Arrabiata sauce with garlic-cheese bread for dipping

Bowls of arrabiata sauce with large slabs of garlic-cheese bread on the side

The son and husband units wanted pasta and sauce. I didn’t want to cook pasta. So, a happy medium, courtesy of the slab o’ciabatta my Mom left for me, which was screaming to be turned into garlic bread.

I also happened to have a quart of frozen marinara and two pounds of fresh 21/25 shrimp on standby. They’d make a good sauce, thought I, particularly with a hit of heat and some extra umami.

It’s easy to turn any basic tomato sauce into spicy arrabiata via a couple of smashed anchovies, some pureed garlic and a decent quantity of red pepper flakes. Just simmer the whole business together for about 10 minutes.

Why do I say pureed garlic? Well, sir, it happens I do quite a bit of Indian cooking and have taken a major liking to jarred garlic paste, which is nice and mellow. No bitterness. This is especially helpful in a recipe where the garlic isn’t cooked long enough to lose its harshness. Pick up a high-quality brand from India at your local Indian grocery and then tell me what you think. I go through this stuff like wildfire. It’s a lifesaver.

This dish calls for quite a bit of garlic. Just saying. If you want to use fresh cloves, please do, but make sure you’ve broken them down to a super-smooth consistency.

Trader Joe’s arrabiata is respectable, by the way. Rao’s marinara is exceptional, but it’s dear. Pick it up when it’s on sale. It’ll still set you back upwards of $6 or $7 a quart, but when you arrabitize it — wow!

Add a salad and you’ll have a fine dinner. However, if you overcook the shrimp you will not have a fine dinner, so please don’t.

Arrabiata Sauce with Shrimp and Garlic-Cheese Bread for Dipping
 
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Individual bowls of this spicy, flavorful sauce chock full of shrimp and a side of garlic-cheese bread make for a comforting meal.
Author:
Recipe type: main
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 3 - 4 servings
Ingredients
  • 1 quart hot arrabiata sauce (or marinara sauce simmered for 10 mins with a tablespoon of pureed garlic, a squeeze of anchovy paste or a crushed anchovy fillet or two, and at least a teaspoon of red pepper flakes)
  • Two pounds deveined and shelled shrimp, no smaller than 21/25 (squeeze the tails off, too)
  • Olive or sunflower oil for sauteing
  • Three tablespoons garlic puree
  • ½ teaspoon dried oregano
  • Pinch or more of salt
  • One ciabatta loaf, cut in half lengthwise and then each half cut into four slices. You should wind up with eight flat trenchers
  • ½ cup good olive oil into which you have mixed two tablespoons of garlic puree, a little dried oregano and a bit of salt
  • ½ cup freshly grated or shredded parmesan cheese
Method
  1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
  2. Arrange bread slices on a sheet pan and brush olive oil mixture onto each
  3. Distribute cheese evenly onto bread slices
  4. Place bread in oven so it heats while you deal with the rest of the recipe
  5. Add olive or sunflower oil to a large saute pan and heat over medium flame until it's hot but not too hot, and then add shrimp
  6. Saute for about a minute, turn the flame down slightly and add the garlic, oregano and salt
  7. Saute until shrimp are just underdone, making sure the flame is low enough to keep the garlic from browning
  8. Add the hot arrabiata sauce to the shrimp, stir, put the lid on and turn off the burner
  9. Check bread. If tops are not slightly golden brown, turn oven up to broil or high convection for a minute or so. Don't burn the bread!
  10. Serve the sauce immediately in individual bowls with garlic-cheese bread on the side

 

Easter 2018 and brussels sprouts with a blood orange dressing

Brussels sprouts with blood orange vinaigrette

Brussels sprouts with blood orange vinaigrette

I’m back at the blog. After a long break. I apologize. I had a very good reason, trust me.

It’s Easter! The weather is great in the Bay Area, I got up early to feed my colony of puddytats in Richmond, the boys are watching the Mets and I’m waiting for Brussels sprouts to roast. We’re also having a cauliflower-potato mash and roast duck. Matthew, the pescatarian, is having shrimp scampi. The four monsters — Puff, Cleo, Nibbles and Tiger — are having tuna.

I haven’t looked at the blog for quite some time, and I decided yesterday that although I hate the theme I’m using I will leave it as-is for now. This is my favorite place to write because I can say what I want, when I want. There’s no focus and I don’t have to worry about much of anything. The point being that once I get into the whole design thing, which is what I’m doing with my new sites, I’ll become obsessed with perfection and lose sight of what this is all about here. I’m my own worst enemy that way.

So — Easter! A holiday I love because we keep it just to the four of us, so there’s no rush or need to have the house in any kind of real order. Not that it ever is, but I’m talking degrees.

The bummer is that I forgot to go to See’s to get candy. When Matt went today it was closed, so we are reduced to having Trader Joe’s peanut butter cups. Also, I miscalculated on the ice cream. I like to make ice cream sandwiches using chocolate chip cookies, and I then roll the sides in chips, wrap and freeze. I didn’t get the ice cream at Costco, where I got the duck, which, by the way, happens to be Maple Leaf Farms and only $15, because it would have stood in the way of my eating a package of poke in the hot dog area. Yes, Costco has really good poke. If you’ve never had it, it’s Hawaiian raw fish salad. Poke is a big thing in Cali now. Lots of good poke places around, which makes me very happy.

Back to the ice cream problem. My Grocery Outlet always has a boatload of high-end, low-overrun organic ice cream in myriad flavors. Except yesterday, of course, when they had a dreadful selection, like a million pints of Hostess Sno Balls flavor. I dug out a couple of pints of chocolate peanut butter swirl So Delicious soy-based ‘scream amid all the horrors and figured it’d pass. Matthew nevertheless thought it wise to get some vanilla at TJ, but the Humboldt organic they usually carry was out, so he came home with a quart of TJ-brand coffee-flavored. I don’t like the Trader Joe’s store brand of ice cream. It has an odd mouthfeel. I prefer their soy ice cream, which is the logic I used at Grocery Outlet when I went with the So Delicious. I won’t be making the cookie sandwiches, though. You need fabulous vanilla ice cream for those, no question.

Anywho, I need to go deal with the duck, so I hope you have a great day today whatever you’re doing, and here’s the recipe for the Brussels sprouts. It’s simple but delicious. Works well for Christmas or Thanksgiving, too.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Blood Orange Dressing
 
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A colorful vegetable side dish served warm or at room temperture.
Author:
Recipe type: Side dish
Cuisine: American
Ingredients
  • 2 pounds Brussels sprouts, trimmed and cut lengthwise
  • 2 blood oranges
  • Sunflower oil (for roasting)
  • Hazelnut or roasted sunflower oil (can sub a mix of peanut and regular sunflower oils)
  • Dried shallots (can sub dried onion)
  • Lemon juice (need only a splash)
  • Sugar (need only a little)
  • Salt & pepper
Method
  1. Remove the rind from the blood oranges in strips with a vegetable peeler.
  2. Squeeze the juice out of the blood oranges into a large bowl.
  3. Add hazelnut oil. A few tablespoons should be fine.
  4. Add a splash of lemon juice, a tablespoon of sugar and a little salt and pepper.
  5. Add a good tablespoon of the dried shallots.
  6. Whisk, taste and correct seasonings to your liking. The dressing should be bright and toasty with a hint of sweetness. If too thin, add oil.
  7. Let the dressing bloom at room temperature while you roast the sprouts.
  8. Oil a sheet pan generously with sunflower oil and sprinkle on some salt.
  9. Lay the sprouts cut side down and then scatter a little more oil and salt on top.
  10. Scatter the blood orange peel on top of the sprouts.
  11. Roast in a 375 degree F. oven for 20 minutes or so, depending. You don't want them too soft.
  12. Allow to cool for 5 minutes and then transfer the sprouts gently to the bowl with the dressing and turn with a spoon every now and then until they're warm or at room temperature and serve.
  13. Top with fried onions, first, if you like

Best banana bread recipe really is

I never, and I mean never, post recipes here that I find on the Web. I am going to make an exception for this banana bread recipe, which claims to be “Best Banana Bread.”

It is. By far. It calls for 4 bananas. You know it’s going to be a moist quick bread just from the looks of the batter.

Banana bread batter in cake pan

Here’s the finished product.

Banana bread ready in square cake pan

I often make quick bread in a square cake pan. We like it that way. You need not worry about slicing evenly, and slices falling apart. You get it.

It’s hot as blazes in the Bay Area right now, but I have guests from Germany who wanted some typical American fare. Given that I had some overripe bananas hanging around, I Googled “best banana bread” and that is exactly what I got.

More to come when things turn chilly around here.

Here’s a link to the recipe.

http://www.food.com/recipe/best-banana-bread-2886

 

Yo Sushi is Good, but Yo Nacho is a Problem

Two photos of the yo nacho from yo sushi in albany, showing how different they were on different days of the same weekAfter the demise of Zaki Kabob House in Albany — the first restaurant in that location to confound its formerly cursed status — came small local chainer Yo Sushi, a casual, order-at-the-front-and-pick-up-your-food-when-it’s ready, brightly-colored and youthful Japanese place focusing on sushi and sashimi, but offering many of the other usual suspects, like tempura and udon.

Oddball things that I tend to stay away from, too. You know, strange and/or deep-fried sushi-like concoctions.

Case in point, the Yo Nacho ($6.95), which my son and I took a chance on this past Thursday. Here’s the menu description:

Yo Nacho deep fried wonton cups stuffed w/crabmeat chopped Tataki Tuna, onion, Avocado, orange Top w/Tobiko & special sauce

We loved it. It was not only delicious, but complex. Lots of tataki tuna, which is seared on the edges but raw in the middle, green onion and tobiko. Plenty of avocado, too. It was a loose filling, because it had very little mayo, if any, and there was a tartness about it, too. There was also a bit of heat. Nice.

Cycle to today, when I took my husband there to have the same appetizer.

Now, I hate to open this essay with the one problem we had at Yo Sushi after a good half-dozen visits, but I’m plenty riled up about it, and it can be a real downer if it happens often. Consistency.

What we received today, Saturday, was heavy faux crab salad loaded with mayo. It was sweet and had mango chunks. There was no avocado, and if there was any onion or tataki tuna, I could not taste or see either. Ditto real crabmeat. If it was there, it was lost in a sea of one-dimernsional mush.

See the difference for yourself in the photo above.

When I pointed this out, one of the staff took it away and brought it back, telling me there was tuna in it. He pointed to some tiny shred in one I had taken a bite out of, saying that that was tuna. I could not see it. I could not taste it. No fix oferred. Just some kind of statement about a “new chef.”

I am seriously annoyed right now, because I wound up subjecting Steven to something blah after having given it a buildup.

Never again. It reinforces my general rule to steer clear of stuff like that altogether.

The nacho issue aside, this is a good place. A very good place.

Interior of Yo Sushi in Albany CA

We latched on since it opened, which was a few months ago, and make the short drive to 1107 San Pablo Avenue once a week, at least. Who doesn’t like good, affordable sushi on a regular basis?

The Yo Sashimi Combo ($16.95) is excellent. You get 16 pieces of sashimi (4 each of tuna, white tuna, salmon and hamachi), miso soup, rice and pickles. The generous slices of perfectly fresh fish sit atop bales of spiraled daikon and nestle a few slices of lemon.

Yo sashimi combo at yo sushi in albany CA

If you want only tuna and salmon you save a couple of bucks — it’s $14.95.

combo sashimi with salmon and tuna

The Deluxe Sushi Special is a good choice, too. A spicy tuna roll and 7 pieces of nigiri for $11.95. Included are salmon, tuna, white tuna, ebi, unagi, tako and hamachi.

deluxe sushi special at yo sushi in albany, CA

The spicy tuna rolls are good. The eel, well, it’s a bit too sweet for me. There’s something about it I’m not crazy about compared to other places.

The miso soup is excellent, and the sushi rice is as it should be in terms of flavor and consistency. Not sweet, they don’t pack it too tightly, and it’s at the right temperature.

The Agedashi Tofu is OK. Not great, not enough sauce, and I prefer when it’s made with silken tofu, but it’s fine.

Age dashi tofu at Yo Sushi in Albany CA

We stick mainly with the nigiri and sashimi combos. I was not blown away by any but the spicy tuna rolls so far, but it’s a long list and there’s time.

 

New York Cult Recipes: Cookbook Review

Small photo of cover of New York Cult Recipes (2013) by Marc Grossman

If you grew up in NYC back in the day you will have problems with Marc Grossman’s New York Cult Recipes (2013).

I am being generous in my opening gambit, if nothing more than for the use of “flapjacks.” No New York City native would EVER say “flapjacks,” and it almost delegitimized the whole book for me. It’s PANCAKES. I almost fainted when I saw this. And “Silver Dollar Flapjacks?” Are you kidding me?

First off, the title markets the book one way and the fine print and recipes another. I thought I was buying a book that dealt solely with classic dishes associated with NYC during a certain period, say maybe post-WWII through the 1980s. I have no problem giving plenty of latitude, but a green smoothie and all those cupcakes? A veggie burger?

I certainly would not have jazzed up or updated classic recipes to the extent of a chicken salad with avocado instead of mayo. There are a million other cookbooks out there that take classic recipes to a place that’s more acceptable to current tastes.

Yes, there are numerous recipes for “iconic” NYC dishes, as well as some nice little extras, but there are things the author could have included rather than expending real estate on dishes that make you go “huh?”. Peanut butter smoothie?

The author makes it clear in his intro that these recipes are specific to his unique experience (I am paraphrasing here), which basically takes him off the hook for whatever he wanted to include. No problem, but then convey that in the title.

How about including a knock-off Papaya King drink recipe and Biscuit Tortoni recipe in place of some of those donuts? How about an egg and potato hero — something that screams New York City back in the day? There are many iconic dishes that could have been included rather than those from more recent trends.

Here are a couple nits I need to pick:

His fermented pickles (Slow Pickles) call for distilled water. Many serious fermenters, myself included, would never, ever use distilled water because it’s stripped of everything — including the minerals a ferment needs. Any person wanting to use natural fermentation to make pickles needs to do their research. Seriously. You need to know what you’re doing and make your choice about water (I use spring water) accordingly. Also, standard off-the-shelf pickling spices have no place in NY-style/Kosher-style dill pickles. The author plays fast and loose with spices in his recipe, but if you want the real deal, start with just peppercorns and maybe a few mustard seeds and see how you like that.

More about the pickles. What the author says about half-sours is incorrect. They are not pickled in a full brine and taken out sooner. They are fermented in a weaker brine. Fermenting in a weak brine is potentially hazardous, so it may be safer to approximate a half-sour by his method (I do this sometimes, too), but I have to wonder about the research here. The recipe comes across as all book-work with little hands-on experience.

That said, there are many very nice recipes here. It is just not “130 Recipes for the City’s Most Iconic Foods,” unless you consider a Chocolate Protein Drink classic NYC.