Baked Curried Cauliflower

I made this dish last night because I had a head of cauliflower sitting in the fridge and I needed a vegetable to go with dinner. My mind was blown. This ended up being the star of the meal, not the healthy-version orange chicken or the mapo tofu. It doesn't look like much ... but could not stop eating it. Mind blown. Go make it and I would suggest doubling the recipe because it is THAT good.

You could also just double the sauce of the recipe and add chicken, I'm thinking. It would be a great meal, and the curry sauce would be phenomenal chicken. I'm thinking some skinless, bone-in chicken thighs would work fantastically, maybe some of the chopped up ones that 99 Ranch sells. Brown it well and then add it to the sauce with the cauliflower ... just thinking about it is getting me excited!

Baked Curried Cauliflower
adopted from Christine's Recipes

1 large head cauliflower
2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp curry powder
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
2 tsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp water

Preheat oven to 395degrees. Put on a large water to boil. Wash cauliflower and cut into florets. Mix cornstarch and water in a small bowl.

Boil cauliflower in water for 3 minutes, then drain well. Heat a large pan over medium heat and melt butter. Once melted, add turmeric and curry and saute it until fragrant, which only takes a few seconds. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Continue to dimer until it reduces by 2/3, which takes about 5 minutes. Add cream and stir well to mix.

Add cauliflower back to pot and toss to coat well with sauce. Cook further for 5 minutes. Add the cornstarch mixture and cook until the sauce is nice and thick. Pour everything into an oven-proof dish and bake for 8 minutes. Serve with rice to soak up all that delicious sauce!

** The original recipe also calls for coconut milk, which I didn't have so I omitted it.

Le Ka Restaurant - An Xmas Party

Happy Christmas flashback in February! Our holiday party this year was at Le Ka, which opened in Downtown Los Angeles in September. Though they're the new kids on the block, they really got their act together quickly because the service was flawless. There's always a bit of confusion among the staff wherever we go because we have drink coupons that can sometimes be redeemed for different items instead of drinks, but they handled it well. We stopped having an open bar with no limitations after our first year, when people were ordering $125 glasses of wine.

baby kale salad, goat cheese, medjool dates, green beans, grapefruit, pumpkin seeds

roasted baby beets, burrata, spiced pistachios, pickled shallots

course 3 - oven roasted branzino, heirloom tomatoes, fennel & citrus salad

course 3 - wild mushroom risotto, grana padano, truffle essence

dessert - sweet cream panna cotta, caramel apples, pie crust crumbles

dessert - chocolate cremeux, passionfruit rum sauce, cocoa crumble, sesame brittle

drink coupon latte

I must admit, I was pretty impressed with the food. I had low expectations after going to Mas Malo for two years in a row (how can a Mexican restaurant claim to run out of chips?!). Everything was very fresh and well prepared, especially the beets (since I generally despise beets). The only quip I have is that the rum was way too heavy in the chocolate cremeux; the panna cotta was way better.

I've returned to the restaurant a couple more times, both for late night desserts and for happy hour. Head down and check it out for yourself!

Le Ka Restaurant
800 W Sixth St, Los Angeles, CA 90017

Eggplant Tomato

The picture above might not look like much but it's a delicious, amazing pile of eggplant, tomato and onion. Does that sound appealing to you? Hopefully so, and you should go make it. I printed this recipe off some site about ... I'd say six years ago. I have no idea where it came from, there's no link at the bottom of the paper or anything so I don't even know where this came from. But trust me when I say that I didn't expect to be so blown away.

Since there are so few ingredients, the best thing to do would be to use the best quality of said ingredients as possible. But no worries if you can't get all-natural, organically grown Chinese/Japanese eggplant. I'm 100% sure that those are not the type sold at 99 Ranch Market and this dish still turns out splendid every time. Make sure you do get the long, skinny Chinese/Japanese eggplant, as opposed to the round Italian ones, as those tend to fall apart and you need your eggplants intact.

Eggplant Tomato
serves 2-4

1 lb Chinese eggplant
2 lb tomatoes
1 small onion
2 springs thyme
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Pasta or lavash

Put on a medium pot of water to boil and heat 2/3 cup oil over medium-high heat in your largest frying pan.

Slice the eggplant into 3/4" rounds. When the oil is hot, arrange the eggplant in a single layer and do not move them. I will say that spattering WILL HAPPEN so be careful. While they are frying, cut an X at the bottom of each tomato and drop in the potful of boiling water for about 30 seconds each, then immediately run them under cold water. This should allow you to peel the skin off each tomato easily.

Check the eggplant and if the bottoms are nicely browned, flip them over and be careful of the spatter. Seed and chop the tomatoes into large chunks, then puree in a food processor until it's relatively smooth (but still slightly chunky in textural). Check the eggplant again, and if the other side has browned, then remove them all to a colander lined with a couple layers of paper towels.

Put the remaining oil in the pan and turn the heat down to medium. Add in the onion and cook until translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add in the tomato and thyme. Allow the flavors to come together for a couple minutes, then add salt. It may need to be lots of salt, since it will need to flavor the tomatoes and the eggplant, but you can add more later.

Add the eggplant back into the pan, being careful not to break it into pieces. Simmer everything together, until the sauce is the texture you like. I like to reduce mine quite a ways when I'm eating with lavash, but you can get away with less reducing if you are going to toss it with pasta. Taste at the end, you may need to add more salt. It makes all the difference, so make sure not to skimp.

Enjoy! Hopefully it doesn't take you two hours to make it, like it did for me the first time. But at the time, I was confused with the tomato peeling, etc and was a bit more slow and inexperienced in the kitchen. If you're not good at multitasking, then don't worry about doing the tomatoes at the same time as the eggplant ... just take it one step at a time. Happy eating!

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2013 - Salty Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies #fbcookieswap

My thirs year participating in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap! As always, it was stressful to think of what kind of cookie to bake. Will people like this?! is it flavorful enough? It is too flavorful? Is it too sweet?! What if they turn out gross? Are they going to judge me based on what kind of cookie I send them?! And on and on and on.

When you participate in the cookie swap, you are asked to donate $4 to Cookies For Kid's Cancer, a non-profit organization that benefits children with cancer. If that's not enough reason to donate, you also get goodies from the sponsors ... OXO, Dixie Crystals, Gold Medal and Grandma's Molasses. Yay for free stuff, yay for benefiting a great cause and yay for getting cookies in the mail from fellow food bloggers. Join next year if you can!

This year I settled on these Salty Peanut Butter Cookies. The recipe is so easy, you can mix it together by hand and it has no flour in it - perfect for those that need a gluten free diet . But definitely make it for anyone! Best with tea or coffee because these cookies are sweet sweet sweet.

Salty Peanut Butter Cookies
makes about 2 dozen cookies

1 cup creamy peanut butter (not "natural")
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Pinch of sea salt or kosher salt
Good chocolate pieces (you can buy a bar and break off pieces)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line some baking sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl, either by hand or with a stand mixer. Scoop out into balls the size of walnuts, top with a piece of chocolate (don't press down). I used milk chocolate pieces this time but have used "Lindt Dark Chocolate with A Touch of Sea Salt" with fantastic results.

Sprinkle with an additional smattering of sea salt or kosher salt and bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool in the tray for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

I also found these Gingerbread Twix at the market and bought them to include with the cookies sent out cause they looked so festive! These goodies were sent out to Christina (The Dough Will Rise Again), Kara (Kara in the Kitchen) and Laura (Momables) ... hope you ladies enjoyed!

Plus, I got these in the mail for myself ... perfect for my own cups of tea between international travelling!

Can't wait to participate next year ... and every single year after that! I'm so glad that I've been a part of this since Year One. And on top of that, this year the cause has raised over $13,500 this year. Thanks so much for organizing again, Lindsay and Julie!

San Francisco - State Bird Provisions

Hello, State Bird Provisions. You have received a plethora of awards, including Food & Wine's Best New Chef and James Beard Award Best New Restaurant and I've been dying to go to you but alas, you are super far away in San Francisco. And it is ridiculously hard to get a reservation. But finally, FINALLY I got a chance and you did not disappoint.

Your concept is to have a menu of dishes, as well as people carrying trays around with delectable, tempting treats a la dim sum style. Though the thought of that initially turned me off, it really worked! The chefs were super friendly and talkative, and advised us that the food only takes two turns around the dining table before being taken out of rotation. I did not see anything taken out of rotation, as people were eager to snatch up what you had to offer.

garlic bread with burrata

smoked duck, mushrooms, hazelnut strudel

raw oyster, spicy kohlrabi kraut, sesame

seared shishito peppers

hamachi-avocado, seaweed cracker

seared pork belly, nectarines

lobster "salsa" salad

sunchoke chips (on the house!)

roasted cauliflower "romesco"

pork spare ribs glazed in their own juices

1/2 dozen cast iron quail eggs, apple, sunchokes, my tam

birdseed bittersweet chocolate crunch, rose cloud cream, strawberries

chocolate macaron "ice cream" sandwich, curried pecan strudel

"world peace" peanut muscovado milk

I won't pretend that you're perfect (sadly, the garlic bread was slightly underwhelming after the raves I've heard about it), but it was one of the most enjoyable meals I've had in a long time. And yes, there was a lot of food. The Chef's Counter is definitely the best seat in the house and your servers and chefs were absolutely delightful. Can't wait to come back and see what else you have to offer.

State Bird Provisions
1529 Fillmore St, San Francisco, 94115
Neighborhood: Western Addition