, cut up to decrease blending time.
1 large tomato + a bunch of small roma tomatoes
Then add about half a baguette in small pieces, crust removed
For garnish, we added in more tomato chunks, half of a large fennel (diced), and the crusts of the bread fried with garlic into croutons

Roasted root vegetables:
Cooked two large beets in the microwave in a large bowl with a lid (8 minutes, 5 minute rest, 3 minutes, 10 minute rest)
Peeled the beets, and diced them
Diced two large turnips, and roasted them for about 15 minutes at 375
Added the beets, 2 yellow squash, and the other half of the fennel
Tossed this together with a glass and a half of port, two sprigs of fresh dill, some zaatar, some olive oil, some vinegar, some salt, some pepper
Cooked for 15 minutes, tossed, 15 minutes more, and served with lots of salt