Risotto Isn't Just For Rice

I love risotto.  I mean, I simply adore risotto.  There is something magical about a rice dish so delicate it almost tastes creamy.  Wine, onion, stock, all come together and sing in beautiful harmony.  So I was going to make a mushroom risotto last night when my dad came over for dinner.  I picked out some wonderful portobello mushrooms and proceeded to the rice aisle at my local market and... there was no arborio rice.

I panicked, then thought of my options.  I could use a long grain rice, but would it hold up to cooking process and still keep some structural integrity and a little bite?  Probably not.  Brown rice is a bit starchier.  Maybe that could work?  But alas, basmati was the only brown rice in stock and again, it would likely lose the delicious al dente quality in a good risotto.  I scanned up and down the shelves, hoping there was just one bag of arborio, or any short grain rice, simply misplaced.  And then my eyes found... barley.

Something shouted out to me, and I found myself reaching for it, wondering, could this work?  So I added it to my cart and home I went, resigned to ordering pizza if it didn't turn out.

Barley certainly takes a long time to get soft.  But, and this is key, it doesn't need to be 100% soft in order to taste amazing.  It is perfectly wonderful done slightly al dente.  So I figured I would just need to increase the amount of stock I used, but that I could keep the basic recipe of a risotto intact.  And sure enough, it was wonderful!

This is topped with an arugula salad with a lemon vinaigrette, which was my acidic component in the finish of the dish.


Mushroom Barlotto
2 cups pearl barley
2 quarts vegetable stock
1 cup white wine
1/2 onion, diced
8 oz portobello mushrooms, diced
2 tbsp butter
Salt, pepper, red pepper flake to taste
Melt the butter in the bottom of a pot, then add the onion and sweat.  Add the barley, stirring constantly until it is all coated and starts to toast.  Add the wine to deglaze, then add the stock a cup at a time, adding more when it is nearly all absorbed.  After 4 cups of stock, add the mushrooms and red pepper flakes.  When the barley is nicely al dente, add salt and pepper to taste.

I guess risotto isn't just for rice.  What would Joe Bastianich say?

The *New* Succotash

A traditional succotash is a thing of beauty on a summer evening: corn, beans, onion all floating together in sweet harmony.  But what do you do when the fresh beans at the store look, frankly, lousy?  The answer, you substitute a child's other favorite vegetable to lima beans: brussels sprouts.

Now normally, I am not a big fan of brussels sprouts.  I don't like the taste or the smell.  However, that might be because my stepfather makes them whole in the microwave.  For those who feel the same way I did, the key to making brussels sprouts tasty is to julienne them finely, then saute with garlic.  Lots of garlic.  In this manner, they can even make a very delicious summer succotash.

Brussles Sprouts Succotash
1/2 a red onion, diced
2 ears sweet corn, kernels cut off the cob
8 large brussels sprouts, finely julienned
4 cloves garlic, minced
Salt, pepper, red pepper flakes to taste
Heat a pan with a tablespoon or so of olive oil, then add the onion.  When it begins to sweat, add the garlic and red pepper flakes and reduce the heat.  Add the corn, then after a few minutes, the brussels sprouts.  Saute until the brussels sprouts are cooked through, but still a bit al dente.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Tonight we paired the succotash with my version of "lazy mac," a very simple mac and cheese inspired by my dear friend Anna's recent trip to the grocery store to get the orange powder stuff.  This one I made with a packet of ranch seasoning for a little added zip.  Sandra Lee would be proud.  Sigh.

Cooking with Cousin

Cooking is amazing.  Spending time with someone you love is divine.  So is it any wonder that spending a day with my incredible cousin Emma cooking a classical French tasting for a dinner party we catered was one of the better days I have ever had?

The menu:

• Gougeres
• Mushroom bisque with foamed milk
• Homemade French bread
• Tilapia en papillote
• Roasted asparagus with mint
• Potato mousseline
• Vegetarian cassoulet
• Chocolate pot de creme with lavender salt

Not bad for our first catering gig, huh? The diners were so impressed with our menu that we may even have a part-time business on our hands.  Once that launches, I will keep everyone posted.

On a more personal note, I know the blog has been very slow in recent weeks.  While I don't exactly have a good excuse, I can say that blog posting speed and work craziness are exact opposites, so as work quiets down heading into July, I hope to ramp things up on here.  I also hope to cook with ramps. 

Finally, Emma, who will be my equal partner in our new catering venture, is also in the process of launching her own food blog.  Once she is ready for the public, I will post it on here, and it is my sincere hope that you all support another foodie!

I will leave you with one of the recipes from our dinner.

Tilapia en Papillote (Each is a single serving)
1 small handfull thinly sliced (and well cleaned) leeks
1/2 tbsp butter
1 tilapia filet (about 1/4 to 1/3 lb)
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp white truffle oil
A pinch of salt (we used black truffle finishing salt, but any kosher or sea salt will do)
Put the leeks just off center on a small piece of parchment paper.  When cutting the paper, keep in mind that these are going to have to fold over and seal, so you are going to want about a 1 foot square.  Place the pad of butter on the leeks, and place the tilapia filet on that.  Pour lemon juice and truffle oil on the fish, then add the salt to the top of the fish.  Fold the parchment over and crimp the sides, stapling if necessary to create a sealed package.  Add to a 350 degree oven and cook until the top of the parchment package browns (appx 25-30 minutes depending on the thickness of your filets).  Cut open and serve either on a plate or directly out of the package.  Note, you can also add vegetables to the papillotes if you are so inclined.  A favorite combination of mine is diced apples and parsnips.

What the $*&# is Chawan Mushi?

A couple of months ago, I found myself trapped in a hotel room with very little to do, so I flipped through a couple of cookbooks.  (Yes, I know this is rather pathetic, but such is my life.)  On one page, I saw a very interesting looking savory Japanese egg custard, dismissed it as being weird, and moved on to things more familiar.  But I never forgot about it.

Fast forward to last night.  Sitting on the couch, I thought about what to make for dinner tonight.  Nothing really seemed to make sense, or get me all that excited.  Suddenly, my brain returned to a weird savory Japanese egg custard, and I thought to myself, what the heck?  So today I attempted the weird looking, weird sounding, and weirdly named chawan mushi.

I topped mine with an ahi poke made with cilantro, jalapeno, srirocha and lime for some needed texture and substance, but this is basically what a chawan mushi is: a savory egg custard made with dashi (a cooking stock made from dried bonito flakes), egg, mirin (rice wine) and soy.  The texture is creamy, a la flan, but it has a flavor almost miso-soup-esque, if you like that sort of thing, which I do.

Chawan Mushi
3 eggs
2 cups dashi
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp soy sauce
Start by preparing your dashi.  Strain out the bonito and chill the dashi until it gets to room temperature so as not to scramble your eggs.  In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs, making sure not to get too much air whipped in, as whipped air becomes bubbles in a custard.  Stir in mirin and soy sauce, then the dashi.  Divide the mixture into four ramekins, then cover the ramekins with foil.  Place the ramekins in a bain marie or other large oven-safe dish and add water to the dish, making sure nothing splashes into the ramekins, until the water reaches about 1/3 to 1/2 way up the side of the ramekins.  Put in a 425 degree oven for about 30-35 minutes, or until the custards set, then remove from bain marie and chill until serving. 

Top this with your favorite raw seafood preparation, and you have yourself a nice light meal or a nice heavy appetizer.

Crispy Skin Isn't Just For Chicken

I have come a long way as a cook since I began only a few years ago.  Back then, I used to think only of flavor.  After all, food has to have good taste.  But I thought nothing of balance.

A good dish needs balance.  There needs to be balance in color; after all, nobody really wants to eat a plate of brown.  There needs to be balance in tastes, utilizing heat and acid to balance richness.  Just as importantly, a good dish needs balance in textures.  There needs to be an element of crunch in an otherwise soft dish.

There is really something magical about cutting into a piece of protein that is crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.  Most people look to fried chicken as a good example of this.  For a pescatarian, the same effect can be had with a great piece of fish, like salmon.  Take tonight's dinner, for instance.

Tonight, I made a crispy salmon with a potato hash over a fennel puree.  While everything was good, the crispy salmon skin made the dish.  It added a crunch where something was needed to break up the texture.

There are a couple things to keep in mind when cooking skin-on fish and trying to get the skin crispy.  First, score the skin (meaning cut thin stripes into it with your knife).  This will better allow it to render, more easily crisping up.  Secondly, and most importantly, cook the fish in a hot skillet SKIN SIDE DOWN for about 98% of the time, turning once for only a few seconds to color the flesh side.  Resist all urges to flip the fish.  Salmon, like most fish, will cook just fine through the skin, but if you cook it on the flesh side and then try to crisp the skin, you will end up with dry salmon, as it will have long overcooked.  Finally, don't put a sauce on top of your fish.  There is no sense in having wonderfully crispy salmon skin if you are going to moisten it with a sauce and cause it to lose that texture.  Sauce your plate before adding your fish.

A little sea salt and lemon over the top and you have a perfect dish!

(For those of you who like crispy salmon skin, you can also cut the skin off before baking, grilling, or poaching salmon.  Just remove any additional flesh on the salmon skin with a spoon, and bake it on parchment paper between two baking sheets to keep in flat.  When it comes out, add a bit of salt and you have a great salmon skin cracker!)

Crack Rolls

Generally, I find bread at restaurants to be more of an afterthought, both for me - I don't typically indulge - and for the establishment - they don't typically have good bread or put effort into something creative.  Garlic bread at Italian restaurants is especially pedestrian for the most part.  It has too little garlic, too little oil, too little salt, too little flavor.  And then there are the garlic rolls (I call them crack rolls) at C & O Cucina in Marina Del Rey, CA.

These things are amazing!!  Ruth and I try to get to C & O once every few months.  The food is great (tonight she had penne with tomatoes and mushrooms in a smoked mozzarella sauce while I had fettuccine in a lemon vodka sauce), but what really makes the trip are the crack rolls.  Servers will bring replacements as often as you can stuff these little rolls, covered with oil, basil and minced garlic, into your mouth, which is very often.  In fact, we typically eat so many of the rolls that most of our pasta returns home with us.

So for those of you in LA, please do yourself and your tummy the favor of checking out C & O Cucina (http://cocucina.com/).  And for those other Italian places out there, please learn a lesson.  The bread DOES matter.

The SUPER Food

Ruth and I watch a good amount of Food Network.  In fact, our relationship is largely based on Iron Chef America.  You see, only a few months after we met, I moved to Arizona while she was still in college in California.  Our weekly tradition together was to be on the phone while we both watched Iron Chef America from our separate locations.  (This was pre-DVR, so it had to be live via phone.)  While Bobby Flay did not accept our invitation to our wedding, ICA remains a tradition of ours to this day, 8 years later.

So we watched the show this past weekend, and were thrilled to find a secret ingredient that is a personal favorite of mine: kale.  Kale is really the super food.  Ounce for ounce, it has more calcium than a glass of milk and more iron than a steak, plus LOADS of other vitamins and minerals, all wrapped up in what is actually quite yummy.  Now I don't really like raw kale, as I find it a bit fibrous.  But cook it down a bit and you have something really special.

Normally, I braise kale and serve it with something to give a bit of texture, like smoked white beans.  But this time, I wanted to do my own take on something we saw on the show.  The challenger made a smokey (he used bacon) kale chowder.  After a big round of "If not for the bacon, I would totally want that right now" from Ruth and me, I jumped into action.

Kale and Corn Chowder
1 bundle of raw kale
2 ears of corn (or 1 large can)
Vegetable stock
1/4 cup heavy cream
Juice of 2 limes
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp each cumin, coriander, ground mustard seed
1/2 tsp allspice
Salt, pepper, cayenne to taste
Start by prepping the kale.  Remove the thicker parts of the stem (they are way too fibrous and are tough to cook down), then roughly chop the rest.  Smash your garlic, and add to the bottom of a stock pan with the butter, and cook until the butter melts completely.  Then add the kale along with a generous pinch of salt.  Stirring frequently to prevent burning, cook it down over medium-high heat until the kale softens slightly.  Add vegetable stock until the kale is about 2/3 covered, along with the dry spices.  Cover and simmer over medium-low heat until kale has broken down (about 30 minutes).  While this is going on, lightly grill your corn (if using fresh) directly on your gas burner, then cut the kernels off the cob.  Reserve these to the side.  When the kale is soft, blend the soup fully with an immersion blender.  You should have some small pieces of kale remaining, but nothing of any real size.  Add the corn, cream, and lime juice, along with salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste.

Once again, my life has been enriched by my small addiction to food television.  Thank you Iron Chef America for my superfood, and for this incredible new way to enjoy it!