Kitchen Chick

Kitchen Chick went to China

For real.  Just got back from Hong Kong tonight.  So if you've been wondering why I haven't been responding to comments, now you know.  I created a number of post-dated entries, which is what have been appearing over the last two weeks.  I will certainly be looking at your comments over the next few days. For the curious, I spent five days or so at Zhengzhou in Henan Province for a Wushu tournament.  A quick pass through Xian to see the terracotta warriors.  Beijing for a few days with a day trip to a semi-remote part of the Great Wall that's only just starting to get touristy.  Then five days in Hong Kong with a day-trip to Macau. Joe and I had some fabulous food, some of which I'll post here in the upcoming weeks.  The highlights include a "water banquet", an amazing Szechuan restaurant in Beijing (no pictures, alas), shark fin soup, abalone, and a sweet rice and mango dessert with bird's nest.  (You know, the kind made from swiftlet bird saliva.)

Apricot & Chocolate Cookies

These never fail to impress. The trick with these is the press them down as the cookie dough does not spread out very mjch on its own when baking. Use a real brown sugar, like Billington's muscovado, for extra flavor.

Apricot & Chocolate Cookies
Adapted slightly from The Colossal Cookie Book

1 1/2 sticks butter (aka 6 oz.), softened
1/2 C. packed light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 C. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2/3 C. no-soak dried apricots, chopped into small bits
3/4 C. chocolate chips

Pre-heat over to 350 F.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper (or grease the sheets).

Beat butter and sugar together until smooth and soft. Beat in egg until fluffy.

Sift flour, salt, and baking powder and add to butter mixture. Mix until thoroughly blended. Beat in apricots and chocolate chips.

Roll mixture into small balls and place on baking sheets with plenty of space. Use either your fingers or the back of a fork to flatten the cookies.

Bake 12-14 minutes or until golden-brown.

Cool for a minute or two, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Yield: about 25

IMBB #9 — Three Chocolate Layer Terrine

An Obsession with Food brings us Is My Blog Burning #9 with the theme being terrines.

I've never made a terrine. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever eaten a terrine. Terrines and foie gras have always been synomyous in my mind, and since I don't care for goose livers, no matter how fattened they are, I've generally kept away from terrines. So I was delighted to learn that there is so much more to terrines than foie gras.

I looked for recipes that I knew would have the broadest appeal and avoid the various food allergies of the friends I would be serving it to. Google obliged me, and I discovered "Cate Dowling's Three Chocolate Layered Terrine." This terrine has whipped cream, chocolate, eggs, and sugar — the four essential food groups.

The recipe called for milk, dark, and white chocolates. I think milk chocolate is too sweet, so I used semi-sweet instead. I used Valrhona 71% cacao for the dark, and Valrhona 56% cacao for the semi-sweet. For the white chocolate, I used El Rey.

It is an easy recipe, and the result is a terrine-shaped mousse.

Chopped chocolates:

Recipe in extended post.

Zingerman's, Ann Arbor

"Contact Sheet" style mosaic of Zingerman's Delicatesen.

Zingerman's Deli is Ann Arbor's most famous restaurant, and rightly so. They make large over-the-top deli sandwiches from fresh top-quality ingredients. Over the years Zingerman's has branched out to sell top-notch meats, world-class cheeses, and a host of other delicacies including olives, varietal honeys, chocolates, salts, pastas, specialty sugars, peppers and sauces, tea, spices, and coffee. They have the most amazing collection of olive oils and vinegars to be found anywhere, including 150 year old balsamic vinegar that they'll let you taste for free.

Instead of expanding by opening new Zingerman's deli in different cities, they've grown by starting new food-related businesses in Ann Arbor. They've added a bakery with artisan breads and pastries, a creamery that produces wonderful butter and gelato and local cheeses, a sit-down restaurant specializing in American regional foods called Zingerman's Roadhouse, and a catering business. And, of course, for those not living in Ann Arbor, the Zingerman's Mail Order business.

Photography note:
I take most of my food photos with our very small Pentax Optio S4 digital camera because it does a good job with close-ups and is small enough to be discreet in restaurants. But the day I took this mosaic of Zingerman's, I was playing with a new zoom lens for our Nikon D70 digital camera. I shot this freehand (no tripod) and very quickly, and as you can see, my sixth frame is off quite a bit. The exposures are also all slightly different, and I didn't photoshop them to be the same. I think part of the charm of a contact sheet mosaic is it's slight exposure differences and the quirky geometry of the final image.

Sadako Restaurant, Ann Arbor

Green Grass Roll and California Roll at Sadako, Ann Arbor.

When I came back to Ann Arbor to go to college (see, I was born here, but not raised here, which means I can't actually claim to be a "townie"), there were maybe two nice Japanese restaurants, Miki and Fuji, plus the very fondly remembered "fast food" Japanese restaurant Donburi/Hinodae.  Both Miki and Fuji are still here, though under different ownship.  Much to my distress, Donburi has since closed. (Okay, it wasn't great Japanese food, but it had a certain "je ne sais quoi" about it plus, for me, a big dose of nostalgia for the very friendly but shy owners.)

But sometime around the turn of the millenium, an odd thing began to happen:  Japanese restaurants began opening everywhere in Ann Arbor.  Godaiko and Yamato (my favorite and the best tamago, hands down!) are probably the oldest of this group, but there's also been Wasabi (since closed), Sushi.come, Totoro (in Hinodae's spot), Yotsuba (quite excellent), Makkara, Saica, miscellaneous maki roll places, Korean restaurants serving sushi on the side, and now... Sadako.

Sadako is on South University, occupying the ground floor portion of the old Pizzaria Uno's spot, right in the heart of the student district.  Its clientele when we went there was mostly students.  Sadako's menu is not extensive (for more choices, go to Yotsuba or Miki), offering instead the more commonly known Japanese entrees (e.g. udon and katsudon) and basic sushi items, along with a selection of extragavent rolls that have become so popular lately.  I suspect they're catering to what average 18-22 year old American student would like, as opposed to featuring more unusual items that the more experienced connoisseur of Japanese cuisine might seek out.  (Sounds arrogant, but it's generally true.)

The interior is tasteful and welcoming contemporary design with soothing blues and a dark wood sushi bar.  The restaurant was crowded, but we were able to get seated immediately by being willing to sit at the sushi bar.  Four sushi chefs worked shoulder-to-shoulder filling dine-in and take-out orders.  It was a pleasure to watch them assemble the rolls.  The chef working directly in front of us was delighted that we could name the different rolls he was making without looking at the menu.

I had the small sashimi plate, which was a pretty arrangement of the usual sushi suspects (maguro, hamachil, white fish, salmon) on a small ceramic "sushi boat".  I was slightly bummed that it didn't include any of the more interesting fish kinds, but at $12.99 for 11 pieces (though smallish pieces), it's hard to argue with it for the price.  We both ordered tamago, which was nice and not too sweet.  Joe ordered a spicy tuna hand roll, inarizushi (the chef took a liking to him and gave him an extra piece), the Sadako roll, and another rather large roll which I'm forgetting.  We were both very impressed with the Sadako roll, a very tasty and slightly sweet roll topped with crunchy tempera bits.  One of the more beautiful rolls we saw made was the Green Grass Roll, with its topping of seaweed salad, and I snagged a picture of it just as the chef was adding the finishing touches and before a waitress whisked it away.

Sadako is a good addition to S. University and definitely worth a trip.

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

I got this great cookie recipe off of foodtv.com some years ago when searching for cranberry recipes. I think dried cranberries make for a better oatmeal cookie than raisins. In the U.S., you can usually find them bulk at Whole Foods or other bulk food suppliers, which is usually less expensive than buying them packaged up by Ocean Spray.

This is the original recipe, though I always add a bit extra salt either as salt or by using salted butter otherwise I find the cookies to be too sweet. I've tried these cookies with dried blueberries, but the cranberries are better.

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cardamon
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients. Add to butter mixture and stir until well blended. Add dried cranberries. Drop by mounded teaspoonful onto parchment covered baking sheet. Bake about 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly golden. Cool.

Yield: 5 dozen small-ish cookies

Spanish Potato and Garlic Soup

I love the use of thyme in this soup. My note in the recipe margine says "careful with the potatoes — not too many, maybe more tomato". The recipe serves six, which means I'm sizing it down for two, so I probably mis-measured the first time. I was also a bit light with the potatoes, and the soup didn't thicken as much even with the cornstarch (but I like it this way).

Here's the original recipe. I think it's a bit light on the spices. I have also used diluted chicken stock when I didn't have any vegetable stock.

Spanish Potato and Garlic Soup
one-pot, slow-pot, & clay-pot cooking

2 Tbs olive oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 large potato, halved and cut into thin slices
1 tsp paprika
14oz can of tomatoes, chopped and drained (or equivalent of fresh tomatoes, skinned and chopped)
1 tsp thyme, plus extra for garnish
3 3/4 cups vegetable stock
1 tsp cornstarch
salt and black pepper to taste

1) Heat oil in large, heavy pan.  Add onion, garlic, potatoes, and paprika and cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes or until the onions have softened but not browned.

2) Add chopped tomatoes, thyme, and vegetable stock.  Simmer for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are cooked through.

3) In small bowl, mix cornstarch and a little water to make a paste.  Stir it into the soup.  Boil for about 5 minutes until the soup has thickened.

4) Use a wooden spoon to break up the potatoes slightly, then season to taste.  Garnish with extra thyme.

Joe's parents gave us a large clay pot, and I never knew how to use it until I got this cookbook. It has a nice variety of recipes spanning several cuisines. Though the name's a bit misleading as you'll often need more than one pot to put together a complete dinner.

Puff Pastry & Left Overs

I like puff pastry. With every little effort, you can turn out fancy desserts or appetizers that look difficult to make. Thaw the pastry, make a filling, stuff pastry, and bake. How simple can it get?

In this case, we were left with an abundance of leftover maple-flavored ham cold cuts and little else for dinner. (A grocery trip is in order.) I diced up the ham, pan fried it with some diced onion until lightly carmelized, and added a bit of sage. I cut the puff pastry sheet into nine small squares, folded a bit of ham mixture into each square to make triangles, and pressed the edges together. I think I baked them at 400 F for 15-18 minutes or until golden.

Szechuan Peppercorns — Legal Again!

Great news for chefs in the U.S.! Szechuan peppercorns, which had been banned in the US because they can carry a citrus canker, are available once again. Legally. The peppercorns have to be heat-treated to kill any possible canker.

You can purchase them at Adriana's Caravan.

I wonder how the heat-treating process affects the taste.

Mmmm... Pomegranates

My absolute most favorite fruit. I've loved them for as long as I can remember. My fingers get stained red in the Fall from handling the rinds and getting the juice on my hands. We introduced them to our sweet African Grey parrot Rodriga, who instantly loved them. They were her fravorite fruit too. She could spot a pomegranate seed from yards and yards away, and she'd start dancing back and forth on her feet and calling out.