Sunday, February 07, 2010

Recipe: Beef and vegetable stir fry

Ingredients

1 lb. lean beef, thinly sliced
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1/2 cup onions
2 stalks broccoli
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 red pepper sliced
3 small garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp ginger, minced
1 tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 cup water
1 med. tomato, chopped

Directions
1. Heat oil in wok over high heat
2. Add garlic and ginger and saute for 2 minutes
3. Add onions, saute for another 2 minutes
4. Add beef. Stir fry until meat is brown. Season with salt, pepper, soy sauce and oyster sauce
5. Add tomatoes, broccoli, red peppers. Cook for 5 minutes
6. Pour cornstarch mixture into wok. Heat to boiling. Cook until thickened.
7. Serve over rice.

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Recipe: Sausage and Peppers

Ingredients
6 sausage links (sweet or hot - I prefer hot)
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 red onion, sliced
balsamic vinegar, to taste
1 cubano pepper (or red if unavailable)
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
1. Heat skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add sausage links.
3. Pour enough water to cover half of the links.
4. Cook until water evaporates, about 10-15 minutes
5. Pierce sausage links with a knife so that its oil 'oozes' out
6. Brown sausage for about 3 more minutes. I prefer the casing to have a crunch to it.
7. Remove sausages and slice into 1/4 inch pieces.
8. Add garlic and onions to the pan, and cook for 2 minutes.
9. Add the sliced sausage back to the pan and cook for about 3 minutes.
10. Add the sliced peppers, cook for another 2 minutes.
11. Season with salt and pepper.
12. Optional: Add a splash of balsamic vinegar - it'll loosen up the yummy goodness on the bottom of the pan
13. Serve hot.


Monday, February 01, 2010

How to cook a rib eye steak

There are many ways to cook a rib eye. I like mine with a decent char, and cooked medium. So far, the best recipe I've found was from the Wall Street Journal. Here's my version with a side dish of roasted baby Bella mushrooms.

Ingredients
1 1.5 to 2 lb rib eye steak
kosher salt to taste
freshly ground pepper
canola oil


Directions
1. Season rib eye with salt and pepper on both sides. Let it rest until it reaches room temperature.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
3. Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium high heat until it smokes.
4. Place the steak on the hot skillet and cook for 3 minutes on each side, turning only once.
5. When dine, place pan in the oven and cook for about 5 minutes for medium, longer if you want the steak cooked more.
6. Remove pan from oven. Place meat in a plate and cover with aluminum foil and let it rest for 5 minutes.
7. Serve

Roasted Mushrooms

Ingredients
1 package of baby Bella mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
1. In a nonstick baking pan, add mushrooms and coat with olive oil, salt and pepper
2. Cook in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes


Saturday, January 30, 2010

Restaurant Week Winter 2010: Brasserie

Part of the Patina Group chain of restaurants, Brasserie was on my to-do list, especially since I frequently dine at Cafe Centro (another restaurant in the chain). Anyway, I dined at Brasserie last night with another couple - it was Restaurant Week double date night.

Image credit: Patina Group

Before booking the reservation, I took a look at the Restaurant Week menu, and had my eye on the lamb shanks - yup that's what I craving. Unfortunately, the item I wanted was not on the menu, but in its place was the special of the day: a one pot meal - bouillabaisse. Huh? What's that? According to epicurious.com:
Bouillabaisse is a Provençal fish stew with a tomato, garlic, saffron, and potato broth thickened and flavored with a rouille—a paste of garlic, chiles, bread crumbs, and olive oil—served with dried bread or croutons
I've eaten bouillabaisse a couple of times, and I'll have to say, Cafe Centro has the best I've ever had. If you have any recommendations, please let me know =)

Moving on, the Brasserie bouillabaisse was, hmmm, very good (not excellent), mostly due to the quality of the seafood - a mix of mussels (which some were undercooked), scallops, shrimp, striped bass, and salmon - the broth was a little bland; the 2 pieces of toasted bread - crunchy, and a bit salty from the sauce they dalloped on it.

Oh, did I just skip right to the main course? Well, for appetizer, I had the salmon carpaccio topped with tempura cracklings. Not the best I've had, but very good. My fiancé had the petit quiche lorraine, which was very rich, and oozing with Reblochon. For his main course, he had the petit fillet with frites. Excellent piece of meat indeed, and just the right portion, especially if you're having a 3-course meal.

Desserts were not impressive. I had the almond cake with sweetened Crème Fraîche, red wine poached cherries. I thought the cherries were too overpowering for the cake, and the Crème Fraîche wasn't bad. I wound up eating the cake alone.

In summary, the food was very good (again, not excellent), ambiance - very noisy, cool decor. Might dine there again.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Recipe: Fried Rice

After reading Mark Bittman's post on The New York Times "Fried Rice, Dressed Simply," I've decided to share my own recipe, influenced by my mother's own recipe.

Ingredients
Leftover rice (about 2 to 3 cups)
1/2 bag of Birds Eye® Baby Corn, Bean & Pea Mix - found in the freezer section of your grocer
1 cup of diced ham (optional)
4 cloves garlic
2 scallions chopped (save 2 teaspoons of the green part for garnish)
2 eggs
3 tablespoons oil
soy sauce, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wok over high heat, or a large skillet over medium heat
2. Whisk the eggs, season with salt and pepper, then cook for about 2 minutes. Set aside.
3. Heat another 1 tablespoon of oil, cook the ham for about 3-5 minutes.
4. Add the garlic and scallions. Cook for 1 minute.
5. Add rice and frozen mixed vegetables and cook for 5 minutes.
6. Add the cooked eggs. Season the rice with soy sauce, as desired. Garnish with scallions.

Restaurant Week Winter 2010: SD26

SD26 is a modern Italian cuisine restaurant located at 19 Madison Square Park (26 St between 5th and Madison Avenues) in NYC. Quoting Opentable.com:
The modern, sexy, upbeat SD26 Restaurant, designed by Massimo Vignelli, is co-owned by legendary father daughter restaurateurs Tony May & Marisa May. SD26 brings a dining experience that is both special and seductive and sets the scene in first class Italian style for tasting of contemporary flavors that are unmistakably Italian created by Executive Chef Odette Fada and Chef de Cuisine Matteo Bergamini.

Exciting SD26 Wine Bar with electronic Enomatic wine dispensers and SD26 smart cards is a great way to be your own sommelier!
I had a chance to dine here for lunch today for Restaurant Week with a colleague. I ordered the following off the $24 Prix Fixe menu:

Appetizer: Tuna lightly seared in guanciale, puntarelle salad
Entree: Wild bass acquapazza, zucchini, fregola sarda, diced tomatoes
Dessert: Panna cotta, balsamic vinegar reduction, fresh figs (they swapped the figs with strawberries
Wine: Syrah

My thoughts: The tuna salad was probably the best I've ever had. Seared to perfection. Served in perfect medallions. (Sorry for not taking a photo of it). The bass was, for lack of a better term, tasty. Not like the regular sea bass I'm accustomed to, but it was quite a delicious white flesh fish. I gotta try to cook fregola sarda - might be my new favorite pasta. Now the dessert, the speckles of vanilla (as shown in the photo below) is a hint that, man, this is gonna taste very vanilla-ey, which I don't mind at all. Moving on, yes, the panna cotta was awesome. I'm still reminiscing about the taste of it. The balsamic reduction, bah...you don't need it. It's just there for decoration, at least to me it was. I sure do wish there were figs, instead of strawberries.

My colleague ordered a la carte:
Spinach and pear salad with Grana Padano
Lamb chops, mint cous cous, black Mission figs and fennel
Wine: Merlot

I didn't try my colleagues salad, as it looked pretty ordinary to me, except that it was doused in balsamic vinegar. The lamb chops were sensational. Cooked medium-rare - the chops melt in your mouth. The fennel was delicious. I'm not sure how it was prepared but I'm not a big fan of fennel, but I liked it.

Getting a case of the writer's block, so to end the post, yes I would dine here again, and perhaps try the items off the Salumeria menu.

Restaurant Week runs from January 25th to February 7th. Check out the participating restaurants here.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Recipe: Adobong Manok (Chicken Adobo)

Derived from Reynaldo Alejandro's classic recipe from The Philippine Cookbook, I switched up the vinegar ratio (1/4 cup suka vinegar and 1/2 cup white vinegar)

Ingredients
1 3-pound chicken, cut into serving pieces
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup suka vinegar (this adds sweetness to the adobo)
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 head of garlic, crushed
2 bay leaves
1/2 tablespoon peppercorns
salt to taste
1 tablespoon oil

Directions
1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat.
2. Add chicken and garlic, and sear for 2 minutes on each side.
3. Add the soy sauce, vinegar, bay leaves, and peppercorns.
4. Simmer for 30 minutes, uncovered.
5. Remove chicken breast pieces (they'll dry out if you cook longer) and continue to cook the dark meat for 5 more minutes.
6. Serve over hot white rice.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with bacon

Ingredients

1 Pound of Brussels Sprouts
2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
4 oz bacon (about 5 slices) sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
Salt
Pepper

Directions
1. In a medium size pot, bring water to a boil. Add a teaspoon of sea or kosher salt.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 375F.
3. In the meantime, half the brussels sprouts. If you have large brussels sprouts, quarter them. Add them to the boiling water and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Arrange the Brussels sprouts in one layer on the baking sheet. Top with bacon and season with salt and pepper. Roast for for 20-30 minutes or until they look golden.
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