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Month June 2009

Entries 5 Total

Washugyu from Japanese Premium Beef

Jun 29, ’09

I had the biggest smile when I walked in Japanese Premium Beef yesterday. The space is Thomas Keller-immaculate–just like the type of kitchen I dream of having. The hipster-looking Japanese guy introduced me to the beef on display while the other guy sliced fresh-looking meat in the back on a butcher block.

Washugyu is a crossbred of Wagyu and Black Angus raised in Oregon under the supervision of breeder and feed programmer Tad Yano. The cow not only inherits Tajima blood–one of the black Wagyu cattle breeds in Japan–but is also fed using a genuine Japanese feeding program that doesn’t use antibiotics or any other growth promotants.

All the cuts on display looked fresh and mouth-watering. The ribeye I inquired about, which was as big as my palm, was $24 at $49.99 a pound. A New York striploin goes up to $59.99 a pound. You don’t have to spend so much when you go though. I was able to pick up a row of thinly-sliced beef tongue for $7.50, and ground beef perfect for your high-maintenance burger-loving friends is available at $4.99 a pound.

Back home, I heated some oil on a frying pan and seared the tongue for a few seconds before flipping them over to sear a second more. I immediately removed them to a plate, sprinkled with salt and freshly-squeezed lemon. It was only 1pm but I was already enjoying a very good dish of beef tongue with a glass of 2008 Robert Oatley rosé–sometimes life is very good to me.

I’ll pick up one of those beautiful ribeyes during my next visit, but I’ll also make sure to buy some cheek meat to try and replicate a Babbo dish I love.

Japanese Premium Beef is at 57 Great Jones Street off Bowery. They are open 7 days a week from 10am to 8pm. Call them at 212/260.2333 to ask if they have freshly-sliced beef tongue before you go.

Comments (3)

Tandoori Chicken

Jun 24, ’09

I was like a kid walking down the aisles of Kalustyan’s, the specialty food store in Curry Hill here in New York City. I found myself subtracting from my cart when it was time to pay for my purchases because I got carried away and bought spices I knew I already had at home.

I buy my oriental spices from Asia Food and Market in Chinatown, but Kalustyan’s carries more of the South Asian and Mediterranean ingredients that are not well-stocked downtown. I picked up some powdered lemongrass and dried curry leaves for my signature dishes, but I also bought new stashes of spice I regularly use like cumin, cinnamon and turmeric. I like buying them whole because I find great pleasure in grinding them by hand using my mortar and pestle and lining them up as I do my mise en place before cooking.

I chose to do tandoori chicken after a good night of eating Bangladeshi food one night last week. We skipped the usual suspects of tandoori and brown curries and opted to try dishes I’ve never seen before that came in all shades of yellow. While eating, we noticed that we were eating the same food that the taxi drivers were enjoying. I wondered out loud why they would even have tandoori chicken on the menu if no one ordered it. I know it’s probably for the diners who want to see something familiar so that the other dishes don’t sound too intimidating. The next day, I thought I’d made my own chicken tandoori just to see if it’s really an easy recipe to do at home. It is and so you might not see me paying for tandoori any time soon.

Ingredients:
4 pieces of chicken legs, 3 pieces of chicken breasts
1 cup whole milk plain yogurt
a pinch of saffron threads, soaked in 2 tbsps hot water
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp hot paprika
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chili powder
1 small knob ginger, peeled, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 lemon
oil, salt, pepper

1. Using a sharp knife, score the chicken flesh, each piece slashed two or three times. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and transfer to a glass baking dish.
2. Combine all the spices in a bowl with the ginger and garlic. Add the saffron including the hot water and mix everything together. Massage the spice marinade on the chicken, enough to evenly coat every nook and cranny. Using a spatula, spread yogurt all over the spiced chicken pieces. Cover the glass dish and refrigerate for several hours up to overnight.
3. When ready to cook, heat a frying pan with some oil. In the meantime, preheat oven 350º. Remove the chicken pieces from the baking dish and fry them until brown on one side. (I scraped off most of the yogurt and removed the larger ginger and garlic pieces.) Turn and fry until browned on the other side. Transfer to a new baking dish and cook in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Squeeze some lemon juice on them before serving.

Related post/s:
Spiced Cream Chicken is also a good alternative
It’s a rainy summer and perfect for a lamb meatball tagine

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Cabbage Soup with White Beans and Sausage

Jun 21, ’09

I’ve only seen two episodes of Top Chef Masters on Bravo but I’m already hooked. It’s obvious that the participants are real chefs because they all get along and act professionally under pressure. Their demeanors separate them from the whiney amateurs of Top Chef. During the first episode, chef Michael Schlow sweated his way through the Quickfire Challenge in an airy stainless steel-filled handsome kitchen, but effortlessly turned out a soup of cabbage with white beans in a dorm room. I made note that the next time it rains and I want to eat some soup, I would replicate his dish.

Well, it’s been raining in New York City almost non-stop for the last two weeks. I finally got some alone time to concentrate in the kitchen and cook without anyone bothering me. There weren’t any ham hocks in my Harlem supermarket–I know, right? That’s like running out of ground pork in a Filipino store–so I ended up using the last of the sausages from La Tienda. The pimiento flavor gave the soup a hint of red-orange and made an otherwise white and pale bowl of soup colorful.

Ingredients:
1 cabbage, cut in half then sliced into strips
1 cup of white beans, soaked in water for at least an hour
1 pimento sausage, sliced
1 carrot, chopped
4 stalks of celery, chopped
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 sprigs of thyme
1 small red onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
vegetable broth
oil, salt, pepper

1. Heat some oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add sausage slices and sauté until brown around edges, about 5 minutes. Add cabbage; sauté 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
2. Add some more oil to same pot. Saué garlic until golden brown and onions until translucent. Add carrots and celery and sauté until soft, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Return the sausage and cabbage mixture. Add herbs, beans and broth and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, covered, about 1 hour. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Related post/s:
La Tienda has all the chorizos and sausages you need
This recipe stemmed from my favorite kale and kielbasa soup
If you have ham hock, braise it with fennel and tarragon

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Curried Duck Legs with Rhubarb

Jun 15, ’09

The duck legs were $10 cheaper in Chinatown than at Whole Foods, but Chinatown doesn’t even sell rhubarb and five long stalks were on sale for $2 at Whole Foods. My wish is to just have one store to go to when I need to buy ingredients for cooking; a place with fresh and hard-to-find, yet affordable, produce. Until then, I’ll have to make long and separate trips all over the city.

This recipe from last week’s New York Times caught my eye because I haven’t cooked with duck in a long time and I’ve really only baked with rhubarb. Not to mention my recent kick with Indian flavors, I just wanted something I can reheat for next week’s lunches. I revised the recipe a little bit to avoid using a food processor for the spices–I was just too lazy to wash another gadget. The end result was duck meat that easily fell off the bone in thick sauce that was a balance of tart and sweet: perfect over warm basmati rice and some sautéed bok choy.

Ingredients:
4 duck legs
5 stalks rhubarb, chopped
1 small can coconut milk
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 small knob of ginger, peeled, sliced
1 red onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp hot paprika
1/2 tsp turmeric
oil, salt, pepper

1. Toss salt with duck legs before cooking. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat. Brown duck legs, about 7 minutes per side. Turn and brown other side. Transfer to a bowl.
2. While duck browns, mash half of the onion with the ginger and garlic using a mortar and pestle. Transfer to a bowl and combine with all the spices. Season with salt.
3. When duck is done, spoon out all but about 2 tbsps of fat from skillet. Add remaining onions and a large pinch of salt. Sauté until soft, 5 minutes. Add seasoned ginger-garlic paste and cook until most of the liquid evaporates, about 2 minutes.
4. Add coconut milk and 2 cups water, and bring to a simmer. Add rhubarb, brown sugar and duck legs. Bring to a boil. Cover and turn heat to low, and simmer gently for 1 hour, turning duck pieces halfway through. Uncover pan, turn duck again, and let simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.

Related post/s:
Rhubarb in one of my favorite desserts

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Watermelon Granita

Jun 11, ’09

For our first barbecue, I wanted to serve a simple summer dessert that everyone would enjoy after eating all the pork belly and chicken. I don’t know how heavy watermelons are in your area, but in Harlem, a quarter of a melon is good enough for this recipe–it fed five people with second servings. And at 69 cents a pound, it’s also the least expensive dessert I can think of with minimal effort. The watermelon juice that didn’t fit in the glass dish went into three tall glasses spiked with Grey Goose.

Ingredients:
watermelon flesh, chopped in manageable pieces
1/4 cup sugar
juice from 1 lemon
mint leaves

1. Put all watermelon pieces in a large glass bowl and sprinkle all over with sugar. Let stand for an hour in room temperature. In the meantime, put a square baking glass dish in the freezer.
2. Using a blender, purée the sugared watermelon and their juices with 1/2 cup of water and a squirt of the lemon juice. Taste and add more lemon juice if necessary. There should be a perfect balance of light sweetness and some tart.
3. Remove the glass dish from the freezer and pour in blended watermelon juice. Return to the freezer and freeze.
4. After 30 minutes, the watermelon should begin to freeze. Scrape off frozen bits from the side of the glass dish and move them to the center. Return to the freezer. Repeat three more times before serving with mint leaves.

Related post/s:
I forgot I made celery granita before

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