cooking fish

the culinary centers at the whole foods market have been offering simple and affordable cooking classes for many years. take a 2.5-hour cooking fish class as an example, it's only US$15 and you get to learn up to 4 dishes and EAT all 4 dishes. the best part -- no cleaning up a messy kitchen afterwards!

looking confident in front of the fish counter

getting involved with the prep work

the 4 varieties of fish, all healthy and organic

whole foods market cooking classes

report for mom

while mom is in hk enjoying her vacation and great food, i'm working hard to come up with a different menu each day. this is for her to see what we have been eating.

breaded fish with tomatoes and olives, steamed veggies, thai coconut soup



portuguese style chicken, cauliflower



stir fried shrimp and celery, fried tofu, tom yum kung



mushroom quiche, tomato and avocado salad



mini hamburgers, mixed veggies

not bad, huh?


btw, all of your plants are still alive... so far...

moffle

what is a moffle (モッフル)?
a moffle is a japanese-style waffle made with mochi rice cake instead of waffle batter.
it is also the name of a specialized moffle maker registered by the sanyei corporation.





a moffle maker costs about US$70-80...
why not try to make one with a traditional waffle maker?

1. preheat waffle maker; have sliced "kiri-mochi" ready (available in japanese supermarkets)


2. place sliced "kiri-mochi" on hot plate


3. close waffle maker and open when light indicates that it is ready


4. chewy moffle is ready



since mochi doesn't contain any flavor, you can pretty much add any ingredients to it - sweet or savory~

break

after 3 weeks of intense baking lessons, the oven and our stomachs need a break. the following is last week's lesson plan.

PLAIN SPONGE CAKE


APPLE COFFEE CAKE



BANANA WALNUT CAKE



CHICKEN PIE



MINI CHEESECAKES


LEMON MERINGUE PIE

no more ragu!

i used to be very lazy about cooking, like using a lot of cake mixes and pre-made sauces to make life easier. but ever since i started taking lessons from my super cook aunt, i saw the real results of making from scratch. things do taste better.

the other day, she taught me how to make hk style spaghetti in bolognese sauce (肉醬意粉). starting with butter, then flour, chicken stock, tomato paste, and finally veggies and minced beef... it's not as difficult as i thought!

does that mean i won't be using ragu sauces anymore? um, well, not really... i'm still a lazy person after all and will need to cheat once in a while!

cakes and cookies, then pilates

i did it again...

after making 3 cakes in 7 days, i couldn't resist and baked some cookies last night...
i haven't counted the calorie intake so far, but trust me, i know it's HIGH!!

to make myself feel better, pilates has been my workout routine. it really helps with burning some calories (i hope) and training the flexibility of the body. here's what part of my routine is like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmek7iASeCI

attendance has been low for the past 2 lessons, with only the instructor, another lady and myself. but today, i got lucky -- i was the only one who showed up and got a one-on-one lesson with the instructor! 60 minutes well spent!

anyway, hope i burnt these off within those 60 minutes...


packed up some calories for my friends :)

baking lesson

have you ever thought that so much science is involved in baking? i always thought just mixing all the ingredients together and sticking it into the oven will be just fine. nope... look at my failed marble cake last week. in order to give baking another try, i went to get help from my aunt.

my aunt is a super cook. she studied cookery (i guess that's the equivalent term to culinary) in hong kong and was a home economics teacher before coming to the states.

she taught me the various methods and techniques, showed me how important having the right kitchen tools are, and shared with me her own baker's tips. from the amount of air that goes in the batter to the right rack in the oven, baking is really a science subject itself. especially if you want your baked goods to be perfect. but experience is definitely the key~

right tools + correct techniques + good ingredients = yummy cakes!


roll cake demonstration


this cookbook from 1981 is my aunt's secret weapon


spongy!


this marble cake is much better, right?

success vs. failure

here are some examples of success and failure -- learned from my baking challenges.

success:
ham and corn pastry


semi-success (coz it's not really what i expected, but turned out ok):
chocolate puffs


failure:
"supposed to be" marble cake


will work harder next time...

cooking time, again

more cooking this week.

this tofu recipe called fillet o'fu is straight from one of my favorite food network shows - good eats (by alton brown).



bread pudding is a delicious version of my favorite food family - bread!
but it also consists of an ingredient that i hate the most... raisins... yuck!
(see that corner without raisins? that's my corner... hehe)


condensed milk serves as a great topping!

cooking time

sis and i decided to give mom a break and make dinner for one night. she found a recipe for french onion soup, and i found a recipe for clams in white wine sauce. they're both very easy to make and super yummy too!

see that cute mini burger?
we cheated...
they're frozen tri-tip burgers from costco! hehe

french onion soup

clams in white wine sauce

two days later, we found another recipe for pumpkin puffs, so we gave it a try too. you must think they sound complicated to make. NO! frozen pre-made puff pastry sheets and pumpkins are the only ingredients. easy, huh? but instead of using pumpkin as filling, we substituted it with sweet potatoes. result = amazingly delicious puffs!!

"puffing" hot from the oven

browned perfectly

flaky on the outside, soft on the inside

we are on a "cooking spree" lately, so if you have any great recipes, feel free to forward them over!