I write copiously and tirelessly about where I’ve been and where I dream of going; but all too often, home falls to the wayside. What is it about the familiar that goes so easily ignored? 

As a proclamation of sorts against ignorance, here are some things that will always signify home:

• 80-degree weather in early November
• the swish-swish of my father’s indoor slippers
• daily doses of bumper-to-bumper traffic
• my self-painted lime-green-and-baby-pink bedroom walls, which regrettably seemed like a good idea at age 15
• an uncanny urge to bake devilishly sugary concoctions (these matcha green tea cupcakes emerged from my oven yesterday!)

Home, home—how sweet it is!

a salad a week: mad for mediterranean

A few months ago, I embarked on an ambitious endeavor: I set out to create, document, and blog a salad a week. Why? Frankly put, I had been unemployed for far too long and I desperately needed some consistency in my life, lest I get sucked into the dangerous, dark world of the stay-at-home, Lululemon-clad wives whom I regularly saw at the local gym’s 10 AM yoga class.

My salads a week and I enjoyed a good run… for about three weeks until I packed my belongings and drove up to San Francisco, leaving behind my (parents’) vast, well-stocked kitchen and all the time in the world to experiment and answer the wild, unruly culinary beckonings of my heart—and stomach.

These days, I share a modest-sized kitchen with three roommates, work a full-time schedule, and own about five percent of the cooking equipment in the apartment (personal tupperware included). With that said, my desire to whip up elaborate meals has waned as my personal commitments increase. (Though it should be noted that my idea of “elaborate” signifies anything that takes over 45 minutes to prepare.) 

Nowadays, meals are typically prepared on Sunday evenings in 30 minutes or less; consumed hastily, hungrily over the kitchen sink; and stored away in containers to be brought to work and reheated for the rest of the week. 

It’s a revelation that I mustered the motivation to put this dish together when my usual meal repertoire involves five ingredients or less. 

Yes, I’m embarrassed and ashamed by how poor this photo looks, too. But I promise this salad is a real pleaser—to both the taste buds and health! 

In the mix:

• tomatoes
• cucumber
• purple onion
• mixed lettuce
• lemon, lime, or both
• feta cheese
• pita bread, drizzled with olive oil and toasted in the oven (I used Whole Foods’ mini whole wheat pitas)
• salmon filets, seasoned with citrus butter*
• corn on the cob (not pictured, because I was too hungry and scarfed it down right out of the oven)

For the dressing(s):

Tahini dressing

• spoonful or two of tahini (warning: Tahini is very thick in texture and taste! Go light on the tahini if this is not a flavor you’re used to.)
• fresh lemon juice (I squeezed an entire lemon into it)
• two or more spoonfuls of water (to dilute the Tahini)
• drizzle of soy sauce and olive oil
• salt and cracked black pepper, to taste
• minced garlic (optional- I omitted this because I planned to pack it for work)

Yogurt dip

• individual container of Greek plain yogurt
• fresh lime juice (I squeezed half a lime into it- lemon can easily be substituted)
• salt and cracked black pepper, to taste
• finely chopped purple onion and cucumber (just because!)

Citrus butter* for the fish and/or corn on the cob:

• butter (I won’t specify the amount- use best judgment)
• fresh lime juice (half a lime)
• salt, cayenne pepper, and cracked black pepper, to taste

The process is simple: I washed and chopped my vegetables, drizzled the tahini dressing and some feta cheese on top, and ate with a side of baked salmon, corn, and pita bread. The yogurt dip was a refreshing side accompaniment to the pita!

A few things I love about Mediterranean food? Olive oil, tons of lemon flavor, and fresh vegetables. Yes, the Mediterraneans sure know how to grub—I only hope I’ve done them justice.

a salad a week: classy caprese

I had an internal debate over whether I should even post this salad because it’s been done so many times already. Then I realized I just couldn’t let this one slip by unblogged: it’s easily one of my ultimate comfort foods and too great not to mention.

For the non-Italian speakers, caprese is the Italian equivalent of a tomato, basil, and mozzarella salad. I’ve seen this salad prepared like an appetizer dish—with a sliced tomato, basil leaf, and sliced fresh mozzarella stacked neatly on top of one another. But let’s be real: who wants to spend time carefully arranging a dish when you can simply arbitrarily chop and mix all the ingredients together? 

Here’s what I used:

• extra virgin olive oil + balsamic vinegar
• basil
• fresh mozzarella 
• black pepper, to taste (you can use salt to taste, too, though I don’t)
• ripe tomatoes
• whole grain bread (optional)

I started by chopping the tomatoes and basil. Aren’t they lovely?

I then cut the cheese into cubes.

And I put everything into a big bowl, drizzle some oil, vinegar, and black pepper in, and mix it all together.

In high school, I took a culinary class. It changed my life. One of the huge revelations I took away from the class? 

Croutons are just old bread, chopped up, tossed with oil, and baked until crispy.

To make this salad a (semi-)balanced meal, I toss some whole grain bread into the mix in crouton form. It adds a crunchy, carb-y twist to the dish.

Mmm, caprese.

I could eat this stuff for days at a time. In fact, I did just that last week! Which brings me to my next point: this salad keeps well in the fridge. I do recommend separating the mozzarella and bread from the tomatoes and basil though—the juices from the tomatoes and excess water from washing the vegetables will cause the cheese to go bad faster and the croutons to turn soppy. 

On a different note, this post is embarrassingly late, again. I haven’t been too adventurous with my cooking as of late, as I don’t want to take any risks in my friend’s kitchen (i.e. burn it down.) Now that I’m starting to get into the swing of living here though, we can expect more exciting concoctions in the future!

two salads this week!: all about kale

In atonement for my failure to blog last week, I’m featuring two salads this week!

Ambitious, I know.

Both of these dishes hold a special place in my heart (and are, incidentally, good for the heart) because they incorporate one of my favorite vegetables on Mother Earth, kale. 

Kale is this leafy, tough vegetable. It’s slightly bitter to the taste and is even described by some as having a citrusy flavor. You can stir-fry it, bake it (I have yet to make kale chips!), steam it, or just eat it raw, which I’m going to do here because 1. I wasn’t in the mood to dirty and wash a pan (so stir-frying was out of the question), and 2. vegetables can lose some nutritional value in the cooking process: I wanted to pack in as much nutrition as possible.

The first salad I’d like to highlight bears a spooky resemblance to my quinoa salad.

Okay, so maybe spooky isn’t the most appropriate word to use here, but I wanted to go for a dramatic effect. Did it work?

For this salad, I dumped some chopped kale into a bowl and piled the cooked quinoa on top while it was still warm. The warm quinoa helped soften the kale a bit, which was nice, because, as I said earlier, kale is a pretty tough and crunchy vegetable. I also chopped up some red onion, tomatoes, parsley, and added olive oil, salt, crushed black pepper, and lemon juice to taste.

Mm…kale and quinoa make a great pair.

The second salad is one that I whipped up on a whim half an hour before dinner… which actually doesn’t set it apart from most of the other salads I make, but that’s beside the point.

For this salad, I chopped up some red and yellow potatoes and turnip and seasoned them with Lawry’s seasoned salt, crushed black pepper, lemon juice, diced fresh garlic, and olive oil. 

I also seasoned some asparagus in the same fashion and popped it all into the oven at 400 F. 

Similar to my other kale salad, I started with a bed of raw, yummy kale. After the asparagus finished cooking (note: asparagus cooks faster than potatoes and turnips), I chopped them into smaller pieces and piled them atop the kale to soften it a bit. 

Confession: This photograph made me salivate a bit just now.

After the potatoes and turnip finished roasting, I heaped them onto the asparagus and kale. To finish it off, I shredded some cheese on top of it all—because I’m in love with this stuff: its name is rosemary asiago, and it is just divine.

Mix in some olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and crushed black pepper to taste if you wish, and serve warm. 

Know what’s neat about both of these salads aside from the fact that they taste great and are great for you?

They keep well in the fridge. In fact, I’m betting the quinoa salad tastes even better the next day after all the flavors have had some time to marinade and blend. 

Come to think of it, I have a bowl of that stuff sitting in my fridge right now, waiting to be consumed…

I’d better tend to that now ;)

a salad a week: warm mushroom

One of my favorite ways to make and eat a salad is to mix warm and cold ingredients.

This one is simple enough: slice up some mushrooms (I used crimini mushrooms, which is basically a fancy name for “mini portobellos”), saute them with butter or extra virgin olive oil, some balsamic vinegar, and a wee bit of salt and crushed black pepper to taste.

Feeling mischievous? Consider adding a splash of red wine, which I did here. I honestly don’t know if mushrooms are supposed to be sauteed in red wine, but I have this twisted theory that you can cook virtually anything in wine and there happened to be a half-finished bottle of it conveniently left over from the previous night’s dinner on hand… so I did it anyway.

It tasted divine, if you’re wondering.

Where’s the dressing? After the mushrooms are sauteed in balsamic vinegar and oil or butter, they’re so flavorful that I don’t even feel like this salad needs dressing. However, if you feel differently, I suggest a simple, light EVOO + balsamic vinegar dressing.

I piled the browned mushrooms on a bed of lettuce and added feta cheese for a nice pop of flavor. I’ll bet freshly shredded parmesan, diced red onions, and/or diced tomatoes would go well with this salad, too.

Advice from Julie & Julia: Because yeah, I take culinary advice from Hollywood. In the film, an excerpt from one of Ms. Child’s letters reads something like this:

“[In Meryl Streep’s best Julia Child imitation] Don’t crowd the mushrooms; otherwise they won’t brown!” 

Now you know. Be mindful of the mushrooms—they need their space. 

Haven’t we all used that line at least once in our lives?

a salad a week: quinoa

In case you missed the memo, I really, really love salad. 

My fondness for salad is so far-reaching, in fact, that it spans entire continents. 

Back in Taiwan, even my raging In-N-Out cravings paled in comparison to the longing I felt to wolf down a plate of fresh, raw dark green veggies.

People never understand me when I assert that it’s impossible to find a decent salad in Asia. So now, the salad snob in me speaks: here is Asia’s attempt at salad, straight from the shelves of your local 7-11…

It’s no wonder the Asians aren’t big on salads. They really don’t have much to work with!

To recompense for those ten full months of mediocre salad consumption—and convince the world that salads are diverse, beautiful, and by and large the best meals on earth—I’m showcasing a new salad each week for the next ten months. 

To kick it off, this week is quinoa salad!

Did you know? Quinoa isn’t technically a grain, though it sort of looks like it could be one. It’s high in protein and fiber, gluten-free, and has a texture similar to couscous. 

To make: Cook the quinoa and let it cool. I’m Chinese, so I busted out my rice cooker and dumped two cups of quinoa seeds in there along with two cups of water. (Sidenote: two cups makes about 6-7 generous servings—it’s a lot!) You can also cook quinoa in a pot over the stove.

Awesome fact: the beauty of salad is that it’s incredibly versatile. I whipped this together using ingredients I already had on hand:

• acorn squash, roasted
• corn, roasted
• purple onion
• tomatoes
• basil
• feta cheese
• dressing: balsamic vinegar, extra virgin Spanish olive oil, a dash of rice vinegar
• light seasoning: paprika, dried Italian herbs, crushed black pepper

Know what else this salad would taste great with?

• grilled chicken or shrimp
• grilled vegetables of all sorts: asparagus, zucchini, bell peppers
• avocado 
• mint
• lime or lemon juice
• butternut squash, roasted
• black beans
• cilantro
• kale
• fruit: strawberries, apples, peaches
• everything?!

You get the drift. 

Got leftovers? You’re in luck—quinoa keeps well in the fridge.

+ one more thing: This particular salad pairs splendidly with fish—though I may be biased, because I love fish almost as much as I love salad.

The verdict? Quinoa is just a really intimidating, pretentious name for protein. I don’t know the identity of the nut job who came up with the spelling for it, but the pronounciation may surprise you.

Heed my words: do not fear the quinoa (keen-wah). Why do they spell it that way anyway?

Pick up a bag at the grocery store… and watch your salad possibilities unravel before you.

Thank me later ;)

Put this together today just for fun.

(Source: reminderstoself)

Sometimes, my boyfriend playfully remarks that the meals that emerge from my kitchen taste like a garden.

To that I reply, “Quit yappin’ and eat yer veggies!”

(today’s lunch: smoked english cheddar & dill gougères w/ roasted radish and green beans)

How to craft a great pizza

As kooky as it sounds, one of my ultimate comfort foods is a well-made, NY-style pizza. There’s something about gooey, melty cheese atop a layer of crispy dough that meets all my taste buds in just the right spots.

Strangely, I don’t go out of my way to get pizza often. I prefer to satisfy my pizza cravings in the kitchen because homemade is a great alternative to the mass-produced, drenched-in-oil stuff you get from most pizza chains—and keep in mind the pickings are slim in Irvine; this isn’t NYC or Chicago where independently-owned pizza joints line every street corner. Plus, sometimes you just have these miscellaneous items in your fridge that you wouldn’t know what to do with otherwise. (Case in point: what else would you do with an eggplant besides fry it, grill it, or make it into a dip? Slice it and put it on a pizza… duh.)

After several rounds of trial and error and experimenting, I’ve finally gotten the process down to a tee. By no means do I claim to be a master chef, but I know I do have some tips under my belt that my seasoned pizza-crafting soul has picked up from firsthand experience.

So without further adieu, this is my guide to making simple, delicious, fresh pizza. 

Let’s get started. You’ll need…

• pizza dough - I’m not going to teach you how to make and knead dough because 1.) I’m too impatient to do it myself, and 2.) this is a simple pizza recipe, for goodness sake. I just buy the pre-made stuff at Trader Joe’s. It costs about $1.50, if you’re curious. I always go for the whole wheat kind because it’s great to my taste buds and health.
• 1 ball fresh mozzarella - I insist on using fresh ingredients at home. You can opt for the shredded stuff (it’s definitely cheaper and has a later expiration date), but there’s something about slicing up fresh cheese that distinguishes a homemade pizza from the stuff you get from a store, in my opinion.
• garlic - as many cloves as you want! I typically use about 4-5. Yes, I’m a garlic monster.
• olive oil, because it makes everything tasty
• salt and black pepper, to taste
• optional toppings: some of my favorites include spicy sausage, zucchini, mushrooms, pine nuts, eggplant, prosciutto, arugula, and tomato, but I definitely advocate exploring different combos and ingredients—let me know your favorites!
• optional: some type of sauce - some common examples include pesto, alfredo, or marinara. But honestly? Sauce is superfluous in my book. Sometimes I just pile on the cheese sans sauce, à la Cheeseboard.
• optional garnishes: fresh basil, crushed red pepper flakes, other cheeses (in my opinion, goat, parmesan, and feta cheese go well on pizzas)

Before you do anything, I recommend taking the dough out the fridge and allowing it sit at room temperature for at least 20 minutes while you prep the rest of your ingredients. I’ve discovered that the dough is easier to spread out after it’s been left at room temperature for a bit.

Here’s my unbaked crust, pizza sauce, and olive oil mixed with some salt, black pepper, and dried Italian herbs to taste. Before I spread the dough out, I sprayed my cookie sheet with butter (but I really recommend olive oil) to prevent the dough from sticking and pressed it flat with my fingers. Oh, I also sprinkled some flax seed on the dough just for fun. 

For this particular pizza, I’m using eggplant, tomato, and basil for garnish for no better reason other than the sheer fact that I happened to find them sitting around in my fridge at the time. I also unearthed a small can of tomato paste that was buried in the depths of my chaotic pantry, so I decided to whip up a simple marinara sauce, too.

It’s pizza, folks, not rocket science: let’s keep it real.

Here’s my crust again, this time brushed with olive oil and topped with a few pieces of chopped garlic. I’m a huge garlic fanatic so I make it a point to sneak the ingredient into nearly everything I make. Garlic shows up three times on my pizza: it’s mixed into the marinara sauce (sneaky sneaky), atop the dough before it precooks in the oven (more on this soon), and on my pizza along with the toppings. Three cheers for post-meal garlic breath!

Check out this fresh basil and garlic-infused marinara sauce. Yum!

A tip about the dough: I recommend giving it a head start in the oven at about 350 F for five minutes or so. This is because I hate soggy or soft crust. Pre-baking the dough a bit will ensure that the bottom layer is crispy and well-baked.

A tip about toppings: To simplify things and honor each ingredient’s unique flavor, I try to limit my toppings to three. And no, cheese and garlic don’t count: I consider those essentials. Fresh basil doesn’t really count either; that’s garnish, in my book.

A tip about dough and toppings: Another fact I learned about piling on too many ingredients is that often times your crust will end up soggy as a result. The solution? Hone in on the flavors you want to stand out and put those on your pizza. Save the rest of the stuff for another dish. Less is more. Think about how classic and great a margherita pizza is if you doubt that last statement.

Here’s my 3/4-finished pizza topped with fresh mozzarella. If any readers have mastered the art of slicing mozzarella into perfect circles, please enlighten me. This looks like I took a pair of scissors and hacked away at my mozzarella ball. But I figure it doesn’t matter because it’s all going to melt into an undistinguishable layer of messy, oozy goodness anyways.

After this, I topped the pizza with my eggplant slices and reserved my basil and tomato for last.

A tip about fresh basil: Basil leaves are so delicate that they will almost automatically brown and wilt when they come into direct contact with heat. To preserve the crispness and freshness of this herb, I almost never cook it.

A tip about tomatoes: I usually put them on during the last five minutes or so of the pizza baking process. This is because tomatoes cook relatively quickly and I like my tomatoes somewhat fresh—but to each her own!

A tip about aesthetics in cooking: I try to incorporate as many colors as possible in my dishes because, let’s face it: food is, in large part, a matter of visual aesthetics and design—just something to consider!

Bake the pizza for about 10-15 minutes at 350 F or until the cheese is completely melted. Play it by eye.

After the pizza is baked through, top it with your garnish of choice (in this case, fresh basil and black pepper.) And there you have it: a convenient, scrumptious, healthy (if you use the right ingredients), fresh, and very affordable meal! 

My only regret is that I didn’t finish baking the pizza until nightfall.

A tip about food photography: It looks best in natural light.

As trite as it sounds, one of the best things about coming home is reclaiming complete control over what goes into my stomach. Back in Taiwan, my aunt reigned over the tiny, oven-less room in our apartment we called “the kitchen,” and I dared not cross that threshold except to wash the dishes after dinner. And don’t even get me started on my work-day lunches; thanks to them, I can now readily identify the three essentials of Taiwanese cuisine—white rice, lard, and, of course, MSG.

Before I know it, the fried pork chop, beef noodle soup, and spicy wonton cravings will start to beckon again. My stomach will grumble and my heart will ache with nostalgic longing for the days when getting a satisfying meal was as simple as strolling over to the nearest street vendor and doling out $2.

Until then, I’m atoning for last year’s meals by gorging on everything whole grain; raw, organic greens; fresh, locally-sourced produce; and generous helpings of E.V.O.O.

My nutrient-starved, health-frenzied digestive tract applauds the effort and my taste buds exclaim their praises: hallelujah—organic is orgasmic!