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.