Experimental Noodle House: Mustard Macaroni

I have stuff in my pantry. I have stuff in my fridge. I have stuff in my freezer. I swear, I will make sure all this stuff is consumed by May, even if it's the last thing I do. Normally if I have something I need to use up, I buy something else to go with it, but then I end up with leftovers of the thing I bought, and the cycle repeats. Therefore, my new plan is to take everything I own and throw it together in hopes that it is at least somewhat palatable.

In this dish are broken spaghetti noodles, beef flank, mozzarella cheese, milk, dijon mustard, pepper, and cilantro. I'm not too sure why I broke the noodles up; I guess I was bored of eating spaghetti. In the end, the concoction sort of turned into a weird macaroni and cheese-type thing. But that's the beauty of experimental cooking! Since the food doesn't purport to be any specific thing from the beginning, I can look back and name it in hindsight. It was pretty good, but it was a little heavy, probably because of the cheese. The cilantro really helped freshen it up though.

I love cilantro. It's got such a powerful and unique flavor. I know quite a few people who can't stand it for the same reason, and I can sort of see where they're coming from. If I didn't love cilantro so much, I'd probably hate it with a burning passion. It's got such a particular scent and taste, and unless you're really keen on it, it's hard to take. I know very few people who are neutral about cilantro; most people I've met either love it or hate it.

Anyway, more experimental cooking to come!

Round Dinner

I had a "dinner party" last weekend. That's in quotes because dinner party sounds like such formal affairs, which would be an incorrect description. Restated, I made dinner for my friends. The process of planning a menu was quite fun, even if the main goal was just to use as much stuff in my kitchen as possible. Since May is approaching, I'll be returning to my beloved California for summer break, and all the food in my kitchen needs to go before I leave. That'll actually be the theme for the next few posts.

Anyway, the theme for dinner ended up being circular stuff. Well, sort of. I got lazy and didn't make all the food that I planned on making, which was fine anyway because what I made was already more than enough. The full menu was supposed to be pita and carrot sticks with hummus for a snack, meatballs and pizza for substance, and panna cotta and lemon meringue pie for dessert. Oh, and salad, which isn't really round, but it's hard to shape salad, unless it's cucumber salad or something like that. In the end, I just made salad, pita chips, pizza, and pie. I wish I took pictures, but I was preoccupied with cooking, eating, and messing around with my friends. I also wish I had a circular table to match everything else.

I did, however, manage to get a picture of my lemon meringue pie, which happened to be one of the happier moments of my food preparation. The pie itself was not as exciting as the fact that I managed to get a stiff peak meringue. Do you know what that means? Time to try macarons again. Anyway, the lemon meringue pie recipe was adapted from here, but I thought the flavor to be a bit weak. I even doubled the lemon, and it still didn't come out lemony enough. I'm a fan of rather tart citrus pies, so I guess I'll have to search for another recipe. Aside from the lack of flavor, it wasn't too bad. I am incapable of rolling anything, so I used a no-roll pie crust recipe from here. I'm not sure if I'm incapable of making a no-roll crust also, but the crust was sort of short, and my filling and meringue ended up climbing higher than the top of the crust, which made taking slices out of the pie pan a little difficult. I guess I have to try making more pies in the future.

Orange Goodness

Carrot cake is one of my favorite cakes of all time. It's sweet but not too sweet. It's neither too airy nor too dense. It has flavor; it has texture; it has color. And it has cream cheese frosting. There's plenty to like about it, and there's nothing to dislike. Even people who don't like carrots will happily enjoy a slice of carrot cake--it's just that good.

While I prefer a substantial slice of cake to a cupcake, cupcakes are infinitely more convenient to distribute. I planned on bringing in a snack for my photography class, and a single tray of cupcakes is much easier to deal with than a cake, a knife, multiple plates, forks, etc. So I made cupcakes.

I used this opportunity to try piping frosting since I have never done so before. It's harder than it looks...all of my frosting swirls ended up looking like misshapen lumps. I guess more practice is in order. From what I can tell, however, I think I still prefer frosting with a spatula. That said, I will now feel inadequate until I am able to at least decently pipe frosting, so I will probably be piping for the next few times I make anything frosting-related. On the convenience side, ad least piping is faster than using a spatula, I think.

Regarding the carrots, I recently discovered that there are different methods to shredding/grating them. I've always been a throw-them-in-the-food-processor person, but after conversing with my roommate, I found that there are also grate-them-on-a-cheese-grater people. I never really thought about it, but the two methods create different looks. The food processor creates more cube-like carrot pieces while a grater makes thin shavings. I guess what you choose is up to your preference. I'm lazy, so food processor it is.

In this round of carrot cake, I made my carrot pieces a little bigger. That was actually due to laziness, but I kind of liked the results. In the past, I've always ground up the carrots into tiny little flecks, which were only subtly visible in the finished product. Since the pieces were somewhat larger this time, I could actually see some happy orange pieces in each bite, which was a nice aesthetic.

The recipe I use usually calls for 3/4 cups of oil, but in the quest for slight healthiness, I substituted a half cup of applesauce for a half cup of the oil. If I'm not imagining it, the texture seemed a little drier than usual, so I have to tinker more with the proportions. I imagine I'd either have to substitute out less oil or maybe add more applesauce to increase the moisture levels. I may have just over-baked the cupcakes too. I think underdone baked goods are extremely gross, so I have a tendency to bake my stuff a little too long, for fear of biting into a gooey mess. A little extra time is hardly noticeable in something large like a whole cake, but in tiny little cupcakes, the extra time most likely makes larger differences.

I frosted the cupcakes with orange-cream cheese frosting. Orange-cream cheese frosting is a great topping for carrot cake because, not only is it tasty, but the orange flecks created by the orange zest kind of look like carrot shreds. My cream cheese frosting was extra satisfying because it made use of a sunny, and free, California orange. When I was home for winter break, I raided my lemon tree and orange tree, and I stuffed the fruits in every free crevice of my carry-on backpack for the journey back to school. This was due to my earlier frustration of actually having to buy a lemon.

My photo class liked my cupcakes, which was a nice ego boost. I'm hoping by bribing them with desserts, they'll give me a not-so-harsh critique. But not actually. I like getting really honest criticism; you don't learn anything without real feedback. The same applies in baking. Sometimes I find it frustrating when people say something's good for the sake of being polite. While I appreciate the kind sentiment, I also want to know what can be fixed so that I don't perpetually bake some mediocre product that everyone politely continues to compliment. I don't think this carrot cake falls under that category though. I'm going to be really un-modest right now and say that I actually really like my carrot cake recipe and that I think it's pretty good. Even so, mainly because I don't feel like ending on an egotistical note, I will reiterate that due to its slight dryness, it still needs some work.