Writing With My Mouth Full

Fusilli with Octopus

My supermarket in Harlem had these octopus in cans on sale. The idea of a cephalopod in a can sounded odd but the ingredients list didn’t have any weird stuff in it except for octopus and olive oil so I thought it wouldn’t do me any harm to buy a couple for less than $3.

With some fusilli pasta boiling in a pot–you can use any pasta you have handy–I sautéed leftover vegetables I already had in the fridge: mixed greens, dried mushrooms, parsley and garlic scape. The dish turned out really well and it served two meals with a few glasses of Verdejo wine.

Ingredients:
2 tins of octopus in olive oil
2 cups of fusilli pasta
1 cup dried mushrooms, soaked in water for 15 minutes, then drained
a few handfuls of mixed greens
1 garlic scape, chopped
1 small red onion, sliced
a handful of parsley, coarsely chopped
a small wedge of Piave cheese
red chili flakes
oil, salt, pepper

1. Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente. Drain pasta and set aside.
2. While cooking pasta, heat some oil in a skillet. Sauté garlic scapes until fragrant and then add onions until soft. Add octopus with its oil and toss. Add the mushrooms, the mixed greens and the parsley until well combined. Season with chili flakes, salt and pepper.
3. Add the drained pasta in the skillet and mix well. Serve with grated Piave cheese.

Sichuan Chicken

I was craving spicy Chinese food on my way home from work, so I picked up two packages of chicken breasts from the grocery store to cook a quick and spicy meal. I knew I had all the Sichuan ingredients that I needed to make the base sauce but I wanted to make the cooking quick and painless. I decided to use the cucumbers I had in the fridge instead of buying any more vegetables that won’t keep during the week and I skipped coating the chicken with egg whites and cornstarch. The result was a light stir-fry that satiated my craving and calmed my hungry stomach.

Ingredients:
8 boneless and skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips, patted dry with paper towel
2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, cut into strips
2 bunches of scallions, chopped diagonally
1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns
peanut oil

For the Sichuan sauce:
2 tbsps Shao Xing rice wine
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 dried chilies, chopped
2 tbsps sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsps brown sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
a small knob of ginger, peeled, shredded

1. Combine the Sichuan sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Heat some peanut oil in a wok or a deep skillet. Cook the chicken strips briefly in the hot oil until they turn white. Remove the chicken and drain on paper towels.
3. Clean out the wok and add some more peanut oil. If there is water from cooking the chicken, let it evaporate by turning up the heat for a few minutes. When the oil is hot, add the Sichuan peppercorns and toast for a few seconds. Add the scallions and sauté until soft. Add the cucumbers and the Sichuan sauce. Stir to combine and let simmer for about 3 minutes.
4. Return the cooked chicken to the wok and stir-fry to combine and finish cooking. Season with more soy sauce as needed before serving with warm white rice.

Seasonal Restaurant and Weinbar

132 West 58th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues
212/957.5550
$120 for two, with drinks, without tip
♥ ♥ ♥

I finished dinner at Seasonal with a smile on my face. Really. I had heard about their wine list and I wanted to check it out to see wine labels I’ve never heard of. I accomplished that at Seasonal and took notes of the Austrian bottles that I ended up liking, but I also decided to stay after I had a quick look of their menu.

True to their name, everything on the menu featured seasonal ingredients. It was beginning to feel like a New York City summer outside, but the produce in the markets are still catching up to spring because of the unusual weather we’ve been having. The amuse bouche of cauliflower soup was a good start to what we were about to eat. There was a small amount of foam to entice you to slurp a small cupful of broth. What could have been a boring vegetable soup was made exciting by the seasonings added to it. So as soon as we saw the pea soup, or the erbsensuppe, we jumped on it. It was so thin and light, yet the smoked bacon and pickled onions came through so strongly. I’ve never had a vegetable soup so clear as this one and still bold on flavors.

I couldn’t resist the Allgäuer Mountain cheese ravioli because they came with morels and fava beans. I don’t know if I can describe a more perfect combination of spring produce than this. We had a difficult time choosing an entree we could share without breaking the bank, but we ended up settling with the veal because it was poached in oxtail consommé. I love it when a restaurant gets consommé right. (And why shouldn’t they?) Seasonal’s version was that rich amber color with so much flavor but without a trace of fat in it. I think we kept commenting on how clear it was while we passed the bowl between us.

If I had an extra $30, I would have ordered the lamb with ramps, hen-of-the-woods mushrooms and parsnip root purée. I would have also liked to try the veal cheeks with spatzle and the wild salmon and halibut combination with poached quail egg and mustard sauce. Clearly, I already have reasons to make a return visit and take a second look at that wine list.

Green Mango Salad

Mangoes are abundant in the Philippines. When I was growing up, we had a mango tree in our backyard. When the mangoes were ripe, they were sweet and supple. Slicing each cheek with a check board pattern allowed you to flip the skin up and push out the mango flesh. When they were still green, you peeled and chopped them to make a salad. A dab of shrimp paste gave it flavor perfect with cold beers.

Nowadays, I make this salad for barbecues and they’re always a hit. I usually just use salt instead of shrimp paste so that I don’t have to worry about vegetarian guests and those with allergies. For more color, add a handful of arugula or mixed greens. It’s also a good side to serve with a simple steak or leftover roasted chicken.

Ingredients:
2 green mangoes, peeled and sliced into smaller pieces
red onion, chopped
a handful of cilantro, finely chopped
grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 tsp shrimp paste

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. If not using shrimp paste or fish sauce, substitute with a jigger of fish sauce or a dash of salt and pepper.

Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar and Grill

308 West 58th Street off Columbus Circle
212/397.0404
$170 for two, with three beers, with tip
♥ ♥

I was so glad to hear when Blue Ribbon opened their new space in the upper west side. I don’t have to go to the east side for sushi! I don’t have to go downtown for Blue Ribbon! Right across the street from the Eighth Avenue entrance of the Time Warner Center, this new location is the most convenient for me coming from home or from a movie in Lincoln Center. It’s exactly what we did last week after watching Dave Eggers’ movie, Away We Go. The rain let up and we walked down eight blocks from 66th Street.

We opted for the sushi bar when the maitre d’ let us in past the bar. Minus the Brooklyn branch, this Blue Ribbon is actually the most spacious. It looked like any other restaurant situated in the floor level of a hotel and it definitely strays away from Blue Ribbon’s more serene setup. Of course, every Blue Ribbon gets loud and this uptown branch is no different, but the noise is spread out because of the high ceilings and wide dining room.

We nursed our Sapporos and Kirin Lights while we enjoyed several small plates with the ubiquitous bone marrow. The salad of sautéed wild mushrooms bathed in tamari butter and was very fragrant; same with the simple mushroom broth that calmed my stomach. An appetizer of octopus was fresh and tender and a half dozen Canadian oysters drizzled with a ponzu-like sauce were deliciously tarty. I don’t think I’ve ever had wild Alaskan salmon as sushi before–they were really fresh and buttery here. The uni was silky and rich while the roe with quail egg was expectedly light and crisp.

It might have moved uptown, but the prices are up to par with its counterparts downtown. At Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar and Grill, it’s impossible to spend less than $80 a person, but you’d be surprised at how full the place was on a rainy Friday night.