Food on the Frontal Lobe

LA Challah and Hummus Hunt - Part III

2010-07-08T15:54:00.005-04:00

Okay. It's been two months since I last posted. There have been many delicious meals. A big decision (we're officially moving to LA); and I've even started cheating on myself by doing some additional blogging at the Manolo Food Blog. There have also been some additional articles, which as always you can check out on my website.

And naturally, there has been some challah and hummus tasting.

A recent Friday saw a record triple challah try-out -

First from Eilat Bakery, two little guys -- one egg challah with sesame seeds...

And one water challah without...

Now usually, I prefer egg challot to water because of my intense love for Zomick's egg challah and because they tend to be a little chewier and moister, an all around better platform for dipping into hummus. And when I purchased both of these loaves and gave them a squeeze, I fully anticipated that this predilection would be the case. The egg felt nice and squishy, while the water felt hard and too crusty.

Lo and behold, however, the egg challah was pretty bland and didn't have a nice tear, while the water challah had a good toothsome quality and a little more flavor. You live and learn. Neither, however, lived up to Schwartz's or to the challah against all others are judged. The beloved Zomicks.

The third challah of the day was a total wild card. From Got Kosher? Provisions.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is a pretzel challah with Belgian chocolate chips.

Notice how my fingers are coated in chocolate? We had tried one of Got Kosher?'s plain pretzel challot a few weeks prior, which I had loved (especially with peanut butter) but which Daniel had found a little too malty in flavor. This chocolate version was pretty ridiculous. Quite rich and delicious, especially when warmed for a bit in the oven. I would not, however, recommend dipping it in this --

The week's hummus portion. Purchased from one of the Kosher groceries on Pico. Shipped from Israel, it was certainly good, but no better than Sabra and thus not worth all the extra carbon footprint miles (aren't I a good environmentalist?)

Overall, a decent outing, but the quest continues. And now that we're becoming official LA citizens, the mission takes on an even graver seriousness. We must succeed in finding our Los Angeles versions of Zomicks and Damascus because shipping rates are just cost prohibitive (yes, I've investigated this.)

LA Challah and Hummus Hunt - Part II

2010-05-04T01:08:00.005-04:00

The Los Angeles challah and hummus hunt continues. Last Friday's stop came courtesy of a purveyor that specializes in that other specialty of the Jewish bread baker - the bagel.

According to my research, the Bagel Factory not only makes some of best bagels on this here Left Coast, but it also makes a pretty mean challah (including a chocolate chip version - an idea that I find simultaneously tempting and tawdry.) So we zipped over to try their wares.

First, the challah. Compared to our previous almost Zomick's worthy experience at Schwartz's, this loaf was a bit disappointing. The Bagel Factory version was good, but a little drier than I'd like, without the satisfying chewiness that generally comes with the egg (versus water) variety of the braided bread. However, once we got further into the loaf it got better and better. And by Monday afternoon, when I grilled up a couple of slices to make Daniel a chicken sausage with pineapple salsa sandwich, it was downright delicious. (And the half-sized versions that I noticed and squeezed as we exited the store seemed moister and squishier than the full-sized kind that we had already purchased.)

While Bagel Factory did offer it's own version of hummus, there was another item on the menu that required our attention instead. Whitefish salad. As Zomick's is to challah, Russ and Daughters' whitefish salad is to, well, whitefish salad. Creamy, fishy, a little sweet, a little tangy, it may well be my favorite food in the world. Especially with a schmear on a bialy or a Bagel Hole bagel, with a ripe tomato and an onion slice. Oh my lord, I'm getting hungry.

Anyway, so good is this salad, that to be honest, I don't even hunt for other versions to rival it. I know they will only disappoint ( a recent trip to Susan Feniger's Street, where I sampled the whitefish salad on a pretzel roll, nearly broke my heart.) However, the version at Bagel Factory looked kinda good, and when Daniel decided to order it on an everything bagel, I was a happy nibbler (while nursing my own ridiculously good container of hearty, chunky lentil soup.)

The whitefish bagel sandwich was pretty darn good. While the salad didn't have the complex layers of flavor that my old friend Russ and his trusty daughters offer up, it was a very solid showing. Not overly rich like some varieties, allowing the smoky fish flavor to really dominate. The bagel had a decent chew, and wasn't the kind of freakishishly puffy blimp-style popular in so many parts of the country.

In fact, the everything bagel that came with my lentil soup was good enough to eat on its own...

But it was even better with the bits of fallen whitefish that I scavenged from the white deli paper of Daniel's sandwich after he was done. And yes, I admit, I even licked said white deli paper. I would hate for good fish to go to waste.

Fast Food - Animal Protein

2010-04-30T14:46:00.004-04:00

When we first headed West, it was to Northern California, home of amazing burritos, farm fresh produce, killer Burmese, and some pretty fantastic burgers - you'll recall my love of the Monk's Kettle turkey burger par example.

However, I purposely put off trying that king of the California burger - the In-N-Out because I wanted to wait to try it in on its home turf in SoCal. Even after arriving in LA, I put off trying it because I wanted to be in a full-on burger craving mood.

Well there's nothing like a little rock-N-roll, a wee bit of vodka (not to worry parental types, not enough to make it unsafe to drive,) and the witching hour to make a girl (and a bearded fellow) crave a burger. Big time. So after hearing our friends' band The Lincoln Bedroom play in Hollywood, we headed to that fast food icon for a midnight snack- er meal.

(Before I descend into burger bliss, I have to give a quick shout out to The Lincoln Bedroom. They were so, so good. Seriously. This is coming from a person who goes into most live music performances -- especially those at bars -- with a big dose of skepticism and a sense of foreboding. But I couldn't stop smiling the whole time they were playing.)

And that smile just extended to the In-N-Out experience. I loved the bright, bright lights of the joint. Even at 12:30 AM, the branch on Sunset was a hopping, festive (if slightly seedy) place to be. I loved the paper hats that the folks at the counter wore (the guy who took our order reminded us of Smash from Friday Night Lights.)

Having put off a visit to In-N-Out for so long, I'd done a lot of thinking about what to get. I'd practiced using the proper lingo for the various off-menu preparations and when we got to the counter I was ready to go.

Here's what we ordered...

Fries, Animal Style (meaning with fried onions, melted cheese, and "spread")
The verdict: Sinful, decadent, everything else you can imagine. Although, while I kind of liked that the cheese wasn't completely melted, it was a bit too solid to coat a large portion of the fries. This did, however, allow Daniel to eat some of them post-burger.

Daniel got his burger Animal Style (topped with fried onions, pickles, and "spread")
The verdict: At 12:45 or whenever it was that we finally got our order (this isn't fast fast food), he had no complaints. The next day he did say that perhaps because he didn't grow up eating In-N-Out, this did not surpass his greasy fast food standard-bearer, the Whopper. Although he also tried to maintain that his burger was a healthy choice because he didn't get a "Double Double," so clearly the boy has a skewed perspective.

Speaking of healthy, I went for Protein Style (served sans-bun in a lettuce wrap; with ketchup, mustard, and raw onions, no spread)-
The verdict: Man, that was a lot of lettuce. But I like lettuce. And I like burger. So, what's not to like? In fact, in my defense for making such a girly carb conscious choice, as a child on the occasional trip to McDonalds, I often removed the bun from my Happy Meal burger, choosing instead to focus on the skinny patty, diced onion, and pickle slices. So I was hanging it Protein Style waaaay back.

Seriously though, it was a pretty fine burger. Especially when topped with some Animal Style fries. I think this is what they mean by animal proteins.

LA Challah and Hummus Hunt Part I

2010-04-12T13:33:00.005-04:00

So Daniel and I are on day seven of our two month trial run at being LA citizens. A few key observations thus far:

1) What they say about traffic is true.

2) What they say about it being all Hollywood is true. You literally can't go into a restaurant or coffee shop without hearing something along the lines of "I'm trying to figure out how to add an element of racial tension into Act III" or "Yeah, I'd be happy to work for free as long as I get a credit." Welcome to Hollywood, baby.

3) What they say about the weather is (mainly) true. Our first few days here were glorious. Then last night it rained so loudly, I kept making Daniel pause the episode of Project Runway we were watching to see if we needed to build an arc. Here's Daniel in Malibu, dancing for joy.

But I digress. Clearly, a key element of our decision to take or leave LA is the food. And one of the things that we look for in any city is a place to buy good challah and hummus. We love them separately (after all, what's a turkey sandwich without a good schmear of hummus?) But we REALLY love them in concert.

For all of its amazing food attributes, during our time in the Bay Area, we never found challah and hummus that could live up to the New York Pantheon of Zomicks and Damascus. But we're hoping LA may prove a little more robust in this department.

And so last Friday, we began our hunt for great C&H LA-style.

Based on a Chowhound search, I decided that we'd start with Schwartz' challah.

Located on a stretch of Pico that has an embarrassment of Kosher establishments, this 50-odd year old bakery and deli won raves from the Hounds. Because of traffic (see above) and some address confusion (see bearded man above), we arrived around 1:30 and were worried that they this late on a Friday afternoon, they might have run out of the great braided bread. But we were in luck, and the counters were stocked with it.

Being the picky texture connoisseurs that we are, we gave the challot some good squeezes, and were initially disappointed by what we felt. The bread felt too crusty, without the good soft give that our standard-bearer Zomicks offers. Not wanting to give up too soon, I kept squeezing, and strangely after testing about five loaves, I found one with precisely the right consistency.

Here's a picture of the little fellow that we took home:

He was just right. Soft squishy,

And with the perfect tear. Mmm. Look at that doughy goodness. The taste was also pretty fantastic. A little sweet. Nicely chewy. We were thoroughly impressed, although I for one still think that Zomick's has a leg up -- it's a little more eggy, which I like. This though was nothing to sneeze at and may well become our go-to LA challah (although I am slightly concerned/perplexed by the fact that there was such a range in textures of the challot on display)

From there we headed to try out some hummus. I'd read good things about a sit down Lebanese place in Westwood called Sunin, and after seeing a picture of their hummus on their website (creamy and smooth looking,) it seemed as good a place as any to begin our hunt for the second step in the one-two punch that is C&H.

The hummus that arrived at our table lived up to the picture.

It was indeed smooth and creamy, a truly perfect texture. My one complaint is that I felt it had a bit too much tahini. Sadly, I've found that this is often the case with the smoother varieties, so that you end up having to choose between a slightly overpowering sesame taste in favor of texture or a slightly grainy texture in favor of a more balanced flavor. Really, a girl shouldn't have to make such a decision.

That said, the hummus was still quite good (we definitely finished it all.) And, almost equally importantly, Sunin had the best lentil soup that I've had since my beloved Carrol Gardens Zaytoons fix. AND they have pickled turnips. So all told, a good find indeed.

A FOFL Exclusive! - The Making of Chicken McNecklace

2010-03-24T19:27:00.008-04:00

It's been said that I spend an inordinate amount of time focused on food. I read about it. I write about it. Yes, I often dream about it. And then there's all that good time spent eating it. Food and I have a pretty strong, faithful relationship. But this past Saturday, that relationship got a little weird. I found myself sitting in my toaster oven of a car, Otis, doing this -

Yes, that's right. I was stringing those little critters they call Chicken McNuggets into a necklace. And it made me feel a little funny. My fingers got greasy. I smelled like fried oil and processed chicken.

Not too long after, I took it even further, and found myself doing this -

Yup, now stringing together mini pigs-in-a-blanket (in honor of my father, they were Hebrew National) to create this -

No, I'm not starting a mail-order edible jewelry shop (although maybe I should - given how greasy both of these products are, they could also serve a third function as a kind of oil rich moisturizer.)

All of this hard work was actually in service of Daniel's latest video (which I helped write and in which I make a cameo)

Daniel - A Korean Delicacy

2010-03-11T15:48:00.003-05:00

So in the last couple of weeks, it has become clear that I am living with a superstar. Okay, he's a superstar in Korea, but an overnight sensation nonetheless. For those who haven't been following Daniel's meteoric rise to South Korean fame, it started when he made a video about the Olympic gold medal figure skater Kim Yuna. He went on to be interviewed by Korean radio, have his first video appear on Korean television, and to receive a few marriage proposals via YouTube comment. He's taken, people.

I wasn't going to post the videos here because they don't have much to do with food, but since many of his fans have commented on his eating of pizza in the first video and his gobbling of a hamburger in the follow up, I figured why not? So without further ado, I give you Butterpolice, as he is known on YouTube, the Korean sensation.

Part One - Kim Yu-na Fan Watches Gold Medal Performance

Part Two - Kim Yu-na Fan Trains To Be Like Kim Yu-na

We Want Food- Itsa Pizza Pie!

2010-03-08T21:03:00.008-05:00

As an anxious child, I had many fears - burglars, thunder storms, bananas. In some respects, I was very lucky though. I never had to worry too much that my parents would split up. They had a pretty great marriage and rarely fought, so when they did it felt dramatic and the reverberations of the fight would ring in my ears for days after. As an adult, I don't remember the details of any of them except one. It was a doozy. The cause of said row? Barbecue pizza.

Yes, you read that correctly. The biggest fight my parents ever had was over pizza topped with some kind of saucy pulled pork barbecue. My dad thought it sounded disgusting. My mom, a great lover of both pizza and barbecue was anxious to try it. Tempers flared. Pizza was ordered. I told you so's were issued. I hid in my room with the dog and covered my ears. My parents eventually came in and comforted me; the argument had just been the result of hunger-induced tempers and misunderstandings.

Unlike in other pizza-ordering situations, where leftovers were always consumed the next day along with a pre-prandial drink and a viewing of MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHours, on this occasion the uneaten remains were tossed. All was forgiven. But not forgotten. For the rest of my childhood, it was the marker for every other disagreement. The barometer against which other fights were measured. From that day on, whenever my parents argued, if I felt the slightest amount of concern that it would escalate into something more sinister, I would look at them and say, "Is this barbecue pizza?" And they would reassure me that yes, this fight too had a bark far worse than its bite.

While Daniel and I have had many a food-related disagreement (when my blood sugar drops, my temper escalates), we share what may be an unlikely love of barbecue pizza. It's one that developed during Daniel's 28th birthday party, which was also the historic election night of Barack Obama. We ordered a cheese-free barbecue chicken pizza. When the guests had left and we felt free to eat a few extra slices, we discovered that this barbecue pizza, which also featured jalapenos and red onions, became even more delicious when dipped in Sabra hummus. Decadent? Yes. Carb heavy? Oh yeah. We've enjoyed the combo many times since, and it has become our go-to food to enjoy while watching event television - election night, Super Bowl, and of course, the Oscars.

So yesterday, in honor of the Academy Awards (my personal favorite TV event), I tried my hand at making my own BBQ pizza.

I used an overnight pizza dough recipe from Epicurious .

Marinated some chicken breast in a mix of spicy red barbecue sauce, a splash of Carolina mustard, a dash of ketchup, and a dollop of canned tomato sauce. Sauteed up three jalapenos. Sliced a red onion.

Topped the 9-inch pizzas and let them bake on my brand new pizza stone (courtesy of my buddy Ariel). The result? Delicious. And if need be, worth a fight.

We Want Food - Clean Plate Club

2010-03-06T15:08:00.005-05:00

I am ashamed to admit that Daniel and I are not always the best at finishing leftovers. We've been getting better, especially recently as I've been making a game of reinventing last night's dinner as an entirely new reinvented sandwich or salad. Still when there is so much else delicious out there to eat, it can be hard to get through the last of what was once a delicious beef stew but that has now become a little tired.

There was no need to force ourselves, however, to finish up the tuna and mushroom casserole that I made last week. In fact, after each having two rounds of leftovers, we had to battle it out for the final helping (eventually I let Daniel have it, but let's just say he owes me one.) What made it so good? Well mushrooms for starters. And a little chewy brown rice. And heaps and heaps of creamy (but low fat!) dairy. This recipe, based on one from the always fabulous 101 Cookbooks is a new favorite. Here's the deal:

Mushroom and Tuna Casserole (slightly adapted from 101 Cookbooks)
8 servings

Ingredients:
-8 ounces brown mushrooms, chopped
-1 large yellow onion, chopped
-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
-3 cups cooked brown rice, room temperature (I used Chinese food leftovers)
-2 large eggs
-1/2 cup low fat sour cream
-1 cup low fat cottage cheese
-2 cans albacore tuna
-1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
-1/3 cup grated Parmesan (divided)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9x13 baking dish (I used a glass one.)

2. Over medium-high heat in a large skillet, saute the mushrooms and a few pinches of salt in olive oil. Stir occasionally until the mushrooms have released liquid and browned. Add onions and cook for another 4-5 minutes, until translucent. Stir in garlic and continue to cook for another minute. Remove from heat. Stir in rice until well combined.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, cottage cheese, and salt. Stir in tuna.

4. In a large bowl, stir together the rice mixture and tuna mixture until well combined. Pour into baking dish. Sprinkle with 2/3 of your Parmesan, cover with foil, and bake for 30 minutes.

5. Remove foil and bake for another 20-30 minutes until hot throughout and golden along the edges.

6.Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan, and serve. DELICIOUS.

We Want Food: Is it Broccoli or is it cauliflower?

2010-02-24T15:19:00.004-05:00

The first time I had Romanesco broccoli (cauliflower?) was at a meal early on in Momofuku Ssam Bar's existence. As is always the case at David Chang's houses of pork, there weren't a ton of options on the menu for our intrepid eater Daniel, so among the small plates that we ordered to share was Chang's take on this cruciferous veg. Having never seen one before, we were shocked by the bizarre appearance of what appeared to be the mutant offspring of broccoli and cauliflower, with a little Spiny from Super Mario Brothers thrown in for good measure. But when we tasted it, we were even more surprised. It was delicious. Crunchy with a slightly subtler, but nuttier taste than its more traditional brethren.

Since moving to California, I see them all the time in the grocery store and have started incorporating them into the veggie side dish rotation. My favorite preparation of late, is a little number I like to call briny, salty Romanesco. Okay. I just made that up. But it's yummy. Here's the dish:

Briny, Salty Romanesco

Ingredients:
-1 head of Romanesco broccoli
-a splash of olive oil
-a clove of garlic
-a Serrano pepper (optional)
-a tin of flat anchovies (in olive oil)
-a few teaspoons of capers
-a handful of pine nuts
-red pepper flakes

Directions:
1. Chop the Romanesco into small florets. Finely mince the garlic and if using the Serrano pepper. Tear apart the anchovies into small bits (reserving their oil for later.)
2. In a large non-stick pan, heat the olive oil on medium. Cook the garlic until tender. Add the Serrano and Romanesco. Pour on about half of the oil from the anchovy tin.
3. After about three minutes, add the anchovies and capers. Stir occasionally.
4. Once the Romanesco has started to brown, throw in the pine nuts and red pepper flakes. Continue to saute until you have tender Romanesco with delicious brown bits at the end.

Enjoy. I served it alongside a New York strip steak with a plum, red wine reduction a few weeks ago, and the flavors were great together. Then I ate the leftover broccoli cold from a Tupperware while standing by the refrigerator. Either way, delicious.

We Want Food - Umami Burger!

2010-02-11T00:45:00.004-05:00

So sometimes a picture is not worth a thousand words. Especially when the photographer in question (a certain bearded man) is so enticed by what he's about to eat that he can't concentrate on composition.

But to be fair, this was a distracting burger. Based on a recipe I saw on the blog White on Rice, this turkey burger, packed with that luscious fifth taste - savory umami. And while it now comes in a tube, bringing out that rich, full flavor is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

UMAMI TURKEY BURGER - umami rich ingredients get a *
1. Add a couple of minced cloves a garlic, half a teaspoon of sugar, a tablespoon or two of fish sauce*, a dash of soy sauce*, and some s&p to a pound of ground turkey leg. Let it marinate in the fridge for a while. Then divide into burgers; grill or saute.
2. Saute up some onions, mushrooms*, in a little red wine. Add s&p. Toast a bun. In a small bowl, mix a bunch of ketchup*, a bit of mayo, and as much sriracha as you dare.
3. Spread sauce on bun. Put burger on bun. Top burger with mushrooms and onions. Add sliced tomato* and pickles.
(Okay)
4. Eat the drippy, delicious burger. Lick your fingers because it's so darn yummy.

He is the eggman

2010-02-01T11:27:00.002-05:00

The Bread Project - Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

2010-01-13T16:41:00.004-05:00

I was itching to make a loaf of my mom's cranberry nut bread yesterday (I'd only made and devoured two loaves over the holidays, which just won't cut it), but alas Safeway had no fresh cranberries on hand (that stupid grocery store regularly lets me down, which is perhaps why it's parking lot is strangely the site of the majority of Daniel's and my tiffs - we are not this couple.)

Anyway, I wanted to make a quick bread and had thought that I might return to the comforting King Arthur Oatmeal Applesauce Bread that I made a while back. But then I came across a recipe for a similar quick bread based on a Dorrie Greenspan goodie on the blog Eggs on Sunday. It had the divine Dorrie and a streusel topping in its favor, so I decided to give it a go.

I made a few alterations to it, and it came out a little dryer than I might have liked, but still it's a nice, satisfying quick bread. It satiated both my need to bake and Daniel's rumbling stomach. Plus, I think it will make yummy toast. And I love toast.

Oatmeal Breakfast Bread
Adapted from Dorrie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours, by way of Eggs on Sunday

Ingredients

For the streusel:
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar (I used a bit less)
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

For the bread:
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
pinch ground cloves
1 cup old-fashioned oats

Directions

1)Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan, and tap out the excess flour.

2) In a small bowl, use your fingers to toss together the streusel topping ingredients (brown sugar, pecans, and cinnamon.) Set aside.

3) In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, applesauce, oil and yogurt until they’re well blended.

4) In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and cloves. Stir in the oats.

5) Pour the liquid ingredients over the flour mixture in the large bowl, and fold until they’re combined (do not overmix.)

6) Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Scatter the streusel over the top, and lightly press it onto the surface of the batter with your fingers. Bake for 55 minutes.

7) Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes before placing on rack to cool completely. Wrap tightly and store.

Satiety thy name is tasting menu

2009-12-29T03:37:00.003-05:00

Yes, it's been too long since I last posted. There has been many a delicious meal. There has been baking (pumpkin cake, cranberry nut bread, even macarons.) There has been the incorporation of a candy thermometer into the rotation of kitchen tools. This is serious business. But if I think of any of that for too long at this moment I may explode. Literally, my stomach may erupt.

I am writing in this moment merely to document a feeling that I am usually too exhausted or tipsy or just plain satiated to note when it happens, but which is a really remarkable feeling - that time after eating an astonishingly large meal, where your belly is expanded with a post-term food baby, your intestines throb, and your mind whirls with dizzying thoughts of the food ingested. It's a rare feeling and one that while it should be kept at a minimum is one to be savored. Being full is a privilege and not to be taken for granted. And while I am in no way wealthy, as I enter into this new year, I realize how lucky I am, and my full belly reminds me of it.

So, although it seems unfathomable now, I know that tomorrow I will be hungry again - and probably more than usual since my stomach is now so stretched. And I hope that as I go back and remember the eight plus courses (oh that risotto with pork and braised red cabbage, oh that oxtail consomme, oh my goodness that absurdly rich creamy cheese from Burgundy whose name I can't remember, oh Lord that foie gras), I hope that I will also remember this feeling of fullness, that slight whiff of guilt, and that ultimate feeling of absolute luckiness that I got to enjoy such a decadent meal.

Impulse Buy(s) - a mini-road trip to San Jose

2009-12-03T14:13:00.008-05:00

Last Saturday, to help ease me back into California living, Daniel humored me with a trip down 280 to sample some of what San Jose has to offer. We didn't have much of an agenda, so with only iPhone Google Maps to guide us, we stumbled on to some tasty finds. Here's the day in pictures:

Our first stop was Mi Pueblo Food Center, which from online reviews sounded like an open-air market, but was in reality a big grocery store, specializing in Mexican, Central American, and South American products.

A pretty yummy chicken tamale. The chicken was a little dry, but nicely flavored

We bought a container of salsa. Although the man at the counter assured us it was the spiciest, it wasn't that hot, but it had a nice, smokey flavor to it.

Some chipotle hot sauce. Because we currently have approximately twelve open bottles of hot sauce in the fridge, I have restrained myself from breaking into this. Not sure how much longer I can resist.

Next, we headed over to Little Saigon, or so it was known before the great San Jose naming controversy of 2007. No matter what you call it, this area is known for its sizable Vietnamese population, which is apparently the largest outside of Vietnam.

First we hit the grocery store, where of course we were forced to make a couple of impulse buys...

A fried onion paste, which is INCREDIBLY salty, but has already added some powerful oniony flavor to the savory casserole bread I made on Sunday.

Mackerel in tom yum sauce. Yet to try it, but I love small, canned fish.

I also love small, packaged, fried fish. Anchovies with sesame seeds! I really am kind of in love with these. Daniel bravely tasted them but wasn't sold. I think I'll sneak some into a salad and see what happens...

Here's what we didn't buy...

In fact just one look at this can of slimy, preserved bananas was enough to get my gag reflex going. Ick. Here's a close up.

Double ick.

From there we went walked down the shopping center concourse to a little take-out joint specializing in meat substitutes. As we know, no one does meat substitutes like the Asians.

I'm honestly not sure what is in this cup. We couldn't decide what to order, so the nice woman behind the counter made us a mix of gluten-based goodness. The resulting sampler was very chewy, a little sweet, and when topped with loads of sriracha, very yummy. While we would have naturally erred toward large amounts of our favorite hot red condiment, we did so with even greater abandon on the recommendation of a kind older gentleman who was himself enjoying a Styrofoam cup of mixed gluten.

This is ban boc lac chay. Very gelatinous rice gluten (I think) wrapped around little bits of tofu.

Finally, we headed over to the indoor shopping mall across the street, which seemed to specialize in jewelry shops and Vietnamese appetizing stores, where we purchased two baggies of beef jerky. One hot and spicy for Daniel and one fruit cured for me (in honor of the delicious fruit cured pork jerky that my Nina introduced me to.)

While there was a big food court, nicely appointed for the holidays, we decided to forgo it.

I was craving a salad, and since I had yet to capture the obligatory "Daniel eating a sandwich in the car" photo, that needed to be remedied...

And so, with banh mi in hand, we journeyed back north to SF to catch up on Mad Men.

Fast Food - Num Pang

2009-11-27T18:45:00.007-05:00

I'm about to write something that may make me lose my license as a lover of the city life (and it's not that I haven't been paying my rent, despite the scary chalk drawing above).

Sometimes, I really resent brunch, which is not a popular opinion being that this weekly or for some bi-weekly late-morning festival of gluttony is among the most important rituals of city living.

That's not to say that I don't like the food. I love eggs. I love potatoes. I love breakfast meats. And every now and then I even pancakes. I also love that it makes eating lunch food before 1 PM not seem strange. However, eating a big meal at 11 AM always throws off my eating for the rest of the day. I get hungry again at about 5 PM, which confuses me. Should I eat a snack? Hold out for dinner? Eat an early dinner (dunch?) I'm in a tailspin.

But every now and then it leads to serendipitous experiences, as was the case last Sunday, when Daniel and I found ourselves in need of a snack while wandering around the East Village at around 4:30. Should we eat? Hold off for dinner? What to do? I did a quick mental rundown of places in the area that I'd wanted to try, casual enough that we could get something small and tasty enough to be worth our time - and then it hit me - Num Pang, the Cambodian-style bahn mi joint on 12th Street. And we were off...

It's a very hipster little shop, with kitschy chalk-style drawings (see above) in the upstairs sitting area, which also proudly overlooks a parking garage - huge (though slightly grimy) picture windows give you a full view of people validating their parking passes below.

You have to order and pay outside though, which would be frustrating on a cold, rainy day, but would also make it a very speedy take-out option, especially at more prime time eating hours.

The menu of sandwiches, all served banh mi style on French bread with pickles and herbs and mayo, was overwhelming. Each one sounded amazing - from the roasted cauliflower with Chinese and Thai eggplant spread to the grilled king mackerel with leeks to the lemongrass chicken liver pate. They even had a veal meatball sandwich, which was thrilling because Daniel never gets to eat Asian meatballs due the ever present porcine effect.

In the end though, we went for one of the specials - a ginger braised brisket with all the trimmings - pickles, cilantro, carrots, and mayo.

This was some good sandwich. The bread had the perfect French crackle, made even more satisfying with a nice toasting. And oh that brisket - this was meat that you could serve at a Seder with pride - incredibly tender with the perfect sweet, sour, savory blend that so well befits brisket. The cilantro/carrot/pickle mix added the more traditional South East Asian sandwich flavor really hold there own with the richness of the beef and all in all it made mouths happy...

I was less thrilled with the side of market pickles that we ordered. It was a nice idea - a mix of watermelon rind, rhubarb, celery root, and turnip - but the pickles had no snap to them, neither in taste nor in texture. They were flaccid and overly sweet.

Still though, the sandwich split between two made for a perfect late afternoon snack. One recommendation for future outings to Num Pang - either eat upstairs and enjoy the surly chalk drawings and happy parkers below, or take your food to another stationary location, because while the sandwich holds together nicely, it is a messy beast. We left no napkin in our wake -

Impulse buy - A little bit of Liddabit

2009-11-09T22:54:00.004-05:00

I have a (reasonable) amount of self-control both regarding buying and snacking. I try not to buy things that I don't need and I try to not to eat when I'm not hungry. However, once I end up inside an interesting food store, I am the queen of the impulse buy - interesting looking pastry at the counter of a coffee shop? I've got to try it. Crazy sounding vegan jerky at the register of a bodega? I want a sample. Beautiful looking fruit jel candy at Green Grape Provisions? Whom am I kidding?

So when heading home from Fort Greene this evening, I was tempted into buying a Concord Grape fruit jel made by Liddabit Sweets, a small New York-based candy company.

There were many delicious looking Liddabit items at Green Grape, including a pecan pie candy bar, which looked delicious and a candy bar called "the king," which was so intriguing that I almost bought it. Thank goodness, something prevented me, because when I looked it up upon returning home, I learned that it has banana ganache. Bleh. Bananas. The horrors. (In another banana incident today, I got into one of those awkward back and forth shuffles today with a woman on the subway platform. You know the type, when you're walking toward each other and where you can't decide who's going to go one way and who's going to go the other? Awkward, but not terrifying, unless your urban dance partner is holding a half eaten banana. Then it really is a grave situation because you just don't want to get too close...)

Anyway...

I descended into the subway at Lafayette street, and took a nibble.

It was very sweet (it was concord grape afterall), but it had a pleasantly firm, chewy texture, with just enough jello-y give, and the after taste was really nice and - a really fresh grape flavor. I would definitely have a liddabit more

Three of my favorite things

2009-11-04T22:57:00.002-05:00

From my visit to the San Francisco last weekend - three of my favorite things in one place.

1. A turkey sandwich (from the yummy deli on Guerrero and 19th Street)
2. Our ScionXB Otis (looking a little worse for the wear in my absence, I must say)
3. Daniel (today's birthday boy)

Hopefully this marks a return to your regular Food on the Frontal Lobe reports. Sorry for the recent dearth.

What you need the next time you're making sushi for Rainbow Brite

2009-10-08T20:30:00.004-04:00

It's been far too long since I've done regular posts. I've got an iPhone full of pictures that I'm dying to blog about, but by the end of the days recently, I've been a bit too pooped to post. Which is why I'm only now getting up this recap of the New York Mutual Trading Company Japanese Food and Restaurant Show that I attended a couple of weeks ago.

The show was fun; full of lots of restaurateurs checking out high tech rice cookers and plastic sushi trays and hundred dollar wasabi graters made of shark skin. I especially loved learning about all of the different kinds of knives - for fish, for sashimi, for veggies, etc. What I loved even more, however, was the food booths. A mix of the sublime (the richest, most umami miso ever) to the silly (you'll have to wait for the end of the post for the aforementioned Rainbow Brite sushi accessory.) Here were some of my favorite things:

Every kind of Tsukemono (Japanese pickle) you can imagine

A vegan sushi made of tofu, sesame, and loads of mayo (there was also a wasabi version which I liked better)

This was the miso stand. I've been all about fermentation recently, and miso goes through one of the most fascinating fermentation processes in the world. Soybeans ferment in enormous wooden casks topped with piles of stones for up to 30 months.

These mochi were so rich and delicious that the man handing them out had to cut them in quarters lest eager samplers devour all of his wares. I especially loved the mango.

This sucker was just for show, and I arrived too late to this booth to sample his buddies.

Joseph and his roe of many colors.

Shrimp ironed into sheets, used to wrap sushi. Twas not my thing.

Shrooms

Fake sample shrooms

And finally, day-glo nori for the Rainbow Brite roll. The orange kind looks like American cheese.

Fast food: Pickle on a stick

2009-09-30T23:28:00.004-04:00

I am of the theory that there are a few types of food common across almost all cuisines - sandwiches, savory pies, dumplings, pickled vegetables, meat on a stick.

However, I do not know that every cuisine has mastered the art of the fusing of two of the best of these ubiquitous food forms. Here in New York though, the work has been done, and thus, while Daniel was visiting last week, we were able to sink our teeth into that veritable sign of advanced culinary culture - pickle on a stick. This one was sauerkraut flavored, sold on the street by Horman's Best Pickles of Glen Cove, NY. It was crunchy and sour and satisfying. Everything a pickle should be. Plus, did I mention it was on a stick?

Oh, and fine, I'll do it, there was a little excitement today. A mention on a New York Times blog. Even my stoic (but dear) mother the Midwesterner used five exclamation points in her email congratulations to me. NY Times Baby. (Her words, not mine.)

Lucky Duck

2009-09-12T19:15:00.003-04:00

Turkey bacon is a lovely idea, but we all know it's a sorry substitute.

Here's what Daniel has waiting for him when he comes to visit next week...

Courtesy of Chelsea Market.

Outer Borough Eating Club - Friends, old and new at Sripraphai (and one enemy)

2009-09-11T16:38:00.007-04:00

Back when we really lived in New York and had our beloved Saturn Willie (God bless the original Willie Randolph) for taking wild rambling journeys in search of the best that the outer boroughs had to offer in the way food, there were many, many trips to the great Thai palace, Sripraphai (or as Daniel and I lovingly call it, Sri.)

A brief pause to remember Willie Jr and his Mets plates

Given the sheer number of times we visited Sri, it is a bit odd that it's never turned up on this blog. But perhaps it became so fixed in our restaurant routine that I took it for granted. Well no longer. While there are certainly good Thai restaurants in the Bay Area, none has yet lived up to Sri. This is in part because of the restaurant's extensive menu, in part because they are willing to really make things "Thai spicy" if you assure them that you can handle it, and in part because (imagine me shaking my head here) of something akin to alchemy. Maybe it's fish sauce?

During our recent two week sojourn, before I returned to my beloved city without my dearest eating companion, Daniel and I schlepped out on the 7 train (oh where are you Willie?) and visited our old friend Sri for a late lunch.

As always, the place was crowded, although since it was already three, we didn't have to wait for a table. We decided to go all out and get two appetizers and two entrees, a mix of old and because I was feeling daring, new.

Here's what we ate:

Som Tom (Papaya salad) with the dried shrimp on the side:

The verdict: This is our signature Sri dish. We order it every time we come because it is the best som tom I've ever had. And this day was no exception. The papaya was perfectly shredded without those weird big pieces that sometimes get thrown into the mix. There was plenty of sour, sweet, super spicy sauce without being too overly dressed. It's such a uniquely refreshing dish in spite of the extreme spice. Plus, although he doesn't love sticky rice, Daniel capitulated and allowed me to order some and so I had big hunks of sweet, glutinous rice to pick up with my hands, pair with the spicy slaw, and therein create little bites of heaven.

Special shredded barbecue chicken salad:

The verdict: Again, spicy, sweet, and tangy. But now with chicken! Even better with the sticky rice than the som tom. Thai salad is the best salad.

Panang curry with chicken:

The verdict: This is Daniel's current favorite (it used to be the cashew nut chicken), and it really is a supremely good version of this dish. It's rich and sweet, with a kind of gingery, sort of flowery flavor, which I recently learned is from galangal, a South East Asian cousin of ginger. I love how the Sri version has that pretty drizzle of coconut milk on top.

Thai noodles with ground fish meat, curry sauce & fishball; served w. fresh vegetables

The verdict: For my main course, I decided to try something new, and asked the waiter to help me choose between the fish maw soup and this dish. First he tried to discourage me from the fish maw by telling me that it was made of "the inside of the fish" (it's the bladder folks), but when he saw that was only getting more interested, he quickly informed me that it was a Chinese dish not Thai and that I shouldn't get it.

So, I told him that I wanted the N-14, the dish above. "No," he said. "Only Thai like that. It's too spicy." I was sold.

And, boy, oh, boy, am I glad I fought for what I believed in. This stuff was good. I ended up eating it like soup, dumping in the accompanying hard boiled egg, noodles, cilantro, and veggies. It was spicy, but not overly so. But it was a kind of rich, really complexly flavored tomato broth with bits of glorious ground fish and of course the ubiquitous Thai fish balls that have a texture somewhere between gefilte fish and a hard boiled egg white and a tamale. It was really aromatic and fresh tasting. I loved it.

I loved it because I love Sripraphai. It is my friend.

Here's who is not my friend. The teenage boy who sat down next to us with his father, who was, admiringly, attempting to broaden his son's supremely narrow food horizons.

From the moment this kid sat down, he complained. This place is disgusting. I'm not eating anything that is touching fish. I'm not eating anything that has mushrooms. This looks like cat food. That smells disgusting. Why would you bring me here?

God help him, the father promptly ordered himself (and the kid) a beer.

The boy kept looking over at Daniel and me, eyes wide with pure revulsion at what we were eating. And because he was so unpleasant to be seated near at this our return voyage to our darling Sri, I ate with a gusto generally reserved only for foie gras and South Carolina barbecue. I mmmed and ahhed with every bite. I closed my eyes and slurped the noodles, and I ate every last bite. This boy needed to be schooled. And I was going to show him that what his precious little stomach couldn't handle, that of this 5'4 dirty blond could put away in spades.

After we left though, I started to wonder if maybe this kid had a particularly sensitive palate, and that maybe, with some proper help and years of therapy he could be a really great eater. Maybe below his extreme and vocal distaste for certain foods was actually lurking great passion for food that just needed to be awakened. I mean I hate bananas with a loud and vocal vengeance. And probably that I despise them so much reveals that I have the capacity to love other foods with equal gusto. Maybe this kid is the same as me. Or maybe he's just a big wuss.

Who cares? When we left, Daniel and I stopped at the refrigerator cases and bought beef jerky. And we ate it with bravado.

Headache and the city

2009-09-08T22:45:00.003-04:00

One of the difficult elements of life as an itinerant or frankly of life as a city girl in general is that sometimes when you're out for the day, you're out for the day. It's just too much of a pain to get home. Even if you are paralyzed by a throbbing headache while on a fruitless trip around the city to search for a replacement for a coffee pot that you broke while benefiting from the generosity of a lovely brother and his lovely partner.

In such an instance it is too difficult to imagine getting back all the way across the Bridge, so you use a little ingenuity to fight the pain between your temples. What do you need in such a situation? Caffeine. Perhaps a little nosh. And some drugs.

Here's my little relief picnic, enjoyed on the platform of the 2/3 while heading down to J&R to try to find this coffee pot.

The bad news? J&R didn't have it and the one I bought instead didn't work.

The good news? Cheddar flavored popchips, iced coffee, and two Tylenol do wonders for an aching head.

The Bread Project- Yogurt-Zucchini Bread with Walnuts

2009-09-06T19:33:00.003-04:00

Before leaving for this three months sojourn of food writing, girl book researching, and couch hopping, I wanted to bake some bread to exercise those muscles before what has the potential to be a bread dry spell (which is better than a dry bread spell as that would just be lots of croutons.)

I had wanted to do some sort of luscious yeast bread for a really big hurrah, but that week in San Francisco before coming back to NY was so hurried and frantic that quick bread was all I could muster. That I chose to do a zucchini bread might come as a surprise to those who know me since zucchini has long been one of the few vegetables that I somewhat actively avoid. My distaste is nowhere near that approaching how I feel about bananas, and I will happily eat the suckers with certain preparations or to avoid being rude, but that texture, which is prone to slippery sliminess is just not my thing.

However, when I saw this recipe in b for Yogurt-Zucchini Bread with Walnuts, I was intrigued, and I thought, why not? I'm being bold in my life decisions, I might as well be bold in my bread as well. Here's how it turned out -

Looks good, no? Moist and shiny. That's the jalapeno chutney glaze that I added to give it a little more kick. I also made a few other alterations because when I tasted the batter it was a bit sweeter and blander than I wanted. But the end result was very satisfying. Good for dessert, breakfast, or a little snack. Especially with some of that aforementioned Roquefort spread on it...

Here's the recipe. Adapted from Food and Wine with my alterations in italics.

Yogurt-Zucchini Bread with Walnuts

Ingredients
-1 cup walnut halves
-2 cups all-purpose flour
-1/2 t baking powder
-1/2 t baking soda
-1/2 t salt (I used 1 t salt)
-3/4 cup plus 2 T sugar
-2 large eggs
-1/2 cup vegetable oil
-1/2 cup fat-free plain Greek yogurt
-1 cup coarsely grated zucchini (from about 1 medium zucchini - I used 2 small)
-3/4 cup low-fat grated cheese
-jalapeno chutney (for brushing on top as glaze)
-a dusting of sea salt

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 325°. Butter and flour a 9-by-4 1/2-inch metal loaf pan.

2. Spread the walnut halves in a pie plate and toast them for about 8 minutes, until they are fragrant. Transfer the toasted walnuts to a cutting board and coarsely chop them, then freeze for 5 minutes to cool.

3. In a large bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, mix the sugar with the eggs, vegetable oil and fat-free yogurt. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients along with the grated zucchini and toasted walnuts and stir until the batter is evenly moistened. Fold in the cheese

4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 1 hour and 10 minutes (in my oven it took about 1 hour and 20 minutes), until the loaf is risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

5. Using a pastry brush, brush on about 2-3 tablespoons of jalapeno chutney (any other slightly savory/tangy chutney or preserves would also work). Add a dusting of sea salt if desired.

6. Let the loaf cool on a rack for 30 minutes before unmolding and serving.

We Want Food - Necessity is a Mother...

2009-09-02T23:58:00.004-04:00

In my current life as an itinerant [insert nebulous professional label here], I am faced with a two conflicting issues.

One - I'm trying to save money, fighting every inclination to splurge on the delicious foods tempting me at every turn. Instead I've been packing lunches and making simple, inexpensive dinners (breakfast is an English muffin as always.)

Two - While I know where I'll be staying the week after next, I don't have next week solidified yet. (Don't worry, there are couches to crash on if need be, I'm just holding out hope that this other more stable possibility comes through.) Given this, I don't want to buy too much food because I don't know precisely where I'll be schlepping it.

The results of this tension have been some very odd gastronomical mash-ups, as I try to use all of the ingredients I have before purchasing new ones. Tonight's creation - savory English muffin French toast with an Asian brown sauce and roasted turkey. It sounds strange. Even disgusting. And as I was creating it, I thought, oh Lord, this could be inedible. However, wonder of wonders, it was really delicious.

Here's what I did. I beat an egg and then added a little black salt, a little cumin, a pinch of cayenne pepper and a good dose of ground black pepper. Then I soaked the English muffins in this egg bath before throwing them into a hot pan. I poured the leftover egg mix over the English muffins while they cooked, so they each developed a nice ring of eggy crust. Once they were cooked, while the pan was still hot, I removed them and threw in the turkey so it could crisp up a bit. This is where the Chinese brown sauce inspiration struck me. I poured about an eighth of a cup onto the turkey, and because of its sugary, corn-starchy nature, it quickly started to brown (well brown more) and then caramelize, clinging to the turkey in an ooey gooey sticky fashion.

I then removed it from the heat lest it burn, spread a little hummus onto the eggy English muffins, topped them with the caramelized turkey, and then added a dash of hot sauce. Weird? For sure. So good that I'll admit to having used my fingers to wipe any lingering remnants of sauce off of the plate? Definitely.

Fast food- Taco Chulo provides respite a little combobulation

2009-09-01T09:08:00.004-04:00

So I'll admit to feeling a little discombobulated of late. I was in SF. Then in SC. Then in NYC. Then back in SF, and now here I sit back in Brooklyn. I'm really excited to be here, working hard, but I'm a little Daniel-sick and as I said a little discombobulated.

This sense of confusion began when Daniel and I visited the city for our recent two week sojourn. Here I was in a place I know so well, for a relatively extended period of time, but without really living here. It was odd. And being the food oriented person that I am, I sought a sense of grounding in some of my old favorite New York flavors - hummus, challah, date bars, and bagels.

While Time argues otherwise, I find that when I feel a little anxious, I crave comforting familiar foods, so boy was I in luck two weeks ago when I was able to treat a little low-level anxiety with one big old burrito - courtesy of my old friend Taco Chulo...

For the three years that I lived in Williamsburg, the El Gallo burrito, featuring savory tender chicken in a spicy salsa blend of guajillo, ancho, and morita chilies, was a staple of my diet. While I am now quite devoted to the veggie burrito at La Taqueria in San Francisco's Mission, my heart still belongs to Chulo. Back in the Williamsburg days, I would get home at night, see if my beloved roommate Ariel, an equally commited El Gallo fan, was game, and then we would place an order for delivery. Easy as one-two-three. Until the day that the brains behind Taco Chulo had the gall to remove our friend from the menu.

Now this could have led to utter devastation, but the gods were smiling, and armed with a now probably quite valuable relic of a menu and the knowledge that the folks at Chulo will allow you to "pimp" your own burrito, we were able to recreate the glory that was El Gallo, and our tradition continued unmarred.

So when I entered Taco Chulo for the first time in over a year, I felt hopeful that my craving could be sated. I looked at the menu and struggled to remember exactly what had gone on the burrito of my dreams. The waitress came, at first bold enough to try to remember my order, but when she realized that I was going to list what I wanted ingredient by ingredient, she wisely got out her pad.

Satisfied that I had ordered correctly, I sat back to read my book and to wait. A few minutes into my relaxing read, however, I had a terrible realization. I had forgotten to ask for cabbage instead of lettuce. I scurried to the counter to alert the waitress of my grave error. She looked at me, in my state of burrito-induced panic, a little strangely. Was there a glimmer of concern in her eyes? Or was it fear? I didn't care. I needed that burrito to be just right. Could she do it? Was there time? Finally, sensing the urgency of the situation, she hurried back to the kitchen. She'd see what she could do.

A few minutes later she emerged with this...

Ah, it was perfect. Cabbage and all. A comforting combination of the crunch of the said member of the Brassica oleracea species, the chewiness of the tortilla. The whole pinto beans adding a little pop to the the satisfying bulk of the potatoes. Salty, spicy, and a little sweet. Utter perfection.

And in the hopes that if enough people hit up Taco Chulo and order my dear El Gallo, they might reinstate it. Here is the list of ingredients:

Taco Chulo's El Gallo Burrito (RIP)
-whole wheat tortilla
-pollo rostizado (chile-spice-rubbed chicken)
-potatoes (NOT RICE!)
-whole pinto beans (NOT REFRIED!)
-marinated cabbage
-salsa seco
-cilantro, onion, radish
-cheese and crema optional

Go, try it. It will bring you comfort.

If you are what you eat, this could be Daniel three months from now...

2009-08-31T00:10:00.003-04:00

While I am very, very excited to be in back in my old NYC stomping grounds for the next three months, learning the tricks of the trade of food writing and working on a couple of other projects, I am feeling incredibly sad at being apart from my dear Daniel. We love the idea of being bicoastal, but in the future, hopefully, this dream bicostality will involve periods of unicostality, that is two people on one coast, not one on either.

Anyway, as he drove me to the airport this morning, we discussed his food options in my absence, since I am the primary font of the food we eat, in restaurant choices and in grocery lists and in actual preparation. When I asked about how he might feed himself, he gave me a list of possible options.

Here are some ideas he had that I agreed were acceptable:

Quorn, our longest-lasting friend from our stint in Ireland, a fungus- based meat substitute, Naturally, Daniel likes them dipped in ketchup.

Five, five, five dollar foot long. "Turkey, toasted, with avocado, please," says Daniel.

This is the staple of our diet even when I am around. Without me, Daniel's new nickname may very well be Chickpea, or perhaps if we're feeling adventurous - Garbanzo!

When combined with a variety of fruits and vegetables, some lean (non-chickpea derived) protein, some good calcium, and a nice, healthy breakfast, these choices are just fine. But I'd feel a lot better if I were with him, heating up said quorn nuggets, whipping up a little spicy ketchup to accompany them, and throwing in some baby carrots and celery just for good measure.

It was condiment to be - Peruvian aji sauces

2009-08-27T21:27:00.006-04:00

If one were to examine our refrigerator (and since we recently gave it a really profound cleaning, I wouldn't try to stop you), one would quickly discern that Daniel and I are condiment maniacs. We each have those condiments that first made our hearts go pitter-pat- his was ketchup, mine was mustard (in fact we love these so much that we dressed up as such last Halloween).

So there are many, many bottles of mustard lining our shelves - curry mustard, Dijon, beer honey mustard, good old fashioned yellow, I could go on. Ketchup being less of the refined condiment is only represented with the one (big) bottle, but it is Heinz, and Daniel wouldn't have it any other way.

Also lining the shelves are myriad hot sauces, jams, jellies, chutneys, relishes, pickles, and preserves. The list is long. The beauty of the condiment is of course that it can entirely change the flavor of an otherwise simple dish. I can't tell you how many variants of the turkey sandwich I make each week, each time slightly altering the make-up of the meal by changing up the condiments.

Given this love, it is with great pleasure that I introduce a new feature on this here blog, where I will semi-regularly feature one or two of these jars that adorn our shelves.

Today - two Peruvian aji sauces, both of which were introduced to me by dear friend Ariel who spent a year in Lima. She sent me a care package full of delightful Peruvian sundries, but it was these two hot sauces that have stuck with me and that I now make sure to have on hand, courtesy of the South American shops in the Mission.

Aji Amarillo Salsa

Background: From a beautiful yellow pepper, of the C. baccatum species native to South America, this salsa is particularly used in Peru in cebiche or as a dipping sauce or marinade for various meats like anticuchos. The hot (pun intended) Peruvian chef , Gaston Acurio, whose La Mar restaurant opened not too long ago in San Francisco, says that this pepper is essential to his native cuisine.

Flavor: Medium spicy, but slightly sweet, with a very creamy texture. (The pepper itself rates between 5,000 and 15,000 on the Scoville scale)

How I use it: Really the question should be how don't I use it. It makes regular appearances on turkey sandwiches, combined with hummus and often a carrot pickle. When I make a Mexican mush pots, I combine beans, rice, veggies, and a whole lot of this salsa.

Aji Rocoto Paste

Background: Also from a pepper (C. pubescens) used predominately in Peru (and Bolivia), this red sauce is often paired with fried fish, according to a really great article in the most recent Saveur, entitled "A World of Peppers." Unlike most peppers, rocoto have black seeds!

Flavor: Quite spicy, a little smoky. This sauce has a slightly grainy quality to it. (The pepper is between 30,000-100,000 on the Scoville.)

How I use it: Where a bean is involved so is this sauce. Also excellent on eggs.

Kesty/Keste

2009-08-25T23:19:00.006-04:00

As a child I had an imaginary friend named Pierre who strangely only appeared when we stayed at hotels. His primary function was to stand guard of our room while we explored the sights of the city we were visiting.

Perhaps it is a sign of the gradual acculturation of a family as it moves away from its immigrant roots that my imaginary friend was a foppish French boy who like me favored hotels with interior corridors and chocolates on the pillows, whereas my father, a first generation American growing up on those storied Brooklyn streets, had a friend named Kesty Kestenbaum.

Now whether Kesty was real or imagined remains a point of great contention. My father always claimed that he had in fact existed, but my mother never quite believed him. Regardless of the veracity of his actual existence, Kesty certainly played the role of a child's imaginary friend in that whatever capers my naturally mischievous father got into, Kesty inevitably shouldered the blame. It was because of Kesty claimed my dad that he never learned Hebrew properly while studying for his Bar Mitzvah. It was Kesty who taught him every dirty word he knew. Broken window? Kesty. Broken promise? Kesty. But time and time again, in spite of my father's best efforts to avoid trouble, that devilish charmer Kesty Kestenbaum convinced him to participate in one wild scheme after another.

Now all this is just to explain that when I learned that the hot new pizza place in Manhattan was called Keste, I felt an immediate sense of intrigue combined with skepticism. Sure it was pronounced with an accented E on the end. Sure the chef was famous for his extreme precision in meeting the standards of the Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani. Sure it had made all sorts of top pizza lists in the height of an ever-growing pizza craze. But with that name, could it be trusted? Or was it just to a ploy to make me spend a lot of money on a mediocre pizza?

I had to find out, and so the ever-game Daniel and I set out to explore. As reservations are not accepted and as we were not a bevy of sexy Italian speaking pretty young things, we gave our names to the affable man at the door and prepared to wait. We waited. And waited. We ate the tiny sliver of free pizza offered to the hodge podge of non-Italian speaking hotties with whom we were waiting. And then we waited some more.

At last, we received the nod in (Daniel's name was not called; perhaps the host had memorized the beard.) We perused the menu and given the heavy representation of pork products, we were able to choose without too much discussion.

I insisted on the Marinara because it is with this simple, cheeseless pizza that I think you can truly judge a pizza place.

The Keste version was good, and a true model of simplicity. The tomato, olive oil blend was a sweet and tangy melange, broken up by the occasional clove of garlic or oregano leaf. Very nice flavor. Of course with pizza these days, that is not sufficient. Connoisseurs of the real Neapolitan deal obsess about the crust, and here is where the you began to feel that perhaps this Keste was using a bit of the other Kesty's wily ways to pull the wool over your eyes a bit. While the cornicione, or outer charred ring was incredibly well flavored - a wonderful combination or saltiness and that doughy floury taste - and while it looked the part with properly appointed brown bits, it lacked any of the crunch that such pies usually have. It had the chew but not the bite. Because of this perhaps, by the time you got to the center of the circle, the pizza was almost a bit soggy. It still tasted great, but something was off.

There was a similar problem with the Pomodorini e provola that we ordered for our second pizza.

It looked delicious. The same crunchy looking charred bits. Loads of bright red cherry tomatoes; the sheen of smoked mozzarella; a sprinkling of wilted fresh basil. But again, it didn't quite all add up. There were the same crust issues and in the cooking the tomatoes had lost enough of their snap and tartness that they couldn't quite counter the overpowering flavor of the cheese.

Now none of this was enough of a problem to prevent us from stuffing ourselves to the point of stomach aches for all or from bringing the rest home to have for breakfast the next day. But as with the original Kesty, we were left to wonder if all the hype was real or somehow fabricated. And as it seems was often the case with my dad and his buddy, we emerged a little poorer and with that belly ache that comes when you've overindulged (although in our case the excess came by way of smoked cheese and not too many games of craps.)

The true strength of Roquefort

2009-08-25T01:09:00.004-04:00

Back in good old SF and had to run to Bi-Rite to stock up on some California staples - lemon cucumbers, stone fruit, some gorgeous dry-farmed tomatoes (made delicious because they don't get wet and mushy tasting from over-irrigation.)

As I was checking out, I noticed some cheese samples behind the register waiting to be placed. Never one to pass up a free soupcon of flavor, I oh so subtly hinted to the man who was helping me that I might be interested in a taste, if it was no bother.

With no hesitation, he obliged, first handing me a very creamy, very lovely piece of brie. It was nice but gave me no pause in continuing the business of unloading my basket onto the counter. Then he handed me something else. I was paralyzed.

It was salty and creamy and just a little stinky. It had tiny little bits of blue that had an ever so grainy texture, making the silky smoothness of the surrounding cheese even more luxurious. I had to know more.

The man at the register had never tried it, so he sampled a piece, and now we were both in states of rapture. We needed to know what we'd just eaten and like a junky I needed to know how I could get some more. We discussed the texture, the flavor, the complexity of this cheese as we waited for the cheese caretaker, as they are known at Bi Rite, to return and enlighten us. The line behind me grew long and impatient, but I didn't care.

Finally, he was back with some answers. It was Roquefort and it cost $27.99 a pound.

And again I was paralyzed by this dazzling cheese. Sure the fortitude of flavor of this dazzling Roquefort had stunned me, but now the veritable barrier of its price would keep me from this new found high.

Well maybe.

"Do you think I could get a tiny little piece," I murmured.

The cheeseman looked at me, at my face, wan with need, and he handed me this...

Yep. Two dollars and eighty cents of the best that sheep have to offer.

I went home and offered Daniel his own little morsel. While he is not a great lover of cheeses of the blue variety, he gave it a try. First on a knife to sample it in its purest form and then spread on a piece of the Zomicks challah that we'd brought back to California. This was all he was allowed to have in one sitting.

While the mystery persists of why this Roquefort is so dazzling that it sends grown people into utter reverie, one thing is certain. Until we truly understand it's power, we will only sample it in tiny bites. Any more than that could send the body into a shock of the senses. (And be cost-prohibitive.)

Oh what a tangled web we weave...

2009-08-21T17:25:00.003-04:00

I've got a new website with some clips and stuff.

Yeah, yeah. Check it out.

www.katiesallierobbins.com

It's Friday in New York...

2009-08-21T08:48:00.004-04:00

Which means I have this to look forward to...

Hummus from Damascus Bakery on Atlantic Avenue, which makes the creamiest, most flavorful, most perfect hummus that I've ever had.

AND

A beautiful Zomicks challah, which I will pick up later today from Garden of Eden. This is the challah that I have devoted myself to recreating. It is sweet and eggy and a little heavy. And dipped in that hummus. Oooh boy. Just a few more hours. I can't wait.

The dulce life

2009-08-20T00:17:00.005-04:00

I am currently staying in my lovely and generous brother's apartment. A lover of all things Italian, his presence pervades the space, and so I felt inspired to create a dinner involving flavors from that delectable boot of Europe.

As a little amuse bouche, some onions agrodolce , courtesy of Mario Batali.

For a main course, lamb ragu with papparadelle, served with a spoonful of ricotta and a sprinkling of mint.

For sides, two from Food and Wine. A lovely spicy rabe with anchovies and garlic. And an eggplant camponatina, served room temperature, replete with pine nuts, salt packed capers, celery, and green olives.

These were all very good. Some perhaps even delizioso. However, it was the dessert that this time sent me over the edge.

Also from Food and Wine, it was a dulce de leche torte, known as a volador. And I loved it immediately when the recipe's description mentioned its rustic informal nature (meaning it could look a little funny and crumble when you sliced it.)

And it was a funny looking fellow, surprisingly savory with no sugar involved. It's crust was a four layer number made of thin, thin disks of an incredibly yolk heavy dough, each of which puffed up considerably (hence the name's reference to "flying up" in Italian) as it did it's brief stint in the oven.

After cooling, between each delicate, bubbly, bumpy layer, I spread a coating of a mix of dulce de leche and water, before stacking another layer on top.

At the end, I sprinkled the top layer with powder sugar.

I then served slices of the room temperature torte with scoops of simple vanilla ice cream. It was stunning, if I do say so myself. The rich sweetness of the dulce de leche playing in incredible tandem with the snap and crunch of that remarkably flavorful eggy crust, with the creaminess of the vanilla ice cream coming in to add a little more moisture to the mix. Really, truly sweet.

The only thing perhaps sweeter in all of this was the view as we ate -

While I can't offer a recipe for the magic of this panorama, I can for the torte, which again comes from Food and Wine.

Dulce de Leche Torte (Volador)

Ingredients

For the pastry:
-12 large egg yolks
-1 teaspoon whole milk*
-1/8 teaspoon salt
-1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

For the filling:
-2 cups dulce de leche
-3 tablespoons water
-1 tablespoon confectioners sugar

*Not wanting to buy a big thing of whole milk just for this, I stealthily procured some from the bodega down the street. No, I didn't steal it; I just poured a small splash of the stuff into a coffee cup and paid the 75 cents for that. Really, it was less than the amount that someone who likes light coffee would use and I didn't even get any coffee out of the deal, so I feel no remorse.

Directions

Make pastry:
1. Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Generously brush a large baking sheet with vegetable oil.

2. Stir together yolks, milk, and salt.

3. Put flour in a large bowl and make a well in center. Add yolk mixture to well and gently stir with a fork, gradually pulling in flour closest to egg mixture to make a paste. Knead in all of remaining flour with your hands to form a dough (dough will be very firm).

4. Transfer dough to a work surface and knead, lightly dusting with additional flour as necessary, until smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes.

5. Flatten dough into a disk, then quarter and form each quarter into a ball.

6. Keeping remaining dough covered with a kitchen towel (not terry cloth), firmly roll out 1 piece on a clean surface into a 12-inch round, lifting and turning dough as necessary. (Dough will be slightly sticky but will lift up easily; round will be very thin with uneven edges.)

7. Transfer to baking sheet and bake until edge is golden and curls up, about 5 minutes. Carefully turn over and bake until cooked through and both sides are golden in some spots (lift to check), 3 to 4 minutes more. Transfer to a rack to cool.

8. Repeat with remaining dough. (Pastry will overlap on racks.)

Make filling:
1. Stir together dulce de leche and water in a bowl. If mixture is not spreadable, warm in a small heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, whisking until smooth. Thin with additional water if necessary.

Assemble torte:
1. Arrange 1 pastry layer on a serving plate and spread evenly with 2/3 cup filling. Repeat with 2 more pastry layers and remaining filling, stacking layers.

2. Dust remaining pastry layer with confectioners sugar and arrange on top.

3. To serve, cut or crack torte into portions using 2 large spoons.

Fast Food - Sloppy, sloppy bao

2009-08-19T13:43:00.005-04:00

Here's an abbreviated list of foods that I have been known to enjoy on their own.

1) Sloppy Joes - in all forms, even the sloppy soy that they served in the dining halls in college.

2) Banh mi - French bread, cilantro, meats, pickles. What's not to like?

3) Green mango slaw.

And what is that sultry sandwich you see to your left, gracing your screen, making you salivate?

Why it's a Sloppy Bao from Baoguette, the New York Vietnamese mini-chain that so rudely popped up after I headed West to San Francisco. It's certainly not the kind of authentic bahn mi to which I've become accustomed in the Bay Area, but as you might have guessed, it combines everything good - spicy curried ground beef, a crusty baguette, green mango, some cilantro, and lemongrass. I got mine extra spicy, so they threw on some sriracha and jalapenos. Here take another look and imagine that you are biting into this crusty bread. The bun crackles as your tongue hits the sweet, tang of the moist tender meat before passing into the crunchy bits of sweet, fresh mango. It's hot and spicy and it tastes so good.

Oh, you sloppy, sloppy bao.

Fast Food - Jamaican Me Hungry for More (well almost)

2009-08-18T22:33:00.005-04:00

Being back in New York, I feel compelled to stop by all of my old favorite haunts as well as to try some new places.

Given my recent piece for Black Book on food carts in San Francisco, I thought that I needed to visit at least one here in the city. So when I found myself in midtown the other day, I debated between two carts that I'd read about on Midtown Lunch for the past couple of years, both of which have been nominated for some Vendy Awards over the years.

I was closer to the Biryani Cart and thought I'd try one of their Kati rolls since I'm a sucker for a spicy chicken sandwich, but when they were out, I decided against going for one of their chicken in a pita sandwiches, and hiked uptown a few blocks to the Jamaican Dutchy cart, which sells its wares on 51st and 7th.

While the cart made its name for jerk chicken, oxtails, and patties, I wanted to try one of its new sandwiches, served on soft, pillowy Jamaican style coco bread (this bread has no coconut nor cocoa in it, but it's a cute name nonetheless.) I'd read on Midtown Lunch that the vegetarian version of this sandwich was actually more tender and moist than the jerk chicken breast offering, so I took his advice and ordered the vegetarian.

I had to wait a while for my order to come up, as I understand is often the case at Jamaican Dutchy. It was very hot and I'll admit I felt a little cranky, especially as others who had ordered after me received their heaping plates of jerk and rice. But when my five dollar sandwich arrived, I was not disappointed. It was a good-sized baked tofu steak, marinated in a spicy jerk sauce, topped with lettuce and tomato and hot sauce, and served on the aforementioned coco bread. Very simple, but really incredibly satisfying. The tofu was tender and appropriately chewy. The bread nicely soaked up the sauce, and the veggies supplied some good crunch and tang. It was a lovely lunch, indeed. If only I had more time here, I'd go and get another. But even a sandwich this good is not going to send me back to the Times Square area in this heat.

Fast Food- B&H (of the dairy persuasion)

2009-08-18T10:00:00.003-04:00

H must be a lucky initial here in this city that I love so. After all, how else could you explain the success of B&H cameras? Or H&H bagels? Or the ubiquity of H&M? (I know it's an import, but still...)

Another H-staple of this city is B&H Dairy Restaurant on 2nd Avenue. I'd been once many years ago, but in spite of his proximity the year he lived on 12th street, Daniel had never partaken, so on the insistence of our friends Ben and Dorit, we made the trek, right before closing, to sample a little good old fashioned comfort food, Lower East Side style.

Sitting at the counter, watching all the food go by

The menu at B&H is a like a siren's song of carby Old Country temptation, with matzoh brie, challah French toast, and blintzes all competing for your attention. Because it's a meat-free zone, the savory options run the gamut from the traditional fish salads, vegetable based soups, and potato knishes to something that sounded surprisingly enticing - veggie balls and spaghetti.

Having been told it was some of the best in the city, Daniel went the white fish salad sandwich route, served with a bowl of matzoh ball soup.

The soup was very good, with big chunk of carrots and the disconcerting but very welcome presence of noodles.

New York delis are famous for their overstuffed Pastrami sandwiches, but this overstuffed white fish, put all of those to shame. It was enormous -

This picture really doesn't do it justice. It was so big that our man Daniel had to go open-face on a few bites, splitting each half of the sandwich an additional time because he couldn't manage its girth. The sandwich was served on B&H's famous, non-braided challah, which has a texture quite unlike any challah I've had. It was light and airy, reminding me almost of angel food cake in its ethereal delicacy. The white fish salad itself was also unique, less of the kind that you get at an appetizing store like Russ and Daughters, but rather more akin to something like a lunchtime tuna salad, with pieces of celery interspersed throughout. It was very good, and our white fish salad lover was pleased, but it did not sate our need for the kind of white fishy goodness to which we are more accustomed.

Whenever I see kasha varnishkas on a menu, I am hard pressed to order anything else. When said kasha varnishkas can be ordered with steamed vegetables, I am in heaven, especially when I can drench both in a side of mushroom gravy.

While the varnishkas were a bit overcooked and gummy for my taste, for me there is little more comforting than pasta with my beloved nutty, hearty buckwheat groats, and so I was perfectly pleased. Plus, Daniel had a few cast off pieces of challah from his behemoth, so I dipped those in some of my thick brown gravy. And in that moment, with the sweetness of the light bread intermingling with the viscous, savory sauce, I realized what is perhaps the meaning of the H in B&H - heaven!

We Want Food - Oh little lamb who made thee?

2009-08-15T16:24:00.005-04:00

I've been so busy eating my way through NY that I never got around to posting about the lamb and eggplant dish that I made while in SC to accompany the lahukh that I wrote about last week.

Before I arrived in old Cola, SC, my mother informed me that she had purchased some beautiful ground lamb from the local greenmarket (from the same guy who made the goat sausage that we so enjoyed last Christmas) and that I needed to figure out what to do with it. I contemplated a couple of Indian dishes and a lamb ragu, but when I stumbled across a recipe for Albondigas (spicy meatballs on pureed roasted eggplant), I knew I'd found a winner.

The recipe, which I adapted from The Food of Israel: Authentic Recipes from the Land of Milk and Honey, calls for ground beef. But, let's face it, anything beef can do lamb can do better, so we gave it a try.

Albondigas are small meatballs that are present in lots of Spanish-speaking cultures, but they enter Israeli cuisine through Sephardic Jews who spoke Ladino in around the 15th century. These little guys turn up in a lot of Sephardic/Ladino dishes, often in soups, because using these bits of less-expensive ground beef et. al was a good way of making precious meat last longer, while giving dishes the benefit of the flavor that just a few orbs of good fatty flesh can offer.

In this version, the ground meat is combined with onion, bread crumbs, an egg, and a bunch of salt and pepper. You simply combine said ingredients, fry 'em up, and then set them aside.

Then, using the same pan, you add three chopped up roasted eggplants, some crushed garlic, a little sugar, salt and pepper, and mush it up real good.

When you have a nice mushy puree, you throw the puree into an ovenproof dish, lay your crispy (thatsa spicy) meatballs on top and bake the whole thing at 400 degrees for about a half hour.

The results?

Truly delicious! Moistly succulent lamb, with its hint of satisfying gaminess. The slight bitterness of the eggplant, made more subtle with the sweetness of the sugar and the caramelized bits of pan juices. And of course the textures here of the smooth puree with the crispy bits of the charred meatballs.

To give it a bit more bite and character, we added some mango chutney and a little spicy Lebanese zhoug, which I had whipped up from some jalapenos...

The whole thing, when scooped up with bits of the savory flat lahukhs was a big hit, and we all scarfed in silence before sitting back in our chairs and marveling at the intense flavor that comes so easily when a little lamb is used.

Fast Food - Taim (it's for research folks)

2009-08-11T17:07:00.003-04:00

If you see this sign, it means you're about to have something REAL good.

It means you're in the heart of the West Village (which, let's be honest, is a pretty good place to be on its own) AND you're at Taim, the Israeli falafel and smoothy bar that opened shortly before Daniel and I moved West. We had tried to go once before moving on one of our epic walk-and-eats, but by the time we got there, we were too full from other tasty treats.

But last night after visiting our friends Sam and Duncan and their adorable baby girl Izzy, we headed west and ordered a couple of these...

They're called sabich; and they entered Israeli hearts and bellies courtesy of Iraqi Jews who immigrated to Tel Aviv, bringing this heavenly sandwich with them. It is now the darling of New York sandwich lovers and the line for them (and their other Israeli standbys - falafel, hummus, etc) is long at Taim. This sandwich is well worth the wait.

It consists of fried eggplant, hummus, tahini, amba (a pickled mango spread scented with fenugreek), Israeli salad, a hard boiled egg, and marinated cabbage. I had mine on a whole wheat pita; Daniel went for white. We both opted to add pickles and hot sauce. The results? Well see for yourself...

Every bite was a mix of creamy (from the eggplant, the egg, the tahini, the hummus) and pungent acidity (the amba, the pickles, the cabbage, the hot sauce). The textures were also an incredible melange - crunchy, chewy, smooth, rough. The bread was soft and flavorful. The sandwich was sublime.

It was also an utter stomach bomb, so I made Daniel walk down to the Canal Street station as opposed to boarding to head home at West 4th. I didn't fully recover until the next day. BUT it's for research, and I am more than willing to keep have another for the sake of future generations.

The Bread Project - Lahukh (Yemenite Flatbread)

2009-08-10T16:25:00.003-04:00

The experiments in Israeli cuisine continue.

This Yemenite flatbread is very simple and surprisingly flavorful. I would definitely eat them on their own, but when used to scoop up something delicious (like the amazing lamb Albondigas that I made to go with it - post soon to follow), they are delicious.

The recipe comes from Janna Gur's The New Book of Israeli Food. I made a few alterations and it worked just fine. My notes are in parentheses.

LAHUKH
(Makes about 20 pancake sized flatbreads)

Ingredients
3 1/2 cups flour
1 oz fresh yeast (I used a packet and a pinch of regular dry active yeast)
3 cups water (plus additional for soaking)
1 T salt
1/2 T sugar
3 slices white bread (I used 2 1/2 white French rolls)
Oil for frying (I used spray olive oil because you really only want a minimal amount of oil)

Directions
1. Put the flour, yeast, salt, and sugar in a deep bowl and mix with 3 cups of water to form a batter.

2. Soak the bread in water for about 5 minutes (I did about three), remove, squeeze off the excess water and mash in a blender. Add to the batter and mix well.

3. Cover the bowl, leave at room temperature for about two hours to allow the batter to rise to twice its size.

4. Heat a non-stick pan and oil it lightly. Wipe excess oil with a paper towel- no further oiling will be required during frying. (I used an electric skillet and olive oil spray. I resprayed a few times through the process. It worked great. Gur recommends cooling down the pan with cold water between batches if you're using a traditional frying pan.)

5. Ladle a portion of batter into the pan. Fry on medium heat until the top of the lahukh fills with bubbles and the bottom turns brown (it's like making a pancake, and they took about 5 minutes to cook once I found the right temperature. However, for the record they taste pretty good with a little gooeyness in the middle too...)

They were delicious and I will make again. Also they freeze really well, so don't be thrown off by the bounteous quantity that this recipe produces. The day after we made them, I defrosted a couple in the toaster oven and used them for tuna sandwiches. Yum indeed.

We Want Food - Fish fry Israeli style

2009-08-04T21:39:00.004-04:00

To go with the Israeli challah Friday night, I decided to extend the theme and cook a couple of dishes from Janna Gur's beautiful cookbook The Book of New Israeli Food.

I paged through the book, ogling the amazing looking options and mentally marking the things I want to try in the future (can you say halvah babka?!?!)

Ultimately, I decided on Chreime, which is a North African fish stew that is a typical Passover or Rosh Hashanah dinner among Jews from Moroco, Libya, Algeria, and Tunisia. It is meant to use a whole white fish (like grouper, amberjack, sea bass, carp) cut into steak style slices, but I just used sea bass fillets, and it worked very nicely.

Here's the recipe:

Chreime - North African Hot Fish Stew
(adapted slightly from Janna Gur's The New Book of Israeli Food)

Ingredients
-1.5 lb white fish fillets
-1/4 cup oil
-5 cloves garlic (plus a few dashes of garlic powder)
-2 T paprika
-1 T cayenne pepper or other chili powder
-1 t ground caraway (I used whole seeds)
-1 t ground cumin
-3 T tomato paste
-1 C water

Directions
1. Heat oil in saucepan, add garlic and spices and fry over high heat while stirring until oil becomes aromatic. Add tomato paste and stir until the paste blends with the oil. Add one cup of water and cook covered for 5 minutes.

2. Add the fish fillets to the sauce, bring to a boil, cover and lower the heat. Turn the fish once halfway through cooking.

3. Cook for 10 minutes or until fish is done but still firm and juicy.

It was really, really nice. Quite spicy actually, and very fragrant. To go with it, I made an Israeli salad. Usually I wouldn't use a recipe for this one, but since I had the book, I decided to see what Janna Gur's version looked like. And here it is...

It was basically just lemon juice, 4 tomatoes, 4 cucumbers, 1 red onion, 1 sweet red pepper, 1 crushed clove of garlic, 1/2 jalapeno, 1 t sumac (didn't use because I didn't have it at my mom's house), salt and pepper, 3 T olive oil, 2-3 T parsley and coriander. But the extra special secret delicious ingredient made all the difference. And what was that you ask? A dash of cinnamon. Delish!

Here's the table all ready for a delightful Shabbos dinner...

The Bread Project - Lender's Romanian Challah

2009-08-01T12:20:00.007-04:00

As I have talked about before, I have been on a long search for a challah recipe that will create the kind of chewy, soft, non-cake-like loaves that one can purchase in certain stores in NY and that Daniel reminisces fondly over having eaten in Israel.

In digging through several Israeli cookbooks last week, I found pictures of a bakery in Jerusalem called Lenders. Now generally I have bad associations with bread products and the name Lenders (if you want a piece of bread with a whole in the middle, Lenders "bagels" are just fine. If you want a bagel, please look elsewhere.) However, I showed Daniel, the Israeli challah expert, a picture of Lenders bakery, and he thought that based on the image any recipe from them would be a-okay. So I decided to give the recipe in Joan Nathan's The Foods of Israel Today a try.

There were some interesting oddities about this recipe...

The dough, unlike every other challah recipe I've ever seen contains NO EGGS! The reason is that interestingly, most Israeli challot don't have eggs in them because as Mr. Lender explains, "In old Jerusalem people were poor and mostly dependent on outside contributions. Eggs and sugar were out of the question...It was already a luxury to have bread with white flour on the Sabbath." In spite of the lack of eggs, the dough adhered quite nicely and looked pretty darn good and smooth. (must have been the 4 T of vegetable shortening)

After two rises, it was time to braid.

The recipe makes the requisite two loaves, and Joan Nathan's instructions on how to do a four strand braid are much clearer than in her other cookbooks.

They really came out quite nicely.

I was feeling pretty good about things, until I got to the part where the braiding instructions throw a giant curveball - this challah is double decker. See my astonishment in the video below:

Woah indeed.

When fully braided, the challot were brushed with a mixture of cornstarch and water instead of the usual egg wash. Then another rise, another brush of the mix, a sprinkling of sesame seeds, 45 minutes in the oven, and voila-

The results? I definitely missed the egg wash on top, but the bread itself was really very, very good. It had that soft quality that good challah has, where you can almost see little tendrils as you pull it apart. The flavor was excellent, although the corn starch water combination gave it a slightly funny color.

If I were to do this again (which I think I will), I would break the rules slightly and add an egg wash. I really missed the sheen and the bottom egg goo that challah usually gets. Other than that, I highly recommend it. And for vegans everywhere, in its original form, this should definitely be the challah of choice. (Plus, it made a mean French toast the next day. I stuffed it with some Laughing Cow and pomegranate jelly. Delish.)

We Want Food - South East Asian Persuasian (Part deux)

2009-07-31T22:03:00.002-04:00

So what do you do with leftover lemongrass pork and a whole lot of fish sauce? Why make Vietnamese bun of course!

Some Vietnamese rice vermicelli, julienned carrots and cucumbers, a little cilantro and voila -

The sauce to pour on top -
Rice vinegar
Fish sauce
a touch of honey
a squirt of soy sauce
a pinch of salt
the juice of a lime
a clove of garlic
and for my dish, a whole lot of jalapenos

A perfect cool, refreshing meal for a humid South Carolina evening. Mmmm mmmm. Why can't leftovers always be this good?

We Want Food - South East Asian Persuasian

2009-07-30T18:25:00.005-04:00

Inspired by all of the South East Asian food that I've been munching on in the Bay Area, I decided to bring some of those flavors to South Carolina to share with my mom.

One of Daniel's and my favorite foods to overindulge on are the fresh spring rolls that we get from Sunflower, so I decided to have a go at making my own, using a recipe from Epicurious. Recipe and pictures below:

Summer Rolls with Baked Tofu and Sweet-and Savory Dipping Sauce
(adapted from Epicurious/Gourmet)

Ingredients

2 ounces dried bean thread noodles (cellophane noodles)
1 small carrot, cut into thin matchsticks (about 3/4 cup)
1 Kirby cucumber, halved lengthwise, seeded, and cut into thin matchsticks (about 3/4 cup)
1 small fresh jalapeño, cut into thin matchsticks
1/4 cup rice vinegar (not seasoned)
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon plus 3/4 teaspoon fresh lime juice, divided
16 rice-paper rounds (also called galettes de riz; about 8 inches in diameter) plus additional in case some tear
4 romaine leaves, each torn into 4 pieces
10 ounces packaged baked tofu, cut into 3- by 1/3-inch sticks (I used quickly sauteed shitake mushrooms instead)
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
1/2 cup each of torn basil, mint, and cilantro leaves (11/2 cups total) (didn't have mint, so just stuck with the other two)
1/3 cup hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons chunky peanut butter
2 tablespoons water

Directions

1) Soak noodles in a medium bowl of boiling-hot water 10 minutes.

2) Meanwhile, blanch carrot in boiling water until softened, about 45 seconds. Drain. Rinse under cold water to stop cooking.

3) Transfer carrots to a small bowl along with cucumber, jalapeño, vinegar, sugar, 1 tablespoon lime juice, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Let stand 5 minutes. Reserve 2 tablespoons liquid and drain pickled vegetables. (I did the jalapenos separately because my mom's having issues with spice, and it still worked fine, so it's easy to adjust for people with varying heat interests.)

4) Drain noodles and rinse under cold water, then drain and pat dry. Toss noodles with remaining 3/4 teaspoon lime juice and snip with kitchen shears 5 or 6 times.

5) Fill a shallow pan or pie plate with warm water. Soak 2 rice-paper rounds until they begin to soften, about 30 seconds, then let excess water drip off and stack soaked rounds on a work surface so that they overlap by all but 1 inch on either side.

6) Put 2 pieces of romaine on bottom third of round. Top with one eighth of noodles (about 2 tablespoons), tofu (4 sticks), bean sprouts (about 2 tablespoons), herbs (3 tablespoons), and pickled vegetables (3 tablespoons).

7) Roll up tightly around filling, folding in sides. Make 7 more rolls in same manner.

8) Stir together hoisin sauce, peanut butter, water, and reserved 2 tablespoons pickling liquid. Serve rolls with dipping sauce.

They were delicious. Not as beautiful as the ones at Sunflower, but I'll get there someday (yeah right).

***

For our main course, because we're in South Carolina, home of all things porcine, I went for a Mark Bittman recipe for Vietnamese style pork chops. I really think this would work equally well with boneless skinless chicken thighs or a thin cut of beef.

Here's the deal:

The Minimalist's Vietnamese Pork
Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

2 tablespoons minced lemongrass
1 tablespoon minced garlic
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon nam pla (fish sauce), or to taste, or soy sauce (I used about 2 T of both)
Juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or more to taste
1 1/2 pounds boneless pork chops or country-style ribs
1 lime, quartered
Chopped Thai basil or cilantro for garnish (optional).

Directions

1. Whisk lemongrass, garlic, honey and nam pla in large bowl. Add lime juice and pepper. Place pork in the bowl, turning to coat; let stand while you preheat grill or broiler.

2. Grill or broil pork, spooning marinade over as it cooks, until nicely done, about 10 minutes. Turn only once so that each side browns nicely.

3. Serve with remaining lime and, if you like, the herb garnish.

This was absolutely spectacular. One of those dishes that when I eat it, I can't believe I had a hand in it. The quick caramelization provided by the honey, and the fantastic combination of flavors with the umami of the fish sauce and the tang of the lemongrass and lime juice was sensational. And if you don't believe me or my mom (which isn't nice, frankly), you should believe this guy-

I gave him a tiny piece of fat cut off of one of the chops after it had marinated and cooked. He liked it so much, he went looking for seconds...

I may not be the Ace of Cakes, but perhaps the Jack?

2009-07-30T11:35:00.003-04:00

As I've stated many times on this here blog, while I can generally cobble together a pretty yummy sweet treat (with some notable exceptions), said baked goods generally taste a lot better than they look. I am a bit of a baking slob.

All that may be changing, however, because look what I just made -

A southern style butter pecan cake with a maple cream cheese frosting!

It looks good, right? Take a closer look...

Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, I had some help making this cake look so good. A lot of help from a real Ace of Cakes, Mr. Kenneth Nix, with whom I'm doing a kind of mini-apprenticeship while I'm down in SC helping my mom as she goes through chemotherapy.

Kenneth is a whiz with frosting. He swirls that icing bag with the greatest of ease, creating basket weaves, stars, and general loveliness. He is exceedingly patient, laughing with me rather than at me as my unsteady hand made a horrible mess on the cake dummy and then later on some real cakes. But with some practice, he had me decorating cupcakes by the end of my first session, and, really take one more look at this cake.

We Want Food - Olive salsa (What's not to love?)

2009-07-22T19:00:00.004-04:00

Whenever we fly, Daniel and I overdose on magazines. In spite of the facts that we subscribe to about a thousand mags, that I always come armed with several books, and that we usually fly JetBlue or Virgin America, which have televisions, we live in fear of running out of distractions for the long flight(s) ahead. Where Daniel goes straight for Entertainment Weekly, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated, I make a beeline to the cooking section, and stock up on Saveur, Food and Wine, Gourmet, and Bon Apetit.

Our recent trek to Saint Louis was no exception, and given the inhuman number of stops on our return trip after the wedding of Melissa and Chris, these diversions were essential.

The July edition of Food and Wine had a whole section on salsas, and since I live with a great lover of salsas, I took note. When it came time to try my hand at one of the chunky sauces, however, I decided to broaden said salsa-lover's horizons, and skipped the tomato salsa with smoked cheese and the avocado and roasted tomatillo offering, and went for the exotic sounding minty green olive celery salsa. Involving capers, mint, garlic, and of course olives and celery, it tempted me with its briny savoriness.

With so much flavor to the salsa itself, I decided to pair it with a straightforward broiled flounder and to serve it with oven baked sweet potato fries (with the requisite homemade spicy ketchup) and a simple California green market salad of heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, and balsamic. I assembled the ingredients, and got going.

However, when I reached into my crisper, despite the entirely different look and smell and very essence of the two herbs, I pulled out my fresh basil instead of the fresh mint somehow not realizing my mistake until the deed was done. And so what emerged was a basil green olive salsa instead of a minty one. To make up for the error, I added some hot pepper flakes, threw it on the fish, and hoped for the best.

The result was very good- crunchy, savory, and pretty complex. Next time I'll try the minty version, but the spicy basil flavor ended up quite nice. Here's the recipe, based on the one from Food and Wine...

Spicy Basil Green Olive and Celery Salsa

Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1 cup finely diced celery (3 ribs)
1 cup finely chopped pitted green olives (5 ounces)
2 tablespoons capers, chopped
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Freshly ground pepper
Red pepper flakes to taste

Directions
-In a small skillet, heat the oil.
-Add the garlic and cook over moderate heat until golden, about 2 minutes. Let the oil cool, then discard the garlic.
-Transfer the oil to a bowl and add the celery, olives, capers and basil.
-Toss the salsa, season with pepper and red pepper flakes and serve.

Here's a quick pic of the side dishes.

We Want Food - Camping Cuisine

2009-07-14T19:23:00.004-04:00

While I generally think of myself as a city girl, I do appreciate a good Arcadian setting and have even grown to love a long scenic hike. I still shy away from bird watching and on principle the Congaree Swamp (sorry mom), but I have learned to really appreciate the unique pleasures of nature time. However, being the high maintenance, creature of comfort that I am, I have shied away from camping. I mean really, why sleep on the hard ground and wash up by water bottle when I have a comfy bed and a clean (okay relatively clean) bathroom sink at home? Besides, bears and other scary creatures come out at night.

Nature is for waking hours; civilization for sleeping. Right? Well, certain people, who shall remain nameless disagree, and so after years of resistance, I agreed to try out "car camping" 4th of July weekend. This is where you drive right up to your campsite and pitch a tent. The presence of other campers (in our case primarily South Asian families) and rudimentary facilities nearby, as well as the proximity to our actual home made the whole thing seem a little "Let's play pretend." Like we were ten year olds sleeping in the backyard just for fun. But with the exception of an aching back from sleeping on a slant and the enormously bold, St. Bernard size raccoons, I had a pretty good time.

I especially enjoyed the cooking element of things. Although we could have easily packed sandwiches or something simple in a cooler, as I and another camper were basically camping virgins, Eric, our resident wilderness expert, wanted to show us the real deal. And so we ate camping food. Mainly freeze-dried simulacrums of the real thing. But somehow, outdoors, they tasted pretty amazing.

Here's what we ate:

For lunch while on our hike, our friend Jacob whipped up his famous instant hummus. With a mysterious powdered blend and some water from his canteen, within minutes we had a very satisfying protein source. Served with pita, cheese, and sliced tomato, it was just the sustenance we needed.

For dinner, we were a bit more adventurous. Using our campsite's picnic table as his workspace, Chef Eric went to town, slaving over his little camp stove, he boiled water -

And made couscous,

Kung Pow chicken (!?),

Mac and cheese,

and pasta primavera

Each dish came freeze dried in an insulated bag, to which Eric added boiling water and then sealed.

Before "cooking" the contents were strange dry objects with the taste and texture of Freeto Lay products (the mac and cheese was Cheetos and the pasta primavera a kind of Cool Ranch Dorito. I did not try the uncooked chicken. Old habits die hard.)

Miraculously though, after absorbing the water and resting for about 10 minutes, dinner was served -

The verdict? I kind of loved the food. Even the Kung Pow chicken, which at first was a little grisly grew on me, especially after adding some Butt Burner hot sauce that Daniel had received as a gift and serindipitously left in our glove compartment. About the camping, on the other hand, I'm still a bit on the fence. Maybe real camping complete with backpacks and remote wilderness (therein absent of smelly toilets and emboldened, socialized raccoons) would be more my speed. Plus then I'd have hiked all day would know deep down that I'd really earned the fusion fare that is freeze dried campfire cuisine.

We Want Food - Cold tuna lasagna?

2009-07-07T21:52:00.005-04:00

I would say I eat lasagna about every three years or so. It's time consuming to make. It's heavy. It involves lots of things that Daniel doesn't eat.

However, when I encountered a cold tuna lasagna salad combo in Everyday with Rachel Ray, I decided to give it a try. It seemed seasonal and refreshing. When I went back and read the recipe though, I wasn't so intrigued with the red pepper puree that was intended to replace the tomato sauce in traditional lasagna. So I did some searching and found a red pepper pesto from Food and Wine posted on Serious Eats.

As I started compiling the ingredients, I have to admit my skepticism grew. Was it going to be good? Would cold lasagna noodles (especially of the whole wheat variety that I had selected) actually taste good, or would these sheets of gluteny goodness lose their usual appeal and become sticky slimy slugs?

Sure the arugula looked fresh and appealing...

And the red pepper pesto (to which I added red pepper flakes) smelled heavenly...

But as I stacked the layers...

And the pasta mound grew...

So did my doubts...

However, when we finally sat down and began our meal, Daniel and I were all smiles. The recipe is below. It's one I'll make again. (And I highly recommend topping the cold leftovers with a little hummus.) As RR would say, Yum-O!

Red Pepper Pesto Tuna Arugula Lasagna Salad Extravaganza
(Based on Rachel Ray's Tuna Salad Lasagna Stack and Food and Wine's Red Pepper Pesto)

Ingredients
For the pesto
3 medium red bell peppers
1 tablespoon pine nuts
1 small garlic clove, smashed
1/4 cup basil leaves, plus 2 tablespoons chopped basil
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup shaved pecorino cheese
red pepper flakes to taste

For the lasagna
1 lb lasagna noodles (I used whole wheat)
three 6-oz cans tuna packed in water, drained
3 T Olive oil plus 1 T olive oil
2 T fresh lemon juice
2 T balsamic vinegar
3 C torn arugula
salt and pepper
red pepper flakes to taste
handful of chopped basil

Directions
1. Roast the red peppers over a gas flame or under the broiler, turning occasionally, until charred all over. Transfer the peppers to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let cool. Peel, core, and chop the peppers.
2. In a small skillet, toast the pine nuts over moderate heat until golden, about four minutes. Let cool.
3. Transfer the peppers and the pine nuts to a blender. Add the garlic and whole basil leaves and blend until coarsely chopped. Add the olive oil and puree to a chunky pesto. Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.
4. Grease a baking sheet with 1 T olive oil. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the lasagna noodles until al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water. Arrange in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet to prevent sticking.
5. In a medium bowl, combine the tuna, lemon juice, 3 T olive oil, balsamic vinegar; season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.
6. Place a layer of lasagna noodles in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Top with 1/3 of tuna mixture, 1/3 of arugula and 1/4 of pesto. Repeat 2 more times, using remaining tuna mixture and arugula and topping with the remaining noodles. Divide lasagna into 6 portions. Top with remaining pesto and chopped basil.

Fast Food (and drink) - Alembic

2009-06-25T01:08:00.005-04:00

To celebrate the purchase of my recent iPhone 3Gs (thank you Bersons!), Daniel and I went for a fancy drink at Alembic in the Haight. We were great lovers of the fresh fruit cocktails offered at Death and Co. in the East Village and have been looking for something comparable in the Bay Area, so we hit up Alembic Bar, which is named after an outdated whiskey distilling process involving some tubes and other mishigas.

The atmosphere is brighter and more open than Death and Co, so it doesn't feel quite as special and moody, but the cocktails were good and the servers were friendly. Being a lover of the savory drink ("I prefer to get my vitamins from a Bloody Mary", said the lady), I asked the waitress for a rec, and Daniel and I went with both of her suggestions - his involving strawberries and Tabasco and mine incorporating some celery juice. They were both good, although still a little sweet for me. Here are some pics (taken with the 3GS)

The strawberry extravaganza- notice that pretty drop of oil on top

The celery surprise

If our visit had just been the cocktails, it would have been a nice, but relatively forgettable diversion. However, there were snacks too. And I love snacks!

We were saving ourselves for dinner, so we kept to the small plates.

Shishito peppers with housesmokeed salt -

These came in copious quantities, and while good and salty and smokey, were not as hot as I might have liked. So we gave our extras to the heavily tattooed couple sitting beside us. Yes, we were paying it forward, although we have yet to reap the rewards of that particular generosity.

We were less eager to share our other small bite - the pickled quail eggs. These three tender, delicate orbs of briny lusciousness were represented everything one wants to go with a pre-prandial cocktail. They were salty, smooth, and a little fatty, soaking in the alcohol and helping to intensify the palate and appetite for the upcoming meal.

Usually, when we get three of something as we did in this case, I let Daniel have two, and being a martyr to the cause of gastro-magnanimity take a single sample. However, these were so sublime, that I insisted that we split the final one. Yummy, indeed.

The Bread Project - Carolina Strawberry Bread

2009-05-29T21:55:00.005-04:00

Do you like my attempt at artful food photography here? What's doing it for you? The fresh berries? The dirty window sill?

Well, what I lack in photog skills, perhaps I make up for a bit in sweet sticky quick bread making skills?

Two things I've learned about San Francisco in the last little bit. On the down side, it seems that there is no summer, which I still don't quite understand. We lived in Mountain View last summer, where it was constantly (some might argue too constantly) sunny, but just a few miles up the road in San Fran, apparently, summer is pre-emtpted by gray, cold, and wind. My friend Blythe says that she wears her coat more in the summer than she does in the winter. My friend Mark Twain says that the coldest winter he ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.

So that's the negative. The positive (yes, I can be positive) is that the best apple I ever had was a strawberry in San Francisco. That's because they have HUGE, ripe, delicious strawberries here. The sweetest, plumpest, most gorgeous things you've ever seen. No superlative is too extreme.

To honor these beautiful beasts, I decided on Sunday afternoon to make some strawberry bread. I thought it would make me feel more sunny and summery on that cold, gray afternoon. So I hunted around the internet for a good sounding recipe, and came across one that was serendipitously called Carolina Bread. Twas my roots, and so I gave it a try. The results were delcious. Nicely scented. Moist. Good crusty bits on the ends. Pink and sweet inside. A lovely breakfast or late night snack.

Here's the recipe from Big Oven:

Ingredients
-3 cups all purpose flour
-2 cups sugar
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1 teaspoon salt (I used kosher, so I upped it by a bit)
-1 teaspoon cinnamon
-3 eggs
-1 cup canola oil
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1 pint fresh strawberries (or 10 oz frozen); chopped
-1 cup chopped pecans (I left these out)

Directions
-Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
-Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon
-Blend eggs, oil, vanilla, and strawberries in separate bowl
-Add strawberry mixture to dry ingredients and mix well
-If using, stir in pecans.
-Pour into two greased 9x5x3 loaf pans
-Bake for 45-60 minutes (in my slow oven it took almost the full 60)
-Cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.

All mixed up and ready to go

Twins

A (not so) Hot Date (bar)

2009-05-24T23:34:00.004-04:00

It had been a while since I pulled out my copy of the Tassajara Bread Book, so I don't know exactly what prompted its return. But I had the place to myself last Friday, and I thought I'd make something to greet Daniel when he got home later that evening. After paging through the book and realizing that I had most of the ingredients (minus the mysterious nutmeats), I went for this date bar. I hoped that it might be reminiscent of the delicious date nut bars that are ubiquitous at every bodega in New York. They weren't, and I have to say I didn't find the results entirely pleasing. While the top of the bars are very moist and chewy, the bottoms are too crumbly and dry for my taste. But Daniel liked that and has been eating them for breakfast. And they're relatively healthy, so here's the recipe...

Tassahara Bread Book Date Bars
(18-24 bars)

Ingredients
3 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar (I used light)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspooon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 cup chopped dates or raisins or figs or prunes
1/2 cup chopped nutmeats (WHAT IS THIS? I used walnuts)

Directions
-Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees
-Beat eggs until light.
-Gradually blend in the brown sugar along with the vanilla.
-Sift together the flour, baking poweder, salt, and spices.
-Beat into eggs until well blended.
-Fold in the fruit and nutmeats (WHAT IS THIS?)
-Pour into a buttered and floured 9x13 inch pan and bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes

One blueberry in the oven is worth...

2009-05-17T03:57:00.004-04:00

So while I wait for the vegan blueberry poppyseed muffins for tomorrow's brunch to cool sufficiently to put into Tupperware, I thought I'd do a quick write up of last weekend's blueberry experiment - a dairy-free blueberry chocolate chip cake. I made this concoction with Susan Berson's famous kosher for Passover pudding cake and my mom's famous Teddy's Apple Cake in mind, the two coming together in a sweet swirl of mushy, crispy, cakey goodness.

And it was just that - mushy inside, a little crispy on the outside, with a vegan ganache from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I liked it so much that I made it again Monday night for my friend Blythe's birthday. It is fast and easy, and really tastes like a giant, warm chocolate chip cookie that perhaps hasn't been baked quite all the way through.

Here's the recipe:

Dairy Free Blueberry Chocolate Chip Cake
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups canola oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt, plus maybe a pinch more
1 tsp cinamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
lots of dairy free bitter sweet chocolate chips or chunks (I liked it with chunks)
a cup or two blueberries (fresh or frozen - I used a pint of fresh, mixed with about 3/4 c frozen)

Directions:
-preheat oven to 350 degrees
-Beat oil and sugar together
-add eggs and beat until creamy
-sift together dried ingredients, stir into batter
-add chocolate chips, blueberries, and vanilla (don't be shy about some of the water from washing the blueberries or from the frozen blueberries getting into the batter - this recipe benefits from loads of moisture)
-pour batter into greased bundt pan
-bake at 350 for about 1 hour 15 minutes
-let cool completely in pan before removing, then add ganache; see recipe below

Quick Melty Ganache
(From Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)
Ingredients
-3 tablespoons soy creamer or soy milk
-1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
-Heat soy milk in small saucepan over medium heat until just about to simmer
-Remove from heat
-Add chocolate chips and stirl till chocolate is completely melted and soy milk is incorporated
-Set aside and alow to cool for 10 minutes (I only waited abotu 5)
-With small spatula scoop into a prepared pastry bag or plastic bag with tip chopped off; or drizzle haphazardly with a fork (being the wild woman I am, I went for the haphazard fork method)

Please note the haphazard ganache work...

The Bread Project - If you call it a muffin it doesn't count as a cupcake

2009-05-03T17:22:00.004-04:00

Last Christmas, Daniel gave me a vegan cupcake cookbook, by the same ladies who wrote Vegan with a Vengeance. The pictures inside are gorgeous, and I've been wanting to try my hand at some of them for a while, either in cupcake form or all mushed together into a big old cake.

However, while in school, any kind of organizational system that I'd ever developed has fallen to ruin, and my bookshelves are no exception. So the vegan cupcake cookbook had disappeared. Until this morning when I decided I wanted to bake some kind of breakfast pastry. I flipped through several options in some of my cookbooks, but without molasses for kasha muffins (my molasses had fallen victim to an ant problem earlier this year) and no lemons for a loaf of lemon bread, I was becoming discouraged, until suddenly, out of nowhere the VC cookbook (that's vegan cupcake, mind you, not Viet Cong), reemerged miraculously. I thought to myself, "Well, why not?" Without frosting, cupcakes become muffins.

I went for the vanilla cupcake recipe because it didn't involve any vegan baking oddities like egg substitutes or arrowroot. But I wanted to jazz it up a little and make it more breakfasty. So the vegan blueberry lime poppyseed muffin was born.

Here's the recipe
Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

Vegan Lime Blueberry Poppyseed Muffins
Makes 12 Muffins

Ingredients
-1 cup soy milk
-1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
-1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
-2 tablespoons cornstarch
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-3/4 teaspoon baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1/3 cup canola oil
-3/4 cup granulated sugar
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-the juice of a lime
-a few handfulls of blueberries (frozen or fresh)
-some poppyseeds (to your liking)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease two muffin tins
2. Whisk the soy milk and vinegar together and set aside to curdle a bit (mine didn't really)
3. Beat the soy milk mixture, oil, sugar, vanilla, and lime juice together in a large bowl. Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix all together until no lumps remain.
4. Stir in the blueberries and poppyseeds.
5. Fill muffin tins about 2/3 of the way and bake for 20-22 minutes (mine took about 25, but my oven tends to be slow)
6. Transfer to a cooling rack.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with these little guys. They're very shiny because of the soy milk, I think. And a little purple in color because of the blueberries, I know. They're also a little stubby and dense, but in a charming way. It's a good vanilla flavor, and a very quick and easy recipe. Next time, I'll go wild and call it a cupcake.

The feeling of pride lingers - Passover Cheesecake

2009-04-22T15:00:00.002-04:00

As I have mentioned in the past, I consider myself to be a decent baker when it comes to taste, but less than proficient when it comes to aesthetics. Every now and then, however, I surprise myself and make something that both looks and tastes pretty darn good. Such was the case with this kosher for Passover cheesecake that I made a couple of weeks ago in Denver.

Now, I can't really eat much cheesecake because it hurts my belly, and even a few bites of this intense richness (you'll see how just how rich when you read the ingredients below), but it was well worth the aching tummy. Rich, moist, and most importantly beautiful. It was a proud moment. Looking at these pix, I'm still beaming...

The recipe was a combination of the Barefoot Contessa's cheesecake recipe and a macaroon crust from a Philadelphia Cream Cheese Recipe.

Here they are...

The crust:
(adapted from Philadelphia 3-step Macaroon Cheesecake):

-2 cups soft coconut macaroon cookie crumbs (I used homemade macaroons, but store bought would work just fine)

-2 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the crust, combine the graham crackers, sugar, and melted butter until moistened. Pour into a 9-inch springform pan. With your hands, press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan and about 1-inch up the sides. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

The cheesecake:
(adapted from the Barefoot Contessa's Raspberry Cheesecake)

For the filling:

2 1/2 pounds cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 whole extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the filling:

1 cup red jelly (not jam), such as currant, raspberry, or strawberry
3 half-pints fresh raspberries

Directions:

Raise the oven temperature to 450 degrees F.

To make the filling, cream the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Reduce the speed of the mixer to medium and add the eggs and egg yolks, 2 at a time, mixing well. Scrape down the bowl and beater, as necessary. With the mixer on low, add the sour cream, lemon zest, and vanilla. Mix thoroughly and pour into the cooled crust.

Bake for 15 minutes. Turn the oven temperature down to 225 degrees F and bake for another 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn the oven off and open the door wide. The cake will not be completely set in the center. Allow the cake to sit in the oven with the door open for 30 minutes. Take the cake out of the oven and allow it to sit at room temperature for another 2 to 3 hours, until completely cooled. Wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Remove the cake from the springform pan by carefully running a hot knife around the outside of the cake. Leave the cake on the bottom of the springform pan for serving.

To make the topping, melt the jelly in a small pan over low heat. In a bowl, toss the raspberries and the warm jelly gently until well mixed.

Arrange the berries on top of the cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Fast Food - Ickle me, pickle me

2009-04-18T02:18:00.005-04:00

So it's been a while, and I have much munching to report, but it's been busy and then there was Passover, and frankly who wants to blog about past bready meals when one is drowning in a sea of matzoh?

But now that bread is once again acceptable eats, what a better way to get back into the swing of things than a quick report on some delicious sandwiches that Daniel and I sampled a couple of weekends ago from the appealingly named Mr. Pickles.

I went and picked up sandwiches and then we picnicked in the sunny Dolores Park near our place. It was lovely. I went with a very basic turkey sandwich on my newly beloved Dutch Crunch roll. As has been mentioned previously, although I'd never heard of them before moving West, these crunchy rolls are ubiquitous in the Bay Area. I was skeptical at first and since they're lacking in whole grains I still generally keep my new found appreciation for them at bay (pun intended), but occasionally I splurge, and it was well worth it for this Pickle special. The sandwich, topped with lettuce, tomato, pickles, hot peppers and mustard was masterful in its simplicity and generous in its bountiful heft. A satisfying tangy and salty meal.

For Daniel's sandwich, I went a little more adventurous. He'd given me freedom to choose something I thought he'd like, so he got the Station 7, which consisted of chopped chicken breast in spicy honey mustard with avocado (hold the cheese). His sandwich came with the same fixins as mine, and he also splurged on the Dutch Crunch. It was definitely a Daniel style sandwich - messily dripping with a spicy sauce with lots of fresh avocado smashed into the chewy soft roll with that deliciously unique crunch on top.

With our view of the San Francisco skyline (and a lot of men in speedos), we were happy sitting in the warm April sun. Just two people enjoying all that bread has to offer before our week of unleavened creative eating.

Cookie monster indeed

2009-04-04T21:57:00.003-04:00

When I want to bake something, but have little time, energy or motivation, I rely on my old buddy Paula Deen and her fail-safe, utterly reliable, unbelievably delicious Monster Cookies. I mean really with peanut butter, oatmeal, butter and candy, you just can't go wrong. Very few can resist their power.

So last week when Daniel headed to New Haven for a reunion of his college improv group, the Exit Players and I wanted to bake something for his friend David, who is one of my favorite people to bake for, I pulled out this old standby. They would make the cross country journey well and again who can resist this combination? Definitely not a group of revelling reunioners.

I always change up the proportions and combinations of candy additions. This time (at Daniel's request) we went with semi-sweet chocolate chips, peanut butter M&Ms, and chopped up Heath bar. You know, subtle flavors. Here's the basic recipe, courtesy of Paula Deen, lover of all things buttery.

Monster Cookies, Paula Deen
(makes about 3 dozen, fast, easy, delcious)

Ingredients:
-3 eggs
-1 1/4 C packed light brown sugar
-1 C sugar
-1/2 t salt
-1/2 t vanilla
-12 ounces of creamy peanut butter
-1 stick of softened butter
-1/2 C M&Ms
-1/2 C chocolate chips
-1/4 C raisins (I have never included this)
-4 1/2 C quick-cook oatmeal
-2 t baking soda

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line cookie sheets with parchment.

In large bowl, combine eggs and sugars. Mix. Add salt, vanilla, peanut butter, and butter. Miz well. Stir in candies (whatever you end up using), baking soda, and oatmeal. Drop by tablespoons, 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Don't overbake. Let stand for 3 minutes before transferring to wire racks (this step is key because they get mushy if you don't let them cool a bit). When cool, store in large resealable plastic bags.

Also note, these freeze really well.

Check out my new gig - San Francisco Ethnic Food Examiner

2009-04-01T22:42:00.002-04:00

So, I have a new gig, writing a little column about San Francisco ethnic restaurants.

I'm the San Francisco Ethnic Restaurants Examiner.

Check it out. Book mark it.

At first some of the content will probably overlap with this blog, but check it out anyway. You know you want to.

Sometimes Even Muffins Ain't Enough

2009-03-25T20:11:00.005-04:00

Knowing that this week was going to be tough, I made some muffins on Sunday. Low fat lemon poppyseed from a new blog I discovered. Here's the recipe:

I altered it in the following ways - used large lemons for extra lemony goodness, used low fat non-Greek yogurt, used 1 1/2 cups APF and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour. Did without the glaze for the sake of all of our figures.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Adapted from Baking by Dorie Greenspan by Sara at imafoodblog.com

For the muffins:

2/3 cup sugar
zest and juice of 2 small lemons
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup non fat Greek yogurt
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons poppyseeds

For the glaze:

1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Center a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 400F. Prepare your muffin pan or whatever muffin cooking apparatus you will be using, and place on a baking sheet.
In a large bowl, rub together the sugar and lemon zest until the sugar is moist and you can smell the lemon.
Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In another bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the yogurt, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, and canola oil until well blended.
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and with a rubber spatula gently and quickly stir to blend. Do not over-mix. Stir in the poppy seeds. Divide the batter evenly in 12 muffin cups, I like to use an ice cream scoop to measure this out.
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool for about 5 minutes, and then remove them from the molds and let cool to room temperature.
To make the glaze, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar with 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Add more lemon juice as needed to get it to the consistency so you can drizzle the glaze over the muffins.

They were good and moist and very lemony. But still not enough to make this exhausting week any better...

Apple cookie quest

2009-03-18T19:56:00.005-04:00

So you can tell I've been a little stressed by the inordinate amount of baking I've been doing of late.

The most recent was an attempt at the glorious apple cookies that Daniel and I used to purchase on our trips to French Canada. They were made by monks in Notre Dame du Lac, and they were heavenly, in every sense of the word.

I've been on a search for a recipe that approximates their moist apple-y wonders, and when I saw one on the blog of a French Canadian baker, I thought I'd hit the jackpot. While the results were good, and relatively healthy, they bore little resemblance to the object of my desperate quest. They were supremely oaty and did not hold together as well as I might have liked. However, those who sampled them did seem to enjoy them, so here is the blog from the website One Whole Clove...

Sarah Lou's Apple n' Cinnamon Porridge Cookies

1 3/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1 gala apple, peeled, cored half grated half cut into small pieces
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup sultanas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheet with a silpat mat or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
In a medium bowl combine oats, flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt
In a mixer bowl, with an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment and on high speed, cream together brown sugar and margarine until fluffy. Add grated apple half, egg and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients, stir to blend, add the apple pieces and sultanas.
Drop dough by heaping tablespoons onto lined baking sheet. Flatten with the back of a wet wooden spoon. Bake until lightly brown, at least 15 minutes. Cool on cookie rack.

(For the record, I used two Pink Lady apples and no raisins. Otherwise I stuck to the recipe...)

So good I had to throw away the last piece...

2009-03-17T01:15:00.004-04:00

Periodically, I make something so good that I literally cannot keep myself from gobbling it up. It sits in the fridge or on the counter and calls my name with a voice so tempting and powerful that I ultimately have to throw it away because I just cannot be trusted to restrain myself. These sirens tend to be ooey gooey cakes, like Claire's cake or chocolate chip Passover pudding cake.

This Ginger Macadamia Coconut Carrot Cake from Vegan with a Vengeance landed in the bin tonight. I just couldn't take it anymore. Pictures and the recipe below...

Into the cake pans. In my baby oven, it took almost twice as long as the recipe called for to bake...

Daniel does his frosting magic

Notice his new glasses and the fact that he's doing the frosting on the coffee table, lest he miss a second of American Idol

Please note the undeniable ooey gooeyness

Here's how you too can drive yourself insane with deliciousness:

Ginger-Macadamia-Coconut-Carrot Cake

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground or freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped (honestly, I might lose these next time; they didn't add that much)
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, chopped
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (I could only find sweetened, so I cut the sugar in the recipe a bit)
2 cups carrots, grated

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease two 8-inch round springform cake pans, or one 9×13″ baking pan. (I just used two cake pans as my spring forms are different sizes)

In a medium mixing bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground spices.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the pineapple juice, oil, sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and combine well with a hand mixer or strong fork. Fold in the macadamias, ginger, coconut, and carrots.

Divide the batter evenly between the two round pans, or spread in the rectangular pan, and bake for 40-45 minutes. Let it cool in the pans. Once it is cool, remove from the pans and put coconut icing (recipe to follow) between the layers and more icing on top. If you’ve used a rectangular pan, you can cut the cake in half to form the two layers, or leave it as one layer.

Coconut Icing:
1/4 cup margarine at room temperature
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Cream the frosting until light and fluffy. Add the coconut milk and vanilla and combine. Add the confectioners sugar and mix until smooth. Hand held mixer recommended for this! Add the coconut, mix to combine, and refrigerate until ready to use. (I only used half of the icing and I sprinkled the coconut on top rather than mixing it in)

A milliner of sorts - hamantaschen

2009-03-13T23:54:00.008-04:00

An email sent to Daniel earlier this week
(with supplemental pictures...)

hi baby-
just wanted to fill you in on the information about our cookies.

1) there is a big tupperware full of poppy seed filled ones on the counter...

2) there is a baggy of 4 experimental chocolate peanut butter ones also on the counter...

3) also on the counter is a small baggy with some mess ups.

4) in the fridge, there is a final tupperware. it is full of what became of the fig paste ones. it turns out that the fig paste was too soft, so those hamantaschen would not hold together no matter how hard i pinched the corners of those hats.

SO i made them into fig and cheese sandwich cookies. they are quite delicious, if i do say so myself. they remind me a bit of our favorite date bars. in fact, i think with this cookie recipe, i could try my hand at making the beloved date bars...

anyway, we should figure out who to give some of the pretty little poppy ones to because they are quite nice.

also the dishwasher is full of CLEAN dishes, but the sink is full of dirty ones.

i love you.

And with that I went to bed.

A final note - they really were very, very good. I used the Joan Nathan recipe for the dough (adding in a touch of orange juice).

The poppy filling was poppy seeds, milk, honey, dried dates, and walnuts, heated over the stove until it got thick. A balabusta is indeed what I am.

Fast Food - random Chinese bakery on Mission

2009-03-13T14:20:00.003-04:00

Have no idea the name of this place. Daniel and I were taking a study break last Saturday to go get burritos when we happened upon this place. Never one to overlook an exciting seeming house of baked goods, I urged us in, and we went for this scallion bun. Soft, warm, eggy, and oniony. Daniel compared it to challah, and he's been wanting one ever since. It is Friday, so maybe we can motzi on over and pick one up. (sorry, truly terrible pun).

The Bread Project - What could be sweeta than a pita?

2009-03-09T21:42:00.005-04:00

So one of the many things I miss about my beloved New York is the Middle Eastern food. Oh the hummus (Damascus Bakery.) Oh the shawarma (Zaytoons.) Oh the lentil soup (also Zaytoons.) Oh the pita. (for Daniel Damascus, for me Hummus Place.) Out here they mysteriously call all Middle Eastern food "Mediterranean," which seems to be a euphemism for not that good. (Just to clarify, I know that much Mediterranean food is delicious, just not in this context...)

So, when Daniel was in NYC for a couple of weeks, I had him bring me back whole wheat pita from Hummus Place, which being a mensch, he did in spades. And so I just finished my last bite of hearty, nutty pita goodness last week. My pita needs had been whet, and nothing was fitting the bill, so where was a girl to turn? To her own crafty resources.

I found a recipe on Epicurious that had gotten good reviews, and so yesterday while plowing through my enormous load of end of quarter homework, I began my quest for the perfect whole wheat pita.

While the recipe required several rises, the cooking time itself was a mere 3 minutes, directly on the oven rack (which you see above left an impression), and the kneading wasn't too bad or intensive. A pretty easy afternoon yeast bread. Here's the process...

The pitas all shaped, waiting for their final rise

In the 500 degree oven, now slightly mis-shapen from the trip from pan to oven

One beautifully puffed-up pita

Tuna sandwich with warm fresh pita

The verdict: These were good, and who can argue with fresh, homemade bread? They were not as heartily whole wheat as I would have liked, so I might up the whole wheat to bread flour ratio next time. And I would add a bit more salt and honey. But I will definitely make them again, and if anyone has a good pita recipe, send it my way. I've got a fierce pita hankering.

The Bread Project - Coconut bread

2009-03-09T12:18:00.004-04:00

Thanks to the Times of London's list of the 50 Best Food Blogs, last week I discovered a whole bounty of new recipes. I wanted to try one out immediately, so I looked through my cabinets and realized that I had a pantry calling out for me to make this Coconut bread recipe from The Wednesday Chef.

At my suggestion, and Daniel's immediate acceptance, I added chocolate chips into the mix. It took a good bit longer to bake than the hour the recipe suggested, and since we had dinner plans (at Burma Superstar!), I had to take it out of the oven while it was still a bit ooey gooey, but really, when it comes to chocolatey baked goods, a little ooey gooey never hurt anyone.

I have to say, this is not a recipe I'll probably return to. I found the combination of cinnamon and coconut here a little odd, but Daniel has been enjoying it as toast, so it's not a total loss, and the rest of the recipes on the site sound great. More to come...

The Bread Project - Corn muffins

2009-03-06T13:14:00.004-05:00

With the workload these days, the bread project his pretty much defunct, but I did manage to whip up some King Arthur Flour corn muffins the other day, and since they're listed in the Quickbreads and Muffins section of that auspicious website, I'm including them here.

They were yummy, especially when rewarmed and served with the maple butter I mixed up or with a little schmear of apricot jam. Nothing extraordinary, but certainly satisfying. Next time, I may add some cheese and jalapenos and serve with veggie chili.

We Want Food - Holy Basil, Batman!

2009-03-06T12:41:00.003-05:00

The picture may not be terribly clear, but one thing is - this recipe is a keeper. Made Gai Pad Krapow for din din last night , and loved the results.

I pulled the recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, Serious Eats and will definitely make it again. I made a few adjustments because what I had on hand (switched ground chicken for ground turkey; used broccolini instead of green beans; added some soy sauce; and chiffonaded the basil before adding.) I also went without the egg because, frankly, I forgot. I did, however, make and use the Nam Pla Prik (chili fish sauce), which in my opinion, totally made the dish. It added the tang of the lime and the umami of the fish sauce. The whole dish was spicy and salty and flavorful. Can't wait to have it again (although being a dutiful girlfriend, I let Daniel take the leftovers for lunch today...)

The girl and the burger

2009-02-26T13:18:00.002-05:00

In an effort to really take advantage of this fair state, Daniel and I headed up to Sonoma County last weekend and partook of some of the fine culinary bounty that wine country has to offer.

By far the jewel in this excursion was the burger that had me closing my eyes and sighing in delight at The Girl and the Fig. This bistro, whose motto is "Country Food with a French Passion," is a cozy little place just off Sonoma's main square. You can eat in the bar or during the day in the garden, but as it was evening and a little chilly out, after a half hour wait, we were seated in the main room, at a table that was a bit too exposed to the hustle and bustle of the servers for my taste. But boy did the food make up for this feeling of chaos.

This being wine country, we asked the waitress to point us in the direction of a dry local white and then we dug into the menu. There was much that caught our atteniton, but after some deliberation, I chose the salad of the season to start off with because it featured watermelon radishes, which is my new favorite crunchy vegeatable. Seriously, if you haven't tried one of these, rush out and grab one. They're bigger and less bitter than other radishes, and when you cut into them they are beautiful -red marbled, sometimes with a hint of green. The pickled red onion added that perfect tang that I'm wild about and the whole things was served over a mix of dark greens. Simple, but very nice.

Daniel, ever the cheesehead, started off with the cheese and fruit plate, "three selections of cheese, seasonal fruit, house-made fig cake and baguette." Although he had the option to choose his own cheeses from a detailed list, he described to the waitress his proclivity toward the sharp and mildly stinky and let her work her magic. What he ended up with was pretty special (he generously let me sample each.) First laguiole, a hard French cheese of cow's milk. It was salty and slightly nutty, and was really fantastic when paired with the apple chutney that accompanied the plate. My second favorite was the fleur de maquis, a soft French sheep's milk cheese that was covered in wild herbs. It was buttery soft, but its intense richness was cut with an almost lemony quality. Really, really nice. The third was an organic Italian goat's milk number, fleur de capra. It was sweet and subtle and was complemented nicely by the pear slices. Not my cheese style of choice, but very good nonetheless.

For our main courses, Daniel was tempted by the grilled cheese with tomato confit, but not wanting to over indulge, he prudently chose the open faced olive oil poached tuna sandwich, topped with hard boiled egg and served with creme fraiche potato salad. His sandwich was subtle, but really, really good. And that potato salad. Oooh boy...

My main course, however, was RIDICULOUSLY good. The aforementioned burger was top sirloin with grilled onions served on a dutch crunch roll. I opted out of any topping it with cheese, but I took advantage of the dijon and the ketchup (and housemade pickles!), and I bit into heaven. The medium rare burger was a juicy masterpiece. The roll was the best version I've had yet of this ubiquitous California specialty. Perfect bread to burger ration. Perfect crunch. Perfectly perfect. It was served with matchstick frites, but honestly, who wants to bother filling up with such nonesense when one has a burger like this? Sigh. I wish I were eating it right now.

On a side note, earlier in the evening, we went to Meritage Martini bar, where I sampled the "Drunken Angry Hog" a Bloody Mary style drink served in a martini glass, made up of absolut peppar vodka, spicy mary float, with a fresh hog island oyster floating in it. Being a sucker for savory cocktails, I was tempted. The verdict: it was a little weird.

Dining Six Feet Under (in the figurative sense)

2009-02-23T11:51:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, Daniel and I finally partook of one of San Francisco's semi-underground dinners. It wasn't deep, deep underground in the core or even the mantle, but still, it was below the surface, perhaps in the earth's crust - or more precisely in the Outer Mission at a million fishes, an arts collective. It was a vegetarian dinner, featuring local produce, prepared by Leif Hedendal (who has cooked in Barcelona and at Greens in SF). The event served as a fundraiser for a documentary In Search of Good Food, a look at the history of local/organic food in the Bay Area.

We arrived to the BYOB event bottle in hand and were greeted by the welcoming sounds of Klezmer and a tray of hors d'oeuvres.

The first was housemade purple potato crisps with celeriac-horseradish-brown butter puree.

These were absolutely delicious. The potato crisps perfectly crispy and salty and the celeriac-horseradish combo a fantastic textural complement to the crunch of the crisp. I wouldn't have minded a bit more bite to the horseradish, but I am also the girl who likes a ratio of 3 to 1 in favor of horseradish in my Hillel sandwich, so I may not be the best judge of such things.

The other little bite being passed around was a Chiogga beet crostini with Andante chevre, Bolinas stinging nettle, walnut. While I was thrilled by the incorporation of the non-stinging stinging nettle, this one didn't leave much of an impression, and so while others at our communal table used their whily ways to snag an ilicit second helping of this, I reserved my underhanded efforts to secure a second (and third) potato crisp. (I mean really, who can eat just one crisp?)

When we were all seated, it came time for the real eating to begin, and our first course was a Borlotti bean soup with farm greens, served with a big chunk of hearty bread for dipping purposes. In my humble opinion, you can't go wrong with bean soup, and the bread had a delightfully crunchy crust and a perfectly chewey center.

Next up - golden nugget pumpkin with roasted shallots, tahini cauliflower, baby golden turnips. This was really the star of the evening. It's only flaw was that I wanted more of it. The pumkin itself was moist and well-seasoned, with just the perfect balance of stringiness that you want when you spoon into a punpkin. The tahini cauliflower was to die for. I'm not usually a huge tahini fan, but it was in no way overpowering and it was almost caramelized atop the just browned cauliflower. Heavenly. The turnips? Also quite nice, although quite difficult to eat because the hosts, perhaps not trusting the rowdy crowd, hadn't given us knives for the meal...

Salad course - Star route baby lettuces, chicories, cresses, cara cara and blood orange, olio nuovo. As Daniel noted, this was like a salad that I would make at home, what with the combination of slightly bitter greens and sweet blood oranges. I like it at home, I liked it there. I like salad everywhere.

Finally, for dessert - an olive oil marmalade cake with an orange glaze. When this was served, we overheard the server mentioning to a friend at our table that the ingredients for this cake had been foraged. Based on the description of the cake itself, I had trouble guessing what elements exactly had been foraged. The olive oil? The marmalade? Maybe the oranges had been stolen renegade style from someone's citrus farm? We may never know, but it sure tasted nice in that hearty Italian olive oil dessert style, where you think, mmm, this is good, and wouldn't it taste better with some nice butter thrown in? Just kidding. I really liked it and gobbled the whole thing down cold.

All in all, a really lovely evening out. Or should I say evening underground...

Fast Food - Tangerine

2009-02-22T03:33:00.002-05:00

When Daniel returned late from NYC last Saturday night, we decided that we deserved a proper Sunday brunch to celebrate his arrival. So the next morning, we got up and facing the cold San Francisco drizzle, headed down Sanchez to Tangerine. We'd spotted it when we were first looking at the neighborhood and were struck by the large number of dinner specials (the free dessert, free cocktail, please come and eat here variety). I couldn't help thinking that it didn't seem like a place with a lotta legs. That was before we happened by the restaurant one day during the brunch hours and saw the long line outside. When it comes to food where's there's a line, there's usually some good eating to be had, so we added it to the list of places to try.

We waited for about 20 minutes for our table in the crowded dining room. Daniel went for something truly special - a fried egg, macaroni and cheese, corn pancake. We spotted another patron consuming it happily, and it looked amazing.

Daniel cut into it and out poured the liquid yolk, drenching the mac and cheese corny concoction...

Daniel found it pretty thrilling and gobbled the whole thing. I have to admit, I found it a little flavorless. The cheese lacked any real sharpness and the whole thing needed some kind of tang to balance all the carb and eggy density.

I didn't find my dish to be particularly thrilling either. On the recommendation of the waitress, I got the Mexican omelet - filled with shrimp, spinach, and mozarrella (I got it w/o cheese) and topped with salsa and avocado. Again, the flavor balance was a little off. The salsa was without much spice and there wasn't enough of it to offer any real acidity. Granted I got it as an egg white omelet, so it did have that going against it...

Plusses of the meal - the breakfast potatoes were delicious (though a bit greasy) and the whole wheat toast and jam plate was really tasty and perfectly toasted. The waitstaff was incredibly friendly and attentitive.

But worth a wait in the rain? Maybe not so much. This tangerine is not quite ripe. (sorry, i'm tired.)

Fast Food - Udupi Palace

2009-02-19T12:12:00.003-05:00

It's been a busy few weeks, so I'm behind, but I have loads of pix/meals to discuss, so here begins an attempt at catching up.

A few weeks ago, Daniel and I, feeling mildly jealous of Eric and Ariel's recent trip to India, decided to take a little trip to the subcontinent ourselves, by way of Valencia. We hit up Udupi Palace, a southern Indian joint, specializing in dosa and uthappam. Given the experience I had the summer between junior and senior years of college, I don't often eat South Indian food because it brings up lingering feelings of rage. Don't know that story? Oh, I was fired from a fusion South Indian restaurant in New York because the owner thought I had been stealing from the register. I am many things, but a thief, not so much...

Anyway, in spite of these persisting feelings, I do love the dosas and was excited to give Udupi a try. We started with the idli (the rice patties pictured above) as an app, and were particularly thrilled with the sambar that accompanied them. It was warm and flavorful and lovely both as a dip for the glutionous idli and on its own eaten as a soup. For our main courses, we ended up going the uthappam direction - Daniel being Daniel went for the one with the word "Spicy" in the name (he was pleased, but not thrilled) and I went for the tomato omelette (described as an uthappam made of chick pea flour with tomato and spices.) It came with more sambar (awesome) and coconut chutney (sweet and thick and rich). I LOVED it and despite its large size, I ate the whole thing. And then I got the stomach ache that comes with copious amounts of chickpeas and lentils. Luckily, Daniel was in the same situation. We were quite a pair...

We Want Food - Kasha and veggie burgers!

2009-02-05T12:04:00.003-05:00

So as is often the case when Daniel is out of town, I fall into a pattern of repetitive eating.

The theme of this week -kasha and veggie burgers! All mixed up!

When you think about it, in spite of its roots in the shtetl, kasha is basically a health food - with all the fibrous goodness that whole grains have to offer. When combined with a MorningStar veggie pattie, it's a meal deserving of some sort of gold medal of virtue.

Here's the recipe (mainly based on the recipe for plain kasha on the back of the Wolff's box:
-bring 2 cups of chicken broth to a boil
-meanwhile, lightly whisk one egg white, pour in one cup dry kasha to coat
-in a sauce pan, sautee up the kasha until it separates (about three minutes)
-add the boiling broth, cover tightly and reduce heat to low until kasha absorbs the liquid (about 7 minutes or so)
-meanwhile, grill up the veggie burger (I used my lovely grill pan)
-cut it up and add it to the kasha (add whatever sauce you like - I've been enjoying Chinese brown sauce)

(today for a change, I cut up some onions and some deli turkey, sauteed that and threw it into the kasha, I'm having it for lunch, so we'll wait and see how it is...)

We Want Food - Tuna and Potato Chips

2009-01-27T02:09:00.001-05:00

What's that pie plate of mush above? Why it's my grandmother's potato chips and tuna -made of tuna, potato chips, mushrooms, and cream of mushroom soup. Culinary arts at the highest level. So guilt inducing that my mother only made it once in the course of my childhood.

Clearly, it sounds disgusting, unhealthy, and bizarre. But with a few updates - fine California grown cremini shrooms, line caught tuna, vegan organic mushroom soup and Lays Cracker Crisps instead of potato chips - it's actually a fine, well balanced dinner. Especially when served with Swiss chard and tomatoes.

In case you're feeling adventurous, or rather unadventurous in a mid-western 1950s way, here's the original recipe, pulled from a yellowed type written recipe from my grandmother's book:

Tuna and Potato Chips
1 can tuna 7 oz
1 can cream of mushroom soup
6 oz of potato chips
1/2 cup mushrooms

Mix all ingredients in a shallow baking pan - greased. Spread top with crumbs. Bake 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

I upped the tuna and mushrooms, decreased the chips, and voila -

The housewife presents the fruit of her toils...

The Bread Project - Parmesan Pull-Aparts

2009-01-27T01:57:00.004-05:00

We had our buddy Scott and his lady friend over for dinner on Saturday, and although I didn't end up getting the key lime cheesecake made that I'd been planning on (settled on Pear Brown Betty), I did get some rolls made - Parmesan Pull-Aparts to be exact.

The recipe from Gourmet, promised that they would be brioche-like "rich and tender" with a "gorgeous brown crust" but without the labor-intensive madness of brioche. On the non-labor intensive front, Gourmet was right. Although they were work out for my hand-held mixer and my Cuisine-Art (oh Lord, I need a stand-up mixer), they only required two short rises and no kneading. They rolled up nicely and looked cute all squished up in the pan.

They smelledd heavenly coming out of the oven, and I think compared to many of my baked goods, they looked pretty pretty too.

And as promised, they pulled apart with aplomb. The taste though, was a little eh. Not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but nothing to write home about. In their defense, my timing was a little off, so they had cooled considerably by the time we ate, but even warmed in the oven the next day they were still a little bland. But, I have my mother's brioche tins, and I'm not afraid of hard work, so next time, I'll make the real thing...

Fast Food - Sultan Indian Buffet

2009-01-26T23:58:00.005-05:00

In honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, Daniel and I decided to express our love of a buffet - an Indian buffet to be exact.

Although there are many options about town, we'd heard good things about Sultan, and so after a morning of building up a big appetite working at Daniel's favorite coffee shop, we headed off.

The place was relatively empty, but the buffet bar was full of all the standards - tandori chicken, aloo gobi, various kinds of dal, etc. So we filled our plates with as many options as we could and went to work.

The verdict: didn't love either of the meat dishes we tried - tandori chicken was a little too chewy and the lamb a little too gristly, but the vegetarian stuff was quite nice - especially a lovely cabbage dish, whose name I can't remember. I also really liked the rice patty (that big white disk pictured above). Apprarently, they make an excellent okra masala, but that wasn't available the afternoon we were there. Oh well.

For dessert, I tried "Indian noodles with butter." They were just that - Indian noodles with (LOTS) of butter. One bite was sufficient, but it was a good bite.

Overall, Sultan was nothing thrilling, but when it comes to large amounts of pretty good Indian food, frankly, what's not to like...

With a little ingenuity...

2009-01-26T23:51:00.003-05:00

Daniel and I have been doing a text-study group every other Sunday in the East Bay, and I've been using this as an excuse to make sure that I bake at least twice a month. Last week, though, I had almost nothing in the house and was worried I would show up for our first post-New Year's meeting empty handed. Slowly though, an idea emerged...

Armed with my old friend, the Baker's chocolate brownie recipe (with the addition of salt), left-over sea-salt caramel, from a blood orange tart I'd made the week prior, and some coconut, I had the makings of a delicious (really, if I do say so myself) Sunday afternoon treat.

Fast Food - Sunflower Vietnamese

2009-01-19T19:32:00.004-05:00

In spite of the fact that I should feel refreshed after the Winter Break, I've been feeling even more burnt out than ever since returning from the East Coast. Getting myself back into the swing of work, work, work has been next to impossible. The solution? Procrastination station. So I took one night off this week, and Daniel and I hit the Radio Habana Social Club for drinks and then grabbed dinner at Sunflower Vietnamese.

This restaurant has two locations around the corner from each other. We hit the "fancier" of the two - a perfectly comfortable nondescript little place, the packed tables a testament to its loyal following. Daniel, who is usually strangely opposed to sharing, agreed to split an appetizer and two entrees. It turned out to be far, far too much food. We started with burrito-sized fresh veggie spring rolls, which were perfectly rolled in slippery rice paper, stuffed with lettuce, tofu, bean sprouts, mushrooms, and cabbage. They were a delicious combination of crunchy and chewy and would in the future be a satisfying meal for a person seeking a light meal. We were not such people.

We were people who also had a bowl of chicken pho - rich flavorful yellowish broth, with loads of rice noodles and perfectly poached chicken. With the addition of some bean sprouts, a squeeze of lemon, and a shot of Sriacha, it was an incredibly satiating, slurpable soup (I liked it so much that when I had a bad sinus headache Saturday night, I went by and got another bowl of it to go).
Our final dish of the evening was Vietnamese vermicelli with beef and crispy imperial rolls. It was such a dish that served as my introduction to Vietnamese cuisine at the place my family frequented when I was a kid, and it's the standard by which I judge Vietnamese restaurants to this day. Although I was pretty stuffed by the time I gave this a taste, I was not disappointed. The beef was tender and had the appropriate barbecue like tang. The noodles and cucumbers were cool and light, providing lovely contrast to the beef. With the accompanying sweet clear sauce it was a wholly unnecessary, but deeply delicious end to a much needed night of hooky playing.

Sometimes You Have to go to the Dark Side - Barbeque Wars

2009-01-13T12:29:00.006-05:00

Early on after moving to South Carolina, my family discovered the joys of mustard based barbecue - slow cooked pulled pork, swimming in delicious, tangy yellow sauce, piled onto a soft white bun. What could be better?

The great purveyor of this delicacy was Maurice's Barbecue, a local chain whose flagship was near the airport,a large drive in restaurant, complete with car hop service, called Piggy Park.
We loved Maurice's - bought the barbecue sauce to send to family members, laughed about its resemblance to baby poop (there's a famous story about my sister, a diaper, and a bottle of the stuff). But after living in SC for a while, we discovered that Maurice was a racist, Confederate-sympathizer, and like the rest of liberal Columbia, we began boycotting the place.

For a while, we went without our new beloved yellow barbecue, until we discovered the equally delicious, guilt-free Big T Bar B Que, run by a lovely African American family in a shopping center near the Wal-Mart. It is their sandwich pictured above. A sandwich that exceeds Maurice, not just because it's prepared with love not hate, but also because you can get it with a spicier sauce, if you like.

The one problem with Big T is that unlike Maurice's, they don't offer a pulled chicken version of the sandwich, leaving poor Daniel with no kosher options. So we have developed a system when we visit SC. We all go to Big T, walk in with our heads held high, an purchase barbecue pork sandwiches for my mom and me.

Then we skulk to Maurice's (disguised in a rental car if we have one) and as surreptitiously as possible hit the drive-through to purchase Daniel's truly guilty pleasure.

No pictures please, says my mother, ashamed to be in parking lot of Maurice's

At the end of the day, however, everyone is happy. We top our sandwiches with cole slaw, and sigh the whole meal through. They don't call it Carolina Gold for naught...

We Want Food - Spaghetti con le sarde

2009-01-05T14:41:00.005-05:00

When I was a kid as my father and I waited for my poor, put-upon mother to bring the chow to the table, we would display our appreciation for her culinary devotion and care by banging our forks and knives on the table and chanting "We want food. We want food." (This was after I had outgrown my love of creating long silverware narratives, wrapping napkins around my forks and pretending that they were the girls to the masculine knives. I would never have subjected my utensil friends to such jostling, but once safely out of this stage, I happily banged away.)

But I digress. In honor of those childhood dinners, I am launching a new feature here on Food on the Frontal Lobe. A periodic examination of recipes I'm trying for my favorite meal of the day - dinner. (well let's be honest, it's a four way tie - breakfast, lunch, and brunch are pretty good too - oh and who doesn't love a late night snack...)

The first entry - Spaghetti con le sarde

I'd recently read a mouthwatering review of a restaurant in NY that specializes in this Sicillian pasta dish, and I wanted to try my hand at it. I couldn't find a recipe that seemed perfect, so I combined a few, focusing particularly on one from NYT magazine and one from Food and Wine. The end result was truly thrilling - I think one of the most complexly flavored, sophisticated dishes I've made in a long time. The textures and flavors were surprising and rich, and the sardines were in no way overpowering. Delicious.

Here's the recipe (the measurements are not precise, I went with the pinch system):

Pasta con le sarde
-1/2 C bread crumbs
-olive oil
-1/4 C grated parmesean (this is controversial; Italians don't like to mix cheese with fish pasta)
-1/2 C dry white wine
-a few handfuls of dried currants
-red pepper flakes
-one fennel bulb (finely chopped)
-fennel seeds
-salt/pepper
-2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
-1/2 large yellow onion (finely chopped)
-1 can diced tomatoes (some liquid drained)
-2 cans of skinless, boneless sardines (drained and pulled apart with a fork)
-1/4 C toasted pine nuts
-spaghetti (I used whole wheat because I'm a heathen)

1) soak the currants and hot pepper flakes in the white wine
2) heat some olive oil and add the bread crumbs, stir frequently for about five minutes until golden, place in a bowl and set aside; if using, add parmasean and mix in
3) in same pan, add more olive oil, and sautee fennel, seeds; after a few minutes add onions and garlic and salt and pepper to taste; sautee until fennel is a little golden and beginning to be tender (during this step, start boiling your water for pasta; for textural purposes, I would recommend al dente)
4) add tomatoes and allow some of the liquid to cook off
5) add a few spoonfuls of the wine and all of the soaked currents (I also added more pepper flakes at this point)
6) add the sardines and let stew for an additional four minutes or so; add more s&p
7) drain your pasta and put back in pot; gently fold in the sardine mixture and then add most of the bread crumb/cheese mixture and the pine nuts; combine
8) serve in bowls, top with remaining bread crumbs
9) think about what a gourmand you are

I love a buffet...

2009-01-05T01:53:00.005-05:00

So I'm back from two weeks of "vacation," all ready to gear up for the next six month marathon. You would think that with two weeks off, there would have been lots of time for good blogging, but alas, no such luck. Fortunately, however, I did manage to make time in my busy schedule to do some good eating. So the next few entries will be some highlights...

The first one came early on in our trip back East. Daniel and I were totally zonked from our Red Eye to Charlotte by way of New York. Zonked and ravenous. My always intrepid mother thought that Rock Hill would be a good place to stop to recharge our batteries on our way down to Columbia, but she didn't have any thoughts on where exactly we should eat in this bustling metropolis. Serendipity was on our side, and we spotted Jackson's Cafeteria.

Now my dad and I spent a good bit of time when I was growing up frequenting a similar establishment called S&S Cafeteria. While all I remember of those visits is my love for green jello cut into cubes and served in glass goblets (sans whipped cream, if you please), these memories are fond, and I had a great feeling about Jackson's. They did not let me down...

Daniel scanning the options, searching for the rare non-traif item

Our table; as always a buffet breeds gluttony...

In a well-intended, but fool-hardy attempt to be health conscious, I went for the baked chicken, with sides of a green salad, pinto beans, and mustard greens. Oh, and of course the chicken came with stuffing, cranberry sauce, and a yeast roll. Even with the skin removed, the chicken was incredibly flavorful and moist, and combined with the cranberry sauce, it was really very, very good. The pinto beans and mustard greens (that rhymes) were the kind of veggies only available in the south. Impossibly good thanks to the addition of who knows how much pig fat. But in a region of the world that considers macaroni and cheese a vegetable, I think I was being virtuous...

My plate

Daniel ended up with a salmon croquette, hush puppies, spicy corn bread, a green salad, and creamed corn (the only veg without the aforementioned pig fat). Although he claimed to like the salmon croquette, he left a large portion of it on his plate, explaining that when it came to round fried things, he was saving himself for his plate of hush puppies. He seemed equally pleased with the corn and corn bread. To make sure that the meal was well-balanced, he also availed himself of my yeast roll; after all you need a little wheat to supplement all those corn products.

How many ways to prepare corn do you see here?

The thinking person's meatloaf...

My mother, ever the minimalist, stuck to this beautiful stuffed pepper, green beans, and a plate of pickled beets. This pepper was the winner of the afternoon, however. Ground beef, with sweet ketchupy tomato sauce and some kind of breading smashed into a big old green pepper. Yummy. All the joys of meatloaf but with aesthetic appeal to boot. I'm going to try my hand at one of these soon. Delish.

We left satiated and with the feeling that Jackson's had proved an auspicious start for our trip to the homeland...

The Bread Project - In knots

2008-12-17T20:03:00.007-05:00

The bread project returns.
In the form of pretzels.
From the Street Food cookbook.
Varieties - salt, cinnamon sugar, poppy seed, sesame seed
The verdict - while the attractiveness varied, the taste was delicious.
Here's how it went down this Sunday past:

The dough, post-rise.

Rolling it out

Getting all twisted up

The blanching

The eggwash

mmm

mmm up close