Memorial Day Clambake!

 

Memorial Day doesn’t only commemorate the brave men and women who have died serving this country, it’s also the start of summer! To tip it off I have gone with a traditional New England staple of an indoor clambake. A classic speckled enamel pot filled with kielbasa, steamer clams, quahogs, lobsters, potatoes and corn, simmered and steamed in an aromatic liquid of caramelized leek steeped wine…and not forgetting warm crusty bread for dipping of course…Ahhhmazing. The seafood choices are to your liking, the more the better but go with what you love!

I was lucky enough to find an enamel pot, I knew we had it lying around here and so I bit the bullet and asked bluntly. And to my favor we had one…it was a gift to T’s mom some umpteen years ago from T’s dad which had NEVER been used. A little dusty but after a bit of scrubbing it was good to go.

I was searching high and low for a seafood shop around us but after 5 minutes I told T, lets just head to Shaw’s. They have a pretty good selection of seafood, and I like the fact that they recognize sustainable seafood. Anyway, I got a few pounds of steamers and quahogs, as well as 2 live 1lb lobsters. Unfortunately T is allergic to shellfish, fortunately he never cared for lobsters or clams pre-allergy…I have snuck a few shrimps in my wantons once or twice and he didn’t start to heave…thank God. So T got a nice hunk of salmon steak, nicely seasoned with a Cajun marinade pan seared and finished in the oven…we thought we kept it a seafood theme tonight.

This is an easy meal fit for any night and occasion, just make sure you have a large pot to fill everything in snugly. Oh...prepare for getting your hands a little dirty! Its well worth the juice spilling down your wrists.

i see the tamale calling my name!!

Indoor Clambake

2 lbs steamer clams

2 lbs quahog clams

3 1-1 ½ lb live lobsters

3 ears of fresh corn (hulled, silk removed, cut into two or three)

1 lb red potatoes

1 lb kielbasa (sliced on a diagonal)

2 leeks (rinsed, sliced into half moons)

2 celery stalks (chopped into two)

2 ½ C white wine (I used mondavi pinot grigio)

2-3 T olive oil

2 T butter

kosher salt

pepper

French baguette (sliced thick, 3 inch long)

Pre-heat oven to 200F to warm bread.

Wash and rinse your clams and lobster. Place them in your sink and fill it up with cold water. Swish them around and let them sit for 10 minutes or so, drain in a colander and set aside.

Set your pot on medium heat and add oil and butter, sauté leeks with a hefty pinch of salt and a few cracks of the pepper mill until caramelized. Add kielbasa and set the heat to low and allow to cook for 15 minutes. Add celery stalks and in this order add another few pinches of salt, pepper, potatoes, corn, clams, then lobster. Pour in the wine place a cover and bring to a boil, once boiling bring it to a rambunctious simmer and cover for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes check the tenderness of your largest potato, if its fork tender everything is good to go. Your clams should be open and lobster nice and red. Serve with warm bread and butter!

Boston Cream Cupcake

dolce was being a tad naughty

 I am dumbfounded at the fact that I took this long to make a boston cream cupcake! T loves them and adores every pastry with any kind of filling so why didn’t I make this earlier!? Well I don’t know but I finally had some free time to whip them up. They’re a tedious cupcake to make but they are well worth the time!

What is a boston cream cupcake you ask? Well it’s a tender yellow cake, filled with a hauntingly addictive vanilla pastry cream, which is hidden by molten chocolate ganache on top. An amazing two-bite treat to brighten up any dreary day.

Boston Cream Cupcake

Pastry Cream:
½ C heavy cream

1 C milk
3 large egg yolks
1/3 cup granulated sugar
a few pinches of table salt
4 t cornstarch
1 T unsalted butter, cold cut into 1 piece
2 T vanilla extract

Cupcakes:
1 3/4 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
3/4 t table salt
1 C granulated sugar
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened but slightly cool, cut into 12 pieces
3 large eggs
3/4 C milk
2 T vanilla extract

Chocolate Glaze:
3/4 cup heavy cream
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract


For the pastry cream:

Bring the cream to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, whisk the yolks, sugar, and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the cornstarch and whisk the mixture is pale yellow and thick.

When the cream reaches a full simmer, slowly whisk it into the yolk mixture. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thick and glossy. Off the heat, whisk in the butter and vanilla. Transfer the pastry cream to a small bowl and refrigerate, with plastic wrap pressed flush against its surface, until cold and set, at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.

For the cupcakes:

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard muffin pan with paper baking cups and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar on low speed. Add the butter, 1 piece at a time, and combine until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Add the eggs, 1 at time, and mix until fully combined. Add the milk and vanilla, increase the speed to medium, and mix until the batter is light, fluffy and free of lumps.

Fill the lined muffin cups three-quarters full, being careful not to overfill. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean, about 18 to 20 minutes. Cool the cupcakes in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the glaze:
Break chocolate up and place in a medium bowl. Bring cream to a boil and pour on top of chocolate, swish it around a bit and let it melt on its own.

To assemble:
Insert a small knife at a 45 degree angle about 1/8 inch from the edge of each cupcake and cut all the way around, remove a cone of cake. Cut away all but the top 1/4 inch of the cone; leaving only a small disk of cake which will be used to top the cupcake.

Fill each cupcake with 2 tablespoons of pastry cream and top with the disk of cake.

Carefully top each filled cupcake with a 1-2 tablespoons of the chocolate glaze. Refrigerate until just set, about 10 minutes.

Snickerdoodles

 

The thought of cinnamon spice brings warmth to the soul and one of the all time classic combinations has got to be cinnamon and sugar. Snickerdoodles come to mind when you speak of cinnamon and sugar, and if you haven’t had a snickerdoodle before…you’ll want to keep on making them over and over. They’re as easy as making any other cookie, but if you love eating cookie dough straight out of the bowl, a snickerdoodle is like your wet dream.

Usually snickerdoodles contain cream of tartar as the leavening agent, but if you don’t have it in your pantry don’t fret! Just substitute it with baking powder and you’ll be all set. I love eating them while they're still warm, and not to mention the aroma of cinnamon spice throughout the house is magical. Eat them as is, or with a glass of milk...another excellent way is to wedge vanilla ice cream in between two! There's nothing like an ice cream sandwich in the summer!

Snickerdoodles

Makes about 2 ½ dozen cookies

1 ½ sticks butter (softened)

1 ¼ C sugar

2 eggs

1 T vanilla bean paste (or extract)

2 ½ C flour

1 ½ T baking powder

1 t salt

¼ C cinnamon

¼ C sugar

pinch of salt

Pre-heat your oven to 375F and prepare a cookie sheet with parchment or a silpat.

In a bowl, combine, flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar together till pale and creamy, add eggs one at a time until they are incorporated. Add in salt and vanilla bean paste or extract and mix to combine.

Pour in dry ingredients on low till you get a nice pliable dough.

In another bowl combine ¼ c of sugar and cinnamon and salt. This is your coating.

Roll about 1½ inch balls (golf balls) and liberally roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place them about an inch apart and press them down lightly, bake for 13 minutes. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool further.

A Sandwich a Day: Pork Belly Banh Mi

  

macgyver tried but did not conquer

Today we celebrate “A Sandwich a Day” day. Honestly speaking I have no idea why it is but T said it had something to do with the Earl of Sandwich…I think that’s what he said. So in tribute to this day, I made yet another banh mi! It’s been long overdue so any excuse to make it, I’ll take! This time around I made pork belly banh mi. OH YES I DID. Meltingly tender, layers of unctuous drippings, flavorful and heavenly.

I used the same marinade as my original banh mi recipe just used a different cut of pork, I didn’t have any radishes at hand or cucumbers for that matter but the sriracha mayo, pickled carrots and fresh cilantro brought it all together anyway. I also picked up cubano bread instead at my local grocery store, it’s a great substitute! Not a rough palate ripping crust and soft and chewy in the inside which held up great to all the juices and mayo. (no soggy banh mi here!)

Pork Belly Banh Mi

3 1 ½ inch slabs of pork belly (skin on or off)

4 stalks lemongrass (dry leaves hulled, tender bits chopped)

5 cloves garlic

3 asian shallots

½ C kecap manis

1 T fish sauce

1 cubano roll (mine was about the length of a French baguette)

½ cucumber sliced into thin strips

2 carrots thick julienne

½ daikon thick julienne

large bunch of cilantro (leaves and stems)

Pickling liquid (carrots and daikon)

1 C apple cider vinegar

½ C sugar

1 T salt

Sriracha Mayo

½ C good quality mayo

2 T sriracha (or more to your liking)

Juice of half a lime

Combine the first 6 ingredients into a blender or a food processor and process till it creates a thick paste. Marinate your pork belly slabs in a Ziploc bag with your marinade for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Once they’ve had time to marinate pre-heat your oven to 450F and place your pork bellies on a foil wrapped tin. Discard extra marinade. Bake them for 45 minutes and you can baste occasionally, I basted once. Once the 45 minutes are up, bring the temperature down to 250F and continue to cook for 2 hours. Basting occasionally again, if you happen to pass the oven. Meanwhile make your carrot and daikon pickles and prepare everything else. After the 2 hours are up just turn the oven off and pop your bread in to get warm. When you are ready to serve slice up your meat and discard any fat (unless you like it) slice your bread lengthwise, slather a generous amount of sriracha mayo,  layer your meat on, then add your cucumber, pickles and cilantro. EAT!

Homemade Jiaozi and The Works

        

The sesame seeds are present only because I used my own homemade sesame oil! I actually really love this sauce!

Be sure to dust cornstarch in between!

  

 I made scallion pancakes the other night and of course by the time I wanted to take any pictures of them they magically disappeared in front of my very eyes. So the next day I decided to make them again, I even doubled the recipe and then I realized that I had run out of sesame oil…great. Then I scoured through the spice rack for sesame seeds and alas I found them! I pursued on making my own sesame oil by toasting the seeds, grinding them and mixing it in vegetable oil…and so I had homemade toasted sesame oil! And then I remembered that I had picked up ground pork for dumplings…and so I made some dumps instead.

This dough recipe is easy and makes a damn good scallion pancake…and theeee most perfect dumpling skin too! It is a bit tedious to make the dumpling skins…I think I spent about 3 hours from start to finish, perfect recipe for a no schedule kind of day. I bet your popo would be proud!

You cant use a regular rolling pin for this as it is far too hard to maneuver. I found a vintage ice pick from our collection of knives drawer and it worked like a charm! I know that specialty kitchen stores sell plain wooden rolling pins without handles and such. Oh and in total I made 74 dumplings which go FAST!!

Jiaozi- Dumplings and Homemade Skins with Dipping Sauce

Jiaozi skins

4 C flour

2 C boiling water

2 t salt

*cornstarch for keeping them separated

Jiaozi filling

2 lbs ground pork

¼ C soy sauce

¼ fish sauce

1 T sugar

1 t pepper

2 T sesame oil

1 thumb ginger (grated fine)

3 cloves garlic (grated fine)

½ C scallions

¼  C water

Jiaozi Dipping Sauce

1 T sesame oil

¼ C ponzu

¼ soy sauce

¼ C water

1 t sugar

handful of chopped scallion

1 thumb minced ginger

Place flour and salt in a bowl and create a well in the middle. Bring 2 cups of water to a rolling boil and pour it into the well (about 1 ¾ cups worth first) bring it together carefully with a fork and work it into a dough. If its too dry add the rest of the water. Once you have formed it into a loose dough roll it out onto a floured workspace and knead it till it forms into a smooth ball. Add more flour if necessary. Place it back into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Make the filling by mixing all ingredients together. I always have a small saucepan with boiling water to cook my filling to taste. If its not salty enough add more soy sauce. I love the taste of ginger in my dumpling filling so add more if you desire! Once you have tasted for seasoning cover with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge while you make the skins.

Once your dough has rested, divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Take one portion and roll it out into a floured work surface. One quarter yields about 15-17 balls. Flatten one of your balls with the heel of your palm then roll it once with your pin then turn it 180 degrees and roll it again. I found it was easiest to roll them out on the edge of a straight edged table. Hold the dough with your left hands fingertips and while turning them around, roll them with the pin evenly. Slowly you’ll see a flatter larger circle form. Practice makes perfect folks… dust cornstarch between each layer to ensure that the skins don’t stick

Prepare a sheet pan covered with parchment for your dumplings. Once the skins are made start filling them! Fill your skins with about a tablespoon of filling each and pleat them till they are sealed. Repeat with the rest of the skins. If you have any filling left save it for soup or a snack! Dust your dumplings with cornstarch so they don’t stick and freeze them for at least 4-8 hours. Once they’re frozen place them in Ziploc bags.

To cook them up place a large saute pan on high, add a splash of oil and place your dumplings flat side down. Cram them up as you like. Once they are sizzling and a cap full of white vinegar, or apple cider vinegar ( or any kind of light colored vinegar you have in hand ) around the perimeter of the pan and pour in about 1/3 cup of water and cover and cook over medium low heat till the water evaporates (3-5 minutes) Add more water if they aren't cooked all the way yet. To achieve a crisp and browned bottom just make sure that all the water has evaporated.

To make the dipping sauce

Combine all the ingredients together and taste for seasoning. I love the citrusy ponzu punch. So add accordingly. If its too salty add more water.

Soft Boiled Eggs, Toast and Asparagus

 

 

I just acquired a new toy and thought I should put it to good use with my breakfast on this gorgeous Sunday. Soft boiled eggs, whole grain toast and wonderfully crisp al dente asparagus. Oh I picked up a great book too, about food photography and tips and such. Easy read, and extremely informative! Anyways, I’ll let you be the judge and tell me how it is!

Unfortunately I didn’t have any egg holders but fortunately the glass cabinet had loads of alternatives…like a pair of shot glasses…perfect. This was a pretty quick breakfast to whip up, but I get really antsy because I get hungry along the way and the fact that I have to take pictures of them first makes me go a little insane. Well worth it though…as I dove right in.

Eggs, Asparagus, and Toast

2 eggs

5 asparagus spears

2 slices wholegrain bread

salt and pepper

Place your eggs into a small saucepan and fill with room-temp water and bring to a boil, allow it to boil for about 3 minutes, take it off the heat and run it under cool water.

Bring another saucepan with water to a boil, add a bunch of salt (sea water salty) and once boiling drop your asparagus in and cook till they are al dente.

Toast your slices of bread and slice them into long strips (fingers)

Assemble

When your eggs are lukewarm from the running water, pat them dry and with blunt edge of a pairing knife tap the circumference of the pointy side of the egg. Once its you have a circle of cracks, slice the top and place it on the egg holder. Do the same for the other egg. Season the eggs with salt and pepper, arrange the asparagus and toast on the plate and devour.

Tart Bars!

I’ve got a pantry full of all sorts of citrus! It’s exciting isn’t it?! Well I think sooo.. hehe…So there I was standing staring at lemons, key limes, and Mexican limes then I thought why not make a lemon lime bar! I quickly searched for condensed milk and thankfully I found about 5 cans. I didn’t have enough graham crackers though but I did some more searching and found a large pack of crisp oatmeal cookies. I imagine the crust would be a bit heartier with the combination of oats and whole wheat!

This is a simple no brainer kind of recipe and boy is it as good as it is easy to make! You get a nice browned crust with a hint of cinnamon and cloves combined with a luscious puckery tart custard from the citrus! I think if I topped it with whipped cream and perhaps some toasted coconut it would be really over the top…don’t you?

Tart Bars!

Crust:

2 ½ - 3 C dry and crisp oatmeal cookies (or you can use graham crackers)

2 T sugar

1 T salt

1 Stick butter melted

Filling:

2/3 C key lime juice

Juice of 1 lime

Juice of 2 lemons

1 ½ tins of 14oz Condensed milk

½ C mascarpone cheese

1 T salt

Preheat oven to 350º. Line an 9x13-inch pan with parchment, leaving a few inches overhang on two sides. 

Bash the oatmeal cookies till they represent coarse sand, add sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Pour melted butter over and stir to combine. Press mixture into prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes till its quite golden. Set on a wire rack to cool.

While crust is cooling, make filling by whisking together the filling ingredients in a medium bowl. You will notice clumps in the batter due to the mascarpone but that will melt while baking. Pour filling into cooled crust and return to oven. Bake for 11 minutes, or until the filling feels just firm to the touch. Do not brown. Cool at room temperature, then chill thoroughly. Cut into bars and top with whipped cream and toasted coconut, if desired