Skate, tomatoes, & thyme!...

I lurve skate! It's so springy! The fishmonger said it has a 'scallop' like texture but I think it's kinda closer to chilean sea bass (not as fatty) but, not fibrous like scallop, not thin and flaky or stiff like other fish...sea bass with a bit of oomph! I lurve it!

The last time I had skate it was er...not...so awesome. I didn't know skate breaks down faster than other fish (since it's not even...fish...really! Case in point.) But anyhoo, so when skate breaks down, it releases uric acid from its skin. I hadn't kept it *that* long but uh...when I was eating it I thought to myself, "HRMM hrmm HRMM. this tastes rather...menthol-y. And intriguingly...reminiscent of...hair dye -.- in terms of smell." And there you go! The urea translates to a pungent ammonia smell/taste! VOILA!! GENIUS MOVE!

SUPER ZOOM!


I was congested that night and...hadn't noticed anything prior to cooking. Except that the skate fillet had released a bit of liquid in the paper package. Silly, silly, daft, incomprehensibly oblivious fooooool that I am. BRAVAAAAA. Anyway, the sauce I made that time was *the BizzoOomB*! It didn't taste that pungently of Pine-sol and cleaners, esp w/ my kick ass reduction so bow chicka bow wowww I've recreated the dish tonight. With fresh skate!!

I used borsari salt on the skate, sauteed it skin side down with butter & olive oil and garlic for about 1 min, flipped that bitch and left it on for about 40s or so b/f adding the tomaaaters! Which...of course I seasoned with sprigs of thyme and a few dashes of fish sauce! :D :D :D

The first two below show the early. Yummmaaay. Springy springy! The thyme makes it kinda...bright/subtly minty feeling. Thyme and dill! i sure like'em. Rosemary more for roasting, esp mah starches but...I don't care to use them for much else.

I broke the wing in two. A giant brown fan isn't that interesting to look at. The skate wings are pretty massive--about $6.99/lb which is essentially one wing! MASSIVE!! Corrugated looking! Wee! The combo of fish sauce and browned butter added a *lot* more color to the fleshy side of the skate fillet but WHATEBBS i lurve the coloring! You can see the liquids bubbling for a bit up there.SEE? I dunno, I can see how fun it is for me to poke this fish repeatedly and how it has a mild flavor which the texture complements (or at least adds to the fun of the fish, in my opinion). It doesn't flake at all like other white fish, and doesn't come off in chunks or glistens like chilean sea bass. BUT YAY!

I much prefer eating this with soba noodles, kind of like the chicken I make similarly to this but diff seasoning in the sauces. The tomatoes get pretty thick and coats the noodles really well (I for some reason don't really like it with italian pastas--i think b/c the soba has a much cleaner taste, esp the buckwheat!).

I don't want to rewrite the recipe again b/c I'm *lazy* so just...saute & season skate wing skin side down with garlic for 1 min, flip and saute for a bit then throw in tomaters and sprigs of thyme, add water if necessary (depending on how much tomatoes u put in). At the end I kind of leave it on low heat w/ the lid on to steam a smidge to maintain springiness and for the tomato sauce not to reduce too much! throw in some butter last min if u want!! :D

Jaime's bday brunch @ Spoon...

Look a little...familiar?? Possibly, oh, from THIS lovely set??

I'm a little behind--this was from near end of July--I put the camera down for a bit and just...ATE :) Birthday is coming up so gear up for Stone Barns, possibly Marea (!), L'artusi or Otto, and a new vietnamese place in Williamsburg whose owner I've been in touch with since back in...June? ^_^ so excited!! Should be effin' TASTY for once :P It's a watermelon/champagne concoction from the house.

ANYHOODLE...so brunch was a whole ordeal @ tblsp brunch (at Spoon, of course). About...10-11 womensfolk and LOTS of food. We all hovered around similar egg skillets, pancakes, etc and there were so many of us I didn't want to be that d-bag holding everybody up while shooting their food!

That was Mansi's fruit/granola yogurt parfait. This shit u don't get @ McDonald's or...some deli, amigos. Look at the grains!! :) I tend to not get yogurt granola berry thing-a-ma-bobbers @ restos b/c I feel like I can cobble together a much better version and pay infinitely less for infinitely tastier--but, Spoon's got me smackin' mah lips and rubbin' my hands together.

I also like judging a place by the scones/breads/muffins they put out--and Spoon had some tasty stuff, of course. There was a cornbread with...I'm not even gonna try to remember--BUT i remember a raspberry scone (perfectly, thinly/delicately crisp on the outside and moist on the inside--without being cakey), a brown sugar/maple muffin, and some other thing that was good but I don't remember. *note to self--take notes while eating...and possibly start new series of photos with me and fork/knife and plate*

Doesn't that look like something I need to consume in a cabin but not in some disgusting hermit eating dirt way?? This had 2 eggs, home fries, bacon, spinach--i forget what else but it was by far the healthiest (and yes filling) version of crazy breakfast eggs I've had in terms of recognizable roughage and...whatnot :P There were 2 other variants of this egg skillet bizness, rotating tomatoes or whatever else int here. I didn't get one which wasn't in skillet form--I think it was Abby's that had bruschetta and artichokes or something. YARR...i was debating on getting that and my egg skillet stuff too. Sorry it's so vague--I can barely remember. So much for just enjoying food and not noting it for the blog!! :) Breakfast pizza maybe? Damn you Spoon for not having the brunch menu up!

Besides being farm-to-table fresh (which totally had that vibe in decore anyway that put it over-the-top quaint see mason jar drink!), they have ur obligatory Stumptown coffee to make it JUST that...'artisanal'-y :) Piece de resistance methinks would be the yummay house blueberry maple syrup (available for purchase, I believe!). I'm no syrup fan--so excessively viscous and saccharine...makes me gag (not in that repulsive way, in that....compulsive way!)

BUT...this and the syrup @ Five Leaves...mmmmm I will intravenously consume ANY DAY!!! And that is *not* ice cream, homeskillets, that is...pure...buttery...heaven. Oh little blueberry oblivious to the frothy warm silk enveloping it! YOU SILLY LITTLE BLUEBERRY!! YOU DON"T EVEN KNOW!!! :)

That's all. I'm tired. I still have more july brunches to post!! Aug was full blackout of meals tho I did enjoy quite a few--like Moules Marinieres and Provencale ^_^_^_^^

Bacon wrapped scallops & giant asparagus!...

Cooking w/ Fulton Stall market goodies:

Scallops from Shore Catch, purple asparagus from Sang Lee Farms. The asparagus is amazing--just gorgeous, crisp, refreshing--I'd eat it raw if anything. I still have one bunch left. Never would've thought asparagus was good to eat raw but these ones from Sang Lee are effin' fannnntastic. Not fibrous in the least, sturdy stalks, really robust. Wish I had had a small bunch of regular asparagus from the grocery store to do side by side comparison but...here u go :)

I have to say tho--I truly despise pan-frying with bacon. On the second batch I burned the garlic so that can't have helped. But the underlying problem is the heavy grease smell that lingers in the air that's like in a thick of mist infused with lard rendering. The bacon was a little thick so it took a while to cook thru. With how hot the oil was and how long I had to cook (and the number of batches), it was just vastly irritating even with the stove fan on and my swabbing down the pan after finishing a batch.

Maybe I'm just doing something wrong--maybe I should've broiled it in the oven after slightly browning the scallops. Maybe I should've taken the garlic out a lot faster. Maybe I should've used thinner slices of bacon. MAYBE A LOT OF THINGS. But it was just a dense mist of stifling bacon cooked humidity!! Not really dense but i mean it LINGERED for long time and I DON'T LIKE IT!!! I HATE BACON WRAPPED CRAP! I really probably should've oven baked after browning like I do my sea bass. Hrmm. Whatever. I'll try it some other time but I'll stick to my damn prosciutto and pancetta.

* * * * *

THat's kind of the other thing--u realize how shitty general-quality stuff is and u start to realize how unhealthy it all breaks down. That SMELL! If you watch BBC America, there's the show "You Are What You Eat" or something like that and it breaks down a lot of esoteric but...simple things about how food translates into your body when it digests it. Down to the general body odor, geography of your tongue (too much salt makes those little bumps on ur tongue stand out more, and 'white'-ish), etc.

I dunno--maybe I'm drinking their kool-aid but after this, I realy can see the significance in cooking with certain type of oils, how 'healthy' they are or how 'flavorful' they are without just masking it in the general enhancement of cooking in any chunk of 'fat'. I'm not feeling particularly articulate right now--it's like a fiery net of clustered thoughts that's picking up momentum without any particular linear direction for coherent expression :P BUT YES, there IS a TANGIBLE DIFFERENCE in the kinds of FATS you use and all that CRAP and quality of ingredients in relation to health, more so than I previously thought.

Tia Pol w/ the roomies!...

Good friday brunch @ tia pol :) i def don't eat around in my 'hood enough. Still haven't gone to Co. for pizza or John Dory for...welsh rarebit!! :P and other things of course hehe...

Got TONS of food--this is the fried artichoke hearts salad, the spanish version of bruschetta but with 3 diff spreads with saffron on it! ^_^, ham and bacalao croquetas, rice and squid ink--I'll show how you just how inky!!...later...hehe...but first...a preview of some tasty strangeness--Emily got the chorizo and chocolate crostini (essentially)...

The sangria @ Tia Pol is the best I've had in the city--nay in ...EVER. not boston, no CA, not...wherever else I've been granted I've still not been to spain :P or any major latin-american country. :P Really enjoyed the tortilla española! essenetially a fritatta with potatoes, onions, red peppers and some sauce that's just like the one in the patatas bravas....

I hafta say...the patatas bravas with paprika and whatever the heck that sauce was was friggin' TASTAAAAAAY. yes. tastay. not y. ay. Sop it up after everything is gone and ask for more bread tasty. The squid ink sauce was even super duper extra tasty compared to that!

Back to the...CHORIZO & CHOCOLATE!!!... :)

MY MY MY. super rich salty but then rich smooth bittersweet--and then...bread! I thought it was gonna be like a thin smear on the toast but NOoooOoo...whole slather! glorious! I like I like...(I couldn't decide to tempt you with that decadent shot in the beginning or the middle of the entry but...obviously one of them won out :P Pretty salty tho!! luv me some chorizo...

...but still not as much as the squid ink.. YUM. See?!?! inky inky goodness!! :D

MMMMmmm...so I still haven't posted my Rome foods or the rest of Sicily or Cinque Terre..or...Florence foods actually but we ate all the regional foods and I did get a chance to try the squid ink pasta in Palermo and it was so fresh and AWESOME b/c it was so gritty and inky and savory. However...this...squid ink, much smoother in texture and flavor (waaaay less fishy) and just...strangely enough, exponentially better (but maybe by like..squared instead of cubed :P). hehehehe

...One more of the patatas bravas "leftover" sauce :P. Cuz honestly--what's a tran post without half eaten, smeared, gloppy food that makes you wanna wipe it off with some napkins--or lick it off the screen?! Aioli...it's aioli..with...whatever in it they won't list on the website. BOO!! :)

Spaghetti Carbonara....a la tranio!....

I'z made two batches--but it'll just look like I magically turned snow peas into asparagus with a slight of hand. Because I am just THAT magical.

This was my fabulous second batch--with TWICE as much white wine, 30% more eggs, and loads more pecorino ^_^ I have to say tho, that extra white wine really does add a lot more depth to all these flavours and...yummaaaaaaaay. aaaaaaay. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

It's kind of...really about timing with carbonara. You should boil the water right before you cook the bacon and sautee the greens so that hopefully by the time you're sauteeing and it's going off the pan, the pasta is just a couple min away from being taken out. It's kind of like garlic & oil pasta but hopefully not THAT much oil to work with b/c....that's a whole lotta bacon fat and ur veggies are gonna be greasy--and if that coats ur pasta then it'll make it hard for the carbonara sauce to coat the linguini.

This be the pre-tossing and pre sauce--i'll write up the recipe below. Purty much what I like to do is cherry-pick from a handful of diff recipes and then fudge the amounts and (possibly throw in some fish sauce HEHEHE...*ahem*) modify i to my liking and...adventuresome. The prep pics and the one under is of the 1st batch--i think I actually thought "EFF IT!" to the wine in the first batch b/c I've neve really cooked with wine...that and I dunno...the wine I had was pretty random from Astor wine.

The big thing is NO CREAM. none none none. I think cream is gross but that's from...some bad experiences with cream growing up. Plus it's a little cheating no? I really don't think you should use parmesan cheese (SERIOUS) and never cream. Parmesan is just..overplayed and for the most part pales in comparison in terms of adding flavor.

* * * * * * * * *
SPAGHETTi CARBONARA
....w/ White Wine, Pecorino, Pine Nuts, Asparagus,
Pancetta, & Crushed Black Peppers!...

1 box of linguine (bigger surface area!)

1 bunch of asparagus (I might have split that half green & half white asparagus)

1/2 pound of bacon or pancetta

1-1.5 cups of white wine (cheap is fine, if not perfect. somethign tart and vibrant)

6-7 eggs (if it's the smaller eggs then yeh go w/ the extra)

1.5 cups of shaved/grated Pecorino cheese


a buttload of garlic :D

Prep the sauce stuffs first!!! So...crack all those eggs in a bowl, some seasoning (like fishsauce :D) if u please but REALLY sparingly b/c the pecorino packs a punch. Anyway--so the other recipes called for like 1/2 a cup but I kinda eyeballed it at first--then I thought OH WHAT THE HAY and poured in as I liked. I'm guestimating 1-1.5 cups of white wine :D. Now to balance that out, I ended up grating in more pecorino to balance it out and add more texture. Visually you'll know what you want in terms of viscosity so...do what u will. Black peppers, whisk whisk whisk.

Cut up asparagus into i guess..1-2cm chunks whatever u want. Slice up the bacon/pancetta/guanciale if u can get it into strips the width of your ring or pinky finger--throw it into the pan (no butter or oil). Render the fat blah blah--I tend to end up skimming out some fat cuz it's kinda...insane how much comes out. I use this to toast the pine nuts or whatever nuts you want. I had extra snow peas one night so I used that--but I def like the asparagus. Sautee either one (snow peas if u want more crunch) briefly in with the bacon. Needless to say there was a ton of garlic in there already--sometimes I end up using like...6-7 cloves. HEEHEH...*ahem*.

* * * * * * * * *

NOW--tricky part...per se. MAKE SURE THE PASTA IS STRAIGHT FROM THE POT and pretty damn hot (don't really rinse...just pull it out with that pronged pasta thing, quick couple flicks of the wrist to remove excess water and then straight into that pan with bacon & greens). You can see my pasta cover the bacon/greens bits but DON"T mix yet. Pour in the carbonara sauce--it's raw eggs so the hot pasta will cook it through--but I just put the whole thing on super low heat and constantly tossed and stired just to be sure.

* * * * * * * * *

It's like omelletes--u still want it a little runny. Otherwise it's like...scrambled eggs and spaghetti. NO. no no no no. :) Pine nuts in there, toss toss toss, chopped parsley for some color and some freshness. My version removes a lot of the pasta and overloads on the sauce b/c it's creamy and I wants creamy and a bigger sauce to spaghetti ratio!! 1lb pasta might be much. I think I might've just used 80% of the box. Again...lotsa eyeballin' :P

I'm tired. good luck. f*ck around with it! This is the basis for some bangin' carbonara. HONESTLY the pecorino (and EXTRA pecorino cheese :P) and extra white wine helps. I think I really lucked out that my white wine was pretty tart but still mild and bright. It was some cheap bottle from Astor wines. Sleepy time. PEACE.

Amy's Bread & Ronnybrook Farm Milk Bar!...

Part of turkey day brunch avec Mama Ly in the city. Ate @ Chelsea Market (on 16th and 9th ave) since Momofuku Milk Bar was only open for pickup! :( Then got groceries (pancetta, porchetta, olive/black truffle tapanade etc etc) to make Turkey day dinner & grubbage for the drive down to DC the next day...

And yes, they quoted There Will Be Blood below.... heheheheeh

Eggs Kaush..something. Eggs in casserole! like at Viceroy (18th & 8th ave) and Relish (North 3rd & Wythe in Williamsburg). Came with roased potatoes w/ pepper & chives.

I swear though...somethign about poached eggs...i'm still fixated with them...

Mama Ly got the free range roast chicken w/ what looks like fresh mozarella, tomatoes, and a salad with really good vinaigrette!

Apparently it's diff from what the menu says (some kinda...cheddar. WHATEBBS). it was tasty. organic and all that ish but all that matters was that it tasted fresh and was prepped quite well yaaaaay.

The Ronnybrook Farm chocolate milk is whole milk but INFINITELY "thinner" and cleaner taste than most chocolate milk--even the chocolate soy milk. No aftertaste, no...lactose-y...intolerance...harshness. Tastier than Horizon Organic Chocolate milk (omg did i...did i blaspheme? HA!! HOCM def pales in comparison exponentially...and i once thought very highly of it. esp when buying it in bulk @ costco :D or whole food's :))

That said...Mama Ly's hot chocolate was also damn festive and good...

And to end with: almond buttered toast from Amy's Bread. Very soft--brioche-y kind of bread, subtle almond paste (not crazy sweet like how the Sicilians prefer it!--sweeter than Almondine)...

But I'm a fun-gi....

Went to Jasmart on 23rd & Lex hoping to get fish sauce without having to go down to Chinatown (I'm averaging 1 bottle a year--by myself!! :P). Did NOT find fish sauce--instead found mushrooms, chrysanthemum leaves, and (baby bok choy...sold by...THE PACKET?!?!).

Do not know what I'm gonna make with them--probably a steam packet with fish sauce (maybe soy or MISOOOOO), lemon, butter...like at Typhoon on St. Marks & 1st ave (fanplasmic japanese 'tapas' and whatnot...plus they're open super late. Cow tongue was good--so's other shiz but that's for another post).

So I bought enoki mushrooms too but I couldn't find a suitable idea for how to shoot them (as in pictures, not...pistols). Plus...why bother with ordinary enoki when you can feast your eyes on BEECH MUSHROOM!!!! ^_^ They're much bigger than enoki, but they're like enoki crossed with the Super Mario mushrooms :)

I also got "maitake" which just reminds me of shitake but less fun to say, maybe like SHIKAKA! (anybody for what movie that's from? it's a little tran-sian. :)) Anyway, according to Wiki:

Grifola frondosa, referring to a mythical griffin, commonly known as Sheep’s Head, Ram’s Head and Hen of the Woods or Maitake, is an edible polypore mushroom. It grows in clusters at the foot of trees, especially oak. The Japanese call it "maitake" (pronounced [maitake]), literally meaning "dancing mushroom." Hen of the woods should not be confused with the similarly named edible bracket fungi, chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus), also known as "sulphur shelf".

But anyway...I really do love mushrooms (the Princess Toadstool kind, not the druggie kind). When I was about 10 or 11, I used to just sautee mushrooms in a wee pot with onions and soy sauce and eat it. by itself. when I was 16 I ate rice and bbq sauce. by itself. The other day I ate leftover Southern fried chicken with basil marinara tossed in, with rice, and tabasco sauce. IT WAS FRICKIN" DELISH. *shrug*.

The chyrsanthemum leaves tho...I know in Vietnamese cooking it's used in "canh"/soupy soup or tossed in with meats. I don't even really know what they're called in Vietnamese--I didn't even know what the hell they were with the label from Jasmart, I had to google it from the Japanese phrasing on my receipt. BY GOLLY I WILL MAKE SOMETHING OF IT!! Think spinach meets arugula with a less citrus/bitter flavor. Look u can see the little chrysanthemum bud in the middle rightmos area :)

I like cold honey chrysanthemum tea from Cha for Tea (in Ca, a little too sweet) and Lee's Sandwiches (also in CA, not as sweet, way too much ice). I honestly bought all this stuff from Jasmart just so I could take pictures with them--but maybe 2% to experiment with various mushroom flavors, possibly making fancypants mac & cheese with fancypants mushroom for my "roast on the roof". EH. we'll see.

All right, one more shot of the shroomies--but the little beechies nestled in the big beech shroomies! :P

:)

Whitefish + Arugula!...

"Fresh" whitefish salad from Murray's Bagel across the street with Pepperidge Farm's Dark German Wheat (with grain balls & whatnot!) with some baby arugula. nomnommmnomnomnomnomnom..

That's a tran-size bite no? hehehe. u can't tell but i'm making that face! *chomp chomp chomp!*

Uploading it made the image a little dull but the original resolution just shows how frickin' AWESOME the whitefish salad is, glistening, a tinge of gold...just...perfection. A bunch of people @ my office got laid off today, this was comforting--the pictures i mean. Food photography makes me a little zen and alleviates me from the ulcer I've got from stalkerazzi I've been experiencing. I'm sorry there's no bite marks on this one, but I really wanted to capture the flakiness of the fish on its own.

ANYWAY, I like the combination of flavors--the dark german wheat has a real heartiness to it, a little bitter, but diff from the bitterness of the arugula (which I wouldn't really say is bitter) coupled with the slightly clean but a little fatty taste to the salted whitefish. You'll see, it complements well :) [and don't bother checking, that's the *correct* usage of complement!]
Right before we went to the Murakami Pre-Opening viewing/party on Friday, I made Kaoru a turkey breast sammich on Honey Flaxseed wheat bread (Pepperidge Farm) with some mushrroom/truffle pate, and a garlic and lime marinade as seasoning plus arugula. It was weird and tangy but it oddly went well with the pate as an aftertaste. *shrug* who knew. That and the bread was a little SWEET!! so confusing, but tasty :P

Irish Soda Bread....

I deed not make zees, my roomie Jaime did. FROM SCRATCH. and like...at midnight last night :) brazilliant.

This is for the St. Patty's Day kick-off this weekend. FROM SCRATCH!!!
Recipe from epicurious.com. For the xmas party she made this shrimp spinach dip--or crab...or some kind of shellfish...nummy num num num nummm.....

Her cupcakes are badass. She's making them now. I'm a fan of people making food and me eating it. and taking pictures of it. wooooorrrrrrrdddd......

She makes her own frosting, too and this time it's gonna grizzeeeen!--she's got the hostessing/chef gene that my mom's been trying to pound into my veins since I could remember. HA!!

You bet your tush there's much more food on the way. MMmmMmmmMmmMmmmmm...
(there will also be pics of Hans in green. YAY puppy torure!)

Nuts & Bolts...

I like to pick at food. I do well when I pick at things when I need to eat efficiently and maintain productivity and focus. I'm over my whole Nutella with dark german wheat bread with my morning tea (me loves PG Tips breakfast tea). I'll do a post about teas some other time.
ANYWAY. I've never been a fan of trail mix type of crap but lemme say--I enjoy the little package of mixed nuts, kashi, and raisins I found in the bodega under me.
Seriously badasssss bodega. I had planned on doing a post on all the imported plain jane candies they randomly offer there--like FLAKE! and Hausnutta (yeah tewtally oddball) but ze mood--eet struck me.
There was a giant brazil nut in there too I though that was kind of random and weird. The container itself was....$3.50 and methinks that's actually pretty good considering it had pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, kashi, giant ass raisins, cashews, balhblabhlabhl. Not salted but well roasted.

Surprisingly nummers. It was the lighting. couldn't resist. we have good window. It was a good lunch (my work is 3 stops away--but alas, we're moving offices uptown >:().