French bread soaked in egg mixture, ready to be frozen

Frozen French Toast, before...

After... Delicious French Toast!

I was going to put a post about the cold noodle salad with strawberry vinaigrette, but I need to push it back a bit.  Because…

Mother’s Day is coming.  I have a great recipe to share that allow Moms in the world to be treated well — and easy for the family.

Even moms that love to cook sometimes need a break. They get their wish come true on Mother’s day – Daddy and/or Children take her out for brunch, or even better, make a home-cooked meal!  Nice!

Here’s an easy freezable French toast trick I found in a Japanese cooking magazine. You can make a large batch this weekend, eat some and freeze the rest to have your family bring to your bedside from on Mother’s day (and beyond).

Mother’s Day Treat (Freezable) French Toast

1. Slice French bread in 1” thick pieces.  Place all of them cut side down in a flat container.
2. For 8 oz French bread, mix 2 eggs,  2-4 TBS sugar, 1 C milk, a little bit of vanilla essence or cinnamon, and pour it all over the bread.  Let the bread soak up the egg mixture completely (5-10 min), turning it once.
3. For portions that will be frozen: Wrap individual portion with plastic wrap, with cut side down (if wrapping two or more together, make sure it’s wrapped side by side like on the photo, not on top of each other).  Put them on the cookie sheet with sides to avoid leakage, and freeze.
4. For Mother’s Day, or whenever you want to have your family make this it for you: : )  Remove the plastic wrap, melt 1-2 ts butter in a skillet at low heat. Place frozen French Toasts and cook for 4-5 minutes with lid on. When it’s golden brown on the bottom, flip them, place lid again, and cook 2-3 minutes until golden brown. Serve hot with maple syrup.
5. If they are not frozen, just cook with butter, without lid until golden brown.

We didn’t have any French bread, nor maple syrup, so made it with ciabatta, ate it as it is without syrup.  It was chewy, yet moist and delicious!

So go ahead and make some this weekend, and have the frozen version ready to go for your family to treat you to breakfast in bed later on Mother’s day.

As in this recipe, save some basic things you cooked previously, things like various sautéed vegetables, vegetable and meat mixtures etc. and give your family some written instructions.  Your sous-chef of the house (husband and children) will be able to assemble meals when you are away, busy or you need a break!  Look under “batch and fridge” or “batch and freeze” categories on my blog for ideas for food to keep on hand, and what you can do with them.  As a matter of fact, when I got pneumonia last fall, these batched items in our fridge and freezer literary saved our lives, and upgraded my husband’s status as a Kitchen Wizard. Because of that incident, when I was still in Japan about a month ago, but he was back in the US, I didn’t have to stock up food before I left as usual.  What a treat!

In case you are wondering, my husband never really cook much in the past, so if he can do it, your husband and/or children can do it too!

Talking about batching,  if you have that strawberries and radish from the last post sitting around, it may be a bit limp and jammy…  Actually they are quite good with these French Toast as a topping.  If you cannot stand the idea of radish with the French toast, just pick them out.  You won’t even notice.

So what do you do with leftover egg mix in the container?  How about making an easy dessert?

Stay tuned for the easy bread pudding recipe…  Click “ Email Subscription” on the right column, so that you won’t miss it!

The Japanese noodle salad with strawberry soy dipping sauce will be posted after that…

Technorati Tags: recipe,french toast,brunch,freeze,make ahead,easy,french bread,ciabatta,egg,vegetarian,breakfast,breakfast in bed,mother’s day,mother

Stuffed Cabbage

It’s getting dark, cold, and RAINY in the Bay Area.  Yes, this fall is exceptionally rainy, and it rains cats and dogs, and that’s not enough, as if all the animals are falling from the sky. And I heard that those people in Colorado, Nebraska etc. already had 6 inches on snow, in early October?  Not just global warming, the weather is strange lately.

On an evening like that, and especially when I’m recovering from sickness, one thing I crave for is stuffed cabbage.

Believe it or not (I might have said that before), 99% of Japanese housewives cook Japanese, other Asian, as well as European origin food as normal repertoire. At least the last 50 years, that has been the norm.  Japanese are known to adopt great things from other countries and improve it to make it more efficient, like cars and electronics. And maybe not as well known fact outside of Japan, but food is definitely one of them.  We Japanize it with the ingredients that are available in Japan, and make it our own.

So, when I was little, and get sick, one of the things I craved for was “Rolled Cabbage” which is stuffed cabbage. Not just at my house, but ask 100 Japanese, whether they live in Japan or elsewhere, I can guarantee majority will say “I make them once in a while.”  We even have Japanese version, which often is found in oden, Japanese pot-au-feu.

The problem with Stuffed cabbage is it takes quite a long time to make it from scratch. But through my Kitchen Wizarding Process, I found a very easy way, that only takes about half or less time, and as tasty!

Plus my version uses mirepoix as its base, and not much meat, so it’s super healthy.  If you are vegetarian, or vegan, omit meat.

To make it even healthier, you can use other kinds of grains and even more vegetables, instead of rice. If the stuffing is too loose, add a beaten egg, so that it’ll serve as a binding agent.

So here’s Kitchen Wizard’s stuffed cabbage recipe!

Stuffed Cabbage

Ingredients:

• Sautéed Mirepoix, Meat and Tomato Mixture – about 1 cup
• Cooked rice – about 1 cup
• Grated cheese – about 1/4 cup (optional)
• Salt and Pepper
• A head of cabbage
• 1/3 –1/4 Can of tomatoes or 2 large tomatoes, chopped
• Chicken or vegetable broth
• Cream

Directions:

1. Remove the core of the cabbage, and stuff the hole with a moist paper-towel.  Wrap it with plastic wrap, and microwave it until cooked through, turning once in the middle. (about 5 min for small head cabbage, about 1 lb.  About 8-9 min for a 2 pounder.) This will allow the leaves to come out easily.
2. Mix cooked rice and sautéed mirepoix, meat and tomato mixture about 50/50. Add cheese if preferred. Mix and season well.  Sprinkle some salt on the cabbage. Wrap a few tablespoons of the rice mixture with the cabbage leaves tightly.  Secure the end with tooth pick or broken spaghetti.
3. Arrange the cabbage rolls into a pan as tightly as possible, trying not to leave any space.  If there’s any space, stuff with leftover cabbage.
4. Add broth to barely cover the cabbage rolls.  Top with chopped tomatoes, and place a lid or plate that is one size smaller than the opening, so that the rolls will not float up. Cook for about 20-30 min.  (If you are short with time, cook in microwave, in several minute increments.  Be careful not boil over the broth.)
5. Serve immediately with cream on top.

Note: Do you have any cooked cabbage leftover?  Great!  Because it’s really handy!  You can shred it and add to miso soup, other kind of soup, mix with vinaigrette to make simple salad as a side dish, sauté lightly with salt and pepper, with tomatoes, curry powder, bacon, etc. etc.

They were so yummy, they made the last bit of my sickness go away…

Never forget, nourish your soul with good, whole food, not just body…  It’ll thank you and give back 100 times! And the best way to do that is through home-cooking.  Treat yourself with your childhood favorite from time to time!

The Meat Sauce Made with Sauteed Mirepoix Meat & Tomato Mixture and Gnocchi

Some of you, my early readers may remember that I posted an article about Sautéed Mirepoix and Meat Mixture back in April 09.  This is my workhorse during colder months.

As I get better, and get my appetite and cooking bug back, the first thing I thought was that “I need to start making some sautéed mirepoix and meat mixture”, because it allow me to create so many variety of dishes in a snap!  I knew that I had a busy week ahead, this was my No. 1 priority.

Since the celery I had was limited (1/2 of a heart), I decided to make only sautéed Mirepoix, Meat and Tomato version.  This for me is the most versatile, and those dishes I had a cravings for all had tomatoes in it, I knew what I needed to do.

Had I had more celery, I would have made double or more batches, and kept about 1/4 as sautéed mirepoix, 1/4 as sautéed mirepoix meat mixture, and 1/2 as sautéed mirepoix meat tomato mixture.  Well, next time.

Anyway, after I made the mixture all I had to do was boil some gnocchi we had, and some nice salad, and voila, we have dinner!  And tomorrow we’d have stuffed cabbage, and then later in the week lasagna, then aushak, my favorite Afghan ravioli thing…  (OK, my version of aushak may be a bit different from authentic version, especially because my husband doesn’t eat red meat, and it’s a short-cut version.  None the less, it’s tasty, healthy and people love it!) Oh, maybe I’ll do shepherds pie…  I haven’t had one for a while…  All with virtually no effort nor time…

Ah, life is good when you cook Kitchen Wizard style…  It’s so easy and fast to create many varieties and so much fun! No wonder my husband had so much fun while I was sick.

And best of all, having a good appetite back is a godsend ! (Next to getting my health back!)

Sautéed Mirepoix, Meat and Tomato Mixture

Ingredients:

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Onion, chopped small: 2 large
• Carrots, chopped small: about half to equal amount of onion
• Celery, chopped small – about half to equal amount of onion (about the same with carrots)
• Uncooked Sausage: 1 – 1 1/4 lbs
• Can of tomatoes, chopped
• Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1. Make sautéed mirepoix by sautéing 2:1:1 ratio of chopped onions, carrots, celery in Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
2. Add uncooked sausage and brown.
3. Add a can of tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.  Optional: Add tomato paste and anchovy paste (Additional flavor enhancers.)
4. If this will mainly become Italian dishes, add Italian spices (basil, oregano, etc. fresh preferred), chili peppers, red wine, milk/cream or broth.

Note: If you want to make a large batch of this, and use half for Italian dishes (lasagna, Bolognese, etc.) and half for chili, after adding tomatoes, cook for a while, then split and save in the fridge. Then the one for Italian dishes add Italian spices, red wine and cream/milk.  I personally use this version for other dishes like shepherds pie and the sauce for aushak, the Afghan ravioli. Add Mexican spices and beans into the one saved for chili.

Do you like miso soup?

Miso Soup is considered Japan’s national dish (OK, next to sushi), many have asked me how to make one.

As a native Japanese, I love miso-soup, as much as you do, but I never made it too often. (Japanese housewives, whether they are working or not, they are expected to make at least 一汁二菜 (ichiju nisai, meaning 1 soup (most often miso soup), and 2 dishes, plus rice. I’m only forgiven because I live in the US, and am married to an American…)

Why?  Because I thought it was a pain to make it every time from scratch.

To save that hassle and satisfy my appetite for miso-soup (I like it especially in the morning with my bowl of hot rice), I’ve even bought one of these freeze-dried miso-soup from Japanese markets.  Although they are pretty decent and not as expensive as $3-5 cup of miso soup from Japanese restaurants, they end up quite expensive.

As I started Kitchen Wizard, one of the things I experimented with was batching miso-soup.

It turned out to be a brilliant idea!

So, let me share with you the world’s easiest, fastest, home-made miso-soup recipe.

The World’s Easiest, Fastest, Home-Made Miso-Soup

Ingredients:

(4-5 servings – multiply by the number of serving you want to make)

• Miso with dashi: 1/4 c (1 TBS per serving)
• Chopped green onions: 1 stalk (about 1/4 stalk per serving)
• Dried wakame about 3-4 TBS (about 1/2 -1 TBS per serving)
• Abura-age (fried tofu) cut in half, then into strips: 1 sheet (1/4 – 1/5 per serving)
• Lightly cooked/microwaved vegetables, cut in bite-size pieces: about 1/4 C (1 oz per serving), such as cabbage, onion

Directions:

1. Mix well miso and other ingredients that are cut in bite-size pieces.  Make sure to add abura-age, especially if you plan to freeze this. Do not use things like tofu, potato, etc. that doesn’t freeze well. If you are planning to eat them quickly and not freeze, you can use anything including tofu.
2. Divide into the number of servings and wrap each with plastic wrap. Keep in the refrigerator or freezer (Miso will not completely freeze.)
3. When ready to eat, unwrap and pour boiling water.
4. Optionally, you can garnish with chopped green onion on top.

Note:

You can make a large batch of softened miso, divide and add different vegetables for more variety.

You can also mix a little bit of liquid or powdered dashi into miso if you have any for more flavor. They are available at Japanese or Asian markets.

I know some (not so authentic) Japanese restaurants use chicken or vegetable broth for miso-soup…  so if there’s no dashi in sight, you may try a bit of either one for flavor as substitution.  Use only a little bit, especially if it’s liquid – you don’t want a soggy mess.

With this, you can have a nice bowl of miso-soup anytime you want… With rice for breakfast, just like in Japan, or you can even bring it to work for lunch.

Enjoy!

Note: I split the pacakge into two, because these particular bowls don’t hold much liquid.  The original miso-soup base only had green onion and abura-age, so I added dried wakame as extra before adding boiling water.

Even moms that love to cook sometimes need a break. They get their wish come true on Mother’s day – Daddy and/or Children take her out for brunch, or even better, make a home-cooked meal!  Nice!

How many of you actually would like to have a break like that more often?

Even if your husband or child is not an avid cook – you can do it.  And it actually tastes good!

By saving some basic things you cooked previously, things like various sautéed vegetables, vegetable and meat mixtures etc. and give them some written instructions, your sous-chef of the house will be able to assemble dinner when you are away, busy or you need a break!  Look under “batch and fridge” or “batch and freeze” categories for ideas for food to keep on hand, and what you can do with them.

Here’s an easy freezable French toast trick I found in a Japanese cooking magazine. You can make extra, eat some and freeze the rest to have your family bring to your bedside from time to time.

Freezable French Toast

1. Slice French bread in 1” thick pieces.  In a flat container with sides, place all of them cut side down.
2. For 8 oz French bread, mix 2 eggs,  2-4 TBS sugar, 1 C milk, a little bit of vanilla essence or cinnamon, and pour it all over the bread.  Let the bread soak up the egg mixture completely (5-10 min), turning it once. 
3. For portions that will be frozen: Wrap individual portion with plastic wrap, with cut side down (if 2 or more, make sure it’s wrapped side by side).  Put them on the cookie sheet (with side, in case of the leakage), and freeze.
4. For when you have your family do it for you: : )  When you are ready to eat, remove the plastic wrap, melt 1-2 ts butter in a skillet at low heat. Place frozen French Toast and cook for 4-5 minutes with lid on. When it’s golden brown on the bottom, flip them, place lid again, and cook 2-3 minutes until golden brown.
5. Serve hot with maple syrup.

We didn’t have any French bread, nor maple syrup, so made it with ciabatta, ate it as it is without syrup, and it was chewy, yet moist and delicious!

So go ahead and make some this weekend, and have the frozen version ready to go for your family to treat you to breakfast in bed later.

So what do you do with leftover egg mix in the container?  How about making an easy dessert? 

Stay tuned for the bread pudding recipe…  Click “Subscribe to ‘Secrets of a Kitchen Wizard’ by Email” above the calendar, so that you won’t miss it!

Don’t let the neighbors touch each other at the beginning.  Otherwise, you will find yourself in big trouble – soon.

Before you know it, they will get stuck. And, it will take forever to separate them, and it could ruin them all.  Not good.

I’m talking about freezing food.  Things like bacon, extra gyoza dumplings, those chicken breasts and drumsticks you bought on sale, but can’t finish.

One idea is to wrap them individually with plastic wrap, but there’s an easier trick, one especially helpful for things that are difficult to wrap.

It really is a pain to handle all the food stuck together.  Pretty much the only choice is to thaw the entire thing, and the rest often ends up in the garbage. Unless you manage to cut it off or smash it off, which takes a lot of time and frustration.  Not good.

With a little planning, you can avoid all that, and create a happy neighborhood in Freezerville.

Lay all of the individual pieces to be frozen on a cookie sheet, lined with a sheet of parchment paper or a silicon pad, making sure that they are not touching each other.  Otherwise, unlike human neighbors, you can guarantee these food neighbors will get stuck really badly, especially if they have moisture on them.

Once they are partially frozen, you can take them off the cookie sheet, and put them in a Ziploc bag. Be sure to label the bag with the content and date.

Then when you need to use them, all you need to do is grab whatever you need, no more, no less and thaw.

One exception is things like herbs, or chopped green onions.  Make sure to dry them well first, then put them directly into a Ziploc bag.  Their surface is small and thin, so it won’t become solid even when they are frozen, and even if they get stuck, it’s easy to break them up.  I grab some frozen parsley leaves, and mince them and add to food… They are so thin, it thaws while you are chopping.

With this rule, everyone will be happy in Freezerville.

Packaging is important!

Are you shocked that was the first thing I uttered?  And that I mentioned cleavage?  This is a family-friendly site!  Rated-G!

I’m talking about when you store things – FOOD. Especially when frozen.

Have you ever frozen a bulk package of ground meat you bought on sale, thinking you’d never be able to use it in one shot, so you’ll save it for later. When you are ready to defrost, you realized, “Oh, shoot… I never be able to use it in one shot, and once it’s defrosted, I’m not supposed to refreeze…  Oops…”

So it requires a bit of pre-planning and strategy.

Kitchen Wizardry is all about how to make things easier to use later without heavy planning. (I’m not a good planner.) It’s about smart cooking and storing.

When something is in the fridge, you can just scoop it out and use it right away.  When frozen, all you have is a solid block, if you don’t plan carefully. It’s really important to make it easier to thaw and use when you store food for freezing.

There are different ways to freeze different things. Today, I’m going to talk about freezing something moist and spreadable (sautéed vegetables, sauces, etc.)

Here are the tricks.

• Use the same size Ziploc bag whenever possible. For most freezers, quart size is ideal. For smaller amount, I use snack size.
• Spread the contents thin – ideally 1/4 to 1/3 inches maximum.
• Be sure to label them with the content and date!
• Then lay the bag down flat and create deep creases across the bag, both vertically and horizontally before freezing.  This is to make it easier to break it off small pieces in the amounts you need. (Use the flat side of a rubber spatula or pointed tip of a chopstick to create these lines.)
• Lay them flat inside the freezer until frozen – a cookie sheet works well. (Otherwise, all the contents will be balled at the bottom, ruining all of your efforts!)
• Once frozen, store them vertically (like books) for easier retrieval.
• You may want to label on the side, so that you can see the contents without taking out (again, just like books!)

Not everything can be shaped like this… or needs to be.

Stay tuned for other cool freezing tricks in future posts… (Click “Subscribe to Secrets of the Kitchen Wizard” via Email above the calendar, so you won’t miss them. : ))

One of the questions I hear often is,

 “What does not work well when frozen for later use? What about fresh herbs? Have you had success freezing them for later use, and if so how?”

That’s a good question. You may find the following helpful. They list the shelf lives of many produce and pantry items as well as how to keep them.

• http://www.stilltasty.com, and
• http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/gen_freeze.html

I would use them just as a guide line though. You’ll find some of the information on somewhat contradictory, and other experts have different opinion. (Ex. Shelf life of bean sprouts on www.stilltasty.com. I find it much shorter than 1 week.) The bottom line is, it depends on your expectations and how you freeze….

As a rule of thumb, I normally freeze either sautéed or blanched vegetables, not not too many fresh produce. And avoid freezing things that contains potatoes or cream.

Herb freezes well, yet loses texture and smell/flavor, I personally don’t freeze fresh herbs, except parsley. I remove all the leaves, put in a small Ziploc bag, and when I need it, I take some out and chop them (or you can chop them first and freeze.) I find it perfectly fine especially when I need it in cooked dishes.  I freeze the stems for making stock.

For things like basil, I recommend making it into a pesto. Then you can keep it a lot longer, and you can even freeze it. (you can mix other herb with basil.) Make sure to use small container – I love baby food jars — so that you can finish one relatively quickly.

To keep herbs longer in the fridge, (and this works well for shiso leaves and zucchini flowers too), try wrapping them with a moist paper towel and keeping them in a plastic bag. I found this keeps tender herbs fresh a lot longer.

At a class on herbs and spices at Whole Foods last night, the teacher swore by Debbie Meyer’s bag. One participant agreed her strawberries stayed fresh for 2 weeks. The reviews on the web…. People either loves it or hate it. http://www.viewpoints.com/Debbie-Meyer-Green-Bags-review-5b0d7
More reviews on Amazon too.

Her advice I liked is that herbs are inter-changeable, so experiment throwing herbs in different dishes.

I will experiment with some fresh herbs in the other Mrs.. Meyer’s bag and , and let you know this Mrs.. Meyer’s verdict. (although I didn’t change my last name, my husband’s last name is Meyer, so technically, I’m Mrs.. Meyer, too.)

Cheese grits with langostino and leeks

Last Friday night a few minutes before 7 pm (the days are lighter these days, so I forget that it’s time to cook dinner), I realized that there’s not much in the fridge.

We’ve been eating up the Kitchen Wizard stuff (or KW for short), and because of the convenience, I don’t have to go grocery shopping as often as I used to. My husband just came back from running starving. And it was Friday, so he would be expecting something nice. (Especially because I declined his suggestion of going out for dinner.) I needed to fix something while he was taking shower.

What am I going to do?

Here’s what I found in our kitchen.

• Instant Grits
• Frozen Langostino
• Serrano Chili
• Red leaf lettuce
• KW: English Cucumber (chopped)
• KW: grated Parmiggiano Reggiano
• KW: sautéed rounds of zucchini
• KW: tomato sauce
• KW: frozen sautéed leeks
• KW: Vinaigrette

Again, not so exciting…   BUT we’ll see…

15 minutes later, here is what we had on our dinner table… Cheese grits with langostino and leeks,  Zucchini Soup, and Red leaf lettuce salad with cucumbers.

Are you interested in having that for your dinner, at Kitchen Wizard speed?

Here are the recipes.

Cheese grits with langostino and leeks

1. Sautee minced Serrano chili in EVOO. Add leeks, frozen langostino and white wine.  Cook until they are heated through and sauce is reduced a bit.
2. In the mean time, cook grits, and (optional) mix grated cheese into grits. Serve hot with langostino sauce on top.

Tip: Sauteed leeks are really great for “batch and fridge”-ing or even “batch and freeze”ing.

There are 3 main reasons.

1. They are often sold as bundle (or cheaper that way), yet has short shelf life.
2. It takes time to trim, properly clean, and chop, let alone time takes for sautéing.
3. Leeks add great flavor to many things – soups, stews, tarts, pan-sauces, stuffing, etc.

I didn’t use them much in the past, just because it was such a pain to prepare so I let it spoil.  Now I started to sautee them all at once, I use them all the time!

Zucchini Soup

1. In a medium pan, add sautéed zucchini, tomato sauce (canned tomato or chopped tomatoes without skin will work too) and chicken broth or water. Heat at medium high. (If your sautéed zucchini doesn’t have any garlic, sauté garlic until golden brown first, then add zucchini and tomatoes.)
2. Puree the soup, and adjust the seasoning.

Salad

1. Wash lettuce leaves, tear, and top with chopped cucumbers. Dress with vinaigrette or choice of dressing.

To make the dinner more romantic, add a bit of candle-light and wine – voila!

As you continue with Kitchen Wizardry, you too can whip up a dinner like this in 15 minutes! This is so much easier and more fun, I seriously cannot go back to the old way of cooking!

Please share your success stories!