Cooking – Page 15

Some days you just don’t feel like cooking……

April 26, 2013 mmm-yoso Cooking

Man was the weather nice today……too nice to be cooking. Plus, I've been busy at work so I was a bit too lazy to cook.

So why not have something like this for dinner on a warm evening……

From left to right; nem chua, speck with blue cheese and whole grain mustard, truffle pate, head cheese with cucumber, and tongue and red leaf butter lettuce with whole grain mustard.

Don't kid yourself. Two or three rounds of this with a couple of nice saisons and you'll be full and happy.

I know I was.

I could have used some pickles or something with a bit of acid and maybe some red onion for some pungency, but I really wasn't complaining. Loved the head cheese and the tongue with mustard is nice. We were surprised at how sweet the new chua, a gift from a friend's mom was when lined up with items that are more salty.

This was all we wanted, and really, all we needed tonight.

Here's wishing a happy Friday to you all!

Recently Consumed

April 13, 2013 mmm-yoso Cooking

Here's some stuff we recently ate at home.

Man, it was almost like summer there for a couple of weeks, wasn't it? Last weekend, I really didn't feel like cooking so I dropped by Con Pane for some baguette and Bristlol Farm for some Truffle Mousse. Combine that with some Blue and Gorgonzola Cheese, vegetables, olives, and a nice Saison……..

The next night, the Missus wanted Ebi-don. I thought it was a bit too hot for that. The Missus got Her rice bowl, I made myself an Ebi-Furai sandwich using the rest of the baguette, vegetables, and I even made some Russian-ish dressing.

Tommy Gomes at Catalina Offshore is a great guy. He's really funny in a gruff kind of way….but we all know he's a pussycat, right? Anyway, he's always making recommendations of new stuff to try, like this.

The problem was….what to make? This screamed for crab claw cocktails, but that seemed like the easy way out. I thought of doing something like my Smoked Portobello Mushroom with Crab, Avocado, and Smoked Corn salad, but there was no corn to be had.

In the end, I did kind of take the easy way out, making a very basic Sherry Wine Vinaigrette for a chopped salad of sorts.

This is one of few times it would be appropriate to bring a hammer to he dinner table with you….

I'm not sure what's up today. It's sort of the "May-grey" a couple of weeks early. Wasn't quite sure what to do with some halibut I got today. The Missus was craving Mok Pa, so why not. It tasted much better than it looked.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Recently Consumed

March 30, 2013 mmm-yoso Cooking

Here's a nother round-up of what's been cooking in the mmm-yoso household.

The Missus is into Her smoked salmon again, so I've been smoking salmon just about every week.

What I've been doing is trimming off the belly portion of the salmon……Catalina Offshore has had some really nice Scottish Salmon recently. I'll cut the belly lengthwise, season with salt and pepper, dust with potato starch and fry……

I've done this a couple of times already….it's really wonderful. Rich, yet rather mild in flavor…..

Here's a Turkish Spiced Halibut, Crisp Roasted Eggplant, Pickled Vegetables and Afghan Chatni.

Here's Pan Fried Dover Sole with Potato Pancakes and Creme Fraiche - Caper Sauce.

Coming right off surf and turf night, I got another shot in before Bristol Farms Wagyu Beef sale ended.

And from our meatball section……I made those combination ground lamb- ground veal kofte again:

Last night I saw some uncased merguez meat, so we decided to try making merguez kofte, which were delicious.

So that's the round-up.

Happy Easter!

Surf and Turf Thursday…….

March 14, 2013 mmm-yoso Cooking, yoso-silly

I think I've mentioned that the one really big change in the last year was that the Missus really enjoys shopping for food now….She has no problem heading over to Catalina Offshore during the week, or Bristol Farm, or Whole Paycheck. It makes life kind of interesting. Especially when I'm given a bunch of ingredients to fold into a meal. Tonight is a good example……….

So here's a bunch of stuff to make a week (work) night dinner.

So what do we have? From top to bottom, horseradish, duck fat, sunchokes, and a piece of Wagyu New York steak.

So what to make? I took the easy way out……I roasted off root vegetables, including the sunchokes, along with purple potatoes, parsnips, carrots, and whole cloves of garlic, in a combo duck fat-grapeseed oil, and made a duck fat vinaigrette to top it off. Sort of like the Roasted Parsnips and Kabocha with Caper Dressing.

Cook time I estimated about 40-45 minutes, so first thing I did was clean some shrimp. We always have shrimp on hand, it can make for a nice meal just about anytime.

I then made a horseradish sauce, which I thought could be used for both the shrimp and the steak.

Mince shallots, grate garlic, add shrimp, salt, pepper, Smoked Spanish Paprika, Thyme, Oregano, and a touch of Grapeseed oil and marinate the shrimp for a bit.

Season the steak, sear off…….let rest……

Vegetables finished roasting, turn off the heat, add vinaigrette, mix, and leave in warm oven…..

Saute shrimp using the Big Kahuna, which takes literally two minutes. Total time, just north of an hour.

Plate up and eat. It's surf and turf Thursday….

And I've survived to cook another day……..

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Shrimp with Indonesian Style Glaze

March 13, 2013 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

I've actually mentioned this sauce/glaze in previous posts. I've used it as a sauce for chicken wings, fish, salad dressing, almost anything that you can glaze, if you can deal with just a touch of heat. I think the Missus really enjoyed it the most when used here:

I'm sure you know how to quickly saute shrimp, right? So, I don't think I really have to go over that. This glaze is super easy, the only items you may….or maybe you do have in your pantry is Kecap Manis and Sambal Olek. Not the Chinese/Vietnamese plastic bottled Sambal, but the stuff from Indonesia.

It's really easy stuff.

Indonesian Style Glaze/Sauce:
1/4 cup Kecap Manis
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 fresh squeezed lime juice
2 TB ginger juice
5 cloves of garlic grated/finely minced
2 Tb Sambal Olek
zest of 1 lime
dash of white pepper

– Combine all items, sample and adjust to your taste

The longer the sauce sits, the better it tastes, if left overnight it also gets a bit more spicy.

The shrimp we used for this is wild Mexican Shrimp from Catalina Offshore. We saute quickly in a neutral oil and add some coconut oil for a nice little hint of coconut flavor.

Shrimp:
2/3 lb 21-25 shrimp deveined with tail left on
1 shallot minced
2 Tb Shaoxing wine
dash of white pepper

5-6 Tb canola or grapeseed oil
1 Tb coconut oil
cilantro
sesame seeds

– Combine the first 4 items and let sit for 15 minutes
– Heat a pan over high heat
– Add oil
– Saute shrimp until just about cooked – do not overcook
– Remove from heat
– Add 1/2 cup of glaze and coat shrimp
– Arrange on plate and top with sesame seeds and cilantro

Easy to pull off, especially on a weeknight.

Recently Consumed

February 23, 2013 mmm-yoso Cooking

Just a quick post of what we've been eating at home recently.

We recently bought a Himalayan Salt Block, so we've been playing around with it.

The best thing so far has been heating up the block and quickly searing some thin sliced Wagyu Beef….too long on the block means some really salty stuff.

The Missus is still lovin' Her fish….here's a Pan Fried Hake with Dilled Vegetables and Marsala Mushrooms.

But the Missus's newest thing is having me make kebabs and kofte. Here's a Lamb Kebab with Turkish Spices. We also made all the meze as well.

It was quite good. Trying to keep those carbs down, we used butter lettuce to make lettuce cups of a sort.

But the Kofte I made from ground lamb and veal was even better.

Very juicy and tender. I also added thinly sliced eggplant that I roasted in the oven. This came together pretty quick for a nice weeknight dinner.

Here's some Red Cooked Oxtails.

From my old recipe.

Along with some Dried Fried Green Beans, which I hadn't made in a while.

I've got a couple more dishes, but I think I'll save them for full on recipe posts.

What have you been eating recently?

Recently Consumed

January 25, 2013 mmm-yoso Cooking, Sandwiches

I haven't done one of these for almost a month…..so here's a post for a wet Friday here in San Diego.

I noticed how much was lost when we fried merguez from Whole Paycheck….so trying to get the most out of it, I first pan fried the lamb based sausages, then pan roasted potatoes in the rendered fat from the merguez. Man….this was really good.

Here's an interesting fun experiment…..pinenut crusted halibut.

Man, I wish our broiler worked….I'm sure we'd have gotten some better carmelization. As served, this was so moist….I think the Missus know understands that you can do some nice fish in the oven. The drizzle of black garlic olive oil I made was a nice touch.

Then during the middle of our coldest evenings….we had Oden.

You gotta love those portable butane stoves….I think every household should have one. If just as part of their "disaster kit".

Of course I made too much broth…..adding this to some major laziness means that I availed myself of whatever dried product I had on hand.

So wakame, dried mushroom went in………there was some tofu in the fridge…..I poached some of the Missus' dandelion greens for some pungent bitterness. But this didn't become complete until I made an omelet with Chinese preserved radish.

I've been kinda lazy the last two nights…..so while I've made stuff the Missus wanted to eat for dinner, I've stuck with making sandwiches for me.

So last night was beer braised veal bratwurst which I then wrapped in bacon and browned. This was really nice on some sauerkraut seasoned with some oregano over melted Swiss cheese and Dijon Mustard. Some sweet pickled red peppers completed the sandwich. The Missus had a bite and now wants me to have this during the weekend.

Tonight was a simple steak sandwich…after all, I need to use up those rolls.

It was the bed of peppers and onions sauteed with a touch of white balsamic that really made this tasty.

So what have you been made at home recently?

Pork Belly Buns!

January 14, 2013 Vicky (SF Bay Area) Cooking, Recipes, San Francisco and Silicon Valley, What Vicky Eats

Hi Everyone! 🙂 It's Vicky again… blogging about my gluttony up here in the Wonderful SF Bay Area. For some time I thought I fell off the face of the earth!

Taiwan is well known for a type of "sandwich" where a fluffy slightly sweet steamed bun (think a la Peking duck bun) that's filled with a thick slice of stewed pork belly, pickled mustard (suan cai), cilantro, and a sprinkling of ground peanut and sugar. It's called a "Gua Bao" and you can find it all along the streets throughout the island country.

It used to be really hard to find these pork belly buns here in the states but in the last 5 years, it seems like everyone has their own version of it. Momofuku (NYC), Ippudo (NYC), random izakayas here and in the SF Bay Area, there's even a food truck that sells buns like hot cakes named "The Chairman" (play on words with Chairman Bao).

The concept of these buns are pretty easy to make and this past weekend I whipped up a large batch of them using David Chang's Momofuku recipe as inspiration. I brined a large pork belly after removing the skin, roasted it on high heat to render out the fat and then switched to low heat to let it slowly confit in its own juices and fat. Chilled, sliced, steamed some buns, added in some quick pickles, shredded green onions, smudge of hoisin sauce and a squirt of kewpie mayo. Voila! Luscious pork belly buns at home.

No more standing in long lines at the Chairman truck to get my buns…

Pork Belly

2-3 lbs of Pork Belly (have your butcher remove the skin)

1/2 c. kosher salt

1/2 c. sugar

1 T 5 spice powder

2 c. water

Mix the salt, sugar, and 5 spice powder together and dissolve in the water. I use the lazy method and toss everything into a large gallon sized ziplock bag and shake. Put the pork belly in and squeeze out all the air in there and let it brine overnight in the refridgerator.

Preheat the oven to 400, remove the pork belly and wipe dry. Place in a roasting pan and roast the belly at 400 for an hour and then turn the temperature down to 250 for another 2 hours. The belly should plump up and per Momofuku, "feel pillowy."

Let it cool down and wrap it in a sheet of saran wrap and chill in the refridgerator so it can be easily sliced.

Pickles

2-3 persian pickles thinly sliced

1T sugar

1t salt

Slice the pickles and toss in the sugar and salt mixture. Let it sit for about 20 minutes and then rinse. Do a quick 5 minute soak in fresh water to remove the excess saltiness. Squeeze dry and set aside.

Assembly:

Slice the pork belly into slices and reheat on a good cast iron pan to crisp up the edges, steam some store bought buns, shred green onions, and get the hoisin/kewpie ready. Put a dollop of hoisin on one side of the bun, tuck in the hot pork belly slices, squirt some kewpie on there and top off with the shredded green onions and enjoy!

Fish 3 Days, Fish 3 Ways Day3: Porcini Crusted Halibut with Truffled Polenta

January 12, 2013 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

After having the delicate Olive Oil Poached White Sea Bass, the Missus wanted something a bit more "earthy". Her request for the next day was, "something with mushrooms…..lots of mushrooms……" This one was easy for me….well to conceptualize. Getting it done after work in time for dinner….well, that was going to be fun. This was actually easy since I had about an ounce of dried porcini mushrooms on hand. So for a play-by-play….

Step 1 – Soak about 3/4 of the dried mushrooms in two cups of warm water

Step 2 – Slice cremini mushrooms, 2 shallots, and grate 4 cloves of garlic.

Step 3 – Place the rest of the dried porcini, salt, and pepper in a coffee grinder and pulverize to a powder.

Step 4 – Combine mushroom powder with 2 Tb potato starch and spread all but 1 Tb of mushroom mixture on a plate

Step 5 – Place halibut on mushroom-potato starch mixture making sure to coat only one side, well.

Step 6 – Season the undusted side of fish with Spanish paprika, granulated garlic, salt, and pepper. set aside.

Step 7 – Strain the porcini soaking liquid. Make polenta using all but 1/3 cup of the mushroom liquid, olive oil, and water. Between stirs, chop the soaked porcini, reserving 3 Tb as a garnish. When polenta is almost done, add all but the reserved chopped porcini mushrooms. Finish with truffle oil and set aside.

Step 8 – Pan fry the halibut in a combination grapeseed-extra virgin olive oil. When the fish is almost done, start step 9.

Step 9 – In a dry pan over medium high heat, place the sliced porcini mishrooms. When the mushrooms start to soften and give off their moisture add extra virgin olive oil, shallots, garlic, Turkish oregano, and reserved mushroom powder. When fragrant add reserved mushroom liquid and white wine and let bubble away. The fish should be ready by now. Set aside. Taste sauce and season (remember, there's salt and pepper in mushroom powder) with salt and pepper. Reduce……

Step 10 – Plate the baby up…….

Somewhere along the line, the Missus chopped some parsley for garnish. I also used some of the chopped porcini as well. I test for doneness using a sharp paring knife.

Man, this was really tasty…and moist.

I put the rest of the polenta in a pan greased with olive oil and then unmolded and stored for future use.

I ended up making this again, this time pan frying the "polenta cakes" a couple of days later.

Not bad for a Thursday night……

So there you go…….Fish 3 ways in 3 days. Whew, I needed a break. Though things started up again the next week, but I didn't work quite as hard.

Though this one is just pan fried halibut with a warm white balsamic vinaigrette.

Thanks for reading!

Fish 3 Days, Fish 3 Ways Day 2: Olive Oil Poached White Sea Bass topped with Tapenade

January 10, 2013 mmm-yoso Cookbooks, Cooking, Recipes

I felt rather triumphant, having exceeded the Missus's expectations….basically pulling a recipe out of my….well, you know where, and making something She really enjoyed. The following day, the Missus sent me a text, telling me She, "wanted fish made totally differently from anything I've made before….no salt baked, no fried of any kind, no simmered, no baked, no saute, no stew, no pan fry, no stir-fry." No way!!! Not really knowing what to do, I picked up some olives on the way home…..I really don't know why.

I came home and started leafing through some of my cookbooks……some of the recipes were too elaborate to pull off on a weeknight. Until I went through Rick Moonen and Roy Finamore's Fish Without a Doubt. I found a recipe for Oil Poached Halibut with Gribiche. Sauce Gribiche is a classic French sauce, with cornichons, capers, vinegar, and such. Think of it as an unemulsified tartar sauce if you will….though I've come across recent versions of Gribiche that has been blended and it really did seem to be tartar sauce. Instead of that route, I used the olives, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, and basically made my tapenade minus the anchovies and artichoke hearts.

The fish itself was pretty simple……the one item being, even though I used the tiniest cast iron pan I had, we ended up using quite a bit of olive oil for this. Still it came out rather well.

There are just four ingredients needed to prepare the fish:

Fish
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil

– Salt and pepper fish filets and let sit for 45 minutes
– Heat oven to 175 or the lowest temp. Our circa 1959 oven's lowest is called "low" and bottoms out at 190 according to the oven thermometer
– Place fish in skillet/pan and add enough oil to cover. Remove fish and set aside.
– Place pan in oven and heat oil to about 125 degrees. I could still place my finger in the oil and it just felt hot…..you may just want to use a thermometer though. I don't want anyone coming after me after burning their finger!
– Add fish back to pan, cover (I used aluminum foil), and place in oven. Check after 15 minutes to make sure oil is not too hot….i.e. no deep fry action going, just a mild poach.
– Check after 20-25 minutes.I use a very sharp paring knife and insert into the fish. If it goes in cleanly, almost with resistance the fish is done, or will be done by the time you get in on the plate. White Sea Bass is pretty dense. This took about 35 minutes.
– Remove fish, blot dry, and serve.

The fish is very moist…almost melting away in my mouth. The flavors are mild. Texturally, this didn't do it for the Missus, even with the tapenade. It was a nice experience for Her…..even though She probably won't want me to make fish this way again, at least She tried it.

As we took care of the dishes after dinner, She turned to me and asked, "so what are you going to do with the halibut for tomorrow night? I want something really good…….something with mushrooms!" Stay tuned for the finale!