Stole the show
Hi J - The potato talk last week turned into reality this week, with a side of meatballs and slaw.
G's potatoes, with all the fixings
Last year, G grilled meatballs for a summer meal. He likes to reminisce about them, quit often. Last week, when you vetoed the starch portion of the meal, the tabletalk turned to potatoes. How much they like potatoes, let me count the ways ... This week, he combined the reminisce of the meatballs, with the potato talk.
He ordered a grind from Fischer in Issaquah - 1.5lbs of ground beef, 1.5lbs of lamb, and .5lb beef heart. He mixed the meat with chopped onion & garlic, salt and pepper. And to half of the meat, he added a store bought rub.
I was happy to find jicama at the market, so I did a cook-by-color slaw, with carrots, cabbage, mandarins (from the previous slaw), with green onions and cilantro. For the dressing, I made up a lime, honey, fish sauce and some red pepper flakes vinaigrette. I tossed the slaw a couple of hours ahead to let the flavors mingle.
G scrubbed the potatoes, poked them with toothpicks, put each in the microwave for 10 minutes. He liberally rubbed them with olive oil and Hawaiian pink sea salt. He tested grilled a meatball - 4 minutes each turn. At the same time, he put the 'tatoes on the griddle, on the heat, to crisp the skins for 15 minutes each side, 30 minutes total. He moved the potatoes to indirect heat, and began grilled the meatballs on the griddle.
The meatballs were upstaged, by the fully adorned potato - sour cream, green onions, real bacon bits (from a jar), shredded cheddar cheese (from a bag), and I am probably missing something under that pile.
Unlike G and N, I am not a huge fan of potatoes. These potatoes had a smoky crispy chewy crust, with pillowy soft center. They were second best to my all time favorites potatoes from The Cats Restaurant and Taven in Los Gatos. Not bad for this non-potato fan.
After dinner, N and G watched some hockey, we caught up on our crafty chat. We ended the evening with some good ol pizza and Castle.
wtf is wrong with my hand
Oh hey, this is my weekly reminder to deal with the missing card in the bean game and to scan and distribute rules for some that we've been wanting to try.
Btw, further evidence Canelés are quite the thing ... this month's Bon Appetite featured a silicon mold (weak!) Canelé article.
cake, rhymes with steak
Hi J - G thinks "cake rhymes with steak" is incredible silly, but it made me laugh.
To celebrate the Double Rainbows, I made N's request - plain chocolate cake, no infusion, no layer of anything, just chocolate. He did allow a red velvet variant. So I went for it - Red Velvet Cake.
cake cutting
Many years ago, I made red velvet cake for the first time for GD and Sh's Mardi Gras party. It was quite a hit. The recipe I used is a modified version from Sylvia's Family Soul Food Cookbook. I used trusty Valrhona chocolate powder - two tablespoons, instead of two teaspoons called for in the recipe. I also substituted my favorite whipped cream cream cheese frosting instead of the one-stick-butter frosting, and 1/4 cup of yogurt for equal amount of buttermilk. (Previous times, I used sour cream. But I had yogurt on hand.) Lastly, I was very light on sugar in the frosting and just a little light in the cake. The cake turned out more sour than I anticipated.
mmm, un-natural color for food
For no reason, I did not use parchment circles for the bottom of the cake, and two of the layer's centers stuck to the pan. Doh, the centers were glued back on with frosting. I was surprised how much N likes the cake. But come to think of it, his favorite ice cream is chocolate, and we like sour tart acidic food, a lot.
frosting fixes everything
I was very happy N had a second slice, judgement on the cake.
And ...
to supplement N's request, I made some canelés to go with your morning coffee. There are endless articles, recipes, and lore on the Interweb for this confection. Canelés is fussy. I made them the first time from a recipe in a Martha Stewart Living issue over a decade ago. I bought the budget aluminum version of the mold at Sur La Table and coated the molds with butter timidly. They were tasty but most of the pastry stuck to the molds. Super fail. Then I had them at Essential Bakery in Fremont many years ago. Mmm. I have not seen them there the last few times I was there.
I attempted them a couple of year ago, with more commitment to the butter and sugar coating. I remember N really liking them, and you recently made a "try it again!" comment. So ....
I stw to see what I can learn. I found one very helpful extensive write up Canelés (Cannelés) de Bordeaux – the recipe, the madness, the method and also How to make (almost) perfect canelés using silicone molds.
I was happy to find Sur La Table carry the molds again. These molds are a little shorter and just slightly different shape. I also went all in and bought beewax (and silicon molds to try). Following the recipe, a side by side of silicon and aluminum mold trial we did. I learned a few things: the crust on the side was light but the top (bottom) was dark. The silicon mold, while easy, produced only a passable crust. Too thick of the beewax/butter coating negatively affect the crust, and I had a real difficult time coating the silicon mold.
When I made them your batch, I kept the temperature high, covered the top (bottom) with foil when they are golden, and extended the cooking time to 1/5 hrs.
hi, we are getting ready to go to N & J's house
this one poofed weirdly and was sacrificed to test the texture
Let me pause here and say .. the beewax butter mixture, while worth the culinary result, is a giant pain. Only rolling boil water takes the goo off. A bowl, two pair of tongs, a silicon brush, and a measure cup is still coated with this stuff.
second class silicon baked caneles
I hope you enjoyed them. They are quite a project. For a quick hit, I would use the silicon mold. For a better deal, I would use the aluminum molds with beewax butter coating. Maybe someday, I will pony up and get the real copper molds.
Happy April. Glad you and N enjoyed the cakes.
Double Rainbow Birthdays
Good morning, E!
Last weekend we celebrated April birthdays and tax day. I opted for something low-effort since N is working on the bug restoration and I knew you were bringing birthday cake! (can't we just have cake for dinner?)
I picked up some ribeye medallions which N grilled on the Big Green Egg, adding just the tiniest bit of mesquite smoke.
For green side, I had vaguely planned to make Sass & Veracity's Kale and Apple Salad with Bacon and pecans but I had some green cabbage in the fridge that I wanted to use. I looked around the food blogs and found shutterbean's recipe for Kale, Cashew, & Mint Slaw which sounded promising, so I started there, intending to switch up the dressing.
It turned out that I kept the dressing but made a couple of other modifications. I added granny smith and gala apple slices tossed in lemon juice to the slaw. I had a hard time finding the type of cashews I wanted, but I found Sahale Snacks Sing Buri cashews and picked them up as a backup plan. I ended up using the seasoned cashews in the slaw, which gave an extra citrus element (pineapple) along with some spice (Chinese chile) plus sesame seeds to the slaw.
If I made this slaw again (and I will) but with plain ol' cashews, I would be sure to add additional citrus, chili, and sesame seeds to the dressing.
N also grilled some asparagus to go along with the steaks and slaw, though he and G were disappointed that I vetoed baked potatoes!
You brought red velvet birthday cake that I hope you'll write more about! It was delicious and N really enjoyed the difference between the icing between the layers versus the icing on the outside of the cake.
Thank you!
I wanted to play a real game but I was vetoed and we played stupid-ass Uno again. Maybe that's why I came back from behind and won. I keep thinking if I keep winning, maybe they'll stop picking Uno... but I think I am going to have to hide the cards.
As for next time, I'm thinking about something along these lines:
We shall see...
Breakfast for dinner
Hi J -
Orange, Mr. Happy Easter
Lucky for bunny, he was not what's-for-dinner. He wouldn't be tasty anyways, a bit too fibrous. Instead, we have our other halves' favorite - ham. G likes Honey Baked Ham, a lot. I was very worried that the combination was too breakfast like. Fortunately, N was "SUPER EXCITED" about the menu.
plate of deliciousness
G suggested some fingerling potatoes to go with the Honey Baked Ham. ( G wants fingerling potatoes to go with everything. ) I opted to try my hand at biscuit and gravy. I've had N's gravy many times, on turkey, CFS ... mmm. Gravy seems so simple, but it is still a bit mysterious to me. The first trial of plain turkey gravy turned out ok. Last night was my first sausage gravy. What? brown some sausage, stir in some flour and add milk. Tricky!
just starting to bubble after adding milk
One minute it is thickening, the next minute it turns to glue, then mortar. I suppose it is just like custard - in a blink of a second, it sets up, and congeals when it cools. This sausage gravy was ok, not my favorite. G editorialized my grocery list and came home with maple sausage, instead of plain sausage. I can taste the fake maple flavor. However, N thought it was the onions that made the gravy taste sweet.
sticky biscuit dough
I used an Alton Brown Southern Biscuit recipe. And substituted lard for the shortening since that's what I had on hand. At the last step, I realized I have green onions and extra sharp cheddar cheese in the fridge. Into the bowl they went, and we have green onions cheddar biscuit. I put them in the oven a little too early, and while trying to keep them warm, they went a little over the golden color.
everything taste better with pork belly
For the greens, I cut up some pork belly that I found in the freezer. (Yay, made room for your limoncello!) I rendered the pork belly, sauteed the onions then the kale. I thought about the kale apple salad recipe you shared, but I needed something simpler. Maybe you will make it 
After a couple of helpings of biscuits and gravy, we cleaned up and serendipitously dodged G and N's conversation. Hope you enjoyed breakfast for dinner. I repeated (some parts of) dinner for breakfast. Yum.
I am Pork Lion, Hear Me Roar
Dear E,
Sorry for the delay! Stupid computer problems have kept me away.
A few weeks ago it was our turn for dinner. I asked N if he had any ideas for dinner and he said, "anything, but can you take care of it?" Okay then!
I decided on a stuffed pork tenderloin with vegetables. Simple but not too lazy!
I really liked the leek, shallot, and mushroom stuffing (epicurious recipe). I swapped out shiitakes for criminis, as I felt they would work better (plus N doesn't like shiitakes).
For some reason tying up meat always makes me feel accomplished and fancy.
Unfortunately G was sick! When I discovered that you would be arriving solo, I decided to make half of the asparagus. You hear that, G? You rate an entire extra pound of asparagus!
I threw together a super thin jus-that-was-supposed-to-be-gravy (oops) and some garlic mashed yukon gold potatoes. I don't roast the potatoes before mashing like you do, but I do boil the garlic with the potatoes and I leave the skins on. My grandma makes the best garlic mash... I try to copy her.
We split Southern Tier's Choklat Stout, all agreeing that it would be delicious in a chocolate cake. Mmm, chocolate cake...
After dinner we played a few rounds of Uno...... I almost don't want to admit it. I was hoping to play Ra again, but not with three people. Maybe next time!
Hope to see you this weekend!
Administrivia note: I fixed the problem with disallowing comments on older posts.
More …
Hi J -
I think I am still feeling... the deep-fried-bday-hang-over. But wait, there is more ...
Apple Fritter breakfast while I write this post. Mmm.
This is one tasty apple fritter. I strongly concur that N is good with the deep frying.
Back to dinner ...
I don't know the reason I decided on beef again, after CFS dinner last week. Perhaps I was replaying G's general sentiment that I do not cook beef often. Some type of braised beef I thought ... On Wednesday, I cut up a brisket and marinated the big cubes in the usual suspect of soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger and garlic. I was still unsure where the dish is going. The next day, I browned the meat and asked your thought on braise vs. curry. You were very helpful and decisive - curry it will be.
browned meat deglaced with wine + stock & curry powder + chili garlic sauce
I left the pot on simmer for a couple of hours, with the exhaust fan on high, there is still a faint curry smell around the house. On Saturday, chilled and rested, I removed the layer of fat*, broke up the large cubes, added vegetables - onions, daikon, carrots, a can of coconut milk an hour and half before serving. After an hour of simmer, the vegetables were still crunchy. Yikes. My fear the vegetables may be too mushy were unfounded. I turned up the heat slightly, put the meat back in, and hoped for the best.
In the meantime, I made some plain rice, reheated some fried tofu, steamed some store bought dumplings, and stir fried some bok choy.
funny shaped rice
Phew, the vegetables were ok, and I have plenty of sauce to pour over the tofu. Yum. Personally, I would make a whole meal with just the sauce, vegetables, and tofu ...on rice. But that's just me.
After dinner, we played G's favorite, Acquire. I think he felt the worse out of all of us, even with my allergy self and your day. It was a very active game, with a lot of takeovers! I earned the highest personal return $43,600 and still lost the game to N!
We wrapped up the night with mocha beans and some girl scout cookies. Thanks for bringing the bean game over. I should really deal with that one missing card...
-E
*Unlike N, who is organize and trims meat before cooking. I am lazy.. and prefer to skim fat after cooking.
Deep Fried Goodies and Greenies
Happy March, E!
Phew! It's been quite a week over here. Snow, sleet, rain, sun, rainbows! Seattle, don't ever change.
Last weekend we celebrated your birthday (if belatedly)! That means we have to have something crispy and deep-fried and something full of creamy, tasty fat-- am I right?
Well, we did exactly that with an addition of tasty raw greens:
kale and brussels sprouts salad
I found the recipe for Kale & Brussels Sprout Salad on epicurious. It was published in Bon Appétit November 2011, as part of the Thanksgiving menu. The reviews on epicurious are overwhelmingly positive for a RAW lacinato kale and brussels sprouts salad, and I found that interesting and appealing.
A couple of mods: I used less olive oil in the vinaigrette, less cheese in the salad, and more brussels sprouts than specified. Brussels sprouts were shredded in the food processor and that worked GREAT. I held back about 1/4 of the kale/brussels sprouts mix and tossed the salad with the vinaigrette ~3 hours before dinner in an effort to tenderize the greens a bit. Then I mixed the held aside greens into it before serving. I don't think I would add the vinaigrette that much earlier next time unless I were feeding people who dislike crisp salads. That said, reviews said that the salad held up to being dressed and sitting in the fridge for up to a week, so I don't think it hurt the texture that much.
As N said, "add it to the rotation!" I'll make it again.
Speaking of N, while he grumps a little bit about deep frying stuff, he is good at it and does seem to enjoy the actual frying.
CFS fingers
For you, CFS eating champ, Chicken Fried Steak fingers! N seasoned the meat and the flour and dredged it a couple of times in order to get the appropriate amount of coating.
plated, with red dots of Frank's Red Hot
Along with the salad and CFS fingers, I tossed some potatoes with some rosemary and roasted them, nothing fancy. I liked the CFS because it turned out fairly tender on the inside. Yum. We were still left with lots of leftovers, despite my worries that we wouldn't have enough chicken fried steak!
After dinner we gave our stomachs a break and played a little bit of Uno before birthday dessert.
tiramisu
Tiramisu. I bought the lady fingers though I'd like to try my hand at making them-- next time. I'm glad I bought the lady fingers though, because I had a recipe picked out, but I noticed that the recipe on the back of the lady fingers bag looked more traditional, so I made that one instead.
While assembling, I was worried about the lady fingers losing their integrity, so I dialed back the amount of liquid I soaked them in too much, giving it a weaker espresso taste than I intended. Even though the tiramisu sat overnight, the lady fingers still had a bit too much texture to them when we chowed down on it on Saturday night. When I had a little piece of the leftovers on Sunday after my hockey game, their texture was perfect. Next time I would either let it rest for two nights after assembling or use a bit more of the marsala-espresso-brandy-vanilla liquid to drench the lady fingers.
Of note -- the Alessi lady fingers have a side that is sugared and a side that is plain. To help with the cookies not falling apart, putting the sugar side down (so the plain side is the one that gets the liquid) is the best option.
Some silly present opening happened...
Pickle ALL the Things
Lots of coffee and another round of Uno later... Happy (much belated) Birthday, E!
Ski Morocco?
Hi there, E!
Sometimes I like to overbook my time and force myself to extend so that I get more things done in a short period. It can be a little crazy and crazy-making but that's what I did this weekend.
After a fun early morning with you out at Snoqualmie for our first attempt at skiing, I ran a few errands on the way home and then set to cooking our dinner!
For holidays, Mom sent N and I a gorgeous tagine. I seasoned it and we wanted to use it, so that's where I started. I found a recipe for a Moroccan Meatball Tagine that looked promising.
tagine w/couscous
I made a few changes to the recipe. I used a 50/50 blend of beef and lamb for the meatballs, omitted the onion from the meatball mixture, and pan-seared the meatballs before adding them to the stew.
I doubled the spices specified for the meatballs and added them to the stew along with the saffron and cinnamon sticks. I omitted the raisins but added a couple of dried apricots.
Unfortunately our tagine was a little too small for the amount of meatballs this made, so I baked it in a French oven. I baked the tagine at 300°F for an hour and change instead of 350°F for 35 minutes plus.
I also made Israeli couscous* to go along with it and soak up the stew juice.
Overall impressions? The stew needed more salt and more spinach and something crispy in the stew (N, "this needs fava beans. Hey! how about adding a fried falafel to it at serve time?").
It wasn't enough vegetable content for me and I really should have made the side of broccoli I planned. That was where my over-packed day took its first toll**.
After our long strenuous day, we were too braindead to play anything beyond... Uno.
mindless gaming
Everyone won a round, but you won the game! Congrats! I was originally thinking about trying to talk everyone into playing a game of Ra but given how exhausted I was while playing simple Uno, I'm glad I didn't attempt it.
For next time -- I'm thinking about maslenitsa -- blini!
*E, "They're like savory tapioca pearls!"
**I can't believe I went to my office, got my camera, set up my plate to take a photo and then.... started eating! I didn't realize I forgot to take a photo until my bowl was almost empty. Thankfully you took a shot with the iPhone!
Chinese New Year
新年快樂
Xin Nian Kuai Le
恭喜發財
Kung Hei Fat Choy
In Mandarin and Cantonese.
With the epic snow and ice storm last week, my work at home time stretched endlessly to Friday evening, I didn't think about menu until Friday night. After conferring with you to make sure you will be able to leave your house, I searched the web and my usual suspect of food blogs for some New Year dishes. Chinese food is tricky. By which I mean I am sensitive to the food preferences of G (and N), and still want to hold on to a little heritage. Last year, I run into trouble with the chicken. I tried to step around some of those issues and attempted a more friendly menu.
- Red braised yuba skin and ribs Serious Eats
- Shrimp and chives dumplings Rasa Malaysia
- Ginger scallion fish Rasa Malaysia
- Claypot chicken rice, without claypot Rasa Malaysia
- Long Beans Washington Post
Really, these recipes are all guidelines, it was all free form cooking.
grocery, home at 1:30 pm
I had a feeling grocery shopping Saturday morning would be madness. Snowed in for days, with Chinese New Year to shop for, I was anticipating chaos at Asian markets. So I gave myself some incentive and stopped at Tofu 101, for hot brunch items. Mmm. I was also thinking taro pastry for dessert. Buns yes, but no pastry and very small selection of tofu. Yikes.
Then off to Jing Jing Market. Where I stared wide eye and honked at the lady who decided to back up in the middle of the busy parking lot. "Inches", the parking attendant said. According to him, 'Happens a lot'. Sigh. Automobile adventure aside, I came home with the last package of long beans.
all prepped, at 5pm
Lots of prepping - clean shrimp, remove string from snow peas, trim ends from long beans, soak and chop shitake mushrooms and yuba skin, chop up chicken & fish & tofu & ribs, make dumplings, julienne ginger and scallions. After starting the braise and all the prep, I had just enough time to take the fuzzies on a walk, shower, and start cooking.
phew! at the table
This particular Saturday, I felt like I was racing the clock all day! Phew. I tried to avoid cook-last-minute-dishes, but ended up with two stir frys and one pan fry. Stir fry is almost fool proof with a hot pan and same size ingredients. Keep the ingredients moving in the pan and take it off the heat just before it is done. For greens, I add some water (or broth) to steam for a few minutes.
The dishes turned out ok, no major disaster, just minor ones like losing track of my utensils. The sauce set up oddly in the long beans. I did not overcook the fish. The braised ribs texture was off. The shrimp dumplings was good. And well, the giant pot of rice was tasty, but it would be tastier with the claypot. (Yes, I really should get a claypot. I have no good reason not to have one.)
G, holding up a snow pea, "don't these have peas inside them?"
I think he confused them with sugar snap peas. Heh. So sad N does not like shitake mushrooms. Did he mind the taste in the rice? or does he just not like eating them?
where are all the females?
After dinner, I was too lazy to take out new games, even thought I've had Forbidden Island, If Wishes were Fishes, and Coloretto for a while now. I need to copy and distribute those rules ahead. So we played one of our favorite - Castle. Wow. I had the very crappy hand, totally blocked by no Queen, no Princess ...
We wrapped up the evening with Mama Mia. Go you who made all your pizzas. Happy Year of the Dragon.
Look, Bright Shinny Object
Hi J -
Merry Christmas! This has been a busy December for me. I planned on shipping a project in mid-December then coast through the holidaze at Old Job. However, New Boss at New Job had a different idea. So I found myself with only miscellaneous thoughts; no menu, no grocery list, and distinct lack of plan, two days before Christmas dinner.
- Roasted Beef with Yorkshire Pudding, with fresh grated horseradish
- Tuscan Kale Slaw
- Brussels Sprouts Gratin, a cross between this and that
- ... all that talk about Yule Log, turned into butter cookies
- and eggnog, of course
N kicked off the evening with RedBreast, 12yr with some eggnog. Was this really the first time he tried eggnog? I think he liked it. A good start to the evening.
I am going to distract you from the too rare beef with some gremlota
The beef turned out too rare. Although I didn't kill anyone, the dish didn't win any fans. The kale slaw was pretty good. I tried to add some crunch with crumbled crouton bits, but it needed more.
all pretty before tossing
Was it painfully obvious my strategy on this meal was mitigation? Meat and two sides are new and untested So in the event the beef didn't turn out, have a different protein (eggs!). If you do not like vegetables, have some cheese to go with that (gratin!). And in case one vegetable side doesn't turn out, well try the other vegetable dish (Brussel Sprouts or Kale!). Or was it distraction? burn your face off with fresh horseradish, or hey, look at the cute dishes!
Poor G, the combination of rare beef, soft boiled eggs, and kale almost put him over the edge. No matter, he drank his dinner. (booze!)
Does this qualify as vegetable?
cute dinnerware
nevermind what's on (or not) my plate
The Yorkshire pudding bombed. They burnt in the muffin tin and didn't puff. I have not had trouble with popovers, Dutch babies, or any of the poofy pancake like dishes. These were total fail.
But ... You rescued us with a sweet finish of Pecan Pie (and coffee pot).
mmm pie, and hi I see you Butter Cookies
The food was fine, but your company is awesome. Merry Christmas and best wishes to the New Year! And Happy anniversary to TNN.
-E, G, W & K
P.S. The sticky pecan rolls are from this recipe.
