Deathly Hallows Pt. I

Some of the Famiree went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on Thursday. Nicole drew the dark mark on me, Terren and Devin. As you can see, Terren and I were the most badass witches at the premiere. Order of the Phoenix got nothing on us.

We were quite pleased with the film. I was afraid that the beginning would be too boring since they spend so much time wandering around in the woods - but the advantage of watching it over reading it is the beautiful European landscape. Hoooooly turd. It was so pretty. ANYWAYS NOT TO GIVE ANYTHING AWAY - although I can't imagine anyone who hasn't read the last book or seen the movie yet, I'll just say that the audience was emotionally spent when the film ended. AND THEN we went to Big Nick's to fill that emotional void with fried things.

AHHHCAN'TWAITTILLTHENEXTONE

butternut squash muffins/cupcakes

awhile back we got some butternut squashes in our csa. i found a fantastic looking recipe from tastespotting again for butternut squash cupcakes. i made them, forgetting to add the dry ingredients. big oops. plus our ovens didn't really work (see undercooked eggplant parm) so they turned out to be something like squashy custard.. cheapskate that i am, i saved the dry ingredients with plans to someday get another squash and successfully make them.

the time has come! got two butternut squashes in our last csa. (it was the last one ever, sad.) not to toot my own horn or anything, but they were SO EFFING GOOD. we forwent the frosting and instead used leftover cinnamon butter from the pumpkin pancakes.

here's the recipe, via korean american mommy

Butternut Squash Cupcakes

Ingredients

Adapted from MarthaStewart.com

1 Large Butternut Squash (about 1-2/3 cups to 2 cups)

4 Large Eggs

1 Cup Granulated Sugar (you can add more for a sweeter cupcake)

1 Cup Softened Butter

1/4 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Pumpkin Spice

1/4 tsp Nutmeg

1/2 tsp Ground Ginger

1 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Baking Powder

2 Cups Flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400º degrees. Wash, dry and cut the squash in half length wise and remove seeds and place on a baking sheet. Brush on some extra virgin olive oil. Bake for about an hour. Check to see if the squash is done by piercing it with a fork.

2. Scoop the squash out, allow to cool and puree in your food processor. Set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda & powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and pumpkin spice and set aside.

4. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs and butter. Add the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Then whisk in the butternut squash puree.

5. Prepare your muffin pan and add the batter a little over halfway. Bake at 350º for 18 minutes. Insert a toothpick in the center and check to see if it comes out clean.

JAPANESE CANDIES.

1. the flan candies were ok at first, but then i realized that they had a not-as-pleasant after taste
2. the milky crayons, well, they're just the how you'd expect them to be BUT THEY HAVE STICKERS
3. the milky candy bar was nomnom.

PUMPKIN PANCAKES aka heaven in pancake form

Terren made us pumpkin pancakes yesterday. They were amazing. Photos sort of speak for themselves. Here's the recipe she used for the pancakes! Some tips: you can make your own pumpkin puree (just mash up the cooked insides of a pumpkin!) and your own buttermilk (one tablespoon vinegar to one cup milk). Also, double or triple the recipe. If you have giant famiree. Or just if you enjoy eating. And get someone great at flipping pancakes (Nicole) to do the actual cooking.
I made some candied walnuts to put on top. They are really easy to make and extremely tasty. All you do is put some walnuts in a pan with sugar. I used brown sugar and some ground cinnamon and cloves. You stir it until the sugar magically starts to liquify. Yooni is better at it than I am... a lot of the sugar didn't quite adhere to the walnuts. Still tasty though.
Round two. Hi pumpkin!
THEN Nicole and Terren made cinnamon butter to go with it! All you do is mix cinnamon, sugar and brown sugar in melty butter and refrigerate it so it congeals again.
They also made vanilla maple syrup by adding vanilla extract to maple syrup. Oh we fancy, huh?

Aaaand we got some pumpkin seeds out of the deal! We roasted them in the oven later with olive oil and salt a variety of different seasonings (cumin, "country herbs", chili powder, soy sauce).

The Great Vegetable Concoction

Last week was the motherlode of vegetables. It was the last week of CSA (crying), we had groceries from Chinatown, and the veggies we nabbed from Hewitt's harvest dinner. We had SO MANY greens we needed to eat. So Nicole and I decided to use as many as possible.

SO MUCH KALE WTF
MAGIC HAPPENS
Oh, normal amount of kale.
TASTY.

stuffed acorn squash

We still had a bunch of acorn squash from our CSA, so we sort of improvised this autumn-y recipe from here. Make sure when you scoop out the insides of the squash that you save the seeds for later because they'll be yummy. We used leftover rice and added celery, onions, pomegranate seeds, chicken, garlic and some cilantro on top. You can basically add whatever you want to the rice and it will be fun.

Midnight snack!

These are serious cookies.


Besides being chocolate with chocolate chips and mini peanut butter cups, they are (were) the size of your head, melty hot, and served with cold milk. YUMS.

Here's Nicole and Vanessa's secret recipe aka thanks internet:

Levain Bakery Copycat Dark Chocolate Peanut butter Chip Cookies (**Yield - 1 dozen cookies)

Ingredients

• 2 sticks cold and cubed unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• ***1/4 to 1/2 cup good quality dark cocoa powder (we used 1/2 cup)
• 2 1/4 to 1/2 cups all-purpose flour- Spoon and Sweep method (what? just googled it. didn't do that.)
• 1/4 tsp Kosher salt
• 3/4 to 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips ("1 cup" aka dumped in the bag)
• 2 cups peanut butter chips (we substituted with TJ's peanut butter cups, which turned out wonderfully melty)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle, cream together butter and sugar until well blended and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until well-incorporated, then beat in cocoa powder.

2. Mix in flour, salt and baking powder until just combined. Gently fold in remaining ingredients.

3. Transfer dough to clean work surface and gently mix dough by hand to ensure even distribution of ingredients. Divide into 12 equal portions, **about 4 oz each, and place each on sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake in the preheated oven 16-20 minutes depending on how gooey and raw’ish you like the middles (I bake mine at 375 for 18 minutes, as I prefer a less raw’ish’ interior), taking care not to overbake. . Let cool on a rack and store what you don’t immediately eat, in an airtight container. To freshen them after a few days (if they last that long), give them a quick nuke in the microwave for 5-10 seconds.

Note – The Levain Bakery doesn’t use vanilla extract in their cookies, as they feel it’s unecessary. However, some feel you need it. You can add 1 tsp to 1 T to each recipe if desired. Just add it after each egg is incorporated.

** Note – The Levain Bakery uses 6 oz of cookie dough per cookie. As mentioned above, If you want 12 cookies out of the above recipes, a little over 4 oz per cookie (4.1 to 4.2 oz. Use a kitchen scale) will get you that. If you want to use 6 oz of cookie dough per cookie, you’ll probably get only 6-8 cookies. However, a little over 4 oz makes a cookie just as thick and huge, so you don’t even notice the difference.

*** Note – Regarding the Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter cookies. I mostly use Dutch-process cocoa. If you use basic, natural unsweetened cocoa (you know, the Hershey’s in the brown can or whatever), add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp baking soda (I just use a heaping 1/4 tsp when using regular baking cocoa) to the dry ingredients. Also, if they’re too ‘chocolatey’ and rich for you, use only 1/4 cup cocoa powder, and add 1/4 cup extra flour.

[as the site mentions, we were attempting to copy levain bakery (which will soon be our neighbor—hooray!). ours ended up way flatter—still don't know how they get them so thick—but equally undercooked, and therefore equally delicious. -n]

Steamed BBQ Pork Buns

Also known has char siu bao! Instead of chinese bbq roast pork, I made the buns with an american style bbq pulled pork from my slow cooker

BBQ Pulled Pork

This process is rather difficult to describe because I pretty much played it by ear.

Ingredients

7 pounds of pork shoulder

Spice rub: chili pepper, dried oregano, ghost pepper salt (got it from chelsea market), cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, clover, kosher salt

1 1/2 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup of white granulated sugar

probably 1 1/2 tablespoons of worcester sauce

1 cup of ketchup

1/2 cup of vinegar

2 tablespoons of siracha rooster sauce

1 beer

1 chicken bullion cube with 1/2 cup of water or 1 can of chicken broth

Directions

1. Hack up the pork into manageable pieces and get down and dirty with the rub.
2. Mix up the rest of the ingredients with the exception of the beer and chicken broth.
3. Place the pork into a 6 quart slow cooker and then pour the sauce on top.
4. Add the cooking liquid (beer & chicken broth).
5. Cook on low for 10-11 hours.
6. Live life
7. Remove all the fat that's floated up to the top, and then place the pork in a serving/baking dish. Pour the de-fatted sauce on top of the meat.
8. Wait another 2 hours for the meat and the sauce to come together and then shred.

I used this recipe for the steamed buns:

Ingredients (the amounts are separated for the different steps you mix them in)

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1 teaspoon white sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flower

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup warm water

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 table spoon vegetable oil

Directions

1. Mix together yeast, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1/4 cup flour, and 1/4 cup warm water. Allow to stand for 30 minutes.
2. Mix in 1/2 cup warm water, flour, salt, 2 tablespoons sugar, and vegetable oil. Knead until dough surface is smooth and elastic. Roll over in a greased bowl, and let stand until triple in size, about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
3. Punch down dough, and spread out on a floured board. Sprinkle baking powder evenly on surface, and knead for 5 minutes. Divide dough into 2 parts, and place the piece you are not working with in a covered bowl. Divide the dough into balls the size of small clementines. Let the balls rise for 20 minutes before you shape each ball into a disk and place the pork in the center. Put each bun on some sort of leafy green, preferably cabbage, but we used collard greens.
4. Place steam-plate on a small wire rack in the middle of the pot, wok, rice cooker, etc. Don't forget to put water into the pot - you know, steamed buns. Steam the buns for 15 minutes then CHOW DOWN. yay.

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, NICOLE

LOOK CAROLINE CAN PLAY THE ACCORDION! also note the little flags that we made for her while she was sleeping.

Happy happy birthday, from all of us to you. We wish it was our birthday, so we could party too! HEY!!! yay you finally turned the big 1-9, oh wait, you're still baby.

look i can clap happy birthday! better in person.

Video blog pt. II

let's make soup! from Eunice Kim on Vimeo.

The video is called let's make soup, but it's not really about making soup.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

!!!!! 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.

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.

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