A simple shrimp scampi
January 16, 2009 § 1 Comment
It’s freezing in DC; -4 degrees with the windchill, and everytime I go outside I think my fingers and toes are going to freeze and snap right off. I really hope Inauguration Day isn’t this bad, because then I’m gonna have to wear about 1293102938 layers while waiting out in the cold. Oh…did I not tell you that I would be going? Well, I don’t have tickets, but I will be going with friends to the National Mall, at least to tell my children that I was there that day.
Anyway, the cold makes me want to eat food even more because with cooking comes warmth, and I always think of Ina Garten’s recipe for shrimp scampi. There’s your protein from the shrimp, fruit from the lemons, veggies from the parsley (yes parsley’s an herb but it’s green so I count it as veg), and lots of yummy carbs and fats from the pasta and butter! And it really doesn’t take too much time to make. After learning how to make this, I never order this dish in restaurants anymore. It’s just a waste of money and meal on my part!
Instructions:
Drizzle some oil in a large pot of boiling salted water, add 1 tablespoon of salt and the linguine, and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, or according to the directions on the package.
In a large heavy bottomed pan, melt the butter and olive oil over medium low heat. Add the garlic and saute for one minute. Be careful since the garlic burns easily. Add the shrimp, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and the black pepper. Saute until the shrimp have just turned pink, about 5 minutes, stirring often. Remove from the heat, add the parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, lemon slices, and red pepper flakes. Toss to combine.
Dimsum at A-K (formerly known as 1-9) Seafood
January 8, 2009 § Leave a comment
I’m back on the Hilltop and already missing home. In my first class on Keats and Shelley, our professor (who by the way had a posh British accent) handed out Keats’ “On first reading Chapman’s Homer” and asked us to write about one rhetorical device that “contributed to the poem’s overall meaning.” EH? I’m definitely not in study mode yet, so that was quite the rude awakening.
They offer your typical dimsum dishes, and that’s what makes it so great, in my opinion. Hardly ever does my family order something new. We go to A-K because we have certain expectations and we know they’re going to deliver. For example, their honeycomb tripe with radishes is spicy and tender and every fried dish they serve is surprisingly light and wonderfully seasoned. I also suggest any of their delicate shrimp dumplings as well as the egg tarts. YUM.
Making gnocchi
January 3, 2009 § Leave a comment
At school, one of my favorite things to eat is potato gnocchi from Dean and Deluca. I always thought that making pasta is a complicated process, but after watching a random youtube video, I decided to try it when my sisters were at home and helping.
Christmas dinner
December 30, 2008 § Leave a comment
Last year, winter break was fairly mellow and unchaotic. It mainly consisted of hanging out with high school friends and then spending time with family at home, but all of a sudden this year, I feel like we’ve been going to family friend gathering after family friend gathering. I’m never really too enthusiastic about these huge reunions where the parents spend hours reminiscing and chatting while the offspring has to watch movies, but the food is always pretty good. And if there’s good food, I’m content.
I don’t really know the measurements I used but it was incredibly easy. I diced one onion, quartered a couple giant handfuls of pepperoni and then quartered one of those tubs of brussel sprouts from the grocery store. Dunk the sprouts in boiling water until they become bright green and take them out immediately and put them in an ice bath. I think boiled brussel sprouts taste absolutely awful.
Birthday at Bangkok Joe’s
December 10, 2008 § Leave a comment
This year, I celebrated my birthday with dinner at Bangkok Joe’s. Even though it was down on K Street and snowing by the time we left campus [we opted for a cab], once we got to the waterfront it was extremely easy to find.
Bangkok Joe’s is nowhere near your casual Thai restaurant – the decor inside was extremely classy and dimly lit – but the food comes out amazingly quickly. Erin and Lee had to leave at around 8:00 and ordered their food while we waited for friends from University of Maryland to arrive, and they got their food in about 15 minutes. They definitely could have ordered with the rest of us and still made their party afterwards.
The food was delicious. Joe’s is more of a dumpling bar than entree-oriented, so we orderd appetizers for the table as a sampling. Pork and crab shumai, fried calamari [because I can never resist anything dipped in batter and submerged in boiling oil], giant chicken dumplings, and others. I really liked the calamari here but the shumai wasn’t that amazing. I think I still prefer the dimsum ones at China Garden.
The entrees were served in these beautiful white noodle bowls that were rather deceiving when it came to serving size. I was full before I even finished half of my drunken noodles but ate them anyway. I don’t know why I love them so much, but the balance between spicy and sweet is always an excellent combination. And for some reason, the chicken tasted really good too. The only gripe we had [mostly Ameya] was that due to the asymmetricity [?] of the bowls, we couldn’t reach over and steal some noodles from the person sitting across the table as stealthily.
The highlight of the dinner was definitely dessert. My favorite was the fried roti dough with taro paste inside and ice cream on top. It was so simple yet everything came together so well and I loved the subtle sweetness of the dough itself. The other desserts were a flourless chocolate cake with berries and rum chocolate sauce and mango sticky rice, a classic.
We will definitely be returning to Bangkok Joe’s in the future but with a focus on the dumplings. I saw peking duck dumplings, a variety of different rolls, and other items that sounded delicious but I couldn’t fit everything in my stomach at the time.
An irrational but spending-savvy lunch
November 12, 2008 § 1 Comment
It’s currently 45 degrees outside in DC, and what did Erin and I decide to eat today for lunch? SweetGreen. Every Wednesday now, they’re handing out free small sweetflows with a salad, and since I only had three meals left at the dining hall this week, I thought it’d be wise to take advantage of the situation, even if it did result in a frozen tongue and numb fingers.
I went with the usual trio of toppings – strawberries, blueberries, and mangos – though I was seriously leaning towards the candied walnuts. Ah…decisions, decisions. Even though it was cold outside, I realized that I missed the tartiness of SweetGreen’s frozen yogurt as opposed to the fake Country Vanilla variety that’s served in our dining hall. A sweet treat that still made me feel healthy.
It was my first time trying a SweetGreen salad, and I inevitably opted for the Guacamole greens, mainly because it has a huge helping of avocado and I’m an avocado fiend.
Verdict: too much mesclun and not enough grilled chicken (I like my meat!), but the cilantro-lime-jalapeno vinaigrette was nice and tangy without being too overwhelming. I could have done without the tortilla chips though; they got really mushy and soggy after sitting with the avocado and vinaigrette as I made my to the bottom of the bowl. Have to say that SweetGreen trumps Chop’t, the Rosslyn version, in the salad-on-the-spot department though. Mainly because the server at Chop’t takes your chicken or choice of meat and minces it along with everything else using a mezzaluna, leaving you with…chicken string. Bleck
Some cooking and Leopold’s with next year’s roomies!
November 9, 2008 § Leave a comment
I did eventually get to using up the squash, mushrooms, and shallots by melting a little butter, throwing all of them into a saute pan, and adding salt and pepper. Quick, easy, comforting, and healthy (kinda? yes?) I would write out a recipe but it was incredibly simple and I don’t recall the measurements now. Just use however much looks good to you. Also cooked the potato gnocchi and ricotta tortellini that I had on hand from Dean and Deluca and doused it with some house vodka sauce. Erin, Lee, and I just grabbed a bunch of forks and ate off this one communal plate. No time for cute dinnerware when our stomachs were grumbling.
In other news, housing selection is complete and I’m living in a rooftop apartment next year with three other great girls! Rooftops at Georgetown are third or fourth level apartments that have a huge balcony that overlooks the Potomac River. And because it’s through the university, we don’t have to worry about utilities, long commutes, etc. Pretty sweet.
When we were deciding on the kind of housing we wanted to choose, we headed to Leopold’s. This time, I got the grilled chicken salad with field greens. It was a pretty standard dish and the chicken was a bit overcooked in my opinion, but everyone else seemed to enjoy their dishes. Jia got the roast chicken I had last time, Melissa had the mussels and frites, and Jenny got a salmon dish that looked huge and amazing. The fennel and basil oil combination got rave reviews.
We were all most looking forward to dessert though. Leopold’s has a huge pastry case filled with delectable treats – savory and sweet – and we spent about 15 minutes just ooing and aahing at all the choices. There were fruit tarts, giant brownies, MACARONS! [which I will try the next time I go] and breakfast items like croissants, danishes, etc. I purposely ordered the tea and cookies because I wanted something light, and even though I don’t know what they were – butter shortbreads, brittles, and some other things – each one was delicious and special, especially since I got to wash it down with some Citron tea. My friends were too busy sighing and eating to really say anything so…I’m going to assume their desserts tasted as good as they looked.
Mission for next time: macaron taste tasting. I only saw five flavors – raspberry, pistachio, chocolate, coffee, and either a lemon or coconut, but if they’re up to expectations, it doesn’t matter in the end. I just need to find somewhere that can give me that wonderful meringue-filling satisfaction.
Parent’s Weekend, Baked and Wired, Leopold’s Kafe
October 19, 2008 § Leave a comment
I was so happy when my dad and sister Laura came down for Parents’ Weekend yesterday. After experiencing midterm-hell for the past week, I needed to see them…and the goodies that they would inevitably bring with them. Mooncake, red bean paste, dried nori, etcetcetc. I will be satisfied in the Asian snack department for quite some time.
They were only here for the day so we had to sort our time wisely and efficiently. So we walked down to Rosslyn metro (the weather was absolutely beautiful outside, if a tiny bit chilly) and took the train to the Smithsonian where we got in touch with our inner child and oohed and aahed at the mammal dummies and Hope Diamond. We also got to see the new Ocean Hall that opened up.
Afterwards, my dad decided to take a catnap at the Shops at Georgetown Park, a wise choice since Laura and I used that time to stop by the lovely Baked and Wired (which is officially better than Georgetown Cupcake to me now that I’ve gone there twice) to get a Obama-yo-mama brownie (espresso and chocolate in the fudgiest fudgy texture) and Carrot cupcake with a heavenly creamcheese frosting. Speaking of creamcheese, I found the nicest vintage black tuxedo jacket with satin piping at Annie Creamcheese which I fell in love with. That and there was another spoon ring but I didn’t get it this time.
For dinner, the three of us walked down Cady’s Alley to Leopold’s, which I have been meaning to try for a while. It’s a very European-chic Austrian cafe that sells wonderfully hearty entrees, like the bratwurst with kraut that Laura got, delicately delicious pastries (there’s a giant case of them near the bar), or strong coffee for those visiting early in the morning.
My dad has a weakness for mussels so he got them in garlic and white wine broth paired with these extremely crispy frites and I got the roast chicken with chard, fingerling potatoes, and mustard sauce. To be honest, we weren’t really paying attention to the food, we were too busy talking. But that’s a good thing! I did manage to snap a couple appetizing-looking pictures so enjoy!
Second global dinner – Mexican
September 18, 2008 § 4 Comments
The day after our Italian-themed night, I decided to cook some Mexican food. My roommate Jia isn’t exactly the most adventurous of eaters, so I thought I’d start in her closer to her comfort zone and slowly work our way into the more exotic cuisines. 🙂
Midway through broiling the shrimp, I had to deal with some ignorant buttwipe who walked into our common room citing snottily that it smelled like fish i.e. s***. Let’s just say I have profound pity for the person who’s never sat down to good seafood in his entire, obviously miserable little life and that he won’t be getting any floor-wide baked goods from me anytime soon. Ass.
Anyway, on the menu:
Sopa de Tortilla
Broiled Shrimp
Churroooooos
Sopa de Tortilla (modified from The Best Recipes in the World)
1/2 cup corn or neutral oil
6 corn tortillas cut into 1/4 inch strips
3 garlic cloves
1 large onion, diced
2 dried chiles, preferably pasilla
3 fresh tomatoes, blanched and peeled, then diced
6 cups chicken stock
1 cup shredded cooked chicken (or I used spicy Italian sausage leftover from the previous day)
1 cup Monterey Jack, grated
1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, sliced
1. Oil in saucepan over medium high heat. When oil is hot, fry the tortilla strips in batches until golden brown and crisp, turning after a minute or two, for about two to four minutes. Drain on paper towels and set aside.
2. Discard all but 2 tbspns of oil. Turn heat to medium, add garlic and onion, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add chiles, tomatoes, and half the tortilla strips, and cook for another 5 minutes. Pour in chicken stock and bring mixture to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Add chicken and heat through. Season with lime juice, salt, pepper. Garnish with the cilantro, cheese, avocado, and remaining tortilla strips and serve.
Bittman recommends that you use an immersion blender and puree everything before you add the chicken, but I personally like my soups chunky and full of that veggie goodness.
Broiled Shrimp with Chili Paste (modified from Joy of Cooking)
Paste
Take:
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon chili powder or to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste
Mix together in a large shallow bowl.
Add and toss to coat well
1 1/2 to 2 pounds of shrimps (peeled and deveined) or scallops
Broil, turning the shrimp after the first side becomes pink, 2 minutes or so. Broil until second side is pink/opaque, test one of the shrimp by cutting into it to make sure it is cooked through. Garnish with lemon wedges and minced cilantro.
*Not all broilers are created equal! It actually took me a bit longer to cook the shrimp, so just make sure to keep a watchful eye. You don’t want your seafood to become rubbery – that’s a crime.
Churros (from Bittman’s The Best Recipes in the World)
Corn oil for frying
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons of butter)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
3 eggs
1. Put at least two inches of oil into a large saucepan or deep skillet and heat to about 350 F. [To make sure the oil is hot enough, you can always use the Giada trick – drop a little bit of the batter in and if it starts to bubble and float up to the surface, you know it’s ready] In the meantime, while it’s warming up, mix the cinnamon and 1/2 cup sugar together on a large plate.
2. Combine remaining sugar, butter, salt, and 1 cup water in saucepan over high heat and bring to boil. Turn the heat to low and add flour all at once. Stir constantly until mixture forms a ball, about 30 seconds. Remove from heat and beat in the eggs one at a time, stirring until smooth after each addition. [DO NOT SCRAMBLE YOUR EGGS]
3. Spoon the dough into a pastry bag with a large star tip [Or you can drop spoonfuls, or, if you want to be like me, go halfway. I just took filled one of those large Glad bags with the batter and cut a large hole in the one of the corners] Press strips of dough about 4 inches long into the hot oil. Cook as many as will fit and turn as they brown, for a total of 5 to 10 minutes each.
4. Remove churros from oil and drain on paper towels then immediately roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Serve hot.
Notes on Food 