Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Chinese Cuisine’ Category

After watching Ken Hom on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen, I had to chuckle a little.. He was showing James Martin his trick to making perfect rice and egg fried rice. Both tips were ones my mother taught me growing up!

The best way to make fluffy white rice is to put the rice in a pot or rice cooker and fill the water above the rice up to the first line on your index finger. Fill the water and sift it a bit to flatten it. Then put your finger into the middle and touch the rice. The water should come up to the first line. If using a pot, bring it to a boil and reduce the heat to a very low simmer (covered) for about 15 minutes. Take it off the heat, fluff the rice and leave it covered. If using a rice cooker, fluff it when the cook light changes to warm. Then put the lid back on and it’s done when it has stopped steaming.

So the trick that Ken Hom said was exactly what my mom has always taught me – use cold rice to make the best fried rice. (here’s a link to my fried rice post) His rice was a bit simpler than I normally make.. But what I prefer to do is soften chopped onion or shallot in butter and a bit of oil. Then add the rice in straight from the fridge or freezer. Add a knob of butter and heat the rice through. When it starts to warm up, add a few dashes of soy sauce and black pepper. If you want egg in it, I prefer to make a little well in the middle of the pan and add the lightly scrambled egg (seasoned s&p). Gently push the egg until it sets a little then mix it into the rice. OR you can serve it with a perfectly fried runny egg with some Maggi sauce!

Hope you find fried rice as easy as I do :-) I’m happy to answer any questions any time!

Read Full Post »

I find it amusing that this is my third post (there will be one more) about my 7-day trip to New York. Clearly I eat a lot. I’ll admit I went a little overboard. This is what happens when you’re a foodie and you’re deprived of New York. Thank goodness for the good weather while I was there and all the walking to offset it.

As promised, I’m writing about the rest of the comfort foods I enjoyed on my trip. (Please see previous post for comments on comfort food, if you haven’t already) Almost all of the places in this post were favorites of mine when I was living in the city.  And I was absolutely delighted to find that nothing had changed. Quality, ambiance, staff – everything was exactly as I had remembered it. That’s something I adore about New York. When New Yorkers find a good thing, they make sure it sticks around for a long time. There’s a loyalty that seems to be inherent in the city. Once you find your favorite bar or favorite brunch place (what have you), you will be damn sure to go there as frequently as possible.

A quick note on the foods I’m about to share. They’re not in chronological order. And they’re in completely different categories of goodness. So please take each into consideration on its own. If you think about them all at once, the combination isn’t entirely pleasant. :-)

First up – ZAITZEFF.

This place has great memories for me because it was literally around the corner from where I used to live in the Financial District. It was one of the first places I ate at when I moved to the city. And like all great neighborhood joints, I grew to have a really friendly rapport with the chef whose name I could never remember. Most importantly though, the food was TO-DIE-FOR.

Zaitzeff is a burger joint. It’s a hole in the wall with only a couple large wooden (park-bench-esk) tables. The one downtown seems to cater mainly to professionals who order delivery or only have time for take-out. But this means that the main focus is the quality of the food. Just take a look at what Serious Eats had to say (they agree with me).

This trip I wasn’t able to visit Zaitzeff at a respectable burger-eating-hour, so I went for breakfast. Don’t be mistaken. Their breakfast sandwiches sure beat any Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts sandwich any day. And their secret – what I have never had anywhere else – is the bun. A Portuguese roll. It’s like an English muffin but lighter and with a slight sweetness to it. I had a very simple egg and cheese sandwich but it was SO fluffy and really hit the spot. However, I left a little sad that I didn’t get a chance to have my favorite – the ½ pound Kobe burgers served PERFECTLY medium rare and juicy with caramelized onions, Vermont white cheddar, avocado, lettuce, tomato and bacon. But I borrowed one of the pictures from Serious Eats to share with all of you. I don’t want to go into too much detail about this burger since there’s much to talk about this post, but I do want to emphasize that in addition to the fantastic rolls this place uses grass-fed beef which makes the taste and quality of this burger THAT much better. So if you ever venture into the Financial District or East Village (this one’s open late), I highly recommend!

(CLICK FOR MORE…)

Read Full Post »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.