Sometimes He Cooks

Photo dump!

2011-08-13T15:03:00.000-07:00

I'm still cooking, I promise!

sometimes he is too busy to keep up a blog

2011-07-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks.

My job at Proven.com has been keeping me very very busy, so I really haven't had time to come on and post here.

I'll try to get some photos up soon at least.

In the meantime, if you're looking for a job and want another resource with which to market yourself, check out Proven.com.

Widget Test!

2011-07-29T14:22:00.001-07:00

Click here to Apply

Sometimes he caters a baby shower.

2011-03-11T00:44:00.001-08:00

So I realized lately that I have not yet made a blog post this year, and that is simply unacceptable.

In my defense, I have been busy searching for a great new job, tying up the loose ends at my previous job, finding an awesome team to join at WorkersNow, kicking ass through a more-or-less hardcore interview process for the job, being offered and accepting said job, and consequently learning a handful of new technologies in order to do the job while simultaneously making a steady contribution.

Long sentences aside, I've been busy. It has been very challenging, very life-changing, and ultimately very fulfilling. It has also been very time consuming, thus my lack of new posts here.

I still plan to photograph and commentate my favorite personal recipes and favorite home-cooked meals. However, the truth is that I don't have the time to cook anything that I feel is truly blog-worthy more than a few times a month, so I kind of leave myself with two options:

1) Lower my standards on the cooking I deem blog-worthy... no thanks
2) Expand the focus of my blog to include other food in my life.

I've opted for the latter of course.

Without further adieu, I give you the first post of the new year (a few months late):

I can't take too much credit for these pictures either, I'm just proud of my involvement, and found myself in the possession of some nice looking pictures of food that I had something to do with, so here we are.

My totally rad girlfriend and a few of her friends threw a baby shower. They planned everything, from hiring a photographer (who took these lovely pictures), to arranging flowers and building a menu, to creating a beautiful and unique cake and preparing fun games. They did a great job and I can't take any creative credit for any of this. I just helped execute the task by manning the kitchen.

Prosciutto, Asparagus, honey mustard, pepper

I loved this color scheme, it almost makes carrots seem rude.

Simplicity is beautiful.

Two fresh juices:
1) Cucumber, lemon, chile, sugar
2) Cranberry, Orange, lime
both with sparkling water

Deviled eggs!
A revelation: whip some fresh dill and pickle juice into the yolk mixture.

A tad of whiskey can't hurt, that's for sure.

This is what happens when creative people (even those that don't bake) make a cake.

Congratulations Margot and Ari!!

Holiday photodump part 1

2010-12-22T14:10:00.000-08:00

Gearing up for the rest of the holiday season, and things are busy!

Don't have time for a proper post right now, so I'm just going to photo dump for a while. Enjoy!

My Kind of Baking: Yeastless Focaccia

2010-12-15T16:46:00.000-08:00

I wanted to try some baking, but I didn't have any yeast on-hand, so I decided to look through some recipes that didn't require it. I stumbled upon a handful of Focaccia and other flatbread recipes and realized this was what I was looking for.

I prefer unleavened bread anyway, so even if I had yeast, I'd probably stick my tongue out at it right now.

This recipe turned out to be so simple and tasty that I made it 3 times. (well, 2 times so far, still have a ball of dough in the freezer for another day... we'll see how it works after being frozen) This could easily be made without all the spice on top and used as a flatbread pizza crust or a something along those lines. As is, this is a great side for a simple pasta dish or salad. Best of all, I was able to make it without going out and buying any special ingredients. I just happened to have all of this stuff at hand.

Anyway, I'll get right to the recipe.

ingredients

1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon avocado oil
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon garlic salt
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tsp dried basil
1/4 cup grated Romano cheese

instructions
This is a pretty basic dough from what I understand. I'm an incredibly novice baker though, so who knows. Whatever it is, it was easy to make and it ended up tasty, so I'm happy.

Preheat oven to 425

(I don't have a mixer, so this part took some elbow grease)
In a large mixing bowl, stir together water, flour, baking powder, and salt. Once it is mixed thoroughly, turn it out onto a dry, floured surface and knead until it turns into a ball. At the end of the kneading stage, add the minced garlic and fold it into the dough.

Grease a 9x13 pan and plop the dough in the middle. Spread the dough out to the edges of the pan, should be about 1/2 inch thick throughout. Rub the top of the dough with oil, and sprinkle with the basil, garlic salt, and cayenne (I used two kinds of cayenne because it seemed like a good idea).

Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, then add the grated Romano cheese and bake for 5 more minutes.

Enjoy the garlicky smell in your home and on your breath.

Sometimes he goes to Europe

2010-09-14T10:44:00.000-07:00

Been busy lately, so I'm afraid this blog has fallen down quite far on my list of priorities.

I haven't forgotten entirely, don't worry, but I also don't have the time to make a real proper post at the moment.

I've been doing a lot of traveling over the last few months and have eaten a lot of great food. I've also been less than wealthy because of my travels, and as a result of my financial status, I haven't been cooking anything all that interesting (at least not interesting enough for me to think of any of it as blog-worthy).

I'd like to get some pictures up on here though, so you can see that I haven't fallen into a ramen-rut at least.

Anyway, here goes:

I'll start with some of the food I was served on my European Vacation, which took me through 9 cities in 15 days:

And what better place to start than with a full English breakfast?

This was from a little place in London called MyCafe, and after a looong flight, a long day of walking around london, and a long night of drinking, this was pretty much perfect. (All I have to say is that I was glad i had the foresight to bring my multivitamins to the UK with me...)

I couldn't leave England without another classic either: fish and chips.

(I actually had this in two different places, but didn't take a picture of the first one). These chips were hands-down the best I have ever eaten. Crispy on the outside, hot and soft on the inside.

A few train rides later and we were in Edinburgh, where I had one relatively forgettable meal in the evening, and courtesy of the fringe festival, another very long night of partying. Fortunately, the Scottish are just as capable of frying up a mean hangover-killer breakfast:

It's like black magic. Tasty, greasy, savory black magic.

Then a day and a half later, also like magic, we were in Amsterdam learning about Panakuken.
Mine was basically a shrimp pizza... on a pancake. Pretty ridiculous.

Sadly we didn't visit spain on our trip, but we did find a really great tapas place in amsterdam and had a wonderful lunch there.

Pretty sure I could eat tapas for every meal of every day for the rest of my life and be just fine with that.

Seems like i didn't take any pictures of any of my meals in Germany or Luxembourg sadly, but while staying in Lux, we did pop over the border to Belguim, where (as well as getting some good trappist brews and fries) we also sat down to a very lovely french-style meal. I had a spicy saucy shrimp dish (not even going to try to recall the french description):

Let's see... last but not least, there was Paris, and my first encounter with escargot. (I absolutely LOVED it, by the way)

I wish I would have thought about this blog more while i was there and taken a more thorough set of pictures, but I was on vacation, and apart from random snapshots here and there, documenting my meals wasn't exactly on my mind. There was plenty of delicious food across the entire trip, and I'm glad i captured pictures of at least some of it!

I'll definitely be revisiting most of these places in the future.

Ok that's it for now. I'll try to get another update in soon!

Seafood Pho

2010-07-21T18:02:00.000-07:00

I went to Le Cheval the other day and didn't get pho. It was the first occurrence of this phenomenon ever, and while I thoroughly enjoyed everything else that I ate there, I was left with a pretty big pho jones.

Browsing through the freezer contents the other day, I realized that I had a veggie bag ready to turn into stock (I save onion peels and random veggie trimmings in a freezer bag). I also had a bag of shrimp and prawn shells, and a few frozen squid.

I always wanted to make seafood pho...

...so I did, and it was awesome.

Basically, the process is the same as it always is when I make pho, regardless of the type of stock I start from.

First, thaw out the frozen veggie cuttings.

Meanwhile, halve some onions, ginger, and garlic. Brush them with olive oil and roast them for 30-40 minutes at 450. Set them aside when finished.

Add the shrimp and prawn shells and the squid to the veggie cuttings and simmer for about an hour and a half over medium-low heat.

Strain all of this stuff out and return the stock to the pot.

Add the roasted onions, garlic, and ginger, some shiitake mushrooms, as well as the spice blend, 1/3 cup of fish sauce, a bit of oyster sauce, and a pinch of palm sugar.

The spices I use (clockwise from top): black cardamom pods, green cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, star anise, coriander seeds, sea salt, fennel seeds, cloves.

Simmer for another hour and a half or so and strain again. Finally, add whatever fresh seafood you want and simmer until it's cooked.

Serve over rice noodles with fresh basil, cilantro, mint, and lime. (A squirt of Sriracha optional but recommended).

This time around I used a pound of cod, and a half pound each of sea scallops and octopus. It was awesome and I had leftovers enough for like 6 more servings later on.

So now I've done vegetable, beef, lamb, and seafood pho. What's next?

Guacamole my way.

2010-07-07T10:17:00.000-07:00

I get asked to make guacamole a lot.

Not exactly sure why it always falls on me to make the guacamole, but I'm always happy to oblige. To be honest, I don't like other people's guacamole nearly as much as my own anyway, so it's pretty win-win... especially when i can get someone else to pay for the ingredients.

Having recently made and photographed a few batches, and having no glamorous entree or ridiculous salad to write about, I have decided to finally share my recipe. You'll notice I like to have about a one-to-one ratio of avocado and other ingredients. If you live in the Midwest or a similar area where avocados are prohibitively priced, you can substitute cooked, mashed, whipped, and cooled peas for a few of the avocados... but I would recommend that instead of doing that, you just stop being a cheapskate and buy the extra avocados. My own solution to this issue was simply to move to California. Over time, my increase in cost-of-living will balance out with my not having to spend 3 dollars for every avocado I buy.

Anyway, on with it!

ingredients
6 medium-to-large avocados
1 medium red or yellow onion
3 limes
1 jalapeño pepper*
1 medium-large tomato
3 cloves of garlic*
large handful of cilantro
salt & pepper
cumin

*Nelson family unit conversions:
1 jalapeño = 2-3 jalapeños
3 cloves garlic = 5 cloves garlic

instructions
There is one critically important part of the guacamole-making process (in my opinion): Combine the lime juice and avocado FIRST! This will prevent the avocados from turning brown, which will also prevent the guacamole from turning brown. Brown guacamole, while still just as tasty as its green counterpart, is a failure in my book. Fortunately it is incredibly easy to prevent by simply starting with these three steps:

1) Squeeze your limes into a medium-large mixing bowl. Don't leave the peel in the bowl, I just left it in for the picture so it didn't look like some random pale yellowish liquid.

2) Cut up the avocado. I like to take a butter knife and pre-dice each half of the avocados and then just scoop them out into a bowl.

3) Mash the avocado and lime together until you get a good blend between smooth and chunky. I like to just wail on it with a fork for a while... Follow these three steps first and your guacamole will stay green until the last bite.

4) Dice up the onion and tomato and mix into the bowl.

5) Mince the garlic, jalapeño, and cilantro and mix in.

6) Add cumin, salt, and pepper to taste, mix and serve.

Repeat this process at least once every few weeks for maximum satisfaction.

Avocado

Gazpacho !!!

2010-06-10T10:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've been meaning to do some spanish cooking for a while. I also am becoming totally obsessed with soup. It follows that I should learn to make gazpacho. As it turns out... well, it's the easiest soup ever (At least compared to Tom Yum, Lamb Pho, and other soups that I've been making).

As with any new dish I am planning and have never made before, I like to consult several different sources and figure out what the common ingredients and procedures are. Especially when a dish is a big cultural item like this, the recipes tend to vary wildly. Asking for someone's gazpacho recipe is like asking for someone's pasta sauce recipe, or chili, or something...

Anyway, I took a look at a whole slew of options, and tried to figure out what seemed like common ground, and which of the unique items in each recipe sounded good. Here's what I came up with. I made a huge batch, too... so i'm going to say this will easily serve 8.

ingredients

4 large tomatoes
2 medium cucumbers
1 medium zuccini
bread (see below)
1 large bell pepper
1 jalapeño
juice of 2 limes
5 cloves of garlic
1 medium red onion
fresh parsley
fresh basil
3 cups tomato juice
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. cumin
S & P

instructions
This is a SUPER easy recipe. Waiting hours and hours for it to chill properly is really the only hard part. Or maybe peeling the tomatoes, but I'm about to make that easy for you.

Easiest way I've found to peel tomatoes:

1) Boil enough water in a pot to cover the tomato you're going to peel.
2) Cut an X in the skin of the tomato on the opposite side of the stem
3) Briefly submerse the tomato in the boiling water
4) Immediately remove tomato and run under very cold water. the skin should pretty much just slough off.

Now that the tomatoes are peeled, the only other item you need to prep is the bread. I used about 6 inches of french bread... you could use a few slices of whatever bread is laying around, or like a kaiser roll or something. I don't see it mattering all that much.

Basically you want about a baseball sized lump of bread when it's done soaking. Take the bread, rip it up in chunks, and let it soak up some water for a few minutes, then squeeze gently to get the bulk of the water out.
(Soaking just makes it work better in the blender.)

Other than that, you pretty much just dice everything and either put half of that item in the blender and the other half aside for later. Start with the bread, the garlic, the cumin, and one of the tomatoes, then just start blending everything else in.

Two of the tomatoes, one cucumber, half the zuccini, half of the bell pepper, and half of the onion should be diced (small dicing... 1/4 to 1/2 inch), put in a bowl, covered and stored in the fridge for later.

Everything else gets chopped coarsely and thrown in a blender or food processor. You may have to do the blending in two parts if you don't have access to a crazy commercial blender like I do. (Thanks AJ!) Take the blended part, add salt and pepper to taste, and refrigerate this as well... If you have the patience, give it a good dozen or so hours to chill and for the flavors to blend.

Try to wait at least 4 hours though.

When ready to serve, chop up some more fresh basil and parsley, add the diced veggies to the blended veggies, mix well, ladle into bowls, top with the fresh herbs, and serve. (If it's a real hot summer day, serving in chilled bowls can be a nice touch)

Tomato

BBQ season in full swing

2010-06-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

My lack of posting lately means I need to reconsider the way I handle this blog... I feel like I need to come up with something incredible to justify a full post and recipe listing, but I suppose that really isn't the case. I still am cooking several times a week, and now that summer is here, the barbecue/potluck season is really starting with a bang.

I attended/cooked at least a little for 3 different barbecues this weekend alone.

Sadly, I didn't really make anything new... I think that's one of my main holdups with this blog at the moment, is that I've been making a lot of repeat recipes lately, or being part of a lot of barbecues where I'm just bringing along a salad or making some guacamole or something little. I don't see this trend turning around all that quickly with it being so beautiful here in the summer, so I'll just have to start taking a lot more pictures of everyone else's food as well, and the BBQ goodness in general. I'll try to throw in a new recipe once in a while as well.

Deal?

Anyway, don't have a ton of time, so i'll just make another quick photo update with captions for today.

Made another round of one of my favorite salads ever; I could eat greek salad every day I think.

This was part of the third of three barbecues this weekend. What's funny is that I go to/host barbecues all the time, and I still really don't get all that much practice doing any actual grilling because I'm always inside making a salad or something... not that I wouldn't happily take the grill spot.

Here's the nice little spread we had for this quiet little pre-show BBQ

Endives have been showing up everywhere lately... I only just discovered them this year, and now I see them everywhere, other food blogger talking about them, restaurant menu items touting them, myself obsessively buying them... cut them in half, throw on a little salt, pepper, and olive oil and toss them on the grill! I love how endives absorb surrounding flavors so easily.

Somehow that was the only picture I took of food at that barbecue... what a shame, because there were some good eats, including a nice tri-tip, chicken, awesome bread, some of the best black beans I've ever had in my life, veggie kabobs, grilled mango... how did i not take pictures of all of that?

Like I said, I'm rarely the one that does the actual grilling. Here are a few of pictures of some of my friends making delicious happen on some pretty impressive grills.

Ok that's it for now. I can't promise any really elaborate recipes or anything too soon, but I will definitely be better about taking pictures when there's good food in my life. I think for the summer, that's just how this is going to have to be for the most part.

ugh

2010-05-27T14:04:00.000-07:00

Still super busy with other things currently. I think I'm gonna have to stop worrying about making every post be super fancy and well photographed if i wanna keep this thing going.

Stay tuned.

For now, here's some slow-cooker Ratatouille I made the other day (picture taken before cooking.)

Yum

Mini-update!

2010-05-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry i haven't been all that active on here the last week.

A few things are to blame:

1) I'm trying to be frugal this month, and my "publishable" cooking adventures tend towards the expensive.
2) My creativity has been spread thin because I've been painting and playing bass and hiking a lot this week (guess i can put a few pictures of that stuff on here even though it isn't food-related).
3) The few things that I did cook nicely, I failed to take enough pictures of, or they were someone else's recipe and i didn't alter anything, or something like that.

So because of all this, I'll just throw some photos up here and call it a day.

I promise to make something delicious and take proper pictures soon. (Thinking gazpacho is in order pretty soon.)

anyway here we go:

the kimchi i made is ready!

Not the best ever, but now I know what to try the second time around (more napa, more garlic, less diakon, more finely ground chilis... i really need a mortar and pestle). Another round and I might be ready to go into full production mode.

Adventures in Acrylic Abstract

A hike by the bay! (Albany Bulb)

A dragon made out of trash! (I heart repurposed junk.)

Heart of palm and chipotle soup!

(Thanks to ingrid hoffman, as usual.)

Heart of palm and chipotle soup in soup form.

Cupcakes courtesy of my roommate Mike. Spice cake with orange, cream-cheese-based mint and jalapeño frosting. The final version was topped with candied jalapeño, but he didn't garnish them at home so I couldn't take that picture, alas.

Punjab Saag with chicken and saffron rice.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Massaman Curry

2010-05-11T12:44:00.000-07:00

One of these days I'll get some category listings on here... the way things have been going, it seems like maybe I'll only need two categories: Thai and not Thai.

This weekend, I took a great suggestion from my dad and tried my hand at Massaman Curry. As I usually do when attempting a new dish, I consulted a variety of recipes and figured out the common ingredients, and then made my own variation.

I am DEFINITELY making this again. However, next time I'm going to make my own curry paste. I would have done so this time, but i still haven't gotten around to getting a mortar and pestle, so I just bought some pre-made stuff.

As suggested by many of the recipes, I also made some fragrant rice and Ajaat. Ajaat is a really nice salad on its own, but as complement to the massaman curry, it is simply perfect. (This is a ridiculously rich curry, so the light salad works really well to balance it out.)

I'm not going to bother retyping the the recipe for Ajaat because I just used a recipe that i found over at realthairecipes.com, which I would highly recommend to anyone with a desire to learn some good Thai recipes. The only thing i will say about the Ajaat is to prepare it at least 2-3 hours before you plan to serve it. Here are some pictures of my Ajaat; I wish I would have had some red chilis to round out the color, but it was delicious nonetheless. There's always next time, right?

No idea why i didn't use my new mandoline for this. Habit i guess.

shallots, water, sugar, salt, vinegar

Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's get to the Massaman!

ingredients
4-5 Tbsp. Massaman curry paste
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil (peanut oil might be a good choice too)
1 lb. beef
2 medium white potatoes
1 medium yellow onion
handful of roasted peanuts
1 cup coconut cream
2 cans coconut milk
3-4 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
4 cardamom pods
palm sugar (to taste)
fish sauce (to taste)
tamarind paste (to taste)

instructions
Start by heating up one of the cans of coconut milk in a medium pan over low heat.

Dice the beef into bite-sized chunks and simmer in the coconut milk over low heat for half an hour. While this is going on, cut the potatoes and onions into bite sized pieces as well.

Over medium-high heat, fry the curry paste until it is fragrant (3-5 minutes). Stir very frequently so it doesn't burn.

Now add the thick white part of the coconut cream and mix it into the curry paste thoroughly.

Discard the clear watery portion of the coconut cream (or save for some other use). Now strain the beef and discard the coconut milk that it was simmered in. Add the beef, stir well, and simmer for another 3 minutes or so.

Add the potatoes, onion, and peanuts.

Add the other can of coconut milk, stir well, and simmer for a few more minutes.

Add the cinnamon, cardamom, and bay leaves (actually supposed to use cassia leaves, but i haven't been able to track any down yet).

Simmer for another 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add fish sauce, palm sugar, and tamarind paste to taste. I used about two tablespoons each of fish sauce and tamarind paste, and a tablespoon or so of palm sugar. Mix well and serve.

At some point in this process (depending on how you like to cook rice), prepare some fragrant rice. Jasmine rice with saffron pictured.

Serve over rice with a nice portion of Ajaat alongside.

Coconut Milk

Lamb Pho (Phở)

2010-05-04T22:54:00.000-07:00

Oh, how i love phở.

Vietnamese pronunciation: [fə̃ː] (listen)
(thanks Wiki)

Sorry to any picky spellers out there... I really don't feel like typing out the special character every time i want to say phở in this post, so i'm just gonna use an o. Fair enough?

Anyway, I've been obsessed with pho ever since the first time I visited the bay area and had my first bowl at Le Cheval.

However, the true obsession came when I began learning to make it on my own.

I've made beef pho several times (and in a manner very very similar to this recipe, just with beef bones and meat). I also commonly use my freezer compost bag to make veggie pho. However, the other day at Farmer Joe's, I came across an awesome pile of lamb bones and it was like a koala bear crapped a rainbow in my brain.

Eureka! Lamb Pho!!

Alright, I'm gonna dive right into the actual recipe this time, so here we go.

ingredients (serves 4-6, I made a double batch)

stock

5-6 lbs. lamb bones, leg and knuckle bones preferred.
2 onions, halved
2″ nub of ginger, halved lengthwise
4 cloves garlic
1 lb. of lamb stew meat
1 cinnamon stick
1 Tbsp. coriander seeds
1 Tbsp. fennel seeds

5 star anise
2 cardamom pods
6 whole cloves
1 1/2 Tbsp. salt
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 Tbsp. sugar
dried chilis
1 spice bag, or other unbleached food-safe fine mesh bag

sides
2 lbs. rice noodles (dried or fresh)
mint
cilantro
basil

limes, cut into wedges
scallion, chopped
chili peppers, sliced
bean sprouts
Oyster sauce
Fish sauce
Chili Paste
Sriracha

I realize that i just made a list of not-so-incredibly-common ingredients for the average fridge or pantry...
I don't keep an average pantry though. Pho ingredients are almost always on-hand in my house... usually all i need to buy when i want to make a batch is bones, meat, and the fresh stuff for the bowls.

instructions

Very first step: fill a LARGE pot with cool water and bring to a rapid boil.

While waiting for that to boil, you can char the onion, ginger, and garlic. Crank up the oven, slice the onions and ginger in half, brush the sliced sides lightly with olive oil, and put on the top rack of the oven and roast for 10-20 minutes, until visibly charred. Once this is done, set aside.

Once the water in the pot is boiling, put all of the bones in and continue to boil rapidly for 10 minutes. This is a really gross step. Unless you like stinky brown foam.

Dump out the water, rinse the pot thoroughly, and rinse the bones thoroughly.

Fill the pot again with cool water and put the bones back in. Add a few dried chilis as well. (I used a few chile de arbol chilis because I have a hojillion of them) Bring this back to a boil.

While waiting for the water to boil(again) take the cinnamon stick, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, star anise, cardamom pods, and cloves and put them in the little spice bag.

Once the water is boiling again, lower to a simmer. Add the ginger, onion, garlic, spices, sugar, salt, stew meat, and fish sauce and simmer uncovered for an hour and a half.

Remove the stew meat and set aside for later. Continue simmering for another hour and a half.

Towards the end of this hour and a half, you can prepare the bevy of condiments and herbs and noodles that are required for this soup.

Depending on how hands-on you want this meal to be for your guests, you can do as much prep for these things as you want. At the very least, slice up some limes, fresh chilis, and scallions. I also like to at least remove all the big stems from the herbs, if not chop them up a bit.

You'll also want to cut or shred up the stew meat at this point, and prepare some rice noodles. (Use the directions on the rice noodles, or use some that you are familiar with, because they seem to vary quite a bit, especially if you're lucky enough to get fresh rice noodles).

At the end of the second hour and a half of simmering the broth, remove and discard all the bones, strain the broth as well as possible through a fine mesh strainer, and adjust seasoning to taste (I usually end up adding more fish sauce and a bit of salt at this point).

Bring the broth back to a boil and serve!

This was hands down the best pho I have ever made.

Lamb
Star Anise

Photo Catch Up Day!!

2010-05-03T15:39:00.000-07:00

I pretty much did nothing this weekend except rotate between hanging out in the sun and cooking.

I could live pretty happily like this for a long time.

I have way way way too many pictures to try to make a post for each of these dishes, so I'm just going to do another long catch-up post with several dishes vaguely described. (I don't have recipes developed for any of this anyway.)

Plus I'm making lamb pho tonight so i want to make a proper recipe post for that one.

Anyway here we go!

We'll start off with round two of Thai Shenanigans and Tom Yummery™. I'm really enjoying Thai flavors lately, but I'm not really using any recipes or even keeping track of what I'm using enough to be able to recreate any of this exactly. I'm just loving the basic sets of flavors and learning about how they work together.

Thai stir-fry or soup is quickly becoming something I just throw together on autopilot when I don't feel like cooking anything new.

This one was coconut milk and green curry, with peas, bamboo, zucchini, and eggplant. Pretty Tasty.

Also this day I found some ridiculous prawns. These seem to be at my local store quite a bit recently. Those blue legs are making my normal boring bag of shrimp shells that I keep for stock look pretty exciting.

I threw these prawns in my third attempt at Tom Yum...

The second batch I made was still by far the best, but this was still pretty good.

From left to right:
minced ginger/garlic/lemongrass
fresh red chilis
fresh shiitake mushroom
limes in back (duh)

To this i added a chopped chayote, which is a Central American thing really, but it works awesome with Southeast Asian food.

I also added straw mushrooms, baby corn, cilantro, and some squid... it just seemed right.

This all happened the day that i made kimchi, by the way. I was on a roll that day.

Ok what's next...

Oh! Mike made a big farmer's breakfast, which i didn't document very well, but I ate it very happily.

You know that spot that people are always referring to? This totally hit it.

I also attempted a breakfast item, but after doing the prep work, and then eating what Mike had made, I decided to save it for later. It didn't end up working out, but I do love my new mandoline nonetheless.

Finally, we have today's ad hoc lunch. This is all stuff I happened to have on-hand, which makes me feel like I'm beginning to be a pretty good predictive grocery shopper.

That's Italian style smoked chicken and turkey sausage, artichoke, onion, dried basil and oregano, and crushed red pepper.

Add stock, reduce.

Add crème fraiche, reduce again, serve on noodles!

Ok that's it for today, I'm off to make the biggest batch of lamb Pho ever.
I'll take some pictures :)

Go, Kimchi, go!

2010-05-02T17:13:00.000-07:00

This post is going to be short and sweet, just like the woman that introduced me to kimchi.

Thank you, Mimi!

Anyway, I've adored kimchi since the first time I ever tried it. For some reason I've never tried to make it until now... now that I think of it, i'm a bit astonished that I haven't done this yet.

Enough of that, here we go!

Notice: this takes between 3 days and up to a few weeks to be ready.

ingredients
two small or one large head of napa cabbage
one medium daikon radish
a big handful of dried chilis
3 fresno peppers
1 bulb of garlic
1 bunch green onion

ginger... like a one-and-a-half-inch chunk
1/4 cup fish sauce.
1 Tbsp. sugar.
tons of salt (sea salt preferred)

instructions
Chop up the cabbage into about inch-and-a-half sized chunks.
Dissolve 1/4 to 1/3 cup of sea salt in a gallon of water... basically make some brine. Soak the cabbage in the brine for at least 3 or 4 hours, or overnight.

I didn't have the right kind of chili powder that I would have liked to use, so i decided to take a bit of a different approach. I always have tons of fresh and dried chilis around, so i just took a big handful of dried chile de arbol chilis and a few fresh fresno peppers, threw them in the blender with the garlic and ginger, and pulverized it all

This made me really wish i had a nice mortar and pestle, or at least a decent food processor. Blending didn't work so hot, so i ended up hand-mincing it all anyway.

Chop up the rest of the ingredients. (Use a grater for the daikon)
You could easily throw them all in a food processor, but I prefer the texture variation that comes from chopping by hand.

Mix everything together in a huge bowl.

Rinse and drain the cabbage.

Now mix it all together very thoroughly.

Now pack it into jars. The basic idea is to have the juice in each jar be above the line of solid stuff, so if you're packing one batch into multiple jars, be sure to properly distribute the juice. Pack it in there good nonetheless.

Let the jars sit in a room-temperature spot for three days or so. Once it starts bubbling a little bit, it's ready to try, and you can then move the jars to the refrigerator. I plan on opening one of these jars in a few days and going from there. I'm pretty excited about this.

Rufus can't wait either.

Kimchi

Fish n' Taters

2010-04-23T10:51:00.000-07:00

Ok. This is gonna be mostly pictures.

Again, i'm not going to go through the whole recipe for either of these items, because I didn't really do anything special with them, and they're someone else's creations... All I did was pair them together and feed my roommates.

Two awesome recipes that I encountered this week:

First off, Stephanie Im over at lickmyspoon.com posted this delicious looking salmon recipe: Salmon with creamy mustard sauce.

Second, my dad notified me of an awesome potato recipe he'd seen on a site called The Pioneer Woman and I simply had to try it: Crash Hot Potatoes

The only changes I made to these two recipes:

For the salmon, i didn't have any capers, so I improvised and minced a few small pepperoncinis instead.

For the potatoes, I used chives instead of rosemary.

And now for the pictures (get your salivary glands ready):

I don't usually buy salmon or order it in restaurants, but this stuff just looked really good.

SMASH!

Atlantic Salmon

Thai Shenanigans and Tom Yummery

2010-04-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

I love going to the grocery store with no plan and a bit of hunger. My best ideas definitely come out under those circumstances. I actually just needed some feta and dill and olives for a greek salad.

However, as I walked past the normal produce in Farmer Joe's and into the organic and asian produce section (I still don't really know what to call that section, so i'm sticking with asian produce), some lemongrass was looking at me.

Instantly the right side of my brain went into full gear and i started gathering all sorts of things like ginger, basil, lime, garlic, scallions, hot chilis, coconut milk, shrimp, and squid. Clearly I wanted some Thai food.

Upon arriving home I did some research and found that I'd purchased exactly everything I needed for Tom Yum, which made me very happy, because Southeast Asian soups are one of my absolute favorite things. (Raindrops on roses are pretty overrated... but whiskers on kittens are still awesome.)

I don't really have a recipe for any of this because i was just winging it and didn't end up taking a lot of pictures either, but I figured I'd share a bit. I also ended up making a second round of Tom Yum at our BBQ the other night (the first round was ok, but had some problems... the second round was simply amazing).

The main problem with the first one involves a whole different story:
For a few months I've been on a very casual search for a certain vegetable that I have only ever seen sliced. So I had an idea that it was greenish and somewhat knobby, and dense, almost more like a turnip or something than a cucumber. It was clear as soon as I cut into it that bitter melon was not what i was looking for. It looked like the perfect shape, but when cut into there's all the red gloop and seeds, and upon tasting... well let's just say bitter melon is very aptly named. I threw some of it in the soup anyway. I liked it, Mike hated it.

I also chopped up some more lemongrass, ginger, garlic, scallions and sauteed them with a bit of wild squid. Little bit of oil and some dried chilis to start it off, of course.

One of these little guys had some serious long tentacles; I'm not sure what the two longer tentacles are called, if anything special at all, but compared to the rest of the squid I bought that day, this guy was huge. Kraken or no, I still chopped him up and threw him in with the rest.

All in all, it was pretty tasty.... sauteed the aromatics a bunch, then threw the squid in and gave it another 30 seconds or a minute. I've decided I love buying squid. It's cheap, it's tasty, and takes literally no time to cook.

So here's tom yum round 1:

Served with the sauteed squid on rice noodles:

Round one was pretty good apart from the bitter melon being a bit overpowering (though i thought it gave the broth a good flavor). The sauteed squid and rice noodles saved the meal though.

My readings in thai soup cooking make me believe what i did is more like something halfway between Tom Yum and Tom Khaa, but there's just so much more wordplay to be had if I call it Tom Yum, so i'm sticking to that.

Shared ingredients in both:

lemongrass
ginger
garlic
mushrooms
red chilis
coconut milk
lime juice

fish sauce

The differences were pretty vast:

Round 1 used chicken stock from the store; round 2 used homemade veggie stock. (Same stuff I use for my veggie pho.)

Round 1 had bitter melon and carrot; round 2 had baby bok choy, bamboo, and chayote. (Found the mystery vegetable that I had been looking for!)

Round 1 had coriander seeds because I didn't have cilantro; round 2 had fresh cilantro.

Round 1 had huge prawns; round 2 had wild squid and quartered jumbo sea scallops.

Round 1 had oyster mushrooms, round 2 had shiitake.

Round 1 served 2 people; round 2 served 10.

Here is tom yum round 2:

I'm very happy to add this to my soup repertoire.

Sometimes he screws it up. Chipotle Hollandaise

2010-04-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

mmm...
hollandaise

mmm...
chipotle

Eureka! Chipotle Hollandaise

Sadly, about 5 minutes after that picture was taken, I got distracted by something else and totally broke the hollandaise when I was just trying to keep it warm. Oh how I wish I would have just let it get a bit cool. At least i got a few tastes of it before it broke. Hands down the best hollandaise I have ever made... I fit 2 sticks of butter into 3 egg yolks! Plus lemon and a Tbsp of adobo from the chipotle can!

I ended up mostly just eating these with no sauce...

Spinach, Mushroom, Artichoke, and Dill Stuffed Pork Chops with Endive

2010-04-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I have good ideas when I'm in the grocery store without knowing it.

The other day I was just restocking produce in our fridge. I bought some endives because they looked real nice; grabbed some spinach, a few mushrooms, and a package of artichoke hearts (also some whole artichokes... but I'm going to cook those tonight); I didn't really have a plan, but when i got home and began putting the groceries away I realized that stuff all sounded pretty good together.

Later Dave and I went back to the grocery store and picked up some pre-made side dishes (I wasn't feeling overly ambitious) and some nice boneless pork chops. So that's how this recipe happened. (bear with me on the amounts of each thing... i really didn't measure anything)

Anyway...

ingredients

3 boneless skinless pork chops
6 endives
a handful of dill
10-12 crimini mushrooms
1 can of artichoke hearts
a large handful of spinach
1 Tbsp. + 1tsp. olive oil
salt & pepper

instructions
preheat oven to 400º
use a tsp of olive oil and grease a large casserole or baking pan
butterfly the porkchops, add salt + pepper

clean and chop the mushrooms, spinach, dill, and artichoke hearts.

Add the remaining olive oil to this mix, and salt and pepper to taste.

Use half of this mixture to stuff the chops, then arrange them close to each other in the pan.

Use the second half of the mixture to cover the pork chops.

Arrange the endives around the edge of the pan. (salt and pepper again over everything)

Bake at 400º for 40-45 minutes.

(served with potato salad and edamame salad)

(gratuitous hardcore shot)

Pork Chop

Greek Salad Revisited

2010-04-06T23:19:00.000-07:00

I feel like I haven't posted anything for a while... probably because I haven't.

Guess I've been busy. I certainly have a lot of new things going on. Also, no fridge for a few days there. Anyway, figured I'd throw another of my favorite salads on here. I thought I already posted this, but it must just be one of the ones that I did on facebook or something before I moved over to this blog.

I don't like to actually call it a greek salad, because I do some things that are a bit outside the stereotypical greek salad... but it's pretty close. I also totally left out the peperoncini peppers this time and added cayenne... mostly because i forgot to buy peperoncinis.

Anyway, here we go:

ingredients
1 cucumber
1/2 cup olives (I usually use kalamata)
1/2 cup crumbled feta
1 red bell pepper
more dill than you would expect... a BIG handful
1 medium red onion
1 medium cucumber
1 bunch of romaine
1 large tomato
3 limes
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper

instructions

If you don't know how to take that stuff and turn it into a salad, well...
Chop it up dummy.

Ok, a few tips: peel strips of the skin off of the cucumber, not all of the skin, chop into discs.
cut tomato into 1/2 inch slices
halve the onion, then slice into crescents
otherwise, just chop everything up and throw it in a bowl.

Then squeeze the lime juice over it; add the olive oil, cayenne, salt, and pepper; Toss and serve.

easily serves 2 as a full meal. 4 or more if served as a side.

The Reddest Salad Ever

2010-03-23T20:06:00.000-07:00

Super simple, super tasty.

This was a more or less last minute in-the-grocery-store-on-the-way-to-the-party recipe. Very largely based on a recipe I ready in Ingrid Hoffman's "Simply Delicioso" earlier that day.

Anyway here it is.

ingredients

6 medium-to-large beets
3 blood oranges
1 medium yellow onion
1 cup good olives
a big handful of mint
juice from 2 limes
salt & pepper

instructions
roast the beets. depending on the consistency you desire in beets, this can take anywhere between 40 minutes and 2 hours. This time around, I did about 50-60 minutes at 400 degrees. (I wish i had done about 20-30 minutes more, but i was in a hurry, and the slight retained crunchiness worked pretty well)

CUT the peel off the oranges. if you actually peel them, it leaves too much membrane and just doesn't work the same. split into individual segments.

chop the onion into very thin crescents.

pit the olives (if necessary) and mince.

mince the mint.

combine the orange segments, onion, olives, mint, and lime juice in a large bowl.

once the beets are done roasting, let them cool a bit, peel and dice them, and add them to the bowl.

salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

bonus picture:

this moment made my day. this kid knows way more about an iphone than i do. Not sure if he had any of the salad.

PHOTOCATCHUP

2010-03-15T21:08:00.000-07:00

I've been too busy/lazy/distracted to keep up with this the last few days.

so i'm doing a photos only update (apart from this... duh). Enjoy!

Creole Seafood Risotto

2010-03-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

Finally got around to using this great Creole cookbook that a friend gave me last Christmas. (thanks again, Kim!)

I'm a huge fan of Creole cuisine and soooo many of the recipes in this book look great. However, as Creole draws a lot of influence from France, many of the recipes look a lot like big daunting french recipes, with massive cook/prepare/marinade times. I wanted food that night, so I chose one with a very small prep time and moderate cook time with no "the day before" steps (though i would have had to start the day before if i made my own crème fraîche): Creole Seafood Risotto. (I also made a few modifications cause that's what i do)

Anyway, it was pretty simple and VERY good. A hit for sure.

ingredients

2 sweet onions, finely chopped
6 basil leaves, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
8 shallots, finely chopped
0.5 scotch bonnet chili
1.5 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp saffron threads
salt and black pepper
juice of 1 lime
1 cup arborio rice
3 Tbsp. crème fraîche
1/2 cup grated parmesan

6 cups fish stock
8 prawns or jumbo shrimp
a pound or more of mixed seafood
i used the following:
0.5 lb scallops
0.5 lb wild squid
8 mussels

instructions

shell and devein the prawns (remove heads if not already done for you)

finely chop the sweet onions, basil, shallots and the scotch bonnet (could easily have used the whole thing, but i wanted to keep the spice relatively low so it didn't overpower the seafood). chop the garlic coarsely and combine all of that stuff.

heat oil in large frying pan or skillet over medium heat and fry the chopped vegetables gently for several minutes until aromatic and the shallots begin to become translucent.

Stir in the seafood and the saffron and continue cooking over medium-high heat for another few minutes.

Add the fish stock and a sprinkle of salt and pepper and cook for another 2 minutes.

Rinse the rice in cold water and add. Cook over very low heat for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the rice has absorbed all of the liquid. Stir very gently, but frequently enough to keep the rice from burning. If done properly, the rice ends up SUPER creamy.

Add the crème fraîche and lime juice. mix well and serve immediately, sprinkled with parmesan.

The hottest jerk chicken ever.

2010-02-21T17:56:00.000-08:00

This is gonna be short and sweet.
Primarily because i don't have a lot of pictures, also due in part to the fact that i stole some recipe from some random webpage for the side dish i made, so it won't be explained or pictured.

On friday i set out to make some nice hot jerk chicken.

I had 2 lbs. of boneless skinless thighs ready to go, and i really just had to make the jerk sauce and come up with a side dish.

I began with the jerk sauce.

I admittedly went waaay overboard with the peppers this time around. I used 8 habanero peppers... and though I personally enjoyed the end result, i'm going to cut that down to 3 for the sake of anyone that actually tries this recipe. even with 3 instead of 8, this is still gonna knock your socks off. (ask dave or mike how hot the original was...)

So... here's my jerk sauce recipe

ingredients
2 bunches of green onions, chopped
3 habanero peppers (take the stems off)
1/2 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
8 cloves of garlic
1 thumb sized hunk of ginger, chopped
1/2 cup ground allspice (yeah, a LOT of allspice)
1 Tbsp. thyme
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1/2 Tbsp. salt
1/2 Tbsp. black pepper
1 tsp. nutmeg

(2 lbs. chicken... or pork or fish or whatever you want)

instructions

take all of the ingredients, do a bit of course preliminary chopping, and throw it all in a blender or food processor until it is just a smooth brown sauce

marinate the chicken in a bowl or pan for at least 2 hours, and up to 24 hours

grill, continually brushing the marinade back onto the chicken

then eat it (and if you used the 8 peppers instead of 3.... fidget and sweat and scramble for dairy)

another quickie: lemon pepper chicken

2010-02-19T13:11:00.000-08:00

Super quick post for a super quick chicken recipe
(trying to catch my blogs up to the pictures that i've taken...)

This was my lunch the other day.

ingredients
1-2 lemons (depending on size)
2-3 boneless skinless chicken legs
salt
pepper

instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
On a double-layer of foil, lay down the chicken
Curl up the edges of the foil so liquids don't run out.
Squeeze the lemon onto the chicken and sprinkle with salt, and lots of pepper.

Close up the packet of foil, place on a baking sheet or pan and cook for 30 minutes at 350.

Served with brie and fresh basil atop sliced french bread.

A little more grilling

2010-02-19T12:58:00.000-08:00

Haven't done too much lately as far as involved recipes or any real fancy meals, but here's some action from the last week or so.

we've had a few really nice afternoons and evenings lately, which has called for some grilling for sure.

here's another nice veggie combo i found for the grill:

1 Tbsp. butter
10 or so crimini mushrooms, sliced
a bunch of asparagus, sliced
thyme
rosemary
salt + pepper

do the slicing and stuff, cut up the butter and lay it out on a big piece of tinfoil, spread out the veggies and add the spices. Wrap the whole thing up in a nice packet with the tinfoil (i often use 2 sheets to prevent leaking), and throw it on the grill for 20 minutes or so (pretty much as soon as the coals are ready and until you're done with everything else).

This day I also had the standard trinity in another packet (celery, pepper, onion) as well as some barbecued chicken.

However, i had recently learned that Mike had never tried lobster....

it also happened to be the day after valentine's day, which i'm going to remember from now on as a great day to get cheap 2-packs of lobster tails (cheap being used in a very relative way here), so i got one of those, marinated them in lime, olive oil, salt and pepper, and threw them on the grill as well.

So now he HAS tried lobster.

the verdict? not worth the money.
I can't say i totally disagree... could get a heck of a lot of shrimp for the same price... but once in a while it's fun for sure.

Shrimp Étouffée

2010-02-07T12:57:00.000-08:00

Alrighty... now that i got the explanation of the cajun trinity out of the way with my last post, I give you one of the most delicious dishes i've ever applied it to, shrimp étouffée.

Étouffée is an awesome creole dish, basically a really rich sauce to be served over rice, kind of like a gumbo. Like most creole dishes, it's got a ton of french influence (I mean, just look at those crazy accents on the Es). If you were actually in Louisiana enjoying this dish, it would typically have crawfish instead of shrimp, but I couldn't find any crawfish this day, so shrimp it was. (Also good with shredded chicken for you non-shellfish people.)

I've seen a ton of different recipes for étouffée (and they all look good), but i've chosen to blend a few of them together and make it nice and simple. I also had to put an unnecessary latin twist on it by using poblano peppers instead of bell peppers... cause that's just what i do. Anyway, let's dive in.

ingredients
1 1/2 lbs. fresh shrimp (peeled and deveined)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 cup butter
1 medium yellow onion
2 stalks of celery

1 large poblano pepper
3 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp cornstarch
1 1/3 cup
(serves 2 hungry people)

instructions
Toss the shrimp with the salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.
Cover and place in the refrigerator.

Mince up the garlic, onions, poblanos and celery. I started with about twice the ingredients listed, but what you really want to end up with is about a cup of each of the 3 items in the cajun trinity.

In a large pot over medium-low heat, melt half of the butter and add the garlic and onions. Saute the onions until they are soft and nearly translucent (about 10 minutes)

Stir in the celery and poblanos and crank up the heat to high. Saute the trinity for another 20 minutes or so over high heat. (This might also be a good time to get the rice started.)

Add the remaining quarter cup of butter and bring the whole mix to a boil, then mix in the shrimp.

Reduce the heat back down to medium-low and cook for 10 minutes.

Mix the cornstarch and water together and slowly pour it into the pot

Cook on medium-low heat until it is a bit reduced, and the celery is nice and soft. Don't rush this part, cook it too hot and you'll overcook the shrimp. Keep it on the low end of medium and try to keep the shrimp themselves off the bottom of the pot if you're not gonna stir vigilantly. Takes about 20 minutes.

Salt and pepper to taste, and serve over rice!

I'm definitely going to have to find some more creole dishes to make... this was incredibly good.

Some quick grill action from this past weekend

2010-02-04T13:16:00.000-08:00

Getting ready to post last night's dinner adventure, but in the process of moving the pictures from my camera, i found a few from last weekend.

Not really much to talk about here as far as a recipe or any kind of real cooking technique, but this does give me an opportunity to talk about one of my favorite simple combinations of ingredients:   the holy trinity.

For those not familiar with the term used in this manner, the "holy trinity" as it applies to food can mean a number of different things depending on the regional cuisine...   in this case (and pretty much any time i refer to the holy trinity) i'm talking about the very basic cajun/creole holy trinity... celery, bell pepper, onion.

Many cultures have a similar thing.... the french have their mirepoix of celery, onion and carrots; the chinese have scallions, ginger, and garlic; the italians have tomato, garlic, and basil....   the list goes on.   For me, the cajun holy trinity and straight up american grilling go hand in hand.

Anyway, here's the trinity in action:

Pretty simple really.... chopped up some onions, peppers and celery, added some butter, salt, and pepper, wrapped it in foil and threw it on the grill. Also did the same with some crimini mushrooms (chopped and added butter, salt, pepper, thyme and a bit of cinnamon)

also there was meat (mike handled this so i'm not sure about the marinade/rub) pretty sure it was mostly salt, pepper and worchestershire.

Arugula, Avocado and Fennel Salad

2010-02-02T12:28:00.000-08:00

Alllllrighty then.

So i killed my monitor the other day and had to wait for my shiny new replacement to arrive in the mail, so i've been stuck using the laptop for most of the last week. Because of this, my blogging ground to a halt for a little bit there, so... sorry about that, but now i'm back.

since i didn't have any plans to make any big elegant posts until my new monitor arrived, i didn't really plan any big meals or anything, but i did take a few shots of some of the little things I made this week.

first up, another recipe I originally learned from Ingrid Hoffman:

Arugula, Avocado and Fennel Salad

For the ingredient list and better instructions, check out the original recipe on Ingrid's Site

This has to be one of my favorite salads, especially when i find some really fresh and powerful arugula. Each ingredient in this recipe has such a distinct and powerful flavor, that when they're all put together like this, the result is surprisingly mellow and very very very good.

Pretty quick and simple recipe overall and makes for a nice alternative to just a normal thrown together salad. I've served a more finely chopped version of it as a dip even (add in an extra avocado). Worked really well with tortilla chips.

Made this the other day and ate it with some real nice fried chicken that Dave made. (Unfortunately i didn't document that part)

Anyway, I hate to keep biting Ingrid's recipes, but this one in particular (and a few others that I'll get to eventually) just absolutely needs to be shared.

Enjoy!

My first Pastelón ("Latin Lasagna")

2010-01-25T16:20:00.000-08:00

I don't often cook from recipes unless I'm doing something I've never tried before. Partly because I seem to be pretty good at remembering how to cook something that i've made before, and partly because when I make something a second time, I often like to change it up.

This is a case of me cooking something for the first time, so I'm not going to spend the time listing all the ingredients or going through the directions because I just used Ingrid Hoffman's recipe for this.

Ingrid Hoffman hosts a show on the Food Network called "Simply Delicioso" and also has a cookbook out by the same name. This is hands down my favorite cookbook because her cooking style is right up my alley. It's all latin food, but not a specific type... all sorts of south american stuff, cuban, mexican...

Anyway, when I'm in the mood for something different and am having trouble coming up with something on my own, this cookbook is usually where I turn. While paging through the other day I ran into this recipe and instantly transferred all the ingredients to my grocery list.

Here is the recipe from Ingrid's site.

Basically I just followed this recipe as well as I could, and only made a few small changes: I ended up using ground chicken instead of turkey, so mine might have ended up a bit less lean (read: more tasty); Instead of pepper jack, I used a cheese I got at the mexican market which was very similar.

I was secretly fearing that i spent nearly 2 hours making something that i wasn't going to like. But, the meat blended really well together, the sauce was incredibly good, and the whole thing ended up tasting very very good. Not nearly as sweet as i was expecting, but still sweet, and very very savory, with just a touch of spice.

I would definitely recommend this recipe to anyone (and i guess that's what I'm doing by writing this).

Yum

Tequila-Lime Pork Chops with Jalapeño Pesto and Guacamole

2010-01-24T14:19:00.000-08:00

I saw the words "Jalapeño Pesto" in a recipe title over Christmas while paging through a cookbook I was wrapping up for my brother-in-law. Immediately I thought "holy cow! I need to make that!"

Kind of surprised that it took me this long to actually follow through.

This was another recipe that I came up with on the way to the store. I decided that I wanted to give the jalapeño pesto a shot, I just needed to figure out what I was going to serve it with/on/in. At the store, I noticed some nice looking boneless pork chops, and then the light bulb turned on in my brain (or stomach, or maybe palate).

So this is the result of yet another grocery store Eureka.

Tequila-Lime Pork Chops with Jalapeño Pesto and Guacamole

I started by preparing my favorite white-meat marinade. (great for shrimp too)

the marinade
4 limes
2 jalapeño peppers (minced finely)
1/2 cup tequila

meat!
4 boneless skinless pork chops

I like to just put the meat and marinade in a big zip-lock freezer bag, and then put the bag in a bowl in case it leaks.

Marinate for at least an hour (this marinade overnight makes for some ridiculously tender chicken breasts, by the way). I didn't have the foresight this time, so I only let it marinate for about an hour and a half.

Next, i worked on the pesto.

Jalapeño Pesto
3 large jalapeños
1 bunch of cilantro
5 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup pine nuts
good chunk of parmesan
(1/2 to 2/3 cup grated)
2 Tbsp. Olive oil

Pesto is something that can be made (in my opinion) either really quickly or really well, not both. You could technically take all of these ingredients and throw them in a blender or food processor, and be done with it in 5-10 minutes. In all honesty, this does produce a pretty decent pesto, but I really think it is worth it to make it by hand (Most people don't have the patience for chopping that i do though, so i won't blame you for using a food processor).

I like my pesto to have a less homogeneous texture. Basically what i do is decide which of the ingredients in the pesto i want to be chopped more finely and which i want to be chopped more coarsely, and arrange them in order from fine to coarse. In this case, garlic » jalapeño » cilantro » cheese » pine nuts. Begin by chopping the first ingredient finely, then add the next ingredient right on top of that pile, and chop until that ingredient is minced, add the next right on top of the pile, chop until minced, etc.

Using this process, the ingredients you start with end up being pretty much totally pulverized, and the ingredients more toward the end have some texture to them still.

Once all the ingredients are chopped to your satisfaction, put it all in a bowl and mix in half the olive oil. (mix in the second half just before serving)

Next, I made a simple guacamole:

Basic Guacamole
2 large avocados
(3-4 if small)
1 medium tomato
small bunch of cilantro
1 lime
1/2 onion
salt and pepper to taste

This is pretty basic guacamole. I usually add some heat to it via a serrano or a jalapeño or two, but i wanted this to be the item on the plate that wasn't spicy. With guacamole i start by juicing the lime into a bowl and then mash/whip the avocados into the lime juice... this keeps it from turning brown. then just dice everything else up, stir it all, and you're done.

Once everything else was ready I grilled the pork chops, mixed in the last part of the oil to the pesto, and served. (Advise serving with a few tortilla chips with which to eat the remaining guacamole and pesto)

Serve each pork chop on a bed of the pesto, with a nice glob of guacamole.

Roasted Halibut with Chile de Arbol Sauce

2010-01-20T14:18:00.000-08:00

Nothing new in the last few days... the rain made me a little lazy.

so i'll post one of my favorites that i made over the last several months.

If you're a glutton for spice like i am, this sauce is heavenly, works with chicken, steak, fish, shrimp, would be good on eggs... I could pretty much put it on anything.

without further adieu,

Roasted Halibut with Chile de Arbol Sauce

the fish

1 gigantic slab of super good halibut, cut into 2x3inch chunks (think the piece we got was about 1.8 lbs)

also, apart from the sauce (below), you'll need:

1 lemon
2 Tbsp olive oil
pinch of salt

the sauce

I made the sauce a few days ahead of time, as it really needs to sit for at least 24 hours.
Very glad of my decision to make twice as much sauce as needed, cause now i have the hard part done for another round sometime soon. I'd recommend doubling or tripling this recipe and jarring some for later.

Worth mentioning that you need a good blender or food processor for this.

anyway here it is:

50-60 dried chiles de arbol
4 Tbsp shelled pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
4 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1 cup boiling water
3/4 cup lemon juice

making the sauce

WEAR GLOVES FOR THIS STEP!!!
These chilies are no joke. I'd advise doing this in a well ventilated area and using gloves.

Remove the stems from the chilies and break them in half. Roll/squish them in your fingers to get all the seeds out. I saved my seeds for later use. This part takes a while, as well.

Turn the vent fan on high. open windows, whatever you can to get the air moving wherever you do this step.
Toast chilies over medium heat in a skillet until browned. Takes about 5 minutes. Stir or shake the pan as often as possible to keep the chilies from burning. (A bit of burn is actually good for the flavor, thus the toasting in the first place) Beware however, the smoke that comes off these things burning is basically a biological weapon and will make you and your friends/family cough very very hard. Add these to the blender.

After the trial of chili roasting, toast the pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and cumin seeds over medium heat the same way until the pumpkin seeds start popping, 3 to 5 minutes. Add to blender.

Add garlic, salt, oregano and allspice to blender and then pour in boiling water.

A this, point you're probably just getting over your coughing fit, so cover the blender and let it settle and stand in the boiling water for 10-15 minutes. You could probably use some fresh air, or you could start squeezing lemons.

Now add the lemon juice, and puree the whole deal until it's pretty much smooth but with some chili bits here and there.

You're done! Put it in the fridge for at least a day and up to a week.

cooking the fish

Marinate the fish in enough sauce to fully coat it all in a big ziplock or whatever. I marinated for about an hour or so.

Preheat oven to 450°F

Grease a baking pan, and put the fish and all the sauce into it.
Dribble a bit of oil on each piece of fish, and add a dash of salt

Roast until fish flakes easily when tested, about 12 minutes.

Serve with lemon wedges.

Sunday Pho Experiment

2010-01-18T14:56:00.000-08:00

A very useful habit I've started over the last few months is saving my vegetable scraps. Stuff like: onion and garlic peels, the ends/peels/seeds of peppers and tomatoes and cucumbers, the stalks of herbs, and just generally anything that would add to a pile of veggies ready for stock. I keep all of this in a big ziplock bag in the freezer and add to it as much as i remember to.

Lately, when my bag of vegetable butts becomes full, i've been turning it into stock for pho.

I have made pho from a homemade beef stock a few times, and it is delicious. However, it is very messy, really fatty, and honestly not really any better than veggie pho. I'll definitely do beef pho again sometime, and probably try chicken at some point as well, but for now i'm pretty happy with this.

so here we go:

I actually started the stock on Saturday, thinking that i was going to make the pho that evening, but decided against it and stopped after the first few steps and just covered and refrigerated the stock for the next day.

I'm not going to write this one out like an actual recipe because, well i'm not sure exactly what was in that bag to be honest. It's a little different every time. Also, i use the spices all on a "to taste" level, and there is quite the list of spices, so i really don't know what quantities i ended up putting in.

The first step in this pho (and also in the beef one i've made) is roasting ginger and onions. I took two medium red onions and a few healthy hunks of ginger and cut them in half, brushed them with olive oil, and put them on the highest rack of the oven at 450 for about a half hour, flipping them halfway through.

Once these were in the oven roasting, I put the contents of my frozen bag into a large pot and added water to cover it all and heated it up to a boil.

To supplement the stuff in the bag i also prepared:
3 leeks, chopped up a bit
a dozen or so crimini mushrooms
twenty or so okra fruits, halved

Once the onions and ginger were done roasting, and the fresh veggies were chopped up, I added all of this to the pot. At this point, the stuff from the freezer bag was boiling and no longer had big frozen chunks, and the kitchen was already humid with soupy goodness. Then i added more water to cover this and brought it all back up to a boil. Once boiling, i brought it back to a simmer and let it bubble away for a few hours.

this is where i covered and refrigerated the stock to be continued the next day.

The following day (and what a day for food... House of Nanking for lunch and homemade pho for dinner), I started again by bringing the pot of stock back to a boil and then back down to a simmer.

Then i prepared the spices to be added. As I said, I'm not sure on quantities, picture shows initial estimation that i measured out, and i then ended up adding more salt and a few more cloves if i remember correctly.

Here's the list:
Salt
Sugar
Cinnamon Stick
Cardamom Pods
Ground Cardamom
Star Anise
Fennel Seeds
Fish Sauce (used about a quarter cup)

I also threw in a handful of chiles de árbol

With the spices added to the pot, I let it simmer for another hour or so and worked on preparing the myriad condiments that accompany any good pho: sliced fresh peppers (i used jalapeño), bean sprouts, sliced lime, fresh basil, fresh mint, fresh cilantro (all chopped coursely)

After that i prepared the rice noodles.

The final step before serving was simply straining all of the solid veggie matter out of the soup itself. Once this is done, it was time to eat.

This soup makes me happy.

Asparagus, Spinach, and Basil Stuffed Chicken with a Mushroom Cream Sauce

2010-01-16T17:34:00.000-08:00

Spent the evening helping a friend move to a new apartment. In the course of events, I decided to head over to the store and get something to make dinner while he was doing something that didn't require my help. I figured I'd just get something quick and easy, but on the way to the store, this is what i came up with.

I'd have to say that my best ideas often just come to me this way, when i'm planning on doing something familiar and simple, and decide to try something new.

Anyway, here's the recipe

ingredients
(I don't often use measuring cups and stuff, so bear with me with my measurements and units)
Serves 3 (sorry for the weird number of servings, this is just how it happened)

the stuffing
6 stalks of asparagus
a handful of fresh basil
a large handful of fresh spinach
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

the sauce
1 small red onion
4-5 cloves of garlic
10 medium sized crimini mushrooms
1 cup Crème fraiche
2 Tbsp. Olive oil
1/4 cup vegetable stock
(chicken stock would be fine too)

the chicken
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

instructions

Preheat the Oven to 400 degrees

Finely chop the asparagus and mince the spinach and basil. Combine all of this in a bowl. Add olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside for now.

Mince the garlic.
Slice the mushrooms into thickish slices (1/4 inch)
Slice the Onion into thin crescents
Set this aside for now

Cutting the chicken is a little hard to explain without just showing somebody. Most boneless skinless breasts come already kind of butterflied, with one thicker chunk, and one smaller chunk. What you want to do is start at where these two pieces join together, and cut the thicker chunk in half almost to the end. This way, it ends up like a tri-folded piece of chicken. Do this to all 3 breasts and either pound or roll them flat. (I just kind of wailed on them with my flat palm...)

Once your chicken is laid out flat, salt and pepper the surface lightly, and then spread the stuffing evenly across the top of each piece. Roll these pieces up carefully and put onto a double layer of foil. Close up the foil around the chicken and put on a baking pan and bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes.

While the chicken is baking, it's time to make the sauce.

To start off, heat up some olive oil in medium or large pan. Add the garlic and onions and sautee until the onions are semi-transparent and very flexible. Next add the mushrooms and continue to saute until the mushrooms have soaked up most of the remaining oil.

Once the mushrooms are nice and tender, add the chicken stock and reduce by about half. Then add the Crème fraiche and cook for another 15 minutes over low heat, stirring frequently.

If timed, properly, the chicken and the sauce should both be pretty much done now.

Serve with 1 rolled breast per plate, with a big spoonful of the sauce. (I also served some steamed baby broccoli and some baby bok choy)

Very happy with how this turned out, especially since it was just kind of off the top of my head and out of the blue. All in all it was a very good evening.

Dragonbreath Salsa

2010-01-14T16:12:00.000-08:00

This has got to be my most requested recipe. Definitely one of my stand-ins for when i want to bring something to a party or dinner or something and don't have the ambition to come up with something new.

One of these times I'll take some photos of this recipe, chances are I'll make it again soon... mmm, maybe tomorrow. So i guess I'll just end up rewriting this when i have pictures, but oh well, here it is anyway.

The big secret is that if you use good produce and know some basic combinations of flavors, salsa is REALLY easy to make.

Be prepared for a LOT of chopping. Sure, you could just throw it all in a food processor (except the beans), but i really prefer to chop it all by hand. Plus, at least to me, chopping is a huge part of the experience of cooking. It's really zen, or something... I don't know, it relaxes me.

ingredients

1 medium red onion
1 bell pepper (yellow is good to round out the colors in the salsa)
1 poblano pepper
4 jalapeños
2 serrano peppers
1 can green chilies (or you can roast an extra poblano and dice it)
5 cloves garlic (more if they're tiny cloves)
2 15oz cans diced tomatoes (an equivalent amount of good fresh chopped tomatoes is preferable, but in the off season canned can really be better)
1 can black beans, drained
1 bunch fresh cilantro
1 Tbsp of white wine vinegar
juice from two limes
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp allspice
2 tsp black pepper
3 tsp salt

instructions

1) Chop the hot peppers as finely as possible and drain the beans.
2) In a large bowl mix the hot peppers and beans with the lime juice and vinegar and let it sit while you chop everything else.
3) Don’t drain the tomatoes. Use that juice from the cans as well. Mash them up as best you can so there aren’t any huge chunks left… I like to really pulverize them. Add this to the bowl with the hot peppers and beans.
4) Finely chop everything else (sometimes i use a press for the garlic, sometimes not).
5) Add the cumin, allspice, black pepper, salt
6) Mix
7) Serve, and watch your guests sweat.

Breakfast Burritos for Lunch!

2010-01-14T13:42:00.000-08:00

I'm a big fan of eggs and vegetables for breakfast.

However, I have never really developed the habit of eating breakfast in the morning. I know I should at least get something in me right away, and i do try to at least have some juice or yogurt or something, but I don't often cook a meal in the morning.

I do like a long lunch however, so here's today's action:

Simple Breakfast Burritos

ingredients

2 eggs
2 green onions
2 cloves of garlic
1 medium sized tomato, sliced
1 handful of parsley
a hunk of cheese
(this time around i used Añejo cheese)
2 tortillas

instructions

Heat a skillet or fry pan with a bit of oil
(I used Olive Oil cause i'm an addict).

Start by frying the tomatoes until they're a bit firmed up and a good amount of liquid has come off and burned away.

Chop the green onions and garlic and add them to the pan

Add the eggs (I like to make a little basket out of the vegetables and just crack the eggs right into it)

Chop the parsley and dice the cheese (very small cubes), then add them to the pan

Now that it's all in there, loosely scramble it up and cook until the eggs are... well however you like them. Split this into the tortillas and serve.

Whole process takes about 20 minutes.

This is the kind of meal that i make a lot for myself because it's quick and easy, and there's not a lot to clean up afterwards.

To me, it also serves as proof that even if you're just throwing some stuff together that you happen to have in the fridge, it's worth the extra effort to turn it into something delicious.

so here goes nothing

2010-01-13T20:45:00.000-08:00

I'm going to use this first posting as a chance to explain how i came to the decision to start a food blog. It's definitely not something i would have envisioned myself ever doing, even a few years ago, so i think an explanation is in order.

I have never had formal training or any sort of professional experience preparing or even serving food. Nor do i particularly desire either of those things (though I am often told that i should give one or the other a shot). I don't aspire to become a recognized chef or celebrated cook, I simply appreciate good food and enjoy every opportunity to learn how to get more of it.

I certainly don't cook gourmet meals every time I eat, though maybe if i always had the necessary groceries on-hand, i might try. As it is, I'm no stranger to the local taquerias, simple pre-made sandwiches and the like from the grocery store, or just a whatever-happens-to-be-on-hand-slapped-together type of meal. I'd love to eat super great every day, but it just doesn't happen in normal life. Hell, when I was going to school there were several-day periods where all i had was some kind of ramen, so I'm no stranger to the quick cheap meal.

Over the course of the last few years, when I have decided to cook for myself (and especially when I have found myself cooking for others) I have slowly and without noticing or really meaning to, been raising the bar for myself. I never really realized that what i was doing was teaching myself to cook. Once I finally did realize that I had accidentally developed a pretty serious hobby out of cooking, I pretty much just embraced it.

Even more recently, when I have found something I have really enjoyed making, I've been trying to share it with people. Whether by making food and bringing it to parties, or just posting my cooking adventures on FB it's been enjoyable to share my food with others. Now apparently all of that has led to this.

I'll start by moving a few of my previously shared recipes here, and until i get into the rhythm of developing new content a few times a week, I'll keep doing that. I'm hoping that all of this will inspire me to cook something new at least a couple times a week, and that sounds like a delicious thing indeed.