recipes

Lazy Summer Side

Aug 17, 2012 By gaowmichelle in Cooking 1 Comment Tags: alice waters, battersby, corn hash, food, kale salad, recipes, summer side

Yes, there are only three weeks left of summer and here in LA that means that it is really just getting started since we spend the month of June in gloom. Unfortunately, we have had to crank up the AC all week in addition to the twin vornados turning our living room into a wind tunnel. It also means that the farmer’s market is literally ripping at the seams of its tight ass pants and I have been coming home with a boat load of goodness, scheming and dreaming about all the interesting and complicated dishes that I will attempt. Instead, I had three ears of corn sitting on the counter that after three days were just asking to be eaten and thus I had to turn to my trusty corn hash a la Alice Waters. It’s a simple dish with fresh flavors that is so easy to tweak to whatever you might have on hand. In this version, I substituted hot chiles for shishito peppers and I added a knob of homemade herb butter on top.

Corn Hash
Source: The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters

4 servings

Shuck and remove kernels from:
4 ears sweet corn (about 2 cups kernels)
Melt in a heavy skillet, over medium heat:
2 tablespoons butter
Add:
1 small red onion, diced
1 small hot chile, cut in two, seeds and veins removed, and diced very fine
Cook for 3 or 4 minutes, to soften.
Add:
Salt
Cook for another minute, then turn up the heat to medium-high and pour in the corn kernels. Cook for a few minutes, tossing or stirring, until the corn is cooked. If needed moisten with a splash of water. Season with:
A squeeze of lime juice
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt and lime juice, if needed.
I finished with a knob of herb butter.

{photo via bonappetit.com}

In other summer food news, Bon Appetit just got the recipe for the Battersby’s crispy kale salad which I have been trying to figure out since I first ate it in Brooklyn. Crispy kale, fish sauce and Thai chiles? This is the only way that kale is meant to be eaten (at least according to this Southeast Asian). Rest assured that this will be made in the near future.

Friday Sides

Jul 6, 2012 By gaowmichelle in Cooking 2 Comments Tags: baby corn, cooking, corn, food, fourth of july, inspiration, potato salad, recipes

Decided to root around in the fridge for food instead of going out and made some sides as a meal. It was a mini-Fourth of July party to kickoff the weekend minus the hot dogs. Two things on the menu: potato salad with olives and mustard vinaigrette and baby corn grilled in husks with miso. I bought the baby corn at the Hollywood Farmer’s last weekend (they were 4 for a dollar!) and thought I would attempt to recreate a dish I had Hirozen a few months ago.

et voila.

Potato Salad Recipe

1 lb boiled new potatoes sliced
3 tbs chopped black olives
1 tbs chopped italian parsley
1/2 tbs Rice vinegar
salt and pepper
2 tbs apple cider vinegar
1 tbs dijon mustard
1 tbs diced shallots
4 tbs extra virgin olive oil

Place the potatoes and olives with the rice vinegar and a pince of salt in a bowl and let sit while you make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk dijon mustard with the apple cider vinegar, add the shallots and then whisk in the olive oil slowly so that it emulsifies. Pour the dressing on the potatoes with the parsley, mix and serve.

so you don’t set fire to your kitchen!

whisk it, whisk it, whisk it

My attempt at Hirozen’s baby corn:

8 ears of baby corn in husk
1/8 cup chicken stock
1.5 tbs mirin
1 tbs sugar
1/2 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs miso

Soak the corn in cold water for about 20 minutes. In a small saucepan, combine the stock, mirin, sugar and soy over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and whisk in the miso until smooth.

Use a grill pan or grill the corn outside on high heat. Let them steam inside the husks for 4-7 minutes on each side (depends on how big they are) and remove. Take a knife and make a shallow slit to open the corn. Brush the babies with miso!

Marvelous Gruel.

Jul 6, 2012 By gaowmichelle in Cooking 1 Comment Tags: congee, cooking, david thompson, food, jok, recipes, rice porridge, thai food

In Thailand, and much of Asia for that matter, rice porridge (aka congee or jok) is comfort food. Literally, it is the food of choice when your tummy needs a break from the Pepto. Babies eat it, Old people eat it. It’s a gruel (a delicious one) that you can leave plain or customize to your hearts desire and for this reason it is one of the most satisfying things to eat. It’s best made with broken rice, the throwaway rice during the milling process, because it gets really gooey which is the defining characteristic of this stuff. The plainest you can get is just the rice with some scallions, ginger and smattering of white pepper. But you can throw in just about anything, in anything combination you can imagine. I decided to make two versions: one with egg and one with these enormous diver scallops I got at McCall’s Meat and Fish down the street.

Rice Porridge Recipe (courtesy of David Thompson)

Serves 4

1 cups broken rice (alternatively you could break up rice in a food processor? worth a try)
1.5 tbs sticky rice (optional)
pinch of salt
pandanus leaf, knotted

Combine the rices, rinse well and drain. Soak in cold water for 2-3 hours — no longer or the congee will be too thin.

In a large, heavy-based pan, bring 4 cups of water to a boil with some salt and the pandanus leaf, then gradually pour in the rice, stirring gently and constantly as the water returns to a boil. If the uncooked rice sticks to the pan and scorches, the congee is ruined. When the rice begins to swell, turn down the heat to very low, cover with a lid and simmer as gently as possible, stirring regularly and adding more water if needed, until the rice grains have almost dissolved (about 45 minutes or more). Put to one side covered and use within a few hours.

Rice congee with Egg Recipe (adapted from David Thompson)

4 cups of plain rice congee (above)
1 cup light chicken stock
1 tbs sliced scallions
1 tbs chopped cilantro
3 tbs shredded ginger
2 tbs light soy sauce
ground white pepper to taste
1 egg

Combine the rice congee with the stock and a pinch of salt and bring to a boil, stirring regularly (it bubbles),until thoroughly incorporated and smooth. Cover and immer gently for 10 minutes making sure it doesn’t stick to the sides. Crack in the egg and let the congee sit for a few moments without stirring. Sprinkle the ginger and a tbs of light soy sauce and fold in the egg. Sprinkle with scallions and white paper and serve.

I decided that I didn’t want to combine the egg with the scallop so I made another version that was just plain with the seared scallop on top. DELICIOUS.

Greek Salad #101

Jul 3, 2012 By gaowmichelle in Cooking 2 Comments Tags: cooking, cucumber, feta, food, greece, greek salad, recipes, summer, tomatoes

Summer is upon us and it makes me think of times I have spent in the Greek islands downing daily doses of Horiatiki or what we like to call Greek Salad. In fact, I ate it so frequently that I kept a running tab in my journal as to how many Greek Salads I consumed. In ten days, I downed fifteen, clearly I doubled up. A few things that I have learned about this salad: don’t use lettuce, slice your onions paper thin (they get too spicy otherwise), and let it sit for a bit before you eat it. I found super sweet grape tomatoes at the market and knew that it was time to make my favorite summer snack.

Can’t forget to give Petrie a cucumber.

Greek Salad

1 pint of sweet grape tomatoes (or any other kind really)
4 Persian cucumbers
1/2 medium red onion (sliced very thin, I like to use my Benriner mandolin)
2 tbs capers
7 oz feta cheese
1/2 cup of good olive oil
2 tbs sherry or jerez vinegar
pinch of dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste

Chop it up, pour the vinegar and olive oil on top, mix, let stand about 20 minutes then EAT. In Greece, they keep the feta as a big block and place in top and sprinkle it with oregano to serve.

Purslane Kind of Day.

Jun 6, 2012 By gaowmichelle in Cooking 2 Comments Tags: cooking, food, Garlic, Purslane, recipes, Salad, Spring, Yogurt

It’s been raining a lot here in NY, what else is new, but today is the perfect spring day. And yes, it’s still Spring until June 21st! Petrie, my little pitbull chihuahua, spent the day walking on the river with us and looking out the skylight windows while daydreaming of squirrels in Union Square. A little HDR never hurt a backlit black dog.

I found some interesting things at the greenmarket today: Purslane and Garlic Scapes. So I set about to make a salad.

Purslane is a strange thing. The first and only other time I’ve had it was at Gjelina to go in Venice, CA. Apparently it’s hard to find and it’s actually some kind of weed that has a high protein content, omega-3′s and lots of Vitamin A, C and E! I think that would make it some kind of superfood. Anyway, I didn’t know any of that until I sat down to write this. So I guess that is just an added bonus because it’s pretty tasty.

Garlic scapes are all over the Greenmarket right now and I’ve never had them so I just grabbed two. They are the tops of the garlic plant and they taste like, you guessed it, garlic.

Purslane Salad with Garlic Scape Yogurt Dressing

Salad

3 cups purslane leaves (loosely packed)
2 cucumbers seeded and chopped
1 watermelon radish, julienned
1 scallion thinly sliced
Handful of Pita Chips

Dressing (makes 2 cups)

2 garlic scapes
3 tbs lemon juice
1 cup Greek yogurt
salt & pepper to taste

Place garlic scapes (roughly chopped) and lemon juice in food processor. Puree until smooth. Add yogurt and puree a bit more. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Remove purslane leaves off the stem and rinse the leaves. Seed and dice cucumbers. Place all salad ingredients in a bowl. Just before serving, pour the garlic scape yogurt dressing on top.

Alice Waters’ Fava Bean Puree – Spring Snacking

Jun 4, 2012 By gaowmichelle in Cooking 1 Comment Tags: cooking, food, recipes

A few years ago in Greece, I stopped into a little taverna and had this delicious fava bean puree. Almost like a hummus but slightly warm and green, served with a little well of insanely good olive oil. Over the weekend, I stopped by the greenmarket and discovered boxes of fava beans at every stall and I was inspired to attempt to recreate that masterpiece. Fava beans do take a bit of effort but the end result is totally worth it.

First you have to shell the beans from the pod, blanch those beans, then shell them again to get to the good stuff. The trick to keeping them really green? A quick ice bath right after you blanch them.

I mashed the soft fava beans with a pestle straight in the saucepan. Then piping hot right onto a warm slice of toasted Amy’s Bread baguette.

Fava Bean Puree

Source: Alice Waters

2 to 3 pounds of fava beans in the pod
About 1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup water
Salt
3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 to 2 teaspoons chopped rosemary
Fresh-ground black pepper

Shell the beans, and heat a pot of water to boiling. Blanch the beans briefly (for 30 seconds or so) to loosen the skins; drain and cool in ice water, to preserve their bright green color. Peel the beans; use your thumbnail to tear the skin at one end, then squeeze to pop out the bean.

Heat about 1/4 cup of the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and add the beans, the water, and a generous pinch of salt. Cook the beans gently, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes, until very soft. Add more water if needed to keep them moist and loose. Mash the beans to a paste with a wooden spoon or potato masher. Make a well in the center of the pan and pour in another few tablespoons of the olive oil. Add the garlic and rosemary to the oil and cook gently; when the garlic tarts to sizzle and releases its fragrance, stir the mixture into the beans. Season with a few grinds of pepper. Taste and add more salt, olive oil, or water as needed.

Makes about 2 cups

And while you’re at the greenmarket, go get yourself some peonies! The trick is to keep them out of direct sunlight and put ice cubes in their water. Yes. Ice. They like it cold. I brought this one home all closed up in a bud and it looked like this in a matter of hours. It’s magic!