Well, one of these days, I am going to start writing down recipes. I am sure it would help me too somewhere down the road.
Archives for posts with tag: Eat
Hello All,
So, it has been awhile since I posted. Simple dinner last night. Fish store was selling line caught gulf red snapper for $5.65 per pound. My fish guy gave me 2.25 lbs for an even 12 dollars. We are friends. He rounds down.
I simple put a couple of cuts into the flesh of the fish on either side. I salted inside and out, squeezed a few lemons over the fish and let it get to room temperature.
After that, I simply grilled the fish on both sides for a short period of time prior to finishing off the fish in a 450 degree oven.
Hello All,
Long time, no speak. I have been working a lot this summer. We have catered 5 weddings along with doing our Regular Bite Clubs and various other events. Sorry, I have not given much attention to the blog.
We have a Bite Club dinner this weekend. We are making a parsnip potato gnocchi that were are going to pan crisp. We are going to serve the crisped gnocchi with lobster and fried shallots in a corn and leek broth. So, I have been practicing getting the correct texture down for the gnocchi.
Last night, we made dinner for our neighbor. Dinner took a total of an hour to prepare. We have been using the pressure cooker lately so, the beans were done in 30 minutes. Amazing to take a bag of dried chickpeas and have them finished in 30 minutes.
The menu last night was:
1)Fried Squid with Chickpeas in a smoked paprika and vinegar sauce
2)Parsnip and Potato Gnocchi with Blood Sausage
3)Branzino in a tarragon sauce with roasted tomatoes served over green beans.
My problem is, I photograph the prep but, when it comes to final dishes. I rarely remember to photograph finished dishes. Anyway, here are a bunch of photos from dinner, of course, not one photo was taken of the plating. It’s also really annoying to cook with one hand and shoot with another
Here is what I got!
Portuguese Blood Sausage. It is out hanging in my butchers shop. So, it is precooked, perhaps, lightly smoked. I ate some raw, it was delicious. Not mushy at all. A little rice in it.
Peeling squid for the squid and beans:
Gnocchi: You can see a bowl of last night’s gnocchi in the background. I just felt like doing another round as I am making 32 servings on Saturday.
Branzino:
Quick three course dinner. Cost was like 25 bucks for three people.. If we had the same thing out to dinner it would have been most likely, a lot more dough. we got to sit at home and I wore my sleeveless harley davidson shirt I bought in Sturgis.
I don’t know why lobster is so expensive in restaurants. Or even if it is anymore? I know in some spots in Chinatown, you get two lobsters with a choice of them being cooked three way different ways, for only 20 bucks. This is a great deal.
So yesterday, i am at my fish guy and the price of lobster was 7.25 bucks a pound. How could I resist. I picked up two lobsters for around 20 bucks.
This is some really traditional Yangzhou Food.. This restaurant has been open for many years and has been in many locations. This is where our host had her graduation celebration, when she was getting out of college.
We started with a plate of these rice cakes.. It was something like gaubao I think she called them.. They were these rice crackers on a plate and along comes a sizzling pot of some clear starchy liquid with a mushroom ginger broth that was poured over it.. Giving the rice cake that half crunchy half wet consistency.
So two weeks ago, I was in China, then, last week, I spent 8 days in New Orleans. It looks like I am done traveling for at least the next three weeks. Then, it is on to Atlanta and Chicago but, for these next few weeks, I am going to enjoy them.
I have one wedding to cater in two weekends from now so, I kind of have an easy schedule coming up. Hey, I am not complaining.
But, I arrived home late Saturday Night. Yesterday, I spent the day gardening, doing laundry, took a trip to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, checked out this food truck ralley which was pretty lame, watched Portugal beat up on the Dutch and made a little pasta.
I enjoy eating out but, moreso, I enjoy cooking in my home. Out of the last 30 days, I have spent 22 of them on the road. Which meals, 3 meals a day out in and around.
Over the last day I managed to eat every meal at home. The cost of these meals? $3.99. I went out and bought some strawberries. Besides that, all of the meals either came from my garden or my freezer.
Yesterday, I started with pancakes with strawberries and homemade whipped cream. Then it was a simple grilled cheese for lunch, followed by homemade tagliatelle for dinner.
If you read my blog, I am sure you are tired of my plates of pasta photos. I am sure they all look the same. I have pasta dough down to brain autopilot. A certain amount of flour, a couple of eggs, roll around for a bit and it’s done. Then sheet it out, then run it through the cutter. Obviously, I do other things but, this is my tagliatelle routine.
So now it was time for lunch. The Chinese are really on top of lunch. If it were up to me we would work through lunch. I love to eat, don’t get me wrong but, when it comes to business, i have no time for food. I am not up for a multi course affair. I brought power bars and can soldier through..But, the guys I have encountered are very regimented. Lunch is at 12 or 1230 and they start to complain and get cranky if you don’t stop working. You can certainly use this to your advantage if you are negotiating at this point. “Just give me the nickel and we can go to lunch” sort of thing.
So we are literally in the middle of nowhere. We have driven down these dirt roads through places that look like they have been hit by bombs. i am really not looking forward to eating lunch. It also scares me that we are in this rural area that has lots of farms. There are also these standing swamps where I see all these people fishing in. I am hoping that we are not eating what is being grown and fished here.. Everything is covered in this film of dust and grime.. even the vegetables.
We walk into this huge empty building and there is nothing indicating it’s a restaurant. We notice this shady sort of pile of dishes with this crude hose sticking out of a wall. I am shaking my head, as I am getting really scared. We go upstairs and sit in this empty room with a lazy susan. I have no idea we are in for.
You know, the usual.. More cold goose:
So, here was dinner last night. It was really high end. I think it was like 120 bucks for the three of us. Essentially, it was the equivalent of going to Per Se and getting like the truffle and wine tasting add ons. The food here is unique.. It’s international let’s say in its presentation and preparation.
Here you have tofu skins wrapped up like little crepes sitting in a chicken broth.. Super delicate, really lovely.. The serving dish is definitely the game changer here. Like nothing i have seen in 99 percent of the restaurants.
I am not someone who really gets involved in these sorts of things but, the other day, I had a moment. I was at the grocery store and I decided to buy 4 or 5 different types of these things. I have had very limited exposure to instant ramen even. In fact, outside of the occasional bowl they provide you with on a flight to Asia, I don’t think I ever have had an instant ramen soup.
This was my first selection, I ate this the other day.. It was pretty much one of the more disgusting things I have ever eaten.. I mean, I have eaten grossing things but,this is the grossest like fresh out of the box, not intended to be disgusting, gross things.. I have had spoiled milk, cheese, rotten eggs, and fish.. I have had contests with my friends in middle school where the loser would eat gross stuff but, this was the grossest, hey this is supposed to taste good type things.
Annie Chung, I am sure at one point in the world, there was an Annie Chung. She was probably a wonderful cook and a great person, or maybe she is some cartoon character, but at this point, it’s pretty shitty. Like most of these dishes, there are dried noodles and a series of flavor packets and dehydrated vegetables.. The sour taste on this was so chemically, i had to toss it in the garbage.. The garbage outside, the one in the dumpster that is perhaps 20 yards away.
Even with the free fancy spoon, i was not impressed.
136 Greenpoint Ave
(between Franklin St & Manhattan Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11222
(718) 349-1744 www.karczmabrooklyn.com
I have never really been to a authentic Polish restaurant. I have had perogies, I have had a few plates of food that my Polish doorman gave me, I have drank many a bottle of zubrowka, however, never a really authentic restuarant. The authenticity of this restaurant was made clear that night when our waitress commented how, they get American customers from time to time. I am assuming the other customers they get would be Polish. By the way, all the waitresses are dressed in traditional Polish dresses.
The food that we ate that night reminded me of a combination of German and Russian Food. Perhaps it was my remedial knowledge of Polish History which influenced me. But, how could Polish Cuisine not be influenced by it’s neighbors and sometimes captures.
The food we that last night was heavy. Heavy and for lack of a better word, shmaltzy. It was certainly undeniably Eastern European.
We started with Perogies. When asking if we should have fried or boiled our waitress said “I find the fried more delicious”. How could we argue.
Though fried on the outside, the inside remained room temp. It was ground meat with not much seasoning bound together with a lot of fat. THe amount of fat coated your tongue. It was topped with fried onions. Everything needed a lot of salt.
