Raining Potatoes

Food Truck Friday - The Best Doughnut I Ever Ate

2011-11-11T12:28:00.000-08:00

One of the most exciting things about my new hometown of Austin are the food trucks. There is a constant stream of new trucks and new dishes to taste and my husband and I try to get out pretty regularly to prowl the streets for great food.

Because food trucks are such a prominent part of my new life here I've decided to institute Food Truck Friday so I can show off some of this delicious food. I want to make this a participatory event, so get ready to hunt down some food trucks and do some blogging!

If you want me to add your food truck post to my Food Truck Friday roundup, just send me an email with your name, the name of your blog, and blog url, along with the url of your post on food trucks. I'll put my post together on Friday at noon central time, so make sure to post your blog sometime before that and send me your information!

The Flying Pig Doughnut - Gourdoughs Food Truck Austin, TX

This week I'm going to start with one of the best things I've ever had, not just from a food truck, but ever. The Flying Pig Doughnut from Gourdoughs food truck on South Lamar in Austin is hands down the best doughnut I've ever had. The dough is light and fluffy with a crispy outer edge that soaks up the creamy maple glaze. It's like a pillow of sugar which is perfectly balanced by salty strips of bacon on top. Anyone who reads this blog knows I have a passion for pig, and I think putting bacon on a doughnut is one of the most brilliant things I've ever seen.

Gourdoughs has a lot of other doughy treats on the menu, and I suspect I'll get around to trying them all at some point. Mother Clucker looks like another fun one with fried chicken and honey butter. I also like the fact that this truck has a semi-permanent location. I always know where to find them and when they'll be open. Perfect when I get that late night craving for bacony deliciousness.

What is the best doughnut you've ever had? Do you have a food truck experience you'd like to share? Please leave a comment - I'd love to know more!

What is That Smell?

2010-11-04T04:45:00.000-07:00

One of the most unique dishes I've ever experienced is stinky tofu. I'm pretty sure you can find it in several Asian countries but I'm told that it is traditionally a Taiwanese dish. It basically smells like feet, really really stinky feet. You can smell the stuff before even approaching a stand or restaurant.

Deep fried stinky tofu with sauce and pickle

The idea is that the tofu is fermented in a brine for several days or even several months. Each vendor has their own brine which is responsible for any flavor differences you might find. The brine is a pretty ugly sludge of vegetable, spices and herbs, and sometimes meat material. After the tofu is soaked for the required amount of time it is either steamed, stewed, or fried (my favorite kind). It is usually served with some sauce and some very vinegary cabbage pickle.

I've tried several varieties and I would definitely choose to eat stinky tofu over durian, but it probably wouldn't be my first choice. The problem for many is that the smell and the taste or so completely different that it plays tricks with your senses. If you close your nose while you eat it this can usually be avoided.

A very proud proprietor - this shop was famous for its stinky tofu and had won several awards

The other night we were watching an episode of Bizarre Foods (a show which I despise but we have very limited English t.v. options over here). Andrew Zimmern was in Taiwan and went to a restaurant specializing in stinky tofu. It is the only thing I've ever seen defeat him. Ha ha! I yelled at the screen. I felt vindicated - this guy couldn't even handle stinky tofu? What a wuss. No wonder I don't like the show...

Food Markets, Taiwanese Style!

2010-10-31T19:05:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago a friend of ours met us out early on a Sunday morning in the rain to walk us through a food market in Taipei. I'm pretty sure the trip was fueled by my recent posts of French and Spanish Food Markets that she'd seen. She wanted to show us what Taiwan markets had to offer.

A rainy day at the market

Meeting us on the corner, she warned us that it wouldn't be anything like the European markets she saw on my blog - this quickly proved to be true.

As soon as we walked into the market we found this gentleman. At first glance there's not much to see - a bunch of bottled water. But oh no! This is actually home-brewed rice wine. Easy to sneak into the boring afternoon meeting or class. I know a few people from college that would have been regular customers.

Several stands sold fresh seafood. And I'm talking fresh. One in the middle of the road had a bucket of large shrimps that were literally jumping out and onto the ground. That is until they had their heads ripped off by the proprietess.

A few more oddities you would definitely have a hard time finding in Europe - a stand of all tofu products, blocks of taro cake bigger than your head, and brains on hooks.

All vegetarian products - mainly made from tofu

Slabs of taro cake


There's nothing like brain on a stick to make a person feel primeval

And since I've gotten you all disturbed with that last picture I might as well go into the most disturbing part of all - the chicken slaughter. I eat a lot of chicken. I know where it comes from. I'm not an animal rights activisit or anything, but this seems a little extreme and cruel to the chickens.

It goes like this - there is a big cage with a bunch of live chickens stuffed inside, squawking and stepping on one another (sorry about the picture quality - there was a lot of bustle around the stand and hard to get a steady picture).

Above the cage you may notice a yellow tray on which several chicken organs rest. The smell of blood and sounds of murder surround these chickens - they know what's in store for them. The smack of the butcher block above brings them one step closer to the bloody and horrible death that's already come to their friends and neighbors. There is no way to escape your fate buddy.

On a happier note, there was a lot of really beautiful produce - fruits I'd never seen before, piles of ridiculously cheap herbs (an entire basket of basil for about 30 cents US), and long poles of sugar cane and taro, dumplings and cakes. Stunning variety.

Dumplings and shu-mai

Hibiscus flowers

Our friend was right - the market was nothing like the ones I experienced in Europe. But this is a good thing! So much variety in what people eat around the world is exciting and inspiring. There's so much out there to try - it's a big world with lots of great food!

Spanish Food Markets

2010-10-10T01:50:00.000-07:00

After France, my friends and I traveled through Spain for about a week. I'd been amazed by the French Food Markets, but they did little to prepare me for what I found in Spain. I can understand now why many of the food magazines and foodies are saying that Spain is the new food capital of the world. I had some of the best food of my life on our trip through Spain and I would recommend it to anyone.

Our first stop was in Barcelona where we visited a large indoor daily market. I can't even imagine what I might do if this market was near home for me. I would certainly gain weight. Not only do the vendors in this market sell raw ingredients, but you can sit down and have a glass of wine or some tapas if you're in the mood. What could be better while you're shopping for your day's groceries?

A few more fantastic pictures from the market. Warning: some sad-ish pictures of little piggies ahead.

French Food Market

2010-10-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

I've been touring through France and Spain for the last three weeks and have had some fantastic food experiences that I will definitely be writing about. The first one I want to share is French food markets. A friend and I started out in Strasbourg, near the border of Germany, and drove through the country, ending in Provence and the south. We were hoping to catch markets in a few cities but ended up only visiting two because they kept closing before we could get there.

Our second day in Strasbourg we were lucky enough to find a street market and the food was absolutely amazing - I wanted to eat everything I saw. The variety of vegetables was fantastic and together with bread, cheeses and sausages of all sorts, I was definitely ready to eat.

You Had Me at Sushi

2010-09-02T01:32:00.000-07:00

Oh Japan! Why did you have to create such good food? I was already sold at sushi - determined to love you forever. Did you really need to add one more thing to push me over the edge?

Tonkatsu. Fried pork cutlet chopped up and served with a cabbage salad, miso soup and condiments.

Sushi had already changed my life. After the initial shock of something so foreign it became my favorite food and because of it I will be forever in love with Japanese cuisine. But then this tonkatsu stuff came along and I don't know if my life will ever be the same. I might have to pick up and move to Osaka. Don't tell my husband.

We went to a chain restaurant here in Taipei called Saboten. We first got a big bowl of thinly sliced cabbage and a small bowl of white and black sesame seeds with a wooden mortar. The bowl the seeds were in had little grooves all throughout so when you grind the seeds they mash up very nicely.

You grind up the seeds, then add this amazing sweet barbecue like sauce, and some vinegar if you want. This becomes a salad dressing for the cabbage and dip for the crispy fried pork. I don't know how to describe it except to say that it is amazing! Sweet and a little spicy, salty too. The perfect accompaniment to pretty much anything.

We were also served a small dish of pickled daikon radish cubes and these amazing black beans that I'm craving right now writing this. The beans had a really chewy texture, almost like mochi, and tasted just a little bit sweet.

After the salad the main course came out. I got pork and prawn, both had a perfectly flaky and crisp outer crust and tender inside. My side was a potato salad which was an excellent balance to the salty fried meat. I am in love with this stuff! I just hope I can find it back in the U.S. when I come home...

Penang Market

2010-08-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

Fish for sale. This one looked like a whopper - I can't imagine what I would do with it. Also on offer are some stingray, small sardine like fish and various other seafood delights.

On one of our last days in Penang we visited a local Chinese market where our friend was going to pick up some groceries for the week. I always love going to local markets when I'm traveling - you get a much better idea of how the locals are eating than if you just stick to restaurants. This market was really amazing. Not only was there a huge array of fresh produce but seafood like I've never seen, roasted meats, flowers and the fish balls and cakes that are so popular in Chinese cuisine.


Fish and squid balls, stuffed okra, other rolled and stuffed things unimaginable

We picked up some of the roasted pork when we first walked into the market and walked around eating it out of a little pink plastic bag. It was fatty and crunchy, a little bit sweet in that characteristic Asian meat sort of way. The sound of the massive cleavers whacking at the wood cutting boards followed us throughout the market. The meat is really popular and I don't think these women ever take a break from their chopping.

The meats, seafood and vegetables were all in one big open covered space. The concrete floor near the fish was wet and slippery as the ice melted down onto the floor. Not the best place to be wearing flip-flops (although I noticed most of the locals were wearing flip-flops or sandals)

In a second building fruit and flowers were sold. Asian fruits are so exotic and interesting. I've tried many of them now and know what they taste like but I still get drawn to them every time I see them. The hairy rambutans beg for a light brush of the fingers. The spikes jutting from the hot pink dragonfruit bodies catch my eye.


Rambutans (back), Mangosteens (front) and Longyans (right)


These flowers are made into long wreaths that Hindus offer to their deities

It's hard to imagine markets like these in the U.S. The roasted pork vendors would be shut down immediately - the local food police certainly wouldn't approve of the meat hanging in the open air on a hook, women chopping them up with their gloveless hands. Even worse, the seafood dripping its fishy ice water all over the ground just feet away from vegetable stands. But the locals in Penang don't seem to mind (and don't seem to be getting sick). They have fresh seafood and produce available any day of the week that us American foodies can only dream of. I wonder sometimes if our ultra paranoid approach to food is really a good thing.

If you want to know more about my trip to Penang please visit my travel blog A Day in the Life, where I've written a series called Penang: A Food Story.

Chicken Soup for the Expat Soul

2010-08-15T18:52:00.000-07:00

I know it's been forever. It's almost like I dropped off the face of the earth. I'm sorry for my neglect. I just got caught up in this crazy new life I'm living. So what have I been doing the last two months I haven't been blogging? Traveling (San Francisco, Malaysia), eating of course, a very little cooking (it's still pretty tough to cook around here), and writing, although obviously not my blog. I've been working on a new project, a food book for Taiwan along with a few other things.

But this post wasn't really going to be about me. It was going to be about soup! One of the first meals I made here in my new kitchen was this chicken soup. We were going through a little bit of a rough patch, homesickness sticking to us like peanut butter sticks to a three year old. So I decided to make some good old fashioned chicken soup to cheer us up and scratch our homesick itch.

It turned out really well for the most part. I didn't have the patience or refrigerator space to make homemade stock, so I looked around our local supermarket for stock or boullion cubes or chicken base. This is what I came up with.

It did taste a little like chicken, but it was also really salty, so I couldn't use a whole lot. I have a feeling there was some serious MSG action in there too. A side note - I am not against MSG per se. However, it does tend to make both my husband and I swell up like balloons and give us raging headaches, so I try to stay away if I can.

Anyways. I used this as the base for my chicken soup. I thought about going for the whole chicken and cutting it up to make the soup, but I was deterred by the chicken's head. I can get used to a chicken's feet still being attached, but when he's got eyes to stare me down as I hack apart his body, that is a line I'm not ready to cross. So I used a few different cuts.

I also found some really nice looking vegetables, all the things I would use for chicken soup back home - carrots, celery, onion, potato.

I basically just threw it all together with some herbs and some garlic and let it get happy. And when it was done it made us happy. It's nice that although we can't go home, we can have a meal from home every now and then. Maybe not everything we want from home (especially without having an oven), but some things. And that's good enough for us. Well, for now at least.

Spicy Hot Pot - Oo La La!

2010-06-24T02:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is one of my new all-time favorite things to eat. One of our friends took us to a spicy hot pot restaurant and now I can't stop thinking about it. You sit down at a table and get a bubbling vat of broth. It's separated in the middle; on one side is mild but delicious broth, kind of like a light chicken broth and on the other side is deep red beauty of spicy broth, large chunks of tofu and duck blood (resembles the tofu in appearance, texture, and taste).

They set the cauldron on a burner in the middle of the table to keep warm and you go up to coolers to choose meat, vegetables, tofu, noodles, or any other number of things you might want to add to the broth. The place we went to was all you can eat, so you could just go up and try anything you wanted.

We chose some meat and seafood, vegetables and dumplings. You dump it all into the broth until it's cooked then enjoy! At the we put a package of ramen type noodles in, and they just soaked up the broth and all the flavor from the meat and the vegetables we'd cooked. It was a slurpy delicious finish to the meal.

By the way, as far as the title of this post goes - no I did not have a momentary lapse and think I was in France and not Asia. La is the Chinese word for spicy :)

Making Cheese

2010-06-18T01:16:00.000-07:00

I was going through some of my old pictures this morning and found a few good ones I never got around to posting before we left America. It made me really nostalgic to look at my own food, which sounds kind of funny I guess, but it's the truth. I really have missed cooking. It's been over a month. Which is grievous.

On a happier note, our shipment of things from home arrived yesterday. It was mostly stuff that doesn't fit in our apartment or that we would never use here, but I did get some kitchen stuff I was immensely happy about. Coffee maker, pot, real knives. I can't wait to start cooking again. I think I'll go to the store tomorrow and get as much food as I can fit in my dorm-sized refrigerator and get to cooking!

So anyways, on to the old pictures and the cheese making!

I've been wanting to make cheese for years. My husband is terrified of it. I think he thinks I'm going to poison him somehow. So I made this cheese when he was away on a business trip right before we left home. It was really amazingly easy, and didn't even involve any bacteria, so nothing to be wary of. I found the recipe here and was totally drawn it. It looked so easy!

So I boiled the milk and the buttermilk and some fresh thyme from my garden (oh how I miss my garden!) and salt and pepper.

After it reached the right temperature and started separating in strange ways I strained it through cheese cloth.

I wrapped it up and let it drain for a little while.

After it drained I just unwrapped it and ate it with crackers. Almost as easy as boiling water. I would definitely recommend this recipe to anyone who has the slightest desire to make his or her own cheese. It's so simple and delicious. And it's always fun to tell people you've made cheese!

The taste is kind of tangy, texture is something like a cross between cream cheese and mozzarella. I love this recipe because you can add all kinds of things to it to make it different flavors - nuts or dried fruit, spices and herbs. The website where I got the recipe has some good ideas on what to add. I hope you'll try it!

Weekend Lunch - Shanghai Style

2010-06-15T15:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Dan and I went out exploring - first to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (see my post about it here) and then to a couple of weekend markets. In between the hall and the markets, we stumbled on a great Shanghai style restaurant and had an amazing lunch.

We started with pork steamed dumplings. The little packets of dough were filled with perfectly salty pork and a lot of juices. If you set the dumpling in a soup spoon and pierce it before you eat it, the juices run out and you can slurp them up after you eat the dumpling. It really is delicious.

The dumplings were so steamy it was hard to get a good picture

According to Dan, who has been to China (without me), there is a golden ratio for the dipping sauce that goes with the dumplings. At the table is a container of soy sauce and one of vinegar. When you order dumplings they bring you a little dish of shaved fresh ginger, to which you add the soy sauce and vinegar. The golden ratio is 3 vinegar to 1 soy sauce added to as much ginger as you want. You dip the dumplings in, get a little of the fresh ginger along with it and it all creates a really complex taste; salty pork and soy sauce, sesame oil, a little sourness from the vinegar, and the bite of the ginger. All with a little chewy dumpling skin. Perfect.

Vinegar on the left, soy sauce on the right. Ginger and the finished sauce in front.

We also had some great fried chicken pieces in a sweet and sour sauce. It was a lot like what you might expect to find in a Chinese restaurant in the U.S. although the flavor was a lot more sour, less sweet and sticky. The peppers and green onion that were sauteed with the chicken really added to the flavor too.

We had what Dan calls an Asian tamale. We actually don't know what this is called. It's good though - kind of a sticky glutinous rice surrounding some pork floss. Tasty.

Finally a little soup. Definitely the most mundane thing we had at this meal. The broth was tasty, although the noodles were a lot like ramen and the beef was a little chewy. I'll stick to the dumplings thank you!

Taiwanese Roulette

2010-06-09T18:02:00.000-07:00

The other night my husband Dan and I played Russian Roulette. Not with our lives of course, but with our stomachs. We were feeling a little adventurous and wanted to try out one of the restaurants we passed on the street. It was a little scary but exciting too. We decided that we'd just go into the first place that looked good and busy (on the assumption that any place that's busy around here has to be good - Taiwanese really know good food!)

So we found this little restaurant on the corner of a street down an alley. It had red lanterns hanging outside, which Dan is convinced always means food (I'm not so sure about this). I wish I would have been able to get a picture of the place, but my camera died half-way through our meal. What a tragedy!

Anyways, we sat down at this big round wooden table. There was a stand in the middle with soup spoons, chopsticks, soy sauce, some chilies, and little napkins (pretty standard for restaurants around here). We got this menu that was all Chinese characters. No pictures. No one spoke English. So we decided to play Russian Roulette and just point to a few things. Very nerve-wracking!

Our first dish came out, and we felt pretty lucky. It was a fried rice with little dried shrimp. It was actually quite delicious! The shrimp was strange at first, it kind of has a texture like potato chips but with an unmistakable seafood taste to it. These little guys pack a lot of flavor!

The next dish we got was a definite winner! It was a crispy fried pork (probably pork chop or something around that area). It was in this amazing stir-fry of vegetables and a lot of garlic and cilantro. Extremely flavorful. I can still taste the garlic in my mouth :) The pork did have bones in it though. This is hard for us to get used to. It's so unusual in the US to meat with bones still attached. We don't have the right skills so it's awkward for us to chew around bones and spit them back out. I wonder if we'll ever get used to this.

Our final dish was not such a hit. Unfortunately my camera died right after taking the above picture so I didn't get anything from our last dish. It came out in a big steaming metal cauldron, and looked like a really weird tofu dish. It was kind of gelatenous sauce with pieces of tofu and little rubbery mussels, with some crushed peanuts on top. Not that appetizing.

Overall I think we were really lucky with this dinner. A few nights later we were eating with a Taiwanese friend and I showed her the picture of the menu and she started laughing at us. Apparently there were some pretty crazy things on the menu (frog, pig liver, tripe, etc) so we got pretty lucky. I don't know if we'll be trying this game again any time soon. It was a great experience though!

My Travel Blog

2010-06-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are interested (and haven't already seen it), I also have a travel blog focused on living in Taipei - A Day in the Life I do talk about food some but it's mostly about my travels. Hope you enjoy!

Taiwanese Beef Noodles

2010-06-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago we spent the day with a friend and for dinner she took us out for beef noodles. The beef noodles are a famous Taiwanese dish - I've never had anything like it, but it is so delicious I don't know what I'm going to do when I have to go back to the states and can't get it anymore! It's a huge bowl of heart-warmingly delicious food.

They take their noodles very seriously around here. Every year there are competitions for the best beef noodles. The place we went to had one the competition a couple of times and I can see why. The noodles had a great handmade texture and taste, and the beef was perfectly cooked and juicy - just right for the fantastic broth. You can order with a combination of different beef cuts and different broths. I got the broth with tomatoes and my husband got the house broth. I think his was a little better, but just barely.

The inside of the restaurant was so tiny and unassuming. You would never guess just passing by that they have such fantastic food!

Here is our order card. I'm so glad we had our friend with us! I took a picture so we could remember what we ordered for the next time we eat here, in case we're on our own.

We also tried some of their dumplings. Dumplings in Taiwan are delicious. There are so many little stands and shops selling them. I don't know how people stay as thin as they do in this country with such beautiful food all around!

First Meal in Taiwan

2010-05-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

We made it to Taiwan on Tuesday night! What a crazy trip. 14 hours over the ocean and here we are in a whole new culture. It's overwhelming to realize that we'll be living here. But the food is pulling me through so far. Yesterday we had lunch at a local chain, Kiki Restaurant which was absolutely amazing. It won me over. I think I could get through anything if I could just eat this food every day. It is a Sichuan place. Our guide for the day took us here. We ordered four dishes for the three of us. We got three small bowls of rice and then the dishes came out. We took a little off the dish and put it in our rice and ate.

They brought out the beef first. It was tender slices of beef in a red chili broth with bean sprouts and green onions. The Sichuan peppercorns were intense and had a strange numbing effect on our tongues. Believe it or not there's beef in that broth!

Next we ate bitter melon with boiled salted egg. My husband didn't love this one - he has a thing against eggs - but I thought it was delicious. It sounded a little weird, and it was a little bit of a strange flavor, but it was perfectly salty and bitter.

The next dish was both of our favorites. Green beans with diced pork, scallions, and chilies. Fantastically salty and delicious. Everything had so much flavor!

Finally we had this amazing tofu dish. It was tofu that was mixed in some way with eggs, making it really creamy inside, like a custard almost. The outside was fried - not until it was crispy but it was more spongy, kind of like a pancake. It was drizzled with sesame oil and coriander.

The best part of the entire meal was the rice bowl. As I kept adding little bits and more broth from the beef it became this delicious stewy mixture of all the dishes. The last few bites were fantastic. I can't wait to eat here again!

Moroccan Chicken and a Move

2010-05-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

I'm finally posting again! I know I should have posted these pictures a while ago – I think I made this dinner sometime in April - but I’ve been totally consumed with our move to Taipei. It’s getting closer and closer! We get on a plane tomorrow afternoon and begin our new adventure.

But on to the chicken!

Moroccan Chicken with Saffron Rice, Grilled Vegetables, and Tahini Yogurt

The Moroccan spice rub was excellent, but the real star was the tahini yogurt sauce. It was the perfect mix of creamy and tangy to balance the chicken.

Moroccan Spice Rub Recipe

2 tsp whole cardamom
1 tsp whole cloves
2 dried red chilies
2 tsp whole coriander
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 Tbsp turmeric

Grind all whole spices and mix with ground spices. This recipe doesn't contain any salt so make sure to salt the meat too! I use this as a rub and like to put it on about an hour before I cook the meat. Then I just throw it on the grill and it's good to go!

Tahini Yogurt Sauce

1/4 c. plain yogurt (Greek yogurt works best)
1/4 c. tahini
juice of 1/2 lemon
pinch of salt, pepper, cumin
1 clove fresh garlic minced

Mix all together and let sit at least 1 hour before serving

Saying Goodbye to the Southwest

2010-05-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

In two weeks I'm moving from Arizona to Taipei, Taiwan. I've left the southwest for short spurts before and I've always missed the culture (especially the food!) tremendously. This time is going to be no different. It's hard to imagine being able to find proper green chili and chipotles in Asia. So I'm making as much of it as I can before the move. Maybe it'll get me through the 8 months we're there.

Chicken Tostada with Avocado Cream and Sour Onions

I'm pretty new to making my own tortillas. I'd been waiting to buy a tortilla press. I guess it's just going to have to wait until next year. It's easy even without the press though. I just mixed 1/2 cup masa with 1/3 cup water and a little salt, rolled it out into balls and smashed it between the cutting board and the bottom of a pan. A little thick and uneven but at least I got to eat fresh tortillas!

The rest was easy too - diced chicken, sauteed red onion and jalapeno with a little vinegar and cumin, showered it all with some cotija cheese and mache lettuce. What more could a girl ask for?

Avocado Cream

8 oz sour cream

1 avocado

1/2 Tbsp Montreal seasoning (or mixture of salt, pepper, fennel, onion flake, garlic flake)

Smash the avocado up the way you would to make guacamole. Add to the sour cream and mix together with the seasoning. Great on almost everything!

Apple Tart to Celebrate Mom

2010-04-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts. ~Washington Irving

Today is my mom's birthday - happy birthday mom! I really love my mom - she's taught me a lot and given me a lot. She's taught me to laugh through life - everything is always a lot funner with her around. She taught me to crazy dance (a very important skill when trying to scare people away). She taught me to bake - one of my most cherished skills. And she gave me some of her French blood without which I may not have this ridiculous addiction to bread and wine and cheese.

To celebrate her birthday I thought I would write about a recent visit with her.

I went up to Carson City last week to spend some time with my parents and my brother before I move to Taipei. We hiked and played games and crazy danced and made a lot of really good food - including this fantastic apple tart.

We made a simple pastry crust from the Williams and Sonoma Pies and Tarts book. I forgot to write down the recipe before I left, but it was a pretty easy crust which we made and blind baked.

Next we made a pastry cream, also from the Williams and Sonoma book, also easy, also not written down. The only change we made was my mom's idea and it was a fantastic one! Instead of adding vanilla extract after it cooled we added almond extract which turned out to be the perfect pastry cream flavor to go with the apples we put on top.

Finally we get to the really good stuff - the apples. This was pure invention and pure fun! My mom is a cinnamon fanatic so we just went crazy with the stuff.

The following is an approximate recipe - I'm pretty bad about writing things down when I'm experimenting. It's hard to go wrong with these ingredients though.

Apple Topping

3 granny smith apples, peeled and sliced
1 Tbsp butter
about 1 tsp. cornstarch slurry (a little cornstarch with some water to make something that resembles milk)
1 cup apple juice
2 good swigs of bourbon
1/2 cup brown sugar
as much cinnamon as you can stand

Put apples in a big pan or skillet with the juice, sugar and a little bit of the cornstarch slurry. Let juice reduce until it starts to form a thick syrup and the apples start to cook. Add some bourbon and some cinnamon and reduce this until you get a really good thick syrup. When the apples are cooked through and the syrup is nice and thick, take it off the heat and add in the butter. Let the butter melt then pour the whole thing over the pastry cream in the tart.

I wish I could be with my mom on her birthday. We might maneuver around each other in the kitchen, baking and laughing (and probably drinking a little wine). Instead I'll just have to remember being with her last week. I love you mom!

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan

Breakfast Frittata

2010-04-28T09:46:00.000-07:00

I rarely go a day without eating breakfast. It’s my favorite meal, a good time to sip some coffee and munch on good food – wake up a little and get ready for the day. Since I left my job last month (in preparation for our upcoming move to Taipei) I’ve had a lot more time to experiment. Omelettes, French toast, and home-made granola have all graced my breakfast table.

Last week I was on a frittata kick. They are so easy and so versatile! Combine almost any ingredients and top them with some eggs mixed with half and half and in just a few minutes you’ve got a wonderfully satisfying breakfast.

Ham and Vegetable Frittata

½ cup ham, diced
1 medium tomato, diced
½ medium bell pepper, diced
½ medium onion, diced
4 eggs
½ cup half & half
salt and pepper
olive oil

Saute vegetables and ham in a little olive oil until heated through. It’s important to cook the tomatoes enough that most of the liquid is gone.

Mix the eggs, half & half, and salt and pepper together and pour over the vegetables.

Place in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until cooked through. Sprinkle a little cheese on top right before pulling it out of the oven if desired.

Restaurant Review: Posh

2010-04-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

Posh "Improvisational Cuisine" - picture from Posh Website

I went to Posh in Scottsdale AZ with a couple of friends back in early March and had an unforgettable time. Certainly one of the most unique dining experiences I've encountered. Also one of the most expensive. But the meal was so incomparable that the amount of money I had to shell out was worth it. Of course I won't be able to afford eating there again anytime soon. I'll just have to rely on wonderful memories of a one-of-a-kind meal.

The most unique aspect of Posh is that they don't have a set menu. You get a card with some animal ingredients listed - mostly strange and outrageous, including frogs legs, wild boar, sweetbreads, and foie gras (for an extra charge). You have the option to mark off anything that you don't want to eat. Then you decide how many courses you want - anywhere from 3 to 11 (or the full tasting menu which I assume was something more than 11). There is also a space to add in anything you don't like or food allergies.

I embraced the experience wholeheartedly. I didn't mark off any of the protein possibilities and ended up doing a six course meal with a foie gras course. It was amazing. Unfortunately I didn't get to take many pictures because I was so busy being infatuated with the food. We all got different dishes for each course which made the experience even better. Lots of sharing and tasting.

My meal started with a popcorn soup, which sounded really strange but ended up being fantastic. Then I had a course of a beautiful whitefish with leeks. I also had braised venison, fried sweetbreads with a slice of beef aspic (a fantastic first for me!), wild boar bacon, an unforgettable bruleed foie gras with strawberries, and a decadent dessert course.

Bruleed Foie Gras with Strawberries

The foie gras was the most memorable aspect of the meal. It was the first time I'd ever had foie gras and it was a fantastic mix of rich and creamy. It was so creamy and sweet (from the brulee topping and the spun sugar) it could have been mistaken for an ultra-rich crème brulee but for the unmistakable animal fattines.

The desserts were amazing as well. They tasted exactly like the candy bars they were made to emulate but had so much more depth of flavor and texture that my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Trio of desserts - a take on candy bars (Kit Kat, Almond Joy, and Snickers)

Posh was a once in a lifetime experience and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone up for adventurous eating. Just take plenty of money. And take plenty of pictures. This is the kind of meal that needs to be shared.

An Unexpected Feast

2010-04-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

When my husband and I started dating 10 years ago, we both hated seafood. I was worse than he was - I wouldn't even think about eating shrimp or crab, not to mention the horror of all horrors - sushi (which he loved). But with my ever-increasing love of food I've done a complete 180 and now enjoy everything from the sea. It's taken my husband a little bit longer, but he's come a long way.

We may not be able to have fish for dinner, but mussels are now on the menu! Definitely an unexpected feast.

I love Mussels in Wine this time of year. It's a nice transition from winter to summer; a beautiful warming broth reminiscent of cold weather and clouds and fresh seafood and ripe tomatoes hinting at hotter months to come. Served with sourdough toast and a glass of the same wine it was cooked in it's the perfect light meal for a spring evening.

Mussels in White Wine

1 lb. frozen precooked mussels (or use fresh - just adjust cook time)
2 large tomatoes, diced
1 medium shallot, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine (Chardonnay is a favorite in our house)
handful of Italian parsley, chopped
salt and pepper

Saute shallot and tomatoes in olive oil over medium heat 1-2 minutes, then add mussels, garlic, and white wine. Cover and simmer about 5 minutes to heat the mussels. Remove lid and let juices condense, cooking about 10 more minutes. Serve with sourdough bread or french baguette to sop up juices. Serves 2

Book Review: Garlic and Sapphires

2010-04-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl. The book is about Reichl's experiences as the new restaurant critic for the New York Times. Reichl talks about the great lengths she went to so she wouldn't be recognized, describes experiences at several major New York restaurants (both in disguise and not), and imparts some insights about food, restaurants, and life in general that she gained in the process.

The book is witty and captivating. I didn't want to put it down and finished it a little too quickly. Reichl talked mostly about food and being a foodie, but also about being a mother and wife and friend and food in the broader context of life. Several of her own recipes are scattered throughout the book and although I haven't tried any yet, they all sound delicious.

The deepest message I found in the book was the idea that we all really have several personalities inside us. We collect ideas and traits throughout our lives which create unique personalities. Reichl found that the people she became really were versions of her own self mixed with people she'd had contact with. It was interesting that while in disguise every aspect of her changed, including her mannerisms, appearance, and even the way she related to the food she ate.

It was disconcerting the way people treated her differently depending on her disguise. I would like to think that people are treated equally regardless of the way they dress or speak or carry themselves, but the book points out the obvious disparity between this view and reality. Especially in the world of fine dining it seems that it decidedly does matter who you are, what you look like, and how you carry yourself.

Garlic and Sapphires offers a unique glimpse into the life of a food critic. I'm jealous. How do I get her job? I'd recommend this book to any aspiring foodie. The glimpse of a life completely immersed in food is refreshing and exciting. Definitely worth the read!

Poblano, Potato, and Corn Gratin

2010-04-05T06:58:00.000-07:00

This is how we do Easter in the Southwest! Grilled juicy flank steak and southwestern marinated shrimp with a side of hallelujah! (and by hallelujah I mean Poblano, Potato, and Corn Gratin - who ever said food couldn't be spiritual?)

Flank Steak and Shrimp with Poblano, Potato, and Corn Gratin

The gratin was amazing; a symphony of heavenly potatoes and cheese and a kick of spicy peppers to bring you back to earth and make you grab for a margarita!

The only way I really changed the recipe was by adding 2 jalapenos to the mix - my husband and I really like spicy food so I had to kick it up a bit.

Poblano and Jalapeno Peppers

Otherwise, very uncharacteristically of me I tried to follow the recipe exactly, even weighing out the 1 1/4 lb. of potatoes on a scale.

While I was making it, I was worried that there wouldn't be enough potatoes to make the full casserole so I rationed them a little too much and had a lot left at the end. If you try this, trust the recipe! It won't let you down!

Poblano, Potato, and Corn Gratin
From: Bon Appetit, April 2010

3 tsp. olive oil, divided
2 lg. fresh poblano (also called pasilla) peppers, stemmed, seeded and cut into strips
1 1/4 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/8" thick rounds
1 c. frozen corn, thawed
1 c. grated Oaxaca or mozzarella cheese
1 1/2 c. half and half
2 Tbsp. all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Preheat oven to 400F. Rub 9 1/2" diameter deep dish pie dish or cast-iron skillet with 2 tsp. oil. Heat remaining oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add peppers and saute until tender. Remove from heat

Arrange 1/3 of potato rounds, overlapping slightly, 1/3 of peppers, 1/3 of corn, and 1/3 of cheese. Repeat until casserole is complete, reserving the last 1/3 of the cheese.

Whisk half and half, flour, salt&pepper together and pour over potato mixture. Press potatoes down to submerge. Cover dish tightly with foil. Bake 30 minutes. Remove foil; sprinkle remaining cheese on and continue to bake until potatoes are tender and cheese is golden brown, about 25 minutes more. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

2010-04-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching a mostly great TED talk given by Jamie Oliver, the crazy (and gorgeous!) British chef who's trying to change the way America views food.

Jamie Oliver's TED Prize Wish - Teach Every Child About Food

Some of the great parts:

There needs to be a revolution in the home - the home used to be a place for passing down food culture to one's children, but this isn't the case anymore. Now a lot of the time we're just passing down bad habits like eating junk food sitting in front of the t.v.
School lunch programs need to change. It is the responsibility of schools to keep children safe while they are at school. Why doesn't this apply to what they're feeding the kids? As Jamie pointed out in his talk, more people die of obesity every year in this country than all other causes combined. That's scary stuff. Schools need to be held responsible and expected to feed children correctly while the kids are in their care.
I also really like the idea of teaching kids about food in school. If they know what vegetables are and how to cook and how to grow food, their lives can be changed!

Some of the not so great parts:

I don't believe that it's the job of the corporations to change the way America views food. Yes it's awful that big food corporations mislabel things. Yes it sucks that fast food chains are so pervasive and have managed to get most of us addicted to things that will kill us. But in my opinion the responsibility lies with the consumer. We have to know for ourselves what's good for us. We have to look at the label that says low fat and know that the fat flavor was just replaced by a truckload of sugar.
Along the same lines I don't think the government should police the food industry. For instance the idea that the government should involve itself in how fast food companies market their food and what they're allowed to serve is pretty ridiculous to me. It isn't the job of the government to save us from ourselves or make all our decisions for us. Those things should be left up to the individual.

Overall I agree with Jamie. Our country needs to change how we look at food. We need to learn more about it - where it comes from, how to grow it, how to cook and eat it. We need to pass down our food culture to our kids. But we need to take our health into our own hands and not expect government to police the food industry so we never have to think for ourselves.

Burnout

2010-03-27T07:22:00.000-07:00

Last night a friend of mine grilled me about why I hadn't posted anything on my blog in so long. And I didn't really have an answer for him. We left the conversation with a promise from me to post something soon (here you go!). I think the conversation weighed on me in my sleep because as soon as I woke up this morning I started thinking about my blog and why it had been so long since I'd posted anything.

My conclusion: burnout. For the most part I think my last job in the food industry just sucked me dry of all my passion for food. I've been at home for two weeks now. And since that time I've barely gotten up the energy to cook at all. When I do cook it's been the easy stuff, the stuff I could throw together in my sleep. The stuff not worth mentioning here. Not only that but I haven't eaten out anywhere since then. It's like someone zapped me with some energy gun and took all my love for food away.

Another issue is that I'm getting ready to move to Taipei for 8 months. This is a really recent development - we didn't even know about it until a few weeks ago. As a foodie I should be really excited about the move. I know Taipei is going to be thrilling and have more amazing food to eat than I might ever get around to. But for some reason it's just adding to my burnout. Especially with gardening. Right now I should be feverishly working on my spring garden, but we aren't going to be here in a month or two so it would be pretty pointless. I'm definitely fueled by my garden. And it just depresses me now to look out at the mostly empty space where only a few winter vegetables are clinging to the soil for dear life, heartlessly neglected.

I have to get out of this funk. I miss being excited about food. I miss the thrill of putting together new combinations, trying new ingredients, eating at new restaurants. There has to be something I can do to fix the situation. I'm thinking that something drastic might be in order. Going on a restaurant binge. Buying live animals from the Asian market. Maybe a new kitchen tool to shake things up. Anybody out there have any suggestions for me? I'd love to find my passion again...

In The Kitchen

2010-03-05T06:15:00.000-08:00

I started the day full of nerves. The coffee I'd chugged to jolt me awake for my 6:00AM start time was making my stomach rumble - a tempest brewing. My first day in a real commercial kitchen was going to be a tough one.

I'd been hired a few months before for catering - I was told that I'd be doing mostly front-of-house stuff (setting up tables, polishing glasses and silverware, decorating, serving) but that I might work in the kitchen sometimes too. So after two months of only working front-of-house, my day had finally come. Except now that the real thing was upon me, I wasn't so sure I wanted it. The friend who got me the job wasn’t working my first day and I'd be in the kitchen with four guys I didn't know well. I had terrors the night before, remembering stories from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly about the harassment that happens in the kitchen.

I walked in that first day full of fear. I clocked in and followed the executive chef to his office where he gave me a chef coat, apron, and baseball cap (to keep my hair out of the food). As soon as I put on that jacket I started getting pretty excited. This was really happening! I was wearing a chef coat!

That's about where the fun ended. I got a list of things to do. Well it wasn't a physical list. The executive chef kept coming over and saying "you cut the fruit", "you make 6 dozen cookies", etc., not waiting for one task to be done before he told me three others, not explaining how he wanted the fruit cut, where to find anything I needed, how to work the ovens or the fryer, expecting me to know all this.

I asked a lot of stupid questions. I did a lot of things the hard way. I didn't cut the fruit right. I couldn’t find anything in the walk-in cooler. I had no idea what a 400 pan was. I made a huge mess trying to sear 500 pieces of chicken. I basically felt like an idiot all day.

I went home that day after 6 hours in the kitchen and felt completely exhausted. My feet were throbbing. My back was aching from bending over the too short metal countertops. All I could smell on myself and around me was that ever-present scent of fryer oil. All I could think about was my 10 hour shift coming up the next day. I felt physically, mentally, and emotionally drained

Over the last month I’ve spent in the kitchen I’ve gotten a little bit more used to things. I know much more now than when I started. But there are still things I don’t know. And a lot of times the work isn’t very fun. Although there are some things I enjoy. A few days ago I got to teach some of the chefs how to make Indian food properly (no one else knew some of the things I did). And every now and then when I’m making a cheese tray or plating desserts I stop and think to myself "wow, I'm really getting paid for this."

The biggest problem I've had with working in catering in general is that I come home too tired to do anything else. And cooking all day at work drains me of any desire to cook at home (probably the main reason I haven't been blogging much lately - sorry!) I've had fun and learned a lot about making food for 100 or 300 or 500 people, but I really miss cooking for 2. I miss getting fresh produce from my garden and coming up with new recipes to try. I miss being in love with food.

My stint in the kitchen and in catering is almost over. I’m leaving in a couple of weeks to move on to other things. Overall I’ve learned a lot. I’ve had a lot of cool experiences, met some really interesting people. I know how to cook for a crowd. But I also know now that I’d rather cook for just a few. I’d rather have energy at the end of the day to go out and weed my garden or take my dog on a walk. I’d rather be a foodie than a chef.

Homemade Pasta

2010-02-24T07:24:00.000-08:00

A couple of years ago I bought this nice little pasta maker.

It's easy to use if your dough is good. If your dough is bad it will stick, and stretch, and tear, and not get cut all the way through. Until a few weeks ago this had been my regular experience.

A few weeks ago I finished reading Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany (Vintage) by Bill Buford, which is a fantastic book if you can get through the rather slow middle section. Buford talks about working in Mario Batali's kitchen, going to Italy to learn to make pasta, and going back to Italy to learn to be a butcher from that great Tuscan Dario Ceccini.

Near the end he talks about the right ratio for pasta - it has to do with the balance between eggs and flour. According to him, if you have good eggs water shouldn't even be necessary. I ended up using a little water, but the result was fantastic anyways. For the first time my dough rolled out smoothly - no sticking, no ripping. It cut perfectly into thin strips, which I made into Fettuccine with prosciutto and cherry tomatoes and basil (from the garden).

If you've never made pasta from scratch, I recommend going right out, getting yourself some flour and eggs, and throwing some together. You don't really even need a pasta machine - you can just roll it out with a rolling pin and cut it by hand. The results will amaze you!

Potato Corn Chowder

2010-02-03T08:51:00.000-08:00

I've either been working like a dog or sick for the last several days, and it feels like I haven't blogged in forever! At long last I've had a couple of days off in a row, so yesterday I decided to make myself some soup. I needed a hot steamy bowl of comfort to ease my achy bones.

I know dairy isn't good for colds and I should have gone with straight up chicken soup, but I had a couple of potatoes and some really beautiful peppered bacon and couldn't resist doing a little potato corn chowder. Unfortunately I didn't really write down a recipe while I was making it, I just threw a bunch of things together. I'll try to recreate the recipe here, but I would say just go with whatever sounds good to you and what works.

For me it worked out really well. The salty bacon and creamy potatoes instantly made me feel better (if not in my body at least in my mind and spirit!)

Potato Corn Chowder

2 potatoes, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
1/2 medium onion, diced
about 1 cup corn
about 4 cups chicken stock
about 1/2 cup cream
salt/pepper/garlic/tarragon to taste
Crumbly bacon and chives to top

Sweat the onion, carrot, and celery (don't let it get brown). Add potatoes, stock, and seasonings and cook until potatoes are almost tender. Add corn and cook until it comes to temperature. Add cream and turn off heat. Serve with bacon and chives on top.

Fez, Phoenix, AZ

2010-01-27T19:38:00.000-08:00

Fez Phoenix - Picture from their website: www.fezoncentral.com

We were welcomed by warmth as we walked in the door despite the concrete floor and frosted glass that greeted us. The table was already waiting for our party of six, set in a modern style like the rest of the chic, low-lit restaurant.

First, drinks. Fez has a large selection of unique cocktails and although they offered some interesting looking "wine fusions" we all went with cocktails. I ordered the Go Green, a mixture of crisp cucumber and cilantro cut with lemon and vodka. It was different and refreshing but a little sour for my taste. My husband got the Key Lime Pie and was smitten - he's still trying to re-create it at home. The drink was a foamy blend of lime and sugar flavors with a playful ring of graham cracker. A friend got the "Fez-Tini" which was a cherry red mix of champagne and other unique flavors - a celebration in a glass. The biggest problem with the drinks was the decidedly limited wine list (27 unique cocktail creations but only 18 wines available). If you are a wine enthusiast, Fez may not be your type of restaurant.

After drinks came appetizers. We tried the "Fez Lettuce Wraps" which were a little dry but had great flavor that came from the dried pears, dates, and cherries that were scattered throughout. Someone at our table was allergic to nuts and the kitchen gladly made the dish without the usual almonds (although I'm sure the almonds would have been a fantastic addition).

The main course was where the true genius lay. I had the "Lamb Kisra" a grilled flatbread (more like foccacia than pita), topped with brilliantly seasoned lamb meat that resembled gyro. On the lamb lay baby spinach which gave a great crunch and tomatoes and the whole thing was topped with crumbly and creamy feta cheese and a fantastic lemon basil dressing that I'll never forget.

Lamb Kisra

I also tasted my friend's amazing dish - the "Go Green Pasta" with chicken. The real genius of this dish was the sauce - an incredibly tasty pesto that had just the right amount of salt and garlic to make it perfect. The chicken on top was perfectly juicy and tasty as well.

Go Green Pasta with Chicken

One damper on the night was service, which was slow and confused. We waited quite a while after we were seated for our order to be taken. We also had to sit around and wait for our server to appear with the bill for what seemed like an hour after we were finished with our meal.

Despite the flaws in service I'm looking forward to our next trip to Fez. Not only did the restaurant have fantastic and unforgettable food and drinks, the prices were very reasonable. The Fez menu can be found at http://www.fezoncentral.com/menus.aspx

Magazine Mondays: Brownies

2010-01-25T06:43:00.000-08:00

I finally have some time to participate in Magazine Mondays! I want to thank Ivonne at Cream Puffs in Venice for coming up with the idea - I'm hoping to whittle down my stacks and stacks of magazine recipes this year (and make some great food in the process).

Last weekend we had a party and I decided to work on some sweet recipes I have stacked up. It's better to share the love when you're making things like brownies instead of having a whole pan for you and your husband to tackle. So I decided to make these Chocolate Cheesecake Swirl Brownies from Bon Appetit.

The recipe instructed to make them in squares like traditional brownies, but since it was a party I wanted them to look a little special and so I used a mini muffin pan instead. It worked out well I think. The only real problem I had is that the cheesecake layer and the brownie layer tended to separate (the tops kept coming off!) but I think it's because I didn't give them enough time to cool before I took them out of the pan.

Overall it ended up being a lot more work than I anticipated and while they did taste really good, I'm not sure if it was worth the effort. Maybe in the pan form it would have been easier. Also, I used crunchy peanut butter instead of creamy because that's all I had, and it made the texture a little weird. I would definitely suggest going with the creamy peanut butter for these.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cheesecake Swirl Brownies
From Bon Appetit, January 2009
Brownie Layer
nonstick vegetable oil spray
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt

Cheesecake Layer
8 oz cream cheese, room temp
1/3 c. creamy peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp. flour
2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Brownie Layer
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray 9 inch square metal baking pan with 2 inch high sides with nonstick spray and line bottom with parchment paper. Stir chocolate and butter in medium saucepan over low heat until smooth; cool 10 minutes. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, eggs, and vanilla in medium bowl until very fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in chocolate mixture on low speed, then beat in flour and salt. Spread batter in pan.

Cheesecake Layer
Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese, peanut butter, and vanilla in medium bowl until smooth. Gradually add sugar, beating until fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Beat in cream, then flour. Transfer 1/3 cup cheesecake batter to a small bowl and reserve. Spread remaining cheesecake batter over brownie layer. Place chocolate in small microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 10 second intervals until chocolate is melted. Mix into reserved cheesecake batter. Drop chocolate batter by heaping teaspoonfulls on top of the cheesecake layer. Using chopstick or skewer swirl chocolate batter in figure eights through white cheesecake layer.

Bake brownies until edges of cheesecake layer are puffed and center is set, about 40 minutes. Cool in pan on rack. Cover and chill at least an hour. Cut into squares and serve cold.

On the Hunt: Tortillas Part 1: The Tortilla Transfer

2010-01-21T20:09:00.000-08:00

I've decided to create a new series called "On The Hunt", to document my experiences trying to find obscure ingredients where I live. I started thinking about this after we had so much trouble finding truffles for New Year's Eve, but after a friend called a couple of weeks ago to talk about tortillas I realized it would definitely be a good idea.

The call came about mid-day, and luckily I was at home so I had plenty of time to talk. We talked a lot about food, and how hard it is to find good tortillas around here, which is unacceptable since we live in the Southwest. He mentioned he was going to visit family in Tucson the next day and asked if I would like some empanadas and tortillas. Of course I said yes - I would've been crazy not to take him up on the offer. The catch - I had to drive out to meet him near the freeway on his way home from Tucson.

No problem - who wouldn't drive 30 miles late at night to pick up fresh Mexican baked goods in a gas station parking lot?

The transfer: Freshly made tortillas being handed off in the Circle K parking lot. In the background one can see the large stash of Mexican fare in the trunk of the car.

Up to this point my friend hadn't really been exposed to the crazy blogger side of me. He was surprised when I ran up to him with a camera around my neck and asked him to pose with tortillas in front of all these strangers at the gas station. I guess I should have eased him into the zany world of being friend to a food blogger instead of springing it on him in such a public place. The food blog Not Quite Nigella has a perfect introduction on what to expect from a food blogger called "10 Things You Should Know About Food Bloggers"- if you plan on being a friend of a food blogger you should definitely read it so you're not suddenly surprised by outrageous behavior.

I took the tortillas and empanadas home with me and with the help of my brother and his girlfriend, devoured most of what he brought us right away. The food came from South Tucson - the Mexican barrio side of town - and were as authentic as I hoped they would be. The empanadas were surprising - pumpkin and apple instead of the usual meat kind I've had. They were fluffy and moist with excellent sugary yet spicy filling - like little pies.

Empanadas - two with a pumpkin filling and two with an apple filling

The tortillas were fantastic as well - you could tell they weren't processed by a machine. Slightly uneven with that fresh tortilla smell, they were a perfect snack with the butter we smeared on them after heating them over the gas burner. They even stayed fresh for a while - I was able to have real breakfast burritos for a few days.

Fresh tortillas, one of the best things about the Southwest.

Surprisingly the same friend that brought these tortillas to me has offered to bring me with him to some Mexican stores around the valley on a hunt for real, non-machine made tortillas. Evidently my camera didn't intimidate him as much as I thought it had. I guess I did neglect to mention to him that the camera would be coming with me on our next adventure. Hopefully he's ready to be followed around by the paparazzi like the Mexican superstar that he is.

Holiday Traditions

2010-01-15T06:58:00.000-08:00

It started with Valentine's Day eight years ago. My husband and I were still dating (although about two weeks away from getting married). We couldn't decide where to go and what to do for the occasion and somehow ended up at Target buying a fondue pot, then on to the fancy grocery store for some good cheese, wine, and bread. We looked a recipe up online and ended up with a fantastic fondue dinner and a new tradition.

Now when it's just the two of us alone for a holiday, we usually end up making a really good meal, and sometimes hunt for new ingredients or buy new kitchen gadgets as well. It makes the holiday a little more special, and being in the kitchen together usually brings us closer.

This New Year we were invited to a few parties, but ended up staying home to cook and watch movies. What a fantastic idea it turned out to be! We decided this year that we were going to try playing with truffles (after having truffled mac & cheese at Craftsteak in Vegas this summer we're a little obsessed with them). We hunted for truffles (in the grocery store of course - I do live in Arizona) but finally settled on truffle oil. I don't think the oil is as good, but it'll serve when you've had enough of the frantic New Year's Eve shopping.

What we ended up with was far better than anything we would have eaten out that night. Filet Mignon wrapped in thick cut bacon with compound butter, a potato gratin with white cheddar and truffle oil, and a little salad and beautiful champagne. What a meal!

The filet was very simple - just salt and pepper, wrapped in a piece of bacon, and thrown on the grill for a bit, until cooked just right.

The gratin required a little more effort but was absolutely worth every second. I haven't tasted anything so like perfection in a very long time. Especially not out of my own kitchen. It was perfectly crispy and bubbly on top when it came out of the oven.

White Cheddar Potato Gratin

4 medium potatoes
4 cloves garlic, crushed
½ clove nutmeg grated
pepper and salt
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 c. sharp white cheddar, grated
about 1 Tbsp. white truffle oil (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Slice peeled potatoes with a mandolin or food processor into thin rounds. Place potatoes in large saucepan with milk, cream, garlic, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, stirring well with a wooden spatula to keep potatoes from sticking together. Let potatoes bubble for a minute or so after boiling then pour half into a buttered gratin dish. Sprinkle with half the cheddar, add the rest of the potatoes, and sprinkle with remaining cheese and truffle oil. Bake the gratin for about an hour until bubbly and crisp on top. Let rest for several minutes after removing from the oven (so it can solidify a bit).

Recipe adapted from
Chez Jacques: Traditions and Rituals of a Cook

The Birth of a "Foodie"

2010-01-12T07:59:00.000-08:00

A message I received last week from one of my best friends got me thinking about when and how I really became a “foodie”.

For a long time now I’ve told people that I started getting into food when I met my husband and he made me try such unfamiliar things as sushi, Thai food, and falafel (can there even be existence without these things?!?). But the message made me reconsider. I started thinking about all my food memories from childhood.

I thought first about my grandmother, who died when I was six. She lived with us for a while, and was a true Southern woman. She drank sweet tea and thick black coffee. She made chicken and dumplings (the recipe to which I happily became the culinary heir to), and fried green tomatoes and Lobster Newburg. I don’t really remember cooking with her, but now whenever I eat or think about these dishes, my grandmother is all around.

My Grandmother - "nanny"

Then of course there are the food memories with my friend. One summer we decided to try selling candies (we always had some kind of project or scheme in the works). We spent most of the summer in the kitchen making huge messes trying to make our own peanut butter cups. They never worked, but oh how we tried! At some point we also began meeting early in the morning on weekends in her backyard to have breakfasts. That was my first experience making omelettes and pancakes and it truly cemented in my love for a good breakfast.

Breakfast sandwich with foccacia, ham, and eggs

I also have memories of cooking with my mom. I always remember a particular Thanksgiving with my mom. We were making pies the night before going to my aunt’s house. Lemon and chocolate cream pies have always been the specialty in our family – there aren’t many holidays without my dad demanding a cream pie of some sort.

I carry on the tradition of pies for the holidays every year - this one is apple cranberry

At times my obsession with food (what I like to call my "foodie-ness") feels a little silly to me. I think I could be doing a lot of other things with my time. But thinking about these memories has given me new insight into why food is so important, why it isn’t just some waste of time. Food is a part of the memories and the heritage of a person, a culture, a society. It connects us to one another, creates memories, and adds meaning. It makes us human. We are not some animal that just pecks or hunts around for any scrap we can find. If willing, we are gourmets, thoughtful consumers, passionate advocates and critics.

I don't know when exactly I became a "foodie" but all these little memories add up to create my life in food. They help define me and give my life beauty and I'm proud to wear the badge of "foodie".

Belize Adventures

2010-01-09T08:23:00.000-08:00

Last summer I took a trip to Belize. We spent almost all of our time on the western side, near Guatemala, in and around a small city called San Ignacio.

San Ignacio

The place was gorgeous - very rainforest-like with beautiful plants I'd never seen before, strange creatures making noise all around, and Mayan ruins hidden in the jungle.

Xunantunich ruins near the border of Guatemala

The heat and humidity resembled a rainforest too. I was hot the entire time we were in Belize. The lack of air conditioning almost everywhere certainly didn't help things.

Unfortunately I didn't get a very good sampling of the food. I was doing volunteer work so most of the time we were fed by the group we were volunteering for (almost always American food - Wonder bread, bologna, Oreos) and when we did get to eat out, we were usually taken to Americanized restaurants. It tortured me not to eat the delicious smelling chicken in the markets, or sample some strange new fruits.

Grilled chicken for sale at the market

So many strange fruits that looked so good!

Eventually I did get to try a few of the truly Belizian foods. On our last day, we had a barbecue by the side of a big lazy river, and our hosts made us the famous chicken I'd seen grilling in the markets. It was completely amazing. Perfectly juicy, nice and crispy with a red tint (thanks to the Belizian spice I came to love so much, Recado, which comes in big cubes like bouillon or powdered).

At the river, western Belize

I also had rice and beans and beans and rice (different things!), plantains, shrimp ceviche, Fry Jacks (kind of like a sopapilla but thicker), and Johnny Cakes which were fluffy biscuits usually made with coconut milk, giving them a sweet flavor.

I did get a chance to buy some seasonings at the market while we were there. I picked up a nice big bag of the Recado and some good looking curry powder.

The yellow packet is curry powder and the two red are two types of Recado

I also tried termites straight off the tree. We were lucky enough one day to have a tour guide to a Mayan ruin and along the way he talked a lot about medicinal plants and what the indigenous people used to eat. We stopped at a big tree with a massive nest in it and he began picking off the termites and popping them into his mouth. Eventually most of us on the tour joined in.

Termite nest

They are actually pretty good - a little crunchy in a weird way, like roe on sushi, but they tasted a lot like carrots to me. Not bad, but I prefer the chicken.

Rainbow Chard and White Asparagus with Panko Brown Butter

2010-01-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

This winter I decided to try growing rainbow chard in the garden. It was kind of a funny choice because up to that point I’d never eaten any sort of chard and had no idea what to do with it. I came up with this recipe one night after finding some sweet little white asparagus at the local farmers market. The result was a good mix of healthy and comforting, being enough vegetable to make it feel like a good choice and enough panko crisped in brown butter to make it feel a little bit bad.

Rainbow Chard and White Asparagus with Panko Brown Butter

Several large leaves of chard (rainbow or swiss), roughly chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced (depending on how offensive you choose to feel!)
1 bunch white asparagus, hard bottoms trimmed off and sliced into large chunks
olive oil
about ½ cup panko bread crumbs
3 Tbsp butter

Saute the chard in olive oil on medium heat for several minutes until it starts to wilt. Add minced garlic and asparagus and cook until all the vegetables are cooked through but not soggy. Remove from the pan and add butter. Let the butter foam up and cook. It will turn slightly brown and begin to have a nutty smell. Add the panko crumbs and toss for a few minutes until they begin to brown as well. Pour over the vegetables and serve.

The only real trouble I had with this recipe was when I decided to serve it with panko encrusted salmon. I should have known better – it was just too much panko for one meal.

Both tasted excellent but overpowered one another when sharing the plate. Next time I might go with some grilled shrimp or roasted chicken.

As far as the chard goes, I am definitely a fan, especially of the homegrown variety. It’s a fun thing to grow – like basil, you cut a leaf off and it makes the plant grow even more. It looks so pretty out in the garden, soaking up the sunlight.

New Year, New Blog

2010-01-06T07:06:00.000-08:00

This post is a little late coming, I know. I've been tweaking my blog to make it just right (which also included changing the name - I hope everyone enjoys it!) Now I'm pretty satisfied and so the real blogging can begin! This year I have some new plans for the blog and with school out of the way for good I'll be posting a lot more. Here are some additions for the new year:

Magazine Mondays - I'll start participating in Magazine Mondays, which originated with the food blog Cream Puffs in Venice. Each week I'll pick a recipe from a magazine to try and then blog about it.
Bread Wars - Bread making is the most difficult thing I've ever done in the kitchen so I'll start posting my struggles in a series called "Bread Wars". Maybe this year I'll win the war and finally make the perfect bread!
More book reviews - not just cookbooks, but books about food, cooking, travel when related to food etc. I think there is a wealth of excellent food literature out there and I aim to read it all (well, that might be a little much, but I'll do my best!)
More restaurant reviews - mostly be in the Phoenix area where I live, but when I travel I hope to get some restaurant reviews in as well

I hope everyone enjoys the posts and leaves comments for me. Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a great year!

Cowboy Ciao, Scottsdale AZ

2009-12-28T08:33:00.000-08:00

Several friends and I went to Cowboy Ciao in downtown Scottsdale on a Saturday night last month. We had reservations for 10 and had a large table waiting for us when we arrived. The low lighting and rich decor set a festive mood with the group and we were all in good spirits after getting our first drink and placing our orders.

For the most part service was excellent. A few small glitches (I was brought the wrong drink and the scotch selection was very limited which disappointed my husband and brother) were smoothed out so well they were hardly memorable.

The food absolutely made up for any trouble we had with drinks. We started with Pork Belly. It was perfectly cooked - crispy and salty on the outside, layers of fat on the inside that melted in my mouth and moistened every bite. It was served with a tangy Thai cucumber salad - pickled cucumbers with some peppers. The hint of sweet tangy-ness of the pickle with the salty crunch of the pork was ethereal.

Next my husband and I split the Espresso Rubbed Filet Mignon. Another food revelation. We asked for it medium and the kitchen did just that, splitting the meal on two plates for us so we didn't have to knife each other over the meat. The Tortilla-Smashed Yukon Gold Potatoes tasted a bit strange but were just the right consistency, and overall went well with the fantastic hunk of meat and the chipotle aioli around the plate. The demi-glace added a nice touch of sauce to the dish and was the perfect accompaniment to the excellent meat.

We were so full after the first two courses and drinks that we skipped dessert, although the dessert menu was extensive and sounded delicious - such offerings as Peanut Butter Brownie (Upside Downie) and Bread Pudding with cranberries, pine nuts and five spice ice cream almost made me overindulge.

While the restaurant was a little noisy, the good service and excellent food easily make up for it and I would definitely suggest Cowboy Ciao for an intimate dinner for two or night on the town with a crowd.

Adventures in Lettuce Land

2009-12-17T06:23:00.000-08:00

I've been on a salad kick lately. I used to pretty much hate salads - they all seemed boring with their limp lettuces and bottles of dressings in varying colors. Now I've started playing with them and I've discovered they're so fun!

Mache salad with orange muscat vinaigrette and herb-chevre

I especially like the possibilities with changing up the lettuces. I'd never tried Mache before (also called Lamb's Lettuce) but it is fantastic! Small little bouquets of mild leaves with a hint of pepper. They are especially good with avacado.

Mache with avacado, walnuts, apple, and lemon-dijon vinaigrette

I've been so inspired that I started growing some things in the garden specifically for salads (radicchio, Chinese radishes) and I'm hoping with my spring garden I can expand a lot to include things like endive and more herbs for dressings.

Mache with avacado, radishes, pomegranate, and herb vinaigrette

Making dressings is another new fantastic world. The possibilities for vinaigrettes are endless and now I've even started playing with buttermilk dressings. Those might take a while to perfect though - they seem a bit more complicated than the vinaigrette.

Spinach salad with candied pecans, onion confit, and goat cheese

The winner for best salad topping has to be the onion confit that I made for the salad above. It's the perfect mix of sweet and tangy (almost like an onion marmelade) and paired with the mild creamy fat of the goat cheese is a match made in heaven (or in my kitchen more like).

Onion Confit

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 lb red onions - very thinly sliced into half rounds

1 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

2 Tbsp dried fruit (I used apricots)

1/2 c. good red wine

salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in pan over medium. Add onions. Let sweat gently until onions give off their juices and become transparent. Stir in sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper until the mixture starts to melt. Add dried fruit and wine, cover, and reduce heat to low. Watch and stir often, adding more wine (or water) as needed. When onions and fruit have melted to a jam-like consistency taste and adjust for seasoning (takes at least 30 minutes).

Breakfast Tacos

2009-12-13T07:58:00.000-08:00

At long last I am free of school! No more papers, no more tests. No more cramming. I'm free to just cook and garden and eat. Well and work now too (started a catering job the same day I finished my last final).

To celebrate my new found freedom I lounged around the couch on Saturday morning watching my favorite Food Network chef Tyler Florence, flipping through old Food and Wine magazines to get some ideas for an upcoming party, and making/eating some awesome breakfast tacos which I made with leftover pork (yes another pork post! I can't help it! - as Bourdain would say, these were porktastic!)

It was pretty easy too. I just chopped up some leftover pork and root vegetables and sauteed them quickly, then scrambled some eggs with some jalapenos from the garden. I combined the two and added a little bit of tomatillo cilantro sauce (also from the garden) and grated pepperjack cheese. What a great way to start any day!

Birthday Feast

2009-11-16T15:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my husband's birthday. We celebrated with a feast last night. I made sure to include all his favorites - what he likes to call the trifecta (lime, cilantro, and jalapeno) and chocolate. Most of the produce ingredients came from my garden which made me really happy. Ever since I realized my honeydew plant was actually the long-lost tomatillo plant I thought never grew from last season I've been inundated with tomatillos, so it was good to use some.

I slow-cooked a big hunk of pork butt (actually a cut of the shoulder) with onions, garlic, and cumin, then seared it off in the broiler and made an amazing green-chili/tomatillo/lime/cilantro/pork drippings sauce that was totally outrageous.

I served the pork with some chipotle-cheddar mashed potatoes and grilled onions. Definitely a winner dinner. :) I think my husband's favorite were the brownies with home-made double chocolate ice cream though. It was devoured too fast to even get a picture.

Chez Jacques: Inspirational

2009-11-12T05:51:00.000-08:00

I just spent my wonderful afternoon off from school looking through "Chez Jacques: Traditions and Rituals of a Cook" I love this cookbook. I think it's probably my favorite of all. It isn't about the recipes, although the ones I've tried are definitely fantastic. It's really about the deep love of food, how food infuses life and makes it richer. The pictures in the book aren't just of food but paintings which Jacques has painted (not only is he one of the most accomplished chefs in the world but a good painter) and pictures of him spending time in his environment. These last are the pictures I love the best. One shows him sitting with a friend by a stream with some wine and a picnic. They have the wine bottles tied up in the stream and their feet dangling over the edge and it just looks so peaceful and comforting. I would love to spend a day by a stream with a friend, great food, and some chilled wine.

The pictures demonstrate a concept that I've been thinking about a lot myself lately - how food, friendship, culture, family, and the environment all intertwine to enrich life. It makes me want to go out and hunt mushrooms in the woods, or sit on a lake by myself and fish, or cook comforting French food with my husband. It also makes me wish that American life was less stressful and more about the things I mentioned above. We spend so much time running around, working, stressing out, and don't devote the time needed to create deep friendships, to become close with our family, to enjoy nature, or to really taste our food.

Seasonality

2009-11-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

I've noticed that since starting a garden (a picture of some summer bounty is on the left) my food philosophy has changed quite a bit. I find myself thinking seasonally much more than I used to. This might sound a little hokey, but I almost feel like my body and mind are a part of everything and if I listen closely enough to myself, I find that I crave the foods that are in season. In the summer I want fresh salads, fish and seafood lightly prepared, crisp white wine. In the fall I start craving stews and thick slices of bread and dark red wine.

In the spring I planted eggplants, melons, tomatoes, squashes. Now with my fall garden I'm eagerly waiting for my leeks, shallots, winter squash, and radicchio. I like the feeling of changing with the seasons. It feels very natural to me and comforting somehow. I wonder where all this comes from and how my body keeps track of seasons. It's strange because I live in this hot desert and it doesn't even resemble fall right now but I want the fall food anyways. Regardless of where it comes from, I'm going to embrace it. I'm thinking leek and zucchini soup and roast for dinner. And maybe some Pinot Noir.

Summer Party

2009-11-10T08:20:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I catered a small party for a friend. The food was a pretty big hit. I did tostones with chicken and mango chutney, goat cheese balls, hummus, herb dip, flat-bread with swiss, ham, and onions, and skewers of veggies, chicken, and beef. I wish I would have taken more pictures - I thought it was a really pretty setup. I think the two favorites were the ones above - the goat cheese balls and the tostones.

My Element

2009-11-09T13:06:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading a book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything It's about finding your personal passion, or your element. I've been on a hunt for my element for many years. After reading this book I realized that I'd already found it years ago, but I've been trying to get away from it for some reason. My element is food. Hence the name change on this blog (it used to be A Food Affair).

I don't know why I tried to deny my passion for food. I guess part of me wanted something sexier, more refined. I wanted to be a painter or a novelist. Chef just didn't seem to command respect in the same way. There's no fighting it though - I keep coming back to food. I am happiest in the kitchen. I don't know if this passion was something I was born with or if it was developed over the years. I see now that fighting it will only make me miserable.

Thus the re-birth of my food blog. I hope to have many new food adventures to share. I hope you enjoy coming with me on this journey, as I re-connect with my passion for food.

The Perfect Falafel

2007-09-28T14:17:00.000-07:00

I'm so proud of myself! I FINALLY made the perfect Falafel. It's been a hard road, trying to find a good recipe that didn't crumble as it cooked - but at long last I have my perfect recipe. I found the recipe in "Eat This Book" by Tyler Florence, although I adjusted some spices and ingredients. Just as a warning - the chickpeas have to soak overnight so be sure to plan ahead for this one. You could probably make it with canned chickpeas and skip the soaking step, but I wouldn't guarantee it. I've had so many Falafel balls fall apart on me that I'm skeptical of altering the recipe too much (how unlike me!) If you try this recipe, make sure to try the sauce as well - it makes this stuff truly incredible!

Falafel with Tahini Sauce
2 c. dried chickpeas
1 tsp. baking powder
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic smashed
2 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 Tbsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. dried red pepper flakes
about 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
about 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
vegetable oil for frying (about 1 medium sized container)

For the sauce:
1/2 cup Tahini
1/2 cup plain yogurt
juice of 1 lemon
(we ate this stuff up way before we ran out of Falafel, so I recommend doubling this sauce recipe)

Put the dried chickpeas in a large bowl and add cool water to cover by two inches. Soak in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours or up to 48. Drain and rinse thoroughly.
Put the soaked chickpeas, baking powder, onion, garlic, spices, and herbs in a food processor and pulse to coarsely grind. Taste and season generously with salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate while you heat up the oil (should take about 15 minutes).
Heat 3 inches of oil in a deep heavy pot or deep fryer to 375 degrees. It's very important that the oil is deep enough that the balls don't stick to the bottom and that the oil is hot enough. Roll the falafel mixture into balls about the size of ping-pong balls. Carefully slip into the oil a few at a time, careful not to overcrowd the pan. Fry until they are crusty dark brown - about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
To make the sauce, whisk together all the ingredients.
To serve, stuff pita with Falafel, tomatoes, cucumber and Tahini sauce. Or you could just do what Dan and I did and eat them standing at the counter as they come out of the oil.

Garam Masala

2007-09-25T08:17:00.000-07:00

Last night I tried making Garam Masala. I needed it for Chicken Biriyani but there wasn't any at the store. I've been thinking about trying it for a while - I know fresh ground spices are infinitely better than store-bought spices that have been sitting around for who knows how long.

I wasn't prepared for how much better it was though. The spices smelled a little funny as they were toasting, but once I started grinding them up the whole house was filled with an amazing smell. It was incredibly easy though. I definitely recommend trying this if you can find all the ingredients!

Garam Masala
1 cinnamon stick, broken into pieces
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup cumin seeds
1/3 cup coriander seeds
1 rounded Tablespoon green cardamom pods
1 rounded Tablespoon black peppercorns
2 teaspoons whole cloves
1 whole dried red chile
1/8 teaspoon ground mace (I wasn't able to find mace so I replaced it with 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg)

Combine everything but the nutmeg in a frying pan or wok and toast dry over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until cumin turns brown (about 4-5 minutes). Put everything into a spice blender (I used my coffee grinder which worked fine except I had to split it into two batches) and grind until it turns to a fine powder. Stir in mace or nutmeg and store in an airtight container. This recipe made about 1/2 a cup of ground spice.

Wine Caves

2007-09-21T12:22:00.001-07:00

Dan and I took a trip to Napa and Sonoma this summer. It was an incredible experience to say the least. We spent about four days touring around different vineyards and learning about wines. As a result, I've become a wine snob. A good thing for my mouth, but not so much for my checkbook.

One of the new things we found while on our trip was a wine cave. We only visited one, Del Dotto, but it was an experience I will never forget. We walked into this long hollowed out cave that was very dank and wet. I almost expected to see someone from The Phantom of the Opera jump out from behind the barrels of wine.

Our tour included tasting about 11 different wines. Our guide would stop us at a barrel, explain a bit about the wine we would be tasting, pull some wine straight from the barrel and dump it in our glasses. Definitely the best tour we got out of the whole trip. Near the end we tried a port. I was skeptical. I've never been a big fan of port, but after tasting it I decided that was just because I had never had good port. What an amazing taste. We even bought a bottle of Zinfandel Syrah Port. See there it is again! Try new things! It will usually turn out to be good!

Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli - A Tale of Homemade Pasta

2007-09-15T07:21:00.000-07:00

The other night I made my own ravioli. It was incredible! I know it would be much easier to buy some ready made pasta but there are so many good things about making your own. You can put whatever you want into it, make sure you aren't getting any artificial ingredients you don't want, and it tastes like nothing else. After this run I finally decided that I need to get a pasta rolling attachment for my mixer. I like homemade pasta so much more than store bought and I have a feeling I'll be making it often enough to justify a new kitchen gadget (plus I really like getting new kitchen gadgets).

Below is the recipe I used. The sauce for this was the most amazing thing I've ever tasted. Even if you buy ravioli from the store you should try this sauce. It only took a few minutes to make.

Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli (Ravioli di Magro)

The Pasta:
3 large eggs (best if they are room temp)
2 1/2 c. flour

The Ravioli Filling:
3 Tbsp butter
6 oz fresh spinach leaves
1/2 c. fresh chopped basil
1 c. ricotta cheese
1/3 c. freshly grated Parmesan
nutmeg
1 egg
salt & black pepper

The Sauce:
1/4 c. butter
1 c. heavy cream
2/3 c. freshly grated Parmesan
1 shallot, finely diced

To make the pasta: I used a food processor which greatly reduced my time, but you can mix the dough by hand as well. Put flour and salt in food processor. Add 1 whole egg and pulse-blend until ingredients are mixed. Turn food processor on to full speed and add remaining eggs. Keep machine running just long enough to allow a dough to be formed. Turn dough onto clean work surface. Knead until dough becomes soft and glossy. Wrap in plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 15-20 minutes. Split pasta into several small pieces and roll out one at a time. Make sure to keep extra dough covered with plastic wrap or it will get hard and flaky. Roll out into a rectangle as thin as you can, making sure that each new sheet is about the same thickness. After each sheet is rolled out, place under a damp cloth.
To make the filling: Melt butter in medium saucepan, add spinach and basil, salt & pepper and let cook on medium until most of the moister is gone. Place spinach in bowl and let cool. Add ricotta, parmesan, and nutmeg to taste (about 1/2 tsp for me). Mix well, then add egg and beat well.
To make the ravioli: Take a sheet of the pasta, and using a teaspoon, spoon on equal amounts evenly spaced near the top of the pasta sheet. With a pastry brush wet between the mounds, fold the pasta over, and pinch all the sides together, releasing any air inside and closing up the raviolis on all sides. Cut each away (I used a pizza cutter for this which worked well). Place the finished raviolis on cloth or paper towel dusted with flour. Once all the pasta are finished, place in boiling salted water for 4-5 minutes to cook.
And now the sauce: Gently heat butter and shallot until shallot is slightly translucent. Add cream and Parmesan and let cook until the parmesan has melted. Increase heat and simmer for a minute or two until slightly reduced. Add salt and pepper to taste.
There you have it! Homemade pasta!

Thailand Part II

2007-09-12T07:10:00.001-07:00

The Thai food we ate in restaurants was amazing. You could wander into any restaurant (and there were a TON!) and have an incredible meal. This was pork and pineapple fried rice which was perfect. The presentation everywhere we went was amazing as well. Because of Thailand's unique political history (the only Southeast Asian country to never be colonized by the west) it has a very rich cultural heritage that allows for a completely unique cuisine. Much of the other food we had in Southeast Asia, while different to us westerners, was much the same in Singapore and Malaysia. When you cross over to Thailand everything changes. Everything is distinct. And incredibly delicious.

Thailand

2007-09-12T07:01:00.000-07:00

Our last stop in Southeast Asia was Bangkok Thailand, a place I will never forget. It is constantly crowded and hot and noisy. Every inch of every sidewalk is taken up with people selling things, people walking, or homeless and handicapped people sitting and begging. Wherever we went, food was all around. The most common I saw were these stands with balls of different types of meat on skewers that people would buy and have drizzled in some sort of sauce. I was too nervous to eat an unidentified piece of meat from the side of the road, so I never found out what it tasted like, although I did try a roasted banana on a stick from one of these street vendors. The banana was salty on the outside but other than that was just like a warm banana. Not the best food I've had.

Strange Fruit Encounter

2007-09-11T15:19:00.001-07:00

A fruit stand at a rest-stop on the road in Malaysia. It is amazing how many different fruits and vegetables I encountered in Asia that I had never seen before. The bright pink fruit on the right is Dragonfruit, and in the far left background you can see a strange spiky green melon like fruit, called Soursop. This was my favorite find on the entire trip. You could get them juiced and blended with ice, which was incredible in the intense heat.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2007-09-11T10:54:00.001-07:00

Our second stop in Southeast Asia was Kuala Lumpur (KL as the locals like to call it). One of the traditional dishes that we tried here was Fish-Head Curry (above). I was afraid of it at first. It smelled good when it came out, but there was a large whole fish in the center of the pot - head on and all. Lucky for me I got over the first impression and tried it, because it was delicious. The fish was accompanied by spicy chilies and fried tofu in a perfect curry sauce - salty and full of flavor. I'm sure to an Asian seeing a whole fish is not a big deal (many Asian dishes involve whole fish) but to a Westerner who is used to all forms of meat looking like a block and not resembling the animal it was, the visual presentation was a little hard to get over. It is amazing to me how many things in our life we could miss by not trying the things that scare us or make us uncomfortable.

Singapore

2007-09-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

In March my husband and I took a trip to Southeast Asia. We started in Singapore, from there drove to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and then took a flight to Bangkok, Thailand. Unfortunately in Singapore I didn't get a chance to take any good pictures of food. I certainly tasted some interesting things though. The strangest thing I ate on this leg of the trip was Barbecued Stingray. The second night we were in Singapore we went with some friends at about 1:00 in the morning to a place called Newton Circus, a hawker center. Dozens of picnic tables were set up outside with lights strung overhead. Several hawker stands surrounded the tables, each selling different things. We sat at a table and several hawkers came up trying to sell us food from their stalls. We settled on one, picked some dishes from the picture menu, got some Tiger Beer and sat in the sweltering heat while our food was prepared. We ended up with the Stingray, some Chili Crabs, Choy Sum (a spinach like vegetable doused in thick brown sauce) and several other things I don't remember. The Stingray was surprising. I expected it to be tough and chewy like octopus or shark, but it was much more like fish (maybe Orange Roughy) very tender and tasty. Quite an experience.

A Food Affair Begins

2007-09-11T07:24:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about starting a food blog for a long time now, but the last couple of weeks I have tried so many good new recipes I just can't hold back any longer. I'm really excited about this new adventure. I have so much to share!

I'll probably do some backlog for a while. I'd like to write some about my trip to Southeast Asia (which was in March of 2007) because the food was so amazing. And maybe even my trip to Iceland in October of 2006. And of course all the awesome recipes I've tried lately.

A bit about me - I am a personal chef in Chandler, AZ (www.afoodaffair.net) where I have lived off and on the last 3 years or so. I have a wonderful husband, Dan, and two of the best dogs in the world, Panther and Ripley. I love to cook more than pretty much anything else, but I love it even more when I can make people happy with my food. After reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver (www.animalvegetablemiracle.com) early this year, my philosophy of food changed quite a bit. I am now a firm believer in using local, organic, sustainable products whenever possible (which makes my life as a personal chef quite a bit more difficult!) and I am also interested in preserving traditional (slow) recipes and food as well as the produce variety that is disappearing too quickly.

Well, that's about it for now. Keep reading, try some of my recipes, and have fun eating!