Adventures of a Culinary Whore

Quick Tip: Giving Shrimp Better Texture

2008-06-04T15:06:00.000-07:00

Long time no post... Sorry for that guys.

In any case... I was reading this tip on a Japanese site and I thought I'd give it a try. It's a very simple way to improve the texture of shrimp prior to cooking it.

The secret?

Baking soda dissolved in water. If you have one of them nifty bags of frozen shrimp, take out a few, defrost them under cold running water, and then dissolve a couple tablespoons of baking soda into a bowl of water. Let the shrimp bathe in this liquid for about 20 minutes before you cook them. Once you're ready, just rinse them off, pat them dry and apply cooking method of choice to the now plumped up shrimp.

When I tried this technique, I just quickly pan seared the shrimp and turned them into a shrimp and avocado salad (recipe below). Honestly, despite the fact that the shrimp were previously frozen, then had a definite crunch that was palpable. It was wonderful. Especially in contrast with the creaminess of the avocado. Still, I would do this every time (given enough forethought that is) I cook shrimp from here on out. I don't know how anyone would go back to soggy shrimp cocktail (you know, the kinda flavors-been-boiled-out-and-clammy stuff?) when you can get the crunch right into the shrimp by just soaking them a tad before boiling/grilling/etc. them in baking soda. I mean, come on? Don't you have a box of baking soda in the back of your fridge?

Apparently, when scientists compared the soaked shrimp with shrimp of the same size that weren't soaked, they found that the soaked shrimp was not only more resistant, but that it had more moisture content. The alkalinity of the soaking solution basically slightly hardens the proteins in the shrimp, making it lose less moisture during the cooking process. Cool!

Shrimp and Avocado Salad with Orange and Lime

Serves 2 as a main course or 4 as an appetizer

6 medium sized (20-25 c0unt) shrimp
2 TBLs baking soda
water
2 ripe Avocados
1/2 English Cucumber
1 navel Orange supremed and cut into small pieces
1 bunch Watercress
8 heirloom cherry/cocktail tomatoes

Seasonings:
2 TBLs soy sauce
2 TBLs Ponzu Shoyu*
1 ts Toasted Sesame Oil
drizzle of Chili Oil*
1/2 cup chopped Cilantro
2 limes, juiced

salt and pepper
red pepper (optional)

Peel and devein shrimp, them soak them for 20 minutes in water and baking soda mixture. Rinse and then dry well.

Cut shrimp into thee pieces each, removing the tails. Saute in hot pan until they turn pink, about 1 minute. Place the shrimp into the refrigerator to chill.

Combine chopped avocados, cubed cucumber, orange sections, cilantro, and chilled shrimp in a large bowl and mix with the seasonings reserving 1/4 for plating. Salt and pepper to taste, and add chili flakes if you want some heat. Chill until ready to serve.

To serve, plate in a ring mold or martini glass, top with tomatoes that have been sliced in halves or quarters depending on size, and salted, then toss the watercress in the reserved seasoning mixture and arrange on top.

* Ponzu is a citrus and soy sauce mixture, and is available premixed in most Asian markets, and in some larger markets that have an Asian section. If you can't get it, just mix citrus juice and soy sauce in a 2:1 ratio to approximate the effect.

*Chili Oil is also available in Asian markets. It's not used for cooking but rather as a table condiment. To make your own, just heat up some oil to smoking, and place ground red pepper in a heatproof bowl. When the oil is just about to start smoking, pour into the bowl. It should give off a nice sizzle. For a cup of oil, about 1/2 cup of red pepper would be a good starting point. Add a few drops of toasted sesame oil, and let sit covered overnight. You can use just the red oil for flavor, or if you want more heat, use both the oil and the sediment.

Cafe Stella, Silverlake

2008-02-18T13:13:00.001-08:00

Cafe Stella ($$$$$)
French

3932 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles 90029
Btwn Sanborn Ave & Hyperion Ave

Phone: 323-666-0265

I took my friend Blondie for a birthday dinner last night. While I've read a lot of people's reviews (many of them not so flattering, mind you) of Cafe Stella in Silverlake, I had to try it for myself. Since we were already at Birdy Bar close by, we walked the couple blocks between drinks to get a meal.

It was about 7:30 on a Sunday night. We walked in and the hostess asked us if we had a reservation. Said, no, and she said that they really were booked and a table may take upwards of an hour. But, they do have a no res bar section that we were welcome to where they did serve the entire menu. Ok, no prob. I like sitting at the bar anyways. Belly up to the corner of the bar, and a very nice lady said that her friend's late, so we could borrow the extra stool we had until she got there. Actually, not too bad a start.

A couple glasses of wine (Zin for me... Pinot for Blondie), and an order of Steak Tartare go in. While it took forever for even the appetizer to come (I counted over an hour), the ambiance was fine, and I was with good company, so I didn't really mind. Definitely not somewhere you want to go if you're in a rush.

When the tartare finally came, I tried it, and was definitely pleasantly surprised. It was creamy and not too overly spiced, and I could actually taste the quality of the meat itself. It was simple and delicious. Second only to the Kobe Tartare I had at Tom Colicchio's craftSteak a while back. So far, I was enjoying good company and the food was fine.

Again, the wait was long, but when the entrées came, I was definitely pleasantly surprised. I had Skate served in an olive brown butter, and Blondie had pork chops with a dijon dipping sauce. Both dishes were simple but extremely competently executed. The skate was crispy on the outside and moist on the inside, and flaked perfectly. The pork chop was well rested, juicy, and hot all the way through. Wonderful.

We had another couple glasses of wine and chatted with the bartender (very nice guy), and paid up and left. Cafe Stella is definitely not an "everyday" restaurant given the rather high prices (two glasses of wine each, one app, two entrees, 130 +tax/tip), but I'd definitely recommend it for a date or an occasion. I've eaten at many bistros in the States, and it stacks up as a good authentic recreation thereof. It's got a sort of "gathering house" feeling which is nice, and unlike the experiences of others who've posted reviews on Zagat's and Yelp, I found the service to be good, and not at all "rude." The only complaint I had was again, the time it took for our food to come out. Still, the staff was accommodating enough to make sure that we had enough bread to keep up happy, and even let us try a taste of wine before ordering the glass. If you decide to go, make sure to make a reservation -- I bet that the service would be quicker at a table rather than at the bar.

I'm trying something new with my reviews. I'm going to start posting "inspired by" recipes. This may be my take on something I had, or just something that I was inspired to create on my own with the theme of the restaurant in mind. It's sort of a mini-game for me to play, and you guys to be able to play along with if you want.

So... Café Stella inspired me to make...

Rib Eye Steak with Porcini Bordelaise and Frites Trufées

2 Servings

One Rib Eye Steak per person, cut 1.5 inches thick
1 8oz. tub duck fat (available at gourmet markets including Whole Foods)

Sauce:
1/2 bottle good bold red wine such as a Cabernet, Shiraz/Syrah, or Zinfandel
1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms reconstituted in 1 cup warmed red wine and chopped fine
2 medium shallots, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbls prepared beef or veal demi-glace
1 small handful of chopped Italian Parsley
1 Tbls unsalted butter, room temperature
salt and black pepper to taste

Potatoes:
2 large Russet potatoes, cut into steak fries, and then soaked in water for 30 minutes
3 Tbls unsalted butter
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Drizzle black truffle oil

Remove steaks from fridge and pat dry, and let come up to room temperature, about an hour.

Preheat a heavy skillet on high heat to sear the steaks well. I like to heat an oven to 500º F and place a heavy cast iron skillet in there for 10 minutes, then blast it for another 5 on high heat on the stove top. This will make a huge difference in the crust that forms.

Meanwhile, melt the entire tub of duck fat in a pot wide enough to hold both steaks but not too wide that they'll be sitting in shallow fat. Once the entire tub is rendered down, leave on very low heat... you should just see a bubble every now and then.

Salt and Pepper the steaks, then add fat to the pan and sear 2-3 minutes per side without moving so a good crust forms. Take the seared steaks out of the pan and submerge in the warm duck fat. Remove fat from heat, and let steaks rest there. About 25 minutes will give you a rare steak (for a 1.5 inch thick cut), and 35 will be closer to medium. To ensure correct temperature, just use an instant read thermometer -- 120º for rare, 125º for medium-rare. Because the meat is resting in warmed fat, it will forgive a little more than if you were heating the meat directly. Just let the meat sit for a couple minutes before serving.

While the steaks are resting, prepare the sauce. In a sauce pan, melt 1 Tbls butter and add the shallots and garlic. Sweat them over medium heat until translucent. Add in the wine, the reconstituted porcinis and their soaking liquid as well as the demi-glace. Reduce by about half, and adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper. Finally, mount the sauce with the remaining butter until shiny. Add in the chopped parsley just before serving.

Frites:

Dry the soaking potatoes very well. Heat oil to 325º F and fry until cooked through. They should be a pale color at this point. Remove frites from the oil and raise the temperature to 375-400º F and fry a second time to get a crispy crust. Drain, then toss in a pan with melted butter and drizzle of truffle oil. Salt to taste.

Serve the steak and fries with the sauce.

Happy Eating!

Selecting Chicken and making broiler chickens taste much better

2008-02-17T13:52:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd quickly explain how you should select chicken at the market, since I just talked about pork and trichinosis. Unlike other meat products, chicken is the animal that you're most likely to pick up a bug (E. Coli... Salmonella...) from. While I've been know to eat raw-ish (!) chicken at certain Japanese restaurants I trust, I wouldn't do that with a store-bought bird. Now that I've sufficiently scared you off...

There are three things to look for when selecting chicken parts. The fresher the chicken, the better the flavor, and the less the risk of getting sick.

a) how it looks through the plastic
b) how firm the meat feels
c) whether there are drippings in the tray

Simple enough. The chicken should look fresh and bright colored when you've look at it. It should be slightly shiny. The "slightly" is important here, since old chicken is very shiny. When felt, the meat should feel firm to the touch. If it feels mushy, it's a sign of meat that's aged. You really shouldn't buy chicken in a package that has drippings collecting in it. If you see that, it's been at least 2 days since the chicken was fabricated or more. Still, given the possibility that the product was repackaged (common practice), look and feel the meat if you can. If you don't feel that it's fresh, move on... there are plenty of other things that you can get.

The best policy here though, is to get to know a butcher or poultry purveyor that you trust. Even the butchers at most supermarkets will be happy to help you out if you ask them nicely.

If you've read this far, I'll share a trick to make the average supermarket broiler chicken taste and have a firmer chewier texture much more like a full-flavored free-range bird. The secret is salt and plain yogurt.

1) rub your chicken pieces well with Kosher salt.
2) place in the fridge on a plate sprinkle a bit of sake or white wine, then cover with another plate and weight it down. leave for 2-3 hours, and wipe off excess moisture with a paper towel.
3) place chicken in a covered container with enough plain yogurt to just cover the pieces. let marinate for at least 3 hours. In this state, the chicken can be held for 1-2 days (salt and yogurt increase the shelf-life of the chicken)
4) when ready to cook, simply rinse the chicken under cold water, and dry well and cook as usual.

Making Pork Juicy

2008-02-17T13:25:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick Kitchen Cheat for you guys.

Don't you hate dry, chewy pork chops? There's are a couple of simple ways to get it to not dry out.

1) Brine the pork for several hours in a 3% salt brine. The basic brine here, is one teaspoon of salt to 200 ml (3/4 cup) of water. Most measuring cups have the metric equivalent, so just look at that. Place your pork chops (or roast or whatever) in enough brine to completely submerge it. I find that a zip bag works wonders for this purpose. Just do this in the morning before leaving the house and remove them from the bag when you get home and pat dry with paper towels.

In addition to getting moisture in the meat, it will also get the salt uniformly into the center of the meat as well. This means that the meat will be much more flavorful. Using this theory, you can add anything to the brine that you want to scent/flavor the chops. I like to use some brown sugar, bay leaves, and thyme. One thing to remember here. Don't put anything acidic in the brine, or you'll "cook" the meat, the results not being as good. If you want citrus in the brine, use the zest and not the juice.

FYI: This is a great technique for chicken too! Breasts greatly benefit from a brine.

2) If you forgot to brine in the morning, here's a quicker method of getting pork chops juicy.

Use Store-Bought Mayonnaise!

Simply take your pork chops and rub them well with mayo, and place in the fridge, covered, for one hour. When you're ready to cook the chops, simply wipe off the mayo. If you want to guarantee that the juices don't leech out of your chops, lightly dust them with flour before grilling/sauteeing/baking. Easy, right? This is especially good for very lean cuts like loin chops or tenderloin medallions. Don't worry, once the mayo is wiped off, you won't really taste it in the cooking.

One more note:

Remember, commercial pork is very lean, so don't overcook it. Contrary to popular belief, pork should be served at about medium (145°F) or slightly pink in the center. Don't worry, Trichinosis is very rare in the US where commercial pork products are concerned.

Happy Cooking!

And the Grammy's go to...

2008-02-15T12:02:00.001-08:00

Ok, I was lucky enough to get to go to the Grammy's this is past Sunday. My buddy EditorCub won tickets at Local Gay Bar, and we drew lots to decide who would accompany him. The show was amazing, and I got to see legends like Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard perform live. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience it was!

But, this isn't a blog about award shows... it's about the food. The tickets we got came with passes to the industry after party which was to be catered by none other than Wolfgang Puck. To be honest, I wasn't exactly thrilled, given my general lack of respect for him (my friends know me for referring to him as the "whore"), but went, thinking "what the hey?" It was the Grammy's and it was free food, so why not?

For one, I didn't expect it to be amazing food. I know the logistic nightmare of trying to feed thousands of people. Still, I was hoping for Puck's sake that his company could produce decent buffet fare.

We walk into the hall (the party was being held at the LA Convention Center) and quickly get into line at the first buffet table since we didn't get anything to eat during the ceremony itself. We were explained that it was the Latin table, and that there were also English (WTF???), Thai, and Seafood buffets. First off, there were shotglasses filled with what looked to be different kinds of salsas. I picked out the yellow one just to test it. Then salad. Some mystery meat in a glaze... Ok, I'm not getting the Latin part of this really... Oh, wait, then some hot crab guacamole with chips. A bacon wrapped something with a toothpick. And that's all the space for round 1.

The shot glass turned out to be a white fish (tilapia? flounder?) ceviche in a mango salsa. Was ok, but nothing to write home about. Salad was Boston lettuce with almonds and pears with some parmesan on top. Ick, the pears had the consistency (and sweetness) out of a can, the almonds were limp, and the leaves weren't dressed. It needed some sort of binding vinaigrette, and a more aggressive cheese to counter the sweet, like a bleu or something. Mystery meat turned out to be a dried out beef slice with a sauce that tasted... brown... for lack of a better word. The bacon thing. I bit in, and it was sweet and mushy and ew... Puck, what were you thinking? I think it was a fig or a date with cream cheese filling or something like that. Way way way too sweet.

Onto the bar for a palate cleanser. Ah vodka. Ok, next. Seafood.

The seafood bar was basically a table with a mound of ice, tangles of seaweed that attacked you while you were using your tongs (and it wasn't even the nice appetizing kind of seaweed!) shrimp, some crab legs, and mini Tabasco© bottles (product placement, anyone?). I got some shrimp and crab. Got some cocktail sauce. It was just preboiled shrimp from a bag (in this case, I'm sure it was more like a box that was forklifted into the prep area) that you can get in any megamart. Actually, it was watery, so low-end supermarket. Cocktail sauce? Bottled!

Ok... next??? Looking at the English table (why would you do English at a buffet when it's not exactly a country with an exalted culinary past??? "I'll take the pigeon pie please."), and the Thai table, and consulting with EditorCub... we decided that the food wasn't good enough to go back for more, even though it was free. A sad statement to make.

So, I tried to like your food, Woflie... but I guess it was over conceived crap that I would have served to anyone ever. Granted, I know that Puck was probably nowhere near the kitchen for this, but still. It was pretty hardcore shite to be English here myself.

Happy Eating!

Another day another piece of sushi...

2007-12-02T09:30:00.000-08:00

So, I've just finished Week 6 of sushi school. I realize that I haven't really given any more than the first couple days experience to everyone... Sorry for that, but there's so much information, that my head is kinda still spinning, and it's not over.

Here are a couple things of importance that I've learned.

1) I suck. Really, I've got a great brain for food, but my hands aren't precise, and in a precision-centered world like sushi, there's no iffs ands or buts about being able to do it or not. I've been rolling for a month now, and I still end up with "hot dogs" that aren't even. It sucks. I suck. But I'm still learning some very important information here.

2) Rice isn't my friend. A continuation of the above. I don't know if it's because my hands are naturally on the warm side, but even with copious amounts of temizu (hand lubricating vinegar water), I can't get the rice not to stick everywhere. I'm just so frustrated at this... Ugh.

3) Fish must be respected. While there are general principles to remember here, all fish are different and need to be fabricated differently. Head off, guts out... I know that unless I actually go to work for a sushi/japanese restaurant after this course, I probably won't retain most of the knowledge here. It's really a use it or lose it kind of proposition. Perhaps I need to make sure to keep my skills up by practicing or opening up a sushi catering company.

4) The customer's life is in my hands. Sanitize sanitize sanitize... I must make sure that my nails are cut down and clean, that my hand towel is regularly rinsed and bleached... that there is enough fresh temizu around. Then, I have to remember to pre-prep all the fish, meaning that I have to salt and vinegar marinate everything to draw out parasites and kill everything on it. To not do so would literally be taking my customers lives into my hands. Also... NEVER eat river fish raw. They're literally filled with parasites. Just don't do it. EVER. The one exception is salmon, however, even that is dangerous unless you deep freeze it first to kill everything in it. Current US regulation is that salmon must be frozen for 1 week (!) in a commercial (not home) freezer before being served as sushi or sashimi.

Well, boys and girls, I'm off to cook more rice (eek) to practice some more hot dog... er... roll making techniques.

Happy cooking!

Day... er.... Wait a minute.

2007-10-29T07:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, I was originally planning on doing a daily run of events from Sushi School for everyone. I realize that there's so much to cover and so much for me to learn, that it'd be exhaustive for me to be able to to that. As it is, I'm sitting here at 7AM about to run out the door, about to write about Day 3, and it's already the Monday after that, or Day 6. I'll try to go over some of the more important things in detail, but in the meantime, I'm going to have to summarize and gloss over quite a bit. There's a LOT to cover!

Have a great week, guys, and Happy Cooking, as always.

Day 2 -- Deep Basics, Flavor, Rice, Stock

2007-10-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

Day 2.

I walk in knowing from the syllabus that we're covering the basics of Japanese cuisine today. I made sure to leave as much of my preconceived notions as I could at home, since we're covering things that any person who grew up in Japan knows at least something about. Wanting to get the most out of the course, and to learn a specific "philosophy," I chose to go in and forget that I know these things.

6 Flavors:
There are six basic flavoring ingredients in Japanese cuisine.

Sake, Mirin, Vinegar, Sugar, Salt, Soy Sauce

I'm not going into any real details on any one of these ingredients, since each one of them can and have merited entire treatises on them. I will just go into the basics that I think should be mentioned, and that were imparted to me.

Sake:

Sake is brewed from Rice and Rice Mold, and left to ferment for a period of 30-90 days depending on the method being used. Regardless, it falls under the category of "soft liquor" since the alcohol content is usually between 16 and 18%.

Junmai Shu is made of only rice and mold, and is considered more refined. Because of the natural state it is in, it needs to be fermented for 80-90 days.

Jozo Shu is made of the same ingredients as above, but alcohol is added to the fermentation tank to speed the process. The sake made this way is ready in 30-40 days.

Most mass produced sake, thus is Jozo Shu, since it can be made more quickly. When drinking sake, Jozo Shu types (e.g. Sho Chiku Bai, Gekkeikan, Ozeki, and other popular brands), heat the sake to let the artificial alcohol to "burn off." Junmai Shu, on the other hand, can be tasted at room temperature.

Mirin:

Mirin is brewed the exactly same way as sake is, but instead of regular rice, sweet/mochi rice is used. The higher starch content in the rice makes a rather sweet liquor. Mirin is almost used exclusively for cooking and is rarely drunk. Like sake, there is a Jozo and Junmai distinction.

Vinegar:

Japanese vinegar is rice vinegar. Originally (and still today, although rarer), it was made from fermenting sake lees left from liquor making procedures. Most often, rice and mold are combined and a starter culture of acetobacter is added to convert the alcohol into vingegar.

Rice vinegar tends to be milder than white vinegar, and is not as sharp as some other vinegars.

Sugar:

Cane sugar that we're used to in the US and Europe is 30% sweeter than Japanese sugar, meaning that Japanese recipes giving measurements of sugar are harder to adjust. Side Note: So is THAT why the ubiquitous Teriyaki Chicken in a Japanese-American restaurant is so darn sweet? Just food for thought.

Salt:

Knowing the different sodium levels of salt is an important factor in cooking healthy food for your customers. Also, depending on where a salt comes from, it the mineral components differ and may contribute to a change in flavor.

Table salt: 99.98% Sodium. While cheap, there is no benefit from using this salt, since it is just sodium, and has a sharp flavor, from the iodine being added in.

Kosher salt: 99.8% Salt. Larger flakes means that less actual salt is needed when used as a table side condiment.

Sea Salt: 98% Sodium. The almost 2% difference between table and sea salts may seem small, but on the palate, it does make a difference. Also, the added minerals in sea salt makes it more "flavorful." Depending on where the salt comes from, these minerals may be different, and will give the salt a different color and or flavor.

Soy Sauce/ Shoyu:

There are four basic types of Shoyu that is used in the Japanese kitchen. Most of us here think of shoyu and immediately think of Kikkoman... yup, it's a brand, but that's just Dark Shoyu.

Dark Shoyu - used for everyday seasoning

Light Colored Shoyu - used to flavor soups and other applications where color change needs to be prevented, such as in Japanese omelets.

*Note: Light Colored Shoyu is much saltier than Dark Shoyu... You use less which further prevents color changes

Tamari - not to be confused with the sauce made by the brand called Tamari. Tamari has extra ingredients added during the brewing process, and is thicker than regular shoyu. Also, it has a slightly molasses like flavor, so is often used in making teriyaki, and unagi sauces.

White Shoyu - almost never used in a home setting. This is what is used in Kyoto to season Sui-mono or clear soups. It is similar to Light Colored shoyu, but is even lighter in color.

---

Rice

This is really an important chapter when you're talking about sushi school. For all intents and purposes, I'm only going to be talking about Japanese rice, which is medium-short, or short grain. California makes great Japanese style rices which can be used here. I'm not going to go into all of it, or post the video of sensei actually showing how to do it, but I will give you the basic idea. Actually, on second thought, I will take a vid of how it's done and post my own version.

One thing to note. The ratio of water to rice depends on a number of factors, not the least of which is whether the rice is "new crop" or "old crop." New Crop rice becomes available around mid-November. Because it is "new" it has more natural moisture in the grains. 3%, to be exact. Obviously, if you're using new rice, you need less water than with old rice. FYI, new rice becomes old rice around February/March, so adjust back accordingly.

While a gas cooker, or a cast iron rice pot over a raging flame is ideal, I'm going to give measurement ratios for an electric cooker. Never cook Japanese rice in an open pot like pasta or cous-cous. This is steamed rice, and it needs ample time in an enclosed environment to rest and absorb the moisture.

Wash the rice for 1-3 minutes in a tub. There should be enough water to moisten the rice well. Rinse rice several times until the rinse water is clear. Place rice into a colander or strainer, and let sit a minimum of 20 minutes, preferably 30. Given that rice is a dried vegetable, it needs to reconstitute with moisture before cooking much like dried mushrooms and legumes.

Measure out approximately 1.25 times the amount of rice in water, add to the rice cooker with your washed rice, and turn the switch on. The cooking time should be a total of 45 minutes. That is, 20 to cook, and 25 to steam once the machine is off. In a fancier rice cooker, this step is actually taken into account, but it doesn't hurt to let it sit an extra couple minutes to make sure the rice is steamed thoroughly. Set a timer, and go with that, rather than the beeps of your fancy rice cooker. That works just fine. Rice comes out consistently good.

-----
Stock, or Dashi

The basis of many Japanese dishes and soups is Japanese stock or Dashi. Unlike Western stocks, dashi doesn't take too long to make. It is the first pressing or Ichiban Dashi that I will be giving directions for.

Put one gallon (adjust to needs) of water in a pot over medium heat. Add a 5-inch square piece of Kombu (kelp). Slowly bring the pot to a boil. You want the process to take at least 10 minutes to extract the flavor from the kombu. At the point that the water has come to a full boil, remove the kombu, add a half cup of cold water to lower the temperature slightly, and add a heaping handful of bonito flakes to the pot. Immediately turn off the heat and let sit. When all the bonito flakes have sunk to the bottom of the pot, your dashi is ready to strain and be used. Line a strainer with paper towels, and carefully strain the dashi. This is the primary dashi that you will be using for many things.

You can take the used bonito flakes and kombu and reuse them for a weaker dashi called secondary or niban dashi. This is often used to simmer vegetables, or for miso soup in restaurants that need the primary dashi for more refined dishes.

There's a lot that I'm not necessarily covering, but that's day 2 for you guys. As you can see, the pace is a tad breakneck, and I'm sure glad that I do have the advantage of knowing some (very little, really) of these things coming into the class.

Happy Cooking!

First Day at Sushi School... Itadaki Masu

2007-10-22T16:57:00.000-07:00

For those of you in the know, I signed up with a school here in LA for a two month program to get a certification as a sushi chef. Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do with the certification. But since my loss of my dear husband David in the past year, I've been floundering. This at least gives me some sense of direction and accountability for my life. Maybe I'll go into catering, or eventually open a place... or just do what I've been sort of doing and go into culinary consulting of some sort. Regardless, I'm excited to have a purpose for the next little while, and I plan on making the most of it.

Why sushi? I think the best reason I have here is that I'm part Japanese, and I wanted to learn something that would perpetuate some aspect of my "native" culture. Yes, I speak Japanese, and can follow a cookbook, but the skill set is very different from a French/Euro-centric cooking set which I have a fair amount of hands on skill in. Yes, the skills are analogous (a cube cut is a cube cut the world around), but often the tools and methodology are different. Just look at traditional Japanese knives. Many are single-edged and thus handed (meaning my pocketbook screamed when I learned of the surcharge for lefty knives). I have several Japanese knives that I owned before starting school and purchasing the knife kit they recommend. I have a small deba (fish cleaver), an usuba (vegetable knife), and a yanagiba (sashimi sliver), but never learned how to properly handle them. Don't get me wrong, I have decent knife skills with "Western style" knives (gyu-to/French chef's, for example), but the feeling is completely different when cutting something with a double edged versus a single edged knife. The best way I can describe it is that while a standard double edged knife goes "straight" into the product being cut, a single edged knife feels like it "curves" into the product... way weird if you're used to the one over the other. Right here alone was a reason I wanted to learn.

Ok, onto my first actual day of school. I got up early (6:30AM!) and got dressed in my uniform, picked up my knife kit, and trekked down the street while it was still semi dark out. Good thing I left early. Not being used to morning traffic, I didn't realize it would take me as long to go the couple, three miles to the school. Then I didn't realize that the gate to the lot was automated, and I was circling like a dumbass waiting for someone to call me back to give me directions on how to get into the lot (drive up... the sensor will open the gate... duh). But all things said, I got there, and was only several minutes late... Housekeeping was going on, and nothing had started yet.

After the obligatory filling out of paperwork and limitation of liability forms and such, the chef/instructor (who will be referred to from here on out as "Sensei" which is the Japanese term for teacher) gave us an overview of his background, and why he's teaching the class. The reason he wants to do this is because he feels that he wants to pass along the skills that he learned to the next generation. Great!

We were informed of the way the course is set up, and wow, it's fast paced! We're apparently covering all the basics of non-sushi Japanese cooking in 12 days. Of course, we're expected to study and practice on our own time, and to hone our skills. Oh, and we were also asked, if we could, to show up on Saturday to help the school cater an event for 800 people. Whoa! We won't be cooking, but may be asked to help prep basic things and to do some grunt work around the exhibition. I'll definitely have to keep that one in mind.

Onto the kitchen. Today was "basic knife skills." Sensei started out with a potato and showed us how to julienne it by hand. Gorgeous movement. We each got a potato, and were told to do the cuts. I guess 30 plus years of experience makes it look easier than it actually is. I got through this one without too much trouble. I know that I need to get better at making the cuts more uniform, but this wasn't too horrible. Nothing I can't do at home with a couple taters and some time. Then onto a couple other cuts like "half moon" cuts and so on so forth. Each time, we were shown once, and then told to do it. When needed Sensei and his assistant would come over to correct us and guide us in the right way. Still, so far, so good. Stuff that I can do but just need to practice to perfect... then we're asked to do a Katsura-muki. What? That on the first day??? Now I'm feeling inadequate. A kasura-muki is when you take a relatively cylindrical vegetable and make a continuous peel of it which is evenly paper-thin. Suffice it to say that I sucked hardcore on this one. I just kept on angling the knife wrong and just didn't seem like I was getting anywhere on this one. Ugh.

Well, that was day 1. Sensei made dishes out of all the veggies we sliced and we all ate in the cafeteria outside the kitchen and then cleaned up before going home.

Yes, I bought potatoes to practice on.

One thing that was brought up during family lunch really touched me. The idea of food to the Japanese given to us by someone whose worked with it all his life. Sensei explained that the term "Itadaki Masu," said like bon apetit before a meal in Japan, refers to the idea that no matter what one eats, that it has to die for us to be able to consume it. It is with the idea of gratitude that he translated "Itadaki Masu" as "thank you for letting me partake of your life." Even though I speak the language and know the culture, I never thought of it this way. I thought this was a simple and beautiful way of looking at things and also one that spoke to the level of respect on needs when eating and especially handling food.

So, in this new quest of knowledge of mine, I start by saying "Itadaki Masu" to all the knowledge and skill that will be shown to me. I hope I can remember to keep the spirit of respect to be worthy.

Happy Cooking and Eating!

Veggies for soups and stews...

2007-10-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

It's started getting a little nippy at night here in LA of late. Given the rapid change in seasons this year, I caught a hell of a cold over the past week, and I'm now finally getting over it. Given that I was congested and generally miserable all week, I ate a lot of soups and stews that go down easy and just warm you up from the inside.

I made a big batch (7-qts) of home-made chicken stock as a base, (easy... get a whole chicken or family pack of wings, wash, cover with cold water, add couple each carrots and celery, a whole onion and simmer for a couple/several hours until the bones even fall apart, strain and reserve) and have been making soups and soups out of it for a while. Which got me to thinking... is there a good way of making sure that the veggies don't turn into mush while making a good and hearty slow cooked meal?

The answer is absolutely yes. Just because you let a stew or soup simmer for a couple hours to get the flavors together doesn't mean that you have to suffer potatoes and carrots that have no backbone left. The secret is remarkably simple... Start with cold water/stock, and take at least 10 minutes to bring it to a simmer. What? That's it??? Yes. Let me repeat. SLOWLY bring the pot up to a simmer.

The scientific reasoning for this, for those of you who are into that sort of thing (yes, I have been known to be a geek from time to time), is that the texture of cooked vegetables have everything to do with how a substance in them called pectin is handled. Pectin, by the way in its pure form, is the substance used to gel jams and jellies. It's a naturally occurring sugar-substance that is present in all fruits and vegetables in various concentrations. If you slowly bring the temperature of the veggies up as opposed to "shocking" them directly in boiling water, the pectin has a chance to "set up" thus protecting the integrity of the cellular structures. Once they've been tempered thus, you can cook the veggies for a long time while still retaining a crisp texture. Depending on what you like, you can adjust the tempering process to get varied results. If you want veggies that have just a slight crunch, just follow the "bring to simmer over 10 minutes guideline), if you want them really crunchy take longer... Of course, the reverse applies too, so in certain cases where you want your veggies to turn into mush (for bisques and other pureed applications, for example), you want to have the water at a boil before adding the veggies.

See, now you can have a soup or stew with a restaurant type mouth feel, and you won't have to worry about everything turning into mush... Oh, and if you're adding broccoli or cauliflower (or anything that "falls apart"), make sure that you blanch and shock them to keep their color, and add them at the very end of cooking after you take the soup/stew off the heat. They'll remain intact, and won't throw florets all over the place.

Eggs done right.

2007-10-08T23:34:00.000-07:00

I was thinking the other day that I rarely, if ever, really enjoy eatings eggs out. Granted, unless I'm on vacation (which I recently was in Hawai'i -- more on that in a later post), I just don't go to the kind of place that would take the time to serve me eggs the way I like 'em. Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily knocking all the fine diners and breakfast spots out there. I just like my eggs (especially scrambled) done a particular way, and I prefer to forgo the eggs while out in favor of something more... healthy... how's that?

So without further ado, here are some tips on egg cookery.

Scrambled
First and foremost, learn to be patient. The pan should never, and I mean, never be on anything other than LOW heat. That's right, boys and girls, the perfect scrambled egg is one where the egg coagulates at a very slow pace. I've been know to spend 30 minutes or more sometimes on a batch of eggs for brunch.

Take your eggs and beat them. Now melt a pat of butter in a pan set on low heat, and add the eggs. Every so often, stir the eggs with a spatula. The pan should be low enough that there should be almost no noticeable coagulation in a pan of three eggs for over 10 minutes. Don't over stir either. You want large fluffy curds here. Once the eggs start to set up, add some cream or milk to the pan to make them even more smooth. Stir until almost set, then remove to a plate.

Keeping the eggs slightly runny is important here. Remember the old adage: eggs that are done in the pan are overdone on the plate.

As much as it's a pain in the bum to go through the trouble, you'll be rewarded with the most sublime scrambled eggs you've ever tried. And what's interesting is that they taste more "eggy" than scrambled eggs cooked too quickly.

Season the eggs to taste, and add some grated parmesan or even better, truffle bits (truffle oil works great too), for your decadent treat.

variation:
There's one version that cooks up really nicely if you want even more "egg" taste. I saw this technique a couple years back in a cooking magazine (no, I don't remember).

Using the same heat setting as above, add the eggs without beating them into the pan. You want to break the yolks and start mixing once the whites have started to set up. The texture is not as smooth as the original method, but it's got a nice and interesting taste. Try it sometime to change up your scramble game.

Fried Eggs

So, why does one need to be told how to fry an egg? Because there are a couple different ways to do it! And yes, there's even technique involved.

First things first. True "fried eggs" are just that... they're fried in oil, rather than heated in a pan with little or no grease. For a truly decadent experience, try rendering an in or two of lard and/or bacon fat in a pan, bring it up to temperature, and dropping a couple eggs straight from their shells into them. It's quick, and oh so tasty. At the point in which the eggs are immersed in the oil, they naturally cook more like an egg that's been flipped over so both sides are cooked. Again, with this kind of egg, don't overdo it. The point is to be able to sop up the yolk with a piece of bread (buttered rye for me please).

Wanna be a "fried egg" geek? Try this: Use a circle mold (or a tuna can with both ends cut off) to make perfectly round eggs. Better yet, if you're entertaining, take the time to not only use the mold, separate the yolk from the white, and gently place the yolk directly on the center of the egg once the whites are already starting to set. Beautiful!

Again, even with the standard pan fried egg, you want the pan to be on low heat. That way the egg has time to cook to the right consistency.

variation
How about this Japanese technique for pan fried egg? Take the egg and slowly pour it into a pan on low heat (get out that circle mold again!) then add a couple tablespoons of water in the pan, and put lid on it. This is a technique called steam frying. You'll end up with a much softer egg white with this method.

Hard...soft...semi...Boiled Eggs

Boiled eggs... We all have different tastes here for doneness, but here's a general guideline. Add eggs to a pot of cold water with about an inch or so water to cover. Bring to a boil and then remove from heat.

Leave the eggs in for 10-11 minutes, you'll get a perfect hard boiled egg.

Going down from there you can gauge the consistency of the egg you want. I like mine with a little more give in the yolk, so I usually take mine out around 7 minutes. Just take a bunch of eggs and try this. It's fun. You can get anything from a barely cooked egg all the way to a hard boiled with the yolk uniformly yellow. Just watch a clock or timer, and pull out the eggs after 5 minutes in one to two minute intervals, and then line them up, peel them after rinsing in cold water, and see what you like best.

Here's a tip on getting the yolk centered. Constantly roll the eggs back and forth while they're cooking with a spatula. This'll keep the yolks nice and centered... a must for Deviled eggs! Ok, even I don't bother with that. Get out a small glass (shot glass anyone), and just put it in the pot. Place egg, point side up, and voila! Yolks that are centered.

Of course there's much more in egg land, and I'm sure I will eventually write an entire entry on the omelet alone, but for the time being, hope your egg cooking skills will be better.

Since I actually made all three kinds of eggs simultaneously to write this entry... what did I do with them? Why make an Egg Egg Egg and Cheese Sandwich.

Egg Egg Egg and Cheese Sandwich

Per Sandwich

1 Croissant

1 boiled egg
1 fried egg
2 scrambled eggs (optional drizzle at end with truffle oil)

Cheese -- can be anything you like.
I used grated parmesan, aged white cheddar, and 5 year-old gouda for mine.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Once you have all three kinds of eggs, open up a toasted croissant, add the cheese (melt if desired during toasting), top with the eggs, salt and pepper to taste, and then chomp in. This is a wonderful way of tasting all the different textures and flavors that the eggs have in one dish. It's a bit messy (fried egg runs all over), but it's GOOD!

Happy Cooking and Eating!

A Summer Menu ~ Dualities

2007-08-25T16:21:00.001-07:00

I have to say that I haven't cooked a large production meal in a while. Since Zack-I my roommate was leaving for Burning Man on Sunday, I thought I'd make a nice meal at home for him and his sister, and another foodie friend of ours. I wanted the menu to be interesting, yet be something that very much said "summer." Each of the dishes had one key ingredient used two ways. Here's my menu:

From the Garden:

"Tomayto/Tomahto Caprese Tartlet" of fresh and confit tomato served alogside a Chilled Shot of Heirloom Tomato, Cucumber, and Spice Gazpacho

From the Ocean:

Scallop Carpaccio with cedar smoked white peach and yuzu ponzu. Complimented by Seared Scallop wrapped in guanciale and stuffed with summer black truffles.

From the Farm:

Lamb chop served with summer fig and red wine compote, Lamb Shank braised in red wine and porcinis. Both accompanied by saffron cous-cous.

Something Sweet:

Cremes Brulees -- toasted sesame seed, and dragonfruit

The menu was a success, and everyone seemed to love it. I even got Zack-I who normally doesn't do raw seafood not only to try the scallop carpaccio, he actually even liked it. All in all a great meal for all of us.

Happy Cooking!

Heavenly Dumplings at Din Tai Fung

2007-08-13T18:56:00.000-07:00

Din Tai Fung: 4.5/5

I've been hearing about Din Tai Fung in Arcadia for years now. Yes, this is the US outlet of the world renowned (one of the top 10 restaurants in the world according to the New York Times!) Taiwanese dumpling house. For whatever reason, I just never bothered going. I decided the other day to try running in for lunch. I knew that they're always busy, but I wasn't prepared for the extent of that business for Sunday lunch. Given that I was there to quickly grab a bite with Puppy before dropping him off at High End Virgin Grain Food Emporium, we didn't have the requisite hour and a half (!) wait. I gave up but gained a new-found desire, no, NEED, to eat here. If the wait's that long, I just had to see how worth it it was.

Fast forward a day to Monday. I got us up earlier and drove back out 18 miles to sample some dumplings. I went abso-effin-lutely determined to get in. Whatchya know? Even on a Monday, there was a wait. I got a ticket (number 121) and they were still calling the lower 80s. Oy! But since Puppy had the day off and we didn't have anywhere to be, we sucked it up and waited. Besides, I wasn't about to go and be defeated two days in a row. One thing to note here: Din Tai Fung is all about getting you in and out. While you're in line, you get a fill in menu kind of like a sushi card. You fill in the things you want while you wait, and they bring things as they are ready. Great for speed, not too great if you want certain things in a certain order (like we wanted our soup as an appetizer -- it came last).

Our order was the following:

Juicy Pork Dumplings (Xiaolongbao)
Juicy Pork and Crab Dumplings
Vegetarian Dumplings
Shrimp Fried Rice
Shrimp and Pork Won Ton Soup.
2 X Coke

We sit down, and the waitress quickly checks our order sheet. Withing 2 minutes, the first steamer of dumplings (pork and crab) arrive. I smell... I drool... then I pick one up ever so gingerly so as not to break the dough... dip it into the black vinegar, top with shaved ginger and then put in on a spoon... carefully slowly break the dough with my teeth, and then suck up the soup in the dumpling. I'm getting aroused at this point, it's so good. Then I just plop the rest in my mouth and chew. Wow! That's good. Right there, first dumpling, I already know why there's that line here.

Xiaolongbao. Soup Dumplings. Definitely one of those things that have a place in my heart. When I was a teenager and sick, my grandfather used to sneak me out of the hospital once a week to take me to polish off a platter of these soup filled delights. And these here are the best, hands down, that I've gotten here in the US. Not that there are that many places that actually offer them.

The regular pork ones were actually better in my opinion than the crab ones. It was just more meaty and "clean" if that makes sense. The fried rice was a great serving for two or three to share, and the soup was a light chicken broth filled with eight or so giant shrimp and pork dumplings that were heavenly once you got over burning your tongue on them.

The only miss here was the vegetarian dumplings. It was filled with a combination of things that was at once bland, but also had a mealy texture. It was edible, but I won't be ordering that one again.

All in all this was an amazing experience. Definitely worth the wait... The best part here is how inexpensive it is. After eating all that, the bill came up to less than $40. Really, not that bad considering that every dumpling order is for 10 pieces, and the most expensive one, the crab and pork dumplings come in at $8.50. You've heard rumors about Din Tai Fung... yes, they're all true. Don't think. Just go.

Happy Eating!

Canele in Atwater Village... the verdict is in...

2007-08-01T21:57:00.000-07:00

Canele: 2.5/5 Stars

I love a great neighborhood restaurant. And I definitely love supporting them. Since I live in the Atwater area, I've gone to Canele (Mediterranean Cuisine) four times now over the past several months. While there are great things about it, I still have some reservations on the consistency of the food.

Let's start though, with the good here. I love the space and concept. The idea of a restaurant catering to the community with a (guess what?) communal table and a no reservation policy really does jive with me. I don't want to go to the restaurant down the street and not be able to get a table because some Westside snob decided to throw their name around to facilitate a last minute res for herself and 20 of her closest friends. Ok, I know I'm exaggerating, but, hey... At Canele, everyone's equal. If there isn't a table, you can make one of two choices: a) wait like a normal person, or b) choose to leave and go somewhere else. Pretty simple and democratic. No problem.

In terms of the food, I have to give them credit for doing fish well. Both times I've had fish here (trout once, branzino another time), it's been served whole (head and all) and been lightly but deftfully seasoned and wonderful. Maybe it's the Japanese in me, but I'm definitely not one to be squeamish about fish staring me in the face, and in fact, I am the one who loves to poke at the cheek meat. I almost yelled to the couple sitting next to us at the communal table earlier, "no, give it to me!!!" when they sent back the beautiful branzino to be decapitated to better serve their morals or well, I guess, tastes. I say kudos to the Mediterranean restaurant that actually, gasp, serves fish like they do, gasp, in the Mediterranean.

I also love that despite the small scope of the menu (6-7 appetizers, and 8-10 entrees with daily specials), that the chef here does try some interesting ideas. One of the dishes that I've tried that fits this bill is a dish that was served last winter. It was lamb chops with a grapefruit sauce served with Israeli couscous. I honestly would never have though to pair lamb with grapefruit, but this was a decent dish if only for the novelty factor. I guess my problem was that once you got over the combination, it was boring after the third bite, and the couscous was totally lackluster. I'm imagining that the Israeli couscous was trying to emulate the texture of the individual juice sacs of the grapefruit.

The flan here, voted as LA's best by LA Magazine, does stand up. It's a sinful delicious, oozy blob of YUM. Save space for it. If you don't, just share one with the table. It's really THAT good. Oh yeah, not to make it and afterthought, but the other desserts I've tried, like the cheesecake, are good as well.

The nicest touch, and one that definitely screams "neighborhood restaurant" is the fact that you get a fresh two bite canele on your way out. What's a canele, you ask? It's a baked custard similar in taste to a flan or creme caramel, but much denser and chewier. Can't get the idea? Refer to the picture to your left. Mmmmmm... if their flan wasn't as good as it is, I would skip dessert altogether just 'cause of this.

Ok, onto the things I didn't like. As much as Canele does a great job with fish, I'm not a big fan of the way most other animals are prepared. I ordered the summer iteration of their rack of lamb today (herbed rack of lamb with eggplant and tomato ragout) and got a tepid and rubbery trio of chops instead. The flavors were ok... I mean, how do you screw up some good lamb with a mixed herb pesto, really? But the texture just said that they didn't care. Tepid and chewy (not a good thing here like with the canele) is not medium-rare in my book. We all know that most of the food that we eat in a restaurant is pre-prepped to some degree, but this felt like they just weren't trying with this one.

Pork chop... again, boring. It was definitely well brined, but it seems that whoever was at the oven reheating this chop... (no sear whatsoever here), forgot to reseason it. Bland and boring. Somewhat overcooked (aren't we glad it was brined?) No sauce to boot. Eh...

Look, I live in this neighborhood, and I love to support a good neighborhood restaurant. But if I'm in the mood for good Mediterranean food, give me that, ok? And while I'm willing to overlook quite a bit in terms of perfection, give me what I pay for. See, the big issue here is that for the dishes that aren't great, the price tag really seems high. Higher than usual high. The Cuban place down the street, with its rustic home cooking, I believe is a much better bang for your buck. Sure, you won't get fancy pretty food there, but the prices make you feel that it was worth more that it is.

Bottom line. If you go to Canele, which you should, order a fish dish (and PLEASE don't let me catch you getting it guillotined), and get the flan with a cup of coffee to wash it down with. If you do that, you'll be happy since the fish dishes tend to be less pricey than the pork, lamb, beef, or other land meat. You'll get more, it'll taste better, and you'll want to go back. And do sit at the communal table. Serious dates aside, what's better than eating good food in a neighborhood restaurant than being able to meet your neighbors while doing it? This is Canele at its best. You should go for it.

Happy Eating!

Random Recipe: A Tale of Two Oceans

2007-07-31T18:44:00.000-07:00

I was showing Puppy around the best fish market around this area... a small Japanese owned family joint we'll call Tuna Queen... actually, it's Fish King. The fish is lovingly showcased, and you can get quite a bit of lovely things here. I left the store with two Chesapeake Bay Soft-Shell Crabs, and half a pound of jumbo Pacific Scallops.

Fish King
722 N Glendale Ave
Glendale, CA
91206-2198

Phone: (818) 244-2161

Here's what I did with them:

A Tale of Two Oceans:

Serves 2

Atlantic:

Soft Shell Crabs with Lemon Butter

2 Soft-Shell Crabs, cleaned
Oil for cooking
Salt and Pepper
Juice and Zest of one lemon
2 TblS unsalted Butter (use good higher fat Euro butter)
2 Tbls Chopped Green Onion/Chives/Negi (Japanese onion)

Heat a pan over medium heat for several minutes until oil goes in easily. When oil is at a slight smoke, place soft shells top side down in the pan. Note: If you're doubling the recipe, remember to cook no more than two soft shells per 10-inch pan.
Cook for 2 minutes on the first side, then flip over and add butter and baste with the melted butter (pour over the exposed side with a spoon) another minute or two until just firm. Plate and then add in the lemon juice and zest. Swirl and pour over the crabs and top with chopped green onions.

Pacific:

Seared Jumbo Scallops with White Wine Chantrelle Sauce

1/2 Pound jumbo Sea Scallops

Sauce:

1/2 Cup White Wine
1/2 Cup Chicken Stock
3 Oz. Chantrelle Mushrooms, sliced in half
2 TblS Shiso Butter (see the recipe for the steak with French-Japanese sauce duo)
salt and pepper
starch and water as needed

Make the sauce: Reduce the Chicken Stock in a sauce pot to a 1/4. Saute the chantrelles in butter in a skillet until browned and tender, about 8-10 minutes. Add the reduced stock to the chantrelles and then monte with the shiso butter. Salt and pepper to taste. If needed thicken with the starch and water.

Cook the scallops:

Heat a pan on medium heat until hot. Salt and pepper the scallops and then cook 2-3 minutes on each side, until nicely seared and done.

Plate with the sauce.

I served this dish with whipped Yukon Gold Potatoes.

Happy Cooking!

Random Recipe: Rib-eye Steak with French-Japanese Sauce Duo

2007-07-28T20:30:00.001-07:00

I was craving steak for some reason today. I tend not to eat too much beef on a regular basis. Not that I have anything against it, but I tend to eat more chicken and pork than beef. But I did get my steak craving today. I decided while I was at it the I should make something interesting and different. Mmmm this one's good!

Rib-eye Steak with French-Japanese Sauce Duo and Mushrooms

Serves 2:

1 lb. Rib-eye steak, 1.5-2 inches thick, cut into half to make 2 steaks

1.5 cups assorted sliced mushrooms
3 cloves garlic
2 TBls Unsalted Butter
Olive Oil

Soy Demi:

1/4 cup Soy sauce
1/4 cup Sake
1 ts veal Demi-glace
1/2 ts sugar

Shiso pepper butter:

1/2 stick unsalted Butter
2-3 Shiso leaves, chiffonade
Coarse ground pepper

Saute Mushrooms:

Slice the mushrooms into thin slices while heating a pan over medium heat. Add olive oil and butter with half the garlic, when the butter is melted, add half the mushrooms in a single layer and let sear for 2 minutes. Turn over and cook until all the mushrooms are nicely browned and slightly crispy. Repeat with the remaining mushrooms and set aside. This step can be done up to two hours before Service.

Make Shiso Pepper Butter:

Combine softened butter with the shiso and pepper. Set aside.

Make Sauce:
Combine the ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Reduce slightly. Set aside.

Cook steak:

Remove steak from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before cooking, and bring up to room temperature.

Heat a pan over medium heat until oil slides into the pan easily. Add in the steak and sear 3 minutes on the first side. Salt and pepper the steak. Flip and sear another 3 minutes. Then sear the sides 1-2 minutes each until nicely browned all over. Return the steak to the pan on the first side and then Cook 1 minute. Add in a pat of butter into the pan. Baste the exposed side with the hot butter for 1-2 minutes. The steak should be a nice medium-rare. Remove and put on a cooling rack, cover lightly with foil and let rest 5-10 minutes.

Reheat the sauce and mushrooms, then make whatever sides you need here -- I sauteed some pre-blanched shungiku (chrysanthemum greens), and had rice cooking in the rice cooker.

Place rice or starch on the plate, arrange the veg on the plate, and then top the starch with the steak, add the soy demi sauce, top with the shiso butter, then top the steak with the mushrooms.

Mmmm... yum!

Happy Cooking!

Macrobiotic Eating at M. Cafe de Chaya

2007-07-25T18:09:00.001-07:00

My model sister (hello, size -2) and her mate, Brazilian Tatoo Guy asked me out to lunch today. Given that I'm in Atwater Village, and they're in Westwood/Sawtelle, we decided to meet up somewhere in the middle at M. Cafe de Chaya at La Brea and Melrose. Of course, they're the healthy people, so they chose the place, since I didn't know any veggie/vegan/macro/raw/etc. kind of place in my area (ok, so I do, but I didn't want to go). Given that I've heard some amazing things about the food at both Chaya Brasserie and Chaya Venice, I thought this might be interesting. Since puppy-white-boy had the day off from his butchering job, I took him along. I do admit though, I did tell him to take a look at the menu on the website before we went just to make sure that he could find something that was appetizing sounding -- while puppy-white boy is making huge strides on his palate (he'll try just about anything without complaint), he's just not used to the whole vegie-macro-designer-sprout-model diet, so I thought I'd make sure he was ok with it all.

Basically, the mantra at M. Cafe is:
M Café de Chaya introduces Contemporary Macrobiotic Cuisine — featuring balanced, nutritious, creative cooking which can be enjoyed daily by everyone, not just vegetarians or people with dietary restrictions. Building on the foundation of Michio Kushi, our chefs prepare each item fresh daily, using only the finest ingredients without any refined sugars, eggs, dairy, red meat or poultry.

Not exactly Motor City food fare like Puppy's used to.

We get there, and yes, it's a cafe... Order at a counter (most of the food is pre-prepped and wrapped for easy egress), and if you can, sit down and eat once they plate the food for you. I got a Falafel and Hummus wrap with a side of Sesame Soba noodles, and puppy-white-boy got the panini provencale with a side of Chickpeas with Red Rice (I ordered that when I was told that the sandwich came with a side), we both had a couple OJ's, and I had an extra side of Spicy Tuna Rolls. With tip, it's a whopping $40. This food might be designery and healthy, but it sure ain't cheap!!! Damn!

Food comes... it's ok. I mean, the ingredients are all great and it tasted fine. That being said, I don't know if it was the sticker shock, but I really didn't much think that the flavors were great. Like they were trying so hard to make something macrobiotic and good for you that they forgot that the food itself had to more tasty at the prices they're commanding. Don't get me wrong, I love falafel and hummus -- you'll even see a hummus recipe of my own in the archives -- but for close to $12 with a side, I've had much better variants for much less. Maybe it's because the falafel was cold? Who knows? There was just something missing.

The soba side that I had was fine. Bland, but fine. The same sesame oil tossed cold soba salad you can get anywhere at a chi-chi deli.

The Panini Provencale was ok. It's a panini of "seasonal grilled vegetables, arugula, balsamic vinaigrette, pesto aioli and creamy tofu cheese on our house baked focaccia, grilled hot & crisp to order." Asked to describe it, Puppy thinks for a long while, says, "Ok... it was flavorful, but just not satisfying." Aha! See I was right! He added, "the chickpea salad was much better."

I think my sister got it right. She ordered the Bi-Bim Bop Rice Bowl. A bowl of brown rice topped with pan fried tofu, veggies, sprouts, shiitakes, etc, and served with a Kotchu-Jyan-ish sweet and spicy miso sauce. I had a bite and I think if I were to go back, I would try this for myself instead.

If you're into the whole vegamacro thing, I guess this is good. Since I don't though, the fact that it's healthy doesn't give it the right to not satisfy me (I don't eat to get full, I eat to enjoy), especially when it costs as much as it does. Give me less healthy full flavored food any day of the week. I'd rather enjoy mo good food in moderation than live on this kind of food only. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that one eat a cheeseburger for every meal, but don't get on my case if I choose to every now and then.

All in all... why does healthy food have to be so bleh? I went vegan for a week while my daughter was here (she's vegan), and I was able to come up with some pretty good stuff. Don't just call a place "macrobiotic" and set up a pretty space in a nice neighborhood and expect me to love it. Make real good food that also healthy? Great!!!

Yeah sure, I'll try this place again... if I'm stuck with a bunch of vegamacros and I don't know where else to go. Otherwise... give me my full flavored good food. And... I'll take the falafel from the Israeli take out down the street next time.

M. Cafe de Chaya
7119 Melrose Ave. (@ Detroit)
Los Angeles, CA 90046
323-525-0588

Happy Eating!

Yakitori... redux

2007-07-25T10:12:00.001-07:00

Yakitori the other night was so good, I had to make it at home. My friend Rice-eating-lanscaper-guy complained several times that he was bored, so I invited him over for a little "dinner party" after dropping puppy-white-boy off at Metro to get to Virgin Grain High End Food Emporium.

Side note: I live in the Atwater Village/Silverlake area and have found that Super King (real name) supermarket on San Fernando just past the 2 Freeway is an excellent market. Got lots of ethnic things, a huge deli counter, and a butcher that has a lot of fresh things. To top that off, it's CHEAP!!!

Armed with a 5-lb whole chicken ($4.58) I get home and start dismembering it for parts. Breast... Breast... Skin... Thigh... Thigh (not THAI like the girl spelled it at Kokekokko on the sold out board).. Drum Stick... Drum Stick... Wing... Wing... Carcass. Whew! That was some work. Next time, just get pre-dismembered chicken and proceed directly to skewering.

Basically, the means here are simple. Cut up chicken into small parts and thread onto skewers.

I ended up this time making the following out of my whole dismembered chicken.

2 x Skin
4 X Breast
2 X Breast Tenders
4 X Thigh
2 X Negima (thigh and Japanese onion)
2 X Wings
2 X Thin Sliced Breast wrapped around Okra (stole that one from Kokekokko)
5 X Tsukune (chicken meat balls: Take 2 knives and chop the hell out of a chicken breast until it's "ground" Mix in one egg, 1/2 cup bread crumbs, salt, pepper, dried yuzu peel, 5-6 shiso leaves julienned and chopped, and mix with hands until it comes together -- put on skewer)

Not too bad for a single chicken. I didn't bother with the drum sticks today, so those went in the fridge for me to use for dinner another day.

The rest is simple... cook the skewers over charcoal until done. Better yet, put charcoal into a table-top grill (Konro -- look at pics, or MacGyver one out of a small terracotta pot and some wire mesh or a metal cooling rack or something) so you don't have to get your lazy ass up and you can be a host. Do them a few (of the same) at a time and enjoy a beer with friends. Place just a teensy bit of a condiment or two (my list below) just before serving and keep your guest(s) dazzled with your ability to put flavors together. Continue for several hours until all the chicken runs out.

Where's the recipe for my sauce, you ask? I took a page from the grill master at Kokekokko, and did a purely salt based menu. All you have to have is some good sea salt ready to pinch or grind over the chicken while it's cooking. The rest is in the condiments. I had:

Lemon
Pepper
Sansho Pepper
Shichimi Pepper
Yuzu Peel Powder
Grated Garlic
Grated Ginger
Wasabi
Yuzu Kosho
Butter

Most of these go on alone.

Lemon with sansho is one of my favorites. The acid blends well with the numbing flowery-ness of the sansho. The wings got a Lemon-shichimi combo which works well too.

Although not very "Japanese," a combo that really worked was Grated garlic, pepper (I used a 5-pepper blend here, but regular black would work fine), and butter. Sinful I tell ya, sinful!

The art of yakitori -- Little Tokyo

2007-07-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

Server: Have you been here before?
Guest: No
Server: Do you know that we don't make sushi here?
Guest: Yes
Server: You know there is minimum order of 5 skewers per customer?
Guest: Yes
Server: Counter or table?
Guest: Counter
Server: Please wait for a minute.

This is the exchange that happens upon entering into Kokekokko, a small Yakitori restaurant on Central Ave. Yakitori is Japanese for "grilled chicken." Every part of the chicken is skewered and grilled to perfection over charcoal, and you eat sort of tapas-style, where a skewer or two show up every 10-15 minutes, and you wash it all down with a nice frosty beer.

Kokekokko is a very authentic experience if you remove the above exchange first -- if you're in Japan and enter a Yakitori joint, you know that they don't do sushi. The grill master here is a middle-aged Japanese guy (well, the whole staff is Japanese) who almost seems like he could have spent some time in the Yakuza once you hear him yelling at the staff... Definite Grill-Nazi potential here. But then again, once you're eating, he'll come over and ask how you like things done, if you're enjoying yourself, and will adjust seasonings and condiments based on whether he thinks you're worthy, or not. But I get ahead of myself.

I think a funny thing here is that I'm in this Japanese restaurant, speaking Japanese, and the entire staff take about 20 minutes to realize that I do the lingo. Granted, I had puppy white-boy next to me that needed some explanation ("No fork for you!"), I was amused that these people had such a hard time looking at me and hearing native Japanese coming out of my mouth. You'd think that in LA of all places, they'd be used to a not-so-Japanese looking guy speaking Japanese. The Oyaji (grill master) finally got it and asked "Sansei?" (third genereration Japanese immigrant), and I explained that I'm first generation (i.e. born and raised in Japan) but half. The service got MUCH better at this point.

The first skewer up was breast. It's actually the breast tender that in Japanese is called "sasami." Once the above exchange was completed and Oyaji understood that I was native, he tells me, "I'm doing this more Japanese style, medium-rare." Yes, I said that. Yes, chicken, yes, medium-rare. Actually it came out more raw than not. I trust a place like this, and if I actually were in Japan, I could have gotten the chicken completely raw. He tells expediter-boy to season our "breast" with wasabi and ginger. The first two bites with that sinus clearing blast of wasabi, the second two with the warmth of ginger. At this point, I'm in heaven. Expediter-boy still things I only speak English though...

The whole meal was really masterful, each piece perfectly seasoned and served with the perfect condiments. We had chicken balls (soft and salty and sinful), gizzard (crunchy and no offal taste whatsoever), quail eggs (yum), and a couple other pieces.

Finally, it gets through to expediter-boy that I'm Japanese, so he leans over the counter and asks me if there are any "specials" I'd like to have. I ask what's available, and go for neck meat (yippy-ki-yay! that was good), and cartilage (mmmmm, meaty... crunchy...).

All in all wonderful experience. I felt like I went back to Japan for a little while and I was so happy. I was also happy that puppy-white-boy that I went with didn't pull what some others around me have in the past... he not only let me enjoy the wonderful food, he tried everything end enjoyed it too.

Go, it's worth it!

Kokekokko
203 S. Central Ave., Little Tokyo
(213) 687-0690

Happy Eating!

Rillettes, anyone?

2007-07-23T18:33:00.000-07:00

Rillettes
[ree-YEHT, rih-LEHTS]
Meat, usually pork but also rabbit, goose, poultry, fish, etc., that is slowly cooked in seasoned fat and then pounded or pulverized (along with some of the fat) into a paste. This mixture is then packed in small pots, RAMEKINS or other containers and covered with a thin layer of fat. Rillettes can be stored for several weeks in the refrigerator providing the fatty seal is not broken. This mixture, resembling a smooth PÂTÉ, is served cold, usually as an appetizer spread on toast or bread.

~ © Copyright Barron's Educational Services, Inc. 1995 based on THE FOOD LOVER'S COMPANION, 2nd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst.

Rillettes, lovely and homey, and always reminiscent of a picnic in the French countryside. Although I live in a neighborhood (Silverlake) of a city (Los Angeles) where there are plenty of gourmet purveyors out there that carry rillettes (let's see, Say Cheese, Silverlake Cheese, The Gourmet Market at the Alcove Cafe, among others), I decided that as a self-proclaimed foodie, I had to make them myself. Come on, it's not like I don't have half a dozen cookbooks that have them listed in them.

Well, my take was to look at a couple (Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook, and Brian Polcyn and Michel Ruhlman's Charcuterie) and to compose one for myself.

Right off the bat, I hit a snag... the recipes call for pork belly. Puppy-white-boy , my long-term house guest just got a job as a butcher at Virgin Grain High-End Food Emporium so I thought I'd drop him off for work and pick up a couple pounds.
Apparently, gourmet market or not, it's not likely I'm getting pork belly here. Fine, if that's not going to work, I'll Plan-B it.

Off to Glorious Filipino Mart that popped up in the basement of Eagle Rock Shopping Center a little while back. I know I can get it there, and for cheap at that. Sure enough, I walk in, and there's the pork belly staring right up at me. And at $1 per pound, I'm not about to complain. I pick up a pork shoulder roast for good measure, and off we go.

Rillettes:

Makes quite a bit, so have a lot of ramekins or containers to put them in!

2 lb Pork Belly
1 lb Pork Shoulder
4 Cups Water

Herbs (I made my bouquet garni out of thyme, oregano, sage, and bay leaf along with a handful of peppercorns)

Salt and Pepper to taste
1 TblS Veal Demi-Glace
Pork Fat, cut thin

Cube up the pork. Line the bottom of your slowcooker/Dutch oven with the pork. Cover with water. Add the herbs.

Cook on low for 6 hours.

Remove pork from the slow cooker and place in a large bowl. Carefully shred the meat with forks until no chunks remain. Salt and Pepper to taste. Add in demi-glace and some of the cooking liquid and mix until it holds together.

Separate out pork into ramekins, top with fat, cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for 3 days.

If you've made a lot, you can freeze the extras. According to most all sources, rillettes will keep for about a month in the fridge as long as the fat covering is intact.

When you're ready, just bring the rillettes up to room temperature, and smear it on some bread and munch on. Add some cornichons and we're definitely in business!

As Anthony Bourdain put it in his cookbook:

Jesus, this dish is easy. Don't tell your friends. Let them think you're a genius, a master charcutier, while they're busy cooing and gaping.

Happy Cooking!

Craving Udon

2007-07-23T15:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, food craving time again. This time it's udon. Although I tend to keep dried udon noodles as a pantry item in my house (it's not like it goes bad), I thought of trying something different and actually making my own noodles. I mean, how hard can combining FLOUR, SALT, and WATER be?

Well, this isn't difficult, but it is somewhat time-consuming. It's worth it though, since the end product has much more body than a dried out commercial one does.

Udon Noodles:

Serves 8-10

1 KG AP flour
450 g water
50 g salt

potato or corn starch for kneading

Equipment:

Large bowl
scale
plastic bag
large knife

Mix salt into water and stir until completely dissolved.

In a bowl combine water with flour. Mix thoroughly with hands and place the mixture in a sturdy plastic bag. remove as much air as possible from the bag and seal.

Step on the dough slowly using both feet (and entire body weight) in a circular manner (go around the dough clockwise or counter-clockwise slowly) until you have a disc that is about 1/8 inch thick.

Remove the dough from the bag, and fold as many times as possible, return to the bad and repeat the stepping process.

Collect the dough into a ball, and leave in the plastic bag to rest (1 hour in summer, 2-3 in winter)

Throw starch on a board and roll the dough with a rolling pin into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick (adjust the thickness to taste). Throw starch on the dough and then fold the dough loosely twice lengthwise to a third and then cut thin and EVEN slices.

With hands that are starched, separate the individual noodles before cooking to prevent sticking. At this point, noodles can be saved for later use.

To cook:

Bring a large pot of water to boil, and boil the udon for 10-13 minutes depending on the thickness of the noodles. Rinse the noodles under cold water to remove the starch from the surface and then drain well.

Serve in a hot tsuyu-broth, cold with sesame sauce, or however you like it.

Happy Cooking!

Tomato-Garlic pasta from Capricciosa Tokyo

2007-07-11T12:12:00.000-07:00

I woke up the other day with a hella craving for a dish that I last had probably 14 years ago. It was one of those things that friends and I would go eat when we were in high school and had no money. There was this great Italian chain in Tokyo called Capricciosa that served all their pasta dishes family style in giant portions. If I recall, their signature spaghetti with tomato-garlic sauce went for about 1700 yen ($16-ish) at the time and easily fed four hungry teenage boys, or two REALLY hungry boys. Add a cheese filled rice croquette with meat sauce and you're all set. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

The dish, while by no means high brow or fancy, is just one of those guilty pleasures that's tangy, garlicky, spicy, and oh so yummy. It's actually seasoned well enough that you really don't need meat in it to make it good, although you most certainly could add some in there if you prefer a richer taste.

So, off to cyber-land to see if I could recreate the dish. After about 20 minutes of looking around, I found a couple Japanese blogs/postings that had different opinions on how it's made. Given that this is a "corporate recipe" of sorts, I did find out from a site where former employees of restaurants give out "forbidden recipes" that there were some interesting things that go into it. I'll go through the method -- it's easy and fun, and easily adaptable. Try it and see if you like it.

Capricciosa-style Tomato-Garlic Spaghetti

Yield: 4 Servings

8-10 Cloves of Garlic, thinly sliced
1 Medium Onion, diced
2 dried Japanese Chiles, sliced, OR 1 TBLS Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (adjust up or down depending on heat level desired)
1 ts Dried Oregano
3/4 TBLS Chicken Base or 2 Chicken Bouillon Cubes
1 ts MSG (this is a corporate chain recipe, what did you expect... omit if you're squeamish about this)
1 24-OZ Can Whole Peeled Whole Tomatoes
2 cups + extra Grated Parmesan Cheese
1/2 Cup Powdered Cofee Creamer (really)
3 TBLS Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Slice Garlic into thin slices and place into a cold pan over medium/medium-low heat along with Chiles/red pepper and oil. Carefully toast the slices until crunchy and golden brown, about 5-7 minutes. DO NOT BURN THEM. Remove and reserve on paper towels.

Saute onions in the same pan until translucent, then add the entire can of tomatoes with juices into the pan. Bring to a boil and add back in the garlic. Turn down the heat to low, add in the chicken base and MSG, then simmer for 20 minutes, making sure to not let the sauce burn. Once the tomatoes are cooked through, smash them into chunks with a mixing spoon, and then add the grated cheese and coffee creamer to the pot. Mix, cover and simmer for another 5-10 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down a bit further, and the cheese and creamer have melded with the sauce.

Serve on top of freshly boiled spaghetti (slightly thick spaghetti works really well here), top with more grated cheese and enjoy.

Happy cooking!

New Style Sashimi... my adaptation of a Nobu classic

2007-07-11T11:28:00.000-07:00

So, I posted about my experience eating at Nobu, NYC. Like I said, some of the dishes were stellar. Since I couldn't find any of Daniel Boulud's books at the local B&N, I ended up bying Nobu, the Cookbook to see about trying different things.

I tried the Toro Tartare... good, but the sauce wasn't balanced without the caviar (I don't just have caviar lying around the house... duck fat maybe, but not caviar). The wasabi-pepper-soy sauce was a tad on the sweet and oily (read: butter) for the toro IMO.

The new style sashimi, on the other hand was rocking. For those of you unfamiliar with Nobu's cooking, new style sashimi is a dish where the sashimi is dressed with soy and citrus juice on a plate, then hot oil is poured over it effectively searing it. I first tried it with hamachi, which worked great. I love having a Japanese market within 3 miles of my house which sells things like hamachi and toro on a regular basis.

What I tried last night, however, was REAL good, and different. I got some fresh BISON tri-tip and used that for the new style sashimi. It was melt in my mouth and amazing. I blowtorched the outside of the bison meat block (cut into "saku" shape to be able to cut sashimi like slices out of it) to seal in the outside and to give it a slightly "charred" taste. Basically, at this point, if I sliced and served the meat, it would be a "Tataki" in Japan, a technique often used for Wagyu beef, and Bonito.

I went the extra step here, and put the seared bison saku in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill and firm up. Cut usuzukuri slices out of it (note to self: practice more Japanese knife skills -- I'm just not good enough it seems), season, and serve.

Here's my recipe.

New Style Sashimi of Bison

Yield: 2 servings

1/2 pound of Bison sirloin or filet

1 TBLS soy sauce
1 TBLS yuzu* juice

2 Cloves garlic, grated finely
1 TBLS toasted white Sesame seeds
Ginger, cut into hair-like threads
Chives, cut to 3/4 inch length

2 TBLS Fruity Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 ts Toasted Sesame Oil

* Yuzu can be substituted with lemon, although the fragrance won't be the same. If you can't get the fruit or the juice, you can also omit the soy here and use a commercial Yuzu Ponzu, available in your neighborhood Japanese/Asian market, or get dried Yuzu peel and sprinkle it over the dish with the lemon juice.

Sear Bison meat with a blow torch, or over an open flame just to slightly char the outside. Wrap in plastic and place in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Cut Bison into paper thin slices and arrange on serving plates. Top each slice with a dot of garlic paste, a few slices of ginger, a couple chives, sprinkle the sesame seeds all over. Just before service, pour the soy-citrus mixture over the plate to season it.

Heat the combined oils in a small pan until smoking, then quickly and carefully pour over the sliced meat. It should sizzle and smell mighty good.

Serve immediately.

Happy Cooking!

Speechless

2007-07-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

As much as I'm often critical about food, I just had an experience where I was left speechless. Both my dining companion Jose (also notorious foodie and cook) and I had nothing to say and could only make strangely orgasmic noises. As Jose put it, "I finally understand the reason why the old woman said 'I'll have what she's having' in the diner scene in When Harry Met Sally.

The restaurant in question? Daniel in New York. Yes, Daniel that occupies the old Le Cirque space on E. 60th Street, and where the chef, Daniel Boulud, has proven to me that he is a God... And yes, he was in residence that night in the kitchen.

All I can say is, go. You won't be disappointed. It was the best meal of my life. Truly. This foodie now has another bar to compare everything else to.

And for once, the food was so good the inside of my brain just went fuzzy with static. Every scent, texture, flavor... overwhelming and just brilliant.

Daniel
60 E. 65th St.
New York, NY
Tel: 212.288.0033

Lunch at Central Michel Richard

2007-06-26T16:44:00.000-07:00

DC had to redeem itself. My previous venture into a food adventure (read previous posting) just sucked, and I desperately needed to eat good food lovingly prepared (no offense Jose, I love McCormick & Schmick's, but eating 6 meals in a row there at the bar while you work does get old after a while). I've heard quite a bit about Chef Michel Richard, and thought I'd give his new ode to an American style bistro a go, since at this late juncture, I wasn't about to get a same-day reservation at his flagship restaurant Citronelle, in Georgetown.

I called up the restaurant and asked if reservations were required for lunch, and was told that they were highly recommended and that although they do allow walk-ins, that there's a chance we wouldn't get seated. When I asked the host-zilla what time during the lunch hour would be the best to try, she told me in not so many words to go do unspeakable things to myself. Well, no, she actually said, "well, it depends, sir, if you really want to eat here, please make a reservation." click

Hrm... I guess if the rumors of the chef being a class A A-hole were to be believed, i shouldn't be surprised that he has a host-zilla answering the phone. Nevermind. Opentable.com... oh, 1:30, that works. Click, click There, biyotch, I have a res, AND I get points towards a future discount at a restaurant of my choice. Take that!

I decided to take a female dining companion with me since Jose decided that work was more important (ok, that's not fair, I guess) whom I was told could "put it down." Alrighty, bring it on!

First impression after announcing myself to nondescript queeny host(ess)... Ok, nice space, airy, glass, light wood. Nice. Bar area looks too simple and haphazard, but ok.

Host(ess) comes to get us in a couple minutes and we're off to our table. Bread comes. Yum... crusty French rustic bread with softened butter. We look through the rather truncated lunch menu (damn, I can't have the Gougeres, or the 72-hour beef rib?) and decide on a couple appetizers to share, and on some entrees.

Asian Style Ahi Carpaccio: Lovely to look at. A plate of perfectly round paper-thin slices of raw ahi just lightly salted and topped with a dice of red onion and chives. Great taste. The fish was screamingly fresh, and the texture was heavenly. It wasn't over seasoned, and there was just the right amount of oil to lubricate the palate but not detract from the star which was the ahi. I thought the yellow slices on top were preserved lemon rind, but upon closer inspection, it was a julienne of Takuan, a Japanese daikon radish pickle that's slightly sweet. Ah... Asian, right? All in all, flawless. No complaints here.

Duck Rilletes and Faux-gras Terrine: The rilletes were to die for. Meaty, chunky, a little fatty. Definitely the stuff to make a French man cry. Paired with the Shiraz (yay, a Big Serving!!!) it was just breathtaking. The Faux-Gras was sinfully flavorful, and had the texture of whipped butter. Ok, maybe this place does deserve to have Cerberus guarding the gate.

I got the Crab Cake, and my companion opted for the Lamb Shank. Both were stellar. The crab cake was served over leeks that had the maionnaise worked in (fresh, not Kraft, of course), and was just chunks of crab meat barely bound and pan seared. The crunch came from etherial fried ribbons of carrot and beet. Mmmmm yum. Good crab cake.

The shank was definitely sous-vide cooked. It fell apart and was spoon tender but the meat was completely red, looking almost rare. Again, served with creamy cheesy polenta and fried onions with some rosemary-herb brown sauce... it was wonderful.

Entrees completed, my companion actually went back to finish the bit of appetizers that were left... and then ordered dessert. Ok, can I have that metabolism, please!

She got the signature dessert called the Kit Kat Bar. It comes out looking like a giant Kit Kat. It's a cocoa-dusted ganache served over a praline crust that once you eat, truly tastes like it's a Kit Kat bar, if one were served elevated into the stratosphere.

Damn, that was some good eating. If you can, go.

It's pricey, but not overly so. We ended up getting a bill for two glasses of wine, an app each, an entree each, dessert, and coffee for $120.

And I felt so bad for Jose having to work, that I brought him a quarter of the crab cake just so he could get a taste.

Central Michel Richard
1001 Pennsylvania Ave, NW Washington, DC
Tel:202.626.0015
www.centralmichelrichard.com

Happy Eating!

Disappointement at Les Halles DC

2007-06-26T16:19:00.000-07:00

As you all can tell, I'm a foodie. I love to eat and cook and think and live food. As that kind of person, I LOVE Anthony Bourdain. I've read all his books, have the Les Halles Cookbook, and watch his shows on tee-vee whenever I can catch them. So, I was delighted to actually be in a city and have the time to venture into a Les Halles location.

Although I doubt that I set my expectations too high, what I ended up getting was one of the sigularly most disappointing dining experiences of my life.

I walked down to the restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue from my friend's place on Thomas Circle, thinking I'd eat a couple courses as an early dinner. Since it was 5:30 PM, there was almost no one in the restaurant, which was fine by me. The server comes over, greets me (Bonjour!), and I order a glass of Medoc to start. (Un verre de medoc, s'il vous plait!) The glass comes, and I'm already apprehensive that I'm paying 12 bucks for what looks to be a tasting serving (literally three sips, max).

I look through the menu (like I didn't know it pretty much by heart by now), and decide to get the Mini Tartare de Boeuf, prepared tableside. Hey, I love my theatrics, leave me alone.

Another waitress comes over (Bonjour!) and asks me how I'd like the tartare prepared. I responded by telling her to make it a tad on the spicy side, but other than that, to make it the way she thought was the best. It took her about 7 minutes of mixing egg with various condiments (pepper, tabasco, worcestershire, etc) with the fresh beef before she scooped the tartare and arranged it oh so prettily on a plate with some toast points and a mesclun salad.

I take a bite anticipating a little corner of heaven... Ok, not bad. Competent, but definitely not nearly in the same league as the Kobe Tartare that I had at craftSteak in Vegas several months ago. Still, nice. Then I made the mistake of taking a bite of the salad... Ok, did the garde-manger fall asleep or what? The thing must have been salted at least three times. It was so salty that it burned my mouth. I gagged on it, and then lost the use of my palate for the next 10 minutes. So much for enjoying steak tartare. I'm a little pissed at this point, but I finish the tartare and leave the rest of the salad on the plate as a mini-protest for ruining my mini-tartare.

So, fine, I feel jipped on the wine, and can't taste anything yet. Let's refresh the palate by guzzling water, wine, then eating a piece of (stale) baguette. Ok, better.

I ended up getting the Mignons de Porc, since it is one of their signature dishes, and since I've actually made it from the cookbook. I wanted to see how mine stacked up to the original. Pork comes... it's tepid? Ok waitron. You've got three tables in an empty restaurant and I get cold-ish food? Well, whatever, I'll eat it anyway. Like I said, I've made this recipe... it starts out by making garlic confit (fancy way of saying slow roasted garlic) and then rubbing two pork tenderloins with it and leaving it overnight. Instead of confit, I got burnt. Basically, the pork and the sauce just tasted burnt. The sauce itself was fine (basic brown jus-glace-whatever type thing)but I couldn't get over the burnt garlic flavor. My rendition of the recipe was sublime by comparison. I gagged on the meat, ate a couple bites of the very boring mash (gluey!), and paid the bill.

All in all, the worst $50 I've ever spent on a bill short of being gouged for bad buurgers and fries at the Mouse Trap (sorry, don't want to get sued by a certain animation and entertainment company).

Les Halles DC... maybe it's time to close your doors, since ya ain't giving a sh*t about what you're serving. I got a drop of wine, a salt lick, and piece of charcoal for 50 bucks. I will never go back. Ok, I'll try the Park Avenue location, maybe.

Les Halles, DC
1201 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC
Tel: 202.347.6848
www.leshalles.net/washington.php

Happy Eating!

Nobu NYC

2007-06-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

I'm in New York. A former business associate and friend of mine decided that he wanted to get together for dinner and suggested that we go eat Japanese. Originally, he had intended for us to go to Masa (hey, big spender), the new location of Masa Takayama, formerly of Ginza Sushi-ko in Beverly Hills. Since he got confused with my travel dates, he had to give up the reservation that he had there. Damn.

As a second best choice, we ended up at Nobu in TriBeCa. Now, any foodie worth anything has heard of Nobu Matsuhisa, the pioneer of nouvelle Japanese cuisine, who marries Peruvian accents into an otherwise truly Japanese meal. I walked in with my buddy with the orders to "do damage" and that "money wasn't an issue." A guy very much after my own heart when it comes to food!

We ordered cocktails (Citron rocks, lemon, for me), and the slaughter starts. We ordered three appetizers to start with and told the waitress to leave the menu since we had every intention of continuing to order as much as we could gorge ourselves on. Remember, money wasn't an issue?

First up, Kumamoto Oysters with two sauces. One is a ponzu type soy citrus number, while the other is a Maui onion salsa. The oysters are screaming fresh and go down so easy, it's almost sinful. Of the two sauces, I actually prefered the Maui onion salsa -- you could get the taste of the oyster better.

Next, Monkfish Liver Pate with Caviar. Talk about sinful. It's rich, sweet, and just melts in your mouth like... foie gras... wait, it might be better than foie gras. I must say, as much it was nice to see the caviar topping, it was completely unnecessary. My friend and I actually decided that the dish tasted better without the caviar. We actually wasted the caviar. I felt kinda guilty. But money wasn't an issue, right?

Third up, Toro Tartar. Unctuous, melty... great... wonderful fish, but nothing you couldn't get at any other high-caliber restaurant.

Well, we're off to a good start.

In the course of the next several hours (4 and a half to be exact), we ordered several of the cold dishes, a few of the hot entrees, and finished off with a variety of sushi.

There were amazing high notes such as the monkfish liver pate, and the New Style Sashimi of Copper River Sockeye Salmon, to which my friend said, "I think I may have wet myself a little bit," and the O-Toro Sushi that were truly transcendent. However, there were some other dishes that while not bad, just felt like "eh?"

Examples of these... The Lobster Salad. For one, I hate to admit, the only reason that either of us continued eating it after the first couple bites was the fact that we didn't feel comfortable wasting the lobster. There was just too much on the plate. And given that it was badly dressed (i.e. flavorless)and unbalanced (too much oil and hot spice without any acid)the dominant flavor was of the char-grilled shiitake mushrooms.

Another dish that was shiitake dominant was the Squid Pasta. Side note: ok, does Nobu use any other mushroom? I mean, there are plenty of great Japanese mushrooms like enoki, shimeji, ehringii, matsutake, nameko... the list goes on. Back to the squid, it was well cooked, just that the sauce was really dominating, and you really couldn't taste the squid in it.

The Hamachi Cheeks were really cooked the wrong way in my opinion. The whole head of the fish is served in this presentation, and while it was well flavored and well cooked in terms of doneness, it was cooked in the wrong medium. I could immediately tell that it was broiled over a gas flame. For something like this where the texture is important, you can't do that. Gas flame create water vapor as a byproduct which in essence steams the meat, giving it a mushy texture. Ask any Japanese connoisseur of Unagi, and they will tell you that they won't eat it somewhere that doesn't deal with charcoal. For a restaurant of the caliber of Nobu, this lack of attention to detail was disappointing, to say the least.

All in all though, it was a great meal. I just wish that it was consistently awe-inspiring like the few great dishes I mentioned above. Would I go back? Definitely, since I now know what not to order. Would I recommend it? Absolutely.

So wanna know how much we ended up spending? :D Let's just say it was really expensive.

Nobu NYC

105 Hudson St.
New York, NY
Tel: 212.219.0500
http://www.noburestaurants.com/newyork/index.html

Happy Eating!

That's a good burger!

2007-05-16T10:47:00.000-07:00

I thought about the amount of money I spent for lunch at Tep(id) Thai the other day, and here's a case where I spent a bit more, but was MUCH more satisfied. A nice atmosphere, good food, and stellar service. That's what dining should be about.

Houston's. Yes, that chain restaurant. Well, upscale chain restaurant. I've been in a couple locations on both coasts, and I usually end up ordering the same thing here. The Hickory Burger. I admit that at $14 it's a bit on the pricey end for a mere burger (that's not Wagyu Beef, at least), but here's where the money is totally worth it. Freshly ground chuck, cooked to order, and served with lettuce, onions, a mound of grated cheddar cheese (tastes like Tillamook to me), and several slices of Canadian bacon on an eggy and fluffy bun and served with ethereally fried shoestring fries. Don't let me forget the hickory BBQ sauce... made on premises and to die for. Really.

As much as I like burgers in general, this is definitely one place where it's ok in my book to spend that kind of money. By all means, if you can't finish it in one sitting, take it home and reheat it. You'll be glad you did. In my book, this is so far the best upscale burger there is.

Granted, I haven't tried the $32 burger that Daniel Boulud serves at Bistro db... yes, I would have to try a burger that's stuffed with braised ribs and topped with foie gras and black trumpets. I'm going to NYC soon, so I'll let everyone know if I get the chance to try this one.

Back to Houston's. The other dish I tried was their oak grilled artichoke appetizer. Three rather large artichoke halves were brought out, slightly charred around the edges and smelling delicious. The remoulade/aioli that it came with was pretty good too. A little on the thick side, but it didn't overpower the artichokes too much. Good thing that they were grilled to make them more assertive. The only thing here is that it's a bit messy and labor intensive to eat the artichokes. You really to have to eat them leaf by leaf and by hand, scraping the bit of flesh off with your teeth, until you finally get to the heart. Still, I love it, and the tactile aspect of this is wonderful.

All in all, with a couple beers (Sierra Nevada), an appetizer and two burger orders, I won't say that it was cheap at $70 (with tip), but it was definitely worth it. I left with half of my burger for later, and feeling ever so much happier that I got to relax and just have some simple, good, food.

Houston's Century City

10250 Santa Monica Blvd.
Space D
Los Angeles, CA
Tel: 310.557.1285
www.hillstone.com

Happy Eating!

Tep(id) Thai

2007-05-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

I received a flier a while back from Tep Thai in Glendale. Not only was it gorgeously designed, it showcased the beautiful renovation that they had gone through.

That should have been my red flag right there. I was drawn to the design of the direct mail piece and my subsequent viewing of the web site (www.tepthai.com), which really didn't showcase images of food. I should have been able to guess by this alone that it was going to be another one of those "love the space... but something's missing" experiences. But their tagline is "Angelic Cuisine!" It had to be good, right?

Here's to guinea pigging... I took my friend who likes Thai food with me for lunch. He had helped me with some things related to my move, so I thought the least I could do was buy lunch. We parked in the lot right next door, and walked in. Little late for lunch, so we were seated immediately. The space is gorgeous. Simple, yet clean, modern, but retaining a sense of warmth. Kudos to whoever designed the interior here. I really was getting excited. The waitress was the standard young pretty Thai who was polite to a fault. No complaints there. I ordered a Thai iced tea, and put in an order of Angel Wings (again, it's "Angelic Cuisine," right?) and an order of Tom Yum Koong to start.

Angel Wings -- These are breaded and fried chicken wings that are stuffed with pork, prawns, cellophane noodles, etc. Normally very flavorful and satisfying. I took my first bite here and thought that the breading was a little heavy handed (i.e. very thick) and that the filling was next to tasteless. The sauce that came with it was a very sweet glaze that didn't add to anything. I was able to finally enjoy this dish once I figured out that it only had a flavor other than sweet if I added the garlic chili paste that sat on the table. While not bad, nothing to rave about here.

Tom Yum Koong -- Hot and Sour Soup with Shrimp. This was barely palatable. There was way too much lemongrass and tamarind that made you think you were drinking a warm cup of Sour Patch Kids gummy treats without the sweet afterwards. Not spicy enough, and the shrimp was rubbery. Pass on this one unless you like the idea of drinking a citrusy warm vinegar.

After the first couple appetizers, I was getting over the lovely decor. At the point in which there are plenty of other Thai restaurants in the neighborhood that are far cheaper, the fact that it's prettier just stopped cutting it for me. Onto main courses.

My friend ordered the Thai BBQ Pork. While it wasn't inspired, it was definitely the best thing ordered so far. The meat was well flavored and moist, but again, there was nothing special about it. In fact, I bet that the Thai takeout two doors down from Tep Thai does it better, with a bigger portion for half the price.

Pad Thai -- This is definitely a Thai restaurant staple... and I've had quite a few variations thereof. I like this dish, there's a bit of everything here from starchy to crunchy to sweet to fresh to pungent. And I like the fact that after the app and soup we had earlier, I wanted something a little less heavy in the protein department. Mistake. The noodles were gummy from being overcooked, and the flavoring seemed like the person who cooked it was following a cookbook for the first time. The various components just didn't gel together, and it was really more of a blob of a dish to me. For a place that professes to serve "Angelic Cuisine," this dish made me want to tell them to replace the "Angelic" with "Amateur." In all honesty, I've had some do it yourself instant Pad Thais that were far superior to this.

All in all, this wasn't a great experience. I'm not going to say that it's not worth going to, but I think the flavoring and presentation of the dishes really caters more to an American palate than an authentic Thai one. If you're looking to try Thai food for the first time, this might be the kind of place that will make you interested. Most of the stuff is bland and non-threatening. If you're into Thai or SE Asian cuisine at all, you'll feel like I did after picking up the $50 lunch tab with no alcohol for two... You just paid for pretty.

Tep Thai

209 Wilson Ave.
Glendale, CA
818.246.0380
www.tepthai.com

Happy Eating!

Experiment with Monkfish

2007-05-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

I had a craving for monkfish the other day. I wanted to do something interesting with it though. What I ended up coming up with was something a bit Japanese, a bit Thai/SE Asian, and definitely wonderful.

The Japanese component? The fact that I fried the monkfish with a starch crust (ok, I guess it could be a more Chinese technique, but oh well...), and then the SE Asian part was the flavoring of lemongrass and Green Curry with coconut. Yum...

Lemongrass flavored monkfish with coconut curry creme

2 4-ounce Monkfish fillets -- cut to about 1 1/2 inch thick
1-2 Tbls lemongrass paste
Potato Starch to coat
Sea salt and white pepper to taste.

Sauce:

1 Cup chicken stock
1 Tbls Thai Green Curry paste (powder works fine too)
2 Tbls coconut milk
Fish Sauce (nam pla or nuoc mam) to taste

Optional:
Thai bird chiles as needed
small dice of carrot, potato, and mushroom
Dash of heavy cream

Preheat frying oil to 360 degrees F.

Salt the monkfish on all sides slightly on the heavy side. Let sit on a cutting board for 10 minutes, then pat dry.

Heat chicken stock in a sauce pan and add the diced veg if you're using them to once it's at a boil of you want the curry broth spicier add come chiles that you have made into a paste with a mortar and pestle. Turn down and simmer until the veg is tender -- about 12 minuts. Add the green curry paste and mix together until well incorporated. Turn down to a nare simmer and add the coconut milk. Stir everything together and add the fish sauce to taste -- it should have a slightly tangy, sweet, and spicy taste to it now. Finish with a drizzle of heavy cream to bring the flavors together. You can use a starch slurry to thicken the sauce if you want something a little more thick. Reserve sauce.

Pat the monkfish dry, then lightly pepper the fillets. Rub lemongrass paste all over the fish and dredge to coat in potato starch. Drop the fish into the oil and let fry for about 6 minutes. The fish should come out just about to flake, with a nice crunchy exterior and a moist, lobster-like interior. Plate over white rice that's been sauced, then drizzle more sauce over it. Garnish with cilantro if you like.

Between the creamy firmness of the relatively bland fish and the fiery green curry sauce, you get a nice contrast. This one's easy, so give it a try.

Oh, and if you really want to just to the monkfish fritters Japanese style, omit the lemongrass, and serve the fritters with a yuzu ponzu sauce, or better yet, yuzu kosho -- a fiery paste make out of green chiles, yuzu rind, and salt.

Happy Cooking!

Now that's something I can agree with!

2007-04-24T12:27:00.000-07:00

"After listening to a Frenchman talk about the superiority of French cuisine, the Englishman responds by saying, "Yes, but what about your dreadful lavatories?" To which the Frenchman replies, "Alors, in France one eats well, in England one shits well, it's all a question of priorities."
- Leon Rappoport, How We Eat: Appetite, Culture, and the Psychology of Food

Would you like a side of crazy with that burger?

2007-04-22T14:55:00.000-07:00

So, my friend Zack-I and I (wow, say that ten times fast) couldn't think of anything that we wanted to eat the other day. Given that we weren't looking for something too involved, we ended up at Rick's on the corner of Fletcher and Riverside in Silverlake.

Mind you, I didn't necessarily recommend it, but it was there, and it was quick and easy. First things first. We walk in (I have been there on a couple other occasions) and Zack-I just laughs at the stereotypical Southern California 70s diner decor inside. Seriously, this thing hasn't been updated in a couple decades at least at this point -- pink naugahyde booths and all. We get in line to place our order at the counter and the girl behind the counter (loudly chatting in Español to the back of the house) finally looks up after a couple minutes with this abject look of I couldn't be bothered.

We order our burgers and fries and lower ourselves into one of the pepto-colored booths and wait. Food comes out quickly enough, and I must say, the burger is definitely one of the better ones I've had at a takeout joint in a while. The meat was succulent, and not cooked to undead status, and the buns were buttered and toasted. Fries were fresh, and light. So far so good. I'm thinking that I'm going to forgive the timewarp decor and even the attitude of the cashier...

And then Schizo-guy walks in. Imagine someone that looks like a distant and very tired looking older cousin of Billy Bob Thornton dressed in ripped construction pants, a faded flannel shirt and a ball cap, and you've got the idea. He's yelling at the counter as he's walking out the back door that he doesn't have any money for the coffee he ordered. If that were it, I would have said, "OK, that was weird" and left it at that but no. Guy keeps coming in and out. At one point, he's mentioning to one of the Latina employees (who pretended not to speak English at this point) that they should install 15-watt light bulbs in the bathroom to make it more "mood lit" while he sat on the throne and read in there. Um... when was the last time you remembered to take your meds, guy?

I'm getting amused at this all, and Zack-I is rolling his eyes while shoving more burger in his mouth. Schizoid leaves again after his request for "mood lit bathroom" is met with silence, and starts commenting on the cop that had just pulled someone over in Rick's driveway.

"Man, that's a mean looking sumbitch. I bet he was in the ARMY and got kicked out. Only LAPD would hire one of them and give them a gun. I remember when Daddy was in the ARMY and I have his discharge papers. I have the REAL ones. They don't give out the real ones like they used to anymore. I need to make sure that it's somewhere safe when the government comes knocking at the door. I'm so sorry Daddy, I shoulda spent more time with you. I'm missing you. But I kept your discharge papers safe..." So on and so forth. And the above is the part that actually made enough sense for me to remember.

So, boys and girls, if you go to Rick's (and by all means do -- the food is cheap and really not bad), remember to stay for the slice of human life drama that comes with your order. The characters are definitely there.

"Welcome to Rick's, may I take your order? And would you like a side of lithium or a razor blade with your Asada Burrito and fries?"

BBQn at the Autry...

2007-04-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

If you think it might be fun to go to BBQn at the Autry...

Don't

If you think you're going to get to sample succulent pieces of freshly smoked chicken, tri-tip, or pork...

Don't

If you think that you won't be gouged for beverages...

Don't

If you...

Don't. Don't. Don't. Don't. Don't.

DON'T

(Thanks Edgar Wright!)

I hate to be negative here, but I just got back from BBQn at the Autry -- a local LA cookoff, and was so disappointed, I had to put an entry here.

First, you get there, pay your entrance fee ($9) and then are promptly informed that due to LA health code requirements, the 32 contestants of the cookoff will NOT be offering samples. WTF??? So, I'm supposed to inhale BBQ smoke and not get anything to eat? Well, there were two vendors that served food. Given that I wasn't about to fork over $5 for a hotdog I lined up at the LONG line for Silvio's Brazilian BBQ.

Talk about a clusterfuck! I ended up in line for over an hour and a half, and then they decide shortly before I'm at the front of the line that they're serving from two windows. So, until people started noticing, there were some people who actually got served in less than five minutes while others (like me) waited for an hour and a half. Whatever... I was so hungry by that time, I wasn't about to join the other people who started complaining and bitching and almost brawling.

I got a "Carnavale Plate" which was supposed to be 1/2 pound each of tri-tip, chicken, and calabresa with two sides, and bread. I didn't get any calabresa, and only got double serving of salads since they apparently ran out. Hmm... too bad they failed to mention it the substitutions to me. The chicken and beef were fine, but it wasn't a revelation or anything. It was filling, and tasty enough, and the entire staff did sing their version of "ole ole ole ole" (Y'know the Brazilian soccer anthem) as was promised on the menu.

All in all, I have to say that this is exactly what a cookoff/food festival should never be. I think this is akin to being in one of those states where you can get arrested for getting a hard-on during a lapdance. That is, be punished for being aroused by the tittilation being provided by the establishment. By the time they were announcing the winners, I just couldn't care less. I didn't taste any of the Q being judged, and it was getting really cold really fast. I got out of there about as fast as a rat off a sinking ship.

If you see a flyer next year, and think you should go to this... Just remember.
DON'T!

Cuban in LA

2007-03-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

I went out with a friend for dinner to Versailles in West LA the other night. If you ask someone where to go in LA to get good Cuban food, this is where you'll be recommended to go nine times out of ten. I've been in LA several years now, but since I live on the east side of town (Silver Lake), I've never had a good enough reason to go here. That was until a friend who lives close by invited me to dinner.

Good company, a restaurant I've wanted to try for a while, and a cuisine that I genuinely enjoy... Sounds good to me!

Like many other Cuban restaurants, this is a casual dining establishment where the focus is on a good home-style cooking. For a Tuesday night, it's pretty busy, which definitely bodes well for the food that's coming my way.

First up, the obligatory Croquetas. $2.50 gets you two of these tasty treats. Croquetas are deep-fried mashed potato balls with ham in them. Versailles does them just fine. Croquetas can sometimes be overpoweringly salty, but not these. Just the right crunch, lightness, and just a nice ham flavor throughout. Perfect for an appetizer at just two bites each.

At the recommendation of my friend (and the menu), I order Versailles Famous Garlic Chicken. It's a gargantuan serving of half a chicken smothered in a citrusy garlic sauce topped with onions, lots of fried maduros (ripe plantains), white rice, and a bowl of soupy black beans. The chicken is good. Cooked well, the legs and thighs practically fall off the bone, and are succulent. The breast meat is slightly overcooked for my taste, but still edible. Overall, the flavor is fine. If the setting were slightly more intimate, I'd say someone's mom made the chicken especially for me. The rest of the sides are ok. The white rice is a little dry, but it's fine once you spoon some of the tasty black beans over it.

My friend had the Sandwich Cubano, which is described as:
SLICES OF SMOKED HAM AND ROASTED PORK, SWISS CHEESE, SWEET PICKLE AND MUSTARD, SERVED ON CUBAN BREAD - ENTIRE SANDWICH IS THEN GRILLED

I didn't try it, but my friend said it was good.

Overall, I thought the food and service was fine, and the prices were very reasonable. I would go back, but I don't think that I would make a special trip to go that far for me. Unless, that is, I have a hankering to eat something really hard to come by elsewhere like Vaca Frita. Unless I'm really craving something that obscure, there's a perfectly good alternative right in my neck of the woods on Glendale Avenue in Atwater Village.

I've been going to Baracoa Cuban Cafe for about three years now. Like Versailles, it's a casual establishment the serves up good home-style cooking, with generous portions and reasonable prices. Baracoa is a much smaller restaurant than Versailles, and tends to be more quiet/intimate. The decor is bordering on the God-awful, but this is not the kind of restaurant you go for to be dazzled by the million-dollar contemporary art collection. Besides, being LA, there are PLENTY of chi chi restaurants where one can go to for that. You'd go to a place like Baracoa because the food is good and cheap.

The menu is much tighter than Versailles here. The way I look at it, instead of being the Cuban food emporium that Versailles tries to be, Baracoa makes a select few dishes very well. Well enough that a good Cuban-American friend of mine who was visiting from out of town, called over the waitress and told her that the food was every bit as good as he got at Mama's table at home (and of course, he would deny ever having said that if his mother ever were to hear about it).

Having been to Baracoa many times, I've tried many of the items on the menu.

I always start out with the Empanadas. I get one each of the meat and the cheese. The texture of the pastry is flaky without being greasy, and has an almost biscuit-like quality. The meat filling is a traditional picadillo which is a ground beef flavored with green olives, tomatoes, and spices. The way I see it, it's kind of like a less sweet and drier sloppy Joe mixture. Delicious! The cheese is a mozzarella-like white cheese which is very well melted, and slightly sweet.

If it's your first time here, ask if they have Arroz con Pollo available. They almost always sell out this by 7PM, but it's worth it. It's a quarter of a chicken and yellow rice that is just succulent and wonderful. You'll feel like you've gone to Cuba with this one.

If you're wanting something more meaty, go for the Bistec Empanizado. It's a marinated and flattened top sirloin steak that is breaded and deep fried. It comes with black beans and rice, as well as a few pieces of maduros (plantains). It really is a huge plate of food and very reasonable at $13.95.

I almost always order the Tilapia with tomatoes and garlic. The fish itself is quite bland (well, it is tilapia after all) but the tomato-garlic relish is great. A meal for a lighter appetite.

If you're in the Silver Lake/Atwater Village area, this is one place you can't go wrong with. Just don't expect to be dazzled.

On the topic of Cuban eateries, Porto's Bakery on Brand Boulevard in Glendale needs to be mentioned here briefly. All I have to say is this. Go, and now. Great breads and hot foods. I usually go by here when I have a party, and need to supplement the finger foods section. Their Croquetas and savory pies are great (and CHEAP!!!), but the show stopper is their Potato Balls. It's a breaded and deep-fried mashed potato ball filled with picadillo. At 80 cents (!) a piece, I buy a boat load for party nights. You won't find the quality of the breads and cakes you can get here easily, and you definitely won't at the rock bottom prices they charge. Just be patient, and remember to take a number when you enter if you want to be served. :D

Happy Eating!

Risotto

2007-03-05T15:02:00.000-08:00

Risotto... it's one of things that I find relatively easy to do when I'm not inspired to go to the store. The ingredients are simple, and the basic recipe can be made from things I tend to have in my fridge or pantry.

Not only is it easy, the basic recipe can be adjusted in any number of ways depending on what ingredients you have, or what you want to do with it.

Basic Risotto

Serves 2 as a main course, or 4 as a side dish

1.5 cups short grain Rice (I actually like to use Japanese short-grain rice or CalRose because of the texture and starch content, but Arborio and Carnaroli are the traditional rices used)
1 quart Chicken Stock, kept hot in either a pot or thermos
1/2 medium Onion, diced
1 cup white Wine
1/4 cup Heavy Cream or Milk
1 cup shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1/2 cup shredded Mozarella
2 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
salt and pepper
optional White Truffle Oil
optional 1/4 cup Orzo Pasta

In a saute pan, melt the butter and sweat the onions until translucent. Remove and reserve. Melt some more butter, and saute the rice for 2-3 minutes, seasoning lightly with salt and pepper. Once the rice looks uniformly pearly, add back the onions and stir together. Add in the orzo if using and white wine, and stir over medium heat until it is completely absorbed. Then in small batches, add in the heated chicken stock, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula to break down the starch in the rice, and wiating each time until the rice has absorbed almost all of the liquid. It should take about 25-30 minuted total until the rice is creamy and soft. The correct consistency should be rich and creamy, with just a hint of a bite left in the rice.

At this point, add in the cream, and remove from the heat. Then in batches, add in the shredded cheeses and then stir until completely incorporated. Taste and then season with salt and pepper to taste. If you like, drizzle a little white truffle oil over it, and enjoy.

This is the master recipe. While the base technique is always the same, adding different herbs, vegetables, cheese or meats makes it a completely different dish. One of my favorite ways to work with risotto is to do a wild mushroom risotto.

All you have to do for that is to soak some dried porcini in white wine, saute up a variety of mushrooms in olive oil and some garlic, and then mix into the rice mixture at the point you would add in the white wine. It's delicious.

Another idea is to do an asparagus risotto, with both asparagus chunks and puree. It comes out green, and awesome.

Or add in saffron for a Risotto Milanese to go with your next Osso Bucco.

Your imagination is the limit. You could even try to do a vegan version if you like with soy milk and cheese instead of the dairy.

Happy Cooking!

Hummus, a mi moda

2007-03-03T13:44:00.000-08:00

I like hummus. It's one of those things that I like to keep around along with some pita bread or pita chips to munch on while I idle away in front of the TV or computer. I know that it's readily available these days in most supermarkets in a variety of flavors, but I decided that I needed to try making my own. Really. As long as you have some key ingredients, it's actually not that difficult, and you can flavor it as you see fit. So here's my home-made version of Hummus, and with one little change (the lemon confit I added), it's a very traditional hummus. Change it, add more things into it, or even change the kind of beans you use (edamame works great for this, and it's so pretty!)

Hummus with Lemon Confit

1 1/2 cans of Chick Peas (ok, use fresh and soaked peas if you have the patience)
3/4 cup of Tahini (white sesame paste available at your local Middle Eastern market or Trader Joe's or Whole Paycheck, er, Whole Foods)
10 slices Lemon Confit* with some of its oil
1/4 cup Lemon Juice
Peeled Garlic (start with 3, then ramp up if you like it more garlicky)
Sea Salt
Cayenne
Smoked Paprika
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Boil drained chick peas in a pot of salted water for about 20 minutes. They should be very soft at this point. Set aside.

In a food processor, add the tahini, lemon confit slices (remove the rind from half of them), lemon juice, and some of the oil from the lemon confit. Puree over high heat until it's incorporated together. Pass the chick peas thought the fine setting of a food mill into a bowl. If you're lazy, just add the beans into the food processor and buzz with the tahini mixture. Mix everything together, and thin out with the water you boiled the beans in until it reaches the consistency you like. Season with sea salt to taste, and then sprinkle the cayenne and paprika over the top. Drizzle the olive oil on top as well.

Serve with warm pita bread wedges.

Lemon Confit

5 lemons, thinly and evenly sliced, preferably with a mandoline
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 Shallots, finely diced
5 Garlic cloves, finely diced
Sea Salt

Arrange a single layer of lemon slices in a non-reactive storage vessel that has a lid. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and then top with a layer of shallots and garlic. Repeat this process until all the components are used. Pour olive oil over top until the top layer of the lemons are just covered in oil. Cover and refrigerate. The lemon confit will be usable after about three days, and will keep for about a month or two in the fridge. When needed, just let sit on the counter until the oil becomes liquid again, and remove lemon slices as needed. The oil will also be fragrant and nice for use in sauces and dressings, or even to saute with.

In about 30 minutes of little work, you have wonderfully rich home-made hummus. It'll make you not want to buy the prepackaged stuff again... It's also great with a good rich Feta cheese (I love the Garden of Eden brand Israeli feta they sell at TJ's -- it's so buttery and rich without being overly salty).

Something easy and oh my... VEGAN. Shout out to my girl Shelby on that one. :X

Happy Cooking!

Giving up on Mac&Cheese

2007-03-01T16:34:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to perfect my Mac & Cheese technique. For some reason, it seems that no matter what I try, I just can't get it right. Well, I did get it right the other day, but I found out the hard way that baking the dish even to get a little crust can mean the difference between velvety smoothness, and well, an overgrown hockey puck. Dammit, I should have taken it and just eaten it out of the pot, but no, I had to get a crust on it. Well, live and learn. At least I salvaged deep fried mac-fromage out of that one, which actually, wasn't bad once you melted more cheese on top. Mmmmmm

In an effort to redeem myself here, I went back to my roots. I pulled out a dish that I grew up with in Japan that really is similar to a good 'ole American Mac & Cheese although the technique is really much more traditional French.

Macaroni au Gratin

1/2 lbs. Macaroni or other tube shaped pasta

5.5 oz Chicken or Shrimp
1 medium Onion
1/4 cup White Wine
optional 6 Button Mushrooms

1 tablespoon Unsalted Butter and 1 cup Grated Cheese for topping (I like a combination of parmegiano-reggiano, mozzarella, and gruyere, but anything with flavor that melts is fine)

Mornay Sauce:

3.75 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
3.75 tablespoons Flour
3.75 cups Milk or Half-and-half

1/2 cup grated Parmegiano-Reggiano
1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese
1/2 cup grated Mozzarella cheese

Freshly grated Nutmeg and White Pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Chop up chicken or shrimp into bite-sized pieces and salt and pepper them. Dice the onion and thinly slice the mushrooms if using. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add salt. If you decide on the shrimp, skip the instructions for chicken and add it once you fold all the ingredients together before baking.

In a large saute pan or skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat, and saute the chicken until it is nicely colored. Remove the chicken and reserve. Add more butter to the pan and saute the onions (and mushrooms) until translucent. Return the chicken to the same pan and add the white wine. Stir and cook until the wine is almost completely gone.

Add pasta to the pot of boiling water at this time. Because of additional baking in the sauce later, you will want to slightly under cook the pasta. If the directions give 9-10 minutes, take them off at 8. The pasta should still be slightly hard in the middle, but not quite al dente yet. If the pasta is done before the sauce, drain and add a little butter to prevent sticking.

Meanwhile, make the sauce mornay. In a sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat, being careful not to burn it. Once all the butter is melted, remove the pot from the heat and slowly sift in the flour. Both sifting the flour and mixing off the heat help prevent the formation of lumps. Cook the mixture (roux) over low heat while stirring to make sure that the roux is completely cooked through. Do not allow the roux to brown. Once the roux is cooked through and the flour is completely incorporated (it will smell less like flour) remove from the heat and bring the milk or half-and-half to a scald. Placing the roux back over low heat, add in the heated milk and whisk vigorously until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. This should take approximately 4-5 minutes. Remove the white sauce from the heat. In small batches, add in the grated cheese, making sure it is completely melted before adding more. Place the pot back over low heat if necessary. Once all the cheese is melted in, add in a small amount of freshly grated nutmeg and white pepper.

Fold the components together. Place pasta, chicken and sauce mixture into an oven safe baking dish that has been buttered or sprayed. Top with the reserved grated cheeses and add dots of butter. Place in the oven and bake until bubbling and nicely browned, about 10 minutes.

Let cool for a few minutes (important, it's like napalm right out of the oven!) and serve up.

Now, folks, I may not be able to make a great American Mac & Cheese that's better than the blue box, but this... just try it once. It's gooooooood. Just don't complain to me when your cholesterol figures go up. :D

Happy Cooking!

craftsteak Las Vegas

2007-01-30T12:19:00.000-08:00

So I was in Vegas this past weekend. As much as I wanted to get around and eat at every good restaurant, I ended up only being able to go out once for a nice dinner due to some transportation/communications snafoos with friends and such.

I was in the mood for steak, and didn't want to do the traditional American steakhouse thing. For one, I tend to be disappointed every time I do it, and I find that the high price tag of the Morton's-type club eatery not worth it. While there are many choices in Vegas, I decided to limit it to two choices. My first choice was Thomas Keller's Bouchon at the Venetian, and my second, Tom Colicchio's CraftSteak at the MGM Grand. I was going to take my friend with me, so I printed out the menus and let him choose. Since we're both currently watching (read: addicted) to Top Chef on Bravo, we decided to go to CraftSteak.

We arrived at about 7:30 on a Saturday night with no reservations, but were given a club table almost immediately in the bar section, since there was a huge party that couldn't decide what they were going to do. Score!

The atmosphere was nice. Leather wall panels and steel beams and the back wall of the bar was all glass showing the wine cellar behind it. The only thing I could say that I didn't like about the atmosphere was that the air was very stale, and it was warm. I have a tendency to get flushed in places like this, so I had to have the waitress bring me a glass of ice water (for dabbing on my forehead) and a vodka rocks asap. Once I cooled off though, it was fine.

Onto the food. I got three of the Olde Salt Oysters from VA which were absolutely screaming fresh and succulent/sweet. We then ordered the Kobe Beef Tartare for our appetizer. I've had a lot of tartare, but this one really took the cake for me. Buttery, unctuous, tangy, sweet... I don't know that I have the words or the memory to describe it, since I basically had a mini-orgasm when I took the first bite. As jaded as I can be about food sometimes, this was just plain wonderful.

For our main course, I ordered the 10oz. Bison New York Strip (med-rare), and my friend ordered the King Salmon. We're both experienced cooks, but my friend was flabbergasted when offered to choose his salmon's temperature (med-rare). For sides, we got grilled asparagus and potato gratin. I'm a real stickler for steak temperatures, but the first (and every) bite I had of the bison steak was SPOT on. Nice and crusty on the outside, nice and pink/red in the middle, and HOT. It was well rested enough that all the juice stayed in the meat and not run on into the jus that was served with it. Heaven. The salmon was equally delicious, all buttery and crunchy all at the same time. To be honest, the sides were competent but not earth shattering, which was ok, since the main dishes were so amazing. They really were just there to support the main protein and not overshadow it.

By the time we were done with the main courses, we looked through the dessert menus and decided that while everything looked very tempting, that it'd be best not to overdo it. Despite not ordering any dessert, we each got three pieces of something sweet from the pastry chef. A nice chocolate browny, an Italian Amaretto cookie, and a peanut butter fudge. All in all, I felt like I was in paradise.

Not only was the food great, but what really made the evening even more special was the server we had. She was so nice and attentive without being in our face. I actually left an almost 40% tip since the experience she provided was that great.

If this experience is a testament to the level of cooking that Tom Colicchio does in his own kitchen, I was more than thouroughly impressed -- yeah, he's got the chops to judge other chefs/cooks. Don't think about this one. Just go. You won't regret it.

Random Recipe: Two Garden Lamb

2006-07-03T11:39:00.000-07:00

Two Garden Lamb

I created this recipe on a day when I had the “what the hell can I?” moments of having an ingredient (butterflied leg of lamb) and not having planned anything special around it. I pretty much thought through various flavor combinations and decided on this particular combination. It’s called “two garden lamb” because I ended up going to both the side garden (for the sage and parsley) and the back yard to get some lemons. I wouldn’t recommend using dried herbs in place of the fresh ones here.

2.5 pounds butterflied (boneless) leg of lamb
1 clove of garlic
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the oil rub:

Extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 cup fresh parsley
5 fresh sage leaves (medium-sized)
½ cup fresh rosemary
Juice of ½ lemon
Salt and Pepper

For the stuffing:

8 oz. cremini (brown) mushrooms
½ onion
2 cloves of garlic
Pinch of rosemary leaves
Pinch of dried porcini powder
1 TS unsalted butter
Olive oil
1 TS pancetta, diced

Preheat oven to 375F

Take out the lamb from the refrigerator and poke slits into it with a sharp knife. Slice the clove of garlic thin and stuff the lamb with the garlic slices. Mix together the oil rub ingredients and rub generously onto all the exposed meat.

Saute the sliced mushrooms with the onion until nice and golden brown in a little butter. Cube the pancetta and add into the pan as well, let cool about 10 minutes once done.

Chop the herbs together in and mix with the sauted mushroom mixture and the rest of the stuffing ingredients. Spread stuffing onto the meat.

Tie the roast back up and tie it into shape with butcher’s twine and then heat a pan to smoking. Sear the roast on all sides, and then let rest for 10 minutes.

Place the roast into the middle of the oven and cook until the internal temperature reaches about 130 for a medium-rare. Remove the roast from the oven, and let rest for 5-10 minutes with a loose foil cover.

Carve and serve!

WCC 3 -- Hanger Steak with Wild Mushroom Demi-Glace Sauce

2006-06-28T09:11:00.000-07:00

I'm trying a new format here. Instead of hiding the weekly recipes inside comments, I'm going to make a new entry for them.

Here's my recipe for the week:

Hangar Steak with Wild Mushroom Demi-Glace Sauce

Ingredients (serves 2):

1 Pound Dry Aged Hanger (rib eye) Steak, preferably 1.75- 2 inches thick, cut into two pieces
1/2 cup Brandy to flambe with

For the Mushroom Sauce:

1 oz Dry Porcini Mushrooms
1/2 Pound Cremini Mushrooms, sliced thin
5-6 Fresh Morel Mushrooms, sliced into strips
2 Large Shiitake Mushrooms, cubed
2 sprigs fresh Thyme
4 TS Unsalted butter
4 Shallots, minced
4 cloves Garlic, minced
3 cups Red Wine (I use Shiraz for this, but any bold red -- zin, cab, syrah, etc. would do)
2 TS veal Demi-Glace
Salt/Fresh black Pepper
Oil

Directions

2-4 Hours in advance:

Place 1 cup of wine and the dry porcinis in a zip lock bag with the steak, place in fridge until an hour before cooking, flipping it over occasionally to make sure the wine hits both sides of the meat.

Just before cooking:

Remove steak from fridge and let sit on counter to bring up to room temperature.
Pre-heat your oven to 300F

Sauté the mushrooms:

Heat a saute pan with oil and 1TS butter to slight smoke. Add 1TS each garlic and shallots and allow them to slightly brown.
Working in batches, saute the mushrooms until nice and browned adding some thyme to each batch, and replenishing oil and butter as needed.
Once the last batch is browned, add all the mushrooms back into the pan and season with salt and pepper -- it's important that you don't salt the mushrooms before this point -- they will sweat and not get browned properly!

Reserve the sautéed mushroom.

Heat the same pan to smoking hot. Remove the steak from the marinade and remove any porcinis that may have stuck on them -- reserve all pocinis and the wine in a bowl for the sauce. Add oil, or render some beef fat into the pan (preferable), and then sear the steaks. You only want to flip the meat once, and only when it's got a nice crust about 3-4 minutes per side for a 2-inch thick steak.

Once the meat is seared, place it directly on the rack in your 300F oven with a cookie sheet underneath. You don't want to place the meat on the cookie sheet, since that will let the meat stew in its own juices. Remove the steak from the oven when the internal temperature hits 120-125 for rare, 130 for medium-rare (anything more, don't bother with a dry-aged steak, it's a waste) and place in a clean pan. Pour 1/2 cup brandy over the steak and flambé until the fire dies down. Let the steaks rest on a wire rack with a little foil over them for 5 minutes.

Sauce:

Once the steaks are in the oven, add 1TS butter to the saute pan used for the steaks and mushrooms. Add the remaining shallots and garlic and quickly let them get translucent. As soon as they do (it'll be quick since you're working on a HOT pan), add the porcinis, the wine from the marinade and the other 2 cups of wine into the pan. Lower the heat to medium, and scrape all the browned bits at the bottom of the pan. Add 2 TS of veal (or beef) demi-glace into the pan and whisk until completely incorporated. Let the sauce reduce by a little more than a half -- you're looking for a deep mahogany color and it should be just thick enough to coat the back of a spoon lightly. Season with salt to taste and whisk in 2 TS butter until the sauce is shiny.

Plate steak with the sautéed mushrooms (reheat if necessary), and the sauce both under the meat and then spooned over.

Serve with some yukon gold heavy whipped (lots of cream and butter, that is) potatos and haricots verts with smoked almonds.

Happy Cooking!

Weekly Culinary Challenge 3

2006-06-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm back. This week's challenge is,

BEEF and RED WINE

Shouldn't be too difficult. :D

Happy Cooking!

Sorry for not being around

2006-05-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

I was in Tokyo for the past 10 days and pretty much was too busy to be writing. I'll post a new challenge for the week soon, and I'll write a bit on the awesome food I had while I was over there.

Random Recipe: Arroz con Pollo-queta (Cheesy Rice and Chicken Croquettes)

2006-05-14T00:56:00.001-07:00

I came up with this when I had all sorts of left-overs. It's kinda nice.

I called it Arroz con Pollo-queta 'cause I ended up with a rice pilaf that was kind of like Arroz con Pollo, and then I breaded it and fried it, making it purely EVIL. I'm keeping the falavoring deliberately simple here since this is all about leftovers and what you have in your pantry. Add this and that. Make it your own.

FYI, this is really similar to what you'd find in Italian cookbooks under "Arancini" The rice mixture is flavored with tomato in that version, but it's similar.

So,

Here's what you need. I'm not giving exact measurements since you can scale this up or down easily depending on what you have on hand.

Left over shreaded chicken from the chicken you baked last night or bought from the "rotisserie" section of your local supermarket.

Sticky Rice: whatever you have left over from last night or fresh. Just make sure you use a short grain starchy rice that "sticks" -- you can't use long grain or basmati-type rices in this dish because it won't come together.

Garlic, smashed and chopped
Onion, minced
Sliced Green Olives
A little chicken broth or chicken base and water
Saffron if you have it, turmeric would do if you don't, omit if you have neither -- it's for color more than anything.

Mozarella cheese (dry seems to work better here than fresh for me)
Bread Crumbs (panko, preferably)
Flour
Egg
---

Heat up olive oil in a pan with garlic and onion and saute until transluscent.
Add chicken and rice and saute until everything's heated through, and then toss in the olives.
Add a small amout of chicken broth or chicken base and water to flavor the mixture and then adjust the seasoning when it's almost dry with salt and pepper. Here's where you add the saffron (steeped in a smidge of warm rater to release the pigment) or turmeric to add color.

You're going to want to take a cookie sheet or rectangular bakin pan, and then spread the rice mixture out into it in as even and thin a layer as possible. Chill in fridge for at least an hour. This is important for two reasons: 1) it'll allow you to handle the rice and form it into balls, and 2) it will make the rice come together better.

Preheat oil in a deep fryer to 350 F

Once the rice is chilled, cut mozarella into small pieces. You want to take a piece of cheese, and then roll a bit of rice around it into about golf ball size. Repeat procedure for as many as you're going to make.

Roll rice balls in flour, then the beaten egg, then the breadcrumbs.

When the oil is hot, fry them until golden brown, about 3-5 minutes depending. Since everything is already cooked inside, you just want to make sure that a crust forms and things are heated through enough for the cheese to melt.

Let them cool enough to eat, and then enjoy. They're really good and addictive.

Weekly Challenge 2

2006-05-11T12:18:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge is:

Chicken and Lemon

Not too difficult here. :)

Happy Cooking!

Random Recipe: Japrese

2006-05-08T15:02:00.000-07:00

Here's my take on a traditional Italian Caprese salad, it's much lighter, and really refreshing. For those of you on a diet, the removal of the mozarella cheese is a plus!

Serves 1 as an appetizer/side:

4 Slices Very Ripe Tomato -- it should be sweet, but not falling apart.
4 Slices Silken (soft) Tofu
1-2 Shiso* leaves, chiffonade

Arrange tomato slices on a plate and then top with tofu slices, cover the whole plate in shiso leaves. Serve with your favorite vinaigrette -- I like to use either a balsamic vinaigrette with olive oil and garlic, or a soy-sesame vinaigrette. Also, I personally like the ingredients to be cold here. If the tomato isn't perfectly ripe, use it room temperature, to not lose the flavors.

* Shiso leaves (also known as Perilla, or Ohba) are a relative of the mint family and are refreshing and astringent like mint, but not "sweet." While there is no substitute for it, if you can't find Shiso (a Japanese market will usually sell them in 10-packs fresh, and larger Asian mega-marts have them from time to time), just use regular basil. While the flavor profile is different, it works just fine.

Happy Cooking!

Being a mutt and learning to cook from comic books.

2006-05-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

My 14 year-old stepdaughter was really curious about how I learned to cook other day so I told her the story.

The quick version of the beginning of my culinary adventures is that I've always been fascinated by food and cooking. I remember as far back as when I was four years old burning myself on a toaster oven while melting dill harvarti cheese on a cinnamon-raisin muffin (yum). I guess I was lucky to have had parents who were willing to let me do my thing in the kitchen unsupervised (for the most part), and that I wasn't too accident prone a kid.

One of the reasons I'm probably inclined to experiment as much as I do is because I'm culturally and racially a mutt of the worst kind. My mom is French and Vietnamese and grew up in Japan, and my dad is Japanese and White American. That means that the cooking Mom did was a mixture of all those cultures. One day we'd have coq au vin, and the next cha gio (Vietnamese spring rolls), next soba noodles and tempura, etc. Even at an early age, there was a mixture of cuisines around me. Add to that the fact that I've had two step-dads of differing cultures (the first was Venezuelan, the second Swiss), and have lived at one point or another on all six inhabitable continents give rise to quite an experience with differing cultures. Without really knowing it, I was getting a first rate culinary education while growing up, and was thinking "fusion" without knowing it. I could fend for myself even as a kid in the kitchen, so I naturally took what I could get in whatever country I was in, and mixing it up with things I already knew. Naturally, as I got older and more sophisticated (ahem), so did my creations. I relied less and less on store-bought prepackaged ingredients (which have their place in the home kitchen), and started learning more proper technique... although I still have a long ways to go.

There actually is another reason/influence on how I learned how to cook. This one's the one that gets me some raised brows from my friends here in the US. I learned from reading comic books. Well, manga to be exact. See, around the time I was in fifth grade, this anime/manga series called "Mr. Ajikko" (translates into something like "Mr. Tasty) came out that was about this kid who helped his single mom run their little teishokuya (Japanese for diner). He's really creative and is this genius with food. Naturally, in this fictitious food obsessed world, he gets discovered by the "King of Taste" and is put up against a variety of culinary heros and villains in competitions... I truly believe that Iron Chef got its idea from this and other series like it. The interesting thing is that not only did this series exist, but it did well enough to actually become a hit with the 8-14 year old demographic. I fell in love with it and collected all the books and tried making some of the outlandish creations that were featured in it. I remember the first one that I made -- short spaghetti wrapped with thinly sliced eggplant in a bolognese sauce. I was maybe 10 at the time.

Once I got back from France to Tokyo in my mid teens to start 11th grade, I discovered the other culinary comic that greatly influenced me: "Oishimbo." To be honest, it wasn't a new series. It had already been running a number of years, and is STILL ongoing as a weekly publication. The basis of the series is a couple of newspaper reporters working in the culture section are traveling around Japan and the world looking for the "Ultimate Menu." Another newspaper company enlists the help of the male protagonist's estranged father who is the ultimate food authority and gourmet in Japan and strives to create their own version called "The Unsurpassable Menu." Both sided duke it out, yadda, yadda, yadda. The premise aside, the writers REALLY research good food and present it in an approachable manner from the history of the base ingredients to explaining the intricate details of the preparation. The series is such a cult hit that recipe books featuring some of the recipes have come out and online communities discussing the episodes and food exist in cyberspace. I must admit, I own a number of volumes (there are over 80 now and they're still being released) and I have the cookbook.

I got ideas on how things went together from these manga, and also learned technique since the cooking portions of them were really detailed and precise. The rest is just doing things over and over. I'm not saying that I can turn out a perfect "insert something difficult here" all the time, but I'm getting better and better. The only thing I'd like to add here is that the first time I had my own kitchen (right out of college) I found a book that really helped me find a way to put together things in the "right" way and how to think about food from a more thematic or ingredient based point of view. "Culinary Artistry" is a great book, and I'll write about it in another post, but it has oodles of information on flavor combinations (albeit from a very euro-american standpoint), and menu planning. I can't think of the number of times I've picked it up to come up with an idea of something to do with an ingredient.

Bottom line here is I've always been cooking, and I've always been experimenting for all the reasons above. Whether its finding a use for Japanese dashi stock in a risotto (works great for a wild mushroom risotto), or cooking a boeuf bouguignonne in a chinese clay pot, I'm always trying something new.

Happy cooking!

Weekly Challenge 1

2006-05-04T07:57:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge is...

Portobello and Mozzarella

I'll be posting my creation later.

Happy cooking!

Wekly Culinary Challenge -- Intro

2006-04-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

Part of why this blog exists is to have a way in which a culinary community can be created. While that sounds somewhat high-brow, that's not the point. By challenging ourselves to do something a little out of our comfort zone, we can all hope to get better. No matter what our background and skill level in the kitchen is, we can all learn something new and different from the experiences of others. The weekly culinary challenge is here to streamline that process and to give us all a way to talk to each other using the same framework. So, if the the theme is "pork tenderloin AND ginger," for example, we can all use those ingredients and come up with something that's unique to each one of us.

So here are the guidelines for the challenges:

1) Use the ingredient(s) that is listed for the week.
2) There will be at least 2 keywords for each challenge. One will be an ingredient. The other(s) will be either another ingredient, a cooking method, or style of cuisine. Every now and then, there will be a NEGATIVE keyword. That means don't use or do that -- e.g. lamb NOT mint would mean create a dish that uses lamb but without mint.
3) You have one week from the date of the challenge being posted to come up with something.
4) Please post your recipe from that week. Tweak it if necessary to make sure you're putting your best foot forward. However, if you have a disaster, talk about it! Again, the point is that we're all trying to learn here.
5) Nothing has to be fancy or "gourmet" here. Sometimes a simple preparation of an ingredient is a lot more difficult to pull off than something that has 20 odd items that go into it, and requires hours of work.
6) If at all possible, take a picture of your masterpiece. We eat with our eyes as much as any other sense. Not only that, but it'll force us to present the food a little more nicely than we might otherwise.
7) Don't just copy someone else's recipe. If you need inspiration, by all means look on Food Network or Epicurious, but do something different and unique with it, ok?

Pretty simple, eh?

In an effort to get this started, here's a recipe using the above example as a guideline.

CHALLENGE: Pork AND Ginger

Recipe: Pork Tenderloin with Two Sauces -- serves 4-6

2 Pork Tenderloins, silver skin removed
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
White Pepper
Curry Powder (hot Madras, if available)

1 Cup chopped Dried Apricots
1/4 Cup toasted Pine Nuts
1 ts grated Ginger

Red wine, blackberry and ginger sauce:

1 Cup bold Red Wine such as a Shiraz, or red Zinfandel
2 TblS fresh grated Ginger
1 small Shallot
2 cloves Garlic
1 ts Chicken Demi-Glace (or chicken base)
1 TblS Blackberry Jam
1 TblS Unsalted Butter
1 ts Corn or Potato Starch mixed with a little water

optional: 1 small handfull fresh Blackberries

White wine and apricot sauce

1 Cup Chardonnay
2 TblS fresh frated Ginger
1 small Shallot
2 cloves Garlic
1 ts Chicken Demi-Glace (or chicken base)
1/2 Cup chopped Dried Apricots
1 TblS Unsalted Butter
1 ts Corn or Potato Starch mixed with a little water

optional: 1 TblS chopped flat-leaf Parseley

Prep:

Preheat your oven to 425 F/220 C

Rub both loins with curry powder and sea salt. Put black pepper on the one to go with the red sauce, and white pepper on the one to go with the white sauce.

Take the loin that will be going with the white wine sauce, and make a slit into it, opening it up somewhat like a book (butterfly it)

Place a mixture of chopped apricots, grated ginger, a little salt and toasted pine nuts into the cavity and then roll the loin back together. Tie with butcher's twine in three to four places to keep it together.

Make the sauces:

Take out two sauce pans, and add the chopped shallot and garlic to them with a little butter, and sauté until translucent. Add the red wine to one pan and white wine to the other.

Red wine, blackberry, and ginger sauce:

Add grated ginger and chicken demi-glace to the pan with the red wine, whisk to dissolve, and then add the blackberry jam. Reduce slightly, and then whisk in the butter to give it a sheen. Adjust seasoning as needed. The sauce should be slightly hot from the ginger and sweet, but not overly so. Add the slurry of starch and water into the pot, and bring back to a boil. Reserve once the sauce is slightly thickened. Strain if you want it smoother. Add in the fresh blackberries if desired while holding.

White wine, ginger, and apricot sauce:

Add grated ginger and chicken demi-glace to the pan with the white wine, whisk to dissolve, and then add the chopped apricots. Reduce slightly then whisk in butter to give it a sheen. Adjust seasonings as needed, and then add the slurry to thicken slightly. Strain to make the sauce smoother. Just prior to service, add the chopped parseley is desired.

Pork:

Preheat an oven safe saute pan with oil (canola or peanut work well) until slightly smoking. Place both loins into the pan and sear well on all sides, about 1/2-2 minutes per side. Don't move it around too much! You won't get that nice crust you want.
Once the pork is seared, pop it into the preheated oven. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes for medium, or until an instant read thermometer reads 140 F. Do not overcook the meat, as there is not enough fat to keep it from getting dry. Let the meat rest under some tented foil for about 5 minutes. Carve each into medallions and server 3-4 pieces of each per person and prepare the plate with both sauces -- red wine for the unstuffed loin, and white for the apricot stuffed one.

Serve with vegetable and starch of choice. I like to serve a simple cous-cous and steamed green vegetable (like haricot verts) with this dish.

Happy cooking!

How I am dieting, or the Japanese principle of good eating.

2006-04-24T09:53:00.000-07:00

DISCLAIMER: I am in no ways a dietician or a health care professional. The below is merely an opinion of what works for me. If you try it and it doesn't work, I'm not responsible, ok?

I decided that my partner and I need to be on a diet. Not a crash and burn "must lose 50 pounds NOW" kind of diet, but one that's sensible and sustainable. Here's what I came up with that works for me. Rule Numero Uno of successfully dieting is to slow down one's pace while eating. The thought here is that by slowing down, we can be more in tune with our body's signals that we're full. Good enough. In order to do this and to get more nutrition into my diet, I'm following a basic Japanese concept of eating: "Ichi-jyu San Sai." Basically, this translates to "one soup, three sides." With an understanding that rice is assumed in any Japanese meal, you end up with five dishes consisting of soup, main dish, two sides, and a bowl of rice. While that may sound like a lot of food, it's not -- Japanese rice and soup bowls are very small, and the point is to limit the amount in terms of quantity of foods that are taken in. By having various flavors and textures on your plates and picking and choosing while eating them (the dishes are all served at the same time, and are supposed to be eated in a "bite of this, a sip of that, a little rice..." fashion), you automatically slow down the pace of eating, and end up being more satisfied with less. Not only that, by having all these different ingredients, you are more likely to get more essential nutrients than eating that big steak with mashed potatoes (not that I'm against that either... love steak).

In addition to this, the original intent of Ichi-jyu San Sai, was to follow two other principles than just the course list. One, each meal should have items of all food colors represented (red/yellow, green, white, brown, black), and two, all the items featured should be cooked in a different manner, i.e. items could be grilled/broiled, sauted, boiled, steamed, fried, raw, etc. By having items with different colors, you broaden the nutritional base of your meal, and by using different cooking methods, you can make your brain more satisfied by giving it a wealth of textures in addition to flavors that make the meal more interesting.

Is it a little more work... yes. Cooking like this does require the use of more pots and pans in the kitchen, but I think that the rewards are highly worthwhile. Here's an example of a meal I might make with these premises.

1) Soup: small serving of miso soup with daikon and tofu (brown/white, boiled)
2) Main/Protein: salt grilled chicken thigh with black sesame seed (white/black, broiled)
3) Side 1: carrots simmered in dashi (red, simmered)
4) Side 2: small salad of lettuce, cucumber, and grape tomatoes with non-oil dressing (green/red, raw)
5) Starch: brown Rice (brown, steamed)

Ok, so you can see above that I have five dishes, with each color represented, each with a different cooking method. While it might seem like a lot, remember that the portion control is in the "three to four bites per item" range. Too Japanese? No problem. I've found that the premise works well with even a decidedly Western bias. For example:

1) Soup: French onion soup au gratin (brown/white, boiled)
2) Main/Protein: parmesan crusted filet of sole with lemon caper butter (white/yellow/green, pan-fried)
3) Side 1: creamed spinach (green/white, steamed)
4) Side 2: wild rice salad with golden raisins, celery, and peppers (black/yellow/green, boiled/raw/dried)
5) Starch: half a baked potato (white, baked)

See, it works with no weird Asiatic twist to it too... although I do get stumped sometimes in finding "black" ingredients... dark brown and purple seem to work ok as substitutes too. And there are days that I have three simmered items on the menu, but I think that's ok... this is a general guideline, not a strict science. I try to cook like this at least once a day, usually for dinner. Just remember, portion control is everything here. A little bit of this and a little bit of that makes for great eating.

I don't count calories, or really restrict myself too much. The only thing, if you must know, that I look at on a nutrition label, really is the saturated fat content of something. I try to keep my intake of saturated fat under 15 grams a day. It's really not that hard... I look for "better" fats like olive oil to do my sauteing in, and hold off of butter and cream for the most part. Once a week or so, I go all out and have a big fatty piece of meat with a side that's oozing cheese and butter. I enjoy it then without feeling too guilty.

Hope this inspires you a bit.

Happy Cooking!

An example of my culinary whorishness... Or the Gayest Purchase Ever

2006-04-18T13:53:00.000-07:00

So, I was shopping in Williams Sonoma the other day, and my partner David picks up a nice chopping block. Well, to be precise, it was a mezzaluna board (refer to picture). I'm thinking, "that's nice, but..." Then I realize what it is. There is an actual mezzaluna knife in a slot on the board. We pull it out and lo and behold, it's a SHUN blade. I'm not going to get into what exactly a SHUN blade means to me at this point since I'm planning on writing an entry on the topic of kitchen knives (hey, I not only sell them, I collect them), but suffice it to say that IMO they're one of two or three companies that sells commercial kitchen knives in the US that are at the top of the list. David's gawking at the thing, and saying that he's always wanted one so he doesn't "have to chase herbs around a board." I'm sort of thinking the same thing. But there are some problems here:

1) our kitchen is TINY. I've collected so much kitchen shit in the past couple years and I have so many different herbs/spices/condiments that there's literally no space for actual cooking left.

2) it's a total unitasker. This is something that basically performs exactly one function besides being so darn pretty. It chops up herbs. If you want to really stretch the point, it's good for mincing things like garlic and onion too. 99% of the time, I'm in agreement with Alton Brown of the Food Network who says that things that are only good for one thing should never come into one's kitchen (with the exception of a fire extinguisher). Yeah... um, but it IS a knife and I CAN use the board to do other thingsm maybe.

3) it's FRICKIN expensive. Don't get me wrong. Being a sales whore at a gourmet kitchen supply store, I have my fair share of expensive things in my kitchen. While some purchases are truly frivolous (like this one's seeming right now), there is a point in which you really do get better quality for your big bucks. No, I'm not saying spend 19.50 on a jar of spaghetti sauce, but a pan, pot, knife, mixer, well, you may as well save up and spend it.

The above being said, I'm justifying my purchase. All things considered, the most important thing of any purchase one makes is the bottom line of "I really like it." And I do, really. :D In terms of the cons listed above...

1) It's pretty enough to actually be left out.

2) ok, but the blade is a SHUN, man!

3) expensive, yes, but I did get it at a significant discount...

Bottom line again, I like it, and as for the unitasker thing, at the point in which I decided it was purty enough to leave on my counter, it serves a second purpose as counter sculpture. Yeah, I know. I'm a total whore as is my partner who found it, and we have made the GAYEST purchase ever.

Happy cooking!

Introduction

2006-04-12T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hi there, my name's Claude and I'm a culinary whore. What does that mean? Well, it means that I think and talk about food almost constantly. I'm the guy that talks about what I made for dinner tonight while out at a bar and makes you hungry even though you've already eaten. I even took a part-time job at Williams-Sonoma just because I was spending too much money there and needed the discount. I'm also a culinary whore in the sense that I perhaps because of my heritage (French/Japanese) and having lived all over the world (really, on all inhabitable continents), I like to pick and choose and combine ingredients and flavors. Sometimes it's sensational, other times... well... although I have enough experience these days to instinctively know what does and doesn't work about 99% of the time. Hey, I've been cooking for over 20 years and experimenting all that time.

This is an outlet for my culinary creativity -- I've had enough people ask, so I decided to share on a broader level than having cooking classes at home for friends. I'm constantly trying new combinations of flavors in my head, and I consider cooking to be therapeutic. One of the first things my partner David heard from me when we started dating was that the worse the day I have, the more elaborate dinner tends to become. Have I been to culinary school or been formally trained? No. That being said, I do have a killer instinct when it comes to flavor. And I do know what and how to do a "brunoise" and I can make "demi-glace" from scratch... not that I do that often in my small-ass kitchen.

Join me here for my ramblings and recipes. I probably will start posting on things like what kitchen equipment you should buy, and what items at your local gourmet purveyor actually are worth the premium. Also, I'm going to start posting a once-weekly culinary challenge with an ingredient and a "keyword" such as a cooking method. I welcome each and all of you to participate and join the discussion. The rules are simple. Just use the ingredient and follow the keyword, and then post your proudest creation that fits the bill. If you can plate it pretty and take a picture to make everyone drool, even better. I'll collect all the recipes, and set up a recipe bank at some point when there's enough to go in. Just do me a favor, if you want to look at another recipe for inspiration (nothing wrong with that), just change it around a bit. The whole point of this is for me and you to try new and interesting things.

Happy Cooking!