Mu Shu Pork

I’ve been trying to diversify my cooking lately. I got stuck in sort of a rut, in which I was still making good food but it was a lot of the same recipes over and over. I started by going into Google Reader and looking through all the posts that I have starred. There are a lot there from before I actually had my own kitchen, most of which I never got around to making. One of those recipes was this one, from The Way the Cookie Crumbles (I seem to get a lot of my recipes from there), for mandarin pancakes.

Mandarin pancakes are an absolutely essential part of mu shu pork, long one of my favorite Chinese dishes. When I was younger, I just wanted to eat the pancakes themselves and my dad would get mad at me because an order of the pork only came with 4. Well, now I can eat all the pancakes I want, and make the stir fry to go along with them. At the end of the pancake post is a link to this recipe for mu shu pork, from Use Real Butter (a new blog discovery for me).

Luke and I actually sort of tag teamed this one. The pancakes were a little labor intensive (and I was so hungry) so I had him get started on the filling while I made the pancakes. You can make them first though, wrap them in foil, and then do the stir fry. They warm up great in the microwave.

I pretty much always love the food that I cook. But a lot of times, the homemade version tastes a little different from the restaurant version, which requires sort of recalibrating my tastes. Not this one. This tasted pretty much exactly the way I remember, just a little better and fresher. The pancakes came out perfectly, paper thin. The stir fry had just the right crunchy texture and the light flavor that makes it a great match for hoisin sauce. Truly, fantastic.

 

Crème Brulée

My husband’s favorite dessert ever is crème brulée. I made it several times for him in college while we were dating but I can’t say that the recipe I used was terribly authentic (it did taste good though!). After a disagreement the other night, I thought it was time to make some again.

I ended up using this recipe, which I found on Dinner and Dessert but then look up in it’s original context in Desserts By the Yard, by Sherry Yard. The custard was very smooth and very nicely flavored. I did sub about a teaspoon and a half of vanilla extract for the vanilla bean. The problem that I currently have with crème brulée is that I don’t own a kitchen torch yet. I tried to acquire one as a wedding present, but with no success. That means that I have to do the caramelizing step with the broiler, which is very imprecise.

The problem is that caramelization (is that a word? not really sure) with the broiler takes a while, and the whole oven heats up, so you end up with warm, melty-ish custard especially near the outside edges. The best I could do with solving this problem is to let the broiler heat up for a good 20 minutes first, put the custard as close as possible to the heat source, and then put it in the fridge for a half hour afterward. The picture is from the last serving that I caramelized, the one that came out the best. As you can probably see, there were still stray grains but at least on this one I got a solid sheet of caramelized sugar and preserved the texture of the custard. All in all, delicious. Now I just need a torch.

Thai Curry

There is a special place in my heart for red Thai curries. I spent my last semester of college in Oxford, UK, along with two other girls from A&M. One of them, my wonderful friend Mindy, and I went about once every two weeks to a restaurant called Thai Orchid where we shared pad thai and red curry. Then, one day, we decided to make some curry ourselves in one of the kitchens of St Hugh’s college. It was a huge success, repeated throughout the semester, and I have made it many many times since.

Wow. I am back. About 2 weeks later than planned, but I guess that’s not really anything new. I’ve been having a really hard time with motivation lately, but here I am.

Getting dressed this week has been a serious challenge. It’s gone from rainy with highs and lows both in the 60’s to 50 at night and 90 during the day. Very bizarre. Transition is always so difficult. Additionally, my lack of motivation has extended to my wardrobe, compounded by the fact that I’ve not really had anywhere to go other than Target and the clinic where I volunteer. I do have a few other things to post though. Will do that over the next few days.

Speaking of Target, I picked up these truly fab little grey suede ankle boots there yesterday. I’ve been saving money for my trip to Houston next week (Hello, Galleria!!) but I really couldn’t pass these up. They’re very on trend and great quality for the money. I think I’ll be wearing them a lot in the next few months.

I’ll probably switch the blazer out for another jacket later. We are either going bowling or to see a movie later, those places are filthy, and I have more interviews coming up.

I’ll be posting very sporadically for the next couple weeks. I’m off to NYC on Thursday morning, back Sunday, and heading to New Orleans a week later. I’ll be trying to get at least a few things up during that time, but if not, I promise I’ll be resurfacing soon. See you then!

I went to Target today, to buy vanilla. On the way there I realized the Anna Sui for Target Gossip Girl-inspired collection came out today, so of course I had to scope it out.

I was unimpressed, though I admit that may have been due to the limited selection here. I tried on this tunic. I was sort of undecided until I got Luke to come give me a second opinion. He said I would fit right in in the Middle Ages, and immediately all I could see was Robin Hood. With a pattern. Not quite the look I’m going for.

Pot Stickers

I’m not sure how obvious it is from the food that I post on this blog, but Luke and I love Asian food. Curries, sushi, whatever. I love it all. Therefore, like most of the rest of (increasingly obese) America, I love fried egg rolls. I have made them a couple of times before, quite a while before I started writing here, and I really was feeling like we needed to have them again.

Unfortunately, the commissary does not stock egg roll wrappers (and I am not nearly motivated enough to try to make my own). They do, however, have won ton wrappers, which reminded me of this recipe (that I starred ages ago in Google reader) for pot stickers, from The Way the Cookie Crumbles. There are several possible variations; this is the one that worked for me.

Keep reading for the recipe.

I found this Etsy shop earlier while browsing. I am completely in love with these cuffs. I think I want this one.

Mediterranean Pepper Salad

I made this fantastic salad for supper the other night.

I know, it looks really similar to this. It’s totally different though, I promise (but equally delicious). I like the lack of lettuce or field greens as it makes the whole thing so much more substantial. The salad contains bell peppers, cucumber, red onion, kalamata olives, and feta cheese. One other thing Luke and I both really liked about this is the fact that you quick-pickle the red onion while all the other veggies are being chopped. It really took the bite out of them and enhanced the natural sweetness.

Unfortunately, I accidentally bought olives that had not been pitted (not that there were really any options), so that made the whole thing a little more difficult to eat. The flavors were absolutely wonderful though, and you can find the whole recipe here, at Smitten Kitchen.

I am feeling exceedingly uninspired today. Probably because I’m locking myself into our apartment until Luke comes home to finish these last few essays. See? Look how sad I am.

No, I’m kidding. I’m really just a little annoyed with myself that I have procrastinated on this one, last application til now. So, I leave you to return to my attempts to articulate my most humbling experience and my most significant ethical dilemma, and how they have prepared me for the medical field. Plus 5 other prompts.

Shirt: Old Navy, altered by me
Jeans: Gap