Squid Stew...

My friend visited and we made something he'd talked about before that sounded super yum: squid stew.

First he sauteed 2 pounds of squid really quickly in butter and garlic, and removed it:

Then he sauteed one onion minced with 1 can of plum tomatoes (chopped up with juices) and 1 cup of wine:

Then, he dumped it all together and let stew for about an hour. Threw in some olives and curly parsley (chopped) in the end.

Finished with the rest of the Jeni's ice cream from last time :)

Portugal!...

I was kind of sad b/c food in Portugal was rather MEH. I was expecting near-Spain level seafood (not so much) and/or at least same vibrancy in flavors. Moving on. I did have two good things in Lisbon: grilled sardines, and pasteis de belem (also pastel de nata). I forgot the name of the place I had the sardines but it was on the way to Castelo de Sao Jorge right off where the tram 28 drops you off near the miraduoro.

Yum diddly dum yum. Kind of a lot of food and very little greens (MY GOD i was proteined-OUT on my trip). One thing annoying in Portugal was also the couverts--appetizers that kind of seem like typical bread spread or free like the Korean stuff, but NO, not free, priced, and no mention that you can decline them (or that they aren't included in your meal).

AAAAND of course obligatory bones shot a la my Bastille Day post fr a few yrs ago :)

The other good/amazing thing was the pastel de nata/pasteis de belem.

Egg custards. NOT JUST ANY EGG CUSTARD...amazeballs eggs custards w/ cinnamon and sugar and the best puff pastry I've ever had.

Just look at that gooooooooo. Good stuff. Redeeming things for Lisbon--other than it's whole omg I'm such a quaint little place with unbelievably cute looking, classically old houses, narrow, winding alleys, random guitar/accordian music wafting in the air and lively people bursting into the alleyways all happy and dance-y and being all cinematic and all. PFFFFFFTTTT. Lisbon.

;)

Leek Tart and Jeni's icecream...

So another part of my 'dinner series'...a leek tart from the Simon Hopkinson book Roast Chicken and Other Stories, as cribbed from two different adapted recipes (not wildly diff). I combined the two and used tarragon (YES) and some parmesan (DOUBLE YES). I also bought crust instead of make it so...WHATEVER. But also...I made it better...WITH FISH SAUCE :D :D :D :D

Recipe:

8 leeks (maybe 7--i had extra)
450 ml heavy cream
handful of parmesan
4 sprigs of tarragon minced up
110 grams butter (~7.7 tbsp but I used like 6tsp b/c well...that's a lotta friggin' buttah)
4 egg yolks (i'd be interested in using less cream and more eggs next time!)

Sautee leeks sliced up in the 110 g of butter on low/medium heat til really soft and caramelized. Salt & pepper (and fish sauce) to taste. Mix egg yolks, cream, parmesan, tarragon together, then dump into leeks.

We thought it tasted good with some lemon squeezed onto the tart--really cuts the richness.

This was discovered accidentally when the excess vinaigrette seeped into the tart :D TWAS AMAZEBALLS.

We also had Jeni's whiskey and pecan ice cream--a gift from Karen AND OH. EM. GEE. finished up the meal strong. Foodboner (excuse the crassness). Body high. Crazy sht. Sorry. Go make it and find some ice cream and replicate my night.

Bacon shake...

It's my 100th post! YAY! So I saved it for this: bacon shake :D :D :D :D :D
Was passed along the recipe that a couple guys deduced from their shitty experience with the Jack in the Box bacon shake.Was pleasantly surprised that it was more than palatable--i had seconds! Tasted a little peanut brittle-y :)

Bake 4-5 large pieces of thick cut bacon with brown sugar sprinkled on top. I used pretty thick bacon fr Whole Foods but I think just pretty decent bacon would work, just use more strips instead.

Blend in the grease from the bacon, and 1/4 cup maple syrup, 1/2-3/4 cup milk with 28 ounces (the big but smallish tub) of vanilla ice cream with chopped up bacon bits. I didn't use sea salt as the guys mentioned but MEH. ENJOY! Happy 100th posting!

Bastardized Troisgros sorrel cream sauce...

So after the shrimp in cava reduction at El Quim de Boqueria, I really wanted to get back in the kitchen and deduce the recipe. My brother & his gf were in town, and I wanted to hang out with a really good friend of mine after coming back so it was perfect to host a mini dinner! Somewhere along the planning process--what greens to serve it with etc--another friend tossed me a link to cream sauce just in case I wanted to use sorrel...AND THERE IT WAS.

Again, there was a licking of the ladle and pan. Very little seasoning involved, not that hard to do actually--lots of waiting and reducing and blahblahblah. It's actually not the straight up Troisgros brothers recipe, but one adapted by Daniel Boulud that I came across, which I also merged with this recipe for the shrimp marinade to satisfy my cava reduction needs (and also usage of chanterelle in the sauce) :) I have to say tho, the cream sauce definitely would work better with a fish in terms of matching consistency, than with shrimp. DO THAT NEXT TIME.

*********************SHRIMP in CAVA-TROISGROS SORREL CREAM SAUCE*********************
Shrimp marinade:

- 2 pounds of shrimp
- 3 tbsp shallots
- 1 cup of cava (more or less)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste

Mix mix mix, and dump in a bag/tupperware. Let marinade for 30min to an hour, no more no less. Discard marinade after.

Sauce:

- 2 cups of cava
- 2 cups of heavy cream
- 5 tbsp of champagne vinegar (more or less)
- 3 tbsp shallots
- 1/2 pound to 1 pound of chanterelle (I like them so i added more than 1/2 pound)
- 4 ounces of sorrel torn in pieces, not julienned (i kind of eyeballed this one)

Sautee mushrooms first with shallots until a little soft, then add cava and champagne vinegar. Reduce until almost all the liquid is evaporated. Add cream! Reduce reduce reeeeduce on low heat until it thickens so that it coats a spoon (or more :P). Some recipes call for straining the sauce but I really like having the mushroom in there so I kept it. (Plus chanterelles are expensive!!) Add sorrel. Sautee shrimp, throw on sauce!

Serve quickly b/c the sauce cools pretty quickly.

YAAAAAY!

Barcelona pinxtos, etc...

I had a mix of pinxtos (tapas on bread pretty much) and some regular tapas. ALL WERE DELICIOUS...and not even at noted places. (Logistically, it was easier to roam nearby wherever I was at and or yelp it--yes, yelping abroad!)

Patatas bravas at El Quim de Boqueria at mercato boqueria on las ramblas. Lick the screen. just do it.

Shrimp in cava reduction--I attempted a version of this but with cream, kind of a bastardized version of troisgros sorrel sauce. WILL POST. so good. so...so...good that I gave my friend the ladle to lick in the end and she gladly, enthusiastically obliged :) I, on the other hand, took a spoon and finger to the pan to snack on the residue. No shame. no. shaaaaame!!

ON TO THE PINXTOS:

Boquerones:

Elvers:

Anchovies:

Tortilla espanola:

Iberico ham:

Discuss, while I prep the other saucey stuffs

Amsterdam!

Amsterdam food wasn't all that riveting, but I did regret not taking my camera to Max in the canals--pretty yummy french-indo food

Had a really interesting dish of callops in Riesling sauce w/ cinnamon and caramel. Also had a fish in spicy sauce in banana leaf which I forget about in great detail but whatever. I also had a banana 'pie' (which seems more like tartine) which was amazing, and with coconut saffron ice cream.:

And then my two faves: dutch pancakes and pickled herring!! ^_^

Dutch pancakes w/ 'bacon' and apples. Yum. Can't remember the cafe but it was just west of the Old Center.

Pickled herring sammich! in the Jordaan there were these little stalls along the canals. <3 x 10.

On my first day, I Yelped for the nearest resto and ended up with the Pakhuis gastropub while walking around. Was pretty tasty: pork filet w/ mushroom sauce. The people seem to like this concept of mushroom creamy sauce a lot--also spotted in Zurich!

Some pastries from the Jordaan. Canele, some kind of pistachio carrot nut thing...whatever.

Berlin!...

I didn't have a lot of traditional German food while in Berlin but the overall food experience was quite tasty. One of the best Korean food I've ever had (NYC and CA included)! The greek food we had was amazeballs. One of the reasons for the lack of regular German fare was b/c 1. it gets repetitive, and 2. friend I was with was maxed out on it since she'd been in Deustchland longer than I had hehe :) But, I did in fact have currywurst, and veal schnitzel and it was divine (with giant ass white asparagus and hollandaise sauce--also, german food is just really heavy so I was delighted to mix it up!) WEE!!

Here we go on the untraditional stuffs: swabian ravioli with...something or other from Alpenstueck near Oranienburgerstrasse, and chanterelle risotto w/ peach and red cabbage salad:

Some turkish food @ Mauerpark--where there were hundreds of ppl on a hill watching/doing public karaoke and of course, public drinking :)

Lamb filets w/ amazing rosemary sauce and green beans at Kos near Weberweise:

And of course, currywurst @ Checkpoint Charlie "beach" where they were showing the quarterfinals game for the Eurocup 2012 :)

Had some good times in Berlin--the food adventures could've been more exciting but it's such an international city that u can't help but eat all sorts. I"m also told Dolores burritos (yes, after the SF park) is a big deal...and also another big trend: burger joints! not just Berlin but Spain too!