After my last foray into breadmaking, I thought I’d take another stab at it so I started looking through “The Bread Bible” for an easy recipe. This one looked interesting. Foccacia, studded with garlic cloves that have been poached in olive oil.
First I separated and peeled one head of garlic, put them in a small saucepan and covered it with olive oil. I poached them over low heat for half an hour before removing them to cool.
The foccacia recipe is a very wet dough and I almost thought I ruined it because it was so gloppy. But with a little more patience (and the right attachment for the KitchenAid), the dough got to the right consistency. I let it rise for 4 hours before pouring it out onto a sheet pan that was greased with the garlic-infused oil. I stretched it out, then studded the garlic cloves into the dough.
It sat for another hour then went into the oven at 475*F for 13 minutes.
I’d say it came out all right for a first attempt. The poached garlic is great – almost sweet. I’ll have to do it again…this time with more garlic! :-p
A lot of times when we go out to dim sum, we order the cheong fun – steamed rice noodles filled with either shrimp or char siu. It’s just one of those things we have to have, because you can’t normally find fresh steamed noodles in the Asian groceries. The ones that are sold in the Asian groceries tend to be cold and hard and not as nice to eat.
Recently we found out that King Eggroll on Story Rd near McLaughlin in San Jose sells fresh steamed cheong fun. We bought a couple packets home, and they were quite soft! Cut the rolls up into chunks, then tossed them in a sauce consisting of hoi sin, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, water, and sesame oil. Garnished with cilantro (didn’t have green onions) and sesame seeds.
We brought out a frozen unagi from the freezer and reheated it in the microwave to serve alongside the noodles.
“Avocado shake?” A lot of people look skeptical upon hearing those two words. It’s true that avocados are fruits but they don’t have a typical fruity sweetness to them like bananas or blueberries. No matter; that’s what sugar (or in this case, Splenda) is for 🙂
The ingredients are simple: one avocado, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, some ice chips, and some milk to cover.
Put it in a tall cup, stick in the hand blender, and buzz until smooth. Sweeten with sugar / Splenda to taste.
I love the creaminess that the avocado brings, plus the fresh flavor. Try mixing in some other fruits or flavors if straight avocado is too much for you. Let me know what combinations you come up with!
Like a lot of people, we don’t get nearly enough fresh fish in our diet. Fish is so expensive nowadays! Recently, some friends of ours came back from a fishing trip to Alaska. They had almost a hundred pounds of fish that was caught in the wild, cleaned, and packed frozen. Of course, they couldn’t eat it all so we were lucky to get a portion of their haul 🙂
These are four roasts of Arctic Char, a fish similar to trout but is ocean going. I love the cute pink dots going down the side. The fish was unbelievably fresh. It was already cleaned, but somehow were missing the heads (darn it!). I seasoned the inside with s&p and stuffed the cavity with a sprig of rosemary, a few sprigs of thyme, and some thin slices of lemon. Then I secured the cavity with toothpicks.
