Leek sauce

• 2 leeks-rinsed and chopped into chunks
• 1can chicken stock
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/4 cup cream

Simmer all but the cream together with enough water (and some salt) to cover until soft and liquid has reduced. Blend together, add cream and heat back up and serve. 

This is great on polenta. 

Temporary break

As I mentioned last month, I've been working a lot and thus going back to some old favorites for dinner and the recipes are already on here. Posts from now on out will be infrequent but any new recipes or restaurants I visit will show up so keep checking back in.

Corned beef dip

• 8 oz corned beef, shredded or chopped small
• 1 small tub sour cream
• 2 bunch green onion, chopped
• 1 packet of onion dip mix

Mix these all together and serve inside a hollowed out sourdough loaf or with crackers. 

Salsa

10 cups chopped tomatoes
2 cups chopped yellow and green onions
3 cups chopped green, yellow, jalapeno peppers. You can also use Anaheim, habanero, etc., according to your personal hotness meter.
½ bunch chopped fresh cilantro
(All but the tomatoes can be chopped in a food processor)

1 cup vinegar
1/3 cup lime juice
2 TB minced garlic
2 tsp salt
4 tsp cumin
1 tsp Tabasco sauce
2 tsp oregano

Mix together; bring to boil. Simmer 5 minutes. Process pints in boiling water bath 15 minutes. Makes 7-8 pints. I often keep a quart of un-processed salsa in my fridge—it doesn’t stick around long enough to go bad.

Bruges

Bruges is a gourmet waffle and fries place at 42 W Center street in Provo.

Prices are a bit high even for gourmet but the food is delicious. I got the Liege waffle with creme fraiche and the fried with the pineapple curry sauce and the green sauce.

The waffle is super sweet and they put a ton of cream on top so it is definitely good but eating the whole thing can be a bit much. They have another type of waffle that isn't as sweet as well as numerous toppings and even waffle sandwiches.

The fries were very good. Crispy, not too greasy and great dips. I can't decide which dip I liked more. The greens dip was fresh and light but the curry based dip was reminiscent of a fry sauce but so  much more. It was a little sweet with the curry undertone that worked really well with the fries.

All in all, good food, but definitely a treat and not a regular thing.

Spatezle/Knopfle

• 1.5 cups flour
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup milk
• dash nutmeg
• season with salt and pepper

• butter
• grated Gruyere cheese (4 oz)
• 1/4 cup cream
• dash paprika

Set water to boil.

Mix the first set of ingredients together into a loose dough.

When the water is boiling,  use a spaetzle maker or a colander with large holes and put 1/3 of the dough in and push or scrape it through the holes to form little dumplings.

After it the dough rises to the top, cook for 2-3 minutes then use a slotted spoon to scoop out all the spaetzle and put it in a clean colander and rinse with cold water. Repeat twice with the remaining dough.

 

Then heat a pan and melt some butter in it. Just as the butter starts to sizzle toss in the spaezle and brown lightly, stirring often. Turn off the heat and stir in the cheese, cream and paprika. Serve.

Rice Wok

Rice Wok is located at 1468 N State Street Orem, UT

Staff was busy cooking, taking phone orders, and orders at the counter so it seems a bit slow and they didn't really acknowledge you till you were ordering but service wasn't bad by any means. I would reccomend phoning your order in ahead of time if you are in a rush.


I ordered the appetizer sampler and Pork Lo mein combination plate.


The sample comes with 2 of each appetizer (except the bbq pork so 5 types) for 6.99. It also includes four dipping sauces; a great option for someone who wants to try it all. 4/5 were fried but it didn't feel greasy. It wasn't a tempura on the shrimp, more of a bread type batter but it was well seasoned. The egg roll, potstickers, and cheese wonton were all good but nothing extraordinary. The paper wrapped chicken however was interesting. It seems like chopped chicken seasoned with a soy based sauce then wrapped in tinfoil and pressed into a little triangle then cooked. It was moist and flavorful but an odd (though not unpleasant) texture.

As for the pork lo mein. It was good but not super flavorful and the pork was a bit tough. A good amount of vegetables though.

Thom Ka

After eating this at Spicy Thai (see last post) I decided I needed to create a version of my own.

• 1/2 cup mushroom cut into matchstick siced pieces
• 1/2 cup carrot cut into matchstick siced pieces
• 1 cup lemongrass, cleaned, sliced in half and then into inch long chunks
• 1 ginger root, peeled and cut into eighths 
• handful of cilantro leaves
• 1 lime
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 1 large chicken breast, sliced thin
• 2 cans coconut milk
• 2 Tbsp fish sauce
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• cilantro, lime and avocado for garnish

Start by lightly sauteeing in a large pot the mushroom and carrot in a little oil just to soften them. Then turn heat off.

At the same time in medium pot simmer chicken stock, lemon grass, ginger, cilantro, and lime for 20 minutes.

When the stock has simmered add it and the chicken to the pot with the veggies. Simmer till the chicken is cooked, at least 10 minutes. Then add in the coconut milk, fish sauce and sugar. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Serve with garnish.

Spicy Thai

Spicy Thai is located at 3230 N University Ave, Provo, Ut


I ordered Beef Pad Thai and Thom Ka soup.

Staff was friendly and my to go order came fairly quickly.

A cup of soup is 2.99 and the pad thai was 8.79. You can customize your spice level and since i am a wimp I asked for no spicy. None. Unfortunely that apparently menat no flavor to them. I have had pad thai other places where even without the heat the flavor was strong. Not so here. I hope their spicy dishes have more flavor.

Luckily the Thom Ka was delicious. Good chunks of vegetable and slices of tender chicken and a coconut based broth that is well flavored and immensely satisfying. I wish I had skipped the pad thai and gone for a bowl of that instead.

Hello again

Just after the holidays I moved back to Provo and got two jobs. It's been an adjustment and since one of the jobs involves food (sadly I don't get to cook it but oh well) I haven't been cooking as much. Posts will be somewhat infrequent but when I make something new I'll try to add it here.