Coconut Rice Pudding

Rice pudding isn't a beautiful dish, but it's warm and comforting and easy to make. We eat rice at least every other day in our Chinese household, so leftover short grain rice makes a fairly regular appearance. Instead of eating stale leftover rice, sometimes it's nice to make an easy dessert. Today, I added a coconut twist to the pudding and got some very fragrant results.

For 6-8 servings

• 2 cups cooked short grain rice
• 3 cups milk. Whole will make the most creamy pudding, but I used nonfat and it was just fine. The point was to make an easy dessert and use up leftovers, not to buy ingredients to make a special dessert. 
• 1/3 cup sugar, plus more to taste
• 2 pinches salt (or a little more. I think 1/4 teaspoon would be fine)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup large coconut flakes
• a little dark rum

Combine the rice, milk, sugar, salt, vanilla, and coconut flakes in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Break up the rice and combine the ingredients while heating the milk to a simmer. Turn the heat down as low as it will go, and cover the pot. Cook for 40 minutes, stirring often to keep the milk from burning. When the rice has absorbed almost all of the milk, turn off the heat. Serve hot or cold with a drizzle of dark rum. 

You can also sprinkle some cinnamon or a little sugar on top, but be careful with the sugar. Less is more when it comes to sugar; rice pudding is a very rich dessert and if it starts off sugary tasting you can tire of it very quickly. The toppings possibilities are endless when it comes to rice pudding. Treat it like oatmeal and you'll be able to think of dozens of ways to use up leftover rice. But do try the coconut. It reminded me a little of Southeast Asian coconut desserts, but was much easier to prepare. Next time, I'm going to try substituting milk with light coconut milk.

Whole Foods Kombucha

Every Whole Foods has a feature that puts it a cut above the usual grocery store. I've seen wine bars, chocolate fountains, in-house bakeries, carving stations, wine and beer bars, ice cream stands, sushi bars...and today, kombucha on tap! I think this concept takes the cake, because I haven't seen kombucha on tap anywhere else, so it's truly a Whole Foods original. Four flavors are available by the cup, bottle, or jug--bring your glass bottle and jugs back for refills!

I tried two of the four flavors. The ginger was a little too herbaceous for me, but I liked hibiscus a lot: lightly pink, this kombucha is extremely fizzy and ever so slightly tangy. If you've only ever had kombucha from a bottle, this will be a revelation. Commercial kombucha is vile: sour and flat, it might as well be vinegar. I really don't know why anyone drinks it. Great homemade kombucha, on the other hand is effervescent and only very slightly tangy. It's refreshing and more like drinking club soda with a lemon wedge. The hibiscus kombucha at Whole Foods surpasses any homemade kombucha I've ever had, without any of the preparation or wait time. I give them two thumbs up, and hopefully enough others will too. I would love this little drink stand to stick around.

Chez Papa Resto

A fantastic Groupon deal had me and some friends at Chez Papa Resto in Mint Plaza on this Friday afternoon, enjoying some drinks and snacks before doing a little light shopping across the street. Because we all had dinner plans later (who says a girl can't eat twice in one night?) we kept things light and shared the best looking dishes from Chez Papa's summer menu. 

Heirloom tomato and watermelon salad. At this time of year, heirloom salads are a dime a dozen. Chez Papa brings new life to this summer menu standby with a bed of crisp watermelon, crumbled goat cheese, toasted pine nuts, baby arugula, and a drizzle of pesto. I especially liked how the crunchy, slightly charred pine nuts paired with the briney, juicy tomatoes.

Even better were the chorizo stuffed squids. The dominant fragrance in this dish is that of celery, so if you don't like celery skip this one. Despite being initially put off by the strong celery smell, I ended up really liking this dish after taking a bite. The squid is perfectly tender, mild with a slight taste of the ocean. The chorizo has just a little chew to it, but isn't too salty or otherwise overpowering. Instead, it lends a salty background to the interplay between squid and celery, while a beautiful orange romesco sauce had us all scraping the bottom of the plate with our bread.

The bouillabaisse of the evening included shrimp, salmon, clams, fingerling potatoes, and sea beans. A taste of the bouillabaisse had us convinced: the chef at Chez Papa knows his sauces. The bouillabaisse was ocean-inspired comfort food at its best: hearty but not too thick, savory with a hint of sweetness, mellowed from slow cooking but brightened with a little acid.

And of course, we had to have the pomme frites with lemon aioli. Again, kudos to the kitchen on the sauce, as well as the crispy fries. It was the perfect carb pairing to our shared small plates of seafood. Chez Papa is a great place to relax over a few shared dishes and specialty cocktails, especially the beautifully red blood orange margarita. I don't always enjoy French fare (I know, a travesty) but I found myself leaving Chez Papa one very happy diner.

Taiwanese "Oil" Rice

I'm taking a break from bread to get in touch with my inner Taiwanese cook. Inspired by cousin's fantastic cooking skills, I tried my hand at "oil" rice, or you fan. It's a classic Taiwanese food, something that's usually reserved for a slightly special occassion or a meal out. It's popular because of the many flavors it combines: a little seafood, a little meat, and a lot of onion and soy saucy deliciousness. It was a little labor-intensive but a lot easier than I anticipated, and great for a crowd! This is an intensely fragrant and calorie-rich comfort food. I suggest sprinkling it with some chopped cilantro and pairing it with plenty of light dishes to avoid food coma.

For 4 servings (or 2 and leftovers):

• 2 cups glutinous rice, soaked for 2 hours and then drained.
• 2 Tbs soy sauce (1 if you're using extra dark soy sauce, which is sludgy and almost black)
• 2 Tbs rice wine
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp five spice powder
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 Tbs neutral cooking oil
• 1 cup sliced pork or diced Chinese bacon
• 1 cup sliced or diced shitake mushrooms
• 1/8 cup dried shrimp, soaked and chopped roughly
• 1/4 cup dried deep fried shallots
• 1 cup water

Combine the soy sauce, rice wine, white pepper, five spice powder, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Set aside. Heat a pan over high heat and add the oil. Stir fry the meat, mushrooms, shrimp, and shallots until fragrant. You may have to turn down the heat once the meat browns. If you're using bacon, you'll want to turn the heat to medium low and let the fat render out a little. When everything is hot and you can smell the fragrance of the mushrooms and shallots, add the drained rice and stir fry. The aim isn't to cook the rice, but to toast it until it's warmed through and ever so slightly cooked around the edges. After about two minutes of constantly tossing the rice in man over medium heat, add the soy sauce mixture and toss again to coat well. Then, and this is where experience comes into play, add enough water so that the mixture is moist but there's no water pooling at the bottom. Usually this means half as much water as there is rice. But like I said, experience plays a role.

Pour the entire rice mix into a rice cooker and steam. When the rice cooker is done, leave the rice in the steamer for at least half an hour before checking on it. At this point, the rice should be done if you've only cooked two cups. If you've doubled the recipe, you'll want to mix up the rice, taste a little and see if you need to add a little water and mix well, then cook the rice again. Like with the first time, let the rice cooker sit for half an hour after it indicates it's done. This allows the glutinous rice to cook completely through.

You might need to steam the rice a third time, but not if you've soaked it properly and used fairly fresh rice. Serve hot with some cilantro, and enjoy this sticky, savory, rice!

Free Cupcakes!

Is this photo upside down?! I blame my phone. Upside down or not get to the Sir Francis Drake Hotel on Union Square if you can. Kara's is giving away free cupcakes all afternoon!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Yum. Carbs. No, I will never go on the Atkins Diet, if that's what you're wondering.

Here's what that loaf of bread looks like on the inside, after a light toasting. Since this type of bread is heavily enriched with milk, sugar, and eggs, it isn't necessary to put any butter or jam on it (not that I don't, sometimes). It's more like a brioche than American toast, and a nice thick slice is the perfect accompaniment to morning coffee.

Cross section. It's hard to tell from a photograph, but the thing I really want to work on is the interior structure of the bread. When you rip a slice of Chinese toast, the bread rips apart in long strips. This bread is ripping apart more like regular bread or cake, although I'm noticing some parts of the loaf are more strip-like. I'm convinced I can do a better job achieving that texture by playing with the amount of bread vs. all-purpose flour, and adjusting my kneading, shaping, and rising technique. So until then, no recipe. But don't worry, there will be more bread soon!

What's in the box?!

This is one of my favorite new kitchen acquisitions: a stainless steel Pullman loaf pan. It's basically a loaf pan with a lid. Dough is placed in the pan for its second rise, then put directly into the oven. The lid squeezes the dough into a perfect brick shape, so that the resulting bread is perfectly symmetrical instead of rounded on top. Given the shape of the pan, it was obvious to me what my first project had to be: Chinese toast.

Fans of Chinese bakeries are familiar with their particular style of white toast: a thin golden crust and an especially tender, airy interior. The loaf hasn't cooled enough for me to safely slice it, but judging from the smells in my kitchen and a few hollow-soundin taps against the top of the bread, I'm on my way to toast heaven.

Voila! The loaf of bread, released from its pan. Interior shots and a recipe will follow!