Author Archives: jackiscooking

Jack is Cooking Some Kind of Beef Noodles (take II)

Posted on by under beef, garlic, ginger, green onions, noodles, onions, pepper, sake, spinach, Tomato

Well Hello Internet!

its been a long time.  almost a year since my last post!  don’t worry i’ve still been eating cooking a lot!  but i’ve mainly been playing with old recipes and so didn’t think i should post the same thing twice.  but since i’ve got this here website i figured i should probably start posting on it again!

So One dish that was really awesome that i made a while ago, (and took a picture of!) was this awesome beef noodle soup dish that i found in a magazine (Saveur).  I didn’t exactly make what the recipe in the magazine said, i made my own thing out of it.

So here’s what you’ll need:

1 lb of beef – doesn’t matter what cut, but its nice if it has bones in it.  i used a T-Bone steak, (which i am sorry to say had been in my freezer for too long, and had gotten a bit of Freezer burn on it.  it wouldn’t have been good as a plain steak, but was perfect for this soup)

GROUP A
1/4 cup sake
2 teaspoons mixed pepper corns
2 cloves of garlic (smashed)
1/2 can crushed tomatoes
1 pod star anise
1/2 onion
2 dried red chillies
a bunch of ginger (like 2 inches)

GROUP B
1 teaspoon vinegar,
1  teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon sesame oil

GROUP C
fresh spinach
fresh egg noodles – the really thin kind!
a green onion
sesame seeds

So First, cut up the steak into random sized chunks, and throw all the meat and the bones into a pot of water.  bring this to a boil, and then drain the water.  take the beef and the bones and put it back in the pot with everything from the list in Group A.  cover this with water, and bring it back to a boil.  let it simmer for about an hour.

Then! after one hour, remove the beef from this stock and set it aside on a cutting board.  strain the liquid  so that you have a nice broth, and discard all the onions and ginger pieces, and whatever else may have been in the stock.  Cut the Beef into nice bite sized pieces.  you can now get rid of the bones, as their delicious goodness has been transferred into the stock.

Add everything from GROUP B (the soy sauce etc.) into the broth, and add the newly bite sized beef back into the broth.

In a separate pot, cook the noodles for their specified cooking time.  if they are fresh that will only be 2 minutes or so.  remove the noodles, and place them in the serving bowls.  SAVE THE WATER!
then cook (BLANCHE!) the spinach in the water.  remove the spinach from the water and put it into the bowls with the noodles.

Then take a Ladle, and ladle the nice broth over the noodles and spinach, making sure to get the good beef stuff into the bowls too.  garnish it with some Green Onions, and Sesame Seeds, and you have a Delicious Beef Noodle Soup Dish!

Heres what it looked like, PLUS the original picture from the magazine.

mmm mmm delicious!

P.S.   the original recipe which i adapted this from can be found here:
http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Hong-Shao-Niu-Rou-Mian-Taiwanese-Beef-Noodle-Soup

Jack is Cooking Thai curried Mussels

Posted on by under Uncategorized
Well Hello Internet!
The other night i made some mussels.  This time instead of steaming them in wine (like i did before) i steamed them in some delicious coconut milk that i infused with all sorts of delicious flavours.
heres what i did!
first you will need these things:
lemongrass (2 6 inch pieces)
ginger (2-3 inches)
garlic (1 whole head)
kaffir lime leaves (8-10)
tamarind (4-5 fresh seeds or paste)
thai chillies (4 or 5 depending on how spicy you want it)
an onion
coconut milk (2 cans)
one lime
(cilantro)
mussels!
So first i cut up the lemongrass into manageable pieces, and also the ginger.  they don’t have to be super fine, nor do you have to peel the garlic or ginger, as the skin will give extra flavour to the infusion.
take everything (except the onion, lime, cilantro, coconut milk, and mussels) and put it in a food processor.  or if you have a mortar and pestle thats good too.  grind it all up until you have a pulp of delicious smelling stuff that you can’t eat:
next take the onion which has been chopped up (you can even keep the skin on it if you desire) and sauté in some olive oil for a few minutes.
then add in the mixture from the blender, as well as the coconut milk
stew this for about 20-30 minutes, and then strain it so that all the solids come out.
put about 1/3 of the liquid back in the pan (save the rest!), and add the mussels.  steam the mussels in the liquid until the mussels open (about 5 minutes)  as soon as they open they are done!
serve with bread, and some of the liquid.  sprinkle some lime juice over, and garnish with cilantro
the rest of the coconut milk that you didn’t use, you can use in other dishes to flavor!  like fried rice
mmmm mmmm delicious!

Jack is Cooking Kale and Tofu with Tahini Sauce

Posted on by under garlic, kale, soy sauce, tahini, tofu
Well Hello Internet!
on thursday night i made a delicious quick stir fry!  a nice relief after eating so many pastries and BBQ!  
this ones pretty easy and super delicious to make.  
heres what you need:
tofu (cut up into small cubes)
kale
garlic
olive oil
hot sesame oil
soy sauce
brown rice vinegar
sriracha sauce
tahini
sesame seeds
so first!  i heated up some 4 tablespoons of olive oil with 1 tablespoon of hot sesame oil added to it.  when it was real nice and hot i added in the tofu
The trick here is to get the tofu really nice and krispy.  this is attainable but it really takes some patience.  also i have found that while yes it will stick a little bit, if you wait long enough it unsticks!
after the tofu becomes nice and brown and krispy- add in the garlic and the kale
once the kale has cooked down just a little bit (you don’t want to over cook it!  just cook it just enough)
its time to add in the sauces.  so i put in 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of tahini, 1 tablespoon of brown rice vinegar, and 1 teaspoon of sriracha and then sprinkled a bunch of sesame seeds on top!
and there you have it!
i ate it plain, but you could cook some rice, or some quinoa, or some millet to go along with it!
mmmm mmmm delicious!

Jack is Cooking Tarts and BBQ for july 4th

Posted on by under Uncategorized
Well Hello Internet!
what a july 4th!  we had our annual BBQ up on the farm.  This year i went with an old classic: Pulled Pork.  I (and Also Roland!) slow smoked 2 9 pound pork butts to pulling perfection!  and it was delicious.
we dry rubbed the pork and then coated it in our secret Raspberry – Chipotle BBQ sauce, and YES! its a SECRET! so i can’t tell you how to make it!  😉
but the pork heres the trick:  you need a smoker.  you need it to be at around 225°.  after that its roughly 1.5 hours per pound.
Pork is generally cooked when it reaches 165° at its internal temperature.  however to pull it you want it to be at around 190° at its internal temperature.  this took us roughly 15 hours or so to smoke. 
after it reaches 190° it needs to rest for an hour or so.  and then in the final touch we put it back on the grill to warm it up just a little bit before the pulling.  and then a couple of forks and the whole thing should just fall apart into a delicious heap of stringy melty meat. mmmmmmmmmm
to go along with this, Julie made her Delicious Kale Salad recipe, which i hope she will post up here one day.  also she made a delicious Thai Peanut Noodle Salad.  Cooper made his Excellent Potato Salad, and his Awesome Cole Slaw to put inside of the pulled pork sandwiches.
Heres the plate! (photo courtesy of Rockin Moe…)
but wait…. thats not all!  i also made a super abundance of tartes!  freshly learned from my recent stint at pastry school!  All in the style of a Mandala!  This one has a lime curd base, and has raspberries surrounding blueberries and oranges spiraling towards the kiwi center crossed by strawberries
these smaller ones also have lime curd in them and have stawberries, blueberries, kiwi and orange
This tarte i poached some peaches, and put them over an almond cream filling with blackberries in the center
This next one, i made in the style of a Tarte Bourdalou, but didn’t have any sliced almonds so i used blackberries instead!  a nice fresh summer touch.  it has poached pears over almond cream
and a linzer torte.  this one has a raspberry filling inside of a hazelnut crust
more fresh fruit!  this one has pastry cream in the filling, and has strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, golden raspberries, orange, and a kiwi
This tarte has the same fruits as the before mentioned, and the same filling, but was designed by OTO
a close-up
and then i made two tarte aux pommes- however with a twist of my own.  i love the almond cream so much that i put the almond cream inside under the apple compote and then topped them with apples in a nice design
and then!  we loaded them all into the car along with some other tartes, and come cakes, and FIREWORKS! for an awesome finale of tartes and fireworks! 
i can’t believe that i didn’t take a picture of the beautiful Old Glory Fruit Tarte that julie made!  but you can see it in there in the car on the bottom right!
mmmm mmmm delicious!

Jack is Cooking Pea Souffle

Posted on by under butter, cheese, eggs, flour, garlic, onion, peas
Well Hello Internet!
the other day (actually a couple of weeks ago… this post got lost somehow) i made a pea souffle with my newly learned knowledge of making souffle.  
apparently souffle’s are very easy to make!
all you need is to make a bechamel, and egg whites, with whatever filling you want!
heres what you will need:

flour 1 tablespoon
butter 2 tablespoons
milk 3/4 cup
salt and pepper
a little nutmeg

frozen peas
garlic
an onion (chopped up)
salt and pepper
paprika
olive oil

6 egg whites
a pinch of salt

pepper jack cheese (grated)  you could use cheddar, or any other cheese of your own fancy.

preheat the oven to 450°

So First!  i sauteed the peas, garlic, and peas, in a little olive oil and flavored them with some salt and pepper and some paprika.  when they were all done i put them in my blender and blended it until it was a fine mush.  or one might say a purée…

Next!  i made my béchamel.  that’s pretty easy.  first you melt the butter.  then you add the flour to the butter, and mix it together.  then you add the milk stirring constantly.  when it comes to a boil it should be a pretty thick mixture.  yum yum!  this is an important base to lots of different recipes.  i like to add a little nutmeg for flavor.  after it was done i mixed the pea purée into the béchamel.

then i took my egg whites and whipped them up until they were nice and stiff.  after that i took the egg whites and folded the béchamel purée mixture together.  really really fold these!  no mixing!  you must keep the fluffiness of the egg whites or it won’t work!

after that i filled some ramequins half way, then put a nice little bit of cheese into each one, and filled them up to the top with more of the mixture.  and then a nice coating of cheese on top!

into the oven, and cook them until they have puffed up and gone nice and golden brown on top!

mmmmm mmmmm delicious!