I Am... The Best Way to Cook Crispy Tofu
If you love crispy tofu, you'll love this quick and easy crispy miso glazed dish. If you're not into miso, just make the crispy tofu – you only need three ingredients (not counting salt and oil) and you'll have the crispiest tofu bites you ever did have!
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I Am... Vietnamese Steak Summer Rolls Party!
Now that we're in the thick of summer, all I want to eat are summer rolls. Or, as we call them around here, salad rolls. Vietnamese rice paper rolls are one of those foods that get called a multitude of names, but no matter what you call gỏi cuốn, they are absolutely the perfect summer dinner party food.
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I Am... Vietnamese Fish Sauce Dipping Sauce: Nuoc Cham / Nuoc Mam
If there's one thing I usually have on hand, mixed up in the fridge, it's Vietnamese mixed fish sauce, or nước chấm. It only takes 5 ingredients – 6 if you count water – but by their powers combined, it's so much more than just a sauce. It's sweet, savory, spicy, garlic-y, and addictive. The hit of acid from the lime brings everything together and I could almost drink the stuff, it's so good.
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I Am... Friday Finds: 8.3.18
Holy moly, it's hot out! I've been keeping cool by snacking on ALL the summer fruits – chilled of course – plus a daily dose of popsicles. I am and forever will be in love with rocket pops. Do you guys like them? They remind me of summer in the best possible way. I'm partial to the cherry tops and the mysteriously flavored white part; I think it's lemon-lime? The blue raspberry I could take or leave, but it's not really a rocket pop without the blue, so there's that. I'm hoping to expand my frozen treat selection and am thinking of getting into Halo Top. Mike doesn't really love ice cream or popsicles, so please tell me your faves so I can have some pre-vetted treats! Anyway, here's are some fun finds! Webstuff:
- I don't remember half of this stuff from reading Babar when I was a kid, but man, this is hilarious (and bleak). h/t to Mike for that one :)
- Could you imagine being allergic to meat?!
- Long lines and Tokyo go hand-in-hand.
- What are your thoughts on going private on Instagram?
- Oof. That's a lot of time spent consuming media.
- I did not know that Nerf guns were so...intense.
- Being together and living apart.
- I lol'd at this vest vending machine.
- Luxury chicken diapers?!
- Crazy things happen on the internet – it can ruin lives.
- How an ex-cop rigged McDonald's Monopoly and stole millions.
- I would be all over this hummus platter if I had in front of me.
- I'm digging these chewy oatmeal cookies.
- Halloumi croutons on tomato soup!! YAAAAAS!
- I've been peeping this cast iron pan – it's thin and light with a machined finish and an extra long handle.
- The Devil Wears Prada has a sequel and it looks just as funny and devour-able as its predecessor. Definitely tucking this book into my bag the next time I'm by the pool or at the beach.
- These little cactus tea lights are the cutest!
- Not sure how well this little blackhead scrub stick works, but the packaging is too cute.
- My blog BFF, Lyndsay, has a book out soon!! It's full of cute and pretty cakes and I just know you'll want to make everything in it! We're doing a giveaway on Instagram, so keep your eyes peeled – you can enter to win a copy of the book plus a jar of the cutest ever sprinkle mix.
I Am... What to Cook in August
It's grilling season and this summer I'm all about the meat (and tofu!). Veggies on the side too, but I'm sure you've got that covered, right? Anyway, here are a couple of recipes that have been on repeat! Jalapeno Honey Garlic Chicken: sweet, spicy, juicy, and smokey. Perfect for those causal grilling vibes. Jalapeño Honey Garlic Tofu: for all you non-meat eaters out there, these jalapeno honey garlic tofus are the same as the chicken and maybe even better?! Lemongrass Beef Salad Summer Rolls: crispy savory pan-seared lemongrass beef all rolled up with herbs and veggies in a rice roll wrapper. They're called summer rolls for a reason! Miso Grilled Tofu: that umami hit of flavor from miso with a bit of caramelization means these grilled tofu skewers are perfect for long summer nights. Sweet and Savory Garlic Shallot Grilled Chicken: This is my ULTIMATE chicken marinade. It is literally the best. In fact, it goes good on everything, not just chicken so make it and eat it and you'll be happy, trust me :) Carolina Style Ribs with Sichuan Peppercorns: Give me a big plate of ribs and I am a happy camper. I just love the meat-y fall of the bone-ness of ribs and these guys are even more delicious with their tangy, spicy, sweet, and vingear-y sauce. Grilled Vietnamese Pork Sausage: Super juicy and full of flavor, these little pork sausages are made extra punchy with fish sauce, garlic, pepper, and a touch of sugar. Good on the grill or simply pan fried.
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I Am... How to reverse sear – the best way to cook a big steak
A long time ago Steph and I cooked through the Momofuku cookbook, and in it were a couple of recipes utilizing an odd technique that David Chang probably invented at the behest of his editors called ghetto sous vide. It involved setting your tap water to a specific temperature and then running into a pot or bowl so that your meat comes to temp, just like a sous vide machine but actually way way worse. I wish I had known then what I know now because reverse sear is the real sous vide replacement (at least when it comes to meat) and it's way better than even real proper sous vide. And, when facing a giant, expensive piece of meat like the tomahawk shown below, it's a foolproof method that ensures you don't mess up your high dollar meat-investment. Reverse sear is arguably the best way to cook a large steak (or any steak). The concept is simple and brilliant. Set your oven to as low as it can go, throw your seasoned steak inside, and wait a while. Then, when the steak is just about at your desired doneness, take it out and sear it on a blisteringly hot pan, and boom: perfect steak every time. When we did the original ghetto sous vide technique, the only sous vide machines on the market were the $3000+ sciency ones. Today sous vide isn't an issue and you can get sous vide machines that link up to your phone for under $100, so why even bother with this reverse sear thing? Because reverse sear produces a better tasting steak than sous vide. Unlike sous vide which traps the steak's moisture in and creates a soggy grey mess that won't sear, this technique dries out the surface of the steak just enough that you get a great sear while still being juicy in the middle. More importantly, the evaporated moisture leaves behind concentrated beefy goodness so you can taste more of the nuances of the steak: the grassfed, humanely raised, beer massaged (actually an urban myth) sustainable happy cow that you are eating. Any steak, no matter the size, can be reverse seared. You do need a good thermometer or oven probe, but you should already own one if you like to cook at all seriously. Even a high end thermocouple one is cheap if you don't specifically need the name brand. Otherwise, it's just a matter of dialing in the time based on your fridge and oven. In our oven, I have a formula that works every time: 40 minutes per pound when taken right out of the fridge. A standard 8oz supermarket sized steak about 3/4" thick will take about 20 minutes in the oven to get to medium rare. Our 3lb tomahawk took 2 hours to do the same. Note that this only applies to a single steak. You can do 4 steaks in the same 20 minutes, and once you do that, it becomes about even on time vs doing a traditional 3 minute-per-side steak, but with a much better tasting product. Even if we are cooking only one steak to share though, Steph and I will usually choose to spend the extra time on reverse sear - it's always worth it. Despite what the internet says, you do have to rest a reverse seared steak. Anytime high heat and not fully cooked meat is involved, resting is essential, and reverse seared steaks are no different - unless you like your steaks on the other side of medium. Rest the steaks a few minutes while you plate the rest of the food and it will be a lot better. To cook this 3lb tomahawk, we set our oven to 200ºF and cooked the steak for 2 hrs, until it reached our target temp of 115ºF. Then we threw it in our new and awesome Roccbox (review coming soon) and blast furnaced it at 700ºF. A cast iron pan probably would have worked too, but it's summer and I'm in love with the Roccbox. The steak came out perfect, a crisp deep sear and 2" of rare top grade American wagyu at a perfect medium rare. We ate it Vietnamese style, of course. A blog post on that from Steph coming soon.
How to reverse sear a steak Serves 2Read More →Preheat your oven for 200ºF (or as low as it goes). Season your steaks generously on both sides and place on a rack over a baking sheet. Cook until the internal temp reaches your desired doneness (115ºF for rare, 125ºF for medium rare, 135ºF for medium). For medium rare, this will be 40 mins per pound of steak, based on the size of the largest steak. For an average supermarket steak, this will be approximately 20 minutes. 5 minutes before your steak is done, preheat a cast iron skillet with a high temp oil like grapeseed or canola. When the steaks are done, sear the steaks for 15-30 seconds a side on all sides, or until your desired color is reached. Rest steaks for 3-5 minutes, then serve.
- Steak
- Salt
- Pepper
- Oil
I Am... Friday Finds: 7.27.18
It's the last Friday in July! Are you guys celebrating? Sometimes it feels like every day in summer is a celebration. Friends want to hang out more, there are more family barbecues, and essentially everyone is out and about doing things into the long, light-filled summer nights.
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I Am... Soft Scrambled Japanese Tamago Rice Bowl Recipe
I love tamagoyaki with a passion. You know, that unassuming little brick of bright yellow rolled omelette on rice, wrapped with a nori belt? It doesn't look like much but tamagoyaki – which is literally "egg grill" in Japanese – is an art. If you don't think so, just watch the tamago making in Jiro Dreams of Sushi – I think the assistant had to make it over two hundred times before it was deemed acceptable. He had tears in his eyes when he mastered it and I know the feeling. I too have had tears in my eyes over tamago: tears of joy when biting into that perfect piece.
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I Am... Chashu Summer Rolls Recipe
When it's hot out, who wants to cook? Give me a huge platter of summer rolls instead and I'm a happy camper. Mike and I often spend hot summer nights chilling out by eating salad rolls. The best part about summer rolls is the fact that you can roll them at the table. Just lay everything out and everyone can make their rolls as they wish.
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I Am... Homemade Pork and Garlic Chinese Potsticker Dumpling Recipe
I love dumplings of all kinds but potstickers hold a special place in my heart because they're the dumpling I grew up eating. I have many fond memories of my family sitting around our round jade green laminate kitchen table, a giant plate of potstickers in the middle, all of us stuffing our faces.
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I Am... 20 of the best restaurants on Grubhub you can order for delivery
Steph loves ordering in with a passion that's not really fitting for someone who's made cooking her career. While I like delivery a little less than her (because I actually like a social atmosphere) I can't deny that it's amazingly convenient when you've had a little too much to drink and can't leave the house. We're also on the road a lot, and if you're staying in a hotel and don't want to go out, you have pretty much no other options. From our experiences across the country, what we've found is that the ratings are skewed towards how well the food is packaged and speed of delivery, which is great, but what if you just want awesome food and you're willing to wait a few extra minutes? That's where this list comes in, it's based on restaurants we've personally been to or ordered from, and you can be sure they're among the best in their cities. Although sometimes it is best to travel around the area you are visiting and find Restaurants in Aylesbury it's also nice to have recommendations of places to eat too. So, without further ado, here are our 20 best restaurants from Grubhub, because sometimes you just want to eat in: Note: If you've never experienced the joy of Grubhub before, save $9 on your first Grubhub order with this link: https://grhb.me/2M72Qj7
Sandwiches/Burgers
KATZ'S - NYC Katz's pastrami is the stuff of dreams. It's smoked for months and people will line up for hours or pay to ship it cross-country. If you live or stay in their delivery zone, it can be yours in under an hour. Grubhub link • Photo by Katz'sPARM - NYC I'm a huge meatball sandwich head. Anything from Vietnamese meatball subs to subway italian marinara, if it's meatballs, I'll eat it. Parm's meatball parm radically raised the bar for how good a meatball sandwich could be in my eyes. Grubhub link • Photo by iamafoodblog
KENNY & ZUKES - Portland, OR Kenny & Zukes is probably the greatest Jewish deli on the west coast, rivaling anything you can find in New York or Montreal. Grubhub link • Photo by Kenny & Zukes
UMAMI BURGER - Nationwide Umami burger started in LA with a dream of making really, really extra burgers. These burgers have high end components and are composed the way great restaurant plates are composed. When you're tired of in-n-out or shake shack because even though their burgers are amazing but their menu never changes, Umami burger is the answer. Also: probably the only place you can try the impossible burger, if that appeals to you. Grubhub link • Photo by iamafoodblog
MEAT & BREAD - Seattle Meat & Bread is laser focused on its one mission of making amazing sandwiches and it shows. Their porchetta is one of the first big things Steph tackled way back in 2012. If you don't want to spend 24 hours making porchetta from scratch, order a sandwich from Meat & Bread Grubhub link • Photo by Meat & Bread
PUBLICAN QUALITY MEATS - Chicago When we are in Chicago, the Publican can do no wrong. On the weekends at their main restaurant, they make this simple but amazing frites with a fried egg. This link is for their sandwich/butcher shop, but the quality is the same - out of this world. Grubhub link • Photo by Publican
Fried Chicken, Pizza, and Noodles
BONCHON - East Coast & Midwest A lifetime ago Steph and I had a Korean Fried Chicken-off in New York. We ate all the fried chicken we could find (including the Momofuku fried chicken feast, which wasn't Korean but David Chang is, so we said it technically counted) and Bonchon came out on top. If you've never had triple-fried Korean fried chicken, you owe it to yourself. Grubhub link • Photo by BonchonROSCOE'S HOUSE OF CHICKEN & WAFFLES - LA area Snoop Dogg loves Roscoe's. Snoop Dogg knows stoner food. Martha loves Snoop Dogg. Therefore Roscoe's is indirectly Martha's favorite fried chicken shack. We've been there. It's good. So good Snoop would buy the whole chain to save it from going under. Grubhub link • Photo by Roscoe's
SIZZLE PIE - Seattle We get sizzle pie anytime we're in Eugene, OR (which is a lot more often than you'd think). Sizzle Pie is actually from Portland, but the Seattle location is on Grubhub, and it is good. Sizzle Pie's claim to fame is a giant slice, but the breadsticks are what we get. We've been known to stop in Eugene just for the breadsticks. Grubhub link • Photo by Sizzle Pie
ROBERTA'S - NY Roberta's doesn't really need a lot of introduction. Roberta's has the best crust around. Roberta's was frequented by the Clintons. Get Roberta's Grubhub link • Photo by Roberta's
AFURI RAMEN & DUMPLINGS - Portland, OR Afuri is an outpost of a Tokyo favorite, where they are known for healthy, veg-heavy, light and bright ramen as opposed to the pork bone stuff most Americans are familiar with. They chose Portland for the location of their first American branch because of the quality of the water. We chose them for this list because of the quality of their ramen. Grubhub link • Photo by iamafoodblog
JINYA RAMEN BAR - Nationwide Jinya is as authentic a ramen bar as you'd find in Japan, but it's LA born and raised. Its ramen is easily good enough to hold its own in Tokyo, and we're lucky that they've expanded nationwide. Sure, you can find awesome ramen in LA and NYC near you, but in Tulsa? They're a godsend. They've singlehandedly brought great ramen to the rest of America. Grubhub link • Photo by iamafoodblog
CASSIA - Santa Monica Cassia is this hidden-ish and super stylish Vietnamese/Singaporean place in Santa Monica, and they have brilliantly redefined a couple of dishes for me: the Vietnamese charcuterie board (genius) and the best laksa I've ever had. I can't believe they do delivery and my new vacation dream is to stay at the Palihouse Santa Monica and order Cassia's laksa in. Grubhub link • Photo by iamafoodblog
Desserts & Treats
BOUCHON BAKERY - NYC Thomas Keller's bakery mini-chain is still going super strong. We had their fresh donuts earlier this year and they were out of this world, alongside their always awesome croissants and other treats, including the TKO (Thomas Keller Oreo). Grubhub link • Photo by iamafoodblogHIGH POINT CREAMERY - Denver There must be something about the elevation because High Point Creamery has some of the best ice cream this side of the Atlantic. It's not as fancy as Salt and Straw in Portland but it's super high quality (get it?) ice cream, delivered, in Colorado. There are reasons to get delivery when in Colorado. Grubhub link • Photo by High Point Creamery
SWEET ROSE CREAMERY - LA area The couple that own Cassia (and a million other Santa Monica restaurants) have an eye for fostering talent. Sweet Rose Creamery exists thanks to that; it's a stage for an old friend of theirs to show off her ice cream skills, and she has those skills in abundance. Flavors like Blueberry Muffin (with muffin bits) are not to be missed. Grubhub link • Photo by Abby Mahler
BEARD PAPA - Nationwide Beard Papa has a strange name and a familiar treat. Cream puffs, done perfectly. Crispy choux pastry, real vanilla custard, impossible to eat just one (but you really should). Grubhub link • Photo by iamafoodblog
GONG CHA - Nationwide Steph's top 3 boba places nationwide would be (in no particular order) - Boba Guys (SF), Half & Half (LA), and Gong Cha (everywhere). I'm not a fan of Boba Guys but I agree with the other two, and Gong Cha wins in my books by being available in more than one city. Grubhub link • Photo by iamafoodblog
ESS-A-BAGEL - NYC What's the best bagel in NYC? Is it that rainbow place? Is it H&H? It doesn't matter, because none of them deliver and Ess-a-Bagel does. Also of note: Ess-a-Bagel is usually at the top of those "best bagels in nyc" lists for a reason. Now if only Russ & Daughters delivered. Grubhub link • Photo by Ess-a-Bagel
CHICK-FIL-A - Nationwide Is this filler? No, it's saving the best for last. One time Steph and I spent a weekend in Chicago eating nothing but Shake Shack chicken shacks and Chick-Fil-A's spicy chicken sandwich, discussing the finer points of chicken sandwiches while making this super cute 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. The winner of the chicken sandwich off? It was a tie because Steph preferred Shake Shack and I preferred Chick-Fil-A. The winner of the jigsaw puzzle making? Neither of us because we lost a piece in the couch cushions and never found it. It sounds like an unsatisfying weekend but it was the total opposite. Grubhub link • Photo by Chick-Fil-A Did we miss any? Disagree? Let us know in the comments!
I Am... American Flag Pie Recipe
It's a red, white, and blueberry pie! Just quick note to share this American flag pie with you guys and to wish everyone a Happy Fourth! May there be a cookout and lots of pie!
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