Golden Dragon

"Today you will find something you have been looking for."

Today I found the answer to whether I'll ever have Chinese food again.

That's it...tonight was the last night I'll have Chinese food for the rest of my life. Unless I find myself in China.

For some reason I cannot comprehend, Rodney adores Chinese food. On occasion, he talks me into getting it. No more. I'm done. It's over.  I can't stand that Chinese food is always served smothered in some sort of wacky gravy and the meat (chicken, beef, pork or shrimp) is deep-fried or cooked down to a mushy madness.

Tonight, we picked up take-out from Golden Dragon, a place we've been picked up from about 4-5 times before. It's been tolerable so I haven't put my foot down on it or Chinese food in general -- until today. We split an order of the special egg rolls, I ordered Red Pepper Chicken, which is fried chicken with zucchini and some other veggies in a sauce, and Rodney got his standard fried rice of some sort.

Special egg rolls

Fried rice and Red Pepper Chicken

Unlike the past, Golden Dragon neglected to give me steamed rice with my chicken, which immediately pissed me off. The chicken was fried, but the "crunchy" part was absolutely soggy. The flesh itself was so dry in areas that it was too similar to jerky, which is completely horrifying but even more so when it's my dinner. As with all American Chinese food, the chicken was drowning in brown sauce and the vegetables were cooked down.

Oh, I nearly forgot, I paid $35 for that crap.

Breakfast burritos and tacos

Rodney and I LOVE tacos and burritos. We make tacos out of many leftover dinner meats which makes dinners "renewed" and extremely simple. Now that I think of it, one I should've taken images of and posted about was the tacos we made from the leftover crazy cumin-overkill-chicken boobs I made the other day. Those tacos came out very well and Mom enjoyed them so much she asked for the chicken recipe! We all gorged on those tacos.

Anyway, we frequently have breakfast tacos or burritos. I am one of those jokers (aka assholes) you see on the 405/5 eating breakfast in the morning while driving to work, if I'm fortunate enough that Rodney makes a burrito for me. He has a knack for making flour tortillas just slightly crispy, yet still pliable. Amazing.

As it is Saturday, we had a late breakfast/lunch of tacos:

1. Pan-fry a few slices of bacon; allow cooked bacon to drain on paper towels
2. Pour off majority of bacon fat, fry some diced potatoes (salted and peppered) in the little remaining grease
3. In another skillet, scramble some eggs
4. In another skillet, warm some tortillas
5. Scoop some eggs, Mexican-blend cheese, broken bacon, potatoes, and salsa onto a warm tortilla

6. Eat it like a taco or wrap it up into a burrito and then eat it
7. 

Simple and very tasty for just a couple bucks.

Kimchi

Mom's in town and the one request I made was that she show me how to make her gloriously fabulous, much-missed, uber-delicious kimchi. As it is a 2-day process, she wound up showing Rodney how to make kimchi. Fortunately for me, Rodney captured images. At least I have something to work with when I make an attempt.

With that, here we go:

Quarter some bok-choy. I'm guessing 3 heads total to yield 12 quarters.


Pile it up in the biggest container you have. Mom used my roasting pan, which is about 12x14x2.

Salt those quarters.

Don't be shy, pour that salt on, getting between quarters and even the leaves.

And for good measure, pour on a layer of salt over the entire thing. Cover the salted bok-choy with a clean kitchen towel and let it rest overnight at room temperature.

You'll see that the cabbage shrank overnight:

Trim the green onions of the dead ends and hairy tips.

Bias cut the onions to about 1" sections, including the white tips.

Mash the garlic cloves with the butt of a chef's knife.

Cut the reduced bok-choy into 2" sections and place the bok-choy sections in a large bowl.

Add the onions and garlic.

Add red pepper powder, sesame seeds and fish sauce to the bok-choy mixture.

Mix ingedients by hand until homogeneous.

Pack kimchi into clean glass jars, allowing some headspace if possible.

Refrigerate for a few days and taste occasionally to determine when you consider it "done".

Yukon Gold Potato Fries

This one is another of those in Cooking Pleasures that is included in the magazine but yet isn't considered a "real" recipe, thus isn't included on the website. Unfortunate.

Regardless, this is what the April/May '08 issue said:

Cut potatoes and 1 large sweet onion into 1" wedges; toss with extra-virgin olive oil.

Sprinkle with dried (preferably Greek) oregano; sea salt and pepper.

Bake at 400°F for 25-35 minutes or until potatoes are golden brown, turning occasionally.


Simple! And they turned out pretty well. I shouldn't have been shy about the amount of oil. Some of my fries stuck right to the pan and I had to chisel them off with my spatula. In the future, I'll be sure to be more generous.

We had this with the crazy cod. If it wasn't for these fries, I'd have gone hungry!

Potato-Crusted Cod with Mustard-Malt Vinegar Sauce

I thought this would be a fun Cooking Pleasures recipe to try since I was gradually overcoming my fish fears and ready to take on new fish recipes.

I'm not sure if the fish Rodney picked up wasn't a good one or if it was the recipe. I didn't have any chives (dry or fresh) and omitted them completely. And I served the sauce on the side since I didn't want to "taint" the fish if it was overwhelming.

Potato-Crusted Cod with Mustard-Malt Vinegar Sauce

1 c instant mashed potato flakes

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/3 c milk

4 tbsp butter, chilled, cut up, divided

1 tbsp canola oil

4 (6-oz.) cod fillets

3 tbsp malt vinegar
5 tbsp water

4 tsp whole-grain mustard

Combine potato flakes, salt and pepper in shallow dish. Pour milk into another shallow dish.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the butter and oil in large nonstick skillet over low heat. Meanwhile, quickly dip cod fillets in milk; coat each side with potato flake mixture.

Increase heat to medium. When butter is melted and sizzling, add cod. Cook 7 to 10 minutes or until browned and cod just begins to flake, turning once. Remove cod.

Immediately add vinegar to skillet; boil to reduce to a syrup, about 1 minute. Whisk in water and mustard; bring to a simmer.

Remove from heat; whisk in remaining 3 tablespoons butter until melted.

Again, I'm not sure if it was the giant cod fillet Rodney was given at our local fishmonger/Korean market (which I quartered) or if it was the recipe. The cod was pretty wet to begin with, which makes me wonder. And I have a hard time believing that the poorness of this particular dish was due to the lack of chives. If chives can make or break a meal, I should be looking at starting a chive garden and promoting the use of fresh (or dry) chives.

One thing I observed was how the potato didn't actually stick to the cod. Maybe because the cod was too wet to begin with, I don't know. I doubt that though, since the fish was dipped in milk before dredged in potato. Does it make a difference if the fish is wet before submerged in milk? If water plays a key role, it seems the recipe would require whole milk. Maybe I turned the fish too quickly...I digress.

Regardless of what went wrong, the fish was too wet for me at the point of consumption. The mustard-malt sauce was way over the top for me and Mom, yet Rodney says he liked it.

I won't be making this again. Rodney didn't jump up and down over it and I didn't finish my portion. Mom was polite by eating her entire portion -- I could see that politeness all over her Korean my-daughter-is-a-good-cook face. And that she didn't comandeer remaining fillet for herself but verbally forced Rodney into eating what was remaining was a good sign that Mom didn't care for the fish.

One day, I'll take another stab at some fish other than salmon or trout. Cod? Well, that is to be determined.

Pork Loin Roast

Pork Loin Roast, glazed carrots and some buttered new potatoes.

Quite a while ago now, Rodney and I moved into our little apartment with the little kitchen. As I'd been out of practice with cooking (having the luxury of living with a stay-at-home wife and mom for a good while) I had to learn to get back into the groove. When we moved here, we were eating a lot of the same stuff over and over again and thus, I turned to the ever-faithful internet to find new things to try.

This is a recipe I found that only required things I already had! Fantastic! And different from the usual repertoire: tacos, salmon, tacos, meatloaf, tacos. Simple, yet so good it was worth revisiting.

Found at a neato site called Start Cooking, I followed the recipe just like Kathy Maister said to the first time and didn't change a thing this time. Definitely check out her site if you need different easy ideas for food or if you're new to cooking. She does a wonderful job of spelling each thing out with tons of photos (a favorite feature of mine for any site) as her goal is to get newbies in the kitchen to, well, start cooking!

Pork Loin Roast

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp total of oregano, sage and thyme

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp black pepper

3 lb pork loin roast

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Mix dry spices into oil. Rub mixture all over the pork loin roast.

Place the roast, fat side up, on a rack in a roasting pan and roast for 10 minutes.

Reduce temperature to 250°F and continue cooking for 50-80 minutes or until the roast reaches 150°F on a thermometer.

Cover the roast with foil for 10-15 minutes before carving.

My take on it: Uh, why don't we have this more often? So simple! And easy! And tasty! Dinner done in about 2 hours.

Rodney's take on it: Uh, why don't we have this more often? Oh, that's right, pork clogs me up!

Cost:

pork loin roast: at 1.99/lb = $7.01

We had it with some glazed carrots and buttered new potatoes. So total for our meal and leftovers: about $9-10. 

I'll be sure to put this in the once-in-a-while rotation. I feel good when Rodney feels good and that hinges on his pooper.

Cumin-Cilantro Crusted Chicken Breasts

Squaw rice and black beans are the sides accompanying Cumin-Cilantro Crusted Chicken Breasts.

Right after I said I was going to stick to the plan, I deviated. I needed something quick and easy since I didn't plan ahead by one day and Rodney was hungry, I was hungry, we were getting bitchy...

And this is what I get for it. I stuck right to the recipe, like an idiot. Click the link below if you want to check me.

Cumin-Cilantro Chicken Breasts

1/2 c chopped cilantro
3 tbsp cumin seeds, toasted, coarsely crushed*
2 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp coarse salt
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

Combine all ingredients except oil and chicken in small bowl. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the oil. Press mixture firmly onto top of chicken.


Heat large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil; heat until hot. Gently add chicken; cook 8 to 10 minutes or until no longer pink in center, gently turning once.



*

Toast the cumin seeds in a skillet for a couple minutes or until fragrant, stirring frequently. Then crush it up in a mortar. Or if your pestle was busted from rolling off your kitchen (sales) counter, chop it up a bit with a knife, then clean up the pieces that went flying later.


Our feedback:
Holy cumin overkill! Won't be doing this again. As a matter of fact, I don't know if I'll buy cumin seeds ever again because of this experience. It had to be a typo: three TABLESPOONS of cumin? I should have known better. Even after I checked the recipe online and it was the same as in the magazine, I should have known better.

Unless you absolutely ADORE cumin seeds, say you sprinkle them in your coffee and onto buttered toast in the a.m. and bring packets of the seeds with you to enjoy as a textured taste explosion on your Subway sandwich at lunch, you'll regret following this recipe. Rodney and I scraped the "crust" off our chicken, which thankfully, made it edible.

As for the "crust", it stayed mostly crusted as it cooked, but pieces of it stuck to the pan. Sure, that was my fault because I obviously didn't lube the pan well enough. And as it turns out the time and temp HAS to be checked. I must have had ultra-big boobs that day because they weren't cooked through. We found that out shortly after we realized we weren't fanatics for cumin seeds. So not only were we disgruntled about the cumin, we were nearly poisoned with salmonella. Thus, dinner consumption was very scrape-ery in addition to being delayed.

Cost:

1. chicken boobs: $1.97/lb so about $4
2. cumin seeds: about $3 is what I think I paid for the entire container, of which I used the remainder

Total: about $7.

Again, this recipe sucked! IF I do this again, it will have 3 teaspoons of cumin seeds. That is, IF I buy cumin seeds again in my life.

Oh! I nearly forgot: we had a side of black beans and a rice concoction our friend/neighbor/property manager gave us in a bowl she returned. At least those were good! I need to remember to get that squaw rice recipe...