By Word And Mouth

Simple and healthy: Seared Diver Scallops, Butternut Squash Puree, and Sauteed Swiss Chard

2013-02-08T17:26:00.001-05:00

So as mid-February approaches most people are either giving up on their New Year's resolutions or finally getting around to them. Well here is a meal that surely can't hurt and will definitely impress (to offset that embarrassing belly fat that is still inexplicably hanging around). Check out the rest of the pics and some basic instructions after the jump.

So rule number uno when cooking scallops in this fashion: buy the good ones. Good ones are labeled as "Diver" or "Day Boat" (a.k.a. "dry") and are packed as is, after they're harvested off the ocean floor by Joe SCUBA. Other scallops, plainly known as "Wet," are soaked in a phosphate substance for preservative and price injecting effects. Wet scallops bathe in that milky white substance that you see prominently displayed at most supermarkets.

wet scallops vs. dry scallops
Photo Credit

You see, the when your fish guy goes to measure your wet scallops, he doesn't give you a discount for the moisture that your Casper shaded friends have absorbed for however long they've been hanging out in that disturbing tub of preservatives. So you're paying top dollar for preservatives. Not only are you losing out on your buck, but you're scallops will shrink during cooking as the moisture evaporates. So those big boys on the left (above) will end up smaller than the guys in the right. This added moisture also releases into the pan and makes it tough to get a good sear that everyone loves, and thus your texture is compromised.

So now that you've bought some dry scallops, let's give you the basic outlines of this recipe.

Even though you bought "dry" scallops, these suckers came from the ocean, so they're going to have some water in them. Drain them for 10-20 minutes then toss them on a paper towel for another 10 minutes. Drop the scallops in a medium hot pan for a couple minutes on each side after seasoning with just a bit of salt and pepper.

The Filet Mignon of the Sea - I could have dried them out a bit more during prep

For the puree, I just boiled the crap out of some butternut squash and threw that in the food processor with some fresh chopped garlic, salt, and pepper. You'll probably need a little liquid to smooth it all out. I used coconut milk (go to the foreign food aisle and find the Goya section - it shouldn't be more than $1.19 a can).

The Swiss chard was just sauteed in some coconut oil until tender but with a slight bite left to it.

Gratuitous closeup, nomnom

So there you have it. A healthy, delicious meal that will be an absolute crowd pleaser.

Next up - meals from my trip to Costa Rica! Stay tuned.

What I Cooked During Sandy

2013-01-03T21:53:00.000-05:00

First of all, I apologize for the hiatus. A change of residences, coupled with the holidays, added to some sneaking laziness has kept me from putting together a post for a while. So bare with me as I play catch-up, but I promise to start pumping these out with a little more regularity.

Let me start off by saying that we were some of the lucky ones. Hurricane Sandy devastated the state of New Jersey and her wrath will be felt for years to come. However, since this blog is about food, we'll stick to that.

In between the aforementioned moves, I was shacked up at my parents house in suburban Northwest NJ, far from the reaches of the lurching ocean or any other swelling bodies of water. So things were pretty normal for a while besides a few missing shingles and down trees, but I knew it could get worse, so I decided to throw a big pork shoulder in the slow cooker with the plans of having plenty of leftovers. The result was some delicious pulled pork that I topped with a quick bbq sauce of tomato paste and the pork stock, and a spicy green sauce with a cilantro and jalapeno base, modeled after Peruvian Aji.

I awoke the next morning and the wind was still whipping, but the power was still on. Taking advantage of the situation, I decided to make a frittata studded with some of the left over pulled pork, sauteed onions, green onions, and cheddar cheese.

Thennnnn...the lights went out. For the next 8 days, we were relegated to cooking on the grill on the deck or the camping grill that my dad had picked up while traveling through the Blue Mountains a couple weeks prior.

Blue Mountains courtesy of the Captain

Lucky for me, not only did my dad pick up the camping grill, but he also had some nice ribeye steaks from Costco. Salt, pepper, and a basic salad and I was ready to go.

The next day, I decided to breakout the colossal crab meat that Lisa's dad had been kind enough to donate to us from his warehouse at OceanLine Seafood. I went with a fillerless crab cake that was all crab all the time. I pan seared them on the camping grill and topped it with some of the left over Aji sauce from the pulled pork.

Finally, after exhausting all of my fancy treats, I kept it as simple as possible - a buger with American cheese on a toasted bun (on the camping grill).

Wingfest NYC - Wings, Beer, Whiskey

2012-10-01T22:40:00.001-04:00

Wingfest NYC was held this past Saturday at a loft space in Chelsea. For your $55 ticket, you got three hours of all you could eat wings, and almost all you could drink whiskey and beer (they started to run out at the end). Check out the rest of the debauchery after the jump.

Your ticket also bought you a voice in the competition. Each entry was granted a poker chip to drop into the bucket of the vendor they enjoyed the most. I happened to really like the wings from BBQ Smoke Shack with their habanero sauce on the side. I must have impeccable taste...because they won, dethroning the two-time defending champions from Duke's.

The winners claim their trophy

The bulk of our time was spent picking apart as many chicken wings as possible, guzzling Wild Turkey whiskey drinks, and ferociously licking our fingers. It was a culinary comedy. I was worried about mixing that much buffalo sauce with my camera, but a few wet-naps helped preserve everything. Enjoy the rest of the pictures.

Vendy's 2012 - The Year's Single Greatest Collection of NYC Street Food

2012-09-17T22:42:00.001-04:00

So once a year, the best street food vendors from New York City, as nominated by the people, congregate for a day of feasting, imbibing, and general foodie merriment. The festival takes place on the beautiful Governors Island, which is just a 5 minute, complimentary ferry ride off the southern tip of Manhattan. Food trucks, carts, and street vendors set up in an open field and represent nearly every corner of the globe. This was the biggest Vendy Awards yet, and there were over 20 vendor's on site. Check out the pictures of almost everything we ate (and we ate almost everything) after the jump.

Baby Got Back Ribs
Sweet bbq rib, 21 spice dry rub rib, jalapeno cornbread, and apple cabbage slaw

Mayhem & Stout
Braised short rib and brisket with blueberry sriracha and pickled vidalia onions (left)
Braised pork shoulder with asian bbq sauce and spicy slaw (right)

Pestle and Mortar
Lobster and shrimp ceviche with mango, microgreens, and a fried wonton chip

Piaztlan Authentic Mexican
(Left, Top, Right) Al Pastor, Carne Asada, and Goat tacos

Fun Buns
Taiwanese style pork belly with cilantro, pickled mustard greens, and crushed peanut sugar

Chinese Mirch
Veggie and meat dumplings over sesame noodles

Parantha Alley
Keema (minced chicken) stuffed roti bread with cucumber spiced yogurt, cilantro chutney, and radish relish

Tortas Neza
(Left, Top, Right) Gordita with chicharron (fried pork skin) and fresh queso, chicken milanesa torta with spicy peppers, pork carnitas torta with quesillo

Xin Jiang Prosperity Kebabs
Chicken, steak, and lamb kebabs

Lumpia Shack
Filipino style spring rolls done three ways, including with duck

Uncle Gussy's
Sampler of chicken and lamb over rice with salad and fries

Hamza and Madina Halal
Chicken, lamb, and falafel over rice

Cinnamon Snail
Fig pancake with pine nut butter and blood orange syrup, white macadamia nut twinkie, bourbon vanilla donut

Coolhaus
Dirty mint chip ice cream with double chocolate sea salt cookie (left)
Bushmills honey whiskey candied bacon ice cream with chocolate chip cookie (right)
Edible napkin (both)

Morocho
Aji de gallina - spicy chicken, eggs, and potatoes

Phil's Steaks
Philly cheese steak whiz wit'

Melt Bakery
Red velvet ice cream sandwich

Food Trucks at the Jets Game

2012-08-19T23:36:00.000-04:00

Not only did the New York Jets host their first home game of the '12-'13 season on Saturday, but they also debuted their newest edition to gameday fare at Metlife Stadium. They're calling it Food Truck City and it's a collection of some of New York City's favorite food trucks. The trucks in attendance included Kelvin Natural Slush, Nuchas Empandas, and Rickshaw Dumpling (other favorites like Mexicue and Schnitzel and Things are planning on making appearances in the future). Check it out after the jump.

The trucks were lined up next to each other over near the main gate to the stadium. Let me tell you, these trucks really add a new dimension to the tailgating experience. Gone are the days of blistered hot dogs and frozen burgers - Food Truck City ups the ante. First up was the Rickshaw Dumpling truck. They were offering 3 varieties of dumplings that you can see in the menu below.

I sampled one of each of the dumplings (for completeness of course) and I left completely satisfied. The edamame had a creamy filling that bursted with edamameness. The chicken came mixed with glass noodles as an added surprise. It was light and tasty with the basil really coming through at the end. Oh, and the peanut sate dip was so good that if they canned it, you might see me shotgunning that instead of a Bud Light. My favorite of the trifecta had to be the pork. Dumplings were made for pork and the fat from the pork kept these guys nice and juicy. The soy dip was exactly what I crave when I'm eating my dumplings and it was the perfect compliment to cut through some of the richness of the pork.

Next up was the Nuchas Empandas truck. The lovely ladies from Nuchas were dishing out empandas five ways and I had my eye set on the Argentine. I've never been able to turn down Lafrieda beef and I wasn't about to start.

The filling in the Argentine (which is always my preference over saying Argentinean for those of you counting) was essentially a delicious picadillo. The vegetables married joyously with the super flavorful beef, and it was all tucked inside a lusciously light empanada crust. I will definitely be back to try out the rest.

Finally, to wash it all down, I headed over to Kelvin Natural Slush (named after the Kelvin scale, but I'm sure you guys already checked your 7th grade science books to refresh your memory). Kelvin always has there three basic slushes that they flavor with their fresh mix-ins.

I didn't even see the "Game Day Special - Gang Green Palmer" before my friend ushered me towards a ginger mint slush, but I'm glad he did. The ginger and mint combo was wonderfully refreshing on a hot day and the slush wasn't too sweet. I had several brain freezes in the minutes that followed.

So next time you're at a Jets game, check out Food Truck City for sure. It's a unique experience that you won't find anywhere else, and it will definitely bring your tailgate to a whole new level.

Eating Australia Part 2: Brisbane, The Gold Coast, and a Final Meal in Sydney

2012-07-02T18:50:00.003-04:00


Brisbane

So after about 5 days exploring Sydney, we hopped on a plane and rode about an hour north up the seaboard to the Gold Coast. This was where my brother was studying and where we would spend the next 5 days. The Gold Coast is about an hour train ride south of Brisbane and despite being surrounded by beautiful beaches, my brother wanted to take us to Australia's 3rd most populated city. First of all, the city was beautiful. The architecture and infrastructural layout was marvelous. Anyways, we were headed to the Brisbane Farmers Market that my brother had been to before, and after a few wrong turns we stumbled across a sea of canopies set up in the central business district. This market had more fresh produce than prepared food, but there were still plenty of options for eating. Check it all out after the jump.

Our first stop was the mushroom stall. These people were making several dishes that all revolved around mushrooms as the main ingredient. We opted for sauteed mushrooms with rosemary, green onions, and chili flakes. If ever at the Brisbane Farmers Market, DO NOT PASS THESE UP! They are jammed with intense mushroom flavor and they sit in a perfectly salty pond of their own juices from the pan. Mushroom divinity.

Sauteed mushrooms at their finest

Next up was the dumpling station. These guys were steaming up 3 separate kinds of dumplings, so we got one order of the pork, one of the beef, and logically skipped the vegetarian option. The dumplings had a nice thin skin and were fill with juicy, well seasoned meat. They also came drizzled in an Asian peppercorn sauce that had a bit of chili-oil like heat but the peppercorns themselves bursted in your mouth with somewhat of a savory sweetness.

Pork and beef dumplings with an Asian peppercorn sauce

We also grabbed a steamed pork bun from the dumpling stall. While my bun experience is limited, and I am certainly no authority on the subject, this particular example was pretty good. I thought that the bun itself was a little thick and chewy, but I'll have to eat a few more before I can finalize a firm opinion.

Steamed pork bun

After getting a taste of eastern Asia, we strolled over the middle-eastern cart where they were doing shawarma and hummus plates. After filling up a bit, we decided that a hummus plate would be enough. The hummus was serenely simple and had a luscious creamy texture. It was topped with a deep red harissa hot sauce that burned long and dry - it was awesome. We shoveled it down on pita bread until we ran out of the pita, and then just used our fingers.

Hummus with harissa hot sauce and falafel

We spent the next few days wandering around the touristy beach city that is the Gold Coast (and it is a beautiful city). However, because of the tourist label, it's tough to find cultural identifying food without paying a hefty price. So armed with that knowledge, I decided to try and make my own local cuisine. Without any difficulty, we picked up some kangaroo steaks from the super market. With a pantry that consisted of butter, chili oil, yams, salt, and pepper, I went to work in our hotel kitchen. The evening's menu - pan seared kangaroo steak with a side of chili mashed yams.

I won't bore you with the yams - they were good, a little sweet, a little salty, a little spicy. I didn't know much about kangaroo except for the fact that it was a very lean meat. I was expecting something similar to venison, but what I got was something very different. The 'roo, or Skippy as they can be lovingly referred to as, was incredibly tender for being so lean. It was sweeter than beef but had a similar texture. There's not a lot that you can compare it to, you just have to try it.

Home cooked kangaroo and chili mashed yams

On the final night of our trip, we were back in Sydney before the next day's long trek home. We stayed in a hotel near Chinatown, and I figured this was the closest I had ever been to the Far East, so the Far Eastern food here must be legit. Legit it was. We searched out a bustling food court that I had researched and stepped into a low ceilinged space filled with crowded self-seated tables. There were over a dozen eateries, representing various countries and regions, lined up wall to wall around the perimeter. After changing my mind about 40 times, I settled on some Pad-Thai from the only Thai eatery in the joint. I asked the kind lady behind the counter to make it as spicy as possible (which always seems to be met with a tame response in the NYC metro area) and she asked, a little, worried, "Are you sure?"

"Yes please!"

Oh, and spicy it was. This rendition of Pad-Thai not only finally satisfied my scoville itch, but it was truly delicious. There were plenty of peanuts to add a crunch and the noodles were fresh and just chewy enough. The chicken was plentiful and well seasoned. I had to go to the other side of the world, but to date, that was the best Pad-Thai I have ever had.

"Are you sure" Spicy Pad-Thai

Eating Australia Part 1: Sydney Street Food & The Fish Market

2012-06-19T20:11:00.004-04:00

The Sydney Opera House

So it's been a long freaking time since I've updated BWAM, so let me start off by apologizing to you for not keeping up with the food porn pictures since I know that's really the only thing getting you here anyways. Now that I have that out of the way, let's get to the good stuff!

My brother is studying abroad this semester in Gold Coast, Australia - it's about an hour outside of Brisbane. So besides being on my travel bucket list, I had another reason to visit Australia, so my dad I went for about 10 days with our first stop in Sydney. We ate some fantastic meals along the way and you can check it all out after the jump.

Whenever I travel, I try to eat as the locals do, and the easiest way to do that is to eat street food. We landed in Sydney and it wasn't before long that we were in search for something representative of the local cuisine. Our answer - the Eveleigh Farmers' Market in the neighborhood of Redfern. The market is a once-a-week conglomeration of over 70 farmers and local food producers.

Eveleigh Farmers' Market in action

Our first stop was the Eumundi stall that featured an assortment of breakfast (or breaky/brekky for the locals) sandwiches. We went straight for the Confused Egg Sandwich.

The Eumundi menu board - Confused Eggs

The only thing confusing about this sandwich was the fact that my dad and I just split one of them. Shoveled between two ends of a fresh roll was a smattering of eggs, bacon, sautéed onions, lettuce, and their Famous Creole Sauce. The sauce was a tangy and slightly spicy bbq mixture. The lettuce was a little unusual for breakfast but gave it's best effort to lighten up the artery clogging weight of everything else. This was a fantastic breakfast sandwich.

The Confused Egg Sandwich from Eumundi Smokehouse

Next was Kyle Kwong's stall, who's apparent celebrity does not keep her from dishing out fistfuls of Chinese food every Saturday. We were going to just order the savory steamed pancakes filled with organic eggs and vegetables, but then we decided it would be best to supplement that with some steamed dumplings filled with free range pork and plopped in a ginger and tamari broth. The pancakes were fluffy and just had an over super fresh taste. The dumplings were wrapped in a thin dough and contained a juicy and well seasoned ball of pork. But the star of the show was the broth that the dumplings were sitting in. It was perfectly balance and firmly flavored - I drank it out of the cup.

Savory pancakes with organic eggs and veggies from Kylie Kwong

Free range pork dumplings in a ginger and tamari broth

Making our way to the back of the market we came across plenty of stalls to satiate my father's sweet tooth, and he finally settled on a macadamia nut brownie with white chocolate chips from Fare Gourmet. It was a giant square of a slightly fudgy, but light brownie with a nice crunch from the macadamias just the right amount of sweetness added by the white chocolate chips.

Fare Gourmet's Belgian style White Chocolate Chip and Macadamia Nut Brownie

On the way out, we realized that we were still a little hungry, so we split a veggie filled pastry from a stand that I didn't catch the name of. The pastry was croissanty but a little heavier, and was filled with well seasoned squash and seasonal vegetables dressed in a tomato sauce

This is how you become a fat vegetarian.

The next day we headed to the famous Sydney Fish Market - the second largest fish market in the world after Tsukiji in Tokyo. Our primary target at the fish market was the Tasmanian oysters that the bus driver, on the city bus we took to the market, told us about, but that would never fill us up alone. The market itself is sprawling and adjacent from the live auction area where purveyors and restaurants bid on the day's catch (only available to the public via a paid tour), are a series of fast food restaurants and fish markets. So you can't buy directly from the fishermen, but it's about as close as you can get. Not only did we find our oysters, but we found the freshest sashimi I've ever had and some beautiful prawns.

The day's catch on display for purchase

Tasmanian oysters by the dozen - by far the best oysters I've ever had. Sweet, velvety, delicious.

You should get to know these up close and personal if you ever get the chance.

Prawns - worth the effort of peeling, I promise.

Show me fresher sashimi that you didn't catch yourself.

Come back soon for some street food in Brisbane, my first ever time cooking kangaroo, and some seriously spicy Pad Thai on the final night in Sydney.

(Almost) Healthy Anniversary Banana Pancakes w/Cinnamon Infused Syruputter

2012-03-15T19:03:00.001-04:00

Late last month the girlfriend and I ~~frighteningly~~ joyously celebrated our 3rd anniversary so a special meal was definitely expected. I spared her and the other diners around us from breaking out the camera at a cozy little French restaurant in downtown NYC called La Sirene (which was delicious and BYO) - a place recommended to us by our friends Logan and Julia. So the order of the day on Saturday morning...banana pancakes of course. It's a pretty simple (almost) scratch recipe (are we sensing a theme here?) and really isn't bad for you until you get to the syrup/butter combo. Check out the steps to this stack after the jump.

We used whole wheat flour for the batter, mixed in with your standard eggs, baking powder, salt, and milk. The flavor came by the way of some mashed bananas, cinnamon, a hint of vanilla, some coconut oil (see more on that below) and some sweetness from agave syrup. Once it was all mixed together, the flapjacks were cooked in some more of the coconut oil (don't be intimidated, it's super easy to use and healthy alternative to other oils), which burns at a really high temperature and adds a bit of a tropical flavor.

One of the best ways to get nice even circles is to put the batter into squeeze bottle or even re-purpose an old ketchup bottle

I tried using a squirt bottle for the batter but the chunks of banana clogged it up pretty quickly, so I had to take the top off, but the shape of the pancakes still came out pretty even. You know that your pancakes are ready to be flipped when the start forming small bubbles in the surface.

Notice the pancakes starting to bubble...almost ready to be flipped

Once the pancakes are flipped, they should have a nice golden-brown hue. As always, the idea is a nice firm outside that gives way to a soft pillowy inside.

That's about the exact golden-brown I was looking for

For the Cinnamon Infused Syrupbutter (I was really just looking for something fancy and whimsical in the title...swing and a miss, I know, but I'm sticking with the girl I came with) it's a stupidly simple take on something my mom used to make for our pancakes and waffles. Put butter in cup. Put syrup in same cup. Put cinnamon in same cup. Microwave said cup (covered). The result is a lusciously sweet and salty combination that is good enough to drink. Douse your cakes in that sticky stuff and you're guaranteed a good time (no seriously, it will make anything better). Top it all off with a few banana slices and you have yourself an easy gourmet breakfast that will make anyone fall in love with you no matter how long you may have been together.

Good thing 3 year anniversaries only come once

Ingredients:

For Pancakes:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
3 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/4 cup milk
2-3 large eggs
1-2 tbsp agave syrup (honey is fine substitute)
a few tbsp of rendered coconut oil (plus more for the griddle)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For Syruputter:
1 part syrup (we used Aunt Jemima)
0.5-1.0 part butter
cinnamon to taste

Cooking (but it's a cake by name, so is it baking?):
1. In mixing bowl #1 combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt
2. In mixing bowl #2 combine 2 bananas, milk, eggs, agave, coconut oil, and vanilla
3. Pour bowl #2 INTO bowl #1 (this is important to avoid clumpage - clumpage is BAD!)
4. Whisk until basically lump-free. In the meantime, heat coconut oil (enough to very lightly coat the pan) in a large griddle/skillet and preheat oven to some temp under 200 degrees
5. Move the batter from bowl #1 to a squeeze bottle of sorts (optional). Once the oil is melted, start squeezing some batter into whatever size pancake is appropriate for your occasion.
6. After a couple of minutes, small bubbles should form in the surface of your pancakes, this is when they should be flipped. Cook for another couple of minutes.
7. Remove pancakes and put on a plate and put that plate in the oven. The pancakes will continue to cook slightly in the oven while staying warm. Repeat steps 6 and 7 until your satisfied with your stack
8. Somewhere between flips, combine the syruputter ingredients into a cup and microwave (covered) until melted
9. Slice up the last banana, top a stack of cakes, drizzle stack with syruputter, and eat

Mitsuwa - A Buzzing Japanese Food Court/Supermarket

2012-02-20T21:45:00.002-05:00

One of the many gems inside Mitsuwa - the Shrimp Tempura Combo (~ $8.50)

With this 50 degree ~~May~~ February weather rolling through this weekend a couple buddies and I decided that Saturday was a perfect day to go spray some golf balls around at the driving range in Edgwater, NJ. The driving range looks directly over the Hudson River and across to NYC, but the real treat is the Japanese Super Market next door that doubles as a food court. A couple of my coworkers tipped me off to Mitsuwa - "the jam packed parking lot next to the driving range." People from all over the tri-state area venture to Mitsuwa for its authentic Japanese offerings and we found out why. Check out all of the things we tried after the jump.

The space is basically divided in half - one side is a regular grocery store with Asian ingredients adorning each shelf and the other side is a variety of freshly made food offerings from separately operating stores with Japanese names referring to the dishes they serve.

I decided to get some beef curry udon. The noodles had that wonderful chewy bite that I expect from udon and they sat in a brown curry broth that is something between a slightly salty beef stock and Thanksgiving gravy with some Asian spices. The beef was sliced razor thing and seasoned well, but had a little more fat than I may have liked.

Beef curry udon - warms the soul ($6.50).

On the side I got an order of 3 edamame fritters for a buck. How could I say no? These guys were expertly fried with a nice panko crunch and soft edamame, and what I'm guessing was potato, filling. They proved to be a great vehicle for each of the sauces from that first picture above - I'll get to those in a second - and I'd get them every time.

Edamame fritters ($1.00)

Logan went with one of his favorite dishes, chicken katsu. His platter came with a nice size piece of chicken that was very also fried wonderfully. The platter came with a bed of cabbage, some cold mashed potatoes and carrots, a cup of miso soup with pork, a small side of pickled veggies, and the consummate bowl of rice. The chicken was crunchy and juicy and the rest of the ingredients were all super fresh and complimented the each other like a harmonious choir. There were also a few dipping sauces/dressings that really went great with all of the food. There was a tangy almost licorice-like hoisin bbq sauce, spicy yellow mustard, and the crowd favorite, a lemon sesame sauce that we put on everything (see the first picture in the post for the sauces).

Chicken katsu platter (~ $8.00)

Matt went with the indulgent shrimp tempura combo platter. It included all of the accoutrements of Logan's plate (plus a small bowl of sliced mandarin oranges), but the star was the variety of tempura items that lay in the middle of the dish. We couldn't exactly tell you what had been deep fried, but there was definitely shrimp, a couple pieces of asparagus and cheese (that may have been wrapped in a thin layer of chicken), and something else to be identified on our next visit. Despite our inability to pinpoint exactly what Matt was eating, it didn't stop him from handing an empty tray to one of the bussers at the meal's end (the whole platter can be seen at the top of this post).

Tempura asparagus, cheese, and what just may be chicken

I finished my meal off with a serving of Black Sesame ice cream...only in a Japanese supermarket, right? It was kinda nutty and almost had a bit of a chocolaty taste as well. Don't pass this up if you ever make it to Mitsuwa or see it on any menu. It's well worth the adventure.

Black Sesame ice cream - wonderful ($1.99)

Mitsuwa, like any modern supermarket, has stuff for everyone and everything you need. We saw the Japanese or Asian version of anything you would find in your local Shop Rite, and some stuff you wouldn't...like the heated toilet seat that will even clean and dry your undercarriage. Matt even found a nice car ornament to rep his home land.

#MBSK

If you ever get the opportunity, join the masses and check out Mitsuwa, there's something for everyone.

Stuffed Chicken Breast Wrapped in Prosciutto at Emily C.'s

2012-02-03T12:52:00.001-05:00

So this past Sunday we found ourselves dining at our friends Emily and RJ's house and on the menu was stuffed chicken breast to be washed down with a couple bottles of wine. Since I didn't really do anything besides eat and drink, I thought it was only fair to let Emily talk about the food herself. Enjoy.

I’ve known Jason for over 10 years, and it’s always been my lifelong dream to cook him and his girlfriend
dinner so he can steal credit for his own blogging glory. Okay so half of that is true, but given the fact
that I’m lucky to live near some of my oldest and closest friends, I’ve tried to make a conscious effort to
see them more (at least outside of the bar).

And what better way to do that than to share my own love of cooking. So on a nice Sunday evening,
Jason and Lisa ventured to West New York (with 2 bottles of wine!) to spend a long overdue meal
catching up and trying out one of my fan-favorite dishes- Chicken stuffed with Basil, Mozzarella, and
wrapped in Prosciutto. The fresh basil leaves combined with melty cheese and the crispy prosciutto
do all the right things together. And when paired with a balanced red wine, fresh spinach salad with
balsamic and some warm roasted garlic bread, do I really need to sell you on this more? See how it’s
done after the jump.

One of the best parts about this recipe is that it only contains 4 ingredients- don’t get me wrong, I love
to cook with a lot of unique flavors and try out new things, but sometimes you just want something
simple but still tasty.

Sizzle baby sizzle.

A few pro-tips before you get started… Make sure when you get chicken breasts at the grocery
store, you get normal medium-large boneless skinless breasts, not the ‘thin sliced’ or ‘tender breast
strips’. Since you’ll be cramming delicious herbs and cheese into them, you want to find ones that
can withstand getting ripped into a little bit. Additionally, when you’re prepping the chicken, find the
thickest part of the breast to slice into and work slowly, you want to try and avoid cutting through to the
bottom or through to the other side.

Cured Italian meat and melted cheese can feel a little heavy, so the light salad was a nice break every once in a while between bites.

Also treat yo’self and snag some fresh basil leaves, not the dried stuff, otherwise the dish won’t have
the same level of freshness and moisture. Any type of mozzarella is fine - I used fresh sliced as well as a
provolone mozzarella blend I had on hand to add some additional flavor.

One note about the prosciutto- you need about 3-4 pieces to wrap around each chicken breast.
Prosciutto is usually very thinly sliced and delicate, so you need to be careful while doing wrapping the
chicken so you cover up the pocket (otherwise it will spill out when you’re cooking). I suggest wrapping
the prosciutto in somewhat of a criss-cross pattern around the chicken breast. Most slices won’t wrap all
the way around, so just make sure you cover the pocket and you should be fine.

Gratuitous melted cheese cross-section shot

Ingredients (Yield: 4 servings)

-4 medium-large boneless skinless chicken breasts
-Handful of fresh basil leaves (rinsed and ends trimmed)
-Fresh mozzarella (I usually buy one of the $6-7 balls at the store, can never have too much right?)
-1/4 lb deli sliced or pre-packaged prosciutto (if you’re getting from the deli, ask for about 16
slices)
-Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-Salt and Pepper
-Balsamic (optional)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cut a lengthwise pocket in the thickest part of each chicken breast almost all the way through
(similar to a hot dog bun). With your knife, carve/scrape out some of the chicken inside the
pocket to make more room for stuffing.
3. Season chicken breasts well with salt and pepper inside and out.
4. Layer the basil and mozzarella evenly inside each pocket being careful to not tear the chicken.
5. Wrap 3-4 slices of prosciutto around each breast to hold it closed, then brush/rub both sides
with olive oil.
6. Heat a pan to medium-high heat and sear each chicken breast for 3-4 minutes on each side
prosciutto gets slightly brown and crispy.
7. Transfer chicken breasts to glass oven dish and bake uncovered for 13-16 minutes or until
browned and cooked through.
8. Drizzle with balsamic (optional, but a great way to balance the savory/salty prosciutto) and
enjoy!

Pretty nice view to end the night with.

The House To Yourself Burger with Mango Glazed Pork Belly

2012-01-31T17:38:00.001-05:00

Mango glazed pork belly - indulge much?

One recent Sunday, I found myself mildly hungover (one of the good kinds of hangovers, not the bad nauseating kinds) and my roommate, whom I usually share a bed with, was off to visit her parents. Let's all just take a moment to breathe and recognize what a wonderful time this was in my life...ahhhh. After a few glasses of water and a couple games of NBA2K12 on Xbox, I became painstakingly hungry. You know, to the point where your stomach feels like it is scourging through your intestines searching for any reminiscence of nutrients and despite being a middle-class yuppie, you have zero reservations about exclaiming "I'm starving," despite never missing a meal in your life. So I ventured off to the super market and did what they tell you to never do - go shopping while you're hungry. Thirty minutes later I was back in my kitchen with 1 lb. of cube steak (mistake - pun somewhat intended), 1.5 lbs. of pork belly (opposite of a mistake), an avocado, a red onion, cilantro, and a sesame seed roll. Like Captain Planet, the combined powers of all the ingredients created a wonderful, nearly super-hero like synergy that was only held back by the stupid cube steak - check out the results after the jump.

My nemesis - the cube steak

So cube steak (or minute steak for our neighbors to the north) is usually a piece of top round, viciously pounded into something so thin that you can cook it in a minute - those cheeky Canadians! I had never really paid any attention to the this bottom dweller from the beef pyramid, and it was apparently for good reason. As you can see from the picture above, cube steak gives off the impression that it may be ground, but do not be fooled, those markings are of the aforementioned tenderizing, not the work of a meat grinder. This resulted in a lot of stringy pieces of fat making their way into my burger, despite my best bare-handed efforts. The flavor was fine, but the texture just never felt like a burger. Luckily enough, I had some other ingredients that saved the dish - namely the pork belly.

Pork belly comes like a thick slab of uncured bacon, and in this case, still on the rib bone. I had never used it in this pure form before, but a little salt and pepper after carving some slices from the bone was all that it needed before going into the pan.

Pure porcine delight

After letting pork belly brown on both sides and render out some fat, I removed it from the pan, but left the fat in there to cook the burger - something that feels guilt free when you're home alone. I seasoned my burger with some salt, pepper, garlic powder, and mixed in a bit of Worcestershire and panko bread crumbs. I formed a patty with the steak to the best of my ability and tossed it into the pan to sizzle with the pork belly fat. After getting a nice sear on both sides, I topped the steak burger with some extra sharp cheddar, removed it from the pan, and tossed it in under the broiler to melt. While my cheese melted, I put the pork belly back in the pan and tossed it in some Bolthouse Farms mango vinaigrette dressing that I had in the fridge.

This gave the pork a nice sweet glaze to finish it off and gave me a tropical excuse to add guacamole. The guac was a simple ripe avocado, diced red onion, S&P, chopped cilantro, minced garlic, and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. I assembled it all together on my sesame seed bun that I split and grilled. Overall, the flavor profile was awesome. The mango glaze helped cut through some of the rich pork belly and cube steak. The cube steak made life a little more difficult, so in the future, I'll be sticking to ground chuck for my burgers.

Mango glazed pork belly burger with chunky guacamole and extra sharp cheddar on a sesame seed bun.

Ingredients (Yield: 1 - you're by yourself anyways)
1/2 pound ground beef (avoid cube steak!)
1-2 tsp of Worcestershire sauce
a few pinches of panko bread crumbs
a thick slice or two of extra sharp cheddar cheese
1/8 - 1/4 lb. of pork belly
Bolthouse Farms Mango Vinaigrette (or dressing/marinade of your choice)
1 ripe avocado
1-2 tbsp diced red onion
1-2 tbsp of chopped cilantro
1-2 tsp of minced garlic
squeeze of fresh lime juice
garlic powder to taste
salt and pepper to taste
1 serving of no shame

Cooking
1) Season pork belly with a bit of S&P and drop into a med-high pan, browning on both sides.

2) While the pork belly is going, mix ground beef, Worcestershire, and panko together, with a pinch of S&P, using your hands - and don't over mix it or the burger god will punish you with a piece of meat tougher than a Monday morning alarm!

3) Remove pork belly from pan once it is nice and brown and bump the heat up a bit. Toss in the burger and sear on both sides.

4) While the burger is going, combine the avocado, red onion, cilantro, minced garlic, lime juice, and S&P with a fork, making your guac as chunky or creamy as you like (#sexual).

5) Once the burger is seared off on both sides, toss the cheddar on top and put that puppy under the broiler (take it out from the pan)

6) Drop the pan to medium heat and toss the pork belly back into the beef juice laden pan and mix in some of the mango dressing to coat. Cook and toss until the dressing reduces enough so that it's sticking to the pork belly.

7) Grill the bun in a pan over medium heat (I like to add a little butter and garlic powder here because garlic bread is always the tits).

8) Pile everything together between the sesame seed bun and eat your face off - make sure to have some paper towels handy.

Tacos and Sushi Meet in Malibu - Howdy's Taqueria

2012-01-19T11:35:00.000-05:00

This past holiday weekend we were in southern California for the Bar and Bat Mitzvah of my twin cousins. Since it was the girlfriend's first time seeing the Pacific Ocean, we decided to rent a convertible (Ford Mustang - go America!) and head straight for the beach. We explored the Santa Monica Pier and then rented A SINGLE bike - no misprint there, we rented one tandem bike due to her inexcusable fear of riding a bike by herself - and rode down to Venice Beach to wander amongst the colorful locals. The beach - scratch one of the two essential items on our SoCal bucket list. Item numero dos - tacos. For authentic Mexican, I would commit treacherous acts, against even my own family, but LA county has plenty to offer, so there was no need to harm anyone. Fast forward through a windy scenic drive up the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu and we happened upon Howdy's Taqueria. Check out the food and pics after the jump.

Howdy's lies just off the PCH and has a great taco shop feel but the modern touch on the decor and menu keep it from reaching dive status. Not only does this place dish up tacos so authentic you would think a passport is necessary cross the threshold, but the menu also features a variety of sushi options as well. Oh, and it's all organic so the corn tortillas feel a little less guilty. Plus, they have a salsa bar, which is almost always reason enough for me to check a place out.

One of the more elaborate sushi options

I opted for two tacos - one carnitas and one chicken mole ("mol-ayy" for those of you that studied French for some reason instead of Spanish). They run about $4 a piece, which is definitely more expensive than you would expect for tacos in LA, but hey, we were in Malibu. Both tacos came on my favorite Mexican vehicle, two corn tortillas. The carnitas, marinated and braised pork, came topped with cilantro and white onions...a drizzle of orange habanero salsa and a squeeze of lime later and I had a super juicy, generously portioned taco...IT.WAS.AWESOME. Next up was the chicken mole. Mole is a traditional Mexican sauce that has countless variations, but it usually contains some kind of chiles and a bit of chocolate, and is cooked for several hours to develop deep flavors. Howdy's version stayed close to its roots and had a savory start with almost a fruity finish, but it was a great compliment to the surprisingly moist pulled chicken.

Pork Carnitas on the left and Chicken Mole on the right - they also came with some housemade corn tortilla chips to scoop up anything that may have fallen off.

The girlfriend decided to go a more eastern route and ordered a shrimp and avocado roll. The shrimp were lightly tempura battered and the avocado was fresh from California. Not too greasy, the roll disappeared pretty quickly, especially with the spicy mayo served on the side.

Japanese at a taqueria - I think so!

The Cottage - Dining at Lake Placid's Finest View

2012-01-11T21:25:00.000-05:00

Mirror Lake (considered downtown Lake Placid) is the view from The Cottage - albeit about 30 ft. lower

So I must admit that The Cottage is a place that I've been before - just not with a camera, or my family. However, the results were still the same...good drinks, good view, better company, and an even better view. The restaurant/bar sits on the edge of downtown Lake Placid and even closer to the edge of Mirror Lake (for those not familiar with the geography of North Elba, NY, the actual Lake Placid is much larger than the body of water pictured above, however, the landscape lent itself to building the downtown area here instead of on the namesake lake). Anyways, we knew it was a local hotspot so the kids went down early to get our names on the list and post up at the bar for a noontime drink while the old folk slowly collected themselves and got ready for the rest of the day. Check out their famous bloody mary's and what they do to a middle-aged mother after the jump.

Despite my previous visits, I had never been made aware that The Cottage was famous for their bloody mary's. Naturally, if you're at a place that is known for something, you throw whatever preconceived notions you have about it out the window, and you get it (lucky for me, I LOVE bloody marys, especially in Lake Placid for some reason). This particular incarnation was easier to love than a puppy on Christmas morning - the straw nearly exploded from the force that I was sucking this meal of a drink down with. Oh, and they were stiff too...what a combo. After a couple of these, we started to get hungry, but the parents still hadn't arrived, so we just decided to order an appetizer.

This was delicious and the mason jar was a definite bonus point. The next one came with a spicy pickle which really topped it off (insert phallic intonation here).

That appetizer was the Cottage Nachos - your basic nachos, except the blanket of cheese was smothering homemade chili. The chili wasn't too spicy, but it kept you wanting more and by the time the chips were gone, there was still some chili left, but being the economical bunch we were, my brother and I used our hands to shovel the rest of it into our mouths - we were raised with good manners I swear, or at least I was, but there are certain times that we abandon those, like when we're a few drinks deep by 12:30 in the afternoon.

Anytime, anywhere, I would be glad to get my hands on these.

Finally everyone showed up, we all got one more drink, and waited a few more minutes for our table to be prepped. We carried our collective buzz over to the cozy windowside table and perused the menu.

Two bloody marys and a glass of water - wonderful.

After some indecision, we decided on the following items (I'll spare you any in depth details, mainly because I was too busy drinking and eating to actually take any mental notes): BBQ Chicken Salad, Lisa's Favorite, The Greek (a standard salad, not pictured), Beef Stew in a Bread Bowl, and The Stuffed Shirt.

BBQ Chicken Salad - housemade bbq chicken, black beans, and corn topped with ranch. Pretty good, but the chicken was a little on the sweet side.

Lisa's Favorite - open faced roast beef sandwich on French bread topped with sauteed onions and mushrooms, melted brie, and a creamy horseradish sauce. This was mine...I ate it all.

Beef Stew - super rich, super awesome, comfort classic.

The Stuffed Shirt - roast beef, tomato, red onion, and cayenne mayo all inside a pita. Won "Best Named Dish of the Day" and stayed true to it's name as my brother could not finish it.

A Portuguese Christmas - You've Never Seen So Much Seafood

2012-01-08T22:22:00.000-05:00

A Christmas spread - and that was just the appetizers!

I figured that I'm already pushing the boundaries of Christmas being relevant, so I better get this post up ASAP. Laid before your eyes is the Christmas appetizer spread that my girlfriend's family had laid out on 24th of December. While the focal point at this festive time for American families tends to be a nice big ham (which we would have on this night), Europeans tend to highlight fish in honor of St. Nick. There was enough fish at this table that I was burping up salt water for the next 48 hours (not even close to kidding). Of course, being the gluttonous time of year it is, it would seem foolish to limit ourselves to fin friendly delectables, so various other salty and fatty items were sent to adorn this table in copious amounts. The table above (somewhat from top to bottom) includes baked scallops, Spanish tortilla, jumbo cocktail shrimp, King Crab legs, pasteis de bacalhau (cod fritters), rissois de camarao (breaded and fried pockets of dough with shrimp and cream sauce in the middle), cocktail crab claws, prosciutto stuffed cherry peppers, fresh mozzarella, brie, thick cut fresh prosciutto, and smoked salmon (oh boy, I'm starting to get hungry again). We haven't even made it to the main course yet! Check detailed pictures and dessert after the jump.

Cocktail claws, a personal favorite of mine

Pasteis de bacalhau - codfish fritters that are deeply seasoned and could be straight out of the deep south

JUMBO shrimp with the rissois de camarao in the background

For the entree starter, we had either stuff crab with roasted red peppers or a stuffed scallop with a slightly spicy vegetable medley. Both were decadent and felt like a total indulgence, which seemed appropriate for the setting.

Stuffed Crab

There were three main courses at dinner. We had a slow roasted glazed ham that had juice for days, there was baked codfish, a Portuguese staple at any big meal, and braised octopus, not for the feint of heart, but absolutely delicious. Unfortunately I was too busy shoveling food into my mouth and washing it down with Portuguese wine by the bottle to take a picture of everything but the ham (see below), but rest assured, they would have been fabulous saliva generating pictures that made you jealous that you weren't there.

Man ,what a ham.

The final part of the meal, and something that the Portuguese take more seriously than most political agendas and religious beliefs, was dessert. We could have killed all of the diabetics in America with the amount of sugar on that freaking table. The following is a list of desserts that my girlfriend have comprised from memory, and it is surely incomplete:

-Carrot Walnut Cake
-Rice Pudding
-Leite Creme (Portuguese creme brulee)
-Leite Creme Cheesecake
-Giant Homemade Cream Puffs
-Flan
-Obligatory Fruit Cake

Carrot Walnut Cake

Rice Pudding - it was so good someone got into it in the top left before I could snap a picture

Leite Creme - sweet and crunchy burnt sugar on the top of an ocean of silky custard

Homemade Cream Puffs - way better than the ones you buy from Costco, I had about 5 of them

What holiday party, in any culture, is complete without Fruit Cake? FYI - this did go untouched for the duration of the evening.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we were all dressed up in ridiculous pajamas for the entire party - that explained the dozen bottle of empty wine on the kitchen table the next morning.

Tailgating At The Battle For NY

2011-12-31T10:37:00.001-05:00

Wait for it, wait for it...FRENCH TOAST CASSEROLE!

So last Sunday was obviously a huge game for both the Jets and the Giants. Not only was it the battle for NY, but there were huge playoff implications. So it only seemed fitting that we set up a big tailgate for the pre-party. Check out the rest of the tailgate and pictures after the jump.

We had about 60 beers, 15 people, 5 bags of chips, 3 parking spaces, 2 dishes of french toast casserole, and 1 tray of spicy sausage & peppers. I haven't taken algebra in a while, but I'm pretty sure the sum of all that is equal to a great NFL tailgate. And to be completely honest, we commented, multiple times, on how impressed we were that we were able to put something together so well without any major casualties (organization is not always our strong point).

The above picture was a hunk of french toast casserole. I'm not exactly sure of the recipe, but it's essentially your basic french toast ingredients, plus a little extra butter and some brown sugar, all cooked together in a casserole dish instead of on the stove-top.

For my part, I had decided to make sausage and peppers (with onions of course, but for some reason they always seem to be omitted from the title of this dish, but I'm not Italian, so when in Rome...) and I figured that since it was December 24th, I should get spicy sausage to keep us warm in the sharp New Jersey air. The best part about deciding on this dish was that I could make it the night before, and it would only get better sitting in the fridge overnight when the flavors can really all get to know each other and develop some great synergy.

Cooking
I unabashedly started the process by chopping up some bacon from a beautiful double smoked block of pork belly that I found at the supermarket. I would use that bacon grease as the common denominator throughout the rest of the dish. After removing the bacon, I seared off the sausages in the same pan. After removing the sausages, I tossed in 1 large onion (rough chop) and 2 bell peppers (rough chop) with a little bit of olive oil. After the veggies cooked down a bit, I added some minced garlic and a few minutes later, some nice dry red wine...just a splash. I let all of that cook for a few more minutes, letting it reduce most of the juice. After that, I mixed everything together in an aluminum tray and covered it. The heat of everything together would continue to cook the sausages a little bit, but I wanted those a bit undercooked so they wouldn't be dry and overcooked when we heated it up the next day.

The result was great. We brought some rolls and made a bunch of sandwiches. All of the juices from the sausages and vegetables had released overnight and made a great pan sauce to spoon (spatula - the tailgate wasn't planned that well) over the sandwiches. The spice from the sausages warmed us up on the cold December morning and it made a great compliment to a Coors Light.

Eating

He's a model, but you would never know it by the ugly jersey he's wearing.

Giants and Jets fans breaking bread

Bolo Pretu - Caribbean Black "Christmas" Cake

2011-12-19T13:44:00.000-05:00

Bolo Pretu - a moist and dense, labor intensive cake, made for very special occasions in the Caribbean

Last week a couple of friends had us over for dinner, which we scarfed down like starving hyenas, and a little bit of dessert. One of these said friends happens to be a native of Curacao (for the geographically uniformed, it's a small island off the northern coast of Venezuela) and was toting along what she called Bolo Pretu or Black Cake. This a popular cake around this time of year all across the Caribbean and it makes appearances at other special occasions. Black Cake is deeply flavorful and emanating alcohol at every bite. Essentially, dried fruit is soaked in various liquors for up to a year, and it is then combined with nuts, flour, sweet and savory spices, and the ingredient responsible for the namesake, burnt sugar syrup. Once the batter is formed, the cake is baked for a couple of hours, only to be brushed with more liquor after it has cooled. The final product is nutty, plumby. subtly sweet, mildly savory, and a little buzz-inducing.

Zafra: Authentic Pan-Latin Cusine in Hoboken

2011-12-09T12:49:00.000-05:00


The small space, tucked in at the corner of 3rd & Willow in Hoboken, offers a vibrant atmosphere away from the commotion of Washington Street.

Over the years, my little sister's bedroom has been the place where small rodents go to die. Countless hamsters, gerbils, and guinea pigs have called a small corner in her room home, only to realize their final resting place would be a small corner of the back yard, next to their ill fated brethren. Luckily for Latika (I know, what a name for a rodent), my sister's latest and hopefully final guinea pig, was spared a similar finale because my mom was sick of the house smelling like a petting zoo. Fast forward a week and my parents found a willing new owner by way of a Hoboken cop. Since they were in town, they might as well take me out to lunch right? The venue - Zafra, a Cuban/Pan-Latino restaurant that I've been to about 3 or 4 times in the past year. Check out what we ate after the jump.

Zafra is a gem of an authentic Pan-Latino restaurant that I found in Hoboken about a year ago on a long walk from my apartment to Washington Street (the main avenue with all of the bars and restaurants in Hoboken). The food is good, the staff is friendly, and the dining room is always lively. None of which is harmed by the fact that it's BYO (Daily Life Long Lesson for Anyone Who Cooks at Home: alcohol can easily mask you cooking flaws - drink up).

One of the many vibrant pieces that give Zafra its wonderful character.

We started with mini empanadas filled with picadillo (picadillo is ground beef cooked with tomatoes, peppers, onions, and olives) and Quesadilla de Hongos - a corn masa turnover filled with mushrooms, jalapenos, and fresh cheese, topped with a salsa verde and more cheese. The former was pretty good and definitely something new to my palate. A little stronger seasoning would have helped but all of that cheese didn't hurt.

The Quesadilla de Hongos is a far cry from your flour tortillas, jack cheese, and chicken made on your George Foreman grill.

The empanadas on the other hand were bold, beautiful, and delicious. The picadillo was like a homey stew that was contained in a crispy and moist pillow of golden glory. These were dipped in, what the menu describes as, a spicy Chilean cilantro sauce for which I would gladly trade any of my family members for a small ramekin full - a.k.a. the sauce was freakin' awesome!

Beautiful mini empanadas with addicting cilantro sauce lurking in the background

My dad decided to go with one of my personal favorites, the sandwich Cubano. Bolstered in authenticity, this sandwich had it all right, from the the homemade roast pork, crusty pressed bread, and absence of mayo and mustard. However, it probably could have used some extra mojo (or jus from the roast pork) but my dad reverted to the Chilean cilantro sauce once again as his condiment of choice.

An authentic Cuban, straight out of Hoboken.

My mother went with Camarones de paplanta - shrimp and ripe plantains in a vanilla chipotle sauce. The shrimp were cooked well, the tomato based sauce added slight heat but enough vanilla to keep my mother curious and the spoon from ever resting on the plate, and the deeply roasted plantains were a perfect counterpoint to the acidity of the tomatoes in the sauce.


Shrimp and plantains in a vanilla chipotle sauce - it all works somehow.

I went with the steak sandwich with caramelized onions and garlic sauce. Luckily enough for me, and it's probably completely biased, but this was my favorite entree of the three. The steak was tender with a nice char on the outside that you would expect to find at a summer Latino barbeque. The bread was fresh and absorbed this garlic sauce, that was slightly sweet from roasting the garlic, but plenty savory to compliment the steak. I got full about halfway through, but I couldn't help but finish the rest of the sandwich.

Steak, roasted garlic, caramelized onions - need I say more?

For dessert, my dad and split piece of chocolate cheesecake that had a rich texture but the chocolate wasn't too sweet - almost like a dark chocolate, but not quite as bitter. Either way, we sent an empty dessert place back to the kitchen. Satiation indeed!

Chocolate cheesecake

The Greatest Holiday of the Year: Thanksgiving Eats

2011-11-30T16:10:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving...the meal where all health concerns are given a blind eye and an unofficial competition to use the most butter and heavy cream breaks out between dishes. For the past 3 years I've been handling the biggest family meal of the year in my parents' house. Besides being an excuse to continue my buzz from the night before, I enjoy being able to leave my fingerprints over this highly anticipated feast. Now there's only 5 of us total, so it's not the biggest meal you've ever seen, but no dinner has more pressure than the one on the fourth Thursday of each November. This year was no different, but I did feel more at ease when cooking this year...maybe that was just the hangover. Either way, this was the smoothest Thanksgiving yet. This year's menu consisted of a few variations on typical Thanksgiving fare, but I stayed pretty true to the classic Thanksgiving flavors. Find the rest of the pictures and dishes after the jump.

Now there's no way that I could hold your attention long enough to give you the details on the recipe for every dish, so I'm just going to stick with the basics.

Obviously the star of the show is the turkey. We were able to get a fresh one (a.k.a not frozen) this year and it was a doozie weighing in at a Butterbean-like 23 lbs. It was the perfect weight for a few front squats to loosen up the legs and burn a few of the thousands of calories I would be consuming from that moment forward.

Word to the wise - a "fresh one" means that the body of the bird is not frozen, however, it is apparently customary (which I did not realize until Thursday morning around 10am) to freeze the giblets inside of the bird. This set me back a few minutes, but it was nothing that a little lukewarm water from the sink sprayer couldn't handle - I figured a little water couldn't hurt since the bird had already been washed at some point anyways.
The secret that I've used to give my turkey a nice rich flavor and help keep it moist is to rub it down with an herb-mayonaise. I just add some typical fresh Thanksgiving herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme), garlic powder, and S&P to some mayonnaise and mix it all together. Then, in an almost sacred ritual, I rub the mayo all over the outside and inside of the bird, reaching every possible crevice I can find. During cooking, the mayonnaise will all melt away and leave you with a rich brown color on the outside of the bird.

Filling the cavity of the turkey was a challah bread stuffing that was a pretty simple combination of homemade challah croutons, some sauteed onions, mushrooms, celery, and garlic, and some roasted carrots and onions (I would have stopped with just the sauteed veggies, but I didn't have a good enough veggie-to-crouton ratio so I had to ad-lib). I then took the stuffing that couldn't fit in the bird and threw it in a baking dish with some chicken stock and some bacon for a dressing (I'm still not sure why they call stuffing, cooked outside of the bird, dressing??).

Giant plate of turkey...nom nom nom

Challah bread stuffing - the family favorite

For the mashed potatoes, I kept it classic and went with a simple butter, garlic, and chive combo. However, I did decide to whip the potatoes this year as opposed to just mashing them.

Classic mash

Now, my mashed potatoes have a wildly drunk cousin -- Hammered Maple Sweet Potato Casserole. This dish was mashed sweet potatoes combined with some maple syrup, bourbon, heavy cream (of course), and topped with chopped pecans. Beware, in a recipe like this, the bourbon doesn't really cook out of the dish...at all. The smokey bourbon flavor is pronounced but acts as a nice counterbalance to the inherent sweetness in the sweet potatoes.


Everyone needs a drunk cousin

So we have the protein and starches covered, so how about some actual fruits and vegetables? I did make, but forgot to photograph, a lighter version of broccoli and cheese. I figured everything else was so heavy, that keeping heavy cream and butter out of this dish may allow us to actually remove our engorged bodies from the table...eventually. But the broccoli was roasted, simply seasoned, sprinkled with lemon juice, and then topped with shaved grano padano that melted effortlessly over the florets.

Another staple at my Thanksgiving table is green bean casserole and since I felt guilty for leaving heavy cream out of the broccoli, I made sure to add plenty to this dish. It's essentially sauteed mushrooms and onions, combined with heavy cream (basically a simple homemade version of cream of mushroom soup) and then dumped over the blanched green beans. I topped it all off with some cornbread croutons that my dad had made for me the day before, and painted the croutons with clarified butter before tossing the whole thing in the oven. My green beans ended up under-seasoned, so make sure you season the dish thoroughly throughout the cooking process...and TASTE EVERYTHING while you're making it!

Cornbread Crusted Green Bean Casserole

Of course, no Thanksgiving is complete without some form of cranberry sauce. Whether it's the stuff from the can that makes that funny/gross slurping sound when it falls out, or homemade, it's just something that has a permanent place at the table. My version this year was very simple combination of fresh cranberries, apple cider, a pinch of salt, and plenty of blue agave nectar. The nectar, extracted from the blue agave plant of the cactus family, is super sweet and is also the base ingredient of tequila. The sugar from the agave is necessary to sweeten the bitterness of cranberries. I tossed all of it in a pot, let it reduce, and voila!

Not From A Can Cran Sauce

Then there was the gravy...ohhh the gravy. Because I'm such a big pumpkin fan, it made sense to make a pumpkin gravy. This was really just a mixture of the turkey drippings and roasted pumpkin puree from a can. Bring it all together in a sauce pot, and you actually don't even need heavy cream or a roux to thicken up the gravy!


Pumpkin Gravy...yes please.

There were also some Pillsbury rolls -- I know, I know, an absolute cop out, but I tried making them from scratch last year and it nearly turned into a fiery disaster. I'll leave the baking to the professionals for now. To supplant our weekend weight gain, we went to a family friend's house for an array of delicious pies for dessert, but at least I was off the hook for that.

Overall, the meal was a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, with a few colors outside of the lines to give it just enough of a personal touch. It was mix of old traditions and a few new flavors. In the end, everyone seemed to enjoy eating as much as I enjoyed cooking, so that goes down as a success in my book.

Piggin' Out In Portugal - Part 2

2011-11-22T17:19:00.000-05:00

View from back porch of the family restaurant

So the feasting in Portugal continued the very next day where we went to visit Lisa's uncle who owned a small restaurant with his family near Vigo, Spain, for lunch. Lisa's parents are from one of the northernmost towns in Portugal, and the Galician region of Spain was so close you could actually throw a stone there. After a 30 minute drive up and down some curvy mountainside roads, we made it to the quaint restaurant that sits amongst a few countryside houses. I didn't know it at the time, but this was about to be my favorite meal of the trip.

Something that I learned very quickly was that the Portuguese are willing to uncork a bottle of wine for just about any reason. So of course this meal started with more homemade wine with some freshly baked bread to nosh on. Then the appetizers came out, and if we ate these alone, I would have been able to die a happy man. The appetizer course consisted of tortilla Espanola bites (Spanish Omelette) and the most wonderful empanadas I've ever had. The omelette was like fritatta that was a little fluffy from being finished off in the oven but not overdone at all. Caramelized onions floated throughout the dish that gave it a unique sweetness not often found in egg based dish that isn't desert.

Tortilla Espanola

Now the empandas were the showstopper. I've been fortunate enough to have tried empandas on past trips abroad in places like Argentina and southern Spain, but this rendition was unparalleled by my past trials. Inside the slightly crisp and chewy dough, that had a somewhat doughnut flavor, resided a lavishly rich beef stew that had been slow cooked in a tomato based sauce with onions and garlic. There was an ethereal balance of sweet, salty, and savory, and I nearly filled up on these alone.

This is definitely on my last meal menu.

I basically ate this entire plate.

Despite being nearly stuffed, I was able to drink my way to a jovial buzz that must have also opened up a secret compartment of my stomach, because I didn't stop there. The entrees came out soon after and included an assortment of grilled proteins accompanied by freshly made Spanish fries (like a beefier version of a potato chip that is deep fried but not quite as crunchy), and they did not disappoint. There was skin-on grilled chicken that was crispy and juicy all at once. The char-grilled pork ribs were intensely porky and the grilled sardines (not the kind you find on your pizza), the item I was dying to try for the first time, were briny and salty, and gave me that fresh from the ocean taste I was looking for. You could find me looking like a crack addict trying to sop up any juices that remained on the plate with the Spanish fries and bread. Everything was on the bone and well seasoned. Each bite reminded you that you were sitting amongst the beautiful rustic countryside of Galicia.

From left to right - chicken, pork rib, Spanish fries, grilled sardine

For dessert, because the Portuguese NEVER forget dessert, we had an assortment of cakes, including a cloudlike Tiramisu, and a buttery flan that had a silky texture that still held up in your mouth. We washed all of this down with port wine and scotch. We would spend the rest of the afternoon on the back porch of the restaurant drinking every type of local alcohol we could imagine and enjoying the company of family.

Like I really needed to consume any more calories...

...but I just couldn't help myself.

Healthy Maple Pumpkin Custard Cups

2011-11-16T22:54:00.002-05:00


Paleo Maple Pumpkin Custard - Photo courtesy of Health-Bent

So I've been Crossfitting for the past 6 or 7 months now. The most basic way that I can describe Crossfit is a never-ending functional workout program that puts you in the position to push yourself to your physical capacities on a daily basis. For the duration of this time, I've been paying the people at Crossfit Hoboken to lead me through these weirdly satisfying torture sessions. As you can imagine, when you hang out with people like this, they talk about healthy things, with diet chief among them. Well the only diet that these heathens really endorse is called the Paleo Diet (this a Wikipedia link for those of you actually interested in learning more) - which is essentially eating meals made exclusively with naturally occurring ingredients, specifically consumed by our ancestors a couple of million years ago (it is aptly nicknamed the "Caveman Diet"). Find the recipe and more after the jump.

Now I am nowhere close to 100% Paleo, nor do I want to be, but there are some wonderful recipes out there that have been doctored to fit the Paleo requirements, and it doesn't hurt to be a little more healthy now and again. So, with Halloween just behind us, and Thanksgiving swiftly approaching, I decided to research a healthy desert featuring pumpkin...I'm an absolute sucker for something pumpkin. That is when I stumbled upon this great recipe from the wonderful couple over at Health-Bent for Maple Pumpkin Custard Cups. Think of some of the best filling in a pumpkin pie you've ever had, and then imagine that it's not bad for you, and you will have this recipe. This ended up being a smashing hit with my mother, her sisters, my girlfriend, and even my picky little sister (sorry for the lack of testosterone in the sample, but you gotta work with what you got...or in my case, whoever is willing to eat my food). The recipe is super easy and requires little to no actual cooking. Below is my ever so slightly modified version of the recipe for about 6 healthy portions of the custard (before reading the recipe, I believe it should be known, in the interest of full disclosure, that I don't measure anything, ever):

Healthy Maple Pumpkin Custard Cups

Ingredients:
-1 regular size can of pureed pumpkin (about 15oz.)
-1 regular size can of coconut milk (about 15oz.)
-1/8 cup of pure maple syrup, but amount is suggestive (not the Aunt Jemima stuff, the real juice straight from the tree's bladder)
-1 tsp. ground cinnamon (the stuff on your spice rack)
-1 tsp. vanilla extract
-1 pouch of unflavored gelatin powder (go to the Jell-O section, and then look on the bottom shelf)
-1/4 cup of lukewarm water

Method:
In a small sauce pot, whisk together everything but the gelatin and water, and bring it to just about simmering point (heat it up until you see the first few bubbles popping up). This is where you can be subjective with the maple syrup, demanding on how much you want the pumpkin flavor to come through and how much you like maple syrup (also, this is the most unhealthy ingredient in the recipe, so that may be a factor for you). Once you've got the mixture up to the proper heat, remove it from the burner.

While you're waiting for that pumpkiney base to all come together, you can put together your thickening agent with the gelatin and water. In a small bowl, whisk the gelatin powder into the water, ensuring there are no lumps, and let sit to firm up (a refrigerator will help catalyze the process).

Once the gelatin gets to a semi-solid state, dump it into your sauce pot with the pumpkin and stir thoroughly to make sure that it is fully incorporated. Pour the mixture into a series of small bowls or ramekins and here is where you have a choice to make. If you want that skin on the top that creates a contrasting texture, then cover your bowls loosely with plastic cling wrap. However for a more homogenous texture throughout, take the cling wrap, and press it ALL THE WAY DOWN so it is touching the custard. Drop it in the fridge for at least 4 hours to set-up, sprinkle with some extra cinnamon right before serving, and dig in!

Piggin' Out In Portugal - Part 1

2011-11-14T22:29:00.005-05:00

So my girlfriend is Portuguese and her parents still maintain an apartment up in northern Portugal in a region called Minho which loosely translates as free room and board. So, back in August, we schlepped across the Atlantic to visit their family's tiny motherland (no seriously, you can leave the northern tip after breakfast and make it to the beaches on the southern coast by dinner). The trip got off to an incredibly satiating start as soon as we got off the plane. Now, I've been lucky enough to travel to several different countries, but never have I been this excited to wait for my luggage on the carousel. Adjacent to the baggage claim was a FREE party! It was the culmination of the "Semana do Imigrante"--The Week of the Immigrant--celebrating the immigrants of Portugal. There were dancing locals decked out in traditional threads and cocktail tables with some traditional appetizers all to be washed down with FREE Portuguese wine. I was beginning to like this country already. Check out the video after the jump.

The next day, after spending our first night imbibing homemade wine and various versions of cured pork (this would become a theme for the trip) we headed up to the fortaleza -- think of a castley type of fort from middle ages on top of a hill). Hidden amongst all of the small shops and restaurants that lined the cobblestone streets was a gem of street food royalty...freshly made churros! The operation consisted of an elderly mother and son who were firing out a never ending supply of brown paper bags stuffed with skinny fried deliciousness.

Churro Lady doin' work!

The son would mix the batter then stuff it into this crank press. Next, he would effortlessly trim congruent churros into the hot oil with his right hand while cranking them out of the press with his left (now you rub your belly and pat your head while giving me a fresh donut...didn't think sooooo).

Fire up the jacuzzi!

Stop drooling.

These churros were the best I've ever had. Slightly crunchy on the outside with a contrasting pillowy chewy center and just the right balance of salty and sweet. Fried dough is good wherever you go.

Introduction

2011-11-13T07:09:00.000-05:00

The world is my oyster and I plan on tasting it

Welcome to a place of culinary adventure. From my kitchen to your local dive, I'm trying anything and everything and documenting my experiences here. I can't afford to make every recipe by the book or frequent Michelin starred restaurants, so I've adopted somewhat of a stream of consciousness style of cooking and eating. I use what I got or whatever I can find. I'm also a traveling enthusiast with a steadfast belief that best food in any city can be found on the street. There's no finer way to experience a culture than through their common food with the common people...I'll trade character for refinement any day. So sit back, relax, and enjoy my culinary (mis)adventures By Word and Mouth.

First post tomorrow...Piggin' Out In Portugal - Part 1