Last week of dinner before Ethiopia!

We are all excited for our big trip to Egypt and Ethiopia where the food is going to be awesome!!!

But this week holds promise as well... my last week in the ICU so Erin will still be doing a good proportion of the cooking. One unexpected benefit of Erin doing so much of the cooking recently was revealed to me the other night when we cooked together - we make a much better team in the kitchen now! It was a lot of fun actually.

Black bean chili with cornbread and roasted pepper mix (spicy and with garlic)
Cheese and tomato souffle with romaine, blue and carmelized onion salad
Salmon teriyaki over rice with edamame and rainbow chard 
Burgers and zucchini (with some for Mr. Atticus) 

To mix it up a bit, here's a photo of Erin and Katie hanging out before we went out to dinner and Aunt Katie stayed with Atticus... not that night, but another we had some great tapas at Buceo 95 (www.buceo95.com). Sat on the porch with some good wine and were in our own little happy world.

Vino: Monastrel, Bodegas Guardiola Crianza 2006 Jumilla, Spain
with...
Piquillos Rellenos - young manchego cheese stuffed peppers
Remolachas y Valdeón - pickled baby yellow and red beets, blue cheese, swiss chard chiffonade
Patatas Bravas - baby purple and red bliss potato medley, spicy tomato sauce, garlic alioli
Buñuelos de Jamón - serrano ham and manchego cheese fritters, pimenton alioli 
Paella - wild boar, cured spicy and mild chorizo, saffron rice 


With a lovely aniseed fig creme brulee for dessert

Soup!

Roasted-Yellow-Pepper-Soup-and-Roasted-Tomato-Soup-with-Serrano-Cream
Erin tonight made a version of an epicurious recipe that involves roasted yellow peppers and tomatoes with a jalapeno cream on top - it was amazing. Sides of quesadillas and roasted corn to boot! Here's what it looked like and the link below:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Yellow-Pepper-Soup-and-Roasted-Tomato-Soup-with-Serrano-Cream-11554

I'm getting spoiled with all of this cooking Erin has been doing though she still seems to think it's not fancy enough to blog about... but it's so good that I'm going to.

Fettuccini with freshly made pesto, eggplant bruschetta and salad
- Erin made the pesto from the Silver Spoon recipe, no adjustments. It's an interesting pesto because it's heavy on the pine nuts and no garlic which is more typical of American-style pesto. It has plenty of parmigiano which if mixed quickly with the hot pasta melts just perfectly. Again, flawless execution by the chef du month.
The eggplant bruschetta I must say was a no repeat. It's a great idea, but there's too much thyme in the eggplant and comes across way too strong - I think in the future adding some basil and spice with less thyme would work out well.

And finally, another picture of boy expanding his palate - carrots!

Dinners week of April 8

We have an exciting week coming up. Erin's been at the helm as of late and is pushing her culinary skills with fantastic results. This last week she made (I have none of the details available):

Indian curried potato and cauliflower with great lentils
Spinach, goat cheese, red pepper and avocado salad with garlic bread
Burgers with fries and broccoli

She's an amazing cook. She wasn't always the greatest in the kitchen other than desserts, but she has honed her skills for sure!

Little dude also had a couple of firsts. Erin sent me a photo while I was at work of what appeared to be guacamole on Atticus' face (see below). I was thrilled and he looked delighted. I figured the little guy ate some mashed up avocado... I always tell my patients to start with one food at a time to make sure they don't have an allergy to anything... Erin's an immunologist... but no. Turns out the little fellow had real guacamole with the usual 4-5 ingredients as his first food! Developing his palate early!

He also ate his first grass on a walk in Harlem and had his first swing ride (kind of) - I put him in (his mother was not around), and he sort of looked at me like 'really, Dad? I'm kinda small for this.' But he smiled when I pushed him.

This week here's the preview from Chef Erin:
Skate fish tacos with a cabbage/carrot/poblano relish
Bibimbap - if you don't know what that means, you haven't lived
Carbonara - really the best way to eat spaghetti known to man, here's the recipe from October that I posted... we'll see how Erin's version differs!
- cook the bacon with some garlic while pasta water boils (please don't add olive oil to pasta water!)
- beat two eggs
- grate about 1 cup of parmigiano
- after the pasta is done cooking and drained, I like to add the bacon with a little of the grease and garlic still in it to the pasta first so it doesn't stick together at all when you add the egg and quickly toss while quickly adding parmigiano

California and Texas Vacation Food

Vacation revisited

It's a gloomy day in Harlem - a perfect day to revisit the meals we had in sunny California and Texas where we went for a brief vacation... lots of fish, lots of meat too and plenty of meals out and in with lots of family and friends. Here are a couple of the memorable ones:

Korean: I love Korean food. Erin does too. It has that perfect mix of spice, vegetables and meat served over a big bowl of rice that makes for good comfort food somehow. We had a great night ordering in from a place in La Jolla; had planned to go out but then Atticus intervened at the restaurant and home was much easier. The vegetable gopdol that Erin had was fantastic and my bulgogi had a really spicy barbeque sauce that came with it that just made my night. 

Sushi Ota: There are many sushi houses in San Diego. I used to work in one. Many serve decent fare. None are sushi ota. After working in a sushi bar for 2 years, a Japanese friend of mine took me to Sushi Ota as a going away present from San Diego. It's amazing. It's not in a tourist locale, it's in a smallish little mall, and it has the best sushi I've ever had. We were the only non-Japanese folks in there; actually there were a couple of Anglos at some of the other tables but they were speaking Japanese. Erin had a sushi bowl with 12 pieces of buttery sashimi that made a veritable rainbow; I had a few specialty rolls and some orange clam sashimi that was intriguing. It's a little hard to eat other places for a while after Sushi Ota.

Mexican up the yazoo: Both Texas and California served up delectable variations on Mexican food and I'm not about to get in the middle of which variation is better. We had awesome fish tacos in San Diego and Andale's in Los Gatos; solid (nearly literally with beans) breakfast tacos in San Antonio and some great enchiladas in La Jolla. One of the standard things in those two great states that seems to be lacking here is a bowl of fresh salsa and tortilla chips - it's almost always free and always a good introduction to the restaurant - a good telltale sign of whether to dive in at this place or play it safe.

Steak and wine: My dad treated us to a great meal of steak, scalloped potatoes and salad while we were visiting. When I think of gourmet home-cooked food, my dad's cooking is the first thing that comes to mind... these days I think I may cook a wider variety, but I still think of his cooking as the best. We had some excellent Cabernet from Santa Cruz and the steaks were cooked in my dad's Green Egg - a kamado style cooker that resembles a barbeque and has its roots in Japanese cooking. Good stuff.

Clam chowder: this was good and worth remaking when good clams are available:
- scrub clams and put in pot with a little olive oil and cook on high for a few minutes by themselves, then add garlic, onion and thyme to the mix for a couple of minutes. Finish the clams by adding some white wine, a bit of water if you like and covering the clams to steam until open (10mins).
The base can be made by stewing some potatoes in 2 cups of cream until they're nice and mushy.
Finally the veggie mix starts with bacon (of course), then add celery, green onion, kale or whatever else you'd like to toss in the mix.
Make the clam part first so that you can take the clams out of their shells while the rest is cooking and then keep some of the shells for decor.
It's worth the effort!

It's just been a week since we've been back and we've been relying on old favorites this week. Will update the blog again next week as things get more exciting... rumors of curried lentils with spiced cauliflower, grilled tilefish with broccolini and pecans...

First date and revisions of old favorites

I've included the revised mac and cheese, our first date by ourselves without Atticus and a couple photos of the little man and a video too!

Mac and cheese (revised)
I did re-do a version of mac and cheese (previously posted as elbows I think), and because Erin is trying to replicate things much more these days, I'm going to be more explicit about the process. The first post went something like: make sauce, pour sauce over maccaroni and then bake.
- Melt 1/2 cup butter in pot (big) over medium heat
-Stir in 2 tablespoons mustard seen, 1 teaspoon cumin and 1 teaspoon cayenne (or to taste) as butter is melting

- Stir in 1/2 cup flour and mix for about 1-2 minutes on low heat
- add 4 cups of milk and bring to boil, then keep on simmer while adding 2 cups grated cheese
- Sauce is done!
- Add sauce to cooked pasta (according to package but definitely underdone by 1-2 minutes)
- Mix in any veggies (uncooked broccoli chunks for example) with the pasta and the sauce in a giant bowl
- Pour into baking dish (leaving room for boiling over) and then top with some breadcrumbs if desired and another 1 cup of grated cheese (I like mix of blue and cheddar/parmigiano).
- Bake at 375 for about 30mins

Brunch at Alias:
After brunch, a picture of the boy (we didn't make him wait in the car the whole time):

His parents are notably both delighted at the time the photo was taken as well. They had just had a delectable brunch with two good friends on the lower east side - http://aliasrestaurant.com/brunch/ where Erin had both an ABLT (avocado) and a side of biscuits (with gravy) - it's good to be breastfeeding sometimes. I had a brisket breakfast burrito that was divine with good salsa and a couple spoonfuls of gravy at the end.

Here's also a video of the little dude in the morning (I'm getting ready for work) - he's his most active and happy self in the morning (his mother's chromosomes).

JoJo
Pretty quiet place on the upper east side - one of the Jean Georges empire. They had a special for restaurant week so we went... it does feel like an apartment when you go in; the service was top notch, polite but engaging. We felt like two kids out on the loose too - I'm sure there was delight written all over our faces.
Started with a bourbon-chili-passion cocktail for me and Erin with a spiced ginger mixer.
The appetizers were impressive: shrimp with a mango-ish puree and roast pumpkin seeds and a goat cheese fondue with endive and roasted walnuts for dipping that was just perfect.
Dinner: Chicken roasted with orange, olives, ginger and coriander and salmon with a truffel-potato puree! 
Dessert: Basil ice cream with a chocolate cake

Man that was good. Something to aim for... I may well try the shrimp and the roast chicken is something I think we could improve on at home too!

Texas food and smiles

Ahh smiles. Finally! In the near future, I will commit to not posting endless photos of our son on the blog and revert to a truly food-themed site (and he is only still drinking breast milk).

This past week we tried a menu from the Homesick Texan cookbook that we got for Christmas. Had some good favorites as well with grilled sausage, sesame broccoli, fried catfish and others rounding out the week but here was the Texas meal:

Grilled Flank Steak with Fried Okra, Texas Caviar and Homemade Biscuits
Here is my recapitulation of the details:
The grilled flank steak is my own recipe - 1 jalapeno, some cilantro, 3 limes, cumin and garlic all go into the marinade and letting it rest for >2hrs is key. The spice cooks off but the cumin, garlic and lime flavor brings out the meat really well I think.
Texas Caviar is a new favorite - basically named because of the appearance of the main ingredient, black-eyed peas. Mix a couple cans of them with some tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, green onion and some spices (cumin for one).
The fried okra was good but a lot of effort for just an ok outcome. Basic breading process but with a twist at the end that was brilliant - roll them in crushed Saltines just before adding to oil - gives a nice crunch.
The biscuits were a flop - edible for sure, but not the fluffy, delicious melt in your mouth taste I was going for. I beat them with a rolling pin and flipped and flipped the dough... next time. This is definitely something that I would like to perfect...

Dinners week of sometime in January

I sort of lost track of where we were with meals and postings, but we've had some good ones in the last couple of weeks that are worth posting. Atticus is still growing like a mad man and one of my favorite things to do with him is cook with him strapped in, listening to the recipe unfold both in word and in spatter. Sometimes he gets little pieces of food in his hair but that's a hazard of the job!

Here's a photo of him looking quite quizzical or maybe just confused about what is in front of him... 

 and another of him (this is thankfully a much more common expression) of some sort of mix of curiosity and wonder while also thinking about food...

Yellow tail sushi with miso soup
- we got the yellow tail from Fresh Direct; not cheap at all but the first tuna they've had in a long time that's been well rated in terms of being ocean-friendly. Anyway, the rice I think is key to this along with the spicy sauce. Aside from that, making sushi is just a matter of careful prep making sure you slice everything thin enough to be both pretty and easy to eat. I flash cooked the tuna for 15-30 seconds a side since it smelled just a bit of fish and wasn't quite sashimi quality, but the inside was still raw and wonderful.
For sushi rice: 
Make either with sushi rice or arborio rice (want a short rice that's stickier than jasmine etc) and make about 4 cups for 4 people worth of sushi (or Erin and Alex hungry). Make the rice just like you would normally.
- while the rice is cooking, add 4 teaspoons sugar, 2 teaspoons salt and 3 tablespoons of rice vinegar to a small pan and cook until salt and sugar dissolve but not boiling. Add this mixture to the rice after it is cooked and cooled in a bowl for a bit...
We assembled everything together and in the end had:
Philadelphia rolls 
Spicy Tuna rolls
Tuna Sushi and Sashimi
Vegetable Roll with Carrot, Cucumber and Basil

3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar

4 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher or coarse sea salt

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sushi-Rice-351070#ixzz1jxSX92Tq

3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar

4 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher or coarse sea salt

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sushi-Rice-351070#ixzz1jxSX92Tq

Lemon garlic fish skewers with couscous and green beans with fried sage
I haven't done much with fish kabobs in the past, but I will from now on - I grilled the mixed fish (salmon, blue fish, swordfish and snapper) with peppers and onions on the grill first and then finished in the broiler... oh man that was good (good marinade of garlic, cilantro and lemon before hand too). 

Sausage onion and pepper pizza with red leaf walnut salad
- had a good friend over who had made pizza for us at her house so I had to compete. I won. The crust was not quite as thin as I would have liked, but the pizza stone was hot enough to crisp it perfectly in any case. Ah the sweet taste of pizza and victory at the same time!


Fresh pesto penne
- Erin made a fabulous pesto out of some left-over fresh basil we had: used the original recipe from the Silver Spoon plus a bit of garlic... I could eat it by itself by the forkful!