I love soba noodles! Hearty and tasty, they make a quick and flavorful meal. After cooking and rinsing the noodles under cold water, I seasoned it with ponzu, sesame oil, chili oil, and black sesame seeds. Refreshing and cool batons of cucumber, crunchy spicy radish sprouts, and delicate microgreens crowned the seasoned noodle. After a sprinkling of sliced nori I had some seriously good & fast eats in my hands.
bellota iberico lomo
Pork is a beautiful thing. In a sweet succulent brined pork chop way. Or smoky falling off the bone bbq spare rib way. It’s delicious as a rillette with a crusty toasted slice of rustic bread and tangy crispy cornichons . And as grilled pork bulgogi with cloves of garlic and slices of bright green jalapeno. And we can’t forget juicy sausages and smoky bacon either. But when pork is cured, it goes beyond all that. Prosciutto, jamon serrano, pancetta – who knew happiness could come in thin slices.
You can imagine my mind, and taste buds, running wild last July when I read on Brett’s blog [In Praise of Sardines] that La Tienda, an online Spanish food retailer, would start selling iberico pork products in the U.S. for the first time. Iberico pigs are black-coated pigs that are grown free range and fed a heavy diet of acorn as slaugter time approaches.
La Tienda: There are indeed lesser forms of jamón ibérico, made from pigs that haven’t consumed so many acorns. The highest category—jamón ibérico de bellota, “bellota” being Spanish for acorn—comes from animals that have put on at least one third of their weight by eating nothing but foraged acorns and grass (and the occasional snake) during the montanera...
The acorn-rich diet transforms the fat of jamón ibérico de bellota. Studies from the University of Extremadura indicate that more than half the ham’s fat content is monounsaturated (the type that is in olive oil) rather than the artery-clogging saturated kind usually found in animals.
How crazy is that?!
I was in complete awe. I must have this pork was the only thing going through my mind at this point. Pretty much as soon as I read Brett’s post I clicked over to La Tienda and purchased the bellota iberico lomo, iberico chorizo and iberico salchichon. The bellota iberico lomo comes at a hefty price of $97/lb, but well worth it.
It is really mind-blowing. It’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever tasted. Not only beautiful in color and marbling, but buttery, nutty, savory, meaty. Almost sweet, the flavor just melts all over your tongue. Damn, my mouth is watering. If you love pork, or if you love yourself for that matter, try this.
The Jamon Iberico Bellota is supposed to come out around winter 2008. You can pre-order them by putting down a deposit of $200. Final price will be $79/lb, about $1200 for the bone-in ham. I guess it’s safe to say I probably won’t be able to taste Jamon Iberico Bellota until I go back to visit Spain. Hopefully sometime in the near future.
fried padron peppers
Now the iberico spending spree happened last July. But the other day I just happened feel like browsing through La Tienda and they had Pimientos de Padron in stock. Uh oh, here I go again. It started with a pound of these peppers.
Pimientos de Padron are little peppers from the town of Padron in Galicia. The ones I ordered were “local greenhouse” ones which I assume to mean domestic. It sounds like the peppers are usually only available once a year around July. Well thank god for greenhouses! These were delicious fried in olive oil and sprinkled with fleur de sel. I love peppers! One in ten peppers is supposed to be a hot, I didn’t bite into one that sent steam out of my ears or nuthin. Just deliciousness. The blistering in the oil added some nice smokiness to the tender flesh. I ate a whole bunch of these in one sitting. A lot, but I won’t tell you how many.
tuna & couscous stuffed piquillo peppers
I also got a few jars of piquillo peppers. I stuffed these delicious smoky peppers with leftover couscous, capers, and olive oil packed tuna. I didn’t have any of the fancy imported canned tuna on hand. The Trader Joe’s one worked quite fine. I squeezed some lemon juice over the filling to brighten it up, filled the peppers up as neatly as I could, then drizzled some wild Spanish olive oil over them.
romesco bread
I had leftover romesco in the fridge and some ciabatta sitting around. What excellent timing to have a tapas dinner! I toasted the ciabatta slices in the oven then spread romesco on top. Crunchy, nutty, smoky. I love romesco. The version I made above is Suzanne Goin’s recipe which uses ancho chilies.
boiled quail eggs
I had quail eggs sitting around my fridge too. So why not? I boiled them for a few minutes then used them to scoop some of the romesco off the ciabatta.
A delicious tapas dinner…
I was completely spoiled recently for my birthday. Boy took me out to a wonderful seven course dinner at Hatfield’s, E&T took me out to mouth-watering, thin and crusty pizzas at Mozza. Yum to both! Many of the generous and thoughtful gifts were food-related~ a fondue set, electric warming buffet, beautiful Japanese plates, and several cookbooks, two of which were for ice cream. [*thank you*]
But ice cream? Wouldn’t I need an ice cream machine for that? Ohhh, I was going to receive an ice cream machine! With a hint from E a few of my friends put their noggins together to get me the Cuisinart ICE-50BC Series. Awesome. Now armed with Ben & Jerry’s and William Sonoma ice cream books, I excitedly waited for my machine.
I came home from work one day to find a humongous box in front of my door. And inside, my sleek commercial quality ice cream maker. It’s a beautiful machine and also it goes perfectly alongside my KitchenAid brushed nickel food processor and imperial grey mixer!
The first ice cream that popped into my head was creme fraiche. But somehow blueberry made its way in there. Then blueberry-buttermilk. I adapted Ben & Jerry’s recipe for blueberry ice cream, cutting down the cream and adding buttermilk. The blueberries didn’t break down at all when it was supposed to be macerating in the fridge. I tried smashing them up with my potato masher but in retrospect I should have whirled them through the food processor.
Well my first ice cream wasn’t a complete success because the ice cream turned out kind of hard. I think I cut down on the proportion of cream too much and I needed more blueberries. Sweeter blueberries. I know, it wasn’t berry season and I jumped the gun with this ice cream. But the flavor is good, tangy from the buttermilk and a bit fruity from the blueberries.
So now I had a very hard ice cream just sitting around my freezer. I wanted to pair it up with something though. It being imperfect and all, it needed a partner. Warm pain perdu and blueberry compote to echo the ice cream flavors seemed good to me. For the compote I cooked a container of blueberries with a few spoonfuls of sugar, a cinnamon stick, and a bit of water until the berries cooked down and looked syrupy.
For the pain perdu, the New Orleans style French toast, I flavored the egg milk mixture with tangelo zest, cinnamon, brown sugar and vanilla extract. I soaked the crust-sliced brioche slices generously in the liquid so that I would end up with a soft custardy type. Mmm, so good. I ate a whole piece while cooking up the remaining slices. I rarely make French toast, less than once a year, but I don’t know what the future holds for me. With the warm cinnamony blueberry compote and tangy ice cream I may have to make this combination more often.
I needed something to go with my sauteed chard & pearl onion leftovers. A protein isn’t quite necessary, as I did have some of the chard with green garlic couscous for lunch today, but it would be better no?
In my fridge I also had an open bottle of red wine, leftover from braising shortribs, and also a chunk of pancetta. I had been eyeing Suzanne Goin’s pancetta wrapped salmon with red wine butter for some time now and this would be the perfect opportunity to crown it on top of the chard. The salmon recipe is quite simple and easy and with most of the ingredients already at home, except for two pieces of salmon which cost about $8, it would be inexpensive also.
I thought I would attempt to slice the pancetta myself into wrappeable pieces. Except I forgot I cut into the pancetta chunk crosswise when cooking before. Oops. But I had some serrano ham and prosciutto scraps so it worked out fine. I seasoned the salmon with salt, pepper, parsley leaves and thyme. And did my best to wrap the kind of dry ham pieces around the fish. These seared off in matter of minutes since the pieces were kind of small.
Meanwhile I cooked a tablespoon of minced shallot in butter. Then reduced a 1/2 cup of red wine in the same pan until it turned into a glaze. Then mashed this up with 2 tbsps of butter that I had sitting out. The glaze was a bit warm when I added it to the butter but the sauce still kept a nice consistency.
So another quick dinner and successful finales for the chard, red wine, and ham scraps. I’m looking forward to trying the salmon with pancetta. I heart pancetta!
Having leftovers after a job is somewhat of a pleasant challenge. I run through my mind frantically the leftover ingredients, dishes, condiments and try to think of efficient and delicious ways to use these up. If I have way too many things in the fridge I get a little bit stressed only because I don’t want to end up throwing something out. Yeah I guess I’m a bit obsessive about the whole thing. But hey, I’m just trying to eat a decent meal over there.
After the below event I was left with some salsa verde, scallops, romesco, polenta, short ribs, potato puree, and chard. I picked up a few extra scallops at the fish market for myself while shopping for the job. Of course the scallops would have to go first. And the salsa verde since it only lasts a few days. The polenta and short ribs went to the freezer for something delicious later, when I’ve finished all the quickly perishables in my fridge.
Lately couscous has been a staple in pantry since it is so easy to cook and comes together in matter of minutes. I thought it would be a good base for the scallops. Something simple and quick. I sweated some green garlic in butter then added water and brought it to a boil. I added the couscous to the pot, covered it and took it off the heat to steam for a few minutes.
The scallops also took no time at all. I dabbed them dry with a paper towel, seasoned it with salt & pepper, and seared them off in olive oil. Then topped it with a dollop of salsa verde. Same combination as the “croque madame” except I left off the brown butter for a healthier alternative. So there you have my first leftover creation, Seared Scallop with Salsa Verde & Green Garlic Couscous.
Way back in August last year I was contacted by BD who was kindly referred to me by Anne of Tuna Toast (thanks Anne!). BD was interested in getting his newly married friends P&T a private dinner as a wedding present. I emailed him a few example menus, he liked them, and we were set. Now all I had to do was wait until P&T contaced me to set up a date.
I didn’t hear from anyone for months and I had kind of forgotten about the dinner, but P&T finally called me last month! Here is what I cooked for them this past Sunday…
Seared Scallop “Croque Madame” with Brown Butter Salsa Verde
This dish was inspired by Hatfield’s Hamachi Croque Madame. It’s not really a croque madame, hence the quotations, but an interpretation. But in form and idea it’s clever, and topped with the cute little fried quail egg, it makes for a delicious and eye candyful amuse bouche.
I cut out little rounds from brioche slices and toasted them in butter over a medium heat. I kept them warm in a 200 degree oven while I got onto the brown butter salsa verde and scallops. The brown butter salsa verde is Suzanne Goin’s recipe from Sunday Suppers at Lucques cookbook. I gotta say she is the queen of condiments. I love all the ones I’ve tried so far and they are so versatile, you can use them in so many different dishes.
I made the salsa verde in the morning using my huge mortar and pestle. Pounding away getting the flavor and oils out of the parsley and mint. Then adding anchovies, garlic, capers, and olive oil, plus a squeeze of lemon to brighten up the mix. After browning a tablespoon or so of butter, I added a spoonful of the salsa verde in to sizzle. When the scallops were nicely seared I placed them on a brioche round, topped it with the brown butter salsa verde, another brioche round, then a fried quail egg.
Quail eggs are difficult to crack! Anyone has tips? They are pretty fragile but at the same time don’t crack clean like regular sized eggs. I liked how these turned out. I liked the combination of the tender scallops and the nutty brown butter combined with the herby salsa verde. The brioche rounds were buttery and crisp and a great textural complement to the juicy scallops. And topped with a cute fried quail egg with just the right amount of warm yolk to pop over the whole thing. Yum.
Seared Polenta with Sauteed Bloomsdale Spinach, Pancetta, Romesco & Feta
I got the idea for this dish when I came across a Zuni Cafe’s Shrimp Cooked in Romesco with Wilted Spinach recipe. Spinach cooked with romesco sounded really delicious. You know I’m a polenta lover, so I combined the two. First time I tried out the combination I served soft creamy polenta with the sauteed spinach mixture generouly placed right in the middle of it. It’s delicious both ways.
For the polenta I used a 1:4 polenta to water ratio and cooked it for about 20 minutes, constantly stirring it over low heat. I flavored it simply with rosemary, chile de arbol, and a few tablespoons of butter. I let it set then cut out triangle pieces. While the polenta was searing I cooked some pancetta lardons in another pan with a tiny bit of olive oil. When the pancetta was brown on the edges and had rendered out some delicious pork fat, I put the clean spinach with a few tablespoons of water. When wilted I added romesco and tossed the whole pan gently.
I used my newly beloved Bloomsdale spinach which I got at the South Central Farms stand at the Hollywood Farmer’s market. So far they’re the only ones I’ve seen that carries Bloomsdale. I highly recommend using savoy or semi-savoy spinach (crinkly leafed ones) for this dish. The spinach retains a great texture even after sauteeing and it’s so much flavorful than regular spinach.
When the polenta crisped up nicely I topped it with the warm romesco spinach and salty tangy feta.
Braised Beef Short Ribs with Potato Puree, Horseradish Cream, and Chard
For the third and last course of the dinner I turned to Suzanne Goin’s recipe that Lucques is famous for – the braised shortribs. The braising method is really moving up in my books. Deep flavors, tender meat, long cooking time most of which takes place slowly in the oven while you relax. You just have to be patient when browning your meat and trying to not go crazy when the deep aroma of beef braising in stock and wine fills up your kitchen. But what a delicious method.
The recipe calls for 6 14-16oz short ribs. So each piece should be around 1 pound for a total of 6 pounds? Seems like big short ribs to me. I picked mine up at the Galleria market – four point something pounds for $30. There were a total of about 10 short ribs, not a pound each but in aggregate a good amount. I’ll have to look for the “center cut” big boys somewhere else next time.
I browned the short ribs on all the meaty sides in my handy, and very heavy, Le Creuset dutch oven. When the ribs were nicely browned I took them out onto a plate and cooked some mire poix in the meat dripping. Then deglazed the pan with red wine, port and balsamic vinegar. I couldn’t find beef stock at any of the places I shopped at (and no I don’t have containers of homemade beef stock sitting in my freezer) so I got beef bouillon and combined this with chicken stock for my liquid. The short ribs were braised for 3 hours at 325 degrees.
The recipe called for 3 dozen pearl onions to be roasted and popped out of their skins. They didn’t really pop out like I imagined. I had to peel the skin away. Boo. Next time I think I’ll try cutting off a thin slice of the root end for an easier exit. The pearl onions were sauteed with the chard.
The third component of the dish is the potato puree. This thing is no joke. For 3 lbs of potatoes the recipe called for 3/4 cup cream, 3/4 cup milk, and 2 sticks of butter. It was good though. But someone else better eat the leftovers. I’m trying to eat healthier, which may be kind of difficult for this week with the leftover beef, potato puree, creme fraiche. At least my taste buds will thank me.
I served my version of the horseradish cream on the side. I say my version because I couldn’t find grated horseradish anywhere. Only creamed ones which kind of gross me out. But I had some horseradish mustard so I combined that with the creme fraiche.
The dish came out really delicious. A great combination of tender flavorful beef, delectably rich potato puree, and a pop of green with the sauteed chard. And you can’t forget about the tangy slightly spicy creme fraiche. True comfort food done well.
I hope P&T enjoyed their dinner. ‘Cause I enjoyed cookin it!
