Fish and gyoza

Chinese style


Gyoza

Gorgonzola pear tart w prosciutto

et Voila !

Finally prepared my cans of Confit De Canard!!!

... that me and Raf got from his family in France.

Lightly salted the skin, baked it...


Then sauteed it skin side down to make it crispy


I made poached pear in a red wine reduction infused with both chicken stock and duck fat, as well as garlic, salt, and sugar. Turned out pretty good!

Potato gratin


Look at all that delicious duckfat left


Carlo's first traditional French meal

Baked chicken and cheesecake

Ummmmm juicy and tender


My ex-roomie, Carlo, went cherry picking and got me a shitload of cherries. I made a cherry compote with fresh grapefruit juice, sugar, and Triple Sec. Turned out pretty good. I typically don't like the syrupy sweet types of cherry compote so I made mine a bit runny and tart.

Baked cheesecake with Cherry compote

The Last Supper

For the "Last Supper" as a farewell to my first-home, I cooked a "Comfort Food" themed dinner for some friends.

Menu:

Mac N Cheese
Corn and Green beans
Fried chicken
Mango/apple sausages
Bread pudding
Tiramisu

I love my Mac N Cheese and it seems to be one of my most popular dishes amongst my friends. I also LOVEE corn and green beans - so simple and so good! I was very proud of my fried chicken this time around. It was the 2nd time that I prepared it - I didn't marinate it in buttermilk or any of that. I just marinated it in paprika, chili pepper, cayenne pepper, and S&P, and let it sit over night. Then I lightly coated it with flour that was seasoned with S&P, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and chili + paprika. No eggs, no extra wash, no measuring, just simple ingredients. I fried then baked it. Turned out to be really juicy with lotsa flavor. I would have liked it spicier but some people probably wouldn't like to eat it that way. Yum Yum!

Mac N Cheese


I ran out of propane so here's Raf e-grilling the sausages


Fried chicken




Bread pudding




Tiramisu


The bread pudding was a tad bit too sweet for me although my (ex)roomie loved it. Then again, he's a sugar phene. =)

Overall the tiramisu and bread pudding tasted better on the 3rd day. We spent the rest of the weekend eating up the large amount of leftovers (that included people stopping by sporadically). I received one of the best compliments from one of my friends about my tiramisu - that it was "fucking good." You know someone likes it when they say fucking!

"Catered" a BBQ

I catered a small BBQ today for fun.

The menu consisted of:

Sangria
Bruschetta
Cheese plate
Apple/Mango sausages
Mac N Cheese
Grill asparagus
Red wine Marinated flank steak stuffed with Fontina cheese
Fruit tarte (from Costco - not very good)

Didn't get a whole lot of pix but here are a few:

It's been awhile...

I'm still alive!!!

It's been awhile but I have been cooking just a little bit. Until then, you can checkup on my French culinary adventures starting here:

Chicken Parmigiana (sort of)

Another day of: What to do with leftovers? I had one chicken breast leftover, some pasta sauce, and spaghetti I could quickly boil so I decided to try making chicken parmigiana. I pounded the chicken breast so it was pretty flat, cut it in half, and breaded it with flour, egg, panko, and some old hardened asiago cheese I had leftover. I know, I know, you are supposed to use mozzarella and parmesan but I didn't have time to go to TJ's to pick some up. Obviously, the asiago doesn't melt well but with all the grating I did (and muscles I gained), it still turned out pretty tasty.

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS BEFORE I PUT THE MARINARA SAUCE ON. I INITIALLY DIDN'T PUT THE MARINARA SAUCE ON BECAUSE IT WAS BEING TRANSPORTED TO RAF'S PLACE. I HATE IT WHEN THE AL DENTE NOODLES SOAK UP THE SAUCE AND TURN INTO A MUSHY, DRY, GROSS, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CAFETERIA TYPE SPAGHETTI. =)

Mexican Vegetable Soup

I had a crapload of cilantro left so I decided to make Mexican Vegetable Soup. I've never made it before but I absolutely love it. I did have to add some chicken in it. I need protein. =)

Here is my take on it:

-chicken
-zuchinni
-carrots
-tomato
-potato
-corn
-cabbage



Fresh, healthy, hearty, and satisfying


Ummm, rice and beans. I have managed to not totally fuck up rice now.


And of course, plantains!

Frieeddd chicken!

I had a bunch of leftover chicken legs that I needed to get rid of so I decided to try making fried chicken. Never done it before but they turned out pretty good. Next time I will put more cayenne pepper.

First I seasoned with chili, cayenne pepper, paprika, S&P. Then I let it sit, then soaked it with buttermilk and dijon mustard. Then let it sit - then coated with flour mixed w/ baking power, garlic powder, paprika, etc.

Fried, then baked! Sort of a long process but who doesn't love some friieedd chicken?



Of course, I had to make some mashed potatoes, and some veggies to balance out all the fried goodness.



Add a bottle of Bordeaux - tis a good meal.

Manchego Cheese Souffle, scalloped potatoes, and grilled Asparagus

I had a bunch of leftover egg whites that I needed to get rid of. Also some Manchego cheese that was getting a wee bit too hard. So last Tuesday, I decided to try making a cheese souffle. Although it wasn't physically perfect, it was still pretty tasty. The potatoes I made on a whim with onions, butter, and milk. These turned out to be a hit, surprisingly. Raf and L'Erhan loved it!



Close-up


I made about six souffles - we ate them all, on top of finishing all the asparagus and potatoes. No leftovers tonight.

Soupe à l'oignon

Decided to have a dinner tonight - but I did things backwards.

I served some Crescent Rolls (thanks Pillsbury - these are the best!).


Then I made some blinis. I never knew what a blini was until I ate at the wonderful Southern French Restaurant - Côté Sud. It's like a pancake but thicker and more dense. At Côté Sud, they served blinis stuffed with smoke salmon. Was very good. I decided to make my blinis stuffed with a bit of Gruyère cheese. I topped them with some pesto. The pesto was a bit overpowering, so next time I will make a cream sauce. I initially wanted to do that but I didn't have enough time.



And then I served LEFTOVERS! hehehe. I sliced whatever I had left of the flank steak on top of some mashed potatoes. I ran out of mushroom sauce so we ate it with Dijon mustard (my bf had it with A1 - haha)


Then came the main dish: Soupe à l'oignon. Like I said, this meal was backwards. =)


And finally, to hit two birds with one stone, served Affogato to satiate the dessert and espresso cravings after a savory meal. I bought this vanilla gelato from Trader Joe's. Personally, I prefer vanilla bean ice-cream versus this gelato which was too sweet and not "vanilla-beaned" enough for me. But regardless, with a shot of fresh espresso, the sweetness balanced it out.

Here's L'Erhan having Affogato for the first time.


Made one for Carlo too.

What to do with leftover ingredients

I had leftover flank steak, portabella mushrooms, and potatoes in my fridge that I needed to get rid of. I decided to marinate the flank steak with garlic, S&P, make a mushroom cream sauce, and mashed potatoes. Unfortunately, my propane tank was out so I had to broil the flank steak at the last minute. All went well though - the mashed potatoes and the mushroom sauce turned out great. I simply used olive oil, butter, vermouth, mushrooms, onions, milk, and a bit of cornstarch to thicken it up. Yummy.

Sorry about the presentation - had some help from my lovely boyfriend. ;)

I love coffee

A tribute to just a sip of good coffee. It always completes a good meal. This small shot in particular is Costa Rican - we bought a couple bags while we were there a year back.

Cheesecake

I made cheesecake yesterday but didn't put enough gelatin in it. It turned out to be a bit too soft so it didn't set all the way, but nonetheless, still tasty. Next time I'm going to cut back on the amount of butter in the crust.

Vanilla wafer crust


A stick of butter


Poor Gingy doesn't get to eat cheesecake

Red wine (Syrah) Flank Steak stuffed with Fontina Cheese and Basil

Was watching Boy Meets Grill and decided to try this dish by Bobby Flay. I bought some flank steak while I was at Costco yesterday so I figured Sunday night would be a good night to experiment. Luigi whom I haven't seen for awhile came by, plus Raf, and L'Erhan.

Flank steak in Syrah wine ($4 - Trader Joe's, wine actually tastes very good) + shallots + black pepper.


Marinate for 3-4 hours. Ummm, purple steak.


Fill with Fontina cheese:


Fresh basil (I used Thai basil)


Fold over and throw it on the grill


While that was grilling - I prepared and served some baked cheeses.

Pre-baked cheeses


My grill sucks - doesn't get hot enough so I ended up grilling it for about 10-15 minutes to get it medium rare to medium. (Btw - I think I finally converted L'Erhan to eat medium rare. Yay! I remember my days of eating well-done. Blasphemous!) After, I let it sit for about 10 minutes to let the juices settle. Then I sliced it.

Voila !


I made a red wine sauce per Bobby Flay with shallots, red wine, and black peppers (and reduced it). It was a little too wine-y for me so I added chicken stock and a little butter. I didn't totally like it by itself, but when I poured it on my meat, it actually tasted quite good.

Want a closer look? The flavors of the meat was something that I never really had before. It was a pleasant and different surprise.


Afterwards, I served some more cheese (I know too much food, need to work on that but I had already prepped this)


The Raclette and Comte cheese were raw. The Raclette really did smell like sweaty jock straps and socks. Pretty gross. Didn't taste as funky as the smell. First cheese I didn't like. Actually, L'Erhan was the only one that loved the cheese. Well, he is French. =) I made him take it home. hah!

I made a cheesecake but it hadn't settled yet. Last minute, we decided to do some semi-sweet chocolate fondue. All I had were some strawberries.

Mid-melting point.


L'Erhan and Luigi KurumaZ.


Raf fighting over the fondue.


Later on I busted out the marshmellows and vanilla wafers. We made cute little smore sammiches.


Smoosh it and eat


The end.