2013 Christmas Recap

As promised, we've got a recap of our culinary adventures over this past Christmas.  Like most trips back to southern California, we hit up some of our favorite spots; El Burrito Jr., In-n-Out, and P.V. Palace Seafood for dim sum.  We also headed to Santa Monica to check out Josie.

In addition to all the meals we ate out, we also enjoyed some delicious home cooked meals, including some dishes we prepared during the cook off.  Justin and I faced off against my cousin, Lauren, and her husband, Gregor.  We were given 6 mystery ingredients and had to create an appetizer and a side dish.  We had access to everything in my aunt & uncle's pantry, and if we needed to go to the grocery store, we could only spend $25.

The mystery ingredients were sweet potatoes, mangoes, head-on prawns, bacon, kimchi, and turnips.  As soon as we saw kimchi and bacon, it took us a split second to decide on our kimchi brussels sprouts for our side dish.  Since turnips were a mystery ingredient, we just used those as the garnish in place of carrots.  That left us with mangoes, prawns and sweet potatoes.  We kept things light and went with a grilled prawn over mango salsa with a sweet potato chip.  Lauren and Gregor whipped up a delicious salad of apples, turnips, bacon, egg, and a mango kimchi  dressing to start.  For their side, they poached their shrimp in butter and lime with sweet potato shoestring fries.

It was a close competition, but we came out on top by 1 vote!  Both teams rose to the occasion and produced some delicious food. It was as close as possible, but we had a slight edge.  It was a huge hit with the whole family, and I think this will become an annual throwdown!

The day after Christmas, we gathered in Grandma's kitchen again to make joong ( 粽子) again.  It was a long day, but we ended up wrapping over 200 joong, and we now have a few bags in our freezer.  They're the perfect, cold-weather comfort food, full of delicious pork.

We also spent some time checking out the craft breweries around Torrance.  We ended up visiting Strand Brewing Co., Smog City Brewing Company, and Monkish Brewing Company.  All three offered delicious beers in a variety of styles.  Smog City was our overall favorite, and reminded us of some of the local breweries here in DC.

Overall, it was another wonderful trip to California.  Lots of food, lots of beer, and lots of family.  What more could you ask for over the holidays?

Christmas: Unwrapped!

I hope everyone had an awesome holiday with friends and family.  Justin & I traveled out to California once again, to spend Christmas with my family.  And just like last year, there were many culinary adventures, including a cooking competition, and several cooking-related gifts under the tree.  So here's a quick round-up of all the new toys we'll be putting to use in the near future:

1. Nom Nom Paleo:  Though we aren't strictly following the Paleo diet, this is still an awesome cookbook to have in your arsenal.  Not only are there cartoons, and butt jokes, but she's got a ton of great tips alongside the recipes.  Plus, she's got a recipe for homemade sriracha!  And with the recent shutdown of the sriracha factory in CA, it'll really come in handy.

2. Pok Pok:  While we haven't been to the restaurant, we are huuuge fans of Thai food, and trying to recreate those distinctive flavors.  Not to mention, this cookbook was on just about every single "Top Cookbooks of 2013"-type list.

3. Vacuum Sealer:  Gone are the days of trying to suck the air out of a ziplock bag with a straw, and not inhale raw meat juices!  This should make our confit/sous vide efforts much, much easier!

4. Immersion Circulator: This was the perfect accompaniment to the vacuum sealer.  We no longer need to guess how hot our water is, and much like our immersion blender, we can use this guy in any pot we have.

5. Mini Food Processor: We were really in need of a new food processor.  Justin had a regular size processor, but it stopped working.  I had a mini one, but it had seen better days and the bowl would leak every time we used it.  So this was a perfect gift for us.  It's great for whipping up small batches of aioli, pesto, tzatziki, or any other kind of sauce you could imagine.

6. Garlic Press: We're huge fans of garlic, so you can never have too many garlic presses.  It sure beats chopping it by hand!

7. Mandoline: This versatile little tool is great for slicing veggies super thin.  Whether you want to make a slaw, pretty veggie ribbons, or chips, the mandoline is the tool for the job.  The one we got comes with 3 different blades, depending on how you want to slice your foods.  Just be sure to save your fingers and use the little guard.

8. Potato Ricer: On a recent trip to Ikea, while wandering around the kitchen section, Justin convinced me that we needed a ricer.  Since it was just a couple bucks, I agreed to the purchase.  We do make a decent amount of gnocchi, so I figured it'd come in handy.  But then came Thanksgiving, and while pressing some sweet potatoes through it, the arm totally bent, and placed the ricer out of commission.  Fortunately, we were able to salvage the gnocchi, and we now have a new food mill when we're ready to make gnocchi again.

9. Produce bags:  As you know, we get quite a bit of produce in every share.  These bags will help us sort and transport the produce we pick up.  They'll also be useful when we have to run downstairs to grab a few items from the grocery store.  That way, we are doing our part to be green and we won't have to spend the nickel to use those plastic bags in the store.

10. Bottle Opener:  Because you can never have too many bottle openers.
11. Ice Scream Spade:  Since Justin gave me an ice cream maker for my birthday, we've been making our fair share of fro-yos, gelato, and creams, so this will come in quite handy.
12. Real Snacks:  If left to my own devices, I could certainly snack all day long, so it will be fun to try out these recipes and see just how close we can come to making our favorite snacks and treats.
13. The Complete Joy of  Homebrewing:  As you may know, Justin and I are both big fans of craft beer.  We haven't tried home brewing yet, but this book gives us the perfect excuse to try it out.
14. Silicone Oven Mitts:  These bad boys slip on and cover almost your entire forearm, so you'll have no worries reaching deep into the oven. This gift was inspired by our guests who were holding their breath   when we flipped our dry-brined Thanksgiving bird.  

California Christmas Recap

Now that we're back home in chilly DC, its time for a little recap of our culinary adventures in CA.

First, there was the pig head.  After 2 days in the fridge, our roll 'o head went into the oven at 325 degrees for 5-6 hours.  We rotated it a 1/4 turn about every 90 minutes in order to get all sides nice and crisp.

As it roasted, a lot of the fat seeped out, and the porchetta really shrunk down.  Once it finished roasting, it went back into the fridge, and we compressed it from all sides to squish even more moisture out.

Once it was completely cooled, it was ready for eating!  You can see all the fat marbling through, and all the meat that came off the face.  The really thin squiggly is the ear!  All that's left to do is slice it super thin and eat!  The seasoning was spot on and there was so much flavor imparted in the meat.

And so as not to waste any part of the head, we roasted the skull, and then simmered it in water to create a really rich pork stock.  A bunch of meat fell off the skull, so we ate those along the way, but now we also have a really rick, gelatinous stock for future meals.

Next came the joong.  Justin really had a knack for wrapping them, and they made the perfect snack/lunch when we got home today off the redeye.

Now that you're caught up on how those items turned out, I'll throw some new info your way.  We had some leftover lobster meat hanging out in the fridge, so Justin & I cooked dinner  for mom, dad and grandma, consisting of a simple salad, and lobster quinoa.  The lobster quinoa was super simple...cook up the quinoa, and in a separate pan, saute onions, garlic and ginger, toss in some mushrooms, deglaze the pan with Chinese rice cooking wine, add it some soy sauce, sesame oil, and sriracha, then toss in the lobster.  It was topped with some green onions and ready to eat!  It came together rather quickly and was a great way to use the leftover lobster.

 

But we didn't spend all of our time eating at home.  We hit all of our favorite restaurants: El Burrito Jr., In-n-Out, and A-1.  Plus, we tried out a really delicious Polish restaurant, some great tapas, a Top Chef contestant's bar, and a burger joint in the back of a liquor store.

And finally, Christmas gifts.  We were both really spoiled this year and received a lot of items to add to our pantry and kitchen.  I have a new All-Clad pan, along with cooking utensils and a wok.  We both now have a mortar & pestle, some squid ink, bottarga, and a variety of flavored salts.  And since Justin tends to be a little messy, a pirate chef apron was long overdue!