Cacao Nibs

I have become known as Cookie Monster to my roommates because every time they bake, I am the first to try it and I eat the majority of the dessert. Hey, if they leave it out, it is up for grabs in my opinion. The other night I came home from eating one of those Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes from Chili’s and did not even notice that my roommates had made brownies because I was just around the sweet aroma of chocolate. They joked that I am so used to the smell of sweets that it follows me around and I have stopped noticing it. Sad, I know. Surprisingly, I have yet to work with chocolate on this blog which is why I am so excited to use it this week.

My roommate Maygor went to Run for the Seals in SF a few weekends ago with the Biology club (nerdy, I know. Not seals, Biology club.) and brought back Raw Organic Cacao Nibs from a health company tabling at the run. She did not know what to do with them and threw them at me urging me to use it for my blog. That was enough convincing for me.

Cacao nibs are actual chocolate pieces, without the sugar and fat that we are used to. And they taste horrible, like dirt. They are crunchy and look like smashed coffee beans. It has a hard smell to describe, I can only sense a little bit of chocolate until it gets overwhelmed by something else. Behind the coffee bean looks and hard-to-describe smell and taste is a whole lot of health including antioxidants, essential minerals and fats, and the ability to increase neurotransmitter levels in our brain. They say it is best to eat chocolate in it’s most natural and unprocessed state, but that’s not happening for me unless it tastes like a Hershey’s bar.

I found a recipe for Black Bottom Cupcakes using cacao nibs (in substitution of bittersweet chocolate) in the cream cheese filling. The first step was to make the filling, easy enough, although, I think mine was too watery. I then proceed to mix the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients separately and slowly mixing them together.

Sadly, we only have two bowls in our house so I had to use tupperware to mix the wet ingredients. And yes, that is my name on the bottom of it so my roommates will not steal it. No one can be trusted.

The recipe is only supposed to make 12 cupcakes and I used all the batter in one cupcake tin (like the recipe called for) filling them up pretty high. I began to sense a problem. I poured the cream cheese filling on each cupcake to fill it to the top. I knew that the filling would become the top of the cupcake instead of actually filling the middle of the cupcake when it finished baking. I think the combination of watery filling and too much batter ruined the look of the cupcake. Dammit. Another recipe gone wrong. 

After baking for 30 minutes, they came out with a pretty cool looking crackle top. My roommates and I all agreed that everything but the cacao nibs was good. They gave the cupcake an unexpected, and in my opinion unwanted, crunch. The website that said the cacao nibs would give the cupcakes a more grown-up taste. I guess, in the cupcake world, I am still a child.

-Em

Mexican Brown Sugar

This week’s food item may not seem odd to all, but it was to me, so it counts. If you go to a specialty market, like Lola's, and see something unusual, it is odd. So to me, Mexican Brown Sugar is odd. Mexican Brown Sugar, also known as Panela and Piloncillo, is unrefined sugar that tastes like brown sugar and molasses and comes in a cool cone shape. It can be substituted for brown sugar in many recipes, but I wanted a recipe that called specifically for it. One popular recipe was Pralines, which normally uses pecans. The one thing I really do not like is nuts, except for pine nuts. And would you guess that they had a recipe using pine nuts instead of pecans?! They did! I headed to Safeway and bought a cup of pine nuts for $7.00. I was not happy with that price considering I paid .43 cents (where is the cents symbol on the keyboard?) for the brown sugar. I thought this would be a cheap meal.

In any case, I started the pralines by grating the brown sugar. This took an entire hour. One hour to grate a cone of Mexican brown sugar. An hour. Straight.

Did not get quite 1 3/4 cups, but it worked nonetheless.

After I complained a little more, I began to cook the brown sugar, salt and water. Now, its says to cook until it reaches 236 degrees, but I do not have a thermometer so I had no idea when it was supposed to be done. I just kept watching it boil until I felt satisfied. I would recommend low to medium heat for about 15 minutes. Until it starts to get really bubbly and thickens up a bit. I then took it off the heat, added the butter and vanilla and let it sit for 8 minutes to thicken up. If you do not think it is thick enough, put it back on the heat until it reaches your desired consistency. Lastly, I added the pine nuts and mixed them until all the nuts were coated with the sugar. I dropped spoonfuls onto my already prepared foil covered baking sheet and let them sit until they hardened, about 20 to 30 minutes.

These turned out extremely sweet and as much as I love sweets, if the majority of it is not chocolate, I do not want to eat it. The pralines were too sweet for my taste, but my friend Brian seemed to enjoy them. He ate 5 of them. I was getting tired of my roommates not enjoying anything I cook, so I let them off the hook as taste-testers this week. If you like the Nuts & Chews box from See's, I would recommend these. If not, spend $7.00 on something else.

-Em

Mung Beans

I have to give a shout out to the other Emily in the class that suggested I check out Asiana Market across the street from Sift Cupcakery in Cotati. Thank you! :) 

Asiana market is very small but they sure can pack a lot of items into that little store. Among the items were...I don’t know. They all had Asian lettering on the packaging making it difficult to tell what everything was. I did, however, recognize those Pocky chocolate dipped things, I love those. Anyway, I ended up picking up a bag of mung beans for this week’s meal. 

I immediately associated mung beans with Creed from The Office and could not pass up buying them. And for only $1.69 a bag, they were a bargain! 

I looked up recipes using mung beans while in the store (thank you, smartphone) and decided on Mung Bean Stew. Just the sound of that makes your mouth water, doesn’t it? I stopped by the grocery store on the way home picking up carrots, sweet potatoes, celery, an onion, vegetable stock and spices.

The first step is to boil the beans for about 20 minutes, but I would recommend boiling them for 30 minutes because mine were not completely soft after just 20 minutes. After draining and rinsing the beans with cold water, I moved on to boiling the potatoes. I used sweet potatoes because if there is a sweet version of anything, I prefer it. Those take about 10 minutes. After setting those aside with the beans, I started the rest of the vegetables.

I combined celery, carrots, onion and garlic in a pan with heated oil. I left out the mushrooms because I am not a fan. Those became tender after about 10 minutes and I added the vegetable stock and spices. In addition to the salt and pepper the recipe called for, I added cayenne pepper, cumin, rosemary and a bay leaf. I can guarantee you the stew would not have tasted as good without these spices. I am a big believer in spices, I do not think they can really hurt a meal unless you add too much of one spice. But I urge you to use and experiment with different spices.

After cooking the vegetables with the vegetable stock for a few minutes, I combined it with the potatoes and mung beans in a casserole dish. Cover with a lid if you have one, if not, like myself, simply cover with foil. Place the dish in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. I do not see the point in putting the stew in the oven, it did not cook anything more then it already was. In any case, it came out very delicious. The sweet potato added some sweetness to the meal and the beans did not have a very distinct taste to me but did not taste bad. I saw them as just a substitution for peas. My roommates were not as fond of the meal as I was.

Angie: "Oh...this is not what I was expecting."

Maygor: “No.” (Makes disgusted face)

About 10 minutes later...

Maygor: “What do you want me to do with this? Do you want it?”

No I do not want your picked over stew Maygor. 

Although Maygor did not eat much of it, Angie finished the majority of it and Nicole got out of tasting this week. Luckily, I had lunch and dinner for the next few days. 

With this recipe I would like to make more of a gravy then just a thin stock and possibly try it as a pot pie filling. If there is anything you should know about me, it is my love of chicken pot pies. Maybe I will start a chicken pot pie blog. But overall, I really enjoyed the stew and the mung beans. I think the beans would be good as just a side dish, too.

-Em

Buffalo

I'm running out of ideas. It's pretty difficult to find a new odd food item every week, so I greatly appreciate your suggestions. Please.


I was at The Last Record store in Santa Rosa this weekend which is next to a small community market. It had a bunch of organic and overpriced food so I left. I got the feeling that people could tell I shop for price, not health and they didn't want me there. I then went to Whole Foods. Basically the same thing, organic and overpriced, just bigger. After casually strolling around the store, I ended up in the meat section. I figured they would have cow tongue or something, but no such luck. Or maybe that's good luck? Finally I found something, buffalo meat. I don't know how odd buffalo meat is, but it is to my roommates and I, so I bought it. $10.99 for a pound. I love spending absurds amounts of money on food! Enough complaining, I brought this on myself. I bought the necessary supplies for burgers; buns, tomato, lettuce. 
Uh-oh, spoiler alert! You now know what I'm making this week! After searching through a few recipes when I got home, the main one that kept popping up was Bison Burgers. You can substitute buffalo for beef in any recipe. Just be sure to cook it SLOW AND LOW. Many websites emphasized this.

1 pound will make at least 4 burgers.

I started my burgers by spicing the meat with just salt, pepper and garlic powder. I wanted to be able to really taste the meat without too much spice. I put a little oil on the pan to prevent the meat from sticking. Buffalo is much leaner than beef and therefore cooks faster and is healthier for you. The meat cooks in about 8 minutes, I would say 4 to 5 minutes on each side on a low-medium temperature. All recipes said to leave some pink in the middle for the best flavor but I knew my roommates wouldn't eat it if I did, so I cooked it all the way through. The flavor is very similar to beef. It tasted more like a good grass-fed burger than a regular burger. I think Dan Marino puts says it best, "According to Dan Marino, buffalo meat tastes better than beef. He says the flavor is similar but buffalo has a 'lighter, sweeter flavor' and 'doesn't leave a greasy feel in your mouth.' He also reveals buffalo has a 'much livelier flavor' but isn't 'gamy'."

See, there's Dan Marino chowing down on a bison burger. He loves it! 


Oh, whoops. That's David Hasselhoff destroying a burger. They look pretty similar.





Turns out the Miami Dolphins quarterback didn't actually say that. It was another Dan Marino. What a shame. He could have given buffalo meat a good name like he gave to Nutrisystem.


Buffalo does have a lighter taste to it and is definitely not gamy. If you feel like splurging a bit, I would  recommend it because of the health benefits. Buffalo are also grass fed and raised on open grassland which is a plus. 

And if you didn't find the Dan Marino bit funny, I hope you'll think 

this is.

-Em

Chayote

I finally succeeded in creating something edible! Can you sense my excitement? This week I experimented with another squash variety, Chayote.

It is a light green, pear shaped squash that looks like an elderly person's toothless mouth. It is native to Mexico, but has been introduced worldwide. Chayote is another strange vegetable I found at Raley's for about $2 per squash. The most appetizing recipe I discovered was Chayotes Rellenos because I love Chili Rellenos. I picked up the rest of the necessary ingredients minus the mushrooms and almonds, not being a big fan of either. I carefully read all the directions and started boiling the Chayote without cutting them in half and seeding them like the recipe calls for. Typical. After realizing my mistake, I cut the chayotes in half and seeded them. It is only one large seed, so not difficult to do. I boiled them for 15 minutes then scooped out the inside making sure to leave a quarter of an inch to support the shell. 

After easily peeling and seeding the tomato, I threw all the remaining ingredients in a pan. 

I didn't actually throw them, that would just make a mess. I carefully placed everything in the pan. Once everything was combined, I scooped the mixture into the chayote shells and sprinkled with parmesan cheese then placed them in a deep pan. After filling the pan with a quarter inch of hot water (why is that necessary?), I placed the chayote rellenos in the oven. 350 degrees for 15 minutes. They sure looked good, even my roommates agreed. Maygor and Angie were up for the challenge of tasting my creation, although it took Nicole some convincing. Pretending not to hear me when you're 15 feet away doesn't work, Nicole. After explaining that I needed her input for the blog, she tried it. The reactions are as followed:

Maygor-"It tastes like water"

Angie-"Yeah, it does. But the inside is really good."

Nicole-*Shrug*

Thanks for your input Nicole. But in all honesty, she was right, it was a *shrug* meal. It was good, definitely edible, but I wasn't desiring another bite. The chayote has zero taste and considering that was the main ingredient, it was hard to taste the other ingreidents. Everyone just ended up eating the inside. My advice, if you can find a way to make this bland vegetable more tasty, please do, it's easy to cook with. This recipe, however, was not quite worth it. You live and you learn.

-Em

Kabocha (Japanese Pumpkin)

After eating Vegemite last week, I thought I would go with something safer this week and that turned out to be Kabocha. It turned out to be safe and easy to cook with (once I realized how to). Kabocha, also known as Japanese Pumpkin, looks similar to a miniature pumpkin with a tough, green skin and a yellow/orange inside. It smells like a pumpkin on the inside but like a sweet potato when it is being steamed. Ironically, the majority of the crop grown in California, among other states and countries, is exported to Japan, hmm...

Producto de Mexico. Not Japan. Why?

I chose my Kabocha at Raley's with help from Maygor.* I looked up some recipes, many said to simply cut it into cubes and cook with spices, but I wanted something different. I chose Kabocha Manju. It is a dessert with the kabocha mashed with sugar and cinnamon, wrapped in dough and steamed. This sounds so easy! Cool! It's not. First step was to cut the kabocha in half, which is incredibly difficult to do if you do not steam it first (thanks recipe for telling me to do that). After trying for, I'd say roughly 10 minutes to cut it open, I researched how to cut kabocha and found out how to steam it. After steaming that bad boy for about 7 minutes it was much easier to work with. The inside was just like a baked potato. After scooping it all out, I had to steam it again because some of it wasn't soft enough. The recipe says to steam it in a bamboo steamer which I don't have because what college student owns a bamboo steamer? But I made a makeshift steamer on the stove which kind of worked, but took too long. Why didn't I just throw it back in the microwave? Because I don't know how to cook.

Yes, I realize how stupid this is.

When the kabocha was finally soft enough to be smashed I mixed it with the sugar, cinnamon and pinch of salt. It turned into the yummy mixture below. It was so yummy because it basically tasted like sugar. This recipe called for wayyyyyyyy too much sugar (emphasis on the way).

I then proceeded to make the dough out of flour, baking soda, sugar and water. Long story short, the dough was too thin and the kabocha mixture started coming out everywhere, they didn't steam on my homemade steamer, but baked in the oven. I don't have any pictures because things were moving so quickly. I improvised and threw the dough into a cupcake tin and filled the dough with the kabocha mixture. They came out good, but the dough tasted like a biscuit which didn't go well with the kabocha mixture. I have an idea of putting the mixture on a muffin with possibly raisins and/or walnuts, which I will try later this week and update you.

The one really good thing that came out of this was the roasted seeds. Toss them in a little olive oil, garlic salt and paprika and toast them in the oven for 30 minutes at 300 degrees.

In conclusion, kabocha is a great substitute for potatoes or yams. Just mash them with a little butter and salt or brown sugar and you've got yourself a nice side dish.

UPDATE: If you are ever in the market for Vegemite, Raley's sells it for $6.99.


*Gable decided to change her name to Maygor this week.


-Em

Vegemite

Emily- Ugh, okay. Are you ready for this? (Opens jar) Oh, oh man it smells. Smell it.

Gable*(Roommate)- No, NO! I can’t, I don’t want to!

Emily- Just do it!

Gable- Ahhh, okay okay. Give it to me (gently wafts the scent to her nose). Oh, no that’s disgusting.

And that folks is my first experience with Vegemite. For those of you who are not familiar with the Australian essential, Vegemite is a concentrated spread made from brewer’s yeast. It is a great source of Vitamin B and other nutrients and is most commonly used on toast or crackers, although there are many recipes that use the spread. While researching different recipes such as pasta, pizza and soup, I settled on making Cheese and Vegemite Straws. I mean, who doesn’t like cheesy breadsticks? Plus it was a very simple recipe. I journeyed up to Cost Plus World Market in Santa Rosa to pick up some of this odd yet interesting food. I wasn’t happy spending $8.99 on 220 grams (7.76 oz.) of something I wasn’t going to use a lot of, so I bought a pomegranate soda to make me feel better. It didn't work. I then stopped at Safeway to grab parmesan cheese and Pillsbury crescent rolls. I didn’t see anything that said “puff pastry” so I grabbed the classic holiday favorite, crescent rolls. I gathered my ingredients at home and turned up the oven to 400 degrees. But before baking I tried a little bit of the Vegemite. It is the worst thing I have ever tasted.

Yes, I tried that much. 

"Got any Vegemite on that spoon?" -Gable

   

I spread out the dough and after the convincing of Gable that it would only be necessary to use Vegemite on one roll, I spread a thin layer on the dough. And then covered it with a lot of parmesan cheese.

"Oh my God I can't even look at that." -Gable

After rolling cheese and chocolate chips (separately) in the other rolls, I threw them in the oven and set the timer for 11 minutes. And then came the moment I was dreading. I really did not want to taste this. I cut of a small piece and split it with Gable.

And I couldn't even swallow that entire piece. 

After washing it down with Vitamin Water, I continued making disgusting faces and tried not to barf. I do pretty well with new foods, I'll try a lot of things and generally enjoy them, but no other food has almost made me barf like Vegemite did. The taste is extremely salty. It's as if someone made a spreadable salty multi-vitamin, disgusting to say the least. It is most definitely an acquired taste. I don't want to offend any Australians or Vegemite fans out there, but Vegemite is just not for me. Or Gable.

*Name has obviously been changed. Have you ever met a Gable?

-Em

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog, Odd But (Hopefully) Good. In this blog I will be cooking with food items that most think as odd and I will attempt to make them appetizing. I will pick one or two ingredients that I am not used to eating, but interested in trying. I will research a few recipes and post the one that I used along with pictures along the way. As well as my thoughts on the meal, you will get to see my friends' thoughts, as I will pressure them to be as honest as possible. I welcome your suggestions and comments. Thanks for reading!


-Em