Cucumber and Feta Salad

Supposed to be a wrap, with the cucumber cut using a mandoline or peeler and the rest of the ingredients inside. But, I don't have any way to keeping them together so I made a salad. 

Ingredients:

• 2 cucumbers
• 1 block of feta cheese, or 6 oz
• 5 TBSP yoghurt or Greek yoghurt
• 1/4 of a red bell pepper, chopped fine
• 10 olives, chopped fine
• 2 TBSP lemon juice or lime juice
• pepper

Directions:

1) Cut the cucumbers into bite sized pieces.









2) Chop the feta finely, and then smash with a fork.
3) Add the yoghurt and combine.
4) Add the bell pepper, olives, lemon and pepper and combine.






5) Mix with the cucumber.
6) Serve with parsley.

Spicy, Garlicy, Lemony Mushrooms

This recipe is supposed to have sherry and be Spanish, but I left that our since I couldn't find it, and added more lemon and hot pepper.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup oil
• 8 button mushrooms, quartered
• 6 garlic cloves, diced
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• juice of 1 1/2 lemons
• 1/4 cup water
• salt, pepper and hot pepper powder

Directions:

1) Heat the oil to high heat.
2) Add the mushrooms and cook for 4-5 minutes, until tender.







3) Add the garlic, red pepper, lemon juice, water, salt, pepper and hot pepper powder and cook for 2-3 minutes.
4) Serve either alone or with rice or with bread.

Homemade Mayo and Two Sandwiches to go with it

I've been told that mayo in Korea is really terrible, even by websites in Korea, so I decided to make my own--with a recipe from an English language Korean website!

Ingredients for the mayo:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp mustard
• 1 clove of garlic, diced
• 1/2 cup + 1 TBSP olive oil
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Mix the egg yolk, mustard and garlic together.









2) Add the 1/2 cup of olive oil, a few drops at a time at first, and then once it seems more incorporated you can add it in a steady stream.
3) Add the lemon juice, salt and pepper.
4) Add the extra TBSP of olive oil if necessary





5) Store in an air-tight container.











2 good sandwich ideas:

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of bread
• cucumber, sliced
• tomato, sliced
• red onion, diced
• mayo
• lemon juice

OR

• 1 slice of bread
• 1 sunny side up egg

I liked the second one far better.

Spicy Noodle Salad

 Recipe taken from here.

Ingredients:

• Noodles
• 2 TBSP sesame oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 TBSP soy sauce
• 1 TBSP honey
• 1 TBSP red pepper paste
• 1/4 cabbage, sliced thin
• 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced thin
• 1 carrot, sliced thin
• 1 cucumber, sliced thin

Directions:

1) Cook the noodles and run under cold water until they are completly cool.
2) Mix in the sesame oil.







3) Mix the lemon juice, soy sauce, honey and red pepper paste well (honey and red pepper paste are thick). Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste.
4) Mix the sauce into the noodles.






5) Add the vegetables and mix again.

Plum Sorbet

 Using the plums from the Boston Organics box, and following this recipe, I made plum sorbet.

Ingredients:

• 4 plums, chopped into quarters
• 2 1/2 TBSP sugar
• 1 TBSP honey
• 2 tsp lemon juice

Directions:

1) Place the plums into a bowl with sugar and honey and let sit for 30 minutes.








2) Put that into a blender and pulse until there are no chunks.
3) Taste and add lemon juice if desired (I did).







4) Put into a bowl again and refrigerate for at least one hour.
5) Put into the ice cream machine and follow the makers directions.

Red Wine Poached Pear Salad

Continuing the use of the box from Boston Organics, by using the pears, red lettuce, onion, and sprouts. Recipe for the wine poached pears was taken from here.

Ingredients:

• Wine Poached Pears:
• 2 Peeled, cored and sliced pears
• 3/4 cups of red wine (I used Merlot)
• 3/8 cup sugar
• 1 TBSP lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Salad:
• 1 recipe of wine poached pears
• 1 head of red lettuce, chopped
• 1/4 of an onion, chopped
• handful of sprouts
• handful of mushrooms, chopped

Directions:
1) Combine the red wine, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and cinnamon in a bot and bring to a boil.








2) Add the pears and turn down the heat to a simmer.
3) Simmer for 10-12 minutes.
4) Stir and simmer for another 5-8 minutes.







5) Test the pears to see if they can be poked though with a fork, if so, they are done.
6) Let cool.
7) Combine the salad ingredients.
8) Serve with balsamic vinegar, or another dressing of your choice (could use the leftover wine from the pot, but that seemed a bit runny to me).

Pesto

I've been staying on Nantucket Island with my brother and his family while I wait for a visa to go to Korea which is taking much longer than I was told it would. Anyway, he has a garden with tons of stuff in it and I've been making a lot of stuff with it so these next few posts will feature fresh from the garden food.

Pesto can easily be frozen if you omit the cheese.

I took the recipe from here but made a few changes.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups fresh basil, chopped
• 1/3 pine nuts
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• juice of 1/2 of a lemon
• salt and pepper

Directions:
1) Put the basil in a food processor and blend for about 15 seconds.
2) Add the pine nuts and blend for about 15 seconds again.
3) Add the garlic and blend until you no longer see chunks (time depends on how much you chop them).
4) Add the olive oil in a constant stream (if not possible, just do it in batches of 3).
5) Scrape the sides to push all the basil back in (this might be needed during step 4) and blend for another 15 seconds.
6) This would be the point to freeze if you want to save it for later. If not, add the Parmesan and blend for about 30 seconds.
7) Add the lemon, salt and pepper and blend for 15 seconds.

5 batches of frozen pesto (2.5 batches in each container).

Strawberry and Lemon Cupcakes

It was summer-ish today (i.e. the sun came out for 4 hours) and that made me want to make summer-y cupcakes!

Taken from here and modified.

Ingredients:

• Cupcakes
• 2 cups cake flour
• 2 cups all-purpose flour minus 4 TBSP
• 4 TBSP corn starch
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup milk
• Frosting
• 4 oz strawberries
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1) Combine flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.









2) Combine cream cheese, butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice and vanilla.








3) Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
4) Add the oil.







5) Add the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with 2 batches of the milk.








6) Fill the cupcake liners with 1/2 to 2/3 full.
7) Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
8) Cool completely before frosting.






9) To make the frosting, puree the strawberries with either a blender or food processor, cutting before.
10) Add the sugar and put over medium heat.
11) Reduce until the sauce can cover the back of the spoon.
12) Remove and let cool.





13) Add the rest of the ingredients.