Irish Oats

Steel-cut Irish oatmeal is something that I have put off sampling, much like I've put off eggplant, real popcorn, and garden-picked tomatoes. Though as a fan of regular oatmeal (rolled oats), I am pleased to announce that steel-cut oats are one more step up from that! They are oatier, sweeter, and have more pleasant chewy texture than even a good bowl of rolled oats. Go, Ireland! Good food really does take a little longer to prepare.

Though the rice cooker did an admirable job. Maybe less water next time - always less water when using a rice cooker.

Oats!!!

I used some organic supermarket steel-cut oats for my breakfast, so maybe the organic has something to do with the sweet, sweet oatiness of it all. Great breakfast for today's snow storm, btw. It's all proper and Irish with milk, syrup (maybe should have been brown sugar), and milky black tea as my beverage.

Chicken Digits

I split a cafeteria order with my coworker, C. Hot out of the deep-fryer, so crisp! That cafeteria can't make a chicken sandwich, but they can make fine chicken fingers to order. It was an unctuous and unexpected carnivorous treat.

Homemade Chocolate Confectionery

JB's lactose-intolerant father needed some birthday treats, and there just happened to be a vegan truffle recipe in a recent issue of Vegetarian Times. And also a dark chocolate mendiant cup recipe in Bon Appetit. Who could resist? Time for a chocolate sampler, tout de suite!

The vegan chocolate truffles were wildly simple: melt 8 ounces of fine bittersweet chocolate with whatever flavors you prefer, add about 1/4 cup chocolate soymilk, and chill until semi-solid. Then use a teaspoon and your warm hands to measure out and mold small truffles, which you can then roll through a plate of cocoa powder or powdered sugar. I think crushed cacao nibs would also have been tasty. In this case, there was much 70% cacao mint-flavored chocolate on hand, and thus the truffles were quite cooling on the hands! Like using Dr. Bronner's soap a little too strong. Dubious-though-tasty truffles:


The mendiant cups - mendiant is a mixture of dried fruits, citrus peels, and nuts somehow combined with chocolate - were also quite easy. If you've got some paper muffin cups laying around, you're pretty much set. We went for dried figs, crystallized ginger slices, slivered toasted almonds, and orange zest as the flavorings for this mendiant. But you could use any tasty combination - sky's the limit. I sliced the ginger and figs thin, toasted the almonds in the microwave (yes indeed!), and grated some orange peel. Then I juiced the orange and combined the juice with orange peel, some sugar to taste, and 2 heaping tablespoons honey. Throw the figs and ginger into the heating syrup, and cook on medium-high until the figs and ginger look a little translucent, and well-coated. Turn off heat, add the nuts, and mix well. Thanks, Bon Appetit!


Then you melt your chocolate - 12 ounces of bittersweet, in this case - in the microwave or over a low flame. Then pour heaping teaspoons of melted chocolate into your muffin cups (arranged on a cookie sheet with raised sides). Arrange pretty dollops of the ginger/fig/almond mixture on top of the chocolate cups, and you have some delicious dark chocolate confections. I love them so much, I might make them again. Chocolaterie, anyone? All I need is a few good investors.

Bi-Bim-Boppery: Review of Village Sushi & Grill

It could also be spelled Bibimbap, of course. It's a South Korean dish, and the translation goes something like "stirred rice". Dolsot Bibimbap is the toothsome "stone pot stirred rice," meaning you eat from a sizzling stone bowl that turns some of your rice into fragments of crisp golden joy.

JB and I went out for some bibimbop on yet another remarkably cold day of this winter. Sizzling stone bowl full of vittles = ultimate warming winter dinner! Steamed spinach, shredded carrots, shredded daikon, chewy slices of shitake mushroom, some tofu cubes, and a fried egg sat prettily atop a bowl of warm rice. We had some Korean barbecue sauce as a condiment, but I prefer my bowl unadorned.

See, they coat the bowl with sesame oil to perfectly crisp the rice. Wikipedia told me, and I am kinda excited to try bibimbap at home with a cast-iron pan and a sesame oil paint brush.

I should have taken a picture of my beautiful bowl of hot sizzling delish, but I was too hungry. Wikipedia provided a fine picture of Dolsot Bibimbap, though.

Soon I'll attempt this dish at home, with spinach, tofu, shitake mushrooms, sticky rice, and perhaps even a fried egg on top.

"Nut Clusters" Sound Dirty

Well, I finally got to try some of these attractively-packaged True North nut clusters. In this case, Pecan Almond Peanut clusters with a little brown rice syrup for sweetness. These do not have a long ingredient list, and they do not contain anything notably bad for you. (These days, even the fatty peanut has benevolent qualities. There's about 120% of your Daily Fat intake in one bag of these suckers.) I'm talking sea salt, brown rice syrup, organic sugar, and the nuts. All this from what company? Oh, Frito-Lay. SURPRISE. Next, Coca-Cola will start selling French alpine spring water, and Nabisco will start selling fresh fruit.

These bites remind me of Mojo bars, only without the chocolate and pretzels. I like the simplicity and straightforward slightly sweet crunch of these clusters, though. I'm sure it won't be long until True North adds a cacao nib option or something.

Anyway, a nice snack for the train. Not low in fat, but low in artificial additives and chemicals. Some protein, some fiber, some minerals. Heck. And did I mention the packaging is way too attractive? Someone at Frito-Lay is working hard to get my attention.

Low Fat Ice Cream Novelties

Yes, these contain corn syrup. But not high fructose corn syrup! Mostly benign ingredients - mostly - and these Breyer bars taste great. Excellent mouthfeel, nice crunch from the chopped almonds, and a satisfying melt from the mock-olate. Low fat, oh yes. I am into the double-churn effect: yes, whip more air into the ice cream! Make it fluffy, lessen the caloric impact, and make it look pretty, all in one feel swoop. Genius, why weren't we doing this before?! Brilliant.

Also tried Skinny Cow chocolate cones, but was not as impressed. The Breyers Vanilla-Almond bar really kicks ass, IMHO.

Before Stomach Flu Struck!

A lovely place setting (accented by a bowlful of Florida Honey Bell tangelos), a bleu cheese gratin for four hungry persons, stellar blanched green beans with kumquat butter (sheer genius), tofu steaks with a rich mushroom-sage-cream gravy, sauteed chopped collards with sesame oil and soy sauce and fresh minced ginger...finished with my chocolate "rabbit droppings" cake filled with Nutella and frosted with a delectable mocha cream cheese frosting.

All accompanied by the girlfriend's excellent scotch sours. But it was not meant to be! For lo, an hour before the dinner, the girlfriend developed symptoms of stomach flu. I ate the food and was not sick, so it certainly was not the food - but a stomach bug! (Alas, she is still weak, and after two days of recovery, she is now able to take fruit, and tofu on toast.) Perhaps someday we will have a re-do, sans viral party crashers.

The frosting was the best part about the cake - I think next time, a dark chocolate sponge cake, or an exceptionally moist chocolate cake, would suit very well.

Drugstore Rice Cracker

Who knew that CVS would carry a $1.99 bag of pretty decent Japanese snack mix masquerading as "Asian Blend Trail Mix"? Almonds and cashews and spicy peanuts, plus multiple incarnations of rice crackers with seaweed, sesame tidbits, hot wasabi peas, and chili crescents. I'm kinda impressed. Maybe I only think it's good because I'm starving? No high fructose corn syrup or anything really bad for you, except for food dyes. Not too shabby for a drugstore snack mix. Would make a fine cinema snack - though perhaps too crunchy to eat during quiet dialogue - and great party mix.

Dramatically Lit Chocolate Bundt

This is a cake made by a friend, whose father combines chocolate, bourbon, and espresso for his holiday baking opus. Dense and dark. Ice cream adds some moisture and textural contrast. In fact, if one was going to make a buche de noel with ice cream, one might choose this recipe to pair with a good vanilla. Oo!

Sad Sandwich

It's sad when you're very hungry - peckish, even - and trying to make yourself some food. And the food is recalcitrant. And it could not possibly be because you, the cook, are impatient or inept or irritable when your blood glucose is low. No way.

My attempt at grilled cheese with tomato slices required the oven fan to be turned on. My bread was greasy and instantly soaked up all the olive oil in the pan, creating a smoking/charred bread problem. My tomato was not ideal, though not detestable. And my cheddar cheese broke down into a greasy, lumpy layer within the bread.

Better to use a more elastic, forgiving cheese in the future. Thinner slices of tomato. And butter or nonstick spray instead of olive oil. Any bread would do, though having it be frozen was probably not helpful.

Ah, well.

Review of Myers & Chang, nouvelle dimsum

Somewhere in Boston's South End, Myers & Chang is the hipster take on dimsum and pan-Asian food. Don't expect a vast white plate with drizzles of sauce and a pile of microgreens. You'll get small plates, with small tastes; the idea is that you order multiple small plates and share with your group. You'll have a choice of cheap steel cutlery, disposable wooden chopsticks, or plastic chopsticks, all loaded in colorful lychee or coconut milk canisters on each table. Placemats are sheets of Chinese newspapers cut to size. Chairs are surprisingly comfortable - cushy white pleather, perhaps?

Myers & Chang offer many alternative menus for the dietarily restricted crowd: vegetarian, vegan, shellfish-free, nut-free, gluten-free, or any combination of these. There are also various "Cheap Date" bargain tasting menus for all sorts:

The Hot Date-
Green Papaya Salad
Mu La Lat Lettuce Wraps
M+C Fried Chicken
Bok Choy and rice

The Healthy Date-
Thai Ginger Chicken Noodle Salad
Lemony Shrimp Dumplings
Green Papaya Salad
Crispy Tofu Steak w/Soba Noodles
Market Greens and rice
Pot of Green Tea

The Pig Out Date-
Pork Belly Buns
Chive and Chinese Sausage Pancake
Tea Smoked Spare Ribs
Pork Stirfry
Gai Lan and rice

The Veggie Date-
Red Kuri Squash Soup
Crispy Spring Rolls
Edamame and Celery Slaw
Vegetarian Chow Fun
Market Greens and rice

(taken from the Myers & Chang restaurant blog, 1/14/09)

The restaurant is somewhat louder than might be desired, with music blaring throughout. But the food - the gf and I tried the Veggie Date - was excellent. Edamame and celery slaw was crisp and scented with sesame oil, rather rapturous. Vegetarian Chow Fun was delectably pan-fried, slightly charred tofu chunks and gailan "Chinese Broccoli" greens and all. Almost everything benefited from a toothsome carbonaceous-grilled flavor that I'll call "wokky".

I loved the Kuri squash soup with coconut milk and lemongrass. I loved the pork buns with their fluffy squishy exteriors and amazing house-made pink root vegetable pickles...though the actual pork belly was too gelatinous/fatty for my leaner tastes. I enjoyed the hot and sour soup ordered by friends: thick with mushrooms and flavored with lemongrass, chili, and tiny pork meatballs. I feel tenderly towards the chive and shitake pan-seared dumplings with their crispy exteriors and juicy contents.

O, memories, how you provoke salivation. Even the leftovers did not disappoint me, so if you've got some money to spend - or a friend to share a "Cheap Date" menu - and you don't mind the loud music, Myers & Chang may give you a thrill or three.

Anxiety Baking, Entry 2

Prepped and roasted veggies at a frenetic pace, as a way to relax, i.e. not think about my work email Inbox. Rubbed two glass casserole pans with olive oil, then quartered a beautiful fennel bulb and three lovely red bell peppers. Added thickly-sliced portabella mushrooms, and fat tomatoes halved and sprinkled with fresh parmesan. (Save for the fennel bulb, everything came from the reduced produce rack at the grocery store - AWESOME!)

Incidentally, I feel the end of my hard Italian cheese kick drawing near. Emmenthaler or Gruyere are calling to me.

Roasted at 350° for perhaps forty minutes, until everything was cooked through. I really love mushrooms roasted or grilled - their exteriors dry out a bit and gain some resilience, while their interiors become tender and juicy. Because sometimes a cooked mushroom has a somewhat slimy aspect. Which I dislike. But the roasted or grilled mushroom loses moistures - loses sliminess - and also seems to concentrate its mushroom flavor. Yum!

Roasted tomatoes came out very well, and I'm excited to try them again this way. Peppers were pretty and yielded easily to my teeth. The fennel came out lovely and toothsome, and overall I couldn't be more pleased. Viva la roasting!

Also cooked some spinach and arugula with a dab of butter, some pepper, and a little water for steam. Very nice. The lunch I packed myself today kicks ass, and I salivate at the thought of it.

Review of Golden House, Chinese Take-Out

This is the Roslindale location at 4403 Washington street. Golden House is another hole-in-the-wall takeout place, but I am on a mission to find good Chinese food in Boston. Take-out and sit-down, respectively.

Golden House is relatively clean and was relatively busy, with a few other people making orders or waiting for their orders. The color display pictures of menu items looked bright and new. The menu is traditional: red and black text, pu-pu platter, chow mein, fried rice, moo shu, chow fun, and dishes categorized by the kind of animal protein involved. Happily the vegetarian section has some Kung Pao Tofu in addition to the usual choices of Broccoli in Garlic Sauce, Home Style Bean Curd, and Mixed Vegetables. There is also a vegetable/tofu option under Chow Fun (wide rice noodles), which sounds appetizing. I asked about an off-the-cuff version of Sesame Chicken using only tofu, but was met with disapproval and incredulity.

So I panicked and ordeedr General Tso's Chicken, because I've been reading about it forever in The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee. So there.

1. Vegetable and Tofu Chow Fun: onions (too bad), bean sprouts, water chestnuts, broccoli, mushrooms, crispy-yet-tender golden tofu chunks, and toothsome pan-fried wide rice noodles. A solid menu option, tasty but not staggering.

2. Kung Pao Tofu: green pepper chunks, peanuts, chili peppers, and smoky crispy cubes of tofu. Excellent over rice, and very spicy, with a little of the smoky oily sweet sauce.

3. General Tso's Chicken: spicy, crunchy, gooey with sweet sauce. The chicken is supposed to sit on a bed of broccoli, but in this case there were two broccoli florets and a mountain of chicken in my "small" order. Bah! Over-fried, over-extended chicken hardly stood up under the crispy breading and gooey sauce. Interesting to sample, and very filling, but not something to order twice. Certainly it could be better at a different restaurant, but how often do you really need to eat deep-fried chicken thighs in a sweet oily sauce? Tasted a little too dead to me.

Verdict: YES to Chow Fun, YES to Kung Pao Tofu. NO to General Tso's Chicken. Overall, exciting due to spicy Kung Pao Tofu.

Hearty Breakfast for a Snowy Day

With some snowshoeing or jogging in the works, my breakfast consists of tidbits from my roast-fest, a dollop of fruit relish, and toad-in-the-hole. The latter is a piece of thick wheat bread with a hole cut out of the middle. This slice is toasted up in some olive oil - in a pan - while an egg is cracked into the hole. Then it's flipped, salted and peppered, and the cut-out piece is toasted right along with the egg-slice. An easy and entertaining weekend breakfast, more substantial than waffles, I say.

Leftovers went nicely with my toad. Spicy potato wedges, silky eggplant chunks, and some juicy-roasted mushrooms helped mop up the yolk and leftover shreds of pecorino cheese. Cold fruit relish made a piquant and refreshing finish.

Now I just wish I'd made some tea. I snarfed everything up before I remembered to take a picture.

Anxiety Baking, Entry 1

1. roasted eggplant and giant white mushrooms (in big fat cubes) tossed with balsamic vinegar, rosemary, olive oil, and chopped garlic

2. roasted red potatoes (in big fat cubes) with cayenne and olive oil

3. roasted acorn squash

4. chips made from Tuscan "dinosaur" kale leaves tossed with olive oil and salt, then baked crisp on cookie sheets.

5. minimalist pea soup: small peas (delicately thawed organic stuff) pureed with fresh watercress, sweet butter, and a skosh of cream.

6. seasonal fruit relish: fresh cranberries, fresh kumquats, gala apples, and walnuts processed with a little sugar until minced and scrumptious.

Today is the girlfriend's birthday. Feeling a little lonely without her. So I cook.

Birthday Confectionery: Devil's Dacquoise Torte of Sorts

After much obsessing, I decided to make a small-yet-tall frozen dacquoise/devil's food torte for my gf's birthday. This cake involves:

3 layers of almond dacquoise (chewy/crisp meringue with ground nuts)
2 two layers of devil's food cake
1 thick slathering of mocha whipped cream frosting
a little too much time and effort

But, it makes a pretty slice. And it has superb mouth-feel! And the gf enjoys meringue. I had a blast baking this mother.

I made the cake half the diameter of a regular nine-inch cake, while also making it taller. This wasn't so difficult with some math, a fortunately-sized bowl for cutting out the center of my 9-inch devil's food cake, and some tracing on parchment paper. My steel pizza plate worked well as a cake transportation-and-presentation platter.

The chewy dacquoise layers have a contrasting texture to the soft cake layers, and freezing the cake keeps it from mooshing out of shape when sliced. Freezing also keeps the whipped cream frosting looking pretty. If you like ice cream cake, this cake will satisfy you. Much of the recipe is based on the Frozen Almond Cappuccino Dacquoise recipe at epicurious.com.