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Dinner last night

Not too much to blog about today but I thought I’d post last night’s dinner.

I had purchased some lovely shrimp at Mitsuwa Market about 2 weeks ago and stuck them in the freezer. I was ready to make some basil shrimp when my husband mentioned that he felt like eating Thai or Indian food. I just sort of made up a mixture of lite coconut milk, Thai red chili paste, lemon juice (since I had no limes), fish sauce, madras curry powder and chopped cilantro and marinated the little shrimpys. After a few minutes under the broiler, they came out plump and very tasty. I’ll definitely use that mixture on other fish and meats- it had great flavor and cured those cravings.

On the side I made some garlic broccolini after having had some delicious garlic broccoli at my parents house last weekend (as an accompaniment to my mom’s gyoza…..the BEST STUFF ON EARTH I TELL YOU!). I just sautéed a ton of garlic in a tiny bit of oil, added the broccolini and then added about 1 cup of chicken stock, put a lid on the pan and let it simmer/steam. Garlicky goodness, I tell you! We also had vegetarian stuffed mushrooms which I make often, some French bread with leftover lemon/parsley butter and some wheat berries. We polished it all off with some pino grigio and turned on the TV to watch the eagerly anticipated “Sons & Daughters” on ABC….which turned out to be pretty disappointing.

Oh well. At least dinner was good!

Cooking + Shrimp

4 x 10 Meme

I just got tagged for the ever-present “4 x 10″ meme via Santos at The Scent of Green Bananas. Although it morphed into an LA-4×10 thanks to the fine folks at Franklin Avenue, I had to do it without the LA theme since I don’t know if I could answer everything based around Los Angeles. Also, it seems to have shrunk to a “4 x 8.” So, here goes!

Four Jobs I’ve Had In My Life:

1)My first job was scooping ice cream at Haagen Daz in the local mall. I quit after three weeks due to this annoying boy who would lock me in the freezer and constantly harass me. The best thing about working there was standing in a teeny tiny corner of the shop that the security cameras couldn’t reach and eating the key lime pie and macadamia nut brittle ice creams. Yum.
2) Waitress at two different IHOPs- I’d work at one for the breakfast shift and then go to the other for the dinner shift. And yes, I had to say “Rooty Tooty Fresh N Fruity” on a daily basis.
3) I worked in artist management for almost three years. I finally got fed up with band members who didn’t have a clue about how money works (if you spend all of it, you are broke and no, it isn’t my fault), how life works (yes, even YOU have to have your passport to get on a plane to Germany) or how relationships work (if you constantly cheat on your wife, she will leave you) so I got out before I physically hurt anyone.
4)Import indie rock buyer for Tower Records in Shibuya- Tokyo, Japan. It was like shopping, but instead of buying for myself, I’d be buying for the biggest Tower in the world and pushing my tastes onto the unknowing Japanese public. It was great.

Four Movies I Could Watch Over And Over:

1)Mrs. Doubtfire. I laugh out loud every single time. The beatiful San Francisco scenery doesn’t hurt either.
2)Some Kind of Wonderful. Yeah, I’m a sucker for 80′s teen drama, even though all of the actors in it look like they’re pushing 30.
3)Blade Runner. Rutger Hauer’s speech at the end always makes me tear up. He just wanted to LIVE, Harrison!!!
4)Shawshank Redemption. One of the best movies ever.

Four Places I’ve Lived (With Food Memories From Each):

1) Cherokee Village, Arkansas: picking wild raspberries and blackberries and eating them, then promptly getting sick, but then doing it again the next day and the next.
2) Tokyo, Japan: Mixed sandwiches at the 7-Eleven, chicken doria from the local cafe in Nogata, fantastic Chinese food at this little place near Nakano station, pumpkin korokke and kastuo no tataki at Tengu….too many to list!
3) Temple City, CA (suburb in San Gabriel Valley): Walking with my family to Mama Petrillos and getting the square, thick sausage pizza. Getting slightly dressed up to go get stuffed potato skins at The Velvet Turtle while my dad sipped Irish coffee. Ah, memories;).
4) Los Angeles, CA: Shrimp burritos at La Fuente, cocoa crepe at Parkway Grill….again, so many.

Four Shows I Love(d) To Watch:

1) Brady Bunch. I would CRY to my mom that I could never be in the Brady Bunch because I have black hair and the song goes “Hair of gold, like their mother.” I was actually depressed about it.
2) LOST. Can’t live without it.
3) Barefoot Contessa- everything is just so fabulous.
4) A Cook’s Tour. I LOVE Anthony Bourdain and miss this show terribly.

Four Places I’ve vacationed:

1) Nice, France- we went last summer and, not really being beachy-types, fell in LOVE with the place. What’s not to like about laying on the beach, drinking rose, eating thin-crust pizzas and watching beautiful people walk around with barely anything on? I’m hetero but damn- I have never seen so many beautiful boobs in all my life.
2) Vancouver, Canada. Beautiful mountains, oceans. Fabulous food and the friendliest people. I wish I could live there.
3) Italy- Bologna, Milan, Tuscany, Venice. Pizza, daily.
4) Japan- Osaka and Tokyo. We always seem to be there during the summer which means heat and humidity galore.

Four Websites I Visit Daily:

1) The Girl Who Ate Everything. This girl’s musings on food make me laugh out loud.
2) Blue Lotus. Impressive Japanese cooking by a Canadian woman living in Japan.
3) Chubby Hubby. Witty entries and gorgeous photography.
4) Epicurious.com: always looking for new recipes on this one.

Four Of My Favorite Foods :

1) Tuna toast- tuna mixed with Kewpie mayo, dijon mustard, relish, diced red onion, salt and extra pepper spread GOOD, thick Japanese bread and toasted.
2) Foie gras torchon with toast points. Love love love.
3) A big bowl of pappardelle with any sort of bolognese, ragu or confit. The version with lamb bolognese at Pete’s Cafe is one of my favorites
4) Sushi- my favorites are anago, salmon, aji and kohada.

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:

1) In Vancouver with my husband, trekking around and eating!
2) At Burke Williams getting a massage and sitting in the whirpool. I just discovered the joys of the whole spa thing and it really is soooo nice.
3) Experimenting in my kitchen
4) Hanging out with my best friend doing anything since it’s rare now that she lives in Nashville.

To Shaz, Obachan and Sarah, consider yourselves tagged (with no obligation, of course!).

Since I hate to post without photos, here is a simple, vegetarian dinner we had the other night. Juicy BBQ’d Portabello Burgers with Balsamic Glazed Brussel Sprouts. I know I know- I eat a lot of brussel sprouts but they are SO good this way!

Want a bite?

Hurray for Hollywood

Yesterday was Oscar Day. Initially I was supposed to work at the Oscars but we ended up having too many people so I bowed out and opted to stay at home and watch them on TV. I was looking forward to sort of loafing around in sweats, having a glass of wine and enjoying the show. I knew our friend Matt “may stop by” but otherwise, it was going to be a casual evening.

While my husband and I were out running errands, Matt called and said “What time does your shindig start?” clearly assuming that we were having an Oscar party. My husband just said “We’ll turn the TV on at around 5:00″ and hung up. I said “Wait wait! Call him back and tell him it isn’t a party!” So he did, but then Matt and he got into some conversation about food and it ended with my husband saying yes, there will be food.

Panic started to set in. Why, you ask? Because our friend Matt is not just a friend, he is a chef. I mean real chef. He was the chef du cuisine for years at Campanile and most recently assisted in opening Mario Batali’sDel Posto, which was recently anointed with 3 stars by the NY Times’ Frank Bruni. Matt is not a snob by any means, but I was so bummed that I didn’t really have time to plan anything. Had I known he was coming to dinner I would have made Japanese food since I’m guessing he doesn’t make much of it on his own. I had to think quickly and figure out what I could whip up in the hour or so before his arrival. To top it all off, he said his friend, who works at BABBO (!) was coming with him. Great. Two chefs coming for dinner. Fabulous.

I had wanted to make a dish out of my new favorite, Alfred Portale Simple Pleasures : Home Cooking from the Gotham Bar and Grill’s Acclaimed Chef and I had most of the ingredients on hand….except the main one- farro. We went to several stores and no one had it. I knew of several places that carried it but they were closed on Sunday. I was ready to give up when someone saved the day. We stopped at Firefly Bistro in South Pasadena to pick up a couple of their luscious grapefruit tarts so I asked Kristen, their lovely pastry chef, where I could get farro. She promptly came back with a container full of wheat berries (which I think is almost the same thing…readers?) and told me to simply take it home. I was so thankful and wow- what a nice lady she is. We’d never met but found each other through blogging and my plea with you readers to help me re-create the grapefruit tart that I fell in love with. She somehow heard of my post and emailed me the exact recipe! The world would be a better place if it was made up of Kristens.

Farro? Wheat berries? Same?

Anyway, on to the kitchen. I put one gooey stinky cheese and one goat cheese with ash on my new bamboo cheese board, placed some marinated olives in a bowl and plated some crackers. I made the chicken and farro salad from the cookbook which really came out well. It’s a combination of poached chicken (poached in stock, not water, so it’s extra tasty), Bibb lettuce, avocado, red bell pepper, red onion and farro (I used the wheat berries) tossed with a cilantro/jalapeno/lime vinaigrette. I also made a version of something my dad used to make me as a kid. He would butter toast and put one oil-packed sardine topped with a tiny lemon slice on it and serve it for breakfast. It was one my absolute favorites. Instead of toast, I sliced and toasted a baguette. I also got some French butter and mixed it with chopped parsley, sea salt and lemon zest and spread it on each slice which I topped with a sardine and another small sprinkle of sea salt.

When Matt arrived (sans friend who ended up having other plans…phew!), I served this pseudo-dinner/appetizer arrangement and he really seemed to like everything! I was so happy to see him eat about 4 servings of the salad and not so happy that I ate about 20 sardine crostini. Maybe the healthy wheat berries will get rid of those sardine calories in my body….?

As usual, I forgot to take photos until we had eaten a lot of the food (I’m such a piggy!) so here are some half-eaten, not-so-great shots of our little impromptu Oscar dinner.

Cheese board

Sardine Crostini

Olives

Mostly eaten salad

Salad + Cheese

Ode to Trader Joe’s

“My TJ’s” (to be sung to the melody of “My Heart Will Go On” from the Titanic)

(verse 1)
Every night I try hard
To come home, cook dinner
But sometimes it’s not in the stars
Near, so near to my house
The one place I turn to
Thanks to you I don’t have to starve…

(chorus)
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe you have great stuff to eat…..
Once more, it isn’t a chore
To have mealtime with no work
Thanks to you, oh Trader Joe’s!

(verse 2)
Love is found in your wines
They show me a great time
And your cheeses are just divine
Veggie enchiladas
Lasagnas, tortillas
Fuji apples are so sublime……

(final chorus- sing extra loudly and start pounding your chest)
Beer, fish!
It’s all just delish
And I fear that I can’t live without
Tuna Panang
It’s spicy with a bang
It’s all here at my TJ’s
Oh T Joe….don’t ever go…………………..

(finish with light flute melody fading out into the ocean…..)

Welsh cheddar w/ whole grain mustard and ale

Manchego

Kashi and tablewater crackers

Genius. Frozen basil in cubes.

We‘ll call this the meat of the meal….

Ok ok….you’re probably wondering “Where’s dinner?” Sometimes a nice plate of some cheese, crackers, tomatoes w/ balsamic and basil and a bottle (or a couple of bottles) of wine does the trick. That’s MY kind of dinner;).

Trader Joe’s + Cheese + Light dinner

Another Japanese-style dinner

Last night I made another Japanese-style dinner that came out pretty well, although I completely screwed up the tofu. How? I just bought the wrong kind. My Japanese reading skills leave a LOT to be desired, and I couldn’t read the package when I bought it but it looked like your standard firm tofu. Firm was an understatement. It was so dense and heavy I could have used it as a weapon. Well ok, maybe not THAT dense but it was definitely not made for hiya yakko (cold tofu w/ ginger, green onions, bonito flakes and soy sauce). I saved the rest of it to make some sort of patty from- maybe I will combine it with some shrimp or canned salmon for later this week.

Anyway, here are the photos from last night. I should probably start using different plates since all of my dinners are beginning to look the same!
The aforementioned hiya yakko

Leftover tori dango to kabu

Sauteed zucchini

Buta kimchee (pork with kimchee)

Healthy Japanese Dinner

I’ve really been inspired to cook more Japanese food lately. It’s healthy, nutritious and delicious. I recently bought a great cookbook called The Essentials of Japanese Cooking by Tokiko Suzuki. It not only contains all of the favorites of my youth, but very details explanations of techniques that really makes a big difference.

I’m excited to keep learning more about Japanese cooking in addition to honing the skills I learned from my mom. Hopefully I’ll be making intricate Japanese meals in a year or so……

Here is dinner from the other night:

Tohbyo (pea shoot) salad with sesame dressing
Just a simple salad of pea shoots, lettuce and tomatoes with a bottled Japanese “diet” sesame dressing that tastes amazing.

Hamachi no kama (broiled yellowtail collar)
Yellotail collar sprinkled with a bit of sake and a lot of salt, broiled and eaten with grated daikon and shoyu.

Tori dango to kabu no nimono (braised chicken balls and turnips) These are chicken meatballs made with lean ground chicken, grated onion, chopped reconsituted shiitake mushrooms, diced carrots and seasonings. They are first poached in hot water before being added to kabu (Japanese turnips, very similar in flavor and texture to daikon) and simmered in a light broth of bonito stock, soy sauce, mirin and sake.
Gobo no kimpira (Burdock Kimpira) Julienned burdock root and carrots are sauteed in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, sake and red chili flakes. I like to use a bit of sesame oil and sesame seeds for extra flavor. My husband and I could eat bowls of this, which would probably be ok since it is very healthy. I used pre-cut frozen burdock which works very well in this. Unfortunately after a long day at work, I hardly have the time to clean, soak and cut a whole burdock myself.

Tagged with Japanese food + Japanese cooking + Healthy cooking

Pizza Pizza!!

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who doesn’t like pizza. I also think part of the reason that pizza is an internationally loved food is because everyone has a different definition of what exactly “pizza” is.

For me, pizza means an ultra thin yeasty crust that’s crispy on the edges and chewy in the center topped with a light layer of good tomato sauce, a sprinkling of fresh basil and some nice chunks of burrata cheese barely melted. For my friend E, it has to have a medium crust with loads of great pepperoni and chewy cheese- his favorite being the version at The Rainbow in Hollywood. He scoffs at the idea that smoked salmon on flatbread that’s been coated with cream cheese, a la Wolfgang Puck, is even called pizza at all. Some people love deep dish Chicago pizza which, to me, is more like a meat pie than anything else. How anyone can eat more than one or two hunks of that is beyond me. And part of the fun of eating pizza is to seriously chow down, isn’t it?

Speaking of being completely piggish (admit it, you love that segue), my husband and I ate both of the rather large (but THIN- we aren’t total gluttons!) pizzas that I made last Saturday. It was my first attempt at homemade pizza dough which probably puts me years behind most of you, dear readers and fellow cooks. I’ve always daydreamed about making the perfectly flavored, thin pizza crust but I never actually got off my butt to try…..until I caught an episode of “Tyler’s Ultimate” on the Food Network about the “ultimate” pizza. I was barely paying attention until I caught a glimpse of this stern-yet-cheerful chubby Italian woman pouring water into a bowl of flour. She kneaded the dough, put a bunch of gorgeous smoked tomatoes on it, ripped up nice chunks of mozzarella and some fresh basil on top and stuck it in the oven. The resulting pizza looked so utterly delicious, and Tyler, with gushing sincerely, exclaimed that it was “the best pizza I have EVER had in my ENTIRE life.” I believed him. I was hooked…..I was on a mission.

After fruitless pleas to my husband to build me a wood-burning oven in our backyard, I focused my efforts on finding the best ingredients to make my truly authentic Italian pizze. I came back from a trip to Claro’s armed with my Italian “00″ flour (SO excited!!!), a can of Italian tomatoes (I wouldn’t even know where to look for smoked ones), two bottles of flat Italian water and a bag of fresh burrata mozzarella. After picking up a huge batch of basil from TJ’s, I was set. The one thing I couldn’t find was fresh, cubed yeast. Honestly- I don’t even know where to look for it at the market- and I call myself a baker. I’m an embarrassment to the bakers of the world, I know. I had to settle for my little pack of dry yeast instead.

The dough-kneading went quite well and it turned into a nice smooth ball after only a few minutes. I covered it with a towel, put it in a warm place and tried not to peek every five minutes. After about 90, it had risen but not quite as much as I had hoped. So I waited. I combined the canned tomatoes, chopped garlic, a few squeezes of both tomato and anchovy paste (btw, whoever invented the whole food-paste-in-a-tube thing is a genius! Now where’s the chipotle paste in a tube? Where?) and some good olive oil to make the sauce. Checked my precious doughball again to see that it had only grown about another inch. So be it- I took it and rolled it out anyway- and it was very soft and pliable so I remained hopeful. I slathered it with my tomato sauce and put the basil and burrato on and carefully slid it onto my scorching hot pizza stone in the oven. I was giddy with anticipation.

I checked on it after about 15 minutes and saw that it still needed a few more. When it felt right, I pulled out my pizza. It looked nice and thin, the edges looked crisp and it smelled fantastic. Now the negatives- the crust didn’t really brown at all and my poor burrata was melted beyond recognition into yellow/brown discs. Why? Because I didn’t listen to the stern-yet-cheerful chubby Italian woman who made the best pizza Tyler had ever tasted!! She patiently waited to put the basil and cheese on her pizza until after she had baked it for an initial 10 minutes. She then pulled out the almost done pizza, put her toppings on and then slid it back into the oven for just enough time to let the cheese melt into smooth pools of white, not harden into lava rock like mine. I was guilty. I knew I should have listened to Italian Lady- and I learned my lesson.

Ok- so obviously the pizza was still completely edible. My husband poured the wine, I cut the pie and we dug in. Verdict? We LOVED the sauce to which of course I did not write down the exactly recipe but am fairly confident I could replicate again. The crust’s texture was good- crunchy edge and slightly chewy middle. The main problem was a lack of flavor on the crust. There was no great bready flavor. You know how you could have two beautiful baguettes, and one will taste ok and the other just tastes like beautiful, fabulous bread? Well, my crust was the former. It looked like crust, chewed like crust but it just didn’t taste like….well, much of anything.

So again, I implore you, dear readers and fellow pizza makers, to please give me some insight into what makes a crust delicious, golden and bubbly. What makes it taste wonderful? What makes a crust brown (besides heat)? Because I know that my urge to brush the edges with eggwash would have every single Italian grandmother turn over in her grave and converge onto my house. It would be Night of the Living Dead Italian Grandmas. And you know I hate zombie movies. And zombies.

Pizza, Cooking,
Italian Food

Sweet tooth? What sweet tooth?
Caramel Apple Pie

I’ve mentioned several times on this blog that I have a much stronger “salt tooth” than a sweet one. I love salty crunchy things and can usually resist the never-ending flood of office snacks which are almost always chocolate-based. Why doesn’t anyone ever bring tuna sandwiches to share with coworkers? Where’s the baguettes with French butter? I’d be all over it if they did (this also serves as a hint to any of my coworkers who read this blog!).

As much as I love cooking savory food, I find that my pastry endeavors are almost always more visually pleasing. They taste pretty great as well, and the whole process of rolling out dough, cutting cold butter into flour, melting chocolate, cutting out shapes and decorating cakes is so relaxing. I know some pretty fantastic cooks out there who panic at the thought of baking, but to me, it brings out a creativity that is lacking in my regular cooking. Although I would desperately love to have the aesthetic brilliance (and technical cooking skills!) of Chubby Hubby or J of Kuiadore, my savory food usually has more of a rustic vibe to it.

Since I’ve been forgetting to take photos over the last couple of weeks, I’ve decided to post some “greatest hits” so to speak.

A “greatest misses” collection is always in the works and will undoubtedly be posted soon!

hazelnut orange chocolate torte

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

…with sprinkles

Gâteau Basque

Gâteau Basque inside- pastry cream and jam

French Apricot Jam Tart

another angle

Pastry, Baking,
Dessert

An update…….

Just a short entry to apologize for not updating the site this week. There has been so much going on with birthdays (mine, my sister’s and my best friend’s!), out of town guests and the Grammy Awards (I work in TV) that I just haven’t really had the time.

In the meantime, I wanted to post some photos from our dinner at The Water Grill in downtown LA that we had a few weeks back. It is widely touted as being the best seafood restaurant in Los Angeles, and we had enjoyed our previous visit a couple of years ago. However, the head chef left to open his own restaurant, Providence, which has probably taken over the title of Best Seafood in LA. Don’t get me wrong- there was nothing bad about the food but I guess it just didn’t make a huge impression. My husband had the chilled seafood platter and I had the butter poached lobster (sounds luscious, doesn’t it?!) but neither were life changing. Also- what is with foam on everything? Although I appreciate the flavor that sauces give dishes, there is something quite unappealing about the way foam looks. I’m sure I will piss off gourmands the world over when I say that foam reminds me of spit, baby drool and the stuff that drips out of a bulldog’s (let’s call him Cujo) mouth when he barks too much. Why put a big pile of it on something as lovely as lobster? I’d like to stick with reductions, beurre blancs and jus that have not been pumped out of a canister please.

On that note, please enjoy the poor photographs of said foam and other Water Grill delights!
Aforementioned foamy dish….

Life without carbs?

…would be just horrible. If I can’t have bread, I don’t want nobody, baby. But I must admit, I’m quite surprised to learn that a couple of weeks without my yeasty friends aren’t so awful. Planning meals that contain no “bad” carbs is not only easy, but thoroughly enjoyable as it stirred up some creative juices in me. The food has been healthy and frankly, extremely satisfying. Although I am looking forward to a slice of crusty French baguette topped with some pâté in my near future, the last two weeks or so of low- carb eating has enlightened (and hopefully lightened!) me.

Example of a low carb meal from this past week: Bruschetta Halibut, Oyster and Crimini Mushrooms Sautéed with Garlic and White Wine and a green salad.

Bread who?

Low Carb, Cooking