Making Radish Cake

Radish cake is one of those dishes that Chinese people almost always order when they are having dim sum. That and "har gow" (shrimp dumpling) and shu mai (pork dumpling) are pretty common. While it's easy to find plenty of dumplings in the freezer section of any Asian market, radish cake (or "turnip cake") is something that has to be made from scratch. There are plenty of recipes online, such as this one (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Turnip-Cake-Law-Bock-Gow-100779), but they look like they take a ridiculous amount of time to make. So, the Poor Student has created a video to make the whole process easier. There are other videos on youtube that show you how to make radish cake, so check those out too, in case you want a second opinion...

Basically, you need 2 cups rice flour, 1.5 cups water, 6 shitake mushrooms, around 3 lbs daikon (Japanese radish), and 2 Chinese sausages (or other kind of sausage). Other things you can add are scallions and dried shrimp. The base of the recipe is rice flour, water, and radish. All of the other stuff is just for adding flavour. To make the process easier, you can use a grater to grate the daikon or a food processor (instead of dicing the daikon with a knife). Chop or process everything, cook the daikon with the flavouring ingredients, mix the water with the rice flour, and throw it all together in a loaf pan. Steam it for an hour. Cool it for several hours, slice it, and pan fry it. While you're waiting for it to cook, go do your homework and set an alarm to tell you when to do the next step. The recipe is time consuming mainly because of the time it takes to cook the daikon, steam it, and cool it. The rest of the steps are pretty quick.

Making this dish is like making polenta but perhaps with a bit more chopping involved. It's kinda time consuming but one batch will yield about 10 large slices, which can be stored in the fridge until you're ready to fry one up.

Fancy-Pants Sausage Squash Soup/Stew

Normally, I wouldn't bother making a fancy soup that involves putting the soup into the blender and back into the pot. However, I tried it recently and realized that it is worth the few minutes it takes to transform a simple squash soup into something similar to what I would get at a restaurant. When you puree the squash, it looks like a creamy soup even though you didn't add any cream or milk. Some people would insist on adding cream or dairy to make it richer but honestly, I don't think it was necessary. So, for vegans, this might be a good way to have a fancy soup that suits your diet needs. As a bonus, according to MyFinessPal, this recipe is loaded with Vitamin A and Vitamin C. Eat a bowl of this and you'll have enough of those vitamins for the day. Eat a big bowl of this and you'll be overdosing on those vitamins, which is not such a bad thing to do.

The ingredients can vary according to whatever you like but you definitely need some winter squash to create a creamy-looking soup, whether it's acorn squash, butternut, or whatever's on sale at the market. Pureeing at least some of the potatoes and chickpeas with the squash will also make the soup a little thicker.

Ingredients:
(serves 6 to 10 people, depending on their appetites and whether this is the meal itself or an appetizer)

1 package of Turkey smoked sausage sliced into thin coins (e.g. 14 oz Butterball) (leave out if you're vegetarian and add something else that has salt and spices in it)
A bunch of kale (or whatever green stuff you have in the fridge) chopped
3 to 6 cloves of garlic (as you like) chopped
2 to 3 tomatoes (diced)
1 to 2 onions (diced)
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 medium potatoes (diced)
2 small winter squash or 1 medium/large winter squash (cubed)
2 cups cooked chickpeas
1 cup of water
possible seasonings: cumin, soy sauce, finely diced jalapenos, Frank's hot sauce, black pepper, nutmeg

After everything is chopped and sliced, put it all into a slow cooker for about 4 hours at around 150F. If you have time and would like to be extra fancy, saute the garlic and onion in olive oil before adding to the pot. If you don't, just dump it all into the pot. At the end of the 4 hours, put the squash and vegetables into a blender with some liquid. Leave the sausage in the pot. There should be plenty of liquid in there because the vegetables give off a lot of moisture in addition to the cup of water that you added at the start. The trick is to let the soup cook and to avoid opening the cooker while the soup is cooking. Puree the squash and liquid in a couple of batches. The soup is hot, so if you put too much in, the blender top might fly off. Put the pureed soup back into the pot to warm until it's time to eat.

Also, you don't have to puree all of the squash and veggies. It's nice to have a few chunks in there for texture. Actually, I like leaving most of the potato in there in chunk form. The chickpeas also add some interesting texture to the dish. If you're trying to impress someone, drizzle some olive oil on top of the soup when you serve it.

JP Kitchen - in Jamaica Plain

The first time I went to JP Kitchen, I ordered the seafood special. It came with a bread roll instead of rice. Whatever. When I got home, I was a little surprised to see that it was deep fried, which is not a bad thing but I was expecting that it was cooked in a wok. Whatever. There were a few chunks of fake crab and the jalapenos kinda threw me off. I liked the squid and shrimp though. It was tasty but I wanted to try something else. This is the kind of dish that needs another dish to go with it.

Salt & Pepper Seafood

A couple of days later, I tried their combo #34. It included lobster sauce, which is actually made of pork. I really liked the fact that it came in a separate container with a lid, within the box. At some places, they just  put it in one of the dividers of the box so it spills all over the place. JP Kitchen's lobster sauce is also unique because there are scallops in the sauce! At first, I was wondering what that round white thing was and was pleasantly surprised to find not just one, but 3 scallops! The rice was good and had plenty of shrimp. Not too salty either. I'm usually ambivalent about crab rangoon but these were actually quite good. I'd actually order this combo again in the future. As you can tell in the picture below, it's a lot of food and enough for at least two meals. You might want to add some sauteed veggies to make it a healthier meal though.

Combo #34 - shrimp fried rice, crab rangoon, and lobster sauce

The lobster sauce has scallops in it!

If you can't finish the lobster sauce, save it to use for cooking some vegetables such as Chinese cabbage or spinach. It's a tasty sauce that you can put in a frying pan, add your chopped veggies, and make a nice side dish in about 10 minutes or less. Or, if you're just really lazy, make some rice and pour the sauce on top for a meal.

More dishes from subsequent visits (to be updated with each visit):

 Click on the pictures for a larger image.

Scootin' in Boston - Searching for Ribena

In this episode of Scootin' in Boston, the Poor Student rides from Route 9 to Kiki's Kwik-Mart (in Brighton) via Washington Street. For those of you who are not familiar with Ribena, it's a British black currant syrup that used to be available in Asian markets. However, the only place in town that carries it in Boston now is Kiki's in Brighton. If anyone knows of other places that carry Ribena, please leave a comment.

The video footage was from a Sunday afternoon ride at the end of August, before the students moved back to Boston. There was very little traffic and it was nice ride.

Mac & Cheese

Mac & Cheese is a dish that's almost as convenient as packaged ramen noodles. It requires a little more time than ramen noodles but is probably a little closer to "comfort food" than the ramen. However, a box of mac & cheese is basically a box of carbs and you need to add some stuff to it if you want to make a healthier and more balanced meal. It's a pretty flexible meal, so whatever is in your fridge will probably be a nice addition to the cheese sauce. Some examples are: a handful of frozen vegetables, mushrooms, bacon & diced onion, or egg & scallion. If you want to be extra fancy, dump the finished mac & cheese into a baking pan, sprinkle some crushed potato chips and shredded cheese over it, and broil it until the cheese is golden brown.

O'Day's brand, only 50 cents at the Save-a lot!

Once you mix in some veggies, bacon, other meat, and whatever, the taste of the mac & cheese will not be very important in the overall dish. So, if you're planning on using mac & cheese as a "foundation" for the rest of your meal, just get the cheap stuff. Make it healthy by adding veggies and beans. Actually, bean chili is a tasty addition and you'll get your daily intake of fibre quite easily.

Mac & Cheese brands: O'Day's, Trader Joe's, and CVS

How different are these brands of mac & cheese? See for yourself:

Nutrition labels for O'Day's, Trader Joe's, and CVS brands

Coconut milk: the next big trend!

It seems that Americans are finally discovering that coconut milk is a great alternative to dairy, which seems kinda weird to consume, considering the fact that cows generally do not drink human milk, right? However, this does not mean that I am against dairy products. I actually use milk in my coffee sometimes and in baking but only in small amounts because of that pesky lactose intolerance issue. Coconut milk, almond milk, and soy milk are all friendlier to my stomach. The coconut water that has recently become popular is kinda weird-tasting. The coconut milk that comes in the milk cartons is also kinda boring. The good stuff is the coconut milk that comes in cans.

Read the nutrition label!
When you pick up a can of coconut milk, it's important to read the label because the lighter stuff will be good for a lot of recipes but if you want to make some richer tasting things like chocolate coconut whipped cream, you need the full fat stuff. Some of the Asian brands have cans that look quite similar. For example, Chaukoh and Chaudoc have similarly designed cans (see pictures below). However, Chaukoh is the full fat version and Chaudoc is the light version. They label both cans "coconut milk". By the way, these are great brands and you can find them at Super 88/Hong Kong Supermarket in Allston. You can also find both the light and full fat versions at Trader Joe's under their labels. All of the coconut milk shown in the pictures below come from Thailand. However, if you compare the full fat versions, the Trader Joe's brand actually has a more calories per serving (1/3 cup) and it is labeled as "coconut cream" to make it extra obvious. There is only one extra gram of saturated fat in the Trader Joe's version (over Chaukoh) though.

(Click on the pictures to see larger images)

Can you see the difference?

Check the nutrition labels!

The Trader Joe brands

Light on the left, Full fat on the right

The Light brands

The Full fat brands

Chaudoc Coconut Milk (full fat)

Nutrition label for Chaokoh coconut milk (full fat)

Nutrition label for Chaudoc coconut milk (light)

Ice cream

The lighter stuff will generally be a bit cheaper and is pretty good for most things, including ice cream. Just make sure you churn it long enough to get the air into the ice cream so it doesn't freeze solid. In Boston, JP Licks has recently been offering a few coconut milk flavors, in case you'd like to try it before attempting to make it at home. Coconut is a great complement to chocolate. Check out my post on making dairy-free ice cream. It really takes only 3 ingredients: coconut milk, sugar, and cocoa. If you're planning on freezing some for later, add a tiny bit of vanilla extract near the end of the churning time because the alcohol will prevent the cream from freezing solid.

If you use Dutch cocoa with honey (instead of sugar), and full fat coconut milk, the result will be pretty close to premium ice-cream quality. This is where you might want to use the coconut cream with the highest fat content, such as the Trader Joe's brand. A can of coconut milk is usually somewhere between $1.70 to $2 and it will make at least a pint of ice cream. You might never buy factory-produced ice cream ever again!

Chocolate ice cream made with 3 ingredients:
coconut cream Dutch cocoa, and raw honey

Coffee Creamer
One thing that hasn't caught on yet is using coconut milk as a coffee creamer. It's a great alternative to soy milk and dairy milk. If you use the full fat stuff, it's as rich as (or maybe even richer than) half and half. However, because coconut oil solidifies at cold temperatures, the full fat coconut cream is ideal for hot drinks and might not work so well in iced drinks. The lighter coconut milk seems to work well in iced coffee. Some people don't like the "bean-y" taste of soy milk. Perhaps the coconut flavor won't be as weird for them.

Places to buy coconut milk:
Cans of coconut milk are readily available in most Latino stores, Asian markets, and even CVS. The Goya brand is probably the most popular one in the U.S. However, if you sample several brands, you'll find that some brands will have different characteristics. For instance, the Chaokoh brand does not separate as cleanly as some other brands. I put a can of Chaokoh (full fat) coconut milk in the fridge over night to let the coconut cream separate from the liquid. The liquid part was actually thick enough to be coconut milk (it was white and not clear) and the coconut cream was not solid but had the consistency of runny whipped cream. With other brands, you might get a thick layer of nearly solid coconut fat on top of what looks like clear coconut water. Depending on what you're going to do with it, you might want that layer of coconut fat. I used the Chaokoh to make the ice cream you see in the pictures above.

Franklin Park - Jamaica Plain

Franklin Park is where the Franklin Park Zoo and a large public golf course are located. It's also a great place to jog, take a walk, or have a picnic. A lot of people go there on holiday weekends. If you'd like a more peaceful place to see, check out the Forest Hills Cemetery, on the other side of Morton Street.

Circuit Drive/Jewish War Veterans Drive runs through the park and goes around much of the golf course. However, about a third of Circuit Drive is closed to vehicles. In this episode of Scootin' in Boston, the Poor Student rides around the park and shows you the golf course and the entrance to the zoo. The tour starts at the usual location, the corner of Forest Hills St. and Williams St.

Map of the ride, starting on Forest Hills Street, ending at Blue Hill Avenue

Broiling tuna steak in the toaster oven

Tuna steak has become more popular in recent years, shortly after sushi became a normal thing to eat in North America. Usually, tuna steak is seared on the outside and left raw in the middle. Another way to prepare tuna steak is in the toaster oven. There's less clean-up and no need to watch a frying pan. All you need to do is line a baking try with aluminum foil or parchment paper, season your tuna steak with olive oil, salt, and your favorite spices. Put the baking rack on the highest level in your toaster oven and set it to the broil function. Because toaster ovens vary in how hot they get, try a lower temperature (e.g. 350 F) the first time you do this and flip it after 5 minutes. Broil on the second side for 5 minutes. If the fish is too raw, pop it back in for another couple of minutes.

Here's a video of the Poor Student broiling tuna steak:

Scootin' in Boston - Route 20 and Brookline Avenue

In this episode of Scootin' in Boston, we scoot along Route 20 and then turn right onto Brookline Avenue. We go through Allston, Boston University territory, Fenway, Longwood hospital area, and end up at Route 9. The route is very simple but we pass by a lot of landmarks along the way.

See route map below

Scootin' in Boston - Amory Street

In this episode of Scootin' in Boston, we go up Amory street starting from the north (turning of Columbus Ave.) and ending up at around English High in Jamaica Plain, by Doyle's Cafe. Enjoy!

Scootin' in Boston - Arboretum and Allandale Farm

In this episode of Scootin' in Boston, the Poor Student starts at the entrance of the Arboretum at Washington Street (by Forest Hills Station) and goes west, through the Arboretum, turns right onto Centre Street, and left onto Allandale Street. Allandale Farm is a working farm with a farmstand (store) and a CSA program. They also carry baked goods from Clear Flour Bread Bakery (Brookline) and Canto 6 (Jamaica Plain).

At Grove Street, we turn left to get onto the Roxbury Parkway via a rotary and then head back to Centre Street via Veterans of Foreign Wars Parkway. Finally, we go through the Arboretum again to get back to our starting point (at Forest Hills Station on Washington Street).

This route generally has less traffic than Washington Street. For the most part, the roads are well paved with only a few bumps along the way.

Scootin' in Boston Series - JP to Roslindale Village

The Poor Student scoots from Franklin Park in Jamaica Plain to Roslindale Village and back to Jamaica Plain. Roslindale Village is a cool shopping area with an interesting mix of restaurants, shops, and businesses. Check out the bakeries and small restaurants there! Here's the route:

Here's the video of the ride:

Scootin' in Boston - JP to Cambridge (MIT)

Here's the route:

Here's the video:

Save-a-lot - American Legion Highway, Roslindale

One of the places that I wasn't able to reach easily before I had a scooter was the Save-a-lot on American Legion Highway in Roslindale. There's a strip mall there and if you're in the mood for Popeye's Chicken after getting your groceries, you're in luck! Popeye's is usually busy and I've never seen it completely empty. The staff there are very friendly too.

Anyway, the point of this post is the Save-a-lot. It's not the best supermarket in the area but I bet it's the cheapest. They have everything you need but not necessarily brands you'd see at Roche Bros or Stop & Shop. However, they also have some cool things you might not find easily elsewhere too. For example, they sell plantains and plantain chips. They also always seem to have habanero peppers there, if you can handle that level of heat. If you want to try goat meat but don't want to trek down to haymarket, Save-a-lot also carries goat chunks (ready for stewing) sometimes. I've never had any problems with the meat there. They have all the standard stuff you'd find elsewhere but don't have fancy things like filet mignon or stuff like that. I've gotten a pork loin there and it was great.

Frankly, I go there mainly for the produce and meat. If I remember, I'll get some plantain chips. The frozen foods there are also good deals and there's plenty of cheap bread too. If you're a poor student, this is a good supermarket to load up on basic pantry items. If you need mac & cheese, they carry a brand called "O'day's" for about 50 cents a box or less, depending if it's on sale or not.

Last note: remember to bring your own plastic bags because they will charge you 11 cents for one.

Here's a video that show you how to get there from Forest Hills:

Update: (July 2012) They have repaired Walk Hill St. and it's a nice ride now.

Fiore's Bakery - Jamaica Plain

Fiore's Bakery is right beside the Harvest Co-op in Jamaica Plain, MA. They have been there for quite a few years but most recently, they've been offering a lot of gluten-free and vegan baked goods and sandwiches. The other day, I was walking past there and thought it looked a little different. I hadn't been in there for at least a year or more, so I went in to see what they had in their bakery case. To my surprise, they had almond macaron! The guy called them "macaroons," so I had to double check to make sure they were not those coconut cookies that I don't like. Macaron are a French thing, made with almonds and egg whites. I just had to try those and added a cupcake just because those looked good too. If you want those macarOOns with the coconut bits, they have those too.

Almond Macaron and a cupcake

As I was walking home, I ate one of the macaron and realized that the guy put 2 in the bag! Yay! They're actually $4.99/pound, around 50 cents each. I was actually tempted to go back and get some more because they are really good! Even though they're not sandwich cookies like they are traditionally made in France, the macaron was very good. It had the texture that you want - slightly crispy on the outside and soft & chewy on the inside. However, they are a bit on the sweet side so make yourself a cup of tea or coffee to cleanse your palate between bites.

Almond Macaron

As for the cupcake, it was alright. Compared to the macaron, it was like an afterthought. Having said that, I'm usually not a big fan of cupcakes, so I'd suggest that you go try them yourself to make your own judgement on those. I didn't try any of their sandwiches but if you need gluten free or vegan food, this is one place to go. The other place would be Fazenda, across the street from Forest Hills station.

Perfect almond macaron

Not bad but not as great as the macaron!

Blue Nile (in Jamaica Plain, MA) - Finger-lickin' good, literally...

This was my first experience with African food, not counting African coffees like Kenya AA and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. Blue Nile is an Ethiopian restaurant located in Hyde Square, on Centre Street. It's right beside Food Wall, which is the go-to Chinese takeout place in Jamaica Plain. The motivation for trying Blue Nile was actually an episode of The Simpsons. Remember when Marge, Lisa, and Bart became foodies after they ate at an Ethiopian restaurant?

Yeah, that episode inspired me to try Ethiopian food! I wish I were making this up but it's true. I really didn't know anything about Ethiopian cuisine except that they grew wonderful coffee beans. Anyway, I'm very glad that I tried Blue Nile because Ethiopian food is delicious!

Tikil Gommon (top left), Shiro Wet (top right)?
Siga Wet (bottom)

I had the Nile combo, which includes a meat dish and 3 vegetable dishes for takeout. When she gave me the box, it was quite heavy! It came with 2 rounds of injera bread. One was used to line the box and one was placed on top of the meat and veggies. It was a lot of food! I couldn't eat it all in one sitting and the leftovers lasted for about 2 more meals. It was very tasty with all of the different items seasoned just right. I had the Siga Wet (Beef), Shiro Wet, Tikil Gommon, And Yatakilt Wet. Check out their menu. The combo is definitely enough for at least 2 people. Here are some pictures of my first meal from Blue Nile:

When you open the box, it looks like this. 

The beef and vegetables are under the injera bread.

Everything was seasoned perfectly. Plenty of injera bread to scoop it all up!

The brown stuff is the Siga Wet (beef).
The veggies (bottom right) is Yatakilt Wet.

I'm not sure this is the right way to scoop
but it sure tastes good!

Anyway, try this place! They do take-out and your food will be ready very quickly. If you're going to the new Whole Foods in JP, Blue Nile is on the other side of the rotary so you can just pick up some takeout on the way home.

Another place to get Ethiopian food:

A couple of months ago, I was at the South End Food Emporium and was tempted to buy a package of injera bread. However, there were a 

lot of them in one package and I wasn't sure I could eat all of them so I just bought some green Ethiopian coffee beans and went home. Now that I know that I like injera bread, I'll probably go buy a package of it at the South End Food Emporium the next time I'm there to buy more green coffee beans (they have roasted beans too). Injera bread can be used to scoop up anything resembling a thick stew or dip.

I need more practice...

This is when I had to stop eating because I was full!

Scootin' in Boston Series - Youtube Playlist

Now that the Poor Student has made 6 videos for the Scootin' in Boston series, we now have a reason to make a Youtube playlist. If you'd like to keep up with this series but don't want to subscribe to anything, just bookmark this page and watch the playlist below whenever you'd like. However, the Poor Student will continue to make individual blog posts to give more details about each video and a map that you can look at while you're watching the video.

Enjoy!

Scootin' in Boston - Rockin' the Hammond Parkway

In this episode of Scootin' in Boston, the Poor Student rides the Hammond Parkway and West Roxbury Parkway from Chestnut Hill to Roslindale, MA. We go through four rotaries and the speed limit changes a few times. It's a nice ride. Here's the map. Start on Beacon Street and go south.

Enjoy!