cia – Page 66 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Banana Bread

I ended up doubling the ingredients here to fill a silicone mold and a 4×8-inch loaf pan. The good thing is that you don’t need a mixer; just a strong arm and a wooden spoon. Keep the measurements precise and I promise it will be the best banana bread you’ll ever bake.

I filled the silicone molds more than halfway and the cooked banana bread puffed up, making their own muffin-like tops. I sliced the tops off and I had these cool-looking banana bread bars. Because I baked late in the afternoon, I could only distribute the tops to save the end-products for the next day’s photo shoot and that reminded me of one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes.

Ingredients:
4 ripe bananas, smashed
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter, melted in microwave; some more to butter the loaf pan
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar, egg and vanilla. Toss in the baking soda and salt. Keep mixing. Lastly, add the flour and continue to mix until well-combined.
2. Pour mixture into a buttered 4×8-inch loaf pan. Place the loaf pan on a baking sheet and transfer in the oven and bake for 1 hour. Cool completely on a rack before slicing to serve.

Cioppino, Italian Seafood Stew

Here’s another Italian recipe I butchered. Cioppino is a traditional Italian stew using the catch of the day and I used all the seafood I “caught” from the sea-permarket (ha!) except for fish because my mother is allergic; otherwise I would choose monkfish fillets to have something very meaty and tender. The clams and mussels are perfectly cooked here, but that also means they didn’t get enough time in the hot broth, so I think clam juice in a can is an absolute necessity. If your eaters are not fussy, using shrimp with their heads on can add more natural flavor to the soup. I also decided to skip the pasta in my version and opted to serve it with a few slices of toasted baguette.

Ingredients:
1 lb squid, cleaned, sliced in small rings
1/2 lb shrimp, heads on, sprinkled with salt and pepper
12 littleneck clams
12 mussels, bearded
1 cup white wine
1 medium can of crushed tomatoes
1 small can of clam juice
a handful of parsley, roughly chopped
a few pieces basil leaves, chiffonade
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp red pepper flakes
salt, pepper, oil
1 small baguette, sliced, toasted

1. In a large Dutch oven, heat some oil. Cook the shrimp for 3 minutes. Remove to a large bowl.
2. In the same pot, sauté garlic with red pepper flakes until golden brown. Add white wine and 1/2 cup of water. Simmer in low fire.
3. Add clams and cover. Simmer for 3 minutes. Clams are cooked when they are open. Discard those that didn’t open. Remove to a large bowl. Add mussels to the pot and cover. Simmer for 5 minutes. Mussels are also cooked when they are open. Discard those that didn’t. Remove to the same bowl with the clams.
4. Add clam juice, tomatoes and 3 cups of water to the pot with all the seafood and wine flavor. Let simmer for about 20 minutes while occasionally stirring. Add squid and cook for 2 minutes. Add back the shrimp, clams and mussels and carefully toss together with the tomato broth. Remove from heat. The squid will finish cooking in the remaining heat. Ladle in big open bowls and serve with toasted baguette.

Porcini Mushroom and Somen Noodle Soup

I haven’t been in the mood to cook even though I’ve been spending a lot of time at home. But while inside the Grand Central Terminal Market earlier, I was inspired to go back to the kitchen after I saw a small container of really fragrant dried porcini mushrooms on sale for $3.50. I turned to soup-making after assessing the contents of the cupboard, and whadayaknow, I had a porcini-flavored dried salami in stock: I chopped a few small slivers and used them as extra topping to this very earthy broth.

Ingredients:
1/4 lb dried porcini mushrooms
half a bundle of somen noodles
3 small potatoes, cubed
1 red onion, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped
2 sprigs of thyme
a small knob of Piave cheese
salt, oil

1. Soak dried porcini mushrooms in 2 cups of lukewarm water for about 20 minutes, or until they are soft. Drain and save the water. Roughly chop soaked mushrooms and set aside.
2. In a large Dutch oven, heat some oil. Sauté garlic until brown and onions until soft. Add potatoes, rosemary and thyme and cook until potatoes are browning.
3. Add the mushrooms and the mushroom-flavored water and simmer for 10 minutes. Add 2 to 3 more cups of water, depending on how much broth you want. Season liberally with salt because the broth will be bland, but the salt will bring out the mushroom’s earthy flavor. Keep in low simmer until potatoes are cooked and all the flavors are incorporated.
4. Throw in somen and stir for 3 minutes; this will quickly cook the noodles. Turn off heat and let remaining warmth finish cooking the noodles. Ladle in bowls and shave cheese on top before serving.

Soba Totto

211 East 43rd Street off Third Avenue
212/557.8200
about $80 for two people, with sake, with tip
♥ ♥ ♥

I don’t need any horoscope to tell me that I’ve been living a lifestyle I can’t afford, but it was right there on OK! Magazine, a copy I picked up after someone left it in the subway. I have been mooching off the Dr. the last couple of weeks, what with my unemployment insurance delayed and all, and feeling bad that he’s been spending for two. Last week, he wanted to eat soup and he invited me to come with him. How could I say no?

We sat at the bar and watched the place fill up. The kitchen in front of us went up in smokes whenever the guys grilled some yakitoris. We started with a few: bacon-wrapped asparagus, chicken knee bones (mmm, soft cartilage), some very livery riba and a plate of charred green peppers. A small bottle of a super dry sake helped us washed everything down.

But what we really came for is Soba Totto’s soba. I had the duck, kamo nanban, while the Dr. tried the mushroom. They were so different from each other: his broth had a subtle but earthy taste and mine was straight-up rich in flavor. The noodles easily gave, the duck melted in my mouth and the mushrooms provided some texture. Neither needed extra condiments–they were perfect the way they were served. Our bowls didn’t look like much, but sometimes soba is all you need even if someone else offers to pick up the tab.

Almond Financiers with Orange Zest

It was like my personal heaven walking in JB Prince, the service and bakeware store on 31st Street between Madison and Park Avenues. It’s been on my list to stop by but I have been unable to until this week because they’re only open on weekdays from 9 to 5. Their Web site sucks so I didn’t expect much from the store, but it was immaculate when I walked in. I touched everything I could touch, especially the Fat Duck and the El Bulli books. The sous vide machines were all lined up in a row and baking sheets and pans of all sizes hanged by clips. Just seeing the individual serving pieces made of plastic and bamboo made me want to throw a huge amuse-bouche party.

It’s amazing what I get to do while unemployed. There are so many errands, I don’t know how they got done when I had a job. The past week alone, I ran all over the city finishing all sorts of businesses while also going to job interviews, seeing people I haven’t seen in a while and watching movies in the middle of the afternoon. If I didn’t have financial responsibilities, I swear I’d be enjoying this time more so than I did eight years ago when the Web first broke my heart. Heck, I’d be in Singapore with my brother and his wife, blowing through my savings and traveling all over Asia. Fuck, I hate being an adult!

But back to reality: I wanted to check another thing off my Things-To-Do list which is to start experimenting with baked goods. (You understand that I didn’t say “baking”, right? Because I’m a little bit of a pussy and I’m afraid of commitments.) I received a nice, hefty birthday gift certificate from a few friends and, though I already know it will go towards the Kitchen Aid Pro with sausage, pasta and ice cream maker attachments, I’m saving it until I’m ready to use it like a pro.

Financiers came to mind after scouring through my many cookbooks and realizing that it’s one of those basic French recipes that don’t require the use of an equipment. But because I’m also precise, I splurged on a $15 financier silicone mold–which explains the trip to JB Prince. I tried different flavors for my first batch of batter. I divided it into three small bowls and in one, I mixed in a tsp of ground coffee. In another, I added orange zest; I added finely chopped dried cranberries to the last batch. (Add your own flavor in Step 3 below.) After baking my first-ever financiers, I let them cool completely so as not to bother them in their molds until they were set. When I revisited them, they were basically popping themselves out of the molds and I didn’t have to turn them over. I have to say that my favorite were the ones with orange zest. This recipe makes twenty two-inch financiers in one mold tray.

Ingredients:
a handful of raw almonds
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup of flour, sifted
2 egg whites
1/3 cup of butter
zest from a small orange
another small knob of butter to coat the molds, melted in the microwave for a few seconds

1. Preheat oven at 360º. Meanwhile, make your almond meal. In a food processor, process almonds until powdery. It’s okay that’s it’s grainy.
2. Make your beurre noisette. In a saucepan, melt the butter over low fire. Bring to a simmer and cook for 2 minutes, or until light brown and nutty-smelling. Set aside.
3. In a medium glass bowl, combine sugar and almond meal. Fold in the egg whites and mix well with a fork. Add the melted butter and continue to mix together. Stir in the flour and the orange zest and make sure everything is well-combined.
4. Butter your financier molds using a pastry brush. Pour the batter in each mold, filling it up just to the brim. Place batter-filled mold on a baking sheet. Bake for 18 minutes. Your financiers will puff up a bit and will get slightly crusty and golden on the edges, but soft on top. Remove from the oven and cool completely before turning them over on parchment paper.