dutch baby

i was reminded of a intriguing recipe that i saw on good eats now that i have my cast iron cookware. get ready, alton, i can actually make these things now! the recipe was for a "dutch baby," which i blame not knowing anything about on growing up in southern california. upon further research, i discovered that a dutch baby is the same as a german pancake, which is pretty much a large pancake baked in the oven.

the recipe looked fairly simple, so i decided to give it a go this morning. 30 minutes later, i had one of the most delicious breakfasts i have ever had. i used spelt flour for this (i'm fairly certain that substituting your favorite gluten-free flour would work just fine). the pancake rose up very high and browned on the sides but stayed soft in the center. what emerged was a wonderful baked confection that had a buttery, crispy layer on the top, was smooth in the middle, and chewy on the bottom. i couldn't stop verbalizing how much i enjoyed it. MMMMMM!


to alton brown, the amazing man he is, thank you for this EASY, uncomplicated, delicious recipe!

• 3 tablespoons of butter, melted
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup whole milk (i'm going to try lowfat next time)
• dash of vanilla
• 2 eggs
  

• preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• place 2 tablespoons of the melted butter into a 9 or 10-inch cast iron skillet and place in the oven to heat.
• wait a few minutes for the skillet to heat up, then assemble the remaining ingredients.
• mix flour, vanilla sugar, salt, milk, eggs and remaining tablespoon of melted butter in a bowl.
• pour batter into skillet. bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the edges are puffed and brown. (according to alton) sprinkle with additional vanilla sugar and serve with lemon wedges. (I didn't do this part)

the oatmeal trend continues!

Watch out, Starbucks, Jamba Juice is on the loose! Now I know this doesn't help those gluten-free people out there but if wheat is your issue, then take note!

I was pleasantly greeted upon my exit from the subway this morning by a man in a giant banana costume. Keep in mind it was 18 degrees and snowing. AM New York man didn't stand a chance. In any case, banana man (jamba juice employee) was handing out fliers. The man was wearing a giant banana, so I took one. Not only did it announce the new oatmeal offering but it also provided me with TWO $1 oatmeal coupons!

The oatmeal is organic steel-cut oats (no instant oatmeal here) made with soymilk. Flavor choices include apple cinnamon (compote), blueberry-blackberry (compote) and fresh banana. There is also a brown sugar crumble but careful--upon inspection of the jamba juice website, the brown sugar topping contains wheat!

read my full review of it here.

cafecito

There once was a time when two girls were just starting out their formidable years at NYU. However, these were not ordinary NYU girls. These girls were broke and instantly became friends. Friend number one (let's call her zo) got a job on campus. Friend number two (let's call her sarah), found the glistening path of waitressing. She chose a small cuban restaurant on avenue c, with a nice long cozy bar and friendly neighborhood clientele. Friend number one (zo) was happy to visit whenever possible and consume as many sangrias/mango margaritas/mojitos as were placed in front of her.

Then one day, the unthinkable happened. Friend number two found a Real Job—a full-time one. Friend number 1 was heartbroken, not so much because of the occasional free snacks she would no longer be enjoying (although they were nice), but more so because she had so enjoyed having a regular place to visit where she sat and chatted with the other waitresses, the busboys knew her face, and the manager kept his eye on her and how many drinks she was downing/tostones she was eating.


The two girls graduated and friend number one also found full time work. Friend number two's Real Job paid so poorly that she started to pick up shifts again on the weekends. Friend number one was sympathetic but excited to have the excuse to visit cafecito regularly again. She would spend the better part of her Saturdays hunkered down at the bar, talking to the other bar regulars and the staff, until friend number two finished her shift and the two sat to share a meal.

Friend number one’s cafecito favorites:

• mojitos and mango margaritas: mmm

• ensalada de pollo: delicious, filling and satisfying, without the guilt of a more
common cuban meal

• ensalada de camarones en escabeche: a refreshing lettuce-less salad

• pollo cafecito: deeee-lish

• YELLOW rice and BLACK beans (not white and red): in my opinion, few places do better and no meal is complete without them

• Plantains (tostones and maduros): so hard to choose between that i have often made sarah venture into the kitchen to make me a “combo plate”. And no, you can’t actually order it. The tostones come with a garlic sauce that is so wonderfully strong, I smell like it for days.

• CHIMICHURRI: I put it on everything

• Flourless chocolate cake: surprising, I know, but cafecito has one of the top 3 flourless chocolate cakes I have ever had. It’s light and fluffy with a perfect crispy top. It’s topped off with dulce de leche and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

If sick, be sure to stick to a sangria spritzer and chicken soup (with lime).

One of my--ahem, I mean, friend number one's favorite restaurants in new york city. Period.

go go zo food bites

1) gluten-free pasta


Today's NY Times featured an article on gluten-free pasta options:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/health/nutrition/12recipehealth.html?ref=health

My vote is for the brown rice pasta! It makes sense that the pasta would work out well since brown rice has that dense, chewy texture.

2) trader joe's chimichurri salmon


Yes, another Trader Joe's plug so soon. I encourage you to try out tj's chimichurri wild pacific salmon. It comes frozen--yes, FROZEN! (So you can keep it around and not have to worry about making it right away before it spoils) AND it's wild! (So you can feel good about eating it). Most importantly, it's good. The sauce contains delicious ingredients you can actually read (no hidden wheat or gluten) and since the fish has already been marinated it has great saturated flavor, which is otherwise tough to accomplish in 10 minutes.

weeknight dinner

On a recent Sunday evening visit to Trader Joe's (oh sweet, beautiful TJ's), I was inspired by thai style mango salsa. I am a sucker for a mango salsa. Into my basket it went. On my way home, I started to think about what meal this salsa could be incorporated into. The obvious thought was chicken but I wanted more! Seafood...shrimp! And while I was at it, how about a little coconut rice? SIDENOTE: If you do not have a rice cooker, I highly suggest you go purchase one, now! Mine is a base-line model zojirushi and I love him. END SIDENOTE. Less than an hour later, my wonderful weeknight meal was complete! The results were thus:

Coconut Rice (Rice cooker version):
1 cup white rice: some recipes said to only use jasmine but I used sushi rice and it was fine
1 cup water
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
pinch of salt

Put all ingredients in rice cooker, stir, turn on to cook.

Shrimp:
Sautee red pepper in a skillet. Push to the edge and cook shrimp until pink and opaque on each side. Throw in some green onions part way through the cooking process. Top with mango salsa!

Mango Salsa (if TJ's is not within your reach):
Mango, chopped
jalapeno, finely chopped
red onion, finely chopped
cilantro, chopped
lime juice
optional: sambal oelek--chili sauce but you could use something else spicy instead

this isn't the old country buffet

I have very few buffet memories. Most of them consist of some sort of elementary school event at a Souplantation, my mom vehemently opposing this idea and openly expressing her hatred for anything involving the word buffet. Until rather recently, I shared this sentiment. A whole lot of people running around chaotically to stuff their faces? No thanks. Unlimited salad bar, pasta and pizza? Again, no thanks.

That was all until recently, when the idea of a sushi and seafood buffet was presented to me. If you're a buffet skeptic (hi mom), you may be thinking, "don't do it--you'll get sick!" I would encourage the choice to be reputable at the very least. Good thing that's exactly what Todai is.

The restaurant is huge but perfectly pleasant to be in. Even better, the masses were well-behaved. Friday at lunchtime, there was just a few minute wait and the place didn't feel overcrowded. The waitress was very friendly and no one was giving anyone a hard time or enforcing any scary buffet rules, although there were signs that warned of a 35% wasted food fee.




Round 1: Plate 1, cold food
Sushi galore! Nigiri, rolls, sashimi salad, raw clams and oysters, silken tofu, various salads... The sushi was surprisingly good. All of the fish I tasted was of perfectly acceptable quality and considering this was buffet sushi, the fish slices were small but not completely overwhelmed by a huge hunk of rice. Notice the giant oyster which I did eat (somewhat skeptically). Again, surprisingly good.

Round 2: Plate 2, hot food
Fried tofu, more salads, soft shell crabs, noodles, yakitori, soup... I was much more interested in the cold food since I am a sushi lover but also because the hot foods were heavy on the wheat and meat. The yakitori looked good but was running low by the time I got to it and I couldn't tell the difference between the pork and chicken.

Not-so-Round 3: Dessert.
There are no dessert pictures because I didn't have it. This was disappointing. All I wanted was some green tea ice cream, maybe some mochi. Almost anything would have sufficed. There was some fruit, a few cute little cake pastry things, and some strawberry mousse. I'm curious about the different choices that might be available during dinner.

no weight loss resolution here!

New Years '09: The weather forecast was below zero, I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars to go out, most people were out of town, and I just got my brand new Le Creuset cookware set. The obvious answer was to stay at home and cook an outrageous meal. No, you say? You went out and partied the night away? Anyways...

On the menu: blinis and caviar, crab macaroni and cheese, and berries and chocolate. What's that? You would have rather been eating at my place? Me too. The new cookware (cast iron skillet and dutch oven) was instrumental in this meal as was my day-of Whole Food's visit. First on the list:

Caviar selection, serving, eating: The choice was between an $8.99 Whitefish caviar (light orange, golden color) and a $29 Paddlefish caviar (dark gray color). I am no caviar connoisseur but I figured that the Paddlefish was the way to go. The seafood counter man assured me that it was delicious; the seafood counter woman wondered why I was only purchasing one. Seafood counter man, again, reassured me. Seafood woman handed me a piece of wax paper with the bar code on it. That's right, you have to pay first, then pick the caviar up from customer service (where it will be waiting on ice). There's a reason I only do this once a year.

The blini route traditionally involves buckwheat blinis (gluten-free!) but I chose to get a little creative and use ingredients that I already had at home. I made the whole spelt and cornmeal blinis from a combination of recipes that I found online:

spelt cornmeal blinis
Combine dry ingredients:
1/2 cup whole spelt flour (substitute any gluten-free flour here, if necessary)
1/4 cup yellow corn meal
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Whisk in wet ingredients:
3/4 cup milk (Lactaid milk for me)
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 1/2 egg yolks
Fold in 1 1/2 whipped egg whites
Butter pan and cook 1 tablespoon of batter per blini. flip when small bubbles form.


The blinis turned out a bit sweet from the cornmeal and sugar and were perfectly buttery for the caviar. I topped them blinis with creme fraiche, a bit of crumbled hard-boiled egg and chopped onion, and the caviar.


Crab macaroni and cheese: Originally, I thought I would make this with lobster but decided that crab meat would be just as good, more affordable and it actually turned out much easier to get at the store. I adapted a recipe from the Food Network's site (thanks, Brian Duffy, wherever you are!)


crab macaroni and cheese
1 pound brown rice macaroni
1/2 pound lump crab meat
1 small onion, diced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups milk
1 garlic clove, minced
1 shallot, chopped
black pepper
kosher salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch, mixed into 4 tablespoons of water
2 pounds grated cheese: gruyere, sharp cheddar, pecorino romano (I only used 1 pound of cheese and it worked fine)
bread crumbs (I get gluten-free ones from Whole Foods) if you don't have these, crumble up some bread or crackers

cook 1 pound brown rice macaroni until al dente. drain and set aside.
in a medium pot sweat 1 small onion in 2 tablespoons butter, then remove.
to the same pot, add milk, garlic, shallot and pepper. bring to a simmer and season with salt and pepper. slowly whisk in the cheese until it is fully incorporated.
whisk in cornstarch mix and allow sauce to thicken.
stir in onions and crab meat.
toss sauce with pasta and add to shallow baking dish.
sprinkle bread crumbs on top and bake for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven, or until bubbly and browned.
Beware, sometimes gluten-free products don't seem to brown as well as wheat ones.)

Berries and chocolate: This couldn't have been easier. I bought pre-washed and mixed berries, then chopped up and melted some bittersweet chocolate in the microwave at low heat. Use small time increments so that the chocolate doesn't burn. When it's done, add a little bit more solid chocolate. The heat will melt and help temper it so it doesn't get funky. Pour the chocolate over the berries, or dip them, whichever you prefer!

Happy Eating in '09!