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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

eggplant parm

we got some beautiful eggplants from last week's csa share. by now they were getting a tad bit squishy so i browsed tastespotting for some good eggplant recipes.

eggplant parmesan, of course! usually the eggplant is breaded and fried first but as the recipe i used points out, the eggplant acts as a sponge and absorbs tons of grease. instead, it says to grill the eggplant first to skip the fat-soaking step.
it also told me to peel them first. with these beautiful skins? no thanks. skipped that step and kept the purple stripes.

if you're wondering why it only looks about halfway baked compared to the intended results, that's because it is. one small problem: our floor's oven peaks at about 200 degrees, even when it's set at the highest temperature. oh yeah, and then after about half an hour, it turns off all together. all things considered, it didn't turn out so bad. still quite tasty, albeit a tad undercooked.
and if you're lucky enough to have a working oven, it should look more like this:
Grilled Eggplant Parmesan (from freshtart.net)
Serves 6

2 lbs. eggplant, trimmed, peeled, sliced 1/2-inch thick
salt & freshly ground black pepper
1/4 c. olive oil, divided
3 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 24-oz. can Italian whole tomatoes
12 fresh sage leaves
1/2 lb. grated mozzarella cheese
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat grill. Spread out 2 3-sheet sections of paper towels on the counter, layered on top of each other. Lay eggplant slices on paper towels and sprinkle both sides of the eggplant lightly with salt. Let sit for 30-60 minutes. (nicole: this will eliminate some of the eggplant's absorbency)

Meanwhile, set a a large saucepan over medium heat. Add olive oil, then garlic, and saute until softened, about 2 minutes. Add dried oregano and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Using your hands, crush tomatoes one at a time into the garlic. When all of the tomatoes are crushed, add the remaining tomato sauce from the can as well. Add 1 tsp. of salt, a few grinds of black pepper, then turn the heat down and simmer the sauce over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring a few times. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a small skillet, heat the remaining 2 Tbsp. of olive oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the sage leaves in an even layer. Fry for about 30 seconds per side, turning with tongs, until lightly crisp. Drain on a paper towel, reserving oil.

Lay another two layers of paper towels over the eggplant and press firmly to absorb the eggplant liquid. Using the fried-sage oil, brush both sides of each eggplant slice with the oil, laying slices on a plate as you. Grill the olive oil slices for 3-4 minutes per side, or until lightly browned and tender.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

To assemble the dish, spoon about 1 c. of tomato sauce into the bottom of a 10-inch tart pan (enough to cover the bottom). Lay one layer eggplant slices in the sauce. Top slices with a bit more sauce, then sprinkle half of the cheeses over the eggplant. Distribute the sage leaves over the cheese. Repeat with the remaining eggplant, more sauce, and the remaining cheese. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and browning a bit in spots. Let rest for 10 minutes. Serve hot.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Video blog pt. I

Untitled from Eunice Kim on Vimeo.

I am hopeful that this video marks the beginnings of many more videos of our adventures.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

coney island

we have a list of things to do before we enter the months-long period of time that dominates most of the year and makes us forget what the sun looks like (not like we ever look at the sun.. but anyway, you get the point).

on that list was "go to coney island"--as of the weekend before last, check! the weather gods were in our favor as it was in the high 70's and sunny. the public transportation gods were not, on the other hand, as the last leg of the Q was out of service and we had to take a shuttle bus. it was nice to see that area of brooklyn (looks like a lot of fun! must go back.) but also it took foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
the coney island part of coney island was a little sad. the cyclone was $8. no thanks. the rest of the rides were really baby and basically county fair-esque. not to say they wouldn't be fun; we would've gone on them if we had more time. but we didn't.
first got some food on the boardwalk (nathan's hot dogs for yooni + terren, peruvian chicken for the rest of us that was DELICIOUS, btw) and then beached. probably due to the fact that it wasn't absurdly hot (in new yorkers' minds, though perfectly warm for us californians) and the subway was a fail, it wasn't crowded at all.
seeing the ocean was lovely. the water was about as cold as stinson beach which is fine when there are waves to mangle in, but kind of boring when there's not. oh well, still refreshing. we mostly just laid out in the sun, read, and people watched (primarily cute babies & vendors selling "coronas coronas," "mangoes mangoes," and "empanadas empanadas").

day = success.

Friday, September 17, 2010

recently

On most nights when we feed da famiree we try to consider what veggies we have left from the CSA in planning our meals. This is what we've come up with this week. 
We had somewhere around 5 pounds of potatoes so we decided on potatoes au gratin, which Nicole made. It was so yummy. Then we used up a lot of the remaining greens in a salad - lettuce, mizuna, radish tops and radishes. The sauteed vegetables made use of the tomatoes and then we ate the last of the corn.
Tonight I made something like udon. It had udon noodles in it. But also other stuff. I put in some extra noodles, bok choy, the last of the mizuna (finally!), tofu, onions, scallions, some other stuff I can't recall, spices and such, soy sauce... and finally an EGG! so so good and eggy. 
In the new batch of CSA veggies we got today, there was so much mint. So we just finished making (and eating) our mint pesto brownies. Those were interesting. But good and minty and green.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

lots of leafy greens


Today was a very exciting day for us - our first CSA (community sustained agriculture) pick up! We weren't quite sure what to expect, so Caroline and I brought several bags to carry things back in. It's around $160 per share/semester, and I'd say that they were very generous with their produce. We're splitting 2 shares for the 8 of us. This week we received red lettuce, mizuna (?!?!), cilantro, radishes, tomatoes, corn, potatoes and bok choy.

We're supposed to pick them up every thursday, which is also the same time the farmers market parks right outside on Broadway. I am so enamored with the different types of eggplants that are available. Egglpants are so beautiful! Summer fruit is so pretty! Strawberries are so delicious! Locally grown strawberries the absolute best. Seriously. Get thee to a pint of strawberries. None of that mutant, unripe "strawberry" business here.

For dinner, we ended up eating salad and pasta with homemade pesto. We used the lettuce, mizuna and radishes from the share, and threw in some avocado we had from before. At first we had no idea what to do with the mizuna, since most of us had never even seen or heard of it before. Apparently, it is known as a Japanese mustard and is used mostly in salads and soups. yum yum yum.

We are starting to get worried that we're annoying our neighbors since we're constantly occupying the kitchen and study lounge. I'm not quite sure what the solution is, because it's not like we're going to stop cooking or hanging out.

terren and nicole

!!!!! REUNITED !!!!!!



Nicole, Terren and I went to the Ikea in Redhook WHICH IS THE FUNNEST THING EVER BECAUSE OF THE FERRY AND FOOD.
We got tons of kitchen things. Yay! I missed us.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

파전 (Pa Jun)

파전 is a Korean vegetable pancake. My grandmother taught me how to make it while I was home. Aside from the pancake and green onion (파) base, you can really put whatever you want in it. We used the salmon my grandma's nephew sent us from Alaska (he a fisherman there apparently?) because we had some left over from the night before. Here's how it went:





My grandma also taught me how to to make 시금치 (seasoned spinach), 갈비 (short rib) marinade, and 매운탕 (spicy fish soup) among other little things, though I don't feel ready or ambitious enough to make the last one.

the pieces are coming together

photos by yooni. text by nicole.

as of right now, 6 famiree members can be found in the general new york vicinity. as of 5pm today, 3 famiree members could be found at 207 2nd avenue, aka MOMOFUKU SSÄM BAR.

the bo ssäm is a special menu item, and you can only sign up for it one week in advance. it's a big pork shoulder served family style to 5-10 people. read more about it here!
before the bo ssäm we started with a few appetizers, namely:
-steamed pork buns – pork belly, hoisin, cucumber, scallion
-another steamed bun that was not on the menu that had crispy pork, mayo, tomato, radishes.
-warm silken tofu – heirloom tomatoes, myoga, watermelon

then the bo ssäm came out. a whole pork shoulder, slow roasted for many hours, served with a dozen oysters, steamed rice, bibb lettuce, and four sauces: kimchi, kimchi purée, ginger scallion sauce, and "korean bbq sauce"



from top to bottom; left to right: famiree's famiree, warm silken tofu, famiree, oysters, pork buns, famiree's famiree.

at the end there were only a few bits of fat-soaked pork left. i couldn't let them go to waste (oh god i really am my father's daughter, aren't i), so i took them home to eat later. even though we were sufficiently stuffed, we tried a couple cookies at neighboring momofuku milk bar to finish off the meal.

as if your mouth isn't watering enough, here's one last picture of the pork shoulder, right as it came out.
this is making me hungry. i'm glad i took those leftovers.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

zazie


excuse my iphone picture quality.

fig and prosciutto sandwich with cooked spinach, hollandaise, fancy cheese, fancy bread. from zazie in cole valley, a little gem of a restaurant. took a bit of a toll on the bank account, but hey, we paid for the ambiance...right...anyway, outrageous sandwich! sweetness of the figs with the bite of the spinach, plus prosciutto...mmm.

combined with besties, and gorgeous weather -- a splendid goodbye to SF