Tag: easy to make

Japanese Quick Cucumber Pickle

I made mom lunch recently and took her some of these pickles, that she LOVED. She gave me the recipe / technique on getting it right so I thought I’d share this with whomever wanted to use it!

Japanese Quick Cucumber Pickle

  • Servings: 1
  • Difficulty: quite easy, if I do say so myself
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Ingredients: (portions all depend on how much cucumber you use)

  • English Cucumber
  • Salt
  • Soy Sauce (I always use low sodium)
  • Sesame oil

Directions:

  • Peel strips of these cucumber skin to make the cucumber look nice.
  • Cut the cucumber in half, lengthwise.
  • Slice cucumber in to thin but even slices.
  • Place cucumber in a bowl and add some salt so that all the pieces get salted. Let sit for a few minutes, until cucumber becomes less crunchy and bendable.
  • Rinse well and squeeze out liquid the salt has pulled out of the slices. The cucumber should taste a little salty but still like cucumber after rinsing.
  • Place cucumber slices in a clean bowl and add some soy sauce over them. You don’t need a lot but enough that it can touch all the slices.
  • Add a dash of sesame oil to the bowl (a little bit goes a long way).
  • Stir and let sit for 5-10 minutes (maybe more if you have more than 1 whole cucumber).
  • Enjoy!

The most difficult part is making thin, even slices of cucumber because I don’t want to cut it slowly. But with practice, I’ve gotten better.

Brazilian Cheese Bread (Pão de Queijo)

My friend Megan posted on Facebook about making these delights. I can’t tell you exactly when I first had them but almost every Brazilian restaurant serve them and they are delicious! You have to be careful though – they fill you up a lot quicker than you’d imagine. I made these for a pot luck and they were a HIT! I now know what I’ll take to many pot lucks in the future because they are so easy to make. Next time, I’m going to try adding roasted red peppers or garlic or jalapeños. What other flavors do you think would go well with this recipe?

Ingredients:
1 egg (have at room temp)
1/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cup tapioca flour
2/3 to 3/4 cup (packed) shredded cheese – queso fresco is preferred but sharp cheddar works well.
salt to taste (use about 1 tsp the first time)

These will need to bake in a mini-muffin pan. This will make a batch of around 16.

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a blender, pulse all ingredients until smooth. Tapioca flour is much like corn starch and not like flour. It will stick to the side of the blender so have a spatula ready to scrape downy he sides as you blend.

If your muffin tin isn’t non-stick, you will want to grease before filling. When you fill the mini-muffin tin, fill each one about 3/4 or so full. They will puff up while baking so don’t worry about filling each one to the brim.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. When ready, they will be puffy and lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool before serving.

This recipe originally came from the Simply Recipes website – http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/easy_brazilian_cheese_bread/. What is posted here is the original recipe with my modifications and recommendations.