Kabocha Oatmeal

Happy Halloween!

I found myself with a lot of leftover kabocha today. Apparently not everyone loves roasted pumpkin as much as I do (I know, it baffles me too).

So I took a big slice of roasted kabocha and blended it with a few tables of milk to get a thick puree. I cooked my oatmeal in milk like I always do, then added the puree after the oatmeal had already cooked for a few minutes. The kabocha thickened the oatmeal a little more than I expected, so I added a little almond milk to thin it back out. The almond milk is really nice, actually.

A dash of cinnamon and my Halloween breakfast was ready. Since the kabocha is naturally sweet, I didn't need to add my usual teaspoon of sugar.

Pot Roast

How do I make myself eat more vegetables without missing meat? Easy: make vegetables taste like meat!

I made a small pot roast today, but filled up the pot with a ton of vegetables. The "recipe" is just a mish mash of things I've heard about pot roast over the years, and it turned out fork tender and richly flavored. Obviously, this is yet another recipe which can be wildly adjusted and still turn out well.

• 1 small chuck roast, 2-3 pounds will easily feed four. I used bone in because it was on sale
• 1 huge yellow onion, quartered
• 2 bulbs garlic, peeled
• 2 cups red wine
• 12 oz can diced tomatoes, preferably with no salt added
• 4 tablespoons tomato paste
• 3 cups strong coffee
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tablespoons thyme
• 1 pound carrots, cut into large chunks
• 1 head of celery, cut into large chunks
• 10 small new potatoes
• 3 large portabello mushrooms, cut into sixths
• 2 cups rotini pasta
• salt
• pepper

Sear the chuck roast on all sides over medium high heat until there's a nice char all over. Add the wine and coffee. It sounds strange, but the coffee will deepen the flavor of the beef and is much more flavorful than water. Add the rosemary, bay leaves, thyme, onion, and garlic. Bring to a boil, then put in a 250 degree oven for an hour. In each of the following stages, check for salt and pepper.

Check once in awhile to make sure the liquid is simmering, and adjust the oven accordingly (not too hot, not too cold). Add the carrots and celery after the hour mark, and cook for another 30 minutes.

After 90 minutes, the meat should be cooked through but not exactly tender. You should be able to stick a fork in it, but not be able to pull it apart with a fork easily. At this point, add the potatoes. Cook until the potatoes are fork tender, then add the pasta and mushrooms. When the pasta's done (half an hour), the roast is ready. The sauce should be nice and thick, and the meat fork tender.

If, at any stage, you feel the meat is already falling apart, take it out and finish the vegetables and pasta alone. Just remember to put the meat back in for ten minutes or so to let it warm through and absorb some flavor.

I roasted a small kabocha (2 lbs.) as well. I sliced it into six large wedges and tossed it with a tablespoon of oil, a pinch of salt, and a few pinches of sugar. It went into a 400 degree oven for 50 minutes, or until soft and browned all over.

Dessert O'Rama

After the matzo balls digested a bit, T and I indulged in a bottle of champagne and not one, but two desserts last night.

Why? Because why not, that's why? A gal only lives once, and we're young enough that it's nothing some eye cream and a trip to the gym can't keep in check. The dessert fest doubled as a play date for our pets, Blackfoot and Tangerine. This is Blackfoot, trying very hard to ignore the ice cream. Bunny loves ice cream!

Bunny also loves kitty, his one and only creature friend. "Please, let me chew on your ear! I lub u!"

Matzo Ball Soup

Jewish penicillin:

The astute among you already suspect what is in fact true: yesterday's roast chicken was reincarnated into tonight's chicken soup. A girl can only eat so much chicken in one sitting, and white meat (even Zunified white meat) is really not my cup of tea. So today, the stripped carcass went into a pot of water with an onion and some carrots. Since the bones are from a roasted carcass, it's incredibly flavorful. Roasty toasty, I say!

I let the liquid simmer for hours before straining, then made the matzo balls following the instructions on the back of the tub of matzo meal. I substituted the oil with some of the carefully rendered chicken fat I keep in the freezer (shmaltz, as the Jews call it), and instead of water I used club soda to give the matzo balls some volume. The matzo balls need to boil for about 40 minutes, and I threw in a few handfuls of broken angel hair pasta and frozen mixed vegetables for the last 10 minutes. Oh, and I cut the chicken into big chunks and threw it in at the very end, since it was already roasted yesterday.

There's something very comforting about chicken soup with big floating dough balls, no matter what its form. The perfect warm bowl to cuddle with in front of the TV.

Zuni Roast Chicken

I treat myself right:

But you know what? I never cook the Zuni chicken as long as I should. I always freak out and think the skin's getting too dark, and fear of setting the chicken on fire combined with increasing hunger makes me pull it out of the oven when a few extra minutes would make the skin even more dark and crispy. Anyway, tonight I had some roasted multi-colored potatoes on the side, and brandied glazed carrots too.

Money shot of the chicken fresh from the oven. The wings were so crispy I ate the entire tip, bones and all. Delicious.

Fish en Papillote

Last night, a healthy fish and vegetable dinner.

Dover sole is one of my favorite fish because it's so soft and tender. It's almost too delicate for pan frying, so I wrapped it up in a foil packet with slivers of vegetables, salt, pepper, and a splash of white wine. It went into the oven for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees, and came out steamy and delicious.

The shrimp bisque was trickier. It turned out all right, but not well enough for me to post a recipe.

Sidenote: it's so bleepin' cold today. Someone get me a hot cup of tea and a warm fuzzy rabbit with whom to cuddle.

Steamed Eggs and More

Chawan mushi, the dish that continues to be out of my cooking grasp:

I think I'm getting close, though. Here's what I did, with what I'm going to do next time in parenthesis:

• three large eggs
• 1/2 cup water (plus a tablespoon or two, or smaller eggs)
• 1 tsp hondashi
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt (omit)
• 1 tsp sake

Dissolve the last four ingredients in the water, and then beat the water with the eggs. If the water is hot, let it cool down before mixing. Strain the egg through a very fine mesh. Divide a few pieces of chicken, Japanese fish cake, some shrimp, slices of shitake mushrooms, or whatever strikes your fancy among four ramekins. pour the egg mix over the ingredients, cover the ramekins with foil or plastic wrap, and place in a steamer. Steam over very low heat for 15 minutes. If you poke the egg and clear liquid oozes out, the egg's done. If murky liquid comes out, keep it in the steamer and check every minute. If you overcook the egg or let it start steaming at too high a heat, your egg will have giant bubbles in it. This last bit is the part I'm having trouble with.

The rest of dinner was just some gan lan and Chinese sausage with garlic slices. Mmm, garlic.

Pork Sandwich

Today, another installment of "What can I do with my leftovers?"

I had a lot of shredded pork left from tacos, and a head of napa left from a Shanghainese appetizer J made last week. So I heated up the pork and doused it with mustardy barbeque sauce and made a simple slaw out of the napa (paper thin shreds mixed with a tablespoon of vinegar and a pinch each of salt and sugar). I heaped the meat on a roll and topped the slaw with a big dollop of salsa.

Hot and cold, crunchy and soft, sweet and spicy, and pretty nutritionally balanced. Sometimes, the oddest things do work well together! And if you call it "hot mustard pulled pork sandwich on a French roll with a side of napa cabbage slaw," you could put it on a fancy lunch menu and sell it for $10.

Steak Galore!

Today I bought the biggest steak I've ever seen--a two inch thick 58 ounces of delicious porterhouse.

We seared it for three minutes on both sides, then popped it in a 350 degree oven until the meat thermometer read 130. I wanted 125, but J likes his meat a true medium whereas I prefer rare to medium rare because it tastes better and for some reason I can eat more when it's rare. Next time, I'm taking it out at 125 no matter what he says!

We tried to keep the sides down, but a salad for vitamins and a potato for that old time steakhouse feeling were necessary. The potato, a giant Russett from Whole Foods, was shockingly good. I highly recommend paying top dollar for this potato. The skin was very thin (translation: potato was fresh) and the inside was flaky and sweet even before I added salt, pepper, and butter. One of the best potatoes I've ever had, in or out of a restaurant.

The damage. Look how tall the bone is, even though my hand is closer to the camera.

See? A week away from blogging and I'm back, better than ever.

Burnt Caramel Ice Cream

I'm sorry I've been gone so long, and boy am I making it up to you!

I love caramel, and this recipe is a real winner. It's definitely on the top five list of best ice creams I've made (nods go to Martha Stewart's vanilla, my cardamom ginger adaptation of that same recipe, and fresh spearmint infused ice cream).

The texture of this ice cream is more dense and intensely flavored than that of other ice creams, probably because sugar comprises so much of ice cream's volume and is usually unflavored.

The recipe I used is from epicurious.com. If clicking on the link from here doesn't work, go to the site and look for "Grandpa Roy's caramel ice cream." Here's my version of the recipe (you can click on the link to compare):

1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 pint half and half
6 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Caramelize the sugar over medium low heat until it falls from a wooden spoon in a very thin stream (rather than droplets). Alternatively, periodically drop a ball of it onto a metal pan and watch for the bead to be darker than amber.

Stir in the half and half carefully. The caramel will harden. Stir until it melts into the half and half. Temper the liquid slowly into your beaten yolks, then return to burner and cook over low heat until it reaches 170 degrees. I kept waiting for it to coat the back of a spoon, but it never did the way a normal sugar/egg custard does. Maybe the caramelization changes the chemical structure of the custard.

Strain if necessary (I didn't), then chill overnight in the fridge and churn. Sprinkle with a bit of flakey sea salt to intensify the caramel flavor!

The "I'm Back!" Photo Essay

Olive bread: buttered, salted, and topped with Gruyere. I love ACME bakery. And I love people who bring me ACME bread (hint, hint). And thank you to N and E for the gorgeous flowers.

Now that that beautiful photo is out of the way: if you're reading this Lucky Register finally straightened things out. It's nice to only pay about $15 a year for a domain name, but I guess five days of down time after paying my renewal fee is the price I pay for being cheap. There's no reason for the down time, but how are you going to argue with a company that's not reachable by e-mail or the phone, and that charges you pennies a week for service?

Anyway, I'm back, and I've been eating all this while (shocking, I know). No long reports; let's just mentally binge on a slew of food photos to help catch everyone up.

Sunday Brunch. A few friends were visiting from San Jose for a wedding in LA, so we had them over for a last minute brunch before they had to start driving home. Biscuits and gravy (one of my favorite breakfasts), nutmeg-spiced pancakes, warm syrup, bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, and a fall fruit salad with cantaloupe, pineapple, grapes, and kiwis drizzled with lime juice.

Lion's head: we had a little dinner potluck and made Taiwanese style Lion's Heads. The other dish is leftover mei cai ko rou.

Japanese cheesecake (only $5 at 99 Ranch!) was an easy, relatively light dessert that was great with some muscato-style wine. I'm keeping an eye out for a springform pan on clearance. Next project: fluffy rosewater flavored cheesecake.

BBQ chicken and broccoli. I marinated chicken thighs in some mustardy South Carolinian sauce that was gifted to me by a wonderful person, then sauteed some broccoli in garlic. Delicious, and simple!

Toasted olive bread drowned in sausage gravy. It makes me happy when leftovers love each other.

Cumin crusted lamb. I found this small rack of lamb for $4.50 at 99 Ranch, so we had lamb for no special reason. I mixed together two teaspoons of ground cumin, two tablespoons of finely chopped onions (mush, really), two cloves of crushed garlic, a teaspoon of ground black pepper and a teaspoon of salt. I mixed those with a tablespoon of olive oil and smeared it on the lamb. That sat in the fridge all day, then at room temperature for about an hour and a half to warm up. I seared all sides over medium high on a cast iron, then finished in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes .The result was medium rare, delicious lamb.

Mei Cai Ko Rou

Tonight, an homage to Hakka influence on Taiwanese cooking:

Mei cai is dried mustard greens, and ko rou is braised pork. Unsurprisingly, the braise consists of salt, soy sauce, rice wine, ginger, star anise, garlic, sugar, and a touch of cinnamon.

As usual, I looked around on the web for recipes and then winged it. Since I pretty much tweaked the recipe throughout and constantly tasted, I really have no idea how much of anything I put in. Let's just say it starts with charring the pork belly on all sides. If anyone wants to promise to make this dish, however, I'll try to give guidelines. But you have to promise.

Lotus soup cooked in a simple pork bone stock helped wash down the greasy pork belly dish, along with a plate of yo chai and mushrooms.

And, in a shameless plug for female weightlifters amateur and professional (why be ashamed, anyway?), tada. My front delts are solid. All the better to carry heavy kitchen equipment. Just because I love to eat doesn't mean I have to look like a slob. Click on the photo. I dare you.

Grand Central Market

I explored the Los Angeles public transportation today to get down to Grand Central Market, a mostly Latino Market in the heart of downtown. It took me two buses and a subway train, but I think in terms of sanity and cost of gas, I still came out ahead (a $3 all day pass bought me freedom from road rage and time to read a book).

After looking around a little, I settled on deep fried scallops and deep fried fish from Ana Maria's for my two tacos. Huge, and only $2 each. One is enough for a light lunch, though I suspect the non-seafood selections are even more filling because they can afford to put more meat on a taco than scallops.

Everything at Ana Maria's looked good, including deep fried whole fish. The drink in the corner is my juice blend from the smoothie stand: it's fresh squeezed carrot, beet, pomegranate, and pineapple juices. If only they'd had sugar cane. Sugar cane + carrot juice is a Taiwanese night market favorite of mine.

On the other side of the counter were big bowls of ceviche and a bar of six or seven kinds of raw seafood ready for different preparations.

I didn't know that selective cannibalism was a widespread problem in Los Angeles, but I do think it's an act to be abhorred rather than pitied. When tacos at Grand Central Market are $2 each, there's no reason to eat your grandmother with the bad hip.

Dinner was quickly thrown together since I got back later than usual. Oden is a Japanese hot pot made with a base of chicken stock, sake, sugar, hondashi, sesame seeds, and soy sauce. The ingredients usually include daikon, various kinds of tempura, han pen (fish cakes, but made from shark--incredibly tender and fluffy), seaweed, and my favorite--tofu skin purses stuffed with unsweetened mochi. Aren't they adorable?

Baby Kiwis

Imagine my surprise when I saw these funny little guys at Trader Joe's!

The most I could find out was that baby kiwis are grown in New Zealand and are related to regular kiwis. I couldn't find if they are a humanly engineered kiwi hybrid or a naturally occuring fruit that just looks like a miniature kiwi on the inside.

Personally, I like baby kiwis more than their big fuzzy brown cousins. First of all, you can eat the whole thing. Less hassle, no waste. The flavor also seems to be a bit sweeter and more concentrated, and it's easy to eat a handful on the go. They're the size and shape of a large grape, and mango-like in color. I say if you like grapes and kiwis, get to Trader Joe's and find some baby kiwis! $2.19 for a half pint box is a little steep for fruit, but not an unreasonable splurge for exotic fruit.

Guppy Teahouse

I'd never seen such a big bowl of ice in my life before today:

Guppy Teahouse in Cerritos is famous for its shaved ice topped with fruit and sweetened condensed milk. I can definitely see why this is really popular during the summer months when strawberries and mangos are in season, but at this time of year it's pretty disappointing. I just had to share this photo because the bowl (shaped like the big sexy clamshell from whence emerged Aphrodite herself) is hilariously enormous. Look at it compared to J's body. The four of us barely put a dent in it. Thanks a lot for bailing out on us, C and A!

French Onion Soup and Souffles

I had a medium great night in the kitchen. Maybe I drove around too much all day and was frazzled. Maybe I compromised and bought mediocre ingredients. Maybe I rushed myself to make a 7:30 food deadline. Maybe making three involved dishes on one weeknight is a bad idea. Who knows. In any case, here goes. The photos will be fun for comparison when I get it right.

My first attempt at French onion soup was meh. Not bad, and definitely a nice hearty meal. However, next time I'm going to spring for the expensive Gruyere. The cheap stuff (even if it says imported) gets rubbery while it's sitting in the hot soup! I was stupified. I'd also make my own stock or at least get frozen stock from a small gourmet market next time. It's not worth going through all the trouble just to use Swanson's (hanging head in shame). I'd also use less cheese and more onions next time.

Mark Bittman finally let me down with his chocolate souffles. They just weren't very chocolatey! Look at the color: pale brown instead of deep dark brown. I'm sticking to Hubert Keller's Grand Marnier souffles in the future. They sure did rise a lot, though. Hey, can someone tell me why my souffles always rise in an uneven dome shape, when many restaurant souffles rise in a sharp-edged cylindrical shape?

Gochi Fusion Tapas

Disclaimer: I'm usually not a fan of fusion tapas, because they're usually done so poorly.

Gochi Fusion Tapas in Cupertino did a great job this weekend, and was cheap to boot! I don't know how we got out of there paying $15 a person, but here's what we ate (no alcohol). Thanks, South Bay Food Elves, for finding this place!

Salad with beef slices. Tasty, light, with a slightly tangy dressing.

Ceviche with crisscut potato chips. This was my least favorite item, mostly because there wasn't enough ceviche for the mountain of chips.

Deep fried tempura. Good, just like it always is at most Japanese restaurants. I got a kabocha squash slice, which is my favorite.

Risotto croquettes. This was definitely more Italian than Japanese, but very well executed. Crispy deep fried exterior, warm gooey interior, and a pool of marinara sauce as inside a pool of pesto sauce. I wanted a whole ball to myself.

Pizza. I forget what kind of meat was on the pizza (sausage?), but the cheese was so gooey! Yay for not skimping on warm stringy cheese. And I don't know how they did it, but the pizza was thin and crispy like a thin crust pizza but poofy like a thick crust pizza at the same time.

The star of the night was a kimchi clay pot rice. I don't think I've ever had a clay pot where the burnt rice at the bottom was so perfectly crisped. Not a single piece was hard or stuck to my teeth. Everthing was just perfectly crunchy and airy. It could have used a little more salt, but kimchi, beef, sesame oil, chilis, vegetables, nori, and an egg are always good comfort food when mixed together.

Gochi's approach seems to be to have a menu with dishes from different cuisines rather than making dishes that combine techiniques and flavors from different cuisines. Maybe that's why I like it more than "typical" fusion. I can eat Italian pasta and kimchi in the same meal, but I can't swallow a sushi roll that has cream cheese in it. You know what I mean?

Gochi's website.

Welcome Back to LaLaLand

J flexed his culinary muscles for the first time in awhile, all to welcome to road-weary travellers back from our (fantastic) trip to SF.
Mussles the size of my palm, cooked in ginger, garlic, and rice wine.

Manila clams in soup with winter melon, cucumbers, and lima beans.

Pressed tofu with green onion slivers, tiny dried shrimp, salt, and sesame oil. This is a cold Shanghainese side dish that J introduced me to. Simple and delicious, and a great side dish that keeps well in the fridge.

Tofu and thousand year egg mash, with green onions, soy sauce, and sesame oil. This is one of my favorite comfort foods.

Garlic stir fried broccoli. It's simple enough, but J always does it just right. He has a gift with broccoli, probably because it's one of his favorite vegetables. It's one of the things I've never worried about perfecting because I can just make him do it.

Dumplings from the freezer, just to get some meat on the table. A six course feast for the eyes left four hungry eaters very very happy. Nothing says I missed you like gifts for the stomach!