Arroz Negro October 31, 2007

I got my hands on some fresh, free and cleaned calamari. Hooray dirty job already done! I wanted to do em good and make something worthy. Hmm arroz negro? I’ve had arroz negro at AOC and absolutely love it. It’s a Spanish rice dish made with squid and squid ink and topped with aioli.

While I was trying to look up recipes on the web I realized I would need to get Spanish rice. I thought about substituting risotto rice (after all I had arborio, carnaroli and vialone nano in my pantry). Driving all over LA during traffic (there is always traffic) on Sunday is not my idea of a relaxing weekend. But I am trying to do a better job of oh I don’t know, being a better cook perhaps?

So I hauled ass and drove all over town. Here is how my Sunday went…

The only place I knew for sure that had Bomba rice was Spain Restaurant in Silverlake. By Silverlake I mean right at the entry of the 2, so practically in Glendale. And far. On the way though I purchased a fresh coconut stuck with a straw from a street vendor. It was the perfect thirst quencher on a warm day.

So I got to Spain and got my $10 1 kg bag of rice and headed off to Surfas. Of course I missed my turn and ended up on the frickin confusing and dangerous intersection of freeway that lives in downtown. Anyhow I made it to Surfas finally to get the squid ink. There were a dollar a bag. Then off to Whole Foods on Fairfax and 3rd St to pick up ingredients I needed to make the fish stock. I was a warrior on Sunday. LA traffic and drivers are very trying but I was determined to get everything I needed and take no shortcuts.

Of course I got to Whole Foods and they didn’t have any fish bones because “it’s Sunday.” The fish guy recommended I used the bellfish they had in stock which was priced at $3.99 a pound. Okay sure, I’ve done enough driving around for a day. I didn’t want to go across the street to the farmer’s market and spend 40 minutes trying to find parking (yes this has actually happened to me before).

I found one reliable recipe online on this blog which is currently based in Spain. The recipe is from Penelope Cruz’s The Foods and Wines of Spain. I doubled the recipe and but used more squid ink because the rice didn’t look black enough. It just looked gray. But the dish is called black rice. I used a total of four packets.

I did a few things differently. First off I marinated the sliced squid with parsley and lemon zest. I would have added chile de arbol but my mom had used up all my chilies to make kimchi. I cooked the rice first separately then when it was done I scooped it into oven safe dishes and also one cast iron pan, topped it with the squid, and baked it off for about 10 minutes in a very hot oven a la AOC.

One very frustrating part of the evening was trying to make the damned aioli. I have a horrible track record with aioli making. I always try to make it in a bowl not a blender. If I’m going to make aioli it better be made with my own hands. But this didn’t happen. I tried twice and both times it broke. I think my arm just gets tired at some point and I start pouring in the oil in too fast. Two cups of expensive grapeseed oil wasted. Booo. I was successful once though a long time ago so I’m not a complete failure.

So I cheated and used mayo and added saffron and garlic. A squeeze of lemon and a spoonful of saffron aioli later I got to dig into my delicious dinner.

Hwe Dup Bap October 30, 2007

Hwe dup bap is one of my favorite Korean dishes ever. It’s basically a raw fish rice bowl with fresh vegetables and a gochujang-based sauce called chojang. The basic ingredients of chojang are gochujang and rice vinegar. I added minced garlic and sesame oil to mine and a touch of water to thin it out. This spicy tangy sauce is a traditional accompaniment to raw fish in Korean cuisine.

You can use a variety of fish in there but this time I stuck to the striped bass fillet I had in the fridge. The fish should be sushi grade and very fresh. You can pick up prepacked sushi grade fish at Korean or Japanese markets. For the vegetables I sliced up some green leaf lettuce, Persian cucumber, carrot, red onion and perilla. I like tons of vegetables in mine.

Striped Bass in Miso Broth October 29, 2007

Ludo Bites serves up an amazing miso soup with foie gras and studded with fava beans, peas, enoki and garnished with nori and mint. I made a similar version at home but sans foie gras. Instead I added seared striped bass. I used shiro miso for the base then added all the same ingredients with the additional chiffonade of Korean perilla. A light, quick and fresh meal.

Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp with Passion Fruit Mustard October 17, 2007

When one thing goes awry while pursuing a recipe it seems more follies follow. For instance today I needed passion fruit juice for this Vongerichten shrimp drecipe but I could not find it. I needed thinly sliced bacon to wrap the shrimps with but Whole Foods did not have any bacon on hand at their deli. I came home and start to work on the recipe with the four passion fruits I picked up at the farmer’s market over the weekend. The fruits yielded about two tablespoons of juice. The recipe called for one cup. Hrm.

Since I only had two tablespoons of passion fruit juice I didn’t reduce it. I also left out the dry mustard, and cut down the amount of dijon mustard and honey. Although my very loose mixture of mustard and passion fruit juice tasted fine I was not optimistic about the end results. But thank goodness for Nueske’s bacon, possibly the best in the world. Although not quite the width I needed the perfect smokiness of Nueske’s brought so much flavor to the dish. I wrapped half a slice around the shrimp and sauteed it in a pan with seam side down so it wouldn’t unravel. The bacon’s pretty dreamy i gotta say.

Then I sliced up an avocado only to find that the flesh was tainted with brown veins. Sigh, how many things could possibly go wrong in one night? Since I didn’t have another avocado to depend on I went ahead and plated it. I topped it with the sauteed bacon-wrapped shrimp and drizzled over the passion-fruit mustard and wild Spanish olive oil. Lastly I topped the shrimp with the passion fruit seeds I reserved and chopped cilantro. Although my version of the passion fruit mustard was unintentionally way off recipe the dish came out delicious. Succulent shrimp with the smoky bacon, sweet and slightly tangy mustard, creamy avocado and bright cilantro. It made for a nice and quick weeknight dinner. I can only imagine how delicious the original recipe is. Now all I need to do is find out where I can pick up some passion fruit juice.

Truffled Risotto October 15, 2007

You can only imagine how ecstatic I was when a very generous friend (*thank you*) handed over to me a truffle. My first truffle to be exact. First step was to stop by Surfas and get myself a truffle shaver, shiny and made in Italy. Then the Santa Monica farmer’s market early Saturday morning to pick up some potatoes for gnocchi, the base for the truffle.

When I got back home I stuck my nose into the truffle holding container and take a few deep whiffs. Smiled, put it back. Took out my new truffle shaver and admired it. Smiled, put it back. I waited around til Sunday so I could make the truffled gnocchi for dinner for Boy and me. I read cookbooks all day, drank some delicious raw milk and noshed on a boiled egg with sriracha. Then took a wonderful Sunday afternoon nap and dreamt about food. Perhaps snoozed one too many times (old habits die hard) and then woke up to realize maybe it’s too late to make gnocchi for dinner.

That’s when risotto came to the rescue. I always have risotto rice lying around in my pantry. This time it was Carnaroli rice.

It is a new variety, developed in 1945 by a Milanese rice grower who crossed Vialone with a Japanese strain. There is far less of it produced than either Arborio or Vialone Nano, and it is more expensive, but it is questionably the most excellent of the three. Its kernel is sheathed in enough soft starch to dissolve deliciously in cooking, but it also contains more of the tough starch than any other risotto variety so that it cooks to an exceptionally satisfying firm consistency. [Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, Marcella Hazan]

I kept the risotto simple with onion, garlic, thyme, butter, Parmigiano Reggiano, and chicken stock. In retrospect I should have cut the chicken stock with some water because as wise Marcella states “pure chicken broth becomes too distinctly sharp.” And also salty when reduced along with the added seasoning from the Parmigiano. I’ll confess right now that I am guilty of using store-bought chicken stock. Don’t hate me.

The risotto still came out delicious and I loved the individual character of each rice kernel. Perhaps a few more tablespoons of stock off the heat would have been smart because as you can see it is a bit thick. It should flow more. Ahh, so many mistakes. But one thing that wasn’t even close to a mistake was the showering of truffle shavings over the risotto. Sigh, pure happiness. I smile thinking about that moment - my first shave of a real truffle. It was pretty awesome. The perfume of truffle hitting the warm rice is amazing. Now only if I can get my hands on a white truffle from Alba I will be able to make heaven in my kitchen. I can already tell this is going to be an expensive habit. A very very happy expensive habit.

Yook Hwe - Raw Beef with Pear & Sesame Oil October 9, 2007

Yook hwe is basically a Korean steak tartar. It’s traditionally served with thin batons of asian pear, salt and sesame oil. Sometimes pinenuts or crushed pinenut to garnish. Make sure you have high quality meat (the cut is called beef eye round) and that your pear is super juicy, ripe and crunchy. At the Korean market they have prepackaged cuts of beef eye round labeled also in Korean as yook hwe.

I started by prepping the pear. This pear cost $4.60! Seriously. Anyhow so I got that crazy pear, sliced it thin, then sliced it again lengthwise to get thin batons. You want about a two-to-one ratio of pear to meat. Then I cut the garlic into very very small strips. You want to cut it like this rather than mince it for the aesthetic value. Use a sharp knife though and mind your fingers.

I wanted to freeze the meat a bit so that it would be easy to cut it into shreds but I didn’t have the time so I got going on it. I would recommend freezing it enough to facilitate the cutting if you’re going to give this dish a go. When you’re done with the meat add sesame oil, salt and black pepper to taste. Keep the meat cold in a chilled bowl and try to do this with some speed so your fingers don’t warm up the meat too much. Sesame oil is very strong so use a little bit at a time and keep tasting until it tastes good to you. The meat should have a glossy delicious looking layer of oil. Mine should have had a touch more sesame oil if you can tell from the pics.

Now the plating.. carefully lay the pear on a plate and make a well in the middle. Place a mound of meat making sure garlic is distributed evenly and a few are at top to make it pretty. Then sprinkle the top with the pinenuts or crushed pinenut. You can just eat this simply with a chopstick or even better, on Korean perilla leaves.

Man this was sooo good! I was just going to have a taste and take a picture but my mom insisted that we eat it. So we did and it was a happy time. The super juicy pear lived up to its crazy price and the meat was so fresh. I loved the nuttiness that the pinenuts added on top of the distinctly nutty sesame oil. And a bite of green from the perilla leaves added another layer of deliciousness.

Bread, Cheese, Ludo Bites October 7, 2007

Last week when Karina was in town she suggested a group dinner at Ludo Bites, a collaboration between Breadbar, Beverly Hills Cheese Store and Chef Ludovic Lefebvre. This sounded intriguing. I’ve never had Chef Ludo’s food before at L’Orangerie or Bastide, either being a poor student or a poor college graduate depending on what year it was. Dinner at Ludo Bites turned out to be an absolutely amazing night of food, fun and excitement. A night of beautiful quenelle of feta mousse over juicy and sweet heirloom tomatoes; an amazing spread of cheeses with equally amazing condiments most of which were made by Chef himself, especially the addicting pink grapefruit confit; chile spiked chocolate mousse; and so much more. Karina and Dawn both wrote great posts on this magical dinner with beautiful photos to accompany.

That dinner was basically awesome. We were high off the excitement, the food, and the utterly charming nature of Chef who was paying extra attention to our table. I credit that to Karina’s knowledge of food and ingredients which pleased the big chef. Or perhaps because Karina and I had our faces attached to the prep counter and he got scared, haha. Just gotta say this guy is absolutely passionate about food and it shows through his food and skills he’s honed throughout his life. I so regret not dining at his restaurants before. Who needs to spend money fixing a broken car or pay bills when amazing life-changing food is waiting just around the corner? I was mesmerized by everything - the color of the condiments, the way they fell of the spoon into a little plop, the cutting of the cheese with a beautiful big shiny knife, how beautiful quenelles formed with just a flick of a humble spoon. These little details and observations make food so exciting for me.

So what else could I do except go back to Ludo Bites this week? This time around I went with another food-lover Julie and two other friends. The last dinner was all about cheese and desserts but this time around we got to taste some delicious creations. Also this time around we took advantage of the byob no corkage policy and brought five bottles of wine. Um, there were four girls. I am guilty one of bringing two wine but I just had to bring a bottle of bubbly to start off the night.

In fact the Cava was perfect with our first plate of soppressata. Then we took advantage of the lasting tomato season and ordered the Heirloom Tomato with Feta Mousse. The texture of the feta mousse is amazing and the strong salty brininess is subdued just leaving enough of that characteristic to season the sweet tomatoes along with the little black olives and slivers of red onion. And as you already know I am completely smitten with perfect quenelles. Such a visually pleasing shape. Not that I mind digging into it with a hungry spoon a second after admiring it.

Four of us girls moved in on the meat section next without any hesiation. Foie Gras Terrine graced our table in no time. The Artisan foie gras was served with sliced mushrooms which sandwiched lemon puree. I was blown away by this combination. I would have never expected these flavors to go together but it went so well. The citrusy lemon puree brought a spark of brightness to the earthy mushroom and foie gras. Wow.

Next came the Chicken Liver Mousse with Green Apple Gelee. The texture of the mousse was amazing - so light and fluffy. The chicken liver with the green apple gelee was a stellar. Who woulda thunk? Well obviously Chef did! Amazing. I will dream about this chicken liver mousse.

The crowing dish of the night was the special of the day - Black Croque Monsieur. Sandwiched between the black slices of bread (I forgot to ask what kind of bread. Sowee.) was foie gras, two types of cheese one of which was mimolette, and a paper thin slice of cured ham. As much as all the detailed info I’m missing on this dish it was absolutely amazing. The dish that really brought silence to the table as we downed this sandwich. The flavors just melted in my mouth and the slight crispiness of the bread brought the perfect amount of texture to the rich and smooth foie gras. My mouth waters now just thinking about this perfect sandwich. Oh and the shiny pieces stuck on the monsieur? Silver paper, not “foil” and Julie and I first thought.

thanks misa for your assistance!

We were still going though. Next up was the Marinated Hangar Steak with Shallots Confit. Can we girls eat enough meat? Apparently not. This was also delicious. The meat was perfectly cooked of course and great with the confit’d shallots and the bright parsley sauce.

Finally we were ready for the huge cheese plate Chef prepared for us. Blue de chevre, reblochon, tonneau and a ton of other which I could not remember the names. I tell you this is a hard feat to try to keep everything in order especially with my lack of knowledge of cheese. Next time I go I’m taking a pen with me to be more organized. I gobbled down the pink grapefruit confit again. The recipe for this is in his book Crave which I need to pick up asap.

We had dessert of finish off the night. The LUDO Chocolate Mousse is to die for. The texture once again amazingly light, formed into a beautiful quenelle, topped with a bright pink flower to contrast with the dark Hawaiian chocolate which just melts in your mouth. I love the spike of spiciness that’s infused into the mousse with a red jalapeno. I love spicy. I love this. I love Chef Ludo’s food.

I feel like a different person after having these two amazing meals prepared by Chef. His food is so inspiring, beautiful and absolutely delicious. His enthusiasm and passion for food really rubbed off on me. I can’t wait to get his book and cook!