The Southeast Michigan Slow Food Review

Rosemary Chicken "Confit"

2012-01-26T18:27:00.001-05:00

Confit is actually dock cooked and preserved in duck fat. It's an old method of preserving fowl that has evolved (like so many dishes) into a regular feature of haute cuisine. I saw a recipe a few weeks ago that did the same thing with chicken thighs, and thought, why not? For my version I lightly salted and peppered some chicken thighs and packed them in an iron skillet over a layer of potatoes with some fresh rosemary. This went into a 275 oven for around two hours.

The result was perfectly cooked chicken, with juicy meat and crispy skin. After removing the chicken from the oven I poured off the fat and reserved it for future cooking use, and returned the potatoes to the oven to brown at a higher temperature. They made an excellent side dish.

Shilla Korean and Japanese Cuisine

2012-01-19T11:40:00.002-05:00

Our friends Jimmy and Dawn like Shilla Korean and Japanese Cuisine (1120 W. Maple, Troy, Mi) and suggested it for our dining outing last weekend. As promised the food was excellent. The service, less so. Dawn had the tuna salad seen above, which was as delicious as it was beautiful. Jim had the Chap Chae, and I ordered the Dduk Mandu Guk (dumpling and rice cake soup):

Janet ordered the cornish hen stuffed with sweet rice, and that's where the problem was. We were all finishing up our dishes while Janet picked at the Pa Jun we shared, wondering where her dinner was. We called over the waiter, who had to ask us what she'd ordered (!) even though he'd written it down. Either he'd never called it in, or it got lost in the orders. Either way, he should have been aware that he hadn't brought it out. This is not the first instance of bad service I've heard about Shilla, either. Eventually Janet ordered the Dolsot Bibimbap which could be made relatively quickly and which also turned out to be very good.

We were all offered green tea ice cream by way of apology, which two of us accepted, and it, too was pretty good. And despite the disappointment over the missing cornish hen we all enjoyed the meal and of course the company. So if you're looking for excellent Korean (and Japanese) food, I can certainly recommend Shilla- but you might want to be more than a little proactive about making sure your orders all arrive.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-04T12:11:00.002-05:00

We had about 20 people gather in my house, and most stayed until midnight. Amazing. Lots of good food, and of course I made a big batch of chopped chicken liver- just cooked chicken livers (I baked them this time), cooked onions, lots of chicken fat, hard boiled eggs, salt, pepper, parsley, and a shot of cognac. Neither the parsley nor the cognac are traditional, but the parsley adds freshness, and the cognac gives it a bit of a French taste, like a good pate.

Yet another trip to TK Wu..

2011-12-27T20:42:00.000-05:00

Let's see... Chicken and Corn Soup, Hot and Sour Soup, Steamed Fish with Garlic, Ginger and Onions, Chef's Special Chicken, Ma Po Tofu, Pea Tip with Garlic, Eggplant, Vegetable Mu Shu. Six diners, lots of leftovers. Everyone loved everything- with the possible exception of the Ma Po Tofu, which was very spicy and had a lot of Szechuan Peppercorn in it as well. But Larry loved it, and took home the leftovers!

Easy Apple Tart a la Jacques Pepin

2011-12-27T12:55:00.001-05:00

This is an extremely easy dessert that takes almost no time to prepare. Start by buttering one side of a flour tortilla and sprinkling it with sugar. Place the prepared tortilla buttered side down on a baking dish. (Pepin uses a silicone non-stick baking mat as well.)

Core and slice an apple, and arrange the slice on the tortilla.

Sprinkle with more sugar, dot with butter, and place in a 400F oven.

After 20 minutes, check every 5 minutes. You want to see the tortilla brown, but not burn. The butter and sugar on the bottom will have formed a nice caramel.

Remove the tart from your baking dish and transfer it to a plate or cutting board before the caramel hardens and glues in to the baking dish. Cut into slices and serve.

Jacques likes to drizzle his finished tart with apricot preserves that have been thinned with a bit of brandy or cognac.

It goes without saying that this would also work just as well with peaches, pears, or just about any fruit that stands up well to baking.

Easy, foolproof, pan sauteed salmon

2011-12-23T16:04:00.003-05:00

This may be the easiest recipe I have ever posted here. It is also perhaps the best way to prepare salmon that I know of.

Lightly salt and pepper your fillets, and place skin side down (this is important!) in a non-stick pan on low heat. Do not cover.

The salmon will slowly release its own fat, the skin will become crispy, and the salmon will cook slowly without drying out.

Remove the fillets from the pan when you see the salmon at the top is cooked- that is, as soon as the bright pink color turns to a more pastel shade. (Do not wait, as some cookbooks insist, until the fish easily flakes. That's how you get dry and overcooked fish.)

The fillets you see here are about 2/3 done- you can see the color change moving from the thinner to the thicker areas.

New Seoul Garden

2011-12-17T15:58:00.000-05:00

Pat and Tanny suggested New Seoul Garden the other weekend. I hadn't been there in years, and Janet had never been there. The food was exceptionally good- so good, that I forgot to take any photos after this initial shot of the Pan Jun.

They have a wide variety of Korean and Japanese food as well as sushi, a full bar, and a wide selection of Western and Asian beers. Prices are reasonable. I think we'll be back before too long. (You can see the menus here.)

Corn Pasta

2011-12-15T16:32:00.003-05:00

Some years ago I ran into a friend in the pasta section at Holiday Market who was raving about corn pasta. "It's absolutely wonderful," she said. "You must try it." So I bought a box, which I put on the shelf and promptly forgot about.

I was reminded of this while shopping at TJ's the other day when I noticed that they, too, now carry corn pasta. Once again I bought a box, which I put on the shelf, but this time I actually cooked it and had it for dinner with a simple white clam sauce.

Verdict: It's good- surprisingly so. I have not had good luck with various alternate pastas in the past, like whole wheat or lo-carb pasta, but this was different. It does seem a bit stickier than the usual wheat pasta, but the flavor is very good, and it has a good texture, too.

Stuffed Turkey Thigh

2011-12-07T17:36:00.001-05:00

Holiday Market has skinless and boneless turkey thighs for $2.99/lb, which is as cheap as hamburger, but much richer in flavor than hamburger. I've been experimenting with different recipes using them, and last night's experiment involved stuffing a thigh, using a pretty standard turkey stuffing, trussing it up and roasting it. One turkey thigh easily has enough meat for two to four servings, so this is a pretty economical dish.

For the stuffing, I mixed sauteed onions, leeks, and celery with bulk breakfast sausage, cubes of Italian bread I had dried in the oven, salt, pepper, chicken stock and an egg. I spread a layer of stuffing over the thigh meat, rolled it up, and trussed it:

This was roasted at 375 for an hour or so- until a knife shoved into the center came out warm to the touch. I'm pretty happy with the result. It did occur to me later that rolling the stuffed thigh fillet in aluminum foil would have been a lot easier than trussing it, and would have had the advantage of keeping it moister. I'll try that next time. You could bake it wrapped in the foil, and then finish it unwrapped to get a little more color on the meat.

Another Trip to Arirang

2011-12-05T17:10:00.001-05:00

Back again to Arirang with friends last Saturday, for a good selection from their menu. I had the Kimchee Jigae, or Kimchee stew, a favorite that I often make at home- though their is better. It's a very simple dish. Old kimchee, thin slices of belly pork, tofu, onion, green onion, garlic, ginger, gochujang (red pepper paste) and various other ingredients, depending on the chef, are simmered in water for anywhere from 10 minutes to several hours.

It's very spicy, but not in a burn-your-mouth way that, say, Thai food is. This version was a littel different from others I've tried. It had firm tofu, ratehr than the very soft silken Koren Dubu that they serve in their Tofu stew here, and that is usually found in Kimchee Jigae. It also had some sweet potato starch noodles of the sort used in making Japchae.

Annie ordered the Bulgogi, which is the traditional thinly sliced Korean barbecued beef. This was served with a bowl of rice, and nothing else. Now usually Bulgogi is served as a communal dish, with everyone taking a lettuce leaf, a bit of meat, and a dab of soonchang, rolling it up like a burrito and eating it in a mouthful. As a dish for one person it's a bit protein heavy. Next time we're there I should ask about the serving options- like, if we were Korean, how would we order this?

Julie had this chicken dish- I thinkl it was called "spicy chicken," and the sample I tasted was yummy.

Peter had the Spicy Squid- very good, and very chewy.

Janet had the dumpling and noodle soup, and managed to eat about half. She took home the rest, and may still be working through it. This is a huge bowl of broth with rice noodles, meat dumplings, egg, vegetable (possibly watercress?) and other tasty bits. Very yummy. I think I may order it on my next visit.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup

2011-11-23T19:48:00.001-05:00

My friend Peter first served a version this soup at a party perhaps 20 years ago, and I enjoyed it so much I had to get the recipe try it myself. Basically, it's just a mixture of pumpkin (or other yellow squash), chicken stock, sauteed onions, curry, ginger, salt, and pepper. You can use canned pumpkin, and canned stock, and even onion powder and it'll be pretty good. This is how to make it great.

Start by cutting up some good pie pumpkins, scooping them out (save the innards), drizzling them with a little olive oil, and baking them at 350 for 30-40 minutes- just until a chopstick or other blunt instrument will easily pierce them. Let cool, and scoop the flesh from the skin. For a basic recipe you'll want about 4 cups of pumpkin.

While your pumpkin is baking, mince a medium-sized onion and sautee it in butter until it starts to caramelize. Add:

2 Tablespoons curry paste

and stir a bit. Add:

The seeds and flesh you scooped out of the pumpkin
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
a few slices of fresh ginger

and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Strain the stock into the pumpkin, blend (I use a hand blender), and adjust the seasoning with salt, fresh ground pepper, and more curry if needed. You don't want a strong curry taste- just a hint. Serve hot with a dollop of cream, half and half, creme fraiche, soy milk, whatever dairy product you prefer. For a really nice touch, sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Chicken Salad

2011-11-17T22:18:00.001-05:00

What to do with that chicken you poached yesterday? You could make chicken salad.

Start by separating all the meat from the carcass by hand, and chop it up into 1/2" or smaller pieces. (Or any size you prefer.)

For this one I added:

dried cherries
chopped red onion
capers
chopped celery that I'd peeled with a vegetable peeler
sliced raw almonds
a touch of crushed garlic
fresh ground pepper
dash salt
a heaping teaspoon of dijon mustard
just enough mayonnaise to wet it

What else could you add? Just about any nut or fruit of condiment that comes to mind that you think would harmonize with the chicken. Fresh pineapple? Excellent idea. Pecan? Absolutely. Pistachios? Why not? Sweet pickle relish? Maybe a dash of curry powder, or a spoonful of curry paste? Experiment. Make it your own.

Simple Poached Chicken

2011-11-15T20:02:00.001-05:00

This is probably the simplest way to cook chicken I know. What's particularly nice is that you can start the chicken and then walk away for three or more hours with no danger of overcooking.

Rub your chicken all over with salt and rinse well in cold water. Place in a large stockpot, along with two teaspoons of salt and (optionally) a few slices of ginger, and add enough cold water to cover the chicken.

Bring to a boil, covered, over high heat. As soon as the water boils, turn off the heat and let the chicken sit covered for three hours. Chill, cut up and slice. Serve with your favorite dipping sauces. I'm using a bottled Thai sweet chili sauce in the photo above.

Jjajangmyun (Korean Black Bean Paste Noodles)

2011-11-14T13:42:00.001-05:00

Jjajangmyun is the single most popular take-out dish in Korea, as well as a popular restaurant dish. I enjoy making it at home (as well as the Chinese dish that inspired it, Cha Jang Myun.) One problem I've noticed with ordering Jjajangmyun in some local restaurants is it's just noodles and sauce, whereas good Jjajangmyun also has a variety of vegetables and often meat in it it, too. Here's how I make it:

Start by sauteing around 1/4c of cubed pork belly, ground pork, or ground beef in a wok or deep skillet. Cook until well browned and drain off most of of the fat, leaving a few teaspoons.

Add a half cup each daikon (Asian radish), zucchini, sweet potato and onion that you've cut into 1/2" cubes. Stir fry for 5 minutes.

Add 2T of Korean black bean paste:

Stir or a minute, add 2c chicken stock,bring to a boil, lower the heat and let simmer for 20 minutes.

Add 2t sugar.

Add 2T cornstarch you've dissolved in an equal amount of water, and stir well. The mixture should thicken up nicely.

Serve over individual portions of hot, drained noodles and garnish with strips of cucumber. Or just mix it all up and serve it that way ;-)

Goldfish Tea

2011-11-14T13:35:00.001-05:00

We've often stopped in at Goldfish Tea (117 West 4th Street, in Royal Oak, MI) for a pot of tea with friends and sometimes a few cookies; Sunday we decided to try the food as well, and had the Chicken Noodle soup and a Chicken Salad sandwich. The soup was so-so; overly seasoned, overly salty, and with that string yellow cast that tells you it was made from a commercial stock concentrate. The sandwich filling was very good. They told us it was made in the shop, from a commercial roasted chicken, dried cherries and other good ingredients. It was served cold, on a croissant, which was a pity, as a cold croissant tends to have a heavy, fatty taste owing to all the butter in the dough. It would have been much better if it had been warmed slightly. The was wonderful as usual, of course.

TJ's Creamy Corn and Roasted Pepper Soup

2011-11-09T17:24:00.002-05:00

I rarely buy prepared soups, but I was coming down with a cold, and knew I wasn't going to feel like cooking for a few days. I love corn chowder and roasted peppers, so this should be a winner, right? At least, that was my reasoning when I bought it. I heated some up two days ago, and my first thought as that this is so cloyingly sweet it should be sold as a dessert. I looked at the ingredients:

They must be using some very sweet corn, because there's no honey flavor here. I don't taste poblanos, either, roasted or otherwise, or cilantro. There's not even a lot of corn flavor, for that matter- just sugar. I could whip up a better soup starting with canned creamed corn in in the time it took me to reheat this one. The thing that gets me is that this has been a regular on the shelves at TJ's for years, which means a lot of people must like it. Probably the same people who add sugar to their Frosted Flakes.

Chicken Curry

2011-11-06T20:57:00.004-05:00

I've had a dreadful cold for four days that's kept me mostly flat on my back, but late yesterday I felt good enough- and hungry enough- to cook some dinner. I had four chicken thighs defrosting in the fridge, and a bag of tiny potatoes, and that was enough inspiration to get me started.

I've always liked Thai Masaman Curry, which has (among other ingredients) potatoes, onions, peanuts and pork. I didn't have any peanuts or any pork, but I was going more for inspiration than absolute authenticity. I started out by browning the chicken thighs in a small amount of canola oil in my favorite enameled pot. Once they had some nice color I put them aside, and added:

a medium red onion, coarsely chopped
two cloves of garlic, minced
two tablespoons of Thai yellow curry paste:

This was stirred for a minute or two, and then I added the chicken back to the pot, along with

a half dozen small potatoes, cut in half
about a half cup of canned bamboo shoots, cut in medium-sized pieces
a quarter cup of coconut milk
2 cups of chicken stock.

This was allowed to simmer covered for an hour while I made a pot of Jasmine rice. It may not be authentic Thai, but it was pretty good, and there's enough left for two more meals.

Sauteed Spinach and Pine Nuts with Chuck and Dave's Hummus

2011-10-27T14:06:00.000-04:00

I'm always looking for a decent supermarket hummus. Almost all of them have a nasty flavor or aftertaste, and a glance at the ingredients list usually tells why this is- they're full of vegetable gums, inappropriate ingredients (fake lemon?) and various preservatives. When I buy hummus, I want to see chickpeas, tahini, water, salt, lemon juice, and maybe olive oil or garlic. That's it.

So far, the winner has been Trader Joe's Garlic Hummus, which doesn't have any preservatives or ingredients that shouldn't be found in hummus. Yesterday I found a decent runner-up- Chuck and Dave's. It's not great- but it's not nasty, either. It does have a tiny bit of some antioxidant preservative, but not enough to give it any off flavors.

For yesterday's lunch I sauteed some baby spinach and a few pine nuts in olive oil, and made a sandwhich with this and the tahini:

Pretty yummy. Raw baby spinach works well, too.

Sushi Dot Com

2011-10-24T18:28:00.000-04:00

Saturday night we were trying to figure out where to have dinner, and then we remembered that it had been a long time since we'd eaten at Sushi Dot Com (715 North University, Ann Arbor). It was Saturday night, and the streets were full of students, but we managed to find a parking space not too far away and the restaurant was still fairly empty.

Usually we have just sushi, or maybe tempura, or udon, but this time we both decided to try something different, and they do have a large variety of Japanese and Korean dishes to choose from. Janet tried the Chicken Donburi (above), and I had the beef version:

Donburi is a sort of steamed omelet, made eggs, dashi (bonito stock), meat, and vegetables, served over rice, with some shredded nori scattered on top. The stock seeps into the rice, the soft egg and meat sit on top, and the result is a lovely mix of flavors and textures. Janet thought hers was okay, "but not something I'd order again". I thought they were both very good. Chacun à son goût, as they say. We also split a Boston roll to start with:

but the portions of Donburi were so generous we left half the sushi and half of Janet's donburi to take home.

Sephardic Chicken with Green Olives

2011-10-17T20:12:00.002-04:00

A new recipe (for me) from The Sephardic Table: The Vibrant Cooking of the Mediterranean Jews. The author describes it as her husband's favorite dish. It's pretty good.

Start by sauteing:

Five sliced garlic cloves

in olive oil until golden brown. Add:

2 medium-sized tomatoes, chopped

or a similar amount of canned. Saute this for another 3 minutes, or until the tomatoes are soft. Add:

a cut up 3 pound chicken (or 3 pounds of chicken parts)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon pepper

and continue to cook uncovered over low heat, turning the chicken occasionally, for 15 minutes. Add:

One pound (really!) pitted Mediterranean green olives.
enough water to cover the chicken

Cover the pan, and simmer for another 30 minutes- until the chicken is almost tender. Add:

Juice of one lemon
1/2c chopped fresh cilantro

and cook for another 15 minutes. Serve hot. (I served mine over couscous.)

May's Bangkok Express

2011-10-17T11:26:00.002-04:00

We were in Ferndale on our way to an Italian restaurant down the street, so I'm really not sure why we stopped here. Average take-out Thai on Styrofoam plates. Most of the food was pretty decent, except for my "princess Shrimp" (lower right.) Bangkok Cafe is right across the street, and both the food and the ambiance are better over there.

Braised Turkey

2011-10-11T14:36:00.000-04:00

Everyone roasts turkey, because that's what you do, right? But other than providing a nice presentation, it's not a very good way of cooking a bird. The breast meat- which is pretty flavorless to begin with- cooks too quickly and dries out. The dark meat doesn't get cooked enough. The result is a compromise. Or you disassemble the bird, cooks the parts separately, and reassemble them.

Back before turkeys were domesticated, roasting made sense. All the meat was dark meat, and the breasts were relatively small compared to those on today's domesticated birds. You'd lard a wild bird, put it on the spit, and it would baste itself and produce a fine looking (and tasting) roast.

Since the best part of a domesticated turkey is the dark meat, why not just cook that? And instead of trying to roast it on a spit (impractical indoors) why not braise it instead? So that's what I did. I started out with a few pounds of skinless and boneless turkey thighs from my local market. I would have preferred bone-in and skin on, but that's what they had. C'est la vie.

The meat was brined, briefly, dried, dredged in flour, and put in a hot cassarole to brown in olive oil:

When the turkey had developed good color all over, I deglazed the pan with around 2 cups of red wine, and added cut-up carrots, leeks (you could use onions), celery, a few bay leaves, and a dash of salt and pepper. Last, I added enough chicken stock (you could just use water) to cover the bird, and placed the covered casserole in a 375F oven for 3 hours. (You should check it periodically and add water if the level of liquid drops.)

Result: Tender, flavorful meat in a rich gravy. I like to let the turkey cool somewhat in the gravy, and then remove the meat and slice it. I puree the remaining vegetables into the gravy with a hand blender, but you can leave them whole, or remove them if you like.

At $2.99/lb for the turkey (at Holiday Market), this is a tremendously economical meal- it's as cheap as the cheapest hamburger meat and a lot tastier (and healthier). Makes great sandwiches, too.

Dragon Fruit

2011-10-10T18:42:00.001-04:00

I bought this dragon fruit (aka pitaya) at Fuji Market last weekend out of curiosity as I'd never tried one. As you can see, the flesh inside is unlike any of the more familiar tropical fruits most of us are familiar with. The fruit is also known as the strawberry pear, and it does have a fragrance reminiscent of strawberry, and the flesh has something of the texture of a ripe pear.

I ate mine by just scooping the flesh out with a spoon. It's also good in fruit salads. If you're looking for a fancy presentation, you can scoop out and dice the flesh, toss it with pieces of other fruits, and serve it in the hollowed out dragon fruit.

Arirang

2011-10-03T08:02:00.002-04:00

Saturday night we met a few of our favorite dining out companions at Arirang and while we were there, we ran into even more of our favorite Ann Arborites (Hi to Mark and Debbie!), but unfortunately there wasn't a table large enough for all nine of us. Next time we'll have to plan ahead.

Janet was in the mood for "Korean comfort food," as she put it, and so had the Dolsot BiBimBap- always a good choice- while some of us were feeling more adventurous. I had the Soondubuchigae (spicy soft tofu stew), which is another classic bit of Korean comfort food and something I often make at home. Very yummy. It's mostly very soft tofu in an anchovy and seaweed broth with a dollop of gochujang (Korean red pepper paste) and some seafood. Peter had the Korean Sausage stew, which our waiter informed us was a favorite of his although, he noted, most Caucasians find it a bit off putting, owing to things like sliced pig's ear. Peter said it was good- although perhaps not something he'd order again.

Julie had Jajangmyun, which I've written about. Another bit of Korean comfort food, and the most popular delivery food in Korea. As served here there isn't much protein in it- just a tiny bit of meat, so perhaps not the best choice for a dinner entree. When we eat the Chinese equivalent (zha jiang mian) it's usually along with several other dishes. But it is yummy and filling. The teenager in our party had a chicken dish that she informed us was "okay."

As you can see we made fast work of the Banchan. It's always good here, and always interesting, as is the tea, Dunggulle cha (둥굴레차) , which is brewed from dried Solomon Seal root.

A Savory Bread

2011-09-30T15:05:00.001-04:00

I was at Holiday Market yesterday and noticed a new "pepperoni bread" that looked interesting- but at $5.95 I thought I'd make my own. I started with my usual bread recipe:

3 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1-5/8 cup water
2t salt
1/4t yeast

which I mixed up and let sit in a covered bowl for roughly 14 hours. I then mixed in:

4 ounces Coppicola, sliced into thin strips (I prefer it to pepperoni)
2T olive salad
1T chopped dried tomatoes in olive oil
2t dried Italian herbs
pepper
another 2t olive oil

This was baked covered, in a cast iron pot, for 30 minutes, and then uncovered for another 30.

A Beef Short Rib Dinner

2011-09-25T19:52:00.004-04:00

With the weather starting to cool down our tastes are again turning to hearty soups and stews. Last night I cooked a favorite- beef short ribs. They take a lot of cooking, but the result is well worth the wait.

I always start soups and stews and similar dishes by browning the meat, usually in a heavy pan after flouring, but this time I did it a bit differently. Restaurant chefs often do their browning in a very hot (500F) oven; I used my barbecue grill:

The ribs (about 4lbs) were given a good brown on all sides and then cut into shorter pieces- thirds- in order to better fit in the pot and to be easier to serve. I put them in a 5 quart cast iron casserole with:

a half dozen small onions, peeled and halved
around 2 cups celery cut into 1" pieces
one very large carrot, sliced
a large parsnip, cut into chunks
4 bay leaves
6 garlic cloves
15 ounce can Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes (they were on sale)
most of a bottle of Trader Joe's Shiraz (any red wine would work)
enough water to cover everything

This went into a 400F oven, covered, for 4 hours. I did check a few times and add more water. Don't rely on time alone- it's done when the meat becomes tender enough to separate with a fork. You could also cook at a lower temperature for a longer time, or in a slow cooker for most of a day. Ideally, you'd cook it ahead of time, cool it, skim the fat, and then reheat to serve.

This is what it looked like after my guests served themselves:

I really have to be faster with the camera. You can also see the salad Dawn made, a tasty combination of spinach, white beans, tomatoes, parsley, beets, and more. (Janet and I had some of the leftovers for lunch the next day)

About an hour before my guests arrived I remembered a bag of coarse corn meal I'd bought two days before to make polenta, and it occurred to me that this would be a perfect meal for it:

Bring 8 cups salted water to a boil (about 2t salt is enough)
Slowly whisk in 2 cups coarse corn meal
When the mixture returns to a boil, lower the heat to a low simmer, and stir occasionally for about 15 minutes.
Whisk in 2T butter, cover, and take off the fire.

For dessert, Pat made a peach cobbler we ate with whipped cream:

Chicken and Corn soup

2011-09-19T20:49:00.000-04:00

I love the Chicken with Corn soup they do at TK Wu, and would love to be able to duplicate it at home. The first time I tried to make it, using a recipe gleaned off the net, I ended up with dry, soggy pieces of chicken rather than the tasty, juicy chunks TK Wu serves. I decided that the answer might lie in cooking the chicken seperate from the rest of the soup, so that's what I did here.

The basic soup is chicken broth, flavored with ginger, garlic, and a touch of sesame oil, to which I added diced tofu.

For the chicken, I used thigh meat, which I cut in small pieces, lightly dredged in corn starch, and stir fried in canola oil just long enough to cook in through.

I then thickened the soup with a slurry of cornstarch in cold water, and added the cooked chicken, and some beaten egg, which was poured in slowly in a thin stream.

Result: Not bad. I'm getting closer to what I'm looking for.

Pita Cafe

2011-09-18T22:47:00.003-04:00

Dinner last weekend with Jimmy and Dawn at Pita Cafe (25282 Greenfield, Oak Park, MI). There are three Pita Cafes in the area, and they're all good. I don't remember everything we ordered, but there was enough for two more meals ;-)

Fried Rice

2011-09-18T22:44:00.002-04:00

Janet showed up last week with a bag of pea pods left over from a party. I had a large ripe red pepper I'd just picked from my garden, and a large container of cold leftover rice in the fridge. What else could I make?

I heated a bit of oil in the wok, tossed in a few tablespoons of minced garlic and ginger and stirred this for a minute. This was followed by the pea pods and the pepper, which I'd cut in this strips.

I cooked the vegetables for a few minutes, added the rice, and stirred and tossed that for a few more minutes until it was well heated. The last addition was about two teaspoons of sweet soy sauce, and a few twists of pepper, and there you have it.

Cafe Felix, Ann Arbor

2011-09-18T22:35:00.000-04:00

This morning we had breakfast at Cafe Felix (204 South Main Street), a sort of faux French Cafe, complete with brass rails and reproduction period posters.The decor may be a bit over the top, but the food is excellent. Janet had the toasted muffin with lox, tomato, cream cheese and onion (above, $7.95), which she assured me was very good, and a glass of grapefruit juice ($2.00). I had the Eggs Benedict ($9.95):

which came with real Hollandaise sauce that tasted as if it was made up fresh. Very rich and very good. We both had the house coffee, which was an excellent dark roast.

The brunch menu is very extensive, with sandwiches, salads, soups and entrees running $8-15. Dinners run $10-15 for "small plates" and $15-30 for entrees. There's a full bar as well.

Small stuffed peppers, steamed carrots, and roasted tomato soup

2011-09-12T21:13:00.002-04:00

Janet showed up this weekend with a bag of tiny peppers, some baby carrots, broccoli, and pea pods left over from a luncheon, and a sore jaw from oral surgery. Soft food was the order of the day. When I see peppers the first thing I think of is stuffing them, so that's where I started. I didn't want to heat up the kitchen (it was over 90F that day) so I did them on the BBQ grill in an aluminum catering pan. Stuffing was a very simple mix of hamburger, tomato ketchup, a bit of oatmeal, a splash of Worcestershire, salt, pepper, a minced onion and an egg to help bind it together.

Saturday morning we'd picked up a bag of assorted heirloom tomatoes at the Royal Oak Farmer's Market that I used to make Eric Villegas' Roasted Tomato Soup:

Core two pounds of tomatoes, leaving the bottoms intact.
Place on a hot grill until the skins are blackened and the tomatoes are soft
Carefully transfer the tomatoes, blackened bits and all, to a saucepan.
Add a small amount of cream, puree with a hand blender, and salt and pepper to taste.
Warm up to serving temperature (but don't boil!)
Pour into bowls and garnish with a few squiggles of hot pepper oil and parsley oil.

Parsley oil is made by heating finely chopped parsley in olive oil, and then cooling it and straining it into a squeeze bottle.

You can skip the garnishes and just add some parsley to the soup before pureeing, and add a tiny bit of hot pepper or pepper oil at the same time. You just want enough to bring out the flavor- this shouldn't be a very spicy soup.

The carrots were steamed in my rice cooker, and tossed with a small amount of olive oil, lemon juice, and a tablespoon of honey.

Now that's a tomato

2011-09-09T14:06:00.001-04:00

The tomatoes in my garden are starting to ripen now, which means it's time for plenty of fresh tomato sandwiches and gazpacho. This beauty came from one of the plants I was given by by friend Julie, who started them from seed in her house.

Simple French Food

2011-08-26T21:44:00.002-04:00

For most people who like to cook, the great Julia Child is the be-all and end-all of French cooking. But Julia's book Mastering The Art of French Cooking, which came out in 1961 (half a century ago!) is about a kind of fancy haute cuisine that no one really cooks anymore, and that most people never did. What the French really eat is the kind of food found in Everyday Cooking with Jacques Pepin and a book that I only recently discovered, Richard Olney's Simple French Food.

Olney's book came out in 1974, and I think is overdue for a reissue. People are increasingly discovering that simple food made with excellent ingredients is not only more satisfying than the complicated, overdone food produced by many of today's fashionable kitchen enfante terribles, it's also a lot more accessible.

Consider the basic omlette aux fines herbes, a classic of simple French cooking:

Beat lightly with a fork or whisk:

3 eggs (the fresher the better)
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley, chervil, and chives (equal amounts of each)
1 Tablespoon cold butter, cut in small pieces

Now heat another tablespoon of butter in a pan over a high heat until it stops bubble and you get the nutty smell of brown butter. Turn the pan so the butter coats the skillet.

Pour the beaten eggs into the pan and briefly stir with a fork.

Gently lift the edges of the omlette in three or four places, working around the pan, tilting the pan as you do so that uncooked egg runs under the cooked part.

Use the fork to gently roll or fold the omlette over 3-4 turns. Transfer to a dish and eat.

Simple, elegant, and a great late night meal when entertaining company.

--

(n.b. to monica: if you ever have your own r&b group, it should be called moni and the nectarines)

¡Croutons!

2011-08-21T21:31:00.001-04:00

I mentioned in my last gazpacho recipe that a popular Spanish garnish is croutons made of good bread fried in olive oil. Just cube bread and toss into a pan in which you've heated olive oil:

Stir gently, and in a few minutes they'll start to brown:

Before they get too dark, dump them into a bowl to cool. Serve with soup or salad. Use good bread and oil, and I promise these will be much better than any croutons you can buy.

Asia Legend

2011-08-21T21:22:00.001-04:00

A few iPod photos from today's lunch at Asia Legend in Ann Arbor:

Beef in Onion Pancake

Cha Ja Mien:

Shrimp Dumplings:

Baked Lemon Butter Flounder

2011-08-21T21:17:00.002-04:00

We were shopping for ripe tomatoes at Whole Paycheck when we spotted some flounder at a very good price, so we bought about a pound and a half, along with bread and vegetables. Here's the dish I came up with:

Baked Lemon and Butter Flounder

Arrange 1.5 - 2 lbs flounder fillets in a glass or ceramic baking dish in a single layer
Distribute 1/4c chopped onion over the fillets
Sprinkle lightly with salt and paprika
Melt 1/2 stick (4oz) butter together with the juice of a lemon, and about 2T finely chopped parsley
Pour the butter mixture over the fish
Bake at 400F for 10 minutes. Ch
Remove from the oven.
Transfer the fillets to a serving dish
Pour the liquid from the baking dish to a saucepan, add 1/4c white wine, and reduce by half over high heat

Pour the reduced sauce over the fish and serve.

Variations: You could use 1/2c white wine, instead of the lemon. A cup of cubed, ripe tomato baked with the fish makes for a good sauce, too. With the tomato, I'd use wine but not lemon in the sauce.

Mahi-Mahi Chunks

2011-08-19T10:54:00.002-04:00

Trader Joe's has frozen bags of Mahi-Mahi "chunks- trimmings from preparing fillets, I imagine- for around $3/pound. I was thinking of using them to make fish kebabs, but it was raining the day I defrosted them, so grilling outside was ruled out.

Instead, I marinated them in a mixture of olive oil, crushed garlic, fresh parsley, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. (You can add grated Parmesan to this mixture, too, if you like.) Let sit in the bridge for at least a half and hour and then broil or grill until the fish is cooked through- maybe 10-15 minutes, depending on your broiler or grill.

(Note: After thawing the fish, rinse it in cold water, drain it very well, and pick it over for bones and pieces of white connective tissue.)

A Gravlax 'n' Gazpacho Lunch

2011-08-19T10:50:00.002-04:00

Thursday I had the last of the gazpacho, along with a tomato and homemade gravlax and tomato sandwich. No need to salt the tomato, as the gravlax has plenty. I just drizzled a bit of good olive oil over it. You could also use good mayonnaise, or a sweet hot mustard, or?

Mahi-Mahi Crouquettes with Pasilla Pepper Mayonnaise

2011-08-19T10:02:00.001-04:00

Another use for the Mahi-Mahi chunks at TJ's. Mix well:

1 lb Mahi-Mahi, coarsely chopped
a small Shallots or Onion, minced
2 slices bread, town into small pieces
1 egg
tablespoon mayonnaise
some parsley
dash Old Bay seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

Form into cakes and pan fry. How to "salt and pepper to taste"? Take a small pinch of the mixture and put it in your microwave oven for 20 seconds, or just fry a tiny bit.

I served mine with a Pasilla Pepper Mayonnaise. To make it, I soaked dried pasilla peppers in water for an hour, removed the seeds, and rubbed the peppers through a sieve to separate the hard skin from the flesh. The flesh was simply mixed with a good quality prepared mayonnaise.

A Northern (Lower) Michigan Vacation

2011-08-14T20:47:00.005-04:00

We spent another week at the wonderful Neahtawanta Inn, and this year was our least active yet ;-) Last year we realized that vacations are for doing nothing- and that's what we did. Sure, we took a few nature walks, but for the most part we sat by the bay and read, or maybe dangled our feet in the water.

On our way to the Inn we stopped in Mount Pleasant for lunch at a Chinese restaurant that I'm not going to mention, as I thought it was pretty awful. (I did violate my cardinal rule by eating in a Chinese restaurant that not only didn't have any Chinese customers, it didn't have any Chinese staff, so I suppose I have only myself to blame.)

As in past years, we relied on the Peninsula Market for a number of our meals. Only two miles from the Inn, they have a great variety of prepared entrees, delicious locally baked bread, lunch specials, and a deli counter. For our first meal on the peninsula, we made roast beef sandwiches with local bread and coleslaw from the market:

Our second full day we took a long (30 miles) drive to Suttons Bay, a vacation community where a couple of friends of our live. We didn't manage to catch those friends, but we did manage to meet up with two other friends who were in the area at Boone's Prime Time Pub, a favorite stop I've mentioned before. Boone's is your basic neighborhood bar and restaurant and they just happen to serve some of the best fried perch I've ever had.Janet had the perch sandwich at $8.95 and I ordered the perch plate, which costs about twice as much. This turned out to be a mistake, as both come with the same amount of perch; the only difference is that the plate includes fries and slaw, and doesn't have a bun. (The sandwich comes with chips.)

Wednesday we met our friends Tom and Sue, who are Traverse City residents, at The Boathouse, reportedly the best restaurant in the TC area. It's certainly the most expensive, with dinner entrees starting at around $35. Lunch in much cheaper, with dishes beginning around $10.

I ordered an asparagus and morel mushroom omelet, at only $10. It arrived stuffed with cheese... which I cannot eat. No problem, said our waiter, I'll have them make another. A cheese-free one arrived in due course, and it was... underwhelming. It was overcooked, the asparagus not very flavorful, and the morels were dried. Dried morels are great in soups and stews, but in an omelet, you really need to use fresh ones, as the dried and reconstituted ones don't have that fresh flavor.

The other dishes we ordered were all very good. The whitefish pate', served with restaurant-made gravlax and crackers, was good. Janet's fried bluegill were excellent- and surprising. I've never seen bluegill on a menu outside of the deep South.

Tom and Sue shared a tempura fried asparagus appetizer, which was good. Sue had the Wagyu beef hamburger and Tom had the sub, and they reported that both were very good.

As in previous years, our favorite place to eat in the area remains the Peninsula Grill. Prices are reasonable, ambiance is very casual, and the food is good. We had one dinner there, and one lunch. For dinner, Janet ordered the pecan encrusted walleye, which we'd had before:

As you can see, it's a pretty generous portion of walleye. I ordered the Bayoux-something or other, a daily special that featured a variety of seafood and andiouille sausage in a Cajun-inspired sauce served over risotto that our waitress raved about:

Not bad. The shrimp were little tasteless things but the scallops were excellent- they tasted like really good dry-packed ones of the sort you pay $22/lb for. Overall, a tasty and filling dinner. For lunch a few days later, Janet had the Garden Salad:

which she gave high marks to. (She said that she wasn't all that hungry, but still managed to finish it off.) I ordered the hamburger and fries:

which I enjoyed- especially the crispy fries- and a bowl of black bean and andouille soup:

which I wasn't terribly impressed with. It had a very coarse and thick texture- more like paste than soup- and was, I thought, overly seasoned. I had a few spoonfuls and left the rest.

On our way home we had the last of the bread and cold cuts (turkey, this time) from the Peninsula Market, along with the last of a watermelon we'd purchased there. We arrived home happy and rested.

¡Gazpacho!

2011-08-03T17:04:00.006-04:00

I love gazpacho- but I rarely order it out. In fact, I never order it, except in a Spanish restaurant. The problem is, what they serve as gazpacho in 99% of restaurants has little to do with real gazpacho. It's usually just chopped vegetables in tomato juice.

There are a great variety of gazpacho recipes to be found in Spain; this one is pretty typical.

Gazpacho for 4

In a blender, puree:

2 lbs ripe tomatoes
8oz peeled, seeded cucumber
3oz bell pepper (green, red, or yellow)
1 garlic clove
3/4 cup best quality olive oil
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
salt to taste
optional: a few threads of saffron that have been soaking in a tablespoon of water, and a small dash of pimenton (Spanish smoked paprika)
water, if needed, to thin the gazpacho

Chill well before serving.

Pour into four serving bowls, and garnish with chopped tomato, cucumber, pepper, and onion. Another popular garnish in Spain is croutons made of good bread that's cubed and fried in olive oil. Add a drizzle of your best olive oil on top. You can serve the garnish on the side, and let diners add their own, too.

In a dish like this, made of fresh, uncooked, ingredients, the quality of the finished product is entirely dependent on the quality of the ingredients, and in this case, the flavor is largely dependent on the quality of the tomatoes and the oil. Use really ripe tomatoes that have a fresh tomato-y smell, and an olive oil with a rich, fruity aroma.

(When I have a big batch to make, I start by chopping up the vegetables in a food processor, and finishing in a large bowl with a hand blender.)

סביח‎ (Sabich)

2011-08-01T23:18:00.001-04:00

Another try at making a Sabich (SAH-beekh), last written about here several months ago. There are many variations, but all include houmous and tahini, Israeli salad (chopped tomatoes and cucumbers with parsley, olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice), grilled eggplant, hard boiled egg, and amba (preserved mango). Wrap the whole thing up in a pita and enjoy. Delicious.

BBQ Grilled Shrimp and Potatoes

2011-08-01T13:53:00.001-04:00

Sweety suggested that seafood grilled on the BBQ would make a nice dinner, so we went to Holiday Market to see what looked good. The scallops were gorgeous, but then we noted these U12 Gulf shrimp at only (gulp) $17.95/lb. But since the dinner I was envisioning would cost aorund three times that in a restaurant, why not?

I split the shrimp along the back with kitchen shears, removed the gut and set them to marinate in a bowl with olive oil, crushed garlic, parsley, salt and fresh ground pepper. While they were marinating I tossed a handful of small Yukon Golds in the microwave and prepared the salad- mixed greens, tomato, olive oil, balsamic, and a bit of salt and pepper.

The cooked potatoes were split in half and tossed in more of the same marinade I used for the shrimp, and then everything went on the grill.

It was way too hot to drink wine (although I suppose you might drink ice cold sangria) so we enjoyed iced tea with our dinner, and finished up with ripe nectarines for dessert.

A Vegetarian Chinese Dinner

2011-07-24T21:31:00.002-04:00

We were headed to the Michigan Theater, and TK Wu is right across the street- which made it the perfect place to have dinner. We had the Seasame Tofu, something new for us:

and one of our favorites, the eggplant:

A good not-too-heavy summer dinner. We still had enough of it left over for the sweetie to get two more meals out of it ;-).

Chicken Pineapple Salad

2011-07-15T21:44:00.000-04:00

Some leftover barbecued chicken, pieces of very ripe, fresh, pineapple, a few tablespoons of mayo, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a chopped shallot, a few twists of black pepper.... and there you have it.

A New Chinese Restaurant in Madison Heights

2011-07-15T21:37:00.002-04:00

I was shopping at Fuji Market (John R and Whitcomb, S. of 14 Mile in Madison Heights) when I spotted this sign on a previously empty storefront:

Looking up, I saw this new sign:

Chaozhou is the name of a region in China, a city in that region, and the second most populous ethnic group in China after the Hokkien. They have a distinctive cuisine, sometimes spelled Teochew, that is considered by some to be one of the healthier cuisines of China. They use less oil in cooking than most other regions, and there is an emphasis on seafood an vegetarian dishes.

I've been hoping for a new restaurant here since Mandarin Dining left several years ago. Watch this blog for news and reviews.

UPDATE: Two months after posting this, they're still not open. But keep watching.

Marcanos Take Out

2011-07-11T11:02:00.002-04:00

After several hours on kayaking on the Huron we were tired, sweaty, and hungry, and so decided on lunch at Marcanos (1906 Packard, Ann Arbor) which we'd first tried a few months back. We'd went intending to get takeout, but discovered they'd added a few outdoor tables with umbrellas, and so we ate there. I had the Arepas sampler- your choice of three small arepas. I had the carne blanca (beef in a vinegary marinade), roast chicken, and roast pork. All good, but the pork was the standout one. Janet had the chicken. We also tried the lemonade, which is extremely good and different from any you've ever tried, and they threw in a sample of fried plantain (platanos) which made for an excellent dessert to top it all off with.

Update: Sadly, Marcanos has closed, owing to a lack of traffic and perhaps a less than ideal location. I bet they'd have done well if they were downtown. A pity, as they had really good and original food you couldn't find anywhere else in the state.

Back to our favorite Chinese restaurant

2011-07-10T22:42:00.001-04:00

Chicken with corn soup, Pea Tip, and Chicken Steak with Chef's Special Sauce. A satisfying dinner for three with food left over.

Breakfast at Eastern Accents

2011-07-10T22:38:00.001-04:00

We breakfasted this morning at Eastern Accents (214 South 4th Avenue, Ann Arbor) before heading out for a day of kayaking. There's always a good selection of baked and sometimes steamed buns, both sweet and savory. They do nice cakes, too.As previously noted, I'm not a big fan of their gazpacho or bibimpap, particularly as you can get good bibimbap at several places within walking distance. But if you stick to the baked good it's hard to go wrong.

Cold Sesame Noodles

2011-07-01T12:16:00.003-04:00

This is one of my favorite summer dishes.

For the noodles, you want a thick noodle- either Chinese noodles, or Japanese Soba. Cook until tender (you don't want them al dente), and then rinse under cold water until cooled.

For the sauce:

4 T sesame tahini
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 cup water or chicken or vegetable stock
Hot chili paste or chili oil to taste.

Mix well and toss some of the sauce with the noodles. You don't want them to be drowning in sauce. Just enough to lightly coat them.

Optionally, serve with a garnish of thin strips of cucumber and blanched carrot, and a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds.

The Perfect Midwestern Suburban Barbecue Plate

2011-07-01T11:00:00.001-04:00

We've been going to a lot of barbecues, graduation parties and such, and that goe me to thinking about the perfect meal for this sort of thing. The plate above comes close, but there's something missing. You've got the burger, the salad, the beans... I stared at this plate for some time, and then it hit me in a blinding flash of insight:

Precisely: A good slice of watermelon. I should note that this was an exceptionally delicious and sweet watermelon, too.

(For those concerned about being carbon neutral, I provide the following evidence of ongoing efforts towards carbon sequestration at this particular barbecue:)

Bangkok Thai Bistro, Bloomfield Hills

2011-06-19T17:41:00.001-04:00

Bangkok Thai Bistro is the latest of Rexy Arpachinda's establishments. He opened this one, in a small strip mall at Woodward and Orchard Lake, after losing the lease on his Bangkok Cafe in downtown Royal Oak. So how is it?

Overall, pretty good, though not every dish is a winner. The Thai Salad seen above was a hit. The Shredded Apple salad- seen blow- not so good:

This was a huge mound of shredded apples, six small cubes of chicken, half dozen cashews, no dressing, and barely any seasoning. But the traditional Thai entrees, of which our party of six tried three, were pretty good:

Two of us had the eggplant, one with shrimp, and one with lamb. The overall judgment was that the dishes were tasty, but a bit too sweet.

We also tried a variety of sushi:

As well as fresh rolls:

and spring rolls.

Prices are reasonable, with entrees around $8-9, salads $4-6, and sushi half off at certain times. I don't think they're worth a trip out there just to try the food, but if you work in the neighborhood, as my friend Jim does, it's a good place for a decent lunch at a reasonable price.

Easy, Perfect Baked Salmon

2011-06-17T21:00:00.001-04:00

The worst thing you can do to fish is to overcook it- and yet how often do you read "cook until the fish flakes"? Do that do a piece of salmon and you have something with the texture of canned salmon and the flavor of... well, canned salmon. No wonder raw, or barely cooked salmon is so popular. But the other day I learned a technique that produces tender, rich, flavorful cooked salmon- and it couldn't be easier.

Start by placing your fillet, skin down, in a pan in which you've poured a few drops of olive oil. Sprinkle the fillet with salt and freshly ground pepper, and drizzle with olive oil. Place in a 250F oven for 10 minutes, remove, and serve. That's it.

250 may seem like a very low temperature to cook at- and for only 10 minutes. But the result is fully cooked, yet still moist and rich, and much more tender than raw salmon. A fork will pass right through it. BTW, that white you see on the salmon is the fat from the fish. If you bake it at 375 or 450, as many do, the fat all runs out, and that's why the fish is dry and tough. But this way most of it stays in.

Footnote:

I've since found a Jacques Pepin recipe that calls for sprinkling the oiled and seasoned salmon with a mixture of breadcrumbs and ground hazelnuts, and baking at it only 200F for 45-50 minutes. Again the idea is to keep the salmon moist and not cook out all the oil. He serves the fish with a dollop of salsa mayonnaise and a sprinkling of chopped parsley, tarragon, chives, and chervil.

Grizzly Peak, Ann Arbor

2011-06-13T12:10:00.003-04:00

We actually set out to lunch at Ann Arbor's new and trendy Frita Badita on Sunday, but it was so unbelievably loud in there I found it very uncomfortable- so we went across the street to Grizzly Peak. The ambiance there is mainly beer-and-burgers, but they do offer a number of interesting and original dishes as well.

Sweetie had the Chicken Couscous Salad ($9.50 lunch /$10.50 dinner), seen above, which she declares is her absolutely favorite dish there, and the one she always orders. As you can see, it's a simple arrangement of a grilled chicken breast, mixed green salad, and a tasty couscous salad with cherries and a very distinctive dressing.

I decided to try the Chickpea Fritter sandwich ($7.50/$8.50), seen below, along with a side of sweet potato fries ($1.50):

This consists of two thin fried chickpea fritters, Piquillo peppers, feta cheese and arugula wrapped in flatbread. It was pretty good, although I think the fritters should have been a bit larger. I was very much reminded of the Sicilian Pan e Panelle I wrote about previously- chickpea fritters on a sesame bun with freshly ground pepper.

I believe the sweet potato fries are dusted in corn starch and deep fried, which is a common way to give fried foods a crispy surface without adding breading. However they prepare them, they're a nice change from the usual French fries.

Char Siu (Chinese Roast Pork) and Vegetables

2011-06-13T11:49:00.001-04:00

Last week I tried making Chinese style roast pork on the outdoor grill, and I was very pleased with the outcome. I used some of it to make this dinner dish, which is simply the pork and steamed Chinese greens (Yu Choy, also known as water spinach or Chinese spinach) on a bed of brown rice. You could use just about any green vegetable; I also prepare it with Gai Lan, which is also known as Chinese Broccoli.

You might notice that the pork in question is very fatty; Chinese people usually prefer this to the leaner roast pork typically served in Chinese-American restaurants. It has a lot more flavor than the the leaner stuff, but it's best eaten in smaller quantities, as part of a family-style dinner.

To make roast pork, you'll need a piece of pork belly (which is simply uncured bacon) and Chinese-style barbecue marinade. You can buy this already prepared, or make you own:

Char Sui marinade:

2 tablespoons rice wine or sherry
1 tablespoon dark soy
1 tablespoon light soy
2 tablespoons sugar or honey
3 cloves garlic (crushed)
1/2 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1/2 teaspoon 5-spice powder

Remove the skin from the pork belly, if necessary. You'll need a very sharp knife for this. Cut the pork belly into 2" strips and marinate in this sauce for 1-3 hours. Roast on a wire rack at 325F for 45 minutes, and finish under the broiler for a few minutes to get a browned surface.

If you prefer to do it on the grill, use indirect grilling, turning after 20 minutes. Finish over direct heat if you don't have a browned, bubbly surface.

Let the pork cool, slice, arrange, and serve. For family style serving just arrange the pork over the vegetables and let the diners transfer servings to their own plate or rice bowl.

Jellyfish Salad!

2011-06-13T11:35:00.000-04:00

I bought these three packages of prepared jellyfish salad at Fuji Market last week as I couldn't resist the attractive packaging and the 99 cent price ;-) Each came with a different flavor packet, an envelope of a vinegary-tasty powder, and another containing some sort of oil; instead, I used rice vinegar and good sesame oil, and tossed in a handful of blanched bean sprouts to produce this:

I prefer preparing jellyfish from the dried product, as it has a better consistency, but this wasn't half bad. I might use it as part of the next Asian meal I do for guests.

Stuffed Peppers

2011-06-06T12:09:00.001-04:00

A slightly different presentation and a slightly different filling this time around. I had a variety of bell peppers in various colors on hand and thought I'd experiment with the stuffing. The base was a pound of ground beef and some stale bread, soaked in water and squeezed dry (maybe a cup) but I did take a slightly different route from that point on.

Normally I'd add ketchup, a dash of Worcestershire, an egg and some chopped onion, but instead I added a half-cup of my home made Ancho pepper salsa, which has tomatoes, anchos, onions, garlic, cider vinegar, olive oil and pepper, and perhaps a half cup of an olive and pimento salad I bought at Costco.

The result was good- it's hard to make a bad stuffed pepper or meatloaf (although school cafeterias do it all the time) and we had it for Saturday dinner. I cut it up this way for Sunday dinner so I could show you what it looked like inside.

Dim Sum at the Golden Harvest (again)

2011-06-05T20:56:00.001-04:00

We had so much fun a few weeks ago at Golden Harvest (6880 E 12 Mile Rd, Warren, MI 48092) and were so expansive in telling our friends about it that a dozen of us met there this past Saturday. Even with all that food (and much that was yet to arrive), it still worked out to only $17 each, including tax and a 20% tip.

Pepper Jelly II

2011-06-01T23:50:00.004-04:00

I did two batches of pepper jelly this week. The green one is a mix of bell peppers and jalepenos, and the red, a mix of red bell peppers and habeneros. It's pretty hot; I'm hoping the final result will not be too much for my palate as I have a lot of it. (If so, it may go out as holiday gifts ;-)

Pepper jelly is pretty easy to make. Here's a simple recipe:

1 1/2 cups peppers pureed in the food processor
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
6 cups sugar
one envelope Certa pectin

Boil everything except the pectin for a few minutes. Add the pectin, stir well, turn off the heat, and ladle into canning jars. Seal the jars and process in boiling water for 5 minutes. Pepper jelly takes a while to set up for some reason, so give it a week before you worry about it not setting. (If it still doesn't set up, dump the jars into a pot, reheat, add another envelope of pectin and can and process again.)

I've probably mentioned this before, but pepper jelly is great as a spread and as a condiment for all sorts of dishes. My favorite way to eat it is to spread cream cheese on toast, and then spread a layer of pepper jelly over that.

Roasted Cauliflower with Tahini

2011-05-30T20:20:00.003-04:00

This is one of my absolute favorite vegetarian dishes, and one I almost always order at Pita Cafe. This one, though, is one I made for a barbecue this weekend.

Start by cutting out the core, from the bottom. Quarter the cauliflower with your knife, and break it up by hand into pieces. Toss the cauliflower with olive oil and a small amount of salt. How much oil? Say two tablespoons per cauliflower, or more if you think it needs it.

Spread the cauliflower out on a sheet pan and roast it in a 400F oven for at least 45 minutes, until all the pieces are well cooked and soft, and there's a fair amount of browning. This may actually take as long as an hour and a half, depending on your oven.

The dressing is very simple:

1/2c tahini
1/2c water
Juice of two large lemons
2T crushed garlic, or to taste.

Place the ingredients in a jar, cover, and shake. If the dressing is too thick, add another tablespoon or two of water. The total amount of water you need depends a lot on the tahini and the size of the lemons.

To prepare the dish, just toss the cooked cauliflower with the dressing. The amount of dressing given by the recipe is enough for at least four cauliflowers (I was making a big batch for a big party) but you can use it on all sorts of cooked vegetables, seafood, and other dishes, too. It's best served slightly warm, or at room temperature, but it tastes good cold, too.

Fried Tilapia with a Matzoh Meal Crust

2011-05-19T11:17:00.001-04:00

Did you know that Fish and Chips, that great British tradition, has its roots in Sephardic Jewish culture? The very first fish 'n' chips shop in England was opened in 1860 by one Joseph Malin, who offered "fish fried in the Jewish fashion" served with chips, which were already well known to Brits.

Malin was a descendent of Sephardic Jews who came to Britain as refugees from Spain and Portugal, bringing with them a cuisine that included fried fish. Matzoh meal was what Malin used to bread his fish, and while batter is used by most chip shops today, you can still get fish fried in matzoh meal at Two Brothers Fish Shop in Finchley, North London, or at Fish Bones, near Regent Park. Or you can make it yourself.

Begin by dredging your fish fillets in flour to thoroughly dry the surface. I like to add seasoning to my dredging flour; this can be as simple as salt and pepper, but I often add some Old Bay Seasoning as well.

Shake off the excess flour, dip the fillets in beaten egg, drain, and then in matzoh meal. You can fry the fillets right away, or let them chill in the fridge and cook them later. Deep frying or pan frying is fine.

As to how to serve them: In Northern climes people prefer an acidic sauce, like lemon or vinegar, which cuts through the fat, and in Southern climes, hot peppers. In England they use malt vinegar, and in the Mideast, hot pepper sauces like harissa are favored. Down in Louisiana they favor Tabasco and similar condiments. I prefer mine with Thai sweet chili sauce, which combines acid, hot pepper, and some sweetness as well:

Whimsey & Spice

2011-05-14T09:47:00.000-04:00

Janet received a birthday bag of Whimsy & Spice cookies from her daughter, including these intriguingly named chocolate cashew chili biscotti. I was given the job of test tasting them, in case they proved to be too spicy, which they were not. Excellent balanced flavor with just a hint of chili fire in the background. They also do shortbreads, brownies, sandwich cookies and more.

A Seafood and Sausage BBQ

2011-05-14T09:38:00.000-04:00

Dinner and Peter and Julie's last weekend. Peter put some sausages on the grill with a packet of wood chips to slow smoke, and that seemed like an inspired idea, so I added a tray of mussels and a basket of jumbo gulf shrimp. We referred to the meal as "Surf 'n' Sty," a name that I don't think is going to catch on. For some reason I don't have any photos of the sausages but I do have this one showing the seafood in the background and the grilled vegetables in the foreground.

Pita Cafe

2011-05-04T13:31:00.000-04:00

We had dinner at Pita Cafe (25282 Greenfield Road Oak Park, MI) last weekend, starting with what our waiter assured us was the absolute best tomato kibbee you can get anywhere (see above) and I can't argue with him. It's really, really good. We also had an order of potato kibbee, which is baked, and has a layer of the most delicious sauteed onion and peppers inside:

...an order of cauliflower with tahini:

and of course the fabulous pitas that are baked there and delivered to the table hot:

It was a lot of food, and we took half the tomato and potato kibbees with us (along with extra bread our waiter thoughtfully brought with the plastic take-out containers.)

Dim Sum at the Golden Harvest

2011-05-01T22:34:00.001-04:00

This past Saturday ten of us met at the Golden Harvest (6880 East 12 Mile Road, Warren) for our friend Anne's 44th birthday. Wonderful food, friendly service, and very reasonable prices- I think we all absolutely stuffed ourselves for about $15 a head, tip included. My favorites: The fried baby octopus, the braised pea tip, and the shrimp and scallop roll. Of course, we had so much food I don't think I even tasted a third of the dishes we were served.

Icelandic Chocolate?

2011-04-28T19:42:00.004-04:00

Iceland is probably not the first country that comes to mind when you think of chocolate, but we did find this good quality Icelandic chocolate on sale at Whole Foods the other day while shopping for ingredients for a flourless cake. At only 45% cacao it's not my first choice for eating chocolate (I like a very intense dark chocolate) but it was a good choice for baking. At $3.95 for 16 ounces it was a bargain, too.

Vegetarian Chinese "floss"

2011-04-28T18:35:00.001-04:00

Not long ago I posted an item about the various kinds of meat and fish "floss", like Pork Fu and Pork Sung. Last weekend I was at my local Asian grocery stocking up on various condiments when I spotted something new- to me, at least: Laver Ro Su. It looks and tastes a lot like pork sung, but it's made of soy protein, and has flakes of laver (seaweed) mixed in as well. Today I tried a packet in the bowl of jook I'd prepared for lunch, and while it doesn't taste quite like pork sung, it's not bad. I'm going to try it in rice balls next, I think.

Further Adventures in Sous Vide

2011-04-28T18:29:00.001-04:00

I found a vacuum sealer on woot.com a few weeks ago for $19.95, and since then I've been doing more experimentation with what's come to be known as "sous vide"- cooking vacuum sealed foods at low temperatures in order to tightly control the degree of done-ness as well as sealing in flavor. What you see above is a chicken breast that was brined, seasoned with herbs and pepper, and cooked in a water bath in my crock pot on the "low" setting for about an hour. I then chilled the sealed bag in my refrigerator before opening it so that the chicken could reabsorb some of the juices released in cooking.

The result was a very juicy piece of chicken with a more intense, chicken-y flavor than you usually find in commercial chicken breast meat. Brining helps keep it moist, but the cooking technique made a big difference. I sliced the meat (as seen above) for use in chicken sandwiches and in a chicken salad.

Passover Recipes: Huevos Haminados

2011-04-20T17:42:00.000-04:00

These are a Sephardic Passover staple, and a popular snack throughout much of the Mideast. Basically, they're eggs slowly simmered in water with onion skins for 12-24 hours. Optionally you can remove the eggs after 20-30 minutes, crack the shells all over, and return the eggs to the liquid. This produces a beautiful veined appearance where the dye from the onions works its way through the cracks- like Chinese Tea Eggs. I kept it simple this time, but next year I'll get fancier.

Pickled huevos haminados are also a popular snack. These are made by simply peeling the cooked eggs and immersing them in a pickling liquid:

2c white vinegar
3T sugar
2T coriander seeds

Pack the peeled eggs in a canning jar, separating layers of eggs with layers of sliced red onion and fennel. Pour the warmed pickling liquid over the eggs, seal, and let stand at room temperature for at least a week before eating.

Passover Recipes: Mina de Maza

2011-04-20T17:30:00.001-04:00

You can think of this as a sort of matzoh lasagna. It's a popular Sephardic dish for passover that I was unaware of until a few days ago. I came up with this version after reading a few recipes and my guests went wild for it.

Start by lining a baking dish (I used a glass pie plate, but a rectangular casserole might be better) with matzos that have been softened by soaking in warm water and then draining.
Add layers of filling, separated by more softened matzoh, topping with a final layer of matzoh and a wash of beaten egg.
Bake at 350F for about 45 minutes.

There are meat versions, and dairy versions that use spinach and cheese. Mine used one layer of meat, and another of spinach and onion with a few of my own twists:

Meat filling for Mina

Saute together:

2lbs ground beef or lamb
1c chopped onion
dash salt

...until the meat is cooked and the onion softened. Add to this:

1 12 oz can chopped tomatoes or an equivalent amount of chopped fresh tomatoes
1 cup chicken stock

Cook until the liquid has mostly been absorbed and the mixture is fairly dry. Season to taste with salt, pepper, coriander, and cumin.

Spinach-Lemon filling

Saute:

1 chopped medium onion

until soft, and add:

1 lb fresh spinach

and cook until limp. Add:

zest of one lemon
1-2T lemon juice

and cook until the liquid is mostly reduced.

Passover Recipes: Potato Kugel

2011-04-20T17:16:00.000-04:00

This was a last-minute addition to the meal last night, but it's so easy that it wasn't any trouble. None of the quantities are critical.

Using a box grater, grate:

6 large Yukon Gold potatoes
1 large sweet onion

Toss together with

3 beaten eggs
4T olive or peanut oil
salt and pepper

Place in a baking dish and bake at 350F for 1 hour or until browned on top. Cut into sections and serve warm.

Caramelized Red Onions

2011-04-18T19:11:00.000-04:00

Caramelized onions are a wonderful ingredient, and caramelized red onions doubly so. I try to keep a jar in the fridge for adding to all manner of dishes- it's especially good in scrambled eggs or omlettes.

To prepare it, simply slice up more onions that you think will fit in your favorite cast iron pot (see above) along with perhaps 1/4c of good olive oil and a sprinkling of salt. Stir over high heat until the onions begin to release liquid, then cover, lower the heat, and check back every 5-10 minutes to make sure they're not scorching. When they start to look like what you see in the photo below, remove the lid to cook off the excess moisture. Store in a canning jar or a plastic container with a tight fitting lid.

Marcano's Take-Out

2011-04-17T13:52:00.002-04:00

Last November a new Venezuelan take-out place opened up at 1906 Packard, in Ann Arbor, site of the previous BTB Burrito. We were feeling pretty tired Saturday night, and as it was only about a mile away we decided to drop in and give it a try.

It wasn't terribly busy when we arrived at 7:30pm, and owner Elizabeth Marcano took a few minutes to go through the menu with us. I decided on a couple of empanadas, one pescado (fish) and one cachino (pork) for $5.50. The sweetie ordered Arepas Reina y Pepiada, seen above. Arepas are a sort of bun made from cooked corn meal, similar to the masa used for tortillas in Mexico. There are several varieties of arepas found throughout South America, with the Venezuelan variety being anywhere from 3" to 8" is diameter and about 3/4" thick. They're eaten with a wide variety of fillings of meat, fish, fowl, cheese and vegetables; the reina y Pepita contains chicken, mayonnaise (homemade, at Marcano's) avocado, tomato, and onion.

We also had a side of coleslaw which came with a couple of platanaos (fried slices of plantain) and one of yuca frita, (yucca fries) which came with a sweet dipping sauce.

The menu is quite large, and in addition to the regular menu there are monthly specials. This month featured the cuisine of Brazil and included (among other things) a feijoada dinner for $11.50.

Everything was absolutely delicious, and I think we'll be back soon.

postscript: Here's the kitchen- small, but very clean. I respect restaurants that let you look into where they actually prepare the food:

Bangkok Cuisine, Sterling Heights MI

2011-04-10T21:27:00.001-04:00

We decided to check out the Bangcock Cuisine in Sterline Heights yesterday after reading rave reviews at Yelp and Yahoo. Fans called it "the best" and "the most authentic Thai cuisine" so it seemed worth a look. Of course, "authentic" doesn't mean much unless it comes from someone who actually grew up in Thailand, so you have to take those judgments with a grain of salt.

First impression was that it looked a bit grungy. Shortly after ordering we were served the obligatory basket of shrimp chips, which arrived cold and greasy, and with a hint of an off flavor- like they'd been cooking in oil that had been in the fryer way too long. Not a good sign. Next was the Tom Yam soup:

The balance of flavors seemed off to me- far too acid, with no real galangal or lemon grass flavor there. Luckily this was followed by a simple eggplant dish with basil:

This was excellent. Last, a plate of Nam Sod. I'd never had it before, but the menu described it as pretty much identical to Laab (or Larb) but with ginger and garlic.

Our judgment: Pretty good, although after doing some research it did appear to be missing a lot of traditional ingredients, like toasted rice, shallots, and coriander. It's often served in Thailand with an assortment of raw vegetables, but this one was simply served on a couple pieces of lettuce with four cucmber slices.

The total tab was about $27, including a 20% tip. My overall impression was yeah, it's passable, but just. I remember being at another Bangkok Cusine several years ago, the one in Rochester, and at the time I was very favorably impressed, so this one, which is under the same ownership, was quite a letdown. My favorites are still Marnee Thai and Lotus Thai in Ann Arbor. They do a more modern interpretation of Thai food, but every dish I've had at both restaurants has been excellent.

Brunch for 30

2011-04-04T13:21:00.000-04:00

This is just part of the spread from Sunday's brunch party. Once again I was so busy getting things set up that it didn't occur to me to snap some photos of the food until my friends descended on it!

We had a ton of food, much of it brought by guests, but what I specifically wanted to write about was the two breakfast casseroles you can see the remains of in the foreground. These were both improvised based on what I found wandering through the grocery a few days ago, and both turned out rather well. Each started with a simple bread pudding sort of base:

One dozen eggs
One cup half-and-half
About 1/2t salt
few twists black pepper
Half a loaf of stale Italian bread, cubed

I beat the eggs and cream, poured it over the bread, and let it sit for a while so the bread soaked up the mixture. I did this in two separate batches, as beating two dozen eggs would have been a bit unwieldy. Each egg and bread mixtures was combined in one of the large enameled casseroles I have.

For the vegetarian casserole, I then folded in:

Two cups caramelized red onions
3/4 of a 16 ounce package of shredded Emmanthaler and Gruyere cheese
about 1/4c chopped roasted red peppers
1/4c roughly chopped fresh parsley

For the other:

12 ounces sliced ham, clut into roughly inch-sized pieces
3/4 of a 16 ounce package of shredded cheddar and jack cheeses
about 1/4c chopped roasted red peppers
1/4c roughly chopped fresh parsley

I tried to mix them just enough to mix the elements while not making the mixtures too homogenous. I wanted there to be pockets of cheese, onion, etc. I then smoothed over both and topped them with the remaining cheese I'd reserved. These went into a 350F oven for 30 minutes covered, and another 30 minutes uncovered.

Both were very popular, with the edge, I think, going to the vegetarian version. I think if I made them again, I might just use milk instead of half-and-half, and perhaps increase the quantity of liquid. A traditional bread pudding typically uses a cup of milk for each egg. But I was shooting for a super rich dish, and I certainly achieved that.

Hot Pot at Asia City

2011-03-20T16:57:00.000-04:00

Friends of mine and their daughter (who spent some time in China teaching English) have been searching for a local restaurant that served real Chinese Hot Pot. I was driving down Washtenaw Avenue in Ypsilanti Township when I spotted this sign, and made a detour to snap a pic. I've eaten at Asia City before and thoroughly enjoyed it, so you can bet I'll return soon for the hot pot. Might be a few weeks, though.

Jook!

2011-03-16T16:13:00.001-04:00

Regular readers know that one of my favorite comfort foods- particularly on a cold Winter night- is Chinese rice porridge, aka jook or congee. This batch was a quarter cup of short grain rice, three cups of water, a cut-up chicken thigh, a few green onions, a couple slices of ginger, and a garlic clove simmered slowly for an hour.

Pototao Leek Fish Soup

2011-03-11T13:33:00.001-05:00

I bought two nice looking leeks yesterday, and there was about a pound of cod in the freezer, so...

I began by roughly chopping the white and light green parts of the leeks and washing them well to remove the dirt that always gets into the leeks. These were sauteed in a few tablespoons of olive oil until soft- though you could use butter just as well.

The next addition was four large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into half inch cubes, more of less. No need to be too precise.

The cooking liquid was two cups of chicken stock (I would have used fish stock if I had any on hand) and four cups of water. This was added to the pot along with a small can of chopped clams that caught me eye, a sprinkle of salt, a few twists of pepper, and maybe a teaspoon of dried thyme. I let this cook until the potatoes were soft, and then added the fish, cut into 1" pieces, more or less.

This is a very basic recipe that you could add to in all sorts of ways. You might puree the soup before adding the fish, and maybe add a bit of creme at the end. You could add pretty much any seafood you felt like. None of the quantities are critical, so just add and keep tasting until you come up with something you like.

Publish Post

Annals of Mom Food: Tuna Noodle Casserole

2011-03-07T21:58:00.003-05:00

Ever get a hankering for real comfort food- something from your childhood? I had a can of good tuna on hand and some locally made egg noodles, both of which suggested tuna noodle casserole. Most recipes call for a can of cream soup, but my mom almost always made a white sauce, otherwise known as a béchemel.

I set a pot of water to boil and started making a white sauce, by cooking two tablespoons of butter and two of flour, to which I'd add milk to make the béchemel. But when I went to the fridge to get milk, I realized I still had an open container of chicken stock on hand. I decided to make a velouté sauce, which is made with veal or other meat stock.

I added the chicken stock, a bit at a time, until I'd added about a cup and a half, more or less. I then stirred in a can of good tuna, a quarter cup of frozen peas (thawed), a few tablespoons of minced parsley, and stirred this until it was well blended. Normally a velouté is finished with butter, but I simply added a bit of milk at the end- you could use cream, too. (Interestingly, I later learned that the original béchemel was a velouté finished with cream- so I guess what I made was a béchemel after all.)

The noodles, which were cooked by now, were folded into the sauce, and the whole thing put in a glass baking dish and baked at 375 for 45 minutes. The result was pretty yummy, and should be enough for several meals.

Paella

2011-03-07T18:24:00.001-05:00

Saturday night dinner for four of us. Chicken, shrimp, and mussels. Even without the chorizo (what was I thinking?) it was pretty good. I've posted paella recipes six times before, so I'm tempted to skip it this time, and yet...

Here's how I cooked it this time

Begin by sauteing 2 pounds of cut up chicken in olive oil until the skin is browned and it's cooked at least part way through. Put the chicken aside. Drain all but 4 tablespoon of fat from the pan.

Saute a chopped onion and a few cloves of sliced garlic in the remaining fat and oil until soft.

Add one cup of Arborio rice, and stir until the rice has a matte, chalky look- a few minutes.

Add a large pinch of saffron, a teaspoon of paprika (preferably Spanish pimenton), some chopped parsley, and a small can of chopped tomatoes or an equivalent amount of fresh, and continue to stir until most of the liquid has been absorbed.

Replace the chicken in the pan, and add afew bay leaves and enough stock to cover the rice plus another half inch. What kind of stock? Fish or chicken is fine, but what I like to do is make a shrimp stock from the shells of the shrimp I use, adding chicken stock if necessary to make up the volume.

Let this cook for 10-20 minutes, adding stock if it gets too dry.

Stir in the seafood of your choice- shrimp, crab, whatever.

When the seafood looks just about done, insert bivalves (clams, well scrubbed mussels) into the rice and scatter the surface with a half cup of thawed frozen peas. When the bivalves open, scatter with a bit more fresh parsley for color and bring the paella to the table.

Note that I only called for a single cup of rice- paella is really about the ingredients, not the rice. It's not a pilaf. There are many regional (and neighborhood) versions, but this seems to be the most traditional.

Tongue Thai'd

2011-03-02T19:25:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks ago my friend Karen asked me what I thought of the food at Tongue Thai'd (32166 Woodward Ave, Royal Oak, MI). I'd never heard of it. She gave me the location, and it struck me that that was the location of another Thai restaurant that must have either closed up shop or changed ownership. I made a note to visit it the next time I was in the neighborhood- which happened to be yesterday.

As you can see from the photo, it's not your traditional Thai restaurant. Actually, it's not a restaurant at all; it advertises itself as take-out only, although they won't complain if you eat your food at one of the sofas or booths. (There's no bathroom, so take care of that before you visit, and bring some hand wipes if you plan to eat in.) The overall vibe is relaxed and funky, and the (non-Thai) woman who took my order was friendly and charming. The menu was pretty large, with a selection of lunch specials and dinner entree. I chose a lunch special (a yellow curry with beef) which includes rice and choice of a drink.

While certainly not the best Thai food I've ever had, it was a lot better than most of the Thai places in the Royal Oak area. Portions were generous. I certainly plan on returning to try some of their other dishes.

Asia Legend (again)

2011-02-27T16:38:00.001-05:00

Last night it occurred to us that it had been many months since we last ate at Asia Legend (516 E William, Ann Arbor) and it occurred to me that I was really in the mood for a bowl of Taiwanese style Beef Noodle soup. Besides the soup (below) we had shrimp dumplings and a lovely fish dish- tilapia, I think- served in a light sauce with various vegetables.

These photos area bit foggy as not only was I shooting without a flash, but the hot vapor from the soup steamed up my camera lens ;-)

There are two things I love about Asia Legend. One is the variety of dishes you just won't find in most Chinese restaurants. The other is the staff, who are wonderfully friendly and helpful. Our waitress last night took her time explaining dishes and recommending favorites to us.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

2011-02-22T22:37:00.001-05:00

They were serving samples of sweet potato gnocchi at Trader Joe's the other day, and while I thought it was pretty good, I thought I could do a lot better- or at least a lot cheaper. I bought a bag of sweet potatoes and headed home to experiment.

My basic potato gnocchi recipe is something I got from my friend Larry, who got it from his grandmother. You mix:

Baked potatoes
About 1 tablespoon of butter per potato
Enough flour to make a stiff dough

Since I'd been experimenting with egg pastas lately, I decided to use egg instead of butter. You can use whole eggs, or for a very rich dough, just egg yolks. I decided to use whole eggs. I mixed:

2 cups baked sweet potato (scooped from the skin)
1 egg
Enough semolina flour to make a dough

Roll the dough out in snakes about 1/2" thick, and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Cut the snakes into disks about 1/4" thick, and either cook as is, or roll off the tines of a fork to make the traditional gnocchi shape. Boil in salted water until they float.

These are best served with a simple sauce- melted butter and fresh sage, with a sprinkling of grated cheese is ideal.

Bouillabaisse, more or less

2011-02-17T14:20:00.001-05:00

"What do you want for dinner?"

"Boulliabase!!"

Okay, I can manage that, or something pretty close. There are no hard and fast rules for what must absolutely be in a bouillabaisse; it's a fisherman's stew, made of fish that at one time was considered less salable. That at one time meant things like rock lobster and monkfish, which are now rather expensive. I usually try to use some combination of firm-fleshed fish, along with crustaceans and a few bivalves. It all depends on what's on sale at the market.

Bouillabaisse generally begins with leeks and fennel, so I sliced up

a large leek and
half a fennel bulb
three garlic cloves, smashed and sliced

and put them in a pot with several tablespoons of olive oil over a medium flame.

When these were softened I added

a good sized pinch of saffron,
a pinch of red pepper flakes

and stirred that briefly. Next,

four cups of seafood stock (I used Minor's Clam Base, suitably diluted) and
a can of chopped San Genovese tomatoes.

This was brought to a boil, at which point I added:

1/2 lb monkfish, cut up
1/2 lb large shrimp
1 doz cherrystone clams
a small amount of dried thyme
fresh parsley, chopped

The heat was lowered to a simmer, and the pot stirred until the clams opened. I adjusted the salt, added some fresh ground pepper, and served it with baguettes and a glass of white Bordeaux.

Real traditional bouillabaisse should have a rouille- a sort of garlic, saffron, hot pepper flavored mayonnaise- added at the end. I usually just put out a small dish with mayo mixed with crushed garlic and Chinese siracha sauce for those who'd like to spice theirs up a bit more.

Parsley, Anchovy and Garlic paste

2011-02-09T18:17:00.001-05:00

I use a lot of parsley in my cooking, usually in Mideastern and Mediterranean dishes. In the warmer months I just pick it out of the garden, but in the winter I have to get it at the supermarket. It keeps well for a few days in the fridge, but then it begins to break down, and too often I've found a bag of green goo in the vegetable drawer instead of shiny leaves.

I've read various suggestions for preserving parsley, usually involving mincing it and freezing it with water in ice cube trays. Problem is I don't want to add water to every dish I make with parsley, and ice cubes slowly shrink and dry out over time as the ice sublimates into water vapor.

So what I do is make an olive oil based paste of parsley along with other common ingredients used in Mediterranean cooking. For this batch, I used four bunches of flat leaf parsley- about 2 quarts, raw- with the large stems trimmed off. This was processed until it was reduced to small pieces. To this I added a tablespoon of crushed garlic, one 2oz can of anchovies in olive oil, and enough additional olive oil to make a paste. The total yield was just about two pints, and this was packed into two pint canning jars and refrigerated.

This is a highly concentrated mixture, and only a small amount is necessary to season a dish; consider that one full bunch of parsley translates to just eight tablespoons of this concentrated sauce. If you try this recipe, use it sparingly and taste as you go. Where to use it? All sorts of sauces for pasta and meats, soups, salad dressing, fish... pretty much anywhere you'd use parsley, salt, and garlic.

Radiatore with Clams, Pancetta, Garlic, Parsley and Anchovies

2011-02-09T18:05:00.000-05:00

If you're reading this blog, you probably know what pancetta is. For those who don't, pancetta is a rolled, salt cured and seasoned pork belly. It's similar to bacon, except it's not smoked. Pancetta can be used in a variety of ways. Sliced paper thin, it's put on pizza, or on cooked pasta. Diced, it's used to season other dishes or sauces.

I bought this pancetta sliced thick as I wanted to dice it and use it in a pasta sauce:

I sauted the diced pancetta in a small amount of olive oil, and added a teaspoon of a concentrated parsley, anchovy, garlic, and olive oil sauce I keep on hand, and a can of clams. This was allowed to reduce a bit and served with radiatore:

Roast Goose at Anne and Steve's

2011-02-06T16:10:00.002-05:00

Not many people cook goose anymore, but it's a favorite of our friend Anne Harris, who served it to a large group of her friends last night. As you can see from the less-than-idea photo above, goose, unlike most domestic fowl, is all dark meat. That's a good thing. While the breast meat of domesticated chicken and turkey has had all the flavor bred out of it in pursuit of large yield, the goose you buy from your butcher is still pretty close to its wild brethren. The breast meat is only about an inch or so thick, but increadibly rich. It's like rich tenderloin. Anne's recipe is pretty simple:

Rob the bird all over with garlic and Kosher salt
Pierce the skin all over so that the fat will run and baste the bird
Stuff and truss up the bird
Roast for an hour at 400.
Lower the heat to 325, and roast a further 1-1/2 to 30 hours, depending on the size of the bird, until juices run clear when the bird is pierced with a skewer.

The result is rich, moist meat, and a very flavorful, crisp, skin. Seems simple, but her results speak for themselves.

Along with the goose she served us an orange sauce, dressing, cooked red cabbage- a perfect accompaniment- and salad. Other friends brought wine and dessert, and for my part I decided to make some 1950s style appetizers in keeping with the spirit of a very traditional meal:

Capellini with Trader Joe Clams

2011-01-27T13:27:00.000-05:00

On my last visit to TJ's I saw something new- canned cherrystone clams. I bought two cans thinking they were the usual chopped clams, but these were actually whole clams, in broth, I made up a batch of my usual capellini and clams for lunch to test them out:

Saute in a tablespoon of olive oil:

1 medium onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
pinch red pepper flakes

Add:

chopped parsley (2-4T, more or less)
capers, olives, etc
can of clams and juice
Fresh ground pepper
Squeeze of lemon

Cook pasta to just shy of all dente, and add to the sauce. Stir and add water from the pasta pot as needed to finish cooking the pasta.

The result was good, but no better than canned minced clams. Still, it's a nice variation.

Basic Kimchi Stew

2011-01-26T14:04:00.001-05:00

I make no claims for the absolute authenticity of this dish, but I think it comes close to what you might find in a Korean kitchen. It's based on what I've eaten in restaurants, read in cookbooks, and been told by some Korean fellow students some years ago.

In a saucepan, heat to boiling, and simmer:

Well-fermented ("ripe") kimchi (including the liquid)
Beef or fish broth
Ginger
Garlic
Green onions
Korean bean paste or red pepper paste
Soft tofu
pieces of beef, seafood, or dumplings

Adjust proportions to your taste.

Serve with boiled rice.

This one also has some baby bok choi in it, since I had it on hand.

Boiled Beef Dinner

2011-01-23T17:53:00.001-05:00

One of the simplest ways to serve inexpensive cuts of beef is to boil the heck out of it for 4-6 hours with some salt and a few aromatic vegetables- onions and carrots. This is sort of the minimal version of the bollito misto I wrote about a few days ago. Just about every culture does this in one way or another. You end up with tender, mild meat, and a rich broth that can be eaten by itself, or with more vegetables, beans, or pasta cooked in it. One of the most common accompaniments to boiled beef (in Europe, at least) is horseradish, and that's how I ate this.

Beef Vegetable Soup

2011-01-23T17:46:00.001-05:00

On a really cold (8F) Winter night, I can't think of a better dinner than a hearty beef soup.

Last Saturday night I browned 2 lbs of chuck I found on sale ($2.99/lb!), and added:

3 medium onions, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, sliced
4 medium carrots, scrubbed and sliced
2 cups chopped celery
dash salt

This was sauteed until the vegetables were tender. Then I added:

1/4c red wine

to deglaze the pan, followed by:

4 bay leaves
1-28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
28 oz water (I rinsed out the can)
about 1/2t fresh ground pepper

This was allowed to simmer until the meat was falling apart- around 3 hours. Last, I added:

1/2c minced fresh parsley
1c frozen corn
1c frozen peas

I let this simmer until the frozen vegetables were cooked, adjusted the salt, and we ate it with a fresh baguette:

There's plenty of soup left for a few more meals.

Takuan (Pickled Daikon)

2011-01-23T17:36:00.001-05:00

This isn't a really authentic Takuan recipe, which would involve pickling it in rice bran and so forth, but it's very good.

Peel and trim your daikon radishes. Slice lengthwise, if you like.
Immerse the daikon in a salt solution (2 Tablespoons of salt per quart of water)
Leave it out on the counter for a week. Bubbles should form, showing that fermentation is occurring. (Make sure the daikons remain covered with brine.)
Drain the salt solution, rinse the daikon, and repack in a solution of about 1 quart cider or rice vinegar to 1 cup sugar- white or brown.

In about another week the pickles will be ready to eat. They'll be sweet, mild, and crunchy, with none of the sharpness of the raw daikon.

Bollito Misto Dinner

2011-01-16T22:16:00.003-05:00

We had another excellent Bollito Misto ("mixed boiled") dinner at Larry and Patty's the other night- you can read about the last one here. It's a simple Northern Italian dish, their boiled dinner, if you will, often served on new year's eve. It consists of a collection of inexpensive cuts of meat and a special sausage called a cotechino, made from beef and pork rinds, that have been boiled for several hours in a simple stock- water, bay leaves, a few vegetables, salt and pepper. Onions and parsley are traditional; Larry used celery as well.

The true bollito should contain (depending on where you have it) such things as beef, pork, organ meats, capon, pigs feet, calve's head, tongue, and horse meat, as well as the cotechino; last night's was limited to various beef cuts, including shank, rib, and brisket. It was still most excellent, of course.

The meat becomes extremely tender after four hours of boiling, and still retains a lot of flavor. It is eaten with a variety of relishes, sauces, and mustards. The water the meat has been cooked in becomes an unbelievably rich stock, and is served as a separate course. We had ours with annelini pasta:

I didn't quite manage to snap a photo before it was all gone. For relishes I made a mostarda da frutta again, which was well received though I'm still working on the recipe. Larry and I both made a salsa verde- his contained parsley, anchovies, garlic, vinegar and olive oil. Mine didn't have the anchovies, but included gherkins and capers. We also had a honey mustard I made, my romesco sauce, and various fruit chutneys.

And of course the main courses were preceded by antipasti:

Dessert was excellent espresso and cappuccino- Larry and Patty buy green coffee beans and roast them at home- and a few slices of the fruitcake I wrote about a few days ago.

Pepper Jelly

2011-01-16T21:53:00.001-05:00

I absolutely love pepper jelly, and when I saw jalepeno peppers on sale at (of all places) my favorite Chinese grocery, I bought a couple of pounds. Here's a basic recipe for a small batch:

Seed, de-vein, and finely chop:

3 cups peppers (hot, mild, bell... whatever you like)

Add to a saucepan along with:

1-1/2 cups cider vinegar
1-1/2t butter
6-1/2 cups sugar

Bring to a boil, skimming off any foam that forms on top.

Stir in:

1 packet fruit pectin

cook for one minute more, and remove from heat.

Pour immediately into sterilized canning jars, seal, and process for 10 minutes in boiling water. However... if you plan to use it all inside of a week or two, just refrigerate it and skip the processing.

I love it on a toasted bagel, or toasted rye bread, spread over a layer of cream cheese. It's also a great condiment, on sandwiches or with boiled meats, or whatever you like. This particular batch was 2/3rds jalapeno and one third green bell pepper, but you can use any mix of hot and mild peppers you like.

Romesco Sauce

2011-01-13T14:13:00.000-05:00

I've been making sauces this week in preparation for a dinner with friends this weekend, and today's project- or one of today's projects- was Romesco sauce. This is a sauce of Spanish origin that has many variations, but usually includes:

ground almonds, pine nuts, walnuts, and/or hazelnuts
roasted red peppers
roasted hot peppers or paprika
toasted or fried bread
roasted garlic
sherry vinegar
olive oil
salt
pepper

After reading a large number of Romesco recipes on line, I made this simple variation with what I had on hand. Into the food processor went:

1 cup raw almonds

These were processed to the consistency of coarse sand. Next I added:

One 12 oz jar roasted red peppers, drained
1 8 oz can tomatoes
1 tablespoon crushed garlic
1 tablespoon Chinese hot pepper and garlic sauce
about 1/4c olive oil
perhaps 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
maybe 1/2 teaspoon salt
a few twists of coarse ground black pepper

This was processed until almost smooth. Result? A very rich, almost meaty tasting sauce. After filling three small canning jars, I had a few tablespoons of sauce left over, so I boiled spaghetti and tossed it with the sauce:

It was every bit as good as I thought it might be. (Vegetarians take note.)

Potato Whitefish Cakes

2011-01-12T22:32:00.000-05:00

I had about a half-cup of really good smoked whitefish salad left over from the New Year's Eve party and decided to use it to make some sort of dinner entree. I grated two large Yukon Jack potatoes, pressed out the excess moisture, and mixed the fish and potatoes with an egg, a dash of salt and pepper, and a quarter teaspoon of baking powder. Sort of a whitefish potato latke.

This was formed into patties and fried in peanut oil, producing the result seen above. I had them for dinner, and for lunch the next day as well.

Homemade Fruitcake

2011-01-10T13:33:00.003-05:00

Fruitcake is a holiday joke for most people- probably because of all the awful fruitcakes sold for Christmas. Even the good ones get shoved in a closet, and by the time they're actually served, they're stale or dried out or served half frozen.

But fruitcake can be a treat, if done properly. Mine began as a large bag of assorted dried and sweetened fruit and nuts from Costco. I bought it for a party, but it never got opened, which left me with a couple pounds of dried apple, mango, citrus, kiwi, walnuts, and other fruits looking for a use. I started by putting about a pound of the mix, along with leftover almonds and dried cranberries, into the food processor, and pulsing it until the pieces were roughly 1/4"-3/8" in size.

The chopped fruits and nuts were transferred to a large mixer along with:

2c all-purpose unbleached flour
2 eggs
2 T butter
1/4c brown sugar
1/2t vanilla
1/2t baking powder

and gently mixed. The batter seemed a bit too dry, so I gradually added a water, a few tablespoons at a time, until the mixture was the consistency of a thick cake batter.

The mixture was poured into a well-buttered loaf pan, and baked at 350 until an inserted knife came out dry- about an hour and 20 minutes.

One the cake had cooled to room temperature I began pouring in brandy a few tablespoons at a time until the cake looked as if it had absorbed as much as it could. It was then transferred to the refrigerator to chill and firm up.

The result was far better than any commercial fruitcake I've ever had. I think I'll serve it warm, with a dollop of fresh whipped cream, and see what my friends think.

Lemon Curd

2011-01-06T15:21:00.003-05:00

Lemon curd is a very tasty preserve that's easy to make and can be spread on toast or crumpets or muffins or used as a dessert filling.

One of my favorite uses is one I learned from my friend and neighbor Shirley C. All you need (in addition to the lemon curd) is a few baked pastry or filo shells:

Put a dollop of lemon curd in each crust:

And that's it. I served these at my New Year's Eve party and they were very popular.

To make lemon curd:

Whisk together, over a double boiler, until smooth and creamy:

5 egg yolks
1 cup sugar

Add:

the juice and zest of 4 lemons

and continue to whisk until the mixture is light yellow and coats the back of a spoon- this takes about 8 minutes.

Remove from heat and whisk in:

1 stick of butter cut in small pieces

a piece at a time. Refrigerate until ready for use. The prepared curd will last several weeks in the fridge.

(If you don't have a double boiler, use a stainless steel bowl held over a saucepan containing an inch or two of boiling water.)

Crispy Kale

2011-01-06T15:07:00.003-05:00

It may not look super appetizing in the photo, but baked kale is a delightful way to enjoy this vegetable- even kids like it. It's crunchy, tasty, and not at all bitter. You can snack on it, or use it as a garnish, whole or crumbled like nori. I think Jacques Pepin was the first to popularize it on his show Fast Food My Way several years ago. Since then I've seen dozens of recipes on the web. Most suggest you bake it at 350, which is too high; to keep a bright green color, you need to bake it at 250F.

Start by tearing away the thick stalks and washing the leaves to remove any sand or dirt. Use a salad spinner if you have one, and then towel and air dry the leaves until there's not a speck of water- this is very important, if you want your kale crisp and not soggy.

Next toss your kale with olive oil- about 1 tablespoon per pound of kale:

Don't add any salt- it'll draw out moisture and make the kale soggy.

Spread out on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 250F and check it. If it's not all crisp, give it another 5-10 minutes and check it again.

Capellini with Shrimp, Squid and Lemon

2011-01-05T14:37:00.004-05:00

This is the same recipe as the dish I made a few days ago with the addition of some shrimp left over from my New Year's Eve party.