Simple Soba Noodles with Sesame Five Spice Tuna

There are days when you are craving flavor but you are also craving something simple.  On these days I look straight to Japan.  A place that has perfected quick, simple, super flavorful dishes.  

Last night I decided to use japan as my inspiration for a simple meal.  

I wanted to bring together a few key flavors as separate items on a plate:  Dashi, Soy Sauce, Mirin, Sesame, and Five Spice.  I instantly knew what i wanted to do!

I wanted to make something with Soba Noodles!  Soba Noodles are served with a Soba Dipping Sauce called Tsuyu.   Tsuyu is made with Dashi, Soy Sauce, and Mirin.   Three of the flavors I craved.  For those of you that don't know what Soba Noodles are, they are a buckwheat based noodle that is served cold.  It can be served hot in soup as well but I love it cold.   One of my favorite things about Japan was getting good food fast in the train stations.    Soba noodles were a big part of that.   

I wanted a light protein that was prepared simply with the Soba Noodles and that is when I decided on tuna.   My plan was to get a nice few pieces of fresh tuna and season them with chinese five spice powder that my lil sister picked up for while travelling in Thailand.   I wanted to add a layer of sesame flavor so I whisked together a marinade from tamarin sesame dressing, olive oil and chinese five spice powder.  I quickly pan seared the tuna on each side and let it rest.

I paired all of this with a simple salad with mixed baby greens, chopped purple cabbage, and chopped white cabbage.  I lightly tossed it with some of the tamarin sesame dressing and dinner was ready.

I plated it on some beautiful long plates that I have in the house and I was ready to eat!    Everything was so fragrant and delicious.  A simple meal, very flavorful, and a taste of Japan.  YUM

Total prep and cook time: 15 mins.

Amount of Delicious: AWESOME

i <3 japan

Panko Crusted Fried Squash Blossoms with a Mustard Summer Salad

This morning I walked up to the Grand Army Plaza Farmers Market.   When I got there I saw a stand that was calling my name.   What you ask???  SQUASH BLOSSOMS!

These are such a pretty vegetable or flower or whatever they are.   They have the brightness of a squash and the hint of their flavor.  Their couldn't be a more perfect little blossom to cook with.

So what could I do with these squash blossoms and only one thing came to mind.  Stuff and Fry!  Stuff and Fry!

I decided to stuff them with an herb cheese.   I got two parts fresh ricota, one part tangy goat cheese and some farm fresh thai basil.   I dipped them in some milk then rolled em in flour.  I then dipped them in milk again and layered on some wonderful panko bread crumbs.  I fried em up in some vegetable oil and got them golden golden brown.   YUM

I picked up some mustard greens, fresh jersey tomatoes, and some fresh cucumber.   I whisked together some olive oil, dijon mustard, brown sugar, salt and pepper.   I tossed all the greens in dressing with the chopped up tomatoes and cucumber.

With did I get?  Sinfully fresh, summery delicious, nutritious and slightly bad while absolutely delicious lunch!  YAY!

Food pics below:

YUM YUM

Smoked Baby Back Ribs with Cornbread and Tangy Sweet Spinach

After a trip to the farmers market I had picked up some beautiful pork baby back ribs.  My plan was to smoke the ribs after giving them a nice rub.   Then make my own bbq sauce that had real depth of flavor.  I would make a sweet and tangy greens with spinach to bring something fun to the plate.   I would finish it off with a simple cornbread to wash it all down.

So first order of business was the BBQ sauce.  That was the part of this dish that would take as long as the ribs.   So I assembled a list of all star ingredients to really help me make a robust and flavorful BBQ sauce.    Here was my list:

Scallions
Leeks
Dried Thai Chilis
Dried New Mexican Chilis
Mushrooms
Chives
Thyme
Brown Sugar
Water
Cider Vinegar

I chopped it all up and threw it in a stock pot to boil it down and concentrate the flavor.  I then combined it together with ketchup, worcestershire, brown sugar, and honey.

I whisked it all together and cooked it down so I could develop a nice sauce with it.

Now cooking down and thickening it up is the most critical step to having a wonderful bbq sauce.   Here is a picture of the sauce cooking down into a sweet and sour delicious bbq sauce.

I them developed a rub to develop some nice flavor on the porky goodness while I smoked it.   So I combined together the following spices and seasoning:

Salt

Black Peppercorns

Brown Sugar

Garam Masala

Red Pepper Flakes

Paprika

I mashed them all up in my mortar and pestle.   I then rubbed it down all over my beautiful farm fresh pork baby back ribs.   

I then smoked the ribs for 4 hours with hickory wood chips.   I love hickory wood chips and how they make ribs taste.   They are one of my favorite chips to smoke with.  

I then boiled the spinach in a tiny bit of water with the drained vegetables from the bbq sauce stock.   I mixed it all together and added some honey to sweeten it up a bit.     I quickly baked up a nice batch of cornbread and voila.

Delicious

Brooklyn

Smoked

BBQ

YUM!

Lime Cilantro Skirt Steak with Beefy Polenta, Baby Bok Choy and a Blue Cheese Sauce

I was trying to determine what to cook at home tonight as I have been getting lazy with my cooking due to some increased need for focus at work.  Its always the day job that hinders my pursuit of being a chef! 

So I wanted to do something really BIG.  I mean something BIG in flavor that makes the eater giggle with levels of flavor as they work across their palette.  

I have been really craving some skirt steak lately as they are so very easy to make and so darn flavorful.   Skirt steak is one of those meats that you can flavor so amazingly as it is so thin and really takes on whatever you throw at it.  A wonderful steak to cook with!.  

I decided to flavor the skirt steak first by marinating it in a lime and olive oil marinade that I put a tiny bit of salt in to bind the flavors.   I let the meat sit for a little bit and really soak in that limey goodness.   I then made a quick rub by combining together 2 tea spoons of lime zest, about 25 pepper corns, salt and a handful of cilantro with a little bit of olive oil.   I combined it all together in a mortar and pestle to really get the flavors together. 

I wanted to serve it with something that was nice and silky so I landed on the idea of serving it with a nice bed of beef both based polenta.  Now polenta is made by adding in polenta mix with broth and some cheese.   The cheese is usually a parmesan cheese but I wanted to think of a cheese that is really more flavor that works with the beef.   I decided to replace the cheese with some heavy cream to bring in the creaminess the cheese work bring so I can find a more interesting way to use the cheese flavor.

What cheesy goodness goes well with beef?   hmmmmmm.......

As soon as I asked myself the heavens opened up and an heavenly voice became clear to me as the angels of the cheese gods professed "Blllluuueeee CHeeeeeeessssseeee"

Holla blue cheese and steak is absurdly wonderful!   Thanks cheese gods! 

My mission was clear make a wonderful BIG blue cheese sauce with a hunk of premium blue cheese and some heavy cream to thin it out and cream it up. 

Now all I needed was to balance it with a little bitterness and sweetness so I grilled up some baby bok choy.

What did I get?!?????

PURE DELICIOUSNESS!  BIG BOLD WONDERFUL LIMEY CHEESY STEAKY BEEFY CREAMY GOOD LAWD OF MERCY GOODNESS

YUM YUM YUM

Tasty Roasted Chicken with Sage and Serrano Ham served with chicken mustard tarragon sauce

Yesterday I got into the mood for some chicken.   I was watching "Chuck's Day Off" on cooking channel and it was the truffle episode.   In this episode he make a "chicken supreme with black truffles".  This recipe looked freaking amazing.   I wanted to remake it but I didn't have access to quality truffles within walking distance of my house so I wanted to remake it without the travels but keep it super delicious.

I decided what I like about his recipe was stuffing the truffle and sage between the skin on the roast chicken and his sauce.

I needed to find a replacement for the truffle in the skin stuff and change the way I was using the sage to take the amount of sage flavor down a bit since I was removing the HIGHLY dominant flavor of black truffle.

I decided that I was going to marinate the chicken in freshly chopped sage and olive oil.   When I was done marinating them I rubbed the chopped sage and oil in every nook and cranny of the chicken.   I should be able to maintain the sage flavor but not have it overwhelm the chicken.

My next step was to replace the truffle flavor.   I wanted something really robust and delicious.   I chose serrano ham.   My 4 favorite flavors are truffle, pork, garlic, and chocolate.   So since truffles are out since I couldn't find any I went with flavor #2....PORK.   ALL PRAISE HIS SWINYNESS!

I stuffed the ham under the skin and then heated up the skillet to really (&*!@# hot with some canola oil in it.   Once the skillet was ready to singe I put the chicken skin down in the pan.   I kept it on the skillet until the skin was nice and crisp and started to brown.   I flipped the chicken over and placed the whole pan in an oven for 17 minutes at 350(F) degrees.

Before I started the chicken I had started to cook down some chicken stock.   Once it was about 1/2 of the size I whisked in some mustard and fresh chopped tarragon.   I let the flavor combine together a bit and helped it along with a small pinch of salt.   I whisked in some melted butter until it was emulsified.   ie really (!*@# mixed together so the oil from the butter isnt creating butter bubbles in the sauce.  The sauce was friggin delicious.    The only thing I added from the original recipe was the tarragon.  So yeah.    You need to make this sauce.  Chickeny, silky, YUMMY goodness.

I needed some veg with dish so I halfed some banana potatoes and tossed them in sage and olive oil.   I roasted them for about 20 minutes at 350(F) degrees.   I also halved some baby bok choi and LIGHTLY brushed them with mustard and grilled those bad boys up.

What I got was simply delicious.   Thanks Chuck!

Here is the pic of the final plate

Roasted Duck Leg w/Hamhocked Kale and Porcini Ruota Pasta

Yesterday while stumbling around the market I picked up 3 ingredients I never cooked with before that I felt I needed to learn about:

Chicory
Duck Leg
Ham Hock

I thought I could use my Saturday to learn how to use my new ingredients by making something delicious.

Ok so what could I do with those ingredients??  Hmm....   Well.... I could roast the duck leg and that would probally be yum.    I could make hamhocked kale.   I could make a porcini ruota pasta and mix in the chicory at the end.  Ok a plan has formed!

Here is a pic of the ingredients:

First step is I wanted to really salt the duck as a salty duck is a tasty duck!   I made a rub for the duck legs.

Duck Leg Rub Ingredients:

1/4 cup of salt
I sprig of rosemary picked off
4-6 cloves of garlic (i did 6 but you could go as low as 4)

I mashed up the garlic in my mortar and peste and mixed it all together with the other ingredients.  I then rubbed down my duck.   Applying a rub to a good piece of meat is of course a private moments :) xoxo

In the pic posted above of the ingredients you can see the salt rubbed duck but let me also post this picture you can see it in more detail:

 

Ok with the duck prepped I quickly seared the skin to make sure it was brown and crispy.   I then through it in the oven for 60 mins at 340 degrees.   

Now this is duck.   So I reserved some of the fat so I could tie it into EVERY OTHER DISH.  When going duck...go big duck...BIG DUCK!!!!

I made a simple sauce with the reconstituted porcini mushrooms using mushroom stock, duck fat, and romano cheese.   YUM YUM YUM   Once I folded the pasta into the sauce I tossed in some chopped chicory to bring a bright peppery finish to the pasta coated in the rich mushroom sauce with duck fat.  To add insult to fat injury I put in a tablespoon of butter before serving and coated all the pasta with it.

I chopped the kale and put it in to boil with the hamhock by using a combo of duck fat, vegetable stock, mushroom stock and a little bit of water.   

PURE DELICIOUSNESS is what I got.  The meal was easy and amazing.   A bit of prep work but it was a charm to throw it all together

YUM YUM DUCK

YUM YUM HAM HOCK

YUM YUM CHICORY

A Tasty Serrano Ham Sandwich with Soft Ripened Goat Cheese, Chicory, Radish and Strawberries

I was walking home from learning how to sit meditation at the Brooklyn Zen Center when I decided I was in the mood to stumble into Union Market.

The first thing I saw was this beautiful whole oat baguette that looked so delicious.   I needed to build a sandwich around this baguette.   It was calling me.

So I began to stumble around the produce section and some beautiful fresh strawberries caught my eye so into my sandwich they go.   I noticed an ingredient that looked great that I have never used before...Chicory.   I broke off one leave and tasted it.   Bright, Peppery, Yum.   Ok.   Chicory it is.

Since it was peppery I decided to compliment it with some radish that I could julienne.  I mixed the chicory and radish and tossed it in some olive oil with salt and cracked black pepper.  This would be a peppery bright bed that I could use as the base of my sandwich for bright crunchiness.

I decided I would get some quality ham that I could compliment with a goat cheese that would round out the savoriness and creaminess for the sandwich.  I decided once I assembled it I would top it off with some nice organic honey to balance the tartness of the fresh strawberries with some honey sweetness.

Here is the pic of my lovely ingredients:

Here are some pics of the finished sandwich:

YUM YUM SANDWICH

A Light Winter Salad w/Tangerine Vinaigrette

This weekend I wanted to make a bright little winter salad that really embodied a broad range of tastes and textures.

What I ended up with was simply delicious!

SALAD:
2 baby zucchinis
1 large radish
1 small radish
1 yellow squash
1 Radicchio


I shaved both zucchinis, the yellow squash and the large radish.   I rough julienne chopped the small radish and radicchio and that we it.

TANGERINE VINAIGRETTE:
The juice of one larger tangerine
1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar (this is to taste and based on the quality of your vinegar)
2 large pinches of course sea salt
Some cracked black pepper
1 small pinch of sugar
Olive Oil (i think i did about 3 tablespoons but I whisked it in until it achieved the taste I wanted)

I tossed it all together with my hands to make sure EVERY item was lightly coated with my vinaigrette.  I garnished it with some freshly chopped parsley.

This salad was AMAZING!  It was light, crisp, slippery, sweet, tangy, salty, bitter.   This thing was awesome.

Here is another shot of it:

YUM YUM WINTER SALAD

Winter Soup Fun

After a wonderful breakfast sandwich that I whipped up this morning I recided that I wanted to make a nice winter soup.   I figured I could go to the market and just find a bunch of winter veg to make a soup with.    It was warm this week in park slope brooklyn.  The weather turned cold last night in brooklyn so I wanted to warm my belly up!

Basic plan....Pick up lots of winter veg like carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, and the like.   Start the soup with onion, garlic and a shallot with butter.    Add in the chopped up winter veg and then get everything all covered with butter.    Sautee the whole mix up a bit and then add in vegetable stock.     I finish it with a sprig of rosemary and a bay leave.   Let the whole thing simmer for 30 minutes or so and then puree it.  

Ok so here were my ingredients:

 

Here is a shot of the ingredients in the initial sautee

 

Here is the shot of the soup before I let it simmer:

 

It came out super delicious.   I ended up adding some heavy cream to the puree to make it a bit more silky.   I topped it off with a nice slice of goat cheese and some fresh chopped chives. 

YUM YUM SOUP

Cherry, Mustard and Pistachio Crusted Bone In Pork Chop with a Cranberry Reduction and Baked Acorn Squash

The other night my lovely wife Megan brought home some delicious looking bone in pork chops.   This was a day or two before we left for sunny Florida on Christmas break.   I was soooo very tired from traveling for work that I decided to sit at home and watch TV while she went out to the store to go shopping.  

When she came home from Union Market with bone in pork chops I was thrilled.   Why you ask???  Well I was watching Iron Chef America and on it was Battle Pig Fat!   Mmmmm Pig Fat.

Allow me to take a moment here to honor his Swinyness.    The far that comes from the pig is the most heavenly of creations.   It is delish, fragrant, and everything that anyone could ever ask for flavor wise.  So when she brought it home I was DELIGHTED.    Time to tie pork fat into the remainder of our dishes and serve up some porky goodness.

ALL HAIL HIS SWINYNESS!!!!

 ALL HAIL HIS SWINYNESS!!!!

So I opened up the bag from Union Market to see what other goodies she had gotten.   I had found an acorn squash and some baby cauliflower (we are on a total kick with this stuff.)    

I decided to start by preparing the acorn squash.    I started by halving and scooping out the squash of its seeds.   I am sure I can put these to good use but not tonight.   I put nutmeg, cinnamon and butter with fresh rosemary in the center of the squash and on the ridges as I had halved it.  I then put tiny dollops of pork lard on the ridges (like four of them) and one dollop in the center.   Now you are probably thinking that is WAY too much fat but you can always spoon out the excess grease once it bakes.   I just want it to absorb as much of its flavor as possible.   I ended the squash with a bit of zest of orange for flavor and acidity.

The plan was to bake the squash at 400 degrees for about an hour.    Once we got the squash in the hole it was time to move on to creating the cranberry reduction.   I wanted the hole dish to tie together and wasnt sure if pork and cranberry would go together so I decided to tie the rosemary into this dish as the lard in the acorn squash really tied it to the pork chop already.  

I digress.

I added dried cranberries and water to a pot with a pinch of salt and a few pinches of sugar.   I brought it to a vigorous boil then put it on low and let it reduce.    This should be nice and thick by the time the acorn squash is ready.   The final step with the cranberries was to add some nice orange zest.   The zest ties it to the acorn squash which will bring balance to the dish.

Ok now onto steaming the baby cauliflower.     I cleaned them up and put them in a pot with a steamer.   I put a TINY dollop of lard and some salt and pepper to bring once again ensure that they worked well with the pork chops.   I also zested them with lemon to tie the baby cauliflower to tie the flavors to the acorn squash.   I put the heat to high and off I go to manage the pork.

 TIME FOR PIG!!!!

I always leave my meat on the counter at the start of the meal to try to bring it's temperature up a bit to ensure it cooks evenly and the spices/oils really absorb.   I had put a healthy coat of olive oil and added salt and pepper to the pork.

I then began to make my crust for the pork.

The crust had the following in it:

Handful of shelled pistachios

small handful of cherries (about six)

and about 15 mustard seeds per bone in pork chop

two tablespoons of bread crumbs

You take all of the ingredients and mash it up with the mortar and pestle.   A nice rough mash it alls you need.   Just get the particles small enough to make sure that it sticks to the pork!  The bread crumbs will help as they are like the cement once the cherry juices hit it :)

I took the now not so cold and ever so seasoned pork and crusted it with my pistachio, cherry and mustard mix.   I prepped the pan by adding a combination of butter and lard (even amount) to the pan and brought it up to a nice heat.   You want it hot enough to make it sizzle but not hot enough to make it deep fried.   I wish I knew what temperature this actually is but I usually just throw stuff into the grease and watch how it reacts.   

I disgress YET AGAIN

Once the lard/butter mix was hot enough I carefully placed the pork into the park.   Always make sure you move the meat around after you place it in the pan so that is does not stick to the pan.    I used the technique that some call french but i call Abuelita's technique of spooning the hot oil over the meat as I cooked it so that the meat absorbs the fats and cooks nice and evenly.   You achieve this by tilting the pan a bit and getting the hot oil to accumulate.   Once it it heavier on one side you can start to quickly spoon it over the meat.   

WARNING.

OIL IS FLAMMABLE.   BE CAREFUL!!!!

If you spoon some onto the flame of the burner.  BOOM FIRE.   I DO NOT suggest doing this and you should avoid at all cost.  My nice little disclaimer to ensure you dont blame me for causing a fire due to your own negligence.  

It takes just a few minutes on each side until the pork is firm enough to be medium.  I take it out and let it rest.

By the time the bone in pork chop was done everything else was finished.    I turned the steamer off and uncovered the baby cauliflower.   I removed the acorn squash from the oven and scooped out the excess grease.   I then scooped out all the squashy goodness so we had a nice "semi mash" to eat and I began to plate.  

The final product was DIVINE.   I used the cranberry reduction to spoon it over the crusted pork and it was so balanced and divine!   Yummy, pork, nutty, fruity, spicy goodness in the pork.   The acorn squash was sweet and had fatty accents that made it tie right to the pork.  The zest I put on the acorn squash and baby cauliflower really brought them together and brought amazing balance once again to the dish.  

YUM YUM GOODNESS

Dry Aged Steak with Steamed Baby Cauliflower and Grilled Japanese Eggplant

Tonight I decided it was time for steak.  When visiting my local grocer Union Market I saw that their 21 day dry aged steak was out of the hole and ready to be bought. 

I can never say no to a 21 day dry aged steak...NEVER....

I also noticed that they had some beautiful baby cauliflower and japanese eggplant at the Union Market.   Much like the steak my power to resist their gravitational forces into my belly were little to none.   So it was set...a delicious steak and some delicious veg to make saturday night YUM

I drenched the steak in black truffle infused olive oil and then gave it a healthy coating of sea salt and cracked black pepper.    I always like to let my steaks sit out until they hit a nice room temperature.   It gives the oil and seasoning a chance to sink in and flavor the meat and more so it gives you something to drool at while you are getting everything else ready.

I microwaved 4 tablespoons of butter to melt it down and added a table spoon of soy sauce and a tablespoon of black truffle infused olive oil.   I call this my bubble gum sauce.    I used it to drench the meat as it is in the broiler and it makes you wish you had bubble gum that tastes like your steak :)
 

I heated up my stove top grill to make it hot hot hot.   I tossed the steak on it to give it a nice crust on the outside and make nice deep grill marks on the steak.    I cut the japanese eggplant in half length wise and put olive oil, sea salt and cracked black pepper on the eggplant.    I set the back half of the grill on medium to high heat and tossed the eggplant on it.    I put the cauliflower in a steamer with olive oil, sea salt and cracked black pepper on it and let it steam.    Once each side of the steak had beautiful grill marks I tossed it into the broiler.    I coated it in my bubble gum sauce and let it go.   I flipped it once and gave it another coating of bubble gum sauce to plus up the flavor.   I cooked it to about 140 degrees and then took it out and served it all together.  

I love Union Market for dry aging steaks and selling it.    What a tasty treat to have at your home grocer.   The baby cauliflower was unbelievably amazing.    I defintely need to cook with those suckers more often.   They are tasty and beautiful.

YUM YUM STEAK