Happy 2012!!

What a year 2011 was !!! Lots of outings, family gatherings, and lots of cooking learning.    I really enjoyed all my cooking classes.    While I was doing just that, December 2011 ended with eye opening experiences in my Mediterranean Cuisine and Professional Cooking.    While my December blogging got slipped away without a single blog, I was enjoying 12 different dishes on Tuesday evenings and four different dishes on Fridays and Saturdays.
Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece, Mid-Eastern... North Africa made up the core of our studies.  For whole semester, I tasted something new and found similarities of each cuisines to something I grew up with in the Asia.   Egg Custards - Castel de Nata = DUN TA, Chinese Dim Sum egg custard; varieties of fried potato croquettes = Japanese KORO'KE.    These are couple of my favorites that I found are enjoyed as much in the different parts of the world since long ago.    My pantry are well stocked to dish up risotto, tagine, galatomboureko, tabbouleh, etc.  
Wish you all a very adventurous cooking year in 2012 and be able to share that joy with your family.

 

Homemade Ravioli

There are many different types of Ravioli, and I love homemade Chinese dumplings.    They are so much alike and yet so different, and I appreciate the differences to make my gastronomic experience so much more interesting.   While making the Siberian Pelmeni, I end up with extra meat to make them into Ravioli my way.  My ravioli is filled with 50% ground beef, 25% ground pork, 25% eggplants, some bokchoy and spices topped with homemade tomato sauce and homegrown basil.

Jasmine Fried Rice with Beets Greens, Onions, and Raisins

One of the advantages in learning Mediterranean cooking is to use some of the ingredients that you would never thought of adding to the 'white rice' that you maybe so use to eating.    I have fried rice before and many times with different types of ingredients.    But once I learned the new methods of preparing the rice - risotto way, paella way, pilaf way, then, the varieties of ingredients that I started to experiment with have increased quite a bit.    I never thought of eating the Beets Greens.     After I chop off the greens off the top of the beets that I am preparing to make my salad, I just threw away the greens.     One of the unfounded reasons I had in my head is because of the color of the stem of the beets greens - red.  (If its yellow beets, the stems are yellow.)   So, thinking that it maybe similar to Rhubarb, leaves are toxic, I never thought of researching and has been tossing the good greens.    Well, this time, I tried it.     I sauteed them with onions and garlic.    Then, added jasmine rice to stir fry - Pilaf method.  Added some raisins and my new dish is created.