tri tip revisited

Made another tri tip earlier this week. We ate it with caramelized onions, petite peas, mashed potatoes and fresh heirloom tomatoes from our garden. A whole tri-tip will last the two of us at least a week, usually. It's great for leftovers (sandwiches, burritos, cold or reheated by itself).

Tips on the 'tip:

1. This time I cooked the tri tip for about 27 minutes (around 13 minutes on each side) over charcoal, with about 5 minutes rest, so total time of about 32 minutes. Came out medium rare to rare in the center. Probably could've been a bit more well done, but it was just past purple/wobbly but still pretty bloody.

I would recommend for next time, 30 minutes cooking time, 15 min per side, with a 5 minute rest, for a total time of 35 minutes.

Also, the coals were stacked on one end of the BBQ, and the tri tip was placed across the edge of the coals and the cool zone.

2. Petite Peas - Trader Joes has excellent "petite peas"; much sweeter and snappier flavor than the regular grocery style ones. Go for it!

3. Caramelized onions. Here was my technique: After the tri-tip is on the grill, slice two yellow onions in half. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a cast iron pan over medium heat, add onions and toss in oil. Turn down heat to medium-low. Let slowly cook without stirring for about 5 minutes without turning. They will start to brown. Then season with salt & pepper. Now start stirring them every few minutes while they cook and to prevent burning. Once they are quite brown and soft (about 20 minutes), add about 1 tsp brown sugar and 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar. Cook for 2 minutes. Next remove from flame and CAREFULLY add 1 tbsp of brandy. If you're careful, light it on fire and let it flame off. This will leave a lovely, sweet glaze.

4. Heirloom tomatoes: what more can I say? I planted a few "brandywine" variety last season, and this year, one just sprang up by itself (self-seeded), resulting in many delicious tomatoes. I like to eat them with a sprinkle of salt & pepper, a few drops of balsamic vinegar and maybe a spritz of olive oil (from a "Misto" pump sprayer).

Speaking of which, I think I'll go downstairs now, have an onion bagel with cream cheese and tomato. Mmm...

Authentic Café Mini Meatloafs with Carmelized Onions
A delicious recipe from Roger Hayot's Authentic Cafe in Los Angeles, from the "Dinner at the Authentic Cafe" cookbook

Caramelized Onions:
1/4 c. olive oil
2 tbsp unsalted butter
4 or 5 sweet onions, such as Vidalia

Meatloaves:
1.5 lbs ground chuck
2 large eggs
1 large carrot
1 small onion
1 celery rib
¼ cup evaporated milk
¼ cup unseasoned bread crumbs
¼ cup ketchup
4 cloves garlic
4 sage leaves
1 tbsp. thyme leaves
¼ tsp ground pepper
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tbsp olive oil

Sauce:
2 tbsp olive
1 large shallot
2 cups beef stock
2 tsp. thyme leaves
2 leaves sage
½ tsp. ground pepper
4 tbsp unsalted butter

Mixed vegetables, cooked (frozen peas+carrots, etc.)

Prepare caramelized onions: heat oil & butter over low heat, cook onions for 30 minutes until limp and deep brown in color.

Preheat oven to 350. Knead meatloaf mixture for 2 minutes, no more. Divide into 5 equal portions, and shape into mini loaves. Brush loaves with oil. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees, then increase temperature to 400 and bake 10 minutes more.

While baking, prepare the sauce: heat oil in small saucepan, add shallot and cook about 1 minute. Raise heat to medium. Add stock and bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium low and simmer until reduced in half, about 15 minutes. Just before serving, reheat sauce to very hot. Off heat, whisk in fresh herbs, and add salt & pepper to taste. Quickly whisk in butter, 1 tablespoon at a time. Once butter has been added, serve sauce immediately.

To serve, mound onions on large plates. Spoon mixed vegetables around onions. Place meatloaf on mound of onions. Ladle sauce over meatloaves. Serve immediately, and pass extra sauce.

monday nite meals

I'm not a big fan of Mondays. So it's nice to site down with a nice meal with your loved ones to unwind.

4th of July is an excellent time to buy beef, and I got an amazing deal last week on NY Strip Steaks ($3.99/pound on sale). So I bought a "Value Pack" of 3, froze them. Today coming back from work, I decided to BBQ.

Fired up the charcoal grill. Made au gratin potatoes from the box (kicked up with a few smashed cloves of raw garlic thrown in before cooking), some frozen mixed vegetables (kicked up with SmartBalance, raw garlic, fresh thyme, salt & pepper). What a delicious meal. I think it helped my girlfriend, who was a bit hungover from the night before.

Meals don't have to be complicated to be satisfying. In many cases for me the company and the setting (at a table, with no TV on) is as important as the taste of the food. Needless to say, NY Strip Steak is very flavorful, and it completely reminded me of eating T-Bone steaks at my Grandma's house on Friday afternoons when my brother and I would get out of school early.

do you want a punch?

I made a "kicked up" punch yesterday:

1-1/2 oz strawberry vodka (such as Stoli)
1-1/2 oz mango rum (such as Captain Morgan's)
3/4 oz triple sec or Cointreau
1-1/2 oz orange juice (strained, no pulp)
1/2 cup pineapple juice
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Club soda
Splash of grenadine

In a cocktail shaker, add ice and combine vodka, rum, triple sec, orange juice, lemon juice, pineapple juice, and shake vigorously. Fill wine or tall cocktail glass 1/2 way. Top off glass with club soda and splash of grenadine (grenadine will give it a sunset/layered look). Garnish with a piece of pineapple, mango, or strawberry if desired.

chickada-china-da-chinese-chicken

Improvised a tasty Chinese chicken stir fry for two tonight, with sugar snap peas fresh from the garden. Beckey really liked the flavor of the chicken; with the marinade, it does have a nice velvety consistency. Sliced thin, the chicken cooks in about 1 minute; the key is to do it in batches in a hot pan so that the meat doesn't steam.

Chinese Chicken Stir Fry with Snap Peas
Serves 2

Marinade:
4 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sake
1 tbsp sesame oil
Fresh ground pepper

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced across the grain into 1/4" thick slices

4 cloves garlic, cut into slivers
4 tbsp corn oil
4 tbsp. sake
2 tbsp. soy sauce
12 sugar snap peas
Fresh ground pepper to taste

Combine marinade ingredients and mix until smooth. Slice chicken (it helps if it's slightly frozen), add to marinade, stir well to coat, and set aside. Let sit 30 minutes minimum.

Chop garlic, wash sugar snap peas.

Heat skillet over high heat and add 2 tbsp. oil. Fry chicken in 3 batches, cooking each batch about 30 seconds per side, remove and drain on paper towels. Remove all chicken from pan.

Over high heat, add 2 tbsp. oil, add garlic and stirfry for 30 seconds. Add snap peas & stir fry for another 30 seconds. Add remaining sake & soy sauce and stir for 15 seconds. Add chicken, stir for 30 seconds, and remove from heat. Serve immediately in bowls.

Philly cheese steak

In Pennsylvania to visit my brother, so we went to get cheese steak today at Tony Luke's. Here's a pretty accurate recipe for authentic Philly cheese steak, courtesy of Pat's King of Steaks. People have almost religious arguments here regarding which is better, Pat's or Tony Luke's.

http://www.patskingofsteaks.com/recipe.htm

Here's more information:
http://philadelphia.about.com/library/howto/htmakeacheesesteak.htm

So what else is Philly known for culinarily? Apparently soft pretzels and Italian sandwiches (hoagies). See: http://www.bg-map.com/foods.html

Asian Red Cabbage Salad

My mom used to make a salad called "fumi salad," which is a wilted cabbage salad with an Asian influence. So I made it for the first time this week, with my own little twists (the biggest of which was to use red cabbage instead of regular green cabbage), and it turned out delicious. The great thing is, that you can make it 8 hours in advance, and it holds its crunch and was still great. I estimate that it would probably keep 24 hours before turning too soft.

Asian Red-Cabbage Salad

1 head red cabbage, finely shredded
1 package ramen noodles, crushed (discard the flavor packet)
1 carrot, finely shredded
5 green onions, into diagonal slices, including part of the green part
Slivered almonds, sesame seeds and/or sunflower seeds, to taste (optional)

Dressing
1/3 cup salad oil
1 tbsp. sesame oil
6 tbsp sugar
6 tablespoons white vinegar
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 tbsp. soy sauce

Whisk together all dressing ingredients and set aside. In large bowl, add shredded cabbage, ramen noodles, shredded carrot, green onions and almonds/sunflower seeds. Whisk dressing again, add to salad, toss, cover with plastic wrap and refridgerate for at least 2 hours. When ready to serve, address flavor of dressing as necessary (add more vinegar, etc).

Fryin' Chick'n 'n' things

Watching FoodTV during lunch today, I saw Tyler Florence talk about fried chicken. A couple of tips:

1. Season your flour (salt, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cayenne)
2. Season your buttermilk with hot sauce
3. Coat the chicken as follows: flour, wet, flour again, and leave it in the flour to soak up for a few minutes
4. Heat oil to 375 degrees F., temperature will drop when adding lots of chicken pieces.

Saw Mark Bittman's show (How to Cook Everything) for the first time, he was visiting Gary Danko. Bittman suggested an interesting dessert: freeze an overripe persimmon, let it defrost a little, and it tastes like sorbet.

the corner place

That's the name of one of my favorite Korean BBQ restaurants in Los Angeles.
Went with Beckey & some friends this last Thursday for Korean BBQ.

I love bulgogi and the kimchi too, so super delicious. With 4 large Hite beers and 2 chicken and 2 beef dishes for 6 people, it was very reasonable (<$20 per person) and very delicious. If you want to try making bulgogi yourself, here are a few good sources: http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/issues/bulgogi.htm
http://www.1stopkorea.com/index.htm?cooking-kimchi.htm~mainframe

Kimchi is a different story, more complicated, more preparation.
Here's some links:

http://www.koreanquarterly.org/Fall1998/food.asp
http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/pickles/recipe-kimchi.html
http://www.sweetbabymedia.com/recipes/allbynumber4/016638.shtml
http://kalaniosullivan.com/General/Opinions-k2.htm (annoying graphics but neat recipes)

where to buy specialty food items online

Sometimes, based on a certain cuisine, you may need to track down specialty ingredients that aren't readily available at your local supermarket. I live near a big city (L.A.) and in the past I have even had difficulty tracking down certain items in ethnic markets as well.

Fortunately, we have the Internet!

Asian Foods & Supplies

Pacific Rim Gourmet: http://www.pacificrim-gourmet.com/, for fermented black beans (a.k.a salted black bean)

The Spice House: http://www.thespicehouse.com, for all kinds of spices

bat out of hell

Beckey & I made a great version of meatloaf about 2 weeks or so ago from Roget Hayot's Authentic Cafe cookbook. Super moist, not dry at all, extremely flavorful, and served with garlic mashed potatoes and caramelized onions. Mmmm good.

garlic pasta is for suckers!

As "Precious Roy" says, "buy my garlic pasta. You guys are suckers!" Seriously, I made a pasta in lemon vodka cream sauce that Beckey must've really liked (she ate her whole serving!)

Fusilli in a Creamy Lemon-Vodka Sauce

Serves 2

1/2 pound fusilli (corkscrew) pasta
3 tbsp. butter or Smart Balance butter substitute (don't use margarine!)
10 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/8 cup fresh lemon juice (juice of 1/2 of a large lemon)
1/4 tsp. lemon zest
1/4 cup vodka
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried thyme
Salt & fresh ground pepper to taste
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated (reserve 1/4 cup)

In a large pot, boil water and add pasta. In a large skillet, heat butter at medium heat until melted, then add garlic, turn down heat to low and saute for 2 minutes; try not to brown the garlic. Next, turn heat up to high and mix 1 tbsp flour in skillet with garlic, and cook for 1 minute. Add milk all at once, stirring constantly until mixture begins to thicken and bubble. Add vodka , lemon juice, lemon zest, basil, thyme, and garlic powder, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat.

Once pasta is cooked to "al dente", drain pasta. Re-heat skillet at medium heat, add parmesan cheese to sauce and stir for 1 minute. Add pasta and cook for another 1 minute until mixture is heated through. Serve in warm bowls immediately, sprinkling each serving with remaining parmesan cheese.

grow your own

Here's a few resources with information on growing your own:

Growing Guides

Citrus from seed: http://h2othouse.com/html/citrus_from_seed.html
Peppers: http://www.chili-pepper-plants.com/html/growing_peppers.html

Seeds

Asian Vegetable Seeds: http://www.evergreenseeds.com/evergreenseeds/index.html
Burpee: http://www.burpee.comHeirloom Seeds: http://www.heirloomseeds.com/tomatoes.htm
Thompson & Morgan: http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/us/en

dress it up

Had a delicious dinner at my friend Chris' parent's house. Chris' mom Lily made an excellent meal which included:

Mixed Green Salad with cucumbers, radishes, cherry tomatoes, and Lily's special dressing (recipe follows)
Roast Beef with gravy and Green Beans
Potato Salad
Chicken Bake with cheese and broccoli
Beets
Mochi, sorbet "cake", fresh strawberries and fresh pineapple for dessert

Lily's Salad Dressing
Fantastically full of flavor, I imagine it would go great with chicken too. Don't know the quantities, so it will require some experimentation to get the proportions right.

Olive Oil
Salt
Fresh finely chopped garlic
Fresh Lemon juice
Dijon Mustard

clouds of mushrooms

Last week has been an excellent week for cooking. Made Chicken with Calvados from the "Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook" by Sharon Kramis which Beckey gave to me a few months ago, along with Rosemary Roasted potatoes, and it was absolutely delicious. I highly recommend that book.

Bought 3 lbs of mushrooms from Costco, so I had to decide what to do with them all. So I improvised the following dish, and it turned out delicious. If you don't love mushrooms, this is not the dish for you.

Farfalle with Mushrooms and Prosciutto in Thyme-Cream Sauce

1/2 lb. farfalle (bow-tie) pasta
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped, or 1/4 cup yellow onion finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 tbsp. prosciutto, finely chopped
10 large fresh mushrooms, washed & sliced 1/8-1/4" thick (your regular "white" mushrooms)
1 tbsp. paprika
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 tbsp fresh oregano, finely chopped
1/4 cup heavy cream
Salt & pepper

In a large pot, start bringing water to a boil, and add salt to water.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat, and add shallots, garlic, and prosciutto, and saute for 30 seconds. Then turn heat to high, add mushrooms, thyme sprigs, oregano, and paprika to pan and saute for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. The mushrooms will release a lot of water while cooking, but it will evaporate. Once mushroom "water" has evaporated, turn off heat.

Once pasta is cooked, drain pasta and add to skillet. Heat at high heat and stir mushroom/pasta mixture for 2 minutes. Turn off heat, then add cream and stir. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately. Will refridgerate and re-heat nicely as well.

freedom soup

Wow, haven't posted here in a while. Not a whole lot of focused cooking going on, plenty of eating though.

I must say that I've become really interested in eating soup lately. Made some French Onion Soup recently, had some chicken soup last night. Soup tastes good and is good for you. The healing powers of certain soups are really amazing.

French Onion Soup
Remember all of the ridiculousness about "freedom fries" when France didn't support the war in Iraq? This is a slight modification of the French Onion soup recipe from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook. The most notable addition is use of beef stock instead of water. This gives the soup the rich texture you normally associate with French Onion soup.

French Onion Soup
Serves 8
Prep time: 40 minutes

4 yellow onions, medium
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp flour
1 liter of beef stock (preferably organic/free range, low or no sodium)
Salt & fresh ground pepper to taste
8 round or oblong slices of french baguette
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Slice the onions into thin rings (1/8") using a mandoline or a sharp knife. Melt butter and olive oil in a large pot over medium heat, and add onions. Saute onions, adjusting the heat so that they don't burn, until soft and golden in color over medium-low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with pepper, add sugar and flour, and cook for additional 3 minutes.

Next add entire quantity of beef stock, raise heat to high and bring soup to boil. Meanwhile, grate parmesan cheese. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 20 minutes. Adjust seasonings (salt & pepper) to taste. Turn oven broiler on to prepare for last step.

Ladle soup into small heat-safe bowls. Add baguette slice to each bowl, and sprinkle with 1/8 cup parmesan cheese, and put bowls under oven broiler. Watching carefully, broil for 2-3 minutes until cheese is melted & bubbly. Carefully remove bowls from oven and serve.

Enjoy!

not a whole lot; food memories

not a whole lot of cooking the last week or so. Just too busy with work. More reheating leftovers.
In other food news< i've recently started to really enjoy eating oatmeal at breakfast & lunch. Gives me energy & tastes good. When I was very young up until I was in my early teens, when my mom would make breakfast, many times she'd cook oatmeal and milk together with Cream of Wheat, pour it all in blender, blend till smooth, then serve with a dollop of butter, about a tablespoon or so of honey, sprinkled with cinnamon.

One of my earliest recollections of comfort food.

What else do I remember of my mom's cooking & comfort food? Some of my favorites off the top of my head:

Kashi (she called it "kasha") with bacon & sauteed onion
Fejoida (made in a crock pot with tomatoes)
Meatloaf
Shepherd's pie (mashed potatoe crust with ground beef & onions, topped w/ cheddar cheese)
Flank steak, marinated in vinegar & garlic, broiled, served with mashed potatoes
Clam Chowder (Campbells from a can, but with bread, it's good, who cares?)

The older she got, the less interested she became in cooking for us. Although now, when I come over to visit, she makes some great salads, sweet & savory, some with mandarin oranges & avocado, some with tomato & cucumber, all very tasty.

One thing my mom seems pretty good at is taking care of herself physically. She eats well, exercises plenty and regularly, and is in great shape for her age. Her cholesterol is low & she has plenty of energy.

Speaking of clam chowder, I remember going to "Meager Meals" every Wednesday at our church/parochial school during Lent. It was like a parishoner potluck, everyone would bring a soup & some bread, and that was dinner. Light but tasty.

When my brother & I were very little, we used to go to Grandma's every Friday after school, & she would cook for us. We'd play outside, then Grandma would have for each of us a small T-bone steak, green red-leaf lettuce salad with sour cream & dill dressing, and thin-cut potatoes fried kinda crispy in oil. Wow, just brings back memories.

In any case, I need to eat healthier. I find myself drinking too much soda & eating too much junk food (chips, etc) that I never used to eat when I was younger. Also my much more sedentary lifestyle & slower metabolism & thus I have somewhat high cholesterol.

Getting back to my young days, one last food thought for the night. Around 1982 or 1983 I travelled with my family (parents & brother) to Chicago to a folk dance festival. I remember that I couldn't really remember the cities so much, but I remember for many years I could remember in detail each restaurant I ate at. I remember the "Bumbleberry Inn" in Utah, as well as a Holiday Inn (perhaps?) in Gillette (Iowa? dunno) that had a swimming pool inside, and big frogs or toads roaming around outside on the grass in the damp warm night air. I remember vomiting on my brother in the back of my folks' brick red 1981 Oldsmobile Cutlass diesel station wagon, after driving windy roads in Utah/Bryce Canyon, sitting in the back of the station wagon & having just eaten a blueberry yogurt Nature Valley granola bar. To this day I can't stand yogurt granola bars. Oh well. Good night!

chilin' part 2

made chili again last night, a few tweaks and I think it's the best one so far:

1. Add 1 extra tablespoon garlic powder
2. Mince 1 entire head of garlic and add after ground beef has browned.
3. Saute onions first, remove, cook ground beef until brown, and drain off fat.
4. Add 1-28 ounce (big) can whole tomatoes (or you could use 2-14oz cans)
5. Add 6 oz tomato paste (1/2 of a big 12oz can).

Very nice, even chili flavor with just enough spice.

smokin'

Late night for me tonight, that's OK, playing some music, ripping some CD's now. I bought a whole pork shoulder (picnic-style, meaning the lower/leg part) of about 13 lbs, and a 4.5 lbs. boneless pork butt/shoulder. Rubbed the big 13-lb behemoth with the Wolfgang Puck rub I used successfully the last time, and the smaller one with a 50/50 of the Puck rub and another rub I found on the web.

The reason for this smoking extravaganza? My department is having a potluck tomorrow, and a bunch of people are bringing crummy food, so I figured I'd bring something meaty & good. Incidentally, what makes the whole thing even super crummier is the fact that the two managers who run the department are too cheap to anty up any money for a decent lunch for their staff. Look, they're managers, I'm sure each of them make over $75K, why couldn't they foot a $200 lunch bill and write it off of their own taxes as a business expense? Lame management sucks! I would do that kind of thing if I was the manager, I think it should be part of your responsibility. Anyways...

So in this very windy weather, I had to move the trashcan & smoker near each other to ensure that it doesn't get blown over while it's smoking tonight. Sheesh, when will this insane wind end?
I started the pork butts at around 9:30pm this evening, so hopefully by tomorrow morning they'll be pretty nicely done. Smoking them with 50/50 mesquite & hickory wood chips. I'll have to try wood chunks sometime to see if that works better. It would also be really nice to get an external gas hookup run outside the house so I could fire a BBQ or the smoker using natural gas. I think that would make it really easy to maintain the heat the smoker needs. Oh well, another home project for me.

smokey and the bandit

Burt Reynolds was funny in those 70's movies, damn. Speaking of smoky, I made my chili recipe yesterday, and decided to crack open a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. I've heard a lot about these things but never tried them, and I figured if they tasted "smoky", the flavor should go really well with the chili.

Chipotle peppers are simply jalapeno peppers that have been dried, smoked and then rehydrated. You can buy them in a can in "adobo" sauce, which is a red sauce, in most grocery stores, and certainly in any Mexican markets.

I cranked the can open, dipped my finger in for a taste...wow! Very warm but smokey heat, just like you'd expect from a smoked jalapeno. I blended a couple for two seconds, mixed it in to the chili, and it really added a new dimension of richness & thickness.

Alas, I was missing tomato paste, which I realized after yesterday's chili adventure is absolutely necessary to enhance the "richness" of the chili; you really can't do without it. I also tried substituting shallots for yellow onions (because I have a big bag); it worked fine, but I think onions have a bigger, brighter, "louder" flavor than do shallots. Still, it tasted very good.

On another note, I tried a recipe for Lithuanian rye bread from a cookbook I bought in Lithuania and it turned out abysmally bad. I think the failures were the following:

1. The yeast may be too old. I didn't proof it, but I think I need a new jar, as I remember from my prior pizza making experience.
2. Too much rye flour makes the dough too thick & gummy. Without wheat flour & gluten, it's too dense.

Well, cooking as always is a learning experience.