I Love You More Than Food

Category: San Francisco

Going Japanese: Miso Marinated Black Cod, Carrots & Konnyaku in Tofu Sauce

Saikyo Yaki & Konnyaku to Ninjin no Shira ae

I’ve had a fabulous traditional Japanese cookbook for some years now, never really venturing into it. I was interested in it because an old friend used to cook, by nature, a lot of fusion food, and I loved the yuzu citrus so much that I”d go to the Japanese market in Berkeley with some regularity. Now that I live in SF, I have all the expanse of the Nijiya supermarket in Japantown, among other resources.

I’m not inclined to post a lot of the recipes, because they’re complicated, and require making sauces and broths and other things before cooking your actual item, but also because for most people, it will be difficult to find the ingredients.

That said, Japanese food photographs beautifully, and I hope to integrate some of the techniques and ingredients I am learning about into my more improvisational cooking in the near future.

Miso Fish

– Best to use Salmon or Black Cod/other oily fish

– Marinate for 1.5 lbs of fish; I like to do this on Saturdays or Sundays and use it throughout the week; later in the week the flavors are stronger so it’s best to use the cod last as the marinade will remove some of the oily, fishy flavors.

-Marinade must be applied for at least 1 day in fridge or up to 5

Cheesecloth or Japanese cooking cloth
3/4 cup light colored, sweet miso
1-2 T mirin
1 T freeze dried Yuzu peel, zest of 1 fresh yuzu, or zest of 1-2 fresh lemons or limes

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Wrap each piece of fish in 1-2 layers of cheesecloth or 1 layer of Saryachi cloth. Paint the marinade on TOP of the cloth, not touching the fish directly. Layer neatly and reasonably tightly (without aggrevating the fish flesh) into a glass, ceramic or plastic container with a lid. Coat each side of the fish and continue layering. It is OK to mix fish types in the same container.

To cook, after marinated at least 1 day in refrigerator, remove cheesecloth and scrape any clumps of marinade off the fish. Put into small foil pan or other pan that is broiler safe with skin side up. Broil for 2-4 minutes, until skin is crisped and blackened. Flip, and cook until colored and cooked through under broiler.

I like to serve this with something acidic, like a simple salad or impatient pickles, and sometimes some miso soup as well.

February 1, 2010
Sunday’s Champagne Brunch – southern biscuits, winter fruit salad, kale gratin

A friend is moving back to her native Sicily and I hosted a brunch for her yesterday. There were 7 of us and our menu was:

– Butternut Squash & Kale gratin

– Southern Biscuits

– Trio of amazing fruit preserves

– Crispy Bacon

– Winter Fruit Salad

– Soft Scrambled Eggs

And a dear friend showed up with not only bubbly, guava, and peach juice, but also a big thing of tortellini salad. Thanks Lauren! (MR. Y finished it off after the movie!)

I’m not going to preach on the easiest of this list of dishes–a quick note about bacon and eggs.

Scrambled Eggs. The key to your success is low heat and lots of stirring. You know what most recipes tell you to do with risotto? Don’t do that with risotto. Do it with eggs. They will take longer, but they will not taste like you made them in the microwave.

Bacon should be served crispy and taken out of the pan just before you think it looks crispy. It’ll get there.

My no-fail recipe for Southern Biscuits comes from Alton Brown. Don’t try to outdo it, you won’t. I follow it to a T and end up making it several days in a row after reviving it for an occasion. In fact, I’m going to go buy more flour as soon as I finish writing this. I served them with fig-almond spread, plum preserves and peach preserves from local frog hollow farms. You can buy the latter ones on their website.

Winter Fruit Salad (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

3/4 Cup sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
3 star anise
zest of 1 lemon
10-12 dried apricots, sliced in half
Juice from the same lemon
3 firm pears of any variety (I used Comice, Bosc, and D’anjou)
1 tart apple

Bring 4 cups water and sugar to boil with star anise, vanilla bean. Add lemon zest and dried apricots, and let cool completely. Meanwhile, peel all of your remaining fruits and remove the cores (the easiest way to remove the core of an apple is to quarter it, and turn each quarter on its side, slicing diagonally the core area off). Slice the fruit thinly and evenly and toss in the lemon juice. When syrup is cooled, gently mix all together, cover, and store 8 hours or overnight in the fridge. Serve with slotted spoon. I reserved the remaining syrup for another use in the freezer.

Butternut Squash & Kale Gratin (also adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

For an oval gratin pan, 13″ long and 3″ deep
1.25 lb thinly sliced butternut squash
1.5 lb dino/lacinato kale and/or baby rainbow chard–I did 50% of each–clean & cut into small pieces
1 small onion, diced
pinch of nutmeg
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups heavy cream or whole milk
4 T butter
2 T flour
1 T fresh flatleaf/Italian parsley, minced
1 T fresh thyme, mined
1 1/4 C gruyere cheese (about 5 oz)
lots of salt & pepper

Start by washing and spinning dry your greens. Dice the onion and begin cooking it at medium low heat in a large pan in 2 T butter. When soft, add any chard stems you are using and a pinch of nutmeg, salt, pepper. Cook another 1-2 minutes. Add greens and keep adding & stirring until all are wilted. Turn off heat and place mixture in a fine collander to remove excess moisture.

Sauce: bring 2 C cream or milk to near boil with the garlic, being sure not to let it burn. Meanwhile, in a larger sauce pan, melt 2 T butter. When melted and water content is steamed off, add the flour and whisk, cooking 1-2 min more. Add the hot milk and whisk for 1-2 more minutes while bringing to a boil, turn off and leave it alone.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Arrange 1/2 the butternut squash in your pan, evenly along the bottom. Add 1/4 the herbs, salt, pepper, and then top with 1/4 C of the cheese. Next, half the greens evenly on top. More salt & pepper, more herbs, more cheese. Pour 1/2 the sauce evenly over it at this point, and go back to the butternut squash slices. Add salt, pepper, then herbs, cheese. Add the rest of the greens, the herbs, salt & pepper. Top wit the rest of the sauce and then the rest of the cheese. Bake uncovered for the first 1/2 hour, throw foil on it for the 2nd half.

As an aside, I want to reitorate how happy I am in my new space. Oh my gosh, look at that, I have a entry table! With a place to–no, really?–place flowers. Incredible.

January 18, 2010
Baked Salmon with Indian Couscous & Bok Choy

For Two:

1lb bok choy/baby bok choy
1lb salmon of your choice (we used Atlantic)
2/3 C couscous
2 carrots, grated
1/2 onion, diced
soy sauce
toasted sesame oil
sake
parsley, chopped fine
Chat Masala spice mix (get it at Indian supply store)
Gomashi (toasted sesame seeds ground with salt, or just use some of each)
olive oil
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400. For a weekday meal, marinade your salmon flesh down in soy sauce, sake, olive oil, gomashi mixture for at least 30 min at room temperature. Place it in a small foil pan (this is to make things easier later) with a lining of parchment, adding a bit of the marinade on top so it is poached on the bottom by it. Put it in the oven.

Cut the bottoms of your bok choy and then slice so they’re in four parts lengthwise, but not necessarily completely cut apart. Wash them by immersing in water and drying with a salad spinner, if you have one. Heat a skillet to high and add toasted sesame oil or olive if you don’t have any. When hot, add bok choy and toss around to coat. Add gomashi to taste. Turn heat down if things are burning or smoking.

For couscous, heat 1-2 T olive oil and add onions at medium heat. Let soften a bit and add carrots and seasoning mixture, about 1-2 T. Add salt. Boil 1 1/2 C water, meanwhile adding couscous to onion mixture to toast a bit. When water is boiling, add to couscous mixture, turn off heat, cover immediately. Let it stand about 7 minutes to cook. Add parsley at end when fluffing to serve.

Serve it all up.

January 5, 2010
The Sweetest Friend

A few weeks ago I celebrated a birthday. I invited only a small group of people, two of whom happen to be married. One ended up being legitimately exhausted, and she sent in her stead an amazing little backup cake. K works at a bakery, and does work on cakes, so this was quite an exciting gift.

Let me tell you something, people. You better believe your eyes. This cake was COMPLETELY (even the BOTTOM) covered in rainbow sprinkles! It was so great that I even left the rest of my extremely delicious chocolate cake covered in salted caramel icing with the staff of the restaurant we ate at. Granted, they earned it by serving us all night and keeping the margaritas flowing; we even got some specialty cinnamon tequila.

October 25, 2009
dim sum for “white people” – Seafood Dumpling

1 pack gyoza wrappers (round, about 50 per pack)
1/3 lb crab meat
1/3 lb large scallops, diced
1/3 lb deveined/peeled shrimp, chopped
2 green onions, sliced thinly
1/2 carrot, shredded finely
1/4 head napa cabbage fresh, sliced finely, salted, left aside to wilt, rinsed, and drained/squeezed dry
3-4 cloves garlic, minced and mushed into a paste
1 generous T of ginger, grated into a paste
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 T minced cilantro
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 T sake
1 1/2 T soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt

Mix everything together, adding the liquids last. Using a small spoon, put about 1 heaping/rounded tsp onto each gyoza wrapper. Using a spray bottle, dampen the open face of the wrapper, and gently fold in half, sealing the filling and not air. Gently pull the sides/lobes of the half moon together to create the shape you see in the photos above.

Cook the same way as the shrimp & pork gyoza, or steam above simmering water until cooked through (you can fill your colander with a layer of lettuce, cabbage, or some other similar item in order to create a steamer if you do not own one).

For the Dipping Sauce

2 parts soy sauce
1 part seasoned rice vinegar
3/4 part yuzu juice
1/4 part chili oil

October 6, 2009
dim sum for “white people” – Shrimp & Pork Gyoza

It’s one of the things that white people like…and I had a lot of fun making three kinds of dumplings over the weekend, freezing them, and having them last my boyfriend until.. yeah, lunch on Tuesday. 200 pieces. The man is a machine.

I’d recommend a finely misting spray bottle for these, folks–I converted an old hair product bottle by washing it in vinegar a few times.

Shrimp & Pork Gyoza

50+ pack of gyoza wrappers (yeah, I’m lazy, when you fold 50 peices of these you don’t want to make 50 wrappers too)
1/3 lb shrimp (deveined, peeled, chopped)
1/3 lb pork
1 green onion, sliced thin
4 cloves garlic, minced and then mushed into a paste
1 full T of fresh ginger, grated into a paste
1/2 carrot, grated finely
1/4 head napa cabbage, finely chopped
1/2 tsp sugar
2 T soy sauce
1 T sake
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Prep your ingredients by first chopping the cabbage and putting it in a bowl, mixing with 1/2 tsp salt. Let it sit for a good 15 minutes and wilt. When you’re ready to use it, rinse it and squeeze excess water out until reasonably dry.

Mix everything together, adding the liquids last. Use a small spoon to put 1 rounded tsp or so onto the center of each gyoza. Spray with your handy water spray bottle, and gently fold the wrapper in half, keeping the back half flat and folding the front half–sealing in the filling and not so much air. Check out this handy guide on how to shape the gyoza, except that I make 4-6 of them on my cutting board at a time and go through to fold them up all at once.

To cook, heat a nonstick to medium high heat, and spray with canola oil. Arrange the gyoza once the pan is hot in a circle to fit the most in (see picture). Cook for about 2 minutes, until golden on the bottom.

Add about 1/2 a coffee cup of water, or enough to coat the whole bottom of the pan but not make the dumplings “boil”. Cover immediately and reduce heat to medium; let them steam for about 5 minutes until cooked through. Remove the lid and if you desire them more crispy, flip them over to cook another 1-2 minutes. Serve!

Also, you can absolutely freeze these while on a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper or a silpat, for about 30 min, and then put them into a freezer bag. They last beautifully even when frozen raw, uncooked. You can then pull them out and cook them just like they were fresh, but with a tiny bit longer steaming time.

For the dipping sauce

2 parts soy sauce
1 part seasoned rice vinegar
1/4 part chili oil

October 6, 2009
My Kitchen: Back In Action

The original plan was to throw my stuff in storage while evacuating a home of disbanding roommates, to buy the bare essentials from ikea, from east bay restaurant supply, from the dollar store–make do in the studio together for a couple of months, save some money, move out and back into the world of roommates.

But it didn’t make sense to, so a year later and a winter without the majority of my sweaters (I moved at the beginning of summer….) I’ve been working with a 3/4 size electric stove (a full gas range and plenty of counter space was always a priority in finding my own place), a kitchen full of abandoned laptops, computer fans, hooks that were never hung on the wall, and, after buying a new coffee pot as a gift for my (wonderful) boyfriend, inevitably two coffee pots next to each other on the very limited counter space. Thank the powers that be for our amazing back yard! Hello, sanctuary!

Well this has changed. My parents visited for the weekend, we took them up on an offer to help and grabbed what we thought was all of my kitchen boxes from a storage unit an hour from our place in SF, brought them back and I delightfully rummaged through them finding what I couldn’t wait any longer to have back. This means our space is even more impacted now, but I feel like I have my artillery back!

I mean, I unpacked reidel tumblers, nonstick pans, multiple whisks, a pasta machine (which I have mixed feelings about), a french press, the many many things I’ve missed. Now, I’m thinking I must have missed a box. Where is my Deruta pitcher & espresso cups??? Surely we missed one–so when I return the stuff I don’t have room for right now we can start the whole process again–I’m sure you’re really happy to read that, right, boyfriend?

Good things to come y’all.

Two Memories in my Berkeley Kitchen:

September 6, 2009
Five-Spice & Salted Pimento Pork with Rum Peaches & Chard

At a dinner party for six, I made a few quick courses that ended up with a fabulous “bang” on an easy, warm weeknight in the backyard.

– Pluot slices with seasoned Sheep’s ricotta and Prosciutto

– Grilled pork tenderloin with “5 spices” & rum braised peaches + rainbow chard

– Dark chocolate ice cream with bergamont olive oil & sea salt

The first and the last were partially stolen from a previous dinner and a local creamery, so aside from giving you a brief hint* on the first I’ll leave you to your own devices.

*mix your sheep’s milk ricotta with some orange or lemon zest, some bergamont olive oil, and vanilla salt, then drizzle the whole combo, once wrapped and held together by prosciutto, with balsamico.

1 pork tenderloin, rubbed generously with mixture of dried pepper & salt, and five spice powder. Allow to marinate as such for 30-1hr, then drizzle with high heat oil such as macadamia, and throw it on a medium grill, turning a little frequently to prevent charring.

1 bunch rainbow chard, stems removed and chopped 1 inch, cooked at medium heat in olive oil, with salt and pepper, the leaves added to wilt at the end.

Peaches into the chard pan once the chard is removed, brought to high heat with butter, get them golden on one side and douse in bacardi 151 or another rum (or calvados). Flip them, get them golden on the other side, add more rum. Cook it off and serve it all together!

September 3, 2009
10 Courses of Pasta and then we rolled over: Quince SF

I’ve been procrastinating on this one, which was probably not the best idea since it is painfully difficult to remember the details of 10 courses the same night, let alone weeks later, delightful as they were.

We had the opportunity to dine at Quince (Yelp) with a friend who once worked there making pasta and other duties. Because of this, we had a rather fantastic 10 course pasta meal with multiple desserts and interludes that took up our whole Tuesday evening.

As a normal denizen, I’d recommend going on Tuesday evening simply because the chef’s tasting menu IS a pasta tasting menu on Tuesdays…except, we had the expanded, customized version.

Frankly, I was so mesmerized by the food we were eating and the wine we were drinking that I didn’t manage to whip out my camera until we were nearly through; it was dark anyway.

We ate a little lobster salad with speck and watermelon to start with, a little amuse bouche. I will not be able to fully recall what we ate but I’ll try:

Francobolli (postage stamp style ravioli) filled with cipollini onion and with a frothy fresh english pea sauce–this was incredible, delightful, light

Spaghetti with clam, melon, espresso — surprisingly tasty

“Cannoli” (i think??) with ricotta

Little hat shaped pastas with a rim in an amazing broth i could not figure out with some orange, stock, etc

Tortelli of carbonara – filled with speck, egg, parsley in a carbonara type sauce (egg yolk)

A thick, northern noodle that was firm and dense made with farro and with a confit or braised meat and other rich, delicious things

Dessert included blackberry gelees and sorbettos, exploding honey domes, chocolate crunchies, peaches–there were several, followed with a plate of cookies and miniture cakes and verbena truffles.

(Officially, we had June Pride Peaches with Greek yogurt sorbet and poppy seed cake, Frozen blackberry tart with coconut sorbetto and buckwheat crumble, and provencal almond gelato with soft chocolate, lavender and honey.)

I’m doing a poor job of reconstructing this so I will consult with our ex-cook friend and see what we can remember.

And then, we snuck into the kitchen and had a peek. Apologies for the low light photography but I had to be a little discreet.

September 3, 2009
Spicy Tuna Salad alla copycat The Sentinel SF

Well, it’s not the first time I’ve taken a hint from something I enjoyed at The Sentinel in San Francisco. It’s probably not the last.

This serves 3-4 people.

1/2 lb ahi tuna, fresh
1/4 lb green beans, chopped evenly and blanched in salted water
1 gypsy pepper, sliced very, very thinly (this is a green mini bell pepper type thing)
1 T tomato paste (I use san marzano)
2 T Lemonaise (mayonaise with seasoning and lemon flavor)
1 T dijon mustard
1 tsp tumeric powder
1-2 T cajun seasoning (I made my own–chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, salt, thyme, nutmeg/mace, etc)
juice of 1/2 lemon
handful cilantro, minced
3 T homemade bread n butter pickles, small dice (use your imagination to sub)

Cook the tuna in olive oil after seasoning with salt and pepper. Flake apart and chop. Mix the sauce using the lemonaise, dijon, lemon juice, tumeric, cajun powder (use more as necessary, feel free to add chili powder), tomato paste. Mix the tuna into it, then start adding green beans, gypsy pepper, cilantro, pickles. Adjust as needed. Enjoy.

I really enjoyed this, especially since these damn pickles have been sitting in my fridge almost as long as the homemade preserved lemons I made last year.

August 10, 2009