Practicing My Gnocchi Skills

Making gnocchi is a time intensive process, but was good practice for my upcoming adventures with homemade pasta. The last time I made gnocchi was a colossal failure, although there was way too much wine and the potatoes were left too long in the water. The time before, my only job was forking the little potato pillows.  

 Gnocchi rolled on a wooden ridged gnocchi board.

 Then I got lazy and just cut them.

 Boiled gnocchi with tomato sauce.

Fully sauced.

Reinventing Ham Dinner Leftovers

We sent home some of the ham, biscuits and mashed potatoes with my family, but we still had a lot leftovers. With the ham bone, I make a soup stock for ham and white bean soup. 

 Ham salad.

Ground ham with celery, onion, dijon mustard and a touch of mayonnaise.

 Ham salad is delightful on leftover biscuits.

A little smoked gouda was added to the mashed potatoes, ham, orange fennel salad and a leftover crab cake with more biscuits.

Holiday Dinner with the Family

My parents were visiting my brother and nephew after Christmas. To celebrate, we invited them over for a holiday dinner. While we debated about a menu of Japanese dishes, we decided to stay more traditional. My favorite part of dinner parties is actually the appetizers more than the main dinner.

 Carmelized onions and bacon on puff pastry.

 Marcona almonds, salami, brie, smoked gouda, roasted bell peppers, dates stuffed with mozzarella.

 My mom loves crab cakes, so as a special treat, I made mini crab cakes with fresh crab meat.

Mix the crab meat with egg, mustard, panko and seasonings, and shape into cakes to refrigerate at least two hours before cooking. You can bake them, but the oven was occupied with the holiday ham. 

 Panseared mini crab cakes with tartar sauce and lemon.

 A shrimp cocktail helped round out the appetizers. 

***

For dinner we had ham, mashed potatoes, buttermilk biscuits, a salad of orange and fennel and corn. I was so busy, I missed taking a photo of the full meal. 

For dessert, I made a Pear Tarte Tatin.

Mabo Tofu at Home

We go to Sichuan restaurants a lot, mostly because it's one of my favorite things to eat. Tender beef in spicy sauce, oh yes. Mabo tofu, yup. Dan dan mien? Yes, yes, yes. Well, I've been tinkering with how to make some of my favorite Sichuan delights at home, and I'm getting closer.

 Frying ginger, garlic, garlic chives, scallions, ground pork with a mixture of spices and tofu.

Soo spicy, fragrant and satisfying.

Homemade Pork Gyoza

Most people buy frozen gyoza at the supermarket. I'm not most people. I do cheat a bit and buy prepared gyoza wrappers. Each time I have an internal debate about whether I prefer the Shanghai style wrappers or the Beijing style ones. The Shanghai ones are too thin for pan-searing, although I often forget. The key to making fabulous dumplings is to get a nice mixture of aromatics, including nira, garlic chives, scallions, grated ginger, grated garlic, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, ground pork and napa cabbage. 

 These were wrapped by the hubs, who has a different but very pretty style.

Frying in some sesame oil. Add 2/3 cups of water mixed with flour to create the hane (wings). Cover.

Flip over the gyoza onto a plate. A little too blackened in the middle, but really lovely.

Holiday Party

While my company's holiday party was a major Western buffet with open bar and dj for dancing, my husband's holiday party was more of a family affair. We gathered in the office conference room to a pretty awesome catered array of Japanese foods from Kushi. My hubs picked up a lovely cheese and fruit platter as well as his favorite strawberry cream cake from Whole Foods.

 Wow. 

 Kushi nigiri sushi. Surprisingly good.

 Karaage, Japanese fried chicken. A little too much batter.

 Tamagoyaki.

 Katsuo tataki (lightly seared bonito).

 Kushiyaki (pork belly, beef on skewers).

 Yakitori (chicken on skewers).

 Spiced shrimp (tasted a bit like kochujang).

 Maki sushi.

 The kids loved the strawberries.

Fabulous nama cream and ichigo cake.

Tonkatsu at Home

I've been on a Western food kick lately, so to please the hubs, I made a Japanese meal that I thought he would enjoy. Tonkatsu, breaded and fried pork cutlets with tonkatsu sauce on shredded cabbage with rice, seaweed and cucumbers. 

Anatolia Restaurant in NYC

My wee office headed to NYC for the holiday party with our headquarters. We had some afternoon meetings with NYC colleagues, but beforehand we headed out for lunch. Prices were a bit higher than DC, but the flavor was pretty good. 

 The boss chose a calamari salad and chicken orzo soup.

I went with a chicken kebab with rice, salad and sumac-dressed red onions.

Very juicy and flavorful chicken.

Thomas Keller's Roast Chicken

After a lovely dinner party at the house of my husband's friends, I've been interested in cooking more with our cast iron skillet. On a bed of vegetables, including onions, carrots, portabello mushrooms and celery, the lightly salted chicken with thyme, ground pepper and butter is roasted. It made our apartment smell heavenly.

Thomas Keller is a genius.

Christmas Gift from the Parents

Our apartment building has become a bit less than accommodating as of late. While they used to accept packages and hold them in the package room in Building 2, they have no longer been accepting them. Instead, we receive cryptic orange package cards indicating we have to pick up a package at the Post Office which has inconvenient hours and is located a bit of a hike away from our apartment. Fortunately we squeezed in a package run before going to see the Nutcracker ballet earlier this month. (Yes, yes, I've been extremely remiss in posting updates to my food admiration blog this month.) 

My parents had sent us a lovely gift package from Wolfermanns, replete with English muffins of the blueberry and cherry persuasion, as well as some mini ones that will be lovely for appetizers. To celebrate, I began practicing making poached eggs. Unfortunately for the hubs, I have become a bit obsessed about them and now make them at every turn.

Eggs Florentine on blueberry and cherry English muffins.

Neopol Smokery at Union Market

Neopol Smokery is located to the far righthand side of the Union Market, and is one of my favorite counters to visit when I stop by Union Market. The first time I went there, I had the most fabulous toasted bagel with cream cheese, smoked salmon, red onion, capers and sliced tomato. It was oh so utterly delicious and satisfying I was unable to indulge in oysters as planned, yet felt no remorse. 

This time, I ordered a half pound of hand sliced smoked salmon. This was a very popular item, and we were the second to last customer to order a half pound of smoked salmon before they ran out for the day. So worth the wait.

Norway-inspired smoked salmon with scrambled eggs, sliced onion and capers on a baguette.

When I arrived home with my provisions, I surprised my sweet hubs with the packet of smoked salmon. After quickly scrambling some eggs and putting together the smoked salmon sandwich on a baguette from Lyon Hall Bakery, he too was enjoying the fruits of a Union Market excursion. I only wish it was closer to where we lived.

Rappahannock Oyster Bar at Union Market

I met up with a lovely friend for a long awaited brunch in early December. She had never been to Union Market and I was craving some oysters plus picking up some new spices from the spice bazaar. $3.99 for a packet of sichuan peppercorns is just too good of a deal to pass up. I also picked up some fantastic ground coriander and other spices that have our cupboard smelling lovely. After a nice wander through the market, we were one of the first customers at ROB. 

 One dozen freshly shucked oysters, four of each variety.

 Steamed clams with fabulous grilled bread.

 Bloody Mary includes fish sauce, and is not very spicy.