Food – Page 12 – a hippie with a minivan

Ginger trick…

My good friend Gen shared this trick with me last time I was over at her house and I had to share it too…

If you like cooking with Ginger, you know how annoying it can be to grate. It becomes a bit of a pulp which you need to scrape from the grater, leaves behind fibrous strands that are annoying to clean and make a bit of a mess when grating. You also have to peel it before using…

but…

if you store your ginger in the freezer, not only will it last longer but it also gets rid of all the above.

Simply take the ginger out of the freezer, grate the amount you need and that is it… no peeling, no fibrous strands, no pulp that you have to scrape off… just ginger snow that falls into your dish perfectly with no mess…

Try it! it really works!

Vanilla bean buttercream frosting…

I love Vanilla but I always seem to make chocolate icing to go with our favourite Black Magic cake… Two nights ago though I got a craving and I needed to make Chocolate cake with vanilla icing…

I looked for a recipe and found one that had great comments, followed the directions and it didn’t turn out well at all.. the butter separated and the texture was grainy and oily and unappetizing… so I went back to my tried and true chocolate buttercream icing but to omit the cocoa and make Vanilla the star… OMG… it was perfect!!

1/2 cup butter
about 3 cups icing sugar, (sifted)
1/3 – 1/2 cup cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
seeds of one vanilla bean

cream the butter until fluffy and then add the sifted icing sugar, cream and vanilla… start with 1/3 cup of cream but you might need more for a thinner frosting… beat with mixer for at least 2 min until light a fluffy…

This makes enough for the inside and out of a two layer cake…

This brought the black Magic cake to another dimension… I think I am going to call this combination “Oreo cake”

You know you want a bite… right?

Making Genmaicha…

I first had Genmaicha at a Japanese restaurant and from the first sip I was hooked.

The flavour of the toasted brown rice and green tea was just so appealing to my palate and I just wanted to keep on sipping an endless supply… I just had to know what it was and where I could get it. I did find some at a little tea house and have had it a few times since, but I ran out and couldn’t find any near me and after having a cup at my friend Gen’s house the other day, I was determined to get my hands on some.

Turns out, all you need is brown rice and green tea. Very easy to get both of those; and like many things, when you do it yourself, you can have a lot more for a lot less.

So here is what you need…

This is organic green tea (Sencha) and Organic short grain brown rice

I heated my cast-iron pan on medium high heat and put a layer of rice on the bottom which worked out to about an equal amount of green tea that I had.

Stir the rice and toast it until is smells nutty, kernels are popping and the rice is a nice golden brown colour. Just make sure that it doesn’t burn.

Let cool and then mix with the green tea.

Use about 1 tsp per cup of hot water and Enjoy…

Coconut Vanilla Tapioca pudding

What more can be said.

Fresh and creamy… This is such a classic recipe with a small twist, the coconut milk adds such a great dimension to the custard. The flavour of this pudding is my ultimate comfort food and it is so simple to make.

Here is what you need…

3 cups coconut milk (or another milk if you want the more classic version)
1/3 cup small pearl tapioca
2 extra-large egg yolks, lightly beaten
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/3 cup cane sugar
1 vanilla bean, split along the length (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

Pour 3/4 cup of the milk into a thick-bottomed pot and add the tapioca and let sit for an hour.

Whisk in the egg yolks, salt, sugar, and the remaining milk and then scrape the vanilla bean along its length with a knife and add those little “seeds” to the mixture along with the bean itself (if you are using vanilla extract only stir it in at the very end, after the pudding is completely cooked).
Over medium heat slowly bring the mixture just barely to a boil, stirring all along and then reduce the heat and let the mixture fall to a simmer and keep stirring until the tapioca is cooked (they become translucent) and the custard is thickened.

Let cool and serve (it is delicious both warm or cold)

Pogos (otherwise known as Corn dogs)

OK… OK… not the healthiest food but they are definitely a fun food, especially for the boys, and making them myself means that I know what is in them and of course the taste is SO much better than the fast food places or what you can buy frozen…

1 cup cornmeal
1 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
milk (any type)
about 18 hot dogs (veggie, soy, beef or whatever you want)
flour
(optional) wooden sticks

Combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, egg and sugar and then add milk until batter has a pancake type consistency…

I didn’t use skewers and instead cut the hot dogs in half and then coated them with flour, but If you are using skewers, put them in each hot dog and then coat hot dogs with flour. Heat 2″ deep oil to 370 degrees F. (I use my electric wok for most of my frying needs)

Dip hot dogs into batter mix and coat evenly and them put in the oil and fry until golden brown (about 2 1/2-3 min)

The boys dove into these like there was no tomorrow and there were none left at the end, but they could easily be made and frozen and then heated up in the oven for a quick lunch… I will definitely be making these again…