The Rise of the Souffle

One dark and cold friday night I thought it would be fun to make a souffle. Souffle's remind me of the episode of Recess the cartoon when Vince became the teacher's lounge chef. He challenged the lunch ladies because how hard could it be. He turned out to be so good that he ended up making lunch for the superintendent. He made a souffle. Because of that I think souffle's will always have a special place in my heart (because Recess was one of the greatest cartoons ever). It was quite fun. Just like Julia says, a quick chef can have it ready for the oven in 20 minutes. Then the fun begins. I prepared a photo collage. Enjoy. There's a surprise at the end... and many souffles in the future. Hopefully they don't deflate.

Yeast Banana Bread

I love bananas. On days I don't eat at least one I feel like junk. They're good in a lot of stuff... cocktails... cereal... cocktails (mmm... brings back memories of a Banana Margarita at Margaritaville in Key West we're I almost at the glass)

and bread. But for almost all my life I've only know banana bread as a dense piece of bread that you warm up spread so butter on and enjoy. Although good, I think my inner foodie (not to be confused with my outer foodie) has know there's more to this.

So after a quick google search.... wham... bang.... Yeast Banana Bread. The lid is off the can. There's so much you can do with a nice fluffy banana bread.
PB&J with a hint of banana that you can't really find.
Stuffed french toast.
Normal french toast.

I going to try and put so chocolate chips and pecans in it to. I love this. But it puts me in a dilemma... eat the bananas or let the ripen until they're ready for bread.

Happy eating.

Adam

Drunken Amish Friendship Bread

So two weekends ago I started an Amish Friendship bread starter. After the 10 days of waiting I made a cake. Before I started the cake though I noticed the starter smelled like alcohol. Don't know why, but the cake didn't turn out well. Kind of tasted like a vodka version of rum cake.

Any ideas?

Let the Cheese Begin

So a few weeks ago I decided that Cheese Making would be a awesome hobby. What would top pulling out two year old cheese for a dinner with some friends???

I researched it a little and, surprisingly, its really not that complicated. Pretty much warm some milk, add some acid and wait for it to curdle.

This weekend I did my first two cheeses. A Mascarpone and Fromage Blanc. Just two simple soft cheeses. Nothing to rave about. But a lot to learn.

Del Posto (New York)

People have different hobbies. Some like to run. Some like to work on cars. Some like to paint.

Choi and I like to eat. We had an experience right up there with working on a '59 Chevy or running the Boston Marathon (shows what I think about marathons). We decided while we were planning our NYC trip that we definitely wanted to hit up a great restaurant. Googling "best restaurant in NYC" gets everyone's top ten list that quickly gets you head spinning. After much drooling and moaning we decided to search based on a famous chef. We landed on Mario Botali and settled on his Del Posto Restaurant on the lower west side of Manhattan. This was a great choice. We went with the five-course tasting menu and some how got an extra cheese course (awesome).

One of the best things about this place, the one thing that earned a really good tip, was our main waiter. Not only was he nice. Not only was he knowledgeable. Not only was he dressed well. But this guy had one of those voices. One that made me want to kidnap him and make him read children's books to my kids years from now. It made me want to curl up and suck my thumb. But, most importantly, made me want to order anything he told me to and then subsequently inhale it. On to the food...

Anti-pasta:

SUNCHOKE Crudo with Truffled Fonduta & Walnut Gremolata: Different, but good. Once is enough.

Mozzarella di BUFALA, Salted Beets & Pistacchio Spuma: Kind of a twist on the caprese salad, the beets were a nice addition.

Primi:

CARAMELLE di Robiola with Black Truffle Butter: Little presents of pasta and cheese. As they say, impersonation is the highest form of mimicry (we've tried this one twice already)

Potato GNOCCHI with Pork Shoulder, Spiced Prunes & Pine Croccante: Little puffs of deliciousness on a bed of the moistest braised pork ever.

Secondi:

Artic CHAR with Calamaretti, Romanesco Cauliflower & Truffle Passato: Good, nothing outstanding.

Sliced DUCK alla Scappi with Sweet Pumpkin Polenta, Trevisano & Campari: Best duck I've ever had and I like duck.

Cheese:

4 Amazing Cheeses: Great cheeses. We didn't catch the names though. Scored an extra cheese because we let the cheese lady choose for us and she couldn't leave us with three. We're going to play dumb everywhere we go.

Dessert:

Chocolate Ricotta TORTINO, Toasted Sicilian Pistachios & Extra Virgin Olive Oil Gelati: The EVOO Gelati was a surprise. Great in small quantities. The tortino also rocked. This desert definatly crowned the whole meal.

The Donut Plant (New York)

There are points in your life when you know that things will never be the same. I'm going to share a story of one of those moments...

So there I was... July 2006, New York, New York. Jeff and I had headed to the big apple to blow some of our 60 days after graduation. The trip was great but one experience stood out. I had heard about a donut shop that made other donut shops cower in fear. Enter the Donut Plant. Since 1994, the Donut Plant has been gracing the island of Manhattan with deep fried floury goodness of all sorts. From that day forward, other donuts were just inferior pieces of sugary goodness. I remember having the coconut cream donut. It tasted like a coconut cream cake... only a donut. Yum. Their filled donuts are square but they have a ribbon of filling around the whole donut. Pure genius! Try as hard as you might but you can't get a bight without delicious filling. Take that boring round donuts!!

Zoom forward to a late winter day in early March 2009. I drag Choi all over the lower east side looking for a parking spot. By this point she wants to ditch the donuts and get some pizza (see future post). I pull a messer special and throw some stubborn attitude at problem. Alas, a parking spot is found. The good Lord blessed us on this day, as it was one of the days that the Donut Plant made the Creme Brulee donuts. These small delicious pieces were filled with the custard. But the coup de grace that 'Mark the Baker' achieved was flaming the top of the donut to create the burnt sugar flavor that epitomizes a good creme brulee. A tear left my eye when I tasted this. Kind of like a beautiful donugasm.

Life is now just something that gets in the way before my next Donut Plant visit.

Adam

Baklava (Iraqi Style)

A few times when Choi was in Iraq she would mention how good the local cuisine was. They had a native linguist that would bring them food from off-base. One of her favorites was the Iraqi Baklava. From what she could figure out, it differed from normal Baklava in that it had less layers of phyllo and filling. The filling was just simply a Pistachio and Simple Syrup Mix.

The Recipie:
7-10 layers of Phyllo each brushed with Butter
1 Layer of Pistachio and Simple Syrup Concoction
7-10 Layers of Phyllo; each brushed with Butter

Cut into desired shape before baking; Bake at 300 for 30 minutes. Broil on High until top layer is browned (don't walk away!). Drench the puppies in simple syrup, let stand for 20 minutes and serve.

Enjoy,
Adam and Choi

Potato Donuts

I'm going to share a secret. A secret as old as time. (Time being the age of the donut). The best donuts are made with potatoes.

Throw some mashed potatoes in for some of the flour and make them just like normal. (The recipe I use is someone else's).

Also, flash freeze them and you can eat them one at a time after a quick zap in the microwave.

Disclaimer: Don't hold us responsible for the life changing event that happens when potato donuts are made. You'll scarf 6-10 of these down before you know it.

Who's looking now, four eyes...

So I often joke that my glasses are safety glasses and for once they were. So to all you losers that aren't cool enough to have poor vision... you would have been blind (maybe, probably not). That's hot flour-less chocolate cake batter straight out of the oven. When I was using the tongs to pull it out they slipped and flung it straight at my eye.

Maybe we should all cook with safety glasses, or at least klutzes like me.

The Great Turducken

So maybe you can count it as a New Year’s Resolution, but let’s kick off a year off awesome food blogging with a mouth watering entry.

I had Thanksgiving up in PA with Ashley, Andy, and their family and some friends. The weekend was full of fun times. I found a shirt that I’ve been looking for for over a year at Express. Freaking AWESOME! I know my fashion advisor (I love you Choi) will approve because we had seen the shirt before but it wasn’t in my size. Next time I suit up it’s going to be legen (wait far it)… DARY!!!

Anyways… I digress. On Thanksgiving, not only were we blessed with many good dishes and desserts, I got to partake in my first turducken. The turducken as been a mythical entity to me for a long time since I first heard rumors of such a delicacy. For any lover of poultry, this will blow your mind. Instead of stuffing a turkey with bread pieces that get all soggy and such (I’m with Alton Brown on the hatered of stuffing) that can be unhealthy, some wise man thought why not just stuff a smaller bird in the large bird. Enter the turducken. Prepared by deboning a turkey, duck and chicken, and then magically (yes, this is culinary magicianship) the chicken is stuffed in duck which is then stuffed in the turkey!!! WOOO!!!

Blows my mind. Check out more pictures in our gallery.
Adam (sounding a lot like John Madden)