March 8, 2010My Grandmother Is My Culinary Hero
This is my grandmother. She is visiting from Seoul.
Isn’t she adorable? She is the most extraordinary cook I have every met. Not only is her food delicious but she is miraculously capable of making vast amounts of intricate dishes and plates them beautifully. She always makes a point of making food arrangement beautiful. Like this:
and this
and this
and this
so that we can all partake in this
March 5, 2010Nikki Darling & Katie Jacobson’s Thesis Reading
the spread
wine poached pears
hahaha. ani
banana dulce de leche cake and lavender lemon cake with limoncello syrup
olives
cheese board
salmon raita rolls and mushroom raita rolls
melon and proscuitto canapes
lavender lemon pound cake with limoncello syrup
greek salad skewers
blueberry lime cornmeal cookies
mac & cheese cups
banana dulce de leche cake
2nd thesis catering done and done. still need to figure out how to make it to the readings…. i slept 10 hours last night. shameful but needed. March 4, 2010Koba Tofu Grill
My grandmother is visiting from Seoul. And straight from Korea, guess what she wants to eat all the way in California? Predictably, Korean food. I’m thrilled that she’s here. She is possibly the best cook ever and I’m not just saying that because she’s my grandmother. She used to teach cooking classes and has stacks of notebooks of her original recipes. I have fond memories of visiting her as a child in Korea and following her around the kitchen with a notebook trying to mimic everything she did and writing everything down so that I wouldn’t forget. She’s promised to teach me how to roll perfect sushi and cook all sorts of Korean banchan while she’s here. She’s going to help me drum up ideas for catering. February 26, 2010Ashley Tomeck & Sara Gerot Thesis Reading (my first catering job at Calarts)
the spread
I don’t know why I’m particularly pleased with this cheese plate. I just like the look of arranged things, I guess.
smoked salmon canapes
baked polenta with bruschetta and parmesan reggiano
marscapone berry chocolate cups (these seemed to go over well)
cucumber canapes
peanut butter sour cream pound cake with chocolate ganache
caramelized onion, mushroom, and goat cheese tartlets
skewered caprese sandwiches
raspberry nancy cake
strawberry rhubarb spread with rolls
oatmeal raisin cookies
Yay! My first thesis reading catering gig! Despite things working out I was sad that I missed the reading. It sounded like Sara and Ashley did an amazing job. A lot of laughter coming from that room. Okay, things to work out: how to manage set up and still attend the reading lower ingredients cost more food? efficiency, efficiency, efficiency
Mama Cho’s 51st Birthday-Banana Macadamia Mocha Chiffon Cake
ohhh, chiffon is a labor of love. Banana Macadamia Mocha Chiffon Cake 2 ripe bananas, smashed 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder 4 tablespoons Dutch process cocoa 7 eggs (2 whole, 5 separated and chilled eggs) 1/4 cup water 1/3 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 1/3 cups cake flour 1 1/2 cups sugar 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup finely chopped macadamia nuts 1/5 teaspoon cream of tartar
1. preheat oven to 325 2. sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt 3. combine mashed bananas, water, cocoa, and espresso power and set aside 4. beat together the 5 egg yolks and two whole eggs until the color is slightly lighter (about 3 minutes) 5. slowly stream in 1 cup of sugar into the egg yolk mixture and beat for 5 more minutes until the has increased significantly in volume. slowly stream in the oil and beat for another minute. stir in the vanilla extract 6. with the mixer at low speed alternately fold in the flour and the banana mocha mixture in three additions 7. set the mixture aside 8. with clean beaters, whip the egg whites at medium speed until foamy. 9 . add cream of tartar and continue to beat until the mixture turns very white 10. slowly stream in sugar and whip until the mixture holds very stiff peaks 11. fold in the egg whites into the other mixture very carefully. do not overmix or the chiffon with deflate 12. pour the batter into a 9 inch tube pan and bake for 55 minutes 13. invert the pan for 2 hours and then use a knife to loosen it from the pan February 22, 2010The Bazaar at the SLS Hotel
nitro coconut ice cream
cippolini onions with clementines and passion fruit
cotton candy foie gras
mushroom rice
chicken with dates and mustard caviar
nitrogen frozen caprinhini
sweet potato chips with yogurt, anise, and tamarind dip
goat cheese stuffed piquillo peppers
scallops with romesco sauce
tuna ceviche with avocado and coconut milk
crab steamed buns
pa’amb tomaquet
jamon
olives
braised wagyu beef cheeks
liquid olives
Escalivada
Fancy for my fancy mama! The Bazaar has some of the most theatrical food ever. Since opening it seems like The Bazaar has become the molecular gastronomy go-to in Los Angeles with their rotating list of semi-celebrity sous chefs (they all seem to have been on Top Chef) and of course, Jose Andres. The decor is dizzyingly impressive, if not a little cold but that might just be a things of personal taste. I like to feel cuddled by restaurant ambiance. I think Doc wanted to take my mom here to remind her of their recent trip to Spain and in particular, their visit to Arzak in San Sebastian (ahem…upon my recommendation). I thought the idea was very sweet. The meal, like the decor, was impressive but it’s hard to separate taste from the general showmanship, but maybe that’s the point. A memorable meal. The Bazaar 465 La Cienega Blvd Beverly Hills note~ this place is ridiculously hard to find. February 20, 2010Green Tea White Chocolate Marble Blondies & Chocolate Cherry Blondies
I’ve voiced my reluctance towards blondies and their close relative the brownie before. There’s something crass about them. Unreasonably sweet and dense to the point of being clumsy. And also, I don’t like the way they look when cut into squares–all those raw edges make for a very inelegant dessert. But when it comes to baked goods my opinions are apt to change. A few weeks ago I had a blondie at MILK and shamefully (shamefully!) inhaled the poor blondie. Marcus is performing American Rifle 2 at LACE tonight so I thought this might be a good opportunity to re-assess the blondie, especially since Marcus has listed them among his favorite baked goods (with the condition that there isn’t too much “stuff” in them). But if I’m going to put the effort into making a blondie, I’m going to make it my own. Yes a blondie is generally known to be a “leftover” dessert. People just put all the leftover chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, nuts, m & m’s, etc into them. I say no to this. The first kind I made was with a marbling of matcha green tea and because white chocolate and green tea is one of my all time favorite pairings, I added Valhrona white chocolate chips into the batter. I’ve already eaten 2. The bitterness of green tea with the creamy white chocolate and buttery blondie batter just makes a ridiculous amount of sense. The second variety I made with a combination of tart and sweet dried cherries, semi-sweet chocolate chips and a few peanut butter chips, with the hopes of mimicking something like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I’ve yet to try these but I sort of don’t know what could go wrong with the flavor combination. I also solved the problem of raw edges by using a square mini cake pan so every blondie has chewy edges and things look neat and clean. I feel like I’m tooting my own horn in this entry. Sorry. Ingredients: 8 tablespoons (4 oz) of butter 1 cup light brown sugar 1 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 egg 1 cup of all purpose flour pinch of salt 1. preheat oven to 350 2. grease either an 8 by 8 pan or use a mini square cake pan like i did 3. melt butter in microwave for about 30 seconds 4. blend brown sugar into butter until fully combined 5. whisk in egg and vanilla 6. with a wooden spatula fold in the flour and salt 7a. at this point if you’re making the green tea marble, split the batter in half. add about 3/4 cup of white chocolate chips into one half and mix in 2 teaspoons of matcha green tea powder into the other half. 7b. if making cherry chocolate peanut butter blondies: stir in 1/4 cup tart cherries, 1/4 cup sweet cherries, 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1/4 cup peanut butter chips 8a. for the green tea marble: spoon alternating amount of batter into prepared pan and with a toothpick swirl the batter without overmixing 8b. spoon equal amounts of mixture into prepared pan 9. bake for about 20 minutes February 15, 2010Port Poached Pears With Lavender Honey Ice Cream (valentine’s day!)
Whatever. I don’t care that Valentine’s Day is an invented holiday for Hallmark. Blah blah blah. I totally think Valentine’s Day is great. What’s wrong with an excuse to have a nice evening with someone? I don’t even buy Hallmark cards. And even if I did, I probably wouldn’t lose sleep over it. Not that there’s anything wrong with feeling morally flummoxed about the whole thing. Good for you. For our first Valentine’s Day Marcus and I made potato gnocchi. Notice, I used the verb “made”, not “buy”. This was a labor of love. I’m talking boiled potatoes, pureed in a food processor, kneaded with flour, rolled out into long cylinders and then cut individually. Maybe more labor intensive than necessary. Sometimes store bought is just more worth it. We also made a tomato sauce that came highly recommended from Marcella Hazan’s dearly loved “The Essentials of Italian Cooking”. But really Valentine’s Day is about the dessert. We had port poached pears (ooohhh alliteration!) with lavender honey ice cream and oreo cream cheese ice cream. Poaching sounds so fancy but it’s almost embarrassingly easy–you just let it simmer. And the color is so gorgeous. Everything should be poached in wine! Cereal. Eggs. Shoes. Pajamas. Hair. Ingredients: 4 Bosc Pears 1 cup Port 3/4 cup sugar 2 strips of orange peel 2 strips of lemon peel 1 cinnamon stick 2 cups of water ice cream for serving
1. in a medium pot combine the port, water, zest, cinnamon and sugar and cook at medium heat for about 10 minutes 2. in the meantime, trim 1/4 of an inch from the bottom of the pears and peel them 3. add the pears to the pot and bring the whole thing to a boil 4. lower heat to simmer and leave for 1 hour, stirring occasionally to make sure that all gets cooked through
February 12, 2010My Favorite Eating Partners
salmon skin salad at honda-ya
vegetarian’s delight at carousel
chicken kebab at carousel
my frozen yogurt is the one on the left…clearly there is a disparity in the amount of yogurt i eat compared to the amount lan and nancy eat
There’s a lot of things I adore. Most of them are edible. But also high on my list are Lan and Nancy. If they were edible, I might eat them but as they are not or at least they’d object to be eaten, I’ll settle for eating with them. I’ve had dinner with them twice this week. It’s been a good week. Today we went to Honda-Ya in Little Tokyo. I had been in bed all day trying to catch up on some writing and felt quite eager for the company of good friends. Nancy drove for over an hour to meet us which is amazing. We ate: agedashi tofu, crab shumai, salmon skin salad, gingko nuts, green onion yakitori, a spider roll, nasu-miso, and ume-shiso red snapper tempura. Afterwards we went for frozen yogurt at this place called Cherry On Top. Apparently there was some sort of competition going on for the prettiest yogurt. If you arrange your self-serve yogurt nicely enough they’ll take a picture and you can win $50. Apparently our yogurt was not very impressive because they didn’t even ask to take a picture. I feel like there was so many things going on at this yogurt place–they had fantastic pink leather booths, orb like plastic chairs with ass indentations (so your bottom won’t slip around in the round seat??) , and an amenities list that included the use of their nintendo games. Pictured above is Nancy and Lan taking advantage of the amenities. Not to mention the yogurt photo competition. Also the cashier was super excited about giving us free samples and offering us board games. The experience was overwhelming in a good way. It felt like the Disneyland of frozen yogurt. February 11, 2010Banana Dulce de Leche Cakettes
I got this idea from the same MILK trip mentioned below. They had a banana dulce de leche ice cream which we would have bought if we weren’t so excited about the idea of rum raisin battles. I love the idea of caramelized bananas and I spent entirely too much time dreaming up ideas of how to incorporate this into cake form. I’ve been in an experimental mood lately. Sometimes my baking experiments go very badly (whipped cream profiteroles, a soggy strawberry nancy cake, adzuki red bean brownies, etc) but sometimes, surprisingly things just work. This experiment worked. My only things was that I overfilled my cake molds and so they spilled over the sides in a sadly unattractive way but there are worse things that could have happened. This recipe makes about 5-6 cakettes or 1 large bundt cake Ingredients: 2-3/4 cup all-purpose flour 3/4 cup sour cream 2 large bananas mashed 1 tablespoon + 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 3 eggs, room temp 1 1/2 sticks of butter, room temp 1 1/2 cups of sugar 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/4 cup dulce de leche 1 cup walnuts 1 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 tablespoon cinnamon 1. preheat oven to 350 2. beat butter and sugar until fluffy 3. in a large bowl mix together the sour cream, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla extract 4. sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder 5. in a large bowl mix the dulce de leche, chocolate chips, walnuts, and cinnamon and set aside 6. alternately add the sour cream/egg mixture and flour mixture into the butter/sugar mixture into 3 separate additions until just combined 7. in a pan of your choice (5-6 mini cake pans or 1 large bundt pan) add a layer of the batter 8. spread a layer of the dulce de leche mixture over the batter. the dulce de leche will be clumpy so use a rubber spatula to loosely spread it around 9. layer again with batter 10. keep doing this until your mold is 3/4 full, ending with a layer of dulce de leche 11. bake time depends on the size of your pan but a bundt cake should take about 1 hour and the mini cakes take about 40 minutes |
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