Skim Milk Is Bad For You

I don't like skim milk. It has this ugly gray tint to it, which looks completely unnatural, and tastes like water. I recently found out more reasons why you shouldn't drink skim milk. It makes your liver work much harder. Here's an exerpt:

The butterfat of commercial milk is homogenized, subjecting it to rancidity. Even worse, butterfat may be removed altogether. Skim milk is sold as a health food, but the truth is that butter-fat is in milk for a reason.

Without it the body cannot absorb and utilize the vitamins and minerals in the water fraction of the milk. Along with valuable trace minerals and short chain fatty acids, butterfat is America's best source of preformed vitamin A.

Synthetic vitamin D, known to be toxic to the liver, is added to replace the natural vitamin D complex in butterfat. Butterfat also contains re-arranged acids which have strong anti-carcinogenic properties.

Non-fat dried milk is added to 1% and 2% milk. Unlike the cholesterol in fresh milk, which plays a variety of health promoting roles, the cholesterol in non-fat dried milk is oxidized and it is this rancid cholesterol that promotes heart disease.

Like all spray dried products, non-fat dried milk has a high nitrite content. Non-fat dried milk and sweetened condensed milk are the principle dairy products in third world countries; use of ultra high temperature pasteurized milk is widespread in Europe.
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Steamed Teriyaki Tofu

Tonight was a lazy night. I didn't really feel like doing any real cooking so I took the easy way out. I made steamed teriyaki tofu with shredded chicken.



How do you make this? I simply take a block of soft tofu, place the shredded chicken on top, then pour teriyaki sauce on everything. It's all steamed for 10 minutes.

Voila, instant tasty dinner

Soy Milk

Not all soy milk is created equal. I used to purchase the brand "Snow White" soy milk from 99 Ranch. Sadly, Ranch has stoppped carrying this brand of soy milk so I've had to experiment with other brands. I've tried the soy milk from Golden Gate and will never buy it again. It doesn't have any taste; it tastes as though I am drinking water. I have found that Soy (I believe that is the brand name) is the best brand of soy milk available and it is found at both Marina and 99 Ranch. It has a very nice taste in both the sweetened and unsweetened forms. It also uses non-GMO soybeans which is a huge plus!

Silk is the Americanized version of soy milk and it is ok in a pinch but it's taste just doesn't compare with that of Soy. If you have a hard time trying to find this brand of soy milk, just look for the brand which is made in Hayward, CA. The labeling is very non-descript.

Powdered Buttermilk

I spent some time in South over the Christmas holidays visting Ming's family. I found out that all the supermarkets carry powdered buttermilk and I've always been intrigued by it. Powdered buttermilk is a harder to find ingredient in the west coast and you need to go to a specialty store to find it (and pay a specialty store's prices.) Even though our suitcases were bulging (we hit the max weight limit!) I decided to buy it anyway.

I gave the powdered buttermilk a test run on New Year's Day. I made buttermilk pancakes. I've used this recipe forever and have always been completely satisfied with the results. This time I used the powdered buttermilk in lieu of normal buttermilk. The taste was fantastic as always but the consistency was different. These pancakes were much thinner and less fluffy than the pancakes made with normal buttermilk. The ease of making the pancakes was amazing though. It was such a relief not to need to worry about going to the store to buy buttermilk ahead of time for something as simple as pancakes. I'll definitely use the powdered buttermilk again in pancakes but every so often I'll go back to the real stuff since I do miss the taller, fluffier texture of pancakes.

The next test of my powdered buttermilk will be in cakes. Stay tuned ...

Wintermelon Soup and Steamed Chicken

Steamed chicken with Tibetan wolfberries and golden lily buds



Wintermelon soup with tiger shrimp and tofu

La Fermiere Yogurt

I recently went to the Made in France warehouse sale. It is a sale where many of the items are made in France, very popular with ex-pats. I tried the La Fermiere yogurt and was blown away. This yogurt is much different than the ones we get in the states. It is much thicker, like cheese, and the yogurt cultures aren't as tart. The yogurt is very creamy and it almost feels sinful to eat something so rich without it being really fattening.

I bought both the natural flavor and the honey one. Both are excellent. I enjoyed the natural flavor with a dollop of apricot jam. Delicious. My only regret is not buying more yogurt.


The other perk about this yogurt is that each is packed in a terra cotta container. You can re-use the container in a number of ways. I will have 4 of them; I wonder what I should put in them ...

Chicken Pot Pie

I'm not very familiary with chicken pot pie except when I had the Pilgrim's kitchen version of it, which I wrote about here. That chicken pot pie was so flaky and the filling was full of flavor. After that experience I wanted to have chicken pot pie again, but homemade so that I could control what went into it.

Last night I made chicken pot pie from scratch and it turned out very well. In the beginning I had my doubts since the filling didn't quite taste flavorful enough and tasted too thick. My fears were put to rest, however, when Ming came home and said that it smelled wonderful outside the house :)

The chicken pot pies turned out lovely and I'm looking forward to having another batch in the near future.

Chicken Pot Pie Prep


Chicken Pot Pie


Chicken Pot Pie
Chicken and stock ingredients
1 (3 1/2 pound) chicken
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
1 small onion, halved
2 teaspoons salt

Pie crust ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chilled unsalted butter, diced into 1/2-inch cubes (best to chill cubes in the freezer for at least 15 minutes before using)
3 to 4 Tbsp ice water

Filling ingredients
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 large onion, diced
1 lb carrots, diced
4 celery stalks, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cups milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
3/4 cup green peas
1 Tbsp parsley
3 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 1/2 c chicken stock

Chicken Stock
1. In a large stock pot, add the vegetables into cold water. There should be just enough water in the pot to almost cover the chicken (but not completely). Bring the water to a boil and then add the chicken. Let the water barely simmer for 1 hour.
2. After 1 hour, remove the chicken and let it cool. Allow the rest of the stock to continue to simmer.
3. Remove all the chicken meat from the chicken carcass and dice it. Discard the skin. Place the chicken carcass into the stock and let it simmer for another 2 hours.

Pie Crust
1. In a food processor with the dough blade attachement, pulse the flour, salt, and butter together. Pulse the ingredients together until the butter is in pea-sized pieces
2. Slowly add the ice water to the food processor, pulsing after each tablespoon. Only add enough ice water until the dough starts to come together
3. Remove the dough and refrigerate until cold. This dough can be kept for up to 2 days in the refrigerator

Filling
1. Melt the butter. Add the onion, celery, and carrots. Simmer together for 10-15 minutes, until onion becomes translucent
2. Slowly add the flour and mix thoroughly so there aren't any clumps of flour
3. Add the chicken stock slowly, stirring well to incorporate it.
4. Add the milk and cream slowly. Let mixture simmer for 10 minutes on low heat, stiring to ensure it doesn't stick to the pan.
5. Add the chicken, thyme, parseley, salt and peper. Stir together and season again if necessary.
6. Add the peas and stir. Remove from heat.

Assembly
1. Place the filling into 15 oz ramekins
2. Roll the pie dough to 1/4" thick and place on top of ramekin. Use a decorative cookie cutter to cut a hole in the middle of the pie dough and place dough on top of ramekin.
3. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes or until crust is golden