what can i pass you

I'm back and have Salt Crust Roasted Fish to show for it

2011-01-01T21:21:00.000-08:00

Oh hey! I’m still alive in case you weren’t sure. I survived my first semester of law school and have been super lazy ever since.

My past couple of weeks have consisted of waking up at 1030am, playing Call of Duty Black Ops, calling my mom and talking about nothing in particular, making dinner for Adam and I regularly (woot!), playing fetch with my BFF Louie, and taking showers at 4pm. It’s been pretty awesome.

You’ll be happy to know that my old cooking skillz have not been entirely pushed out of my brain by contract law and civil procedure, and I am just as enthused about trying new recipes as I was BLS (before law school). I’m going to try really hard to cook more next semester and will definitely make more of an effort to blog every now and then. I’ve got a long list of recipes to try this year, friends.

One that had been on my list for a long time was Salt Crust Roasted Fish. NYE dinner:

It was pretty impressive coming out of the oven. Basically, you prepare the fish by packing wet salt over it and roasting it at a high heat. The salt makes a crust that must be cracked away from the fish after pulling it out of the oven. Peel the skin off and what’s left is one perfectly roasted, perfectly seasoned and exceptionally moist fish.

I’ve seen this method done on a show once (was it Tyler Florence on Conan?) and found a couple of recipes on epicurious.com that were similar. There are a few variations: some pour straight dry salt over the fish to cover it, some mix salt with egg whites, some mix salt with water. The water-salt method seemed the easiest and least messy so I stuck with that.

If you know me well, you know how much I like salt. And you know we have no less than 4 types of salt in our kitchen. And even with that kind of bias, I PROMISE this dish doesn’t taste overly salty. The skin of the fish tastes a little salty but that gets tossed out (or consumed by the chef when no one is looking).

Happy New Year, everyone.

Salt Crust Roasted Fish
Serves 4
The recipe I’ve posted below uses a cooking time/weight ratio I found on epicurious.com. I added my own herbs. (As you should as well.)

• 2 pounds coarse salt
• 1 cup water
• a 2-pound whole red snapper (I used Thai red snapper), Branzino or Sea Bass, cleaned, leaving head and tail in tact
• half a lemon, thinly sliced
• fresh herbs for stuffing the fish and placing over it, like thyme, parsley, or dill
• fine-quality extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling

Preheat oven to 450. In a large bowl, add water to the salt a little bit at a time. It should feel like wet snow. If you can pack it into a ball and threaten your husband with it, you’re good.

Sprinkle some of the salt on the bottom of a parchment lined baking pan that is slightly larger than your fish. Place the fish on top. Stuff the fish with slices of lemon and herbs. Place a few sprigs of herbs and lemon on top. Save a few slices of lemon and herbs for garnish.

Pack the salt onto the fish leaving no major holes or gaps. The fish must be completely covered in salt.

Place the fish in the oven and roast for 30 minutes.

Bang the pan on the oven a few times to loosen the salt crust. Alternatively, you can crack it with the back of a knife (careful not the damage the fish!). If you’re brave, do what I did: carefully grab the parchment paper from beneath the fish and quickly flip the whole thing over on its back. The salt will crack away on its own. Just be careful not to burn yourself (or lose your fish on the floor).

Peel the skin away from the fish with a fork. It should come right off. Transfer the fish to a serving platter, drizzle with olive oil and garnish with herbs and fresh lemon.

Pack the salt onto the fish leaving no holes or gaps. The fish must be completely covered in salt.

Place the fish in the oven and roast for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven. Bang the pan on the counter a few times to loosen the salt crust. Alternatively, you can gently crack it with the back of a knife (careful not the damage the fish!). If you’re brave, do what I did: carefully grab the parchment paper from beneath the fish and quickly flip the whole thing over on its back. The salt will crack away on its own. Just be careful not to burn yourself (or lose your fish on the floor).

Peel the skin away from the fish with a fork. It should come right off. Transfer the fish to a serving platter, drizzle with olive oil and garnish with herbs and fresh lemon.

Just so you know...

2010-10-24T20:33:00.000-07:00

... this whole law school thing is taking up all of my time. This is me NOT cooking... Instead, this is me eating the risotto Adam made for dinner:

and looking very tired... because civ. pro. makes me very tired.

The end.

Pozole Rojo

2010-09-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

One thing I forgot to add during that last post: Marcela Valladolid totally stole my cooking show. (Mexican Made Easy!). Whatever, Marcela. Just because your name is more Spanish than mine and you wear cute clothes and actually lived in Mexico and probably speak native Spanish and went to Ritz Escoffier in Paris doesn't mean you're better than me.

Well, maybe it does a little.

But I still have my family recipes. And I think my aunts would agree that even though their niece is super annoying for occasionally responding to their Spanish conversations IN ENGLISH (...gringa), at least she can cook.

(In my defense, everyone speaks really fast. I can't think at warp speed in Spanish!)

So, how about pozole for a Sunday dinner?

Some of my favorite memories as a child involve eating pozole at my aunt's house with my cousins. She'd literally make enough for 20 people and I can remember fishing around in a giant pot for pieces of meat that didn't look like pork feet. (...gringa.)

(In my defense again, my mom says she would NEVER make pozole with pig feet. She thinks it's weird too even though she grew up on that kind of meat. So there. DECISION AFFIRMED.)

My aunt sent me her pozole recipe and specified a few things:

1) you must use pork espinazo (spine), trositos (small pieces of meat, usually shoulder), and patitas (feet).
2) you must use Jaunitas brand hominy
3) you must use Las Palmas Brand red sauce.

I broke the first cardinal rule of pozole. I only used shoulder because I didn't feel like driving to the next town over to find a carniceria that sold espinazo or patitas. (Although I probably would have left the patitas out to tell you the truth.) I live in a town where there are no carnicerias. Or Mexican people. (Just kidding.) (Mostly.)

So, in case you don't know much else about pozole besides the three primary ingredients I just specified, pozole is a stew that tends to be a special occasion dish. My uncles would probably tell you that it cures hangovers too. En serio. And my mom would tell you that it cures the flu. Like many Mexican dishes, it simmers for a good part of the afternoon, until the meat is tender and the flavors are just right.

Hey mom, how long do you think it's going to take for the pozole to be done?

It's done when it's done, Andrea.

That's the kind of dish this is. Take your time. Your house will smell like my aunt's house, and that is a very very good thing.

Pozole Rojo
Serves 6
You can make pozole with different sauces: red (rojo) as I did here, green (verde), or blanco (white) with no sauce. Make sure you include plenty of toppings to go around the table--they are an essential part of the dish.

• 1 lb. pork spine, 1.5 lbs pork shoulder cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces, and 1 pig's foot cut in half (ask the butcher); alternatively 2.5 lbs pork shoulder cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 19-oz can of Las Palmas enchilada salsa (I used spicy--try medium or mild if you aren't sure); alternatively, you can make your own red sauce like I did for the Carne Deshebrada post
• 2 28-oz cans Juanita's hominy, drained and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 5 cups water of beef broth
• salt and pepper to taste
• vegetable oil

Toppings
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 limes cut into wedges
• 3 cups sliced cabbage
• 6 radishes, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• tortillas

Preheat a large pot to medium high and pour in enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Season the pork with salt and pepper. Brown meat on each side for about 5-7 minutes.

Once meat is browned, pour the salsa, 5 cups of water or broth, onion, garlic and oregano in pot. Simmer over low heat for 2-3 hours, or until meat is ropey and tender.

Add the hominy and continue to simmer for 20 minutes longer. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with toppings.

Chocoflan-tastico

2010-08-28T16:10:00.000-07:00

I helped my mother make flan all the time when I was little. Our family recipe: Royal Flan!

I told you my mom doesn't bake. That's what Pan Queso* Lady on the beach is for!

Yes--as I have affectionately named her, "Pan Queso Lady." At the beach near my mother's home is a women who sells flan, cheesecake and pies. I love her. So much. The first thing I do when visiting my mom in Mexico is track down Pan Queso Lady so I can enjoy a slice of flan or pie while tanning on the beach.

You stuff your face while tanning in a swimsuit?

That is correct and I'm not sorry.

The last time I stuffed my face with flan on the beach in Mexico, I thought to myself, I could probably make this. And as it turns out, I can. I am 100% sure that you can, as well.

Flan is a traditional Latin caramel custard that bakes crustless and in a pie dish. Pan Queso Lady sells hers by the slice in a pool of caramel sauce. Chocoflan one-ups regular flan by adding a layer of moist chocolate cake to the dessert.

Caramel, custard, chocolate cake: take that Pan Queso Lady!

(Just kidding please don't ever stop selling baked goods on the beach, Pan Queso Lady.)

It looks so complicated to make, but trust me, the method for chocoflan is very straight forward. I searched far and wide for a good recipe, and found one that is moderately easy and fairly traditional. I know there are a lot of steps, but that is no reason to shy away from chocoflan! I promise, the results are worth every single second it takes.

Chocoflan
Adapted from Marcela Valladolid via foodnetwork.com
serves 10
What caught my eye about this recipe, in addition to its relative ease, is its use of buttermilk in the chocolate cake layer. Buttermilk has long been the secret weapon in my mother-in-law's chocolate cake as it produces extremely moist results. Make your life easier by measuring all your ingredients and prepping your baking pan before embarking on this culinary journey.

You will need:
• 12-cup capacity Bundt pan
• a roasting pan large enough to hold the Bundt pan
• Softened butter, to coat pan
• 1/2cup store bought cajeta, dolce de leche, or caramel sauce

For the cake:
• 10 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk

For the flan:
• 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For garnish:
• 1/4 cup cajeta or caramel sauce
• 1/4 cup toasted chopped pecans

Place an oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.

Thoroughly coat your Bundt pan with butter, then coat the bottom with 1/4 cup cajeta. Place the Bundt pan in a large roasting pan. (The roasting pan will serve as a water bath during baking.)

For the cake: Add the butter and sugar to a bowl and using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer, beat until light and fluffy, then beat in the egg. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa in a medium bowl. Beat 1/3 of the flour mixture, and 1/2 of the buttermilk into the egg mixture. Repeat, ending with the flour mixture. Blend until well incorporated.

For the flan: In a blender, combine the evaporated milk, condensed milk, cream cheese, eggs and vanilla. Blend on high for 30 seconds.

Scoop the cake batter into the prepared Bundt pan and spreading evenly. Slowly pour the flan mixture over the cake batter.

Cover with foil and add about 1-inch of hot water to the roasting pan.

Note: Don't worry about the cake layer being on the bottom of the Budt pan. The two batters will flip while baking so that when you invert your dessert onto a platter, the flan layer will be on top and the chocolate cake will be on the bottom, just as in my first pictures. If you have no idea what I'm talking about right now, just continue on with the recipe.

Carefully slide the pan into the oven, and bake approximately 1 hour 15 minutes, or until the surface of the cake is firm to the touch, or an inserted toothpick comes out clean. OVEN TIMES WILL VARY! Begin checking your flan with a toothpick at the 1 hour mark and continue to do so every 10-15 minutes until a toothpick, is indeed, clean when removed from your cake. Once the cake is done, carefully remove from the water bath and cool completely to room temperature, about 1 hour.

Invert a large, rimmed serving platter over the Bundt pan, grasp tightly together, giggle a little and flip over. Remove the pan and scrape any remaining cajeta or caramel sauce from the pan onto the cake. I add an extra 1/4 cup of the caramel once the cake is inverted for garnish. You may also add the chopped pecans to the top the cake at this stage, if desired.

Flan is traditionally served chilled, but I think it tastes just as yummy at room temperature!

*"Pan queso" refers to cheesecake in Spanish, or at least it does in my family.

I love you, Larb

2010-08-17T12:02:00.001-07:00

No, not lard. Not lard, everyone. Don't make that face... I'm trying to help you!

If you love Thai food you might know all about larb.

Ground meat--turkey, pork , chicken, beef or sometimes fish--in a savory citrusy fish sauce dressing typically served with sticky rice and sometimes eaten in lettuce cups. And hey, remember ceviche de soya made with reconstituted soya meat? You can substitute soya meat for ground pork, etc. and make this dish vegetarian. Vegan, even. There is no lard in this recipe. Now you know.

I saw Giada De Laurentiis make this recipe as a quick, weeknight alternative to take-out Thai larb and decided to give it a go. Believe it or not, it is just as good, if not better than any larb I've had in a Thai restaurant. Adam sure thinks so.

He set the table too. One spoon and a plate. Pretty good, huh?

So go ahead and try making larb at home on a Monday night like we always do. It isn't as complicated as many Thai dishes. It isn't like curry, for example, which requires 10 million ingredients. You can't mess it up, guys.

Larb
Closely adapted from Giada De Laurentiis via foodnetwork.com
serves 4
Adam thinks larb made with pork tastes best. On most nights, however, we try to cut down on fat by using ground turkey or chicken. If you do choose a leaner meat, keep in mind that you may need a little more oil to help it brown. Also, this recipe calls for lemongrass. Most Asian markets carry it (I actually found mine at Whole Foods) but if you absolutely cannot find any, go ahead and leave it out. This is supposed to be easy Monday night cooking, right? The lemongrass rounds this dish out and certainly makes the larb more delicious, but by no means does it make the dish. The fish sauce, however, does. Don't even think about leaving that out! It may smell weird out of the bottle, but trust me, it will all taste very yummy in the end.

Dressing:
• 1/3 cup fresh lime juice, from about 5 limes
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, from 1 large lemon
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons honey

Larb:
• 3 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 3 shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 (4-inch) piece lemongrass, minced (about 1/4 cup)
• 1 Thai chile, such as prik kee noo, or 1 serrano chile, stemmed and thinly sliced
• Kosher salt
• 1 1/2 pounds ground turkey, pork, chicken beef, or reconstituted soy meat
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 head butter lettuce, leaves separated

Directions

Dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the lime juice, lemon juice, fish sauce and honey. Set aside.

Larb: In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, shallots, lemongrass, chile, and salt, to taste. Cook until the vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the turkey and season with salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until the meat and vegetables are cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add the dressing to the pan and cook for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the mint. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Spoon the turkey mixture onto the lettuce leaves and arrange on a serving platter. Serve with sticky rice or plain white rice.

Slow Cooker Vegetarian Chili and Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

2010-07-30T12:42:00.000-07:00

I am SO behind in posting recipes! But guess what? I can get back to catching up and cooking now... We have a house. In our home country. And all of our kitchen appliances are out of storage.

Like the slow cooker.

And the ice cream maker.

I am a huge sucker for kitchen appliances. And since I'm starting law school in just a couple of weeks, you'll probably see a ton more slow cooker recipes from me. It's a super convenient appliance, especially if you aren't home all day and don't have time to get dinner started. (Yes, Kate, I turned our conversation into a blog post!) This chili recipe is as easy as dropping ingredients in the pot and turning it on, and what's better is that you can use up any leftover vegetables you have in the fridge, and the rest of the ingredients can sit in the pantry. Many a day has this been my go-to recipe when we're pressed for time or are too lazy to go shopping.

I bought Adam the ice cream maker as a birthday present when we were dating knowing full well that we'd probably get married and I'd get to use it too. It worked out exactly the way I planned!

And we actually use it quite a bit (when it isn't locked away in storage). Ice cream is one of those foods where it's easy to get fun and creative. Our greatest ice cream hits? Coffee toffee, browned butter pecan, and now fresh strawberry. But I can't take all the credit for making such yummy strawberry ice-cream; we happened to pick out really delicious strawberries from a farm stand that day and I think it made all the difference.

Here's the deal. If you have neither a slow cooker nor an ice cream maker, it's okay. You can come over to my house and eat homemade ice cream and you can stew the chili in a pot over the stove.

It's good to be in our own home in our own country. Get ready for law-school-wife-Andrea to take over this blog. Things might get really interesting!

Vegetarian Chili
Serves 4
I began making this recipe way back when I started cooking solo (i.e., in college without my mom). It started out as a Rachael Ray recipe and morphed and changed in my kitchen over the years... But that's the great thing about chili, right? It's so easy to make it your own. I'm going to give you a starter recipe that is great as is, and then some recommendations on other spices and veggies you might consider adding depending on who's coming to dinner and your own personal level of heat tolerance. We like our chili super hot, but if my in-laws were coming to dinner, for example, I might focus on making this recipe more smoky (extra cumin or smoked paprika, maybe) than hot in my mouth. Comprende? Just keep tasting your chili as you add the spices and you should be good to go.

• 1 medium yellow skinned onion, chopped
• 1 cup of chopped carrots
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
• 1 1/2 cups pale beer or vegetable stock
• 1 (14- ounce) can crushed fire-roasted tomatoes
• 1 (14-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed (goodbye extra sodium)
• 1 (14-ounce) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup fat free vegetarian refried beans
• 1-2 chipotles en adobo
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons chili powder ( I really like Valle del Sol from Whole Foods)
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt

If you were me, you might also add:
• Several dashes of jalapeño based hot sauce
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika

Other vegetables options:
• bell peppers
• celery
• zucchini
• corn
• or anything in your fridge you'd like to use up

Toppings and Bottomings for serving:
• 8 ounces (2 cups shredded or crumbled) cheese: I use Cotija (my favorite), but spicy monterey jack or smoked cheddar would be delicious too
• Chopped cilantro
• Mexican Crema or Sour Cream
• Blue and red corn tortilla chips or black bean tortilla chips, for dipping
• Baked or boiled potatoes--Adam's personal favorite
• Corn bread or muffins
• Extra hot sauce for the table

Stir all ingredients (except toppings and bottomings) together in the pot of a slow cooker. Turn slow cooker to low and simmer 6-8 hours.

If you don't have a slow cooker, you may simmer the chili a large pot on top of the stove for a minimum of one hour. Keep in mind however that the longer this chili stews, the more it's flavors will marry and the more delicious it will be by dinner time.

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma.com and Williams Sonoma Mastering: Frozen Desserts
Make sure you choose really fresh and delicious strawberries for this recipe.

• 3 cups half-and-half
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 cups sliced strawberries
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Puree 3/4 cup of the strawberries in a blender or a food processor.

In a saucepan over medium heat, warm the half-and-half until steam begins to rise from the surface, 4 to 5 minutes.

In a heatproof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and salt until blended. Gradually (VERY VERY gradually so that you don't get scrambled eggs) add the hot half-and-half, whisking constantly until fully incorporated. Transfer the mixture to a clean saucepan and set over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or spatula, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon and leaves a clear trail when a finger is drawn through it, 8 to 10 minutes; do not allow the custard to boil.

Pour the custard and the pureed strawberries through a fine-mesh sieve set over a clean bowl and stir in the sliced strawberries and vanilla. Nestle the bowl in a larger one filled halfway with ice and water and cool the custard to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour.

Transfer the custard to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer the ice cream to a freezer-safe container. Cover and freeze until firm, at least 3 hours.

Whole Wheat Banana Nut Bread

2010-07-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

I'm still here. And we're FINALLY moving this weekend so hopefully I'll be able to get back into a more steady routine of blogging! Hooray!

In the meantime, I thought I'd share this

because my lovely second mama, Carrie requested it. Moist, yummy, banana walnut quick bread made slightly healthier with whole wheat flour and less sugar. You can even swap the oil for apple sauce to make the recipe lower in fat. Good deal, right?

Whole Wheat Banana Nut Bread
adapted from allrecipes.com
serves 12
Whole wheat pastry flour is great for cakes and breads as it yields a lighter and fluffier result than regular whole wheat flour. You can substitute whole wheat flour in this recipe if you'd like, but be prepared for a more coarse and dense cake texture.

1/3 cup vegetable oil OR 1/3 cup applesauce for lower fat
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup hot water
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, beat oil, brown sugar and honey together. Add eggs, and mix well. Stir in bananas and vanilla. Stir in flour and salt. Add baking soda to hot water, stir to mix, and then add to batter. Blend in chopped nuts. (You may save a few nuts to sprinkle over the top of batter if you'd like.) Spread batter into greased 9x5 inch loaf pan.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 1/2 hour before slicing.

Salted Caramel Candy Bars for my BFFA

2010-05-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

My friend Jenny is studying for her medical boards and was in absolute need of some salted caramel candy bars. Because doctors (and soon-to-be doctors) need treats too, guys.

And let me tell you something about Jenny. She is practically my sister. We’ve been friends since 3rd grade. We were each other’s maids-of-honor. We’ve seen each other through some pretty rough times. We’ve seen each other through some pretty awesome times too. And she sent me cookies to my dorm during my first (lonely) year of college, so I’m merely returning the favor.

And let me tell you something else about Jenny. She has a salt-tooth. Just like me. If you ever met Jenny and me for happy hour, you’d probably walk in to find the two of us sipping extra-dirty vodka martinis with four or five olives. In fact, forget the vodka. We'd probably just be sipping brine.

So salted caramel candy bars seemed just perfect. Yes, these are Betty’s cookies (I have her on speed-dial), but with a salty twist. My inspiration came from one of my all time favorite places in the world for ice cream—Bi-Rite Creamery in San Francisco. They sell a super popular salted caramel flavor and it is beyond delicious. If you’re ever in the neighborhood, I suggest you give it a try!

These bars are layered with an oatmeal crumb bottom, a couple cups of chocolate chips and walnuts, a layer of salted caramel, another layer of the oatmeal crumb mix, and finished off with a healthy sprinkling of some good quality salt. Don’t worry, they won’t taste overly salty: you’ll take a bite, a little salt will stay on your lips, and it’ll only intensify the buttery caramel and super-sweet cookie and chocolate layers. Think salty like, chocolate-dipped-pretzels salty, only better.

See that yummy salt?

I say it all the time--salt makes everything taste more like itself, which is to say, it makes everything taste better. No, that isn’t an excuse for my salt addiction. Okay, maybe it is, but it doesn’t make that statement any less true.

Oh yeah. I know I said I was going to recreate my mom’s dishes from my trip, and I still will. Don’t worry, guys, I won’t forget!

Salted Caramel Candy Bars

Adapted from Bettycrocker.com

Make sure you use a good quality salt for this recipe. Kosher and fleur de sel will work well; I used pink Himalayan salt. Just don’t use iodized. The flavor is too harsh for these cookies.

Caramel filling:

1 bag (14 ounces) caramels

1/3 cup milk

½ teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

Crumb Bottom and topping:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt, plus ¼-1/2 teaspoon for sprinkling over bars

1 egg

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

Chocolate nut layer:

1 package (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (1 cup)

1 cup chopped walnuts or dry-roasted peanuts

Heat oven to 350ºF. Grease rectangular pan, 13x9x2 inches.

For the salted caramel:

Heat caramels and milk in 2-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently, until smooth.Add salt and vanilla.

For the crumb bottom and topping:

Stir together flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, salt and egg in large bowl. Stir in butter with fork until mixture is crumbly. Press half of the crumbly mixture in pan. Bake 10 minutes.

Assemble:

Sprinkle chocolate chips and walnuts over baked layer.

Drizzle with caramel mixture. Sprinkle with remaining crumbly mixture and ¼-1/2 teaspoon of salt, depending on how bold you care to go! (I used around a third of a teaspoon.) Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 30 minutes. Loosen edges from sides of pan; cool completely. For 54 bars, cut into 9 rows by 6 rows.

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies and the Mama-land

2010-05-19T16:13:00.000-07:00

I've made these brownies three times since my last blog post.

And yes, I know it’s been awhile. About that…

So much has been going on. Stressful things, fun things, happy things, scary things… The scary/stressful are long gone now, so let’s talk about some of the other stuff.

I went to Mexico to visit my mom and took a total of two, count em, TWO pictures on my iPhone over Mother’s Day. Adam also took one of me at a palapa-covered restaurant to make a third. These are them:

Buenos dias. I'll take two of everything.

How's that for a nice day?

My friend Dan, with a mango and his iPhone.

Guys, I was too busy eating cotija cheese and onion enchiladas, fresh seafood, and carnasa tacos to stop and take pictures. Also, I drank a lot of piña coladas… They were made with fresh pineapple and coconut—how could I not?

Oh I love the motherland for so many reasons. My mama is there, and I love my mama. Everything tastes so darn good. (It’s true. I constantly annoy my friends/hubby with squinty eeehh-I-don’t-think-so faces when they invite me to Mexican restaurants in LA. Most of them will never be good enough. Don’t get me started…) And I LOVE the weather. What can I say? My ancestors worshipped the sun.

And as excited as I was to see my mom and reunite with her cooking, she asked me to bake her something “yaammi-yaammi” before coming to her house.

I am the designated baker in my family, and that is A-OK with me.

So I baked peanut butter brownies because I had made them twice before my trip and they were a SMASH hit with my brother and my friends. And trust me guys, my brother would tell me if something I baked wasn’t top-notch. (And he has.)

Guess where I got this recipe? … Surprise! Betty Crocker, again. Yeah. I have trouble branching out once I’ve found a source of baking recipes I can trust.

Stay tuned for next time when I attempt to replicate my mom’s salsa and her cotija onion enchiladas! (I wish I had a cooking show.) But for now, make these brownies for your mom. Or yourself. My mother, the cooking guru that she is, ran around our beach village sharing them with her neighbors. They even kindly dismissed that hint of an American accent I can’t ever seem to kick, they were so impressed. That should tell you something.

Hasta luego, amigos.

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

adapted from Bettycrocker.com

Feel free to substitute all chocolate chips for the peanut butter or butterscotch chips. If you'd like, save a couple extra chips to sprinkle over the top of the brownie batter before baking for a prettier presentation. Also, these brownies need to cool completely before cutting or else they tend to fall apart. Lastly, this recipe doubles very well baked in a 9x13 inch pan. Brownies will be thicker and will require a slightly longer bake time, so keep an eye on them for doneness.

• 2/3 cup granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

• 2 tablespoons milk

• 2 eggs

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup peanut butter (I used Jiff brand and doubled Betty's amount of peanut butter successfully)

• 1/3 cup peanut butter chips, or butterscotch chips

• 1/3 cup baking cocoa

• 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350ºF. Grease square pan, 9x9x2 inches. Mix sugars, butter, milk and eggs in medium bowl. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt.

Divide batter in half (about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons for each half). Stir peanut butter and peanut butter chips into 1 half. Stir cocoa and chocolate chips into remaining half.

Spoon chocolate batter into pan in 8 mounds, checkerboard style. Spoon peanut butter batter between mounds of chocolate batter. Gently swirl through batters with knife for marbled design.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely about 1 hour. For 16 brownies, cut into 4 rows by 4 rows.

¡Huaraches! ¡Sopes! ¡Sin grasa! ¡Sin colesterol!

2010-04-18T19:39:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you already have an idea what a huarache is from the carne deshebrada post. If you've ever had a sope, you might even have a better shot at guessing what I'm referring to.*

Sope, pictured above

Huarache

The sope (as in, "Too bad my mother didn't wash my mouth out with a soh-peh instead of a bar of soap") and the huarache are actually cousins--both are shaped and fried masa dough topped with an assortment of fillings and sold on street corners across Mexico. (ON STREET CORNERS. And we eat hot dogs in America. We'd lose big time in a street-food competition.) Huaraches, however, are shaped like huaraches, while sopes are shaped like round little boats with raised edges. They both taste especially good with fillings like grilled shrimp, refried beans and crumbled cotija, potato and chorizo, and carne deshebrada en salsa roja.

There is a man in the town where my mom lives who sells "¡HUARACHES! ¡SOPES! ¡SIN COLESTEROL! ¡SIN GRASA!"

That is, "Huaraches! Sopes! Fat free! Cholesterol free!"

Yeah I know. I wish he was telling the truth too... but he's not. (Sorry if this post title totally got your hopes up.) The huaraches and sopes he sells are freshly fried and dripping in melted panela cheese. That dude, by the way (or that güey, depending on where you're from) has been selling those in the same spot since I was a little girl and still looks the same. The colesterol and grasa have apparently made him ageless.

Since huaraches and sopes are so closely related, I went ahead and made both tonight. I decided to keep things simple (and vegetarian) by making refried bean and cotija huaraches and sopes, but feel free to experiment with other fillings like carnitas or carne deshebrada en salsa roja.

Refried Bean Huaraches and Sopes
makes 8 sopes or 8 huaraches
The main difference between sope/ huarache dough and the dough for plain tortillas is the addition of baking powder.

Dough for Huaraches or Sopes:
• 2 cups masa harina
• 1 3/4 cups of water
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• vegetable oil for frying (if you want to be strictly traditional, use lard)

Huarache and Sope Toppings/Fillings:
• grated Panela Cheese or Crumbled Cotija Cheese
• hot refried beans
• pico de gallo or fresh chopped tomatoes
• salsa of your choice
• crema
• guacamole
• shredded lettuce
• Tapatio

For Huaraches:
I made medium sized huaraches tonight--the same as the ones the huarache man in my mom's home-town makes. I have, however, seen huaraches the size of my 7 foot tall brother's feet. As long as you maintain the huarache shape, feel free to experiment with size.

Mix together all dough ingredients, except oil or lard. Knead until thoroughly combined.
Cut dough in half, and divide each dough half into 4 portions. Form each small piece into torpedo shaped logs, about 3 inches long by 1 inch wide. Using the palm of your hand, flatten each log slightly.

Place each log between two pieces of plastic wrap (like we did when we made tortillas) and roll using a rolling pin into ovals, roughly 8 inches long and 4 inches wide.

Cook's Note: Huaraches may be made up to this point up to 2 hours ahead of serving. Store between pieces of wax paper and cover lightly with a damp paper towel in the fridge.

Heat a large cast iron skillet or griddle over medium heat and add enough shortening or lard to coat the bottom of the pan. Place a huarache in the pan and cook for 1 and a half minutes until the bottom is golden. Flip over, and allow the bottom side to cook for another 30 seconds to 1 minute, or until golden. Remove huarache from pan and allow to drain on paper towels.

Top with cheese, pico de gallo, salsa, lettuce, crema, guacamole and hot sauce (if desired). Serve immediately.

For Sopes:
Mix together all dough ingredients, except oil or lard. Knead until thoroughly combined. Cut dough in half, divide each half into 4 portions. Form each piece into small balls.
Flatten each ball into a 3 inch circle using a rolling pin, the bottom of a plate or a tortilla press between 2 pieces of plastic wrap (like we did when we made tortillas). Fold sides up about 3/4 an inch. They don't have to be perfect! Prick the bottom of each sope lightly with a fork.

Heat about 1/4 of an inch of oil in a cast iron skillet to about 350 degrees. Fry sopes about 1 minute on each side, or until lightly crispy and slightly golden.

Remove from oil and drain on paper towels.

Top with beans cheese, pico de gallo, salsa, lettuce, crema, guacamole and hot sauce (if desired). Serve immediately.

*To what I'm referring. This isn't an English lesson, but it will bother me for the rest of my life if you think I think it's okay to end a sentence with a preposition. I must, however, preserve the colloquial effect of my blog, and I can't do this without occasionally splitting infinitives, using comma splices, forming passive verb sentences (with or without subjects) and ending sentences in prepositions. You understand, right? And you also understand that I have obsessive tendencies that prevent me from letting things like this go, right? Good. I feel a lot better now.

Carne Deshebrada en Salsa Roja

2010-04-12T21:19:00.000-07:00

I know that's a mouthful if you don't speak Spanish, so let me break it down. Carne deshebrada en salsa roja simply means shredded beef in red sauce. It isn't especially difficult to make (as most traditional Mexican dishes are not in my opinion) but it does require a lot of time. The recipe calls for a tough cut of meat that stews for hours until it becomes tender and ropey. The cooked beef is then shredded and mixed with a homemade red sauce that might consist of beef stock, onions, garlic and dried california or guajillo chiles. (This is exactly the way my mother makes it.) Depending on where else you may find it in Mexico (and depending on whose native Mexican mother you consult) carne deshebrada might even be served without the red sauce, making it taste more like a spicy, shredded American pot roast.

Think of it as common comfort food. People in Mexico eat carne deshebrada at all times of the day (how's that for a morning hangover cure?) over rice, in sopes, burritos, tacos, on huaraches, or simply with a side of tortillas and beans. I can guarantee you won't ever find a taqueria in Mexico without carne deshebrada on the menu, just as any self-respecting LA taco truck wouldn't be caught dead without this staple either.

Wait, are you still hung up over me saying " on huaraches" (wah-rah-chehs) before? Because if you think that word translates into "leather sandals," you'd be right.

I'm not trying to imply that the beef is so good you can serve it on a leather sandal, although this statement probably isn't untrue (I haven't tried that combo yet to say for sure)... Huaraches in relation to Mexican street food refer to something else entirely.

But that's a whole other story. I'm going to save the huaraches post for next time.

Today, it's all about carne deshebrada--a basic but important Mexican dish that warrants its own post. Learn how to make carne deshebrada en salsa roja and you'll be adding one of the most versatile Mexican recipes to your culinary repertoire.

Carne Deshebrada en Salsa Roja

You will need a food processor or a blender to make the red sauce.

serves 4-6

• 1.5 pounds of flank steak or brisket

• 2 cloves garlic, smashed

• 1 bay leaf

• salt and pepper

Sauce

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 2 cloves garlic, chopped

• 1.5 ounces dried California or guajillo chiles (guajillos are spicier), seeded and stemmed, and soaked in hot water to rehydrate for 20 to 30 minutes

• 1/2 a small onion, roughly chopped

• 1 1/2 cups of beef cooking liquid

• salt and pepper to taste

For the Beef:

In a large pot, add enough water to cover the beef, garlic, bay leaf and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until beef is tender and ropey.

Drain beef, reserving 1 1/2 cups of the cooking liquid, and place on a large platter. Once the beef is cool enough to touch, use the tines of a fork to shred into small pieces.

Strain reserved cooking liquid and skim fat off the top.

For the Sauce:

Place the rehydrated chiles, garlic, 1/2 onion, and 1 cup of cooking liquid in a food processor or blender until the sauce is smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Clean and dry the same pan used to simmer the beef. Heat vegetable oil in pan over medium-high heat and slowly (and carefully!) add red sauce. Simmer about 5 minutes and add the last 1/2 cup of cooking stock. Stir to combine and add shredded beef to sauce. Simmer until beef is heated through.

Chocolate Pudding, but don't tell anyone it's made from tofu

2010-03-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

Unless they're like me and think it's awesome that something so delicious could be remotely good for you. But here's the thing, a lot of people (uh like my dad or dad-in-law) would probably complain about this pudding before eating it if they knew its primary ingredient was tofu.

Better just to feed it to them, let them ooh and aah over how yummy it is, and THEN drop the tofu bomb.

Sorry parents. This is what you get for raising your children in California.

This pudding sets to a thick and silky consistency--some say it's more like mousse, but I think it's a little too dense to call it that. Creamy dark chocolate pots? Tofu pudding mousse? Vegan chocolate pudding cups? ... It doesn't matter. Just eat it. It tastes good.

Tofu Chocolate Pudding
Adapted from Alton Brown via foodnetwork.com
serves 6
I've seen this recipe done many ways, using the same ratio of chocolate chips to tofu. This happens to be Alton Brown's recipe with a few modifications: I reduced the coffee liqueur from 1/3 cup down to 3 tablespoons (everyone complained last time that the alcohol flavor was overpowering) and made individual pudding cups instead of one entire pie. If you happen to be in a pie mood, feel free to pour this filling into the pie crust of your choice.

• 2 cups good quality chocolate chips--semi-sweet or 60% cocoa, or a mix of both
• 3 tablespoons coffee liqueur
• 1 block silken tofu
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon honey (Note: if you want to make this recipe 100% Vegan, replace honey with 1 tablespoon of refined sugar.)
• fresh fruit and chocolate curls for serving, optional

Place a small metal bowl over a saucepan with simmering water. Melt the chocolate and coffee liqueur in the bowl. Stir in vanilla.

Combine the tofu, chocolate mixture, and honey in a blender jar or food processor. Liquefy until smooth.

Pour the filling into 6 4-oz molds and refrigerate for 2 hours, or until the filling is set.

Fideo--Mexican Spaghetti?

2010-03-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

Kind of. When I'd ask my mom for spaghetti growing up, this is what I got.

I'm pretty sure I went through half my life eating tons of Mexican dishes without knowing they were distinctly Mexican. Didn't your mom use leftover corned beef to make taquitos? No? Hm. That's weird.

(You should try that, by the way. If there's corned beef leftover in this house on Wednesday, I'll tell you how.)

No matter, though. Let's talk about fideo. It simply means "pasta" in Spanish, and in Mexico it specifically refers to thin spaghetti-like pasta that's toasted and cooked in a very light and fragrant tomato sauce. According to my mother, there is only one way to make Fideo, and that's the right way.

So she probably wouldn't approve that I used chicken stock in place of chicken bouillon cubes in this recipe... I don't know. Those things kind of weird me out so I avoid them when I can. People in Mexico do like their bouillon cubes, though.

If you make this dish, you're in for some home-y (not homie) Mexican goodness. It's a simple meal, but it hits the spot every time.

Fideo
serves 4
My mom would want you to know that adding shredded chicken to this dish makes it Fideo con Pollo, not Fideo... just in case you run into her and she tells you you did it wrong.

• 12 ounces fideo cortado (short fideo), fideo or vermicelli pasta
• 1 can (14 ounces) fire roasted chopped tomatoes
• 1-2 chopped chipotles en adobo, minced (optional)
• 1 cup chicken (or vegetable) stock
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper
• Queso Fresco for serving (suitable substitutes include feta or parmesan)
• 2 cups cooked shredded chicken or smoked turkey (optional)

Heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the noodles and onions, stirring constantly. If using regular fideo or vermicelli pasta, break the noodles up into short (3 inch) peices with a wooden spoon. Continue to fry noodles until most are golden brown in color. (It's okay--some will be dark brown.) Add the garlic.

Add the tomatoes, chipotle, chicken stock, cumin and oregano, and salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed and noodles are tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in chicken or turkey, if using, and continue to cook until heated through.

Serve with crumbed or grated queso fresco.

Espresso Brownies for my favorite law student

2010-03-11T11:16:00.000-08:00

One time I shipped Rochelle espresso brownies for her birthday because I figured she's in law school and could use all the extra caffeine she can get.

She cut them up, froze them, and took one to school every morning for breakfast. And when someone asked her if they came from Starbucks she became thoroughly offended and flatly informed them that they were in fact home-made brownies shipped all the way from California!

Rochelle came home yesterday and I drove out to visit her with more espresso brownies. She cut into them immediately... I think we hugged, then she then she ran to the kitchen with the brownies... In fact, I'm not sure she even used a knife she was in such a hurry. Rochelle, did you use your index finger cut these?

Rochelle and I graduating from college

She might have. Which is to say that these brownies are absolutely amazing. Espresso is the perfect accompaniment to chocolate, and in brownie form, the pairing is a total home-run. In fact, I always add espresso powder to my brownies and ganaches if I have it on hand; a little bit of coffee will always intensify the flavor of chocolate without over-powering it.

The original idea for these brownies came from Giada De Laurentiis, who added espresso powder, chocolate chips and a creamy espresso glaze to a boxed brownie. If you choose to make your brownies this way, might I suggest using Ghiradelli chocolate brownie mix? In my own at-home taste tests, I've concluded that these are hands-down the best boxed brownie.

I made these brownies from scratch, however, using my favorite Alton Brown cocoa brownie recipe. They bake up super dense and fudgy, which is exactly the way I think brownies should be.

Espresso Brownies
adapted from Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food and Giada De Laurentiis via foodnetwork.com
makes 1 8x8 inch tray of brownies
I like Alton's baking recipes because he includes the option to measure ingredients by weight, making for more precise results. If you have a kitchen scale, by all means, haul it out for this recipe.

• 4 ounces or 1 1/3 cups cocoa powder
• 3.5 ounces or 2/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/8 ounce or 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 4 large eggs or 7 ounces
• 1/3 ounce or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 7 ounces or 1 cup granulated sugar
• 8 ounces or 1 cup brown sugar
• 8 ounces, 2 sticks or 1 cup melted unsalted butter
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons espresso powder
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons hot water

Place an oven rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 F. Prepare an 8-inch square pan by greasing it with cooking spray.

Sift together 2 tablespoons espresso powder, flour, cocoa and salt.

In an electric stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the eggs at medium speed until light. Add vanilla. Mix in sugars and reduce speed to medium-low, incorporating thoroughly.

Add the butter and the remaining dry ingredients in three alternating doses, starting with the wet and finishing with the dry. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Bake for 55 minutes or until toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it.

Cool brownies.

Make icing by dissolving 2 teaspoons of espresso powder in the 2 tablespoons hot water. Whisk in 1 tablespoon butter at room temperature, and 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar. Pour and spread evenly over brownies. Chill in fridge for 15 minutes to set before cutting.

Vanilla Bean Lemon Squares

2010-03-05T08:33:00.002-08:00

I made lemon bars because it's practically spring

in Southern California.

It wasn’t spring in London yet. No, it most certainly was not.

So, needless to say, I’m happy to be home. This weather rocks, (I can’t believe I used to be one of those annoying people who complained about Southern CA not having seasons) and I get to cuddle with this guy because he loves me and we’re BFFs.

And I get to use an oven that isn’t the size of a microwave and a microwave that isn’t the size of a shoe box. And I don’t have to worry about screwing up measurement conversions anymore.

I made lemon bars using some ancient Betty Crocker cookbook I found at my in-laws’ house. I *know* I always use Betty Crocker recipes but seriously, it's because she never does me wrong. Besides, our moms used these recipes and their moms used them too--what better proof that they're actually reliable? They also happen to be simple recipes that respond very well to creative interpretation.

For example, I added a vanilla bean to the crust, which only seemed to emphasize it's buttery shortbready goodness. As for the rest of these bars, you can look forward to a crispy, crackly top and a creamy tart lemon filling.

Vanilla Bean Lemon Squares
adapted from Betty Crocker

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup butter
• ¼ cup powdered sugar
• ½ vanilla bean, scraped for seeds
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• Powdered sugar for dusting

Heat oven to 350ºF. Mix flour, butter, vanilla seeds and powdered sugar.

Press in ungreased square pan, 8x8x2 or 9x9x2 inches, building up 1/2-inch edges. Bake crust 20 minutes.

Beat granulated sugar, lemon peel, lemon juice, baking powder, salt and eggs with electric mixer on high speed about 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Pour over hot crust.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until no indentation remains when touched lightly in center. Cool; dust with powdered sugar. Cut into about 1 1/2-inch squares.

Baked Brown Rice... Say what?

2010-02-18T05:23:00.008-08:00

Reasons why one might need to know how to cook rice in the oven:

1) You're making brown rice, and it happens to turn out better in the oven.

2) You have too many dishes on the stove, and not one more burner is available for rice.

3) Your gas is out in your building because of a carbon monoxide leak and someone was hospitalized. You cannot use your stove (or hob, depending on where you're from), but you can use your oven, because it happens to be electric. You also happen to have an electric tea kettle. (Doesn't everybody?)

Okay. Yes. Number 3 is the reason I tried this recipe...

But listen, you should just try brown rice this way and trust me. I don't know about you, but I've had a lot of trials and tribulations with it in the past. It usually takes longer than the directions on the packaging say and never actually gets tender. I didn't have high expectations before trying this recipe, (any high expectations for the day were squashed by our loss of gas, and thus, loss of heating) but was very pleasantly surprised when the rice actually turned out perfectly fluffy and soft!

This method completely gets it right. No more half-cooked, too-al-dente-to-be-considered-al-dente brown rice. No more scorched bottom-of-the-pot brown rice. No more soupy, even-though-it-cooked-for-twice-as-long-as-the-directions-said brown rice. The texture will be correct.

It also seemed to taste better (probably because it was cooked more thoroughly) than when I make it on the stove.

And that all makes sense because this is Alton Brown's recipe. (Alton Brown is never wrong.) The oven, according to Alton, provides multi-directional heat which produces even cooking. You wont even have to stir once you put it in the oven.

served right out of the oven, topped with a little bit of soy sauce

leftovers used in fried rice the following day

And by the way, guys, looks like we'll be heading home in the next couple of weeks. (Not a moment too soon, I might add!) And by home I mean my in-laws' home until we get the law school/job/new house or apartment, etcetera, etcetera situation ironed out. So, boo that my beloved rotisserie will still be buried in storage upon our arrival! But, hooray that we get to come home to mom-in-law's yummy food!

Things are going to be chaotic for a little while, but I'll do my best to keep blogging. (I really like blogging.)

Cheers, friends!

Baked Brown Rice
adapted from Alton Brown via foodnetwork.com
serves 4-6

• 1 1/2 cups brown rice, medium or short grain
• 2 1/2 cups water or stock
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter or olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Place the rice into an 8-inch square glass baking dish.

Bring the water, butter, and salt just to a boil in a kettle or covered saucepan. Once the water boils, pour it over the rice, stir to combine, and cover the dish tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, remove cover and fluff the rice with a fork.

Fried Brown Rice
I like a high-ish ratio of vegetables to rice in my fried rice. If you don't, consider adding more rice, or using only half an onion, or less broccoli or peas. Baby bok choy and shitake mushrooms go well in this fried rice too.

• 2 cups leftover brown rice
• 2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce, or to taste
• 3/4 cup cooked meat or tofu, chopped
• ½ cup frozen peas
• ½ cup broccoli florets
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, chopped
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil or canola oil for frying
• Chopped scallions, optional

Heat oil on medium-high heat in a large wok or frying pan. Add chopped onion, carrot and broccoli and cook for 5 minutes. Add ginger and garlic and cook for 1 minute more.

Move vegetables to one side of pan and add beaten eggs. Tip pan back so that egg creates a thin layer on surface the of the pan. Once the egg is set, break it up with a wooden spoon, and mix with vegetables.

Add rice, peas, scallions, soy sauce and meat or tofu and continue to fry for about 3 minutes more, or until peas are heated through.

Champagne and Truffles

2010-02-10T03:37:00.008-08:00

Hand rolled truffles, to be exact. Buttery, dark chocolate truffles made by my own loving hands.

And the best part? They require very few ingredients and are impossible to screw up. In fact, if you plan on giving these away to someone special, the more irregular the shape of the truffle, the better. You want them to look like you made them, not like they came out of a mold in a factory.

You can roll these truffles in a variety of toppings, including (but not limited to) nuts, colored sanding sugar, white sugar, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, cinnamon and chipotle powder, nonpareils, sprinkles, cocoa nibs, and flaked coconut. You can also dip them in melted dark or white chocolate for a hard coating. Experiment with different truffle flavors by adding nuts or jam to the mix and different extracts. You just can’t go wrong, you guys.

Chocolate Truffles
Makes about 15 truffles
Adapted from allrecipes.com

• 6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (depending on how dark you like your chocolate)
• 1/6 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• White sugar, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, chopped nuts, sprinkles, melted chocolate etc. for rolling or dipping truffles

Slowly melt all ingredients over very low heat in a nonstick pan, stirring frequently.

Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Cover chocolate mixture with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, cover a sheet pan with aluminum foil.

Remove chocolate from fridge and roll into small balls using hands. If chocolate becomes too sticky, place in fridge again for another 15 minutes. Roll chocolate balls in topping of choice. If desired, refrigerate and re-roll balls for a thicker coating.

We’re all in luck

2010-02-06T06:21:00.012-08:00

because today, Adam is going to tell us how to make baguettes.

He’s mastered them. I can say so conclusively!

I’ve been fortunate enough to be his guinea pig as he’s tested various recipes over the past few years. Seriously. That is not a bad position to be in. Who wouldn’t want to come home to fresh bread, hot out of the oven and a house that smells like warm, yeasty goodness?

There are few things better, I say. This is what Adam says:

Hi. BONjour!

I imagine this is some sort of guest appearance on a show where I come out and answer questions and sip a coffee mug with water in it? Sweeeet. If you couldn’t tell from the Porc Mignons episode, I’m a big advocate of French food and cooking. I’d say fan, except I promote all things French so much, as many of my friends annoyingly know, it’s unfair to just say “I like French food.” Technically my father’s side of the family is French, although my mom can speak it fluently if you lock her in a room. I think it’s important as an American to understand one’s cultural heritage, and without sounding too pretentious, I think you can gain some understanding by exploring the culinary aspects of your roots, among other things.

I’ve been a fan of bread for a long time, I think all of us are –especially when it’s fresh. I first started baking bread when I moved out to Westwood, and was finally on my own and not at home or in a college dorm. Having grown up with a mother who has excellent cooking skills, I wanted to replicate what I could get at home, which led me to comb through various cookbooks searching for something I could actually do. One of the books was a Williams-Sonoma breadmaking book, which had a recipe for a very traditional Jewish bread usually eaten at Passover called Challah. This braided loaf with a dark exterior and sweet taste wasn’t actually that hard to make, and miraculously came out looking like the picture on the first try. Slight variations in the recipe (ie. due to laziness) taught me some of the basics of what makes a good bread, the time involved, ingredients, and like all equations, doing things in the wrong process yields the wrong result.

Over time, I tried several types of breads with average success, but one that can taste so good yet never ever came out the way it should be was the French baguette. Over the past five years, I have tried probably 20 different baguette recipes. The first results were mediocre, and much to my advantage my wife and I had the opportunity to spend a week in France where I really got to learn what a good baguette looks and tastes like. If anything I made in the past was close, it was now obsolete. This started an obsession with finding a recipe and process that yielded a baguette with the perfect distribution of oddly sized bubbles in the loaf, combined with a crisp, slightly dark texture.

Now, you might be saying, “But wait! The identically sized submarine sticks they sell down at Vons or Ralph’s are called baguettes and those have fine little pockets throughout with a soft, light amber colored skin!” Sorry kids, that’s an impersonator. Real baguettes have an irregular pattern of bubbles big and small, with a semi thick sounds-like-a-tree-falling-over crispiness perfect for beating your lurking spouse out of the kitchen.

So, now that you hopefully have images of beret-wearing Parisians riding on bikes with a quiver of baguettes, alas! The perfect recipe. Remember! The quality is in the time put into this bread, give yourself a solid four hours to make magic.

Authentic French Baguette Recipe
Inventory:
• Flour: 4 cups. All purpose works, experiment with “strong” or “bread” flour which has a more robust protein structure. I like organic all-purpose.
• Salt: 1 teaspoon. Hold on, none of that morton’s iodized crap. You need flake kosher, or be really gastronomique and get a specialty salt like Himalayan Pink.
• Yeast: 14 grams (should be two of those packets) of active dry/ready yeast. Get a good one, not Bob’s Mystery Yeast.
• Water: Just below the 2 cup line. Tap works well, unless you’re in a 3rd world country.
• Olive or cooking oil: 1 teaspoon.

Equipment:
• Three mixing bowls: small, medium, and large. Two will work if you don’t have three.
• Dry measure cup: 1 cup size
• Dry measure spoon: 1 teaspoon size
• Wet measure cup: 2 cup size
• Medium size metal whisk. Could be substituted with a fork.
• Wooden spoon
• Kitchen thermometer, digital instant-read is the best
• A clean, solid, flat surface suitable for kneading and rolling dough (the more the better)
• A knife or bench scrapper
• A Silpat, if you’re a badass
• Two baking sheets
• A basting brush. Silicone for the high tech folks.
• A radio, iPod, or ghetto blaster with your favourite victory music

Let’s Do THIS:
Get out all of your inventory and equipment. Place the inventory on the left side, equipment on the right. Ensure your work space is clean and sufficiently lit. Recipes, especially ones like this, are properly executed with precision, which starts with the right environment.

Holding the bag of flour, POUR it into the measuring cup, and dump into the small bowl, four times. Do not scoop, do not pack, do not force the flour into the measuring cup other than its own pressure of the flour coming out of the bag and into the cup. You’ll notice pouring flour from the bag into the cup is not a smooth process, that’s alright. As you get good at this, you can slowly shake the flour out of the bag with one hand while using a sifting motion on the measuring cup to cause the flour to disperse evenly. Baby steps. You may pour a little too much, that’s alright, fortunately most bread recipes can accommodate water and flour by counteracting with the other. Once you can gage the flow of flour from the bag, you can hold the cup over the small bowl to catch overflow.

Scoop a teaspoon of salt, if you have to pour it, don’t do it over the bowl, just in case you get a little too excited. Dump the measured salt into the bowl, take the metal whisk and spend no less than one minute calmly mixing the flour and salt mixture. The objective here is to get the salt as evenly dispersed through the flour as much as possible.

Now you have a choice: you can either turn the handle on your kitchen sink to hot, and use the thermometer to wait for the right temperature. Or, you pour the water cold into the measuring cup, pop it in the microwave, and using small increments of time, heat the water. I like to get the water hot from the sink, the hard way, so that’s how we’ll do it here. With the water adjusted to hot, it will slowly, or quickly, go from cold to hot. Place the thermometer so the tip is in the water stream and wait until the temperature gets to 105 degrees (F). Hold the cup under the water and fill to just less than 2 cups. Place the thermometer in the water filled measuring cup and take a reading. You want the temperature to be between 113 and 115 degrees (F). “Well mine is 121 I’m sure that’s alright.” NO! You’re using hot water to activate the yeast, which requires a specific temperature range; too low, it doesn’t do anything, too high, they die. Yeah, it’s bad. So, if your temperature isn’t right, just adjust the sink output and add in hotter or colder water. If you microwaved, well, you really shouldn’t be using a microwave anyways now should you?

With your water temperature at 115, take a scissors or knife and open two packages of yeast. Don’t pour them in the bowl yet, if you do, when you pour in the water the yeast will clump and stick to the bowl and you’ll waste time trying to break them apart. Take the water, gently pour it into the medium bowl. With all of the water in the bowl, take your metal whisk in one hand, and gradually pour in both packets of yeast while lightly whisking. The objective is to fully incorporate the yeast with the water. When you’re done, the water should be a cloudy sand color and there should be no clumps of yeast anywhere. Let the water mixture sit for 5 minutes. During this time, depending on the yeast, the cloudiness may settle and then re-rise as a foam, or do nothing. Don’t worry, a genie isn’t going to pop out, you’re just letting the yeast properly activate.

With the five minutes elapsed, take the flour salt mixture and evenly pour half of the mixture into the water mixture. Take the wooden spoon, and begin mixing the flour/salt, water/yeast until it forms a fairly smooth consistency. Make sure you scrape along the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure all of the added flour is properly mixed. In order to get big clumps out, I like to quickly rake my spoon a quarter of the way into the dough and pull across rapidly to break apart flour clumps. What you have now is technically called a sponge, since it’s not really a full-on dough yet. Cover the bowl with something tight, but not air tight, and let the sponge rise for an hour. I use plastic cling wrap with a hole poked in it so I can see the progress. Store the bowl somewhere room temperature, not under a vent, and not in sunlight.

After 45 minutes, check on the sponge. Come back in 1hr 15mins and if it hasn’t changed in size it’s ready. This is part where you’ll need all of your clean counter space. Uncover the bowl, take the rest of the flour mixture and evenly pour it into the sponge. Using one or both of your hands, mix the flour into the sponge to create a dough. This process will result in your hands being completely covered in dough, which is why I recommend, if you have the energy, to use just one hand. You can use the other hand when we transfer the dough to the counter for kneading. After about 10 minutes of mixing, you should have a very sticky dough ball and a hand covered in dough.

Use the clean hand to thrown down some flour and spread it around on the counter to prevent the dough from getting completely stuck to the counter. If you’re really cool, you can run out to a kitchen supply store prior to doing this and get yourself a Silpat. Aside from saving you scraping dough off your counter when you’re done, you can leave it out for friends and guests to find and wait for them to inquire what in the world it is. Tell them is a magic carpet for baking and can take you to distant lands. Then look off into the distance out a window, sigh, and walk away. Assuming you don’t have a Silpat, make sure you properly flour the surface, some of the dough will still stick so don’t get upset when it does.

With the dough on counter, try and spread it out somewhat flat to 1.5” thickness, grab a little flour from the bag and sprinkle it onto the dough. Using the palm of your hand, press the flour into the dough. Take the upper left corner, fold it across to the lower right. Take the upper right corner, fold it down to the lower right. Take the lower left corner, folder it to the lower right. At this point you have made a semi triangular mound. Again with the palm, press down compacting the dough. Use your palm to flatten the dough again and repeat the folding steps. To change it up a little bit, you can improv with some different folding patterns and some twisting. Keep in mind it’s not rocket science, you’re creating bonds in the dough by constantly stretching and then compacting the dough. Each time you press the dough flat, you can optionally flatten out in a greater area and spread more flour on it if it’s remaining too sticky. The final product should be semi smooth and somewhat sticky, but not nearly as much as when you first started. In total, this process should take 15-20 minutes.

Grease the large bowl with the olive oil by pouring it in the bottom of the bowl and using your fingers wipe the oil upwards to the top of the rim until the inside is completely oiled. Keep in mind you don’t need a lot of oil for this, just barely enough to coat the surface. Take the dough, make it nice and round, place it in the greased bowl and cover again for an hour. This time the dough will rise substantially and really start to look like bread dough.

After an hour, remove the cover, re-dust the work surface with flour, and pour the dough out onto the counter gently aiding the dough while it’s coming out as to not let it tear. Without a lot of force, form the dough into a thick rectangle and factor slicing it into four pieces (that’s three cuts). I suggest lightly marking where you will cut the dough in case you make a mistake –be sure to compensate for the fact that the ends of the dough are not as thick as the middle. With four pieces cut, dust more flour on the surface, place three of the dough units to the side, and take the first one placing it in front of you. Gently flatten the dough to about 1 to 2 inches thick, making sure you don’t press out all of those valuable bubbles inside. Using the same folding pattern as before, instead this time rather than pushing it all down with your palm, clamp the bottom of the dough together, as if you were sealing a seam, and begin rolling it into a log on the counter. The rolling process consists of starting with both hands in the middle, rolling the dough, pressing down lightly, and moving your hands outwards, all in a consistent motion. This will cause the dough to form into a circular shape and will extend it as you gently press down and work your hands outwards. This isn’t a wrestling match, so take it easy when pressing down on the bread. Again, it’s those bubbles on the inside you don’t want to lose. Do this process to all four dough units. Each cylinder of dough should be from 1.5” to 2.5” in diameter. They do not have to be perfectly even, although you’ll see after baking whether you want them thinner or thicker depending on your preference.

Place the formed dough, two each, onto a flour dusted baking sheet. If you have enough clean kitchen towels, take two of them, lightly wet them, and place them over the dough and let it proof for 30 minutes in a room temperature space. I didn’t have spare towels, and took a glass baking tray, filled it with hot water, placed it in the bottom of the oven, and then placed my baking sheets in the oven to proof. Keep in mind, the oven is not on yet.

Depending on your oven, you may want to start pre-heating now to 410 degrees (F), or 210 degrees (C). My oven only takes 10 minutes to heat, so I took the loafs out of the oven 10 minutes prior to being ready and let them sit out in the open. With the oven ready to go, and the dough proofed for 30 minutes, take a brush and brush a decent coat of water onto the loafs and send them into the inferno. After 10 minutes, slide them out, re-brush with water, and continue baking for another 15 minutes, for a total of 25 minutes. When done, remove immediately from the oven and place on a cooling rack or appropriate surface. Let them cool for a good 10-15 minutes before you break them open and inspect the masterpiece.

These baguettes go great with a little beurre blanc de sel and a glass of Fleurie or Beaujolais.

You will never eat a better taco in your lifetime

2010-02-01T14:48:00.008-08:00

or enchilada, or quesadilla for that matter, than one made with a fresh corn tortilla.

I promise you this, taco connoisseurs: you have not lived until you’ve eaten a fresh-off-the-griddle and still steaming, soft and delicious corn tortilla.

As many of you may already know, my mom lives in Mexico. And her house is right up the street from a family who makes corn tortillas all day, every day, and sells them for something like 50 cents a dozen. Walking past that house and catching scents of toasty corn and masa harina dough will make your mouth water.

That could be your house, you guys.

You know what you could even do? You could let some carnitas braise on the stove while you make some corn tortillas. Yeeeeaaah. (Can you picture me nodding, eyebrows raised?) Or you could make some enchiladas. I’ll even tell you how I make mine.

My enchiladas could win you a girlfriend. They could win you a husband. They won me a husband.

Yeah, that guy. The one pouring Tapatio all over that freshly made tortilla with re-fried beans.

But Andrea—don’t I have to be a Mexican mom with a tortilla press to make corn tortillas?

No.

All you need are your lovely young hands, some plastic wrap, masa harina, a rolling pin or a wine bottle (both can get the job done), a dinner plate, and a frying pan (preferably a cast iron one if you have it).

Handmade Corn Tortillas
Makes 12-14
Of course, having a tortilla press would expedite this entire process. If you have one, roll dough into balls per my instructions and press between two sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper in tortilla press before tossing onto a hot pan.

• 2 cups masa harina
• 1 ½ to 1 ¾ cups warm water
• Pinch of salt

Mix masa harina and 1 ½ cups of water with hands. Dough should come together easily and not feel too crumbly or too sticky. If needed, add a little more water at a time until the dough becomes soft and malleable. (Think playdough consistency.) Knead for 2 minutes.

Cover dough with damp paper towel and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

Roll dough into balls slightly larger than golf balls. You should get somewhere close to 12 balls of dough. Cover dough balls with a damp paper cloth while you roll out your tortillas. (Dough dries out quickly.) Preheat pan over high heat.

Lay out a sheet of plastic wrap and place one dough ball on plastic wrap. Place a new sheet of plastic wrap over the dough and press down with a plate until dough is flattened into a disk. Note: if the bottom of your plate is not rimmed you may even be able to flatten the tortilla enough to not need to roll it out any more.

Finish off tortilla by rolling dough out to about 1/8 of an inch thick. Each tortilla should be about 6 inches in diameter.

Place tortilla on hot pan. Cook tortillas for 20-30 seconds on each side.

Speed racers: While first side of tortilla is cooking, quickly flatten the next ball of dough with the plate. Flip the tortilla that’s in the pan. Go back to the tortilla you flattened with a plate and roll out quickly. Remove tortilla that’s in pan and place on a plate. Place newly rolled tortilla in pan and repeat process.

Huh?...: Roll tortillas out as directed and place between dampened paper towels until ready to cook.

Reheating instructions: Place tortillas between slightly dampened paper towels on a plate and cover with plastic wrap. Nuke for 30 seconds.

Cheesy Chicken or Vegetarian Enchiladas
Makes 12
My madre and I always found it a little too time consuming to make the enchilada sauce from scratch, especially if you're already using homemade tortillas. (We’ll get to some homemade salsas another day, you and I.) The addition of cream cheese to the filling of these enchiladas make them a semi-American spin-off of my mom's.

• 12 fresh corn tortillas
• 1 large can red enchilada salsa preparada (La Victoria, or Frontera Grill brand)
• 1 1/2 cups cooked shredded chicken
OR 1 1/2 cups worth of frozen corn and/or beans
OR a combo of all of the above
• 1/2 cup frozen spinach, thawed and drained of liquids
• about 1.5 cups of shredded Manchego cheese, or Oaxacan cheese, or Monterey Jack cheese
• 4 oz reduced fat cream cheese
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 onion, chopped
• Oil for sauteeing onion
• Salt and pepper
• Tapatio salsa
• fresh cilantro or green onions for garnish

Note: if you decide to use store-bought tortillas for this recipe, they will crack easily. Prevent this by frying each tortilla in hot oil about 3 seconds per side, and draining on paper towels before using.

Heat about a teaspoon of oil in a small pan and sautee the chopped onion until soft and translucent. You can use butter for this if you want. (I think it tastes better.) Spread on a paper towel to cool and drain.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Make the chicken filling. Mix together the cream cheese and sour cream with a wooden spoon. Stir in a few dashes of Tapatio sauce and 3/4 cup of the shredded cheese. Mix in the shredded chicken, or vegetables, the spinach and the sauteed onion. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Do taste it--if you think it needs more of anything, add it before you move on to the next step.

Assemble the enchiladas. In the bottom of a 9 by 13 baking dish (or whatever you've got that can hold 12 enchiladas and some gooey cheese and sauce) spread about half a cup of the enchilada sauce. Then take one tortilla, place it in the baking dish with the sauce, and put two big heaped spoonfuls of your chicken mixture in the tortilla.

Now, gently roll the tortilla up as tightly as you can and place it seam side down in the dish. Repeat for the other 11 enchiladas. Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the prepared enchiladas. Sprinkle with the remaining shredded cheese.

Bake the enchiladas for about 20 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is melted. Sprinkle with chopped fresh cilantro or green onions.

I like M&Ms in my cookies

2010-01-28T14:37:00.003-08:00

Especially in my oatmeal cookies.

They make me feel happy.

True story: one time, when my friend Jenny and I were like, 8, we made oatmeal cookies and I somehow managed to mix up sugar and salt. And then we gave them to my uncle. And he ate them.

The end.

PS: I noticed there are a lot of blue M&Ms too.

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies
adapted from foodnetwork.com
makes about 3 dozen cookies

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups rolled (old-fashioned) oats
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup M&Ms

Set 2 racks in the middle and upper thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, oats, and pecans together with a whisk or fork.

In a large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together for 30 seconds until blended. Beat in the egg until smooth and barely fluffy. With mixer running on medium high, drizzle in the maple syrup, and vanilla until incorporated. Turn the mixer down to its lowest setting and gradually add the flour-oatmeal mixture. Blend just to combine, then mix in the M&Ms.

Drop walnut-sized balls of dough onto a nonstick or parchment-lined cookie sheet at 3-inch intervals. With moistened fingers, flatten and round out the cookies a little. Bake for 9 minutes, turning the pan once for even baking. The cookies are done when they are lightly browned on top. (They will still look slightly gooey.) Set the cookie sheets on a rack to cool.

Black Bean Cheeseburgers with Chipotle Mayo

2010-01-25T10:20:00.005-08:00

We do like meat in this house. Wait, what? You couldn’t tell by that last meal? (Pig wrapped in pig?)

Still, we try to eat at least one vegetarian meal for dinner each week. It’s healthier (do you think Beyonce eats pig wrapped in pig everyday while on tour?) and cheaper (yes, especially since we try to do the organic, free-range thing), and the challenge is kind of fun. And it is a challenge for us—well for me especially since I do most of the cooking—to find meals that we both will like. Key word, BOTH.

Adam usually says he’s still hungry when there is no meat on his plate. If I say I’m making something like vegetable soup for dinner he looks at me like he’s waiting for me to finish. Vegetable soup…. and... steak?

So when I told him I was making vegetarian burgers for dinner I could tell he wanted to protest. At home he had just begun to get used to the idea of turkey burgers. This was drastic.

Just trust me, I told him. And he did…. And I DELIVERED.

BAM:

Black bean cheeseburgers with chipotle mayo on a whole wheat bun with a side of oven fries. They were DELICIOUS.

Our vegetarian meals usually consist of pasta or chili but I’m glad we branched out for once and tried these burgers.

Tell me friends, what are your favorite meatless dinners?

Black Bean Cheeseburgers with Chipotle Mayo
serves 4-6

• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 teaspoon minced chipotle en adobo
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper
• 4 large hamburger rolls, or 6 regular
• 4 slices mozzarella cheese
• Lettuce, tomato, avocado for topping (optional)
• Chipotle Mayo (recipe follows)

Using a potato masher, mash all ingredients together until well combined. Divide into four or six patties. Note: if you make 4 patties, they'll be extra big. Hungrymonster style. Just so you know what you're getting yourself into.

Place on a hot oiled grill for about 6 minutes each side until heated through. Alternatively, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a fry pan and fry 6 minutes per side. Place cheese slices on patties mid-way through cooking process.

Place each patty in a bun and top with chipotle mayo.

Chipotle Mayo
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• juice of ½ a lemon
• 2 teaspoons minced chipotle peppers en adobo
• Salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Place in refrigerator until ready to use.

Whenever Adam cooks

2010-01-21T14:28:00.021-08:00

it involves a) meat, b) potatoes, c) French cuisine, and d) Jay-Z on repeat. And let me just say the product is always something amazing. No need to remind me how lucky I am to have a husband who cooks. I totally know.

Take my dad, for example. His idea of a good meal involves a salad (including dressing) and a main (spaghetti and meatballs?), usually leftovers, all wrapped together in a giant flour tortilla because, hey it’s all going to the same place, right? Yeah. That’s how my dad rolls. My mom always did the cooking.

So anyway, yesterday Adam made Mingnons de Porc a l’ail, which means something like, pork medallions with garlic. The meal consisted of pork tenderloin rubbed in roasted garlic and wrapped in bacon served with a chunky caramelized shallot sauce and roast potatoes and asparagus on the side. CHA-CHING.

And since I knew he was going to make dinner, I thought to myself what I nice wife I'd be if I made him some Schaum Tortes for dessert. In case you don't know what those are, Schaum Tortes (Austrian shaumtorten) are meringue shells filled with cream (or ice cream in our case) and topped with berries. Yum.

Feel free to drop in for dinner anytime you want.

Mingnons de Porc a l’ail
Adapted from Anothy Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook
Serves 2

• 1 heads of garlic confit, or roasted garlic (recipe follows)
• 1 pork tenderloin (12ounces)
• 3-4 slices of bacon
• 1 tbs olive oil, plus more for garlic confit
• 1 sprig of thyme, or a teaspoon dried
• 2 tbs butter
• Salt and pepper
• 2 shallots, thinly sliced
• ¼ cup white wine
• ½ cup dark chicken or veal stock

Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C.

Make the garlic confit:
Break the head of garlic into unpeeled cloves. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and thyme. Wrap in aluminum foil and roast in the oven for 30 minutes. Allow garlic to cool slightly before popping the cloves out of their skin.

Use a fork to mash half the garlic cloves, reserving the rest. Rub the tenderloin with the garlic and wrap the bacon around it in rings. Tie with kitchen string.

Keep oven on.

In a sauté pan, heat the olive oil over high heat, add 1 tablespoon of the butter. When the butter stops foaming, season the pork, then add it to the pan. Cook the pork over high heat for about 6 to 8 minutes per side, after which the meat should be nicely browned. Place the meat in the roasting pan and cook finish cooking in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until meat reaches 160° F. Remove from oven and allow to rest on a plate.

Discard the fat from the pan and add the other 1 tablespoon of butter. Heat over medium-high heat, and then add the shallots. Cook for 2 minutes, or until the shallots are dark and caramelized. Stir in the wine with a wooden spoon, scraping up all the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Cook over high heat until the wine is reduced to a glaze consistency, then stir in stock. Allow stock to simmer and reduce to more than half. Whisk in the remaining garlic confit and an extra splash of white wine.

Slice the pork into 1 ½ inch medallions. Spoon sauce over meat.

Schaum Tortes with Stewed Berries
Adapted from Betty Crocker
Makes 4
Feel free to add strawberries to the fruit sauce.

• 3 egg whites
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
• ¾ cup sugar
• 3 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup water
• ice cream
• Whipped cream (optional)

Heat oven to 275°F. Line cookie sheet with cooking parchment paper or heavy brown paper. In medium bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar with electric mixer on high speed until foamy.

Beat in 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time; continue beating until stiff peaks form and mixture is glossy. Do not underbeat. On cookie sheet, shape meringue into 9-inch round with back of spoon, building up side.

Bake 1 hour 30 minutes. Turn off oven; leave meringue in oven with door closed 1 hour. Finish cooling at room temperature, about 2 hours.

Combine the berries, water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium-low and simmer until berries have given off some of their juices and the sauce is syrupy, about 10 minutes.

Assemble Schaum Tortes by filling meringue shells with a scoop of ice cream. Drizzle stewed berries and sauce over the top. Top with whipped cream, if desired.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Energy Bars

2010-01-15T10:31:00.005-08:00

So, my husband is getting all manorexic on me. He takes the train to work then runs a mile up a hill to get to his office. He gets there and doesn’t take breaks. He skips lunch and then comes home starving. There is no time, he says.

I knew I needed to step in, so the other day I made energy bars in hopes that he wont weigh less than me by the time we move home.

And he LOVES them, which is cool, because they also happen to be filled with healthy ingredients like almonds, oatmeal and wheat germ. He takes a couple to work and they get him through a good part of the day. Better than NOTHING for lunch, I say!

These energy bars will run you close to 240 calories and have roughly 6 grams of protein each so snack wisely, friends!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Energy Bars
Makes 14 bars
Adapted from foodnetwork.com
If you like dried fruit, try adding ½ cup dried apricots or figs to the mix. These bars hold together best when slightly chilled so store tightly wrapped in the fridge.

• Cooking spray
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup natural creamy peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups crisp brown rice cereal
• 1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
• 1 cup toasted slivered almonds

Spray a 9 by 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine honey, peanut butter, canola oil, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Stir and cook until mixture just begins to bubble, about 3 to 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.

In a large bowl, combine oats, rice cereal, wheat germ, almonds and salt.

Pour peanut butter mixture over oatmeal mixture and stir gently with a spatula until well combined. Transfer to baking dish, cover with plastic wrap and press firmly into dish. Allow to cool completely (will cool faster in the refrigerator). Cut into squares or bars.

I'm cooking again

2010-01-10T07:01:00.017-08:00

It was a long hiatus, and for this, I apologize. Adam and I were busy touring his folks around London, and our buddies Steve and Dan around Europe. We ate a lot of pub food and we drank a lot of beer.

Eating out was starting to get a little old.... I'm glad to be back in the kitchen cooking again! I'm all prepared, too. Look what Adam gave me for Christmas:

Are you jealous a little? I'm not gonna lie. You should be. Purchase equally awesome aprons here.

Mmhm. Be jealous of that lovely frizzy hair and shiny face too. For serious. It gets humid in that kitchen.

And just one more thing to be jealous of: our awesome friends. Thank you, Henry and Bianca for sending an In-N-Out gift card (can't wait to use it when we get home!) and beef jerky. Thank you Dan for bringing us Tapatio. You guys rock. The rest of you rock too.

Is everyone going to stone me for saying I miss home a little? It's not that London isn't awesome-- it really truly is--but um, it's cold. And I didn't realize that being this far away from ingredients I regularly use would be this annoying. I also miss our baby dog. And driving. We also "spoke" with my nephews and niece on skype and it made me sad. Okay, I'm done complaining now.

At least we have Tapatio and can buy expensive tortillas from El Burro Market when we need them. The other day, I was able to make a super simple egg dish that my mom always made us growing up. In fact, I still ask her to make it whenever I see her. The only thing that makes this recipe better is the addition of some crumbled Cotija cheese (no dice in London), and some Tapatio.

This is hardly a recipe. I know you all can scramble some eggs. I'm just going to tell how mama and I do it anyway...

By the way, if you add Ranchero salsa to this dish, you've got Huevos Rancheros. Easy, easy, easy.

Cheers guys!

Mom’s Fried Eggs
Serves 2
• 3 corn tortillas
• 4 eggs
• Salt and pepper
• Vegetable oil
• Tapatio (optional)
• Crumbled Cotija cheese (optional)

Beat eggs, a dash of Tapatio, salt and pepper in a small bowl.

Coat the bottom of a large non-stick pan with vegetable oil and heat on medium-high. Tear tortillas into two-inch pieces and fry in hot oil till golden brown on both sides, making sure to flip each chip often.

Add beaten eggs and cook to desired doneness. Top with extra Tapatio and cheese, if desired.

Quick Ranchero Salsa
• 1 14-oz can of fire roasted, chopped tomatoes
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon chopped chipotles en adobo, or to taste
• 1/3 cup chopped white onion
• 1 clove garlic

Puree all ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth. Add more or less chipotles en adobo to desired heat.

I hope you still find reasons to be my friend after I share this

2009-12-21T12:16:00.005-08:00

because I know a lot of you only hang out with me in case it happens to be one of those nights I make ceviche tostadas. I know it. You know it. Louie knows it. Let’s just be honest here.

So I’m going to tell you how to make it, but promise you’ll still be my friend? Yes? Good.

Ceviche is a very beachy dish--one I ate a million times during the many trips we took to see my mom’s family in Mexico. It's kind of like a cold salad made with fish that marinates and essentially cooks in citrus juices. That’s right. There is no heat in this process but you wont be eating raw fish. Don’t be scared. If you use prawns, like I did, they will go from this:

To this:

overnight.

And yes, I like making ceviche in the dead of winter. Reminds me what it’s like to sit out on the beach near my mom's and feel warm...

Mismaloya Beach, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

I’ve made ceviche with lobster, halibut, red snapper, and scallops but my favorite recipe includes shrimp. Fresh or frozen. Prawns are more widely found in the UK (they aren’t shrimp, but do look and taste similar) so that is what I used the other night. Almost any firm, mild-tasting fish works in this recipe, though. My friend Jenny even used defrosted tilapia once and said it was delicious!

You know what else is delicious? Ceviche de Soya. It’s the vegetarian version. I’ve never made it personally, but I have had my mom’s. (Sorry for holding out, Kate. I will make some for you and Dyl next taco party--I promise!) It’s been all the rage for the past few years amongst health fanatics in Mexico (including, like, all of my aunts who are always on a constant mission to lose weight) since it’s even healthier than fish ceviche. I’ve included instructions for that version, as well.

Ceviche
Yield: 4 mains
We eat ceviche atop tortilla chips and tostadas and serve it with extra Tapatio sauce for those who like theirs even spicier.The shrimp will need to marinate about 8 hours or overnight, so plan accordingly.

Ingredients
• 1 lb raw shrimp, peeled, de-veined and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
• The juice of 10 limes (enough to fully submerge the shrimp)
• 5 medium firm tomatoes, cored, seeded and diced into 1/2-inch pieces
• ½ medium red onion, finely chopped
• 1-2 jalapeno peppers, cored and seeded, minced
• 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 1 tablespoon mint chiffonade
• 1-2 tablespoons Mexican hot sauce (preferably Tapatio)
• Sea salt and pepper, to taste

In a large non-reactive bowl, marinate shrimp in lime juice 8 hours or overnight, stirring occasionally. When fully cooked, shrimp will look pink on the outside and opaque when sliced down the middle. Drain lime juice.

Add the next 6 ingredients, and salt and pepper, to taste. Stir gently with a large spoon. Serve with extra wedges of lime, sliced avocado and homemade tostadas.*

Ceviche de Soya
In place of fish and 10 limes, use an equal amount of rehydrated dried soya meat and 3 limes: cover soy with water (about 2 quarts) add a bay leaf, a smashed glove of garlic, a vegetable bullion cube and some salt and pepper. (In Mexico people use chicken bouillon cubes, but I guess that kind of defeats the purpose if you’re a vegetarian.) Boil for about 10 minutes, remove from heat, and let stand for 15 minutes longer.

Strain soya removing as much water as possible (squeezing between paper towels helps), and mash up with a spoon. There’s no need to marinate in lime over night.

Add the remaining ceviche ingredients, per instructions above. Dress the ceviche with the juice of 3 limes.

*Make your own tostadas: Heat a medium non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat the bottom of the pan with vegetable oil. Fry corn tortillas, about 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side, until puffy and golden.

Cook's Note: My friend Stephanie asked me a few very good questions about this recipe. I'm posting them here in case anyone else was wondering the same things.

1) What the heck is mint chiffonade (and where can I get it) and 2) what does in a "nonreactive bowl" mean?

A chiffonade is a method of chopping that produces thin ribbons of mint or other leafy vegetables. You simply take a stack of mint leaves, roll them up like a cigar from end to end, and slice short ways. "Chiffonade" in this recipe is linked to a wiki explanation with pictures... This type of cutting is purely for show--the ribbons of mint make for a nicer presentation. You may also rough chop the mint instead.

A nonreactive bowl is a bowl made of a material that won't react with the food that's in it-- especially citrus. Stainless steel, glass and ceramic are non reactive, copper and other metal bowls are not.