I don't know what to call this dish

I got a request tonight for "Asian" and "shrimp." Knowing my audience, "spicy" came along naturally. So I dropped into Harris Teeter and grabbed whatever looked good.

Bok Choi, leeks, shrimp, gingerroot, snow peas, a yellow bell pepper, and a couple of habanero peppers. Hm. Habaneros, eh? What if I got some tomatoes, onions, lime, cilantro, and garlic? Salsa? Yes.

I started by mincing half of the habanero and sauteeing it in a couple of tablespoons of peanut oil. Then I added a few dashes of soy sauce and the minced ginger and let it all infuse into the oil. Then tossed in coarsley chopped bok choi, leeks, yellow bell pepper, and the snow peas. Finally, I tossed the shrimp in corn starch and added it.

Lesson learned: bok choi cooks quickly--just as quickly as shrimp. I should have added all of those ingredients at once. But the corn starch was a great idea, as it really thickened the entire dish.

[Update: So I forgot all about the Jasmine jasmine rice. Great idea: Take three jasmine tea bags and let them steep in the water with the rice as it cooks. The flavor is AMAZING. Also, the side of chinese fried noodles made for a terrific contrast in textures. This may not have been a home run, but it was definitely a triple.]

Some have asked

Ok, so these "recipes" you post on your blog are cool, but why not post the full recipes, complete with measurements, order, etc.? I want to recreate what you're making, in exactly the way that you're doing it!

Well, I'm flattered, I really am. My too-tired brain is recalling something about imitation, sincerity, and flattery, but I'm having trouble putting together the exact phrase. You know what I'm talking about.

The truth is that for the vast majority of the stuff I make, I have no idea how much I put in there. There are only a very few times I cook by recipe any more:

• Baking. I am nowhere near good enough with combinations of flour and salt and yeast and eggs and la la la to be able to visually determine the difference in the batter between a brownie and a cake. For years, I've cooked multiple times a week, but only baked once every few weeks. It's why I'm so incredibly impressed by really good bakers--their talents are so far outside the realm of what I can do, I can't help but gawk at phenomenal cakes, pies, etc. Kinda like when I watch a symphony. I won't be re-creating that stuff any time soon.
• The first time I make something in a genre I've never made before. I am ashamed to say that until Iron Chef, I had never once made a pesto. Ever. And actually, sous chef Jazmin made the pesto that night. So I still have not made a pesto. An embarassment for a gourmet cook indeed, but you can bet the first time I make it, I'll be working from a recipe. These instances are thankfully few and far between, as I'm trying to eliminate as many of them as quickly as possible.
• When I create a meal I love so much that I have to record exactly what I did so I can do it again. There are two levels of meals that I love--meals that are so great they really should be done identically, if at all possible (my Jack Daniel's Salmon, for instance)--and meals that are so good that I'd like to remember what I generally put in it. Last week's chicken noodle soup, for instance.

Other than this, I cook by sight, and usually off the top of my head. Recipes will give me inspiration, but most of what I create now is completely and totally impromptu. I don't say that for you to be impressed--you really shouldn't be. It' just easier to cook by sight and, once you know your spices and their power and relationship to other spices, it's only natural. I'm 100% sure you could do it. Sigh, yes yes...even you. It just requires a bit of playing around.

That being said, I'll do my best to give a bit more accuracy in my posts from here on out. So if you aren't really pulling my leg about re-creating some of it at home, you should be able to pick up anything I put up in the future.

Happy Thursday!!

Lobster, Maine, and the Definition of Excessive

Being in Portland, Maine on business, it seemed I was tossed a small golden nugget to carry me through my travels. I had never been to Maine before, and if you like food and know anything about Maine, lobster seems like the obvious choice.

So I planned on lobster for lunch and making my way to a dance class over dinner. The lady at the hotel counter suggested J's Oyster Bar as a place for good, local, non-touristy seafood. We headed over, but for some reason this place didn't serve lobster tails, which is really all I wanted. Instead I ordered a seafood stew that seemed to hold promise: lobster crab meat, shrimp, clams, and mussels over penne pasta. But as I noted to Brian, one of my work colleagues, I'm not going to be impressed with any dish that I'm sure I could recreate, on the first try, and probably add something to make it better. Chicken stock, basil, stewed tomatoes, salt, pepper, and the seafood. Yawn.

Unsatisfied, I skipped the dance class in lieu of finding seafood that I could dip into butter. I make healthy choices. So this time I headed for the apparent paragon of seafood tourism, this spot called DiMillo's. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. I started with a Caesar salad that got all polished off. The rolls were top notch. And my Maine course was SICK. And I promise not to use another pun in the next couple of posts. Sorry.

Two whole steamed lobsters plus mashed potatoes and french fries. Paired with a decent Riesling, I was on top of the world.

Where have you been??

It's been 9 days since my last post. I think that was actually longer than the declared hiatus of a couple of weeks ago.

Honestly, I've just been too tired to post. I started doing a lot of writing on this blog while I was tired and later noticed I wasn't too happy with the overall quality. Typos, grammatical errors, misspellings. I blame Mrs. Carmen, my AP English teacher for two years of high school; I get upset when my writing isn't very good.

So yes, I've been cooking--I just haven't been writing about it. I've also been out of town...hopping on plane after plane to take rental car after rental car from hotel room to hotel room is exhausting. By the time I get up and connected to the internet, mindless chatter on AIM seems far more appealing.

But now I'm getting antsy, so I'm back on the block. Again.

A recent episode of Iron Chef inspired me to work on a recipe for stuffed bell peppers. Bell peppers are a recent addition to my culinary repetoire; for the first 22 years of my life, I absolutely hated them. You just couldn't get me to eat a bell pepper. Until one day a few months ago, something changed. No idea what, but now I love them.

So I poached a few bell peppers and stuffed them with a sauteed mixture of ground beef, rice, cheese, onions, and spices (I can't really remember which ones, but mostly the usual suspects: cumin, ground black pepper, some cayenne, and probably some coriander). Topped it with ground parmesan and baked it all at 300 degrees for about ten minutes. Served it alongside some hollowed out guava filled with mandarin orange slices. It came out decent, but it was one of the more visually appealing dishes I've done in a while. Very happy about all that. Pictures to come later, but my camera is back in DC.

Later tonight, my first experience with Maine lobster + why gluttony is bad for you. Very related.

Chicken Soup for T's Soul

An interesting collection of Thursday cooking.

I was planning on coming home and just rocking out a little surf and turf--some spare ribs and king crab legs I picked up at the international market.

::detour::

Atlanta is home to the Dekalb County Farmer's Market--a gourmet chef's best friend. Super fresh, high quality, organic produce all for LESS than you would pay at Kroger and many many times less than what you would pay for similarly fresh food at Whole Foods. Fresh fish and meats, really cheap spices, and even phenomenal bunches of flowers. It's overall one of the best places ATL has to offer.

I haven't yet found its equivalent in DC. I've heard decent things about Eastern Market, but it just burned down. The Maine Avenue fish market has equally fresh fish, but for much much higher prices. I tried Grand Mart a few weeks back for my housewarming, but wasn't super impressed. So this time I drove about a half hour out to Fairfax to visit Super H Mart. Was the drive worth it?

Yes and no. Yes because as far as produce goes, this spot was unquestionably the best I've been up here. Widest variety + super super fresh. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the meats, which still means we're talking multiple trips for even the simplest dinner parties. Plus, it's a half hour drive. Without traffic. Yikes. And they didn't have kaffir lime leaves. What kind of international market doesn't carry kaffir lime leaves? (Although neither did Grand Mart, for that matter)

::end detour::

So I pop the spare ribs in the oven with some jim beam, liquid smoke, lemon juice, and soy sauce and cover with aluminum foil. Four hours later, at 250 degrees, the boys were done. I upped the heat to broiling to get me that crispy outside (man, I wish I still had a grill) and slathered them in my barbeque sauce (which I'm running low on...). And check out just how fall-off-the-bone they were. Yeah, Uncle Mark--homeboy don't play around.



During that four hours, Alyse came over to sample some of the German Chocolate Cake we made on Sunday. But once I heard that one of my friends had come down with a little cold, I knew what we had to do.

Chicken Soup. What else?

And now that I've learned to trust Alyse's judgment in the kitchen, I can start doing some collaborative cooking. We started with only five cups of chicken stock and what I had in my fridge and created a pretty solid soup.

I started with some diced yukon gold potatoes that hadn't gotten mashed for Iron Chef. Alyse went to town on the veggies and sauteed diced onions, celery, ginger, garlic, a cerano chile and carrots. I worked on bringing the broth up to being full of flavor: cumin, chili powder, onion powder, paprika, some black peppercorns, honey, and a dash of ground black pepper.

I added some chicken that had been browned in some olive oil and let that cook through into the broth u, then added the rest of the veggies and let the mixture simmer until the flavors started to congeal. At the very end, added some chopped cilantro for freshness and some red bell peppers for a little crunch texture and some color. I'll definitely call this one a victory.

By the way, I purposely left salt out of this one. Most pre-prepared chicken broths come with a decent amount of sodium added, and mine was no exception.


While the soup was simmering, I treated myself to the king crab legs I got from the store while Alyse and I dreamed about opening a restaurant. Nothing doing here really--just some steam and drawn butter. Yum. I must say, it's kinda nice having a second mind in the kitchen. I totally would have forgotten the garlic if Alyse hadn't been here to remind me. Good stuff.



And of course, the German Chocolate Cake for dinner.....er....dessert.

Iron Chef: 1325 Pierce

First things first: I am still exhausted from last night. This wasn't quite to the scale of the ole housewarming party, but nonetheless the experience was draining. And this was with help (what? you let someone else cook in your kitchen?).

Before you do anything, go read Alyse's rundown--as far as narrative goes, she knocked this one out of the park. And I must, in that vein, give a MASSIVE shout-out to my two sous-chefs, Alyse and Jazmin. Lord knows I would have been lost without them last night. And a slightly smaller, but still enormous shoutout to new friends Joanna and Lucy who drove me nuts while trying to clean my kitchen while I was trying to cook in it. And to Carly for her deveining and zesting, and Andrea and the rest of the crew for peeling potatoes like madwomen.

Shoutouts complete. Let's run through the night.

First up was the Thai Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup. The original recipe I was working off here called for chicken broth, but I wanted a bit more of a seafood flavor, so I got shrimp with the heads on (which I might do permanently from now on. It takes literally a quarter second for me to cut off the head of a shrimp, and you can get it for $3 less a pound. And they make a glorious stock. Speaking of stock...) I made a shrimp stock from all the heads and shells along with some celery, onions, carrots, thyme, a couple of bay leaves, and a good tablespoon of black peppercorns. After bringing to a boil, I simmered all of it for about an hour. Then, a tablespoon or so of red curry paste, a couple of chopped jalapenos, fresh cilantro, chopped fresh lemongrass, lime juice, and zest of lime all cooked together. Add in some shrimp and mushrooms, and you're good to go.

Ideally, this only cooks for about ten minutes, but that's tough to do with so much going on. I cooked rice in jasmine tea and added some tarragon for lightness. By the way, if this recipe sounds familiar, it should. I just made some tweaks this time.


The Nouveau Shrimp Cocktail was next, and boy did I bite off more than I can chew. Four sets of shrimp, all cooked/marinated differently, plus four different sauces. Can you believe I almost did five? There is something seriously wrong with me.

First up with the tequila lime marinade with the tarragon garlic butter sauce. Tossed a mix of olive oil, tequila, cilantro, and garlic, jalapeno, salt, pepper, and lime juice in a blender until it was smooth and creamy and soaked the shrimp in it. Alyse rocked the tarragon garlic butter, creating a terrific garlic paste that really does, as she claims, release the flavor of the garlic much better. Sauteed the shrimp for a few minutes, and can a brotha get an amen?


Then the first bit of tragedy struck. I wanted to make a guava sweet and sour sauce to pair with a set of shrimp marinated in the same tarragon garlic butter I had used to make the sauce before. The shrimp, of course, went fine. But somehow I had forgotten to buy just about everything I'd need. No tomatoes. No pineapple juice. At least I didn't forget the guava.

Never fear. I used ketchup as the base, added the sliced guava, ginger, garlic, a serrano chile, orange juice, rice wine vinegar, and brown sugar. Simmered for about twenty minutes and strained. Crisis averted--this sauce was fantastic. I actually think it was much better this way.


The next pair was a citrus prawn marinade along with a Thai dipping sauce. The marinade was just a basic mixture of orange juice, lemon juice, Disaronno, a serrano chile, olive oil, and Worcestershire (close your eyes and try to spell Worcestershire. I dare you.) sauce. The sauce was water, cornstarch, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, fresh ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Yes, I put garlic in almost everything. Booyah.


The final cocktail was fried coconut shrimp with a thai peanut sauce. Crap. More crisis. No coconut milk. Substituted heavy cream and a bit of coconut that I just happened to have on hand. I knew from the beginning this one was a risk. I had never tried mixing together these flavors before, and I could only hope the shrimp got enough flavor to stand up to a peanut sauce. And this peanut sauce was no joke. I roasted the peanuts in peanut oil and added them with a bit of the oil into the food processor. Then a couple of serrano chiles, more fresh ginger, more garlic, soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, salt, and cilantro leaves. Left it on high for a minute or two while I coated the shrimp in egg whites and tossed them in a mix of corn starch, flour, coconut, salt, pepper, cayenne, and turmeric.


Whew, finally the appetizers were done. Wait, we haven't even started the main course yet???


The main course was crab stuffed bacon wrapped shrimp with a lemon basil sauce. People were already going to town on the food in Neighbor Jason's apartment. Plus, he had already finished his main course: a cajun barbeque shrimp with an unnamed sauce that basically made me want to slap my momma. (Kidding, ma!) For many, they used his crusty french bread as a vehicle to consume as much of the sauce as possible. I knew I was in trouble. But I had one last trick of my sleeve. And thankfully, Sous-Chef #2 Jazmin was there to come through for me.

She made a roux, a pesto, and the lemon basil cream that used those two ingredients while I stuffed the shrimp with crab and wrapped in bacon or turkey bacon. The recipe is much too long to detail here, but here was the inspiration. I also mashed, and then whipped potatoes with garlic and butter. Had I remembered what I meant to do originally, they would have also gotten parmesan and salt, but by this time I was damn near delirious. But for sheer impressiveness, I knew this puppy would be hard to beat.

And there it was. The cooking was done. People were stuffed. And satisfied. And as for the moment you've all been waiting for? When one of us goes home in crushing defeat while the other enjoys the warmth of victory?

Predictably, never happenned. Jason declared me the victor--I declared him the victor. In the end, I think the guests won out. Hard to beat multiple gourmet shrimp-based meals in one night. For free. And unquestionably, the best part of the evening for me was the craziness of my kitchen at about 7:30. Three people peeling potatoes, Alyse chopping up her 4832908th clove of garlic, Jazmin showing a level of focus and determination that was really just terrifying for someone who almost didn't even come...oh yes, this evening was made by the people. And that's why I keep throwing these ridiculous dinner parties. You just can't beat good food and good company.

Up tomorrow: the German Chocolate Cake I made that everyone (including myself) forgot about. And later this week, ribs make a comeback and the grocery store I drove a half hour to visit.

Not so Lil' Dinner Party

So Neighbor Brad is being flakey about getting me pictures, so I'm just going to write about Saturday night's "Lil' Dinner Party" and let you imagine just how tastey everything was.

Like most nights that involve me cooking for other people, this one's menu got a little out of hand. First up was the spinach and artichoke dip. I made sure to leave it under the broiler for about the last ten minutes so it got some nice char on the top. Look for future variations beyond the usual parm/cream cheese/sour cream/mayo/garlic/spinach/artichoke combo that makes this one so good. Some spice additions (cayenne, anyone?) could definitely kick it up a notch.

Real homemade macaroni and cheese is super easy and super good. If you ever make this stuff, don't tell me about it because it will make me want to strangle you with speaker wire. Boil some macaroni pasta. The specific kind doesn't matter so much, although I'm partial to anything with lots of texture. It holds the cheese better. Speaking of cheese, I use tons of extra sharp and sharp cheddar, some Colby, Monterey Jack, and a bit of Mozarella. There's one more cheese in there that I use for texture, but I'm not telling you what it is. I will tell you it's a good idea to add something in there that melts very well, since your cheese will be mostly cheddar and cheddar isn't exactly creamy. Cream of mushroom soup and French's fried onions will round out the body of the dish. Stick it in a baking dish, sprinkle with more cheddar and more French's fried onions, cover with aluminum foil and cook for 20 minutes at 350. Uncover and cook another 10, and serve hot. Yum and yum.

Hint: You need more cheese than you think you need, but don't go too overboard or you'll just have a lot of melted cheese with your macaroni.

Those two were home runs. Next up was the lobster bisque. Now I wasn't personally satisfied, but I think the guests were happy just to be eating lobster bisque that they didn't have to pay for. I can't really blame them.

::detour::

I went to the Maine Avenue Seafood market for the first time on Sunday. I had heard about it in various food venues online and expected this huge open-air seafood market with tons of different vendors fresh in from Maryland where I'd be able to pick from that morning's haul.

Perhaps my expectations were a bit too high. Instead, it was quite obviously one big vendor that set up multiple stands, all of which had the same prices and the same selection. I'll grant that the fish was definitely fresh--my boy Tommy noticed that the whole catfish were actually still alive--but it certainly wasn't as amazing as I had expected.

::end detour::

Nonetheless, I picked up a couple of medium sized lobsters from out of the tank and some tilapia fillets. Headed home, boiled the lobster for ten minutes, cleaned it (with help from Tommy), and used the shells and tomalley to make a stock that got a dash of tomato paste (I would later find out that I had a bit too much "dash" for my tastes.). I cooked some veggies (celery, bell peppers, carrots) in some reserved stock and then strained the two together, mixed in some corn starch and heavy cream, and kept it simmering. The whole process should take about 3 hours and 15 minutes, but I rushed it into about two and a half. So my lobster stock didn't have quite as much flavor as it should have gotten, and it also didn't end up as thick as I wanted it. Served it with some of the previously cleaned lobster meat. I'll definitely try this again later, because a well made lobster bisque is one of the best tastes I can imagine--but I've got some work to do.

But like I said, no complaints from the guests, who were just happy to be eating lobster at a dinner party.

Finally, the cedar plank tilapia came out. And it was just boring. I had used butter, olive oil, tarragon, sea salt, black pepper, cayenne, and coriander, but the only strong flavor was the cedar plank. Till Neighbor Brad brought over a little cajun seasoning that knocked it up a couple of levels.

Not a bad night. Pictures will come later.

I'm bringing food back....

Hiatus complete. Some fun things I stumbled across while I was gone.

This dude is my hero. Reminds me of my obsession with the perfect barbeque sauce, except times 4823908. When I own my oven, I'll start working on pizzas like this. Or maybe I'll just install my own coal-fired brick oven. We'll see.

This is depressing, but not surprising. Honestly, no other restaurant industry gets away with that degree of food porn exaggeration.

This will make you feel better, though. Really puts Ace of Cakes to shame.

All of those courtesy of one of my new foodblog reads, Chef Joanna. She's new up on the blogroll in addition to the irregularly updated Chocolate and Zucchini and What I Cooked Last Night.

Coming soon is a rundown of last night's Lil' Dinner Party. On the menu: Lobster Bisque (and you know it wouldn't be me if I didn't bring back some living lobsters from the waterfront), spinach and artichoke dip with baked pita chips (the same one from the housewarming, except this time I actually got to try it), macaroni and cheese (Mom gets all the credit here, so the Burgess family needs to stop hating. I just add my own little secret ingredient.), and cedar plank tilapia. Too bad my digital camera ran out of batteries. Not to worry, Neighbor Brad saved the day, so once he emails them to me, I'll put together a post on the night.

Oh, and get prepared for Iron Chef: 1325 Pierce, which is next weekend. Turns out Neighbor Jason is actually a pretty serious dude in the kitchen as well, so the inevitable competition has been scheduled. Although I think Jason is thinking this is a more friendly competition than I've got in mind. What? Me? Competitive? Noooooo.

The secret ingredient, since I'm not ACTUALLY a professional chef, has been chosen: Shrimp.

Allez cuisine!!!

Hiatus

Is it too early to go on hiatus?

No writing for a little while. I'm not really hungry.