Cuckoo for Curry Puffs

....And by puffs, I mean Chicken Curry Noodle Soup. The post title "Nectar of the Soup Gods" was unfortunately already taken but trust me this stuff was delicious. I got the recipe from Chez Pim, a great Asian cooking blog. This is the first recipe I've tried from there and I will certainly be trying more! Although I don't really know what I'm talking about since I'm not Asian and have never been to Asia, this recipe looked and tasted really authentic. In fact, I felt like I was eating Nava Thai's red curry! I'm sure you could make red curry with rice from this soup recipe by just reducing the liquid to meat ratio.

Authentic is a great thing, but it does make a somewhat complicated recipe that was a bit daunting for a Monday night. I made several adaptations to simplify it but I don't think I compromised taste at all! I halved the recipe since I was cooking for two. I used boneless meat and chopped it into bite-size pieces. I reduced the amount of coconut milk by 1/4 cup and increased the amount of chicken stock since I was afraid the coconut flavor might be too overpowering. I did away with the fried noodle garnish - I have to be in a bathing suit by the end of this week, people. Instead I just served with rice stick since it was what I had in the cupboard. Instead of using pickled mustard green, I threw in some arugula toward the end; again, it's what I had. Finally, I chopped up cilantro, a couple shallots and a few dried chiles and put them directly in the sauce rather than as a garnish. I love my garnishes and would probably do it up all the way if I made it for a group but it's easier to just throw it in from the get-go when I already know my and Don's tastes.

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Not Your Average Quesadilla

My sister got me a gift subscription to Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. It's nice and small and has some really great recipe ideas. One Saturday morning, I decided to use a recipe that takes an everyday quesadilla and fancifies it. Hmm, Firefox doesn't seem to think "fancifies" is a word. I'm sticking with it. The cheese melted perfectly and the combination of flavors was divine!

Prosciutto and Mushroom Quesadillas

1 tbsp olive oil

1 shallot, minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

salt and pepper to taste

20 oz button mushrooms, trimmed and sliced (I'm sure cremini would work as well)

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/4 lb prosciutto, thinly sliced

1/4 lb grated gruyere cheese

4 oz baby arugula

4 flour tortillas

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Cook the shallot, garlic, salt, and pepper for 3-5 minutes, until soft. Add the mushrooms and cook until browned, about 7 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and toss with the lemon juice. Wipe skillet clean.

Spray skillet with some Pam (or coat with a drizzle of oil). Place a tortilla in the skillet; arrange 1/2 of the prosciutto, cheese, mushroom mixture, and arugula on it then cover with another tortilla. Cook quesadilla until cheese melts and tortilla is crisp, about 2 minutes per side. Flipping can be difficult. Our strategy is to cover the skillet with a plate, turn the tortilla onto it, then slide it off back into the skillet. Repeat to make a 2nd quesadilla!

Live Music!

Many Friday nights at our house begin with a search for live music in the Wheaton/lower MoCo area. We spend a good amount of time going to the websites of different bars that we know often have live music. It's a pain!

So I had an idea. If I can put this information into a calendar and post it to my website, I might be able to save a soul or two from having to do the same thing.

To view the calendar, click on the "Wheaton Goings-On" page on the right sidebar of the website (or click here). Keep in mind this is a work in progress and since I'm no web designer, the embedded calendar isn't the prettiest. I'm working on it!

For now it's just showing music events, since that happens to be my weekend activity of preference, but I envision a calendar that has all sorts of weekend events, from entertainment to cultural to nature hikes. However, I don't have nearly enough time to be searching the web for all this info so please share this with your friends/family in the area and ask them to contribute! I'd be glad to post suggested events.

The Legal Kind of Poaching

I got these nifty poach pods from my fabulous mother-in-law in a recent box-o-fun she occasionally sends us in the mail. A typical box contains Gert's homemade nut mix, some fun Trader Joe's grain mixes, gardening gizmos, and cooking gadgets. They are the best (hint, hint)!

Look how sunny it is outside!!

For breakfast this morning I tested out the pods, which have received good reviews in the blogosphere, by making a variation on eggs benedict. I'm not sure if this would even be considered "benedict" anymore, since there is no hollandaise sauce. Regardless of the semantics, these puppies came out delicious! The pods couldn't be easier to use but since this was my first time poaching eggs I overcooked them a little and the yolks were only a tiny bit runny.

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Dusting Off The Ol' Grill

It's finally grilling season again! I say this as if we didn't grill out in the cold on Christmas day. But still. Spring is in the air, the weather is absolutely beautiful, and I am thrilled!

To break in the grilling season, we decided to grill up some steaks that we bought a few weeks ago. We eat steak pretty rarely, so when we do we really go all out rather than try to be all healthy about it. I rubbed the steaks with Montreal Steak Seasoning, a great no-fuss rub. Don is the grillmaster of the house and cooked the steaks to medium-rare perfection. I served them with grilled asparagus which had been marinated in a bit o' olive oil, s+p, and chipotle chili powder.

Also with the steaks were artichoke-potato hash and chipotle pepper aioli. Read more for the recipe!

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Game Night App Night!

Last week we hosted a game night at our house, and I took the opportunity to try out a few appetizer recipes rather than making a full meal. I love the variety of a bunch of appetizers and so did our guests! On the menu was Balderdash the game served with a side of cheese & crackers, spinach & artichoke dip, Indian-spiced lamb dumplings, samosas a la Candace, and two phyllo creations: phyllo triangles with basil, zucchini, and pine nuts; and feta and walnut phyllo rolls.

I made the lavash crackers two days early and re-toasted them that day. Before baking them initially, I sprinkled them with a variety of seasonings including cayenne pepper, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, cumin seeds, garam masala and paprika. I made these gorgeous stripes of different seasonings and was so excited about it. However, silly me didn't try hard enough to get all those seasonings to incorporate with the dough. I probably should have really pressed them in well. Instead, 85% of the seasonings fell off almost immediately upon lifting the crackers off the baking sheet. Oh well! I made the spinach artichoke dip that day as well which was actually served as an app to Carrie and John; the leftovers were reheated and served at game night. It's health(ier) and delicious!

The evening before game night, I assembled both phyllo apps and stored them in the fridge covered tightly with saran wrap. I also made the dumpling filling. That way all I had to do the day of was throw the apps in the oven, wrap the dumplings, and steam them. I used gyoza wrappers I bought at Maxim, the Asian market near work, rather than making my own dough. Wrapping all those dumplings was a pain but I had tons extra to freeze!

Rather than transcribe all the recipes, I'll just link right to 'em for ya. See the pics below for the recipe links.

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Biking in Wheaton

When Google unveiled its new bicycling feature on Google maps, I decided to test out my work commute from Wheaton to Rockville. As I thought, there is really no option for me besides to ride on Veirs Mill the whole way. If you know Veirs Mill, you know that there are no official bike lanes and several sections have no shoulder whatsoever. I think I'll pass on that, considering I'm not the most hardcore biker.

I entered a few other routes around the Wheaton area that would be nice to be able to safely ride and it became glaringly obvious how little Wheaton offers as far as bike routes. If I want to bike from Wheaton to downtown Silver Spring, Google maps tells me to take Georgia the whole way. No thank you.

We do have several nice park trails in the area (e.g., Rock Creek or Sligo) so I can't complain about that; but, it would be great if there was a safe way to get from my house to those trails without hugging a non-existent shoulder on Georgia, University, or Veirs Mill.

Homemade Ravioli in Vodka Sauce. 'Nuff Said.

I've been wanting to tackle homemade pasta for a while so on Sunday I invited my sister and her fiancé over to be my guinea pigs for what turned out to be a spectacular meal. Just today Carrie told me that her and fiancé have been dreaming about it for the past three days. It was that good.

I don't have a pasta-maker per se, but I do have a wonderfully-willing-to-help husband who did all the rolling/cutting/filling of the dough. All I had to do was make the dough and the filling! His take? Homemade ravioli is a perfect way to impress your friends and relatives, but not suitable for the average weeknight meal, usually eaten in the company of Alex Trebek.

I got the ravioli dough recipe from Smitten Kitchen, the filling recipe from my own noggin, and the vodka sauce recipe from a good friend's Italian mother. She dictated it to me years ago when I participated in my first July 4th family cookoff (I came in 2nd place that time); I've been meaning to type up the handwritten recipe that's mostly illegible from spilling water/oil on it so many times.

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New Kam Fong, Wheaton

After hearing much hype about New Kam Fong in Wheaton, we decided to check it out with some friends on Friday night. The decor definitely lived up to the reviews: bright, large dining room with various poultry hanging in a glass display case by the bar. We had to wait about 10 minutes for our table; not bad at all for a weekend evening at 7:30. The service was quick and friendly. The alcohol selection was subpar but not unusual for a Chinese dive. A couple white wine options (both chardonnay), a couple red wine options, 4-5 beers, and no liquor as far as I could tell. At least they had Tsing Tao!

We ordered crabmeat fried wontons, wontons in hot oil sauce, and pan-fried vegetable dumplings to start. The crabmeat wontons were tasty but overloaded with cream cheese to the point that I barely tasted crab. The wontons in hot oil sauce were highly recommended in reviews but were underwhelming in flavor. The shrimp pieces were large and fresh, the wonton wrapper was perfectly textured, but the "hot" oil sauce was bland. I was expecting something spicier considering the title of the dish and the fact that it had a pepper icon next to it. The vegetable dumplings, however, were excellent. The dough was nice and doughy but not too much so. The filling had actual, visible, vegetables in it unlike the pureed mush I often find in veggie dumplings.

For our meals, we all shared Buddha's Chow Foon (sauteed wide noodles with mixed veggies and tofu), Buddha's Delight Boneless Duck, Lamb with Bean Curd Skin Casserole, and a chicken with crispy noodle dish, the name of which I can't remember. One of the diners is allergic to shrimp if you were curious why we ordered two "Buddha's" dishes. No shrimp in those bad boys. The chow foon was flavorful, if not a little slimy for my liking. The boneless duck was severely lacking in duck; there may have been 7 or 8 bite-size pieces in the entire thing. The lamb was served piping hot in a cast-iron pot. I enjoyed the combination of spices, but not everyone did. There were also little pieces of bone swimming in the sauce that were impossible to find until you bit down on them. We liked the crispiness of the noodles in the last dish, but that's about all I enjoyed in it.

The portions were great, especially considering how inexpensive everything was. The couple we dined with took home the leftovers which amounted to at least half of what we were served. They planned on reviving the food at home with a healthy dose of sriracha.

I want to trust the good reviews I've heard so I will give New Kam Fong a second chance, but my first impression was that the dishes were super oily with a lack of overall flavor and substance. Perhaps I don't know what "good Cantonese food" is, but if this is it I'm not sure that I want to eat it! Sorry to all those that love this place! Please suggest dishes I should try next time!

New Kam Fong

2400 University Blvd.

Wheaton, MD 20902

301-933-6388

Oma's Csirke Paprikas (Chicken Paprikas)

My Hungarian Oma and Opa, along with their two young children (my dad and aunt), walked across the Hungarian-Austrian border in 1956, leaving everything behind-- including Sunday supper which was about to be served-- for a new life in America. Thankfully, they did not leave behind their rich heritage and Hungarian culture, instilling it in their children and grandchildren over the years. I always looked forward to summer suppers in the Catskills, served by Oma with love and enjoyed in the shade of a giant tree with family. One year we gave her a blank family recipe cookbook, into which we were hoping she would pour out her vast knowledge of Hungarian cooking so that one day we could attempt to recreate the wonderful recipes. And pour she did! Some recipes are hard to read as they are written in a mix of English and Hungarian, and most are even harder to recreate since Oma cooked from years of experience, adding pinches here and dashes there. It's rare to see the word "cup" or "tbsp" in the pages of this cookbook. My Idaho-bred mom has done a great job of translating those recipes and is now quite the Hungarian cooking expert! This recipe won me the grand prize in our somewhat-annual 4th of July cookoff. I beat out my sister and two cousins in a Hungarian cooking contest with Oma's Chicken Paprikas recipe, impressive considering the competition and judges which included our extended Hungarian family and friends.

Okay, I'll quit rambling and just share the recipe now.

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