As my many house guests can attest to, I am not a breakfast eater (unless I’m hung over, then a 1/2 pound of bacon will be devoured quickly). When Diane and Todd were over, the first thing my boys did right after waking up in the morning was run over to the cottage to wake them up and drag them to the house to make their famous breakfast.

They made homemade pancakes, waffles, french toast and cinnamon sugar knots. Oh, and we went through 10 pounds of bacon too (I’m not joking). You should see my boys’ faces when they woke up on Sunday and realized Uncle Todd and Auntie Diane were gone….(sigh) back to cold cereal and boring eggs. 

But the ONE thing I will eat in the morning is 10-minute miso soup. Okay, sometimes I like Ochazuke for breakfast too (but that’s for another post). My body craves savory Japanese flavors in the morning and miso soup, fortified with egg, mushrooms, tofu and whatever leafy greens I have will hit the spot.

I’m developing recipes for Miso & Easy, which is a prepared miso paste that’s all ready to go – add hot water and you’ve got instant miso soup. It’s a brand new product.

If you’re using regular miso paste, same recipe, just use vegetable broth or dashi broth in place of water.

What is dashi? 

Dashi is Japanese soup base that’s made from bonito fish. Instead of using chicken, vegetable or beef broth (in soups and in cooking dishes), Japanese recipes will call for dashi broth instead. You can make it from scratch, with a piece of kombu (dried seaweed) and dried bonito flakes; or use instant dashi powder (which is what I use)

But if you don’t have dashi, just use vegetable broth instead. 

As for the other ingredients, it’s simple. And flexible. Whatever fresh mushrooms you have (below I have Japanese mushrooms), whatever leafy greens you want (spinach, bok choy, napa cabbage) and whatever firmness of tofu you want.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | No comments

1. Petite Treat Stands
2. Ball Mason Jar Votive Lantern–Made to Order
3. Blanco Solon Compost System
4. Bacon Hearts for Valentine’s Day
5. Egg Candles
6. Beautiful Handmade Cutting Boards
7. Wellies on the Rocks
8. Easy diy garage storage for all kinds of gear.
9. A Fast Way to Bake a Cookie: Use a Waffle Iron!

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | No comments

So, here’s the dilemma:

When I freak out, I procrastinate. When I procrastinate, I shop. When I shop, I get hungry. When I get hungry, I eat. When I eat too much, I freak out.

Okay, freaking is a bit too strong of a word, but it certainly is an emotionally charged word and certainly helps justify the destructive chain of events that happen following the initial emotional breakdown.

So, I’m on deadline for this book – well, truth be told, I’m past deadline (thus the freaking out) — and now all I can think about are these dishes, these glasses, chubby hubby bars and Frito Pie….as in homemade 1 Hour Texas Chili spooned on top of a mound of Frito chips.

Frito Pie is a Texas delicacy, popular at county fairs and considered good tail-gaitin’ eats. It’s an easy enough treat to make – a 10 minute prep and then let it simmer an hour on the stove. Rip open a package of Fritos, pour it on and eat straight out of the bag.

The recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks of 2011 – Lisa Fain’s Homesick Texan Cookbook - slightly modified to shave off a few minutes of the hands-on involvement in the recipe.

You can customize this recipe any way you want, including adding a can of Rotel diced tomatoes, a can of beans or using ground turkey, but there’s one thing you don’t want to change: use dried chiles instead of just chili powder.

Lisa’s recipe calls for dried ancho, chipotle and pequin — though I only used ancho and chipotle (couldn’t find pequin). The dried chiles will last forever in your pantry and all you need to do is rehydrate them in water and add them in the blender along with dried oregano, ground cumin, clove and cinnamon. This homemade chili base that has so much more depth and flavor than just ground chili powder.

The kids loved it – it’s not spicy-hot (top it with chopped jalepeno peppers if you want) and they thought I was the coolest mom letting them eat out of a chip bag. 
Continue reading Frito Pie with 1 Hour Texas Chili...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 22 comments

We’ll be posting miso recipes regularly for the next few months, I’m working with Marukome to develop recipes for their brand new Miso & Easy product with substitutions using regular miso paste. So, Miso & Easy is like instant miso in a squeezable bottle. You can make miso soup in seconds, there’s no need for kombu or bonito flakes or dashi – it’s all in the bottle!

This recipe can be made with Miso & Easy or regular Miso Paste (I love the all-natural low sodium miso paste from Marukome)

How to make Steak with Orange Miso Sauce

Rub both sides of the steak with cooking oil and season with salt.

Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet, such as a cast iron pan, over high heat. When hot, add the steak to the pan. Sear both sides until browned, about 3-5 minutes on each side.

Transfer the steak to a clean plate then make the orange miso sauce. Turn the heat to medium-low and add about 3/4 of a cup of beef stock to the pan.

Next, add miso, mirin (a Japanese sweet rice wine) and Asian sesame oil to the pan. Cook the sauce for one minute.

Now, squeeze the juice from half an orange into the sauce.

Add the steak back into the pan and cook until your desired doneness.

…and, you’re done!

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 5 comments

Prior to them coming, Diane had sent me a list of things we needed for the shoot – number one on the list was a place to shoot near the kitchen that had plenty of natural light throughout the day. I originally had my prop room way out at a building in the back of the property – it’s a good 2 minute walk from the kitchen, through the living room, across the lanai, out the screen door, dodging the bitey red ants, balancing on large uneven rocks, up the deck stairs, across the deck, tiptoeing across the old (and unused) putting green riddled with more red ants and through the building door.

Can you imagine trying to do that for every single dish? And what if you forgot a garnish? You’d have to trek back and by that time, the food would have been very tired.

So we converted the already converted garage (the previous owners had made the garage a playroom for the kids) that was adjacent to the kitchen into my photography studio. It made sense, there’s plenty of large windows, double glass doors and it was steps from the kitchen.

With new paint and flooring, the space that used to be our junk/laundry room turned into a light-filled, bright, cheerful place to work. Wire racks from a discount warehouse store, Ikea baskets and bookshelves and a drop-dead gorgeous wooden table from Greentea Design, the number one requirement for a photoshoot was checked off.

I have plenty of dishes and props, but since I normally just shoot on white, the second item on my list was fabric.

Here’s a tip when fabric shopping: don’t go when you’re in a bad mood. Otherwise you’ll end up with drab colors.

Blah. So I left the store, went and got some coffee, scrolled through Failblog (hahahaaa!) and went back in a much better mood.

Ta-da! Happy! Bright! Cheerful!

They went organized by color in the Ikea wire baskets on a rolling rack.

Ikea Antonius system – $38.99 for the frame, I bought two of them and stacked on top of each other. Each wire basket was $6. Plop some wheels on the bottom ka-blam! It rolls around, out of the way.

Those are Billy bookcases, $49.99 each. Cheap, functional and even I can put it together. Once Todd and Diane arrived, we first worked on creating a workflow. Normally, when I shoot for the blog, I scout around the house for where there’s a good light. Candidates include: my office, outside patio, dining room table, breakfast nook, family room or the outside kitchen table. It’s a lot of work chasing light, huffin’ and puffin’ moving things around.

Instead, Diane said we were going to shoot in one spot and use white bounce, black bounce and scrims. For the book (i.e. print) we need to shoot tethered to the computer (that itty bitty tiny screen on the camera isn’t good enough!) and we hooked up a 15ft tether cord from my iMac to the camera.

I use Adobe Lightroom to manage and edit my photos, so we shot directly into Lightroom. The computer was anchored to a $159 rolling cart (yes, also from….you guessed it, Ikea) – Scott used 2 clamps and some plywood to secure it, though we’ll be looking for a more um, pretty solution soon.

I highly, highly recommend Lightroom for food bloggers – it helps me catalog and keep track of my photos AND makes editing so super easy. You can try out Lightroom 4 Beta for free right now.

You can see how awesome it is to shoot tethered – everyone can see immediately on the monitor the shot.

Continue reading Cookbook Shoot...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 32 comments

1. Tiny Bubbles! Send clouds of tiny bubbles skyward with this quick trick from Family Fun
2. Green Apple Compost Crock from Lake Land (Price is in Pounds, Amazon sells a similar apple compost crock in red)
3. Microwave Sea Salt Caramels from The Yummy Life
4. Rubber Boot Tray from Ballard Designs
5. Breakfast Galette from Cafe Fernado
6. Buttermilk Cream Tart with Apple Roses from Martha Stewart
7. The Year of the Dragon Commemorative Plates from Villeroy & Boch
8. LYSOL^® No-Touch^TM Kitchen System
9. Wean Green Snack Cubes  – I’m giving these to my friend Isabelle and her 11 month old baby. Ditch the plastic, go glass!

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 7 comments

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!

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 50 comments

I’ve been pretty quiet on the cookbook development front – other than announcing that I scored a cookbook deal with a publisher that produces some of my very favorite books, Ten Speed Press, I haven’t shared much. I think most authors will agree, the process of writing a book isn’t terribly exciting, it takes a lot of discipline (which I lack), focus, (uh, that neither) and nimble fingers (I’ve got chronic tendonitis)….though I’ve found that I’m extremely deft in hitting the delete button with my ring finger.

Sometimes, I’ll be typing a sentence that my brain is thinking, but my fingers know better and my ring finger is already reaching for the delete button even before I finish the thought.

For this book, I’ve decided to keep my sanity, and instead of trying to develop, write, style and shoot the book all by myself, I’m going to get some help. My best friends, Todd and Diane are comin’ to help me style – all the pretty stuff like plates, linens, table settings. I’ll be shooting the photos myself, but I’m gettin’ loads ‘n loads of help from some of the best photographers in the business.

I love my friends.

We’ve also convinced Jenna from Eat Live Run to come along and help out. All I have to do is feed her….and she’s gonna help me in the kitchen!

The crew is coming in on Monday and we’re aiming to shoot an ambitious 12 recipes per day. So, if you happen to see an odd tweet or facebook post from my husband or sons, “Mommy is going CRAAAAZY!” you’ll know why.

Less than a week before they arrive and I’m already a giddy-excited wreck. I’ve been sugar and carb loading to deal with the nerves, wouldn’t you!? With a bag of Meyer lemons (thanks Julie!) in the refrigerator, my friend Kelly and I made these Crepes with Salted Lemon Butter Caramel.

My coping mechanism looks like this:

Sweet, tart and drippy.
Continue reading Crepes with Salted Lemon Butter Caramel...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 30 comments

“Aha! a chicken to chase!”

Chase! Chase!

Instead of flapping wings and running to the coop, Fireflapper steps aside, stays put, right where she is and lets Coco, who thinks Fireflapper is going to run, pass on by.

“Uh oh. where’d she go?”

Right behind ya, Coco!

Fireflapper chases Coco, pecks her in the butt.

“Hi hen friend! Wanna play again?”

“Wanna play? Wanna play? huhhuhuh???”

“Come ‘on, let’s play!”

*peck*

ouch.

“Yeah, chase THIS you dumb dog!”

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 30 comments

Bacalao, pronounced [bah-kah-LAH-oh] is Portuguese dried, salted cod fish. Before refrigeration, fish was dried and preserved in salt to keep in the cellar. There are hundreds of variations of bacalao recipes, but my favorite has always been Bacalao con Patatas (bacalao with potatoes) – however I don’t make it much at home because traditional recipes require too many steps and forethought for my bad habits (impatience and spontaneity).

After spying a bag of bacalao at my local market, I decided to create a recipe that that would cut out a major tedious step. Unfortunately, I couldn’t nix the “forethought” part – as bacalao needs to be soaked overnight in water to get rid of some of its salt. It’s a step that can’t be skipped (boo) and there really isn’t a good shortcut.

The “major tedious step” I’m talking about is boiling the potatoes first before adding it to the dish. Okay, so I’m being dramatic, but bringing a large pot of water to boil (and of course, staring at the darn thing waiting for the first bubbles) and then cooking the potatoes until tender is crazy boring and requires another pot on the stove.

Instead, dice the potatoes into 1/2″ dice, briefly brown them in the saute pan along with the rest of the vegetables. Then add the bacalao, a cup of water, cover and let ‘em all simmer quietly and harmoniously for 15 minutes, just enough time to cook the potatoes through. 

Serve over pasta, rice, quinoa….or enjoy with a loaf of bread.

Salt Cod (Bacalao) with Potatoes over Rice  

Step 1: soak the bacalao overnight in cool water. This is a step you cannot skip….the fish will be way to salty.  

The fresh ingredients – bell pepper, garlic, onion, tomatoes, salt cod (bacalao), celery and potatoes. All the veg are diced small – quicker cooking! 

First, brown the potatoes in the saute pan.

Then saute the aromatics – garlic, onion, bell pepper, celery.

and add the rest of the ingredients in:

Including the de-salted (and drained) bacalao. 

Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Serve over rice, pasta, quinoa…or enjoy with a loaf of bread.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 13 comments