Third Time's a Charm

Last weekend I happened to catch the TV show version of one of my favorite food magazines—Everyday Food.  (It comes on PBS in case you are interested). One of the recipes featured was Thai Beef with Red Chiles and Basil over Coconut Rice. I was intrigued enough to look the recipe up online and print it out right then and there, adding it to the list of this week’s meals.

What I didn’t know at the time, however, was that it would take not one, not two, but THREE trips to various grocery stores in our area to find one of the key ingredients—fish sauce.  Fish sauce is a staple in a lot of Asian cuisine (especially Thai and Vietnamese from what I can tell). It’s basically fermented fish (anchovies I think), sugar, and water. I was really surprised that they did not have it at my usual grocery store on Monday when I did this week’s shopping, especially considering they have a pretty large selection of international ingredients and Asian condiments in particular. So I sent Jason by the Whole Food yesterday on his way to get his hair cut after work to see if perhaps they might have it in stock---they did not. So I set out to yet another grocery store after work today to try and hunt down this illusive ingredient. Fortunately the third time proved to be the charm as good ol’ Giant had not one, not two, but THREE brands of fish sauce to choose from.

(I was pretty happy about that because I am fairly certain that I broke my toe earlier today when I stubbed it on the leg of the coffee table by mistake. And hobbling through the parking lot of one grocery store was about all I had in me...)

Overall I would say this dish was a success, although I am not going to lie—the fish sauce did smell a little funky. Jason asked me to put it on the “make again” list (this list, by the way, only exists in his head).  I thought it was good too but may up the chile and basil quotient next time around for a little more zing. But overall I'd say it's pretty darn yummy.

Today's mise en place--red chiles, garlic (from one enormous elephant garlic clove), basil

Thai Beef with Red Chiles and Basil over Coconut Rice
Adapted from MarthaStewart.com

Ingredients:
1 ¼ cups jasmine rice
1 can (13.5 ounces) coconut milk (I used light coconut milk in order to make it a little more healthy)
Salt
2 TBL plus 1 teaspoon fish sauce
2 TBL plus 1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 TBL vegetable oil
3 normal sized garlic cloves or ½ one elephant garlic clove, chopped
2-3 long hot peppers or red jalapeno chiles, seeded and sliced into matchsticks
1 ¼ pounds ground beef sirloin
1 cup fresh basil coarsely chopped

1.In a medium saucepan, combine rice, coconut milk, ¾ cup of water and ½ teaspoon coarse salt. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce to a low simmer and cook (covered) until rice is tender and liquid has been absorbed, about 20-25 minutes.
2.Meanwhile combine fish sauce, soy sauce, and sugar in a small bowl—set aside. When the rice is almost done, heat cast-iron skillet over high heat. Add oil. Then add garlic and half the chiles, stirring constantly for 15-30 seconds until fragrant. Add beef and cook, breaking up meat with a wooden or silicon spoon/spatula, until meat is completely browned (about 4-5 minutes). Note: I found there to be a significant amount of fat in the bottom of the pan which I drained off at this point although the original recipe did not say anything about this—you can drain or not drain as you would like.
3.Add soy mixture and cook for 30 seconds or so. Add basil and remaining chiles and stir to combine. Serve beef over coconut rice.

Web Wednesday 2.0 (and a Pet Peeve)

Tonight I am making an oldie but goodie for dinner so I thought I’d share some things making their way around the web right now.

How to Order Thai Food like a Native found via Slashfood. I love Thai food. But I am usually so intimidated by the menu I almost always order a curry or Pad Thai. This interesting article has given me some inspiration to try something new during our next visit.

Confessions of a Young Married Couple is one of my favorite blogs. It provides a glimpse into the life of a twenty-something couple navigating the crazy ride that is marriage (hmm...sounds familiar). While a lot of it focuses on their life now that they have an adorable one year old son (affectionately referred to as Bean), it is nice to see someone else go through the ups and downs of marriage with grace and a whole lot of humor. This recent post reminded me that a) it’s the little things that keep a marriage going and b) I should really use my china more often!

No Bake Straweberry Icebox Cake from The Kitchn. OMG. This looks AMAZING. I might have found a future book club contribution!

Pet Peeve: Pop Culture Edition
Have y’all ever noticed that every movie that is supposed to take place during “ancient times” (e.g., Roman Empire, Greek Empire, etc.) features actors using British accents? No really...think about it. Gladiator did it. Troy did it. And now that new Jake Gyllenhal movie Prince of Persia or whatever is doing it. Every time a preview for that movie comes on, I wind up yelling at the TV, telling it that Great Britain as we know it didn’t even exist during those times so why in the heck are all the actors using (in some instance VERY FAKE) British accents?!? Seriously. IT DRIVES ME INSANE!

Ok, rant over. Phew. I feel better :) Happy Hump Day!

Home Alone

Jason was off mountain biking this afternoon after work (or trying to…he was foiled by a broken tire pump) so we decided that instead of waiting until late to eat together, we’d do our own thing. I decided to take advantage of some left over pizza ingredients and our Griddler and make a prosciutto/roasted red pepper/fresh mozzarella panini for dinner.

It. Was. Amazing. (Almost as good as tonight’s Glee episode!)

This is a no-recipe-recipe so I’m going to let the pictures do most of the talking!

 Top one piece of bread with one slice of prosciutto, two thin slices of fresh mozzarella, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper 

Add one roasted red pepper (cut so it opens flat) and two basil leaves

Top with other piece of bread and grill until everything is warmed through, the cheese is melty, and the bread is crispy

YUM!

Cook Together, Watch Alone

Like many other people out there I spent yesterday evening in the land of Lost, celebrating the end of six years of thoughtful, twisty, fun, and always engrossing storytelling. In the week preceding last night’s 4.5 hour extravaganza (including the pre-show), the blogosphere was ablaze with clever ideas for a Lost last supper—Smoked Lox, Shepard’s Pie, Jin and Tonics, etc. We chose to mark the occasion with homemade pizza (and by we, I mean me because Jason is not a Lost fan and while he watched a few snippets here and there and wanted to know how it all ended, I pretty much went this one alone which was fine by me).

While Jason may not have been all that enthralled by the show, he definitely enjoyed the pizza. One of the things I like so much about when we decide to make homemade pizza is that it is a truly collaborative process. I do the prep work while Jason is in charge of shaping the dough into individual rounds and we each get to top one just how we like it. This is the only meal I can think of that we always make together and, cramped apartment kitchen aside, it’s always fun.

We make pizza using a pizza stone but you can still make this dish without one. According to Smitten Kitchen, pizza baked at high heat on the bottom of a cookie sheet is pretty darn delicious (in fact the link provided there has lots of good tips from SK about making pizza at home—you should definitely check it out). But I have to say, pizza stones are a pretty cheap investment (assuming you don’t buy a defective one your first time around) and the results are delicious.

We kept our pizzas pretty simple last night—tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and roasted red peppers. But the world is your oyster when it comes to making pizza so get creative (one of the best homemade pizzas I’ve ever had was one topped with an artichoke dip and shrimp courtesy of my friend Katy—decadent but oh so good). They key is making sure you have a clean oven and that you heat it and the pizza stone for at least 30 minutes before popping in your pie.

All in all it was a solid end to a good weekend. And, for the record, I was pretty satisfied by Lost’s uplifting conclusion.

Jason working his magic on the dough

 

 My pizza before....

 

And after

 

 Jason's pizza

Homemade Pizza with Roasted Red Pepper and Basil

Ingredients:
1 package of fresh Whole Foods pizza dough (next time around I am going to make my own so stay tuned for that but we decided to keep it easy last night)
1 can pizza sauce (we like Don Pepino brand and usually freeze what’s leftover for the next time around)
¼ cup freshly chopped basil
2 roasted red peppers, thinly sliced
6 ounces of fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Cornmeal

1.Place pizza stone onto the middle rack of your oven. Preheat oven to 500 for at least 30 minutes.
2.Divide dough into two equal portions. Dust your workspace with cornmeal and work dough until you have thin rounds (or squares). We have tried both a rolling pin and our hands (see picture above) and would have to say the hands work better.
3.Move rounds to a cookie sheet that has been generously dusted with cornmeal.
4.Top pizza with a few spoonfuls of pizza sauce, mozzarella, red peppers, and basil. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
5.Slide pizza off of the cookie sheet and onto the pizza stone. Bake for 9 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. To remove the pizza, we like to grab the crust with some tongs and slide it back onto the cookie sheet. Be sure to let the oven have time get back to temp before adding the second (or third or fourth) pizza.
6.Let stand for a couple minutes before slicing and enjoy!

No Reservations

As promised, I thought I would share a little of what went on at the Anthony Bourdain-Eric Ripert talk/show/discussion Friday night. Here are the highlights:

The Good

• Off the cuff and highly entertaining commentary on a wide range of topics from Bourdain’s recent quotes in a NYT article about marijuana use in professional kitchens to what they like most about their jobs (cooking for the Dalai Lama for Ripert and getting things by the censors for Bourdain) to what they really think about certain celebrity chefs (Bourdain would like Guy Fieri to grow up and stop wearing sunglasses on the back of his head while Ripert thinks Gordon Ramsey should be ashamed of himself for his public humiliation of contestants on Hells Kitchen)
• Ripert thanking PBS for letting people “with accents” have their own cooking shows
• Topical discussion on issues like factory farms and sustainable food sources, the role of immigrants in the running of America’s restaurants, and whether chefs play a role in the obesity epidemic in America.
• The easy, good natured banter between the two was entertaining and nice to see—they are clearly friends in real life (and Eric Ripert apparently introduced Anthony Bourdain to his current wife!)

The Bad

• They had a “host” for the night who introduced the Bourdain/Ripert and served as a moderator of sorts for the duration of the show. While I guess it makes sense to set it up this way—the guy they selected was a DJ from a local radio station and some of his attempts to be charming and/or humorous fell a little flat. It could have been a lot worse—when the guy first came out Jason and I both groaned but he ended up being tolerable for the most part.
• The last 30 minutes was devoted to audience Q&A (no, I did not end up trying to ask a question) which had Jason worried that he’d have to sit there and listen to a bunch of idiotic questions. For the most part the questions were good ones and elicited interesting and often humorous responses. The one REALLY ANNOYING thing was that at least 75% of those asking the questions started off with “I’m a really big a fan of the two of you….” Uh…..pretty sure that the fact that you a) bought tickets to come this event and b) raised your hand for 10 minutes or more so you could ask them a question directly proves your fan-hood. IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING…..SO STOP SAYING IT!
• Not a lot of Top Chef DC discussion

The HILARIOUS

• When we walked into the theater they had a slideshow of vanity shots of both of the chefs running on a screen towards the back of the stage. There was one particularly awesome of Eric Ripert resting his chin on his hand….a hand that was also grasping a large chef’s knife.  Not only that but he was clearly given instructions by the photographer to try and look sultry... the whole thing was just so ridiculous. Take a look and see for yourself:

From johnmariani.com

Overall I would say that it was a highly entertaining event and that Jason and I both really enjoyed it.

It's the Day of the Show, Y'all*

*someone please tell me they know where that is from?!

Yes, that's right. Tonight is the night. The night where I will get to be (somewhat) up close and personal with Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert for what is being billed as an "evening of storytelling and observation providing the audience with a frank and provocative back and forth about what really goes on behind the kitchen doors- from both ends of the spectrum." Apparently it also includes a Q&A session so I will likely spend most of today trying to come up with something insightful (and entertaining) to ask.

For those that are interested, I'll be back tomorrow with all the details!

Happy Almost Friday

Hooray for Thursday! Sorry for being MIA yesterday—it ended up being one of those days where I was inexplicably tired and needed to go to bed at 9:30pm. You know those days where you think you are just going to rest your eyes for a few minutes and the next thing you know it’s 11pm and you have to force yourself to get up and actually take out your contacts (which have by this time become glued to your eyes) and brush your teeth. That’s what it was like. So between that and the fact that Jason and I decided to treat ourselves to a mid-week dinner out (where we engaged in one of our favorite past times—eavesdropping on other people’s dinner conversations), last night’s blog post fell by the wayside.

But today I am back and ready to share with you a new recipe I tried out for dinner tonight. Jason and I both love asparagus and since we are quickly approaching the end of asparagus season (sniff sniff) I’ve been trying to come up with various ways to eat it every week. Tonight I decided to try out Smitten Kitchen’s Asparagus, Goat Cheese, and Lemon Pasta. Not only does it include asparagus (which we love), but it also includes a healthy dose of goat cheese (which we also love…as you can probably guess from the fact that we actually made our own a few months back).  The one thing that had me worried about this recipe is that it is one of those pasta recipes that don’t really have a sauce—instead it suggests adding some of the pasta cooking water to the dish to help the other ingredients (in this case the goat cheese, lemon zest, tarragon and olive oil) coat the pasta. I’ve never had particularly good luck with this approach but it was an otherwise appealing recipe so I decided to give it a shot.

The result? Who needs a "sauce" when you have melty goat cheese. Y-U-M. The goat cheese coated the pasta like a dream. And I really liked the hint of lemon with both the cheese and the asparagus. Only thing I might do next time is add some additional tarragon or some fresh parsley for a little more green, herbiness (yes, I know that's not a real word). Overall, a great SUPER EASY dish.

Asparagus, Goat Cheese, and Lemon Pasta
Adapted slightly from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
8 ounces penne pasta (we used whole grain because it’s what we had)
1 pound of asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 ½ inch pieces
2 TBL olive oil
1 TBL grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon
1 4-ounce log fresh goat cheese
Fresh lemon juice (from 1/2 lemon)
Salt and pepper

1.Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until it is almost done (with 2-3 minutes cooking time left). Add asparagus and cook until pasta is al dente and asparagus is crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Reserve one cup of pasta water and drain the pasta and asparagus together.
2.Meanwhile combine olive oil, lemon peel, tarragon in a large bowl. Break goat cheese into the mixture and add host pasta and asparagus. Toss until combined, adding enough pasta water to make it smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add a squirt of fresh lemon juice and serve.