Thursday, September 30, 2010

Fig Pasta


Summer is over and figs are almost gone from the market. We made Fig Pasta.  This is unusual pasta because it sauce is sweet from the figs. Lynn Rossetto Kasper had a recipe in The Splendid Table Cookbook. I like figs you should try this one! It is also easy to make. The recipe can be found in our blog of Aug 22, 2006. Click the date to get the recipe.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Cathy's Birthday

Caviar Pasta

Crab in Spicy Sauce




Cathy and I were supposed to go to India for a month and we had to cancel the trip because of an ear infection that caused Cathy to loose hearing in her left ear. The doctor assures us that there is no permanent damage and that her hearing would return. We were bummed out because we were looking forward for the trip, but it would be impossible for her to fly until the ear has healed.

We had difficulty deciding on what we would do for her birthday, but ultimately decided to cook some favorite foods. I said I would do all of the cooking and cleaning and that she would only supervise. The night before the her birthday our neighborhood experienced a complete power failure and when we woke up we had no idea when electricity would be restored or if we could even cook (or see our food). In addition it was incredibly hot in LA well over 110 where we live. With no power and no air-conditioning it was not an auspicious way to spend a birthday. Luckily the power was restored at 10am the air-conditioning cooled the house down and I was able to cook (with supervision).

Billy / Kevin brought a great Borolo and Shrimp, Tim brought a delicious coconut cake and I made two of our favorite dishes.

We started by making: Spaghetti with Caviar, Scallions and Chopped Egg. The recipe is from The New York Times. This is an outrageously good and easy way to prepare Caviar. You can get the recipe from our blog of: Jan 1, 2010. Click the date to get the recipe.

We then made Creamy Spicy Lobster. The sauce is terrific but it MUST be made with Kewpie Japanese Mayo. We found the recipe on The Fine Lobster Blog called: Creamy Spicy Lobster: a twist on a Nobu Classic. Everyone loves it! We served Japanese Rice with it. We purchased excellent canned Lump Crab meat from McCall's Meat and Fish. It is called: MeTompkin. Look for it! You can find the recipe on our blog Sep. 5, 2010. Click the date to get the recipe.

We ended with the delicious Pineapple-Coconut Birthday Cake from Porto’s that Tim made. I didn’t know that Porto’s had birthday cakes. It was moist and good. I would definitely be buying cakes from them again.

Just as we brought the cake in with all of the candles burning Gerry (Cathy’s step-mom) called us from Chicago. It was a great and wonderful surprise and Gerry got to hear us singing Happy Birthday.

From what started as a bad day, it turned out to be a happy birthday with family and friends.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Spontaneous Japanese


We had purchased a beautiful salmon filet from McCall’s Meat and Fish along with Tobiko (Japanese Flying Fish Eggs). We decided to slow cook the salmon in the egg. This is a great (and easy recipe). We used the recipe for Honey-Cured, Smoked Salmon from Cooking with Fire and Smoke by Phillip Stephen Schulz. You can find the recipe in our blog of: Jan 15, 2009. Click the date to get the recipe.

On Sunday night I had brought in Chinese Food from our favorite Chinese restaurant: Newport Tan Cang in San Gabriel. One of the dishes I brought home was: Pea Tendrils. They were sautéed with garlic and had a delicious sauce.

We then made our version of Donburi Rice Bowl. Japanese short grain rice cooked in a rice cooker, toped with the Pea Tendrils and sauce, then the smoked salmon and finally the Tobiko. It was delicious!

Tobiko can be found at most Japanese Markets and is available at McCall’s.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Last Tomato Dinner of the Summer

Lentil Pasta
Tomato Soup with Fig and Cumin

Fall has definitely arrived and we decided to one final fling of a tomato based dinner. This season has been a bumper one for figs, so we decided to make Tomato Soup with Cumin and Figs from Moro East by Sam & Sam Clark. This is a great soup that features one of my favorite spices: Cumin.
It is very thick and the figs added at the end bob in the soup.
You can find the recipe in our blog of: Aug 20 2008. Click the date to get the recipe.

For the main course we made Lentil Pasta. The Italian Lentil Pasta from the restaurant Locanda Veneta in Los Angeles is one of the best. It is so rich, you would swear it was made with meat. We use Oven Candied Summer Tomatoes from: The Italian Country Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper.to make the sauce. The tomatoes once made can be frozen and used for up to 6 months. You can get the recipe from our blog of: July 22, 2008. Click the date to get the recipe.

It was a perfect end of summer tomato dinner.

Sunday, September 05, 2010

Crustacean Dinner

We decided to have a Labor Day dinner that was built around crustaceans: Crab and Shrimp and Lobster. I don’t know if technically they are crustaceans but we decided to classify them that way! We invited Billy / Kevin / Alan / Tim / Robert / Darryl.

We started on the deck with a great cheese from The Cheese Store of Silverlake called: Brevi Rousse, it is a sheep cheese from France and we love it. We also made pizza. Our neighbor, Kazue, brought us fresh figs and we decided to use them. We start with Vicolo Corn Meal Pizza Shells and then covered them with Dolce de Gorgonzola Cheese, Caramelized Onions, Figs and Hazelnuts. It made a wonderful Pizza. 

On my birthday Cathy and I shared a main lobster at Wolfgang Puck’s new restaurant WP24. When we order lobster at a restaurant, we always bring home the lobster shells and make a lobster broth out of them (adding corn cobs, onions, carrots, celery, etc.). We then froze the broth for further use.

In this case, Cathy used the broth to make Red Shrimp Chowder with Fresh Corn from a recipe in the New York Times. She substituted the Lobster Stock for the fish stock the recipe called for. Instead of Red Shrimp we used fresh Large Shrimps from McCall’s Meat and Fish. It was yummy delicious. You can get the recipe from our blog post of: Sep. 8, 2009. Click the date to get the recipe.

We then made Crab with Dynamite Sauce. The sauce is terrific but it MUST be made with Japanese Mayo. We started with a recipe that we found on The Fine Lobster Blog called: Creamy Spicy Lobster: a twist on a Nobu Classic. Everyone loves it! We served Japanese Rice with it. We purchased excellent  canned Lump Crab meat from McCall's Meat and Fish. It is called: MeTompkin. Look for it!
We then had another course! At that point, everyone was groaning about too much to eat, but somehow we got carried away! We made one of our favorites: Orchid’s Tangy Cool Noodles from a recipe by Barbara Tropp in her great cookbook: The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking. You can get the recipe (and it an easy and delicious recipe that can be made a day in advance of its use) from our blog of: July 4, 2007, Click the date to get the recipe. We made Shu-Mai Burgers to go with the noodles. These aren’t your typical Dim Sum Shu-Mai’s. These were full-on burger size Shrimp and Pork creations. They were delicious! But it was way too much food. We use a  recipe for the Shu-Mai Style Burgers from the New York Times. You can get the recipe from our blog of: June 30, 2010. Click the date to get the recipe.
Darryl and Robert brought two home make desserts. Both were excellent, Chocolate Brownies and a Fresh Lemon Tart. Stupid me, at the end of the meal, when they asked if I wanted to have some leftover cake, I was so full I said no thinking I would ever eat again. My bad, I really would have liked to have leftovers!

Crab with Dynamite (Easy Version) 
Our version is a takeoff on that one and much easier.
1 pound Lump Crab Meat we buy it in a can
1 cup Kewpie Mayonaise (buy at a Japanese Market)
1 to 1 ½ Tablespoons of Sriracha HOT Chili Sauce (buy at an Asian Market)
6 oz Tobiko (fresh flying fish roe) buy at a Japanese market.
Mix the Mayo, Sriracha and Tobiko together, add ¼  of the mixture to the crab meat and mix well.
Pour into ovenproof cooking vessel, pour remaining ¾ of sauce over the crab. Bake in 400 oven for 15 minutes till it starts to brown. Put under broiler until beautifully bubbly and browned. It is delicious! All it takes it some convenient providers of Crab, Tobiko and Japanese Mayo!


Creamy Spicy Lobster: a twist on a Nobu Classic
The legendary restaurant Nobu, in Manhattan’s TriBeCa, serves this with crabmeat, and I think it’s one of the most addictive dishes I’ve ever tasted. The tobiko—tiny crunchy red roe—gives an incomparable texture to each mouthful. A former sous chef provided the recipe outline, which I’ve tweaked a bit for the home cook and lobster lovers! If you don’t want to make homemade mayo, go ahead and use store-bought. Also, you can use crab roe here, if you like.
Creamy Spicy Lobster
makes 4 servings
2 egg yolks
½ teaspoon sea salt
3 turns of a pepper mill (preferably white pepper, but black pepper works)
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce, such as Sriracha
¼ cup tobiko (any seasoned flying fish roe); or use crab roe
1 pound cooked lobster meat (or snow crab, king crab, blue crab)
¼ cup scallions, sliced into 1/8-inch pieces

Make the mayonnaise: Place the egg yolks in a standing mixer and whip at
medium speed until well-mixed. Add the salt and pepper and pulse to mix well. Turn the blender to its highest speed and add ½ cup of the oil in a slow stream, until the mixture emulsifies and thickens.As it does so, you can add the oil more quickly. Add the rice vinegar and continue blending. Add the remaining oil and continue blending. Transfer the mayonnaise to a medium bowl and stir in the chili sauce and tobiko. Taste carefully and adjust the flavor by adding more vinegar.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the drained lobstermeat/crabmeat in a 9-inch casserole and toss lightly with the scallions until well combined. Gently fold in ¼ of the mayonnaise mixture and again gently toss until the crab is lightly coated. Loosely pat down the crabmeat and cover it with the remaining sauce. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn on the broiler and run the casserole under the broiler until the top is golden brown, moving the dish constantly to make sure the entire top browns evenly. Serve at once.