Goy Meets Dill

This is why you should do this cooking thing. It's too easy, too good.

Monday morning I moved some chicken from the freezer to the fridge figuring it would defrost while I'm at work, and when I get home, well ... well I'll do something with it. Maybe roast it, maybe stick it in a sauce. But later in the day, the idea of chicken soup came to mind.

And I swear I didn't know it's Passover.

Anyway, as it turns out, Monday night I did not make it home in time to cook. Instead I was invited to a party at one of East Hollywood's newest and most happenest rum bars - La Descarga. What a great space! And Steve Livigni and Daniel Nelson were making, literally, some of the coolest - and hottest -cocktails I've ever tasted. Smooth way to end a Monday.

So to-night, chicken still in fridge - must be utilized! Chicken soup still on the brain. I looked up a few recipes for some guidance - and this one sounded like it used the least ingredients in the least time. But being from New York and having had lived or worked at one time or another within a block of Carnegie Deli, Sarge's, and/or Mendy's, I know chicken rice soup with a lil' dill can taste simply delicious.

Here it go:

Chop up 4 medium carrots and 4 medium sized stalks of celery, roughly chop half an onion. Season one pound of chicken thighs/legs (on the bone). Pan sear the chicken and saute everything in a lightly oiled pan, enough to brown the chicken a bit, cook down the vegetables to that awesome scent of chicken/carrot/celery/onions in a pan, while kind of basting the chicken with the vegetables at the same time. Soup secret: sauteing everything before adding to the soup actually locks in the flavor of the individual ingredients, making them much tastier before and after you combine them.

While this is going on, I prepared a cup of rice (thai jasmine) in the rice cooker - this will be added towards the end.

Heat up half a container of unsalted chicken broth and about a pint of water to a simmer. Add the chicken and vegetables. Simmer it all for 30 mins. Taste along the way and season appropriately, lightly. In particular be sure not to add too much salt while you're simmering - as everything cooks down, saltiness in particular will strengthen, and you can always add more salt n pepper later if you need to. Better to add a little salt later than have to water down your broth cuz you over-salted early on. Take out the chicken (make sure it's cooked, 175-180 degrees), and cut off the bone. Return cut chicken to the simmering soup. Add a few sprigs of dill about 60 seconds before turning off the heat.

To prep for eating - take a good heaping spoonful of rice to your soup bowl. Ladle the soup over the rice. Mix, serve, spoon to lips... blow to cool, aaaand ohh yes, that is chicken soup for the soul.

My Shrimp Hand is Strong

It's Tuesday night, after yet another weekend of overindulging in some sheer tom-foodery around LA with my buddy Daniel, which included: splitting a Father's Office (Santa Monica) burger and a Pliney the Elder; splitting a Let's Be Frank "Hot" dog - this is an awesome hot dog trailer parked outside of Father's Office in Culver City (yes, we patronized both F.O.'s on Saturday) the Hot Dog is a delicious spicey dog with onions and a special sauce (harissa?) on a great chewy toasted bun; sharing a plate of potato hash from The Grill on the Alley in 90210 (not heart friendly); LIVE, still squirming baby octopus at Ma San in Koreatown - the tentacle parts crawl up your chopsticks and suck on your cheeks as you chew 'em; and finally, Animal on Fairfax - for desert. Well, it was supposed to be desert (some great maple bacon biscuit they have) but turned out to be oxtail fries, and about 4 other Animal-istic dishes that put us all down for the count.

So tonight, after a just totally awesome 2 mile run into the sunset along Belmont Beach and a quick shower, I needed something a little cleaner. And although shrimp isn't necessarily a cholesterol blocker, it's gotta be better than oxtail fries.

I found myself wandering the isles of Whole Foods feeling kinda like Abbey. Abbey who? Abbey ehhh Normal. (!!) Shrimp was on the brain, but prepared with ... hmmm. Risotto? Don't think so (not yet). Linguini? Nahhh, too much. After a few strange picks that eventually went back to the bins they came from (cauliflower, brussel sprouts), I recalled my new rice cooker that I've been wanting to break in (a take-away gift from going to see the Ellen DeGeneres show a few months back - that's right dude, Ellen - a friend had free tix, whaddyagonnado). Sooooo.. . Thai Jasmine rice.... asparagus...shiitake mushrooms... here we go!

Home.

Half a pound of peeled shrimp, marinating in oil, vinegar, dijon, garlic powder, salt pepper. Put the rice in the rice cooker, one cup of rice to one cup of water, hit the "on" button - dun't git much simpler than that. Boiled some asparagus, al dente. Sauteed some garlic and onion til soft.. added some chopped shiitakes, cooked em all down... added the shrimp, cooked that for about 90 seconds until they were cooked. Chopped up the asparagus and diced a tomato - used a spoon to turn them in with the rice..plated the rice/asparagus/tomato, dished the shrimp/shiitake saute on top... a little salt/pepper/lemon..voila! REALLY tasty and clean dish.

By the time I actually got to eating I was pretty hungry, and since it was so good, I just devoured it, barely giving myself time to really enjoy, but ohhh I still enjoyed it, a lot. I would've finished the whole thing, but I was determined to have some left over for lunch tomorrow.

Tomorrow's Lunch - It ain't Subway:

Stir It Up... Lil' Dahlin, Stir It Up

Stir fry looks really simple to make. You throw a bunch of veggies in a pan, maybe add in some chicken, beef, or tofu, perhaps some noodles, no problem. I remember the first time I tried to make chicken stir fry, maybe 2 years ago, and it came out one grey, bland, flavorless, steamed waste of time.

That was then, and I'm a bit wiser now, but I think you could spend a long time and a lot of practice trying to get an intense stir fry flavor just right. So I wasn't sure how this was going to come out.

It's Monday. Good night to get back in the kitchen after another weekend of eating out and about in LA. Briefly, this included: some grilled bacon-burgers that I seasoned with egg, onion powder, cumin, soy sauce, salt, pepper, and grilled with a little Roaring 40's Blue Cheese inside the burger - try it, you'll like it; Chicken and Fries from Dino's on Pico - this place, this chicken leaves your fingers orange from the spicy, vinegary marinade that the fries soak in during and afterwards to become, well, it is totally unlike anything else and only 5 bucks; and Vito's Pizza on La Cienega - Vito is from New Jersey, n'uff said. So tonight (after a serious run by the marina and along the beach - daylight savings time!!) I had a whole plan of going to Trader Joe's to get a bunch of broccoli, snow peas, peppers, etc. to chop up with some flank steak and stir fry. But wouldn't ya know it, they not only had bags of pre-chopped stir fry veggies, but pre-cut steak tips too, "guaranteed tender". For a second I'm thinking this is kinda cheating, but eh, I'm really only trying to impress myself at this point so I got over that guilt fast.

Seasoned the meat, tossed in a hot pan - took it out of the pan after about 60 seconds, a nice sear. Sauteed some onion and garlic, added the bag-o-veggies and then my sauce: chicken stock, rice vinegar, soy sauce, chili sauce, salt. A lot of recipes call for sesame oil and cornstarch that might make it thicker - I'm fresh out of both - so this sauce was gonna be more juicy than saucy. ("Don't get saucy with me, Bernaise".... movie?).

Added the meat back to the pan when the veggies seemed almost cooked. I wasn't too worried about overcooking them, cuz if anything, they'd just soak up the sauce better that way, but I did want to make sure the beef did not overcook after having had seared it to a nice sub-medium rare and letting it rest.

All in all - the dish was tasty. It needed a dash of soy sauce after plating, but the vegetables were actually a mix of cooked and slightly crunchy, since I added half of them late into the process (actually a rookie mistake that ended up working out). The beef stayed tender and pink inside, and the sauce had a great brown/tangy/lite-spice thing going on. And I saved a nice portion for lunch tomorrow that I bet will taste even better by then - just like Chinese stir fry is supposed to. Kinda like my old favorite take out from Joy Hing in Jersey. Minus the MSG of course. . . .

Good Morning! It's Guac O'Clock

Don't ask why when I woke up this morning the first thing on my mind was the need for fresh guacamole. Going thru a mental inventory of what's left in the fridge - one avocado, check; onion, check; garlic, check; a lime on it's last legs, check; one last tomato, check... hmm.

Really just another excuse to use my cuisinart.

So I scrambled up some eggs with half of that tomato, some mushrooms, some chopped asparagus left over from the other night, parmesan - whipped up some fresh guac and a little toast. Damn I love Saturday mornings...

Also found this pic from last night - had an impromptu omakase at Sushi Saurus on 2nd Street in Long Beach. Really nice people. Pretty good stuff although I want to say I've had better - but I'm not going to judge too harshly being that I'd spent the previous 2 hours in a cigar lounge, so there's a pretty good chance my taste was slightly tainted by some sweet Nicaraguan tobacco.

Spanish mackerel, monkfish liver, bbq salmon (?), and this - live sweet shrimp, well it was alive before he cut off the head and fried it. Mmmm crunchy shrimp heads. . .

The Wild King

Tonight: First fish. Wild King Salmon. Nice piece about an inch and a half thick, with a very pretty skin. Kept it simple with just salt and pepper, pan seared, medium rare inside and, mmmm crisped salmon skin.

Sides: organic kale sauteed with shallots and garlic. The shallots idea came from probably the best side of market vegetables I've ever had, from Westville in the West Village, NYC. Can't say I matched that flavor, but these were still pretty damn good. The other side is just a simple salad, a nice cleansing finish.

All in all a fine combo of really good stuff tonight - seared salmon, sauteed kale, and a garden salad, from pan to plate in about 45 minutes. Very pleased and satisfied.

Best Of. . .

Just a few pics of what's been going on in my kitchen in the past few weeks.

Roasted chicken thighs with sauteed zucchini and mushrooms.

Fresh pesto over roasted chicken, roasted garlic fingerling potatoes.

Omelette with tomato, avocado, onion, grated parm.

Rigatoni with freshly made sauce: sweet Italian chicken sausage (de-cased), basil, bay leaf, garlic, onions, diced tomatoes.

Turkey Chili.

Get cha crewt awn. . .

Tonight's a quick one. I can't seem to say enough to everyone I talk to about how easy, fast, and crazy tasty it is to make fresh croutons. It's like turning stale bread into candy.

After a full weekend of chasing down a handful of Jonathan Gold's "99 Things To Eat in LA Before You Die", which included Chinese noodle soup in San Gabriel (Noodle Island), Peruvian ceviche near USC (Mo Chica), Mexican Goat Stew (El Parian), and Ethiopian everything (Doro Wot @ Meals by Genet), tonight needed to be light and rough - as in roughage - big tomato salad.

Easy enough - some good Roma tomato chunks, cucumber & celery for some crunch... some boiled baby asparagus, tuna fish, mixed with my special house dressing (oil, red wine vinegar, salt/pepper, dab of mayo, dab of dijon, garlic powder or paste optional). However - since my first test with homemade croutons last week, I've been looking for another excuse to make more.

I've had this french bread sitting in a paper bag now for almost two weeks - TWO WEEKS! - still crusty, not moldy, smelled fine, just a little old but - perfect crouton material. Cut into 1 x 2 inch cubes, coated in a little EVOO, salt/pepper, garlic powder. Pre-heat the oven at 425 with the pan (just the pan) already in, for 10 minutes. Take out pan - give it a quick spray of non-stick spray, pour croutons on the hot pan. Rain down a little more garlic powder and salt - bake for 8 minutes to a toasty golden brown. Add to the salad - enjoy.

Oh, yeah, enjoy: crusty garlicky bits that soak up dressing but remain crispy outside, and soft & chewy on the inside.

Simple things. . .

Homme Appetit: Mission

Growing up in the media business and being married to a gourmet chef has had its perks between being wined & dined at most of the finer eateries in NY and LA, and being privy to many of the minds and talented hands that make them so. Thousands of dishes and dollars later, I would hope that I possess a relatively well-trained palette and am able to appreciate texture and flavor whether they're new and "exotic" (to me), old standards, high brow, low brow or some brow in between, and, hell, really anything that just tastes good.

Yet it is only now that I've begun to seriously attempt to do for myself - that is - cook simple, healthy, and delicious meals-for-one without compromising the "taste"-ful lifestyle I've become accustomed to. In reality, this is more out of fear of returning to the laziness and complacency of diners, burgers, fries, and chinese take-out that was such a staple of my previous single life.

Luckily though, perhaps through some kind of osmosis, I seem to have already developed a pretty solid hand for seasoning and combining simple ingredients to make a quality dish. And what I'm starting to realize, is that there is simply no reason to not eat well on your own - particularly if it's only because you think you can't, or because you don't think it's worth the trouble of cooking for just one.

Trust me, it's worth it. Not only is it fun to the point of near-obsession, but it's so much healthier and more affordable than eating out every night, and the satisfaction you get out of creating something you enjoy, that tastes great, that you're learning more about each time you do it, leads to even greater inspiration to do it again tomorrow - and hopefully do it better.

What is to follow in this space will be periodic updates of my new culinary journey, cooking and eating well, for just one man... un homme seulement. I expect some hits, some misses, but so far, most of what I've made are personal bests - happy, flavorful bests, that I expect to steep myself in and grow slightly more sophisticated with through time, practice, and moving fearlessly forward.

Homme Appetit.