Cooking with ChefWatson

Last week I was invited to be a beta tester of Chef Watson. Here are some articles about Chef Watson: http://www.bonappetit.com/tag/chef-watson.

The idea is, you put in ingredients of your choice and type of dish (e.g. Italian, Mexican), the cognitive computing application (Chef Watson) will search through recipes database and create a recipe recommendation for you based on its analysis of food chemistry, which could be different from the conventional cooking methods or ingredients.

So I searched: chicken, potato, broccoli, and it gave me about 5 choices. I found one which I have all/most of the ingredients, and cooked it for dinner. I didn't have saffron, but I decided to skip it.

Here is the recipe for New Year's Day Broccoli Potato Chicken Tagine.

I had no idea what a tagine is, nor did I know if the dish would be edible when I started cooking. See, that's what I call have faith and being adventurous.

I followed the recipe. First, I put the chicken, chopped onion, water in my earthen pot. I started to feel uneasy when I put in 1 1/4 tbs ground cardamon, 3 tsp ground black pepper, 4 tsp ground ginger and 1/2 oz of ground cinnamon. That's a lot of spice, I thought. I had no idea how this kind of mixture would taste, and I could totally destroy our dinner.

While the chicken was being cooked with the spice and onion, I chopped potatoes and broccoli. Then I was worried again, as there were a lot of potatoes and broccoli, and my pot wasn't big enough for everything. So I had to transfer the food into a big soup pot. Note, the direction did say: "heavy large pot." 

When in doubt, search the internet, right? I looked up tagine online to found this link to another recipe to chicken tagine, and it was a little reassuring. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/chicken-tagine-recipe.html

I just let the food cook and followed the recipe the rest of the way. Two hours later, I had my finished product.

When Jack came home, he wasn't pleased to know that I cooked a dish based on Watson's recommendation. For an AI guy as he is, he thinks ChefWatson was bogus. I made brown rice to go with it. The combination could become an unpleasant dinner, and dinner is very important for this household. 

"Oh, I'm sure it'll be fine. The food taste pretty good, actually." I said, while promised to keep ChefWatson's creativity off the Thanksgiving dinner menu.

My dish came out better than I expected. I was happy to have made this totally foreign dish and enjoyed the wholesome spice. In addition, most of the ingredients are cancer fighting: cardamom, chicken, broccoli, ginger, pepper.

If I were to cook it again, I would make the following modifications:

- chop potato in large pieces.

- since boneless chicken is used, I can shorten the cooking time.

- broccoli can be put in later so it's not overcooked. 

- broccoli can be replaced by Brussels sprouts, or even add daikon. I like daikon.

- use ground cardamon instead of whole cardamon to avoid the cardamon seeds.

All in all it was a pleasant experience.

Teaspoon

Y: I put less tea in the chai, so that it is not too strong.
J: Oh really? How much did you put in?
Y: Instead of 3 teaspoons, I put 1 tablespoon.
J: But 1 tablespoon is 3 teaspoons.

Frozen broccoli with cheese

For years I took pride in making tasty stir-fried vegetables and many different home-made Chinese dishes. I never understood the idea of frozen vegetables, and didn't have the slightest interest to try them.

Back in July when I prepared to go to South Carolina for a week-long silence retreat, I went to the grocery store to buy some food for Jack so he didn't have to spend too much time cooking yet could still eat something healthy. Granted he is a good cook for Holiday meals, during the year, he spends most of his time by the computer, reading or watching movies.

I picked up some frozen Brussels Sprouts, frozen spicy chicken wings and frozen broccoli with cheese thinking perhaps they were more nutritious than canned soup. And Jack is probably better acquainted with them than me, since he is an American boy growing up in Michigan.

The frozen foods were left in the freezer for the next few months untouched.

One night in October, I decided to eat the frozen broccoli. I opened the bag, put the content in the frying pan, and cooked it in medium heat for 20 minutes while stirring it patiently, just as it was mentioned in the instruction. I even spiced it up with salt and pepper. The efforts to cook this frozen broccoli was no less than cooking fresh vegetables.

At dinner, Jack took a bite of the broccoli, looked at me quizzically, and said: "This doesn't taste good." He had a couple of bites, then went to the kitchen to find something else more edible. I couldn't help but laughed. This is probably the only time when I wasn't saddened when someone criticized my "cooking".

The Hodges' Family Thanksgiving Dinner Menu

It appeared to me on Thanksgiving day, while we were busy preparing for our meal, that it would be nice to make a menu for our guests. But there wasn't any extra time for us to do it then.

So here it is:

Appetizers:
Home-made salsa with chips
Spiced pumpkin seeds
Mixed nuts: cashew, almond, peanuts, etc

Main dish:
Roast turkey
Wild rice casseroleNoodle casserole
Garlic mashed potatoes with gravy
Cranberry sauce

Seasonal vegetables:
Garlic stir-fried asparagus
Brussels sprouts with mushroom and black bean sauce

Home-made Desserts:
Apricot up-side-down cakes
Sour cream cheese cakes
pumpkin pies
Cookie & Cream ice cream
Coffee & Heath bar ice cream

Drinks:
Martinelli's Apple soda
Reed's Ginger beer
Coffee
Various Teas

It's going to go somewhere

I have this theory that, since Thanksgiving is the first feasting holiday in our holiday season, we tend to pour our hearts and souls into cooking, baking, feasting, and gatherings. And we are so happy doing so. This might be a known fact, and I just got so excited about this year's Thanksgiving that it became my new discovery.

Isn't it great to discover something on your own even though it is a known fact?

I became so spoiled these few days. I would eat a piece of apricot up-side-down cake for breakfast with my coffee, a piece of delightful gulab jamun after my lunch, and some home-made cookies & cream ice cream for dessert after dinner. That doesn't even cover all of the desserts we made this Thanksgiving. We also have pumpkin pies and sour cream cheese cake in the refrigerator that were untouched for a few days now.

Along with the delicious and decadent desserts, we are still feasting the left over Thanksgiving meal. The wholesome turkey soup still takes up most of the precious refrigerator space even though we had been eating it for lunches and dinners. Up to today we still have a big box of turkey leftover.

Instead of drinking water or tea, we are drinking Martinelli's and ginger beers. Hmm, life is good. 

So where is all the food going to go? Of course, it will be months of hard working at the elliptical machine or in the pool trying to get rid of the Thanksgiving meal, or not, but the truth is, we do it happily every year.

Salsa

3 or 4 large beef steak tomatoes (diced)
6-8 large roma tomatoes (diced)
1 bunch green onion (chopped up)
1 bunch cilantro (chopped up)
1 bunch of garlic, or 5 cloves to 1 bunch (minced)
2-3 jalapeno, same number of Serrano pepper (minced)
juices of 2-3 limes
salt to taste

Mix everything together, add salt last to remove the sweetness.
You can make variations such as changing limes to lemon, green onion to yellow onion, etc.

Foolproof Indian Curry - tricks and tips that Rachel Ray can't teach you

I love cooking and I love to eat (OK, who doesn't, right?) I found it most satisfying if I could make my favorite dishes by myself. Indian and Thai curry are great examples.

Believe me, I had many heart-breaking failures over the years trying to make Indian curry. I read cookbooks, went to grocery shopping with my Indian co-workers and asked them many questions. Unfortunately, mainstream cooking shows don't teach you about ethnic foods like Indian or Thai. Finally, I found watching on-line videos were the most helpful, and fortunately, there were tons of them if you search.

Not that my co-workers were not trying to be helpful; cooking your native food is so much easier: a pinch of this and that, stir in the veggies and simmer for a while, done.

In this blog, I will unveil the secrets of making Indian curry from scratch.

To make a mean curry, make sure you have the following spices and ingredients available. I highly recommend that you shop at Indian grocery stores. There are small neighborhood stores called Cash and Carry around the Bay Area - don't forget to bring cash, because you may walk out with less than $10 of goods, and they only accept cash for under $10. A bigger store is called Nameste. You can buy all the spices and fresh vegetables you need with really good price.

The second choice after Indian stores is Chinese Grocery stores like Ranch 99 or Pacific Market. Your final defense is Safeway or any other American supermarkets.

Spices in your pantry:

• ground cumin
• ground turmeric - this is one of the super cancer fighting foods
• ground coriander
• cayenne pepper/chili pepper powder - cancer fighting food
• garam masala - you can make it yourself, or buy from the stores
• dried chili pepper or fresh green chili pepper

* coconut milk - I like the CHAOKOH brand from Thailand. I tried another one that I got on discount, but it ruined my food. Though this is a personal preference, so you should find out what you like. This is the only unhealthy ingredient in our curry, so use sparsely. You can experiment to dilute it with 1:1 water later.

Another note here, if the spices you bought were in bags or boxes, make sure to store them in cans, so that bugs won't get to them.

Fresh vegetables:

• tomatoes
• onions
• cilantro - most books call them coriander just to confuse you
• potatoes
• fresh ginger
• garlic
  

Prepare vegetables for a simple curry:
1-2 tomatoes, depending on the size, rinsed and chopped.
1 onion, finely chopped.
1/2 cup cilantro, quantity varied depending on your taste, rinsed well and chopped.
1 teaspoon of ginger, grated.
3 cloves of garlic, crushed.

Mix these spices together:
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

I learned that mixing the spices ahead of time then put the mixture into the food during cooking was much more effective than putting them in one at a time, especially for someone like me who couldn't tell the differences between these spices without reading the labels ... OK, I know ground turmeric is the bright yellow powder, but that's about it.

Now, some tips about pan fried or stir-fried coming straight from my mom's Chinese kitchen.

• Always start with a clean and dry wok/pan.
• Put the oil in before the wok gets hot.
• Wait for the oil to heat up (1-2 minute?) before putting any other ingredients in. When it's ready, oil will have some mild texture.
• Always start the wok with ginger, garlic, or peppers, these ingredients will help flavoring the oil, which will coat the rest of the ingredients.
• Put the vegetable that takes the longest to cook into the wok first, and easiest to cook last. OK, this takes experience and depends on your preference. If you want veggies more crunchy, then don't cook it for too long. Green onion, cilantro and fresh basil are perfect for garnish, and you should put it in last.
• Try to cut up veggies and meat into the same size (you learn this from cooking school), so that they will have the same texture when cooked together.

For my prawn curry, I added 2 handfuls (1 lb) of shelled prawns.

Cooking steps:

1. Start the wok over medium heat, add oil (this may be taboo for some people, but I use olive oil).
2. Once the oil is ready, add garlic, ginger and onion. Stir until onion is soft and turn light yellow.
3. Add the spice mixture. Cook for 1 minute, until it's fragrant.
4. Add the prawns and tomatoes to the wok and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the prawns are cooked and liquid has reduced. Both tomatoes and Prawns take the same time to cook.
5. Stir in 1/3 cup of coconut milk.
6. Add the chili in a little at a time.
7. Season with salt to taste, and garnish with cilantro.
Later, you can try a different mixture of spices. If you want it more spicy, add more cayenne pepper or chili pepper. Use different kinds of veggies and meat/seafood based on your preference. Eat what you like and take the nutrition value into account.

Curry tastes better the next day, that is, if you have any leftover. :)

Cooking is an art, you have to be patient. Don't keep stirring the food too much, it won't help, just let the heat does its magic, let the food cook.

Let me know if it helps and if you like the curry.