Cooking – Page 41

Roasted Mushrooms – Now What?

June 25, 2005 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

I've decided to actually do some cooking during the upcoming week. Problem is, I'm not quite sure what to make?

So while aimlessly wandering down the isles of Trader Joe's I grabbed a couple of packages of sliced mushrooms. I usually purchase whole mushrooms and slice them myself, but I had decided to make roasted mushrooms, so the pre-sliced crimini and white mushrooms would do.

Whenever I really can't figure what to do I'll go for one of my "ingredients". These roasted mushrooms can be used many ways, for pasta sauces, they can be pureed and used as a thickener for soups, as sandwich topping (ice cream topping???, guess not), and dips.

Any type of mushroom can be used, I've used enoki's, portabellos, shiitakes, oyster( be sure to remove stems, need to be careful with these they tend to liquidize). I decided to go with plain buttons and crimini's. I think the recipe is originally from Charlie Trotter – I don't have the original, but as with most recipes, I made adjustments to accommodate my taste, and have added ingredients (soy sauce, red wine) as well.

Roasted Mushrooms:
1 1/2 – 2 lbs Mushrooms Sliced
1 Medium Onion Finely Chopped
4 Cloves Garlic Minced
1/3 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 Cup Water
1/4 Cup Red Wine
1 Tb Soy Sauce
2 tsp Kosher/Sea Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper
1/2 tsp Dried Oregano
1/2 tsp Dried Basil

Place all ingredients in a baking pan, mix together, cover well, and roast at 325 degrees for 45 minutes. Cool in liquid and refrigerate, mushrooms will last up to 1 week in a covered container.

Now what am I going to do with this? Stay Tuned……..

yoso-greedy: Camerons Stovetop Smoker

June 14, 2005 mmm-yoso Cooking, Stuff

I had a parcel meeting me at the door this evening, turned out to be a delivery from Amazon; my Camerons Stovetop Smoker that I ordered 2 weeks ago:

This is the handy dandy kitchen gadget that is often seen on Emeril and other shows – it was on sale for $34.99 at Amazon, with free shipping I thought why not. Not much in the box, just the smoker, a drip tray, and a wire rack, oh wait; it’s the New and Improved Non-stick wire rack!…..got to make sure I got this right! Also, included were four little containers labeled, Alder, Cherry, Mesquite, etc…. So I open the Alder, and there lay a little pile of sawdust, smelled like sawdust, felt like sawdust, I didn’t taste it, but I’m sure it was going to taste like sawdust. Where was the magic? This is going to give us the "succulent flavors of wood smoking"? There’s no way that this is going to work! By this time my OCD kicked in and I just HAD to make something, anything. So we jumped in the car and sped off to Costco to buy some salmon (no sense in using anything too expensive).

Back home, salmon in hand, I trimmed off both end cuts and seasoned the middle piece with sea salt and fresh ground pepper. I placed a little pile of "Alder" (at least that’s what the container said) sawdust in the middle of the smoker base (sort of like I was going to try and start a fire with two sticks – my confidence was waning). Covered the drip pan with aluminum foil and placed that over the "wood chips" (in the most loose definition of the word chips!), and set the wire rack on top of the drip pan, covered and was ready to roll! I turned on the burner, set the smoker on top, than opened up the instruction book! Hey, I’m a guy, what can I say…… I noticed a bit of smoke leaking out so wrapped some foil around it, and caught a whiff, and damn if it didn’t smell like real "smoking smoke"! Well now that I had the little "Cooking Guide" opened, I realized my first mistake; I should have left the cover of the smoker two-thirds of the way open until wisps of smoke appear, than cover the smoker. Uh-oh, I missed the "wisps" step, would this ruin the salmon?….No Salmon Salad! No Salmon Gravy!, Salmon Hash! No Salmon Ala King! Ooops sorry too much Christmas Story….

After about 25 minutes later I checked on the salmon, and it looked a sort of "gloppy", so I replaced the cover and left for about 7 minutes more. At this point the salmon was starting to flake(sort of like me…..how appropriate), so I decided this was enough and removed it from the heat. At this point the salmon still had sort of a poached look:

So I tasted a piece, damn if it didn’t taste pretty darn good! So it’s smoked salmon and bagels tomorrow! Visions of smoked corn, smoked clams, smoked duck, and smoked tri-tip danced in my head!

So I guess this piece of equipment is pretty "idiot proof", it seems that if you (unlike me, but it still turned out) follow instructions this is pretty fool proof. Easy and fast. The only things that I need to do next time is to season a little more generously and follow the instructions for starting the cooking process.

So what did I do with the rest of the salmon? I just did a "quick and dirty" togarashi rub and seared and fried under high heat:

Five Favorite Cookbooks Meme

June 12, 2005 mmm-yoso Cookbooks, Cooking

Tag I’m it! Reid from Ono Kine Grindz has "tagged" me for this meme, he originally got tagged by Stephanie fromda*xiang and so on….. Being really new at this I must say I’m truly humbled…..

So here goes:

1. Total number of (cook) books I’ve owned:

At last count +/- 50 or so.

2. Last cookbook(s) I bought:

I’m waiting for my latest Amazon delivery, so those don’t count. So it’s Land of Plenty by Fuchsia Dunlop. A really super book.

3. Last food book(s) I read:

Land of Plenty by Fuchsia Dunlop, I’ve really developed an appreciation for Sichuan food, and this book is really a treasure trove of information.

Chinese Food Finder by Carl Chu, not just a listing of restaurants, but Carl also gives a listing of dishes representative of the specific type of cuisine.

4. Five (plus 2) cookbooks that mean a lot to me:

This is really tough, so I decided to list my favorite cookbooks that I use on a regular basis.

Chinese Cook Book Volume I by Fu Pei Mei. Known as the Julia Child of Chinese Cooking, Fu Pei Mei was a respected and almost deified Taiwanese cooking instructor who had her own cooking show in Taiwan. Her Chinese Cook Book Vol I is probably the most accessible. Fu Pei Mei passed away from cancer on Sept 16th, 2004, and had a great long career for someone who only learned to cook after she got married. Easy basic Chinese recipes!

50th Anniversary Best of our favorite Recipes 1946 – 1996 by The Maui Association for Family and Community Education. OK, no laughs, but since I can’t up and call Mom when I have a question, I just reference this. This is a compilation from various community cookbooks over a 50 year period. I’ve never, ever been able to copy a recipe "ver batim" and have it come out right – probably explains why I can’t bake! So I look for references and guidance in my cookbooks.

The Legacy of the Japanese in Hawaii: Cuisine by The Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii. Good source for "local style" Japanese recipes. For example, if you want to make Nishime, or other Japanese – Hawaiian type dishes it’s really hard to find a good recipe source.

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. Alright, time to come clean, I don’t actually own this cookbook, but have borrowed it from the local Public Library at least 8 times (not including renewals). Great comprehensive source of basic recipes, and now my guilt has resulted in my purchasing this from Amazon, so will actually have my own copy in a week or so.

The Way to Cook by Julia Child. I’ve been without my Joy of Cooking for over a decade so this fills the spot – my "Bible" of cooking.

Plus 2:

The Choy of Cooking by Sam Choy. Very easy down to Earth Pacific Rim. Made me understand what a great place Hawaii is with regards to food.

The Food of Paradise by Rachel Lauden. More of a well researched study in Food Anthropology than cookbook. Well researched and very informative, if you wonder why we eat what we eat in Hawaii, this really explains alot.

5. Which 5 people would you most like to see fill this out in their blog?

I’m really too new at this for me to fill this out, but I’ll try to give you a few:

Sarah at The Delicious Life

Jo (yes, Jo) at Truly Thankful

Elmo at Monster Munching

Pat at Eating LA

Whew, this has been more work than I thought it would be. But finally, my really most important "cookbook" is one where I’ve never tried any recipes:

After my Mom passed on in 1996 I found this "cookbook" with hand written recipes. There were many loose sheets, some of which were recipes written before I was born. Some were full of info from my Mother’s life before "me", we never talked much about these "things" in our household, but I found this so interesting:

Mom worked as a Housekeeper on Kauai and had written and collected some of the families favorite recipes. Who knows, the meatloaf looks really good I might try that soon!

Clams in Garlic and Wine Sauce

May 30, 2005 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes, Seafood

If you read the previous post you may be wondering what happened to the clams I bought? I made a really simple Clam in Garlic and Wine sauce:

1 1/2 – 2 1/2 Lbs Manila Clams rinsed and scrubbed
8 cloves of garlic minced
1 Medium Onion chopped fine
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 Tb Butter
1 Tb Canola or Vegetable Oil
2 Tb Olive Oil
Salt & Fresh Ground Pepper to taste
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes to taste

Place wok over stove and heat to smoking. When wok is smoking season wok with 1 Tb Oil and drain. Add 1Tb Oil and 1 Tb Olive Oil to wok. Immediately add Clams and stir until clams are coated. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and onions stir to combine. Once clams start giving up their liquid, add white wine, stir and bring to a boil, lower heat and cover, checking every few minutes until all clams are open stir in butter and serve. Do not overcook clams! Serve with crusty bread, rice, pasta or just eat them all!

This is a good base recipe. I add more butter, oregano, parsley, and other herbs to use as a pasta sauce. Cilantro also goes well with this dish.

Siesel’s Meat and Bay Park Fish Company – Surf next to Turf.

May 30, 2005 mmm-yoso Cooking, Markets & Grocers, Seafood

Actually started the morning at 99 Ranch Market, and was surprised to find parking right up front at 10am. Looked like people were getting a late start on this Memorial Day.

Ran in and checked out the Manila Clams, though many of the tanks were empty, there was still a good supply of clams. The placard noted that the clams were from Canada, and when I scooped a few out they "spit" water out at me, so I knew they were still alive. I ended up purchasing 2 1/2 lbs, and was on my way…….

On a whim I decided to grab a steak from Siesel's Meat off of Morena Blvd. I'd usually drive all the way to Iowa Meat Farms, but decided to stop by Siesel's. Over the past 6 months I've noticed alot of improvement in both the quality and variety of Siesels's offerings since the Cohn Group (who also run Iowa Meat) took over.

First off I noticed an abundance of USDA Prime cuts, and ended up getting a prime porterhouse, my favorite cut for pan frying (I'd decided to give my grill a rest). Though the cut was a bit thinner than I like at about an inch, this meant that I wouldn't need to finish in the oven as I would with a thicker cut. Well marbled and glistening this was one nice piece of meat. The steak came out to about 1.3 lbs – at $19.99/lb for prime porterhouse, not a bad deal.

On a whim I decided to check out the new Bay Park Fish Company, that has opened up next to Siesel's. I noticed that there was a fish case at the front of this little establishment of about 8 tables. Surprisingly, the fish looked really fresh, though very limited in variety. The Ahi from Hawaii looked very good, and brought back alot of memories for me, but I decided on a piece of Atlantic Salmon that looked very moist and fresh. We've been having a hard time finding really good fish here in San Diego, and often have to drive to LA to get what we want, ironic in that San Diego is surrounded by ocean! I've shopped at almost all the recommended places – Point Loma Seafood, The Fishery, etc…and have always been disappointed. So finding this little gem so close to home was very satisfying.

I was handed a menu flyer and will be trying out the restaurant soon. Looks like most of the items, except for the catch of the day is under $10, the smoked fish sandwich looks interesting.

So what did I do with this bounty?

The steak I simply seasoned with Ala'ea (Hawaiian Red Sea Salt), fresh ground pepper, granulated garlic, oregano, and XVOO. First seared on high heat, than cooked medium, this was wonderful! Very "beefy in flavor, almost like grass fed beef, the filet portion was fork tender – a great piece of meat. The Salmon was also seared over high heat and cooked to medium well. I seasoned the fish with a home made blackening rub. Delici-yoso!!!

Oh, and my "boyz' also enjoyed their share of this bounty.

Siesel's Meats
4131 Ashton Street
San Diego, CA 92109
Tel: (619) 275-1234

Bay Park Fish Co.
4121 Ashton St.
San Diego, CA 92110