I have three new cookbooks.
1. Top Chef the cookbook with an introduction by Tom Colicchio. Bravo has been pushing this cookbook during their Top Chef marathons. So far I've made the Fideos with Clams, which did not turn out quite right although I followed the recipe to a T, and the Moroccan Cubanos which turned out perfect. The fideos were made with angel hair pasta and a cream sauce infused with saffron and mixed with tons of garlic. The problem was there was not enough liquid to cook the pasta, leaving it crunchy. Good flavors though. The Moroccan Cubanos were made with slow roasted pork marinated with Ras al-hanout (a spice blend I've mentioned before which I actually have) and pickled vegetables wrapped in corn tortillas like a taco. Delicious. One drawback: many of the recipes in the Top Chef cookbook require ingredients like elk, foie gras, ostrich fillets, and octopus.
2. Giada's Kitchen. Giada's newest cookbook. Haven't tried anything yet but here's what looks good so far: Crispy Smoked Mozarella with Honey and Figs, Panini with Chocolate and Brie, Linguine with Shrimp and Lemon Oil, Lamb Ragu with Mint, Lemon Ricotta Cookies. Love how her recipes are twists on familiar favorites.
3. Bon Appetit - fast easy fresh. Bon Appetit magazine has a section called "fast easy fresh" which has perfect weeknight meals. Now I have the 770 page book of these recipes. Feel like beef? Just look up the ingredient and you'll find Roast Beef Tenderloin with Wasabi-Garlic Cream or Flank Steak Salad with Roasted Shallots and Goat Cheese. Need to make scones for brunch? Choose from Meyer Lemon and Dried Blueberry Scones or Walnut, Golden Raisin and Fennel Seed Scones. Don't take the same old ham and cheese for lunch, here are ideas for Open-face Lobster Salad Sandwiches, Watercress Sandwiches with Jalapeno-Lemon Butter, or Pancetta, Mizuna, and Tomato Sandwiches with Green Garlic Aioli.
I'll never have time to make all the recipes I want to make.
Monday, December 29, 2008
How to spend a two-hour wait
December 29
“This is one of the things I hate about New York,” my friend Yishane Lee said.
We had friends visiting from out of town who wanted to go to The Spotted Pig on a Friday night. At 8pm.
The Spotted Pig is one of the hottest restaurants in the city, and it doesn’t take reservations. But Jeff Cranmer and Susie Park are good friends, and it was the day after Christmas. That’s a busy shopping day, of course, but an anomalous restaurant day. And the economy is in a shambles, after all. Perhaps The Pig would be quiet.
Nope. I was the first person in our party to arrive, and I squeezed my way through the crowd to get to the host’s stand. The host was nice enough, and apologetic yet fatalistic when he told me it would be a two to two-and-a-half hour wait for a four-top. I thanked him, had him write my first name down (I spelled it out for him, with one ‘t,’ he wrote it with two — that happens more often than not, and it fascinates me) and went inside to wait for my friends.
Just so you know, Jeff and Susie are no rubes. They knew it might be a long wait, but they wanted to see what all the fuss over The Spotted Pig was about. Sometimes to find out things like that, you have to wait.
It’s one of the things I hate about New York, too.
But of course the most important part of a meal is who you eat with. That’s also the most important part of a two to two-and-a-half hour wait.
If you ever see me using unusual but apt turns of phrase, I learned that from Jeff, who seems either to start from scratch or to continue part of his own internal linguistic dialog when he makes observations. I’d give you an example, but I can’t muster any great Jeffisms at the moment. I do think my use of the word “muster” probably came from him, in spirit at least.
He was doing a lot more verbal gymnastics when we met, oh, I'm gonna say 13 years ago in Bangkok. But we all had more vigor back in those days.
Susie does retail merchandising for Old Navy and was really after me to invest in a $1,000 coffee maker for my home, because a great cup of coffee is worth it. And of course she has a point. Susie is usually right.
And she was right that the crowd waiting for tables at The Spotted Pig was more boorish and apparently less accustomed to living indoors or associating with other people than you would expect from New Yorkers. As people stood around in friend groups near the bar, they seemed oblivious to the fact that people behind them might want a shot at making eye contact with the bartender. They didn't seem to know that if you make uninvited physical contact with someone — an elbow to the shoulder blade, a shoulder to the face — you’re supposed to acknowledge it with a brief verbal apology or, at the very least, a look of regret.
So it seemed to be a bridge-and-tunnel crowd (living in Brooklyn, I, too, am technically bridge-and-tunnel — I know), but I was with good friends who know not only how to behave in close New York spaces (Jeff and Susie lived in New York themselves for a few years), but also how to gracefully take over bar stools as they are vacated.
So we managed to score three stools, and for awhile the four of us tested our balance by sharing them while eating appetizers. We were then thinking of heading to Arturo’s for pizza, but an hour and fifty-seven minutes into our wait the staff offered us a table.
And it was a doozy of a table. I don’t usually notice when I’m getting a great table, but we got the corner booth in the back of the ground floor, by the window. Very classy.
What we ate at the bar:
prosciutto and ricotta tart with marjoram
sweetbreads with piperade and mint
sheep's ricotta gnudi with brown butter & sage
Somthing else, the name of which I have forgotten, but it’s basically the face meat of a pig made into little cakes — like crab cakes, but out of pork.
What we ate at the table:
Chargrilled burger with roquefort cheese & shostrings (two of them split among the four of us)
Scallops stewed with girolles & crème fraîche
beets with greens
Brussels sprouts
Walnut, chocolate & Amaretto cake
Ginger cake.
“This is one of the things I hate about New York,” my friend Yishane Lee said.
We had friends visiting from out of town who wanted to go to The Spotted Pig on a Friday night. At 8pm.
The Spotted Pig is one of the hottest restaurants in the city, and it doesn’t take reservations. But Jeff Cranmer and Susie Park are good friends, and it was the day after Christmas. That’s a busy shopping day, of course, but an anomalous restaurant day. And the economy is in a shambles, after all. Perhaps The Pig would be quiet.
Nope. I was the first person in our party to arrive, and I squeezed my way through the crowd to get to the host’s stand. The host was nice enough, and apologetic yet fatalistic when he told me it would be a two to two-and-a-half hour wait for a four-top. I thanked him, had him write my first name down (I spelled it out for him, with one ‘t,’ he wrote it with two — that happens more often than not, and it fascinates me) and went inside to wait for my friends.
Just so you know, Jeff and Susie are no rubes. They knew it might be a long wait, but they wanted to see what all the fuss over The Spotted Pig was about. Sometimes to find out things like that, you have to wait.
It’s one of the things I hate about New York, too.
But of course the most important part of a meal is who you eat with. That’s also the most important part of a two to two-and-a-half hour wait.
If you ever see me using unusual but apt turns of phrase, I learned that from Jeff, who seems either to start from scratch or to continue part of his own internal linguistic dialog when he makes observations. I’d give you an example, but I can’t muster any great Jeffisms at the moment. I do think my use of the word “muster” probably came from him, in spirit at least.
He was doing a lot more verbal gymnastics when we met, oh, I'm gonna say 13 years ago in Bangkok. But we all had more vigor back in those days.
Susie does retail merchandising for Old Navy and was really after me to invest in a $1,000 coffee maker for my home, because a great cup of coffee is worth it. And of course she has a point. Susie is usually right.
And she was right that the crowd waiting for tables at The Spotted Pig was more boorish and apparently less accustomed to living indoors or associating with other people than you would expect from New Yorkers. As people stood around in friend groups near the bar, they seemed oblivious to the fact that people behind them might want a shot at making eye contact with the bartender. They didn't seem to know that if you make uninvited physical contact with someone — an elbow to the shoulder blade, a shoulder to the face — you’re supposed to acknowledge it with a brief verbal apology or, at the very least, a look of regret.
So it seemed to be a bridge-and-tunnel crowd (living in Brooklyn, I, too, am technically bridge-and-tunnel — I know), but I was with good friends who know not only how to behave in close New York spaces (Jeff and Susie lived in New York themselves for a few years), but also how to gracefully take over bar stools as they are vacated.
So we managed to score three stools, and for awhile the four of us tested our balance by sharing them while eating appetizers. We were then thinking of heading to Arturo’s for pizza, but an hour and fifty-seven minutes into our wait the staff offered us a table.
And it was a doozy of a table. I don’t usually notice when I’m getting a great table, but we got the corner booth in the back of the ground floor, by the window. Very classy.
What we ate at the bar:
prosciutto and ricotta tart with marjoram
sweetbreads with piperade and mint
sheep's ricotta gnudi with brown butter & sage
Somthing else, the name of which I have forgotten, but it’s basically the face meat of a pig made into little cakes — like crab cakes, but out of pork.
What we ate at the table:
Chargrilled burger with roquefort cheese & shostrings (two of them split among the four of us)
Scallops stewed with girolles & crème fraîche
beets with greens
Brussels sprouts
Walnut, chocolate & Amaretto cake
Ginger cake.
LEMONY CHICKEN SOUP WITH SPINACH
Ingredients:
3 pound - chicken parts, preferably thighs, skinned
3 - large ribs celery, cut into 1-inch slices
4 - large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
3 & 1/2 cups - thinly sliced leeks or coarsely chopped onions
1 & 1/2 pounds - fresh spinach, trimmed, chopped, and thoroughly rinsedor two 10-ounce packages frozen chopped spinach
4 cups - chicken broth
1 tbsp - butter or oil
1/2 cup - pearl barley, rinsed
2 - large bay leaves
1/4 tsp - dried thyme leaves
1/4 cup - minced fresh dill
4 to 5 tbsp - freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 2 juicy lemons)
4 cups - water
salt to taste
HOW TO COOK:
Over medium-high heat, heat the butter in the cooker until it begins to foam.
Cook the leeks, stirring frequently, until they soften, about 5 minutes.
(If using onions, for a sweeter taste, cook them, covered, over low heat for an additional 5 minutes, stirring from time to time.)
Add the water and bring to a boil as you prepare and add the chicken parts, celery, carrots, barley, bay leaves, thyme and salt.
Lock the lid in place.
Over high heat, bring to high pressure.
Lower the heat to maintain high pressure and cook for 12 minutes.
Quick-release the pressure by setting the cooker under cold, running water.
Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to allow any excess steam to escape.
With a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken parts to a cutting board.
Taste the barley, and if it is still hard (it should be chewy but tender), return to high pressure for 3 minutes more.
Spoon off any fat visible on the surface.
Remove the bay leaves and discard.
Stir in the chicken broth and salt to taste and bring to a boil.
Add the spinach and boil the soup over medium heat until the spinach is tender, about 2 minutes for fresh and 5 minutes for frozen.
When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bone and chop or shred it into bite-sized pieces.
Return to the cooker.
When the chicken is good and hot, turn off the heat and stir in the dill, lemon juice and salt to taste.
FOR MORE SOUPS CLICK HERE.
3 pound - chicken parts, preferably thighs, skinned
3 - large ribs celery, cut into 1-inch slices
4 - large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
3 & 1/2 cups - thinly sliced leeks or coarsely chopped onions
1 & 1/2 pounds - fresh spinach, trimmed, chopped, and thoroughly rinsedor two 10-ounce packages frozen chopped spinach
4 cups - chicken broth
1 tbsp - butter or oil
1/2 cup - pearl barley, rinsed
2 - large bay leaves
1/4 tsp - dried thyme leaves
1/4 cup - minced fresh dill
4 to 5 tbsp - freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 2 juicy lemons)
4 cups - water
salt to taste
HOW TO COOK:
Over medium-high heat, heat the butter in the cooker until it begins to foam.
Cook the leeks, stirring frequently, until they soften, about 5 minutes.
(If using onions, for a sweeter taste, cook them, covered, over low heat for an additional 5 minutes, stirring from time to time.)
Add the water and bring to a boil as you prepare and add the chicken parts, celery, carrots, barley, bay leaves, thyme and salt.
Lock the lid in place.
Over high heat, bring to high pressure.
Lower the heat to maintain high pressure and cook for 12 minutes.
Quick-release the pressure by setting the cooker under cold, running water.
Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to allow any excess steam to escape.
With a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken parts to a cutting board.
Taste the barley, and if it is still hard (it should be chewy but tender), return to high pressure for 3 minutes more.
Spoon off any fat visible on the surface.
Remove the bay leaves and discard.
Stir in the chicken broth and salt to taste and bring to a boil.
Add the spinach and boil the soup over medium heat until the spinach is tender, about 2 minutes for fresh and 5 minutes for frozen.
When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bone and chop or shred it into bite-sized pieces.
Return to the cooker.
When the chicken is good and hot, turn off the heat and stir in the dill, lemon juice and salt to taste.
FOR MORE SOUPS CLICK HERE.
Roti isi
29 desember 2008, senin,
Hari ini bikin roti lagi..buat cemilan. Xiang lagi agak flu, jadi ga keluar rumah deh, ngerem di rumah bikin cemilan. Resepnya masih pake resep yg dulu pnh bkin, bisa diliat disini.
Lumayan coz kali ini lebih lunak dari yang lalu. Mungkin waktu itu, klupaan dikasih semprotan airnya pas mo diovennya.
Toppingnya bisa dikasih macem macem..terserah anda deh.
MALAI LADOO
Ingredients
1/2 cup condensed milk
250 gms. paneer (cottage cheese)
2-3 drops kewra essence
1/4 tsp. yellow colour
Method
1.Mash paneer.
2.Add condensed milk and cook on slow flame, stirring continously.
3.Cook till thick and sides leave.
4.Add essence and remove from flame.
5.Mix well.
6.Pour on plate.
7.Cool. Make ladoos.
8.Sprinkle powdered elaichi and decorate.
1/2 cup condensed milk
250 gms. paneer (cottage cheese)
2-3 drops kewra essence
1/4 tsp. yellow colour
Method
1.Mash paneer.
2.Add condensed milk and cook on slow flame, stirring continously.
3.Cook till thick and sides leave.
4.Add essence and remove from flame.
5.Mix well.
6.Pour on plate.
7.Cool. Make ladoos.
8.Sprinkle powdered elaichi and decorate.
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