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And now in contrast to the previous post, we bring you something completely vegetarian AND delicious (yes, such things do exist): palak paneer – aka saag paneer. In English it translates to spinach cheese which doesn’t quite do it justice because it’s such a rich and sumptuous, complex dish that when you’re eating it, you can’t believe that it’s just well, basically spinach with some chunks of tofu textured cheese. And as prepared by my beautiful wife Shefali, you’ll see how easy it is to cook. Click on the picture below for the full recipe and video.

Shef slaving over a hot stove

Almir's self rotating meat roaster

A few weeks ago Shef and I embarked on our summer holiday which consisted of a road trip to the Southwest (view photos here) bookended by two weekends in LA.  The first weekend we went to my college friend Ben’s wedding (congrats again to Ben and Maria on a beautiful wedding and amazing food – mmmm hand made tortillas!). The second weekend in LA was for the expressed purpose of attending our friends Jacob and Sari’s eighth annual Brazilian churrasco. Again, Almir Santre brought his expertise and culinary talents to bare and served up delicious grilled meats of all varieties to a lovely and appreciative group of Sari and Jacob’s family and friends (in whose number we thank our lucky stars to be included). For those long time you-food readers (probably numbering in the single digits – sad but true) you might remember the description and back story of Jacob and Sari’s BBQ as written about in Food Weekend in LA.  With the exception that everyone has gotten two years older, not much has changed except that the video you see below you is now in HD which means the juiciness of the meat comes through a little bit clearer.  Sorry, no smellovision or tastovision… yet.

Pork chops + soy sauce, sugar and a few other ingredients = delicious. Right? Well for this Asian brother that’s a no brainer. But what if the equation was tilapia + peanut butter and a bunch of other stuff? Would the sum of those parts still be delicious? Well, click on the photos below for the answer as well as videos and recipes for both dishes. Here’s a hint: fuck yeah!

Nature's Candy

peanut stew? yes, please.

I have no qualms in admitting that this blog is decidedly meat-centric. But, in the interest of greater balance (and healthier bowels) I’ll sometimes include an entry sans meat.  So in that vein, my friend Soojin brings to you a vegetarian option: vegetarian bibimbap. “But,” you say, ” how can this classic rice dish from Korea – home of one of the great meat eating culinary traditions – hold up without meat?”  Well, I’m hear to say it holds up quite well. In fact it’s delicious and Soojin’s version is rather light and refreshing if one can consider a big bowl of rice with a bunch of stuff in it light and refreshing. Click on the photo below for the full recipe and to watch Soojin prepare her delightful version of bibimbap.

Fresh and delicious

Alright, here’s a little bonus video for the four or five people who actually looked at the last pork butt post. As you’ll recall, I served it with a red cabbage cole slaw.  Well, dear reader, here’s the recipe and the instructional video.  Now I must be honest.  This cole slaw  recipe has a couple of key inspirations: 1) the pickled cabbage served on top of Salvadoran pupusas; 2) the cole slaw at  Bake Sale Betty’s in Oakland  that comes on top of their ridiculous fried chicken sandwiches -  and by ridiculous I mean fucking good.  The cole slaw is really simple to make and because of the  freshness of the cabbage and acidity of the dressing it is a nice counterbalance to grilled or fried meats.  It’s also good on tacos and pupusas or anything else you want to eat.  Without further ado, here’s the cole slaw recipe and the video. Enjoy.

Recipe
1 head of cabbage (red of regular)
1 medium to large jalapeño pepper
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
1-2 tablespoons of vinegar (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt (or to taste)
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper (or to taste)
1/4- 1/2 teaspoon of oregano

… so delicious you can’t deny!
This is the story of how one and a half pork shoulders (butts) became numerous pulled pork sandwiches that were consumed by many people whom upon tasting the tender meat looked towards the heavens and asked the Creator, “Is this, oh All Knowing One, the secret to life?”

Intrigued?  Well, click on the photo below for the full story and the video of how this transcendent meal came to be.

Tender pulled pork sandwhich with homemade barbecue sauce, dill pickles and red cabbage cole slaw.

Alright, as promised, here’s the post about what we did after we watched the pig breakdown at Kokkari.  Though this post is a week later than the previous one, in reality the events about which you will soon read and see an amazing video occurred a  few days after our tutorial when the lesson and the excitement was still fresh.  You see, we got our very own little pig to play with!  And by “play with”  I mean, butcher and cook delicious pig dishes out of.  Hmm, that sounds a little messed up doesn’t it? Well anyway, it was fun and judging by the grunts and the way our friends’ eyes rolled back in ecstasy as they feasted on the meal we prepared, it was indeed delicious.  Click on the photo below for the full story.

Porchetta!

Alright, so a couple weeks ago I was back in the Bay Area for yet another food inspired visit.  And as usual, I ate myself silly.  But as it turns out, I didn’t just get food for my belly.  I also got some food for my brain.   More specifically, me, Matt and Minh got schooled on how to break down a whole pig from the chefs at Kokkari, an awesome Greek restaurant in SF.  It was a real treat to watch professionals in action and see where the different cuts we all see in grocery stores come from on the actual animal. And it was a lesson we would put to good use a few days later.  But that’s for another post.  For now, click on the picture below for the full story and video.

This little piggy went to the kitchen…

Remember Matt’s sourdough starter baby?  Well two years later, it’s still alive and kicking (figuratively speaking).  I’ve made numerous  bread loaves – some successful, others, to be honest, terrible.  But it’s been a learning experience throughout and it’s been great to pass on the starter to friends and see what they’ve done with it.  It’s like watching my friends raise their kids.  For example, PK has become and ace waffle maker, adding corn meal to the recipe which adds a whole new dimension of flavor and texture to the already sumptuous and rich sourdough waffles.

And my friend Niels has from the get go baked beautiful and tasty loaves and was the first person I knew to do a sourdough rye which he brought to our last dumpling party but which was unfortunately  consumed before I had a chance to take a photo.  It was delicious though. And he’s also the one who advised and reminded me that to bake  a good loaf, you have to get the starter going again so it’s really active and really productive.  So recently, if I make bread, or waffles or pizzza dough, I make sure – per Niels reminder – to take the starter out of the fridge in the morning, stir it up and get it bubbling again, feed it once or maybe two times over the course of a day (maybe pouring off some of the excess  (I know wasteful, but if you’re not making waffles or pizza dough what are you going to do with so much starter).  So by the time I’m ready to make the dough some time in the evening, it’s super bubbly and has that really fermented sour smell.  The last few times I made bread this is what I did and it made a noticeable difference.  I also made a really good sour dough pizza dough.  Here’s the rough recipe:

1 cup of starter
3 cups of bread baking flour
about 3/4 cup – 1 cup of water (you can add a little more or use less depending on how wet you want the dough)
1 1/2 tsp of fine sea salt
1 1/2 tsp of sugar

Mix all the contents until you have a nice dough and like the no knead bread, you let this dough mixture proof for about 18 hours until it gets really bubbly and rises until it’s about twice its original volume. Then you can punch it down and roll it into you pizza crust and let the crusts proof for about fifteen minutes to half an hour – per Saveur Magazine’s recommendation – so they’ve risen again too. Then put your toppings on and bake in your preheated to 500 degree oven. Hopefully you have a pizza stone. The dough should be crusty, chewy and tangy. And the pizza should be delicious. If not, you failed.

Here's my pizza baking in the oven

So this is what I had for lunch.  I took some leftover meatloaf, which I made last week – it was still good, mind you – cut it up into cubes and fried it up in a pan.   I chopped up some fresh cabbage and crumbled up some Bulgarian feta cheese  (yeah, I know big carbon footprint – but also big flavor) from Sahadi’s.  Then I pan heated a couple of corn tortillas and assembled the tacos starting with the cheese (so it would kind of melt on the hot tortilla), then meatloaf, cabbage, fresh squeezed lime juice and then topped them off with Valentina salsa picante.  The verdict?  Well, not quite as good as the chorizo con papas tacos we made the other night, but still really good.  What came to mind were the tacos I adored as a kid… from Jack in a Box.  Okay with their hard shell and American cheese I guess they weren’t the most authentic, but damn when I was a kid those were awesome . Anyway, the meatloaf with it’s general meat flavor  and mushy texture reminded me of the mystery meat concoction they put in those J in the B tacos.   The meatloaf retained it’s meatloafy flavor but the lime and hot sauce as well as the corn tortilla brought it nicely into the realm of tacos.  I ate four tacos in total.  So,  I guess the moral of this lunch is that you can pretty much make tacos out of anything (within reason) because tacos are basically a vehicle for a good salty meat (or meat product) and good salsa picante.

a great way to eat leftover meatloaf