Kitchen Chick

More limes than I can count!

Egg yolks for key lime pie

I inherited six pounds of limes. No, that is not a typo. 6 pounds. Three 2 lb bags.

There was lots of rum involved.

And pirates.

No, don't ask.

In the end, I had six pounds of limes sitting on my kitchen counter.

This has led to an unprecedented amount of key lime pie baking. Yes, I really do make the recipes I post here more than once. Four pies in the space of two weeks. And lime-ade, too. I have enough limes to make some pucker-y lime sorbet. (I cannot sing enough the joys of having an ice-cream maker in the house.) After that, I will probably still have enough limes for another pie.

Or something else.

Please, I'm up for suggestions.

Six pounds of limes is an awful lot of limes, even for someone who loves limes like I do.

Paella — a hint of more to come...

Above: Paella about to go into the oven.  (Click for a larger image, as always.)

A year ago, Joe and I were getting ready to leave for our trip to Spain and Morocco. (and I swear I will be posting about Morocco. I think the one year anniversary is a good time to finally get around to it) Anyway... we oddly did not eat much paella in Spain. I think we had some at a couple tapas bars. But we did not sit down at a restaurant specializing in paella and stuff ourselves silly.

Last weekend, I fixed that oversight by making my first paella. I made a "tourist's paella" of mixed meat and seafood, with chicken, pork, Spanish chorizo, tilapia, squid, and mussels using a recipe from Penelope Casas's Paella! cookbook. I served this up to a group of friends and was incredibly pleased when one of them said "The seafood and meat are good, but the rice is fantastic."

Hooray! They get it. They get what paella is about!

And yeah was that rice delicious. I used arborio rice as the closest substitute I had on hand for the Spanish rice. Flavored very simply with Spanish smoked paprika, saffron, chicken broth, salt, and of course the juices and flavors from the seafood and meat.

Sadly I did not achieve the magical bottom crust. Obviously I must practice more. (Oh, the hardship!) I am going to hold off posting paella recipes until I know how to make that crust.

Below: at a later stage -- you can see a lot of the liquid has been soaked up -- with the chicken and mussels added...

Waffle Toast!

Joe says to me, "We have that stale brioche. I bet it'd make fantastic French toast."

And it would. No betting about it.

But I didn't really want French toast. I was thinking that buttermilk waffles sounded better. Fresh, hot, with melting butter and syrup pooling in the little squares. Sadly, we were (still are!) out of buttermilk, but that sadness didn't last because being buttermilk-less lead me to the idea of "waffling" the brioche.

"Waffling the brioche?" Joe was intrigued.

Let me just say if you have a waffle iron and some stale brioche, I can think of nothing more fun to do than reforming your brioche into a crispy waffle grid.  And you know what?  It's really good!

Waffle Toast!

Soak slices of stale brioche (or other bread) in an egg and milk mixture until thoroughly soaked, just like for French toast. Heat waffle iron. Carefully place slices in the iron. You may need to use a spatula to keep the slices from falling apart during the transfer. Cook in the waffle iron until brown and crispy (but not dry!). I pressed on the waffle iron lid to make sure that the bread was well imprinted with the waffle grid. Serve with butter and maple syrup.

We used Zingerman's brioche, which by the way is awesome, even if we somehow didn't manage to finish it before part of it got stale.  You can use whatever sounds good...

Chia Shiang — Photo Essay

Pan-fried pork dumplings made from scratch at Chia Shiang

For many years Chia Shiang has been the Chinese restaurant of choice for local vegetarians with their wide range of soy and wheat gluten faux-meat dishes, as well as being one of a couple that serve Malaysian dishes. They have since expanded their restaurant to cover Shanghai and Sichuan dishes, and now seem to be the place to go for the local mainland Chinese community. We discovered this when I asked a co-worker from Beijing where I could find the best Sichuan food in Ann Arbor, unknown to me Joe was reading about Chia Shiang on the Ann Arbor Food email list. (I'm on the list, but I am woefully slow at checking my email.) So in one of those odd moments, we both suggested the place for dinner on the same night. When we got there, a large wedding reception was in full swing, complete with wedding toasts in Mandarin.

I recommend starting at the back of the menu and working forward — many of their most interesting and authentic dishes are in the last half of their extensive menu.  They've got all the standards up front, as well as the meatless and Malaysian items, but we've been enjoying exploring the latter half of the menu.

Get there before noon on Sunday and you may get a chance to try the above fabulous dumplings or "soup" or sticky rice dumplings in the following photos.  (REMEMBER: you can click on any of these images to get a larger and tastier version!)

Xiao Long Bao!  Pork and crab stuffed "Soup" dumplings — a burst of broth in every dumpling, so watch out! We advise letting them cool a bit.  They definitely make these on the premises, because we've gotten to watch...

Shanghai-style vegetable salad with the gluten meat substitute. A bit sweet and a bit spicy. Served cold.

Chicken with chestnuts — Chinese bbq sauce-like flavor with whole roasted chestnuts. (Not water chestnuts, chestnuts as in "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...")  Remember to order this without bones, unless you're culturally Chinese enough to enjoy disarming small pieces of chicken with tiny bones — in your mouth.

Boiled fish in Sichuan sauce. Mmmm... spicy goodness. Chunks of fish with lettuce in a spicy sauce made with chili bean paste and Sichuan peppercorns.  This is large — that's a full-size serving spoon in there.  This dish is an obsession with us. We had it first in China, then at Chung King in San Gabriel, CA. You can find versions of this dish also on TK Wu's and Middle Kingdom's menus, and similar recipes for cooking it at home in Land of Plenty.

More photos in the extended post...

Chili/Chowder Cookoff

Joe and I often do things on a whim. After our morning walk, my friend Patti and I met up with Joe at everyday lunch for — what else — lunch. That evening everyday lunch would be hosting their Chili and Chowder Cookoff fundraiser for Think Local First. We got swept up in the general enthusiasm — Patti was volunteering, and chefs Chewy and Brendan were cooking up their own entry — and Joe and I both knew where we'd be eating dinner.

There was a catch, of course. We had tickets to the UM Department of Theatre & Drama's performance of Shaw's You Never Can Tell, which meant we'd need to watch the clock so we'd have enough time to get to the theater. And, of course, since we'd be a bit dressed up (I like dressing up for the theater), we'd have to be extra careful to not spill chili on ourselves. So it was that I tottered around in my heels with a heavy camera and flash slung around my shoulders, trying to balance a small paper "bowl", a spoon, a score sheet, a pencil, and a wine glass.

(Really, wouldn't we have all been better off with four arms and hands? Just think! You could play your own piano duets. Or cook twice as much, twice as fast!)

And Joe and I had a grand time, running into old friends and meeting new people. And in spite of my insufficient number of hands, I still managed to stuff myself with chili and chowder. Seven chowder entrants and eight chilis, all of them different. Smoked haddock, applewood smoked clam, basil-flavored, and a nice rich traditional New England chowder, a just corn chowder, etc. On the chili side there were two chicken chilis, an assortment of different beef and bean chilis, including an espresso beer flavored one, ox tail, and even a vegan chili. I managed to try most of them, but sadly I missed a few. Our only regret was that we had to leave before we were ready to go. We're looking forward to next year's Chili & Chowder Cookoff.

NOTE: If any of the entrants reading this actually have recipes for their entries (which I realize is a long shot), please post them. I might try to make one or two later and do a full post on it.

In Second Place:

2nd Place Chili winner Jane, daughter of fellow food blogger Mom's Kitchen, with her Spring Chili. The homemade tomatillo sauce took this chicken chili to the next level.

(2nd Place Chowder went to Laura M. I did not get to sample this one, but I think this was the C.S.I. chowder, which Joe did try and thought was great. If so, it included squid and fish balls, and was orange.)

In First Place:

Chewy (left) serving up his 1st place winning Spanish Bullfighter's chili, and "Most Original" winner Alex (right) with his Wisconsin Chili.

The Spanish Bullfighter's chili was made of ox tail, and was smooth and rich — gourmet chili. Alex's Wisconsin Chili used golden raisins, which contrasted especially well with the cheddar cheese they supplied.

The belles of the evening: Chowder 1st Place Winner Kate, and her sister Courtney who took "Best Overall."

Kate served up her delicious Basilicious Chowder, and Courtney was mobbed by the crowd (Joe, um, had two bowls) for her "Lobster Loves Sweet Potato" Chowder. Their chowders were not only fabulous, but they demonstrated excellent use of garnish that enhanced both the appearance and the flavor.