Return of the Yummy

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

2012-04-23T22:28:00.002-07:00

Cookies and cream is a flavor combination that I've loved since I was a little kid. Other preferences have come and gone, but there's still something about cookies and cream that I just find very, very appealing. Naturally, applying that to a cupcake seems like the greatest idea in the world.

Although I loved the look of the lightly speckled frosting, if I had to do it again I'd definitely add even more Oreo to flavor the frosting. I wasn't particularly enthused with using shortening in the frosting, either. A local cupcake bakery, New York Cupcakes (the cupcakes are New York themed, not from New York), makes the most amazing Oreo buttercream frosting -- far superior to the one used in this recipe, taste wise. If you're more concerned with aesthetics, use the recipe -- it makes beautiful snow-white frosting with specks of Oreo cookie. Otherwise, making your favorite buttercream recipe and use lots of crushed-up Oreos.

The original recipe calls for either breaking the Oreo cookies up into pieces or placing them whole into the cupcake wrappers. Surprisingly (because I didn't expect to), I preferred the latter method. It created an unexpected crunch in the middle of the cupcake, but rather than detracting from the overall experience, it added to it. Then again, I am the sort of person who likes a bit of crunch in everything I eat (I love lining my sandwiches with potato chips, for instance), so your mileage may vary. :-)

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes (adapted from Bakerella)

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup hot water
24 Oreos, plus more for crumbs

For the frosting:

1 cup shortening
1 lb. powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3-6 tbsp milk
2 or more tsp Oreo cookie crumbs

Method

For the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin tin with cupcake wrappers.
Place a whole cookie into each cup or break them apart and place the broken pieces into each cup.
Mix the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl using a wire whisk.
Add the eggs, oil, vanilla and milk and mix until thoroughly combined. Add the hot water and mix until combined.
Transfer the very liquid batter to a large measuring cup and pour batter into each baking cup so that it's about 3/4 full.
Bake cupcakes for 16-18 minutes.

For the frosting:

Beat the shortening in a mixer until smooth.
Add vanilla and mix until combined.
Add the powdered sugar in three additions, scraping down the sides after each addition.
Add a tbsp of milk at a time and mix together until you achieve the consistency you like.
Add the cookie crumbs and mix until completely combined.
Place the frosting in a decorator bag and pipe onto each cupcake as desired. Another option is to mound the frosting just over the cupcake, then dip the top into a bowl of Oreo crumbs to coat.
Insert a cookie (or part of one) on top of each cupcake for decoration.

Lemon-Scented Pull-Apart Bread

2012-04-18T21:31:00.000-07:00

This is a great bread to serve to guests. It's beautiful and fairly non-threatening in every way (unless the guest dislikes lemon). I'm not going to lie; it takes a bit of effort to prepare, as is the case with most yeast breads, and this one has the added complication of dough layering. But also like most yeast breads, it's incredibly satisfying to bask in the fruit of your labors.

Pull-apart bread seems to be the rage these days, and this is my third attempt at one, though I think it's the first one I've posted about. I've also made cinnamon-sugar and cheese pull-apart bread, both of which were delish... but only after I picked off the top burned bits. The problem I had with all three pull-apart breads -- and this is probably particular to my oven -- is that the tops tended to brown very quickly, which meant that by the end of the required cooking time, the tops were way overdone. Because I'd had the experience with the first two breads, I managed to (mostly) avoid that fate for this lemon one. Still, do check on your bread about halfway through, in case you have an oven like mine. If it already looks nice and golden brown, cover it with foil and let it finish baking.

So as I mentioned above, you have to cut squares of dough and stack them in your bread pan, which is what makes the bread "pull apart." It's not difficult to do; it just takes a little bit of extra time.

The dough is a fairly sticky dough. As long as you keep your board and hands floured, it should be fine; I did add a bit more flour to the dough itself but kept it pretty sticky. Also, I used all lemon zest rather than lemon and orange. (As you can see from this photo, I still checked on the bread a little too late and the ends came out a lot darker than I might have wanted.)

What I wasn't too crazy about though? The cream cheese glaze. It gave the whole thing a nicer, more finished look, but flavor wise didn't add much. Next time I'll either find a different cream cheese glaze recipe to try or just leave it out altogether.

Finally, the recipe source calls this "lemon-scented pull-apart coffee cake." I'm not sure why. It's definitely not a cake. I've opted to call it by a less confusing and more accurate name!

Lemon-Scented Pull-Apart Bread (adapted from Flo Braker)

Ingredients

For the sweet yeast dough

About 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/4 tsp (1 envelope) instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup whole milk
2oz unsalted butter
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature

For the lemon paste pie filling

1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp finely grated lemon zest (3 lemons)
1 tbsp finely grated orange zest
2oz unsalted butter, melted

For the tangy cream cheese icing

3oz cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp whole milk
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Method

Make the sweet yeast dough

Stir together 2 cups of the flour, the sugar, yeast, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. In a small saucepan, heat the milk and butter over low heat just until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat, add the water, and set aside until warm (120 to 130°F), about 1 minute. Add the vanilla extract.
Pour the milk mixture over the flour-yeast mixture. Using a rubber spatula, mix until the dry ingredients are evenly moistened. Attach the bowl to the mixer and fit the mixer with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition just until incorporated. Stop the mixer, add 1/2 cup of the remaining flour, and resume mixing on low speed until the dough is smooth, 30 to 45 seconds. Add 2 more tablespoons flour and mix on medium speed until the dough is smooth, soft, and slightly sticky, about 45 seconds.
Sprinkle a work surface with 1 tbsp flour and center the dough on the flour. Knead gently until smooth and no longer sticky, about 1 minute, adding an additional 1 to 2 tbsp flour only if necessary to lessen the stickiness. Place the dough in a large bowl, cover the bowl securely with plastic wrap, and let the dough rise in a warm place (about 70°F) until doubled in size, 45 to 60 minutes. Press the dough gently with a fingertip. If the indentation remains, the dough is ready for the next step. While the dough is rising, make the filling.

Make the lemon paste filling

In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and the lemon and orange zests. Set the sandy-wet mixture nearby (the sugar draws out moisture from the zests to create the consistency).

Make the coffee cake

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.
Gently deflate the dough. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough into a 20-by-12-inch rectangle. Using a pastry brush, spread the melted butter generously over the dough. Cut the dough crosswise into 5 strips, each about 12 by 4 inches. Sprinkle 1 1/2 tbsp of the zest-sugar mixture over one of the buttered rectangles. Top with a second rectangle and sprinkle it with 1 1/2 tbsp of the zest-sugar mixture. Repeat with the remaining dough rectangles and zest-sugar mixture, ending with a stack of 5 rectangles. Work carefully when adding the crumbly zest filling, or it will fall off when you have to lift the stacked pastry later.
Slice the stack crosswise through the 5 layers to create 6 equal strips, each about 4x2 inches. Fit these layered strips into the prepared loaf pan, cut edges up and side by side. (There should be plenty of space on either side of the 6 strips widthwise in the pan, while lengthwise it will be tight. When the dough rises it will fill in that space.) Loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place (70°F) until puffy and almost doubled in size, 30 to 50 minutes. Press the dough gently with a fingertip. If the indentation remains, the dough is ready for baking.
Bake the coffee cake until the top is golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes.

Make the tangy cream cheese icing

In a medium bowl, using a rubber spatula, vigorously mix the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in the milk and lemon juice until the mixture is creamy and smooth.
To remove the coffee cake from the pan, tilt and rotate the pan while gently tapping it on a counter to release the cake sides. Invert onto a wire rack, then turn it so that it's right-side up.
Slip a sheet of waxed paper under the rack to catch any drips from the icing. Using a pastry brush, coat the top of the warm cake with the icing to glaze it.

Serve the coffee cake warm or at room temperature. To serve, you can pull apart the layers, or you can cut the cake into 1-inch-thick slices on a slight diagonal with a long, serrated knife. If you decide to cut the cake, don't attempt to cut it until it is almost completely cool.

Homemade Bacon

2012-04-04T21:24:00.001-07:00

There has been a lot of experimentation going on in my kitchen, primarily having to do with the new stovetop smoker that I got. It's been a blast. I love smoked food, but am not much of an outdoor griller. I was skeptical that you could produce great results with a stovetop smoker, but I was happily wrong. If you're a smoking purist, then sure, it might not work for you... but for me, it's fantastic!

I made some truly delicious baby back ribs -- twice -- before getting to use the smoker for the purpose for which it'd originally been intended... making homemade bacon. That's right, my friends, that most wonderful of pork products can be made very simply at home. It's a relatively easy process, and you can make it exactly how you like it.

If you like bacon (and really, who doesn't -- I know vegetarians who miss bacon most of all the meat products they've given up), you will LOVE what you make at home. Homemade bacon is insanely good. Not only does it taste better than store-bought bacon, it's also healthier for you because you can cure it without using sodium nitrates. I said healthier, ok. Not healthy. :P

It does require some investment (in a smoker and a meat slicer), but in the end it'll be worth it, if you love bacon and/or consume a lot of it in your house (like many things, it's cheaper to make yourself). In fact, some would say that it doesn't require any investment in special equipment. My personal opinion is that to get bacon that tastes the way I like, a smoker's pretty much required. Smoking is what gives bacon that distinctive flavor. Still, you could just cure the bacon and not smoke it -- that's still bacon (pancetta). As for the meat slicer, the first time I made bacon, I didn't have one. I figured it would be fine -- after all, anyone with a knife can slice a slab of bacon. But as I quickly found out, only a meat slicer can get the bacon into thin, uniform slices that make it, well, bacon.

First you start with these beauties: pork bellies. If you're going to make homemade bacon you might as well make the effort worthwhile! You want about 5 pounds of pork belly.

Make a wet cure, which consists of a 1/4 cup each of packed brown sugar, honey (or maple syrup), and kosher salt. This slightly sweeter cure is good for breakfast bacon. If you want to use sodium nitrate (aka pink salt) for extra protection against botulism, go for it, I won't judge you ~~much~~. Mix the cure ingredients together until well blended.

Put the pork bellies into heavy duty freezer Ziploc bags so that they're not stacked on top of each other. (I used 2 bags.) Rub the cure all over the bellies. The cure might seize at first, but as you keep rubbing it will soften and stick to the bellies. Release as much air out of the bags as possible, then seal them. Every other day, flip the bags over so that the curing liquid gets evenly distributed. And yes, there will be liquid. The curing process is basically drawing as much liquid out of the meat as possible so that it will keep. As the days pass, you can check the bellies' firmness... as the water draws out they'll get firmer and firmer. Do this for about 7 days, give or take. They're ready when the bellies feel very firm at the thickest point.

At the end of the 7 days, rinse off all the cure and pat the pork bellies dry with a paper towel. They'll look something like this:

Some would say that at this point, you have bacon. You can slice it and fry it, and I'm sure it would taste pretty dang good. But for me, true bacon requires another step.

Put the cured bellies on a tray and store them in the refrigerator for another half day or so, uncovered. This will help dry off any remaining surface moisture, and the meat will feel tacky when you touch it. This will help the smoke stick.

Prepare your smoker. Smoke the bellies (unstacked, so it might require doing it twice, as mine did) at 200°F for about 2 hours, until a thermometer inserted at the thickest part reads 150°F. Once it's smoked, it might look like this:

Slice off the skin while it's hot, leaving as much fat on the bacon as possible. (You can make the skin into delicious pork crackling.) Next time I may just leave the skin on. NOW it's bacon. Taste some of it off the side -- it's OK, you've earned it, and it's fully cooked now. You can hand slice it at this point or bust out your meat slicer and make those thin slices. Here was my final haul:

My bacon wasn't red/pink like supermarket bacon. It looked like cooked pork. That's because in addition to its preservative function, sodium nitrate also gives the meat a nice, attractive red color. And of course, I didn't use that. Once you fry it up, though, it just looks like regular bacon. I like my bacon on the slightly burnt side. :D

Commercial bacon is pumped full of water, so when you cook it, the bacon shrinks. Homemade bacon shrinks very little, if at all. I froze most of what I made in 'packs' of 8 slices. Although the curing process should make the bacon last a long time, because this bacon doesn't have the preservative power of sodium nitrate it's safer to keep the unused portion frozen. No nitrates... just deliciousness!

Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

2012-02-15T21:40:00.000-08:00

These cookies are called cookies, but texture wise they're more like little cakes, soft and pillowy, not crumbly. Whatever you want to call them, they are delicious. They have a nice, tender crumb that's like a more cakey version of a sugar cookie -- only they're infused with lemon flavor.

This isn't the first time I've made these cookies, but the last time I made them was a year ago. Because I had a bunch of Meyer lemons (from making preserved lemons) on hand, I wanted to make them again. I had a small panic attack when I realized that I'd never posted about these -- I use this blog to store recipes I've tried and loved -- and who the hell knew where I'd gotten the recipe in the first place?!?! I beat myself up for about 10 minutes for being so careless as to not keep some sort of record for a recipe I'd loved, then calmed down and thought about it, and remembered. WHEW. Never doing that to myself again!

It was remembering the ricotta part that was key. If you search for "lemon cookies" on the Internet, a whole ton of stuff comes up. But if you search for "lemon ricotta cookies," the one I was looking for, by Giada De Laurentiis, pops right up. She even has an enticing little video to go with these.

They really are that simple to make. Most of the ingredients are ones you probably already have in your pantry and fridge, with the exception of the ricotta. Heck, maybe you have that lying around all the time too. I didn't, so I had to run out and get a tub.

I adapted the cookies slightly by using Meyer lemons, because that's what I had on hand, but I used regular lemons the first time and it was just as fabulous. In fact, if anything, regular lemons made the end result more lemony, maybe because they're not as sweet and subtle as Meyer lemons. I also accidentally made them healthier, because the recipe calls for whole-milk ricotta, and I thought I picked up a tub of that, but it turned out to be part skim. The good news? I didn't notice a difference at all. So yay, fewer calories and you don't have to pay the price in terms of flavor. (Don't worry, there's still plenty of "good stuff" in them to make them delicious!)

Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze (recipe adapted from Giada De Laurentiis)

Ingredients

Cookies:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 15oz container whole-milk ricotta cheese
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Glaze:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Method

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (using a stand or electric mixer), about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until incorporated.
Add the ricotta cheese, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Beat to combine.
Stir in the dry ingredients.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of dough for each cookie onto the baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and back to front about halfway through, until slightly golden at the edges.
Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 20 minutes.
While the cookies are cooling, combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Add more lemon juice, a few drops at a time, to thin if necessary.
When the cookies have cooled, spoon about 1/2-teaspoon onto each cookie and use the back of the spoon to gently spread. Let the glaze harden for about 2 hours before packing them into an airtight container.

Preserved Lemons

2012-02-12T17:07:00.000-08:00

Preserved lemons are all the rage these days, with cookbooks and food bloggers singing its virtues to the heavens. Used primarily in Moroccan and North African cuisine, preserved lemons have finally come to the attention of the rest of the world, and foodies everywhere are discovering that this extremely versatile ingredient is making a huge difference in their cooking. Added to soups, stews, chicken salad, grilled seafood, and generally any dish where lemon might (or might not!) make sense. I recently had some delicious artisan olives that were marinated with preserved lemon. A little goes a long way, and when you add a bit of it to your dish, you get an extra dimension of flavor that makes people go "Wow."

You may have seen perserved lemons in gourmet grocery stores, but they're fairly pricey considering it's really nothing more than lemon in brine. However, those are ready to use immediately, whereas if you make your own you do have to wait a minimum of 3 weeks before they're ready to use. But homemade preserved lemons are just as good, cost much less (if you have a lemon tree, it's practically free), and if you make a jar (or more) of them, you'll have enough preserved lemons to last a year (at which time you'll want to make a fresh batch, anyway).

Traditionally, preserved lemons are made with regular lemons. In the foodie world, Meyer lemons are popular because they're thinner skinned and sweeter. The peel (with pith) is considered the desired end product, but many people use the flesh as well, particularly in soups and stews where it'll just disappear. The longer they've been preserved the saltier they are, so watch how much salt you add to the dish when using preserved lemons -- always taste!

There's no real recipe to making these beauties. Sterilize a glass jar by running it through the dishwasher (with your other dishes, of course, no need to waste that much water on one jar!) or boiling it, completely immersed in water, for 10 minutes. Quarter your lemons, but don't cut all the way through -- keep them attached at the stem. I've also seen people make one cut almost all the way through, then turn the lemon 180° and rotate it to the side 90° and make another cut there, so that it's almost like an accordion effect. Both methods are pictured here, pick the one you prefer:

Have a big bowl of kosher salt ready (I used coarse salt, but it doesn't need to be), enough for all your lemons. Open your lemon and stuff salt in. Open the other cuts and stuff salt in there as well.

Put the lemon in the jar. Repeat, gently but firmly smashing down the lemons in the jar as you go, releasing their juices, until you've filled the jar about 2/3-3/4 of the way. Top it off with some more salt.

Ideally you'll have enough juice to submerge all the lemons, but you probably won't. Meyer lemons, which are what I used, are super juicy, but I still didn't have enough juice to reach the top. Many people recommend then filling the jar up the rest of the way with extra lemon juice from spare lemons, or even water, but it's not really necessary. Eventually, the lemons will release enough juice to submerge themselves (or if they don't, after the 3-week period feel free to add more lemon juice). Topping it off at the beginning aids in the fermentation process so that you're able to use them sooner, so if that's a factor feel free to do so.

Keep your lemons in the fridge. About once a day (or more), shake your jar of lemons (making sure the lids are tightly closed first!), redistributing the brine and getting the lemons at the top in on the action.

After about 3 weeks, they'll be ready to use. Cut off as much as you need for your dish, then return the jar to the fridge. The lemons should keep for at least a year.

Homemade Spinach Pasta

2012-01-21T17:40:00.000-08:00

It's been snowing... and snowing... and snowing in Seattle. I've pretty much been shut in my house for the last 5 days or so, which I suppose is what inspired me to finally do something I've been meaning to do for ages... make my own pasta. I guess it's always been an intimidating concept, despite having the pasta roller/cutter attachments to my KitchenAid mixer for years. And like so many things that seem daunting, in practice it wasn't at all. It was easy and fun.

You start with some basic ingredients: flour and eggs. My first batch of pasta was just a plain egg pasta; couldn't have been easier. It took 2 eggs and 1 cup plus of flour. I'm blogging about my second attempt, which was basically just like egg pasta, except you add spinach to create a lovely green pasta. Anyway, you start with a mound of flour, creating a well in the center, where you add the eggs. Start beating the eggs (and spinach) as you would scrambled eggs, adding flour from the sides of the well as you beat. Keep adding flour slowly, because depending on numerous factors you may not need the full amount of flour. You may also need more. If the dough is still sticky even after you've used up all the flour you began with, keep adding flour a bit at a time as you knead until the dough no longer sticks to your hand.

I based the recipe and method that I used on Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking and Canal House Cooking Volume No. 7: La Dolce Vita. They're both wonderful and I recommend them highly. I particularly enjoy how Hazan flat out states her honest opinions on various ingredients and methods.

If you want to use spinach, you'll need about 10 ounces. Clean it thoroughly so that no trace of dirt remains, and remove the stems (or use baby spinach, as I did). Get a pot and place the clean, wet leaves inside, and cook over medium heat with 1 tbsp of salt. No other water is needed. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the leaves are tender, then rinse with cold water. Using your hands, squeeze as much water out of the spinach as possible, then chop it up. It should be added to the flour well at the same time as the eggs.

Although I am a fan of using my mixer to knead dough, Hazan recommends doing it by hand, so I did. Immediately after incorporating all the starting ingredients, this is what I had. I continued to knead for about 8-10 minutes, in that time adding more flour. I started with 1 1/2 cups of flour; in the end I used about 2 cups. It all depends on the temperature and humidity of your kitchen, what kind of day it is, etc. You may use more or less.

What you want is a final ball of dough that's smooth and tacky but not sticky. The biggest mistake that people make when they make pasta at home is a dough that's too wet. A too-wet dough will be difficult to handle, and will also stick to your rollers/cutters, creating a mess to clean up.

What you need a lot of when you make pasta at home is -- space. Particularly if you're using a machine to roll and cut your pasta (which, unless you desire wider noodles such as tagliatelle or shapes such as orecchiette, I highly recommend -- you get a much more uniform result, and the pasta is thinner than a normal home cook would be able to create by hand), you're going to end up with some very long, thin sheets of pasta that need to be kept separate from one another.

First, you have to roll the pasta. Divide your dough into six parts (or three parts for every egg you used). Start the roller on the widest setting. Flatten out one of the portions of dough, then run it through the roller. Fold it into thirds as you would a letter, then press the dough around the folds so as to remove as much air as possible. Run it through again on the narrow end, fold into thirds again, and run through again, a total of three times. Lay the dough onto some dry paper towels and repeat with each portion of dough.

When all the portions of dough have gone through the widest setting, set the roller to the next setting up (narrowing the rollers). Run each sheet through. Keep going to the next setting until each sheet of pasta is the desired thickness (I stopped at the second to last setting). You'll notice as you run each sheet through the roller at the next-narrowest setting that they'll get longer and longer and longer, so make sure you have the space for them -- let them hang off the edge of your table if need be! For the ones that got really long (my dough portions weren't even), I ended up cutting in half with a sharp knife.

Once you've got your sheets of pasta at the desired thickness, wait for them to dry a bit -- this is particularly important if you want to store your pasta rather than using it right away. Hazan recommends waiting at least 10 minutes, but again it depends on your house/kitchen. I waited for about half an hour, flipping the sheets occasionally. You want the pasta to still be pliable, but dry enough that the strands/shapes won't stick together once they're cut.

Once you've reached that point, you're ready to cut! I made fettuccine. Because the dough wasn't too wet, it slid easily through the cutter, leaving no extra bits of dough behind. At this point, you can cook the pasta. Fresh pasta requires less time to cook than dry, and cook times depend on the cut. For my fettuccine, I cooked it for about 4-5 minutes to get it al dente.

For storing long noodles, Hazan recommends creating "nests" from several strands, so that they can be easily stored in an airtight container. Just let the pasta sit out at least 24 hours for the pasta to become completely dry -- otherwise it'll develop mold once you put it in storage. If you let it dry out properly, it will keep in your cupboard for months, just like store-bought dried pasta.

Be careful with the pasta once it's dry... it will be extremely brittle. According to Hazan, air drying is a natural process and the pasta will retain its original nutritional value and flavor once reconstituted (unlike what is marketed today as "fresh pasta" in the grocery stores, using artificial means to keep it soft and pliable). Fully dried pasta will take a little longer to cook than when using it fresh.

My birthday dinner. :-)

2011-11-29T15:57:00.000-08:00

My birthday was actually earlier this month, but I'm just now getting around to posting about it. Sorry that some of the photos are blurry. Dark restaurant, evening, no flash, etc.

This year, I chose to go to Ethan Stowell's Staple & Fancy Mercantile, specifically wanting to order their "Fancy" chef's choice meal. All this means is that you hand your menu back to the server and the kitchen decides what you will eat that night, based, of course, on their best dishes. This obviously doesn't work for people who have food issues, but it's great for me!

It was the second time I'd been there and was very good. The only criticism I had was that the starters all seemed to come out in a rush (I would have liked some time to savor each dish), so we felt like we had to devour it all quickly because it seemed like the food was coming out really fast. However, after we ate the starters in a hurry, we then had to wait...and wait...and wait... for the next course! That was kind of WTF. It would have even been fine for it to come out that way had we been told by the server that it was perfectly OK to linger over the food, that we could take our time with it. But anyway, the food itself was superb. I would definitely do the "Fancy" meal again in a heartbeat.

Starters

Sliced baguette with olive oil and vinegar for dipping.

Rich and buttery green olives. I wish gourmet olives weren't so salty, but these were better than most.

Ahi tuna crostini. The perfect amount of flavor, creaminess, and crunch.

Thinly sliced beef tongue with a bit of salad garnish. Yummy.

Deep-fried oysters with chili aioli. There are few things I enjoy more than a deep-fried oyster. Mmmmmm.

A steaming bowl of clams in a wine broth and plenty of parsley.

Radicchio salad. I liked it initially, then it got too bitter. This was probably the dish that was liked least by our table, because none of us are big fans of radicchio.

Not pictured -- argh, I thought I had gotten photos of everything -- soft-cooked egg with white anchovy draped over the top. Delicious.

Pasta Course

Squash ravioli with little bits of squash and seasoned with brown butter and some cinnamon.

Seafood Entree

Grilled opah. This is the first time I've had this fish, which was a firm, white fish like cod.

Meat Entree

Roasted chicken breasts on a bed of pureed parsnip. Really tender and full of flavor.

Dessert

Chocolate boudino with whipped cream. Much lighter than regular pudding. Really wonderful.

Ricotta cheesecake with figs and saba. This is the best plain cheesecake I've ever had. So light and creamy, without the denseness that cream cheese gives, nor the sometimes unpleasant (at least to me) after flavor. The photo doesn't do it justice at all (it's a creamy white in reality), but then cheesecake doesn't really look fancy anyway. If all cheesecakes were like this, I wouldn't be iffy about them.

Baklava

2011-11-25T19:47:00.000-08:00

I took the opportunity of Thanksgiving in the U.S. to make baklava for the first time. It was as many had told me -- much easier to make than it looks. I love the crispy phyllo dough and honey-drenched walnuts inside. The only true challenge was in not finishing the entire pan myself. Better still, baklava freezes well, so you can make a batch and enjoy it at your leisure. Or, I suppose, share it with others.

Simple though it is to make, there are a few things you can do to ensure a successful, not-soggy baklava. First, it's unnecessary to saturate the layers of phyllo with butter. A thin layer of butter suffices (but don't skimp, either). Toast the walnuts, or whatever combination of nuts you choose to use, beforehand. I've never encountered nuts in a recipe that wasn't greatly improved by toasting them first. Be sure to make the sauce first, so that it can be cooled while you're assembling the the baklava -- while you can certainly pour the sauce hot over the baklava, a cool sauce will help ensure that the phyllo stays crisp. Chop the nuts as fine as you can without turning them into powder. Finally, when you're cutting the baklava into triangles/squares, don't cut all the way down to the bottom, so the sauce soaks into more top layers. And yes, it is best to pre-cut the baklava. Once it's baked the phyllo will shatter at the slightest resistance, which makes for a much less attractive finish.

Just out of the oven.

After sauce as been poured over the top.
Full disclosure: This recipe was a bit sweet for me. I tend to like my sweets very easy on the sugar. Next time I'd probably make half the amount of syrup, or cut the sugar at least by that amount. I'd leave the honey as it is -- baklava should taste richly of honey.

Ingredients

1 8oz package phyllo dough
1/2 lb chopped walnuts
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp honey

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter the bottoms and sides of an 8x8-inch square pan.
Toast the walnuts for 10 minutes.
Make the sauce by boiling the sugar and water until the sugar is melted. Add the vanilla and honey, bring it to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. Place this mixture directly into the refrigerator and get it cooling.
Toss the chopped walnuts with the cinnamon and set aside.
Unroll the phyllo dough. Cut the stack of sheets to fit your pan, or keep them intact and use the "fold over" method when layering (leaving the overhanging dough where it is, then folding over when a new layer is required).
Layer two sheets of dough into the pan, then brush with the melted butter. Make sure you get the edges. You may need to occasionally reheat the butter in the microwave to ensure a liquid consistency. Repeat this layering until 8-10 sheets are layered.
As evenly as possible, sprinkle 3-4 tablespoons of the walnut mixture onto a buttered layer of phyllo. Top this with two sheets of dough, brush with butter, then repeat with the nuts and keep layering. The top layer should be 8-10 sheets.
Use a sharp knife to cut the baklava into triangles or squares, nearly to the bottom of the pan.
Bake for about 60 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.
Remove the baklava from the oven and pour the cooled sauce over it, getting it into every nook and cranny.
Serve when completely cool.

Seastack Cheese

2011-10-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

I recently bought a small wheel of my favorite cheese: Seastack, made by Mt. Townsend Creamery in Port Townsend, Washington, a great little place about 40 miles from Seattle.

This is very indulgent of me, because eating a whole round of this cheese by myself is so decadent! Usually it's part of a cheese platter meant to be consumed by many more people.

Seastack is a soft-ripened cheese, such as Brie or Camembert, but much more strongly flavored. It almost has hints of a bleu.

In terms of texture, the cheese is semi-lactic, so it almost resembles velvety goat cheese.

See how it's melty at the edges and firmer in the middle? This means it's at the perfect temperature to eat. I let it sit out for about 45 min after taking it from the fridge.

Serious Eats wrote about this cheese, and according to the writer, a New Yorker, Seastack is "one of the best American cheeses available." Because it's a small-batch local cheese, only those of us lucky enough to live in the Pacific Northwest get to eat it. :D "The flavor is mushroomy and even almost nutty -- seriously delicious." Needless to say... I agree!

I'd love to hear about cheeses you enjoy, both local cheese and ones that are nationally available!

Chicken Stew

2011-09-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

This is a perfect stew to make during the in-between time of summer and autumn, when it's getting cold enough that you want to sit down in a pair of warm pajama bottoms with a bowl of hot stew, but still have the last of the fresh basil to finish from the garden. It's that time in Seattle already.

I love stew. Just saying the word can sometimes make me hungry. It connotes something warm, filling, and delicious, a concoction of all the things I like to eat. This is the first time I've ever tried making chicken stew, as I usually go for beef stew, but something about chicken stew called out to me, so I had to make it.

In my mind, I wasn't thinking the stew would have a tomatoey base, but this was a very highly rated recipe by Giada De Laurentiis -- and now I know why. It's fantastic, and hit just the right spot. I used chicken leg quarters instead of breasts as the original recipe called for, and I wasn't sorry at all. The only thing about the recipe is that it calls for fresh basil, which is a bit odd for a stew. Not that it's not good, but basil is a summer herb for most people and stew isn't usually something people crave when the sun's beating down on them during those hot summer months. In the wintertime, unless you have an indoor herb garden you'll probably have to make do with store-bought basil, or simply leave it out.

Chicken Stew (recipe adapted from Giada De Laurentiis)

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 stalks celery, cut into bite-size pieces
1 large carrot, or 2 small, peeled, cut into bite-size pieces
1 small onion, chopped
Salt and black pepper
1 14.5oz can chopped tomatoes and diced green chilies
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
3 chicken leg quarters, skin on
1 15oz can organic kidney beans, drained (rinsed if not organic)

Method

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven (or other heavy pot) over medium heat. Add the celery, carrot, and onion and saute the vegetables until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Stir in the tomatoes with their juices, chicken broth, basil, tomato paste, bay leaf, and thyme. Add the chicken; press to submerge.
Bring the cooking liquid to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer gently uncovered until the chicken is almost cooked through, turning the chicken over and stirring the mixture occasionally, about 25 minutes.
Using tongs, transfer the chicken to a work surface and cool for 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaf.
Add the kidney beans to the pot and simmer until the liquid has reduced into a stew consistency, about 10 minutes.
Discard the skin and bones from the chicken legs. Shred or cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Return the chicken meat to the stew, then bring the stew just to a simmer. Ladle in bowls and serve.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

2011-09-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time. Time to say goodbye to summer and all its wonderful produce. Like many, I want to preserve what I can, so that I can get a taste of summer in the long autumn and winter months to come. To that end, I've made a big batch of pesto (using walnuts instead of pine nuts, and without cheese) to freeze, and now also, strawberry jam.

What's the difference between freezer jam and regular jam? Essentially, cooking. The former isn't cooked, so it tastes more like fresh fruit, but it also needs to be stored in the fridge or freezer due to its highly perishable nature (whereas properly cooked jam can be stored at room temperature in a cupboard).

If you have the room in your freezer, freezer jam is definitely the way to go. It not only tastes more like fresh fruit, but is much simpler to prepare. No canning equipment necessary. All you need is the fruit, pectin, sugar, and some clean jars. Because freezer jam is more perishable than its cooked counterpart, you want to store them in small jars, so they can be finished in a reasonable time.

In order to control the sugar in your final jam, use "no sugar necessary" pectin, such as the Sure Jell kind I used. There may also be "freezer jam" pectins out there, but this one works for that purpose (the instructions include ones to make freezer jam). Using regular pectin would probably work, too, but if you're like me and don't like things to be overly sweet, you don't want to have to use a lot of sugar in order to activate the pectin. In fact, I actually used less than the instructions call for, which it explicitly warns not to do (so as not to compromise the jam setting). It worked fine for me -- I used just under 2 cups of sugar, though the instructions say to use 3 cups -- but your mileage may vary.

In order to make strawberry freezer jam, all you have to do is crush the fruit, heat up a sugar/pectin/water mixture, add one to the other, then ladle into clean jars. Couldn't be simpler. When you're heating up the pectin mixture, be sure to constantly stir. After it reaches a boil, you should let it boil for one full minute. It's considered boiling when you can't stir away the bubbles anymore.

Let the filled jars sit on the counter at room temperature for 24 hours to let the jam set, then viola! Delicious, homemade jam. The jam can be stored in the freezer for 1 year (thaw in the fridge) or refrigerated for up to 3 weeks. Once you've opened a jar, use it up within a week. (That's why smaller jars are better.)

The recipe that follows is specifically for strawberry jam -- and it's my reduced sugar version. Follow the instructions that come with the pectin for other fruit and best results.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

Makes about six 8oz jars of jam.

Ingredients

4 cups (about a quart) strawberries, washed, hulled and crushed
1 3/4 cup organic sugar
1 package fruit pectin
1 cup water

Method

Using a potato masher, crush the strawberries in a large bowl. Leave it as chunky as you like -- depends on if you like large pieces of fruit in your jam. Do NOT use a food processor; this will liquefy the fruit.
In a large pot, mix the sugar together with the pectin until well combined. Add the water and stir. Heat over medium-high, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a FULL boil. Let it boil, stirring, for one full minute, then remove from heat.
Carefully and quickly pour the crushed fruit into the pectin mixture and stir for one minute, until well combined.
Ladle the jam into clean jars, leaving about 1/2-inch room at the top, then set the jars on a counter at room temperature for 24 hours. Store in freezer for 1 year (thaw in the fridge) or refrigerate for up to 3 weeks. Once you've opened a jar, use it up within a week.

Rugelach

2011-09-18T23:25:00.000-07:00

I was introduced to this Jewish cookie this summer by my best friend. It hasn't been an easy summer for me, as my mom was going through some serious health issues (though she's thankfully a lot better now). One of the things my friend did to help keep me sane, other than just be there for me, was bring me treats. One of these treats was rugelach from a bakery near where she lives.

I fell in love with them, especially the raspberry ones, and was determined to make my own. First, they were rather pricey. Second, they seemed pretty simple. And third, I needed to find a sure-fire way to be able to have them any time I wanted, once I left southern California.

I found plenty of recipes for rugelach online, but none of them seemed to fit the bill. Then, I was browsing a bookstore one day after returning to Seattle, and found The World of Jewish Cooking, by Gil Marks. In it was a recipe that I felt sounded very similar to the rugelach that I'd fallen in love with. And the pastry crust used cream cheese, which I already knew I was a fan of, from previous pie-making experiences.

I am pleased -- and amazed -- to tell you that these homemade versions are even better than the ones from the bakery. I wish that happened more often! The only difference is in appearance -- rugelach are traditionally crescent shaped, while the bakery version sold them in squares. I followed the instructions to shape them into crescents, though it would be very easy to roll them into squares, instead. In fact, it would be a lot less time consuming.

You can also shape the rugelach into small, medium, and large sizes -- I chose to make small, bite-sized ones; the recipe makes 64 bite-sized cookies, 48 medium-sized cookies, and 32 large cookies. Because you're working with four balls of dough, it's also easy to play around with fillings. I decided to make half raspberry and half chocolate (though to be honest, I still love the raspberry ones best). Also, for the filling, I used walnuts and granulated sugar, and omitted the optional raisins.

Rugelach (recipe from The World of Jewish Cooking by Gil Marks)

Ingredients

For the dough

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups all-purpose flour

For the filling

1 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup dried currants or raisins (optional)
1/2 granulated sugar or brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
About 1 cup apricot jam, raspberry jam, strawberry jam, orange marmalade, or 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, melted

Method

To make the dough: Beat together the butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the salt. Gradually beat in the flour.
Divide into 4 equal portions, form into balls, wrap, and refrigerate overnight. (For quicker use, place in the freezer for about 1 hour. The dough can be frozen for up to 4 months.) Let the dough stand at room temperature until workable.
Position a rack in the upper third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
On a lightly floured surface or piece of waxed paper, roll out each piece of the dough into a 1/8-inch-thick round about 15 inches in diameter.
To make the filling: Combine the nuts, currants or raisins, if desired, sugar, and cinnamon. Brush the dough rounds lightly with the jam, marmalade, butter, or margarine, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edges. Sprinkle evenly with the nut mixture.
For large rugelach, cut each round into 8 wedges; for medium, cut into 12 wedges; for small, cut into 16 wedges. Roll up the wedges from the wide end toward the point, pinching the point to seal. Gently bend to form crescents. (The rugelach can be prepared ahead to this point and frozen for several months. Defrost before baking.)
Place the rugelach on ungreased baking sheets. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let the cookies stand until firm, about 1 minute, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature or in the freezer.

Variation: Chocolate rugelach: Substitute 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder for the cinnamon and brush the dough rounds with the 1/4 cup butter or margarine (not the jam).

Oven-Fried Paprika Chicken

2011-09-09T14:50:00.000-07:00

Some might say that I'm obsessed with finding the perfect oven-fried chicken recipe. It comes from loving fried chicken ... like, a lot. The last time I tried this was in January, with Pat and Gina's Oven-Fried Chicken.

I'm back with another recipe, this time from Tomatilla. This one uses seasoned breadcrumbs instead of panko, and uses buttermilk to keep the chicken moist (which is also Alton Brown's method of making traditional fried chicken). It's definitely one of the best oven-fried chicken I've eaten.

Making seasoned breadcrumbs is quick and easy, and helps you use the last of that old bread that's not much good for anything else -- but you can also use prepared breadcrumbs if you like. But it should be noted that for the purpose of making oven-fried chicken it never tastes as good as fresh breadcrumbs, partly because the prepared kind is usually too evenly ground and pulverized to be interesting.

As with the Pat and Gina recipe, this one calls for removing the skin from the chicken. I (reluctantly) did so -- and was pleasantly surprised that the buttermilk did, in fact, help keep the chicken moist. The chicken is scored and seasoned, so that when you bite into it, your mouth is full of flavor.

Coat each chicken piece generously. Do it as quickly as you can, because you don't want the breadcrumbs to get too soggy. Be sure you oil both the pan and the tops of the chicken, to help it attain a crispy texture in the oven.

Oven-Fried Paprika Chicken (adapted from Tomatilla)

Ingredients

1/4 of a loaf of dried-out old bread
2 tbsp herbs de provence
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp ground pepper
1 chicken (3-4lbs), cut into 8 pieces, or 8 pieces of assorted chicken parts
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 cup buttermilk

Method

Tear the bread into chunks, then pulverize in a food processor to get coarse breadcrumbs. Mix in the herbs de provence, garlic powder, salt, and pepper and pulse a few times to get it all evenly distributed.
Remove the skin from the chicken and cut deep slashes to the bone in each piece.
Put the chicken into a bowl and sprinkle the paprika over them. Rub thoroughly, making sure each piece gets some paprika, until it's evenly distributed. Pour in the buttermilk, making sure that each piece gets coated, and rub the buttermilk into the slashes. Let the chicken sit in the fridge for about an hour.
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Spray or otherwise oil a large baking sheet with canola or olive oil.
Take each piece of chicken and coat it thoroughly in the crumb mixture. Place them in a single layer on the baking sheet.
Drizzle or spray some oil onto each piece of chicken.
Bake for 15 minutes, until the bottom starts to turn brown. Flip each piece over and bake another 15-20 minutes until the chicken is a golden brown all around. Check for doneness -- when you cut into a piece near the bone, the juices should run clear. If they're tinged pink, turn the pieces again and bake for another 5-10 minutes.

Tomato-Braised Oxtail Pasta

2011-08-25T11:48:00.000-07:00

Oxtail is one of my favorite cuts of beef. It's still called oxtail, though it no longer refers specifically to the tail of an ox, but all cattle. When you slow cook it, in soup or by braising, the meat becomes extremely tender (and flavorful, being so bony), with delicious melty gelatin.

If you've never had oxtail, give it a try. If you've only had it in soup, try braising it. Typically I braise oxtail Chinese style, with soy sauce as the base. But it's equally delicious using a more Mediterranean method, such as the one I'm sharing here.

When you purchase oxtail at the grocery store, it'll usually come pre-cut into several chunks, in roughly 2-pound packages. Select packages that have meatier chunks, with fewer small-boned pieces. The muscle should look as all good beef cuts look -- a nice red, not pink or dark or spotted. If you're in an Asian grocery store, the oxtail will sometimes be available whole; have the butcher cut one tail into pieces for you.

This is a good dish to prepare ahead of time, because the flavors only improve with time, and keeping it in the fridge overnight makes fat removal easier.

Tomato-Braised Oxtail Pasta (a variation on Pioneer Woman's Short Ribs in Tomato Sauce recipe)

Ingredients

2 lbs ox tail, cut into pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
1 medium onion, diced
1 cup red wine
1 28oz can whole tomatoes
1 14oz can tomato sauce
1/2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp thyme
salt and pepper, to taste

Method

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
Generously season the oxtail pieces with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the oxtail, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.
Toss the garlic and onions into the pot. Cook, stirring, for two minutes, then add tomatoes, tomato sauce, sugar, wine, red pepper flakes, and thyme. Combine.
Carefully place the oxtail back into the pot, covering the pieces with as much of the sauce as possible. Cover the pot and place it onto the middle rack in the oven. Cook for about 4 hours, at which time the meat should be very tender and will separate from the bone at the slightest provocation. Taste and add salt and pepper if necessary.
If you're ready to serve, use a spoon to remove as much of the accumulated oil as possible (one of those fat separators might also work). Or you can remove the oxtail from the pot, place them in a separate container, and refrigerate. Do the same with the pot of sauce, though you can keep the sauce in the same pot. After a few hours, the fat will be hardened and easily removed. Then reheat the sauce with the saved oxtail in it.
Serve over your favorite long pasta, with chopped fresh parsley to garnish if you desire, and parmesan cheese.

Chinese-Style Sweet Pork Jerky

2011-08-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

I never thought the day would come when I'd make my own sweet pork jerky, a favorite treat of mine growing up. Well, my friends, that day has come. And once again, it was SO MUCH EASIER than I thought it would be.

Sweet pork jerky, made in thin sheets, is a popular snack food in Chinese culture. In Cantonese my parents called it "ju yok gon" (literally, "pig meat dried"). In Hokkien, it's known as "bak kwa." There's also a beef version, but I like pork better. And with pork, there are two variations, one made from slicing off solid blocks of meat, and one made from minced meat. I like them both, though the latter is easier to prepare at home, and is also easier on your teeth.

The recipe calls for finely ground granulated sugar, which I grind up in a coffee bean grinder (but not for too long, or the heat will make the sugar melt!) that I reserve for such use. You can also use Baker's Sugar if you have that lying around or don't mind buying it. This ultra-fine sugar dissolves easily.

One thing I've found with homemade pork jerky is that once I've stored it in the fridge (which I have to do, because I can't and shouldn't eat an entire batch in one go), a very slight layer of fat from the meat appears on the jerky, hardening in the cold and making it lose its customary shine. This is solved by reheating, either in the microwave or the toaster oven. Commercial pork jerky doesn't seem to have this problem, but I assume it's due to additives/preservatives. It helps to pat down the jerky with some paper towels after it's done to soak up excess grease (as you would pizza), but it's not foolproof.

Obviously the solution is to have your family and friends enjoy the jerky fresh. They'll be amazed!

Chinese-Style Sweet Pork Jerky

Ingredients

1 lb ground pork
1/2 cup finely ground granulated sugar (Baker's Sugar)
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
4 drops of red food coloring (optional)

Method

Combine marinade ingredients (all except the pork) in a medium bowl or large freezer bag and mix well.
Add the ground pork, mix it well with your hands or a wooden spoon, and let it marinate overnight (or at least 4 hours).
Preheat the oven to 200°F.
Using canola oil spray, lightly grease an 11 x 17" baking sheet.
Spread the pork mixture onto the sheet as thinly as possible. You should be able to cover the entire sheet.
Place the sheet in the oven on the middle rack. Close the oven door, but leave it slightly ajar -- you can close the door on a wooden spoon, for example. This will allow the steam from the meat to escape, drying it out. Cook for an hour.
Remove the baking sheet from the oven and prep your broiler -- set it to "high" or about 450°F.
Meanwhile, carefully lift the pork up off the sheet and flip it over -- the top of the jerky will appear drier than the bottom, so we want to give the bottom a chance to dry out as well.
Place the sheet under the broiler and broil for about 4 minutes, until the meat just starts to blacken around the edges (or if you don't like the char, as I do, watch it carefully after every minute). The meat should look shiny.
Remove the sheet from the broiler, carefully flip the jerky over again, then broil another 4 minutes (or to your preference) on the other side.
Using tongs, place the jerky onto a wire rack to cool, using a pan or towels below it to catch drippings. If you desire, you can use paper towels to blot out extra grease.
When completely cool, use kitchen shears to cut the jerky into desired shapes. Keep uneaten portion in the fridge.

Lovely Lemon Cakes (Game of Thrones)

2011-06-14T21:23:00.000-07:00

I'm a huge fan of HBO's Game of Thrones ... and an even bigger fan of the original book series by George R. R. Martin. If you've read the series, you know that food is sort of a "recurring character." Many times, GRRM's descriptions of the lavish feasts that the characters partake in have caused some near-drooling experiences. In fact, a couple of fans have gone so far as to create a food blog based on the series!

I am not quite that ambitious. But when I saw that HBO had actually released a recipe for lemon cakes (based on a recipe by Tom Colicchio), a favorite treat throughout Westeros, particularly enjoyed by Sansa Stark, well... I had to give it a try.

Guess what? They're delish. Light, sweet, and creamy. Though the recipe seems to indicate that they should be served warm, I actually preferred them once they'd chilled in the fridge over night.

I used slightly larger ramekins than was called for, so my lemon cakes look shorter and flatter. They're actually quite small. What I love about them is that after baking, they layer themselves. When you unmold, you should see that a cake layer has formed at the "bottom," with a creamy middle, topped by an almost jelly-like top. These layers are more visible when you use a small ramekin, so that they're given some height. Still, even in my shorter versions you can see that there are layers. I garnished mine for aesthetic purposes, but they don't really need it.

"Gods be true, Arya, sometimes you act like such a child," Sansa said. "I'll go by myself then. It will be ever so much nicer that way. Lady and I will eat all the lemon cakes and just have the best time without you."

The HBO recipe is extremely concise and isn't big on detail. I sort of muddled through it, hoping the right things were happening, but it wasn't until the end that I knew I'd done it correctly. I've tried to make their recipe clearer with my adaptation below.

Lovely Lemon Cakes (adapted from HBO's recipe)

Ingredients

1/2 cup sugar, plus more for dusting ramekins
2 eggs, separated
3 tbsp plus 1 tsp all-purpose flour
Pinch kosher salt
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Finely chopped zest of 1 1/2 lemons
1 kettle hot water

Method

Heat the oven to 300°F. Butter and lightly sugar 6 4-ounce ramekins. Also, set a kettle of water to boil.
Beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks, then set them aside. Make sure you've caught all the whites that may have settled to the bottom of the bowl.
Sift the sugar with the flour and salt.
In a mixer, using the whisk attachment, combine the buttermilk, lemon juice, egg yolks and lemon zest.
Gradually add the flour mixture, until combined.
Fold in the egg whites. The resulting mixture may not look fully homogeneous; that's OK.
Divide the batter between the prepared ramekins.
Pour the kettle of hot water into a large pan with raised sides (be careful!).
Place the ramekins into the hot water bath, making sure that the water comes about halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the whole thing with aluminum foil and carefully place the pan into the oven.
Bake until the cakes rise and are almost firm, about 25 minutes, then remove the foil and continue baking until the tops are lightly golden and the cakes spring back when touched, about 15 minutes more.
Unmold and serve immediately, or unmold and chill in the fridge until ready to eat.

New York Steak and Quick-Roasted Potatoes

2011-06-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy time at work for me, so cooking elaborate (or even not-so-elaborate) meals for myself has definitely not been a possibility. That's why I'm here to tell you about one of my favorite "quick" meals, which can be prepared in about 30 minutes. I know, I know, Jamie Oliver can prepare a 4-course meal in that amount of time, but I'm no Jamie Oliver. I do, however, take advantage of his trick with quick-roasted potatoes to make this meal!

First, I want to share my favorite way of preparing great steak in your oven. It's actually my dad's method, and if grilling's out, this is the next-best thing, especially because it's not fussy at all. First, marinate your steak. I basically rub sugar, seasoned salt, pepper, and soy sauce over both sides, then let it sit in a baggie or on a plate. When you're ready, stick the steak on a pan -- I used cast iron this time -- and place it directly under your broiler. Turn it up to about 450°F, or "high." You do not need to preheat (I know, isn't it awesome?). For a steak about an inch thick, cook for about 8 minutes. Flip the steak over, then cook for another 6 minutes for medium rare steak, or until the meat is how you'd like it. Note that cooking times will also vary depending on the thickness of your steak and if you use cast iron. If you do use cast iron, it may cook a lot faster, so you'll want to adjust times accordingly. Once the steak is out of the oven, transfer it to a plate and let it sit for 5 minutes to allow the juices to settle.

While the steak is marinating, make the quick-roasted potatoes a la Jamie Oliver. Quarter 6-8 red potatoes. If the potatoes are large, cut them into sixths or even eighths. Place them in a deep pan and cover with water. Turn the heat up to high and get the water boiling. Simmer for 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender enough for a fork to pierce them easily. Drain the water. Return the potatoes in the pan back to the stove over medium heat. Add some canola or olive oil, salt to taste, and about a tablespoon of butter. Cook for 2 minutes. Use a metal turner and stir up the potatoes without breaking them. They may stick a bit; that's good, it means they'll be turning nice and brown. Turn them every 2 minutes. Depending on your heat, this will take 20-25 minutes. If you've timed things right, they should be done about the same time as the steak.

You can also fancy things up a bit, if you like ... for instance, I had some homemade herb butter, so I placed a dab of that on top of the steak when it was having its rest. I also had some cherry tomatoes I needed to use up and some caramelized onions I'd made the other day, so I threw those in with the potatoes in the last 5 minutes or so.

And don't let those steak drippings go to waste; that would be a crime! Transfer them to a small pan (or if you used a cast-iron pan, just use that) and set over medium heat. Add a tablespoon or two of flour and cook for a minute or two, stirring. Gradually add about a cup and a half of beef stock (in my case, made in 30 seconds with Better than Bouillon beef base), stirring constantly, for a wonderfully rich brown gravy. Serve with steak and potatoes or reserve for another use!

A very quick, delicious, and satisfying meal.

Restaurant-Style Cha-Siew

2011-06-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

You may or may not remember that I was not thrilled with my first attempt at "cha-siew," Cantonese-style BBQ pork. My primary issue with the recipe was that the sauce, while good, caused the meat to have more of a soy-sauce flavor, when more authentic cha-siew has more of a sweet flavor. I also wanted to create acceptable results with an oven (rather than a grill).

To that end, I adapted a few recipes I found online and made various adjustments to achieve the results I wanted -- with great success! I'm happy to say that this attempt resulted in cha-siew that is very close to version you'd get in a Cantonese BBQ restaurant.

Proper cha-siew is traditionally made with maltose, which is malt sugar. According to Wikipedia, it's half as sweet as glucose and one-sixth as sweet as fructose. If you only needed sweetness, maltose might not be necessary, but it also adds a very specific sheen and gloss that substitutes like honey just can't duplicate. The texture of maltose is extremely thick -- it's about ten times thicker than honey; it's hard to get a spoon into it, and when you pull it out, it peaks and hardens very quickly. So if you can find it, I'd recommend using it over a substitute. I found a small tub of maltose next to the honey at my local 99 Ranch.

The first time I made cha-siew, I used pork leg. This time, I used pork butt (which is a cut from the shoulder... yeah, I don't know how these names happen). They both worked fine, though if pushed I'd say I liked the leg better. Maybe. Anyway, either works fine. Just don't use pork loin, which is less tender and flavorful, and less forgiving when you cook it.

Restaurant-Style Cha-Siew

Ingredients

1lb pork butt or leg, sliced horizontally into 1 1/2-inch hunks
1/3 cup sugar
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2½ tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp maltose (or honey if you must)
1 tbsp Chinese rose wine ("mui guay lo")
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp 5 spice powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
6 drops red food coloring (optional)

Method:

Wash the pork and remove skin and really large chunks of fat.
In a medium saucepan, combine all the ingredients except for the pork and the food coloring. Heat the marinade only until the sugar (and maltose, if using) dissolves. If it gets too hot, cool it to room temperature. Add food coloring, if using.
Put the pork in a container that fits it snugly (I just used the plastic bag that it came in from the butcher's), then pour the marinade on top. Let this marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Try to ensure that all the surface areas get some marinade.
Remove the pork from the fridge about 40 minutes before cooking, to allow it to return to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 410°F.
Line a roasting pan with foil (for easy clean up). Place a wire rack on top of the foil. Lay the pork on the rack. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes.
Pour the marinade into a medium saucepan, remove the chunks of garlic and heat to boiling, then keep simmering at a low heat to reduce the sauce. It's been sitting with raw pork so you want to make sure to kill all the microbes. Dirty foam will float to the top; skim this off and discard.
After roasting for 15 minutes, baste the pork with the marinade and turn it over. Reduce the heat to 360°F and roast for another 15 minutes. (If you chose to use tenderloin despite my dire warning not to, it might be done now.)
Baste the pork without turning and return to the oven for another 10 minutes. In the last 4 minutes, put the pork under the broiler, 2 minutes for each side, basting each time. That will give it a nice, pretty charred look that's characteristic of cha-siew.
Remove the pork from the oven. By now the foil will be covered with raised black bits and you'll be very glad you used it. Baste both sides of the meat again with the reduced sauce, and let it sit on the wire rack for 10 minutes undisturbed before slicing. Serve with the sauce.

Chamchijeon (Korean Tuna Pancakes)

2011-05-24T12:30:00.000-07:00

Turn a can of tuna into these crispy little snacks! They're absolutely delicious. A can of tuna makes six little pancakes, and I devoured them in about two minutes. Note to self: always make a double batch.

This recipe comes from Maangchi, who is my go-to Korean cooking expert. Pretty much everything I have ever made using her recipes have turned out well, and this was no exception. The funny thing is, there's really nothing about the recipe that indicates that it's Korean... or even Asian. Okay, maybe the sesame oil, which imparts an "Asiany" flavor. But if you left that out, it's really just made up of familiar, run-of-the-mill ingredients that aren't Asian in origin.

It couldn't be easier. Mix everything together, then fry for about two minutes on each side. Then viola! Delicious little tuna snacks that don't taste tuna-y. You know what I mean; canned tuna always imparts a very distinctive kind of tuna flavor... these pancakes don't have that. At least not while hot. I don't know what they'd taste like cold, as I ate them all too quickly. Maangchi says that this can serve as a cold appetizer, so I have no reason to doubt her.

I love that they don't have to be deep fried. While I love deep-fried foods, I don't like the mess of dealing with leftover oil at home. For these, you just use a tablespoon or two of canola oil, like you're going to stir-fry vegetables or make scrambled eggs. Easy peasy!

Maangchi's original recipe calls for a teaspoon of salt. This seemed really excessive to me, and in fact, in her own video at the end, after she tastes them, she admits they're on the salty side. She says it's fine because they're intended to be served with rice. Me, I just drastically cut the amount of salt called for and it was fine, especially because I didn't eat them with rice.

The dipping sauce she recommends for them is a mixture of soy sauce and vinegar -- she didn't specify what kind, but I used black. Soy sauce, black vinegar, and some hot chili paste is my go-to sauce for potstickers, and it worked just as well for these little snacks. However, I can also see myself leaving out the sesame oil, squeezing lemon juice over them, and dipping them in aioli.

Chamchijeon (Korean Tuna Pancakes) (adapted from Maangchi)

Ingredients

1 5oz can of tuna packed in water, drained
3 tbsp onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 egg
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1-2 tbsp canola oil, for frying

Method

Heat your pan on medium-high heat with the canola oil.
Meanwhile, thoroughly mix together the rest of the ingredients. It should be fairly wet and stick together well. If it doesn't, add a little more oil or water.
Divide the mixture into six portions. Drop by the spoonful into the hot pan, and gently shape them into rounds if you care about shape.
When the bottoms are nicely browned, about 1-2 minutes, flip them over, pressing gently. Fry until browned as well, then eat immediately ... or not.

Chicago Eats (part 3)

2011-05-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, now comes the restaurant that totally knocked our socks off. It was Girl and the Goat. Keep in mind that this was the place where we had 10pm reservations, so it was really tempting not to go. I wasn't that hungry (considering I'd already had 3 meals that day), R. was napping, her leg was hurting because of the tattoo she'd gotten earlier that day, it was late, how good could the food be, look at our experience with Publican, which wasn't all that, etc. They had to overcome A LOT to make the visit worth it.

But I decided that it wasn't every day that I was in Chicago, I'd regret it later if I didn't give it a shot, so I overrode my reluctance, roused R., and off we went. We decided not to bring our "real" cameras, because it was dark and dinner lighting was never good for photos, etc. Oh, how we would come to rue this decision.

We got there early, at 9:30pm, hoping they'd be able to seat us early. The good news was, they were. The bad news was, it was at a table similar to the one we were seated at, at Publican -- right in front of the kitchen where the food preparation was happening. "Oh no, not this again," was my dreaded first thought. My second thought was, "OMG the lighting's not bad at all and we're right in front of the kitchen. Why didn't we bring our cameras?!" So unfortunately, all the photos you see here kind of suck. They were taken by R.'s little standard digital camera, and my phone camera, which is really good for a phone camera, but nonetheless sucks.

It was hot as hell, sitting there. That's one negative. You're right near the stoves, and they are BLASTING heat. I don't know how the cooks stand it. They said they just don't think about it, because if they did, then they'd really feel it and be miserable.

Our server Meadows was awesome. He promised that sitting at this table was like no other table in the restaurant. He was super nice and friendly, made great suggestions, and was generally the kind of server you always want to have. Also awesome were Alexis, Sean, and Juan, the cooks who chatted with us as they prepared plate after plate of delicious food. They were all really warm and friendly -- the total opposite of the people we encountered at Publican, sitting at a similar table. We had so much freaking fun sitting there, chatting with them and eating the yummylicious food. We really DID feel special, that we had the best seats in the house, that we were treasured guests.

The food was spectacular. Like, these pictures do them NO justice. Even had we had our Nikons, the pictures and my words still wouldn't have done the food justice, because food this good needs to be tasted to be truly understood how good it was. It was all simple things, well prepared. R. is the pickiest eater in the WORLD -- she has so many taste and texture issues -- yet the food was so well prepared that she ate things neither she nor I ever thought she would eat, and LIKED IT.

We both started with a bread. We didn't know it, but this was perhaps not the wisest decision, because sitting where we sat, the kitchen gave us food to sample fo free and so we had more food than we could finish. Plus for me, the bread was my least favorite thing. It was one of R.'s favorites, though. She ordered sweet onion butter and herb oil, while I had chicken liver butter and carrot sage oil. I'm only including a pic of one bread because they both basically looked the same.

The first thing we got to try was the escargot ravioli. We didn't order it, they just gave it to us to sample. So awesome. And it was soooo good! I was a huge fan of this dish. Escargot ravioli, bacon, tamarind-miso sauce, crispy onions.

I love beets, so whenever there's a beet salad I'm likely to order it. Roasted beets, green beans, white anchovy, avocado creme fraiche.

All mixed together:

R. ordered English pea pods, which you were supposed to eat like you would edamame, by just sucking out the peas, but they were so well prepared that I just went ahead and ate the shells sometimes.

The real star vegetable, however, were the green beans, which neither of us ordered, but which they once again gave us to try. See, it totally DOES pay to sit at this table!! Okay, these green beans were out of this WORLD. It was a favorite of both me and R. It looks like nothing special, but it was so amazingly good. Sauteed green beans, fish sauce vinaigrette, cashews.

Haha I just read this on Yelp: "Everything. Was. Amazing. The green beans especially. I don't know what kind of crack sauce Stephanie Izard has come up with, but I want to bathe in it."

I also got the hiramasa (I learned that's another word for yellowtail -- my favorite sushi fish!) crudo. Flavored with crisp pork belly, aji aioli, caperberries.

And after ALL THAT, we still had to eat our entrees!!

R.'s: Pan-roasted halibut, brandade, grilled asparagus, green garlic, blackberry.

Mine: Wood oven roasted pig face, sunny side egg, tamarind, cilantro, potato stix.

Me mixing it all up...

Okay, so funny story about the pig face. And not just that it's simply called "pig face" on the menu. When we had dinner with R.'s Chicago friends, J. told us about when she went to Bacon Fest, and talked about how one of the vendors had given her the cheek of a pig. While those of us who were foodies ooohed and aaahed, R. sat there totally flummoxed as to why this would be a good thing. Fast forward to Girl and the Goat, and her trying my entree: "Ohmygod, I LOVE PIG FACE!!!!! I now totally understand!!" HAHA.

So yeah, the way they prepare it is that they braise the pig heads for 12 hours. Then they peel back the skin and pick off all the meat from the head. This mixture is then rolled into a log and chilled. Then once it's solid, you can slice it. Here are the pig heads braising, which Juan was nice enough to take a photo for us:

This is Juan. He is awesome. He was the one who did most of the work entertaining me and R., because his station was right in front of us. Here he's "hiding" what he's doing, because once he realized R. was taking photographs of everything, he didn't want her to take a photo mid-plating so that it would look less than perfect. Little did he know how much our cameras sucked.

This is the hanger steak. Neither of us ordered it, but once I had tasted the food you don't know how much I regretted that I didn't. Spring Hill makes the best hanger steak in Seattle, but I bet this place would have given it a run for its money. Still, if I had gotten it, I wouldn't have gotten the pig face. So you know.

Even though we were stuffed to the gills at this point (do not forget I already ate 3 meals that day ... I don't know how I did it), we ordered dessert, because how could we not? R. loved hers and I liked mine, but I would have rather have had the hanger steak. :D

Mine (left): rhubarb and lemon, shortcake, buttermilk panna cotta, lemon gelato, salted graham cracker

Hers (right): blood orange sorbet, parsnip pot de creme, pistachio cake, three sisters cornmeal crust

Okay, and lest you think this was folie a deux, or that we only thought it was great because we got special treatment, I want to share two things with you:

1) Currently on Yelp, Girl and the Goat has over 730 reviews with an average 4.5 rating. That is hard to do.

2) In the middle of our dinner, the table behind us (a group of about 10 people) starting applauding the kitchen. Okay, when people are so moved by your food that they start spontaneously applauding, you know it's good.

The entire dining experience was just great. We sat at "table 5," which seats two. There's another table at the other end, "table 4," that also seats two -- I'm sure that would be great as well. Book early, or do as we did and just go at whatever time you can. It's worth it!

Another favorite place of mine that we went to was Kuma's Corner -- the burgers were wonderful. I ordered my burger medium rare and it came perfectly, with pink in the middle and seasoned just right. The meat was just good. They also had house-made chips, but I went with the fries and they were meh (which is fine, because the fewer fries I eat, the better). Also, the burger was huge. It comes with 10oz of beef, which is just over half a pound. O.o

I got the Neurosis: cheddar, Swiss, sauteed mushrooms, caramelized onions, horseradish mayo

They also have "make your own" mac & cheese, and R., being a mac & cheese lover, couldn't resist. She got that AND a burger. So yeah, there was a loooooooooooot of food left, which unfortunately ended up getting tossed, because when were we going to be able to eat it? :-(

Finally, for dinner, we went to Frontera Grill. My camera was out of battery by this point, so I had to use my phone camera again, and I think R. had her D40, but the lighting wasn't great. So please pardon the (mostly) crappy photos once again.

We had time to kill before our reservations and we spent it having drinks and what not, so we weren't even hungry, but we put our game faces on and ordered too much food.

I had two appetizers, the ceviche Yucateco (steamed mexican blue shrimp and calamari, lime, orange, habanero, avocado, jicama, and cilantro), and the tamal de hongos (banana leaf-steamed tamal of wild and cultivated mushrooms, epazote, roasted chilaca chile cream, tany wild argula). The ceviche was small, but came with filling chips. The mushroom tamale was very good. I'm usually not a fan of tamales; they're so dry and boring, but this one was done right.

R. got the sopes rancheros (crispy corn masa boats, savory shredded beef, roasted tomato, avocado, homemade fresh cheese), which she LOVED.

A. got the Topolobampo tortilla soup (dark broth flavored with pasilla, with grilled chicken, avocado, hand-made Jack cheese, thick cream and crisp tortilla strips).

I don't know what we were THINKING, getting all this food. I mean, I guess I was thinking, I'm at a Rick Bayless restaurant, I can't NOT order a bunch of stuff to try!

R. and I actually both got the same entree, which tells me that I wasn't very adventurous in my selection (I wasn't), but it just sounded so good. Maybe I was thinking about the hanger steak from Girl and the Goat. In any case, we both got the tacos al carbon, with the skirt steak (mine medium rare, hers well done), which came with a bowl of delicious beans, a generous helping of guacamole, and homemade tortillas. It was good, but I was SO FULL by this point that I could only eat one of the tortillas. I did eat all the steak and some of the beans. You know how full I was when I tell you that I actually left some guacamole uneaten, which is unheard of.

A. had a half order of the marisquera de lujo for her entree, which came with half a dozen oysters and their accompaniments, ceviche fronterizo (lime-marinated Hawaiian albacore with tomatoes, olives, cilantro, green chile), and coctel atun tropical (sashimi-grade Hawaiian yellowfin tuna, avocado-tomatillo guacamole, tangy mango-grapefruit salsa). It looked enormous. I actually ate one of her oysters because she couldn't finish it all. :))

Okay, so overall impression of Frontera Grill. It was good, definitely good. It wasn't the restaurant's fault that we had to kill time and for us that involved filling our stomachs before dinner. It was also reasonably priced, I thought. I mean, no worse than any upscale restaurant in Seattle. From what I'd heard from others I was expecting really sky-high prices, but eating in Chicago, at least the places we went, seemed actually much more favorably priced than here.

But I will also say that it's fairly difficult to wow 2 people who grew up eating Mexican food in southern California (and eat it still). I mean, the food was definitely more upscale, but didn't taste noticeably different from other good Mexican food I've had.

Our final official meal in Chicago was at Edwardo's, which wasn't the best choice, but we didn't know it at the time. Though their stuffed spinach pizza is apparently award-winning, it was only so-so. A friend of R.'s had sung its praises to high heaven, to the point where we were both intrigued. I loved the idea of spinach pizza, but I was a bit hesitant, because the guy normally doesn't like spinach and I do, so could we really agree on a spinach pizza? And also, given that he doesn't normally like spinach, I highly doubted he was a foodie like me, which meant he probably didn't have a very sophisticated palate. So... check, never taking restaurant/food advice from a non-foodie again, lol.

I mean, it was okay, certainly not terrible or anything. I might have liked it more had I been better able to taste the spinach, and Robbie said she would have liked it more if she had been less able to taste it. LOL. So yeah, it was our third trial of Chicago pizza, and it was a bust. We tried 3 different, well-recced places, so I think we gave it a fair shot. I can't imagine that Giordano's, the place we cut from the list, would have changed our minds completely. I do remember really loving Pizzeria Uno though, but I ate there when I was in D.C. and maybe they did it differently. Or maybe I just loved their spinach & broccoli pizza a little too much.

Before heading to the airport we did stop by Garrett (more popcorn for both of us) and Potbelly (for sandwiches to be eaten at the airport or on our flights home).

Oh Chicago -- thank you for being such a great foodie town!

Chicago Eats (part 2)

2011-05-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

It was the week of Tulips on the Magnificent Mile while we were in Chicago. So many gorgeous tulips everywhere. It was awesome.

Now on to the eats!

Chicago deep-dish pizza was given another shot. We went to Lou Malnati's. While overall I definitely prefer thin-crust pizza, this was probably my favorite of our deep-dish experiences. We went during lunch and it was a great deal -- $7 for an individual pizza, a large salad, and a soft drink.

Trying to learn from our first experience, we both got toppings. I got my standard pepperoni and mushrooms, whereas my friend got sausage. The sausage was weird... instead of individual little balls of sausage like we're used to, it was like, one big sausage patty under the cheese. Oh that's the other thing about the deep-dish pizza in Chicago -- they seem to bake the cheese on the crust, and the sauce is spooned over the top. I don't know if that's true of EVERY pizza place there, but it was for the 3 places we tried, so I figure it's a Thing. Anyway, I enjoyed my pizza much more than I had the first time (though I still left most of the crust uneaten), and I liked the atmosphere and decor.

We met up with some friends at Goose Island Brewery.

I ordered a softshell crab BLT. In retrospect, it seems strange that I went to the midwest to eat seafood items several times, but it was always so casually on the menu and very reasonably priced! Anyway, the sandwich was only okay... you couldn't really taste the crab. And the house made chips were way over-seasoned; I had to trade them in for fries instead.

One of our lunches was at Pastoral, an artisan cheese shop. They sell lots of different cheeses, bread, spreads, things like that. They also make sandwiches and have a few tables in the shop where you can eat them.

I got the Sandwich Campagne, which was country pate, Gruyere cheese, whole grain dijon mustard, and cornichons. It was good, but incredibly strong and filling -- I would have preferred only eating half and getting half of something else.

My friend got a turkey, ham, and fresh mozzarella sandwich. It was such a mild sandwich that when she gave me some to try, after eating my sandwich I couldn't even taste hers!

The following encompasses meals from several places in Chinatown.

This first was a place called Moon Palace, which had come highly recommended by a couple of R.'s friends. Being Chinese, however, I am already pretty picky about authenticity and there were several things about the place that gave me pause. First, they billed themselves as a restaurant that specialized in Shanghainese and Mandarin fare. Okay, when you combine cuisines, it's already kind of iffy. Jack of all trades, master of none, and all that. But on top of this, both my mom and dad's families are from Shanghai and I LOVE that cuisine, which emphasizes dumplings (meat and veggies in a thin flour wrapping then steamed, baked, and/or fried), and I knew just from seeing the menu online that this was NOT authentically Shanghainese. When we got there, most of the patrons were not Asian -- another bad sign. And the final bad sign was that we had to ask for chopsticks; the default place settings had forks.

However, I have to give the place its due. Despite all the bad signs, the food was actually pretty good. It at least tasted right.

We ordered "wo teet" -- pan-fried dumplings (like gyozas) and Shanghai-style fried noodles, which was made with flat noodles instead of round noodles and didn't have any spinach, but otherwise tasted authentic. Neither item actually compared well to the same items you could get at a real, good Shanghainese restaurant, but like I said, they were decent. Next time I'll have to get specific recommendations for Chinatown.

My friend also wanted some deep-fried wontons, which came crispy and hot, so they were delicious.

For breakfast one day, I went to a Chinese bakery, Chiu Quon, and got three delicious items, all for under $3. I got a Chinese egg tart, a ham and cheese stuffed roll, and a raisin twist (I only ate half of that and saved the rest for later). All very good, very typical of Chinese bakery fare.

At BBQ King House, I got the 3-item BBQ combination over rice, which also came with a small bowl of soup. The 3 items I chose were: calamari, roasted duck, and their "Princess" chicken, which came with a lovely green onion and ginger sauce. It was good, but the Chinese BBQ places I've been to in Southern California (like Sam Woo) are better. It may be that I just didn't go to the right place. Anyway, it was definitely decent.

Here is some fried butterfish from Ken Kee. It was again good/decent, but nothing so spectacular that I haven't had the same or better in SoCal.

Haha, and here is just the bones. It looked so like a cartoon fish that cats drag out of trashcans that I couldn't resist.

I'll make one more Chicago eats post after this, which will encompass the rest of the trip. :-)

Chicago Eats (Part 1)

2011-05-16T21:04:00.000-07:00

I was in Chicago last week, enjoying the many culinary delights to be found there. I didn't get to go to Alinea, supposedly the best restaurant in the country. I couldn't convince my non-foodie friend R., who I was traveling with, to pay the $200/person prix fixe cost. :-) I ate a lot though, and I want to share it! I'll do so chronologically, include a few restaurants at a time, and split this into several posts.

There was a Gino's East attached to our first hotel (we stayed at three total), so we went there for an early dinner because it was lunchtime for our body clocks. Apparently it's the original Gino's East location, which they moved from, then recently moved back. Anyway, this was our first clue that perhaps Chicago-style pizza was not for us. First, we were told it would take an extra 35-40 minutes, which is true at ALL the pizza places we went to. Apparently it just takes extra time to make that kind of crust. But there was just too much of it. I'm not a crust kind of person in the first place, and if I HAD to eat crust I'd probably prefer this kind (which is crazy thick and crunchy), but it was just too, too much. What I do like about Chicago pizza is that they use fresh tomato sauce, but Robbie is not a fan of that. We got the plain cheese, because it was the only pizza type we could agree on. After eating it, we thought maybe Chicago pizza needed toppings of some kind, whereas thin-crust pizzas do better with fewer.

R. really wanted to go to a Chicago steakhouse, so we did that the following day for lunch. We went to Keefer's, which was recommended by two fellows at the front desk. This was the first experience we had of non-refillable soft drinks (which seems to be common in Chicago, at 'real' restaurants).
Here's our bread basket with a big slab of butter, mmmmm. I love bread baskets.

Caesar salad with easy dressing.

Lobster bisque.

New York strip steak. Tomatoes and blue cheese on top. Medium rare.

Awesome potato croquettes: mashed potato mixed with bacon, cheese, and chives, then deep fried and covered with a yummy cheese sauce.

Garrett popcorn was one of the places I really wanted to go after reading about it on David Lebovitz's blog. I was excited when it encountered it accidentally (there are several locations). There was a woman with a baby carriage in front of us, but that's it. Garrett being empty is a rare occurrence. People regularly wait in long lines.

It is really, really, REALLY good popcorn. I got the "Chicago mix," which is their caramel and cheese popcorns mixed together. It is DELICIOUS. If you like that sweet/salty combination, which I do. On our last day we went back to Garrett and I bought a large so that I could bring it into the office to share with everyone.

We also went to Taste of Peru, which turned out to be one of my favorite meals. It was recommended by a friend of mine ... and also Guy Fieri of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives! I was really looking forward to this one, and wasn't disappointed. I'd only had Peruvian cuisine once before, in Westwood when I was in college, and remembered that I loved the chicken.

We started with fresh bread and aji sauce, which was delicious. Apparently it's made with jalapenos. I'm going to have to suss out a recipe; as it's all blended I can't imagine it'd be very difficult...

Fried corvina, avocado salad and half a roasted potato.

Pollo a la brasa, from the specials menu. Chicken roasted in a bunch of spices. I got half a chicken, fries, and their regular salad for $8.50. Since the salad and fries were only so-so, I wished I had gotten the whole chicken with no sides for $10.

C-House, the restaurant at the Affinia, our hotel, is one of Marcus Samuelsson's restaurants. It was sadly very quiet ... business didn't seem too great. I don't know why, because I enjoyed our food very much, and the prices were reasonable.

We started with a small loaf of bread, which was edged with melted cheese. See how the crust of the bread parts a bit from the white center? That's where the cheese is. As R. said, "I love hidden cheese!"

I got the lobster club sandwich, which had bacon, avocado, and identifiable chunks of lobster. It was $15.

R. got the Angus Prime burger, which was okay. I didn't like it that much but that's because the meat was super well done (as she requested). I might have thought it was a better burger had the meat been more tender/flavorful, but it was (to me) overcooked.

Luckily, she had also ordered a side of mac & cheese, and that was yum. It was made with goat cheddar and pork sausage.

The final restaurant I'll mention in this post is Publican. It had come highly recommended from several different sources, but I have to say that it didn't live up to those accolades. We were seated in what they tried to make seem were great seats -- they were right in front of the kitchen and the guys shucking oysters. The people were polite, but not friendly. They didn't proactively try to talk to us, and we couldn't really see what was going on. They didn't seem to like us taking a bunch of photographs (which I would understand, if we'd been using flash constantly -- but I hate using flash on food photos and R. only did it every once in awhile). They didn't try to engage us in what they were doing. So we felt more like we were unwanted interlopers than anything.

The food was good, but expensive (aka, not worth it). R. had ordered ham and bread, but the ham was cured, which she didn't like, so I ate most of it. I'd ordered suckling pig, which was good, but there was like six bites in the whole thing. I also got the ahi tuna crudo, which was fresh and good, but again overpriced. Finally, possibly the best item were the fries. They were fried in a combination of animal and vegetable oil (it tasted like delicious chicken fat to me), then topped with two fried eggs and ground pepper. It was pretty delicious and only cost $7.

More posts to come!

Cream of Broccoli (or Brussels Sprouts) Soup

2011-04-07T21:23:00.000-07:00

I am really excited to share this recipe with you guys. Really, really excited.

You see, when I was a student at UCLA oh so many moons ago, one of my favorite things to do was go to the cafe in Kerckhoff Hall for lunch. They had a cream of broccoli soup there that was just divine. It was served in a bread bowl, had big chunks of broccoli and just the right texture -- not so creamy that it was practically congealed, but not so thin that it was like water, either. If I opted not to have the bread bowl, I'd have it with a toasted cheese bagel.

I still dream of that soup. I haven't gone back for it since I graduated -- I don't know if that cafe still exists, and if it does, that they even still serve the soup, or if they do, if they use the same kind they did before (I doubt it was made in house). But even if everything were the same, I'm not the same, my palate has developed a lot since then, and I bet it wouldn't be as good as my memory. So I'm not going to be seeking it out.

I can, however, attempt to make my own version of this soup at home. In fact, it's been a kind of quest of mine. I've tried sooooooo many different broccoli soup variations over the years, but they've all been disappointing. That's why I've never posted about it. First, most of the recipes use a lot of cheese. I didn't remember this soup being a "broccoli cheese soup," but maybe I just didn't know it was in there, so I was game to try it out. Several recipes later, I was convinced that cheese was not involved. Cheese just made the soup grainy and gave it an unpleasant texture, especially when heated to high temperatures (which is a requirement of mine; I like my hot soups SUPER HOT. There's nothing worse than tepid soup) -- the cheese would separate. Ick. Second, the recipes used either a lot of cream, which STILL didn't make it thicken as it was supposed to, so added a ton of calories for no reason, or no cream, and claimed that using a stick blender to homogenize the whole thing would give it a thick texture -- which didn't actually work very well, it wasn't a creamy thickness, and the next day all the blended vegetables settled to the bottom of the pot, with the water-like broth at the top. Ew. And for me, big, identifiable chunks of broccoli is a must, which blending would make difficult if not impossible.

Well, I have found the recipe that finally resembles the soup I love and remember -- at least in the most important aspects. It's thick, chunky, and makes my mouth sing with happiness. It's creamy in just the right way, yet uses very little cream compared to other recipes, and no cheese at all (except for the cheese you sprinkle on top if you like, but the soup is so rich you really don't need it). It's also for my more-sophisticated palate, with depth of flavor coming from cooking the vegetables a good, long time, white wine, and frozen cubes of demi-glace I keep around to give more oomph to just about anything. You can, of course, use store-bought demi-glace, or simply substitute with regular broth. The soup will still be delicious.

The funny thing is that the recipe looked so plain and simple (and I'd been burned so many times before) that instead of actually using broccoli, which I didn't have, I substituted it with what I did have on hand -- Brussels sprouts, which I quartered. As much as I like Brussels sprouts, and as delicious as the soup turned out, I can't wait to make this properly, with broccoli, which is probably my favorite vegetable. But it definitely works with both!

The soup is a little more rustic than one might expect from a cream soup. Grated carrot, celery, and onion display themselves unapologetically. For a less rustic look, I suppose the vegetables could be pureed before the saute step, which would 'hide' them better. I may try it next time just to see if that actually works, though having them be obviously there doesn't affect my enjoyment at all.

I should also mention that after refrigerating, the soup thickens up quite a bit. When reheating, add enough water while stirring to get to the consistency you like.

Cream of Broccoli (or Brussels Sprouts) Soup (recipe adapted from The Domestic Goddess)

Ingredients

1 tbsp butter
2 tbsps olive oil
1 head broccoli, divided into florets (or 1 lb Brussels sprouts, halved if small, quartered if large)
1/2 red onion, diced
1/2 vidalia (or other sweet) onion, diced
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled, finely chopped or grated
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tbsps freshly chopped parsley
7 tbsps flour
2 cups chicken broth
2 cubes frozen demi-glace (about 2 tbsps)
1 cup water (or instead of the demi-glace and water, use another cup of chicken broth)
1 cup white wine
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp dried thyme
1 cup whipping cream

Method

Melt the butter and olive oil in large, heavy saucepan over medium heat.
Add the broccoli, onion, celery, carrots, garlic, and parsley. Stir to combine the vegetables with the fat.
Cover and cook about 10 minutes, or until the onion and broccoli are tender, stirring occasionally.
Add the flour and stir the mixture until the flour has almost completely disappeared (one or two specks is okay).
Add the chicken broth, demi-glace, water, and wine. Cover and simmer the soup for 40 minutes. Stir and scrap the bottom every once in awhile, as at this point the soup may stick and you don't want the bottom to burn.
Taste the soup and adjust seasonings -- add thyme and salt/pepper if needed.
Add the cream and cook through, about 5 minutes.

Cha-Siew (Chinese BBQ Roasted Pork)

2011-03-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, it's known everywhere as "char-siew" but I have no idea where that "r" at the end came from. This is a Cantonese dish, I speak Cantonese, and it's "cha-siew," damn it!

Ahem. This was incredibly easy to make. The recipe I based this off of comes from Shiokadelicious, a now-defunct food blog written by a woman named Renee. I got my hands on the recipe from Digital Dish, a collection of food blogger recipes compiled and edited by Owen at Tomatilla!. It sounded so simple that I had to try it out, because like many people, I love cha-siew.

Renee reveals that maltose is used in the marinade of virtually all store-bought cha-siew, and gives it that glossy sheen. Honey, corn syrup, and similar don't really make for good substitutions if you want that look and glazed texture. Renee says: "Maltose is rather hard and extremely sticky and gooey. It gives a certain viscosity to the marinade, and more importantly, it imparts a high gloss and shine to the meat, which is also an important part of the appeal of char siew. And unlike honey, when cooked, it has a less sticky feel to it. The sweetness of maltose is also different from that of honey. I personally feel that maltose is quite an integral part of the char siew marinade. However, if it is unavailable, I think honey does make for an acceptable substitution." However, I didn't want to specially find and purchase maltose for this purpose as I don't know what else I would use it in, so I substituted anyway and just accepted from the beginning that it wasn't going to be exactly the same.

I used pork leg meat, but pork shoulder is apparently also fairly common. Other online recipes advocate the use of pork butt or pork tenderloin, but I'd avoid the latter because it's the least flavorful cut. I purchased the leg meat with the skin still on, because it was cheaper, and removed the skin and most of the extra fatty tissue before marinating.

As for food coloring, to give the meat that characteristic 'red' edge, Renee used powdered food coloring. I only had the liquid kind, but the marinade is really dark and even after using 5 drops of coloring it didn't really change, so I just gave up. The raw meat, even after marinating overnight, didn't actually look red. It kind of does after cooking, as you can see in the photos, but I don't know if that's really from the food coloring or just from the soy-sauce based marinade cooking into that color. I'm personally doubtful it was the result of the food coloring. I would think if the coloring were going to stain the meat red, it would have done so on the raw meat as well, but the raw meat showed no redness at all. So if the red color is important to you, you might want to try using powdered food coloring as Renee did. Personally I'm not convinced that adding the coloring at the marinade stage is the way to go... I'm going to have to do some more experimentation.

Now, as to how it tasted. It was incredibly, wonderfully tender. It wasn't like the kind of cha-siew you get at Chinese BBQ places; it did taste more soy sauce-y than sweet (both my cousin and I came to that same conclusion). And while I am going to try this a few more times in order to try and get to a cha-siew that more closely resembles something you'd get at a restaurant (like Sam Woo) -- it probably involves actually buying maltose -- I have to say that this was quite delicious in its own right. And so easy! A simple marinade, wait overnight, then roast for about 40 minutes the next day. The only challenge is not gobbling it all up in one sitting.

Cha-Siew (Chinese BBQ Roasted Pork) (recipe adapted from Shiokadelicious, in Digital Dish)

Ingredients

2 lbs pork (leg or shoulder meat preferred)
5 tbsp light soy sauce
5 tbsp maltose (or honey or corn syrup)
4 tbsp white sugar
4 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
4 tbsp hoisin sauce
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2-inch piece of ginger, sliced into 4 pieces and smashed
red food coloring (optional)

Method

Wash the pork and remove skin and really large chunks of fat.
In a medium saucepan, combine all the marinade ingredients except for the food coloring. Heat this only until the sugar (and maltose, if using) dissolves. If it gets too hot, cool it to room temperature. Add food coloring, if using.
Put the pork in a container that fits it snugly (I just used the plastic bag that it came in from the butcher's), then pour the marinade on top. Let this marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Try to ensure that all the surface areas get some marinade.
Remove the pork from the fridge about 40 minutes before cooking, to allow it to return to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 410°F.
Line a roasting pan with foil (for easy clean up). Place a wire rack on top of the foil. Lay the pork on the rack. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes.
Pour the marinade into a medium saucepan, remove the chunks of garlic and ginger, and heat to boiling, then keep simmering at a low heat to reduce the sauce. It's been sitting with raw pork so you want to make sure to kill all the microbes. Dirty foam will float to the top; skim this off and discard.
After roasting for 15 minutes, baste the pork with the marinade and turn it over. Reduce the heat to 360°F and roast for another 15 minutes. (If you chose to use tenderloin despite my dire warning not to, it might be done now.)
Baste the pork without turning and return to the oven for another 10 minutes. This next part is optional. What I did is, in the last 4 minutes, I put the pork under the broiler, 2 minutes for each side, basting each time. That gave it a nice, pretty charred look that's characteristic of cha-siew.
Remove the pork from the oven. By now the foil will be covered with raised black bits and you'll be very glad you used it. Baste both sides of the meat again with the reduced sauce, and let it sit on the wire rack for 10 minutes undisturbed before slicing. Serve with the sauce.

Shanghai-Style Drunken Chicken

2011-03-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

When I was a little girl, my maternal grandmother made this dish frequently. She was quite known for it. As she grew older, cooking became more difficult, and she hadn't made drunken chicken in years by the time she passed away. I was too young to ask her how she did it when she was making it, and I wasn't interested in cooking until after she was gone. Huge failure on my part. It's just one of the things I miss about her.

The good news is that I remember what it's supposed to taste like. The other day I had a sudden craving for it, and this is one of those dishes that may be a little obscure for a restaurant to have, and even if they have it, it doesn't quite taste the same.

The most important thing, other than the Shaoxing wine that flavors the meat, is the texture of the chicken. In Cantonese, my mom would say that it should be "wat" -- a direct translation is "slick"; basically, the meat should be extremely tender and moist.

I prefer dark meat (as did the writer of the article I read where I got the recipe), but traditionally this is made with a whole chicken. It's supposed to be served cold, and when sitting in the fridge, a nice wine-flavored aspic will develop. This is normal and desired. It's yummy!

For true Shanghai-style drunken chicken, the chicken pieces should be bone in. The challenge, then, is in chopping the chicken after it's cooked into even, bite-sized pieces. You need a heavy-duty cleaver, like the kind the butchers use at Chinese BBQ restaurants to chop roasted duck into those delectable slices. And even then it's not easy -- I still need a lot of practice, as my chicken looked practically hacked to pieces! Remember the scene in Titanic where Rose is attempting to save Jack by breaking his handcuffs with an axe? And he tells her to try a couple of practice swings, but her second swing lands nowhere near the first? That's how it was with me and chopping this chicken. I may not have been decisive enough, or perhaps the cleaver I purchased wasn't strong enough, but be warned, this is definitely not as easy as those butchers make it look! Do not -- I repeat, DO NOT -- use a regular knife or chef's knife to do this, you'll only ruin your blade, and if you have nice knives that I do, that would be a terrible loss.

There are two methods of cooking the chicken -- poaching and steaming. I had originally intended to steam the chicken, but I don't have a great steaming solution, especially not for that much chicken, and I was short on time. So instead I went with the poaching method, which is apparently more traditional anyway. I think I used a bit too much water, because my chicken didn't develop the desired aspic. :( I'll try steaming next time and see if that gets me better results.

Finally, a quick tip on the green onions. I used my mother's trick with these and it worked perfectly for this recipe, since the onions aren't intended to be eaten, just to add flavor. It saved some time and clean up afterward. Take the length of white part, place the tip of your knife almost at the very end of the onion farthest away from you, and slice it lengthwise down the middle all the way through. It should still be held together at the very tip. Turn it 90° and perform the same action. The length of onion should now be opened up like a flower. Toss the whole thing in the pot and repeat with the others. When done cooking, fish them out easily.

Shanghai-Style Drunken Chicken (recipe adapted from Rasa Malaysia)

Ingredients

3 lbs chicken, whole or in pieces
2 tbsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
1-inch piece of ginger, thinly sliced
4-6 green onions, white parts only, sliced lengthwise
1 1/2 cups Shaoxing rice wine
2 tsp sugar
ice cubes and water

Method

Mix the salt with the two peppers. Rub the chicken all over with the salt and pepper and let it sit for an hour.

Poaching

Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a Dutch oven or large pot, then add the green onions and ginger. Add the chicken, make sure there is enough water to cover the chicken, and return to a boil. Lower the heat to a bare simmer and simmer for 10 minutes. If you’re using a whole chicken, during the simmer time, lift the chicken out of the water and make sure the stock in the cavity empties back into the pot. Do that 3 times for a whole chicken. For chicken pieces, gently stir the pot once or redistribute the pieces so they cook evenly. After 10 minutes, cover, turn off the heat, and allow the chicken to poach undisturbed until the water cools almost to room temperature.

Steaming

Bring water to a boil in the steamer. Place the chicken in an even layer, scatter the green onions and ginger all over, and steam over medium heat for 30-40 minutes or until the internal temperature near the bone reaches 170°F. If the chicken pieces are larger, they will take longer to steam. If any of the pieces are touching, make sure to redistribute them in the middle of cooking so they cook evenly.

Mix the ice cubes and water and shock the chicken in ice cold water for 2 minutes. If you poached the chicken, shock it after the chicken has cooled to room temperature. If you steamed the chicken, shock it immediately after steaming.

After cooking, chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces, or simply score the chicken meat with a knife. Put the chicken pieces into a large container. Mix 3/4 cup to 1 cup of the chicken stock (the liquid you poached the chicken in or the liquid that comes out of the chicken after steaming) with the sugar and Shaoxing wine. Taste the marinade and add salt if needed. Keep in mind that when eating cold food, our taste buds are numbed a bit so a bit of extra seasoning is beneficial. Pour the liquid over the chicken pieces and let it sit in the fridge over night or longer before serving. Serve cold.