Okonomiyaki

adapted from 101 cookbooks

2-3 cups cabbage, finely shredded
1 cup leeks, well washed and chopped (channy: i used green garlic)
2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or apf flour)
a couple pinches of fine grain sea salt
3 eggs, beaten
1+ tablespoon olive oil

Garnish: whatever you have around. slivered almonds. chives, pesto, olives, cheese. I ate mine with kimchi.

Combine the cabbage, leeks, flour, and salt in a bowl. Toss until everything is coated with a dusting of flour. Stir in the eggs and mix until everything is evenly coated.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add a generous splash of olive oil. Scoop the cabbage mixture into the pan, and using a metal spatula press it into a round pancake shape, flat as you can get it. Cook for 4-5 minutes, or until the bottom is golden. To flip the okonomiyaki, slide it out of the skillet onto a plate. Place another plate on top and flip both (together) over. If you need a bit more oil in your skillet, add it now, before sliding the okonomiyaki back into the skillet. Again press down a bit with a spatula and cook until golden on this side - another 3 -5 minutes.

When you are finished cooking, slide it onto a cutting board to cut into wedges. Garnish and enjoy immediately.

Serves 1 - 2.

Basic Bread Pudding

i had some leftover bread lying around and i decided to channel karen alroy.

however much stale bread you have sitting around. I used about 1/3 of a sourdough batard, 1/3 of a baguette, and 2 whole grain sprouted hamburger buns. Anything will do, really.

All measurements are approximate
Oven to 350

1c heavy cream
2-3 cups milk

• heat milk and cream on medium high until almost simmering, stirring frequently. remove from heat.

3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4c sugar

• whisk all together in a large bowl.

1/2c dried currants or raisins

• soak in hot water for 15-20 minutes or until plump.

• add cream mixture slowly and evenly to egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the egg does not cook. mix in raisins/currants. pour mixture over bread in a large bowl and let sit and soak for 20 minutes or so, poking at it occasionally to submerge all the bread.

• drain, put bread in a buttered casserole dish and pour extra liquid over top. IMPORTANT: put the casserole IN a roasting pan. Put into oven and fill OUTER roasting pan halfway with boiling water. This is called a bain marie, and it prevents the outside of the pudding from cooking too much before the inside.

• bake for 50 minutes or until set and golden brown

Natasha's Grape Salad

what a weird combination of flavors. It's delicious!

red seedless grapes, halved
handful of cilantro leaves

>>toss together in a bowl

dress with lemon juice, paprika, salt, and pepper.

Hamachi Kama Shioyaki

this is so delicious and ridiculously easy. The hardest part is finding the hamachi kama. If you're in SF, they sell it at Nijiya Market in Japantown.

1 hamachi kama (yellowtail collar)
lots of sea salt

rub salt all over fish. let sit for a while. broil for 10 minutes or so.

eat.

Miso Black Cod

Tonight I got about 1 lb of black cod at the fish store near my work. This fish is not actually a type of cod - it's called sable fish, and there's a very interesting NYT article about it here:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9D04E1DC153AF935A25756C0A9679C8B63

Sable has been for sale in New York at Jewish Delis for years as a cheap, smoked fish...but it more recently became trendy after Nobu in NYC put this recipe on the map.

What I made tonight is based on the Nobu recipe, which is similar to this:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Black-Cod-with-Miso-105872

But I just used ingredients that I had in my house:


1 lb sablefish (black cod) fillet, cut in three pieces (with skin)
miso paste (about 1/2 cup)
white wine (about 1/2 cup)
sherry (about 1/4 cup)
dash of soy sauce
sugar (about 3 T)
dash of salt
fresh ginger chopped (about 2 T)


In a pot, mix all of the ingredients and bring to a simmer. Allow the miso and sugar to dissolve into the rest of the liquid. Let cool, then put the marinade in a tupperware of plastic bag with the fish so it's totally covered. Marinate ideally for a day or overnight - I just did it for 2 hrs since I was in a rush, and it was fine.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Heat a cast iron pan on the stove, add some oil (I used grapeseed). Once the oil is hot, take out the fish, let most of the liquid drip off, then put into the pan face up (skin touching the pan). It will sizzle a lot. Allow the fish to cook for about 2 minutes, then flip it with a spatula. Allow the fish to sear on the other side for another 2 minutes, then flip it back over again. The fish should be browned on top. Take the cast iron pan and put everything in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, until the fish is tender. You can check doneness of the dish by sticking a knife in it - if it can sink through easily, the fish is done. It will be white and flaky.

Meanwhile, take the leftover marinade and heat it up in a pot until it simmers. The bad fish juices will boil away, and there will be a nice (but very salty) sauce.

Once the fish is done, remove it from the cast iron pan, and serve on a plate. Drizzle a bit of the sauce over the top of the fish.

I served this with coconut rice and some thai-style vegetables, although I thought these flavors overpowered the fish a bit. It'd be better served with more mild sides, like simple garlic-stir-fried vegetables or mashed potatoes.

Enjoy!

Dry-Fried Masala Okra

I wanted to recreate the okra dish at Sultan Restaurant in San Francisco, so I posted on chowhound to get some advice about it. Here's a link to my post:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/586773

Here's the recipe I made. It came out great. I think I will continue to experiment with different spice combinations, but this was a good start for sure.

1/2 lb okra (2 cups) - cut diagonally into bite-sized pieces
3 T veg oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 c finely chopped onion
1 T minced garlic
1 T minced ginger
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 small jalapeno chile
sprinkle of fried garlic

Make sure that the okra is completely dry before cooking - this means that if you need to wash it, you have to do that way ahead of time and then dry it on paper towels. I just decided not to wash mine (yum. dirt.)

In a wok, heat oil on medium, add mustard seeds until they start popping, and then add the turmeric, cumin, and coriander. Stir the spices into the oil for a minute, then add onions, ginger, and garlic. Stir fry these together until onions get soft...the mixture will also start to turn brown and a bit crispy, which is good.

Once onions are mostly cooked, add the okra, garam masala and the jalapeno. Cook until the okra are tender (I did a combination of covered and uncovered wok). Make sure to minimize the stirring as much as possible so the okra doesn't get gummy, but stir enough so that the okra doesn't burn. The cooking will take about 7 minutes.

Turn off heat, and add salt (1/2 tsp made it quite salty - this can be toned down a bit if you prefer less salty). I think it's important to add salt at the end because adding it too early will extract water, which will make it gummy.

Done! I served the okra w/ some homemade daal, rice and mango chutney. Yum

Beer-Can Chicken

I originally heard about this recipe for the grill, but since it's snowy and freezing here, we decided to try it out in the oven. If I had had some aluminum foil, I probably would have used it to make a tent. We added some potatoes to the baking dish, and these would have been better were there something trapping the moisture in the pan. All in all, the most moist chicken I've ever had.

Easy
Prep: 15 min; Cook: 2 hours

If starting with frozen chicken, defrost for 3 days in refrigerator.

• 3 - 4 pound whole chicken
• any spices you want - I used s/p, paprika and garlic cloves
  
• 1 12-14 oz can beer

PREHEAT oven to 400 degrees F. - rack on bottom.

REMOVE any innards or other items from inside of the chicken.

RINSE the chicken inside and out in cold, running water.

OPTIONAL: seal neck of chicken with skewer (shown) for gravy, seal neck, for moister chicken, leave open.

RUB the chicken, inside and out with your choice of spices.

OPEN a standard can of cheap beer (i used PBR), punch a few extra holes, and quaff off about 1/4 of the beer.

ADD 2 TBSP rub or spice to beer can.

PLACE beer can on ovenproof pan or dish (this allows the chicken to cook indirectly and catches the juices if you want to make gravy.

ARRANGE chicken on beer can, allow the two legs to form two sides of tripod so chicken is stable (picture).

WHEN oven is ready (400 degrees), place chicken on pan or plate on bottom rack. Some cooks 'tent' the bird with foil for the first hour or so to prevent over-browning.

REDUCE oven to 350 degrees after 1/2 hour. BEST when chicken cooks 1 1/2 - 2 hours - check visually after about 1/2 hour and rotate the chicken in a half circle to cook evenly, should brown slowly and evenly.

WHEN chicken is ready, using tongs and oven glove if necessary to separate chicken and beer can, carefully remove to separate platter. Allow to stand for 10 minutes.

REMOVE ovenproof pan or dish, and pour in any remaining beer, stirring, if make a sauce.