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.

Flour

Flour continues to be one of our favorite bakeries in Boston.  We were regulars at the South End location on Washington Street but because of the crowds, we started coming over to the second location at Fort Point Channel.  

The line here was long also.  The Artwalk and Volvo Ocean Race events were taking place and this was one of the few eateries open on Sunday.

After close to 30 minutes in line, John brought out the coffee, raspberry soda and desserts. It's always nice to have dessert first.   

He normally orders the Pain au Raisin but they were sold out.  So we were left with our old standbys - the chocolate chip cookie is made with Scharffenberger chocolate  (there are no chips but rather chunks of melted chocolate) and the marvelous sour cream coffee cake with the perfect crumb.   

Then after another 15 minutes, we got our sandwiches.  John is holding the egg & bacon sandwich with homemade aioli, tomato and arugula.  In the basket is the fabulous BLT.  What makes the sandwiches so unique is that Flour uses their own bread.

Choco Pies

Choco Pies are our newest fun food.  They're like a Whoopie pie with a marshmallow filling but dipped in chocolate.  John and I first discovered these when we watched the Korean movie "The Way Home".  This is an absolutely endearing film is about a little boy who is unexpectedly dropped off at his grandmother's house in a remote village for what seem like several months.  The boy is spoiled and a brat but slowly begins to learn about love and humility from his grandmother.  The choco pies remind me of the grandmother's self sacrificing love of the little boy.

I found these at the local C mart in Chinatown and my Korean neighbor, Sookie, recognized them as Korean, remarked that she hadn't had one in ages, and immediately wolfed one down.  

Basil and Lemons part II (Lemon Yogurt Cake)

This is all I have left of the Meyer lemons that Joanne brought over from San Francisco.  I'm trying ways to stretch out the lemon usage.   The Lemon Yogurt Cake from Dorie Greenspan's book Baking was intriguing and even more so because it didn't require a pound of butter.

I'm actually a terrible baker in that I refuse to follow recipes to a T.  My husband doesn't think I can bake proper cookies (except for the chocolate chip cookies from the Mrs Fields Cookie Book) - "they don't taste right".  I don't measure accurately which is really important in baking for the correct chemical reactions to occur.  However, even with my loose measuring - less sugar that what the recipe asked for 3/4 i/o 1 cup, poured some vanilla in it, and a rough 1/2 cup of yogurt (basically what I left over), the cake came out beautifully.  I did use almond meal for the almond flour (I think they're the same).  Instead of the lemon marmalade, I saved the juice of the lemon, poured it into a bowl with 1/4 cup sugar, mixed it and microwaved it for 2- 30 second intevals.  Surprise!  I came out with a really nice lemony syrup.

The cake was wonderful - the Meyer lemons are so much more aromatic than the normal lemons.

Basil and Lemons part I

I'm continuing with the basil and lemon theme from the previous post.  I thought I'd make pesto for our contractor who is working on our bathroom.  My husband was appalled when he learned that I hadn't been feeding him.   Turns out the contractor eats everything except for pesto.

So I'm serving the pesto over spaghetti to John for dinner.  Along with some pan-fried scallops.

Below is a quick pesto recipe:

1 1/2 cups chopped basil leaves

3 cloves garlic (you may add more if you wish)

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 grated parmigiano cheese (more or less depending on your taste)

Squeeze of lemon juice

Salt and pepper 

Paprika

Throw everything into a food processor until smooth.

The scallops are even easier.  No photos - they were eaten right away.  I bought 7 extra large ones.  Wash with cold water and pat dry with a towel and put in a bowl.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper and paprika to taste.   In a frying pan, add some olive oil - 1 tablespoon and when hot, add the scallops, cook about a couple of minutes on each side until firm.  Serve with some lemon.

Miss Trish of Capri for Target

These poor sandals are waiting for the sun to come out again.  I usually miss the launch dates of the designer lines at Target because of work but I managed to snag the last two pairs in my size of the Miss Trish of Capri sandals last month.   These sandals make me smile - especially at $29.99!

Boston Public Garden

Some photos of the garden at 4:00 pm yesterday.

I've been told that the flowers in the Netherlands are like this.

  This view reminds me of Monet and Giverny.  Sigh!   

Rainy Day but a least Spring is here!

We had one of the longest winters this year or so I'm told.  Can you believe a snow flurry as late as April 18th - to be exact?!  

Being laid off has given me some time to rediscover Boston.  I had two friends visit me back to back last week. I marched them all over Boston after having them attend gym classed with me in the morning.

 Joanne brought over some Meyer lemons from her backyard in San Francisco. (I tried to grow a dwarf lemon tree indoors but we had to get rid of it because of the fruit flies) We tried out one of the recipes from the April issue of Gourmet magazine.  We nixed any recipe that used over a stick of butter and settled on "Lemon Snow Pudding with Basil Custard Sauce" which didn't use any.   We were initially horrified with the packed cup of basil leaves that the recipe asked for - "What is this?  Pesto sauce?"  Actually, the leaves were steeped in the milk for the custard.  The ensuing product was a disproportionate amount lemon snow with a little less that 2 cups of custard if we were to follow the magazine photo as opposed to the directions for using the custard as topping for the snow.  The Lemon Snow was delicious - unexpected and really light.  It falls into my category of grown-up desserts. 

Morning Muesli

John picked up a box of instant oatmeal at Trader Joe's over the weekend thinking that this would be a better breakfast than the boxed cereal he normally gets.  I tried a packet yesterday hoping to like it but it's difficult to get rid of that packaged taste.  

Last night, I decided I was going to make muesli or a version of what I had for breakfast while traveling in Asia for today.  Instead of milk, I substituted vanilla flavored soy milk and threw in whatever fruit (fresh or dried) that I had around the house.  The result was much tastier than the instant oatmeal.  Below is my loose version:

1/2 cup old fashioned oats

1  1/2 cup milk, soy milk or almond milk 

1/4 cup dried fruit (raisins, apricots, cranberries whatever is on hand)

1/4 cup slivered almonds

1/4 cup chopped fresh fruit (apples, banana, strawberries, whatever is in season)

1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt

1 Tblsp sugar to taste (optional - the fruit is sweet enough)

Stir together oats, milk and dried fruit into a bowl, cover and leave overnight in the fridge. (if not overnight, a couple of hours should be fine).  In the morning, add your yogurt, fresh fruit, and nuts. 

I sometimes add leftover cereal such as Grapenuts, Kashi, or granola to the oatmeal mixture for added crunch.