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Archive for September, 2010

Falafel…well, almost

Posted in Home Cooking, Meatless Monday, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 7, 2010| 1 Comment »

For Meatless Monday last night I had an almost failed attempt at making falafel. To make falafel, you need to start way in advance and soak some dried chickpeas in water for about 8 hours. We were out at the Morton Arboretum all afternoon when I got the urge to make falafel, so I tried to make it using canned chickpeas. As you’ll see, that just doesn’t do the trick as canned chickpeas are way too soft and don’t have nearly the same texture. Lesson learned.

In my food processor I tossed in 2 cans of chickpeas (the pic shows 3, but I only used 2), half a chopped red onion, 5 garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, 1/2 tablespoon baking powder, and a handful of basil leaves. Typically, besides soaked dried chickpeas, you’d use parsley. I didn’t have any parsley so I used basil. It actually worked quite well flavor-wise. At any rate, I processed everything into a paste and let it sit for about half hour. During that time I got everything prepped for the Israeli Couscous soup I made to accompany.

For the soup I used 1 14oz can of diced tomatoes, the half of red onion diced, 1 quart of vegetable stock, 1 carrot chopped, 2 cloves of garlic minced, 1 cup of Israeli couscous, some basil, 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds crushed in my pestle and mortar, 1 teaspoon of turmeric, and 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne.

I also had time to throw together my tomato and cucumber salad. I chopped up 1/2 head of iceberg lettuce, half a seedless cucumber, and halved the rest of my cherry tomatoes (about 1/2 the container). I set the lettuce aside and threw the cucumber and tomatoes in a large bowl. I zested the lemon on top. In a separate bowl I juiced half of the lemon, tossed in a pinch of salt and a pepper, and then poured some olive oil in at a ratio of 2 parts oil 1 part juice. With a wisk I emulsified it into a smooth dressing and poured that in with the cucumbers and tomatoes and then tossed to coat. I set all of the salad ingredients aside.

Then, I laid some wax paper on a baking sheet and formed walnut-sized balls of the falafel mix on top. I sprinkled the tops with some sesame seeds. I was a little worried about the texture because it was kind of soft, but I thought everything would be ok. I let the falafel balls sit for about 15 minutes while I got the deep fryer ready and made the soup.

To make the soup I poured a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a hot pot. I added the onion and carrot and let them saute for about 5 minutes. Then I added the garlic. 30 seconds later I poured in the can of tomatoes with the juice, the stock, and all of the spices along with some salt and pepper. Once it came to a light boil I added the couscous, partially covered the pot, and turned the heat down to medium-low to let it slowly simmer while I fried the falafel.

Once the oil was ready, 375 degrees, I dropped 3 balls in and let them go. A minute later when I checked on their progress I noticed that they were much smaller than they were at the start. I put them back in for a minute and then checked again…even smaller. The oil had basically disintegrated them. They were way too loose. What a waste of oil! While I was pissed, I didn’t panic. I had to switch gears and do it quickly so that the couscous wouldn’t overcook.

I quickly got out my big pan and heated it to high. I poured in some oil and ended up shallow frying the falafel. They turned out to be more like falafel latkes and did start to fall apart in the pan as well. I was able to salvage most of it though and turn out a decent dinner. It did take a little longer than I wanted and the couscous overcooked a little, they were a bit soft. Oh well, what can you do? Disasters are half of the fun of cooking.

To serve I added the basil and juice from the other half of the lemon to the soup just before ladling it into the bowls. On the plates I laid down some of the lettuce, then the cucumber and tomato salad, and then topped that with the falafel…we’ll call them patties. All in all it didn’t taste bad at all. Complete failure averted.

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Hawaiian hors d’oeuvres

Posted in Home Cooking, swine, tagged , , , , , , , on September 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

We attended a Hawaiian-themed pot-luck party this weekend. I decided to make something really simple, but tasty. I came up with this hors d’oeuvres using typical Hawaiian ingredients; purple potato,  ham, pineapple, macadamia nuts, and cilantro.

I lightly oiled my baking sheet and then laid down slices of purple potato about 1/4 inch thick. I drizzled a little olive oil on top then seasoned lightly with salt and pepper. I threw that into a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Then, I took it out and put some thin-sliced ham (regular lunch meat ham) on top and then a slice of pineapple. I put that back into the oven for about 10 minutes. I poured a handful of macadamia nuts into a plastic bag and bashed it up with a bottle. I took the baking sheet back out of the oven and sprinkled the macadamia nuts all over and then put it back into the oven for another 5 minutes. I took it out, turned off the oven, and sprinkled some chopped up cilantro all over and let it cool. That’s it, about as simple as it gets.

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Panko Crusted Shiso Pesto Pork Tenderloin

Posted in Home Cooking, swine, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 3, 2010| 1 Comment »

I still had some of the shiso pesto I made a few days ago in my fridge. I decided to use it as a marinade for a beautiful pork tenderloin, one of our favorite cuts of carcus.

In a non-reactive baking dish I marinated a 1.5 pound tenderloin in the shiso pesto. I really rubbed it in there. I covered it and let it sit in the fridge for about 3 hours. Every hour I took it out and turned it over to keep it nice and coated.

While the pork was marinating I made some asparagus soup. I took a bunch of asparagus and reserved ten of the tips. The rest I chopped up along with 3 cloves of garlic, 3 yukon gold potatoes, and half an onion.

In a heated pot I poured in about 3 tablespoons of olive oil and tossed all of the vegetables in. I kind of stir-fryed them for about 7 minutes and then poured in two cups of chicken stock. I seasoned with a little salt, let it come to a boil, then covered it up and turned the heat to medium so that it could simmer for about 10 minutes. I didn’t want to overcook the vegetables, I just wanted them softened so that I could puree them. After the 10 minutes were up I turned off the heat and let it cool down for about a half hour. Then, I poured it all into my blender and pureed it nice and smooth. I poured it back into the pot, seasoned with pepper, and set it aside until dinner, at which time all I had to do was re-heat it gently and garnish with the reserved asparagus tips.

Then, I took the last half of my daikon and two carrots and chopped them up. In a small baking pan I tossed them with some olive oil, salt, and pepper.

I poured some panko on a plate and then rolled the marinated pork loin all over it to crust the entire thing. I put a rack over some foil on a baking sheet and laid the crusted loin on top. I used a rack so that I’d get some convection in the oven, keeping all of the panko nice and crispy, even on the bottom.

I heated my oven to 375 degrees and put the loin and the daikon and carrots in. I let them all roast for about 55 minutes.

When I took everything out I let the pork rest for about 10 minutes before slicing to allow the juices to redistribute throughout the meat. In the meantime, I plated up the white rice and vegetables and heated the soup. After slicing and plating the pork I drizzled a little Bull-Dog sauce on top.

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Matzo Ball Soup with Shiso-Shiitake Wonton Crisps

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 2, 2010| 3 Comments »

After Tuesday night’s overly complex debacle of a meal we wanted something clean and simple for dinner last night. Yuki had requested my matzo ball soup, so that’s what I gave her. (feel free to insert any number of jokes)

The ingredients I use for my chicken soup are 1 diced onion, 3 medium carrots chopped, 3 stalks of celery chopped, 5 garlic cloves peeled but left whole, and 1.5 pounds of skin-on bone-in chicken thighs.

There are two basic ways to make chicken soup. One is to throw all of the ingredients into a stockpot, cover it with cold water, and bring it all to a slow simmer for a couple of hours, usually with a whole bird instead of just thighs (I think white meat in chicken soup is a waste as it doesn’t have nearly as much flavor as dark meat). That’s they way my dad makes it and his soup tastes pretty good. I do it a little different.

I heat up my stock pot and pour in about 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Then I dump in the onion, carrots, and celery and let them sweat for about 5 minutes. I don’t want them too translucent, I just want the sweetness drawn out a little. After the veggies are slightly cooked I lay the thighs in skin-side down. A minute or two later I pour in 2 quarts of hot water, add the garlic, a bay leaf, and a couple pinches of salt.

After it’s been at a low boil for a few minutes a foamy grit will surface. I take a large spoon and skim that off. I do that 6 or 7 times. This gives the broth some clarity. The muck isn’t bad for you, it’s just bitter and unnecessary. Skimming broth is the key to a clean soup. Once the foam stops surfacing I turn the heat to medium-low, cover the pot, and let it slowly simmer for about 2 hours.

Once the soup has cooled a little I take out the chicken, skin it, and shred the meat. At this point the chicken should be relatively flavorless as hopefully all of the taste is in the broth. I like to put the chicken back in for the substance.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using the Matzo Ball Mix for your mazto balls. While it isn’t that difficult to do it from scratch, the mix ensures the perfect texture every time. You just need one packet of mix, two eggs, and two teaspoons of oil. I also add a tablespoon of dried oregano for a little more flavor.

Mix everything in a bowl and put it in the fridge for 15 minutes to harden up a tad. While it’s in the fridge bring the soup to a light boil again. The package says to boil them separately in water, but matza balls should absorb some of the broth flavors.

Keeping your fingers wet, the mix is sticky, form balls about the size of a quarter and drop them into the boiling soup. There’s absolutely no need to make them any bigger. They do expand as they cook and if you make them too big the soup flavor won’t penetrate all the way through. I’ve never understood why some people make their balls so damn big. Maybe to compensate I guess. At any rate, that’s it. Let the balls cook for about 15 minutes and the soup is ready.

I made my wonton crisps while the soup was simmering. I used 1 package of shiitake small diced, 5 eggroll wraps cut in half diagonally, 2 cloves of garlic minced, 6 green onions sliced, and some fresh shiso leaves (the same ones our friends gave us, they are pretty damn delicious!).

I heated some oil to 375 degrees in my little Cuisinart deep fryer and fried up the skins. I let them drain on paper towels while I prepared the mushrooms.

In a heated pot I poured in 2 tablespoons of sesame oil and added the garlic. I let the garlic go for about 45 seconds and then I threw in the shiitake and green onions. I sort of stir-fried them for about 5 minutes and then poured in 1.5 tablespoons of soy sauce and a pinch of black pepper. I let the soy sauce absorb into the shiitake for about 3 minutes and then turned of the heat.

To serve, I laid the crisps down on a plate. On top of them I placed one shiso leaf. Then I spooned some shiitake mixture on top of that. That’s all she wrote, a great Jewish-Japanese dinner.

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Naha

Posted in Restaurant, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 1, 2010| 4 Comments »

The first thing you’ll notice about this post is the lack of pictures. Yuki took me out last night for my 34th birthday (damn I’m gettin old!) and my recent experience, I’m sure you’ll agree, has not been good using my cell phone’s camera in dim restaurant lighting. While I have no problem using my regular camera when traveling, I feel weird pulling it out here at home, like a tourist in my own city. That said, here is how our night at the highly acclaimed Naha Restaurant went last night.

We had a 7:30 reservation and showed up right on the dot. The hostess informed us that they were running a little behind and it’d be about 15 minutes before our table would be ready. No worries, we understand that sometimes this happens. So, we sat at these extremely uncomfortable built-in benches along the wall and waited…and waited…and waited. 15 minutes goes by and nothing. Once 8:00 rolled by I went up to inquire how much longer it’d be. I was told that 3 tables had already paid and they were just waiting for them to leave. Ok, however, the assistant hostess rolled her eyes at me for asking. Sorry, but that’s about as rude as it gets when it’s way past our reservation time and we still have not gotten our table. Fortunately for her our table was ready about 2 minutes later; I didn’t have to get the manager.

We get to our table and the interior was quite nice. Very simple and elegant with windows covering all of the exterior walls. Yuki sat on the cushioned bench, so I don’t know how comfortable that was, but the wooden chair I sat in was extremely uncomfortable. There was an ill-placed wooden bar that dug into my spine causing me to hunch over the entire time. On top of that it was way too cold in that restaurant. They could have turned the air conditioner down a good 10 degrees. I noticed most of the women around us were all kind of clenching due to the temperature. I’m pretty hairy, and even I was cold, my natural fur coat wasn’t enough insulation.

Here we are sitting at our cold, uncomfortable table waiting…waiting…waiting. It took more than 10 minutes for the busser to come over and offer us our choice of water. It took another 10 minutes for our server, Albert, to come over and greet us. 20 minutes before an appearance from our server! He even made a dumb comment, “Sorry, I know you’ve been sitting here for 2 or 3 minutes.” Try 20, buddy! I put in the order for some Cava and that came out alright.

After sipping on the Cava for a few minutes Albert came back over once he had taken the order from the table on my left as they were seated shortly before us. He asked if we had ever been there before. When I said no he proceeded to explain just about every dish on the menu. Go to Naha’s website and read the menu, every single dish is well articulated, we don’t need a recap. Not to mention, it was already an hour past our reservation time and we were damn hungry, just take our order! Before we could get our order in he disappeared again. Dude, we’ve been sitting for over a half and hour looking at the menu, our minds were made up over 20 minutes ago!

Finally, we got our orders placed. Then, we waited…and waited…and waited. We’re sitting there waiting; meanwhile, the table to my left who had ordered just 5 minutes before we did was chomping away at their appetizers. I commented to Yuki that they’ll get their entrées before we get our apps. I was right. During the wait Albert avoided us so I couldn’t even inquire. I was getting pissed!

When our appetizers finally came our stomachs were rumbling. Yuki got the Risotto with Blue Crab, Oyster Mushrooms, and Lobster Bisque. The crab was pretty good, nice and moist, but the risotto and bisque were way too salty. She cleared her plate out of sheer hunger more than anything. I got the Gnocchi with Braised Oxtails, Spanish Chorizo, Rapini, Montelerriana Cheese, and Basil. I do have to say that this was a great dish. The gnocchi were nice and soft, the chorizo added a nice compliment to the mild oxtail, the rapini a nice bitterness, the cheese the right amount of salt, and basil a refreshing note.

While we were in the middle of our apps a new table was sat to my right. They ordered right away and got their apps before we finished ours. Did the hostess have a vendetta against us for asking how much longer it’d be to get our table? Then, even though we did finish our apps before them they got their entrées before us, way before us. Shoot, they almost finished their entrees before we got ours.

During our wait between apps and entrées I was finally able to flag down Albert after the wait hit a half hour. He just kept apologizing and saying that kitchen is backed up. Sorry Albert, but that’s no excuse. My little quail should take no longer than 5-8 minutes to roast while Yuki’s brisket was either braised the day before or that morning. It should never take that long between coarses. I told him how I noticed that the tables on either side of us were getting their dishes in a timely fashion and his response was childish and defensive, “Sir, it’s not a competition.” Albert, man up and admit your service sucked. I was merely using the other tables as a reference point, not for some competition you may have going on in your feeble little head.

We just about lost our appetite because so much time had passed. Right when I was about to tell Albert to forget it, we’re leaving, the entrées showed up, more than 45 minutes from the time they cleared our apps.  

Yuki had the Braised Brisket with Hen of the Woods Mushrooms and, honestly, I forget what else was on that dish. We couldn’t get past how salty the braising liquid and mushrooms were as well as how tough the brisket was. They should have called it brisket jerky. I kept watching Yuki try to saw away at that thing just to get a bite. I think it was sitting under the heat lamps for about 20 minutes back in the kitchen. At least that’s how it tasted. I got the Roasted Quail with Kurobuta Pork Belly, Duck Egg baked in La Quercia Prosciutto, and Purple Potatoes. The quail was alright, a little dry, but not terrible. The pork belly was way too sweet, and I do mean sweet. The egg and prosciutto was so damn salty! Doesn’t Chef Nahabedian know that when you cook prosciutto you’re concentrating the salt by removing the moisture? She did nothing to control the salt level. The fact that the yolk of my duck egg was solid and not runny tells me that my dish probably sat under the heat lamps for too long as well. On top of that the three main components had absolutely nothing to tie them together. I was intrigued by the combination on paper and quite honestly, it just didn’t work on all fronts. I kept imagining what Chef Tom Colicchio would say on Top Chef about editing a dish and pulling back on ingredients. Also, there was nothing on either of our plates that justified the price. Brisket is a cheap cut of beef and quail, pork belly (literally three bites worth), and duck egg don’t cost that much either. We clearly didn’t pay for execution as nothing was balanced or cooked properly.

When we finished the entrées it was already 10:00 and we were ready to go home. Albert came by and asked if we were up for dessert and I told him, “We don’t want to be here for another hour, we’re ready to go.” He tried to joke around and said the dessert was on him. We really didn’t care for his nonchalant attitude. We’re two very pissed off diners, not friends.

Another comment on Albert’s service, not once did he come over to see how our food was. He ignored us during our apps and he ignored us during our entrées.

He left to get us the bill and the manager, Terry, came by to apologize. I told him my exact thoughts. If the service had run at regular restaurant speed we wouldn’t have waited the initial half hour to get our table not to mention the snails pace of everything else. It should never take more than a half hour to get apps, and it should never take more than 45 minutes to get an entrée from the time apps are cleared. He also blamed it on the kitchen which is a terrible cop-out. Whether deliberate or shear incompetence, our entrées clearly seemed to have been sitting in the kitchen under heat lamps for a long period of time.

When Albert brought the check he also brought a dessert, Vanilla Ice Cream Parfait with Drunken Fruit and Brioche Pain Perdu, with the obligatory “Happy Birthday” written in chocolate. It was comped, but we clearly told him we did not want dessert and just wanted to leave. The correct move would have been to just take care of some of our wine and not force us to stay there any longer. A free dessert was not enough to get the usual 20% tip we tend to leave.

I do have to say that Yuki had her doubts about Naha months ago when I mentioned that this is where I wanted to go for my birthday dinner. She thought the menu looked pretentious and unappetizing. Once again, she was right. I should have known better. Most chefs worth their grain of salt, especially those who claim to be farm-to-table chefs, are trending towards simplicity, fewer ingredients to showcase the quality of the food. Chef Nahabedian is stuck in the trends of a decade ago. Besides that, the service was clearly lacking. If you want to go out for a nice dinner with fantastic food, trust me, there are hundreds of better options than Naha where you’ll be paying their rent instead of buying a good dinner experience.

Thanks for a horrible birthday Naha!

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