My Dinner Table

Holiday Baking Treat - Silpats

So after too many years of wishing for them, I broke down and just sucked it up and paid the money for a pair of Silpats. If you don't know what I'm referring to you probably think me mad to have spent $30 each for the silicon mats that you put down on cookie sheets to help with more even and stick-free baking. If you do know what I speak of, you're probably thinking, "he didn't have them already?" A sensible question considering the frequency that I'm putting things like cookies in the oven and the amount of parchment paper I've used over the years to line the cookie sheets. But I'hadn't. The price tag was always a barrier. But after close to two years of Daphne saying, "you really should just buy them" I did, if only to save her from another Christmas of me saying "this would be easier if I had a Silpat."  For those of you who are unfamiliar with them, they are a flexible woven fibreglass incased in silicon. Totally non-stick. This is going to be a good Christmas baking season, the trouble is, now I want new baking sheets.

Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream

 

This may be the tastiest thing to come out of my kitchen in a long time, while maybe since the malted milk ice cream earlier this summer. That was pretty good, but this was fantastic. I've been meaning to make it for a couple of months ago when I first read it on David Lebovitz's blog. He makes the incredibly bold assertion that it is better than the one from Berthillion in Paris, what I believe may be the best ice cream shop in the world. I have fond memories of nibbling away at incredible cassis ice cream from the shop and a brilliant bitter chocolate. But as he says, he's spent more than his fair share of time standing on the Pont Marie eating ice cream, I needed to give the recipe a try. 

This is a terrific ice cream. Sweet and salty. The caramel just barely burned, giving it a slight bitter taste, but in a good way. The use of good quality fleur de sel providing a smart contrast. This was a very adult ice cream. Lebovitz recommends a couple of variations including the addition of dark chocolate truffles, which I would love to try.

Russian Standard Vodka

I've been drinking a new vodka. Russian Standard. I bought it as a trial last week mostly because of a Globe article last week that sang its praises. At about the same price for the bottle of Stoli that I have been buying since I was in university, I thought it might be worth the try and I must say it was definitely worth it. You should read this with the caveat that I'm not a big vodka drinker. I used Stoli in my martini for years mostly because I read a character in a long-forgotten Cold War spy novel drank it. And I had stayed brand loyal for years. While I have spent embarrassing amounts of money on incredible bottles of single-malt whiskey, I never really bought into the premium vodkas. This though, at $25, this was well within my budget range. It is very nice. Smoother than the Stoli. A slight bready flavour. It made a fantastic martini with just a hint of vermouth. I think I might actually be able to tell the difference between this and the Stoli that I've been buying for years. 

Pork Belly Biscuits

So it had to come to and end. At some point I was going to finish the pork belly and now I'm a little sad. I'm going to need to get another one soon. I was out of steamed buns and I didn't want to eat another bowl of ramen with it, so I had to think of another way to eat the pork belly. David Chang has other recipes in the Momofuku cookbook that use pork belly, but I wanted something easy. So here it is. Buttermilk biscuits with slices of pork belly that have been crisped up in a fry pan. A delicious breakfast with a little bit of apricot preserves made by some friends. I was a little wary of the idea of eating the preserves with the pork, but Daphne assured me that's the way it was done. It was friggin fantastic. The salty pork belly. The sweet of the preseves. All with the soft fluffy buttermilk biscuit. I think Chang would approve.

Cupcake Craving

I was having a cupcake craving this week. There is something delicious about cupcakes that make them better than a piece of cake. I think it has something to do with the ratio of icing to cake. Or maybe it is that I can eat it with my hand, though in the privacy in my own kitchen I often eat cake with my hands. I'm obviously not the only one given the proliferation of cupcake shops. The surest sign of gentrification of a neighbourhood is a high-end baby clothing store and a cupcake bakery. I guess they are all trading on the wild success the Magnolia Bakery in New York that makes fantastic cupcakes.

I remember my first stop at the shop on Bleeker. It was late at night and the bakery was crowded. I grew discouraged because of the line. I was sure it wasn't worth it, but Ian lined up anyway and came out with a box of a half dozen different flavours. The first bite was and always is the best. A mix of awkwardness as you deal with more than an inch of frosting on top of the morsel of cake and a desire to just get the thing into your mouth. Delicious. 

Anyway, I was craving a cupcake. This one is from the Cook's Illustrated cookbook. It is a basic yellow cake base and a whipped chocolate frosting. The cake was rich and nice and moist, even the second day. The frosting needed a little time to set up after it was piped on to the cupcake, but delicious from the moment it was made. Next time I don't think I'll whip it. I'll just pipe the rich dark ganache-style icing on the cupcakes and leave it at that.

Ramen with Pork Belly

 

Faced with a large piece of pork belly, I'm going to need to find a way to eat it up. I've eaten all the steamed buns I bought at T&T and I don't feel like attempting the recipe in the Momofuku cookbook that makes 50 more. So ramen seemed like a pretty good option and let me say after eating it, it was a friggin awesome option. Noodle Bar serves their ramen with two kinds of pork. The belly and some pulled pork, but I had to suffer along with just one. It was very good. I crisped the slices up in a fry pan before putting into the soup. It was excellent. The fattiness of the pork added much to my bowl of noodles. I'll have no problem eating up the rest of the pork belly.

Momofuku Pork Buns

I decided to go with the pork buns first. The pork buns are what David Chang is famous for after all and judging by the talk online about the pork buns I had to give it a go. I bought my steamed buns to make the sandwiches instead of making the recipe in the book. It made it a lot easier. So, after steaming them up and cutting them in half to make a little sandwich of pork belly and pickled cucumber, they were ready.

Taking my first bite I knew why there is so much talk about them. They are fantastic. The rich fattiness of the pork belly, the sweet-and-salty crunch of the cucumber and the hard-to-describe addition of the hoisin sauce. Brilliant. These are really good. In the cookbook, Chang describes it as a pretty simple take on something you can find all over Asia. Steamed bun + Tasty meat = Good eating. And he's right. The flavours aren't unfamiliar. It is a bit like the steamed char sui bao you get at dim sum, only different. Maybe a cross between that and peking duck. 

Momofuku Pork Belly

There are a handful of foods that if I see on a menu that I can't resist. Most of them are things that I cannot or will not make at home. Chief among them, at least until yesterday, was pork belly. I'd never cooked it, but ever since the Momofuku cookbook arrived on my doorstep I've been thinking I really should give it a try. There is something glorious about pork belly. It really is all about the fat. I mean really. It is where bacon comes from, so how much better could it be. It is the best part of Homer's magical animal that gives us bacon, ham and pork chops. It isn't something that you can eat every day. Maybe not even every month. The pork belly is the key ingredient to two of Chang's iconic dishes. The ramen, which they serve with both pork bell and pulled pork, and the steamed pork buns. So, I was really left with no choice. I had to make one. 

Chang's recipe is simple. He rubs it with a combination of salt and sugar, leaves it over night and then roasts it in the oven. First at high heat, then at a slow heat for just over two hours. Apparently this technique was discovered when Chang cranked up the heat on the oven accidentally before turning it down to finish the cooking. The result for me was that there were a few burned bits, but I ended up trimming them off. I think the burned bits came mostly from the sugar in the rub, but other wise it was a pretty fantastic looking piece of meat. I've now let it cool in the fridge and have to decide what to have it first with. Ramen or pork buns.

Building Blocks - Vinegar Pickles

There are a lot of recipes for little side dishes of things to go with some of the iconic dishes in the Momofuku cookbook. Building blocks for the larger dishes that I suppose you could not do and just buy the product, but what fun would that be. One of them is the vinegar pickles. You need them for the pork buns. You can serve them with the ramen, the ginger scallion noodles. All sorts of things. I've never really pickled anything before, but the book promises that it is dead easy, especially if you are going to eat them immediately and not planning on canning them. The recipe was as promised dead easy. A very simple brine of water, rice vinegar, salt and sugar. Thinly sliced cucumber and 20 minutes and they were ready to eat. It tasted a lot like the sunomono from Japanese cooking and I'm sure that's where the inspiration comes from. After a couple days, the pickles tasted a little more like bread and butter pickles. The delicate flavour of the rice vinegar balanced against the sugar was very good. I can't wait to use this brine for the many other suggestions he has including picked apples, cantelope and chiles.

Ginger Scallion Noodles

David Chang talks a lot about his love of noodles, cheap Chinese food and fried chicken. So I know this is a cookbook that I'm going to love as those are all things that I can agree on. For my first attempt I decided to go with something pretty simple. The ginger scallion noodles. Sorry to those of you who had hoped that I would be starting with the shaved foie gras with lychee and pine nut brittle. Hopefully I will get there, but just not right away. The ginger scallion noodles are what Chang describes as "an homage to/out-and-out rip-off of one of the greatest dishes in New York City, the $4.95 plate of ginger scallion noodles at Great New York Noodletown." So really how could I not want to try it. The book recommends that you use ramen noodles, but I used won-tun noodles because I figured that was probably what the original dish used. I also added back the hoisin that Chang suggests adding back in if I'm not also making the pork buns. Oh, and I also dispensed with the vegetable garnish.

This was a dead easy plate of noodles. It just took a little time to mince the ginger. I also boosted the sherry vinegar a little. It tastes a lot like malt vinegar, which I love and still put on leftover chow mein when I'm at home. But it was delicious. The flavours were simple, but came together oh so well. I'd love to try this ginger scallion sauce on different things. Maybe a piece of chicken or fish. I think steaming a little fish with it would be fantastic. Or perhaps a little spoonful with a raw oyster. I'm not sure it really has any limits to what it can do. I'll make this dish again and again. I'll just have to remember to keep noodles, green onion and ginger around. that shouldn't be so difficult. I might even try the vegetables to go with it next time.