Hodgepodge Update

Happy holidays to everyone. May your days in the wet cold be filled with warmth, merriment, butter, and sugar... and maybe a little bacon. I've got a lot going on lately, as indicated by my lack of blogging. If I have a lot to blog about, then I have little time to blog about it. Here is the quick update. My beautiful wife, Shelese, is 14 weeks pregnant (yay!), had planned to go to Kansas (Shelese's home-state) for Christmas, wife put on bed rest, bored out of our minds, watched more movies in the last three days than is probably healthy (could have blogged during movies, I know... but I was doing something productive, I promise), started a DIY project to hand-make a wooden spoon (the productive thing I was doing during the movies), and the usual kitchen activity.

So here is the wifey at about three months pregnant. The only way we knew she was pregnant was, the pregnancy test of course, and her nearly constant nausea and off-the-wall taste preferences. She found so many foods that she usually loves very off-putting, e.g. avocados and mushrooms.

One month later and you can see the shirt is pretty much maxed-out on space in the belly region. Stay tuned for more pics.

Here is a pic of our little squirmy at 14 weeks. Photogenic no? We are so excited to meet the little offspring! So here is the deal though; we're dealing with an incompetent cervix. That is the clinical term, and no, her cervix did not take an aptitude test and fail to be deemed, "incompetent." It's a bit short and the doctor wants to do a cerclage (I'll let you look that up if you don't know what that is... this is a food blog for goodness sake). The doctor tells us, "not to freak out" and that, "he'll fix it." And we believe him. He's a fascinating guy! His reputation is that he is one of the best high risk OBs in the nation and you get that feeling when he's with you. Pretty quiet, no-nonsense, constantly yawning because he delivers every baby and is up late with patients every night. Long story short, all should be well after the procedure, however, Shelese has been ordered to modified bed rest for the R E M A I N D E R OF THE P R E G N A N C Y! That's six months!!! She started bed rest last weekend so I started a new project that I'll explain later. No matter, we would do anything for our little squirming baby.

Here is our other baby.

This is our genius doctor. Notice the fanny pack and too-short scrubs. 

Okay, switching gears again, keep up please. Here is my project. Thanks to my good friend, Jord, I had the pleasure of reading Mark Frauenfelder's, Made By Hand, his proclaimed story of, "Searching for meaning in a throwaway world." In short, the book is his personal account of doing things for yourself in a modern world. Mark explains the journey that took him from Los Angeles to the Cook Islands back to Los Angeles and his Do It Yourself (DIY) exploration of keeping chickens and bees, modifying his espresso machine, and carving wooden spoons among many other DIY projects. Inspired, I set out on my first DIY project of the year. Ran to the Depot of the Home and picked up some basic wood carving tools and a piece of poplar and this is what I had in a few hours.

Boz was quality control.

I'll post a picture of the finished project soon. On another note, this was dinner tonight. I roasted a chicken according to the Zuni method and served it on top of a potato, leek, and raclette cheese hash brown, carmelized Brussels Sprouts, and left-over mushroom cream sauce from the Stroganoff from a few weeks back.

Thanks for reading and happy happy holidays to all of you!

A Good Idea

Have you ever combined about two parts ginger ale with one part bourbon (a nice one with vanilla and caramel hints) and a scoop of vanilla ice cream? If you answered no, perhaps it's time to try it out. Make sure that you get a bite of vanilla ice cream before it melts! Damn, simple pleasures. Thanks for reading.

Beef Stroganoff al la Thomas Keller

What do you do when you buy cream for a dish and you only need about a third of it? Well, you embark on a two day preparation of beef stroganoff of course. I know that's not what most of you were thinking but perhaps next time you have leftover cream, you will...

Lately, I've been trying to cook intuitively; you know, think about what's in the fridge and pantry and bang out a really good dish. It's been going well, hopefully you'd agree with me since the products most often end up here, in the blogosphere. I decided that I need to mix it up a bit and execute some recipes from my favorite chefs. In my opinion, an experience even the best home cooks need to do on a regular basis.  So the first in my recipes entries is, Beef Stroganoff by Thomas Keller. For those of you that don't know who he is, let me first say that I have a bit of a man crush on him. Not only did he lead the only west coast three-star Michelin rated French Laundry in Napa, he has his prints all over several other culinary creations ranging from cook books to television to other restaurants. Never have I executed a recipe more intricate and detail meticulous than one of Kellers. I have his Ad Hoc at Home book; he claims that it is a gourmet interpretation of classic home-cooked favorites. When I hear, "home-cooked favorites," I picture tasty one pot, rustic dishes that get right to the flavor point. The recipes in Ad Hoc are as complicated as the blueprints for a nuclear reactor. Okay, I exaggerate a bit but they are intense. I'll get right to the point, here is my execution of his stroganoff.

Add leeks, mushrooms, onions, carrots, garlic, thyme, and bay leaves to a bottle of red wine and reduce until the wine is a glaze.

Meanwhile sear the beef (should have been boneless short rib, I used boneless chuck roast instead) in oil and set aside

Chop up more aromatics and spices (leeks, carrots, onions, thyme, and bay leaf), add them to the wine glaze and cover with cheese cloth to create a pillow for the beef to rest upon.

Add beef broth to the pot.

Create a parchment lid, cover the braise, and place in oven for about two hours.

Remove beef, strain, and reserve braising liquid.

The ingredients for the rest of the dish are below. I told you Keller was intense. It's no wonder The French Laundry can get away charging a minimum of $240 for a prix fixe dinner, without wine. Cream, creme fraiche, mushrooms, butter, bay leaf, thyme, peppercorns, cubed braised beef, parsley, canola oil, noodles (pappardelle preferably).

Process the mushrooms and add them to onions softened in butter and cook until liquid is evaporated.

Add cream and sachet of bay leaf, thyme, and peppercorns.

Meanwhile brown mushrooms in butter and canola oil. Keller instructs to turn each mushroom over after three minutes to brown both sides.

Small bamboo forceps are one of my best friends in the kitchen.

The same goes for the braised beef, browned and flipped. Then into the oven for about ten minutes.

The cream sauce is blended and strained and put back on a low flame. The browned mushrooms are then added.

The finished product was as good as it looks. The beef would have been much more tender had it been short rib but I did enjoy the chuck roast for it's deep beefy beefiness. The preparation of the beef, while labor intense and time consuming, left a nice little crisp to the browned bits. The mushroom cream sauce is the true star of this dish though. The processing and later blending of the mushrooms embedded the essence of mushroom deeply through the layers of silky cream, tangy creme fraiche, and peppery thyme. Seasoned with gray or sea salt and chopped parsley, the dish is as visually stunning as delectable.

Paired nicely with a dry red, in this case a Barbera.

Thanks for reading. Anybody have some favorite chef recipes worth sharing?

10 Favorite Spices in the Ol Spice Cupboard

In response to an old post on Chowhound that I just came across, here are a few of my favorite things.

Kosher salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, sweet paprika, saffron, sea salt, garam masala, nutmeg, truffle salt, vanilla bean

Classic Pad Thai

A new tradition was born tonight, Andrea Bocelli crooning Christmas songs while Shelese sets up the miniature Christmas tree and hangs the ornaments, and I slave away over a wok making pad thai. I know it's jumbled and cross-cultural but it somehow just works, take my word for it. Perhaps the holidays usually elicit thoughts of foods like pot roast, country ham, and pumpkin pie for most of us; but why not pad thai? Yeah, it makes sense, it should fit in! Soul satisfying, hitting on all cylinders in each corner of the flavor trifecta. Sweet, salty, and spicy dancing on the tongue like sugar plum fairies. Okay enough yuletide imagery; truth is, a friend requested the recipe and it's been awhile since I made the dish so voila.

Almost exactly one year to the day before the dreadful Southeast Asian tsunami that took the lives of many poor souls, I was in the very place the waves ravaged the shores. Actually, I was on the peninsula coast opposite of the heaviest hit beaches. The Thai people are a warm and welcoming group. While there, I was told that the literal translation of Thailand was, "The Land of Smiles." True or not, I can vouch for the abundance of smiles. Such a passionate and gentle nation with stunning nature and exquisite cuisine. My heart truly aches for the people shocked and awed by the violence nature wrought that inauspicious day.

As you hop around Thailand you'll see that pad thai is a popular dish offered at many street vendor stalls and ramshackle restaurants. There was not much regional variation that I picked up on; some places offered dried shrimp, others chicken. The dish was relatively consistent throughout the country, and I was fortunate enough to spend time north, east, south, and west. As the smiling Thai woman set my first plate of steaming hot noodles in front of me, a few scent waves permeated my nostrils and I knew life would never be the same! Alright, melodrama aside, I have to say it was frigin' awesome yo! Back in the States, I haven't been able to find a restaurant that produces classic pad thai. Most add such bastardizing ingredients as tomato and/or sweet and sour sauce, paprika, and pineapple. I apologize if you enjoy yours that way... no body's perfect.

While I was in the north in a city called Chiang Mai, I took a cooking course. We learned how to pick produce, make curry pastes, properly stir fry, make coconut soup, and prepare pad thai al la classico. The one dish that has been committed to memory from excessive preparation and consumption was pad thai. I'll get right to the point, here's how I make it now.

Like many Asian dishes, the labor is in the preparation of the ingredients and the cooking is fast and furious. What you'll need: thin, flat rice noodles (Thai or Vietnamese), soy sauce, fish sauce, tamarind juice (orange juice if you can't find it), tofu, green onion (reserve the green portion to be eaten fresh with the finished dish), sprouts, peanuts (roughly crushed), eggs, palm sugar (cane is fine as a substitute), and red pepper flakes. Not shown in the picture below are vegetable oil, and lime wedges. Prep everything as shown below and try not to be frustrated with the lack of exact amounts. The preparation of this dish requires some culinary intuition only gained through the trial and error of several batches. Don't let that turn you off, the first time you make this it will be somewhere between awesome and totally awesome; just realize that the dish gets better as you experiment with adding more soy sauce, and/or fish sauce, and/or sugar, and/or chili flakes. It may take a few tries to reach pad thai Nirvana but rest assured, it awaits you. 

Prepare the ingredients and turn the heat on the wok.

While the wok heats up, cook the noodles until just soft. They will continue to cook while you assemble the dish so don't over cook them in the water.

 

Once the noodles are cooked enough, add some oil to the wok and crank up the heat to high. Just before the oil starts to smoke throw in the drained noodles but BE CAREFUL! They are moist and the oil is hot and splats all she wrote. Wow! I cant believe how cheesy I can get sometimes.

Let the noodles fry, flipping them occasionally until there is a crispy skin formed on the mass of noodles. They will be a large congealed mass of glutinous, sticky noodles but don't worry. The juice, tamarind or orange, does a good job at de-gumming and de-tangling the mass of fried noodles. Continue to toss and the noodles until the juice has evaporated.

Move the noodles to the side and add a little more oil to the empty wok space. Crack in as many eggs as you like and scramble them up.

Next, add the sprouts, white part of the green onions, peanuts, tofu, fish and soy sauces, sugar, and chili flakes.

Give it all a good toss and taste for seasoning. Add more of anything to your preference and serve hot.

 

Garnish with the green of the green onions and a wedge of lime. In Thailand you would be provided with a tray of add-ons to top your pad thai with. They usually include sliced chilies in vinegar, sliced chilies in fish sauce, crushed red pepper flakes, chili paste, and granulated sugar. Any, all, or none of theses add-ons go wonderfully with the dish depending on your mood. For me, all I need is lime and the onion. Okay, going back for leftovers, thanks for reading. Kop khun krap (pronounced cup coon cup): thank you in Thai.