Chicken soup!

Chicken thighs, water, a bit of rice, chopped cilantro.

Sushi!

Seaweed, sticky rice (<– measured this!), avocado, salmon.

Anyway, we really wanted to go to Uva, my favorite place in SF ever—it’s an Italian small plates/wine place (an “enoteca”) in Upper Haight. Cav was much closer to Davies Symphony Hall, so we ended up eating there instead (after deciding Bistro Clovis was not “for us”). I had never been or had any reason to believe Cav would be any good, but it was amazing. The waitress had lots of opinions and advice to offer, and she was SASSY as all get out. (Also I’m pretty sure she was flirting with Chris! the hussy!) We took her advice and had a selection of the appetizers, followed by the cheese and charcuterie plates. No pictures of the appetizers, unfort (*sniffle*) but they were:

• Braised baby octopus with roasted garbanzo beans and cherry tomatoes. Delicious! The garbanzo beans were still somewhat green; this gives your teeth just enough resistance and keeps its flavor “nutty.” The other stuff on the plate was really good too.
• Beer-batter tempura squash blossoms with mahi mahi ceviche and tempura zucchini. Good, but honestly was somewhat over-fancy. Maybe I’m just not easily impressed with $12 plates of “deep fried stuff,” but it was definitely the best of this time-honored appetizer genre I have tasted. Also, I’m not a huge fan of ceviche, mostly because I can never tell if it’s too citrusy.
• Crispy pig trotters with poached quail eggs, frisée, pickled vegetables, and mustard vinaigrette. Om nom nom. I was scared they were going to bring us a whole pig foot, but no, it was three circular disks of deep fried pork… and it was oh so good. The quail egg went perfectly with the pork (though I was sad there were only two of them), and the vegetables also matched quite well. The vinaigrette might have been a tad more sour than I would like in an ideal world, but in our imperfect world this was a formidable appetizer.

The cheese plate! (A choice of three from the list.)

(Picture was on Chris’ phone, which was not made by Steve Jobs… for shame.) There’s lots more than cheese on the plate, obviously. The cheeses were (from left to right)

• Queso Azul de Cabrales. (The cheese of my people!*) A Spanish blue made from a mix of sheep and goat milk! Ours was this interesting deep brown color, and true to both its blue cheese and Spanish cheese roots, it was very very strong. Chris figured out that you have to close your mouth and just let it sit a while, because the pungency sort of tingles your tongue and stimulates different taste buds as it melts… some sort of interesting, unfolding evolution of flavor. The wikipedia entry reports that some cheese tasters report a “numbing sensation” to the tip of the tongue after eating it, and I totally believe this. A++, would buy again.
• Brillat Savarin. A triple cream brie from Normandy named after a French political figure and gastronome (thanks WP!). The texture was amazingly rich and velvety, and it tasted like heaven. It reportedly pairs perfectly with champagne, and I’m going to have to try that sometime if I can hunt some of this cheese down. :9 Maybe the Cheeseboard stocks it? Preparing it en croûte (baked in a pastry shell) would make it even better I imagine… it would come out all nice and oozy. (Oh god.)
• Québec Seven Year Vintage Cheddar. The name says it all… this was our waitress’ choice, and she did not disappoint us. Certainly you all know the difference between the cheez-its white cheddar and the much tastier stuff you can get in blocks at Whole Foods—this cheese was light years away from all that. It was set seven years ago and this is definitely reflected in the taste.

The charcuterie plate!

I have less to say about the plate of meats, though it was also quite good. Cheese is just so interesting and fun to describe (despite the difficulty of conveying gustation and olfaction through clumsy ol’ words). Anyway! Counter-clockwise from the center bottom: (1) Prosciutto, (2) Coppa, (3) Leonese chorizo (The sausage of my people!), (4) Duck prosciutto (I think), (5) Salami, (6) Pancetta, (7) Duck liver pâté, (8) Pork liver terrine, (9) Roast beef tongue with horseradish, (10) Another liver pâté (?), (11) Head cheese, (12) Pheasant gallantine. If it’s not clear, (1-3,5,6) are pork and (11) is beef. In the center of the plate are a bunch of garnishes, including pickled pearl onions, shallots, gherkins, fig jam, and olives, and three mustards: A smooth dijon, a whole grain with crème fraîche, and a whole grain with apple cider.

Steve (the one on the left in the first picture) is from England, so he got to eat most of the stuff I wouldn’t touch (Chris is braver than I), including (11), which sounds pretty gross already (if you don’t know what it is, I do not suggest looking it up). I also shied away from (9), only because I don’t really like the texture of tongue. Everything else was very good though! Number (12) was probably my favorite (first time eating pheasant!), and (4) definitely wins the “decadent sounding food product” prize. I also discovered while in Germany that I really like mustard now. My favorite on this plate was the apple cider one. :v

Unfortunately I had to run out the door before we got to dessert (Chris and Steve only got port, though). But I will definitely be back to see what’s on that menu. =D Also, the wine list looked fantastic, even if none of us were in the mood.

Oh, brunch was tasty, too. (And much cheaper.) We went to Sugar Café where I had the “Tex Mex Scramble,” which I ordered because it involves fresh avocado. (Om nom nom.)

* Well, a bit further north from my people… but close enough. I do have cousins who raise pigs and turn them into chorizo and jamón serrano, though. Apprenticing to one of them is Escape From Grad School Plan #344.Lower

rosemary bread yet again

First I baked rosemary bread yet again, for a dinner party, following this recipe for an unkneaded peasant bread. This time it came out much much lighter, fluffier, and more delicious. Basically I followed the directions more carefully and this worked (who knew!) although I also stuck my roommate’s pizza stone in the oven while it was preheating, then stuck the bread pan right on top of it to while baking, which may have helped.

I infused some olive oil with garlic and left-over fresh rosemary while it was baking, too, for dipping purposes. This was a good idea.

mm breakfast!

Hungry grad students ate all my bread at once, so the next day I made scones, using my current favorite recipe (via Smitten Kitchen, with modifications here), only lemon-zest-and-cranberry this time (I had no oranges). A nice thing I’d forgotten about this recipe is it involves no eggs, except for the glaze, so licking the spoon is completely acceptable.

Finally, I made tomatoes filled with rice again (for the third time!) and yet again, they were devoured before photographic evidence could be acquired. You’ll just have to trust me on them.

Here's the bread rising, looking bizarre

Calzones are a mysterious breed of creatures. Delicious, but remarkably hard to find in this area. (There are two restaurants with decent creations, both about an hour away.) Calzones aren’t as difficult as you might think; more trouble than stirfry, certainly, but making dough, mixing the filling and folding/shaping are all rather straightforward.

Dough: 1/4 oz yeast, 1.5 cups warm water, 4 cups flour (I chose a bread flour, which resulted in far tougher dough that I anticipated. Beware.) 1 teaspoon salt, 1.5 teaspoons sugar, 1 tablespoon olive oil

Proof the yeast, as necessary, add ingredients together, knead until smooth, let rise for ~90 minutes. If you’ve ever watched the I Love Lucy episode on bread, in which bread rises and takes up the entire kitchen, this is about what you should expect. I formed 6 flat sheets (~8″x10″)to roll the filling into. The dough was rather tough and a rolling pin is suggested.

Filling: Here is your chance to go absolutely crazy, put in anything your heart desires! Add some combination of Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil, Mozarrella, Parmesean, Provolone Cheeses, Pepperoni, or anything else. Brocoli works well, but be sure to chop it up, soak it, and boil it first. Unless health issues are of concern, one can never add too much cheese. I added perhaps 3/4 of a cup of filling to each 8″x10″ sheet of dough, leaving about an inch perimeter.

Brush this outer edge with a mixture of a beaten egg and 1 tablespoon water. This will serve as a sort of glue. Fold the dough over the filling and then fold the edges and seal them. This is more annoying than it sounds. If the dough bunches up anywhere, you’ll get a lump of dough without any of the tasty filling. D: Spending more time here is absolutely worth it.

Brush the rest of the egg mixture on top of each ‘zone. I added sea salt, parmesean cheese and a sprinkle of love to the top of each one, just to make it even better.

Cook at 375 for 25 minutes. The surface should be firm golden-brown but not a rock-solid or carbonized black.

Calzone with Fork on Table

Chima is a restaurant in Tysons Corner with a format along the lines of Malibu Grill. You pay a set (mostly expensive) fee, and strong-armed men bring you pieces of meat, as much as you can eat. There is no pressure to leave, or even to eat quickly–everyone is fat. I would recommend going there with an empty stomach, but one that you’ve toughed through. You definitely need to pace yourself, because, to make your 50 (or 40, right now) dollars worth it, you will eat as much as possible.

First of all, the ambience is wonderful. It’s not too chic, and we didn’t have to dress up to go into it. The wait staff was polite and friendly, and the meat bearers called me ma’am. After our somewhat disastrous run in with Asia 9, some pleasant wait staff was much appreciated. The walls are lined with wine bottles, with rolly ladders to access the top racks. I never saw a waiter on said rolly ladders, but I was romanced by the possibility. The restaurant is a twee bit loud–not invasively so. I’m just saying that it’s apparently a popular birthday place, and the well-wishers are boistrous.

But the food… The food is the highlight. The salad bar is unlimited, but we only really made it down there for a full plate once, at the very beginning. I had a delightful creamy vegetable soup (there was definitely pureed potato and red pepper involved), the caesar is plain but inoffensive, and there are a LOT of cheeses, including small balls of I guess fresh mozzarella. I wouldn’t say that everything from the salad bar was phenomenal, but then again, that’s not what you came for.

If you’ve entirely stuffed your face and the end is in sight and you haven’t had any lamb, hold out for it. Ask a waiter. The lamb is out of this world. We tried both the lamb chops and the leg of lamb (one long, pink slice), and they were so well-flavored and so moist that it was almost hard to deal with. Eyes bulged. Pants tented. Et cetera. I had ordered a pinot noir, and the lamb gave it almost a sweet, velvety flavor. Other favorites were the bacon-wrapped filet mignon and the parmesan pork, which kind of melted in your mouth with delightful creamy texture. Oh, als o the fish (swordfish or salmon). They both come with a white, almost tartar sauce, which are flavored. The salmon one was a caper-flavored sauce. It’s a shame that that was the last meat my poor, shattered body could handle, because I’m sure it would’ve been mind-blowing otherwise.

A final discovery: Brazilian Lemonade. This is delicious. Spanky ordered one at the very end of our carnivorous indulgence, and it absolutely destroyed us. We were looking for a palette cleanser, and it was so thick and delicious that it ended up causing my dinnermates to tap out of ordering more meats. We’ll definitely have to make this at some point. I insist.

Go with a small group of people with whom you can have an easy two-to-three hour conversation. You’ll want to slow down and try again, so there are plenty of good, long pauses during which to make good conversation. Also, make sure you have a study Indian fellow to drive you home. If you go entirely with tiny Asian girls, they will all drop into a food coma.

Back to flying…

cooling after the second bake

I’ve been craving cookies, but I don’t actually like them so much (too sweet); I just want something to go with coffee, and biscotti are generally not super rich, due to having no shortening usually. Melody recommended this recipe from joy of baking. I like my biscotti as plain as possible, so almond it was, but the link will also tell you how to make a chocolate glaze/frosting, and almond biscotti often have some anise in, too. For the nut-intolerant, cranberries or chocolate chips would probably substitute pretty well for the almonds (and though the original calls for almond extract, I didn’t have any so I just used extra vanilla and it worked fine. I thought about adding some Scotch because I was worried about blandness ["Vanilla extract is alcohol! Bailey's Irish Cream is made of whiskey and sweet and comes in an almond version!"] Then I didn’t. This was probably for the best.)

You need:

• 1 cup blanched, toasted, and coarsely chopped whole almonds
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/8-1/4 tsp salt (the original called for 1/8 and I don’t think it was quite enough.)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• zest of most of a lemon, I guess, but not really grating the pith, just the pretty yellow bit, also a lot of it sticks to the grater anyway so it’s not as much as it sounds

Blanching the almonds: I guess you could buy pre-toasted, pre-chopped almonds, if you’re lame. So preheat the oven to 350F. Take your whole raw almonds and blanch them by boiling some water, adding the almonds and taking it off the heat, letting sit for 1 min (not more! gets mushy and bad!), then straining them out and running under cold water. Now the skins will come off really easily so do that and put your blanched, skinless almonds on a baking sheet. Toast them for ~10min (took me 12 min) till they’re turning a little bit golden and start to smell good. Maybe shake them around a little partway through. Now, have at them with knife. They don’t need to be evenly chopped at all – in fact a mixture of little nearly-powdered bits and halves or quarters makes for a nice texture.

You can turn the oven down to 300F now.

In a smallish bowl, beat the eggs with the vanilla extract – or 1 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp almond extract, if you have it, or whatever other fanciness you feel like. In another and larger bowl, mix your dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, salt. Pour the egg mixture in a bit at a time and mix it into a dough slowly. The original tells you to use an electric mixer; this was the opposite of helpful. I used spoon and hands after electric mixer disaster. When the wet ingredients are about half in, add the almonds.

You should have a thick, sugary dough. Divide into two equal lumps. Flour some countertop; roll each lump into a log about 10 in. long and 2 in. wide. Put them on a lightly greased baking sheet (flouring it might also have helped, in retrospect) with a bit of space between them. Depending on how flat you want your biscotti, you could squish them down a little. Bake for ~40 min or till no longer squishy to the touch.

Biscotti get their name because they’re baked twice (oh, Italy, you are so clever) so now you have to slice them and bake them again. But first, let them cool for at least 10 min! Then use a large serrated knife and caution. Mine crumbled a lot. Cut at an angle to make the right shape. I couldn’t get 1/2 inch slices to not break, but remember they will be hard and you will have to bite them so perhaps don’t go much thicker. Arrange them lying down on your baking sheet and stick them back in the oven, flipping halfway through, for about 15 min per side, or (again) until not squishy.

Let them cool and make coffee! I will be having mine with moka coffee for breakfast tomorrow.

I followed Sophie’s Rosemary Bread guide but mine is simply  ….. Bread, now that said plant is dead. Long live the rosemary.

Once Active-Dry and Instant yeast make sense the world is a better place. Dough rises quickly and just like magic! I broke the incredibly fluffy dough into two boules but fear they were slightly crushed in the process. After rising, the dough was incredibly light, butthe consistency was almost dense while I preheated the oven.  *Shrug* Perhaps that settling is normal?? Everything continued to rise nicely while baking and looked like Christmas morning after half an hour, only covered in sea salt and edible.

I added salt on top of the dough after I formed the loaves rather than with olive oil after baking. Some salt dissolves, leaving a thin, sea-spray layer of flavor throughout the crust as well as in the crystals. I’m not sure which I prefer yet.

There were slight irregularities in the shape of the loaves, probably due to small creases in the dough that I had not properly folded over. At one point, the crust slightly separated slightly; again, likely due to an air bubble, crease, gremlins, etc. The consistency was very reminiscent of Macaroni Grill Bread, which is about everything I was hoping for. The flavor was slightly bland, which is easily correctable by reanimating/finding another rosemary plant, and in the immediate sense, fixed by using excessive amounts of olive oil, basalmic vinegar, salt & pepper. This was a triumph, my roommate agrees. We’re honest about our cooking, here. I’m also one step closer to self sufficiency in the event of the zombie apocalypse.

Bread Boules. Slicing the top turned out better than expected.

Bread!

It's art, guys.

You’ll Need:
Olive Oil
Corn Starch, 4 tbsp
Salt & Pepper
Water, 2/3 cup
Meat/Tofu, ~16oz
Onion, 1 minced
Eggs, 2
Beef/Chicken Stock or Consommé, 32 oz
Vinegar, 4 tbsp
Soy Sauce, 1 tbsp
Mushrooms, if you have any on hand.

Drain the Tofu & slice the Tofu/Meat into thin strips. Lightly coat them in cornstarch. Combine the rest of the cornstarch into the water to create a paste. Mixing the cornstarch now prevents lumping later on when you thicken the soup.
Heat the oil in a large Wok and fry the onions until they’re soft; add the Meat, mushrooms, and turn up the heat. When the Meat is cooked, add the Stock/Consommé. Bring to a boil, let it simmer. Add the Tofu, vinegar, soy sauce, salt, pepper & Water/Corn Starch mixture. Vinegar is for the Sour, Pepper is for the Hot. For a slightly sharper taste, add red pepper of Sri Racha, like a Philistine. Bring the soup almost to a boil, and drizzle in the eggs. Booyah: poached eggs & soup!

The vinegar provided nice flavor that could have used more red pepper and spice. The cornstarch thickened the mixture nicely but more tofu & mushrooms are always a plus.  A Hot & Sour stew is never a bad thing.

Would you eat it in a Wok?

Would you eat it for good Luck?

I do not like green eggs & ham. I do not like them, as a plan! I will not try green beer or beef, unless, I turn another leaf. Inebriation is never right because I have an early flight! I’m writing verse upon a limb & hope these rhymes appease dear Kim… XD

It’s a blog for scanned pictures of sandwiches, as the name would suggest… at first it’s a bit gross but then it becomes kind of fascinating!