Olive You

Back in high school, Olive Garden was the spot.  Oh, how we clamored to get reservations for our homecoming dinners at this place we considered so fancy despite the fact that their dining room chairs have wheels (or am I the only one bothered by this faux pas)?  We would wait the roughly 40-60 minutes for a table on those unfortunate nights when we didn't have reservations just to be served their pasta and breadsticks.  I honestly haven't been to an Olive Garden since the introduction of their unlimited soup-salad-breadsticks lunch in the mid-2000's.  But what I remember is that I kept coming back for their Zuppa Toscana.  Zuppa Toscana is soup with potatoes, kale, and spicy Italian sausage.  As a self declared soup addict, this may have been the start of my soup fetish, or at least enhanced the one my Vietnamese mother had passed on to me.

Because I now make it a rule to no longer frequent chain restaurants (local small chains not included) I started to wonder about the dishes I have had at these places that sort of peaked my interest in food in the first place.  Would I find it just as scrumptious as I did in my youth?  Or would I know longer recognize it as something amazing now that my taste have become more sophisticated?  Well there is only one way to find out, to replicate the soup at home.  Armed with the recipe, I made this soup for dinner with a couple of modifications, I used spicy sausage and substituted the bacon bits for four real slices of bacon.  It's not the healthiest soup, but it sure is delicious and the taste was spot on.  So much so that it had me reminiscing to slow dancing on the gym floor with a nun trying to separate couples by shining a flashlight between them, "Let the holy spirit shine through!"

My crush on Rick Bayless and a mountain of tomatillos

Watching Rick Bayless on season 1 of Top Chef Masters, I'm sure I wasn't the only one captivated by his fabulous cooking and passion for mexican food. I was taken with his eloquence and the fact that he just seemed like a really nice guy. I love that he was taking ethnic food and elevating it to the next level.

As luck would have it, I was home up in northern California and my father-in-law gave me a huge bag of tomatillos from his garden. He makes his own delicious tomatillo salsa but with my current love affair, I wanted to try Rick Bayless's recipe of Roasted Tomatillo Salsa and Roasted Tomatillo Guacamole.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

makes 1 and 1/2 cup

8 oz tomatillos, husked, rinsed and cut in half

2 garlic cloves, peeled

hot green chilies to taste (2 serranos or 1 jalapeno)

1/3 cup cilantro, chopped

1/2 cup white onions, finely chopped

salt


Set a large (10-inch) nonstick skillet over medium-high heat (if a nonstick skillet is unavailable, lay a piece of foil in the skillet). Lay in the garlic and tomatillos (cut side down). When the tomatillos are well browned, 3 or 4 minutes, turn everything and brown the other side. (The tomatillos should be completely soft.)

Scrape the tomatillos and garlic into a blender or food processor, and let cool to room temperature. Add the chili and cilantro, and blend to a coarse puree. Pour into a salsa dish.

Scoop the chopped onion into a strainer and rinse under cold water, shaking off the excess water. Stir into the salsa. Taste and season with salt, usually about 1/2 teaspoon. You'll need 1 cup of this salsa to flavor the guacamole. Refrigerate the leftover salsa for another use.

Roasted Tomatillo Guacamole

Take 1 cup of the Roasted Tomatillo salsa from above and add 3 mashed avocados. Add salt to taste and serve.

Needless to say, it was delicious. Rick Bayless, you are amazing!

KimChi Pancakes

One of the very best things about living in Los Angeles is the abundance of Korean All You Can Eat BBQ's. It's the best deal in town and how can you possibly say no to a never ending supply of bulgogi? At my favorite place, which I will fail to mention in fear of it blowing up like whoa, they have accoutrements such as kimchi fried rice, tofu soup, tempeh, and potato salad in addition to rice papers, daikon, and lettuce with a soy dressing to wrap your meat in. But the star of the side dishes is the kimchi pancake. Thin and flavorful without being overpowering, the pancake warms up on the grill and gets crispy on the outside but stays moist on the inside. I attempted to make my own at home with a recipe found on The New York Times. The recipe turned out great and definitely one to hang on to when I'm craving Korean.

KimChi Pancakes

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup potato starch

1 egg

2 scallions, cut into 1 1/2-inch-long pieces

1 1/2 tablespoons garlic, sliced thinly

1 1/2 tablespoons Korean red pepper powder or 1/2 tablespoon cayenne

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup prepared cabbage kimchi, cut in 3-inch-long pieces

2 tablespoons kimchi juice

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

1. In a large bowl, mix flour, potato starch and egg until smooth. Add scallions, garlic, red pepper powder, salt, kimchi and its juice. Mix well. Batter will be pale pink.
2. Place an 8- or 9-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. When oil is hot, pour in one-third of the pancake batter. Fry until golden and crisp, about 3 to 4 minutes. Lift pancake with a spatula, add 1 tablespoon oil to pan and swirl it. Flip pancake and fry other side until golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Flip again, without adding oil, and fry for 1 minute. Flip one more time and fry 1 to 2 minutes. Pancake should be dark gold.
3. Repeat with remaining batter and oil, making 3 pancakes. Remove to a large round plate and cut each pancake into 6 wedges. Serve with dipping sauce.
Yield: 3 pancakes.

New Year, Smoo Year

New Year's resolutions, I used to scoff at them. I mean, if you're going to make a vow of change, why wait until January 1, why not right NOW? Suddenly this year I'm singing a different tune. Who am I to scoff at anyone who resolves to be better, who strives to achieve their goals, even if they do wait until January 1?

Well this year, fully embracing the resolution, I decided to list my own (or at least the one's I'm willing to share). Hopefully because I've made them public, or at least public enough since I'm pretty sure I get very few readers, it will give me more incentive to resolve and to achieve.

1. Make damn good use of my Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking book. I won't complete anything close to all the recipes, but to complete more than 5 would be great.

2. Roast a whole chicken often enough to have for a week night meal.

3. Sign up for Farm Fresh to You and try new vegetables.

4. Blog more than 20 times this year.

5. Make eggrolls using my grandmother's recipe.

6. Pho sure. It's time to learn to make my life blood.

7. Print my recipes in my own Taste Book (a process more than 3 years in the making!)

I can't decide if I'm over shooting or under shooting, but hopefully, these goals will make for an interesting year. Happy New Year!