winter must-do: the hot pot

so this was a while back (christmas actually) the same day the kids went bob ross on the cookie cutouts. the family hasn't done a hot pot or "da been low" as chicopea puts it in quite a while. what is a hot pot exactly? a hot pot essentially starts with... a hot pot. this pot contains a hot broth or stock (prepared in advanced) is placed in the middle of a communal dinner table over a butane stove. the general idea is to cook your meats, veggies, seafood, etc. in this pot with the broth. there are many interpretations of the hot pot because it allows for people to tailor the main ingredients that they want to cook as well as their stock (meat, veggie, seafood, spicy) i.e. vegetarians may opt for tofu, fresh vegetables, noodles. some prefer a little of everything at their table. either way it's up to you what you want at your table.

for the family hot pot, my mom goes all out (where i've come to realize my anal tendencies in the kitchen are definitely from my momma) instead of buying pre-packaged items for the hot pot, she scours all of chinatown seeking the freshest seafood (oysters, salmon, chinese white fish, razor clams, squid, shrimp), the oddest bits (boneless chicken feet, cow livers and intestines) and the must-have family standards (beef, chicken, watercress, broccoli, scallions) and preps all of this herself carefully deboning the fish, thinly slicing the beef and chicken, soaking the various innards, etc. my pops, in the meantime, takes care of cleaning and de-sanding (is that the proper term?) the clams and oysters. it's pretty much an entire day's worth of prep for a few hours around the table. i think the best thing is that you can dress up whatever you cook up any which way you want: hot, soy, plum, hoisin-sauce, lemon, tabasco, plain... like i said, any which way you want!

after all this is done and you've spent a few hours seasoning the stock even further you get such a rich broth that there's no way to resist it the next day, ladled up in a bowl filled with some noodles and leftover fare from last night! the hot pot is definitely a nice way to enjoy some really fresh food amongst family and friends who enjoy just a little labor for some tasty eats. 

root root celery root!

ok. so a few weeks ago i picked up this honker at chelsea market to make celery root puree as a side for a dinner i was having with a few friends. reading up on a few recipes online it was similar to making mashed potatoes with the addition of boiling the root cut into cubes in milk. every recipe said to use the food processor to whip up the root. i'm not totally sure where i went wrong, but then again, i've never had celery root puree before so i don't have much of a basis on taste and texture. the resulting texture was more gluten-y than i expected to be (is that supposed to be the case?). i know the gluten-y effect definitely happens when you put potatoes into the processor (not a desired effect, so don't do it) but was the celery supposed to get that way? 

anyhow, i served it up and everyone seemed to be ok with me. i wasn't too crazy about it but it still managed to make a decent side dish when served up along side chicken w/ white wine and sage. i think this girl needs to herself a food mill!

cleanse the palate

when arugula is fresh and all piled up in the market looking gorgeous - you can't pass it up! one of my favorite things to throw together is this arugula-fennel and orange salad with shaved parmesan and orange vinaigrette.  quickly throw together some washed arugula and thinly sliced fennel into a bowl. when supreming the orange (to make orange segments), i usually do it over a bowl so that it catches any juices that may fall, this is reserved for the vinaigrette. **it's important to taste the orange (or the juice) before you start the vinaigrette to see if you need to add more sweetness (honey) or sourness (lemon/sherry vinegar)... in the end it should be done to your own liking. place orange segments aside. 

now onto the vinaigrette... i like my salads with a little more acidity, so i add about 2 TB of sherry vinegar (or fresh lemon juice or even a combo of both) to the bowl, some freshly ground pepper, a 1/4 ts of dijon mustard, a squeeze of honey (if it's needed), and a pinch of salt. whisk together. slowly stream extra virgin olive oil (good quality) into the bowl while whisking. be sure to taste and adjust (more honey? more acid?)... 

mix the vinaigrette w/ the greens and fennel and toss. add the orange segments and shave long strips of parmesan onto the salad (i use a peeler to get the strips). finish off with a sprinkle of finishing salt (i.e. grey salt, fleur de sel). refreshing, slightly sweet, complex from the fennel and savory from the parmesan with a bit of bite from the arugula. a definitely must have alone or as a starter before a meal.. this salad combo is tasty! 

celebrate with a doughnut!

it was a good day to celebrate. jan. 20th, 2009 at 12pm which marked the day of a new president. after 8 dismal years, this country has finally gotten off its arse to make a statement about this country. we are ready for a change. the pessimist in me says, "who knows how soon that change will come" but the optimist in me say - "no matter what - it will come". 

so to mark the day, me and neighborhood pal, amy, decided that since we were both free that day there was no reason not to watch the inauguration in the comfort of a home. we decided to celebrate "old-lady style" by remarking on the string of odd happenings of live television (chief justice roberts messing up the oath, pres. obama noting the mistake by not repeating after him & sen. ted kennedy's collapse during the luncheon), knitting wintery wear (me: a hat, amy: gloves) and most importantly making pistachio lemon doughnuts! 

aside from chris matthews heinous remark on the crow nation of montana's march in the inauguration as "something out of the hoover days" - the day was filled with amy "slapping the dough", frying up the doughnuts, and wonderfully icing and topping them with lemon glaze and toasted pistachios. 

oh happy day and a huge welcome to the obama family! 

the potato latke/pancake

i've spent many a-potato-pancake making sessions working out the right recipe for myself. although it's quite a traditional dish adopted by many different cultures - like many traditional dishes made at home by the family cook(s) - the recipe gets tweaked here and there until it fits the eating party. 

for myself, it really starts and ends with the very simplest of ingredients: potatoes, eggs, onions, salt, pepper, flour, panko bread crumbs. a few things i've noticed during my early trials of making potatoes that were not mashed but in either cube form (for hash browns) or grated (for hash or latkes), the texture of the potato came out gummy and slimy, not crispy. the main reason for this is the amount of starch the potatoes had and once they're in the process of cooking, that starch begins to thicken and coat each little potato bit and you end up with some texturally unappealing potatoes. 

so what i do with all the potatoes once they were grated or cubed is to keep them soaked in very cold water, once you were ready to use them - rinse them out several times (like you would with white rice) until the water ran pretty clear. this was really the key to getting rid of that extra starch. the other thing was to make sure the potatoes are pretty dry before cooking, so squeeze it through some cheese cloth to get rid of the excess liquid.

so now that we've established that, onto making these latkes. 

• start out with about 4-5 russet or eastern potatoes (this'll make about 12 medium latkes). grate the potatoes and be sure to keep in cold water while grating the rest of the potatoes. Rinse and drain out a few times, squeeze out excess water. 
  
• take 1 med. sized onion and grate, set aside. 
  
• in a big bowl, mix the potatoes, grated onion together. add some salt (about 1 large pinch) and black ground pepper. add 2 eggs and mix until combined. 
  
• take about 1/4 cup of unbleached flour and throw into mixture which should start to get tacky and come loosely together. you don't want it to be starchy and thick, just enough that it'll stick together. add about 1/2 cup of panko bread crumbs and lightly mix.  
  
• take a medium sized pan and heat it up with some canola oil, just enough to coat the bottom of the pan. once hot, just grab a palm full of potato mixture and throw into pan, slightly flatten so it cooks thoroughly on medium to low heat for about 3-4 mins on each side. 
  
• serve it up with some sour cream, applesauce, ketchup, plain or with just a sprinkle of salt.
  
• eat up and enjoy! 
  

movie and a movie

recommended by my friend sara, i ventured to the angelika film center with a friend to see let the right one in (aka Låt den rätte komma in). a swedish film set in the stark backdrop of the cold wintry white, i was not entirely sure what i was in for aside from the general plot; a young boy befriends the young girl who's moved in next door... oh yea, and she's a vampire. a plot sounding like something out of that twilight movie - let the right one in is not. it is so much better, sweeter, heartbreaking, beautiful and on occasion even slightly ridiculous. ridiculous in that moments where you hold your breath, where there's such stillness in the air - something happens and part of you isn't sure if you should look away, feel queasy or bust out laughing because it is just that uncomfortable.  either way, you can't but help to hope for the best of these two kids who forge a friendship i think any of us would have wanted when we felt a little lost, out of place and wanted. 

next up was wendy and lucy with michelle williams, who i admit to having a girl crush on (the girl has haircuts that i love and want). for being a product of dawson's creek fame - she's been smart in her roles and has shown herself to be a versatile actress plus she's been in some indie films i heart: me without you, the baxter, and dick. not knowing much about wendy and lucy, ginger and i met up at the film forum one afternoon to check it out. despite the film's length which was only 90 minutes (these days considered short) it was the right amount of time. it's a "quiet" movie with very little dialogue except for a few scenes, non-existent "action" sequences although there were a few tense moments, this movie will not be for everyone. not knowing much about michelle's character, the movie picks up with her character making most of the little money she has in order to make it to alaska for work while stuck in a town in oregon for a few days looking for her dog (lucy) and for 90 minutes it's like we voyeuristically watch her go through this mini-journey/crisis. for me, it's an interesting study of someone with very little resources trying to make a life for themselves - whether realistic in its portrayal - i think many people have found themselves in that situation... tallying up the money they have at the end of the month and figuring out how to make it by not knowing when the next paycheck will come. 

le slouch, clos!

in all honesty, when i said i was close to completing the le slouch in a few days, i really did finish it in a few days. i just never posted up a image of it. and as you can tell i haphazardly photographed this just to prove my point. anyway, the hat has been keeping me quite warm this winter although i must admit that i was a little careless with knitting more "hat" than i needed. what came of that was a bit hat with more "slouch" than i wanted. however it's still swell looking and i do wear it when the weather calls for it. 

next up: i'm onto knitting a hat for my friend who's asked i help keep his ears warm this winter. i found a nice post with a pattern from dropped a stitch which looks like this (courtesy of dropped a stitch)

using plymouth encore worsted #45 i hope to have this done within a week. the pattern looks easy to follow so long as i keep track of my decreases. but i think i should ok. the yarn itself is quite nice and easy to work with - so i'm excited to see how it will turn out. hopefully i'll get a better picture of the hat and the model once its done. 

christmas cookies

every year i go on christmas baking binge. intent with baking at least 4 different sweet treats, i spend a good week thinking about what to bake, going through my pantry, making up a shopping list, and finally going to at least 3 different spots for the ingredients. why? well although my local pathmark carries the essential baking items: flour, sugar, milk, eggs, butter - on occasion, i'll come upon one random ingredient that i need to hit up a "specialty" shop for - i.e. almond paste/marizpan. but i don't mind, it always gives me a good excuse to run up to chelsea market and putter about the place for a bit. but back to the cookies! 

there are two cookies that are always on my list. since the seven-layer or rainbow cookie is a favorites of a few folks, there's no way i can skip making these. they are a little time intensive. it takes either an entire day devoted to the making of these, but in my case since i split my time up making doughs for the mini-pecan tarts and cookie dough for the christmas cutouts, the rainbow cookies take me 1 1/2 days to complete. 

i can't remember where i originally found the recipe for the rainbow cookie, but my friend angela directed me to a posting by smitten kitchen who recently took on the endeavor of the rainbow cookie. she also offers some really good advice about how to keep the layers together as well as how to cut through the layers without cracking the chocolate exterior - an issue i definitely have with mine. the recipe posted on smitten's website is pretty much the one i have saved in my files, the one thing i do differently is use raspberry preserves instead of apricot and make a mixture of dark and semi-sweet chocolate for the exterior layers. if you haven't figured it out by now, i have a definitive love for raspberry jam, preserves, conserves, seeded or not. 

my first introduction to the rainbow cookie was from my sister, many ages ago, who lived near veniero's pastry in the east village. whenever i was in that area, i remember stopping into their shop and picking up about 1/4-1/2 lb. of the little treats. then a few years back, i found a recipe for the rainbow cookie and figured there was no real need to buy them if i could make them myself. grant it, it was a lot of work, but in the end still very worth the efforts. the cookie itself is not a cookie per se. it's almost like a tiny dense piece of cake, complex with the flavors of almond, moist from the raspberry jam with a hint of decadence from the chocolate exterior. 

the second must-make sweet on my list are the mini-pecan tarts, a favorite of my aunt's. oddly enough, i forgot to take a photograph of these. i followed a recipe for a cream-cheese based crust and my go to pecan-pie filling. the key to baking the pie/tart lies in its pecan filling - a tip from my aunt. one must bake at a low temperature, and i found that at 250 degrees baked for at least 20 minutes give these mini-tarts a nice caramel-like flavor. 

what i also normally bake up are some hazelnut raspberry thumbprints - i'm a fan of the nutty cookie with fruit filling but since i've been baking these pretty frequently i thought i'd try out something similar. i came upon a recent posting by cannelle et vanille who posted up some recipes from anita chu's "field guide to cookies" one of which was a linzer cookie made with almonds and raspberry jam... eureka! since i had loads of hazelnuts at home i thought i'd substitute the almonds in this recipe with finely ground hazelnuts. a fan of raspberry jam i felt to keep that the same but curious about apricot jam and never having really used it, i wanted to try out a few of these with the apricot as well. feeling the love for the cookies, i also found some heart-shaped cookie cutouts in my stash of odds and ends and thought these would make a nice addition to the cookie hodgepodge.

finally the last of the cookies were christmas cutouts. i decided to do 2 versions since i was hoping to have a little cookie decorating session with the nieces and nephews when they came over for christmas dinner. i thought the standard sugar cookies and ginger-molasses cookies would work out best. the recipes for both came of course from my trusty baking illustrated book. the cookie doughs handled really well when rolling them out multiple times. i did have a habit on making them a too thin so after baking they did get a bit fragile to handle. (so note to self, make sure they're a bit thicker). i don't think rolling them out a bit thicker will make them chewy, just less likely to break. unfortunately a few gingermen were decapitated or lost a leg... d'oh! 

i tried out decorating a few of the ginger-molasses cutouts. they came out quite festive looking! 

on christmas day i put out the cookies for the kids to take a stab at decorating... it was good way to keep them from running about the apartment and climbing up the walls, literally. (also i just noticed that you can see the mini-pecan tarts sitting up on top of that radio in the background)

i guess ages 7-10 are a perfect age for cookie decorating! the six kids had a lot creative ideas with the different colored icings and sprinkles... so much so that my little cousin alex made a really good cookie replica of patrick star from spongebob squarepants. awesome! 

keepin' up with the jones

first off, happy new year!  it's been a tough tough year, so here's to hoping that better things are to come! 

so i tried to keep up two blogs. my initial thought was to have one blog dedicated to baking activities and the other to discuss non-baking things. but alas i found myself a little dizzied by trying to keep up with them both and so now i've consolidated all my efforts and moved the baking posts from whisk onto -ings and things. 

since i kept the original post dates - the posts are floating about in the blog.  the best way to view any of them is just to use the 'specifics' section on the right of the screen and click "baked goods" to see what i've been keeping myself busy with. hope this helps! sorry for being behind on things. i'll post up the cookie action that took place a few weeks ago for the holidays which will include some awesome frosting action by my little cousin who turned a star cookie cutout into patrick from spongebob square pants. yes. it. is. that. awesome.