Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

In honor of Mother's Day last week, and because I don't want to lose the recipe again, I'm putting up the recipe for a family favorite, and my grandmother's all-time-favorite dessert--at breakfast, lunch, dinner, or in between. This cream cheese coffee cake really is amazing, if only you can get the layer of dough to spread out on top of the cream cheese. But don't take my word for it; try making it yourself. And after you've given up, then get someone close to you with more patience to pick up the baton, and stick around for the results... (any takers, Red Red Potato readers?) :)

First, the filling:

• 1 lb. cream cheese, softened (Yes, that's "lb." as in "pound". But you're gonna share, right?)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs

Mix these ingredients well & set aside. ("Aside" can be a refrigerator overnight, if you want to get ahead of the game)

Next, prepare the streusel topping ingredients: (Does anyone know where "streusel" comes from? I suppose I should google it, but I'm kind of glad to leave in the realm of the vague...)

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp. butter
• 1/4 cup flour (ooh, look, something healthy!)

Mix these well and set them aside (for novices like me: don't set them aside in the same bowl you're using to set aside the filling). Add a handful of oatmeal, and a little cinnamon, too, if you like. How much? "A little," says Gran. Just try it.

Next, prepare the cake ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 eggs (Yes, that's two more eggs)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp. baking powder (still can't keep straight in my head what the difference is between baking soda and baking powder, but apparently they're different ;)
• 1/2 cup butter (that's a full stick)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup sugar

Start preheating your oven to 350 degrees.

Sift the dry ingredients together in a big mixing bowl (but notice that sugar is not considered a "dry ingredient" just yet). Cream the sugar, butter and eggs together separately ("cream" basically means "mix", as far as I can tell). Add the sour cream and vanilla and mix well. Then add this concoction to the dry ingredients and mix (slowly at first or you're going to have a flourstorm on your hands).

Pour half of the cake batter into a greased and floured 9" X 13" baking pan. Pour in the filling, then the remainder of the cake batter (it will be very thick to spread). Then sprinkle with streusel topping.

Bake at 350 deg. for 45 min and...  voilà!! It's munching time. And don't wait...this one is good warm, while the inside is soft and warm and the topping crunchy...

Salmon steak with Sesame sauce

Servings: 2
Ingredients:
2 Salmon steaks
1/2 tsp salt
1/5 tsp pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 little pieces of lemon

Sesame sauce
2 tbsp plain yogurt
3 tbsp sesame
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp water

Directions:
1. Spread salt, pepper, and 1 tbsp olive oil on salmon steaks.
2. Place all the gradients of the souce in a blender and grind them.
3. Heat a pan on high, spray 1 tbsp olive oil, place salmon steaks.
4. Grill steaks turning once halfway through until browned about 30 seconds.
5. lower the heat medium and continue grilling 3-5 minutes.
6. Turn off the heat, season with lemon (juice).
7. Serve the steaks with the sesame sauce.

I love this sesame sauce. Try it! ^^

Tofu Salad

Ingredients:
1 box of soft (silken) tofu
3 strings of artificial crab (meat)
1 leaf of iceberg lettuce
1/8 piece of onion

Dressing
1 tbsp Korean Soybean Paste
2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
3/4 tbsp honey

Directions:
1. Mix the ingredients of dressing in a bowl and put it in a refrigerator to make it cool.
2. Take apart the artificial crab (meat), cut the iceberg lettuce and onion as big as the artificial crab.
3. Place the tofu on a plate, put the artificial crab, the lettuce and onion on the tofu, and spread the dressing on it.

Sorry, I don't have a picture of this.
I love the taste of the dressing! It tastes very fresh! Try it!

Korean Spicy Seafood Soup (해물탕)

This kind of spicy seafood soup is very common in Korea. A variety of seafood can be used, but in this recipe I got from a website uses a squid, octopus, shrmips, and clams. Hope you enjoy this soup!

Ingredients:

1 squid, 1 octopus, 4 large shrimp, 8 clams,
150g radish, 100g bean sprout (in Korean, it is called 콩나물)
100g water dropwort, 2 hot green pepper, 2 hot red pepper, salt
1tbsp flour, 5-6 dried anchovies, 1tbsp soy sauce, 1tbsp rice wine

Making sauce :
** sauce for seafood : 3tbsp hot chili pepper powder,
1tbsp soy sauce, 1tbsp hot chili pepper paste,
1tbsp sesame oil, 2tsp chopped garlic, 1tsp ginger juice

Preparation :
1. squid – peel it and cut it.
2. octopus – mix with flour, press it, rinse with water, cut it.
3. shrimp – wash them with salty water.
4. clam – add them into salty water for 20 mins, rub the clams with a brush.
5. bean sprout – cut the end part of the sprout , wash them with water.
6. water dropwort – use stem only, cut them into 3-4cm long.
7. radish – peel it, slice it thick (1.5cm) and cut each slice into half or four.
8. hot red and green peppers – slice them.

Directions:
1. mix all the ingredients for the sauce for the seafood.
2. add anchovies into 4 cups of water, boil it.
add soy sauce and rice wine to the anchovy water.
3. in another pot, spread radish on the bottom of it, put down bean sprout

over the radish, then, put down squid, octopus, shrimp, clam over bean

sprout.
4. add the soup (from #2), and boil it.
5. when it’s boiled, add **sauce for seafood, boil it little more.
6. then, add water dropwort, hot green pepper, and hot red pepper.
7. if the soup is plain, add little bit of salt.

The picture and this recipe are from

http://board.miznet.daum.net/gaia/do/cook/recipe/mizr/read?articleId=722&&bbsId=MC001&pageIndex=1

Grilled red potatoes

Ingredients: 2-3 medium red potatoes
Dried or fresh rosemary 1tsp (cut them small)
Black pepper, salt, olive oil, 3-4 clove garlic (chop them)
Directions:
1. cut potatoes into 1.5cm cubes
2. add oil to skillet and heat to medium high
3. add potatoes, stir occasionally
4. when the potatoes are half cooked, add chopped garlic, rosemary, black pepper, and salt.
5. stir occasionally until the potatoes are little overcooked. (to have crispy potatoes, it’s better to cook them little longer till they are overcooked.)
6. serve them warm.

Seafood soup with tofu

Noriko,

Does the seafood soup with tofu look like this? Of course, the picture of the soup doesn't have tofu, but I want to have an idea of what it looks like. Let me know. I'll give you a recipe for this kind of soup. ^^

Guest post from Dave...Sunday's potatoes!

On Sunday in Livermore, Dave's family -- including Maya and Reggie of course -- was all there for an afternoon brunch. On the menu was Sandra's delicious coffee-cake-style rolls (what's the right name for these?), scrambled eggs, fruit, and of course, some redX2 potatoes cooked by Dave according to Jean's bilingual recipe. Here are a few pics. Enjoy!

 First, cooking on the grill, and then...ready to eat!

my uncurdled tofu ggigae

A few days ago, I finally cooked uncurdled tofu ggigae using the recipe I posted here. I followed the recipe and found out that it's very easy and quick to cook the ggigae. I didn't put meat, but the ggigae turned out yummy!

순두부찌개2 (Uncurdled Tofu Ggigae 2) with meat

Here's the other recipe of 순두부찌개 which needs meat. Noriko, enjoy! ^^

Ingredients:
1 package Uncurdled Tofu
100g pork
150g short-necked clams
1 egg
4 pieces chopped green onion
1/3 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp red pepper powder
1/2 tsp red pepper oil
1/2 tsp sesame oil
a little bit of salt
3 cups of water

Ingredients for marinated meat:
1/3 tsp chopped garlic
1/4 tsp chopped ginger
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
a little bit of pepper


Directions:
1. In an earthenware bowl, saute red pepper powder, sesame oil, and red pepper oil for a few minutes.
2. Add the marinated meat and sauté till the meat gets cooked.
3. Add water and clams, and bring to boiling.
4. When the clams open, add tofu, chopped garlic, salt.
5. Bring to boiling for about 5 minutes.
6. Add the egg, chopped green onion.

(The image and recipe is from http://board.miznet.daum.net/gaia/do/cook/recipe/mizr/read?articleId=4621&bbsId=MC001)

순두부찌개 (Uncurdled Tofu Ggigae)

My friend, Noriko, loves spicy food and has asked me to give her a recipe of 순두부찌개 (uncurdled Tofu Ggigae). Since I don't have my own recipe and haven't cooked it for a long time, I looked at a few websites where I could get recipes. I found two different ones; one includes meat and the other doesn't. I'm not sure which one she prefers, so I translated both of them into English and added pictures from the original websites which I mention in the recipes.

Uncurdled Tofu Ggigae 1 (without meat)

Ingredients:
1 pack uncurdled Tofu
170g short-necked clams
3 teaspoon red pepper powder
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon soy sauce,
1/2 piece green onion
1 egg
little bit of salt and sesame oil
(* do not need water because tofu makes water when it gets cooked.)

Directions:
1. In a bowl, mix chopped garlic, red pepper powder, and soy sauce.
2. In a pot (an earthenware bowl is preferable), put the clams and tofu, and turn on heat and bring them come to a boil.
3. Once #2 starts to boil, add #1.
4. Bring to boiling more so that the clams and pure tofu get cooked.
5. Add green onion, salt, sesame oil, and egg (don’t stir the egg).
6. Serve immediately.

(The image and recipe is from http://blog.daum.net/powha/15581366?srchid=BR1http%3A%2F%2Fblog.daum.net%2Fpowha%2F15581366)

오클랜드에서 먹는 김밥

예상치 않게 오늘 오전에 지인과 전화 통화가 되어 허둥지둥 밖으로 향했다. 요즘 버클리는 날씨가 좋아서 옷을 가볍게 입고, 있는 동전을 탈탈 털어 버스요금 2불을 내고, 버클리 다운타운에서 오클랜드방향으로 가는 바트에 몸을 실었다. 언제나 느끼지만 오클랜드는 버클리보다 좀 더 쌀쌀한것 같다. 오늘도 바람이 더 불고 8월 초에 조금 춥다고 느껴져 팔에 걸치고 간 자켓을 바트역에서 나오자 마자 걸쳐 입었다. 곧 지인을 만났고, 그녀가 준비해온 김밥을 커피 한잔과 함께 따스하게 햇살이 비치는 카페의 앞에 있는 테이블에 앉아서 먹기 시작했다. 테이블에 앉아 깁밥을 펼치자 마자, 옆 테이블에 앉아 식사을 하던 검은 피부의 한 미국여성이 내 어깨를 딱 치면서, 어디서 스시를 샀냐고 물었다. 이곳에서는 한국 김밥도 일본식 스시와 별 다를바가 없어 김에, 혹은 누드깁밥처럼 돌돌 말린것은 스시로 통한다. 지인이 만들었다고 하니, 엄청 부러워하는 눈을 던지고는 곧 그녀의 자리로 돌아갔다. 바람이 적당히 불고, 따뜻한 곳에서, 잘 통하는 한국인인 지인과 한국말로 조잘대며, 김밥을 먹는 즐거움은 한국에서 비싼 호텔 음식보다 더 맛있었다. 한국의 깁밥에 비해 적당히 이것저것 볶지도 않고 집어 넣고 싼 김밥이었지만, 어느 음식보다도 우리를 행복하게 해 주었다.

First post

Red potato는 너무 맛있다. 계속 만들어서 먹는 사람을 행복하게 만들고 싶다. 그럼 많이 기대하시길...