mmmm...

Damn this law school thing...I just want to cook. Some of my favorite sources include the Los Angeles Times and 101 Cookbooks. Just check out this photo from a halibut chowder recipe...doesn't it look great? (Taken from LAT.)

If anyone has any recipes they want me to try out, send 'em my way.

shrimpin' ain't easy...well, maybe it is

The following is a recipe for rock shrimp wonton nachos, inspired by the same at Opah Restaurant in Aliso Viejo. Really easy and super tasty – however, it fails to qualify for quick due to the frying that’s necessary for the wonton chips. I guess you could use regular tortilla chips but then it wouldn’t be as tasty. Well, in my opinion anyway.

If you can find it, rock shrimp works best, because the texture is a little firmer, meatier and sweeter than regular shrimp. (Just ask Zack, he knows. Well, he knows the theory, anyway.) I used to be able to find it in the frozen section at Trader Joe’s, but they’ve discontinued selling the line. Damn, they were tasty, too. Regular medium shrimp works fine, as well.

Rock Shrimp Wonton Nachos
- 2 cups canola oil
- 1 package (50 sheets) of wonton wrappers - sea salt - 1 tbs. olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, mined
- 1 lb. rock shrimp, cleaned and shelled
- Salt and pepper
- 1 can black beans, drained
- 1 can corn kernels, drained
- 2 cups shredded cheddar
- 16 oz. fresh salsa (pico de gallo works best)
- 2 avocados, pitted and diced
- 6 oz. sour cream
- 4 tbs. chives, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat the canola oil in a heavy saucepan over high heat until near smoking, and drop in a wonton skin. It should bubble up and fry quickly, about 2 or three seconds on each side, until a very light golden brown. Fish out with tongs and drain on a plate lined with brown paper bags, and sprinkle a little sea salt over the chip. Repeat until all wrappers have been fried.

2. In a small pan, heat the olive oil and garlic over medium heat for about two minutes, until garlic turns golden brown (but not crispy). Turn up heat to high and add the shrimp, stirring quickly, about a minute, until shrimp is only mostly cooked, as they’ll continue cooking in the oven later. Season to taste with salt and pepper. You’re aiming for a slight crust on the outside without overcooking them in the middle. Remove from pan and set aside.

3. Arrange 1/2 of the wonton chips on an oven safe, decorative platter. Spoon half of the beans, corn, shrimp and cheddar over. Repeat with the remaining chips, beans, corn, shrimp and cheddar, and set in the oven for about ten minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

4. Meanwhile, mix 1/3 of the salsa and avocado together, mashing the avocado slightly to form a guacamole. When cheese is melted on the chips, take out of oven and mound guacamole, salsa and sour cream on top. Sprinkle chives over and serve.

sigh...stupid SBC

I have a bunch of new posts, but can't get them up cause they're on my computer and I haven't been able to get my laptop to any Internet in a few days, due to my school being complete assholes when it comes to Macs and SBC being complete assholes in general. Sorry. Will have to just manually transfer one of these days.

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grey's insomnia

Why I am still up and reading recaps for Grey's Anatomy (on Television Without Pity, the best recap website ever)...I don't know.

Working on a few new posts. Recently made Shrimp Wonton Nachos, inspired by the Rock Shrimp Wonton Nachos from Opah Restaurant, so I'll be writing that up, as well as Fried Ice Cream. Going to make sure I have the steps down tomorrow. Nothing like making something bad for you...ridiculously bad for you.

spring forward

[Ed. note: This is a definite stretch of law-related topics to recipe, but no matter. It’s related in my mind.]

Today’s international copyright class was about venue – the ol’ forum non conveniens and balancing test, blah blah blah. The case involved the copyrights of a Russian composer (actually, his assignee of the rights) and the use of the musical composition – Stravinsky’s The Rites of Spring – in Disney’s animated movie Fantasia. Disney was asserting that their use of The Rites of Spring – which is in the public domain in the US but not necessarily so in other countries – as distributed on videocassette was not an infringement, Stravinsky’s assignees thought it was, and the whole thing was being subjected to a forum non conveniens motion. The Rites of Spring has never been more hotly contested.

Speaking of spring (big stretch here), it’s supposedly so outside. Maybe, but it’s been raining a ridiculous amount out here in Los Angeles lately, which I think is a little uncharacteristic for the area, but it makes me happy – I love the rain and that means awesome snow up in the mountains (if I ever get off my lazy ass and go snowboarding). Anyway, spring makes me think of fresh green foods – such as mint, peas, fennel, late pears and herbs. This “salad” just tastes like spring, and is really good with saucy foods like pork ribs drenched in a spicy glaze (which I’ll put in a later post). Would probably be great with lamb, because of the mint. I forget where this recipe is from, probably a mixture of a couple of sources.

Mint can be really terrible at (most) major grocery stores. The worst bunch was definitely from Ralphs, which normally isn't too bad. Oddly enough, I always get the best and most flavorful mint from 99 Ranch, the Asian supermarket chain, but I’d probably find really great mint at the farmers markets as well. If only I had the time. You're looking for extremely fragrant mint - the kind that turns your head as you pass by the aisle and makes you buy five bunches, despite the fact that you don't normally cook with mint (a la my roommate - we once made mint juleps and mojitos for a week). Try a leaf, it should be a fresh burst of flavor, and not at all bitter.

Snow peas can be substituted with sugar snap peas, whatever’s available.

Snow pea rice salad
- 2 cups uncooked long-grain white rice
- 3 ½ cups water (more or less)
- 2 cups snow peas, trimmed
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- ½ cup fresh lime juice
- 1 tbs. sugar
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- salt, pepper to taste
- dash of sesame oil (optional)
- ¼ cup ginger, cut into matchstick strips
- ¼ cup of packed mint leaves, sliced
- ¼ cup of green onions, sliced (about 1 bunch)

1. Rise the rice under cool water, until water runs clear. Combine rice and the water, cook until rice is tender (approx. 15 or so minutes over low heat after bringing the mixture to a boil). Scoop out cooked rice into a large bowl and allow to cool completely.

2. Boil a few cups of water in a small pot, with a dash of salt. Add peas and blanch for about 15-20 seconds, then immediately drain and plunge peas into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking and keep the peas a bright green. Drain.

3. In a small bowl, mix the garlic, lime juice, sugar, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. You can add the sesame oil here if desired.

4. Toss together the cooked rice, peas, ginger, mint leaves, and green onions. Add the dressing – you may need less than is prepared, but it makes a nice lime vinaigrette for later use. Toss well, and adjust seasonings if necessary.

apple shortcuts - and not the F9 key

A few days after my last post, and completely unintentionally, I made an apple galette, or as Zack calls it, “Cheater’s Apple Pie.” The original recipe is from Bon Appetit magazine, but I changed and added a few things to it. Yeah, apples (and Apple) are good. Just because my law school wants us to “get used to” PCs doesn’t mean they can’t support them – it’s discriminatory to my choice of computer hardware. Would that be okay if they decided to just pick Dells? No. Jerks.

Anyway, I pretty much hate baking, mostly because most of the time I hate measuring things exactly right – lots of my cooking, despite the fact that the below recipes are all exact measurements, is approximate. (I realize my tort(e) post involved baking but that’s cheating too, as I used prepared puff pastry.) Baking (from scratch) needs to be pretty exact, otherwise things won’t rise, or bake evenly, or taste right. My mom is a really amazing baker, and besides being a talented baker she’s extremely exact about everything. I’m just too lazy to be bothered.

However, this recipe was great because the filling is sort of an approximation, and not perfectly exact. Okay, so the crust and the caramel needs to be relatively dead on but I’m happy to compromise. And, there's no rising or resting or any of that crap here. You don’t need the fancy baking tins or molds, or even a pie pan – just a baking sheet. Works for the lazy pie-eater in me.


Cheater’s Apple Pie

For the crust:
- 1 ½ cup flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. grated lemon zest
- ½ cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter
- 3 tbs. ice water

1. Place the flour, salt, and lemon zest in a food processor and pulse until mixed.

2. Add the butter, 1 tbs. at a time, and pulse with flour until a coarse meal forms. Careful not to over-mix as you could melt the butter.

3. Add the water a little at a time until moist clumps form. (If the dough is too dry, add more water as needed.)

4. Take dough out of food processor, form into a disk-esque shape, wrap with plastic and chill for at least an hour, and up to one day.

For the filling:
- 3 tbs. unsalted butter, divided
- 4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced into wedges
- 1 tbs. honey
- 4 tbs. sugar, divided
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/3 cup dried cherries or dried cranberries

1. Melt butter over medium-high eat in a pan. Add apples, honey and sprinkle 2 tbs. of sugar over, and lower heat to medium. Sauté until apples are tender and slightly browned – about 20 minutes.

2. Remove mixture from heat. Add cinnamon and dried fruit and let cool.

Assembly:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Cut parchment paper to fit a baking sheet. Unwrap dough and roll out into an approximately (yea!) 12 inch round, using flour so it doesn’t stick everywhere. Mound the filling in the middle, and you can either create a “pie” shape by making a free-form crust around the sides and arranging the apples into pretty shapes, or be even lazier and wrap the dough around the filling making a little purse. If doing the purse method, crimp the middles and seal completely.

3. Brush the remaining butter on the crust and sprinkle with the remaining sugar. Bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until the thing turns golden brown. Slice and serve warm with vanilla ice cream and with a ladle of the caramel sauce (recipe below).

For the caramel:
- 1 ½ cup sugar
- ½ water
- 3 tbs. unsalted butter
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream

1. While the pie is baking, boil the sugar and water together at a high heat for about 20 minutes, brushing the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush to remove any sugar crystals, until the sugar turns a light golden brown.

2. Turn off heat and add the butter, whisking quickly. Add in the heavy whipping cream, and whisky until incorporated – place back on a low heat, stirring until sauce is thick and creamy. Serve warm with the pie.
(This will keep, refrigerated, for a day or two. Just re-warm when serving.)