Writing With My Mouth Full

Grilled Ramp Soup

Adapted from Emeril

2 bunches of ramps, trimmed and thoroughly washed
1 quart beef broth
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup heavy cream
a handful of parsley, finely chopped
salt and pepper

1. Make quasi-blond roux. Combine the vegetable oil and the flour in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, about 6 minutes. Whisk in the broth and the cream. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium-low.
2. Lightly grill 6 of the ramps. Cut the remaining ramps into 1-inch pieces. Add the chopped ramps to the soup, season with salt and pepper, and simmer for about 40 minutes. Remove from the heat and using a blender, purÃ©e the soup until smooth.
3. Ladle the soup into shallow bowls, garnish with the grilled ramps and the parsley.

I love making my own tomato sauce in the summer because the plump and juicy tomatoes are available in the market. Once transfered to a covered container, your tomato sauce keeps a week in the fridge. You can also store them in the freezer to make them last for several months. Just make sure that the sauce is completely cool before you cover and transfer them to store.

A lot of pasta dishes with tomato sauce are so easy to make. When I know I want pasta for dinner, I just take out my frozen sauce from the freezer and let it sit in the fridge. I just completely heat it up with my favorite ingredients.

Ingredients:
5 vine-riped tomatoes, quartered
1 small carrot, peeled, shredded
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red onion, sliced thinly
olive oil, salt, pepper

1. In a large saucepan, heat some olive oil over medium heat. SautÃ© garlic until light brown and cook onions until transparent. Add the thyme and carrots and cook for about 5 minutes.
2. With your hands, add the tomatoes while crushing them with your hands. Get all of the tomatoes and their juice to the pot. Simmer, stirring often and cook until the sauce is thick. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Set aside to let cool. When cool enough, transfer to a sealable container.

Filipino Lengua, Tongue Stew

I returned to Chinatown and easily picked up tongue or lengua [leng-gwah]. I picked the veal’s tongue because, well, the pig’s tongue looked like a part of the male anatomy. There is another Spanish-influenced dish, lengua estofada, but I wanted a dish that was more appropriate for spring, so I decided to make something lighter. My mother watched me cook and gave me simple instructions from what she could remember from her aunt, my Apong.

When I unwrapped the tongue, this massive muscle was in front of me and I thought, How the hell do I peel the skin off? After boiling it for about an hour, the skin actually turned white. It looked like a small foot than a tongue! Peeling the skin off was as easy as taking off a sock. Weird, I know, but you’ll see what I mean when you try it.

Ingredients:
1 vealâ€™s tongue, washed thoroughly with salt under cold running water
3 fresh green chili peppers
1 red onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 large tomatoes, halved and sliced
2 tbsps soy sauce
a handful of parsley, finely chopped
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. Simmer tongue in a large pot of water, about 1 hour. Remove from pot and let cool enough to handle. Peel skin from tongue and trim gristle. Cut into 1/4-inch slices.
2. In a large wok, sautÃ© garlic and onions. Add chilis. Add tongue pieces and brown both sides. Stir in soy sauce and tomatoes and cook until soft. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes until tongue is tender. Season with salt to taste and sprinkle with parsley to serve.

Filipino Bopis, Pig’s Heart Sauté

For a less challenging dish, I skipped over the cow’s penis at Dynasty Supermarket and opted for the pig’s heart instead. I could have used pig’s lungs, too, but they weren’t available during my visit. Moving away from Spain, I chose bopis [boh-peace] to show the Chinese influence in Filipino cooking. The ethnic Chinese settled in the Philippines even before Magellan set foot in 1521. If the Spanish military did not beat the Chinese (and the Japanese, the Dutch and the British, too), the country would have more similarities to China than Spain. Of course, no colonizer had to tell us that bopis is enjoyed with a cold bottle of beer.

Ingredients:
1 pigâ€™s heart, thoroughly washed, boiled, minced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 onion, finely chopped
4 sprigs of thyme
a handful of parsley, finely chopped
3 green chilis, sliced
1/4 cup of beef broth
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 small radish, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 cup vinegar
salt, pepper, oil

1. In a wok, sautÃ© garlic and onion in hot oil. Add heart and season with salt and pepper and chilis. Cook for 5 minutes until golden brown.
2. Add vegetables and vinegar. Boil without stirring. Add beef broth and simmer until liquid evaporates. It’s perfect when you’re scraping brown bits from the bottom of your wok.

Pho Bang

157 Mott Street between Broome and Grand Streets
212/966.3797
$20 for two, without drinks, without tip

One of the last Vietnamese restaurants in New York City that’s still not lazy about making pho that tastes like beef, Pho Bang always hits the spot. Even if I order a bowl of vermicelli noodles with beef or a rice plate with pork chops, I can still order a small bowl of pho as a dollar appetizer. Pho Bang also hasn’t lost its touch in making spring and summer rolls.