I get so excited when I hear the words "hot" and "pot" in one sentence. Hot pot equals delicious, healthy eats in a fun, interactive environment. Eating is a communal activity after all and this way everybody gets to take part in the chef activities. A pot of boiling broth sits in the middle of the table surrounded by an assortment of raw meats, vegetables, noodles and dipping sauces. The sky is the limit when it comes to choices. Here's our hot pot meal plan:
1. Proteins: Basa fish (cut into 1-inch strips), beef balls, pollock fish balls, milk fish balls, thinly sliced beef
2. Vegetables: Turnips, carrots, bok choy, napa cabbage, enoki mushrooms, bean sprouts (these didn't make it into the picture, sorry)
3. Garnishes/Sauces: Scallions, ginger, cilantro, soy-chile sauce, hot mustard
4. Carbs: Rice noodles (already cooked and ready to be reheated in the broth)
I love hot pot. I could eat it everyday, I swear.
I'm on day three of my six day "vacation". I call it a "vacation" since I'm just visiting the family for the holidays (no sunny island getaways). It's nice to get out of LA once in a while, though my blood has thinned and I've been freezing my tushie off. :)
Tonight I cooked for the family. I wanted to make something fun without venturing too far from their normal diet. I made a visit to the local asian market and settled upon a beautifully marbled piece of pork belly (rib in for the extra flavor and meat). To contrast the rich pork, I picked up some fillets of rock cod. I had been dying to try out the whole wrapping in banana leaf thing, so this was exciting for me. Baking the fish in banana leaves is like the "en papillote" method, where the fish steams as it bakes.
I bypassed a shopping trip to get the pork belly into the slow cooker, since it would take a few hours to cook. I sauteed onions, ginger and carrots... deglazed with red wine...added vegetable broth... and left it to work for five hours. Pork belly is the true gluttons dream.
I was able to prep the fish packets in advance also. I went with asian flavors such as ginger, cilantro, soy sauce and sesame sauce. I wrapped up individual-sized packets and they were ready to pop into the oven once dinner time rolled around.
Once the clock struck 9 pm I began. I preheated the oven to 450 degrees. Placed my fish packets to bake for 15 minutes. Next I moved onto the pork. I was planning on crisping up the outside. I began by sliding the rib bones out of the pork belly. They came out with such ease... like a hot knife on butter. I cut the belly into individual-sized pieces and pan fried them with minced garlic and diced jalapeno until it had a crispy browned crust. Yum. Stir fried gai lan (Chinese broccoli) and simple steamed, white rice accompanied the meal. We finished with some winter melon soup (compliments of Dad). By the way, I just thought of something... by cooking the fish in banana leaves you avoid the whole fishy stench that sometimes lingers in the air. That's a very good advantage that I highly recommend. I'll definitely be cooking my fish that way again.
Every year before everyone makes their trek home for the holidays, the friends and I usually have a dinner/gift exchange. This year I had the itch to cook and had a few fun ideas that I wanted to try so, here's the recap.
For our appetizer, I made a meyer lemon & goat cheese pizza. Orginally, I had been surfing the net for a dessert to make out of the awesome lemons that I had found at the FM. Instead, I stumbled upon a pizza recipe. This seemed interesting, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I do like making pizza dough and have A LOT of yeast in the fridge. :) I loved the crunch of the crust and the presentation with the whole slices of lemon.
Next, came the seafood course. I had success with poaching lobster in butter (during Thanksgiving), so naturally, I decided to use this cooking method again with monk fish (aka the poor man's lobster). I infused clarified butter with strips of pink grapefruit zest and peppercorns. My garnish for this dish would be a fennel confit, since fennel and fish pair together so well. I sliced up one fennel bulb and wrapped it in parchment with a healthy dose of olive oil. In the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and the fennel was melting away. Once the monk fish took a six minute swim in the butter, I topped it with grapefruit zest, fleur de sel and a drizzle of ruby grapefruit olive oil. The fleur de sel gave a nice crunch to contrast the oh so tender fish. I garnishd with the vibrant green fennel fronds.
For the main course, I picked up a beautiful grassfed bison tenderloin from Linder Farms. I wrapped it in bacon (because everthing is better with bacon, right?) to keep it from drying out. I'm always cautious not to overcook bison, since it is such a lean meat by nature. I bypassed the normal potatoes and went for some creamed leeks. Just a hint of oniony flavor with a luxurious, creamy texture. I also roasted some baby rainbow carrots. These are not only beautiful, but also have a distinctive taste. The white one is reminiscent of a sweet potato.
The vegetarians just had everything minus the bison.
Happy holidays to all! Wishing you wonderful eating.
I was Christmas shopping and accidentally got myself a spaetzle maker... oops. Here's my first shot at making the dumplings. Many times it's served with goulash, but I took the vegetarian route and made a meaty, mushroom stew.
My first Thanksgiving away from home. I was hosting an intimate dinner for four at my apartment and was nervous as to whether I'd be able to pull it off, turkey-less. Would I be able to capture the true essence of Thanksgiving sans turkey? Was it even possible? With pescatarians in attendance (one to be exact), I decided to go with butter poached lobster (a la Thomas Keller) for my main course. I served it with a baby arugula salad and a sprinkling of fleur de sel.
Here's the whole set up right before we dug in to stuff ourselves silly...
Though I missed mom's T-day feast this year, I'm thankful to have such wonderful friends to spend Thanksgiving with. Seems as though the true essence of Thanksgiving can be captured with or without a turkey. :)
I felt like I had won the lottery on Saturday, when I found these organic, free range chicken livers. Oh what luck! I love chicken livers, especially when they're all whipped up and luscious. Since I had loads of pickled vegetables leftover from my banh mi experiment, I naturally thought to create a mini banh mi amuse bouche. Banh mi is commonly made with pork pate, so a creamy chicken liver mousse would be a nice substitute. Here I toasted up some sliced baguette and topped each with a quenelle of mousse, daikon, carrots, jalapeño and cilantro. The acid from the pickled vegetables cut through the richness of the mousse perfectly. Isn't mini-sized food great?
Back on subject... during the bike ride I was concentrating on what I wanted to eat after the ride, rather than the road. Oops. A 50k bike ride sure works up the hunger. I was remembering the tender, falling off the bone oxtail meat frm the night before and had one of those ah-ha moments. Pulled oxtail meat inside a banh mi would be delicious. I bookmarked the idea in my head and my thoughts returned to "look at the legs on this one"... don't be perverted, I'm talking about the wine.
With B out of town at a "Future of Web Design" conference, I took this as the perfect opportunity to cook some meat. With two pounds of beef oxtails from Wild Oats, I was ready for some fun. I blanched the oxtails in simmering water for about 10 minutes and drained them to remove some excess fat/scum. My asian-inspired braising liquid included star anise, five spice, ginger, garlic, onions, jalapeños, shishito peppers, dark soy sauce and Chinese black bean sauce. I added just enough water to cover the oxtails. I braised them for about 12 hours for maximum flavor and tenderness. I pulled the meat off the bones with two forks. Traditionally, banh mi is served with pickled daikons and carrots. The daikons sure are stinky, but I assure you, they are an integral part of the taste composition. I thinly julienned carrot and daikon and soaked them in a mixture of sugar, water and rice vinegar (separately or else your carrots will stain your daikon orange). All I needed was a good French baguette to bring everything together. It would be a waste to spend so much time on the meat and condiments and serve it with crappy bread. I was determined to find a baguette that would do my meat justice. I tried 3 Square Bakery on Abbott Kinney, but all they had were pretzel baguettes. Eww. They're good on their own, but would be wrong in so many ways for a banh mi. Next, I tried Pioneer Bakery on Montana and left with a baton of bread that was destined to become croutons/bread crumbs/duck food. What does a girl have to do to get a great French baguette in this city???
Just when all hope was lost, my friend Jamie suggested a brunch at Campanile (conveniently right next to La Brea Bakery). Great brunch in the tummy and great baguette in hand, I was ready to assemble my banh mi. Back in the kitchen now... I sliced the baguette in half and spread mayo on both halves. Then I put on a layer of warmed oxtail meat, pickled daikon, pickled carrots, cucumber, jalapeños and cilantro. The meat was warm, spicy and tender. The vegetables chilled, crunchy and refreshing. What an amazing contrast.
My attitude suddenly changed last week when I realized that I had no idea what I was doing. My technique was all wrong. I had been boiling my potatoes, which added moisture to them and as a result I had to add more flour to the dough. I had also been mashing the potatoes with a hand masher. This method did not yield the consistency needed for heavenly gnocchi. I received two essential tips for gnocchi making: 1. Bake your potatoes in a bed of salt to draw out moisture from the potatoes 2. Rice your baked potatoes with a tamis to get the finest consistency (Thanks, Frankie!). With these two rules to cook by, I had a renewed desire to make gnocchi. I just love learning things like that. Does that make me a nerd? :)
After a quick trip to Surfas and a brand spanking new tamis in hand, I was ready to rock. I heated the oven to 400 degrees and laid about an inch of kosher salt on a sheet pan. I pricked my russet potatoes and laid them on top of the salt to cook until tender (1 hour). I had decided to jazz up the dumplings a bit by adding saffron. I toasted up a pinch of saffron threads and crushed them up into a fine powder with a mortar and pestle. Afterwards, I moved onto the sauce. I toasted up some Marcona Almonds and pureed them with a bunch of flat-leaf parsley and olive oil for a simple accompaniment to the gnocchi. Once my potatoes were ready to go, I peeled them (watch your hands guys... the potatoes are piping hot still) and ran them through my tamis. I looked at my big pile of perfectly airy potato powder and got the feeling that this was going to be good. I let them potatoes cool down before adding my beaten egg, saffron and finally flour. I tried to knead the dough as little as possible and added just enough flour to get rid of any tackiness. I rolled the dough into strips and cut each strip into little squares of dough. The pillows of dough proceeded to take a trip down my gnocchi board to get its sauce-holding ridges (as shown picture above).
I boiled some salted water. I threw them into the simmering water (not all at once of course) and once they floated to the surface, I fished them out. Next, I browned the gnocchi in a pan with butter. Once they got a nice golden crust on them, I piled them in the middle of the plate, drizzled the Marcona almond sauce around it and topped it all with a fried quail egg.
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