lemon shrub.

for my birthday this year, my friend y gave me a sodastream - the genesis model. i'd had my eye on a sodastream ever since it came out - mainly because before it's introduction i came across a post about sparkling green tea to make at home.

i was unbelievably excited about the gift - mainly because in the past few years i've developed quite an affinity to sparkling water, and i was getting tired of buying it all the time. but with it came the ability to make my own soda flavors. so one of the first things i tried was a matcha sparkling water, and also my own ginger ale. after that, i made my own blood orange syrup. out of the three, the blood orange was my favorite.

about a week ago, i was talking to one of my co-workers about the sodastream and making your own flavors instead of buying the ones produced by sodastream. during that conversation, the topic of drinking vinegars (also known was shrubs) came up. shrubs can be made with just about any fruit or fruit juice. it's used in cocktail making, but why not as a flavor for soda? there's a great article on serious eats about making your own shrub syrups.

last night, i decided to make a lemon shrub, using the cold pressed method. citrus juice is better left uncooked. i had some meyer lemons lying around and also regular lemons, so i squeezed them to get one cup of juice. into a glass bowl it went along with one cup of sugar. i stirred it every so often to get the sugar to dissolve. once dissolved, i had a lovely, lemony syrup. the usual ratio of fruit (or juice) to sugar to vinegar is 1:1:1. however, considering that lemons are generally more tart than sweet, i opted to cut the vinegar by half, so i only added a half cup of apple cider vinegar.

this yielded something better than i had imagined. i put a few spoonfuls of this shrub and topped it off with some freshly made sparkling water. it was light, refreshing, with just a hint of sweetness. i'm sure i'll be making this one all year long.

my first attempt at putting up: kumquat marmalade.

when i started making yogurt at home, i began wondering how i could change up the flavor of the yogurt so that i wasn't eating the same yogurt day in and day out. fresh fruit would be one way, but i'm not always good about having fresh fruit around. then i thought that maybe a spoonful of jam would work. if i had at least 2 or 3 different kinds around, i would have a decent variety of flavoring agents for my yogurt.

so i bought this book. it had pretty good reviews on amazon and i wanted something relatively easy that would allow me to get a hang of the basics but with a somewhat modern twist. once it arrived i ogled the book - but of course, never got around to making anything. my parents have a white peach tree and i had hoped to try a recipe out of the book using the white peaches from their yard. but by the time i asked, the tree was done for the season. so it kind of got pushed to the back burner.

but every time i looked at the book in my pile of cookbooks, the urge to make a jam was there. and even though it seemed daunting, i knew that i wanted to. especially after i made the vanilla extract for the holidays. i read squid ink (the la weekly food blog) on a regular basis and i came across this post. which led me to this recipe for kumquat marmalade from food in jars. the best thing about it was that it was small batch. i couldn't wait to try it. the recipe said labor intensive, but i figured, i'd give it a try.

kumquat is one fruit that my parents don't have in their yard. the saturday over president's day weekend, i was going to meet up with some friends in anaheim, so i decided to get an early start and hit up the soco farmer's market that was sometimes mentioned on stick a fork in it (the oc weekly food blog). it's held every saturday morning in the parking of the soco collection and the oc mart mix. (which also allowed me to pop into portola coffee lab before meeting up with my friends!) it's a very small farmer's market (it's only one small portion of the torrance farmer's market which is the one i usually go to) and the selection is pretty limited. but the quality of the produce available is still great. i picked up about a pound of kumquats (to make the marmalade) as well as sweet limes, blood oranges, and beets.



i didn't get to it as fast as i had hoped, but i did get around to trying out the recipe. it is REALLY energy and labor intensive. if my sister didn't help me with prepping the kumquats, it would have taken a little bit longer. since i'm slow, it took me a good portion of the day from start to finish.



i started with just over a pound of kumquats, and followed the recipe exactly - 1.5 cups sugar and 2 cups water. the only thing that i had difficulty with was the time. it took a little longer than i thought it would, and even though i had 2 thermometers, i still had difficulty reaching the desired temperature of 220F even though i had surpassed the minimum 212F. good thing i had stuck in a saucer in the freezer so i could do the plate test. it passed the plate test with flying colors! the down side of the thermometer fiasco was the fact that i think i overcooked the jam. now that it's cooled, it's pretty stiff!

the bundle in the pot are the seeds and the inner membranes of the kumquats wrapped in cheesecloth. these contain the natural pectin needed for the marmalade to set.



i actually did the waterbath canning process and so my finished marmalade can be stored away for a bit. with the exception of the slight stiffness to the marmalade, i'm pretty happy with the results. it's not too sweet, and you still get the flavor of the kumquats and the slight bitterness it has when you eat the kumquat fresh.





the recipe yielded 2 half pint jars. and since i had just over a pound of kumquats when i started, i had just a little that didn't fit in the jars that i can enjoy right away. not that i couldn't pop open one of the jars i made, but at least i can savor it a little bit and enjoy the taste of kumquats when i can't find fresh ones. and as an aside i'm so loving these ball jars i found out at target!

caramelized cauliflower.

when i was a kid, i wasn't that fond of cauliflower. i didn't hate it though. but in the beginning, my mom always made it the same way - boiled and then we ate it with this mayo-shoyu (soy sauce) dip that almost every japanese family i know makes. another attempt was in a vinegar based salad, and that didn't go over well with me at the time. so depending on how it was prepared, i would avoid it. that was until the day she made this salad which consisted of cauliflower, broccoli, and fake crab meat. and she never made that awful vinegar dressed cauliflower again.

now, as an adult, i hardly ever bought cauliflower. it seemed like the only time i would make anything with cauliflower was if someone gave me some, or i had a real hankering for that cauliflower and broccoli salad. then one day i had the fried cauliflower at open sesame, and every so often i would make it at home.

lately, i've been on this kick of roasting vegetables. so one day, not too long ago, i tried it with the cauliflower. it's so simple and so tasty. but, unless i bought the florets, i have to admit i was hesitant to buy the whole crown because i would have to "dismantle" the crown into florets. then i discovered this recipe on foodily. (food, i love you) i just made it as a side dish for dinner a couple of nights ago, and i couldn't be more thrilled with the results.

first, no dismantling! just a few knife moves and you're ready go. slice, toss with olive oil and salt, lay on a cookie sheet and into the oven it goes. as i was slicing, i wondered why i had never thought of doing that before. and i was struck by the beauty of a sliced cauliflower.



i made quick work of slicing the cauliflower, then put all of the pieces in a large bowl with some olive oil. and instead of kosher salt or sea salt, i opted to use trader joe's smoked sea salt and it turned out great.



i love this recipe! not only for its ease of prepping and cooking, but it is so tasty, too.



i absolutely love the new foodie pak from hipstamatic for the iphone. i took a picture using it.



try the recipe! so easy and so tasty.

dineLA winter 2012: craft los angeles.

i thought that i might not be hitting any of the restaurants during dineLA's winter 2012 restuarant week. resaurant week is an awesome way to have prix fixe meals around the city and discovering new restaurants, trying places that are new to me, and revisiting some old favorites. sometimes the prix fixe prices aren't as great as you think they are (in comparison to the prices of the same dishes a la carte) but nevertheless, it's a pretty cool deal.

on a whim, my sister (aka liz) and i decided we'd go to at least one, and decided to go to craft in century city. we asked our friend l if she wanted to join us. craft is tom colicchio's los angeles outpost of his new york restaurant. there are so many menus to look at but i tried to look at those of places i knew i liked, or places i had been wanting to try. craft had been on my list for a while, and i'd been somewhat hesitant based on some things i had heard. but this time the menu looked pretty good, and i think it was pretty much one of the best restaurant week dinners i have had thus far, for several reasons.



the first was the service. we were still a bit away from the door, but one of the hostesses opened the door for us and warmly greeted us. we were a few minutes late arriving for our reservation, but our table wasn't ready yet, so we chose a couch in the bar section to wait. a server quickly greeted us and asked if we wanted anything while waiting for our table. and she wasn't the first. we got checked on every few minutes, and the manager even came to apologize for the fact that we had to wait for a table. a few minutes later, a server came out with napkins and fried brussels sprouts leaves, compiments of the house, for our wait. the warm and friendly service continued as we made our way through the bar and the dining room to our table and also during the course of our meal. my iced tea was always kept fresh, and our water glasses never got empty. we also got an amuse bouche, a little sweet finish to end our meal, and even some house made granola for breakfast the next day. it's little things like that that i find impressive.

the second was the overall ambience of the restaurant. it's in a nice neighborhood, so it definitely has an expensive feel to it, and with all the wood and rich browns in the decor, combined with the touch of "bling", it just felt so warm, inviting, and cozy.

last, the food. i don't know what i was expecting but the food overall was pretty good. whenever it comes to restaurant week menus, it's choose one starter, choose and entree, and then choose a dessert. at craft, we only had to choose an entree, because we would be getting all of the starters to share.

first off, we were given the fried brussels sprout leaves while we were still waiting in the bar area. i'm totally into brussels sprouts these days so i loved it! my sister liked it, and our friend l, who had never had them before, liked it as well.



next was our amuse bouche. a small cup of potato leek soup good. creamy, not too salty, and a great way to start our meal.



the starters came out next. the first was the laughing bird shrimp with a fennel salad and blood orange vinegarette. it tasted good, the shrimp wasn't overcooked, and the fennel still had a great crunchy texture to it. out of the three starters, this was my favorite, followed by the winter vegetable salad. i couldn't make out everything in the salad, but there was definitely some kale, ramps, and swiss chard. candied walnuts and gorgonzola cheese crumbles rounded out the salad. my only complaint here was that i wish it was dressed a little bit more.





our last starter was the chicken liver mousse. it was tasty, but it wasn't really my thing.



for our entrees, my sister chose the short rib ravioli. it was a touch salty for my taste, and as soon as i tasted it, i got the horseradish note in the ravioli. needless to say it wasn't a favorite with my sister, who doesn't like horseradish at all. the ravioli was accompanied by roasted vegetables that included purple cauliflower, brussels sprouts, radish, and delicata squash. l chose the bacon wrapped pork tenderloin served over polenta and greens. i picked the skate served over a parsnip puree and greens. out of the three entrees, the skate was my favorite!









dessert was a meyer lemon pudding with citrus and we also got rum raisin ice cream and vanilla ice cream. the pudding itself was more like a fluffy cake - light and airy. awesome with the orange and blood orange supremes.





our sweet finish was a cashew toffee popcorn and chocolate hazelnut cookies. the cookies were ok, but the popcorn was awesome! and i am not that crazy about popcorn to begin with.



we were given little bags of house made granola to take home. i took it to work and it was my snack for several days. i couldn't figure out everything that was in there, but i'm pretty certain it contained oats, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sliced almonds, and cinnamon. i really liked it though, and want to try and create my own version of it one of these days.

my one criticism of the evening was where we sat in the dining room. one place i think isn't a great table to sit at is the one by the doors that lead to the kitchen. it wasn't like we were sitting right next to it, but it was close enough that you can see the kitchen when the doors are opened. other than that it was a great meal! and since we self parked and got validation, parking was free.

craft los angeles * 10100 constellation blvd. * los angeles, ca 90067

something homemade for the holidays - vanilla extract.

years ago i toyed with the idea of making some infused oils and vinegars to give away as gifts during the holidays. like many of my ideas back then, it was an idea that was not well thought out nor did i leave myself a lot of time to execute the idea, so it never came to pass.

a few months back i got on a big baking kick, and was using vanilla extract left and right. i kept thinking i needed to go to costco to get myself a bottle, but never got around to it. then i remembered that i had read an article some time before about how easy it was to make your own vanilla extract at home. you just needed to have a little bit of time.

so i went back online to do some research about making your own vanilla extract. the recipe was easier than i remembered. some vanilla beans, vodka (or any grain alcohol so long as it's 40% ABV) and a vessel. and of course, time. my only crux was the vanilla beans. it's not the most economical thing to buy at the market - it's usually about 2 to 3 pods in one jar for about $10 (or more!) and sometimes they look worse for the wear. an easy project to undertake, but could be just as costly, if not more, as buying some already made extract at the market.



but then i discovered beanilla.com. they specialize in vanilla beans and carry about 6 to 7 varieties of vanilla beans at any given time. they sell them singularly (1, 3, 5, and 10 beans) as well as in half pound and 1 pound bulk packs. based on some information i read on what variety of vanilla bean is good for different culinary applications, i opted to go for the bourbon vanilla beans to make the extract. i figured, if i was going to make some, then not only was i going to make some for myself, but a few extra to give away as gifts during the holidays. so i did a rough count and decided to make 10 bottles of extract, and so i purchased the half pound bulk pack (which contains 50 to 60 pods). even though it was sent first class postal, it arrived so quickly! the beans were vacuum sealed and looked better than any of the beans i had seen in the spice jars at the market. after the beans arrived i went to the container store for some bottles, and then to total wine and more for some vodka. i went home with two big bottles of smirnoff (and a couple of other things) and the girl that rang me up clearly thought i was having some kind of a big blowout party. ha ha!!



the total time spent wasn't even an hour. i boiled some water to pour into the bottles in order to sanitize them. while boiling the water, i scored each vanilla bean lenghtwise. poured the hot water into the bottles, and let them sit for a few minutes. once the hot water was poured out of the bottles, i added three pods to each bottle, followed up by a cup (8 fluid ounces) of vodka. seal and done! it sits in a cool, dark area for 8 weeks before it's ready to be used. the occasional gentle shaking of the bottle will help get it going. that's the time factor.



i even broke down the costs of the ingredients and the bottles to see if it was more cost efficient than buying a bottle at the store. here's what it broke down to per bottle:

bottle from the container store - $3.24

vanilla beans - $2.04 (based on approximate qty of 50 pods in the 1/2 pound bulk)

vodka - $2.24

total cost - $7.52 + my labor and time per bottle. the labor and time actively spent to make the vanilla extract was pretty minimal. you can see the size comparison of the bottle i made and gave away next to the last bottle i bought at the store. the recipe i followed yields about 8 fluid ounces (about 240ml) and the last bottle i bought was 4 fluid ounces (about 120ml) and i think i paid $8.49 for it.



as you use it, you can keep topping it off with vodka, and swap out the beans to keep it going. once the vanilla beans are removed from your extract, you can let it dry and make your own vanilla sugar or vanilla fleur de sel should you choose to. for myself, i ended up making two of these bottles instead of one big bottle - one to use, and the other as a "stock pile" so i can break into that one when the first one needs to be replenished.

the recipe:

3 vanilla beans, scored lengthwise

1 cup (8 fluid ounces) vodka*

combine the vanilla beans with a vodka and seal tightly. let sit for 8 weeks, checking on it every week or two to shake gently. then it's ready to use!

*i used vodka, but you can use gin or any other grain alcohol that's 40% alcohol by volume.

unintended hiatus and a new year.

it's already february and so it's a month late but happy new year! let's make 2012 an awesome one!

i had meant to post at least once in january, but it never happened! where did january go? i wish i could say it was all post-holiday madness but that really wouldn't be true. time just flew by!

i've never really been one for new year's resolutions - but i think it goes without saying that keeping this blog updated (on a somewhat regular basis) should be one of them. onward!