What's for dinner, hunny?

I get that question a lot ever since I started my housewife venture over a year ago. Dinner is almost always ready when my husband steps foot in the apartment. I feel like he's gotten it down to the last few minutes when I'm either reheating the food or plating them, just in time for him to put his briefcase down and change into something comfortable. Some would say, spoiled much? ;)

On the menu tonight: pan seared salmon over a bed of sautéed spinach and a side of cauliflower gratin. Oh, and pea soup. I love to see colors on the plate. It just makes the dish a little more fun to eat.

I always keep a bag of frozen peas in the freezer because it is such a versatile ingredient and can be used in soups, risottos or salads. This time, I decided to make pea soup with some leftover frozen pearl onions that I had from my beef bourguignon dinner a couple weeks ago. You only need a handful of ingredients in this soup - garlic, beef broth, frozen pearl onions, bacon and of course, peas!

I cooked the bacon directly in the pot - that will help render some fat without adding any more oil. Then, I added the rest of the ingredients and brought it to a boil. When all the vegetables are cooked, I pureed the soup with my handy dandy immersion blender. You can also use a food blender but if you love pureed soups like I do, I would suggest that you invest in an immersion blender. With a hand held immersion blender, you can puree the soup directly in the pot, without having to clean another kitchen equipment. In the past, I had always used a food blender. The problem with that is you have to wait till the soup cools  before you can blend it.  I got burned once because I didn't wait for it to cool down and the steam from the hot soup pushed the lid off the blender and I got hot soup all over me. It was not fun. So, personally, an immersion blender is the way to go. My husband got me the hand held Kitchen Aid immersion blender for Christmas a couple years ago. The blending attachment can be easily removed and clean. I find it very useful when making soups and sauces. Of course, you can also use it for smoothies and other stuff that you need to blend.

Before

After

I added some croutons to the soup. Croutons (cubed and toasted bread)

Moving on to the main dish - pan seared salmon with sautéed spinach. With fish, you always want to make sure that you don't overcook it or the meat will become really tough and difficult to eat. Therefore, I always cook it last so that, I don't have to reheat them in the microwave and I can serve immediately. If you have to reheat it in the microwave and the microwave smells fishy after that, simply cut a lemon in half and heat the lemon in the microwave for 10 seconds. That's a trick that I've learned and should get the fishy smell away. 

I sautéed some baby spinach with garlic and olive oil. When the spinach is almost ready, I season it with salt and pepper and added some lemon juice. I learned to cook salmon from my mom. There is no marinade necessary, simply fresh salmon, salt and pepper, lemon and good olive oil. I season the salmon with salt and pepper on both sides, and rub them with olive oil. I used a dry non-stick skillet over medium high heat. When the pan is hot, I lay the salmon skin side down. The heat from the hot pan will give you a nice sear on the skin. When I first learned to cook, I tend to move whatever meat I am making around, thinking that I will burn the meat if I don't. That's so not true. You want to let the meat sear, so it has a nice crusty brown layer on the top. The sear will also help keep the juices in the meat. I sear the salmon for about 3 minutes on each side (depending on the thickness of the salmon). When the salmon is almost ready, I squeeze in some lemon juice. I also made some gremolata to top this dish. Gremolata is, according to Wikipedia, a chopped herb condiment. It's a combination of garlic, lemon zest and parsley. Sounds fancy, but it's really just made out of these three ingredients. 

Fresh Salmon from Whole Foods Market

Our little side of cauliflower gratin. Typically, cauliflower gratin is made with béchamel sauce topped with several types of cheeses (gruyere, parmesan or cheddar). My version is slightly lighter and you can make it all in a baking dish. No other pots required. I also decided to use purple cauliflower instead of the typical white ones to give this dish some color. 

I add cauliflower florets (from one head of cauliflower seasoned with salt and pepper and olive oil) to a baking dish and roasted them for about 10 minutes at 380F. For my gratin "sauce", I added 2 cloves of chopped garlic to 1/2 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, you can use heavy cream) and together, covered the roasted florets with some grated parmesan. I continued baking the dish for another 10 minutes until the florets are fully cooked through and the cheese is melted. The finished dish adds a nice purple hue to the meal. 

Enjoy...

Three day Meat Fest!

The last three days had been a complete and utter meat fest.

Day One:
My friends and I finally managed to snag a reservation at the infamous Animal Restaurant up in LA last Friday. Even though we only got to eat at 9:30pm, we were very excited to try after all the hype and rave reviews. We had a group of 8 people (4 couples) so we decided to order a bunch of stuff to try (a total of 21 dishes when we were finally done). A couple of notable dishes if you do try that place: - foie gras loco moco, barbecue pork belly sandwich and grilled quail. We also ordered the poutine, chicken liver toast, bone marrow, pig ear, pork ribs, polenta, veal tongue and hamachi. The only non heavy dish that night was the hamachi tostada which was refreshing and a much needed dish in our almost all meat menu. Overall, it was a very enjoyable experience. The company and food was great, although some dishes were slightly salty. We really wanted to see what the hype is all about and this place definitely lives up to its reputation.

 Foie Gras Loco Moco

BBQ Pork Sliders

Photos courtesy of yelp reviewers

Day 2:

HONEY PIG! What a great name for a Korean Barbeque restaurant. The concept is slightly different from other KBBQ places that I have tried. First off, you cook your meat on this cast iron-like wok cover and they place the kimchi and bean sprouts directly on the cast-iron. You don't get as many side dishes as you normally would at other KBBQ places but I am ok with that since I usually only eat the kimchi and rice paper. The quality of the meat is good and the meal is priced reasonably. Also, they cook your meat with chunks of butter, which makes it even tastier! When you're done with the meat, the server will prepare kimchi fried rice directly on the cast iron. The rice is really good when it gets a little crunchy and burned at the bottom. Totally adds another dimension of texture and flavor to an otherwise ordinary kimchi mixed rice.

Honey Pig cast iron wok

Photo courtesy of yelp reviewers

Day 3:
This is probably the healthiest of  all meals we had over the entire weekend. We were at Chino Hills celebrating a friend's birthday and in continuation of our carnivore weekend, we had shabu shabu for lunch. We tried to burn off some calories with bowling later. I am guessing a little bit helps, right? Here's a shoot out to Kittiya Chanporn, the birthday woman girl - Happy birthday and wishing you a year of joy and success! I'll end this post with a couple of pictures I took of two adorable sisters who reminded me of how awesome and pure sisterly love is.

Side note:
I am still recovering from my meat coma and have been doing some online research for a cleanse diet. Is there something out there that is somewhat doable? I don't want to be drinking lemon juice and cayenne pepper the entire time.

Happy Valentine's Day

It was a little chilly on Valentine's day and I thought of making something that would warm our stomachs for dinner. I finally decided on filet of beef bourguignon from my favorite food network star, Ina Garten. I got this recipe from her very first cookbook, simply "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook". This recipe is her interpretation of Julia Child's famous beef bourguignon minus the extra stewing time. I followed Ina's recipe closely and it was very easy to make. The only thing that I omitted from the recipe is butter. I think my husband and I can do without the extra fat and calories. I guess without the butter, it isn't really an Ina Garten dish. Maybe this can be in MY cookbook in the future? :P

The sauce was incredibly smooth and velvety even without the butter. I prepared this dish during the day and re-heated it right before dinner. We enjoyed the beef bourguignon with some crusty french loaf that I toasted and rubbed generously with garlic. That added another depth of flavor when we dipped it into the rich sauce. Although this dish really is a one pot wonder, it is distinctly elegant and absolutely delicious. This is definitely a crowd pleaser that can be prepared well ahead of time.

I made a simple side salad to accompany the beef bourguignon. Since strawberries are in season, I added them to a simple tossed salad. Not only does it add color to the dish, the balsamic vinegar pairs well and adds sweetness to the strawberries. It was almost like a palette cleanser to the richer beef bourguignon.

The night before, I made some red velvet batter that I baked in heart-shaped baking molds (following the Valentine's Day theme). I got the red velvet recipe from my recently purchased Magnolia Bakery cookbook. Magnolia Bakery tops their red velvet cakes with a creamy vanilla frosting. However, I decided to use cream cheese because personally, I love red velvet cakes best with cream cheese frosting.  

I piped a simple rose design on the cake, making sure I topped it generously with cream cheese frosting. I added a simple heart shaped macaron cookie on the side to finish the cake.

Finally, it was time to eat! Overall, it was a relatively simple meal to make and the results are amazing. I hope you will try this if you decide to make something special without a whole lot of fuss.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Recipe for vanilla cream cheese frosting, courtesy of yours truly:

2 8ounce cream cheese packages, room temperature
1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar

Beat the cream cheese, unsalted butter and vanilla with a paddle attachment for 1 minute. Do not whip. Slowly add powdered sugar to the creamed mixture a cup at a time beating until smooth. If the batter is too thick, add some milk. If the batter is too thin, simply add more powdered sugar.

Papa's 38th birthday!

I heart Valentine's Day! Please don't barf. Not only is this the most romantic day of the year (all right, I'm just kidding) but it is also strawberry season! I am more excited about the latter, obviously...no, seriously! Now, what has this gotta do with my father-in-law's birthday? Read on.

I made this cake for a dear friend's birthday a couple years ago and it was a big hit. So, I wanted to make this again for my father-in-law's 38th birthday (he always turns 38 on his birthday). I named this the J-Wang cake, after my good friend just because she was the first guinea pig in this recipe. So, I decided to name it in her honor. :)

This is a flourless chocolate cake with a strawberry mousse filling. Because the cake itself is so light, I didn't frost the cake with a heavy-type frosting. Instead, I opted for chantilly whipped cream. This cake calls for sugar, eggs, butter, chocolate (I used Valrhona chocolate), strawberries and whipping cream.

The whipped egg whites is what makes this cake super light and fluffy, almost soufflé-like. There is no flour in this recipe, so it's also gluten free.

I got these fresh and beautiful strawberries from an organic farm stand across the street. They are juicy and sweet, just perfect for this recipe. I love using in season ingredients because you are enjoying them at their very best.

I covered the filling of the cake generously with bite size pieces of strawberries and strawberry mousse (made from pureed strawberries and whipped cream). I personally like to cut and arrange the strawberries in a single layer because that way, you get a piece of strawberry with every single bite.

A simple piping around the cake. I hope to get better as I continue to practice piping.

Now, one with the birthday boy man. This is him with his 'Steve Jobs' impression. His name is really Sam (close) but if he can be 38 every year, he can be called Steve for one day out of the year. Happy birthday to the best FIL!