Asian Inspiration

Tonight's dinner inspiration came courtesy of Ming Tsai, a chef whose restaurant I've had the pleasure of visiting a few years ago with RRR, Mitch & the Contessa. I was watching Simply Ming this afternoon and he was singing the praises of marinading in soy sauce. Having purchased some scallops at The Lobster Place earlier in the day, I decided why not?

After a quick trip to epicurious to get some guidance on soy to citrus ratios, I went with the following:

2/3 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
3 tbsp + 1 add'tl tsp sugar
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
dash dried ginger (didn't have fresh in the house, oh well!)
orange zest

I marinaded the scallops a few minutes on each side then seared them for about five minutes with one turn in the pan. While the scallops were cooking, I reduced the marinade in a small saucepan.

After the scallops were cooked to perfection, I placed them on top of matchstick-cut green & yellow squash that I sauteed with some garlic and a bit of rice wine, keeping with my Asian theme and drizzled a couple of tablespoons of my reduction over the scallops and around the plate.

I didn't succeed in the amount of carmelization I was shooting for but the result was quite tasty. The orange & soy provided a gentle kick to the freshness of the scallops that gave just enough added flavor without taking away from the freshness of the seafood. The squash provided the perfect bed to rest the tender pillows of scallops. The result: an Asian-inspired, low-calorie, healthy meal.

Middleterranean in Midtown

We had a delicious meal from a restaurant a bit off the beaten path, Taboon. "Middleterranean" with a French country decor, the wine by the glass list was small but I did have a delightful Portuguese wine from Duoro, just enough body & fruit for my delicate (hee hee) little taste buds. RRR (aka my sister) went with a tempranillo and her particular little taste buds were equally pleased!

We shared an order of kube, ground skirt steak with pine nuts & Moroccan spices with onion & bulger in an empanada of sorts along with a crab salad with blood orange & feta. Not really a fan of the fish/cheese combo but the feta provided just enough salt & cream to stand up to the punch of the blood orange. Not overpowering at all, a fantastic yet delicate blend of flavors.

We had some tzatziki & foccaccia and once we devoured our split main course, halibut with tomato, sweet red peppers, fava beans in a spicy tomato base over cous cous we didn't have room for desert which was unfortunate for us (and highly unusual for me) because the molten chocolate cake sounded fantastic! It came with Turkish coffee ice cream and a chocolate crumble. Calories be damned!

Of course I was stuffed to the gills yet the portions weren't out of control we have a few friends (Contessa!) that are going to have to try this place they will love it!

Empanada Mama

I had the day off on Friday and headed to Nutley, NJ to visit with my friend Sarita who moved to Cairo with her family about four and a half years ago. Sarita and I have been friends since college (technically since high school) and she's one of those friends who you don't see (for obvious geographical reasons) but as soon as you do it is like you just saw her yesterday.

You can imagine my suprise when in casual conversation, Sarita revealed that in her search for bagels like she used to have here in the states, her & her husband decided that they need to open their own bagel business, Jared's Bagels! She sent me home with a sample (honey wheat, multi-grain, sun-dried tomato and cinnamon raisin) --- I had the honey wheat yesterday morning and I gotta say I was impressed! You really can taste the honey -- something I haven't quite found in other honey wheat bagels here and it certainly makes me look forward to the rest of my Egyptian bagel tasting... I'll let you know how the other three measure up. So if you are ever in Cairo, check out Jared's Bagels - and hey, they deliver!

So after hanging with the kiddies and the cousins, Sarita's Mom invited me to stay for dinner. She was making empanadas and who can resist authentic Latino cuisine! Of course her Mom had to endure the barrage of questions from me on her technique but basically in this particular batch she uses onions, ground chicken, hard boiled eggs, peas, carrots, Spanish seasoning and I believe tomato. Sometimes she uses beef, other times mozzerella and sugar on the empanada post-frying. While she used store bought dough, her Mom had also made the dough by hand but believe me, this was just fine!

Watching her carefully fill each empanada with just enough filling so it wouldn't burst on frying, I was in total awe and inspired to try and copy her recipe at home. The flavors of the filling melded perfectly and the empanadas were fried to perfection, while the dough remained light and airy. We also had some yellow rice as a side dish and she used left over empanada filling along with some chicken breast in the yellow rice and it was absolutely fantastic! What a pleasure to see others make meals from their family traditions.

It was wonderful to see Sarita and getting treated to a fantastic dinner was the icing (or empanada) on the cake!

Haute Cuisine de Boardwalk

I spent the fourth of July down the shore with Rockstar & the Red Faced Wonder. And no visit to the Jersey Shore is complete without a trip to the Boardwalk! The Seaside Heights Boardwalk has seen it's share of sleaze but it is a place where my sister & I have many wonderful childhood memories. RFW, having grown up nearby, has equally pleasant memories and it is funny how most of them revolve around the culinary delights on 'the boards'.
On one overcast day we decided to blow some money on skeeball and video games and to have lunch at Jr's. On the menu? Onion rings, cheese fries and for me a cheesesteak with peppers, onions and marinara sauce. No where but down the shore would I even consider eating such a caloric nightmare but maybe it is the salt air that makes everything taste so delicious! My beverage? A "fresh-squeezed" lemonade: sugar, half of a squeezed lemon and water - fantastic!

And belly-ache be damned I just had to finish it off with an ice-cream cone from Kohr's, the premiere frozen custard on the Jersey shore. I had the usual, vanilla with rainbow sprinkles and as much as I want to venture out and have something different it is still my perennial favorite.

Maybe it is the memories associated with these seaside treats that make them so tasty and delicious but just like Bruce said "down the shore everything's all right..."