Tuna steaks and garlic bok choy

I really wanted to have some tuna for dinner so I made tuna steaks with a ginger-soy marinade using this Everyday Food recipe. Here's the recipe for the marinade (found here along with five other marinades):

1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup rice-wine vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons sugar

As with all Everyday Food recipes, this was really simple but full of flavor. I just wish that we had better quality tuna.

I also made bok choy with garlic using this very easy epicurious.com recipe. Zack commented that not many other vegetables can be enjoyed so simply as bok choy and I agree!

Avocado burgers

Zack is at it again with the grill! We cooked up a spicy burger with cayenne pepper mixed in the ground beef. As far as condiments and toppings go, there are the usual items such as ketchup, mustard, pickle, tomato, and onion. A key topping for me is avocado!

Believe it or not, Zack and I had one of the best burgers in Osaka at the Kua'aina Sandwich (website in Japanese). I always got the avocado burger whenever we needed to satisfy our real American hamburger cravings (McDonald's doesn't count). According to the website, the original Kua'aina sandwich shop was founded on the island of Oahu in 1975. It gained popularity and opened up its second location in Honolulu and its first Japanese location in Tokyo in 1997. There are ten other locations in Japan.

Even though they don't mention this on the website, I know for a fact that there is a "Kua'aina Sandwich" in the US in Santa Monica, California. I distinctly remember eating there when I vacationed there with friends from college.

A refreshing tomato and cucumber salad was the perfect compliment to the avocado burger. Yummy!!

Gyoza (Potstickers)

Just look at these perfect little pork dumplings. Zack and I made gyoza or pot stickers for dinner last night. It is a laborious process but worth it if you make a lot at one time. That way you can have some for dinner and freeze the rest for a convenient snack or appetizer for later.

You just need ground pork and a head of cabbage with some chopped/minced scallions, garlic and ginger. After boiling, squeezing the water out, and chopping the cabbage, mix all of these ingredients together and add sesame oil and soy sauce. Then comes actually making the gyoza using "gyoza" wrap that can be found in almost any grocery store. I have fond memories growing up of helping my mom fold hundreds of these little dumplings.

To cook them, it's a two-step process: (1) pan-frying and (2) steaming. Here's the trick to getting it right: first, heat some oil in skillet on high heat. Then, lower the heat to medium and immediately begin placing the gyoza in the skillet "flat side" down. When a golden brown crust has formed on the bottom of the gyoza, add water to the pan just so that the gyoza is only half immersed in water and cover immediately. Increase the heat to high to boil the water. When most of the liquid has evaporated, uncover and lower the heat back to medium. Let the water completely evaporate until a nice crispy skin forms under the gyoza. Serve and enjoy with soy sauce and raayu (chili oil).

Chicken Tikka Masala

This was Zack's little project on Saturday night. He really loves Chicken Tikka Masala and Naan, so he decided to make these foods for dinner. When we lived in Japan, we would always go to these Indian restaurants Bombay Kitchen and its sister location (I'm blanking on the name...). The second spot is really close to the office where I worked so I would go there pretty frequently. Zack and I love the naan and curry lunch specials there. This was Zack's attempt to replicate the food we miss so much.

First of all, the naan didn't turn out anything like what we know is naan. Zack followed the recipe for naan in the Joy of Cooking, which had directions for making it without the traditional tandoor ovens. Don't worry, Zack hasn't given up yet. This is only the beginning.


As for flavor of the chicken dish, it was really good partly because we picked up a packet of dried spices from Treasure Island to add to it. It's a cheaper alternative to buying every single different kind of spice necessary for this dish and most other Indian dishes.

Pizza, Mao and Cranium

I invited my friend Shawn and his wife Vahideh over for dinner on Friday night. I suggested making pizza. Of course, I have to work while Zack has the summer off from grad school. Zack was nice enough to get started on the pizza dough and buy the ingredients for the pizza.

Here's the menu:

• Mixed greens salad with cucumbers and tomatoes
• Herbs and cheese pizza
• Carmelized onion, roasted pepper, and goat cheese pizza
• Pesto, tomato and mozzarella cheese pizza
• Fruit custart tart "made" by Shawn and Vahideh
  

I've made the first two pizzas before (see my post dated March 26, 2006) but somehow they didn't turn out as good as I remember them being the first time. I remember eating the herbs and cheese pizza right out of the oven and it was delicious.

I also remember how delicious the roasted pepper and goat cheese pizza was it wasn't as good this time around. For some reason, I don't remember spending a lot of time carmelizing the onions but when I checked the Joy of Cooking, the recipe instructed you to cook onions in butter and olive oil over low heat for ONE hour and over medium heat for another 25 minutes! As you can probably tell, I didn't do that and my onions were half "sweated" and half burnt before I even put in on top of the pizza.

The pesto pizza turned out the best (sorry, no pictures... I didn't like how any of the pictures turned out). With freshly made basil pesto as the sauce, fresh tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella cheese, it was really good. I think there's room for improvement in the dough department too.

After dinner, Shawn and Vahideh taught us this card game called "Mao". Basically, the rules are similar to Uno (put down a card with the same suit or number until all of your cards are discarded) except that a beginner doesn't know what the rules are when he or she starts playing. For example, when someone puts down an "8", then the order is reversed. Of course, Zack and I didn't know that so we would be unknowingly violating the rules. Shawn would immediately call us on it and penalize us with card from the pile. My least favorite rule was "no asking questions" including "what?" I think I was penalized five times in a row because I kept asking "what?" and "what's going on?" It gets vicious, as Vahideh warned us at the beginning, because you have to call people out on their mistakes.

We also played Cranium. Actually, we spent half the time trying to figure out how to play the game. It was pretty entertaining because you're supposed to do things like guess what tune your teammate is humming and you get to watch everyone doing humiliating things.

Peach Salad and Shrimp Edamame Pasta

Here's a quick meal: mixed greens with peaches and pasta with shrimp, edamame and feta cheese. I was too lazy to look around for recipes last Wednesday so I decided to make my own concoctions.

The peaches weren't as ripe as I would have liked but the tartness actually worked well in the salad.

It's a light summer meal which is a nice alternative to all the greasy and rich food that you just can't avoid during the summer... especially with the two week long Taste of Chicago coming up.

I didn't use the usual tomato pasta sauce with this dish and just used a little water that I used to cook the pasta. Very good and very healthy... I know that's not going to last with Fourth of July fast approaching.

Pasta bake brought to you by Rachel Ray

Some may hate Rachel Ray because of her annoying personality, but I like some of her recipes. I will say that she can be overwhelmingly perky and that she does get on my nerves sometimes. Last Friday before going out to see Nacho Libre with Will and Fred, Zack and I made one of her pasta bake recipes. It was the BLT Pasta Bake: Bacon, Leeks, and Tomatoes recipe in her "Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats" cookbook.

It consisted of cooked bacon, leeks and tomatoes mixed with cooked pasta and a Gruyere cheese sauce. It really does take only 30 minutes to make. I did have one problem though. I always remind myself that it's really easy to boil over milk if you're not paying attention, but I consistently manage to do it anyways. That's exactly what happened to me when making the roux for the sauce.

It was good and we had enough time to eat before heading out to meet Will and Fred at the movie theater. Well, almost enough time. Zack fandango'ed all four tickets so he had to run ahead of me to pick them up. Nacho Libre was funny but I didn't realize it was a Nickelodeon movie. It seemed like it was more geared towards kids. My favorite scene: when Nacho's sidekick Esqueleto throws a corn on the cob into some bad guy's eye socket. Totally unexpected!

BBQ Party Night

Since my friends Stan and Nishaant wouldn't be in town for long, Zack and I decided to have a BBQ party on Sunday night. We also invited Will, Fred, and Kari as well as Zack's friend Kelby and her friend Melissa. I had all my dishes planned out and the recipes organized. I picked either really easy recipes or those that I've made before. Here's my dinner menu:

• Plenty of beer
  
• Tomatillo-avocado salsa with tortilla chips (from my April 28, 2006 post)
  
• Potato and cheese salad
• Grilled corn on the cob
• Grilled asparagus cous-cous (from my April 26, 2006 post)
• Hamburgers / hot dogs / boca burgers
• Grilled pineapple with vanilla ice cream and rum dulce de leche
  

I thought it would be a piece of cake to whip up dinner and dessert. Not so simple, as it turned out. Well, the only thing that really gave me a hard time was the rum dulce de leche that I was trying to make for the dessert. Everything else went pretty smoothly. I made the potato salad using this Epicurious.com recipe. I left out the bacon and eggs, added soy beans, and substituted the blue cheese with goat cheese. I really liked the apple cider vinaigrette with the lemon peel and honey.

The rest of the meal was good too. Stan prepared the hamburger patties with chopped portabella mushrooms and jalapeno peppers. With a generous sprinkle of lime juice and chopped cilantro, the corn was delicious. For the cous-cous, I used grilled asparagus instead of boiling it like the recipe suggets. The grilled flavor was too powerful for the light and airy cous-cous flavor and texture. It was more smoky than grill-y because Zack was having trouble maintaining the heat in the grill.

I had made the salsa and had started on the dulce de leche using this recipe way in advance. The first time, I wasn't keeping my eye on the condensed milk in the oven and it overflowed all over the inside of the oven. Without realizing that I didn't follow the part about putting the pie dish in a water bath, I attempted it again! When I noticed that the condensed milk was looking granular instead of smooth, I finally realized my mistake. By that time it was too late, so I decided to salvage the mess by watering it down with milk and rum, running it through the food processor, and then straining it to get a smooth sauce. It was way more work that it was worth but it turned out fine.

At the end, I cut up a whole pineapple into eighths and grilled it on my electric stove since we had given up on using the grill by that point. I poured the dulce de leche over the ice cream and pineapple slice to make the perfect dessert for our BBQ night. Yum!

Cafe Selmarie

Last Saturday, Zack's parents Doug and Sheila were in town because Zack's older sister Kari graduated from the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration on Friday. It also happened to be Kari's birthday. Congratulations and happy birthday, Kari!

It was a really nice day because we went on the Wendella Boats tour along the Chicago River and then to a cute cafe in Lincoln Scquare called Cafe Selmarie for a birthday celebration lunch. It was my first time on the boat tour and I thought it was great! I learned so many things that I didn't know about the city and the buildings (like the fact that every building is being converted into condos... where are the rest of us apartment renters supposed to live, huh?). It also gave me a completely different perspective of the city.

For lunch, I suggested a few places to everyone, including HB, A Hearty Boys Spot. We finally decided to go there but they were closed for a private party when I called to make reservations. So, our second choice was Cafe Selmarie.

It had a cozy and warm atmosphere and it has a bakery counter at the front of the place full of cookies, cakes, and pastries. For lunch, I had the salmon gravlax baguette which consisted of salmon cured with citrus zest, cracked coriander, and dill on french baguette with watercress, capers, red onions and créme fraîche. What a perfect lunch!!

Of course, since we were celebrating Kari's birthday, we had to have some dessert from the bakery. I can never resist bakeries!! We all shared the raspberry custard tart, the raspberry chocolate tart, the bread pudding, and the German chocolate cake. The raspberry tarts were good but the bread pudding was out of this world. You have to try it!!

After lunch, we stopped by our apartment so that Doug and Sheila could pick up some luggage and be on their way home. Prior to visiting Chicago, they had been traveling around Spain and seeing Zack's younger sister Melissa. They brought back some gifts and they got me a paella pan. I'm really excited to attempt my first paella dish soon. Thank you so much, Doug and Sheila! I also appreciate you taking me out to dinner (the night before at Cafe Bolero) and lunch.

Cafe Selmarie
4729 N Lincoln
Chicago, IL 60625
(773) 989-5595

Custom House

Last Wednesday (yeah, I'm a bit behind with my bloggin'... my mom asked if I was ok today because I haven't been keeping up with it), I went out to a special place called Custom House. My friend Stan was in town from Berkeley and really wanted to go there. So, Stan made reservations for five of us... Stan, me and Zack and our friends Will and Fred.

The executive chef there is acclaimed chef Shawn McClain. He's the one creating menus at Spring and Green Zebra. At Custom House, he creates a menu using local and seasonal ingredients. I was excited to see Stan, but I was even more excited to eat at Custom House.

Here's what I ordered:

• First Course - Beef tartare with sourdough croutons and poached quail egg
• Main Course - Maine scallops with fava beans and prosciutto
• Side - Risotto with green peas
• Dessert - Bittersweet chocolate pave with hazelnuts and coffee

I think everything I ordered was outstanding. I especially liked the scallops because they were huge and plump. The scallops were pan-seared and were really flavorful. This dish had a nice balance of flavors, textures and colors.

I also had a taste of everyone else's main course dishes but thought that none of them came close to the scallops, although Fred's monkfish with olive oil braised eggplant, smoked tomato, and house-made bacon was pretty good too. Zack's prime sirloin was definitely made with quality meat, but I didn't think it was anything to write home about.

I really enjoyed my chocolate cake dessert. The chocolate was so rich but not overwhelmingly sweet. Zack ordered lemon sorbet and minted strawberries... two very simple yet refreshing and tasty desserts. All of the deserts were delicious. Let me tell you, it wasn't cheap but it's definitely worth it once in a while. However, I'm not exactly rolling in money, so this means I'll have to cut back on going out everyday for lunch this month.

Custom House
500 S Dearborn
Chicago, IL 60605
(312) 523-0200

Does My Blog Look Good in This?

I am proud to announce that I was one of the top three winners of the Does My Blog Look Good in This? (DMBLGIT) food blog event #5 2006. Basically, this is one of a few food blog events that take place monthly and that are monitored on Is My Blog Burning? (IMBB). This particular event was hosted by Nika on her food blog Nika's Culinaria. Thank you, Nika!!

Here are the DMBLGIT #5 2006 winners. I came in second overall for the picture above which was originally posted on April 26, 2006.

Almond-Apricot Chicken and Dilled Cucumber Salad

For Friday night, Zack and I planned on making dinner and taking a short walk to Esquire theater to see the newly-released movie The Break-Up. I wanted to have enough time to work out, make dinner and get to the movie on time, so I picked out two simple recipes from Everyday Food. For salad, I chose the dilled cucumber salad. I don't think I've ever used fresh dill and it was pretty good. While the first step may seem time-consuming, I think it's important to draw out the water from the cucumber so that the salad won't be too watery when tossed with the yogurt dill mixture. This way you get crunchy cucumbers.

For the main course, I made almond-apricot chicken with mint pesto. The chicken was delicious becuase of the goat cheese/apricot/almond filling. The sweetness of the apricot and the tangy goat cheese went very well together. The almonds also add a nice crunch.

I also made the mint pesto (see link to chicken recipe above) but I have to admit that I'm not a fan of it. The mint flavor was too powerful for me. I sort of felt like it was a waste of mint. It could have been put to better use in any number of ways.

After dinner, Zack and I arrived at Esquire about twenty minutes before the movie showing. Of course, the movie was sold out and that was the last showing there. We knew that it was also playing at River East so we made our way there hoping to see the 11:20pm showing. Again, it was sold out. So, we ended up seeing the movie at midnight. By the time we went to bed, it was 3am.

I had read a bad review of The Break-Up in the Wall Street Journal that said the movie was unrealistic and not worth seeing. I completely disagree. First of all, it seemed like the critic wrote the review with the conviction that the movie is a "romantic comedy" and then proceeded to make all of the arguments that make a romantic comedy so crappy. His arguments were pretty weak. I think that romantic comedies usually have a happy ending (i.e. the couple lives happily ever after) and I don't think that this movie perfectly fits the "romantic comedy" mold. I'm not going to go into details but it doesn't live up to the expectation that the couple is going to get back together. I'm not saying that it's the greatest movie in the world, but I thought that the movie addressed some realistic relationship issues in a comedic way and was well done.