Inspired by a fellow food blogger... lemon yogurt cake!

I have been so inspired by the plethora of lemon yogurt cake recipes in the food blogosphere recently. Lemon anything has always been a favorite of mine, in particular, the iced lemon loaf at Starbucks (which I know is totally commercially produced). I decided to finally attempt to reproduce this Starbucks favorite by following the recipe of fellow blogger, Closet Cooking, for his Lemon Yogurt Cake... with blueberries!

The recipe is so simple, it took just a few moments to put it all together. Basically, you just combine the wet and dry ingredients...


Then add the blueberries (I used frozen)...


Pour into a greased/floured loaf pan...


Bake for about an hour in a 350 degree oven (until a toothpick comes out clean, or I use a chopstick, in true Korean style!). Then I made the glaze, which is very simple and straightforward. I just used lemon juice, since I did not have limoncello on hand. Plus the alcohol would have killed me (I suffer from the common Asian malady, alcohol allergy). I poured it over the cooled cake, but as you can see, my glaze was WAY too loose and it all kind of pooled around the cake, instead of on the cake. But, the glaze was tasty anyway!


It is such a tasty, simple, and moist cake, I highly recommend you try it yourself. The lemon zest adds just enough lemony flavor to the cake itself, and the glaze is what really makes it lemony. The yogurt adds a bit of tartness, and you definitely do NOT miss the butter in this cake.


Lemon Yogurt Cake with Blueberries

1.5 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp lemon zest
1 cup yogurt (I used plain nonfat)
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I actually forgot to add this! Still turned out tasty, though)
1 cup blueberries (I used frozen)

For the glaze:
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp limoncello (or just another Tbsp of lemon juice)

Directions:
1. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
2. Mix lemon zest, yogurt, sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla extract in another bowl.
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients.
4. Mix in the blueberries.
5. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.
6. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for about an hour, or until a toothpick (or chopstick) comes out clean.
7. Mix ingredients for the glaze, and pour on the cake once it has cooled completely.
8. Slice. Enjoy!

Mom's Korean Chicken

My mother is a great cook. We grew up on mostly Korean food, but also an occasional random non-Korean item thrown in there. For example, she often made her famous inside-out ravioli (I will have to blog about that one day), or her not-so-famous prune cake (yuck!). One thing she would make pretty often that was always a hit was her CHICKEN.

I don't have an exact recipe for this dish, just the required ingredients, so I kind of experimented and came up with my own recipe. My mom's calls for chicken drumsticks, which are cheap and on the fattier side. To appease D, who is a self-proclaimed health nut, I also threw in two bone-in chicken breasts (but this goes against mom's original recipe!).

(D took this picture as I was removing the skin from the chicken.... sorry for the poor quality... ahem, D)

The first thing to do is rinse the chicken and remove the skin. This is not an easy task, I must say. I'm surprised I still have all 10 fingers. Honestly, I don't know why my mom removes the skin, but hey, it's her recipe! Plus, it makes it somewhat healthier.


Then, I put the chicken pieces in a large stockpot (or a dutch oven, if you have one). To this, I added a LOT of roughly chopped garlic (maybe 10 cloves?), a lot of fresh roughly chopped ginger, some gochu-garu (Korean red pepper flakes), and some sugar. For liquid, I added soy sauce and sesame oil I also added a sliced onion and some scallions, which are NOT part of my mom's original recipe, but I like onion flavor.


Then, I added water until the chicken was covered. I brought this to a boil, turned down the heat, covered it, and let it simmer away...


This takes a long time... after an hour or so, I opened the lid and turned UP the heat so the liquid would reduce. This took me almost another hour! But when it was all reduced down, the liquid turned into a dark thick sauce, and the meat was tender and almost completely off the bones.


I sauteed some Shanghai baby bok choy with some garlic and sesame oil, and served it all up with some good old Korean sticky rice. Enjoy!!


Mom's Korean Chicken

3.5lbs chicken drumsticks (maybe 10-12 drumsticks)
2lbs bone-in chicken breast
10-12 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3" piece of fresh ginger, roughly chopped
1 onion, sliced
3 scallions, cut into 2" pieces
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp gochu-garu (Korean red pepper flakes)
1 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup sesame oil
5 cups water
salt and pepper

1. Remove skin from chicken. Be careful... let's not pull a Wendy's chili incident here.
2. Place chicken in large stockpot or dutch oven.
3. Add all the other ingredients to the pot, and add the water last, just to cover the chicken.
4. Cover the pot, bring it up to a boil.
5. Reduce the heat, let it simmer for an hour or so. Stir occasionally.
6. Take the lid off, turn up the heat, and let the liquid reduce into a nice thick sauce, stirring occasionally.
7. You'll find the meat has fallen off the bones. If you want, you can fish out the bones/cartilage. Mine ended up looking almost like pulled pork or pulled chicken in a rich sauce. Delicious!
8. Serve with some white rice, and maybe some sauteed bok choy, or even some kimchi!

Sisterhood Award!

I just received my first ever blog award from Passionate Eater (whose blog is just fantastic, and who is a wonderful human being)! I am honored and humbled. And thrilled! Thank you!

So, I am supposed to pass along this award to 10 other bloggers. There are SO MANY wonderful and amazing food blogs out there, most of whom I aspire to emulate, so I'll pass this Sisterhood Award along to the following bloggers (please note there are some "brothers" in the group...):

In no particular order:
-Cheryl of Cooking, Dunkin Style -- fun, sassy, and a cute dog!
-Ambitious Delicious(ness) -- beautiful photos, simple recipes, and Korean like me!
-GabesBabyMomma -- a mother of little kids who has time to blog, plus instructional videos!
-Burp and Slurp -- an inspirational food blog from someone recovering from an eating disorder. And Korean like me!
-Hungry Gal of My Kind of Food -- simple, delicious recipes, and even postings with suggestions for "What to do with..." commonly under-used items!
-Sara at Sara's Kitchen -- creative recipes, beautiful photos, and she's met Michael Chiarello!
-Chicky*bits -- quirky, fun, short&sweet postings, and Korean like me! And an adorable banner!
-KoreanCuisine -- a young Korean-American woman who documents her struggles with her recent cancer diagnosis... and a fantastic recipe here and there!
-Sean from simple, elegant, delicious -- a fantastic blog with simple recipes, all from an ambitious young man!
-Kevin at Closet Cooking -- really great photographs, simple recipes, short&sweet postings, always an inspiration in the kitchen!
-Marc at [ No Recipes ] -- fabulous photographs, great recipes, and he has provided with excellent advice about photography! And Japanese, like 1/4 of me!

Ok, so there are 11 in this list. There are just so many bloggers that I admire and respect, and who aren't just great bloggers/photographers/cooks/bakers, but also phenomenally kind human beings.

Thank you all for making my blogging experience fun, and for always having GREAT content for me to look forward to daily on my google reader.

(p.s. if you want, pass this along to 10 other bloggers who have inspired you!)

Ole!

I love me some good Mexican food! For my friend's birthday, we went to Ole Mexican Grill in Inman Square (Cambridge, MA). I had heard great things about this place, and in particular, I had heard rave reviews about the table-side guacamole. YUM!! Fresh guac!

Unfortunately, on a busy Friday night, they were not able to make it fresh table-side, but they did make it fresh at a guacamole station, and in a traditional molcajete (basically a heavy stone mortar). It was served with warm, fresh, crispy tortilla chips, which were so good they could have been eaten solo.


The guac was SO DELICIOUS!! I am a huge fan of avocado, and an even bigger fan of a good, fresh guac, so I appreciated this very much. It was creamy and had the perfect balance of salt and lime.


I ordered the Chiles Rellenos -- two roasted poblano chiles, one stuffed with mixed Mexican cheeses, spinach, raisins, and pine nuts; the other with shredded braised pork, served on a roasted tomato broth, Mexican rice, and some fried plantains. I know in the picture above, the dish appears like a mushed mess. But, it was quite good!! I liked the braised pork chile the best (who doesn't like tender, fatty braised meat?), and the other one was pretty good, too. The plantains were soft and delicious!



One of my friends ordered the Carne Asada a la Ole -- a 10 oz. sirloin steak with grilled tri-color peppers, served with frijoles charros, salsa fresca, and guacamole. This dish also came with fried plantains (yum!). The guac was served on a piece of radicchio, which I thought was pretty creative. It was a lot of beef, but it was tasty!


We also ordered a couple of platillos pequenos (small plates), including Tacos a la Ole -- grilled citrus-chile chipotle chicken breast on handmade corn tortillas topped with grilled orange-pineapple salsa. Yum... I love any combination of sweet and savory!

It was a delicious meal... especially the guac!! I will be sure to go back. Soon.

Restaurant Week Boston -- Toro!

Restaurant Week Boston 2009.

One of my favorite weeks of the year. This year, a group of us re-visited Ken Oringer's Toro in the South End of Boston, just as we did last year for Restaurant Week.

Toro is an amazing, but tiny, tapas restaurant in the South End neighborhood of Boston that was recently named as the best place to live in Boston for food. Amidst the beautiful brownstownes and brick sidewalks are tiny, cozy restaurants with character and amazing food.

Ken Oringer is a Boston restauranteur and award-winning chef (James Beard 2001 Best Northeast Chef winner!) who has opened some of the most acclaimed and delicious restaurants in Boston: Clio (contemporary French-American), Uni (sashimi bar), KO Prime (steakhouse), affordably-priced La Verdad (taqueria near Fenway Park). He's even been on Iron Chef America!

(photo credit: www.starchefs.com)

For a mere $33.09 per person, we were able to each get one pincho (basically, an appetizer), and 20 tapas for 8 people. Believe me, we were plenty full by the end.


They had very tasty mixed drinks, and an exclusively Spanish wine list. The sangria (which I did not partake in) was reported to be delicious!


My pincho was Queso Mahon -- marinated cow's milk cheese from Menorca. It came with toothpicks (which is the rough translation of a pincho), and was very tasty.


Some of the other pinchos people ordered were Pan con Tomate (a classic), and Datiles con Jamon (serrano ham wrapped dates!!).

In the tradiational small-plates style of eating, we shared everything. We had the Atun Crudo, which is a non-traditional tapa, and is yellowfin tuna with citrus and soy, garnished with beansprouts. Being a big fan of sushi and sashimi, I thoroughly enjoyed this one!


We also had Anna's Empanadas -- chicken and potato empanadas with aji roja and aioli. Deep-fried to a golden crunch, these were tasty little bites of heaven.


We also enjoyed some vegetable selections, including Escalivada Catalana -- marinated wood roasted eggpland, onions, peppers, and tomato with sherry vinegar and olive oil. The eggplant was mushy and very tasty.


There are several items for which I do not have actual descriptions from the menu (the one on the website must not be updated). But we also had some delicious baby clams in a broth that was fit for sopping up with crusty bread, or just drinking straight.


We also had some deliciously crispy and fatty duck that had a nice sweetness with an Asian flair. Yum.


There was also a deliciously tender and fatty braised short rib, which just fell apart under the knife. Just the way braised short ribs should be!


We also had a shrimp dish that was probably cooked in a saffron cream, although I'm not certain. Either way, it was delicious, and perfectly cooked. Who likes overcooked rubbery shrimp?


Oh... finally, and certainly not least... the piece de resistance, "La Especialidad de la Casa" as they say on the menu... the very famous Maiz Asado con Aioli y Queso Cotija. This is the one dish every review for Toro will discuss. This is the dish that is the most memorable, the most messy, and possibly the most delicious. It's grilled corn on the cob that is just smothered, drowning in a rich creamy cheesy buttery herby sauce that gets all over your fingers and in between your teeth, and you need a wetnap afterwards. Then, with all the leftover sauce, you just eat it up with some nice crusty bread. Oh, I will dream of this corn... dream and dream until I meet it again. Soon, I hope.


Some of the other dishes we had were Croquetas de Bacalao (traditional salt cod fritters with lemon rings), Coliflor a la Plancha (cauliflower a la plancha, pimenton de la vera), Patatas Bravas (fried potatoes with aioli and spicy tomato sauce), Garbanzos con Chorizo (chickpeas with chorizo, spinach, and hard boiled egg), and Hamburguesas de Kobe (mini burgers with smoked tomato, aioli, and pickled red onion).

If you are in Boston, I highly recommend Toro for a night of tapas you won't soon forget. And be sure to get more than one order of the corn... and save some for me!

Wishlist

I am so new at this. New at photography. New at blogging. Sort of new at cooking. Not new at eating (I've been good at that since I was a kid!).

As I read other food blogs, I realize there are some AMAZING food bloggers out there. Particularly, some bloggers have amazing and creative recipes, some bloggers are very talented writers, and some bloggers are truly talented photographers.

I always wonder, "How do they get their photos so vibrant, so focused, so beautiful?" Allen at EatingOutLoud recently posted a great recipe, and at the end of the post, showed a rare behind-the-scenes look at his photography "studio." He also has a link to his favorite photography items in his store. What insight he has provided for a novice photographer like me!

Here's what is on my photography wishlist:
1. Lowell E1-92 Ego Two Light Set (I realize one of my biggest problems is LIGHTING)


2. Accessory Power Series Tripod with 3-way Panhead


3. Nikon SB-400 AF Speedlight Flash



And while we're on the topic of wishlists, here is what's on my wishlist for new kitchen items/gadgets/tools:
1. Cast-iron pan for searing, even baking things like cornbread


2. Le Creuset Oval French Oven, for braising things in the oven


3. All-Clad Stainless Steel Slow Cooker, for those long busy days with little time to cook


4. Food processor, for endless options!!!


5. KitchenAid Stand Mixer, for baking, even making dough for bread or pizza!


6. Cuisinart Immersion Hand Blender, for easily blending soups to a smooth consistency


7. Silpat Baking Mats, for multiple uses!


8. Electric thermometer, so I can cook meat in the oven at just the right done-ness!


BUT, there is one thing that was on my wishlist, which D surprised me with the other day:

SHAM WOW!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so in all honesty, they do NOT work the way the commercial makes it seem. But that darn infomercial host, Vince, is so convincing (haha, get it?). Anyway, I am using them to dry the counters in the kitchen, and even put clean, wet dishes on instead of a dish towel. So far, I am pleased, even if they don't work as advertised.

(all photos from amazon.com)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love cookies. Any cookies. When I came across this recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies by wine blogger Catie, I just knew they would be wonderful. Even though pumpkin is traditionally an autumn flavor, I love it so much I'll use it any time of year!


Some people prefer thin crispy cookies... other people prefer soft chewy cookies. These definitely fall in the latter category. In fact, they are almost cake-y and muffin-like. So much so, that after having baked these a few times, I think I will try them as muffins next time!


The recipe is straightforward and easy. Here are the ingredients you'll need:


The original recipe calls for shortening, but I chose to use butter. I started by mixing the butter and sugar together (I don't have an electric mixer or a stand mixer, so I did this with a whisk by hand!). Once they were fully incorporated and the mixture was fluffy, I added the pumpkin and egg. I mixed thoroughly until everything was combined.


I then combined all the dry ingredients, and added it to the wet mixture. I mixed this together thoroughly with a rubber spatula, until all the flour was dissolved.


I then added the chocolate chips. Admittedly, I added almost twice the amount the recipe calls for (what can I say?). I was using pretty good chocolate chips, so I figured more is better! I also added the vanilla here.


You will find that the cookie dough looks and feels more like batter at this point. If you want, you can put the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes or so. This isn't a necessary step, but it might make the dough easier to handle. I dropped the dough onto baking sheets, and put them in a 350F oven for about 15 minutes. I let the baking sheet sit for a minute outside the oven before transferring the cookies to a cooling rack.

You will love these cookies!! They are so moist, and the pumpkin flavor is subtle, but adds an interesting flair to a basic chocolate chip cookie. I could eat a dozen of these in one sitting. Bad idea, but I definitely could do it!


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup dark chocolate chips (I used almost 2 cups!)

Directions:
1. Beat or whisk butter and sugar together until fluffy.
2. Add egg and pumpkin. Mix thoroughly.
3. Combine flour and next four ingredients, and add to pumpkin mixture.
4. Stir in vanilla and chocolate chips.
5. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto baking sheets.
6. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes, or until edges are golden brown.
7. Let set a minute before removing from cookie sheet to cool.
8. Enjoy with a glass of cold milk!