Apology and a long needed break....

I am sorry I haven't posted in a long time, neither have been reading as many blogs.
Writing a blog is hard work. And lately I have been short on time. A lot is happening in my life, cooking school, internship and a job...plus I am trailing at various restaurants to find an externship. I promise to be back, when my energy is up. I appreciate your readership and I hope I haven't driven all of you away. And I will be back hopefully in a week....

Asian Carrot Slaw

This Asian carrot slaw makes use of beautiful winter carrots that comes in all colors. Although with this light fresh flavors, it will remind you that spring is on its way.
I know I should give you quantities. But I don't measure too often and I believe the best way is to taste, 1. you will develop your palette 2. you can fine tune it to your likes and dislikes.

ASIAN CARROT SLAW
1 bunch assorted carrots cut thinly on a bias
1/2 a head of cabbage, thinly shredded
1 large red bell pepper in a small julienne
4-5 scallions thinly sliced on a bias
1/2 bunch cilantro leaves and stems (yes you can eat the stems!!) finely chopped and some wgole for garnish

To make the vinaigrette, combine:
You want to taste to have a balance of sour, sweet and spicy:

Rice wine vinegar
Sugar (or use agave or honey)
Sesame oil (just a few drops)
Peanut oil
Salt
Sambal (hot sauce)
Sesame seeds
Grated ginger

I served this slaw with a miso marinated piece of halibut. It was delicious.

You might not know this, but I am highly interested in all issues pertaining to food, especially how our food is produced in America. I try to be open minded about new ways to create sustainability. I thought this article "Spoiled: Organic and Local is so 2008" was well researched, and yet controversial. Not everything I agree with. But I do think the ideas addressed in the piece are compelling: 1. We need to take action now, not later, now 2. And we might want to look at sustainability from all angles, to food miles, pesticides, feeding everyone, cost and so forth. Let me know your thoughts.

Duck Confit: How To

Duck confit is a process, like anything good it takes time, care and a lot of love.
Confit means braising in its own fat.
I prepared duck confit for my wonderful boyfriend. We love eating it at the Modern (NYC), as well as Balthazar, even Egg (Brooklyn) has a pretty swanky southern version. I paired mine with a blood orange sauce, a simple arugula salad with blood oranges and pommes lyonnaise (a thinly sliced potato cake). But it can be eaten a number of ways.
Duck confit was a way to preserve the duck during the winter. After being braised in its own fat, it is stored in a cold place. It lightly ferments giving it a more complex flavor, kind of like cheese. The duck leg can be taken out of the fat and reheated, pair it with a cabbage, chestnut and walnut salad for a winter meal, or serve it over mushroom risotto to complement the richness. Any way you serve it, you will sure enjoy the benefits of your very own duck confit.

The duck confit process is a long one, but not unattainable for the home cook.

1. Remove the thigh bone from the duck legs, but keep in the bone for the drumstick. Trim off excess fat.
2. Make a rub of salt, shallots, thyme and parsley in a food processor. Liberally rub all over the duck legs. Places in a colander or perforated pan with a pan or bowl underneath. Place a weight on top of the duck legs. This is to draw out excess moisture.
3. Put in the fridge overnight.

NEXT DAY
1. Scrape off the rub and heat a lot of duck fat into a large rondeau.
2. Add bay leafs, thyme and black peppercorns. Just a decent sprinkling of all.
3. Place duck legs in the fat and place a plate on top.
4. Put in a 300-degree oven. They will probably take 3 hours. They will be tender and delicate.
5. Store the duck legs in their own fat and refrigerate. The more they sit, the more they ferment.
6. When you are ready, carefully lift the duck out of the fat and place on a rack over a sheet tray. Bake at 400 until skin is crispy and delicious.
7. Serve and enjoy the duck of your labor!!!

Where to buy duck legs ( make sure they are Moulard):

• D’Artagnan :http://www.dartagnan.com/
• Citerella sells Hudson Valley Foie Gras
• And check out the Farmer's Market in Union Square for other local purveyors.

I would like to apologize for not posting in a while. I got addicted to a TV show, “Friday Night Lights.” Don’t start you will be addicted…it will suck you in and consume endless hours. But I am back….and ready to blog!!!

Here are a few of my favorite things…

This post is dedicated to my delicious food discoveries that I have made. I hope to share a few of them with you every month. Feel free to send me an email with your recommendations.

Jasmine Pearl Tea

Jasmine pearl is a fragrant but light green tea. Each grey/green leaf is left in tact, and rolled into a little ball, looking like a cocoon of a moth. Actually it is supposed to look like little pearls. In hot water, the leaves unwind from their ball and release their full aroma. This tea is a perfect afternoon treat, mellow, perfumed and sweet.

These tea leaves are plucked from the Fuding Da Bai Cha plant, processed like green tea and then scented with jasmine flower. They are hand rolled into pearls. For that reason, this tea is a bit pricier but worth it.

I purchased my tea at the Imperial Tea Court at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. You can also purchase it online at many websites.

Whole Foods Organic Seeduction Bread

Maybe this could be a great Valentine’s day loaf? I mean the bread is called “seeduction.” But I have my own theory. Once you get one bite, you will become seduced by all the seeds and you won’t be able to stop. Good, since its chock full of seeds and whole wheat.
Did you know birds don’t really have a sense of taste, they like the tactile experience of food, that is why they like crunchy things, like seeds. I am not saying this loaf would be good for a bird, but to be honest, it does have a lot of the same seeds you might feed to one: millet, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds.

This is definitely a bread for the seed lover, if not, you might be surprised that you were (again not trying to say you are a bird.) It is nutty, dense but not too dense, makes you feel a bit healthier , and has a subtle sweetness.

What it taste great with: honey and bananas, farmers cheese with fresh herbs, shallots, a little olive oil and vinegar, or some high quality butter.

Want to try to make this loaf yourself: check out this recipe.



Pickled Eggs

Who would have thought this southern specialty (and an English bar food) would be so immensely delicious. These pickled eggs are pickled with beet juice (the water the beets were cooked in), apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt, bay leaves, thyme, onions and garlic. The hard boiled eggs taste pre-seasoned, and with their unusual color it make them an oddity that would be the talk of your next party. Or you can make some for your acidic hungry boyfriend ( like I did.)
Check out this pickled egg chow hound post to get inspired to make your own:

Brown Sugar Pound Cake Cupcakes with a Brown Butter Glaze

I am kind a sick of all these cupcakes. That’s why I chose to make more of them. I am a girl of many contradictions. But these cupcakes are such that in my mind they don’t necessarily qualify as one, ( honestly anything in a cupcake shape is a cupcake. If it looks like a cupcake, it is.) Yet, the pound cake texture makes them less of a cupcake more of a dense brown sugary individual pound cake, glazed with a brown butter glaze. I loved the nutty roasted flavor of the brown butter; it really complemented the brown sugar pound cake, making the flavors a bit more intriguing.
You can find the recipe for these delicious cupcakes at Martha Stewart's website (the cupcake queen. She is even coming out with a cupcake book!) Click here for the recipe.

BROWN BUTTER?
Perhaps you don’t know what it is, or perhaps you think it is simply burnt butter. It is not and learning how to make it will prove very fruitful:
1. You can make this cupcakes.
2. Brown butter or beurre noisette in French makes such a nice accompaniment to many other things: gnocchi, pasta, winter squash, sautéed sole and much more.

How to properly brown butter:
First you need to realize what your outcome should be: Burnt will taste well, burnt, acrid and highly disagreeable. Browned butter will taste highly aromatic, nutty and roasted. Browning butter is simply caramelizing the solid milk fats. Harold McGee says:” Their flavor is deepened by heating the butter to about 250F until its water boils off and the molecules in the white residue, milk sugar and protein, react with each other to form brown pigments and new aromas.” I think the best way is to slowly heat it. This way you have much more control. You can see the colors start to slowly change. I would take it off the heat right before it hits that deeper nutty color, due to carryover cooking.
For instance, in this recipe, the butter needs to cool. By cooling it you can easily pour off the brown butter and not the milk solids floating at the top.
To see pictures and a step-by-step tutorial, check out Michael Rhulman’s blog.
ENJOY!!!

Artichoke Pizza

After doing what seems like endless amounts of dishes in culinary school, I am exhausted. I want to:
1. Get away from my classmates who decided to be lazy and did nothing but watch some of us do all the dishes
2. Sit down and never get up
3. Vegetate and distract myself with fun things (eating anyone?)

When I got to accomplish all these activities, I was in a much better mood. I met my friend and decided to try a decadent and giant pizza at artichoke. Artichoke Pizza has an old New Yorker appeal, but with a gourmet sophisticated touch. It is simply a storefront, no tables, just a counter, where you order your pizza or slice and huddle on the sidewalk (no matter if it is a cold winter night.) The ceiling is an art decoWe ordered a whole pizza (for two-quite ambitious seeing as though they serve one size 18 inches.), the artichoke and spinach. This creamy white pizza, with bubble up brown cheese and crispy chewy crust was filling and amazing. It was a very comforting pizza. It taste as though someone smeared artichoke spinach dip over the pizza, added a few tender artichoke leaves and some mozzarella and baked it to oozing savory perfection. It was a very different pizza than I was used to, not a bad thing. But different. I have never really had a creamy pizza. It is something you can’t eat too much of, or maybe you can and just get really sick. We paired this pizza with woodchuck hard apple cider, which seemed like the perfect beverage with this pizza. Sweet granny smith cider cut the heaviness and creaminess of the pizza. For that day, after all those dirty dishes, artichoke pizza was what I definitely needed. It is an indulgence for sure.

Artichoke Pizza
328 E. 14th street
NY, NY 10003
212-228-2004

Commitments to Being Healthy

Going to cooking school is hard. You are probably thinking, all the burns, the standing on your feet, the endless repetition. You are wrong; it is the endless consumption of food, good food, but fatty and rich (most of the time.) So this year is a fresh start and that means battling my cooking school consumption. How will I do it? Cook more…. By cooking at home, I can make healthy and flavorful meals. I don’t really think it terms of healthy, but what I enjoy eating. It just so happens this recipe is both healthy and delicious. I used the recipe from Martha Stewart Living. Asian fish en papillote contains in its pouch wild fluke with bok choy, lime, hot chili, and cilantro. I made a side of rice (I used brown) with shitake mushroom and scallions. I added a few touches to bump up the flavor. I sautéed the shitakes in sesame oil.
And I also add a splash of soy sauce to the papillote which when cooked creates a balanced sauce.
I make extra brown rice and mushroom so I can make fried rice the next day, with veggies and tofu. 2 healthy meals in one.
Here are the recipes:

Fish en papillote
Serves 4
Zest from 2 limes, finely shredded
3 limes juiced
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 piece (2 inches) ginger, peeled and julienned
1 medium red onion, halved and thinly sliced
2 mild to spicy red chilies, halved
4 fillets (6 oz ach) black bass, halibut, or striped bass (I used fluke)
4 head baby bok choy
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
8 sprigs fresh cilantro

1. Preheat oven to 450. Mix lime zest and juice, garlic, ginger, onion and chilies in a medium bowl. Fold four 20-inh pieces of parchment in half lengthwise. Unfold and place 1 fillet and 1 head of bok choy along each crease. Rub both with 2 tablespoons oil, and season with salt and pepper. Top each fillet with some onion mixture and 2 sprigs of cilantro. (Here is where I sprinkled a little soy sauce over the top.)
2. Fold parchment over fish, making small overlapping folds along the edges and sealing with a paper clip. Place on rimmed baking sheet. Roast until parchment puffs, 10-12 minutes. Carefully cut packets, avoiding escaping steam and serve.

Jasmine Rice with Shitakes and Scallions
1 ½ cups water
1 cup jasmine rice, rinsed well
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and pepper
4 oz shitake mushrooms, stems discarded, caps cut into ¼ inch thick slices
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon rice-wine vinegar
1 scallion cut into 2 inch-long pieces, thinly sliced lengthwise

1. Bring water and rice to a boil in a small pot. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in 1 tablespoon oil, and seasons with salt and pepper. Cover and let stand.
2. Meanwhile, heat remaining oil (I used a little sesame oil) in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add shitakes in a single layer, and cook, stirring often until browned and crisp, about 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 2 minutes more. Add garlic and cook until light golden brown. Stir in vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Transfer rice to a platter, top with shitake mixture and sprinkle with scallions.