Secrets of a Kitchen Wizard

Posted by: mari | February 4, 2010

Aunt Else’s Aebleskiver Pan and Mix Review & Starter-Kit Give Away

Thank you so much for your comments on what do you think the pan is for, and what would you fill in these…
I was amazed by your creativity, and all the possibilities the pan offers. Your answers certainly made me (and many others) very hungry…

The answer is…. As quite a few of you guessed, Aebleskiver pan!

You may ask “What is Aebleskiver?” Aebleskiver are Danish round pancakes that are often eaten before Christmas. (<- Click here for Wikipedia definition of Aebleskiver.)

As some of you may remember from my post of FoodBuzz Blogger Festival in November, the guy in the red outfit, living somewhere very cold up North sent the pan and mix around Thanksgiving as early Christmas presents. This is one of the perks as a Featured Publisher at FoodBuzz. I get to try many cool things and restaurants and write about it.

This is my Skiver Santa, Chad Gillard from Aunt Else’s in Minnesota.

I’ve been having fun with this every weekend, which I call Skiver Saturday or Skiver Sunday. The best part is, these Aebleskivers are great not only for traditional apple slices, but with almost anything. As you know, I love varieties and experimenting! That’s why you may have already seen a few photos of them with many different things on top on Facebook, etc. I never get bored. And now I have even more ideas, thanks to you, I will be able to have fun with it for a very very long time!

When I’m at home, these are the things I gather on typical weekend.

Gorgonzola cheese, cheddar, chicken, sliced turkey, shrimp, cramberry apple batter, sauteed mirepoix and sauteed leeks. And of course one each of apple, banana and nutella.

When we tried this first at our friends over Thanksgiving, I didn’t want to bother our friends with their computer password, I wanted to try so bad, I didn’t watch the video on AuntElse Website, they stuck really badly, and some of the got burnt as well. Since then, My Skiver Santa has given me a pointer from the Northern land, so I now heat the pan for 10-15 min at low-medium heat as soon as I wake up.

As soon as we pour the batter, it puffs up pretty quickly, so I put all these fun and different fillings in each well. Can you tell I pefer savory food to sweets, and lots of varieties?

The trick is to:

1. Season the pan well in advance, and use enough oil.

2. Heat the pan at medium low heat for 10 – 15 minutes until hot. (Set the timer and prepare the filling during that time. If you still have time, watch the video one more time, and learn how to turn.)

3. Aunt Else mix puffs up a lot quickly. I recommend pouring about 2 TBS batter in each well, starting from the four corners, then middle four, and the very center well at the end.

4. After adding the filling, if it doesn’t come up to the rim, add a little more. (The amount on the photo is a bit on the generous side, especially on the top row. In my opinion,i t’s easier to turn if there’s no batter going outside of the well.)

5. For perfectly round skivers, do the quarter turns as in the video. If you try to flip the entire thing 180 degrees, you’ll end up with half dome shaped skivers. : (

It’s really important to pull the skivers UP 90 degrees, then they release itself like a magic! Before I was trying to separate the balls from the wall, and that made them stick toghether more. Every minutes or so, I pull them up another 90 degrees, and when you are finished with all four turns, you will have a perfectly round Aebleskivers!

Just like these!

Look at all these different fillings! So much fun!

Our favorites were:

Trader Joe’s Cranberry Apple Butter
Gruyere Cheese
Apple slices
Caramelized onion and gruyere cheese (Like French Onion soup)

Sounds strange but defintely my favorite:

Green onions, drops of Kikkoman soy sauce, and gruyere as filling, home-made mayonnaise on top (below). I also tried Japanese takoyaki or okonomiyaki style with green onion and cabbage mixed into batter (I made more traditional Japanese style batter for this instead of AuntElse’s Aebleskiver mix for this) with seafood etc in it. That was quite delicious as well.

Aebleskivers are very similar to pancakes or crepes, so you can fill with anything you’d wrap with your crepes. With so many options, this can be eaten for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner or dessert. I told you, I love things that can be flexible and optimized. I like the fact that you can have so much fun making it too. This definitely passed my test! Next time, I’ll try sauteed mushrooms, seafood with cream sauce etc. (Use leftovers, since you need so little.) My husband thought I’m weird, but I’m contemplating using a meatball or quail egg as well. You know, just like a Scotch Egg! Will see.

In terms of savory or sweet question, I found Aunt Else’s mix very versatile, it works for both… just like a good crepe batter! You can certainly add more sugar or salt if that’s what you prefer, but I found it just right.

If you like it sweet, my guess is Japanese anko — sweet red bean paste will be great in Aebleskiver. We have similar street snacks called Tai-yaki (Tai Snapper shaped pancake sandwich with anko in it) and Dora-yaki (two round pancakes filled with anko), and Imagawa-yaki (Flattened version of Aebleskiver?) Click each link to see the photos to see the difference.

For 2 of us, we just do one batch (1/2 of the amount of the smallest batch measurement on the back of the bag), and that’s plenty for brunch. All you need per batch is one egg, 1 cup of water, and a scant cup of Aunt Else’s mix, which is made of organic whole wheat flour. Even though you don’t have to whip up the egg white like some other Aebleskiver mix, it’s perfectly fluff. It works great for both savory and sweet fillings. It’s really fun activity especially with kids (of all ages).

So in our household, Saturdays and Sundays are Skiver Days!

Can I tell you a funny story about this?

In my determination to not to break that new tradition, and my desire to share this fun activity with our niece and nephew, I even dragged that heavy cast iron Aebleskiver pan from the Bay Area to Milwaukee for our Christmas visit. The problem is, the suitcase that had our pan in it decided to spend some time in warmer climate, and ended up in El Paso, TX. The good news is, after spending 2 days of us worrying about the whereabouts of my favorite new toy/kitchen tool, our luggage was found at the snowing, fridged door steps of my in-laws. (Geez, guys! It has something very VALUABLE!) Well, this is surburban Milwaukee, not Oakland, CA. Fridged means there’s no one hanging out to steal it. Plus, these people are very friendly and nice, they often don’t even lock their door!

Anyway, I found this note in our luggage… and the box we had the skiver pan was opened, and searched… These curious inspectors might have even made a few batches of Aebleskivers… Who knows? Well, it was the same day (Christmas day) when they had the fire scare in the plane, so I consider it a good thing.

When we were in Milwaukee, we only tried some apples, pears, bananas with powdered sugar, apple sauce, and some cranberry sauce. Everyone loved them, kids, grandparents and adults. I guess they realized that I too could make some sweet, more traditional dishes. (I am known to suggest something “weird” like new vegetables, flavors, or spices (Japanese food anyone?) to cook during our holiday visits in my attempt to add variety to casseroles — their kind of Christmas meals.)

Thank you, my Skiver Santa, Chad Gillard from Aunt Else’s! With this, everyday (OK, weekend) is like Christmas!

Oh… Our generous Skiver Santa wants YOU to have fun with your own Skiver set. One lucky reader will get an Aunt Else Aebleskiver Starter Kit (both pan and the mix)!

He also want you to learn more about Aebleskivers and ask questions. So I am hosting a phone interview with Chad Gillard (aka Skiver Santa), the President of Aunt Else’s Aebleskivers and you are invited! Don’t miss this unique opportunity. Invite your friends and family too.

All the details will be posted next week, including how to increase the chance of winning. (Wouldn’t you be most curious about this? I would!) Make sure to subscribe to Secrets of the Kitchen Wizard by email (sidebar, scroll down just a bit), so that you will be the first one to know.

In the mean time, please write to our “Skiver Santa” at C.O.mment Box of this post about:

1. What you may want to do with the Skiver Starter Kit?

2. Why you should be the one to win the kit?

Again, one comment counts as one point. Come up as many ideas and keep posting comments. You are welcome to go back to these 2 posts about 1. Aebleskiver pan , and 2. filling, and post more ideas.

Santa is watching….

Good luck and have a great weekend!

7 Comments

Posted in Dessert, Dinner, Vegetarian, breakfast, brunch, lunch, review | Tags: aebleskiver, apple, aunt else's, ball, breakfast, brunch, danish, dorayaki, ebleskiver, food, pan, pancake, takoyaki

Posted by: mari | February 2, 2010

I Want VIP Access to the S. Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition!

Do you love watching cooking shows? The food? The excitement? The judging?

Me too! Ever since I was a little girl in Tokyo when these shows were still Black and White. (Yes, well before Iron Chef!) I even learned how to read all the difficult characters (thousands of them) from my grandma’s cooking magazines!

So I was jumping up and down when I got the invitation from Foodbuzz (where I’m one of their Featured Publishers) to enter a challenge to win the chance to attend their “The S. Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition” regional competition in Las Vegas on Thursday, February 4th and the final in Napa on March 5th - 7th, 2010. This event gives top culinary students from around the world a chance to showcase their skills to top chefs, culinary experts and media, and the opportunity to win cash and a paid apprenticeship with a top chef to jump start their career.

As many of you know, I love anything to do with cooking and food, AND anything to do with culture. This event gives these talented people from around the world the opportunity to get a jump start to their culinary career – I’m totally in! My friend’s nephew from India got a similar opportunity at Gary Danko, now he works at Four Season’s at Dubai, and is on his way to become a world famous chef! I would love to witness other culinary students like him inspiring these established top chefs and culinary experts.

As someone born and raised in Japan, an avid world traveler, a graduate from the top international MBA graduate school Thunderbird, and a home-chef who cooks and eats dishes from around the world every day since I was young, learning about different food cultures around the world is truly my passion. On top of that, as a life-long student of self-improvement, to witness these young chefs living their dreams and making it happen, this is THE event made in heaven for me! I’ll be inspired by their wonderful creation, and would love to make their recipes into something easy and do-able in an ordinary kitchen. I love making up dishes from my imagination as well as recreating what I eat and see on the menu (you can’t eat everything) from restaurants around the world – so it would be a fun project, even if they may be slightly different, I’m confident that I can capture the spirit of their dishes. I will post recipes and techniques for dishes that could be made from the original versions.

This is a true win-win-win situation for all involved. These young, talented chefs learn from the top chefs, and in return they leave their footprints from their country or region with that particular restaurant or chef to make their dishes more interesting. And we as diners get to benefit from that amalgamation and S. Pellegrino gets great PR! A corporation like S. Pellegrino sponsoring an event like this, 8 years in a row is very admirable. I would love to see more companies give similar opportunities to young, talented, hard-working individuals!

So how would I spread the word, and create the buzz…

I have a very special plan!

When I win the VIP access to the Almost Famous Chef competition, I want to share my VIP access to others in the form of live telephone interviews with the contestants through a giant conference call line and webcast! I would also love to conduct telephone interviews with the representative(s) at S. Pellegrino about the event as well. By inviting the public to attend these interviews live (maybe even solicit questions from the public), they will get to know of these young chefs’ passions, inspirations, and vision at very personal level, and create more buzz about the event. We can make the recordings available on the Event site, so that anyone can listen to it, even after the event is over. We can even make the recording available on the websites of the culinary schools these contestants are from, to inspire other students.

Of course, all of these happenings with the event will be announced on my regular blogs as well – KitchenWizardMari.com, and my Secrets of a Kitchen Wizard at SFGate.com blog, plus on my Facebook profile, Kitchen Wizard Fan Page and Twitter. Of course, I will work with FoodBuzz and S. Pellegrino to come up with the best way to promote this to as many people as possible.

So that’s my plan! Please send your best wishes toward Oakland. When I get picked, and get the opportunity to conduct these interviews, you will be the first one to know!

Follow all the LIVE action on Twitter! @afchefcomp

What Goodies Would You Fill in Them? Special Giveaway awaiting…

So now you took a guess of what that black cast iron thing is, here’s another quiz.

These were made in that pan from my last post…

What would you fill in them? Or how would you eat them?

Please leave your idea(s) in the comment box.

I’m planning a special give away around Valentine’s Day – the details will be revealed next week.

Those who participate more have a higher chance of winning the special gift! Feel free to comment as many time as you want (as long as you change what you’d fill in. : ) )

You don’t want to miss the giveaway?

Subscribe to Secrets of a Kitchen Wizard by email from the right sidebar, to be the first one to read about it.

Have a great weekend!

22 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: aunt else's, food, giveaway, quiz

Posted by: mari | January 28, 2010

Do You Know What This Is For? Special Gift Awaiting…

Do you know what this is for?

Please leave your answer in the comment box.

I’m planning a special give away around Valentine’s Day!

Those who participate have a chance to win a special gift!

18 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: food, giveaway, kitchen tool, quiz

Posted by: mari | January 20, 2010

The Versatile World of Miso: Fancy Food Show, Miso and Natto Event Recap

As one of the major gastronomic capitals of the world, San Francisco hosts many food related events.

On Monday, I was invited as a guest to the educational seminar on “Miso and Natto: The Two Up and Coming Food from Japan” at Fancy Food Show at Moscone Center sponsored by JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization). My friend Nobuko works for them, and she wanted me to write about it on my blog.

I’d love to! It’s easy to convince me with good food. And of course, I was curious about how they are positioning miso and (especially) natto, which is not known as the Japanese food most loved by non-Japanese…, yet.

This post features miso, which is very versatile, gaining popularity, and more readily available than its cousin, natto. He’s a little more eccentric (it’s fermented, so quite sticky, and pungent), so I’ll save that post for later.

Most non-Japanese knows miso because of popularity of miso-soup. Many even call them just “miso”, and ask me “how do you make miso?”

As represented in that question, many don’t know they can use miso much more than in miso-soup alone, and also can make hundreds of variety of miso soup using what they have in their fridge! Making miso soup at home is very easy, and much cheaper and often tastier than these cups you pay at some of the Japanese restaurant for $3 or more per serving, or freeze-dried version at the store.

Plus evidence in Japan points to many health benefits such as relieving fatigue, reducing cholesterol, improving intestinal function and digestion, anti-aging, diminishing signs of aging skin, and even reducing the risk of cancer.

The miso part was presented by Ema Koeda, Chef and Food & Wine Specialist. She introduced the audience to the versatile world of miso and its health benefits with some Powerpoint presentation with mouth-watering photos. (For more information about miso, click here.)

she demonstrated one dish which was delicious, super easy, and something everyone loves and are familiar with!

Yes, you guessed it right. The first photo you saw… Japanese Miso Burger. If someone is thinking about start making miso soup at home, but don’t know what to do with the rest of the miso, start with this. This is a perfect recipe to experience the versatility of miso, and what it can do for you in your kitchen. Then start experimenting with adding in this and that as a secret ingredient. Soon you’ll be known as a great cook!

The amount of miso used in this burger is perfect… not to little, not too much, and adds a lot of umami and depth of flavor and savoriness, anyone will love it. I particularly loved the topping of scallions, and miso ketchup!

Sendai miso called in the recipe will be hard to find, so simply look for yellow or red miso. If you are using ground chicken, she suggested that white miso will work nicely. Most large supermarkets (Asian Food section), health food stores, and gourmet markets sell basic miso pastes. I recommend the Japanese kind, rather than American version for more authentic taste and ingredients. If you want speciality miso, such as Sendai miso, call the Japanese market in your area.

Japanese Miso Burger By Ema Koeda

Ingredients:

3/4 lbs Ground beef
1/2 Onion, minced
1 Large egg, beaten
4 TBS Panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
3 TBS Sendai Miso (or red or yellow miso)
1 stick, long scallion, julienned and put in cold water
4 burger buns
3 oz ketchup
1 TBS Sendai miso (or red or yellow)
1 TBS walnuts, crushed
3 TBS shallots, minced

Procedure:

Preheat oven at 350 F. (At the event, she simply fried the burgers in the skillet as shown in the photo above.)
Combine beef, onion, egg, panko and miso in a large bowl till well combined, for about 2-3 minutes.
Shape meat into patties a bit smaller than the size of buns, approximately 3.5 oz.
Grill patties on medium heat for 2-3 minutes on each side and cool.
Combine ketchup, crumbled walnuts, miso and shallots for the sauce.
Warm the buns in the oven, place the patty, ketchup, scallions and top the bun to cover.

Serves four.

The second dish Japanese Misoyaki Butterfish with Sizzling Soy Vinaigrette demonstrated by Jeff Hubbard, Chef Partner at Roy’s in San Francisco was impressive yet probably may not be the first one to try at home for the most people. It’s mainly because you have to marinate the fish for 24 hours, requires 3 cups each of sake and mirin and 8 oz of miso, plus how the vinaigrette is made (see that fire!)… It’s time-consuming and expensive, especially if you choose to follow the recipe exactly. Watching a young, good-looking chef playing with fire was fun, but this is a type of food you may want to try at the restaurant…. He’ll understand, and probably love you for it : )

Using a lot more miso (8 oz for four 7 oz piece fish!) , and long marinating, it has much stronger miso taste than Ema’s burger recipe, which can be even loved by “miso-beginners”.

I’ll be honest. I normally do not like misoyaki. Whether it’s fish or meat. It’s probably because my dad used to get this miso-marinated Kobe beef for Oseibo gift giving season every year (or maybe for Ochugen in summer too!) from one of his patients. The miso flavor was too overpowering, plus my mom cried (I’m serious) each time I didn’t want to eat something, so maybe I have bad memories. I begged my parents to let the person know that we appreciated it, but we prefer plain Kobe beef, but Mom’s answer was no. It’s too rude. So she lied every year when she called and thank the giver with “It’s our FAVORITE! All four of us look forward to this special gift every year!”. So the poor guy believed her and spent a fortune on something we were actually giving away year after year.

Sorry, I got side tracked. The kind of fish used for misoyaki is ALWAYS fatty fish, which I don’t care for. Having said that, it’s my personal preference. Many people love them, including lots of Americans I know.

What I liked about this particular version was Jeff (or Roy Yamaguchi himself, whoever developed the original recipe) uses soy vinaigrette with a lot of refreshing vegetables such as onions, daikon and tomatoes along with rice wine vinegar and lemon juice to cut the oiliness. It’s also great way to incorporate more vegetables into our diet.

I won’t do the fire part so that so that don’t have to deal with the smoke in the house afterwards, but maybe I’ll come up with a short-cut and cheaper version of this with less oily fish. Maybe it will convert me. Or just make the vinaigrette. It should be great with chicken, beef, salmon, and many different things.

It’s really nice to see more and more people are becoming intersted in Japanese ingredients and food beyond sushi and teriyaki because it’s not only tasty but healthy as well. It adds more flavor easily without adding extra sodium or fat. (Miso itself is salty, so be easy on salt if you are adding it as “secret ingredients”.)

This event inspired me to experiment more with miso. Just like Ema showed us, adding these Japanese ingredients to familiar dishe is a great way to start. Even though I’ve been using miso as secret ingredients here and there, it’d be fun to see how miso would enhance things like clam chowder! I’ll report on it here as I experiment, so stay tuned!

Are you planning to incorporate miso into your kitchen? If so, what will you experiment with?

Thanks for inviting me, Nobuko!

My friend Nobuko from JETRO (in special “Miso Apron” I want it!) and Eriko from Tofu-Life in Benecia.

6 Comments

Posted in Dinner, Fast and Easy, Recipe, brunch, lunch, review | Tags: burger, ema koeda, fancy food show, food, jeff hubbard, jetro, miso, misoyaki, roy's

Posted by: mari | January 14, 2010

Pace Picante Sauce Super Bowl Challenge: Picante Mini Burger

As a Featured Publisher with FoodBuzz.com, I get to receive quite a few products to try.

One of the recent challenge was to create a recipe for Super Bowl Party, using Pace Picante Sauce. I don’t even understand the rule of American Football, yet I like parties, and of course food. I also don’t mind seeing different kind of dishes on Super Bowl party tables besides nachos and Mexican layered thingy. (Ever since “The Biggest Loser“, I’m scared of going near them, feeling like I won’t be able to stop and end up with 10,000 calories!)

Right before Christmas, I received two bottles of Picante Sauce from FoodBuzz. One Mild, and one Medium.

According to the Pace Foods website, Picante Sauce is:

Ideal for cooking, since it’s smoother than salsa with the perfect balance of zesty sauce and crisp vegetables.

Created by David Pace over 60 years ago as a unique cooking sauce to add delicious flavor to all kinds of dishes.

With more rich sauce to go around, it helps dishes stay savory and keeps them from drying out.

A fast, easy way to spice up everyday meals and add flavor to meat, vegetables, pasta, rice, or any dish.

I like the last part. When I make meatballs and burgers, I put a lot of sautéed vegetables for flavor and healthier eating. Yet using Picante Sauce definitely make things easier especially when people don’t have them on hand.

Even though I used Medium, I found the sauce to be on the mild side. I personally like salsas which has lots of vegetables, and not very saucy, but this could be used for salsa for dipping in a pinch.

As I started my experiment, I found its sauciness helps turkey stay moist, yet because it’s not that spicy, I had to add quite a bit, that makes the mixture soggy. So I had to add extra panko to firm it up so that they firm up a bit. This may not be an issue when you are using red meat, yet my husband doesn’t eat four-legged animal flesh, so it’s a dilemma I have to deal with every time. My original plan was to make meat balls. First attempt, I cooked them in the oven and the cheese inside ran out like there’s no tomorrow. When I bit into it, there were lots of holes inside — where the cheese use to be! I thought about calling them “MexSwiss Meatballs”, but I decide to ditch that idea.

So, on my second attempt, I chose to fry them in the skillet with some flour to protect the cheese. While I was rolling them in the skillet to color all over, they started to lose shape, so I flattened them into mini-burgers. Thanks to the FLOUR POWER, the cheese stayed inside.

That accident actually worked out to my favor. They came out as light and fluffy, flavorful mini-burgers which look like cookies, especially when they were adorned with Trader Joe’s cranberry apple butter on top! Pretty enough to fool the picky eaters, perhaps?

Picante Mini Burger

Ingredients: (makes about 36 patties)

1 lbs ground meat (I used turkey)
1/2 cup or more Pace Picante Sauce, Medium (If using “Mild”, add hot sauce to taste)
1/3 cup cottage cheese
2 TBS sherry
1 clove garlic (grated)
1/2 ts anchovy paste or fish sauce
1-2 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil if using Ground Turkey
1/2 cup Panko moisten with Milk
Salt and Pepper
flour for dusting
Extra Virgin Olive Oil for pan-frying

Directions:

Add panko mixture, picante sauce, cottage cheese, sherry, salt and pepper to the ground meat. Mix well.
Shape the meat mixture into 2-inch patties (about 1/2 inch thickness). Dust with flour on both sides, especially if using ground turkey — if you don’t, cheese may run out. (Easy and saves a lot of flour if you use mesh tea infuser.)
Heat olive oil in a skillet on medium-high, and pan fry until cooked through and brown on both sides.
Serve hot. Optionally top with more picante sauce (best if it’s reduced by half) or cranberry apple butter (looks like cookies!), or mixture of the two.

Variation: I used cottage cheese because that’s what I had in the fridge, yet also like Feta cheese especially with ground lamb.

4 Comments

Posted in Fast and Easy, Parties, Uncategorized | Tags: cranberry apple butter, food, Foodbuzz, kikkoman, pace picante sauce, panko, Recipe, salsa, super bowl, trader joe's, turkey

Posted by: mari | January 12, 2010

What Will Be the Food Trend in 2010?

Happy New Year!

2009 was a challenging year, for our economy, as well as many of us, including our own. So I am excited to have that year behind us. I read somewhere that 2010 is good year in Fen Shui, so I’m excited about what the new year has to offer.

As we look forward, one thing I want to know about is the trend prediction of 2010, you guessed it, about food.

1. Eat Fresh, Eat More Vegetables!

On recent Iron Chef, First Lady Michelle Obama opened the super chef battle of Bobby Flay & Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford of the White House vs. Mario Batali, Emeril Ragasse. The secret ingredients were vegetables from the White House garden, to inspire Americans to cook and eat more vegetables. I heard that Mrs. Obama actually don’t cook much even before she moved to the White House, yet the First Lady herself is involved in a major TV event like this is HUGE! I see more and more focus will be placed on eating fresh, especially vegetables, rather than prepared food as well as meat and carbohydrates.

Given the obesity rate of the US is epidemic 33% for adults and 16% for children, 2 in 3 adult Americans are considered overweight, this is truly a welcoming trend, and will change life of many. The key is, it needs to happen on everyone’s home, not just on TV or at the restaurants. We as a nation, need to change our eating habits. The challenge is to show the general public eating vegetables are not just eating these raw celery from veggie platter, or plain boiled (and possibly cooked to death) broccoli. If that’s the only thing they know, of course they won’t want to eat much vegetables. There are many easy, more flavorful options, if they are willing to experiment.

One of the easiest and tastiest is roasted and/or grilled vegetables. My trick is to stick a whole vegetables like eggplants and sweet potatoes (the Obamas’ favorite veggie, according to the First Lady) in toaster oven at 400F while I’m cooking something else. Compared with an conventional oven, it doesn’t require much pre-heating, so it’s much faster, and reduces energy as well. Then I have them ready to go in the air-tight container in the refrigerator for various dishes later in the week.

Click here for my super easy and healthy eggplant appetizer recipe I posted this on SFGate.com site. It takes less than 5 minutes if you already have grilled/roasted eggplants. You’ll love it!

Stay tuned for more posts about the food trends in 2010…

What food trend do you predict in 2010? What’s is your new year’s resolution around food? Leave me a comment, I’m interested in hearing from you.

PS: Is “Eating Healthy” one of your new year’s resolutions? Then join us for my free class this Saturday, January 16th in Oakland. Hope you can make it!

3 Comments

Posted in Healthy eating, Vegetarian, cooking, food, healthy, tricks - batch, tricks - batch and fridge | Tags: Bobby Flay, Cristeta Comerford, eggplant, Emeril Lagasse, food, food newtork, healthy, Iron Chef, Mario Batali, Michelle Obama, obesity, sweet potato, vegetables, White House

Posted by: mari | January 7, 2010

Invitation to my Free Class! “The Fastest Path to Healthy & Exciting Home-Made Meals!”

Happy New Year!

Is “healthy eating” one of your new year’s resolutions?

Would you like to learn how to cook healthy, tasty meals at home with half the effort and time, and with twice as much variety?

As a New Year gift to my loyal readers, I’d love to invite you to my class ”The Fastest Path to Healthy & Exciting Home-cooked Meals!” next Saturday, January 16 at Oakland Public Library for free! I will teach you my unique system of how to make a variety of healthy meals at home easier and faster while having fun!

In this class, you’ll learn the first, most critical step — how to keep an efficient, flexible pantry. After completing this step, you will be able to whip up lots of dishes and end your dinner dilemmas forever!

What to keep on hand & what to shop for
How to mix and match ingredients for maximum flexibility and efficiency
Demo of several easy dishes – with samples for tasting!

When?: January 16 (Saturday), 2010 From 11:30am to12:30pm
- Optional free trip to Trader Joes (12:30 – 1:30pm) to help you get a head start
Where?: Oakland Public Library Lakeview Branch: 550 El Embarcadero, Oakland, CA 94610 510-238-7344
- Click here for Map & Directions
Questions?: Leave me a comment!

This event is popular and expected to sell out! Come early – seats are first come, first served (or bring a portable chair just in case). The class starts promptly at 11:30am.

*Space is limited to first 40! Save your spot NOW and get FREE printable shopping list by signing up from Class Tab on top.

* Parking: If possible, carpool or take public transportation. Parking could be challenging. There are a parking under 580 (right next to the farmer’s market), metered parking along main streets such as Grand, Lake Shore etc., and free street parking on side streets.

Look forward to seeing you in person next Saturday!

1 Comment

Posted in Cooking Class, Pantry, cooking, food, healthy, money-saving tips, time-saving | Tags: Cooking Class, eating, food, grocery, healthy, Oakland, Pantry, shopping, trader joe's

Posted by: mari | December 23, 2009

Holiday Greetings!

Happy Holidays!

I created a little scrap-book of my adventures — Kitchen Wizard Xmas 09, “My Year of Cooking and Eating as a Food Blogger”. It may take a bit for the photos to load, if so, click play again. Hope you enjoy it!

Thank you so much for your comments and encouragements throughout the year.
I’m planning more exciting things next year. So stay tuned…

NEW in 2010! Free Monthly Newsletter!
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Look forward to more questions and comments from you in 2010!

Cheers! Here’s to great 2010!

Love,
Mari

Click to play this Smilebox scrapbook: Kitchen Wizard Xmas 09

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: food, Foodbuzz, photos, tyler florence

Posted by: mari | December 17, 2009

Tyler Florence “Cooking Demo and Book Signing at Macy’s” Report

I went to see my idol, celebrity chef, Tyler Florence at Macy’s Cellar at Union Square last night.

I’ve been a big Tyler fan for many years, since Food 911. Given he moved to the Bay Area recently, I jumped at the opportunity to go see him in person. And of course, sample some of his food! (Surprise!)

Tyler Florence’s genuine passion about food and willingness to share that is so refreshing. I knew that from his shows on Food TV, yet in this type of setting, it’s not edited. It’s real and more intimate. He’ a true educator and great marketer, I have to say. He’s so passionate about his food, cookware, various projects he’s doing, before you know it, you are convinced — big time.

Before walking into Macy’s I swore to myself that I would NOT buy ANYthing, because I have hundreds of cookbooks and more than enough cookware in our small kitchen in our small house. If I did, my husband would kill me. Plus our budgets are tight this season.

Well, before Tyler’s charm, especially right in front of me, that was no avail. He was asking the audience what they are cooking for Christmas, and freely giving advice.
And his enthusiasm and excitement about his cookware easily convinced me to try this beautiful and flexible cookware that are light for its quality. It’s optimized! I love anything optimized! This will optimize my cooking effort even more! Plus, he’s concerned about MY wrist when handling heavy pans, and developed cookware that are not too heavy. What a nice guy! (And may I add that he was smart enough to tell us to just to lift it up the sample pans as he closes the show.)

So, here’s the Video #1 Tyler explaining his cookware (About the heat resistent handles, oven-safe to 500F, etc.

Note: I was multi-tasking, trying to shoot a video, taking photo, and write notes at the same time. So they are a bit shaky.

Video #2 Tyler explaining about his cookware, this one is about the weight and heat conductivity.

After that, food time!

He made three amazing dishes for us. No meat dish, two seafood dishes and one vegetarian. They were all hearty, you feel you could cut meat from your diet completely, even in winter.

The first dish was Halibut with Buttered Turnip Puree, Beluga Lentils.

Aaahhhh, it was delicious. Halibut is my favorite fish to start with, yet with turnips and lentils with fennel (another favorite of mine)… It was like match made in heaven! I was so jealous of people who got to eat the fresh one made by Tyler. Given my husband couldn’t make it, I need to make this at home soon.

Video of Tyler plating the dish.

Then Crispy Calamari with smoked herb salt. His shared his secret is to use 3:1 flour and corn starch to keep the crispness, and use soda water. It was, indeed crispy, and I could have a lot more!

The third was a beautiful vegetarian dish. Ricotta Gnocchi with Chantrelle Mushrooms, Cavalo Nero (Black Cabbage) and Vera Fuso. (<– this spelling could be wrong. Basically, a sauce made of leftover pasta water.

The gnocchi were sautéed directly in the skillet, and looked super easy. It would be even better, when it’s hot (To save time to feed everyone, all the food was made in advance by the staff.) So I’d definitely make them later, and experiment with this leftover pasta water sauce for sure.

Even just looking at these photos makes me hungry!

We also got a surprised visit by his son Hayden and wife Tolan. He even showed us how to cook by “Stirring the pot”. What a cute family!

So did I buy anything, you may ask.

YES… As Tyler suggested, I lifted up a beautiful wok on the display. It was actually light, and its graceful line and beautiful shine (and Tyler’s comments, of course) convinced me that this will make a better fried rice. I have had 2 woks since I came to the US, but for some reason, I just can’t make decent fried rice any more, even though I was able to in Japan. My NEED to experiment and prove that I can again, forced me to put the credit card down at the cashier… Oh well… Because of that purchase, I got to talk with him in person and take a photo. So it was totally worth it!

Plus, I know if I make good dishes with it, my husband will forgive me.

And of course, count on me for a post or two when I make these dishes. (Can’t guarantee if it’s exactly the same, because we didn’t get detailed recipe, plus I couldn’t see too well, but it’d be still fun!)

So who’s your favorite celebrity chef, and why do you like him/her? Leave me a comment!

Like Tyler signed on my book, Keep on Cooking!

PS: If you want to find out an event like this, become a fan of Kitchen Wizard on Facebook. I post these events notifications on it.

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Posted in review | Tags: book signing, calamari, chef, cookware, florence, food, food network, gnocchi, halibut, macy's, tyler