Leftover Cherry Sauce

Before I left for Boston, I jokingly warned my husband to keep the kitchen clean while I was away "or else." There are some things that peeve me, and coming home to a kitchen littered with day old knives, sticky pots and bowls stuck with hardened rice grains is one of them.

To my happy surprise, the kitchen really was clean when I came back. "You're wonderful!" I exclaimed, as my husband smiled proudly.

The next day I opened the refrigerator to help myself to some breakfast, and my heart sank.

My normally neat and arranged fridge had been transformed to complete chaos. Containers and jars were in complete disarray, a bowl with half-eaten strawberries (strawberries with a bite out of them, eek!) was awkwardly askew atop a carton of eggs, and fresh fruits and vegetables that I had purchased for him before I left had remained untouched. Most disappointing was the bag of cherries about to spoil. Cherries still cost a good amount even when they're in season, and I hated for it to go to waste.

What to do?

I had planned on making pancakes that morning, so as I whipped up a batch I realized I could make cherry sauce. Perfect. Any time you have fresh fruits and vegetables about to go bad, cook it. This will extend its life by a few more days.

Cherry Sauce

1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of salt

1/2 cup orange juice
2 cups sweet cherries, without the stem

1) Pit and halve the cherries.
2) Combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and salt. Do not be zealous with the cinnamon. A tiny pinch is all you need.
3) Add the orange juice and cherries. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to a medium-low.
4) Simmer until thickened.

Serve with whipped cream on top of pancakes or waffles. The sauce tastes even better the next day. Needless to say, my husband ate it all up.

Roasted Asparagus with Lemon Vinaigrette and Prosciutto

Do you like asparagus?

Ask your friends this question, and half the time you'll receive a wrinkled nose as an answer. Asparagus is notorious for its aftermath aroma when one heads to the toilet after dinner; if you haven't noticed it, consider yourself lucky.

Which is too bad, because it's not only low in calories, fat and cholesterol, but a good source of folic acid, potassium and dietary fiber. And it's in season right now, which means it's deliciously juicy and sweet. Oh, and cheap.

It takes some people a great recipe in order for them to eat asparagus, and this one is a sure winner. Here I adapted a recipe from America's Test Kitchen and made it my own.

Roasted Asparagus with Lemon Vinaigrette
adapted from America's Test Kitchen

1 1/2 lb asparagus
4 T olive oil
Salt
Ground black pepper

Vinaigrette:
1 lemon, cut in half
6 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium shallot, minced
1 t fresh thyme leaves
Salt
Ground black pepper

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2) To prep asparagus: Often you will see recipes that say, "Snap off ends of asparagus." If you try this, not only will you snap away nearly half the asparagus, but half the money you spent on buying it (and please don't try snapping away AT the grocery store, you may never be allowed to return again). In addition, it's time consuming.

I like to take five or six stems at a time, line them up at the tips, and cut away approximately 1 1/2" or more from the stem. It's fast, efficient, and all the asparagus will now be the same length.

The trick to making them less fibrous and laborious to chew is to gently peel away the top layer of the stem. Just hold the tip of the asparagus with one hand, the vegetable peeler in the other, and start peeling about two inches from the tip, turning the asparagus as you peel. It will end up looking something like this:


Bonus: They look gorgeous!

3) When finished, place the asparagus in a baking dish or sheet pan, and toss gently with the olive oil and a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper. The asparagus should be lightly but completely coated in olive oil; add more if not.


4) Place the asparagus in the oven, and roast for 5-7 minutes. You don't want to overcook them, so start checking after 5 minutes! They should be tender but still have a bite. When ready, let cool.
5) Meanwhile, drizzle 1 T of olive oil onto a cast-iron skillet and heat over medium-high heat. When hot, place the lemon halves cut-side down and grill until tender and slightly blackened, about 3 minutes. Let the lemon halves cool.
6) Squeeze the lemons (you should have about 2 T of juice) and combine with the extra-virgin olive oil, minced shallots and thyme. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
7) Strain the vinaigrette into a measuring cup, then drizzle over the asparagus.

At this point, you can serve them as is! It's a great side dish for dinner.

For an elegant appetizer or a potluck dish, read on:

1 1/2 lb asparagus, dressed with lemon vinaigrette (recipe above)
12-14 slices prosciutto, halved (the short way, not the long way)

1) Allow the asparagus to marinate in the lemon vinaigrette for 15-30 minutes.
2) Drain the asparagus on a plate covered with a paper towel.
3) Carefully lay a slice of halved prosciutto on the cutting board, and place the asparagus on one end. Gently roll upwards.
4) Repeat with the rest of the asapargus/prosciutto.

A Spiced Carrot Soup...Six Months Later

I know, it's been awhile.

Six months since I last wrote anything, really. Unless you count e-mails. As an English major in college, I'm quite ashamed.

I don't have a good excuse. Sure, I was in cooking school the last six months. Sure, I spent my nights cooking too. I guess with all that cooking, the last thing I wanted to talk about was...well, cooking.

But sometimes an unexpected event changes all that.

The event? A bowl of carrot soup.

Okay, maybe four bowls of what was carrot soup. All gone. Not a speck of orange left.

To give you some context, about once a month I cook for friends. The deal is I provide each of them a three course meal, and in return they cover the cost of ingredients. It allows me to experiment with recipes I may not be able to afford otherwise. Plus the satisfied faces afterward makes it all worth it.

So this past weekend, the featured meal was as follows:

Spiced Carrot Soup with Shrimp
Pork Tenderloin with Rhubarb Sauce
Honey-Glazed Banana Fritters with Peanut Ice Cream

The resounding favorite was the soup. I was surprised. The soup was so easy to make that I wondered if I had screwed up the pork and bananas badly somehow. Something so easy should never win.

But then I remember Spike and Andrew won a Top Chef episode with their squash soup.

And it all makes sense.

When you take something simple and can manage to make it memorable, then the recipe is a keeper. This particular carrot soup came from that of Cafe Boulud in New York. It combines the earthiness of carrots with the exoticism of coconut milk and the spiciness of curry and ginger. The poached shrimp adds an extra dimension to the color and flavor. Since shrimp is a common ingredient in Southeast Asian cuisine, and the recipe was already using coconut, curry and ginger, it made since to include shrimp as well (plus it gives the soup some protein).

Spiced Carrot Soup with Shrimp

2 T olive oil
1 small onion, sliced
1 pound carrots, trimmed and peeled, sliced thin
1/2 inch ginger, peeled and sliced thin
1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced thin
1 t curry powder
2 1/2 c chicken stock
3/4 c canned unsweetened coconut milk
2 T lemon juice
16 XL shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 c carrot juice

Soup:
1) Heat olive oil and cook onions until tender, 6 min.
2) Add carrots, ginger, garlic, curry, and 1/2 t salt, 1/4 t white pepper.
3) Cook a couple of minutes until the curry is fragrant.
4) Add stock, coconut milk, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to med-low, cover, and simmer until carrots are very tender (20 min).
5) Puree carrot mixture in a blender until smooth.
6) Transfer soup to a clean saucepan (I poured the soup over a sieve to make the texture really fine).

Shrimp:
1) Bring 2 c water, the lemon juice, and 1 t salt to a boil over med-high heat.
2) Add shrimp, cover, and remove the pan from the heat. Let stand for 6 min.
3) Remove shrimp, halve lengthwise if desired and set aside.

Before serving:
1) Add the carrot juice to the soup, mix to combine. Heat through and adjust flavor with more salt/pepper.
2) Arrange the shrimp in the center of four soup bowls. Pour the soup around the shrimp (I did this by ladling the soup into a measuring cup with a spout, which made it easier to pour).

Serve immediately, and watch your guests rave.

Dining Out Montreal: Restaurant Europea

There are two things I used to always love about Montreal in Quebec, Canada: the exchange rate with US dollars and the abundant offerings of French food, from bistro fare to fine dining.

Now that the US economy is going down the gutter, the exchange rate is no longer much of an advantage. But fine dining is still available at much better prices than what I am used to seeing in San Francisco or New York City.

On a recent trip to Montreal, my husband and I dined at Restaurant Europea. The menu offered a la carte selections, along with a table d'hote ("host's table") five-course menu and a nine-course tasting menu. We decided on the table d'hote ($53.50 Canadian), as we figured that our tactic of each ordering a different selection for each course would allow us to partake in an ample variety.

Before we could place our orders, however, our waitress offered us a complimentary sampling of three morsels, which were quite good as a whole. Husband and I both agreed the middle selection was the most delectable--a cured piece of meat wrapped around a dried piece of fruit. Not uncommon, but definitely palate pleasing.


When our waitress came around again, we placed our orders. A few minutes later, our "La mise en bouche" arrived, a teaser of lobster cream "cappuccino" with truffle oil and a small shaving of truffle.

Le Cappuccino de crème de homard, à l’huile de truffe
(no coffee involved, but the foamy texture was reminiscent of a cappuccino)

After that, the courses came in a fluid, continuous motion. They included:

Appetizer of pan-fried foie gras over a truffled celeriac puree, foie gras "au torchon" with pineapple chutney.

Appetizer of "minute made" bison tartar, watercress mesclun, carpaccio of smoked Boileau venaison, baby vegetables.

A complimentary tasting (I forgot what this was, but I believe it was a polenta of sort)

A complimentary tasting of "Light CO2 foam prepared with Caesar Salad."

Entree of slowly braised veal cheeks, fondant potatoes and parsnip puree.

Entree of roasted U10 scallop with prosciutto, Lac Brome confit duck raviole, shitake mushrooms, Jerusalem artichoke, coconut emulsion.

Rum cake dessert.

A tray of bite-sized desserts, with tuxedo strawberries!

A complimentary basket full of delicious, tiny madeleines.

Chocolate macaroon presented on a crispy feuillantine, with chocolate ganache.

My after-dinner coffee, in the fanciest setup I've ever seen. It came with four different types of sugars and a bar of chocolate!

For slightly less than US $50 a person (if you don't include the coffee I ordered), the lavish meal was quite the bargain. We had numerous complimentary tastings, and by the end of the night I could barely take a bite of my dessert. We ended up bringing most of the madeleines home, which provided a memorable snack the next day.

Except for the Caesar Salad foam, which I thought was innovative but strange, all of the dishes were executed well. I expected something to be amiss, but the quality of the food was high and the service was good (though a tad bit slow towards the end). I'm not sure if Canadian food costs are lower, or maybe they just don't care about making money, but it's a gastronomic bargain I'll gladly come back to the next time I'm in Montreal.

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Restaurant Europea
Montreal, QC Canada
Rating: 4.5 smacking plums (highest is 5)

Dining Out SF: Brunch at Bar Tartine

Sometimes it takes a really inspiring meal to begin food blogging (and eating) again.

Not that I’ve stopped eating altogether of course, but sometimes you hit a slump in life where nothing tastes good, not even your favorite go-to comfort food (eggs, pasta, dark chocolate). So it’s been a lot of bland rice and veggie meals for me, which only my ex-roommate’s anorexic cat would ever consider eating (poor thing). You, my readers, have palates too good for that.

Leave it to Tartine (my favorite bakery in San Francisco and possibly America) to bring me back to gastronomic life.

When my husband proposed that we check out brunch at Bar Tartine in San Francisco’s Mission district, I was surprised and excited. Surprised because my husband has been in his frugal phase lately (which means $3 meals every day and rarely eating out) and excited because I was ready to be inspired by food again.

Bar Tartine is open for brunch on weekends from 11am-2:30pm. We were warned to arrive by 11am if we didn’t want to wait in line, so we nabbed a nearby parking spot at 10:45am and waited in the car. Sure enough, a small line started to form around 10:55am.

We were seated by a lovely hostess, and after perusing the intriguing selections (duck confit scramble anyone?), my husband opted for the open face pork belly sandwich with shoestring fries and I selected the poached egg over fresh tuna and greens (highly recommended by our waitress).

After ordering, our waitress placed down a plate of Tartine’s famous country bread.

Complimentary bread for brunch is definitely uncommon, and I wasn’t about to pass up Tartine’s country bread. In fact, if I hadn’t eaten it all I probably would have stuffed the leftovers into my purse when no one (including my husband) was looking.

The entrées came soon enough, and I was wowed by the fresh flavors of my dish. It felt like Spring was in my mouth, rejuvenating my spirit which had been as gray as San Francisco’s lousy summer.

I had been a little fearful that my tuna would be dry (or worse, canned) but it was flaky and tender, and worked well with the lemon oil drizzled on top. I ate my dish a little too quickly, and soon enough it was gone.

My husband raved over his dish, which suited his taste buds very well. Fatty pork belly lay atop a thick heirloom tomato slice and crunchy toast. I laughed as he made smacking sounds at every other bite.

The only complaint we could think of was that the fries weren't quite shoestring...they tasted more like skinny potato chips (and were inconvenient to eat, since you couldn't use a fork and picking them up one by one was tedious).

We had made plans for dessert (yes, they serve dessert for brunch!), but unfortunately were too belly-aching full for the indulgence. Someday though, I’ll be trying the meyer lemon trifle with caramel, almond cake and meyer lemon granita.

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Bar Tartine

Brunch hours: Sat/Sun 11am-2:30pm

Rating: 4.5 smacking plums (highest is 5)

Sunday Dinner and Creme Brulee at the Bradys'

Growing up, I somewhat resented family dinners. While I appreciated the fact my parents were trying to have us bond with one another, the truth was we usually sat in conversation about the weather over greasy Chinese. How I longed to be hanging out with friends instead, burrowing my head in a book, or even doing my homework.

As I grew older and slowly shed my selfish desires, what we had of these dinners became fewer in between. Though I tried harder to make conversation, I realized there was little to be said between us, no matter how hard I tried. Perhaps the awkward silences were a cultural thing; I'm not sure.

When a foodie friend of mine (and former coworker) first invited my husband and I over for dinner a year ago, I was excited. Not only was her mom a food editor (dream job!) but my friend had always described these amazing-sounding meals that I was jealous to experience. What I didn't expect though, was the warmth that encircled my husband and me when we walked through the front door. Over roast lamb, we were included in the stories about cousins, cats and other drama that made me feel more at home than I ever did in the family dinners of my childhood.

During the most recent Sunday dinner, Mrs. B made a delicious homemade tagliatelle (from the Italian tagliare, meaning "to cut") with a meat ragu sauce. The pasta was made from scratch by hand, which results in a chewy doughiness I love and is impossible to recreate with dried pasta. As usual, I probably ate more than my fair share, but it's hard to pass up something as satisfying as homemade pasta.

The highlight of the night though, was my friend's creme brulee. There is a restaurant in nearby San Carlos that offers a unique creme brulee offering of orange and lavender flavor, so that was the inspiration for our dessert that evening. As most people know though, the challenging (and fun) part of making a creme brulee is torching it in the end:

The creme brulee waiting to be adorned with sugar.

A thin, even layer of sugar is the way to go for a delicate burnt sugar crust.

Holding the torch at an angle, have the flame slowly circle around
the creme brulee so that small, brown bubbles form evenly throughout.

Viola!

There have been a number of Sunday dinners since that first Sunday dinner, but my husband and I continually feel excited whenever we are invited over for another one. Delicious food aside, the only thing better than a memorable meal is the company you have the privilege to enjoy it with.

Vik's Chaat Corner

Michael Bauer just released his Top 100 Bay Area restaurants this past weekend, and lo and behold, I ate at 41 of these restaurants already! What I love about this list though, is that it encompasses not only Michelin star restaurants, but places where you can get a good meal for $5 too.

On a recent trip to visit my friends Steph and Kenneth, Steph suggested that we check out Vik's Chaat Corner in Berkeley. When I mentioned this in passing to my foodie coworker, she got really excited. "VIIIIKKKK'S!!!!" she nearly screamed, and started naming off the menu items to me.

I had no idea what to expect. Sure I like Indian food, but I like my naan 'n curry, and Vik's menu only had chaat (Indian snacks) which I wasn't so sure I'd like.

Going to Vik's is an experience. The "restaurant" is really a large warehouse, with a counter where you order food and some picnic-like tables to eat at. My friends and I ordered a variety of food--I had a Lamb Baida Roti and my husband (who insisted on being "Vijay" for the meal) ordered a Masala Dosa and Pani Puri.



My husband (who is Chinese, but might as well be Indian due to the heavy influence of his coworkers) taught me how to eat the puri. Apparently, there is a procedure to it. First, you take a "puff" and tap a little hole into it. Next, you put in some garbanzo beans and potatoes, then some tamarind sauce, and finally finish it with some spicy mint water. Then you just pop the whole thing into your mouth! If I didn't know any better, I'd have eaten everything separately.


It was absolutely delicious, and fun to eat. I much preferred it to my lamb roti, which was good but a bit on the oily side and my stomach wasn't feeling so keen on that day. The masala dosa was good as well, and I would highly recommend it.

I'll definitely be back. Who said good eats and cheap eats can't go together?