Coconut-Strawberry Smoothie with Boba

Unfortunately, there aren’t many different berries I like. And I say unfortunately because they are so good for you. Blueberries are of one the highest in antioxidants. And, luckily, I do like blueberries. Strawberries are my favorite. They aren’t even really berries, by the way. Here is what wikipedia says about strawberries:

“Technically, the strawberry is an aggregate accessory fruit, meaning that the fleshy part is derived not from the plant’s ovaries but from the receptacle that holds the ovaries.[3] Each apparent “seed” (achene) on the outside of the fruit is actually one of the ovaries of the flower, with a seed inside it.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry

I was happy that my friend Laura and I got to go to Carlsbad this summer to pick strawberries before the field closed for the season. They actually told us they might have closed the next day. You ain’t gonna keep us from those berries. We do how we do.

I also love coconut. In this recipe I used Coco Lopez, which is just a canned cream of coconut, usually used for pina coladas.

(Christina Applegate is the best part of this movie. The Sweetest Thing.)

The boba I used in this recipe was the kind that comes in a plastic container in syrup. I used strawberry flavor. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS just because the texture of the boba was super weird. It was like eating little frog eggs. Although I have not tried this yet, I would recommend using the dried boba and cooking them yourself. I’m sure you would have better results. Another thing, I forgot to actually buy (or at least “pick up” from a boba shop) the thick boba straws, so that is why the straw in the picture is kind of…not big enough.

But, yeah. Coconut is one of my favorite flavors of all time.

Serious tangent here, but I have an unhealthy obsession with Robert Downey, Jr. Can I just say, I have had this obsession since I was…I think a freshman in high school. Duuuude, I’m 25 now. That is COMMITMENT. By the way, it was just a matter of time before I mentioned my undying love for RDJ. And I assure, you, it will not be the last…so sad, my life.

Coconut-Strawberry Smoothie with Boba

Serves 1

Ingredients

1 cup frozen strawberries

2 tbsp Coco Lopez, or any cream of coconut

1 tbsp grenadine

2/3 cup milk, any kind (dairy or non-dairy)

Boba, to taste.

Blend all ingredients except boba in a belnder. Add however much boba you’d like to the bottom of a glass and pour the smoothie over. Add a boba straw and enjoy.

Green Tea Napoleon with Blueberry Sauce

So, when I was in culinary school we had to do a 5-course meal for part of our final. We had a long, long, long list of ingredients that we were required to use. First off, let me just say that only three of us took that final. The class started with 14 people, then it went down to 8, and then only three of us graduated. The three girls of the class. If that doesn’t say “girl power”, I don’t know what does. Spice Girls. Damn straight. Represent.

Anyway, the other two girls were going to do an Italian themed menu (and so were the guys, but they didn’t show up for the final) because, with that list of ingredients, that was what made the most sense. But me, apparently I don’t like to make sense. I don’t make sense. I’m a misunderstood soul. Just kidding. But I decided to do…drum rolllllllll………..JAPANESE. Which, I will say, was really hard to do with those ingredients. I mean, they don’t use a lot of prosciutto and goat cheese in Japanese cooking. But I’m somewhat ambitious. I usually don’t follow through with my ambitious plans, but I have always tended to dream big. Most things usually just don’t happen. Don’t judge me. DON’T EVEN LOOK AT ME.

So, for my first dish, I did a hot pot. Because, what better way than a hot pot to just take a bunch of ingredients and throw them in and check them off the list? It had duck, chicken, beef and a bunch of veggies. I also did a sushi roll, using what I mentioned earlier, the prosciutto and goat cheese. And I made a Chawan Mushi (say that out loud, I love the way it sounds. SAY IT), which is essentially a savory custard with ingredients like mushrooms and shrimp. I served it with a broth-type sauce. For the main dish I made lamb chops with a pomegranate sauce.

But this post is not about any of those things. This post…this post is about the DESSERT. Which, for my final, was a trio. It had a fruit salad, a piece of white chocolate cake, and this Green Tea Napoleon. One of my closest and longest friends, Jose, helped me with the idea when I was creating the menu for the final. Originally I made a blackberry sauce, but I don’t like blackberries (it was a required ingredient on the list). So I made a blueberry sauce this time. By the way, If you want the blueberry sauce to be super thick, you can follow the instructions below using the cornstarch slurry. If you want it thinner, skip the cornstarch. For the pictures, I thought it would be better to have it thicker. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have bothered.

I really like this recipe. When you think about it, it is actually quite simple. The only components are the puff pastry, the green tea pastry cream, and blueberry sauce.

Now, good night. I’m writing this at 4:30 A.M., so I’m tired.

Green Tea Napoleon with Blueberry Sauce

Makes 2 Napoleons, enough for 4 people

Napoleon

1 batch Green Tea Pastry Cream

1 sheet puff pastry

Granulated sugar, for sprinkling

Blueberry sauce

Green Tea Pastry Cream

2 cups (1 pint) milk (I used reduced fat, but it doesn’t really matter)

4 egg yolks

2 whole eggs

1 3/4 oz. cornstarch

4 oz. granulated sugar

1 pinch kosher salt

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 oz. unsalted butter

1 1/2 tbsp. matcha (green tea powder)

Blueberry Sauce

1 cup blueberries

1 tbsp. granulated sugar

1 tsp. lemon juice

1/4 cup water

1 tsp. cornstarch (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Slightly thaw the puff pastry. Prick with a fork to ensure it doesn’t rise too much in the oven. Cut into thirds lengthwise (you can use the folds already in the pastry as a guideline) and then in half crosswise, creating 6 rectangles. Sprinkle a little sugar onto each piece and place them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat mat. Place a metal cooling rack on top of the pastry, again, to keep it from rising too much. Bake until the bottom side is lightly golden, about 15-20 minutes. Take out of the oven and, being careful not to burn yourself, flip each pastry over. Replace the cooling rack and bake for about another 10 minutes, until golden and cooked through. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

For the pastry cream, place the milk in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking here and there so it doesn’t burn on the bottom. Meanwhile, whisk the cornstarch, sugar and salt together in a medium sized bowl. Add the egg yolks and whole eggs and whisk until smooth. Slowly drizzle a ladle full of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisk vigorously at the same time so that the eggs do not curdle. Repeat this about 2 more times until the egg mixture is warmed. Slowly whisk the tempered eggs into the pot of milk. Place over a medium-low heat and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens into a sturdy custard. Take off the heat and whisk in the vanilla extract, butter, and matcha until incorporated. Pour the custard into a shallow bowl and chill in the refrigerator.

For the blueberry sauce, place all ingredients except cornstarch in a small sauce pot and bring to a boil. Continue to boil until thickened. If you desired, you can take about a tablespoon of water and stir in the cornstarch to make a slurry. You may add that the blueberry sauce if you want a fairly thick sauce.

To assemble the napoleon, fill a large piping bag with the pastry cream and cut a decent-sized triangle off the tip, leaving an opening. Place one of the pastries on a plate and pipe a layer of the pastry cream on top, starting from one short side, going down in a sig-zag motion to cover the surface, to the other short end. Place another layer of pastry, then pastry cream, then one more pastry. Pipe a swirl of pastry cream on top if you’d like. Serve with the blueberry sauce.

Mint-Chocolate Iced Coffee

I love coffee. I mean, like “why don’t you marry it” kind of love. Maybe love isn’t the right word. It’s more like an addiction. A physical addiction. If I don’t have any in the morning, or even if I don’t have quite enough, I will get a headache. For a long time I didn’t get headaches, so I was convinced I was addicted to the ritual, not the caffeine. Well, it’s happened. It’s official. Downward spiral.

I drink my coffee usually iced. I just prefer it that way. I like strong coffee with a tiny bit of half and half and absolutely NO SUGAR. But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a sweetened coffee “cocktail” or Frappuccino. I just don’t like plain coffee with sugar. And I was never very crazy about mint flavor, unless it has chocolate with it, like a peppermint patty. This drink doesn’t have an overwhelming mint flavor. It’s just enough to make it refreshing and make your mouth feel kind of icy.

For the chocolate syrup, I used an Alton Brown recipe. It was very easy and definitely better than store bought chocolate syrup. You can find the recipe at foodnetwork.com, and it’s called Cocoa Syrup. I halved the recipe. Oh, and you could probably use mint extract instead of fresh mint leaves, you just wouldn’t want to use too much, or it may end up tasting like toothpaste. I would say no more than 1 1/2 teaspoons, but it’s to taste, obviously. Do whachyu want, whachyu want with your coffaay! Yeah, it happened. Lady Gaga wooooooo!!

Oh, and just in case you aren’t sure how to make coffee ice cubes, it’s just like making water ice cubes, except…with…coffee? Just take some extra coffee you have and pour it into the ice cube tray and freeze. Boom. Coffee ice cubes.

Mint-Chocolate Iced Coffee

Makes approximately 5 cups

Ingredients:

About 4 coffee ice cubes

About 4 regular ice cubes

1 1/2 cups cold coffee

1/4 cup almond milk

1/4 cup chocolate syrup, or more/less to taste

5 mint leaves

2 stevia packets

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and frothy. To make the swirls of chocolate syrup around the glass, either use a squeeze bottle or spoon to “slash” the chocolate around the inside surface while rotating the glass. Put a few ice cubes (either regular or coffee) in the glass and pour the coffee over. That’s it!

Obon: Japanese Festival in Vista

Yesterday some of us went to Obon, which is a Japanese Buddhist summer festival. Traditionally it’s for people to honor their ancestor’s spirits. It’s similar to Dia de Muertos. I think the difference may be that Day of the Dead is more to remember loved ones, and Obon is more focused on the spirit. That is my take on it, at least. This one was in Vista, and there will be another one in downtown San Diego next weekend, but I’m going to Las Vegas next weekend. Oh- I’m going to Las Vegas next weekend!!! So anyway, they have a few little vendors there when you first enter. In particular there was a succulent vendor, plastic food storage one, and a produce one. I bought a cantaloupe (my favorite fruit) and a pint of blueberries. Those I will definitely be putting on my homemade granola in the mornings.

I went with my friend Jose, who I have know since elementary school, and his two friends from his photography class, Jem and Monica. We also met up with another one of Jem and Jose’s classmates, Roberto, his sister Jasmine, and her friend Brandon. By the way, when four people like us (Jose, Monica, Jem and me, who all have strong personalities (although I do have to say I can be VERY shy sometimes)) get together, we basically just shit-talk and get really loud and have a good time. It’s like that with Jose’s family, too. And, Hey! Don’t think I’m knockin’ any of you down! All you guys know I love you. But you all also know you are loud as hell. And I love it! By the way, Jose’s family, I miss you all. I haven’t seen you in a long time. Ok, now that I have officially gone out on about 3 tangents, I will try to stay focused.

So they have a booth for tickets. Each ticket is a dollar, and each food booth has different ticket prices for a meal or snack. For example, Monica and I got the teriyaki beef, which came with seasoned white rice and pickled cabbage. That was 7 tickets, or 7 dollars. The teriyaki sauce was really good. I liked it, but the beef got stuck in my teeth! Boooo. I don’t eat red meat very often, so I guess if I did I would find a better strategy for eating it. The term Eating Disabled comes to mind. I also got one green tea mocha ice cream, which was pretty good. That was 2 tickets or 2 dollars.

The highlight of the festival is the Bon-Ordori, which is the dance where everyone forms a big, big circle looking inward. There were a few women in traditional kimonos scattered around who would do each dance and we would watched them and tried to follow along, slowly moving to rotate the circle.

I gave up after the first dance.

…Before the first dance ended.

I’m not very coordinated…

The sky was amazing when we were walking back to our car. And we were having a lot of fun with the reflection of trees in the puddles in the parking lot.

So, to finish the day Asian-style, we went to get boba. I got Thai tea boba. Have any of you had it? Its an acquired taste, mos def. It took me a while to get into it. But that was years ago. I haven’t had Thai tea for a long, long time. And…this wasn’t that good. I have to be honest. Jem got the same thing, and she agreed. Monica said that this particular boba store is good sometimes, and not other times. She said it’s inconsistent. Which, whatever, it happens. We still had a lot of fun because there were games. I can’t remember what this game is called, but we played it all the time as kids. Here’s the picture.

Let me know if you can think of the name. It’s driving me crazy! And then we played Jenga! So much fun. First we started out playing it the normal way, but after a while we decided to stack the blocks super messily (is that a word? If not, it is now, fools!!! Watch, it probably is a word. And now I just sound like an ass hole) and called it “Rebel-Style”. But it definitely made it harder, which, of course, made it funner (and yes, obviously I know that’s not a word. I’m not THAT naive. I just like using wrong words. Am I weird? I’m weird. You should hear the way I say “fungus” for fun. I wish I could explain over text. It’s just such a fun word. And yes, it is a FUNNER word than others).

Kabocha Gyoza with Coconut-vinegar Dipping Sauce

It took me a while to get into my kitchen and test this recipe. I get tired after work, and by the time I feel rested, the daylight is gone, so the pictures won’t come out well. But I should have done this a while ago, because it’s pretty damn good.

I can’t take full credit for the idea of this recipe. My friend and co-worker Jenn thought of the curry aspect in the gyoza, as well as the coconut milk in the dipping sauce. Thanks, Jenn! I guess you would call this an Asian fusion dish. I don’t know. It’s kinda Japanese, kinda Indian. Do you consider Indian as Asian ethnicity? I just started hearing that Indians are considered Asians, technically. But there are a lot of “technically…” things out there. TECHNICALLY pumpkins are fruit. TECHNICALLY Peregrine falcons are the fastest animals on Earth. TECHNICALLY eggs are… Think about it, bro. Anyway, I don’t consider India as part of Asia. It just doesn’t fit to me. I would kill to go to India. Would you guys ever go there? It would be such an experience. My sister went three times, I think. WHATEVS, CLAIRE, WHAT-EVS. Just kidding. Love ya, Claire!

The two most important ingredients in the dipping sauce are the Chili Pepper Vinegar Sauce, and the sesame oil. Oh, and the agave nectar. It just needed something sweet to balance everything. So, three. Three important ingredients. But you need them all. Seriously. Ok, but honestly, I encourage you to play around with the measurements (or even ingredients!) in the sauce. It really depends on your taste. For example, do you want more spice and bite? Add more of the vinegar sauce. More sweet? Agave. Or you could try a different sweetener. My first thought was actually honey when I was making this, but agave was in arms reach. I’m lazy, dammit, I’m lazy! By the way, The chili vinegar I got at Mitsuwa, which is a Japanese market off of Balboa ave., near Clairemont. Everyone knows I live in San Diego, right? I live in San Diego! Surprise! I love Mitsuwa. I’ve been going there since I was a teenager. Not only is it a grocery store, but it also has a mini ceramic dish store (which I always spend too much money in), a kind of Japanese cartoon/anime/media store (lots of Pikachu and Totoro and Sailor Moon), a cosmetics store, AND a bookstore. What more could you possibly want in life?! OH and a little food court with two options for food. There is one that has things like katsu-don, chicken and egg donburi (which is what I ALWAYS get), noodle bowls, tempura, all kinds of stuff. The other one is mainly noodle/soup bowls, I think. Don’t quote me on that.

I have this little gyoza press thing, where after you fold the filled wrapper, you put it on one side of the press, which looks like a circle until you fold it into a half moon, and it has the ridges in it to create those classic gyoza pleats. This…this does NOT work for me. It squishes all the filling out and its not even real pleats. Its just dents, really. So I did the pleats by hand. The way you do the pleats is you wet half the circle of the open gyoza (with the filling already on one side, with a little border) and fold the empty side over the filling. Press the edges to seal, but then take one layer, and, starting at one side of the half circle, pinch just the one layer of the skin and tuck behind to create a pleat (that sounds like a method for a drag queen getting dressed. Do you guys watch RuPaul’s Drag Race? Its the best. So funny. Shout out!)

Kabocha Gyoza with Coconut-vinegar Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

Gyoza

1/2 Kabocha (Japanese pumpkin), roughly diced

4 cups vegetable broth

1 tbsp garlic, minced

1 tbsp ginger, minced

1/2 head green cabbage, cored and thinly slice

3 heads baby boy choy, chopped

1 1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Scant 1 tsp granulated sugar

1 package round gyoza wrappers

Sauce

1/3 cup coconut milk

1/2 tsp curry powder

1 tsp Chili Pepper Vinegar Sauce

1/2 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp sesame oil

Place kabocha and vegetable broth in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer. Let cook until kabocha is tender. The length of time depends on how large or small you cut the pumpkin. It shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes. Once cooked, drain the pumpkin and discard the broth. Place pumpkin in a bowl and mash, either with a potato masher or a fork. I used a potato masher.

In a non-stick skillet, over medium-high heat, saute the garlic and ginger, only for about 30 seconds, just until aromatic. Add cabbage and bok choy and saute until softened and slightly wilted. You can add a pinch of salt to help the vegetables soften. Add curry powder, cinnamon, sugar, more salt and pepper to taste. Add mixture to mashed pumpkin.  Lay out some gyoza wrappers on a clean surface and place about 1 1/2 tsp filling onto half of each wrapper, leaving a border. Wet one half of the wrapper around that border and fold other half over filling to create a half moon. Pleat the wrappers as mentioned above. Continue until all the filling is used.

Place a skillet over medium-high heat and add a dash of canola oil. When hot, add gyoza, bottom side down, into the pan. Let sear for a few minutes. When golden brown on bottom side, add half 1/2 cup water to the pan and immediately cover with a lid. Let steam for about 5 minutes until the wrappers look somewhat translucent. Remove the lid and continue cooking until the water is evaporated. Remove gyoza from pan.

To make the sauce, whisk all ingredients together.

Makes about 3 cups filling and 1/2 cup sauce.