Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Grilled Chicken Gyros

I recently discovered that I like Greek food. It's understandable why this was so recent...I loathe the taste of olives (including olive oil), raw tomatoes, don't really enjoy mint with savory dishes, was more fond of the smell than the taste of basil, am seriously close to detesting cucumbers, and until the past couple of years thought that feta cheese was "weird." Not to mention that the greasy excuses for gyros that the school cafeteria served were...well...strange flat pieces of meat that smelled odd and tasted bizarre. However...Spyro Gyros converted me. The absolute best gyro I have ever eaten...chunks of tasty lamb and beef, tender and juicy in the middle, lightly crunchy and caramelized outside, onions, feta, a delicious tzatziki sauce, all rolled up in a seriously soft-yet-crunchy pita. Mmm. Not to mention an absolutely awesome greek salad...spring mix with beets, feta, onion, greek dressing...

Anyway. I like greek food now, mostly. I might pick off olives and tomatoes, and drench cucumbers in dressing...but I've expanded my horizons. It's true. So when I saw a recipe in Weis Market's Healthy Bites for chicken gyros with tzatziki sauce...I thought "What the hell! I've got most of those ingredients!" and this version was born.


Grilled Chicken Gyros
Serves 4
About 220 calories each

2 chicken breasts
Dash of vegetable oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1T italian seasoning
4 pitas, or two enormous pieces of naan bread, sliced in half
Feta cheese
Onion
Lettuce and tomato for topping

Sauce:
1 regular (small) container of Greek plain yogurt
1/2 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, minced
2t lemon juice
2t granulated garlic
S+P to taste

1. Grill chicken. This will take about 30 minutes if you use the whiffy sniffy frozen kind.
2. Make sauce. I prefer one of the shaker things from Tupperware. To seed the cucumber, first peel it and then use the peeler to scrape out the center.
Seeding a cucumber is oddly satisfying.

3. Cook the stuff that goes with the chicken. Combine the oil, minced garlic, diced onion, and italian seasoning in a small saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring incessantly.
4. Chop up the chicken. Add it to the saucepan and stir until combined.
5. Warm the naan. Throw them on the freshly turned-off grill for a few minutes.
6. Serve. If you're using naan, cut it in half. Throw all the stuff on there and EAT IT!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Colby Jack-Stuffed Burgers and Simple Stir-Fried Veggies

Yes, I am slightly obsessed with cheese. I believe I mentioned this in an earlier post. Also the grill-craziness was mentioned before. So here's another delicious burger experiment...the fabled Cheese-Stuffed Burger. I also cooked up some bell pepper/mushroom stir fry to go with (we were getting tired of corn on the cob).

Colby Jack-Stuffed Burgers
Yields 7-10 burgers
264 calories (.26lb burger, 2T cheese)

1.5 to 2 pounds of hamburg
Granulated garlic
Granulated onion powder
Red pepper flakes
Italian seasoning
S+P
Bag of colby jack cheese, shredded
Buns

Simple Stir-Fried Veggies
Yields 4-6 servings
37 calories (6 servings, 12 oz mushrooms, 2T soy sauce, 2t rice vinegar)

Green bell pepper
Red bell pepper
Yellow bell pepper
Container of pre-sliced baby portabella mushrooms
Soy sauce
Seasoned rice vinegar
Granulated garlic
Granulated onion



1. Gather burger ingredients. Be sure to pick out the most hideous tablecloth imaginable for the viewing pleasure of your blog readers.








2. Season the meat. Sprinkle on a good 1 tablespoon of each of the seasonings, excepting the S+P. Just do that to taste. And only add red pepper flakes if you want your burger hot!





3. Mix. Don't be afraid to stick your hands in there and squish the mixture together. Squeeze it through your fingers until it looks like the spices are evenly distributed.






4. Divide and pat. Divide the meat mixture into baseball-sized lumps. Divide each of those in half. Pat both halves so they are thin (half inch at most) and about the size of your palm (or larger).






5. Add cheese. Put a few tablespoons of cheese in the middle of half the patties. Don't put so much on that you won't be able to get a secure crimp on the outside of the patties.






6. Meat sandwich! Put another thin patty on top of the cheese-topped one and pinch the edges together. After that, rotate the patty and press the sides in to make a better, flat, edge.













7. Gather ingredients for veggies. Use this opportunity to show your readers that there is a part of your small kitchen that has purty white tiles on it.





8A. Prepare veggies. Chop up the peppers. Throw them in a skillet with a tablespoon of oil. Add the mushrooms (well rinsed...they do grow in shit, ya know). Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally. When veggies are heated through, add a quick circling of rice vinegar. Add 4 circles of soy sauce. Sprinkle on garlic and onion...about 2t each. Stir and cook until veggies are to the texture you like 'em. I prefer al dente. If you cook the veggies and the burgers at the same time, they should be ready together.


8B. Grill and eat. Put the burgers on the bun rack in your grill over high heat. Flip occasionally until done...about 10-12 minutes until cheesy goodness! If you have extra burgers, put them into sandwich baggies and freeze them. Be sure to label the spicy-hot patties to avoid future tongue death.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Easy pasta dinner for two

Pasta dinner for two, and two for pasta dinner, just me and you, and you for me...

No? Anyone?

Anywho, this recipe is way easy, and although not five-minutes quick, is about 30-minutes quick. Plus, you'll totally impress anyone who you serve this to, since you'll have made it all from scratch. Well, not the pasta. But I assume you knew that, since I labeled this recipe "Easy," and have mentioned the word "quick."


Recipe: Easy pasta dinner for two

Sauce:
-1 can diced tomatoes (drained)
-1 can tomato sauce
-1 can tomato paste
-2t garlic powder OR 2-3 cloves of garlic
-2t onion powder OR a diced small onion
-2t dried basil OR 5-10 chopped basil leaves
-1T dried parsley OR a couple of fresh parsley sprigs, chopped
-1t salt
-1t pepper
-1/2lb of hamburger meat if desired

Pasta:
-Enough spaghetti for the two of you (see tip on measuring below)

Salad:
-However you like to make a salad, really. Rip up half a head of romaine lettuce...buy a bag of salad mix...top with chopped veggies or not...dressing is good. Italian would be appropriate with this meal.

1. Put on a pot of boiling water for the pasta.

2. Cook the meat. If you're transforming the marinara sauce into meat sauce, cook up the hamburg now. I like to throw a few tablespoons of water into the pan to help the meat cook and stick to the pan a bit less. When the meat's nice and browned, rinse, drain, and set aside.

3. Combine sauce ingredients. Mix together all of the tomato things, spices, and meat in a saucepan. Cook over low-medium heat, stirring frequently.

4. Cook the pasta. When the water is boiling, add pasta. See instructions on the box for cooking time. Whole wheat pasta generally takes a few minutes longer than normal stuff. Either way, it should be about 7-12 minutes to cook two servings of spaghetti. When it's cooked the way you like it, drain and rinse. (Rinsing cleanses the pasta of extra starch...thus allowing you to leave the noodles sitting for awhile without turning into a wad of stuck-together mess. I highly recommend rinsing.)

Tip: Measuring spaghetti for two
Make a loop with your index finger and thumb by putting the tip of your index finger in the first joint of your thumb. Hold your hand near a plate or the countertop, and begin filling the loop with uncooked spaghetti. That's about two servings worth. Voila! (That's 'wa-la' for those of you who didn't know how to spell it.)

5. Serve. Combine spaghetti and sauce. If you want a salad, well, you better get that out too.

See? Wasn't that easy? And if you want some garlic bread, just spread some butter (or Brummel and Brown) on a few pieces, sprinkle with garlic salt, and microwave for a few seconds until the butter is all melty and delicious. Pour some wine, and you're good to go! If you don't have a corkscrew, or just want to laugh, watch these videos.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Christmas in July Sugar Cakes

I know it's trite, but it IS July...

This is a family recipe that always made an appearance during Christmastime when I was a kid. These cookies...we call them cakes because they're so soft and tall...are just plain delicious. They're basically a fluffy, cake-like sugar cookie. They are simply fantastic with a glass of milk...after you have a bite of one, soaked in cool delicious milk, you'll never go back. Also, if you have kids (or let's face it, most of us would enjoy doing this), these cakes are a fantastic canvas for decorating. Break out your colored sugars and jimmies! If you're really not into happy creativity like that, a good alternative is black magic goth sugar. Just kidding...obviously, emo tears would be a more effective topping to mourn the fact that you don't have enough creative spirit to decorate a cookie with colored sugar.

Did I mention that they're pretty easy to make and bake? They're electric and hand-mix friendly.

Sugar Cakes Recipe
Yields about 100

-2c sugar
-1c butter
-3 eggs
-1c buttermilk
-4c flour
-2t baking powder
-1t baking soda
-1t vanilla


Tip: Buttermilk Substitute
If you don't have any buttermilk on hand, an easy work-around is to mix 1 tablespoon of lemon juice into 1 cup of milk (any sort of milk will work). I'd recommend you do that now...the mix will need some time to turn into buttermilk substitute...about 5-10 minutes is good. If you don't have lemon juice, you're still screwed. Go to the store and get buttermilk AND lemon juice...the juice keeps for a decently long time.

1. Cream the first 3 ingredients. That's the sugar, butter, and eggs, if you were wondering. I recommend creaming the butter first (get it nice and warm...don't be afraid to microwave it for a 10 seconds or so if it's chilly from the fridge) and then adding the sugar...and then the eggs. If you don't have an electric mixer, I highly recommend using a potato masher. I have turned out more awesome batches of these cookies in my home kitchen using a potato masher than an electric mixer...there's something magical about it. I like to call the masher my "secret ingredient." Really throws people off, since it's not even an ingredient, per say.

Tip: Cracking an Egg
I used to think I had decent experience cracking eggs. After my first day working at The Flour Child (an amazing bakery in Columbia, PA...cry now if you're not close enough to visit...OK, that's enough.), I thought differently. I'll just say that I had the privilege of cracking somewhere close to 30 eggs that day...just for one recipe. If you're a pastry chef, that probably would not faze you...but lemme tell ya, it was an eye-opening introduction to the world of professional baking! And it was delightful. Anyway, since then, I've developed my egg-cracking technique somewhat, and I'd like to share. This method rarely yields egg shell bits in the batter, which was my main issue before...
1. Hold the egg securely in one hand (I prefer a loose 3-finger baseball grip). 
2. Tap the middle of the egg lightly, but firmly, on the edge of the bowl you're using. 
3. Rotate the egg slightly, and tap the egg again, continuing the crack line.
4. Rotate and tap again. By this time, the top half of the shell should be coming loose enough to easily remove.


2. Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk. I like to use a fork to stir it up really well.

3. Combine flour and baking powder. Be sure to stir well.

4. Add milk and flour mixtures alternately to butter mixture. Add one...mix. Add the other...mix. Continue until you've added all of the mixtures together.

5. Add vanilla. Beat well.

6. Prep for baking. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. If you don't have a cookie scoop (like an ice cream scoop, but appropriately sized!), you should seriously invest in one. I just googled and found one for $3. If you don't have a cookie scoop, the cakes will turn out just fine. The important thing is to make sure all the cookies are similar in size...so they bake at the same rate and finish together. These expand easily twice to three times their batter size, so beware of placing the cookies too close to each other.

7. Decorate. Red, green, blue, yellow...layer 'em on! The more sugar the better! Plain old sugar is just fine too...you'll enjoy the extra kick.

8. Bake. Bake at 400-degrees F for 8 minutes. I like to have three cookie sheets rotating...by the time I finish filling one tray, the one in the oven is about half done.

Calories: About 60 apiece.

Variations!
Hot Cocoa: Add chocolate chips to the batter. Just imagine morsels of melty chocolate floating in soft, sweet, fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth cake. Yep.

Frosty the Snow Dork: Add a teaspoon of peppermint extract. 


****May visions of sugar cakes dance in your heads...****

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Oven Fries

This is a fantastic, easy-to-make recipe that is actually not too bad for you. These fries are easily customized (just add your favorite spice combo), and make a great side dish for...well, just about anything. Hot dogs? Check. Hamburgers? Check. Steaks, fish, chicken...check. Sometimes, I like to bake a tray and eat them by themselves. They're that good.

Recipe: Oven Fries
Ingredients:
-4-6 medium-sized potatoes
-Spices of choice (see Variations below for suggestions)
-Oil of choice
-Cooking spray

Variations!
Traditional: Just the salt, ma'am.
Beach: Salt. Sprinkle with vinegar post-bakage.
Crabby: Old Bay and salt.
The Kerri: Garlic, basil, and salt.
The Cinnabon: Cinnamon and sugar.
The Italian: Garlic, oregano, and parsley. Serve with tomato sauce.
Taco taco: Cumin, cayenne pepper, and salt.
The Aladdin: Garlic, cumin, and red pepper. Serve with hummus.
Something fishy this way comes: Lemon pepper.
Easy-peasy-Japanesy: Wasabi powder and ginger. 

1. Prep for baking. Cover a cookie sheet with foil and apply cooking spray liberally. 

2. Prep the seasoning mixture. Grab a decent-sized bowl (i.e. not a cereal bowl, folks). Pour in about 1/3 cup of oil. Add in whatever spices you like. Don't be shy...you want a solid tablespoon of spices in that oil. More, if you want more flavor.

3. Cut the taters. First, rinse the dirt off your potatoes. Using a large chef's knife, cut the potato length-wise into 1/2"-thick slices. From there, cut each slice into however many fries you want. I enjoy large fries, about 1" or so across. But these are your fries, so it's up to you!

5. Season the fries. Toss a handful of your potato pieces into the bowl with the seasoning mixture. Use a fork (or your hands) to stir the pieces around until they are good and covered with the mixture. When one batch is done, throw them on the cookie sheet so they are close, but not touching. Keep seasoning one handful of fries at a time until you run out of potato pieces. If you run out of seasoning, mix up some more (duh).

6. Bake. Bake those puppies at about 400 degrees. After 10-15 minutes, flip them over. Bake for another 10-15 minutes. Done! Wasn't that easy? Oh, one more step...

7. Wait 5-7 minutes until cool before eating. I know it's hard...but if you burn your tongue, you won't taste the fries at all! Go play with the cat or something!

Calories: Each potato-worth of fries is about 300 calories.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Blue Cheese Burgers

This week, I discovered a delicious-sounding grilling recipe on one of the food blogs I follow (simplyrecipes.com...highly recommend it!). I've been on the war path for creative grilling recipes since we just finished jazzing up our small back patio (see beauteous photo below). I finally have a grill...and there's a world of cooking open to me that was untouchable a month ago.

Anyhow, the glorious recipe is for blue cheese burgers. Burgers with cheese MIXED IN. Cheesiness throughout the patty.

Let that sink in a moment.

Ok. So if you're like me, right now you're bemoaning the fact that you never thought of this yourself. (Or maybe you did...in which case, I salute you.) I mean...it's pure genius! Blue cheese doesn't melt like crazy, so it's a perfect burger mix-in.

Here's the original recipe from simplyrecipes.com:

  • 1 pound ground beef (16-20%)
  • 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
  • 2 cloves minced garlic
  • 2 green onions, chopped
  • 1/2 cup (about 2 ounces) crumbled blue cheese (get Pt. Reyes blue cheese if you can find it)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 Tbsp water
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Because I'm a cheese maniac, I modified this recipe by adding the entire 1 cup container of blue cheese. In retrospect, I should have known this could cause problems, but I merrily went ahead toward the promise of ultra-cheesiness. Not sure what exactly did it, but most of one of the burgers was devoured by the grill. Just split and fell right through the grate. It was really difficult to flip the burgers...they just crumbled. So. I revisited the recipe and tried again, with much better results. Not to mention I thought of a delicious way to complement the blue cheese with spiciness...those ingredients are starred so you can avoid them if you don't like spicy food. I don't like super-spicy food, but I cook for someone who does...so I try to accommodate tastes. :)

Kerri's No-More-Blue-Grillin' Spicy Blue Cheese Burgers

  • 1 pound ground beef (80/20 recommended)
  • 3 cloves minced garlic
  • 1 cup crumbled blue cheese 
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup bread crumbs
  • Salt and pepper
  • 3T Tabasco sauce*
  • 1t ground cayenne pepper*
1. Mix ingredients well. I like to mix by hand, but you might want to wear a glove if you are mixing in the spicy ingredients. I might be a bit oversensitive, but I personally do not find it enjoyable to spend an entire day with a burning sensation under my fingernails.

2. Divide the meat. Divide the mixture into as many equal-sized lumps as you want burgers. This recipe generally yields between 4 and 6 burgers.

3. Pat the burgers. Seize one of the lumps of meat. Cup it in your hands and squash it into as tight of a ball as you can. Flatten your hands and squish the ball so it's flat, about 1/2" thick. Using your thumbs, push in the sides of the patty so there aren't any pieces sticking out. Those tend to burn off and also make the structure of the patty weaker. Flattening the sides also allows you to make the patty round and equally thick the whole way across. Keep turning and flattening until you're happy with it. I like to make a depression in the middle of each patty. For some reason, it helps the burgers to cook more quickly and evenly. Mysterious.

4. Grill the burgers. Put the grill on high. If you have a bun rack, I highly suggest you use it. No. Use it. You will thank me when you're eating the burger instead of picking its charred remains from the insides of your grill. The bit of extra distance from the flame allows the burger to get a nice crust on the outside without being burned. That way, you can actually flip the burger after a few minutes instead of destroying it. If you do not have a bun rack, only turn half of your burners on high...and put the burgers on the opposite side. Put the burner under that side on super-low.

Variations: I was thinking that feta, being similar in texture, meltiness, etc, to blue cheese, would also make a good mix-in. I'd like to try a Greek burger...part lamb, part beef...mix in feta...serve with beet slices and onion....mmmm. When I actually make those, I'll post a recipe. Somehow, I feel certain that I will make them...

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Quest for the perfect Japanese ginger salad dressing

I've long been a fan of the delicious ginger salad dressing the local sushi restaurant serves over a simple iceberg lettuce salad. It's slightly sweet, slightly zesty, and has an interesting texture--a fine pulp settles on the lettuce and a bit of juice settles in the bowl's bottom. I've even asked the waiters what ingredients are in the delectable orange concoction...but alas, they will not tell me. My next step was to scan the net for the recipe. Easy, right? Nope. It seems that every Japanese restaurant has its own version of this basic dressing. I found some recipes for something called "Makato style" that sounded about right. But were they? Obviously, the only thing to do was to make 6 versions and do a taste test. Obviously.

The recipes had several common ingredients, which made grocery shopping muuuuch easier. Ginger...rice vinegar...mirin (a sweetened rice vinegar)...and onion. Each recipe had a few other ingredients, but they were all basics that I had on hand (and probably you will too).

To find mirin and other specialty stuff, we drove out to our local Asian grocery...man do I love that place. Piles of ginger. Piles. Huge bottles of Siracha for $3. 7 billion kinds of tea. Aloe drinks. Frozen meat buns. Mmmm.Not to mention $9 marble mortar/pestles...$10 bun steamers...etc.


Here are the ingredients all gathered. And yes, that really is my tablecloth...deal with it. 

Recipes

Here are all 6 original recipes that I tested. I wish I had saved the websites so I could attribute each one...but alas, I did not. I will not disgrace anyone else by pretending Recipe #6 was written by any doofus other than me. The others were found by Googling "Japanese ginger salad dressing" and variations on the theme.

Recipe #1:
1 piece peeled ginger root
1/2 c rice wine vinegar
1T chopped onion
1T water
1/4 c vegetable oil
1t sesame oil
1T tomato paste
pinch sugar
pinch salt
2T soy sauce

Recipe #2:
1/4c chopped onions
1/4c peanut oil
1-1/2t rice vinegar
1T water
1T ginger root
1T celery
1T ketchup or tomato paste
2t soy sauce
1t sugar
1t lemon juice
1/3 clove garlic
1/3t pepper
dash salt

Recipe #3:
1 small carrot
2T mirin
2T rice vinegar
1T soy sauce
1/2t sesame oil
2T onion
1T prepared mustard
1T ginger

Recipe #4:
2 small carrots
4T mirin
4T rice vinegar
1t sesame oil
2T soy sauce
2T grated ginger
1/2lb silken tofu (very soft)
1/2" slice of a small red onion
1/4t sugar
1/2 small garlic clove
pinch salt

Recipe #5:
2t peanut oil
1/4c rice vinegar
1t sesame oil
2 medium carrots (6 baby carrots)
1" ginger root
2t sugar

Recipe #6:
1 shallot
15 mini carrots
2" ginger
6T mirin
1/4c water
Dash rice vinegar
Dash soy sauce
Dash salt
1t sugar

 Creating the dressings

1. Peel the ginger. Peeling ginger can be a time sucker. You can save yourself a lot of trouble by purchasing large, relatively smooth ginger roots. The fewer lumps, the smoother the peeling will go. Trust me. Use a knife to cut off the skin, making sure to keep any body parts out of the knife's path. If you don't feel comfortable with this method, you can use a veggie peeler. I find it a bit too cumbersome, but it's servicable.

2. Prepare veggies for the food processor. Chop up all the vegetables to a size your food processor can handle. This list includes: carrots (I chopped the baby carrots into thirds), celery, garlic (halve the cloves), onion, and ginger.

Tip: Dealing with garlic. I freeze my cloves...lemme tell ya, it is magical how easy it is to prep frozen garlic. The paper almost wipes off the cloves...and you can snap off the butt of the clove WITH YOUR FINGERS. Try it. You'll thank me.


The vegetable matter is all chopped up.

Tip: Shallots vs Onions. A few days ago, I did not know what a shallot was. I'll admit it. Now, I can tell you that it is a tiny bulb vegetable...looks like a cross between an onion and garlic. It's garlic sized, with an onion-y taste...but not nearly as zippy as onion. I substituted shallots for onions in many of these recipes since the ginger didn't really need any help getting the zippiness across...



3. Measure out the veggies. After you pick a recipe to start with, scan through the ingredients list and measure the vegetable matter into the food processor.










4. Process the veggies. Pulse that blade until your veggies are finely pulverized. This is a good time to get out your aggressions vicariously. Pulsing rhythmically is also a good way to lay down an awesome rap beat. Give it a try.

Whir. Whir.      Whirrrr. Whirwhirwhir.      Whir whir.


Whir.


5. Add wet stuff. After the veggies are all nice and very tiny, add in the liquids/pastes from the recipe. Rice vinegar, mirin, water, soy sauce, lemon juice, tomato paste, mustard, tofu...you get the idea. Pulse a couple of times to mix well.








Tofu smashed up by hand on the left...machine-pulverized on the right. Clearly, you should use the food processor. It's just easier. Be warned that this recipe can't be processed all at once...at least not if you have a dinky little 3" deep 6" wide dish in your processor like I do.







6. Add dry stuff. Now that the mixture is all nice and moist, you can add in your sugar, salt, pepper...that's pretty much it for the dry ingredients, actually. Pulse a few times to mix.









7. Pour into a bowl and move on to the next one. Here are all 6 of the recipes. Rinse off any dirty tools between recipes...even though the versions are very similar, some of them have ingredients (SESAME OIL...ahem) that will totally taint the next dressing.

Tip: Wet wipe, dry wipe. When you're cooking or baking, one of the best and easiest ways to make yourself stay sane as long as possible is to have one wet and one dry towel/dishcloth close at hand. When something inevitably spills or you get crap on your hands, these babies will help you clean up quickly. Endless applications...

Tasting Notes
Most of the recipes I used recommended allowing the dressings to refrigerate overnight so the flavors could properly meld. Well, I did that, but I wanted to taste these suckas immediately! Like hell was I gonna spend a couple hours making these damn things and not taste them til the next day. Puh-lease. So these tasting notes may very well change when I retaste tomorrow...but here they be anyway.

Recipe #1

Too vinegary...way too liquidy. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhh. (That was a buzzer sounding my disapproval of Recipe #1.)














Recipe #2

Almost the right taste! It's a bit too "dark" tasting...perhaps less soy sauce would fix that. Texture is ok.










Recipe #3

Wrong. Too liquidy. Too vinegary. This one basically assaulted me. Too strong, and too zesty. Naaaasty. I feel pretty confident that, unless magical fairies somehow correct these flavors overnight, I'm going to be pitching this one down the sink tomorrow.








Recipe #4

This is not a good clone of the original dressing (texture and flavor are completely different)...but it is definitely a delicious and worthwhile recipe. The tofu gives the dressing a smooth, creamy body without being too heavy. The flavors are subtle...slightly sweet, slightly zesty. I'm going to use this batch for sure! Which is good, since I put in a whole 12 oz of tofu (rather than just the 8 the recipe wanted).




Recipe #5

I was so psyched when I finished this one...the following thoughts occurred in quick succession. "The color is almost perfect! Oh, and the texture looks spot on...is this The One?! I'll just taste it now...NOOOOOO!!! Vinegar!!!!"









Recipe #6

This was my follow-up to #5. I figured I'd substitute water for the vinegar, because that was the obvious issue with #5. However...I may have gotten a bit overzealous. I popped in some other stuff that maybe I didn't need to...and this ended up being overpoweringly carroty and sweet, with an unpleasant opposing aftertaste of wicked strong ginger.
This was because I only had one more inch of ginger root left, so I figured I'd just use it up so it wouldn't get wasted. Turns out there was already far too much ginger zip in here...and of course, it was right at this point that I figured out #5 would be just perfect if I substituted water for vinegar and left everything else alone. But now I had no more ginger to test that theory... le sigh.

 ------------
12 hours later...
I pulled the dressings out of the fridge this afternoon and re-tasted to see if any melding or fairy visitations had gone on. Joe tasted them with me. Here are our thoughts:

#1: Smokey taste (must be the sesame oil). Still too vinegary...but could make a good marinade, perhaps.
#2: Good texture...similar to the original dressing. Garlicy. Good! After tasting them all, this was the closest to the original dressing, but not quite right.
#3: Too vinegary. Subdued from yesterday, but still awful.
#4: Sweetened up overnight. I liked it better yesterday! Booo.
#5: The most vinegary. Awful. Can't even taste the ginger due to the astringent flavor.
#6: Still sweet and carroty, with a POWERFUL GINGER AFTERTASTE.

Conclusion: I don't think there is rice vinegar in the original. The recipes with vinegar are overpowered by it. My best guess is that the original dressing has a little ginger, a little bit less carrot, water, some mirin, and a bit of onion.

I'll update when I've had the chance to run out and get some ginger.