Cooking…for the halibut

To-Try Recipe #10: Shrimp Egg Foo Yong

This turned out pretty good, despite my substitutions. I couldn’t get bean sprouts at the store, so I substituted bok choy, stems only. And I had a 12-oz bag of shrimp, so it seemed silly to use only 1/3 cup of it – I dumped it all in.  (About 2 cups)

I tried the original sauce and the sauce from Saveur Magazine, which we liked much better. I suspect that in the past when we used to make this dish occasionally, we used a sauce with a whole lot more sugar. But this one, with only cornstarch and oyster sauce for sweeteners, was much better.

Keep or Discard? Keep, and try again with bean sprouts. Even if that means a trip to the Asian supermarket. I need some other stuff there, anyway.

Cooking…for the halibut

To-Try Recipe #8:  Coconut Fish Tomato Bake

I intended to use up the old tomatoes (bought before Christmas) in this recipe, but most of them were rotten. I got two good ones out of the bag and had to supplement with some grape tomatoes I’d bought. Which was fine. I used a half-bag of catfish pieces from the freezer, plus spices and a part of a can of light coconut milk. So it was kind of "healthful", although I may have splashed a little too much olive oil on. It looked a little oily in the pan. 

But it was very tasty!  And remarkably easy, too. So…

Keep or Discard?  Keep and make again!

 

To-Try Recipe #9: Apple Butter from the “Our South” cookbook

The reason for trying this recipe, which I will probably never eat more than a couple of spoonfuls of, was to see if it was indeed possible to make apple butter without having to peel the apples. And I’m happy to announce, yes! After an hour of cooking, the immersion blender chopped the peelings right up and they disappeared.

Taste-wise, it was good but not great. I’ll eat it for a few weeks, but at my normal rate of two teaspoons jam on toast about twice a week, it will last me a year at least, And I only used five apples!

Keep or Discard? Discard. With regrets.

Cooking…for the halibut

 To-Try Recipe #7:  Spinach Ohitasi

Wow!  This turned out really good. Maybe a little on the chewy side—the spinach was only cooked one minute—but it's probably better for me that way. It’s simply spinach dressed with dashi, soy sauce and mirin.

Keep or Discard?  Keep for sure, and maybe even make more. Or could I try the leftover Bok Choy instead, in the same recipe?

Cooking…for the halibut

To-Try Recipe #6:  Tofu Lettuce Wraps

This was a interesting way to turn tofu into something with a  flavor.  You cook diced carrots, onion, ginger and garlic in sesame oil; add Hoisin sauce which I didn’t have any of, so I used miso cut with soy sauce and honey; and crumble in the tofu and a few shitake mushrooms. That becomes the filling for the lettuce wraps, and then you serve it with a peanut butter-soy sauce dipping sauce. Pretty yummy.

Keep or Discard?  Keep, even if I never make it again.

Cooking…for the halibut

To-Try Recipe #5: Japanese Egg Sandwich

Very, very odd. What you do is, beat two eggs into 1/3 cup dashi with a little potato starch and salt. Then steam them gently into an omelet, and serve it on bread spread with honey-mustard dressing. I used the Vegan Mayo to make the dressing and it was very nice.

What is odd is that two eggs with a third cup of dashi makes a very large serving of very light and fluffy eggs. I can taste that it’s not “all egg”, but not in an objectionable way. If a person every needed to stretch eggs to feed a crowd, this would be the way to do it.

I used the oat bread made the day before and lightly toasted.  All in all, if someone would make this recipe for me every day, I’d eat it every day. It was that good!

 

But I have to admit, more trouble than I’m every going to go for another time. Using instant dashi and the bread & dressing made in advance, it was easy. But not easy enough, I’m afraid.

Keep or Discard?  Discard. Sorry, Marc Matsumoto.

Review: It’s Not As Bad As It Looks

This is very amusing, but kind of sad, really. I don’t believe that Andy and his wife’s constant “continent hopping” was only in order to write a series of books…but you got to wonder. I don’t blame them for wanting to leave a sleepy backwater in Spain, but coming back to the U.S. to live, mainly in order to be close to their grown son?  Is that really going to work?

Read it and find out. You’ll laugh or at least chuckle a lot at their adventures. And feel a little sorry for them all the same.

Cooking…for the halibut

To-Try Recipe #3: Easy Vegan Aquafaba Mayo

Made with an immersion blender. It might have worked better if I’d had a slower hand at the oil dribbling – the recipe said to start out t the oil at a drip and progress to a slow stream, just like regular mayonnaise, but of course knowing me I had to slosh it it. My blender wasn’t working very well and I’d chosen too small a jar for it to maneuver properly.

All that said, it turned out good!  A little runny and a little too salty, but tasting surprisingly like real mayo!  I will definitely make this again.

Keep or Discard? Keep

 

To-Try Recipe #4: Oat Bread 

This is technically a retry, because I did it once before and it failed almost as bad then as it did this time. Before, it didn’t rise. This time it did rise, rather nicely, and then fell again.  The dough was way too sticky—it needed at least a half cup more flour—and so it couldn’t be shaped nor could it hold its shape.

I’ll eat it tomorrow as part of the Japanese Egg Sandwich. And I’ll save the recipe, for inspiration. But I'm not sure if I'll ever make it again.

Keep or Discard?  Keep, and see if I can get it to work better if I ever try it again.

 

Review (partial): Code Name Helene

 Code Name Helene

I’m going to quit on this audiobook, but it’s hard to explain why. It’s extremely well written, witty and funny and pretty exciting, too.  The main character is a British agent operating in occupied France during WW2, although she’s also a journalist who covered some events during the Nazi’s rise to power. All very interesting stuff, and right up my alley.

The reason I’m quitting is purely personal and should not reflect poorly on the author or her accomplishment. In fact, from what I’ve ready, I’d recommend this book highly. And will.

My personal issue is that it’s a great story, but that’s all it is to me, a story. I’m not connecting with any of the characters—they’re cool and all, but seem so flat. The “love (lust) at first site” chapters were so boring that I skipped them. They’re all fun, cool, sexy and courageous people, but that’s not enough. Even though it’s 100% based on reality, it isn’t real to me. Sorry to be that way.

 Great book; not my cuppa. But still great.

Review: Ranger Confidential

Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, And Dying In The National Parks

By Andrea Kankford

Great book!  She tells all sorts of ranger stories—hers and other peoples.  Some are gory and some are very, very painful; others are inspiring and even sometimes amusing.  She must have been an excellent observer for all her years in the parks.  Or else, just really good and prying life stories out of people!

I wish it had gone on forever. But just be aware, I did mention painful…?  Yeah, but worth it.

 She spends little time on the annoying bureaucracy that the rangers must have had to endure, and sticks with their rescues, adventures, life histories and other fun stuff.  So I can’t say that I learned anything about The National Park Service (did I want to?) but I did get to read a lot about the awesome and dedicated individuals that staffed it.

 
Many stars.