Medley of Potatoes with Roasted Garlic dressing

From this post onward, I am happy to announce my new toy. :) Thanks to my wonderful friend, who had kindly given me her special camera.  It came at a perfect time since my poor over used iphone camera has been stubborn.  Dumb battery.  

So this post is dedicated to the dear friend.  You know who you are! Thank you to you and your hubs!!! I will try not to disappoint :D

These starchy yummy wonders.  My life is never complete without these rustic potatoes.   Yukon potatoes are a thing of the past compared to these purple potatoes and sweet potatoes.  Artfully piled high at my local grocery, I couldn't help but load a few in my red trolley. :)

Happy carb day! 

This recipe was inspired by my need to roast garlic in the oven.  Oh the flavour and scent of roasted garlic is absolutely delicious, its use, versatile in so many ways. It makes for a excellent addition to your dishes.  So here it goes!

Medley of Potatoes with  Roasted Garlic dressing 

Ingredients:
1 head of garlic,
1/2 red onion, chunks
olive oil
sea salt & whole peppercorns
Mix of potatoes of your choice, colour it up :)
1 tbsp of dijon mustard

You'll need a mortar and pestle to make the dressing.  Alternatively a bowl and the back of a spoon will do.

Directions:

Day 1 -
1.  The night before use, scrub and wash each potato extremely well.  The goal here is to wash off the dirt from the skin.  Use kitchen gloves and scrubber to avoid major damage to your hands :D Use plenty of salt as an abrasion to scrub.  Your water should be super clear in the final rinse.  Pat dry and allow to dry on a rack overnight.  This will take about 5-10 mins depending on amount of potatoes.

Day 2 -
2.  Preheat the oven to 400 F.  Chop off the top of garlic head to reveal each cloves.  Discard top.  Over a layer of foil, drizzle a healthy amount of olive oil, sea salt and whole peppercorns on garlic head.  Wrap tightly and set aside.

3.   Cut off ends of each potato.

4.  Chop potatoes to bite size pieces, in slices, sticks or cubes, whatever you fancy and place on flat pan.  Place chunk red onions on top.  Drizzle a healthy amount of olive oil and sea salt.  Add the wrapped garlic onto pan and bake on the middle rack for 35mins.  Note: baking times may vary on your own oven so adjust accordingly. Broil for the last 4-5mins to brown nicely.

5.  Once done, take pan out of the oven.  Potatoes should be crispy on the outside but luxuriously soft and melt in your mouth inside. :)  Open the wrapped garlic.  You are in for a yummy surprise. :) Squeeze out all the garlic cloves onto mortar.  Add the red onions and a pinch of sea salt.  Pestle away!

6.  Add dijon mustard and a small drizzle of olive oil.  Continue to pestle away until the dressing emulsify together.

7. Add dressing onto potatoes and toss. Make sure each potato is coated :)

Enjoy! :D

~ Black Doomsday Dish ~

The real reason why I started this blog was not because I enjoy cooking and want to share with you my recipes.  Quite honestly, the food I make does not differ to anyone else's.  There's no real reason why one must follow my recipes to ultimately make the yummiest radish cake.  Flavours and ingredients are each one's personal preference; tailored and individualized.

So if the subject of food is subject to one's opinion, why bother writing about it?  Well, it shocks me to say this, but I miss my days in school where the discipline of research and writing papers was exercised on a daily basis.  While it seem like a total drag to have had met so many deadlines in each semester, looking back now, I valued those sleepless nights.  The purpose was met consistently, in order to move on to the next semester.  As a full pledged working woman for some time now, if I don't continue to research and write, I fear for the deterioration of my left cerebral hemisphere. I fear for the lack of creativity in the art of written words.  Food being the most neutral topic, social media shall be the outlet to exercise my mind, ensuring my written art form stays afloat and fresh.

"Black Doomsday Dish" creatively named not because of all the black looking ingredients I used, but once cooked, it looks like a shit pile of crap.  Not at all appetizing looking but has the ability to rejuvenate youthful skin and promote healthy blood flood when consumed.  Seriously, chinese people eat the weirdest things to combat illness and promote healthy organs.  But at least, it is done through the means of ingesting what nature already provides without having to rely on pharmaceutical drugs.

So for this post, I'm going all chinese lady on you.  Sea cucumber, black fungus, shitake mushroom and hair moss (fat choy).  Yes it sounds gross, looks gross but taste quite decent considering the benefits.

Dried Sea Cucumber

Benefits: Helps generate new skin, close up open wound, broken skin faster.

             Due to the gelatinous texture, helps to add "bounce" back into dull looking skin therefore 

             giving you a more youthful skin :) 

Usage:  Soak dried sea cucumber for at least 3 days, changing the water every day.  It will expand               at least 4 times its swiveled size.  It is safe to consume a little bit everyday and you will

           notice a difference in your skin:)  (My friend also says it helps with your number 2 too)
Flavour & Texture:  Has no particular flavour on its own but takes on other flavours in the same 

            dish.  Think spongy cartilage as the texture. 

GROSS looking after it has re-hydrated.  Wait till you see the inside of it! :D 

inside of re-hydrated sea cucumber.  Still reading? :D 

You'll need to remove the inner part. :D  See the separation from the skin and its inner lining?
All you need to do is snip an opening at one end of the cucumber and peel away the lining
from the skin.

Like so.  Easy peasy. Discard the gross lining and rinse the skin of the sea cucumber.

Tadaa! not so gross looking no more!

Black Fungus

Dried black fungus 

Benefits:  high in iron and protein, promote and enrich healthy blood flow, cleansing of the
            intestines
Usage: Soak in water for 15-20 mins.  It will expand 20-30 times once re-hydrated.  Cut off the
           tough cartilage.
Flavour & Texture: Similar to the sea cucumber, no flavour on its own but absorbs other flavours
           in the same dish.  Think thin, soft and crunchy as the texture, harmless. :)

Fat Choy, or Moss hair

An algae vermicelli vegetable served and eaten during each Chinese New Year, due to its name in Chinese, "fat choy" meaning  "wishing you a prosperous monetary year"  and that's the only reason why it is eaten, to hope you will gain more money.  Traditional Chinese beliefs, no matter how silly, cannot be re-written.

UPDATE: this post was previous published but something must have happened since the last half of the post disappeared and I had already deleted some of the photos :( so I am re-writing the last half, at 2:30am.  So please forgive me:(

Shitake Mushrooms has a wonderful robust flavour and therefore will act as the primary flavour of the dish.  Re-hydrate shitake mushrooms and reserve the water.

Indgredients:
1tbsp of sliced ginger
sea cucumber, black fungus, shitake mushrooms, fat choy

Sauce:
3/4 cup mushroom stock.  To the stock, add 2 tbsp of soy sauce, oyster sauce, chinese cooking wine and 1 tsp of chicken stock paste, (or powder, whichever you have) white pepper

Directions:
1.  Prepare your ingredients as described in this post.

2.  In a heavy ceramic pot, bring heat to medium high, drizzle olive oil, add ginger.  Cook for 2 mins until fragrant.  Ginger helps to reduce the sea flavour left in the sea cucubmer.  It also helps to add "heat" to balance with the "cool" ingredients.

3.  Once fragrant, add sea cucumber and add a splash of Chinese cooking wine and cook for 3 mins.  Add the rest of the ingredients, including the sauce.  Allow the liquid to bubble then quickly lower the heat to a slow simmer.  Cook for 45 mins with the lid on.

Taddaaa!  While yes it looks like a pile of shit, it's crazy beneficial for you :) enjoy!!