Thursday, July 30, 2009

Colicchio v. Fallon Sammich Smackdown

Kudos to Jimmy Fallon for hating the same stuff that I hate!

via EatMeDaily:

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Workshopping a Heinous Study Sandwich: A Sibling Approach


Me: the sandwich is toast, parmesan cheese, and anchovies
Ben: whoa
sounds like that bad boy could use some lettuce to settle things down
Sent at 11:19 PM on Wednesday
Me: this sandwich rules
i added lettuce and non marinated artichoke hearts
Ben: word
whats the sauce or is there none
Me: none b/c the artichoke hearts were in brine
semi-brine anyway

Ezra Klein: Vegetarianism is good for the environment

Not to be preachy, but this is a great angle on the (eating meat α climate change) argument. Thx, Shadowbanker.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

zucchini iron chef challenge

would anyone have a problem with extending the deadline to sunday instead of friday? turns out matt and i have a wedding to go to.

i mean, we can keep it if you guys want to hold me to the original deadline, but i'm just sayin. it'd be nice to have a weekend to serve our dinner!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Friday, July 24, 2009

The "Sushi Taco"

My recent breakfast that Meredith has affectionately dubbed the sushi taco. The inspiration for this was the CwD episode on onigiri. I've been wanting to make those for a while but I'm too impatient to let the rice cool so I just dump the pot of rice on the nori. I had at one point not even cut the nori and just folded it over. The result was just tacoish enough to earn an alias.

I drop a piece of nori across the plate and start up the rice. Sushi rice. As it begins to boil down i throw in some chopped onions and dried wakame. The wakame expands in the remaining water. Once its just about ready I crack an egg over the top of the rice and cover the lid. It steam cooks the egg just over the rice. Perfection. Last night I covered the nori with a layer of rice (which in all fairness could have been cooked just a bit longer), then a layer of tunamayo, then rice topping with bonito sesame and more nori, then more sushi rice and finally the steamed egg. I then cover it in tonkatsu sauce. I love tonkatsu sauce. It gives a fruity kick to whatever I'm eating. For a while I was on oyster sauce but this is my new current fave.

Being that I cooked this at 3am lat night there wasn't enough light so the picture isnt great. Here's one with a flash. EDIT: PICTURE COLOR CORRECTED BY SISTER.
I doubled the recipe and made one for Blake too. We chowed down while watching Starship Troopers. Excellent movie. Excellent breakfast/dinner.

This is a picture of the other one. I wasn't sure which one looked better. You be the judge. EDIT: THIS PICTURE ALSO COLOR CORRECTED BY SISTER.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Alright son, time to giddyup

aiight all, here is our first IRON CHEF CHALLENGE!!!!! With all of our contenders from DYMS over here in one corner, and the GREAT COOKINGWITHDOG Chef in the other!

DAH DAH DAH DAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*GONG*


AND THE FOOD FOR THIS CHALLENGE IS -----

apparently zucchini.

(chosen at random by my coworker)


wow. ok, so even though my first thought was "really? zucchini? really?" now i'm starting to get into it.



Here are the rules:
1. you gotta post something by 1200 midnight July 31st. (this gives all of our lazy asses about two weeks to perfect it)
2. you gotta make someone who has no idea what your doing this for and also what they're eating to taste it, and write out some comments.
3. you gotta post pictures AND the comments. no matter how droll or embarassing.
4. it should be original. no using someone else's recipe, LET YOUR IMAGINATION RUN FREEEEEEEE.




Did i miss anything? post some comments!!!!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Swiss Chard!

So Matt and I tried swiss chard last night.

First off, it's beautiful! bright pink and red and white stems amongst dark green leaves. so pretty!

I wasnt sure how to cook it, so i just sauted it in a touch of oil to get the flavor, cooking the stems for a bit prior to adding the leafy bits.

all in all, it was a dissapointment. not so delicious - like a bland spinach. the stalks tasted like boiled celery (however, they did retain a good texture, not stringy, not mushy). also, all the color blanched out of the stalks as they cooked! we ate pale boiled-pink and dark green food. hrm.

does anyone have any suggestions for next time?

Monday, July 13, 2009

Mutton Anyone?




Last month I attended the third annual NYC Food Film Festival. A fest of films and foods and free-ness--who could resist? The free-ness, of course, was only for those who do not like to drink beverages. The folks at the door checked my bag to make sure I was not sneaking in a water bottle. Dang, right? I indulged in a $6 Peroni (an Italian Lager), which was the only beer available (Peroni was one of the main sponsors of the event). Fortunately, it was pretty good.


There were seven short films that night, including: The Food Hypnotist, The Sacred Food, Food Cops, Thanksgiving, Mutton, The Sandwich Thief, and New Jersey's Red October. The shorter shorts were editorial or fiction films, such as Food Cops. This live-action short starred a guy in a hot dog costume and a guy in a hamburger costume as food detectives seeking out a food waster who left a smashed taco on the sidewalk. Hilarity ensued. Or whatever. The best part of this film was probably when the hot dog detective was pouring olive oil into a whiskey glass and drinking it because he was stressed out about the case.


The documentaries--The Sacred Food, Mutton, and New Jersey's Red October--were the ones that came with samples. Immediately available on arrival at Water Taxi Beach, L.I.C. was barbecued mutton. Unlabled, but free, I ate it without knowing what it was. It looked like pulled pork, but it was definitely tougher. After chomping down on a huge piece of fat, I pretty much gave up on the mutton. It was served with corn bread, which is always good, and cole slaw, which is always bad. Here was a case where the film was better than the sample. Mutton, as it turns out, is meat from a sheep that is over a year old. If the sheep is less than a year old it's lamb. What I wonder is what you call the meat if the sheep is slaughtered at the very moment it turns one. sheep?


The second free sample came with The Sacred Food, a documentary about the Native American tradition of harvesting wild rice in Minnesota. This film is apparently available on Youtube if you're interested. I could smell the wild rice as I was watching it being cooked on the screen. I don't know whether this enhanced my experience or just distracted me from the film, but it certainly made me hungry and raised my expectations. Unfortunately, the wild rice was cooked in chicken broth and simply took on a salty, chickeny flavor. It did make me want some good wild rice though. Anyone have any good recipes?


New Jersey's Red October was a documentary about New Jersey (represent!) cranberry farmers. It was everything you ever wanted to know. Ask me about cranberries. Go ahead. Right now. Maybe it just made me nostalgic for home or proud to be from NJ (though I'm definitely no piney), but I really liked this one. AND we got little 100 calorie pouches of Craisins, which really hit the spot after that salty chicken flavored wild rice.


In conclusion, that night's installment of the New York Food Film Festival was more about short films than it was about delicious food. Though I did have some awesome french fries at Water Taxi Beach.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Guest Post: Sean's Shepherd's Pie



So I decided that because my damn schedule is as busy as my girlfriends, it would be a nice idea to try to spend some time with each other to find a nice recipe and make dinner together. Being relatively inexperienced in the kitchen, I turned to Ben for some advice. I found a recipe for Shepherds Pie …

  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
  • 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
  • 1 pound ground lamb (or substitute half with another ground meat)
  • 1 cup beef or chicken broth
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh or dry rosemary
  • 1 tablespoon chopped Italian parsley
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • 2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup milk (any fat content)
  • Kosher salt to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. In a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, heat the oil, then add the onion, carrot, and meat. Cook until browned, 8 to 10 minutes.

3. Drain the fat and add the broth, tomato paste, and herbs. Simmer until the juices thicken, about 10 minutes, then add the peas.

4. Pour the mixture into a 1 1/2-quart baking dish; set aside.

5. Meanwhile, bring the potatoes to a boil in salted water. Cook until tender, about 20 minutes; drain.

6. Mash the potatoes with the butter, milk, and salt.

7. Spread them over the meat mixture, then crosshatch the top with a fork.

8. Bake until golden, 30 to 35 minutes.

I basically followed it all to a T except I added a good bit of Worcestershire Sauce while browning the meat, and I topped the mashed potatoes with shredded cheddar cheese. The only hangup we had was that my girl decided to add milk to the mashed potatoes after I had mashed them with heavy cream – she didn’t like all the cream…so we had some liquidy mashed potatoes on top but it basically baked itself into place in the oven.

I was very nervous about cooking something that I felt was going to be complicated – worried that it wasn’t going to turn out well and worried that I would scare myself away from cooking more often. It came out fantastic and I was thrilled with it…we both enjoyed it a lot. I’m really glad that it worked out well, because it proved to me that you don’t need to be an expert to successfully prepare a great meal. I’ll absolutely be trying to find some more things that we can do together. We’re going to try to come up with at least one night per week that we can make dinner with each other. It was a perfect way to spend a great night together…

Thursday, July 9, 2009

ARE YOU KIDDING ME



Apparently, those Bacon Explosion guys who drank Ben's original milkshake not only have a six figure book deal, but are offering the BE through mail order. (via Eat Me Daily via The Pitch via Those BE Milkshake Drankers)

I do like that it looks like a giant bacon string cheese.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Sushi Explosion




I just made a ton of hand rolls. They were pretty great, if I do say so myself. And I do. As a newb to the world of sticky rice making, I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was easy. Now I have a ton of leftovers, so tomorrow's looking more and more like riceball day. My fillings for this round of temaki included cuke, avocado, shrimp, and fake crab. I bought the krabstix at that gourmet place across the street from South Orange station. Also scored a giant fucking sour pickle and ate it for dinner with burgers and roasted potatoes by huzz. Now me and the cat are lying on our stomachs trying to keep cool.

Drank YOUR Milkshake!

Not so fast, Wired! We beat you by two days.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Suddenly, Steamers




Oh, I love these little guys. They're the perfect summer lunch. Simple to prepare, light in the stomach and delicious. It had been a while since I made a meal of them but snacking on little-necks at Greenwood Lake over the weekend was a welcome reminder to do so. The Asian markets near my house in little Chinatown offer fresh hardshells at 4.15/lb and I went in for the full pound. I also got a buttload of produce, noodles and various dried comestibles. Then I walked home, scrubbed the sand from the clams, put them in a deep pot with about an inch of water and let everything heat up while I changed out of my bathing suit. (Yes, I live across from the Sunset Park community pool; the frequently congested with obese teens who I am scared will make fun of me and once did but still fully swimmable and most critically FREE and ACROSS THE STREET and FREE community pool). I assembled few other ingredients because steamer clams season their own broth and man is it tasty. If you can hang, Joy of Cooking even endorses it as a beverage. I can't. The clams take 6-10 minutes to cook. Just keep looking at them and wait for their shells to fall open. Then you season the broth minimally with salt and black pepper. Then you dribble some melted butter over the top. Squeeze a lemon into it if that's what squeezes your lemon. Then eat them. You can use a little mollusk fork or whatever to pull out the goods, but I'm into using my hands. Scoop up some broth in the shell, sip it out and then go in for the kill. It's good. Afterwards, you can use the empty shells as castanets.

BENTO BOXES


Meredith and I have been obessed with bento boxes for quite some time now. Whenever we go out for Japanese, Meredith orders the bento and we are constantly talking about buying our own boxes to bring to work or school or pretty much anywhere. Today we had decided to bring them to the movies. The original plan was to put together some bento boxes based on whatever movie we were gonna go see and sit in the theater with them. We had spent maybe half an hour sending eachother pictures of different crazy bento boxes on the internet. Unfortunately I over slept and we ended up not going to the movie. We spent way too long wandering the aisles of the RT 18 Asian Market to get all our ingredients including two packs of sashimi from the restaurant we love out in front of the market. Then we went home and got to work. The picture above is the ingredients we were going to use. Once we got the rice going we started opening up the canned fish and making the "tuna mayo" (CwD).

This picture is Meredith packing one of her rice balls. I think this one is "tuna mayo" wrapped with a strip of nori and covered in rice topping. We kept forgetting to cut the nori first and it turned into a mad scramble with our hands covered in sticky rice.

This is one of the bentos filled with rice balls (boxes courtesy of our mom). They were all sooooo gooooood. Luckily Meredith didn't eat all of hers and I had leftovers that I'm eating while I'm typing this.

This is my finished bento. I wish I had a picture of Meredith's. It was much more elegant. I kinda just shoved stuff in there. Below my initials and the sashimi is a bed of sticky rice. Above it is cucumber strips, broiled eel and mackerel covered with avacado and eel sauce, oysters, fake crab meat, and an anchovy.
This is a picture of Meredith eating a rice ball and getting pissed at me for taking pictures of her eating. She hates when I do that. Anyway the bentos and rice balls were delicious. We ended up sitting around eating them and watching Metalocalypse. A truly blogworthy night.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Excellent Bowl

If you looked into the meat and potatoes type meal, you'd find hundreds of ethnic variations. I decided I'd make my own. It was kind of a bizzaro Shepard's Pie. On the bottom is mashed potatoes with garlic and cheese with peas mashed into them. Then I diced up some onion and cooked it with this ground beef style tofu I had. I put all the potatoes into the bowl and then hollowed out a little space for the meat and onion and then topped it with tonkatsu sauce. I was gonna use steak sauce but I figured the tonkatsu would give it an interesting fruity kick. It was an excellent combo. Definitely filling. After one bowl I felt like I couldn't move. Exactly what I needed on one of my nights off.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

getting in some carbs



Sometimes I will go for a while without having a solid CARB. Yes, I know, carbs are everywhere. But you know what I mean -- the fat part of the food pyramid. And it was one of those days where I'd been walking around a lot, applying my brain to term papers, realizing suddenly that I need to EAT SOME FOOD. Anyway, when this happens I like to really do it up and make my own pasta, but I am ashamed to say that I wasn't in a real position to do this, so I went whole wheat dried. There were a couple of shrimps in the freezer, so I decided to do a sauce with those. Something about today was also screaming greens to me, so I picked up some arugula, along with asparagus, mushrooms, and shallots.

For Vanessa: A recipe, kind of. This could probably feed 4, 3 if they are mostly boys, or 2 really really hungry people who have been writing term papers all day.

1 bunch arugula, leaves cut down to half size
1/2 bunch of asparagus, tough ends snapped off and cut into thirds
2 shallots, minced
a handful of mushrooms, sliced
Maybe 4 or 5 shrimps, peeled and cut in half lengthwise (like butterflying them but cutting all the way through)
1/2 lb whole wheat pasta - spaghetti or whatever you want
a couple drizzles of olive oil, just enough to put a film on the bottom of your pan
fresh ground pepper to taste
salt to taste
fresh grated parmesan cheese to taste
about a shot of vodka
8 oz of tomato sauce

Get the pasta to al dente stage, drain and rinse.

Heat up a pan and add oil. Add shallots, let cook on a medium-low heat until soft, about 8 minutes. Add asparagus, swish around for a minute, then add mushrooms, swish for another minute. Toss in vodka and raise heat up to medium. Let the veggies simmer for about another minute and then add the tomato sauce. Add a few twists of black pepper and a shake of salt. At this point, if you want the sauce a little creamy, you could add some dairy. Reduce heat a touch, cover with a little venting, and let simmer for... I don't know... until delicious and reduced to a saucy consistency.

At this point, toss in the shrimps. When they just start to get pink, add arugula and push everything around until the shrimps are all the way pink and the arugula is wilted. This should barely take a minute since the shrimps have been thinned out and you don't want them to get tough, and the arugula should just barely be wilted and still bright green.

Reduce head to med-low and add the pasta and a few gratings of cheese, folding until nicely incorporated and the noodles cooked the rest of the way.

Serve in bowls with a little more fresh pepper.

The end!

That wasn't so bad...

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Component meal: bbq tofu, fiddle head ferns, kale, mashed yams



What I like to call a component meal is basically a bunch of things in little homogeneous piles on a plate. What I did here was some sauteed kale, steamed fiddleheads, bbq tofu, and mashed yams (not pictured) -- oh sorry. Sweet potoatoes!

I don't know why bbq tofu is so awesome. I used the primo sauce in my mom's fridge (living at home fridge access benefit) called Hoboken Eddies. Some of you should know what I'm talking about. Lately I have been really into doing triangles instead of cubes for tofu. Don't ask me why. I think it might just be really satisfying to do them this way. First, cut a grid in all directions so that you have little rectangular prisms, still composed in the original tofu block form. Then cut diagonally through the stacks in one direction, going through the corners of each square-face.

Tofu gets seared in a very hot pan, then sauced. I sauteed the kale in a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Doesn't need much more than that. Fiddleheads are also delicious almost naked. Just steamed up with some lemon juice squeezed on top and then tossed. Mashed sweet potatoes are a great alternative to regular mashed potatoes because they are healthier and taste great without too much stuff mashed in, which is where the butter/margarine/salt intake can get out of hand. All that went in was maybe a dot of olive oil and a little fresh pepper.

fancy fast food

everyone should go here. i'm in awe:

http://www.fancyfastfood.com/

guiness and melon


mmmm. what you're looking at here is a (semi blurry) photo of some half eaten dinner. so good.

what we did: we took some peanut sauce and pan-fried tofu and threw that on some noodles. ate it with really ripe canteloup from the farm stand up rt. 31 and some guiness. did you know that melon and guiness are really quite very tasty together?

peanut sauce:
so you might be thinking, 'man matt and vanessa, that peanut sauce looks mighty green!' and for truth, it is. that's cause we put cilantro in it! yum!
1/2 cup crunchy organic peanut butter
1 tbps soy sauce
pinch garlic powder
couple shakes dried red pepper flakes
couple shakes spicy chili sesame oil
heat it all in a pan until it's creamy. puree some cilantro into a pesto and throw that in too. add some water to thin it out and throw on the nooooooooooodles. CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP.

Challenge #2: Post a solid recipe for once plz

Vanessa is right. We are lazy pieces of crap that throw ingredients into a pot and brag about it. This is a challenge specifically to Ben and ugh I guess myself to post an actual recipe for a soup.