September Recipes

Oat Flour Pancakes

Salted Steak with Arugula, Caramelized Onions & Crumbled Feta

Sweet Corn Chowda

Shrimp & Scallop Shu Mai

Killa Kam's Dipping Sauce

It's been a while

I know I tempted and teased you with visions of soul-warming comfort food... and I promise to upload photos and post some recipes these week. Last week was extremely turbulent with exams and all. I'll make it up to you this week... and promise to work on more recipes. I've received a specific request for Kale this past weekend, which means I will be playing with cruciferous greens this week, so give the Metamucil and Fiber One a few days off.

We'll be in touch!


-M

oh, hi

Its been a rough week for blogging, as I'm sure you can tell based upon my lack thereof.  Its getting really chilly out, which makes me incredibly sleepy... I swear I was a bear in a previous life. And a sloth in another.  For the past two nights I have been turning out some soul-warming comfort food, its the least I can do to cope with the weather. And being that tomorrow is SNF, I will be making some buffalo wings & sipping champagne... I cannot wait until tomorrow. I also cannot wait until October so that I can turn the heat on in good conscience. More recipes will be posted next week, including Roasted Chicken Thighs & Legs [I can't be bothered with white meat], Brussells Sprouts with Bacon & Red Onion, Tonight's Meatloaf with Sharp Cheddar "Gravy" and Oven-Roasted Papas with Bacon and Garlic Cloves.

Turn off the grill and warm up your oven: Summer is OVER, and I'm not sweatin' it.

a weekend abroad

This weekend I drove down to Pennsylvania for my nephew's first birthday and made a few pit stops along the way; one of which was Philadelphia to spend some time with a few of my favs. Amara and I had planned our day around watermelon sake at Raw, some snacks & vino at Tria, and more small bites at Tinto [with a "power nap" & Curb Your Enthusiasm in-between]. Raw kind of foreshadowed the events, being that watermelon infused sake was not available at lunch time [what kind of B.S. is that?! I know there are numerous carafes of the stuff in the walk-in in the back... just give it to me!]; this unforeseen disappointment lead to over-compensating via impulse ordering of an extra roll, which we obviously did not finish. By the time we got to Tria we were pretty full and moderately lethargic, but we ordered the herbed ricotta with lavender honey and some Sauternes aka "liquid honey". Yum. After our afternoon endeavors we headed home to rest for a bit and then journeyed to Tinto, a Jose Garces restaurant. Prior to this "meal" I had experienced Garces' food once, at an Amis Industry Night, when he premiered his new taco truck; liquor + free tacos = disappointed taste buds. I know, I may as well say 2+2=5, it just doesn't add up. Anyways, back to Tinto- I ordered the first round of tapas: Pulpo, Anchovies, Braised Beef Shortrib, and Soft Scrambled Egg with Bacalao & Goat Cheese... the plates arrived dressed to the nines; unfortunately I have no pictures because I am without telephoto lense. Just playing- that's a bit harsh, but the portions were tiny, granted it is tapas, but I have had tapas in Spain, so I had an idea of what we were getting ourselves into. Now I can't say the food was bad, but I will declare that I was unimpressed. If you are going to tease me with barely one full bite per plate, then I want to fall in love with each different mouthful- instead I left uninspired and full but not satiated. Although it was inspiring to eat at Jose Garces' restaurant and feel I could have put out better food.  And I can't blame Garces himself; he is a busy man between his 8 different restaurants and celebrity chefdom on the Food Network, but one would hope to maintain tight reigns on all of their investments.

Anyways, the main point of this blog was to fill you in on what I have been up to during this absence of blogging, not to degrade Tinto or Chef Garces. On that note- I hope everyone enjoyed their weekends; I know I did!

Wild Shrimp & Diver Scallop Shu Mai

Most normal households do not have leftover scallops idling in the fridge, but anything is possible when Kam is cooking. Personally, I'm not big on left-over scallops, I like to eat them immediately after cooking because I find shell-fish, mollusks and bi-valves a waste to re-heat, unless you enjoy chomping on rubber; delicious rubber, but rubber nonetheless.  Anyways, I thought it would be delicious to mix them with fresh shrimp and some other ingredients, and then wrap it up in a wonton.

shrimp & scallop "shu mai" with Killa Kam dipping sauce

I'm aware that this is not the most composed picture, but it is important for me to let my adoring public know that these dishes are made in a real kitchen, eaten by real people. I'm not a food stylist, and I am not going to play with my food endlessly in hopes of photographing it at the best angle- I want to eat it, damn it! The messy sauce bowl was the exact vessel Kam conjured the sauce up in, and I wasn't going to waste one drop of it on a napkin by wiping the sides of that bowl! Best believe we practically licked that bowl clean.

Wild Shrimp & Sweet Scallop Shu Mai

Ingredients:

30 Wonton Wrappers

1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tsp water [egg wash]

10 medium sized Shrimp [21-25/lb ct]

5 large Diver Scallops, quartered

1 clove of Garlic, smashed, peeled & roughly chopped

1 inch piece of Ginger, peeled & roughly chopped

3 Scallions, whites only, thinly sliced.

1.5 tsp Rice Vinegar

1/2 tsp Sesame Oil, plus more for cooking

1.5 Tbsp Soy Sauce

First: Make the filling.

• In the base of a large food processor combine the garlic, ginger, vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, shrimp and scallops and pulse until the ingredients are combined and the proteins are coarsely chopped.

• Transfer to a bowl and fold in the scallions.

Next: Fill the wontons.

This is the time to nominate volunteers and enhance your delegating skills.

1. Place a few wonton wrappers on a clean cutting board at a time. Spoon a large teaspoonful of the shrimp & scallop filling into the middle of each wonton.

2. Using a brush, or your finger, lightly coat the perimeter of the wonton with egg wash.

3. Fold the wonton, corner-to-corner and lightly press to seal. Then, fold the edges of the wonton over, inward, about 1/6 inch,  to reinforce the seal.

Now: it's time to cook.

1. Have a small cup of water on hand to add to the pan. 

2. Heat a saute pan over medium-high heat; once it is hot add about 1 Tbsp of Sesame Oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the pan.

3. The amount of dumplings you can sear per batch is dependent upon the size of your pan, and it is important that there is space between the dumplings so that they will sear instead of steam.

4. Allow the dumpling to cook for about 1.5 minutes and then flip them over using tongs. [If the dumplings are sticking then they are not ready to turn, or the pan was not heated enough before they were placed in it.]

5a. Once you flip the dumplings, carefully pour a little bit of water into the bottom of the pan [roughly 2-3 Tbsp, and be very careful because there is a good chance that any residual oil in the pan will spatter a bit when it comes into contact with the water] and reduce the heat to medium. Allow to cook for 2.5- 3 minutes and then transfer to a serving platter. 

5b. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel or kitchen rag, and repeat steps 2 through 5 until all of the wontons are cooked.

6. Serve with Killa Kam's Dipping Sauce

seared, flipped & steaming.

Killa Kam's Dipping Sauce

This sauce accompaniment is a much tastier compliment than the traditional soy sauce option. 

You will need:

1.5 Tbsp Light Mayo

1.5 Tbsp Sriracha [use less depending on your's and your company's heat tolerance]

1.5 Tbsp 0% fat Greek Yogurt

the juice of half a Lime; this must be fresh squeezed lime juice, not the stuff in those little plastic lime grenades that are idling around the produce department at the supermarket

Mix all of the ingredients together until homogenous and then transfer to a serving bowl. Serve with your dumplings.

Another unimpressive photo... I was too excited to dig in!