fermented and fried

Classic Los Angeles

2011-12-19T19:05:00.002-05:00

2011-10-16T19:06:00.000-04:00

Very little more needs to be said.

Cooking With The General

2011-03-14T06:07:00.009-04:00

It's the second annual installment of cookin' with the General. The talented among you may sneer at the degree of difficulty I attempt, and close readers will note I even repeat the smashed chicken breast technique from last year's segment, but my plan was to use recipes from Kim's favorite superstar chefs and food-writers (in this case Thomas Keller and John Thorne). I felt they provided enough challenge to my modest skills. I also wanted to choose dishes we might conceivably cook at home on a random weeknight. We're in need of more go-to dishes. With that in mind I chose to make:

-Thomas Keller's sauteed chicken breasts with tarragon

-John Thorne's tian with eggplant, tomatoes, and chick-peas

I was not at all eager to complicate matters by adding a third dish, but even I could see my menu was lacking. After emergency consultations with the wonderful Hyoj, though, I was able to add that third dish without complicating matters at all. She suggested kale chips. These are simply kale leaves rinsed, dried, torn into 2" bits, and baked. Toss the leaves with a little olive oil before tearing, and hit them with some fancy salt when they've been arranged on a cookie sheet. Bake for ten minutes. So tasty, and they provided the color and crunch the plate needed. (Although I confess we ate most of them before actually sitting down to the meal. Whereas Hyoji's dish took precisely as long as she said it would I cannot say the same for those from Keller and Thorne.)

Keller's Chicken

Mix together a teaspoon each of sweet paprika and yellow curry powder. Season your chicken and refrigerate for two hours. This step alone will make for a delicious smashed chicken breast, but Keller goes much further with a sauce of butter, minced shallot, white wine, chicken stock, tarragon, more butter, and whatever juices have accumulated on the plate upon which your cooked chicken rests. Simple and delicious. The recipe can be found in Ad Hoc At Home.

Thorne's Provencal peasant food

I took this from Simple Cooking. Says Thorne, "A tian, essentially, is a vegetable casserole, a modest penny-stretcher meant...to provide the bulk of the meal at the least possible cost. The defining characteristic of a tian--slow cooking in olive-oil and seasonings--brings out the best of taste and texture in a host of vegetables. Furthermore, it is a dish especially amenable to improvisation, permitting an amazing range of combinations and adaptations without threat to its essential nature."

I did not improvise, I haven't yet gained the confidence to free-style in the kitchen, but in the interest of health I did decide against the version which includes egg, ricotta, Parmesan, and heavy cream. That does sound great, though. Perhaps I'll make it when the editors of Fermented and Fried visit Hong Kong next month.

For the basic version of the dish, though, in addition to the eggplant, tomatoes, and chick-peas, you need just one medium minced onion, allspice, red pepper flakes, basil leaves, salt, and pepper. Most of the real work was done by Kim's birthday present, a happy yellow enameled cast-iron pot from Le Creuset, but I did have to cube the eggplant, sprinkle with salt, let sit for an hour, and then brown in olive oil. The other challenge was the peeling of the tomatoes. I'd never attempted that, nor even considered a tomato might need peeling, and then when I consulted You Tube for guidance the guy in the video mocked me for not just buying canned tomatoes. Fair enough, but he did go on to teach me a simple technique wherein a knife is used to notch an X into the top and bottom of each tomato after which they are placed into a colander and doused with boiling water. The skins are supposed to then peel away easily, but this didn't happen until I hit them with the second kettle of boiling water. Still, this seems a safer method than dropping them into a pot and hoping you retrieve them before they're overcooked.

The meal was a triumph, and the cooking itself was a great time too--at least after the birthday girl became impatient and requested entrance into the kitchen. We poured ourselves wine, put on music, joined forces.

Lessons learned: tomatoes can be peeled, tarragon smells amazing, something called "kale chips" can taste great, and cooking together is much more satisfying than cooking alone.

What's in your basket?

2011-01-23T13:02:00.007-05:00

(click for a large picture)

Today's shopping trip should sort me out for the whole week.

From top left:

Haloumi, White Corek bread (seeded turkish loaf), Red and white onions, Rocket salad

Efe's Beer, (3 pots: Taramasalata, Humous, Tzatziki), Inside the white bag: 3 Gozleme - turkish pastry savoury wraps with lamb, spinach and cheese. Carrots, Parsnips, Mushrooms

Tins of tomato, 4 lamb necks, 10 pita bread, 2 red peppers, 10 lemons (10 for £1!), Garlic, Fennell and spring onions.

What's in your basket?

Scrappy's Cardamom Bitters

2011-01-23T10:53:00.004-05:00

Outrageously late, I'd like to welcome all of the readers of fermented and fried to 2011

Although it seems churlish to start on a bitter note I'm sure it's one our readers will appreciate. The cardamom is a spice deeply redolent of my childhood. When cooking pilau rice to serve with stew or casserole, my father would often sneak a few of these small, densely packed little pods into the cooking pot. Provided you like cardamom (and this is not guaranteed - so particular is their flavour) you would be rewarded with an intense burst of spice upon biting into one. The gristly outer shell of the swollen fruit would burst open, spilling a dozen or so black seeds into your mouth. These seeds, once chewed, fill the mouth with a very distinctive flavour - immediately discernable as cardamom and utterly unambiguous. I took this stolen habit into adulthood, slipping a shrunken dessicated sack or two into curries, rice, strews, pilafs and casseroles secretly enjoying the often wincing faces of those unaccustomed to being hijacked by these delicious little shaped charges.

The cocktail that sits in front of me now represents the first liquid use of cardamom that I have tasted. I knew of the existence of cardamom bitters a couple of years ago, after discussing it with the bar manager at Diageo. My own aspirations to make bitters wax and wane (I have several of the ingredients stored up in Jackson Heights but none of the conviction to actually start making them). Cardamom was high on my list of desires - and here it is - presented beautifully by Scrappy's Bitters.

With an appearance of a slightly faded ice tea, the bottle looks innocent enough. A swift tasting on the back of the hand (my preferred way of tasting bitters - less risky than the finger or palm for interfering flavours) - the hit is immediate and unsubtle. 20% bitter and 80% cardamom, the flavour sets off a salivial chain-reaction. Barely has one swallowed and the sub-lingual juice-glands spring into gleeky cloying action, desperately trying to counteract the intruder in the mouth. This is a sort of flavour that the body instinctively says "that's horrible - too strong" - but the trained mind says "no, I have learned to love this - it's delicious" - a little like knocking back a very large shot of Jim Beam one drink too late in the evening.

In gin (Tanqueray Ten, 2010, opened from fresh at the same time), stirred down neat (2 dashes) the effect is startling. The subtleties of the gin are completely overpowered by the cardamom flavour, and the drink becomes entirely beholden to the spice. This means that restraint is most certainly called for - and I have begun to think of accompanying spirits, mixers and syrups to use with these bitters.

[A note: Since writing this review I have tried them in 2 other gins, plus a fairly neutral vodka with similar results - these are very potent in the cardamom scent...]

Flavours register in my palate like notes on the musical scale. Harmoniously or discordantly (consider tuna, milk chocolate, pineapple together) alternatively consider bacon, tomato and rocket. Cardamoms occupy a register that means that whatever you put with them they will (like the triangle in an orchestra) always present themselves - so significant thought is required to make this lovely product work as a part of a harmonious cocktail.

If, on the other hand, you like the flavour solo (as I do) it's a lovely martini - if a little one-dimensional.

I have considered deploying them with creme de cacao, grand marnier, a fine vodka and chocolate chips to make a very spiced golden chocolate martini - perhaps that will be my next test. The other idea I have is to mix them with orange juice (something about oranges and cardamoms) to make a long drink - ala hard ice tea - with a little indian twist.

Bottoms up, chaps. Thanks again, Purdascia.

Guy Fawkes Night at the Zemkes

2010-11-19T13:37:00.003-05:00

3 brits, an american, a latino & and an oriental with toffee apple

make for one fu-un-ny evening.

Notes and Queries: Mixology Musings 2010

2010-09-29T18:53:00.007-04:00

Cocktails are most certainly an important part of the fun of fermentedandfried.com so I thought I'd put together a short list of my most useful findings of the last year, since the infamous Camp Cocktail at Green Lake in Maine during the wedding of Andrew and Rita.

* Creme de Peche and Angostura Orange Bitters were most certainly the finds of 2009 and have complimented and elevated many a champagne cocktail as well as more humble beverages since they were added to my portfolio. 2010's most successful ingredients so far are Creme De Violette and Pisco. The Bitter Truth do a fabulous (if rather expensive) rich version. My favourite Pisco of the moment is the pocket-friendly Capel.

* Prior to 2008 the Boston Shaker was a bit scary to me. I tended to plump for the Cobbler Shaker, however with practice the Boston has proved to be a permanent addition to my cocktail creation toolkit. In a traditional Boston the tin has a narrow opening which allows the glass to sit at the very top. Here's the fabulous (but very expensive) Alessi shaker with the narrow top:

However, flaring the opening allows for the glass to sit deeper within the shaker which makes for a much safer feeling shake. An awesome solution. You can get them from barsupplies.com. If you're feeling fancy, they come in durable powder-coated colours too - just like a bike frame!

* Building your cocktail in the tin rather than the glass is fine. Don't listen to the haters.

* Vermouth is horrible, almost universally. The white vermouths are generally speaking unpleasant; Martini, Cinzano, the numerous own-brands that crop up in supermarkets and off-licenses are invariably disgusting. Red Vermouth for some reason tends to fare a little better - Punt e Mes is quite drinkable, as is Dubonnet. Lillet is the exception and to be appreciated not just as an integral part of a wet martini, but as a drink in its own right - particularly red Lillet, to which I credit the lovely Kim Cardascia.

* Creating your cocktail for a customer is usually done in the glass, so they can see what you are putting in the glass. Confident bartenders place the glass on the bar and pour from the speedrail and the back-rack directly into the glass. Less confident tenders build on the deck behind the bar. Never build with your back facing your customer, however (bad form). Building in the tin is fine, just as long as you keep it classy!

Mix on, friends....

the easiest chicken pot pie

2010-08-17T21:30:00.005-04:00

my friend jason gave me his mother-in-law's quickie chicken pot pie recipe. i couldn't believe how easy it was. the best part was that i got to use the remaining vegetables from my CSA and then some. i believe you can put in just about any vegetable that can be "casseroled" into this recipe. my additions (or edits) to the recipe are in parentheses, otherwise the recipe is as it was given to me by jason. i swear, this was easy breezy.

1 fryer, cooked, boned, and cut into small pieces OR 3-4 chicken breasts. (i used 2 large pieces of TJs frozen chicken thighs, defrosted and then cooked in a little bit of chicken broth)

Put meat in bottom of shallow casserole dish.

You may want to add vegetables to the chicken, such as peas, carrots, celery or small potatoes.
(i added a quickly sauteed carrots, celery, onion, green beans, and garlic. this was sauteed with a little oil in the same le creuset that i cooked the chicken. i added already cooked and chopped potatoes, which were not sauteed)

1 stick butter, melted and poured over chicken
(i melted 4 Tbs of butter)

3-4 hard boiled eggs, sliced and placed over chicken and butter and vegetables, if you added them.
(i added slices from two eggs)

Mix: 1 cup plain flour, 3 tsp baking powder, 1 cup milk. Pour over the casserole.
(i halved this part)

Mix: 1- 10 3/4 oz. can of condensed cream of celery soup, 1 1/2 cups chicken broth. Bring to boil and pour over all.
(i halved this part too. part of the chicken broth was from the broth that i cooked the chicken in earlier, just strained to separate the liquid)

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or till crust comes to the top and turns brown.
(i baked in my toaster convection oven for an hour at 350F)

the key to this crustless pot pie is that the flour batter bakes up to the top and browns. oh and i seasoned liberally with salt and pepper. when serving, i topped it with tessa's delicious sauteed cabbage with parmesan sprinkles. this was part of our madmen season 4 episode 4 dinner.

CSA 2010

2010-08-05T20:42:00.008-04:00

FINALLY, a food post, by yours truly. i am have been so busy and stressed (bathroom renovation) and lazy to write anything of worth. (i'm not claiming this will be much, but...) so i'm finally putting up my first CSA 2010 post.

the woodside CSA started wednesday, june 9 this year. we have fewer members because the farmspot csa in JH expanded and some of last year's members moved on. i recruited the riffaterres to join and i (or tessa) bring them their vegetables the following day. tessa and i have continued to have our CSA dinners on wednesday, using as many of the csa vegetables as we can.

this year, we've been getting some of the same items as last year, but also some new ones. the tomato blight is now over and we've been graced with the abundance of plum tomatoes from sergio. we've also been introduced two new greens: purslane and papalo. purslane is a weed that is mild in flavor and works well with chicken and pork. papalo is considered the mexican cilantro and has a bite in its flavor. we used it in both salsa and pesto. kohlrabi has made another appearance this year. this softly-sweet root can be grated and added to slaw or relish or salsa. it can also be roasted for a deeper flavor.

the vegetables we have gotten so far includes: tomatoes, celery, potatoes, onions, cucumbers, green peppers, poblanos, escarole, cabbage, beets, kohlrabi, swiss chard, kale, collard greens, papalo, purslane, squash blossoms, basil, cilantro, fennel, corn, garlic, jalapenos.

some dishes on the CSA dinner menu include: chicken tacos with papalo salsa, lamb burgers with beets and cabbage slaw, escarole with cannellini beans and garlic, panzanella, tilapia with tomato/basil reduction and roasted stuffed pepper.

R.I.P Crack Whorehouse Bathroom

2010-07-10T05:32:00.007-04:00

Work has begun to rip out the infamous Jackson Heights Crack Whorehouse Bathroom and replace it with a beautiful new non-crack non-whorehouse replacement. More of a sort of high class callgirl salle de bain? Anyway. Here's a few "before" pics. "After" pics coming soon.

The Other Ethnic Yogurt

2010-06-15T17:11:00.011-04:00

i know.. it has been two months since the last posting. i apologize for the lapse. there are no excuses other than some busy-ness, some lazy-ness, so i hope you are amused by this post.

on may 30, 2010, ben and i made a trip to fairway uptown and bought a shit-load of groceries, including some millionaire's yogurt, siggi's. it's icelandic yogurt that costs about $2.50 for a small container of one serving.

on june 3, 2010, i take this pot of yogurt, the blueberry flavor, to work as a snack. at about 4pm, i get the yogurt out of the refrigerator and when i opened the package, this is what i found (see image on left) -- a slightly foul-smelling yogurt with a cream-colored fuzzy mold floating on top. ick.
so after spending two hundred, fifty cents of my own well-earned money on this ridiculously over-priced product, i was left with no snack and one pot of molded moldy milk.

i immediately shared this experience with my colleagues and decided to act. i went to the siggi's yogurt web site and found a customer service email address and sent the following email with the photo attached:

Hi,

I just wanted to let you know that I purchased a yogurt pot from Fairway for about $2.50 (which I find extraordinarily expensive for yogurt) and when I went to eat it two days after purchase, I found mold on top as soon as I opened the seal. The best by date was 6/19/2010 and there was a cream-colored, fuzzy mold which completely put off my appetite. I've attached a photo I took with my phone.

Christina Kim

a week goes by with no response. 10 days later, i receive this email from siggi hilmarsson:

Dear Christina,

First of all I apologize for the dreadfully slow reply. Second I apologize for this lapse in quality. This should clearly not happen.

Kindly send me an address at your earliest conveniences and I will send you back a full refund as well as some gift certificates to make up for this disappointing experience.

I forwarded your e-mail to our quality manager when I got it and they have been tracing it to see what might have happened. We do try our best to keep an outstanding quality record but sadly occasionally a slip happens.

Don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions.

my very best, siggi

of course i responded,

Dear Siggi,

Thank you for your kind response. Seeing that I have actually not tried the yogurt, I will try it with your gift certificate. I am a fan of greek yogurt and was very curious to try Icelandic yogurt.

Christina

so lesson learned. do make your complaints known and attach photos whenever possible.

My Garlic Journey

2010-04-03T14:36:00.005-04:00

World politics and cuisine are rarely bedfellows, but a forgotten memory of pleasant discovery was re-ignited for me this week by the shocking story of the brutal murder of several boys on a garlic picking expedition on the border between Ingushetia and Chechnya in Russia. The Guardian covers this astonishing and heartbreaking tale here.

I have never picked Garlic but I have seen (and smelled) feral or seed garlic growing in the wild. The first time I was presented with a fresh bulb of my own was in 1992 (when I was the same age as several of the murdered Russian boys). Having never seen garlic in any other form than dessicated, dried bulbs I was fascinated by the texture of the stalk and the pungent, bitter taste of the fruit. This is turn led me to consider my relationship with garlic and the way I have adapted its use in my cooking.

Rather than doing more to the bulb, I have found myself doing less.
1. Crushing

For a good five years I must confess this was the only way I contemplated using garlic in any dish at all - armed with my trust crusher I would pulverize probably a single clove into even the largest of dishes. If I felt daring a second might be added for good luck - but never more than two.

A key moment in my love affair with garlic was my 1996 visit to New York when garlic was present in just about everything I ate - powdered garlic (of which I was previously unaware) was scattered liberally on the delicious Ray's Pizza, the steak from Osso Bucco was suffused in the pungent aromas of onions and garlic and the Italian American family I stayed with used it liberally in their cooking.

In late 1997 I began to make my own pizza from scratch - and wanting an interesting visual accompaniment to the rest of the vegetables I began to slice garlic thinly and add it to dishes, where previously I had only crushed. Now, sliced garlic doesnt meld quite so easily into the dish as crushed garlic and so announces itself as much more strident flavour. This in turn led me to understand the benefits (and dangers) of caramelised garlic and the bitter flavours that can ruin a dish if the cook is not careful to manage the heat applied.

The logical conclusion of this journey is of course doing almost nothing to the clove at all. Principal in all of this has been Hyoji with her strong influences in Korean cooking (and insatiable love for garlic) "Babe" she would opine "Needs more garlic". "One clove per person per dish" I would retort. She would roll her eyes, take the knife from me, and attack the bulb with gusto - throwing in twice or three times the amount I had accounted for - always with great success.

Doing very little with your garlic is a very good solution for stews, roasts, stuffing fish, fowl or inserting in between the sinews and tendons of lamb and beef. The key is providing for sufficient time for the harshness of the garlic to dissipate and meld into the overall flavour profile.

Oh Korea!

2010-03-13T08:26:00.004-05:00

When spring refuses to spring
When cold fingers need warming
When the stomach desires warmth
I give you... Kimchee Boekumpap

Steak

2010-03-01T09:15:00.003-05:00

Here are two photographs of delicious, cast-iron griddled steak and onions. That is all. You may drool at will.

Cocktail O'Clock Part Two

2010-02-28T23:07:00.007-05:00

Greetings, Munchers and Imbibers. Benski here with a lovely tasty new cocktail for keeping the winter blues away. Today's delicious spicy treat is going to warm both your mouth and your stomach with a tangy combination of vodka and peppers!

Think of this as a sort of Bloody Mary without the tomato juice...

2 Measures Tanqueray Sterling Vodka
1/2 Measure White Lillet
3 generous dashes Tabasco. The brave will opt for Choloua
1 teaspoon Gherkin / cornichon juice
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Stir down your ingredients in a tall glass full of fresh ice. Strain into a chilled glass (hopefully cleaner than the one in the 2nd photograph!) Enjoy.
All it needs now is a convincing name....

Calais, France 2010

2010-01-06T10:22:00.009-05:00

Persevering through treacherous weather conditions, Ben and I made our annual, semi-annual, bi-annual trip to Calais, via Dover and the Eurotunnel. Better known as the Booze Cruise, each year, millions of Brits make this trans-channel trip in search of French edibles and imbibables for good prices. We began our journey at 10.30am from north London and made our way to Calais by 2.30pm (France is one hour ahead). We began with lunch at Flunch, a French canteen. I had the plat du jour (un boeuf) and ben had a galette (avec jambon) and a small bottle of red wine. After lunch, we walked around Cité Europe for a bit of shopping. A funny thing about the French is that they don't work late and therefore early today, they were relabeling their sales items with discounted prices which would not be in effect until the next day. So everything I wanted to try on and possibly buy was still full priced, even though the price tag said otherwise. In the states, this would be unacceptable. In France, it is the norm. We proceeded to do our price checks on alcohol starting with Tesco in Cité Europe. Afterward, we made our way to Carrefour. Ahhh.... Carrefour. I love this supermarket, truly a supermarché

A sampling itemization of purchases are as follows: fromages-bleu d'auvergne, gouda old master, lait cru, brie de meaux, pont-l'eveque, chaumes, le rustique, cantal jeune, rochebaron, roblechon, petit billy; moutardes varieties, french sauces (mayo, aioli, a l'ali); saucissons; framboise cake; pain au chocolate et beurre; tinned cassoulet.

turkey dinner montage

2009-12-10T13:18:00.017-05:00

the following are photos from my dear friends' turkey dinner spreads.
enjoy.

tessa attended a friend's family turkey dinner in north hampton, MA. she prepared an artichoke dip and brought a bottle of wine. you can see bacon-wrapped brussel sprouts in the upper left corner.

andrew and rita had a small, subdued turkey dinner in their upper west side home in manhattan, NY. rita bought a few turkey breasts from a local natural market.

kim and luke had their turkey dinner in hong kong, china this year, a long ways away from last year's dinner in botswana. again, kim prepared her well-received brined turkey and a number of other goodies.

natasha and johnmoon celebrated their first turkey dinner in new york city. they hosted their turkey dinner in brooklyn with her family and their housemate. natasha prepared most of the spread.

finally, my turkey dinner spread consisted of turkey, stuffing, orange yams, blanched broccoli, cranberry & walnut pumpkin muffins and gravy. ben made bibimbap (korean-style rice seaweed roll) and his now-traditional 4 mushroom soup.

cookin' with the General

2009-12-06T20:37:00.009-05:00

welcome to the first installment of "cookin' with the General"

last week, our dear man the General cooked a meal for his wife (dare i say, for the first time?), kim cardascia, an accomplished cook and foodie with both high-brow and down-to-earth appreciation for all things edible.

i sent him a simple recipe from jamie oliver & mark bittman using chicken breast, thyme, rosemary, salt, lemon zest, garlic, parmesan, prosciutto, olive oil and some good pounding (which our resident boxing chef is so good at doing).

and look at how well he did, the General. he added a side of mustard mash potatoes and roasted asparagus. i would say, that is one happy wife.

Ten Tables - Cambridge, MA

2009-11-06T16:32:00.015-05:00

The girls, Miranda, Tessa and Hyoji, traveled up to Boston for a weekend while Miranda had a poster presentation at a liver conference titled, "Keeping End-Stage Cirrhosis Patients Alive." We had planned a while ago that we would not get each other birthday gifts, and instead take ourselves out for a really nice dinner when we were in Boston. That dinner was a small, unassuming but appropriately-rated restaurant called Ten Tables. Ten Tables has two locations, one in Jamaica Plains and one in Cambridge. The restaurant came highly recommended by Noah, a good friend and foodie. We started the evening with drinks at a hotel bar called Noir in the Charles Hotel. We were met by Noah and his lovely wife, Meredith. Noah treated us to some seriously delectable cocktails. Tessa and I were both drawn to the drink they named, "Dirty Harry." The version of "Dirty Harry" that we both ordered was made with Miller's Gin with a splash of olive juice. The beauteous part of the drink was the olives in the drink were stuffed with bleu cheese. It was a salty and hairy drink that stayed with you all night. It was divine.

The Rices walked with us for 1/2 mile to our dinner destination, Ten Tables. Not being a food critique, let alone a writer for that matter, I really cannot do justice to the insanely amazing meal we had. I do think that when Tessa let it slip that I was taking photos and notes for my food blog, the stakes rose because thereafter we received an extra savoury meal and an amuse bouche before our dessert course. Let me just recount the meal we had.

The tasting menu was not on the printed menu. The three of us had decided on the specific appetizers and entreés we were going to order until Miranda innocently asked, "you no longer have a tasting menu?" And the waiter promptly responded, "Oh, we do. It's just not printed. It is three savoury courses and one dessert course for $40." The three of us sat there in utter disbelief. "$40?!?!?" we all thought. We're in!

First course:
Suckling pig rillette with cracklin' pig skin salad. It was accompanied by a reduction that a note of red wine or red wine vinegar. Spread on the rillette and topping their butter toasted bread was delicious. I could have eaten an entire meal of this alone.

Second course:Alaskan halibut with beets, pomegranate and farro. The fish was seared on one side and the center meat was tender and moist. Perfectly cooked fish, really.

Third course (surprise course):
Bone marrow. Enough said. Really, can more be said.? Again, spread onto the butter, toasted bread. Yum.

Fourth course: New Zealand venison, grilled and cooked to medium, on a bed of brussel sprouts and turnip pureé. I've never had venison, and this was a great introduction. There was no gaminess to this. It was just pure red meat cooked just right for optimal tenderness.

Amuse bouche: Concord grape sorbet. It was a small scoop that was just the right amount to cleanse the palate between the savoury and the sweet courses. I grew up eating concord grapes as such: first, I would suck the "eye" out of the grape and then suck out the remaining sweet grape juice from the skin. This sorbet tasted just like that sweet grape juice. No added sweetener.

Dessert course:

This is the part that showed real care and concern from the wait staff. Tessa and I both got the chocolate terrine with sprinkled sea salt and topped with thai basil ice cream. The terrine was just the right amount of bitterness from dark chocolate and sweetness (which wasn't much). The sweetness of the dessert dish came from the ice cream, but the thai basil flavor cut some of the sweetness, so it was really perfect for me, who can always pass on dessert for an extra serving of savory. The sea salt sprinkling also balanced the bitterness in the chocolate with the sweetness in the ice cream. The waiter had paid attention to Miranda when she said, "Oh, I'm so stuffed." So he brought her a lighter dessert dish, Peach poached in honey and saffron topped with vanilla bean ice cream. The peach was soft and melting along side the ice cream. Miranda truly enjoyed this alternative.

The food alone at Ten Tables is worth talking about, but we three were very impressed by the wait staff and the sous chef, who made a visit to make sure that everything was all right with us. There was a familiarity and an informalness with our waiter that made the experience rather homey and comfortable. We felt free to ask questions about the difference between rillette and paté and we didn't get a bull shit response. Our waiter acknowledged his lack of knowledge and found out for us from the chef- rillette is cooked then formed, paté is formed then cooked.

m&d visit nyc

2009-10-19T14:55:00.007-04:00

look who finally came to visit ben and me in nyc! it's m&d (aka mom & dad). for this momentous trip, i had planned a fully packed weekend o' activities:

thurs night: m&d arrive

friday: pizza at nick's in forest hills, statue of liberty, ground zero, visit hunter, see a film at the NYFF, have dinner at sripraphai.

saturday: dim sum in chinatown, empire state building, shopping, dinner at cositas ricas

sunday: m&d to mass at st pat's cathedral, korean market, korean dinner at home with friends.

hmmm... what did we accomplish on that list?

we did have pizza at nick's. they did see my place of work and we managed to see the movie thereafter. but instead of sripraphai, we did as all koreans do, we had korean food for dinner after the movie. my dad said, "it will be a good end to a night of korean culture." my dad is suffering greatly on his right knee; walking proved to be more difficult than he had imagined. we decided against dim sum and just went to the empire state building and then came home for dinner and a rest. sunday, they relaxed at home and we had a few friends over for dinner, which was good fun. my dad referred to them as "my young friend" and they both really enjoyed the company of tessa, uyen, an-du-rew and his good wife rita.

m&d were quite amazed at how big the apartment really was. they were afraid we would all be cramped in a small nyc apt. my dad enjoyed the courtyard, where he would read in the mornings. it was great having them around. i can't wait for their next trip with my dad's new knee.

fermented and fried : cocktail o' clock : one o'clock

2009-09-29T09:43:00.008-04:00

I am indebted to the bartenders at Diageo's GEOBAR in central London for introducing me to the extraordinary "Corpse Reviver #2". By co-incidence, our friends Uyen and Carsten bought Hyoj a copy of Vintage Cocktails and Spirits for her birthday - and the cocktail is reproduced there. On our recent (and highly memorable) trip to Maine I decided to make it for the assembled folk, and reproduce it here for your drinking pleasure. Ladies and Gentlemen: A lost Classic: The Corpse Reviver #2

3 parts Gin
3 parts freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 parts Triple Sec (Cointreau if you're rich, but don't use one less than 20% vol)
3 parts Lillet

1 drop of Absinthe

Measurements are vital in making this drink. Your proportions need to be exact to get the best possible result. Measure each ingredient before combining in a cocktail shaker full of ice. Shake vigourously.

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and place a single drop of Absinthe into the centre of the drink.

julie/julia, kim/kim, prosciutto/taleggio

2009-08-12T10:39:00.002-04:00

this past weekend, nyc was graced with the visit from purdascia,
our most favorite foodie couple.

while the XYs celebrated the age-old stag night out of town
the ladies had plenty of local fun. for the purpose of this blog post
i will abridge the activities and comments about the weekend.

saturday 8 august 2009
1. at salumeria biellese kim picked up some traditionally cured meats:
prosciutto biellese1, coppa2, rosette de lyon3, bresaola4 and serrano ham5.
2. after some serious eating at taco chulo in williamsburg (namely queso fundido6), we strolled down bedford over to bedford cheese shop where we bought a chevre and vacherin fribourgeois7.
3. my love affair with the vacherin began.

sunday 9 august 2009
1. the morning began with kim feeding rita, monique and me some cured meat.
the prosciutto is rather thick in cut and memorable in taste.
2. a differnt four (kim, tessa, rita and me) caught the 10.50am showing of julie and julia at UA kaufman astoria.
3. we pined over our (re)invigored love for julia child (and meryl streep).
4. we tried for brunch at clinton st. baking company, but ended up at frankies 17.
5. our lunch was preceded by cheesecake and ended with a cheese plate of 3: mozzarella di bufalo, pecorino and taleggio8.
(the taleggio is similar in the stinkiness and creaminess to the vacherin).
6. we went our separate ways (kim departs for DC) and i went in search of "mastering the art of french cooking" by julia child. strand has sold out, so i bought the bittman book.
7. when i finally got home, i plopped down on the sofa and pulled out my sep 09 issue of bon appetit.
8. on pg 114, the 'prep school' feature caught my eye.

the weekend came together as i read..
a) the title: "prosciutto-wrapped chicken breast"; and
2) the 2nd step in the instructions, "in the pocket you've just cut, insert 1 taleggio."

(article and photo from bonappetit.com)

key:
1. coppa- see left image.
2. prosciutto biellese- “house” cured prosciutto, seasoned with molasses and butcher ground pepper.
3. rosette de lyon- delicately flavored Lyonesse dry sausage, cured with red wine and “quatre epices” (four spices).
4. bresaola- air-dried beef, fashioned in the style from Valtellina Region. Sliced paper thin.
5. serrano ham- spicy cured ham in the style of Serrano Hams of Spain.
6. queso fundido- melted cheese dip with bacons
7. vacherin fribourgeois- pressed cow's cheese from Switzerland with both nuttiness and stinkiness.
8. taleggio- a gooey, thick, rich cow's milk cheese with a strong mushroomy, earthy, bacony aroma.

urban gardening-part two

2009-08-05T20:30:00.000-04:00

i've started to expand my urban garden. the basil plant i got over a month ago has bloomed from regular clippings and keeping the soil not dry, but not too wet. i've moved it from the east facing windowsill to the sunnier, west facing window in the bedroom. while it is not as accessible from the kitchen, it is thriving more in its new environment. look at how much the basil has grown.

next to the basil is my new cilantro plant. i planted two seedling pots. because of my past failures with cilantro, i'm going to try growing them in cycles. the two seedling pots have been replanted into one big pot, with cardboard separating the roots. if one or both plants wither away, i will replace it with a new seedling.

i've started a "greenhouse" of cilantro seeds. i'm using two different egg cartons, one cardboard and one plastic. the cardboard carton is used to hold the soil and the seed. it is then encased by the plastic carton, which essentially serves as a greenhouse. one coriander seed in each egg bed, covered in 1/4" of soil. keeping the soil most and covered to maintain optimal humidity and heat for a budding seedling.
also in the bedroom windowsill, i've laid out the three small pots of dwarf basil from seeds. these pots are only 2.5" squares, not ideal for seedlings not intended for repotting. i'm going to see if with this dwarf basil, i won't need to repot and instead, keep them in these small pots.

dwarf basil grows in bush form, and could get up to 10 inches tall. the more i think about it, keeping the bush in this small pot may not work at all. hmmm... will keep you posted.

finally, in the kitchen windowsill sits the struggling wild arugula. it has been growing for 5 weeks now, and it is still sad and sparse. i have started to move the arugula to the "west wing" after the morning east side exposure. in the coffee can is a spearmint plant. soley purchased and nurtured for the purpose of future benski mixology. mint is supposed to grow like weed and requires little care, so i really shouldn't screw this one up. in addition to mint, in the small, clay pots are chives seeds planted. these, too, are hearty herbs that require little maintenance, just avoid desiccation.

scallops flambée & stuffed peppers

2009-08-01T07:24:00.000-04:00

stuffed peppers

we stuffed our csa green pepper and poblano pepper with a sautée of bacon, csa onion, garlic and bread crumbs in bacons grease, then topped with grated gouda (howda) and pepper jack cheese.

we roasted the two peppers under alumin(i)um foil for 30 min at 375F. then let them sit for 5 min to cool. the cheese is oozy and very very hot.

scallops flambée

we bought fresh scallops caught out in north cape and sold at the jackson heights green market. 6 pieces for $6.

ben minimally prepared the scallops. basically, he heated olive oil in a pan to really really hot. he added minced garlic and then the scallops, whole. he then let them sizzle on both sides.

then, once it has near-seared on both sides, he does the most wonderful thing:

introducing... the flambée

woodside csa visits nolasco farm

2009-07-27T21:13:00.015-04:00

around 9am on july 26, 2009 some members of the woodside csa met at st. jacobus church to visit their farmer sergio at his farm (nolasco farm) in andover, NJ.

photo by jen galatioto

sergio graciously stayed behind while his family still brought greens to the jackson heights greenmarket on this drizzly, sunday morning.

it was great to see where our vegetables came from, to see how local they really were. we only drove an hour and a half out of the city into a place called tranquility, new jersey (go figure!).

sergio's farm is not a certified organic farm, not yet, he says. it is expensive to be certified organic so he does what he can for now by using organic fungicide and organic calcium. the fertilizer he uses is not organic, but he also does not use pesticide or insecticide.

the trip allowed us to see some of our future vegetables. in line for harvesting are eggplant, tomatoes (if the rain ever lets up), poblano and habanero peppers, orange bell peppers, garlic (!) and more. we also got to see the beginnings of our future fruit. Yep, that's right, fruit! Sergio is growing cantaloupe and watermelon.

at the end of the tour, we picnicked with the food that we had planned to bring. there were two different fusilli pasta in pesto, deviled eggs, caponato, german style potato salad (oh bilal, i miss you!), hummous, fresh bread, cinnamon vanilla white cake, longan & watermelon, mesclun salad with cranberries & nuts and more.
you can find more photos by jen galatioto and me on picasa. it really was great meeting some of the csa members and thank you to gail and jim for driving jing and me out and back in your new and comfortable vehicle.

urban gardening - JH style

2009-07-07T14:55:00.011-04:00

our new deep windowsill was calling out for an herb garden... so with rita's guidance and gay's encouragement (and arugula seeds), i planted a new herb garden, starting with basil, rosemary and arugula. the window is east facing so i get a lot of sun in the morning but then have to provide more light at night. what you see perched on top of the two brown jugs is the strip of fluorescent lamp. the cardboard egg carton will be used to sow new seedlings.

rosemary is one of those hearty herbs that you cannot kill. so i'll feel really stupid if i kill my small plant.
i recently purchased seeds for dwarf basil, oregano and cilantro.
because i've always had problems keeping cilantro alive,
i've decided to sow cilantro seeds continuously, always ensuring a new seedling harvest to replace the dying herb.

future herb additions include mint and chives. i'm also planning to grow a small red pepper plant and start my own indoor worm composting. i will post photos of the newly growing herb crop.

the woodside CSA

2009-07-07T14:14:00.015-04:00

tessa and i joined our local CSA this season. 22 weeks $335, 7 vegetables a week.

tessa and i bought one share and it proved to be just the right amount. every wednesday is the pick up at st. mark's church. tessa and i plan to have a csa dinner every wednesday we are both free.

so far the veggies we've gotten are:
kohlrabi, zucchini (long and round)
dill, cilantro, broccoli, squash blooms

kale, collard greens, swiss chard, cabbage
cucumber, onion, turnip, radish, beets

spinach, yellow squash, turnip
lettuce and sunflower sprouts (as seen on left).

kohlrabi was a vegetable i had never seen or used in cooking.
tessa looked up some ways to use it and we decided on using it raw, so i came up with a mild salsa recipe.

-half of one kohlrabi bulb, grated
-1/4 c. chopped marinated artichoke hearts
-2 tomatoes, chopped
-1/4 red onion, chopped
-1/4 c. canned corn (liquid strained)
-1/4 c. cannellini beans
-chopped cilantro
-splash of balsamic and red wine vinegar
-fresh ground pepper

our first CSA dinner was a meal of chicken fajitas.
chicken thigh meat rubbed with kansas BBQ rub and fried.
tortilla with shredded pepper jack, chicken, jalapeños and sunflower sprouts. the dish was then topped with the kohlrabi salsa.

Beverage Centre

2009-06-11T15:15:00.006-04:00

as part of the renovations to the kitchen
we had to downsize on the refrigerator
so we could maximize on counterspace.
ben likes to say we went "euro" with our fridge selection.
well, to make up for the smaller fridge in the kitchen
we decided on adding a beverage refrigerator to our drinks foyer
where wine, beer, and other beverages can stay chilled
leaving more room in the main fridge for food.
and here it is...thank you to purdascia for helping me schlep it home.
thank you to luke for rearranging the drinks foyer
and carrying the refrigerator all by himself.
the drinks fridge is named "the general" in his honor.

CORNDOGS!

2009-03-26T08:59:00.017-04:00

the national corndog event of JH was a success.
held on march 23, 2009- day 2, round 2 of march madness. for some reason, bright blue t-shirts were the uniform of the day (benski, karlo & jess).

some vital stats from the day:
time of first arrivers - 3.15pm
no. of participants - 17
52 corndogettes consumed
7 different condiments
3 different veggies on offer
2 different desserts on offer
1 lovely quiche (all consumed)
loads of colombian pastries
1.5 pitchers of the karlo "punch"
12 karaoke songs sung by 7 singers
no. of cigar(s) smoked - 1
time of last departers - 12.20am

ahhh.. and the corndogs

this particular batch yielded 52 corndogettes. recipe is a very slight alteration on alton brown's recipe.

26 wieners cut in half doused in cornstarch

mix the following dry ingredients: 2 c flour, 2 c cornmeal, 4 t salt, 2 t baking powder, 1/2 t baking soda, 1 t cayenne pepper.

mix, in a separate bowl, the following wet ingredients: 1/4 c minced jalapeno pepper, 15 oz can cream-style corn, 1/2 cup finely grated onion, 3 cups buttermilk, 1 egg

mix dry and wet together, keeping the batter lumpy. set lots of peanut oil in a deep fryer (le creuset, my pick) to 375 F (190 C). fry until dark golden brown (about 3-5 min).

i didn't use sticks because my le creuset wasn't long enough; you can manage the shape and dogettes without the sticks.

NATIONAL CORNDOG DAY event of JH - MARCH 22

2009-02-18T16:16:00.007-05:00

With8 total in the pool
($80 pot including President Obama's picks,
courtesy of Jason Riffaterre)
March Madness is fully underway.
GO BRUINS!

Plans for NCD is as follows:
Corndog frying to begin at 3pm
Games on CBS until 7pm.
Men bring imbibables
Women bring edibles.

Jerris and Caroline arrive at 7pm.

christmas 2008 - california korea style

2009-01-10T00:10:00.004-05:00

ever wonder what koreans with an englishman have for a christmas meal?

on the menu:
saeng kalbi (korean-style unmarinated ribs): that's what you hear sizzling
and regular kalbi (korean-style marinated ribs)
rice, ssam (lettuce to have with the kalbi) and ssamjhang (slight spicy fermented soy paste)
different types of jun (korean savoury pancakes with fish and vegetable)
japchae (glass noodles)
4 different types of kimchi
daenjhang jigeh (korean style hearty miso-type soup)
various sprouts flavoured and fried
green chili peppers
loads of other banchan (small dishes of various fermented vegetables)
lotsa rice and cava

Holiday Cocktail: The White Jamaican

2008-12-30T12:13:00.004-05:00

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Watch the fermentedandfried.com team make a tasty cocktail.
1 Part White Rum
1 Part Vodka
2 Parts Half and Half (or Single cream)
1 Part Kahlua
Topped with freshly grated nutmeg.
Shake over ice.
Serve up.

turkey day 2008 (JH special)

2008-11-28T10:40:00.014-05:00

27 november 2008:
jackson heights, queens, ny, usa, earth, milky way, universe

i entertained a small, intimate turkey dinner with 3 good friends here in nyc: tessa, uyen and carsten. we had much to be thankful for this year.
uyen and carsten got married;
tessa and i bought our first homes (9 blocks away from each other, no less); and of course,
america finally got it right with the election.
what could we say... we were happy and thankful.

all attendees contributed to the menu below:

brined 12lb turkey* with gravy (hyoji)

cornbread and sausage stuffing (hyoji)
oranged yams (tessa)
corn chowder (uyen)

spinach salad (uyen)
cranberry sauce (hyoji)
apple pie (tessa)
and alcohol (freix cava, marie brizard apricot brandy, frey pinot noir and valdomor albarino white)

side notes on the food prepared:
a) uyen substituted the potatoes in her recipe with chickpeas in the corn chowder and cooked the onions in bacon;
b) broth for gravy was cooked with turkey giblets;
c) pour a smidge of apricot brandy into cava for depth in flavor;
d) cranberry sauce cooked with cinnamon stick and a dab of vanilla; and
e) key to flaky pie crust, chill dough in ice water.

and for the turkey....
martha stewart's brine recipe was given to me by kim cardascia (botswana)
the recipe was for a 26lb turkey; mine was 12lbs. the recipe below is my adjusted version.

2 cups coarse salt
2 cups sugar
1 med onions chopped
6 baby carrots
1 celery stalk chopped
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs thyme
2 sprigs parsley
1.2 tbsp whole peppercorns
2 3-inch strips of lemon peel
9 cups water

mix, heat and stir all ingredients till sugar and salt are dissolved, and bring to a boil. then cool completely. put turkey in, breast-side down, and store in fridge for 24 hours, turning it once. remove, pat dry, and let rest at room temp for 2 hours. (chuck the brine)

i placed the turkey in a garbage bag and tied it tight with little/no air inside. my turkey fit inside my biggest stock pot and stored that sucker in the fridge for more than 24 hrs (next time, i will stick to no more than 20 hours; my turkey was moist but on the saltier side).

preheat oven to 350F (the recipe called for the turkey to roast in 425F oven for the first 30 min, but the skin of my turkey got too dark too quickly. i'm sticking to 350F the whole time). melt 6 tbsp of butter in 1 c white wine (i used sherry; i'd use white wine next time) and baste the turkey. soak cheesecloth in the mix and cover the turkey breast. place the turkey, breast up, on a rack in a roasting pan. rub all over with 1/4 cup softened butter and sprinkle with pepper. i also stuck a whole lemon in the turkey cavity (it's a moistening technique i use to roast chicken).

brush cloth and exposed bits with butter/wine, and repeat basting every half hour up to 2.5 hours total. if juices in the bottom of pan get too dark, add water to them.

after 2.5 hours in the oven, remove cloth. baste with pan juices. continue roasting, checking each 30 minutes or so, rotating once more, until the skin is brown and the thigh is 165. let it rest 30 min before carving.

welcome to... JACKSON HEIGHTS

2008-11-24T10:39:00.003-05:00

finally moved in
and somewhat settled,
we have a presentation of our new nabe for you.

In Praise of Crab

2008-10-24T08:09:00.011-04:00

Leisure Piers are not generally considered auspicious places for fine dining. In the UK only petrol stations and hospital canteens are more unlikely places to find gourmet cuisine. However, one establishment bucks the trend completely with an array of astonishing dishes: The Korean Crab House of Redondo Beach, California.

This remarkable seafood eatery perches on a rickety looking fishing pier tucked between cultured pearl salesmen and a hut selling corn-dipped hotdogs. The fearsome looking Dungeness crab is the main attraction; the more delicate eater will want to look away upon entering, as an enormous tank containing your lunch wriggles, bubbles and clicks – awaiting the moment when a hand will appear from above the waterline and draw out the tank’s rust and cream coloured spiny, clacking cargo before plunging the unfortunate decapod into a vat of lip-smacking steamy broth.

The diner is seated at one of several wooden wallpaper pasting tables upon a schoolroom chair. Gulls patrol the wooden railings outside the windows , showing panoramic views of the bay. The tables are decorated in the most simple way imaginable – a spoon, a pair of chopsticks and a wooden mallet are your eating irons. The snooty diner will surely be nonplussed at this rudimentary arrangement – however it is a fool who turns his nose up at this point; Barley tea arrives, followed by spiced pickles, clams in broth and small saucers of kimchee. This is a teaser - a briny miso and seaweed mouth tickler – but really nothing prepares you for the spectacle of 3 or 4 whole crabs arriving at your table on a trolley, from which billows a divine smelling garlic and buttery steaming cloud. The waitress draws a short, thick knife from a leather scabbard on her belt and ruthlessly quarters the assembled crustaceans – and the rest is up to you.

(click for a bigger picture)

Eating a crab is a physical experience – cracking, splitting and unhinging the beast, coaxing the meat out, piece by delicious white and pink piece is a wonderful, visceral treat. Hyoj dives upon my discarded legs “There’s LOADS left in here!” she opines, and pokes at the dismembered leg with a chopstick, disgorging another lump of tasty flesh. And so it goes on, until all you are left with is a pile of dessicated exoskeleton and splinters of shell. Finally, by way of belly-filling consolation comes the magnificent and eyewateringly spicy chigeh, a bright red thick Korean seafood stew – laced with large hunks of bony white fish, slabs of glistening creamy tofu and powerful fermented green kimchee shoots. Two bowls of this fearsome wizardly South Korean concoction and you will feel as if you’ve been touched by the chilli demons – you have been warned!

(click for a bigger picture)

By the time this heady broth is consumed, I am a spent force, but keen to return again and eat at this magical establishment perched on a pier at the end of the world.

2008-10-06T17:21:00.002-04:00

At some restaurants - the rules do not apply. At these restaurants, despite one's strongly held beliefs about cooking, table ettiquette and service, the diner finds himself completely at the mercy of the establishment.

One such restaurant is located on the pier at Redondo Beach, Orange County, California. "Korean Crab House" - a totally unassuming shack, built on the rickety remains of the Redondo Beach pier is hardly the a palace of gourmet delights - but the cynical diner passes this sublime eating house up at his peril - this is (make no mistake) an experience to be respected.

Let me, at this point interject a little context. I'm from a nation with, frankly, an atrocious culinary history. The British seaside is hardly a bastion of good cuisine - a pitiful collection of sordid shacks and greasy vehicles selling eels, deep-fried fish and oily chips in yesterday's newspaper.

The Korean Crab house shows you how it should be done in style - by doing almost nothing.

Believe it or not - all that has happened to this beautiful crustacean (A Dungeoness Crab - ) is that it has been steamed (from fresh) and cut into quarters. nothing more. What makes this astonishign dish so remarkable is the lack of cooking. The lack of special treatment. Clearly the chefs at this establishment have something spcial up their sleeves - but this critic is at a complete loss to understand or fathom what it is -

In Praise of The Humble Mushroom

2008-08-14T11:33:00.013-04:00

Mushrooms occupy an interesting seat in our culinary theatre; both loved and reviled, consumed at all times of the day - Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner; From tiny baby button mushrooms to vast truffles. Not everybody loves the humble mushroom, and I think I know why – we’re suspicious of them, their ghostly, frilly caps, their delicate gills, their position atop piles of dung… reason for doubt in some, celebration in others.

The field mushroom is a robust, portly fungus. Sitting fairly low to the ground Agaricus arvensis has been cultivated widely and is sold in supermarkets and greengrocers across North America and Europe – you will have no difficulty in finding them. The cap is firm and meaty, solidly constructed, the stem thick (but not too brittle). I have found that both overly wet and overly dry conditions are horrible to mushrooms, for best results, keep them low in your refrigerator, and stored in a paper bag rather than a plastic one.

Now. Enough lecturing and on with the cooking.

Everyone knows that mushrooms love garlic, but if the idea of buttered mushrooms is a bit pub-lunch to you, then perhaps you’d like to revisit this absolute classic:

The Mushroom Steak Sandwich

One large field mushroom per person
Extra Virgin Olive oil
Good, fresh, crusty bread
Black Pepper
1 clove of garlic per mushroom

Wipe the mushroom down with a piece of damp kitchen roll (the kind that doesn’t shed). Do not wash the mushrooms – it’s quite unnecessary and it puts too much moisture into them – those gills will absorb fluid as we shall see when we add the oil later.

Preheat your grill to medium heat. Put a middle shelf in the oven – not too high.
Warm your bread.

Place the mushrooms gills up on a baking sheet.
In a small Pyrex jug or bowl, crush the garlic and add 2-3 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Season.
Mash the garlic and olive oil together with the pepper using a fork and drizzle the mixture over the gills of the mushrooms.

Pop them under the grill for 4-8 minutes depending on how hot your grill is and how juicy you like your mushrooms. You will find that the longer you cook them the more the flesh of the mushroom breaks down, creating lots of lovely hot, black, tasty mushroom juice.

Serve between the slices of crusty bread and munch your way to a mouthful of mushroom heaven!

Fermented and Fried gets a guest writer!

2008-08-09T20:01:00.009-04:00

Hello folks. Hyoj has allowed me to gatecrash her blog with a few of my own musings. Hope you enjoy my contributions!

My love affair with Pilaf continues unabated. Every so often I will find myself browsing through CDs, scrubbing my toes in bath or recycling a thick sheaf of papers and suddenly it will hit me -

"I MUST HAVE PILAF".

Assembling the ingredients for this tasty dish has to be one of the most enjoyable mise en prep of all the dishes I make. Something magical happens in that stainless steel pot when the favours of the fields meld together. Last night I dared to match a few large, crisp branches of celery with thick chunks of smoked cooking bacon, a few elderly leeks, a whole head of garlic and three pungent spanish onions that made my eyes water for nearly fifteen minutes.

Throwing half a bottle of French Rose into the rice and seasoning it furiously I finished it off with a tin of tomatoes and a furious, spicy handful of ripe, Korean pickled cabbage and radishes. Just under an hour later the oven unburdened itself and the result was magnificent, the combination of the spicy kimchee with the rosé, the still slightly crisp celery and the smoky bacon with the comforting rice just made for a heavenly mix - it is difficult to screw pilaf up - I urge you to try it!

Routinely I make four or five servings, eat one (or two!) refrigerate one and freeze two - it keeps for three months, but it best consumed within a month. Because of the robust nature of the rice which carries the dish, you can add nearly anything and make it carry, shellfish and peas (hey this makes it a pseudo-paella, shh) carrots, parsnip and red peppers with pre-roasted lamb is the preferred winter combination and finallly large chunks of roasted pork with sweet potato and leeks in a leap year.

Benski Restaurant Pilaf

Cooking Bacon or preroasted deboned joint meat of your choosing (Roasted pork, beef, lamb)
3 large onions, 2 chopped medium, one coarsely chopped
Shallots (optional)
A head of garlic
1/3 bottle dry Rosé or White wine
1 tin whole tomatoes or 3 medium fresh tomatoes
Bay leaf
1 Leek
Kim chee (Mat kimchee is good for any of the above meats, Chonga Kimchee - the pig tailed radish variety is particularly good with bacon)
2 Carrots, coarsely chopped
Black pepper
Vegetable stock

Remove the shelves and heat the oven to 200c / Gas Mark 6 / 420 F
In a large stainless steel pot (with lid) heat a generous glug of good quality olive oil. Once it is hot, fry the cooking bacon with the onions and leeks, adding the garlic at the end of the process. The vegetables do not need to be fully cooked - you're just giving them colour and starting them off. Add the tomatoes, rice and wine and give the mixture a jolly good stir. If you have preroasted meat, now is the time to place it on top of the stirred mixture. Finally, take your handful of kimchee and throw it on top. It will not look particularly appetizing at this point, but fear not - your transformation will occur with just an hour in the oven.
Season, add the bay leaf and cover.

Turn the temperature down from 200 after 20 minutes to about 160. Getting the liquid to rice ratio is difficult at first but it comes with practice. You can be thrown off by the amount of water your vegetables give up during the cooking process. Nervous cooks may like to check a few times during cooking. Top up with a little wine or vegetable stock if you're getting low/worried.

Serve with robust red wine or more Rosé during the summer. Enjoy!

check out chinatown!

2008-07-21T15:47:00.000-04:00

ben filmed this in chinatown, nyc-style.
featuring eggettes (a favorite), dragon whiskers (pastry),
jing fong (dim sum restaurant of choice),
inside dynasty supermarket (elizabeth, north of canal)
and a surprise ingredient at the end.
oddly, we couldn't find any "chicken without sexual life".

hope you enjoy this 8 min movie

ben and the dungeness crab: another movie

2008-07-17T08:13:00.002-04:00

ben had his first dungeness crab
korea-style.
it is simply steamed, pried open
and served piping hot.
you are given a bib and mallet.
my parents usually order raw oysters and
a spicy korean stew to accompany.
this particular joint featured in the video
is my family's favorite dive-y crabhouse
on the redondo beach pier.

this movie stars ben, my parents and me.

kim vs kim: a new movie by ben

2008-07-14T16:13:00.006-04:00

"no, this is not a loop."

"and now i'm thirsty."

a new biz of tasty treats

2008-07-05T22:10:00.008-04:00

my friend stephanie created a new company
called amandarico
specializing in healthy, delicious snacks.
i've tried the savoury cupola clouds
and am looking forward to trying the cupola cookies.
i have been lucky enough to find them locally
but you can also order from her website
amandarico.com
don't they look tasty?

her product was recently featured on the TODAY show on NBC.
check it out!
they are indonesian, not vietnamese, by the way.
watch the video, you'll see what i mean.
her blog is called the "lovin' oven" as well... I LOVE IT!

making vanilla bourbon ice cream at home

2008-06-20T10:27:00.003-04:00

recipe from "The Perfect Scoop" will follow shortly.
please enjoy the less-than-10-minute instructional movie.

jones beach madness

2008-06-15T17:38:00.006-04:00

the team had plans to see
REM in concert
at jones beach.
instead, the lightning cut the show short (for us)
and we only saw the national and modest mouse.
thankfully, ben and andrew stepped in.
enjoy our R.E.M. show.

bloody mary with a twist - my first movie

2008-05-25T22:31:00.007-04:00

ben created this variation on the classic bloody mary
which inspired me to make my first movie
for fermented and fried
and youtube.
enjoy!

recipe (in credits):
absolute vodka
spicy tomato juice
jalapenos
stuffed olives
garlic powder
black pepper
pickled ginger (+juice)
worcestershire sauce
sriracha

ben's kimbap

2008-05-14T20:32:00.008-04:00

ben wrote this email to his friends.
it made me proud, as well my parents.

Greetings, Friends.

I'm here to tell you about the Korean wonder that is Kim pap (or Kim bop, depending on how you want to spell it).

This is a simple Korean dish comprising of a sheet of dried seaweed laver, placed on a strung bamboo mat, seasoned rice placed on top (mix a little sesame oil and rice vinegar in with the rice and let it sit for a while), then a filling (meat, vegetables, egg, seafood, pickles, seeds etc) and the whole thing rolled to make a roly-poly, sort of like a savoury jam sponge or swiss roll.

Kim pap is extremely popular in Korea and anywhere koreans are found, and the varietes are, quite literally, infinite. If it goes with rice, you can add it.

Koreans appear particularly fond of Kim Pap that contains thinly sliced omlette, crabstick and pickled radish. Recently I learned how to make this dish (picture enclosed, tonight's recipe) - which contains some entirely non-korean ingredients:

Cured Pork Luncheon Tongue
Red capsicum pepper
Garlic Powder (sue me)
Celery
Garlic Mayo
Sesame Seeds
French's American Mustard

The result is a meaty, creamy, tangy, garlicy mixture that goes excellently with the seasoned rice and the laver. Try it!

rice jambalaya

2008-05-05T13:43:00.008-04:00

this post will be updated with photos
and an account of the experience
once i get around to making it,
but a jambalaya recipe from noah
i had to post.
you can't go wrong with any recipe
that begins with at least one pound of sausage:

"I'm doing this from memory, but I think I got it right."

Optional ingredients - okra, pink beans, white beans, linguica (if andouille is not available - but must be a smoked sausage).

1-2 lbs of andouille sausage
1/4 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
Kosher salt
Chicken thighs, skin on, bones attached
Chicken breasts, skin on, bones attached
3 slices of bacon
1-2 lbs of uncooked shrimps, with shells on(buy them that way and then shell them)
2 large cans of diced tomatoes
2 fresh jalapenos, fine dice
2 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme (1 tsp reserved)
2 1/2 teaspoon fresh oregano (1 tsp reserved)
3-4 bay leaves
Onions - two yellow, fine dice
1-2 red bell peppers, fine dice
2-3 stalks celery, fine dice
4-5 cloves of garlic, dice
(if you have a food processor -- put the onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic, and jalapeño in a food processor together - pulse 5-6 times, until just reached a fine dice - do not puree).
Chicken stock - approximately 1 and 1/2 cups
Good dry white wine - 1/2 cup
Large pot (preferably a Le creuset-style enamelized dutch oven)
1 1/2 cups of rice
Clam juice
Parmigiano-Reggiano
Italian parsley

2-4 martinis or 5-6 beers (abita purple haze). Jazz and Delta Blues, or, in a pinch, salsa music.

Stuff reserved spiced under the skin of chicken thighs and chicken breasts. Sear skin side down, on medium-high heat until golden brown(about 5 minutes). Turn and brown the other side (Approximately 5 minutes). Take chicken out of pot and reserve(take skin off chicken before returning to pot later) . Cook andouille sausage in same pot, until browned (app. 5 minutes). Take out of pot.

Add bacon slices. Cook until crisp. Take out of pot.

Sauté thyme, oregano, onions, peppers, celery and garlic, jalapeños in bacon, sausage and chicken fat for approximately 5 minutes, until onions are translucent and aromatics are pungent.

Add white wine.

Add diced tomatoes and chicken stock, rice. Bring to a boil.

Add chicken, sausage, cayenne pepper, bay leaves. Season to taste re: spice - I add rotel tomatoes and you can punch it up with a couple chipotles, or more cayenne, and fresh ground black pepper.

Cook on low for approximately 45 minutes-1 hour, or until chicken is done. Remove chicken and debone and shred. Add all shredded chicken back to pot.

Add all shrimps (should be unshelled, at this point). Cook for 2-3 minutes, until pink.

Remove bay leaves.

Add finely diced good italian parsley.

Put in large pasta bowl. Grate some fresh parmigiano-reggiano on top.

Serve with good bread - baguette, or other crusty french peasant bread . Scoop, and shovel suppa into face with spoon and bread, while gulping beer and/or sipping martinis. This dish gets better each day, as the flavors mellow and marry. My recipe makes a truckload - you will have leftovers.