The Yum Yum Factor

I really wanted Korean food the other day but I didn't feel like leaving the house, which happens. It was overcast, cold and dreary, I didn't have the car so that would also entail cramming my body onto the subway to go downtown...not today, Satan, not today. Luckily, I keep a pretty full pantry of Korean ingredients and had a couple pounds of chicken thighs in the freezer. I decided I could manage throwing a coat on over my pjs for a quick trip to the fancy pants organic market on the corner for some vegetables if it meant that I was going to be able to whip up some Spicy Korean Chicken Stew (Dakdoritang) Instead of the more traditional carrot, I threw in a sweet potato since they are both orange and added daikon because I like the texture and worked backwards on my math to adapt my regular recipe to the Instant Pot because not only did I not want to get dressed or leave the house, I also wanted it immediately. The one major change was to skin and debone the c...

I am such a lucky girl lately. I was asked to take a programable  Crock-Pot© for test drive and give it a review. I was giddy at the offer because I am still using the crock pot that my mother gave me over 25 years ago. To be very honest, after she gave it to me, I never used it. I packed it away and it followed me from house to house, city to city, unused and mostly forgotten, much like her gift of a dreaded red, orlon sweater with a giant asian dragon embroidered across the front. I would wear that hideous sweater once a year when I went to pick her up from the train station at Christmas. She would see that red dragon peaking out under my coat and squeal with delight "oh, that's the sweater I bought you!" and I would say, offhandedly, "did you buy me this? Oh that's right, you did" like I wore the thing so much I couldn't remember when it came from. The things we do for love. Yikes!

I have made these meatballs before using ground chicken and we loved them but this was more of a pork kind of day. I usually serve them with rice noodles, bun style, and then sent the leftovers with the Kid for his lunch the next day. Since I have sent the poor wee street urchin to school with a sandwich two days in a row, I was having some mom guilt. A lovely lunch of vietnamese food with a friend made me think of these meatballs and so I hopped across the street to the magical asian grocery store and bought all of the ingredients I would need. Don't be scared of the little roll in the sugar bowl that these babies take just before baking because it gives them that sticky, sweetness of asian bbq meats. You could probably skip it and still end up with a tasty meatball but you would definitely be missing that little extra bit of something that makes these really special. Now, if we weren't still on this god forsaken diet, I would make bahn mi sandwiches but since we (that...

I think I am over soup for now because all I can think about are salads. I want crunch, I want some sour, I want spring freshness and light dressings with herbs. I had made a really light red curry chicken for dinner and was thinking I would make a green mango salad but I couldn't find any green mango. What I did find was a green papaya and a big chunk of daikon which is actually even better. Fresh thai basil, cilantro and mint and I was ready to roll. Green Papaya and Daikon Salad -1/2 green papaya, seeded, peeled and sliced into thin julienne slices -6" piece of daikon, peeled, cut into thin strips on the mandoline and julienned -3 or 4 radishes, cut on the mandoline and julienned -a couple of tables of fresh cilantro, thai basil and mint. The proportions and amounts are really up to you. I love cilantro so I always go a bit heavier on that -a handful of bean sprouts Dressing 1.5 tbls fish sauce 1.5 tbls of palm sugar or regular sugar 1.5 tbls of f...