Jack is Cooking Tofu with Cashew Nuts

Well Hello Internet!

Today i have a Thai recipe to share.  You may recall seeing this at your local Thai establishment as Chicken with Cashew Nuts.  Its pretty good with chicken, but i find it much easier to keep Tofu in my fridge, as it has quite a longer shelf life.  It's a pretty good substitute if you fry it up first.  Feel free to use chicken if you want for the original version.

Here's what you'll need to make it the tofu way:

Half a Block of Tofu (cubed, and fried until golden and crispy)
2 tbspns of Cashew nuts (lightly fried)
1/2 an onion (sliced in moon slivers)
2-3 dried red chillies
2 cloves garlic
cherry tomatoes  (optional)

spring onion (optional garnish)

for the sauce:
1 tbspn oyster sauce
1/2 tbspn soy sauce
1/2 tbspn fish sauce
1/2 tbspn ketchup
1/2 tbspn chilli sauce
a couple of drops black soy sauce
1/2 tspn sugar
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1.  heat some oil in a pan, and add the garlic and red chillies.  When the garlic begins to brown a little add in the tofu.  (if you are going to use chicken, this is when to add the raw chicken,  cook it until it is cooked  90% through)

2.  add the onions, cherry tomatoes, and cashews

Onions, Tofu and Cashew Nuts

3. while the onions are cooking, mix all the sauce ingredients together:

Sauce

4.  Add the sauce to the pan, with a little water.  Stir and fry to mix together.

Veggies, Sauced

5. Serve with Rice, and garnish with green onions if you have them!

Tofu and Cashew Nuts with Rice

And That's it!  a super easy thai dish to make, with very little ingredients.

mmmm mmmm delicious

Jack is Cooking Hurricane Curry

Well Hello Internet!

Last night as Hurricane Irene bore down upon new york city, we hunkered down and made some curry!  It was the perfect thing to eat while eagerly waiting for the storm.

Otherwise known as a Navratan Korma, this was my own twist on a delicious creamy vegetable curry.
as always with my curry recipes i will divide the spices into groups depending on when they need to be added.  This particular curry has lots of separate steps to take in order to prepare your mis-en-place, but otherwise the actual steps taken are quite simple.

Heres what you will need:

Spice Group A:
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds

Spice Group B
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon asafetida
1/2 teaspoon salt

The Rest of the Ingredients:
1 potato cut into 1 cm cubes
2 large carrots sliced
1/2 cup green peas
1 large head of broccoli (with as much stalk as you can get) cubed

1/2 lb paneer (cubed)
2 tomatoes (cubed)
1 onion (grated)
2 cloves of garlic (finely grated)
1.5 inches of ginger (finely grated)
1 can of coconut milk
2 tablespoons ghee
olive oil.

The Preparation:

1.  Prepare your spice bowls.
2. Cut all vegetables to equal sized pieces and parboil them.  these will be cooked more later, so don't overdo it now.  strain and set aside in a colander.
3. Cube the tomatoes, grate the onion, grate the ginger and the garlic.
4. Heat the ghee and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan.  fry the paneer until it is golden brown on all sides.   pour the paneer with ghee and all over the vegetables in the colander.  While its still hot sprinkle some garam masala over them and toss.

Boiled Veggies and Paneer sprinkled with Garam Masala

Now that everything is prepared we can get onto the cooking of the actual curry.

1.  In a medium sized pot, heat some olive oil, and add in Spice Group A.  fry for about 30 seconds, and then add in the onions.  fry these together for about 4-5 minutes.  Add the Ginger and the Garlic, and fry for 30 more seconds.

2.  throw in Spice Group B and fry together for about a minute.  add the chopped tomatoes, and fry for 3-4 more minutes:

Spices and Tomatoes

3.  Add the vegetables and paneer, and toss until they are all nice and coated in the spice-tomato mixture.

4.  Add the can of coconut milk, bring to a boil and simmer until the potatoes are just tender.

simmering curry

Serve with rice, and sprinkle a little cilantro on top for added effect! 

and that's about it!  you can make this during a hurricane no problem, as long as your gas stays on.... or you can make it any other day and its just as good!

mmmm mmmm delicious!

Jack is Cooking Mattar Batata... Or something Similar

Well Hello Internet!

as part of my continuing experimentation in learning to cook indian food, i made a tomato based curry with potatoes and green beans.  The Recipe i started with called it Mattar Batata, and was made with potatoes and green peas (Green Peas are called Mattar).  However i didn't have any green peas, and instead i had beans.  So the name Mattar Batata is not really correct and this should really be called something else, probably with the name Aloo in it (Aloo is potatoes).

Anyhow its very easy to make.

Heres what i used in my made up curry based off of Mattar Batata.  As with my other recipes for indian food i will divide the spices into groups, for when they need to be added to the mix.

3 Tbspns Olive Oil

(GROUP A)
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 dried red chillies (broken)
1/2 teaspoon asafetida

1 lb Potatoes (cut into one inch cubes)
2 Carrots (diced)
1/2 an onion (diced)
1 clove garlic (diced)

(GROUP B)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon sugar

A Handful of green beans (put your two hands together and however many beans fit in there.  thats how many you need!! )

1 tomato (finely diced)
1 80z can crushed tomatoes

So first!

Organize your Spices into two bowls, and have them ready.

Heat up the oil in a medium sized pot, and add in Spice Group A:

SPICE GROUP A

 Cook for about 10 seconds, and then add in the onions, garlic, and carrots.  stir and cook until the onions are a little wilted, and then add the potatoes.  fry the potatoes until they start going brown.  don't worry if they are sticking, let them stick.  This will add to the flavor!

Once the Potatoes are browned add in Spice Group B:

SPICE GROUP B

Stir them together and then add half a cup of water (it won't cover it completely).  Bring to a boil and boil for about 10 minutes (or until the potatoes are soft).  The water will mostly boil off at this point, but some should remain.

At this point you can add in the beans, the tomato, and the crushed tomatoes, and simmer for a further 5-7 minutes - or until the beans are tender, but still a little crunchy (As good beans should be!)

Everything in the Pot

and that's it!  Serve it with some Rice.

YUMM!

Jack is Cooking Some Kind of Beef Noodles (take II)

Well Hello Internet!

its been a long time.  almost a year since my last post!  don't worry i've still been eating cooking a lot!  but i've mainly been playing with old recipes and so didn't think i should post the same thing twice.  but since i've got this here website i figured i should probably start posting on it again!

So One dish that was really awesome that i made a while ago, (and took a picture of!) was this awesome beef noodle soup dish that i found in a magazine (Saveur).  I didn't exactly make what the recipe in the magazine said, i made my own thing out of it.

So here's what you'll need:

1 lb of beef - doesn't matter what cut, but its nice if it has bones in it.  i used a T-Bone steak, (which i am sorry to say had been in my freezer for too long, and had gotten a bit of Freezer burn on it.  it wouldn't have been good as a plain steak, but was perfect for this soup)

GROUP A
1/4 cup sake
2 teaspoons mixed pepper corns
2 cloves of garlic (smashed)
1/2 can crushed tomatoes
1 pod star anise
1/2 onion
2 dried red chillies
a bunch of ginger (like 2 inches)

GROUP B
1 teaspoon vinegar,
1  teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon sesame oil

GROUP C
fresh spinach
fresh egg noodles - the really thin kind!
a green onion
sesame seeds

So First, cut up the steak into random sized chunks, and throw all the meat and the bones into a pot of water.  bring this to a boil, and then drain the water.  take the beef and the bones and put it back in the pot with everything from the list in Group A.  cover this with water, and bring it back to a boil.  let it simmer for about an hour.

Then! after one hour, remove the beef from this stock and set it aside on a cutting board.  strain the liquid  so that you have a nice broth, and discard all the onions and ginger pieces, and whatever else may have been in the stock.  Cut the Beef into nice bite sized pieces.  you can now get rid of the bones, as their delicious goodness has been transferred into the stock.

Add everything from GROUP B (the soy sauce etc.) into the broth, and add the newly bite sized beef back into the broth.

In a separate pot, cook the noodles for their specified cooking time.  if they are fresh that will only be 2 minutes or so.  remove the noodles, and place them in the serving bowls.  SAVE THE WATER!
then cook (BLANCHE!) the spinach in the water.  remove the spinach from the water and put it into the bowls with the noodles.

Then take a Ladle, and ladle the nice broth over the noodles and spinach, making sure to get the good beef stuff into the bowls too.  garnish it with some Green Onions, and Sesame Seeds, and you have a Delicious Beef Noodle Soup Dish!

Heres what it looked like, PLUS the original picture from the magazine.

mmm mmm delicious!

P.S.   the original recipe which i adapted this from can be found here:
http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Hong-Shao-Niu-Rou-Mian-Taiwanese-Beef-Noodle-Soup

Jack is Cooking the Best Damn Pasta Sauce You Ever Ate

Well Hello Internet!

over the weekend i made this super delicious pasta sauce.  i have to say it is probably the best damn pasta sauce i ever ate.  and i say that because i really don't like plain tomato sauce all that much.  i don't know why but i find that people spice it wrong and over cook it.  i don't know why they do this, because tomatoes are awesome!  why all the spices and all the cooking for hours and hours and hours until there is nothing left but tomato paste?!

first off, i have to say that this is most definitely not my recipe.  i saw this made on Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations the other day in his episode about techniques.  i did some tweaking here and there but the recipe is essentially from Chef Scott Conant from Scarpetta restaurant.

Heres what you'll need:

5 ripe plum tomatoes

4 cloves of garlic

an onion

a bunch of fresh basil

1 cup of olive oil

pasta

butter

cheese

First i blanched the tomatoes in hot water for like 15 seconds, and removed them immediately.  (i saved the water so i didn't have to boil more, to cook the pasta in)

after the tomatoes where blanched i skinned them, cut them open and squeezed out the insides into a bowl (save this bowl for if the sauce gets too dry.  then you can add this juicy pulp into the sauce).  i put the remaining part of the tomatoes into a pot with 1 quarter of the olive oil (1/4 cup) and i mashed them with a potato masher until they were pulpy.  i let this simmer for like 30 minutes until it became pretty saucy (mashing from time to time)

in another pot, i put the rest of the olive oil, all the garlic (whole cloves) the onion (chopped up) and maybe 10 fresh leaves of basil, and i let this simmer in the oil for the entire time that the tomato sauce cooked.

when both of these things were done i took a strainer and i strained the oil into the tomato sauce (giving it all the flavor but none of the bits! genius!  this is the most genius part, and what makes it the best damn sauce you ever ate!)  then stir it up real good.

( but wait!  don't throw out all that delicious onion and garlic and basil!  its good for other stuff!  like a quiche!  which should be in a post very soon!

then in a frying pan i sauteed up some pancetta (this is where i moved on from the scarpetta recipe) 

i spooned some of the sauce into the pan to reduce it in a small amount (instead of letting the sauce sit for like 2 hours:

I then tossed in the pasta  and put a pat of butter in it.  this is the final step in the deliciousness!  it made it all nice and super creamy!  yum!!

I then served it with a grating of gruyere cheese (which is a nice alternative to parmesan), and some more fresh basil on top for colour!

mmmmm mmmmm delicious!!!

Jack is Cooking Huevos Rancheros Breakfast Tacos for Dinner

Well Hello Internet!

Here is a great easy recipe for some breakfast Taco's that I made one day.  i made this out of leftovers in my fridge.

here's what you will need:

corn tortillas (i got mine from Tortilleria Mexicano Tres Hermanos - they sell tortillas for $1 at their restaurant in Brooklyn.  also it is probably the best tacos and tortas i've ever had.  i am completely obsessed with this place and wish that it wasn't so far away from where i live in the city.  you can stuff yourself with real authentic mexican food for under $10, and then buy some tortillas to make more of your own!!!)  

eggs

for the salsa:

1 or half an onion

1 or half a tomato

half a red pepper

clove of garlic

a small can of sweet corn

some cumin

salt and pepper

some paprika.

first, i made the salsa.  i cooked this salsa so that all the flavours were really nice and melty.  (that's the best way i can describe it!)  

i sauteed the onions and garlic, until they were translucent.  mean while in the oven i turned on my broiler, and i roasted the tomato, the red pepper,  and the corn until they got a nice charring on the skin. then i chopped them all up finely and added them to the onions, and cooked for 5-10 minutes.  i added some salt and pepper, some cumin and some paprika for flavoring.  voila!  corn salsa!  

Next, i scrambled some eggs.  i hope that everybody knows at least how to scramble an egg.  its hard to screw that up.  but if you don't here are the instructions:  

crack 2-3 eggs in a bowl.  and salt and pepper.  stir well with a fork.

heat pan on med - low heat.  melt butter in a pan.  pour eggs in.  stir them while they cook, until they are almost done.  turn off the stove.  they will keep cooking, so turn off the stove right before they look done.  serve immediately!  now you know!!  

so anyways, heat up the tortillas.  if you put them in a paper towel and microwave for 20 seconds they will be nice and warm.  or else you can warm them in a pan.  

put some eggs on each tortilla:

next!  put some of that delicious Salsa on top of the eggs, and top with your favorite cheese.  at the time the only cheese i had was feta.  not exactly mexican but it was still delicious!

Serve up these soft tacos with a napkin!  they are a little messy!!

mmm mmmm delicious!

Jack is Cooking Tacos

Well Hello Internet!

Tonight for Dinner i made Tacos.  and i don't mean i went out and bought some taco kit and mixed in some ground beef.  i made REAL tacos.  Taco's like how you would get them in mexico.  or how i would imagine you would get them there, i've never actually been!

anyways, these tacos were delicious, cheap, and really easy to make.

Here's what you'll need:

1 tomato

6 tomatillos

1 green pepper

1 hot pepper (you can really use whatever type you want, and put more if you want it more spicy)

1 can of corn

1 onion

the breast of 1 chicken

cilantro

paprika

corn tortillas

sour cream

guacamole

cheese

so first, i roasted all of my vegetables (except the onion) in my broiler.  even the canned corn.  i just strained it and dumped it out on the pan with the other vegetables.  i roasted them until they started getting a nice browning on them. then i turned them until i got the same on the other side

Next, i took the tomato, the tomatillos, and some cilantro, and i pureed them in a blender.

in a large pot i took my chicken breast and i browned it quickly on both sides.  then i poured in the tomatillo sauce to begin to simmer the chicken.

after the chicken had simmered for about 10 minutes i cut it up a little bit.  i let it simmer a little while longer, until i could pull it apart with a fork.  at this point i added the rest of the roasted vegetables,  an onion i had cut up, and some paprika

i let all this good stuff simmer together for a while.  finally in the end i through in some more cilantro, and a little lime juice for good measure.  (lime juice is pretty awesome on everything)

now!  for the tacos!  i took my tortillas which i heated up in the microwave, and in each one i put a little bit of this delicious chicken mixture, some guacamole, some sour cream, and some grated cheese.

oh man was it good.

(btw this mixture made enough sauce to make like 12 tacos)

mmm mmmm delicious

Jack is Cooking Tom Kha Soup with Princess Know it All

Well Hello Internet!
Here is the first of four thai recipes that i collaborated with Princess Know it All.

Check out her website!:

www.princessknowitall.com

These four videos will be released over the next few months, so stay tuned for those!

To make the Tom Khan Soup you will need:
Shiitake Mushrooms
red and or green pepper
1/2 can coconut milk
1/3 cup coriander
lime juice
3-4 cups vegetable stock
1 stalk lemongrass (the bottom third minced)
3 kaffir lime leaves

2 tblspoons fish sauce
1-2 small red chillies
3 cloves garlic
cherry tomatoes

Jack is Cooking Pizza!!

Well Hello Internet!

So the other night, julie suggested we make pizza.  i thought that was just a FANtastic idea, so we did!   i used the a little dough i saved from making bread on monday night, and then also some other leftover ingredients i had in my fridge.

Making pizza is LOTs of fun!  you can put almost anything on it that your heart desires.  Also, if you can't make your own dough its easy to buy.  some supermarkets have ready made dough, but also most pizzerias (at least here in NYC) will sell the dough pretty cheaply.

heres what we used:

as you can see in the above pictures the ingredients are:

Mozzarella

Red and Green Peppers

Some Chopped up Ham

Some Gouda (grated)

Diced Tomatoes

and also we caramelized some onions to put on after the pizza was cooked:

Theres the dough rising a little in the upper left corner of that last picture!

So after the dough rose for like 1.5 hours we spread it out and put the diced tomatoes all over it:

Then i got some new lights in my kitchen, so i could take better pictures!  haha

anyways, after the tomatoes, we put on the sliced mozzarella, red and green peppers, ham, and gouda cheese.  plus a little salt and pepper.

We baked it in the oven for 20 minutes at 450°.  after we took it out of the oven, we put the caramelized onions on it, cut it up and ate it!

I was hoping for some leftovers for lunch today, but the thing was so damn delicious we ate the whole pizza!

Jack is Cooking Fried Rice

Well Hello Internet!
Tonight I very quickly whipped up some Thai fried rice.
I plan on making this again with the method on video

Here's what I used
Green and red peppers
Carrot
Onion
Garlic
Tomatoes
Ham
Egg
Rice
Soy sauce
Fish sauce
Lime juice
Sugar

Instructions:

Cook the rice

In a wok - or skillet -  over medium high heat fry up the onions and garlic and the carrots for one minute. Add the peppers and chopped up ham. When everything is soft - but still retains a slight crunch - move everything over to one side of the pan. In the now clean side of the pan, scramble and egg. When the egg is 2/3rds of the way cook mix back in the vegetables. Once the egg is incorporated, add the rice. Mix well and add the soy sauce (to taste), fish sauce (to taste), and sugar. (instead of sugar you can also use sweet chilli sauce).  Stir fry for 5 minutes or so, until it's cooked. Turn off the heat. Add the chopped up tomatoes, and the juice of half a lime, mix and serve.

Chop the other half of the lime into wedges, and serve along side individual servings.

Jack is Cooking Pasta with Sausage-Tomato Sauce

Hello Internet!  


For this pasta sauce you will need: 
one large can of diced tomatoes
2 onions chopped 
garlic (i didn't have any but it would be good) 
peas 
sausages  




Pasta  




Thanks to O T O for the additional camera work at the end!

Jack is Cooking a Sandwich and an Omelette (part 2)

And heres the Omelette!

Jack is Cooking a Sandwich and an Omelette (part 1)

Well hello internet!

Tonight (and most nights actually...) i am making my lunch for tomorrow and dinner tonight. i've perfected a method of doing both at the same time by making a sandwich, and then an omelette out of the same materials.

you can use any different ingredients, but heres the essentials

some kind of bread
some kind of meat
some kind of cheese
lettuce
mayo
butter
other assorted condiments
and eggs for the omelette

Jack is Cooking Spaghetti Bolognaise

bolognaise sauce

1 1/2 pound ground beef
4-5 tomatoes
1 red pepper (optional)
onion
garlic
cellery
carrot is good too if you have some. i didn't have any but i usually put some in
salt
pepper
oregano
basil
other italian type spices

Jack is Cooking Ravioli with Tomato Sauce

The first episode of Jack is Cooking from 2007.  You might even call it a pilot. 
I also decided to tell a story about mickey mouse in the captions, just to see if anybody was paying attention.  Turns out they were!