The Bazaar by Jose Andres

Man, it was one of the most inspiring and mind-blowing dining experiences.  The bro and I went to much hyped and uber trendy restaurant on DineLA week and boy did the guy knock our socks off.

First off, we studied the DineLA menu intently and compared it against the regular menu to find the most expensive things we can order so that we can get the best value.  And then we scoured the menu for additional items to add.  We were stuffed to the gills!

Cotton candy foie gras: this was cotton candy with a foie gras center and crunchy caramel bits in the cotton candy.  Amazing. How do you even dream up such a combination? The stick of cotton candy was presented on a special glass cube that has a single hole to hold the candy stick! What??

Little foie gras sandwich: slices of foie gras in between house baked mini-brioche buns and fresh quince! The buttery, savory, fatty goodness of the foie gras combined with cold & sweet quince in between the warm buttery brioche buns that was topped off with just a few grains of coarse sea salt were the cutest little sandwiches to behold and consume

We got 2 different orders of cured Spanish ham because they were the most expensive things on the menu and we wanted to get our $ worth out of the prix fixe DineLA deal.  The ham was good but what was even better was the Catalan style toasted bread with minced tomatoes and herbs.  It was good and made us feel good about getting great value but in comparison to the awesome original creations on the menu, I would not recommend anyone order this.  Save room for the culinary genius that appears in the other dishes.

Japanese tacos:  mini grilled eel tacos served on tiny slivers of cucumber as the taco shell, with shiso, wasabi and chicharron.  The mini taco wrappers were tiny pieces of wax paper the size of an oreo cookie. The tacos sat on a custom dish shaped like “VVV” with a V to hold up each taco. The amount of care it took to prepare and present each dish was worth the ticket price alone.

Gazpacho estilo Algecira: What he calls traditional gazpacho was the most astounding gazpacho I’ve ever had.  It tasted like the essence of mashed creamy and buttery potatoes and savory gravy plus a sprinkling of fresh chives.  It tasted nothing like gazpacho at all.

Sea scallops in romesco sauce: The sea scallops were lightly pan roasted on both sides and served with a red bell pepper sauce.  He might have added just a hint of mole. The faint sweetness of the red peppers, the hint of bitterness of mole, plus the straightforward and natural saltiness of the scallops were absolutely eye popping.

Sauteed shrimp with garlic and guindilla pepper: This dish was good but the shrimp was just no comparison to the scallops that came right before it.  I think the shrimp was just a tad overcooked as well.  Shrimp needs to be cooked in just the right amount of time so that it has that nice al dente mouthfeel.

Philly cheesesteak: WOW. This was thin deli slices of Wagyu beef served on top of hollow air bread that was infused with liquefied cheddar cheese. Seriously. WHAT THE FUCK. IT IS SO GOOD.

Beef hanger steak piquillo pepper confit, natural jus: Cooked medium rare.  Like the sea scallops from a few courses ago, the combination of different flavors just worked fanbulously

Butifarra Senator Moynihan, Catalan pork sausage, white beans, mushrooms: By now we are full beyond belief so this was a bit too heavy and we can barely stuff this into our mouths. It was very flavorful but was on the salty side.

Olives-modern and traditional: This was a $10 value that we got for free simply from being nosey and asking the guy behind the counter what the floating spheres were in his station.  They turned out to be liquid olives.  They soak it in citrus juices for a day and then they fuckin PEEL OFF the skins of the olives one by one and soak it in citrus infused olive oil. WTF??? The traditional olives were served with some peppers on a toothpick and placed on a porcelain spoon. Actually each olive was served on a porcelain spoon, which was then put into a special slot on a special plate. Holy mother of god. The amount of care that goes into making goddam OLIVES is indicative to the amount of thought and care that goes into each dish’s prep and presentation.

We then moved over the “patisserie” part of the restaurant to have dessert.

Creamy Chocolate Heart with Coffee and Cardamom: This was a flourless chocolate cake infused with cardamom and coffee served with a house whipped cream

Traditional Spanish Flan: Hands down the best flan I’ve had in my entire life.  The eggy and custardy flan was served with a caramel sauce, real vanilla bean whipped cream, and slices of oranges on the side.

My mind, eyes and stomach are rocked beyond belief. Holy shit balls. It was amazing.

Curry from Scratch!!!!

Sunday is 99 Ranch Market day (Chinese supermarket) and it is also fridge inventory day where I try to polish off any tired looking foodstuffs that may be marching onto the decomposing state.  This is why I’m having such a prolific blogging day today.

One of the best ways to get rid of the aging vegetables is either a stew, stock, or curry! And since I already established my prowess in the curry making arena (except for the cheapness of reusing remnant eggwash in the curry that ended up in flakey specks), I was feeling it’s time to cook up some curry again.

Don’t worry, not all of these are from the elderly veg’s that had been aging in my fridge. I also bought new stuff. Old stuff I needed to use up were: cauliflower, carrots, celery, onion, garlic and tomatoes (which I pureed for a more Korma style). New stuff I added were: red bell pepper, green bell pepper, red habanero chili pepper and white potatoes.

Spices I used were: 8 whole cloves, 6 whole green cardamom pods, whole mustard seeds. I then grounded up some more spices: 3 whole cloves, 2 cardamom pods, cinnamon, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fenugreek, mustard seeds, red cayenne pepper and tumeric.

To make the curry, I sauteed the whole spices until the fragrance is released, then I put in the onions, 2 cloves of garlic and a little minced ginger left over from the butternut squash bisque I was also making (see other post).  After about 3-5 mins, throw in the rest of the vegetables and sautee for another 5 mins.  Ad the ground spice mix and salt. Then throw in the pureed tomatoes (I had 2 roma tomatoes) and 1/2 cup whole milk (I think normally people use yogurt but I didn’t want to use my Fage yogurt since I bought just enough to have as office snack for this coming week. Bring to a boil and then turn heat down to simmer until vegetables are tender.

And that’s it! Easy pea-sy!

Butternut Squash Bisque

This is pretty much a variation of the carrot ginger soup I made earlier.  Like the previous soup, this one is also from the Whole Foods Market cookbook. The main difference is that butternut squash is added into the mix.

 

I didn’t put in as much squash as the recipe called for because I had already started eating the squash earlier in the week and I didn’t feel like trekking out to the market again today.  It was just as well because butternut squash, tho tasty, veers on the sweet side and I don’t like too much sweetness in non-desserts items.  This is pretty tasty but it was a little too thick. I added some more water to the soup after I took the pic. It is now pretty much perfecto.

Homemade Potato Chips

Easiest thing in the world to make! Slice the potato using a mandoline slicer, season with oil, salt, and flavor of your liking, then pop into microwave for 3-5 mins and there you have it!

The idea of making chips in the microwave may sound suspect but it’s actually quite wonderful.  The way that microwave cooks is that it heats up the moisture that’s in the food so nuking this baby actually dries the taters up and get that dry chip quality.  An additional tip I have is to line your plate with parchment paper that way you don’t have to scrape your plate to lift the damn chips off, plus the cleanup afterward is supereasy.

The picture above is my homemade paprika potato chips. If you don’t have a mandoline slicer, I highly recommend it.  It has changed my life.  It is a massive time saver and can cut to deli thin thickness. The blade is killer sharp though.  You do not ever want to touch it. I accidentally came into very very light contact of the blade and I drew blood.

 

My new spices

Look at all my new spices! It makes me so happy!

I bought all these spices with the intention to make my own curry, which I did last night and it was friggin delicious! I made my own curry using whole spices and grinding my own in my coffee grinder. It was a mixture of whole and ground cardamom, whole and ground cloves, paprika, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper, fenugreek and tumeric.  I have not included a picture because I hate throwing away food and so I sneaked in leftover eggwash from my cracker into my curry stew and I ended up with tiny specks of scrambled eggs in the curry. I also may have contaminated my coffee grinder in the process cus it’s got this distinctive neon curry yellow around the rims now.

Carrot and Ginger Soup

My attempt to replicate Whole Foods’ Carrot Ginger soup.

 

Friggin stunning and gorgeous.

Damn tasty too.

And unlike the actual Whole Foods, it does not cost $5 a bowl. However, time cost is expensive as f*ck. All in, including time to make the stock, this endeavor took 6 hrs.

Homemade Crackers and Chocolate Crisps

As part of my ongoing efforts to try to cook my own foods instead of buying store foods, I am scouring the internet looking for recipes for crackers.  I’ve been getting mixed success with making wheat crackers.  The first time I had failed to make the dough thin enough and it ended up with an unchewable domino tile quality. There was maybe 10% of the batch that was salvageable. Learning from that mistake, my latest batch ended up much prettier:

 

This is a mixture of sea salt and pepper whole wheat crackers, and seas salt and rosemary whole wheat crackers. I forgot to include my sesame seed whole wheat crackers, but it looks pretty similar with the salt & pepper ones, except with bigger black dots.  I’m not sure how the exact chemistry works but some of the crackers turned out fantastic and crunchy but others completely missed the crunch gene.  Also, I substituted olive oil instead of vegetable oil in the recipe, which may have been a mistake because the taste of olive oil is really strong and distinct. I might try butter next time, cus that ALWAYS tastes good.

Next up is my attempt to make the chocolate cookie part of the Oreo. I made some substitutions here as well. Instead of using all-purpose flour, I’m trying to use of my stash of “self-rising flour” that I bought months ago before it expires in March.  And then I thought it might make the dough rise too much, so then I also subbed in some whole wheat flour, which is a denser flour and does not rise as high as all-purpose flour.  I also only use 2/3 of the sugar that the recipe called for.  Part of the appeal that the Oreo has for me is its slightly salty chocolate taste, so I didn’t want to make it too sweet.

I think all my substitutions made the cookie bigger than expected. However, the crunch and taste are excellent. It tastes buttery, chocolatey and a little bit salty. All in all, I’m pretty pleased. Oh, and I will not be making the white part of the Oreo. I am not a fan of that stuff. In general I am not a fan of frosting or filling that are too sweet. I think it’s cus I was born in HK and not in the US.  Most Americans seem to prefer their desserts super duper sweet, sugary and fatty.

Steamed Tofu with Shrimp

Made under phone instructions from Mom.

So easy! The shrimp was marinated in salt and vodka (Mom said to use Chinese cooking rice wine, which I did not have, but what I DO have was three kinds of vodka). You slice up some tofu, put the shrimp on, put some  parsley and scallions on and steam it.  12 mins later it’s ready. You strain out the water and dress it with some soy sauce and sesame oil. It’s that easy! AND it’s healthy and wholesome as all hell!

Egg Poaching Tip

Last week I made my first foray into poaching an egg. Not knowing that you’re supposed to keep the water at barely simmering level, I had I full roaring boiling the whole time.  Needless to say, my first poached egg ended up wandering everywhere all over the pot.  So then in attempt no. 2 I decided to crack it into a strainer and held the strainer over there. It helped a little but the boiling water still kicked some egg whites all around the pot.  By the time it got to eatin time, I was left with maybe 60-70% of the egg. I felt sad looking down and the anemic portion.

Yesterday I came up with the perfect solution. I slid the egg into a cookie cutter that sat in the middle of the pot/wok. I made that poached egg my bitch. 100% egg ended up in my tummy and proved that I belonged on top of the food chain.

 

Strawberry Banana Bread

My place smells so good right now! I’m giddy with joy.

Haven’t even taken it out to cool yet.

I’ll update tomorrow morning after I’ve tasted this! I’m so excited for breakfast tomorrow!