Thomas Keller

Thomas Keller is one of my idols.  His precision, techniques, food style, approach to ingredient, and dedication to quality is what makes him so amazing!  
I went to one of his book signing last winter.  He came into town to promote his latest cookbook Ad Hoc which is after his restaurant of the same name.  He was so nice and approachable.   Meeting him was like meeting a rock star for me.  I was soooooo nervous!    I took 2 of his other cookbooks with me to get signed, the classic French Laundry, and Bouchon.   


Here are some pics.  That's me standing right in front of him.  You can't see the big smile on my face.

Oh my god!  He actually talked to me and gave me advice when I ask him what it takes to work at one of his restaurants.  I felt like a dumb fool asking him, but I thought...when would I get another chance to talk to my idol.  I guess I was persistent because his publicist pulled me aside gave me her card, and said if I am interested in doing an apprenticeship that I should contact her.  Well..I was too chicken and as I said earlier the past few months were a bit strange for me.  Had I known I was not going to be working for 5 months...woulda, shoulda, coulda.  :(

Check out his different restaurants:
French Laundry
Per Se
Bouchon Bistro
Bouchon Bakery
Ad Hoc


Mario Batali is next.  He will be in town on Tuesday for book signing.  

Duck Fat Fries

Sure these look like a delicious plate of french fries, but they are not ordinary fries, they are Duck Fat Fries.  That's right, cooked in 100% duck fat.  Seriously, how many ducks do you need to kill to get enough fat, oil, to fry these babies? 

This pic is from last December trip to Betty's for my friend Jason's birthday.  My bro and other meat eaters say...these are the best fries, especially when pair with a big honkin steak.

I don't want this blog to be my soapbox about being veggies.  I have my own reasons of being veggie and think people have right to choose to eat meat or not, but I don't know...maybe I'm PMSing...I just thinking it's too many ducks to be killed to get this much fat.

For You Meat Eaters

There are reasons why I became a vegetarian and the link below is one of them.  :)  

Pigs Head Torchon

There is a blog dedicated to cooking recipes from Momofuku, David Chang's cookbook.  This guy in NYC loves the restaurant so he is working his way cooking through the book.  Very cool!  The site is really good and I love this cookbook even if not as veggie friendly.  However, I could never cook a pig's head, especially with it's eyes looking at me.  You have to be a bad ass and that I'm not when it comes to meat.

Please check out the link but I'm warning you, it's a bit squeamish.  

Dinner at My Chef Friend's

Today, I had lunch with my chef friend Hamed.  He is the one that is classically trained from FCI, the school in NYC that I had checked out and wanted to go for so bad but couldn't get the timing right.


We had lunch at Matt's at the Market.  Great place with really flavorful food. I was bummed they didn't have the Grilled Cheese Sandwich nor the Tomato Soup, but they reminded me they cook seasonally so they don't have it on the menu, and that it may comeback in the fall.   It makes sense and why they are so good.  I had a Grilled Halibut Sandwich and Hamed had a sandwich of the day which I think was some kind of grilled meat.  We then went to Le Panier for the best Eclairs ever.  The espresso ones are the best.  He told me just the day before, him and his wife Pascale got 16 of them and ate them all.  Crazy!


Anyways, it reminded me a fabulous dinner that they had me and some other friends over for a couple months ago.  His food seem simple but the flavors are amazing and all technically correct.  Everything is always cooked perfectly and presented so well.  Here are some pics below.

Hamed the Chef

These are little Tartines he served first with wine.  This one was carmalized onions and some sort of cheese.

These were made with salted zucchinis and goat cheese and were not cooked at all.  There is a lot of curing vs. cooking these days in the food world.  All the pickling popularity from David Chang's stuff.  This one was delish!

First course was a Red Lentil Soup.  He made this one vegetarian and with water because of me and my sis but it was so good, I couldn't believe he didn't use sort of stock.

Main course was Black Cod flavored with lemon and some spices.  Simple but so good.

The sides were some Glazed Carrots and Boiled Potatoes.  Again, so good!  Carrots weren't too sugary like many glazed carrots and simple boiling of potatoes had that nice "puffy" texture.  

Now, this was Hamed specialty.  It was a Peanut Sauce made with peanut butter, onions, and some spice. It was very spicy.  I've never tasted anything like this.  We ate it like a condiment for the fish and sides.   I need to get the recipe for this and post here.  He really should bottle this stuff.

Update: Hamed gave me the recipe. Yay.  So I had it wrong, this is not the Peanut Sauce.  This is the Onion Peanut Butter Salad.  He did serve the peanut sauce at another time and that looked more like a jar of mustard.  I know, it sounds strange but it's not.  Here are recipes. He didn't give me portions.  :)  But I'm going to take the recipe I can get.  I'll give it a try and take down measurements and repost later.

Onion Peanut Butter Salad

Onions

Peanut Butter

Lemon

Olive Oil

Salt

You slice the onion and let it for a few hours in a salted water, take all the access water out.

Mix with peanut butter, lemon, little olive oil and season.

Peanut Sauce

Hot Green Chili

Peanut Butter

Tomatoes

Garlic

Lemon Juice

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper,

Blend everything together and there you have it.  :)

This is what it looked like on our plates.

I made desserts of an Apple Spice Cake and Lemon Tart.

Here is the dinner gang.  Soung, Pascale, Marisela, Hamed, Dan, and me.  Good times!

Party Food

Last holiday, I had one get together with some friends.  It was just an "apps and wine" event.  Here are some things from that event.

Large platter of nibbles.  It's your basic fruit and cheese platter.

  

These are mini cheese and herb biscuits.  They look big here but they are small one bite size.  I made these quite a bit last winter because they were easy and good potluck food.

These are bacon wrapped dates filled with parmesan cheese.  They never go out of style and people just love them.  It's a good combo of sweet by the dates, salty by the cheese and bacon. I've made vegetarian version of these by substituting with fake bacon.  You really can mix up all the ingredients and come up with your own.  It's so easy and your guest will be oooing and ahhhhing the whole time.
Bacon Wrapped Dates

10 slices of "thick" cut bacon

30 dried dates

1/4 lb of parmigiano reggiano cheese

30 tooth picks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cut bacon into 1//3 strips, you should have 30 pieces to work with.  

If your dates have pits, remove by cutting a slit at the center of the date.  If no pits, still cut a slit at center of the date.

Cut up your cheese into small 1/4 inch thick sizes that will fill your dates.  You should have 30 pieces.

Fill all dates with cheese pieces by inserting them into the slit.

Wrap each date with the bacon.  Stretch the bacon a bit if too short.  Bacon should wrap fully around the date only once, the ends should meet with one one top of the other.  Poke a toothpick right where the ends top another. 

Place them onto a sheet pan lined with aluminum foil.

Bake for about 10 min, flip them over by using the toothpick as handle, and bake for 10 more in or until crispy and golden brown.  Let it cook in it's own fat and the bacon will crisp up.  

You can sprinkle with fresh herbs or black pepper to finish.  Serve hot while cheese is melted but cool for about 5 min so it doesn't burn tongues.

Bite size Korean Taco.  My interpretation of the trendy Korean tacos inspired from the taco trucks.

Pineapple Cilantro Pesto Shrimp.  

My friend Carolyn makes the best vegetarian Pot pie.  She made this one for me.  Yum!

Peppermint Chocolate Cake Pudding.  That's right, cake pudding.  Instead of bread puddings, I make cake puddings.  Maybe because I'm baking all the time or I live alone, but I always have leftover cake.  I freeze them and make cake pudding.  They are very decadent!  I usually make a warn caramel or chocolate sauce and pour before serving.  Let me know if you want the recipe.  

Homemade Pizza for the Homeless

Nothing beats homemade pizza.  I remember growing up, my mom always made us the Chef Boyardee box pizza.  It's like a box cake mix for pizza.  It comes with pizza dough powder that you mix with water and rise, can of sauce, and dry cheese.  You are suppose to add any fresh topping and mozzarella cheese.  My mom always added hamburger (when I was not a veggie), olives, onions, and mushrooms.  If you've never had this, I highly recommend as a fun eats. It's not the best, but it's about memories...  A few years ago, I asked my mom why we just didn't order pizza and why she always made it, and she said it was because her and my dad didn't speak English very well so it was hard to just order Domino or Pizza Hut.  I never thought about that. (sniff, sniff).  


Anyways, we made fresh pizza for the homeless cooking back in January I believe.  It was really tasty and amazingly easy.  The homeless folks loved it!  We the volunteers loved it!  We always taste what we serve.  We made everything from scratch!  Check out pics below.


I made the dough the night before the cooking event so it would rise overnight.  The recipe I followed was actually a bread recipe called the "No Knead Bread".  (Click link for recipe)  If you don't know about this recipe, it's pretty popular and you can find ton's youtube videos on it too.  My friend Anya makes this bread and gave me the tip to use it for pizza as well, and she was right. (Thanks Anya!) It was easy and superb.  What I like about this recipe is that it gives the dough a nice chewy, yeasty crust.  We didn't have cornmeal but I like to add cornmeal on the bottom of the pan to give an additional texture to the crust.   Make sure to top it with lots of olive oil so it doesn't stick too much to pan and plastic wrap.  

Here is the finished product.  We topped it with fresh basil.

I forgot this kid's name but he was so good. He pretty much took charge of assembling all the pizzas before they went into the oven. He scooped the sauce, added the various toppings and cheese.  Love him!

We received a box of grapefruit and made salad out of it.  Segmenting grapefruit takes some skills.  Lucky we had Hamed with us that day and show Darren how to do.

It was still winter so we made some kind of stew or soup here.  I forgot...Eckhart made this one.

All in all, it was a great cooking event.  Really fun to do pizza.  I need to suggest we do this again really soon.  Let me know if any of you tried making your own.  

March Neighborhood Cooking

Last month's homeless feeding program was all about chicken!  We made 2 different kinds: jerk and teriyaki.  Since we cook "iron chef" style, in that we never fully know what fresh ingredients we will get that day, the side items were a bit of  a mix.  We made some rice, roasted potatoes, salads, garlic bread, and for dessert lemon fruit tarts and jam bars.  


It was also a great month because we had a youth group from the Sammamish Hills Lutheran Church who did most of the cooking and serving.  Super bunch of kids with a great giving spirit, and fun attitude. Their sous and cooking skills were really good too!


This was our version of Jerk chicken.  Flavored with limes, cilantro, and spices, then cooked on a grill.

This is the teriyaki one.  This was made with homemade sauce.  Our southern chef originally attempted it but it was not quite right, nothing bad about his skills.  My sis ended up finishing it.  Sometimes it takes an Asian to get the flavors right.  :)

The homeless folks love garlic bread.  It's usually the simple comfort foods they really enjoy.  Turned out the kids love making and eating garlic bread too.

Below are some of the volunteering kids.  

Hello...I'm Back

Dear Friends,
I'm sorry I've been away. I thought I'd be back sooner than April for 2010.  I really appreciate many of you asking me when I'm going to update and that you've added me to your google reads...I didn't know that you all were paying attention to my little space.  :)


The past few months have been an interesting period in my life where I was going through some changes in my "day" career and was not at a mental place to blog.  I was also contemplating on making my "passion" into my "day" career but it was too soon and I was not quite ready.  I'm also not quite ready to give up my day job opportunities.  I did bake more and have been to some great food places like Tavolata, Serious Pie, Portage,Le Panier and many more!  I've met some great people in the food business, serious food people who are generous with info and encouragement, my great friends who are always thinking of us.  Life has been pretty good.  What was a hard time for me last fall has turned into a great turnaround for me, and I am at a great place with great positive people I love in my life.  Thank you dear friends and family!


I'm so encouraged now to do this more seriously.  I mean seriously in a way that reflects my style and not just random thoughts and spell errors.  :)  You can see, I've already changed the format a bit to my simpleness.  I hope to take an HTML class at some point too and really get creative to reflect what I like and what I gravitate toward.  What I had hoped last year when I started this was to cook more and document that, but it turned more into my restaurant reviews, so I'm hoping to change that and focus more on my baking.  I'm really studying the science of baking and testing out my favorite recipes and creating my own.  I'll post those and you will be asked to test and give me feedback.  I've been on a lemon tart kick since January and have made more than a dozen kinds but think I have it down to how I like it.  I'll have an entry about that.


I've started this year with a few stragglers from the LA trip.  I've got lots more. Lots of Neighborhood Cooking stuff, farmer's markets (I'm eating more organic this year.), local eateries, better pics, new foods (I just tried a Moroccan food for the first time.), falling in love with really "French" pastries, funny stories of trying to eat vegetarian, my vegan sister, more from catering hopefully, and even recipes from my mom.   I've got lots to document!   


Thanks dear friends for reading!  

Fondly,
Yurim

Ending with one of my favorite things...Homemade Orange Marmalade.  It's so much better than the store stuff and so easy to make.  


Here is a recipe from Alton Brown:

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 pounds oranges, 4 to 5 medium
• 1 lemon, zest finely grated and juiced
• 6 cups water
• 3 pounds plus 12 ounces sugar
• Special Equipment: 10 (8-ounce) canning jars with rings and lids, funnel, tongs, ladle, and 12-quart pot

Directions

Wash the oranges and lemon thoroughly. Cut the oranges into 1/8-inch slices using a mandoline, removing the seeds as you go. Stack the orange slices and cut them into quarters. Place the oranges into an 8-quart stainless steel pot. Add the lemon zest and juice and the water to the pot, set over high heat and bring to a boil, approximately 10 minutes. Once boiling, reduce the heat to maintain a rapid simmer and cook, stirring frequently, for 40 minutes or until the fruit is very soft.

While the fruit is cooking, fill a large pot (at least 12-quart) 3/4 full with water, set over high heat and bring to a boil. Place 10 (8-ounce) jars and rings, canning funnel, ladle, and tongs into the boiling water and make sure the water covers the jars by at least an inch. Boil for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the lids and leave everything in the pot until the marmalade is ready.

Meanwhile, place a small plate in the freezer. Increase the heat under the orange mixture to return to full boil. Add the sugar and stir the mixture continually, until it reaches 222 to 223 degrees F on a deep-fry or candy thermometer, and darkens in color, approximately 15 to 20 minutes. You may need to adjust the heat in order to prevent boil over. Test the readiness of the marmalade by placing a teaspoon of the mixture onto the chilled plate and allowing it to sit for 30 seconds. Tilt the plate. The mixture should be a soft gel that moves slightly. If mixture is thin and runs easily, it is not ready.

Remove jars from the water and drain on a clean towel. Place a canning funnel onto the top of 1 of the jars and ladle in the marmalade just to below the bottom of the threads of the jar. Repeat until all of the mixture has been used. The amount of marmalade may vary by 1 to 2 jars. Wipe the rims and threads of the jars with a moist paper towel and top each with a lid. Place a ring on each jar and tighten.

Return the jars to the pot with boiling water, being certain that they don't touch the bottom of the pot or each other. (If you don't have a jar rack, try a round cake rack, or metal mesh basket. Even a folded kitchen towel on the pot bottom will do in a pinch.) Add additional water if necessary to cover the jars by at least an inch. Boil for 10 minutes. Using canning tongs, carefully remove the jars from the water, place in a cool dry place and allow to sit at room temperature for at least 24 hours before opening. Once open, store in the refrigerator. Unopened marmalade will last for up to 6 months.

Nobu

The most trendy LA dinner we had was at Nobu.  Wow...this is the LA you think of in the movies. Some of the outfits would never fly in Seattle.  I wanted to take pictures but didn't want to be rude.  They were prob already annoyed at all the pics I took here.  

Food was amazing some were a bit pretentious for us Seattlites but never the less a great experience.

Tomatoe Ceviche

Tomatoe with Cliantro Sauce

Yellow Tail Sashimi with Jalapeno

Seabass

Braised Tofu with Mushrooms

Dessert Bento Box.  This was a flourless chocolate cake with green tea ice cream.

Banana Caramel Soy Tabanyaki.  A caramel soy banana with roasted pecans and malaga ice cream.