We Want Food- Itsa Pizza Pie!

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

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?

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!

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.

The Bread Project - Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

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.

The Bread Project- Yogurt-Zucchini Bread with Walnuts

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.

The dulce life

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.

We Want Food - Oh little lamb who made thee?

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.

The Bread Project - Lahukh (Yemenite Flatbread)

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

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

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)

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

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...