Category Archives: Savory

May22

Recipe 61: Broccoli & Spinach Cheese Quiche

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A quiche is essentially an egg pie with a flaky pastry crust. Adding in cheese and sauteed vegetables makes it a nice meal and the tastiest leftovers. Quiche freeze easy, so this recipe is actually makes 2 full quiche, so halve-it if you only want one…

Some recipe notes before we proceed:

  • The veggies are sauteed before use to ensure that the liquid that they naturally release is already mostly cooked off. If you don’t cook your veg before adding it to the quiche, it can result in a runny filling and extended baking time.
  • Store-bought crust can be substituted in for this recipe, but I prefer the flakiness and nutritional content of a home-made one.

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Oct17

Recipe 59: Dolsot Bibimbap (Korean Food)

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When I started working at my biotech job about a year ago, I was introduced to my first taste of Korean food via a dish called Dolsot Bibimbap.

Bibimbap (“bee-beem-bop”) is a combination of rice, sauteed vegetables, and an egg yolk cracked on top (with the intention of mixing it together with the other steaming ingredients) to make a sort of delicious fried rice type dish.

But it gets better.

When you add “dolsot” to the front, it now comes served in a flaming-hot stone/clay pot that causes the rice to become crispy and crackly at the bottom. My favorite version comes with beef. Paired with soy sauce and Sriracha or sweet chili paste, this dish is sure to kick some butt both flavor and uniqueness departments.

While the equipment needed is a little tough to find (dolsot bowls from a Korean market and hot tongs), the dish is worth it and the bowls are inexpensive (about 5$ each here in the bay area).

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Aug12

Recipe 58: Sexy Homemade Salsa Verde!

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Some recipes are rather laborious, and then there are some that consist of literally boiling a bunch of vegetables for 5 minutes and then flinging them into a blender. This is the latter kind.

I love me a good salsa verde, and with the simplicity of this recipe as well as the vibrant flavor, I’m a believer. The only way I’d suggest making this better is to roast the peppers a little before popping into the blender, but hey, it’s still good as it is. :)

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Jun5

Recipe 56: Blossoming Onion w/ Dipping Sauce

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This is a short-but-sweet kind of post.

I love those amazing deep-fried blooming/blossoming onion appetizers that they have at steak houses. They consist of a sweet onion (we used a small vidalia), that’s cut so that the slices form petals. This is then breaded and deep friend to form a beautiful flower that is made up of little pieces of battered and fried onion. Paired with a horseradish & mayo dipping sauce, it’s positively heavenly.

I had a craving, so after a cursory internet search, I came upon this recipe here:

Blooming Onion and Dipping Sauce

And while I followed the recipe (I doubled the breading mixture, per comments), I felt that a little photo-tour would help with those like me who were attempting this deliciousness for the first time.

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May4

Recipe 55: Tostada Bowls + Homemade Taco Seasoning

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Just in time for Cinco de Mayo, I’m bringing you a recipe that’s simple and extremely tasty! Not to mention, pretty healthy given the ingredients.

The basic idea is that small (6-7″ across) flour tortillas are wedged between cups on an upside-down muffin tin and filled with dried beans (to weigh them down). The tortillas are baked for a handful of minutes and BOOM, perfectly crispy and shapely tostada bowls. No oil, lard, or complex equipment necessary!

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Apr13

Recipe 54: Homemade Mozzarella

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I’m back! Thank to everyone for being so patient. I decided to take a little hiatus as I was transitioning to a new work schedule as well as beginning training for an upcoming 12k race.

Lets get to the goods: Homemade Mozzarella. It only takes a half-hour and is an easy “instant gratification” recipe. While it’s always easier to just go to the store and pick up a ball of this cheese, there’s something very satisfying in making your own, not to mention the obvious health benefits of making something so fresh.

This recipe is thanks in large part to this site. Please take a moment to visit that site and check out the notes/tips. They’re great and will help very much in this recipe.

I’ve augmented it to adjust for the preparation, and substituted lemon juice for citric acid, as not only could I not find any at the store, but felt that it was a lot more flavorful that way.

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Jan15

51: Hot & Sour Soup

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This is an authentic, Chinese restaurant-worthy recipe for one of my favorite soups. Its thickness comes from the added cornstarch, and a nice smokiness is obtained by using re-hydrated shiitake mushrooms. The chicken bouillon base could be swapped out for vegetable broth to make it a completely vegetarian recipe, with little change in overall flavor.

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Jan2

48: Greek Burgers w/ Homemade Pita Bread & Tzatziki Sauce

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Of all the bread recipes I’ve ever made, Pita Bread has the be the easiest. Sure, you have to roll it out, let is rest for 5 minutes, and then flop it onto a cake-rack (I used a clean BBQ’s rack). This recipe makes 5, 6-7″ pita and you only use half of one for each burger. We’re making hummus next so we can wipe the rest out. You can freeze them, but they’re usually last about a week in the fridge.

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