Olympic Lovin' Kimchi Fried Quinoa

Knock knock. Who's there? Quinoa. Quinoa who...wait. What!? Where is rice? This is supposed to be kimchi fried rice, right!? Is this some kind of sick joke?

Nope.  It most certainly is not.

The thing is though, it's Olympics season. Which isn't all about jaw-dropping, gorgeous men in speedos breaking world records in the pool. Or sexy Europeans that make you want to chuck your citizenship in the fire and be reborn on the other side of the globe. (Err, kidding...obviously. F-yeah Amurica!)

But in all seriousness...

The Olympics is about unification. It brings together athletes from all over the world to compete on a single, universal platform through athletics. Here, countries get to show off their colors (whaddup Zhong Guo-current medal count winner!), flaunt some spirit, but also transcend politics/geography/stigmatism in camaraderie and sportsmanship. There is nothing more genuine than bonds born from the common ground of dedication, fierce determination, and competition. Every Olympic athlete is a true champion, and they all recognize that in one another.

It's one of the reasons why I love Olympic season. The unity seems to permeate even into the most local levels. Everywhere I go, people can find conversation in the Olympics, no matter if you are with mere acquaintances or barely strangers. Everyone, to some extent, is caught up in the same fervor. It's fun times.

And those swimmers...yes...these are indeed fun times. Swooooooon!

What does this have to do with my dinner tonight? Meh, nothing really. Except actually, it is EVERYTHING.  Everyone expects kimchi fried rice to, understandably, be made with rice. Rice is to Asian as water is to dolphin. But tonight, I decided to introduce the native South American seed into the traditional korean dish. HA! Two different worlds...blending of cultures...Olympics! Relevant! And it worked. It worked so, so well.

Okay so I actually added quinoa to it because I had leftover cooked quinoa and didn't want to make rice. But lets just keep things Olympic themed, shall we?

Quinoa is continuing to prove itself as a very worthy substitute for rice. And this dish was so quick and easy to make, it literally took 10 minutes. I also added an egg on top (would that count as a dash of Amurrcan into my cultural medley?) Unfortunately, I had originally wanted to add cheese too (MORE cross cultural exchange!) but completely forgot. Sadface, will have to wait until next time! Because trust me, there will most definitely be many more next times with this dish.

Now off to watch women's beach volleyball (go China)!

Difficulty: 2
Willingness to make again: 10
Over-all: 8
Notes:
1) The kimchi is pretty salty, so make sure kimchi to quinoa ratio is appropriate
2) This was a very simplified version of the original recipe, primarily because I didn't have gochugang or any substitute. But it turned out fine without it. Next time though, I will be sure to have sirracha sauce
3) NEXT TIME: ADD CHEESE & TOFU & maybe some garlic? 
4) Definitely should have used FOUR instead of just 1 single egg. Too small, moops.

Newcomer Quinoa!!

Another inspiration, albeit not nearly as possessing as the cupcake-craze, came to me this weekend. In the form of quinoa. 

                                        

Quinoa is like the hipster form of rice (is anyone noticing a hipster trend on this blog? #berkeleygirl). Except it is a whole-grain packed with protein and leaves out the unnecessary carbs/starch. A vegetarian's best buddy. It's that item you know you can find at Trader Joes.

                                      

                                  Did I also mention quinoa is amazingly easy to cook? Yeeeeees.

There is no one way to make a quinoa salad-dish. Essentially, every recipe just calls you to add a certain arrangement of veggies, usually uncooked, followed by their prescribed medley of salt/oils/sauces.

I decided to use whatever veggies I had in the fridge, fry them up and add it to my quinoa. I got my sauce inspiration from this recipe. 

                                       

Here we see carrots, mushrooms, celery, cong and corn

I decided to fry my veggies after remembering that time I made not-so-tasty thai noodles

The lime and salt provided a much stronger flavor than I would have imagined, in a very good way. I didn't have the patience to seed out and add jalapeno, but added a few drops of hot sauce for a kick instead. I don't think this added much though, and I think next time I will try it with jalapeno. 

                                     

This lunch was a perfect quick-fix since I was on my way to play hostess to some of my friend's visiting from NY/NJ. These are Cal friends who also have jobs on the east coast this summer. Because playing host tends to involve spending lots of money eating out in the city, I figured I  would save some strain on my wallet by catching one freebie meal at home before meeting up with them.

                                     

mmmMMMmm look at the pretty colors

Over-all, despite levels of humidity that felt like we were in Satan's bathroom, it was a very fun weekend filled with new and old friends, some belligerence (yolo-fish!) and of course, Mike's Pastries. This lunch left me surprisingly full and well energized to tackle the heated streets of Boston and endless walking, despite being healthy and very salad-esque. Thank youuuu quinoa! 

                                       

Difficulty: 3 (will vary on vegetable chopping time)

Willingness to make again: 10!

Over-all: 8

Notes:

1) jalapeno pepper (see above)

2) I used the boiling water method to cook my quinoa, which was easy and fast. But it did leave my quinoa a little soggy. Next time, either steam it, microwave it, or try frying the quinoa in the skillet with the veggies for a few minutes. 

Trickster Tofu Lettuce Wraps

I tricked you, didn't I?

Into thinking that you were eating chicken, because of the color. Or Chinese duck, because of the traditional leaf wrap. Or a taco of some sort? Because of the avocado.

PSYCH. You have all fallen into my diabolical, vegetarian TRAP! QUEUE EVIL LAUGHTER.

Sorry, I amuse easily. Or watch too much batman. Or both. 

But seriously, these lettuce wraps are bomb-diggity-freaking-gewd. So good, that the baking-hiatus doesn't sting as much. They're the Watson to my Sherlock (shout out to the BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION. sherlock4lyfe). The Selena Carlyle to my Batman.  Don't think of it as deception, think of it as a gift, from me to you. Think of it as sweet baby jesus wrapped in a lettuce leaf, that is how splendid they are.

They are healthy.

And easy to make.

With a delicious taste

That fills even *my* bell-eh

You don't need that many ingredients

And they are very...

...very photogenic 

Tell me you don't want to come over here and gobble one of these up right now. I dare you to.

Difficulty: 2
Willingness to make again: 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Over-all: 9.9
Notes:
1) Next time, going to add some crushed peanut on top to make it more crunchy, because frozen corn isn't as crunchy as fresh corn off a husk is (and no, I am never going to buy regular corn over frozen corn, ever. Sue me)

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2012/02/vegetarian-lettuce-wraps/

UPGRADED Vegetarian Stir Fry; Thanks Ma!

I can't get enough of veggie stir fry. It's just...so...good. Always. Just because I'm livin' yooooung and wiiiillllld & freeeeee, doesn't mean I don't appreciate some consistency once in awhile.

This is upgraded from the last time I made stir fry because the Mom gave me some great tips, and she taught me something called "gou qian," which is a process that will get your stir fry to have a nice, thick texture to it. AKA: make it 100x better.

All the advice from the Mom accumulated to make a much more outstanding dish of stir fry. To the point where I willingly listened to the Mom's instructions, and am now publicly acknowledging how right it all is. That's how you know this is kind of a big deal.

Advice 1: On What to Fry First - Last 
The Mom gave me advice on what the best order of frying the veggies would be to avoid burning and maximize flavor:
1) oil + cong
2) add the garlic
3) add the onions (NOTE: white onions > red onions, in my humble opinion)
4) add the mushrooms (fry until nice and brown. MORE COLOR = MORE FLAVOR = maximized amount of happiness)
5) broccoli

Advice 2: On Making your Broccoli Firm but Soft and Yummy 
1) boil a pot of water (bad images of chickpeas BEGONE)
2) dump your cut broccoli into said pot
3) let water boil again
4) take out steaming broccoli, dump out hot water, and rinse with cold water immediately afterwards

Okay, WARNING: impending nerd alert.

But this process makes sense because you are manipulating the turgidity of the broccoli. By heating the broccoli you are denaturing enzymes and making it softer, but by immediately cleansing with cold water you are reversing the osmosis within the plant cells. Extra water means the solute concentration is higher inside the cells than outside, causing an inward flow of water into the plant cells, thereby expanding their cell walls and making them turgid (nice and hard, that's what she said) as opposed to limp.

WOOO applications of plant bio FTW. Except not, because plant bio is still the absolute worst of all things.

Advice 3: On how to Gou Qian 
1) add some salt and wei jing AFTER all your vegetables have been added and mix in
2)  then take a spoonful of starch and dissolve it in some water
3) pour solution into the skillet and continue mixing in
4) mix THOROUGHLY so you do not get weird starchy clumps

Okay, I am sorry, I'm sorry!!!! But, NERD ALERT PART 2:

Here we see that by adding salt, the water and juices of the veggies will start flowing out onto the skillet, because now the water concentration is much lower in the skillet than in the veggies. Utilizing this, we add the starch, which will combine with these yummy veggie juices to produce a nice, thick, almost syrupy mixture that adds a delicious texture to the vegetables. They don't get soggy, but just make the veggies thicker.
(READ: SCIENCE IS COOL???)

Over-all: 9.9!!

And now, to completely undo all the intelligent-science-chick points that I earned with a question: does anyone else have a really hard time spelling brocolli,  brocalli BRO-CC-OLI?? Or is it just me. Because my post is filled with these ridiculously annoying red squiggly lines of death right now. And no matter how many times I have to write BROCCOLI, I keep getting it wrong. It's demoralizing. It is almost making me not want to make broccoli ever again just to preserve what small shred of dignity and self-worth I have left.

Psych. This stir fry is toooo good to quit over a lack of elementary spelling skills. I'll just have to live with the fact that I can describe the biological processes behind my cooking but cannot spell the vegetable I am cooking in the first place.

WELCOME TO MY LIFE. 

Continuing the Obsession: Potato Chip Torta and more Greek Yogurt Inspirations

I came across this torta recipe while looking for more ways to use greek yogurt. I never knew (and still...don't really know...) what a torta is, but from the looks of it it kind of just resembles a fancier way of making eggs that involves a dallop of greek yogurt.


Fact: Eggs are any college student's number one friend.

Fact: Me? Greek yogurt? Star Crossed Lovers? Yes, that is still a thing.

Thus: This recipe was beckoning me.

You can see the potato chips inside

I also have this bag of chips in my house from when I wanted to make potato chip cookies, just so I could say that I've tried potato chip cookies. (this might still happen sometime in the near future). So for once, I had ALL zee ingredients I needed in my house.

fancy scrambled eggs???? ssshhhh

This recipe came together really fast (15 minutes tops?) and easily, which was great because I had a very long and crummy day at work. Blarg...I hate having adult problems. At least this successful dish, paired with some more Batman Beyond episodes (shamelessly ob-sessed) cheered me up loads.

But anyways, the only thing that went wrong was I completely failed at keeping my eggs together into one solidified form, but I did try really hard not to make them scrambled. So what I got was this...amorphous...blob...type thing.

Meet my Mr. Blob 

Meet Mr. Whatitwassupposedtobe (womp)

More importantly though, it tasted good. And the chips in the eggs tasted REALLY good. They got all nice and soft, and added a very special texture into the eggs, promoting them from hangover-ketchup-and-eggs to something a little more gourmet, especially in college standards. 

And of course the greek yogurt topping was just perfect. Absolutely perfect. I'm officially obsessed.

Difficulty: 1
Willingness to make again: 10! -going to try again tonight, this time keeping the form together
Over-all: 9

Notes:
1) I  had no idea what to do with the chips, which the recipe specifically mentioned to not break when mixing with the eggs. I took care not to break the chips, but then I did a bad job of having them layered within the egg. Oops, need to have better ratios next time.
2) Might try adding garlic into my eggs. Not sure if that is a thing or not, but I really like garlic.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/02/potato-chip-torta-egg-omelet-recipe.html?ref=search

Also, since I was still hungry after my little egg dish (if you know me, then you aren't surprised), I busted out some of the Dad's dou jiang, which is this really yummy and salty concoction that I like to eat with noodles.

But when I say salty, I mean seriously, seriously salty. I couldn't eat it without pairing it with a tortilla, to counteract the heavy NaCl action, and even then it was still too salty. Then...DING, I was inspired! I put some greek yogurt in the tortilla and ate that with the dou jiang, and MYOHMY guys, this tasted awe-some-tastic. I'll never be able to eat it any other way again. 

I have this theory that greek yogurt tastes amazing in a great number (if not all) of savory combinations. It was just tricking my brain this entire time because it's found in the yogurt section and acts like it should be something sweet. 

So glad I know better now. Soooo glad. 

TL;DR: Greek yogurt is still awesome. Eggs are always awesome. Eggs+greek yogurt+POTATO CHIPS = rocket-ship of awesometastic explosions blasting into space.  

GREEK WEEK 3: Yogurt-based Pasta "Finale"

I love surprises. Surprise endings, surprising quirks...if you find a way to defy my expectations in a pretty major way, then you have my attention. And tonight, this greek yogurt pasta commanded all my attention, from the moment I first tasted it, to now, and tomorrow, and maybe forever. 

Holy...moly, this pasta is a game changer alright.

 

This pasta has turned me and greek yogurt from frenemies into star-crossed-lovers. Now, I can't stop won't stop refuse to ever stop cooking without greek yogurt. That doesn't mean every single dish I make is going to have greek yogurt in it, but it does mean I will probably always have a tub on hand in my refrigerator. (That's why I put "finale" in quotes in my title. Because this, my friends, is a sweet and beautiful beginning)

pre-mixed; lookin' fancy shmancy for the camera

 Seriously, who knew that greek yogurt tastes absolutely phenomenal as a part of a savory dish? How counterintuitive, don't cha' think? But mixed with some garlic and herbs, and all the sudden that bitter, tear-inducing poison taste becomes something you are licking off your plate. It's pretty great.

It also makes you really appreciate the power of flavors. I for one, am simply blown away. Blown. Away. 

And another win? This pasta is so. easy. to make. As in, I was done with the sauce before my pasta even came to boil, that's how easy it was.

The yogurt sauce

Willingness to make again: 10! -I am buying yogurt tomorrow so I can make it again

Difficulty: 1
Over-all: 8.5

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/11/tortellini-with-yogurt-mint-and-smoked-paprika-oil-recipe.html

The parmesan adds an amazing extra texture

Notes:
1) I previously mentioned I was low on the yogurt, so I had to do a lot of guestimating. One major problem is that I think I made too much pasta in proportion with the amount of yogurt-sauce I had. The fact that it still turned out this good makes me really happy. But I am going to make it again with the appropriate amount of sauce-to-pasta ratio next time, because I know this will probably make it EVEN better

2) Finally found a better way to use my parmesan too, WIN #3! This dish is on fire! But frealsies, parmesan on pasta = yum yum yumsicles all around.

3) After boiling the pasta, my dad told me to wash it with cold water...turning all my pasta cold. Womp. It actually did taste good as a cool pasta dish (esp. since it is 85+ outside), but I am going to keep my pasta warm next time and see how it tastes with the cool sauce on top.