I got a few cookbooks for Christmas this year.  They have all been fun to look through and cook from over the weeks after the holiday.  One of the books I got was the Steamy Kitchen Cookbook by Jaden Hair (who also writes the food blog of the same name).  I was excited to look through it because the recipes seemed simple, but still tasty.  Turns out I was right!

I like to try recipes from cookbooks, unaltered.  This seems to be something that foodies decry as being a silly exercise in mindlessness, because all cooking should be improvisational.  I call bullshit.  I’m happy to improvise and come up with a meal from various cuisines, but if I’m cooking something I’ve never made before, I’m not just going to look at a recipe once and wing it.  I want to understand the intention, what the published dish is supposed to taste like.  In my mind, I’ll compare it with other things I’ve had.  Maybe I’ve had the dish in a restaurant, or I’ve enjoyed other meals in the same ethnic family.  Once I’ve tried it, I can move forward with a little more understanding.

For trained chefs, this is what cooking school seems to be all about.  You learn techniques and flavor profiles from a few different regions of the world and then they are challenged to regularly innovate on those ideas.  If you’ve ever read about someone going through cooking school, read any cooking school text, or watch any episode of Top Chef, you’ll see that chefs are expected to cook from experience, not books.  However, ask them to produce a dish in a cuisine they haven’t mastered and they’ll usually turn up short.

For me, I still feel like I’m learning a lot about Asian food.  The ingredients and techniques are in some ways very different from those used in Western cuisine.  Since I haven’t taken the opportunity to attend any local cooking classes, like those taught by Tien as part of an adult education program, I take my chances learning a lot from books.  Without further ado, let’s get into the book at hand.

How good could “Quick Vietnamese Chicken Pho” be?  Pho (pronounced “fuh”) is supposed to use a richly flavored broth that requires long simmering, not some Rachel Ray 30-minute abomination.  My fears were unfounded, though.  The technique worked really well, infusing classic pho flavors like star anise and clove into chicken stock.  I think the real secret to success here is starting with a good chicken stock.  Trust me, making your own stock is easy and uses up stuff you’d probably just throw away otherwise.  You’re not too stupid to cook.  Apologies for no photos… it was really good and we ate it too fast to stop and take photos.

I’m sure nearly everyone in America has eaten egg rolls in their lives, but how many people think of making them?  Well, we did, using “[Jaden Hair's] Mom’s Famous Crispy Eggrolls” recipe.  I shared a video of my daughter rolling them, but here are some more pictures of the before-and-after, as well as our younger daughter enjoying them with “dip” (a/k/a hoisin sauce).  The proportions of this recipe are huge.  We made about 40 egg rolls, perhaps being a little bit conservative with the filling.  We went on to make a couple dozen pot stickers and a batch of fried rice with the left over filling.

Jaden includes a really great recipe for a peanut sauce that serves as the base for another dish, “Thai-style Chicken Flatbread”.  This one I took her inspiration and ran with it.  After all, it’s really just another pizza topping suggestion.  I made my own dough, since I had the time.  We served it with some brussels sprouts cooked with bacon (not from the book).  This one was pretty popular with everyone in the family.

One dish I wasn’t crazy about was “Clams Sautéed in Garlic and Black Bean Sauce”.  I was lucky enough to go to the store right after a shipment of clams came in.  They were beautiful clams, too.  Unfortunately, the sauce was  a bit spicier than we wanted, and the flavor just didn’t do it for us.  We ate it… all… and enjoyed it, but it’s not on our must-repeat list.  No finished-dish photo, but aren’t the clams lovely?

Chap Chae (or Jap Chae, Japchae) is a dish of sweet potato starch noodles with some vegetables and (usually) beef, flavored with sesame oil and soy sauce.  If you’re used to Italian pasta made from wheat, these noodles are weird.  They start out bumpy and greyish, then when you cook them they turn nearly clear, smooth, and the texture is springy and chewy.  They have very little flavor on their own, but they absorb flavor well.  This dish is one that I order in restaurants often, because I really love it.  The Steamy Kitchen recipe came through again, with a dish that we all loved.

Last, but not least (in this post), I’ll mention a couple of the vegetarian dishes in the book.  We made a big pot of jasmine rice and invited a couple of friends over one night and had the “Garlicky Tofu and Spinach” and the “Asian Style Brussels Sprouts”.  The tofu and spinach were cooked quickly until they were silky and smooth, with a delicious sauce rich with garlic and sesame oil.  Did I ever mention sesame oil is one of my favorite Asian ingredients?  Great stuff.  Anyway, the hardest part of the meal was the brussels sprouts, and only because I took the time to trim and slice them all by hand.  They are cooked quickly with some Vietnamese touches, like fish sauce and lime juice, just to start softening them.  They are bright and still a bit crunchy, offering a contrast to the soft tofu and spinach.  Best part about this meal?  I started when I put the rice in the rice cooker, and had all the food ready just as it was finished.

The theme of this book seems to be fast, flavorful food.  Jaden’s a mom, she does all the writing and photography for her blog and the cookbook herself, she’s obviously putting lessons from her own life on these pages.  The book is filled with so many beautiful photographs of her food, her travel, and her kids.  The great thing is that these recipes work.  It’s not just fast for the sake of being fast.  That said, the speed of Asian cooking usually relies on the cook’s diligence at the cutting board, prepping all the ingredients before-hand.  Take it as an opportunity to practice your knife skills, or an opportunity to buy pre-cut vegetables.

I’ll be doing another post soon with a recipe from the book.  It’s a versatile Korean recipe that you can bend to your will.  Stay tuned!

On a blog note, I’ve adjusted the line spacing (not everywhere yet, gotta track down a working Firebug), as it was mentioned in the survey that the text was a little dense and hard to read at times.  Let me know if you think it’s better, worse, or didn’t notice!

Sorry for the long gap between posts.  I was off enjoying the holidays and the time off.  I hope all of you were able to do the same.

One of my adventures was to the Windy City with my wife and her friend since high school, Stephanie.  Stephanie lives in warm, sunny California, and wants everyone to move there.  Walking around Chicago with snow blowing everywhere, I wished for a moment that I was blessed with the warmth of the Golden State.

We drove downtown and found our way to the corner of Clark and Illinois, where Xoco is located.  If you’ve ever been to Bayless’s other restaurants, Frontera Grill or Topolobampo, Xoco (pronounced sho-ko, meaning “little sister”) is right on the corner of the same block.  Looking through the window you can see the preparation of chocolate and churros (see my earlier post on churros) for eager guests.

When you enter, the space looks very small, just enough for a small kitchen and a winding line to wait in before you order.  While waiting in line you can look at surreal images, like the one at right of children in a churro-cactus forest, or one of a woman riding a torta flying through the air (see that one in the gallery at the bottom of the post).  As you enter, there are only a few tables visible, but it turns out that there is another section of tables further back, but the total seating capacity is probably only 40. (more…)

Photo credit: Megan

A couple weeks ago we traveled up to the Chicago area to visit with family.  Part of our plan was to visit the downtown ice rink, near Millenium Park.  You can skate as much as you want for free, and skate rentals are available for $10.  I hadn’t skated since high school, but I was encouraged to get out on the ice.  We waited nearly an hour in the skate rental line, but ended up spending much more than that on the ice.  It turned out to be a lot of fun for all of us.  Our hearty lunch helped us stay warm despite the very cold temperature and the lack of sun, blocked out by all the tall buildings.

My brother came with us, and was the one who urged us to grab lunch before going skating.  Lucky we did, because we ended up spending way more time skating than we originally expected.

His recommendation was an iconic Chicago deli–Manny’s.  I don’t know all the Chicago area  names, but I’ve read it’s in the South Loop area.  We had a GPS to help us get there.  It opened in 1942 and has been going strong ever since.  According to the Manny’s site, the Zagat review says it’s “[t]he closest thing Chicago has to a New York deli.”  They host various events, and even have a counter inside where you can buy tickets for all sorts of Chicago events.  It’s been reviewed hundreds of times, bolstered in part by President Obama visiting for lunch back when he was just President-elect Obama.

Going in and seeing the long cafeteria-style counter with various menu boards strewn across the wall behind it, I was a little bewildered.  I didn’t really know what to expect, and there wasn’t much sympathy or patience for first-timers like myself.  My brother led the way, since he had been there before, ordering matzo ball soup.  He couldn’t decide between corned beef and pastrami, but was elated when the man behind the counter suggested he get both… mixed.  Off he went with his sandwich, picking up a Green River along the way.

My daughter got a jumbo kosher hot dog (just made that morning, they said), and my wife got a corned beef sandwich.  I got the pastrami sandwich and a side of pasta salad.  All the sandwiches came with a potato pancake.

So, here’s the rundown.  First, Green River soda is just plain wrong.  I tried a sip of my brother’s electric-green beverage and it tasted (as he told me it would) of green “lime” freezer pops.  This is not a bad flavor, per se, but it’s not something I want to consume as an adult.

I tried the matzo ball soup my brother had.  I apologize for not having a photo, but imagine a single large matzo ball (about the size of a racquetball) in a transparent yellowish broth.  I’m not a matzo ball expert.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever had matzo ball soup before, but this couldn’t be a good example.  The matzo ball had very little flavor, though the texture was great, not too dense.  The broth it sat in was even more disappointing, with little flavor to justify the cost.  I think any 89 cent can of broth could compete with this dish.

My pasta salad was boring, tri-color rotini with what tasted like salad dressing.  I should probably take the blame for this one.  Who thinks of a Jewish deli serving good pasta salad?

My pastrami sandwich, on rye, was a disappointment.  The meat was not treated well.  It was fatty and a little stringy, a little dry, but at the same time dripping with greasy juices which ran out and soaked the bread.  This sandwich was all about fulfilling the stereotype of a nearly-impossible-to-fit-in-your-mouth “sandwich” with no attention paid to the inadequate amount of (really delicious, house-baked) rye bread.  It was hard to eat and not that great.  You’d find better at your supermarket.

You can see the potato pancake peeking out on the left behind my sandwich in the above photo.  These could be great, but ours were not.  They weren’t hot enough, were fried at the wrong temperature (too greasy), and held too long (strangely chewy).  The flavor was great, and I could imagine if they were crisp and hot they would be a highlight of the meal.  Instead, they are a pushed $1 add-on to your sandwich.

My wife’s corned beef was the shining star at the table.  It was moist and sliced thin.  It was delicious, and while it was the same height as my overly huge sandwich, it stayed together much better because it wasn’t destroyed by the juices running out and making everything soggy.  If/when I go back, I am getting the corned beef.

It was a satisfying meal, despite the imperfections.  It’s an expensive sandwich ($11.95 each with potato pancake) for us small-town dwellers, but it’s an experience you can’t find down here.  Now, if there were only a way to get great deli meats and artisan breads in C-U.  If you live or eat in the Chicagoland or central Illinois area and can recommend other Jewish delis to experience, please leave a note in the comments.  If you want to try Manny’s, but can’t make it to Chicago, you can order their goods through Tastes of Chicago.

Oh, and if you haven’t already entered the giveaway for some tasty Taza chocolate, go read up on the details and enter!

First, to update from previous posts. The chef’s knife that I won has been working out fantastically.  The edge is sharp, and the weight of the knife has been a welcome addition to all my cutting.  It certainly came in handy over the gustatory celebration known as Thanksgiving.

I had a great seasonal recipe published on a local site, featuring more delicious sweet potatoes.  I’ll leave it as a tease now, but I’ll be posting a copy (with links to the original post) very soon.  This is one to bookmark and share with your friends for the holidays and any time you find great sweet potatoes.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, chocolate has been taking over my life.  First it was getting involved with Dan Schreiber.  At some point I started noticing a small, artisan, bean-to-bar chocolate maker out of Somerville, MA–Taza Chocolate.  They’re on Twitter (@tazachocolate), and apparently if you’re in the area, they offer tours of their facility and have a Chococycle that they pedal to local markets and events.

Let’s face it, there are a lot of great chocolate makers out there.  One way that Taza distinguishes themselves is by putting their values in the forefront of what they do.  Their chocolate is not merely fair trade, but Direct Trade.  They work directly with the people who grow their vital raw material–theobroma cacao.  Not only do they pay them more generously than fair trade standards require, but they work with them to ensure they are using organic, sustainable growing practices.  So far, all their chocolate (other than a recent limited release) has used chocolate from a single coop in the Dominican Republic.  In addition to holding their suppliers to high standards, they work for sustainability and eco-friendliness in their own operations, reusing, recycling, and composting wherever possible.  They even work with a local organization to help keep their community green.

Their process is very manual, using vintage machinery that they put a lot of love into.  At the end of the line, the chocolate is wrapped by hand.  Their bars are sealed with a label that has a number corresponding to the batch of chocolate your bar is from.  On Taza’s website, you can put in this number and see all the details of where everything in the bar came from, when it was made, even the signature of the cacao grower the beans came from.  Click the image on the right of one of the bars I had to see all the details for batch #218.

When you unwrap one of these bars, you’re greeted by a shiny bar of dark chocolate.  Each section snaps loudly as you make your way through the bar.  The chocolate has texture, character, owing to the hand-hewn stone grinders they use at Taza.  Pressing it to the roof of your mouth, it slowly melts and the flavors of this 80% dark chocolate unfold with delicious notes of fermented flavors, a surprising brightness (acidity?) and unexpected tropical fruit flavors, like banana.  Before having real artisan-made chocolate, I never experienced chocolate like this.

Their other primary product is Mexican Chocolate, sold in adorable disks pressed with the company name and hand-wrapped in pairs.  They are all 55% cacao, since they are intended for making drinking chocolate, though they are tasty on their own.  For these decadent disks, they offer several flavors on top of their cacao puro, including classic flavors like vanilla, cinnamon, and guajillo chile.  They also offer, for the slightly more adventurous, a yerba maté infused chocolate.  If you’ve enjoyed the bitter South American beverage before, it’s a really neat combination.

Now, I mentioned drinking chocolate, not hot chocolate.  The recommended recipe is one disk to 6-8 ounces of milk, or water if you want to be traditional.  This elixir is intense.  If you love chocolate, this will change your life.  If you snack on the dark stuff every once in a while, and you think it might be too much, share it with a friend.

One of the typical ways that people all over the world enjoy this decadent beverage–from cafes and street carts in Spain and Mexico, to chocolate mexicano advocates like Rick Bayless in his Chicago restaurant, Xoco–is with churros.  I remember having churros in my high school cafeteria, but if you’ve never had them they are essentially fluted tubes of fried dough.  They are often dusted with sugar, maybe cinnamon, and if you’re going over the top, like Bayless does, rolled with finely ground cacao nibs.  Warm churros, with their crunchy exterior and (usually) softer, interior, are delicious on their own, but this classic combination is a winner.  The way the fluted edges hold just enough chocolate to soften them ever-so-slightly is a testament to why this is a lasting match.

As long as you’re not afraid of piping dough into hot frying oil, churros are easy to make.  Most recipes I’ve found make a dough that is too hard to pipe out of anything I have–most churros are extruded from large metal churreros, not plastic piping bags that most of us have access to.  The traditional dough is similar to pâte à choux (you know, the stuff eclairs & cream puffs are made from) without eggs  or butter.  Boil oil, sugar, and water, then turn off the heat, dump in flour and stir, stir, stir.  Bayless’ recipe is available from StarChefs.com (and probably elsewhere).  Since it was way too thick to pipe with my jury-rigged zip-top-bag-with-the-corner-cut (I do screw on a star tip), I added a couple eggs, which softened up the dough enough to allow for precise piping.  Pipe it into hot oil (watch out for splashing), and cook until lightly browned.  Watch the oil temperature though.  If it’s too high, the insides won’t cook enough, and I’ve heard that if it’s too low, they will explode as the outsides will set before the moisture inside has a chance to escape.

If you’re having visions of drinking delicious hot stone-ground chocolate, explore Taza’s online store or ask around at local stores.  In the C-U area, I found some of the Mexican chocolate disks at Art Mart in Urbana.  I’ll be hosting a give-away of some Mexican chocolate disks (and maybe an additional surprise), but it won’t end until after the New Year (expect details in the next week), so if you want some before the holidays, go ahead and order some.

Disclosure: Taza sent me some free samples of their products (see below), with no request or expectation of a review, positive or negative.  I have since bought my own chocolate from them, beyond what they sent, which is why I have some to give away. I like the chocolate and believe in their mission and their quality, which is why I’m spreading the love.

Chicagoan Michael Gebert writes the blog Sky Full of Bacon.  Actually, he does far more than just write–he has one of the best local-focus video podcasts around.  You should take it upon yourself to go back and watch them all.  There are only a dozen or so at this time, but each is like a great documentary showcasing some local gem.  Sometimes, instead of a professional-quality video podast, or a collection of links, he’ll share personal stories about food, like his grandmothers’ piccalilli recipe.  In interviews with local chefs and merchants, some mentions have been made of some of my favorite central Illinois producers.  See if you can figure out my favorite source for lamb.  I’ll give you a hint… it’s in SFoB4: A Head’s Tale.

Today, though, I’d urge you to watch a short video on Mike’s “Rules for Better Dining”.  One that I agree with quite strongly is the last one:

Mike G’s Healthy Eating Advice.

“If you’re going to eat something bad for you, make sure it’s really good”

Mike G’s Rules for Better Dining from Michael Gebert on Vimeo.

Oh yeah, and in the wake of my lunch yesterday with Dan “the Chocolate Man” Schreiber, I’ll be finishing out my chocolate series that I’ve been neglecting for far too long.  I’ll have posts on tempering & molding, churros con chocolate, and another artisan chocolate maker I was lucky enough to sample.