MM BLACK SESAME

A while ago, I ventured downtown to get me some black sesame ice cream from the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. If you ever find yourself ice cream hunting in New York in one of the ridiculous heat waves, stop by here and make sure you get 2 scoops to maximize on their great selection of flavors!

Noryangjin Fish Market: Seoul

This past Saturday, my friend Andrew and I went to the Noryangjin Seafood Market. Basically, it's a giant warehouse where individual vendors sell their goodz. IT WAS SO KOREAN AND GREAT. It's kind of nice to see that, despite how modernized Seoul is today, there are still some things that stay the same. For the seafood you can eat raw, they will prepare it for you on the spot (aka you point to the fish you want, they kill it, and five minutes later it's artfully plated). Watching that happen in a matter of minutes was somewhat unsettling, but at least Andrew and I ate dinner before watching that in full. We ate at a restaurant in the warehouse: spicy seafood soup, fish, unlimited panchan, and rice all for 7,000 won (less than $6). I was so full afterwards I could barely thrust my body forward. Here are some blurry iPhone photos of the market:

Also, I finally made these babies, courtesy of this website.

Korea

Spicy barbecue chicken and cabbage in Sinchon, Seoul, South Korea. More later, but this (among other things) has been my life for the past month.

And aprons, of course.

More Mexican summer

This summer, all I ever ever crave is Mexican food. I have been eating a lot of tacos/quesadillas. Not pictured is the fresh tomatillo salsa that I made earlier (blend: tomatillos, lime juice, jalapenos, cilantro, yellow tomatoes).

For this open faced quesadilla, I first sautéed onions, chorizo sausage, and poblano peppers. Then I melted some pepper jack on a tortilla (freshly purchased from the local bodega, made in my area code of Brooklyn whuddup). Add some cilantro for good measure.

The awesome thing about this is that there are infinite variations. It's good with squash, beets, tomatoes, pretty much any combination of veggies.

Pesto on the roof

Pesto is easy to make! We used basil, walnuts, spinach, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil. I can't remember exactly what else, it was a while ago. If you sauté little tomatoes they become extremely tasty. The other thing we used were garlic scapes. They are the stalk of the a garlic plant before it blooms. They had them at the farmer's market because they are in season right around now. I expected it to taste like a chive, but when you sauté it becomes very mild and delicious. And I grew that basil leaf!

Claire and I rigged up a pulley system using the basket from Nicole's bike, and a few supplies from the hardware store. We ate our pasta on the roof!

oh my mexican days

I lived on the border of Texas and Mexico when I was little, so I grew up on "arroz con pollo"and
gorditas. Imagine my excitement when Natalie from Fashion Intel posted (a way back, mind you) a dinner she had which included QUESO FUNDIDO. sglkajglasgkj my favorite. It's basically melted monterey jack with crumbled chorizo on top. Eat with piping hot tortillas and fresh salsa.

ice cream endeavor, part 8: strawberry

strawberry is technically my ninth, but the peach i made before this turned out so strangely i want to wipe it from my memory. and so did the strawberry, to some extent. i think this is due to the fact that in fruit ice creams, one mixes in a significant amount of fruit purée, which in turn makes the whole thing icier and freeze a lot harder. not really sure. i've just been letting the ice cream sit out for a bit before scooping, and (as you can see) it scoops out in chunks, rather than real scoops. oh well, going to have to keep working on these.

the strawberry ice cream still tastes delicious and fresh despite the weird consistency, so i'll include it.

strawberry ice cream (from allrecipes)

(makes 4 1/2 cups)

1 quart fresh strawberries, hulled

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

3/4 cup white sugar

3 egg yolks

3 tbsp light corn syrup

place the berries into the container of a blender of food processor, and purée until smooth. pour into a large bowl, and set aside.

heat 1 1/4 cups of the cream in a saucepan over medium heat until it begins to bubble at the edge of the pan. in a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, egg yolks, remaining 1/4 cup cream, and corn syrup. gradually pour the hot cream into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly. return the mixture to the saucepan, and heat until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon, about 5 minutes. do not allow the mixture to boil. strain custard into the berry purée through a sieve, mix, and refrigerate until chilled.

fill and ice cream maker with with the mixture, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

ice cream endeavor, parts 6 & 7: ricanelas & mint chip with homemade magic shell

oops—it's been awhile. but just because i haven't been documenting it doesn't mean i haven't been making ice cream. here's my catch-up post. i've made three ice creams (well, technically four but the peach was so weird i'm not counting it) since the honey lavender. here are the first two:

stole this flavor from bi-rite—it's cinnamon ice cream with snickerdoodle pieces.

ricanelas ice cream (adapted from the perfect scoop)

(makes about 1 quart)

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

pinch of salt

ten 3-inch cinnamon sticks, broken up

2 cups heavy cream

5 large egg yolks

one batch of snickerdoodles (but you'll only use a few cookies for the ice cream, so eat the rest)

warm the milk, sugar, salt, cinnamon sticks and 1 cup of the cream in a medium saucepan. once warm, cover, remove from the heat, and let steep at room temperature for one hour.

meanwhile, make the snickerdoodles, and the ice cream will be better if the cookies are on the softer side. chop or crumble a reasonable amount of the cookies (about 5—you don't want the ice cream to be too full of stuff) into chunks.

rewarm the cinnamon-infused milk mixture. remove the cinnamon sticks with a slotted spoon and discard them. pour the remaining 1 cup cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top.

in a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as your stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. pour the custard through the strainer and into the cream. stir until cool over an ice bath.

chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. add cookie chunks right before churning is done or mix into the churned ice cream.

for mint chip ice cream and homemade magic shell topping...