For My Little Pig: Com Chien (Fried Rice)

One of the reasons why I wanted to start this blog was for my mom to be view the recipes that I enjoy and try them herself.  However, she has been sending me recipes (mostly Vietnamese) to try while I am 2000+ miles away and crave mom's home cooked meals.

In case you are wondering why her recipes will be in a series called "For My Little Pig", it is because ever since I was young, that is what she calls me, little pig (translated in Vietnamese).  I was born in the year of the pig, and also fitting because I like to eat.

Here's her famous Com Chien (Vietnamese Fried Rice) Recipe!

Cooking with Keller: Chesapeake Bay Soft-Shell Crab "Sandwich"

We will have an ongoing series called "Cooking with Keller" where we will try recipes from Thomas Keller's cookbooks.  We enjoyed dining at many of his restaurants so we wanted to try some of his dishes at home.

Here is a guest post by my husband, Wil.  I'm a very lucky gal to have a husband who loves food like me.  I think he is using his summer time off quite nicely if you ask me, especially when I get to reap the benefits of his experiments.

Thanks to a sale on dressed soft-shell crabs at Whole Foods, I took my first stab at making a dish from the French Laundry Cookbook.  (To see why I'm glad they were dressed, see this blog.)  What I liked about making this dish was learning to make all the different components, including:

tomato confit

and brunoise.

The cool thing about the brunoise is that it utilizes the dark green part of the leek, which is often discarded in recipes.

Here is the end result:

"Tartar sauce", crouton, soft-shell crab, tomato confit, mesclun from my "garden", and fried capers.  It was very tasty.  Soft, crunchy, savory, and tangy.  Overall, there was a good amount of prep, but nothing too difficult.  Looking forward to the next dish I'll try!

White Chicken Chili

Yes, it's 80+ degrees outside and it's not exactly soup/chili weather, but I felt like making some chili.  This is my first time making chicken chili, as I tend to use beef in my chili.  This recipe is delicious and is healthy (minus the sour cream, cheddar cheese and tortilla chips I like to eat mine with)...so semi-healthy for me, but can be healthy for you!

Tomato, Zucchini and Goat Cheese Pasta

We love Whole Foods and while they don't have the cheapest items, we love the quality and integrity of their ingredients. One way that we make shopping there more affordable is to shop their weekly sales. They often have a weekly sale that starts on Wednesday to the following Tuesday and then also a weekend sale that has some great deals. A couple weeks ago, I saw cherry tomatoes and goat cheese on sale and thought that combo sounds like it might work together. I also grabbed some basil and a zucchini to add to the mix. Here's the creation:

Tomato, Zucchini and Goat Cheese Pasta 
2 tbs olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small zucchini, diced
1/4 cup chicken broth
Salt and Pepper
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
2 oz goat cheese and more to put on top
3/4 lb of pasta (I used spaghetti)

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook until tender.  Add in the garlic and cook for 1 minute, careful not to burn.  Add the zucchini and cherry tomatoes to the pan and cook for about 10-15 minutes.  Add the chicken stock and continue to cook for another 10 minutes until the tomatoes start to burst and get soft.  I like to smash the tomatoes to make a rustic sauce.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add the goat cheese and stir to incorporate into the sauce.

Heat a large pot of salted water and cook the pasta to al dente.  When the pasta is cooked, transfer the pasta to the pan with the tomatoes.  Stir to incorporate.  If it's dry, you can take some of the pasta water and add to the pan.  Stir in fresh basil.

To serve, plate the pasta and top with goat cheese crumbles and more fresh basil.  Enjoy a fresh summer meal that you won't remember is meatless!

Xinh Xinh

I was craving some Vietnamese food and was lacking some Vietnamese ingredients to cook with so I looked at my good buddy Yelp to see if there were any good restaurants in Chinatown.

We decided to try Xinh Xinh, which looked like it was on a small street with mostly Vietnamese restaurants. I opted for my standard rice noodle bowl with grilled pork and egg rolls while my husband decided to go for a rice noodle bowl with grilled beef and pork patties.

Here are some pictures of our food:

My rice noodle bowl with grilled pork and egg roll

My husband's rice noodle bowl with grilled beef and pork patties

I would have to say the noodle bowls were satisfying for our Vietnamese craving but weren't great.  The portion sizes were big and they gave a good amount of meat.  When we checked the reviews on Yelp, most of them said that the pho was very good.  Since it was 90 degrees outside, a hot bowl of pho didn't sound refreshing at the time.  When we were at the restaurant, however, most people were ordering pho.  That probably tells me something.  Next time we go, we will get the pho.  (Usually, we don't always follow the yelpers' suggestions but this time, it looks like we should have.)

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

My husband and I recently went to London a couple weeks ago.  I went for work and he had the time to come and join me for the trip.  Since we had recently gone to Europe, we didn't want to eat too expensively but decided to splurge on one meal.  We had heard of the Fat Duck by Heston Blumenthal but sadly, it was booked (good for our wallets though).  I had only known that I was going on the business trip two weeks before we were to leave so the Fat Duck being booked was expected.  While doing some more research on restaurants, I saw that Blumenthal recently opened a new restaurant in 2011 called Dinner and it was #9 on the San Pellegrino List.

We were able to secure reservations for lunch at "Dinner" (sounds weird to say that) and really had a wonderful time there.  Their food, while rich and heavy, was super tasty.  Blumenthal's concept for this restaurant was to take old world British recipes and transform them into more modern dishes.

Sweet and Tangy Meatloaf

I am a big meatloaf fan and I love how it is easy to put all of the ingredients into a bowl, shape it into a loaf, throw it into the oven and voila, you get a meatloaf.  

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Legal Sea Foods

We have been traveling a lot since we moved to Boston, so we haven't had the chance to explore the dining world here.  Yesterday, we got the opportunity to go to Legal Sea Foods thanks to a gift card from our wonderful brother and sister.  We had been there a couple times before so we were not strangers to the restaurant.  Legal Sea Foods is a chain restaurant that has several locations in Boston and Massachusetts.  We went to the Legal Sea Foods at Long Wharf near the Aquarium T stop.  I would say it's not fine dining and their seafood dishes can be pricey but there is something comforting about its dishes.  Here's what we got!

I opted for clam chowder and their signature crab cakes while my husband had the Lobster Lovers dinner, which included a bowl of clam chowder, 1.5-1.75 pound lobster with two sides, and the dessert of the day which was blueberry cobber with vanilla ice cream.

I'm a huge fan of clam chowder and I really enjoyed Legal Sea Food's version.  It is creamy with a good amount of clams.

Pasta with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe

Pasta is always a great food to cook on the weekdays.  You can take a few simple ingredients and have a meal that has starch, vegetables, and protein all in one dish.  One of the dishes we've made many times is this pasta dish with sausage and broccoli rabe. Broccoli rabe in not always everyone's favorite due to it's slightly bitter taste but I love it. Also, if you don't like broccoli rabe, this is a good way to eat it as the blanching of the rabe takes away some of the bitter taste.  This recipe also creates a broth type sauce using the residual water from the rabe and the pasta that Wil enjoys.

Pasta with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe
Adapted by Giada De Laurentiis

Serves 4 to 6
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb sweet Italian pork sausage
4 garlic cloves (you can put more if you like!)
1/4 to 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes I lean towards more since Wil likes it spicy)
1 large bunch of broccoli rabe, roughly chopped
1 lb of pasta (I used orecchiette since I had it on hand but any short pasta like penne can be used)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for topping


Boil a large pot of water.  Meanwhile, put the olive oil in a large saute pan and brown the sausage.  Add the garlic and the red pepper flakes, but don't burn the garlic.  Once the water boils, throw in the broccoli rabe and cook for 2-3 minutes until tender but still has a slight bite to it.  Take the broccoli rabe (but reserve the cooking water to put the pasta in) and put in cold water to stop the cooking process and preserve the fresh green color. Then, toss the rabe into the saute pan with the sausage.  Place your pasta in the same pot of boiling water and cook according to your pasta's directions.  Once the pasta is done, transfer to the saute pan with the broccoli rabe and sausage.  Add the grated Parmesan and season with salt and pepper to taste. You may also put in some of the pasta water to make more of a sauce.  Serve the pasta and top with more Parmesan if you wish!

City Gardening

If you live in a city, gardening can be few and far between.  First of all, there are not really backyards unless you are one of the fortunate ones.  We are not, so windowsills are your friend.

Utilizing organic seeds and organic soil

My husband enjoys gardening so he planted our first herb seeds in Boston today.  My office gets tons of sunlight (sometimes too much!) so that's where our planter of herbs is going to go.  In New York, we had a windowsill of herbs and they did pretty well!  We enjoyed a few meals of basil pesto pasta and also used some basil for our caprese bruschetta.

Grow Baby Grow!

I Love Cookbooks

I'd have to say that I'm not much of a reader.  I occasionally like to read for fun, but I absolutely love to read cookbooks.  Most of our gifts that are given to us are cookbooks and you can look at all of them on our bookshelf.  Yesterday, I visited the Cambridge Public Library (picture above) that is very close to our new apartment.  The library is gorgeous.  It has a patio where you can sit and read and very nifty self checkout system. I got my library card yesterday and went straight to the cookbooks section.  There are SO many!  I checked out a few cookbooks: Momofuku, Dave's Delicious Dinners and Best of Best Cookbooks by Food and Wine.

I've heard good things about this cookbook so eager to try some recipes.

I also checked out this non-cookbook for fun.  Reading the first 20 pages, it's entertaining!

Be sure to check out your library to see if they have a cookbook section!  I often like to browse through them before actually buying them.  If you are lucky like me, you will have a cookbook section that feels like shopping at your bookstore!

P.S.  Started writing in my blog again and moved from New York to Boston a few weeks ago!