Catfish Three Ways

Fish is one of those things I feel like I should become more familiar with because it cooks so quickly and therefore makes for an easy, delicious meal. So one week when I was particularly bored with my usual foods, I decided to add catfish to an Arganica food delivery order. When the catfish was delivered, there were three very nice pieces of filet so I decided three meals, with the catfish cooked three different ways. The first choice was an easy one. Blackened. My favorite way to eat catfish.

This was indeed an easy dish to make. All you have to do is mix together the spices, dredge the catfish in the spices, get a pan with oil hot, then cook on each side for two to three minutes and you're done! Next time I make this I think I'm even going to make extra spice mix so that I can jar it to make the process one step quicker (and who knows maybe I'll find some other dish that the "blackened" spices will work well with).

For dinner the next night I knew I could go with the other classic way of cooking catfish of grilled, but I wanted something a little more than that. As I looked around my kitchen my eyes fell upon some corn tortillas. Bingo. Fish tacos. After doing some recipe searching I discovered that catfish is not a normal fish to use for fish tacos; I think because it's not a flaky white fish. Also cabbage, of the red or white kind, seems to be a common ingredient in fish tacos. Although I didn't have any red or white cabbage, I did happen to have some napa cabbage (another item I had picked up because I wanted something different from my norm). So as I had a white fish (albeit not flaky) and I had cabbage (albeit not white or red cabbage) I decided that this could still work and so I forged ahead. Catfish tacos with napa cabbage it was. Using this recipe as my guide, I marinated the fish in some oil, chopped up jalapenos, lime juice, cayenne, and chilli and then since I don't have a grill I pan fried the fish. I also sauteed the napa cabbage as napa cabbage raw seemed strange to me. To the taco I also added some salsa and a line of Sriracha (a.k.a. rooster sauce). Overall the dish was tasty, but could be better. The fish would have benefited from a longer, heavier marinade and the dish needed some texture. In hindsight since the cabbage is supposed to give the tacos some crunch texture I should have tried to make some sort of slaw with the napa cabbage.

And lastly I made an oven baked version of a battered fried catfish using this recipe as a guide. I don't like to deep fry things in my kitchen as I don't have a deep fryer and I find deep frying makes such a mess with the hot oil popping out of the pan and also I never know what to do with all that oil afterwards. Seems such a waste just to throw it away. My solution always is to bake things instead. Does anyone have any other good solutions? Or any other good ways to make a catfish dish? For me the overall winner is still catfish blackened. So yummy.

Recipe Links:	Not Lackin' on the Blackenin' Catfish
	Fish Tacos
	Oven Fried Catfish

Some Food News

Mostly news of new restaurants, with a smattering of other food related information.

A crepe with gelato in it! At Sophie's Crepes in San Francisco.

- A second location of Good Stuff Eatery by Top Chef contestant Spike Mendelsohn is planning to open in Crystal City. They are hoping for a January opening. (arl now link)

- Living Social launches food delivery (at full price) of high end meals to your door complete with dishes, candles and cloth napkins with DC's Kushi. (all things d link)

- Komi's chef-owner Johnny Monis opens a Thai restaurant, Little Serow, next door to Komi. Also serving a prix fixe menu, but at $45 per person and is for walk-ins only. (eater link)

- Alton Brown answers questions in Haiku! Brilliant. (eater link)

- Clarendon's Harry's Tap Room becomes Market Tavern, a part steakhouse, part modern tavern. A largely unchanged weekend brunch will still be served. (arl now link)

- Tackle Box in Georgetown has reopened. Fellow fire victim Hook is being reopened as Mike Isabella's (top chef contestant chef/owner of Graffiato) Mexican restaurant Bandolero. (eater link)

- Starbucks test store selling beer and wine was deemed successful. More stores, starting in Chicago, are to start selling beer and wine. (huffington post link)

- Memphis Barbeque open in Crystal City. (eater link)

- A Trader Joe's opens in Clarendon on N Highland Ave at Clarendon Blvd. (clarendon patch link)

- CityEats hoping to be a competitor for Open Table. Restaurants such as Graffiato and Restaurant Eve backing CityEats. (washington post link, may have to create free account to read full story) (washingtonian link blurb)

Some lattes from a cafe on Stanford campus.

The Simpsons: The Food Wife

Go watch The Simpsons: The Food Wife (Season 23, Episode 5) here at hulu or here at fox. This episode, in which Marge, Lisa, and Bart start a food blog, has not only guest voices Anthony Bourdain, Mario Batali, and Gordon Ramsay, it also had a character very much like our DC's own Jose Andres! (see preview video below). According to Eater.com Jose Andres even tweeted about the episode "They did my deconstructed Caesar salad? AMAZING." The episode will probably be available for two more weeks so hurry up! If you've missed it Eater.com also has a thoroughly annotated slideshow with some clips. You can also find preview clips here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with plenty of food! This year I went home to Mississippi where we had a Chinese American Thanksgiving celebrated with an international mix of people. We went easy and bought a bunch of the food which worked out pretty well. All of the traditional American Thanksgiving food was bought from Kroger, the local grocery store chain. For the Chinese side we bought a roast duck from an asian grocery store and the rest my mom cooked.

Our Thanksgiving was an international mix of people because my cousin PS, an international student from Taiwan, is here in the states studying for a TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Master's degree at Ole Miss. Since the international students don't usually go home for Thanksgiving she invited some of the friends she has made to our place for Thanksgiving dinner. We had 3 Taiwanese, 1 Chinese, 2 Japanese, 2 Kenyans, and a Brazilian over. It was interesting getting to know each of them and their stories. In particular, it was great getting to learn more about Kenya from the Kenyans as I plan to travel there sometime next year to visit my sister who is there with the Peace Corps.

This was our menu:
Main Course:
Oven Roasted Turkey
烤鴨 (Roasted Duck)
筍尖悶肉 (Pork bamboo with Chili Oil)
上海蠔油白菜 (Bok Choy in Oyster Sauce)

Sides:
Cornbread Dressing
Green Bean Casserole
Mashed Potatoes
Cranberry Celebration
Giblet Gravy
Dinner Rolls
Veggie Tray with Jalapeño Ranch Dip
紅燒牛肉 (Braised Beef)
滷蛋 (Stewed Egg)
豆干 (Stewed Dried Tofu)
青蔥香腸 (Chinese Sausage with Scallions)

Desserts:
Apple Pie
Fruit Tray
蛋捲 (Cookie Egg Roll)


Happy Thanksgiving Holidays Everyone!

The Next Iron Chef

I would highly recommend catching this season's The Next Iron Chef on The Food Network (airs Sundays at 9 EST also can be found on Hulu with a few days delay). I have watched this show for the past two seasons and find it captivating because of its interesting challenges, the intensity in each episode and of course the amazing food they are able to come up with on the fly and with a time limit. I recommend watching this season in particular because it's going to be extremely interesting as it's a "Super Chef" season with well established chefs with amazing resumes (basically like Bravo's Top Chef Masters). Some have their own show or shows, some have not only one restaurant, but multiple restaurants, some with James Beard awards, some who are considered worthy enough to be judges on other cooking shows, and even some who have Iron Chef like experiences of having to cook on the fly under intense pressure. Here is a list of the contestants each with a short bio*.

	Anne Burrell has some great Iron Chef experience as she is a sous chef for Mario Batali on Iron Chef America. She also has her own show Secrets of a Restaurant Chef and is a co-host of Worst Cooks in America, both on Food Network. Her culinary background is Italian cooking and her style is intense flavored rustic food made with pure and simple ingredients.
	Michael Chiarell is the chef and owner of the critically acclaimed Bottega restaurant in the Napa Valley. He has been a national television host of his own shows for over a decade on PBS, Food Network and Cooking Channel and has won an Emmy for his show Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello on Cooking Channel. He has also been a competitor on Top Chef Masters. His specialty is Italian influenced California cuisine.
	Elizabeth Falkner is chef and partner of two Michelin recommended restaurants in San Francisco, Citizen Cake and Orson. She has also been a competitor on Top Chef Masters and a judge on Top Chef: Just Desserts. She also battled it out against Cat Cora on Iron Chef America but did not prevail. Once known as a master of all things dessert, her expertise is now widely acknowledged to span both savory and pastry.
	Alex Guarnaschelli is the executive chef at Butter and the NYC modern dining and cabaret concept Darby. She has her own show Alex's Day Off on Food Network and is a judge on the Food Network show Chopped. She also competed against Cat Cora on Iron Chef America and also lost. Her cooking style is French influenced as she worked as a successful chef in France for seven years before coming back to the states.
	Chuck Hughes is the chef and owner of Garde Manger in Montreal and is the host of his own show Chuck's Day Off on Cooking Channel. He has been a challenger on Iron Chef America and was able to best Iron Chef Bobby Flay. His cooking is French Canadian influenced.
	Robert Irvine is best known for his show on Food Network Dinner: Impossible in which he is basically a culinary Macgyver having to come up with a menu on the fly sometimes with limited ingredients, or limited cooking space, or other restrictions which makes him a excellent competitor for The Next Iron Chef. He also is the host of Restaurant: Impossible and co-host of Worst Cook in America. His food has British influences.
	Beau McMillan is an executive chef at Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain and a personal Chef for Wayne Gretzky. Beau competed again Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America and won. He was also co-host of season one of Worst Cooks in America. His cooking is American influenced and his belief is that food should be appreciated for its simplicity and natural perfection.
	Spike Mendelsohn is owner and chef of Good Stuff Eatery and We the Pizza here in Washington DC. He challenged Michael Symon on Iron Chef America but lost. He was also a competitor on Top Chef and was in the top five chefs. Much of his cuisine has Vietnamese influences.
	Marcus Samuelsson, a winner of three James Beard awards, is the chef and owner of Red Rooster Harlem and serves as a judge on Food Network's Chopped and Bravo's Top Chef. He also has his own show on Discovery Network, The Inner Chef. Chef Samuelsson was recently honored as a Guest Chef of the White House under the Obama Administration planning and executing the administration's first state dinner. He has also battled Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America, but lost. His cuisine style is American with many global influences.
	Geoffrey Zakaria is the most experienced chef having been in the business over 25 years. He has received three stars from the New York Times and a Michelin Star for some of the restaurants he has opened. Chef Zakaria is currently the executive chef of The National and The Lambs Club. He is also a judge on Chopped and was a challenger on Iron Chef America but failed to best Masaharu Morimoto. He has a background of classic French techniques.

These chefs are all excellent and professionals so any error however small means they do not survive to cook another day. It's crazy to see any of these chefs go home, but in the end only one can remain. The caliber of the contestants makes the decision for the judges very difficult. The judges they deemed able to decide who will remain supreme are: Michael Symon, the first Next Iron Chef winner, Judy Joo, one of four Iron Chefs on Iron Chef UK, and Simon Majumdar, famous food writer and co-author of Dos Hermanos, one of the most popular food websites in the UK. They also upped the ante this season by having the lowest two competitors of each episode participate in an intense 30 minute secret ingredient showdown. It's been two great episodes so far, I can't wait to see who ends up on top and gets to be the Next Iron Chef.



*All images were taken from Food Network. All bio information was taken from Food Network, Food Network link-throughs, and Wikipedia.

A Birthday Dinner

I had quite a impromptu weekend when my friends threw me not only a surprise birthday party, but also got a few of my friends from out of town to come as well. What I thought was going to be a fairly chill weekend turned into a weekend of fun. One of the things we decided to do was to have a dinner grill out which turned into quite an awesome feast. We went to the nearest grocery store, Whole Foods, to gather our ingredients and ideas of what to make. We also happened to find on the Whole Foods website a perfect pasta salad recipe that fit our grilling theme as it had grilled zucchini and peppers in it. A simple side salad was also made.

For our main grill items the steaks, the boys went to the meat counter and after some discussions with the butcher they came away with 2 T-bone steaks, a rib-eye steak (bottom right below), and a sirloin steak (top left below). They choose the T-bone steaks because they felt it had a lot of bang for the buck as this cut of meat is made up of 2 cuts of meat, the larger part being the strip steak (also known as the New York strip) and the smaller part being the tenderloin (also known as the filet, the small forward end of the tenderloin/filet being the filet mignon). When the tenderloin part is larger than the strip steak this becomes a porterhouse. The boys also came away with a free sea salt steak seasoning the butcher gave to them which they used on all the steaks. For one of the T-bone steaks (top right below) a blue cheese rub was also improvised.

From wandering around the store we also picked up some shrimp, salmon, asparagus, and mushrooms to put on the grill. Some caramelized onions were also made.

Here was my plate of many tasty morsels. I've discovered that my favorite cut of these steaks is the rib-eye and my least favorite is the sirloin. They are all very good though and the dinner (and the company!) was excellent. Thanks you all so much for making my birthday great!

Rustico Brunch

JJ was visiting one weekend and so I wanted a good place to bring them to for brunch/lunch. Knowing that Rustico has excellent dinners it occurred to me I should check them out for lunch as well. I discovered that they in fact do have an excellent brunch menu. I love that they have a variety of choices, salads, sandwiches, breakfast items, pizzas which means everyone is likely to find something on the menu to eat. For us there were so many appetizing choices that we couldn't help ourselves and splurged a bit getting:

crazy powder sugared ricotta donuts
	and a light fluffy croissant with yummy jam.

Then for our main courses we ordered:

the grilled dry aged chedder burger (with bacon),

a bacon egg and cheese "pannino" (a breakfast pizza),

and brisket hash & sunny side egg.

Darlin' Clementine

Check out this awesome clementine I unraveled!

 

Or at least I think it's a clementine. Does anyone know of a clementine sized citrus that normally has such colors?

"Gourmet" Pizza

Pizza time! I really enjoy making my own pizza so I again ordered pizza dough from Arganica (a food delivery company). Pizzas are a great medium to be as creative as you want or be as simple as you want depending on your mood. This time I was definitely in more of a creative mood. I had this interesting roasted zucchini pesto recipe sitting around that I've been wanting to try out. I figured this would be a perfect opportunity to use it, making it for the sauce of the pizza. Then I rummaged around in my fridge and decided to use cheese, tomatoes, and potatoes as the toppings. And voila just like that homemade "gourmet" pizza. Though this one did not turn out well enough that I would put it on a menu. My pizza making still needs some more practice.

Recipe Links: Roasted Zucchini Pesto

W's Wine Party

Each year W throws a wine party that has not only spectacular wines, but also features a tableful of delicious foods. This year was no exception.

One of my favorites of the night was the salmon tartar (below) which was not only delicious but also plated so prettily :)

Then there is my always favorite, japchae (above). In fact J, while watching me pile some on my plate, asked "You are still obsessed with that dish?" ... "Yes. Yes I am."

And it wouldn't be a W wine party feast without the never disappointing homemade kim chee.

But don't forget about the wines! Besides the many various wines available to freely try W also had two special tastings lined up for us. A Trio of Champagne: 1. Deutz Brut Classic 2. Louis Roederer Brut Premier 3. Vilmart Brut Grand Reserve And a horizontal tasting (same year, different either wineries or vineyards) from the winery Produttori del Barbaresco, vintage 2005, from vineyards: 1. Riserva Montestefano 2. Riserva Asili 3. Riserva Rabaja

Thanks again W for being a wonderful host and sharing your tasty wines with us!

Some Food News

So I've been in a bit of a busy work hard play hard phase so haven't had much time to post. So here is some random food pictures and some local food news (and one international food news you must check out) to tide you over until I get a real post in.

Right: Korean Tacos from the TaKorean food truck. Below: Do you know what fruit this is? I was very surprised to discover that this is what passion fruit looks like. I also learned that not only do I like passion fruit flavored drinks, I also really like passion fruit itself.

- Virginia residents can now bring their own bottles of wine to restaurants! (arlnow link)

- Cafe Atlantico transformed into America Eats Tavern now open for six months (eater link)

- Best Cellers closing it's Clarendon location on July 16 (arlnow link) 

- Graffiato, restaurant by former Top Chef contestant and Zaytinya chef Mike Isabella, now open in Chinatown (eater link)

- Pizza delivery by Segway?! at Pete's New Haven Style Apizza (arlnow link)

- TenPehn closed, no news of relocation yet (eater link)

- Grocery shopping while waiting for your commuter train in Korea (a must see! -> geekinheels link)

- Best New Patios and Rooftop Bars (washington post link)

- Hook and Tackle Box in Georgtown is closed due to a fire (eater link)

- Eataly coming to DC 2012, competition for Bryan Voltaggio's North Market Kitchen Italian bazaar? (Huffington Post link)

An albacore tuna sandwich with sun dried tomato spread
recommended by S from Birley Sandwiches near the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

Shake Shack now open in DC!

Shake Shack has found DC worthy of it's presence! No longer will I have to worry about trying to squeeze in a Shake Shack visit when visiting New York City (just like I always try to squeeze an In-N-Out visit when I'm out west). Shake Shack opened last Tuesday, May 17th in Dupont Circle near Public Bar and 18th Street Lounge at 1216 18th St NW, the former location of Fuddruckers. Another DC location at Nationals Stadium is slated to open later this year. I am anticipating the same delicious burgers and shakes as served up in New York City and although I am also anticipating the same long lines as in New York City I am still excited to go as the food does tend to be worth the wait...

King Cake

For W's wine party I was feeling super ambitious so besides the homemade girl scout cookies, I decided, that since Mardi Gras was near (yes, this post, as many of my posts are, is very late :P ) I would also make a king cake. For those of you who don't know what a king cake is, a king cake is a cake used to celebrate the coming of Mardi Gras. It is usually a ring of twisted bread similar to brioche decorated with icing or sugar in the colors of Mardi Gras, purple, green, and gold. Often there is a trinket, usually in the form of a little plastic baby (thought to represent Baby Jesus), hidden somewhere in the cake. Whoever gets the slice with the trinket in it is considered the king or queen of the party and has an obligation to bring the king cake for next year.

The king cake I made was based on this recipe by Emeril Lagasse. I made two changes to the recipe, one was I added a teaspoon each of orange zest and cinnamon to the dough. The second was I substituted in an different icing recipe because I made this cake last year and didn't like the icing. The cake came out overall pretty good, though a little bit on the dry side if you don't have icing on the side to dip the cake in. To combat the dryness I think next year I shall try making a king cake with a filling.

Recipe Links:	King Cake (plus a teaspoon each of orange zest and cinnamon)
	King Cake Icing

Homemade Girl Scout Cookies

W, our resident wine connoisseur, was throwing one of his usual awesome wine parties so I decided to do some baking for it. I was very excited to try out these two recipes that I had stumbled upon....Homemade Thin Mints and Homemade Samoas!! This first attempt of mine wasn't the most successful, but it wasn't a complete failure either. Both cookies tasted great (which is the most important part), just the thin mints came out a little bit more crispy and a lot more melty than I would have liked while the samoas came out a little bit too crumbly and a lot bit too messy than I would have liked.

For the thin mints my mistake was I, because the recipe warns about cutting the cookies too thick , I ended up cutting them too thin which didn't even out with the baking time listed. So when making these cookies be very aware of your cookie thickness to baking time ratio. I also tried to be creative with the thin mints by substituting some of the chocolate in the coating with Andes Mints to try to give the cookies even more of a minty taste. This didn't quite work out as I think adding in the Andes Mints was what caused the chocolate mixture to not stay solid at room temperature. The cookies had to be put back in the refrigerator after sitting out for only 5-10 minutes.

For the samoas, these cookies were delicious, but were a crumbly sticky mess. I'm not sure how to fix this one, maybe less caramel next time? maybe I'll try a different cookie recipe such as this one? Although the cookie part of the recipe I used was really tasty, so maybe I don't want to mess with that. No matter what recipe I use I will definitely stick with the idea of making them into bar cookies as this is so much easier than cutting a bunch of single cookies out and topping each of them. Oh and I also omitted the coconut shavings in my version which makes me like these samoas so much better that the real girl scout cookie version.

Armed with these recipes, now I can have girl scout cookies any time of year and just the way I like them! :)

Recipe Links:	Thin Mints
	Samoas Bars
	Samoas