New site!

Just to reiterate one last time but the blog's moved to a new address at http://www.seasonednoob.com

The old feed is being removed so please update your bookmarks and rss subscriptions :)

The Seasoned Noob's 1st birthday!

Well, today marks exactly 1 year since I started this whole deal and I just wanted to thank everyone for humoring me by reading my posts along the way, screwups and all. Just looking back at a few of the posts reminds me about how much I've learned just cooking different dishes and even though I'm still a recipe-based cook, I've experimented a lot more with different amounts of spices and whatnot to figure out how different tastes mix.

And as to the surprise...I'm unveiling a new, re-designed Seasoned Noob! I like some of the expandability that self-hosting a blog brings and after looking at what it would cost me for everything, I decided to finally bite the bullet. The price wasn't really all that bad and the other roadblock (read: my own laziness) was thrown by the wayside last week!

So I'm proud to present the new site but I'm still making a few tweaks (and there will be more in the future, I need a new banner, plus some other things) so I hope you all can bear with me.

The site is http://www.seasonednoob.com, please update your bookmarks and change your feeds/e-mail subscriptions!

Surprise on its way!

Ok well, maybe not a huge surprise to most of you that know me. But for those that don't, I can barely contain myself when I get excited so I'd probably have a tough time not letting the cat out of the bag if I saw you.

But anyway, big update coming, stay tuned :)

December Pot Luck

This post has been a little while in the making, I'd gotten into a little bit of a lazy bout and spent about a month without moving any photos off of my camera. But now they're moved and uploaded and it's time to post!

These pictures are from a pot luck I had in December, right after Frank's triumphant return from Asian subcontinent.

Mac & Cheese


Karen's Quinoa Salad


Karen's Other Salad


Jason's Chicken


Trung's Banh Mi

Atlantic Fish Co

I've been meaning to go to The Atlantic Fish Company for quite some time now, but finally made it out this past weekend! Every other time we attempted to go it was way too busy to wait. But this time, we planned ahead and made reservations. Atlantic Fish Company, by its name, specializes in seafood dishes, and all the dishes looked great. I was in the mood for scallops, and they turned out to be pretty good. They weren't very hot by the time the plates were served, but the taste was fantastic. The service was attentive, but I (and Dave) had a few gripes with the waiter because he was a bit pushy. The prices are a little bit higher than Legal Seafoods, but in general, I'd say that Atlantic Fish Co is a bit better, so worth the extra few bucks. Oh, and we did order a dozen raw littlenecks, but forgot to take a picture. Those were damn good. All in all, it was good fare!






Sea Scallops

I think this was cod with fish chowder

Blackened Striped Bass with pineapple salsa (special of the day)

Sea Bass and Lobster Ravioli

The Seasoned Frank

Hello Everybody! Dave invited me to become a contributor to this blog, and I accepted so here I am! Like Dave, I'm also a pretty big foodie, but I've been recently getting into eating healthy (when I'm eating at home/work). Of course, I still order anything I want when I go out to restaurants. I mean, if you're going out to eat, why limit yourself? I'll be posting lots of different things--of course all of them will be food related!

I thought I would post a couple of interesting videos I've watched in the past week or so. The first one is pretty much everything you need to know about bread, and the second is about American Chinese food. Both are from Taste3, which is a branch off of TEDtalks--a conference about Technology, Entertainment, and Design. Check out more Taste3 videos here.

Fried Rice

Fried Rice was one of those dishes I could never master, or even figure out adequately. The rice always came out a bit mushy and wasn't the fluffy mix that I'd gotten at restaurants. But after several failed attempts, I was given a couple golden tips that I wish I'd thought of before!

The first tip is that rice cooked the day before and refrigerated overnight is ideal. Refrigeration helps dry out the rice and makes it easier to break apart and mix well with the other ingredients. The other tip is choosing the rice itself. Jasmine rice or other long grained rice are best. I'd tried using japanese rice before and that did not turn out well at all. Reason is that the long grained rice tends to be on the drier side as well and doesn't stick together quite as much as the japanese rice.

With these tips in hand, I was able to create a modest copy of what you can get in most Chinese restaurants...enjoy!

Fried Rice

Serves 4-6
35 minute prep, 10 minute cooking

Ingredients:
- 4 cups cooked rice (refrigerated overnight)
- 1 boneless chicken breast, cubed
- 2 Chinese sausage (lap cheorng), diced
- ¼ lb medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, chopped
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- ½ tbsp light soy sauce
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp white pepper
- ¼ tbsp dark sweet soy sauce (Ketjap Manis)
- ½ cup frozen green peas/carrots
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 tbsp canola oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 eggs, beaten

Method:
1. Heat a wok with the canola oil. Toss in garlic, sauté until aromatic.
2. Add chicken and shrimp, stir fry until more than half cooked. Season with salt, add the Chinese sausage and the onion.
3. Add in cold rice and stir well with the ingredients. Add in the soy sauce, fish sauce, sweet soy sauce, white pepper and toss well.
4. Quickly add in frozen peas/carrots, toss well with the rice
5. Clear some space in the middle of the wok and add in the beaten eggs. Wait for about 30-45 seconds, and then begin tossing the rice with the egg to get it spread out and mixed with the rice.

Thanksgiving 2008

I've got a couple pictures from Thanksgiving this year. There were a bunch more dishes including one of my mom's bread & butter dishes : baked string beans with cream of mushroom soup and fried onions but unfortunately the pictures didn't come out great so I got rid of them.

In addition to the turkey and string beans, we had the usual fixings (stuffing, cranberry sauce), in addition to some mashed sweet potato, fresh bread, and apple pie for dessert. Yum! I got to make the mashed sweet potato and helped with the stuffing and I also picked up a few tips on preparing a turkey from my mom and grandfather.

I don't know how he does it, but my grandfather always manages to get the turkey to come out nice and juicy, with the white meat soft and tender but not undercooked!

Noodle Soup!

With the weather turning cold, I've been turning to much more comfort food type dishes lately. After making chili a while ago and a new batch of wontons, I've been on a soup noodle kick as of late. There's a myriad of different kinds of noodle soups available at all of the different eateries around town (I'll have another post detailing many of the different kinds as soon as I finish sampling them :P), but I decided that I should be able to have this at home too.

So in celebration of the first snowfall of the winter, I set off to make myself a steaming hot bowl of soup. With a trip to Super 88, I had all of the necessary ingredients for just a few dollars. There's not much of a recipe but I'll try my best to detail the steps I took.

Rice Noodle Soup

Ingredients:
Rice Noodles (Pho noodles) - 4 ounces (or more, depending on whether you want more or not)
12-16 oz Chicken Broth (I just used one can)
6 oz Water (half the can of chicken broth)
beef balls
fish balls
fish cakes
pork wontons
bok choy
dash of 5 spice powder

Method:
1. Depending on if you have fresh rice noodles or not, you may be able to skip this step. If you have dried rice noodles, follow the directions on the package. Strain noodles and put in a bowl.
2. Blanch the bok choy, set aside.
3. Heat up the chicken broth and water, add the dash of 5 spice powder. Bring close to a boil.
4. Add the wontons, beef balls, fish balls, and fish cakes. Cook wontons through.
5. Add the bok choy in for a minute or so.
6. Pour soup over the noodles in a bowl and chow down

Chicken Parmesan

Everytime I end up in Davis Square, I always stop by Dave's Fresh Pasta and pick up some form of fresh pasta. This last time, I picked up some basil & lemon papardelle (I think it was basil & lemon at least) among the usual sandwich and multitudes of other tasty goodies :)

So, with that in mind (and in hand), and with some freshly made tomato sauce (for another post anyway), I set off making one of the classic dishes that you seem to find in almost every Italian restaurant, Chicken Parmesan. I remember eating this all the time growing up whenever my family went out and occasionally, I'll see it in the cafeteria at work but otherwise, I don't have it very often.

The recipe I used was inspired by Simply Recipes, one of the most well-designed and easy to use sites around (And that's not even mentioning the wealth of great recipes!). As soon as I looked at this recipe, I knew I had to try it out, and sure enough, it turned out well! I did make a couple substitutions but they were rather minor, chicken breast for chicken thighs and eggs instead of butter for dredging.

Chicken Parmesan

Serves 4-6
Time: 30-40 minutes

Ingredients:
- 2-3 eggs (Can substitute butter)
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup bread crumbs (plain)
- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan (or Romano) cheese
- ½ tsp Italian seasoning (basil, parsley, oregano)
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- ¼ tsp garlic salt
- 2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- 1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1-2 lbs chicken breasts/thighs, pounded, cut into large pieces
- ½ cup mozzarella cheese, grated

Method:

1. Combine the bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, salt, garlic salt, parsley, and black pepper in a bowl. Put eggs (beaten) and flour in two separate bowls.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
3. Dredge the chicken first in the flour, then the eggs, then the bread crumb mix.
4. Set on a baking sheet (greased or foiled)
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
6. At 15 minute mark, drizzle some mozzerella cheese on top. Or, remove into a bakeable dish, spoon some tomato sauce on, and drizzle mozzarella cheese.

Glazed Salmon with Dijon Mustard Sauce

Most of my recipes are not actually my own inspiration (I'm not that creative!). But tons of other bloggers are (and cookbooks :P) so with a little bit of adjusting to my tastes, I try my best to recreate their dishes. This one was inspired both by my desire to have fish at least once a week and by a local Boston blogger, Beyond Salmon.

I've been trying to eat a bit healthier lately and fish was one of the first things I thought about. In addition to having all kinds of variety, fish is easy (a plus for me!) to cook and doesn't require a whole lot of seasoning to taste good.

Glazed Salmon with Dijon Mustard Sauce

Serves 4
Time : 20-30 minutes

Ingredients:
- 4 salmon fillets
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2-3 tbsp honey
- salt and pepper

Sauce:
- 2 tbsp sour cream
- 2 tbsp hellmann’s real mayo
- 2 tbsp parsley flakes
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tsp whisky, cognac, or white wine (less if you prefer)
- salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Wrap broiler pan with foil
2. Rub salmon with oil, salt, and pepper on both sides
3. Place salmon, skin down, on pan. Drizzle honey on top
4. Put salmon under broiler for 4-6 minutes, check every 2 minutes. As soon as the top browns, turn broiler off, move salmon to the middle of the oven from the top shelf, and keep in the heat for another few minutes. Depending on how rare you like the fish, you could change this. I broiled for 6 minutes and that was about it.
5. Mix sauce together, spoon over top of the salmon.

Lowell's Restaurant and Bar - Seattle

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving! I got to help prepare Thanksgiving dinner this time and as soon as I find time to process the pictures, I'll have a post :)

Anyway, back to the exploits from my Seattle vacation! I wrote about Pike Place's different markets and stores last time, now I'd like to highlight one of the dining experiences there. The morning before my flight back to the East Coast, a buddy and I got up super early (well, 7:30am is early for being on vacation :P) and hiked our way over to Pike's Place for a hearty breakfast at Lowell's Restaurant and Bar.

Earlier in the weekend, I asked some of the local merchants about where a good place to eat would be and the majority first choice was Lowell's. So I wasn't going to miss an opportunity to eat there for sure, especially if it's popular among the local population!

I ended up with the oyster scramble (seafood breakfast every day while I was in Seattle :P) and my buddy had a salmon scramble, both were excellent and Lowell's definitely lived up to expectations.

Pork Kimchi

A few posts ago I wrote about Misono Wok in Super 88 and one of my favorite dishes there is Pork stir fried with kimchi. It's definitely been one of the tastier dishes I've had, and it's a very home-style type dish (especially because it's quick too!). So after asking around for some tips, I decided to give it a shot and make it myself!

I bought kimchi from John's Market in Allston to use with the pork belly from super 88. Now, making the pork kimchi was already adventurous enough for me so there was no way I was going to try to make kimchi as well :P Maybe next time! But anyway, John's makes fresh kimchi and packages it with a date so that you know the freshness. They also sell all sorts of other goodies for Korean cooking and even will provide thinly sliced meat and such, perfect for Korean BBQ or hot pot!

So, with some pork belly, kimchi, an onion, and gochujang, I set off to my task! The verdict? It was good, but I think I used too much kimchi and next time, I'm going to use pork shoulder instead of pork belly. Now I love pork belly...but it's pretty fatty and didn't really fit the dish I don't think.

Pork Kimchi

Serves 4-6
Time:20-30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 lb pork (shoulder or belly), sliced thin
- 1 tbsp rice wine
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp Gochujang
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp sugar
- ¼ tsp chili powder
- ½ tsp ginger powder
- 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp sriracha
- dash sesame oil

- Kimchi – close to a pound
- 1 medium onion
- 2 stalks green onions, chopped

Method:
1. Marinate the pork in the rice wine and black pepper. Set aside for 20-30 minutes
2. Mix together the Gochujang through the sesame oil into a paste. Mix the paste with the pork.
3. Heat a wok with some oil. Add pork and stir fry, shouldn’t take too long because the pork needs to be sliced thin.
4. Add onions, and green onions. Stir fry quickly for a couple minutes
5. Add kimchi and rice cakes. Stir to mix well. Add ¼ cup water and steam for a few minutes. Add some more chili sauce or gochujang if you want it spicier.
6. Serve over rice

Mongolian Beef

Gotta start by giving credit to Rasa Malaysia, one of my favorite blogs (excellent recipes and superb photography. Much better than this guy) for this delicious recipe! It was one of those moments where I looked at a few pictures, drooled all over my desk and then decided I had to make it. I did add an onion and a pepper to the dish for some more veggies in the diet though.

Beef stir fried with just about anything is a good way to make me happy for sure. Any meat really, but beef more than most because it seems to absorb a marinade so well. Combine that with a tasty gravy and a couple scoops of rice and you've got an absolutely fantastic meal in a matter of minutes!

Mongolian Beef

Serves 4-6 with rice
Ingredients:
- 1 pound beef
- 2 tbsp canola oil
- 2 stalks leeks (sliced diagonally)
- 1 inch ginger (finely chopped)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 onion, medium (chopped)
- 1 small bell pepper of your choice (chopped)
- 1 stalk shredded scallions (white part, for garnish)

Marinade:
- 1 tsp corn starch
- 2 tsp low sodium soy sauce
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 tsp ShaoHsing rice wine

Sauce:
- 3 tsp oyster sauce
- 2 tbsp Kecap Manis (dark sweet soy sauce)
- ½ tsp dark soy sauce
- ½ tsp white pepper
- ¼ tsp sesame oil
- salt & sugar to taste

Method:
1. Marinate beef for 30 minutes
2. Heat wok with 1 tbsp oil, stir-fry beef until half done, remove and set aside
3. Add 1 tbsp oil and sauté garlic and ginger. Add beef back in then sauce. Stir-fry until beef is almost done, add leeks into wok, add salt and sugar to taste, garnish with shredded scallions. Serve.

Pike Place Market - Seattle

Back at the end of August, I ended up in Seattle on vacation with some friends from high school. We were there for different reasons than food, but I quickly discovered that Pike Place Market was just a few blocks away from our hotel! Thanks to the concierge (and no thanks to my pre-vacation preparation :P), we were all introduced to a fantastic market, with fresh fish, meat, vegetables, and a myriad of other shops and stores!

One of the first sights was the largest fish counter I'd seen in recent memory. Several workers stood out front taking orders and stacking the shelves with the day's catch. I was actually there early enough one day to see the workers setting everything up. Whole fish being chopped and cleaned behind the counter, and more whole fish and sacks of shellfish being hauled in from the harbor with an assembly line of workers throwing the day's catch all the way up the ramps!

Right next door was a large meat counter, with many cuts that you don't normally see in a supermarket...all fresh and ready to cook! And next to that was a small bakery, a donut stand, and a gourmet tea shop!

I could write a book on all of these different places, but maybe it's better if I just show some pictures :)

Misono Wok (Super 88) - Allston

If you went to college in the Boston area (or if you live nearby), you've probably heard about the Super 88 supermarket and food court. The first time I ate there was in 2002 at a Ramen stand that, unfortunately, no longer exists. Before then, I always thought ramen was something you make in 30 seconds and comes in individually sized bags. Needless to say, it was an eye-opening experience.

That Japanese ramen isn't around anymore, but its replacement, Misono Wok, is a more than ample replacement. They serve home-style Korean food, which isn't exactly easy to find in the city. But to be honest, until I got to Boston, I never really had a lot of Korean food, maybe because Korean food is even rarer in New Jersey!

But anyway, back to the food. When I think Korean food, the first thing that comes to mind is Korean BBQ (bulgogi, kalbi, etc), kimchi, and bibimbap. While Misono Wok does have some of these dishes available, my favorite dishes are their noodle dishes, especially the Tukboki (rice cake noodles), or Japche (glass thread noodles). I've also been a huge fan of the pork kimchi lately, and even tried making it myself (I'll save that for another day).

Chicken Katsu Curry

There are a few local Japanese restaurants, including one of my favorites Cafe Mami, that serve some very homestyle Japanese food. Simple, tasty, and cheap. And one of my regular dishes is a Katsu Curry, a fried pork/chicken cutlet with curry on top, served with a fried egg, cheese, and sometimes some pickles.

But sometimes I'm a little lazy to travel across the river to get to Cafe Mami so I tried my hand at making it myself. I do use the boxed curry though, I've read through the ingredients on how to make curry paste and decided it wasn't for me (probably to the chagrin of many). I also add onions, carrots, and potatoes, to make it a heartier stew-like meal. Boiling the carrots and potatoes in advance does help too, as it lessens the amount of time to simmer the curry.

I used to make this without cheese but after reading a couple other blogs and getting some testimony, I added the mozzarella and it does actually add a lot of taste!

Chicken Katsu Curry

Serves 4-6
Time : 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:
- 4-6 chicken breasts, pounded thin
- 2-3 eggs, beaten
- ½ cup flour
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs

- 1 box S&B Hot curry
- 15-20 baby carrots, chopped
- 1 medium onion chopped
- Optional (A couple boiled potatoes, chopped)
- 3.5 cups water (or stock)
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced

- Eggs for afterwards
- Some mozzarella cheese

Method:
1. Dredge chicken in flour, eggs, then bread crumbs (Can do twice if you like)
2. Bake or pan fry chicken (bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 or pan fry for 5-10 minutes), set aside
3. Heat a sauté pan under medium, add a little canola oil, add garlic. Stir fry for 30 seconds until fragrant, add onions and carrots.
4. Stir fry vegetables for 3-4 minutes, then add water/stock. Stir in the curry mix and add boiled potatoes (if you have them)
5. Simmer for 45 minutes until potatoes and carrots are soft
6. Serve chicken over rice. Add some mozzarella cheese on top and pour curry over. Top with a fried egg if you like.

Notes:
- Can substitute the baked chicken (with eggs, flour, bread crumbs) with chopped beef chuck. Add the beef after the garlic in this case.

Chez Henri - Cambridge

I'd been hearing great reviews about Chez Henri for over a year, more specifically about how ridiculously good their Cuban sandwich was. So, like a genuinely interested foodie, I procrastinated. But this summer I finally made it over there with a friend.

We ended up both getting the Cuban and splitting some seafood croquettes (The picture came out a little blurry so I left it out). The Cuban definitely was one of the best I've had, stuffed full of meat and served with fried plantain chips and a tasty homemade salsa. Definitely one of the better meals I've had (a little pricey though) but worth it!

Chili - For cold weather and football!

There's nothing like a hearty bowl of chili on a cold day on Football Sunday. And it's definitely good on a day where I was just doing chores around the house and cleaning! Throw everything in and simmer for a few hours. But the only problem was that I'd never cooked chili before, though from everything I've heard, chili isn't exactly the hardest thing to cook :P

After searching far and wide (there seem to be hundreds of recipes!), a buddy of mine offered up this nugget. With a few adjustments (more meat) and an extra dose of spices, I think I've stumbled onto something! So, after a morning and afternoon of chores, I was able to finally dig into the chili that was on the stove all day :)

Meaty, hearty chili

Serves : 6-8 people
Time : 20 minutes prep, 3-4 hours cook time

Ingredients:
- 1 – 1.5 lbs ground chuck
- 1 lb pork, diced
- 1 lb beef chuck, diced
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- 1-2 Jalapeno peppers, chopped
- 4-6 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 (15 ounce) cans pinto/kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 3 (8-ounce) cans diced tomatoes (or tomato sauce)
- 1 12-oz bottle dark beer
- 1 (14 ½oz) can beef broth
- 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
- 2 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1-2 tsp ground red pepper (cayenne)
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp hot sauce (or more, depending on your spicy tolerance)
- Optional : 1/4 tsp cocoa

Method:
1. Cook garlic with some oil in a dutch oven or large pot over medium heat for 30 seconds until sizzling.
2. Add meat, cook through, add onion, cook another minute or so
3. Combine meat mixture, beans, and the rest of the ingredients. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 hours

New Jang Su Korean BBQ - Burlington MA

Spicy Squid and Pork stir fry

So it's been another long while since the last post! To tell the truth, I didn't cook the whole month of September, horrible isn't it??? That, coupled with vacations to Las Vegas and Seattle, and wow, my body was hating me!

Anyway, enough of that and back to the food huh? This post is about New Jang Su Korean BBQ, and as the name suggests, a Korean BBQ in Burlington MA. A very good friend of mine rants and raves about this place, and believe it or not, it was over a year before I managed to arrange dinner there :)

So, a bunch of us finally went a couple months back, and wow, definitely worth the trip (and nearly the year's wait too!) The Kalbi was incredibly juicy and the Bibimbap was one of the best I've had. My friend ordered more than enough for 10-12 people (There were 8 of us) and it's a good thing too, since we ended up finishing it all!

Bibimbap

Kalbi