Thursday, this tortilla-esque soup and a cool carrot:

And finally, today’s, which features accidentally deconstructed enchiladas and more soup. I was going to tell you how to make really good veggie enchiladas, but I am tired, so I won’t. Maybe later:

As a bonus, here’s a picture of my cat being weird. Is this going to turn into a blog about cats? Let’s hope not. But it’s also not NOT going to be a blog about cats, if you get my meaning:

Why on earth would you need to read about how to make these things? Well, I found a tomato soup recipe that is unusually kickass. It’s from Bon Appetit and allegedly comes from Gramercy Tavern, which is a famous place with expensive food. So there. The grilled cheese was not from a famous place, and was made in the usual way:

Which was as good as usual. But anyway. The soup. Go follow the link if you want to make it the for realsies Tom Colicchio way. I changed a few minor things, in part because I misread the recipe. But whatever, here’s a good recipe for soup:

Tomato Soup

1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes

1 big onion

5-6 cloves of garlic, chopped

3 cups vegetable stock (or “Unchicken Stock” if you buy the organic shit for lazy people like I do because no, I don’t make my own stock because I am a horrible Sandra Lee-esque barbarian. People get so huffy if you buy your stock.)

half a stale baguette

olive oil

red pepper flakes

basil

parmesan cheese, with rind

soft cheese, I used goat

Okay, so chop up the onion, put it in a pot with a tablespoon or so of olive oil, and sweat it until it’s really soft. While it’s doing that, put the oven to 300, cut the baguette into chunks, and toss with olive oil and half of the chopped garlic. You just need enough olive oil to kind of coat the bread, not make it soggy or anything. Pop the croutons on a cookie sheet and into the oven they go–20 minutes or until they’re brown-ish and crouton-y.

Meanwhile, when your onions are soft, dump the rest of the chopped garlic in, cook for a minute, then add the stock and the tomatoes with juices. The original recipe said to use diced tomatoes. This is probably wise. Everyone always says tomato seeds make sauce bitter. I’ve never found this to be true, but perhaps my palate is shitty. I did not seed the tomatoes, and I bought the whole ones entirely by mistake. At this time, add a few chopped basil leaves and about 1/4-1/2 cup grated parmesan. I also threw in the rind, which was very good. Oh and a couple of shakes of red pepper flakes, more if you want it spicy.

Cook that for 15 minutes or so, then stick blend it to relatively smooth and cook until it’s as thick as you like it. When it’s thick enough, take it off and season with salt and pepper. Your croutons are probably done by now. You can make the grilled cheese if you’re eating grilled cheese. Serve the soup on top of a few croutons, garnished with basil chiffonade and a blob of whatever cheese you’re using. I put a sliced cherry tomato on top in an attempt to make it pretty, but it didn’t really do much. That’s all! Thanks, Gramercy Tavern. I suspect your version is much better.

For bento, I put the soup over some rice, which you can’t see here but which I think will be tasty when I eat it in a minute:

This is dinner from Wednesday night. It is this awesome goat cheese stuffed tomato fondue from the Times (made by Frank, isn’t it lovely) and the white bean tomato salad that I suspect has been affected by a gypsy curse. And not the kind that gives you a soul so that you can go around doing good deeds and feeling remorse for your years as a brutal vampire. More like the kind where stupid fucking bean salad doesn’t taste the way I want it to.

I keep trying to make this white bean and roasted tomato salad into something I like and it keeps not working quite right. Last time, if you’ll recall, I used a recipe from another blog that didn’t really work for me. This time, I found the source recipe and changed the stuff I didn’t like about it and it still didn’t turn out quite right. So I dunno. Why tell you about a recipe that didn’t work? Uh, I guess I’m bored. Just go ahead and skip it if you want.

What I changed was that I used thinly-sliced caramelized onions in place of the cipolline (which I just don’t really like for some reason. Biting into a slimy blob of onion rubs me the wrong way.) I used sweet 100s and Sungolds for the cherry tomatoes, which are supposed to be really sweet, plus some heirloom slices topped with garlic and olive oil and roasted with thyme. And I added some lemon juice and parsley. Still, though, it tasted flat. Maybe because I used canned beans? Too much acid? Not enough acid? Muh?

Maybe I just will never like this recipe, but that’s fucked up because I love roasted tomatoes, I love bean salad things, and I love cooked onions, so what’s the problem? Anyway, it wasn’t awful or anything. Just not really worth all the time and eight bricks of gold bullion that the tomatoes cost at the market.

At least it makes my bentos look slightly less boring. Yes, those are two nearly identical lunches. Fuck it, man, not everything can be a masterpiece. Sheesh.

Sorry. Lately my bentos have not been very visually exciting, in part because I want lots of the same food because it turned out so good. This is one of my favorite couscous recipes. I didn’t take pictures  because I didn’t feel like it. Also I figured you could just read the recipe. Although if you’re interested, I do substitute garam masala for curry powder, coat the veggies in garam masala before roasting, and triple the amount of spice in the curry water. But anyway.

Part of the reason I didn’t feel like it is that for the past couple of days this little asshole:

has been clawing his way out the window through the air conditioner and getting free. We live in a place with dangerous other animals and cars and people and feline HIV and he really can’t be an outside cat. Stupid cat. Though I think we finally worked out a good system. Which is to not have an air conditioner. Sigh.

We made Korean food this weekend, which I learned from my friend JB who is not only smart, but half Korean. I cheated and used a mix for the pancake ’cause I worried that I wouldn’t know how to make it, but I probably would’ve been ok. My favorite part of Korean food is all the little free stuff they bring you beforehand–panchan, apparently–so I bought pickles and kimchee and crap at the Korean market (32nd and Broadway, by the way.)

So actually basically I didn’t have to do much of anything. Combine the mix with water, stir in some scallions, pour some in a pan with oil, top with chopped seafood. In this instance, I used chopped up shrimps and clams. Press down with a wooden spoon to make sure all the parts get cooked. Medium heat for 6-8 minutes. Flip, cook another 6-8 minutes, then you are done.

The dipping sauce–which is pretty much essential–is 2 Tsps. soy sauce, 2 Tbs. rice vinegar, 1 tsp. sugar, a splash of sesame oil, and some red pepper flakes. We also made fake bahn mi with toasted baguette topped with mushrooms, mayo, jalapenos, pickled radishes, cilantro, and whatever other stuff. And that is all. I made WAY too much pancake accidentally because I don’t know why, it should’ve been obvious that I made way too much. But it was delicious so it was okay, I guess. We’ve got shitloads of leftovers so bentos should be easy this week.

PS: Here I present the bento of leftovers, including Korean food, chickpea salad, homemade babaganouj, chopped salad (we made Mediterranean food on Friday,) and Chinese takeout:

Chilaquiles are brunch food, to my mind. If you’ve never had them, they’re sort of like migas only different. Looking for a recipe, I realized that there are about a million different ones, with lots of regional variations, some with eggs and some without. It seems the only real requirements are the you put stale tortillas in hot sauce, and that you use up leftovers. If you read this weekend’s post, you know that we’ve got lotsa Mexican food odds and ends, so chilaquiles seemed like a good choice. Kind of a breakfast for dinner thing, though not if you’ve never had them before, I guess. Anyway. Onward.

Chilaquiles

So like I said, they’re a way of using up leftovers, so don’t go out and buy anything, just put what you have in there. What I like is a layer of beans, a layer of tortillas fried in chilified hot sauce, then cooked with egg, and a topping of vegetables and cheese and whatever. For the sauce I used

A few spoonfuls of the rub from the other day

handful of cilantro

whatever peppers I had leftover from accidentally misunderstanding anchos, seeds in

water

tabasco

chopped onion

tomatoes (I only had one hanging around, but ideally you’d have a few)

I threw it all in a container, stick blended it into a liquid, adjusted the spice and water amounts to taste, then I was done. You can start the beans now. Cook them however you like beans.
Next, you want to get some old, dried out corn tortillas and cut them in quarters. Each person will probably eat two or three tortillas, or eight to twelve quarters. Fry them in oil just like we did the other day, then put them out to cool. Dump out most of the oil, but save a little bit. Heat it up again and pour in the hot sauce. Cook it for five minutes or so, until it looks less bright and “fresh” and has sort of combined into a paste. Not too pasty, though! Throw in the chips and mush them around. It’s okay to break them up–just mix them around until they’ve softened and absorbed the sauce. When they are good and saucy, crack in some eggs, one and a half or two per person. Cook the eggs by mixing them around, so that you now have saucy, eggy chips in a pile (see above.) These will taste goooood.

Now all that’s left is assembly. Chilaquiles are easy, dude. That is part of why they are so good. Easy and cheap. Anyway, get a bowl or plate, put down some beans, then a scoop of egg-sauce-chip mixture, then top with whatever you’ve got. I had radishes, cabbage, cilantro, crumbly fresh cheese, the fake crema we made the other day, salsa verde, and tabasco. Then eat. You will not have leftovers. Feel free to make them for brunch too. Wha-eva.

So because of no leftovers, I had to make all new food for the bento. Which was ok. Voila:

Sometimes I get a craving for eggplant. Eggplant is one of those foods that if you are anywhere in the meat-denying spectrum, you learn to be cautious about. Portabello mushrooms, also. Because they can be really really really good, but they can also be awful, and more often than not what you get it dry, tough, chewy, mealy, disgusting “grilled eggplant.” Like on a sandwich with some oily, tough, “marinated roasted peppers” and a slab of flavorless mozzarella. Eat up, fellas, it’s a delicious roasted veggie sandwich! Yum!

Seriously, I honestly think that some meat eaters think, “Well, I love meat but these people won’t eat it, so clearly they like everything that is bad. I will give them bad food because ipso facto they will like it.” Anyway, so eggplant can be awesomely delicious, particularly in its Asian-ish incarnation. Here’s how me and Frank made these completely inauthentic yet toothsome hot and sour eggplants.

Hot and Sour Eggplant

4-5 small eggplants, cubed

Bunch of scallions, thinly sliced

2 Tbs. red wine vinegar

2 tsps. honey

2 tsps. corn starch

a few squirts of sriracha

3 Tbs. soy sauce (though I used tamari cause we were out)

1 minced jalapeno, seeded and stemmed

2 minced garlic cloves

chunk of ginger, minced

glug of sesame oil

vegetable oil

sesame seeds for sprinkling

Coat the eggplant chunks in salt and let sit for a half hour. I always thought this step was bullshit, but then I saw a Good Eats about eggplants and now I understand science, so don’t skip the draining part. After a half hour, wash off the salt and dry the eggplants.

In one bowl, combine the aromatics: garlic, ginger, jalapeno, and the white parts of the scallions. In another bowl whisk together the soy, honey, hot sauce, corn starch, vinegar, and sesame oil to make the sauce. Don’t stick your finger in it and taste it (Frank) because the corn starch will make it taste awful. Don’t worry. When it cooks it becomes normal.

In a wok, heat up some vegetable oil. Cook your aromatics, stirring rapidly to prevent burning, for about 30 seconds or until they are fragrant. Add the eggplant. Cook until it is soft enough for you. It took longer than I expected, but then again, I like my eggplant really soft. When it is just about done, throw in the sauce (stir it right before to get any corn starch that may have settled) and stir it around until it coats the eggplant. This should only take about 1 minute or so.

Serve over rice, topped with the green scallion parts and sesame seeds. I was so excited to eat that I didn’t take a picture, but you can look at the bento version:

Pulled tuna leftovers:

This has gotta be the best bento I’ve ever eaten, plus the awesome stripey pattern. Then, today’s bento, which was meh.

We were going to have a big bar-be-que with whatever people were left for the holiday and make pulled pork and all manner of stuff, but Frank pussied out. So instead we lied to all of our friends about being unable to find any pork butt and made these tacos. It all turned out for the best, though, because they were fucking awesome.

We made everything by hand–homemade chips, two kinds of salsa, pulled tuna with homemade chipotle rub, crema sauce, mexican corn, tons of deliciousness. I used this recipe for the tuna. It says to use bonito but I couldn’t find any so I used yellowfin. The first step was to make the rub.

Chipotle Rub

From Bon Appetit (epicurious, actually,) from La Parilla: The Mexican Grill. This makes an assload of rub, but it’s yummy and can go on anything you want to grill.

1/4 cup dried Mexican oregano

1/4 corn oil

5 dried chipotle peppers, seeded

5 ancho chilies, seeded

25 garlic cloves

1.5 cups coarse salt

Here’s something funny: we found a new grocery store right next our house that we’d never been to. Weird, right? It was really good and really cheap. I couldn’t find lots of the rub stuff and it was all right there. Big ol’ bag of Mexican oregano for $.99. Also? I learned that ancho chilies are, by definition, dried. Which explains why I couldn’t find any at the farmers’ market. Anyway, the recipe. Toast the oregano in a dry pan until brown and fragrant, then cool. Pour in oil, fry the peppers quickly until they puff up and brown but don’t burn.

PS: wear gloves with all pepper handling. Cool peppers on a paper towel. In a spice grinder, first grind the oregano, then all the peppers. Dump in a food processor with the garlic and salt. Process. It should come out kind of sandy. If it seems too wet, dry it with the oven on warm.

Whew.

The next step was making the salsas. These I just kind of winged. The salsa verde had tomatillos, lime juice, cilantro, salt, and some hungarian wax pepper I bought because I thought maybe they were ancho peppers. I pureed all of it with my cool stick blender. Done.

The pico de gallo had diced tomatoes, onion, poblanos (again, I thought they might be anchos. I should’ve looked it up, I know,) jalapenos (gloves!) and tomatillo, plus salt, cilantro, and lime juice. You can really just make it to taste.

The chips were old corn tortillas that Frank fried up in some oil. The end.

The tuna was cut into strips, soaked in 2 Tbs. rub, 2 Tbs. lime juice, and 1/4 cup olive oil for an hour or so, then put on the grill in one of those little baskets until the outside was brown-ish and the inside was done. The recipe said medium rare, but I think our fire was too weak because by the time the outside was good, the inside was well done, which normally I hate with tuna but was good all shredded up.

Next, shred the tuna with a fork. Now that’s done. The Mexican corn is just corn on the cob, cooked on the grill, slathered with crema (which I couldn’t find so 1 part mayo, 1 part sour cream, squeeze of lime shake of salt) and rolled in crumbly cheese. You can sprinkle it with chili powder after.

And that’s it. We served it all with grill-warmed tortillas, some leftover corn salad, radishes, slivered cabbage, the rest of the crema, hot sauce, cilantro, and all kinds of crap. It was very good. Better than pulled pork for my money, anyway.

One of our interns, Josie, had her last day on Friday. It was sad. It is sad to see interns go, because they are nice. We had a weird little brunch celebration thing, because we get out at 1 during the summer on Fridays. Last Friday was the last summer Friday, which was also sad. We mourned by drinking beer all afternoon.

Anyway, so I made a frittata thing that our remaining intern insisted on calling a flotilla because she had reached her limit on knowing words with double consonants or something. I dunno. Poets, you know?

I based it off this recipe but I changed some stuff to use more of what’s all ripe and tasty at the market, so I’ll write out what I did. Baked eggs are not exactly string theory but whatever, I think it turned out nicely.

Flotilla for Josie

7 eggs

2 ears corn, dekerneled

1 potato, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 or 3 green onions, chopped, green and white bits separate

1/2 regular onion, diced

flavorful cheeses: I used some goat and some parmesan

basil, or green herb of your preference, chopped

salt, pepper, red pepper flakes

tomato confit (2 or 3 tomatoes, thyme, olive oil)

farmer’s cheese

Heat oven to 400. Slice tomatoes, put in glass baking dish with thyme springs, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and throw into the oven to roast. Meanwhile, chop all the stuff. Then heat some oil in a 12 inch pan, cook onions, garlic, and white part of green onions until soft, add potatoes, cook until they’re soft. I covered the pan and had to add some water. When they’re soft, add the corn kernels for just a minute or so.

Crack eggs in a bowl, whisk. Add herbs, green scallion bits, cheeses, shredded or crumbled as is appropriate for their kind, and salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. The original recipe says to add salt “to taste” which is annoying because who is going to taste raw eggs for salinity? The first time I made this, I oversalted, the second time, I undersalted. A lot depends on the type and amount of your cheese, I think. I’d guess somewhere in the vicinity of 1-2 tsps.

Dump the cooked stuff in with the eggs and stir. Wipe out the pan. Heat up another bit of oil, and pour the eggs in the pan. Cook on medium for 5-7 minutes, until the edges are standing up a bit and you can shake it in the pan. Crank up the broiler and broil for a minute or two, until it’s toasty and cooked through.

Whenever the tomatoes are all soft and juicy and delicious, take them out. Scoot the frittata onto a plate, then flip it over using another plate, so it looks like a little hill. Top with tomato slices, and dot with farmer’s cheese. Serve with salt. Make sure to explain to everyone about the salt before they try it, so they don’t think you’re a moron.

Bye Josie! We’ll miss you! Also: bento: