Friday, February 26, 2010

Thai Salad Dressing

I don't have a picture for you today. I just have a recipe, a very simple recipe, for an easy and yummy salad dressing . It's so good, you'll drink it up if there's any left in the bowl after you finish swirling your last lettuce leaf around in the dregs.

Maybe all you have is lettuce in the fridge, because it's Thursday night and you're in a hurry to watch Grey's Anatomy and running out of food. Maybe you throw a can of soup into a pot, but it's all too unsatisfying and unhealthy and you pull that slightly wilted head of romaine out of the fridge and motivate yourself to wash it and tear it up. Then it goes into a salad spinner or patted down with a towel and finally you are staring at a pile of green in a big bowl. And that's even more pathetic than the canned soup.

Maybe you have a bottle of fish sauce in the fridge because you made a Thai curry two months ago, and a lime because you were going to make guacamole before the avocado turned mushy and brown, except it turned mushy and brown the day after you bought it. So you mix up some fish sauce, lime juice, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, sugar, and whisk in some vegetable oil. Toss that limp, clean lettuce with your dressing to wake it up a little, and what do you know, there are some ruddy looking radishes rolling around in the crisper, so you add some thin slices of radish on top for color and bite. A little salt and pepper and your meal just became something special. And it's nice to have something special during a mundane Thursday night meal.

Thai Salad Dressing (Joy of Cooking, for the Thai Beef Salad, but it's good on any light salad)
Yields 1 cup dressing

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
red pepper flakes to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl. Keep refrigerated until ready to use.

Any minute now...


First of all, I would like to thank you all of you for your comments on my last entry! It was my first interview, so I'm glad you liked it! I'm thinking of doing some more interviews, so keep an eye on it!!

Today I spent the evening with Rocío around Barcelona center, taking pictures and having a fun time... but now I'm almost dead, and I should rest because tomorrow I'm going to a zombie walk! Yes, a zombie walk, but unfortunately I had no time for doing any costumes, so finally I'll go but only for taking pictures for my classes!

Anyway, this evening was very productive, I took some great pictures...

 
Ro at our favourite cafe... 
Yummy!
 
Ro taking a picture of our cakes!

 
A lovely place I discovered today aroun Raval's neiborghood... 

 
Love is in the air... (the air it's a fluorescent light).

 
Ro at Tallers.

 
  
Me with one of my favourite dresses! I bought it some time ago and it was long, but I just cut it and now looks so sixties! And my beloved boots from Berlin... yaw!
Dress - Vintage
Boots - Aces of London
Tights and scarf - H&M

So, have you got any special plans for the weekend?

Oh, by the way, I'm writting an article for an online magazine about Skins... I'm so happy! I'll tell you more about that very soon!

Keepers of the Flame






















A couple of weeks ago, Katherine and I spent an afternoon pasting hexagonal post-it notes on a large conference room wall at her office in San Francisco. On each hexagon (see examples in the photo) we wrote the name of a recipe or a story that has appeared on my blog since the middle of May. It was quite an impressive collection. We sorted the recipes by appetizer, soup, main dish, etc. and the stories by a more complicated system. Our purpose was threefold: to see what I had done in these last nine months, to look for any holes which I might want to fill in the next stretch of time, and to ponder the question of how to turn this blog into cookbook. We didn't get very far on this last issue except to determine that I still want to create a cookbook.

Here are the stats on what’s appeared: 7 appetizers, 4 soups, 23 main dishes, 18 salads, 7 salad dressings, 6 grains/starches, 10 vegetables sides, 5 relishes, 6 desserts, and 8 baked goods. The main dishes broke down as follows: 4 chicken, 1 beef, 3 ground meats, 3 pork, 2 shrimp, 7 vegetarian, and 3 pasta. No fish. So starting today with three nice warming winter soups, I’ll be filling in some of the missing pieces.

But something more important bubbled to the surface that afternoon.
“Keepers” for me has always referred to the fishing term. Keepers are the fish you keep to eat. Everything else gets returned to the pond. The recipes I give you are the ones I love the most. Recipes worth keeping.
But there is another meaning as well.

Those of us who cook regularly, who buy produce and raw meat, who chop and sauté, who dish out steaming bowls of home-made soup are “keepers” of a cooking tradition. Not unlike Ancient Rome’s Vestal Virgins who tended the sacred flame of Vesta, the goddess of hearth and home, and prepared food for rituals necessary for the health and well-being of Rome, we cooks, male and female, moms and dads, standing at our stoves, are keepers of the flame. Sitting with our loved-ones at a table over a home-cooked meal, we too tend to the health and well-being of our friends, our families and ourselves.

In my darkest moments, I worry that we keepers of the hearth may cease to exist. After one or two more generations of families with no one cooking in the kitchen (will houses cease to have kitchens?) and with the food industry doing everything it can to process our food for us and pumping it full of cheap ingredients that make us fat or fatter, what is the future for the home-cooked meal, made from real ingredients that nourish and sustain? Who will teach the next generation how to cook? Who will teach them the difference between a tomato and a potato?

This morning, I watched the TED speech of Jamie Oliver, a celebrated British chef, who won this year’s TED prize ($100,000 and the help of everyone in the TED audience to accomplish his goal) and who, at 34, wants to change how people eat in Great Britain and now here. His acceptance speech is tough, challenging and inspiring. His wish is to form a strong sustainable movement to educate every child about food, to inspire families to cook again, and to empower people everywhere to fight obesity.
We who are the current keepers of the flame need to find a way to join him, to find each other, and to make sure that all the recipes we love, our “keepers,” get passed along to the next generation. Our future depends on it. Are you with me?

Jane's Bacon and Lentil Soup

















¾ cup small red lentils
1 bay leaf
4 cups stock or water
10-12 slices thick smoked bacon (10-12 ounces uncooked), cut crosswise into ½-inch pieces
1 small onion, finely diced
1 small carrot, peeled and finely diced
You can add some fennel and some red and yellow pepper, chopped, if you have them on hand
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed
1 can (14 ounces) diced tomatoes
OR
1 large beefsteak tomato or comparable smaller ones, peeled, cored, seeded, saving the juice and adding it to the soup. See instructions below.
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh mint, plus more for garnish
Salt and pepper to taste
1 green onion, both white and green parts, thinly sliced
Sour cream or crème fraiche, optional

1. In a medium saucepan, stir together the lentils, bay leaf, and stock or water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the lentils are soft, about 20 minutes. They will change from an orange color to a muddy yellow—do not be alarmed.
2. In a soup pot, cook the bacon pieces over low to medium heat, turn as needed to brown but not crisp. Remove from the pan, leaving the bacon fat. If there is a large amount of bacon fat, you might want to pour some of it into a container to save for another use. Leave 1-2 tablespoons in the pot.
3. Add the onions to the soup pot and sauté over medium heat until tender and starting to brown, about 8-10 minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes, the cooked lentil mixture, ¾ of the bacon (save some for a garnish), the oregano, cumin, and mint and stir until mixed. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Adjust seasonings to suit you.
5. Ladle into bowls. Garnish each serving with the sliced green onion, bacon and sour cream, if desired.

Great served with lemon cornbread, on October 16, 2009 blog.

To peel a tomato: Drop the tomato into boiling water for 10-15 seconds depending on how ripe it is. Remove, slit the skin and peel it off. Remove the core. Slice in half around the equator. Place a small sieve over a bowl or pitcher. With your finger, remove as many of the seeds as you can into the sieve, allowing the liquid which comes out with them to drain into the bowl. It is, to my mind, precious tomato juice.

4-5 servings
Adapted from Sara Perry’s Everything Tastes Better with Bacon

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

















2 tablespoons butter
2 large carrots, peeled, sliced
1 cup chopped yellow onion
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons curry powder
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of cayenne or smoky hot paprika
1 or 2 butternut squash (2 pounds in all), peeled, seeded and cut into chunks
1 teaspoon salt
5 cups apple juice, preferably organic and unfiltered
1 cup heavy cream or combination of heavy cream and milk
¼ cup chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the butter in a soup pot over medium-high heat until melted. Add the carrots, onion and garlic; mix well. Sauté for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
2. Stir in the fresh ginger, curry powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cayenne. Cook for 1 minute.
3. Stir in the squash, salt, and apple juice. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes or until the squash is tender.
4. Process the soup in batches in a food processor or blender until smooth. Return the soup to the pot, adding additional apple juice if needed for desired consistency.
5. Stir in the heavy cream. Cook until heated through, stirring occasionally. Do not let it boil. Add more salt or seasonings if necessary. Ladle into soup bowls. Drizzle with additional cream if desired. Sprinkle with cilantro.
If you want a bit more protein, fry up some bacon or pancetta, cut in ½-inch pieces. Add some to each bowl of soup.

8 servings
Adapted from The Toledo Museum of Art Aides’ Art Fare: A Commemorative Celebration of Art and Food

Cream of Tomato Soup

This may be one of the easiest soups in the world and one of the few places where spaghetti sauce in a jar works beautifully.







1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
1 large onion, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 cup red wine
1 48-ounce jar good-quality, non-meat spaghetti sauce
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, with juices
½ cup finely chopped fresh basil or 2 tablespoons dried
2 cups half and half
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the butter in a soup pot. Add the garlic and onions and sauté until they are golden.
2. Pour in the red wine and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Add the spaghetti sauce, tomatoes, and half of the fresh or dried basil; simmer very slowly uncovered for 1 hour.
4. Add the half and half and the heavy cream; continue to simmer over low heat for a few more minutes. Do not let the soup boil. Add the dried basil, salt and pepper to taste.
5. Ladle into soup bowls, sprinkle with the fresh basil, and serve immediately.

10 servings
Adapted from Joan Nathan’s The New American Cooking

C-CAP and other parties

February 26

It has been a busy week. Lot's of parties, which doesn't seem normal for a blustery week in late February.

Before I go into detail, though, let's start with the news: A new pastry chef is starting at Aquavit on Monday. Candice Chia, formerly pastry sous chef at Café Boulud, will be executive pastry chef there. And Marcus Jernmark, who last time we heard, was running the kitchen, but hadn’t been promoted yet, is now executive chef.

That’s all according to Aquavit owner Håken Swahn (Marcus Samuelsson’s business partner). He’s the gentleman in the picture at the beginning of his blog entry, standing next to Rita Jammet, a former restaurateur and very proud mother of Nicolas Jammet, partner in the burgeoning Sweetgreen salad and frozen yogurt chain.

I learned all of that on Wednesday at the annual C-CAP benefit. But the week started, as weeks do, on Monday, when D’Artagnan, supplier of foie gras and other goodies, threw a big party at Guastavino to celebrate its 25th anniversary.

I invited my friend Blain Howard, the ultimate combination of video game geek and cool guy. It was interesting to watch him as he talked about video games with Autumn, a friend of Will Blunt of Starchefs.

She asked him what his favorite video game was, and he said Super Mario Bros. 3, and then went into details as to why, and how that was his favorite of old-school games but his favorite new game was Bioshock, which is apparently a really scary one.

And then he really geeked out on all the details and I lost track.

It’s fascinating to see someone who once worked at Abercrombe & Fitch as one of those models/salespeople talk like that. Such poise and confidence while also being so phenomenally dorky. It’s charming.

So we ate ribs and foie gras and cassoulet while drinking wine from Southwestern France and sharing opinions about Caprica.

On Tuesday I went to the launch of Burger King's new batch broiler during lunch and then stayed at work late to finish writing about sourcing obscure ingredients — a story you'll get to enjoy a couple of weeks from now.

Wednesday, as you know, was the always awesome C-CAP fundraiser, which you can read about here (complete with slide show).

The second picture in this blog entry is of John Fraser, executive chef of Dovetail, and Gramercy Tavern pastry chef Nancy Olson. John gave me the scoop on a big, exciting change underway at Dovetail and then asked me not to tell anyone.

So I won’t tell anyone, but be on the look-out for an excellent announcement from John in early March. Second Monday of the month maybe.

Last night was a really fun party at the Astor Center celebrating the 10th anniversary of Gastronomica, where the irrepressible Dave Arnold, director of culinary technology at the International Culinary Center aka The French Culinary Institute, was making cocktails out of local rye whiskey, and also serving up amazing little passion fruit puffs, made by adding a little bit of one of those methylcellulose compounds to passion fruit purée, puffing them up and then freezing them in liquid nitrogen.

Dave said this was an old trick, possibly developed by Sean Brock, but he wasn’t sure, after the gang in molecular gastronomy world realized that things that didn't contain much moisture were easily eaten even right after they'd been frozen with liquid nitrogen.

So he poured liquid nitrogen over the little passion fruit puffs, popped one in his mouth and then blew what looked like smoke out of his nose. Like a dragon.

Of course it was vapor from the liquid nitrogen, but it was awesome.

Pavia Rosati ate her passion fruit puff seductively and elegantly, blowing vapor out of her mouth like she'd just smoked a cigarette and then French-inhaling it again up her nose.

She’s marvelous, that Pavia. She really is.

Bangers and Mash

  
  
Last night, I was at an Irish Bar and had bangers and mash for the first time.  Over the din of the folk singer ("there were green alligators and long neck geese..."), I asked the bar tender what was bangers and mash precisely.  He responded sausage and mashed potatoes with gravy and peas.  I signed up and soon found out why bangers and mash with a couple pints of ale is a treasure.  Sublime in its simpleness, just a few ingredients.  Perhaps reflective of my Midwestern roots where there are more Germans than Irish (can you say Brats from Wisconsin!), I had never had sausage with brown gravy.  There it was instead paired with sauerkraut, or more frequently in a bun with mustard.  The mashed potatoes provide a wonderful starch support, and while the picture above does not show them, peas, a traditional pairing in the gravy, provide a nice textural boost.  My bangers and mash came with 3 sausages and I could not finish them.  They were too rich, and my arteries probably would have burst anyway.  Which makes me think of pairing this with a decidedly new world healthier alternative.  I would suggest a chicken sausage, perhaps with apple inside.  They come in many varieties now and contain half the fat, which is a big deal considering how much we're talking here.  So next time you need some comfort food, try bangers and mash.  Serves 2.
     
Ingredients:
2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp vegetable oil
4 precooked sausages (beef, pork or chicken)
3 tbsp butter
1/4 cup whole milk
salt/pepper
1 tbsp flour
1 cup beef stock
1/2 cup frozen peas
     
Directions:
In a medium pot over high heat, add the potatoes and enough cold water to cover by an inch.  Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat if needed to avoid boiling over and boil for 12-15 minutes until fork tender.  While the potatoes are cooking, heat the vegetable oil in a medium fry pan over low heat and add the sausages, rolling periodically to brown on all sides, about 10 minutes.  In a small cup, melt 2 tbsp of butter 60-90 seconds in a microwave.  Add the milk and heat in the microwave a further 60 seconds.  When the potatoes are done, drain, and run through a ricer back into the cooking pot.  Stir in portions of the warmed butter milk mixture and stir briefly until achieving a desired mashed consistency, or if not using a ricer, mash the potatoes to a desired smoothness.  Season with salt and pepper as desired and cover to keep warm.  Melt the remaining butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat.  Whisk in the butter and allow the roux to cook 1 minuted.  Add the beef stock and whisk the roux to mix.  Bring to a simmer and allow to thicken a minute.  Add the peas and simmer a few minutes more to cook them.  Season the gravy with salt and pepper as desired.  Plate the mash potatoes, lay the sausages on top and cover with the gravy and peas.
     

Turkey Steak Fried in Sage Breadcrumbs with Real Chips

Turkey Steak Fried in Sage Breadcrumbs with Real ChipsIt truly never fails to amaze me why so many people in this world consider turkey merely to be for special occasion dinners such as those eaten at Thanksgiving or Christmas. While chicken is eaten through each of the four seasons in the West, we have this stigma almost about eating turkey as part of a simple everyday menu. Is this because we automatically associate turkey with buying the whole bird for one of the aforementioned special occasions? Are we not aware that we can buy individual cuts of turkey as we can with chicken? Whatever, this recipe is for a delicious turkey steak, fried in sage breadcrumbs, which can be eaten on any day of the year - including Thanksgiving or Christmas!

The Chips for this Recipe

As I have featured the process by which these real chips are made both on this blog and elsewhere around the Web before, it makes little sense to simply repeat myself. The full, detailed instructions for making these absolutely delicious chips can be found by clicking on the link immediately below. The remainder of this recipe will follow thereafter.

How to Make Delicious, Real Chips (Opens in a new window)

Ingredients per Person (Turkey and Veg Only)

1 turkey breast steak
2 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp dried sage
1 beaten egg
6 cobs of baby corn
Small handful of mangetout
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sunflower oil for frying

Method

By this stage, our chips will have undergone stages one and two, as detailed in the link advised above.

The beaten egg should be in a flattish bowl and the breadcrumbs on a plate next to it. The sage should be stirred in to the breadcrumbs and the egg seasoned well with salt and pepper. A little sunflower oil should be poured in to a non-stick frying pan and brought up to a medium heat.

It may prove a little messy if you are not used to doing it but the next stage is to dip the turkey in to the egg, then pat it in to the breadcrumbs on both sides. Very importantly, the process should then be repeated, so that essentially the turkey goes in to the egg, then the breadcrumbs, then the egg again and finally back in to the breadcrumbs. This will ensure that the breadcrumb coating is thick, adheres well and is beautifully crispy at the point of service.

The turkey steak should then be placed in to the moderately hot oil and fried for five minutes each side. When the steak is turned, the chips should be put in for their final fry and water should be boiled in order to essentially blanche the veg for at most two minutes.

The chips should be drained (as instructed) in kitchen paper, the veg in a colander and the meal served as shown in the photograph.

BTA 12 ips B

Weekend.
Long weekend.
Banyak banget acara yang pengen gue ikutin.
seminar sekolah, jalan sama eya n roro, meeting glc, sama nyokap ke asemka, dan lain lain.
tapi itu masih sabtu.
Kemaren, kamis, gue iktan mabid di tempat les.
Buat anak kelas 3 pasti tau, semacam belajar tambahan dan motivasi sampe nginep gitu di tempat les.
Nah pada mabid season pertama di kelas gue yang ikut cuma gue, Findy, sama Silvi.
Kali ini sekelas ikut, kecuali Sena sama Findy.



Karena kamis kelas gue (12 ips B) emang ada kelas sampai malam, sampai jam 8, jadi kita enggak pulang lagi.

Sedangkan mabid mulai jam 9.
so, selama satu jam nunggu, kita ke McD di ramayana yang ada di seberang tempat les.
Ini pertama kalinya kita keluar les bareng.
Biasanya cuma ngedeprok di lantai kelas, yang kelasnya paling ujung lantai 3 sambil makan gorengan dari duit patungan sambil cerita-cerita atau main kartu.
Kita konon kelas yang paling rame, paling gila bercandanya, dan paling santai.
Kalo dikelas kita, gurunya pada gila dan asik bercanda. 
Enggak ada jaim-jaiman. Beda banget sama kelas lain yang kaku.
Gue beruntung.






12 ips B isinya ...
Silvi














Violla 


























Bima




























Ryfans


























Aryo


























And also, me




























big love for 12 ips B


wishes : semoga kami semua di terima di universitas yang kami inginkan dengan jurusan yang juga sesuai dan kami inginkan. mendapatkan hasil yang baik dalam UN. dan juga hasil yang baik dalam US dan praktik. Semoga kami selalu bersahabat. Amiiin.

FLU vs Reaksi Alergi

Pergantian musim datang, penyakit majemuk kambuh pada kalangan majemuk (Apaan sih ya penyakit majemuk? :p).
Virus Flu nyerang semua orang tapi hanya orang2 yang daya tahan tubuh menurun yang akhirnya kena dehh...
Namun ternyata gejala Flu dan Reaksi alergi sangat mirip. So, penting sekali untuk kita melihat ciri2nya sebelum ngasih obat flu (terutama pada our lovely baby).

Gejala2 yang umum pada reaksi alergi antara lain:
- gejala flu bertahan sampai 10-14 hari. Namun ada kemungkinan juga kena serangan virus baru lagi.
- hidung terus2an beringus.
- ingusnya encer dan bening (kalo kuning kehijauan dan kental, berarti karena virus influenza).
- our baby terus menerus menggosok hidungnya.
- sering bersin.
- mata berair dan merah, sering kucek mata walopun tidak ngantuk.
- terdapat ruam pada tubuh.

Jadi, jangan sampai ngasih obat flu padahal ternyata anak kita alergi (naudzubillaah..) Tapi selama masih under 2 years old, just give our babies ASI. Hidup ASI !!!

quote of the day

" Go for the happy endings because life doesnt have sequels " - Unknown.