Kinda Sushi, Kinda Kimbap, but Definitely Rice in Seaweed

Ok, finals are over, summer is here, and a large number of my friends have started getting on my case about updating (thank you friends!). How is everyone's summer so far?

Let's get started! I've had the grocery store variety of sushi and I found it delicious. Rice, cucumbers, carrots, and avocado all wrapped up in strips of seaweed. However, it wasn't until my wonderful hosts in San Francisco introduced me to real sushi that I understood just how complicated sushi and its culture are. While I'm learning more about all things sushi (for starters try The Nibble's Sushi Glossary), at heart I am still in love with those veggies.

Which is why this version is probably more aptly called kimbap. Kimbap is a Korean version of sushi which normally is filled with vegetables such as cucumber, carrot, spinach, and pickled radish. Often it will also have skirt steak called bulgogi and/or strips of egg.

For this recipe you will need:

~ Rice
~ Sushi nori or other seaweed (sometimes it's hard to figure out which seaweeds work, especially taste-wise, for sushi, my hint is to see if the back of the seaweed bag has a sushi recipe. Those which do, usually work pretty well.)
~ Vegetables of choice; for this I used carrots and cucumbers
~ Protein of choice; I used egg
~ Sesame oil and/or rice vinegar
~ Soy sauce and wasabi paste

To cook the rice The trick with sushi rice is that it needs to be sticky without being mushy. In the microwave this is a bit hard to get down pat. However, try starting out with about a cup of rice in a microwavable bowl, add enough water so that there is a about 3/4 inch on top. Microwave on high for 2 more minutes, stir and let the water and rice settle. Repeat this process until the rice is tender, and all of water is absorbed. Add a little LITTLE bit of your sesame oil and/or rice vinegar to the rice and mix it in. Put everything to the side and let it cool.

To cut the vegetables The key is long and thin. Japanese food especially is very delicate, so the thinner the vegetable slices the better.

To cook the egg Stir up an egg until the white is mostly broken. Then microwave it in the handy dandy microwave bowl for 1 minute on high. Take out the egg and slice it up into strips.

To assemble You can spread a thin, thin layer of wasabi on the seaweed sheet before adding the rice. Take enough to spread about 1/4 inch of rice on half of the sheet. Spread it out (I use my hands) on half the sheet. Lay out the vegetables and strips of protein along the rice and tightly roll it up until the circle is just complete. Tear off the remaining seaweed leaving about a centimeter of seaweed. Take a bowl of water, dip your finger in it and spread it along the centimeter, then lightly press it on to the roll. If your seaweed tears, don't panic, merely finish rolling it up and then add another seaweed sheet, pressing it lightly to the original roll.

Use a sharp knife to cut the sushi, cleaning the knife on the side of your cutting board after each cut.

Voila! Eat with wasabi and soy sauce or kimchi.

Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango and the most beautiful weather Philly has ever known

Spring is here! Not officially, but today it was 72 degrees here in Philly. People are out in shorts and sunglasses, tank tops and flip-flops, and huge smiles. The sun and grass are fantastic. I snuck away some rice from home over break and have been waiting to try this recipe ever since.
Logically, rice should be able to cook just like pasta or boba. However, know ahead of time that this is not the case; rice takes a lot longer to cook and has different rules.

Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango is a delicious and sunny dessert (although, from personal experience, I can say it also works well as dinner). The recipe is Thai, and it is fantastically simple and great for sharing.

Here are the directions, loosely based off of the recipe from Thai Table. You will need:

~ About a cup of rice
~ A mango
~ Half a can of coconut milk
~ Water
~ 3 tablespoons of sugar
~ salt

Put the rice in a handy dandy microwavable bowl, and pour the coconut milk, sugar, and salt on top of it. Microwave it on high for 3 minutes, take out and stir, then add enough water so that there is a about 3/4 inch on top. Stir again and let sit for about 2 minutes. Microwave on high for 2 more minutes. Repeat this process until the rice is tender, and all of water is absorbed. Serve the rice hot next to a cut mango. For tips on cutting mango see this about.com post.

Sprinkle salt and sugar on top of the rice and Omnom! Everyone enjoy the incredible weather!

Custard Diary: Tapioca Pudding

Wow. So, this blog was derailed for awhile... however, I think enough things have been moved around that we are back in business.
How is everyone!? Is anyone on spring break and such?

Alright, so one idea with which I have been playing is custards. While home for break I found tapioca pearls and decided that tapioca pudding was the way to go.

Now, the reason that this is the first entry of the Custard Diary is that custard can be hard enough on the stove; the microwave adds an new twist. The problem is to not let the egg cook too much.

Anywho, here's what you need for the recipe (taken somewhat from the box of Bascom's tapioca pearls):

1/4 cup of tapioca pearls
3/2 cup of milk
dash of vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
dash of salt
dash of cinnamon
1 egg

First, beat the eggs until the whites are completely broken/liquified. Mix in everything but the pearls. Proceed to cook for 1 minute on high and then stir. Repeat this 5 more times or until some eggs bits separate. Then strain out the cooked egg and add the tapioca. Cook on 1 minute for high and stir for 3 more times or until the tapioca is tender. Cool in the refridgerator and serve.

So now for the future revisions for this recipe. This recipe will leave you with a good custard, but will not leave you with a smooth custard. Possible changes would be to add a little bit of lemon juice or vinegar to keep the egg from coagulating. Also, you could potentially add the egg at the end and stir it in then.

anyway, Omnom!

Smoothies!!!

A blender should be used for, if nothing else, smoothies (cheers, Valerie). Now, smoothies and I go way back. My household went through about seven years during which making fresh fruit smoothies was a twice a day occurrence. Our blender and a pack of bananas also traveled with us on vacation all over the country. Therefore, it is only fitting that my first blender post should be about smoothies.

By smoothies, though, I do not mean ice cream or sorbet with a couple cuts of fruit. No, by my definition that would be a milkshake or a freeze. There is a reason that smoothies are marketed as healthy things, even if a lot of the time the commercial versions are not. In a very simple form smoothies are healthy.

So for this post I have three smoothie recipes: the classic apple, banana, carrot, and orange, the mango lassi, and the (ok, a little less healthy, but great for after workouts) chocolate banana smoothie.

Apple, Banana, Carrot, and Orange (or the ABC ..O)

• 2 medium sized carrots washed or peeled with the ends removed
• 1 sweeter apple like a fuji
• 1 banana
• about 1/2 cup of plain yogurt
• about 3/4 cup of orange juice

The instructions for smoothies is really part of their beauty: put everything in the blender, put on the cap, blend until liquefied. If you live in a place like a dorm where the walls are practically nonexistent, try putting a thick blanket or towel around the base of the blender to muffle the sound somewhat.

Mango Lassi

• 2 mangoes, peeled and pitted
  
• sugar to taste
• about 1 cup plain yogurt
• milk or water until desired thickness
• cardamom (if you have any) to taste
  

Those of you who read this blog often know I really dislike adding sugar to things, but when you are dealing with plain yogurt it's sometimes necessary. So...yep, put it all in the blender and go.


Chocolate and Bananananana

• 1 banana
• 1 packet of hot chocolate mix
• 1 cup of milk
• some ice cubes if it's warm enough...it was 19 degrees today, so no ice cubes.

Blender!

Anyone else have favorite smoothies?
Omnom! and yay for blenders!

Gajar Ka Halwa (and India)

I'm back! India was fascinating, beautiful. The food was delicious, not actually that spicy, and replete with butter. French cuisine has nothing on that of the Indians. Also, Valerie, I'm glad you got to drink chai. Go to India and you will consume gallons just from casual visits. I was staying with my friend's family members (and in India it seems as if everyone's a family member), so I didn't get too many photos of food. However, what I took, I'll post as I get them from my friend.

While maybe not providing many food photos, India did offer many ideas for Mini and Micro. For instance, the first dessert I had while in India was Gajar Ka Halwa. According to my friend, "halwa" applies to anything (usually a dessert) that is small bits, like a porridge . Gajar Ka Halwa uses carrot strips as these small pieces. Like most Indian desserts the basis is milk, butter, sugar, nuts, and cardamom.

Now as a caveat that the idea of making an Indian dish, something fairly revered, in the microwave is highly unorthodox. One can reheat in the microwave, but cooking in the microwave? near heresy.

Alright, so roughly off the recipe found at India Food Forever, I have put together a pretty decent Gajar KaHalwa recipe.
For two to three servings, you will need:
- two carrots
- a handful of pistachios, shelled, and cut up
- a handful of raisins
- pat of butter about 1"x1"x3/8"
- two tablespoons of sugar/to taste
- 4-6 cardamom seed pods
- milk enough to cover the carrots

First, soak the raisins in water, set them to the side for about 20 minutes. Now, after you peel the carrots, you're supposed to grate them. However, being with a grater in college, I got to cut up the carrots. If you're also in this position try to cut them very thinly; the thinner the slices the more delicate and flavorful the dessert will be.

Put the carrots in a bowl and pour the milk over it, OR, you can add some milk and some sweetened condensed milk (though, you may want to skimp on the sugar later). Microwave the carrots on high for 5 minutes or until the carrots are completely tender. Add the sugar, raisins, and pistachios. Microwave the mixture for another 2 minutes.

Crush the cardamom pods with the flat of a knife and add them to the bowl. Mix and let sit for about 10-15 minutes or until the flavor is as intense as desired. Take out the cardamom and drain any excess milk. If the carrots are still hot then add the butter and sugar to taste. Otherwise microwave and then add. Serve warm and omnom!!!

Oh! for Christmas I got a blender, so will be looking into recipes for that. Any ideas?

Mac and Cheese: The first interfamilial stove verse microwave cook off

Two amateur chefs will enter the kitchen; only one will leave victorious; both will leave with kick-ass mac and cheese.

The Competitors: -Chris "The Microwave Magician" - Tom "The Stove Sorcerer"

The Game: Mac and Cheese

The Ingredients: Whatever necessary, that's right "playing by the jungle rules"



Tom "The Stove Sorcerer": Knowing that my sister would go with microwave noodles and sauce, I knew that the quality of my noodles would be what set my mac and cheese apart. I also knew that having a constant flame under my sauce would allow me to combine more spices and cheeses for a more interesting taste. First, I heated milk and heavy whipping cream in a small pot over medium heat...stirring it...ever so gently... round and round the whisk would go...creating a vortex of delectability. I added two type of cheese: New York Extra Sharp Cheddar and Wisconsin Classic Cheddar.

I added a few, I don't even know how many, teaspoons of cornstarch. I find the best way to cook noodles is to: 1) Bring 4-6 quarts of water to a rolling boil. Add salt to taste, if desired. 2) Add contents of package to boiling water. Stir gently. 3)Return to a boil. For authentic "al dente" pasta, boil uncovered, sitrring occasionally for 8 minuted. For more tender pasta, boil an additional 1 minute. 4) Remove from heat. Drain well. 5) Serve immediately with your favorite Barilla sauce. (Chris' note: if that step seems a little out of place, it is because all of these steps were stolen straigh from Barilla's pasta box.)

I then put pasta in the bowl, poured sauce on top, grated some more Wisconsin Cheddar on top. Then I added my secret ingredients: mustard powder and paprika. For those of you recreating this recipe, add the mustard and paprika when you add the cheese to sauce. Enjoy.


Chris "The Microwave Magician": Tom loves spices, so I decided to keep my mac and cheese simple. First, put the raw pasta (about a pint's worth) in a microwavable bowl. For the cream sauce, microwave about a cup of milk until it is near boiling (2 to three minutes), then add three teaspoons of cornstarch and stir until it is dissolved. Add a grated mix of Wisconsin and New York Sharp Cheddars and Dubliner's cheese and stir the mixture until the cheeses were mostly melted. Then, microwave the mixture for about another minute and stir everything again. Pour the mixture on top of the noodles. The mixture needs to cover the noodles or else they won't cook all the way.

Microwave on high for 5 minutes then stir the noodles and sauce and microwave again for 5 more minutes. If after 10 minutes, the noodles are still too firm, let them sit for about 3 minutes and check again. If still too firm then cook for a minute and check again. But a caveat! Do NOT put them in for another 5 minutes, once noodles start to cook they can overcook really easily.

Top with some grated extra cheese. Omnom!

Taste Test: The mother was then given a blind taste test of the two mac and cheeses. Unfortunately before she even tasted them she knew which was which...so no actual verdict was reached. She critiqued both and offered no real controversy for this post...alas... However, my brother and I determined that both stove and microwave versions of macaroni and cheese work and that both are truly kick ass.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! (and congrats to all of you who finished exams finals!!! yayyy!)

My Intro to Chocolate Covered Pretzels

To accompany the chocolate mice for my assortment of winter sweets, I made chocolate covered pretzels. I've actually never really tried chocolate pretzels, but a lot of my friends LOVE them. So, here was my first true experience with chocolate covered pretzels.

Based on the name I assumed that you would need:
-Rod Pretzels
-Chocolate
-Butter

First, melt your chocolate. I use semi-sweet chips. Microwave the chips for 30 seconds on High, then stir them. Repeat two more times. Depending on how much chocolate you have, dip or spoon the chocolate on the pretzel, so that about an inch is left undipped. Take the spoon and skim off some of the chocolate on the pretzel. Place the pretzel on a buttered piece of foil or parchment paper. Repeat for as many pretzels as you'd like to make.

While the chocolate on the pretzels is still warm, add your toppings. This can be anything that might be good with chocolate: sprinkles, chopped nuts, other chocolates (I used white), coconut, toffee bits, a LIGHT dusting of cinnamon or equally light dusting of red chili powder (avoid Indian chili powder though, it will burn away any other flavors), etc. etc.
My friend has also suggested dipping the pretzels in white chocolate and then in Nerds. Have not tried this, sounds delicious, if anyone does this please let me know how it is.

So, having now tried chocolate dipped pretzels, I get the hype. These things are good. Omnom!

Chocolate Mice and Finals

It is officially the season of finals, a slightly problematic fact since it is also the season of cookie and candy making. Luckily, Chocolate Mice are able to balance the artistic needs of us college candy makers in a time of studying.

Years ago, my teacher was given chocolate mice as a present, and I thought, and still do think, that they are some of the cutest and simplest candies possible. The best part about chocolate mice is that they can be made in different steps, leaving time for finals prepping while different parts harden and cool.

To make chocolate mice you will need:

• a 16 oz jar of Maraschino cherries with stems. 16 oz jars hold 40ish cherries and some always have their stems removed. Sadly, to be stemless means that the cherry is useless for this project and must be eaten directly.
• a 8.5 oz bag of Hershey's Kisses. this holds just a few more Kisses than there are cherries
• about 6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate
• slivered almonds
• butter to prevent sticking
  

First, take out the Maraschino cherries and pat them dry on a cloth or paper towel. You want them to retain some liquid but not be dripping. If they are covered in liquid when dipped in chocolate, then the chocolate will slide right off thanks to hydrophobic/hydrophilic molecular interactions (aka chocolate does not stick to water).

Next, microwave the chocolate in your microwavable bowl on high for 30 seconds; take it out and stir. Repeat this step two more times, until the chocolate if smooth, liquid, and glistens. Dip the cherries in one at time, making sure that the fruit but not the stem is completely covered with chocolate. Set the dipped cherry on a buttered plate of tray with the stem at about a 45 deg. angle from the tray. These will be the mice's bodies and tails.

While those cool, you can either go study or make the heads. To make heads unwrap the Hershey Kisses. Then pour out some of your sliced almonds and look for pairs of longer, unbroken pieces. These are your ears. Attach the ears by applying a little bit of melted chocolate (remelt chocolate if needed) to the bottom of each ear and lightly pressing it to the back of the Kiss. Mouse heads! wow, that actually sounds awful...

To attach the heads to the bodies, apply a dab of melted chocolate to the back of each head and lightly press it to the side of the body opposite the tail. Let the chocolate harden and you have your very own chocolate mice! I hate to say it (they're so cute), but omnom!

P.S. if you have a bunch of left over almond slivers, fear not, I am working to find a way of making almond cookies.

GOOD LUCK ON FINALS!

The College Microwave Basics: Potatoes

Before anything else I just want to give some serious love to William and Mary for somehow having this huge number of the Tribe become facebook fans all at the same time. You guys basically made my week (sorry UVA).

On to business, though. To continue the College Microwave Basics, this week: potatoes. I have always heard that you could cook potatoes in the microwave but it wasn't until my friend showed me Real Simple's 14 Surprising Uses for Your Microwave that I actually saw the details:
While the microwave won't give you a baked potato with a crisp skin, it will cook the average russet in about 4 minutes. You can simultaneously cook as many as will fit. (The general rule for heating more food is to check for doneness every 30 seconds beyond the regular cooking time.) Prick the potatoes all over with a fork and cook for 2 minutes. Turn them over and cook for 2 to 3 minutes longer.

Quick note: before you cook the potato wash it, so that you can eat the skin

Classics: Add the butter, add some chopped chives, or sour cream.

Something new and fun: Potatoes work really well as a foil for almost any other flavor mixture. The potato I made has chopped up roasted red peppers, cream cheese, and minced garlic. Quick note on red peppers: incredible things, one of my favorite foods of all time. The one downside is that to get them at a decent price, you have to buy them in fairly large quantity. Therefore, more on these peppers will follow in posts after this as I try to eat through the whole can.
Another thing to try is this, one of my favorite things when I was little was this:
-Cut the potato in half and scoop out the inside of each half
-Mix in some cream cheese, curry powder, and thawed frozen spinach
-Put everything back into the potato skins and grate some cheddar or other semisoft cheese on top
-Microwave for 30-45 seconds or until the cheese is melted
-eat =)
Add basil or parsley with Parmesan cheese and olive oil or try bay seasoning and salt.

So enjoy! Omnom

The College Microwave Basics: Oatmeal

Oatmeal gets a lot of hate. Why? It is delicious, shouldn't that be the path to love instead of hate? Not only is it wonderful to eat, but apparently decently healthy, as well (until you add chocolate, but that comes later). Also, like ramen, oatmeal is a great base for a bunch of different flavors.

So, here are the basics: For one person pour about a cup of oatmeal in a microwavable bowl. Add enough water so that some of the oatmeal on top floats. Then, and this is the trick, add some salt. Put it in the microwave for about 1 min -1.5 min on High. Make sure that the level of oatmeal/water isn't too high in relation to the top of the bowl or else it might explode over the top, which = a lot of microwave cleaning. After you've microwaved it, take the oatmeal out and stir it to see the general cook...edness of it and to see if you want more water/salt. I'm one of the people who loves stick-to-your-ribs oatmeal, so less water is better for me. Tada! Oatmeal (even less complicated than ramen.)

What to do now that you have oatmeal?

The Classics: Pour milk or cream on top with or without brown sugar and raisins. If you do use raisins though, try mixing them in before your cook the oatmeal so that they become less chewy and texturally out of place. Add cinnomon.

The Fruits: You can add most any fruit to your oatmeal. Try fresh berries if you have them or even add dried fruits and treat them as raisins. Bananas, pears, apples, peaches, or plums all work really well. Fruits with higher water levels such as watermelon or grapes might not work quite as well, but if you want you can try it.

With the bananas, pears, etc. you can also caramelize them with your iron. Slice your fruit and spread some sugar on it. Put them evenly spaced on a buttered or oiled piece of foil big enough that you can fold it in half and roll up the edges. Iron the foil packet on the Cotton (usually highest) setting, flipping the packet over about every thirty seconds. After you start to smell the apples, cook each side about three more times and then check to make sure that they are browning. If they are not, repeat this process until they are pretty soft and nicely browned. IMPORTANT NOTE: because this deals with oil, make sure that the packet is tightly sealed while you cook it, otherwise oil will leak everywhere. Also, when your iron has cooled make sure that you unplug and clean it!

Throw the fruit on your oatmeal and enjoy.

The Less Healthy: Chocolate. Pretty self-explanatory, chocolate makes everything better. This one is kind of weird, but if you have any egg custard or pumpkin pie filling those are amazing with oatmeal. A little molasses also never hurt anyone.

Get Creative: If you do have the iron, try making cookie bars.

• About 1-1.5 cups oatmeal
• Chocolate chips, amount is a personal preference
• About a tablespoon of sugar
  
• 1 egg
• butter, room temperature, enough to decently mix in with the oatmeal
  

Put everything together and mix it well. Take the mixture and put it in a foil packet similar to the one for the fruits. Try this time, though, to make the whole thing very rectangular. This time however, try ironing the packet at a lower level than cotton, so that the egg can get cooked the whole way through. Flip the packet over every 1-2 min, but ALWAYS be in the room and keeping an eye on it! After about 5 flips, peel open the packet to see how brown the cookies are if very brown, unpeel it entirely and put it on a plate. Put that in the microwave for about 20 seconds just to cook any remaining raw egg. Cut into bars and tada! These were a bit chewy, but pretty good.

Feel free to post how you eat oatmeal in the comments! Omnom!

The College Microwave Basics: Ramen

There is nothing more classic in the college dorm world than Ramen. It makes sense, though. Ramen is one of the simplest, most wonderful foods ever created. Those of you who think ramen is just this cheap food that only a starving college student would consume, you are horribly wrong. Ramen, though normally just noodles and seasoning, can be a really dynamic dish.

So here are the basics:

Microwave about 3 cups water until boiling (about 3 minutes). Add the block of noddles, seasoning, and any dried vegetable packets. Cover the mixture for 3 minutes. Uncover and eat. Yea... basically it.


The cool parts of ramen is that you can add practially anything to ramen and it becomes this fantastic meal. Below are some quick suggestions for what to add to your ramen for that dish one step beyond noodles in broth.

Seasonings: Add soy sauce, sesame oil, Siracha HOT chili sauce, or chili oil. Also, you can try substituting the cooking water with beef, chicken, or vegetable broth.

Extras: If you feel experienced enough with your water temperature you can try cooking while stirring an egg. To do this, cook your water a little bit longer to make sure it's really hot. As soon as you take it out of the microwave crack an egg into it and stir quickly. This should make the broth an egg-drop soup-esque consistency. This takes practice though.

Add crumbled up dried nori or other seaweeds.

Add cut up tofu. Open the tofu container, drain water, and cut up into small pieces. Dump those into the ramen.

Add cut up vegetables. Have carrots? celery? or green or white onions? Cut them up and put them in your ramen!

My personal favorite though, is adding the left over Chinese take out food. My ramen shown here has leftover Eggplant in Garlic Sauce and Sweet and Sour Vegetables. YUMMMM!

Well, that's College Microwave Basics: Ramen. Omnom!

Midterm Mitigation (the genius behind 2 Stews Cheesecake)

Whoever it was that said "Midterms seem like a brilliant idea," clearly never had to study for them. This past month, I sold my soul to the library and dining halls and studied. Really, really hard. Now, for a few weeks at least, midterms are at bay and I can finally turn back to eating happier things than pizza.

This, of course, means cheesecake. 2 Stews, thank you, for coming up with a recipe so simple and brilliant: Cheesecake in the microwave. Seriously, this is one of those so-obvious-creations that it would take a genius to come up with it.

The premise is this:

"2 ounces low fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup low fat sour cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons egg white, slightly beaten (egg whites in a carton work fine)
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch (prevents liquid from forming)

For "mix ins", add 1 tablespoon mini chocolate chips, or swirl in (not stir) 1 tablespoon jam of choice.

In a 1 cup or larger microwave proof mug, beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy with a small whisk. Mix in the sour cream, sugar, egg, lemon juice and cornstarch. Whisk about 2 minutes until light. Alternatively, the mixture may be mixed in a small bowl with a hand held electric mixer and then poured into the mug. Add any "mix-ins."

Microwave on medium for 2 1/2 minutes* (in a 650 watt microwave). Since microwave powers are different, you may need to experiment. You want the center to just start to bubble, and then stop cooking. If it is allowed to bubble and cook further, the mixture will "break" and you'll need to start over. Make a note of the successful cooking time for your microwave. Take out of the microwave and let cool to room temperature and then refrigerate until fully chilled, about 1 1/2-2 hours. If any liquid has formed, carefully pour out. Sprinkle with graham cracker mixture and top with any topping of your choice.

*I also had success with 1 minute 50 seconds on high." ~ 2 Stews

Ingenious, right? I changed a few things in my creation. I used a whole egg instead of egg whites, because the things in the carton are EXPENSIVE. I did the cooking for 2.5 minutes. Because I am one of the people who has to have fruit with all desserts, after I chilled my cheesecake, I made strawberry topping! To make this take fresh strawberries (about 5), slice them, dump about a tablespoon of sugar on them, mix, and let sit until the strawberry release their juices into a syrup. Pour this on top of your cheesecake for a true New York experience. I also have never dug the whole graham cracker crust, so I tried using the graham crackers as... well, crackers and spooned some cheesecake strawberry mix on top.

A word of caution, even in the microwave, cheesecake is really rich, be careful on overusing this recipe in a short period of time. Yes, I speak from experience.

So, thank you 2 Stews for bringing this dessert into existence. There has never been a more perfect Midterm Mitigation. OmNom =)

Side Note: It's been brought to my attention that a lot of the basics of College Microwave cooking are unknown, so we'll be doing a quick series of entries on that this week. Let me know if there is anything in particular you've been wondering about.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

French Onion Soup (part 1 of I Don't Feel Like Eating)

Flu recovery is not as speedy or as inclined towards foods as I had anticipated. Therefore, I figured blog and life could compromise on items which are more appealing to those who aren't feeling too hot. Granted, this recipe is a long way from where I was a week ago (which was drinking water and powerade), so if you are indeed feeling meh this might not be a great place to start. However, my doctor said go for comfort foods and, for me at least, French Onion Soup has always been a comfort.

For this recipe I looked up Julia Child's version, because I figured if "French" was in the food's name she'd know something about it. I tried to stick as closely to her recipe as possible, but had to deviate from ingredients such as white wine. Telling the store clerk that "really, I just want it to make French Onion Soup in my microwave" didn't seem like the most promising endeavor. If you have the ability to use white wine though, please do because it adds a really good flavor which my virgin soup was lacking. However, I do not know how to boil off alcohol in the microwave and to just add the wine to this could have unfavorable results whether in complications with the microwave or with the alcohol not actually boiling off. The other thing I didn't have was sugar. The onions are supposed to be cooked with the tiniest bit of sugar, but that tiny bit really changes the onions' flavor.

Alright, let's get started. This recipe make about a pint of soup.
You will need:

• 1 small yellow onion
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
  
• 1 pat of butter
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 2-3 pieces of bread
• a little extra olive oil
• tiniest bit of sugar maybe 1/8 teaspoon kind of size
• a cup and half of beef stock
• 2-4 slices of Swiss cheese
• parsley, coarsely chopped (or dried flakes0 if you have it

First, cut the onion coarsely into roughly 1/2 inch squares and separate the pieces from their stacks. Next, melt the pat of butter with the olive oil (about 10 sec in the microwave) and mix it together in a bowl with the onions, garlic, and sugar. Now you can do one of two things. If you have an iron take the onions and dump them onto a foil sheet big enough that you can fold it in half and roll up the edges, but still have the onion pieces spread out and not built up upon each other. Iron the foil packet on the Cotton (usually highest) setting, flipping the packet over about every thirty seconds. After you start to smell the onions cook each side about three more times and then check to make sure that they are translucent. If not, repeat this process until they are almost transparent and are pretty soft. IMPORTANT NOTE: because this deals with oil, make sure that the packet is tightly sealed while you cook it, otherwise oil will leak everywhere. Also, when your iron has cooled make sure that you unplug and clean it!

If you don't have an iron, you can microwave the onion mixture for 2-3 minutes on High, definitely not as good, but it works. Then, add the stock. Microwave this whole conglomerate for 3 minutes on High. While it's cooking, toast your bread pieces using the method described in Grilled Cheese! With an Iron! Put the bread slices on top of the soup, then, put the cheese slices and microwave again for about 15 seconds. Sprinkle the parsley on top and voila! your very own French Onion Soup!

Sorry I've been gone! Omnom!

Boba in the microwave (aka the best day of my existence)

If you know me at all, you would know that it was only a matter of time before I would try to make Boba, or Bubble Tea, in the microwave. I have spent more money than I care to admit on $3.00 boba, so when I found a pack of tapioca pearls in Chinatown for $1.35, I couldn't resist.

The instructions on the back of the pack seemed straight forward: boil 10 cups of water for 1 cup of bubbles, cook for 5 minutes. It sounded basically like pasta.

Attempt One: I poured about a quarter cup of bubbles into my handy-dandy pint-size microwavable bowl(for serious, if you have a microwave, get a microwavable bowl) and filled the rest up with water. Then, I microwaved it on High for about 5 minutes. The bubbles were cooked! (you can tell that they are cooked when they have all risen to the top of the water when you open the microwave door) buuuut, they were definitely al dente.

Attempt Two: I poured the same quarter cup of bubbles into my handy-dandy etc etc bowl, but this time I only filled it up about an inch and a half above the bubbles. The logic was that water has a crazy high heat capacity, increase the cooking rate per minute by lowering the water needing to be cooked. Then, I microwave it on High for 3 minutes. When I opened the door the water was boiling, but the bubbles were perfectly cooked.

Perfectly cooked bubbles are important. If they feel starchy at all, similar to the feel of a unripened banana, then they haven't been cooked enough. However, if you can bite straight through the bubbles, and their consistency reminds you a lot of jello, they've been overcooked. You are looking for something where the outside if soft and squishy, but when you bite them they have a gummy-esque texture.

*quick cool fact (to help formatting): most tapioca pearls are made with potato or sweet potato starch. GASP*

Now that you have Boba, you can put it in a drink. One of my favorite mixes is milk and aloe vera drink. The taste is sweet, clean, and great with any bao you might come across. Seriously, though, you can put almost anything with boba: tea, juice, water (if you want), soda. Another thing which is really yummy is boba with sliced mango and coconut cream, either by themselves or over warm and salted sticky rice (which you can also make in microwave, more on that later). Anywho, enjoy! Omnom =)

Sunday Bruschetta Brunchinner

After a week of dining hall food, the weekend offered a wonderful reprieve. This morning I bolted from my dorm, shopping list in hand. I needed: tomatoes, basil, olive oil, butter, salt and pepper, bread, and, love of all loves, garlic. I was so excited because today was making my very own brunch, a brunch of bruschetta (which turned into brunchinner pretty quickly)

I was able to get a lot of the ingredients at Reading Market. I guess because it's out of season, though, I couldn't find any basil. Eventually, I turned to my favorite place in the world, Chinatown, and was able to pick up a small bundle of Thai basil for a buck.

The other trial and tribulation came from looking and looking and looking for good tomatoes. I'm pretty convinced Philly has none. For this recipe I ended up using stewing tomatoes which have a decent amount of flavor. However, ideally, I would like to use and would encourage you to use if you can the tomatoes in the above picture. Yes, they are heirloom tomatoes, but no you should not ever spend an insane fortune on them, and just because they are heirloom does not mean they are heavenly. These were the tomatoes I used and photographed like crazy the first time I made bruschetta. If you want any heirloom thoughts, just e-mail me =P

Quick note, my camera was feeling less than cooperative, so the pictures for this post are limited, sorry! Alright, so let's get started.

You will need:
-Two medium sized tomatoes that have some smell (actually pick them up, put them to your nose, and inhale. It's fun, trust me)
-Two-three cloves of garlic
-Six large basil leaves
-Salt and pepper to taste
-Olive oil to what feels right
- about five slices of bread (preferably bread with a crackly crust)
-enough butter at room temperature to coat five slices of bread on both sides

Core and then cut up the tomatoes into about half-inch cubes. Throw the cubes and remaining juices into a bowl. Mince the garlic and add it to the bowl. cut the basil into ribbons and add. Finally, add the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix. Isn't that simple?
While that mix sits and equilibrates, cut and butter your five slices of bread.

Now, toast your bread using an iron. The directions for this can be found in the previous post Grilled Cheese! With an Iron!, just follow that minus the cheese. When it is golden-brown and releases from the foil with ease, your bread is done and you can cut it in half and top it with bruschetta. The one down-side is that I really like bruschetta thick and crunchy, but the weight of the iron often removes this characteristic; Unfortunate, but still worth it to have easy dorm-made bruschetta!

So, leave your door open and inhale as the bouquet of bruschetta fills your dorm.
This is serious omnomming!

OH! and don't forget, I still need your input for the Test of the Best: Ramen Edition. Share your favorite ramen, additions, or anything else you feel is important!

The Perfect Thing for the Microwave: Chocolate and Banana Bread Pudding (ftw)

First off, sorry that I didn't update again last week. A lot came up; college adjustment is a bit more complicated and crazily busy than anticipated. However, this recipe is pretty delicious, super simple, and perfect for nights just chilling in the dorm. Bread Pudding is one of those fantastic desserts (or breakfasts) which has a basic concoction (stale bread, milk, eggs) and then whatever in the world suits your fancy. All in all very straight forward. The only "issues" arise between those of us who like a drier bread pudding, more like a cake, or a wetter bread pudding, more like, well, a pudding. I stand by wet. If you are one who is horrified by the thought of un-arid bread pudding, then relax on the milk in this recipe.

For Chocolate and Banana (the best combo of flavors ever, by the way) Bread Pudding, you will need:

• A circular microwavable container. Mine is about a pint in volume. To see what a microwavable container is see the previous post, Basic Microwavable Pasta.
• 2-3 slices of decently dry bread. If the bread isn't dry, then it can't absorb all the things added which are delicious and good.
• 2 eggs
• 1 ripe banana. The one I got wasn't ripe; while the bread pudding was still wonderful, every bite of unripened banana had a hint of sadness =(
• A handful of chocolate chips, maybe about 30. I have to take this moment to proudly state that I used just the right amount of chocolate chips. I'm saying this because some of my friends recently dined upon chocolate and banana pancakes, which I may have made "86% chocolate, 12% batter, and 2% banana."
• 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1 and 1/2 cups of milk, you know, roughly

First, mix together the milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and eggs in the microwavable bowl. You want the eggs mixed really well or else you will have chunks of cooked egg in your pudding. Cut up pieces of bread into strips or bit size pieces and then soak them in the milk, vanilla, etc mixture. Move the pieces around if you have to. Mix in slices of banana and the chocolate chips. Cook the whole group in the microwave on high for about 5 minutes or until there is no liquid that you can pour out.

While the bread pudding cooks, it may begin to expand. Mine started rising, and I freaked out, fearing another Panda Bread incident. However, it settles down again once you stop cooking it.

This recipe makes enough for probably two people, unless you really like bread pudding in which case omnom!

The Importance of Yogurt and the Deliciousness of Raita

College move-in is full throttle now. People are starting classes and for us poor freshmen it's exciting but kind of an upheaval. Which is why I am turning to yogurt.

The public is in full swing about why yogurt is important: because it works to enhance levels of good bacteria which can help your digestive system (especially good at stressful times such as college move in). But, it is lost on quite a few why healthy digestion is so important. Digestion is an important factor for seemingly unrelated things such as mood. I don't mean you have a stomach ache therefore you are unhappy. I mean that how well your digestion tract is working can determine the chemical balances in your brain. Other bacteria such as my favorite, Lactobacillus acidophilus (bionerds anyone?), can determine such remote things as stable estrogen levels.

Moral of the story: eat yogurt.

I will also quickly go beyond that and say if you can, eat plain yogurt. Not plain yogurt plain, necessarily, but plain yogurt usually has fewer fun and unneeded chemicals than flavored yogurts. Try eating yogurt with favorite jams or preserves. Honey is also a fantastic complement. Yogurt is great with granola or flavored syrups.

If you're more of a savory kind of person try this recipe for Raita, as it is called in Hindi, or Tzatziki, as it is called in Greek. There are small differentiations between the two such as type of yogurt used and in what proportion to the rest of the ingredients, but they both follow the same idea. The recipe I use here is one I wrote up during a class last year while paying attention to the lecture...

• 1.5-3 cups of plain yogurt depending on how chunky or soupy you like your Raita
• 1 firm cucumber
• 1-2 large cloves of garlic (I did 2, but I love garlic)
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried coriander or about 10-20 leaves cilantro
• 3-4 large mint leaves
• Salt
  
• Optional additions: sprinkle some dill or some cinnamon

-Mix the yogurt until smooth.
-Slice cucumbers in half, seed, and slice thinly
-Place cucumber in a strainer and salt (i.e sprinkle salt on top of all of the slices so that it can remove excess water) for about 30-60 mins or until the cucumber slices are mostly dry
-Crush/mince the garlic and mix with yogurt, cucumber, coriander, mint, and if opted for dill and/or cinnamon.
-For really good melding of flavors, let sit overnight. This will also take the overwhelming bite out of your garlic.

Eat it with bread or chicken or salad. Actually, Raita can be eaten with almost anything, and it can almost anything absolutely delicious.

Omnom, everyone! And for those of you in college now hope it's awesome!

Panda Bread (kinda sorta)

Not every cooking adventure can be perfect. I accept this; I have had to, because bread in the microwave is not the easiest thing to figure out.

My friend asked if I could figure out a way to make Panda Bread, which she found at Perfect Pandas, in the microwave. She says that "i want pandas in college." I figured, I've made cake, so why not try bread. It was not a failed recipe...but...it could use tweaking.

First step was changing the ingredients from grams to measurements the average ones of us could understand. Thank you, WikiAnswers. I've listed the exact measurements I used, suggestions for previously mentioned tweaking in italics.

• You will need a microwaveable circular container, if not circular some parts will cook more than others.
  
• 1 egg yolk then fill up with milk to 7/8 a cup
• 4 teaspoons melted butter, brought back to room temperature.
  
• 1.5 teaspoons yeast
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup cake flour
• 2.5 tablespoons sugar I would add more sugar, maybe even double it.
  
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 3.25 teaspoons Matcha powder mixed in 2 teaspoons boiling water I would increase the amount of Matcha (and proportionally the water), because the flavor in my bread was like a tease; flirtatious but nothing happened.
• 3.25 teaspoons cocoa powder mixed in 4 teaspoons boiling water I would increase the cocoa powder for the same reasons. Silly coquette flavors.
  

Beat the yolk with the milk, then microwave on high 30 seconds. Let cool to a warm temperature, closer to room temperature than anything. Add the yeast, mix it in and let it sit for a few minutes. Mix in the melted butter. Pour the mixture over the flours, sugar, and salt and knead together. Take out half of the dough and knead in the Matcha paste. Take out a quarter of the remaining dough and knead in the cocoa paste.

Now, here comes the tricky part: proofing. I didn't quite proof correctly, so when I baked my bread went from fitting perfectly to that fun image on the right. I would go by this recipe from allrecipes.com, where every 10 minutes you microwave on 50% intensity for a minute until the dough rises to about twice it's size.
Moral of the story? Proofing is important.

Alright, so your dough is all proofed, lovely and full of flavor. Now, you can arrange your different doughs. We'll just rely on the original images for that.

Baking is not so complicated. That same recipe says to bake for 10 minutes, but after about 4-6 minutes you want to keep a close eye on it because it can dry out quickly. Trust me.

All and all it's not bad, and really cute. Oh, also pretty good with milk. I'll take my drier pieces and make french toast tomorrow probably.

omnom!