I'm Here

There have been very many thinly veiled comments as to my attendance at this blog and I'll address them by pointing out that I have been at my grandmother's house, being constantly force fed comfort food for about the past week. If your grandmothers have embraced the internet age, then bravo, but mine has not. Instead, she made a lot of french toast and her famous potato soup, which I'm going to share with you guys.

Grandma's Potato soup

Ingredients:
-enough potatoes, peeled and chopped into quarters to fill about 2/3 to 3/4 of your big soup pot. (or you can cheat and buy those frozen shredded hash brown potatoes)
-2-3 carrots peeled and chopped
-2-3 celery stalks chopped
-1 small red bell pepper chopped
-1 small yellow onion, diced
-a ham bone or a couple of strips of bacon
-some chicken stock
-some sour cream
-some cheddar cheese for garnish

put everything but the sour cream and cheese into the pot; then fill it up with 1/2 chicken stock, 1/2 water until the the vegetables and stuff are covered.

Bring water to a boil and then let the soup simmer for 3-5 hours, stirring occasionally. When its done cooking, mash up the vegetables, add sour cream until the soup becomes creamy and salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle each bowl with cheddar cheese. The best part of the soup is leftovers, once the soup sits overnight it tastes amazing.

Becoming a Real Student Organization

So, if anyone wants to look at the details of becoming an actual student organization check out this website. We have an advisor, Ken Robidoux, who Kate and Lena already know pretty well from work. He's already been invited to be a contributor to this website, though like Kate, he has yet to respond. Sometime soon, I think Lena and I are going to sit down and look at the paperwork for this momentous transition. Feel free to offer any suggestions (or whatever) as a comment to this post or as its own separate post.

Magically Delicious

So I have probably the best recipe for blueberry scones ever, courtesy of this guy <----, and I will gladly share it with you. It's neither an easy recipe nor a hard one, and my one suggestion is that you have a light hand. Seriously, it requires a magic touch. Kate'll attest to that, if she ever appears. Also, make the glaze way before the scones, so it has a chance to get less liquid-y. I haven't quite mastered that part yet.


Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze
Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

Blueberry Scones:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut in chunks
1 cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing the scones
1 cup fresh blueberries

Lemon Glaze:
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 lemon, zest finely grated
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Sift together the dry ingredients; the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Using 2 forks or a pastry blender, cut in the butter to coat the pieces with the flour. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center and pour in the heavy cream. Fold everything together just to incorporate; do not overwork the dough. Fold the blueberries into the batter. Take care not to mash or bruise the blueberries because their strong color will bleed into the dough. Press the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 12 by 3 by 1 1/4 inches. Cut the rectangle in 1/2 then cut the pieces in 1/2 again, giving you 4 (3-inch) squares. Cut the squares in 1/2 on a diagonal to give you the classic triangle shape. Place the scones on an ungreased cookie sheet and brush the tops with a little heavy cream. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until beautiful and brown. Let the scones cool a bit before you apply the glaze.

Technically you should make this simple lemon glaze in a double boiler (i.e. over a pot of simmering water with a heatproof bowl set on top) but it's even simpler to zap it in the microwave. Mix the lemon juice and confectioners' sugar together in a microwave-safe bowl. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon zest and butter. Nuke it for 30 seconds on high. Whisk the glaze to smooth out any lumps, then drizzle the glaze over the top of the scones. Let it set a minute before serving.

Eeeeexcellent. P.S. Good choice, Blogger. So perfect for this sort of use. And that picture is most definitely not mine, but the scones, if correctly executed, will definitely look something like that.

Just for the record,

I can't wait until Kate finally sees this.

Papa Cristo's

Last week I was fortunate/unfortunate enough to eat out Monday-Thursday. On Tuesday I went with some peeps from the lab to this fabulous family-owned Greek restaurant called Papa Cristo's on Pico and Normandy, which is pretty close to SC. Here's a website: http://www.papacristos.com/ complete with video, music, and menu. It's one of those places where you order the food and then sit down at one of the many table-clothed tables and pretend to have intent conversations with your friends, while all you're really thinking about is how much you can't wait to sink your teeth in a nice hunk of lamb. Most dinner plates are $10.99 and come with a salad, potatoes, and a thing of pita. There are also really good looking sandwiches for $6.99 if your feeling less hungry. I got a Souvlaki (lamb kebab) dinner plate, and it was delicious, but I really want to go back there and try the fish - there were pictures and it still had the head!! The pita was so good I almost bought a package, but we were a little pressed for time and I decided I was going to go back there sometime, anyway. Yeah, that's right it's also a bakery and grocery store that sells oil and olives and baklava and bread among many other things. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

El Taurino

2306 W. 11th St (cross street Hoover) ...so again, close to SC. Open 24 hours, a la Chano's, so it's not a sit-down, ambiance-based kinda establishment, but great for quick and good Mexican. And unlike Chano's, we're not scared of their food. You can order out back from like a truck sort of thing, or you can order inside (i didn't see inside cuz we ordered out back). We had to wait in line for awhile and i get the feeling that there's always a line.
www.eltaurino.com
Chris got us a drink called 'Atole' to try which I really liked, except they only had the strawberry flavor and I thought that was too sweet. Vanilla should be really good :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atole

oh---and best horchata i've had

Ilopango pupuseria

So we've been on a veritable eating-out spree. Lots of catching up to do.

Yesterday Chris showed me a pupuseria called Ilopango (1744 Venice Blvd), which is super close to SC, just a bit west of Hoover. It's El Salvadoran food, but they've got breakfast (a la our breakfast place in Rosarito), lunch, dinner stuff besides the pupusas. The pupusas are around 1.50-2 dollars each, and unless you're Matt, 2 of them is more than enough. Very tasty :-) oh, and we got horchatas which were so much better than any of that store bought junk, they tasted hazelnutty actually.

I'm President

I get to be prexy for a few hours, woot! that's why i'm blogging so much today, lots of free time on GWB's desk. oops, i wasn't supposed to reveal that they don't really trust me with doing anything, huh. ...online sudoku calls...

-cheney

The Red Pearl Kitchen

On Monday Matt, Lena, and I went to a place on Melrose called The Red Pearl Kitchen. It was quite amazing. The website has a full menu, including prices if you want to check it out. It's very dim sum-esque: we shared five dishes between the three of us, but there are single dishes big enough to get the average person full. By 'average person' I mean 'not Matt'. The kobe beef was amazing. It was like heaven in meat form, only more tender and succulent. The reason we went there was because I had been there with my mom about a week before, and when our waitress brought us our receipt it had a stamp on the bottom that said we could bring in the receipt and get %50 off if we came in one of the following two Mondays. So we did, and it was amazing. Given the discount, Lena, Matt, and I had a relatively cheap night of gluttony ($16 a person, including a generous tip for Mr. Voladarsky), but without a discount I would say this restaurant is more appropriate for dinners with visiting parents. However, the atmosphere, or ambiance as it is referred to on the website, is superbly serene and very red, so when you combine that with the great food, it's worth a splurge.


The most memorable dishes I had with my mom were Duck-Banana Lettuce Warps and Eggplant Tempura with Spicy Tuna, of which the latter is pictured below.

Pork Chops a la King

this is from my mother. she calls it 'myaso po korolevsky' aka 'meat a la king.' It's super easy

pork chops
Onion
salt, black pepper
Mayonaisse
shredded cheese

Beat the pork chops, salt/pepper each piece and place on aluminum foil on baking sheet.
Slice onion into cross sections and put a cross section or a selection of rings onto each cut of meat.
spread ~ 1 tea spoon of mayo (or more as needed) on the top of onion and meat

Put in the oven and cook on ~ 375
when almost ready, sprinkle shredded cheese on the top of each piece and cook for about 5 min more, or until cheese melts and become golden in color

russian eggplant ikra (Baklazhannaia Ikra)

Bake eggplant at 350 F for 1/2 hr, or until the eggplant is fairly soft and easy to squeeze, with discolored skin.
Saute diced onion and diced green pepper until soft (you can really add any sort of pepper, and some people add carrots or other vegetables).
Let the eggplant cool a bit and then peel the skin off. Dice the flesh, almost to a puree consistency, then add to pan and saute for a few minutes.
Add a can of (or fresh) diced tomatoes.
add to taste: salt, pepper, sugar, lemon juice

This is super tasty, but it always differs depending on the cook. It's really good as a dip or served on bread.

Risotto Recipe with 2 variations

From Kate's Naked Chef book by Jamie Oliver
basic risotto, plus with goat cheese & prosciutto, or red wine based

about 5 C chicken broth
1 TBSP oilve oil
3 shallots or 3 med onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 a head of celery, finely chopped
14 oz arborio rice
2 wine glasses dry white vermouth or white wine
salt and pepper
5 TBSP butter
4 oz freshly grated parmesan (this is worth doing, soo good) heat the stock. in separate pot saute onions, garlic, and celery on olive oil slowly for 4 min. when veggies are soft, add rice and turn up heat. The rice will begin to fry, so keep stirring it. Once the rice is slightly translucent, add wine and keep stirring. Once it has cooked into the rice, add a ladle of stock and a good pinch of salt.
Turn down the heat to a highish simmer so the rice doesn't cook too quickly on the outside. Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, waiting until it cooks in and becomes thick before you add more. "stirring and almost massaging the creamy starch from the rice" this will take about 15 minutes (yeah, right, it could take almost 30 depending on
what kind of rice you have and other factors, i have no idea what they are) keep adding stock and tasting the rice to see if its cooked, it should be slightly chewy. remove from heat and add butter and parmesan, stir gently. place a lid on the pan and let sit for 3 minutes.
-this is also really good with lemon juice, goat cheese, and prosciutto
-you can also add and subtract pretty much any vegetable and meat you want
-there's also a recipe for a red wine risotto where you use 3 glasses red wine instead of vermouth, 10 strips bacon, 2 heads radiccio, and a handful of rosemary, finely diced. you fry the bacon, then the radiccio and rosemary in bacon fat and add all of them to the risotto with the first ladle of stock.

I want

to make paella. I want to make paella

Gujerati Green Beans

Thought this might be a fitting first recipe, and yes, I know it's hard to read, but if you click on it, it will get bigger. Ideally, I guess, we should try to type recipes in.

The Moroccan Hound Dining Society now has a website!!!

So Lena thought this would be cool. You know, to put recipes and restaurant recommendations on. This is currently still a trial version, AKA if you guys don't want to do this in blog form, that's cool. This was just really easy to make. I was thinking we can just label things as 'recipe' or 'restaurant' when we post.