and curiously – Page 13

Beet risotto and real talk

Hey, friends and friendly strangers! I’ve fallen off the blogging bandwagon a little bit, but here’s my attempt at climbing back on.

I spent a lovely day and a half with the inspiring Kim of Hello Kim Win over the weekend, and I told her how much I’ve been enjoying her brief, more personal updates in her blog. She helped me see the obvious — why not try that here, too? We talked about how bloggers seem to always try to be ebullient, showcasing beautiful lives. I know that I don’t exactly do that here (I really do try to keep it real with recipes), but it’s definitely true that I only post about the struggles that I think are amusing. And I don’t intend on changing that in a major way, but I do think an occasional foray might be good.

In short, I’m trying to lose some weight and get healthier. It’s so simple and silly now that I type it out, but it’s something that’s been surprisingly hard for me to talk about. But, that’s it. It threw me for a loop in the beginning, really. A big part of this effort is, of course, cutting down on calorie-heavy meals — and I’m an aspiring food blogger; how am I supposed to do that? It felt a little bit like losing my identity. A month in, I’m realizing how overblown that reaction was. I still eat, and I cook more than ever, so I can be sure of what I’m eating. I would warn you to expect healthier posts here, but I’ve still got a backlog of some indulgences (and still make them now from time to time), so I can’t even say that. I mean, I’m following this rant with risotto.

That’s enough seriousness for now, right? Onto the risotto. Don’t worry, though, because these poorly-lit photos (and random paper crumpled paper towel) don’t exactly qualify as making my kitchen seem all that beautiful.

Beet risotto is a bit of a compromise dish, sure, but it’s actually good. It’s not quite the same as a luscious, creamy risotto, nor is it quite as earnest as beets and greens, but in this case, I think the middle ground works. It feels almost reasonable to have as a meal, and I like that it uses the beet greens, which admittedly, I often throw away.

Risotto with Roasted Beets and Greens
From NYT

3/4 pound beets (1 small bunch)
1 bunch beet greens, stemmed and washed
6 to 7 cups vegetable stock, as needed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 onion
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
2 garlic cloves,
1/2 cup red, rose, or dry white wine
Salt and pepper
Small handful of Parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Separate the beets and the leaves (wash and de-stem the leaves later). Wrap the beets in aluminum foil individually, place on a baking sheet, and let roast in the oven for 40 minutes to an hour. They are done when you can poke them easily with a fork or knife. Unwrap and let cool enough to handle. Use paper towels to wipe off the peels — it sounds impossible but is easy once they are roasted. Slice into small cubes.

Finely dice the onion and mince the garlic.

Heat the oil in a large pot until shimmering. Add the onion, garlic, and if you’ve kept ’em, finely chopped beet stems. Cook until the onion is translucent and fragrant. Add the rice, continuing to stir, until it smells slightly toasty.

Add the wine and bring to a simmer. Stir occasionally.

When the wine looks mostly absorbed, start adding the broth, about a cup at a time. Stir occasionally, watching for burning. (The tradition is to stir risotto constantly, but I’ve found this to be largely unnecessary. Just keep an eye on it and give it the occasional stir while you get other things done.)

Keep adding the stock when the previous addition’s been absorbed. Cook until the risotto is just a bit firmer than you like. Stir in the beets and greens and let them warm through for about 10 minutes. This will also allow the flavors to combine.

When the rice is the texture that you like, stir in a bit of Parmesan cheese or cream (both optional), season with salt and pepper, and serve immediately.

Garlic Chip and Leek Fried Rice

Does everyone feel like they are just barely on the precipice between “real” adulthood and falling apart? Every day that I postpone laundering my bedsheets or scheduling a haircut makes me wonder how my parents and other real adults managed to live their lives, often with significantly more responsibilities than me… like nurturing human life. I literally let a cactus die the other day. And I still can’t manage to get my laundry done.

I have to do laundry tonight… can you tell?

A meal that I fall back on all the time when I’m feeling like I might not be able to feed myself like a real adult is fried rice. It’s reasonably legit, but in reality, it’s made with mainly pantry / refrigerator staples, is minimum effort for a satisfying meal, and easily made in a huge batch to eat all week. Also, it’s delicious. When I made this batch, I listened to Serial for an entire evening while making and munching on the rice. Basically, perfect evening.

This particular variety is a little atypical for me, but I had leeks lying around and remembered an interesting method to fried rice that I’d read in the NYT. Mine didn’t turn out nearly as “minimalist” as theirs, but here’s my take. I liked the mildness of the silky leeks, and cooking the rest of the ingredients in the oil infused from crisping the garlic was smart, too.

Crispy Garlic and Leek Fried Rice
Inspired by NYT

3 eggs
3 cloves garlic
2 or 3 leeks
1 small knob of ginger
1 carrot
2 or 3 cups of cooked rice
1/2 to 3/4 cup frozen peas
soy sauce
mirin
vegetable oil

Vegetable prep. Slice the garlic thinly. Slice the leeks lengthwise and rinse carefully. Remove the dark green parts and roots. Slice the remaining white/light green pieces thinly. Grate or mince the ginger. Finely chop the carrots.

Heat up some vegetable oil in a large pan. Beat the eggs lightly and scramble until not-quite-done. Remove the eggs from the pan and set aside.

Add more oil to the pan and wait for it to start shimmering. Carefully fry the garlic slices until golden. Remove quickly and let drain on a paper towel.

Without wiping down the pan, add leeks, ginger, and carrots. Stir fry the vegetables until they are cooked through.

Push vegetables aside (but don’t remove from the pan). Add a little oil in the empty spot, and then add the rice. Break up the rice, incorporating vegetables. Add the peas and mix in, as well. Stir fry until the rice smells a little toasty. Add the eggs back in toward the end, breaking into smaller pieces.

Season with soy sauce and mirin to taste.

Serve sprinkled with the crispy garlic.

Homemade Bagels, Furikake and Others

I know that shortly after everyone’s New Years resolutions have been made might not be the best time to post a carbohydrate bomb… but seriously, you guys, homemade bagels are really, really good. As a bagel lover but not a bagel connoisseur, I’ve had a lot of mediocre, dry, even whole-wheat (sacrilege?) bagels. But these are seriously good, and I might never be able to go back. Satisfyingly chewy and dense without being heavy. I made 24 of them in a week (ostensibly to test recipes), and between myself and a few friends, we had no trouble polishing them all off in a timely fashion.

They are a little bit time-consuming, but I think they are worth it — and pretty fun to make. I’ll actually go through two methods — one that requires an overnight rise, and one that gets you from start to eating bagels in a day. I didn’t think there was a demonstrable difference in quality, honestly, but the overnight rise might be convenient if you want to eat the bagels fresh-baked for breakfast.

And, toppings! I went a little Asian with a few of mine and topped a couple with furikake, a Japanese seasoning blend with sesame seeds and dried nori, and this specific gomasio by Spice Child, which is traditionally just salted, toasted sesame seeds, but they add some curry seasoning, too. I liked them both a lot, but I also just like bagels a lot. Among the more traditional toppings were sesame seeds, dried minced onion, cheese, and plain salt.

Bagels (Same day)
Adapted from Serious Eats

2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 or 2 tablespoons of baking soda
any desired toppings

Get the yeast started by dissolving it in the warm water. Let it sit for 5 minutes.

While the yeast is going, mix together bread flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.

Add the water and mix until a shaggy dough is formed. Knead on a floured, flat surface by hand until the dough is smooth and stretchy, at least 10 minutes.

Transfer dough into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled in size — for me this was about 90 minutes.

When the dough is ready, prepare a baking sheet for the bagels by lining a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat and oiling it lightly.

Divide the dough into 8 equal portions. One at a time, roll each portion of dough into a snake, about 1 inch thick, but leaving the ends slightly tapered. Wrap the dough around four fingers, overlapping the ends in your palm, then roll against a flat surface to seal the two ends.

Set the bagels on a lined baking sheet, cover with wet paper towels, and let rise for another hour or so, or until one passes the “float test.” To administer the float test, fill a bowl with water (cold is fine), then carefully set a bagel into the bowl. If it floats, it’s ready.

Once the bagels are ready, preheat the oven to 400°F. Fill a large pot with enough water so that the bagels could easily be submerged. Bring the water to a boil. Once the water is boiling, add the baking soda to the pot. It will bubble, so please be careful.

Prepare another baking sheet for the bagels. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat, and oil it lightly.

Carefully transfer bagels to the boiling water — as many as can fit in one layer. Let them boil for 1 minute, then flip them, and let them boil for another minute on the other side. Transfer the boiled bagels to the prepared baking sheet with a slotted spoon. Repeat until all bagels are done.

Toppings that can go on now — any kind of seed, furikake, sea salt, minced dried onion that has been soaked for a few hours, cheese.

Toppings that should go on mid-bake later — anything sugary or otherwise easily burned.

Place the baking sheet in your preheated oven and bake until the bagels are golden brown, about 20 minutes. Rotate the racks in the middle of baking for more even browning.

Other Bagels (multiple day)
Adapted from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice

Sponge:
1/2 teaspoon yeast
2 cups bread flour
1 3/4 cups warm water

Dough:
1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 3/4 cup bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon baking soda
any desired toppings

First, make the sponge. Stir the yeast into the flour, then add the water and stir until it forms a smooth, sticky, thick batter. Cover the bowl and let it sit for about 2 hours, or until the mixture has doubled in volume and become very bubbly.

Then, make the dough. Add the additional yeast, then stir it in. Add the flour and salt, and honey. Stir until a messy ball is formed. Knead by hand on a floured, flat surface until the dough is smooth and sticky, for at least 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Cover them with a damp towel and let rest for 20 minutes.

While you are waiting, line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat and oil it lightly.

Roll each piece, one by one, into a snake, but keep the ends tapered. Wrap the snake around four fingers, overlapping the ends in your palm. Roll against a flat surface to seal the ends together.

Place the bagels onto the baking sheet, cover with a damp paper towel, and let them sit at room temperature for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, administer the “float test” by carefully placing a bagel into a large bowl of water and seeing if it floats. If it floats, it’s ready to rest in the refrigerator. If it doesn’t, wait an additional 20 minutes and repeat.

Once a bagel passes the float test, carefully place the baking sheet, covered with damp paper towels, into the refrigerator and let sit overnight.

The next day, remove the bagels from the refrigerator. Ideally, let the bagels sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. When the water has come to a boil, add the baking soda.

Prepare another baking sheet for the bagels by lining a sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat, then lightly oiling it.

Carefully place the bagels in the boiling water, adding as many as will fit in one layer. Boil for one minute, then flip and let them boil for another minute on the other side. Carefully remove the bagels from the water using a slotted spoon and place on the prepared sheet.

Top the bagels with desired toppings. I used sesame seeds, sea salt, furikake, rehydrated dried minced onions, and cheese. (If you want to top with anything sugary, wait until the last few minutes of baking to do so to avoid burning.)

Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until dark golden brown. Rotate pan in the middle of baking time.

Sichuan Chile Chili

I am home in sunny Southern California for the holidays, where I am being spoiled by my mom’s good eats, reading/napping while sprawled out on the couch, and moonlighting as a college admissions counselor for my sister. I’ve been eating like the world is ending, of course. I also somehow miscounted the days I’d be here and am short one day of clothing. Oops.

It’s very warm, here — 80 degrees, and I’ve been eating cold (noodle) salads. It feels a little unseasonable to look through my recent photos of hearty, rib-sticking, wintery foods that I cooked through the stormy weeks in the Bay Area. Not that I’d turn away chili or risotto, though, because, when in my life have I ever done that? Never.

I’ve been kind of obsessed with Sichuan peppercorns, the kind that leave a tingly, numb sensation in your mouth and around your lips if you’re a bit of a junkie like me. It makes the flavor ma la (numb-spicy) in Chinese, which I’d had in mapo tofu and not much else until recently. Commonly found in Asian groceries (or online, if that’s not accessible), if you are curious to try.

I’ve also been kind of obsessed with using the pressure cooker to make beans (exhibit Mediterranean potluck party), so it seemed obvious…. Sichuan chile chili! This giant pot of hearty beans and tomato with some zippy Sichuan peppercorns fed me for a week, and then I made it again to tweak the recipe, and it fed me for another week.

Sichuan chile chili

1 to 2 tablespoons of Sichuan peppercorns
vegetable oil (or other neutral oil)
1 onion
1 or 2 carrots
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
around 5 cups of cooked beans (pressure cooker instructions here)
1 14-oz can of crushed or diced tomatoes
chili powder (to taste, I used about a tablespoon)
1/2 to 1 cup of quinoa (optional)
salt & pepper
sour cream, cashew cream, sliced herbs as garnish (optional)

Grind the peppercorns until medium-fine. I used an old coffee grinder for this.

Heat up the oil in a large pot and toast the ground peppercorns until fragrant, on high heat.

Dice the onion and chop the carrot finely — or grate both, if you prefer a smoother textured chili. Finely mince the garlic.

Turn heat down to medium and add the carrots and onions, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic after a few minutes, and cook for a few additional minutes.

Add a can of tomatoes, beans, and chili powder and any other desired seasoning. You may also need to add a bit of water — the beans should be roughly level with liquid. Cover and let cook for as long as you can, but at least for 20 minutes or so.

Optional, but 20 minutes before serving, you can add quinoa to the chili, stirring frequently to avoid sticking to the bottom of the pot. I like adding it for texture/nutrition/using up my giant bag of quinoa. Bulgur works, too.

Seared Broccoli Soup

I was just discussing with a friend over lunch (for which I had, all fried: brussels sprouts, potatoes, egg, sweet potato) today how flawless brassicas become when, well, fried. Or roasted but in so much oil it’s kinda like frying, or is that not how other people “roast” their vegetables. But, seriously, right? When I saw Melissa Clark’s recipe in the NYT, it made so much sense to me. Great fried flavor, but without all that pesky chewing. Hooray!

Seared Broccoli Soup
Adapted from Melissa Clark, in the New York Times

1/3 cup of olive oil
1 large head of broccoli (or 2 small heads)
salt and pepper
1 medium onion
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
pinch of lemon zest (optional)

Chop the broccoli into florets and small pieces of stems.

Heat up about a third of the oil in a large pot, and add as much broccoli as you can fit in one layer. Fry on high heat until quite brown on one side. Remove the done broccoli, add a bit more oil, and repeat, until all the broccoli is fried. Generously season the fried broccoli with salt and pepper. And try not to be like me and eat a bunch of it at this point. Or, I don’t know, go for it.

Finely dice the onion and mince the garlic. Add a little more oil to the pot and sautee the onion and garlic until they are aromatic and cooked through. Add the garlic, toss around, and then add just enough water to cover. If you want heat, add a pinch or two of crushed red pepper.

Boil until the broccoli is soft — just 5 to 10 minutes.

Blend using a blender, food processor, or immersion blender. Stir in lemon zest if desired. A little Parmesan cheese would be amazing, too.