Poppy Seeds Tartlet

I really find the beauty of small size tart molds these days. Not only they look cute, but also I can use the same dough baking with various fillings in one batch. Meanwhile, I won't feel too guilty of eating one because it is small. Anyways, after the French apple tart last night, I baked this poppy seeds tartlet today. I like the texture of poppy seeds and wonder how they taste like besides in the cake or muffins. The filling recipe is used from this NY Times post. The taste was fine, but it was too much poppy seeds which made it very dense and tough. I don't think I will make this again.

French Apple Tart

I finally made the purchase of two tartlet molds. After flipping through few baking books I have, I made this tartlet by combining two recipes. The filling was from Ina Garten's French Apple Tart and the tart crust is made from the recipt here. I was satisfied in general, except the tart crust was a tiny bit overbaked. I love the small tartlet shape and will for sure use these two molds more often.

Home-made Soy Milk

When I visited home early this year, mom used to make soy milk everyday for breakfast. She used a soy milk machine which I thought was the only way to make soy milk. Until recently, I realized that as simple as a blender is more than enough to produce the same thing. So today, it only took me less than 5 minutes to make the milk. Amazing! All I did was to soak 1/2 cup of dry soybean over night. Then blend the soaked beans and water(amount based on how thick you want your soy milk to be) until superfine, about 3 minutes. The last step is to extract the milk and boil it. It's foolproof.

9/25/2011

This was the last decent meal I made for myself. Now I have to find a time buying grocery before next cooking. The highlight in this plate was the home-made satay sauce. It is so versatile that can be used in everything. I made the sauce following steps here. This is a very simple version of making satay. There are more recipes online if you want to make more authentic satay sauce. The other stuff on the plate is the leftover flatbread from dinning out, stir-fried butternut squash and daikon, the last piece of the roast chicken.

9/23/2011

The side dishes are the same as yeterday's. But the lefeover brown rice was stir-fried with garlic, green onion and egg.

Butternut Squash Soup

This is my simply easy dinner. It is so simple that there is no recipe. I basically made it from scratch. I cooked some butternut squash with garlic and ginger. Once it was cooked through, I mashed them and added milk, back to the stove top stir until thicken. And that is it. Simple but tasty.

9/22/2011

In the bento: brown rice, broccoli, butternut squash, daikon, herb roast chicken. 

Herb Roast Chicken

This is the first time in my entire life that I bought a whole chicken. Also, my first to roast a chicken. I like rotisserie chicken but never had good experience of store bought one. No matter what flavor they are branded, like lime roasted, BBQ roasted or lemon pepper roasted, all are way too try and bland. This time I made my mind to roast my own chicken. The method is based on Ina's Perfect Roast Chicken but I modified a lot. So this was how: I seriously salt the chicken inside and out the night I bought it. The next day I stuffed the cavity with thyme, lime, garlic and lemongrass. I chopped some basil and garlic mixed with oil and stuff the mixture underneath the skin. Some butter was rubbed on the skin and the chicken was roasted under 400F for 1.25 hour. After coming out of the oven, the chicken was rested cool before cutting. The picture was taken last night before cutting and now only 1/4 was left. That tells how good it is. Even the breast was succulent and flavorful. I am so proud of myself!!!

9/21/2011

In the bento: ground pork fried rice, broccoli, egg, daikon, herb roast chicken.

9/8/2011

In the bento: sweet potato porridge, kelp with enoki mushroom, salmon, eggplant with basil tomato, cherry tomato.

9/6/2011

In the bento: collard green fettuccine, carrot stirfried with liver, kelp with enoki mushroom salted egg. 

8/31/2011

In the bento: beet fettucinie with braised pork, stirfried cabbage, kelp with enoki mushroom, cherry tomato.