Pizookie or Giant Cookie Cake

This week we celebrated my middle child's 16th birthday.  I asked him earlier in the week what kind of birthday cake he would like.  His favorite has always been cheese cake and I made strawberry cheese cake for his 15th birthday.  So I thought he would want a cheese cake this year too.  In fact I had already bought a big block of cream cheese and it was sitting in the refrigerator waiting to be baked.  But he said he wanted a 'pizookie'.  I said 'what'!  "I never heard of such a thing before". I thought he meant some kind a gadget or something and then my daughter said "Mom, it's a pizza cookie... pizookie,...get it". I was like huh....okay so what is it actually. My daughter said "it's just a giant cookie" and my son said "that's what I said" and I replied "why didn't you say so, I'm sure I can do it".  And I did do it.  I just used Mrs. Fields Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and formed the cookie dough into a 12" round cookie.

First I lined my baking tray with parchment paper and I placed my "Kaiser Stainless Steel Adjustable Cake Ring" over the parchment paper and adjusted the cake ring to form a 12" circle.   I spread the cookie dough to cover the base of the cake ring.  The rest is as per the directions for the chocolate chip cookie recipe.   I did bake the pizookie for an extra 5 minutes than what was required in the recipe though.

Of all my years of baking and decorating birthday cakes for my kids, husband and family, this was by far most the easiest and fastest birthday cake to make!

Quinoa Tofu salad

Ingredients

1 cup cooked and cooled quinoa
1 cup shredded cabbage
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup julienned green apples
1 firm tofu, sliced thinly and deep fried
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
some finely sliced scallions or cilantro leaves

Dressing
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1.  In a large bowl, whisk all the dressing ingredients together until they are well blended.
2.  Add in the rest of the ingredients and toss well.
3.  Serve with some extra toasted sesame on top and garnish with some cilantro leaves

Deep Fried Oreos

 My daughter said that she ate these wonderful deep fried Oreos during a visit to a fair near her university.  She made this for her brother on his birthday.  This was the first time I have ever tried deep fried Oreos.  I never expected that the deep fried Oreos would be so delicious.  It was like eating a soft moist chocolate cake with creamy frosting and a crunchy outer layer. These deep fried Oreos taste so much better that the moist chocolate cakes I make. Bravo Girl. You're simply amazing and birthday boy was also very touched. I think he finished the whole plate.

Ingredients

1 cup pancake mix (any brand will do)
1 cup milk
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 (18oz) package of oreo cream cookies

vegetable oil for deep frying

Directions

1.  In a bowl, add in the pancake mix, egg, milk and the 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil and whisk until
     the ingredients are all well combines.
2.  Heat the vegetable oil for deep frying on medium high heat until it is hot or reaches a temperature
     of 375 °F or 190 °C.
3.  Dip an Oreo cookie in the batter and deep fry it for about 2 minutes. Deep fry only 3-4 cookies at
     one time and avoid overcrowding. Overcrowding will make the deep fried cookies pretty oily and
     soggy.
4.  Drain on paper towels and repeat step no.3 for the remaining of the Oreo cookies.
5.  Dust with some confectioners sugar and serve warm.

3 Ingredients Sesame Balls or Ellu Urundai

toasted sesame seeds

I get this occasional sugar rush moments and although I try to resist it, I normally fail at almost every attempt.  Well it happened again today and since I couldn't find anything sweet to satisfy my craving, I reached out for some toasted peanuts that was sitting in the oven, some sesame seeds and jaggery (indian palm sugar).  I toasted the sesame, ground all these 3 ingredients in a food processor, made them into balls and popped them into my mouth. It felt very good indeed but it I think I grew like 1" on my waistline.  I'm guessing that I must have popped quite a few.  

I remember my mom making these sesame ball or ellu urundai when we visited my grandmom during my elementary years.  My mom used to pound all these 3 ingredients in a stone mortar with a long stick. She would throw the stick in one hand and it would land right smack in the middle of the mortar and bounce back only to be caught by my mom with her other hand and she would throw it back and keep repeating this until all the ingredients were finely pounded.  I used to watch my mom in her rhythmic action, pounding the ingredients to make these sesame balls for us. Her version is usually very rustic and very flavorful.  Mine was a bit too soft since I used a grinder.  If I had ground these ingredients longer, I believe I would have made sesame-peanut butter!

Ingredients

1 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup jaggery, chop it up first before measuring
1/2 cup roasted peanuts
1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder

Method

1.  Roast sesame seeds on medium low heat until the sesame seeds are golden brown in      
     color.  Keep stirring the sesame seeds while roasting to get an even color and also to 
     avoid the sesame seeds from getting burnt. So this means both eyes should be on the 
     sesame seed.
2.  Once the sesame seeds are well roasted and brown in color remove it from the pan and 
      leave it to cool to room temperature.
3.  Place the sesame seeds and roasted peanuts into a grinder and pulse it for a few seconds. 
      The seeds and peanuts should be roughly chopped at this time.
4.  Add in the jaggery and cardamom powder and pulse for a few more seconds.  You need          to pulse the sesame seeds until you can form a ball with it.  Don't pulse it for too long 
     otherwise it will become a paste.  The sesame seeds and peanuts should be slightly rough 
     to maintain the texture.
5.  Form into small balls and store it in an airtight container.

Seaweed Tamagoyaki

I usually make tamagoyaki for sushi but I made this for lunch yesterday and it went pretty well with steamed rice.  I used a sushi rolling mat to roll the tamagoyaki after frying it and it made some lovely ridges on my tamagoyaki.  It's a good idea to strain the beaten eggs so that you don't get the white spots on the tamagoyaki, from the egg whites that were not beaten well. Well you can probably guess that I was in a hurry or was simply just too lazy to do that extra step.  I think the whites spots look nice on the tamagoyaki! Well it's your take on it.

Ingredients

4 large eggs
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 nori or seaweed sheet
1 teaspoon cooking oil

Directions

1.  In a mixing bowl beat the eggs sugar and salt together and set it aside.
2.  Heat a frying pan on medium low and spread the cooking oil all over the frying pan.
3.  When the pan is hot pour in the beaten egg and spread the egg all over the frying pan. Quickly
     place the nori sheet on the egg before it starts to set.
4.  When the eggs are half set i.e. the bottom is getting firm but the top is still watery, fold the edges
     of the omelet over the nori sheet to follow the shape of the nori sheet.
5.  When the omelet is like almost done, start folding the omelet like a swill roll with a flat spatula f
     from the shorter edge. You should be able to make like 3-4 folds. Cook the rolled  omelet for
     about a minute or so until the omelet feels firm and there is no uncooked eggs oozing out from the
     roll.
6.  Once the omelet is done, transfer it to a sushi rolling mat and roll it firmly over the omelet. Secure
     both edges of the rolled sushi mat with a string or rubber band.
7.  Once the tamagoyaki(omelet) is cool, remove the sushi mat and slice the tamagoyaki.

Do Chua - Vietnamese Pickled Carrots and Daikon

Do Chua looking a little wimpy since it's a few days old

fresly made Do Chua - looking very fresh and firm

I made this for a vegan bahn mi that I made some weeks back when I was on a vegan diet.  These pickles are really crunchy, sweet and salty. I had some left overs so I decided to finish it off by serving it for lunch yesterday.  I got this recipe from Andrea Nguyen. Here is the link to her recipe: Pickled Do Chua. As Andrea says, the do chuas do get a  little tired after a couple of days. Mine were like 4 days old, I think.

Dakgangjeong...Korean Sweet and Crunchy Fried Chicken

 Ingredients

1 lb chicken tenders, cleaned and cubed
2-3 tablespoon potato starch or corn starch
cooking oil for deep frying

for the sauce

1 tablespoon Gochujang (Korean chilly paste)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice winegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic, about 2-3 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon minced ginger, about 1" piece of ginger root

some chopped green onions and roasted sesame seeds

Directions
1.  First prepare the sauce ingredients. Mix up all the ingredients for the sauce in sauce pan and heat
     in up on medium heat until you can smell the aroma from the garlic and ginger. Turn off the heat
     and leave it to cool.
2.  Next coat the cubed chicken tenders with the potato or corn starch dust off the excess starch from
     the chicken.
3.  Heat up some cooking oil on medium heat for deep frying. When the oil is hot or reaches 350°F or      180°C, carefully drop in the coated chicken cubes and deep fry until the chicken is lightly brown
     and crispy.  Fry the chicken in batches to avoid the chicken cubes from being soggy.
4.  Drain the fried chicken cubes on a kitchen towel.
5.  When all the chicken cubes are fried, transfer them to a bowl and pour in the sauce. Mix well to
     coat each chicken cube. Finally add in the toasted sesame seeds and chopped green onions and
     mix well.
6.  Garnish with some extra toasted sesame and chopped green onions and serve with hot steamed
     rice.

What we had for lunch yesterday....

Yesterday all my kids were at home since schools were closed due to the hazy conditions.  I love it when all my kids are at home so I couldn't complain much about the haze!  This also means that I get some extra days of leave in the week and I don’t have to get up early in the morning, prepare their lunches, rush them off to school and them rushing out to pick them up in the mad traffic jam.  The kids tend to wake up late in the mornings so I get a good two hours of ME time. Anyways I decided to make Korean Dakganjeong, Seaweed Tamagoyaki with Do Chua-Vietnamese pickled daikon and carrots, served with steamed short grain rice for their lunch yesterday and they loved it.  Recipe to follow soon.

Instead of Mayo

Mayo was a love and hate thing for me. While I liked the creaminess of the mayo on my sandwiches and burgers, I hated the fact that I was eating raw eggs emulsified with oils, plus a whole bunch of preservatives and additives.  While shopping at the Whole Foods Market, I discovered a vegan mayo from Hampton Creek called "Just Mayo". This was a great substitute for the regular mayo and I was just over the moon when Costco started caring Just Mayo, a large 64 oz jar for just below $5.00.  While Just Mayo was a great vegan and non-GMO mayo it was made from Canola oil.  I have been using canola oil for many years but after reading some very negative reviews about canola oil and how it is actually bad for your health (by the way I have completely switched to organic virgin coconut oil and olive oil for my cooking and sunflower oil if I need to do deep frying), I have permanently switched to this vegan, oil free spread for my burgers and sandwiches. It is so creamy and yummy and I love the green vibrant color it adds to my food.   Yes...It is an avocado spread.  The recipe is pretty similar to guacamole, minus the chopped tomatoes and onions. I prepare this like one or twice a week and one batch can last for about 2-3 days in the fridge. The color will change slightly after a day or so because the avocado tends to oxidize but the taste it still great. Best of all it simple, healthy, easy and free of additives and preservatives. 

Ingredients

1 medium sized ripe Hass Avocado, 
juice of half a lime
1/2 teaspoon of cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon of sugar
1 green chilly (jalapeno or serano) for some heat but totally optional
1 tablespoon of cilantro leaves, chopped
about 2 - 3 tablespoon of water, can be substituted with extra virgin olive oil

Method

1.  Wash and dry the avocado.  Slice around the avocado seed and gently twist the avocado     
     to split it.
     open. Remove the seed with a spoon and remove the flesh.
2.  In a food processor, add all the ingredients except for the water.  Pulse for a few second 
     and add water or olive oil,  one tablespoon at a time until you reach a smooth and 
     spreadable consistency.
3.  Store in an airtight container and refrigerate it.  Spread it on toasted sandwiches, wraps          or burgers.

Celebrating My Daughter's Teen Birthday

We moved back to our house around mid September. So I have been pretty busy unpacking the boxes, checking for damages done to our shipment and worst of all finding places to put all our stuff away.  Our house is like 80% ready so I was able to spend a bit more time on my daughter's birthday cake.  I know that she likes her cake to be very special so I made a six layer salted caramel chocolate cake. The cake was of course a chocolate cake layered with salted caramel and chocolate frosting and topped with chocolate ganache.  I decorated the cake with fondant roses.  This was my first time making fondant roses and it wasn't really that bad. Thanks to this boy on Youtube who shared a very simple way of making fondant roses without any tools. Here is the link to his Youtube channel : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjyEU6fxixQ. 

Removing the fondant roses from the cake