Shanghai Soup Dumplings

Recently I discovered that "mandu" is the Korean word for dumpling.  In Japanese perhaps you would say I am a "gyoza otaku" or liberally translated: "dumpling eating fiend."  Perhaps my last name means the same thing in Korean?  These are my first attempt at making the greatest type of dumplings I have yet to encounter, the xiao long bao or Shanghai Soup Dumpling.  Inside is a delicious pork filling and piping hot soup - you bite into these over a spoon just in case you spill some soup.  This picture is of one on my better ones... ignore the one in the background that burst while steaming and spilled its precious broth everywhere.  What a shame!

Cold Brunch

The menu for this brunch was a response to a particular challenge.  One guest had a a doctor's warning against eating hot foods.  So instead of postponing brunch, we set out to make an equally scrumptious brunch with only cold components.  For the salad, the blackberry-walnut salad was a reprise.  We had two soups, a gazpacho and a cantaloupe chilled fruit soup for the fruit component.  Deviled eggs, homemade wheat bread, and a selection of cold cuts (smoked turkey, prosciutto, a taste of the boccalone orange fennel sausage, and smoked gouda).  The blueberry muffins did not even make the picture.  Needless to say, we were stuffed.

Blackberry Walnut Feta Salad

I love that blackberries are wild and pop up around the DC area.  There are a few bushes not far from our apartment... though there are usually only enough for a passing snack and not to pick and take home.  These are big ones from a pick your own farm and they are delicious.  Candied walnuts are great - I remember the smell of them in Downtown Crossing in the freezing Boston winter, but they do almost as well in a summer setting and give a satisfying sweet crunch.  The recipe is a strange one, but good for light summer dinners and eating up your delicious blackberries in a way that is not pie.  That is not to say I could ever have enough blackberry pie, but one must have consideration for others who must dine in the same household.

Tapioca Pudding

Look no further than the back of the box for this recipe, and if you have the time do the one that uses the beaten egg whites. The strawberries and Trader Joe's waffle cookies are good complements to the vanilla-y awesomeness that this king of puddings manifests.

Ralphie's Special Tacos

This recipe comes from Saveur Magazine - a magazine I wholeheartedly recommend for pictures and inspiration, but decidedly not for the recipes.  On occasion, though, I do try them out.  I tried these tacos to try a chicken-cooking technique I had not tried before.  Basically you boil a whole chicken, shred it, and then fry it to get the crispy edges.  Unfortunately I didn't get the required heat in the pan, and all the juices that are saved through boiling the chicken cooked right out of the meat when it went in the pan.  I think with more heat and hotter oil I could do a much better job next time.  They were still tasty.

Sweetgreen Bondi at Home

Hot summer days are great for making a meal out of a tasty salad, but unfortunately all my salads start to look the same after a while.  Enter some creative inspiration from local salad joint menus like Chop't and Sweetgreen.  Sweetgreen especially has some really interesting combination ideas.  This is the Bondi from their menu, you can find it here.  The killer ingredient here are the wasabi peas with a crunchiness that does not wilt and a bit of a cleansing spicy kick!

Baby Spinach and Mesclun.
Corn.
Hearts of Palm.  (Trader Joe's good for these.)
Avocado.
Wasabi peas.
Add chicken if you want.
Whip up some dressing with sesame oil base.  I would have loved to try the miso but we didn't have any on hand.  You could experiment with tahini or peanut butter.

Summer Sandwich

Fresh tomatoes.
Fresh green beans lightly sauteed in olive oil.
Scrambled eggs.
Crusty toast.
A taste of cured orange fennel salami.

Equals open-faced summer sandwiches.

Summertime is when you can look around your kitchen and make something simple in a few minutes out of what you have foraged from the grocery store or farm stands.  The salami is amazing and came from our foraging expedition to San Francisco.  you can order online from Boccalone's online store.  We tried this one and the Nduja, which are both incredible.  If you sample any others, let me know.

Mac and Goat Cheese

Recently, Emily and I have been on a quest for really simple and fast meals.  We're trying to eat earlier during the week, and with my bus-riding ways, this means we have to simplify a lot of the time.  But tastiness cannot be sacrificed!  Here's a neat little adult mac 'n' cheese that turned out yummy and quick.  Asparagus season is probably past by now, but other greens can be substituted.  The goat cheese we used was you typical pyramid of Chavrie, which worked out well.  A stronger cheese would have been good too.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

By now you are on the verge of missing strawberry season!  Don't let such a thing happen - go pick some really ripe local ones from a farm near you.  You can make the most classic (and arguably the best) of all smoothies every morning for breakfast and still have plenty left over for noshing and pie.  My recipe is simple.  Cut up one or two bananas and all the strawberries that will fit in our blender.   Freeze it for about 15 minutes, then fill up the blender.  Pour a cup of plain yogurt in, and pour in enough milk to get the blender to do it's work, maybe half to a full cup.   If the strawberries are tart, add a pinch of sugar.  Add a dash of salt.  Blend.  

Three Bean Salad

Remember 3 bean salad?  It's a classic American salad - maybe it's out of style, but it's a great idea.  Healthy, filling but light, tasty salad great for hot days or outdoor picnics.  Making your own make it taste fresher and more crisp, but is still easy.  Use canned chick peas, and canned kidneys.  Steam some green beans until just done - still bright green and crisp.  Then mix it all together with your favorite vinaigrette dressing.  Don't forget salt and pepper, maybe a mustard or some herbs.  I like to make a more vinegary dressing than with a conventional salad because the beans soak up the flavors.  Eat with crusty bread.

Lemon Sea Salt Focaccia

How many of you think that this recipe would be better off without the pretentiousness of sea salt being added to the name?  Maybe just Lemon Salt Focaccia, or Lemon Focaccia since there is always salt on focaccia anyway?  Normally I can't stand that kind of thing, but this recipe merits whatever devices can be employed to lure you into trying the recipe because it's good.  The recipe is here.  Eat it all hot out of the oven.

Linguine with Lamb and Asparagus

This is about what you can do with leftovers from a roast - in this case the lamb roast from a few posts back.  This was great quality lamb, not to go to waste or be buried under sauce.  And asparagus was in season (and happened to be available in the fridge.)  This little improv showcases some of the techniques Cook's Illustrated magazine likes to tout, so I credit them for the recipe.

First I cut up the lamb and sauteed it over really high heat for about 2 minutes to get a little brown and just warm up the meat.  Meanwhile, the asparagus steamed in a a pot for just a few minutes - so it is bright green and still has bite.  Cook the linguine al dente.  When the lamb is done, deglaze with some chicken stock.  Mix in some pureed canned tomatoes, leftover juice from the can, or maybe just diced tomatoes straight from the can.  Scrape up all the brown bits and reduce over high heat for a couple minutes. Then taste, season, turn heat to low, and stir in about 2 tablespoons of cream.  Pour the sauce over the linguine, mix with lamb and asparagus and serve.  Don't worry too much about proportions - just do what looks right, and taste as you go.  The idea is a very light cream sauce, so if there's one thing not to go overboard on, that would be it.

Venison Tenderloin

We had one cut remaining in our freezer from the large gift of venison we got last winter.  It is such a nice, lean cut of meat that I couldn't stand to do anything but roast it nicely.  And that's what I did.  Doing some research, I discovered that the target temperature is right around 140 degrees.  So the technique was to season it, brown all sides in the pan over high heat, and then transfer to the oven until the temp reached 140.  I think this took about 15-20 minutes.  The veggies: carrots, onions, and celery, roughly chopped got a basic seasoning and olive oil and roasted in the pan with the tenderloin.  They take a bit longer so I started them before the meat.  The kicker with this combo is the cranberry relish.  After looking in the Silver Spoon cookbook and discovering that cranberries were a natural pairing for venison, I decided that a normal Thanksgiving style cooked cranberry sauce was not going to be quite right.  Instead, we chose this recipe from Martha, which uses raw cranberries, along with orange and pineapple.  This one we will be making again - it is bright-sweet-tart and refreshing up against venison.  Keep this in mind.

Chocolate Bread Pudding

Who could have thunk it?  Chocolate bread pudding emerges from freezer week?  Well, yes.  A few slices of Emily's last batch of "quick brioche" were still in the freezer.  Just enough for two ramekin sized portions of bread pudding.  Let me tell you, these are rich and deeply chocolatey...probably because we used all very dark chocolate, and none of that milk so-called "chocolate."  Find the recipe here.  Bread pudding fans will enjoy this, but it's not the highest form of the art.  This scores more in the chocolate column of desserts, than in the bread pudding column.  Still delicious.

Weeknight Chicken Tacos

Freezer week continues.  Tacos remain on my list of go-to improv recipes for a tasty dinner our of whatever's in the fridge. In this case: some chicken thighs that have been in the freezer almost too long.  I chopped them very small and browned them in the pan on one side until they had almost crispy edges.  Then a quick scrape of the pan and you can mix in your taco spices.  I generally have some sort of tomato juice leftover in the fridge from a can of tomatoes.  I like oregano, chilies, cumin, hot sauce, salt and pepper.   I find most chile powders taste dull and I avoid them in favor of a good hot sauce.  Put a little chicken on a warmed corn tortilla, with a lot of fresh lettuce and tomato on top.

Madras Shrimp Curry

I picked up an Indian cookbook in London a year and a half ago.  It's called 50 Great Curries of India by Camellia Panjabi.  I didn't need to go to London, you can get it on Amazon for 10 bucks.  The curry in this recipe comes from one of her "research" trips to Chennai (aka Madras).  Think coconut, curry leaves, and tamarind in kind of a tomato base.  I've used it on fish, which is great, but here I put in on pan-seared shrimp from the Maine St market.  More than this particular recipe, however, I have enjoyed this book.  It is very heavy on meat dishes, most of which I haven't attempted, but it has proven helpful on the basics and the simple vegetables.  If only I can find a convenient place to buy the fresh curry leaves I need.

Peach-Blackberry Pie

Back last summer, we did a peach-freezing experiment.  According to Cook's Illustrated, the best way to keep peaches is to slice them, and mix with a little sugar and some "fruit fresh" (ascorbic acid), then bag and freeze.  Blackberries, which were amazing last year, are best frozen individually spread out on a tray and then bagged once frozen.  We finally decided to use them and those techniques worked out great.  The peaches smelled like late summer.  Emily then worked her pie-making magic on what has got to be the best fruit pie combination ever conceived.  Even better than strawberry-rhubarb or blueberry-cranberry.

Spring Lamb

A strange winter has given way to a strange spring, one that has left me unsure of how to react.  One way is to make a spring lamb.  This leg of lamb comes by way of friends at a Virgina farm, and such a nice gift of top quality lamb needed to be passed on and shared - so we had some invited guests.

I chose a Jaime Oliver recipe to make - a weeping boneless roast leg of lamb done in a yogurt-mint marinade.  I started with the whole hind quarter and spent a good half hour or so breaking it down and cleaning it up, trying not to waste the slightest bit.  Then it went in with the marinade and sat in the fridge for a full day before it was ready to roast.  With some ad hoc meat-tying technique the whole thing stayed together and was cooked medium rare on top of a mix of roast winter vegetables.  You absolutely don't want to over cook lamb, especially when you will have leftovers to reheat.  I stabbed the roast in about ten places to make sure we were somewhere close to 135 degrees all around before declaring it done.

It was absolutely delicious.  You can find the recipe here.

Pierogi

In my world, dumplings are king.  Martha Stewart even confesses to having these as one of her favorite foods.  I made these from her recipe, which she recently published since they are meatless and therefore good for lent.  But really, any sort of dumpling recipe is going to attract my attention.

I made two kinds of pierogi: potato and cabbage, and I stuck with the brown butter sauce, using as little as possible, but just enough for flavor.  As with any dumpling, they take a lot of time to roll, stuff, fill, and cook, but in my mind it is quite worth it.  The cabbage ones won out for flavor in the end.  Martha has you use a grinder to process the cabbage, but since I don't have one of those, I had to grate and chop, which left some of the leafy consistency intact.  I have heard that others eat these with our cream and sauerkraut.  As for me, I was trying to replicate some of the great pierogi I had at my friend Chris's wedding in New Jersey.  If I will ever get there I think I might need to do some additional field research.
 

Ramen Study No. 1

Here are the results of stage one of building a good ramen broth - something that advances well beyond the chicken broth stage.  Guided by David Chang's Momofuku cookbook, I tried a few key elements.  I started with the cooking liquid created when rehydrating dried shitake mushrooms.  Second, I added some chunks of onion, and finally briefly infused the broth with katsuo-bushi, or dried bonito flakes.  The bonito really gives it more of a smoky quality than any kind of fishy taste.  At this stage, I had a very flavorful broth, but not a very colorful soup.  But I was hungry so I added noodles and ate it all.  Other elements, like konbu and pork, will have to wait for Study No. 2.