live and let raw.

this isn't quite a guacamole recipe, as the avocados are best left chunky (at least in my opinion). however, it was a hit at the last dinner party i attended:

• 4 roma/plum tomatoes, diced
• 2 avocadoes, scored into chunks [1]
• 1 small red onion, diced finely
• 2 small scallions, julienned
• lime juice and salt,
• olive oil, red pepper flakes, and cumin

Step 1: chop everything as prescribed;

Step 2: saute onion on a dry pan, with cumin, red pepper flakes, and a sprinkle of salt. in the last minute, add a drizzle of olive oil. let it cool to room temperature.

Step 3: combine all ingredients, twist in the lime juice. stir gently (the avocadoes should remain chunky) and serve with something crunchy .. [2].

The idea is to cook the ingredients that are best cooked, and leaving the rest raw and perfectly tasty.

[1] if you imagine each avocado as an ellipsoid, then

1. cut along the equatorial ellipse that is perpendicular to the shortest axis,
2. split into halves and remove the core seed,
3. with a paring knife, slice in a longitude and latitude fashion, as if making chunks that resemble spherical coordinate rectangles,
4. scoop out chunks from the shell/skin using a medium sized spoon.

[2] crunchy and solid: peanut butter not permitted here.

not the usual kind of cookbook ..

cool. picturecook, by katie shelly.

image borrowed from laughingsquid.com

link post: when in a jam ..

i haven't posted in a while. among other entities, you can blame the NSF for this: most of my available mindspace has been devoted to grant-writing, in the last few weeks.

so no new recipes for now.

i did stumble onto this link today about dressing up ramen noodles. have a look, if you'd like.

apart from the suggestion for nippon ham sausage, the ideas are mostly vegetarian. as a replacement, one could instead use a vegetable-based gyoza, which can be boiled in the same water and give additional flavor to the noodle bowl.

not quite surreal, but .. (oreos)

for some reason i saw these two images off posts from reddit.

can anyone find one of an oreo on a toothpick,
or one of an oreo, a knife, and a fork? (-:

watermelon salad.

i've recently discovered the website wise bread and occasionally they have some interesting tips for cooking, such as:

"6 unique ways to eat watermelon"
by Linsey Knerl.

as for my own contribution, i had an amazing watermelon salad, some weeks ago. i didn't ask for the recipe, so this is my best guess:

• seedless watermelon, diced into bite size chunks,
• seedless cucumber, diced,
• finely chopped cilantro
• fresh lime juice
• salt/pepper to taste.

it really worked. cilantro and lime are generally good partners, and the watermelon adds a simple, fresh sweetness to the mix.

variants:

• i think diced jicama would work, since it's a fleshy, water-rich vegetable. to offset the lack of sweetness, it might be wise to add an orange-lime juice mix.
• mango or papaya could also work well, but this changes the salad to a more dessert-like dish. when i ate this watermelon salad, it was actually a side item with dinner.
• don't underestimate the cucumber: it provides a coolness that is hard to mimick. for example, i don't think celery would do as well.
• radishes are water-rich as well, but their peppery flavor might act strangely against the cilantro-lime.
• if you're not a fan of cilantro, then parsley or basil would probably work just as well, though i'd switch from lime to something more salad-ish, like a rice (wine) vinegar.

friend, or foe?

i love this stuff. then again, my brother thinks it green stuff that tastes purely of soap.

so i guess i inherited the good genes! q-:

Like politics and religion, cilantro elicits strong opinions. People love it or hate it. For some, it's an acquired taste, thus attracting its share of proselytizing converts, such as myself. Even the name of the plant can be controversial. In the U.S., the leaves are called cilantro, while the seeds are called coriander. In Europe, the leaves are called coriander, while the seeds are also called coriander. To confuse matters further, cilantro leaves are also known as Chinese parsley.

more @ Cilantro: The Controversial Herb by Lynda Balslev @ NPR.

an "abominable" carrot soup. (-:

from nichtlustig.de:

as translated by google:

"so this is the terrible secret behind your delicious carrot soup! yuck!"

an un-recipe: (renegade) orange marmalade.

in the end, i should have been patient, and eaten the damned things, one by one.

---

last week i had a bag of 9 oranges which i consistently forgot to open and eat. so i decided to make juice out of them.

nobody told me, though, that navel oranges aren't very good for juicing. i felt betrayed! [1]

pitiful.

out of spite, i sat and thought what else i could do with oranges.

some people lose their appetite when spiteful;
i am not one of them.

just as i hunger for revenge,
i also hunger for food,
sometimes simultaneously.

so i grabbed some leftover bread and looked for jam, but the jar was essentially empty. the remnants barely coated one slice!

i was about to curse my luck when the thought of marmalade occurred to me.

---

actually, i don't know how to make marmalade. i might have read a recipe, some years ago, but all i could remember was that it looked easy ..

.. easy enough not to look up a recipe again. so this is what i did:

1. after zesting the oranges, i roasted them:
   
   
   
   burn in hell, traitors! (-:
   
   admittedly, i don't remember this being in any recipe, but the thought of caramelized orange flesh sounded appealing (which was later verified).
   
   
2. after 1 hour of roasting, the flesh became very soft. i spooned out the roasty remains, and then pureed them in a food processor.
   
   
3. emptying the orange gunk in a pot, i decided that 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water would do, and subsequently set it to boil with 2 tablespoons of zest.
   
   then i decided to clean out my spice cabinet, realised that i had far too much garam masala, looked at the simmering pot, and decided ..
   
   f-ck it. why not? [2]
   

it looks strangely brownish, but it's a surprisingly spicy, good taste -- "spicy" in the sense of flavorful, not heat.

revenge is sweet .. and surprisingly spicy!

it's a very distinct taste; i wonder what i'll say after a week of this stuff ..

[1] to clarify: betrayed by the oranges, not by my friends. (-:

[2] at the time i was also considering adding a bit of rum. immediately i thought better of it: waking up to coffee and rum-flavored marmalade is a bit .. much.

stir fry + noodle soup = (-:

lately i've found miso soup paste to be great, in a pinch. for instance:

stir-fry veggie noodle soup.

absolutely simple: saute a combination of what veg you have in your fridge, while waiting for the soup water to boil. cellophane noodles (or another quick-cooking pasta) is also a good bet.

if you also have some tofu (or feel like frying an egg), then add it on top.

---

the great thing about the saute is that the pan flavors infuse into the soup water, making a quick and tasty broth. this is particularly convenient, during those days when you don't want too salty a miso taste (or, in fact, any at all).

in today's noodle bowl, the broccoli and bell peppers were sauteed with store-bought lemongrass powder, as well as freshly ground fennel and coriander seeds. as i brought the saute to a close, i also shook a glug or two of rice wine vinegar.

i tell you: it was great. (-: