Grillin season is in full force. Here’s a little burger I made a while back. Fat patties (too fat apparently) of angus beef seasoned simply with salt and black pepper and grilled over charcoal. Roasted shallots, sharp cheddar and microgreens assist the meat.
What have you been grillin up?
Kalgooksoo, or “knife cut noodles” is one of my favorite comfort dishes. When I need a fix I only need to drive for a minute to Olympic Kalgooksoo which specializes in this delicious fresh wheat noodle soup. I always order the chicken kalgooksoo which graces the table in a ginormous metal bowl filled high with soft fresh noodles, tender shredded chicken and comforting delicious chicken broth. I take each bite with a piece of their delicious gut churi (unripened kimchi). It’s not adorned as much as Ma Dang Gook Soo’s but trust me it hits the spot. I can’t say which ones better though since I don’t recall having the noodles at Ma Dang in recent years.
When you get your big bowl of noodles you can flavor with these two seasonings. One is a scallion, soy sauce and sesame oil mixture. The other is dadaegi which is a red chili -garlic-scallion seasoning paste.
Variety was the name of the game that day so I also ordered a tray of jjin mandu (steamed dumplings). My goodness their steamed dumplings are so delicious. I believe the dumpling mixture is made with both beef and pork. So tender and juicy are these little parcels!
Their kongnamul bap (bean sprout rice) is also a hit. It is served exactly like a bibimbap in a clay pot all sizzling away. Bean sprouts, shredded nori and bits of beef all to be mashed up together with a dollop of spicy gochujang and sesame oil. If you’ve ever had dolsot bibimbap you know the best part is the crusted rice on the bottom of the pot. Serious eats right there. You can get this to go and it will be packed mixed with the fixins. Although minus the toastiness it is still quite delicious.
Can’t forget about the accompaniments now. One the left is their dongchimi (pickled daikon). It’s a tad bit too sweet but it provides a nice bite in between all the hot savory foods. And on the right their very popular gut churi. It’s the perfect punch to a mild comforting bowl of kalgooksoo. I’m always so occupied with the chicken kalgooksoo I rarely give myself a chance to try other dishes. There’s a few more noodles to try and when I do I’ll update you! Meanwhile go give these a try if you need a little comfort in your day.
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Opportunities to host dinner tend to be few and far between since I live at home with my parents. But just my luck, the past weekend my folks were off to a wedding up north and I would have the place all to myself. So I snatched up this chance to have a little dinner gathering with my girl friends. I kept the menu quite simple and assigned each girl to match a wine to the course of their choice to make things little more interesting.
We started off with the romesco queso fundido which was basically a base of romesco sauce, a layer of smoked gouda, pepper jack, gruyere, and lastly a topping of sauteed peppers and onions all blasted together in the hot oven until the cheese was bubbling beautifully. This was an adaptation of Rick Bayless’s queso fundido con rajas y chorizo - melted cheese with roasted peppers and chorizo. We scooped up this cheesy goodness with French baguette toasts and accompanied it with a glass of refreshing prosecco provided by Han Nah.
Next up was a farmer’s market salad of baby chard, baby romaine, frisee, radicchio, baby spinach, toasted hazelnuts, cherry tomatoes, avocado, and parmigiano reggiano. I dressed it simply with lemon juice, red wine vinegar and olive oil. This salad satisfied my vegetable needs. I could have eaten another plate of this nutritious goodness. Natasha matched this salad nicely with a Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc 2007, Marlborough. This wine was great - light, fruity and nicely acidic. The palate descriptions on the website state that it is “a full flavored, medium-bodied wine, with an abundance of archetypal currant and gooseberry flavours, that linger on the dry, clean finish.”
I recently got a manual pasta roller so I finally got to try my hand at fresh pasta. This was my first batch so I gave a fair warning to the girls beforehand but the noodles actually came out edible and dinner disaster was averted. I made fresh pasta with white asparagus, black truffle butter and fines herbs. It was finished with a beautiful shower of parmigiano reggiano. Yum. I paired this with a 2005 Lacrima di Morro d’Alba, a DOC designated medium-bodied ancient vine Italian red. The flavors of this wine are described as violet, lychee, berry, and rose. Honestly all I remember is that it was delicious and that I will be looking for another bottle soon.
We finished the meal with homemade ice yogurt and macerated strawberries. We sipped on Lindeman’s Framboise while enjoying the sweet juicy strawberries and the tart and cold ice yogurt (aka frozen yogurt). It was a nice relaxing time eating some good food and gabbin it up with the girls. What’s better than the combination of good company and good food?
Although there’s been waaay too much grilled cheese in my life I made a new one today to dedicate it to the Grilled Cheese Month. Let’s just call it Harissa Dreamin’. On La Brea Bakery’s crazily priced $9.75 walnut bread I layered harissa flavored cheddar, smoked gouda, pimenton-stuffed olives and a pinch of za’atar. Then grilled it in goat butter and speared it with a whole pimenton-stuffed olive. Let me tell you, this was delicious! I love the earthy spices the harissa brought to the cheddar and the slight sharpness of the goat butter. I wish now I went with my first instinct and also included goat cheese inside the sandwich. The olives also added a nice salty briny touch. Oh and the bread? Really really good. However $9.75 still seems quite steep for a loaf of bread. I need to start baking more bread.
Hi folks! So I entered the Grilled Cheese Invitational for the first time along with two of my friends. I decided to give it a go for each of their four category and I made it into the top ten rankings for two of em. Complete list of results are here.
Missionary
St. Yoon’s Missionary
The rules for the Missionary category was strictly white bread, yellow cheese (American or cheddar), and regular butter. I used Cake House’s “buttered bread” which browned nicely, a mix of Kraft American singles and sharp cheddar, and a delicious fleur de sel French butter. This was my favorite of all my sandwiches. I have a soft spot for classics. Any other grilled cheeses are just an homage to the og sammy.
Spoons 8th place!
Spoony Yoons
Now the Spoons category expands the boundaries a bit by allowing any kind of bread, any kind of cheese, and any kind of butter. However no extra ingredients whatsoever are allowed. I ended up making my spoons sandwich with Trader Joe’s garlic-cheddar sourdough, sharp cheddar, comte, truffled Italian cheese, and black truffle butter. The sourdough crisped up so nicely and looks appetizing speckled with truffles for the truffle lover. That would be me! I got 8th place in this category. I wonder what the other winning sandwiches were like. My friend Allison got 9th place with her Ultimate Queso sandwich.
Kama Sutra 6th place!
Queso Nirvana
Kama Sutra was a freestyle category. The only thing a contender had to abide by was to keep the ratio of cheese to other ingredients 6:4. I ended up baking a bacon-gruyere loaf for the Spoons category but accidentally ended up using it for this category. By the time I had smeared romesco on the slices it was too late to salvage them. But it ended up working out because the garlic-cheddar worked well for the truffle flavored sandwich and the bacon-gruyere bread turned out to be perfect for my romesco inspired sandwich. After the smear of romesco on one side the sandwiches were layered with pepperjack, smoked gouda, chopped Nueske’s bacon, and roasted jalapenos. Since Nueske bacon is super smoky the toasting bread gave off such a nice aroma. When I was serving them at the competition I topped each mini sandwich with a round sliver of fresh jalapeno for an extra kick and final little juicy crunch. I got 6th place in this category. Number one spot was gloriously snatched up by Chef Eric Greenspan of Foundry.
Honey Pot
Cinna Toast Redux
I didn’t get placed for the Honey Pot category which is a dessert version of the freestyle similarly just requiring 60% cheese. My sandwich which started off as a cinnamon toast somehow turned into a strawberries and cream sorta ‘wich. Whipped cream cheese flavored with lemon and orange zest, brown sugar and honey was sandwiched between two slices of brioche along with macerated strawberries and toasted hazelnuts. It was then dusted with cinnamon powdered sugar and speared on top with a little section of a strawberry. Unfortunately I forgot the strawberry and sugar on about half of my samples so that might have cost me. My friend Ellen got an honorable 7th place with her Moons Over My Sammie sandwich though!
All in all it was a fun silly time. Sooo much bread, cheese and butter. Allegedly there were many contestants cheating but I was too busy grilling my sandwiches to really notice. No matter how arbitrary an event seems cheating at something like grilled cheese seems a little ridiculous. Kind of takes all the fun out of it, no? I hope all the cheating didn’t affect my rankings at all because that would really suck big time. For the pounds of cheese and loaves of bread I went through, and minutes spent grilling it up (and perhaps inches gained on my waist) I think I at least deserve a fair chance! Now time to go work off the cheese…
I had been craving agu chim so imagine my glee when my parents said we would be going out to Dae Bok with our visiting relatives. Agu chim is a spicy dish of steamed monkfish and a mountain of bean sprouts. The monkfish is mild and meaty and the saucy beansprouts still have a pleasant crunch to them. I absolutely love it. The proportion of bean sprouts to monkfish is very high but that’s the way it’s supposed to be so don’t think you’re getting jipped. Some say the bean sprouts are the best part.
Dae Bok is a blowfish specialty restaurant though and so we ordered up some bok mae un tang, blowfish spicy seafood stew. A casserole pot got set up on the table burner and we let it boil away with the cover on. Only to be uncovered less than a minute later when the minari (Korean parsley) was barely wilted. You have be very careful to not overcook the minari or all the fresh flavor and grassy aroma will disappear. Then the cover was placed back to let the stew boil away for a few more minutes.
This fish stew is spicy, nourishing and comforting. Perfect for a chilly night and when you want to eat something that’s healthy even. The red peppery broth was filled with monkfish, bean sprouts, daikon and a few sea squirts. Make sure you pop the sea squirt in your closed mouth unless you want to potentially spray your dining companion. Also make sure you wait until you’re sure the sea squirt juices aren’t too hot or else you’re tongue is in trouble.
Of course when we are done with the stew and there is a bit of broth left in the bottom of the pan the server will bring out rice, nori and chopped minari to make a final course of delicious rice. The rice gets dumped in to absorb the broth and nori and minari gets thrown in to flavor it. Koreans love to do this at the end of the meal and it’s always a treat, especially when it’s at bbq because the rice picks up all the meat drippings. Yum.
But back to the using-the-last-bit-of-fish-stew-broth-rice. A perfect end to a seafood meal to satisfy my spicy and fish cravings. One thing I wasn’t too hot about was that Dae Bok’s kimchi was overripe and also their dongchimi (white pickled daikon) wasn’t fresh and tart. I’m kind of a stickler for good kimchi. It is after all at the heart of Korean cuisine.
on the left is the banchans and on the right is the soy sauce-based sauce with chinese mustard to dip the blowfish in.
Hi and hello readers! I am happy to say my new baby lumix lx2 is en route into my eager hands. It’s been weird to not have a nifty compact camera around. I’m running out of things to post on. Nothing much has been going on in my kitchen except I’ve been testing recipes for The Grilled Cheese Invitational. Yup I’m a contender! I’ve signed up for all four categories so wish me luck.
Meanwhile I’m going to do a lil cheat post of my photos of the Bastille open market in Paris where my friends and I took a short vacation in the winter of 2006. We were luckily staying in a rented flat only a block away in the thicket of the Bastille area so I walked over on a Sunday for a morning stroll. Needless to say it was awesome. Fresh seafood, freshly baked bread, cheeses, wines, charcuterie, produce, plants, knick knacks,.. and on and on. I loved every cold minute of it. Wish I was in Paris right now. I miss it so way too much.
*a few of these pics were posted on my former and defunct blog. they were taken with a canon rebel*
Boy and I started eating Jitlada’s delicious southern Thai food a while back when we were feeling too lazy to brave the LA outdoors and wanted a delivery of a warm meal. We didn’t even know this place was starting to blow up while we were too busy perusing the delivery menu for some good eats. Then of course Jonathan Gold’s review came out. I finally got myself there in physical form to properly eat some spicy southern Thai dishes that would not be done justice to be sloshed around in a delivery car.
One such dish I was uber excited to try was their steamed green mussels. The mussels were presented so beautifully in a spicy lemongrass broth. We slurped up the juices well mashing it up with a little rice when the plump mussels ran out. I had high expectations for these mussels and they did not disappoint at all.
We also ordered the coco mango salad which is a delicious salad of poached shrimp, mango, red onion and cashews. It had such a nice spicy kick to it. I totally fell in love with this salad - its combination of sweet, fruity, nutty, spicy, and citrusy went so well together.
Another crowing glory of a dish was the deep fried whole sea bass. The goodness of a deep fried whole fish seems pretty self-explanatory. Now the mountain of fried garlic on top with it? Awesome. We picked deep to the last bit of crusty crunchy meat that hung onto the bones.
One of the spiciest foods I’ve ever had is Jitlada’s southern Thai curry. It’s no joke. I almost choked when I took my first spoonful. The deep fried soft-shell crab with ginger-garlic sauce is delicious. As is the deep fried scallops with mint and chile. I’m very much looking forward to going back and trying more dishes. The memories of freshly made dishes lures me away from ordering delivery.
I’m still waiting for my brand new spankin camera to arrive in the mail so I’m hailing back to some old dishes I never posted about. A while back my friends and I headed to Viet Noodle Bar in Atwater for a leisurely weekend lunch. I had a delicious bowl of dill & turmeric fish noodle. The fish is marinated in soymilk with turmeric. Hence the beautiful golden hue. I rather enjoyed this light and clean Hanoi-style noodle dish so I decided to make a quickie version at home with shrimp. I marinated peeled and deveined shrimp with turmeric, soymilk, garlic, and fish sauce. I boiled some rice stick noodles which never softened up enough for my taste but did its job anyhow.
However the shrimps were so plump and tasty. I topped the shrimp and noodles with crispy fried shallots, refreshing cilantro, and toasted peanuts. I also made a little sauce with minced Thai chili peppers, fish sauce, garlic, and lime juice. I need my spice you know. Delicious.
I was craving Indian food one day. I wasn’t sure what I’d make though since there are so many possibilities and exactly 1,000 recipes at least in my excellent Neelam Batra cookbook. One of my favorite dishes to get when I stop by Indian markets-slash-food posts is chickpea curry. In general I have an affinity for chickpeas. It’s not only good for you but quite tasty too. Since I am quite a beginner in Indian cookery I’ve been starting off with basic recipes if possible to build a foundation. So I made Chickpeas in Traditional Curry Sauce (Rassaedar Channae).
By “traditional curry sauce” Batra means onion, green chile peppers, garlic, ginger, tomato, cumin, coriander, garam masala, turmeric, paprika, lime juice, yogurt, and cilantro. I love all the spices in Indian food and the savoriness of it all. It’s very comforting. To make things easier for myself I used canned chickpeas. I should have peeled at least some of the chickpeas. Chickpea peels are quickly becoming a personal pet peeve. But the thought of peeling four cans of chickpea didn’t flash brilliantly through my mind though, probably for very good reasons having to do with convenience.
I wasn’t going to be satisfied with just one curry though. I perused through the thick book and came upon the Potato Curries section. Now I loooove potatoes and I loooove potato curry. I settled on the first curry of the lot, Rajasthani Potato Curry (Rajasthani Rassadar Aalu). As you can see the color was cheerfully golden from the turmeric and nicely spiced with green cardamom, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, and asafoetida. Asafoetida is an odd thing. It’s an herbaceous plant whose dried sap is used for culinary and medicinal purposes. It’s quite stinky but when cooked it mellows out and gives off leek and onion flavors. This curry was so delicious. I was actually craving it today. Must make soon again.
Now I got the curries, what else do I need? Chutney of course! My favorite is a really spicy green chutney. I can’t get enough of it when I get a freshly fried samosa from a local Indian market. This time I made Mint Chutney with Pomegranate Seeds (Pudina-Anardana Chutni). The dried pomegranate seeds, another addition to my spice pantry, added a nice tang to the chutney. The chutney was made in a blender from red onion, a few green chile peppers, lemon juice, water, cilantro, ground dried pomegranate seeds, and black pepper.
To cool off any crazy spice spike I might be hit with I made a simple raita with whole milk yogurt, ginger, garlic, paprika, cilantro, and cucumber. And I unsuccessfully made my first batch of chapati, also known as roti and phulka. I didn’t use durum whole-wheat flour like I was supposed to do since I had a nearly full bag of regular whole-wheat flour at home. That and my lack of experience making flatbreads resulted in the very thick chapatis. They were fine flatbreads but bad chapatis. Still, once I had them nicely reheated from the toaster oven at work the edges became nicely crisped and the inside warm and steaming. It made a perfect utensil for my vegetarian Indian spread.
