Holiday Goods - Feastin'

And so the holiday eating continued...

I decided to whip up a small dinner as a gift for some friends this year, on a night apparently there was going to be a raging blizzard in New York however I was really hoping the gods would look down on me kindly and hold off so I wasn't going to be prepping for nothing.

As I pushed lurking boys out of the kitchen and into my room to play Uno and watch The Boondocks (their choice)

I tried my darndest to pull off a few dishes that I had NEVER tried before but somehow ended up being literally (without a doubt) one of the best meals I've ever made and I was sickly proud of myself.

Armed with my little granny grocery cart, I woke up early and ventured around Astoria to get the first-pick of the day groceries (a tip I garnered from Tony Bourdain)

However, perhaps I arrived just a little TOO early because half the stuff I wanted wasn't available yet because they were still unpacking morning shipments. But my freezing butt was determined.

The joy of getting the pick of the day:

- Everything's fresher, and hasn't been sitting there all day long waiting for you to come on in to give them a 'lil pick-me-up.

- You get there before everyone else and therefore less people to accidentally or "accidentally" ram into with your push cart.

- Sometimes, and I noticed this, you'll literally be there with people who do actually really know how to pick food! They look carefully, and talk to the people behind the counters, and examine their produce thoroughly but are as enthusiastic to get the good stuff as much as you are. 

A huge cart of groceries later, 3 stops, and a flight up the stairs later, I was in the kitchen and ready to rock n' roll with no interruptions.

At the end of the day around 6:30pm, dinner was on the table and ready to go.

 

I managed to crank out a few favorable dishes that night, and while the snow was comin' down, I enjoyed watching them eat up, mostly hoping it would all be passable and not causing many trips to our one bathroom in the apartment.

FETTUCINE FLORENTINE w/ GARLIC SHRIMP

I decided I wanted to just make a simple pasta dish but one that basically I'd played around with before. People say there are ingredients that they don't know if they could do without, and for me, the one that just may have helped change my cooking interests altogether was wine.

 One day a few years back, I had a hankering to try some new pasta, but no marinara and no cream. Seafood pasta, in itself, gets the benefits of being lighter with its own chutzpah (however for vegans n' vegetarians n' those of other traditional faith, perhaps the chutzpah can be brought about using veggie stock instead ;)

Wine in itself was also something I had to learn over the years, gathering a few tips from my sis in my teen years while she was in bartending school, and the tips I gathered from samples in Napa. Riesling was going to be too sweet to cook with, and Pinot wasn't gonna cut it either. I decided to go with Chardonnay mostly because 1) I decided it to be light enough and 2) frankly, it was the most acquainted with and that's not saying much!!!

In the end, cooking with Mondavi Chardonnay was and is the way to go for me. Sautee' the shrimp in a few cloves of crushed, chopped garlic, olive oil & chardonnay, drop in the pasta (I usually used fusilli to capture the flavor, but opted to experiment with Florentine pasta instead!), squeeze a fresh lemon on top, some sea salt and crushed pepper, and for an added texture and sweetness, baby peas!!

 

BACON-WRAPPED SCALLOPS

My brother actually was the one who gave me one of the best bacon-wrapped scallops I'd ever had in my life, and I decided to go with it as one of my honored guests is a huge seafood buff.

That and frankly, the scallops looked absolutely faboosh that morning behind the glass at Astoria Fishery by 23rd Avenue, and I absolutely had to buy a few of them.

Ps, when I had scallops when I was younger I was a little appalled by seafood that looked like marshmallows, however the texture made me a tad queasy. 15 years later ... I love them.

Bacon in general I actually don't have a huge thing for (love the smell, the flavor too, but eating it over the years hasn't been my favorite thing). And as we were all already going to be dying of holiday salt-sugar-fat overload, I opted for some low sodium bacon (which tasted just the same anyway).

A little mixture of lemon, olive oil, and crushed black pepper to make it delish (the salt naturally coming from the half-strip of bacon drippings). Grill, and enjoy.

 

POT ROAST

It was already advertised as the main course. However when push came to shove, American that I am, I had never actually made a pot roast (let alone ate it much) in my life before that day and I was really, REALLY not going to allow it to be mediocre that day especially.

In the end, the things I did know was that I wanted a fresh, first-of-the-day cut of meat from a genuine butcher shop (Key Food in my area doesn't have a butcher counter), and it had to be a fatty cut of chuck roast (though in the end I opted for 2 kinds of meat: chuck and a regular pot roast), and I was going to simmer this babe in crushed tomatoes, baby carrots, beef stock, and Mondavi Cabernet (which over the years has proven itself to be "the one" in my beef-cooking w/ red onions)

 I went into the butcher shop in Agora Plaza and the whole situation felt like one out of a comedy sitcom: I was the only Asian person, I was at least 15 years younger than everyone there, and it was quite comedic how everyone literally stared at me when I came in, wheeling in my little granny push-cart and observing the meat. So cute.

But in the end: seared on all 4 sides in garlic & olive oil, simmered for 2 1/2 hours, the meat was TAS-TY. The chuck definitely gets the moisture the most with or without the extra time, but thank God for all that leftover broth as soaking the rest of the carved meat soaked in it overnight in the fridge and was nice, tender, and ready to eat again the next day.

 

MASHED 'TATERS

I have loved classic mashed potatoes all my life from the instant flakes in the box in the 80's to discovering the joy of fresh mashed 'taters when I turned 14 during Thanksgiving at my aunt's house (they definitely kick instant flakes' sweet behind)

My aunt put it simply: potatoes, butter, salt, pepper, milk, mash, serve.

Oh, such pish-posh! This unfortunately became my prideful dish for the last 14 years that I brought to family functions and eventually, making them for friends. I wasn't originally planning to serve them, but one of my best friends was a fan and as I needed a carb that would help soak up all that Pot Roast broth, it seemed fitting.

I'm admittingly one of those crazy people who have a system set up on how to make something as simple as mashed potatoes, however, as I've heard no complaints of the outcome, I will just plainly say that the system works!

I try to use red potatoes, but once in a while I'll throw in some awesome big Yukon Golds if I see them speaking to me. ;) Peel n' dig out all those excess eyes! I then chop them up into slabs to speed up the boiling process and frankly, to make room in the pot, and while I'm continuing on with prepping the other potatoes, I am putting the chopped slabs into a pot of warm saltwater.

 Once done, I do both mashing AND whipping if I possibly can (yay Singer mixer!). Gradually add the butter, milk, and whip it till it's light n' smooth (why I love red potatoes: The light color and not confusing me with the yellow of the butter). Take the fork, and mix in the salt n' pepper, and taste n' serve to your liking. Bon Appetit.

 (However, this batch ended up being a little TOO smooth but I decided to put it in the fridge overnight. It was saved from becoming soup. And there was much rejoicing. "yay").

 

ROMAINE SALAD & BRUSCHETTA (nix the bread)

The healthiest thing on the menu (literally).

Long story short (because this entry isn't long enough already) I'd saved a loaf of Parisienne bread in the freezer from Pre-Thanksgiving for the occasion and when I tried to wrap it up and stick it in the oven to prep it, in the end the consistency was a crumbly mess and I had to throw it all away for the bruschetta. Simply, it would not, and should not, do.

So it ended up being a regular romaine salad with the sweet mixture of diced tomatoes, chopped basil & garlic, crushed pepper, olive oil, kosher salt. Oh well, live and learn.

IRONY OF THE DAY: I don't know about you, but I absolutely DO NOT KNOW HOW TO PICK OUT TOMATOES. Picky eaters, how the hell do we become good cooks if we don't understand all angles of our medium as artists? I needed some assistance in that area. Note to self: must explore more food (actual eating, not admiring)

 

STEAMED MUSSELS

Another food I don't really eat, however had more luck trying to understand the lingo (another credit to Bourdain, plus my cousin, Elaine, who always made mussels look fierce). But somehow, steamed mussels became one of the golden trimmings to my dinner as they were on sale, AND were so simple to prep!

The importance I knew lay in a huge factor: CLEANING THEM. In Bourdain's book, Kitchen Confidential, he stressed a key point in how he would never eat mussels unless he'd actually seen them being prepared in the kitchen. Why? because of notoriety surrounding how they'd been cleaned, mostly due to "sitting around it its own piss all day".

Dumping them in a big bowl of cold saltwater, I scrubbed away and dude.. it was DISGUSTING how much brown filth came off those gorgeous black shells. Several rinses later, they were ready for my steamer and 10-15 minutes later.. Welcome, dear precious morsels!!

However, admittingly steaming the mussels was to serve a bigger purpose of the evening (but remained a tasty bonus for....):

 

PAELLA!!!!

Several exclamation points worthy for the dish that was simply put, a huge Christmas miracle that I think I would have thrown in the towel on the whole ordeal if it wasn't worthy of being put on the table.

It was my absolute first time making this, and it was an adventure to find all the ingredients, to prepare it, but most of all, TO FIND SAFFRON. 

I don't care what anyone says... if you don't know where to look for spices sometimes, you're kind of screwed. Yes, I am now well-aware of the stores you should look into however it was a mad rush to the end. I was determined to put dinner on the table by 6:30!

Long story short, after combing my area and eventually, plenty of stores on the Upper West Side, I resorted to a last-minute run to Whole Foods in Time Warner Center (thanks Kristen, for complying with a last-minute switch on long-planned brunch plans!) and finding a small jar of Spanish Saffron to complete it all.

Details on the prep to follow in a Spotlight Food entry, but chopped peppers, tomatoes, chorizo sausage, chicken, sauteed in onion and garlic in saffron, topped off with mussels, shrimp, and baby peas in the oven... it was hugely worthy of a pat on the back, a sigh of relief, and the will to do it all over again. Hooray for Beginners' Luck!!

Food presents checked off the list, it was time to uncover another part of the brain to prep for family gifts in one heck of an improvisational Creation Station...

(and ps, as duly noted, I did have a 2nd stomach revolt today. The poor abused thing)