Breakfast is the Most Important Meal of the Day

Breakfast, the most important meal of the day. So important that I started preparing my breakfast the night before. After coming home from night class and turning on the Federer v. Simon match, I started feeling the pangs of hunger. As I roamed my fridge full of half eaten cheeses, I noticed I had a bag of arugula that was about to lose its freshness. My economical tendencies switched on a culinary lightbulb: arugula pesto! I grabbed a garlic clove, the bag of arugula, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, and olive oil and started prepping. With a few pulses on my food processor, I had delicious pesto for a late night snack (on top of slices of day-old baguette) and as a condiment for my morning eggs.

I knew I wanted pesto with my eggs, but felt I needed to take it up a notch. Mushroom omelet! I took some cremini mushrooms and an onion. I sliced up the mushrooms and diced onion and started sauteing them with some fresh thyme. In another pan, I made some of my infamous potatoes (infamous only because I've made them for pretty much anyone who sleeps over at my apartment after a late night of drinking). The potatoes are made with diced onions, salt, cayenne, chili powder, cumin, garlic salt and lawry's seasoning salt. Since I'm trying (well, not really) to lose some weight, I decided not to top off my potatoes with sour cream-- instead I added some tomatoes and avocado. I scrambled two eggs with a little milk and salt for the omelet. When it was finished, I topped it off with a dollop of my arugula pesto. To place the final touches, I brewed some fresh coffee in my french press: 2 tablespoons of beans, brewed for 4 1/2 minutes in 190 degree water. Here's the final product:

How to Create a Stirfry of Death

Alternate title: how to teargas yourself and enjoy a lovely meal that may or may not leave your stomach lining in-tact. But that was kind of a long title, don't ya think?

The Beginning of the end:

I was looking for something interesting to spice up an otherwise potentially boring meal of pasta, which for me defaults to stir frying whatever interesting miscellaneous veggies and vegetarian protein I can find in the refrigerator drawer. So between this fact, and the lovely little jaunt I had in the almost-forgotten pepper garden yesterday, you have the story of how I discovered the stir fry of death, the saute of satan, the meal to mace yourself with. Etcetera.

Let's backtrack.

My roommates and I have this cool little garden bed we planted a while back, in the shape of a mandala. It's gone mostly untended in the midst of this crazy holiday season. Thanks to the recent torrential rain, whatever hasn't been picked over or died off still lives: some leeks, a bunch of old rainbow chard, and a plethora of pepper plants: Bell, habanero, yellow banana, cayenne maybe? And so forth.

Noticing these pepper plants full of fruit, and wanting to make the most of whatever remains in the garden as my budget wanes, I picked whatever was ripe or verging on overripe, noting that many of the labels have washed away. Oh well. So there you have your backstory. If you're hungry, experimental, and just a little bit masochistic, as I am, I bet you're waiting for that recipe!

Pasta, with just a little bit O' Chemical Weaponry:

Pasta: Whatever the hell kinda pasta you have. For me, rainbow rotelle from TJ's was the pasta of the day.
cook according to the instructions. Or whatever. I cook to taste.
I usually sprinkle in a little Himalayan pink salt in. Because I think it has magical properties or something, and sometimes toss in a spoonful of olive oil and/or flavored vinegar. You know, because I'm fancy.

Topping of death:
Look what's in your 'fridge. Half an onion? Yes. several cloves of garlic? Obviously. Veggie Italian sausage? Because I'm vegetarian and eat to many carbs. That deformed bell pepper. Ok. And... oooh... what's this? Mystery peppers. But how hot are they? Won't know till I try 'em.

How many should you use? I suddenly remember hearing that in Thailand if you ask for something hot, and you're American, they automatically won't make it as hot as they would for a native from Thailand, unless you really really insist. Because when it comes to spicy, Americans are p*ssies. Well you're not a p*ssy, are you? Of course not. So you grab a handful of mystery peppers and get to choppin'! Watch your fingers, that knife is sharp.

While you are chopping, you notice: tears from peppers > tears from the onion. Who cares, keep chopping those peppers. Besides, frying them, and frying them, um... a lot, will take some of the heat out. Or something.

Throw it all in the pan. peppers first, you know, to cook the heat out. lean over the pan a little, just a little, and breathe like you normally would near a hot frying pan. You feel that? You just maced yourself with supper! Congratulations. Now pour yourself a big glass of milk or rice milk, or really, anything else that will neutralize the burning and hopefully salvage some of your stomach lining and enjoy your pasta/stirfry of death, because by god, you've earned it!
And hey, that sinus infection you've been fighting? Gone!

additional safety tip: after preparing the above meal, you may want to wash your hands with soap 5 or 6 times. Even then, you may want to avoid rubbing your eyes or... um, touching anything sensitive. Well, enough said.

Bon appetite! And, keep it classy! Because you know I always do. (wink)
Yours Truly,
The Blond Chef

I'm an Animal

Last week was my birthday, so naturally I celebrated with a few extravagant meals. My friends took me to one of my favorite restaurants Animal on Fairfax on the nights before and after my birthday. Below are some of the dishes I remembered to photograph prior to devouring them.

Foie Gras Terrine

Bacon Wrapped Rabbit Loin

Rabbit Legs

Flat Iron Steak with Sunchokes

Melted Petit Basque with Chorizo

Next, my sisters treated me to dinner at Lazy Ox Canteen in Little Tokyo.

Pork Rillete

Cripsy Clams (and Viv's manicured hands)

Panna Cotta with Figs

Chicken pot chicken pot chicken pot piiiie!

Pork Croquettes and Beef Carpaccio

Chocolate Mousse Cookie Sandwich

I ended my night with cocktails at Villains Tavern. My cousin Alan also brought me a chocolate cake from Lark bakery in Silverlake. I totally gained a few pounds at the end of the week.

Sushi 101

Konnichiwa Dinette Set-son! This is a very delayed entry, but I had to document my sushi attempt at one point. My friend Adam-son just got back from Japan and brought me back authentic sushi mats. So of course, I had to find an excuse to use them so we were off to LA Fish Company in Downtown, Los Angeles to check out the goods. After we bought some tuna and yellow tail filets, we stopped by Little Tokyo to get some other ingredients. Below is a breakdown of our Japanese culinary adventure:

Tempura Vegetables


We chopped up some mushrooms, zucchini and sweet potatoes in half-inch sticks and dipped them in the tempura batter. I accidentally made the batter too thin, so it's a good idea to add the wet water in the dry ingredients gradually. I heated up a pot of vegetable oil, dipping a drop of the batter in the oil to see if it was hot enough. Once it sizzled, I added the vegetables in small batches. After 2-3 minutes of frying, I placed the tempura on a paper towel. I like mine more crispy, so I dipped the vegetables again in the batter and fried them a second time.


Sushi/Sashimi/ Hand Rolls

First, i started the sushi rice. I added rice vinegar, sugar and a little salt to a small saucepan on medium heat. Once the sugar is dissolved, I took it off the heat to cool to add to the finished sushi rice. When the sushi rice is cooled, I added the vinegar mixture gradually until the rice incorporates the vinegar but is not too wet.

Unfortunately, I don't have a great chef's knife, which made slicing the fish extremely difficult and aesthetically displeasing. But we tried to make do, using my chopping knife to slice the fillets, cutting against the grain. The left over ends of the fish were used for our spicy tuna hand rolls. For the spicy tuna, all we did was chop up the tuna and added mayonaise and siracha to it.

After the prep work was finished, we started setting up our work station. We wrapped the sushi mats in cellophane, placed a bowl of water, the sushi rice, fish, and chopped vegetables on the table. To start our rolls, we used placed the seaweed on the mat, shiny side down. I dipped my fingers in the water bowl and grabbed a handful of rice. I covered the seaweed with a thin layer of rice, leaving some exposure on the far end. Next, I placed the fish and veggies in a row. I took the front edge of my mat and rolled it over the fish and veggies, pressing as I rolled. Once at the edge, I dipped my fingers with water to help seal the seaweed. Here's the finished product. Tanoshimu!







Sorry, no picture of my awesome handroll.

The Next Breakfast Craze?

For Alex's bon voyage back to Paris, Viv decided to cook the mademoiselle bucatini pasta. The recipe calls for a cream sauce, made with heavy cream thickened with egg yokes. As most culinary experts know, eggs scramble if placed on high heat, but Viv is yet to be an expert. She innocently forgot to turn off the stove when she placed the egg yokes inside. So, instead of a thick cream sauce, Alex was presented with pancetta flavored milk with strands of scrambled egg over pasta. Even though visually unappealing, the dish didn't taste half bad. Viv may just be the next avante-guarde chef of our time.

A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose

The obsession to recreate the perfect gorgonzola stuffed date has led to a new obsession:

Find as many creative and delicious uses for a 700ml bottle of Kalvert Rose Sirop I purchased from the Indian market down the street last Weds.

I was on the hunt for rose water for the simple syrup in my date recipe (phase II), but they only had cosmetic use rose water.

The suggested use for "NON ALCOHOLIC SWEETENED BEVERAGES" : mix 1 part sirop to 4 parts "chill milk, water or soda"

But why not alcoholic beverages? Vodka rose tonic anyone? With lime?

As a glaze for savory foods? And, might I add, it made a delightful addition to the simple syrup for the dates in place of the rose water! Any other ideas? I have the rose sirop, let's try 'em all!

Thanks for the Date, I had a Lovely Time

It was at a friend's B-day dinner at a fancy restaurant several years back that I became aware of the deliciousness which is the bacon wrapped gorgonzola stuffed date. The perfect combination of salty, savory and sweet. They melted in my mouth. It was love at first taste. I vowed to someday recreate this recipe.

Two things have gotten in the way of realizing said vow:

1. I am lazy

2. I went vegetarian over a year ago. This pretty much puts a damper on bacon wrapped anything (sob- Leslie's prosciutto wrapped asparagus)

But I finally did it. I was invited to a potluck, and realized, "Oh shit. That means I have to cook something). So I decided to compromise and create veggie and non veggie version (I was vastly outnumbered).

I searched the interwebs and found the two most cohesive, legible recipes I could. This one appeared painfully easy, but used paprika as the one and only spice, and I wasn't much into that.

The other seemed a bit fancier, and involved making the gorgonzola into a paste by processing it with almonds, whiched sounded like a fantastic idea. The problem? It involved making a glaze out of reduced sugar & rose water. a) rosewater required specialty store shopping, which I didn't have time for. b) a sugar syrup seemed superfluous as the dates are already so sweet.

Naturally, I combined the two recipes, and experimented with my best judgement.

I used slightly more cheese in the gorgonzola to almond ratio than the grouprecipies.com recipe, and the powdered sugar to taste. And of course, no syrup.

don't forget to use toothpicks to secure your proscioutto/fakin' bacon. This is really mostly important for the veggie bacon, as it doesn't want to stay wrapped. The prosciutto could get away with going pickless.

Also, I ended up cooking the veggie bacon and proscioutto wrapped dates at about 400/425 degrees, for almost 10 minutes (I checked them at 5 and 8 minutes and the cheese wasn't melty, the dates were not bubbly and the bacon did not look crispy)

The result of this experiment in taste?

The veggie bacon needs more cook time than the proscioutto, which ended up a little overcooked, but still plenty edible.

Veggie bacon isn't really known for it's ability to crisp.

I swallow my know-it-all-ness. The syrup was probably more for helping the morsels stick together, and adding moisture. I think in the long run, that's what they needed more of.

But overall, the date experiment was a success. I made instant friends with people and didn't make it across the room without loosing several off the tray to some hungry folks.

Tomorrow: Date experiment #2

I will implement the sauce this time, and make the necessary time adjustments. Also, I will use slivers of tofurky slices in place of the veggie bacon, which had the disturbingly artificial coloring and resembled play-doh food just a bit. Also, I think it will be more similar in thinness to the proscioutto.

Stay tuned, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

image pirated, erm, I mean... borrowed... appropriated! from: http://www.epicurean.com/featured/crispy-bacon-wrapped-stuffed-dates-recipe.html

Update: Experiment part 2!
The second batch of dates were more successful than the first! I avoided overcooking the proscioutto , and the syrup made the bites more succulent, the slightest hint of rose was lovely.

I asked my new culinary guinea pigs, erm, friends, for some honest feedback, and It was agreed that the fake meat was not necessary for the veggie option, as it added in texture, but not so much to the flavor. Not a bad idea at all.