Avoid the County Fair: Make Kettle Corn at Home!

Anyone who's ever lived with me knows that I am addicted to popcorn. And I like all its derivatives: caramel corn, kettle corn, cheesy corn, rosemary corn, brewer's yeast parmesan corn, corn seasoned like Chex mix, and even the commercial riff-raff like Cracker Jack and Fiddle Faddle. But no microwave popcorn for me; I do have my limits. So today I had a craving for kettle corn, that pleasantly salty, lightly sugared stuff you find at carnivals and mall outlets. Maybe it was subconscious because the county fair opened today. At any rate, I made my own and avoided the crowds. It's easy with only 4 simple ingredients:

1/4 cup popcorn kernels
1/8 cup sugar
1/8 cup oil
salt

Put the oil in a pan that has a lid, add 3 popcorn kernels, and place it over medium heat. When the 3 kernels pop, quickly stir the sugar into the hot oil. Add the rest of the popcorn kernels.  Put on the lid.  Shake the pan around on the burner every so often while listening for the kernels to start popping. When you hear the kernels begin to pop, lift the pan from the stove and shake to keep the popcorn from burning. Return it to the burner after several seconds and listen for more popping. Repeat the process until it's all popped. Pour into a bowl and salt to taste.

I ate mine while watching the movie They Live. 

Where are you going to eat yours?

Tea Smoked Salmon

I recently read about tea smoking, an ancient Chinese culinary technique.  Sounded intriguing! I'm not sure if the old-time Chinese people had salmon, 
but this style of cooking really compliments this fish!  I'm not an expert with 
the barbecue, but this was quite easy.  

First I put my salmon in a marinade for an hour or so: 

• 1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce 
• 1 tablespoon sugar 
• 1 teaspoon finely grated orange or lemon zest 
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Then I started a fire with briquettes in my barbecue. While waiting for the 
coals to form, I prepared the smoking ingredients: 

• 1/4 cup mixed whole leaf oolong and jasmine tea 
• 1/4 cup white rice 
• 1/4 cup brown sugar 
• 8 whole star anise 
• 2 tablespoons crushed cinnamon stick
• 5 whole allspice 

I put the smoking ingredients in a few layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil and formed an open packet. 

Smoking ingredients mixed in a foil packet:
The tea and spices infuse the fish with a subtle, slightly bitter taste.
The brown sugar sweetens up the fish and adds a caramel color and undertone.
The rice acts as a fuel to keep the aromatics smoking.

When the coals are white hot, place the foil packet of smoking ingredients directly on them.  Put the grill in place above the coals, and shut the 
barbecue lid. Partially close the barbecue's air vent.  When you see 
smoke rising from the vent, it's time to cook! My coals were quite hot, 
and smoke appeared in just a few minutes. 

Remove the salmon from the marinade and pat it dry. Brush it lightly with 

oil. I used a mixture of sesame and peanut oil. You can place the salmon 

on a pre-soaked cedar plank, but I'm not that fancy. I used a nonstick grill 

basket that I bought  for a few dollars. Put the salmon skin side up (if it has 

skin) and put the cedar plank or grill basket on the grill. Close the lid and 

the air vent. Let the salmon smoke for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on how 

thick your fillet is. Flip the fish once and smoke again to medium doneness.  

Usually this requires another 3 to 5 minutes. I bought salmon trimmings 

that were quite thin, so I smoked it a scant 3 minutes per side.  

My experiment was a success!  I think this was the most delicious salmon I have ever eaten.  Next I think I'll try this technique with shrimp laid directly 

on the grill.

Inexpensive salmon trimmings smoked to perfection in 6 minutes!

Ferry Building Smorgasbord

My friend Alejandra and I went to this event Friday night hosted at the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero, here in San Francisco. The Ferry Building houses restaurants, cafes, small food vendors, a book store, and a Sur La Table. On Saturdays, they have a farmers market set up outside, which draws large crowds. I was here earlier in the week, just roaming around, for no particular reason (it's one of my favorite things to do), and found out about the event.

We showed up promptly at 5:30. As was explained to us, $20 gets you 10 tickets. Tickets get you wine and hors d'oeuvres. Wine was 2 tickets for a glass. And food, depending on the item was either 1 or 2 tickets. We started with 10 tickets. After all, we had already eaten lunch; this was just fun snacky-wine-hangout time.

Tuna tartar... the tuna was fresh, the cabbage was really good, and the crunch from the chip was great. So, I'm tasting all of that, and then the spice monster hit me! Washed it down with a swig of crisp Sauvignon Blanc, and I was good to go.

And there was dancing, ahhh C'est la vie.

Chris Cosentino, the chef and owner of Incanto, in San Francisco, also has a sandwich shop, Boccalone Salumeria in the Ferry Building, where he serves up freshly sliced salumi on rolls of crusty bread with cheese and mustard. He was there that night! He's the one in the background. I made my friend stand in front (hence the cracking up), to pretend I was taking her picture! I didn't want to look lame, and star struck.

Because, you all know how I'm slightly obsessed with Anthony Bourdain and his show No Reservations....Well, when he came to town to make the SF show, Cosentino was one of the chefs he visited at his restaurant. SOoooo, a bit of celeb chef sighting happening here. I know, Imma dork!



Mini lemon and salted chocolate tarts!

"Ooooohhhhh, oysters!" We exclaimed unanimously. Before the night was over, we had spent $40 on tickets, had 2 oysters a piece, at least 4 glasses of wine (but whose counting!), and ate and drank our way through the smorgasbord. As the evening progressed, fun snacky-wine-hangout time became the perfect girls date night. I always have a good time with Ale!

A hot dog walks into a bar...

Stopped by Bird Dog and had a chicken fried hotdog covered in sausage gravy. The illustrious Jr had a rueban dog and some really greasy chili fries. We then vowed to return and eat sausage until the end of the world. This is a hard life. 

New Year's Ravioli

It's a new year, and that means another year to be filled with delicious foods! First dinner of 2012, homemade ravioli. It was my main dish at our Chávez christmas dinner, delicious but not so pretty. Back in San Francisco Mónico and I tried out the recipe again and finally got the knack of it, they were much prettier this time around. And very yummy, it was very hard to stop going back for just one more.


Pasta recipe very simple,

4 eggs
3 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup water
1 1/2 tsp salt

Mix eggs, water, salt, and 2 cups flour until smooth. Gradually add the rest of the flour. refrigerate 20 minutes. THOUROUGHLY flour surface, and then Roll out 1/8 inch thickness, then flour some more.... and then a little more flour.

we used a biscuit cutter for each side of the ravioli then put filling on one side, brushed a bit of egg and water mixture on the other and pressed them together with a smaller ravioli cutter. they turned out very cute, don't you think?

Filling

Kinda just added a bunch of stuff together. Italian Sausages, browned sweet onion, spinich, tofu, salt, pepper, basil, and other things I am sure. All cut up really small. use whatever you want! yay