Chicken pot pie

Brrrr....It is...So...COLD!!!

This morning temperature was 2 degrees. Thank goodness it's Friday and I don't have any special plans for this morning. It is brutal outside. And I think last couple of weeks, it snowed at least twice every week. I am so over winter, like everyone else around here. Usually, I get excited for winter just around November because of holidays and as soon as new year's day comes, I am over it. Taking down holiday decorations is the hardest part and as I do it, I start to feel like, Okay, I am over winter. But of course that doesn't change anything for another couple of months. And now I'm at this stage, longing for spring every single day. 

Let's face it, wishing it's spring is not going to do anything. At least "cooking cold weather friendly meals" make me feel better. We love good chicken pot pie. Call me crazy, I used to not like pot pie until I met Steve. He likes pot pie so much, I started to make it and I grew to like it. It's so simple but I changed it up here and there over the years and came to this simple recipe. In fact, my mother in law asked me to make some and sell them at her senior community. Haha. That's sweet of her that she loves my pot pies so much but well..it's illegal here to sell home-cooked meals unless I cooked it at a licensed facility anyway. 

This one..pastry top looks like it's ready to fly away. Haha. I should have put egg wash on the bowl properly. I love nice ceramic bowl for pot pies but at the same time, it's a pain to clean the pastry stuck on the edges of the bowl, so sometimes I use disposable foil ones, if I'm cooking a larger batches. Of course, you can soak it and it will work fine but I am not a very patient person, when I clean up, I want to put everything in the dishwasher and be done with it by the time I sit down for a dessert. =) 

I had some leftover pastry dough and I rolled it out and made quick cinnamon sugar palmier pops. My tot's face lights up as soon as he sees anything on a stick. I didn't get to take pictures as we made it after dinner and made a big mess but they're so darn cute. Should have made them for Valentine's day. Even though it means elephant ear, it looks more like a heart to me. Roll out the dough into rectangle as you made the dough initially and brush little butter and sprinkle cinnamon sugar, fold each end quarter to the middle and fold again like a book. Cut them to about 1/2 inch slices and poke a stick through it if you're making pops otherwise just bake at 375F for 15 minutes or until golden brown. 

Chicken pot pie

* Approx 2 generous portion or 3 small dinner portions

Printable recipe 

Ingredients :

1/4 cup butter 

1/4 cup flour

2 cup chicken stock, warmed

1 Tbsp cream or half&half(optional)

1/2 onion, diced

1 cup frozen mixed vegetables

1/4 cup frozen pearl onions

2 split chicken breasts, grilled or 2 cups cubed rotisserie chicken

salt and pepper to taste

1 egg, beaten for egg wash

1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped(optional)

pastry 

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

10 Tbsp cold butter, cubed

1/3 cup ice cold water

Directions :

1. Make the pastry(if you're using store bought puff pastry or pie dough, skip this step). In a food processor, add flour, salt and add butter. Pulse until the crumbs are pea size. Slowly add water to it and pulse until just it just come together. On a floured surface, place the dough and using a floured rolling pin, roll it out into a rectangle. Fold bottom third to the middle and upper third to the middle, like a letter. Roll it out and fold again, repeat about 6-7 times. Chill in the fridge for an hour(or over night).

2. In a large skillet, melt the butter and saute diced onion until just translucent. Add flour and cook it for 2-3 minutes while stirring constantly so the roux doesn't burn. 

3. Add chicken stock and whisk until well mixed. Let it thicken and season with salt and pepper. Add cream or half and half, if using. Add vegetables, chicken and pearl onions and mix well. 

4. Preheat the oven to 375F. Scoop pot pie filling in the vessel you're using. I like individual bowls. Take out the pastry dough from the fridge and roll it out and cut to size. Brush the edge of the bowl with egg wash and cover with the pastry. Brush the top with the egg wash too and make little slits. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until pastry's golden brown and ready. 

* Pastry recipe from Dessert for two.

Landmarc - Tribeca, NYC

Sorry Marc, but you've been Chopped. My wife and I are big fans of the food network, in particular, the show Chopped.  We always appreciated judge Marc Murphy's comments, he seems like a really nice guy, and they always refer to him as "acclaimed chef" Marc Murphy, so naturally we were curious and excited to try his first restaurant, Landmarc in Tribeca. I decided to surprise Christine and book a table for Valentines day.

The restaurant is more of a casual, neighborhood restaurant, with upscale prices. I find this to be a perplexing combination, as I expect the service and food quality to be in line with the pricing.    Since the restaurant is higher end casual, they lacked certain details I would have expected.  For example, the menu is a folded up piece of paper. This would be interesting if it changed daily or weekly, but that's not the case. I was also surprised that on Valentines day, there was not a simple flower on the table. Other minor snafus included serving a very slightly chilled bottle of Peligrino, and bringing bread to the table that was literally cold, not even room temperature!

Lets move on from these trivial details and focus on the food.  Christine ordered an Octopus salad to start. The presentation was rustic but nice, and the flavors great. What was astonishing was that the salad was served over a large bowl of potatoes.  Don't get me wrong, they were delicious, but we could not help thinking that  if this dish was presented to the judges on Chopped, the cook would get absolutely blasted for serving a large bowl of potatoes as part of a appetizer salad.  The dish clearly lacked balance, and if she were to have eaten such a mound of carbs, there seemingly would have been no room for the main course.  After "judging" the appetizer round, we got the idea to critique the rest of the meal as if we were judges on the show chopped.  I commented that they still have two rounds to make up for the unbalanced, yet delicious appetizer.    Given the taste, we decided to put the chef through to the next round! 

Now onto round two. I ordered the grass fed ribeye. Given its price of $52, I had high expectations.  Having eaten ribeyes at high end steakhouses twice this week, my palate was expecting a tender, juicy, flavorful piece of meat.  I was SHOCKED when they delivered a plate of food that was practically falling off the plate.  The steaks all come with fries, and the steak was placed at a slight angle on top of the fries.  To the left was a massive mound of lettuce.  Ok....I'm not sure where to start.   Practically, there was no room to cut the steak.  Traditionally, steaks are served on their own plate, with the sides on separate plates or bowls. I had to lift up the steak and remove the fries from underneath, in order to actually cut it.  All of the fries that were under the steak were of course soggy, as they absorbed the juice from the steak.  The salad was a real shocker. I know it's a bistro style restaurant but they have an abundance of salads on the menu as starters, why they piled lettuce on the plate is besides me. If they want to include a salad, they should serve it as an appetizer before the main course. Similarly, the lettuce was covered in the steak's juice, not a great combination.  So now that I've reconfigured the plate, time to dig in.  To my surprise, this was one of the toughest pieces of meat I've encountered.  It was genuinely difficult to cut the steak, and after some hard work, the steak was too tough and chewy to enjoy.    Since I was hungry, I labored my way through half the steak, but enjoyed almost none of it, but some of the fries that were not soggy.    Christine ordered the scallops, which were nicely presented and delicious. 

At the end of round two, I would definitely would have chopped this chef, as the mistakes were just too big.  Unfortunately for us, there was only one chef to judge, so we had to push on to the desert round.  We decided to order the warm chocolate cake from the special valentines day menu. It came quickly, looked nice, but was tiny.   We dug in, and both went "ehh".  Christine summed it up by saying, "this tastes like a microwaved cake."  We both burst out laughing and agreed that sadly, Landmarc needed to be chopped off our list.

Xteve rating : 2.5 ***** 

 Website :  Landmarc

Brazilian Lemonade

I know green is not the most appropriate color for the season yet. But I like my limes all year around. That refreshing flavor that instantly reminds you of warm weather. Mmm..So good.

Limeade or lemonade, whatever you want to call it is not a pretty pink drink that is appropriate for Valentine's day which is tomorrow. But we already had our fair share of homemade strawberry milk as we had little guests this week. Blend milk, strawberries and a little honey if you prefer sweetened. Strain it if you want smoother texture. My tot and I indulge it time to time.

Anyway, back to the Brazilian lemonade, one thing I don't understand is, why is it called Brazilian lemonade not limeade?? Except Chef Bobby Flay's recipe, everyone else seems to call it Brazilian lemonade. But whatever it is called, I liked the look of it, sound of it and when I actually tried it, I fell in love with it! This is definitely going to be served a lot once the weather gets warm and we have guests outside. 

If you're familiar with Asian drinks, you'd know what Yakult is. It's probiotic drink that is sweet and tangy. I used to love it growing up. This drink reminds me of Yakult as it has this refreshing fruity flavor yet, sweet and creamy with condensed milk. As I am writing this post, I hear the roofing guys cleaning the ice and the frozen snow due to so much snow and freezing temperature this winter, I am dreaming of sipping this refreshing drink sitting out in the patio on a perfectly sunny day. Can't wait for spring to come!

Brazilian lemonade

Ingredients :

4 limes, washed thoroughly

6 cups water

1 cup sugar

6 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk

Directions :

1. Mix water and sugar until sugar's dissolved. Chill in the fridge.

2. Cut the ends of limes and cut each lime into 8 pieces. 

3. Add 2 limes and half the sugar water to a blender and pulse 5-6 times. Pour it out through a cheesecloth or a fine mesh over a pitcher. And do the same for the rest of the sugar water and limes. 

4. Add condensed milk and stir well. Serve over ice. 

*Recipe by Playz with food

Steve's famous meatballs

Steve makes killer meatballs. They're seriously the best I've ever had and always so popular whenever he makes them for a crowd. Being half Italian, it's natural for him. A lot of times, when he makes these meatballs for a big Sunday family meal for the whole family, he makes homemade pasta too. Even our picky eaters in the family would devour these, so that really says something. My husband himself is the Italian mother in law when it comes to meatball and homemade pasta. Haha. He once made them for our house party with about 70 people, where there was plenty of fancy catered food, these meatballs were the first to be gone. Every single one of them. And what took us so long to share this recipe? Well..he said whenever he sat down to write the recipe quickly, something always came up and he didn't have a chance. But in my opinion, I think he was offended that I put it as Steve's ALMOST famous meatballs. Now that I finally got the recipe from him, with some respect, I changed the title and named it Steve's FAMOUS meatballs. Maybe this will make him share his simple homemade pasta recipe soon. =) 

I should take some better pictures of the meatballs and update the post one of these days. I always tend to be in a hurry and not focused when he makes them and these pictures really don't do justice. He likes to slightly undercook the meatballs and finish cooking in the sauce. When we serve them for a crowd, we do that and keep them in the slow cooker on low until guests are ready. But I always make sure he cooks a small batch all ready to nibble on. I love the crust when they are straight out of the oven. Writing this makes me crave some meatballs now. You can make them for your small family too, they freeze very well. We freeze the non-sauced leftover meatballs in the freezer so we always have some meatballs for emergency. Like...a lazy dinner. =)  

By the way, we do make tomato sauce time to time but we usually use Rao's sauce. Most of the time, Marinara or tomato basil - our favorite. They're the best. So far, nothing could beat their sauce in our opinion. (Even our homemade sauce unfortunately. Haha)
 

Steve's famous meatballs

Printable recipe

*Makes about 30 meatballs

Ingredients :

1 lb ground beef(we use 85%/15%)

1 lb Italian sausage(we prefer no fennel one for the meatball), out of casing

1 cup grated Parmesan  

1 1/4 cup Italian style breadcrumbs

3 eggs

3 Tbsp garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup fresh flat leave parsley finely chopped

  

Directions :

1. In a large mixing bowl, place ground beef and sausage. Mix until well combined.

2. Add rest of the ingredients and mix with hands. Mixture should not be too wet or too dry. If it's too dry, add a little milk. Too wet, add a little more breadcrumbs.

3. Shape them into about 2oz balls. You can use a cookie scoop or by hands. 

4. Place the meatballs on a lightly greased lined baking sheet and broil on the bottom rack for 4-5 minutes. Flip the meatballs and broil for 4-5 minutes. If eating directly, make sure they're fully cooked as it contains pork sausage.

* If I'm serving them in the sauce, I like to slightly undercook the meatballs and simmer in the sauce to finish cooking.

Abalone Congee

Abalone is not the most common ingredient you'd see here in the US. In Korea though, it's very popular. Well they're sort of pricy so you wouldn't eat it everyday but it's on their menu occasionally. If you like clams, you'll probably like it. I like grilled version of it too. Mmm yum. 

I love this type of congee(rice porridge) any time of the year but especially when it's cold. I've had this craving for abalone congee for a couple of months now and I finally got some frozen abalones when I went to a Korean supermarket. Fresh ones definitely have a different depth of flavor but I will take whatever I can!

My tot loves congee with lots of veggies. And he gobbled up a whole bowl of this, including abalone. It's actually the first time for him to try abalone and I was pleasantly surprised that he didn't mind the different texture of abalone. It's got a little bite but not too chewy if you cook it right. He said he enjoyed his lunch so much. Haha. My little adventurous eater. It's funny how I am on more adventurous side when it comes to food but I am definitely more open to seafood than anything. I think he's the same way. 

 Even just a few pieces of abalone gave such nice flavor to the congee. I used frozen vegetable mix for convenience but you can use any vegetables you like as long as they're not mushy type. I personally think carrots, corn and peas work great in congee. If you're not a seaweed lover, it still tastes great without it but I find it gives another layer of flavor. Are you ready to be adventurous and try abalone if you haven't already? =)

Abalone congee

*Makes 2-3 servings

Printable recipe 

Ingredients :

1 cup rice(I used 1/2 cup sweet rice and 1/2 cup short grain like sushi rice)

2 pieces medium to large abalone, cleaned and diced - defrosted and prepared if frozen

1 cup diced vegetable of your choice(or frozen vegetable mix)

1 tsp sesame oil

5 cups dashi stock or water

1 Tbsp fish sauce

soy sauce to taste 

1-2 Tbsp roasted seaweed, crushed

Directions :

1. Wash and soak rice in water for at least 30 minutes. Depending on how starchy you want the congee, change the sweet rice and regular rice ratio. 

2. Heat 1 tsp sesame oil in a pot and saute diced abalone on medium heat for 2 minutes. Add vegetables and drained rice and saute until rice is half translucent.

3. Add stock or water and bring it to a boil on high heat. Once it comes to a boil, lower the heat to medium low and let it cook stirring occasionally about 20 minutes or when it reaches to consistency you like.

4. When it's ready, stir in fish sauce and soy sauce to taste. Add a few drops of sesame oil if you like. Garnish with crusted roasted seaweed.

Zin burger - Garden state plaza, Paramus, NJ

 Really?  Yet another new gourmet burger joint!  Its amazing how many of these seemingly endless new gourmet burger restaurants can manage to screw things up...not Zinburger.
Energetic, modern, and upbeat, Zinburger offers a mouthwatering selection of gourmet burgers, salads and sides, shakes and desserts, and a selection of beer and wine.  The setting is sleek, contemporary, featuring rich wood and earth tones and stylish, comfortable seating.
We were impressed from the start with attentive, friendly service.  Instead of buzzers, the hostess keeps you up to date via text messages, which provide updates as to wait time, and let you know when your table is ready.    While the menu is full of a great selection of burgers, what we loved was that any substitution is possible, alternatively you can create your own burger.
We were starving after a movie, and were quick to get in our order.  First came the onion rings, which are served in a basket with barbecue sauce.   The rings are not too thick, and were perfectly crispy, and delicious on their own.

 
Our burgers were quick to follow.  They are served on a brioche like bun that was very soft, and was not oversized relative to the burger.  This is a subtle detail that is often overlooked.   In our humble opinion, the bun is perhaps the most important part of the burger. You are given a choice of angus or kobe beef for each burger (a $5 upcharge). For our first visit we decided to try the angus. The double cheeseburger came with two 3.5 oz patties, minced onions and cheese.  The inclusion of 1,000 island sauce made for a high end Big Mac minus the sesame seed bun!  It was absolutely delicious, and as I type this, I crave another bite, and am seriously contemplating going back for dinner tonight.  Christine had the Zinburger, which came with manchengo cheese and Zinfandel braised onions. She loved it, and devoured every bite. 

  This is a great place for a date, a family dinner, or to watch a game.  The service was great, as everyone was attentive and friendly. I can't wait to go back and try the hand cut fries!

Xteve rating: 4.0 ***** 
Website : Zinburger

Mini corn dogs

Last couple of weeks, I have been craving fried food. Churros, fried chicken, tempura, you name it. Of course I didn't get to have any of those because I don't like frying at home. And my cravings tend to turn to different directions if I'm at a restaurant. Then for some reason, I remembered wanting to try homemade corn dogs recipe I found from one of my favorite bloggers, damn delicious. When I first saw this recipe, it immediately brought me back my childhood memory. If you remember from one of my previous posts, my mom rarely let me eat street food. Corn dogs were always very tempting at fairs and when I ask her, majority of the times, she would redirect me but sometimes(but very rarely)she gave in and let me have one corn dog. To this day, I still remember enjoying every bite of the slightly sweet, fluffy, corn bready goodness hugging the savory hot dog. Mmm.

As I was frying these, my tot woke up from his nap and was looking for me. Before he got grumpy, I went to attend him and I asked Steve to watch the stove for a second. And Tada~ we slightly burnt a couple of them. Haha. Oh well..We had some good ones too. I actually made them smaller. Instead of halving the hot dog, I cut them into three pieces each so it's the right size for my tot. Surprisingly, it tasted exactly like how I remembered. I have tried mini corn dog muffin trying to make healthier version but it had obviously different taste. It was good but not for my cravings. A lot of times I like baked version of originally fried dishes but unfortunately some things just have to be fried. It was such a quick process with not too much oil, thankfully it didn't make my whole house smell like frying. Phew! If you ever have cravings for corn dogs, you can simply make it at home with very little effort!

Mini corn dogs

Printable recipe 

*Makes 8 mini hot dogs

Ingredients:

4 hog dogs, halved(I use uncured organic hot dogs)

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup corn meal

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

2 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup vegetable oil for frying

Directions :

1. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat.

2. Put lollipop sticks in the cut hot dogs. 

3. Combine flour, corn meal, sugar, baking powder, salt and pepper. Whisk together milk and egg, add the egg mixture to dry ingredients. Whisk until combined. It's easy to dip the hot dogs if you make the batter in a tall narrow vessel. 

4. When the oil is ready dredge hot dogs in the batter to cover completely and fry each one until golden grown, about 2-3 minutes. 

5. Place them on a paper towel lined plate. Serve immediately. 

*Recipe from Damn delicious.