I was very excited when I got an email this morning with two free tickets to the live taping of the finale of NBC's The Voice this afternoon. I didn't followed the show that closely in the beginning, but I did catch the last few episodes over the last two weeks, so I was excited to go and hear the performances. I won't reveal the winner for those who haven't watched yet, but I was rooting for Dia Frampton; I like her unique voice and originality in her song interpretations. She's a true artist and I would definitely enjoy listening to her records. Through watching the show, I also became a big fan of her coach, Blake Shelton, who just seems like a genuinely nice, cool guy on the show who cared about his contestants. He was equally nice off stage; he was the only coach to consistently interact with the audience, even giving hugs to all the former contestants who were sitting next to us during a commercial break. Christina Aguilera was definitely the diva she appears to be on TV; she entered 10 minutes after all the other judges were seated and taped a promo for the Voice Holland. She barely acknowledged anyone else and stayed in her chair the entire show.
W. and I headed over to the Warner Brothers studio in Burbank for the taping in the afternoon and got there a little late, about 15 minutes after they started letting people in. We had to wait two hours in various queues before finally being seated 15 minutes before the show started. We weren't guaranteed seats and were amongst the last to be seated but we got awesome seats next to the former contestants and a few rows behind the judges, in Blake's section, which was convenient. It was a fun show, there were some great live performances, my favorite by far being Stevie Nicks' amazing duet, and it was cool to be on a backlot and in a studio to see all that happens during the taping of a live show. I'm not sure I would ever wait in line again, but it was definitely a fun experience.
For some reason, we seem to eat more pasta during the winter. I think I generally crave carbs as the weather gets cold; it's straight up comfort food served alongside some nice warm tomato soup. I bought some collard greens at the farmer's market two weeks ago and while they've lasted longer than regular greens, I needed to use them up before they went yellow. This week, I came across the excellent Molto Mario basic pasta episode where he made orecchiette with broccoli rabe, and decided to substitute collard greens for broccoli rabe and otherwise followed his recipe exactly. Babbo and Lupa's orecchiette with sausage and broccoli rabe tops my list of all-time favorite dishes, and this was a similar version, just without the sausage and the addition of a little tomato sauce. It was really quick to prep and make (~20 mins) good and relatively healthy, although just a touch bland. I do like the hearty texture of the collard greens and as long as you are generous with the freshly grated parmigiano reggiano, it's hard hard to go wrong. Add some hot italian sausage and it's in a whole other league.
I've been watching a lot of Molto Mario on the Cooking Channel but haven't attempted that many of his recipes. Last night, I decided to try his Chicken Livers Banker Style over Risotto (Fegato di Pollo alla Finanziera) and Spinach with Cheese and Eggs (Spinaci, Cacio e Uova). I've never worked with chicken livers before (or any kind of liver), they definitely are a bit funky. I followed the recipes pretty closely, with the exception of using my usual risotto recipe as opposed to his (less butter, more olive oil, 2/3 cups of white wine before adding broth). Both dishes were pretty good, although I'm not sure that I would make it again, at least soon, as the Chicken Liver risotto was quite strong. The livers were a little dry; not sure if I overcooked it or if that's just how it is supposed to be. The spinach was pretty good, although I scrambled the eggs and overcooked them a bit, and we just had some Bosc pears for dessert which was a nice palate cleanser after a rich meal. We paired the meal with some Glenmorangie 18 years Scotch, which went quite well with the risotto: I tasted a sweetness in the scotch that made it quite food-friendly. A good carbo-loading meal before the LA Prostate Cancer 5K race this morning in Brentwood.
I'm a big fan of Ina Garten, otherwise known as the Barefoot Contessa. She's by far my favorite Food Network personality and I'm always trying out her recipes (like here, here, here and here). I find her pleasant, natural, down-to-earth, with a great eye for style (like Martha Stewart) and her food is always tasty and relatively approachable in terms of ease of preparation. She's the only Food Network personality that K. can even stand (he finds everyone else a little nuts, and I don't disagree); he likes her voice: finds it soothing. Pretty much all my side dishes last Thanksgiving were based on her recipes and I'll definitely be making a few of them again this year. I was so excited when M. told me about Ina's book signing at Williams-Sonoma on Montana Ave, just a few blocks away from where I live, so I knew I had to buy her newest cookbook, "How Easy Is That" for the chance to meet her for a signing. The line was quite long, even though we got there before the signing started, and we were in and out of there pretty quickly, but we did get a quick picture with her (not shown) and an autographed book. I have to admit, I was a little star-struck when I met her and was too tongue-tied to tell her how much I adored her, but that's ok. She looks just as nice as she does on TV!
Long line; it was a really warm day and also Veteran's Day
After twodecent but not great attempts at adaptations of chicken tikka masala, I was about to give up, until this week, when I watched Bobby Flay's chicken tikka masala throwdown. I'm not usually a fan of Bobby Flay, but there wasn't anything else on, plus it turned out that both dishes looked quite tasty and easy to make. I'm always disappointed when Bobby Flay wins and crushes the dreams of the hometown chef; I find the whole concept of Throwdown arrogant as Bobby Flay believes he can master anything in days, while the hometown chef probably has spent years lovingly cultivated their signature dish. In this episode, the hometown chef lost, and I thought her dish looked better, so I was inspired to recreate my own, based more on her recipe. It turned out to be quite a success; just the right balance of spices, creaminess and acid, with the tomato-based sauce. I rarely cook with cream, but it was necessary in this case to balance with the acidic tomato sauce, and it also helped mellow out the strong individual spices and helped blend everything together harmoniously. Besides, I had some heavy cream leftover that was about to go bad anyway, from the last time I made chocolate ganache. At 1/2 a cup of cream, I used a lot less than every recipe I saw; I just added a little bit at a time, taste testing it, until I felt it was well balanced. Everyone really enjoyed the dish; even my parents, who aren't that familiar with Indian food. I'll be making this dish a lot. I served it over rice and accompanied it with a simple mixed green salad with champagne vinaigrette dressing, a light and fresh balance to the richer curry. We drank a few bottles of the Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier (one of my new favorite everyday drinkers, buy it at Bevmo for $3.99) and an Organic Foret Saison. Both beers paired really well with the rich and flavorful curry; they were crisp and a nice balance to all the richness with some citrus notes that complemented the creamy tomato masala. I'm glad we went with the beer; I can't think of a wine that would pair as well with the curry as the beer. All in all, a really tasty meal with family outside on the patio by the pool on what will be probably one of our last mild nights in socal.
Chicken Tikka Masala recipe:
In the morning, cube six organic skinless chicken thighs (1.25 lbs), removing the fat when possible, and marinate in a bowl with: 1.5 cup of lowfat Greek Fage yogurt (1 cup is probably fine), 1.5 tsp of cumin, 1.5 tsp of coriander, 1.5 tsp of cumin, 1.5 tsp of turmeric, 1.5 tsp of garam masala, 1 tsp of fennel seeds, 1.5 TB of chili powder, 1 TB of tomato paste, 3 minced garlic cloves, 1-2 TB of minced ginger, freshly ground pepper. Make sure all the chicken cubes are well coated and refridgerate
To prep: thinly slice 1 onion, mince 4 cloves of garlic, mince / grate 1-2 TB of ginger, seed and mince 1 jalapeno pepper, wash and chop a handful of cilantro
Heat up 1-2 TB of grapeseed oil in a 5 quart Le Creuset oval french oven over medium heat, and saute the marinated chicken until fully cooked, and remove
Add a little bit more oil if necessary and saute the onion over medium, medium-low heat, until starting to caramelize, 15 minutes
Turn the heat to medium and add the garlic, ginger and jalapeno pepper and saute until fragrant, ~ 1 minute
Add 2 tsp of garam masala, 2 tsp of paprika, 1 tsp of cumin, 1 tsp of coriander, 1 tsp of turmeric, 1 tsp of cumin seeds, and toast for a minute, then add 1 TB of tomato paste and stir everything together
Add 2 15 oz cans of organic tomato sauce (from Trader Joe's), 1/2 cup of water, drizzle of agave nectar, and a few shakes of chili powder, cayenne, and freshly ground pepper, and bring to a boil and reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes
Add 1/2 a cup of heavy cream and simmer for another 5-10 minutes. Taste for seasoning
I was inspired to make a simple grilled cheese for lunch today by Finn, from last night's episode of Glee. Unlike Finn unfortunately, I was not able to discern anything resembling Cheesus in my sandwich, as hard as I tried looking. At least the sandwich was good though; a hodgepodge of cheddar, gouda, salami and spinach. Sidenote: I just watched Martha Stewart on today's Oprah. Martha put together a grilled cheese sandwich bar and they all put my grilled cheese to shame. Martha has a tendency to do that; I adore her!
It's been a cold and rainy week so far, in stark contrast to last week's record breaking heat. Today was my third consecutive day of yoga this week at Up Dog; I've made it a point to maximize my unlimited two week trial, although my poor gas mileage negates much of the savings. Meaghan Townsend is definitely my favorite teacher so far. My class today with Sara Ivanhoe was pretty good, but I did not care for the other two yoga teachers that I've tried. I think I'll need to take a recovery break from yoga tomorrow and try spinning again.
I was feeling adventurous and wanted to experiment with some different flavors the other day so I decided to try my hand at Moroccan food, inspired by a recent episode of the Barefoot Contessa. Saturday night, I made a lamb tagine with olives and preserved lemons served over quinoa with raisins. I didn't like any of the recipes I saw on Food Network or Epicurious so I made my own. What was nice is that I didn't have to buy any more spices; I had pretty much everything except for saffron in my pantry. One of the things always amazes me about cooking is how you can combine the same basic ingredients and spices in different ways and you have a totally different cuisine. I used a lot of the same spices and ingredients in my Mexican and Indian cooking, but this dish tasted totally different and discernably Moroccan. I also wanted try cooking with lamb; I've always loved lamb but haven't cooked with it much, particularly using the braising method. The dish isn't hard to make, just time consuming with the braising.
First I made the preserved lemons. I actually was going to be lazy and try to buy it at Whole Foods, but they didn't have any so I was forced to make my own. It's really easy and we always have lemons from my parent's tree. All you do is slice 1-2 lemons lengthwise into about 6 slices per lemon, put them in a glass baking dish, sprinkle with 2 TB of salt, cover with water and put it in the oven at 250 degrees for 3 hours.
To prep the tagine which served 2 with a little leftover (we are big eaters):
Cut 1.5 lbs of lamb shoulder into cubes, trimming off excess fat. I also used the bones as it was hard to get all the lamb off the bone and put it in a bowl
Grated 1/2 an onion, squeezing out excess water and chopped 1/2 an onion (I was going to grate the entire onion, but grating onions make me tear like crazy and I couldn't take it anymore. I don't usually shed tears when chopping onions but grating onions was painful). Toss the grated 1/2 onion in the bowl with the lamb and reserve the chopped 1/2 in a separate bowl
Minced 5 cloves of garlic, half into the bowl with the lamb, half reserved with the chopped onion
Grated 1 tsp of ginger (a lot of recipes call for ground ginger, but I only had fresh ginger) and add to bowl with the lamb
To the lamb bowl, added 1 tsp of cumin, 1 tsp of paprika, a pinch of saffron threads, 1 tsp of turmeric, 1 tsp of ground black pepper, pinch of salt, 1 TB of olive oil and mix everything together
Chopped two carrots
Chopped 1 fennel bulb
Minced 1/2 bunch of cilantro and 1/2 bunch of parsley
Chopped 1 large tomato (I could have used two tomatoes)
To cook, I heated up a few TB of olive oil over medium heat in the 5 quart Le Creuset french oven (I probably could have used my 3 quart oven)
Add the lamb mixture and seared it for 2-3 minutes
Add the remainder of the garlic and onions and saute for another 2 minutes
Add 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup of red wine and bring to a boil. Add the cilantro and half of the parsley, reserving a handful for garnish at the end. Add the carrots and fennel. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1.5 hours, partially covered
After 1.5 hours, add the tomatoes, the pulp from the rinsed preserved lemons (slice the rind into thin strips and reserve) and simmer until the lamb is tender
When the lamb is ready, remove it with tongs into a serving bowl and tent it. Add 1 cup of pitted green olives, the preserved lemon rind slices and a couple sprinkles of chili flakes to the braising liquid, turn the heat up and boil for ~5 minutes to reduce. Then pour the reduced sauce over the lamb, sprinkle on a handful of fresh parsley and serve! I served it over 1/2 cup of quinoa with an assortment of raisins that I rehydrated in hot water for a few minutes.
I really liked the dish, it was quite intense and bursting with all sorts of different and interesting flavors, from the savory meaty lamb, to the briny olives, to the slightly sour preserved lemons (preserving actually mellows out the lemons a lot), to the carrots, fennel and tomatoes. It was salty, sour, sweet (from the raisins) and spicy all at the same time. All the spices and herbs added a nice smoky depth to the dish and the sauce was rich and delicious. My only change is that I would use a less salty olive, or at least halve the olives. I can't wait to make this dish again!
I know I've mentioned it recently, but I just got to say again, I love the Cooking Channel. I've been watching mostly Molto Mario, Nigella Feasts and Spice Goddess. It's made cooking exciting once again. Sometimes I get in a cooking rut, particularly as it gets later in a season and I tire of the same ingredients, but the Cooking Channel has inspired me to try new things. I particularly adore Mario Batali's show; his food is so unique and sometimes challenging, although he makes it look easy, making everything from scratch and usually with his hands (no food processor or mixers; I loved when he made Rocco DiSpirito whip egg whites into firm peaks by hand, who does that anymore!), everything looks absolutely delicious, and I really feel like I learn something new from him every show. He's so much fun to watch and full of all sorts of interesting facts and knowledge. I wish I could be a guest on his show. I also like some of its non-cooking shows such as Chef(ography) (I enjoyed the Mario Batali and Wolfgang Puck episodes), Food(ography) and Unique Eats.
This sake salmon dish was one of those new dishes that I couldn't wait to try; it looked so good when Nigella made it and also seemed relatively simple and quick to make. I bought some wild salmon yesterday from Costco that looked nice and fresh so I was eager to use it while very fresh. I basically followed her recipe with some very minor tweaks. To serve four, I used the entire 1.7 lb filet of salmon.
For the marinade, I combined in a gallon zip-loc bag with the salmon that I divided into four pieces:
2 TB of light soy sauce
2 TB of worcestershire sauce
1 TB of finely minced garlic
1 tsp of dijon mustard
1 tsp of wasabi paste
1 tsp of sesame oil
1 tsp of chili oil
2 TB of sake
I let the salmon marinate for 20 minutes. Over medium heat, I cooked the salmon for 1.5 minutes on one side, and then 1 minute on the other side. I cooked two filets at one time. I then wrapped each filet in two sheets of aluminum foil tightly and let it rest for 10 minutes. While it rested, I made the sauce:
Bring 1/2 cup of sake up to a boil and then turn off the heat and add:
2 TB of light soy sauce
1.5 tsp of fish sauce
1 tsp of dijon mustard
1 tsp of wasabi paste
2 tsp of worcestershire
I served the fish on top of rice, cut the salmon into strips (so there's more surface area for the sauce), drizzled some sauce and sprinkled cilantro over it. I served it next to a simple arugula, grilled pepper and grilled zucchini salad with some balsamic vinaigrette.
The fish was so good; definitely the best salmon that I have ever made, much better than the last time. The fish was cooked medium, which I think is the best way to enjoy really fresh, wild salmon. I'll definitely be cooking salmon this way from now on. The fish was so delicate, silky and not at all fishy and the sauce went great with the fish and the rice. The sauce wasn't too salty or overpowering; sometimes I have that concern with non-Asian chefs cooking Asian food; I worry that they think that the way to make it taste Asian is to use lots of soy. Maybe using light soy sauce also helped. The sauce was actually quite delicate and complemented the natural freshness of the salmon with just a little heat from the mustard and wasabi and umami savoriness from the soy. Go Nigella! I'll definitely be trying more of her recipes.
To go with the salmon, we had some Otokoyama sake, which was also the sake that I used for marinating the fish as well as in the sauce. It's a fairly common sake that is found on pretty much all sake lists; I personally prefer Wakatake, Kurasawa, Kubota or Hananomai (all also fairly easy to find), but it was perfectly fine with the salmon. It's always a safe bet to pair dishes with the same wines that you use to cook the dish with.
Thanks to Z., I recently discovered the Cooking Channel on TV. I watch / record Food Network a lot for cooking inspiration, but I've been tiring of it a bit recently. While I really like Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) and Giada in particular, I've been craving some more variety. Some of the Food Network personalities are a little too perfect, overly styled and / or slightly psycho for me: Claire Robinson, Marcela Vallalolid, Sandra Lee, Anne Burrell, plus they have a bunch of non-cooking shows which I don't really like: Chopped, Food Network Challenge, Ace of Cakes. Maybe it's because it's not in high definition or perhaps because many of the shows are older, but I find the Cooking Channel to be a lot more accessible, with a real focus on the food. I like the ethnic variety as well; I've been watching a lot of the Spice Goddess, which has helped de-mystify Indian cooking. I also really like being able to watch some older episodes from real chefs like Mario Batali and Jamie Oliver. Plus, since it is not in high definition, I'm able to record a lot more shows without filling up my DVR.
I tried my hand at Indian cooking for the first time yesterday, following the Spice Goddess' recipe for "No-Butter Chicken." Since this was my first time cooking Indian and using a lot of the spices, I followed her recipe exactly, which can be found here. I liked that the recipe seemed relatively light, without any butter and cream, only non-fat Fage greek yogurt for some tang and creaminess. I was able to find all the spices that I didn't have, including cumin seeds, turmeric and garam masala (a mix of cloves, cumin, cinnamon, black pepper, cardamon, coriander) at Whole Foods. I served the chicken over white rice, with a side of arugula topped with my recent Trader Joe's discovery, dressed with a simple balsamic vinaigrette.
The chicken was really spicy with lots of interesting and unusual flavors (to me at least) and I liked the consistency that the yogurt added. I found the dish a little too cinnamon-y, not sure if its because Whole Food's garam masala is particularly heavy on the cinnamon, or if that's just how garam masala tastes and I just wasn't used to the flavors. In the future, I might also add some more fresh vegetables, maybe some peppers, tomatoes or spinach. It was a fun experiment and really quick to prepare (less than 30 minutes including prep time) so I'll be trying some more of her recipes in the future, especially now that I have the spices in my cabinet.
" for the chance to meet her for a signing. The line was quite long, even though we got there before the signing started, and we were in and out of there pretty quickly, but we did get a quick picture with her (not shown) and an autographed book. I have to admit, I was a little star-struck when I met her and was too tongue-tied to tell her how much I adored her, but that's ok. She looks just as nice as she does on TV!
over medium heat, and saute the marinated chicken until fully cooked, and remove
(I probably could have used my 3 quart oven)
