Il Semplice (The Uncomplicated)

A few weeks ago, I bought 2 cookbooks.  Well, they were of course on sale.

One was Guy Mirabella's Eat Ate, I was attracted by the gorgeous cover and the absolutely beautiful layout within.  Priced at $12.99.

I also picked up Friday Night Dinners by Bonnie Stern.  I have been a fan of her recipes in the National Post and thought it was time for a copy of her book, for $9.99.

Then one night I took the liberty and matched up one recipe from each book and made a lovely meal.

Chicken with Rosemary and Garlic

Linguini with Zucchini, Spinach, Lemon and Pine Nuts

I am always weary of grilled chicken in fear of a dry and tasteless piece of meat.  I did not get that with this recipe.  It was so flavourable because there were also red pepper flakes, lemon peel and salt and pepper in the marinade.

I grilled them on an iron skillet and they turned out perfectly.  The leftovers were great on a salad as well!

Chef Mirabella mentioned in his book that this is the most popular pasta in his café and I absolutely understand. It looked and tasted uncomplicated and down to earth. I could picture us enjoying this alfresco somewhere in Italy with some lovely wine, watching life goes by....

http://www.bonniestern.com/bonnies-cookbooks/friday-night-dinners/

http://www.styleathome.com/food-and-entertaining/recipes/recipe-linguine-with-zucchini-spinach-lemon-and-pine-nuts/a/29164

Chicken 9/10
Pasta 9/10

Soup, Soup and more Soup!

Summer is definitely over, how sad it is since I have never been a fan of the colder seasons.  The only upside to the chillier climate is none other than soup, soup and more soup!

Julia Child's French Onion Soup

I still remember my first time having French onion soup: I was a child in Hong Kong and we ate at this really really dark restaurant in Causeway Bay.  It was nothing like I have ever had before because it was a broth yet it was also thick and mushy.  That was when I began my love affair with French onion soup.  I never thought I would ever make such a fancy soup on my own.

The last few years I have been stopping by M&M frozen foods market to stock up on one item: you guessed it, French onion soup.  It may sound odd but their version is actually quite spectacular, and it only takes 8 minutes in a microwave.

My attempt took just a bit more than 8 minutes to make but it was well worth it. To be exact it took about 40 minutes to soften the onions at medium-low heat. I learnt that patience is the key - that applies to everything in life doesn't it? 

Add the home made croutons and Gruyère and voilà!

http://www.thedailybeast.com/videos/2009/08/12/julia-child-french-onion-soup-1.html

Nigella's Soup made with Garlic and Love

My friends were coming over for dinner and I wanted to make a soup. I looked in the cabinet and there was garlic, and I have lots of love, so why not?

I know it seems that I say that all the time but sometimes the simplest food is the most delicious.  Who knew lots of garlic would make a lovely soup?  It can be made ahead of time and it is a perfect leftover the next day!

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1328573

New England Clam Chowder

If soups are lovers, then I am very promiscuous.  I love chowders too. Clam, shrimp, lobster -  I love them all!

It was a miserable day when it had been raining for over 48 hours straight. A heart warming soup was definitely called for.  Afterwards I realized the key to a great chowder is bacon bits and a little bit of flour to thicken the clam juice.  I did find the potatoes took twice as long  to tenderize as the recipe's suggestions, about 20 minutes of simmering. A pinch of paprika just before serving was the key to this almost perfect soup.  My one mistake was that I scraped the saucepan too much and there were some slightly burnt pieces of onions and bacon that I had to pick out at the end.

A great thankyou to my mother's friend who gave me this inspiring cookbook from the Royal Caribbean Cruise.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0979728215/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

Onion Soup 8/10

Garlic Soup 8/10

Clam Chowder 9/10

A Break from Turkey

Over Thanksgiving weekend we had two wonderful Turkey meals. I enjoyed them a lot but I was happy to find a recipe to take a break from the bird.

We have had Andrea Nguyen's "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" for a while and what better time to test one of her recipes?

This is meant to be an appertizer but for a weekend of heavy meals, this turned out to be a perfect light dinner.  I served them with a creamy broccoli  salad with sunflower seeds. 

My mistake was that I roasted them in the oven instead of using a barbecue or a iron skillet, they were cooked but missing some smoky flavours.

They also reminded me of spare ribs at dim sum, which are usually steamed. 

Notes to self: more lemongrass and some serious grilling.  Can't wait!

Riblets: 7/10

http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2009/04/vietnamese-restaurantstyle-grilled-lemongrass-pork-thit-heo-nuong-xa.html

Piggyback

I love bacon.  What I did not know was what place it has other than for breakfast.

I heard of this recipe from Michael Smith's show "Chef At Home" on the Food Network. Bacon, pork tenderloin, mustard and spices: sounded simple enough.

It was actually a lot of fun preparing the roast, almost like wrapping a present. A present for us!

Thirty minutes later and we had one delicious main course.

As you can see from that lovely juice which seeped out once I sliced the roast.  I can still taste it as I am writing this.
Between two of us, we ate the entire 2 pound pork tenderloin!  Piggybacking never tasted this good!

Pork 9/10

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/print.html?dishid=12886#

Peking Duck Breast...the Challenge

It was 3:30pm on a Saturday and we had no dinner plans.  What was one to do? Peking duck for dinner, of course!

I always wanted to see if it was possible to emulate Peking duck but with only duck breasts that one often find at an everyday grocery store.  And this is what I learnt.

Peking Duck Breast

After looking through a number of recipes online, there are a few recipes out there but I had to say none had the final product that I was thinking of.  I again combined a few ideas and hoped for the best outcome.

I marinated with star anise, Chinese five spice, xiao xing wine, vinegar etc., similar to the one for roast squab. One problem was that I only had a couple hours to marinate the breasts.  Then, with a hair dryer, I tried to speed up the drying process.  I read that in the classic recipe, the duck would be poured over continuously with boiling ginger and spring onion-flavoured water prior to roasting.  So I did that for 5 minutes.  After roasting for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, they came out looking quite promising, but missing the crispy skin.  I then used a hand torch to toast the skin further to see if that would give me a crispy skin. It did darkened the skin further but it was  sadly not crispy.

The problem may have been these were Magret duck breasts which were quite fatty since these ducks also produced foie gras. There was an excess amount of fat under the skin.

They were served with spring onions (beautifully curled in iced water prior), cucumber and hoisin sauce.  We wrapped them in either Bibb lettuce or Tortilla wrap.  The flavour was a little weak and the meat a little overcooked.

Was it Peking duck? No.  Did we enjoy it? Yes.  Especially the next day!  Next time I really need to try a whole duck.

Shrimp Chowder Lite

This was a recipe I had been saving for a while. Unfortunately I could not find fresh head-on shrimps in my local grocery stores that day and I really needed to head home to start my duck.  I decided to use frozen shrimps.

The shrimp broth was weak even I used more shells and reduced from over 2 litres to less than 1 litre.  I would imagine with the heads the broth would have a stronger flavour.  I did try to do a "lite" version so half and half cream was used and only a touch of heavy cream.  This is also the low carb version without the potatoes.  The consistency reminded me of  Thai coconut soups but without the coconut flavour.  It was definitely light but had a nice kick with the cayenne pepper.

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Maine-Shrimp-Chowder-

Duck 6.5/10
Soup 7/10

Runner Ups to the Birthday Feast

Here are a couple other recipes I have considered before the big night last Sunday.

Onion Soup  à la Beurre Noisette

I have always loved onion soups, especially French onion soups.  It did not take much to convince me to try Lucy Waverman's onion soup.

Like Lucy said, it is the modern twist of the classic soup, inspired by the version from a bistro Parisien.  I loved the idea of the toasted chorizo but i did miss the onion bits after it was pureed.  The flavour was definitely right on but was a bit heavy for the Birthday feast I was planning.

I cannot wait to try a version without the puree and see how that turns out.  

Clams with Linguini in A White Wine Sauce

Here is another version of clams and linguini.  Again from the same cookbook, I have to say this may be a better recipe than the one from Martha Stewart. (See Mollusks from May 2012) One thing for sure I was able to see if the clams are cooked, one at a time in an open pot.  There were about 4 that refused to open at the bitter end.  I also added some canned clam meat to the mix to top up the protein quotient.

http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo-ear/RecipeController?language=EN&recipeType=1&action=recipe&recipeID=4041

The link is a very similar recipe by Waverman that replaced cherry tomatoes with onions.  This dish did not make the cut because I thought it was not special enough.

For improvements, more garlic and chili next time, with both tomatoes and onions.

Soup 7.5/10
Clams 8.5/10

A Birthday Feast

Even though it seems I have not posted much lately, I had actually been very busy testing new recipes for a very special dinner last Sunday.

My father, my sister and myself were all born in September, it has been a tradition that we celebrate together with a big fancy dinner.  Instead of eating out, I was nominated to host everyone for a change this year.  I was thrilled to try more new recipes and I gladly obliged.

The evening began with a charcuterie plate from Pasquale bros. with prosciutto, spicy sausages, gruyere, brie and fig cream.  I cannot take credit for it since I did not make any of those but they were all undoubtedly very appertizing.

Scallops and Spinach with Tarragon and Orange Sauce

I tested this recipe on a weeknight and thought it was very straightforward, like other recipes I have tried from Lucy Waverman's A Year in Lucy's Kitchen. The taste was simple and fresh, albeit not too exciting.  I thought it was a good dish to start the night with.

My second evaluation of the same dish would be slightly blend.  Ideas for next time include adding shitake mushroom slices, or shrimp slices, or caviar etc.

Sweet Corn Soup with Crab Meat

After 2 different soup recipe trials, this is the soup that was finally served.

Although the South African Mealie soup was a great tasting soup, it was too heavy for tonight's menu.  The more brothy Chinese version with home made chicken stock was definitely a good decision.  It was the most successful course for that night, even though it lacks the look of the restaurant version. Mine was more cloudy and not thick enough since I only added half the cornstarch.  There was, however, definitely no MSG!

http://joelens.blogspot.ca/2009/09/mealie-soup-with-crab.html

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/chinesesouprecipes/r/sweet-corn-soup.htm

Red Snapper with Mango Chili Shrimp Salsa

I chose to serve this as a third course because I could make the salsa ahead of time and red snapper takes minutes to cook.  Also, I had the most amazing red snapper for our final dinner in Lisbon this summer and I was hoping to recreate the experience.

For the trial, I cooked the red snapper on an cast iron skillet and it took over 10 minutes, not 4 as indicated on the recipe.  This past Sunday I chose to cook all 8 fillets on a griddle since we have a modular cooktop but it was still taking a long time.  My dad suggested to flip the fillet and cook on the flesh side as well and that sped things up, well probably too much.  A few of them were overcooked slightly.
Looks like I would need to buy a few more red snapper to perfect the cooking time.

http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/617605

Pork Belly Ssäm with Mustard Seed Sauce

Unless you have been in a cave, you will know that Momofuku is hot.  After making a mark in New York City, it has arrived in Toronto with 3 restaurants at the brand new Shangri-La Hotel.  I happened to have a copy of Chef David Chang's cookbook, and apparently I am not alone.  There are many postings online where us home cooks attempt to reproduce his masterpiece.

If I had read them I may have chosen to alter the cooking temperature to a lower one.  I followed the recipe and the pork belly was burnt on the outside.  I was quite stunned since I have had another experience with pork belly and it turned out perfect. At that point it was too late to restart since the marinating took an overnight.  I removed the burnt parts and soldiered on.

The sauce was a saving grace and do I love sauces especially that day. This one was extra special for the effort in pickling the cucumber and the mustard seed.  A mixture of Dijon mustard and an XXX hot mustard from the best mustard company in the world, Anton Kozlik's Canadian Mustard, was used.  Grilled pork belly with the mustard seed sauce wrapped with fresh Boston lettuce (Ssäm means 'wrap' in Korean) is pure genius.  What a way to end the meal.  Only if they saw the burnt piece of meat that afternoon!  My poor father was so full by that point he had to force himself to have one serving. Well, he does not like pork that much either generally.

http://www.mustardmaker.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Momofuku-David-Chang/dp/030745195X

And that was my first venture into serving a 4-course meal. I would say my choices were good and the timing was acceptable, with the meal served in about 90 minutes. Until next time, and more new recipes!

Scallops 7/10
Soup 8/10
Fish 7/10
Pork 8/10