A reader asked me what miso paste tastes like, while she has enjoyed miso soup at Japanese restaurants, she couldn’t quite imagine what cooking with miso paste would be like.

So what flavor dimension does miso paste add to a dish? If I had to just choose one single word, I’d say “umami” which is just a fancy foodie term that writers and chefs use. This is a tough one…..but okay, if I couldn’t use that word, I’d say, “tasty.” Even just a teaspoon of miso paste added to a dish (whether it’s a sauce for the asparagus, salad dressing, mashed potatoes or casserole) makes the dish tastier.

Miso has a very deep, complex flavor – salty yet slightly sweet, a little nutty. Lately, instead of adding salt to a dish, I’ll stir in a small spoonful of miso paste.

I need a little help from you all – can you help me describe the taste of miso vs. salt? Maybe it’s easier to use an analogy:

Salt is to Miso…….as _____ is to _____.

And hey, the one who comes up with the best analogy gets a prize. How about a $25 gift certificate to the Steamy Kitchen Store?

***

*Why all these miso recipes? I’m developing recipes for Marukome, the makers of Miso & Easy and some of the very best miso paste. 

Miso Ginger Asparagus Recipe

This recipe couldn’t be simpler….

Basically, throw the asparagus on a baking sheet and roast. In the meantime, whisk together the remaining ingredients – pour on top when the asparagus is done!

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It’s nearly mid-January and I’ve been working hard testing recipes, writing, photographing my next Steamy Kitchen book. Writing a cookbook is possibly one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done – even skydiving holds no candle to obsessing over creating perfect recipes and enticing photos for 12 months.

I’ve enlisted one of my best friends, Kelly, to help me once a week in the kitchen. Kelly was the very first friend I made when we moved to Florida and I don’t think I would have made it without her love and support – Scott and I had sold a house, bought a house, moved cross-country, started a business, got married, went on a honeymoon and got pregnant in 2 months flat. (Whew!)

Nathan, Andrew and Kelly’s son are best friends as well, all of them around the same age. The 3 Muskateers are often spotted dashing across the lawn with Nerf guns, hiding in a corner playing their Nintendo or out in the back pond luring a fish.

Kelly is a grad from Le Cordon Bleu, works as a personal chef and at the Viking Cooking School — so she knows her way around the kitchen. I couldn’t have found a better match!

How to make Grilled Tofu Salad with Miso Dressing

The ingredients:

Continue reading Grilled Tofu Salad with Miso Dressing...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 12 comments

A few weeks ago, I bought a bottle of Asian Orange Ginger Salad Dressing and after only one use, it sat in the back of the refrigerator looking a little sad and rejected. I guess I was expecting so much more from the words, “orange” and “ginger” on the label – words that provoke an immediate emotional and sensory response in me: fresh, zingy, clean and tingly from the heat of the ginger.

Unfortunately for the maker of the dressing, who shall remain unnamed in this little rant, the dressing was overly sweet with a fake candy-like orange flavor and there was no hint of ginger whatsoever.

I should have known better than to buy the bottle in the first place. Making my own salad dressing only takes 10 minutes and I always have the ingredients on hand in the kitchen.

To me, making dressing is all about balance of flavor: lively and tangy, slightly sweet, a little heat and just enough sea salt to bring out all of the flavor notes.

In Asian-style dressing, tangy comes from sweetened or seasoned rice vinegar (see photos above of Mitsukan rice vinegars)  – which is vinegar made from rice and seasoned with just a bit of sugar. You can also used unsweetened or unseasoned rice vinegar too. I always have both on in my pantry.

As for the slightly sweet, I love using a bit of honey to balance out the vinegar. The oil I use for Asian dressings is neutral flavored light vegetable oil – olive oil is too strong in flavor. I’ve also used grapeseed oil and rice oil.

Freshly grated ginger provides the heat, no need to even peel the ginger, unless the brown outer skin is dry and thick. Use a rasp or microplane grater and go at it until you have about 1 teaspoon.

The fruit in the dressing is flexible – use any citrus: orange, lemon, lime, tangerine, blood orange or go a little more exotic with passion fruit (cut in half spoon out fruit only).

In this photo, I’ve paired the Orange Ginger Vinaigrette with heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil – just to change up the normal caprese salad into something more lively.

*I’ve developed this recipe for a client, Mitsukan, the maker of rice vinegar shown above.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 20 comments

I don’t know what I like better: the collard greens, the rich pot liquor or digging out the bits of smoky meat from the ham hock!

The Collard Greens recipe is from my good friend and fellow food blogger, Lisa Fain, who writes the blog, Homesick Texan. She’s a 7th generation Texan who moved to New York City for a job and one day found herself scouring the city in search of Ro-Tel tomatoes, the only brand of tomatoes fit for true Tex-Mex Chile Con Queso.

Of course, she couldn’t find any, and thus the Homesick Texan blog was born. Lisa has just come out with her very first cookbook, The Homesick Texan Cookbook.

It’s one of my favorite cookbooks this year – after no less than 4 trips to the Lone Star state this year alone – I’ve been craving Tex-Mex foods like crazy.

Even though Lisa lives 1,200 miles from me, I see her more often than friends down the street. Every trip to NYC is incomplete without sharing a meal with Lisa – we’ve done sushi, Jamaican, sushi and more sushi.

And those red cowboy boots she’s wearing? Only Lisa could be responsible for this.

Lisa’s Collard Greens are simple. Throw in a couple handfuls of hearty smoked meats, add the collard greens, pour in water and apple cider vinegar and let it simmer for an hour and half or until the greens are as soft as you like them. Collard Greens are just as much about the simmering sauce as it is about the greens.

The savory, smoky, vitamin-rich pot-liquor is so full of rich flavor that you’ll savor every last drop. In fact, spoon your collard greens onto your plate, right next to the roasted garlic mashed potatoes on your plate. Forget the gravy – the pot liquor will find its way over and bleed into the soft mashed potatoes. I guarantee my kids will be forming a mashed potato moat, just so the pot liquor doesn’t escape.

Vegetarian version of Collard Greens? You bet. Lisa’s got a secret ingredient, one that actually made me say outloud, “No. Way. Really????”

Continue reading Collard Greens with Ham and Smoked Hock...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 21 comments

It’s funny the difference in reactions I get between “we’re having squid tonight” and “we’re having calamari tonight” – one it utter disgust “EWWWW SQUID!???” And the other, “oh, we’re going fancy Italian tonight, aren’t we?”

Most of the calamari we order from restaurants is the traditional battered ‘n deep fried (LOVE!) but somehow I lost my deep fryer during the move. It’s a mystery — where is my electric deep fryer full of slightly used canola oil? Where could i have put it? Did the moving people lose it? Did it get accidentally mixed in with another family’s stuff? Did Swiper swipe it?

Well, whoever has it, I’m sure is making beautiful battered and deep fried calamari.

In the meantime, our calamari is grilled on a stick, which in my opinion, is just as good as fried (so THERE!)

Buying squid…errrrr…..calamari can be a little scary – what do you do with the slippery tubes and funny fingers? For this recipe, I buy already cleaned squid, which you can get frozen in a bag or your nice fishmonger might have some already defrosted in the glass case for ya.

Now…I know some of you can’t get already-cleaned squid…so I ventured out to the interwebs to find you some videos. But I gotta say, since handling slimy squid with a giant eyeball staring at you and long tentacles waiting to (eeeeks STOP IT!! I watch too many horror flicks) isn’t the most easy thing to do, I was hoping that I could find a happyhappyjoyjoy video about cleaning squid.

Continue reading Simple Grilled Calamari...

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My parents will be visiting for a week, they arrive a little later this afternoon. This morning, I headed over to the supermarket to stock up on breakfast items, snacks and stuff for dinner tonight. As I was walking up and down the aisles, I thought, “hmmm, wouldn’t it be a fun idea to buy all the stuff that Mom and Dad *wouldn’t* let us buy when we were kids!???”

Ho-Ho’s!
Ding Dongs!
Spongy white bread!
Doritos NOT on sale!
Brand-name cereals!
4 different kinds of ice cream, NOT on sale!
Choco-Tacos!

My shopping cart was like the mecca of junk food and the hottie bag-boy was like, “You having a party?! Who’s comin’ over!?”

“Uh, my parents.”

Yeah, that’s hot.

I didn’t realize until I got home that my parents aren’t going to touch this junk food (I did end up buying Grape Nuts and nonfat plain yogurt for their breakfast); and I certainly won’t be able to eat all this junk food by myself.

Which means, my BOYS will be eating all that nasty sugar.

But wait….that goes against my house rules and all the hard work training the boys not to buy things not on sale or brand-name cereal because the generic ones in the bag are just the same.

Oh.

***

Those of you here just for the recipe, I’m sorry you had to read through my self-therapy just now

If you’ve visited Midtown Manhattan, you must have seen the food carts featuring Halal-style chicken and rice. Moist, savory chicken pieces are cooked right on the cart griddle, deftly chopped with the side edge of the long, wide metal spatula. The edges of the chicken near that crunchy-crispy-fried stage and then tossed with a white, tangy sauce. This is served over golden-colored and cumin-spiced rice with a side of salad and wedge of flatbread.

The lines at lunch can be excrutiatingly long, as the delicious smell of the chicken being grilled can travel far and wide.

A recipe for Halal Chicken and Rice with White Sauce comes from Serious Eats’ brand new book, Serious Eats A Comprehensive Guide to Making & Eating Delicious Food Wherever You Are. (whew…that was a long title)

But I’m not going to give you *that* recipe just yet – today is about hacking this recipe to use your leftover Thanksgiving turkey – because we all know that next week you’ll quickly tire of turkey sandwiches.

Ground Turmeric may be an ingredient you’re not familiar with -

About Serious Eats book:

(from back cover)

“Ed Levine and the editors of food blog SeriousEats.com bring you the first Serious Eats book, a celebration of America’s favorite foods, from pizza to barbecue, tacos to sliders, doughnuts to egg sandwiches, and much more. Serious Eats crackles with the energy and conviction that has made the website the passionate, discerning authority on all things delicious since its inception in 2006.

Are you a Serious Eater?

1. Do you plan your day around what you might eat?
2. When you are heading somewhere, anywhere, will you go out of your way to eat something delicious?
3. When you daydream, do you often find yourself thinking about food?
4. Do you live to eat, rather than eat to live?
5. Have you strained relationships with friends or family by dictating the food itinerary—changing everyone’s plans to try a potentially special burger or piece of pie?

Ed Levine, whom Ruth Reichl calls the “missionary of the delicious,” and his SeriousEats.com editors present their unique take on iconic foods made and served around the country. From house-cured, hand-cut corned beef sandwiches at Jake’s in Milwaukee to fried-to-order doughnuts at Shipley’s Do-Nuts in Houston; from fresh clam pizza at Zuppardi’s Pizzeria in West Haven, Connecticut, to Green Eggs and Ham at Huckleberry Bakery and Café in Los Angeles, Serious Eats is a veritable map of some of the best food they have eaten nationwide.

Covering fast food, family-run restaurants, food trucks, and four-star dining establishments, all with zero snobbery, there is plenty here for every food lover, from coast to coast and everywhere in between. Featuring 400 of the Serious Eats team’s greatest food finds and 50 all-new recipes, this is your must-read manual for the pursuit of a tasty life.

You’ll learn not only where to go for the best grub, but also how to make the food you crave right in your own kitchen, with original recipes including Neapolitan Pizza (and dough), the Ultimate Sliders (which were invented in Kansas), Caramel Sticky Buns, Southern Fried Chicken, the classic Reuben, and Triple-Chocolate Adult Brownies. You’ll also hone your Serious Eater skills with tips that include signs of deliciousness, regional style guides (think pizza or barbecue), and Ed’s hypotheses—ranging from the Cuban sandwich theory to the Pizza Cognition Theory—on what makes a perfect bite.”

Buy Serious Eats book on Amazon for $18.15

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 12 comments

I know it’s a little early to think about Thanksgiving leftovers, but believe me, time goes by so crazy fast! Once the big meal is over, even after the late-night refrigerator raid (you sneak in and pick at the turkey in the refrigerator too, right?!), we’ll always have more than enough leftover turkey for Turkey Gumbo.

Since Thanksgiving is such a big, heavy dinner, I created this recipe with restraint in mind.  It’s a lighter, milder version of gumbo than what you may be used to, a little more broth-y and no mouth-burning cayenne pepper or hot sauce, since the little kids will be enjoying this too (but feel free to douse your version with as much hot chili pepper as you like!)

While the ingredient list may look long, it is ingredients that you’ll probably have on hand anyways from cooking Thanksgiving meal. Leftover turkey meat is stirred into the gumbo at the end, just to heat through. The slow-simmered, richly flavored Turkey Gumbo served over steaming hot rice may just break the monotony of leftover turkey sandwiches this year for you too.
Continue reading Leftover Turkey Recipe: Turkey Gumbo...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 13 comments

If you ask Nathan what his most favorite recipe to cook is, he’ll tell you, “p’skeddi squash and steak!” He’s taken quite a liking to p’skeddi squash, and we’ve never tried to correct his pronunciation of spaghetti squash, it’s just too darn cute! Though I can imagine one day, when he’s older and cooking a romantic meal for a special gal, calling it p’skeddi may ruin his chances of a second date.

Due to a little goof while gardening with 35 seed packets and 2 over-zealous kids, we planted 12 spaghetti squash plants in the garden, enough to supply our entire zip code with spaghetti squash for life.

Thankfully, the chickens have a taste for the leaves and the happy-yellow flowers – and we haven’t stopped them from consuming most of the spaghetti squash plants, so now we’re left with 3 plants, one of which is barely hanging on.

The hens are my heroes!

Microwaving the Spaghetti Squash

The fastest way to cook the spaghetti squash is to microwave it! If microwaving a solid, heavy squash intimidates you a bit, you can also bake the spaghetti squash in the oven, which takes an hour to do, but is just as easy.

You’ll take a sharp paring knife and carefully, very carefully, pierce the squash in several places all over. It’s a hard squash, so it takes a bit of effort to do this. I guess a better instruction would be to say STAB the squash. But do this carefully, k?! The squash is a round, rolly, hard object.

Microwave on high for 10-12 minutes, rotating the squash halfway during cooking.

After cooking, just let the squash sit there for a few minutes to cool down a bit. Put on some oven gloves and remove the hot squash.

I highly suggest a thick towel or oven gloves – remember you stabbed the squash? Well inside the squash is steaming hot squash and some liquid which may leak through the stab marks.

I use these Pit Mitts – okay, so I look like a dork, but they are amazing – soft gloves that actually fit my hand with rubber grippy grip lines all over. I highly recommend them as I’m not a fan of those traditional oven mitts that make you feel like you’re cooking with Barney the annoying purple dinosaur hands.

Continue reading Microwave Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes & Basil...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 20 comments

A few months ago, I got an email from “John of Mighty Spice who lives in London” with a really nice message of, “hi, I’m a big fan, I love your blog, I wanna meet you.”

Well, not so blunt like that, it was way more eloquent, poetic and gentlemanly, as any proper Englishman would write. I replied, “Thanks John!” and a couple more generic, non-committal sentences – as um, anytime a handsome, young man emails me wishing to meet me in person, I sort of have an obligation to my husband to not accept random invitations from strangers.

John and I exchanged a few more emails, found out we have mutual friends – double checked back with the friends to make sure John was a-okay and for real (i.e. not stalker!) He checked out, so I finally said, “Okay, I’m speaking at Food Blogger Connect in London in a couple of months. Let’s meet there.”

We ended up actually having a chance to meet in person, over a quick Lebanese lunch and wow, did we have so much in common! We were both talking so fast and furious about food, cookbook, life, wine, travel and blogging that the lunch was over way too soon.

John had *just* come out with his very first cookbook, Mighty Spice and would be coming to America for a book tour. I invited him over to stay at our cottage and just hang out with the family. My boys *loved* Mr. John, and he became part of our family the moment he taught them how to speak with an English accent.

While John was here, I helped him with some television and radio gigs, intro’d him to some amazing people, like Rebecca Brooks, Janis my literary agent and my peeps at Momentum. I know you’ll see more of John – don’t believe me? Watch this pilot!

Mighty Spice Cookbook, , by John Gregory-Smith is available on Amazon!

***

Chocolate and Chickens with Steamy Kitchen

I have just finished a crazy book tour of America. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had and I can’t wait to return. My tour took me down to Florida, where for a few nights, I stayed at Steamy Kitchen HQ. I had met Jaden in London, where we chatted about all things delicious over a huge Lebanese feast. I arrived late on a Tuesday night and was greeted by, a then hobbling – due to a Taekwondo injury, Jaden, who had a glass of wine on hand to welcome her British guest! Scott had been on BBQ duty and we had an awesome dinner, with one amazing Kale and Cauliflower Salad. Jaden had arranged for me to make an appearance on Daytime TV, the following morning, and pointed out that I had come a bit underprepared – I had no equipment apart from my food, Doh! After a whip round the kitchen I was ready to rock and the show was a blast!

Jaden had started her epic vegetable garden, complete with real, live, flapping chickens. The guys took me for a closer look and it became very clear that I was useless at holding chickens! I live in central London and the only nature that comes my way is the occasional tree or what I find in the food market. Every time I was given one of the chickens to hold, they would sense my uselessness, flap off and carry on scratching away with their mates.

That night we had a delicious, alfresco Mexican dinner, complete with chicken, salsas, salads and yummy cheese. After dinner and a few beers my sweet tooth kicked in and I was in desperate need of some chocolate. Well, once again, staying with a high profile food blogger paid off. I was presented with a sack load of chocolate to eat – by the way, I ate all but a few squares, which I left in the little fridge, sorry!

The next day was a blur; up at 4am to catch a flight to Charlotte NC for a show, back to Tampa and 2 hour drive to Orlando to prepare for The Daily Buzz. It was so nice returning “home” to the Hair’s house, where we had a wonderful spaghetti and meatball dinner, with lots of lovely parmesan cheese! It was a delicious end to a wonderful few days.

Jaden, Scott, Nathan, Andrew and Coco thanks so much for having me, showing me the fish, turtles, chicken, for all the laughs and great food! Come over and see me soon in London!

In the meantime, enjoy this Chili and Basil Scallops recipe from my new book, Mighty Spice.

~John, Mighty Spice

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 13 comments

Every week, about 2-3 times a week, I go to physical therapy for my knee. The exercises are quite boring – lift your leg up….put it back down…and repeat 3,251 times. In the middle of the wall hangs a television, and every time, I thank the owners for putting that TV there. I don’t know if I could handle the monotony of these exercises without the company of Regis & Kelly, Rachael Ray or Dr. Oz.

Rachael was on last week and she came up with another clever little saying, “BLD” or food that’s great for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Of all her quirky (“stoop”) and annoying (“yum-o”), I think I like BLD the best. It’s practical, and the food is practical.

So here’s my BLD recipe for you – a Kimchi Omelet. It’s full of savory vegetables (green onion and zucchini) and the chopped kimchi inside gives it a little spicy, crunchy, kick.

But kimchi isn’t the secret ingredient here – it’s actually the Mirin, or Japanese sweet rice wine that really brings it all together. The mirin gives the omelet just the right touch of sweetness to balance all of the flavors – so that you have salty, spicy, sour, savory and a tinge of sweet. Kimchi adds the spicy and sour.

This is a recipe I’ve created for client Mitsukan, the makers of one of the very best Mirin out there. It only takes 10 minutes to make – perfect for either for breakfast, lunch or dinner….BLD FTW!

How to make a Kimchi Omelet

Here’s whatcha need:

Continue reading Kimchi Omelet...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 27 comments