eat & drink

May 18

Shakshuka Recipe

… adapted from John Gorham, Tasty n Sons, Portland

Tasty n Sons

INGREDIENTS

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

½ medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 cup thinly sliced roasted green peppers (about 2 peppers; see Note)

1 cup thinly sliced roasted red peppers (about 2 peppers; see Note)

¾ teaspoon paprika

¾ teaspoon piment d’Espelette or red pepper flakes

¾ teaspoon granulated sugar

1 small bay leaf

1 cup whole canned tomatoes, with juice

Salt and freshly ground pepper

4 large eggs

Crusty bread, for serving
 

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large, ovenproof skillet, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and the garlic and cook until the onion becomes translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the green and red peppers and cook for 2 minutes. Add the paprika, piment d’Espelette, sugar and bay leaf and cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, about 2 minutes longer.

2. Preheat the oven to 400˚. Add the tomatoes and their juice to the skillet and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes break down, about 20 minutes longer. Discard the bay leaf and season with salt and pepper.

3. Bring the sauce back to a simmer. Crack the eggs over the sauce so that they are evenly distributed across the surface. Transfer to the oven and bake until the egg whites are set but the yolks are still soft and runny, about 7 minutes. Serve immediately with crusty bread for dipping.

Note: To roast the peppers, place the peppers on a hot grill or hold them over a gas flame on the stove until black and blistered on all sides. Transfer the peppers to a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let steam for 15 minutes. Peel, seed and stem the peppers. Set aside until ready to use.

- TastingTable.com

May 04

Crushed Red Pepper Broiled Tomatoes, Polenta & Soft Poached Eggs

Crushed Red Pepper Broiled Tomatoes, Polenta & Soft Poached Eggs

May 02

Leftover Pad Thai, Avocado, Roasted Jalapeño & soft poached egg

Leftover Pad Thai, Avocado, Roasted Jalapeño & soft poached egg

Apr 03

How to Make Perfect Hard Cooked Eggs

Avoid that green residue and impress with tender, creamy eggs.

Learn the method on Cook’s Country.

Don’t boil.

Place 6 eggs and a table spoon of salt in 2 quarts water.

Turn Heat to high and bring water to a simmer.

Once simmering, remove from heat and let sit 10 minutes.

Eggs will cook through.  Remove from hot water and place in an ice bath for 5 minutes.

(via notoriouseggslut)

Apr 02

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[video]

Mar 16

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Feb 08

Baked Egg in an Avocado • preheat oven to 425, have cast iron pan in there • Slice avocado in half, take out pit • Take pan out, put avocado half on, crack egg in • Put whatever you want on top • Place in oven and cook till your eggs desire

Baked Egg in an Avocado

• preheat oven to 425, have cast iron pan in there

• Slice avocado in half, take out pit

• Take pan out, put avocado half on, crack egg in

• Put whatever you want on top

• Place in oven and cook till your eggs desire

(Source: thedailywhat, via notoriouseggslut)

Jan 05

M.B. Post debuts weekend Brunch

Saturday, 1/7
10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Post Up for Brunch






Chef David LeFevre is debuting weekend brunch at M.B. Post this month. The menu features the likes of fried chicken laced with truffle honey ($15), or quince-and-ricotta-stuffed French toast with pears and chestnut-honey butter (pictured; $12). In addition to its popular cocktail menu, three brunch-themed drinks will be available. M.B. Post, 1142 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach; 310-545-5405 or eatmbpost.com

Jan 04

Baco - global street food tacos…

Introducing the baco, a saucy, fusion-kissed creation with street smarts.

  • TOP CHEF: Josef Centeno indulges his creative side at the his new cafe, Lot 1.
TOP CHEF: Josef Centeno indulges his creative side
June 11, 2008 | Amy Scattergood | Times Staff Writer

ON A RECENT sun-shot June morning in Echo Park, Josef Centeno left home and skateboarded down the hill to Lot 1, the new restaurant on Sunset Boulevard, to demonstrate how to make a baco. It was a short, fast commute, powered by gravity and the creative engines that have been turning serious rpm since Centeno, most recently chef at Opus in Los Angeles, put on chef’s whites again after a hiatus.

The baco, Centeno’s signature hybrid dish (“It looks like a gyro, has the feel of pizza, you eat it like a taco”) has trailed him from restaurant to restaurant; now — in five variations on an all-baco lunch menu — it’s come to rest in these scrappy new digs.

Like many great dishes, the baco — rhymes with taco — has an accidental provenance. Years ago, after a long night at Meson G, the now-closed Hollywood restaurant where Centeno was then executive chef, he was cooking for his hungry staff. He took some of his flatbreads and piled them high with a choice pick of what was at hand in the kitchen: pork belly, short ribs, smoked paprika aioli — even some of the salbitxada sauce (a garlicky almond-tomato Catalonian sauce) that had been paired with the ribs.

It was a messy, lip-smacking, utterly delectable invention — improvised street food with a global pedigree.

It was also a measure of the way Centeno thinks about food: His dishes are built from a crazy quilt of components with the spinning machinery of logic and imagination, curiosity and technique.

Taking his baco to go

Centeno took his baco with him to Opus, where he refined it at the “family meal” (as the informal meals that chefs cook for their staff are called) and, at the suggestion of friends, put it on the menu.

Now at Lot 1, Centeno showcases his more laid-back side with the baco lunch menu, and dinner demonstrates the chef’s high-end talents. In the evening, the food goes formal with plates of rib-eye and bone marrow toast, English pea soup with soft poached egg and candied rhubarb, and sophisticated desserts that show off his pastry experience (for a time he was Manresa’s pastry chef). And coming soon, the wildly creative tasting menus that Centeno was known for at Opus.

Centeno’s baco is, as the name and its umlaut imply, a crossbreed, even something of a mutt. To make one at home, spread a supple Middle Eastern-inspired flatbread with a mix of sauces that combines elements of Spanish, Greek, Mexican, African and French cuisines, then work your way up, ingredient by ingredient.

In addition to the original baco, now made with pork belly and red wine-braised paleron (pot roast), Centeno makes four variations.

The vegetarian baco centers on crisp Japanese eggplant; lamb sausage baco has croquettes made from potato and morcilla (a Spanish blood sausage) and caraway-pepper sauce (“like harissa, only with a lot more caraway”); the el pollo baco features chicken escabeche (marinated chicken) radicchio and zhoug, a spicy chile sauce from Yemen; and the pesco baco is a tasty composition of panko-crusted albacore, pickled onion, and four (count them) different sauces.

A deft hand

WITH HIS skateboard propped against the wall outside his tiny kitchen, Centeno starts cooking, demonstrating the pesco baco with a quiet, off-hand intensity. He whips together a quick salbitxada sauce, stirs other sauces that he made the day before, then rolls out a nub of dough while he heats oil for the gorgeous rose-colored cuts of albacore.

Even considering that Centeno moves at chef-speed, a baco takes a surprisingly short time to construct.

It starts with the flatbread, which, even for the first baco, Centeno has made from scratch. His flatbread dough, like much of his food, is shot through with unexpected ingredients.

A lebni sauce, made with Greek yogurt, dried lavender, minced garlic and fresh ginger, is stirred into a basic bread dough, giving it body and texture as well as a flavor jolt.

After the dough rises, it’s rolled out and quickly cooked in a hot, oiled pan or griddle. (Centeno says you can use any oil with a high smoke point; he uses ghee, which he makes himself by the vat.) The flatbreads are pliant yet slightly charred and crisped, faintly nutty, with a kick from the garlic and lavender in the lebni.

When Centeno left Opus at the end of last year to take a much-needed vacation — “2 1/2 weeks in Europe, over 60 restaurants” — and then look for a place of his own, he applied for a trademark for the baco and, again, took it with him.

Centeno, a 34-year-old Texan, is an alum of the Culinary Institute of America (he did stages at the New York City restaurants Vong and Daniel while in cooking school); of Manresa in Los Gatos, where he was the chef de cuisine; and of Tim and Liza Goodell’s Aubergine. Add Meson G and Opus to that impressive list, and you begin to sense the experience that Centeno packs into his cooking.

Dec 01

Leek and Pancetta Risotto with Fried Egg Recipe adapted from Cindy Pawlcyn and Darren McRonald, Brassica, St. Helena, CA Cindy Pawlcyn, the owner of Napa Valley’s new Brassica calls her executive chef, Darren McRonald, “the best risotto chef in the United States.” We might question such high praise if we hadn’t sampled McRonald’s leek and pancetta risotto. The dish, which appears seasonally at Brassica, is both creamy and surprisingly light. Plus, the addition of a fried egg on top is a genius touch. Yield: 6 servings INGREDIENTS 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil2 leeks, cleaned well and finely chopped1 cup finely chopped pancetta10 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided½ cup finely chopped yellow onion3 cups Arborio rice⅓ cup dry white wine; at room temperature5 to 6 cups hot chicken stockOlive oilSalt and freshly ground black pepper1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese6 large eggsDIRECTIONS 1. In a medium skillet set over medium heat, heat olive oil. Add the leeks and cook until soft, about 2 minutes. Remove the leeks to a bowl and set aside. In the same pan, add the pancetta and cook until it begins to render its fat and is soft but not dried out or crispy, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the pancetta to the reserved leeks. Set aside.2. In a medium saucepan set over medium-low heat, melt 4 tablespoons of the butter. Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the rice and cook, stirring, until all the butter has been absorbed, about 4 minutes. Add the wine and reduce until dry, about 2 minutes.3. Add enough stock so that the fluid level rises just above the rice. Continue to simmer, stirring frequently. Continue adding stock as it is absorbed so the stock just covers the top of the rice. Continue cooking until the rice is al dente, about 12 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in a bit more stock and the Parmesan. Remove from the heat and set aside to rest while you fry the eggs.4. In a small skillet set over low heat, melt a tablespoon of butter. Crack the egg into the pan. Fry over low heat until the whites and yolk are set, about 5 minutes. Repeat with the remaining 5 eggs.5. To serve, stir the reserved leeks and pancetta into the rice, divide the risotto among six bowls and place a fried egg on top of each serving. Serve immediately.

Leek and Pancetta Risotto with Fried Egg

Recipe adapted from Cindy Pawlcyn and Darren McRonald, Brassica, St. Helena, CA

Cindy Pawlcyn, the owner of Napa Valley’s new Brassica calls her executive chef, Darren McRonald, “the best risotto chef in the United States.” We might question such high praise if we hadn’t sampled McRonald’s leek and pancetta risotto. The dish, which appears seasonally at Brassica, is both creamy and surprisingly light. Plus, the addition of a fried egg on top is a genius touch.

Yield: 6 servings

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 leeks, cleaned well and finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped pancetta
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
½ cup finely chopped yellow onion
3 cups Arborio rice
⅓ cup dry white wine; at room temperature
5 to 6 cups hot chicken stock
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
6 large eggs


DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium skillet set over medium heat, heat olive oil. Add the leeks and cook until soft, about 2 minutes. Remove the leeks to a bowl and set aside. In the same pan, add the pancetta and cook until it begins to render its fat and is soft but not dried out or crispy, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the pancetta to the reserved leeks. Set aside.

2. In a medium saucepan set over medium-low heat, melt 4 tablespoons of the butter. Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the rice and cook, stirring, until all the butter has been absorbed, about 4 minutes. Add the wine and reduce until dry, about 2 minutes.

3. Add enough stock so that the fluid level rises just above the rice. Continue to simmer, stirring frequently. Continue adding stock as it is absorbed so the stock just covers the top of the rice. Continue cooking until the rice is al dente, about 12 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in a bit more stock and the Parmesan. Remove from the heat and set aside to rest while you fry the eggs.

4. In a small skillet set over low heat, melt a tablespoon of butter. Crack the egg into the pan. Fry over low heat until the whites and yolk are set, about 5 minutes. Repeat with the remaining 5 eggs.

5. To serve, stir the reserved leeks and pancetta into the rice, divide the risotto among six bowls and place a fried egg on top of each serving. Serve immediately.

PBJtotheZ  – named after one of Egg Slut’s loyal customers, @JtotheZ (that’s me).  It has peanut butter cream cheese icing, Bonne Maman fig preserves, hickory smoked bacon, fried egg in a brioche bun. This, to me and the kiddies, is THE ONE. It has the perfect combination of sweet, salty and savory. This one is a MUST TRY. - via foodtruckadventure.com   (thanks for the heads up @DigLounge)

PBJtotheZ  – named after one of Egg Slut’s loyal customers, @JtotheZ (that’s me).  It has peanut butter cream cheese icing, Bonne Maman fig preserves, hickory smoked bacon, fried egg in a brioche bun. This, to me and the kiddies, is THE ONE. It has the perfect combination of sweet, salty and savory. This one is a MUST TRY.

- via foodtruckadventure.com   (thanks for the heads up @DigLounge)

(Source: jasonz)

Oct 03

[video]

Sep 30

Saddle Ranch, site of Matt & Angela’s Wedding

Saddle Ranch, site of Matt & Angela’s Wedding

Sep 29

Egg Dishes In Los Angeles: 10 Ways To Get Your Yolk On

by Lien Ta (Sept. 23, 2011)

… other than burgers, pizza, Croque Madames, frisée-lardon salade and ramen, 10 more ways Los Angeles restaurants are topping it all off with an egg — for The Huffington Post.

(Source: lienta)