04.18.06
MOVING TIME!!
Hey cool kids…because I'm fed up with people not being able to make comments, I'm moving my cooking blog to my new site: www.cforcooking.com . It's just hosting my blog right now, but it should be ROCK SOLID!! I thought that hosting my cooking blog online would make things easier, but it so didn't 
Lesson learned…I'll send everyone an email with the updated info…but once again, please accept my apologies for all the comment posting problems online.
Eating NYC Part 2
On Saturday in NYC it was about 80 degrees and super nice outside. We had spent the day at the Met and went on a really nice walk in Central Park (we had never done that before). After walking around the better part of Manhattan for the day we were nice and hungry as we grabbed a cab and headed over to Cafe Boulud.
We were greeted by nice hostesses with legit French accents! Thank goodness for "Open Table", I got reservations earlier in the week and we were seated straight away. Service was more than a bit attentive as there were about 3 different people attending to our needs from wine to entree's. I started off with a Yellow Corn/Pork Tamale complete with three different types of dipping sauces (salsa, braising sauce, lemon yogurt) and it was SOOO yummers! I had a glass of the Pino Gris. For dinner I had a "Peeking Duck"…it was really good, though the marmalade glaze combined with the wine was waaay too acidic. It was accompanied by some potatoes and saute'ed vegetables. Good stuff! Steph had goat cheese ravioli in a savory pea sauce (VERY delicate). For desert, Steph had the Artisanal cheeses while I had the Grilled Pinapple coconut/carrot cake.
Overall Impression: I felt that the food was very good at Boulud with the exception of dessert. The pineapple was super thick and difficult to cut. The combo of the wine/marmalade was very rough on my throat. Service was very very good…very attentive and always around whenever we needed anything. The ambiance on the other hand left a lot to be desired. Noisy and cramped we were forced to listen to this horrible woman tell her 15 year old daughter how 'fat' she was and how she should start skipping desert (the girl wasn't fat at all). It was too well lit, and bright…which was too bad as they had some really nice art work. All in all, I think that it had a lot of potential as the food and service was really good, but I wouldn't be going back there any time soon.
P.S. Back to cooking tomorrow…promise! 
Pix from the market:
04.17.06
Eating NYC Part 1
So, we're back from the NYC! We had a GREAT weekend and had a blast…from staying at the W on Lexington to eating out at two of the finer restaurants that NYC has to offer. Arriving in NY we headed over to the hotel to see if we could check in…despite a little rain, we were in high spirits as we were allowed to check in. It was around noon so we headed up the street to the Broadway Diner where I got a Ruben (hey..it's NYC!!). It was pretty damn good, though a bit salty. We walked quite a bit through the rain when Steph suggested we take a break…it was here we entered Grand Central where I got to walk the same route where I've seen on Bobby Flay's "Boy Meets Grill". Very cool stuff…I've attached some pix below.
Friday night we headed over to Bolo. I know, I'm a fan…but it really was a very nice night and the food was super yum. We started out with some Tapas for appetizers…they were all so tasty and visually interesting. I also kicked it off with his Pomegranite Martini….mmmm…was soo smooth and not too sweet! For dinner I had the special, which was….FRIED SOFT SHELL CRABS! I've never had them before….and as I am on a culinary journey to try new things…I gave it a whirl. In the words of Homer Simpson…it was…mmmmmmm!!!! It was not greasy at all…it was light and airy and flavorful. Steph had a Calamari, Squid Ink Risotto that came with two VERY large prawns. Dessert was a 'crispy' chocolate moose with some port infused sorbet.
Overall Impression: The food, to say the least, was incredible. Portions were generous and extremely flavorful. The primary ingredients were allowed to shine and the spices were accents not overpowering. The drinks were very creative and balanced between the alcohol and the mixers. Service was very attentive when we first sat down…but somewhat tapered off towards the end. We didn't feel like we were being rushed, but the food came out fairly fast…maybe a bit too fast. Ambience was typical NY…many tables jammed next to each other, but surprisingly the restaurant was fairly quiet and good for conversation. I recommend this restaurant without any reservation for a wonderful, fun night out…would be a great time for a family or group of friends with the tapas!
I'll continue this review tomorrow (as we had a big day today) with dinner and dining from Sat down in the NYC!!
Pix from Grand Central:
04.13.06
Weekend Chef
So, I'm somewhat lucky to work for a financial firm in that we have Friday off. Steph and I are using this opportunity to go down to NYC. Now, I'm a pretty big fan of the food network and one of my favorite chefs is Bobby Flay. While we are down in NYC we are going to hit a couple nice restaurants and one of them is owned by Flay called Bolo. His flagship restaurant Mesa was pretty much booked all weekend so I thought it'd still be nice to try out one of his restaurants. This was somewhat of a spontaneous trip and thus a lot of places are booked. Mario's restaurants were booked solid as were Jean Georges (well…unless we wanted to eat at 11pm)..thus I decided to take a look at the NY Times to see what I could find. What I found was one very interesting looking French Restaurant named Cafe Boulud. Looks like it'll be a fun time…though I won't be doing much cooking until Sunday.
I'm thinking we might do a leg of lamb for Easter supper along with some sides. Nothing is final…but it should be a really fun time as I've never cooked a leg of lamb before! That said, I can't wait to get dolled up and try some new restaurants this weekend after visiting some museums 
Think I can sneak my camera in?
By the way…check out the Lasagna my wife made with the left over Ricotta/Sauce! This is the sort of thing that I'm not quite good at (yet!). When I saw the left overs…I really wasn't sure with the leftovers, but my whirling dervish cooking wife went right away to the cupboard, pulled out some noodles and went to work. I have to say it was super yummy and I contributed by making the sauce/cheese mixture and getting outta our kitchen!
04.12.06
Tiger cakes
After having a couple days of yummy Italian food, I felt it was time to switch gears and try something different. Thinking about what I had in the pantry when I remembered that I had a bunch of shrimp left over from a couple weeks ago (gotta love the versatility of frozen shrimp!!). Now…what to cook that wasn't the same ol same ol. What I came up with was a super coolio recipe from Epicurious for Shrimp cakes with Chili Lime Cream sauce. I thought it would be a good idea to compliment the cakes with a nice salad…and to go with that, I thought that I'd make a nice Honey Mustard salad dressing from scratch! (how ambitious am I?)
Starting off we got the ingredients ready for the salad dressing:
I was pretty excited to use honay (Honey) as I have a sweet tooth the size of Savannah. Kicking it off, I put the honay in a pot with the vinegar to get it dissolved. As I assembled the other ingredients I noticed that for some reason I was sticking to the floor….DAMN IT!! I was betrayed by that sweet sweet honay bear!! lol I took off my flip flops and washed down the floor. I then moved on to assembling the dressing…slowly whisking in the oil. What I was left with was a super yummy salad dressing which would work well for topping the shrimp cakes (I hoped!).
Next it was on to the assembly of the shrimp cakes. I called this recipe 'Tiger Cakes' because these are frozen tiger shrimp. The recipe called for throwing these in the food processor, but after consulting with my pal Al at work we thought it'd be best to roughly chop the shrimp instead of blending them…this would give it a bit more texture and body.
I threw all the ingredients in a bowl and started stirring it up. It came together fairly quick as I threw in some PANKO BREADCRUMBS!! mmmm…panko!! This brought the mix to a nice solid mixture suitable for forming and eventual dredging into more panko for a crunchy exterior.
Ready for deployment! In a large cast iron skillet I heated up some oil and began crisping up each side. When all was said and done, I think the shrimp cakes came out pretty damn good. I dried the cakes on a drying rack which kept them really crisp and yummy…the salad (admittedly store bought) was very good and I really LOVED the honey mustard dressing on top of the shrimp cakes.
Lessons learned: Judging when the shrimp cakes were done was a bit difficult as I think I made them a little too thick. I probably could've used a bit more oil when I fried the second batch. I get a bit nervous when I see smoke while frying and need to 'get over it'. I also used cilantro instead of chopped parsley in the dressing and it worked out really well. I would also be more cautious of my friend the honay bear…he is one sneaky character and is prone to making life sticky for all who come into contact with him!! 
Finished!!
04.11.06
Vampire protection
So, tonight I became a victim of my own success. See, in making yesterdays Rollatini, we had quite a bit of leftovers to eat for tonight. In addition, when Steph saw that we had some left over ricotta filling, she made a little lasagna (inspired IDEA!!) so we haven't even dug our forks into that yet. I was going to make a dessert for tonight, but in talking it over with Steph…the time it would've taken to make dessert would've meant we'd both be asleep. That said, it was time to improvise and go back to one of my favorite Italian-type side dishes which takes zippo in the way of time….GARLIC BREAD!! Yeah, I know…not very exciting, but man…with the sauce that I made yesterday I figured it couldn't hurt to have some around.
Up until I bought my knife set, cutting bread was such a pain…I don't know how I cut bread before
Of course, can't have garlic bread…perfect opportunity to break out the garlic press! Steph and I go this at Ikea down in Maryland a few years ago…it works like a charm
We are big fans of garlic in this house…I try to avoid using garlic powder as real garlic tastes so much better! So, I melted some butter along with the garlic, brushed it on the bread and sprinkled on some cheese. Under the broiler it went as I kept a close eye on it. I've been told I always burn garlic bread…so once the cheese got melty…it came out of the oven. That said, it came out pretty yummy and a good accompaniment for the marinara sauce from yesterday.
Lessons Learned: Didn't take really that much to put this together so not a lot of room to grow here. Personally, I like garlic bread on bagettes, but hey…all tastes good with butter and garlic
Finished!!
04.10.06
Time to Rollatini
Last week I was curious to try out a Giada De Laurentiis recipe for Eggplant Rollatini, but it just wasn't in the cards with the schedule that Steph and I had. Sunday however, was a totally different story but taking a look at the recipe, 3 eggplants was WAAAY to much Kicking off cookin' I decided that it was best to start with the marinara sauce.
One trick I picked up from Molto Mario was to slice up the garlic instead of just choppin' it up. Slicing it fairly thin, frankly is just pretty dang fun as opposed to sending it through the garlic press Sauteing up the mirepoix started making the house smell super yummers.
I threw in some red pepper flakes (yes, how crazy am I going off the recipe and adding my own dash?!?!?). I threw in some crushed red tomatoes and let it start simmerin' for an hour. It was about this time that I got some unexpected help….my wonderful wife had taken over the kitchen to make some cookies and it was then she offered up some help! Hoo-RAH! Steph had already started slicing up some of the eggplant…I hadn't even thought of it…but she was using the mandolin!
Action SHOT!! lol The slices were super thin and uniformly the same size as I laid them out to be salted on a baking tray to sweat out the bitterness. It sounds super geeky but I do love watching the moisture come to the surface. Steph laughed at me watching the eggplant and called me "Science Boy" hehe…maybe so, but it was still fun.
After about 20 minutes, I took the sweated eggplants and washed off the salt and residual moisture leaving me with some yummy, sweet eggplants…ready for some EVOO and subsequent grilling in the grill pan.
Steph was working making the filling as I snuck in with a little fresh nutmeg as I love nutmeg with ricotta cheese. Grilling up the eggplant Steph started assembling the stuffed eggplant.
Rolling up these little guys we made sure to put the seams side down so that they wouldn't leak out as we cooked them.
While Steph finished up rolling up the eggplant, I put the sauce in the blender to smooth it out and I have to say it came out pretty damn good. It didn't really need any additional seasoning as I covered the eggplant with sauce and some additional parmesan. The final product was met with rave reviews from Steph. We finished off the plating with some garlic spinach for a green vegetable.
Lessons Learned: This was the first time I've felt that Steph and I worked together in the kitchen fairly well. Working together made the job move a heck of a lot faster. Also, I have to say that the mandolin worked super well. I would've never thought of that as I seem to be married to my knives at times…lesson well taken for slicing objects in a uniform pattern at a fast pace. Also, it didn't take much to put together a fairly easy, tasty marinara sauce
FINISHED!!
04.09.06
A Foodbloggers Meme Around the World
1. Please list three recipes you have recently bookmarked from foodblogs to try:
- Spicy Indian Hummus from Cooking Medley
- Balsamic Glazed Chicken from the Amature Gourmet
- Crispy Breaded Tomato Slices from I Heat Bacon
2. A food blog in your vicinity:
3. A foodblog (or more) located far from you:
4. A foodblog (or several) you have discovered recently (where did you find it?):
- Simply Recipes….one of the first food blogs I ran into
- Cooking Medley…I love Indian food and this blog has some great recipes with lots of great Indian friends who also have cooking blogs
5. Any people or bloggers you want to tag with this meme?
- I'm somewhat of a cooking blog newbie…probably no one would respond*shrug*
04.07.06
Beyond Rangoon
It's been a fairly stressful week at work so I think that Steph and myself were in need of a treat. So after kicking around some ideas with my pal Al at work when I realized that I had some leftover wanton wrappers…that could only mean one thing…CRAB RANGOONS!
When looking at the different recipes online, I had to go find one from the Trader. If you don't know anything about Trader Vic, he's the guy that pretty much brought chinese food to mainstream America. I'm not saying he's the first person…but anyone that invented the Mai Tai is ok in my book for telling me how to create a crab rangoon. This was far easier than the potstickers from the other day…essentially after chopping up the crab…it was throw in a dish to mix!
A half hour later I extracted the mix from the chill chest and began assembling my rangoons. This time around, I put the mixture on, 6 at a time instead of just one. I used a teaspoon full of filling instead of a tablespoon…man it made life easier filling those little SOB's
It was about this time, that I realized that some troll had swapped out canola oil with vegetable oil at the grocery store and I had mistakenly taken that instead of the desired canola. So, I put a bit of oil down in the cast iron dutch oven…not enough for deep fry emersion, but enough to fry. The first few were a bit over done…not burned or anything…just a bit over done. I used a drying rack/cookie sheet combo to dry them so they'd remain crisp….I'd never fried anything like this before and I didn't want them to get soggy.
Steph came home from work and was a bit wary of the smell of fried cookin'. However once she tried the rangoons she was pleased as puched to have some pretty yummy tasting snacks.
Lessons Learned: I felt that I rushed the process as Steph called giving me a half hour to assemble and cooked the rangoons. This was all my fault, as I should've started a bit earlier…thus I was assembling rangoons while cooking at the same time, but they cook super fast! lol In addition, I found that for this cream cheese based recipe, a 'real' teaspoon worked better than a measuring teaspoon as it was very sticky stuff.
Finished!!
04.06.06
Cap’n Jeff’s Tuna Surprise
The other night I was stuck at work fairly late….when I got home, I got a call from Steph telling me that I was on my own for dinner. As I had no desire to go back out, I turned to look at my options. In general terms I was thinking either "Microwave Burrito" or maybe some "Pasta". It was then I had a brilliant idea…I'd take the pasta, some leftovers and a can o' tuna and make a casserole of sorts!!
Our stars for the night:
Now, ya'll may be wondering what exactly is the 'surprise'? I mean…it looks like pretty standard fare, despite the fresh parmesan and the semi expensive tuna in oil…well….tonight's secret ingredient is….(in best Iron Chef Chairman Voice):
PANKO BREADCRUMBS!!! Usually, I'm a fresh breadcrumb type of guy…but I've been dying for an excuse to use these as I salted the water (for the pasta) and began grating the cheese.
Seriously…how good is that tuna looking? I was brought up on tuna in fresh water, and truth be told, it is way more healthy for you than the dark tuna in oil. HOWEVER, there isn't much taste to those tuna's packed in water with light meat…the dark meat in oil actually tastes like something! Pasta cooked and strained it was on to the assembly of the dish in pyrex. I started with a layer of breadcrumbs, then pasta, then tuna, next the pasta sauce followed by the cheese and breadcrumbs…looked a bit like this:
After I baked it for 10 minutes…I threw it under the broiler for another five to get a nice golden crust on top.
I will say, for a dish I threw together in a short period of time, there was a lot of flavor and good mixture of textures that wasn't overally unappealing to the eye
Lessons Learned: Nice to keep an open mind when doing dinner…try to kick up an ordinary dish into something you may not have thought of. It didn't take that much longer to put this together than just throw pasta and sauce together, but it was so much more flavorful and enjoyable.
FINISHED!!!
04.05.06
Eastern Burrito
I had some left over filling from the potstickers as I sat down to figure out what I was gonna do for dinner last night. I also had some leftover pork and some other goodies, as I had the inspired idea to make some kicked up burritos! I started off by setting up my workspace. A coolio trick I learned (by watching the food network of course) is to put a wet paper towel down underneath my cutting board…thus keeping it steady as a rock through cutting.
I then proceeded to chop up some crunch and yummy bamboo shoots and water chestnuts. I've always loved water chestnuts and thought they would be a good substitute for lettuce.
VERY exciting colors, eh? hehe I added some chili/garlic sauce and stirred them together to combine with the existing filling.
After sauteing the meat and assorted veggies together….I started to construct my Burritos…adding some preshredded italian cheeses and whole wheat tortillas making sure to use tin foil on a cookie sheet for easy clean up later on.
All in all, I think they came out fairly well. The ginger, pork and hot sauce gave the burritos a yummy flavor while the water chestnuts added a nice crunchy dimension to my east meets southwest burrito.
Lessons Learned: Basically it was a nice throw together leftover dinner. I managed not to mangle my fingers in any sorta way…so I would judge this dinner a success. Not a bad presentation if I do say so myself for a burrito!
FINISHED!!
04.04.06
Two fingers and a potsticker
I pretty much was a cooking fool on Sunday. I mean that in both a good and bad way….see, Steph got me this issue of cooks illustrated that had a recipe for pork potstickers. Being the adventerous type of joe, I thought that would be a good opportunity for me to get to know how to cook with wanton wrappers. Being the nice guy that I am, I also thought it would be nice if I could cook somevegetarian potstickers for Steph. Armed with both recipes I set out to cook.
Let me say that although I totally understand if someone is a vegetarian…prepping for a vegetarian dish takes 3x as long when lots of veggies and tofu is involved Bok Choi and Nappa Cabbage were two of the primary ingredients as I began slicin’ and dicin’
Needless to say, it didn’t take me long to inflict my first injury…maybe baking is easier…less knives around for me to hurt myself with
As Steph is the tofu expert in the family I enlisted her help to determine what would be the best way to press the tofu to get out the excess moisture. Apparently, “1000 Vegetarian Recipes” is the way to go!
It was about at this point that things took a turn for the Monty Python when I beveled one of my fingers. See, I generally have considered myself a fairly good veggie chopper…since I’ve been cooking, I’ve been able to increase my speed. However, what I can’t control is the old people (lots of old people live in my condo complex) leaning on their car horns generally getting me upset. That said..welcome to cut #2…probably my worst so far…yet Steph was able to get me bandaged up pretty quick.
As the cut was fairly deep, Steph told me to take a seat and she took over some of the prep work. I have to say, watching her made me realize how far I have to go…she should be onIron Chefshe is so fast and so neat. She makes me look like I’m standing still and when she was done and let me take over again, the place was super clean. Back on track, mypotsticker fillings were both done
With that I began assembling the individual potstickers. Let me tell you, if the Chinese have many hells, one of them has to be the hell of making tofu potstickers. The tofu doesn’t hold together like meat and blows up super easy.
After a few broken wonton wrappers…I started getting into it, yet never truly mastered the process. The key, I found, was the first fold and pinch (going diagonal). If that didn’t work…forgettaboutit. Eventually, I got 18 veggie and 16 pork ready for fryin’
Yeah…some don’t look super hot…but the new ones are the ones on the bottom and to the right…not too bad if I do say so Then it was on to the frying pan for some crisping prior to the steaming (which was followed by a bit more crisping).
This part of the operation went fairly smooth…though the potstickers did stick to the pan during the second crisping and had to be removed with a spatula. In addition, they also stuck to the paper towel that was recommended for blotting excess oil. The end result was fairly tasty I have to say!! The porkpotstickers were just as good as anything I had got in a restaurant…while the vegetarian, truth be told, could’ve used a bit more flavoring.
Lessons Learned: This process took a DAMN long time. I started at 4:30 and was eating at 7:30. Don’t let your potstickers cool…they are best warm, but that could be tough as you can only fry so many at one point. The dipping sauce should not be overlooked…I mistakenly pitched the extra green onion and the sauce wasn’t as good without it. Oh yeah…don’t chop while one is angry!!lol
FINISHED!!
04.03.06
Half baked
So, I decided this weekend to dip my toe into the baking pool by trying out an Alton Brown recipe for Blueberry Muffins. I really haven't baked anything before beyond some chocolate chip cookies so I thought this looked relatively straightforward as I separated the dry from the wet goods
The DRY:
The Wet(note the sugar):
Alton recommends 'sifting' by putting the dry ingredients into the food processor. I did this as I whisked the wet ingredients together in a bowl.
Ready to combine:
Alton recommends not over stirring as I looked over at the mess I made in a relatively short amount of time. I combined the wet/dry for long count of ten.
I have no idea how I make a mess so fast, but hey…I do a pretty good job cleanin' up after myself I greased up my pan, grabbed my trusty ice cream scoop and started dishin' out the batter.
Ready for the oven…
20 minutes later I checked the muffins with a toothpick and they were ready to come out. I tried dumping them out onto a tea towel to let them dry (per the instructions) when I realized they weren't coming out.Uggg…the tops of them were flat as well as I set them aside and tried to gently coax them out…results were mixed at best.
It seemed the blueberries settled on the bottom….not good times. Technically, they tasted pretty damn good but they just seemed to miss. Hey..it's a process, right? Can't get 'em all right on the first crack, eh?
Lessons Learned: I think I need an oven thermometer…though I followed the temperature instructions, but from my research online , it could've been too hot. Oh…also, I noticed that Steph had most cooly left out some liners for the muffins. Unfortuately, I noticed this AFTER cooking!! lol Not sure what else could've gone wrong…could be the recipe sucked *shrug* next time…I'm using my Moms!
Finished!!
