Merry belated Christmas and happy new year!

it's been almost a month since I updated my blog last time. I kind of feel bad about not having time to make and share something festive, but I was so so busy dealing with the finals, drawing and making portfolio for art school application. The earliest deadline is Jan. 5th, and I just ordered my portfolio from a print company 2 days ago, and with their 5 day-printing and 2 day-shipping policy, as well as this hectic holiday season, I would be lucky to receive the book by Jan. 3rd.

My parents-in-law came to visit for Christmas. We bought a bigger Christmas tree and my mother-in-law and I decorated it together. This year is actually the first time I have ever felt holiday atmosphere. Before, I always traveled with friends to places like Chicago or New York City, because I didn't have family in U.S. and the school I attended is in a college town which gets emptied out when the semester is over. So this year I finally felt Christmas is a family oriented holiday. We put boxes of gifts under the tree and after Christmas Eve dinner, I couldn't wait opening them. Look what I got!

 

The book in the front is soft covered, with 249 pages, while the one in the back is a hard covered, 498 page book. Both have pretty good comments on Internet. The bigger book is more comprehensive, covering the history of food styling and the market and how to land jobs, and something like that. And of course, it's 35 dollors more than the other one. I will read them through before giving more detailed comments.

Last but not least, here is a bag of cookies I baked as Christmas treats. For recipes, see this link. Happy holidays!

My favorite arts and sichuan style spicy chicken and chive flower stirfry

Food bloggers are more or less creative people. They are either working professionals who cook after a long day's work to relax and explore their creativity in the kitchen or stay-at-home housewives who wanna make their daily chores fun and artistic. So I would like to share some of my favorite art work here at my food blog. Generally speaking, I love bizaar looking arts. Unrealistic, exaggerated, sensationally stimulative and visually vibrant. Thanks to Art History classes I took, I got to know many world famous art pieces and how to appreciate them. After picking up drawing pencils, I have respected and admired artists more. I know how hard to draw real life subjects precisely and it's even harder to convert something imaginative, maybe an elapse of thought or fragments of a dream, onto a 2 dimentional paper.  

Open window-Henri Matisse

When I saw this painting at National Museum of Art in DC, it got me at first sight. I especially love the vibrant colors and the warm tone. (Pink is my favorite color)I thought it's impressionism, but found out this style is called Fauve, a style specifically refers to paintings from 1904-1908 exhibited in French salon, characterized by the unblended and bold brush strokes and vibrant colors.

The scream-Edvard Munch

Just as I said, I was fascinated by the weird and kind of shocking look of this painting. It's pretty intriging too to the audiences to wanna find out what happend, who are the two men behind. The waving strokes and strong color contrast also enhance the tense emotion. 

Stary night-Vicent Van Gogh

Who doesn't love Van Gogh? His distinctive short and strong brush strokes definitely influence later artists like Henri Matisse who was actually once on a committee of Van Gogh's exhibition. He leaves people an impression of a poor,desperate and crazy artist, whose whole life was lonely and pathetic, but after reading a little of the letters between him and his brother Theo, I changed my mind. He loved life. He appreciated morning chirping of birds,lovely rains, sunny afternoons and almost everything. His attitude was almost always positive in the letters.  It's really interesting to discover the personal side of this great artist.

Casa Batllo-Antoni Gaudi

My favorite architect, Gaudi! I fell for the teeth like balconies and bone looking outer wall columns, although it might be scary to see bones hanging out of the window at midnight. The architect was either a weirdo or a genius to think of this design. I think he was latter and had good sense of humor. I do think this building has some wisdom and humor to look like this, so harmonious with the nature. Avant-garde of Art Nouveau style in Spain, Gaudi's organic farytale design matched well with Art Nouveau's "nothing in nature is straight" school of thought. Buidings don't just provide secure and warmth to meet the most basic and primitive requirement. In civilized world, they should be reflection of culture, art and humanity, but this is also a mass production era unfortunately. Creative design seems to be losing market to cheap, mass produced buildings. 

I have more arts I wanna put here all together, but don't wanna overwhelm my readers. So i am gonna take my time and show the rest later. 

I was a scientist and now am trying to be an artist. I realized that all science does is to make human physically live better, while art makes human emotionally live better. 

Ok, back to food and photography.I don't always wanna try new recipes. When I don't have inspiration, I get lazy too. I had chicken thighs and Chinese chive flowers I got from an Asian market in the fridge. Noting knowing how to use them respectively, I made this Sichuan style spicy chicken and chive flower stir fry. 

It's a good light dish to go with Chinese porridge.

Sichuan style spicy chicken and chive flower stirfry recipe

Ingredients:

1 pound chicken thighs, diced into small cubes

1 pound chinese chive flowers, chopped into 2-3 inches long

1tbsp Sichuan spicy bean paste (郫县豆瓣）

salt

soy sauce 1sbsp

cooking wine/sake 2 tbsp

2tbsp cooking oil

Directions:

1. marinate chicken with soy sauce and cooking wine for 20 mins.

2. Heat a deep pan or wok, add cooking oil. 

3. Add marinated chicken when the oil gets smoky.

4. stir fry 1 min and add bean paste. Keep stir frying, until all pink meat turns white.About 4 mins.

5. Add chopped chive flowers.Stir fry 1 min. Add salt to taste and turn off heat. Serve hot.

Butternut squash soup in an organic chic bowl

 I did another shot of the the butternut squash soup with coconut cream swirl on top. The point of this shot is the organic shaped dishware which I also used in the Korean BBQ pork post. I am sure you can't find these chinaware anywhere else because they are one of a kind art work from a ceramic artist. He teaches ceramics where I take drawing class, and I happened to mention I took food photographs and had a hard time finding unique and stylish dishware. He very generously offered me to take a tour of his studio and borrow anything I want. So I borrowed these three pieces that are the good size and shape as dishware. For recipe, please check out my earlier post: Butternut squash soup

Bon appetit!
Have a good weekend.

Korean BBQ pork(Daeji Bulgogi) for Thanksgiving dinner

Happy belated Thanksgiving! I was invited to a friend's home for Thanksgiving dinner and thinking hard what food to bring. since I didn't grow up eating turkey or pumpkin pie, I don't really know how to cook a traditional Thanksgiving meal. I finally decided to bring something exotic-Korean bbq pork. The first time I had it was in a Korean restaurant in the Canadian border city Niagara Fall. It was served in a sizzling cast iron plate like the kind for fajita. Once I tried it, I decided to learn how to make it by myself!

We had five ladies,one man, and 2-year-old baby all together. All ladies are army wives, but their husbands are all being deployed in Agfganistan except mine who is going to next year. Since I became friends with them, I've appreciated these girls who gave up exciting urban life to live in this rural town. Since there aren't many job oppertunities here, even those with college degree have a hard time getting a job, but they still keep themselves optimistic, happy, and active. When the husbands are gone, wives keep each other company to share their happiness and sadness, they work out regularly to maintain a healthy life, hoping to drop a size or two before the hubbies are back. Good thing is there's only three weeks left for the one year deployment! 

Daeji Bulgogi is another popular Korean meat dish similar to bulgogi. However, instead of using beef, thin sliced pork loin is marinated in a specially blended red chili pepper paste with various assortments of vegetables.Spicy and sweet, belive me, it tastes better than it looks! It was also one of the favorite dishes at our Thanksgiving dinner.

Korean BBQ pork/Daeji Bulgogi Recipe

Ingredients 

1 lb thinly sliced pork (lean & boneless preferred)

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp crushed garlic

½ tbsp crushed ginger root

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp kochujang (Korean red chili pepper paste, available in Asian store)

2 tbsp rice wine (sake)

2 tbsp sesame oil

1 onion, sliced

2tbsp cooking oil

Steps:

1. Combine all the ingredients except pork and cooking oil to make its base marinating sauce.
2. Stir in a large mixing bowl.

3. Add the pork and marinate for 30-60 minutes.
4. Turn the stove to high and add cooking oil in a deep pan or wok.
5. When it's smoky, add marinated pork to stir-fry until onion turns translucent and soft enough.
6. Sprinkle toasted seasame seeds and green onion for garnish. Serve with steamed rice.

Cauliflower soup with dancing fish flakes and oven-baked cheese crisps-the final instalment of the soup trilogy

 

Japanese dancing fish flakes? such a beautiful name, but what the heck is that? Well, other names of it include "Dried Bonito", "Dried Bonito Flakes", "Katsuoboshi", "Katsuobushi", "Katsuo-Bushi". Still don't recognize any?  It is actually dried and smoked bonito (skipjack tuna) that is then shaved into thin flakes. It is a key ingredient in Japanese cooking, specifically its use in making dashi, a fish stock commonly used as a base in many recipes. As for why it's called dancing fish flakes, it is because when you sprinkle some on top of something hot, the heat makes them crimple and toss as if dancing. Topping this cauliflower soup with Bonito flakes is kind of my imporvisation, and it turns out surprisingly good! The smoky falvor does a good job boosting the mild taste of the soup. I claim it a success! :)


The cheese crisps are another improvisation. Although the soup by itself is good, warm and healthy by itself, it's always better to pair with something solid, preferally crunchy to munch on. I was unfortunately out of bread, but found leftover parmesean cheese. So here are the cheese crisps!

Oven-baked cheese crisps

Ingredients: 

1 cup grated hard cheese (such as Parmesean) - NOT the dried powdery stuff

Preparation:

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Toss cheese with any seasonings you'd like -- garlic powder (about half a teaspoon for a cup of cheese), hot pepper powder, even cinnamon. Or leave plain.

3. Pile 1 to 4 Tablespoons of cheese (depending on the size you want) on a baking sheet covered with a alluminum foil or parchment paper oiled on both sides. Flatten the tops so they are in more or less an even pile. There should be at least two inches between smaller mounds, 4 inches between larger ones.

4. Bake 5 to 6 minutes until they are a light golden brown (they will be a little darker at the edges). It happens fast, so watch carefully.

Cauliflower soup

Ingredients:

1  tablespoon  vegetable oil

2  medium onions, halved and thinly sliced

About 1/2 tsp. salt

3  garlic cloves, minced

1/2  cup  dry white wine

1  large head cauliflower (2 lbs.), chopped

4  cups  chicken or vegetable broth

Freshly ground pepper

Steps：

1. Heat vegetable oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and salt, cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are very soft, 5 to 8 minutes. Add garlic and wine. Cook, stirring, until liquid is almost completely evaporated, 3 to 5 minutes.

2. Stir in cauliflower and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and cook until cauliflower is very soft, 20 to 25 minutes.

3. In 3 batches, whirl soup in a blender until very smooth, at least 3 minutes per batch (or, if you'd like a few florets in your soup, blend 2 batches and leave the last chunky). Stir together and season to taste with pepper and salt.

Roasted beetroot soup-adapted from Russian Borscht soup

It's been a while since I updated my blog last time. I've been busy preparing my portfolio for design graduate school these days. I did quite a few drawings, some fine art photography projects, and am still waiting for my rice paper and ink to arrive so I can write some Chinese calligraphy. Drawing is something that made me feel grudged to pick up a pencil at first, but once absorbed, I just can't put it down until I finish. Totally love it!

This is what Northern New York state was like a couple of weeks ago.The biker definitely knows how to enjoy the fleeting fall, but now, trees are bald, colorful leaves are gone, and the outdoor colors are just boring. Well, that's why I made this soup to cheer me up! 

Since last time I tried butternut squash soup, I have fell in love with the concept of a bowl of warm soup in a cold day's night, especially it has snowed twice here in the past week!! Jeez!I love colors, intense colors, colors with big contrast. This roasted beetroot soup adapted from the Russian Borscht soup satisfies both my tummy and eyes.I hope it warms you up too!

Here is the recipe to make this Roast Beetroot Soup. I added toasted pine nuts to top to give it a nutty and aromatic kick and light coconut milk to make it taste smooth and rich.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• ½  onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 4 medium beets, peeled and chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 2 cups chicken/vegetable stock
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 3/4 cup coconut milk
• A handful of pine nuts. 

Directions

1. Toast pine nuts in the oven for 5 minutes or until gold, set aside.
2. Set oven at 375F. Roast chopped beets for 40 minutes.
3. Warm olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in onions and garlic; cook until soft but not browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in carrot and beets to cook for 1 minute.
4. Stir in stock, and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; cover, and simmer until the carrots and beets are tender, about 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from heat, and allow to cool slightly.
5. In batches, add soup to a food processor, and pulse until liquefied. Return soup to saucepan, and gently heat through. Add coconut milk. Ladle into bowls, and garnish with a swirl of coconut milk, pine nuts and fresh thyme.

Butternut squash soup

I have totally fell in love with food styling. Some food stands out naturally, like desserts. Maybe that's why they are tons of food bloggers favorite subject. Cakes, say, look good without any props, although with appropriate matching of napkins, plates, silverware and background, they can only be better; while some food are just not categorized as pretty creatures. Soup is one! For them, food styling and prop styling are especially important to create the right atmosphere.

The whole point of writing in my blog what I know about food styling is to share what I have learned with everyone who reads my blog. I am still learning this complicated technique, but I totally enjoys it. If my writing can be of any help to you, I would be more than happy.

When I first started learning food photography, I completely dig myself into the study of shooting techniques and the use of lighting. But compared to the professionals' , my photos indescribably lacked something. I was trying so hard to find that something until recently I realized it's how the food is presented that makes a huge difference!

I started checking out fabrics stores constantly to buy fabrics of all kinds of patterns and textures. I use them as napkins or tablecloth. Real napkins can be much more costly and less diverse, but a yard fabrics can be less than $5. Also shooting next to the window on sunny days can have too much light and also you don't want to see the harsh shadow on the other side of the sun. Having no extra white sheet, I solved the problem by getting a yard white fabrics and hanging it against the window. The light is softly diffused. Also an antique looking table top is an ideal background for food photography. To seek for one, I even got into the habit of paying close attention to people's garbage. Sometimes, people threw away old furniture in front of their houses, and I just helped myself to the distressed looking flat surface pieces.

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Fall is the soup season. I finally made this butternut squash soup to celebrate the season of harvest, or try to slow it down, since the miserable winner is almost here!

In the background，putting some stuff related to the food, especially of the same and similar colors creates a consistent and supportive mood. In this shot, the small decorative squashes play the role and along with the gold soup makes a warm and homey feeling.

The background wood is the top part of a chest of drawers which was abandoned by its owner and lying on the front door grass. I torn the chest apart and happily carried away the one I needed! :>

Look at that curly green onion, isn't it pretty? The trick to make the curly green onion strips is after slicing the green onion to about 3 inches long thin trips, put in a bowl with cold water and ice cubes to refrigerate one hour, and then they would be happily twisted.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes
3 cups veggie or chicken stock
1 small shallot, diced
2 garlic cloves, diced
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons paprika chili powder
kosher salt

1 slice ham

green onion for garnish

 

Steps:

1. Heat olive oil in a large soup pan, over medium heat.  
2. Add the shallots, turn heat to low, cook for about 5 minutes;  stirring occasionally.  
3. Add the butternut squash and chili powder, stir and let cook for another 5 minutes.  
4. Add the garlic and the stock.  Bring to a boil.  Lower heat to a low simmer, cover and let cook until very tender, about 25 minutes.  It will depend on how large your chucks of squash are.  Season to taste with kosher salt.  Remove from heat and let sit about 10 minutes.  
5. Using a food processor or blender, puree in small batches, then combine back in the same soup pot.  Gently reheat over low heat.  
6. Spray some pam oil into a shallow pan and add ham. Cook until both sides are lightly brown. Cut into pieces. 
7. Pour the soup into serving bowls and garnish with ham and green onion. Serve hot.