Takoyaki

So anime has had a strange effect upon my food cravings. I end up wanting to try many of the treats I see depicted in various animes. They seem to enjoy it so much! And sure, I know its a cartoon. I'm extremely fond of trying street foods as well when I visit foreign countries. I find it to be the best way to get a bit of local flavor. Considering these two, it seems only natural that one of the foods to catch my eye on animes is takoyaki. They look fabulous. Hot little rounds covered in delectable sauce that students would eat by street stalls, you know, generally right before the giant magical demon mecha that's actually their classmate attacks. THAT SNACK. I read up all I could on it. Scoured the web. It should have a crispy exterior with a custardy interior hidings lots of little goodie bits to give it texture and flavor. The trickiest part seemed to be how the vendors would turn the half cooked balls a quarter turn at a time to spill out and cook the raw insides using what appeared to be two tiny little skewers. To get around my lack of skill (and lack of a takoyaki pan) I used my cake ball pan. I managed to get all the tastes and textures I should have but not the look. I got more of a slightly squished Saturn than a ball. Little, slightly flat balls, with crispy flattened ring of dough attached. Oh well, practice makes perfect right? These were so good that I'm more than willing to try again. For the filling and toppings in the recipe, I listed what I used but generally its up to you. Use chicken, shrimp, cheese, cabbage, soy sauce, ketchup, whatever you want. Its all good.

Takoyaki

Batter:
1 cup flour
1 tblsp corn starch
3 tsp soy sauce
2 cups chicken stock (icy cold from the fridge is best)
2 egg

Filling:
Finely diced octopus, scallion, ginger

Topping:
oknomiyaki sauce,  kewpie mayo, furikake, bonito flakes

Sift together flour and corn starch. Beat in egg, soy sauce, and 1/2 cup stock until you get a smooth paste then slowly beat in the rest of the stock. Let rest while you dice up your fillings and heat up the pan. Spray the pan with a bit of oil. Fill the little wells about 3/4 of the way. Add in a bit of each filling until the well is almost full. Top with more batter. Some will leak out around the wells. This is ok! Now, you can do it the right one as depicted here but I lacked his amazing skills and confidence. Instead, I oiled the top of this cake pan and just flipped the whole thing to get the top to cook. Top as you'd like.

Healthier Chicken Pot Pie?

To say it simply snowed this weekend would be an understatement. It blizzarded. It closed down the city roads and blacked out large portions of town. It almost ruined my Lunar New Year. We didn't get to have the big family gathering I had come to expect or the many delicious dinners mom would churn out. I got my car stuck just trying to reach my parents so I could give them some treats to ensure their year started out with plenty of good things. It was literally a drive by since there was no where to park. I did not get to walk away with giant bags of goodies as I have historically been able to. After a harrowing journey home I need something to treat myself to for the New Year and something to comfort myself with however I didn't want to go crazy with the calories since I was stuck indoors with almost nothing to do. I looked around to see what supplies I had and came up with this (slightly) healthier version of a chicken pot pie that's still lazy and cheaty. The crust on top was only ok but the filling was just as good as the real thing.

(Healthier) Chicken Pot Pie

Crust:
2 cups Carbquik
1/2 cup almond milk
1 tsp basil
1 tsp onion powder
1.5 tsp baking powder

Filling:
2 roasted chicken breasts cooled and cubed
1 16oz bag of mixed frozen veggies
1 can 99% fat free condensed mushroom soup
1 can 99% fat free condensed garlic mushroom soup

Heat oven to 350F. Run veggies under hot water in a sieve until defrosted. Drain. Add to chicken and mix with the two cans of soup. Pour the whole mess into an 8 inch round pan. Mix all the crust ingredients in a seperate bowl. Turn out onto a large surface and knead together into a ball. If its too dry and won't hold together, sprinkle on a little water at a time. Try to knead it as little as possible. Roll out into a circle to fit over the top of the pan. Lay on the crust and bake for 40 minutes until bubbly and golden.

Lamb Roast!

One of the simplest ways for me to feed a crowd of guests has always been to throw a giant chunk of animal into the oven and let it roast away. Generally this require little active hands on time and allows me to kick back, chatting with guests, while something spectacular is being made. It doesn't hurt that mouth watering smells will drift out from the kitchen while you wait, whetting the guests' appetites. This is a personal favorite of mine. I am not a big beef eater. For red meat, I generally prefer something like lamb instead. This produces a lovely roast with little to no gamey-ness. When slicing, try to get a little bit of the crust into every slice. Its meant to be extra salty to give it a little contrast with the milder meat beneath.

Garlic Rosemary Crusted Lamb Roast

1 5 lb lamb leg butt roast (no this isn't what you think! its just the upper part of the lamb leg which has more meat than the ankle bit)
10 - 15 cloves garlic
4 tsp dried rosemary
4 tsp salt (be generous with this)
2 cups rough cubed root vegetable (any will do. I used celeric above. Its really there just to give the neat a little room above the pan to allow for better hot air circulation)

Take roast out 30 mins before cooking to let it warm up to room temp. Cut off best as you can (no need to be a surgeon about this!) all the fat and silver skin. Using a tiny food processor, mortar & pestle, or teeny blender cut/mash the garlic, rosemary, and salt together into a gritty paste. Smear paste all over the roast. stick roast on top of veggies in pan. Set oven to 450F. By the time your oven comes up to temp the roast should be nicely warmed up. Stick the whole thing in the oven for 30 minutes. Turn oven down to 350F. Roast for another 45 - 60 minutes checking for the roast to come up to about 130F - 140F with a meat thermometer and depending on how rare you like your meat. Remove from oven and let rest for 15 minutes before carving and serving. In the meantime I like to scrape out the root veggies from under the roast and puree them with a bit of beef stock into a nice mash to serve along with some salad or greens.