Gifts for GRADUATES!

Graduation time is right around the corner!  

Remember those days away from home sweet home, those late nights, 

gulping caffeine-infused energy drinks, sleeping all day-staying up all night, 

random drives to 24 hr open stores for no reason, late night junk food galore,

cold pizza and fries the next day and oh yeah the classes!  haha.

As those hard-working graduates graduate... it's also time for many of us

to start thinking (if we haven't already) of what to get those graduates!

You want to get something extra special for them that they will 

ALWAYS remember even years down the road, don't you? 

Why not make it simple and purchase an activity you can enjoy together!

An In-Home Cooking activity!   

Maybe that graduate has a favorite food entree or cuisine that you as a group can

have fun making together and of course eating as well!!!  Good times. Good times.

My sous chef can take pictures from start to finish while you, the graduate and your

friends/family get your "fun-on" and "laughter-on" making and cooking delicious food.

We can also take your pictures and make it into a poster collage for the 

graduating person as well.  

This special "Graduate Price" will be offered from April 26th - May 25th, 2013.

Please keep in mind that this is a type of gift where you pre-purchase through Paypal.

(blue "P" on top right of page is the Paypal button link)

We'll mail you a card (greeting card style) so that you 

can write a message and present it to your graduate.... simply when they graduate or earlier.

Then you can choose a date/menu and get your "cook-on"!

The April 26th - May 25th time is just the promotional time when the graduate deal

will be offered... the class activity itself will take place most likely after May 25th.

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The discounted Graduate Price is $50 for the class 

plus $15 per person for the ingredients. The food basically. 

So whether there are 3, 4, 7, 10 in your group- It will be $50. times $15 per person.

Just in case you didn't get that... 

for a group of 4 it would be $50 + $15X4 = grand total of $110.

the breakdown of that is $27.50 per person. Not too shabby!?!

For more info of the class itself... you can click the class link.

www.letscultivatefood.com/p/cooking-classes.html

Lastly, to purchase/order the Graduate Gift you can simply click "FORM"

to see what menus are available (custom ones available as well)

Zestfully, Let's Cultivate Food

HOT POT at home!

One of the first times I had a hot pot meal served in a restaurant was in Chinatown, Chicago.

It was more of a soup where you picked and chose items off of a list and then cooked the 

items in the broth yourself. 

Another take on a hot pot dish is to make a healthy stir-fry. 

You simply take any veggies you and your friends or family would enjoy smelling and 

hearing the sizzle of.  This specific hot pot stir-fry was all veggies and bulgogi in the center.

In this particular hot pot made at home- we added:
~button mushrooms (sliced about 1/2 a pack)
~wooden ear mushrooms
~scallions (sliced long and diagonal)
~enoki mushrooms (1-2 packs)
~napa cabbage (1/4 head of medium size or 1 small)
~2 carrots cut in jumbo match-stick
~1 red bell pepper
~ vermicelli noodles

You simply add the veggies all around an electric skillet type of equipment and place the
bulgogi (click to see marinade for bulgogi) in the center (already marinaded)
You can pour about a cup of beef or veggie broth or simply water to get it started!

Simply turn your skillet on 350 degrees/medium high/ #4... depending on your device
the temperature setting will be different and that's it!
If you are just using water rather than a broth... I would add a sprinkle of salt over the veggies
or you can add 1-2 TBSP of soy sauce mixed in with the water.

Serving with rice is optional but definitely recommended!  YUM!

Zestfully, Let's Cultivate Food

Black Bean Sauce with Noodles "Jajangmyun"

Ja-jang-myun is a Korean noodle dish.
Traditionally, it consists of wheat noodles that are topped with a delicious,
thick, condensed, salty and gratifying sauce.

"Myun" is noodle in Korean and the "jajang" translates to "fried sauce"
This noodle dish originated from the Shandong region in China years beyond years ago.
The dish immigrated to Korea and is an extremely popular dish in Korea-
so popular that it also immigrated to the United States.
You can order Jajangmyun in many Korea-town areas throughout many different cities.

The Chinese and Korean Jajangmyun are very similar but the Korean version uses
a lot more onions and has caramel in the sauce.
These days, the black bean sauce is already made and in jars where you can simply
scoop out the black bean paste rather than pressing and fermenting the beans yourself.

Jajangmyun is always accompanied with pickled radish (yellow-it is dyed) and often with
a little bowl of largely diced raw onions and a scoop of raw black bean paste.

I made a really quick version of Jajangmyun the other night.
The sauce is always made from pork which gives the sauce that heavy but flavorful taste.
The other veggies in the sauce are :

ingredients:
~1 potato (I substituted 2 small sweet potatoes)
~1 large diced onion
~pork chunk  (I substituted beef)
~2 carrots diced
~1 zucchini diced
~2-3 fresh cloves of garlic minced or 1 teas of garlic powder
~potato or corn starch (1 teas) - to thicken the sauce (mix equal parts of luke warm water)
~3 heaping TBSP of black bean paste
~pack of dried or fresh wheat or flour noodles (can use whole grain to make super healthy)
~ cucumber- julienne or matchstick cuts for garnish

I decided to cut some carrots like a flower for a garnish.

I started with sauteing the onions first --
(cooking them for a while starts to caramelize them making them sweeter)
I then added the beef cubes and once the beef was cooked-
I added the potatoes, carrots and lastly the zucchini.
(You don't need to add any oil because the fat from the meat is more than enough oil)

When everyone in the hot tub(saute or frying pan) has cooked down...
you can spoon in your black bean paste.
Lastly, you can add in your 1:1 ratio of warm water and corn starch.
You want to make the thickener in a separate little bowl rather than just tossing it in the pan
simply because otherwise- it will clump in your sauce and not do its job.

It's a shame the plated image came out blurry. By using beef instead of pork made the sauce
a lot lighter in taste which was nice because often after eating Jajangmyun- you feel very heavy
from the pork fat.  It was a good, tasty and yummy bowl of Jajangmyun!


Zestfully, Let's Cultivate Food

Spicy Korean Cucumber Salad

Spicy Korean cucumber salad is a great "banchan" side-dish
when it comes to Korean food.  It's great any time of the year
and is refreshing. The tangy tartness of vinegar along with the
spicy pepper flakes and the crisp crunchiness of the cucumber
itself is a great combination. 

It's pretty easy to make as well. Below are the ingredients.
Once you slice your cucumbers- you simply want to take the rest of the
ingredients and mix them in a bowl and then mix it around with the sliced
cucumbers. You can slice them into round slices or on a diagonal.

It's best when they sit (pickle) for a little while so the seasonings especially the
vinegar gets soaked into the cucumber to give it best flavor! Place them in the
refrigerator for about 2 days if you can.  (Kirby cucumbers, English cucumbers
or Persian cucumbers work best for this banchan simply because they will
have less seeds & thinner skin.


Ingredients:
3-4 cucumbers
2 TBSP of rice vinegar
1-2 teas of pepper flakes (ideally the Korean kind where there are no pepper seeds)
1 teas of sesame oil (the toasted kind for best flavor)
sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds (maybe about 1 teas - to your liking)
1/2 teas of salt AND 1/2 teas of sugar (granulated cane sugar if possible)

Zestfully, Let's Cultivate Foode Cooking Class Philadelphia        Birthday gift present activity cooking class

Hot Dog! .....waffles

Hebrew Nationals + Bisquick pancake mix = Hot Dog Waffles!

It's pretty self-explanatory how these came about.  I was craving pancakes but wanted a hot dog also.

So what better than to have both at the same time.  LITERALLY.  Right?

Simply take some Hot Dogs (Hebrew Nationals- winner of an In-Home taste test)

split them in half and cut them in half as well.  Take some wooden skewers and skewer 

the un-cooked hot dogs. Then line them up.

Haha! You don't actually have to line them up. 

Lay them in a waffle iron and then pour in your waffle mix.  

When your waffle iron is ready--- carefully take the waffle dogs out and cut them 

so they are easier to eat!

For the sauce in this picture- I used about 3 TBSP of whole grain Dijon mustard (had the seeds in it)
1 tsp of soy sauce and about 1 tsp of lemon juice and I also chopped 2 stems of chives.
(you could use scallions instead of chives also)
I got over my craving of waffles and hot dogs after these really easy Hot Dog Waffles!



Zestfully, Let's Cultivate Food

Korean BBQ- an easy take on it.

Korean BBQ is an awesome way of eating BBQ.
Especially if you have a grill or griddle type of cookery.
When we think of BBQ- we might often think of the southern style of BBQ
with ribs, coleslaw, biscuits, corn, and so much more which is also finger "lickin" good
but what's extra fun with Korean BBQ is that it's often interactive where you can
cook at the table while assembling lettuce wraps with your freshly cooked meat
right at the table!  You know it's yummy when the meat hits the hot pan and you
hear that sizzle and smell the smokey, flavorful scent of sweet, sweet and spicy BBQ.

Some of the side condiments can be
Roasted Garlic~~
An easy way to roast garlic is to take the whole head and slice the top off
so that the cloves are exposed--drizzle a little olive oil on top and wrap them
in aluminum foil and simply place them in muffin tins on bake in the oven
on 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.
You can do the same on an outside grill as well.
(If you are roast/grilling them outside- you don't need the muffin tin-just wrap them in foil)

Shredded Scallions~~
You can purchase a tool to shred scallions or simply just cut them with your knife
in long strands.  You can drizzle a teaspoon of soy sauce rather than salt.
You can also add a sprinkle of sesame seeds and pepper powder flakes as well.

When choosing which meat to BBQ for Korean BBQ---
the most common meats are:

Bulgogi which is thinly sliced rib-eye
(which is often the same cut of meat in really good cheese steaks)

Kal-bi which is Korean for short ribs-
You can purchase the ones with or without the bone for Kal-bi.
(this cut of meat will be the most expensive but worth the taste)

Pork Belly (thick cuts of bacon) are also a popular cut of meat when
BBQ-ing.  The sauce/marinade for the pork is often spicy.

The marinades are very similar but you can change it up by adding your desired
degree of spiciness to your friends and families comfort level.

Bulgogi (ribeye-not spicy)
ingredients:
sliced rib-eye, slices of onions, scallions, carrots, sliced mushrooms (optional) sesame seeds.
---marinade: soy sauce (enough to coat the meat but not have a puddle in your mixing bowl)
---sugar (about 1 TBSP per pound of meat)
---sesame oil (a few drops - about 1 teas)
---rice vinegar (any vinegar is ok-rice vinegar is often associated with Asian cuisine)
    (about 1 TBSP-equal parts with the sugar)
---grate in 1/4 Asian pear or apple (optional) - (natural sugar and a natural tenderizer)

You can use the same marinade for the Kalbi (short ribs).
Carrots and mushrooms are not used for the short rib recipe.

ingredients: pork belly, slices of onions, scallions,  sesame seeds (optional)

---marinade: soy sauce (enough to coat the meat but not have a puddle in your mixing bowl)

---3 TBSP of pepper paste (or more to your spiciness liking)

---grate in 1/4 Asian pear or apple (optional) - natural sugar and a natural tenderizer)

---grate about an inch of ginger (the ginger helps take away the smell of pork)

---sugar (about 1 TBSP per pound of meat)

---sesame oil (a few drops - about 1 teas)

---rice vinegar (any vinegar is ok-rice vinegar is often associated with Asian cuisine)

    (about 1 TBSP-equal parts with the sugar)

Lastly,  the best way to enjoy your Korean BBQ is to have some red leaf lettuce 

and wrap your freshly cooked meat wrapped in lettuce with rice- (optional),

the roasted garlic, the shredded scallions, spicy cucumber (optional) and 

of the course the yummy, delicious paste.

The paste is simply made from equal parts of Korean red pepper paste and miso paste.

a few drops of sesame oil, rice vinegar and  sesame seeds to garnish. 

Your friends and family will surely enjoy this BBQ feast that you can create with them...

as long as they are not vegetarians.

The Korean BBQ menu is surely for meat lovers!

Zestfully, Let's Cultivate Food

Baked Veggie Chips

In the world of attempting to eat healthier, drink healthier and simply just BE healthier...

it just made sense to make some veggie chips.

I certainly like healthy food but I'm not a super health fanatic either. 

I decided to take a sweet potato, some parsnips (carrots's cousin with a kick) and some beets

and bake some veggie chips.

I simply took my hand dandy mandoline and sliced the veggies on the thin slice setting.

I laid them out on a paper towel to soak up any extra moisture and then brushed on some

olive oil with some sea salt. I then laid them on a cookie rack in the oven on bake at 350 degrees.

It took about 35-40 minutes. 

They were pretty tasty. The sea salt gave the chips that extra salty flavor everyone enjoys in a chip.
The negative is that I'm not quite convinced yet that baking veggies whether it be sweet potatoes, beets
or even Kale is worth the 40+ minutes of time to eat a small bowl of veggies.
But! nonetheless... these veggie chips were pretty tasty!


Zestfully, Let's Cultivate Food