Lemonade

After visiting the Frigola family today, we brought home some lemons from their lemon tree. Noah wanted some lemonade. I followed the recipe here.
1 cup lemon juice
1 cup water for the sugar mix
1 cup sugar
4 cups water

Melt the sugar in water in a saucepan. Add everything together in the pitcher and stir.
Let it chill in the fridge or add lots of ice cubes if you can't wait :)

Popcorn Panko Chicken Dinner

The panko chicken I made last night, I heated up at a temp in the toaster oven. I steamed some baby bok choy for 5mins in the rice cooker. I made some garlic fried rice and some miso sauce for the chicken.

Garlic Fried Rice
Leftover rice from fridge
2 cloves garlic, diced
Veg Oil
1 Egg

Pre heat pan, add oil. Once ready add the garlic, keep mixing,tossing to not burn. When almost browned, remove into a small bowl. Add the rice and cook until it;s no longer hard and stuck together. Add the garlic back in and mix with rice. Create an opening in the center, add butter or oil for the egg. Scramble the egg then mix with the rice. Serve and enjoy.



Miso Sauce
1T miso paste
1T butter
1/2 lemon

Add miso and butter to sauce pan to melt/blend together. If you need more sauce, add in equal amounts for miso & butter. Squeeze the lemon juice in and stir. Heat until it's a nice looking paste. Pour over the panko chicken.



The bok choy could be fried with the rice if desired rather then steaming.

Popcorn Panko Chicken

What to do with a 1/2lb of chicken breast? The other half went into the pad see ew. I gathered three bowls. Flour in one, 1 egg mixed up in the second, and panko mix in the third.
4 easy steps, the chicken goes in the flour then the egg then the panko and finally to the pan.

Starting to fry one side


Flipped over


Placed on paper towels to soak up oil

Pad See Ew Part II

Pad See Ew with chicken tonight. I ran out of garlic so I used some ginger.

1/2lb chicken breast
3T soy sauce
8 slices of ginger
1/2lb rice noodles
1/2lb chinese brocoli
2T veg oil
1 egg
pinch of sugar
salt
pepper

Season the chicken with salt & pepper. Cut up the chicken breast to small pieces and pat dry.
Cut up the ginger into smaller pieces.

Preheat the pan then warm up the oil. Add the chicken pieces
After one side is brown, flip over. Add in the ginger.
Add in the noodles, soy sauce, and pinch of sugar. Mix all together.
Make a space in the center, scramble an egg. Before the egg is totally cooked, mix everything together.
Add in the chinese broccoli.
Keep mixing so the noddles don't burn or stick to the pan. Cook until the broccoli stems are soft enough per your own taste.

New toys

Bloomingdale's had a crazy sale in the Home dept today. I was able to score a price reduction of my Le Creuset dutch oven and bought a 12" All-Clad SS frying pan with lid for 1/2 off at $79.99!

The pan sans lid:


While walking thru the mall, I walked past a cutlery store with knives on clearance in the front displays. I picked up an 8" Wusthof knife for $55!




Yay!

Curry time

Curry sauce with beef and rice. S&B curry packet that is easy to make by just boiling it. I fried some garlic (3 cloves) and scallots then the beef. The beef was removed and a little white wine added to deglazed. The wine was reduced to nothing and some water and a little broth added in and reduced to a small sauce to pour over the beef. Japanese rice made in the rice cooker. Serves 2 with plenty of leftover rice.

Beef cooking


S&B Curry


Add them all together

Pad See Ew

Pad See Ew with Beef. The recipe can be found at thaitable.com. This is a very easy thai dish to make. I didn't have light soy sauce, I just used regular soy sauce. 1lb of chinese brocoli is way too much, I used ~1/2lb. I also used ~1/2lb of beef instead of pork. Serves 2.

Here it is!

Chicken Kiev and Gratin Dauphinois

Chicken Kiev and Gratin Dauphinois (potato gratin) was tonight's meal. The Kiev was premade fresh at Vons. The recipe for the gratin can be found here. I followed the recipe except used 1/2 the portions to make less. To deviate a little, I added some leeks in the middle and sprinkled rosemary on top as garnish afterwards. No cheese is added to this gratin!

Simmering the potatoes in milk, salt, nutmeg:


Placed into the oven:


Viola!


Chicken Kiev and Gratin Dauphinois:


Chicken was a little overbaked, I didn't want to wait to bake it after the gratin. The gratin could've baked a little longer but I was afraid of burning it.

Beef Fried Rice

What to do with leftover rice? Add meat and veggies and fry em up. I started with ~1 lb of stir fry beef from the newly opened HK2 store. I lightly floured and then added to a warmed up pan. After the beef was done, I removed and set aside. More oil, then rice came next. Added a little white wine over the sucs to deglaze them. Added some soy sauce and kept mixing up the rice. I then added in the chopped baby bok choys(4), green onions(2), garlic clove (1 cut up & stem removed), and ginger (4 slices). After mixing it all up and cooking a little bit, I added back in the beef. Served on a plate and added some sesame seeds on top.

Here it is:

Ramen @ Ajisen

The rains are long gone but the coldness has stayed...brrrrrr

What better way to warm up then some yummy ramen at Ajisen?!

After a long day of Saturday work doing DR testing, we went to Ajisen for a warm dinner. I can't resist the premium pork ramen. The best view is at the counter where you can watch them prepare the dishes.

The premium pork ramen:


They're also currently offering their Ajisen Ramen for $4.95.

Learn about Ajisen.

Panko-Coated Chicken Schnitzel

Panko-Coated Chicken Schnitzel is a dish by Thomas Keller of The French Laundry fame.

The recipe can be found here.

I used 1/2 of the ingredients as I wasn't going to make it for 4. I used one huge chicken breast and tried my best to cut them into similiar sizes. I made it with japanese rice and steamed bok choy. Sadly, I over-steamed the bok choy. Rather then make the buttery sauce, I sprinkled over parsely, spread some miso paste, and squeezed a fresh lemon over the chicken. When dipping the chickens in the panko, it gets really sticky! After frying, place on plate with paper towels and I also tented them with aluminum foil.



Chicken frying along....



Viola!



How does it taste? Very yummy!!! I have leftovers to enjoy as well :)

You could add Japanese curry to it and it'd the same as what you'd order at Hurry Curry, thanks Pat for pointing that out :)

Chill out.....

Relax and unwind listening to ambient & lounge music at M2. Other M2 stations here. Enjoy!

It's been raining cats and dogs all week. I rather be here in Anguilla with my family



Stay dry!

dineLA Restaurant Week

dineLA Restaurant Week runs from Jan 24-29 and Jan 31-Feb 5, 2010.

Check out this link for more info and a listing of restaurants.

Thick Onion Soup

The recipe is from the book French Feasts: 299 Traditional Recipes for Family Meals and Gatherings. Although my version has the French title, Ripailles on it, I found it on clearance at Anthropologie. This makes a good appetizer, serves 6.



The recipe:


6 Sliced Onions:


Cooking to lighly brown:


1/2 cup of white wine:


Simmering (for 45mins) after adding in wine and ~6 cups of water:


Parsely is added after simmering.
4 egg yolks added in after cooling off a little.

The end result with french bread added on top:

Cool plates

These are some cool looking plates called Endormis.



They're the work of Inga Sempé.
In Europe, they're sold by Domestic. The US distributor is Areaware. They're priced cheaper in Europe but the shipping is insane.

Pork Medallions with Miso Sauce

Tonight's dinner was Pork Medallions with Miso Sauce. I bought the miso and pork from Marukai. The recipe is at Rouxbe.com. I made it with japanese white rice and a side of cooked bok choy.

The yummy results:

little next door

The Little Next Door is next to The Little Door off 3rd St. in Los Angeles. It's a cool little french café. If you go on a nice day, ask for patios seating. The parking sucks, but that's West L.A. for you. We went for lunch on Jan 2nd.






Proscuitto di Parma Wrapped Chicken Breast sandwich:



Eggs Benedict with Salmon:



The food was good. Eva enjoyed their coffee. Sadly, I recommend skipping their macarons.

Their website is The Little Door.

Pâtes au pistou

Pâtes au pistou (pesto pasta) was dinner tonight. The recipe is here. Use translate.google.com to translate it to english. I deviated from the recipe due to not having any pine nuts and I wanted to add chicken. So really the dish is poulet de pâtes au pesto (chicken pesto pasta).

Ingredients:
1 package of Boutoni whole wheat linguini
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1 lb of skinless chicken breast (cut into cubes)
1 pkg (.66oz) of Vons organic basil (chopped up)
1 pinch of thyme
1 pinch of rosemary
olive oil (for cooking)

I set out the chicken to warm up to room temperature, seasoned with salt/pepper.
I chopped up the garlic and basil, placed in bowls. After the chicken was room temp, I cut it up into cubes. After pre heating the pan, I added enough olive oil to coat. After oil warmed up, the chicken was added. The water for the pasta was boiled with salt. After pasta was placed in, cooked for 3 minutes after returning to boil, then drained and set aside.

Pan frying chicken:


The chicken was flipped over, after a few minutes, I lowered the heat and added in the garlic and more olive oil. I tossed until the garlic turned color. The pasta was put in and more olive oil added. The basil added in and everything tossed.

The end result (with sweet potato fries):


The taste? Yummy! Not the typical pesto sauce style but very flavorful along with moist chicken and yummy baked fries. Bon Appetit!

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

I am following the recipe found here. I am using 1 sweet potato, with parsley, kosher salt, extra virgin oil (Star brand), rosemary, and thyme. Those are the only herbs I have. I tried to cut them as even as possible, not so easy as it seems. Oven was pre heated to 425F. After 15 mins, flip them over, they should finish in another 15 mins.

Everything all mixed up in bowl:


Before going in:


Results:


They came out really good! The smaller pieces or odd sized that don't get baked will still taste good if you throw them in the mix and eat them raw.

Boeuf Bourguignon

I attempted to try making Boeuf Bourguignon (Beef Stew). I found a recipe from I Know How to Cook. The recipe is here at NY Times' website (may require logging in). The article about it is here. It's based off a more french version as opposed to Julia Child's version. I made the stew, poured out the contents to a another bowl over ice to bring the temps down. After the pot cooled, I poured it back in and put in the fridge to eat the next night. I added carrots in while reheating it to eat for dinner. I decided to make rice to help soak up the juice.

Here's from Kronenbourg in Paris:


Simmering:


4.5qt Le Creuset:


The results (over rice):


If you really want to try an insane version, try Thomas Keller's version from his Bouchon book. The recipe can be found here.