skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I've never fancied myself to be so absolutely domestic...pranching around the kitchen (and not tripping) producing home made everything. Nonono. If I could get away with something store-bought, I would.
However, after I started this low-iodine cooking...which require most food to be prepared at home to avoid forbidden ingredients (e.g. iodized salt, dairy products, yolks, soy based products, etc), it got me hooked. At first I couldn't imagine orchestrating 3 meals per day at home. It's just ridiculous and almost impossible to execute with a full time job, hobbies such as blogging and shopping, obligation to exercise regularly, and other addictions such as Top Chef, Jamie's at home, America's Next Top Model, etc.
But once I started...I couldn't stop! It's crack-like addictive! I kept blurting homemade goodies out of my kitchen like how I blurt stuff I should not have said in girls-only gossip night. Hehe! These holiday season, I even ignored my "underground" cupcake supplier, didn't order a thing! I felt that I should be able to make them at home, and not only that, increase the challenge and make them low iodine! HAH!
The recipe book from www.thyca.org helped me a lot. Those who had gone through this experience shared that breakfast is the most challenging meal to prepare. Hell yeah! When we think of breakfast...we think milk, cheese, eggs, and all sorts of yummy goods with high iodine. Check out some of my favorite low iodine breakfast treats. Take extra care, it's gonna be a rough ride.
Homemade Peanut Butter
Peeling the skin of the nuts was kinda theurapeutic. It tested our patience and persistence!
The beautiful scent of roasted peanuts made us feel better.
Recipe
(from www.thyca.org), halved
- 2 cups unsalted peanuts
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
If nuts are not roasted, preheat oven to 180C. Place peanuts in a single layer on baking sheet
and place in oven. Cook until peanuts are toasted, approx. 6-8 minutes. Shake pan a couple of times
for overall browning. Remove pan from oven.
Place roasted peanuts in food processor (they can still be warm from roasting). Add salt and sugar.
Turn on processor and drizzle in oil. Process until smooth.
(Contributed by Kim S. of New Jersey)
This is soo easy to make, absolutely delicious and it multi tasks! It's not only fantastic accompanying home made bread and cakes for breakfasts, it can be turned into muffins, cookies, and sauces!
Homemade Plum Jam
Look at the sparkles of ruby reds...how gorgeous!
Recipe
- 2 cups of plums (remove core, cut into sections)
- 2 cups of caster sugar
Process plum in food processor, pour into a pot, add sugar, cook on low heat until the color goes deep red and it's thickened, transfer into sterilized jars.
A pot of bubbling gorgeousness.
This baby also multi tasks. It's not only perfect with homemade bread, cakes, or paired with home made peanut butter, it's perfect for glazing grilled meat (chicken, pork, beef), as sauce for stir fry dishes, or even dilluted in water or soda as drinks (hot or cold)!
Homemade Griddle Cakes
Recipe
(from www.thyca.org)
Beat:
- 2 egg whites with
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
Add
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Stir in:
- 1 cup flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Then add:
- 1/2 cup water (more as desired for batter
thickness)
Stir until the batter is the consistency of thick cream. Spoon batter onto hot griddle which has been
greased with a bit of vegetable oil. Excellent hot with homemade jam or real maple syrup. Freeze leftovers and pop in toaster. Also excellent with breakfast sausage recipe.
(Contributed by Susan L)
Phew! It's almost the end of sous chef's low iodine diet, I'll just have to spill all my low iodine beans out ^_^
As for holiday snap of the day...
This was taken in front of Prince's Building, Central, Hong Kong. They have one of my favorite Christmas tree ornaments this year.
Now, I must go and catch up on my last minute Christmas shopping...the list goes longer and longer, as always ^_^
I've never baked any Christmas cookie in my life.
Normally, my friends and I celebrate Christmas the Hong Kong style, which could be:
- Trying to get a reservation to Xmas-special-way-overpriced 5 star hotel buffet (with this economy? this option is out the door)
- Visiting your nearest hotpot joint/country side BBQ, for an all you can eat Christmas hotpot/BBQ
- Cheating your way through office Xmas party gift exchange (buy HK$5 slippers when you're supposed to buy something worth HK$100)
- Attending parties after parties fearing to get the title of "The Worst Gift of the Year"
So, these are my first Christmas cookies ever, and they gotta be low iodine, so that Sous "The Radiation" Chef will also be able to enjoy. Thus, no yolk, no milk, no butter. But they still gotta be made fantastic, no? Cos suffering from eating bad cookies isn't so Christmasy. It's just like turning up as the devil in Xmas parties...it's just wrong!
Choco Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies
Recipe
- 1 cup rolled oats (raw)
- 1/3 cups sugar
- a pinch of plain salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3 tbsp pure cocoa powder
- nutmeg, cinnamon
- 1 egg white
- a bit of dark chocolate chunks (or you can omit this)
Preheat oven to 180C. Mix all dry ingredients, mix all wet ingredients separately, combine them, mix well, chill mixture for a couple of hours. Drop by small teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets lined with non stick paper, leaving space. Bake for about 8-10 minutes.
I'm sharing these cookies to Susan of Food Blogga's Eat Christmas Cookies event (hope it's not too late)...and to those who needs to go through radioactive iodine therapy for thyroid cancer, hope you'll enjoy these cookies. Happy holidays!
...and here's what happens in the office, when the bosses are away on Christmas holidays?
Wacky photo taking! Dear HRD, we assure you, this activity happened after 18:00 ^_^
Fool me once - shame on you, fool me twice - shame on me.
I've failed these cookies once and I told you, I'll fail again. Actually no one fooled me, I was simply foolish.
This time, I was determined not to repeat the same mistake. I should've learnt from it, and do it right this time. I was pretty confident. How hard can it be? Ohhhhh...boy...I was too cocky, and much too soon!
What could possibly happen this time? (Again?!!)
This time I was really careful, and kept reminding myself not to line the baking sheet with paper. As instructed in the recipe, I lightly greased the baking sheet. However...I walked away while the cookies were baking in the oven, I failed to supervise it (I walked away to "glance" at a TV program and my azz "accidentally" got planted on the sofa for far too long)....and when I checked the cookies...man, oh, man!....
They were burnt!!!
I, the smart azz, also added raisins and smell-good spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg...which were all supposedly good...if only they weren't burnt!...unfortunately, they ended up charcoal-esque and bitter. Opppps!!!
But I never gave up, I tried another batch, and I really stood in front of my oven watching them baking every single second possible....I believed I got a pair of bulging red eyes due to the minimised blinking.
Finally I got them right. They were chewy, sweet, they smell fantastic...and they look absolutely beautiful!
This kitty would've made a great witness (if it could see, smell and taste)
Holiday snap of the day...
I wonder if anyone's as lazy as me...these are cute lil' Christmas ornaments...FROM LAST YEAR, which have been hanging on my workstation all through the year ^_*
I need a therapy. I've been having too many foodisasters. I was almost convinced that it might be better for me to convert my kitchen into a walk in closet :p...or reduced it to just a microwave + a fridge, and put all the other appliances on a clearance sale, then use the money to finance my visits to all Michelin starred establishments in Hong Kong.
Stop! Before the thought went too far, I'd better put myself under some kinda therapy. Let's see which ones I should choose...
Aromatherapy?
Normally I love perfuming my flat with cinnamon scent from baking...but due to my recent baking disaster, I am still traumatized. So I guess this option is out, or I could try sniffing my neighbour's stinky old shoes? Nope, they have a dog and it doesn't like me.
Retail therapy?
Hello?! Economic crisis? People are getting fired all over Hong Kong? Don't you ever read the news? Your job isn't too hot either. HAHA. So, no.
Cocoatherapy?
No sight of chocolates at home due to sous chef's conditions. The sight of me devouring a huge bar of rich, velvety, dark chocolate will totally cause him a serious mental distress. Again, no.
Finally I went for a color therapy. Not exactly exactly the one rooted in Ayurveda, but my own version of color therapy...which involves exposing myself to vibrant colors of ingredients to make myself happy, such as these red, yellow and green bell peppers, and cook something easy and idiot-proof, to avoid further frustration.
More than just a pretty face, they do good things to my body, they are sweet, fragrant, crunchy and they made my stupid beef dish taste brilliant!
Super Simple Beef & Bell Peppers Stir Fry
Recipe
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 3 bell peppers, core and seeds removed, diced (I used red, yellow and green. If you don't need the color therapy, it's ok to stick to just one color, whichever looks best with your apron, perhaps?)
- 0.5 lb minced beef
- salt (non iodized for low-iodine diet), black pepper, sugar, Chinese rice wine, olive oil
Saute garlic in hot oil, add beef until almost done, add bell peppers, season, serve.
Check out my other low iodine food here.
Sharing this recipe with the folks at Weekend Herb Blogging, created by Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen, managed by Haalo from Cook (almost) Anything at least Once, hosted this week by Ivy from Kopiaste
I am all happier now...high on colors...let's see how long it will last, shall we?
ARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!! #$%^&*&^%$#$%^&!!!!! (Insert an "expression" from a language of your choice here. You can adjust the mildness too, ranging from "oh, shoot!" to "oh, F! F! F! F!!!")
What Happened?
The cookies were stuck to the paper! The bond between them is definitely stronger and tighter than those of most Hollywood' love stories. They were inseparable! I've tried everything from peeling the cookies gently off the paper...to...breaking off the cookies in a barbaric manner (I heard my neighbor's dog whimpering with fear)....nothing worked! Since I didn't want to waste the cookies...I ate some of them anyway. I tried to spit out most the paper, but I guess I ended up eating most of it HAHA! Errr....yum? I am all for carbs, but I am not a big fan of this one. But, hey, isn't paper healthy (that would explain why I don't like it)? Anytime you need a new source of fibre...you might want to try this (thanks for the info, Lidia!)
What Went Wrong?
The main cause of the incident was: my poor ability to follow recipe and my lack of attention to detail. The recipe (thanks again for forwarding the website to me, Lid!) says "Drop by large spoonfuls onto lightly greased cookie sheets, leaving space"...and guess which dumbass completely missed the phrase and did NOT grease the cookie sheets?
I am not even sure if I was using the right paper. Which paper should it be? Parchment paper? Baking paper? Fancy paper? Newspaper? Art paper? A4/A3/letter? All I did was storming into a cooking/baking supply shop and asked for a pack of "paper which is normally used to bake cookies". I should've probably done more research on the paper. Oh well, coulda woulda shoulda.
Despite the unwanted extra fibre, the cookies were actually great! Simple, easy, and yummy. A little too sweet for my taste, I'll reduce the sugar by half next time.
Chewy Oatmeal Cookies
Recipe
from http://www.lowiodinerecipes.com/
- 2 cups rolled oats (raw)
- 1 cups sugar
- 1/2 tsp plain salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 2 egg whites
Preheat oven to 180C. Mix all dry ingredients, mix all wet ingredients separately, combine them, mix well, chill mixture for a couple of hours. Drop by large spoonfulsonto lightly greased cookie sheets (don't do what I did), leaving space. Bake until the outsides are golden and crunchy. Next time, I'll add some raisins and roughly chopped peanuts.
If you'd excuse me, there's still a can full of "fibre rich" cookies I need to attend to. Sob sob.
Wanna see how dumb I've been? Check out more of my foodisasters!
Restricted cooking. Boy, don't we all hate it?
In a perfect world, there will be no restriction. But my world is a gigabazillion (ref: no such word) miles away from perfect. Out of the 1000000001 variations of different restrictions (or lame excuses), the typical restrictions can be summarized into the following categories:
Ingredients
Especially those which are rarely used, thus, rarely available in Hong Kong. I could probably only get them in luxury supermarkets nowhere near me (a bus, a train, and a boat ride away to get a piece of fresh duck meat???!!! No way, Jose!).
Kitchen Accessories
Sometimes I select recipes to try based on...whether or not I have the appliances/gadgets required. I normally select recipes measured in cups, rather than grams, cos I don't have no kitchen scale, my friend! (Thank God for online converters ^_^). Sometimes it is fun trying to figure out a creative way to get away with not using the required gadget...like using normal bowls instead of muffin tray...but it is NO FUN chopping my arms off before (just like before I had my food processor) or whisking the bejezuz outta me (just like before I tried a hand mixer).
Financial Resources
Some ingredients/tools/gadgets are so freakin' expensive, I might have to sell my soul to buy them (oh well, so I exaggerated it a little, sue me!). Ehm, maybe they are not really THAT expensive...but it is just my Chinese-Javanese super stingy nature. It's in my blood! I can't help it!
Human Resources
Namely culinary skills or lack thereof. My biggest problem is...my inability to follow recipes. No, I am not an arrogant little bitch who only trust my own recipes. I just have a problem with following recipes. I guess this is just a nicer way to say that I am normally too lazy/impatient and always try to find shortcuts and skip some parts of the recipe (e.g. Oh, Come on!...do I really need to let the cookie dough chill for 1 hour? I think I can get away with cutting them NOW. Oppps, no, wait. It looks like I can't).
I never had to cook with dietary restrictions. This low iodine diet is something new to me. It is really challenging as well as interesting. If I had to name one ingredient that I miss the most...it has to be soy sauce. It's like breaking up with someone you still like. You've taken the person for granted, and you don't miss him/her until he/she is gone. Thennnn...you realized you can't live without this person and uh-oh! It's too late! Oh yeah, Mr. Soy Sauce. I miss you so so so much! I can't wait for us to get back together again in three weeks (I am counting the days).
Meanwhile, I will try the best I can to produce better-than-just-edible-despite-the-restrictions treats for sous chef, to facilitate his speedy recovery. This time, I am doing an adaptation of Jamie Oliver's Butternut Squash Muffins recipe...I call it an "adaptation" simply because...surprise, surprise! I can't follow the recipe exactly, as always.
Yolkless Milkless Butternut Squash, Peanut Butter and Raisin Muffins
I removed the egg-yolks from the recipe (low iodine diet), reduced the recipe to half (some of my regular guinea pigs are on business trip), added nutmeg (because I love nutmeg & cinnamon combo), added my home made peanut butter and raisins instead of walnuts (walnuts are expensive hehe), and removed the whole frosting part (no dairy products allowed - low iodine diet). Is there anyyyy part of the recipe that I still follow???
Recipe
- 1 cup of butternut squash, leave skin on, remove seed, chop into chunks
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 2 egg whites (you can include the yolk)
- non iodized salt (you can use normal salt)
- 1 & 1/4 cup plain flour
- 1 heaping tsp of baking powder
- 3 tbsp home made peanut butter (you can use normal peanut butter or a handful of peanuts)
- lots of cinnamon, and a couple sprinkles of nutmeg
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- a couple handful of raisins
Preheat oven to 180C. I threw all ingredients into my food processor (I didn't even bother with the sequence, apparently, I blame it on my lack of attention to detail) and blend until everything's mixed. Pour batter into muffin tray lined with paper cups, bake for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
I was wondering what do egg yolks do for this recipe if I could just take them out and they still taste fan-bloody-tastic? Hmmm....interesssting. The skippy jar is just to show that I made these babies with peanut butter. I actually used my home made peanut butter....whose jar isn't as photogenic as skippy. My bad, it is probably now suffering from low self esteem. I am gonna submit this to Nick's Peanut Butter Lover’s Month
...and....let me just shut up and wish you all a...
I love the humble lil' fusili. Call it common, call it boring, call it unimaginative. Whatever. I still love it. Everything about it. The spiral shape that traps bits and pieces of goodness from the dish, the way it catches the light and look all pretty on a plate, and how I could just gobble a spoonful without having to maneuver them with a fork. I suck at that. I can never manage to roll spaghetti with a fork elegantly, then nonchalantly bring it to my mouth and eat it without losing a huge portion of my lipstick or smearing my face with pasta sauce. I normally savagely grab whatever I could with a fork and loudly slurp the rest, and lick the plate clean hehe (that is not a pretty sight - this is why I don't normally order spaghetti outside the enclosed perimeters of my flat). I am also partial to all kinds of flat pasta, such as lasagna, fettuccini and tagliatelle. Maybe they remind me of my favorite Chinese flat rice noodles (hor fun/kway teow).
Enough pasta bullshite already! Let me continue to bore you with this...
Black Pepper Beef and Mushroom Fusili
Another math lesson, guys (by the way, I suck at math too. Luckily this is a no brainer math)
Beef + mushrooms = good
Good + garlic = fantastic
Fantastic + black pepper = freaking fantastic
Freaking fantastic + pasta = super freaking perfect
Hmm...I don't think I need to write this recipe...but oh, well.
Recipe
(serves 2)
- 4 handfuls of fusili
- 0.7 lb thinly sliced nicely marbled beef (if available, the one for sukiyaki)
- 0.5 lb straw mushrooms, halved (or any other mushrooms)
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- olive oil, water, salt (with no iodine, you can use normal sea salt), black pepper
Boil pasta according to directions in the packet. While pasta is boiling, saute garlic in a bit of olive oil (the beef will release some additional fat, so you don't need to use a lot of oil), add beef, add mushrooms, sprinkle black pepper (I like quite a lot of it), season with salt, add pasta, mix well. Done and done.
Sharing this with Presto Pasta Night's Gang, created by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast, hosted this week by lovely Daphne from More Than Words
Other Low Iodine Recipes...
Surprisingly yummy Eggless Milkless Chocolate Cake
Eggless? Milkless? Ewwwww! Ew! Ew! Ew!
You'd probably think...why don't you just make it non fat, chocolateless, sugarless, thus, pointless.
Why, why, why? Why did I have to inflict such a cake to humanity?
Ehm, the reason is...sous chef has been recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer. While waiting for his radioactive iodine therapy, he has to be on a super strict low iodine diet. That means, no seafood, no dairy products, no egg yolk, no seasalt/salt that contains iodine, no soy related products, no products with red food coloring (E127). Hence, no dining out, no baked goods from bakeries and no packed snacks. Everything has to be home made to make sure that no iodine-rich ingredient is being used.
Oh, my...
Actually, the diet isn't so bad. It has even brought some good things for us. Such as...
I've learnt how to produce things I would never even imagine I could, such as: baking my own bread, making my own peanut butter, and jam! Oh, Gosh! The closest I got to baking my own bread was watching the famous video of NY Times' "No Knead Bread"! Fortunately, there's a downloadable cookbook available at www.thyca.org, which helps me dealing with this low iodine cooking a great deal. Plus, the restrictions drove me to cook healthier food...and I am amazed to learn that healthier food can taste pretty fantastic! (She is saying this now, but she will probably run to KFC later. Haha!)
I thought sous chef was probably missing chocolates...so I searched for an eggless chocolate cake and found this recipe.
Eggless Milkless Chocolate Cake
I have been trying to bake the perfect chocolate cake for the longest time...with egg, milk, butter, and super rich chocolate bars...and so far, it has never been perfect. It has always been too dry/too wet/not sweet enough/too sweet/not chocolatey enough/blablabla. It has always been wrong.
I thought an eggless and milkless cake was gonna suck...but I was so pleasantly surprised by this one. It's really moist and chocolatey. I can even say that this is the best textured chocolate cake I've baked so far! I was totally amazed!
Recipe
(serves 6)
Dry Ingredients
- 1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons sifted all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup oatmeal
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt (non iodized)
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I use Van Houten)
Wet Ingredients
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 175C. Mix all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, make a well in the middle. Mix all wet ingredients in a bowl, pour into dry ingredients, mix well. Pour batter into greased pan or muffin tray lined with paper cups until almost full. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
When sous chef's done with his therapy, I'll probably replace water with milk and add loads of dark chocolate chips. Hehe. So much for trying to bake healthier.
So the cake wasn't a yuck at all. It's a yum, but I guess more sinful ingredients could've made it yummier (as always). ^_*
Posts
