Kingfish Hall Lobster Rolls

My niece came into town to babysit her sister's baby while they were traveling. She had just one evening free before they left town. I had already taken her to JP Licks for the coffee oreo ice cream which she loved. So for dinner, we thought it would be nice for her to try a lobster roll since this was her first trip to Boston. We settled on Kingfish Hall because we could take her on a walking tour of Faneuil Hall and also of the North End. The lobster roll served alongside fresh made potato chips, coleslaw, and baked beans was really nice and a good value at $23.95.

We did take her to the North End along the Freedom Trail to Paul Revere's House and the old North Church. Alas, we didn't have time to stop for pastry at Mike's or Modern which both had lines coming out the door.

Chicken Fried Steak

The other day while perusing the meat section at the local supermarket, I was intrigued by the cube steak which was bright red with a waffley pattern on it. I had never cooked a cube steak before but I did remember reading about it in the New York Times. Yes, it was an article on swiss steaks and chicken fried steak. I really do love southern fried chicked and the chicken fried steak was calling my name. I've never had steak cooked this way but it I imagine it to tast like chicken. So instead of looking for the NYTimes recipe, I adapted the chicken fried steak recipe from the foodtv website.

For the steaks:

2 - 4 cube steaks

1 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper ground

2 eggs

1/4 cup oil

For the gravy:

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground pepper

1/2 tsp fresh or ground thyme

1/2 cup milk

Mix flour, salt and pepper together in a shallow dish. Beat eggs in a separate shallow dish.

Heat oil in a frying pan. Dip the steaks in the eggs first and then dredge in the flour mixture.

Place the steaks in the hot oil and cook until both sides are golden brown about 3 minutes each side. When steaks are done, set aside.

Add about 1/4 cup of the flour mixture into the frying pan with the oil until the flour becomes a paste. Add the chicken broth and stir until flour mixtures dissolves. Add thyme and milk. Stir until gravy is thickened.

Serve gravy over chicken steaks.

I thought the steaks came out quite well. John was excited when he heard that I was making cutlets for dinner. He sat down and took a bite and almost spit it out. He yelled, "What is this? I can't eat this. I thought this was a chicken cutlet!" It turns out the chicken fried steaks freaked him out as he was expecting chicken.

Leftover instant oatmeal packets

The other day I was cleaning out my cupboards and came across John's packets of oatmeal from this past winter.  Knowing he doesn't eat oatmeal in the spring, I decided to use them in an oatmeal recipe.  I found an Oatmeal Breakfast Bread in Dorie Greenspan's cookbook which looked really healthy - no butter!  Of course, I followed her recipe loosely since I was already using instant flavored oatmeal i/o of the old fashioned oats.  I didn't have applesauce but did have apples so I grated one large apple and increased the milk by 1/2 cup.  It came out fantastic despite my substitutions.  John was happy to learn the cake didn't have any butter and ate the entire cake over two days.

Indian food

I had one eggplant and 2 zucchinis that needed to be used right away.  I've made an Italian minestrone type soup and a ratatouille before using these ingredients before and wasn't really inspired to do this again.  Instead I pulled out the Ajanta cookbook and made the Baingan Bharta (pureed roasted eggplant), Meth Wala Alu Gobhi Matar (curried potatoes and peas but without the cauliflower), Zaffrani Chaval (Saffron Rice with nuts) and a version of Urid Daal (lentils).  The dishes were pretty tasty with the Alu Gobhi being a little too spicy.

This spurred my Indian food craving even more.  I convinced John to take me to Indian Samsaraat restaurant on Mass Ave in Boston.  Although this is one of our favorite Indian restaurants in Boston, we hadn't been in over a year.  The food is always very good - John got his usual Tandoori chicken along with the restaurant's special naan bread filled with coconut, raisins, and nuts.  I decided to try their non vegan thali plate (an oxymoron) which included 2 really lovely Pooris.  

Bin Alimentari

After a heavy workout, Nan and I have made a bad habit of stopping by the mini-bakery/ restaurant across the street for a coffee with a fleur de sel croissant.  We normally eat at the gym's cafe but less so after they removed their bakery display and began packaging their baked goods.  What good is exercise when there is no reward?

Apparently the baker was trained by Pierre Herme, (who according to me is the God of the Macaron).  We haven't met her yet but we feel we know her through her baked goods.  The macarons are absolutely gemlike and delicious - as close to Laduree as we can get in Boston.

And last Saturday, I couldn't resist their apple tarts.   The apples are pared and shaped into a rose on top of the pastry.  They were stunning and yes, they taste like Paris!  

Dorie's Cookies

One of my contractors is really into cookies.  So hoping that they would have an incentive to do even better work, I thought I bake a few.  I have a really hard time following written recipes mostly because I think I can eyeball things and not have to measure accurately or substitute.

For Dorie's Peace Cookies (I've been intrigued by these cookies since seeing them on Tastespotting last year), I was meticulous about following the recipe to a T.  The results were surprising in that the cookies had more of a European feel in size and texture.  This was a grown-up chocolate cookie.  I used a Scharffenberger chocolate bar and the cookie was outrageous.

The next cookie was the granola cookie.  More my style:  I didn't have real granola so I threw in the Post Grape Nuts Granola cereal, sunflower seeds i/o almonds, raisins (drenched in rum) yum!

Lusty Egg Salad

I love egg salad sandwiches but I hardly ever order them for lunch.  While living in Hong Kong, one of my favorite places to grab a quick breakfast was the Maxim's bakery by the old Star Ferry building.  The breakfast was a trio of tea sized sandwiches which included separate egg salad, tuna salad and cucumber.  

Not having anything around the house one day except for eggs and some bread, I decided to make egg salad.  I like capers in an egg salad but thought some leftover olives would also work.  Then why not go the whole hog in happy saltiness and add anchovies.  So the salad now has a "puttanesca"  kick to it.   Coincidently - puttanesca pasta is the whore's pasta in Italian and "hom sup" in Cantonese which means lusty translates as salty and damp.  

The salad really is tasty if anchovies and capers are your thing:

Four hard boiled eggs, chopped

1 T capers

2 T chopped olives

2 T good mayonnaise

2 T chopped parsley or dill

Pepper to taste

anchovies

Mix all ingredients except for the anchovies.  Serve on toast.