The Foodie Next Door

A Light Valentine's Day Dessert - Ginger Pear Granita

2012-02-13T12:09:00.001-05:00

Valentine's Day is approaching and I know for some people this carries with it the pressure to create a magical day for their significant other. If this sounds like your situation, or if you're just looking for a quick, easy and fairly healthy dessert to make, I'm glad you stopped by.

I've always liked the idea of a granita. A granita is essentially a classy version of a slushie that you make by hand. The only slightly annoying thing about making granitas is that you can't forget about them while you're making them because in order to make a granita, you need to scrape at it with a fork or knife every hour or so to prevent it from freezing into one hard block of ice. But I have found an easy solution to this very irritating problem: use a carbonated beverage and mix it with fruit.

The combination of ginger ale and pears chunks in this granita prevent it from freezing into a chunk of ice and also make this a refreshing dessert. The most important thing now becomes finding good ginger ale. I cannot stress enough how vital this is to the recipe's success. Normal grocery store ginger ale does not taste like ginger. It is simply sweet carbonated water. That will not do. Go out and buy the real stuff. Boylan's makes a good ginger ale that uses real cane sugar and Reed's makes a deliciously spicy ginger ale that is my new favorite soda.

From there, all it takes is four easy ingredients (or three if you feel like omitting one) and you've got a palate cleansing, refreshing, and healthy dessert that takes absolutely no time to make. I also like this dessert because it is light and almost ethereal in quality. The frozen ginger ale bubbles a little bit as it melts in your mouth and because there is no cream or fat in the dessert, it doesn't weigh you down. I know this a bit different than the standard chocolate and strawberry desserts that people normally associate with romance, but let's be frank here: who feel sexy after a heavy dinner of creamy, fatty foods? And besides, ginger is an aphrodisiac and pears are sexy.

Now if you're wondering why there's only one glass pictured (especially considering the fact that this is a Valentine's Day dessert), well, it's because I only own one martini glass. I once had two, but then, sadly, I broke one while washing dishes and I've never felt the need to go buy more given that I neither drink martinis nor thrown swanky parties at which my guests would be drinking martinis. Instead, my martini glass tends to be used to dress up yogurt parfaits, chocolate mousse, and, now, a granita. Also, despite posting a recipe for a Valentine's Day dessert, I will not be making this tomorrow for my special someone so there is no need for a second glass. Why is that? Not because of a lover's spat, I assure you, but rather because balancing a long distance relationship in which one partner works on one side of the Atlantic and the other attends medical school on the other side of the ocean means not seeing each other for Valentine's Day. But it's okay because I don't need a holiday to remind me to appreciate my sweet B. and he makes me feel loved regardless of what day of the year it is. So I will have a single martini glass of this granita tonight and another glass again tomorrow night. If you're single, come on and do the same. After all, Valentine's Day is really just an elaborate excuse to enjoy good food and good company, and this granita qualities as both.

Happy [early] Valentine's Day, all.

Ginger Pear Granita
serves two

4 ripe Seckle pears or 2 ripe Barlett or Comice pears
1-2 tbsp dark rum
12 oz. good ginger ale
optional: zest from 1 lemon or lime
garnish: pinch of flaky sea salt and a spring of mint

Dice the pears into very small chunks.
In a small sauce pan combine about half of the pear chunks with the dark rum and cook over medium low heat until the pear softens and the liquid cooks off, about 3-4 minutes.
In a wide container (preferably one that has a lid), combine the raw pear, rum cooked pear, ginger ale and zest (if using). Freeze for 1 hour.
Use a fork to scrape and stir the semi-frozen dessert, mashing up the pear as much as possible.
Freeze for another 4-5 hours. Scrape and stir every 1-2 hours in between.
Spoon into elegant glasses.
Garnish with a pinch of flaky sea salt and a sprig of mint, if desired.

Note: this can be made a day in advance, but any more than that and the frozen bubbly feeling of the ginger ale will go away.

"Buttermilk" Roast Chicken

2012-02-09T12:52:00.040-05:00

Buttermilk and chicken are a classic combination. In fact, when I hear the words buttermilk and chicken together in the same sentence, I automatically think moist, tender, and flavorful. Buttermilk marinades are often used for fried chicken, which is delicious, but also unhealthy, not to mention a nuisance to make at home (it's messy and makes the whole house smell like oil). So how can we get both delectable crispy skin and moist and tender meat at the same time without frying? Well, with the recipe I'm about to give you.

Besides having incredibly tasty results, this recipe is great if you're busy because it requires no special attention. The chicken has a long marinating time during which you can leave it in the fridge and forget about it for a day or two, and then while it is roasting, you don't have to worry about checking on the chicken constantly either.

And, to make this recipe even easier, it requires no special ingredients. This is why "buttermilk" is in quotations; this recipe doesn't actually use buttermilk. Why? Because let's be honest, how many people out there have normally stock buttermilk in their fridge? I know I don't. I do, however, almost always have milk and yogurt on hand. So that is what I used. This combination is a great substitute, and it tastes every bit as delicious as the buttermilk version.

The end result is a very healthy meal of moist and tender chicken with lightly browned, crispy skin. Serve it with a side of rice and some asparagus or green beans and you have a fast and delicious dinner, no sweat.

A busy life doesn't mean you can't eat good food.

"Buttermilk" Roast Chicken
loosely based on Nigella Lawson's recipe

3-4lbs chicken drumsticks and/or thighs
1 cup of plain lowfat yogurt
1 cup milk
5 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 tablespoon kosher/sea salt
2 tablespoon honey
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
freshly ground black pepper

Wash the chicken and put into a lidded container (a pot works really well) or gallon-sized freezer bag. Add the yogurt, milk, garlic, salt, honey, curry powder and black pepper. Swish/swirl so that all parts are covered. Refrigerate for at least 12 hours or up to 48 hours. The longer the marinating time, the better.

When ready to roast, line a rimmed baking sheet or dish with aluminum foil. Arrange the chicken in a single layer. Bake in an oven at 325 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how crispy/brown you want the skin to be. I leave my chicken in for an hour.

The chicken will be moist and tender, and the skin will be beautifully brown and crisp. Serve immediately.
Leftovers will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days in an airtight container.

Salted Caramel Cupcakes & Frosting

2012-02-03T12:24:00.006-05:00

As a follow up to my post about salted caramel, I return with a recipe for salted caramel cupcakes and frosting. That's right, take out a pen and start taking notes because this is what you're going to want to make for your next party. Actually, this is what you're going to want to make tonight. Because they are to die for. Stop going to those expensive bakeries and paying $3 for one lousy cupcake; make this at home instead. It will be better and cheaper and it will impress everyone around you. Salted caramel cupcakes with salted caramel frosting. Grab yourself a cup of milk and settle in for the night, because this is the life, my friends.

These cupcakes don't take that long to make (the longest part, besides the baking and waiting, is making the caramel) and they require no special ingredients, but they taste phenomenal. They are great gifts or dessert items for potlucks or dinner parties. They are also the type of thing that is easy enough to throw together that you can justify baking it for yourself. So why not? The world could use a little more salted caramel love.

These cupcakes really do taste like they have salted caramel in them, which is exactly the quality I wanted. I didn't want them to taste like sweet vanilla cupcakes; I didn't want to have to fill them with caramel sauce. I wanted cupcakes that I could eat alone, on their own, and think mmm, salted caramel. And that's exactly what this cupcake recipe achieves. It is perfect on its own, it is delicious with milk, it is decadent with frosting.
The recipe has parts and pieces taken from many different recipes I've read online, but ultimately I wrote it based upon what I thought would make the best cupcake in terms of a light, moist, and flavorful crumb. The one slightly uncommon ingredient on the list is "pourable" yogurt, but that's because I happen to have on hand Organic Valley's yogurt which comes in a bottle that you shake and pour. I thought that yogurt's texture and viscosity were perfect for the recipe, but if you can't find something similar, regular yogurt or buttermilk will work just fine.

As for the frosting recipe... I've said it once and I'll say it again: I don't do frosting. With the exception of the Bailey's Irish Cocoa Frosting that I made once during an inspired moment, I think frosting is fairly overrated. If a cake or cupcake is good enough, it shouldn't need to be covered in frosting. Also, most frosting is just a lot of butter and sugar, which doesn't sound that great to me. Except that this frosting tastes like heaven, if heaven were made predominantly of butter. This salted caramel frosting is the perfect balance of sweet and salty, and it is creamy in a decadent way that manages not to make you feel gross, even when you eat a spoonful straight out of the bowl, on its own (not that I'm speaking from experience or anything). And the frosting recipe obviously doesn't have to be for just these cupcakes. It would go well with any cupcake recipe. You can even eat it with slices of apple or pear.

Salted Caramel Frosting, aka the only frosting recipe you need from now on

So really, I don't think I need to do any convincing, right? Because you must know that this recipe is a crowd pleaser. And when I say crowd, what I really mean is that you'll make these cupcakes, frost one, try it, and decide not to share with anyone because these are that darn good.

Food is love? Salted caramel is love.

Salted Caramel
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp water
1/2 cup cream, at room temperature (normally I use heavy cream, but light cream also works)
1/2 tsp sea salt (I used Sel Gris De Guérande)

Combine the sugar and water and melt over medium high heat in a small pot. Whisk the sugar as it melts and cook until it becomes a deep amber color, this process takes about 10 minutes.
Add cream slowly. Be careful as the mixture will foam/bubble. Whisk until you get a smooth sauce. If your cream is cold and the caramel seizes, just put it back on low heat and stir until the sauce is smooth.
Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Cupcakes
makes 1 dozen

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
5 tbsp salted caramel (see recipe above)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup plain lowfat yogurt (the pour-able kind, if you have it)
1 tsp vanilla (optional)
pinch of sea salt (I used Sel Gris De Guérande, which is a grey sea salt)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners.
Cream butter, salted caramel, and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, yogurt, vanilla, and sea salt and beat until light and fluffy. Stop to scrape down the sides of bowl at least once to make sure everything is evenly incorporated.
Add 3/4 cup flour and 1/2 tsp baking powder to the egg/butter mixture. Beat until combined. Add the other 3/4 cup flour and 1/2 tsp baking powder. Beat until mixture is smooth and combined.
Divide batter evenly among 12 cupcake liners.
Bake for roughly 25 minutes, or until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
When done, cool for about 10 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the tin and let cool completely.

Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3 tbsp cooled caramel filling
optional: 1 tbsp cocoa powder (I used Ghirardelli)

In a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat the butter for 2-3 minutes, until lightened and fluffy.
Add the caramel and beat on medium high speed until light and airy, and completely mixed (about 3-4 minutes). Makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes.

note: If your caramel was too hot when added, your butter will melt and the icing will be runny. I actually refrigerated my caramel overnight and just warmed it for 20 seconds in the microwave before using it.

**to frost a cake, double the recipe

These unfrosted cupcakes will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days.

Frosted cupcakes will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 5 days, if they last that long.

DO NOT LEAVE FROSTED CUPCAKES AT ROOM TEMPERATURE OVERNIGHT.

Salted Caramel Sauce

2012-01-29T13:03:00.001-05:00

I have a serious relationship with salted caramel. I love it. And true love lasts a lifetime.
When I go to my favorite gelato place in Paris, I always pick salted caramel as one of my flavors. Always. The summer of 2010 I probably went to that shop at least 7 or 8 times within the span of a couple weeks, and I stayed loyal to my salted caramel.
During the first few months of medical school when I studying for exams, my stress food was Bequet sea salt caramels. I could go through 3 to 5 in a day. When B. came to visit in September, he recognized the importance of salted caramel in my life and he bought me a ridiculous amount, to get me through my sleepless study nights.
At Co Co Sala, a restaurant/lounge in DC, even when I go to get drinks with my friends or my sister, I order the [virgin] salted caramel hot chocolate along with whatever cocktail I'm having for the night.

So as you see, salted caramel is very dear to me. And yet, for all this, I never made my own salted caramel. I never thought to experiment. Honestly, it was because I think making caramel can be a hassle. I've made caramels that cracked before, and I take it personally when that happens. Honestly, it's a little heart-breaking. You put all this love into coaxing a little pot of sugar and water to cook into something lovely and then it seizes into huge sugar clumps that are impossible to dissolve and that make you want to cry. Heart breaking.

Clearly, I get too emotionally involved when it comes to food.

But no! I shall be brave. I shall put my heart on the line for true love. It is worth the risk. Salted caramel, you shall be mine.

It was a combination of things that led to this. First, I found a very good deal on some beautiful grey sea salt (coarse sel gris de Guérande if you're curious). Then I had some extra heavy cream on hand, leftover from making cheesecake. And, of course, I had a craving. I had no more salted caramel on hand and I wasn't going to go out and buy some. So I decided to try. And now I can't believe I waited all this time to discover this.

If you only make one caramel recipe all your life, let the recipe below be it. Really. I know caramels can be intimidating, I know salted caramel can sometimes seem like it's not worth the hype, I know I have a habit of telling you readers you have to try the recipes I post here. But honestly, this is so worth it. It will only take a few minutes and four simple ingredients, and when I say "ingredients," one of them is water. That's it. And then bliss, love, and happiness will be all yours.

You can eat this caramel sauce with everything. Apples. Crackers. Pears. Vanilla ice cream. This may sound crazy, but I even used it to glaze some ribs the other day. Tasted fantastic. You can also use this to make amazing hot chocolate. Just stir a spoonful or two into a glass of hot milk and cocoa.

And. And. If you feel so inclined, you can use this sauce to make an incredible salted caramel frosting. Yes. I'm going to hold off on sharing that recipe for you just yet (because it's also going to be accompanied by a recipe for salted caramel cupcakes), but let me tell you this: oh. my. god.

C'mon, how can you resist?

Salted Caramel Sauce
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp water
1/2 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
1/2 tsp sea salt (again, I used the Sel Gris De Guérande)

Combine the sugar and water and melt over medium high heat in a small pot. Slowly whisk the sugar as it melts and cook until it becomes a deep amber color, this process takes about 8-10 minutes. [Using medium high heat, not high, and whisking slowly are both ways of making caramel which I've found help prevent seizing and clumping]
Turn down heat very low and add the heavy cream slowly. The mixture will foam/bubble. Whisk until you get a smooth sauce.
Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Enjoy with everything.

Refrigerated, this will keep in a glass jar for at least 2 weeks. [You can use an old jam jar that has been thoroughly washed!]

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới - Celebrating the Lunar New Year

2012-01-23T00:24:00.005-05:00

I very rarely write about my Vietnamese heritage, but that is not to say it isn't important to me. I was raised with Vietnamese lullabies, Vietnamese food, and constant reminders at home to nói tiếng việt nam! ("speak Vietnamese!"). Thrice my parents took me to visit their homeland; I loved it every time. And every year, at the end of January or beginning of February, I celebrate the Lunar New Year.

For the fourth year in a row now, I am celebrating Tết, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, without my family. But this year, for the first time ever, I set out to follow the tradition to rước ông bà về ăn Tết (bring the ancestors home to celebrate the new year). It is hard to explain how meaningful it really is to someone who was not raised with this, the action of setting out flowers, fruit, food, tea, and incense to cúng Tết, but I have missed it every single year that I have not been home. It is hard when you are on your own to carry on the traditions that you are used to having your parents carry out for you, but I think it's a necessity.

I don't have everything that I needed, and this was hardly the traditional layout, but nevertheless it was something that I wanted to do the best that I could. I even talked with my mom on the phone to make sure that the fruit I used was appropriate, as some fruits are not supposed to be set out to cúng (for example, oranges). And it was in doing this -- making the tea, arranging the fruit, getting out the bánh chưng -- that I realized how important these traditions are in my life. I do not want my children to grow up not knowing what it means to cúng Tết and to rước Ông Bà về. I want my children to know the steamed rolls of sticky green rice, mung bean, and pork that so represent this time of year in my mind. I want them to know the reason why we set out food. I want them to know to eat vegetarian on the first day of the year. Most of all, I want them to know their mother's culture. I want to raise my children knowing their heritage as I was raised to know mine. And so I will try my best to carry out all that my parents have done for me.

Happy Lunar New Year.
May the Year of the Dragon bring you good health, good luck, and happiness.

Salted Caramel & Chocolate Mousse

2012-01-22T01:30:00.005-05:00

It's been a while since I really posted here. Life has been very crazy lately and it hasn't involved much sleep. The other weekend, for example, I slept a total of maybe 4 hours. Thank goodness sleep debt isn't financial debt, otherwise I'd have serious problems.

Anyhow, because of how things have been, I've had a recipe on file that I have wanted to share with you for weeks. So we have to backtrack a little bit. A month ago, I went to a potluck dinner party to, um, celebrate Christmas. [Whoops! Sorry this took so long to share!] It was among a big group of friends, and as usual I wanted to go with a dessert. I thought about baking something, but everyone always does cookies or cupcakes and, having recently made my first ever salted caramel frosting (more on that later), I was interested in trying a recipe with salted caramel and chocolate. Who doesn't like that combination?

Because I love chocolate mousse, I decided to do a recipe with chocolate and salted caramel layers. The salted caramel mousse was my own recipe, completely written from scratch. I had looked up salted caramel mousse recipes online, but they all involved gelatin or they were chocolate and salted caramel (i.e. the two flavors were mixed and not kept separate). I don't have powdered gelatin and I wasn't interested in going to store to buy some, and also I had vegetarian friends who would be coming to the party and so using gelatin didn't seem too nice. Yes, agar agar could have been an option, but again, I didn't want to go to the store. So what is it that they say? Need breeds ingenuity? I decided to get creative.

I based the salted caramel mousse recipe off of other recipes I read for fruit mousses and for Italian meringue, so it used egg whites, whipping cream, and hot caramel. It turned out fairly well considering the fact that this was my first time completely making up a recipe. Granted, it wasn't quite as "mousse-y" as it should have been -- and by that I mean it could have been thicker -- but no one complained. In fact, many people at the party have been asking for the recipe since then, and so my apologies to them (if anyone's reading) for taking so long to post this.

This combination of salted caramel and chocolate is a real winner, and while it does take some time to make both of these mousses and layer them into little shot glasses, the delight you get from people who see these and try them makes it absolutely worth the effort. I forgot to count exactly how many little shot glasses I was able to make, but suffice to say it was enough for a party with more than 20 people. For anyone about to entertain, I would absolutely recommend this as a dessert. It's easy to make ahead of time and it's perfect for any and all occasions. The recipe can be fairly easily scaled up or down as well, based upon how many you plan to serve, and any leftovers still taste delicious the day after. Enjoy!

Chocolate Mousse
adapted from Cook’s Illustrated, 2006
[yield: approximately 15 individuals serving bowls]

12 ounces of dark chocolate, at least 60% cacao
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp instant espresso powder
scant ½ cup water
1 ½ tbsp dark rum
3 egg, separated
6 tsp granulated sugar
scant 1/2 tsp salt
1 ½ cup + 3 tbsp cold heavy whipping cream

Combine the chocolate, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and water in a medium sized heatproof bowl. Melt over a saucepan of lightly simmering water (read: use a double boiler) or in a microwave. Stir frequently until mixture is smooth and well combined.
Add 3 egg yolks, 3 tsp of sugar, and the salt. Beat over the double boiler until smooth and shiny. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Add the rum (or other kind of liquor) and stir till smooth.
In another medium sized bowl, beat the heavy whipping cream with 1½ tsp of sugar until fairly stiff peaks form (i.e. make whipped cream).
Then, in another medium sized bowl, using clean beaters, beat the 3 egg whites with 1½ tsp of sugar until soft peaks form.
Whisk about half of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it. Then, use a rubber spatula to gently fold in the remaining egg whites until only a few white streaks remain.
Gently fold in the whipped cream until mostly incorporated and whisk together the mousse until there are no more streaks of white. Be very careful not to deflate the mousse!
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Best consumed within 24 hours, but will keep, covered, for about 2 days.

Salted caramel mousse
[yield: 4-5 cups of mousse]

1 cup sugar
2 tbsp water
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tbsp heavy cream, room temperature
4 egg whites
1 cup heavy cream

First, beat the egg whites until medium peaks form. Set aside.
Stir together the water and sugar over medium heat in a saucepan until melted—about 3 to 5 minutes. Once dissolved, increase to high heat and cook, stirring frequently to prevent sugar crystals from forming on the sides of the saucepan. Cook until the sugar is amber, about 5 more minutes. It should be a dark coppery brown (but not burnt). Remove the pan from heat. Add the sea salt and heavy cream. Stir well to combine.
Now, very carefully and very slowly pour the salted caramel mixture (should be hot, but not scalding) into the bowl of egg whites whipping all the while with a hand held mixer. Be sure to pour the caramel in slowly and have your mixer turned on medium speed so that you do not scrambled your whites. The mixture will deflate a bit.
Whip your heavy cream on medium speed until it becomes whipped cream. Gently fold half of this into the egg-white and caramel mixture to lighten it. Then, fold in the remaining whipped cream.
Refrigerate for at least 6 hours. Best consumed within 12 hours, but will keep for about 2 days (it will deflate and separate a bit into a salted caramel liquid and a caramel fluff).

NOTE: If you are layering the chocolate mousse and salted caramel mousse, make the chocolate mousse first, then make the salted caramel mousse. Layer the mousses in your serving glasses before refrigerating. I did this with a spoon and gently tapped the glasses down to create even layers.

Happy New Year

2012-01-02T14:00:00.001-05:00

A new year brings with it change, but there is one thing I know will stay constant in my life: my love for food and cooking. No matter what happens, I can always come to the kitchen and find peace. Though life may get crazy and stressful, I keep coming back to this blog to share my recipes and my stories because food is love. And without nurture, love, and seriously good food I know I would quickly go insane.

Medical school is a little crazy right now, so I have no recipe to share with you yet, but there is a salted caramel and chocolate mousse recipe that I will be posting by next week, if not sooner.

My best wishes to you and yours for 2012.

Revisiting an old recipe

2011-12-23T05:43:00.002-05:00

Rosemary, Pine nut, and Pumpkin Seed Shortbread Cookies

I've written about these cookies before. In fact, the last time I wrote about them, it was also right before Christmas. That fact is merely coincidental. It's not that these are holiday cookies per se, but they are unique in their flavor and texture and I like making them because they are different and delicious. I came back to this recipe -- making a few changes, of course -- because I had been on the search for the prefect recipe to send to B.

B. is the one who cooks for me. He is the one who dances with me in the living room. And he is currently living an ocean away from me. As part of his Christmas gift, I decided to send him cookies. This may sound like a simple decision, but in reality, it was one that I agonized over for weeks. Yes, weeks. I couldn't send mediocre cookies. I couldn't send cookies that he'd already tasted before. And I had to send cookies that would travel well, since even with fast shipping, it was likely to take about 5 days for them to get to him.

These cookies were winners.

These Rosemary, Pine nut, and Pumpkin Seed Shortbread Cookies are both savory and sweet. Browned butter and ground, toasted nuts and seeds make the cookies very fragrant. The rosemary and vanilla add an earthy sweetness. There is nothing like these cookies. They are flavorful, incredibly easy to eat, and so different that no one who you serve this to will forget about them. (It may help that rosemary aids with long-term memory). And don't worry, despite all the savory sounding ingredients, these cookies can most definitely be served as a dessert item. They are also great as a gift since they can be easily packaged and they keep for a good amount of time (as do most shortbread cookies, since they aren't particularly moist).

These cookies made it safely to B.'s doorstep last night and now that they have his stamp of approval (and his mother's!), I share the recipe with you.

Merry (early) Christmas!

Rosemary, Pine Nut, and Pumpkin Seed Shortbread Cookies

1 stick of butter (unsalted)
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp rosemary
scant 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup flour

Brown butter carefully over medium heat, then allow it to cool. [In other words, cook the butter until it foams and bubbles and the milk solids begin to caramelize. When everything starts to smell nutty and the mixture is the color of the woody part of a pencil, remove from the heat]

Optional: very lightly toast the pumpkin seeds and pine nuts until they just start to color and smell fragrant. Then allow them to cool.

Now you have two options.

Option A: Take out your food processor and throw in the pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, and rosemary. Pulse until finely ground and combined. Add the brown butter, sea salt, brown sugar, white sugar, and flour. Pulse until a dough comes together. Turn the down out into a large bowl and kneed a few times to ensure proper mixing.

Option B: If you do not have a food processor, finely chop and mince the pine nuts and pumpkin seeds by hand. This may take a while (about 15-20 minutes), but it is a very Zen experience and is actually quite fun to do. This is made easier if you have a good, sharp knife.
Add the rosemary to the pile of ground/minced nuts and chop until very finely minced.
In a large bowl, combine the minced nuts, seeds, and rosemary. Add the browned butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla. Beat to combine. Add the flour and beat until evenly combined. Kneed the dough a few times to ensure proper mixing.

Now take your dough (doesn't matter if you took Option A or B) and turn it out onto a large sheet of saran wrap. Form a log with a diameter of approximately 2 inches (give or take).
Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes, or up to 2 days.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Unwrapped the dough and slice the cookies into ¼ inch rounds. Transfer to an aluminum or parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until just golden, 13 to 15 minutes.

Let cool, then store in an airtight container for up to 7 days (if they last that long) at room temperature.

Yields about 3 dozen cookies

The Best Ginger Cookies you'll ever eat in your life

2011-12-20T03:57:00.001-05:00

Really. Stop your searching. This is it. These are the best ginger cookies you'll ever eat in your life.

They are spicy, intoxicating, slightly chewy cookies with crispy edges. They smell delicious and they taste amazing. They are so good I'm scrapping all the other recipes I've ever tried. I've made these cookies four times in the past week. I can't get enough of them. I have no more left and just thinking about them makes me want to go whip up a batch right now at 3am and bake some just so I can eat some more. Thank goodness it's the holidays so this kind of behavior isn't deemed too inappropriate.

These cookies are laced with ginger. They have ground ginger, fresh ginger, and crystallized ginger. I know most people don't keep the last ingredient in their kitchens commonly, but it is worth it to buy yourself some. I bought mine on Amazon for a very reasonable price. The crystallized ginger really adds great warmth to the flavor of the cookies and are an integral part of what makes the cookies spicy in a mellow, round way (not at all overwhelming). The original recipe doesn't call for browned butter or cinnamon, but I love the depth of flavor the browned butter adds to the cookies and the fragrance and warmth that the cinnamon imparts. They are perfect for the holidays. They are just the kind of thing you want to share with family and friends, and they are delicious with a tall glass of milk.

I'm salivating just writing about these. I think I'm going to have to make another batch. I think you want to too.

The Best Ginger Cookies Ever
adapted from Alton Brown's recipe
[note: these quantities are written in weight measurements because they are more accurate, but cup measurements are also provided for convenience]

10 tbsp unsalted butter
¼ tsp sea salt
2 heaping tsps finely grated/minced fresh ginger
3 ounces (85 grams) candied or crystallized ginger, finely minced
3 ounces (85 grams) molasses (very scant ⅓ cup)
7 ounces (198 grams) dark brown sugar (1 packed cup)
1½ tbsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 large egg
9 ½ ounces (296 grams) all-purpose flour (2 ½ cups)
1 ½ tsps baking soda

First, be sure your fresh ginger and candied ginger are both very finely chopped.

Brown the butter by putting the butter into a small saucepan or pot. On medium heat, cook the butter, stirring constantly. It will froth and bubble and after around 4-5 minutes, the milk solids will begin to caramelized and everything will smell delicious. Watch carefully, stirring at this point. Most of the milk solids are the color of dark caramel/brown sugar, turn off the heat and stir constantly. It will continue to cook for a bit after this, even if you remove if from the heat. Be careful because there is a thin line between browned butter and burned butter.
Add the sea salt, fresh ginger, and candied ginger to the butter.
Allow the butter to cool to room temperature. (In the winter you can speed this process up by putting the pot with the browned butter outside)

Once the butter is cool, combine with the molasses, dark brown sugar , ground ginger, ground cloves, and ground cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Beat with a hand-held or stand mixer until light and fluffy. The mixture should almost double in size. (Note: this is why you want the butter to be cool, almost "resolidified" to a softened texture... hot butter does not become fluffy)
Add the egg and beat again until light and fluffy.
Add the flour and baking soda and mix until combined. (Note: weight measurements are more accurate than using a measuring cup. Also, when adding the flour and baking soda, I kind of sift it over the "wet batter" with a spoon. The idea is to keep everything light)
At this point you can either refrigerate the dough for up to 3 days before using (or alternatively, freeze and use within a month), or bake it off immediately.

Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Roll the cookies into 1-2 inch balls. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 12 minutes. The cookies will be soft when you pull them out, but they will keep cooking for a little bit when you leave them too cool on the sheet. Resist the urge to bake these cookies longer! (Unless you like hard cookies...)

These lovely darlings will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for about 7-10 days, if they last that long.

3 oz chopped crystallized ginger and 2 heaping tsps of minced fresh ginger

Getting my sugar rush in New York City

2011-12-14T01:10:00.004-05:00

I've lived almost all my life about 25 minutes away from DC. I grew up thinking it was completely normal for an area to have a couple dozen free museums and hundreds of amazing restaurants. It was so normal to me that I never really ventured much into the city. Why bother? It'd always be there when I wanted it. Sure, when friends and family came to visit, I took them into the capital and showed them around, and sure, my family celebrated many, many birthdays eating out at various places like Central, CityZen, Vidalia, and Hook, but I was never a city girl.

Now, I live about 25 minutes (via train) from New York City. And the city that never sleeps has somehow seduced me. I used to get lost here all the time when I would come visit during college. I would get frustrated by the complicated subway system (don't try to tell me it's simple when there's always rerouting due to construction!) and confused by words like "Midtown" and "borough."
But now I don't walk around staring at my smartphone for directions anymore, and I can actually kind of navigate the subway. I have my places that I like to go to eat, and the other day someone actually asked me for directions (mistaken for a native, yes!). Best of all, for the first time ever, I've experienced what Christmas looks like in the Big Apple. The lights, the tree (frankly, it's a bit overrated), the window displays, the holiday market...

I love the holiday market. After stumbling upon the one at Union Square the weekend before Thanksgiving, I've now been back three times. I know there are other markets, but I just can't get enough of this one. I love the artisan booths, the food stalls, and the farmer's market. Most of all, I love Wafels and Dinges. And yes, I did spell that right.

This food stall is also a food truck that you may have seen around the city if you're a native (which I clearly am not). And they make the most amazing waffles I've ever tasted. I don't even like waffles. But these ones? These ones I love. As their menu will tell you, their liège wafel with spekuloos spread and whipped cream is the "legendary and glorious victor of the Battle with the Great Flay." In other words, it won Throwdown with Bobby Flay. And I can see why. These chewy waffles are fragrant and fluffy with caramelized edges and they are delicious when eaten with spekuloos spread. You really can't compare them to any other waffle you've tasted. These are in a league of their own.

liège wafel with spekuloos spread and strawberries, from Wafels and Dinges

And if there's only one other place you have time to hit up before leaving the city? I'd recommend the Doughnut Plant. I've known about this place for years now, and it really is worth the hype. The first I ever tried the doughnuts, I was visiting the city with my parents for my 17th birthday. We bought a dozen doughnuts for the four of us, intending on bringing some home, but oh, how foolish we were. We were completely unprepared for how good those doughnuts would be. That box did not make it home intact. Thankfully, I learned my lesson. The place is still as good today as it was years ago when I first went, and now when I go here to get doughnuts for myself and two of my best friends, the order is for half a dozen doughnuts. That's right. Three girls, six doughnuts. Best sugar high ever.

clockwise from top right: vanilla bean glaze with strawberry jelly, banana nut, blueberry,
peanut butter glaze with strawberry filling, Valrhona chocolate, coconut cream

The yeasted doughnuts are my favorite, being so light and fluffy. They have a great texture to them--just the right amount of bite and chew--and the flavors are fantastic. My personal favorite is the take on a PB+J sandwich. The yeast doughnuts are filled with fruit jam made from scratch and then they are topped with a delicious peanut butter glaze and peanuts. Heavenly. The coconut creme doughnut is also a revelation. I wasn't so sure about ordering it the last time I went, but the guy behind the counter convinced me, and so I tried it and boy, am I glad I did. The Doughnut Plant is great at getting flavors spot on. None of that artificial stuff. I'm not normally a coconut person because I don't like coconut flavoring, but real coconut is delicious. And that's what I got from that doughnut. Doughnut Plant does not disappoint.

Doughtnut Plant's peanut butter glazed, blackberry jam filled yeast doughnut. Yum!

Doughnut Plant
379 Grand St (between Essex St & Norfolk St)
New York, NY 10002
Tel. 212-505-3700
open Tues-Sun 6:30 am till they sell out (normally around 5-6pm)

Two Types of Gingerbread Cookies

2011-12-11T20:20:00.005-05:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap has been bringing dozens of cookies to bloggers across the nation for the past couple weeks. I thought about baking my popular oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, or maybe my caramel scented chocolate chip cookies, but I've already posted both of those recipes, and according to the rules, this recipe had to be an unposted one. I also wanted the cookies to have a holiday feel to them, something to snack on with a cup of milk in hand, while wrapping presents (you know, if you're the type to wrap presents early). So I went with a quick and easy gingerbread recipe that requires no wasted time rolling and cutting shapes. In fact, if you don't want to, you don't even have to chill the dough. It has just enough ginger to be lightly spicy, but is well balanced by cinnamon, all spice, and cloves, and gets just enough of a little kick from some black pepper. The recipe for these gingerbread cookies makes about 40, which is just perfect, since one batch was enough to mail a dozen to three random food bloggers. Olivia over at Love, Life, and Pictures was one of the recipients, and she took this gorgeous picture of the gingerbread cookies I sent her.

If you're looking for a more adult, more dark and spicy cookie, this second recipe is for a more mature crowd. They are laced with real ginger and rum.

Gingerbread Cookies
barely adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
yield: about 40 cookies

2 sticks butter, softened (I used salted)
¾ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup unsulphured molasses + scant tbsp
1 large egg, room temperature
½ tsp salt
3 tsp ground ginger
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp allspice
½ tsp cloves
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda

In a large bowl, beat butter, sugars, and molasses together until fluffy, about three to four minutes on medium. Add the egg and salt and beat until combined, about one minute. Add the spices (ginger, cinnamon, allspice, black pepper) and beat until smooth and combined, about one minute.
Sift in the flour and baking soda and beat at low speed until just combined.
Scrape down bowl, fold, and stir with a spatula to ensure the ingredients are evenly mixed.
Transfer your cookie dough to a plastic container and refrigerate for at least two hours or up to 2 days, until firm.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls and spread at least two inches apart on baking sheets that have either been lined with parchment paper, aluminum foil, or silpat.
Bake for 11-14 minutes. In the 11-12 minute range, the cookies will be softer. In the 13-14 minute range, a bit snappier. Either way, leave the cookies on their baking sheets to cool and firm up before moving them. [note: I have a convection oven and baked two sheets at a time with no negative consequences]

Cookies will keep for about one week in an airtight container at room temperature (if they last that long) or one month in the freezer. Unbaked dough can be kept in the freezer for up to two weeks and then baked when desired.

Chewy, Spicy Ginger Laced Cookies
3 tsp finely grated fresh peeled ginger
1 tbsp rum (optional)
3/4 cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
¼ cup + 2tbsp molasses
1 ⅓ cup sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp salt
4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
2 tsp baking soda
2 ½ cups all purpose flour

First, optional, macerate the ginger for at least 20 minutes in rum.
Cream the butter, molasses, and sugar until light, airy, about 3-4 minutes.
Add the egg, vanilla extract, and salt and beat till well combined.
Add the grated ginger, rum (if using), ground ginger, cinnamon, and cloves and mix until everything is smoothly incorporated, at least 2 minutes.
Sift in the flour and baking soda and mix until just combined.
I like to refrigerate this dough overnight to let the flavors really meld, but you can bake these cookies off immediately.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Form 1 inch balls of dough, spaced about two inches apart and bake for about 15 minutes. If you like your cookies snappier, lower the heat to 200°F after 13 minutes and cook them about 3-4 minutes longer.

Food Blogger Cookies Swap

2011-12-08T23:38:00.000-05:00

I've been blogging about food for a while now, but I've never really gotten involved in any major food blogger projects. No Daring Baker, no Weekend Herb Blogging, no nothing. But this year I stumbled upon The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. The idea behind this project was essentially a giant secret Santa but the only gift you could give/receive were cookies. Sound like fun? I think so.

Each participant was given the name of three other food bloggers and then the giver's job was to bake 3 dozen cookies and send a dozen to each receiver. And in turn, the giver would later receive three different boxes of a dozen cookies each from other bloggers. Now that the cookie swap part is done, on Monday, all the participants will be posting their cookie recipes on their blogs.

I received my first package on Monday, some caramel scotch bars from Table Talk and Walk. Today I got two packages. The first was some egg nog cookies — their flavor was spot on! — from West Coast Girl East Coast Life. The second package contained some of the best cookies I've ever received: ginger snap cookies makes with three different kinds of ginger, made by Nora (I'm including her name, since there are two bloggers who post to that site). With this cookie swap, I can say that there really is no better feeling in the world than receiving a package and knowing that there are baked goodies inside with your name written all over them.

In a few days I will post the recipe for the gingerbread cookies that I baked and sent out. In the meantime, here are some enticing pictures.

Caramel-Scotch Bars

Eggnog cookies

Ginger snap cookies made with three kinds of ginger... yum!

Thank You, Happy, More Please

2011-11-29T07:27:00.000-05:00

I love Thanksgiving. I love it the same way I love Christmas; it's not about the holiday itself per se, but it is everything that is has come to mean to my family. Thanksgiving is when my sister and I come home, when my mom, my sister, and I all congregate in the kitchen to turn out a meal together. It is when we forget about everything else we have going on and we focus on good wine, good food, and great company.

This year the menu was fairly standard, at least in terms of D. family classics. For dinner, my dad opened two bottles of red wine. The first was a Bordeaux, Chateau Daugay (Saint Emilion Grand Cru) and the second was a sweeter Italian wine, Sulin. The Sulin is one of my personal favorites, which makes my family laugh, since it is only 5% alcohol. But it has lovely hints of rose and violet on the nose and is sweet on the palate, and it is slightly frizzante, which I find quite pleasant.

My sister made her cornbread sage stuffing and her cranberry relish. I made sweet potato biscuits. My mom made the main dish of rosemary Cornish game hens stuffed with sticky rice, as always. For dessert we had pecan bars with homemade vanilla whipped cream. New on the menu this year was a roasted garlic and onion soup that I made, as well as kale chips.

Also new this year was an addition to our table. He cooked for me in my apartment in September, and I brought him home with me on Wednesday so that he could cook with me in the house I grew up in. Together we shaped biscuits, baked kale, and made cookies. He played the piano. I made him breakfast. He cracked lobster claws for me and put them on my plate. I introduced him to trung vit lon. We looked through old photo albums and played Scrabble. After dinner he pulled me into his arms and we danced in my living room with no music. My mom snapped this picture without us knowing and I have never liked a blurry photo more.

Thanksgiving is supposed to be about giving thanks, about remembering to be grateful in life. I try very hard to live with gratitude, to remember to be appreciative of my family, my friends, my good health, and the bright future that I have, but with him, with this sweet someone who cooks for me, it is impossible not to feel lucky. I have never known such sweet love and joy. Thank You Happy More Please is the name of a great movie that I saw this summer, but it is also what I say to the universe many mornings now when I wake up. Thank you for what I have been given, I am so happy. Could I have another serving please?

Baked Egg Breakfast Souffle

2011-11-28T20:11:00.004-05:00

With the holidays coming up, an important recipe to have on hand is always a good, fast breakfast item. As popular as pancakes are for family breakfasts and brunches, I rarely go with them because they should be eaten hot and often the cook ends up staying by the skillet turning out food for everyone and waiting to eat last. A better recipe is one that allows everyone to eat together and doesn't require the cook to wake up an extra 30 minutes earlier than the rest of the family. I've used this recipe for several years now, loving it for the fact that it is fast and easy to make and yet seems fancy enough to impress everyone at the table.

These baked egg breakfast souffles are light, airy, and almost ethereal in quality while the yolk provides just the right amount of substance. Filling without being heavy, this recipe is my absolute favorite for family breakfasts. We ate it this Thanksgiving morning -- the first meal the whole family had had together since the beginning of August -- and we've had it Christmas morning too, but this works as a great recipe for impressing any visiting guests who have stayed over.

This baked egg souffle takes no more than 5 minutes to throw together and then the oven does all the cooking for you. Ten minutes later -- just enough time to wash up and change from your pjs into real clothes -- and breakfast is served!

Baked Egg Breakfast Soufflé
butter, for greasing ramekins
4-6 large eggs (depending on how many you're serving)
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
2 tsp grated Parmesanno Regianno

Optional garnish
1/4 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp heavy cream
2 tsp mayo

Position an oven rack in the middle position, and preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter four to six 8-ounce ramekins (serving size = one ramekin per egg; one egg per person).

Separate the eggs, putting the whites into a large mixing bowl and carefully sliding the whole, unbroken yolks into a small bowl of cold water.

Beat the egg whites with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cream of tartar until they just hold stiff peaks. Fold in 1 tsp of cheese gently but thoroughly (reserve the other teaspoon).
Fill the ramekins with the egg whites about halfway.
Using your fingers, carefully remove the yolks from the water one at a time, and slip one yolk into ramekin, so it sits nestled in the egg whites.
Fill the ramekins up to the mouth (leave about a finger of space where the lip of the ramekin is so that the souffle can puff up)

Stir the garnishing ingredients and drizzle a bit on top of each yolk, then sprinkle with the remaining teaspoon of cheese.
Bake the eggs until the whites are puffed and pale golden, about 10 minutes. The yolks should jiggle slightly. If you like your yolks more solid, 12 minutes should suffice.

Serve hot.

Chocolate Soufflé Cupcakes

2011-11-17T22:08:00.000-05:00

I believe in all things in moderation. Chocolate is great, but I don't want to be overwhelmed by it. Sweet is nice, but I like a little bitter. Crumbly can be comforting, but moist is good too. These fluffy chocolate soufflé cupcakes with crackly tops and moist interiors are the Goldilocks of desserts.

If you look at the recipe, it is essentially a baked chocolate mousse. Now who could say no to that? The cupcake is moist and chocolate-y, like a flourless chocolate cake, but it also puffs up in the oven and rises like a soufflé. This recipe basically combines the best of all our favorite chocolate desserts. It is to die for.

The coffee notes complement the darkness of the chocolate perfectly and the little dark cloud of sweetness is delicious when paired with some raspberries or slice of Bartlett pear. I baked this with rum marinated plums tucked inside and the acidity and tartness of the plums and the warm earthiness of the rum was just what was called for on a chilly fall day.

And when storing these, if you refrigerate them and then come back to them later when they are chilled, they truly do melt-in-your-mouth. These cupcakes are rich, complex, and intensely satisfying. They don't take all that long to make and they are bound to impress any company, so if you need to fix a chocolate craving, here is the Goldilocks of the chocolate world. These chocolate soufflé cupcakes are just right.

Chocolate Soufflé Cupcakes
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

6 ounces (170 g) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 tablespoons (86 g) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
heaping 1/4 tsp instant espresso or coffee powder
3 large eggs, separated
6 tbsp (97 g) sugar, divided in half
1/4 tsp salt
Optional: 3 plums, 1 tbsp sugar, and about 1/4 cup rum

Do ahead of time: Wash and slice the plums into quarters. Halve these to get chunks of eights. Combine the sugar, rum, and plums in a small plastic containers and refrigerate. Allow to "marinate" overnight. (note: This can also be done with firm, tart apples or pears)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a standard-size cupcake baking pan with 12 paper liners.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add the chocolate and espresso powder and microwave for two to three 30 second intervals, stirring well between each interval until everything is fully melted and smooth. At no point should the chocolate get so hot that it steams/bubbles up and is too hot to touch.
Cool to lukewarm, stirring occasionally.

Using a hand mixer (better than a stand mixer, since the volumes are so small) beat the 3 egg yolks and 3 tablespoons sugar in medium bowl until mixture is very thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Briefly beat lukewarm chocolate mixture into the yolk mixture.

Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another medium bowl until soft peaks form. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons sugar and all of the salt, beating until medium-firm peaks form.

Fold whites into chocolate mixture in 3 additions. Divide batter among prepared cups, filling each one-half of the way. Add a couple pieces of plum. Then fill the cup up to three-fourths of the way.

Bake cakes until tops are puffed and dry to the touch, about 15 minutes. Turn off your oven and leave the cupcakes in for another 5 minutes.

Remove the cupcake pan and cool on a cooling rack, where the cupcakes will almost immediately start to fall.

Before baking

Whole Poached Chicken & Homemade Stock

2011-11-02T01:01:00.006-04:00

We had snow this past Saturday. And I don't mean little flurries for five minutes, I mean a record-breaking 5.2 inches of accumulation, resulting in suspended train service, downed trees, and loss of power in some areas. Yes, it is still October. I slept under two sheets, a duvet cover, a coverlet, and a comforter with the heat on. I was also wearing two shirts, pajama bottoms, and running socks. It was cold. Thank goodness I had this in my fridge to keep me warm.

It may not look like the most glamorous thing in the world, but this whole poached chicken in homemade stock is hands down the easiest and best comfort food I've ever had. With less than 5 minutes of prep work and about 20 minutes of cooking, you can get an amazing broth that is out of this world and some of the moistest, velvetiest (apparently that is a word) chicken you've ever tasted. And can I say again how easy this is?

I know I write a food blog, but here's a deep dark secret: until I made this, I'd never cooked a whole chicken before. I know, it's a basic kitchen skill that most people who spend as much time as I do in the kitchen should have mastered a long time ago. But I never did. I had many excuses: I always worried about undercooking the chicken, I don't have a meat thermometer (I actually don't own any kitchen thermometers), I don't like white meat, so on. But even with all these excuses, I knew I would had to get around to it someday.

I joke with my family and friends that every time I try a new recipe I am adding to my "dowry," as my future husband will benefit from whatever kitchen skills I've acquired over time. It may sound a little strange, but sometimes I do work on building my recipe base with the thought that someday I will have to use my knowledge to feed someone else, someone who may not be as content as I am with eating poached eggs and arugula salads all the time. Thus, I figure knowing how to cook an entire chicken is a fairly important skill. (So is knowing how to properly cook a steak, but that's for another day. [Though, for the record, I have made steak before and it was delicious, but steak is one of those things that, much as I love it, I can't justify making it for myself, and I'd much rather have someone else make it for me.])

People say roasting a chicken is easy but I find that the white meat when it is cooked that way gets to tiresome. I can't make myself eat it. And now that I'm cooking for one, I don't want to make something that I won't enjoy. So instead of roasting, I found a recipe for poaching a chicken, which sounded so good I had to try it. All the ingredients are fairly standard, and I was blown away by the simplicity of the recipe.

I spent no more than 30 minutes in the kitchen, then I turned off my stove, left my apartment, went to the lab for 4 hours, and came home to a perfectly cooked chicken. I thought that kind of thing only happened in movies! And this one pot recipe that gives you two amazing products at the end: some delicious chicken stock and a succulent poached chicken, which can be used in other dishes. Think sandwiches, salad, risotto.... endless possibilities!

And best of all? It really is the most moist and velvety meat I've ever tasted. And the stock is amazing. I wasn't too sold on it when I tasted it before dropping the chicken in, but the extra time at the end of the poaching makes all the difference. Now I can't get enough of it. It's delicious, comforting, and just the right thing for this season. It's the perfect rainy day food. And the perfect snowy day food. It's also great if you're starting to feel sick or taking care of someone sick. You know what? It's great for any day. The stock and the chicken make the perfect comfort food. So if you're feeling a little down this week, here is what the doctor (okay, medical student) ordered.

Because I can't for the life of me follow a recipe, I made this work with what I have in my kitchen. If you don't have saffron go ahead and omit it; it wasn't in any of the original recipes (I only added it because I had it on hand). Feel free to use thyme or rosemary instead. But I would definitely not suggest you leave out the ginger. It may sound like a lot, but I promise it's not overwhelming. It provides a great warmth and flavor to the dish and it is what makes the stock/broth from this recipe so different from others.

Whole Poached Chicken & Homemade Stock
4 ½ quarts water (18 cups or 4 ¼ L)
1 cup sliced ginger (skin on)
10 garlic cloves, crushed
2 medium or large carrots (about 1.5 lbs)
2 medium sweet onions
*16-20 saffron threads (if you have it on hand)
½ tbsp black peppercorns (optional: crush/crack these lightly using a meat mallet or hammer)
1½ tbsp salt (kosher or sea salt is best)
roughly 4 lb free-range chicken
1 tsp salt

Peel/skin the onion to remove the outside layer. Roughly chop into large wedges.
Roughly chop the carrots into large chunks (about half-inch slices is good). I washed my organic carrots very carefully and did not peel them.

Place all ingredients except for the chicken and the 1 tsp salt (last ingredient listed) into a very large (8- or 10-quart) stockpot and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 15 minutes to allow the flavors to infuse.

Meanwhile, rinse the chicken under cold water and trim any unwanted extra fat. Rub with the 1 tsp salt (it may not seem like much, but the stock is already salted).

Lower chicken, breast-side down, into simmering stock, ensuring it is fully submerged. Put the lid on the pot.

Gently cook (read: boil) the chicken for 20 minutes, then turn off the heat and allow chicken to poach in the stock for at least 3 hours at room temperature to complete the cooking process. Do not open the lid or refrigerate before the 3 hours mark. This allows the chicken to gently continue cooking in the liquid to give it a moist, velvety texture.

After 3 hours, you can put the entire pot in the fridge to cool. I leave my chicken in the stock.
Alternatively, you can remove the chicken from the stock (most easily done with tongs). If you'd like, you can also strain the stock to use for cooking purposes (strained stock will keep in the freezer for about 3 months). I find this a waste of perfectly good vegetables, and so I keep everything and eat it like a soup.
The ginger and peppercorns can be removed if so desired.

note: you can also make this with thighs and drumsticks. I didn't change the cooking time at all when I did this.

Plum Clafoutis

2011-10-18T11:18:00.007-04:00

There are two things I almost never say no to: making dessert and eating dessert. And there was a point last week when I desperately needed to do both. I was stressed, tired, and having a craving for something sweet. I also had some beautiful plums from the farmer's market that were perhaps a little too ripe on the counter that I needed to do something with.

Of course, I had to bake something.

But I was busy. I had no time to make a cake or complicated dessert that involved multiple steps and a lot of time creaming butter or adding ingredients one at a time. I needed to make something simple. Something that would satisfy me. Something that would allow the flavor of my beautiful plums to shine. And something that would be just as delicious straight from the oven as it would be after some time on the counter or in the fridge.

It was clear what I needed to make: clafoutis.

Clafoutis is an eggy, creamy, smooth almost-custard, not-quite-flan, traditional French dessert. It's the kind of thing grandmothers make for their grandchildren, the kind of thing you can serve at a dinner party to guests, and the kind of go-to recipe you want for cold or rainy days when you want your kitchen to smell like heaven. It is a breeze to make and it satisfies a sweet tooth without being too much (even if you decide to go for that second piece when you really know you shouldn't). I've been having a love affair with clafoutis.

It's a breeze to make, it requires no special ingredients, and the recipe is easily tweaked to fit personal preferences. Really, there is no reason not to make clafoutis. Even if you're a new baker, you shouldn't be intimidated; this recipe is very forgiving if you make mistakes!

I happen to like my clafoutis with a fairly high cream-to-milk ratio, but don't let this throw you off. If you don't have much cream on hand, you can still make clafoutis! I just happen to keep heavy cream in my fridge for my coffee in the morning (this may sound unhealthy, but I like the richness it provides). But for those who don't want to buy heavy cream or who are more health conscious, you can see my note below in the recipe.
And I personally love the aroma of rum in my baked goods and I adore how the flavor melds with baked fruit and vanilla, but if you don't have rum handy, you can easily replace it with another liquor (something with an appropriate flavor, such as brandy) or you can leave it out entirely. If you don't like cinnamon, you can omit it. I actually forgot to add vanilla once, and the flavor of the rum and plums was so wonderful, you couldn't even tell something was missing.

This plum clafoutis is delicious served warm or cold. I can actually never resist digging into it as soon as it comes out of the oven, golden, puffed up, and pipping hot. A slightly burned tongued is a small price to pay for the instant gratification of the silky, creamy, slightly tart but simultaneously sweet taste of a clafoutis that has just finished baking. And when this clafoutis cools, its nuances are somehow revealed and you can better appreciate the subtle notes, the beautiful way the rum melds with the vanilla to complement the earthier, muted jam tones of the plum. With its simple elegance, this clafoutis is not just any dessert, and it satisfies a craving much deeper than just a desire for something sweet.

Plum Clafoutis
adapted from Vanilla Garlic

3-4 plums, skins washed well
scant 1/3 cup granulated sugar
3-4 tbsp rum (the amount is really a personal preference thing)
3 eggs
*1 cup of milk or cream (see note below!)
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract (depending on how much you like the flavor of vanilla)
1/3 teaspoon of salt (I know this measurement isn't common; you can guesstimate it)
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
scant 1/2 cup of flour

Slice your plums into quarters (or halves, depending on what look you're going for) and then put them into a plastic container and cover with the sugar and rum. Allow to "marinate" for at least 2 hours or, preferably, overnight in the fridge. (You can leave them there for as long as 2 days in my experience)

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Lightly butter a 9-inch or 8-inch baking dish or tart pan (round or square doesn't matter; square pans allow for prettier and more even slices, while round pans tends to be more traditional and aesthetically pleasing). Carefully pull the marinated plums out of their rum/sugar bath and arrange them evenly on the bottom of the baking dish, skin side down.

*Note: I use ¼ cup 1% milk and ¾ cup heavy whipping cream, but any ratio will work! This recipe works with any combination of skim milk, cream, or half and half. I wouldn't recommend making it with only skim milk, because without any milk fat it won't taste as smooth and creamy and it won't puff up beautifully since you can't whip air into skim milk the way you can cream, but if you want to cut back on some calories or only have skim milk on hand, this recipe won't suffer for it.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, vanilla extract, salt, and rum-sugar mixture until smooth.

Add the cinnamon and sift in the flour one-third at a time and whisk to combine, making sure there are no lumps. Gently pour into the baking dish or tart pan. If the plums begin moving/floating away, just rearrange them after you have finished pouring.

Bake for 35-40 minutes on the middle oven rack, rotating the pan after the first 25 to ensure even baking. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 5 minutes before tasting (or else you will burn yourself!). The clafoutis will deflate a bit, which is completely normal.

Serve warm, at room temperature, or cold.
Keeps in the fridge, covered with foil or saran wrap for about 4 days (if you can resist eating it for that long!).

What I've been eating

2011-10-12T02:52:00.006-04:00

With my study schedule here at medical school, I haven't had time to cook much lately. Because I knew earlier in the year that these days would come, I stocked up my freezer with plenty of food for days when cooking wouldn't be an option. I have spicy butternut squash soup, basil and pine nut pesto, some crusty French bread, and goat curry from home (one of my absolute favorite cold weather foods). But sometimes I don't even have the time to put together a warm meal; either I didn't think ahead to defrost the food I want to eat, or I have no rice or pasta in the fridge to eat and I'm too hungry to take the time to cook some. In those moments, I am incredibly grateful for the abundance of fresh fruit I have access to.

Every Tuesday where I live there is a farmer's market. Not only are they a source of great fresh everyday produce, like garlic, potatoes, basil (rooted!), onions, and zucchini, but they also carry some amazing out-of-ordinary products at incredibly affordable prices, such as organic California Brown Turkey figs, local Concord grapes, Flavor Heart pluots, and gorgeous Georgia Muscadine grapes. I had never actually tasted fresh Concord grapes before living next to this market, but the vendors are incredibly friendly about answering questions and allowing customers to sample. Once I tasted one, I was hooked. I've been buying them every single week since then. The Muscadine grapes were also a discovery. They look like small plums or very large grapes, and they burst with a flavor that is akin to lychee and Muscat grapes. As for the pluots, if you haven't heard of them yet, they are hybrids that combine the best qualities of an apricot with those of a plum. The Flavor Heart variety is one of my favorites, partially because it really does have a distinctive heart shape to it, and because its deep purple skin contrasts so beautifully with its pale golden flesh.

With such beautiful produce, it isn't hard to throw together a simple meal in little or no time. Being so fresh, these fruits need no coaxing to shine in all their glory; they are delicious as they are. I eat the figs with clover honey and plain yogurt as an afternoon snack.

The rooted basil I bought two or three weeks ago from the market is now thriving on my window sill. I take some of its leaves and roughly chop them and mix them with a beautiful yellow heirloom tomato I bought to make a simple salad, dressed with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and grapeseed oil.

For a quick lunch today, I washed a bunch of organic roquette (arugula). I became addicted to this spicy green while I was in Paris this summer, and now that I've found it at the markets here, I indulge myself by buying some almost every week. It goes well with chicken, fish, pork, bread and butter... honestly, I can't think of many savory things it wouldn't accompany well. But since today was farmer's market day, I had an abundance of fruit, and so I made a salad with with the Concord grapes, local end-of-season peaches, and Flavor Heart pluots. A little balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and black pepper and my lunch was served.

I haven't just been on a raw foot diet though. As beautiful as the produce is, I am at heart a baker, and I couldn't resist the call to make something sweet with the plums I had on hand. Because I didn't have the time to make an elaborate cake or tart, I went with a classic: clafoutis. I won't be sharing the recipe here yet because I want to take the time to dedicate a real post to it, but here is a teaser of what is to come. It may seem a little bit homely, but trust me, this plum clafoutis is the perfect thing for a night in, curled up on the couch with a book. (Unfortunately for me, that book is a USMLE Step 1 Question Bank)

He cooks for me

2011-09-19T08:00:00.006-04:00

I met someone who works with me in the kitchen. He cooks the chicken and cuts the celery. I cook the okra and cut the figs. He caramelizes the onions, I assemble the salad. I bake the ribs and the rosemary potatoes in the oven, he makes the ratatouille. I met someone who accepts my micromanaging, who is patient with me, who listens to me be bossy, and who cares to execute everything just the way I want it.

I met someone who lets me sleep in on a Saturday morning while he gets up and cooks for almost three hours by himself in my kitchen while I lay dreaming. I met someone who wakes me up with the smell of chicken and paella for brunch, who offers me crepes in the morning, and who makes me salmon carpaccio with smoked salmon because he knows I'm not a big fan of raw fish. I met someone who cooks for me.

I have found a partner.
He offers me a bite of his nectarine; he tries a piece of my pear. We make cheesecake. He crushes the graham crackers into crumbs; I mix together the butter and the sugar. He beats the cream cheese and the heavy cream; I pat the crusts into the buttered muffin tins. He combines the sugar, salt and vanilla; I pour the batter into the tins. We wait for the cheesecake to finish baking. We set the table together, we eat together, we laugh together. We clear the table and we both declare that it is our turn to wash the dishes. If I get to the sponge first, he wraps his arms around me and then puts away the food. If he gets to the sink before I do, I kiss his cheek and wipe down the counters. I have never known such sweet balance.

I met someone. And he cooks for me.

I have always said that food is love – that phrase is repeated throughout this blog – but it wasn't until recently that I discovered what it was like to be loved in this way. Though I often cook for other people, I had never really had someone cook for me. I had never had someone take care of me like that. And I know it sounds simple, but it is powerful beyond words. He cooks for me. I met someone who took the time to make me food, to nourish me, to feed me. And when he had to go, he left me with ratatouille, with paella, with sea salt caramels, and with cupcakes, so although he can't be here now, in a way he is still present, he is still taking care of me. There could not be anything more intimate.

Food is love. And I have never been loved like this.

A Hard Day's Work

2011-08-25T18:15:00.003-04:00

It's been over a month since I last wrote here. It hasn't been because I have been away from the kitchen -- I've actually been in the kitchen almost every day cooking -- but I just haven't had the time to write. They aren't kidding when they say medical school keeps you busy. I come home from lecture and my brain aches. It's like going to the gym and working out intensely for four hours straight, except instead of my muscles, it's my cerebral cortex.

After a hard day of work, many people I know like to come home and do something mindless, like watch TV, or for the younger generation, get on Facebook. But after I have a day of lectures, when I come home tired, I go to the kitchen. I open the fridge, I check what I have, and I pull out some pots. And then I cook. Sometimes it's just caramelizing onions and sautée-ing some sliced squash. Sometimes it's making pesto. Sometimes it's blanching cherry tomatoes in a pot, combining them with marinated peaches and plums, and making jam.

That's exactly what I did today. I had actually intended to make some peach/plum jam last night, since I had some beautifully ripe fruit on hand that I wanted to preserve for when peaches and plums go out of season, but I just didn't quite get around to it. I peeled and cut the peaches, I cut the plums, I added sugar, salt, a little bit of orange juice, and cinnamon (I didn't add any pectin since plums naturally have enough pectin to made a jam "gel" up). Then I put the mixture in the fridge and forgot about it, since I didn't feel like I had the time to stand over a pot and stir. I also didn't think I had any jam jars. And I had a lot of studying to do.

But between last night and tonight I slowly ate away at some of the uncooked "jam" -- which really is just a fruit salad if you think about it -- picking away at the bigger pieces of peaches which were sweet and cinnamon-y, with a slight hint of orange and plum. Delicious. Today when I got home from class, there was still a portion of macerated fruit left, but not quite enough to put in the effort of making jam. I wasn't sure what to do with my half-made concoction. That was when I stumbled upon the cherry tomatoes I had bought at the farmer's market.

For the past three weeks I've been consistently buying these beautiful orange cherry tomatoes at the farmer's market outside my apartment and they have been amazing. They taste like sunshine and summer. I love them. But this week's tomatoes were slightly disappointing. Some were a little soft, some were quite acidic, and they just weren't the kind of tomatoes I wanted to eat raw as a snack (which I why I had bought them). But they would be perfect in a jam.

So I took out my pairing knife and set to work lightly scoring the cherry tomatoes I had before blanching them quickly in boiling water. Then I peeled them, the little tomatoes slipping easily out of their skins to join their new friends, the peaches and plums. When I was done, I added some sugar and salt and a little bit more cinnamon, and then I turned on the heat. I left the cherry tomatoes whole, just letting whichever ones burst from the heat give the jam texture. In less than 20 minutes, over medium heat with a little bit of stirring, some tasting, and a lot of love, I had my jam.

The dark skin of the plums made the mixture a beautiful deep red color, like wine, and the plums and cinnamon rounded out the flavor of the tomatoes beautifully. It was just what I needed after a long day, and I couldn't help but have of the jam immediately, spread in a thin layer on a good piece of bread (a baguette actually, also from the farmer's market).

In order to keep this and enjoy it for a while though, I sterilized the one extra glass jar and lid I had with some boiling water, pouring the hot water directly into and letting it heat the glass thoroughly before I poured out the water and added my jam. Jar sealed and refrigerated, and presto! Summer is preserved. Such is the beauty of cooking. After a hard day's work, there is nothing better than the magic that is time in the kitchen.

Dinner at Co Co Sala

2011-07-21T00:21:00.001-04:00

For my birthday, my friends I. and G. came down from New Jersey to spend the weekend with me, and as we were spending the day in DC (invariably visiting Georgetown Cupcake and walking around in a diabetic coma afterwards), we decided to eat dinner at Co Co Sala. I had actually gone here before for dessert and drinks with I., but we'd never done dinner.

We called for a reservation for 3 at around 2pm, since it was a last minute decision, and the only time we were able to get was at 6pm. This was of course on Saturday, but still, be mindful that reservations should be made ahead of time, especially if you want to eat and get drinks at a later time, like 7:30 or 8pm, since that's when Co Co Sala gets crowded.

Because we were pretty full, we ordered mostly small plates, since the focus was on the dessert and drinks, as it should be when you go to a place that is called the Chocolate Room. Below is a brief review of what we ate and drank.

This blue cheese pear and walnut salad ($8) included caramelized walnuts, arugula, cranberries, and balsamic vinaigrette. It was a decent sized portion and very well executed.

This beef tenderloin ($28) with meyer angus and a gruyere and crushed cocoa bean crust was served with a shiraz reduction, asparagus (green and white), and a roasted garlic and goat cheese potato puree. The puree was fascinating. It had a very unique texture and we had actually forgotten what the menu said, and couldn't quite put our finger on what the taste was. It was very light on the cheese factor. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, and you (loyal readers, at least) know how I feel about cheese (nyet, thanks)

These scallops ($12), were a "bite." This is a concept that Co Co Sala has that is essentially equivalent to the Spanish concept of tapas. Thus, this plate was just two pan-seared, cocoa nib crusted scallops with a maple citrus glaze. The scallops were served with a celery root puree and a lotus chip. It was very good.

This wild mushroom and roasted tomato risotto ($12) with seasonal mushrooms and parmesan risotto was cooked in a tomato broth and served with basil foam, and thus was completely vegetarian. Good, although a bit on the salty side.

This dessert was the Co Co Grown Up ($14). On the far right/top was a milk chocolate peanut butter gelato, which was rich but heavenly. There was a chocolate mini co co. cupcake and then the most amazing bananas foster I've ever had in my entire life. As I told my friends after tasting this, there is a god, and he works as the pastry chef at Co Co Sala. The rum sauce with the bananas foster was to die for. I could bathe in it. There was also a malted shooter (alcoholic) with a chocolate "straw." I thought it was actually a straw and tried to drink through it, like a fool, but it is not hollow. An amazing dessert. To be ordered again.

This dessert was to split among two people: churros with chocolate pudding dipping sauce. The churros were light, airy and had the perfect amount of cinnamon sugar. They also tasted amazing when dipped into the chocolate pudding sauce. A perfectly executed dessert.

Of course, you can't go to Co Co Sala and not order a drink. It doesn't matter if it's alcoholic or not. You simply must order a drink. We ended up trying four of their cocktails and one non-alcoholic drinks.

All cocktails are $13. We ordered a Fetish, which has fresh strawberries juice/pulp, chocolate-infused vodka, and strawberry foam, and is served with a chocolate dipped berry (pictured behind the churros). It tastes like candy. It was my favorite drink of the night, and possibly my favorite drink ever (though chocolate martinis made at Quad at Princeton rank pretty highly) because you can barely taste the alcohol. The drink itself also tasted very much like a chocolate dipped strawberry, and who doesn't like chocolate dipped strawberries?
We also tried the Co Cojito, with chocolate infused vodka, fresh mint & limes, and dark chocolate flakes (picture above, on the left). It was good, but you could definitely taste the alcohol. I'm not sure the mint and lime flavor was very prominent. The chocolate flavor seemed to overwhelm them both.
The “Mmm” Malted Milk Martini (pictured above on right) featured Svedka Vanilla, Bailey’s, and Malted Chocolate and was very good. Of course, my definition of a very good cocktail is one that is sweet and doesn't taste like alcohol. I know, I'm a girl. But it was complex, creamy, and yet light and easy to drink.
Lastly, we ordered the Blue Bliss (not pictured) which has Stoli Blueberry, Basil Infused Syrup, Fresh Lemonade, and Fresh Basil. It is a refreshing summer cocktail, but it does taste like, well, alcohol. A nice, light palate cleanser at the end of a meal though.

We also ordered the hot Salted Caramel Co Co ($6) at the start of our meal. This delicious drink (pictured above, center) is served with a house-made marshmallow which meals deliciously into the hot cocoa. The drink is the perfect combination of chocolate, caramel, and salt. The caramel flavor is prominent, but balanced by the salt and roundness of the chocolate. I could order this again and again. Actually, I did order this previously, and I. and I had discussed coming back just to drink it again. Turns out we did just that.

The entire experience of eating at Co Co. Sala is very relaxing. It is not actually a restaurant, so if you eat a meal, it is more of a lounge experience, but you can eat and order at the bar or get a table among the booths/couches. It is a perfect place for a classy date or for a dinner among friends, and is conveniently close to the Spy Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. With its consistency, delicious drinks, and well executed and creative dishes, I am sure that Co Co. Sala will remain on my short list of restaurants in D.C. that I love to frequent.

Co Co. Sala

929 F Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20004
Tel. 202.347.4265
Overall rating for the price: 9 out of 10

A Different Way of Thinking

2011-07-20T22:29:00.000-04:00

I don't pack like a normal person. I'm moving into my new apartment in 12 days and I've begun the process of packing, but unlike most people who pack things like clothes and books, I have been focusing on packing kitchen ware. I had been gathering my pots and pans, my hand held mixer, my measuring cups and spoons; I have collected up important things like my black truffle salt, my cinnamon, my vanilla sugar, my powdered ginger, my olive oil, my Maggi seasoning sauce. I have packed my Tom Douglass cookbook (the only one I would ever pack with me on a move since it's the only cookbook I would actually cook from; the others are just for pleasure reading. And yes, I pleasure read cookbooks), my coarse demerara sugar, my cocoa powder. These things to me are as important as cardigans and fall boots to other people.
I am leaving for medical school and yet saved on my bookmarks bar is a link to a French Culinary Institute's class on pastry techniques and the International Culinary Center's class on homemade pasta. I looked at both because they are only a train ride and a subway ride away from my apartment. I am a crazy fool. I am not sure if I will be able to make time for this blog once August rolls around, but I will never be able to stop considering good food and good cooking an important part of my life.

Lunch at Michel (a guest review)

2011-07-12T11:00:00.004-04:00

I have never done this before, but because of my own slacking off in terms of posting (which I justify as reasonable since I'm not sure I will be continuing this blog in August once medical school starts), I am publishing a guest post here. This review is actually written and photographed by my hilarious older sister. She wrote it a while back and emailed it to me, but for some reason I never read it (Sorry, L., I love you!) until today. And it had me laughing out loud. I've already reviewed this restaurant, but this is another perspective, on different dishes. So here it is: my sister's debut as a restaurant critic.

Our parents had to cancel their trip to Madrid this April due to our grandfather’s declining health. To make up for missing Madrid, my father had made reservations for my mother and him at the relatively new restaurant Michel, located at the Tysons Corner Ritz-Carlton. Unfortunately, my mother had to schedule a last minute transatlantic flight to take care of her parents a couple days after returning from Paris. My father then selected me as his second choice lunch date. Normally I’d feel a little offended about being someone’s back up choice, but in this case I happily agreed as quickly as I could, giving him no time to reconsider.

Michel is owned by the same French chef of the acclaimed restaurant Citronelle in Georgetown. He also owns Central Michel Richard, one of my favorite restaurants in DC (and a dining establishment I can afford to eat at without needing to sell an organ). Central has a special place in my heart because I’ve spent numerous milestone events here. My family took me here for my 21st birthday, I watched the results of the 2008 election here, and I have celebrated numerous anniversaries with Central’s famous Kit Kat chocolate bar. I actually took an ex-boyfriend who’s idea of fine dining (until he met me) was Outback Steakhouse and Olive Garden to Central. Clearly, this boy desperately needed an eye-opening dining experience. Our meal changed him from thinking bloomin onions was an acceptable appetizer and brought him over to the dark side of steak tartare, pate, and goat cheese.

Back to Michel. The restaurant is located in the exact same space as the late Maestro, on lobby floor in the Ritz. The modern décor makes the dining room seem spacious and colorful, and the large wine cases remind me of the design at Central. There is a large exhibition kitchen, and we were seated at a table right in front of it.

Our waitress brought us over the menu and we mulled over the choices. My dad decided to go with the three course lunch special for $21 (Chicken Soup with Herb Ravioli, Salmon with Green Lentils, fruit mousse) which is pretty much highway robbery since his entrée ordered a la carte would cost $22. I decided to just order the Beef Bourguignon with Egg Noodles.

The bread was warm, light as air (this obviously changed as soon as I glopped a pound of their soft butter on it) with an impossibly crunchy crust. I munched on the bread as my dad sipped (by sipped I mean gulped) on his soup. The Chicken Soup with Herb Ravioli was perfect for such a dreary, cold day. It was a tad salty, but very flavorful nonetheless. The herb ravioli was delicious and had a hint of oregano. The mini croutons that they threw in the soup were a nice surprise.

Then came the main courses. My dad approved of his Salmon with Green Lentils. The salmon tasted fresh. I actually liked that the waitress asked my dad how well done he wanted his salmon (being presented with overdone fish at a restaurant is such a disappointment), and it indeed was cooked perfectly like he ordered. The lentils were also cooked perfectly (not at all mushy!) and were a nice accompaniment to the the fish.

I really enjoyed the Beef Bourguignon with Egg Noodles. The cubed meat was tender and seasoned well. The noodles weren’t drenched in sauce, and the sweet pearl onions added another dimension to the dish. The portions were generous, and my dad ended up having to help me finish (although the bread I consumed as a side to obscene amount of butter I was inhaling may have factored into this).

Then, it was time for dessert!!!! My dad had the fruit mousse (pineapple, mango and coconut). I debated between the chocolate bar which I have had three times already, and trying something new. I always agonize over dessert when I’ve enjoyed my meal thus far, because the idea of finishing with a mediocre dessert as the final note seems heart-breaking to me.

The waitress patiently explained every dessert to me, and I finally ended up ordering the Pot de Crème. It was a rich vanilla crème, with a caramel on top, along with crunchy chocolate mini balls and came with two lightly caramelized cracker things. It was delicious. The vanilla crème had the consistency of flan, and aromatic without being overpowering. The crunchy chocolate balls added an extra punch of flavor and texture to the creamy mix of vanilla and caramel. My dad’s mousse was light and fruity without tasting artificial. I might be biased towards chocolate, but I preferred my calorically decadent dessert a bit more.

My father claimed that the one complaint he had conerning the desserts were that they were too rich for lunchtime. At first I vehemently disagreed, but an hour later as I fought an overwhelming food coma, I could see his point. Returning to work was difficult. After such a delicious meal, it seemed almost insulting to return to my desk and work on protocols.

Overall, my dad and I both gave Michel a B+. A solidly delicious meal, but not a knockout.

Michel

1700 Tysons Blvd

McLean, VA 22102

Tel. 703-506-4300

When in France... Make Crêpes

2011-06-30T16:50:00.007-04:00

My hiatus in posting recipes and reviews is fairly inexcusable, especially since I have three reviews backlogged just waiting to be published, but to make it up for you I have a recipe for something everybody likes: crêpes.

Crêpes, for those of you who don't know, are a large, very thin French pancakes made with a very liquidy batter. They can be dusted with sugar and then lightly spritzed with rum or lemon juice, or they can be served with nutella or jam, or they can be filled with bananas, whipped cream, nuts, and such. They are also sometimes served flambé, with Grand Marnier. The possibilities are endless.

I have always preferred my crêpes simple. I like them cooked to a nice golden color and served with sugar and rum. I recently went to dinner at a restaurant here in Paris which only served crêpes, and the savory options were extensive and delicious. It may sound odd, but my crêpe had hamburger meat and was served with a fried egg on top. Yummy!

I can't say when I ate my first crêpe, but I'm sure I was very young, since my grandparents live in France and I have been coming here for years to visit them. This summer I find myself in Paris again, somehow at the same time as my older cousins. Ironically, of all the cousins, only one of them is Parisienne and she now lives in Saigon, Vietnam. The other two are from the Bordeaux region of France (famous for its wines) and have moved to Paris for work. We got together the other night for raclette, wine, and crêpes. This recipe for crêpes is my cousin's; I had actually never made crêpes before from scratch.

The recipe itself is very simple, likely stuff you already have in your kitchen, and once you made one or two crêpes, you get the hang of things pretty quickly and they start looking nicer and nicer. Be warned though: these are best when eaten warm. So have your company ready to eat them, or take a break between cooking every one or two crepes so that you can enjoy them while they're fresh.

Simple Crêpe Recipe

makes about 20

500g of flour (farine de blé)
1 liter milk (2% or demi-écrémé)
6 medium to large eggs (if extra large eggs, use only 5)
1-2 tbsp of melted butter or vegetable oil
optional: 2-3 tbsp orange flower water (also called orange blossom water)

Measure out the flour into a large mixing bowl. Create a little "well" in the middle of your pile of flour (like you would if you were making pasta) and crack the eggs into that well. Beat the eggs into the flour until you have incorporated the flour fairly well.
Add the milk slowly, about 1 cup at a time.
Add the melted butter or vegetable oil and mix to combine.
Lastly add the orange flower water, if using, and stir to combine. (Do not add this if you're making savory crêpes!)
Let the batter rest for at least 1 hour at room temperature. If resting the batter for more than 2-3 hours, put it in the fridge. Stir well before using.
Lightly butter a very large, flat skillet. If using an electronic range, keep your heat on high. If using a burner, keep your flame medium high.
Once the pan is hot, lift it off the heat and quickly ladle a spoonful of the batter onto the skillet while tilting the skillet so that the batter runs over the entire surface in a thin layer. Use the back of the ladle to help spread out any batter to cover "holes." Be sure to do this part quickly!
Cook for about 3 minutes, checking the bottom for light browning. Once it looks good (it's all about personal taste), flip the crêpe and cook for an additional minute or two.

Some people (like myself) prefer adding their condiments and folding the crêpe while it is on the pan. Some people prefer putting the crêpe onto a plate before dressing it. It's up to you.

This recipe makes about 20 crêpes, which is enough to serve 8-12 people for dessert, depending on their appetites. Extra batter can be kept in the fridge and used the next day. Be sure to allow the batter to come to room temperature and to stir before using!

Note: Because this recipe does not include sugar, these crêpes can be used for savory purposes as well as for dessert. Common additions to savory crêpes are ham, cheese, eggs, and mushrooms.

Lemon Bars

2011-06-12T23:47:00.009-04:00

I've been in a funk for a while and for some reason I just haven't felt the same about cooking, baking, or posting. Which is very odd for me. Cooking and baking are usually my go-to activities, especially when I have a fully stocked kitchen and great seasonal ingredients. Which I do have right now.

But I just haven't really felt that wonderful feeling of happiness I normally associate with cooking. I made pork belly today with king oyster mushrooms and onions and while it was good, I felt no real satisfaction in making it. I also made a strawberry rhubarb crumble. It was my first time cooking with rhubarb. And no real excitement. It was good, but I don't feel compelled to share it with you.

Instead, I offer you lemon bars. I made these a few days ago because we happened to have a lot of limes in the house. And, yes, I made my lemon bars with limes. So really, I suppose, they should be called lime bars, but that just doesn't have the same ring to it that the name "lemon bars" does. So lemon bars.

This recipe has been a long time family favorite. My parents are crazy about them and I've made them as gifts for family friends many times. They were also the defining baked good of one of my relationships. It's funny; I have certain recipes that I inextricably associate with people. My oatmeal chocolate chip cookies will always make me think of Josh. My apple tart cake always reminds me of my dad. These lemon bars always make me think of E.

When we first started dating, E. came over fairly often and to my surprise, he sometimes rummaged my kitchen and fridge. I had never had anyone just come over and open my fridge before, so it startled me quite a bit that he did it so naturally, but I was blinded by my infatuation. On our third or fourth "date" (I put that word in parentheses because he was just coming over to watch movies), he discovered a container of lemon bars on the counter. Of course, he was interested in trying them. So, we sat down in the living room with the container and we snacked on them while smiling at each other and half-watching something on the TV. And then, the inevitable happened. The taste of lemon bars was in both of our mouths when we kissed, and when we pulled back from the kiss, E. told me with a smile that that was the best tasting kiss he'd ever had. I thought it was one of the sweetest things I'd ever been told. I've baked him these lemon bars several times since then, and I am still reminded of that summer when I think of this recipe.

As I said before, I normally use limes for this recipe. Limes are generally cheaper than lemons at the market, and no one can really tell the difference anyway. Also, one lime typically yields more juice than one lemon, so it is an economical choice. But, if you feel the need to be "authentic," the recipe works with lemons just as well as it does with limes.

This standard recipe one 8x13 pan, but I normally find that that simply isn't enough to satiate my family and friends, so I make the recipe slightly bigger and make an 8x13 pan and an 8x8 pan so there is a lot to go around. The bars keep well in an air tight container at room temperature. They keep even longer in the fridge. And when I say "even longer" I mean almost two weeks, if you're a hoarder, like myself.

These lemon bars are delicious when served with blueberries, strawberries, or peaches. Of course, they are also great alone.

Lemon Bars (yields one 8x13 pan)

Crust

14 tbsp butter

2/3 cup sugar

2 heaping cups flour (or 2 cups + 1/6 cup)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine melted butter and sugar together, then add flour. It is often easier to add the flour in increments, rather than all at once. Once combined, pat the flour mixture into a buttered and floured pan. For even easier removal, use parchment paper to line your pan. Bake for 15 minutes on middle rack.

Filling

4 eggs and 1 egg yolk

1 and 2/3 c sugar

4 and 2/3 tbsp flour

all juice (5-6 tbsps) and zest from two limes

½ tsp baking powder

While the base is baking, blend together eggs and sugar. Add in flour, zest, juice, and powder, then pour over crust (you do not have to wait for the crust to cool) and bake for additional 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before running a knife around the edges to loosen the bars from the pan.

Removal method #1: Allow to cool for 10-15 more minutes before flipping out of the pan onto a large cutting board. While the lemon bars are upside down, cut into squares using a serrated bread knife. Once cut, flip the pieces back over.

Removal method #2: Cut the bars inside of the pan using a paring knife (I find these work best). Best careful not to scrape your non-stick pan.

Note: If you remove the bars too soon from the pan, the base can come apart from the filling part on top.

Recipe for one 8x13 pan and one 8x8 pan

Crust

21 tbsp salted butter (melted)

scant cup sugar

3 ½ c flour

Filling

7 eggs

2 ½ c sugar

7 tbsp flour

all juice (7-8 tbsp) and zest from three limes

¾ tsp baking powder

Follow instructions from above

Lunch at Michel

2011-06-07T22:41:00.006-04:00

This is the first time that I've ever let weeks slide by in my posting. I've normally tried to keep the space between my posts be no more than six days, but this summer has been rather up and down and while I have not had a lack of things to post about, I just have not had the energy nor the will to post. But yesterday I went out to lunch at Michel, a relatively new restaurant in the DC area, and I feel like I need to share this review with you. Michel is located in the Ritz Carlton. It is another one of Michel Richard's restaurants (the Michel Richard of Citronelle and Central).

Michel offers a changing three course menu for $21 which is called the "Lunch with Benefits," as part of the profits goes to a cause. This week's cause was cystic fibrosis. Two choices were offered for the appetizer, two for the main course, and three for dessert. We also ordered a la carte off the main lunch menu.

One of the appetizers offered with the prix fixe menu is a vichyssoise, or a thick soup made of leeks, potatoes, and onions. Michel's vichyssoise was served with potato crisps (also known as potato chips). It was interesting, as it had an acid note to it that I have never tasted before in a vichyssoise, but it was not unpleasant. The crisps provided a nice textual element to the creamy, smooth soup. Overall it was a 8.5 out of 10.

The other appetizer offered as part of the prix fixe menu was the tuna tartare nicoise. This was a salad with green beans, red onion, and hard boiled eggs, among other elements. I thought the tuna was a little thickly cut and could have been more elegantly presented. It was a 6.5 out of 10, which is pretty average.

An appetizer ordered a la carte was the cheese puffs (also called gougères, $8). These were a little too heavy. We’ve had Michel Richard’s gougères before (at Central), and they were lighter and fluffier. These ones tasted fine, but weren’t the airy puffs we’d had before. We gave them a 7 out of 10.

Diver scallops with couscous paella was one of the main courses offered with the prix fixe menu. This dish featured two scallops on top a bed of Israeli couscous. The scallops were sweet, and nicely cooked. The paella was not as spicy as a tradition paella, but did include squid, mussels, and sausage. It was an 8.5 out of 10, good but not amazing.

The other main course offered with the prix fixe menu was a croque monsieur. This was fairly banal. Not only was the plating boring—just a half sandwich with some green leaves, and I even had to re-plate it a bit because it was done with absolutely no attention to detail—but the sandwich itself was nothing special. We had hoped that Michel Richard might put some fun spin on it (like Inn at Little Washington does with mac and cheese), but instead it was just a grilled ham and cheese sandwich on some decent bread. Worse yet, the salad was not fresh. Not only were the greens wilted, but they were bruised and aged so much that some were almost black in color. My mom called over one of the waiters and showed him the salad. He very quickly brought it back to the kitchen and she was given a new salad on a new plate. Unfortunately, this salad was not properly dressed and was very plain in taste. I have to say, I expected much better of a Michel Richard restaurant. We gave this a 6.5 out of 10.

One entree we ordered a la carte off the lunch menu was red snapper with pipérade and garlic parsley sauce. This was served with some great roasted red pepper. It was a full bodied dish, well executed, with some beautifully cooked fish. Not a wow, but very good. An 8.5 out of 10.

The second entree we ordered a la carte was flat iron steak with shallot sauce and french fries. This was executed well, with some very great crispy french fries. A solid dish, we gave it a 8.5 out of 10.

One of the desserts offered as part of the prix fixe menu was a chocolate bar. This was a little too sweet, and the sweetness was not balanced properly by salt. The milk chocolate bar did have some texture due to a hazelnut crunch layer, but it was unimpressive. I do not think we finished it. The pistachio wafer was beautiful and impressively thin, but it did not offer much in terms of taste. We gave this a 6.5 out of 10.

The other dessert offered as part of the prix fixe menu was a vanilla pot de creme (the item as listed on the menu has no accent marks). This was very sweet, and almost overwhelmed by the layer of caramel on top. The caramel had no sophistication to it; it was like something you would buy in a squeeze bottle at a grocery store. The thin pale wafers served with it were likewise unimpressive and lacking in flavor. This dessert was a 6 out of 10.

In the end, when the bill was brought out, our waiter told us that we were compensated for my mother’s meal, meaning that a total of $21 was subtracted from our bill as a result of the wilted and bruised greens. This was a very generous move on the part of the restaurant, as only one part of her three course meal had been a disappointment, but it did not move us in terms of our opinion of Michel. Overall, the experience was very average. There are too many good places in DC for us to return to this one, which is sad, given that my dad had previously eaten at this restaurant with my sister and they had both enjoyed the meal very much. I suppose it is hit or miss? But that is not acceptable when you’re serving the foodie crowds of the DC metropolitan area.

Michel
1700 Tysons Blvd
McLean, VA 22102
Tel. 703-506-4300
Overall rating for the price: 7 out of 10

Lunch at Dahlia Lounge in Seattle

2011-05-30T21:40:00.000-04:00

Before my trip to Seattle earlier this year, I had never heard of Tom Douglas. I didn't know his name and I had never read about any of his restaurants. This, of course, is one of the pitfalls of living near DC; there is so much good food in the District, I often forget about all the other great chefs and restaurants in the country.

Tom Douglass was the winner of the 1994 James Beard Award for Best Northwest Chef. He has a wide range of cooking styles, which are all showcased by his restaurants: Dahlia Lounge, Etta's Seafood, Palace Kitchen, Lola, and Serious Pie (which is actually a pizzeria, not a bakery). For those who enjoy watching food related TV shows, you may recognize him as one of the chefs who defeated Masaharu Morimoto in Iron Chef America. But suffice to say, Tom Douglass is highly regarded chef who resides and works in Seattle. And this summer I had a chance to eat at his restaurant Dahlia Lounge.

Dahlia Lounge is a restaurant that focuses on serving local, sustainable, and organic food. This means, of course, that their menu is constantly changing. Thus, some of the dishes that I describe here may not be on the menu anymore, because I've had this post backlogged for a while, but I really thought I ought to share this experience with you. I ate lunch here with my family in May or June and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

My dad ordered the "Weekly Three" lunch prix fixe menu for $18. To start, he chose a salad composed of spring greens, grilled asparagus, cucumbers, radishes, mizuna, and lemon. The greens were nicely marinated, creamy, light, and full of flavor (do I use this phrase too much?). Given that it was a salad, it had a surprising amount of body and substance. As my dad said, it was "not just cellulose" (this is how my family talks); it was a little sour and a little spicy. We gave it an 8 out of 10, which is a very high score given that it was "just a salad."

For his second course (part of the "Weekly Three"), my dad had Merguez sausage, Israeli couscous, and savoy spinach served with pickled peppers and green garlic yogurt. The couscous had great texture and the entire dish showed an amazing balance of flavors.

For his dessert, my dad ordered the triple coconut cream pie bite (again, part of the "Weekly Three").
I thought it was okay, but I am not partial to cream pies. My dad, on the other hand, thought it was great and gave it a 9 out of 10.

My sister ordered black bean-chili manila clams with yu choy, lap cheong, Chinese egg noodles, pea shoots, and sesame seeds ($16). It was an inventive fusion dish, full bodied, with exotic flavors that managed to compliment each other very well. The lap cheong (which I think is the same as the Vietnamese "lap xuong") was salty, sweet, and smoky. I wouldn't have thought to combine this with clams, egg noodles, and pea shoots, but it worked brilliantly: we gave this a 9.5 out of 10.

My mom ordered the first of the season halibut served with a sour cream and chive potato, snap peas, charred tomato vinaigrette, and potato crisps ($21). The potato was creamy, but not heavy and the fish was beautifully cooked so that it had a crispy exterior but was not at all dry. The dish was a great marriage of flavors.

I ordered the Dungeness crab cake, which we had heard many good things about. It was served with flageolet beans, grilled asparagus, ham hock, wild ramps, and creole tartar sauce ($18 for a single large crab cake; two crab cakes would be $29). I'm not generally a bean person, but I loved the texture of the beans. They were creamy but not mushy, and the wild ramps and grilled asparagus were light and summery in my mouth. The slightly spicy sauce rounded out the symphony of tastes. I enjoyed every bite. It was a perfect lunch - balanced, filling, and not at all heavy.

W enjoyed all of the desserts we ordered. But what I really want to focus on here were the doughnuts. They were amazing. They were airy, light, and absolutely perfect. A 10 out of 10. Could not be improved. Honestly. We like them so much we ordered a second plate of them. They come to you piping hot, fresh from the fryer. They are shaken in a bag of cinnamon sugar, tableside, and then plated. The accompanying mascarpone cream was to die for and the rhubarb and strawberry compote was delicious. I'm a chocolate dessert girl, but this is something I would order over and over again.

Dahlia is an example of serious, bold cooking. There were some very inspired dishes, and Douglass's creativity and presentation were beyond our expectations. Eating at Dahlia Lounge was a great experience and we almost came back a second time in our 6 days in Seattle just to enjoy the restaurant one more time.

Dahlia Lounge
2001 Fourth Avenue
Seattle, WA 98121
Tel. 206.662.4142
Overall rating for the price: 9 out of 10

Eating in Seattle - Pike Place Chowder

2011-05-23T02:01:00.001-04:00

I am still in Seattle and enjoying this city tremendously. I really want to go on and on about how fabulous the Pike Place Market is because honestly that market is the best I've ever seen in the United States. The produce is amazingly fresh and they have everything from wild ramps to baby purple artichoke to muscat grapes. They have incredibly unique and delicious varieties of apples and pears which they are happy to let you try. They have salmon and halibut and clams and oysters. They have gorgeous flower arrangements which are much larger and more beautiful than those you can get at a regular grocery store or supermarket, and best of all they are only priced at $5 or $10. They have art, dreamcatchers (I've always wanted one), jewelry, clothes, honey, jellies, pasta, cheese. There is more here than you can really see in one day. We've spent five days exploring the ins and outs of the market and I'm still not tired of it. But that's not what I want to post about today. What I want to talk to you about is chowder.

Near the market there is a little corner place where "visitors from all over the world" (according to their website) come to try their chowder, aptly named Pike Place Chowder. And they have many different varieties of chowder, along with a daily changing specialty. We've tried the following:
1) the smoked salmon chowder, which featured capers and a light hint of cream cheese. A very good chowder, with a great salmon flavor.
2) the seared scallop chowder, which has dill and lemon flavors. We also liked this one. The scallop flavor really shined.
3) the crab and oyster chowder (which was one of the changing daily chowders). This one had potatoes and leeks as well, and the oyster flavor was amazing.
4) the Southwestern chicken and corn chowder, which sounds plain, but was very flavorful. I thought it wasn't as special as the seafood chowders, but it was not at all boring or disappointing.
5) the seafood bisque, which included salmon, Oregon bay shrimp, and calamari in a tomato-based broth. Also good.

All of their chowders (some of which are pictured above) tasted great and were surprisingly spot on in terms of flavor. I've always liked chowder, but I never knew there were so many types, or that it could be so flavorful and so much more than just broth and cream. We ordered so many chowders, we forgot which one was which, and even though we were told several times, the guy who was helping us with our order told us after the third time we asked that we would be able to tell. I thought he was just saying that to get us off his back, but it was true. We all had fun figuring out which cup was which chowder. We ended up coming back again to have some more chowder.

We also tried the Dungeness Crab roll which they say is acclaimed, but we really didn't think it was anything special. It was a giant sub roll with a lot of chopped lettuce and a little bit of shredded crab meat. They didn't cook the crab meat in anything special or give any unique sauce or flavoring. Below average and expensive, at around $14 for something we didn't even bother finishing.

Nevertheless, I would definitely recommend coming here for the chowders. This place is a great spot for a quick, easy, and fast meal, although as a warning sometimes there is a line. But it moves fairly quickly. Pike Place Chowder is not ideal for a date as it is very casual, but it is a perfect place for friends or family. My only complaint? The bread. I'm not a fan of room temperature (and in Seattle that means slightly cool), soft, sourdough bread. It tasted like something you buy at a grocery store for a very low price. I would prefer if they had a nice crispy baguette. This one small issue aside, if you find yourself in Seattle, within walking distance of Pike Place Market, be sure to stop by and get some chowder. For the best deal, get their chowder sampler and choose 4 different chowders for about $11.

Pike Place Chowder
1530 Post Alley
Seattle, WA 98101
Tel. 206-267-2537
Overall rating for the price: 8.5 out of 10

Seattle's Pike Place Market

2011-05-14T12:27:00.001-04:00

As you can see from the title of this post, I am not in any of the places I call home. I am currently visiting Seattle, Washington,which my family has already deemed our future home. Unfortunately, I have no time to post any restaurant reviews, so instead I give you some lovely pictures of produce: mushrooms, broccoli, fish, melon, gorgeous flower arrangements (incredibly affordable and fresh), and avocados. All of these pictures were taken the Pike Place Market. That place is enough to make me consider starting my family on the West Coast.

Molten Chocolate Cake

2011-05-11T02:46:00.003-04:00

I've been slow about posting lately because life has been so busy, but to make up for it, I have a delicious recipe to share. One that is fast, easy to make, and delicious. Did I mention that it's chocolate? Or more specifically, molten chocolate cake.

That's right. I know how to apologize properly. Seriously. Wait till you taste this. But since you can't taste it until you finishing reading this and make it for yourself, you can judge how delicious it was by how quickly it was demolished by my family.

This is where I also should tell you that I am the only person in my family who actually likes dark chocolate. From the speed at which this molten chocolate cake was consumed, I think it was a success.

I have actually had this recipe on my hands for a while now, but I never got around to making it. For one thing, my place in New Jersey didn't have ramekins. I briefly considered bringing them up just so that I could make these, but this recipe also requires a scale, and a hand mixer, both of which I was also lacking. It is difficult to live in such barbaric conditions, but such conditions are what I need to make sure that I stay focused on my studies and stay out of the kitchen and away from the oven. The apartment that I'm moving into in August will be better supplied with baking equipment, however, since this will be more of a permanent move. The point I'm getting at though is that I made a mistake in waiting so long. If you've never made molten chocolate cake before, get started now. It's not difficult and it's absolutely delicious, even before it's baked. (Not that I recommending you eat the batter, because there are health issues concerning raw eggs and flour, but should some of this batter accidentally fall into your mouth, it is wonderful.)

The recipe I used was Jean George's recipe, which I sought out after eating his delicious dessert at JoJo's in January. It is very easy to make, doesn't require any special ingredients, and bakes fairly quickly. You can also make the batter ahead of time, chill it, and pop it in the oven when you're ready for it, which makes it very convenient, since molten chocolate cakes should be served fairly soon after they are done baking.

This molten chocolate cake is rich and, as expected, very chocolate-y, but I don't think it tips over that thin line of being too rich, or worse yet, being heavy. It isn't complex in flavor, but it is incredibly satisfying, and a great dessert to whip up if you don't have much time but are feeling a little fancy.

We happened to have one extra molten chocolate cake after the other three were consumed, and I covered that ramekin with plastic wrap and left it in the fridge. The next day, I ate it cold. It was still delicious. It didn't run in that "lava" or "molten" way that the hot cake did, but it had a great texture, like a half-chocolate-cake, half-chocolate-mousse dessert. And anyone who knows me knows how much I enjoy chocolate mousse. Yum! The pictures below are the molten chocolate cake on Day 2.

Jean George's molten chocolate cakes
adapted, serves 4

100g unsalted butter, cut into pieces
100 g bittersweet chocolate
2 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
4 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar
1/4 tsp salt
20 g flour

Melt the butter and chocolate together. Add the salt to the chocolate mixture.
Place egg yolks and eggs in bowl and whisk on medium speed until frothy.
Add in the sugar and vanilla sugar and whisk on medium high until mixture has tripled in volume.
Add chocolate mixture to eggs and whisk until well combined.
Sift the flour over the mixture and fold in with a whisk until combined.

Butter four 4-oz ramekins and flour lightly. Place on a baking sheet.

Divide the batter evenly among prepared ramekins. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to bake (up to 8 hours in advance).
Take the cakes out of the refrigerator and bring to room temperature. Heat oven to 475 F.
Bake the cakes for 8-9 minutes, until sides and tops are set. The centers should still be soft but the surface should be jiggly, not fully liquid.
Allow to cool on the pan briefly for one minute, then run a thin knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it. Invert the ramekin onto a dessert plate to unmold it.

Optional: serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream or fresh berries.

"Fire and Ice" Cucumber and Cantaloupe Soup

2011-05-02T19:07:00.003-04:00

With the weather getting warmer, it's hard to want to eat hot and heavy meals.

I doubt most people think of spring being a great season for soup, but this soup fits the season perfectly. This recipe was something that I believe I saw in the Washington Post a couple summers ago and quickly made my own. It's comparable to a gazpacho, if you've ever had the cold Spanish soup, except that the base is not tomato.

This is an elegant and easy way to use up extra cucumber, which we always seem to have in the house, leftover from salads and sandwiches. It also shows off cantaloupe beautifully. The "fire and ice" soup gets a nice kick from some hot pepper, but that can be controlled by your own hand, and the heat is a nice contrast to the mellow sweetness of both the melon and the cucumber.

This recipe is a great one to make if you're serving guests, since it can be made ahead of time, very quickly, and is served chilled. As usual, I served this in our china tea cups. Just a little quirk of mine. Tea cups are a great vessel for serving soups. Chocolate mousses too. But that's for another day.

"Fire and Ice" Cucumber and Cantaloupe Soup
1 small cantaloupe (about 1 ½ lbs)
2 cups diced cucumber (about 1/3 the quantity of cantaloupe)
juice and zest from one lime
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp hot pepper (e.g. jalepeno)
½ tsp salt
4 tsp sugar
1 to 2 tsp honey (to taste)
¼ to ½ cup milk (to taste)

Slice the cantaloupe into wedges and remove the flesh from the skin. Add with the skinned and diced cucumber into a blender. Add the lime juice and zest (alternatively, you can use a lemon) along with a dash of cold milk. Blend until relatively smooth. Add the ground ginger, pepper, salt, and sugar. Blend till smooth. Add honey or milk to taste.

Serve cold with cream swirled in and cilantro for garnish (optional).

This yields a very generous portion, probably enough for 8 people as an appetizer. I usually serve this to my family of four. The leftovers keep just fine in the fridge for 1-2 days. Just be sure to stir well before serving.

Dinner at Morimoto (Omakase) in Philly

2011-04-20T23:57:00.006-04:00

When my sister was in college, she went to school close enough to where my dad worked that they often went out to lunch together. When I was in high school, my dad told me that when I got to college we would do the same, but life likes to throw a curveball at you every now and then, and somehow I ended up three and a half hours away from home which is a bit too far of a drive to have lunch with your daughter. But this weekend my dad came to see me for just that.

This has been a hard last semester for me, and knowing that, my dad told me he wanted to take me out to dinner. It was so nice to see him and talk to him, especially since I haven't been home since early March. We decided to eat at Morimoto in Philly. Morimoto is indeed owned by the Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, and our previous two experiences dining there were very good, so we decided to return.

On the weekends, Morimoto only serves dinner, and so we made a reservation for 5pm. Being in the city, the restaurant does offer $15 valet parking, however the parking garage right by the restaurant has a special weekend deal of $10 so we opted to do that instead.

Moritmoto is a fairly large restaurant with high ceilings, an open sushi bar area, and private dining facilities. It is fairly low lit (great atmosphere for a date) so I had to take these pictures with flash, which I felt was somewhat obnoxious (I know some restaurants actually won't let you take flash photos because it disturbs the other diners). But, to my surprise, no one complained about my picture taking. I did try to keep it to a minimum, but I go to great lengths to keep this blog colorful for you readers. My apologies to those who dine with me and have to be kept waiting before being allowed to eat their food. To let you know what those eating with me have to go through, I took 79 pictures during this meal with my dad. And that was only for two people. Imagine what I put my family of four through when we all eat together.

Anyhow, my dad and I decided on what we were ordering pretty quickly. We had never had the omakase at Morimoto before, so my dad told me to order that while he would order off the menu. The Morimoto omakase is the “chef’s choice multicourse tasting menu.” You aren't given a choice in what you eat (although food allergies are taken into account) as the menu features the kitchen's best dishes. This menu also changes seasonally. There is a $80 option and a $120 option. I went with the $80 option.

My dad started with the 10 hour pork "kakuni" ($12). This dish features a braised pork belly with hot rice porridge. It was a little salty because of the braising liquid which had been reduced to make a sauce. The sauce sadly detracted from the wonderful flavor of the rice porridge because it was so salty. The meat was perfectly seasoned, vaguely sweet, and very full-bodied in flavor. This was a very filling dish, fit for winter. We gave it a 7 out of 10, only because this was something we had ordered before and it had been better, since it hadn't been quite so salty.

For his main course, my dad had the "duck duck duck" ($32). This dish featured Madras roasted duck breast, which was beautifully cooked. The duck was the perfect shade of pink, had a nice texture, and was full of flavor. It was served with a sweet mandarin oolong reduction, braised lotus root, and curried mango. I really enjoyed the different textures: the crunchy lotus root and the soft mango with the tender duck. The duck was accompanied by duck confit fried rice with a poached duck egg on top. Our waitress recommended that we pierce the egg yolk and mix it with the rice and eat the dish that way. The rice itself was very flavorful and beautifully textured--I would be happy with a bowl of this for any meal--however the duck confit was very salty. This was yet another meaty dish made for cold weather, and it worked well for the chilly and rainy Saturday. It had a lot of character, and we gave it an 8.5 out of 10.

To start, I had a hamachi yellowtail tartar. This was served in a mirin, sugar, and dashi soy sauce with fresh black caviar, wasabi, and a Japanese Yomamo mountain peach. I am not a huge fan of tartar, but the fish melted in my mouth and was flavored with chives and garlic. It was soft, delicate, and mixed with crispy fried scallions, which added a nice element of texture. The only problem I had with it was that the fish was a little too salty because of the soy sauce. It was hard to control the salt content when the fish was essentially swimming in a pond of sodium. The mountain peach was delightful. The small red ball pictured above was bright, juicy, sweet and sour at the same time, and altogether delicious. I could eat twenty of them if given the opportunity. It was a very nice way to wrap the dish. I gave the entire thing an 8 out of 10.

The third dish was a ginger-garlic rubbed Amadai carpaccio. There were five pieces of fish, however I was so eager to eat it, it actually completely slipped my mind to take a picture. So, I'm sorry, the lone piece of fish pictured above is all you get to see. But trust me, it was beautifully plated. Amadai is a white tile fish. It was served with yuzu soy and hot chili oil which quickly and lightly cooks the fish. It was boldly flavored and yet simple to prepared. I like that the sauce had a slight bit of acidity to it, which worked well with the salt and spicy of the yuzu and chili. I also really enjoyed the texture of the partially cooked fish. I am not a fan of raw fish normally, but this was very good. An 8.5 out of 10.

My fourth dish was a sashimi salad with saware, which is a Spanish mackerel. The sashimi was served with a chive-soy onion dressing (hidden under the greens). The dish was well-balanced. I also really enjoyed the texture and flavor of the saware. Morimoto truly knows how to compliment the natural flavors of fish. An 8 out of 10.

After this round of dishes, I was given a pomelo mint soda palate cleanser served in a shot glass. It was refreshing, vaguely sweet, balanced by some acidity, and very light. This signaled the end of the raw dishes and the entrance of the hot plates.

The first hot dish was king salmon from Alaska. As our waitress explained, this dish was made to stimulate all five tastes: bitter, salty, sweet, sour, and umami. The king salmon was rubbed with togarashi, which is a seven spice mix that includes pepper and cumin and is thus both spicy and sweet. The salmon was lightly seared and beautifully cooked to retain its moisture. The umami broth was made with ramps and dried anchovies (among other things). A few slice of pickled rhubarb were layered at the bottom of the bowl for a hint of sour. There was also a teriyaki mushroom and fava bean pesto. The fava bean pesto was one of my favorite elements. This was the first thing during the meal to make me say wow during the course of the meal. I would have been happy to have more of everything in this dish. It was delicate and elegant and a wonderful combination of flavors. Everything married together beautifully. A very solid 9.5 out of 10.

For my next hot course, I had duck breast served with a scallion pancake. A little carrot puree and kim chi also served as accompaniments.

There was not as much of a textural component to this dish as there had been in some of the other dishes, but the flavors were very well-balanced. The duck was delicious. I also really liked the kim chi, and this is coming from someone who doesn't normally enjoy kim chi. The candied kombu (the black strips) also had great flavor--smoky and sweet--and texture. The dish was a 9 out of 10.

For my last savory course, I had a sashimi tasting which included (from left to right, top to bottom) mangoro tuna, striped jack, fluke fin (loved the texture), baby herring, and squid. It would be too difficult to try to describe the tastes or textures of this dish, but I gave it an 8 out of 10.

For dessert I was given a chocolate sour cherry bavarian. The bavarian had a very delicate cherry flavor, which was almost ethereal in quality. It was the kind of dessert that had to be eaten slowly to be truly appreciated, since the bavarian had to melt in your mouth to release its cherry flavor. It tasted like pink clouds. Honestly. On the bottom of the bavarian was a dense dark chocolate layer. Altogether, the dessert was a 9 out of 10.

The overall experience was lovely, as usual. We enjoyed what we ate and the waitstaff was attentive and well informed about the food they were serving. However, I know Morimoto can and has done better and so it was a bit of a disappointment in the sense that nothing amazed me, but for any first-timer, it would have been an excellent experience, I'm sure. Morimoto is also a nice place to take a date, if you're willing to put the money out. The restaurant is not cheap, but the quality of food is excellent, and the restaurant has a trendy but intimate feel to it. I would be happy to return here to try more of Morimoto's dishes, especially his hot plates. As a note to anyone planning on coming here, one of the dishes my family tried our first time that was incredibly amazing was his Chilean sea bass. Absolutely delicious and highly recommended.

Morimoto
723 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Tel. 215-413-9070
Overall rating for the price: 8.5 out of 10

Musing on Cooking, Baking,and this Blog

2011-04-13T08:18:00.001-04:00

I officially now have less than a month left of college. In August I will start medical school. It is a daunting thought and I can't say that I'm looking forward to it. I am excited, but also anxious and nervous. August is when the rest of my life begins. I don't know if I'm ready.

And what is funny about that is that after August I don't know what will become of this blog. Will I have the time for it? Of course I will still be cooking—I need to feed myself!—but I don’t know if I will be able to post up recipes and pictures here. I certainly won’t be doing as many restaurant reviews (though speaking of reviews, I promise that my next post will be on a great restaurant in Philly!). But I don't want to stop doing this. I really enjoy writing on this food blog, and it is always exciting to see how many readers my posts attract. I used to text or email my boyfriend whenever my visitor count was particularly high or whenever I saw a lot of people reading my blog from their iPhones or Blackberries (the stats collected by this site allow me to see such things) because it made me so happy.

I never intended on this project becoming something into which I would invest so much time and love. I started this on a whim. It was just a fun little summer project after a birthday lunch with my cousin. I didn't even do an introductory post. When the thought occurred to me to share a good recipe with an audience I would never meet, I posted. And then this past summer I went to France and I collected all these great food stories that I felt that I ought to share. So I came back to this and I earnestly wrote down everything. And you read it. It was so exciting to see my visitor count jump, to know that it wasn't just my mom reading it, or my sister or my dad. I'd never had anyone to really talk to about food and recipes before, but this gave me an outlet. And I've really liked sharing my stories and recipes with you.

Knowing that I have this blog to maintain has made me try new recipes just so I could report about them here. It made me pay attention to what I was doing in the kitchen. I was never a recipe follower and never a measurer before this blog, but once I knew that I would have to write about my food for someone, I began to pay attention.

They say you can tell the difference between a baker and a cook because a cook never measures while a baker is precise about amounts. I suppose that would put me in the cooking camp, but I am a dessert girl. When I think about coming into the kitchen, I think about baking, or about making a mousse or a tart, or throwing together a fruit cobbler. (I still dream about getting an ice cream maker so I can start experimenting with that part of the food world) Yet, even though I consider myself a baker, I defy the typical stereotype of serious bakers because I am not fastidious about my measurements. In my eyes, all recipes can be altered. In fact, I really don't think I've ever left a recipe alone before. I always like to throw in a little extra salt, maybe some spices, a dash of rum. I'll use what I have on hand to replace ingredients that I don't want to buy. I decrease fat and sugar content while upping the sodium level. And even when measuring things like flour or baking soda, I don't use precision. I "eyeball" measurements for teaspoons and tablespoons, and with my flour, instead of leveling off the amounts, I use the "scoop and shake" measure. And yet, rarely have my recipes ever failed me.

Perhaps that's because I've never made a soufflé or or macaroons and while I read about it, I have yet to dip my toes into the ever expanding river of molecular gastronomy. Or perhaps it is because at its heart, making food is about being able to feel what is right. That's why, I suppose, I always write my recipes so loosely and that's actually why I fell so in love with food.

My little forays into the kitchen started out small. Like many kids, when I was growing up, I sometimes made cupcakes and cake from packaged mixes with my mom. But we didn't follow the instructions. It was from my mom that I learned that trick of replacing some of the water with rum (no worries folks, the alcohol bakes off in the oven) and throwing in raisins or dried fruit or sliced almonds. And when my parents cooked up Vietnamese dishes--soups and curries and stir fries--nothing was ever in exact amounts. I watched them mix and taste and call each other into the kitchen for opinions on more nuoc mam (fish sauce) or bot cari (curry powder). When I got older, I began to help them season. My dad taught me the trick of cooking meat with a little bit a sweetness--pineapple juice in curries and sugar with pork for caramelization--and my mom explained to me the importance of putting salt in desserts.

In high school the one savory thing I prided myself on being able to cook was omelets. They were simple, yes, but perfectly seasoned (the secret ingredient was Maggi) and perfectly cooked. I was a pro at flipping them as well. My high school boyfriend liked them so much, sometimes I actually packed his lunch to school. From that small beginning, I've graduated to making my own chicken broth from scratch. I'm so comfortable making risotto, I even leave my pot unattended and wash dishes while I cook. It's amazing how these things come with practice. I've cooked my own steak, made my own chicken, and poached my own eggs so many times now I no longer feel the need to take a thousand pictures when the results are perfect.

I'd still love the satisfaction of making my own yogurt, my own pasta, and my own ice cream, and someday I'd like to tell someone I know how to carve up a pineapple the right way (I tell my mother all the time that she will have to be the one that feeds my kids pineapple, or they won't eat any), but for now, this is wonderful. This learning process has been fulfilling and filling, and I have enjoyed being able to share a little bit of it with you. I hope that doesn't stop when the next chapter of my life begins.

Strawberry Cheesecake Bars

2011-04-07T16:45:00.002-04:00

I used to hate cream cheese. Well, really, I never gave it a chance because I had a real aversion to anything cheese. And while cream cheese is a very, very distantly removed cousin from Gouda or Brie, I just had a mental block against it. This mental block didn't affect my life much because when I was growing up, my house never really had cream cheese or bagels. Those things were just for sleepovers. I didn't even consider them "treats." It was just what my Caucasian friends ate. Kind of like pizza. It wasn't something my family ate often, and it was never something I craved or wanted.

Then one day, a bunch of my friends had a movie night at my house. It was potluck style and people brought various different things. One of the guys brought a cheesecake that his mom had made. No one ate much during the movie, but afterwards while we hung out to talk, someone asked if we could slice into the cheesecake. Everyone took a slice as we sat down at the table, so out of politeness so did I. I was only going to eat a teensy bit of the cherry sauce on top and maybe take a scrape at the crust, but then we kept talking and talking and I felt like I looked so rude, not eating the cheesecake when everyone else was, so I hesitantly took the smallest bite possible. And to my surprise, it was good. It was slightly tart and slightly sweet, and fluffy and creamy and much lighter than I ever though cheesecake could be. I was hooked. I ended up asking to keep the entire cheesecake, and I ate at it slowly over the next few days. After it was gone, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

I bugged him and bugged him for the recipe, but he never gave it to me, and now I haven't spoken to him in about two or three years, so that cheesecake recipe will probably never be mine. But that's okay. I did some research and I've made my own mini cheesecakes before (delicious) and I finally decided today that it was about time I tried making flavored cheesecakes.

Of course, the first flavor I wanted to try was strawberry. My friends who know me now understand that I have a very serious relationship with strawberry cream cheese. Our café has daily changing flavors of "special cream cheese," and I get very excited when strawberry shows up. My roommate finally asked me why I don't just buy my own strawberry cream cheese, and so I went ahead and made my own strawberry cheesecake bars. Not exactly the same thing, but close enough. And very satisfying.

The recipe below is fairly flexible. You can use it to make plain cheesecake bars if you use regular cream cheese (and omit the orange zest and strawberry sauce), and you can make strawberry cheesecakes bars using strawberry cream cheese or regular cream cheese. I used a combination of both. Also, I like my cheesecakes a little tart, and so the sugar level is a bit lower than you normally find in cheesecake, and sometimes I actually add a bit of freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice as well. Part of the reason for this is because I tend to use heavy whipping cream instead of sour cream, but if you use sour cream, the extra acid won't be necessary. Also, I like to have a pretty even crust to cheesecake ratio, so I don't do tall cheesecakes. I really enjoy the taste of the crust, especially when it's made out of crumbled gingersnaps. Delicious!

(Strawberry) Cheesecake Bars
Crust
10 oz. ginger snap cookies
7 tbsp melted butter

Crush and grind the cookie in a food processor by pulsing lightly.
Add the melted butter and pulse to combine.
Press mixture into a buttered 9 x13 inch pan.

Cheesecake
2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened (see note above about using flavored plain vs. flavored)
½ cup sugar
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream or sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp orange zest
3 tbsp strawberry sauce (recipe below, or use strawberry jam/jelly)
1 ½ tbsp flour
optional: 2-3 tbsp strawberry sauce for decorating

Preheat oven to 325 F.
Beat the cream cheese until lightened. Add the sugar and cream until smooth.
Add the whipping/sour cream and beat until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well with each addition.
Add the vanilla, orange zest, strawberry sauce/jelly, and salt. Mix until smooth and the batter is evenly pink in hue.
Sift the flour in (this can be done simply by shaking the spoon lightly) and beat until just combined.
Pour onto the prepared crust.
Optional: Lightly drizzle the strawberry sauce over the batter in smooth flowing lines. Using a spatula or chopstick, draw webs and lines over the lines of sauce to create a pretty pattern.
Bake for about 35-40 minutes. Remove and cool.
Cover and refrigerate overnight. Cut into bars and serve.

Strawberry Sauce
1 quart of strawberries, washed and hulled
1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar (depending on how acidic your strawberries are)

Slice and dice the strawberries finely. Combine with the sugar in a sauce pan on medium high heat. The strawberry mixture will begin to bubble after a few minutes. Stir and keep an eye on it for about 5 minutes. Do not cover! You want water to evaporate.
After about 5 minutes, or when it seems thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and not drip for 3 seconds (count it! you don't want it to be liquidy), remove from the heat. Strain the strawberry sauce into a container. You should get a decent amount, though I've never measured it.
This can be used in the cheesecake, to decorate the cheesecake, and to serve with the cheesecake. It also tastes great with ice cream and any dessert that involves chocolate.
Reserve the strawberry "pulp" for eating with yogurt, ice cream, English muffins, or scones. (Or,if you have no plans on eating it, you can always compost it!)

Refrigerate both the sauce and the pulp. They will keep for about 1 week in the fridge, although, trust me, you won't have problems using them up long before then.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-04-01T15:00:00.065-04:00

I hesitated for a long time about sharing this recipe. It's not because there's anything wrong with it; quite the opposite, actually. I wasn't sure about sharing this recipe because as much as I love sharing food and knowledge, I also like to keep some secrets. This was one of them.

Since high school this was, and still is, my most popular recipe among my friends. In fact, my best friend (and at one point boyfriend), Josh still raves about them. It was my go-to gift for him: Valentine's day, Christmas, and random surprises. The majority of the time when I made these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, at least some of the cookies were going to him. In fact, I still associate this recipe with memories of him and thus these cookies always make me smile.

Last summer, Josh asked me to teach him the recipe because he wanted to use it to bake cookies for someone he was interested in, and then just a couple weeks ago, he asked once more for the recipe and instructions. He isn't much of a cook or baker, so when I came home (to Maryland), we got together so that I could show him how to make these cookies.

It wasn't until I started showing him that I realized how much more goes into making food than just the ingredients. There are very specific things that I do that I sometimes forget to write down because, having done them so many times, the steps seems so logical to me. For example, not using cookie dough right away. Even before the New York Times came out with its "research" on how to make the best chocolate chip cookie (which I still haven't tried, because I like my cookie too much), I was freezing or refrigerating my dough for at least a day. At first it was for the convenience of time. In high school I couldn't afford to make cookie dough and bake cookies in the same night; it was too much to do after coming home from track or cross-country practice with all my homework to do as well. But then I noticed that my cookies had a better texture when the dough wasn't used right away. They spread less; they were chewier and more moist; they caramelized better. I've also learned how truly important it is to cream the butter and sugar for long period of time and to beat in the eggs, milk, and vanilla until the "batter" is essentially frosting. The lightness of the cookie depends on this step.

What is posted below makes enough dough for two tall cylindrical plastic containers (the kind you get from take-out Chinese food) of cookie dough, and makes enough cookies for at least 4 or 5 trays of baking. These don't spread a whole lot—that’s what the refrigeration step does for you—but I also shape my cookie dough “balls” into thick pancakes, and so I can fit a good number of fat cookies on each sheet, maybe 9.

These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are light, moist, and relatively healthy. They don't have an over abundance of butter or sugar, and I think their texture makes them more fun to eat than plain chocolate chip cookies. They'll keep for about a week at room temperature, in an air tight container, but sometimes I will freeze them or refrigerate them after baking. In the fridge they will keep for about two weeks; in the freezer, about a month. I know that sounds strange, but I like the taste of cold cookies sometimes. Because of their airiness, the cookies never actually freeze to an icy hardness, but instead get very cold, and the chocolate chips snap in your mouth in a very satisfying way.

Also, as a testament to how good these cookies are, I couldn't even snap a picture of all of them after baking, because they were gone so quickly. I do like the close ups, though, and the very first picture on this post gives you an idea of what size my cookies are so you can have that reference for baking times.

Happy baking!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 tsp salt (use slightly more if use sea salt)
2 large eggs, at room tempearture
2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp milk

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 ½ cups oats
semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (I generally use about 3/4 of a bag)

Cream the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add the granulated sugar and salt and cream until mixture is light and fluffy. This should take at least 3 minutes with a electric or strand mixer.
Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and milk. Beat until completely smooth. Should take about 2 minutes with a mixer. The mixture should look airy, fluffy, and almost frosting-like at this point.

Meanwhile, combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir with a fork to make sure the dry ingredients are evenly combined.
Add the flour to the “wet” ingredients slowly in 3 additions. Stir slow after each addition and then beat briefly before adding the next addition. After all the flour has been added, briefly beat till smooth (no more than 1 minute).

Stir/beat in the oats and chocolate chips until evenly combined. Put the dough into a plastic container and refrigerate (or freeze) for AT LEAST 24 HOURS. This is the key to making good cookies (this also prevents the dough from spreading out unevenly in the oven). It’s even better if you can wait 48 HOURS.

If you'd like, you can also freeze the dough at this point and keep it frozen for up to one month before using.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Shape your cookie into balls. Depending on the size of the cookie, your baking time will vary. I shape my cookie dough balls about the size of a ping pong ball or golf ball and these bake for about 14-15 minutes on the middle rack. I take them out and leave them on the rack to cool, as the hot pan will allow them to cook a bit more, and this slow, even type of "end baking" is what gives the cookies their deliciously chewy texture.

Do not bake on more than one rack at the same time. This will make the heating uneven and will change the way the cookies bake. Also, do not place cold dough onto a hot cookie sheet. Make sure your cookie sheets are cool. I generally rotate between two or three different pans/cookie sheets.

The Great Cannelés Pretenders*

2011-03-26T13:57:00.031-04:00

I have long wanted to make cannelés at home. For those of you who don't know what a cannelé is, let me do my best to explain. A cannelé is a small French cake/pastry that is the specialty of the Bordeaux region. Flavored with vanilla and rum, cannelés are known for their amazing texture. The outside of a good cannelé is defined by a deep, dark caramelized crust that half-cracks, half-gives way to a rich, custard-y, chewy interior. You can easily become addicted to these things, especially if you've ever had them fresh.

The problem with making cannelés is that they are typically made in very specific copper molds which give them their distinct dome-like shape. They also have a glisten or a shine to them that is due to the light coating of beeswax which you are supposed to give the molds before pouring in the batter. Given that copper cannelé molds and beeswax are not cheap things to come by, I never attempted to make these myself. But then, this summer, by a stroke of luck, my grandmother (who lives just outside Paris, in France) stumbled upon some silicon cannelé molds that she forgot she had. I knew, from avid reading of other food blogs, that silicon molds are not as good for baking cannelés, since they don't provide the same deep caramelization and beautiful crust, but I appreciated the gift.

Then, I found an extremely detailed post from another food blog that I read about how to make the "perfect cannelés." At the same time, I found someone who said that they had made cannelés that turned out just fine in a muffin tin. And the two things melded together in my mind into one giant scheme. Plus, I wanted to try out the silicon molds and see how large the difference was between the cannelés they produced and the cannelés produced by metal pans.

The resulting "pretender" cannelés were delicious. The long resting time really allowed the scent of the vanilla and rum to permeate throughout the entire pastry. The muffin tins resulted in a slightly uneven caramelization, with the sides getting much darker than the bottoms, but they were addictively good. I ate them both hot from the oven and once they had been allowed to cool. After 10 or 15 minutes of cooling, the cannelé caramel crust becomes firmer, and the custard-y interior becomes more chewy, in a deliciously contrasting way. The crust will soften overnight so there won't be much of a contrast anymore, but you can pop them into a 400F oven for 5 minutes, or you can enjoy them as they are. My family didn't bother with the reheating step, since we found them great as they were.

The batter in the mini cannelé silicon molds did not caramelized ideally at all. After their baking time was over, I actually gave the mini cannelés a brush of butter and popped them, naked, baking into the 400F oven to caramelize some more. My roommate looked at them and called them "little minions." They were as tasty as they were cute. If you are using silicon molds, I suggest you heat your mold first, not butter it, and then pour the batter into the hot molds. The results from the muffin tin were much closer to perfect, however, and that is the method I will be using in the future when I repeat this recipe (because I definitely will be repeating it).

The recipe was definitely a huge success, even when used to make "pretenders." My family was asking for more of them the second we finished the last one, and we've had real cannelés before. I really liked the caramelization that I got from the muffin tins, and I will definitely be making these again. Don't make the same mistake I did and live without these delicious little beauties simply because you don't have copper molds and beeswax.

*For those of you who are too young to know, the title to this blog post is actually a reference to a song by The Platters.

Cannelés Pretenders
adapted from Tartelette

2 ½ cups milk (I used a mix of skim and 2%)
50g salted butter
1 vanilla bean (or alternatively, 2-3 tsp of vanilla extract)
3 large eggs + 3 large egg yolks
300g granulated sugar
1 tsp sea salt (a little less if using table salt)
150g all purpose flour
6 tbsp rum

Combine the milk and butter in a pot. Cut the vanilla bean in half and scrape the seeds into the pot. Throw in the remainder of the bean as well. Cook over medium heat and bring to a boil. As soon as the milk starts to bubble and foam, turn off the heat and let the mixture cool. (Note: If you are using vanilla extract, wait until later to add it, when adding the rum)
Add the sugar and salt to the milk mixture and stir.

Stir the eggs and yolks together with a spatula. Do not beat it. You want to incorporate as little air as possible. I follow Chez Pim's method and use a strainer to pass the eggs and yolks right into the flour. I know it sounds crazy, but it really works, and you don't have to press down on the eggs at all, as they are so dense and heavy their own weight will push them through.

When the milk mixture is just a bit warm but not so hot – cool enough to stick your finger in it and keep it there a few seconds without burning yourself – remove the vanilla bean halves. Don’t throw them away! Instead, put them in a plastic bowl/container large enough to hold the batter. Pour the warm milk mixture into the bowl containing the dry ingredients, and gently stir together until well-blended. You’ll see plenty of lumps in the batter, but that’s fine for now.
Strain the lumpy batter into the bowl you put the vanilla bean in earlier, pressing the lumps through until you get a totally lump-free batter. Add the rum (and vanilla extract, if using) and stir until combined.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (or put a lid on your container) and place in the fridge to rest for at least 24 hours.
When the batter has rested, preheat the oven to 425F and divide it evenly among 12 muffin tins, generously coated with butter. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. You will have enough batter for another 12 muffins. Bake these the next day. See the difference between 24 hours and 48 hours of rest? I say to do this because fresh cannelés are delicious, and this gives you two rounds of them. If you have two muffins tins to use, go ahead and bake these all at once if you find it more convenient (but in that case, I would give the batter a full 48 hours of rest).

Yields 24 muffin cannelés.

Nutella Cupcakes & Bailey's Irish Cream Cocoa Frosting

2011-03-20T17:44:00.014-04:00

I'm not really a huge fan of hazelnuts and I really don't like when hazelnuts get mixed into my chocolate—like in boxed truffles and chocolate ganache in restaurants—but there is one exception to my rule: Nutella. I love Nutella. I still remember those school lunches in elementary school that my mom used to pack for me. It was also such a thrill to discover a sandwich in my lunchbag, because a sandwich could only mean one thing: Nutella. We didn't really do peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my house because we didn't often have jelly or jam, and if we did, then we probably didn't have peanut butter. Our fridge also didn't always have bread, so sandwiches were a rare lunch item. I grew up eating rice for lunch. But that's another story, for another day.

Those Nutella sandwiches were such a treat. The soft white bread with the creamy chocolate-y filling. I didn't even know Nutella had hazelnuts in it until I was a teenager; I really thought it was just a chocolate spread. And by the time I actually read the label and discovered my mistake, I was too in love to back out. Nutella and I, we're in it for the long haul.

Come on, who doesn't love Nutella? And it's not just for sandwiches. I have friends who dip strawberries in it, who will eat a spoonful of Nutella with an apple, who use nutella as frosting. It was the last one that really struck a chord with me. Nutella as frosting? Well, what about Nutella inside baked goods? There was something I wanted to try.

And sure enough, I stumbled upon a Nutella cupcake recipe that I liked enough to completely redesign and make my own. That's how I work. I see ideas, I like them, and then I scrap the original and rebuild things my way. Kind of like Disney does with classic fairy tales. I use recipes as only a backbone or foundation.

This Nutella cupcake is definitely good and I will be making it again, but perhaps with two changes: I doubled the amount of Nutella from the original recipe, but next time I would increase it more to give the cupcakes an even more pronounced Nutella flavor. Also, I neglected to throw in my usual little pinch of salt because, well, I forgot, and I think that's something that would have rounded out the flavors more. I like this recipe as a mini cupcake recipe because the bite-sized cakes are cute and perfect for serving, but if you want to make full-sized cupcakes, just increase your baking time to 18-20 minutes. Either way, this cupcake is a crowd pleaser. My parents loved it, as did my sister, and my friends who tried it.

I don't normally do frosting, but this time I thought it would be appropriate, especially since I was making them for my sister's birthday. I found a recipe for a Kahlua frosting that I really wanted to try, especially because I thought the coffee and chocolate notes of the liquor would complement the Nutella flavors well. But, to my surprise, our house was out of Kahlua. I was shocked. It's one of those things that we always have. Like flour or cinnamon or lime zest (we keep that stocked in the freezer). I was at a lost for a while, until I remember hey, I don't normally work from recipes! And so I made something up.

I saw that we had Bailey's Irish Cream, and that's not too different from Kahlua, so I decided to improvise. But, as luck would have it, we also happened to be out of powder sugar, which is inconvenient if you want to make frosting. I thought about running to the store, but I was feeling lazy and this frosting was just for family, so I knew I would be forgiven for a slightly grainy texture. I ended up using just what I had on hand, and it turned out very well. My mom says the frosting is the most addictive thing she's ever tasted, and she's not into frosting. My sister mourned the fact that she forgot to bring the cupcakes and frosting to work with her the next day. These two recipes are definitely keepers. Easy to make and definite crowd pleasers; what's not to like? Plus boozy frosting is great for an adult twist on a childhood dessert like mini cupcakes.

Nutella Cupcakes
adapted from Tartlette

1 stick salted butter, at room temperature
110 g light brown sugar
2 tsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp milk
1/2 cup Nutella (I might increase this to 3/4 cup next time)
2 large eggs
200g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

With an electric mixer (or better yet a stand mixer), whip the butter, sugar, and Nutella until fluffy on medium speed, about 3 minutes. Stop the mixer to add the cocoa powder and milk. Once fully incorporated, add the eggs, one at time, mixing at medium speed until combined, stopping to scrape the bowl down at least twice.
Add the flour in three separate additions (meaning add 1/3, then fold to combine, add another 1/3, fold to combine). In the last addition, also add the baking soda. Briefly beat with the mixer until just combined.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place 48 mini muffin liners muffin liners inside 2 mini muffin pans.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin liners and bake for about 8-10 minutes.
Let cool completely before frosting, or enjoy on their own.
Yields 48 mini cupcakes.

Bailey's Irish Cocoa Frosting
1 stick (8 tbsp) salted butter, softened
2-3 cups powdered sugar (I used less than 2 cups granulated sugar)
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3-4 tbsp Bailey's Irish
1-2 tbsp heavy whipped cream (optional: depending on how smooth you like your frosting)

Beat the butter until light and creamed. Add a cup of the sugar and mix well.
Add the cocoa and Bailey's and mix till smooth.
Add another cup of sugar, and more if needed, to taste.
Add heavy whipping cream to obtain preferred frosting consistency.

Lunch at Kushi

2011-03-14T21:10:00.005-04:00

Now that my sister and I live in different states and live busy lives, it is hard for us to see each other often. We text, email, and call each other and often as we can, but it's not the same as actually spending time together. Thus when I came home for the week—and by home I mean to the house I grew up in, in Maryland—we planned to have a nice lunch out together. She had read an article about a new restaurant in DC called Kushi, and shortly after that article, a coupon for $25 on Groupon came out that was worth $50 at Kushi. So it was decided: to Kushi we would go.

On Saturday I stopped by her place in Virginia to pick her up, and then we drove to DC. We managed to find street parking pretty easily and then walked a short distance to the restaurant. For a Saturday at 12:30pm, it wasn't very crowded. The restaurant itself was fairly spacious, brightly lit with natural light from the large windows, and the tables were arranged around an open grill/work area where you could see rolls being made and meats being grilled. It wasn't exactly an open kitchen, since there was a closed kitchen area in the back, but it was nice to see some of the "cooking" action.

We decided to order the pork belly lunch set, buta kukuni ($8), which is served with miso soup and pickled vegetables, and the 3 piece skewer lunch set, which is served with 2 pieces of nigri, a California roll, miso soup, and pickled vegetables ($18). We also ordered a special roll for ($7).

The miso soup was good, nothing amazing, and the pickled vegetables—daikon, cucumber, and carrot—didn’t taste so much pickled as brined. Average.

The braised pork belly, which was served with a bowl of rice, was good. The meat was tender, soft, and flavorful. The braising liquid was very good and mildly sweet with the typical dark, caramelized flavor of good braises. After the pork belly was gone, we ended up mixing the remaining liquid with the rice to make sure we got all of it. It wasn't a wow dish, but it was good; a solid 7.5 out of 10.

For the 3 piece skewer set, we were allowed to pick from a long list of options. We decided to try, from left to right, crispy chicken skin (kawa), duck sausage, and black angus strip loin and eringi. We ate the strip loin first. This skewer was very average. The meat was not well seasoned, and though it was perfectly cooked and moist, it just didn't have the flavor punch that I was expecting nor did it have any smoky flavor to it, which was disappointing, because why else do you grill meat? The eringi mushroom was odd; we actually didn't realize it was mushrom at first. With the spicy salt combination, it was better, but still not amazing. We gave it a 5 out of 10.

The duck sausage was a nice improvement. It was smooth, flavorful, and tasty without being fatty. I like the full meatiness of it and the distinct flavor it carried of "game" meat. We gave this a solid 7.5 or 8 out of 10.

The crispy chicken skin definitely lived up to its name. The skin actually surprised me with it's crispiness; it was very different from the "crispy" that you get from baking a chicken. For a relatively small piece, it had surprising textural differences. While the outside was pleasantly crispy, the piece was also chewy, but in a very good way. My sister commented on the fact that she was surprised that it didn't taste stringy, leathery, or fatty. We both agreed that if we hadn't been told, we wouldn't have been able to tell that it was chicken skin. My sister, who is very much a white meat girl (she actually enjoys eating chicken breasts, which is something I do not understand), enjoyed this even though she is not a fan of the skin on chicken normally, so that was quite a feat that Kushi accomplished there. An 8.5 out of 10.

(Note: These skewers don't have to be ordered in "set," but we chose to do so because it was cheaper. For example, the duck sausage alone would have been $6, the strip loin would have been $8, and the chicken skin would have been $4)

Along with the 3 piece lunch set was two pieces of nigri and a roll. No choice was offered, but I happily accepted the tuna and whitefish nigri and the California roll with real lump crab meat. The fish was fresh and flavorful; I don't normally like nigri, but this was good. The California roll was also well executed, and it was nice to actually eat one that has real crab meat in it, rather than the imitation stuff. A 7.5 out of 10. Good, but nothing mind-blowing.

We had read reviews about a live uni roll and we asked our waiter if they had it (certain rolls are "limited" or not always available) and when he returned to answer our question, he gave us the list of all of the restaurant's special rolls of the day. My sister and I got hooked on the idea of the wasabi scallop roll and so we decided to order that one. We were glad we did. It was very good. The orange balls you see on the outside of the roll were actually flaky and crunchy, like puffed rice, and the scallop itself was sweet and a little spicy and absolutely delicious. A 9.5 out of 10. We actually didn't know the price of this roll until after we'd eaten it, when we asked the waiter (since it was a special, it wasn't on the menu); we assumed that it would be at least $12, given the fact that it was a special roll and we were eating in DC, but it was actually only $7. Unbelievable!

Once we saw the dessert menu, my sister and I knew that we want to order basically all of it. Plus, given how little the actual lunch had cost, we still needed to spend about $20 on dessert. We looked carefully over the selection of sorbets and gelatos and decided on which five we would order and then, to prevent the frozen desserts from melting, agreed to order them in 3 rounds. This meant, however, that we had to do dessert pairings. Which flavors would go well together? What did we want to start with and end with? It was serious business, and I took out my pen so we could work it out on paper.

For our first round, we decided to start with a pear sorbet (right) and a wasabi gelato (left). I definitely thought the wasabi gelato should go first, since it was a risk, and it needed to go with something more tame and "normal," thus the choice of pear. We tried the wasabi gelato first, with some reserve and apprehension since we didn't know what to expect, and we were surprised by how it was executed. It truly was a palate cleanser. It was sweet, but also boldly spicy. We didn't think the flavor of the wasabi would be captured quite so, uh, honestly. It really cleared the sinuses. While we enjoyed the wasabi gelato and appreciated the bravery and creativity of the kitchen, we couldn't continue eating it for long. As my sister aptly noted, it was like a shot of tequila: good, strong, but not exactly something you can keep coming back for more of. We let it sit to the side while we ate our other desserts, and then we discovered something: if we let the gelato melt, the creamy melted liquid was not as spicy as the still-frozen gelato. The gelato became much more bearable and fun to eat once we discovered this, since we could then handle more of it.

Compared to the intensity of the wasabi and the intensity of the other flavors we later ordered, the pear sorbet was very tame and mild. It was sweet and it tasted of summer, but it just lacked a little character. It this sorbet was a person, she would be quiet (the wasabi would have been very overwhelmingly chatty); a 7.5 out of 10. I told my sister that this ice cream could probably benefit from a little bit of salt, and so...

To join our first two orders of dessert was a sea salt gelato, pictured in the center. Sound a little strange? Take the jump. It was creamy; it was sweet; it was salty with an oomph. We were wowed. The gelato had a lot of character, and it was very well balanced. For those of you who have had caramel beurre salé ice cream or salted caramel, this was comparable, except, not so buttery. A 9.5 out of 10.

My sister and I loved the taste of the pear sorbet combined with the sea salt gelato. That was a marriage made in heaven. It had all the lovely, soft floral notes from the sorbet and all the oomph of the salt in the gelato, and they complimented each other very well.

For our next round, we ordered a salty plum gelato (left) and a wildflower honey gelato (right). The salty plum gelato sadly didn't taste very much of salty plum (which in Vietnamese we call xi muoi), and was very very similar to the sea salt gelato from before, except with vague floral notes from the plum. However, we discovered, once again, that if we let the gelato melt, the flavor changed. This time, the creamy liquid retained the sea salt taste while the remaining frozen lump tasted much more strongly of xi muoi or preserved plum. A 7.5 out of 10.

The wildflower honey gelato was so good, I was astounded. This was a 10 out of 10. It captured the essence of the honey perfectly, without being too sweet. This kitchen has mastered the art of balance. I can't say any more about this because you really have to try it for yourself. It was delicious.

We had originally planned to stop after the third round of dessert, but then I was very tempted by the sound of the heirloom apple sorbet (right) on the menu, and our waiter told us that it would be a shame if we didn't try the black sesame gelato (left). So we gave in and ordered them, bringing out total dessert count to 7.
The heirloom apple sorbet was delicious. It was absolutely spot-on with the flavor of spring apples and it embodied all the sweet, slightly tart, pink, and floral notes that heirloom apples have. This may be an odd thing to say, but when I told my sister, she agreed with me completely: this sorbet tasted the way candles smell. It was unreal in how fragrant it was, but it wasn't at all artificial. Even thinking about it now, I am somewhat boggled by how they managed to capture the essence of the apple so perfectly. I would order this again. 10 out of 10; I cannot imagine how it could be improved.
I was actually not interested in the black sesame gelato at first. I'm not crazy about the flavor of sesame, and I don't particularly like sesame paste or anything like that, but to my surprise, I really enjoyed this gelato. It was cream, smooth, and sweet in a very balanced way. Because my mind couldn't accept the idea that I would like a sesame ice cream, I couldn't help but think that it vaguely tasted like peanut butter. But very, very vaguely. It was very well executed and definitely something to try if you're a little bit adventurous and like "different" flavors for your gelato. A 9 out of 10 (and I know, I am biased).

After decimating their dessert menu and shocking and amusing our waiter with the number of desserts we ordered, my sister and I left very satisfied.
What was most amazing was that each delicious gelato/sorbet only cost $3.75. It was unreal. Two scoops of delicious frozen dessert topped with a piece of candied ginger, served in a nice glass, for less than four dollars? And this is a place in DC. It was amazing. I would come back for this. Really. I could come back to Kushi just for the gelato. I would also recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for a fun and affordable place to go with friends or family.

Kushi
465 K Street Northwest
Washington, DC 20001
Tel. 202-682-3123
Overall rating for the price: 8.5 out of 10
**note: They also do take out!

Candied Pomelo Peels

2011-03-08T02:49:00.005-05:00

I'm not really a candy maker, but I suppose everyone needs to go outside their comfort zone at some point, and so I briefly ventured into the land of boiled sugar, and I can tell you now that it's not as scary as some people make it seem.

Let's start from the beginning though: My sister recently went on a trip to California, where we have a lot of family on my mom's side. When she went to visit a few of our great-aunts and uncles, they gave her some pomelos from their backyard garden to take home.

These pictures aren't edited; my hands just tend to be this odd pink-purple color in the winter because of the cold.

Pomelo, for those of you who don't know, is a large citrus fruit common in Southeast Asian that is comparable to a grapefruit, except that the pomelo is much less sour. The peel of the pomelo is very thick and it has much of the wonderful fragrance and oils of the fruit, much like the orange peel (in terms of the orange). I've eaten and seen recipes for orangettes, and I've heard vaguely of people candying pomelo peels, but it never occurred to me as something I might do.

This time, however, after my mom peeled the fruit, we looked at the gorgeous peel left behind and my mom commented upon how wasteful it felt to just throw it away. I mentioned the recipes for candying the peel and, on a whim, we decided to try it ourselves.

The peel was cut up into matchsticks and then blanched to remove some of the bitterness in the pith. Then we boiled it in a sugar water mixture for over an hour. It was essentially a two day process, since we left the candied peels over night to dry before I coated them in sugar and chocolate the next day.

I definitely like the chocolate-coated peels more than the sugar coated ones, but my mom likes both, and she thinks these would be great in a cake (most likely flavored with rum), chopped up and mixed in the batter. I will have to report back to you on that. In the mean time, here's a treat to nibble on.

Patricia Yeo’s Candied Pomelo Peel recipe

1 large pomelo
water
2 cups sugar
pinch of salt

Peel the pomelo.
Trim the pith from the peel as need and then cut into thin (1⁄4-inch-wide) strips.

Fill a small pot with water and bring to a rolling boil. Add the pomelo peel and blanch for 1 minute. Remove the peel and drain. Repeat this three more times, changing the water each time. This step removes some of the peel’s bitterness.

After the four blanching, refill the pot with 2 cups water, 2 cups sugar, and a pinch of salt. Dissolve the sugar and salt over medium heat. Bring to a boil and add the peels back to the pot.
Reduce the heat to low until the peel is translucent and almost no liquid remains, a little over 1 hour.
Remove the peel from the pot and cool on a wire rack. The pomelo-scented sugar water can be saved and mixed with tea (like honey) or mixed with yogurt or sliced fruit for a nice garnish.

To finish the peels: Either sprinkle with granulate sugar or dip in melted chocolate.

Store in airtight container for up to one week.

Fresh from the Farm

2011-03-05T23:58:00.005-05:00

I recently learned about a family-run farm close to my house that raises goats, lambs, pigs, and chickens for meat. Called Fox Hollow Farms, they are all about natural farming, and so their animals are pasture raised and aren't given any antibiotics or hormones. I really liked the idea of this because supporting local farming and eating hormone-free meat are two very important things to me, and I told my mom that I wanted us to go visit the farm.

Since my sister and I moved out, my parents have eaten mostly vegetarian for health reasons and because of the fact that we, as a family, have issues with the hormone and antibiotic-laced meat that is sold at supermarkets. Both my dad and I are carnivores at heart, however, so I've been wanting to find a source of high quality, local meat, rather than having to rely on Pennsylvania or Virginia farms or eat semi-vegetarian. My mom was very interested in the idea of grass-fed, pasture-raised animals, and so this morning we decided to stop by the farm to visit.

It was a further drive than expected and we actually had to call to confirm their location, but it was absolutely worth it. The store is connected to the family house, and visitors are invited to come to the back to see the animals. We could see the goats grazing, and few of the chickens came over to say hello. My mom swears that one of the sheep made a connection with her and would have smiled if it had the facial muscles to do so.

After a brief chat with one of the owners, we went back in. We loved the set-up and how the animals were clearly happy and healthy and had plenty of space to grow. We decided to buy a carton of goat milk, a dozen fresh eggs (taken in just this morning!), a broiler chicken, some frozen cubed goat meat, and a rack of spare ribs (pork). It wasn't cheap, but we were both excited about our purchases when we left. We actually ended up sitting in the car and sharing the goat milk immediately because we were hungry and wanted to try it. It was delicious. Creamy, flavorful, and vaguely sweet. I've had goat milk before, but it was a very processed supermarket brand and I wasn't very fond of it. This milk I thoroughly enjoyed. A tall cold glass of this could cheer me up on even the worst of days. That's what good food does for a person.

When we got home, we decided to soft boil a few of the eggs for lunch and have them with some green beans and black truffle salt. I didn't want to do anything too dramatic with them since they were so fresh; I just wanted their natural flavor to shine. And oh, they were delicious. Plus, the eggs were gorgeous. Look at that light speckling of white on the outside! Nature is beautiful.

Best of all was that fact that I actually spent the entire day in the kitchen with my mom. It's rare that I have time to come home and just immerse myself in food (not literally, of course; I never do that), but today was one of those days. I mixed and baked and tasted and improvised and made various sweet items while my mom cooked goat curry, baked the ribs, marinated the chicken, and made some savory sticky rice. My dad played French music in the background and worked close-by. Then, after a wonderful dinner and cleaning up, we watched Food Inc. on my computer. It was a perfect day.

I will be posting the recipes for what I've made in the upcoming days and weeks, but I just thought I'd throw you a bone now: there is a candy recipe, a cupcake recipe, and a frosting recipe waiting for you. Future plans do include a cheesecake and some chocolate goodies.

It is good to be home.

Monkey Bread

2011-03-01T09:21:00.009-05:00

When I bake or cook with my friends, I have a tendency to keep things simple. Even though it is, most of the time, me just cooking with my friends around me watching, I don't like making things unnecessarily complicated, should someone want to help out. Hence, our desserts together are often from cake mix, which I spice up a little bit with espresso powder, cocoa powder, cinnamon, or rum (among other things). This time, I decided to go with an incredibly easy childhood classic: monkey bread.

For those of you that never had monkey bread growing up, it's like cinnamon buns, but easier. In other words, this stuff is sweet, addictive, unhealthy, and will make your house (or apartment) smell like heaven. It is everything you shouldn't eat, combined together, and baked to form a gooey, buttery, fluffy mess.

I learned this recipe from my cousin, who got it from her school, which was the only school in our county that still taught Home Ec. when we were growing up. We used to make it during sleepovers. Eating it the other night brought back great memories of my middle school days.

Warm monkey bread, a glass of cold milk, and a couple great friends: happiness can be so simple.

Monkey Bread
adapted from an old recipe

12 tbsp salted butter (1 ½ sticks)
1 ¼ cup lightly packed brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract (or powder)
2 tbsp rum (optional)
2 cans of Pillsbury refrigerated biscuits

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Pull apart the biscuits, quarter them, and roll them into little balls.
Melt the butter and combine with brown sugar and cinnamon. This can be done in a microwave. Stir well to combine. Allow to cool.
Add in vanilla and rum.
Dip each ball into the butter mixture to coat, then arrange in a 13 x 9 inch cake pan. Pour any of the remaining butter mixture on top.
Bake for 35 minutes.
Try not to devour the entire thing in one day.
Also, I recommend you pull the monkey bread out of the pan after it is cool and store it in an airtight container lined with parchment. If you leave the monkey bread in the pan, the caramelized brown sugar can become very difficult to remove.

Caramel Fruit Tart

2011-02-23T21:11:00.000-05:00

My mom makes the best fruit tarts in the world. Really. I have given up on trying other fruit tarts or experimenting with other recipes because it's just not worth it. This one is The One. With men, sometimes it's not always clear, but with baked goods, you just know. So I'm telling you, you don't need to look anymore; I am sharing the secret with you.

Why is this fruit tart recipe so amazing? Besides the fact that the pastry cream is delicious and honestly tastes just as good when it is hot and freshly made as it does when it is chilled and ready to be served, this tart also has an extra little oomph that no other tart has: a caramel crust.

After baking, the tart crust is covered with pure caramel—no cream, no butter, just pure, golden, melted sugar. The beautiful amber liquid solidifies to add a textural dimension that is unique to this tart. One bite and you'll know that nothing else will ever compare. This tart will ruin all other fruit tarts for you. And the caramel is what makes this tart The One.

If you look at the picture below, you may feel that the layer of caramel is too thin, but really the idea is not to smoother the crust in caramel, but to just have that surprising "shatter effect" upon biting into the tart. Also, adding too thick of a caramel layer throws off the balance of sweetness. I don't like my fruit tarts too sweet.

The recipe here is enough for two fruit tarts, which, trust me, you'll want to have, even if it sounds like a little bit much. Remember, it's always nice to share! But if you're feeling conservative, you can half the pastry cream recipe and only bake one tart shell. And while the recipe instructions say not to wait more than six hours after assembly to consume this piece of art, I've eaten leftovers from the fridge more than a day after making the tart, and I've still found it to be delicious.

Assembling the fruit tart.

Caramel Custard Fruit Tart
adapted from The Dessert Lover's Cookbook by Marlene Sorosky

2 pre-baked tart shells

For the caramel
½ cup sugar
2 tbsp water (a little over)

For the custard
6 large egg yolks
½ cup sugar (roughly 115g)
1/3 cup all purpose flour (50g)
2 cups hot milk
1 tsp vanilla sugar (or extract)
1 stick salted butter, cut into small pieces
pinch of salt (optional)
assorted fresh fruit, like peaches, plums, kiwi, and strawberries

To make the caramel
Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.
Increase heat to medium high and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until the sugar turns copper. Watch carefully, as it burns easily once it has reached this point.
Working quickly, pour the caramel onto the baked crust, rotating and turning the crust to even coat the bottom. Do the same for the second crust (try to divide the caramel evenly).
Set the tart aside until the caramel cools and hardens. Remember, hot caramel causes very painful burns so use care.

note: If you prefer to have a more caramel, simply increase the proportions to 3/4 cup sugar and 3 tbsp water.

To make the custard
Whisks the yolks in a medium-sized heavy saucepan. Add the sugar and flour and whisk until creamy (I use a hand mixer here).

Slowly whisk in the hot milk. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly until the mixtures begins to bubble. Lower the heat slightly and continue cooking, stirring constantly until thick and smooth.
Remove from heat and stir in butter, a small amount at a time. Stir in the vanilla.

Allow to cool. The custard can be refrigerated overnight, just be sure to stir before using.

No more than 6 hours before serving, spread the custard over the caramel crust. Decorate by arranging an assortment of sliced fruit in concentric circles. My favorites to use are peach, kiwi, and strawberry.

Optional: To make a glaze, combine 1/3 cup apricot jam, seedless raspberry jam, or orange marmalade with 1 ½ teaspoons of water. Bring to a boil in a small saucepan. Brush the glaze over the fruit to cover.

Refrigerate until ready to serve, but not more than 6 hours, or the caramel will soften and melt and the tart shell will become soggy.

Serves 8.

Sauteed King Oyster Mushrooms

2011-02-18T19:11:00.003-05:00

The other night, my friends and I were exhausted and it was past dinner time—about 9pm—but we were hungry and I had a dish I wanted to share. It was pretty simple. It featured one star ingredient, plus a little love, and that was basically it. And once it was done, three hungry girls swarmed in, eating right from the skillet, not even bothering with plates or bowl. It was a true communal meal, and it was wonderful.

It's moment like that that I love. Moments like that are why I cook, and why I truly do believe that food is love. Food brings people together, and there is a feeling of closeness and intimacy created when someone cooks for you or when you cook for someone. This dish is nothing fancy, but I made it because I love it, and I wanted to share it my friends.

Most people haven't heard of king oyster mushrooms, but they can be found pretty easily at any Asian supermarket, and occasionally it is also sold in regular grocery stores. King oyster mushrooms are large white mushrooms that are both tall and fat, and have a lovely meaty and chewy consistency that is more comparable to abalone than oyster. I like these prepared simply, as that allows the mushroom's natural sweetness to shine. You may feel like you need to add water or more butter or something since the mushroom seem a little "dry," but the heat will do it's job and the mushrooms will soften up beautifully and caramelize. Even if you're not a "mushroom person," I recommend you trying these. They are unlike any other type of mushroom. I'm not a huge fan of white button mushrooms or shiitake, but these I will eat any chance I get. They are simple, hard to mess up, and full of flavor.

Sauteed King Oystery Mushrooms

2 tbsp butter

1-2 tsp Maggi (a type of soy sauce... this is very important to the recipe and I wouldn't suggest replacing it with another type of soy sauce or with salt as it won't impart the same flavor profile)

6-8 large King Oyster mushrooms

1 clove of garlic

1/4 of a sweet onion (optional)

Peel, smash, and roughly chop the garlic. Chop up the onion into thin strips. Cut the mushrooms on an angle into thick slices.
Melt 1tbsp of butter in a skillet on medium heat. Add the garlic and onions and sauté lightly until onions have softened and garlic is has begun to caramelize a bit.
Add the remaining butter and the mushrooms. Stir quickly to coat the mushrooms evenly in the butter. It will seem like you don't have enough butter, but keep stirring and giving those mushrooms love. Add 1-2 tsp of Maggi evenly over the mushrooms and continue to sauté for about 5 minutes (note: these mushrooms take longer to cook that most mushrooms do). You will see the mushrooms soften and taken on a golden color. At around 8 minutes or so I often do a little taste test. I generally don't take my mushrooms off the heat until about 10 minutes, but this is a personal preference as to what texture you like your mushrooms to have.

Serves 3-4 as a light meal or side dish.

Black Truffle Sea Salt

2011-02-17T00:45:00.002-05:00

I have an unhealthy obsession. It's not with chocolate or carbs or ice cream or anything relatively normal. I have an obsession with Black Truffle Sea Salt. It has an intoxicatingly addictive scent. It is mineral-esque, dark, earthy, and complex. And it melts on the tongue for a full, round taste that can't be compared to anything else. All I can tell you is that since I started writing this, I have three times stolen a taste from my jar.

I've enjoyed it sprinkled generously on some beautiful medium-rare steak, over a lightly poached egg, and with some roasted baby potatoes. I imagine you could steam some broccoli and enjoy it over that. Or cauliflower. Or spinach. Maybe even asparagus. Or chicken. The possibilities are endless.

If this delicious sea salt was the only thing that came of my New York City trip, I may even dare to say that the [rather expensive] trip would have been worth it. Yes. It is that good.

I promise I shall post a real recipe soon, I just thought I would let you know what it is I am spending my time doing when I am not here posting recipes: I am stealing tastes of Black Truffle Sea Salt from my little glass jar.

Chocolate Mousse

2011-02-11T12:26:00.001-05:00

Growing up, I remember one of my favorite desserts to order when my family went out to eat was chocolate mousse. At my favorite restaurant, they served it in a tall fluted glass and I thought it was so classy. Of course, this illusion of class was completely shattered when I diligently and repeatedly scraped down the sides of the glass to make sure I scooped up every single last bit of that delicious chocolate mousse and licked my spoon clean when everything was gone.

Sadly, you don't find chocolate mousse much now in restaurants; it appears to have fallen out of favor, perhaps because food trends moved towards chocolate bacon and salted caramel. In fact, while looking at food blogs recently, I remember reading a post where someone called it a dessert of the 80's.

I think it's time we brought this dessert back. Nothing else can compare to a good chocolate mousse, with its silky, smooth texture and airy lightness. I've never met anyone who didn't like chocolate mousse. And with Valentine's Day coming up, if you're planning on making something nice for your loved one (or for yourself!) this recipe is a nice option because it can be made ahead of time and then enjoyed leisurely at the end of a meal without being overkill. Plus, eating chocolate mousse is sexy. Eating chocolate chip cookies, not so much.

Some chocolate mousses can be incredibly rich, but I think that this recipe is perfectly balanced. It is creamy but light and not too sweet. It also has a teensy bit of alcohol. The original recipe calls for brandy. I've never had brandy. When I bake or cook, I generally use rum. I grew up in a house that always had rum. When we make cake mix at home, my mom always substituted some of the water with rum. I learned from her genius. Rum makes things better. This may sound like the motto of an alcoholic, but considering that I don't really drink and when I do, I prefer a glass of sweet white wine or dessert wine, I really don't think you have any need to be concerned. That said, this recipe is not at all boozy. The scent of the rum is very faint, but if you're serving it to young children and you're concerned, you can always replace it with water.

This recipe also uses raw egg whites. I've never had any problems with using raw eggs, but I know some people who have concerns. I don't really have any suggestions, except to use the best eggs you can. I used organic free range brown eggs. Avoid this recipe if you are pregnant or are serving it to someone else who is pregnant.

Chocolate Mousse
adapted and scaled down from Cook’s Illustrated, 2006

4 ounces (113g) of dark chocolate, at least 60% cacao
1 tbsp cocoa powder (I used Ghirardelli)
½ tsp instant espresso powder
2 ½ tbsp water
½ tbsp dark rum
1 egg, separated
2 tsp granulated sugar
1/8 tsp salt
½ cup + 1 tbsp cold heavy whipping cream

Combine the chocolate, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and water in a medium sized heatproof bowl. Melt over a saucepan of lightly simmering water (read: use a double boiler) or in a microwave. Either way, stir frequently until the mixture is smooth and well combined.

Add the egg yolk, 1 tsp of sugar, and the salt. Beat over the double boiler until smooth and shiny. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Add the rum (or other kind of liquor) and stir till smooth.

In another medium sized bowl, beat the heavy whipping cream with ½ tsp of sugar until fairly stiff peaks form (i.e. make whipped cream). You can use the “dirty” (chocolate tainted) beaters for this step.

Now, detach the beaters and clean them. Then, in another medium sized bowl, beat the egg white with ½ tsp of sugar until soft peaks form.

Whisk about ½ of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it. Then, use a rubber spatula to gently fold in the remaining egg whites until only a few white streaks remain.

Gently fold in the whipped cream until mostly incorporated. Then, using a lot of care, if you have a whisk attachment for your beaters, whisk together the mousse until there are no more streaks of white. Be very careful not to deflate the mousse! If you do not have a whisk attachment, then just stick with gentle folding.

Spoon into 4 or 5 individual serving bowls or glasses (highball glasses and martini glasses are great for this), cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours but no more than 24 hours.

Serve with raspberries, strawberries, or (if you're feeling particularly decadent) some lightly sweetened whipped cream. Of course, this also tastes great on its own.

Lunch at JoJo's (NYC)

2011-02-05T18:36:00.001-05:00

So continuing on my weekend trip to New York City...

Since we were going into the city, E. and I figured that we would do lunch at a nicer restaurant. I did some research and looked into a couple restaurants. NYC Restaurant Week was going on, but for some reason, restaurant don't do a Restaurant Week menu on Saturday for lunch. I was a bit miffed by this, but it ended up being fine, since many places have prix fixe brunch/lunch menus.

I ended up making a reservation at JoJo, which is owned by the fairly famous chef and restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten. JoJo serves brunch on the weekends from 12pm to 2:30pm, but during the winter they have a special prix fixe "Winter Promotion" menu (different from NYC Restaurant Week) which offers a three-course meal for $26.

After we arrived at the restaurant, the hostess seated us fairly quickly. The restaurant was small and the tables were fairly close together, but I never felt bothered by it. The menu is true to what is posted online, and for each course there were a good number of options available to choose from.

After we ordered, breadsticks were brought to the table along with butter. On the table was also a small bowl of coarse salt, with a tiny spoon, which I thought was a nice touch. The breadsticks were warm, with a nice crust and an airy, light interior. Four were brought to our table before the appetizers arrived. We never asked for any more, and no more were brought once we finished the "basket."

For our first appetizer, we ordered peekytoe crabmeat with mango and cumin crackers. The dish felt very light and reminiscent of spring. The crab was very fragrant and perfectly balanced in seasoning, with a little bit of spiciness to it. The cracker was lightly scented with cumin and the cubed mango was soft, ripe, and sweet. Together, all the elements of the dish came together to make a perfectly balanced bite that had texture and great flavor. A solid 8 out of 10. While we liked it, we couldn't give it a higher score because it felt a bit timid and there wasn't really a wow factor.

Our next appetizer was a butternut squash soup with black trumpet mushrooms. The bowl was brought to the table with cubed butternut squash and sauteed mushrooms. The soup was then poured tableside. It was creamy, full bodied, and well seasoned (although perhaps leaning a bit more on the salty side). I loved the sweetness of the cubed squash and the chewy texture of the mushrooms. The soup itself though was a little bit overwhelming; I think if it had had just a little bit less salt or perhaps a little bit more balancing sweetness it would have been better. A 7.5 out of 10.

For our first entree, E. brother ordered organic chicken roasted with ginger, green olives, and coriander. Chick pea fries were served alongside the chicken. E. and I both thought that the fries were very creative and texturally fun to eat since they were crispy on the outside but somehow had a very nice creaminess on the inside. (They weren't actually creamy, they just taste that way) The chicken was surprisingly moist, a little salty, but well seasoned even on the inside. It was a very solid, good dish, but again, nothing amazing. A 7 out of 10.

For his entree, E. ordered shrimp with lemon risotto and caramelized fennel. As you would expect of any good restaurant, the shrimp were perfectly cooked. The acid from the lemon balanced the creaminess of the risotto perfectly, so that it was rich and smooth without being heavy. There was also a quiet background, a taste that lingered, of fennel that was pleasant and warm. A 7.5 or 8 out of 10. Good, solid, but not stunning.

For my main course, I ordered cod roasted with marinated vegetables in an aromatic tomato sauce. I was in love with this dish. Even though E.'s dish was good, once he tasted mine, he told me that he wished he had ordered it as well. The fish was moist and tender with a crispy skin/exterior. The marinated vegetables tasted a bit sour, like they had been pickled, which I wasn't particularly fond of, but the tomato sauce was full of character and I liked the mashed pea and potato combination. I was very pleased overall. A 9 out of 10.

Because we ordered from the prix fixe menu for the Winter Promotion, they did not offer us their entire dessert menu; instead we had only a choice of two of their dessert. Online, their dessert menu offers 6 choices.

Does this picture not say all? Look at it. That was our first dessert: a warm molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. It was rich, but not overwhelming and not too sweet. It had just the right amount of chocolate intensity to satisfy a person without making the tastebuds feel gross after two or three spoons. (You know how that happens when something is just too chocolate.) The vanilla ice cream was nothing to write home about--honestly it felt a bit timid and meek next to the delicious molten chocolate cake, but it provided a nice balance. Both E. and I were sad when we finished our chocolate cakes, and I was glad we ordered two, because I think our relationship would have been tested had we been forced to share it; I would not have been happy to hand over my spoon. Clearly, this was a 9 out of 10. I would definitely order it again.

Our second dessert was an exotic fruit salad with white chocolate ice cream. The fruit salad included pineapple, banana, kiwi, and chopped dates all in a soupy passionfruit syrup which was spiced with a hint of cinnamon. The white chocolate ice cream didn't taste particularly of white chocolate to me, and because I really enjoyed the passionfruit flavor we were already quite full, we pushed aside the ice cream and ignored it. Because a fruit salad is fairly easy to make, I have to give this a 6.5 out of 10. Nothing stunning, and the ice cream disappointed us a little.

Service was not fantastic. Certainly no one was negligent, but there was a mix up with the water that I found somewhat surprising. At our table of three, two of us had glasses of regular water, while E. ordered sparkling water ($7, overpriced Pellegrino). When the servers saw the liquid levels in our glasses dip below halfway, they refilled, as per usual. But they took E.'s sparkling water and poured it into everyone's glasses, thus mixing still water with sparkling water. Then, later, a server poured still water into E. glass of sparkling water. This time, when we pointed this out, they were kind out enough to replace E.'s glass with one that was just sparkling water, but I still thought that it was astounding that they would so easily mix things up. Especially when the sparkling water cost $7. There should be no mix ups; as a customer paying that much, I expect my sparkling water to be pure. I did not pay for a glass of half sparkling, half still water. Other than that, it was fine. I don't know if I will ever return, because NYC has so many great restaurants, but I certainly wasn't disappointed. It's just... JoJo was just fine. That's it. We ate, we were satisfied, and we left. It was like having a good day. In the grand scheme of thing, you have so many good days in your life, one good day stands out no more than any other good day.

JoJo

160 East 64th Street

New York, New York 10021

Tel. 212.223.5656

Overall rating for the price: 7 out of 10 (average)

Chelsea Market

2011-02-03T00:06:00.002-05:00

This past weekend, I went to New York City with a couple of friends and then met up with some friends in the city to do a little bit of food tourism. Of course, one of the places that we visited was Chelsea Market. Don't know what Chelsea Market is?

In New York City's Meatpacking District, there is a large warehouse type of structure that was, in the past, a large bakery. Over time is transformed and today it is called the Chelsea Market. Chelsea Market is essentially a large enclosed, upscale food court located between 9th and 10th avenue. Inside the market, are shops including Ronnybrook Dairy (with it's famous milk bar), Lucy's Whey (a cheese shop), Fat Witch Bakery (which specializes in brownies), and Amy's Bread.

I found one of the most interesting places to visit was The Filling Station. Located in the middle of the market, this little shop has different flavors of salt, oil, and vinegar. This might not sound like the most exciting venue, but everything was available for tasting.

I've read many recipes that involve fancy balsamic vinegars and salts and occasionally grapeseed oil or such, and I've never had any idea what flavor these ingredients would impart upon a dish. Until I went to The Filling Station.

With my friends, I tried Himalayan pink salt, black truffle salt, white truffle salt, grapeseed oil, black truffle oil, Blood Orange oil, ginger honey vinegar, champagne vinegar, pomegranate balsamic vinegar, fig balsamic vinegar, and many more. It was quite an experience.

I was so hooked on the black truffle sea salt, I ended up buying a small container for about $10, and my friend fell in love with the Cinnamon Pear balsamic vinegar and ended up purchasing a bottle for herself, also at $10. The prices, we felt, were very reasonable.

While exploring, we also spent a good amount of time in a little shop called Chelsea Market Basket. Besides selling, yes, baskets, this shop also had an extensive collection of candies and chocolates. We were allowed to sample one free chocolate (Leonidas) or caramel each, and following the recommendation of one of the workers behind the counter, we tried the sea salt caramel. It was delicious. I've have salted caramel before, specifically the well known French caramel beurre salé, but this was different. The caramel was sweet, but there were actually crunchy flakes of sea salt within the chewy candy. It was a delicious surprise. We liked it so much, we ended up buying a few to take home. They also had cheese to sample and buy, which my friends enjoyed but I obviously did not partake it. (I don't eat cheese)

Very close to the Chelsea Market Baskets, in a little back corner, we saw L'Arte del Gelato. The flavors looks very good, and so we decided to share a cone with two scoops of gelato. Ultimately that flavors we settled on were Williams Pear and grapefruit. Both were incredibly fragrant and delicious. The pear was full of flavor and was absolutely true to the scent of Williams Pear. The grapefruit was very strong and sour, but it was fullbodied in a way that wasn't (surprisingly) at all overbearing.

On our way out of Chelsea Market, I decided to stop by Jacques Torres's shop for some of his famous hot chocolate. I got the Wicked hot chocolate, which is flavored with cinnamon, sweet ancho and ground chipotle chili peppers. It was thick and dark with a little kick at the end. It wasn't as spicy as I expected it to be, and although I am a lover of dark and bittersweet chocolate, I actually put in a packet of sugar because I felt that the drink wasn't sweet enough. In all honestly, it was probably not worth the ticket price (roughly $3.50), but my opinion may be affected by the fact that I drank the hot chocolate slowly and it became more tepid and lukewarm as time passed.

There are many more shops to explore in Chelsea Market which I didn't even begin to describe, and I do think I will be returning on my next trip into the city. So many great places to explore all packed into one space... What more could you want?

Location: 75 9th Avenue (Between 15th and 16th Streets), New York, NY 10011

By Subway: to 14th Street and 8th Avenue on the A, C, E, or L
Hours: Mon - Sat: 7am to 9pm, Sun: 8am to 7pm

Spicy Butternut Squash Soup

2011-01-26T04:37:00.007-05:00

I know I've called cold weather the perfect weather for risotto, but when it comes to January—cold dreary January, with its icy rainy, slushy grey snow, and frozen sidewalks—I think the thing everyone needs in their repertoire is a good soup.

A good soup should be complex in flavor. It should have layers. It can't just taste like soup or just taste like peas, and it can't just be spicy. It needs to have a little something extra so that the tongue doesn't tire of its taste after five or six spoonfuls. A good soup should be filling and most of all, I think a good soup needs to be something that can be shared.

So I share with you this: a spicy butternut squash soup that is rich, but not heavy; slightly sweet, but also spicy enough to warm a person on a January night.

This soup is vaguely related to a recipe I saw here, but really I think they are so different now, they are more like in-laws than blood relatives. This recipe, like all the recipes I post here, is easily adapted to your taste. You can use pumpkin just as easily as butternut squash, but keep in mind that pumpkins are much larger than your average squashes, and so you may need more coconut milk and broth (or water), and perhaps more spices. Also, if you can't find these specific curry powders, feel free to use what you have on hand; curry paste works just fine. I'd recommend starting with no more than 1 teaspoon, and then increasing from there depending on your own preferences.

As for serving the soup, you might have noticed by now that I have a thing for serving my soups in teacups. This is generally because when I make soup, it is part of a larger meal, and I think a teacup serving is the perfect size for an appetizer. But in a bowl or a teacup, it doesn't matter. This soup is elegant and delicious, and can be served with toasted pumpkin seeds, croutons, or caramelized pear slices. I chose to serve it with some Forelle pear slices which I lightly caramelized in a skillet with some salted butter. This soup can also stand alone. Maybe warm up some good bread though, to wipe your bowl clean when you're done, if you're that sort of person. And yes, I do confess, I am that sort of person.

Spicy Butternut Squash Soup

1 medium butternut squash
1-2 tablespoons butter
about 1 can chicken stock
about 1 can of coconut milk
1 ½ tsp Madras Curry Powder (yellow)
¾ tsp curry powder mix (Vietnamese “bôt ca ri” made from turmeric, annatto, chili, coriander seed, cloves, fennel, and bay leaf)
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
2-3 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt

Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Slice the butternut squash into 3 or 4 sections (leave the skin on!), place on the baking sheet, and butter each slice. Broil on low for about 10-15 minutes before flipping the slices. Butter this side, and then broil for another 10-15 minutes until soft. Alternatively, bake the squash at 375 F for about 35-40 minutes.

Allow the squash to cool for a bit before scooping the flesh into a large pot on medium heat. Add 1 can (about 14 ounces) of coconut milk and 1 can of chicken stock (or alternatively, water or vegetable stock... no worries, I have made this with water and the flavor profile was not at all diminished). Bring to a simmer.

Add the curry powders/paste, cinnamon, ginger, sugar, and salt.

Remove the soup from the heat and either puree with an immersion blender or transfer in batches into a blender. If using a blender, allow the soup to cool a bit, and then cover the top of the blender with a clean kitchen towel, and blend in small batches. Remember to use care when blending hot soups!

Transfer the now smooth soup back to the pot (if you used a blender), turn the heat to medium, and add water or stock a little bit at a time until the soup is your desired consistency. Add additional seasoning to taste.

Serves 6-8 people.

Lunch at Kinkead's

2011-01-19T22:19:00.005-05:00

We wait for it excitedly and it comes twice a year. That's right; it's DC Winter Restaurant Week, the only time when a three course lunch at a well-reviewed restaurant is only $20.11.

This year, we decided to eat at Kinkead's. Kinkead's is described, on its website, as an "upscale brasserie-style restaurant specializing in fresh seafood." It's located in the Foggy Bottom area, close to George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium.

Our reservation at Kinkead's was for 12:15pm, and we got there on time. After we told the hostess about our reservation, we were told to go upstairs, where another hostess was present to seat us. We walked past the open kitchen (which is right by the stairs) and then were seated in a large booth.

We ordered fairly quickly, and then while we waited for our food, we examined the bread basket. There were three different types of bread. First, we tried the corn bread. It was a little spicy and a little sweet, perfectly moist while retaining that perfect crumbly texture one associates with cornbread. Then we tried the Irish soda bread, which was studded with raisins and fennel. It was cake-y and lightly sweet. The country bread had a thick crust and was pleasantly warm. There was also whipped unsalted butter on the table to accompany the bread. My favorite was the cornbread, by far.

It wasn't long before our appetizers arrived.

My mom ordered the roasted Bosc pear filled with Gorgonzola cheese, with endive and radicchio salad. It was an elegant dish, and, as my dad said, cannot be judged against meat. The roasted pear was sweet and delicate and provided a nice contrast to the rich and bold cheese. The endive and radicchio had a nice sharpness to them, and the toasted walnuts added texture and an earthiness to the already beautiful dish. We deemed it a solid 9 out of 10.

For my appetizer, I ordered the Grilled Squid with Creamy Polenta and Tomato Fondue. This appetizer was the first time that I've ever been surprised by the small size of a dish at a restaurant. The portion was significantly smaller than either of my parents' dishes, but once I tasted it, I could see why. The grilled squid was just perfectly cooked so that it was tender and moist, not at all chewy. It didn't have any of the smokiness that I associated with grilled foods, but I loved the way the squid just melted in my mouth. The polenta was indeed very creamy and smooth, and felt like the perfect comfort food for a cold winter day, without being too rich. The broiled basil and pinenuts atop the squid provided a crunchy texture, and the tomato fondue added some brightness and acidity. I found myself amazed that the natural sweetness and flavor of the squid was still able to stand up to the bold cooking. I liked that the kitchen was not afraid to make a complex dish, and trusted that their star product, in this case the squid, would shine. A very solid 9.5 out of 10.

For his appetizer, my dad ordered the Housemade Bratwurst with Apple Celery Salad and Sauerkraut Strudel. The bratwurst was spicy, meaty, and smooth. I really enjoyed the full taste of the perfectly seasoned meat. The sauerkraut pastry was a little salty, but made up for it by being flaky, smooth, and rich; a very creative use of sauerkraut, which really did not taste sour at all. My dad really liked the pickled zucchini that accompanied the dish, but I was unimpressed. The cooking was bold, and the flavors were strong, but for some reason I just didn't find this dish that amazing. I thought it was an 8 out of 10, but my parents loved it, and deemed it a 9 out of 10.

For my entree, I ordered the Grilled Mahi Mahi on a Chick Pea Cake with a Blood Orange, Currant and Pine Nut Relish. I actually am not a huge fan of mahi mahi as a fish--I find it often to be too meaty and dry for me--but I liked the sound of the dish, so I put my faith in the kitchen. The Mahi Mahi was, as it generally is, meaty, but it was also flaky and moist. The chick pea cake was very interesting and perfectly seasoned. I loved the texture and the starchiness of it. The taste was original and the idea of making a chick pea cake was fairly creative. The relish was sour and refreshing, as were the orange segments. The dish was very complex in terms of flavor, and the tastes were elegantly layered, but not in a chaotic way. Everything melded together very well, and we felt it was a very solid 9.5 out of 10.

My mom ordered the Brioche Crusted Cod with Bouillabaisse Style Sauce, Croutons and Pickled Fennel. The cod was perfectly cooked, and was moist and delicate. The sauce delicious, truly a discovery. The fennel was slightly sour, providing a nice balance to the richness of the sauce, and the spinach was fresh, lightly blanched, and full of flavor. All in all, it was a perfectly executed dish. 9.5 out of 10.

My dad ordered the Sesame Crusted Skate with Peanut Noodles and Fermented Black Bean Sauce. The sesame crust was crunchy and fragrant, and the skate was perfectly cooked. The dish was clearly an Asian fusion type of dish, and while it was very bold, it was beautifully done and despite the strong flavors of the sesame, peanut, and black bean, the skate still managed to be the star. This dish proved that Kinkead's strength is seafood; few kitchens could be so bold and not overwhelm their fish. A 9 out of 10.

For dessert, my mom ordered the Pistachio Creme Brulee with Pistachio biscotti. To our great disappointment, the dessert was tepid and shy. The flavors were not at all the bold flavors that we had been exposed that entire meal; the creme brulee lacked the intense flavor of pistachio that we were looking for. Additionally, the creme brulee should have been served cold. Instead, it was served at room temperature, and honestly, the only word I want to use to describe this is "okay." I wouldn't order it again and I wouldn't recommend it.

For my dessert, I ordered the Warm Molten Chocolate Cake with Caramel Ice Cream. While this sounded good, I was prepared for a disappointment. Chocolate cake desserts never tend to be as good as they sound; they are often too sweet or too heavy and their taste becomes altogether tiring after a few bites. But this dessert was not like that. It was intense and rich, yes, but it was made with dark chocolate, and thus the sweetness was perfectly balanced by the full flavor of the chocolate itself. The slightly crispy exterior (like the edges of a good cookie) gave way to a molted and melt-y interior. I loved it. I did not taste "underdone" as some [poorly made] molted chocolate cakes can taste, and it was not overwhelmingly "fudge-y." As for the ice cream, my expectations were also exceeded. It truly was caramel in ice cream form; it had a very strong "burnt sugar" (aka caramel) flavor to the ice cream and was just enough sweet, without being cloyingly so. I knew there was a healthy amount of salt in the ice cream to round out the flavors, because it all tasted perfectly balanced. Simple sounding desserts are often the most difficult to execute, but this one was a success. 9 out of 10.

For his dessert, my dad ordered the Local Apple Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream. There isn't much to say about this dessert. The apple cobbler was served slightly warm, had a nice top crust, a healthy amount of apples, and wasn't too sweet. It was a classic, done well, but nothing to write home about. 8.5 out of 10 (only because I have to penalize the lack of creativity a little bit).

Throughout the meal, our service was very polite, but also rather distant. The servers never lingered, never reached out, never did more than exactly what they were supposed to do. They were cordial and they did their job, and that was it. I felt like our waiter never truly smiled at us and that he honestly did not care that we were there. It was shockingly impersonal. I haven't been to a restaurant like that in a while. There was nothing wrong with our service, it was just I almost felt like we were unwanted and a bother somehow. It put a slightly blight upon the dining experience, but it was nothing huge.

Overall, it was a lovely meal for about twenty dollars per person, with a surprisingly large selection for each course. Kinkead's would be a place to return to for a nice lunch, and is certainly in a great location for planning a day of exploring the city.

Kinkead's

2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, D.C. 20006

Tel. 202.296.7700

Overall rating for the price: 8.5 out of 10

Georgetown Cupcake

2011-01-16T13:20:00.001-05:00

I have eaten at Georgetown Cupcake many times. It's a small cupcake shop in Georgetown, run by a pair of sisters who then went on to open a shop in Bethesda (also called Georgetown Cupcake). They have aired on TLC and their shop has been visited by many celebrities.

Every day Georgetown Cupcake does this special thing for patrons who subscribe to their Facebook newsfeed or follow their Twitter. In the morning, they post a special flavor, and if customers come in and ask for the cupcake by name, they can get it for free. Georgetown Cupcake only bakes 100 of these special cupcakes, so you have to come in relatively early. It's a fun way for them to drum up business and a way for them to try out new flavors, some of which go on to become part of their rotating monthly flavors.

Earlier this week, I went with my friend. We got to Georgetown a little late, around 1pm (they open at 10am), but we decided to stop by Georgetown Cupcake anyhow to see if there were anymore free cupcakes left. We went in and asked for the peanut butter fudge (which was the special free flavor of the day) and they gave us our free cupcakes. We also decided to buy a chocolate salted caramel cupcake and a strawberry champagne cupcake.

We ate the peanut butter fudge cupcake there. It was surprisingly delicious. The cupcake itself was Valrhona chocolate with a fudge core. The peanut butter frosting was intensely flavored, and topped with a drizzle of fudge. The entire thing was moist, fragrant, and, to our delight, not too sweet. Even my mother, who does not like cupcakes, frosting, or Georgetown Cupcake in general, was impressed.

We waited to try the strawberry champagne cupcake and the salted caramel cupcake when we got home.

The strawberry champagne cupcake was a play on their classic Madagascar bourbon vanilla cupcake, baked with fresh strawberries and champagne. There was a chocolate ganache core, and then the whole thing was topped with a champagne-infused buttercream frosting and a drizzle of chocolate ganache. Honestly, I couldn't taste the champagne in this at all. The strawberry flavor was also very light, and barely present. I was disappointed by this cupcake, and I did find it to be a little too sweet.

The salted caramel cupcake was a play on their Valrhona chocolate cupcake, which had a caramel core, and was topped with salted caramel-infused buttercream frosting and a drizzle of caramel. The bakery could have been more generous with their salt. I couldn't really taste it. I, again, found this cupcake to be a little too tame and a little too sweet. I was disappointed. I have had it before, and found it to be better last time. Oh well.

At $2.75 a cupcake, Georgetown Cupcake is not a cheap place to get dessert, but it is a cute place to stop, and if you're there early enough and can get their free flavor of the day (check Facebook or Twitter), it's a great deal.

Georgetown Cupcake
3301 M Street NW (corner of 33rd & M)
Washington, DC 20007
Tel. 202-333-8448