March 07, 2004
other food blogs
My friend Bernadette has a great food blog that I don't read often enough: Kitchen In it she posts that the Naked Chef has a blog.
Posted by amanda at 08:21 PM | Comments (78) | TrackBack
Fruity beans!
26-1. I don't want to talk about it. These beans were the highlight of yesterday. Black beans with Portuguese sausage and tropical fruits. I've made lots of different kinds of pork'n'beans, and the easiest way to make them taste good is by adding lots of pork fat or spices. This variation on the theme doesn't heavily rely on either of those two crutches. These beans are mildly sweet and spicy at the same time, with fruit flavors shining through. It's pretty good, I'll probably make this again.
Fruity Black Beans
Serves 5-8
2 cans black beans
2 linguica sausages
1 medium red onion
1 banana
1 mango
1 red bell pepper
1 1/2 cups Tangerine juice (This is my preference, you could use other citrus juices)
Jerk seasoning
Hot sauce (I used Frank's Red Hot)
Thinly slice the sausages and fry in a big pot. Remove sausages and set aside, leaving the drippings on the heat.
Fry the red onion, minced in the sausage drippings. Since this is a lean sausage (kind of), there may not be enough fat, so feel free to add vegetable or corn oil as needed.
Once the onions have turned translucent, add the banana and mango, finely diced. Also add a few pinches of salt and a good amount of the premixed jerk seasonings.
Add about 1/2 cup of juice, lower the heat to medium-high and let the mixture simmer until the fruits are mushy and about half of the liquid is gone. While it's simmering, give it a good sniff. It smells delicious!
Drain the canned beans and add. Add the bell pepper, finely diced. Add hot sauce, to taste. Let simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the beans are semi soft.
Add the cooked sausage and the rest of the juice. Lower the heat to medium and let simmer until the beans start to become mushy. You'll lose some liquid, but that's okay.
Take off heat and let cool. The sauce should thicken up a bit. Serve and hope your basketball team doesn't lose.
Posted by gaurav at 05:44 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
March 06, 2004
we be sushi
All you mission district denizens probably know this place. Christine and Ken and I went to the one closer to 16th St. on Valencia last night. The sushi there is about as good as at places in Palo Alto that charge twice as much. Seriously, even the uni is good. After Christine placed her order, the waiter said "OK, that was for everyone, right?" He clearly underestimated the depth of her sushi pit. We pretty much split the sushi evenly between us, but while I was clearly in pain, she made it look easy.
Our order:
4 sake
2 maguro
2 hokkigai (surf clam)
4 amaebi
4 uni
2 tobiko
2 ikura
2 ika
4 hamachi
2 saba
rock'n'roll
spider roll
rainbow roll
new york roll
For a total of 52 pieces between the two of us.
plus the shrimp heads that came with the amaebi. Their shrimp heads are superlative.
Posted by amanda at 01:55 PM | Comments (19) | TrackBack
March 05, 2004
some jamba juice recipes
strawberries wild banana berry peach pleasure, sorta ice is usually optional - can just add more juice. i've added other fruits (pears, parsimmons) with varying results. staples are bananas and frozen yogurt, then just varying the fruit and juice mixes. most stuff tastes fine together, and it's great to start your day. you can get frozen fruit at safeway, and sometimes huge bags from costco (6# bag of strawberries for 6 bucks!)
2 scoops strawberries (approx 10 strawberries)
1 banana
2 scoops frozen yogurt
1 scoop ice
8 oz apple juice
2 scoops blueberries (a handful or so)
1 banana
2 scoops frozen yogurt
1 scoop ice
8 oz apple juice
2 scoops peaches
1 banana
2 scoops frozen yogurt
1 scoop ice
8 oz orange juice or v-8 tropical splash
Posted by kevin at 04:06 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
March 04, 2004
Do you know your cuts of beef?
The cow is a magical animal. How magical? Take a look for yourself! Or, in full, modern Technicolor, you can more closely examine the: Thanks to the Department of Animal Science, Oklahoma State University, from where I stole all of this information! I'm thinking about applying there for graduate school, hopefully in the "Meats" program.
Round, Foreshank & Brisket, Short loin, Sirloin, Flank & Short plate, Chuck, Rib, and Other cuts.
Posted by gaurav at 12:53 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack
March 03, 2004
chocolate creme brulee
I tried this on valentine's day. I started out with the chocolate pots de creme recipe from New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant, but modified it quite a bit. For custards I typically start out using a recipe because if I try to make up the egg-to-cream ratio I usually mess up.
The original recipe:
2 cups heavy cream or half and half.
8 ounces sweet chocolate
6 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
What I did:
I definitely use the heavy cream, because fat tastes good. Also, I went with semi-sweet chocolate instead.
Do the general making-custard thing: heat up the cream and chocolate in a double boiler. Once it's all melted, pour that gradually into the beaten egg yolks, then pour it back into the double boiler until it sticks to the spoon. It's not going to really solidify until you refrigerate it.
Meanwhile, I soaked some dried cherries in port. In order to get them to really soak up the liquid, I put it on the stove on really low heat. I cut them up into really little pieces, since I don't really want large chewy chunks in my creme brulee, and added that stuff to the custard.
Then I refrigerated it in little ramekins for a couple hours. Put some white sugar on top, melt that shit with a culinary torch. (Or broil, if you don't have a culinary torch. Or call me and ask to borrow my culinary torch.) Whip up some whipped cream, and throw that on top. But if it's still hot the whipped cream will melt, which is kind of gross.
I was pretty happy with the combination of port, cherry, and not-too-sweet chocolate flavors... and the burnt sugar.
Posted by amanda at 01:09 PM | Comments (22) | TrackBack
March 01, 2004
Most Original Chili
We had a chili cook-off a few weeks ago at work. My boss made me in charge of organizing our group entry. Pretty much everybody I work with lives far away and didn't want to drive an hour to help make some silly chili. So, I ended up doing it by myself. And my boss insisted that it use seafood, since we're ocean people. We had a lot of fun coming up with recipes. This is what we came up with. It won "Most Original Chili", mostly because it's barely even chili
Thai Shrimp Chili
Serves 12-15
4 pounds pinto beans
2 pounds frozen shrimp (the small ones, not the teeny ones. ~50 per count)
1 pound bacon
3 medium red onions
1 lump ginger
4-5 oranges (or, equivalent volume tangerines, mandarins, etc)
1 can honey roasted peanuts
1 can coconut milk
Sriracha (or other Vietnamese hot sauce)
Ginger chili paste
Cayenne pepper
Put the beans in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, add salt. Take off of heat and let soak overnight.
In a large pot, fry the bacon. Remove the cooked bacon, but keep the drippings on the heat.
Add the red onions, finely minced. Fry onions until they start turning clear. Add the ginger, grated. Add the zest of all the oranges. At this point, you can also add garlic, shallots, cumin seeds, lemongrass, whatever you want.
Fry all of the tasty seasonings and inhale the aromas.
Add the shrimp and the oranges, cubed. The shrimp are fully cooked, we're just trying to sweat the ice crystals off of the shrimp and soften the oranges.
Add Sriracha, ginger chili paste, and cayenne to taste. Each one ot the chilis hits a different part of the palate.
Add the beans and coconut milk.
Let simmer until beans are tender.
Add peanuts and crumbled bacon.
Top with goldfish crackers and serve.
Posted by gaurav at 06:46 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
Mmm....Mashed Potatoes
I like mashed potatoes. But, regular mashed potatoes are only good with gravy. I don't know how to make gravy, I always screw it up. Lately, I've been trying to figure out to how to make mashed potatoes whose taste stands by themself. I highly recommend the wasabi mashed potatoes at Simon, one of the restaurants at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. Here are two of my recent mashed potatoe recipes: apple mashed potatoes and bacon-horseradish mashed potatoes.
Apple Mashed Potatoes:
Serves about 6
4 Russet potatoes
2 Granny Smith apples
1 1/2 sticks butter (butter should be measured in "sticks" and not "tablespoons")
Brown sugar
Salt
Dried dill
Peel, cube, and boil potatoes.
In a large pan, melt the butter and start caramelizing cubed apple chunks (with the skins). Once apples are semi soft, add 3-4 tablespoons of brown sugar and let mixture simmer until apples reach a mashable consistency.
When potatoes are boiled, drain and partially mash. Add butter-apple mixture and mash away.
Season with salt and dried dill to taste.
Bacon-Horseradish Mashed Potatoes:
Serves about 6
4 Russet potatoes
1 sweet potato
1/2 lb thick cut bacon
1/2 cup milk
4 tbsp horseradish
Salt
Pepper
Peel, cube and boil potatoes and sweet potato.
Fry bacon, drain and set aside. Save bacon drippings (of course!).
Drain and mash potatoes and sweet potato.
Mash in bacon drippings (wait until they've cooled down a bit)
Mash in milk (the drippings at flavor and fat, but not enough creaminess)
Mash in horseradish (to taste)
Crumble and mix in bacon.
Season to taste.
Posted by gaurav at 03:27 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
pretty good website
i've found a couple great recipes on this website so i thought this should be my first post: and i'll add it to the links on the side too :)
Posted by honeyfields at 02:37 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
CIA Greystone: March fun
Who wants to go to this? Live cooking demonstrations monday - friday at 1:30 and 3:30. 707-967-2328 for reservations. This month we have:
Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30, 1:30 and 3:30.
$12.50 get you in, and you get to taste and get the recipe.
Wild Boar Pot Pie
Red Wine Risotto with Radicchio and Pancetta
Blueberry Pecan Scones
White Bean Soup with Chanterelles and Sage
Urban Myth Chocolate Chip Cookies
Olive Oil-Poached Shrimp Frisée in Caper Vinaigrette
Pear Cardamom Bread Pudding
Handmade Mozzarella with Olives in Fennel and Orange Marinade
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Sesame Scallops with Red Curry and Coconut Broth
Posted by amanda at 01:58 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack