Simple Dinner

Thinking about steaming some mussels soon.  I usually eat ones farmed out in Penn Cove.  Open to suggestions on how to cook them.

Gluten Free?

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that one of the newest trends in the nutrition world is to start going gluten free. Nothing against people with legit gluten concerns (Celiac's, allergies, etc.), but what's with the sudden switch with normal people? Have I been missing something?

Now I have no qualms with people who really can't eat gluten. It can be really scary having a food allergy and I'm the first person to be sensitive to a person's diet when they have special needs. However, when people tell me that they are starting to drastically change their diet because they read or heard something off hand, it pisses me off.

Noodles, bread, and beer are staples in almost every culture on earth. What gives a diet fad authority over all of humanity's 1000s of years of trial and error? Why would you want to give up the chewy texture of fresh baked slice of bread smothered with butter and home made strawberry jam? Why would you want to give up the crisp taste of an ice cold lager on a hot day? Why would you want to give up a homemade baked ziti? Tortillas? Crepes? Pan de sal? It doesn't make sense.

Paladar Cubano

Cuban food on Aurora? Delicious!

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Paladar Cubano looks little more than a parked food truck with picnic tables outside. Located on 90th and Aurora, their digs are pretty spartan, but they serve though are some pretty tasty Cuban fare.

I ordered two things. Tostones and a Medianoche.

Tostones are plantains that have been fried to soften, flatened, and fried to a crisp. At Paladar, they are served with an aioli that is really tasty. They looked good and tasted good, but they were on the greasy side. Almost too greasy to the point that they were sickening. I'd give them another shot if they turned up the fryer temperatures and drained them properly. Luckily this side didn't ruin the meal because the sandwich was another story.

The Medianoche was born out of the Miami club scene where late night food has to satiate drunken bar goers with their needs for something filling, salty, sweet, delicious, and a little greasy. Made from ham, swiss, mustard, roasted pork, pickles layered on in a sweet cuban bread, this sandwich is hot pressed to get all the ingredients to melt and meld.

This sandwich lived up to its name. Every bite had texture from the lightly toasted bread, tang from the pickles and mustard, smooth nuttiness from the swiss, salt from the ham, all carried by some fatty roasted pork. I just wished that there was more sandwich.

It was a little pricey though. The medianoche and tostones came out to northward of $12. It was good for what it was, but I'll probably be using my dollars at Paseo next time.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Dobro and I hit up Five Guys at Northgate the other day and it's a place that I've always been wanting to hit up since I read about them in an article posted on Digg. So how did my experience there go?

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Have you ever seen any advertising about this place? You'd be hard pressed to find any because they are all about the food. Instead of spending money on print and commercials, they let their product speak for itself and let word of mouth get their burgers out there. Even the restaurants are pretty spartan, with the same simple red and white checker pattern in each one. That's what I like about Five Guys. They know they have a good thing on the menu and let their food do the talking.

They take great pains to make sure that the food there is always fresh. Each day the buns are either trucked or flown in from a nearby bakery so the bread is never more than a day old. They cut all their fries and grind all the meat on site. Every patty on the griddle is freshly hand made, and they don't even have freezers to store their meat. All their toppings are locally sourced as well.

So how can they keep this level of quality and keep the same prices? Well, they don't keep the same prices. In keeping with the highest quality, if it takes more money to get a top product they actually pass it on to their customers. One day their burger might cost $4, the next week $6, so expect their food to come down this summer when tomatoes and lettuce are actually in season.

I wanted to get the full effect of this place so I decided to get a bacon cheeseburger with everything (Mayo, Relish, Onions, Lettuce, Pickles, Tomatoes, Grilled Onions, Grilled Mushrooms, Ketchup, Mustard) and BBQ sauce. Dobro and I split some fries and I got an Arnold Palmer to drink. How does it taste?

Three words: OM NOM NOM. It's a pretty damn good burger and each of the fresh ingredients really come through. No one topping is overpowering and each bite is pretty balanced. Not greasy at all and full of meaty flavor. I'm usually not a fan of American Cheese, but in this application I'll make an exception. They really can do a burger right.

The fries were pretty good too. Fluffy, light, not greasy, perfectly salted. They weren't crispy though, but they were good for this style of fry.

I definitely like this place as far as chain restaurants go. Five Guys aims to give one of the best burger experiences out there and they succeed. It's definitely a corporate place, but it doesn't have the taste of processing that other fast food places have. Just good simple burgers. Maybe that's what gets me the most. They refuse to sacrifice quality, even if it means taking a hit in their profit margins.

Five Guys doesn't claim to be more than what they know, and if you want a pure unadulterated burger experience you should swing by Northgate and try Five Guys out.

Tomatoes

With so much emphasis on locally grown food, you really can't get much more local than in your own garden. This year I planted some tomatoes in containers on my patio.

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Have you ever tasted a tomato ripened on the vine in the warm summer sun? The difference between a grocery store tomato and one grown locally is huge. Most of the tomatoes you find at the store are picked green and artificially "ripened" later. The final product you buy is a mealy, tasteless orange/red orb, bred for shipping hardiness and not flavor.

It's a shame though because there are so many tomato varieties out there that are hardy, easy to grow, and most importantly, flavorful. So being the cooking enthusiast that I am, I decided to grow three varieties of tomatoes.

I've decided the Sun Gold, La Roma, and San Marzano tomato varieties. The Sun Gold should be ready first (~60 days) and is supposed to be a very prolific producer with really sweet yellow cherry tomatoes. My La Romas should come up 2nd at ~70 days and I chose them because they are fleshy, great for cooking, and should provide meaty, fresh flavor.

The last one, the San Marzano, is supposed to be the king of tomatoes and is THE tomato for making sauces and paste. It grows long tomatoes with little gel, thin skins, and have a higher pectin content to give sauces body. This is definitely a tomato you can't find fresh at the grocery store and they go for $5-$6 a can. If you're lucky you might find them at the Farmer's Market. At $6 for a seedling, it looks like a pretty good deal since plants can produce over 200 tomatoes in a season if taken cared of, and since it's an indeterminate variety, it'll keep growing if you keep it warm and under grow lights. Indoor garden anyone?

I've decided to grow everything organically using organic fertilizers, compost and potting soil which I bought at Swanson's Nursery here in Ballard. They were so helpful with information on how to care for the plants and what types of soil I needed to keep them happy. The pictures I posted are from about 10 days ago and I'll post up pics of them as they grow. Hopefully this tomatoes will turn out!

Fluting Mushrooms part II, now with Video!!!

I decided to make a video of how to flute mushrooms. Check it out.

Hideout

Every few weeks or so, the day before we get paid, my coworker and I hit up a local joint to celebrate our biweekly holiday called Payday eve. Today we went to the Hideout.

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The Hideout is one of those small spots that you'll never notice until someone points it out to you. Outside, it's a black door and black curtains, but once you get inside, you're treated to high ceilings and art in a perpetual mood lighting.

The Hideout is one of those places that you go to unwind, have a drink, and perhaps have a conversation about the crazy art that's on the walls, but the real appeal of this place is that it knows it's low key and runs with that vibe.

The Hideout sports a full bar and all their juices are pressed fresh. Our bartender, Kristen, was cheery and friendly as ever, talking up the after work crowd gathered here tonight.

After I ordered a gin and tonic, my coworker decided to take advantage of the fresh juice and got a greyhound which Kristen made quickly.

Each of the drinks were expertly made and as we got settled, we couldn't help but notice all the art that adorns the place. The large walls are home to a rotation of paintings, sketches, and prints that are all for sale. If you want to get in the art as well, they publish a book periodically filled with napkin sketches from bar patrons.

I highly recommend the Hideout on First Hill if you're looking for an after work local lounge with great service. Their happy hour is great (4-7 $3.50 wells and drafts, $1.50 Rainier), but it's a cool place to go to anytime. You'll probably need someone to point it out because it's definitely a place that doesn't advertise its existence, but once you get inside, you'll see why they don't have to. Maybe I'll see you there next payday eve.

Knife Skills II: Chiffonade

What is a chiffonade? It's both a technique and the result of doing that technique...
When a recipe calls for a chiffonade of an herb what they're asking for are thinly shredded leaves of that herb. Usually done with Basil, it can be used on a variety of foods.

First you take whatever herb you want to chiffonade (in this case Kaffir Lime Leaves)...

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...and you stack leaves with the largest ones on the bottom...

...roll them up like a cigar...

...then start cutting thin strips...

...and voila! Chiffonade!

You would usually do this when you don't want to bruise your herbs. Works great for basil on a caprese salad or if you want to slice up some green leafy vegetables like chard for sauteeing.

Lunchtime: Pad See Iew

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I'm a regular at Thai Star on Boren and Madison because their Pad See Iew is amazing.  They know me there since I come in at least once a week and as soon as they see me, they confirm with me that I want the Pad See Iew, chicken, 4 stars, brown rice. 5-10 mins later I'm chowing down. So good! 

Cilantro Shrimp

One of my best friends had their birthday BBQ this weekend and she's one of those friends that really get me when it comes to cooking.  We met in college and where she knew baking pans (her pie is amazing!), I knew frying pans.  Needless to say, I wanted to make something really tasty that takes advantage of the grill.

So today I'll be telling you guys how I made her Cilantro Shrimp

Read On...

 Ingredients:

2lbs Shrimp (u16-20) with Shells
1 half bunch of cilantro, chopped
1/4c Kaffir Lime Leaves, chiffonade
1 shallot, chopped
4-6 garlic cloves, minced
2 scallions, chopped
2 stalks of lemon grass, tender parts chopped
1/3c brown sugar packed
1/3c fish sauce
1/3c sesame oil
1 tsp cayenne
Salt and Pepper


Method:

For the marinade:

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor except for the shrimp and pulse a few times to get a rough consistency.  

Split all the shrimp, keeping the shells on, and remove the vein.  Combine the marinade and shrimp together, and marinade for an hour.  Skewer as you see fit.


In the end you should get something like this:

Put those on the grill, 5-7 mins on each side and you're set! You'll want to eat them immediately.

I find that keeping the shells on keeps more of the marinade in contact with the meat and adds a lot of flavor to the dish.  Let me know what you think!

Updates

Bear with me for a bit as the blog is going through some technical changes. In addition to my love of food, I'm a huge nerd and I'm trying to pimp out my blog, hence the new layout. I've also added a new widget to my pics that presents them in a better way.

A bunch more posts are on the way. Stay hungry.

Quick Dinner: Carnitas and Warm Corn Salsa

Just a quick post for what I made for dinner tonight:

Chicken Carnitas with wilted Red Chard served with a warm Corn and Red Chard Rib salsa.

Over the weekend I went to the Top Banana fruit stand and they had some good looking corn and red chard.  Chard is becoming one of my favorite new vegetables. The leaves are buttery with a little bitterness.  The ribs can be a little tough and fibrous, but if you chop them finely they cook up just fine and have a great, sweet, herbaceous crunch.  They were a good complement to the fresh corn.  I wanted to add some green to the mix so I decided some peas would look good and they definitely added to the dish both visually and in taste.

I had some leftover carnitas meat from a chicken I bought over the weekend so I decided to make some little tacos.  Fresh. Light. Delicious.

Warm Corn and Red Chard Rib Salsa:
3 ears of fresh corn off the cob
~1-1.5 cups Red Chard Ribs finely chopped
1 Medium Onion chopped
1/3 cup Frozen Peas
2 cloves of garlic minced
Salt, pepper
Olive Oil

Sweat the onions with a pinch of salt in a cold pan over medium low heat.  Once translucent add the garlic and chard ribs and turn to medium high.  Cook for a few minutes to soften the ribs.  Then add the corn and then turn to medium high.  Stir and saute until the corn is cooked through, about 3 mins.  Add peas and warm them through.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Serve warm.

Try the dish out and let me know what you think!

Knife Skills I: Fluting Mushrooms

I'm always impressed with the details in cooking, but what always gets me is how chefs consistently make their food uniform during prep. How do they make it so even? How long have they been working on their knife skills? Does it even matter?

When you think about it, it really does. When the food is the same shape and size, it cooks uniformly and you avoid having things being done at different times. Plus, it just plain looks more appetizing. But moreover, good knife skills goes deeper than that. Uniformity means that the cook put time into the food and it's a way to tell the diner that they're worth the trouble. It shows that the cook takes detail seriously.

In my quest to better my knife skills, I've decided to start a series of posts dedicated to different techniques. So with my first post in the series, I wanted to do something challenging: fluting mushrooms.


So what does a fluted mushroom even look like?

Fluted Mushroom caps (not mine)

It really doesn't do anything for cooking, but it makes them look cool and its a pretty hard cut to learn and cook. You need a really sharp paring knife and patience.

First you take a mushroom:


Then you take your sharpest paring knife and cut out trenches by moving the blade along the skin of the cap:

This...

To this

Then you repeat the pattern around the cap:

And eventually you end up with this:

It looks pretty cool and it took me forever to get the pattern down. I'm pretty excited about it though.

Coming back...

Wow, it has been a looooong time since I've posted on the blog. I'm still as passionate about food, but blogging sometimes takes a back seat to life. So why am I coming back? A few things...

NEW TOOLS

I bought a really good set of knives. I was looking for value, durability, and a bag and my search brought me to cookingforengineers.com. I like them because they used empirical data to rate gear and mentioned Saber Knives as the only set they'd recommend as a whole. They recommended this set not only for the performance of the knives (which performed as well as some Wusthofs) but for the quality of the bag. On top of that, Saber was having a free paring knife promotion. I emailed the company mentioning the promo and the CEO personally responded back to me. 3 days later the sharpest paring knife I've ever used came in the mail.

I was a little hesitant to buy a whole set though. Usually, chefs buy their knives one at a time from various makers because a whole set could have one or two good knives and the rest are crap. That can get really expensive though. However, when I googled Saber knives, most knife reviews said they were really good. The paring knife wasn't the only good knife, ALL OF THEM WERE GOOD. So I pulled the trigger and 3 business days later a 10 pound box of amazingness came (thanks Dallas for letting me use your Amazon Prime account!).

What a difference a sharp knife makes. It actually makes things safer in the kitchen because less effort is needed to cut and chop through food. I've actually become quite the prep cook and it's enjoyable every time I use them. Expect to see more posts as I use these knives more.

Which leads me to the next reason why I'm back...

WHY COOKING MATTERS

Cooking matters because in today's passive world preparing a meal is incredibly proactive. You choose the ingredients, you choose how to prepare it, you choose how to cook it, and you choose how to eat it. By cooking we take a role in everything affected by food, and some BIG things are affected by food like your health, work performance, and relationships.

I don't know of many other things in life that have such an impact on who you are than food. We eat every day, but it's too easy to take food for granted and lose the connections meals create. It makes me sad when I see people who are so closed minded to new foods and instead expect to eat processed, prepackaged garbage. Of course, I'm guilty of eating garbage too but I don't want that to be the norm. I know that a steady diet of prepackaged food isn't good for you in the long run.

In the end I guess this is my attempt to keep people connected through food. I'm afraid that people will lose out on the joys food can bring in today's convenience driven society. There's community and friendships to be found around food and I don't anyone to miss out on that.

Toasted amber sides of bread bookend piles of thick crispy bacon, butter leaf lettuce, and beefsteak tomato slices. Fresh pepper added to mayonaise combines with just a tad of the bacon drippings, creating a smokey accented bite. A light drizzle of red wine vinegar on the lettuce cleans the mouth. Creamy avocado and nutty Swiss Cheese complete the sandwich. Crisp, fresh, and delicious.

Quite possibly one of my favorite sandwiches is the BLAST. Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, Swiss, and Tomato. I made a couple tonight with a friend of mine and they turned out great. One of the secrets is to find the packages of end pieces and trim. These "discards" are possibly the best parts as they are the smokiest and saltiest parts of the slab of bacon. A must for this classic. As we took each bite, the old fashioned white bread melded with each component. I haven't had a sandwich that good in a while. Served with some plain Ruffles and a glass of Crown, it was a damn good dinner.

Food Coma

A perfect fall meal starts with butternut squash pureed with onions, garlic and carrots added to rich chicken stock and a touch of cream. Crispy fried leeks adds a texture contrast to the slightly curried taste of the sweet soup. Warming and inviting, it is perfect while watching maple leaves drop as fleeting summer memories fade away.

Last night I gave lot of love. I tried my hand at that simple roasted chicken and the butternut squash soup for some of my friends last night and they both came out great. The chicken was seasoned with salt, pepper, and fresh thyme and was a great contrast to the complexities of the curried butternut squash soup.

What I really like about cooking though is the community created through a shared meal. While I was carving up the chicken, someone said that it was like Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday. At the end of the meal, I sat just looking at the contented smiles everyone made as they lay back in their seats. It felt really good to be able to take care of people.

Ravioli Date

Three eggs, their golden yolks lighting up like minature suns. Add a pinch of salt, dash of water, and a glug of olive oil to top off the well in the unbleached flour. The dry and the wet wait, anxious to become more than the sum of their parts. The stirring of a fork leads to mixing with fingers, soon becoming a pale yellow mass wanting to be kneaded with palms. With arms. With backs. Finally coalescing into a versatile dough. Flour surrounds the culinary miracle.

I made the raviolis last night using fresh pasta with the help of my date. I didn't know where my pasta crank went so we set up a system where I flattened out the ravioli rounds while she spooned them with the filling and sealed them with an egg wash. Neatness counts so we cut them with the rim of a Red Hook tasting glass (totally MacGyver'd that one). Boiled in salt water, lightly fried in browned butter and sage, and finished with fresh grated parmesean cheese and parsley. The picture tells it all.

The food came out exactly as I imagined it. Each component played its part. Some subtle, some distinct, but all working together. Along with steamed broccoli and a delicious salad kit, we enjoyed the rest of our date.

So did I impress? I'm hopeful, but I do know we both had a good time making and eating the food.

Blue Box

Not gourmet, not refined, hell, not even that good. But with each fork full, there are few foods that are capable of bringing up feelings of innocence and simplicity while being an edible reminder of childhood accomplishments. Boxed Mac 'n' Cheese.

I admit it. I like boxed Mac 'n' Cheese. There I said it. Happy? I said it.

There are a couple skeletons that I keep in my culinary closet and well, you can't doubt that this boxed meal has some sentimental value. It is one of the earliest memories I have of being in the kitchen, and I honestly can't remember how long I've been eating the stuff. And by stuff I really do mean "stuff." The bright orange powder, oddly shaped pasta, and the margarine used to make it are products of intense focus groups, lab work, and marketing campaigns. It is the antithesis to a baked Macaroni and Cheese made for me just the other day. That meal was far superior in every possible aspect: creamy texture with perfectly al dente macaroni, cheese sauce seasoned with precision to create layers of nuttiness and salt beyond comprehension, and a brightness contributed by a spot of tomato sauce added to the mix. It was uniquely delicious, yet familiar because there was an amount of love in this dish that could only come from something with heritage (the recipe was at least 3 generations old!). By all counts I should be fully embracing this original dish.

Yet, I can't disown the blue/red/white/green/generic branded box.

Boxed Mac 'n' Cheese has a special place in my heart next to the Happy Meal and Otter Pop. All are guilty pleasures because they helped form my food identity at a young age. Please help me get through my admission and tell me what are your guilty food pleasures?

We have a winner

I just finished the filling for the raviolis and its pretty damn good. Every aspect comes out perfectly. Doesn't look like much now, but the finished product should be amazing.

Tomorrow I'm going to make the pasta fresh, fill them, and finish them off with the brown butter and sage. The flavors are definitely there, and if my pasta skills hold up, the texture will come through too. ::crossed fingers::

Simply stands out

Roasted Chicken seasoned simply with salt and pepper. So moist that there is almost no difference between the dark and light meat. The Dijon mixed with a bit of the drippings makes for an excellent sauce to enhance a perfectly cooked piece of chicken. Salt, earthiness, a bit of sour, and the slight piquancy of the mustard all plays a role...I now understand why the French call mustard the King of Condiments.

I went to Cafe Presse for the first time last night for my friend's birthday, and I was really happy with the food. Doesn't surprise me though since she graduated from the CIA and has always had a keen palette. Amongst the steak tartare, fries, mussels, squash soup, pate and oysters stood a dish apart from the rest. The roasted chicken served with fries and mustard. It was unabashedly chicken, and the jus was its soul, distilled and concentrated just for my consumption. It's good to know that simple food can shine so brightly if done right.

I'll have pictures up from my adventures up in later posts. iPhone doesn't really do justice.