Happy Birthdays!

T, C, and S have birthdays within three weeks of each other, so a party was in order. A party to which everyone was shockingly punctual, throwing me into a frenzy of preparation during which photos were sacrificed. Who told you people to suddenly learn how to be on time? Anyway, some photos from our mezes inspired party came through unscathed. Note how the quality of the photos decreases as my stress level rises.

Salmon filo puffs, my proudest creation. The filling is just wild Alaskan sock eye salmon with a little dill and Greek yogurt, but I really loved working with filo for the first time and making appetizers in fun shapes.

Caprese with basil from the garden and fresh buffalo mozarella.

Lemon pepper baby zucchini with flowers still attached, and grilled asparagus with dijon mustard dressing. A more careful food stylist would have spread the flower petals out before snapping.

Garlic tiger prawns the size of your palm, broiled and served hot hot hot. Can you tell at this point I'm just throwing food onto a plate and screaming for someone to bring it to the table?

Among the photos lost to shaky hands or plain and simple forgetfulness:

• baba ganoush with toasted flatbread wedges.
• prosciutto-wrapped figs stuffed with feta and broiled. A surprising favorite, since I made it to give people something new to try but didn't expect so many of them to go gaga over the unfamiliar flavors.
• Ahi tuna tartare with my ever changing secret ingredients.
• a tray of oysters: 10 Fanny Bay, 10 Hama Hama.
• the wines: a Piper-Heidsieck brut, St. Supery sauvignon blanc, and Benziger Dragonsleaf port.
• mini tiramisus, one per person with one six inch tall pastel candle in each birthday girl's ramekin.

This photo was taken after everyone dug in, so it's frightfully unattractive. But it does give you an idea of just how much food we had when all was said and done. Prepping small amounts of eight different dishes was time consuming, but getting to eat a variety of little things is worth the effort. I think I need to start taking photos of a few things before they're cooked so I at least have a record of what they looked like going into the oven. The figs and tiramisu, for example, were adorable. But I completely forgot to photograph them while it was light out, so the only photos I got were blurry and dark.

Now that I know I can physically make this much food in one night, I wish I had a few dozen tiny plates, a twelve seater dining table, and a good dishwasher. It would be fun to serve my friends a ten-course, three-hour tasting menu complete with wine pairings and stylish presentation, but it's impossible in my apartment.

Aaaaaaaaand, end posting frenzy. Hopefully I'll get back to a more regular posting schedule now.

Dukk Bok Gee

Dukk bok gee (spelling may vary, as there doesn't seem to be a standardized phoneticization of Korean) is one of my favorite Korean dishes. It's easy to make at home if you can get two things: good gochujiang (Korean chili paste) and fresh dukk (rice cakes). Fresh dukk is soft and doesn't require soaking or a long cooking time, and it tastes much better than the kind that's vacuum sealed and refrigerated. You can add whatever meat and vegetables you have on hand to the dish to make it more healthy, flavorful, and filling.

Usually I start by sauteeing an onion, a handful of pork slivers with crushed garlic massaged into them, one sliced up fish cake, one carrot, one zucchini, and a handful spinach (that's the order in which I added everything to the wok). When everything is just heated through, set aside.

Heat up a few tablespoons of oil and use it to sautee two tablespoons of gochujiang with three to five chopped garlic cloves until fragrant. Add the dukk and toss to separate the rice cakes and coat with sauce. Slowly add hot water until you achieve a gravy-like consistency, then turn the flame down to medium and cook until the dukk softens up slightly. Add back the bowl of sauteed vegetables and stir to combine. Add a tablespoon of sugar, then taste for seasoning. Add more gochujiang if it needs more body or spice, plain salt if it's not salty, and sugar and pepper to taste. Cover the pot and let simmer for at least half an hour to allow flavors to absorb into the dukk. I don't think you can overcook dukk, since at restaurants they just let it stew for hours.

Peeled hard boiled eggs, bell peppers, bok choy, kimchi, and seafood are other things you can add to dukk, but I've also seen a poor man's version with just dukk and sauce. It's like fried rice: anything goes, from unadorned to a fully balanced meal in a bowl.

Wine Shopping for the Light-of-Wallet

The inside of my cheap wine closet. As in, there's another closet where I hide the more expensive stuff. The purpose of the cheap wine closet is manifold. It's where I go when I need a bottle under $10 for cooking, for drinking on a whim, or to bring to a last minute party. It's my stash of a little of everything, in case I didn't have time to go get a cabernet for my steak or if I buy oysters on the spur of the moment and realize prosecco would make them even better. Most bottles in the cheap wine closet are under $10, and all are under $20. And no, there's not a bad bottle in there.

But today, the wine closet helps me answer a question that's been asked of me increasingly often lately: what wine does one bring to a party? Most people my age have a vague idea that wine is an approriate gift, but don't drink enough wine to know what's good, both in terms of taste and pricing. They also don't really want to spend more than $20 on a bottle to bring to a dinner party, and for a Friday night at a friend's house it might even be appropriate to spend closer to $10. But what does $10 get you? Not much.

So I offer a few tips. Please remember that these are low end wine buying tips for people who don't drink much wine. They do not reflect what one should or would do with a less constrained budget or more knowledge about wines. You might not end up with something fit for a wine critic, but you won't fall flat on your face either.

#1: don't just go to the supermarket and blindly grab a bottle. Most supermarkets carry low end blends from huge wineries (aka. wine factories). These wines tend to all be made from inferior grapes and taste pretty darned lifeless. You should counterintuitively avoid all the big names you've heard on TV or in bid ads (Beringer, Sutter Home, Mondavi, Sterling, Chandon, Gallo) because their good wines won't be in the $20 and under section.

#2: if at all possible, go to a real wine shop. Not a supermarket, not a liquor store, not Bevmo, not Costco. A real wine shop with real wine people. Tell them you're new to wine, looking for something to bring to a party, and that you want something that's incredibly easy to drink. Then give them your budget and let them work their magic. If you have other info, that'll help too. For example, if you know your host's favorite varietal, if you know what's for dinner, or if you already know that someone's bringing a red and you need to bring a white, etc.

#3: try a lot of wine. If you're really interested in becoming the person who always brings an interesting wine to the party, start trying some! Trader Joe's, Costco, and wine shops all have plenty of choices under $20 or even $10. I've even had decent bottles under $5 on occassion. Hold off on a few ice cream cones and Frappuccinos throughout the week and you'll have enough to try new one bottle a and build up your list of wines you liked enough to give people later.

#4: go foreign. Californian and French wines are expensive, and you'd do well to explore outside the two most famous wine regions in the world for value. I'll say this: as someone who drinks wine regularly, I'd much rather be gifted a mystery bottle than some more expensive but ho hum bottle I pass every week at the supermarket.

#5: find failproof varietals. It's very hard to find a good cabernet sauvignon or chardonnay for under $20, especially when you're a newbie. Instead, go for grapes that are cheaper across the board and you'll get more bang for your buck. Think of it this way: the most expensive cabernet sauvignon in the world is more expensive than the most expensive zinfandel, but a $10 zin can very likely surpass a $10 cab (perhaps because all the cab makers want to be selling that very expensive cab, but zin makers know they'll never achieve that flavor profile).

I'd go for a Zinfandel from Sonoma County (Seghesio and Sobon Estates), any Gruner Veltliner from Austria (a good riesling alternative; not at all the same, but pleasing to the same kind of palates and typically a much cheaper grape), any Brachetto d'Acqui from Italy (a fizzy dark pink dessert wine that's like spiked grape juice), or a simple muscato d'asti (sweet white dessert wine with barely a fizz). One cheap wine I was introduced to lately was Pepperwood Cabernet Sauvignon ($5 on sale at The Nugget in Davis, $10 normally). Sauvignon blanc and pinot gris also tend to be more user friendly at the lower price range than chardonnay or riesling.

#6: my favorite advice is to bring bubbly. People always think they shouldn't bring bubbly unless it's a special occassion, but I say why not? Sparkling wine/bubbly/champagne costs just as little as a bottle of wine, and is much more exciting if you can't afford a superb bottle of wine. How fun would it be to be known as the person who always brings the bubbly? Ballatore Grand Spumante, my $6 bubbly of choice, is a sugar bomb that's great for a birthday party because you know there'll be a cake to go with it. If otherwise restriced to a $10 budget, go with a prosecco from Italy. Under $20, Gloria Ferrer Sonoma Coast and Roederer Estates are my favorites (and very easy to find). There are plenty of proseccos under $20, but I haven't found one I like more than Ferrer or Roederer's sparkling whites. I despise Martini & Rossi and Domaine Chandon, so don't ask me about those. Around $25, Piper-Heidsieck Brut and Pommery are fantastic. Going up around $35 I've only had Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, and beyond that I haven't had the pleasure of venturing.

These are just my observations over a very few years of buying, drinking, giving, and receiving wine. I'm sure my opinions will change over time, but I think for now they're indicative of how young people think about wine.

Simple Meals

I'm so backed up, I'll never catch up. So I'm just going to pick up where I left off. Here are a few of the easy summer meals I've been eating at home.

Claire and I cooked this for Jo & Co: rosemary chicken and a tray of roasted vegetables from the Portland Farmers' Market. Delicious! The most unique vegetable we found was a beet with pink and white stripes on the inside. It's hard to see with the flash in this photo, but Jo's huge convection oven is awesome. You can sort of see one in the bottom left of the tray. We just left the food alone for 45 minutes, and it was crispy and brown on the outside even though we completely crowded the oven with food. I officially have kitchen envy.

Thank you to Jo and her roomie Mi Tuan (sp?) for hosting us! We had a blast...photos forthcoming.

Pan-fried beltfish and Chinese gourd (si gua) with dried shrimp.

Aidell's chicken and apple sausages with ketchup and mustard. Highly recommended for flavor and ability to fill you up.

Cherrystone clams and a tray of sashimi from the Korean market. The clams were, of course, huge. three of them filled my 2 qt. pot! But the sashimi just might be the steal of the summer! Ten pieces each of salmon, snapper, and tuna for $13. It was all fresh and tasty, so I'll be eating a lot more fish.

Photos of a much more complicated meal, coming soon...

Busy Busy

I've been busy doing some non-food tasks, so there's nothing terribly exciting to report. One of the better meals last week was actually take home from a Chinese restaurant. Not take out, which I consider practically its own form of Chinese cooking (greasy spoon, Americanized food from under a steam tray--often bad, but occassionally pretty good). Take home Chinese is just food from a restaurant you like that you happen to have asked for to go. Take out food (Mongolian beef, tangerine chicken, BBQ pork fried rice) would still be take out food even if you ate it at the restaurant.

And lest you think I'm even more of a hog than I am, the following was enough food for two people for three days.

Saltwater duck: much tastier than saltwater taffy, I tell ya. The duck is brined in some combination of rice wine, anise, and salt. Then it's boiled. The resulting duck is rather chewy, but very flavorful.

Pork hock: I'm not sure what this is cooked in or even how it's cooked, but it's somehow simultaneously all the way cooked through (you can chew through the tendons), but incredibly rubbery and chewy (it takes forever to break it down in your mouth). It's interesting, but too fatty to eat a lot of. Unless you're J, in which case you eat an entire three orders by yourself in under three days.

I'm going to call this dish "Stir it up" because the Chinese name is literally "Mix it, mix it." It's a motley assortment of popular cold items: seaweed knots, pigs' ears, beef slices, beef innards, and cilantro. Everything is simmered in soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and Szechuan peppercorn, then chilled and served. And I'm pretty sure the beef is the same cut of meat as used for pastrami.

Chinese mustard greens: I stir fried this myself, because I needed something green and unsalty to go with all the crazy flavors in this meal.

Dessert was a box of gigantic blueberries. This was one of the bigger ones. Look at it, it's bigger than my thumb! Blueberries, for the few weeks in the summer when they're in season and not horrendously expensive, are my favorite fruit for eating all by themselves.

One of my non-food projects. This is a present for a friend. Hopefully she won't check this website before I have a chance to get it to her. Isn't it cute? It's the first cube-like object I've sewn. Those 3-D corners are tough! This was inspired by SlateBlu, one of the cutest blogs around. Check it out if you like sewing, crocheting, knitting, eating/shopping in SF, or looking at adorable photos of little Asian babies.

Dumplings and Banh Cuon

Asian foods wrapped in dough seems to be the theme this week. But please pardon the photos, because photos taken in the dark don't turn out too swell. Plus, yours truly was tired after these labor intensive dishes and sort of threw everything onto a plate and clicked. I need a professional photographer and food stylist. Here are photos from the last few days.

Big, fat, juicy pork and Chinese chive dumplings. Simply the best food to keep in the freezer. These are boiled and topped with my favorite hot sauce, Lao Gan Ma (literally translated: old godmother. The red jar has a black and white photo of a cranky middle aged Chinese woman on it). Much thanks to T for helping wrap these suckers! Congrats to us both--nary a one has broken during cooking!

Banh cuon, something you'd never want to keep in the freezer. Transluscent rice paper wrappers filled with pork and mushrooms, served with deep fried scallions, bean sprouts, and nuoc cham (that wonderfully tangy Vietnamese sauce made of garlic, limes, fish sauce, etc.)Note to self: banh cuon is prettier in single layers. Click here for the recipe, made available by the lovely Chowhound Carb Lover and her mommy.

Taiwanese shaved ice isn't wrapped in dough, but it's fun enough for a photo. Taiwanese style includes more grains and herbs. I had mung beans, pearl barley, adzuki (little red) beans, and grass jelly. Koreans use vanilla ice cream and fruit, so I had some Hagen Daaz, sliced strawberries, and sliced bananas. Both top with shaved ice and sugar water, and the Taiwanese add some sweetened condensed milk as well. Yum!

Rice Paper Wrapped Shrimp

I haven't been cooking much Asian food lately, so I'm trying to remedy that this week. Today, I tried chang fen, a steamed rice flour wrapper that's used to encase shrimp, pork, or beef at dim sum restaurants.

The filling for shrimp chang fen is just blanched shrimp with a little salt massaged into them. I'll experiment with pork and beef later, but it's usually just ground meat with chopped up water chestnuts, scallions, and a bit of ginger.

Making the skins is is a bit of a project. Whisk together:

• 1 cup rice flour
• 4 Tbs. tapioca starch (I'm going to try using some wheat starch next time too)
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Boil half a pot of water and place a steamer insert in the pot. Square pans are better, but I don't have one so I used an 8" cake pan perched atop the steamer. Pour in 1/3 cup batter (will try 1/4 next time) and swirl to just barely cover the bottom of the pan. Cover the pot tightly and let steam for 4 minutes. Don't overcook, because the skin will become dry on top. I know, it's counterintuitive to think that something being steamed can dry out.

The skin will be bubbly like above. Remove carefully to a shallow pool of water. Cool the pan down, then gently lift the wrapper from the cake pan and put onto a plate that's been lightly oiled. Flip the wrapper over to coat with oil on both sides. If you have vegetable oil spray, it will make this process easier.

While you're doing all this, it helps to immediately start another cake pan steaming in the pot. That way you can work up a rotation of cooling/oiling and steaming at the same time. Stack the well oiled wrappers, and chill them well before wrapping.

Wrap as you would a burrito. Place a horizontal log of the filling in the top third of the circle. Fold the top of the wrapper down. Fold the two sides in. Continue rolling down (towards you). When done, place the wrapped chang fen seam down on a plate.

When you're ready to eat the chang fen, steam the whole thing for five minutes or until cooked through. Drizzle with a combination of 2 Tbs. soy sauce, 2 Tbs. water, a few drops of sesame oil, and a pinch of sugar.

My wrappers weren't quite as thin and tender as at the best dim sum places, but it was passable and stacked up to most medium range dim sum restaurants. More practice!

Happy July 4th!

We celebrated early with a dinner party. Any excuse to spend all day in the kitchen!

Ribs were the star. Of course: we had to center the meal around an American all-star!

I decided that with the arrival of each guest, one plate of appetizers would be brought out. G and A arrived first and were heralded with the two cold cut plates: mortadella and coppa salami, and serrano ham with olive oil and black pepper (no photo). Toasted bread chips, of course, were the serving vessel of choice. I just think they're superior to crackers, bread, or chips.

T was greeted with the tuna tartare, a chopped mix of bluefin, capers, pearl red onions, grapeseed oil, black pepper, and a secret ingredient. Do you like my bowl within a bowl? The outer bowl was filled with water and frozen to keep the tartare cold.

The other T was second to last to show up, and we brought out the burrata in his honor. I wish I'd taken a photo of it broken open. This freshly pulled cheese has an incredibly tender, shreddable interior that's best shown off by just a touch of olive oil, salt, and pepper. I suppose basil and tomatoes would go well, but I really love the flavor and texture of it alone.

Between courses, everyone imbibed on summer drinks. Impaired by the alcohol, I forgot to photograph our raspberry mojitos, which were incredibly wonderful and too easy to drink. My wine holder/ice sculpture was amusing. I froze two empty wine bottles in a bucket of water, filled the bottles with warm water to loosen them, and used the container to hold our Ernst Loosen rose and a riesling that G and A brought. A Seghesio Zinfandel, a favorite of mine, rounded out our drink menu. It was in the tub for the photo, but was taken out after it had reached a cool temperature.

M, being the last to arrive, exclaimed "You guys already ATE?!" when he stepped through the door. Lucky for him, those were just the appetizers. Ribs, caesar salad, corn and artichokes tossed with garlic butter, and polenta tarts were ready to eat within minutes of his arrival.

The polenta tart requires a little explanation. I apologize for its appearance. I was really too sweaty and tipsy from cocktails to be bothered with appearances by the time it was ready to be sliced. A more careful cook would have pressed the squash into the cheese and made sure to slice the squash more thinly. Oh well. It's a polenta base (spiked with a little tomato paste), a layer of chevre and cream cheese, topped with zucchini. A surprisingly delicious combination, but very filling. A one inch square is practically a meal.

Dessert! I finally tried Martha Stewart's vanilla bean ice cream recipe, and wow was it good. Perfectly scoopable consistency, not too heavy on the tongue, and intensely vanilla flavored. Talk about your pain in the ass recipes, though; it was the most frustrating thing on today's menu. Doing a take on the French Vacherin, I served a scoop of ice cream with a caramelized meringue cookie and chocolate syrup. I also made some sugar coils for decorations, because spun sugar is really fun to make. Unfortunately, I forgot I had chopped almonds. Doh.

As always, everyone left extremely full and a little bit tipsy. One person even left with an aluminum foil swan. Happy Fourth!

Spun Sugar

I can't remember the last time I had so much fun with a dessert.

Spun sugar looks dangerous to make, but actually it's just messy. Line your kitchen floor with newspaper before you begin, and clear the area so that when you're done you'll have a minimum number of things to wipe down.

I eyeballed this, but about 2/3 cup 100% cane sugar and a teaspoon of water. "Real" recipes include corn syrup, but I didn't have any. I suspect corn syrup would make the sugar more pliable and easier to work with, so if you have some use it. Recipes abound on the Internet.

Heat sugar over medium low heat in the smallest pot/pan you have until it's golden brown, and take off the heat. Stir with a fork until the sugar's thick enough to fall in a thin continuous ribbon. The hotter the sugar, the finer the end result. The cooler the sugar, the easier it will be to work with. Practice makes perfect, as usual.

Dip the fork into the sugar, then raise the fork about two feet above the pot. Wait a few seconds for the sugar to start falling in a thin strand. If you start too soon you'll burn yourself. Hold your other hand open and wave it through the sugar strand. The strand will catch on your hand and begin stretching. It should feel warm but not unpleasantly hot, and will instantly cool. Keep spinning your free hand in a circular motion, catching more and more of the falling syrup. Some strands of sugar will fly away, but most will start forming a nest around your hand. The better you are at this, the longer you'll be able to pull at the sugar without it breaking. Once the sugar has cooled too much, it will snap off. Quickly remove the nest from your hand. You can leave it in that shape, or gently compact it into a ball like I did. If you make small ping pong sized balls like the one below, they're the perfect bite-sized candy.

Repeat with the remaining sugar, remelting the sugar over low heat when necessary.

Tips:

• If you start pulling too early and the sugar burns you a little. Don't drop everything in a panic. Wave your arms around more. The sugar is in a very thin strand, and even a few seconds of contact with the air will immediately cool it down. If you're surprised by it and stand still, it's more likely to burn you than if you keep waving your arm.
• Spun sugar is a fun topping for desserts, but also as a candy. The sugar is crispy as you first bite into it, but almost instantly melts away. I've never had such an urge to use the term "gossamer threads" before.
• Spun sugar will absorb any moisture in the air, so make it when there's low humidity and don't put it on top of desserts until the last minute. I would make the spun sugar as close to serving time as possible. Then again, maybe my fake recipe isn't as sturdy as real ones.