Category Archives: garlic

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 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!

Jack is Cooking Braised Burdock

Posted on by under burdock, carrot, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, sesame seeds
Well Hello Internet!
a bunch of days probably weeks ago now i made some braised burdock, and man was it delicious! a relief from all the pastries!  
heres what you’ll need:
1 burdock root
2 carrots
garlic
ginger
sesame seeds
what i thought was bok choy – or maybe spinach – but actually was collard greens – hahaha
hot sesame oil
olive oil
soy sauce
brown rice vinegar
rice syrup
so first!
slice everything up! 
heres a trick with burdock.  it oxidizes super fast!  like super super fast.  the fastest anything will ever oxidize.  so when you are cutting it i find the best way to cut it is to pretend you are sharpening a pencil with a knife – slicing bits off of the root.  do this over a bowl of water, so that the slices land in the water.  this way it won’t oxidize.
then heat the oilive oil and sesame oil in a pan.  add the ginger and the garlic.  cook for maybe 30 seconds, and then add in the burdock and the carrots. until they are tender.  at this point you can add in the mysterious green vegetables!  hahaha, the thing was, i had a green leafy vegetable in my fridge, but i actually had no idea what it was!  at first i thought it was spinach, but then i thought to myself, no that’s not spinach.  it must be bok choy.  only when julie returned from mexico did she inform me that she had in fact bought collard greens!  so that’s what it was.  either way it was delicious, and all of the above would have been delicious also…
so, yeah cook those green things until they are cooked down a bit and then add in all the sauces, and stir fry a little longer.  sprinkle with sesame seeds when done!
mmm mmm delicious

Jack is Cooking the Best Damn Pasta Sauce You Ever Ate

Posted on by under basil, garlic, gruyere, onion, pancetta, pasta, Tomato
Well Hello Internet!
over the weekend i made this super delicious pasta sauce.  i have to say it is probably the best damn pasta sauce i ever ate.  and i say that because i really don’t like plain tomato sauce all that much.  i don’t know why but i find that people spice it wrong and over cook it.  i don’t know why they do this, because tomatoes are awesome!  why all the spices and all the cooking for hours and hours and hours until there is nothing left but tomato paste?!
first off, i have to say that this is most definitely not my recipe.  i saw this made on Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations the other day in his episode about techniques.  i did some tweaking here and there but the recipe is essentially from Chef Scott Conant from Scarpetta restaurant.

Heres what you’ll need:
5 ripe plum tomatoes
4 cloves of garlic
an onion
a bunch of fresh basil
1 cup of olive oil
pasta
butter
cheese

First i blanched the tomatoes in hot water for like 15 seconds, and removed them immediately.  (i saved the water so i didn’t have to boil more, to cook the pasta in)

after the tomatoes where blanched i skinned them, cut them open and squeezed out the insides into a bowl (save this bowl for if the sauce gets too dry.  then you can add this juicy pulp into the sauce).  i put the remaining part of the tomatoes into a pot with 1 quarter of the olive oil (1/4 cup) and i mashed them with a potato masher until they were pulpy.  i let this simmer for like 30 minutes until it became pretty saucy (mashing from time to time)

in another pot, i put the rest of the olive oil, all the garlic (whole cloves) the onion (chopped up) and maybe 10 fresh leaves of basil, and i let this simmer in the oil for the entire time that the tomato sauce cooked.
when both of these things were done i took a strainer and i strained the oil into the tomato sauce (giving it all the flavor but none of the bits! genius!  this is the most genius part, and what makes it the best damn sauce you ever ate!)  then stir it up real good.
( but wait!  don’t throw out all that delicious onion and garlic and basil!  its good for other stuff!  like a quiche!  which should be in a post very soon!
then in a frying pan i sauteed up some pancetta (this is where i moved on from the scarpetta recipe) 
i spooned some of the sauce into the pan to reduce it in a small amount (instead of letting the sauce sit for like 2 hours:
I then tossed in the pasta  and put a pat of butter in it.  this is the final step in the deliciousness!  it made it all nice and super creamy!  yum!!
I then served it with a grating of gruyere cheese (which is a nice alternative to parmesan), and some more fresh basil on top for colour!
mmmmm mmmmm delicious!!!

Jack is Cooking Beef Jerky

Posted on by under beef jerky, garlic, ginger, paprika, sesame seeds, soy sauce, sriracha, steak, tahini
Well Hello Internet!
i decided to take on a new project of making delicious homemade Beef Jerky! 
this was the first time, and i think it turned out pretty good, although a little salty.  
here’s what i did:
the beef:
i used an organic grass-fed sirloin tip steak from Herondale Farm
i cut this into strips that were fairly thin.
for the marinade:
ginger
garlic
soy sauce
hot sesame oil
olive oil
tahini
sriracha 
ginger ale
i marinated the steak for 24 hours in this.  
after 24 hours, i took the steak out of the marinade, and i put some dry spices on for a dry rub (this is where i used too much salt, so if you do this, be careful with the salt. 
the dry rub:
paprika
salt
pepper
herbs de provence
after i put the beef strips in this to give a little coating i put them on racks in the oven at 150°.  i let it stay in there for about 3 hours.  or basically until it became jerky. some of the pieces were finished a little before, because they were smaller, and some took a little longer, so you have to keep your eye on it.
all in all its pretty good!  but this is something i’m definitely going to keep working on. different marinades etc!
mm mm delicious!