Lisa's Creamy & Delicious Vegan Macaroni and Cheese!! (Guest Post)

About Me

My name is Lisa Shimotani. I’m a wife, PreK teacher, grad student, soon-to-be nutrition educator, and just discovered the joy of cooking vegan and vegetarian meals! I’m passionate that food can be both nutritious and delicious 

 Kaori and I in Taylor, TX at Louie Mueller BBQ (before I became vegetarian). Kaori and her husband came all the way to Texas for our wedding and baked her famous matcha cupcakes for all of our guests!!

Kaori and her husband came all the way to Texas for our wedding and baked her famous matcha cupcakes for all of our guests!!

Why did I choose to become Vegetarian?

I started reading a lot of books on the benefits of going vegan, and being someone who did not eat a lot of meat anyways, I wanted to give it a shot. Originally, I wanted to go vegan, meaning I could not have any dairy, seafood, and eggs in my diet along with meat. I slowly bought less and less meat, as I didn’t want to go cold turkey but slowly incorporate a vegetarian diet. I found it too difficult to be completely vegan, as I do love fish and my husband loves his eggs in the morning, so I naturally went vegetarian and excluded meat from my diet. The quote “you are what you eat” has always stuck with me, so I do my best to include more fresh vegetables, fruits, and legumes in my diet to replace the meat.

What benefits have you seen so far from being vegetarian?

Eating more fruits and vegetables! I have always loved fruits and vegetables, but realized that I definitely didn’t consume enough in my daily diet. Even though you are vegetarian/vegan, does not mean you are healthier, you can still have a lot of unhealthy foods! I am very conscious of this and have made a lot more effort to include fresh foods in my meals, which has inspired me to cook more. Knowing that I am using whole, fresh ingredients makes me excited before a meal, as I know how vital fresh, whole foods can be for our body. By replacing meat with vegetables, legumes, and good carbohydrates I have also noticed a change in my energy level. I work full time as a teacher and recently started taking grad classes in nutrition, but within a couple months of consuming more whole foods I’ve noticed that I have more than enough energy to complete my daily activities without feeling completely exhausted at the end of the day like I use to.

Vegan Mac & Cheese

This is one of my favorite vegan meals: it’s so simple and delicious. Though I am not vegan, I enjoy cooking a lot of vegan meals and eating vegan bakery goods  I rarely eat cheese, but when I make this dish I don’t even miss cheese!

I found this recipe by following a group called thegreenplateclub on instagram. I made a few tweaks with the recipe, mainly decreasing a few of the ingredients, which is why I put a lesser amount for most of the ingredients. I would put the lesser amount first and taste the sauce after you blend it together to see if you want to add more.

Vegan Mac & Cheese Ingredients

• ½ lb. pasta
• ½ cup water
• 8 oz. firm tofu
• ¼ - ½ cup canola oil
• ¾ -1 cup unsweetened soy milk (I use almond milk)
• ¼ cup soy sauce (I usually add a little less as soy sauce has a strong taste)
• 1 cup nutritional yeast (key to making it “cheesy”)
• 1 ½ tsp paprika
• 1 ½ tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • crushed red pepper (I love using Tabasco sauce) and any fresh vegetables (cilantro, fresh diced tomatoes)
  
  
  Vegan Mac & Cheese Instructions
  1. Cook pasta al dente
  2. Combine water, tofu, canola oil, unsweetened soymilk or almond milk, soy sauce, nutritional yeast, paprika, garlic powder, and salt in a blender until smooth.
  3. Add sauce to the pot of drained pasta, stir and cook on medium for an additional 5 minutes.
  4. Sprinkle with crushed red pepper and any additional toppings
  
  

All ready for lunch: topped with cilantro and tomatoes

Thanks for the wonderful post, Lisa!! Look ahead for more posts from guest bloggers in the near future!! <3 Love Always, 

Kaori

Valentine's Day Strawberry Chocolate Truffle Cake!

I thought it was necessary to share with you this mouth-watering chocolate truffle cake recipe! I loved making it because it was so easy to make, amazingly moist and delicious, and just beautiful to look at!

Cake:I found this fail-proof recipe for a chocolate cake on the Add a Pinch blog, thanks for providing me with this great recipe! This difference between this recipe and others is that it uses 1 cup of boiling water, which combines with the baking soda to aerate the cake and make it SUPER moist!! 

Chocolate Ganache frosting and Truffles: Contrary to it's fancy-sounding name, chocolate Ganache is ridiculously easy to make! All you do is heat up heavy cream and mix chocolate chips into it. This mixture yields both the frosting as well as the truffles!

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CHOCOLATE CAKE
INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1½ teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder (I just used coffee grounds)
• 1 cup milk
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Prepare two 9-inch cake pans by spraying with baking spray or buttering and lightly flouring.
2. For the cake:
3. Add flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk through to combine or, using your paddle attachment, stir through flour mixture until combined well.
4. Add milk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla to flour mixture and mix together on medium speed until well combined. Reduce speed and carefully add boiling water to the cake batter. Beat on high speed for about 1 minute to add air to the batter.
5. Distribute cake batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes, remove from the pan and cool completely.

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Chocolate Ganache Recipe (from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

• 9 oz bittersweet chocolate
• 1 cup heavy cream
  

Method:

1. Place the chocolate into a medium bowl. Heat the cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil, watching very carefully because if it boils for a few seconds, it will boil out of the pot. When the cream has come to a boil, pour over the chopped chocolate, and whisk until smooth. Stir in the rum if desired.
2. Allow the ganache to cool slightly before pouring over a cake. Start at the center of the cake and work outward. For a fluffy frosting or chocolate filling, allow it to cool until thick, then whip with a whisk until light and fluffy.
   

Frosting: Let ganache mixture cool a little bit (10 min) and then frost the cake with it, using a knife

Truffles: Cool ganache mixture in fridge (30 min, mixture should be cold but still pliable) and then take out small ball size pieces with a spoon. Shape into a ball shape with your fingers, then dust in cocoa powder, and you're done!!

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Putting together the Cake:

• After baking and cooling cake, make the ganache mixture, and allow to cool

• Slice strawberries for decorating the cake

• Spread 3/4 of ganache mixture as frosting over the cake, cool the rest of the ganache in the fridge, and use for the trufflesVoila! Enjoy! Great for birthdays, Valentine's Day, etc..!
  
• Boil 1 tblspn strawberry or other kind of jam with 1 tblspn water, and brush mixture onto strawberries for a pretty glaze

Momofuku Pork Buns

Pork bun made during my dim sum class :)

Just last week, I discovered the deliciousness of Momofuku Pork Buns when I taught a dimsum class at The Seasoned Farmhouse! (which is an awesome cooking school in Columbus, Ohio!)

A succulent piece of roasted, moist pork belly stuck between two layers of smooth, steamed bread, with pickled vegetables and a smear of hoisin sauce, so amazingly good.

If you're going to host a party or invite friends over anytime soon, or have a delicious dinner with you and a loved one, you can never go wrong with Momofuku pork belly buns!

I got the recipe from this delightful cook book by David Chang, chef and owner of Momofuku in New York. The book looks like this: 

And here are some pictures of more pork buns and other dim sum pieces from the class! Did you know "Dim Sum" means to "touch the heart"? How wonderful. 

Our final plate of delicious goods, accompanied by a chicken wor wonton soup! We made Momofuku pork buns, shumai, ha gao, and shumai. 

Steamed and ready to be filled buns, and ready to be steamed shumai dimsum

Students making 4 kinds of dimsum at The Seasoned Farmhouse

The best part about this recipe, is that though it takes a little bit of time (invite some friends over to help roll and fold the buns!), it is deceptively easy.

I'm posting the recipe below, but suffice it to say that the basic steps are:

1. Marinade with salt and sugar, and bake the pork belly. Let it chill in fridge and then cut into 2 inch long squares.
2. Mix together steamed bread ingredients, let rise for 30 minutes, then knead and roll out into 4 inch ovals, each on a piece of parchment paper so they don't stick to the steamer. Let those rise, then steam them for 6 minutes. 
3. Make a simple pickle mixture of thinly sliced cucumber and radish, mix with sugar and salt. Ready to eat in 10 minutes.
4. Smear the bun with store-bought hoisin sauce, brown the pieces of pork belly in a frying pan, add to the bun, and add pickled vegetables
5. Done! Enjoy :D 

*This dish is probably not the healthiest, but it is TOO GOOD to be missed!! Impress your friends and family with this delicious meal! 

*And please subscribe by typing your email into the space above this blog post, to receive more delicious recipes!!

Momofuku Pork Buns

Steamed Buns:

• 1 tblspn + 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 ½ cups water, at room temperature
• 4 ½ cups bread flour
• 6 tblspns sugar
• 3 tbspn nonfat dry milk powder
• 1 tbspn kosher salt
• Rounded ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1/3 cup rendered pork fat or vegetable shortening at room temp, plus more for shaping the buns, as needed
• *sliced green onion for garnish

Pork Belly (makes enough for 12 pork buns):

• 3 lb slab skinless pork belly (first, remove the thin skin on top using a knife)
• ¼ cup kosher salt
• ¼ cup sugar

Cucumber and Radish Pickles 

(yields enough pickled vegetables for 1 recipe of pork buns)

• 1 English cucumber (or any kind)
• small bag of radishes
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• Method: Slice the cucumber and radishes thinly. Combine with salt and sugar, and let sit for 6 minutes. Ready to serve.  

Method for Steamed buns:

1. Combine yeast and water in the bowl of a stand-up mixer with a dough hook. Add the flour, sugar, milk powder, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and fat and mix on the lowest speed possible for 8 to 10 minutes
2. When dough gathers together into a ball on the hook, lightly oil a medium mixing bowl, put dough in it, and cover the bowl with a dry kitchen towel. Put it in a turned off oven with a pilot light, or some other warm place, and let dough rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour 15 minutes
3. Punch the dough down and put onto a clean work surface. Using a knife, divide dough in half, then divide each half into 5 equal pieces. Gently roll the pieces into logs, then cut each log into five pieces, making 50 pieces total. They should be about the size of a ping pong ball. Roll each piece into a ball, and cover all balls with a draping of plastic wrap. Allow to rest and rise for 30 minutes
4. Meanwhile, cut out fifty 4-inch squares of parchment paper. Coat a chopstick with whatever fat you're working with
5. Flatten one ball with the palm of hand, then use rolling pin to roll it out to a 4 inch long oval. Lay greased chopstick across the middle of the oval and fold the oval over onto itself to form a bun. Withdraw the chopstick, leaving the bun folded, and put the bun on a square of parchment paper. Stick it back under the plastic and form the rest of the buns. Let the buns rest for 30 to 45 mins, they will rise a little.
6. Set up a steamer on the stove. Working in batches so you don't crowd steamer, steam the buns on the parchment squares for 10 minutes. Remove parchment and serve with pork belly and condiments. (these can be frozen at this point and last for several months, if you do not want all of them right away. If so, reheat frozen buns in a stovetop steamer for 2 to 3 minutes, until puffy, soft, and warmed all the way through.

Method for pork belly:

• Nestle the belly into a roasting pan or other oven-safe vessel that holds it snuggly. Mix together salt and sugar, and rub all over the meat, discard any excess salt-and-sugar mixture. Cover the container with plastic wrap and put into the fridge for at least 6 hours, but no longer than 24.
• Heat oven to 450° F
• Discard any liquid that accumulated in the container. Put the belly in the oven, fat side up, and cook for one hour, basting it with the rendered fat at the halfway point, until it's an appetizing golden brown
• Turn oven down to 250° F and cook for another 1 hour 15 minutes, until the belly is tender. Remove the pan from the oven and transfer belly to a plate. Decant fat and meat juices from pan and reserve for other uses.
• When cool, wrap belly in plastic wrap or alum foil and put in fridge until thoroughly chilled.
• Cut the pork belly into ½ inch-thick slices that are about 2 inches long. Warm in a pan over medium high heat for a minute or two before serving. Serve with pork buns.

Put together Pork Bun: 

Put a piece of pork belly, pickled cucumber slice, sliced green onion and hoisin sauce in a freshly-steamed bun. Enjoy :)

Update and Homemade Ramen Noodle Recipe

Tonkotsu pork ramen topped with chashu pork and mayu, a black garlic oil

Hi everyone! I apologize for my long hiatus. I've been posting occasionally on kaoricooks.com, but realized that my heart is really with this blog, my original baby.

I'm now student teaching as a high school English teacher! That, and juggling cooking classes and testing ramen recipes for a Japanese restaurant. So, I won't be blogging often, but after a friend today commented on one of my posts, I realized that I miss blogging, miss writing about food, and miss inundating y'all with tasty food pictures! And, I realized that people actually read my blog! Hooray!! If you keep these comments going, then I will keep the posts going ;)!

I'm pretty psyched about testing out ramen recipes. Right now my main task is Tonkotsu Ramen, and I'm getting there, with the help of a wonderful friend. This last monday I finally achieved the milky color and consistency I was aiming for! VICTORY. But not yet, the flavor's gotta be there too.

I'm enjoying student teaching- 3 freshmen classes and 2 junior/senior classes. Teaching is actually a lot of work!! And most of it goes into planning a lesson, making hand outs, and grading. You really do not know what your teachers went through to educate you, until you step into their shoes. I am eternally grateful. I hope I can be one of those teachers that students remember in the future :) and think on fondly.

Ok, now it's time to expose you to another slew of food pictures, and down below you will find a delicious homemade ramen noodles recipe, way better than any store-bought noodles!!!! I mean it.

Here are some pictures of recent ramen-makings and ramen classes. Enjoy!

Shoyu Ramen! Picture by good friend and photographer Shino Takahashi (shinotakahashi.com)

A fresh batch of homemade ramen noodles! Ready for the boil!

Shoyu ramen, influenced from Momofuku recipe

My mom's Shoyu Ramen recipe, passed down from my grandmother

The Shin Yokohama Raumen Museum in Japan

More fresh ramen noodles

Ingredients for a ramen class I taught

SLURP

Product of the first ramen class I taught

Homemade Ramen Noodles Recipe

(from Chef Marc’s Norecipes.com)

Ramen Noodles:

Ingredients:

Noodles: 

(makes enough noodles for 4 bowls)
300 grams bread flour (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon Koon Chun Potassium Carbonate & Sodium Bi-Carbonate (kansui)

Method:

• Make the noodles. Combine the kansui and warm water. Place kansui-water mixture and flour into a standing mixer with a paddle attachment and mix on low for 5 minutes

• Knead dough by hand for several minutes and then let rest

• Flatten noodles with an attachment or hand-crank to the “4” setting, or however thick you would like it.

• Or use a rolling pin to roll until very thin

• using spaghetti pasta cutter attachment, slice dough into noodles, or cut by hand, and cook in boiling water until they float to the top

• Drain noodles under cold water

• Place noodles in a bowl and fill with ramen broth. Finish off the bowl with ramen toppings, i.e. chashu pork (I have a recipe for this, too!), sliced green onions, naruto fish cake, etc...

Homemade Delicious and Easy Korean Bulgogi!

I recently got this delicious bulgogi (Korean seasoned beef dish) recipe from an older Korean woman in my community. This recipe is so super easy, and makes eating bulgogi more affordable :). No longer will I buy bulgogi-seasoned meat from Korean stores, I can make it myself! This easiness and tastiness of this dish really surprised me, and it will surprise you too!

Bulgogi Recipe:

Ingredients:
-2 lbs beef chuck or rump roast (I used sirloin, but any cut of meat should work. Try to get a piece of beef without too many fat or cartilage veins in it)
-1/2 cup soy sauce
-1/2 cup water
-5 green onions, chopped into 2 inch pieces
-1/4 cup vegetable oil
-1/2 cup sugar (or more depending on how sweet you like it)
-7 garlic cloves
-1 onion, thinly sliced

Method:
1. Cut the beef into thin slices with a kitchen knife, as thin as you can (don't worry if it's not perfect, it'll still taste good)

2. Crush garlic cloves with side of a knife to remove skin. Chop each clove into small pieces and then mush the garlic against the cutting board with the side of a kitchen knife until it looks more translucent then before. This helps release flavor from the garlic in order to season the meat. Don't worry about having garlicky smelling hands, it's part of the fun!

3. Combine the oil, sugar, water, soy sauce, and minced/smashed garlic, sliced green onion and sliced regular onion with the sliced meat in a bowl. Mix to coat meat. Marinate for 2-3 hours or even overnight.

4. After marinating the meat, heat a pan to high. Put all of the beef and marinade into the pan and cook quickly. Remove the meat and marinade from the pan immediately after meat is done.

5. Enjoy with rice and pickled vegetables or kimchee.

Delicious Mulberry Scones!

picture by Shino Takahashi

Mulberries are everywhere in Ohio during the summertime, and the particular mulberries I used for this recipe were from the parking lot of my apartment. With my graduate summer M.Ed classes in full swing, and actually, soon ending in 2 weeks, I need a recipe to fall back on for easy, quick breakfasts on summer mornings, something crumbly and scrumptious to eat while sipping my morning English tea. And what better to eat than fresh, buttery scones made with whipping cream and hand-picked mulberries from the backyard?

Fresh summer mulberry scone with a side of whipped cream

These lovely photos are all taken by my very talented friend Shino Takahashi! Check out her website to see more of her amazing portfolio at shinotakahashi.com! 

Cooking is just so tiring....not! :P

Ingredients! from left to right: whipping cream, mulberries, lemon zest, butter, salt, sugar, and flour + baking soda in the middle

cutting the butter into the flour

Mulberry Scones 

(any other berries can be substituted)

*adapted from this recipe on chow.com

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (from 1 medium lemon)
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into 1/2-inch cubes and then chilled
• 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• 1 cup fresh or frozen berries

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Mix together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl

3. Cut the butter into one inch cubes and then cut the butter cubes into the flour with two knives, just like you do when making pie crust dough. Dough should start to look like little pebbles. 

4. Pour the whipping cream into the dough and continue mixing with a spatula for another minute or so. Lightly mix the berries into the dough. Be gentle so that the berries don't get too crushed.

5. Place 1/2 cup mounds of the scone dough onto parchment paper on a baking sheet (you can also oil the baking sheet instead)

6. Sprinkle a 1/4 teaspoon of sugar on top of each scone (optional). Bake until golden brown on top, about 20 minutes. 

7. Enjoy! :)

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From my kitchen to yours, 

Kaori <3

Please subscribe to my blog today!

Tacos at Los Tizoncitos

Al Pastor Tacos are marinated in a combination of dried chiles, spices and pineapple and then roasted on a vertical rotisserie, shawarma-style (information from Wikipedia)

Some moments are better left untouched, whole, and spontaneous, and one of those moments was tonight on my stroll to Los Tizoncitos, a taco truck down the road. A few minutes prior to my decision to suddenly walk out of my apartment with just my keys, phone, and some coins to buy tacos, I had started to feel restless, like I needed something to fire me up. Today I just finished my first week of graduate school, and boy, what a week it was. I had just finished a wonderful vacation to Boston, Massachusetts with two dear childhood friends the day before, and I thought I had some time to relax because classes started Wednesday. Wrong! Classes actually started on Monday! I missed my first class, and realized from that point on, that man, I need to take this sh*t seriously (sorry for swearing). But that's really how I felt. I am currently studying in the Masters in Education program at Ohio State University, as part of the English Language Arts Program. Woohoo! I'm finally fulfilling my dream of teaching English! It's exciting, yet daunting, and this first week, with missing class and then realizing the large amount of reading, I got shocked into shape. This is it, one year of life dedicated to trying to become the best teacher I can possibly be. I realized I need to get on court and off of the sidelines of life, and really be present to what is happening for me in my life right now.

Anyways, back to the tacos...cause I know that's all you probably want to know about :P. Just kidding. Where was I? Moments left untouched, oh yes, so I immediately have the inspiration, TACOS TACOS TACOS, grab $3.50 worth of quarters from our coin "vacation fund"(because let's face it, with a huge loan for grad school, I don't feel very rich right now!) and sneakily head out the apartment door. I walk over to Los Tizoncitos from my apartment because it is super close by, embracing the humid and warm air that Ohio currently offers. I almost feel like the air is hugging me, embracing me like lovers do when its time for bed, clinging to me, but not enough to make me sweat and tell it to "back off!". I close my eyes to increase my sense of hearing, and absorb the sounds of crickets, birds, and a lawnmower in the far distance. It smells like summer: warm concrete, earth, and moist air, and a faint smell of freshly cut grass. I walk over to Los Tizoncitos and find the familiar faces of the hispanic husband and wife that own the taco truck. In my broken Spanish, I order "tacos al pastor", and prepare myself for four corn tacos, layered with deliciously marinated pork, a slice of grilled pineapple, chopped cilantro, onions, and salsa. I eat the tacos, relishing every spicy bite, and stroll back towards my apartment. Just as flames of spice engulf my mouth from time to time as I walk away, I see fireflies bursting into one-second explosions, and then flying away. I feel at home. I may be a California girl, but this is a part of Ohio I will always love.

Earlier, I went to Los Tizoncitos with my childhood friend :) photo taken by Shino Takahashi

photo taken by Shino Takahashi

Tacos Chicharron (fried pork skin), photo taken by Shino Takahashi

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From my kitchen to yours, 

Kaori <3

Please subscribe to my blog today!