Some time last October, Trader Joe’s had black cod on sale. I never bought frozen seafood from TJ before but it was the perfect opportunity to final try Morimoto’s braised cod recipe from his book Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking. You can actually find a copy of his recipe here if you don’t have a copy of the cookbook.

I love braised fish dishes. And since I’ve had one of the braised fish dishes at one of Morimoto’s restaurant before, I was pretty sure this was going to be delicious. Yup, it was wonderfully delicious, one of those where we could just kept eating until our bellies popped. I only had 1.5 pounds of black cod so I decided to half the remaining ingredients in the recipe. There was plenty of yummy sauce with lots to spare (drizzle that over some steamy white rice, yum!). Made me wish I bought an extra piece or two of black cod.

As a side, I just used what I had in the fridge. Some sauteed mushrooms and spinach with garlic. Very quick to throw together.

You’ll need:

• Rinsed spinach (about a bunch), make sure all the grit and dirt is gone
• sliced button mushrooms (about 8-10, more if you like, Creminis are nice too)
• 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon of Tamari
• 1 Tablespoon low sodium chicken broth (optional)

In a skillet on medium heat, butter and EVOO. Add mushrooms and salt, saute until mushroom is brown. Add garlic and cook for about a minute. Add spinach, Tamari,  and chicken broth (optional) and cook until spinach is wilted. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Serve immediately.

My mouth is watering now just thinking about this. Oh yeah, one other thing, I julienned some green onions (soaked in ice water for a few minutes to make them curl) and fresh ginger to garnish the top of the black cod. Purely optional. As a matter of fact, I remembered about these just as we were about to scarf enjoy our dinner. It didn’t add a whole lot to the dish IMO but it did make it look prettier.

It’s been over 2 years since I posted on blueberry pancakes. But since then I have a new favorite (you can find the recipe here) and thought I’d better post an update. It’s very similar to Alton Brown’s recipe but this one has a bit more sugar and butter and everyone seems to like this much better. Let’s just say there’s enough butter in this so that we don’t need to add more pats of butter on top of the stack.

The only thing to keep in mind when putting together the wet ingredients is that melted butter will solidify a bit if added to cold buttermilk. Kind of defeats the purpose of melted butter so I beat the eggs with the buttermilk (more often milk + vinegar) then let it sit to room temperature. Then I’ll add the melted butter (not molten lava hot) to that then mix with the dry ingredients. I follow the Alton rule of mixing a set amount, usually 10-12 good mixing with a large whisk, then walk away. It’ll be a bit lumpy but I let it sit for about 5 minutes and the batter will get all bubbly. Then the usual. I use more butter on the griddle before ladling the batter on. Then top with blueberries (usually frozen straight from the bag). For my griddle, 320 degrees F is a good temperature and if I wait for it to preheat, I actually have presentable first pancakes. The time to flip over is when the edges start to firm up a bit and you see bubbles on top.

And then serve them up with some real maple syrup. Warm up the syrup if you want to get all fancy and shit. I’m too lazy. In the picture below, you can see the top of Merlin’s head and Sydney’s right ear, watching and drooling as their daddy chomps down on his stack of pancakes. They’re waiting patiently (sort of) because I make a dollar sized pancake for each of them.

Here is my plate of small dollar sized pancakes. I only like small pancakes since I like the slightly crispy edges the most. Alright, here’s another food tick. I don’t like to drench syrup all over my pancakes since I hate soggy pancakes (kind of like my cereal). So I just pour the syrup onto the plate and dip my pancake into it as needed. The Mister chuckles when I do this since he says I look like a little kid playing with my food.

I typically make a half batch when it’s just the two of us but the full recipe is just the right amount for 3 adults. Not a bad way to start a Sunday morning I think.

Christmas is just around the corner. I just picked up the last present early this week so I’m done with all my shopping!!!! Actually I would have been done 2 weeks ago but the Mister threw in a last-minute change up so I had to get another gift. But hey, that’s what online shopping with free two-day shipping is all about.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas (or Hanukkah) and I’ll see you all in 2013!

With the apple strudel challenge completed, it was time to tackle the next one, cheese strudel. Cheese strudel is my MIL’s favorite (apple is the Mister’s). The good thing about this challenge was that the hard part was already taken care of. Now just to figure out the cheese filling. Based on MIL’s recollection of her mother’s cheese strudel, it was basically cottage cheese, eggs, lemon zest and some sugar just to give a hint of sweetness. Quite frankly, the filling sounded a little bland to me and I felt something was missing. So I decided to come up with one of my own but still using cottage cheese. I’ve made Ina’s cheese danish before and enjoyed very much so I decided to take some elements from that. There were several sweet cheese strudel filling recipes out on the Internet, mostly calling for sour cream and farmers cheese (or dry curd). Those had some elements of  Gram’s recipe and gave me an idea as to how much cottage cheese to use for a single strudel.

Results? MIL said the filling was spot on. I thought it was pretty good although I much prefer a cheese danish and the apple strudel. I wasn’t sure if the filling was sweet enough at first but both the Mister and MIL said the cheese strudel is not suppose to be very sweet and that the sweetness was just right. Well alrighty then. Sorry no picture of a sliced piece since this went very fast. It got divided up pretty quickly (SIL was also into this whole strudel thing). What was surprising is that the cheese strudel kept very well in the fridge for 4 days (wrapped in foil). Like its apple counterpart, it heated well in the toaster oven. Nice and crispy outside, warm and delicious inside. This is one of those things where you really want to warm it up before serving. Guess what the MIL is getting for her birthday next month???

Hope everyone had a terrific Thanksgiving!

Sweet Cheese Strudel Filling

 

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Enough for 1 strudel

Ingredients

• 1½ lb cottage cheese (small curds)
• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 3 large egg yolks
• 2-3 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
• ½ C sugar
• ¼ C powdered sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F on convection baking setting. If oven does not have convection, use same temperatures but will just need to bake a little longer and will need to rotate pan half way through baking.
2. In a food processor (or using a hand mixer with a large bowl), blend everything together until smooth. Leave in the fridge until needed.

Filling strudel

1. Along a long edge of stretched dough about 4 inches from the edge, dollop cheese filling.
2. Fold dough edge over to cover filling. Fold the short side edges over to cover the ends. Lift the sheet slowly to gently roll the strudel.
3. Grease a sheet pan with Crisco/butter mixture. If using parchment paper or silicone baking mat, grease the top of sheet/mat. Lift strudel into pan, making an “S” shape to fit. Generously brush the top and side of strudel with Crisco/butter mixture.
4. Bake at 425 degrees F for 10 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 400 degrees F. If using convection baking, bake for another 20 minutes. If using standard baking, bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the strudel is golden brown.
5. Cool a bit before serving. Best served warm.
6. Reheat in oven at 325 degrees F for about 12-15 minutes to crisp up dough and warm the cheese filling.

3.1.01

OMG it’s taken me forever to finish this post! But finally, here it is, the apple strudel challenge post.

Ever since I can remember, the Mister and his mother (MIL) talk longingly about grandmother Gram’s apple strudel. We don’t know the origin of Gram’s recipe but it’s very similar to German apple strudel, down to the bread crumbs. But the dough recipe is different it that it doesn’t contain any eggs. MIL has never made it before so the Mister decided to throw down a challenge to me to recreate Gram’s apple strudel. The challenge was actually given to me over a year ago but it took me this long to actually get the nerve up to accept it. One of my major hold back was that I didn’t have a whole lot to go on. I’ve searched the Internet and have found some good references, especially the one posted by Janet of The Taste Space with pictures and great directions. Janet was kind enough to share her Oma’s recipe, which was the closest to what I knew about Gram’s recipe. It all came together when the Mister brought home Gram’s old recipe book a few months ago. Well looky here, a recipe for strudel dough!

MIL wasn’t sure if the actual dough recipe in the book was her mom’s or something she had written down from some publication but it was a start. MIL and I discussed the dough some more and the filling. I decided to use Janet’s recipe for the filling but decided to go off Gram’s recipe. This would be test strudel #1. Oh yeah, better make some notes. Here’s my book and my chicken scratch, hehe. Does anyone else do this when testing a recipe??

Anyway, the very first dough was only a half recipe since I only wanted one test strudel to get a baseline. I decided to add vinegar to the dough since quite a few strudel dough recipes add it and I figure the tenderizing effect of vinegar to crust would help here. Based on the results, I think it was a good addition, certainly didn’t hurt. The other modification I did was the fat. MIL said Gram only used Crisco. Her MIL always used butter and she said it wasn’t nearly as good or flaky as her mom’s (nothing is better than our mom’s version, right?). I wanted the dough to have a buttery flavor so I went with butter for the dough but took a page out of my pie crust recipe with half and half on the butter and Crisco as the wash for the dough. That also proved to be a good decision. I’ll clarify later in the post.

Most recipes called for mixing and kneading (and pounding) by hand. I decided to use the food processor to get the dough going. Hey, it works for pie crust, why not strudel? I have a very old (17-yrs old) 7-cup processor, worked just fine for one strudel dough but for the full recipe, I’d have to divide the ingredients in half. So do what you need to do if you’re going the food processor route.

Put flour, salt and sugar in the processor, pulse to mix everything. Then with the processor on, slowly add the liquid (1/2 stick melted butter and enough water to make 1 cup of liquid). Run until the dough comes together into a ball. Now comes the muscle work. Put the dough on a lightly floured surface. I used a knead for 10 then pound with rolling pin for 10 method. I didn’t want to knead for 20 minutes and since whacking the crap out of a flour dough will help develop the gluten, I used both to speed it up. I probably could of just whacked the shit out the dough for 10 minutes but the dogs get scared with all that pounding. I also like the process of kneading dough so why not? I’ve made the dough a few times now and found that alternating between the two (knead 10x/pound 10x) ) for about 15 minutes produces the easiest to stretch dough. Once I got all my aggression out on the dough, it was time to let it rest.

Put some oil (vegetable) in a bowl and then put the dough in, roll it around to get the oil all over, cover and let rest in a warm area for at least 2 hours. Speaking of warm, the warmer the room the better it will be for stretching dough. While the dough is resting, start prepping the work area for stretching. I decided to use the kitchen island for the test since it was taller than the dining table.

I used a large clean sheet (no fabric softener or sheet!). Used pins to hold the sides together. I chose a patterned sheet to help gauge as to how thin the dough is. Ideally I should be able to read a newspaper through it.

Side bar: on my second strudel test, I decided to use the dining table. Pretty much the same set up. One of the dogs, Cole (pictured below), thought maybe we were playing castle or something. The good thing about the table is that it’s smaller than the island and the dough can actually overhang over the sides. Problem is that it’s lower and I had to slouch down while stretching, which was very hard on the back. Think I’ll stick with island even though it was a little harder to get around the dough. I also don’t have to drape down towels on the carpet.

Now that the staging area is set, time to work on the filling.

The apple filling consisted of three different kind of apples (Granny Smith, Jonagold and McIntosh), bread crumbs (1/2 C), sugar (3/4 C), cinnamon (1 tablespoon). Peel and cube the apples, about 1/2″ cubes. Mix everything together in a bowl. Let sit until needed. There will be lots of juice released, which is good all that liquid will make the strudel a bit gummy.

Right before getting ready to stretch the dough, I melted an equal portion of Crisco and butter in a small sauce pan. Since this was going to give the dough its flakiness, I thought the combo of fat would be good. As I said, it works for pie crust.

Put the butter/Crisco on the lowest heat setting on the stove and keep warm until needed.

After a nice long rest from all the beating, the dough should be supple and smooth. It should be very elastic when pulled on. See how the dough stretches?

Dust the sheet with flour and put the dough in the center of the table. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a rectangle, as far as it will roll out. Once it’s rolled out, grab the edge with fingers and start to pull gently. This takes a bit to get going but it will. I think this was probably the toughest part for me the first go-around. I think a video of this would be helpful, maybe one day I’ll get around to it.

Time to stretch! Sorry there aren’t any action shots here since I couldn’t stretch and take pictures at the same time. I used my fingers with palms up and worked hand over hand to stretch the dough out from the center. It helps to have one hand in the center while the other one gently (gently!) stretches out from the center. You can see in this photo that you can start to see the pattern from the sheet through the dough.

I was able to get it to stretch fairly thin, about tissue paper thin. The edges will be thick but that gets cut off and you end up with this. MIL said this is usually fried in oil then dusted with cinnamon and sugar. I didn’t do it but will try it in a future strudel.

Once the dough is stretched, grab the warm melted Crisco/butter mix and liberally drizzle it all over the dough. I used a silicone brush and gently brushed out the butter, taking care not to tear the dough.

Now for filling. I added the filling along a long edge about 3 inches from the edge. But first, I sprinkled bread crumbs, about 3-4 inches wide. Then the apple filling on top. I then folded over the edge to cover the filling.

Time to roll! I undid all the clips, grabbed the sheet by the ends and gently lifted so that the strudel starts to roll. I trimmed the sides a bit since there were so much dough. I trimmed it to about 2″ overhang and then folded that into cover the sides (keeps the filling in). Pull the sheet towards you so that the strudel doesn’t go flying off the other other end of the table! I tried to keep the bulk of the strudel in the center of the table.

Rolling, rolling, rolling. Keep that strudel rolling!  Once you get to the end, roll the strudel seam-side down. Have your sheet pan handy here. Also make sure it’s brushed with the Crisco/butter mix. I used parchment paper and then brushed the top.

Carefully lift the strudel into the pan. Bend it so that it fits in the pan.

Now again liberally, and I mean liberally, brush the top with the melted butter mixture. All shiny.

Now here’s where you’ll need to decide what you would like to do. Gram always made the strudels up to this point and then refrigerated until the next day before baking. The first test I did, I did not do this. It turned out good but it wasn’t as flaky as I had expected. The second ones I made, I did let it sit overnight and what a difference it made in the flakiness of the dough. Granted I thought the dough was better the second time but I think leaving it in the fridge was the key to the flakiness. The melted Crisco and butter had time to re-solidify, similar to a pie crust that’s been rolled and then refrigerated before baking. The solidified fat creates air pockets and flakiness!

As far as baking temp and time, what worked best was using the convection baking setting, preheat at 425 degrees F. Bake for 10 minutes then lower the temperature to 400 degrees F and bake for another 20-25 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Oops, forgot to take a photo before we started to cut up the strudel. That’s powdered sugar on top cuz that’s the way Gram did it! Yum yum yum!

Here is the second test apple strudel I made a week later. I also made a cheese strudel the same day but I’ll save that post for another day since this is a rather long post already.

For those eagle eyes, I used a silicone baking sheet the second time. I didn’t notice a difference on the bottom of the strudel so your choice.

So what was the verdict you ask? The Mister said it was exactly the way he remembered it. MIL said the dough was spot on although. The dough needed a few more layers so that led to an increase in dough ingredients in the final recipe. Verdict on the second one? I got a gold star from MIL since it was right on the money and now we can all enjoy Gram’s apple strudel.

So how would I rate this whole process? In all honesty, I didn’t think it was as daunting as it all had seemed. Sure I had to learn some new techniques but really once I got down to it, learning curve wasn’t that steep. I got pretty good at stretching the dough by the second time that I was even able to get it thinner than the first one. Certainly a bit more work than making pie but both MIL and the Mister would much rather have apple strudel than apple pie. I think I might actually prefer the strudel over pie too. Certainly addictive.

Hope everyone has begun thinking about Thanksgiving, just around the corner!

Apple Strudel

 

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Ingredients

Strudel Dough (for 1 strudel)

• ½ stick unsalted butter, melted
• Water, enough to make 1 C liquid when added to the melted butter
• ¾ tsp apple cider vinegar
• 2¼ C all purpose flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar

Apple Filling (for 1 strudel)

• 5 cups (~2 lb) apples, peeled, cored, cut into ½-inch cubes
• ¾ C sugar
• ¼ C fine bread crumbs
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon

Crisco/Butter Wash

• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 Tbsp Crisco

Directions

1. In a food processor using the metal blade, add dry ingredients and pulse several times to blend. Add vinegar to butter-water mixture and stir to combine. While the food processor is running, slowly add liquid. Run until dough forms a ball.
2. On lightly floured surface, knead dough 10 times then beat dough with a rolling pin for 10 times. Alternate between kneading and pounding for 15 minutes. Dough will become bumpy (bubbly) on the surface and soft.
3. Rest dough in a well-oiled bowl, making sure to turn cover entire dough with oil. Let rest in a warm area for at least 2 hours.
4. Dough will be supple and smooth at the end of rest period. Dough should stretch easily when slightly pulled.
5. While dough is resting, prep work area and prepare filling.
6. About 30 minutes towards the end of rest, mix all apple filling ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
7. In a small saucepan on low heat, melt 3 tablespoons each of unsalted butter and Crisco together. Keep warm until needed.
8. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F on convection baking setting. If oven does not have convection, use same temperatures but will just need to bake a little longer and will need to rotate pan half way through baking.
9. Cover work table with a clean tablecloth or bed sheet. Lightly dust sheet with flour. Put dough in the center of the table. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough as long and narrow as possible. Brush the top of dough with melted Crisco/butter mixture.
10. Using tips of fingers, gently stretch dough from the center and out. Go around the dough stretching until it becomes tissue thin. Cut or tear away the thicker edges around the stretched dough.
11. Drizzle and brush the top of the stretched dough with melted Crisco/butter mixture, taking care not to tear the dough.
12. Along a long edge of stretched dough 4 inches from the edge, sprinkle bread crumbs about 3-4 inches wide.
13. Drain excess liquid from apple filling. Spread filling on top of bread crumbs.
14. Fold dough edge over to cover filling. Fold the short side edges over to cover the ends. Lift the sheet slowly to gently roll the strudel.
15. Grease a sheet pan with Crisco/butter mixture. If using parchment paper or silicone baking mat, grease the top of sheet/mat. Lift strudel into pan, making an “S” shape to fit. Generously brush the top and side of strudel with Crisco/butter mixture.
16. Bake at 425 degrees F for 10 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 400 degrees F. If using convection baking, bake for another 20 minutes. If using standard baking, bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the strudel is golden brown.
17. Cool a bit before serving. Best served warm.
18. Reheat in oven at 325 degrees F for about 7-9 minutes to crisp up dough.

3.1.01

A couple of weeks back, I met up with Canine Cologne of Pink Candles at Ridgemont High and Cathy of mmm-yoso for some lunch and dessert. This is what I like to call the Triple C luncheon (me, Cathy, CC, get it?) Hmm, wait, maybe that really should be the quadruple C since Canine Cologne is really 2 C’s but Triple C rolls off the tongue better. Anyway…

We headed out to Miramar Fish Market (in Chula Vista) for lunch.  CC’s already posted a nice write-up (read it here) so I’m just going to let the pictures do most of the talking here. Here’s the menu board as you walk into the restaurant. The seafood case is to the right in case you rather take some home and cook them yourself.

Some crappy shots of the menu. You can see a better version here.

Compliments of the house: seafood consume (delicious!), chips and a variety of salsas and condiments

Seafood coctel (delicious! and what I was craving for).

And the main dishes (left to right): Culichis (shrimp in cheese and poblano sauce) and Filete Relleno de Mariscos (stuffed fillet).

Here’s a shot of the whole meal.

I really enjoyed all of the dishes with the stuffed fillet being my favorite. It kind of reminded me a bit of the frozen stuffed sole I used to get from Omaha Steaks. But this is way better than that. I was completely stuffed after this but it didn’t stop me from getting some dessert at Sweet Sisters Bakery and drinks at D’Volada.  I seemed to have misplaced the pictures I took but not to worry, CC has is covered in her post here. I was also able to get my chamango fix, hehe.  I wish I knew of a place north of 52 that had chamango. Or perhaps it’s a good thing I don’t know of one considering my obsession with them.

As always, I love my luncheons with my gal peeps. Always a good time, good friends and good eats. Dang, I’m craving those seafood dishes now.

After our lunch at Fred’s Mexican Cafe, we took a pleasant walk further down San Diego Avenue to our dessert destination. Korky’s is on the outskirt of all the major stores and restaurants on San Diego Ave. Since we were full from lunch, the little walk was a nice welcome as were the little breezes that cooled us off for fleeting moments since the sun was in full blast overhead. We checked out all the restaurants along the way but none that I saw to make a mental note of.

Korky’s is a small place separated into two areas, the ice cream and ordering side, and another side for those who want to sit for coffee and such. An assortment of cards and postcards in case you need to pick one up while here.

Don’t expect fancy ice creams made in house at Korky’s. Just standard Dreyer’s Ice Cream, which was perfectly acceptable for us on this day. The prices are kind of steep but we are in Old Town. The Mister got a scoop of Vanilla (his favorite) in a cup. Sorry no picture but then how wowing could a picture of a scoop of vanilla ice cream be. I went with a scoop of Butter Pecan on a regular cone. Always a good choice.

We sat outside on one of the tables under the shade of a tree enjoying our ice cream. Sine we were kind of off the beaten path, there wasn’t too much foot traffic passing by. It was a very nice way to end our lunch date.

Korky’s Ice Cream and Coffee
2371 San Diego Ave
San Diego, CA 92103

I’ve been looking forward to this lunch since it isn’t often we get to meet up for lunch during the work week. We got seated right away and since it was a typical beautiful summer day in San Diego, we decided to sit outside but in a shaded area since it was already warming up. While we were looking over the menu, our waitress came over to take our drink order. Soon after, a basket of chips and salsa arrived. The Mister always chuckles when these arrive because I get a little giddy since I love chips and salsa.

Let’s take a look at the menu.

Dang, so much to choose from. I asked the Mister for some recommendations. He said he always gets the same thing so he could only comment on those. Can’t fault him since I have a tendency to do the same. His go-to is #7 Three Amigos.

I wasn’t in the mood for chicken but was interested in the pescado taco. So after looking through some more, I found this, #13 Pescado Trio. Perfect! I was in the mood for seafood and this gave me a good sample.

As with many Mexican restaurants in San Diego, food came out fairly quickly. Let’s take a look at the Three Amigos. Starting from the top: Pescado, carne asada, chicken. Rice and beans on the side and the Mister added some guacamole.

Here’s my Pescado Trio, starting from the top: shrimp, calamari, pescado. Also rice and beans on the side with an addition of guacamole. I mainly wanted the guac for the chips.

I enjoyed the pescado and shrimp tacos but the calamari taco was way too fishy for my liking. The calamari was very chewy and tough. I’m not sure what kind of fish was used in the pescado taco. So I think next time I’m going to try the fish taco and shrimp enchilada combo.

Even though the meal was very filling and left us pretty satisfied, the Mister was in the mood for some ice cream.

Next up, Korky’s Ice Cream and Coffee.

Fred’s Mexican Cafe
470 San Diego Ave.
San Diego, CA 92110

Before the Mister left for his 2+ weeks trip to South Korea, I made a promise to make tiramisu for his belated birthday when he got back. (At least this year he wasn’t gone for our anniversary.) I have a couple of recipes for tiramisu but none for lady fingers. I remember reading about homemade ladyfingers a couple of years ago on Delicious Days and how “easy” it  was to make. At least that’s what my memory told me. So when he got back, I gotta crackin’! Eggs, that is.

The tiramisu uses raw egg yolks, fair warning. I use farm fresh eggs when using them raw and have never had any problems. But I know there are people who are concerned about using raw eggs so I’ll go over on how to pasteurize the outside of eggs. Salmonella is usually found on the outside shell of the egg so pasteurizing the outside would kill off any yuckies. Pasteurizing is easy with a kitchen thermometer. Put room temperature eggs in a pot, fill with cold water, set it over medium heat to start, stick on the thermometer. Make sure none of the shells of the raw eggs are cracked, btw. As the temperature reaches about 130 degrees F, turn the heat down. Target water temp is between 140-145 degrees F.  Apparently it’s okay for the temp to go up as high as 150 but I try not to go over 145 since egg whites have a tendency to turn whitish after that. Low heat on my stove is where I need it to keep it at 140′ish. I like starting at medium heat since it heats up a bit faster. Just keep an eye out on the temp gauge. Once the water reaches 140, keep the eggs in the water for 4 minutes. This will be enough time to kill off bacteria but not enough to cook the egg. If a bit of white turns a bit white, it should be fine to use. Oh yeah, I only pasteurized enough eggs for the mascarpone filling.

I followed Nicky’s recipes for the ladyfingers and tiramisu. She swore that is “the” tiramisu recipe and after making it, I’d have to agree. The only thing I wasn’t sure about was what size dish to layer my tiramisu. Nicky used a glass so I was guessing the first go-around. I chose a square 9×9 inch dish. Turned out to be the perfect size. The ladyfingers recipe gave me just enough for two layers.

Speaking of mascarpone, I’ve made this a couple of times, one using regular and another using espresso-flavored mascarpone. Why? Espresso-flavored was the only thing Sprouts had and I just didn’t feel like driving to another market. It wasn’t very strong in coffee flavor but definitely was there. I don’t really like alcohol flavored tiramisu or ones that make me feel like I’m eating a cup of espresso (aka, too heavy on the coffee flavor). But the flavored mascarpone didn’t overpower the filling and we enjoyed it so much that I added a tablespoon of the very very strong coffee (Italian brew) that I used for the “regular” flavored filling. In comparison, it tasted almost the same. Oh yeah, I should mention that if you’re tempted to use the espresso-flavored mascarpone, you’ll end up paying almost double.

So now let’s talk about the ladyfingers.

If you’ve made meringue or beaten egg whites to stiff peaks, this will be easy peasy. The only problem I had was beating the egg yolks in my Kitchenaid stand mixer since much of the egg yolks hung out at the very bottom just slightly out of reach of the beater. I had to manually lift the bowl to get the yolks closer (I have an up-down model, btw). Second go-around I used my Bosch mixer, which did a much better job. For egg whites, I typically prefer to use my hand mixer since I feel I have better control and the whites whips up better.

For piping the fingers, I used a disposable pastry bag but you can always use a plastic zip bag since you won’t need a tip for this. I snipped the end of the bag to about an inch wide, maybe just a bit less. I piped out about 3-inches in length since I thought it would give me 3 columns of lady fingers. But just because they say it’s a 9×9 inch pan does not mean the inside of the pan is exactly 9×9, and I completely forgot that the lady fingers expand when baked. Oops. But no problem since I had a few thinner and shorter ones which worked great in filling in the gaps.

Here they are, resting, cooling, waiting for their soak in a coffee-bath. I’ve baked these on parchment and on silicone baking pad and I prefer the latter. I also found that it was easier to remove them after letting them cool for a few minute on the baking sheet. They have a tendency to stick a bit on the bottom but for the most part, they should come off fairly easily with an off-set spatula. Aren’t those little sandwiches cute?

Here’s the assembled product.

Alright Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up!

I cut these so it served 9. And if you’re counting, that means one of us (ME!) had an extra serving. If you’re thinking that this takes a lot of time, well, it’s about the same amount of time as it takes me to make a batch of red velvet cupcakes. Might even be a little less. So don’t be shy, give it a try. (ooo, I made it rhyme!)  Have a beautiful weekend!

Adapted from Delicious Days

Ladyfingers

Ingredients:

• 3 large eggs, separate yolks from whites
• 90 g white sugar, divided
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 60 g all-purpose flour
• ~2 tbsp confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 390 °F (200°C). Line two baking trays with parchment paper or silicone pads.

Beat the egg yolks with half of the sugar (45 g) until creamy and pale (~4 minutes on medium to high speed with a KitcheAid). Mix in the vanilla extract and combine well.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the remaining sugar (45 g) by the tablespoons and continue to beat until the egg whites look glossy and form stiff peaks.

Sieve the flour into the bowl containing the creamy egg yolks and fold it in with a rubber spatula. The egg mixture with the flour will be a bit stiff.

Carefully fold in the whipped egg whites, making sure not to over-mix the batter. I add about 1/4 of the egg white to the egg yolk mixture to start, mixing it in so the batter was easier to work with. Then I added the remaining egg white in 2 additions.

Fill the batter into a piping bag, snip off the end and pipe the batter into ladyfinger shapes, 3-4 inches long, leaving enough space between them (about an inch) as they expand during baking. Generously dust with confectioners’ sugar. Bake at middle level until they just start to reach a slight golden color, around 12-14 minutes. Rotate pan half way through. Remove from oven and let cool for a couple of minutes in the pan.

Carefully pull the parchment paper from the baking tray and remove the ladyfingers from the parchment paper. An off-set spatula works well here. They keep in an airtight container (divided by parchment or waxed paper) for a couple of days, but are best consumed freshly baked.

Tiramisu

Ingredients:

• 5 (large) egg yolks
• 130 g sugar
• 1 tbsp hot water
• 16 oz mascarpone cheese
• 15-20 lady/sponge fingers
• 8- 10 oz (or about a cup) cold coffee/espresso
• 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions:

Put the egg yolks, sugar and hot water in a bowl of electric mixer and beat well for at least 5 minutes. The mixture should change its color from yellow to very light yellow, almost white and its texture should be both creamy, yet quite stiff. Add the mascarpone and beat again until the mixture has a consistent look. Mix in 1-2 tablespoon of cold coffee (or 1 tablespoon espresso) if you like more of a coffee flavor, but it’s purely optional.

Fill a form or glass with some of the mixture, just enough to cover the bottom. Pour the cold coffee in a flat bowl and soak the ladyfingers for some seconds, then arrange them on the mascarpone-egg mixture. For juicy ladyfingers, soak for a little longer but be careful not to soak too long or else the lady fingers will start to fall apart. I just roll the lady fingers once on each side. It does soak up the coffee pretty fast. Add another layer of the mixture, again soaked ladyfingers, end with a layer of the mascarpone-egg mixture and dust with lots of unsweetened cocoa powder. Chill for at least four hours.

Note: Nicky recommends not keeping chilled leftovers for longer than 24 hours, just a precaution because of the uncooked eggs. I’ve kept the first batch for 2 days with no problem but you make the call.

Well first off let me, once again, apologize for such a crappy picture. You see, this dish is so delicious that it’s hard to get a picture since plates get snatched out of my hands while I’m serving it. This a quick photo shot that just doesn’t do this dish justice. But trust me, this is one of those wonderful comfort foods, especially if you like chicken.

The recipe is adapted from Emeril’s recipe for Braised Chicken Thighs. I’ve changed a few things to accommodate my own taste but I’ve linked it back to the original recipe for reference. One of the biggest change is switching  chopped fresh rosemary to rosemary powder. I’m not a huge fan of rosemary since I find it overpowering in many dishes and I hate the texture of it when eating, chopped or not. What I like to do is grind dried rosemary into a powder and use it that way. Not only do I get the rosemary fragrance and flavor, I also don’t have to worry about little pieces of rosemary shards in the back of my throat (hwack!). I’m sure some of you know what I mean. I use a mortar and pestle to grind the dried rosemary in batches to keep on hand as substitution for rosemary leaves. This is especially nice for recipes that call for rosemary in rubs.

The other modification was adding white wine. I felt the wine added a bit more depth and flavor to the sauce and to the chicken. The recipe calls for thighs but I like using whatever chicken pieces on hand. For this particular meal, I had all parts, including breasts. The sauce is one of those that’s delicious to mop up with whatever your serving it over. We particularly like it with steamed (or baked) sweet potatoes. You could serve it over mashed sweet potatoes but I like the meatiness of a whole sweet potato in this case.

Fall is just around the corner, although you’d never know it in San Diego. And this is a wonderful dish to prepare for the upcoming milder (hopefully) temperatures. Hope everyone is having a good week!

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 chicken thighs
1 tablespoon Essence (recipe here)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
16 ounces button mushrooms, thinly sliced (about a 1/4″ thick)
1 cup sliced yellow onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups chicken stock, low sodium preferred
1/2 cup white wine
1 teaspoon rosemary powder
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped (or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves (optional)

Directions:
Set a large saute pan or dutch oven over medium-high heat and add the oil. Season the chicken thighs with the Essence, salt and pepper. Place the chicken, skin side down in the pan and sear until golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes. Turn the chicken over and sear on the second side for another 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.

Add the butter and mushrooms. Saute the mushrooms, stirring occasionally, until browned and most of the liquid has evaporated, about 4 to 5 minutes.

Add the onions and garlic to the pan and saute for 3 to 4 minutes.

Sprinkle the flour into the pan and cook, stirring often to make a light brown roux, about 4 to 5 minutes.

Add wine, bring to boil and cook for 2 minutes.

Add the tomato paste, stock, thyme and rosemary to the pan, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Return the chicken to the pan, skin side down. Cover pan and cook the chicken for 30 minutes. Turn the chicken over and cook until the meat is very tender, about another 20-30 minutes. Serve the chicken over rice, sweet potato, mashed potato, or rice. Garnish with the chopped parsley.

Since it was such a nice night out, we decided to sit outside on the patio. Here’s a shot from out table looking into the restaurant.

The menu for the evening.

Our server brought out this marble cooling thingy. It was for the water bottle filled with Dana Point’s finest tap. I liked this since it kept the bottle cool.

The Mister and SIL got a bottle of wine but I forgot to take a picture of it and can’t remember what they had. I think it was a Pinot Noir. Since I wasn’t driving, I decided to try one of their cocktails. I chose the Bistro Lemonade because it sounded good, like a take on a mojito.

Looks refreshing right? But what a huge disappointment. It neither had a lemonade taste nor of Blue Ice Vodka. As a matter of fact, it tasted like water with a hint of lemon in it. The little floaty pieces of mint was annoying too and didn’t add any mint flavor to it. If I didn’t know better, I could of sworn this was from the tap water bottle with a squeeze of lemon in it. Boo.

The lighting outside made it difficult to get decent food shots. Quite frankly, I can’t remember what any of us order because the dishes were that memorable. This was the Crispy Greens pizza that SIL ordered. She’s had it before. Had a bite of it and it was decent. No meat, just Brussel Sprouts, Asparagus, Sundried Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Manchego Cheese & Balsamic Reduction. I couldn’t really taste the brussel sprouts.

The Mister went with the Bourbon Street Flat Iron.  The butternut squash puree was okay but for me, it needed just a bit more seasoning to it. The Mister enjoyed the flat iron steak.

This was my Jalapeno Lobster Penne. Sounded way better than it tasted and the least favorite dish of the night. It was just so-so. Didn’t have a whole lot of lobster although the sun dried tomato gave the dish a good flavor.

As we were enjoying each others’ company and talking about the day, SIL mentioned that this restaurant used to be the Chum Fish Bucket. You can still see the residue of the old restaurant above the patio.

We ordered some coffee and decided to share a dessert. I chose the Creme Brulee but this rendition was not the best we’ve had. Not the worst though.

Overall an okay dinner at a local restaurant that seems to have quite a bit of regulars that night. Would I come back? Only if the SIL was paying.

Wine Bistro
34091 La Plaza
Dana Point CA