Jul/100
inspiration from the north
so i saw this post over at beijing hao chi about making duck a l’orange using a rice cooker and it gave me an idea. well the idea was to make duck a l’orange – except instead of using my crappy rice cooker, i’d use my nice italian glorified toaster oven.
but the main inspiration was to go to the somewhat-local lianhua supermarket and buy my duck legs. my local lianhua is terrible and cityshop is expensive AND doesn’t carry poultry beyond chicken. but at the larger, somewhat more foreigner friendly one down the road – lots of poultry to be had.
following on a combination of the beijing hao chi recipe linked above and the recipe culled from anthony bourdain’s les halles cookbook that i won’t bother replicating here – but let’s just say it involved duck, various types of citrus, some leftover red wine from the last time galbraith was here to watch “fargo”, various herbs and some oven time.
photos after the jump
Mar/102
eating in singapore: sandra’s paella
it wasn’t all roti, chicken rice, satay, and singaporian food. on saturday night, my good friend sandra prepared paella (and i made an apple crumble) and we ate by the pool at her apartment complex.
Feb/100
posh is for breakfast
ikea. cheap gravlax. cheap caviar. gravlax mustard sauce. founder’s bagels. philly lite cream cheese.
Feb/106
cooking with kraft foods
my aunt pauline is famous for her lime jell-o cheesecake. it’s an awfully midwestern dish to be served up by a family from hong kong – but as i understand, it’s been handed down for, well at least a decade or three from our family’s minnesota roots. we don’t actually have minnesota roots, but we do have a somewhat family recipe which mainly involves mixing together various kraft food products.
this would be my first time making this dish – and as my cousin has found out, it’s not quite as easy as stirring some stuff together.
here’s my mise-en-place consisting of grahem crackers, kraft philadelphia cream cheese, knox gelatin, jell-o brand lime gelatin dessert, vanilla, sugar and butter.
Feb/1011
No one in the world ever gets what they want And that is beautiful
me? i have horrible food presentation skills.
this is a super tasty roasted thyme chicken dish with hollandaise sauce (yes! i even held the egg yolk over a double boiler and kept it at temperature!)
i really need to learn how to make a dish presentable.
Jan/103
guess who’s coming to dinner?
so after a couple of weeks of watching iron chef america back in the states, i came back to shanghai inspired to cook some new things.
after watching battle cheese, i figured homemade ravioli would be an easy choice – especially since the “making your own wrappers” can be short-cut-ed by using pre-made jiaozi wrappers. (i’ve made my own pasta before – it is a LOT of work and very time consuming. buying a pack of wrappers is a huge time saver)
i didn’t have a solid idea of what i wanted to use for the filling, but walking around city shop, i chose lardon (french streaky bacon), ricotta cheese and peas.
Dec/092
dadgummit! blowout!
for me, watching the 1983 movie “a christmas story” is almost as much as a tradition as christmas itself.
with that in mind, we had everyone get together to watch the movie and to have meatloaf, mashed potatoes, broccoli florets with cheese sauce and cream of mushroom soup (prepared by colin). it was the first time i’ve made meatloaf – but it turned out quite well, except for it falling apart, so it became meat-pile, instead of meatloaf.
Nov/093
everybody’s cooking for the weekend
i grew up watching cooking shows. well before the advent of Bobby Flay, Emeril, Giada and Tony Bourdain – i was watching the Frugal Gourmet and Yan Can Cook on american public broadcasting. (PBS 28 for those of you from los angeles) – and i grew up cooking, mainly because i was a latch-key kid, but also because i liked it. i wasn’t great at it, but you at least gain a certain comfort level with knives, pans, pots, and fire if you grow up near the kitchen like i did.
sadly, one of my icons of junior high hood came crashing down when the frugal gourmet was accused of sexual assault, and while no charges were ever brought, he pretty much fell from grace.
however, i continued to cook and watching food tv and cooking shows. as i got to university and was living on my own, i’d make myself a big meal on sunday and eat leftovers for a few days. as for cooking shows, i got into an interesting conversation about how one is supposed to cook and watch at the same time – but really the cooking shows are supposed to serve as inspiration. you know, get the viewer at home to say “that’s not that difficult; i can do that!” unless the show is iron chef.
so what’s my point?
it’s this. i found this awesome recipe for a mushroom and béchamel sauce based macaroni and cheese. the ultimate comfort food gussied up.
and here’s a photo – coming out of the oven
and then paired with a dad’s root beer. i actually have too much – anyone want to come over?
