Cabbage Battle, Round 2

Last night I made Iron Chef Chen's fried rice and tonight I felt the need to expand on the Chinese Cabbage Battle episode by making some stuffed cabbage.



I sauteed up some chopped garlic, ginger, and red chilies that we got from the farmer's market last week. Then I added some ground pork, Sichuan pepper, tamari, and a little rice wine vinegar. I cooled it slightly before adding some egg to the mixture along with a little of the turkey stock remaining from last week's Coq au Vin.

After boiling some nappa cabbage leaves I cooled them, wrapped the mixture, and finished by steaming them. I topped them with chopped ginger, scallion, and sliced carrot. I also served some sweet chili sauce on the side even though it wasn't really necessary. I thought it better created the feel of an Iron Chef dish which are usually served with separate bowls for dipping sauces.



I also made a salad with kale, rice vinegar, sesame oil, lime slices, shredded carrot, Sichuan pepper, and pickled ginger.



For a beverage I poured some Lagunitas Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale. At first sip I did not like this and by the end I really enjoyed it. I hate to be that guy to say that it has "notes of this or that" but it tasted shockingly like grapefruit. The aftertaste in particular made me feel as though I'd just taken a giant bite of the citrus fruit. This paired far better with the cabbage rolls than I thought it would.

There is still a tremendous amount of nappa cabbage in the fridge. I really should have taken a photograph of the size of this head of nappa before I started using it. I've lost count but I must have used it in a half dozen dishes so far over the course of several weeks. My new technique of watching the appropriate Iron Chef episode to come up with ideas for how to use leftovers seems to be paying off well. In addition to reawakening my interest in Japanese (and more so Chinese) cooking it has helped me push a tremendous amount of food out of the fridge before it spoils.

Not to mention that it's quite likely the greatest show that's ever been on television in any language, time, or country.

I ♥ Chen Kenichi.

Marathon of Cooking (But Mostly Running)

After a long day in the cold in New York City watching tens of thousands of runners struggle through the 26.2 miles while standing comfortably on the sidelines we returned home for dinner.

My obsession with Iron Chef has only gained steam over the past few weeks. Re-watching all the episodes (and discovering many we'd never seen) has definitely had an influence on my cooking recently.



After watching many Iron Chef episodes we watched a great battle with the theme ingredient of Chinese Cabbage. I became quite fond of Chen Kenichi's technique for making fried rice and decided to emulate it.

It's very simple: a little sesame oil, shredded cabbage, cooked rice, egg, and soy sauce. I used very little soy sauce (much like Iron Chef Chinese) but also added some thinly sliced carrots, mostly because there were some extras in the fridge. I had leftover coconut rice from my boring stir fry so that was a little nonstandard but it worked out pretty well.



It was a great dinner after all day in the cold but we capped it off with some Aztec cocoa from McTwigan Spices which was seasoned with cinnamon and chilies. I hadn't actually realized the seasoning before I added a little Amaretto to Jen's and a little Frangelico to mine. I topped them both with some whipped cream which had held up in the fridge admirably since Canadian Thanksgiving. Combined with the spices I wound up sweating by the end of my cup.

It was thick enough to be eaten with a fork so I may ignore the directions next time and add twice as much milk.

Like so many people I'd love to blame going to bed at 9:15 PM as having to do with Daylight Savings Time. But who am I kidding? I'd totally go to bed at 9:15 PM at any day of the year.

Any day of the year that was awesome!

Boring Stir Fry Night

Yesterday I was set to make a really boring stir fry but elected to do something a little more creative. The inspiration for this comes from watching a vast number of Iron Chef episodes recently. I feel compelled to mention, again, that this is the Japanese version of Iron Chef and not that terrible affront to the original series, Iron Chef America.



Due to the vast quantities of nappa cabbage and bok choy in the fridge I felt compelled to make a very boring stir fry. I remember a time in the early 90's when stir fries seemed kind of interesting and exciting. Now it seems about as plain and exciting as making mashed potatoes. That being said, this one was pretty tasty.

I browned some crushed garlic and minced ginger root in a little sesame oil, cooked down some carrot and red pepper, then tossed in the shopped bok choy and nappa cabbage. I added some rice wine vinegar, tamari, and roasted red chili paste.

I cooked some rice in coconut milk and served the completed stir fry over the rice. It was actually far tastier than I thought it would be considering all I was doing was using up stuff I had lying around.



For beer I found a fall ale that I'd somehow missed! Having sampled just about every fall beer I could get my hands on by the beginning of October, it was nice to have something new this evening. This was the Fall Summit Ale from Peak Organic in Maine.

It was a great counterpoint to a spicy stir fry on a rainy evening. But not quite as good as watching Iron Chef Italian defeat the owner of a food cart.

Today's Theme Ingredient: Fun

I was going to make a really boring stir fry for dinner tonight. Mostly because I have most of a giant head of nappa cabbage in the fridge and that's just what you do with some leftover nappa cabbage. However, we live in Westchester, land of the 90's style Asian-fusion restaurant. And it's my birthday. And I just didn't feel like making a stir fry.

So for that reason I opened the fridge, took a good look, and decided I was going to just make some other stuff that would be delicious and would be something I'd want to eat.



I'm not claiming to be as great a chef as Hiroyuki Sukai. In fact I'm not even claiming to be great at all. Or even a chef. However, Jen and I have been watching a ton of Iron Chef recently. The original Japanese version, not that terrible abomination that is Iron Chef America. Watching this has made me wish to serve more than just one course for dinner. The only downside is there's generally not one theme ingredient. If there was a theme ingredient it would be something like frugality, or leftovers, or laziness. There weren't enough abstract themes on Iron Chef.

I started with this "salad" made from a halved comice pear and filled with a very simple blue cheese mousse which I made with some leftover blue cheese, cream cheese, and cream. I served it atop a bed of kale with lemon vinaigrette.



For a second course I threw together some ingredients to make a smoked salmon omelette. I added some smoked salmon, cream cheese, onion, caper, and served with some cornichons, and peppadew.



For a main course I threw together a makeshift coq au vin. I went to culinary school and that particular school placed a large importance on French cooking. In fact I'd say that 98% of what we learned was classical French. So much importance was placed on French cooking that in the two years I was there we took three days to study the cuisines of Asia. You know, the continent. The one with hundreds, maybe thousands, of individual and distinct cuisines which go back millenia.

I'd be graded somewhere in the neighborhood of F for the authenticity of this version of coq au vin. However, I'd be graded an A+ for use of ingredients I had lying around the house kitchen having to do any additional grocery shopping. It also helps that I'm the one giving out the latter grade.

There are a number of things I'd be graded poorly on for this version of coq au vin. One would be the lack of noodles to serve it on. Another would be the thinness of the sauce. Another would be an absence of mushrooms.

However, I would grade the chefs at my esteemed cooking school an A+ in going to hell!

I simply broke apart a chicken into 8 parts, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and dredged them in flour before browning them in a pan. I put them aside in my makeshift Dutch oven, then browned up some salt port, onion, carrot, celery, and chopped potato. I also tossed in the remainder of the roasted garlic I had in the fridge. Then I deglazed the pan with some red wine (the rest of a bottle I didn't really care for) and some of the turkey stock I made over the weekend. After that I put it in the oven at for a little over an hour.

So this was vaguely traditional but, honestly, I probably preferred this over the classic recipe. Though I did miss the mushrooms. With the potatoes I didn't miss the noodles at all.



Jen brought home a selection of cupcakes from Crumbs which served as my birthday cake. The best part is that after splitting one tonight there are still three left!



Jen worked very late this evening but returned late to shower me with presents. One of which was Chore Boy. Chore Boy is the greatest item in the entire world for helping clean pots and pans. I haven't been able to find it for over a year and research recently revealed that it's because apparently some people use it to make crystal meth. I may be the only person in the world who would actually be happy to receive this as a gift. Except maybe someone who wanted to get start up the world's smallest meth lab.



Our pizza stone broke a couple of months ago after several years of service. So I also received a new pizza stone and a pizza peel which I intend to put into use as soon as possible.



I also got this handsome flannel shirt which prompted me to launch into an extended Eddie Vedder impression. Here I am singing the song "Hunger Strike."

At this point I think Jen had wished she'd worked even later this evening than she had.

Smoked Salmon Pizza

A late night at the office tonight left me little time to make what I wanted to make for dinner. Instead I had just enough time to put on some water to make some raviolis and concoct a quick dish out of the leftovers in the fridge.



I had a small amount of smoked salmon left over from the weekend so I toasted up some naan from the freezer and smeared it with cream cheese. Over the top I sprinkled some chopped kale, smoked salmon, sliced onion, and cornichons.

I also tried out my new close up lens a little more. My last lens was barely within my ability to use properly. This new lens requires way more expertise than I have. And for that reason the pictures that you are about to see in the coming weeks will probably be quite shabby.

I apologize in advance.