6 Days Till X-Mas

Busy

So it's been almost a month since I've posted anything just because I'm crazy busy. Right now is the shopping season and where The Daily Grill is located in downtown San Fransisco is a crazy time. It will slow down again toward the middle of January and I should have more free time then. In the meantime, I'm going to try and continue to find time to squeak something in here and there. For now, here are some funny photo's!!

 

 

This one's my favorite!!

Cooking At Home Part 1

So I've been cooking some stuff at home the past couple of weeks and figured I'd pass a little on. I find that a lot of the things I make at home have been stuff I've done in the restaurants I've worked in, sometimes tweaking them along the way. I don't really go by recipes as much as just adding a little here and there, going by what I know is right and my palate.

Recently Andi and I bought a crock pot. It's great for being able to cook things that take awhile to breakdown or if you just don't have a lot of time. We had some duck legs in the freezer, so I decided to confit them. I put them on the bottom of the pot and then added:

Half an orange, cut into 3rds

Half an onion, large julienne

Couple of smashed garlic cloves

One sprig of rosemary

Couple of sprigs of thyme

Couple of bay leaves

A man pinch of black peppercorns(Man pinch is a term I learned from my old chef Todd Winer. It's not a handful and it's not a pinch. It's somewhere in between!!)

I added enough vegetable oil to cover, turned it on high, and let it go untouched for 6 hours. The legs will come out super tender!! You can then hard sear them in a pan(medium-high heat, touch of oil) to get them a little crispy or eat them as is with a little salt. The same process above can also be applied in an oven which is how we do it in a kitchen. Just put them in your oven covered with foil on low(say 250 degrees) and let it go for about the same amount of time. The oil can be reused for more duck legs later or....I took some of it, tossed it with quartered red bliss potatoes, wedges of Honeycrisp apples, whole shallots, some pulled fresh sage, salt, and cracked black pepper and roasted them in the oven. Goes great with the duck!

My mom came back from Idaho where she was visiting a friend who had a ton of red onions. She gave me some so I decided to pickle them. Using two large red onions(and I mean large!) I julianned them and placed them in a bowl with a lid I could seal. I then added:

A couple of bay leaves

A couple of sprigs of tarragon

3-4 dried red chiles, breaking one or two open and sprinkling in the seeds

A man pinch of juniper berries

5-6 whole cloves

1 medium red beet, raw, peeled, and quartered(for color)

I heated up 2 cups of rice vinegar with about 1/4 cup sugar. Once the sugar is dissolved, pour the hot mixture over the onions, cover, and let sit in the fridge for about a week. Stir them maybe twice. The more they sit, the more flavor they will have and the vinegar will start to mellow. They are great with a pate, sliced salumi or on a sandwich. I'm doing them at work on a burger with mozzarella cheese, pickled onions, wasabi ketchup, and avocado.

Our California Halloween

So Andi and I had our first California Halloween this year. Technically, we were back from China this time last year but we were fighting jet lag, homeless, and didn't have anywhere to celebrate. This year however, I had lot's of space to decorate just not enough decorations!!!

Entrance to our little apartment complex. I did some chalk outlines on the driveway with some fake blood. However, out of 364 sunny days in California it decided to rain this day and washed everything away just when it started to get dark.

The entire fence lit up with orange lights on the fence and purple spiders on the overhang. I took the masks on the fence and put orange glow sticks inside of them to make it look like they had eyes. Also had the entire stairs lit up with lights and covered in cobwebs!

Had a skull the changed colors inside and bubbled smoke out of it's eyes. Also found these cool gourds that looked like strange things out of the sea and weird looking eyeballs!

Did a little "bone coming out of my arm" attachment!!

Andi and I were zombies(Andi was a zombie chef! :P). Used gelatin, fake blood, liquid latex(with oatmeal for texture), lot's of conditioner in our hair(for a greasy look) and black and green makeup to make us look diseased.

Overall not a bad Halloween. We didn't get a lot of kids(maybe 20-25) most likely due to the fact that it started raining by 8pm. Defiantly will buy more decorations and make it even better next year!!

Happy Halloween!!

Best day of the year!!! More photo's to come!!!

Torula Yeast

The other day Andi was reading a couple of products I had bought at the store and she came across an ingredients she couldn't pronounce. When I looked at it, I realized I had never heard of it either. The word was "Torula Yeast." Torula yeast is an additive that is rich in glutamic acid which lends a smoky, savory, umami flavor to foods. It started replacing MSG years ago when people found out about all the side effects from consuming MSG. Torula yeast grows on wood sugars obtained as a byproduct of the paper manufacturing process, on sugar cane, or on sulfite liquors. Sounds weird to me that I would want to eat wood sugars that end up being a "byproduct of the paper manufacturing process" but so far no side effects have been found. These wood sugars are also used in bee keeping and as a trapping agent for olive flies.

However back to the food. The product I had bought was:

I know, I know I bought pesto. It was on sale and in the long run it was cheaper then making it from scratch. However, I never would have known about Tourla Yeast if I wouldn't have gotten it. I started rummaging through our cupboards to see what else we have that might contain the yeast.

Zatarain's Red Beans and Rice is one of my favorites and sure enough,

 it's in there.

It's also in Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts.

So what's in your cupboard???

Pink Slime

Pink Slime. Sounds gross and kinda weird when you first hear it. You definitely aren't thinking about eating it. However, you most likely already have! It's been around since 2001 but didn't really become noticed until the beginning of this year. So what is pink slime???

"Pink slime is beef trimmings. It is made from waste trimmings that are simmered at a low heat until the fat separates from the muscle. It is run through a machine to separate the fat and muscle then it is sent through pipes where it is sprayed with ammonia before being packaged into meat bricks. The bricks are then frozen and sent to grocery stores where it is added to most ground beef as a filler."

Yummy huh!?  Pink slime a.k.a. "soylent pink" was in approximately 70 percent of ground beef sold in U.S. supermarkets as of March 2012. As pink slime became known to consumers, controversy and concern over health and sanitation issues became huge. The USDA had approved the use of "pink slime" in 2001 and allows that "beef that contains up to 15 percent of pink slime can be labeled as "100% ground beef." So, who was using and selling pink slime? Well, just about everyone! Safeway, Krogers, Stop and Shop, Target, Hy-Vee, Market Basket, Walmart, Jewel-Osco, and Carr's just to name a few. Fast food restaurants such as Burger King, Taco Bell, and McDonald's all had used it. McDonald's even took the process overseas to their locations in China.

It was also in many school lunches across the US. Parents started petitioning to the USDA to have pink slime removed from their children's school lunches. The USDA responded by stating that the U.S. National School Lunch Program will allow school districts to decided whether they want to purchase beef with pink slime or not. The problem here is that most school districts purchase their beef straight from the USDA and have no idea what there getting. Several cities and states opt-ed out immediately- Miami, New York, Boston, D.C., and Anchorage to name a few. North Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa continue to use pink slime today. The USDA reported earlier this year that they plan on purchasing 7 billion pounds of pink slime just for school lunches. 

So.....the final question is....what's in your beef???

Cooking with your wife.....

So here's an interesting story. A guy in LA is on trial for cooking his wife for 4 days and then disposing of her remains down the grease pit in his kitchen's restaurant. Click here to read about it.

Ippuku

A while back, Andi and I went out to dinner at a Japanese Izakaya restaurant in Downtown Berkeley called Ippuku. Izakaya's are small drinking establishments that also specialize in small tastings of food kinda like Spanish Tapas. I always wanted to go to one but could never find one in Boston.

The place was quite small, maybe 50 seats if that. You can sit at low tables like the one above or in booths. In the far back there is the kitchen.

We started off with grilled chicken livers in a soy glaze. They were slightly charred and bitter on the outside which went perfectly with the sweet soy flavor.

Grilled jumbo squid with Japanese mayo and ground ginger. A little chewy for my taste but Andi loved it.

Beef tongue with shishito peppers. If you've never heard of or had shishito peppers, I recommend finding some. There delicious little guys that are great for searing or grilling!

Bacon wrapped mochi!! Mochi are little rice cakes that are kinda have the same texture as marshmallows. Mmmmmm....bacon wrapped marshmallows! There's an idea!! You can find mochi in most Asian markets in the freezer section. They also make mochi ice cream in many different flavors that's also great!

Soft tofu in soy broth with scallions and red onion. Yum!

Grilled pork belly with miso paste. A little bit of a let down since I LOVE pork belly and this was quite tough.

Dungeness crab fritters. Again, another let down. No flavor what so ever. :(

Squid ink fried rice!! Best dish out of the entire meal! The rice had amazing flavor, not salty at all.

Seared beef tenderloin in ponzu with shiso leaf and ground garlic. Another hit! The tartness of the ponzu, bitterness of the shiso leaf and spiciness of the ground garlic worked magic with the soft seared tenderloin.

Mini chicken ramen soup with house made noodles. Total comfort food!

We finished our meal with two items. The first was buckwheat tea. A pleasant change from having it as pancakes or noodles(soba).

The second was soft serve ice cream with a soy reduction. The saltiness of the soy want perfect with the sweetness of the ice cream!

For my first experience at a Japanese Izakaya, I was quite impressed. I'll defiantly be back to this one and can't wait to find more!!



Nothing In Life Is Free

So apperently having this blog is not free. I can no longer post photos because I'm out of memory space and have to "buy" more. I'm working on trying to delete some of my past stuff but don't really want to. Stay tuned as I'll either figure a way around it or get another blog!!

Busy

So I haven't had much time to write anything as I have been working non-stop for a couple of weeks now. One of my sous chef went out to have his appendix removed and myself and my other sous have been covering all the shifts. I do have a couple of good things coming, thought. In the meantime, check out my squash!!

Since I haven't had any time, my garden has been a little neglected. This squash just kept growing and growing. It's 14 inches long and 10 inches in circumference. Super huge!!

SF Zoo

This past Monday was our three year anniversary and Andi decided that we should spend the day at the SF Zoo. I am spoiled because I grew up in DC and the zoo there is pretty great. However, we had a great time and it was defiantly worth the trip!

We started off in the Africa section. I was trying to get a good picture of this zebra but he only wanted to show me his ass!! Must have been his best side....

As we were entering the zoo, all we could hear was animals going nuts!! Turned out it was a bunch of lemurs and monkeys screaming at each other!

Chilling in the shade.

We found this chimpanzee hanging out with a box....

...which he found more interesting to wear as a hat!

We moved on into the Australian section. We found out that koala's are nocturnal, sleeping almost all day long and only come out at night.

We also found out that kangaroo's can be quite a lazy bunch!!

Slut!! :P

While walking along the path, we had a beautiful peacock come right up to us. She had found a cracker close to my feet that she couldn't resist.

In the amphibian house we saw a huge anaconda!!

We also saw one of the most poisonous frogs on the planet-the blue poison dart frog from Africa. Very cool little fellow.

This polar bear was so lonely he just wanted someone to play with!! I love how he comes out of the water once he has the tire on his head and looks at everyone to say "come on, come play with me!!"

After so much exercise it was time to stretch out like a carpet in the sun!

 His friend around the corner was happily eating until....

...he got his head stuck inside a trash can! :P

The grizzly bears were searching for lunch in there pond.

Here are a couple of black swans along with two funny looking guys I don't remember the names of.

They sure were cool looking though.

 Resting

Mr. Anteater

 A hippo sun bathing.

Once again another animal who only wanted to show me his ass!!

 This big rhino didn't want to come out and play.

 Penguin Island

When these guys swim they really fly!! I was amazed at how fast they can

move underwater!

 Prairie Dog Land

 A family of meerkats relaxing in the shade.

 Demon Goat!!! This guy was creepy with his yellow eyes and slits of black pupils. He would just stand there and stare at you. He was in the kids section of the zoo in a "petting" area. Oddly enough, no one was petting him.

And speaking of creepy, these two guys just stood there staring at you and didn't move. This was the strangest petting zoo I had ever been to!

 And then there was this guy. He found a bench and rested on it like he was waiting for a drink at a bar!

All in all a fun day!