Cooking International: Peruvian Steak-Frites and Shrimp Fried Rice

I subscribed to Food and Wine magazine on a whim last summer, and I've got to say, it was a great decision. A lot of these types of magazines don't exactly provide useful information; wine out of my price range, restaurants thousands of miles away, that type of thing. Don't get me wrong, that stuff is in Food and Wine, but there are also a lot of extremely useful features!

In May this year, they had a travel issue. It's great that they make me dream about traveling (and eating!) everywhere, but more importantly, they gave some simplified recipes for some international type dishes. The one that I made was the Peruvian dish. It's basically a steak stir fry with french fries tossed in. It's called lomo saltado. Here's the recipe (from the magazine).

Peruvian Steak and Potato Stir-Fry

Ingredients:

1. 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2. 1 teaspoon ground cumin
3. 1 teaspoon ground coriander
4. 1 garlic clove, minced
5. Salt and freshly ground pepper
6. 1 pound skirt steak
7. 1 red onion, halved and slivered
8. Vegetable oil, for frying
9. 8 ounces frozen french fries
10. 1/4 cup sliced pickled jalapeños
11. 1 large tomato, chopped
12. 1/4 cup cilantro
13. Hot sauce, for serving

In a large bowl, combine the olive oil, cumin, coriander, garlic and a generous pinch each of salt and pepper. Cut the steak into 4-inch pieces; slice the steaks across the grain 1/2 inch thick and add to the bowl along with the onion. Let marinate for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 1/2 inch of oil until shimmering. Add the french fries and fry over high heat until golden and crisp, about 3 minutes; drain on paper towels.

Heat a large griddle until very hot. Add the steak and onion along with the pickled jalapeños and stir-fry over high heat until the meat and onion are cooked through and lightly charred, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the tomato and cook until softened and beginning to char, about 1 minute. Add the french fries and cilantro and flip with a spatula to combine. Serve right away with hot sauce.

In a related, but not actually from the same recipe at all, I had my first attempt at making Fried Rice this last weekend. It's from here.  I wanted to make something with shrimp, and foodgawker revealed shrimp fried rice as an option. So check that out there! The cabbage smelled so delicious when it was in the wok. I didn't take any pictures because, well, I forgot. And I think I'm just going to go ahead and focus on the other recipe. Just follow the recipe that I linked! The only thing I changed was that I added some peanut sauce in with the shrimp, and added red pepper flakes to both the shrimp and the end product.

Hors D'oeuvre for Dinner

Seeing as I spend enough money on cooking for two as it is, the chances I will ever have a dinner party fully catered by me are slim. (Wait, didn't I do that last fall? Pork loin with a tapanade, stuffed mushrooms.....) Anyway! A couple weeks ago I went through a greasy, snack food, hors d'oeuvre type dinner mood.

I'll admit that the reason I have recently fallen in love with chicken and ranch is because one day this winter my boyfriend forced me to agree to Wendy's instead of McDonalds when we ran out for fast food. On some sort of whim (since I don't like their burgers or chicken nuggets) I ordered a Spicy Chicken sandwich. It's what my brother always used to get. I came home and found it to be REALLY spicy, but luckily it came with a nice cooling ranch dipping sauce. Mmmmmm. From there I found the wonders of ranch and chicken!

This dish is pretty simple, actually. So simple, I'm not going to even write it out all formally like. Cook some bacon. Maybe 5 pieces? Cut a couple thin cut chicken breasts into small pieces and saute that chicken with delicious things in the bacon fat (while reserving the bacon, of course). I used about half an onion, two cloves of garlic and some red pepper flakes. I wish it had been more spicy, so if I were you, I'd saute it in some jalapeno or add more red pepper or hot sauce or the like. Now, grab a can of Pillsbury biscuits and divide each one in half (you should have about 20.) In the center of a biscuit round, put a couple pieces of chicken, some bacon, and as much cheese (I went with a mexican 4 cheese mix) as will fit. Stretch the biscuit dough around the filling. Repeat! Cook for as long as the package of biscuit dough directs. Serve with buttermilk ranch as a dipping sauce.

The next thing I did was inspired by a starter we had when we went out for St. Patrick's Day. They were called Armadillo Eggs. However, when I looked up what exactly Armadillo Eggs were (jalapeno poppers, except encased in sausage...) I realized that we had simply had jalapeno poppers, which have a significantly less entertaining name. Still, absolutely delicious! So, I set out to make an Armadillo Egg inspired meal. Jalapeno poppers with sausage biscuits.

I'll be honest. The picture makes them seem like a significant less failure than they were. Basically. Hollow out the inside of a jalapeno. Mix together cream cheese and cheddar and stuff that in the dude. Dip it in milk, then flour, then milk, then panko. Drop into hot oil. Voila!

Yeah..... so here's the problems I encountered. The jalapenos were too tough. This was because I should have baked them for a while after hollowing them out. I also should have made them as thin as possible, throughout the whole thing (so the end wasn't super hot!) I should have also repeated the milk-flour-milk-panko process a few times, making the breading more awesome. I should have fried the jalapeno poppers longer, or perhaps twice fried them.

Another thing: Make sure your biscuit is not expired when you make drop biscuits. Otherwise, the results will taste like chalk and stinky baking soda. As a result, your sausage and jalapeno poppers will be too spicy and woe! The straw that broke the camel's back. The point here is...... Don't follow my footsteps for jalapeno poppers with sausage biscuits. Only madness lies that way.

Following up this post on greasy, buttery snacky food, I'm going into a week of cooking healthy food! On the plate for the week: Basil Pesto with homemade Pasta, Hummus Pita Pizza with spinach, olives, and tomatoes, and either Soy Glazed Salmon with Mango Salsa or a Seared Tuna Mandarin Salad.

Shrimp and Grits

Let's just start out by saying that never in my life have I actually even eaten grits before this day. Maybe my mother made me try a bite once when I was little, but believe me, I considered them disgusting. I'd been thinking about making them after seeing them featured at thekitchn.com and when I had the most (frighteningly) domestic conversation with my boyfriend's mother and grandmother about the various approaches to the recipe, I had to.

I mostly used the recipe here, although I never follow things perfectly. Here we go:

Shrimp and Grits
1 package of shrimp
1 cup chicken stock
Some lemon juice
4 slices of bacon
2 TBSP flour
pinch of salt
A bunch of red pepper flakes
1/4 green bell pepper
1 small onion
3 TBSP scallions
1 clove garlic

For the Grits:
1/2 cups Grits, water and salt, follow package directions (not instant! quick cook is what I used)
salt, pepper, garlic powder
4oz grated cheddar cheese

• Marinade the shrimp in lemon and red pepper flakes. Don't be afraid to be generous, it's just a marinade.
• Chop up all the vegetables (pepper, scallions, onion, garlic)
• Prepare grits: cook in salted water according to package instructions. After they are finished, stir in the salt, pepper, and garlic, then stir in the cheese until melted.
• Chop up the bacon then cook it in a skillet until brown (but not crisp or it'll over cook)
• Add the onions, garlic, peppers (but not the scallions yet!) Cook for about 5 min.
• Add scallions and sprinkle flour over everything. Cook 5 min.
  
• Add the stock and stir together for about 2 min, until it thickens. You're making a roux here.
• Add the shrimp and cook until they're opaque. (Standard shrimp doneness!)
• Serve over the grits!

The end result was delicious. I wasn't too big of a fan of the grits on their own, and I think the sauce to grits ratio could have been a little better (aka, more sauce) but then, you know my previous opinion on grits. With a chunk of bacon or a piece of shrimp, it was amazing. If I were changing anything about the recipe, I would add a lot more shrimp, and more bacon, so that I wasn't left with as much left over grits + sauce once the protein chunks were gone. I would say this is much more of a dinner shrimp and grits, rather than a breakfast one.

I know I usually write more than one recipe per post, but I think if I do it this way, I'll be more likely to update more often! Until next time.

Flakey Phyllo and Flambe!

Sorry for the disappearing thing again. Per usual, it was a case of losing my camera charger. And then my camera. Rather, it was exactly where it was supposed to be (the camera) but when I found my charger I somehow overlooked it. Don't you love it when stupid stuff like that happens.

But back to the food! I've made a lot of great things recently, some of which I managed a picture of. On my right here, I made homemade chicken pot pies! Here's what I did:





Individual Chicken Pot Pies- Phyllo Dough Style
Ingredients:
Phyllo Dough
Chicken Breast (1)
Onion (whole)
Garlic (fresh)
Carrots
Chicken Stock

First of all, a lot of chopping is in order. Chop up about 2 large carrots into small pieces. Do the same with half an onion. Chop up 3 cloves of garlic. (Oh, and pre-heat the oven to 350.)

In a large pot, into it place chicken stock, pieces of onion, four cloves of garlic, and a few pieces of carrots. Simmer for 30 minutes. Pull chicken out and shred meat when cool enough to touch. Keep stock simmering with onions etc.

Either line muffin containers with foil or spray ramekins with cooking spray. Prepare philo dough by layering it (at least 6 layers) with melted butter between each. Place philo dough on the inside to form a cup. Reserve some to place on top of the cup.

Next we're going to make a roux. In a skillet, melt some butter. The ratio you're going to want is 4 tablespoons butter to 4 tablespoons flour to 2 cups of stock. Add all the stuff you diced earlier (carrots, onions, garlic) to the skillet and allow to cook for about 5 minutes- but watch it to make sure it doesn't burn! Might be less than 5 minutes.

While this goes on, strain the stock mixture to get 2 cups of stock. Next, you want to add the flour to the skillet roux. Mix it in quickly to make sure it doesn't clump up. Once it is well mixed, pour the stock into the skillet and allow it to simmer until thickened. (Make sure you make the roux in the right order, I did it backwards and it was almost a disaster!) Then, add the chicken shreds!

Spoon the filling into the phyllo cups and place a reserved piece on top to cover the filling. Place in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the phyllo begins to look crispy and done.

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Another delicious phyllo thing I made a while ago (so I don't completely remember what I did... though I'll give you an overview...) was pan-seared lamb with spanakopita and a tzatziki sauce, to the left here. The lamb is the simplest part... marinaded it in dill, garlic, olive oil, salt/pepper. Once the spanakopita were in the oven, just seared on the stove and stuck it in the oven until the temperature was appropriate.

The spanakopita involved three steps: 1- mix feta, and egg, and drained, defrosted frozen spinach. 2- Layer 4 sheets of phyllo dough. Brush a layer of melted butter between each. 3- Place a spoonful of the spinach mix in the corner of the phyllo sheets. Cut a strip of it off so that the filling is on a portion of the end of the strip. Fold the strip like a flag until the dough is thick on all sides. Put in the oven for a while... 20 min?

The sauce, well. I'm going to have a hard time remember all the stuff. So uh... you're going to want to look that up. But it's delicious. DELICIOUS. I'm so sad I failed to find another time to use it. It's basically dill, drained cucumbers, drained greek yogurt, and fresh garlic. In any case, the combo of these things was wonderful.

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Last but not least, we have the non sequitor! Banana's Foster! Really, I just can't wait to show this off. I'm happy that I didn't burn anything down (the back of the bottle of 151 told me vehmenently not to light it on fire, but I ignored it.)

Banana's Foster
Ingredients:
6 Bananas --- 151 rum
Brown Sugar --- Nutmeg
Cinnamon --- Butter
(Vanilla ice cream) --- (Waffles)

So quarter the bananas (once lengthwise, once across). Melt 5 tablespoons of butter. Mix in a cup of brown sugar, and do a fair bit of cinnamon and nut meg in there. Mix, then add the bananas and allow them to cook for a few minutes. Use this time to carefully measure out the 151 (1 cup!!)

Take the skillet off the burner and pour the 151 over it, making sure to spread it around the pan evenly. Using a long armed lighter, carefully light the skillet. A flame will appear but it will take some time to reach its maximum height and will burn for a while (about 5-7 minutes). When the flame dies, serve mixture. I did it over ice cream on waffles!

By the way, that recipe made 10 servings! So divide it into whatever!

Although the waffles/ice cream was just my way of how to serve it, amusingly, I received a serving suggest a few days after I made it that makes Banana's Foster related to the other two recipes! Line a ramekin or pie dish with puff pastry and then fill it with the bananas and sauce. Also sounds delicious... but less simple for a potluck!

The point is, I did my first flambe! That is incredibly exciting. Some parties were concerned that the paint on the wall would bubble, that I would burn wooden cabinets nearby, or that I would burn myself. But! Everything worked out perfectly! No property damage! Everyone liked it!

And on that note... signing out! (Just made Shrimp and Grits tonight, look for that in a post soon!)

Comida de Mexico

Over winter break, I went to east-central Mexico, mostly in San Luis Potosi state. I went in to the trip planning on following the traveling food guidelines to avoid Montezuma's revenge, but if I had, I would have missed out on street tacos! Don't get me wrong, there were some good things in the restaurants themselves, but you couldn't beat the bang for your buck (or the deliciousness) at taco stands!

There were taco stands everywhere! My favorite is pictured to the right. They took a chef's decision approach and served one type: tacos de res, beef tacos. Unlike the US, beef tacos aren't ground beef, it's small, thin cut pieces cooked and served outside out of a cart on the street. Here they gave us one option: cilantro and caramelized onions on the side? They were delicious, particularly with the salsa verde. (Us Americans learned quickly that the green sauce was almost always less spicy than the salsa that looks like what we're used to.) Another major difference is that everything is served with corn tortillas, not flour. They're smaller (so yes, order 5 tacos a person!) and have a different flavor. Enchiladas and gorditas, it made a difference, but honestly, tacos tended to be delicious either way.

Other taco stands offered more variety in terms of taco fillings. Chorizo and choriqueso, bisteck (steak cut beef), barbacoa (another favorite of mine), pollo, refried beans, and gringo (we wondered forever and found out that it has yummy avocado in it!) A couple places even offered flour tortillas, although this wasn't common. To eat, you go up to the cart and order, then sit down at a plastic table under a tent. You watch them cook your meal, then they bring you your stack of tacos at the table. The main accessories are cilantro and onion, although some places offered tomatoes. The best part, however, was that these delicious tacos cost 5-7 pesos apiece. This means that for a meal of 5 tacos and a drink, you can get a full lunch for less than $3.00!

The other main type of street food was gorditas, but I never actually ate them. Why eat gorditas when I could eat tacos! Mmm.... But anyway, so about restaurant foods. The standard offerings were a selection of meats and seafood, a selection of "mexican foods" and a selection of american or italian foods. One interesting, unique dish was cecina de res. "Cecina" technically means jerkey, but it's actually a flank steak marinated in deliciousness (some sort of soy based thing?) and yeah. Yummers. I also had a delicious chicken dish with a cheese sauce. Not something you would expect to taste good, very rich, quite amazing. As far as Mexican foods in restaurants went, everything was served with enchiladas. I made enchiladas a while ago, and they were nothing like what I had made. Small corn tortillas folded over manchego cheese! I also ate Fajitas at some point, and while they were delicious, they were so spicy I couldn't finish them. Pretty much, everything was served with tortillas, so. Everything was Mexican?

Okay. So here is the thing about American food in Mexico: everything is gigantic. Of course, every time we ate American food, we were so hungry that we reinforced the stereotype. After a day full of driving we stopped at a hamburger joint. The "chica" burger was the size of a whopper. The middle size was the size of a personal pizza. The "grande" was the size of a basketball! Me and my boyfriend split a grande with double meat, cheese and bacon. But some of the people I was traveling with got a grande on their own. Now that restaurant believes it is right about Americans eating gigantic amounts of food. Another place, we got gargantuan slices of pizza!

While we were there we mostly just ate at restaurants because we stayed in a lot of hotels. We camped on several occasions, but we still only did a limited amount of cooking. We did do a lot of eggs and pancakes and french toast on camp stoves. I was thwarted so many times by trying to make over easy eggs; either I'd break the yolk when I cracked the egg, or I'd nick it when I tried to flip it and it'd run all over the pan. One morning, we did add hash browns to the cooking experience. My favorite instance of cooking was when we camped at a place called The Phantasms. We had bought hotdogs and spent an hour tracking down a bakery for buns. We ended up making fries from the left over potatoes from hash browns, and actually ended up shoe stringing them, which means that they turned out great. The meal was ended with roasting giant marshmellows over the fire! The hotdogs could have been better, but they were turkey dogs since one of our travel companions didn't eat beef. Overall, however, the experience was excellent.

In any case, food in Mexico was pretty good! American food was so much more greasy/filling after all that good, relatively healthy(er) food.

Nothing Says Sorry... Like Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner!

So, let me just start out by saying, I'm sorry for not updating in months. I was all like, oh! I'll talk about being vegan! It'll be awesome! And then that went on for a month, ended, and we all got fat and happy again. I'm going to blame my camera charger for not working. Seriously. Why'd it got to be that way?

To make up for it I'll start this blog off right. With this mouthwatering picture of dinner from last Thursday:
Mmmmm. Well, okay, I'm biased because I both made the food and took the picture. But still. That there is butter sauteed scallops over linguine in a tomato cream sauce tossed with panchetta. Somehow looks more professional than usual, if I do say so myself. It might be the awesome porcelain black plates I got from IKEA on my last trip. $4.99 each, so expensive by their standards! But I thought they were awesome and rationalized them anyway. The wine is called "Yard Dog." Has an adorable dog with a cone around it's head on the label. It was an interesting white blend from Australia we got on our first trip to the Vintage Cellar downtown for about $11. I liked it a lot, surprisingly. Fruity but rich and complex underneath that. Would recommend it.

Scallops over Linguine with a Tomato Cream Sauce
Ingredients:

• 8-10 medium Scallops (Don't make Spike's mistake! Don't use frozen! - Top Chef All-Stars Reference)
  
• 1/3 box Linguine
• 1 stick Butter
• 1 cup Cream
• 1/2 can Tomato sauce (buy it or make it, I buy it in a can. )
• Salt (all I can say is... a heck ton)
• Panchetta
• Nutmeg
• Apple Cider Vinegar

First thing to do is get the sauce started. I pour the tomato sauce into a medium-small pan on low over a burner. Then I add the cream until the color's a lightish orange, making sure to stir it in as I go. I keep the heat low until I make sure the cream is integrated so it doesn't curdle or any weird stuff like that. Salt, pepper, nutmeg and seriously, just a splash of apple cider vinegar, add a few slices of panchetta,torn into smaller bits and let sit there on medium-low for a while, stirring.

After this, put some salt into some water. Really wish I could be more specific than this. A lot of water. Enough to cover the scallops and then some. Put salt in until the water is cloudy.... I'm thinking about half a cup to a cup for the amount of water I had. Add scallops. Leave there for 7-10 minutes. I'm serious about that 10 minutes thing. The scallops are salty at that point. The recipie I used said 10. I think it was a little salty, but my boyfriend had no problem with them. (He tends really salty so I'm not sure I'd listen to him.) Take them out and rinse them immediately and set aside.

Slice up/ tear up some panchetta. Not too much, maybe 3-4 slices? And put them in a pan and cook the bits like bacon. They're pretty thin cut, usually, though, so be careful to not burn them. Set aside when done (just crispy!) At this point you should probably start boiling the water for the pasta and then, you know, putting the pasta in the water. My linguine took annoyingly long to cook. Like. A full 8 minutes longer than the box said. Good thing the scallops were also behind schedule!

Put that butter in a sautee pan and melt it on low. I know, a stick of butter. Totally unneccesary. But the deeper the butter is, the more it soaks into the scallops. Mmmmm. When the butter is melted turn the burner up to medium. Sautee them for 2-4 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness of the scallop. --So here's the thing. Mine took forever to cook. Yes, some of them were a little thicker, but they didn't really even get the color until later. I think I needed to be cooking around medium-high, but I was afraid of burning the butter. The recipie said 2-3 min. per side. I think I was at least at 4 on the thick ones. Ultimately, they were really luscious on the inside but the thick ones, the outside was a teensy bit tough. So, I'd say higher heat, less time. Okay, go!--

Mix the sauce and the pasta together and place on center of plate. Put scallops on top of linguine and garnish with fried panchetta. Enjoy while warm! (A full or lightly oaky white would go well, or a light, fruity red. Enjoy these cool or room temp, respectively!)

Part 2: Breakfast!

I know. Breakfast totally comes first. But that picture is just so pretty! This is going to be about French Toast and Bacon. Boring, common place, and sloppy, do you say? No! Wonderful. I've got to tell you. I was never much of a french toast fan. My parents had to cut off the crust for me, and even then, my Mom had to be the one to dip it because when my Dad did it, he'd get the eggiest parts and I'd have a coating of scrambled eggs on my bread! My boyfriend had a similar french toast experience. The one time he'd had french toast previously, he was young, expecting manufactured french toast sticks, and shocked when he got egg bread. Well, folks, I have overcome my own expectations for French Toast!

Italian Bread French Toast with Bacon

Ingredients:

• Italian Bread! (Yes, one of the home baked loaves from the grocery that has that soft, chewy inside and crusty exterior. I love it. I loved it so much, I wanted to use it in breakfast!)
• 3 Eggs
• 1 cup of milk (ish)
• Cinnamon
• Brown Sugar
• Nutmeg
• Vanilla extract, just a dash (I used vanilla soy milk so I skipped this...)
• Baaaaconnnn!!!

So yes. Wisk together all of the ingredients in a shallow dish (except bread and bacon). I'm sorry I don't have exact amounts of the spices but they were reasonable. Five shakes of cinnamon? 1/3 cup brown sugar? A dash of nutmeg? Meanwhile, cook that bacon! Keep it somewhere warm (like the oven on warm....) but transfer it out of the skillet you used to cook it. Keep the bacon fat in that skillet.

Dip the sliced bread in the mixture by setting in in the dish on one side for 5-10 second then flipping it for another 10 seconds or so. Then put it immediately on the hot skillet! (350 degrees or so, that's medium high!) Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar on the up side of the bread then flip it over when the other side is goldening up nicely. Maybe 3 minutes? Repeat and remove!

Serve the french toast with syrup, a sprinkling of powdered sugar, and that scrumptious bacon. This has seriously changed my few of french toast. It was insanely excessive, even for bruch. But you know what? Also insanely delicious.

Part 3: Lunch

Okay. Don't get me wrong here. I sometimes make impressive lunch foods. Eggplant marinara panini! Fried eggplant! Grilled cheese (not impressive, but yummy)! Honey Smoked Turkey with Swiss cheese, Lettuce, and Creole Mustard! (Sounds impressive, isn't too.) I don't usually think about taking pictures of these things though.

So. That being said. This is a cop out. Sliders. I made them for an easy dinner. Look at it. Easy, quick, cute. And I can fufill my promise of Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, but saying they're best served for lunch! So uh. Yes! Here!
Beef Sliders with Egg Noodles

• Beef Paties (I used premade *shame*)
• Lettuce (Iceberg, which I like!)
• Creole Mustard
• Buns
• Egg Noodles
  

....

Oh, why am I even trying? This is completely an example of a college student on a budget trying to be a foodie. That there meal cost about $1.50 a plate. The most expensive thing used was probably the mustard. Basically, I took the frozen hamburger paties I had bought from my university to use up the remainder of my meal plan money. I cooked them with salt and pepper on my (product placement!) George Foreman Grill! I split them into two mishmashed paties per large pattie! I boiled some water! I cooked some eggnoodles! I washed some lettuce! I dripped some mustard!

15 minutes later I had dinner. Looks good and tasted good too.

Here's a present for you guys since I failed at my lunch section. Smiley face fondant cake! Desserts next time, I'll tell you how I made it! Bye!

Picture taken by roommate!

Metro!/Gillie's [or] Being a College Student and Veganism Part 1

So, for reasons that I can't seem to remember when I'm staring at a nice bowl of mac and cheese, I decided to eat vegan for the week. That is Sunday dinner to Sunday lunch. Actually, these couple days into it, I think a week isn't too bad. Maybe I'll try two weeks! We'll see when the weekend comes around.

Okay, I lied. I do remember why I decided to go vegan for the week (maybe because I'm eating a delicious pear as I type right now.) 1- To see what it's like. The answer? Ridiculous. You real vegans are crazy. I have no idea how you do it. 2- To see if I could. Do you know how many things have animal products in them?! The answer is... everything. 3- To be healthier. I've gotten a lot of objections to this third and most important reason. My friends who know actual vegans say that a lot are "junkfood vegans". For example, my boyfriend realized last night that Reese's Peanut Butter Cereal does not have any animal products in it. However, because we're doing it for a short amount of time, the cravings for real food aren't so desperate and we have to buy food for this anyway, good or bad food, so we just buy the good stuff.

Right! On to the food! Day 1 was a quick pasta with homemade sauce. Yummy, it was tomato sauce spiced with oregano, basil, parsley, garlic, onion, nutmeg, red pepper, salt/pepper, and that's all? Possibly other things were included because I was throwing spices into it until it tasted right. I really missed the cheese on it. Day 2 I ate at Gillie's with my roommate where I had the foccacia pizza with marinara sauce, vegan cheese, garlic and shittake mushrooms. Gillie's is this crazy hippie place downtown. By which I mean, it really focuses on having vegetarian/vegan options, has a nice music scene on Fridays and the people who work there seem really chill. The stuff there isn't entirely cheap, but my pizza cost me only $6.50. I think my friend's pesto cost her more than $10 though.

On the other hand, I went to a really trendy fine dining place a few weeks ago before heading to an art gallery in the nearby city. Metro! was really crowded for when we got there but it died down as we were finishing up (when the picture was taken). I somehow managed to forget to take the important pictures... the food. But in any case, the dining room was beautiful! So many delicious looking things were coming out and so many things on the menu sounded amazing. The cuisine was an interesting mix. Most of it seemed neo-american, but they also had a large sushi menu! The prices, unfortunately, reflected the atmosphere, or I would have gotten something much more exciting than I did. I ended up with an open face crab melt which was actually quite good. The french fries were suprisingly spectacular! I expected them to be a throw away. My boyfriend got some small rolls of sushi, maybe salmon and octopus? He liked them, although he said they might be a little overpriced. "But then, that's sushi these days." Our dishes were in the $10-15 range, but they were on the cheaper side of the menu.

In any case, back to the veganism! So, last night, we had Walnut Tofu over Ramen Noodles. Please blink and stare at that title for a while. It was pretty much my vegan take on walnut shrimp, but I forgot to put the rice on until I was about to serve the food, so I was forced to improvise and microwave some ramen noodles. I think the point I'm trying to make is, if you forget that I'm a college student because I like to cook nice food, remember that a- I have ramen noodles and b- I made a dish that used them. I think this was pretty entertaining.
Walnut Tofu
1 package extra-firm tofu (pressed)
1 medium package walnuts
Almond milk
Powdered sugar
Corn starch
Olive oil (for marinade)
Small amount of vinegar (for marinade)
Onion powder (marinade)
Chili powder (marinade)
Garlic (marinade)
Salt/pepper (marinade)

Basically, marinade the tofu for a while. While this is going on, mix the milk and walnuts over medium low. Add powdered sugar until the liquid tastes just sweet. Then add corn starch until the liquid is slightly thicker and sticky, but no longer watery. Add a little bit of salt. Keep stiring and add more milk if the mixture thickens too far. After the tofu is done marinading 15+ minutes, sautee in a skillet over medium-high. Pour the marinade mixture into the skillet as well and feel free to add more seasoning as desired. Cut the pieces of tofu into small pieces (about half a bite or smaller, but not like ground beef) with a spatula. Sautee for around 7 minutes until the tofu is firm but not gummy. Drain tofu and add walnut mixture to the skillet and mix over low heat. Serve over rice or, if you forget, ramen noodles. I'd also add salt over the dish after it is mixed.

It tasted pretty good, but this was my first time cooking tofu, so it wasn't the best texture wise. Jasmine rice would have made it taste much better but honestly, it was still pretty good over ramen. I'm going to give it a "pretty good". My biggest problem was probably just the tofu... it would have been great with shrimp :) It doesn't look too insanely appetizing but I mean, it is walnuts and chunks of tofu covered in a brownish sauce. I don't think there's anyway to plate that to make it look that great.