Delectable Details

This Blog Has Moved

2011-04-26T18:03:00.000-07:00

After much fussing over the name of this blog, (I was never happy with the name) I have finally found a more suitable name, "Foodiefull".
Please update your bookmarks and follow this link to www.foodiefull.com

Baked Tortilla Chips

2011-04-26T17:12:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I want to eat a few chips without having to buy an entire bag. When there are that many chips around, I will eat all the chips in the bag in 3 days and I don't really want to do that.

Corn tortillas with a little oil sprayed or brushed onto the surface and baked in the oven is the simple solution to this problem. If you just bake a few at a time like in the above photo, you might not want to make more even if you want more. It takes a little while for them to bake and you have to put some effort into cutting and oiling so if you are feeling lazy, you will just savor what you have and not make more.

Guacamole is the perfect accompaniment for these chips. The secret to adding an extra dimension in flavor to guacamole is a pinch of ground cumin and coriander. There must be plenty of salt too. I'm always trying to make my recipes healthy, but without salt, the world is a little too flat.

Super Oatmeal

2011-04-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

On days that I feel like making a special breakfast, I'll whip up some polenta with cheese and sausage. After eating that dish a few times, I wondered how it would be to make a savory oatmeal dish. Remembering that I always love how bacon or sausage tastes when maple syrup drips down on it from my pancakes or waffles, I decided to try out this hybrid oatmeal: Stovetop-cooked oats topped with breakfast sausage, maple syrup, jack and cheddar cheese, and a sprinkling of freshly cracked black pepper. It turned out to be the perfect balance of sweet and savory.

Christmas Dinner

2010-12-24T00:04:00.000-08:00

Look what we got for Christmas! Matt's parents got us a cooler full of food from Omaha Steaks.

This was what was inside:

four pork chops

four bacon wrapped filets

four steak burgers

one pound of boneless chicken breasts

four stuffed baked potatoes

four caramel apple tartlets

Matt and I are going to have our own cozy Christmas dinner after we do the Christmas eve and Christmas day rounds. I am so excited for a bacon wrapped filet and stuffed potato dinner and caramel apple tartlets for dessert! Yummy food without all the hard work. I REALLY want a gin martini to go with this dinner. Dirty with a big green olive and a pickled pearl onion.

Unfortunately, in this economy, I just might have to settle for Simpler Times Lager instead.

Tomato Tarte Tatin

2010-12-20T02:52:00.000-08:00

A very tasty looking tomato tarte tatin gracing the cover of Bon Appetit's August issue caught my eye. I didn't read too much about it at first but the photo was enough. It was only later that I discovered that this is not a savory tart, but a sweet one.

A few times a year, I gather with a bunch of women and we swap our unwanted clothes. We bring food and wine and it becomes a party. Surprisingly, I have never witnessed any scratching or clawing over the clothes at these events. Most everyone is quite cordial save for a few annoyances. But I digress.

It was at one of these clothing exchanges that I decided that the moment had arrived for the tomato tarte tatin. The perfect edible to bring to a ladies' Sunday brunch. It looked easy too because it only required a puff pastry for the crust and I already had one in my freezer.

The recipe was very straightforward even though I almost burned the syrup. It was still quite runny and not very amber by 25 minutes. Not very caramelized at all. So being the impatient person that I am, I turned up the heat and started washing the dishes. I checked it every so often to make sure it was okay and then it seemed as if all of a sudden, I sniffed a scorching smell. Oh no!!! I managed to save it though, just in the nick of time. The almost-burnt caramel syrup became my lesson in patience. I must remember that haste makes waste. Rushing the alchemy of cooking rarely works.

At the clothing exchange, the tart initially sat neglected by all. Everyone had more important things to do, which was to make sure they got the best pieces of clothing out of the piles. Then the tart still just sat completely ignored on the counter. I started getting little worried. Were all these skinny girls really that uninterested in eating? I was even afraid that no one would like it because it might catch people's taste buds off guard when they might be expecting salty instead of sweet. Someone even asked if it was a pizza. I just kept piping up whenever someone glanced at it: "It's a sweet tomato tart!"

Well all of my worrying was for nothing because the tart was devoured by the time I left the party. One person tried it and that created a domino effect. People were intrigued by the sweet plum tomato pastry. The tomatoes' fruitiness was brought out by the slow cooking and caramel syrup. I was dubious about including whipped cream for a topping as suggested in the recipe. But now, knowing what the tart tastes like, I would definitely add a sweet creamy home made dollop of goodness.

It was a very unique dish worth making again. I'm not going to post the recipe, because it can be found here on Bon Appetit. Go to the source!

Korean Black Goat Stew at Mirak

2010-11-15T10:58:00.000-08:00

My friends who have never had goat before and know that I love to eat almost anything, called me up and invited me to try Korean black goat stew with them. I jumped at the chance because I love goat and I never heard of the stew so this meant a whole new experience. Pure entertainment!

When we walked into Mirak, we were overwhelmed by the pungency of odors. It was hot, steamy and the place smelled of goat and herbs. Mostly of strong herbs that I couldn't put my finger on at the moment. I wasn't sure what to expect.

Along with the stew, we ordered beer and soju. My friend Kris, who is Korean said that even though we ordered both, beer is usually served with non-soup items and soju is served with soup. Makes sense because you don't want to fill up on too much liquid if you are already having soup.

One of my favorite things about eating at Korean restaurants are the little side dishes, otherwise known as banchan that are automatically served with the meals. Such a fun little variety of morsels to snack on before and throughout the meal: bean sprouts, kimchi, cucumbers, and dongchimi (vegetables in a brine), just to name a few. The banchan is always refillable and plenty.

The soup was served on a portable burner, simmering, and topped with fresh raw perilla leaves, green onions, and maybe some other things I couldn't see. I realized that these greens were what REALLY created that strong, pungent odor when we first walked into the place. I highly doubt the health claims of eating this soup: able to cure many ailments such as PMS, osteoporosis, bad skin and low libido, but I will eat it for it's delicious complex flavor. I ate way past the time I was full. Pure comfort food on a cold evening. I think that the claims on libido must be for the fact that I saw so many people drinking lots of soju while having this soup. They must go home drunk and randy from all the booze!

Also served on the side was a tiny bowl of red sauce (not so spicy), sesame oil, and perilla seeds. You mix this up and dip your meat into it. The soup was able to stand on its own without this sauce and sometimes I even forgot to dip into it.

The unexpected highlight and final phase of the goat stew was the fried rice. The waitress brought over some cooked rice and mixed it into the leftover broth in the hot pot. A bowl of seaweed and another vegetable was folded in as well. We had to patiently wait until the liquid had evaporated and the bottom of the rice was crispy. I looked at the pot and exclaimed, "That's so much! There's no way we can eat all of that!" Well, we did. I found myself scraping the pot for every last bit of crisp, crunchy goodness. :-)

Mirak

1134 S Western Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90006
(323) 732-7577

What's an Artichoke?

2010-06-04T13:47:00.000-07:00

I was at the grocery store check out when the cashier asked the bagger to retrieve a bagged artichoke so that he could rescan it. The girl questions, "What's an artichoke?"

Really???

Spelt Almond Waffles With Fresh Picked Berries

2010-05-23T21:46:00.000-07:00

I love this time of the year because the blackberries are plump and ripe in the back of my courtyard. I always pluck one off when passing through, blow on the berry, hope that there aren't any bugs, and pop it into my mouth for a warm, sweet, juicy, burst of berry. Mmmm!

They are so good that every year people from the neighborhood like to steal a few from the other side of the fence. I don't mind sharing, but I had to draw the line when someone was trimming the branches and pulling them through the fence gaps. Geez, you give someone and inch and he takes a mile. He left a mess of dirt on the pavement after I shooed him away with a very stern scolding. Many of the red berries that had not yet ripened into black had been trimmed away. I couldn't understand what he'd want with the red unripe berries and then it made sense when someone told me that people make hooch from them. I've been keeping a close eye on the bushes now but I don't think the blackberry-bush-decimator will be coming back.

The day I chased the berry stealer away, I picked a couple handfuls of the sweet morsels for myself. Then I made up a waffle recipe using spelt flour and almond meal and baked them in my waffle iron. I have a HUGE Waring Pro Belgian waffle maker that my mom gave to me as a Christmas present a few years ago. I was actually quite disappointed when I received the gift. I never made waffles or had much of a desire to. The contraption takes up a lot of space which is not desirable when living in a small apartment. Because it was a gift from my mother, I didn't have the heart to get rid of it. Eventually I decided to try it out after it sat around collecting dust for months on end. I now LOVE my waffle maker. It makes for fun weekend brunch times. It makes breakfast / brunch feel so homey and celebratory.

These waffles turned out a bit dry so I will not be posting the recipe. I also make a spelt-buckwheat waffle and I'm still trying to perfect the technique on that one. Maybe it's my waffle iron but the waffles can't get crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It can be set on a higher setting but then it just gets browner, not necessarily crisper.

I topped these almond spelt waffles with the fresh picked berries, maple syrup, and plain Greek yogurt sweetened with honey. Even though the waffles were dry, the toppings made them moist and tasty. I will try tweaking the recipe a little more in the future but all in all, the waffles were a delicious success.

Duro Con Cueritos

2010-05-02T23:14:00.000-07:00

I love chicharrones. Otherwise known as pork skins or pork rinds. That sinfully crispy crunchy fried pork snack that most people shy away from. I like buying a bag of plain chicharrones and eating them with a squeeze of lime and a dab of hot sauce. So when my neighborhood ice cream truck had something listed on the front as “ chicharrones cueritos”, I knew that I had to try it sometime. Especially when I saw a guy walking away with what looked like a plate full of fun toppings.

Today, when I heard the ice cream truck’s song, I jumped up and ran out the door and ordered the very last plate of chicharrones cueritos. It took the lady in the truck five minutes to assemble the whole thing. As I watched her pull out a large jar of what looked like sliced onions in water, I realized that there weren’t any crispy fried pork skins involved in the concoction. Those weren’t onions at all but “cueritos” which are pickled pork skins. Well, I thought to myself, I guess I will just have to try it at least. I can’t chicken out of this now!

For some reason, typically unappetizing food items can seem appetizing when they are fried. When some such food is served in another way, I don’t really want to eat it it. For example, I would much rather eat a crispy fried bug than the same in a stew. Yick.

This pork skin dish that I had is really called “duro con cueritos”. The duro is a deep fried square curved flour thing, which resembles a giant slab of fried pork skin. This holds everything else inside of it. The ice cream truck lady first slathered on some Miracle Whip. (I never eat that stuff. It is much too processed and tastes too weird to tempt me.) On top of that she layered shredded iceberg lettuce, sliced onions, fresh sliced jalapeños, tomatoes, and the cueritos. She then topped it all off with a crumbly Mexican cheese that tasted like Cotija cheese, Tapatio hot sauce, and Mexican crema, which is a runny version of sour cream.

I took this strange concoction home, quickly photographed it with my new macro lens and proceeded to eat three quarters of it. The cueritos had a gelatinous texture. The crema and Miracle Whip drenched everything and the duro was a soggy by the time I was done photographing it (which didn’t take long). Only the duro's edges remained crispy. I found myself wishing for more iceberg lettuce and the other veggies. But I always wish for more lettuce. I can remember savoring the lettuce more than a fast food burger I had when I was fifteen. Anyways…the duro con cueritos wasn’t bad but it isn’t what I will find myself craving in the future. Am I glad I tried it? Of course I am because I will now stop obsessing about it every time I hear the ice cream truck. But all in all, I don’t think I will order it again.

Burma Super Star

2010-05-01T20:02:00.000-07:00

Mohinga fish soup

Tan Poi

Chili Lamb

We recently went on a road trip where we visited Death Valley, Mono Lake, Oakland, and San Francisco. A few snapshots of our trip can be found on my Flickr page. We ate all sort of food on our trip. Sometimes it wasn't so exciting like when we had cereal for dinner. My favorite camp food was the pre-seasoned meat bought at our corner Mexican market that was charcoal-grilled to perfection. Then the most fun eating was at the restaurants we visited in the Bay Area. Oh how I miss eating in San Francisco and its environs!

This post is about one of the ultra yummy restaurants that we went to called Burma Super Star. I was fixated on going to this place when I was informed that there was a Burmese restaurant near my friends' house in Oakland. When I used to live in San Francisco, I'd sometimes eat at a little hole-in-the-wall downtown dive that served Burmese food. This type of cuisine was and still is very unique to me because I rarely eat it. The dish that I always got at the divey place was a fish soup topped with a hard boiled egg and little crispy crackly treats on the top. I never forgot that soup. Every once in a while, I'd think of that special soup and wonder if I'd ever taste it again.

As luck would have it, Burma Superstar had moh hinga, the legend-in-my-heart-and-stomach-soup. We also had mimosas, tan poi (spiced basmatti rice topped with fried onions), and chili lamb. The moh hinga was the star of the meal hands down. It was delicious and savored it for all it was worth. It was just like I remembered. Sigh.

Oh, and another place that I recommend is Barlata Tapas Bar. It is just a few doors down from Burma Superstar on Telegraph. It was so super tasty but I have no photos or notes and my memory is fuzzy except for the certainty that it was delicious. Take my word for it.

Shaved Multicolored Carrot Salad

2010-04-21T23:37:00.000-07:00

This is salad is from another test shoot that I styled with photographer Sidney Bensimon. Shaving the carrots with a peeler lent them a nice translucent quality. It was a bit time consuming and my hand hurt afterward though. Ouch!

The shavings from the red carrots almost look like bacon. I don’t think I like that. It's a little strange. Veggies aren't supposed to look like meat, right? Oh well. It is still a very tasty salad!

The following recipe isn’t very exact. I didn’t really measure anything. I am just guessing. Here goes…

Shaved Multicolored Carrot Salad

2 bunches of multicolored carrots
2 small (or 1 large) tart green apples cored and thinly sliced
2 handfuls of baby arugula
1/2 small red onion thinly sliced
1/3 cup of toasted walnut pieces
1/3 cup of mixed raisins

Wash and shave the carrots with a peeler (potato/apple peeler). Blanch the shavings in separate batches from light to dark to prevent the dark colors from bleeding into the lighter carrots. Keep them in the boiling water for only about 15 seconds max.

Drain the carrots after pulling the out of the ice bath and place them in a large bowl. Mix the rest of the ingredients in. Pour desired amount of dressing (recipe follows) on top, mix again, and serve immediately.

Dressing for Shaved Multicolored Carrot Salad:

2/3 cup walnut oil
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Sweet Potato Fries- Portfolio Shoot With Sidney

2010-03-27T12:41:00.000-07:00

Sweet Potato Fries

This is an image for my food styling portfolio. Sidney photographed the food while I cooked and styled it. Much easier than trying to do all of it myself. I only had a tiny oven (toaster oven sized) to work with so I couldn't bake too many fries at once which meant I had fewer hero (superstar for the camera) fries to work with. I think this turned out all right given the limitations.

Life Forms

2010-03-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

I forgot about a few potatoes in my pantry and found these lovely specimens. Especially fascinating is the red potato. It looks like some little coral reef sea creatures have attached themselves to it. It's very alien and psychedelic-looking.

It's Time

2010-03-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

It is time to have a proper business card. My computer print outs just weren't cutting it. I've been using the print outs for YEARS and was just used to doing things that way. I realized that I needed some "real" business cards when I noticed a slightly confused look on someone's face when he examined my flimsy card. It wasn't even printed on card stock!! I just used very thick almost-card-stock paper. How embarrassing.

So now I feel more adult, more official as I announce to the world that this is what I do and love.

Tortilla de Patata with Zuchinni

2010-01-13T19:58:00.000-08:00

I made a variation of the Spanish tortilla de patata a couple of days ago by adding a lot of chopped parsley and some thinly sliced zucchini. It was so good!! Somehow what I thought would be a simple endeavor took almost two hours to do. I don't ever remember taking that long to prepare this dish before. Maybe it was all the slicing and of the vegetables. I ended up adding the zucchini and sliced onion as an afterthought so I had to cook those separately. Maybe I was puttering around doing other things in the kitchen, lost track of time and only truly spent forty five minutes on this dish. I tend to putter in the kitchen quite bit. Anyways, it made for a good leftover lunch the next day so I saved time then.

Star Anise

2009-12-01T18:10:00.000-08:00

I made my own curry powder for the Caribbean goat stew that I just posted about and picked this perfect specimen to be a star in front of the camera. I love that the seeds are so shiny and nestled so perfectly inside their pods. It is just so pretty.

Goat Meat

2009-11-30T19:15:00.000-08:00

I was excited to discover that a little grocery store named Asia Foods in Culver City sells both lamb and goat for great prices. The last time I was there I saw the butchers haul in a whole leg of either a goat or lamb. Wow!

The store has all sorts of Indian/Pakistani foods and the shelves are chock full of goodies to explore. I have bought asafoetida, fine chickpea flour and fresh fenugreek from them. (Fenugreek is great in sag paneer.) Now, whenever I visit I stroll through the aisles eager to buy something for my already stuffed spice shelf.

The people working there are very friendly. They answer my questions about what things are and they will also cut the meat to customers' specifications. I tend to get a little timid if I don't know what something is, but I feel okay asking questions here.

The day I went in to buy the goat meat they had skinned head on the butcher block. I was quite fascinated. I had never seen anything like that before in real life. That sort of thing has only appeared in horror movies when some satanic scene is being depicted. Anyways, the butchers cut my meat directly off the leg since they didn't have any stocked on the shelf. Now that's fresh!! I bought a pound and a half of goat meat and cooked up a Caribbean-inspired stew. I served it over a bed of brown rice topped with fresh cilantro and habanero pepper sauce.

Funny thing is that the stew tasted almost identical to a Peruvian lamb stew that I made just a month earlier. I haven't done a side-by-side tasting, but I guess lamb and goat taste quite similar.

For those of you in the LA area and are looking for some fresh lamb and goat meat, visit Asia Foods located at 10200 Venice Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232 Just east of Motor. 310-836-6070

Garbanzo-Spelt Crepes

2009-10-15T00:58:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make crepes the other day but Matt is allergic to wheat. I figured that I could make buckwheat-spelt crepes but alas, I was out of buckwheat. I found some course ground garbanzo bean flour in my cupboard and mixed it with white spelt flour. Mmmm, they were delicious! Being filled with crab, mozzarella, parmesan, and a sprinkling of parsley made them even more savory.

Garbanzo-Spelt Crepes:

2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons of melted butter that is slightly cooled (more on the warm side than hot off the stove)
!/2 cup garbanzo bean flour (I used a course ground flour)
1/2 cup white spelt flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Beat eggs and then whisk the next three ingredients into the eggs. Mix together the flours and salt in a separate bowl. Slowly whisk in the wet ingredients into the bowl of flours. Make sure the batter is smooth without any lumps.

Heat an 8-10 inch pan (preferably a crepe pan or an iron skillet) with some oil or a dab of butter until hot. If you dribble some drops of cold water onto the pan, they should skitter and dance on the surface. This is how hot you want the pan.

Pour a small amount of batter onto the pan. Enough to make a thin layer as you tilt the pan to cover the surface. Cook for about a minute or two. Keep close watch; you don't want your tasty savory crepe to burn! The edges and surface should dry out slightly. It's nice when you can get the edges to a slightly golden-brown crisp. Turn the crepe over and cook for another minute.

I added some crab, chopped parsley, and shredded parmesan cheese to the crepe after I flipped it. After aabout 30 seconds, I folded it in half. I let it cook for another 30 seconds. If I felt like one half didn't brown enough, then I flipped it again and cooked for a few seconds more.

The first crepe usually isn't a pretty as the rest. You get a feel for the batter and the heat of the pan with your first crepe. Just chomp on that crepe while you cook your next one to perfection!

Nopales Tostadas and Homemade Salsa

2009-08-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

I made cactus tostadas for the first time ever last night which was the only time I ever cooked cactus. I've only had nopales (the prepared pads of the prickly pear cactus) only about 5 times in my entire life.) Unsure of how to prepare them, I checked online and most preparations suggested boiling them. I found out that they can also be grilled. Not too keen on the possible sliminess from boiling the cactus and not about to fire up my mini charcoal grill, I decided to lightly blacken them on a VERY HOT 12 inch iron skillet. Oiled, salted, and charred, the nopalitos were delicious. I was quite pleased.

The tostadas were comprised of: crisp tostada shells, nopales, black beans, shredded green leaf lettuce, shredded green cabbage, avocado, queso fresco, green onions, cilantro, and homemade salsa.

I don't know what to call the salsa. Perhaps "cooked guajillo and ancho salsa"? "Salsa de cocina con guajillo y ancho chiles"? Anyways...
The salsa was smoky, lightly sweet, savory, and slightly spicy. The recipe is as follows:

4 dried Guajllo peppers
2 dried Ancho peppers
1/2 medium red onion
3 cloves of garlic
2 broiled roma tomatoes

2 1/4 cups of water

4 tsp. toasted and ground (in a mortar in pestle or food processor) pumpkin seeds
1 tsp. white wine vinegar
1-2 tbsp. finely chopped cilantro
salt to taste

Grill the peppers, onion, and garlic in a very hot heavy skillet. Keep an eye on the peppers. Just brown ever so slightly.
When cool, open the peppers and take the seeds and veins out (unless you like ultra hot salsa). Remove stems.
Remove onion and garlic when browned on all sides. Cool and chop up.
Broil the tomatoes and then skin them when cool. chop these up too.
Place these first five chopped ingredients into the water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 15-20 minutes.
Remove from heat. Let cool a little (until it is safe to touch). Place last four ingredients into the pot and puree with a blender (use a hand blender if you have one).

Yum!!!!

Piloncillo

2009-08-22T18:28:00.000-07:00

I have always seen those little brown cones in the bins of Mexican markets yet never paid much attention to them. Eventually I found out that they were sugar but I still had no idea what to do with them. I had the attitude of, "I have plenty of sugar at home, what's the point of having a hard cone of the same thing?"

I came across one of these cones on a job and proceeded to do what I always do...I tasted it. For a moment I thought that I was tasting candy. So sweet and multidimensional! The flavor was caramel-like and reminiscent of Dulce de Leche. What is this stuff? I took it home and Googled "Mexican brown sugar" (must Google EVERYTHING!). I found out that it is called piloncillo. It is unrefined cane sugar and is used in some Mexican deserts and drinks. It was once considered inferior to refined sugar.

This morning I decided to try it with my tea. I had to grate it to access the sugar. In fact, I had to grate it quite a bit and it was a lot of work! A lot more work than scooping a teaspoon into a box of sugar, but it was well worth the extra elbow grease. It imparted a slightly smoky, caramel-ish, almost maple-like sweetness to my morning drink. Mmmm, the perfect beginning to my Saturday!

Ococoa

2009-08-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

This is my first post! Yay! I have decided to just go for it after much deliberation. I couldn't decide on a blog name and realized that this blog was never going to happen if I just didn't pick a darn name! I spent a few years off and on figuring out a name!

Then I realized that I better just start posting and then from there the ball will be rolling. I still have to make a few adjustments to the appearance of this blog but I will be posting in the meantime.

Yesterday, I styled my friend Diana's chocolate for her Ococoa website and advertising. I did the same last year and I think both her product and my styling have gotten better. I can't wait to see what happens next year!

Here's another site that featured a photo that I styled.

We had a lot of fun and I took home some of her yummy chocolate. She even gave me a bonus copper roasting pan. I am so excited to use it! It is gorgeous and I love roasting.