Comfort Food for the Soul & Subsequent Burger Night

Dinner lately has been composed of rather spicy or ethnic elements, resulting in a familial need to have a simple roast, veggie, and starch meal.  The result of this need was a roast chicken whose skin turned out not nearly crispy enough for having been in the oven as long as it was, steamed and seasoned broccoli which I consumed like a beast, and homemade macaroni and cheese of which I did not partake any.  Instead, my starchy goodness was a lovely bowl of BR.  Sometimes you just have to give a little bit of a whole grain ethnic flair to such a toned-down dinner.  So if you are ever looking for something to soothe the pallet and soul after nights of feasting on firey cuisine or some sort of emotional trauma, rely on these old standards: oven-roasted chicken with some root veggies for extra comfort, steamed veggies of a greener variety to keep in all the deliciousness ad healthfulness, and a big ceramic bowl of bread crumb-topped, cheddary, oven-baked man'n'cheese.  We also had a delcious oven-roasted tomato basil salad on the side with a drizzle of quality olive oil right before serving. Need I say more?

 

The next night, of course, I was craving something with a bit more zing to it, and my parents wanted burgers on the grill.  I was up for grilling, so dad got me a couple portobella  mushrooms which he seasoned and grilled up.  They were standardly seasoned with chopped garlic, herbes de provence, salt, pepper, and olive oil.  The mushrooms were SO meaty and substantial that I really managed to make quite a dinner out of it.  I ate it on a nice, thin whole wheat bun and with a roasted poblano chili on top!  The chili had the right amount of spice for me, and I unorthodoxically added sliced tomato on top of that and dipped the whole spicy, earthy, scrumptious beast into a dollop of Boars Head delicatessen-style mustard and bit down.  Man, was that a quality meal!  I can't begin to describe the intense interplay of the earthy mushroom, the whole grain bread, the rather spicy and smoky roasted poblano (as far as poblanos go), and the juicy tomato.  The flavors were all unique and intense, and the portobella actually held up to grilling as long as the burgers did and could have even taken more of a beating.  So the next time you're craving something vegetarian but smoky, dine as I did on a grilled portobella with a nice roasted poblano on it.  Also, grill a red onion for a bit of a sweetness as a snack after the meal, and use the kale-mushroom sautee about which I have posted in the past.  That is the green that accompanies this meal, and the earthy crimini mushrooms of that and the sweet sauteed onion play along well with the whole scrumptious fusion portoburger I described in tantalizing detail already.  Just eat it!

  

This pic was taken before everything was fully assembled...I was hungry and in need of feed.

Blackened Red Snapper

The dinner that came out of the Roebling Market excursion was something very similar to things we have had in the past and about which I have blogged before: blackened fish and mango salsa, accompanied by a nice sauteed mound of varied summer vegetables, all fresh from the garden of a family friend: tomatoes, zucchini, green bell peppers, and store-bought potatoes yet locally grown. 

 

Spices for Blackened Fish & Shrimp from the freezer

 

Seasoned/Draining Tomatoes

Tried & True Mango Salsa

(see previous trial of this for recipe)

Italian People's Bakery & Trenton's Market

First of all, my dad and I made a day of going to Hamilton, NJ to visit my grandmother in the hospital and then the bakery for lunch and market for dinner.  It was quite the trip.  We started off enjoying roasted on-the-vicinity turkey breast with no salt added to it.  It tasted SO good with the crunchy lettuce and red, ripe Jersey tomato supplying all the moisture necessary.  The oregano and black pepper really brought out the different flavors of the turkey, fresh as it was, and tied it together with a sort of mediterranean, some might even say Italian, flair (tomatoes and herbs).  All of this was enjoyed safely packed into a freshly baked half torpedo roll and sliced in half for both of us to enjoy.  I tell you that there is nothing, i repeat nothing at all, like a fresh Trenton half-torp from this bakery.  I usually try to indulge in whole grains, but this roll is simply well-baked.  You can't get good bread in Newtown, as my family always says, so we go to this bakery for our baked-good splurges.  This well-made sandwich was firmly packed into the airy, light, and flaky roll so it could be enjoyed, as custom dictates, in the topless Jeep on Route 29.  Dad cringed at the thought of no mayonnaise or cheese, but was thoroughly amazed that with such a delicate and light, flaky-crumbed roll and a juicy summer tomato and lettuce, he did not require mayo or cheese to counteract any dryness.  In fact, the turkey had flavor, moisture, and taste as opposed to the wonderfully processed meats we so vehemently boycott in the supermarket.  Okay maybe not vehemently, since my parents do pack their lunches as teachers, but we try!

Onto the main event: dinner.  We took an adventure, whilst in Trenton, to Roebling Market's Food Bazaar a couple streets over from the bakery.  It is the most well-stocked ethnic/non-ethnic market I have been to within many miles of Newtown.  It is packed with fresh fruits and vegetables from pretty much the far corners of anyone's imagination all well-priced and legitimately good-looking.  I bought, of course, a huge bag of small gala apples for my snacking needs the following week up until I go to college, and stocked up on the essentials for dinner. 

We went to the fish department, since we would be having fish that dad filleted himself, since I wanted to see his skills, and bypassed the incredibly diverse meat department.  This meat department has about 3 billion different kinds of corn tortillas for the many different ethnicities representing below-the-border lifestyle and cooking preferences.  Let me tell you...last time we browsed I found bull testicles in a frozen section rabbit loin that made you think of a rabbit the size of a large pig.  It's great!

 

These squash were enormous by the way

Ota-Ya Newtown

 

Wednesday night I went with two other college-bound friends to my favorite local sushi place (one of two in Newtown), Ota-Ya.  We all started off with soup and green tea, they had miso, I had suimono, and though somewhat salty, it was a refreshing appetizer as always.  We also got warm towels as is standard in Japanese restaurants: I love that so much.  It's a great way to prepare for the exciting meal ahead.  I always love to go out for sushi when it's a treat such as this, since I haven't had sushi in quite some time.  I ordered up some of my favorites from this place.  Their selection is not the best, but they do have more options than other places in town.  My choices include amaebi with the tempura-ed heads on the side, kapyo (pickled squarsh) roll, hirame (sea bass), and ika (squid).

The sea bass was absolutely my favorite dish of the night; it was so creamy and tender and paired wonderfully with the little dollop of vinegared rice upon which it was served, that I savored every second the morsel was in my mouth.  The ika was a little bit tough, but what can you expect from raw squid.  I suppose it could have been cut a bit more thinly, but the thickness allowed its sea flavor to come through and thankfully dominate the roe that topped each morsel.  The bits of scallions added a nice textural boost to the ika, and the rice continued to please.  The shrimp were indeed sweet as described and raw, since they were amaebi, not simply ebi.  They were rather plump and large for that variety, and they tasted wonderful.  Unlike last time I had them during a previous excursion, the heads were not the crunchy, crispy delicacy I had remembered.  It seemed as though this time they had been sitting alongside the rest of our food while we finished our soup, since they were a tad oily, and the battered bits were not crunchy but somewhat soggy.  I wasn't enjoying them enough to finish off the heads; oily food gets to me pretty quickly, and this wasn't good enough to risk ruining the rest of my meal.  The kampyo roll, of course enjoyed between bites of other sushi the palate cleansed each time with ginger, was a wonderful contrast to the raw seafood.  It provided a bit of a saltiness even without the soy sauce, and helped the ginger to cleanse the palate in between each differently flavored and textured piece of seafood.  It was wonderful in its own right, especially since I adore all things squash.  

As always, this is a recommended restaurant if you're craving sushi within the area, and I look forward to getting into the city to eat more varied seafood!

Tuscan Beans and Greens

Well my dad was certainly in his element tonight, cooking a Tuscan dish....  This is basically the same thing we had several weeks ago, but this time there was no shrimp.  We had some different kinds of chorizo in it, and some ham hock used to make the stock cut up on the side.  I of course left these out to experience the dish in a vegetarian sense : ). 

As you can see from the picture, it is a combination of garlic, onions, carrots, celery, and white beans simmered with kale, escarole, spinach, and a few leaves of collard greens for texture.  So just quick-soak the beans boiling for 5 minutes and letting rest for an hour or two in the hot pot on the counter, saving the created stock to thicken the dish.  Sautee onions and garlic and adding in rosemary, thyme, and oregano, plus salt and pepper.  Add in the carrots and celery and allow them to sweat along with the ham hock.  Once sweated, add in some vegetable stock mixed with the beans' soaking liquid depending on the end consistency you desire.  Add in the beans and simmer with the ham bone until they are tender and just about ready to eat.  Then add the kale, collards, and escarole, reserving the spinach for the last 5 or so minutes of cooking, allowing it to sit on top and steam before stirring it into the simmering liquid.  You can immersion-blend the mixture at this point before putting in the greens if you want a thicker texture.  This uses the bulk of the mashed up beans to thicken.  Thicken more by simmering lidless or thin with some more bean/veggie stock.  Garnish with sausage or ham that you pull from the bone after the beans have finished cooking if you so choose.  I did not, but there's nothing wrong with it.  I will tell you, however, that the flavors pull together so much better if you crack more black pepper on top right before serving and add a bit more sea salt to it once on the table depending on your taste.  It finishes off the layers of flavor.  This dish is really good with the hearty beans, healthful greens, and sweet morsels of well-cooked carrot all seasoned in a Tuscan fashion with the herbs I mentioned.  It's not only a classic in our house but also a winner!

Recipe: Salsa Verde

This is essentially a staple of our house, which sometimes contains corn for a corn-tomatillo salsa that I know I have mentioned in past posts.

10 tomatillos, halved and oven-roasted (300F - 45 min)
3 poblanos, flame-roasted and skin removed, chopped & separated into two equal portions
2 jalapeno chilis, minced
2 serrano chilis, minced
juice of one lime
bunch of cilantro, chopped & separated into two equal portions
1 medium-large onion
3 cloves garlic

Saute onions and garlic while roasting the tomatillos and poblanos.
Place above ingredients into food processor along with serranos jalapenos, one portion of poblanos, and one portion of cilantro.
Add remaining poblanos, cilantro, and lime juice and pulse to combine.

Pour into some sort of bowl and enjoy a LOT -or- add roasted corn and enjoy even more!

Two Nights of Asian Delights

Miso-Chipotle Cod Soup

Well...I had to do something creative with the title, since I need to incorporate two nights of wonderful cooking into a single blog post.  Neither is a complicated concoction, and neither needs the careful exposition other entries have received.  On August 22nd, we had a miso-chipotle glazed codfish soup.  The broth was made from a shrimp stock from shrimp heads and shells stored in the freezer from a meal long-past and a medley of vegetables both of Asian origin and American origin.  We had a combination of broccoli, kale, carrots, a tri-color medley of bell pepprs, thai hot peppers, celery, and bok choy.  The miso-chipotle glaze was the same as we have had in the past on sturdy whitefish that is generally baked in the oven and topped with a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds tableside.  Within the soup was a hearty and filling portion of wonderful and slim whole wheat udon noodles from the organic store in town.  They are Eden Brand and are truly a fantastic and wheaty base.  They're filling and chock-full of fiber and protein for a wheat noodle.  It really lends a nice chewy starchiness as well to counteract the flaky fish and the al dente vegetables.  The stock was rich with a dab of sesame oil added before serving to tie together the fish and soup in an Asian theme.  It's one of the easy and lower-cost staples of our household and is good in the summer or the winter.  We added a bit of sriracha to enhance the heat from other sources.  The starch in the noodles allowed for a bit of a cooling effect as only bread products can achieve for a spicy dish.

 

Pork Stir-Fry

One of the easiest dishes ever is stir-fry.  All you have to do is marinate the small cuts of pork (we used pork chops slivered ever so thinly) in sesame oil, soy sauce, sriracha, rice vvinegar, and chinese five spice powder, adding anything else that you want.  I tend to add some freshly sliced ginger root as well, since the powdered root from the five-spice I find to be lacking.  I really like to grind my own fresh version of five-spice, but this requires that we have everything on hand, and my dad was doing the cooking.  Naturally, this process did not occur, since he's more of a Mediterranean & Mexican fan.  I'm the Asian one ; )

Fry up the pork first in a little bit of a neutral oil, remove from the pan reserving some of the marinade in the pan to help cook the vegetables, and add in garlic and onions followed by a bunch of different vegetables from firmest to easiest-to-wilt.  An example of this procedure is carrots, followed by a medley of differently colored bell peppers and maybe even a thai chili (like the ones used to marinate the pork as well for some extra spiciness).  We then add mushrooms, zucchini, bok choy stems and kale, followed by spinach, more mushrooms, and broccoli, since I like my broccoli rather firm.  I love when it's still a very, very deep green with a bite to the stem.  After everything cooks to the doneness that you desire, add in a slurry of cornstarch and water, equal parts, and about two tbsp each mixed well in order to thicken the cooking liquid.  Then just plate, insuring that each guest receives an ample portion of vegetables, the true star of this concoction!  Serve with a bowl of brown rice on the side or a pile of basmati rice underneath, however you prefer it (my way vs. that of my parents) and garnish with cilantro, toasted sesame seeds, and bean sprouts, if desired.  The sweetness of the pork interplays nicely with the hint of sweetness in the Chinese Five-Spice and that of the vegetables, especially the bell peppers and carrots.  The kale and spinach provide a nice earthiness along with the mushrooms and showcase the different greens available, of course you can use any that you like.  We like the juxtaposition of firm kale and droopy spinach both vibrantly verdant.  A small portion of this can be reserved for bento use, which I have certainly done in the past if any remains.  This time none did.

As an added treat on this night, my dad bought a bunch of oysters that he painfully shucked and I enjoyed with some cocktail sauce and some without.  He took what remained of our ruthless pre-dinner appetites and devised oysters Rockefeller, which my grandpa heartily enjoyed as an appetizer.  He simply sauteed spinach, onions, and garlic, added it to the shell of the raw oyster, salted them with some French Sea Salt and popped them in the oven for a bit until done.  I didn't sample, but the parts on their own were fantastic: I'm a fan of raw oysters and any greens sauteed with onions and garlic!  Serve with a wedge of lemon and some parsley.

In Order to Comment...

You need to click on the title of the post that you are reading if you are reading the blog from its homepage http://www.ianpenk.info or ketai-hashi.blogspot.com, since I just installed a new commenting tool, disqus, that links facebook, digg.com, twitter, etc. to allow for more streamlined commenting and whatnot.  It's pretty cool since you can use your profile from a bunch of different sites to comment, and you don't necessarily need to make a profile or become a member of google/blogger in order to post a comment or to follow the blog.  Thanks and comment if you so choose ; )

Oven Fried Catfish & Black-Eyed Pea Salad

Easily one of the tastiest ways to enjoy sturdy fish such as catfish that begs to be cooked in such a way that other more delicate fish may be dried out. In order to oven-fry, it is necessary to marinate the catfish for a while. We used homemade nonfat "buttermilk" made from skimmed milk and some sort of acid such as lemon juice to heighten the seafood flavor as you know lemon accomplishes so effectively. Also included in the marinade was srirachca in order to provide a base of heat to the fish to which the black-eyed pea and cucumber salad would provide a cooling counterbalance. After marinating, just take the fish and roll it in a combination of flour, cornmeal, salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. You can add any complementary spices or herbs that you see fit depending on what is being cooked and which dishes will be complementing it in order to create a tableside unity.

The catfish was then baked in the oven and ended up crispy due to the coating yet moist and succulent within the corny shell. The corn also paired very nicely with the black-eyed peas in the side salad for which the "recipe" is provided below. To balance the meal even further, we needed a green, and that huge bag of kale was still residing in the refrigerator, only half-full by this point. The kale was sauteed with minced garlic, onions, red pepper flakes, and the star element - crimini mushrooms. None of us around the table could believe how exquisite this combination turned out to be. The earthiness and umami meatiness of the mushrooms nullified any bitterness that may have remained in the flash pan-fried greens and complemented the earthiness of sauteed onions and garlic about which I ranted in my last post. The hot pepper flakes tied the greens to the heat provided in the catfish and its coating, while the green side dish broadened the already expansive array of colors on the table. That is what we attempt to achieve every night: a balance of the essential nutrients through various colors at table along with varied food types represented on each plate. This meal was quite a hit.

Black-Eyed Pea Salad

1 lb black-eyed peas, soaked and fully cooked
1 medium red onion, diced
1 cucumber, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 bunch parsley, roughly chopped

1 tbsp low fat sour cream
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
lemon zest for garnish, if desired

To assemble, mix the salad ingredients together in a large bowl and add salt and pepper, mix the dressing elements and drizzle over dry ingredients until desired moistness of salad is achieved, insuring that rest time is given to the salad before combining to remove excess water to the bottom of the bowl, slightly diluting the dressing. Chill in the refrigerator for an hour before serving.

American Fusion Kale Soup

This is one of the "peasanty-est" dishes I think I have ever experienced in my life, and with two teachers as parents, the end of August hits us hard. That wasn't necessarily the reason for this dish; it just so happened I picked up two pounds of kale for a ridiculously low price at Genuardi's, and we wanted something veggie-filled for the health of my grandpa and our own as well. This dinner occurred on the 20th...but yet again life has been a bit hectic lately, so here it goes.

I label this as an American fusion dish, since it takes into account all parts of America. We have kale and carrots that are more than likely local to some extent from North American soil, corn that, while grown in the good ol' U. S. of A., was certainly originally grown in Central/south America, and tomatillos providing the base of the soup from below the border as well. These tomatillos were locally grown and provided for me at a farmers' market, but hey...it's all about the semblance of a united American continent through a single dish. Also, this dish is really, really simply like a good pozole without the hominy. Instead, we substituted roasted corn, but did everything else similarly. The tomatillos were roasted to perfection as was the corn in the oven, developing a rich, earthy sweetness that only roasted vegetation alone can muster. This dish was quite spicy, since we used two jalapenos, two serranos, two roasted poblanos that were locally grown and rather spicy for such a mild pepper, and some italian hot peppers I picked up at that roadside stand on my way home from the beach. It made me sweat to eat it, which means I liked it and it cooled me down - as much as soup can, anyway. The garlic and onions provided a depth of flavor that any dish without I would find severely lacking in depth. I found that out the hard way one time when I made a bean soup in my rice cooker: it did not have layers of flavor...it was simply bland to some extent. It lacked the sauteed aromatics in the beginning to bolster and support the flavors of the Mexican spices I added later. If you get nothing else from reading my blog, just know that onions and especially garlic go a long way in making food that much healthier and tastier. Never leave out this beginning step!

As a general rule, kale holds up much better than any other leafy green I know except for collard greens. This makes it indispensable when dealing with soups. It makes the soup hearty, and it balances out the sweetness of root vegetables with its tasty green bitterness characteristic of such leaves. It also provides a surprising amount of protein for a leaf, so it allows for vegetarian-friendly meals that are both filling and hearty. The corn and tomatillos really benefited from the sweetness of the carrots and roasted red bell pepper as well as the intensity of the kale. There was a lot of kale: it does NOT shrink nearly as much as spinach or other wilting and insubstantial greens. It's absolutely my new favorite edible leaf - hands down.

Since this is simply a meatless alteration of an already fantastic Penkala Posole with corn and kale rather than hominy and chicken/pork, just use the methods of cooking called for in that earlier post, including a sole large roasted red bell pepper, sliced to add a bit of roasty, toasty sweetness with the added bitterness. Really it plays on all five tastes well and exhibits quite a balance of flavors. Try it out when you need to stretch the pot and the wallet to feed a crowd that isn't absolutely craving meat. Or you could make it on your own in a rice cooker or a one person sauce-pot on the stove. Either way it pleases the gullet.

Three Bean Vegetarian Chili

Well this dinner occurred on the nineteenth of the month; however with the craziness that has been going on, I have been really unable to blog very much. This chili is totally worth it AND a recipe is included. Enjoy :)

The chili is really, really earthy and has quite the umami taste with the meatiness of the mushrooms and the bulk of the lentils. This is the protein-packed meal every athlete needs once in a while. It is hearty and thick, and I can think of no other reason for having it during this point in the hot August heat other than that we had a lot of dried beans in the house (and still do) and we were craving something filling and comforting after some of the perils of late summer and family illness hit us hard. Be prepared for a mouthful of mushroomy goodness with each bite, and cut the mushrooms to your liking. We cut them a bit too small and didn't get to truly savor their flavor. Experiment with different kinds of mushrooms or different split lentils or dals. It is crucial that you include the lentils if you want it to be a vegetarian chili rather than simply a thick bean soup. They really provide the backbone texturally of the dish.

Dad's Vegetarian Chili

5 cloves garlic, minced
2 large onions, chopped
1/2 lb. black beans, soaked & par-cooked
1/2 lb. black-eyed peas, soaked & par-cooked
1/2 lb. red beans, soaked & par-cooked
1.5 cups reserved bean cooking liquid (if quick-soaked)
1.5 cups red lentils
1 bay leaf

2 green peppers, chopped
2 serrano chilis, chopped
4 poblanos, roasted & chopped
3/4 small can tomato paste
4 heirloom tomatoes, chopped

8 oz pkg button mushroom, sliced
8oz pkg crimini mushrooms, sliced
1 pkg reconstituted porchini mushrooms, sliced
2 cups porchini-infused broth

The following ingredients ground and toasted (adjusted according to taste for heat/spice):
1 chipotle pepper
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander seed
2 tsp Mexican oregano
2 dried ancho chilis
2 dried guajillo chilis

In a large stockpot --
Saute onions, garlic, and bell peppers until soft & add tomato paste, bay leaf, and toasted spices
Add tomatoes and roasted poblanos and simmer until tender
Add beans, porchini mushrooms, bean par-cooking liquid, and porchini broth & allow to simmer until beans are cooked through but still firm
Add jalapenos, serranos, and mushrooms and allow to simmer until mushrooms are somewhat cooked
Add red lentils and simmer on medium-low, covered until desired thickness/consistency of chili is achieved -- use vegetable stock to thin if necessary or desired

Serve over BR with a garnish of cilantro, lime wedges, minced red & green bell peppers and a dollop of sour cream. Use chives if no peppers are available and cheese if you please ;)

Pumpkin Spice and My Mini-Steamer

Well, on Tuesday we at Starbucks got in our Pumpkin Spice syrup just for partner samples before we release it in fall phase 1. Ian Gillies, my barista bud basically dropped dead with excitement, and the day continued to get better when I got home and received a bunch of my Amazon orders in the mail. My two favorites were the rice cooker cookbook that will certainly help out in college and a microwavable mini-steamer that I tested that very afternoon. It came with a cute little half-sheet of paper that gave suggested times for cooking different vegetables, and it included the warning that cooking times varied from oven to oven. Why include the times, which, by the way, were all 3-5 minutes anyway, literally? It just didn't make sense to me, so I set my microwave to 70% and cooked for 3 minutes and let it sit in the microwave post-cooking, residually steaming for another three minutes. The broccoli, carrots, kale, spinach, peppers, and celery were all wonderfully steamed to excellent tenderness and well-flavored with the salt, pepper, Herbes de Provence, and red pepper flakes that I added. I added a clove of garlic to the steaming water in the basket underneath, and it worked out very nicely, adding to the earthiness of the vegetables. I recommend the microwave steamer to anyone who only has a microwave for cooking and desires the steamed food. It's tiny and meant for one, but it works out very nicely allowing for a good side dish or single portion meal when a stove is unavailable. Of course, a microwave could destroy vital nutrients about which we don't know yet, so when possible, don't use the microwave for steaming wonderfully healthful vegetables. For a college kid...it just works.

Harvey Cedars Take 2

Sorry about the delay in posting these seemingly "old" stories now from this past weekend....

I recently drove down to the beach with a good friend of mine who accompanied me in visiting another friend down in LBI. We went out for dinner and stayed the night, kayaked, sailed, and had a really awesome time! Not surprisingly, we went to Harvey Cedars Shellfish Co. like I had when I went down with my parents, since their seafood is truly amazing, and they have enough options that I knew exactly what I wanted. They had not changed their specials menu, so I opted for the grilled yellowfin tuna with a mango vinaigrette, grilled pineapple rings, sauteed zucchini, and Jersey corn (the star of my dinner) in place of cole slaw. I was rather thankful that I got the corn, since it was yet again to die for...completely and utterly amazing to the last fibrous bite into the cob.

I ordered the tuna medium-rare as recommended by the waitress, even though I generally order tuna rare. I figure that the locals know the quality of the fish better than I do and how I would best enjoy their preparations. Unfortunately it was closer to medium than rare, and I was biting into gray rather than ripe pink flesh, but it was still quite tasty. I really enjoyed the juiciness of the rare center juxtaposed with the smoky goodness of the grilled exterior. It allows you to taste the best flavor of the yellowfin while satisfying the craving I had for some smoky grilled flavor. The zucchini was sauteed to the point of tenderness without losing its bite, a necessity for me with vegetables, but I was not so fond of its oiliness for a vegetable. I found a piece of bacon fat along with my veggies. As an attempted-pescatarian who is not so fond of bacon in general, I was a little taken aback by the chef's desire to deny the vegetables their own earthy veggie flavor paying respect to the average American's love of bacon. Who can blame him; it is the restaurant business, no? I wasn't starving, so I left some of the zucchini uneaten in favor of the delectable corn <3. I swear I just could not get enough of it. I had the vinaigrette on the side, and it was not quite redolent of mangoes as I had hoped. I am simply thankful it was on the side and not slathered on the beautiful hunk of flaky seafood, otherwise ruining its natural juiciness.

Overall it was both an excellent meal and an excellent trip down to the beach!

Comforting Chicken Noodle Soup

The other night my dad made chicken noodle soup from scratch with chicken thighs he thought were breasts frozen in the freezer. This made such a WONDERFUL chicken noodle soup that I think there is a reason that a whole chicken is the meat of choice: juxtaposition of tender white meat with flavorful, juicy dark thigh meat is just fantastic. You can really use any part of the chicken to make flavorful stock as long as there are bones present, and then you just skim it and use it. This soup was loaded with carrots and celery the way I like it! ^_^ We left in the carrots that had been used to make the stock as well, so the soft carrots with skin complemented nicely those which were harder without skin, since they were meant for the soup portion and were sliced along the bias. You can pick out the two different ones in the picture. They taste so different for being cooked carrots, but are both absolutely wonderful and necessary!

Chicken, Vegetable & Brown Rice Soup

Bento Box #1

This was my one prime day to make a bento box for work, since I worked 8-4 and really needed nourishment in the middle for which I both had time to make lunch before work and did not have time during work to go out and spend money.... I ended up making a fresh tomato-basil salad from tomatoes I had bought at the farmers' market the previous afternoon as a starter in the top compartment. Underneath this excellence was some freshly steamed brown rice (thank goodness for the keep warm feature of my Zoji) and a mixture of steamed broccoli from the microwave and chicken meat that would be used in the soup that night that my previous post covers. This was an exciting meal because it was made for me by me to be eaten during my hectic work schedule. It seemed as though my concerns about cooking for myself occasionally in college were to be zapped. This all went together so easily and swiftly that any future shifts covering my lunchtime so completely will be accompanied with my downing a deliciously homemade bento. I love my blue "wave" bento box I got last year from jbox.com.

My Bento Lunch

Tuscan Shrimp & Beans

Shrimp & Tuscan Beans

This was a lovely last-minute dinner my father threw together when we realized that the chicken stock in the pot would not be ready in time to feed my hungry grandpa soup last night. So instead he sauteed some collards, canellini beans, carrots, peppers, garden-fresh tomatoes and spinach together and let it simmer while he sauteed the shrimp with some herbs, garlic, and onions. Topping the mixture with the shrimp fed us all heartily as a nice light summer-weather fare the moment I returned from my excursion to the local Farmers' Market in Yardley where I made some nice purchases of local tomatoes, zucchini, tomatillos, and hot peppers that gave me some hiccups, having bitten into one filled with seeds : P. I recommend this Mediterranean-style dish when you need a quick-fix meal with a lot of flavor and you are in the mood for a good hearty mix of beans and vegetables in the summertime. We used canned beans since there was little-to-no prep going on. Garnish with basil and lemon, or crushed back pepper.

My shopping excursion's results:

Tomatillos

Huge Zucchini and Tomatoes

Dinner at the Shore

On Wednesday I drove my parents down to Long Beach Island for a nice dinner at Harvey Cedars Shellfish Co. It was a nasty drive down to the shore in torrential downpours that I seemed to be ceaselessly driving into.... It was a fun time, and I got some good seafood, so it was worth it. We started off with a bread basket that we didn't really touch until my dad started his dozen clams on the half-shell. They were all relatively small so they were plump and juicy. I snitched a couple, and the cocktail sauce was chunky with tomatoes and its only downfall was not quite enough horseradish for our tastes. Adding freshly squeezed lemon juice to it did the trick, bringing out the slightly hidden kick in the sinuses. The clams tasted of the ocean, signifying their superb flavor and freshness of locally-harvested seafood. The bigger ones were slightly chewy, but that's what happens when clams to be savored small get too big.

Clams on the 1/2 Shell

My parents feasted on a double-portion of freshly caught and steamed lobster and mussel platter with Jersey corn on the cob. The lobster meat was rich and tasty with butter melted on the side, while the mussels lacked the freshness of all of the other seafood we were served.

Parents' Lobster Platter

I enjoyed my own platter of jumbo shrimp and mussels with my own serving of the same locally-grown Jersey corn. My first thought is that the corn was absolutely the best fresh-steamed, butterless corn I have had in a long, long time. It was sweet and had its own wonderful substance of flavor, and it was not overly sweet or starchy. It was the perfection of Jersey corn in its prime: a bite to the kernel followed by a rush of sweet, mellowed by the crunch and subsequent agglutination of starchiness. It went down easily all on its own and could easily have been the star of the dish for me. I love my vegetables! The shrimp was equally tasty, though I did have to peel it as described on the menu. How else are you going to serve pick-n-peel steamed shrimp, right? Despite playing with my food, I enjoyed the freshness of the shrimp, which were quite plump and substantially packed with shrimpy flavor. They really had a meaty bite to them, their slight blandness characteristic of eating shrimp after shrimp was completely taken away by the excellence of the cocktail sauce accompanying them. Instead of masking their delicate shrimpiness, the cocktail sauce enhanced their seafood flavor, the lemon bringing out the true flavors of the shellfish. The texture of chunky tomatoes combined with the meatiness of the shrimp really played out nicely in the mouth.

Shrimp Platter with Jersey Corn

Many different textures were represented from the corn to the mussels to the shrimp, all topped off with the cocktail sauce. The mussels, however, were nothing at all about which I will be raving. They had a slight fishy odor to them that initially turned me way off to even sampling them. I placed many of them into my garbage bowl, sampling only those that were open and faintly smelling of the ocean. Even these had a slightly old aftertaste that the cocktail sauce neither masked nor enhanced. Nothing could have been done to enhance those mussels: they simply did not add to the entirety of the meal. They were somewhat alien in their poor flavor, texture, and scent. They were chewy, a little slimy, and incapable of being enjoyed.

The mussels aside, the evening went wonderfully, ending with my consumption of both my mother's half-ear of corn on the cob and my own. Unfortunately it was an "animal-protein fest" but I can deal with that every once in a while as long as it's seafood. I see salads in my future ; ). I polished off three dishes of cocktail sauce with the shrimp and bread, and enjoyed every bite of the rest of the meal. We got Dunkin' Donuts on the way home, which, working for Starbucks, has been the WORST coffee experience of my snobby life! I will never go to another DD, since the espresso I ordered was the flavor of dirty dish water without even the slightest hint of brewed coffee flavor. I can't handle crappy coffee, so I will stick to my own home-pulled espresso and that of Starbucks for the rest of my existence : )

Chicken & Mediterranean Mix over Pasta

Tonight's dinner was quick, last minute decided, and pretty darn good. It consisted of chicken breasts (skin on, bone-in) roasted with herbs in the oven and a saute of crimini mushrooms, button mushrooms, oven-roasted red peppers, spinach, and onions over a bed of whole wheat penne pasta. Accompanying this mixture of light and yet again earthy flavors was an even lighter tomato-cucumber salad with basil and red onion. Dad forgot to bring that dish out until after dinner, but it made it even better, providing a garden-sweet accompaniment to the meaty and hearty summer meal.

The tomatoes and cucumbers were fresh from my grandmother's garden, while the basil was fresh from our own backyard herb garden, making this salad even better! I do love eating locally if at all possible, and this meal qualified rather well except for the chicken and pasta. It's really easy to make since you can just put the salad components together with some salt and pepper and let it sit in the refrigerator until ready to serve. It's totally raw and really flavorful with a tsp of olive oil stirred in to bring together all of the mediterranean flavors in a great harmony.

The main course was also fantastic with the mushrooms lending a real heartiness to the dish, while the red peppers added a good amount of sweetness in comparison. The spinach was nice and freshly wilted without being totally destroyed in the cooking process. It added a nice fibrous and healthful touch to a dish that incorporated an excellent array of both colors and tastes to the beholder. That is always my main focus when cooking: if you can add a bunch of different colors and tastes while tying everything together with some sort of theme, you have a winning meal every time!

Roasted Chicken with Mushrooms & Spinach over Pasta

Oishi - Newtown

Well dad and I trudged in this disgusting heat and humidity, in which we both ran today, to Oishi in Newtown owned by a nice Korean couple. My standby, Ota-Ya, is closed on Monday, and I was really in the mood for some Japanese fare. I only say trudged because we can never figure out what/where we want to eat when we are confined and limited by both the day of week and the lack of ability to cook (due to my having cleaned out the fridge after last night). My dad cooks better than what we get out, but we go out simply with no other option - I was paid tips today and felt the need to splurge on a little sushi.

We entered and realized that it was absolutely packed to the gills for a Monday night in the restaurant world. It was like the recession had hit none of Newtown's occupants and none would have gone anywhere else with their rumbling stomachs. We were waited on once the host got off of the phone and were led to the bar by request, though most tables were full and lines would begin shortly after we were seated. Our waitress was a nice and friendly girl about my age ; ) and she was very attentive to our green tea needs (asking if we desired refills on several occasions). It was an overall pleasant dining experience. Dad and I split sushi and a piping hot bowl of seafood udon noodle soup.

Our sushi included tako, hokkigai, ika, eelcado, salmon-cucumber roll, and amaebi. The amaebi was true to its name, sweet and juicy little raw things with just a bit too much rice for their petite nature and delicate flavor. I found that the sushi rice almost overpowered the amaebi, but they were delicious nonetheless. They were not worth $5.50, but I dealt. The hokkigai was my favorite of the evening - there is something about nice chewy yet palatable red clam that really excites the mouth. After chewing a bit, it just seems to melt away with the wasabi and soy sauce helping to bring out the natural flavors of the seas. The hokkigai was rather large, unfortunately leaving me with a stuffed mouth as I tried to down it. The tako was even larger, and I felt like I needed to break my sushi etiquette and tear it. Of course, I did not. It was somewhat grainy as if it had been poorly cared for in the thawing process, and the texture was not something that would make me order it again. The tako is much better at Ota-Ya if you need to eat sushi and are suck in Newtown. By no means is Newtown the best place for seafood, but hey, I gotta have it somewhere....

My udon soup was disappointing, since I get it frequently when I go there, and I really kind of know how it usually tastes at Oishi. The shrimp pieces, yes pieces, were mangled remains of what looked like shrimp-textured intestines that accompanied only two actual full-bodied tightly curled shrimp as would be expected in a simmered broth. The udon noodles were a lovely texture to compliment the broth they managed to absorb and release with each mouthful. The squid pieces were good as they should be, and there was thankfully no fake crabmeat to go around this time. Often they put that in on the top as a sort of garnish-protein. It did not come with shichimi togirashi as it usually does to be sprinkled as a garnish, and the scallops I passed up since I don't really like them, and they looked to be lacking in texture. The broth contained very few vegetables, so i supplemented them with a side order of steamed vegetables in place of my boring salad. The vegetables added a sweetness and a richness to the already tasty seafood broth. I was very thankful for their accompaniment. The broth was definitely the showcase of the dish, as it should be, and could be enjoyed along with the noodles, each mouthful of noodles provided a substantial amount of broth with them, and the onions cooked in the broth provided a very aggressive sweetness to the already sweet meat of the shellfish. I would not order it again if I knew it would look/taste as it did tonight, since there are other things to try there, but it's usually better than that and prepared with a bit more care. They must not have been expecting the crowd either.

As a last note, a fly was buzzing around our portion of the bar, and of course when it landed close to me, I attempted my Karate Kid move with the chopsticks (my keitaihashi ofc) only to miserably fail several times, resulting in a chuckle from my father. Maybe next time with more practice I shall catch the fly with my chopsticks. Who knows what I'd eat with then.... I don't think I'll have to worry about that fantasy actually coming to pass anytime soon.

Pan-Asian Chicken Stir-Fry

Left to my own devices for the third night in a row and out of leftovers, I decided to empty the refrigerator of vegetables and to utilize part of a boneless, skinless chicken breast we had lying around (in the fridge of course!). I started off by creating a very concentrated shiitake stock of about four ounces of actual final stock and three plump mushrooms for use in the stir-fry. While the mushrooms were steeping, I pounded the chicken flat with a rubber mallet shadily in the garage and cut it into small, thin, easy-to-cook strips and put them in a marinade of a by-eye combination of sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, star anise, cinnamon, cloves, garlic, rice wine vinegar, sriracha, and Japanese dried hot peppers. I felt a Korean flair coming on as I added those last two ingredients in amounts that would later prove to make me sweat - this designates my perfect amount of heat in a dish.

Marinating Chicken

The vegetables are nothing special and are entirely alterable depending on what you have. Remember; I basically just used the only things that we had in the fridge after having cooked for myself two nights ago and without access to a store for the past week. Carrots, cucumber, daikon, green bell pepper, Japanese dried hot peppers, frozen peas, Japanese eggplant, the reconstituted shiitakes, green onions, and loads of collard greens that either needed to be used or tossed. They were put to use yet again - I love my leafy greens, as you know by now. I combined these ingredients in tiers of what needed to be put in the skillet first vs. last and salted each layer. This and the chicken i placed into the fridge to await my later need to feed. I popped some brown rice in the Zojirushi, my love for which grows with each use, and cleaned up.

The Vegetable Bowl

I think my most creative moment came in substituting the shiitake-vegetable stock for part of the water in cooking the rice, adding only a light earthiness to the already nutty brown rice. This is clearly one of my favorite combinations, as I always seem to use nutty/earthy grains when cooking for myself. I did cook myself quinoa so I would have a choice of nutty/protein-filled quinoa and my classic standby - BR - since I didn't know which I would want when it came time for the stir-fry to be assembled and plated.

Shiitake Stock

I feel like these experiences prove that I am ready to cook for myself more often: creating, prepping, cooking, and cleaning without considering it out of the ordinary. Of course I had to unload the dishwasher from the previous night before I could begin loading it up yet again! This stir-fry could be easily made vegetarian, since it is simply the method and not the ingredients that make it the dish that it is. Marinate sweet potatoes, potatoes, some other meat substitute with a firmness, or tofu instead of chicken, and just make sure you cook that piece to its desired consistency, remove, add vegetables, and recombine, finishing off with a little bit more veggie/shiitake stock to deglaze the pan and allow for steaming of the leafy greens at the end (especially if using dainty spinach) and cornstarch to allow the dish to develop a glaze that envelopes the different parts, creating dish-wide harmony of a random assortment of ingredients.

Stirfry and Shiitake Rice - Complete

Ahh yes...finally dinner was served. I just stir-fried the chicken then everything else, then combined it all in that original pan, plating with a topping of Vietnamese chili garlic sauce and some dry-roasted edamame for a little bit of an extra crunch. The sweat-inducing meal was FANTASTIC since I hadn't eaten in several hours: from work's termination to actually getting my lazy ass to the stove! The chili sauce dominated my palate, leaving a tingling in the back of my mouth as the freshly flashed veggies made a pleasurable crunch and the five-spice marinated chicken REALLY packed a Chinese punch. The combination of sweetness from the vegetables and five-spice and the heat made for a pleasant interplay among all flavors and textures. The marinade was as powerful as I had hoped it would be, since the chicken managed to sit in the fridge for about five hours before being removed from the marinade.

Thankfully, the mushroom-infused rice was a starchy coolant for the spicy stir-fry, and you know I'm always thankful for my delicious brown rice anyway. The rice was palpably earthy thanks to the mushroom stock, which drew out the complimentary flavors in the stir-fry, especially when I took alternating bites of each piece. As you can see from the picture, I like my rice on the side to compliment the dish, avoiding a total combination if such varied flavors as heat and earthiness are present in the same dish. I feel as though this separation allowed for a more full experience of each dish on its own. No offense to my parents' preference for a stir-fry on top of and overpowering rice, but when eating it with brown rice, there is no reason to mask and destroy the delicate flavors so laboriously infused into the rice. Of course they also like white basmati rice, whose nuttiness and aromas overpower all but the most intense curries and whose flavor does not need to be separated to allow for complimentary experimentation in the same way as medium grain brown rice. Or maybe I'm just crazy?

Regardless of my rice-love, this meal was wonderful: filling, healthful, and pretty damned good, emptying the fridge for tomorrow's stop at the supermarket for a fill-up. It's an easy dish whose flavors can be catered to the individual cuisiner and his mood. This meal is pretty much my classic standby when I don't really have the option to run to the store, since I can make do with anything...literally.

Vegetarian's Night-In

Update: On the 8th of August I had this dish yet again, except I put some hot homemade chili tomato sauce my dad made ages ago stored in the freezer on top of the lentils with some cilantro, and might I say that it was HOT and TASTY. I loved the interplay of the Mexican flair with the earthiness and lightness of the lentils and vegetables, which became Mexican to the max! Try it out by making some sort of spicy sauce with anchos, pasillas, tomatoes, chipotles and some other red chilis, sauteed with garlic minced and onions finely chopped into a salsa rojo rather than a salsa verde that I usually enjoy with a spicy blend of chilis (jalapenos, poblanos, serranos, etc. mixed with citrusy tomatillos and pureed raw).

BR & Lentils with firey Salsa Rojo!

Well, my parents were out for the day, and I was stuck cooking for myself, since I decided it would be best not to blow my tips solely on food this week. Given my need to get acquainted with my fantastic Zojirushi rice cooker, I used it for all parts of this really, really easy meal. Though, vegetarian, it was complete in its nutritional repertoire in my use of many vegetables and lentils to nourish myself. First off, I made okowa, which is a Japanese dish consisting of brown glutinous rice mixed with regular medium-grain japonica brown rice and veggies to provide a really sticky mass of cooked rice and steamed vegetables.

This is my dream rice dish, since I was able to use carrots, parsnips, collard greens, purple bell peppers, reconstituted shiitake mushrooms, Japanese eggplant, green onions, and garlic, seasoned with soy sauce, sake, and sesame oil to my liking. I just rinsed the rice and threw everything into the rice cooker (with correct proportions to allow for the rice to cook and the veggies to loose their watery goodness into the already rich cooking liquid. I think what really tied this dish together was my use of the mushroom stock I made from reconstituting the mushrooms in vegetable stock, which provided an extra earthy goodness to the final product and only added to the brownness of the nutty rice. Nutty rice and earthy mushrooms and root vegetables just cry out to be placed together, and my stomach cries out for that combination rather often.... I am a sucker for root vegetables, leafy greens, and brown rice. Mushrooms are always amazing, and really add a meatiness that can only be umami to vegetarian dishes.

brown rice shiitake okawa

To account for the lack of protein in that dish, I created another recipe based on a lentil pilaf that included many of the same vegetables as the rice, except with more parsnip, some tomatoes, parsley, extra collard greens, and no Asian seasonings like the soy sauce. This was meant to be an almost neutral leaning towards Mediterranean dish that complemented the earthiness of the rice okowa without taking away from its Asian flair with a bunch of different herbs. The parsley really added little flavor except a certain herbal note that really accompanied the lentils well for my taste. I should have taken a picture of the rice cooker with the vegetables taking up more volume than the lentils and the water combined. Fortunately, almost 2 hours of cooking puts root veggies and collard greens in their plaes, steamed in vegetable stock. The final dish was a hearty combination of lentils and vegetables with enough of each in every bite for my taste. Of course, I'm the one who wants to have vegetables in every bite. In fact, I felt that the rice could have used more, but as a side dish to the lentil/vegetable combination, it worked very nicely.

I don't really have recipes, since I just kind of threw together what was in the fride and the pantry. If you don't have glutinous brown rice, white rice works, and medium grain works fine, but the combination of short/medium grain allows for a nice sticky texture without becoming a solid, glutinous mass. Just use less water than you would for normal brown rice, especially since it's glutinous AND the vegetables cook off a lot of water. Use mushroom stock to keep with the vegetarian vibe, and make it at home from dried shiitakes since that provides a really great base on which the rest of the flavors can be built and compiled. If you have enough mushrooms and stock, use them with the lentils to create a foundation for both dishes in tandem for one meal.

lentils & veggies in the rice cooker

Bring on the Heat!!!

Since my dad is the cuisiner de notre maison, we end up eating things that have a Mexican flair to them. In fact, last night's dish was inspired by Louisiana creole cooking and more of an island flair...except he added poblanos and jalapenos to Mock-Choux which would not have contained these South American peppers, traditionally. But we're all about experimenting and bending tradition in our family. We ended up having blackened Redfish done in a skillet with surprisingly little smoke over a bed of equally hot mock-choux, a sort of creole approach to succotash or salsa. I suggested brown rice as an accompaniment; however, we had a lot of corn stuffed into that skillet with the mock-choux, and another starch didn't hit home for anyone else around the table.

First, the fish; oh the fish. What a pleasant task I had of crusting the fish in the dry rub combination pictured: cayenne, black peppercorns, white peppercorns, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, thyme, and kosher salt. It got caked onto my fingers so badly that I really didn't want to risk touching my eyes from that point forward. It was meant to be hot, and I might add it was indeed. Redfish is really interesting, because it flakes very similarly to bluefish, which is good, giving the taster really something palatable to work with in the mouth, more strandlike in nature than the sheet-like flakes of haddock and similar in nature to the strands of land-dwelling animal. Fortunately, it was not nearly as oily or intensely flavored in its oils as bluefish. Fortunately for me, who wasn't really looking for a heavy meal at that point, and fortunately for my father, who loves bluefish, redfish provided exactly what both of us love about seafood. Don't get me wrong, I love a good piece of saba on beautifully steamed and vinegared sushi rice and the oily texture of a sauteed bluefish, but the redfish was really out of this world. The blackened rub, on a similar note, was out of this world in its spice! Oh my goodness were my lips tingling as I wolfed down bite after bite of the fish, tastefully blackened in a dry skillet to toast the spiced without compromising their oils by including foreign oils and topped at the very end with a small pat of butter to heighten the richness of the meat. I couldn't have thought of a better way to keep the spices intense yet individual, without yielding to the power of a mediterranean olive oil or losing their own oils in even a neutral peanut oil, which we never use anyway. Cajun dishes are hot, and this one was no exception: I really can't downplay that anymore. The flavors were all so intense, and with the heat of the mock-choux, the meal tied itself together.

The mock-choux was supposed to be an alternative to the heat of the protein, since we knew it would be spicy with all of that cayenne and smoky with both the toasted spices and the natural smokiness of paprika. Dad simply put four poblanos, roasted, in, mellowing it further with the sweetness of both a roasted red bell pepper and a fresh green bell pepper added into the mix. He also put in two jalapenos from a farmer's market he "hit-up" on the way home, expecting the mildness we got from the last batch I picked up from Shadybrook. I have a feeling I got old peppers, because these from the other market were HOT! Not only were they hot, but they only added to the heat of the farm-fresh poblanos: this batch was MUCH hotter than what we usually find at the ethnic markets that get shipped in from other countries...or California (like another country in itself, no?). Yes I do like Californians so keep reading the blog please! ; ).

The mock choux was much spicier than intended, and the sweetness of the simmered, roasted corn and tomatoes was not enough to counteract its heat. The heat tied the dish together, but because my dad incorporated different heat "sources" if you will, cayenne and fresh peppers and roasted peppers, the heat hit every spot from the tongue to the stomach, and it even made me hiccough. Nothing he makes ususally does that to me, unless it was that unbearably toasty habanero dish he made several years ago before my tastes had changed, rather dramatically if I may add. Both parts of the meal were wonderful when placed together, even heat on heat. Mom was not so happy and didn't take seconds, but I finished off two people's worth of the mock-choux. It was THAT good. Accenting the mock-choux with freshly-squeezed lime and the fish, lemon, both tableside made the flavors perk even more. And that butter surprisingly added a hint of richness to the dish that would have been simply awesome regardless. The butter blended with the spices on the one blackened side, while keeping the flavors of the other side intact in their toasted state. This combo was incredible, donated by some cookbook somewhere that sparked my dad on the idea of doing a Cajun dish that night. Quite a long post, but hey, it was for quite a HOT and tasty meal that was worth it!

Cajun Blackened Spice Rub - Mise en Place

Blackened Rub

cayenne pepper

garlic powder

onion powder

thyme

paprika

white peppercorns

black peppercorns

Instructions: Grind together in mortar/pestle or spice grinder and LIBERALLY apply to the ingredient to be blackened...cake it on

Blackened Redfish on Mock-Choux

Mock-Choux

4 ears of corn, roasted

4 poblanos, roasted & chopped

2 jalapenos, finely chopped

2 medium red onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 large heirloom tomatoes, chopped

1 large red bell pepper, roasted & chopped

1 large green bell pepper, chopped

juice of 1 lime, reserved

Instructions:

Roast those ingredients that need roasting, corn in oven, others on stovetop & skin the peppers. Saute the onion and garlic in 1 T or less of olive or vegetable oil & add in the peppers, tomatoes, and corn. Saute/sweat until desired tenderness of vegetables and turn off the heat. Squeeze the lime juice over the mixture and toss to distribute & serve with extra lime wedges and cilantro, both to add to the flavor (who doesn't like corn, cilantro, and tomatoes together?) and beat the heat without dairy.

Slack Road Farm and Kuzu

On the way back from an outing to New Jersey, we got a hankering for Jersey tomatoes in tonight's rendition of a classic Mediterranean side favorite - tomato-basil salad. Of course, there were no places to get farm-fresh tomatoes on the way back, since the house that sells produce on the way to the I-95 on ramp did not have tomatoes and would not probably for another week or two, and there were no other farms around that section of Hamilton. We went out of our way once back into Pennsylvania to search out the farms that my parents like to drive by on their way to a favorite breakfast spot/general store in Carversville. Fortunately we found Milk House farm as one that actually had a farm market that was both open and stocked.

The setup was so rustic, homey, and organic that I felt my nostalgia for a life in the country being relieved. The market was a small shed next to the chicken house, where at any given time, one can hear the crow of a rooster and the clucking of severely satisfied chickens. Roosters' calls dominated the farm, and some woolly mammals of some sort were romping and prancing in the fields near the trees. I swear they were llamas.... Regardless, the farm had the air of the beyond-organic approach to both agriculture and life as Michael Pollan might describe in any one of his amazing books and articles (the one from the NYT this past weekend about which I still must post), and the market was based on the honor system in its cute cubby. A scale was on one wall, while a calculator and a notebook as well as a money box were all on the opposite wall, adjacent to a basket of donated bags for the less green members of our society who do not keep bags in their cars for exactly such impulse farm purchases. We surveyed the room amazed at the selection displayed in such a small, cozy area. There were poblanos, to which my dad flocked rather swiftly since he has an obsessive love for such Mexican peppers. I shot to the bin suggesting the existence of sweet bell peppers in various hues: purple, yellow-green, and shades in between the two. I satisfied my craving with simply a half pound of those and a half pound of Japanese eggplant, for which I have several recipes in a new Japanese home-style cookbook I bought and scoured. Who doesn't love rustic Japanese recipes? We stuffed wonderfully fresh scallions into a bag along with several huge and brightly colored tomatoes and yellow onions. Surprisingly, they had fresh thai basil plants, and I had to truly force myself not to pick up a bunch, since I rarely see it for sale around here in the Acme (bleh!). I didn't, however, because we have a HUGE basil plant in the back yard along with a more manageably-sized purple basil plant with a rather strong anise aroma and flavor profile alongside the standard pepperiness of standard basil.

Once we got home, I headed over to the Grapevine Natural Food Store on State Street in Newtown in order to pick up a package of Kuzu, for which i had several recipes and an undying need to try some within the coming weeks before heading off to Philadelphia. It was pricey but worth it, since the multitude of recipes sound wonderful, healthy, and appealing to a palette such as mine : T. Also, my favorite checker was working today who I hadn't seen due to my schedule being hectic and not being able to stop in to buy some things and her vacation coinciding with the times I have been able to stop in to stock up on my favorite oatmeal passion//obsession: Old Wessex brand 5-grain Multigrain hot cereal. A post to come on solely that topic when I can get around to describing the cereal's perfection! That's where today's journeys have left me, only to puzzle out what is for dinner (probably shrimp) while watching Battle Squid on the Legit Iron Chef - woohoo!

Miso-Chipotle Glazed Haddock

The fish was wonderfully flaky in a way that, so far in my life, only haddock has been with itd nice firm texture. The fish had such a large flake, and its texture was so meaty and its flavor so bold, even for a white-fleshed fish, that I was craving more halfway through my first bite! If you have never had haddock and are slightly tired of halibut, cod, flounder, tilapia, and other whitefish, haddock is a great substitute to those fish in other recipes and, depending on the recipe, may end up replacing those others in your standards and favorites. The haddock was rubbed before it was baked in the oven, retaining its flavor and moisture, with a miso-chipotle glaze adapted from several sources with the ingenious addition of the chipotle by my father. He decided that seafood over a pesto pasta craved the use of something with heat, and it did. The combination of the salty miso paste and the spice gave the fish such a new dimension of taste that I really can't describe it better than you neededing to taste it for yourself!! The glaze is a combinaion of miso paste mixed with a drop of sesame oil and sake stirred in until it's a little bit runny and can be spread/drizzled over the fish and topped with sesame seeds. This keeps the fish moist in the oven and right up until service at the table, and really penetrates the fish for not being a marinade. The natural flavor of the fish is heightened by the miso and sake combination, and the chipotle is ground and added to the glaze before it is spread over the fish. Adjust the amount of chipotle to desired heat, and it can be done without the pepper if you desire, but I can't recommend it : P. The whole wheat linguine added a nice firm texture to the dish, since whole wheat pasta really adds to the heartiness of whatever it is with, and the pesto was light and perfectly mingled with the chipotle and the wheatiness of the pasta. The whole dish amazingly tied together East and Mediterranean with the pesto, pasta, chipotle, and miso in this fusion-style dish with flare that truly worked the way that it was intended. The pesto was rather heavy on the garden-fresh basil, tankfully, which really made it aromatic and fresh, especially when drizzled with lemon juice which not only heightened the natural flavor of the seafood as lemon always does but also reinforced the fresh, bright flavor of the pesto. Thus, the pasta was not too heavy that it could not be lifted and mitigated by the amazingly light pesto and fish flavors.

Haddock and Pesto Pasta - Finished Presentation

Garden-Fresh Pesto

3-4 cups of fresh basil leaves

3/4 cup fresh parsley

1 head of garlic, roasted

juice and zest of 1 large lemon

1/2 cup toasted almonds

1/4 cup freshly grated parmasean reggiano

1/3 cup high-quality olive oil

vegetable stock -- enough to create desired consistency

Directions: Place all ingredients reserving the olive oil and stock into a food processor. Blend until finely chopped and slowly add in olive oil. Continue to add chicken stock until it is the desired consistency of pesto, depending upon the dish. Toight's dish had to be slightly less liquid, since it had to stick to the pasta and retain some of its crunchy/leafy texture.

Penkala Posole

finished posole tableside

Alright, so I get home from work and mom tells me that dad is working and needs me to cook tonight.... 7 hours working followed by several prepping cooking just makes me thankful that we had shopped for posole-making items yesterday and I knew the basic guidelines of a standard posole recipe from living with my dad, le cuisinier de ma famille who loves to make Mexican-styled food. My mom put the jalapenoes and tomatilloes into the oven to roast and a pot of water on the stove that still showed no signs of being remotely close to boiling: the dissolved gasses had still not even formed their own mini-bubbles yet. And I did not realize until it was boiling and the vegetables were in that the pot was WAY too full for the chicken to fit, damn our small stockpots, and had to be drained with a pyrex measuring cup about a quart's worth of water. It would be quite the afternoon.

Making my salad from Saladworks disappear, I began tonight's personal culinary adventure actually in front of the stove, chopping veggies for the stock. It was a standard chicken stock made from a full chicken breast we had in the fridge and standard earthy vegetables not entirely mexican in nature - recipe posted below.

Quick Chicken Stock

1 chicken breast (bone-in, skin-on or -off your preference)

1 large onion, chunked

6 cloves garlic, smashed (don't use that jarred stuff please!)

3 carrots (I used two HUGE ones we had in the fridge), chunked

1/2 parsnip, chunked

3 ribs celery, chunked

15 peppercorns

2 tbsp kosher salt

Directions: Throw everything into a pot of water, let it boil and reduce heat to a simmer for two hours or until chicken is poached rather excessively, so it falls off of the bone. Strain, reserve chicken in a bowl and shred it for later, and I usually just eat the vegetables used for the stock ; )

So there I stood, chicken breast in bowl, stock on stove, and chopping onions, garlic, peppers, carrots, celery, and parsnip for the neo-classical Penkala Posole. Poblanoes were roasting on our lovely gas range (which I had to use a lighter to start today), and a paper bag was standing by. While these lovely things were occurring, I toasted the spices and ground them to add to the garlic and onions sautéeing in the bottom of another large pot. Everything seemed to be going well except for my minor burn from the stupid saute pan I used for the spices whose handle gets hot regardless of being only somewhat connected to the pan and certainly nowhere near the flame...that's metallic bonding for you.

Despite my kitchen woes, the stock turned out nicely, and I added it to the browned onions, garlic, sliced (preroasted) tomatilloes, jalapenoes, and poblanoes kicked in the pants with some toasted, ground cumin and coriander. Though it's unconventional, as my Mexican aunt would tell you, I added parsnip and carrot to the stock-turned-soup at this point as well as a stalk and a half of celery. Anyone will tell you I have a serious love affair with green vegetables. Had I had some kale or chard or something slightly more Mexican of a leafy green (I did have collards but decided against them), it would have gone in the pot as well. I added the shredded chicken from the bowl and hominy from the freezer, once the soup reached boiling for one of the last times. Adding the hominy was fun, since it was frozen to the bag, and I had to hold it, dangling from the plastic, over the pot until it finally released and plopped...good cookin'.

Penkala Posole

10-15 tomatilloes, roasted

4 jalapenoes, roasted

6 poblanoes, roasted + skinned

3 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 medium carrots, finely sliced on bias

1/2 large parsnip, finely chunked

4 cups hominy

Hominy note: preferably large and a Mexican brand, something from a local Mexican/ethnic market; we like Juanita's hominy because it bears the same name as my not-Mexican grandmother haha)

meat from one full chicken breast, shredded (reserved from making stock)

1.5 gal (or whatever you made) homemade chicken stock

1.5 tsp cumin, toasted & ground

1 tsp coriander, toasted & ground

1 tsp olive oil

Directions:

-roast tomatilloes and jalapenoes in oven, 45 min @ 375º F; roast the poblanoes on the flame of a gas stove and place into paper bag when charred, allow to cool and remove skin

-toast cumin and coriander in a dry pan until popping and fragrant, remove from heat and grind

-sautée minced garlic and chopped onions in 1 tsp olive oil in the bottom of a large pot, add ground spices when onions are browned

-either add the roasted peppers to the mélange de sautée or blend them in a blender with the onions and garlic and add to simmering chicken stock at desired consistency

-add the carrots, celery, and parsnip to the stock pot with the onions, garlic, and peppers and allow to sweat for 5 minutes

-add stock to sautéed vegetables and introduce the shredded chicken and hominy

-bring to a boil and simmer until flavors are combined, 1hr-ish, keeping warm until ready to serve

Cook's note: ALWAYS tastes better the next day!!!

Garnishes

-cilantro, absolute necessity

-lime wedges, a second absolute necessity; tomatilloes cry out for the use of lime juice so you could add it to the broth, but it's better when added to individual bowls

-sour cream

-radish rounds

-baked blue corn tortilla chips (homemade)

So it turns out that we really liked the posole, but the peppers could have been a bit hotter. How can you tell without eating each one...? Regardless, my dad was thankful he did not have to cook, and my checking account thanked me for not treating my parents for a second night in a row haha! It was a thrilling experience for me to be so independent, working and coming home to feed a family, putting me in my dad's shoes just one night compared to the many he pulls during the school year and summer. It's amazing to think that I will be cooking for myself for most of the rest of my life, and I know that I have a solid foundation in being able to piece together a posole recipe such as this one. Granted, the recipe is simple and tweakable to any extent of the imagination, but it does put dinner on the table in a reasonable amount of time! According to my parents, it was "loved by all," so I can't complain with tonight's masterpiece spicy & snug in my satisfied stomach. Happy cooking : )

Posole in the stock pot