Another winner

Pork stew with pumpkin (WS)
- used butternut squash
- paired with parpardelle noodles

Royal catfish (Elephant Walk)

Digging deep

There are dishes I never order in Hong Kong, or that my parents may have ordered when I was a child, but I never enjoyed (because I was a child). Subsequently, I never think of cooking them now. But when the dish is discovered, and tried out, the satisfaction can be tremendous. Stir fried chicken with pine nuts (HK) ~~~~~ And then there are cookbooks I own, that I never really use. And then I use it, and the results were lackadaisical. Javanese Spiced Oxtail Stew (from Cradle of Flavor, James Oseland)

Good recipe

Moroccan slow cooked lamb (EPI)

The Announcement

Buttermilk roasted chicken (NYT)
Center ring strip steak (NYT)
Buttermilk cluster (Fresh Loaf)
Mesclun salad with avocadoes clementine glazed almonds
Roast little potatoes
Caremelized cauliflower
Green gazpacho (New Basics)
Peach cobbler with almond crystallized ginger crust (Williams Sonoma)
Ice cream

The chicken really needs to be marinated the night before.
The next time: increase peach ratio, or decrease crust ratio, for the cobbler.

100 degree Hibernation

Eight Treasure stir fry (3 region cookbook)
Black Pepper Beef (HK)
Portuguese chicken (HK)
Stir fry baby bok choi

later...Singapore vermicello (HK)

Back to the Hum of things

Tofu Stir Fry with Black bean Sauce
Sweet and Sour Fish (HK)
Brown Rice
Hong Kong Style Russian Borscht

Used much less black bean sauce than called for in the WS recipe. Turned out much better this time.

Everything else peachy.

Long time friend

Apple Pie

The Cousins, Part II

Chap Chae (Steamy Kitchen blog)
Bul Gol Gi (Store bought)
Lasagna (NYT)

Oh my god the lasagna required a lot of work....was it worth it? Maybe...if you like meaty, hefty, cheesy, tasteful lasagnas. I think I personally preferred the spinach and meat lasagna from Epicurious. 

Chap Chae was easy and a hit.

The Cousins

Shabbat at Adina's...

Profiteroles with ice cream and chocolate sauce
Brownies (NYT)

I used the choux recipe from the Chopping Block Baking Bootcamp. Chocolate Sauce from Williams Sonoma. Ice cream from Dairy Queen. The choux making was a good experience in that I had to make two batches. The first batch did not turn out well because 1) I did not pipe it. 2) I made them too big (they more than doubled during baking. But most disastrously, 3) I did not bake them long enough and thus they all collapsed. Fortunately, since pate a choux is really such an easy thing to pull together, I was able to make a second batch and remedied everything. Hmmm... perhaps I should try Thomas Keller's gnocchis again.....

Brownies were perfect. I love this cookbook.

We celebrate the sperm donor (and the love of my life)

Salade Nicoise (NYT)
Center-ring strip steak marinated in scotch whiskey (NYT)
Take Out Sesame Noodles (NYT)
Spicy Chicken Wings (Elephant Walk)
Chocolate filled brioche

Interestingly, the Nicoise recipe has no lettuce in it. No lettuce at all. I added chopped endives but refrained from adding the butter lettuce. Turned out great. The advantage is that, with no lettuce, it tastes fresh and crisp even after three days.

For the steak, I again used rum instead of whiskey. Why buy more liquor when I have a closet full?

Home cooked meal

Spare ribs with Lee Kum Kee black bean sauce
Drumsticks with Joyce marinade
Shrimp with cilantro, garlic, and Siracha
Roasted brussel sprouts

Marinade: Oyster sauce, Japanese steak sauce, Thai chicken sauce.

Summer begins...

Hamburger buns (The Chopping Block baking boot camp)
Beef burgers (Minced beef with Banana Ketchup)
Turkey burgers (from Turkey Meatloaf; Epicurious)
Caramelized onions (Bouchon cookbook)
Hot dogs (Hebrew National)
Buns (Costco)
Grilled vegetables with olive oil and sea salt
Danish Potato salad (EPI, made by Stacy)
Guacamole (made by Adam)
Caprese salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Wild rice salad (Williams Sonoma)
Watermelon Acqua Fresca (Williams Sonoma)
Sangria (WS)
Wild blueberry pie with almond crumble topping (EPI)
Black and White brownies (Stars Dessert Cookbook)
Ice Cream (Breyers)

Bliss

Chocolate filled brioche
Yin yang rice
Nobu Cod (Rasa Malaysia)
Duck with peas (Saveur)

This is a good food week. The duck I made on Sun. Love the addition of iceberg lettuce leaves, should put half head next time. I did not braise the duck as long since I like the firmness of just cooked duck. Paired it with buttered Trader Joe's multicolored veggie pasta.

The Nobu cod was a revelation kind of. No longer limited to fancy Japanese restaurant. I used Chilean sea bass. Sliced thin 6 in by 3 in by 1/2 in thick. Must marinade overnight. Grilled on bbq. And I have actually been keeping this from my family!

Yin Yang rice was hard to make in a way because I could not find any dependable recipe. At the end it turned out really well with the help of HK cookbook. Used the 白汁recipe for the shrimp and the 蕃茄燴chicken (with tomatoes added) recipes. Maybe it is time to experiment with HK casual cooking without recipes!

Brioche of course from blueberry creamcheese braid recipe. The filling of chocolate (dark) actually totally elevated it with parsimonious elegance even though we don't feel like chocolate all the time. Adam's favorite.

First round

Leaven

After 1 week of feeding the starter, the leaven is made. Tomorrow is D-Day!

Gourmet Everyday

Curried Zucchini soup
Ratatouille with Butternut Squash
James's Beard's Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic
Center-ring strip steak marinated in scotch whiskey
Maida Heatter's Cuban Black beans and rice

ALL Essential NYT Cookbook

The curried zucchini soup called for 1.5 teaspoon of curry and 0.5 teaspoon of dry mustard. That is way too strong for Dr. A. We best adjust next time around. Probably decrease all spices by 2/3.

The word "ratatouille" always seems to make you want to sing it instead of say it. But until now, I have never met a ratatouille dish that really deserves that kind of treatment. This recipe was so amazing, we ate every last little morsel of it.

We were amazed by how good the chicken was. This is probably the third or fourth "40 cloves of garlic" recipe I have tried. Last time was the one from Joy of Cooking. But this one...the vermouth gave the sauce an extra fragrance...and the dish was really extremely easy...just toss everything into the dutch oven and bake...

Used skirt steak instead of strip, turned out well because I did not have as much time to marinade it as the recipe called for. Also, used Jamaican rum instead of whiskey. All turned out amazing. Big boost to general self-esteem. Bin Laden killed. World peace achieved.

The black beans and rice turned out really really yummy too. The problem is that it does require a fair amount of time and work, and it causes undesirable GI results in some audience members. At the end, Joyce was the one who ate most of it. Still, with certain types of crowds. This dish is one that must be re-visited. Oh, and IGNORE the rice instructions. Just cook it in the rice cooker. Also, the instructions for the onions for the rice, and the onions as a side are a little confusing. Yes, there are two different portions of onions, not one.

Training The Imp

Day 6. After a few days of mystery liquid oozing and funny smells, today no hooch and it smells of sweet yeast. Cautiously optimistic.

Tartine bread project

Day 3 of starter. I'm about to feed this. I'm going to name it. I'm going to call it The Imp.

Going Pinoy

Filipino Pork BBQ
Pad Thai (Savuer)
Salmon Congee with the amazing Zojirushi
Red curry with tofu

Shabbat with los Herman tres

Watermelon gazpacho
Shaking beef
Asian style steamed sea bass (All NYT)
Jean Georges' ginger garlic fried rice (Bittman via NYT website)
Steamed broccoli
Garlic stir fried green beans
Roasted fingerling potatoes
Chocolate rum mousse (NYT)
Store bought challah
Raisin pecan bread (NYT)

Gazpacho was awesome, one recipe was enough for 8 people. The beef recipe was originally from Slanted Door in SF, which we had once. The recipe called for high heat stir frying the marinaded chunks of filets so that they are properly browned. Due to the size of the dinner party and timing, I opted to roast the filet whole. I attempted to sear it on the long burner, but that really was not hot enough. Next time I should try the grill, then transfer to the oven, or just do the whole thing in a grill, transferring the meat to a pan set inside the grill. I was worried the sauce would be too pungent but the entire dish turned out amazing, the sauce was interesting, pronounced, but complementary, the sliced onions and scallions caramelized into the sauce. Brilliant.

The steamed fish dish I used salmon. It is actually easier to prepare this compared to the old way I have been using. Another recipe worth keeping. I estimated it will take 12 min to steam and that was just right.

I have long salivated over the fried rice recipe ever since I saw it on the NYT website, on The Minimalist column. The ingredients are of course entirely familiar but the technique is new to me. For this dinner, I scrambled and incorporated the eggs (and the ginger/garlic bits) into the rice, and did use a little chicken fat to stir fry it. Next time I might try egg whites only. I also cooked the rice in the morning and let it chill thoroughly in the fridge all day. Everyone loved it.

Chocolate rum mousse. Wow this was an eye opener. No cook mousse thanks to gelatin. I now believe that gelatin is an under-appreciated ingredient! I should have melted the chocolate first though, because the blender had a hard time grinding up all the chips. Also, 6 Tb of rum was too too much, next time just use 3-4.

Another attempt at the mysterious raisin pecan bread recipe. I again forgot to let it knead properly before incorporating the raisin and pecans. I also used only part of the poolish as directed but you know what? I am going to use all of it next time. That's what I did in the beginning and I felt that the bread tasted better.

The bitterness of slavery and sweetness of freedom

Moroccan Spiced Lamb and Eggplant (EPI)
Hong Kong style Russian Borscht with osso bucco
Spring Vegetable Quinoa Pilaf (EPI) (Pictured)

No grains, rice or bread puts Joyce in a bad mood, even though all the dishes turned out good.

Belated birthday

Pecan Pie

Just the three of us, again.

Joey's matzo ball soup (WS)
Fried white fish with sweet corn sauce
Roasted cauliflower and brussel sprouts
Creme brulee (WS)

Used Adina's secret way of cooking the matzo balls in a separate batch of cheap chicken soup, then serving in better chicken soup. Shaevitz closed at 2 so I used Sunset brand.
Most relaxing shabbat dinner ever.

Ding Ding Ding! ?.

Raisin Pecan Bread (NYT)
Rustica (NYT)

Third time now, making the raisin pecan bread, and I had just noticed that even though 2 cups of poolish was made, only 1/2 cup gets used in the bread!!! But my previous loaves have turned out so good! Hmmmm...

I found the original Molly O'Neill article in the NYT 2000

http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20000423mag-oneill3.html

Turns out in the article there are not one but three bread recipes. The amount of poolish would have been perfect if you made all three!!

So I decided to make the Rustica bread also. It is kind of like a country or french. Turned out good considering I only did 1 folding and then left it on the counter for 4 hours!

The raisin bread turned out curiously sour. I could not decide if it is good or bad. What was the "problem"? Was it because I left the poolish overnight on the counter, instead of "5 hours"? But the Rustica was not sour. Was it because I left the first rise of the raisin bread on the counter for a little longer than called for, or the long second rise in the fridge? It is a mystery.

And please Joyce, please remember to squeeze the heck out of the raisins next time before adding to the dough! Way too wet!

Home alone

Buttermilk roast chicken (NYT)
Cous cous salad (NYT)
Ginger grilled tuna and salad (...but used salmon; NYT)
Spaghettini with vegetables and vodka sauce (NYT)
Soft shell crab sandwhich (my brain)

SS crab sandwhich made with Japanese French loaf, Japanese mayo, butter lettuce and tomatoes.

Max hearts his cousins

Shrimp, cashew, vegetables stir fry (HK)
Huevos Rancheros (Saveur)
Steamed stuffed tofu (Mrs. Fong)
Stir fried Lai Fun with beef (Mrs. Fong)

Just the three of us

Salade Nicoise with seared Ahi
Corn chowder
Foccacia

All WS

Brioche Machine

Brunch for the Baers.

2 braids: raspberry cream cheese, blueberry cream cheese.
Scrambled eggs x 16
Bagels lox cream cheese from New York Bagels and Bialys
Fruit

Cooking with dog

Almost grandmother's challah (EPI)
Take out sesame noodles (NYT)
Chicken Namban (Cooking with Dog)
Ma po tofu (Cooking with Dog)
Steamed salmon (Lee Kum Kee steamed fish sauce)
Stir fried bok choy

Wow I made a lot of food...

Trader Joe's Improv

Turkey meatloaf (EPI)
Pork chop two ways: tonkatsu and soy vey
Chap chae
http://steamykitchen.com/180-korean-glass-noodles-jap-chae.html
Our Favourite Sandwhich Bread (King Arthur Flour website)

The turkey meatloaf was nothing short of magical. Who would've thought?! Turkey! But with the minced mushrooms, carrots etc etc, it tasted so freaking good! Also a reliable piece of magic is deep fried pork chops. The chap chae is so much better than the greasy stuff they have in restaurants. And the bread? Perfect, of course. This is the most 'regular' white bread I have ever made.

Cue harps and angels

American Chinese

Stir fry tofu with black bean sauce (WS)
Vietnamese grilled chicken (WS)

Sometimes I make so much WS only because it is right there on my iPad and dependable.

Health Kick

Crusty Multigrain Baguette (WS)
Eggplant Butternut Squash Tagine (WS)

Bread was made into a boule. I used 1 cup less bread flour that what was called for in the recipe. Baking rack was too high thus crust browned a little too much. Otherwise recipe was great.

Tagine was surprisingly good. However, I tried to make Israeli couscous for the first time and burnt it a bit. Next time, slower fire, watch closely.

Home Economics

Chicken and green olives enchiladas (WS)

Used leftover turkey from last Sunday.

Thanksgiving

Yes, in February.

Herb-roasted turkey with apple cider gravy (EPI)
Cornbread dressing with chestnuts (WS)
Rutabaga and carrot puree (EPI)
Adina's salad
Roasted brussel sprouts and cauliflower

Forgot to make sure turkey was not pre-brined.
Omitted cherries in stuffing and used apple chicken sausage (Amy's). Chinese grocery carried peeled cooked chestnuts!!!

Raisin Rye Bread

King Arthur Flour website

Comfort food

Rigatoni with eggplant and pine nuts crunch (Bon Appetit Mar 11)
Clay pot miso chicken (EPI)
Zucchini bread (Essential NYT)

Chicken: skipped the wood ear of course. Added daikon, parsnip, carrots. Huge portion. Need 2 pots. This is a Momofuku recipe. Next time maybe grill the chicken first to char skin.

Hi, Bye

Thai pineapple fried rice (WS)
Soy Vey grilled salmon
Adina's salad

Honey whole wheat

From sack of Gold Medal whole wheat flour

Wisconsin wild mushrooms

Wild mushroom risotto (EPI)

Perfection.

Roast beef

Roast New York strip loin with garlic-herb crust (EPI)

Pulled out at 128, should have waited until 130 even 133.

Back from WI

We loooooove Grand Geneva resort!

福建米粉 (the same book as the wonton recipe)
Blueberry cream cheese braid (Fresh Loaf)
Green minestrone (NY Times Jewish)

Added curry powder to the noodles for more flavor
The braid suffered from poor braiding but otherwise tasted great. Next time start with the end with the V. It is also important not to cut the leaves too close to the bottom, nor too far.

新年到!

Sweet and sour fish (lemon sole) (HK)
八宝辣酱 (Shanghainese cookbook)
狮子head (ditto)

Semi potluck shabbat

Classic carrot cake (WS)
Wild and Brown rice pilaf with butternut squash and dried cranberries (EPI)

Carrot cake was amazing! This is IT!!! This is the recipe for me!!!!! Yeah! Frosted sides with ground up candied pecans from Whole Foods. I'm brilliant.

Pilaf also amazing because of the Zojirushi! Only used brown. No squash, forgot the cranberries, went easy on the curry. It was still really really good. Must make again!

Chinese mother

Happy New Year!

Fried rice with scallions, leeks, shallots, minced beef and eggs.

B-b-b-bli-bli-b-bli-zzzzard!!!

Adam is really done with my 'exotic' experimentations this past week, even though he has refrained from saying anything. This is because he is the Best Husband Ever.

Chicken (thighs) with forty cloves of garlic (Joy)
Plain rice
Broccoli

The Braid

Thank you Chuck

I never shop at Williams-Sonoma but I sure depend on their recipes.

1) Shabbat with Adina:
Balsamic marinated steak
Penne with corn and zuchinni
Spinach salad with goat cheese, dried cranberries and sugared pecans, balsamic vaigrette dressing

2) Sunday night with little cousins:
Chili Garlic Shrimp (sauce too salty)
Stir fried wild rice
Chedder cauliflower soup
Indian spiced cauliflower and tomatoes (SAV)

3) Later in the week:
Manhattan clam chowder
Vitello Tonnato

Indiaxtravaganza

Raita
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/raita-yogurt-salad-recipe/index.html
Tandoori chicken (SAVEUR)
Saag paneer (EPI) "Fresh cheese with spinach"
Curried cauliflower with tomatoes
http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Curried-Cauliflower-with-Tomatoes
Basmati rice using my wonderful new Zojirushi
Peach cobbler (EPI)

Reprise: Rustic french bread from Joy of cooking
Morning: Banana pancakes from Williams Sonoma
Lunch: Mushroom pizza with Pillsbury

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No, I really DO hate Emeril. But this recipe looked good and worked well.
SO glad I made it. It really makes the meal, with all the spiciness going on. It will also make it easier to keep eating the leftovers in the next few days.
Tandoori was yum. Not red though....why?
I added heavy cream to the saag paneer. Just feels wrong without it.
I used frozen peaches for the cobbler...turned out a bit watery.
The bread turned out great this time.
Full disclosure: at this moment I have not made the cauliflower yet....too tired from whole day cooking!
And yes, it is rather paradoxical that I would bake french bread and use Pillsbury pizza crust on the same day.

Trust my instincts. Always.

Sweet potatoe pie (http://members.tripod.com/nancy_j/kwanzaa.htm)
Shrimp and grits (EPI)
Collard greens with red onions and bacon (EPI)
Corn bread (Jiffy)
Rustic french bread (Joy of Cooking)

Max's fav

Charlie Palmer Super Mac'n Cheese

Original recipe courtesy of Christian and Diana

Fancy Sunday night dinner

Walnut shrimp (http://rasamalaysia.com/chinese-food-recipe-honey-walnut/)
Stir fried steak with asparagus, carrots and cashews ( HK home style cookbook: beef)
Teriyaki sea bass (Japanese cookbook)

Shabbat with Sharon and Dave

Sharon helped us get out of L-ville and into this current piece of heaven. Thus, I whipped out The Elephant Walk!!

Chicken soup from Shaevitz plus vermicelli, napa, fresh shiitake, and tofu.
Grilled Cornish hens (The Elephant Walk Cookbook)
Royal catfish (EW)
Garlic stir fried broccoli
Oeufs a la neige (WS)
Almost Grandmother's Challah (EPI)

Meringue instruction from WS led to overbaking.

Chicken Nanban �肉の南蛮浸け

For next week....

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvp-5EJb-Uw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The Weekday Workhorse

Japanese curry with onions, potatoes, peas, carrots and beef

Back to life

Spare ribs with black bean sauce

New Year's Eve Iron chef

Split pea soup (EPI)
Chicken yakitori
Pineapple fried rice (WS)
Vegetable casserole with tofu (EPI)
Apple tart (Saveur)