Today I competed in the quarter finals for Master Chef NYU. Unfortunately my summary of this morning's events will be relatively brief since I have suffered a great setback --- I broke my index finger nail. Not all of it, and it doesn't hurt, but when picking up a box of leftovers from today's competition, my soap and water weakened nail (too many dishes to wash) crack on the top leaving a little bit of finger tip exposed. No fun. But, like the title says, you win some and you lose some. This broken nail was my loss. The competition was my win. I will be advancing again to the semi-finals next Friday. I'm happy to have made a well praised dish (the tuna / couscous /coleslaw lunch), however I regret the amount of time it takes to prepare and compete... so many numbers to think about and this is certainly cutting back on my numbers time (I study math). In any case, the competition did go well. The first batch of couscous I made had too much seasoning (I used bouillon and used too much.. so I remade a second batch which came out much better. I think I used a little too much of the spice rub on the fish, but otherwise it was very well received. I know need to conjure up a dinner recipe by Monday at noon for the semi-finals which will be held next Friday. Oy! My first thought is Chinese stirfry with my perfect tofu (see previous blog on the perfect tofu). I'll need to give this some serious thought though, and I'll likely post on Sunday with my ideas.
As a post thought (that is a thought post posting) I do want make clear that doing well in this competition is in many ways no great feat of culinary prowess. I am mostly competing against college students who are far better at cooking than I was then (for instance in the summer before my Junior year I attempted to make apricot chicken and ended up with a horrible mush). In any case, I am confident that if my Mother, sister, sister-in-law, aunts, or Bubbie were to compete in this with me, my best dish would be a rough approximation for their worst dish. Having cast doubt on the culinary abilities of my competitors, I now will likely lose in the next round (hows that for karma).
Friday, February 27, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Possible menu for round 2 of NYU Master Chef
Tomorrow at noon is when I must submit my ingredient list and recipe for the second round of Master Chef NYU, which will be held Friday morning. The recipe must be for a lunch menu, and the meal must be capable of being made by me, with only 20 minutes of prep time, and one hour of cooking time. I thought a fair amount about this yesterday and today I did some recipe experimenting. I am proud to say that I am pretty much settled on the menu which I'll be explaining briefly.
I should note some of the basic ideas on which I am judged:
1. Seasonality of ingredient. There is a lot of focus on using winter ingredients (which works in well with my winter diet).
2. Healthy ingredients. Read: no butter or cream sauces...
3. Presentation and flavor / complexity.
The theme which I am looking for in my lunch menu is a healthy, non-meat take on a NY street lunch. The flavors I focus on can generally be associated with Moroccan cuisine. Cilantro, green onion and parsley figure in as the main greens, and cumin and coriander, as well as cinnamon are the main spices. Lemon provides a tangy acidity to complement and freshen the flavors, while brown sugar adds a mild sweetness. The main dish is marinaded (in a dilute lemon, herb and brown sugar mixture) tuna medallions seared with a Moroccan spice rub and diced greens (cilantro, green onion and parsley). Depending on the quality of the tuna (I'm not sure if its sushi grade) the centers will either be left raw or cooked just enough --- also the amount of marinading time will vary. The spice rub and greens will also serve as the base for a light sauce, which will be mixed with just a little greek yogurt, and served on top of the plated tuna medallions. Under the tuna will go a simple couscous, likely prepared with a vegetable bouillon cube and maybe some raisins and parsley. This will be plated on the right side of a long oval shaped plate. In the middle I will place two lines of pan roasted chickpeas, prepared with ample cumin and a little kosher salt. To the left of this will go a coleslaw of carrot, cabbage and finely sliced onion. The carrot and onion will marinade in the same type of marinade as the tuna (in a different bowl though). With a little time left I'll mix this in with the cabbage and toss with some olive oil. To this I'll add some roasted sliced almonds, and serve.
The portion size will be six tuna medallions (roughly 5 ounces of tuna), about 20 chickpeas, a few spoons of couscous and a few spoons of the coleslaw (after all this is supposed to be lunch). What makes this a lunch menu? To me, this is a healthier, more seasonal take on NY push-cart lunches. I think that using the same types of flavors throughout helps bring out different elements of each spice and herb --- in the tuna you get the highly heated, moist version of cumin and the herbs, while in the sauce things are much lighter and more refreshing. In the chickpeas the flavors are dry and the texture is crunchy, while the coleslaw is again lighter and tangier....(yea, this is a bunch of bs.. but it does still taste good).
Here are the exact recipes.
Marinade (for tuna, for sauce and for coleslaw)
Finely dice cilantro, parsley and green onion. Mix equal parts of lemon juice and water and add enough to cover the greens. Add in a few small lumps of brown sugar plus a little red chili powder.
Spice rub (for tuna, for sauce)
1 part cumin powder and brown sugar
.5 part coriander powder, cinnamon powder, sweet paprika, kosher salt
.25 par onion powder, red chili powder
.1 part (or less) nutmeg
Mix together!
Tuna medallions
This depends on the quality of the tuna (I'm not sure what quality the competition has... in fact I have a vague fear that when they write tuna, they mean canned tuna fish...). If sushi tuna, do not marinade as long and do not cook as long. If not sushi tuna, marinade longer and cook until mostly done.
Slice half inch thick medallions (2" by 1.5" rectangle in the other dimensions) and add to a portion of the marinade. When ready to sear, remove from marinade and brush off the greens. Roll in the spice rub until mostly coated. Then take some of the greens and push onto the top. Heat a cast iron skillet with a little vegetable oil until just about smoking. Sear the greens side down first, cooking variable amounts of time for the grade of the fish. Flip when half cooked and sear the other side, cooking for only a little while. Remove and plate. Serve 6 medallions (about 5 ounces) with the greens side up.
Sauce
Dice green onion bottoms and cook in a little oil until browned. Add in a portion of the spice rub, and then deglaze with some of the marinade. When cooked down, take off heat and add in a little greek yogurt. Mix and let relax. When tuna is plated, place a small dollop on each piece of the fish.
Couscous
Here I assume they are using the fast cooking (pre-steamed) couscous. Dice half and onion and cook until translucent with a little olive oil and a few chopped raisins. Add in a cup of couscous and saute for just a moment before adding in some already hot (but not boiling) vegetable bouillon base. Cook tightly covered on very low heat for 7 minutes and when done, pour into a bowl and mix it with some diced parsley. Plate as the base for the tuna.
Chickpeas
In a cast iron skillet heat some olive oil. Meanwhile drain, wash and dry some chickpeas. Add ample cumin and some kosher salt to the oil when hot, and then add the chickpeas. Cook, every few minutes shaking the pan, until the chickpeas are browned and crisp. Remove from heat and plate two lines of these.
Coleslaw.
Add a fair amount more lemon to a portion of the marinade. Add a few thinly sliced pieces of onion, plus a carrot or two, peeled and coined. Chop a cabbage and add a little kosher salt to draw some water out. Add the carrot, onion and marinade to the cabbage and toss with olive oil. Add some roasted and cooled almond slivers or slices.
Plating
The plate is long oval. The coleslaw goes on the left, with the chickpeas between it the couscous. On the couscous goes the tuna and sauce. Cut a few sprigs of cilantro and parsley and arrange near the chickpeas and in the middle of the couscous.
Thoughts?
I should note some of the basic ideas on which I am judged:
1. Seasonality of ingredient. There is a lot of focus on using winter ingredients (which works in well with my winter diet).
2. Healthy ingredients. Read: no butter or cream sauces...
3. Presentation and flavor / complexity.
The theme which I am looking for in my lunch menu is a healthy, non-meat take on a NY street lunch. The flavors I focus on can generally be associated with Moroccan cuisine. Cilantro, green onion and parsley figure in as the main greens, and cumin and coriander, as well as cinnamon are the main spices. Lemon provides a tangy acidity to complement and freshen the flavors, while brown sugar adds a mild sweetness. The main dish is marinaded (in a dilute lemon, herb and brown sugar mixture) tuna medallions seared with a Moroccan spice rub and diced greens (cilantro, green onion and parsley). Depending on the quality of the tuna (I'm not sure if its sushi grade) the centers will either be left raw or cooked just enough --- also the amount of marinading time will vary. The spice rub and greens will also serve as the base for a light sauce, which will be mixed with just a little greek yogurt, and served on top of the plated tuna medallions. Under the tuna will go a simple couscous, likely prepared with a vegetable bouillon cube and maybe some raisins and parsley. This will be plated on the right side of a long oval shaped plate. In the middle I will place two lines of pan roasted chickpeas, prepared with ample cumin and a little kosher salt. To the left of this will go a coleslaw of carrot, cabbage and finely sliced onion. The carrot and onion will marinade in the same type of marinade as the tuna (in a different bowl though). With a little time left I'll mix this in with the cabbage and toss with some olive oil. To this I'll add some roasted sliced almonds, and serve.
The portion size will be six tuna medallions (roughly 5 ounces of tuna), about 20 chickpeas, a few spoons of couscous and a few spoons of the coleslaw (after all this is supposed to be lunch). What makes this a lunch menu? To me, this is a healthier, more seasonal take on NY push-cart lunches. I think that using the same types of flavors throughout helps bring out different elements of each spice and herb --- in the tuna you get the highly heated, moist version of cumin and the herbs, while in the sauce things are much lighter and more refreshing. In the chickpeas the flavors are dry and the texture is crunchy, while the coleslaw is again lighter and tangier....(yea, this is a bunch of bs.. but it does still taste good).
Here are the exact recipes.
Marinade (for tuna, for sauce and for coleslaw)
Finely dice cilantro, parsley and green onion. Mix equal parts of lemon juice and water and add enough to cover the greens. Add in a few small lumps of brown sugar plus a little red chili powder.
Spice rub (for tuna, for sauce)
1 part cumin powder and brown sugar
.5 part coriander powder, cinnamon powder, sweet paprika, kosher salt
.25 par onion powder, red chili powder
.1 part (or less) nutmeg
Mix together!
Tuna medallions
This depends on the quality of the tuna (I'm not sure what quality the competition has... in fact I have a vague fear that when they write tuna, they mean canned tuna fish...). If sushi tuna, do not marinade as long and do not cook as long. If not sushi tuna, marinade longer and cook until mostly done.
Slice half inch thick medallions (2" by 1.5" rectangle in the other dimensions) and add to a portion of the marinade. When ready to sear, remove from marinade and brush off the greens. Roll in the spice rub until mostly coated. Then take some of the greens and push onto the top. Heat a cast iron skillet with a little vegetable oil until just about smoking. Sear the greens side down first, cooking variable amounts of time for the grade of the fish. Flip when half cooked and sear the other side, cooking for only a little while. Remove and plate. Serve 6 medallions (about 5 ounces) with the greens side up.
Sauce
Dice green onion bottoms and cook in a little oil until browned. Add in a portion of the spice rub, and then deglaze with some of the marinade. When cooked down, take off heat and add in a little greek yogurt. Mix and let relax. When tuna is plated, place a small dollop on each piece of the fish.
Couscous
Here I assume they are using the fast cooking (pre-steamed) couscous. Dice half and onion and cook until translucent with a little olive oil and a few chopped raisins. Add in a cup of couscous and saute for just a moment before adding in some already hot (but not boiling) vegetable bouillon base. Cook tightly covered on very low heat for 7 minutes and when done, pour into a bowl and mix it with some diced parsley. Plate as the base for the tuna.
Chickpeas
In a cast iron skillet heat some olive oil. Meanwhile drain, wash and dry some chickpeas. Add ample cumin and some kosher salt to the oil when hot, and then add the chickpeas. Cook, every few minutes shaking the pan, until the chickpeas are browned and crisp. Remove from heat and plate two lines of these.
Coleslaw.
Add a fair amount more lemon to a portion of the marinade. Add a few thinly sliced pieces of onion, plus a carrot or two, peeled and coined. Chop a cabbage and add a little kosher salt to draw some water out. Add the carrot, onion and marinade to the cabbage and toss with olive oil. Add some roasted and cooled almond slivers or slices.
Plating
The plate is long oval. The coleslaw goes on the left, with the chickpeas between it the couscous. On the couscous goes the tuna and sauce. Cut a few sprigs of cilantro and parsley and arrange near the chickpeas and in the middle of the couscous.
Thoughts?
Friday, February 20, 2009
NYU Master Chef, Round 1
I competed this morning in the first round of NYU Master Chef. As I mentioned in earlier posts, my menu was composed of blintzs three ways (plain cheese, greens and mushrooms, and caramelized onions and sweet potato). The competition was held in a very nice kitchen classroom in the nutrition department of NYU. I quickly found a small cast iron pan worthy of blintz shell making --- whew! I had 20 minutes to prep (find pots and pans and utensils and chop stuff), and then one hour to cook. Everything went smoothly, and to my surprise I was finished with all of the fillings and making the shells with about 15 minutes to spare. I should have waited for about 10 minutes before frying the blintzs, but instead I cooked them, leaving about 10 minutes for them to sit around and cool off (this is not optimal). I plated six of them (two of each type) on a large plate, with a small plate of sour cream in the center, surrounded by six apple slices. The plate looks pretty good.
After explaining the dish and the idea behind it to the three judges, I left the kitchen to let them deliberate. Returning ten minutes later I proceeded to finish cooking the rest of the blintzs... in case other people wanted to try them.
The judges called the teams together and first gave their opinions of our dishes. Overall they thought mine was delicious. The complemented the use of winter/seasonable ingredients, and thought the flavors worked well. They did complain about the cheese only blintz, saying (as I also agree) that it was too plain and it didn't make that much sense (farmers cheese makes a much better filling). They also thought that something a little snazzier than sour cream could have been the sauce to go with these.
But..... they also told me that I had done well enough to advance to the next round!
That entails coming up with a lunch menu by Monday noon, which I will then need to cook next Friday morning. A blessing and a curse.
I purposely did not think much about this lunch menu, but now I'm going to need to do some good thinking. I'll try to post on my ideas at some point this weekend and get some feedback.
After explaining the dish and the idea behind it to the three judges, I left the kitchen to let them deliberate. Returning ten minutes later I proceeded to finish cooking the rest of the blintzs... in case other people wanted to try them.
The judges called the teams together and first gave their opinions of our dishes. Overall they thought mine was delicious. The complemented the use of winter/seasonable ingredients, and thought the flavors worked well. They did complain about the cheese only blintz, saying (as I also agree) that it was too plain and it didn't make that much sense (farmers cheese makes a much better filling). They also thought that something a little snazzier than sour cream could have been the sauce to go with these.
But..... they also told me that I had done well enough to advance to the next round!
That entails coming up with a lunch menu by Monday noon, which I will then need to cook next Friday morning. A blessing and a curse.
I purposely did not think much about this lunch menu, but now I'm going to need to do some good thinking. I'll try to post on my ideas at some point this weekend and get some feedback.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Beets and bubbly things
This past weekend I took a break and relaxed a little. As the weekend draws a close, I'll use my last breath of relaxation to record some food experiences and thoughts of the last week or so.
I would like to begin by updating on my dosa making project. A week and two days ago I made a batch of dosa batter. Over the course of a few days it fermented to a very nice level of tangyness. For the first two days I eat the dosas along with some spinach and potato mixture (not really much to speak about there), however when that ran out I resorted to a rather unconventional, and what I imagine, untraditional accompaniment for a dosa --- smoked salmon. A few months back I had picked up two 8 ounce packages of Springfield Smoked Fish Company smoked salmon. This is the company which makes salmon bacon, and in my estimation, they are the best smoked fish company around. This smoked salmon is cut in strips and even after having been frozen for a few months, was extremely soft and smooth in texture, and rich and creamy in taste. In any case, every morning for the past week or so I have been eating three strips of the smoked salmon along with my dosa. The tangyness of the dosa counters any hint of fishiness from the salmon in a way similar to a splash of lemon juice on a bagel with lox. I imagine that most people who include dosas as a daily meal in their diet would not eat fish, but that does not have to stop me from enjoying it.
Going with the theme of fermentation, I have made it a goal of mine to constantly be fermenting something. At this point this does not include brewing beer (though some day it will), but it does include dosas and cider. A college roommate of mine who is stationed abroad picked up on my love for apple cider during a conversation over the computer. He decided to ship me (not from Japan where he is located) three jugs of apple cider. The cider is very good, though I have decided to spice it up a little. Using the remainder of my previous batch of bubbly, fermenting cider, I created a starter last night began to ferment the first of these new jugs. Already the complexity of the cider has evolved, and it is excellent! Two cheers for bacteria.
Changing gears a little, while my parents were visiting, we stopped off in Chinatown. I tried not to buy too many non-winter items (I have been good about this for the past two months or so), though I did make some non-seasonal purchases. One of these was a pound of cilantro. The problem with cilantro is that it goes bad very quickly and can not effectively be frozen or dried. One use which I tried tonight was to mix (after blending it) in which some of the dosa batter. This tasted alright, but I probably won't repeat the experiment. The other use was as part of a jellied beet and ginger (I also bough 2 pound of ginger) dish I made. Too often my ginger goes bad before I can finish it, so this time around I decided to skin and freeze almost all of the ginger. In the process of preparing the ginger for freeze I ended up with a number of little pieces of ginger, which would not last in the fridge for long and which were not worth freezing. They say necessity is the mother of invention and tonight was no exception. I have a few cans of beets which I've been meaning to use, so I decided to make a ginger and beet mixture and to try to gel it up with some agar-agar and some cornstarch. I started by finely dicing a few chunks of ginger, along with a few cloves of garlic and half of a jalapeno pepper. Then I chopped and finely grated some carrot (I did both for some odd reason), along with some orange and grapefruit zest. This all got sauted in some olive oil for a few minutes while I opened a can of beets. I removed the beets, and poured the juice into the pan, and also added a cup or so of my fermenting apple cider and a little sugar. Meanwhile I boiled a little water and added what I thought would be enough agar-agar to gel up my mixture. I chopped the beets into slices and threw them into the mixture which had been sauteing. When the agar-agar was dissolved this went in with everything else, and finally, fearing that I had not used enough agar-agar, I added some corn starch. I poured the mixture on a cookie sheet and carefully moved it to a flat surface to cool. A little while ago I moved this to the fridge. The mixture seems to have gelled pretty well. I'm not sure if it will hold up under cutting that well though (it seems to break pretty easily). The flavor is pretty nice, with a nice spicy kick from both the pepper and ginger. I'm not sure what to eat it along with, though I could imagine having it served with some very thinly julienned carrots and maybe some alfalfa sprouts and a sweet vinaigrette. We'll see if its worth repeating.
I would like to begin by updating on my dosa making project. A week and two days ago I made a batch of dosa batter. Over the course of a few days it fermented to a very nice level of tangyness. For the first two days I eat the dosas along with some spinach and potato mixture (not really much to speak about there), however when that ran out I resorted to a rather unconventional, and what I imagine, untraditional accompaniment for a dosa --- smoked salmon. A few months back I had picked up two 8 ounce packages of Springfield Smoked Fish Company smoked salmon. This is the company which makes salmon bacon, and in my estimation, they are the best smoked fish company around. This smoked salmon is cut in strips and even after having been frozen for a few months, was extremely soft and smooth in texture, and rich and creamy in taste. In any case, every morning for the past week or so I have been eating three strips of the smoked salmon along with my dosa. The tangyness of the dosa counters any hint of fishiness from the salmon in a way similar to a splash of lemon juice on a bagel with lox. I imagine that most people who include dosas as a daily meal in their diet would not eat fish, but that does not have to stop me from enjoying it.
Going with the theme of fermentation, I have made it a goal of mine to constantly be fermenting something. At this point this does not include brewing beer (though some day it will), but it does include dosas and cider. A college roommate of mine who is stationed abroad picked up on my love for apple cider during a conversation over the computer. He decided to ship me (not from Japan where he is located) three jugs of apple cider. The cider is very good, though I have decided to spice it up a little. Using the remainder of my previous batch of bubbly, fermenting cider, I created a starter last night began to ferment the first of these new jugs. Already the complexity of the cider has evolved, and it is excellent! Two cheers for bacteria.
Changing gears a little, while my parents were visiting, we stopped off in Chinatown. I tried not to buy too many non-winter items (I have been good about this for the past two months or so), though I did make some non-seasonal purchases. One of these was a pound of cilantro. The problem with cilantro is that it goes bad very quickly and can not effectively be frozen or dried. One use which I tried tonight was to mix (after blending it) in which some of the dosa batter. This tasted alright, but I probably won't repeat the experiment. The other use was as part of a jellied beet and ginger (I also bough 2 pound of ginger) dish I made. Too often my ginger goes bad before I can finish it, so this time around I decided to skin and freeze almost all of the ginger. In the process of preparing the ginger for freeze I ended up with a number of little pieces of ginger, which would not last in the fridge for long and which were not worth freezing. They say necessity is the mother of invention and tonight was no exception. I have a few cans of beets which I've been meaning to use, so I decided to make a ginger and beet mixture and to try to gel it up with some agar-agar and some cornstarch. I started by finely dicing a few chunks of ginger, along with a few cloves of garlic and half of a jalapeno pepper. Then I chopped and finely grated some carrot (I did both for some odd reason), along with some orange and grapefruit zest. This all got sauted in some olive oil for a few minutes while I opened a can of beets. I removed the beets, and poured the juice into the pan, and also added a cup or so of my fermenting apple cider and a little sugar. Meanwhile I boiled a little water and added what I thought would be enough agar-agar to gel up my mixture. I chopped the beets into slices and threw them into the mixture which had been sauteing. When the agar-agar was dissolved this went in with everything else, and finally, fearing that I had not used enough agar-agar, I added some corn starch. I poured the mixture on a cookie sheet and carefully moved it to a flat surface to cool. A little while ago I moved this to the fridge. The mixture seems to have gelled pretty well. I'm not sure if it will hold up under cutting that well though (it seems to break pretty easily). The flavor is pretty nice, with a nice spicy kick from both the pepper and ginger. I'm not sure what to eat it along with, though I could imagine having it served with some very thinly julienned carrots and maybe some alfalfa sprouts and a sweet vinaigrette. We'll see if its worth repeating.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Is fermenting not a winter activity?
Last Sunday I bought a gallon of apple cider. After drinking a few glasses of it (over the course of two days) I decided that it was no where as good as I remembered apple cider being. It was from a farm, and it looked nice and dark, but it just tasted like very sweet apple juice --- no kick. So I decided to leave it out near the window sill (where it was still pretty cold) for a few days. Forgetting about it until Friday, I was very surprised that when I went to open up the plastic jug, I heard a loud hiss of air (CO2 more likely). When I pour the cider, it bubbled and when I tasted it, my taste buds jumped for joy. Just a few days of fermentation (completely uncontrolled) had given me a tangy, slightly hard, cider. The overwhelming sweetness was gone, as the fermentation had surely consumed much of the excess sugar. I think I remember the cider at the right time. Had I left it much longer, it may have become a little too strong, though who knows.
Inspired by my inadvertent success with fermenting cider, I decided to reattempt Dosa making. Months ago I had some difficulty getting the right consistency and right texture to my Dosas. I repeated the same recipe, mixing Urad dal, a little Chana dal, some short grained rice (sushi rice this time) and some Methi or Fenugreek seeds (which made headline recently as being the smell behind a chemical/gas scare in New York a few years ago). I soaked these in water overnight and then blended them to a course pulp in the morning. In the evening I tried to make a Dosa. It came out rather plain and lacked a crunchy texture and contained too much of the original courseness of the ingredients. This evening, after another day of fermentation, I approached the bowl of Dosa batter. The change was marked. It had begun to foam and the course grains had somehow been consumed and changed by the fermentation. The fermentation (though slowed from the cold) had certainly transformed my mixture. A cast iron pan and a little oil quickly yielded my first very successful Dosa. It was crispy but not grainy and the bottom was nicely browned, though the top stayed a little spongy. Still not as good as the Dosa cart, but I have enough batter to experiment for another few days. Who knows, maybe in another day or two, the batter will have evolved further. Though, I had refrigerated the batter since there is a lot left.
Inspired by my inadvertent success with fermenting cider, I decided to reattempt Dosa making. Months ago I had some difficulty getting the right consistency and right texture to my Dosas. I repeated the same recipe, mixing Urad dal, a little Chana dal, some short grained rice (sushi rice this time) and some Methi or Fenugreek seeds (which made headline recently as being the smell behind a chemical/gas scare in New York a few years ago). I soaked these in water overnight and then blended them to a course pulp in the morning. In the evening I tried to make a Dosa. It came out rather plain and lacked a crunchy texture and contained too much of the original courseness of the ingredients. This evening, after another day of fermentation, I approached the bowl of Dosa batter. The change was marked. It had begun to foam and the course grains had somehow been consumed and changed by the fermentation. The fermentation (though slowed from the cold) had certainly transformed my mixture. A cast iron pan and a little oil quickly yielded my first very successful Dosa. It was crispy but not grainy and the bottom was nicely browned, though the top stayed a little spongy. Still not as good as the Dosa cart, but I have enough batter to experiment for another few days. Who knows, maybe in another day or two, the batter will have evolved further. Though, I had refrigerated the batter since there is a lot left.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
A loss of New York life
My sister just sent me an obituary for Joe Ades, a man whom many referred to (or knew as) the peeler man. For the last year and a half I have been a big promoter of the vegetable peeler which Joe sold to me on the upper west corner of Union Square park. On nice days, when I would have some extra time, I would often walk through the greenmarket in the park, and end up watching his demonstrations. In fact, any time I brought friends through Union Square park I would always bring them to watch him. To me, he represented the aspect of New York life which most enthralls me --- that with a critical number of people completely amazing phenomena emerge. I see this every week when I got to Streeka's for perogis, or when I go to Chinatown for their massive outdoor market, or when I go to my neighborhood kosher bakery, or to the Dosa cart, or Ess-a-bagle...
Every time I saw the peeler man he was doing the EXACT same spiel, explaining how his peelers were swiss made, and nothing made in switzerland is cheap, and how the peeler will cut so easily that even your grandmother can easily use it (my Bubbie was in fact impressed by the peeler I brought over Thanksgiving to give to my Mom).
A few months back I bought a few peelers to give as gifts. I have two left now, and I think, given that I may never have a way to get these again, that I will keep them both.
I really do feel that New York has lost one of its great characters, not to mention an excellent provider of entertainment, and peelers (the BEST available --- I really mean it).
For more about Joe read his obituary in the NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/nyregion/03ades.html?emc=eta1)
To see a video of Joe check out this link (thanks Kari) http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2009/02/video-legendary-nyc-vegetable-peeler-guy-salesman-joe-ades-dies.html
Every time I saw the peeler man he was doing the EXACT same spiel, explaining how his peelers were swiss made, and nothing made in switzerland is cheap, and how the peeler will cut so easily that even your grandmother can easily use it (my Bubbie was in fact impressed by the peeler I brought over Thanksgiving to give to my Mom).
A few months back I bought a few peelers to give as gifts. I have two left now, and I think, given that I may never have a way to get these again, that I will keep them both.
I really do feel that New York has lost one of its great characters, not to mention an excellent provider of entertainment, and peelers (the BEST available --- I really mean it).
For more about Joe read his obituary in the NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/nyregion/03ades.html?emc=eta1)
To see a video of Joe check out this link (thanks Kari) http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2009/02/video-legendary-nyc-vegetable-peeler-guy-salesman-joe-ades-dies.html
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Superbowl party
I had some friends from grad school over tonight to watch the superbowl. Since I've been rather busy (and since I ate the same food I cooked a week ago, all of last week), this was my first time in a while to be a little creative kitchen-wise. The spread I put out was pretty simple, and some of my friends brought some chips etc to compliment it. One dish which a friend from Turkey brought was particularly good -- it was bulgar prepared with some spices (cumin in particular), chopped parsley, chopped green onion, tomato paste and chopped tomatoes. I imagine there was some olive oil drizzled into it too. This was certainly my favorite dish and lucky for me there was some left over!
As far as my contributions, I put out some chopped carrots and red peppers accompanied by a homemade sour-cream and onion dip. I also made some cast iron fried potato chips, which people seemed to like.
The potato chips were really easy. Just chop slices about a quarter inch thick and cook in a little oil until each side is starting to brown. Then put on paper towel, and try to get any excess oil off. Don't add salt or seasonings until right before serving.
The dip was equally easy. I diced two onions and caramelized them until very sweet. I let this cool and then added it in with a container or so of sour cream (left over from my Hanukkah party), plus some chopped green onion, garlic powder, dried parsley and dill, and a little salt. Mixed together this was popular for the vegis and the chips.
So, even though the Giants did not play this year, I still had a good superbowl.
As far as my contributions, I put out some chopped carrots and red peppers accompanied by a homemade sour-cream and onion dip. I also made some cast iron fried potato chips, which people seemed to like.
The potato chips were really easy. Just chop slices about a quarter inch thick and cook in a little oil until each side is starting to brown. Then put on paper towel, and try to get any excess oil off. Don't add salt or seasonings until right before serving.
The dip was equally easy. I diced two onions and caramelized them until very sweet. I let this cool and then added it in with a container or so of sour cream (left over from my Hanukkah party), plus some chopped green onion, garlic powder, dried parsley and dill, and a little salt. Mixed together this was popular for the vegis and the chips.
So, even though the Giants did not play this year, I still had a good superbowl.
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