You know how they say you can form a habit by repeating an action twenty one days in a row. I’ve never been able to do this intentionally. Certain actions become a habit on their own, take blogging and blog hopping for example. For months, I used to do it every day, a quick run through of my favorite blogs with the morning coffee, a more in depth reading and commenting after dinner, and three to four posts of my own per week.
Looks like it is so much easier to break out of a habit, doesn’t take 21 days for sure! It started with a busy work schedule, soon I found myself so disconnected from the whole blogosphere. Even after my days got back to the normal schedule, I can’t seem to get back into the game. I barely post once a week, and I have missed a whole lot of posts from my regular reading list.
The fact is that blogging is an activity that I greatly enjoy; it is that one defining hobby. We all know that blogging is not just publishing some random posts, it is the whole social networking aspect of it that makes it so interesting. I really want to go back to the way things were, start having fun with blogging again. I don’t know how to get out of this rut though, force myself to post and blog hop for the next 21 days? My track record hints that I can’t force anything on myself, guess I just have to wait and see how this turns out.
So, the question to my fellow bloggers is how do you all deal with this? What keeps you motivated, especially those of you who have been doing this for more than a year?
Now to the food portion of today’s post, it is almost soup weather in Seattle. Can’t believe fall is here already! This asparagus soup is based on an Emeril recipe from Food Network. I made it a bit healthier by using low fat milk instead of heavy cream and substituting some of the butter with olive oil. Also, spiced it up a bit with ginger and jalapeno. It turned out to be a light and tasty soup, and made a wholesome meal with some bread and a small side salad.
Ingredients
(Serves 2-3)
- 1 lb asparagus
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1/2 cup low fat milk
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced shallots
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 1 jalapeno pepper thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
- salt and pepper to taste
- For garnish
- 1 tsp sour cream
- 1 tbsp toasted almonds
Method
Cut the thick stems of the asparagus spears and keep aside. Trim the tips from 8-10 spears and keep aside. Cut the remaining stalks into small pieces.
Bring the stock to a boil in a saucepan. Add the tough stems and bring back to a boil. Reduce the heat all the way low, cover and simmer for about 20-25 minutes. Remove the stems with a slotted spoon and discard.
Bring the stock back to a boil, and blanch the asparagus tips for about 1 - 1 1/2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon into an ice water bath to stop the cooking. Drain on paper towels and reserve for garnish. Reserve the stock.
In another pan, add the butter and olive oil and and heat till the butter is melted. Add the shallots and saute till soft. Add the garlic, ginger and pepper and cook for another minute. Add the chopped asparagus stalks and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the reserved stock and simmer for 15-20 minutes till the asparagus is tender.
Remove from fire and puree to form a smooth liquid using a hand blender or in a blender. Taste and adjust the seasonings.
Return the soup to the stove and add the milk and the reserved asparagus tips. Cook on medium high till the liquid is heated through. To serve, ladle into individual bowls, garnish with toasted almonds and 1/2 tsp sour cream.
Dining with Mario Batali, Wolfgang Puck, Thomas Keller and David Burke at The Venetian Las Vegas
Saturday, September 20th, 2008Filed Under Las Vegas | 16 Comments
We didn’t do many grand scale dinners this time in Vegas. Instead we decided to check out some casual fare by some of our favorite chefs. We don’t normally venture out much in Vegas. Whichever casino we chose to stay at is where we end up eating and playing at. Who wants to waste all those precious Las Vegas hours sitting in traffic! So even though we loved our stay at the Bellagio last time, we decided to try out the Venetian this time, since the dining options there included some of the best known names in the culinary world.
As a hotel, Venetian was just okay, our room was really spacious and well kept, but the service came nowhere close to what we experienced at the Bellagio. The main focus of our trip was on food anyway. I have to say, while pretty much every dish we had was really good, nothing really knocked our socks off, if you know what I mean. I don’t know whether it was just a matter of our expectations being way too high, or if we have really become those food snobs we hate, who are pretty hard to impress - I hope it is the former than the latter!
I am going to review all the four restaurants in one post, since I have a feeling I might never get around to finishing this if I divided it into four separate posts. I will try to keep it short, but bear with me if it gets a little longer than usual.
Mario Batali’s Enoteca San Marco
One of the main reasons for us picking the Venetian was Mario Batali, a chef we have great respect for! We love the simple but elegant dishes he prepares on our favorite food show - Iron Chef America. Add it to the fact that he was raised in Seattle, we were really looking forward to sampling some of his creations.
Enoteca San Marco has a great ambience, with the “outdoor” seating under the fake blue sky and live entertainment and street performers just outside the restaurant, it is a great spot for people watching. Service was great, our waitress was really warm and friendly, unlike some of the reviews I’ve read. Menu is typical Italian casual fare. We started with Cauliflower Frittele ($9) and Marinated Mixed Olives ($6). Cauliflower fritters were really good - simply battered and fried cauliflower florets sprinkled with powdered spices was the perfect starter.
For the main dish, we decided to split a pasta and a main dish. I picked the Gemelli with House sausage and Broccoli Rabe ($18) and Siv picked the Grilled Pork Chop with Sweet Peppers and Capers ($25). Pasta was cooked really al dente, that is Mario’s style and the way I like it. The simple olive oil based sauce went really well with the bitterness of broccoli rabe. Pork chop also had very simple flavors, and was perfectly cooked. Even though I am not a big pork chop fan, just like Siv is not a big pasta fan, we both enjoyed both the dishes.
Portions were really big, we had no room for dessert at the end. The whole meal with cocktails and beer put us back only less than $100. Not bad for a dinner at a celebrity chef’s restaurant, but not one of the most memorable meals in our life either.
Thomas Keller’s Bouchon
Two restaurants I want to dine at before I die - French Laundry and el Bulli. While el Bulli is a very distant possibility, French Laundry is something we are definitely planning on doing before the end of next year. We never went to Bouchon before on our various Las Vegas trips, since I wanted my first Thomas Keller experience to be at the French Laundry. But this time, we were right there at the Venetian, and we couldn’t resist anymore.
Again, the food was really good, but not out-of-this world good. We started with a Soupe a l’Oignon ($9.75) aka French Onion Soup. Siv is addicted to French onion soups, he orders it whenever he gets a chance. Since I wasn’t all that hungry, I decided to just share some of his soup instead of ordering another appetizer. It was a delicious soup, I must say.
For my entrée, I got the Gigot d’Agneau ($33.50) - roasted leg of lamb with nicoise olive socca, sweet peppers, arugula and lamb jus. This was one of my favorite dishes from this trip, the lamb legs were succulent, and the jus was very flavorful. Siv got the Truite aux Amandes ($28.50) - pan-roasted trout with green beans, almonds and Beurre noisette (hazelnut butter). Trout was delicious, but it was too small a plate for Siv, I could see he was still hungry after polishing off the fish. So we decided to split a dessert - a simple Creme Caramel ($9) with coffee finished off the meal rather nicely.
I am sure French Laundry is going to be so much better than this one, this was a perfectly nice meal but it wasn’t what I expected from Thomas Keller.
David Burke
I had never heard of David Burke before this trip. We had dinner reservations at Table 10 - Emeril Legasse’s restaurant the Palazzo. We both were so engrossed in Poker that we weren’t too enthusiastic about walking to the Palazzo. We just wanted to finish dinner and get back to the tables, it was the last night of the trip after all! We were on our way to Table 10, when we came across David Burke just around the corner from the poker room. It is one of those good looking restaurants - vibrant colored walls and ultra sleek design with a colorful hand blown glass sculpture centerpiece with a water feature flowing from the ceiling. The menu posted outside looked very promising as well, so we decided to save some time and check out David Burke instead.
The cuisine is modern American, the dishes were elegant and beautifully plated. We started with a couple of cocktails from the signature cocktail menu. LYCHEE MARTINI ($14) and BERRY SUNSET ($14) both were really good. Then the bread and butter came, where the butter was served on a piece of Himalayan salt brick. That is when the waiter pointed out that the walls of the bar were also made of the same salt bricks! That was pretty awesome! We wondered if they reuse the salt brick for serving the butter, I think they do, so I resisted the temptation for a small lick of the salt.
I don’t remember what our amuse was, but I remember it was really good. We asked to split a LOBSTER BISQUE ($14) with lobster agnolotti and curried apple essence, which was poured into individual bowls, right at the table, always a nice touch.
Siv got the ROASTED HALIBUT “T-BONE” AU POIVRE ($38) with lobster dumplings, spinach, tomato marmalade and lobster bordelaise. He wasn’t all that impressed with his dish. I got the GRILLED SWORDFISH “ROSSINI” ($38) with seared foie gras, spinach, crispy potato cake and truffled madeira sauce. This was absolutely amazing, all the flavors went really well together. We also had some truffled French Fries to go with all these.
This was a surprisingly good meal for me, especially enjoyed the drinks. Siv wasn’t that impressed, I think he just ordered the wrong dish.
Wolfgang Puck’s Postrio
We decided to finish off the Las Vegas trip with a lunch at Postrio, a restaurant by possibly the most successful American chef - Wolfgang Puck. We’ve been to his restaurants many times in different cities, but this was our first visit to Postrio.
We started with a couple of Bloody Marys to kill the hang over from the previous night, I think it is the best Bloody Mary I’ve ever had, spicy and tangy. Bread here was the most delicious flat bread served with an olive dip. We got a couple of appetizers - spicy meatballs ($6) with garlic puree, sun dried tomatoes and parsley was amazing - reminded us of spicy Indian kabobs.
For the main course, I got the fettuccine alfredo ($15) with roasted chicken and baby spinach. It was way too creamy for my taste, I could only have very little of this. Siv got the roasted lamb sandwich ($13) with horseradish aioli and caramelized onions and a side of deliciously crispy fries. It was a great sandwich, and a pretty big size for lunch, I happily shared half of it. If I forget the pasta, this was the best meal of this trip I think.
These four meals put together only costed us less than a single dinner at Le Cirque from our last trip, which makes me think that the saying “You get what you pay for” has some truth to it. I will never forget the highlights of the Le Cirque experience, but I had a hard time trying to remember the dishes from these restaurants as I was writing this, and its only been a couple of weeks. Evidently, none of these were the memorable meals one would expect from any of these chefs. Then again, I might have to go to their signature restaurants to get the real feel of their culinary expertise.
Malaysian style Curry Crab
Thursday, September 18th, 2008Filed Under Crab, Seafood, South East Asia | 26 Comments
I don’t know how many times I’ve talked about our favorite takeout dish in town - the Dry Curry Crab from Malay Satay Hut. Siv and I are addicted to this dish. I’ve been searching for a similar recipe in all my Malaysian cookbooks and online, but couldn’t find anything that would produce an end result like the MSH version. Their version has plenty of onions and curry leaves and star anise, but none of the Malaysian crab curry recipes I found had all those! After a lot of searching around, I finally decided to tweak the one recipe that looked the best to make my own additions to get it closer to the MSH version.
The recipe I used as the base is the Chili Crab recipe from my favorite Malaysian blog - Rasa Malaysia. Her pictures are out of this world, and the recipes are to die for! I have been drooling at those Chili Crab pictures for months now! I tweaked it quite a bit, since I was after the MSH version. The final result didn’t quite taste like the MSH curry crab, but it tasted really good! Thank you Rasa Malaysia for a keeper recipe!
Recipe adapted from Chili Crab by Rasa Malaysia
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb crab (You can use a whole dungeness crab, or just crab claws)
- 4 whole star anise
- 1/2 cup sliced onions
- lots of curry leaves
- 1.5 tbsp tamarind paste
- 1 tbsp sugar
- salt to taste
- 1.5 tbsp oil
- For the Spice Paste
- 8 dried red chilies
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1″ piece ginger
- white part from two lemongrass stalks
- 1/4 cup sliced shallots
Method
Clean the crab and cut into 6-8 pieces if using a whole crab. Remove the top shell.
Make the spice paste by grinding all the ingredients in a food processor, or pound using a mortar and pestle to form a somewhat smooth paste.
Place a large pan on the stove and heat up the oil. Saute the sliced onions and curry leaves till onions start to soften. Remove and keep aside.
Add the star anise to the same oil and saute for a few seconds. Add the spice paste to the pan and saute till fragrant. Add the crab and 1/4 cup of water and do a quick stir. Cover the pan with a tight fitting lid and cook for about 5-6 minutes.
Add the sugar, tamarind paste and salt and mix well. Cook uncovered for 4-5 minutes stirring frequently until the crab pieces turn red.
Add the sauteed onions and curry leaves to the pan and mix well to combine.
Serve with steamed rice.
As I said before, this tasted divine, still not very close to the Malay Satay Hut version. So the quest to for the MSH Dry Curry Crab recipe still continues, but I have another keeper recipe. By the way, this is the first time I am making crab, Siv is usually the crabman of the house. I got the crab claws this time, since I am not very good at handling whole crabs. Check out the two fabulous Tamil stle crab curry recipes by Siv before you leave.
What is the point of going on vacation, when you have to come back and work double as hard for the next few days to make up for the lost time? I only have myself to blame for it though, I took a week off at the wrong time. Anyway, the vacation was great while it lasted, extremely exhausting but extremely fun at the same time. How can you not have fun in Vegas, right? We tried out some nice restaurants by some skillful chefs like Mario Batali, Thomas Keller and Wolfgang Puck. I will post the reviews later. There was a ton of poker, and we even managed to squeeze in a tiny bit of shopping. I absolutely hate the fall styles this year, at least the stuff I’ve seen so far. There isn’t much for my body type; I finally ended up buying just a Betsey Johnson dress. I didn’t really need an expensive dress right now, but I won some money and really wanted to spend it on something. Now I just have to find a glamorous event to wear it to. Unfortunately, I just don’t get invited to many of those 
Oh well…
I wanted to break out of the blogging rut by posting an easy-breezy recipe from my drafts. This is so quick and effortless, but tastes incredible, and you can even make a complete meal out of it. Check out the end of the recipe for two different serving options.
Ingredients
- 4 catfish filets
- 3/4 cup whole almonds
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbsp red chili powder
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- salt to taste
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1-2 tbsp oil for shallow frying
- For Serving Option 1
- 1/2 tbsp oil
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots
- 1 tbsp green onion slices
- For Serving Option 2
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced shallots
- 1/2 cup silvered almonds
- 1 cup cooked and cooled rice
- 2 tbsp lemon juice.
- salt to taste
Method
In a food processor, place the almonds, garlic, chili powder, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and salt and process to form a coarse paste.
Apply this paste liberally on both sides of the catfish filets. Let it rest for 15 minutes.
In a large frying pan, add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. When the oil is smoking hot, place the fish filets flat. Reduce the heat to medium-high and cover with a tight fitting lid. After 4 minutes, uncover, turn the filets and cook for 4-5 more minutes uncovered. You will have to reduce or increase the cooking time depending on the thickness of the filets.
When the fish is done, remove the filets and keep warm.
Now you can serve these two ways- just the fish with some sautéed shallots, or make a complete meal out of it with fried rice. We had it both ways and both were great!
Option 1
A lot of marinade must’ve fallen off the filets during the frying process; these bits are too delicious to waste. Add little more oil to the pan and add the sliced shallots and sauté till soft. Serve the fish with the sautéed shallots spooned over on top and garnish with green onions. Serve with lemon wedges to squeeze over.
Option 2
After removing the fish from the pan, add about 1 tbsp of oil to the pan. Add a few silvered almonds to the pan and sauté well. Add sliced shallots and sauté till soft. If you had any extra almond masala paste after marinating, add that to the pan. You can also use the almond paste that might have fallen off the fish filets during the marination. Sauté till the paste starts to brown. Add some cooked and cooled rice to the pan and mix well. Add the lemon juice and salt and mix well and cook for another minute on high heat to make fried rice.
I got this idea for making fried rice out of left over fish fry marinade from Shn from her fried sardines post. Thanks Shn for a keeper idea!
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