Welcome to 2014: Here's some food to celebrate.

Ok, so I admit this is a horrible way to start off the new year. A blog should have words, not just photos. But currently, I am tired. Trust me, I have plenty of resolutions (or rather intentions) and one of them is to follow through and grab the bull by the horns (interpret that however you'd like). However, it's Wednesday and I just spent the last 9 hours of my day staring at a screen. So, rather than give you some nonsensical ramblings of the past two weeks I spent home in the Bay - here is my visual summary:

A schmorgesborg of local Bay Area cheeses, breads and homegrown greens

Christmas Method X prime rib

Our traditional Temple Solael Christmukkah latkes, made by yours truly

Homemade dan dan mian

Beef pot pie, made with the leftover prime rib

Dim sum take-out with my Gung (holding down the table like a boss)

Goodbye dinner at the newly reopened Great China, in Berkeley

 And there you have it! Happy 2014 everyone!

Most Eggcellent

We have this tradition at work. And that tradition is breakfast. Every Wednesday we take turns pairing up to provide a team breakfast to share with the rest of our department. Typically we get the rotating Dunkin Donuts bagels, or donuts from Jewell. But then there are some of us, myself included, who take it to the next level. The ones who go above and beyond because we love food, good food, and we love sharing and talking about good food.

This week was my turn. I chose to do an egg bake (or an egg casserole for those who like to be fancy). I had to feed about 15 people so it was a good thing I had two dozen eggs in my fridge. First things first, bacon. Bacon always comes first in my book. I took a full pack of bacon, diced it into little bite size pieces and fried it up in my largest skillet. I cooked it all the way through until it was dark and crispy, leaving it to dry on a bed of paper towels.

Next, I got the oven going at 350F and caramelized a full red onion. I added a whole bag of spinach once the onion was caramelized and turned off the heat to finish cooking. I'm really not a fan of soggy spinach, plus it would cook a bit more in the oven later with the eggs.

I should note that I made two separate egg bakes, as I have one co-worker who cannot eat gluten and another who does not like goat cheese (for some unimaginable reason that I can't seem to comprehend) I took turns beating one full dozen eggs in the bowl, then six eggs separately for the smaller batch. Beating the eggs, I added about 1/2 cup of milk, herbs de Provence and salt + pepper. Now, I don't think this is essentially for all bakes, but I had some leftover garlic potato bread from Little Goat which I thinly sliced and based the 13x9 pan with. I then poured the egg mixture over the bread and then sprinkled the spinach, onion and goat cheese evenly throughout the egg. I left the bacon for the end so it was sitting on top and could stay as crispy as possible. Place in the oven and cook for 25-30 min or until the egg stops jiggling.

 

Shalom Jalapeños

Yes, I have been Slacking and I blame grad school... But a bonus of grad school is I am not ashamed to continue to take advantage of Birthright and have them front the bill on delicious eats for me and my beautiful friends.  I got ambitious this time around and decided I could cook for 12 people all on my own which meant it was an all day cookout while I jammed out to some Sly and the Family Stone radio on Pandora. In my mind it looked something like this, but with a spoon in my hand:

In reality, I probably looked a lot more like this chick:

I was expecting a vegan guest (ewwwww) so I decided to be accommodating and make a couple of vegan dishes he could enjoy. The menu I came up with:

Drinks
Margaritas, Strawberry Margaritas, wine and beer

Appetizers:
- cheese (Delice de Bourgogne)
- Homemade guacamole
- hummus and pita chips

Main course:
- Black bean salad (vegan)
- Potato salad (vegan)
- BBQ chicken sandwiches (not-so-vegan)
- coleslaw

Dessert:
- Peach crisp with vanilla ice cream

First thing I had to do was cook the potatoes for the potato salad. The potato salad ingredients are:

- 12 red or yellow/golden potatoes
- one red onion
- 6 celery stalks
- balsamic dressing
- salt and pepper

I used a mix of red potatoes and golden potatoes to make it more colorful. These potatoes have less skin and boil easily, perfect for a delicious potato salad. I 'cleaned' them off then put them in a pot of water on the stove and turned up the heat. I let them boil for about 30 minutes or until I put a fork in them and they were soft, but not falling apart soft. I then drained the potatoes and let them cool. Once they had cooled down enough for me to touch them without burning my fingers I chopped them into nice bite sized pieces (not too small, but small enough to fit in your mouth), and threw them in a big bowl.  Next I diced the red onion and celery and threw them in as well. While the potatoes were boiling I prepared my home-made balsamic vinaigrette. For this I usually take an old jar, put a large spoonful of Dijon mustard (preferably Grey Poupon cuz' we classy), then pour in enough balsamic vinegar to cover the mustard. I then throw in a dash of soy sauce, salt and pepper, a minced clove of garlic, a little honey, and for this potato salad I decided to throw in some dry thyme. I then add about 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Put the lid on the jar, and shake until it is all mixed in.  Do a taste test and make sure you got your measurements right. The last step was mixing the dressing into the potato mixture and adding some salt and pepper to taste, and voilà delicious 'vegan' potato salad. Weirdly this is an old family recipe and it never occurred to me it was vegan. I have always loved this salad, it is delicious and refreshing, and you don't have to get weighed down by tons of mayo.

The next dish was the black bean salad. I have always loved black bean salad, but never tried making my own so I decided to give it a go. I found a recipe online and worked from there. The ingredients (serves 12):

- 15 ounce can of black beans
- 4 ears of corn (or a 10 ounce can of corn)
- 8 green onions
- 2 jalapeños
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 1 avocado
- 3 tomatoes
- 1 cup of chopped cilantro
- 1 lime
- italian style dressing

Basically all this took was throwing everything in a big bowl and mixing it up. It turns out its super easy! :) The only complication was that I decided to use real corn instead of canned corn so I boiled some water in a pot and threw 4 ears of corn in there for 4-5 minutes.  I cut the corn off the cob and threw it in the bowl with the black beans, diced onions, minced jalapeños (add less if you are sensitive to spice/make sure you remove the seeds from these babies).  I used a yellow bell pepper instead of the recommended green because I like them better, but use whatever color you like. The only note I would make is to add the avocado at the end so that it doesn't get super squished, or leave it out and make guac instead, all good options. For the italian dressing I improvised a bit and made a dressing with some rice wine vinegar, a little chili powder, garlic, italian herbs, and olive oil. I thought it was delicious. One thing is that I dressed it before everyone arrived, I would wait until you are going to serve it so that it doesn't get too watery. The lime juice you can squeeze on whenever you feel like it. It is a pretty little salad, and yes vegan friendly for you egg and dairy haters out there.

The final step was the coleslaw and BBQ chicken sandwiches. These were incredibly easy as well. First the coleslaw:
- 6 cups shredded cabbage
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 3/4 cup scallions/green onions
- 4 tbls mayo
- apple cider or white vinegar
- 2.5 tbls. spicy brown mustard or dijon mustard
- honey and optional horseradish (although if you use dijon this has horseradish in it)

I got the shredded carrots and cabbage at Trader Joe's so other than that I just diced some onions and dressed the stuff. Easy-peasy.

The chicken too was simple:

- 2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breast
- 1 large thinly sliced white or yellow onion
- 1 18oz bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce (or preferred BBQ sauce)
- Hamburger buns

Basically I just put the chicken in a pan, covered it with the chopped onion and BBQ sauce and threw it in the oven. The only problem was that by the time I decided to put the chicken in the oven, I had had a few beers and some margarita so instead of setting the oven to the recommended 325 degrees I set it to 250 and by the time I realized this it had already been about 30minutes so instead of taking like 1h10min to cook, it took like 2hrs, no big deal.... It turned out delicious anyway, but if I did it again I might use a little less BBQ sauce or a less-sweet variety. This is what it looked like before going into the oven:

Let's just say I forgot to take a picture of the final product. Everyone was pretty hungry by the time I took it out of the oven and it went fast. So while dinner was delicious try not to be this girl when you are hosting a dinner party of 12:

Or maybe do, she's kinda awesome... But don't be like me and forget to make dessert. The crisp ended up as sliced peaches with ice cream because I was just hella tired after cooking all day, let's be real.

Happy eating ya'll!

Roast Chicken with Truffle Salt + Garlic Cauliflower Mash

No time for puns or jokes here. This bird is just too damn good.

Chicken Ingredients:
1 whole roasting chicken
2 tbsp truffle salt
1 fennel root (I don't know what the measurement is on this but it's one root)
1/2 stalk of celery
2 large red onion
1 lemon
Handful of herbs de Provence (or thyme as a po' man's substitute)
olive oil to rub the chicken
sea salt + pepper to taste
 
Preheat oven to 400F 
Cook at 400 for 1 hour, last 15 min turn on broiler to crisp the skin

One of the most important things I've learned in my late 20s is that roasting a chicken is nothing to be afraid of. I used to be extremely intimidated by the thought of tackling a whole bird, but really it is so much easier than I find it crazy that it took me this long to figure it out. I also have a crockpot and have slow cooked that sucker all day long, but I actually prefer roasting in the oven. You get the same tender, moist (yes, I said it) meat but you also get the crispy skin! 

After you discard the yucky bits and wash the bird, pat it dry so the oil and spices will stick. Now really, you can put whatever you want into the bird cavity. This time I had extra fennel so I shoved that into the bird's hole with celery, one of the onions (halved), the celery stalks and the lemon (squeezed and halved). After he was stuffed to the brim, I used a knife and some unflavored dental floss to suture the fatty little bird. Hopefully you will have some more legit tools to use, but if you don't - dental floss works wonders! I also used it to tie the wings and legs together. I believe this is to help keep the moisture in, but I'm not entirely sure it serves a purpose. (It's just the proper thing to do. Legs always together, a lady reveals nothing...)

To get that crispy skin and moist meat - think of the chicken as a turkey. You want to brine it with the salt. Start by drizzling olive oil over to get a good slick base. Then take the sea salt and rub it all over and especially under the skin. I probably used about 1-1.5 tbsp worth to get a good coating. Keep in mind my truffle salt is also quite salty so I was careful not to overdo it. Then comes the pepper and herbs de Provence. Once the bird is evenly seasoned, place in the oven at 400F uncovered. After 45min (depending on your oven) I turned the broiler on to brown the skin for the last 15. Here is how mine turned out:

Now, hopefully you have some sort of idea how to carve this thing. Luckily I mastered my poultry carving skills in Brooklyn Thanksgiving '08 when no one else knew how to do it and I just had to "wing" the whole thing (har har). When in doubt, just follow the bones and wait for something to crack. If you literally have no idea, I guess just have at it with your bare hands. Like a natural-born-human.

Cauliflower Mash Ingredients:
1 head of cauliflower, chopped into big chunks
1 small red onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
2 tsp olive oil
salt + pepper to taste
Italian parsley and chives to garnish

 The trick to this mash is to not add any liquid. I made this mistake the first go-around and it was quite the disappointment. 

Begin with sauteeing the diced red onion, garlic and cauliflower together in a frying pan. After the onions brown a bit and the cauliflower absorbs some of the garlic flavor, add a small amount of water into the pan cover and let the cauliflower steam. Be sure not to overcook the cauliflower otherwise it will be too soggy. I prefer a chunky mash to a puddle of mash. When the cauliflower is cooked to your liking, add all contents of the pan into the food processor. Add the parmesan and pulse until the chunks of cauliflower are no more. Through your little hole in the lid (the feeder tube?) add the olive oil slowly until you get the consistency you desire. Add salt + pepper to taste and garnish with parsley and chives. BOOM.
 

Beet Pesto aka A Murder Scene in your Cuisinart

Toot toot! Aaaah, beet beet!

Ingredients (makes a lot of pesto, about 2 cups):

6 whole beets, quartered (I buy the pre-cooked from Trader Joe's, Costco etc)

3 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup of pistachios

1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup of arugula (for kick - optional)

salt + pepper to taste

*I don't like following directions that much so these are approximate measurements. Be your own guide. Fly free!

I really love Buzzfeed. I hate to admit how much, but it's just great. So imagine my excitement when I realized they have a Buzzfeed Food page. This article came up about how many different things you can turn into pesto and this was by far the most interesting recipe to me. I absolutely love beets. Some people say they taste like dirt. Oh well, I guess I just like dirt. The original recipe for this pesto came from Eat, Live, Run Not so sure about the "Run" part, but I see what they're getting at. I'll just stick to the eating and living part.

Sidebar - I recently just bought a food processor which has become my new life partner. Several of the recipes to follow will probably be featuring said processor. It is seriously the best kitchen friend I have ever had - it makes things so much easier! Go get one, you will not regret it.

There isn't really a whole lot to this "recipe" as it just consists of throwing things into the processor and pulverizing the shit out of them. I started with the beets, rinsed and quartered to make the blending a bit easier on my BFF. Then added the garlic, pistachios (no need to roast unless you're feeling ambitious), parmesan, lemon juice and olive oil. Now, a real chef may tell you that it's better to add certain things at different times because the flavors will blend better or it affects the viscosity of the beets, etc.
However, since I am not one of those, I just did it this way. Now, pulverize away. At this point, I could have stopped here but I felt like it was just lacking a bit of something. Here comes my other best friend, Arugula (sshhh don't tell Beet - but really, she knows...) I added the arugula as a last minute impulse. It very well could have ruined the whole thing (how? I'm not really sure but I feel like I needed to just say that) but it turned out to be the perfect missing piece. Now, blend again. Naturally, salt and pepper to your liking and then you have your beet pesto!

Tonight, I paired my beet pesto with gluten-free elbow pasta. Normally I would make normal human pasta but tonight I was feeling extra earthy (hippie) and decided to give it a try. Partner that with your favorite side, wine, what have you et voila!

"Coulda been chicken..."

[First and foremost, to understand this title reference please refer to 11:20 in this YouTube clip] 

Spring has officially sprung and it's time to get this blog back into action. To be quite frank, I'm embarrassed at how long it's been since the last post. Big thangs have popped since 2011. Latke has left and returned from Africa and is back in NYC to pursue post-grad achievements at Columbia. Lil Wonton has since moved to Chicago for personal pursuits. But despite her neglect for this food blog, her love (obsession, really) for food never waned. For you and I, dear food, are meant to be together. It's written in the stars....(OK, enough. Please don't get scared and close this tab.)

Part of me thinks the first post in two years would warrant something a bit more "special" than your average chicken. However, a few beers in and I felt compelled to cook/clean out the fridge which also lead to the this-would-be-the-perfect-time-to-crack-back-into-that-food-blog-I-once-had-many-moons-ago thought. So yes, we find ourselves here. With a six pack of Racer 5 and my guilty conscience for a neglected blog and fear of spoiling perfectly good chicken breast.

We start with the Israeli couscous salad. As the weather rises, I refind my love for salads. I'm not really talking about lettuce, but cold noodle salads, couscous salads and the like. (FYI - sesame noodle salad post coming shortly so get ready.) At first thought, Israeli couscous might sound a bit too exotic, but really, you can find it at any Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. The one I buy is from Trader Joe's in the purple box. What you want to start with, is browning it on the stove with a bit of olive oil so you get a nice color. While that cooks and then cools, prep your veggies. My go-to's are diced Persian cucumber, red onion, Italian parsley, cherry tomatoes, pine nuts/almonds and your favorite salad dressing (nothing creamy or too heavy - you want to keep it light and fresh for Spring/Summer). Prep is the most time consuming part. But when you're done, it sure is purdy (see below)

Mmmm Racer 5....

And den....once the couscous is done and cooled, mix all that together with your favorite dressing. Sometimes I make a simple vinaigrette but tonight I used a rosemary lemon vinaigrette I picked up at Whole Foods. Toss it together, and add the nuts last. It's best to keep them toasty and crunchy. I took my pine nuts and broiled them for a hot minute in the oven, then diced them up and added them to the mix. End product...

Next stop....chicken. I had some frozen chicken breasts that I recently defrosted then forgot about. So before they went foul (teehee), I felt like I needed to do something with them. I also had some leftover bacon (seems weird to say, no?) so decided to bacon-wrap the chicken breast because....well, because that's just what you do. I really should have just stopped there. But then I remembered I had breadcrumbs and grated parmesan in the fridge. So we breaded that sh-t. (MMHMM!) Before wrapping the bacon around the chicken, I lightly season-salted and peppered the chicken breasts. Then, the exact order I executed was wrapping, egg washing, breadcrumb/parmesan mixture dabbing/patting. Not sure if this order is traditionally kosher, but this is what seemed to make sense in my head. Ok, so wrap that chicken like a lil babay. Bake in the oven at 425 for about 30 min and you shall have a lil sumpin sumpin that looks like this:

So there you have it! Chicken and Israeli couscous salad. I'm not trying to toot my own horn or anything, but uh...

Simple pleasures in life...

gnocchi with pork sausage, spinach and pesto. 
thanks Trader Joe's!

  I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at first, but it turns out the Trader Joe's gnocchi is...not so bad. I've been craving gnocchi lately but have been too lazy to make it from scratch. While I was on the train coming back from work, I started brainstorming ideas for dinner (as I often do). Gnocchi with fennel sausage, pesto and spinach perhaps? Luckily we live 2 blocks away from a legit Italian butcher. Shout out to Los Paisanos on Smith Street! Woot woot! (Can I have some free meat now please?) Los Paisanos doesn't mess around. These guys have nearly every kind of meat and cut that you would ever want, and their prices are pretty damn reasonable. I picked up some Italian berkshire pork sausage meat to go with the gnocchi, and two extra sausage links. Cause, you know. Why not?
  This is a fairly simple meal to throw together. The gnocchi cooks in about 5 minutes so while I was waiting I sauteed up some fresh minced garlic and diced onion, then threw in the sausage meat. When the sausage is cooked through, I turned off the heat and added three big handfuls of spinach and stirred until it was completely wilted. Then I added just a touch of marinara sauce for liquid and a bit of acidity. But I wanted the base of the sauce to be pesto, so I added some of TJ's jarred pesto and mixed that all together.
  At the end, I threw the gnocchi into the pan with the sauce  to fully coat each little gnocchi baby, and finally plated with some freshly grated asiago and some basil leaves. Not bad for a 10 minute meal. Do eet!