Moo Shoo Egg Pancakes

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Anita!
One of the most common food colors is brown.  Drab in looks, brown food usually signifies something pretty appetizing — sauce, chocolate, something cooked down to perfection.  The problem is, you’re forced to take a picture of this brown food, and you have no choice but to dress it up a bit.  Enter, the garnish: cilantro, parsley, mint, basil, or in my case when I’m feeling particularly desperate, spinach chopped to look like it could be a garnish.  I cringe every time I have to do this, to dress up something that should stand on its own.  But to get noticed, sometimes you have to put in a little extra form in with all of that function.
I feel this same frustration regarding medicine.  I went to medical school to learn as much as I could and to become a good doctor.  But the more time I spend in this system, the more I realize how much networking it takes to be successful in medical school and residency.  My mentor uses the phrase “pressing the flesh:” shaking hands and having face time with your attending physicians so they know who you are and that you’re an awesome person.  It has less to do with patient care and more to do with dressing yourself up so that when it’s time to be noticed and remembered, you are.
Well gosh darnit, I’m brown (figuratively and literally).  I’m not always the smartest or most charming, but I do try my best.  I can’t always wave enough cilantro in people’s faces to get noticed.  So I’ll keep my head down, push as hard as I can, and hope that in the end my flavor will count for more than my appearance.

Ingredients

Sorry, I cooked this so long ago I don’t really remember.  I do know that I scrambled 2-3 eggs, set them aside, and then stir fried bamboo shoots, cabbage, carrots, and dried mushrooms in canola oil until tender, then added some sesame oil and Hoisin sauce and salt.  To eat, take a tortilla, warm it in a skillet, spread some Hoisin sauce on the tortilla, and add the eggs and vegetables.  I’ll add a real recipe sometime soon when I cook it again!

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Posted in Vegetarian | 2 Comments

Nigerian Homestyle Eggs

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Ari

House guests stress me out.
Well, not the house guests themselves…really it’s just the experience of having house guests that stresses me out. You want the place to look nice, so you clean. You want everyone to have fun, so you plan. You want everyone to be happy, so you cook (I assume since food makes me happy, the same can be said for everyone else). By the time your doorbell rings the house looks immaculate, your stomach is rumbling from the smells coming out of the kitchen, and you have this shiny new shrink-wrapped image of what the weekend is going to be like in your head…but let’s face it – within 5 minutes the house is a mess with bags strewn all over the floor, the food is eaten, and it’s already started to rain, thereby ruining all the awesome things you had planned for the weekend. How can you not get stressed out by this scenario?
Now it’s important that I point out, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes things go smoothly. Sometimes it doesn’t rain. Sometimes you don’t run out of food. Better yet, sometimes your guests BRING food! The house is still a mess by the time everyone packs up their things on Sunday night, but you’re left with a smile on your face as you wave goodbye to your friends pulling out of the driveway. You close the door, ignore the pile of dishes in the sink, and sit down to look through the photos from the weekend.

It just so happens that I had one of these rare, blissful visits over the past weekend when one of my best friends came to visit with her boyfriend. Mind you I had only met this boyfriend once before, but he passed the “friend approval test” with flying colors…especially when he not only brought food with him, but taught me how to make this delicious Nigerian dish. The way to my heart (and to gain my approval) is certainly through my stomach.

What you need:

  • 1 green pepper, diced
  • 1/2 red pepper, diced
  • 1/2 yellow pepper, diced
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 10 eggs
  • 5 roma tomatoes, diced
  • 1/2 tsp thyme
  • 1/2 tsp of curry powder (can be increased or omitted depending on preference)
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1 chicken and tomato bullion cube (maggi)
  • 1 tin sardines, mashed (optional)
  • Red chili pepper to taste (optional)

What you need to do (click the image above to get an idea of what the dish should look like at each step of the cooking process):

  1. Sauté the garlic, green peppers and onions in the olive oil until they start to become tender. Once they start to tenderize, add in the tomatoes, thyme, curry powder, paprika and mashed up bullion cube.
  2. Continue cooking the vegetables with the spices for about 4-5 minutes.
  3. Whisk together the eggs and add to the frying pan. When you first add the egg, make sure to fold in the vegetables then let it sit for about 4-5 minutes so the eggs start to cook.
  4. Once the eggs start to firm up, scramble the eggs and vegetable with a large spoon.
  5. Add the sardines and chili pepper and mix thoroughly (I realize not everyone is a fan of sardines so this is optional).
  6. Cover the frying pan and let the egg mixture steam for 2-3 minutes.
  7. Serve with a side of breakfast potatoes and toast (and sriracha). Enjoy!
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Posted in Breakfast, Eggs, Seafood | 4 Comments

The Feast of the Assumption

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Anita!
It’s here!  The biggest celebration in Little Italy, the Feast of the Assumption, will be held this weekend in the streets surrounding our residence.
The Assumption is a Catholic tradition honoring the assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven, and is officially remembered on August 15.  For residents of Little Italy it means a crush of people in an already busy little neighborhood.  Every night there will be music and food for sale on Mayfield Road.  I wanted to share a few pictures of Little Italy in it’s natural state — it will soon be unrecognizable with vendors and crowds.  To be honest, the Feast food is not as good as the stuff you can buy at the restaurants on any other night, but I can never resist anyway.
Last year I couldn’t sleep well during the  feast because of the noise, so this weekend I scheduled my first overnight call at the hospital.  Friday night I’ll be at the feast trying to stay up all night to prepare myself for Saturday night.  Hope to see you in Little Italy!
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Soft Pretzel Bites

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Ari

A couple of days ago I received an email inviting me to a going away pizza party for my old roommates from undergrad. I’ve never been one to say no to a pizza party, and I figured it would be a perfect opportunity to try out a fun new recipe (who doesn’t love soft pretzels?!), but there’s no denying there was a part of me that didn’t want to go. It’s not that I didn’t want to say goodbye to my friends, but the denial part of my brain felt like if I didn’t go, I wouldn’t have to admit to myself that my friends are moving on with their lives meanwhile I’m still here in Cleveland.
When I graduated undergrad in ’09 I didn’t have the “normal” graduation experience. It wasn’t really a sad day for me since most of the people I really cared about (my roommates, my sorority sisters, and many other classmates) were actually staying in Cleveland with me for work, school, etc. All of a sudden, however, “graduation” is catching up with me. In the last couple months, many of those friends that I didn’t have to say goodbye to 2 years ago are moving on with their lives and leaving this place we’ve called home for the past 6+ years. I realize I shouldn’t be surprised by this, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m still pretty bummed out by these not-so-sudden changes. I’m so excited and proud of my friends for their new jobs, acceptances to grad school, etc., but I kinda wish they could stay…at least until I’m ready to leave.

(adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod)

What you need:

  • 1 1/2 cup warm water
  • 2 tbs light brown sugar
  • 1 package (2.5 teaspoons) active dry yeast
  • 6 tbs unsalted butter, melted
  • 2 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • Vegetable Oil
  • 3 quarts water
  • 3/4 cups baking soda
  • Egg wash (1 egg plus 1 tbs water)
  • Coarse sea salt or cinnamon sugar (2 tbs sugar, 1 tbs cinnamon)

What you need to do:

  1. If you have access to a bread machine, add the water, brown sugar, yeast and butter to the bowl and set the machine to “dough”. Allow the machine to mix the ingredients for a minute and then let the mixture sit for 5 minutes (you can usually stop the machine during the mixing process).
  2. Add the flour and salt to the machine, and restart the mixing process. It will take about 4 to 5 minutes for everything to be evenly mixed (the dough shouldn’t stick to the walls of the bowl). If the dough is too sticky, add extra flour 1 tbs at a time. At this point either turn the machine off and let the dough rise for an hour, or have the machine skip to the rise setting. The dough should double in size.
  3. If you don’t have access to a bread machine, the same process can be repeated in a mixing bowl with a dough hook. When it comes time to let the dough rise, coat it lightly with vegetable oil, place it in a bowl and cover with a towel. Keep the dough in a warm place for an hour.
  4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
  5. Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into 8 even pieces.
  6. Roll out each dough section so that it forms a rope with a width of about 1 inch.
  7. Cut each rope into 1 inch sections and set aside.
  8. Now comes the difficult part…in order for the pretzel bites to have that “pretzel taste”, you need to quickly boil them in a solution of water and baking soda (3 quarts water + 3/4 cup baking soda). Some sites recommend that you bring the water to a boil in a roasting pan, add the baking soda, drop in about 15 dough balls then fish them out with a slotted spoon. I, on the other hand, decided to boil my water in a large pot, add the baking soda, then place a metal strainer in the boiling water so I could drop in the 15 dough pieces then easily fish them out by lifting the strainer (see image above). Regardless of which technique you use, make sure to boil each dough piece for 30 seconds in the baking soda solution.
  9. Lay out the dough pieces on a greased baking sheet. Brush each piece with egg wash then top with either coarse salt or cinnamon sugar.
  10. Baking for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown.
  11. Eat with mustard, cheese dip, etc. and enjoy!
Photo Challenge Update: I continue to fall behind with the photo challenges, but I’m still having fun with it! Now that I’m back in Cleveland, I’m hoping to catch up and I still have plans to complete the challenge by the end of the 30 days. You can check out my progress here.
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Posted in Bread, Snacks | 4 Comments