Culinary Adventures of MadZak

When I was in Taiwan I had a very delicious beef noodle soup and have been longing for a soup to that caliber. Luckily January is when I started to perfect my vegetable stock and figured I’d give it a shot with some vegetable noodle soup.

The broth is what really seals this dish as the ingredients do nothing but soak up the flavor. If you can make the broth yourself, you are better off as store bought just won’t cut it!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 carrot (peeled)
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 wood-ear (any fungus like mushrooms)
• 1 tomato
• 1 tablespoon basil
• 1 tablespoon thyme

METHOD:
Combine vegetable broth and water in a pot and bring to boil. Add frozen udon noodles, carrots, onions, wood-ear or mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic, basil, and thyme. Once frozen udon noodles start to break apart, go ahead and add the sesame oil, rice vinegar, and soy sauce.

Once vegetables and noodles are soft, remove from heat, add salt and pepper, and serve.

Green curry and rice is a personal favorite dish of mine and I’ve seen it served as soup or as a thick sauce on the rice. It is super great to warm you up during the winter and no one should be afraid of curry as it’s easily adjustable. The flavor from the green curry is what makes this dish, combined with coconut milk and you get a nice sweet heat. Not only will all the ingredients soak up the flavor but the rice will absorb whatever is left leaving you with a dish to remember. You can adjust the green curry paste based on your heat tolerance. I’ve found that 4 seems to work good for Judy who doesn’t like heat at all and is still a bit hot for my medium tastes. Play with the ingredients, most everything will work fine!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 cups coconut milk (1 can)
• 4 tablespoons green curry paste
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup broccoli
• 1 cup cauliflower
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 4 cups rice

METHOD:
In a skillet, bring 1 cup of coconut milk to boil with green curry paste. Reduce to medium and add everything but the chicken into the milk/curry mixture. Cook the chicken separately and add into the soup mixture once done. Cook for 15 minutes or until vegetables are soft and serve on rice.

Having a bunch of turkey left overs from Thanksgiving, I’ve spent most of the week working on utilizing it as much as I can. Last Night, I made a nice turkey fried rice for my wife and as always it was super simple and super tasty.

As with many of my recipes, it is a bit of a blank canvas and you can use any type of meat you’d like. Enjoy the great mix of carrots, green peppers, turkey, and egg as it melts in your mouth and warms you up. This is what fried rice should be, notice the lack of that weird yellow color? I still haven’t figured out why that’s added to the take outs! Make a big batch as you can warm this up for quick dinners or lunches as well.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 cups turkey (pulled/shredded)
• 1 carrot (vertical sliced)
• 1/2 green pepper (horizontal sliced)
• 4 cloves garlic (diced)
• 1 egg
• 2 cups rice (cooked)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine
• 1 tablespoon garlic (diced)
• 1/4 cup green onion (sliced)

METHOD:
Warm a skillet on medium-high heat. Once warmed, add oil and garlic then sauté for 30 seconds or so. Add carrots, green peppers, pepper, and turkey. Turn heat up to high and fry for 5 minutes stirring to make sure things don’t stick to the pan.

Add rice, rice wine, and soy sauce and mix well. Make a small hole in the center of the skillet and crack the egg in the middle. Mix the egg until it is cooked, add green onions and then mix the whole skillet up, remove from heat and serve.

I first had this dish at Siam Cafe in the “chinatown” of Cleveland, Ohio and I immediately fell in love! The noticeable difference between an american and chinese eggplant is a sweeter flavor and this dish helps show that along with a great characteristic of a sponge. The eggplant soaks up the blend of sauces, soy/vinegar/wine, and provides a consistent flavor on each bite.

For about 20 minutes of cooking time, you will get 4 servings, a great smelling house, and a delightful dinner with plenty of lunch time leftovers. You can also add some hot sauce if you want to kick up the spice.



INGREDIENTS:

• 4 japanese eggplant
• 1/4 cup garlic (diced)
• 1/2 green pepper
• 4 green onion stalks
• 2 tablespoon cornstarch (mixed with 1 tablespoon water)
• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoon black vinegar
• 2 tablespoon rice wine (cooking wine will do)
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cups rice

METHOD:
Wash outside of eggplants and cut off vine end. Cut eggplant in half at the middle, then slice each half lengthwise. Cut each eggplant piece using an angle, you want the eggplant to be chunky but not too big. Turn the skillet to medium-high heat and when heated, add half of the oil, the garlic, and the eggplant chunks. Cook for 5 minutes.

Slice the green pepper and add to the skillet along with the remaining oil. Cook for 5 minutes. In a bowl combine the cornstarch and water and set aside. Add to the skillet the soy sauce, black vinegar, and rice wine. Bring the added sauce to boil, then add cornstarch. Once the sauce is boiling again, remove skillet from heat and continue to stir until sauce thickens and coats all the eggplant.

Place 1 cup of rice in a bowl, pour 1/4th of the eggplant over the top and sprinkle with 1/4th of the green onion. Repeat for the the remaining 3 bowls and serve.

As many of you may noticed, there is always a bunch of turkey left over from the holidays. Being from the bird family, you can easily dress up turkey to appear to be chicken and save that tasty meat from going to waste!

This dish does just that, with the combination of spices the signature turkey taste is covered up and even in pictures appears to look like chicken! A simple combination of spiced turkey, cheese, tomato, and green onion presents itself beautifully in this quesadilla with a rich taste that’s sure to entice you to make it up again or even ask for more left overs.



INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup turkey (diced)
• 1 cup cheese (colby jack)
• 1/2 cup green onions (about 2 stalks)
• 1 tomato (diced)
• 1 dash pepper
• 1 dash cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon cilantro
• 4 10″ tortilla

METHOD:
Preheat oven to 350. In a mixing bowl, combine tomato, turkey, green onion, cheese, pepper, cayenne pepper, and cilantro. Mix until all ingredients are mixed well.

Lay 1 tortilla on a baking sheet, pour half of the mixture on the tortilla, top with another tortilla. Place in oven on top rack for about 8 minutes. Watch for the tortilla to get brown on top. Remove and Serve with sour creme or guacamole.

So you got an urge for some mexican food but realized that you are out of packets! Don’t worry, we’ve all been in this same position and here is an easy solution for you. Most of the ingredients are pretty standard in your spice collection, if not just pick them up next time when you hit up the store.

I’ve tried this on everything from chicken to tofu and it’s amazing how much more flavor you get out of this compared to the packets! Just mix this up and add it right when you start cooking and the outcome will be delicious, i promise!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes ( or cayenne pepper)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

METHOD:

Combine seasoning ingredients into a small bowl or container.

Such a simple yet delicious dish which can be served at all hours of the day. This tasty yellow bread is sure to make your mouth, stomach, and head happy as can be with it’s fluffy texture and sweet taste.

It took a few tries, but those tries just made this better and better. It’s a good moist and a bit flaky. This one was made with egg and milk replacer so that’s why there’s little black specks in it. Be sure to enjoy it warmed up with some butter drizzled on top.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose white flour
• 3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg, beaten

METHOD:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the cornmeal, flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder. Mix until blended then pour in the vegetable oil, milk, and beaten egg. Mix until a thick batter is formed.

Grease a 8″ or 9″ baking dish with vegetable oil, pour batter into pan, and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, Let cool for 30 minutes, and Serve.

SERVINGS: 8

Beans, barley, and tomatoes is something new to me at least. I’ve never heard of barley prior to my quest for dried beans and I think I’m hooked! This dish is easy to prep, cook, and clean (trust me I do that too!) and it’ll make a great packed lunch for the next day, saving that money for more important things.

Serve with some steamed broccoli and cauliflower and you got yourself a dinner worth sitting down for. This dish is a great replacement for standard rice and or pasta. If you are looking for something new to try that is cheap and healthy, this is it.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup dried barley pearls
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 cup black beans
• 1/2 cup green onion
• 1/2 cup onion
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup garlic
• 3 cups vegetable broth

METHOD:

In a deep skillet or sauce pot add oil, garlic, and garlic. After about 5 minutes add the black beans, tomatoes, barley, and the vegetable broth then bring to boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 40 minutes. Stir occasionally.

After 40 minutes, add the green onions, salt, and pepper then continue simmering for 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and serve.

SERVINGS: 4

So you go out to dinner and the waitress comes on over after you’ve eaten your nice meal and asks you if you would like some dessert. Obviously this happens all the time but I’m about to present a new spin on the classic restaurant dessert. Just how much are these guys hurting your bank account and your waist line? Let’s take a look!

Below I took one of our favorite desserts that we used to purchase when we’d eat out at a local restaurant. My wife and I are suckers for cookies and cream, so it’s no surprise that a dessert including syrup, oreos, vanilla, and a brownie would wet our taste buds. My only issue was that price… it felt really high but of course giving into temptation would prove more powerful than frugality. Below I give you the homemade version below which goes very easy on your bank account and also your waist line (still a dessert, but you can indulge every now and then!)

Recipe

• Hershey Low Fat Chocolate Syrup – 2.35 2 tablespoons, 15 per container 45 calories
• Reduced Fat Oreo Cookies (funny) – 3.39 3 cookies 15 per container 150 calories
• Fat Free Cool Whip – .69  (-1.00 for shoppers card) 2 tablespoons 25 per container  15 calories
• Generic Vanilla Ice Cream – 2.49 2 tbsp 1/2 cup 14 per container 130 calories
• Betty Crocker Low Fat Brownie Mix – 1.69 1 brownie 18 per bag 140 calories

Modified Serving Size

• Brownie (cut into 14) = 180 calories costing $0.12
• Oreo Cookies (1 and 1/2 cookies crumbled) = 75 calories $0.11
• Hershey Syrup (1 tablespoon) = 22.5 calories $.07
• Cool Whip (2 tablespoons) = 15 calories $.06
• Ice Cream (1/2 cup) = 130 calories $.18

Results

• Calories = 422 ( about 1/3 of the original count guess)
• Total Cost = $0.54
• Restaurant Cost = 5.29 for 2 servings
• Total saved = $4.21
• Profit Markup = 490%

No Kidding Huh?

I’ve made it my own goal in my cooking career to make as much as I can from scratch. Once I figured out how to make the following recipes, I realized I could never buy them from the store again. There comes a point where convenience should not sacrifice the quality. These, along with a few other easy to make items, certainly require quality over convenience!

Salsa and Guacamole

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Avocado’s
• 2 Lemon
• 2 tablespoon Garlic
• 1/2 cup diced Onions
• 2 tomatoes diced
• 1 tablespoon fresh Cilantro
• 2 dashes salt
• 2 dashes pepper
  

EQUIPMENT:

• Two mixing bowls
• A measuring spoon and cup
• A fork
  

METHOD:

We’ll start with the guacamole so get one of the mixing bowls and your fork ready. Cut and scoop out the insides (throw away the pit) of the avocados and place it in the bowl. Add 1/4 cup diced onions, juice of 1 lemon, 1/2 tablespoon cilantro, 1 tablespoon of garlic, 1 dash of salt, and 1 dash of pepper. Now mix up with your fork until the guacamole looks as chunky as you desire. And you are done, yeah that simple!

Salsa follows the same method. Combine juice of 1 lemon, all the diced tomato’s, 1/4 cup diced onions, 1/2 tablespoon cilantro, 1 tablespoon of garlic, 1 dash of salt, and 1 dash of pepper. Mix trying to only smash up a few of the tomatoes. If you like it thin, smash up more tomatoes. Chill and serve.