Chicken rice soup

have been sick all week, i've been eating restaurant soups and grocery store carton soups until today - when i actually felt a bit better to make some homemade chicken rice soup.
i got some chicken breast filets, ginger, green onion and some leftover steam rice, i'm good to go.
in a pot of boiling water, add some salt then add chicken. turn the stove down low, enough to keep the water at simmering, chicken will be cooked better at slow heat. skim the broth if needed, take the chicken filets out when they are just cooked, let them rest. turn up the heat to bring the broth to a boil, add rice. again, turn down the heat to low and cook the rice at simmering heat. if starting out with raw rice, it's better to toast the rice until the grains turn slightly golden, then add to the broth. i used cooked rice since i had leftover.

slice or pull chicken filets to bite size. slice ginger to thread sticks. slice green onion into thin slices. my soup was done by the time i finished slicing everything. season with salt, sugar and fresh cracked pepper. if you are not afraid of fish sauce, add a table spoon of fish sauce to the soup. the fish sauce will add a new layer of taste to the soup. add chicken, ginger, and onion to the soup. i plated the chicken and the garnishing in the bowl before ladling the boiling hot soup into the bowl, just for a nicer presentation. drizzle over the soup with a few drops of sesame seed oil and a couple turns of fresh cracked pepper and voila!

Seoul Garden

Saturday, i went to J-town to get my new favorite baking book which i will discuss in my next blog. it was already after one and i didn't have anything to eat since i got up this morning, i went for the korean bbq at Seoul garden.

the restaurant has always been there but for some reason it's kind of obscured to me since i've rarely gone to that side of the mall.
the restaurant is in a nice space, very clean an more spacious than i thought. it was not crowded here on this saturday afternoon, only a couple interacial families with small toddlers sat at 2 booths. i ordered the bbq pork. it came with soup, steamed rice, all the pickles and lettuce to wrap the bbq. this is the second Korean restaurant that serves bbq with lettuce for wrapping. the first one i had that serves bbq this way was on the other side of the Atlantic - Barcelona, Spain, very odd coincident indeed... everything was good. the pork was a hair on the salty side for me. And the condiments (pickles and such) are in bigger portion but less variety. i, of course, prefer the opposite which is more variety and smaller portion. i will find a perfect korean bbq place one day!

Seoul Garden
1655 Post st. (in Miyako Mall, Japan Center)
San Francisco, ca 94115
415.563.7664
http://www.seoulgardenbbq.com/

Nihon, Manora Thai, Nihon

thursday night, another birthday dinner! yes, our girl wanted to go to Manora Thai restaurant in the SOMA. we've been having some gorgeous weather lately so i suggested we leave work early for some cool drinks. Nihon was a block from Manora so that was our first stop. it's a loft space with industrial decor, eclectic crowd and the drinks are good here. Nihon also offers modern japanese/california bar food in tapas size, my kind of food but since we were having dinner later... no food at Nihon, just drinks. the 2 girls were having pommergranate cosmo and some kind of whisky drinks, i had the vokda with ginger (may be infused???) and peach liqueur... i forgot the name of the drink but it was delish! and it was happy hour so we got a good deal, can't beat that.

Dinner time, yeah. the restaurant was a traditional Thai restaurant with traditional Thai interior. the crowd was mixed (because we were there)...or may be more family oriented. we had a table of 10 next to us with 4 noisy kids... and adults. the food were really good - authentic, said the birthday girl. we had the pad thai, of course. you can't eat at a Thai restaurant and not order pad thai. we also ordered the pooket skewers which are grilled shellfish (prawns, scallops, clams, mussels) and vegetables skewers, chicken curry, and asparagus with prawns in lobster sauce. everything was yummy... my favorite was the asparagus in lobster sauce. i was surprise they didn't have sticky rice, i was kind of in the mood for that instead of the regular jasmine rice.

anyway, we chowed down fast, it was not even 9 yet so we decided to go back to Nihon for 1 more round of deliciousness. we sat down at the same table, got the same waitress and she actually remembered what we had so we didn't even have to order! that's service.


Nihon
1779 folsom st. (at 14th)
san francisco, ca 94103
415.552.4400
http://www.dajanigroup.net/

Manora Thai
1600 folsom st (at 13th, i think)
san francisco, ca 94103
http://www.manorathai.com/

My Eggplant curry

i need more vegetarian dishes at home since i always have some kind of meat or seafood when i'm eating out. i found these round green eggplants from the vietnamese market, i don't know the name for them in english, but i think they belong in the eggplant family.
they are firm like green tomatoes, the flesh inside is white with tiny seeds much like poppy seeds. once cooked they got softer and the flesh has a sweeter after taste than eggplants. i also got some mushrooms, fried tofu skin and peanut for some vegetarian protein. of course lemon grass is a must in my vietnamese curry.

on with making the curry. slice then chop lemon grass as fine as possible. cut all vegetable and tofu skin to bite size. crack roasted peanuts in to big chunks. in a pan with hot oil, add lemon grass and stir occasionally until the lemon grass turns golden. add both kind of eggplants, stir about 1-2 minutes or until the eggplants are half cooked. add mushrooms and tofu stir for 1-2 minutes more until everything is just cooked. season with curry powder, salt, sugar and cayene pepper. add a bit of coconut milk or cream or milk, it helps to mellow out the spices, toss well.

My version of Kimpira

i really like the taste and texture of gobo (burdock root) and a couple of japanese friends had told me how to make kimpira - a simple stir fry gobo dish - something that i really need in my daily diet since i've been eating out too often these days.
i researched online and found out that most of the flavor comes from the skin of the gobo and some people just scrubbed the skin clean instead of peeling it. i used the back of the knife to scrap it slightly, then washed, boiled for 1 minute and let it sit in the pot for another 10 minutes. the gobo will continue to be cooked with the residual heat. take gobo out of hot water and dunk them in cold water to stop the cooking instantly, then cut into thin slices. i had some carrot and celery in the fridge so i thought i add a bit of each for flavor. cut the carrot into match stick size and shave the celery crosswise at and angle.
in a hot pan with hot safflower oil and sesame seed oil, add gobo, carrot and celery, stir to cook for about 3-4 minutes or until the vegetables are just cooked. season with soysauce, honey and cayene pepper. drizzle with more sesame seed oil and sprinkle with toasted black sesame seeds. i had this with steam rice for dinner, clean and simple. i felt lighter already!

Cardinal slice

adapted from "baking with Julia" book, this recipe needs alot of revisions! first, i had problem with the genoise batter, it was a bit runny so it was kind of messy to pipe. next problem was the baking with the oven door cracked open with a wooden spoon. these will be addressed in the latter part of the recipe.
i added toasted almond and changed the whipped cream to butter cream since i need this cake to last longer than 4 hrs. i also skip the color syrup, instead used cocoa powder, espresso powder and kahlua

for the butter cream:

200gr sugar (i suggest using 150gr since it was a bit too sweet for me)
50gr water or less, just enough to cover the sugar.
85gr egg yolk, 5 yolks
230gr butter
2 table spoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 table spoon instant espresso powder
1-2 table spoon boiling water
1 table spoon kahlua

slice butter into about 10 slices total, set aside. add water to sugar, simmer on medium until soft ball or register 240F on candy thermometer. while the sugar is cooking, beat yolks on medium for 2 minutes then high until sugar syrup is ready . once sugar is ready, lower speed to medium and pour sugar in yolk at a small constant stream while continue beating. once done with the sugar, increase speed to high and beat until the mixture cool down completely. add butter, one slice at a time an beat at medium until homogenous.
dissolve espresso powder with boiling water, let it cool then add kahlua, mix well. fold espresso into buttercream until homogenous. add cocoa powder to buttercream and fold again until homogenous. cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate until ready to use.

for the almond
150 gr of sliced almond, toast in oven until golden. let it cool down completely. set aside.

for the cake
preheat oven at 300F. line a jelly roll pan with parchment. on the reverse side of parchment, mark 3 of 3" wide panels, 3/4" apart. the lengh of each panel should be the same as the length of jelly roll pan. prepare piping bag with 1/2" round tip.
the cake has 2 different batter, the meringue and the ladyfinger genoise

for the meringue:
150gr eggwhites, 4 whites at room temp.
80gr sugar
85gr powder sugar

beat eggwhite at medium speed to frothy, add sugar at small constant stream. once done with sugar, increase speed to high and beat until stiff peaks. sift in powder sugar and fold in 2 portion until homogenous. fill piping bags and pipe 3 rows per panel (i need more practice with the piping!). set aside. save leftover for genoise

for the genoise:
leftover meringue
225gr eggs, 4 eggs at room temp.
60gr egg yolks, 4 yolks at room temp.
50gr sugar
110gr flour
1 teaspoon vanilla

add leftover meringue, eggs, yolks, sugar to mixing bowl, beat on low for 30 seconds to mix, speed up to medium for 2 minutes and increase to high until tripple in volume. sift in flour and fold in 2 portions until homogenous. add vanilla. fill piping bag and pipe in between the rows of meringue, 2 rows of genoise per panel.
save leftover for cake or lady fingers.
bake cake about 40-60 minutes, open door for 5 seconds every 15minutes for steam to escape.

the original recipe called for baking with oven door cracked open, it did not work for me. aslo i reccommend cutting the batter recipe in 1/2 or 1/3 so you won't have alot leftover. also using the leftover meringue for genoise is not precise at all, i think this caused my runny batter!! (i couldn't believe a professional pastry chef wrote this recipe and Julia approved) i reccommend making the genoise with its own recipe. i have to search for that recipe. if there's left over meringue, make meringue kisses.

once the cake is done, let it cool on rack completely. trim both ends of all panels to make them neat and even. save the prettiest one for the top layer. spread a thin layer of buttercream on 2 panels, sprinke with toasted almond. save a bit of butter cream for patching up afterward. divide the rest of the buttercream in 2 portions and pipe them on top of 2 almond panels. stack one almond panel on top of the other, press down slightly. stack the last one on top, press down slightly. use the remaining buttercream to patch the ends or sides if needed. dust top panel with unsweetened cocoa powder. refrigerate at least 1 hr to set.

Maki

a friend told me that Maki also has really good noodle soup, so i went on saturday to check it out. i didn't end up having soup but ordered a fancy version of bento box.
everything came in its little dishes and all together on a tray instead of in little compartments of a bento box. miso came in a bowl with a lid! there were seaweed salad, japanese pickles (daikon and carrot) and the cold tofu. the main dish was the unagi (bbq eel) with egg and green peas on a bed of rice all steamed together in a wooden basket with its own lid! everything were good and all were on the sweet side. i think it's more authentic since i've been told that real japanese food is more on the sweet side. the tofu is something different. it was cold, i've not had cold tofu before so it is definitely an acquired taste. that was an interesting lunch, i think i'll try the noodle soup next time.
the restaurant is tiny, all the tables are super close to each other and it's always packed.


Maki
Kinokuniya building
1825 Post st.
San Francisco, CA 94115
415.921.5215