Easy Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

1 can of tomatoes

2 diced tomatoes

1 tablespoon basil

A few dashes sea salt

black pepper to taste

Process:

Combine ingredients in a food processor and puree. 

Put smooth mixer in a sauces pan over medium heat,

cook until flavors have combined.  Maybe 15 minutes.

Goat Cheese Sandwich

Just do what you do, but use goat cheese and a few fresh basil leaves.

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THE FOOD

Tuna & Cheese On Toasted Flatbread 

Ok, so all the hippy dippy stuff about living local and eating fresh is great, but we all gotta work.  We are ex-pats and most of us aren't on an endless vacation, we have jobs and responsibilities that eat away at our time like it's they're the last delicious hours on the plate.  We need meals we can throw together at a moments notice.  We like flatbread and potatoes for this.

THE QUANDARIES 

The genius of this meal is that you can use what you have on hand... within reason.  It's about using up what's in your fridge and making it taste like heaven in the process.   This recipe is about inspiring you to get out of your comfort zone and discover the magic of mixing things up.

THE SOLUTION

Potatoes

Red Bell Pepper

Slivered almonds

Veggie oil of your choice

Can of tuna

Cheese of your choice

Flat Bread or tortilla

Salt

Pepper

Red Pepper Almond Potatoes : Peel and chop one medium potato per person. Sauté in a little oil or butter over medium heat until partially cooked (about 5 minutes) then toss in red peppers, a dash of hot sauce, sliced garlic, slivered almonds and finish cooking.  When everything is tender, finish with a little salt and pepper to flavor.

Flat Bread:  In another skillet or in an oven heat your flatbread or tortillas (We prefer fluffy flat bread.)

The Grand Finale:  On top of the hot flat bread, made a bed of Red Pepper Almond Potatoes, pile on tuna, and top with your favorite cheese.  We prefer big chunks of fluffy goat cheese.

Cooking Notes:  We recommend subbing things like chicken instead of tuna, sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes, any color peppers, garlic naan, ricotta, fresh mozzarella, sharp cheddar, etc.  Have fun with it.  It's magically delicious all kinds of ways. 

The one thing you need to watch out for is drying everything out.  Don't over let your potatoes get dry.  For real, keep them happy and moist.

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THE FOOD

Squid Tacos w/ Goat Cheese & Roasted Red Peppers

We know.  This sounds really, really weird - which it is.  However, it's also spectacularly delicious.  For this version of our Korean Tacos, we used fresh squid sautéed in sea salt and lemon, leftover Spanish Korean Rice, goat cheese, roasted red peppers in olive oil and garlic, and topped with fresh pico de gallo.  For a little extra kick add the hot sauce or kimchi.

THE QUANDARIES

So how did we come up with this?  We had some fresh squid burning a whole in our pocket and a tiny amount of leftovers for our Spanish Table dinner on the Han River.  Seemed like a great time to try something wild and crazy.  This post is not so much about building exactly the same type of tacos, but inspiring you to "think outside the taco shell" when you are looking in your fridge.  You don't have to do what everyone else does with your food.  Nothing is set in stone.  Think about the flavors you love and bring them together in new was.

THE SOLUTION

Sautéed Squid

2 medium sized squid cleaned and sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil or pine nut oil or Vegetable oil

1 teaspoon lemon juice

pinch of sea salt

In a saute pan heat olive oil. Toss in the squid, lemon juice and pinch of salt.  Move regular in the pan until cooked.  Takes 3-5 minutes.

First it looks like this.

Then it looks like this

Now layer into a soft or crunch taco shell:

Spanish Korean Rice

Sautéed Squid

Pico De Gallo

Goat Cheese

Roasted Red Peppers

Dash of Hot Sauce

The flavor is very light but the meal is hearty.  There is substance and kick without the heaviness many associate with Mexican cooking.  It's very Baja, if you will.

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Salt Sit

During my search for the perfect fusion tapas 

made with Korean ingredients,

I realized I needed Spanish cured sardines.

Pear Vinegar Bath

I used this recipe from The Spanish Hipster:

http://www.spanishhipster.com/2011/04/cured-sardines-recipe/

but made a few changes.

I let them cure for 6 hours

(because I needed to go to work)

Experimented with lime juice 

(because I was out of lemon)

Used Korean Pear Vinegar

(because I don't like imports)

Oil Bed

The result was just delightful

and perfect for my toasts.

Perfection with fresh cheese.

 

NOTE: You might not want to let them sit in the salt for six hours if you are planning to eat them on their own.  I like the longer salt bed because they last longer and are great with other plane ingredients.

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Goat Cheese

THE FOOD

Goat Cheese / Soy Cheese

Who doesn't love the soft tangy love that is goat cheese?  Not anyone who can be trusted, that's who.

(After trying this cheese, try making feta.  It's not too hard and very delicious.)

THE QUANDARIES

Where exactly does on find goats milk in South Korea?  As it turns out, the solution isn't sexy, but it is pretty simple: Home Plus or E-Mart.  Please note though, not all of these stories carry it.  We have it in Pyeongtaek and they have it in many of the ones that I've been to in Seoul.  

Of course, you also need cheese clothe and they don't make cheese in Korea!  But actually they do... but they call it tofu.  What did I just say? Tofu?  Yes, tofu is just soy cheese.  It's made in the same way as other soft cheeses so they have clothe to strain it at almost all stores that sell cooking supplies.

Then there is the issue of herbs for encrusting your goat cheese, Korea doesn't have those... but you are wrong.  Nearly all the "Asian Markets" serving the Filipino, Thai and Vietnamese communities have a section of locally grown basil, cilantro and more.  It's actually everywhere (we travel a lot in Korea and every "Asian Market" we have found has had these items), you just not where you thought to look.  On top of that, it's pretty darn cheap and available year round.  

THE SOLUTIONS

Required
400 ml goats milk or Soy Milk
1 lemon

Optional
salt
herbs

First, heat goats milk SLOWLY to 180F in a clay or stainless steal pot (not aluminum, yuck).  You can use a thermometer, but if you don't have one just look for a bunch of tiny bubble appearing at the top of the milk. While you are waiting for this to happen juice the lemon and have it ready.

It looks like this.  Pretty subtle.

Second, add the juice of the lemon.  Stir it quickly, turn off the heat and walk away for ten minutes.  Prepare a good sized sieve with two layers of cheese clothe.

Third, the milk has now curdled and separated. You can stir in a little salt or herbs at this point if you so desire.  Once you are finished with that though, pour the mixture slowly in the sieve and let it drain for about 10 minutes.

Fourth, gather the cheese clothe up around the cheese and hang it over the sink for another 1.5 hours and let drip.  

Fifth,  remove the cheese from the cheese clothe onto plastic wrap.  You can use this to form the cheese into a log or ball or heart or star or whatever you feel like.  Have some fun with it.  It's like yummy play dough at this point.

Soy Cheese

(After trying this cheese, try making feta.  It's not too hard and very delicious.)

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