Fish Food

Week 20 & Week 21 (May 19 & May 26 made up on June 5) 

I know, I am behind. The end of May was very busy for us, so we kept postponing our cooking nights and then suddenly we were two behind, going on three.

SO...

I decided that since I tried out two new recipes for Geoffrey's birthday party at Hog Island, those kinda count. Right? Why yes, yes they do! I know this is cheating, but whatever, my blog, my rules:)

Recipe #1: Hog Island Hog Wash
This recipe called for two types of rice vinegar, a seasoned rice vinegar and a natural rice vinegar. What's the difference you ask? Natural rice vinegar is made by fermenting rice grain. It is all natural, contains no sodium or sugar, no calories and is gluten and fat free. Seasoned rice vinegar is made by adding sake, salt and sugar. It is still gluten/fat free but does contain calories and sodium. Seasoned rice vinegar is often used to make sushi rice. The recipe was easy to make and very flavorful. As with the pickling of the veggies for the Banh Mi, the vinegar smell was overwhelming at first but the taste was refreshing and light. This was a nice accoutrement and made having my first oyster that I can remember easier to swallow (haha, get it?)! Our rating for this recipe: a solid 9 (Mayra: 9, Geoffrey: 9)

(L-R: Sarah, Geoffrey, Hog Wash in snowman mason jar, Liars Dice and Rob)

Recipe #2: Mussels and Clams Ala Mayra
While I was in line waiting to buy more oysters for the group, I noticed that Hog Island also sold clams and mussels. Since these are two of Geoffrey's favorite things, I decided to try to cook some over the grill. If you know me, and if you are reading this blog you do, I am not a fan of the shellfish (or anything fishy, for that matter), so I am not the most experienced with cooking these things. BUT, I have watched enough cooking shows to know that all you really need for shellfish is some butter, garlic, wine, salt and pepper. Luckily, I had most of the above ingredients and due to my quickfire experience on Pine street, was able to improvise with the items I didn't have. With help from my sous chef Kat, we were able to whip up a couple of batches of clams and mussels in a white wine sauce.

 Below is my recipe (approximately).

2 lbs of clams
1 lb of mussels
4-5 tbsp unsalted butter
2-3 cups dry white wine
3-4 garlic cloves, minced (or 2 large shallots)
fresh herbs (cilantro, parsley, whatever floats your boat)
1-2 lemons
salt and pepper
(Note: I used leftover Hog Wash and Mignonette in place of garlic, herbs, lemon)

Combine all items and cover over medium heat, mixing occasionally until the shellfish open. Serve immediately with crusty bread for soaking up the sauce.

Geoffrey rated this recipe a 7 (meanie!), but it was a HIT with everyone else. At least I think it was:)

A quick and easy Mexican fix

Week 8  (February 23, 2010)
This Wednesday was turning out to be a busy one. I worked late, went to the gym and had to prepare a potluck item for Thursday, so I needed a quick and easy recipe for tonight's dinner. Since we occasionally like to have breakfast for dinner, I found a recipe for skillet-poached huevos rancheros. Let me tell you, this was the easiest and quickest thing to make ever!

All you need is a skillet and three main ingredients for this dish: eggs, your favorite salsa and black beans.

Then you cover it for a few minutes and the steam poaches the eggs! Amazing!

Garnish (or not) with a sprinkle of cheese, sour cream, cilantro and green onions. Voilà, the dish is done. This took less than 10 minutes to make and was pretty darn yummy. We rated it an average of 7.5 (Mayra: 7, Geoffrey: 8).

Mardi Gras and Gumbo

Week 7  (February 16, 2010)
Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lenten season for me, and since we are planning on attending church that night, we decided to move our cooking night to Tuesday. Tuesday also happens to be Mardi Gras and what better way to celebrate it but with some New Orleans fare! Since Geoffrey is still wounded, I decided I was going to cook and picked out a recipe for Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. However, Geoffrey felt well enough to cook, so he took over the kitchen. I was his sous chef:)

I picked this recipe because 1) it didn't involve okra (which I sometimes like, but sometimes can't get over its slimy texture), 2) it didn't contain seafood and 3) we had most of the ingredients on hand. It was also interesting that this recipe didn't call for a roux, Geoffrey just had to brown the flour. 

Next, he chopped the "holy trinity" of vegetables: onion, celery and bell peppers. Didn't he do a good job? Geoffrey has become a master chopper!

While the gumbo was simmering, I made the cornbread and opened our last bottle of wine for the next 40 days and 40 nights (we are giving up alcohol for Lent this year). We thought a special bottle was in order, so opened the Top Chef Quickfire Chardonnay we received for Christmas from the Carroll's. It was delicious and paired well with gumbo (thanks again Zack and Sarah!)!



We rated this recipe an average of 7 (Mayra: 7 , Geoffrey: 7). It was easy-ish to make, didn't require too many crazy ingredients and can be made ahead of time for a potluck or dinner party. At first we thought it could have used a little more flavor and figured this was due to it being a Cooking Light recipe, but when we had it as leftovers over the next few days, we found that the flavors definitely marinated more and the gumbo got tastier.  Note: we use Crystal Hot Sauce for this recipe and topped off our dish with a few extra dashes.

Hope everyone had a wonderfully sinful Mardi Gras!

Crème Brûlée French Toast

Week 6  (February 10, 2010 make-up)
The past couple of Wednesday's have been busy for us, so we've had to "make-up" our new recipe night. I decided to try out a recipe for a new breakfast item since breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. And, because it was Valentine's Day weekend, I chose something sweet and decided to try a new french toast recipe.

The lucky recipe: Crème Brûlée French Toast! Doesn't that sound divine??! It combines two of my favorite things-- crème brûlée and french toast. How could this recipe go wrong? (spoiler alert: it doesn't!)

I ran into 2 hurdles with this one. First, I wanted to use a fresh baked brioche from my favorite patisserie, Patisserie Phillipe, but when I dropped by on Saturday they were sold out. I was able to get a loaf on the next day, which also happened to be Valentine's Day.

The second hurdle was that the recipe called for an overnight soak and since I wanted to make this for Valentine's Day breakfast, I didn't have enough time. I contemplated forgoing the overnight soak, but decided to delay Valentine's Day breakfast for the next day and not skip the step.

Alterations to the recipe: I decided that 1 cup of brown sugar and 1 stick of butter was *too* much sugar and butter for 2 people so I halved that part of the recipe and eliminated the corn syrup. I also reduced the half and half to 1 cup. Next, I didn't have Grand Marnier so I substituted it with Cointreau (still orange based). I used a different type of bread and did not cut off the crusts. And finally, I added a few dashes of cinnamon.

The Crème Brûlée French Toast came out DELICIOUS! It was such an easy recipe and would be great for a brunch party or for when you have overnight guests. Our rating for this recipe was 8.5 (Mayra: 8, Geoffrey: 9*).

*Geoffrey later mentioned to me that he would have rated it a 10, but after I mentioned that the topping was made of only brown sugar and butter, he got disgusted and "could only taste the butter" thereafter. I only tasted the caramely deliciousness!

Chicken...the Kosher white meat

Week 4 (January 27, 2010)
It is my turn to cook this week and since the past couple of weeks have included beef dishes (weird, because we rarely cook beef), I decided to make chicken. I found a super easy recipe for Cilantro Chicken and decided I wanted to try a new salsa recipe as well (Roasted Tomatillo-Mango Salasa with spiced tortilla chips). Fearing that the chicken would turn out dry, I decided a good side dish would be Black beans and rice.

I started with the chicken since it needed to be marinated for at least 1/2 hour.

Then I worked on the spiced chips and on roasting the items for the salsa (great technique and super easy, btw).

When I had a free moment, I started the beans and rice dish.

At this point, it was chaotic in the kitchen, especially when I had to get out the food processor for the salsa and get the chicken on the grill. I was surprised that I didn't make a mess with the food processor so much so that I proudly told Geoffrey "Wow, I didn't make a mess" and moments later, as I was pouring out the salsa into the serving dish, the processor blade fell out, bouncing off my hand and to the floor. This resulted in me tilting the serving dish and spilling half the salsa on our toaster and counters. Yes, I had officially jinxed myself.

Overall, I think I was a little ambitious with tonight's dinner (tested 3 new recipes!), especially since it was a long day at work and I still had to go grocery shopping. It took longer than I would have liked (1.5 hours), but the dinner came out pretty good. Overall, we give it an average of 7.875 (Mayra: 7; Geoffrey: 8.75). Geoffrey really liked the salsa, although it turned out pink (note to self: do not use purple onions) and I only used 1/2 chopped mango (I prefer my salsas savory not sweet). I halved the beans/rice recipe but forgot that in the beginning, so the rice had enough salt and EVOO for 2 cups worth, which was disappointing even though it was only 1 tsp salt and 1.5 tsp of EVOO (next time I will just use plain white rice--the beans had enough flavor). The chicken came out nice and juicy too, which surprised us.

By the way, I couldn't find a slogan for chicken, so I made it up. Pretty good, huh? Note to everyone: I am available for all your slogan needs!

Albóndigas!

Week 3 (January 20, 2010)
After a very wet and windy San Francisco day, Geoffrey decided that what we needed for dinner was soup! My favorite! He picked out a recipe for Poblano Albóndigas with Ancho Chile Soup. As soon as I was banished from the kitchen--Geoffrey doesn't like it when I hang around and "judge" him while he cooks-- Geoffrey got to work on the soup. And since I could not be anywhere near the kitchen, I am narrating using the pictures that Geoffrey took while he was cooking.

This soup required quite a bit of fancy techniques for a soup (and for a Wednesday night dinner). First he had to roast the poblano peppers and then put them in a paper bag.

Then he had to make the albóndiga (meatballs) mix and start the soup base.

Next he rolled the albóndigas into their proper shape and dropped them into the soup to cook.

Lastly, he fried tortilla strips for garnish.

Two hours and various cooking techniques later, we had our soup! Overall, this recipe got an average rating of 7 (Mayra & Geoffrey: 7 each). Geoffrey loved it, but he thought the recipe was a little too complex for a soup. I thought the soup was OK, but could have used more veggies to hearty it up a bit.

Slow Cooking

I am home sick today because I let my dentist convince me to pull out one of my wisdom teeth yesterday because "the area is going to be numb anyway" due to my new crown being put in. Since I eventually had to get the wisdom tooth pulled before my Invisalign can begin, I thought, why not? So I am home with a mouth full of gauze (and vicodin!), rinsing every 2-3 hours. My diet is also limited to soft foods that can be chewed on the left side. But it is my turn this week and figured I could still cook dinner!

Week 2 (January 13, 2010)
I picked the recipe for Cuban braised beef and peppers last week, which I think I might be able to eat since it is supposed to come out tender and shredded. One hurdle though, the recipe called for use of a crock pot, which we don't have. Note: We used to have one, but it took up too much space in our little kitchen so it went to my mom's house. I decided since I was going to be home all day, I could use our Le Creuset French oven and slow cook it for a few hours in the oven.

I started by browning the flank steak

Then I chopped the veggies and sautéd them with a bit of water to pick up the browned bits (for more flavor and easier clean up!).

Then I placed the meat back in the pan.

I followed the rest of the recipe with a few exceptions, since I tend to stray from recipes. I decided to throw in a dash of cayenne pepper and 1 chopped jalapeño pepper to give the dish a kick of spicyness (btw, I like this spelling better than spiciness). I threw it in the oven at 325° for 3 hours. Et voilà!

Dinner is served!

Overall, we gave this night's dinner an average of 8.25 out of 10 (Mayra: 8; Geoffrey:8.5). It was super easy, didn't require a lot of ingredients, came out nice and tender (yes, I ate is just fine), very flavorful and would be great for entertaining! We have plenty of leftovers and we are looking forward to eating them tonight!

Inspired by Julie and Julia

Geoffrey and I watched Julie and Julia the other night and we were so inspired by it that we decided to cook one new meal a week. Wednesday has now been deemed the "new meal night" in our household. We will be switching off every week, with one of us is in charge of finding a new recipe, buying the ingredients and cooking it for the other.

Week 1 (January 6, 2010)
Since it was Geoffrey's inspirational idea, he started us off with bruschetta (not new, but always a good starter) and for the main course a kale and white bean soup. The bruschetta was very spicy, but that was due to the 4 raw garlic cloves Geoff used (I know, crazy!). The soup was OK, but it needed a little more flavor/spice. Overall, we gave this night's dinner an average of 4.5 out of 10 (Mayra: 4; Geoffrey:5).

If you have any recipes to recommend, please send them my way and perhaps it will be featured here in the future!