On the horizon..

(1) Sunday Night Dinner and a Movie: Spaghetti Carbonara, Peach Cobbler, white wine?

(2) My cousin Jessica's 25th birthday dinner on Monday 9/14.
Theme: local, seasonal, famer market produce
Menu Ideas
Starters: salad or some sort
Main: ?
Sides: Israeli Couscous + Oven-dried Tomatoes and Basil
Dessert: Necatarine Crisp/Galette, Earl Grey Panna Cotta

Red Cooked Salmon

Mise en Place
3-4 cloves garlic, large mince (I like lots of big chunks of garlic for this dish, it's up to you)
1.5-2 inch length chunk of ginger, thinly sliced 2-inch sticks
2 scallions, sliced into 2-inch pieces (white and green parts)
2 thai chilis, thinly sliced rounds

soy sauce
white vinegar
sugar
water

2 fillets of salmon (usually boneless, skin on), scaled, rinsed, patted dry with paper towels (gently)

Directions:

Drizzle enough canola/olive oil to cover bottom of large wok. Heat on high til drop of water dances when flicked onto oil. Carefully place salmon fillets skin-side down. Sear on high-med high heat for 3-4 minutes until browned. Do not move the salmon around in the pan while its browning. Gently flip. Turn down heat a little. Now add all of the aromatics into the oil (spreading them around/bt the salmon fillets evenly.) Drizzle soy sauce over the aromatics. Add some water so that it's not overwhelmingly salty and to create more sauce. Pour a little vinegar. Sprinkle a spoonful of sugar. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning/flavor. You want a balance between the saltiness of the soy, sweetness of the sugar, and acidity from the vinegar. Stir to make sure vin/sugar are incorporated into the soy sauce. Adjust heat so the sauce is simmering but not boiling furiously. Cover wok with lid and allow to gently cook and steam for another 4-6 minutes until fish is cooked through.

I make the same dish with shell-on shrimp. If you have some leftover red wine or a bottle of whiskey on hand, add a bit of that as well to the sauce as you're making it.

It's one of my favorite Chinese things to cook.

Summer Favorite

Roasted Veg: 415 degrees, ~30 minutes



3 green zucchinis
3 summer squashes
3 chinese eggplants

Dice into 1 inch cubes, toss on 2 baking sheets with olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika (optional)




Broiled Sirloin Tips: Broil 3-4 minutes per side for med rare

Spice Rub:
brown sugar 2 (Tbsp)
chipotle powder 1
smoked paprika 1
kosher salt 1



Allow meat to rest a few minutes before slicing. Pour juices from pan all over sliced meat.

Berry Tart

Recipe: http://elise.com/recipes/archives/001993berry_tart.php

I love Elise's blog, Simply Recipes. Most of my best dinners for Rosie's Place came from her blog..great tex-mex foods from scratch (black bean sauce with chicken enchiladas, lime-cilantro marinated chicken, black bean and fresh corn salad, etc etc). Her recipes are tried and true and always reliable.

I've made many successful pie crusts and have got the hang of making pie dough, but sweet tart dough has eluded me for some time now. I've made a lot of tarts...and have never gotten the crust right...am sort of stubborn about making pastry by hand using nothing but a bowl and my handy pastry blender (or forks) as opposed to a food processor. I just think that if grandmas used to do it by hand 100s of years ago without the aid of electronic equipment, then we can do it too.

I gave in. Since I can't get the dough right by hand, I finally decided to use a the food processor...needed to get this right on the first try.

Good bakers need a light touch and cool hands, and I have very hot hands when I get going. I get nervous about getting it just right and start sweating. I have trouble cutting the butter into the flour quickly and efficiently without overprocessing the dough. The great thing about using food processors is that with a few pulses, the butter is broken up into small lumps and distributed throughout the flour very quickly. From there you add the cold water, pulse a few more times, and your dough is ready to roll into a ball and chill in the fridge to rest the glutens in the flour before rolling it out and draping it into your tart pan.

My tart crust looks nothing like the one in the blog, but I love the substitution of a 1/4 cup of almond meal + the addition of almond extract into the ice water. The dough was speckled and had a fabulous mild, almondy fragrance once it all came together and I couldn't resist a few tastes of the dough.

I used leftover lemon syrup I had made (instead of the marmalade mixture specified in the recipe) for glazing the berries before pouring them into the baked crust.

It's super easy to make and is beautiful to look at. Also very patriotic and perfect for a July 4th celebration : )

The crust came out crumbly and tender. Slightly sweet. Hint of almond.

Mayonnaise from Scratch

1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp water
1 tsp lemon juice (i usually add a little more)
1 large yolk (fresh, organic)
1 cup canola oil

whisk salt, water, lemon juice. add yolk. dribble in the oil drop by drop to begin. whisk. continue drizzling oil in slowly while whisking continuously.

i'm still not totally used to homemade mayo vs. helmann's. from scratch, your mayo is going to have a lemony yellow color..different from the creamy off-white color you're used to from the jarred stuff. i was paranoid the first few times of making this that it would spoil very quickly (it keeps for 1 week), so I added more lemon juice to increase the acidity. i like the tang. i've used the homemade stuff to make the following:

(1)buttermilk ranch dressing (1 c buttermilk, 1/2 c mayo, 1 tsp lemon juice, mustard powder, paprika, 1/2 tsp salt, pepper, parsely, dill, freshly snipped chives)

(2) basil green goddess dressing (1 cup each mayo, sour cream, scallions, basil, 1/4 c lemon juice, 2 tsp garlic, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper).

both were fabulous. i love that these dressings are not glunky like the bottled stuff but have a thinner, more liquidy texture. less overpoweringly creamy. i also like that i can make as much or as little as i want. i hate reaching into my fridge for old bottles of stuff.

Sneak Peek

Next Thurs, catering my friend's wedding rehearsal dinner at her house. Stay tuned!

Drinks
Pineapple agua fresca

Watermelon agua fresca

Pimm's Cup cocktail (Pimm's No. 1 + lemon-lime soda/gingerale)

Salads/Sides
Roasted Sweet Potato Fries
Black bean and fresh corn salad (+ tomatoes, scallions, avocado, lime) w. tortilla chips
Butter lettuce Salad w. Basil Green Goddess dressing

Main
BBQ'd Pulled Chicken Sandwiches
(pulled chix breast meat simmered in molasses-spiced bbq sauce on bulkie rolls)

Thai Crazy Noodles
(wide rice noodles, thai basil, chinese eggplant, orange peppers, seasoned w. fishsauce, soy, sugar, lime, thai chilies)

After Dinner
Berry Tart
Vanilla bean lemon straws

Moroccan mint tea

Inspirations/Copy-cat: Matt Bites, Ina Garten, Elise of Simply Recipes

Home cooking

What experienced home cooks all know is that having a well stocked pantry and the right basic equipment are the most essential "ingredients" you need to increase the likelihood of trying out some fantastic recipe you saw online somewhere or throw together a quick meal when you get home from work exhausted. Without certain basics at your fingertips, you'll probably be forced to order in, go out, or throw on a pot of water for yet another bowl of ramen for lack of a better alternative.

Which is why I love the state of my current pantry. I never lack for the following:

Fridge
-garlic
-scallions
-lemon/lime
-whatever veggies are seasonal (currently: zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers)
-broccoli, carrots
-eggs

Freezer
-thai chilis
-habanero peppers
-basil (homegrown, stored in saran-wrapped rolls)
-sliced ginger
-chix breast
-(salmon, sometimes)

Condiments
-soy sauce
-fish sauce
-mirin
-sesame oil
-salt/sugar/peppercorns
-evergrowing collection of all manner of spices

With these, I can make feasts. Healthy, vegetable-based feasts. With a liiitle bit of protein. And I can further hone my Asian cooking skills since my pantry is so ideally stocked to make Chinese and Southeast Asian fare. I love these foods bc of the interplay bt sweet, salty, sour, hot in Southeast Asian cuisine. The flavors are vibrant and multidimensional, exciting the palate in surprising and complex ways.

So...I was about to make another boring (typical) Yang family chicken stirfry dish (albeit..quite delicious), when I realized I had everything on hand, except the string beans, to make one of my favorite Thai dishes, "Gai Pad Krapow," which consists of ground chicken stir fried in a ton of chopped garlic, chilis, ginger, seasoned with fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, and tons of basil. No way for that to not taste amazing.

Gai Pad Krapow (a very bastardized version, I'm sure. I need to find a real Thai mother/grandmother to teach me these things : )

-4 cloves garlic, minced
-2 thai chilis, thinly sliced
-1/2 inch chunk of ginger, minced
-2 scallions, thinly sliced
-1 bunch basil (I used frozen bc that's what I had on hand, ideally)
-2 boneless chix breast, ground
-1 Tb nam pla (fish sauce) + 1 Tb lime juice + 2 tsp sugar (add a bit more to taste if necessary)

Here, take a look at my mise en place (minus the chicken):



Directions:
1) Heat oil in wok, on high. Throw in garlic/chilis/ginger til just getting a bit golden.
2) Add ground chicken + nam pla/lime/sugar. Break up meat with spatula.
3) I added 1 spoonful of cornstarch here bc there was way too much liquid bubbling up. Heresy? I don't know. But I liked how the cornstarch made the liquid go away and condense into a more reduced, glossy sauce to cling around the chicken.
4) Add scallions and basil til wilted.
5) Remove from heat.

Again, like I said, I have the shittiest most yellow dim lighting in my kitchen. This is as good as it's gonna get: