Dinner party!

We hosted our friend Alex for dinner last night, and I adapted this week's Minimalist column for the main course.

Bittman's recipe intends to keep chicken moist while grilling it. I did mine in a skillet on the stove, and they weren't rolled nearly as neatly as Bittman's.

Still, they were tasty and super moist. I used more of a bulgogi (or, I suppose dak-kogi, chicken bulgogi) marinade than following Bittman's recipe. Equal parts sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice vinegar, plus a little squirt of sriracha rooster sauce.

I thought the chicken was maybe a bit too salty, but obviously, the boys disagreed. 

A sign of a successful meal:

Farmer's Market dinner

Wednesday I passed a farmers' market on my way home from an interview.

The sweet corn was really calling out to me, I stopped and picked up corn, radishes, bell peppers and new potatoes. Except for the potatoes, it all went toward a nice fresh, minimalist-style dinner.

Together it made a really nice spread, paired with fresh strawberries for dessert.

I made a compound butter with tarragon and basil from my herb plants, then piled the cucumbers from Jake's dad with radish slices on little multigrain rolls. Nice veggie sandwich!

The bell peppers were HUGE and nice thick pieces. They tasted awesome with the end of my homemade hummus.

Recreating Nicola's

This has quickly become one of our favorite dinners to throw together. 

Our new place doesn't have AC so on the really hot days, we'll just put together an anti-pasto/tapas type meal and snack on that for dinner. I used the lunch special from Nicola's (my fave lunch spot at my old DC office) as inspiration on the roasted eggplant and zucchini. You can't see it, but there's also a salad off to the side. 

Aside from that, we slice up some baguette, cheeses and salami and pepperoni. Nicola's usually had lovely swiss and Brie and fresh mozzarella with Serrano ham and prosciutto, but hey -- we didn't win the lottery when we moved here!

Up front, is my homemade hummus and some baba ghanoush (roasted eggplant dip). Is it superfluous to eat roasted egg plant with roasted eggplant dip? Probably.... but it tastes great!

Kitchenaid has arrived!

My life is complete. I officially own a stand mixer!! I hadn't expected to be investing in something this large so soon, but I had $40 in Amazon gift cards, it was on sale AND Kitchenaid is currently running a rebate promotion. It seemed too good of a deal to pass up.

Sadly, it's been HOT in St Paul this week, so I haven't gotten to use it yet!

It finally cooled off a little tonight, and I used some tomatoes from Jake's dad to make a great marinara sauce.

I also popped a batch of cheese and herb biscuits into the oven. They weren't a stand mixer project, but they are pretty damn tasty!

Generally, I followed the Amateur Gourmet recipe I've used in the past except for a few steps:
* I found I needed closer to 3 cups of flour. 2 cups gave me more of a thick pancake like batter.
* I added 1/3 c shredded gouda to the dough just before the buttermilk.
* Sprinkled the tops with chopped thyme and oregano from Jake's dad's garden. Also about 1 tsp kosher salt
* After the initial 5 min bake, I took them out, brushed them again with a little butter and sprinkled a little more gouda.

Weekend grilling

This weekend we took out the grill for the first time. It also marked the first weekend for great Minnesota sweet corn.

There were a bunch of posts on grilled corn last week, namely America's Test Kitchen and Mark Bittman's Minimalist column.

It was also just a good excuse for me to play around in the kitchen.

For instance, I made hummus. Tons of homemade hummus, with roasted garlic.

I also made baba ghanouj (top large bowl), also with roasted garlic, then made sriracha chili butter to go with the corn.

The grilled flatbread experiment probably could have gone better, but the parts that didn't char turned out awesome.

We still ate most of this anyway.

Midway through, the handle on the grill broke off, so we put Keith in charge of being the human grill handle.

Beautiful, sweet, smoky charred grilled corn. This was absolutely amazing.

There was also a big bowl of oven roasted egg plant and zucchini (the latter from Jake's dad's garden).

Today (Sunday) we had some friends over and I put together a fantastic spring roll bar, but failed to take any photographs of it.

Needless to say, the big pot of miso soup was beautiful, the glass noodles dressed with lime chili sauce were phenomenal, and the pile of shrimp with the three homemade sauces were all delightful.

In all, a pretty good weekend. Now I'm off to bake some buttermilk biscuits to bring to the bureau tomorrow.

New baby herb garden!

One of the most exciting things about our new place is the space I have to grow herbs! It's a bit late in the season, so my options were a little limited when I went to the nursery but I managed to get my hands on a beautiful tarragon plant and two rosemary plants (I killed my last round of rosemary, so hopefully this one goes better). I also bought two "live basil" plants at the grocery store and planted them together.

So far, they look healthy and are getting lots of sun. Anyone have tips for keeping tarragon and rosemary alive? I'm hoping to bring them all inside this fall and keep them alive under lamps - which I was able to do with my chives, basil and parsley in my last college apartment.

Can't wait to start cooking with these little guys!

First cooking in Minnesota

I cheated a little for this meal. Jake and I "borrowed" his parents' kitchen last weekend while we were waiting for our things to be delivered. Rainbow had a special on the "grill pack" of Italian sausages, so I had planned to make meat sauce.

While the meat sauce was simmering, I also decided to try my hand at foccacia bread. I didn't have an exact recipe to go off, but it turned out pretty well.

We didn't end up eating the sauce for a few days, so the flavors had extra time to soak together.

Italian sausage meat sauce (makes 2 batches)
2 28 oz cans diced tomatoes
8-12 Italian sausages, cut into 1 inch and 1/2 inch pieces
1 onion, diced
6 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced or minced
1 can tomato sauce
1/4 c olive oil
1/3 c red wine
2 pinches of sugar
1/2 tsp-1 tsp red chili flakes
salt and pepper, to taste
6-10 leaves fresh basil (chiffonade)

In a large skilled with high walls, brown sausage pieces with the olive oil. If you like a mix of spicy and sweet, toss half the pieces with 1 tsp red chili flakes and half with 2 tsp brown sugar before browning.

When sausages have browned, add onion and saute for 3 minutes. Stir in garlic and wine, and mix with browned bits in the pan. Saute another 2 minutes until wine reduces by half.

Add the red chili flakes, sugar and salt and pepper, then 2 cans of tomatoes. Increase heat and cook the tomatoes down, 5-10 minutes.

Stir in the tomato sauce, until thoroughly combined. Lower heat to a simmer, then cover for at least 30 minutes, up to 4 hours. (you can also transfer to a crock pot at this stage)

Sprinkle in the basil or parsley in the last 5 minutes of cooking.

Goodbye DC cupcakes

So we're finally moved into our new place and more or less settled in St. Paul.

I meant to post these before we moved, but never had the chance. The Monday of Fourth of July weekend, instead of packing up my belongings, I spent the day baking EIGHT dozen cupcakes - red velvet and mocha walnut. 

Luckily, I was able to drive to work, stacking these babies inside the cupcake holder. My co-workers managed to polish off the majority of them before the day was out. 

Pull-apart Herb and Cheddar Bread

So, for those who haven't heard by now, we're packing up our DC life in the next week or so and heading back to Minneapolis after the Fourth of July.

Yes, this is the umpteenth time I have moved in the past year. So a) yes, it means I get to start over in a new kitchen and b) the next 10 days are going to be some oddly cooking as I attempt to cook through the odds and ends I have left in the kitchen, to avoid throwing away most of the food.

First up (and an easy fix) is a loaf of bread to cut down on the big bag of bread flour I bought last weekend for the pork buns. I frequently just use all purpose flour for my bread (and have fine results) but didn't want to mess with the Momofuku recipe too much.

I found this recipe in one of my favorite baking books (one of those cheap ones I picked up on a bargain table) for pull-apart cheese and herbs bread.

Basically, you make a regular white bread dough (mine felt a little tough initially but I kept going with it anyway) and then roll 20 little discs about the size of your palm. Rub about a teaspoon of cheese and herbs mix into the center, then stack and repeat.

You turn the discs sideways and let them rise a second time in the loaf pan, and with any luck, they'll expand and fill your pan (mine did!) Brush with a little milk and sprinkle with kosher salt, and bake for just 30 minutes. I turned the heat down a little and added about 10 more minutes. When I pulled apart the first time, it seemed that the cheese and herbs had kept the very insides of the bread from baking all the way.

The result was a really nice late night snack (and really awesome left over for breakfast today). In the future, I would probably rub the edges of the discs with a little oil or melted butter. The crust from the milk and salt makes the edges harder to pull apart. But the bread turned out beautifully, and I would imagine, you could rub thin pats of butter between the layers and make pseudo-quick-croissants with the same method.

Recipe:
1 packet active yeast
1 TBS sugar
1/2 c warm water + 1 cup (divided)
4 c bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 TBS olive oil (for the dough)
1 TBS olive oil (for the cheese and herbs)
1/2 block of cheddar cheese (I used white extra sharp) shredded
2 TBS fresh or dried herbs
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
3 TBS milk (for glazing)
sprinkle of kosher salt

In a small bowl, whisk together yeast, sugar and 1/2 c warm water and allow to expand (10-15 mins). If your mixture does not foam and expand, the yeast is dead. Throw it out and start over.

Sift together flour and salt then make a well in the bowl. Drizzle in olive oil and yeast mixture then mix well to combine. Slowly add the remaining cup of water as needed until a ball of dough forms.

Turn out on a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth. Place in an oiled bowl and cover with a damp towel. Allow to rise 30-45 mins for rapid rise yeast, 45-1 hour for regular active.

Punch down and knead again briefly. Mix together herbs, cheese, pepper and oil.

Cut dough in half and cover one half. Roll into a log and make 10 balls from each half. Roll into discs, 3-4 inches in diameter. Fill each disc with about 1 tsp of cheese filling, brush edges with oil and stack another disc on top. As you go, press down in the middle, to flatten the stack and keep even.

Turn your stack sideways and place in a well oiled loaf pan. Cover and allow to rise another 20-30 minutes, or until the dough reaches the sides of the pan. Brush with milk and sprinkle with sea or kosher salt.

Bake 30 minutes at 400 degrees (rotate halfway through for even browning), then cover with foil, reduce heat to 325 and bake another 10 minutes. Turn out and cool slightly, but it's best eaten when still warm.

Homemade Momofuku steam buns - a success story!

That is correct, folks. You are looking at homemade goodness there. No 2-for-nine-bucks business here tonight.

I followed the recipe in the Momofuku cook book almost to a T and had very nearly perfect results. What they don't tell you? The pork is very salty, the homemade pickles are very salty and the hoisin is very salty. And when you combine all three, it can be a little overwhelming. Next time, I'll cut back on the salt rub and probably give the pickles a good rinse before serving.

Otherwise, I tip my hat to the great Chang on this one. The steam buns were perfect - light and fluffy. My friends were just eating them plain they were so tasty.

As it turns out, "dehydrated nonfat milk powder" is not a common ingredient in Korean cooking, and I couldn't find it easily at the HMart. I subbed equal parts non-dairy coffee cream powder (which is a little sweet) and took out 1 TBS of sugar from the dough recipe  and they were just fine!

Chang's recipe also does not come with instructions for if you do not have a dough hook and stand mixer. I just kneaded the dough very gently (since the dough hook instructions call for gentle and slow mixing) and had great results.

I also tucked a tiny rectangle of parchment into the fold of the steam buns to keep them from sticking. It worked really well. 10 mins in the steamer, and they were perfect!

I served them with a huge bowl of pineapple fried rice - so big a batch, it cracked my cheap $1 bowl from Target. Oh well... it was pretty for it's single use.

Dreaming? of leftover buns!! The recipe says it will make 50, but I ended up with 42. And after feeding 8 people, had 15 buns leftover.