Grilled Octopus Anyone?

While visiting my local Mexican market this afternoon I noticed a peculiar item on sale in the seafood section.  "Pulpo" (Spanish for octopus) was on sale for a mere $3.99/lb.  I had always been curious about preparing octopus at home, and knew from past experience ordering it at restaurants that when properly prepared it makes wonderful table fare.

After cutting into short pieces and tossing in olive oil, I grilled my purchase in a wire grill basket to ensure that none of the tasty morsels slipped through the grill grates into the hot charcoal fire I had built.  After splashing with lemon, I served the octopus in soft tortillas with corn, salsa, cilantro, and sour cream.  My wife Lindsay opted not to partake, and instead enjoyed a salad with grilled chicken: more for the Food Pope!

I have to continue practicing how to properly cook this unique ingredient, as my finished product was a bit tough.  Nonetheless, I quickly realized why octopus is rapidly becoming a stylish dish in America and has been a staple in Greece, Spain, Asia, the Middle East, and South America for thousands of years.  It's delicious!

Dumplings Are Everything!

On a recent visit to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants, my wife and I were given Kung-Fu Panda-inspired fortune cookies.  Mine read, "Po says: Money is not everything.  Dumplings are everything."  I couldn't agree more!

While they can be made by scratch, these tasty dumplings were purchased frozen at a nearby Asian market.  Look for dumplings that contain the ingredients you like (options vary, but often include such varieties as beef, pork, chicken, vegetable, and sometimes shrimp or seafood).

I usually look for dumplings made in the U.S. (usually in New York, New Jersey, or California near major Asian communities), but I've also had excellent varieties imported from China and Korea.

Use a steaming basket or wire rack to elevate the dumplings above a half-inch or so of boiling water in a covered saucepan for 7-10 minutes.  Allowing the dumplings to sit in the boiling water leads to soggy dumplings :(

Enjoy with a hot cup of oolong tea.  Happy Eating!

Image of Po from http://www.dreamworks.com/kungfupanda/

Cookie Monster's Reflections on Food

Click below to enjoy Cookie Monster's profound reflections on food.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBNJ0BH3Dgs

Oolong: A Perfect Winter Tea

One of my former students bought me a wonderful tin of oolong tea while traveling home to Taiwan for the Winter break.

The oolong teas of Taiwan are heavenly.  They have a robust, earthy flavor and an amazing array of health benefits.  Oolong teas may aid in digestion, and thus pair well with heavy Winter meals such as pork and beef roasts, pasta, and rice dishes.  They also contain an array of beneficial antioxidants and a small amount of caffeine to keep the drinker alert and focused throughout the day.

The dried leaves are often rolled: either by hand or machines utilized on tea plantations.  During the steeping process, the leaves spring to life and unfurl to reveal their beautiful leaf structure.  Some branches are incorporated in the mix as well, contributing to the unique appearance and flavor of oolong teas.

To infuse oolong tea, bring water to a full boil and steep between 3-5 minutes.  Oolong teas can be infused multiple times, and many oolong aficionados argue that the second, third, fourth, and even fifth infusions are the best!

Chinese Hot Pot

A week ago I was introduced to Chinese hot pot for the first time when I joined my friends David and Maggie at Moy's Chinese Restaurant in Columbus.

As I scanned the menu, my eyes were continually drawn to the menu section labeled "hot pots."  Curious, I asked the server what they were and was advised that they are delicious and very authentic.

After choosing an eggplant, chicken, and salt fish (dried salted fish incorporated into many recipes for flavor) hot pot, I anxiously awaited its arrival.

I was thrilled to receive a beautiful miniature clay pot bubbling contently atop a stand with lit Sterno can.  The hot, mildly spicy mixture had a delicious blend of eggplant, onion, chicken, salt fish, garlic and ginger.

Searching the web for a recipe for this delicious dish, I found the below video and recipe which look like they'd create a very close approximation of the delicious meal I enjoyed at Moy's.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmqSfhsRY74
Recipe:
http://loft48.blogspot.sg/2013/07/claypot-chicken-with-salted-fish-and.html?m=1

Royal Doulton with Handpainted Periwinkles

For Christmas my lovely wife Lindsay purchased me a Royal Doulton cup and saucer in the pattern used by British expert in manners and social graces, Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced bouquet).

Image from: http://showbizgeek.com/whatever-happened-to-the-cast-of-keeping-up-appearances/


IMDb has written a wonderful description of Hyacinth's famous China pattern.  According to IMDb, "Hyacinth's china pattern, described as 'Royal Doulton with the hand-painted periwinkles', is actually a pattern called 'Braganza' and was manufactured by The Colclough China Company. The Colclough China Company was founded in 1890 and was taken over by Royal Doulton in the early 1970s (so Hyacinth is only stretching the truth a bit). The Braganza pattern was discontinued in 1992, and production under the Colclough name was discontinued in 1996. Hyacinth's cups and saucers were once valued at 20 pounds by Maxwell, Nixon and Kray."
From http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098837/trivia

Click below to view Hyacinth entertaining with Royal Doulton:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0dn2FeFaSU 

Bob's Black Walnut Pesto

Foraging is a wonderful way to add a variety of healthy foods to one's diet.  While home for the holidays, my father presented me with foraged eastern black walnuts he had collected from a tree near his home.  My father neatly packaged a portion of the shelled walnuts in a small Tupperware container and labeled the date and location of harvest.

Black walnuts differ considerably from English walnuts.  The first, and most obvious difference, is the thicker shell.  While English walnuts available in most stores for home cracking have thin, easily cracked shells, black walnuts have a thick, dense shell surrounding them. The flavor is also completely different.  Black walnuts are robust, earthy, and have a much stronger flavor than English walnuts.  To read more on black walnuts click here:
http://forestry.ohiodnr.gov/walnut 

When they fall from the tree, black walnuts are encapsulated in a thick, fleshy husk which must be removed before the walnuts within can be properly dried and cracked.  This outer material can be removed by running over the walnuts with a vehicle.  My father remembers my grandfather smashing the husk off in the street of their Flint, Michigan home with a pair of rubber boots.

Once the exterior material is removed and the walnuts have been left to sit for several months to try, a heavy duty hammer is the most commonly used method to crack the walnuts open.  The Lehman's company in Kidron, Ohio, offers one of the only commercially available black walnut crackers:
https://www.lehmans.com/p-1612-hard-shell-nutcracker.aspx 

When considering the possible ways to enjoy the shelled walnuts gifted to me by my father, I chose to make a black walnut pesto, appropriately named Bob's Black Walnut Pesto after the walnuts' harvester.  The robust, earthy gems were pulsed in a food processor with Michigan hydroponic basil, three cloves of garlic, and about 5 tbs of olive oil.  Parmigiana cheese is usually also added to pesto but I chose to forgo this ingredient so my pesto retained a stronger black walnut flavor.

 The resulting pesto was placed in a small jar and covered with a thin film of olive oil.  Stored in the refrigerator, it will be good for a week and has been delicious on bread and in pasta.