Feel Good | Jaden's Steamy Kitchen

Last Minute TV + Roasted Chicken with Sweet Plum Sauce

Caption me! What the hell am I saying???

(no, your screen isn't dirty - I had to snag that off my TV by taking a pic of the video. The smudges? I was watching Anthony Bourdain on TV and was either practicing kissing him like a lovestruck teen or trying the new scratch 'n sniff feature on his show)

The station called me Monday morning as I was rounding the kidlets up to go to school. "We need a chef to come on air this morning! Can you do it?"

Good thing I had my Wonder Woman cape in my purse.

and good thing I had ingredients in my freezer and pantry for Firecracker Shrimp. Otherwise, I might have been forced to cook Spam 'n leftover fish scramble with a stale Cheetos crust and frozen raspberry puree.

Video here - just click on the "Featured Video" link.

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from the Steamy Kitchen Tampa Tribune column

Part of being a good parent is teaching your kids how to eat well, you know, the whole balanced meal and limiting junk thing. Yes, I know my responsibilities well. But seriously, most kids these days register only 3 taste sensations: sweet, salty and gross. As a lover of all things delicious, the concept of “eating well” is just not enough. I want my kids to experience the goofy giddiness that follows a spoonful of the most decadent, smooth, rich chocolate pudding. Twirl with delight as they pop a sugar-snap pea open and discover bright green jewels inside. Oh, but it doesn’t end there.... (more...)

March 26th, 2008 in Chicken & Turkey |

Orzo with Brown Butter and Cinnamon + Winners of tsp spice contest

Guys! Gals! Androids! I have something SO AWESOME to share with you...

and I'm not gonna.

just yet.

maybe in a couple of days.

I know, I'm a tease. But would you expect anything less from Steamy Kitchen?

In the meantime, I wanted to share a how decisions get made in the Steamy household.

(more...)

March 2nd, 2008 in Uncategorized |

No Knead Pizza Dough: Pear and Gorgonzola Flatbread with Baby Arugula and Shaved Parmesan

Opportunity Cost...Revised...

I've written about opportunity cost of eating out last year, and re-wrote the post with a brand new recipe for my newspaper food column this week...

Before we had children, my husband and I used to eat out no fewer than 3 times a week. Our evenings wouldn't even start until Seinfeld ended, and it wouldn't be uncommon for us to have dinner reservations at 10pm. We'd easily spend $300 in an evening for just the two of us, because that’s just the kind of thing that irresponsible yuppies living large during the dot-com boom did. I’m not ashamed of the thousands of dollars that we threw in the entertainment bucket, because short of stumbling upon a long lost millionaire father, this kind of lavishness won’t come around for another 15 years, 4 months and 27 days. And that’s only if my youngest graduates high school on time.

I love my 2 chubby-cheeked dumplings very much, but the truth is, the financial responsibilities of parenthood suck. Date night with husband is now a very different reality. It’s the expense of dinner plus gas plus cost of babysitter. Cha-ching! $190 is easily spent in just a few hours, and really, was the trio of fancy flatbreads, gelato, so-so service and 2 glasses of house wine really worth it?

In case you recall high school economics, let’s calculate my opportunity cost: For $190 I could have bought: each kid a pair of new sneakers, 2 killer shredded pork burritos from the Burrito Stand, a frozen CPK barbeque chicken pizza, a pair of summer flip flops for each of us, a quart of pistachio gelato, fresh roasted coffee beans shipped from Caffe Roma in SF, a trip to the library, giant bottle of Bariani olive oil, a week’s supply of organic vegetables from the farmer’s market, gummy bear vitamins, 2 McDonald’s Happy Meals, a day pass to Sarasota’s Jungle Gardens and a bucket of worms. These are all favorite things that we cherish, make us giggle with delight and gladly fork over hard-earned money for.

As for the fancy flatbreads that I had ordered at the restaurant, it was easily duplicated at home. Sure, I didn’t have an inattentive waiter at my beck and call, but the joy of a spontaneous pizza dough sling-fest in the middle of the kitchen with the kids was definitely priceless.

(more...)

February 19th, 2008 in Uncategorized |

Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup - Pho Bo

What the Pho?!

I've been working hard perfecting the techniques and recipe for Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup, or Pho, just for you. And really, I'm not kissing ass or anything, but it's because of you guys that I'm posting this recipe! Of all the cookbooks that I own, the best recipe that I've found for Pho is from:

Andrea Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, which is one of the most comprehensive books on the cuisine of Vietnam. The book also won nominations for a James Beard Foundation award and two International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP). Definitely a must-have book for Asian food lovers.

So, let's get right to it - I've got lots of photos to share.

Oh and the dish is pronounced "fuh" and not "foo" or "foe" or "puh"

Yeah, Pho is cheap to purchase at a good Pho restaurant...but to be able to make a home made version? Pretty Pho-king amazing, if you ask me.

(more...)

February 9th, 2008 in Uncategorized |

Fried Noodles with Garlic Shrimp

Chinese New Year is coming up in just a couple of weeks! It will be the Year of the Rat!

I'll be sharing some of my favorite Chinese dishes with you - easy meals that you can whip up for the holiday. Chinese are big on food symbolisms - and some of the references are pretty far out there - but hey, if eating this hairy moss dish:

Tsai means that I might just win the lottery this year, I'll take my chances. Traditionally, we eat noodles for Chinese New Year - which symbolizes long life. Just don't cut the noodles before serving - you'll be snipping your life short.

Super fast noodles

You can use any type of noodles for this dish - rice noodles (great for gluten-free), wheat noodles or in a pinch, use regular spaghetti noodles for the Fried Noodles with Garlic Shrimp dish.

Here are my favorite noodles to use when I'm in a hurry:

These noodles only take a couple of minutes to cook, because they are soft, fresh noodles not dried. When I make a trip to the Asian market, I grab a few packs and put them in the freezer. They freeze great and when ever you need a quick meal, just boil a pot of water, add the pack of frozen noodles in and in 2 minutes, they are ready. If you aren't going to freeze them, it only takes 1 minute to cook. Timing of course depends on the thickness of the noodles you choose - check the packaging for instructions.

Fried noodle ingredients

You can use any type of vegetables: mushrooms, cabbage, bok-choy, spinach, bamboo shoots, tofu, snow peas, etc. The only rule is when adding the vegetables to the wok, add them in the order it takes longest to cook. HUH?! What did I just say? You know what I mean. Vegetables that take longer to cook go in first, fry a bit, then add the next vegetable. Cut your vegetables into nice, thin, easy to quickly fry pieces.

If using carrots, I suggest cutting into slivers, or super thin slices so that they can fry easily. I use my favorite tool in the whole world - the Oxo Julienne Tool. For less than $10, this baby has saved me time and nicked fingers. Plus, the vegetable comes out looking really pretty.

In my dish, I chose crunchy, fresh celery, carrots and scallions:

For meat/seafood - you can use shrimp, chicken, thinly sliced pork or beef. Or just keep it vegetarian. Totally up to you.

The Fried Noodle with Garlic Shrimp recipe is from this book:

Wei Chuan Chinese Rice and Noodles, my copy is well-worn and this book has tons of recipes for fried noodles, noodle soup, fried rice, rice dishes, etc. Recipes are in both English and Chinese.