All posts tagged sesame

By Jessica | June 3, 2009 | Main Courses | 1 Comment

I swear, I should have been born in Korea or China or, or, Laos or something cause I love the gotdamn food. I probably don’t even cook Korean, Chinese or Laosean but think I do cause I eat the shmack with chop sticks. At least I’m self aware of my ignance.

Now that I’m a vagitarian (including no fish shticks), B and I gots to get creative with the cookin and the eatin. I can’t tell you how hard it is when I drink mama’s milk (vodka) and alls I wants to do is eat a burger slapped between two steaks. Oh well. Three more weeks or something totally impossible like that…

Anywho: Kimchi Rice with Broccoli, Sesame and Poached Egg

1 stalk and head of broccoli
olive oil, a bit
1/4 cup water
1 cup of cabbage based kimchi (spicy, if you nasty)
2 cups of cooked rice (sub with brown rice if youre feelin)
sesame seeds, to your desire
2 cage free, organic eggs, poached
soy or tamari
hot chile oil, a bit
sesame oil, oh, just a bit
scallions, sliced
sirachi, if you feel it
Serves 2 constantly hungry vegetarians.

Get your rice cooked and hot. While that’s working, lop the bottom of your broccoli stalk and then slice thinly up the base until you have slices and small florets. Heat your olive oil in a deep frying pan. When hot, add the broc and saute for a minute or two. Add the water and cover immediately so the broccoli finishes cooking via a good steam. After about 3 or 4 minutes, remove the cover and cook out the water. Now add your kimchi and saute all together until hot. Add sirachi until your desired spice.

Add your cooked rice to two eatin bowls. Garnish with soy to taste. Add a bit of chile oil. Top with the kimchi and broccoli mixture. Now the sesame seeds. Now the sesame oil. Now the poached eggs. Now the scallions (or as B likes to call them, scallios.)

Eat with chop sticks and hate on Miley Cirus for making fun of us. Bitch.

By Jessica | March 11, 2009 | Main Courses, Recipes, Snackin, Salads and Apps | 2 Comments

We are back with Course 2 of The Dinner Party Report. I knew you would come back. I so had you at spatula.

So, dudes. Want to make something cheap and tasty that makes your belly happy? Make this. Forserz, make. this. This beef recipe goes particularly well with the kimchi rice because the beef is kinda sweet and the rice is kinda spicy with a touch of bitter. Together, it is a symphony of tasteful beauty, all dripply with egg yolk and yum.

Course 2: Korean Braised Beef over Kimchi Rice with Fried Egg

2 lbs of beef, cut in chunks for stew
1 c flour
3 tbs veg or canola oil
3 tbs of rice vinegar

Braising Liquid:
4 scallions, sliced, separate the green from the white, reserve the green for garnish
1c soy sauce
1/4 rice vinegar
2 tbs sesame oil
2 tbs red pepper flakes
2 inches of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tbs black pepper
1 tbs sesame seeds
3 cups of water

In a heavy cast iron pot or dutch oven, add your oil and heat. While waiting, add your flour and beef to a plastic baggie. Shake the shit out of it chris brown style. With a tong, grab each chunk, shake the excess flour and place in the hot oil. Brown. Do not over crowd your pot. Also, don’t be afraid to add more oil if it gets all used up. Just remember that if you add it, you have to make sure it gets hot before you add more meat. Brown your biff until its all browned up.

To prepare your braising liquid, add all the ingredients except for the water into a bowl and mix well. At this point, your pot should be all caked with burnt up beafy goodness. With the heat on, take your 3 tbs of vinegar and poor over this gold. Using a wooden spoon, scrape the shit out of your pot and mind the gold. These delicious flavor crystals will add mo pushing to the gooshin.

Add your braising liquid and let it heat up. Add your biff. Add water until it covers the meat. Stir. Let bring to a boil uncovered. When boiling, cover and reduce heat to as low as a flame as you can possibly dare. Let this shit cook for 2, 3, 4 hours? Till the shits falling apart on your tongue. Eat over the kimchi rice below, garnished with the reserved sliced greens of the scallion. Taste the rainbow.

Kimchi Rice with Fried Egg

For this recipe, you gots to get you some traditional kimchi. And don’t try to make mines for this. Mines is dope and delicious and my mouth is watering as I type these very words, but you need yourself some real, fermented cabbage. Go. If you are in NYC, I found some in k-town on 29th-ish and 5th ave. You can also get it at great wall super market. And I bet some trendy shit store like whole foods has it as well.

2 c of kimchi (packed well)
veg or canola oil for frying
1 inch of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
6 c cooked rice
sirachi for taste

Take your store bought kimchi and dice. Make sure to squeeze the liquid before taking out of the container because you are going to want to pour that over the rice later and don’t want it all dripping up on the board. You are looking for a good chop here.

Using a wok or a big ass frying pan, heat your oil and throw in your ginger. After 2 minutes, throw in the kimchi. After 4 minutes, fold in your rice. Make it hot. Put some hot sauce on it if you want. Pour the extra kimchi juice over it to make it moist. For the best part: fry some eggs, keep the yolk. Put it on top. Eat with the braised beef. You can also do a poached egg if you like that better.

Check Course 1 here.

By Jessica | March 10, 2009 | Main Courses, Recipes | No comments

B and I had a gang over for din recently and thought we would bring a little korean into their lives. As per usual, I went overboard. Instead of sticking with a simple one-pot plan so that I could be chillin with the guests, I insisted on a 3-course, cook-then-serve meal. I mean, cookin is my thing, so it’s aite, but it’s not like I don’t get a bit frazzled when workin 4 burners, especially when I need 6. But you know what? I’m a lucky ho cause just as in real life, when I freak and sweat and nerve up in the kitchen, B is always there to step in and spank me with a spatula until I’ve calmed down. So this post is dedicated to my man with the wok. Always there to whip my cream just when it’s just about to curdle.

(Why am I so carrie fucking bradshaw right now?! Please, someone, make me leave my cheating husband, matthew broderick.)

Anywho, since there is so much food to talk about, this post is coming in 3 parts. (Lucky post.)

Course 1: Sesame Encrusted Salmon over Ginger Udon Noodles

2 salmon fillets
1/4 c. sesame seeds, white, black or a mix
olive oil for fryin
udon noodles for 2
an inch of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1/4 soy sauce (adjusted for taste)
2 tbs of sesame oil (adjusted for taste)
2 stalks of scallion, sliced

Add udon to boiling water. When cooked al dente, drain and put back in the pot. Immediately add the ginger, soy and sesame oil and toss.

While the udon is cooking, slap sesame seeds onto the skin side and opposite side of the salmon. Add olive oil to a frying pan. When hot, add the fillets, skin side down first. Sear for 4 minutes. Flip over and cook until desired doneness.

Put the noodles in a bowl. Put the salmon on the noodles. Put the scallion on the salmon. Put the lime in the coconut. Drink it all up.

Course 2 and Course 3 coming soon, bitches. Love ya!

By Jessica | July 21, 2008 | Main Courses, Recipes | No comments

BBQ after BBQ, you start to realize how much meat you eat. So, on Sunday night I thought I would cook fish. I don’t remember where this recipe came from but I been doing it up for a minute now, and it’s one of my staples. It’s cheap, healthy, and scrumptious. Do it. Do it.

Sesame Salmon over Rice Noodles

2 servings of rice noodles, boiled al dente
2 servings of salmon fillet
sesame seeds, white or black or both
sesame oil, hot or not
tamari, or soy sauce
scallions, sliced thin
fresh ginger, chopped small
butter and olive oil

Coat the skin and the opposite side of the salmon in sesame seeds. Cook in a skillet with a little butter and a little olive oil till desired temperature. When the noodles are cooked, drain and throw into a deep bowl. Add one part sesame oil to three parts tamari and toss to coat noodles. Add scallion and ginger. Place salmon on top. Serve with pride.

By Jessica | July 14, 2008 | Projects, Recipes, Snackin, Salads and Apps | 1 Comment

It was time to clean out the kitchen and do something with those leftovers. But as usual, I went overboard and ended up cooking all sorts of things to supplement my meal. In the end, B and I ate, what we have come to refer to as, A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That. Including, sesame broccoli, sauteed swiss chard with garlic and lemon, heart of palm salad with sausage, and a heart of palm and swish chard dip. I also served goose liver country pate (shut up), marinated mushrooms, pickled curried tomatoes, corn tortilla chips and country sour dough bread. Obvi, there are repetitions of ingredients here, this is because I wanted to play as much as I could. Check the recipes below. They are in the order of what I enjoyed best.

Read on and cook on…

Sauteed Swiss Chard

1 half bunch of of thoroughly washed swiss card
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
fresh lemon juice
olive oil
salt

Toss olive oil into a large sauce pan. Add heat. Throw in garlic and swiss chard. Give a little stir. Add a bit more olive oil on top of the swiss chard. Cover and let wilt. Once wilted, remove cover, stir well. Cook until the stems are chewable. Just a cut a piece and try it. Remove swiss chard from pot, put in serving bowl, and salt and lemon juice to taste. I, of course, add a ton of juice.

The inspiration for this dip came from your traditional artichoke and spinach dip. Thought I would just funk it up a bit and see what happens. I thought it was great, B thought it could use some salt. Try how you like.

Heart of Palm and Swiss Chard Dip

1/2 can of heart of palm, drained and finely chopped
half bunch of heart of palm, steamed
3 heaping spoonfuls of ricotta cheese

After the swiss chard is steamed, squeeze really well so that the loose liquid drains. Chop finely and add to mixing bowl with heart of palm. Add ricotta cheese and mix well. Serve with tortilla chips or bread.

This also is an easy one…

Sesame Broccoli

broccoli, how ever much you want to eat, cut small and steamed
sesame oil, hot or not
cayenne pepper
sesame seeds
salt

After the broccoli is just steamed, meaning, it has some firmness to it still, remove from steamer and let cool. Add sesame oil, and garnish with sesame seeds, salt and cayenne pepper. It’s hard for me to tell you how much cayenne to use cause I’m a freak about spice, so use your best judgment. Just know that most people find it pretty hot, so a slight sprinkling should do it. Serve at room temp. I didn’t add it this time, but some soy sauce might be a good addition to this salad.

I actually found this salad to be a little odd, but B loved it. But then again, you put some sausage in his face and he’s pretty much just going to like it. Fine… me too.

Heart of Palm Salad with Sausage

1/2 can of heart of palm, drained and sliced
1/2 cup of dried Italian Sausage, cubed
handful of fresh flat leafed parsley, chopped

So, since everything that you buy here is prepared already, this is the easiest thing to make. Just assemble the three ingredients, and shiv, you got yourself a salad. By the way, I thought about adding lemon (duh) but doubled back when I thought about the mix with the sausage. Dunno, what do you think? Try it and let me know? Also, I used a spicy dried sausage, but feel free to use a sweet, or even a chorizo. Ooh, that’s what I shoulda done…

Here is what else I added to the schmorgas (say it our loud, you know you want to):

Pickled Curried Tomatoes: By the way, these bad boys came from Rick’s Picks. Def check them out cause their creative blends will make you popular at a bbq.

Pickled Mushrooms: These shrooms came from a whole different pickler (yes, so trendy right now) in the farmer’s market. I can’t for the life of me remember their name. Dr Pickle, Dr Pickler, Mr.Pickleman. If you know, lemme know so I can give credit where credit is due, cause, damn, these were good. (My mouth is literally watering as I type this.)

Fancy Bread: And finally, some damn good bread B brought home. (By the way, he ate that whole bowl.)

And that’s it folks. But, I’m not going to lie to you. Not all of this was from my cupboards. It all started with the broccoli going yellow. I bought almost everything else. The pate we had, the pickles we just always have, but the swiss chard, sausage, heart of palm, parsley, bread, was all bought for this meal. It’s just that I get so carried away and excited when I get to not only cook, but cook like, 6 different things. Also, you’ll notice I didn’t feature the pate. Mostly cause I feel shame. :(

Anyway.