japanese food

i tried to think of a creative title for this post for awhile. the thing is i just suck at thinking of creative/interesting titles. like on essays, you're supposed to have an interesting title to grab the attention of the reader but i usually just leave it blank. oops.

anyway, there are a lot of upsides of working at a michelin-rated restaurant. one of them is that i don't have to pay as much for really delicious yet expensive food. one downside is that i always want the food though. yet one more upside is that they give me really good ideas for recipes / sushi combinations so i can just recreate them. which is what i did last night.

i thought my dad took some pictures of the sushi but instead there's just this picture of me right after someone had called my name. cool.

anyway, besides the sushi i also made tempura shrimp and green beans, which can be seen at the very bottom of that picture. you know what's fun? panko! so fun and crunchy and makes tempura so much better.

today i worked the lunch shift and every time someone orders a california salad, i die / crave it so badly. it is made up of spring mix, cucumbers, tofu, crab, and avocado, with miso-tahini dressing. IT IS SO SO DELICIOUS. so i recreated that for lunch, except with salmon instead of crab because who keeps crab at their house?

for the miso-tahini dressing, i combined mainly soybean paste & tahini (essentially sesame butter), mirin (or sherry), rice vinegar, soy sauce, lemon juice, some sugar/honey, and some water to thin it. it's really deliciously addictive dressing.

EXCEPT I FORGOT THE AVOCADO!!! so when i had yet another salad for dinner i made sure to eat it with avocado.

also i made tempura tofu because there was a lot of extra tofu and also extra tempura batter and extra tempura sauce. everything was really effing good.

mochi and macarons

For my friend's birthday I decided to make mochi and macarons. 

Traditional mochi is much fancier and more difficult than what I ended up doing, but the final product tasted right. I followed this recipe, which uses the microwave and mochiko (glutinous rice flour) as opposed to $200 mochi makers or a mallet and bowl to mash rice into paste. I divided the mixture and used food coloring to make the green and pink ones.

This was the first time I've had semi-success with making macarons. The recipe I used was sort of a mixture of things from the book "I Love Macarons" by Hisako Ogita and this recipe. They ended up more meringue-y than I would have liked, but still pretty tasty. The middle is a buttercream recipe also from the "Macarons" book. It was almost too sweet, though. I'm going to keep experimenting with different macaron recipes until I finally get it right!

Confession

I miss France and am aching to go back -- and for more reasons than one. There, I said it.

Curried Quinoa with Mango

OH WHAT UP, first time on FT. I shall introduce myself as the one that sucks at cooking, but could be wined and fine dined for eternity. Today was one of those perfect weather days in the East Bay. This morning, I went to Berkeley Bowl and felt like I died and went to organic produce, yuppie heaven. I bought a bajillion fruits and vegetables, and came home and made this weird dish for lunch. I wanted to try to make quinoa, because no one in my house knows how to cook quinoa. Thus, no judgement. I sort of stuck to this recipe, but added red onions, cilantro, and lime. It resulted in this:



Laughter ensued. Today I learned that I cannot chop a mango. Who knew it could be so difficult to chop up a mango. It was a mushy, mushy (yummy) mess. Anyway, it was pretty good but it's hard to get the texture of the quinoa right.

PS New froyo opened up in Montclair. Montclair was actually lookin pretty cute today.

- L

Peach and cherry fruit crumble with candied walnuts

A while ago, CPK and I went to TJ Maxxxx and Michaels to buy some life supplies (and kitchen ware). Peaches are on sale for 89 cents a pound at the store, so I thought of making a crumble in our newly purchased ramekins.

Ramekins are small ceramic bowls that are usually ovenproof and are used to serve all sorts of yummy goodness: molten chocolate cake, baked mac&cheese, ice cream, souffles, and CRUMBLES!

I used a combination of several crumble recipes from the Martha Stewart website - fun fact she's a Barnard Alum. Then I topped it with some candied walnuts. My mom used to make candied walnuts as a treat for herself (and I obviously snuck some) and I think they are a perfect topping for most anything sweet - crumbles, french toast, ice cream, etcetcetc.

3 peaches, cut, pitted and peeled

1 can of drained canned cherries (for pies, make sure there's no sugar added)

1/4 cup of sugar

2 tablespoons of flour

squirt of lime juice

half a stick of butter

graham crackers, any type of cookie you can crush up

oats (we probably used 1 1/2 cups

sprinkling of cinnamon (some for the crumble and walnuts)

2 cups of walnuts

sugar

cinnamon

sprinkles of nutmeg, cloves, and ginger

serves 8

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. put your fruits in a bowl with 1/4 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour, and a bit of lime juice. mix 'em up and let them sit as they become syrupy.
3. we just used whatever we had on hand: half a stick of butter, crushed up graham crackers, a ton of oats, and cinnamon. mix 'em up too, making sure the butter is creamed/evenly distributed.
4. put a bit of the oat/cookie mix at the bottom of each ramekin before you put a spoonful of the fruit. set the rest of the oats mix on top of the fruit and stick 'em in the oven for 20 minutes.
5. while the crumbles are in the oven, spread the walnuts on a pan at a medium-low heat for a couple of minutes. The amount of sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves have to be put in by your own judgment. Constantly stir the walnuts as you sprinkle the sugar over the pan - your stove is probably too hot if the sugar starts caramelizing immediately. You want to give yourself time to coat all the walnuts before the sugar starts melting. Once the sugar starts melting, add the spices. Feel free to constantly be adding more sugar, it's supposed to be candied after all. When you're done, you should have little rocks of sugar and spicy goodness at the bottom.
6. Take the candied walnuts and the yummy sugar that was a byproduct of candying, and place a hearty spoonful on top of each crumble.
7. serve with milk.
8. nom

EL GRULLO

When I was back home, my friend Mara took me to THE BEST TACO TRUCK EVER. El Grullo is located on 26th and International in Oakland, CA. You absolutely cannot miss it. Thinking about it is making me supa hungo again.

Mara got the (i think) beef tacos, pictured below - YUM. I got the ultimate carnitas quesadilla FOR SIX DOLLA BILLS and it was perfection. The pork was so perfectly cooked, and it was ooooozing with a beauty of a cheese. Even though it was super cheesy, it wasn't nearly as greasy as I was bracing myself for, which I can appreciate. I especially love the radishes on the side.

The mister in the truck gave me much more than I could actually eat, so I'm planning on fasting before the next time I go so I don't waste a single bite.

Hibiscus and the best sandwich ever

What is the most delicious sandwich that is also very easy to make, you might ask? The answer is an avocado and cheese sandwich. This is an old dad recipe of which many variations exist.

1. Take some bread (in this case an English muffin from the Cheeseboard) and toast it.
2. Put a slice of cheese (I used Pepper Jack) on each piece of toast and broil them for 5 mins or less.
3. Put avocado on the bread. Add chili flakes/other salsa depending on what's around. Salsa verde is very tasty or anything with tomatillos.

Now for some tasty drank. Have you ever had the Hibiscus iced tea at Peet's? That is where I was first introduced to this delicious beverage. Now that I think about it I've had it at Bissap Baobab, which is a Senegalese restaurant. If I recall correctly they make it with ginger! I should do that next time. My friend Alice made her own version last summer, using dried hibiscus from Mi Pueblo, a Mexican grocery store at 1630 High Street. I was in the Mission recently and I got some there. This is what it looks like:
I presume it comes from this plant. Which we now own. My mom wants to dry our own since those shrivelly guys kinda freak her out.In Spanish the word for Hibiscus is Jamaica, which is pronounced Ha-mike-ah. It turns out this isn't just a Mexican drink, it's popular throughout Latin America, and in some parts of Africa and Asia as well. It has its own Wikipedia page in fact. It's full of vitamin C too!

To make it, I kiiinda followed this recipe. I used different amounts of stuff though. I used 6 or 8 cups of water, almost a full cup of dried flowers (wash them off first and they expand), and a little more than a 1/2 cup of sugar.
I boiled the water first and let the flowers and sugar steep for 15 minutes.
Then you have to strain it and let it cool. I added the juice of 5 limes, which was a very good addition.
You might want to water down the juice or at least add a few ice cubes.

IN N OUT

Making your mouth water just because I can. Actually, it's just making my mouth water because I can't have it in New York. It was the first thing I ate when I went back home 2 weeks ago. In-N-Out is only available on the West Coast: Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah.

Fun fact, they were the first to conceptualize a drive-thru, hence the name IN N OUT. derr.

It's 97 degrees in New York.

What's better than coming home from work on a paralyzingly hot day to homemade orange popsicles that Yooni and I made yesterday?

NOTHING.

Yum.

Ici

Ici

There are many great ice cream place in the San Francisco Bay Area, but Ici just belongs. It's just so cute, and refreshing, and cute. Kids and faculty (HI LINH AND VANESSA) from our highschool frequent Ici all the time. yumyumyumyum I hear their honey lavender is quite delectable. I'm personally quite enamored with their basil. I had a scoop of caramel pecan and fresh creme apricot (which tasted quite like the Bakesale Betty's scones).

Their cones are quite delicious with chocolate at the bottom. The weather was warm enough that the chocolate was soft at the bottom. Yum.

Summer Rolls

It's summer. Let's make some summer rolls.

1. Chop up veggies. I used cucumbers, carrots, jicama, and green onions. For herbs I used mint and cilantro. Also lettuce.

2. Marinate tofu slices. You don't have to do this but it makes it tasty. I used peanut sauce, a little soy sauce and some rice vinegar.

3. The rice paper wrapper you can get at most grocery stores and they are really cheap. I got Vietnamese Bánh Tráng brand Spring Roll Wrapper Galettes de Riz. You need a shallow bowl of water. Swirl the rice paper in water for about 10 seconds until it gets soft.

4. Load up the goods.
5. Roll it up. I don't have a very special technique for this, just fold the ends in and then roll it tight.
6. EAT. With Peanut Sauce. I used Thai Kitchen Peanut Satay Sauce, which was pretty good, but not the holy grail of peanut sauces. Should probably hit up Little Saigon for that.

Rosemary & beets

Yesterday my brother and I made pasta. We used the recipe from the pasta machine, which is 500 grams of flour and 4 eggs. Since we had some beets, my brother had the idea to make the pasta beet-colored. We weren't sure the best way of getting the beet color into the dough. We ended up food processing some and kneading it into the dough, which wasn't perfect since it left little piece of beet that made a whole in the dough when we tried to roll it really thin. We also added food processed rosemary. My general rule of thumb for using herbs and spices is that you can never have too much. I grabbed a veritable branch from our rosemary bush and chopped it up. It looked like a huge amount, but it gave a nice hint of flavor that wasn't at all overpowering.

Max rolling the pasta

Word of warning: do not do this. Just because there is flour does not mean that the pieces won't stick. Next time we will use layers of wax paper.

The bottom layers stuck together. We actually cooked it just like that because we couldn't figure out what else to do with it and it turned out fine; you couldn't really tell. The pasta cooks in about 3 minutes because it's fresh.The finished product. We used a sage butter sauce, which is literally just sage leaves and butter sautéed. There were also sautéed shittake mushrooms.These are the beets. I have had beets in many shapes and forms and this is the best way to cook them in my opinion. It's really simple too. All you do is cut them up and bake them with salt and a little olive oil until they are soft when you stick a fork in. I added some of the extra rosemary too. If you cut them sort of thin they carmelize a little and it is delicious.

grilled goodness

tonight's dinner had two themes: almost every item was a) grilled and b) on sale at safeway.

spare ribs were on sale so i went through my folder of bookmarked recipes on my computer and found one that i've been wanting to make: coffee-infused ribs. you make your own bbq sauce (yum) and one of the ingredients in it is coffee.

counter-clockwise, from left: coffee-infused ribs, brussel sprouts, assorted grilled vegetables, brown rice

we weren't planning to make brussel sprouts for dinner but yesterday i saw this really simple but delicious-looking recipe for grilled brussel sprouts, and since they were on sale—why not? topped with shaved parmesan cheese, mmm.

assorted grilled vegetables: portobello mushrooms, bell peppers, zucchini, & eggplant.

we had brown rice because the brussel sprout recipe mentions this:

Oh and in case you are wondering why they are good for you, let me give you a small explanation. Brussel sprouts are high in protein. Although the protein isn’t complete, it can become complete with whole grains. Which means? Yet another way to get complete protein NOT from an animal!! Plus they are low in calorie and high in fiber.

and lastly, we had some buttermilk to use up so for dessert, my mom and i made a lemon buttermilk cake with raspberries.

we used this recipe but instead of frozen strawberries we used fresh raspberries, and we made 3/4 of the frosting recipe, skipping the lemonade concentrate and adding a little lemon extract along with the lemon zest.

looking forward to the leftovers.

magnolia cupcakes

one of my best friends left for argentina today. she's studying abroad there for the whole year, so i won't see her for a very long time. i sort of hate emoticons but if i used them i would put a sad face here.

she had a potluck a couple nights ago to see everyone before she left. i made cupcakes, using the magnolia bakery recipe. i mean, it's the one from their cookbook but i'm not entirely sure they would release the exact recipe they use in the bakery. still, they tasted pretty darn similar to me, and therefore they tasted pretty darn good. (maybe it was because for the two batches of cupcakes and two batches of frosting, i used 9 sticks of butter total. mmm mmm butter.)

recipes:

vanilla cupcakes

chocolate cupcakes

vanilla buttercream frosting

chocolate buttercream frosting

blueberry-orange scones

I made these scones the other day. I'm not sure where the recipe is from (the internets somewhere) and I changed a few things based on what we had available. I also made up an orange glaze to put on the finished scones.

• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• grated rind of two oranges
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• a bunch of blueberries! (maybe 1 or 2 cups, however many you like)

1. Mix the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a blender, until fine.
2. Mix wet ingredients and then add to the dry, stirring until the mixture is moist. Add blueberries.
3. Drop spoonfuls of whatever size you want your scones to be onto parchment paper.
4. Bake at 400 F for 18 minutes.
5. While the scones are still warm you can drizzle them with a glaze of the juice from the oranges and sugar. You can also add in some of the rind if you have any left. This makes the orange flavor even stronger, but if you like crispier, drier scones you shouldn't use too much of this because it makes the scones a little soggy if there's too much. The last thing I did was to sprinkle the scones with sugar, just for extra crunch/sweetness.

I bet other fruit/berry combos would be good and fun to do also. I think this recipe made about a dozen scones, but I made them pretty large. Enjoy!

Summer in New York

Yesterday, Cpk and I went to Bryant Park to watch Goldfinger. I love the James Bond series. I own all the movies at home. I knew Cpk would hate the movie (the Bond Girl's name is Pussy Galore), but I think she liked being outside. The weather at night has been really nice, so the HBO film festival in Bryant Park is going to be quite a treat. Cpk guessed that there were several thousands of people on the lawn. Considering that's where they used to pitch the tents for fashion week, I'd say it's possible.


There are other movies playing at the Brooklyn Bridge Park and Central Park - actually all around. I can't find the page on gonyc, but it's there.

gastronomic endeavors, 6/21/10

today was quite the food-filled day. i woke up and my friend made some chocolate chip pancakes (i had twice the amount of chocolate chips as everyone else) and some fresh squeezed oj. my friend who made them's secret was to put half a mashed up banana in the batter. it was yummy because you could taste just a hint of banana flavor, which went well with the chocolate. no pictures.

for lunch i was supposed to go eat with the same friends, but around 2 i give him a call and as he picks up, i hear "oh shit i forgot we were supposed to call nicole.. hey what's up?" nice. so instead, i went to the city with another friend with the mission of grabbing some lunch, then making our way to an ice cream place called humphry slocombe. little did i know, this would be the start of an epic food adventure, perhaps the most epic food adventure of my entire life.

i suggested ike's place, which is a sandwich place i've heard a lot about. but then i realized i also wanted to go to pizzeria delfina, another place i've been meaning to go to. DILEMMA! the mission has an overwhelming amount of fantastic sources of food—so what were two hungry youths like us to do? compromise: split one sandwich at ike's, and split one pizza at delfina. problem solved.

the line was 4-5 times longer than this.

i only had my phone today, so sorry for the crappy quality of pictures.

as we pulled up to ike's place (primo parking spot snagged right across the street, btw) there was a huge line out the door. this place is effin' popular. and for good reason; i recently saw two of their sandwiches featured on grub street's the san francisco sandwich register (a follow-up to their previous review of the 101 best sandwiches in new york), among many other accolades. after deciding on a sandwich and waiting about 15 minutes to order, then maybe another 15 minutes to get our sandwich, we made our way to dolores park to devour said creation.

the peg bundy before: breaded eggplant, french dressing, avocado, smoked gouda, + all the basics every sando comes with ("dirty sauce," lettuce, tomato, red onions, pickles, banana peppers)

the peg bundy after (they even give you a lollipop!)

we digested for a bit in the park, then went to delfina. on the way we passed bi-rite creamery, and it felt wrong to be so close and not get any ice cream there, though i knew we were going to ice cream after delfina. but a roadblock in our plans came when we found out that delfina wasn't open yet for dinner, as it was that awkward limbo time between lunch and dinner. so, we stopped in at bi-rite market, where i picked up some ginger beer that i had been craving and two types of cheeses: one from pt. reyes, and one handmade by nuns in france, called secret du convent ("which means 'secret of the convent' in french," it read. no shit!).

since we had some time to kill.. i thought, why not get a bit of post-lunch, pre-linner ice cream (before our planned post-linner ice cream)? this certainly wouldn't be the first time i've had ice cream more than once in a day. bi-rite creamery's ricanelas (cinnamon ice cream with snickerdoodles) and brown butter pecan are my favorites.

counter-clockwise, from top left: ricanelas, brown butter pecan, and balsamic strawberry

finally, to pizzeria delfina. we got the last outside table, perfect for people-/hipster- watching. i was craving artichoke hearts, and luckily one of the special pizzas of the day had sauteéd artichokes on it.

capricciosa pizza: proscuitto cotto, artichokes, nepitella, panna, & mozzarella

humphry slocombe is in the southeastern part of the mission, so we had a bit of a walk to get there. perfect for walking off a bit of my growing food baby. when we got there, i was greeted with such ice cream flavors such as balsamic caramel and secret breakfast, and sorbets like cucumber ice milk, hibiscus beet, or thai chili lime. what? wait, what?! check out their full list of the flavors here. we sampled literally every one, except for maybe vanilla and chocolate.

between the two of us, we ended up getting balsamic caramel, mcevoy olive oil, peanut butter curry, and cucumber ice milk.

the balsamic caramel was really intense. they definitely captured the strong balsamic flavor (unlike bi-rite's balsamic strawberry, where you can't really taste the balsamic) but by the end it was a bit overwhelming. the olive oil was flavored with a bit of citrus, which you could taste at the beginning and then shifted to an olive oil aftertaste. it was nice until i realized that between the citrus flavor and the olive oil flavor, it tasted kinda soapy. hmm. and together the two were interesting (à la olive oil & balsamic vinegar).

the peanut butter curry was my favorite; it tasted just like peanut butter at first, but you were left with a delicious curry aftertaste. together with the cucumber ice milk, the combo reminded me of eating the cucumbers that come as a garnish for chicken satay, dipped in peanut sauce.

lastly, as we walked back to the car, we stopped at ritual roasters, a mission staple. yes the number of pretentious hipsters that inhabit the trendy café is unmatched, but the coffee is also pretty tasty. also, my friend is obsessed and demanded we stop in.

we got lattes.

LASTLY, seeing some saffron threads at bi-rite market gave me the idea to make paella for dinner. so when i got home i started cooking some paella, switching recipes three times before settling upon a recipe for express paella using a pressure cooker (best invention ever), mostly because my family was hungry and it was already 9:30. i added all the spices that were listed in all the other recipes though, which i think made it a lot better. it came out a bit liquidy, but tasted yummy.

phew.