I am moving!

Hi Felkel Foodie Friends!

I am trying to get a new blog up to date with all of my recipes already done, and I am going to start adding new ones to that site instead.  After a month on Blogger, I really don't like that I have been marked as spam, and that I have learned that they can delete my blog at any time they wish.  So, I will be moving to FelkelFoodie.wordpress.com

I hate that I am loosing all of my stats by doing this, as you have truly impressed me by 11 countries checking out my site, and over 1100 views in a months time!  Please keep it up on the other site.  Also, wordpress got me to start a facebook page.  If you "like" the page, then it will update you when I have a new blog up and I would love feedback, as well as ideas of things to cook from you!  Please check me out at the other site, but   be patient, I am just about half way done of transferring all of my old recipes to the new site before I start posting new recipes.

Thank you!
Jessica The Felkel Foodie
<3

Eating the Rainbow

Today's lunch was pretty simple.  Once again we don't have much food in our house, so I had to rummage through my fridge and cupboards to see what was available.  I had some spinach, broccoli, colorful baby peppers, a can of beans, some cheese, and some bacon. 

I thawed the bacon, cut it up into bits and cooked it.  I drained it and set it aside to cool.  I opened a can of kidney beans, and rinsed and drained them.  then I cut up one crown of broccoli into small bite sized pieces.  I also cut the baby peppers into halves, took the seeds out sliced them into thin slices.  I had some spinach I had washed a few days ago, so I pulled it out of the fridge and did a rough chop on that to aim for bite sized pieces.  Then I cut up small squares of cheese (cause it was faster than grating).  I threw it all together into one bowl and tada!  

Salad dressings:

My husband likes Ranch dressing, and I prefer a vinaigrette, so I quickly made two dressings to go over the top.  

For his dressing, I took some hidden valley ranch powder (probably about a teaspoon or two), and I mixed it with about 1/4 cup of olive oil based mayo...  easy salad dressing.

For my dressing I put maybe 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar, a tablespoon of olive oil, a 1/2 teaspoon of garlic seasoning, and just a sprinkle of the ranch seasoning and whisked it all together...another easy one, and it is one of my favorite kinds of dressing bases.  Normally, I don't use the ranch, but I add some Dijon mustard and honey, and make it a honey mustard vinaigrette, which I really love.

Anyway, enjoy!  

<3   

Pot Pie in the Sky!

On a list of All American meals there are some classics, such as hot dogs, and hamburgers, but another meal that seems to be up there on any All American list is a chicken pot pie.  

(p.s. this is a close up of the good crust!)

I had to do some experimentation with this recipe, mostly the crust.  I was not too thrilled with the crust that I used the first night, that I used to make two mini pot pies (normal size from a store freezer section), and my breakfast-a-go-go apple pies.  On my third day of making pies, I finally got it about right.  My crust challenge was making a good pie crust when I have none of the traditional main ingredients.  I have whole wheat flour, and olive oil, no white flour, no cold butter, no lard.  

Anyway, before I post the recipe that I wound up using and LOVING, I made pot pies for two days using the filling that I made three days ago.  Let me tell you how I made my filling.  

First I cooked three chicken breasts on the stove in a frying pan.  While those were cooking, I washed, peeled, and sliced up three medium/large sized potatoes.  I used the same pan as the chicken and started frying them up like hash browns.  

Honestly, I don't usually use potatoes in my pot pie, but I was trying to
stretch the chicken as much as I could because we are fairly poor this week.

As I started frying up the potatoes, I used my mandolin to slice up one carrot the same size as the potatoes. Then I sliced up two onions, and one crown of broccoli.  

I added about a tablespoon of garlic in with this, and added it to the pan with the potatoes after the potatoes had started to get soft.  I then cooked it until the onions looked opaque, the broccoli turned bright green, and the carrots were just slightly soft and also brighter.  I mixed in the chicken, and took it all off of the stove.  In the bowl, I added extra Garlic Garlic seasoning from Tastefully Simple, pepper, some thyme, and some rosemary (my first pies were a bit bland so I added this on the second day).  While in the bowl, I also added a drained can of corn to the vegetable/chicken mixture.  

Next I made a roux with two cups of chicken broth (for me two cups of water mixed with two tablespoons of no sodium chicken bouillon), a cup of (almond) milk, flour and oil.  

To make the roux, first you add some oil to the pan.  sprinkle flour in while whisking.  

Slowly add in the broth (that's the yellow) and the milk while whisking quickly.  Once you have a good chicken gravy going, you add the veggies and chicken back, mixing it all together very well.  

Next you prepare your pie crust.  This is the first pie crust I used, although I am not very happy with it.  

I am including it however, because this is the one I used in the photos below. 

After I made my filling, I made two small pot pies using this recipe, and they wound up being lunch for the next day.  Then that night, I pulled out the filling, and made a big pie.  

I do not have any pie plates, so I wound up using a glass baking dish, however it is rather deep, so I had a BIG pie!  I learned on my little apple pies that this crust needs to be very thin.  I was having a difficult time rolling it out so thin, so I actually ran it through my pasta roller on setting 1, then went down to setting two.  

 I ran through a few strips, then used my rolling pin to seal the seam in the center.  It was actually difficult to do, because the dough is so oily that it didn't stick to the rollers.  I had to roll it as thin as I could, then it would finally go through and get even thinner.   

Then I put it in the pan,

and baked it on 400 degrees F for 10 minutes, just to make sure the bottom crust got fully cooked.  

Next I filled the crust, 

and I thought I would add just a little salt by adding some provolone on top!

I covered the top with more crust, but my edges were not pretty at all, considering I had already pre-baked the bottom and could not adjust that now.  

I baked it for another 25 minutes until the top changed color and the middle was hot.

It turned out pretty dang good I have to admit!  

I do miss peas!  They would have been a very nice addition to this recipe, however, they are just about impossible to find in Korea.  

I have to admit, it could have had a little more gravy, but I think it was moist enough (at least with the second crust I used on day three).  I think the difference is I didn't have the thick cream sauce that many gravies have from store bought pies, so it was a bit lighter, even with the heavy crust.

Today, I had enough filling to make one more mini pie, so I tried another pie crust recipe, and this was my lunch today.  The pie recipe I used today can be found at Yummily.com.  I chose to try this whole wheat and olive oil recipe because it had some baking powder in it, and I thought this might be a better recipe to try for some light flakiness.  The first recipe was not bad, but it was not flaky at all.  It was VERY dense for a pie crust!  I am in love with this (2nd) recipe, and used it to make some small peach pies also.  (I might post those later).

Anyway...the recipe:

Filling ingredients:

3 medium/large potatoes

3-4 chicken breasts (maybe 500 grams)

1 can of corn

1 crown of broccoli

2 medium sized onions

1 large carrot

1-2 tablespoons minced garlic

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup milk (I used almond)

8 tablespoons olive oil

5 tablespoons flour

Thyme

Rosemary

Garlic seasoning

Pepper 

(all of the seasonings to taste)

2 slices of provolone (optional)

Crust ingredients:

2/3 cup olive oil

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup ice water

1 tablespoon of vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)  

filling

Fry your chicken in a frying pan using a little oil on the bottom of pan.  Once it is cooked all the way through, remove from the pan and let rest. Wash, peel, and chop up potatoes, and add them to the pan the chicken came out of and turn the heat to medium .  While they are cooking, cut up the carrots, broccoli, garlic, and onions.  When the potatoes get a bit soft, add the veggies and saute until they are all hot, and the veggies start to change colors.  Slice the chicken up and add it back to the pan.  Pour in a drained can of corn, and remove from the heat and cover until your pie crust is ready. Follow directions on Yummily (see below also) for the crust. Once you have the pie crust done, fill with the filling.  Put two slices of provolone over the top and cover with the top crust. Be sure to put a few holes in the top to let steam out while baking. Bake for 25 minutes until the top crust is done, and the inside is hot.  

crust:

1	Place olive oil in the freezer until it solidifies and is of a consistency similar to thick honey. (I checked it every 30 minutes or so. I'm not sure how long it took. Probably 3 or 4 hours.).
2	Once the olive oil solidifies place flour, salt and baking powder into a food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Add remaining ingredients and pulse until a dough ball forms. Place ball in an air tight container or plastic wrap and put in the fridge for an hour or so to chill. (I left it overnight).
3	Roll ball out until 1/8 inch thick and put into a pie plate. Use as you would a regular pie crust. I prebaked it before adding the quiche filling.

Breakfast-a-go-go

When it comes to breakfast, my family usually skips.  My husband and I work opposite schedules, and (as far as I know) neither of us are really eat in the morning people.  He can wake up at noon and want lunch on the weekend, but I could do waffles any time of the day.  

Tonight, I started making the filling for chicken pot pie (I will post soon) but it got so late while I was cooking that my husband who works on public school hours had to go to bed, while I was still awake and cooking.  So he skipped dinner and went to sleep.  Knowing that he will be hungry in the morning, I scoured my and fridge once again to see what I can come up with to give my husband some breakfast, because I know he won't have time to eat cereal (and I don't feel like making the almond milk for him to do so).  

I figured since I already have the makings of pies out and working, I would at least try some sort of pie.  I realized I had apples that needed to be eaten now, or they might go bad.  Okay, an apple pie sounds good...only he is going to crash very quickly with just apple pie.  At least I know I would, so I kept thinking about what we have in the fridge.  We have another package of bacon, and sure apples and bacon can go good together!  Ideas began forming...then I thought well, that is some protein, but not a lot.  How can I add more?  Easy!  Cheese!  I love apples and cheese!  Only I used the last of the cheddar over the weekend, on mac and cheese.  Hmmm, I wonder, since provolone is sharp, and apples are good with sharp cheese, would that work?  And shocker, I tasted a little bit with apple and bacon, and it did!  So, my breakfast on the go turned into a bacon and apple pie with provolone on a whole wheat crust!  I don't often actually make my own recipe, rather usually find another one and if I want to, I modify it, but tonight other than the pie crust, I pretty much did whatever I thought would taste good, and voila!  I think I have a pretty snazzy on the go breakfast!  

First, I peeled and cored four green apples. 

 Next I used my mandolin to cut "fries" out of my apples.  I love that that tool lets me cut veggies at a consistent size for even cooking.  

 

After this, I cut up bacon into small bits and fried it up in a pan.  Once it was crispy and done, I drained it, and dumped the pan out.

I did dump as much of the bacon grease out of the pan as I could, however I left the pan coated to start cooking the apples.

I dumped the apples in, lowered the flame to what might be low or medium/low, and started adding spices that I thought would be good

First I added three heaping tablespoons of dark brown sugar.  

Next I started to add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, but about half way through sprinkling the teaspoon, I realized that half a teaspoon was probably enough...so I stopped.  

I stirred it up, keeping it on low while starting the pie crust.  

I was given this recipe from a book called Vegan Viddles for a whole wheat and oil pie crust.  Since whole wheat and oil were about the only ingredients I had, that is what I went for!  I was a bit nervous about making a pie crust out of whole wheat flour though.  I will put the recipe at the end of this post.  

First I mixed the salt and flour together.  then I added the oil.  I mixed it together by hand, and added the water.  Before adding the water, make sure to incorporate the oil evenly into all of the flour.  I actually didn't know how much I was going to need, so I made a double batch.  For a double batch, I actually added maybe four more tablespoons of water than the recipe called for, because it was very dry, and just not coming together.  

When it looked like this, I took off a small chunk and rolled it out.

Now for the next decision in my recipe.  How do I bake these pies?  Do I use mini pie tins?  No, I don't want them that big and messy.  Do I do a half circle shaped pie, that you pick up and can take with you?  Maybe, but in my tiny oven, it would take forever to make enough for all of these apples, so what do I do?  I pull out my muffin tins!  YAY.  

I rolled out the dough pretty thin, and I took a muffin paper and placed it on top.  

I cut around the paper so I had about the right size, and placed it in the tin.  I did this six times,  trying not to overwork the dough.  

Next I sprayed the pan with olive oil, and placed in the circles.  I baked  the pie crust for about 10 minutes until the edges started getting hard and holding up on their own.  I think honestly that I did not roll them quite thin enough.  

 

After the crust was cooked a bit, I threw the bacon in with the apples and heated them back up in the frying pan.

I scooped two big spoonfuls into each pie shell, and put a wedge of provolone on top.  Since I still doubled it over, my second batch, I put half of that wedge on top of the apples, and half under.  

Then I baked them for about another 10 minutes.  I took them out when the cheese started getting brown and bubbly.  

The final step of course is to put them on a cooling rack.  This recipe made one dozen bacon apple pies.  For just going through and trying to use what we have around the house, I think I did a pretty dang good job!  The pie crust is not super light and flaky, so the next time I do pie crust, I am back to white flour and butter I think...but they do hold up very well, which makes them easier for transport!  

I hope you enjoy on the go apple bacon pies!

Pie filling

4 green apples

3 heaping tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 package of low sodium bacon

3 slices of provolone cheese

Peel, core, and slice the apples into an even size. Slice bacon into small pieces to make bacon bits, and fry them up in a frying pan (you could crumble them after the bacon is cooked also).  I cook the bacon until it is nice and crispy, almost burnt, but not quite. Take the bacon out and drain it on paper towels.  Dump out the bacon grease from the pan, but leave it coated with whatever is left.  Put in the apples.  Stir in the brown sugar and cinnamon.  Assemble pie crust according to the directions below:

Roll out the dough and place it in the muffin tins cut into circles, and cook on 400 degrees F for about 10 minutes, until the sides start getting stable and hard.  

Take them out of the oven and mix the bacon in with the apples.  Heat back up on the stove for a minute, then scoop 2 scoops of apples and bacon into each pie crust.  Place a 1/4 wedge of provolone cheese on top of each pie (or 1/8 of the provolone on top and another 1/8 of the wedge under the apple).  Bake in the oven until the cheese turns brown and starts to bubble.  

Take out of the oven, and when they are cool enough to take out of the pan, place them on a wire rack to continue cooling.  

Easy  cheesy!  

Okie Dokie, Artichokie!

Hi Friends!

I am sorry that my postings have not been very consistant in this last week.  Last week we started a new semester at school, and it was a crazy week of learning new names, and ultimatly being exhausted at the end of the day.  For those who might not know, I am an English teacher in South Korea.  Last week's meals consisted of a lot of eating out, as well as some classics that I have already posted such as my roast beef and potatoes (although I have to admit I cooked them better the second time.  I also made a quick stove top mac and cheese semi-similar to the one I posted previously.  

Today was supposed to be payday in our house, so head to the grocery store to get some much needed sustenance   However, payday didn't happen and it turned out to be a clean out the cupboards kind of night. I had thought about this previously and last night I looked up some recipes for the week.  I have two LARGE COSTCO jars of marinated artichokes, and other than throwing them in a salad I really didn't know what to do with them.  So I went on a google search for things to do with marinated artichokes.  I came up with a few good ideas, but one that stood out above all others.  Knowing that I had all of the ingredients, or rather could sub the ingredients with something I did have, I planned this meal for today.  Thanks to the help of The Kitchen Eclectic  I was able to throw together a meal that was worthy of any special occasion.  

I did make some substitutions to her recipe as needed, or wanted, but I didn't miss anything from the original.  

First I started out boiling a pot of water, and putting on noodles to boil (This is a pasta sauce).  As I did that, I made a large batch (about 5 cups) of almond milk.  I don't have a very powerful food processor, so I actually made a smaller batch, strained it, made another one, strained it, and then put all the pulp back in, added more water, and strained it again.  I think I should have gotten 6 cups minimum out of the 3 cups of almonds I milked, but I didn't want it to be watery and only made five cups.  

After the milk was made and the pasta was done, I cut up and cooked up some bacon.  I usually take a whole package at once, and cut it in 1/2 inch to 1 inch sections, so I can make bits out of it.  I started cooking the bacon in the pot from the pasta, thinking I could make this dish a one pot wonder, but I realized that I could not get the bacon crispy in a big soup pot, so I left all the fat in there, but transferred the bacon to a frying pan, which I wound up using for the rest.  

I know, exciting right? raw meat!  Well the next photo is a little more appetizing for those who like bacon!

Okay yummmm Look at the sizzle!  

I then drained this very well on paper towels and washed out the pan.  Often if something tells me to use butter, and I cook bacon with it, I just use bacon grease, but today I felt like cutting the fat out a little.  I washed the pan out, and added 5 tablespoons of olive oil, and 5 tablespoons of organic whole wheat flour to make a roux.

I whisked a lot to make sure the flour was well incorporated.  Then I slowly added 2 cups of (almond) milk, 1 cup of water, and 1 cup of chicken stock (in my case one cup of water with one teaspoon of bouillon in it).

While adding these ingredients slowly, you whisk the entire time. 

Next I continued whisking, and added 9 teaspoons of the oil that was in the jar with the artichoke hearts.  Work the oil into the sauce slowly, and thoroughly or it will quickly separate.  

Next I chopped up the artichokes and threw them along with maybe a tablespoon of minced garlic into the sauce.  One thing I notice when cooking with almond milk instead of cows milk is that it does not scald so fast, and I did not have to worry about overheating my sauce.  I could boil it to the thickness I wanted and didn't have to worry about burning the milk.  

I actually used about 15 artichokes in my sauce, not the 6-8 suggested in the recipe.  I love them, and after tasting the sauce which seemed a little bland, I felt that it needed more.  

I cooked it until it was a nice thickness, and then poured it on a plate over pasta.  Like many of my meals, I used green beans as my veggie.  I don't have a ton of food in my house right now, and green beans are what I have.  So we eat a lot of them.  It is a good thing we love them!  :-)  

Finally, I sprinkled some of my bacon bits over the top.  This touch is not necessary if you add a little salt to the dish, however, just a sprinkling, added just the right amount of salt.  A little pepper would have been good too, or the red pepper flakes in the original recipe. 

On Saturday, Jeremy and I went to the Louvre exhibit in Seoul, and afterwards, we went out to a very nice dinner in Uno Chicago in CoEx mall.  There we both had meals that were cream based.  They were delicious but very rich.  I have stopped using dairy in most of my cooking unless it is yogurt, cheese, or sour cream (I have allergies), so our bodies were not used to so much heavy cream.  I say this because in the fallowing recipe, I replaced the milk, and the dish was amazing!  The dish was very light, and did not bog us down the way that this same dish may have if made with milk or cream.  Next time, I may in fact add a little Parmesan  cheese grated on top, but maybe not.   It was pretty good the way it was.  

Recipe

• 1 lb. cooked pasta (something that has holes in it to catch all the good sauce)
• 5 T olive oil (original recipe says soft butter)
• 5 T whole wheat flour (original recipe says all purpose flour, either work fine)
• 2 C (almond) milk
• 1 cup stock (veggie, or chicken)
• 1 cup water
• 9 t oil from the jar of marinated artichokes
• 1 T minced garlic (original recipe says 3 cloves of roasted garlic)
• 15 artichoke hearts (quartered with leaves separated) I chopped mine up more.

1. Make a roux by vigorously whisking the flour into the hot oil.
2. Reduce heat.
3. While whisking, add milk, broth, and water slowly and constantly whisking.
4. Continue whisking and add artichoke oil.
5. Remove from heat and stir in garlic and artichoke hearts.
6. While warm, pour over pasta and mix thoroughly.  

Ma-India Restaurant Seoul.

 

Tonight, we went to an incredible restaurant!  We were out and about and had planned on eating dinner when we got home.  However it was getting later than we had expected, and our favorite Kebab place in Technomart seems to have been shut down for good.  This made us very sad!  I thought I remembered seeing a McDonalds when I was at the bus station across the street, however, when we walked across the street, I was disappointed to realize that it was in fact a Lotteria!  EEEEEEWWWWW!  It is the Korean version of McDonalds, but not even most Koreans like it!  

So, we walked outside and looked around for any place that might possibly have an English menu.  Usually in Seoul, if you go to a restaurant that is from a different culture, usually, they speak some Korean, and some English.  Well we lucked out!  We found an Indian restaurant right across the street from Dong Seoul bus terminal and across from the Gangbyeon subway station.  If you walk out of the subway, cross the street, then turn to your right and cross the street again.  It is in the corner on the second floor of the building with the Tom and Tom's Coffee Shop, right next to the Paris Baguette.  You are looking for Ma-India.

I have been curious about starting to cook Indian food lately, but am not a huge fan of curry, so I was a bit afraid.  I did try homemade samosas once after a clown gig, and the family sent me home with one.  They were spicy but incredible.  

So, Jeremy and I decided to take a chance that this place was run by true Indian people, and pray that they at least had English menus!  

It was totally worth the risk.

Our meal began with some restaurant provided appetizers.  We got a small salad to share, and we each got a bowl of cream soup.  

The salad was a mixture of lettuce, with tomatoes and fruit cocktail.  It had a sweet strawberry dressing on top.  It was a bit sweet, but actually kind of refreshing and very tasty!  

Next we tried the cream soup.  It turned out to be a very simple cream of mushroom soup.  It had a pretty presentation, and the biggest appeal was that it was not over done.  It was very simple, and that gave it an elegance that other soups don't seem to have.

Because I knew samosas, I insisted that we order an appetizer for Jeremy and I to share.  The crust is not what I had expected, it was almost like a wonton wrapper, not really made from a dough, but it was filled with potato curry, which I did expect. It was very spicy, but the flavor was incredible.  They brought out some sweet chili sauce to dip them in and it was a perfect combination.

They were served with some kind of orange pickled onions.  They were very tasty, even though I really have no idea what they were!

We had not eaten all day, so we ordered another appetizer as well.  We ordered paneer naan bread.  From the description, it was suppose to be naan bread with cottage cheese inside.  

The bread was sweet, like they used a bit of honey in it, or coated the top with maybe a honey butter.  We were not expecting that, but it tasted amazing.  I am not really sure I tasted the cheese, however the bread was fresh and warm.  It was chewy and delicious.  Look at my face, I think you will agree!

I know I keep saying incredible, but that about fits the description.  This bread tasted like heaven on a plate.  

The meal I ordered was a tandoori chicken salad.  

It looked beautiful!  The chicken was wonderful in the salad and I loved the presentation.  I will warn you, if you don't like super sweet salads, this is not the one for you.  This salad was prepared the same way as the appetizer salad was made.  It had various lettuces and maybe sesame leaf.  It also had cucumbers, tomatoes and carrots.  The unexpected part of this salad was the fruit cocktail and the strawberry dressing.  If I were to order this again, I would order the dressing on the side or ask if they have more variety in dressings to choose from.  The strawberry dressing they put on is not bad, it is just very sweet.  At the end, I got full, and just picked out the chicken.  It was really yummy to take some of the bread, and wrap it around the salad and eat it together.

Jeremy ordered the Lamb curry. 

He absolutely loves lamb, but was a little unsure about curry until he tried it.  The meat was very tender.  It had been cooking for a long time, and almost melted in your mouth.  The curry was mild, and had a great flavor.  There were other flavors in the curry, including the lamb stock.  The meat and the curry complemented each other very well, and they tasted absolutely delicious with the flat bread dipped in.  He did say that the next time he orders it, he would order some rice to go with it, but, "Make no mistake about it, I will be ordering it again!"  

One thing I noticed about the food that we tried, is that it has a way of warming you up.  It has lots of spices, but is not necessarily too spicy, just very flavorful and warms your body.  

The atmosphere was very warm as well.  The colors in the dining room as well as the decorations made you feel comforted and at home.  

A mural on the wall

Colorful tiles on the counter by the bar by our table.  

Pretty candle holders they put on the table in the evening I LOVE THE COLORS!

They had these chandeliers with both regular white lights and with green lights.
 It was a pretty touch!

Their menus have lots of pictures, and lots of English.
They were very fancy  gold.

There were several of these drums decorating the dining room.

This was the presentation of our silverware.
Pretend there are two.   I was so hungry I started digging
 into the salad as soon as the picture was taken!
What is awesome is that there were salt and
pepper shakers on the table...they don't do that in Korea!  

This is a postcard that is used to decorate around the dining room, along
with a napkin with the phone number on it.  

The owner Ronu wanted to get our photo in the entry way to the restaurant.  He is a very friendly man, with friendly staff who speak English pretty well. I highly recommend Ma-India if you are looking for good Indian food.  They also have lunch specials!

This is Ronu.  He is the restaurant owner.
He actually gave us curb service  as we left.  He walked us all the way
to the corner as we caught a cab home. 

Ronu wanted to get a picture of us in the decorated entry way, and Mom, we wanted to make sure to get the elephant just for you!  <3