East Meets West Coleslaw

In my previous post, I posted the recipe that my friend Moira and I created for braised pork to celebrate LOST. Well here is another recipe that I served at the Lost party. This coleslaw was the easiest dish to make and was absolutely delicious. I would definitely recommend it for a summer barbecue.

Ingredients

-1/2 Head of purple cabbage, shredded

-1 c. Slice almonds

-2 pkgs. Ramen noodles, broken up

-1 bunch Scallions, chopped (add to your discretion)

-1/2 c. Vegetable oil

-2 tsp. Toasted sesame oil

-1 Tbsp. Soy sauce

-1/3 c. Sugar

-1/4 c. Rice vinegar

-2 Season packets from Ramen noodles (chicken flavor)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, almonds, Ramen noodles and scallions.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar and Ramen seasoning packets.

3. Pour the dressing over the dry ingredients and toss. Let sit for a few hours.

I didn't take picture of it that night in the bowl, so here's a picture of the leftovers:

Braised Pork for LOST

As huge fans of the show LOST, Doug and I have hosted a few viewing parties for episodes. Well, this past Sunday was the season finale, so we invited our fellow Lost fanatics over and sent the show off in style. My friend Moira and I planned out a whole menu which included items such as: Jin's Steamed Mussels, Mr. Cluck's Popcorn Chicken, Locke's Braised Pork, East Meets West Coleslaw, and Generic Character Rice Pilaf. All week long I food shopped and prepped ingredients, because we would only have about 3 hours to prepare everything. Unfortunately, Moira got called into work and was unable to attend, but luckily enough, we had discussed our menu so thoroughly that I knew exactly what needed to be done. I was stressed out making all of this food on my own, especially in a 3 hour window, but in the end, I pulled it off. It goes to show you that planning and preparation really do pay off. Here's one of the recipes that Moira and I collaborated on to create, based on a braised lamb shank recipe we had. In honor of Lost, we changed it to pork (close to a boar, right?) and used pineapple juice instead of wine as our acid. We also threw in some cinnamon and a splash of rum. Some of the portions of ingredients are estimates and with the all the rushing around, I forgot to take pictures. Try it out and feel free to play with the spices you put in!

Locke's Braised Pork

Ingredients

-Package of sliced bacon

-Pork Shoulder/Butt (I used approx. 5 lb pork butt roast)\

-Salt and Pepper for seasoning the pork

-1/2 cup Carrots (chopped, about 1/4 inch)

-1/2 cup Celery (chopped, about 1/4 inch)

-1/2 cup Onions (chopped, about 1/4 inch)

-1-2 Garlic cloves, chopped

-6 oz. Pineapple juice

-2 Cinnamon sticks

-2 Star Anise

-3-4 Sprigs of Thyme

-4 cups Chicken stock

-1 oz. Rum (I used Bacardi Silver)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. In a large, oven proof pan (not too big, but large enough to fit the meat and be covered), add the bacon and turn on high heat. When the bacon has produced enough grease to coat the bottom of the pan, remove the strips. Feel free to fully cook the bacon if you are going to use it in something else later one, personally, I discarded mine.

3. While the bacon is cooking, season the pork with salt and pepper. After removing the bacon from pan, put the pork in. Brown all sides of the pork. It is important to get the color that you want during this step because once the acid is introduced, the meat will no longer brown. The browning is also carmalization of natural sugars, so it will add to the flavor of your meat.

4. When the meat is sufficiently browned on all sides, remove from pan and reserve on a dish.

5. Reduce the heat to medium. (If the fat/grease has burned, discard and add 3 tbsp of vegetable oil.) Add in the carrots, celery, onions (which is also known as "mirepoix") and garlic. Sauté for 5 - 7 minutes, until they are lightly browned. Do not allow to burn (add more oil if necessary).

6. Add the pineapple juice and deglaze the pan by scraping the bottom with a wooden spoon. Bring to a boil.

7. Remove from heat and add the cinnamon sticks, star anise and thyme. Place the pork back in the pan. Add the shot of rum and pour in chicken stock until the pork is 1/2 way covered.

8. Cover and place in the oven for 1.5 hours. If your cover does not seal completely with your pan, place a sheet of aluminum foil under the cover to create a better seal. Remove the pan from the oven, flip the pork and place it back in oven for another 1.5 hours.

9. After the 3 hour cook time, the pork should be done. Use a meat thermometer to be sure, the thickest part should reach 160 degrees. Place on a heated plate and cover with with foil.

10. Pour the juices through a fine mesh strainer and press down with a wooden spoon to extract all juices from the vegetables. Return the juices to pan and place on high heat. Reduce the juices by half, skimming the surface with a ladle or straining spoon to remove any excess fat.

11. Cut up the pork and pour the sauce over it. Enjoy!

Margaritaville

As summer comes closer, I find myself unable to resist the urge to sit outdoors and drink margaritas. Personally, I prefer the original lime margarita on the rocks, although the frozen ones just scream summer. I used to think those were my two options to enjoy a margarita, that is until my book club decided to have a meeting on Cinco de Mayo. Being the baker of the group (by force), I had my heart set on making margarita cupcakes. I wasn't quite sure how I would make them or what they would taste like, but I was determined. After spending a week looking up recipes for the cake and frosting, I could not find a cake made from scratch that sounded good. Almost all of the cupcake recipes I found were based on a box of white cake mix. So finally, I decided to take the lazy way and use the boxed mix. The cupcakes, which I did in mini-muffin pans and add food coloring to, ended up tasting great. They were very light and the lime flavor went nicely with the sweetness. I was originally determined to create my own recipe from scratch, but after eating these and getting numerous compliments, I will probably not change it. As for the frosting, I used a simple vanilla buttercream that I had already made earlier in the week. The next time I make them though, I will use a whipped cream for frosting to keep the cupcake very light. I recommend you try different frostings and see what you like best, mine will probably be one spiked with tequila! Below I provided the cupcake recipe, as well as a whipped cream recipe and pictures. Enjoy!

Margarita Cupcakes

Ingredients

-1 Box of white cake mix (I used Pillsbury Moist Supreme Classic White)

-1 cup Margarita mix (room temp.)

-1/4 cup Tequila (room temp.)

-3 Egg* whites (room temp.)

-2 tbsp Vegetable oil

-Lime zest from 2 limes

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Prepare muffin/cupcake tins either with paper cups or by greasing them.

3. In a medium bowl, mix together the margarita mix and the tequila.

4. Whisk in the 3 egg whites and vegetable oil.

5. In a large bowl, combine the cake mix with the lime zest.

6. Slowly beat the wet ingredients into the dry mixture. Once combined, continue to beat for 2 - 3 minutes (this is where you can add food coloring if you desire).

7. Distribute the mixture evenly amongst the cupcakes.

8. Bake for approximately 18 minutes, or until the cupcakes have puffed up and are a light, golden brown on top. You should be able to poke the surface and have the top bounce back.

9. Allow the cupcakes to cool before frosting.

Homemade Whipped Cream

Ingredients

-8 oz. Heavy cream

-1/4 cup Sugar

-1 tsp. Vanilla extract

Instructions

1. In a chilled bowl, using a chilled whisk, whisk the cream until it begins to stiffen.

2. Add in sugar, to taste (you may not use the full 1/4 cup) and any flavorings, like the vanilla extract.

3. Whip only until soft peaks start to form. Take care not to over whip.

Half-eaten cupcake at work:

Bad lighting, but yummy cupcakes:
Fun colors for summer celebrations:

*When not specific, eggs in a recipe call for large eggs. Extra large eggs are 25% larger, jumbo eggs are 50% larger and therefore throw of the balance of fat and protein. This doesn't make much of a difference in your omelets, but could impact your baked goods.

Want some 'za?

When it comes to a lazy, quick dinner, pizza is one of the first things I think of. It's so easy to run across the street and grab a slice, but it's also just as easy to make your own - and that's exactly what Doug and I like to do. Normally, if I think far enough in advance, I like to make my own pizza dough on my picture-perfect KitchenAid (a year into my relationship with it and I'm still in love!). However, sometimes I can't wait the hour plus it will take. And that's the mood I was in when we decided to make pizza the other night. So instead, we went to our grocery store and purchased Boboli's large, thin crust whole wheat pizza. Next we had to decide on what we were going to put on our pizza. This is always a pretty long debate since Doug will eat anything and I can't make a decision. Eventually, we decided to make a "sausage and peppers" pizza. So we also picked up some Boboli pizza sauce, an Italian six cheese blend, hot Italian sausage, green peppers and an onion.

Upon returning home, we took out our frying pan, heated it up, dropped some oil in and got ready to brown the sausage. Instead of just slicing the sausage, I decided I wanted it "crumbled" on top, so using a paring knife I sliced open the sausage casing and dropped the meat into the hot frying pan. Then we just used a wooden spoon to mash it up. We turned on the oven and while Doug oversaw the sausage (he thinks meat is the man's job), I chopped up the pepper and onion. Before we knew it, the oven was hot, sausage brown, vegetables chopped. All we had left to do was assemble, put it in the oven and eat!

So on a large, flat cookie sheet, we put our crust down. On top went the sauce, the sausage, the peppers and the onions. Then we added cheese until we were satisfied. We put it in the oven, opened a beer and 10 minutes later...

*When chopping up vegetables for the pizza, you can make them as big or as little as you want them. I prefer short strips of peppers and onions, so after slicing them vertically, I then just cut them horizontally in the middle, making each piece about 1 inch long.

**Upon reflection, I also blogged about pizza back in May of 2009, almost exactly a year ago. If you go to that post, I have a recipe for homemade pizza dough, try it!

Self-Promoting!

Back in high school, my Great Aunt Marie gave me her recipe to make Italian tri-color cookies or as I like to call them, rainbow cookies. These cookies were going to be my first baking experiment on my own. In fact, the first time I made them, it took about 2 and half hours just to get them into the oven! They were challenging and made a mess of my mom's kitchen, but I loved them. As it turns out, I actually made 2 mistakes and botched the recipe. However, those cookies did not taste like a mistake. In fact, I made the recipe my own by changing it so now every time I make those "mistakes." I have been making these cookies for close to ten years now and have perfected them. These cookies have been requested at birthdays, bridal/baby showers, anniversaries, and holidays (I'm still waiting for a wedding!). Up until recently, I have only made them for family and close friends as a gift to them, but now, I have decided to sell them. So, if you would like to try my almond, raspberry, tri-color cookie, feel free to contact me at angelamarino22@gmail.com

The color looks off in this picture, but here's a batch before it's frosted and cut up:

One pound, approx. 24 cookies:

*Also, I have experimented with colors and customized them for specific events, ie pink & white cookies for a baby shower. I also plan on experimenting with the filling for the layers in between the cake, so if you're interested or have any ideas, leave a comment or send an email!

Rolling with the Homies

Doug and I both love sushi. Awhile ago, I suggested we take a class and learn how to roll our own sushi rolls. We talked about it a few times, but never seriously looked into it. Well, luckily for us, ESPN decided to offer "Sushi 101" to their employees for only $35 a person. We signed up and bought some wine that we paired well with sushi (the class was BYOB). Finally, the day of our class came and it couldn't have been better. In a sectioned off area of the cafeteria, there was a U-shaped table set up for us to sit at. Each person had a rolling mat, cutting board, chopsticks and glossary of common Japanese words associated with sushi. The class of about 20 was lead by sushi chef for the building, and two sous chefs. I really wish I could remember their names to say how amazing they were, but it was a few weeks ago and I really can't remember. After uncorking all of our wine and introducing themselves (maybe that's why I can't remember their names, I was distracted by wine!) the head chef opened up the class by teaching us what to look for when picking out a fresh fish. He pulled out a salmon he purchased earlier that day at Wild Ediblies, in Grand Central Market. Here are his pointers on making sure you get a good quality fish:

1. Make sure the eyes are bulging. If the fish's eyes are sunken into it's head, it means it has been sitting out of water for a long time.

2. Look at the gills, they should be a bright, vibrant color. The duller and browner they are, the longer it has been out of water.

3. The fish should be firm to the touch. If you touch it and your fingers do not meet resistance, you don't want it.

4. If it smells bad, it is bad.

After teaching us how to pick out a fish, our head chef showed us how to fillet the fish. I will not attempt to explain how to fillet fish here, as I think I would butcher (hehe) the explanation. However, I did learn that the best part of the fillet is the meat closest to the head. Also, if you fillet the fish yourself, be sure to pull out all pin or rib bones - in a salmon there are 32, if I recall correctly. It was great seeing this chef fillet the salmon so easily, but I think for now I will have a fish monger do it for me until I'm confident enough in my filleting skills.

After the fish demonstration, our chef taught us about sushi rice. Sushi rice is a higher quality grain of rice and is prepared in a special way to make it sticky. Our chef provided all the students with rice, but also demonstrated how to make it. Here is the recipe we were provided with:

Vinegar Mixture:

5 parts rice vinegar

4 parts sugar

1 part mirin

1 part salt

Dast of kobu

Rice:

16 oz. sushi rice, rinsed twice with water

16 oz. water

-Place the rice into a rice maker with the 16 oz. of water and cook until done.-

-Mix the cooked rice with the vinegar mixture (5 parts rice, 1 part vinegar). Stir until liquid is absorbed.

What's important to remember when working with the sushi rice, is to keep your hands wet. We used a bowl of water to dip our fingers/hands in before we picked up our rice. We then shaped our rice into a ball. The ball of rice should fit into your palm. We then took our ball and touched a stack of nori with it. The rice stuck to it so it lifted up the first sheet. We placed it on our rolling mats and then began to spread the rice out. Once the rice was covering the nori, we sprinkled some sesame seeds and flipped the whole thing over so the rice side was down. Now it came time to create our rolls.

The class provided all of us with a plethora of ingredients. It's important not to stuff the rolls with too much, they won't roll and close nicely. When rolling, it's important to tuck the end in and keep it tight. Once it's "sealed" we placed the roll so then end lined up with the edge of the rolling mat and rolled it up tightly and pushed any extra stuffing into the roll. We did the same for the other side. When it was all done and rolled tightly it was time to cut them up. A slice down the middle, then line them up one on top of the other, and two more cuts. Flip them sideways and you have your rolls. The only thing left for us to do was to eat them! Overall, the class itself was great and we enjoyed ourselves. We learned a lot and ate a lot. We finished the night off with a glass of sake and took our tools, experience and rolls with us! See below for pictures.

Ingredients: Seared tuna, crab, shrimp, salmon, tuna, yellowtail and on the other side: wasabi, ginger, seaweed salad, cucumber, avocado, crab salad and spicy tuna

The rice spread over the nori:

With seared tuna and avocado, pre-rolling:

Just rolled it up

All cut up and ready to eat!

Tuna and seaweed salad, ready to be rolled:

Rolled up, cut & ready to eat!

A salmon roll we made:

Quick and easy sushi ice cream cones!

That's only about half of the rolls I made, the other half had already been eaten!

Ebony & Ivory

This post is dedicated to the famous New York City Black & White cookie. The cookie, pictured below, is a wonderful creation in which, as Jerry Seinfeld puts it, "two races of flavor living side by side."

In the famous Seinfeld episode, "The Dinner Party," Jerry encourages Elaine to "look to the cookie" as a metaphor for race relations. So the way I see, the cookie is like my relationship, how can I not love it?! Although, I must admit, I find I usually eat the white side first, saving the chocolaty, black side for last. The cookie itself was created as a way for bakeries to get rid of leftover cake batter without throwing it out. By tweaking the cake batter a little bit, bakers created a delicious cookie, that is still soft and cake-like. Most bakeries frost it with fondant, you'll see below I used confectioners sugar and water, but the idea is that the frosting will dry hard. This is so when you bite into the cookie, you get the firm frosting mixed with the soft cookie.

I have always loved these cookies, but have never really thought of baking them. That is until I had the idea of making them for St. Patrick's Day and frosting them green and white. In the green frosting, I added white chocolate and food coloring, so the darker side of the cookie still had a chocolate taste. To the white side of frosting, I added a few drops of vanilla extract, to give it some more flavor other than confectioners sugar and water. I also must add, it was very hard to get these cookies into perfect circles. I assumed they would spread into nice circles as they baked, but that was not the case. I will attempt to make them again in the future (with the original black & white coloring), and will try to make better circles when placing them on the baking sheet. Below is the recipe I used, as well as pictures of my final product:

COOKIES

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg

Instructions:

-Preheat oven to 350°F.

-Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Stir together buttermilk and vanilla in a cup.

-Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes, then add egg, beating until combined well.

-Mix in flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternately in batches at low speed (scraping down side of bowl occasionally), beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix until smooth. (See my post below on Red Velvet cupcakes for why this is important!)

-Spoon the batter about 2 inches apart onto a buttered large baking sheet.

-Bake in middle of oven until tops are puffed and pale golden, and cookies spring back when touched, 15 to 17 minutes.

-Transfer with a metal spatula to a rack and chill (to cool quickly), about 5 minutes.

(Cookie recipe is from Epicure: Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Black-and-White-Cookies-106171#ixzz0mzV2yYXU)

FROSTING

1/3 Cup boiling water

4 Cups confectioner's sugar

1 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted

-In a large mixing bowl, stir the boiling water into confectioner's sugar. Stir until the mixture is spreadable.

-Separate the mixture into 2 bowls. One bowl will remain the "white" side. **This is the bowl where I added a few drops of vanilla extract for some flavor**

-In the second bowl, stir in the chocolate. **Since I was dying mine green, this is where I added white chocolate and food coloring instead of bittersweet chocolate**

When the the cookies are cool, frost them with flat side up. I frosted first the white side and then the chocolate side (the chocolate would cover up any extra white on the other side). Let the cookies harden. You can stack the cookies with wax paper in between and put them in an airtight container. ENJOY!