Pad Thai

Well, once again it has been more than a year since my last post. In that past year, two important things have happened a) I got married and b) I moved to Germany because that is where my husband works. Because of these things I've had to make some adaptations to my cooking and baking routines. Some ingredients I use at home are either hard to find here and/or significantly more expensive, particularly spices, baking soda and anything Mexican-food related. Plus it's interesting to try and find all your usual ingredients when you don't speak the language. But I'm managing!

Cooking with another person's opinions in mind is also a new challenge for me. Fortunately, my husband and I are very similar in in tastes for a lot of things and I'm the more picky of the two of us anyway. One of my husband's favourite food's though, is Pad Thai. I had never had it before I met him and now it's one of my favourite dishes as well! This is the recipe that we use, which we got from my husband's father and his wife.

Pad Thai

3 tbsp oil
1 small onion (or shallot)
1-2 cloves garlic
150 g Rice Noodles
2 tbsp soya sauce
50 gr tofu
50 gr shrimp (or cooked and cubed chicken or pork)
1 egg
1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar (or maple syrup)
1 1/2 tbsp tamarind paste
1/2 cup bean sprouts
1 tbsp peanut (ground or finely chopped)
Lime slices and more bean sprouts for serving

1) With this recipe it is very important to have everything ready and within reach before you actually begin cooking. So, start by soaking the noodles according to the package directions. (Usually 20-30 minutes)
2) While the noodles are soaking, chop up the tofu into small cubes. Also dice the onion, mince the garlic and chop/crush the peanuts as needed. If you are using frozen shrimp you will probably also want to thaw it at this point as well
3) When ready, heat the oil in a pan or wok at medium heat. Then add the onion and garlic. Cook until the onions turn clear
4) Add the noodles with a small amount of water (2-3 tbsp) and the soya sauce. Cook until these soften, stirring constantly so that they don't stick to the pan
5) Add the tofu and shrimp (or chicken or pork) and heat while mixing thoroughly with the noodles
6) Clear a space in the middle of the pan to break the egg into. Scramble the egg in the pan and then when it starts to look cooked, mix in with the noodles
7) Add in the fish sauce, brown sugar, tamarind paste, bean sprouts and peanuts. Stir until well mixed and heated through
8) Serve with fresh squeezed lime juice and more bean sprouts

A few notes about this one, we always double the recipe to make enough for the two of us (plus some leftovers!) but we have to do it in two batches (following steps 3-7 twice) and then mix the batches together in the end because we only have a small pan. We also tend to use more protein than the recipe calls for here. Also, we use more 'sauce' than the original recipe, so if you make it and think it's too strongly flavoured you might want to give it another try but reducing the amount of fish sauce/brown sugar/tamarind paste. Finally, we've found that this is definitely a recipe that works best if you have two people to work on it together. This way one person can constantly stir the noodle mixture while the other measures/adds ingredients. Overall though, it's not as complicated as it looks and it's super tasty!

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Back to blogging... apparently it's been more than a year since I put up a post. So, here I go diving back in with a Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup which turned out way better than I expected. I'm currently living in a small appartment with two industrial ovens, but no stove. So I've been getting to know my slow cooker and electric frying pan very well. This has so far been my first slow cooker success. I found the recipe on Pinterest.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

1/3 cup butter
1 1/2 cups chopped onion

2 cloves minced garlic

6 tbsp flour

Salt and pepper (to taste, I don't add much of either)

2 cans evaporated milk (370 ml each)

5 cups broth (chicken or veggie broth, I used low-sodium chicken broth)

5 cups broccoli florets, diced into small-ish pieces (This was about 4 broccoli crowns for me)

1/4 tsp dried thyme

1/2 cup half and half cream (the original recipe called for heavy cream, but half and half turned out fine for me)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup parmesean cheese

Melt butter. Fry onions in butter until they are softened and clear. Whisk in garlic, flour and salt & pepper. Slowly whisk in the evaporated milk and continue stirring constantly until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat. Pour into a slow cooker, then stir in the broccoli, broth and thyme. Cook on High 2.5-3 hours or on Low for 6 hours (I cooked it on Low for a little over 6 hours) Switch slow cooker to Warm or Off depending on how soon you are going to eat, then stir in the cream, cheddar cheese and parmesean cheese. Add more salt and pepper if you'd like and then serve hot with bread or crackers. It made about 8 decently sized bowls,  so I don't have to cook again for the rest of the week!

Overall, this recipe turned out very well but I wasn't really able to get a decent picture of it. Its thick and creamy, very cheesy and has plenty of broccoli in it. In the future I might play around with the spices that are in it, taking ideas from other broccoli-cheese soup recipes I've found.

Gingerbread Christmas Train

This year I decided to be slightly more traditional with my gingerbread project. I made a Gingerbread train complete with Engine, Coal Car, Logging Car, Freight Car and Caboose.

 The whole train! And a little skating rink full of hockey players.

 The train passes a snowman.

 The 'logs' are marshmallow sticks, strawberry flavoured ones.

 The coal car is full of chocolate covered jujubes and black jelly beans. The freight car carries saltwater taffy and hard candy.

 Jujube hockey players on a shiny rink

 The engine working hard at the front of the train.

Merry Christmas!

Amazing Brownies

This is a truly amazing brownie recipe. Very rich and chocolatey. I've been meaning to post the recipe for a while but I keep forgetting. It kind of has weird measurements...

2 1/4 sticks of butter or margarine (about 1 cup + 2 tbsp)

2 1/4 cups sugar

5 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup + 1 tbsp flour

3/4 cup + 1 tbsp cocoa

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

(Optional 3/4 cup nuts or 1/2 cup other flavoured chips, ie white chocolate, butterscotch or peanut butter)

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper and then spray with PAM. In a saucepan melt together butter and sugar, until butter is completely melted. Allow to cool slightly, then transfer to mixing bowl. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in vanilla. Add flour, cocoa and salt. Stir gently until well incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Bake for 35 min. Cool completely before cutting. 

Barbie Cake

I made this for my roommate's birthday this year. She helped me make it and we had a lot of fun.

 

I always thought the barbie in the cake looked a bit too much like it belonged on Cake Wrecks. But this one ended up looking alright. 

 

Structural integrity issues aside...

 We also originally didn't have enough cake... some improvisation with cake scraps occurred.

 All done!

 My roommate's party was 'Burgers on the Beach' so here is Barbie on the beach!

 Glamour shot!

SkyWeb NEXT Cake

I made this cake to celebrate the end of a major project at our office. It's the company logo with the project name.

Bacon Spaghetti

This is a classic in our house. I definitely prefer it over beef spaghetti... by a lot! 

6 slices bacon (half a package-ish)

1 onion, finely chopped

Fresh mushrooms, chopped

1 tsp oregano

2 tsp basil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 can (391 ml) tomato sauce

Spaghetti noodles (for 4 people)

Chop bacon into small pieces and then fry. In a medium pot, fry onion. Add mushrooms and spices and fry. Add bacon and tomato sauce, simmer as the noodles cook. Cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions. 

Serve sauce over noodles with parmesan cheese.