lunch today: Soft Shell Crabs

While wandering through the seafood section of Whole Foods today, I saw some beautiful soft shell crabs. I'd never seen them at Whole Foods before, and at $4.99 a piece, I thought they weren't too overly expensive (tell me if I'm wrong). Still, I stood there for an awkward 5 minutes just looking back and forth between the seafood guy and the soft shell crabs, trying to decide whether or not I wanted to buy the crabs and attempt frying something for the first time. In the end, I bought them.

Frying also turned out to be a lot less scarier than I had made it out to be in my head. I imagined oil splashing out of the pan and attacking my tong-wielding hand, or even overflowing oil bubbling out of the pot. Neither actually happened. It was actually quite drama free, and the results were so satisfactory, I might start frying things more.

So here is a little recipe of what I did today. Everything occurred on a whim and some parts might benefit from a little more refinement or planning ahead, but the entire dish took less than 30 minutes from start to finish.

Soft Shell Crabs with White Corn Relish

makes two servings

for the sweet corn relish:

1 ear white corn

1/2 jalepeno, finely diced

1/2 fresno chili, finely diced

1 small shallot, finely diced

1 small clove of garlic, minced

juice of one lime

salt

pepper

Place the entire ear of corn, husk, silk, and all in a microwave and cook on high for 3 minutes. If the corn is already husked, loosely wrap a damp paper towel around it instead. While it is cooking, seed and dice the chili peppers, mince the shallot and garlic, and mix it all together in a bowl with the lime juice. Once the corn is cooked, shock it in some ice cold water. When it is cool enough to handle, cut off the kernels and add it to the bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. This can be made ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator.

for the chili vinaigrette:

1 teaspoon sriracha

1 teaspoon sushi vinegar (sweetened rice wine vinegar)

1 teaspoon olive oil

Whisk together and set aside.

for the cilantro oil:

handful cilantro leaves

handful parsley leaves

olive oil

Today, I just threw all the ingredients into a mortar and pestle and went at it. If I was planning ahead, I would pull out the food processor, blend them all together, set it sit in the fridge, and then strain through a paper towel for a more vibrant, pure, green oil. Next time!

for the cornmeal-crusted soft shell crabs:

2 cleaned soft shell crabs

2 tablespoon corn meal

2 tablespoon all purpose flour

salt

pepper

buttermilk

vegetable oil

Mix together the cornmeal, flour, some salt and pepper in a bowl. Pour about 1/4 inch of vegetable oil on the bottom of a deep frying pan. Soak the whole soft shell crabs in enough buttermilk to cover while the oil heats up. Once the oil is hot, but not smoking, shake off excess buttermilk from the crabs and dip in the cornmeal mixture. Shake off excess and gently place the crabs in the hot oil. It should start sizzling right away. Cook each side until golden brown, flipping once. Remove from pan and drain the excess oil off the crabs on a paper towel.

to plate:

Arrange corn relish on the center of the plate. Cut the soft shell crab in half and place on top of the corn. Drizzle cilantro oil and sriracha vinaigrette around the plate. Garnish with cilantro leaves and cilantro flowers.

dinner tonight: Fennel and Sausage Orecchiette

Lately I've been craving pasta. Usually I like to be difficult, and I crave fresh, handmade pasta, but this time, I'm simply craving some dried, boxed pasta. I can't even remember the last time I bought a box of rigatoni or penne. When I picked some up from the grocery store today, hearing the hard pasta rattling around in the box instantly brought back memories. The first meal I ever cooked from start to finish on my own was back in high school. It was Mother's Day and I wanted to surprise my mom with lunch. I followed Ina Garten's recipe for linguine with shrimp scampi exactly. Simply boiling the pasta and making the lemon butter sauce simultaneously was almost too much for me to handle, but from then one, if I announced I was making dinner, you can bet it involved some pasta dish.

My first taste of fresh pasta was at Bartolotta in the Wynn Las Vegas. I remember falling in love with the texture and wondering why all pasta couldn't taste like that. Once I got the pasta extruder attachment for my stand mixer, I became a pasta extruding machine. If I was going to make a pasta dish, it had to be made with fresh pasta. For a while, all I did was extrude rigatoni and make bolognese sauce. So really, now that I'm thinking about it, I don't think I've touched a box of dried pasta since I got that pasta extruder over a year ago.

Tonight, I tried to work some magic with little pieces of dried orecchiette. Italian for "little ear,"orecchiette might possibly be my favorite pasta shape. I love the extra chew that comes from the little dimpled shape. Orecchiette always seems to be served with sausage, sausage reminds me of fennel, and I love fennel. So, Voila.

Here's a rough recipe of what I made tonight:

Fennel and Sausage Orecchiette

sauce:

1 slice pancetta, 1/4 thick, diced

1/2 yellow onion, finely diced

1 clove garlic, finely diced

crushed red pepper

fennel seeds

1 link mild Italian sausage, from Whole Foods removed from casing

1 small bulb fennel, thinly sliced

2 tablespoon tomato paste

2 large tomatoes, blanched and skinned, large dice

white wine

salt

pepper

fennel fronds

1. Render the fat out of the pancetta in a sauté pan until browned but not completely crispy. You may wish to drain some of the fat, but it's tastier if you don't ;)

2. Add onion and garlic and cook until translucent but be careful not to burn the garlic. Add a sprinkling of crushed red pepper and fennel seeds. Toast the spices a little in the oil to make them fragrant.

3. Remove sausage from casing and add to the pan. Break it into pieces and cook until browned.

4. Add in thinly sliced fennel and cook until barely translucent.

5. Add tomato paste and chunks of fresh tomato. Cook until the liquid from the fresh tomato has evaporated then deglaze the pan with a splash of white wine.

6. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Finish with fennel fronds.

7. After the dried pasta has cooked for the recommended amount of time on the box, drain and add directly into the sauce. Keep the sauce and pasta on the stove for a few minutes to let the sauce really soak into the pasta.

dinner tonight: Bibb Lettuce Salad

date: 6/4/11

Bibb Lettuce Salad

cucumber, white corn, sautéed shrimp, green goddess dressing

Lately, I haven't been feeling very motivated to blog. Even writing this post right now is not as enjoyable as it used to be. It's distressing because this blog used to be a much larger part of me, and I don't want to lose it.

It's not because I no longer enjoy taking pictures of food that I eat, and it's definitely not because I've lost my love of food. I just realized it's been a while since I've really had such a spectacular meal that I'm rushing home to blog about it. I also don't feel the need to blog about a dinner that a dozen other food blogs out there are already waxing poetic about. Nor do I just want to be an encyclopedic documentation of dishes at a restaurant. And honestly, sometimes I just want to eat. Who wants to deal with a camera when there's tasty food in front of you?

So, I've come up with this temporary remedy/trick to get myself into food blogging again. Since summer is approaching, and I have about a month before any traveling occurs, I will probably be cooking a lot at home. I'm going to start posting pictures up of the dishes I make. Maybe it's fantastic, and I'll want to share a recipe within the post. Maybe it's a work in progress and the recipe needs little tweaks here and there before I share. Maybe it just looks tasty and I want to post up a picture. I'm going to stop expecting so much of my posts. I'm just going to share.

So this was dinner tonight--a last minute creation that turned out better than I was expecting. It was my first time making green goddess dressing, and I took a little short cut by not even pulling out the food processor to make it. I merely finely chopped up some scallions and basil and whisked it together with some anchovies, mayonnaise, sour cream, and lemon juice. I'm definitely going to experiment with this dressing more. The baby shrimp were quickly sautéed with some olive oil and garlic before finishing with some white wine. I reached into the heart of my head of lettuce and pulled out the tender, small leaves in the center--the best part.

Laurent Quenioux at Starry Kitchen

Previously, I'd only had Chef Laurent Quenioux's dishes at food events such as Taste of the Nation and the Gold Standard. Sadly I didn't get a chance to make it to his restaurant, Bistro LQ, before it unexpectedly closed. Now, Chef Quenioux is making Starry Kitchen, the popular downtown lunchtime spot of Ngyuen and Thi Tran, a temporary home where he can pop-up with a concept he's calling "LQ Fooding Around in LA." Starting the first week of June, Chef Quenioux will be doing dinners Sunday through Tuesday for the next three to six months. The prix fixe menu is set at a very reasonable $45, and expect the menu to keep changing. Check out Starry Kitchen's website for details and updates.

LQ @ SK

Laurent Quenioux at Starry Kitchen

350 S Grand Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90071

tel: 626-817-6762

dining date: 5/23/11

Amuse: Escamoles

So, escamoles are the larvae of ants. Yes, ants. I'd never had them before and didn't really know what to expect. Sadly, after all the trouble that went into acquiring the little eggs, they were a little anti-climatic for me. I don't think they have a strong taste to them since the most prominent flavor in the little bite was that of the corn tortilla. The little shot of beer was a fun accompaniment.

Oxtail compote, pickled spring vegetables, mustard tapioca

I was a little confused by this dish. The oxtail was lukewarm and one of the two "pickled spring vegetables" really just tasted like a slice of deli pickle. The dish seemed incomplete to me, like the oxtail had been shredded in preparation for a larger, more complex dish, rather than to stand on its own. Also, the mustard tapioca was odd--as expected though since I didn't really like Chef Queniox's uni tapioca either.

Tai snapper, citruses, zucchini, tomatoes, kohlrabi, smoked black sea salts

While it was beautiful to look at, with colors that evoked thoughts of spring, the fish itself was incredibly mild. The accompaniments were interesting--the kohlrabi purée under the fish tasted of cabbage, the citrus segments a nice burst of acidity, but the most flavorful part of the dish was the half-leaves of basil.

Teriyaki rabbit albondigas, teriyaki foie gras, miso, green garlic tempura

With this dish, the meal really started to pick up. This was a fantastic preparation of foie gras. I was apprehensive about the teriyaki, worried that the dish would be too sweet, but there was a nice balance to the dish. The rabbit albondigas were juicy little balls of savory goodness. I only wish I had had the balls to ask for more balls! There were also fresh little pieces of fava beans and a tempura of green garlic and shiso leaf.

Veal sweetbreads, morels, chanterelles, shishito peppers, yuzu kosho

Another winning dish! Using Starry Kitchen's recipe for chicken karaage, Chef Quenioux simply substituted veal sweetbreads for the meat. Sitting on a bed of forbidden black rice purée (who does this?? it works!) the fried offal nuggets were satisfyingly peppery, and juicy. I ate the accompanying shishito peppers with caution, but I was lucky that night and didn't run into a super spicy one.

Chocolate chipotle mousse, lime serrano gel, cinnamon soil

Dessert actually turned out to be infinitely spicier than the previous shishito peppers. There was an abundant amount of chipotle in the chocolate mousse, but it was so delicious I ignored my inability to handle heat and did all but lick my plate clean. I only wish the churro could have been hot out of the fryer, but I was excited about the cinnamon soil. It provided that extra cinnamon sugar I'm always looking for in my churros. The lime serrano gel had little basil seeds and was a nice acidic contrast. And of course, the little cilantro flowers made me happy :)

Me + Marian + rosés!

Photo by KevinEats

For this special preview dinner Jill of DomainLA put together a fantastic wine pairing...of all rosés! This was probably another highlight of the night. I'd never encountered an all rosé paring before and I smiled in delight as glass after glass of light pink hues arrived at our table. Of course, the pairings worked very well with the dishes.

Me + Chef Quenioux

Photo by KevinEats

Rarely does a menu progress from good to great, and this meal did just that--I usually find appetizer courses more interesting and entrees to be lackluster. This was definitely a rare occasion that will stand out for that reason. Seating is very limited, and I do think this is a meal worth checking out so don't wait to make a reservation. I would love to come back for another dinner and "food around" some more with Chef Quenioux!