Supermarketing Adventures in Filipinotown

About a month ago, we moved to Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles. It’s know for two things: Tommy’s on Rampart and Temple Street gangsters. I knew that I would get to shop for handmade tortillas, dried chiles and have access to great Asian markets, but I truly was not prepared for the bounty of international foods that comes with this part of town.

Since we’ve moved, we’ve eaten Korean, Thai, Pilipino, pho, and dim sum… we’ve had it all, man. I can barely keep up. And as we drive through the neighborhood, I keep getting greedy for more. I want to know more about all of these foods; how to cook them; what’s the best to order; and where to get it.

Here’s a quick rundown of the markets that we’ve tried and my thoughts on them:

JONS MARKET. My girlfriend Steph was joking that you know you’re in the ‘hood when you see a Jons. But I actually think the food is better here than at Ralphs or Vons, which are both very close to us on Vermont and Third, but they have terrible produce. Why go anywhere else when you have this excllent Mexican/Latin food market. You can find tomatillos, epazote, inexpensive meats, tortillas, Mexican cookies, etc. I picked up a pack of 5 chicken breasts with the bone and skin for under 5 dollars. I spent a little extra time skinning and boning the breasts and the slicing them into little tenders. I froze those into little packs for one night’s dinner. They were so convenient. And we actually ran through them so quickly that I might not freeze them in the future.

HANNAM MARKET. This is a phat OG Korean market on Vermont and Olympic. My mom put me on to this place when I was cooking for my daughter’s bibimbap birthday party. And now I’m hooked on the affordable, fresh meat. It helps to be able to speak Korean when dealing with the butcher. I also went crazy and bought all kinds of fun Korean and Japanese crackers and cookies which I use to bribe the child. I’m excited about the flank steak, which I’ll be using to make seaweed soup. I also bought a whole chicken, cut it into 8 pieces and skinned them, which I then browned in a heavy stockpot, added carrots, celery, onion, and garlic. I deglazed the pot, while the veggies browned and carmelized. I added some water. Returned the chicken to the pot. I served with cooked rotelli, and it was truly revelatory chicken soup. That whole thing got eaten up in one night. My daughter had three tiny bowls.

SEAFOOD CITY. I love the seafood at this Pilipino market. You will find shrimp, octopus, squid, fish of every breed, all laid out for you to examine. We bought two whole tilapias and had the guy behind the counter clean, scale, and deepfry both of them. I wasn’t crazy about his scaling job. We took them back to our place, where Stephanie made a sweet and sour escabeche sauce with garlic and red bell pepper drizzled over the fish. It was delicious with white rice. We plan on going back. Especially for the beef and chicken empanadas from Red Ribbon next door. I might want to pick up some salmon scraps to make fried salmon cakes for Plum in starfish shapes. We also discovered this delicious soy sauce with kalamansi juice and red pepper seasoning. It makes everything it touches really good. Especially lumpia.

Tonight, I feel compelled to make a tomatillo salsa verde when I get home, with those tomatillos I got at Jons. Sigh. The thought of roasting those tomatillos makes me feel a little tired. But it will be worth it when we have that tangy green sauce to spread on our eggs and black beans.

Kino-Latino: Loco for Mexican Food

Fusing my beloved traditional Korean food with Mexican food is one of my longstanding culinary quests. My husband is half Mexican and so it makes sense to try to forge a few meals that combine the two flavors for my family. And you know what? It’s not such a stretch! Both Mexican food and Korean food use a lot of chiles, garlic and onions. Both of them employ a lot of beans and rice.

Here are some ways I’ve been doing some cultural cross-polinating:

• 1. Instead of traditional pinto beans or black beans, I serve red azuki beans with rice as a side for Mexican dishes. Tonight I plan on serving exactly that with chicken tacos. The earthiness is a natural.
• 2. My favorite Kino-Latino marinade uses soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, cumin, chili powder, brown sugar or honey, salt and pepper. This is delicious for skirt steak, chicken breasts and especially, little chicken drumettes—kids love this.
• 3. Bulgogi tacos… why not? Actually, I have to confess, I haven’t made that yet. But I plan, too. I recently read a New York Times article about Kino-Latino tacos that involve spicy bits of pork, tofu and kim chee. FYI: They don’t use the term, Kino-Latino, it’s my own invention and a play off of Chino-Latino, which speaks to the cultural fusing of Chinese and Latin American food in Puerto Rico and Cuba. It would be super delish to assemble little tacos topped with piquant slices of kim chee. I also envision bulgogi burritos with sticky sweet rice, azuki beans and kim chee would be the bomb, no?

Any more ideas would be much obliged!

Are Foodies Pretentious?

When I call myself a foodie, I can’t help but cringe. It seems like I am acting too big for my britches. So these days I have been reconsidering how I think about food. For a long time I have been totally regimented and extreme about how I plan and prepare meals. Every Sunday, I bought only organic meat and produce at the farmer’s market. No matter how much it rained or how cold it was, I dutifully fought through the traffic to get to the market. And then I would force myself to prepare fresh vegetables and gourmet meals every night of the week. Everything had to be made from scratch, too. And I hardly ate out.

But all too often, my meals went under eaten. No toddler wants to eat an arugula and tomato tart, no matter if it came from a James Beard awarded recipe book. And honestly, my husband would rather have meatloaf or tacos then pot roast or roasted chicken.

I harbored much resentment towards my family for not enjoying these gourmet meals the way I did. They didn’t understand the commitment. The passion. The sacrifice. But if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

For a while, I was simply sick of swimming upstream like a wild sockeye salmon, only to jump headfirst into the mouth of the grizzly bear of resentment. That’s why I haven’t blogged much. I’m trying to get into a new kind of eating groove, one that makes room for my family’s tastes as well as my own.

Like most non-foodie men, the husband loves it when I make a really hearty chili from scratch, with a gorgeous chuck roast that I’ve lovingly trimmed and diced into one-inch cubes—but no beans! He likes a good spaghetti sauce made with canned whole tomatoes, ground beef, onions and garlic. He loves breaded chicken cutlets served with pasta and marinara sauce. His tastes are simple. And I’m learning to appreciate that.

Because I can bake rolls and pot roasts until I’m blue in the face, but if there’s no one around to enjoy them, what good is that? It killed me to throw out 40 percent of that pot roast I described making below.

So… we’ve been eating out a lot more lately. And I have to admit it, it is fun and easy! We’ve had Subway, quesadillas and burritos from a great taco chain called Benito’s which rules L.A., and tonight I think we’re going to try Crispy Crust pizza. So I can’t be Ina Garten—I’d rather have harmony in the home.

Below you’ll find a recipe that the husband always appreciates. I originally found this recipe on that awesome website joyofbaking.com but over the years, I’ve adapted it so that it’s less sweet and more healthy. Also the husband can’t stand nuts.

BANANA BREAD

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup of whole wheat flour (hehe, he has no idea this is in there!!!)
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup of melted regular butter (we always use salted, despite what those foodies say)
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and place oven rack in middle position. Butter and flour the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon. Set aside.

3. In another large bowl, combined bananas, eggs, melted butter and vanilla.

4. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until combined and the batter is thick and chunky. Do not overmix the batter, or else it will be tough and rubbery bread.

5. Scrape batter into prepared pan. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool and serve.

An Honest-to-Goodness Sunday Night Family Dinner

I’ve always had this idealized fantasy of Sunday night dinner. A wise and nurturing matriarch—played by me—assembles a dazzling array of comfort foods. Cousins, uncles, aunts and children of every size and temperament come together and break bread as one tribe.

I’ve been trying in my own little way to start the Sunday night dinner tradition. And when I saw the step-by-step directions for pot roast in Gourmet magazine this month, I decided that I would finally try to master this hearty winter dish.

This is the menu that I wanted to serve on Sunday night for a nice family dinner:

Pot Roast with Carmelized Onions and Wine Sauce
Buttermilk Fantail Dinner Rolls
Arugula Salad with Strawberries and Toasted Almonds
Mexican Chocolate Pudding

My goal was to make an elaborate and somewhat fancy dinner that didn’t cost too much. Although much time and effort was poured into making these dishes, the initial cost of the ingredients was relatively low. I also had a lot of these items in my pantry. (As I type this, my two-year-old keeps coming to my desk and bugging me. So if my writing sucks, it’s because I’m using a tiny fraction of my actual brain power. I know it’s a sorry excuse, but it’s true.)

The first thing that I had to prepare was the dough for the buttermilk fantails. Then while that was rising, I browned the roast on all sides in a heavy cast iron pot. This took a lot of concentration, so I couldn’t really multi-task and get started on any of the other dishes. But I did slice up a ton of onions, way too much, if you ask me. I’ve made slight modifications to the recipes to suit my own personal needs. For instance, I didn’t have a 5 pound chuck roast, so I used a 4 pound one instead. I used wine instead of beer, etc. Once I got the pot roast going in the oven, I focused my attention on the chocolate pudding which required a few hours to chill in the oven. Essentially, I had to start cooking by noon if I wanted dinner on the table by 6. But it was all a pleasure from beginning to end.

Here are the recipes:

BUTTERMILK FANTAILS

Makes 1 dozen rolls

1 stick plus 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted, divided
2 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup of warm water
1 tbsp honey
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk

1. Stir together yeast, warm water, honey in a large bowl and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. The first time I did it, the mixture didn’t foam so I tried again in a different bowl and it worked.
2. Mix flour, salt, buttermilk and 6 tbsp of butter into yeast mixture with wooden spoon until a soft dough forms.
3. Turn out dough onto a well-floured surface and knead, suting surface and your hands with just enough flour to keep dough from sticking, until dough is elastic and smooth. Form dough into a ball.
4. Put dough in a bowl, cover and let rise in a draft free, warm room until doubled. I use my bedroom closet’s upper shelf because it’s dark and mellow in there.
5. Now butter a muffin pan with 12 muffin cups with butter.
6. Punch down dough then halve. Roll out half of dough on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin into a 12-inch square (about 1/8 inch thick; keep remaining half covered with plastic wrap).
7. Brush dough with 1/2 tbsp butter and cut into 6 equal strips. Stack strips, buttered sides up, and cut crosswise into 6 equal pieces (confession: I used olive oil during this step because I forgot to reserve butter for this and it was fine). Turn each piece on a side and place in muffin cup. Separate outer layers of each roll to fan outward. Cover rolls with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled and dough fills cups about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. This second rising is critical for baking bread because it develops the crumb structure and shouldn’t be rushed at all ever!
8. Preheat oven to 375 degrees with rack in middle. Bake rolls until golden brown about 20-25 minutes.

WINE-BRAISED BEEF AND ONIONS

The recipe is actually called beer-braised beef and onions, but I had this wine from Southern Illinois that my father sent me that I thought would be perfect in this capacity.

The recipe calls for 3 pounds of onions, but in my opinion, that’s way too much. Just get two large onions and that should be plenty.

A large 5 to 6 quart cast iron pan is absolutely necessary for this dish. Enamel is even better, but I just have a plain cast iron one that did the job beautifully.

2 large onions
3 pound boneless beef chuck roast tied
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 bay leaves
1/2 bottle of wine

1. Halve onions lengthwise, then slice lengthwise 1/4 inch thick.
2. Pat beef dry and season all over with salt and pepper. I forgot this step and had to season the beef once it was already sizzling and spattering in the pan! OUCH!
3. Heat oil in pot over medium heat until it shimmers. Brown beef on all sides, then transfer to a plate. I can’t over emphasize how important this part is, so make sure you take your time with it and don’t multi-task. Just focus on getting a lovely color all around because that translates into flavor later.
4. Cook onions with bay leaves and 1/2 tsp salt in pot, scraping up brown bits from bottom and stirring occasionally, until onions are well browned, about 25 minutes. I’ve never cooked an onion this long, but I was impressed with the color, aroma and texture that was attained at this point in the cooking.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in middle. Keep in mind, I put the pot roast in before the fantails and just increased the temperature a bit for the 25 minutes that the rolls were baking. I returned the heat to 350 once the fantails were done.
6. Add wine to onions and bring to a boil. Add beef and meat juices from plate and return to a boil.
7. Cover and braise in oven until meat is very tender when pierced in several places with a meat for, about two hours. They said 3 1/2 which I think would have been too long for my little hunk of meat.
8. Transfer beef to a cutting board and let stand, loosely covered, 20 minutes. Cut off string, then slice meat. Skim off fat from sauce and discard bay leaves. Serve braised beef with onions and sauce.

MEXICAN CHOCOLATE PUDDING

This is a rich chocolate treat, and if you skip the butter, great for vegetarians and vegans!

Serves 4

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups plain unsweetened almond milk
1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into bits
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Garnish: toasted slivered almonds — I made extra for my salad, too!

1. Whisk together brown sugar, cocoa,, cornstarch, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt in a medium saucepan, then whisk in almond milk. Bring to boil over medium heat, whisking often, then boil, whisking, 1 minute. Remove from heat and whisk in butter and vanilla. Chill in a bowl, surface covered with a piece of buttered wax paper, until cold, at least 1 1/2 hours.

ARUGULA SALAD WITH STRAWBERRIES AND TOASTED ALMONDS

Unlike the recipes above, this one is actually my own.

Serves 4

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil
few grinds of fresh black pepper
3 cups of fresh arugula
1/2 cup of hulled and sliced strawberries
2 tbsp of toasted and slivered almonds

1. Whisk salt with both vinegars. Taste and make sure it sparkles.
2. Gradually whisk in the olive oil.
3. Add the black pepper.
4. Combine arugula, strawberries and almond. Toss in the vinaigrette until the salad is well coated.
5. Serve immediately.

Tofu Kim Chee Bowl

I love how kim chee tastes when it’s cooked. The raw harshness of the garlic is diffused by the heat, and the napa cabbage takes on a chewier texture. But I only get to enjoy this kind of yumminess when I go all out and make kim chee chigae (or stew). But that’s a big commitment—like all serious Korean food! On a cold day like this I wanted that cozy comforting chigae vibe but without all of the stewing and work, so I made a modified Tofu Kim Chee Bowl that was really yummy and quick.

Serves 2

1 diced sausage (I used andouille, but whatever you have lying around will work, like Spam—yes, I know that’s ghetto)
2 cups of squeezed out and ripe kim chee
1/2 package of tofu, diced into 1-inch cubes
1 teaspoon of Asian sesame oil
steamed rice

1. Brown the sausage in a hot oiled pan over medium-high heat.
2. Add the kim chee and sesame oil. Cook until opaque.
3. Add the tofu.
4. Add about a tablespoon of water and cover. Let cook for about 5 minutes.

Put a serving of rice in a bowl and top with this concoction. It might not be the classiest dish, but it sure is grubbin’!

Quest for the Perfect Mandoo

The other day my mama brought over a really special treat: handmade mandoo from New Year’s Day. It’s the one time of year when she makes a huge batch of meticulously folded potstickers filled with bean sprouts, pork, tofu and seasonings. She freezes it in sheets and then stores it in plastic bags which she distributes to certain special family members. We can keep these in the freezer and quickly heat them up when the mood strikes.

Korean mandoo can be served fried, like Japanese style gyoza or steamed or my favorite way, boiled in hot water for a few minutes, like Italian style ravioli. The result is a silken skin stuffed with pungent, meaty ingredients. I’ve never successfully mastered this difficult recipe, because it requires squeezing out a lot of water and careful freezing methods. Maybe next New Year’s I’ll give it a shot. But even if I nail the fillling, it’ll be a while before I can fold them as prettily as my mama does.

Shrimp, Tofu, and Spinach Soup

I found this recipe in an old Food and Wine cookbook, Quick From Scratch: Real Food for Busy Weeknights, that my mama gave me a few years back. I tried it for lunch the other day and it was absolutely divine, restorative, light and refreshing. And it came together very quickly with just a little prep work. I cut out some of the ingredients to customize for the kid, ie. no red pepper flakes, mushrooms or curry powder per picky husband. Plum enjoyed the spinach!

Serves 4

1 bundle of bean threads
1 tablespoon of cooking oil
1 tablespoon grated ginger
3 cloves of garlic (though you could probably use less)
1 1/2 quarts of chicken broth (i used my own homemade)
3 tablespoons of Asian fish sauce (this is key)
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
a pinch of salt
1/2 pound of trimmed and cut up spinach (about 5 cups)
4 scallions including green tops, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 pound of tofu cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 pound medium shrimp, shelled and cleaned
1 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice

1. Cover noodles with hot water in medium bowl. Allow to soften for 15 minutes or more.

2. In a large pot, heat oil over moderate heat. Add ginger and garlic and stir for a few minutes. Add stock, fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar, salt. Bring to a boil. Add shrimp, spinach, scallions, tofu and noodles. Allow to cook together for about 2 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and serve!

Spinach and Cherimoya, But Not Together!

I made it out to the Hollywood farmer’s market early this morning. The lot is so tiny and cutthroat that only the early bird gets the coveted parking spot.

I noticed that somebody was giving tasters of cherimoya, a strange green scaly South American tropical fruit that I had never tasted before. Once I sunk my teeth into the creamy flesh, a sweet, fragrant and rather slimy sensation enveloped my palate. Though Mark Twain once called it the most delicious fruit known to man, I could’ve done without the numerous pebble hard black seeds embedded in its gelatinous interior. Still I bought a ripe one to see if I would like it more at home, enjoyed with a civilized spoon rather than scarfed down as a roughly chopped taster. It was good, but I like the apple-like green guavas instead.

I also picked up the obligatory eggs, a loaf of sliced French bread, a loaf of nine-grain bread (both from the Bread Man—he’s the best), a week’s worth of small Fuji apples and some Page mandarins, which Plum will do just about anything for as a treat.

As I was perusing dainty heads of organic red leaf lettuce, a woman next to me was raving about the mildness and crunchiness of organic heirloom spinach and urged me to taste a leaf. Indeed it was just as unsandy and pleasant as one could want in spinach, and I promptly bought a bag. I’m still waiting for inspiration to strike. I could use it shredded in a soup because I have some chicken broth waiting to be eaten. Or I could toss it with toasted walnuts and apple as a healthful lunchtime salad. Mmm… with some gorgonzola would be a treat. I could even bake it up in a quiche or a tart of some sort. The possibilities are endless!

Not Cooking Much Lately

I have to be honest. I haven’t been cooking much the past few days. Pasta with jarred marinara sauce one night. Benito’s Tacos another night. And tonight we ordered a pizza. I’m out of inspiring groceries and I’m physically fatigued.

Tomorrow I will wake up early and go to the farmer’s market in Hollywood to stock up on things that I need to get me (and this blog) going again. The most important thing that I get will be eggs. Though it’s so much more affordable to get regular supermarket eggs, I consider the extra expense of free range eggs to be absolutely worth it. The yolk is a vibrant yellow, so intense it’s almost saffron. I need two dozen of them because the husband relies on them as a cornerstone for his diet. At $4.50 a dozen, these eggs are not cheap. I also love to get a free range chicken from the same people who sell the eggs. At least then I know that the chicken was treated with some degree of respect during it’s short life. It’s $4 a pound, so even a small chicken can cost up to $16.

Can’t wait to see what’s in season and what’s available tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Now that the blog is in full swing. I’m torn about the recipe thing. Will it be better for everyone and myself in the long run if I commit to photos and recipes on a daily basis? Seems like a lot of work, but when it’s time to put together a cookbook, it will be a snap. Still marinating on that one.

Mighty Meatloaf

If I ever have a spare moment, I’m studying a cookbook or a food magazine. I adore Gourmet, but I cook from Everyday Food on a regular basis. I get so happy when it comes in the mail because then I know I have a bunch of practical and easy ideas to implement all week long. My friend says her strategy for weekly meal planning is to show her husband a cookbook and have him tag the meals he wants. Seems like a somewhat joyless strategy to me. Doesn’t she have any cravings or things she’d like to make?

So in this month’s issue of Everyday Food I was happy to find a recipe for “Lighter Blue Plate Special”: meatloaf, green beans and mashed potatoes. The husband was enthused about this meal (yeah I gotta cook to please him, too, so what?) so he ran out and got the green beans and the ground beef. He’s not crazy about vegetables so he came back with a piddling amount of un-fresh green beans. I sighed and put them in the steamer with an inch of boiling water.

I loved this recipe because it calls for using a food processor. I processed: 1 carrot, 1 celery, half an onion, one egg, and half a cup of panko until smooth. I dumped this into a bowl and mixed it thoroughly with the ground beef. I added a good shake of kosher salt and some grinds of black pepper and smushed this into a loaf pan.

Meanwhile, I had my potato chunks going in boiling water. After about 20-25 minutes, they were incredibly soft and whippable. I mashed them with a masher with a generous stream of milk and a little bit of heavy cream when noone was looking. Husband advised me to skip the salt and pepper so the user could adjust to his own tastes.

For the steamed green beans, I whisked together a conventional red wine vinaigrette and dressed them with it.

I had my mother-in-law over for dinner and she very much enjoyed the meal. The best part was that I snuck all these vegetables into the meatloaf without the kid or the husband none the wiser.