Brussels Sprout Slaw with Maple-Glazed Pecans

I have never eaten cold Brussels sprouts on purpose, so this recipe from the November 2009 Bon Appétit intrigued me. The salad's garnish, glazed pecans, is made with real maple syrup. I bought my syrup while on a road trip to Vermont, but you can probably find it cheaper at Food 4 Less or Costco.


The Brussels sprouts (perhaps this is as good a time as any to insert a caveat about the spelling of Brussels sprouts ... because they are named for the city, Brussels must be capitalized) are cooked in salted water until crisp-tender and still bright green, about 5 minutes. Then drain them and rinse with cold water. Chop the sprouts well and add the dressing. Chill in the fridge until ready to eat. At the last minute before serving add the pecans.




Pecan instructions:
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk 1/4 C. maple syrup and 1/2 tsp salt in small bowl. Add 1 cup nuts and stir them to coat well. Bake them in a single layer on a small rimmed sheet for about 5 minutes, then stir. Continue to bake until the nuts are toasted and the glaze is bubbling, about 6 more minutes. Transfer the nuts to another sheet that has oil or non-stick spray on it. Separate the nuts.
Dressing:
Whisk together:
1/4 C Dijon mustard
2 TB apple cider vinegar
2 TB fresh lemon juice
1 TB sugar
1/4 C oil
Add salt and pepper to taste

Put 'em on the glass, part 2

Thought of all the peep addicts out there when I saw this:


Sacred heart of Jesus made out of Peeps. Click on that image too see it close up, and get more details here:
Bad Art Museum

Soda

Found these at my QFC and they were amazing! Just tried the orange cream and the vanilla cream, they they were great!
Crater Lake Soda

Seattle Hamburger Project: Teddy’s Bigger Burgers

Teddy's Bigger Burgers opened up in Woodinville this year, and its reputation already grew enough to be included in my list of hamburger places to try in the Seattle area.  The hamburger recommended was the Hawaiian burger.

The place is pure Hawaiian and hamburger kitsch.  From the fish tank to the Coke a Cola signs it is very cliché.  The Hawaiian burger was pretty good, with a slice of pineapple, but it was also very messy.  My preferred hamburger is the Cajun burger with onion rings on the side.  It is so tasty, spicy and beefy, with cool pickles and the onions rings are crispy.

Overall a great place to get a hamburger, I found I can bike there from my house, it makes a great Saturday outing.  Look at these pictures!  Aren’t you hungry?

I went down to LA a while ago for an animation conference. After the conference ended for the day, we would spend our nights searching for the Korean taco truck, Kogi, that my friend Shawna had heard about/obsessed with. Driving around LA late at night, we finally found it. I only had my cellphone for photos. Sorry about the quality.



Two sweet spare rib tacos on the bottom and a spicy pork taco in red sauce on the top. Both topped with greens tossed with soy, chile, salsa, and lime. Both really good.


But my favorite was the kimchi quesadilla. With a really nice spicy green salsa to top them. Super messy and awesome. Totally something I have to try to recreate....

and we went to disneylands...

Getting eggy

Last Sunday I took a break from my waffle journey and made some french toast instead. It turned out to be not too far really from my forays into waffles, as I was determined to make the eggiest french toast ever. I read up on some recipes, and decided to sort of try this recipe of Baked French Toast, off of Epicurious.com. Reviews and descriptions of the recipe described it as an extremely rich, custurdy, bread pudding sort of thing, but I wanted bread fried in eggs (who doesn't!) and I also wanted to amp up the spice, and cut down on the sugar (smother the bread in marmelade? really?) Anyway, with some sausages and fruit it turned out perfect: eggy spicy bread brightened up with citrus.


Halfway depleted pan of bread marinating in eggs. I added lots of orange zest and let the bread sit for half an hour in the mixture, turning the pieces occasionally to get them good and soppy.



I think my recipe went something sort of like this:
5 Pieces of a hearty rustic white bread (I used Grand Central's Como)
1 1/3 cup milk (approx)
3 egg yolks
1 egg with white
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tb cardamom
orange zest from 1.5 large oranges

Topping:
orange slices
maple syrup
fresh ginger

Mix all the liquid and spices. Cut bread in half and spread in deep dish and allow to soak in liquid for half an hour. I was worried I didn't have enough liquid and added some more milk (hence my "approx" above.) Turn bread slices occasionally to keep soaking. Fry up in butter.

I sliced up the oranges and grated tons of fresh ginger into them and let them sit for a while too. I added just a tiny bit of maple syrup to try to justify this as a breakfast, but it totally wasn't needed. The oranges on top of the bread added some extra nice sweet, spicy juiciness to the whole mess. Oh, and of course, you can just fry up those unused egg whites for some scrambled eggs. Lucky you; egg whites are a healthy choice! har har har

Waffle Recipe

Felicia had asked about the recipe I used for the ham and cheese waffle experiment. I slightly modify the "basic" recipe from the Joy of Cooking as follows:

1 3/4 cups flour
1 TB baking powder
spoonful sugar
pinch salt
4 beaten eggs
1/2 stick melted butter
1 1/2 cups milk

Mix all the dry ingredients together, then all the wet ingredients and then the two groups together. Add a couple handfuls on sliced green onion. If trying the ham and cheese combo, make sure the cheese is between slices of ham, so it doesn't melt into the batter and create strangeness. Also, the batter can be spread very thinly upon the iron and atop the ham- the super eggy recipe will fluff up to fill any holes or patches. Waffle iron should puff open a bit while cooking; don't worry about it and don't bother pressing it shut. It's all good.

Other mods: use 3 eggs and more butter for a crispier, more traditional waffle.
And using soy milk instead of regular milk definitely weighs down the recipe, creating slightly tougher, duller waffles. :(

Where kids come, to play along…

Most of us have seen the famous foul-mouthed TV chef, Gordon Ramsay on one of his many shows.  I was watching his British show: “The F Word”, and in the first episode he made an herb encrusted rack of lamb.  I thought it looked really good, and easy enough, so I thought I would give it a go.

I will not go through, step by step how to make it, the recipe can be viewed here:
 http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/159/f-word-s1-recipe1.jsp
and here is the video clip from the show:

A warning, the recipe above is in the metric system.  I had to look how hot to set my oven to make it 200 degrees Celsius. 

And here is my attempt! 

Started out with my herbs, cilantro (the recipe I linked to called it “Coriander”…Crazy Brits), parsley, rosemary, thyme, and parmesan.  And I blended it all up with some bread crumbs.

 

I scored the fat then seared them in a very hot pan before transferring them to the oven.  They took a lot longer to cook in the oven than the recipe indicated. 

After brushing them with mustard I packed on the topping.  Then I put it back in the oven to crisp up.

I sliced it between the bones and served it over garlic mashed potatoes, and some asparagus. 

It tasted great!  by some miracle, it was perfectly medium rare, and was so tender.  Each bite tasted lightly of mustard, and the crust was very delicious.  I have never cooked lamb before, and my first try was a roaring success!

That’s right, she is just as tasty as she looks.

Diary of Sundays: Waffle-Crazed Carnivore

Nov 1st: I continue my waffle exploration with a corn meal based waffle, topped with sausage crumbles and a sharp white chedder. The sausage goes great with the rustic hearty waffle, but I feel the cheese makes the whole dish a little too much. I think it needs a nice lite sauce or gravy to mellow everything out. Unfortunately, my gravy skillz are non-existent, and the meal ends w/me feeling no closer to my waffle magnum opus.

Definitely studly, but not quite my vision.

Nov 8th: James to tackle steak and eggs again, and decides to attempt homemade hollandaise sauce as well. I try to talk him out of it; I say things like, "gravy difficulties don't even come close to this potential disaster!" He ignores me and concocts a delicious light hollandaise. I dump copious amounts onto my still mooing steak lovingly wrapped in bacon and think fondly of animals. A good day.

A bit of the ultra violence in a soft lemon cream sauce.
Mwa ha ha- feast your eyes upon this horror!

Nov 15th: No words to describe my delight! The waffle procedure went swimmingly well, and now I have little left to live for. Went back to my basic waffle recipe but added an extra egg (4 in total.) Added thinly sliced ham, surrounding slender slices of swiss cheese, INSIDE the waffle. Careful pouring, ham/cheese placement, more careful pouring... These waffles puffed up, full and light and beautiful and meat-filled! I have created a monster! First test run went so well, I began to add sliced green onion. Savory combination went even better! Then I tried to add double the amount of ham/cheese, but discovered my waffle machine does have its limits. I believe the next step will be acquiring a rotating waffle iron to better suit my meat-stuffing tendencies.

It's alive!

Handy and delightful even when chilled.

Prep work and a straining waffle iron. Seriously, where the hell did I get this little thing?

Asian Pear Salad with Pecans

A great autumn salad with contrasting textures and tastes. This is the first time I have ever tried Champagne vinegar. It has a light taste and comes all the way from France! Otherwise we'd have to call it Sparkling White Wine vinegar.

Dressing:

1/4 cup Champagne vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard (yet another ingredient from France!)

1 TB maple syrup (I use real stuff I bought in Vermont!)

1 tsp salt (I use iodized, but you don't have to if you think it's a conspiracy!)

1/2 cup light oil (I mix olive and non-genetically altered canola!)

Whisk together all the ingredients except the oil. Gradually add the oil in a steady stream as you wield a brisk whisk. (If you add the oil slowly while whisking, it emulsifies better.)

Salad:

Use a couple heads of frisée (that really lacy stuff) except I couldn't find any this week (now that IS a conspiracy) so I used finely chopped Napa cabbage this time

1 or 2 Asian pears (or as I keep hearing, "pear apples") thinly sliced

About 1 cup toasted pecans

3/4 cup crumbled gorgonzola or feta cheese

Toss the salad well with the dressing. It's really good!

Yes please....

One of the best things about this time of year...The mandarin oranges get cheap. I can, have, and plan on making myself sick on these. They are just too good to stop eating.

I walked and I walked and I walked and I walked
I stopped for to rest my feet
I sat down on an old oak tree and there went fast asleep
I dream I'm sitting in a swell hotel, hungry as a bear
My stomach sent a telegram to my throat:
There's a wreck on the road somewhere.
I heard the voice of a porkchop say: Come on to me and rest
Well you talk about your stewing beef: I ain't know what the best
You talk about your chicken, ham and eggs, and turkey stuffed and dressed
But I heard the voice of a pork chop say come on to me and rest

"I heard the voice of a Porkchop"
--Taken from the album "Snockgrass", sung by Michael Hurley

Enchiladas para cena

SO hungry, so I made enchiladas for everyone. When you make enchiladas you gotta make a ton, or it's just not worth it.

my pictures turned out kinda sad and dull. But the food was amazing. Chicken, beef, and a little round dish just for Rachel with cheese enchiladas.

These Little Piggies Went to Market...

Rachel and I go to the Farmer's Market about once a week around here. They have the best fruit and veggies in the city... and we usually pick up some homemade bread, or honey, or something also. So! Today, we documented our trip.



Rachel's first persimmon! Ever...

Local oysters, yummy!


Lunch. Whiskey-fennel sausage and chicken-turkey-curry.


Giant Buddha's-Palm Citron.


A day at the market! Show us markets around where you live.

Paris and Felicia’s little tortilla pockets

When Felicia was visiting me, we made chiles rellenos with homemade tortillas for dinner one night. The next day we found that we had leftover everything. So for breakfast we invented these little pockets. We were quite proud of ourselves, only to find out there is a real thing very much like these. Oh well.

We started with:
Grilled Poblano Peppers
Cheese (In this photo I used Mexican cheese)
Tortilla dough (see my last post)
Some Chorizo (already cooked)
and Cilantro (AKA Coriander).

I chopped the cilantro and cut the pepper into strips (peel off the skin first). Then we flattened out some tortillas, just like normal (see making corn tortillas). The I would takes some chorizo, a slice of the pepper, a sprig of cilantro, and some cheese and place it in the middle and seal it up like a ravioli or Chinese dumpling.

I try to get it as flat as possible, so that it can cook evenly on the comal. You cook it just as you would a tortilla, but you might need to press down on the edges to make sure they cook, as it is not completely flat.

They are done when the outside looks just like a cooked tortilla. Later, at the suggestion of my friend Dominick, I tried frying them, which turned out really well!

I like to make a few of both kinds, and sit down to watch a movie with these as snacks.

When you bite into one and get melted cheese, chorizo, poblano and fresh cilantro flavors, it makes you so happy. A caveat though, the raw forms so not store in the refrigerator well. I would cook it slightly. then store it.

Making your own corn tortillas!

Making your own corn tortillas is not that hard, and tastes far better than the store bought ones.

You will need:
Masa Harina (look in the Mexican section of your grocery store)
Salt
And one of these things (a tortilla press):
Mix together some masa and water with a little bit of salt. Use your hands. If it sticks to your hands it is too wet. Keep adding small amounts of flour until the mixture can form a ball and does not stick to your hands. Kind of like play-dough.

Open up the press and place an opened plastic bag over it. Place a small ball of dough on the side with the handle.
Close up with the ball of dough between the plastic and press down.
Try to get it flattened evenly, I sometimes rotate it and re-press to get it uniform. Open it up and peel it from the plastic. Now place it on your comal or griddle, set to a medium heat.

Let it cook and flip it when I allows itself to be flipped. If you have to force it off the cooking surface, it still needs to be cooked on that side. If, by the time you can flip it, it is burnt, your stove is too hot. Repeat for the other side until it looks done! Make a bunch and wrap in cloth to keep them warm and soft!

I topped mine with some simmered pork, salsa and slices of avocado. They tasted awesome.

Special thanks to Natalie, who was my hand model in these photos.