Finally perfected the dough, now it’s time to play on it. Yukon Golds, thinly sliced with the mandolin, sauteed red onions, garlic-lemon olive oil and fontina and mozzarella cheeses. Serve with arugula and lemon.
I always see braised short ribs on menus at nice restaurants and they are always pretty darn expensive. What those restaurant menu psychologists don’t want you to know is that it’s way easy to make braised short ribs at home. They’re hard to screw up, they come out looking delicious and they actually get better the next day and the day after that. Wild, right? I don’t brine my ribs for any length of time beforehand but you definitely can, although for a nice home cooked meal, I don’t think it’s necessary. Read on for my recipe.
Oh so healthy. This one does not get the American Heart Associate Rating. Not yet at least. This was also something I’ve been itching to try — so we did it. We don’t mess around. We used German Franks from Berkeley Bowl and fried in grape seed oil, which is supposed to be the healthiest kind of oil to fry in.
We prepared some red and white onions with some tomato paste and reduced it on a simmer in a large pot. This was definitely delicious. My buddy’s idea and a must for any kind of hot dogs from now on. We also made a tapenade from everything offered at the Berkeley Bowl olive and appetizer bar: artichoke hearts, olives, tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic, peperoncini, and whatever else they had… probably some bell pepper too. We blended all that up with some olive oil and some bread crumbs.
I had this craving for mini-burgers, sliders, whatever. I couldn’t stop thinking about them. I went over to a buddy’s place and he had just received a burger book called Burger Bar by Hubert Keller, for Christmas or whatever. We flipped through, pulled out a few delicious-sounding combos and headed off to Berkeley Bowl.
We returned with all kinds of ingredients including:
Wow, okay. We sauteed some of the white onions and mixed them in with the ground beef along with some pepper and made little patties by hand. Then we cooked bacon in a griddle pan on the stove and then removed it. Next we salted the burger patties just before placing them into the griddle pan with the left over bacon fat. MMM mmm right?
Some LA friends came up for the weekend and we ventured into Napa and Yountville for some adventure and treats. We started with lunch at Redd. We had pork buns (obviously), a grilled chicken something over a fennel puree with brussels sprouts and a foie gras toast, butternut squash ravioli and a hunk of pork belly. Everything was great except the chicken which was unremarkable and plain. However, the fennel puree was amazing – something I will attempt to recreate later….
Next we walked up to Bouchon for some Macarons. They are a lot larger than the ones I had in Paris and I have to say, they were very hard and actually… not great. So sad because I really miss macarons and I thought Bouchon would not fail me.
After Bouchon we walked up to The French Laundry for lunch number two. Just kidding. One day maybe. We walked through the garden, which was incredible, and sat and dreamed about what the inside of the French Laundry looked like.
Next, we went to Quixote winery in the Stags Leap district of Napa. It was my friends’ first time in Napa and they loved it. We shared a tasting and really had some incredible wine. The winery is also really cool and definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area. During the week you have to make a reservation, so beware, or go on the weekend.
We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge on the way home so the boys could see it and the view.
We made pizzas for dinner and Scott experimented with quail eggs on his. Of course, all good. I also made a little olive mix with navel orange slices…. try it: green olives, washed, olive oil, navel orange slices and pepper.
My two favorite dishes at Momofuku were the rice cakes and the steamed buns. The rice cakes are way to complicated for me right now so my friend Jerome and I tried the steamed pork belly buns from David Chang’s new cookbook. They were a little more tame and definitely doable. I would say that the Momofuku cookbook is a good investment and a lot of the stuff in it seems easy to cook at home.
The recipe for the buns is simple. First, the pork belly. We used Marin Sun Farms belly that we bought from Berkeley Bowl West. It was perfect, very fatty (I would be worried if my pork belly wasn’t fatty) and cheap. Here’s what you do with the pork:
Chang suggested (not personally) that I buy the buns because they are super time consuming to make and will probably end up tasting exactly the same as frozen ones. I picked up a few packages of 12 for about 2.50 a package at Ranch 99 down at the Pacific East Mall off of I-80. Use the brand in the picture below – they’re delish and the type you want: half folds. Basically, you want to steam the buns once you’ve completely finished making the meat, for about 8 minutes or until they are soft and hot and steamy in a triple steamer.
The pickles are also a very easy David Chang/Momofuku recipe. He calls them 20 minute pickles. I let them set a little longer than 20 minutes but they taste about the same either way. To make them, you simple slice up some cucumbers, radishes, carrots and daikon into about 1/8 to 1/4 inch slices. Put them into a bowl and add a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of sugar and keep seasoning them and letting them sit for about 10 minutes at a time until they taste right – like pickles. I poured out the excess liquid before storing them. They keep very well so they can be prepared in advance, like the meat.
When you’re ready to make the buns, cut the meat into pieces, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch by 2 inch slices and heat in pan to warm them up – just a minute or two. Meanwhile, steam the buns. When they’re ready, take them out of the steamer and flop them open. Spread some hoisin sauce on one side and cover with a chunk of meat. Put a few pickles on the other side, fold back up and serve, preferably in a bamboo steaming box for visual pleasure. Serve with Siracha or similar hot sauce.
This recipe is from David Chang’s AWESOME cookbook, Momofuku. Yeah, I’m on it. Can you blame me?
I’m trying different ways of makin’ eggs. I found this recipe on the What’s Cooking America blog. It’s the modern version of the “perfect fried egg” according to Master French Chef Fernana Point (whatever). Lots of butter and about 10 minutes required. It really tasted different than other, quick-fried-over-high-heat fried eggs I’ve had. Good, fresh, happy eggs are important as well. Try it out.
These steaks are bomb. Whenever Stockyards has a sale I would suggest ordering some. They are pretty damn good and I’ve heard the quality is pretty high.
Here’s another attempt at Spaghetti with clams (from the farmers market). Turned out really well. The key is good clams, good olive oil and italian parsley. Everything else can be swapped around till you find the perfect flavors and mix. Definitely try adding some hot pepper too.
soak the clams first
steam the clams
toss the pasta with the sauce after removing the clams
add the clams after putting a portion of pasta on each plate
This was one of the best farmers’ markets I’ve been to in LA in a while. All sorts of delicacies and all organic. Zucchini flowers, baby artichokes, baby clams, aubergine, grape tomatoes, blueberries, white raspberries, salad and a beefsteak tomato. It’s on Saturdays at Arizona Ave and 3rd Street. Here’s a link to their site.
