Mi Momofuku

Day 50 - Pages 172-173 - Pork Belly Ssam & Mustard Seed Sauce Page 84 - Chicken and Egg (w/o egg & w/ ramen) + Cereal Milk, again

2010-07-06T07:54:00.000-07:00

*FINAL POST*

This past week has been a mad dash to the finish line and I'm happy to report that for today's lunch with Andrea and Janet I made the two recipes that will complete my project to cook the Momofuku cookbook.

I roasted a 2-pound piece of pork belly for the ssäm. By now I've done this a few times but today I tried cooking it on the barbeque. Unfortunately, the temperature in the Weber was either too hot or too low and the meat was either burning or not cooking. A Momofuku pork belly should cook at a temperature that melts the fat, browns the meat, and does it relatively quickly so the meat stays juicy and tender.Today's roast was not my best. omg! I'm critiqueing a pork belly like I know what I'm doing!?

Well, I went ahead and let it chill in the fridge, then sliced and grilled it.

The Mustard Sauce used Pickled Mustard Seeds, a preparation Chang "copped" from cooking at Craft and "a staple of Tom Colicchio's cooking." I boiled the seeds in rice vinegar and sugar until they plumped up and softened.

I mixed the pickled seeds, cucumber pickles, Kewpie Mayo, Dijon and hot Chinese mustards together. The sauce was just a little spicy (i.e. next time I'll use a hotter Chinese mustard) and the seeds gave it a lightly bitter flavor and crunchy texture.

Here is the assembled ssäm:

Chicken and Egg was inspired by oyako-don, a type of donburi, in which chicken and other ingredients are piled on top of a bowl of rice. I made only the chicken as a topping for ramen. First I deboned some chicken legs. Not a difficult thing to do when the chicken is fresh and the meat is firm. The rest of the recipe is identical to the confit with chicken wings that I described in in the first part of this previous post.
After I removed the drumsticks and thighs from the pork lard, I browned them outside in smoking hot cast iron over the Big Kahuna burner until the skin was nice and crispy.

The alkaline noodles that I had made yesterday were in packets in the fridge.When we were ready to eat the ramen I boiled the noodles, spooned broth over them, and arranged chicken, garden peas, pickled cucumbers, and scallions on top. The chicken was tender, juicy, and not surprisingly, everyone thought it was pork.

Because it was so good the first time, I made Bill Corbett's Cereal Milk Ice Cream for dessert. But instead of using walnuts in the frosted flakes I toasted pecans. I beat brown sugar into egg whites together and folded in cornflakes and the nuts. The mixture baked in a slow oven while I turned it every few minutes until it was dry and crispy. Tip: with milk, this makes a great breakfast.

Thus concludes Mi Momofuku. There are a handful of recipes that I didn't attempt and I'll get to them when I get the right ingredients (e.g. Benton's country ham, Maine Jonah crab claws). For now, I'm happy to have learned how to make - and eat - foie gras, pig's head and skin, ssäm, sous vide, and sashimi and to have shared it with my family and friends. It's been fun and delicious!

Day 49 - Pages 18 7-188 - Pan-Roasted Dry-Aged Rib Eye

2010-06-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

I sort of made this recipe. My version was not dry-aged nor a 2-1/2 lb steak but I got the basic idea and it was a true revelation. I now know that it's the butter basting that makes the steaks at Peter Luger and Ruth's Chris so popular. I hadn't cooked a steak in years and when I make one again, no doubt soon, this is how I'll do it.

After searing the meat on a smoking hot cast iron pan, it went into a 350 degree oven for a couple of minutes. Immediately after I removed it from the oven, I put the butter, garlic, shallots, and thyme in the pan and basted the steak until it reached a medium rare state. That was all there was to it. I think the most daunting part will be to find a dry-aged gigantic rib eye for my next try.

(Kids, this will be on the menu for your next visit)

Day 48 - Page 142 - Cured Hamachi, Horseradish-Edamame Puree & Furikake; Pages 105-107 - Grilled Octopus Salad, Konbu, Bamboo Shoots & Pickled Chiles + Octo Vinaigrette

2010-06-28T18:42:00.000-07:00

This is the last week of posts for Mi Momofuku because by Sunday I will have made almost all of the recipes in the book or at least all of the recipes that I wanted to make. I have yet to decide on my next project but I'm intrigued by Jonathan Gold's early, outrageous ambition to eat at every food establishment along Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. For a taste of his Pulitzer Prize-winning food writing you can find him at the LA Weekly .

I've been working on this blog for 7 months and it was just today that I finally made the trip to Japantown. I had a really good time browsing the aisles and aisles of condiments at Nijiya Market. Chang favors Kewpie Mayonnaise, I couldn't resist, and I will have the chance to use it in a mustard sauce this weekend.
It comes in a squishy plastic bottle and comes with a warning:

But I was really on the hunt for all the things I would need for the Cured Hamachi dish. Everything but the horseradish (found at Molly Stone's in Greenbrae) was there.

The cure was roughly ground Sichuan peppercorns and coriander seeds

mixed with some sugar and salt. I coated the hamachi filets and set them to cure in the fridge for about 2 hours - any more time would have made gravlax and we were going for sashimi here!

Next I made the puree. The soy beans and horseradish were a contrast in texture and color.

I chopped the horseradish and pureed it with the beans and a little water in the blender. Green is my color and the pale shade was a beautiful foil for the strong fumes and intense pungency of the radish.

I plated this to look just like the Momofuku photo with fresh pea shoots and wakame chazuke furikake (seaweed and puffed rice seasoning).

The Grilled Octopus Salad was an afterthought because at the store I came across a small package of baby octopus tentacles. The recipe called for whole octopus but this made the job a little easier because I didn't have to check the heads for cartilage. I braised the octopus until tender in a broth of water, soy, sake and vinegar.

I sliced a bamboo shoot and boiled it in water until just tender - I wanted to maintain a slight crunch.

I also sliced a sheet of cooked konbu into narrow ribbons and julienned a carrot. Then I made the Octo Vinaigrette, a dressing with ginger, garlic, vinegar, and soy that is served with all kinds of grilled or fried meats at Momofuku. Previously, I made it to go with the Momofuku fried chicken.

I grilled the octopus and put it on top of the tossed salad. This was spicy, sweet/sour, and a study in textures.

Day 47 - Pages 166 - 167- Bo Ssäm and Ssäm Sauce

2010-06-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

(reminder: you can click on the photos to view enlargements)
It was Wayan's birthday and a good reason to gather some friends around to celebrate with a bo ssäm for 6-8 people. First: I got a Marin Sun farms pork butt, bone-in, 8 pounds. Covered it with salt and sugar and refrigerated it overnight.

The next day, I was up before sunrise to put it in a 300 degree oven. I went back to sleep for a couple of hours and by the time I got up the aroma was overwhelming the entire house (not necessarily in a bad way but...) so I took it out of the oven and put it in the Weber barbecue. After 8 hours it was meltingly tender and the meat fell away from the bones without much effort.

While it was cooking there was time to prepare the condiments. Clockwise, from upper left: Ava's black bean and garlic cucumbers, ssäm sauce (a mixture of ssämjang and kochujang), pickled cantaloupe, ginger scallion sauce, week-old kimchi.

John shucked 50 extra small Tomales Bay oysters.

I was really glad that I was not the only one taking photos and holding up the feast.

One of the things I like about ssäms, aside from the deliciousness, is that each eater gets to compose their own little version of the dish. This bo ssäm offered lots of choices to put on a lettuce cup.

Everyone dug in without hesitation.

Day 46 - Pages 245 - 248 - Ko Kimchi Consommé, Pork Belly, Oysters, & Napa Cabbage

2010-06-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

Today, chefs are experimenting with consommés using the gelatin technique developed by Harold McGee. The Momofuku consommé uses the traditional egg white raft method
to make a clear, flavorful soup that ties together Chang's reinterpretation of the Korean bo ssäm. In this dish, the kimchi becomes a consommé that was somewhat difficult but incredibly fun to make.

First, I whipped egg whites and folded in some lean ground pork and chopped onions.

Then I pureed a cup of week-old kimchi

and added it to 2 cups of ramen broth and water. I placed the egg white mixture on top of the broth and simmered it, lightly stirring and basting the whites to keep them moist.

After about 30 minutes, particles in the broth migrated up to the egg whites and formed a semi-solid mass - the raft. I removed the raft and filtered the broth and any remaining bits through two layers of cheesecloth. The elixir was clear, slightly tinged with red from the chiles, and the perfect essence of kimchi.

Next, I roasted the pork belly. By now, I'd done a few times so it was pretty easy.

I cut a triangle into the base of each cabbage leaf to remove the tough, white part and then blanched the leaves in boiling water for a few seconds.

I drove up to Tomales Bay Oyster Company and picked up some of their extra smalls. When got home, I shucked the oysters carefully preserving the liquor in the shells and heated scalene triangle slices of pork belly over a hot grill.

I plated all the elements and poured some of the warmed consommé up to the rim of the oyster shell. I was really happy to see it all come together and it was indescribably delicious.

Day 45 - Page 86-87 -" World's longest recipe for Chicken Wings" + Risi e Bisi

2010-06-18T07:45:00.000-07:00

I love chicken wings in any shape or form. It's the bony, gristly parts that I like to chew and gnaw on. So it was exciting to make this because not only is it a favorite food but it involved delving into the mysteries of confit, an ancient technique for preserving food. For westerners, the most familiar form of meat confit is the French confit de canard, or preserved duck. The meat is salted and stored in its own fat.

It was easy to track down the ingredients for my experiment: I found pork lard (also good for making incredibly flaky, light pastry) and chicken wings in the Marin Sun Farms freezer case.The wings were refrigerated overnight in a brine of sugar, salt, and water. Then they were covered with melted lard and refrigerated for a day. In my case, just long enough for the lard to solidify but the longer the refrigeration the more the wings absorb the pork lard flavor.

I made the taré by browning the wing tips and simmering them with soy sauce and sake until the liquid reduced by about one half. Ummmm. Some serious gnawing potential here.

I then lightly cooked slivers of garlic in some of the lard and added them to the taré to finish the sauce.
I heated the lard just enough to melt it and removed the wings and drained them. I browned them in a hot skillet, all the while pressing down with the lid of a pan. Tossed with the sauce and a few sprinkles of pickled red chiles and scallions, these were, hands down, winner chicken wings.

I also spent the good part of a day making Momofuku ramen broth. A big stash is a luxury and really comes in handy when you want to make up a risi e bisi with fresh picked peas. All the energy that went into making the broth paid off with a risotto of complex depth and ultra smooth creaminess.

Day 44 - Pages 157-158 - Roasted Mushroom Salad, Braised Pistachios, Pickles & Radishes + Milk Bar's Blueberry & Cream Cookies

2010-06-12T06:58:00.000-07:00

Chang describes this dish as "a hodgepodge of ideas cribbed from dishes...eaten over the years." I liken it to the Food Network show, "Chopped", where 4 chef contestants are each given a basket of weirdly diverse ingredients and are asked to prepare an appetizer, entree, or dessert using those ingredients. This salad is a stretch because of the unusual combination of ingredients and consists of several parts that require lots of time to prepare. At least that is how it felt for me when I was making it.
I first prepared the pistachios - the prettiest nuts on the planet.

The nuts were boiled in dashi until soft and then pureed with water. I stopped short of blending until smooth since I wanted mine to be slightly chunky.
Radishes and sunchokes (I used apples instead) were pickled.

The mushrooms (I used portobellos) were sliced, sauteed, and dressed with a garlic, butter, and vinegar sauce.

I left out the enoki mushrooms and my micro-greens consisted of a few sprigs of baby chives but there were still plenty of things to work with when I put it all together.

I now know to google Christina Tosi when I'm craving something sweet. Here is her recipe for Blueberry & Cream Cookies . It uses one of Tosi's favorite ingredients: nonfat milk powder. When I made Tosi's cereal milk I had to buy a 2 pound box for the 3 tablespoons I needed. I thought it would languish on the pantry shelf collecting dust but I do use the stuff whenever I want to add an extra bit of milky sweetness to my cooking. This recipe consists of the dough and Milk Crumbs, a dry, crumbly mixture that is the "cream" in the cookie.

The recipe calls for glucose but a good substitute is corn syrup. I didn't substitute the European butter though because it was available at the market and the European is so irresistibly smooth and creamy. The crumbles, along with melted white chocolate, and dried cherries (my market didn't have blueberries) were folded into the dough. The cookies browned really quickly but I didn't mind that because the crispy edge was a nice contrast to the chewy interior. An accompanying glass of milk is de rigeur!

Day 43 - Page 154 - XO Sauce + a trip to L.A.

2010-06-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

XO Sauce originated in Hong Kong and started turning up on upscale Chinese restaurant menus in the U.S. several years ago. Now it can be found in neighborhood diners as well as in jars on the shelves of every Asian market. XO, a good Cognac rating, is a Cantonese term that is used to describe anything that is high toned or a luxury item. Having made the Momofuku version, I fully appreciate its use in giving just about any food an instant umami boost.

The two main ingredients are dried shrimp and dried scallops. These can be pricey depending on their size, flavor, and uniformity. I used relatively inexpensive varieties, they were about 1/2 inch in diameter, but they tasted like condensed versions of the seafood.

The dried ingredients were rehydrated overnight in water and then minced in the food processor.
Separately processed were 1/2 cups of garlic, ginger, a piece of Virginia ham, and a couple of lap cheung (sausages that are staples of the Chinese kitchen).

I mixed everything together along with a good helping of red chile flakes and cooked the mixture over a low flame for about 45 minutes. All the components melded together into a dry-ish/flaky "sauce" that was savory, spicy, and slightly sweet. I packed it into small jars so I could share the wealth with friends who might want to try a homemade version of XO sauce.

For dinner I cooked it with green beans.

I spent the weekend in Los Angeles eating. Had a couple of dinners in Chinatown. Zen Mei Bistro is good and cheap and offers free dishes if you spend over $20. I have in my memory some creative photos of roast duck and this is one I'll add to the list:

The next day and a few freeways away was lunch in Arcadia at Din Tai Fung. I ate at the Shanghai branch a few years ago and loved it. I was not at all disappointed with the delicate juicy pork dumplings here. You'd be hard-pressed to find a wrapping thinner than the one at DTF.

Also good were the noodles in a spicy sesame sauce.

This little dumpling steamer guy doing taiji might have to be my new mascot.

Day 42 - Cereal Milk Ice Cream

2010-05-31T09:35:00.000-07:00

Thinking about Momofuku Milk Bar's soft serve cereal milk flavors, I found Bill Corbett's recipe for Cereal Milk Ice Cream here. He is now at Coi but previously worked at Michael Mina and before that hopped around and at one time was at Wylie Dufresne's wd-50. Christina Tosi (Momofuku pastry wizard) worked at wd-50 also and so now we have a rough idea of the cereal milk flavor lineage as it relates to the contemporary restaurant world and how I happened to make cereal milk ice cream today.

My version differed a little from Corbett's because I used half the egg yolks. Maybe that is why it seemed less like ice cream and more like a gelato but that is just my on-the-fly observation and not based on any real research into the technical differences between the two. Anyway, it was creamy and smooth with the unmistakable flavor of corn flakes.

Day 41 - Pages 253 through 256 - Soft-cooked Hen Egg; Caviar, Onions, & Potato

2010-05-29T06:57:00.000-07:00

If I were to advise someone about how to cook through the Momofuku cookbook, I would tell them to make this dish first. It has many components but each one is technically straightforward and though time consuming, difficult to botch. And it is really, really good.

I thought it might be difficult to find the right caviar but this is Marin and it turns out that every market between Kentfield and Corte Madera has a selection of caviars in its deli case. At Woodlands Market I got the Tsar Nicolai Classic (at $38/ounce is ranked "affordable"); it's local (California central valley) and sustainable (farm raised). Having tasted it, I can imagine larger beads with more flavor and texture but this was very creamy and briny of the sea. I also found some nice Russian Banana Fingerling Potatoes.

First I made the Onion Soubise: "Tender, tender onions in an emulsified sauce of butter, onion juice, and water." This took about 2 hours of monitored cooking.
Next came the 5:10 Eggs: I boiled the eggs for 5 minutes, 10 seconds exactly and put them in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Cracking and peeling the eggs under water makes it easier to remove the shells without tearing the egg white.

For the Fines Herbes Salad I cut up some parsley, chives, and marjoram from the garden.
The Fingerling Potato Chips were sliced on a mandoline ("see-through thin"!) and deep fried until crisp. (Yeah, I like to take photos of food frying!)

Everything was arranged on a plate, the egg was nestled into the onions, and I carefully made a cut in the egg and let the soft yolk spill out. I piled half an ounce of caviar into the egg and I had an incredible lunch.

Eating this dish put me in a celebratory mood. It's clear now why caviar is such a special treat and I'm glad to have this as part of my kitchen repertoire because I'm sure that I'll return to it.

Day 40 - Page 178-179- Spicy Pork Sausage & Rice cakes & Chinese Broccoli

2010-05-24T17:59:00.000-07:00

I've made this earlier but this time I had all of the ingredients in the recipe with the exception of packaged Chinese fried shallots. The dish is a take off on ma po tofu which originated in Sichuan province. It is popular all over China and recently has become a common item in Chinese restaurants in the U.S. There are many variations but one of the necessary ingredients is Sichuan peppercorns. In his book, On Food and Cooking, Harold McGee had this to say: "They are not simply pungent; 'they produce a strange tingling, buzzing, numbing sensation that is something like the effect of carbonated drinks or of a mild electrical current (touching the terminals of a nine-volt battery to the tongue). Sanshools [the bioactive component] appear to act on several different kinds of nerve endings at once, induce sensitivity to touch and cold in nerves that are ordinarily nonsensitive, and so perhaps cause a kind of general neurological confusion.'" While my reaction is not quite so intense, still, I use Sichuan peppercorns in small doses - the numbing effect is pretty strange and I'm still developing a taste for its citrus/lavender-like flavor.

Here they are along with kochukaru (Korean chili powder):

I made a sauce with garlic, dried red chilis, Sichuan peppercorns, kochukaru, fermented bean paste, and soy sauce. There were a lot of chilis but because they were cooked for just a few minutes, the sauce was not overly spicy.

The pork and onions were cooked separately and then added to the sauce along with the rice cakes, broccoli, and tofu. It was all that was needed for dinner!

Day 39 - Page 68 - Pickled Cherries, Page 95 - Cherry Tomato Salad w/ Soft Tofu, Page 99 - Peas w/ Horseradish

2010-05-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

At this time of year -

this is an indispensible tool -

and the recipe called for 2 pints of pitted cherries. Chang writes, "I cribbed this recipe from Bertrand Chemel, who was the sous-chef at Cafe Boulud while I was there." The pits were cracked with a hammer and slightly mashed so the almond-y flavor is released from the nuts. It smelled divine. (This would be a great ice cream flavor).

A brine was made by wrapping the pits into a cheesecloth sachet and boiling it with water, rice vinegar and sugar. It took on a subtle nutty aroma. For optimum pickling the cherries are best stored for a week but I couldn't wait to try them with the last bits of foie gras torchon.

For the salad the cherry tomatoes were lightly dressed in a sesame oil and soy sauce vinaigrette and spooned over a round of tofu. The snap peas were cooked for a couple of minutes - just until they turned bright green - in a reduced ramen broth. Preparation for both dishes was easy and quick. I really liked the tomato/tofu combination.

Day 38 - Page 93 - Roasted Sweet Summer Corn, Miso Butter, Bacon & Roasted Onions

2010-05-18T19:36:00.000-07:00

This just in from Gay: NYTimes article re "Haute Stoner Cuisine"
Geez, I guess it did cross my mind...

I haven't posted in quite a while. It's becoming a little more difficult to find a recipe in the book that I haven't already made and that doesn't require a substantial investment in a sous vide machine or the hard-to-come-by transglutaminase (meat glue). But mainly there just hasn't been much time to cook because I've been busy with the garden. This year I planted some things with Momofuku in mind: daikon, snap peas, carrots, and lots of scallions.

The first corn of the season has arrived in the stores and so tonight's menu included Roasted Sweet Corn. First I prepared the Roasted Onions. Sliced onions are cooked in a little oil

for almost an hour at a low heat. They shrink, begin to carmelize, and are done just before they turn mushy.

I think of this dish as creamed corn (one of my all-time favorites) Momofuku style. It's smokey from the bacon and the miso butter gives it the M trademark unctuousness.

Betsy and Janet had dinner at Ssäm Bar in NYC and reported back that it was really yummy. Here is the evidence:

Fried Arctichokes

and Rice Cakes. Thanks for the pictures, Betsy!

Day 37 - Page 176 - Grilled Lemongrass Pork Sausage Ssäm, Page 177 - Fish Sauce Vinaigrette, PageFish 159 - Roasted Cauliflower

2010-05-05T06:39:00.000-07:00

Until a few months ago I didn't have any idea what ssäm was. Now when I see lettuce I think of wrapping it around some juicy meat topped with an aromatic herb, pickle, and hot sauce. The ideal ssäm will be sweet/sour, crunchy/chewy, and spicy/cool.

My Lemongrass Pork Sausage was somewhat bland due to a mediocre batch of lemongrass

yet still made a tasty snack when assembled with the suggested Momofuku condiments: pickled carrot julienne, fish sauce vinaigrette, and mint.

The two dishes in this post have in common Momofuku's version of the versatile Vietnamese Fish Sauce Vinaigrette. Once you taste it you just might crave it for almost all your savory eats. It contains fish sauce, water, rice vinegar, lime juice, sugar, garlic, and chiles. Just the thought of it gets those salivary glands acting up; it could be the singular reason Vietnamese cooking is so popular.

The fish sauce goes into Roasted Cauliflower. I lightly roasted mine because I wanted the florets to maintain a little crunch. Mixed with the puffed rice and deep fried cilantro it was not unlike a warm salad - so many different textures melded together by the sweet and tart vinaigrette.

Day 36 - Pages 289-293 - Fried Apple Pie, Sour Cream Ice Cream; Pages 259-261 - Roasted New Jersey Diver Scallop, Kohlrabi Puree, Pickled Chanterelles

2010-04-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

Today I wanted to try a number of Momofuku recipes and in order to make all of them I made several substitutions. Aside from the practical issue of using what's at hand and the additional fun factor of ignoring instructions, I'm finding that I can usually get good results by using my own ideas of what ingredients will give me the taste, texture, and look that I want. Some of the ingredients were not in season while others just weren't readily available. I'm not a strict locavore but freshness is a high priority.

The Fried Apple Pie morphed into a Strawberry Pop Tart. Strawberries are peaking right now and it was just too much bother to track down tart molds with removable bottoms like the Momofuku dessert. Keeping with a combination of quick cooked fruit and jelly I made a barely cooked strawberry compote and a strawberry jam without pectin. These were mixed together for the filling.

I cut the water in the pastry by one third because I was going to roll out the dough and shape it free form.

Then fried them one by one in hot oil

until they puffed up into little pillows

Topped with Sour Cream Ice Cream (Meyer lemon juice and
rind subbing for lime) they were nothing at all like the
pop tarts of the past. These were flaky, fruity, and rich.

Well, we had dessert first. The tarts were followed by my version of the Roasted Diver Scallop. Chang prefaces the recipe with the note that in the early stages the dish was in constant flux depending on what was available and in season and I had a similar experience. I stayed with the scallops and bacon dashi but omitted the nori and swapped out the kohlrabi for parsnips and chanterelles for shiitakes. I added kale to the puree for some color. It was easy to brown the scallops once the butter was added and, no surprise, the butter made them really creamy and delicious.

Day 35 - Miscellany - Spring Lamb, 2 Davids, and Cilantrophobia

2010-04-25T14:39:00.000-07:00

This week I had a chance to skim through the new cookbook by Thomas Keller, Ad Hoc at Home. Bodie, the dog, was coming for dinner and lucky for him one of the easiest recipes in the book is for a roasted leg of lamb. Stud with garlic cloves, salt and pepper, sprinkle with sprigs of rosemary, coat with canola oil and let come to room temperature. Cook for 1 hour at 325°, turn the pan around, and cook for 30 minutes more or until your instant read thermometer hits 135°. Rest the meat for 45 minutes (it will continue to cook because of the "carryover effect") and carve into your perfect roast.

I heard from Serena that Chang was on the David Letterman Show a few nights ago and I saw a clip of it on the Web. David the clown is really funny as he watches David the chef make Bouchot Mussels. Not to be missed, you can see it here.

Harold McGee, the extraordinary food science writer, has a recent article in the NY Times about why some people can't stand the taste of cilantro. It turns out that it contains fat molecules that are also found in some soaps and bugs. Then why do some people really love cilantro while others associate it with cleaning agents and insects? It all comes back to context and the associations or cultural backgrounds we bring to our choice of foods. Our reactions to certain foods are based on our past experiences; over time, reactions evolve and change as we have new experiences and new patterns are formed. McGee reminds us that in addition to being an enjoyable sensory experience, the act of eating is a complex interplay of learning and memory.

Cilantro is one of the main staples of my cooking and I always try to keep some growing in the garden. I can't imagine a noodle dish without cilantro to liven it up. This yakisoba would have been pretty boring if it weren't for the fresh, grassy, sharpness of cilantro.

Day 34 - Page 279 - Short Grain Rice & Grilled Rice

2010-04-10T20:09:00.000-07:00

We are a Chinese long-grain rice family but I do like short-grain and relish eating it when I have a Japanese restaurant meal. Making this recipe gave me a chance to make it at home and the added bonus was that I got to recall the memory of eating charred rice years ago. Long ago in the days before rice cookers those browned pieces of rice were what happened when you cooked a pot of rice and you either forgot to take it off the heat before it started to burn on the bottom or after you had scooped out the perfectly cooked rice you purposely turned up the heat so that the thin layer of rice that stuck to the bottom of the pan got charred and crispy. The browned layer of rice would be scraped off the pan and rolled up and eaten plain or if you were a true aficionado you would pour some water over the bottom layer, heat it to near boiling, and eat the charred rice soup as a refreshing finish to your dinner. Charred rice was such a satisfying food and is not easily duplicated in my present kitchen with its heavy bottom pots that are made to discourage food from burning.

To make this dish I cooked the rice in equal parts rice to water, used wet hands to form 1/3 cup amounts into cylinders, brushed them with pork fat that was left over from a roasted pork belly, sprinkled with sea salt, and browned them in a hot cast iron pan. A crusty layer of toasted rice formed on the outside and the rice inside stayed soft and moist. I left them on the kitchen counter and we snacked on them for breakfast and lunch and by the end of the day I was ready to make another batch.

Day 33 - Easter brunch - Page 52-3 - Slow Poached Eggs

2010-04-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

Easter brunch was something I'd been thinking about for a while: chicken and waffles. I had never eaten the combination but like to eat both those foods so, why not? According to Wikipedia there are several versions of the origin of this dish including a story about Thomas Jefferson bringing a waffle iron back from France and another about freed slaves cooking it when they migrated to the north in the late 1800's. The hugely popular Roscoe's in L.A. serves it with sides like grits, greens, and cornbread. Apparently, people line up outside the restaurants willing to wait for a meal and security guards are installed inside and out.

For my version of chicken and waffles I added bacon, gravy, and slow poached eggs. I used the recipe for Thomas Keller's fried chicken that he serves at Ad Hoc and, despite a torrential downpour, Wayan fried it to perfection.

Rummaging through the fridge the next day I found a leftover poached egg and fried it with some foie gras butter (the fat that rises to the top of the meat when you cook a foie gras terrine).

Day 32 - Foie Gras Torchon - Finally!

2010-04-03T11:42:00.000-07:00

Ava, Wayan, and Eddie arrived today, fortuitously timed to coincide with the final presentation of the torchon. It froze to a hardness that was almost too dense to microplane. Lots of shavings ended up outside the bowl and some ended up on my shoes (!) as the cold cylinder kept slipping from my hands. Regardless, it felt great as I piled the lychees, gelee, brittle, and foie gras into the bowls and brought them to the table.

Ava loved it. Wayan wanted bigger shavings so she could taste the liver. John liked it and not just because he eats foie gras any way he can get it. Eddie said it was like a weird dessert that was topped with rich and creamy meat. Yes, it was definitely of another world. The salty shavings and sweet trio underneath were an ethereal blend of taste and texture that kept me wanting more.

The Momofuku recipes that are the most complex aren't necessarily the most delicious. I've literally thrown together in a few minutes a kimchi stew that was amazingly tasty. But if you take the time to make a foie gras torchon the Momofuku Way and trust in your skills and intuition you will most likely end up with something memorable to share with your family. I enjoyed eating this so much that I didn't think for one second how it would compare to the real thing at Ko. Mine was good no matter what.

Day 31 - Page 267-269 - Foie Gras components

2010-04-02T07:57:00.000-07:00

A late rain created this outstanding sunset today.

It was a pretty low key time in the kitchen making just the two things that will go with the foie gras torchon.Using powdered gelatin for gelatin sheets didn't seem to have any negative effect and using a St. Supery Moscato for a Reisling because that's what I could find turned out to be a delicious substitute.

The pine nut brittle was fun to make thanks to the instructions that said to just let the sugar heat and dissolve without stirring because I usually fuss and stir and then the sugar crystallizes into a hard mess. So this time all went well.

Tomorrow will be the final presentation.

Day 30 - Page 270 - Foie Gras Torchon - Day 2

2010-03-31T08:55:00.000-07:00

Cleaning the lobe was a breeze. There were just a few veins that were running through it and as I pinched it into little bits I could easily pull the veins out.

Okay, it looks a little messy. The meat is like softened butter that has some very light fiber in it. Instead of getting grossed out I was thinking about the wondrous liver and how it might work to do all its functions that keep the body in balance and whether or not surgical procedures are possible on the organ. Are we having fun yet? The meat was marinated in a salt, sugar, bourbon, and Riesling combo for about 12 hours.

All the bits were laid on cheesecloth and pushed and twisted together into a firm, two inch diameter log (e.g. torchon!) Then it was nestled in a bed of kosher salt and placed in the refrigerator.

Eighteen hours later I took it out of the salt, brushed off the excess, and put it in the refrigerator where air could circulate around it for 24 hours. I hanged mine from a shelf on the door.

Day 29 - Page 270 - Foie Gras Torchon - Day 1

2010-03-30T08:37:00.000-07:00

The foie gras recipe should take about three days but for me it took four because I added a day of wandering the back roads of Sonoma admiring the green pastures, stunning rock outcroppings, and freshly sprouting vineyards as I made my way north to pick up the liver. There are only three producers of foie gras in the U.S: two are in New York and the third is in California. Lucky for me, Sonoma-Artisan Foie Gras has its office in the town of Sonoma and if you call ahead with your order, you can pick up a lobe or two the same day.

There are many people who think of tortured ducks when they think of foie gras and those people probably shouldn't read this post. I don't have much to add to the controversy other than that most of the arguments against it are irrelevant to the particular situation of Sonoma-Artisan Foie Gras, a small family business that has been making duck products for a long time in a humane way and under strict government regulations. The livelihood of the owners and their employees are in jeopardy and in 2 years under SB 1520 they will be forced out of business in California because animal rights extremists decided to target this particular food item.

But for those of us who eat it and, like Betsy, would "Kill for foie gras" read on...

This is the "A" grade because I don't do this every day and nothing but the best for Mi Momofuku.

Day 28 - Page 110 - Shrimp & Grits

2010-03-26T20:23:00.000-07:00

When Chang and company were working on new dishes for Noodle Bar, they were concerned that they would transition into cooking the dreaded fusion food. They didn't want to be like all the other restaurants that were serving food that combined Vietnamese/Chinese/Japanese/French/etc techniques and flavors just for the sake of doing what was popular. The Momofuku kitchen wanted to give their customers food that went beyond someone's idea of modern/traditional and to create something that was unique and based entirely on their own tastes. Through trial and error, the classic southern dish, shrimp and grits evolved into this version that Chang says "allowed us - or me, certainly- to really look outward and onward." (Chang, pg 110, 2009) It marks the time when he began to venture into a new and uncharted territory of foodland where, as long as he stayed true to his own self, anything was possible.

If Shrimp & Grits was groundbreaking it would only be because it was first served in a noodle bar. A little soy sauce and dashi do not signal anything new. It's the scrumptious combination of bacon, grits, shrimp, onions, and egg that have earned it a place on the Momofuku menu. Plus, making it gave me the chance to use some of the most delicious eggs I've ever eaten. They are from the Giammona chickens that live in nearby Inverness Park and are available at Perry's Deli on Sir Francis Drake Blvd. As you can see, the color of the yolks are rich, deep, and dark. It's ridiculous to say it after all the stuff I've been eating but I will: "If I'm going to break my no cholesterol rules, a Giammona egg is one good reason".

Day 27 - Crack Pie

2010-03-20T07:45:00.000-07:00

Momofuku's Crack Pie recipe has appeared on the Web in a few places and the latest version, the one I used today, was recently published in the LA Times . Christina Tosi is the pastry chef at Momofuku and when asked in a 2008 interview about how she got into making desserts she said, "I’ve always had a sweet tooth. It’s actually a very nasty habit. I rarely eat regular food." Yikes!

My friend, Joyce, does a bake sale every year to raise money for Heifer International and this year she was going to get a Momofuku sweet from me.

All I can say about crack pie is that I finished making it before dinner and one taste killed my desire to eat anything else for the rest of the evening. Sort of like...you guessed it. The recipe makes 2 - 10 inch pies that are chock full of almost a pound of butter, over 2 cups of sugar, 8 egg yolks, and a cup of cream. Except for a teaspoon of vanilla, there isn't any other flavoring. The crust is a crumbled 9" x 13" oatmeal cookie mixed with butter and pressed into pie tins. A little goes a long way with this dessert and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my Crack Pie does the same towards helping a beneficiary of Heifer International.

Day 26 - Page 170- "Ghetto Sous Vide" Marinated Hanger Steak Ssäm

2010-03-14T15:32:00.000-07:00

I've seen sous vide cooking on Iron Chef but didn't think that it was something I could do without a big investment in special equipment. For all of us who have wanted to try the technique, Momofuku offers a way to cook sous vide using common utensils we all have around the house. Like many of the recipes, however, Chang delivers some words of warning: "If you are the kind of person who wears a football helmet everytime you take a city bus, or you litigate recreationally, or you're with child, ghetto sous vide is not for you". (D. Chang, 2009, pg. 170-171)

I had no excuses to prevent me from trying it and planned ahead for tomorrow's dinner by making the marinade, putting it and the two steaks into Ziploc bags, and letting them sit in the refrigerator overnight.

This morning I had my sous vide moment. The Momofuku instructions are cumbersome and use tap water. I simplified the process by using two pots filled w/ water and a thermometer. Bring one pot to a steady 125-130 degree temp, turn off the heat, and put the bags in. Heat the water in the other pot to a steady simmer. Whenever the temp starts to drop, put a cup or so of simmering water from the other pot into the bag pot. If it gets too full, take some of the water out. I was able to maintain the temperature for 45 minutes just adding a cup of water every 7-10 minutes.

The cooked steaks stayed in their bags in the refrigerator and when we were ready to eat, I patted them dry, charred them on a hot cast iron skillet, and sliced.

These were a little on the rare side and could have been sous vided for 10 more minutes but still, with a little pureed kimchi and lettuce, the meat made a pretty good ssäm.

Day 25 - Page 283 - Cereal Milk + Dining Out

2010-03-10T06:45:00.000-08:00

Cereal milk is a brilliant idea. I remember how I used to quickly gobble up bowls of frosted flakes before the cereal became soggy and then would drink every drop of the sweet, corn flavored milk. That was the way I liked my milk. And it's still a good idea but 5 recipes, dozens of ingredients, and 3 days later, I'm not so sure that the sum is greater than all the parts that went into the making of this Momofuku dessert.

To make this dish I made several substitutions to adapt the recipes to my lifestyle. If, like me, you are a home cook who wants to do one-stop shopping at the local supermarket here is a list of my substitutions:
1. 1 1/2 packets of gelatin softened in a little milk for the gelatin sheets (dissolve the gelatin by heating in the
cereal milk until it reaches a simmer
2. Filberts are in the same family as hazelnuts and are much easier, at least on the west coast, to find in the
market
3. A Valrhona Caraibe Noisette bar (dark chocolate Grand Cru w/ split hazelnuts) for the gianduja
4. Lemon juice for the citric acid
5. Small bowls or parfait cups for the silicone mold or ramekins (take my word for it, you'll never be able to unmold the custard as cleanly as the one pictured in the book)

The first day I made the cereal milk, poured it into dessert bowls, and put them in the refrigerator to set. Then I made the praline paste:

The next day I caramelized the cornflakes and made the hazelnut thing by melting the chocolate with the hazelnuts and sprinkled the cornflakes on top.

On day three, just before serving, I pureed the avocado, and put it all together. It was good but a little disappointing for me. Maybe I was exhausted and still thinking of an earlier time when I was an innocent little kid eating frosted flakes for breakfast.

We rarely dine out but sometimes you read and read glowing reviews of a restaurant and decide that if you were to splurge, you would go there. So, as consolation for being denied an El Bulli 2010 reservation, we went to check out James Syhabout's (he worked with Ferran Adrià for a week) Commis in Oakland. It's on Piedmont Avenue, an unassuming neighborhood street that still has, of all things, a laundromat. The restaurant is a small storefront with bare walls and, except for silver and glassware, the few tables are bare too . The tiny kitchen where all the cooking takes place is in the middle of the room. You can sit at the counter if you want to see up close the chefs quietly maneuver around each other and watch them tweezer the food onto the plates.

The amuse bouche was an amazing 45 minute poached egg atop date jam and onion cream with a granola garnish. This was my favorite dish of the meal because it was beautifully thought out and tasted so dreamy.

I then had the salad with pork jowl and roasted sunchokes.

It got too dark to take photos so I can't show the saddle of lamb and the raw goat's milk panna cotta but everything was delicious and the three courses had us happy and very full.

Day 24 - Page 231 - Chicharrón

2010-03-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

Now that I've tackled a head, today I was ready to take on the pig's skin that I had stored in the freezer. The recipe seemed complicated but remembering the huge chicharrones at the market in Oaxaca and thinking about the preparation needed to create such giants, surely I could figure out how to fry up a little piece of skin for a snack. Chang serves a chicharrón as an amuse-bouche at Ko and writes, "I'm sure some people saw it as a little 'f... you' to kick off an $85 meal and I can't say that there wasn't some of that in serving a fried pork rind to start a fancy dinner...But, really, chicharrones have what it takes to be a great amuse: fat, salt, spice, and crunch all in one bite." (Chang, 2009, p.231)

I thawed the skin and boiled it for 1 1/2 hours outside so the piggy smell wouldn't permeate the house.Then after a short chill in the refrigerator, I scraped the fat off of the skin. This procedure was pretty easy but it took some time and patience since there were some crevices in the skin. Then, because I couldn't persuade anyone to sacrifice their dehydrator to the cause of chicharrones, I had to use the "unreliable" oven-drying method that Chang did not recommend. I put the skin on a rack in the oven at the lowest setting (about 150 degrees F) for about 24 hours. This was necessary in order to make sure that it was thoroughly dry and had achieved that "shiny plastic" characteristic. At this point I could break the skin into small pieces

and fry them one at a time in a pot of hot oil. In just a few seconds the skin floated to the top of the oil and expanded into a sculpture of big, clear bubbles. The cooled pieces were bites of irresistible airy pork crunchiness that caused me to blurt out, in a moment of complete inexplicable weirdness, "David would be proud of me!"

Day 23 - Page 75- Cucumber Kimchi & the Year-old Carrot

2010-03-05T19:44:00.000-08:00

I planted carrot seeds in the garden about a year ago and we were eating lots of carrots all through the summer and fall. In the winter I could still go outside and pick a carrot when I needed one. This is the last of the carrots, an amazing one-year-old specimen. It's just as juicy, crunchy, and tender (though not quite as sweet) as the first carrots. I marvel at its longevity and ability to survive icy frosts and limited sun as it was in a very shady part of the yard. But since this was my first experience with growing carrots and I'm unfamiliar with their growing habits maybe it's not so surprising that they can withstand cold, wet weather and sun-less days for three months and still become one of the essential ingredients in an early spring oi kimchi.

Day 22 - Page 210 - Momofuku Shortcakes, Page 102 - Bacon Dashi w/ Potatoes & Clams

2010-03-03T16:31:00.000-08:00

The first strawberries of the season are now available in the markets and I couldn't resist. These are from Watsonville and not truly local. They are merely a lead into the West Marin season of delicious berries that starts in May and continues into fall but tonight they were the topping for Momofuku shortcakes.

My go-to shortcake recipe is the one from Chez Panisse Desserts. It's biscuit-like dough is what I always think of when think of shortcake. So reading through the Momofuku recipe was like analyzing a foreign grammar and in spite of my strong resistance, I forged ahead with Chang's instructions. It was also my first time making shortcakes with a mixer since I have always used my hands in order to keep the dough crumbly and light. The initial blend of butter and lard (I substituted pork lard for the shortening) and flour was fine but when I poured in the cream I could see that right away the mixer was going to make a sticky dough and so I opted to use a spatula. I knew that, above all else, I wanted my shortcakes to be flaky and the mixer was going to over beat the dough.

The dough must be thoroughly chilled before it can be handled and formed into balls, rolled in powdered sugar, and baked. These have a high sugar content and are like puffy, cakey cookies.

And put together with the berries and whipped cream, they're another outstanding Momofuku treat. This was my first attempt at a dessert from the cookbook and now I'm hooked. I just wish that there were more desserts in the book.

Today John jumped in and contributed Clams in Bacon Dashi. He got the clams from Tomales Bay Oyster Company, our favorite source for bivalves. We thought it was like Chang's version of clam chowder, deconstructed and put back together in his own unique fashion.

Day Twenty One - Page 235 English Muffin, Page 238 Bay Leaf Butter, Page 89 Fried Chicken & Octo Vinaigrette

2010-02-28T17:52:00.000-08:00

Taking a break from cooking with pork, I made English muffins. It turned out to be a big commitment of time and the resulting bread was successful as long as we didn't call it an English muffin as Andrea so diplomatically put it. It began with mixing the dough. Midway into the process, the recipe says that the dough will look like "an appendage of the sandman". Now, that is some strange image and had me puzzled for quite a while until I actually got to that point and, voilà , the creature's arm appeared. (See Sandman).

The next part was easy. Rolling the dough into balls and dusting tops and bottoms with cornmeal went very smoothly.

The slow baking was very tedious because I had only a cast iron skillet that held only a few muffins at a time. But I got the hang of how to do all the flipping - very, very carefully so the muffins do not deflate.

The final step, spreading the split muffins with bay leaf butter and toasting them on a hot skillet, was completed by John. He did a good job of getting a crispy top but nothing was going to make them full of holes like the things I thought I was making. They were perfectly edible, even good cold, but they just weren't English muffins. I think we'll just go with Chang's description of what he envisioned for the bread course, "a fat bomb."

Next on the menu was fried chicken. I thought I'd try it with just wings before jumping into frying up a whole chicken. They were tasty but on the dry side. The next time I'll steam them less and use larger pieces of meat.

Day Twenty - Page 201 - Pig's Head Torchon - Part 2

2010-02-24T20:12:00.000-08:00

In spite of warnings in the book and some blogs, the broth was not too porky and, in fact, was sweet and aromatic with flavors of the vegetables. It will be great for ramen or other dishes. Because my pig's head was relatively small, picking out the meat from the cavities was easy and the fat and skin mostly just fell off the bone. I was tempted to discard some of the fat but decided against diverging from the recipe and taking a risk that the decrease in fat content would somehow mess up the process. In all, it was about 50/50: fat/meat where skin is considered fat.

The hardest part was rolling the torchon into a cylindrical shape. Everything started falling apart and it took some wrestling and upper body contortions to get it to behave. I think the trick is to let it cool but not so much that the pieces no longer adhere to one another. Also, industrial-strength plastic wrap and larger pieces of skin to line the bottom would have made this step easier.

By the next day the garlic had permeated the whole log, it had firmed up nicely, everything held together, and it was easy to slice. I like lots of texture so, for me, the chunky marbling was just right.

I deep fried the panko-coated pucks and served them with a Dijon and dried mustard mayonnaise dressing and some of last year's canned cherries that were steeped for a few minutes in balsamic vinegar. The look is deceptively simple; the payoff for all the effort is the amazing first bite of melting fat and scrumptious tender bits of meat.

Day Nineteen - Page 201 - Pig's Head Torchon - Part 1

2010-02-22T10:07:00.000-08:00

"Farmers do not raise walking pork chops. If you're serious about your meat, you've got to grasp that concept. And if you're serious about sustainability and about honestly raised good meat ... you've got to embrace the whole pig...A farm turns out a head on each beautiful, well-raised pig, but nobody's rushing to eat it. That's where the cook steps in: you take it, cook it: elevate it, honor it, lavish it with care and attention - whether you're slicing scallions or spooning out caviar or boiling up half a pig's head. Turning ingredients into food, and sometimes almost literally turning a pig's ear into a silk purse, is what cooks do in the kitchen." (D. Chang, 2009, p.201)

Okay. I'm motivated. I got lucky and yesterday MSF (Marin Sun Farms) had a head available.

At first it wasn't easy to handle it without having second thoughts and wondering if I was getting in over my own head but I was reminded of the hundreds of heads I had seen in markets in China and Mexico and how preparing a head to eat is one of the most normal things to do in most of the world. And when the incredibly wonderful aroma from the simmering pot hit me, I knew that I was onto something.

I was also able to pick up a couple of items for the freezer:

a bag of chicken parts and

2 lbs of pig skin for future cooking.

The head is simmering now and all is well but I do have a word of warning: make sure that you have a pot that is big enough for the head. If not, you'll need a heavy cleaver, a hammer, and someone with a strong will and arm to cut through the snout. Well, it worked out but I don't recommend it. I'll post the next steps tomorrow.

Day Eighteen - Xiao Long Bao Kitchen review + cheese

2010-02-15T19:21:00.000-08:00

I took a break from cooking today and went into The City for lunch and the SFMOMA. I had saved this Chowhound post in case I had the chance to go to South San Francisco. So with visions of Shanghai dumplings in our heads we drove down the 101 and found Xiao Long Bao Kitchen on Grand Avenue, the old, well preserved, main street of town. The name source dish lived up to the hype - the dough was tender and thin but held its shape, the soup was flavorful, the meat was not too sweet, and they were steaming hot. We also tried the Spicy Wonton that were swimming in not very spicy chili oil and topped with a creamy peanutty sauce. The tender skins were filled with a mixture of pork, green onions, and cilantro. These slippery bundles slid down pretty easily!

The fat and chewy Shanghai noodles were stir fried in soy sauce with pork slivers and greens. Great texture on the noodles - I'll try making these at home.

I hope to return to XLB Kitchen for some of their other specials. The onion pancakes looked really good and home made steamed sparerib with spicy flour sounds interesting. In addition to the Shanghai specialties the menu has lots of the usual dishes but there are enough new things to make up a whole meal or more.

Last week we did some cheese tasting at Cowgirl Creamery with Andrea. She is systematically tasting all the cheeses at the store and last Wednesday the theme was aged cheeses. You can read all about it on her Ridingwiththecowgirls blog.

Day Seventeen - Kimchi Stew #2

2010-02-08T11:33:00.000-08:00

What are you going to do with those leftovers after a pork belly feast? I made up a quick pot of kimchi stew that just might be a good candidate for my own version of the dish. I'll refine the amounts later but here is a rough draft of the recipe:
Ingredients from Momofuku:
    ramen broth
    roasted onions
    Napa cabbage kimchi
rice cakes
    pork belly for ramen
& My ingredients:
pieces of roasted pork skin that you forgot to remove from the pork belly before cooking it
kochuchang and kochukaru to taste
Put everything but the kimchi in a pot (clay is the best) and simmer for about 15 minutes. Add the kimchi at the end just to heat and sprinkle with sliced scallions. The pork skin will become soft and gelatinous. The whole thing is like a menudo with complex, but delicate, textures and flavors.

Day Sixteen - Super Bowl Sunday - Page 79 Momofuku Pork Buns, Ramen, pickles + a loaf of bread

2010-02-07T14:30:00.000-08:00

Today we had a pre-game pork bun and ramen extravaganza. I started the broth and pork belly at 8 AM and made the shiitake and cucumber pickles. Wendy came later to help roll out the noodles.

Some notes on the prep:
1. I used my reductionist/simplified method on the broth. Browned the pork bones in the pot and set them aside. Simmered together the konbu, shiitakes, and chicken but removed the first two after 20 minutes. Then added the pork bones, onions, and carrots and removed the chicken and vegetables after 1 hour. Then simmered the bones for a couple of hours more. I eliminated the bacon and tare but this was still a full, rich broth.

2. I ran out of lard so used butter for a second batch of buns. Not the same. Entirely different texture and not recommended unless you want your buns to be less light, and have a cake-like texture. So unlike the soft and smooth Chinese buns that inspired Chang. Here are the lard buns at the second rise before steaming.

3. Don't forget to remove the skin before roasting the pork. I didn't and it looked great when I took it out of the oven but it was too hard to slice - and eat. I removed it from the belly and broke it up in little pieces. They were pretty good for some added crunchiness in your bun but watch your teeth!

4. This time I didn't drain the noodles in a colander. Instead, I (actually, Wendy did this) dropped an individual portion in boiling water, as soon as it floated to the top, scooped it out with a spider strainer (flat wire scooper w/ a bamboo handle), drained and dropped the noodles into a bowl, and poured the broth over it. This prevented the noodles from becoming a mass of doughy glop in the colander. I think I saw this method at a saimin restaurant in Lihue, Kauai.

Here is Andrea's demonstration of two-fisted Momofuku fun.

We' ve been experimenting with Jim Lahey's no-knead bread and here is my attempt earlier in the week. You can find the recipe on this page of the NY Times Minimalist column.

For a moist loaf that doesn't dry out quickly, your dough should be very moist. Use at least a 1/4 cup more water than the recipe. Considering the small amount of energy that goes into it, this is a pretty good loaf of bread.

Day Fifteen - Page 261 - Pickled Chanterelles + a book review and more pickles

2010-01-22T13:13:00.000-08:00

Riding on the coattails of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma is the latest book by Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals. Part memoir and part investigative reporting, the book is the result of three years of research into the practices used on factory farms to produce the vast quantities of inexpensive chicken, beef, and fish that public appetites demand. Foer writes in excruciating detail about the cruel confinement and slaughter of animals that take place in large corporate operations and to a lesser extent in small family farms. In addition, he expounds on the the environmental degradation and threat to human health caused by meat production. For Foer, vegetarianism is the only option when deciding what to eat.

Foer doesn't shy from hard topics and tries to convince the waffling omnivore that strong cultural and traditional motivations for eating meat can be overcome by creating new stories and rituals that describe what we eat. He takes on that most sacred and celebrated symbol, the Thanksgiving turkey, by saying, "Would the choice not to eat turkey be a more active way of celebrating how thankful we feel?" By eliminating the turkey, "the question no longer is, 'Why don't we eat this?' but the more obvious one: 'Why did they ever?'" At this point in time my family would regard that as a very cruel joke but Foer's energy and personal stories will undoubtedly move many people over to the vegetarian side.

My household is conscious of the quantities and qualities of meat we consume. It's convenient that we have a nearby source of grass-fed and pasture raised meat: Marin Su n Far ms. At the local store in Point Reyes I can find pork bellies, bones, lard, and trotters along with goat or chicken parts and when I cook with their products it is always tasty and wholesome.

The mushroom harvesting is still going strong and I made Chang's Pickled Chanterelles this week. That reminded me of some good pickles in Barbara Tropp's China Moon Cookbook. The Cucumber Pickles with Chinese Black Beans is one of my favorite recipes. Google has digitized it here.

Below, on the same site, I found Tropp's Ginger-Pickled Daikon and made up a batch:

Day Fourteen - Page 63 - Kimchi Stew - Home Style

2010-01-17T07:48:00.001-08:00

Home style is an adjective that restaurants use to tantalize customers who crave simple home cooking but don't have the time, skill, or desire to cook. When I see it on Chinese restaurant menus I think of dishes that my father or mother made from ingredients at hand and became staples of their kitchen repertoires. Chopped pork steamed with salt fish and egg custard studded with pieces of black gelatinous thousand year old eggs are so home style.

Kimchi stew is definitely in the home style category and since I've only had it twice, once in a Korean restaurant in L.A. and my own today, it will be a while before I can honestly say I have my own version of the dish developed through years of trial and error.

A Web search brings up dozens of stew recipes and mine is a combination of what I found that sounded tasty and the Momofuku version. From the book I used kimchi, ramen broth, rice cakes, and roasted onions. From My Korean Kitchen
and others, like Korean Home Cooking I added canned tuna fish - not so surprising since Chang mentions anchovy stock in his mother's stew - and a paste of kochujang, kochukaru, and mirin. From the refrigerator I added some chanterelle mushrooms. Some corrections would be to use a tuna that maintains it's shape after cooking and to put the kimchi in at the last minute so as not to lose the crunchiness of the vegetables. Nevertheless, this dish is as umami-rich as you'll ever get.

Day Thirteen - Page 52 - Slow-poached Eggs

2010-01-15T13:54:00.000-08:00

The timing was a little tricky and I had to throw away two that were undercooked but I did get three eggs that worked. You'll know when they are done because they will easily slip out of the shells intact without leaving too much white behind. It's kind of amazing. As you can see, the yolk isn't perfectly centered inside the white but the egg would probably have to be turned around in the water for that to happen. I wonder if the restaurants use some sort of device to achieve that. We had crispy fried poached eggs in Yountville that might have used this technique to precook the eggs before dropping in a batter.

The recipe says that fried, "they're shaped like hard boiled eggs that have been lightly run over by a car. Here mine are served with a side of kimchi.

Day Twelve - Page 293 - Miso Butterscotch (and some sticky rice w/ mango)

2010-01-08T16:51:00.001-08:00

Is this what was was intended? The recipe says, "The miso should be on the blackened side of browned and should have an incredibly appetizing burnt smell to it." I think mine got a little too black at the edges so I threw those bits away prevent my butter from being too bitter.

Having made the Miso Butter earlier, I had a pretty good hunch that this was going to be another really scrumptious spread. It's nutty, salty, and sweet. Blind tested, John thought that it was chocolate!

It turned out to be another good topping for boiled dok:

Then I made a panna cotta using a David Lebovitz recipe and
flavored it with about 1/4 cup of the butterscotch. I topped it with pieces of papaya. It was mildly sweet and somewhat salty. Not what you normally expect in a dessert panna cotta but good nonetheless.

Then, because I had the time and the ingredients I took a stab at making Thai sticky rice with coconut and mango. I combined a couple of recipes I found on the web and used canned coconut milk and fresh mangoes.

It took two tries but I found that the best way to cook the rice was to soak it in water overnight, line the basket of a steamer with a dish towel, place the rice on top of the towel, lightly drape the rice with the ends of the towel, and steam over boiling water for about 45 minutes. The rice will be translucent and soft.

While you are cooking the rice, make a sauce by heating the coconut milk and sugar until it is dissolved. How much sugar you use depends on how sweet you want your rice to be.

When the rice is done, put it in a bowl and pour a little of the coconut sauce over it. You don't want the rice to be swimming in sauce but all the grains should be nicely coated. Cover it and let it sit for a few minutes. so that the sauce is absorbed into the rice. You can mold it or serve it in a pile with some slices of mango. This disappeared pretty quickly.

Day Eleven - Page 59 - Roasted Rice Cakes

2010-01-06T07:58:00.000-08:00

Another pretty sunrise - the spectacular kind that reminds us that it is still winter. There may be some turbulence on high but unfortunately it hasn't made it down here in any meaningful way so the drought continues.

Today I rushed home from work to whip up a dish of dok and dragon sauce. The denjang and kochujang (I combined them to make a ssamjang) were pretty salty and not as spicy as I wanted but a nice flavor boost for the dok. I know now that I will have to work on my dok frying technique to keep the cakes soft and chewy. These had a nice crunchy outside but they got kind of hard as they cooled. I'll have to experiment with frying times, different brands and whether they are frozen, vacuum packed, or fresh. I don't see myself pounding rice any time soon but I won't rule that out entirely if I can't get the right texture with manufactured dok.

Day Ten - Marathon - Pages 40, 73, 178

2009-12-31T15:41:00.000-08:00

I was busy all day making three dishes. The ramen broth took several hours of watching the pot boil and I'm not sure if the result was worth it. It had nice flavor but I think that I would have been just as happy with a simpler broth that had just a couple of flavor components instead of the chicken, bacon, pork, konbu, shiitake, and other veggies that the recipe called for. Or maybe make the whole concoction easier by putting all the ingredients in at once rather than in succession and removing each depending on your taste. It will be worth trying that the next time but for now we will have something to go with our New Year's ramen.

I used the plumped shitakes from the broth to make pickles and then made Spicy Pork Sausage with Rice Cakes.

This dish is a little of "throw everything you have in the wok" which isn't necessarily a bad thing but again, like the broth, there may be too many flavors in one place. In spite of the full cup of dried chilies the heat was pretty mild and I used my Kitchenaid food grinder attachment to grind a pork chop which was really fun.

The dok (rice cakes) made for a very hearty dish but what I find really satisfying is this:

Boiled dok drizzled with a little maple syrup.

Day Nine - Page 294 - My Sources

2009-12-28T07:52:00.000-08:00

Just got back from L.A. where I got Xmas loot from Ava and Sun that will help me cook from Momofuku using the real ingredients. Starting at the lower left and moving counterclockwise: kochukaru (chile powder), denjang (fermented bean paste), kochujang (chile paste), then left: rice cakes, yuzu juice. And I went to A1 Market on Sunset where I picked up shiro (white miso), Vietnamese bottled shrimp (still looking for Korean salted shrimp in a jar), and fish sauce.

Last night I threw out the first attempt at kimchi and started over using my new bag of kochukaru and followed the Momofuku recipe closely using the right amount of salt and sugar. Already it looked so much better - that first batch was positively anemic.

Lesson learned: don't substitute essential ingredients because it just won't be delicious and if nothing else, deliciousness is the main component of Chang's recipes. I will never ever again use cayenne powder for kochukaru but I am thinking of using the savoy cabbage that is in the garden for my next kimchi...

While we were in L.A. we got to try a Korean barbeque restaurant: Soowon Galbi. In addition to four kinds of meat and all the small plates we had a bowl of stew (kimchichigae). I'm looking forward to making the Momofuku version soon.

Day Eight - Page 94 - Cauliflower, Kimchi Puree & Bacon

2009-12-13T13:16:00.001-08:00

Last week we had some freezing days and then it rained for two. Today I went outside to survey the damage and was surprised to see that the cauliflower plants survived and this one actually grew to a nice size during the harsh weather. This is my first attempt at cauliflower and I'm really happy that I now have a fall vegetable that I can grow successfully. Thanks to Ellen, who gave me the starts, they had a really healthy beginning.

The kimchi is just starting to get stinky so it seemed like a good time to try Chang's Brussels sprouts/kimchi puree/bacon dish and substitute the cauliflower for the sprouts.

The kimchi puree sounded like a sort of odd thing to do but it turned out to be a delicious sauce and will be a good staple to mix with anything on hand. Fish sauce, garlic, and chilies are always going to be tasty. This, along with a pan fried duck breast and fried rice, was dinner tonight. Yum!

Day Seven - Page 74- Napa Cabbage Kimchi

2009-12-09T10:49:00.000-08:00

I wanted to do the impossible: make kimchi without all the salt. After some searching I ended up using a recipe by David Lebovitz and used less salt and left out the daikon. It is basically cabbage and onions, salt, cayenne pepper, and garlic.

And because one pickle leads to the next and I found some really fresh-looking gai choy at May Wah in the city, I made up some of Rhoda Yee's Pickled Mustard Greens (Suen-Gai-Choy) recipe.
Do you know how hard it is to keep the camera clean while licking pickling juice off of your fingers? What's impossible is to wait for these to be fully pickled.

And then this is what happened over Thanksgiving!

I've posted some photos of Oaxaca on Flickr: HERE

Day Six - Mexico vacation

2009-11-24T16:54:00.000-08:00

I was unable to post or cook the last two weeks because I was vacationing in Oaxaca. But I did eat as much as I could and discovered new ways of eating some favorite foods. There were some humongous pieces of chicharron at the big Sunday market in Tlacolula, a town about 40 minutes west of Oaxaca City.

A few days later we ate at Itanoni, a casual restaurant several blocks north of the centro in Oaxaca City, where maiz reigns supreme and tortillas are made to order using freshly ground native Oaxacan corn and cooked on a clay oven. It is the closest thing to what was eaten in the region centuries ago. Itanoni is trying to preserve the connection between the growers and eaters by eliminating the manufacturers and industrial producers of corn products. The food is natural, wholesome, subtle, and so delicious.

There are many fillings to choose from but when I saw a taco con CHICHARRON on the menu that was what I had to have - to start. It was the first time I've had them crunchy and here they were wrapped in the thinnest tortilla you can imagine and topped with a fresh pico de gallo. Biting into this was a revelatory moment.

I'll be cooking for Thanksgiving now but will continue with Momofuku in a few days. I will also let you know when I have my Oaxaca photos up on another blog or site.

Day Five - Page 66 - Pickled Apples

2009-11-09T09:47:00.000-08:00

The four-year-old Braeburn apple tree has come through again and is still loaded with sweet, crunchy, and juicy fruit. So,

I decided to throw in some Sichuan peppercorns because it's cold today and a little numbing wouldn't hurt. And anyway, I'll bet this is what they're eating in Chengdu at this time of year. The recipe says, "These will be ready to eat after an hour in the brine and should be eaten the day you prepare them." Definitely not a problem.

We had the pickles for dinner along with roasted spareribs (not a Momofuku recipe but marinated in my homemade catsup, soy, and leftover fish sauce vinaigrette from Day Three). Is there a more perfect combination than apples and pork? I highly doubt that.

Day Four - Page 90 - Pan-Roasted Asparagus Poached Egg & Miso Butter

2009-11-08T19:17:00.000-08:00

I think that this dish establishes Chang as a true original. The miso and butter mixture is such a basic, simple sauce but the nutty oily smoothness of it is masterful. This photo doesn't capture the slippery unctuousness of it as the yolk oozed out of it's soft casing and blanketed the asparagus in a pool of yellow but there wasn't enough time to fuss because John was eating it up too fast to photograph.

This has to be one of my favorite dishes in Momofuku and probably the simplest to make. I sauteed the asparagus in olive oil instead of butter and poached the egg in the traditional manner (in simmering water) but I'll try it with Chang's soft poached egg in the shell method another time. For now, eating asparagus out of season was something that just had to be done and I have no excuses for that transgression!

Day Three - Ramen Redux & Page 160 - Roasted Brussels Sprouts w/ Fish Sauce Vinaigrette

2009-11-06T11:13:00.000-08:00

Today I gave the ramen recipe a second try. The first noodles turned into a doughy mass when I stored them in the refrigerator. This time I also had a new tool that made the kneading a lot easier:

Thanks to Wayan I made the leap and got this little robot at Bed Bath & Beyond and I will be a happier mixer and kneader from now on. For this batch, instead of dividing the rolled noodles into piles, I am drying them a little before I package them for the refrigerator. I also rolled them one notch less on the roller so these are thicker than the first batch. A cross section would show a square about 1/8 inch wide.

I topped the noodles with some leftovers and they were devoured in a second. Somewhat chewy and really smooth. Much better mouth feel on these!

That was lunch. For dinner I roasted Brussels sprouts but left out the puffed rice and deep fried cilantro. The fish sauce vinaigrette is a giant blast of umami and this is another delicious way to eat the newly discovered vegetable that suddenly is so popular and seems to be on everyone's menu these days.

Day Two - Page 100 - Pan Roasted Bouchot Mussels with OS

2009-11-02T19:17:00.000-08:00

Today was unseasonably hot and a perfect day for the 10 minute drive up Highway 1 to Tomales Bay Oyster Company. Just a handful of very lucky people were enjoying the windless and sunny Monday afternoon barbequeing and eating oysters. I got 2 lbs (about 22 mussels) for $10 then stopped at the Palace Market for some sake. I was going to make Chang's pan roasted mussels with OS substituting Maine's Bouchot for some Pt Reyes morsels. Chang has an explanation for OS (oriental sauce!) but I still don't buy it.

I cooked this outside on the Big Kahuna because ventilation is a problem. But it was a full moon and I had a headlamp on so managed to see what I was doing. This is just after pouring in the sake:

I used white miso instead of Korean fermented bean paste. I'll have to look into that but I assume it's similar to the Chinese bean pastes. We're trying not to use much bean paste because it is so salty and a little goes a long way especially if you are already seasoning w/ soy sauce. (Momofuku dishes don't skimp on the salt.) But what is great about these recipes is that you can do lots of substituting, just go with what you have on hand and so far it has turned out pretty tasty.

Day One - Page 48 - Ramen

2009-11-01T16:35:00.000-08:00

Let the rumpus begin. Got started today on Momofuku, the cookbook, with alkaline noodles (aka ramen). Luckily, John had an old, unopened jar of sodium carbonate up in the darkroom so I didn't have to find a source for it before trying my hand at Chang's handmade ramen. Wikipedia says, "Most noodles [the ramen kind] are made from five basic ingredients: wheat flour, salt, water, and kansui which is essentially a type of alkaline mineral water, containing sodium carbonate and usually potassium carbonate, as well as sometimes a small amount of phosphoric acid. Originally, kansui was named after the water from Inner Mongolia's Lake Kan which contained large amounts of these minerals and was said to be perfect for making these noodles. Making noodles with kansui lends them a yellowish hue as well as a firm texture."

I didn't have potassium carbonate (Art says he has some in his darkroom so I'll try adding some of that next time) but since it only required 1/8 tsp for the portion I was making I didn't think it would matter too much.

These barely need cooking. Just throw them in boiling water and remove them right away. I made Ginger Scallion Sauce (page 57) - lots of scallions in the garden right now - and tossed them with the noodles for dinner. Now I'm dreaming of making a trip to Inner Mongolia and making alkaline noodles on the banks of Lake Kan.