Awkward Paella Night

Some friends have been having extremely awkward moments in life. So I had them over for awkward paella. Also to have them out of their houses and into a new environment. Tried out the recipe from the Spanish Table. (see previous paella post).

Didn't have piquillo peppers and decided to add more seafood!

Seafood added: clams, shrimp, white fish.

I made another version later on with squid and fresh green onions.

See the little tentacle? He says hello.

After emotional purging at awkward paella night I challenged my guest to make use of the goats milk cajeta I had received as a present a while ago. She chose to make blueberry, coconut, chocolate chip scones:

It actually wasn't bad (the cajeta that is). A bit of tang from the goats milk. I think it would also be good with fruit.

Pizza and Almond Cookies - Trying the Random

Craving Pizza. Bought TJ's herbed pizza dough, but didn't want to do the usually stuffed spinach deal. Instead, tried goat cheese, spinach, tomatoes and parmesean.

Different craving purchased summer sausage. A few nights later while reheating pizza I thought... needs meat...

Ironically the next week food club girls decided to have a pizza night. So many flavor combinations I can't even describe. Chili/oyster sauce pizza. Margherita. Pizza topped with a fresh arugula salad....

Meanwhile across town... Cousin decided to try her hand at almond cookies. She claims she's a terrible baker, but I've never made anything this pretty:

Had with coffee. So. Good.

Jiaozi - A Ladies Night Adventure

To inaugurate the dumpling press and bamboo steamers I got for Christmas, I decided to turn Ladies Night the week of New Year's into dumpling-Ladies night.

The friend who got the dumpling goodies brought some home made goodies of her own:

Serrano chili sweet and sour shrimp with brocoli.

I kept saying it would be good with rice, but no one else seemed like they would eat it. It was good with rice the next day too. :)

For snacks while we were making dumplings she also brought edamame in a spicy oyster sauce:

The main event was chicken and leek dumplings. I modified my mom's dumpling recipe and add rice wine vinegar and chopped up leeks.

Filling:

1 lb ground meat

1/2 tsp cornstarch dissolved in water.

chopped up greens (either green onions or leek. leek works better).

white pepper

ground garlic (or in Cindy's kitchen - garlic powder so I don't get heartburn).

Mix it all together, let it marinate for 30 min in the fridge if you want or just stuff those puppies right away!

Put maybe less than a half teaspoon of filling in each wrapper and steam for ~8 minutes.

Also introduced the art of Cindy's preferred dipping sauces for dumplings:

garlic chili sauce

rice vinegar

soy sauce

Vinegar: Soy Sauce :: 6:4

Korean BBQ

On actual New Year's Eve Cousin and I met up with some friends and had Korean BBQ at Kaya.

We called family, said "Happy New Year," and tried the best we could to explain why we were NOT eating Chinese food on New Year's, and that we just had some Chinese friends that wanted to eat Korean.

Kind of pricey, but so tasty. The usual suspects were:

Kalbi ribs

Beef bulgolgi

Hot tofu soup with seafood:

Don't worry. Even though you don't see it, we ate it with rice. Soup without rice is just silly.

Side dishes and the glorious grill!

That ball of meat in the upper right hand corner was something new. It's mixed together and eaten raw like this:

I think those were radish or turnip. I'm not sure. But there was raw egg and some sort of sweet sauce. Like rice wine.

There was also steamed egg. Kind of savory. There's a version of this dish in every culture. My Grandma used to make a sweet version, and I think the Japanese version has caramelized onions at the bottom.

This is some other soup. I think it was bean based. I forget. Also good. Not soy-beany or anything.

New year's- the Lunar Variety

Chinese New Year's was Jan 23rd. Cousin and I cooked some traditional dishes, and some dishes we just like in general. Everything's from scratch this year folks! Here's the spread:

Starting from Top left: Turnip cakes (lo bat goh). It's my Aunt's recipe - (that whole family are great cooks and you bet they can throw down when it comes to eating). It's what you can find at dim sum. It's not sweet, but more of a savory thing. I like to dip it in hot sauce and soy sauce. Or you can use jalapeno slices with soy sauce. It's traditionally a southern Chinese New Year's dish.

Yea, I kind of burned them. Supposed to be a nice golden brown.

Next up: home made pot stickers. Cousin made the skin from scratch and she added shitake mushrooms (but minimal since I generally don't like them). Pot stickers are a northern New Year's tradition.

Mmm. Golden brown goodness.

The story with shitake is - those mushrooms used to be the only type of vegetable I would eat when I was little. So after eating them every day for who knows how long, they suddenly one day became gross. This was when I was about 3. In the last couple of years my gagging has dissolved into frowning while eating.

3rd dish:Steamed fish! Don't flip the bones over! You'll flip over the boat! A superstition from fishing folk. Ever since my parents told me this belief I've never let them flip the fish, and make them lift the bones to get to the meat on the other side. Cousin indulges me in this tradition here. Fish is supposed to make you smart and I think the New Year's tie is that it has something to do with prosperity. All the food either means prosperity, wealth, long life, or good luck. I can't remember which is which.

The best part is the cheeks and the meat under the collar bone. Soooo tender.

If you've eaten with me, you know I'm big on a balanced meal. Enter the veggies!!

Cousin's favorite vegetable from her childhood. "Chinese brocoli" aka Gai Lan.

A Chinese tradition for New Year's is to go around to close friends' and relatives' houses to visit and catch up. Instead of having a big group dinner in Seattle like we normally do, I went and visited some (newish) friends that celebrate the holiday. We traded food stuffs.

Jai! Traditional Buddhist New Year's dish. On NY you're not supposed to eat meat. Unfortunately this meant my friend couldn't eat the turnip cake I brought her (has chinese sausage) until the next day. She was "starving."

There was also 2 kinds of New Year's cake ! (Nin goh) It's kind of like mochi. To the right is fresh nin goh that my friend made from scratch! (She's roommates with Jai friend - but was asleep by the time I came over - weeknight). When it's fresh it's soft and aromatic. You can also steam it in tea leaves to add some flavor.

To the left is the store bought kind made with coconut milk and it had red bean at the bottom! (Courtesy of second house stop who just came back from Vancouver).

See the red bean layer???

I usually slice the store bought kind up, dip it in egg and pan fry it - french toast style.

This makes it soft and chewy again.

9 Million Stupid Names and Okonomiyaki-venture

There's a place in Fremont called 9 Million Unmarked Bills. It was previously called Triangle, and before that something something..... But they've always been a bar with food, and attracts pretty much the same people. I don't understand why the names change. Decor does not, or at least not noticeably. I will say, 9 Million has great happy hour and a very good menu!

Bacon bloody mary - with a cherry pepper. They also have a Bloody Bonnie -which has basil. I like the bacon one better. The cherry pepper was really interesting. It really does taste like a cross between a cherry tomato and a pepperoncini.

My friend and I tried out an experiment. Take: Prosciutto and Arugula Pizza

Add truffle mac and cheese (sooooo goooooooood)

And you get this!

But the prosciutto kind of masks the subtle flavor of the truffle oil. It all went great with the bloody mary though.

Some friends got together for hot pot and teppanyaki. Some one wanted to try making the okonomiyaki with a mochi in the middle - which is something they saw in their travels in Japan.

Insert mochi (bean sprout base):

Yes, that's bacon you see there, and some beef teppanyaki.

Flip!

Mmm. Finished product! Add seasoning, bonito, mayonnaise, and... I don't know what that brown sauce is. Brown sauce!

Ironically, later that week some one brought in these from Japan:

Okonomiyaki flavored crackers?? Oh no they didn't!!

It.... was ok.

How to Cook A Wolf

Physics friends and I are trying to branch out from our usual "let's hang out at happy hour" routine. Since we're all foodies we decided to try a "let's try new places to eat that we've really wanted to go to" one.

It's hard to find a place none of us have been to. First eligible restaurant: How to Cook a Wolf.

Their special that night was geoduck .... we'll call it sashimi style. Raw, thin sliced, but with herbs and sauce. So fresh and yummy!

Soft boiled eggs - Action shot! The little round things are potato somethings. Crispy.

Cauliflower with capers and pine nuts. The capers were gross and salty. Probably because they were giant for some reason. They're at the very bottom part of the picture in the pan. But you know who might like them? People that like olives.

Spaghetti Nero - we were all so excited to try this but then... the peppers got in the way. The spiciness masked any inky goodness that might have shined through. Mussels were nice and fresh though, which shouldn't have been so surprising given the state of the geoduck. I would order it again, but my mission to find squid ink pasta continues!

I always feel bad taking pictures in nice restaurants, because nice restaurants usually mean it's dark. So the flash on my camera goes off which is rude to other customers. My friends were kind enough to illuminate the previous pictures with their phones, but after a while I felt bad about all the effort for the pictures. So these are blurry.

Pork belly - WHAT! When is pork belly ever not good? Probably if overcooked. Did not eat the fennel underneath. I think I like Cantonese style pork belly better, or they might be equivalent and cheaper Chinese style.

Favorite dish of the night though was definitely the lamb tagliarini. You must have this with wine. The lamb was shredded and tender and the sauce was nice and simple. If I were to crave anything from this restaurant it'd be this and the geoduck.

Poll - lose the pics from dark lit places yes/no?