Thursday, August 31, 2017

Fresh Corn Juice or Soup or Stock?


While doing some health and food research in YouTube, I found information on the benefit of corn silk stock. My first batch using my home grown corn and corn silk was exciting.  As it is home grown without any pesticides.  This time I tried with store bought corn.  I am very hesitant about using the non-organic corn as normal corns are heavily sprayed with pesticides.   And I can smell them in the corns right at grocer's shelves.  But this is how I did it to assure clean stock produced from store bought corns.  
3 fresh corns with husk. 
Remove husks layers, and carefully retain corn silk in a bowl with strainer with cleaned corns.

Add water and rinse, strain. Repeat twice.  Then soak with filtered water.  Rinse after 5 minutes, then, soak again in filtered water for 10 minutes.
Fill a pot just enough to cover corns (with silk in the pot).  Cover the pot.  Bring to boil.  
Cook over high heat for three minutes. 
Do not open the lid.
Turn off the heat.
Wait 10 minutes.
Serve.

Strain the stock and enjoy it hot or cold.

Stir Fried Cactus Salad


After my mother's home cook testing with nopales, I thought I would give it a try myself.   She made them into a very tasty refreshing salad.
Wearing thick gloves, Fresh cut young nopales.  
Use a blow torch to burn off the fine thorns or use a garden hand shovel and scrape off thorns.   
Use kitchen peeler to scrape off all the thorn eyes left behind. 
Rinse well. 
Cut into slices. 

Heat 1-1/2 tablespoon of avocado oil in a sauté pan.  Medium high heat. 
Add nopales slices.  Stir fry for a minute...

Lower to medium heat.
Stir fry for 1-1/2 min to 2 min.  
Remove. 
You have a choice to fresh squeeze a lemon and add to it or eat it as is. What taste do you expect!?  Ready?! Stir fried nopales tasty sour to tangy all by itself.   I love it just the way it is. Eat it straight out of refrigerator. Cool salad.  

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Scones with Chocolate Chip, Flaxseed Meal, Poppy Seeds

You can make these scones 45 minutes before you leave for work and share with your co-workers.  
 
This recipe contains:
6 oz organic Flour Shifted with 2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp kosher salt.  Shift well.  
Add and mix 4 oz organic sugar,
1 Tbsp Poppy Seeds,
1 Tbsp ground Flaxseed Meal.  
Preheat oven to 425'F.   
Add 4 oz Creme de Fraiche, 1/4 C organic milk plus some more, and organic dark chocolate chips.  
Gently - Blend well with spatula.    Then, add handful of organic dark chocolate chips or chopped dark European chocolate pistoles.
The dough is softer than the cookie dough.   If too moist, add 1+ tablespoon of flour. 
Transfer the dough to the baking pan lined with parchment paper. 
Form the dough into disc. 
Apply egg wash - 1 egg yolk and 1 tsp milk. 
Baking time and temperature depends on your oven's BTU.  I am using an electric countertop convection oven.  However, it seems this unit's convection is questionable.  But check at 20 min. Then, lower the temperature to 375'F and bake 12+ more minutes.  Bake till the tester comes out quite dry. 
The final scone should be moist like cake and beautifully browned at the top. 

 The crumbs are very tender

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Cilantro Nectarine Yogurt Ice Cream

Is it crazy or what? I saw this Lemon Yogurt Ice Cream posting in the Yummly.  I looked in my refrigerator and thought - Why not?  and I tried it.  It's turned out refreshing and tasty without the heavy cream.   You might say, it's more like a smoothie, but to each its own.
Handful of cleaned Organic Cilantro - stems and leaf and all, except some at the bottom of the stems.
1 C Organic Yogurt
Some Ice - 1 C
1 home grown peach
1/4 Water
Process in your favorite blender.  Mine is NutriBullet Pro.





Don't forget to remove the ring and clean under.  Or you will be beating some extra !#$%  that you don't want.

Friday, August 11, 2017

Scones with Chocolate Chip, Flaxseed Meal, Poppy Seeds, and Organic Kale(powder)


This scone's crumbs turned out like cake.   Some people like scones that are like dry biscuit/a day old bread.   But unless I over bake it - sometimes I do, this ones should be moist and tender.   
Ingredients:
6 oz organic Flour Shifted with 2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp kosher salt.  Shift well.  
Add and mix 4 oz organic sugar, 
1 Tbsp Organic Kale Powder, 
1 Tbsp Poppy Seeds, 
1 Tbsp ground Flaxseed Meal.  
Preheat oven to 425'F.   
Add 4 oz sour cream, 1/4 C organic milk and gently - mix well.  Then, add organic dark chocolate chips.   The dough should be quite soft but holds its shape - not runny.   If the dough is too moist, add 1 tablespoon of flour. 
Transfer the dough to the baking pan lined with parchment paper. 
Form the dough into a round disc. 
Apply egg wash - 1 egg yolk and 1 tsp milk.  
Depending on the oven you have - I am baking it in the countertop electric convection oven.  Check at 20 min. And change the temperature to 375'F and bake 12 minutes more or till the tester come out quite dry. 
The final scone should be moist like cake and beautifully browned at the top. 

Wednesday, August 02, 2017

Green Onion Pancake Adventure


This summer, my mother and I spent a few weekends checking out recipes and How To's of making the Green Onion Pancake.  This is one of our favorite dish that we have eaten many many times served with rice porridge.   As plain as it may sound, we love it.  However, when I was a child, I would poke out every green onions out of the pancake.  I like the flavor, but when I was a kid, the green onions tasted like soap.  So, don't be surprised, if your children feel the same.  Young children's taste buds are just not quite the same as the adults'.
We watched YouTube instructions on the Green Onion Pancakes for the tips of this and that... not that we don't know how to make it, but I think there is something to do with the Flour in Asia and in America.  They just turn out differently.
So, this time, the right combo was:
DOUGH:
2 Cup Pastry Flour
1 Cup AP Flour
1/3 C Hot water
2/3 C water
1 tsp Kosher Sea Salt

Bunch of Green Onions and as much as you would like.
I like to put chopped Cilantro and or chopped curly Parsley.   They are great addition to the traditional green onion.
Now-a-days, I like to add extra nutritional ingredients whenever I am cooking with "Flour".  Empty flour carb is not that fun anymore.

GREEN ONIONS mix:
Chopped Green Onions  - 2 Cups
1 Cup chopped curly Parsley or Cilantro
All veges should be washed.  I saw my mother wiping the green onions stalk dry...  So I did the same.
2 Tbsp Avocado Cooking oil (non-GMO) purchased at COSTCO
Salt
3 Tbsp flour

Mix flour together with Salt.  Add 1/3 C Hot water and mix with your utensil - I used chopped stick.
Then, add 2/3 C Water slowly to form a nice soft dough.
Does not need to form into a perfect dough.
Place in a oiled bag.  Set aside in refrigerator for 30 min to 1 hour or more.

Prepare Green Onions:
Place flour and Salt in a heat proof bowl and mix.   Set aside.
In a small fry pan, Add 2 TBsp cooking oil, heat it up over medium heat.  Add HALF of chopped green onion.  Stir to coat all green onions with heated oil.   Add curley parsely.  Cook 30 sec. 
Pour the hot green onion mixture into the bowl with flour mixture.

Remove the rested dough onto a clean work surface smeared with some oil.
Roll out the dough thin.  likely be over 13x9 or more  ... I didn't measure.
Smear a tablespoon of oil over the dough.    Sprinkle with some sea salt.
Evenly smear all green onion mixture with flour and oil all around - corner to corner
Top with fresh green onion and anything else you like that would cook quickly.  NOTE:  This method is only my preference.  You can do any other way you learned.
Roll in the dough with green onion from the widest side into a long rope.
Tip:  As you roll and tuck, pull on the dough a bit to stretch the dough.

Slice into equal length.

Press down with the palm of your hand.



Roll it out.
Heat the fry pan with very very little oil or smear the oil over it.

Cook it over low heat with cover.

Turn the pancake every 1 minute or so.

Cook it till nicely browned.

These bunch looks like very thick pancake in the pictures, but that's because I ran out of the pastry flour.
You really don't want to use flour with high protein/gluten.  Only if Raley stop doing this YOYO shelving of the Bob's Red Mill flour group, I would have been able to consistently shop there.  But last week when I went, Raley don't carry it any more.  Who wants to cook with whole wheat pastry flour anyways.  Yak!  well, I don't like 'whole wheat'.
So, have fun testing recipes with your family!!!



Blueberry Muffin Cups with Almond Slivers and Raisin Crumbles


One of my favorite breakfast when Blueberries are abundantly available in the season.

Toppings:
2/3 C AP Flour
2/3  C Brown Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon
4 Tbsp Butter sliced into small pieces
1/4 C Slivered Almonds
1/2 C Organic Raisins chopped.  Softened - Soak in 1/4 C hot water

 Mix butter with flour first then add all other ingredients.

Muffins:
2-1/4 C Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
2/3 C Sugar
1 Tbsp Orange Zest
2 Tbsp Flaxseed Meal
1 Tbsp Poppy seeds
1/3 C Avocado Oil (non-GMO)
1/3 C Vanilla Yogurt with 1/4 tsp Buttermilk or 1/2 C Sour cream
1/2 C milk low fat or whole

Shift dry ingredients together - flour, baking powder, soda
Preheat  oven to 425' F.
Add all other ingredients.
Mix gently.
Use 2 Tbsp cookie scooper to fill the cup molds.
Place on top of lightweight cookie sheet.
Place in center rack.
Makes 15 cup cakes in DAISO colored cupcake molds.
Bake at 425'F degree to start for 12 minutes then drop to 400'F for 5 min.
Insert tester to check doness.