#120 - Fun date!

One of the really nice things about catching up with friends from different areas of your life is that you don't have the same old conversations.  Tonight was food, food, more food and some technical conversation about food - specifically, fat content in butter and the various brands, prices in different places and...never mind, on to the evening.

In which dinner plans go awry and confusion ensues
I caught up with a girlfriend from LCB.  We both thought that things would be relatively calm and quiet as we had planned to meet for dinner early on a Friday night.  6.30pm saw us a little bit perplexed as Plan B was completely packed.  Our chefs would not have been impressed by our preparation.  Or rather, the lack of it.

Plan C required a 30 minute wait so on to Plan D we went.  It was actually quite fun, a new Chinese restaurant we had both passed a few times but hadn't tried yet.  There was a little bit of confusion initially because the sign for the parking lot informed you that the entrance was behind you, so around the block we went.  Then a little more confusion because upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted in Japanese.  We asked the friendly waitress if the restaurant was Chinese or Japanese (note:  the name of the restaurant was something something Dragon).  She said it was both so in the spirit of the place, we ordered Japanese and Chinese food.  They came as little sharing plates (a Chinese/Japanese fusion-y pork bun for which I broke my no pork rule because it tasted like sticky, sweet, kind of teriyaki deliciousness instead of pork; Japanese fried chicken which was crispy, hot and everything fried chicken should be; cucumber with a sesame and chili dressing reminiscent of the cucumber dish at Ippudo in New York / Sydney; fried rice with Japanese curry; and crispy stir fried ong choi which was just wilted enough to be cooked but crunchy enough to feel healthy).

In which we carry out some research (aka dessert)
As you know, I'm not a big fan of the "or" option if there is an "and" option.  We went to dessert at this little place around the restaurant - I think it was called Little Oven.  My girlfriend saw a couple of things on the board which interested her and I saw a few more.  Since we were carrying out research and having talked patisserie tech speak over dinner, we were ready to dig in and try the interesting sounding things on the menu and here are the photos.  Of course we couldn't choose just one - that's like asking a parent who their favorite child is.  LM chose the more interesting sounding ones.  I have to admit I stuck to the more standard ones but how else can you establish a baseline?  You can't fake it on a standard...

PB&J cake

Verdict:  PB&J cake - white sponge was dry but the PB&J part of it was very nice as was the frosting.

S'More Brownie / Fluff Brownie (?)

S'More Brownie - both LM and I prefer our brownies a bit denser.  This is a light, fluffy brownie - almost like a cake.  So if you want something slightly lighter, it's actually a very good option.  And the scorched marshmallow was just burnt enough to get a nice little crunch on it, almost like a creme brulee.  I didn't see if they actually put some sugar on it to get the caramelization but at that point we kind of didn't care, it tasted good.

Coffee Cake

Coffee cake - moist, not-too-sweet with a nice, thick crunch on the top.  Perfect with my tea despite its moniker.

Vanilla Ice Cream Sundae

Vanilla sundae- rather a disappointment.  The ice cream was too light and fluffy - more air, not enough fat content.  But then, I like my ice creams nice and dense - you know, like Haagen Daas (oh geez, how do you spell that?) or Ben & Jerry's.

Pretty fruit decoration - I'm going to steal this one!

LM and I still have our cooking party planned - postponed from a couple of days ago till next week due to random road work.  However, we did manage to come up with a shopping list and a couple of things we want to experiment with in the kitchen.  And we came up with a (partial) menu for our snack/lunch on the day as well so I am feeling pretty organized after the dinner debacle.

She also told me the results of her butter research:  not good.  So we have a couple of theories to try out and if they don't work, someone who might be able to provide an answer.  I can't wait to play!

All in all, one of the best dates I've had in a while.

So until next time, may you have as much fun on your date/s as I had on mine and keep smiling!

#117 - "A Merry Christmas to all. God bless us every one."

Hard Core Chef
One of my brothers has a friend who went to cooking school.  By profession she does something very impressive and her standards for cooking are equally so.  (As in, she is much stricter about things like making her own stocks, which take 3 days to make, etc etc.)

Unfortunately she broke her wrist not so long ago and is still recovering from surgery.  I told her I would be her sous chef since we had discussed cooking together.  Somehow we were volunteered to cook Christmas dinner before we knew what had happened.  You can imagine how impressed I was, and how tough she is, that she did the bulk of the cooking for Christmas dinner for...14?  16?  A lot of people anyway - more than I can count on just my fingers.

I got a telephone call Monday morning - it was early for me, as I was still jet lagged and sleep deprived (I had had an argument with technology the night before, which I won but only at 4am).  I wanted to go back to sleep but woke up when she said it was to discuss Christmas dinner - specifically, the size / weight of the leg of lamb and the number of people which had grown to 13 people within less than 24 hours.  I think only cooking nerds may appreciate how we managed to talk about the right stock (and how we didn't have any) for the jus, before we decided on a cheat version because we were the only ones who would care.  By the way, the jus turned out well.

Preparation, Preparation and Preparation - Christmas Eve Day
'Twas the day before Christmas and all through the houses, creatures were stirring to get a lot of food organized for a lot of people.

Luckily Chef DC is very organized.  We got our list of who was doing what.  She and I discussed what was missing / logistics / timing.  It was all good and under control.  Nothing too complicated - but a bit of thought required given physical constraints with respect to counter space, refrigerator space, over and stove availability and our low tolerance for crap in the kitchen.

My prep was very basic - shopping, parboiling potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, mire poix for the sauce...some salad stuff, extra shopping for the more gourmet ingredients (thank you Williams Sonoma - no, this is not product placement, it's giving credit where credit is due - and letting you know shortcuts are not only ok, they can be really good).

Rock 'n roll
I'm not sure how or why it is a chef thing but it must be - I have heard this phrase so often and it's almost always in preparation for fun in the kitchen.  Though somehow it's very different to hear it in a strong French accent than in our American one.

Chef DC also did a black rice dish, a cauliflower and chickpea curry which may sound not that good to those who don't like any of those ingredients but all I can say is, wow!  (I actually hate chickpeas but I packed a whole container of this curry away for tomorrow, that's how good it was.)

Also brussels sprouts - although there are many who don't like them, these were so good my 4-year old niece not only ate them, but she told us how much she liked them as she ate them.

And Kabocha squash (Japanese green squash).  And a butternut pumpkin / carrot puree.  And a Caesar salad dressing.  From scratch. Which was totally delicious (and I have the rest of the bottle in the fridge for tomorrow, hooray!)

and then today I just made a vinaigrette and the 2 salads.  FYI, the Veal demi-glace from Williams-Sonoma made a very acceptable substitute in the absence of having a good veal stock to hand and it cut out a few steps.  We had a nice sauce about 45 minutes after we started - not a bad record...

In which we have a very merry cooking party - Christmas Day
DC showed up today with a written time plan.  I had one but it was all in my head and pretty easy.  (As in, from time we planned to serve, onions - 1.5 hours; confit garlic - 1 hour; roasted veggies - 30 minutes.)

The lamb went into a portable convection oven which is just amazing.  It came out a bit over for those who like their meat still moving but it was perfect for me.  We were on time with DC's plan (we thought we were 15 minutes behind until we remembered that we had trimmed off a lot of fat and bones) and all went well.

We had an addition in the kitchen near the end of the day - a friend is the Yorkshire pudding Queen so she made a gluten-free and a regular Yorkshire pudding (yum!).  They had different cooking times which was interesting for the person who made them, and we had to reshuffle our cooking timeline a bit to allow for the Yorkshire puddings to cook because they have to be last minute.

DC and I had a great old time - she actually fixed the leg of lamb because the butchery was done by machine so it didn't follow the joint (instead, the saw cut straight through the bone).  She gave me the piece attached to the hip so I separated it and we had a nice little loin-ish roll.  Which we forgot to cook.  But it gave some really nice trimmings which made the sauce really good and one of the girls actually took home the meat and the veggies because she said it was like stew but without as much juice.  She (DC, not our Yorkshire Pudding Queen) also put this really good rub on the lamb - an olive tapenade with a few other things thrown in - as you do.

Starters (aka Round 1 when I eventually got around to eating):  cheeses, prosciutto, a few other things and sashimi (which we sliced at home). 

Main (aka Rounds 2 and 3): Roast leg of lamb au jus and fresh mint, roasted root vegetables with rosemary and sea salt (yellow and purple carrots, fingerling potatoes, onions and garlic confit), black rice, cauliflower and lentil curry, butternut squash / carrot puree, roasted Kobacha squash and brussel sprouts with butter.

My plates:  there isn't a whole lot of difference between the first and second platefuls of food but I was slowing down by the second plate of meat and veggies. There's no way to escape the day with eating only a little bit when there's so much good food and I have a bad habit of choosing "both" when presented with a choice.  We also decided that food made with TLC doesn't have calories (for those who know about that sort of thing).

Dessert (aka Round 4):  pumpkin pie, sweet potato and haupia pie, dried fruits, cookies and ice cream.

So until next time - merry Christmas (#or insert your holiday of choice here) - happy, safe and joyous holidays to all.

#116 - Home for the holidays - In which my mission takes a flying start

Raindrops and Rainbows
One of the disadvantages of living so far away from home (or calling more than one place home) is that there is always something to miss about the other place/s.  Of course, the bright side is that there is always something to love about where you are.  If you think about it, there is no down-side to having something to miss - you can't have rainbows without a few raindrops, after all.  My first rainbow came out about an hour and fifteen minutes after I left the airport.  The scents of the flowers were lightly carried on the morning breeze, letting me know as nothing else that I was back in the Islands, beloved (the Islands) and beloved (me - by my loved ones).

(Apologies if this post looks odd - I don't know what's wrong with it and I'm not tech savvy enough to be able to fix it.  Hopefully whatever the bug is will have been worked out by the next post.)

Neither Pavlov nor his dogs...
Friends and family have held me responsible for their increased appetites and, occasionally, increased waists.  Far be it from me to shirk my responsibility for serving the same purpose as Pavlov's bell to his dogs (yes, it is an unfortunate analogy but one which was suggested by one of my friends).  I have been known to say that the most dangerous place is between a hungry Cooke and her food.  There are variations on this theme but the result is that you can replace "Cooke" by practically anything or anyone and it is still accurate.

Food is a huge part of our social scene here - I'm not sure if it's the Asian influence or if it's just because people come home for the holidays.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an Island girl/boy returning from time spent elsewhere is in want of local food to curb the cravings they have been experiencing, be it poke, sashimi, Zippy's (chili / saimin / insert your choice of food here), plate lunch, etc. etc. and a trip to a favorite local eatery tends to follow either immediately after leaving the airport or immediately after the shower immediately after leaving the airport.

My mission, which I had chosen to accept, is to eat everything while I am home.  (Of course, the everything only includes the things I want to eat.  You may not suggest snails or offal or anything else that might make you go "ew".)

As today had some patches of pouring rain (it is winter, after all) those of us who are temporarily between jobs (one of the girls and the boy at lunch - they start their new jobs next week and right after the New Year, respectively), having a day off (one of the other girls) and on vacation (that would be the girl pictured above) went for Vietnamese food.  We got food envy from the table next to us - so three of us ordered the enormous noodle salad.  And because I'm me, I ordered the Vietnamese coffee - chicory, bitter, sweetened by condensed milk in the cup before you pour the brew into the glass of ice.

Yes, the bowl was big.  Yes, it was delicious.  No, I did not manage to finish it all - I am out of shape, obviously - but the goal is to change that by the end of this trip.

Christmas Dinner - A preview of sorts...
Christmas will be a team effort - one of my brothers has a friend who was trained (very well trained) as a chef.  She is currently injured so we have divvied up duties for Christmas dinner which somehow grew from the 7 originally envisaged to about 13 people.  We'll see how it goes but the current menu has poke, sashimi, roast lamb (with jus), rosemary and sea salt potatoes, roasted vegetables, roasted garlic, chickpea and cauliflower curry (hey, don't knock it till you've tried it!), a big salad with home made vinaigrette and home made Caesar dressing, candied almonds (if I can be bothered to make them), a pumpkin and something-else puree...and people will bring starters and desserts.  Something tells me there will be lots of food so we have requested that people bring their own containers to take it home.  Tomorrow will be the test as we prep as much as possible before hand so that we don't spend all Christmas cooking.  After all, I have a visit to pay to little children who will be eager to rip open their presents...

So until next time, merry Christmas and if you must have rain, I wish you lots of rainbows.