Posts under ‘Cooking’

Have you ever wondered what the heck is “omakase” and “kaiseki” and how they differ? Me neither but now I know!

We had dinner at Uchiko for my birthday. There’s no other place I’d rather go for a special occasion. Executive Chef Paul Qui and Chef/Owner Tyson Cole made it a memorable culinary event for us. We started with some of the specials on the menu that night: Kusshi Oysters With Fish Sauce Sorbet, a touch more…. »

I finished the exhaust manifold for our new GE Profile cooktop <Tim Allen noises/>:

Our current cooktop is twenty years old. Only two of its four coils work. We replaced it with a G.E. Profile. I looked up its dimensions on-line beforehand. The top, being a 30″ cooktop, presents no problem. I was a bit concerned about

I wasn’t planning on doing anything much special for Valentine’s Day, sweets-wise, but then while catching up on my Fine Cooking emails, I stumbled on this super-quick chocolate mousse recipe, made from scratch with real chocolate. The video of Heston Blumenthal illustrating the technique…

This afternoon, I did some baking for presents for the holidays. First up was this recipe, “Bittersweet Chocolate Bark with Marcona Almonds”, from the finecooking.com Web site.

Holy cow but I just had one of the most memorable dining experiences! We were at Uchiko for our Friday-night-out dinner. Paul Qui, the executive chef, was behind the bar tonight to help out an one-short line of sushi chefs. Everything was great, but four dishes need honorable mentions. The first was oysters (two different more…. »

“Shaking Beef” (Bò Lúc Lắc)

Here is my recipe for bánh mì, a kind of baguette used to make Vietnamese-style sandwiches.

I was reading reviews of a few Vietnamese baguette places. One Google’ing led to another and soon I was trying to verify claims that the baguettes used for bánh mì (Vietnamese-style sandwiches) contain rice flour. Using rice flour in what is basically French bread dough doesn’t sound right. Rice flour has no gluten in it more…. »

Had pasta with made-from-scratch meat sauce tonight. I also made garlic bread, using a couple of slices of my home-baked . Here is how I do garlic bread.

So today I made a batch of (really torpedoes, not boules). I forgot to turn on the oven to preheat it while the loaves underwent the last rise. Of course, I didn’t realize my mistake until after I slashed the loaves’ top and went to put them in the oven! Oh well, now was the more…. »

Nước chấm, or Vietnamese dipping sauce, is a very distinctly Vietnamese culinary item. Its variations accompany such iconic Vietnamese dishes as (Vietnamese rice with charcoal broiled pork chops), fried spring rolls, bánh cuốn, etc. Ingredients:

From this Fine Cooking recipe. My twists: I roasted/broiled the green pepper. I substitued fish sauce for some of the salt, for that extra boost of umami.

My bread (left) versus HEB Central Market‘s torpedo.

Made from , except shaped into a batard (French for “bastard”; I dunno why!), a torpedo-shaped French bread loaf.

From Gourmet, November 1994, on epicurious.com. My twist: I used duck breasts instead of legs, and I separated the skin to be made into cracklings, tossed w/ salt and cayenne, as garnish.

Moved into a “page“, here.

A video of me making our Valentine’s Day dinner…

A quick pic of a cơm sườn nướng (rice with charcoal broiled pork chop) for dinner one night… (See also .) This variant includes: pan broiled porkchop with shallots, fried egg, shredded carrots marinated in ponzu, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and cilantro. The rice is accompanied by a condiment of finely chopped scallions marinated in more…. »