Teriyaki Chicken 照燒雞

Teriyaki is such an easy sauce to make. I didn't know that until I made it myself. The ingredients can be a little hard to get, but if you have a Chinese supermarket, I'm sure they will carry mirin, michiu, and soy sauce.

First off, there are two types of alcohol in this sauce: mirin and mijiu. Mirin is a Japanese sweet rice wine. Whenever your dish needs a little kick on the sweet side, use mirin. On the other hand, michiu--a Taiwanese rice wine, brings out the flavor of the meat.

These are the three main ingredients you will need from left to right--mirin, michiu, soy sauce

I guess the alcohol is optional. As long as you have a really flavorful soy sauce, you can forgo the flavor that mirin and michiu give you.

So here is the ingredients and simple step-by-step instruction:

If you use chicken breast or chicken leg and the skin is still attached, you can leave out the oil in the first step. You will get a lot a lot a lot of oil from the chicken skin when you put your meat in the pan. 

Before you start cooking though, you can prepare some rice, noodle, or burger buns. I always keep leftover rices in the fridge in case I spontaneously need rice. If you have sandwich bread ready or better burger buns, toast them in the oven with some butter. When the chicken is done, layer it with lettuce, tomato and mayo to make yourself a teriyaki chicken burger!

You can use the sauce recipe to make any teriyaki dish, like teriyaki salmon, teriyaki broccoli, or teriyaki patty. If you are cooking for more people, simply double the recipe. Just remember that sugar and mirin are half the portion of soy sauce, water, and michiu.

The sauce is almost done at this stage

When you have time for breakfast

Nothing beats a nutritious breakfast. When I set the alarm fifteen minute early and make breakfast, I find myself more energetic than usual. I can also concentrate better throughout the day. My mom always told me to eat like a king for breakfast and eat like a pauper for dinner. Although I really like Trader Joe's Maple Cluster and Gluten Free Cranberry Granola (I can eat them any time, anywhere, all the time), I know I should add in some veggies or a fried egg.

A recipe that I picked up from the Vegetarian Time is very time appropriate for rush hours in the morning. When you wake up, turn the oven on to 400, go brush your teeth and wash your face. Come back to the kitchen when you're more awake! Then heat a skillet and sautee some chopped onion, mushroom, carrot...anything or just onion. Add fresh or frozen spinach to the skillet, topped with sliced tomato, sprinkle some olive oil, salt, pepper, parmesan, and THEN! crack an egg in the middle. Bake the whole thing while you get dressed. It should take less than 15 minutes in the oven.

Okay...so who am I really kidding? I doubt anyone wakes up as early as me every morning just because I look forward to breakfast. Try this recipe over the weekend. It's really a no fuss breakfast food. The best thing is you can leave it in the oven for fifteen minutes while you check your Facebook notifications or read the morning newspaper.

Surfas and Soft Pretzels

I took a very spontaneous trip to Surfas at Culver City today. The weather was nice and class was over early, so why not? I've always wanted to go to Surfas, but never let myself go. I know I would walk out broke if I ever make the pilgrimage to culinary mecah. I heard that you can get any spices, any delicates, any tools--whatever you need in a kitchen.

I did not take any photos because I was intimidated by the STRICTLY NO PHOTOGRAPHY sign. Sure enough, when I took my first step into the store, I know I can't possible just get Valrhona's cocoa powder. On display is Whitelily flour; there was corn meal, unbleached bread flour, and unbleached all purpose. So first item that landed in my basket was bread flour. Then I walked to Aisle 10 and saw an entire five tier rack full of cupcake liners--paper, aluminum, and some with patterns, some plain. There goes 500 white cupcake liners in the basket. As I continued my journey, a sales greeted me and asked me if I need assistance. Well...I do want some matcha powder. He was very efficient and guided me to the tea section. Unfortunately, a small 3 oz box cost $40. I guess I can save my matcha adventure when I go to Kyoto.

Anyways at the end I bought more than the cocoa powder I intended to buy, which was not surprising at all. Anyone who loves their kitchen would worship Surfas. If you're ever in Los Angeles or strolling around Culver City, go to Washington Blvd and take a look at Surfas yourself!

Surfas got me so excited to bake! I've been wanting to make soft pretzels for the longest time! And they are soft temptations when I go to Disneyland. One of the many things I bought from Surfas was coarse sea salt. That with the bread flour will certainly gimme the best pretzels, I hope.

Golden pretzel with coarse sea salt

It's such a long recipe, so I'm just going to post the ingredients list and explain the process in words.

First off, take a large bowl and pour warm water and yeast. Wait about 5 minutes for the yeast to wake up.  Then add in the melted butter, follow by whole wheat flour and sea salt. You can use any salt you like for the dough.

If you want to make sweet cinnamon pretzels, then I would add a tablespoon of sugar. I brushed some cinnamon butter mixture after baking and found the pretzel a bit too salty. But the sodium level is just right for a savory pretzel.

After adding whole wheat flour, add a third of the bread flours. Since I like to knead my own bread, I use a wooden spoon and incorporate everything until a dough forms. If you like the no-fuss stand mixer way, then just attach the dough hook and slowly pour the bread flour into the bowl until the dough cleans away from the bowl.

If you are kneading your dough then add enough bread flour until a rough dough forms. On a lightly floured surface, use the ball of your palm to push the top of the dough out, then fold it back and rotate the dough 90 degrees. Push the dough out again with the ball of your palm and fold back. Keep on rotating and pushing and kneading until a smooth surface forms. By this time the dough should barely kiss your hand. Press a finger 1/2 inch into the dough, if the finger impression does not disappear then you're ready to let the dough rest for 40 minutes. I like to keep my dough loosely covered in the oven or the microwave.

After 40 minutes, the dough should have doubled in size. Weigh the dough and divide into 14 balls. With parchment paper ready on the side, roll each ball out into thin strips. It should be longer than your forearm, about the length of a baking sheet. When you first start rolling, roll with the ball of your palm too so you can distribute equal weight on the strip. As the strip gets longer, roll with both palms in the middle and exert a small force to push the dough out. ***Give the sides enough dough to stretch out but keep the dough fat in the middle. Make the tips skinnier than your pinky.

To shape into pretzels, hold the strip from the tip and criss-cross them to make a large loop. Then twist the loop and fold the tips back. Repeat until you get 14 pretzels.

Notice how the tips are skinny and the middle of the loop is fat. The knot is from criss-crossing the tips, twisting the loop, and folding the tips back.

At this stage, preheat oven to 450F.

Now add baking soda to water and boil them together. When the water is ready carefully drop a pretzel into the water. Wait 30 seconds before flipping it and cook for another 30 seconds. Take the cooked pretzel out and let rest on a wire rack. When you get enough to fit on your baking sheet (about 6), brush some egg wash on the pretzels and sprinkle with some coarse sea salt. Then bake for 15 minutes.

Bubbles are coming from the baking soda. Baking soda gives pretzel a tan before baking.

This is a cooked pretzel after boiling.

While the first batch it baking, continue to cook the rest of the pretzels.

If you want sweet pretzels, simply brush the pretzel with egg wash, bake it then brush another layer of cinnamon sugar glaze after you take it out from the oven.

For the sugar glaze I mixed nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar and butter together then brush them on after baking

Wait for the pretzels to cool down a little before you dig in! It's a great idea to have a cheese fondue on the side to dip your salty pretzels in!

Steaming hot pretzels from the oven

Applesauce Carrot Cake

I've been looking for ideas on what to bake next. There are so many recipes out there I want to try, but so little time on my hand. Whatever I decide to make have to click with me. When I'm on tastespotting, I'm just like a child oohing and aahing at every delicious treats. In my browser, a pile of saved recipes are all yelling and begging me to try them.

What clicked with me last weekend was carrot cake. I enjoyed a fluffy carrot cupcake from Dots a few days before my take on carrot cake. The cupcake had less sugar, which balanced perfectly with the slightly more sugared cream cheese frosting. And the frosting wasn't sky-high. There was just enough for you to indulge in that mini cake.

I tried this applesauce carrot cake from The Baker's Dozen Cookbook. It's not a fluffy delicate like the one from Dots, but it certainly has deeper flavor. Adding the applesauce also makes the cake more moist, but I think it makes it a bit more dense too.

To cut down on the fattiness, I dotted the cream cheese on top instead of frosting and layering the cake. I definitely miss the cream cheese frosting on my cake though.

For my next trial with carrot cake, I'm going to leave out the applesauce and see what that do to the cake. Maybe I'll get low fat cream cheese and just indulge myself in cheesy sweet frosting.

Dotted cream cheese frosting on applesauce carrot cake

The Time Traveler's Soup

Cold weather makes me crave for hot and steamy soup. It reminds me of Shanghai when my mom always prepared a pot of soup for dinner. In the dining room, a wide floor length glass opens over looks a river and a row of parasol trees (梧桐). I would sip my bowl of soup and watch the leaves roll in the coooold air. I missed home. I missed how it smelled like dinner after school. I missed how the family would sit around a large round table and share stories of the day. A simple bowl of soup can bring up so much memory. Now that the bowl is empty, it reminds me how precious those memories are.