UnRecipe: There is Method to My Pizza Madness

Pizza seems like one of the simplest things to make, and yet it's always something we go out to have, or get delivered to our homes. Why is that?! I feel like it's a bit to do with the crust, and how most home ovens just don't have the Hulk Smash Strength to get to the blazing hot temperatures of a professional pizza oven. So what can we do to give our home ovens a boost? A pizza stone is handy, but what if you don't have one? My new pizza crust-making partner in crime is the silicone mat, aka SilPat. 

Silicone isn't just for fake boobs - it's great for pizza-making! - Photo by  Wasabi Prime

OMG a Recipe (sort of): I Just Like to Look at the Pictures

You know how it goes... you get the mail, a particular magazine shows up, you thumb through it, ignore all the wordsy articles and just ogle the photos. No... not that magazine, you naughty bugger. What did you think I was talking about, Willis? I am referring to the handy-dandy Martha Stewart/Omnimedia concoction, Everyday Food. Snark if you will, my mom gifted me the subscription and you never want to look a gift horse in the mouth. Especially if it's from Mom. It leads me to today's post theme, which is similar to my logic behind Ikea furniture -- I often don't even read the instructions, I just look at the picture and throw stuff together. Don't you?? 

Recipes are overrated, just copy the picture - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Regardless of the fact that it was a nice gift from Wasabi Mom, I'm not dropping any hatorade on Everyday Food. The magazine title doesn't lie -- these are all dishes you could make every day, with nods to time constraints, availability of ingredients and a fairly even-handed balance on nutrition and budget. I especially like the little grocery checklist they put in every issue, and its small size makes it handy to bring to the store, check things off, and Shazam-wow, you're set for more than a week's worth of meals plus desserts and snacks. It's for the people who want to eat well with home-cooked meals, but not fuss, likely because they're balancing a schedule of a full time job, plus being a taxi for all the kids' activities and playdates. For as many food nerds that are out there, they are outnumbered by Everybody Else, so no, a truffled poached quail's egg on a velvet puree of parsnips probably won't show up in the magazine, but that's okay, there's other magazines for that. As least I hope so. That actually sounds kinda good for being made up on the fly.

And the pictures are great! I rip out so many food photos in all magazines, just to keep a collection of things to inspire me. The signature Martha Stewart minimalism is a clean look I appreciate, and I like seeing the little food props they use, especially for the cookie issues, where it's tissue paper and baker's twine galore. And you can't have too many of those Asian soup spoons -- they make such darn good props for small bites, especially sitting on a stacking of small, completely impractical tasting dishes. Even though no one really eats like that, who cares, it makes the food look real purdy-like for the camera.

Sometimes you just want pineapple and green beans. Apparently,  I did - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Speaking of pictures, it was the shot of the Beef and Pineapple Red Curry dish in the fall issue of Everday Food made me go, "Dag, yo -- I wanna make that!" I think I had an odd craving for tart pineapple. Or perhaps my scurvy was acting up again, compelling me to make something with a large dose of vitamin C. I remember scanning the recipe at one point, putting it aside, then deciding a month later I would make it, and just starting to chop up vegetables and ingredients willy-nilly. It wasn't until I had the wok sizzling away with some sliced pork that I saw, oh, it's a beef recipe. And there's a need for curry paste, which I don't have. About the only two things I had from the recipe were pineapple and green beans, because the picture clearly showed those ingredients. Think of it more as not cooking by recipe, but by inspiration, of a photo showing these luscious chunks of pineapple mixed with shreds of meat and big pieces of green beans. Martha Stewart and the minions you probably brow-beat to come up with this dish, you are my muses.To marinate the pork-that-was-supposed-to-be-beef, I used the seasonings I had on-hand, which included some soy sauce, a splash of fish sauce, chili paste, rice vinegar, and some sugar to balance out the acid. I'm sure red curry would have been a knockout, but I didn't have it and I don't think the dish suffered, because I had my food-heart set on something with beans and pineapple, and I prepared them the way I interpreted the photo, with a bit of savory heat, but not too strong a seasoning so that you can't appreciate the ingredients.

So yes, there's a recipe if you want it -- the link to the beef and pineapple curry recipe is above, but consider just throwing caution and recipes to the wind the next time you see a lovely photo of food that stirs your appetite. Sometimes it's not the dish that's alerting your craving, but an ingredient in it. Follow that desire and see where it leads, you might come up with something even better.

OMG a Recipe: Tasty Lunar New Year Wishes

Last Thursday was the kickoff of the Lunar New Year, and I'm sure there were many feasts to be had. I didn't grow up celebrating Chinese New Year, beyond knowing what gung hay fat choi meant, and that the Chinatown in Los Angeles always threw a big, loud party. I'm also not Chinese, but that's beside the point, because in the end, isn't it nice to have another reason to celebrate a new year? Our edible ode to this Year of the Rabbit was less grand, more simply Asian-inspired, but I thought I'd share the little things that kicked off the new year, from January on through now.

Leftovers never looked so fancy - Photo by Wasabi Prime

One of the first things I made was more out of necessity than the Year of the Rabbit -- I used the ju bao or baked bun recipe from Andrea Nguyen's Asian Dumplings cookbook.  This has become one of my new favorite recipes, for its simple ingredients and versatility with different fillings. I've used the dough to stuff cooked meats and vegetables before baking, and also just baked it un-filled as little buns, then split to make it into rolls for Asian-style barbecue sliders. This time, I used it in a more traditional way, stuffing it with defrosted barbecue-style pork that I'd had in the freezer since the holidays, originally used for an Asian barbecue-style twist on a bahn-mi sandwich. I've been snacking on these little pork-filled buns, dipping in spicy chili paste and soy sauce to my heart's content. Or possible discontent, as I just got a cholesterol test done last week, so we'll see if this kind of eating will be the end of me.

Before February even strolled in, back in January I celebrated the new year Japanese-style, with typical shogatsu accoutrements like having mochi on the first day of the year and having soup with noodles. I didn't have the traditional mochi soup, a savory and simple broth that has a single plain rice cake set in the bottom of the bowl, but I do like the idea of starting out the first breakfast of the year with something a little lighter than fried eggs and bacon. I had my mochi as dessert and admittedly, I cheated, buying it ahead of time and cracking open the hermetically-sealed package on January 1st. But happy new year, nonetheless. Maybe it means 2011 will be wrapped in shrink wrap. And made in Taiwan.

Celebrating the new year with tasty family favorites - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Last week, it was less Lunar New Year and more mom's cooking that got me craving sweet and sour pork. I'm fairly certain this dish is about as traditional as General Tso's Chicken, but I do remember my mom making sweet and sour pork as one of her weekly mainstays. It was quick, not a lot of ingredients, and tasted good with rice -- the last item being a must in our household when I was growing up. Rice makes it nice. And yes, along with my cholesterol test, I had them test my blood sugar levels as well. Oy.

I did a more complicated twist on my mom's sweet and sour pork UnRecipe. I say UnRecipe because this was one of her usual dinners and after so many years of making it, I don't think she ever bothered to measure or keep track of exactly what was going in her version of the dish. I used pork shoulder and slow-cooked it for a day to help break down the fat and sinewy bits, as it's not a tender cut on its own. This adds extra cook time and the prep time can be cut down considerably by substituting with using a better cut of pork that cooks quickly, but I do like how the shoulder shreds up once it's slowly braised for hours. I used all dry powder seasonings just because when it's cooking for such a long time in the slow cooker, I don't really notice the difference between the fresh ingredients since it's all simmering away for so many hours and the flavors sort of run together.

Wasabi's Riff on Mama Wasabi's Sweet and Sour Pork

Ingredients for braising the meat - yes, you'll need a slow cooker/crock pot, it's just easier that way
2-3 lbs pork shoulder meat, cubed into large chunks
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons coriander powder
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon ginger powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon ground white pepper

Ingredients for the final cooking of the dish
2 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped into large bite-sized chunks
1 large onion, sliced
3-2 cups of fresh pineapple, cut into large chunks
1/4 cup of fresh pineapple juice
1 tablespoon of canola oil

Take your slow cooker and add the cubed pork shoulder and all the seasonings into the crock, both wet and dry. Toss to coat evenly, cover with the lid and let it cook on the highest setting for 6 to 7 hours until meat is tender and can easily be cut with a fork. This is good to do first-thing in the morning or the night before.

When the pork is cooked, skim off excess fat, remove the pork and the sauce formed from the cooking and set aside. Get a large skillet or wok  heated to medium high on the stove. Add the canola oil (or some of the skimmed pork fat) to coat the pan and start to saute the onion and bell peppers. Just cook until onion is starting to become translucent. Add the pork and the cooking sauce, toss to combine. Cook just until bell peppers are softenend, but not overcooked.

When everything is heated through, add the fresh pineapple chunks and pineapple juice. Turn off the heat so the pineapple chunks stay firm. Taste the sauce and add more rice wine vinegar or honey to modify the sweet or sour-ness of the dish to your taste. If the sauce is too loose, thicken by adding a cornstarch slurry, or leave it loose and serve over rice.  

UnRecipe: Fantasy Island Pizza

In the mind's eye, picture a tropical breeze, a perfectly serene beach, and the Smoove-B stylings of Mr. Rourke in his impeccable white suit to greet guests and present a pizza that looks somewhat like the one in the photo below. Not that it's such a wonderous thing that deserves a place on television's Fantasy Island, but more like when someone orders a "Hawaiian Pizza," I'm fairly sure it's only a fantasy that people in Hawaii are keen to order the combo of canned pineapple and soggy ham. Not to burst anyone's bubble, but they like their pizzas like everyone else: cheesy, meaty, and delivered in under thirty minutes before their beer gets warm. But it is one of Mr. Wasabi's favorites, and I felt this casual comfort deserved to be gussied-up a bit, so inspired by some pantry goods and our recent vacation, a Spiced Pineapple, Black Forest Ham, and Sundried Tomato Pesto Flatbread was created. Look, Boss! It's de pizza!

Eat your heart out, Ricardo Montalban, King of Khan - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Trader Joes was the driving force behind this dish. It's a great store, full of amazing things you never knew you needed, but can't live without, and after bringing them home, you're not totally sure how to live with them either. Organic heirloom cherry tomatoes? Individually-sized Greek yogurt cups? Frozen pot de creme? My personal weakness is their snack aisle (Chili Lime Cashews, you complete me), and came across a package of their dried pineapple with chili spice. I had no idea what it tasted like or what I would do with it. By the Power of Compulsive Shopping, I had to have it!

Flash forward months later when I realize we've accumulated too many random items in the pantry, it's time to cook our way through this smorgasbord, and I recognize the package of red spice-flecked pineapple chunks. I thought as a joke, they would make for a fancy Hawaiian pizza, but the joke got less and less funny as I thought it may not taste like total crap.

In an UnRecipe-like fashion, I collected items I thought would be a good fit, but in atypical fashion, I actually started jotting things down. Why? I don't know -- let's just call it preparation for Thunderdome. I did use a flatbread recipe from Epicurious by Ben Ford, which was a nice return to breadmaking. The rest of it was a MacGyver meal of throwing together things and hoping I didn't end up making a pipe bomb instead of a pizza.

Kickin' it with Flava-FLAV: spicy pineapple, sundried tomato pesto and heavenly ham - Photo by Wasabi Prime

While the flatbread dough rose, I had enough time to make a simple pesto from sundried tomatoes. For the cheese, I chose fresh mozzarella, as it melts nicely, stringy-good, and the flavor won't compete with the other elements. I went back and forth on the ham, wondering if I should use proscuitto or not, but went with Black Forest as it's a bit meatier and not as salty. Because the spiced pineapple chunks were so strongly seasoned with chili and ginger, I didn't want it to be a Fight Club of flavors.

Once baked, the finished flatbreads were a satisfying combination of savory and sweet. The dry pineapple chunks soak up the surrounding moisture, so they soften by the time it's baked. The crust was doughy with a good bite to it, a delicious reminder that making bread isn't so difficult and very much worth the effort. I don't have a pizza stone, but was still able to get the small paddle-shaped flatbreads done with a bit of crispness. The small shapes bake up quickly, which is good since they need to be baked prior to adding the pesto and toppings.

I often felt like the "Hawaiian Pizza" was akin to a plain pepperoni and cheese pizza -- boring and overdone. Approaching something I'm not excited about and finding a way to make it more interesting was a nice experiment that yielded delicious results.

Heavenly ham and el diablo pineapple combine forces! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Fancy Fantasy Island Flatbreads
(makes 8 small flatbreads)

*use flatbread recipe from Epicurious

flatbread toppings
8 oz fresh mozzarella, torn into 8 segments
8 slices of Black Forest ham
1 package of spiced dried pineapple from Trader Joe's

sundried tomato pesto
3 0z bag of sundried tomatoes
3 garlic cloves
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp chopped oregano
1 tsp red pepper flakes

Waiting for bread to rise and/or bake, take tomatoes and garlic and pulse in a food processor until rendered to small, even-sized pieces. Add spices and let food processor break everything down into small bits before slowly adding the olive oil. Continue to mix in food processor until consistency is like a paste.

When flatbreads are done baking, remove from oven and reduce temperature to 350 degrees F. Spread the pesto on the flatbreads and divide the cheese, ham and pineapple across the eight flatbreads. Place back into the oven and let the cheese melt and brown slightly before serving. Commence omming and nomming.

Mixed Plate: Ono Kine Hawaii - Green Acres (pt 1)

Aloha! Mr. Wasabi/Brock and I took some time to fly off to the tropics of the 50th state for a cousin's wedding, some family time and some much-needed rest. While I was not born in Hawaii, the entire Wasabi Prime clan on both sides are all Islanders, having been born on and lived across the islands of Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii/The Big Island. I am fortunate to have been able to experience this place for extended visits during my childhood, and have been granted a very different perspective on this place from the typical visuals of swaying palm trees, mai tais, and hula girls. For the first of a two-part post series, I wanted to focus on the aspect of Hawaii that people don't immediately think of, which is the land's ability to feed the people, and the importance of staying connected to this relationship.

A vast plantation of pineapple? Nope, just my Auntie P's backyard garden! - photo by Wasabi Prime

It's nearly impossible to lose sight of the fact that Hawaii is a string of islands, and given that isolated geography, that inspires a need for sustainability. Goods and resources tend to be more costly because much of it is barged or flown in. During the turn of the century, agriculture made the islands a valuable commodity, but the fields of pineapple and sugar cane disappeared over the years as commercial air travel became more viable, and the industry of tourism eclipsed the plantation days. A waning economy has been a reminder to everyone that a renewed focus on local resources and increased self-reliance is a valuable investment to take part of.

Baby eggplants, chili peppers, Suriname cherries in a yard, and a breadfruit at a park - photos by Wasabi Prime

Staying a few days at my aunt and uncle's home in Kaneohe, a city on Oahu outside of Honolulu, we were given access to a produce department in a home backyard. My Auntie P clearly picked up the Green Thumb talent in the family and has always used her backyard garden to its full extent. She grows tomatoes, pineapples, chili peppers, salad greens, eggplant, and various herbs. She also has a huge Suriname cherry tree which produces beautiful, sour little fruits, what she used to call "pumpkin cherries," because their exteriors look a bit like a round bumpy squash. A fortified punch of vitamin C, the large-pitted cherries are too tart to just eat on their own, but she uses them for preserves and I'm sure would probably make for a marvelous relish come Thanksgiving Day.

Auntie P was last seen carefully nursing a small bell pepper plant that she had sprouted from seeds. Given that Hawaii's warm and rainy climate turns annuals into perennials, this lone pepper plant could easily produce several years' worth of bell peppers, so it's worth the extra care. Every time I visit, I'm envious of her tomato plants, which are more like a tomato bush, as they don't die back and just continue to fruit throughout the year.

Along with the bounty from home gardens, we saw breadfruit trees growing in parks. About the size of a large melon, the bumpy-skinned breadfruit were concentrated carbohydrate sources for the Native Hawaiians. Because it's so starchy, it's a bit like a potato once cooked and can be used in similar tuber-like applications. Much like the potato, the breadfruit's myth describes the Hawaiian people's deliverance from famine: the god of war Kū, after living in secret among mortals, sacrificed himself so that his family and others could be saved from starvation, and a breadfruit tree miraculously grew from a place where he once stood. For a lot of the traditional foods in Hawaii, there are legends like these to remind people of the value of what the land can provide. Aside from providing a lush, tropical landscape, the plants and trees are a resource worth nurturing.

There remains a strong connection to the land that the locals have, and I believe this connection grows stronger and new connections are being made as people are realize how this works toward environmental sustainability. Having so many people in Hawaii descended from the plantation era and generations of accomplished farmers (my own family included), it isn't unusual to just walk outside and pull together ingredients from the yard for a meal; this mentality is truly in the hearts and minds of the people. Granted, Hawaii is a more hospitable place for year-round growing, but it's an inspiring reminder for everyone to be aware of what is readily available, versus what needs to be brought in from afar.

It ain't easy being green... unless you're in Hawaii. Then it's super-easy. Photo by Wasabi Prime

Don't touch that dial...er...keyboard! The second part of this two-part Hawaii adventure is on its way! Having discussed the natural side of Hawaii, one has to reveal the unnatural side of Spam and other unique local foods that created a beloved menu inspired by resourcefulness and multi-culturalism. Next stop: Ono Kine Grindz! Mahalo!