Les Desserts - my new favorite book

yes, it is my new favorite. i will try the very 1st recipe next week since i'm in no shape to bake this week. i got one recipe translated today (it's in japanese) - it's the macaron recipe, of course! i will post the new recipe and the result next weekend.

on with the book, why do i like this book even though i can't read it without the help of a translator? first reason is the photos. everything is beautifully photographed but not intimidating fancy artsy photographs. the photographs are simple and very inspiring, make you want to bake and create things... second reason is the step by step instructions with illustrated photos. even when i don't understand the language, i could still tell what i suppose to do according to the step by step instructional photos. third reason is the range of covered subjects. chapter one starts out with the simplest dessert - Blanc Manger. next chapter is all about Custard. then on to Mousse and the next logical step is the Bavaroise... Fruit Compote, Ice cream, Sorbet, Souffle, Tarts, Chocolate, Crepe, Petit Four, Macaron, Cake... every chapter starts with the basic recipe and build up to a more complex ones, it just makes perfect sense to me.

i will have to have many many many... translation sessions with my friends and many experiments to follow... that'll be exciting. haven't tried any recipe from this book, i still reccommend it because the book makes sense to me. i got this book because i know i'm going to ask everyone i know who can translate to decipher this book for me one recipe at a time. even if i can't find anyone, i'd still get the book for all the reasons above, the book is simply very inspiring to me.

Japanese rice cake

i went to J-town for grocery today and got some rice cake. i always crave sweet when i'm sick, why??? my Japanese friend told me to get this pink rice cake - "it tastes more interesting" she said. And indeed it does. the outer skin is made out of sweet glutenous sticky rice and colored in pink. the inside is the typical Japanese sweet red bean paste. the interesting part is the pickled cherry leaf wraping on the outside (that should be or can be eaten with the cake). the pickled cherry leaf taste reminded me of the slightly salty pickled plum crossing with the grape leaf taste in domus (correct spelling here???). very interesting indeed, i really like it.

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!