Banning Vuvuzelas

Here's something not related to food, but rather to soccer.

I'm not a soccer fan, so when I watch a world cup game, the incessant buzzing of the vuvuzelas makes me hate the sport even more. Luckily, if you're streaming the game on your computer, some kindred spirit has created an open source tool to block out the demonic wailing of the vuvuzelas without affecting the quality of any other sounds in the game.

Are you interested? Check it out.

Meals from the Weekend

Friday

I thought about making Mexican and South African food, in light of the start of the World Cup, but given my lack of experience with African food, as well as a lack of plantains, I opted for Mexican. Sorry about the sideways pictures, but the food still tasted good.

Chickpeas, onion and sweet pepper simmered in tomato, cumin, cayenne pepper.

Greek Yogurt with a splash of lime juice and a dash of cayenne pepper (my replacement for sour cream)

Mashed Avocado with lime juice

Corn with diced sweet peppers and finely chopped romaine lettuce (Sorry, Mike, I ran out of cilantro)

Homemade taquitos (flour tortillas cut in half, rolled up and panfried, with shredded pork shoulder and sharp cheddar cheese)

Saturday

Weekends have tended to be my cooking overload days but I kept it easy. Used leftover chicken bones from last week's rotisserie chicken to make homemade chicken stock (more on that later). Auntie Anne's pretzel (*swoon*) and lemonade from the mall for lunch. Ordered Bangkok Bistro for dinner. Mike got his Ka Tiam Pik Thai and I got my Drunken Noodles. Yum.

Sunday

Pancakes day! I love making pancakes for breakfast. That is my one failproof recipe. I can pretty much make them by sight and I know that they will never fail me. Unfortunately, my bottle of syrup has been relocated to Mike's house and we were too lazy to walk the 2 blocks to go get it. So in 10 minutes I managed to whip up a syrup using balsamic vinegar, strawberry jam that I made from some frozen strawberries, and a couple of extra frozen strawberries in the freezer. 

I covered the bottom of a medium sauce pan with a film of balsamic vinegar and added some frozen strawberries to steam and dethaw in the reducing vinegar.When the vinegar began to bubble, I added about 4 tablespoons of the strawberry jam, and a tablespoon of white sugar. I then let that mixture come to a boil, then reduced it to a simmer for a couple of minutes, poured into a bowl and served with the pancakes. So a simple strawberry balsamic syrup was born and I forsee it showing up at the table in the near future, and not just at breakfast.

This week's menu should be up shortly.

South Africa World Cup 2010

I don't even like soccer, but there is something that seems to overtake the entire world every four years. It is on the same scale as the Olympics, yet is something other in that just one sport has the ability to simultaneously draw the attention of billions of people. I'm at work right now, but that isn't going to stop me from pretending to be a soccer fan for the next week. Thanks to espn3 for streaming this great event so that we can all enjoy it.

In order to keep this food related, I think I'm going to have to make some Mexican and South African food tonight in memory of this event. Taquitos and plantains, no?

Fried Pate a Choux with Cinnamon Sugar

I'd had a craving for doughnuts since I read a recipe for Buttermilk Doughnuts and French Crullers in the LA Times. Last night, however, I wanted a treat that was a little simpler, though just as fulfilling. I decided to make some pate a choux, adding a generous amount of sugar, vanilla extract and a dash of cinnamon, fry it in a mix of canola and olive oils and then cover it liberally with cinnamon sugar (about a 5:1 sugar to cinammon ratio).

The picture, from my 2008 Samsung cell phone, doesn't do this delectable treat justice. They were crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside, while the heat pronounced the cinnamon flavor and mellowed the sugar. 

Fried Pate a Choux with Cinnamon Sugar

Ingredients:

1/2 C water

3 T butter, cut into cubes (for faster melting)

1/2 C flour

1/4 C sugar

1 t vanilla extract

1 t ground cinnamon

2 large eggs

cinnamon and sugar to make a 5:1 blend (reference, 1 C = 16 T, 1 T = 3 t; or better yet, get a food scale)

enough canola and olive oil to fill a small sauce pan

Method:

Place the butter, vanilla extract and water in a sauce pan over medium heat. When the butter is melted, add the flour, sugar, and cinnamon, stirring vigorously until the mixture begins to pull away from the sides of the pan into a ball.

Turn off the heat and let it sit for 2-3 minutes off the burner as it cools. Then add the 2 eggs, one at a time, to the water-butter-flour mixture. At first it will be slimy, but then the mixture will become smooth and creamy, with continued beating. (I suggest using a whisk at this point, though my kitchen is lacking in one and so I use a spatula. A long-tined fork could also work.)

Fill another sauce pan with the oil and allow it sit over medium heat. Test a small drop of the batter. If it is hot enough, it should drop to the bottom then immediately rise back up. I used a large spoon to drop free-form spoonfuls of dough into the batter, letting it fry for about 3-4 minutes, or until golden and deliciously browned.

Drop the fried batter onto a paper towel and allow it to drain oil (essentially, the air that would fill up in the holes in the pate a choux when baking, which forms the definitive puff, such as in a gougere or a profiterole, is replaced with oil which drains out of the dough and deflates it). When drained, cover generously with the cinnamon sugar mixture, plate, and try to make sure Mike doesn't eat them all.

Experiments for next time: doused powdered sugar or melted chocolate,soaked in creme anglaise or caramel sauce.

Enjoy!

Menu Planning Progress Report

Let's see how I've done so far:

• Sunday Dinner: Rotisserie Chicken with Apple Sauce, Peas and Cucumber and Cherry Tomato Salad
• Done
• Monday Tuesday Dinner: Mini Flour Tortillas with Pork Shoulder
• Done
• Tuesday Wednesday Dinner: Chinese Stir Fry with Chicken and Shrimp Fried Rice
• Done
• Wednesday Thursday Dinner: Ravioli with Apples and Walnuts (Marinara Sauce for Mike)
• Prep Work Done
• Thursday Friday Dinner: Chickpea and Beef Burritos/Tacos
• Friday Saturday Dinner: Arroz con Pollo
• Saturday Sunday Dinner Lunch: Grilled Asparagus Pazanella and Calzones

Looks like I'm somewhat on track. We're planning on going out for lunch on Saturday, so I'll need to think of a place either in DC or in NOVA.

8-Week Recipe Contest

Have I inspired any of you to becomes cooks yet? If so, Whole Foods Market is holding an 8 week recipe contest with Food52 From June 7 to July 26th. Each week will be a different seasonal item and you will have the challenge of creating an original recipe featuring that ingredient. Each winner will receive a $100 gift card to Whole Foods, and all 8 will be entered to in a $1000 gift card.

• June 7                     Cucumbers
• June 14                   Fresh mozzarella
• June 21                   Cherries
• June 28                   Summer squash
• July 5                      Basil
• July 12                    Swordfish
• July 19                    Ground beef burgers
• July 26                    Heirloom tomatoes

You can go to the Food52 website to submit your creations each week. Good Luck!

Why We Love Supermarkets

Yesterday, I talked about price comparisons between regular shopping markets (of the Safway persuasion), and smaller, specialty markets (like Trader Joe's). While I love Trader Joe's and feel that I could cover all of my, and Mike's, grocery needs with a Trader Joe's and Costco, I still believe in the traditional supermarket. I remember the feeling I had when Mike and I walked into the new Safeway. But I feel that this article articulates all the things about supermarkets that I love and respect much more eloquently than I could.

An Excerpt:

"At a time when farmers' markets, boutique grocers, and artisan bakeries arethe go-to places for food-savvy shoppers, supermarkets get a bad rap assymbols of corporate homogenization and the dumbing-down of taste. That maybe true to some degree, but if the two of us have learned anything from our travels around the country to research our Roadfood books and website, it's that a stroll through atown's local supermarket can be every bit as enlightening as a visit to an open-air marketin an exotic, faraway place. We like supermarkets because they're practical and big and easy to navigate, sure; but more than that, we love them because, like all markets, they are portraits of the way people cook and eat"


You can read the rest at Saveur, another great food and cooking website.

Trader Joe's vs. Safeway - Grocery Stores Go Head-to-Head

The local grocery stores that I frequent are Trader Joe's and Safeway. Trader Joe's has gained recognition nationally, particularly for it's "two buck chuck" and other amazing wine deals. Unfortunately, this success came after Whole Food's created an image for sustainable/organic/free-trade food and products that could only be bought with your whole paycheck. This could also be why Trader Joe's has been able to expand so quickly. Food politics and sustainability is becoming more mainstream, yet in a recession, affordability tends to  overshadow these other two issues. Trader Joe's has managed to bridge the gap that Whole Foods created between these two concepts.


Trader Joe's has managed to maintain low prices by carrying it's own brands and labels (including Trader Jose's (Mexican food), Trader Ming's (Chinese food), Baker Josef's (bagels), Trader Giotto's (Italian food), Trader Joe-San (Japanese food), Arabian Joe's (Middle Eastern food), Pilgrim Joe's (Seafood), JosephBrau (Beer), Trader Johann's (Lip Balm), Trader Jacques' (imported French soaps), Joe's Diner (certain frozen entrees), Joe's Kids (Children's food), and Trader Darwin's (Vitamins)), keeping it's stores smaller and keeping the set-up as minimalist as possible. This approach has been so effective that they manage to beat Safeway by a wide margin on prices for many common items. 

Spreadsheet Comparing Prices on Products

Here are some images from the spreadsheet, but it is hard to read so I defer to the link above.

For my most generic needs or certain brands, like paper towels or Jiff/Skippy peanut butter, and sometimes meat, I'll go to Safeway. Mike was right when he said that "[Safeway] is a grocery store," in a way that Trader Joe's will never be. But if I want to assuage my ethical and sustainable pinings through buying organic and free trade and environmentally friendly without having to pay through the nose, or if I really want frozen mango chunks, I go to Trader Joe's

Trader Joe's - Foggy Bottom (4.5 Stars, 116 Reviews)
Safeway - Georgetown (4 Stars, 6 Reviews)

Note: Keep in mind that these stores happen to fit my personal model of shopping. These prices and products (which are just a sampling) have been compiled due to a manic need to maintain a reasonable budget for groceries, otherwise I'd be fat and broke. Though it should be noted that the prices at either store are not astronomically high by any means. 


If you are serious about budgeting, then save your receipts and compare prices and keep a spreadsheet/pricebook/etc. But for the most part, a regular grocery store, a la Safeway, can, for the most part, do you no wrong.

Menu Planning Progress

Qdoba is half price for students on Monday (between 4 and 10 I think). It's hard to deny that craving, so Monday dinner was a fail. That means that pulled pork tortillas will be pushed back to tonight. Since tonight Stephen Strasburg is having his major league debut for the Nationals, I wanted to do something special. Currently, I have an idea about cutting them in half and frying/baking them (like taquitos, but with flour tortillas instead of corn/masa), so I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Ideas for Leftover Rotisserie Chicken

Rotisserie chickens are always a great value, in my opinion. You can get a whole, ready made chicken for $4-8 ($6 at Safeway in Georgetown) that can feed a family, or in my case, as well as that of many students and young adults, provide multiple quick and easy meals. Here are my top ten ideas for left over rotisserie chicken:

10. Chicken Lo Mein
9. Chicken Frittata
8. Chicken Lime Soup
7. Chicken Tortilla Soup
6. Fettucine Alfredo with Chicken
5. Curry Chicken Salad
4. Chicken Fried Rice
3. Chicken Quesadilla
2. Chicken Burritos
1. Chicken Noodle Soup

And best of all, the bones that are left over can be used to make chicken stock, providing a base for amazing soups, including chicken noodle, or a liquid for braising meat, with a taste that swanson or any other store brand just can't beat.