Thanksgiving Special – Coconut Almond Tart

A lot of you might have realized that my food isn’t really fancy, and with my kitchen, a Thanksgiving dinner might really just consist of a pitiful roasted chicken drumstick or something of the sort.

So I thought I’d do y’all a favor by asking for a guest cook to come and spice up 食べ物 eXploZion for the Thanksgiving weekend!

And so…-drumroll- I present to you Sara Kosuth, who will be today’s (first!) guest blogger/super chef, as well as her mouthwatering Coconut Almond Tart, which is sure to amaze your guests and their taste buds.

Sara is the College Cooking section editor at Wolverine CuiZine, University of Michigan’s cooking blog. A current undergraduate student, she plans to attend culinary school after officially becoming a UM brainiac and to strike “fear into the hearts of Iron Chefs across the world.”

Although I’m not an Iron Chef, I think she struck something in my heart (or my stomach) as I tried to resist that tart that was sitting right in front of me in her kitchen…

But without further delay, I officially present Sara Kosuth and her method of making a fabulous Coconut Almond Tart.

Musical Tea

It feels like a lot of people are trying to scrape by until Thanksgiving break here in the States, and I’m one of them. Motivation just isn’t the “in” thing right now.

Sometimes I try to have tea to wake myself up/get a boost of energy, and recently, my friend Angel gave me a tea strainer that’s perfect for an individual person and gives me something fun to look at while I’m working.

Accidental Jajang Myun x Pad Thai Hybrid

When I say an accident, I mean it.

I had a salad the other day, and I felt like making something other than the dressing I used in the Apple and Breaded Chicken Salad, so I thought I’d come up with the “brilliant” idea of making a miso-based dressing. Honestly, it wasn’t too bad…I guess. Separately, the dressing and the salad probably would have tasted better. So it might not be unsurprising that I had a lot of this murky dark dressing leftover.

As I was doing the dishes, I was trying to figure out what to do with all this leftover dressing. I didn’t have enough vegetables leftover for a salad, and I just couldn’t figure out what the taste and texture reminded me of.  And then it hit me! I had jajang myun for the first time a few weeks ago, and I figured by adjusting the flavor a little would give me the same type of taste (if not the color). I then added glops of peanut butter to thicken the mixture and poured it all on top of a bed of rice noodles before topping it with some cooked slices of pork shoulder butt, shallots, and nori.

Wolverine CuiZine

When you tell people that you’re a college student, the first few images that come to mind are probably:

1. Beer

2. Instant Noodles

3. More Instant Noodles

4. Caffeine

For some reason, it seems to be a little difficult for people to believe that college students can cook real food. It might be even harder to believe that college students can cook well.

Well, I proudly prove these beliefs wrong with my discovery of Wolverine CuiZine.

Wolverine CuiZine is a newly opened food-related blog/webzine/magazine that opened at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (aka, my Uni). The blog is manned by students who, like you and I, love food. I discovered the blog one day when I was walking out of a computer lab and actually paused to write the contact information down on my arm in pen!

CuiZine covers a variety of topics and doesn’t focus on cooking only. The blog team also covers various food-related events on, or close to, campus, such as the Ann Arbor farmer market, as well as restaurant reviews and segments on eating healthy.

Despite it being a fledgling club/blog, CuiZine welcomes everyone as long as they like food. Even though I had only just contacted the editors of the blog, I was immediately and warmly invited to a potluck CuiZine was hosting on  campus.

For you parents with children in University or college, CuiZine just goes to show that Instant Noodles aren’t the only method of surviving. With reader-friendly posts, Wolverine CuiZine offers “College Food 101″ to all those who visit its pages.

A photo taken by Cathy Fan when Wolverine CuiZine bloggers visited the Farmer's Market

Pork Wraps

So I had a friend staying the night and I told her I’d make dinner for her and one of my roommates, Maggie. When I asked the visiting friend, Mikuni, what she’d like for dinner, she replied with “Asian food!” and, surprise surprise!, I made Asian (style) food.

I’ve tried these pork wraps before, and they aren’t particularly difficult except for when you’re actually combining everything together into the final piece. My previous attempt also included cooking everything all at once together, but I’ve learned my lesson…that isn’t that easy and it’s just darn difficult!

Luckily, I’ve learned from my mistakes, and here is now an easier-to-make and maybe even tastier version of the wraps from the past (hey it rhymes!…kind of)

Apple and Breaded Chicken Salad with Homemade Peanut Dressing

I think salads might just be one of the easiest college meals ever. All you have to do is wash and cut (or bake, depending on what you want), and it’s relatively healthy if your dressing is made with the proper ingredients. You can also adjust the flavor to fit what you need and want, so it’s nearly 100% customizable.

In other words, make what you want and eat what you want, without the guilt that normally comes from doing either or both.

My guilt-free meal came in the form of a large salad with fresh ingredients after a few hours of grocery shopping.

Tempura Tofu Nuggets

Midterms are terrribleeee! Some people say that college/university is the best time of your life, but exams really makes me have doubts about that -laugh-.

But I’m finally on Fall Break! That means I can cook!

So, this time, I thought I’d try tempura tofu. I’d been to a Japanese restaurant with some friends the other day, and I had some pretty good tempura yam, and I suddenly thought, “Wouldn’t tempura silken tofu be awesome? Crispy on the outside but soft (and maybe even custard-like) on the inside?” And besides, we can’t really deny it–almost anything deep-fried tastes good.

As a warning, this post is a bit long (some more text than usual), but it has a lot of tips with dealing with silken tofu when you’re trying to deep fry it.

Freezer Dinner Lo Mai Gai (糯米鸡)

This is my version of a  frozen computer (because I don’t have a TV) dinner.

Unlike most of the food I have here in the blog, this wasn’t made by me (except the steamed vegetables). This is made, with love, from my parents back in California before I came back here in the beginning of September for school.

Burmese Soba Noodle Salad

Well, it’s a new school year and I’ve been trying to adjust to the new stove and trying to readjust to the equipment (or lack of) here.

This morning I was struck with a sudden craving for my mom’s semi-famous Burmese Noodle Salad. It’s pretty popular with my cousins, especially on my mom’s side where her generation immigrated for Burma/Myanmar.

It really brings back memories of home (now that I’m stuck back in Michigan) but it’s quite a bit of work (that I sort of skipped out on here…).

Joy Sushi

My friend and I went out for sushi the other day and, well, it was pretty darn good!

I’ve never done a restaurant review before, but since I haven’t been cooking lately (after another shredded nail), I figured this was a better way to update my blog. : ]

Joy Sushi’s located at the edges of San Mateo’s downtown and is a bit “out there” in terms of restaurants. Less people walk this area compared to the other restaurants, which is a bit of a shame since Joy Sushi has a very unique menu that pays tribute to San Mateo’s features. Despite this though, it seems as if the restaurant has managed to get its name out there to customers since the ground floor was rather occupied and the top floor was about half occupied.

Joy Sushi, obviously, specializes in Japanese food. They have the standard temaki (handrolls), sushi, and bento, but, if you go to this restaurant, it probably should be for their specialty sushi rolls. As I mentioned before, a lot of San Mateo’s local specialties are featured. It was pretty amusing to see a “Caltrain roll” or a “2nd Ave roll” on the menu, and my friend and I had a lot of trouble trying to figure out which was the best to try from the sheer variety offered by the menu. In the end, we managed to settle on three type of sushi.