Black and White Cookies

Ngoc and tried this recipe out on a Friday evening a few weeks ago. New York style Black and White cookies are supposed to have a lemony cake-ness to the underlying cookie, according to Ngoc's Baking Illustrated (Bible). However, I posit that this recipe works with ANY cookie...chocolate chip, white chocolate chip chocolate cookie, even gingerbread if you care for that! The takeaway from this is the frosting, which is made with a small amount of corn syrup. Corn syrup makes for an awesomely spreadable consistency. The recipe goes something like:

Black and White Cookies

15-18 Large sized cookies of your choosing
2 oz. Unsweetened Chocolate
1.5 cups Powdered Confectioners Sugar
1/4 cup Corn Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Start by melting the chocolate. This is best done in a metal bowl suspended over boiling water. The steam heats the bowl enough to melt the chocolate without burning it. When melted remove from heat, or turn down heat so that water is barely simmering.

Mix together powdered sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla until a smooth even consistency is achieved. Pour off half of this mixture into melted chocolate.

Using a baking spatula, gently glaze the white frosting onto one half of a cookie. Quickly glaze the chocolate frosting onto the other half. You will get the hang of this as you go along! An easy method is to glaze on a generous amount of frosting, turn the cookie so that the frosting drips off of one side, and then a few seconds later trim the excess frosting off the edge of the cookie using the edge of the baking spatula.

If at any time the frosting reserves start to dry up, add in a teaspoon of warm water and stir until smooth consistency returns.

This weekend was my 27th birthday, and Ngoc planned a grand slew of festivities, not least of which was a Saturday evening dinner at Cyrus in Healdsburg. Herein I'm going to try and accomplish the arduous task of recounting our dinner affair, but first a little bit about Cyrus.

Cyrus has actually only been open for roughly three years now. In that short timespan, it's earned 2 Michelin stars, a 4-star rating from the SF Chronicle, and a listing in Gourmet Magazine's Top 50 Restaurants. In short this place is no joke! The reputation can be attributed mainly to exec. chef/owner Douglas Keane. Douglas Keane started his West Coast culinary career working under Traci Des Jardines at Jardiniere. He eventually worked up to the position of Executive Chef at Jardiniere, along the way taking a short leave of absence to work as opening Sous Chef at Gary Danko. It wasn't until 2003 that he parted ways with Traci and the family at Jardiniere to begin his restaurants ventures in Napa and Sonoma Counties with partner Nick Peyton. For those of you into the local SF food scene, having pedigrees from Jardiniere and Gary Danko on your belt is a career-maker in itself.

Immediately after sitting down, you are treated to a prologue palate cleanser. This was not the Amous Bouche! This prequel plating, so to speak, consisted of a variety of tiny flavors. In order, we tasted small guava puree sqaures with mint, seeded braised shitake mushroom rolls, ruby grapefruit bites, and finally "cleansing" pieces of fresh rhubarb and cucumber with hawaiian sea salt.

Our dinner at Cyrus then began in earnest with a small plating of American Paddlefish Caviar. We shared a couple pours of champagne with this, and enjoyed various "fixings" alongside the caviar, including potato cakes and grits patties.

We prompty signed up for their 5-course menu, and chose a couple glasses of Riesling for the first couple courses, which were from the sea and contained some thai spices/flavors. We then moved on to a Pinot Noir from Sherrer, a local boutique winery that is known for their attention to craft.

Our first post-caviar plating was a small Amous Bouche of yellowtail, onions and small greens over a reduced asian sauce not unlike tonkatsu sauce actually, but a little thinner.

This was followed by our first course, a roll of lobster and avocado in thai spices. The lobster was fresh beyond recognition, and a small round of mango that the roll sat on provided some really great sweetness. This course paired better with the wine we were drinking than any other course, in my opinion.

Second, a foie gras pate served alongside a fig jelly. OMG possibly the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. I've had foie gras plenty of times before, both whole and pate. BUT HOLY HELL this took the cake. We're talking melt in your mouth butteriness that was sweet and savory and fruity and all magical flavors of the rainbow. I hope to immortalize those few bites in memory for the rest of my life.

Third was a seared scallop topped with chorizo alongside a baby clam. This was probably the least interesting dish to me, although the texture was definitely wonderful. I wasn't quite sure what the chorizo's purpose was...purely texture? The flavor of the chorizo was bland, since the meat seemed to be very well cooked onto the scallop. {update} Ngoc wants to make sure I note that, while this may have been my least favorite dish, the singular clam served alongside the scallop was the best clam she's ever tasted.

Fourth were our mains. Ngoc had a duck breast and I had a couple small medallions of lamb tenderloin with greens and white corn grits. By now we were well into the Pinot Noir, and the lamb was definitely up to the challenge that the wine presented! The grits were heaven. Come on, grits! Who doesn't love grits! (sorry Ngoc)

Our fifth course, dessert, consisted of a small triangle of tiramisu, a chocolate cardemon gelato, candied fennel in a chocolate foam, and a small espresso "bubble" spoon. The latter was interesting...essentially a chocolate gelatin bubble with a small shot of espresso inside, buried under a froth of milk foam, all to be enjoyed in one large bite! Impressive.

Just when we thought we were done, they wheeled over the "candy bar", and we were treated to our choices of various sweets and treats. There were wine-flavored chocolate truffles, marzapan and dark chocolate bites, candied lychee fruit squares, caramel squares, etc etc so many I can't remember them all.

And top it all off, they sent us out the door with custom printed menus (including the wines and variety of caviar we ordered!) and small gold leaf baggies each containing fudge brownie squares and which read "Tomorrow?"

Wonderful. Are you as exhausted as I am???

Paella and Pork

So after the SF Chocolate Salon, Alfred Susan Ngoc and I all tag teamed dinner the next evening. Ngoc and I cooked an old standard, our Paella. Alfred and Susan brought to the table a great 7 lb. pork shoulder braise.

Braising is so phenomenal. EVERYONE should be braising ALL the time, it's THAT amazing and simple. If I haven't said it before, you need (a) meat, (b) moisture, (c) acid, and (d) sustained low to medium heat. In this case, the braise was in a white wine / stock sauce. The meat was also treated with a simple salt and herb rub (thyme, a little coriander if i remember correctly. But you can do any combination of whatever, really). Then, 5 hours covered at 350, and viola. So tender, so juicy, so delicious.


The Paella is something Ngoc and I have done many times before, with great success I might add. However this time it just lacked that saffron punch. I attribute it to an extra step I added, where I soaked the saffron threads beforehand. This is actually unnecessary, since they normally just go straight into the paella soup as it starts to boil down.  The soak is a redundant step. Never again!

Paella Valenciana

4-6 drumsticks

2 heads of garlic

15 clams OR mussels

1 dozen shrimp, shelled and veined

16 oz. diced tomatoes, in juice

16 oz. garbanzo beans

2 large red peppers, sliced

2 yellow onions, chopped

1/2 lb green beans, halved

3 1/2 cups chicken stock (homemade, preferred)

2 1/2 cups valenciana rice

10-15 threads saffron, crushed

1 tsp dry paprika

4 tbsp olive oil

1 lemon, cut into wedges

In a paella pan (16"+), heat 2 tbsp oil and saute red pepper and garlic until peppers are soft.  Remove and set aside.

Heat remaining oil and fry chicken until golden on all sides only.  Add onion and saute until translucent.  Add back in peppers and garlic.  Add broth, tomatoes, saffron, and paprika and simmer for 25 minutes.  Add valenciana rice, stirring gently to evenly distribute all ingredients across pan surface.

Allow rice to absorb paella soup.  Keep stirring to a minimum, disturbing rice as little as possible.  Rice should become crispy on the bottom most layers and be just barely fully cooked on top most layers.  

As rice is cooking, add remaining vegetables.  With 10 minutes left, add shellfish, gently pushing clams and shrimp into mixture.  Serve immediately

SF Chocolate Salon

Big weekend for food. Alfred and Susan, our wonderful friends relocated to Seattle, are in town for the week to blitzkrieg the bay area and pilfer all its offerings. Alfred and Susan are no strangers to food, so we kicked things off right and dived into the weekend with a Saturday morning trip to the SF Chocolate Salon.

The Chocolate Salon is an annual event where more than 50 chocolate retailers, wholesalers, artisans, entertainers, etc. gather for an anything-goes tastefest in Fort Mason. We crowded in with the masses and learned, among other things, that our weak stomachs unfortunately cannot eat infinite quantities of chocolate.





After the Salon, we checked out Shanghai Dumpling King in the outer Richmond along with a visit to the best restaurant supply store in the universe. Forthcoming, keep your eye out for a post about the meal we cooked the NEXT day.

classic beef stew

My latest find has been the $10 enamel coated cast iron dutch oven (mini-sized) that I found at an estate sale a couple weeks back.  Have you ever been to an estate sale in Albany?  It's no joke.  Want a crack at any of the good items, and you're lined up with 30 other people at 8am waiting for the front door to open.  Kind of sad, really.  

But you'll agree it was worth it after making this beef stew recipe.  This was adapted from an oxtail stew recipe out of an old cookbook my grandmother gave me.  Not wanting to shell out the $$ for oxtail, I bought a simple 2 lb. beef chuck (shoulder) roast and cubed it for this recipe.

Classic Beef Stew

2 lb. beef roast (chuck, round, tri-tip even), cubed

1 cup flour

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

16 ounce can diced tomatoes

3/2 cups beef broth

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup red wine (the dryer, the better)

1 onion, chopped

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon thyme, dry

1/2 teaspoon black pepper, ground

1/4 teaspoon red pepper powder

4 medium carrots, halved and sliced

4 medium parsnips, halved and sliced

1 cup frozen peas

Add oil to dutch oven and heat over medium high flame.  Add onions and saute until onions begin to caramelize.  Remove onions, add more oil if necessary, and add meat.  Cook meat until brown (3-4 minutes).  Add onions back in, along with tomatoes, beef broth, water, wine, salt, thyme, pepper, and sugar.  Bring to boil.

After boil, reduce to simmer on very low heat and cover for two hours.  

Skim off fat from stew and add carrots and parsnips.  Cover again and simmer for 25 minutes.  Stir in peas and cook an additional 5 minutes.

Steak

Regrettably it's been a while since my last post.  Ngoc has been sick and one of the byproducts is the mother in law coming over every day and cooking lunch and dinner.  Not many recipes are getting tried as of late, though not to my dismay I'll admit.  

One mini-meal I did create last weekend was the ultra classic steak for two.  It goes without saying that the basic grilled/broiled beef steak, almost entirely naked, should be a basic arrow in the quiver of any herbivore chef.  Pair it with 1 starch and 1 veggie, and you've got a classic American meal.

There are many ways to heat a steak, but I prefer cast iron for it's high conductivity and ability to really get a crispy black surface on each side of meat.  Everyone has their preferred cut, but it goes without saying that the quality of meat is going to pay a major factor in the resulting steak, especially since we're doing very little other than adding heat and serving.  I prefer rib eye for its fat content.  Ngoc prefers filet for its lean but tender texture.  New York and sirloin steaks also will work, but bone-in cuts like porterhouse or t-bone are better saved for the broiling rack.

The meat needs a basic coating of fat.  This is the first step in ensuring a hot and crispy burn on each surface.  You will also need to rub in some salt for a basic flavoring, but just how much is up to you.  I coat each side with a thin layer of vegetable oil and maybe a half teaspoon of kosher salt (do not used iodized salt, EVER!)

While heating up the cast iron to medium high heat, melt a couple tablespoons of butter in the skillet.  This will come in handy later.  I should not that, if you do not have a cast iron skillet, you need to get your pan over BLAZINGLY hot heat to come close to simulating the amount of direct heat that cast iron can send straight to the meat's surface.  

Once your butter is melted and bubbling ferociously, place your steaks in the skillet and begin basting the surface of the steaks with the butter.  Do this semi-continuously until you are completely done cooking.  For a 1.5 inch steak, rare is about 2.5 minutes on each side.  For a medium steak, try 2.5 minutes on each side twice for a total of almost 10 minutes.  This is the hardest part to convey, and will probably only be perfected after a bit of practice on your end.

Viola!  You should have a crispy, buttery, juicy steak ready to serve alongside a glass of red. 

Viva El Mar: Fish for the New Year #2, Arctic Char

Quickly becoming a household tradition is something Ngoc and I call Crab Night. In the winter months, its not uncommon to find us on an otherwise uneventful Friday night steaming a couple live whole crabs and calling it a night. Yesterday we mixed it up a little, since I'm kind of feeling overloaded on crab as of late.

While Ngoc opted for the traditional Dungeness, I instead scored a half pound fillet of fresh arctic char. The char, as you can probably tell from the photos, is a close close relative of salmon, with a very similar taste and firmness that falls apart in layers. It differs in its higher fat content, due to the frigid ocean temperatures in its nature habitat, the arctic circle. It actually is the found farther north than any other freshwater fish, and is listed by fish watch as a sustainably harvested species. In addition, one observation of my own is that char seems a little firmer than salmon...it held up pretty well on the grill over open heat.


The high fat content and firmness lend themselves to a variety of cooking methods. Last night, I goosed the grill and gave her 4 minutes on the skin side of the filet, and 3 minutes on the meat side of the fillet. Over the grill flame, a crunchy crust starts to develop on the meat side of the fillet after 3 minutes. This is good! BUT, you don't want to overdo it and dry the fish out. Accordingly, use the skin side of the fillet to control your meat doneness. If you want a drier, more well cooked piece of fish, go for 5-6 minutes on the skin side, while still maintaining the same 3 minutes on the meat side. My grill was on medium high. After that, a little salt and some pepper, possible a squeeze of lemon, and you're good to go.

Look at that strip of fat! It's like a frikkin' pork chop!

Hopefully this will give you a laugh. We are without a porch light at our new place, so grilling has been done with everything from car headlights to an open back door that spills light out onto the porch. This method seems to work best thus far:


Also, I developed a little recipe for Sweet Potato Fries on the fly last night to go along with the fish. You'll never believe the secret ingredient. After peeling and slicing a couple of sweet potatoes (variety of your choosing, I used Japanese sweet potatoes) into 1/3 inch thick fries, heat up your wok and about 3/4 to a full cup of vegetable oil until a drop of water really sizzles on the oil surface. In batches, fry the fries for about 2 minutes for each batch. In the meantime, pre-heat the oven to 425.

After each batch of fries comes out of the wok, arrange them on a greased cookie sheet. When they've all made it onto the sheet, sprinkle a half teaspoon of GARAM MASALA per potato over the fries, along with a pinch of cayan pepper. Bake for 30 minutes.

After you pull the fries out of the oven, scrape them into a metal bowl and shake with a pinch of kosher shalt. Viola!