#12amcravings

The last leg our of South American expedition was Peru! Naturally, our adventures took us from Lima to Cuzco down to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu where trout is always freshly caught from the river. There’s no stop that we wouldn’t make, and when it comes down to just buying from local street vendors, we’re down! Just to give you a walk through where our foodie adventures took us:

Inca Corn - The kernels are huge and the corn itself is meatier. It’s different from the sweet corn that we tend to grow back in the states and is great for frying or just adding some body in salads. We found this one in the archaeological town of Pisac where the surrounding views are terraces made during the Incan period and beautiful, colorful street vendors. You can either eat plain, with salt, or with the chile picante sauce that’s handmade by the vendor. 

Chicharron sandwich - Admittedly we stopped by a cafe to grab this sandwich because we were hungry. When we sliced into it, we thought that there was a thick piece of cheese, but in actuality it’s sweet potato! That sweet potato and the pickled onions were just the perfect cut for the fatty just very flavorful and beautiful cooked chicharron. The bread was perfectly toasted as well which made the sandwich all the more memorable. Eat that with a pisco sour and you’re set for lunch!

Churros stuffed with Custard - We found a tiny little local churro stand where the line of locals were definitely out the door. Naturally, we ducked in and got one of these which were more filling than bread... and it was delicious! It was a perfect snack to have when walking around Lima. 

Cuy - Aka guinea pig. It’s one of Peru’s delicacies. Depending on the region, cuy can be prepared differently. Those near the coast tend to deep fry their cuy whereas those in the Andean regions cook cuy over spitfire. Admittedly, I was scared to even try, but I mustered up the strength to do so. When in Peru... eat as the Peruvians do, right? It was surprisingly delicious and crunchy, almost like a smaller suckling pig. 

Ceviche - This was highly recommended by someone we knew who was from Peru (along with cuy and Chifa, of course). We had a trout ceviche in Machu Picchu since it was right next to the Urubamba River where trout is abundant. 

Chifa - The Peruvians definitely know how to cook their Chinese food. Chifa is a wonderful fusion of Peruvian and Chinese cuisine. The inspiration is primarily Chinese dishes but the ingredients and spices used are local. Some of the dishes we tried were shu mai with trout, shrimp, and pork, fried rice (which was not greasy and oh-so-yummy) and steamed trout in the traditional sauce that’s usually served with white fish in Chinese restaurants. The locals tend to frequent Chifa restaurants, and we met some wonderful locals while sitting down and trying to order in Spanish!

Our travels to Argentina taught us that Argentinians definitely know how to cook their meat. In empanadas, the meat is flavored with punches of flavors and spices. When you’re out on the ranch with the gauchos, sometimes all you need is just a little salt and pepper and some chimichurri sauce. In Buenos Aires, we tried various types of empanadas that are either baked or fried. Both versions are good, but the best empanada we had came out of a basket from someone working on a gaucho ranch. It was a beautifully fried, golden brown, and packed with a lot of carne. It was so juicy that we needed the napkin in order to catch the juices that spilled from the bottom corner when we bit into them. One of the best empanadas we had!

Also on the ranch we saw the gauchos grilling and it smelled GOOD. The gauchos ate a fairly healthy diet with little carbs and more meat and vegetables. In addition to the meats grilled above, they made salads using fresh vegetables, cabbages, tomatoes - whatever else you could find at the local market. We tried their version of steak and chicken but the must-try meats that were being grilled were the blood sausage and the Argentine chorizo. 

The blood sausage is rich and hearty. You don’t eat the skin but you do eat the filling, and if you eat it with some bread or even your salad, it’s really very tasty. My favorite though was the chorizo. It’s not like the chorizo that we get back in the States. In fact, when you slice the chorizo you can see the pieces of cubed fat that’s rendered so nicely (crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside). It’s one of the best and now we want to try making our own version of the Argentine chorizo!

The gauchos also prepared one of my most favorite desserts for me: flan! Even better was that they added dulce de leche to eat with it. Surprisingly, it wasn’t all that sweet and tasted really good. My inner child was so happy!

One of the desserts that we had was recommended to us by a local Argentinian woman that we sat next to on the plane. We tried to practice our Spanish with her and she was so appreciative that she told us about alfahores, a sweet biscuit dessert that’s very South American. It’s basically like a way better version of an Oreo with biscuit crackers and dulce de leche cream in between them. Sometimes they’re dipped in chocolate (like the one we tried) and sometimes the biscuits are left alone. In both versions, the dessert itself isn’t too sweet (despite the fact that dulce de leche is holding the cookies together) which is both our preference. 

It was Labor Day weekend and we honestly weren’t really going out and looking for steak to cook. It just so happened that when we were at the grocery store in the butcher section, there was one tomahawk steak that caught the hubby’s eyes. In fact, he returned to the butcher three or four times just to check it out and then, because we were like “why the fuck not?”, we bit the bullet and bought it. Right at that moment, we decided to grill steak, asparagus and mushrooms for dinner. It’s perfect since we’ve both been mindful of the amount of carbs we intake.

Another challenge that we decided to take on? Every time either of us orders a tomahawk steak at a steakhouse, it’s never really cooked the way we liked. It’s always either too raw/chewy or too overdone. There’s never really that nice, pink color in the middle. 

We seasoned the tomahawk with nothing particularly special, just the seasoning we always use when cooking steak. 

Seasoning:

Salt

Pepper

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Dried thyme

Dried rosemary

Extra virgin olive oil

We let the seasoning sit for a little bit just so the meat can pick up all the flavorings. In this case while we were setting up our grill. We’re all about the charcoal grill - at least that’s what the hubby uses. I’m not that great with grills, but I’ve learned from watching him grill that you need to have the coals on one side of the grill for your direct heat and then have one side coal-less for your indirect heat.

The hubby used the reverse sear technique in order to cook the tomahawk because it’s so big. Searing it regularly would char the outside but not cook the inside to our liking. So... we started by putting the meat on the indirect heat side and covered the grill for about 30 minutes. Once we’re ready to eat, that’s when we move the tomahawk steak to the direct heat side and sear that until it’s nice and charred on the outside (to our liking, of course). 

It’s meatless Monday and with it now being rainy and winter in California, we decided to splurge on a hot pot bowl and make some vegetarian hot pot. It’s a highly versatile dish that you can make many different ways! The soup base is entirely up to you, but here’s how we did it and the veggies that we served alongside it.

Soup Base:

Mirepoix (chopped chinks of carrots, celery and onion)

Asian vegetarian seasoning (it was something we found in the Asian market, but if you don’t really know what to look for, just find a vegetarian bouillon)

A few splashes of Maggi Soy Sauce to taste depending on liquid amount

Konbu

Smashed whole ginger

Medjool dates

Chopped or whole crimini mushrooms

Basically all you need to do is just combine all of the above with water, bring to a boil and then ladle the soup into the hotpot bowl. The hotpot bowl will keep it night and hot for you to dump your vegetables in. 

Ideas for Veggies to Serve Alongside:

Chopped Napa cabbage (a staple in Asian hot pot)

Crown daisy leaves

Oyster mushrooms

Enoki mushrooms

White beech mushrooms

Tofu sheets (it’ll come as a dry, dehydrated tofu sheets. All you have to do is soak in a tub of water until it re-hydrates. Then you slice it up and serve)

Glass noodles (it’ll come as dry when you purchase them. Soak it in a bath of water for at least an hour. Then when you’re ready to eat, throw it into your hot pot to cook)

Dipping sauce for the veggies that come out of the hot pot soup is literally just sesame oil (or sesame chili oil), salt and pepper.

After a long work week with extra long commutes, we decided to spend our Friday the 13th not doing spooky stuff. Instead, we were going to binge watch our favorite Japanese trash TV: Terrace House. The new season came out on Netflix and we haven’t been able to watch a lot of episodes throughout the week. We wanted to make a meal that would put us in the Terrace House-mood and let bring us back to our last trip to Japan (during our honeymoon!). 

One of the first meals that we had when we were about to head from Tokyo to Kyoto after we landed was at Yoshinoya. Both of us ordered gyudon because it was quick, yummy, and delicious! So what better way to throw us back than to make some homemade gyudon! 

It’s a really quick dish to make if you have the ingredients ahead of time and have prepped. Honestly the longest thing to make is the dashi and most of that time is just wait time. We also used whatever was in our pantry so we didn’t have to buy what we didn’t need. 

Here’s how we made it (modified for low carb considerations for me!):

Ingredients:

1 onion, slices thin and long

Thin sliced beef, I just purchased a package from the Japanese market that already sliced it thing for me. Otherwise, you can even just buy chuck beef and slice it thin yourself.

1 1/2 - 2 cups of dashi, which is a broth that we made at home with bonito flakes, konbu and dried mushrooms

4 tbsp of soy sauce or coconut aminos. Both will add lots of umami to the dish. I just kind of eyeball it and add more to taste. 

1/2 tsp of stevia. Traditionally you would use sugar, but since I’m trying to cut back the carbs, I substituted with stevia instead and it tasted practically the same!

2 tbsp sake. I just bought the cheapest one at the store.

1 tsp (or more) of grated ginger. We love ginger so we upped the amount. 

Instructions:

The first step is to make the dashi. It’s pretty easy. You can use a cheesecloth or just strain the broth once you’re done. Basically all you have to do is boil water, bonito flakes, konbu, and dried mushrooms. We added to taste and it really depends on how much dashi you want to make. We used at least a 1/2 cup of bonito flakes and 2 konbu sticks. Normally we’d add about a 1/2 cup of dried mushrooms but we didn’t have that on hand. Still tasted good though!

Slice the onion into nice slightly thin slices. 

Add 1 1/2 - 2cups of dashi into a cooking pan and then add the onions. Bring to a quick boil for about 3-4 minutes. 

Add the soy sauce, stevia and sake and cook down to reduce the sake. Taste it to see if you want to add a bit more soy sauce for extra flavor. 

Add the ginger and cook for another minute. 

Add the beef into the cooking pan and basically move the beef around until it’s cooked and not pink. It might take a few minutes or so, but it should be a really quick cook. 

Add the beef over some steamed rice and add a fried egg on top if you like! For a low carb alternative, I added my beef over baby bok choy that I cooked in the extra dashi that I made. For a little extra flavor, I added some of that gyudon liquid into the bok choy as it steamed. 

Twas the night before Thanksgiving. We’ve done all the prepping for the big day, but we realized that we needed to still eat dinner. For us, it was important to eat as healthy as we could before the morning Turkey Trot 5K that we’ll be running. And so what’s better than one of our favorite childhood meals: steamed fish? 

The best looking fish at the store that day was Chilean sea bass so we figured why not splurge a little and spoil ourselves with some good quality fish? And when you have fish that good, you don’t need much more than very simple ingredients in order to really let the flavor of the fish shine. And so, here’s the recipe to one of our favorite dishes cooked in a different manner than the traditional Asian sense. We decided to cook in en papillote. 

Ingredients:

Chilean sea bass fillet

Coconut aminos (substituting for soy sauce)

Rice wine vinegar

Sesame Oil

Minced fresh garlic

Fresh ginger slices

Celery, sliced as seen in the picture

Green onions, chopped

Sliced jalapenos (optional)

Sauce: 

There’s really no measurement to it. It’s all just a matter of preference and taste so taste your sauce as you combine ingredients. Remember that if it tastes too salty, you can always add a little bit of water. Also remember that when the fish steams, the juices will also combine with the sauce to help mellow out some of the saltiness. 

Combine the coconut aminos, rice wine vinegar, and sesame oil (a little goes a long way for this one) and stir. 

Mince up the garlic and add to the sauce. 

Slice up the fresh ginger, jalapenos (optional) and green onions and also add to the sauce. 

Stir to combine and the taste test to make sure it’s to your liking. 

Procedures:

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Take a good size piece of parchment paper and place the fillet of sea bass on top. Season with salt and pepper. 

Add the sliced celery and sprinkle it on top of the fish. 

Pour the sauce over the fish and make sure it coats the entire fish. 

Fold over the parchment paper and then wrap it around tightly so that there’s no way for steam to escape. I just roll the edges so that it’s tightly wrapped into a little package and it almost looks like an empanada.

Place on a baking sheet (just in case) and into the oven for approximately 20 minutes (more or less depending on the size of your fish). 

I said that I was going to post the good, the bad, and the ugly. The best way to get better, especially with baking, is to just simply practice. I learn a lot more from my failures than I do my successes, and my attempt at making a snickers tart is no different!

So it all started when I found a snickers tart recipe on Tumblr. Snickers happens to be the hubby’s favorite chocolate bar... so why not? The recipe called for a lot of butter and a lot of sugar, but as I was walking through the grocery store and looking for the ingredients that I needed, I stumbled upon some better alternatives than our traditional semi-sweet chocolate or brown sugar. I found brown coconut sugar and dark chocolate that is sweetened with Stevia leaves, both of which are great one-for-one substitutes. I also bought some local honey from the farmer’s market over the weekend, so I decided to use that instead of maple syrup. 

The recipe can be found here: https://fullcravings.tumblr.com/post/188929348458/snickers-almond-tart

Here’s what I learned when attempting to make the tart:

I fucked up the crust... almost... but it was saved! It’s no secret that I am not a great baker, but that doesn’t stop me from trying. I don’t have a tart pan so instead I just used a pie dish. When I first made the crust, I forgot to push it up the sides (stupid mistake, I know), so baking took forever. Funny enough, after I took it out of the oven, the dough was still buttery and moist enough for me to mold into a tart-looking crust so... yay!

The caramel came out way better than I thought! I was afraid of it the most because I’ve never made caramel before, and it’s something that I’ve seem people mess up. The brown coconut sugar worked really well, so if you ever want to try and substitute for a healthier alternative, try brown coconut sugar.

I definitely fucked up on the chocolate ganache... and sadly it wasn’t savable. The good thing was that even though the heavy cream curdled and the ganache looked grainy, it still tasted really good. In the end, aside from appearance, it was still a nice, crunchy layer of dark chocolate (similar to that of the chocolate shell around a real snickers bar). 

So I’ve been trying to reduce the amount of carbs I’ve been consuming which also means that I can’t indulge in pie like I want to. There’s a diner nearby that makes really good pies, and one of their specialties is the blueberry sour cream pie. It’s absolutely delicious and I happen to love blueberry anything... the problem is really the amount of sugar that’s in the pie which definitely isn’t in line with my healthy eating pledge. 

So how can I eat the foods I love without sacrificing my lifestyle change? I started looking up some low-carb pie recipes online and there were many that talked about a coconut flour crust and some sort of sugar substitute. Immediately I thought of stevia. I’ve eaten the leaves from the stevia plant before which was pretty good, and the bonus is that it’s low on carbs.

Funnily enough, I happen to have both on hand which meant that I was on a mission. I was going to make my favorite blueberry pie.

Low Carb Coconut Flour Pie Crust:

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup Stevia

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup (or one stick) of cold butter cut into cubes

Procedures:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whisk the eggs, extra virgin olive oil and vanilla extract in a food processor. 

In another bowl, whisk the stevia, salt and coconut flour together until combined and then add it to the wet mixture in the food processor. 

Add the cubed butter. 

Pulse the mixture until it looks like crumbles. 

Pour the mixture into a pie tray and then work quick to press the pie crust with your hands. The first time I made this, I didn’t press hard enough so the bottom crust was a bit thick, but I now know better for next time!

Poke holes into the pie crust with a fork. 

Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. 

If you’re going to bake the pie again, cover the crust’s edge with foil when baking again. 

While the pie crust is baking, I got started on the filling which I will need to heat up and then cool alongside the pie crust. 

Blueberry pie filling

Ingredients:

2 1/2 to 3 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries. I happen to have frozen on me so I used those. 

2 tsp of stevia

1 1/2 to 2 tbsp of chia seeds to thicken the mixture. I eyeball this one until the mixture is about the right texture. 

Lemon zest and lemon juice from 1 nice-sized lemon. 

Procedures:

I basically cooked the blueberries, stevia, lemon zest and lemon juice in a sauce pan until the juices of the blueberries come out. I cooked over medium heat and then raised it slightly until the mixture hit its boiling point and the blueberries popped. 

Afterward, I turned off the heat and removed the sauce pan. At that point, I waited for the mixture to cool slightly before adding in the chia seeds. Once added, constantly stir until you can see the blueberry mixture thicken to a nice pie consistency.

Let cool until room temperature alongside the pie crust. 

The key is to wait for both the crust and mixture to cool until room temp because that’s when you add the mixture into the pie crust. Stevia has a certain after taste that can be quite strong for those who aren’t used to it. The key is to balance that sweetness with the acidity of the lemon juice/zest and (the kicker) Greek yogurt. 

I added a good amount of Greek yogurt on top of the pie before I placed it in the fridge to set. I did add some lemon juice to the Greek yogurt before putting it on the pie, but it’s really up to you. When it sits in the fridge, the yogurt will get some of that nice blueberry flavor.