Hummingbird Appetite

Thoughts on blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 02:41:00 +0000

Blogging about food was the catalyst for me to go to culinary school, and now I don't blog anymore. I used to be one of those people who took photos of food every time I ate out just for the purpose of throwing it on my blog. It drove my husband crazy. He just wanted to eat, and I wanted to document what I was about to eat. When I had an office job, I used to blog every day about whatever I cooked. I'd take photos of dinner using my DSLR camera and the food would get cold. Now, if I feel like it, I snap a photo of food with my phone, send it to Facebook or Instagram and call it a day.

I think I know what changed. I cook for customers every day. I'm on my feet all the time. I don't want to spend time in front of a computer, thinking of words to put on a screen. I don't want to look at dozens of photos of food and edit them. On my days off, I head to the farmers' market, buy the sweetest berries and the plumpest vegetables and head home. If I need herbs, I pick off the largest leaves from my basil plant or snip off thyme or tarragon from the potted plants on my back patio. On Wednesday nights, my husband and I sit down to eat dinner. I don't analyze. I don't adjust my lighting. I just dig in.

As for deleting the blog, I'm not ready for that yet. I'm still going to keep it up. So, if you happen upon this website, feel free to browse.

- Jenny Lee-Adrian

Bocuse d'Or USA finals

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:07:00 +0000

Hi! Check out the post I wrote for SeriousEats.com on the 2012 Bocuse d'Or USA finals:

Snapshots from Bocuse d'Or USA Finals

Richard Rosendale, executive chef of The Greenbrier in West Virginia, won the competition. He will represent the United States in the Bocuse d'Or World Competition in Lyon, France in 2013. The Bocuse d'Or is one of the most prestigious culinary contests in the world.

Rose Weiss, a graduate of The International Culinary Center's French Culinary Institute, won the Bocuse d'Or USA Foundation's First Ever Commis Competition on Saturday, Jan. 28th. Here's the post I wrote about her on the school's blog:

Recent Graduate Rose Weiss Wins First Ever Bocuse d'Or USA Commis Competition

Just a Note

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:37:00 +0000

Hi!

I know I've been away for quite a while. Two weeks ago, I started working as a line cook at The Mark Restaurant by Jean-Georges. It's my first real restaurant job. I'll be on hiatus, while I focus on my job.

- Jenny

Note: After a year at The Mark, I now work at another restaurant. (9/24/2012)

La Crosse County Farmers Market, WI

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 04:47:00 +0000

Baby bok choy

Back home visiting my parents in Wisconsin, I get restless a lot. Last Saturday, I headed to the La Crosse County Farmers Market, curious about what I'd find. I hadn't visited the market since I was a teenager.

There were a lot of vendors. In New York City, I've gotten so used to seeing vendors crammed into one space. But here in the Midwest, plenty of farmers set up a tent in a large parking lot.

I browsed a booth that had embroidered purses and decorations made by Hmong-Americans. Most of the farmers at the market were Hmong. La Crosse is home to many Hmong residents. In the late 1970s and 1980s, Hmong refugees from Laos who had helped U.S. troops during the Vietnam War came to the United States. Many of them resettled in Wisconsin, Minnesota and California.

Strangely enough, each farmer had the same produce. I walked past green beans, radishes, beets, spring onions, rhubarb and peas only to see the same produce arranged at another booth.

I had never seen amaranth before at a farmers market. A girl at the booth explained most customers use it like lettuce.

I saw a woman stuff a garbage bag full of squash vines.

Rhubarb was everywhere.

I love shiitake mushrooms. Normally, I'll just saute them and season them with salt and pepper.

I got a bouquet for my mother.

I can never have enough garlic.

La Crosse County Farmers' Market
When: Saturdays 6 am to 1 pm, June through October
Where: Downtown La Crosse in County parking lot between 3rd and 4th streets and Vine and State streets (map)

Pickled Sour Cherries

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:55:00 +0000

Ever since I bought a cherry pitter, I feel a strange sense of satisfaction watching pits ping into a bowl. A few weeks back, I bought a bunch of sour cherries from Samascott Orchards, of Kinderhook, N.Y., at my neighborhood greenmarket. I wanted to pickle the cherries just to see what they tasted like.

I pickled the cherries with white vinegar, sugar, black peppercorns and bay leaves. The cherries weren't overly sour, but had a pleasant undertone of sweetness. I saved the pits, boiling them later with a cup of water to make juice. (I use the juice to flavor smoothies.) You don't necessarily have to can them since the cherries last for a year if refrigerated. But I don't have a lot of room in my refrigerator so I sealed them in jars. I used the pickled cherries in a salad with Boston lettuce and toasted walnuts, seasoning the salad with white balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Pickled Sour Cherries

Adapted from David Lebovitz who adapted it from Chez Loulou

Makes about 2 pints

1 pound sour cherries, rinsed, stemmed and pitted
1 cup white vinegar
2/3 cup water
8 oz. sugar
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
4 bay leaves

If canning, sterilize 2 pint jars by putting them on a plate or rack inside an 8-quart or 12-quart pot and filling the pot with cold water to cover the jars. Bring to a boil and heat the jars for at least 10 minutes. Leave them in the water bath until ready to use. Put the metal lids and rings in a bowl and set aside.

Bring vinegar, water, sugar, peppercorns and bay leaves to a boil. Cook until sugar is dissolved. Shut off heat and add the cherries. Ladle cherries and pickling liquid into the 2 jars.

If not canning the cherries, let the jars come to room temperature and store in the refrigerator. The cherries will keep for at least a year.

Otherwise, ladle water from the hot water bath over the lids to soften the rubber seals on them. Ladle the cherries and pickling liquid into the sterilized jars. Wipe the rims with a wet paper towel. Screw the lids on finger-tight and place the jars in the water bath for at least 10 minutes. Pull out the jars, putting them on a towel or trivet. You will hear the lids pop after several minutes, indicating the jars have sealed. Let the jars cool. After the first hour, if the center of the jars can be pushed up and down, then the jars have not sealed and they need to be refrigerated.

Print recipe

Adventures in canning: Strawberries

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:20:00 +0000

Strawberry preserves

When strawberries flooded the farmers' markets, I was determined to make them last as long as I could. I diced up strawberries to make jam, and left the fruit whole to make preserves. Since I live so close to a weekly farmers' market, I wanted to preserve the seasons, taking advantage of all the beautiful produce I saw. Come winter, when I crave strawberries (not the bland jumbo strawberries from the store), I can open a jar of homemade jam.

For a few weekends in a row, I went on a jamming spree, buying a lot of strawberries and rhubarb. Not from a family who made jam, I used recipes from Canning for a New Generation by Liana Krissoff. But after tasting my preserves, someone mentioned to me how "watery" the preserves were. I searched the Internet for other jam recipes until I read about Eugenia Bone who writes the Well-Preserved blog for The Denver Post.

I figured out why my first few jams were so thin: 1) I needed more sugar and 2) I needed to bring the fruit and sugar to a hard boil.

Krissoff's recipes have a low-sugar content and call for simmering the fruit until it's supposed to thicken. That doesn't work. You really need to boil the fruit and sugar together until a candy thermometer reads 220 degrees F and the jam will gel. (If you live at a different altitude than sea level, the National Center for Home Food Preservation has more information about what temperature you need to boil your jam to.)

Now that I knew how to fix the problem, I made strawberry jam with much better results.

Strawberry Jam

Makes about 3 half-pints

2 pounds strawberries, washed, hulled and diced
3 cups sugar
Zest and juice of 1 lemon

If canning, sterilize jars by putting them on a plate or rack inside an 8-quart or 12-quart pot and filling the pot with cold water to cover the jars. Bring to a boil and heat the jars for at least 10 minutes. Leave them in the water bath until ready to use. Put the lids and rings in a bowl and set aside. Place a small plate in the freezer to test the consistency of the jam later.

Heat strawberries and sugar over low heat in a 5 to 6-quart enameled pot. Stir occasionally until the sugar has melted and the fruit is swimming in its own juice, about 15 minutes. Add zest and juice of 1 lemon. Bring mixture to a hard boil, stirring occasionally. Cook until the berries and their juice have thickened and the temperature on a candy thermometer reads 220 degrees F*, about 30-40 minutes. Skim off any foam. To test the consistency of the jam after 30 minutes, take out the plate from the freezer and place a teaspoon of jam on it. If the jam gels after a minute, it's done. If not, keep cooking the jam until it gels.

If not canning the jam, let the jam come to room temperature, about 4-6 hours, and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Otherwise, ladle water from the hot water bath over the lids to soften the rubber seals on them. Ladle the jam into the sterilized jars. Screw the lids on finger-tight and place the jars in the water bath for at least 10 minutes. Pull out the jars, putting them on a towel or trivet. You will hear the lids pop after several minutes, indicating the jars have sealed. (However, if the center of the lids can be pushed up and down, the jars have not sealed and need to be refrigerated.) Once sealed, let the jars come to room temperature and store.

*Note: For every 1,000 feet of altitude above sea level, subtract 2 degrees F from 220 degrees F.

Print recipe

Happy 4th of July!

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 17:33:00 +0000

Lee family circa 1977, a few years before I was born. My mother, father, 2 older brothers and grandmother.

Happy 4th of July!

Saveur BBQ Nation June/July 2011 issue

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 13:58:00 +0000

I flip through Saveur's BBQ Nation issue and I remember every recipe I tested. I added more coals to smoke the Barbecued Beef Brisket. I took the internal temperature of the Smoked Prime Rib With Peach-Chipotle Sauce. I poured barbecue sauce over the Burnt Ends and watched how that sauce became thicker and stickier as an hour went by. But mostly, I remember eating those juicy, fatty smoked meats.

I was really excited to test a recipe for Bibimbap, a Korean dish that happened to be the "Classic" feature for this issue. My mother made Bibimbap for me when I was a kid, arranging seasoned vegetables over a bed of rice and topping everything with an egg. The best part was breaking that beautiful arrangement and mixing in a spicy sauce with gochujang, or Korean red pepper paste.

My internship at Saveur ended last Monday. While I tested recipes for later issues, the June/July issue is the one I'm most proud of. Under the guidance of Saveur Kitchen Director Kellie Evans, I actually barbecued for the first time. I'm not talking about hamburgers on gas grills; I'm talking about smoke.

Be sure to pick up a copy!

Dinner with friends; Guinea pigs for a night

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 01:03:00 +0000

Baby Squid crostini with Sriracha mayonnaise, avocado and coconut caviar.

Be a guinea pig in exchange for dinner. That was the invitation my friend Jennifer Touchstone sent. Jennifer and Brandon (a classmate from culinary school) held a dinner Friday to try out 6 courses on several of us. We served as taste testers for a dinner the Touchstones may host later. Check out what we tried!

Mustard and dandelion greens with toasted almonds and fresh peas with a tahini, miso and maple syrup dressing.

Creamed corn amuse bouche with fresh fava beans and crispy bacon.

Agnolotti pasta filled with labne (strained yogurt) and peas with a crab cream sauce.

Porchetta, or pork slow-roasted over 10 hours, with a rhubarb sauce and pickled vegetables.

Baba (yeast cake) with macerated strawberries, mascarpone-honey icing and candied arugula.

One half of the cooking team.

Thanks for a great dinner. I'm stealing your candied arugula idea.

Little Giant's Strawberry Rhubarb Smash

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 18:50:00 +0000

Looking for a cocktail that combines strawberries and rhubarb? Then check out a post I wrote for SAVEUR's Friday Cocktails weekly column:
Strawberry Rhubarb Smash

The recipe for the drink comes from Little Giant, a restaurant in the Lower East Side of New York City.

Barbecue Rubs

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 16:51:00 +0000

Hi guys,

I've been super busy working as a test kitchen intern at SAVEUR for three months. I helped test recipes for BBQ Nation, the June/July 2011 issue. Here is a post I wrote on Barbecue Rubs:

10 Great Barbecue Dry Rubs You Ought to Know About

- Jenny

Macedonian crepes with garlic

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 18:32:00 +0000

When my friend Dejan Mileski said he was from Macedonia, I realized I knew nothing about the cuisine. Macedonia gained its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, but the Balkan cuisine has heavy Turkish influences. A visit to his home for a Macedonian meal a few months ago meant getting a slice of Pitulici So Luk, sort of a pie made with layered crepes soaked in garlic and olive oil. I polished off my slice in a snap.

Dejan Mileski

The first in his immediate family to come to the United States, Dejan said, "I wanted to accomplish something on my own here."

Dejan, 30, had always cooked. "I've basically been feeding my brother since I was nine years old," Dejan said.

In Macedonia, he attended a high school that offered a culinary degree. Dejan came to the United States in 2000. After settling in northern New Jersey, he opened a restaurant in 2005 and sold it five years later, leaving the long hours behind. He began working in a corporate cafeteria and opted to go to The French Culinary Institute where he was one of my classmates. He hopes to use the FCI degree to move up.

Dejan is one of those people who will drop everything to help you. He was my teammate during the last two months of school working at L'Ecole, The French Culinary Institute's restaurant. I know he'll go far.

To get the recipe, click here to see it on Serious Eats.

Graduation from culinary school!

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 02:22:00 +0000

Photo: Young K. Lee

It's been less than a week since I graduated from The French Culinary Institute on March 31st, and I still look at my photos over and over again. Graduation was bittersweet. My classmates and I became pretty close, getting together to study in Level 1 and hanging out after class ended late at night. We e-mailed class notes and text-messaged each other about cooking techniques. We gave one another pointers about how to make sure those lamb chops were medium rare for service at L'Ecole, and we talked about how to make agnolotti into perfect pasta pillows filled with herbed goat cheese.

To read the rest of the post on The Hot Plate, The French Culinary Institute's blog, click here.

P.S. I've been super busy. Last week, I ended my internship at SeriousEats.com, passed my final and graduated. This week, I started working as an intern in the Saveur test kitchen. I'm testing recipes for the magazine and I'm learning a lot!

Golden Shopping Mall, Flushing, NY

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 03:13:00 +0000

Duck with hand-pulled noodles in broth at Lanzhou Handmade Noodle in Golden Shopping Mall, Flushing, Queens.

A few years ago, when I walked through the streets of Insadong, a tourist neighborhood in Seoul, I had to stop in front of a window where a man made noodles by hand. He pulled long ropes of dough that split into strands. Since I live in New York City, I headed straight to Flushing, Queens to slurp handmade noodles again.

My friends Brandon and Jennifer came along with me to Golden Shopping Mall, which has two floors filled with stalls selling Chinese comfort food. With printouts of Serious Eats' comprehensive Golden Shopping Mall guide written by Lingbo Li, I knew where to go.

"Look! He's making noodles," Jennifer said, pointing to a cook pulling dough. "It's magical!"

"Yep," I said, nodding my head. "I've seen it in Korea."

"Don't act like you've seen this before," Jennifer said in mock disgust.

I got duck with hand-pulled noodles. I sucked on chunks of duck, tasting the salty Chinese ground bean sauce that gave the tender, juice duck much of its flavor. (I really need to learn how to make duck taste that savory.) The noodles were slightly chewy like I like them, and the broth just made it better.

Eel with hand-pulled noodles in broth; Brandon's choice.

Plenty of choices at Lanzhou Handmade Noodles.

Pork and chive fried dumplings from North-South Dumplings

We really wanted some dumplings, so I led the way to North-South Dumplings in the basement of the mall. The fried skin was thicker than I wanted it to be, but I loved biting into the pork and chive dumplings.

A cook made dumplings as customers ate.

You won't see the translated stall name as North-South Dumplings, but you'll see the display of dumplings. Point to photos of dumpling deals on the wall inside the stall to get what you want.

Golden Shopping Mall is a labyrinth of eateries. Tables and chairs are scarce, so stake out your space. Even if you don't speak Chinese, don't be afraid! Order by pointing at exactly what you want. Take your chopsticks and grasp some serious food.

Golden Shopping Mall (map)
41-28 Main Street
Flushing, Queens

Nearest subway stop:
Main Street, 7 train

L'Ecole Canape station: How to make one bite

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 04:34:00 +0000

[Pork and scallion dumpling with fried wonton strips Photo: Jaume Guerra]

One bite on a spoon can actually become a collaboration between five people. At L'Ecole's Canape station, my group had to come up with one amuse bouche for each person dining at the restaurant. My classmate Dejan had suggested making a dumpling. On our third day doing canapes (Feb. 25th), I brought in a recipe for pork dumplings that called for Fuji apples in the filling. As we prepared for service, the recipe morphed into something else.

Chef Scott suggested I use Asian pears instead of apples since the school had them in the storeroom. Sure, I thought. Why not? Dejan and Jaume cut into wonton wrappers with round molds to make the wrappers smaller. Since we had wonton scraps, Dejan thought we could fry them. Chef Scott suggested we julienne the scraps. Once those were cut, Jaume came back from the deep fryer with golden, crunchy strips.

To test the taste of the pork filling, we pulled off bits of filling and rolled them into five little meatballs. We steamed and tasted them. The pork filling definitely needed more salt. Dejan mixed the pork-and-scallion filling with his hands as I generously sprinkled in more Chinese five-spice and salt into the bowl. I dumped more minced ginger into the bowl. We steamed two little meatballs, and the taste was just right.

Since the dumplings needed sauce, I dissolved sugar in hot water before I added the mixture to soy sauce. (When I made Korean marinades for beef at home, the sugar would always settle to the bottom.) Dejan and I tasted the dipping sauce as we squeezed lime juice into it.

With one hour to go before service began at 8 p.m., I plopped filling onto wonton wrappers as fast as I could, while Jaume and Dejan molded the dumplings into tortellini. We steamed about 100 dumplings in the combi oven. I quickly minced chives for the garnish.

"Two canape!" Chef Ray, the expediter, called out.

"Two canape!" we echoed.

Jaume heated the dumplings in the oven, while I arranged two Chinese spoons on a cutting board. He hurried back from across the room to place dumplings on the spoons. I poured sauce over the dumplings, letting the sauce pool in the bottom of the spoons. As soon as he arranged the fried wonton strips on top of the dumplings, I sprinkled chives for the last garnish. Dejan ran the small plates to Chef Ray.

"It looks good, but does it taste good?" Chef Ray mused.

Since we had plenty of dumplings, we made amuse bouches for chefs Ray and Scott. They scooped the dumplings into their mouths. I waited until they nodded, tasting the cloves, anise and cinnamon of the Chinese five-spice powder, as well as the crunch of the cubed Asian pear inside the dumplings.

"It's good," Chef Ray said.

Our group made amuse bouches for everyone in our Level 6 class and the Level 5 class. The Chinese soup spoons became empty very quickly.

Out of all the canapes we made during the four days at this station, Katie's Bloody Mary cherry tomato with baby shrimp and tomato water foam was the most creative. She soaked cherry tomatoes in a mixture that tasted like Blood Marys and the taste was dead on.

[Photo: Jaume Guerra]

Jaume's amuse bouche was a deconstructed Spanish omelette. We baked potato discs in the oven. Then we made a savory sabayon. Chef Scott helped us make the potato foam. We pulverized potatoes in water in a blender and cooked the ground potatoes slowly. We added soy lecithin—a key ingredient to make bubbles—before we used an immersion blender to make foam.

Flushing Mall Grazing Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 01:58:00 +0000

Hand-pulled noodles with pork from Xi'an Famous Foods, Flushing Mall, New York

A week ago, I went to the Flushing Mall Grazing Experience, an instant buffet where people spent 10 bucks at the food court and shared the food with others. Jeff Orlick, of Jeffrey Tastes, organized the Feb. 19 event along with a $5 Chili Sauce Tasting Table.

Check out the photo slideshow post I did for Serious Eats. I'm an intern there. Click here to see Flickr-posted photos from those who went to the Grazing Experience.

Cinnamon tea with persimmons

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 05:18:00 +0000

At the end of a traditional Korean meal at a restaurant, I'd look forward to drinking cold, cinnamon-flavored tea garnished with pine nuts. The tea is called SujeongGwa. Cinnamon and ginger is steeped in water. Sugar is added and dried persimmons are allowed to soak until service. For my menu project (the major requirement in Level 5 in The French Culinary Institute's curriculum) I wanted to make the traditional tea as my dessert. Instead of adding dried persimmons to the recipe, I served fresh Fuyu persimmons with the tea.

Cinnamon tea with persimmons
Adapted from “Discovering Korean Cuisine” Edited by Allisa Park
Serves 8

13 cups water
2.5 ounces cinnamon sticks, rinsed
1 cup granulated sugar
3 ounces fresh ginger peeled and sliced into pieces

3 persimmons, pitted and sliced
pine nuts

Put cinnamon sticks and ginger in a large pot and add water. Heat until boiling, then reduce to a simmer and continue to cook with the lid closed for about one hour. Remove the cinnamon sticks and ginger. Add sugar and continue to cook for another 10 minutes, stirring a few times. Strain. Cool in an ice water bath and refrigerate. Garnish each cup of tea with 3 pine nuts. Serve with slices of persimmons.

Print recipe

Other dishes in my Menu Project:
Course 1: Banchan of stir-fried anchovies, seasoned cucumbers and kimchi
Course 2: Bulgogi Bibimbap (Korean marinated beef with vegetables over rice
Course 3: Porgie in Kimchi Bacon Broth
Course 4: Kalbi Jjim (Korean short rib stew)
Course 5: Roast duck stuffed with sweet rice and dried jujubes

Roast duck stuffed with sweet rice, dried jujubes, pumpkin seeds and golden raisins

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 18:23:00 +0000

The best roast duck I ever had was at The Ginkgo Tree, a Korean restaurant in Seoul. The duck was stuffed with sweet rice, black rice, dried jujubes (red dates) and pumpkin seeds. Then it was roasted on clay bricks. The meat was incredibly tender and all its juices settled into the stuffing. My husband and I had dinner there with Dan Gray, of Seoul Eats. (You may remember the post I wrote.) Thinking of that duck, I tried to recreate the dish at home. I included the dish in my Level 5 Menu Project as part of The French Culinary Institute's curriculum.

Since I roasted eight ducks for my Level 4 Asian-Latino Buffet at school, I had become an expert at making Chinese-style roast duck with crispy skin. At home, I brought pots of water up to a boil and poured the water over the ducks in a sink to render layers of fat. Then I dried out the ducks on racks in the refrigerator for two days. I made the sweet rice stuffing and put it in the cavity. After glazing the ducks with a honey and vinegar mixture, I roasted the ducks for two and a half hours and constantly basted them with the same mixture so the ducks turned a deep golden brown.

Stuffing

The duck I made was crispy and tender. The stuffing was savory with bits of duck meat, getting hits of sweetness from the golden raisins and dried jujubes.

My duck wasn't as fall-apart tender as The Ginkgo Tree. Their stuffing was totally drenched in duck juice.

A waitress was able to break apart the duck. Since it was roasted on clay bricks, the rice became crispy and stuck to the skin.

Even though my duck didn't come out exactly like the one in Seoul, it was still pretty tasty. I'd make it again.

Roast duck stuffed with sweet rice and jujubes
Serves 4

1 5-6 lb. Long Island ducks
2 quarts or 2 liters water

Honey glaze
15 ml or 1 tablespoon honey
30 ml or 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/4 cup or 60 ml water

Stuffing
268 g or 1 1/2 cups sweet brown rice
40 g or 1/4 cup sweet wild rice
820 ml or 3 1/3 cups water
75 g or 1 cup dried jujubes, pitted; then sliced
70 g or 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
50 g or 1/3 cup pine nuts
30 g or 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
50 g or 1/3 cup golden raisins
10 g or 1 tablespoon ginger, grated
15 ml or 1 tablespoon mirin
Salt to taste
Note: You will have a lot of leftover stuffing. Save for later. The amount of stuffing is more than enough for two ducks.

Bring water to a boil. Meanwhile, remove the wishbone and cut off the wing tips of the duck at the second joint. Place the duck on a rack in the sink. Pour the boiling hot water over the duck to render some layers of fat. Turn over the duck and pour more water over it.

Mix the honey, rice vinegar and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Glaze the duck with the mixture.

Lay parchment paper in a sheet pan. Fit a rack in the sheet pan and place the duck on it. Air-dry duck in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours.

For the stuffing:
Mix sweet brown rice and wild sweet rice. Cook in a rice cooker. If cooking on the stovetop, combine rice and water in a pot. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and cover. Simmer for about 15-17 minutes. If rice is chewy, continue to simmer until tender. Take off heat. Let sit for about five minutes. Fluff rice with a fork.

Add pitted jujubes, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, raisins, ginger and mirin. Season with salt.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Stuff the duck with the rice mixture. Roast the duck in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.

Serve the duck family style, carving and placing portions on each plate, along with the stuffing.

Print recipe

Other dishes in my Menu Project:
Course 1: Banchan of stir-fried anchovies, seasoned cucumbers and kimchi
Course 2: Bulgogi Bibimbap (Korean marinated beef with vegetables over rice
Course 3: Porgie in Kimchi Bacon Broth
Course 4: Kalbi Jjim (Korean short rib stew)

Snapshots: Working at L'Ecole

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:01:00 +0000

Alex heats up the rabbit terrine at the Saucier station at L'Ecole in Manhattan.

Two more months. That's all the time I have before I graduate. I'm already feeling nostalgic, looking back at our first day of cutting vegetables to feeling the heat from the burner. I'm in the last week of Level 5, working at L'Ecole, The French Culinary Institute's restaurant. Then we head into Level 6. I want to remember my classmates and the dishes we cooked for the public. Here are snapshots from working on the line.

Four classmates and I were responsible for assembling a vegetarian dish at the Entremetier station. Chef S wanted to make a vegetarian cassoulet. Baby artichokes, turnips and sunchokes were smoked, while baby carrots and red pearl onions were cooked separately. The vegetables were strategically placed on a bed of beans and mushrooms. The smoked vegetables made the dish taste like bacon. A front-of-house staffer told Chef S a diner who ate the dish refused to believe the cassoulet had no meat in it. Chef S chuckled when he heard the story.

Adela looks over the hangar steak with cucumber ribbons and pommes darphin (fried potato cake.)

Brandon finishes plating the rabbit terrine with grilled scallion, sauteed rabbit loin and potato fennel cake.

Wes puts brussels sprouts on a plate with smoked scallops.

With service over, we wait until Chef S allows us to go.

Healthy leftovers

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:09:00 +0000

Left to right: Back row Beans, Feta cheese, roasted peppers; Front row Smoked vegetables and Croutons

When I was in the Entremetier (vegetable) station at L'Ecole, The French Culinary Institute's restaurant, I was eating pretty healthy. I brought home a lot of leftovers. (We made vegetable plates, besides the meat specials). I lived on beans with smoked baby artichokes, turnips and Jerusalem artichokes. The dish tasted like bacon, but didn't have any bacon in it at all. I ate roasted peppers with Feta cheese. As a snack, I munched on croutons (which were toasted in clarified butter but whatever). It was a good run of being healthy and it fulfilled one of my New Year's resolutions to eat more vegetables.

Dario Cecchini: Famous Butcher of Panzano

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 01:54:00 +0000

I first heard about Dario Cecchini, the butcher of Panzano, from Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations Tuscany episode. Constantly quoting Dante, Cecchini is crazy for meat. Then I read about Cecchini in one of my favorite books Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford. I knew if I ever visited Italy again I'd go straight to Cecchini's butcher shop and restaurants and take in all his wonderful meat. But on January 24th, I had my chance to see him. Cecchini did a butchery demo at The International Culinary Center, the home of my school The French Culinary Institute. Cecchini is so enthusiastic about butchery that his happiness is infectious. He said we shouldn't think of beef as just a bunch of steaks. We need to think about using the whole animal. I took photos and wrote a post for Serious Eats.

Click here to see the slideshow.

Porgie in Kimchi Bacon Broth

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:27:00 +0000

Since I've made so much kimchi for my Level 5 Menu Project, I decided to poach fish in a broth made with kimchi. Porgie in Kimchi Bacon Broth is the third course in my menu project that I turned in a couple weeks ago.

I had made the broth with kimchi, kochujang (Korean red pepper paste) and kochukaru (Korean red pepper powder), but the broth was missing something. It tasted thin. I had some bacon in my fridge, so I dropped it in. The bacon instantly gave the broth depth. I cooked porgie fillets in the liquid and ate the fish for dinner.

Porgie in Kimchi Bacon Broth

Serves 4

4 porgie or bass fillets
salt
freshly ground pepper

for Dashi stock
1 pieces kombu or dried kelp (roughly 3 inches by 5 inches) Size is not crucial.
20 anchovies, each one 8-9 cm long (3 inches long)
1 liter or 1 quart

for Kimchi Bacon broth
all of the Dashi stock
100 g or 3.5 ounces kimchi, chopped
10 ml kimchi juice
1 teaspoon kochujang, Korean red pepper paste
1 tablespoon kochukaru, Korean red pepper powder
2 slices smoked bacon
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon water

for garnish
1 carrot, peeled, julienne
1/4 Daikon radish (200 g/7 ounces), peeled, julienne
1 scallions, sliced diagonally
salt
1 tablespoon butter
water as needed

For dashi stock:
Remove heads and guts of anchovies. Bring 1 liter water to a simmer. Rinse the dried kelp. Turn off the heat and drop the kelp in the water. Let it steep for 10 minutes. Then discard the kelp.

Drop the anchovies in the water. Bring to a simmer and continue to simmer for 30 minutes. Skim off any foam. Strain the stock. Use as the soup base for the broth.

For the Kimchi Bacon broth:
Add the chopped kimchi, kimchi juice, kochujang, and kochukaru to the dashi stock. Bring to a boil. Then add the bacon. Blanch until the broth is fully flavored. Strain.

Season fillets with salt and pepper. Lay 4 fillets in a large pan. Fill the pan with kimchi broth until the broth is halfway up the fillets. Cover with a lid. Or, cut parchment paper in a circle to cover the pan. Then cut a hole in the middle of the parchment paper. Cover fish with the parchment paper lid. Bring broth to a simmer. Cook fish until done.

Set fish aside and cover with parchment paper to prevent the fish from drying out.

Add more broth to the saute pan. Keep the heat at medium. Make a slurry by mixing the corn starch and water together in a small bowl. Add a little bit of the broth to your slurry. Then add the entire mixture to the brother in the saute pan. Whisk the broth so the corn starch is fully incorporated into the broth, which should thicken slightly.

For the garnish:
Lay julienned carrots and Daikon radish in a saute pan. Add a tablespoon of butter. Fill the pan with water until it reaches halfway up the carrots and radish. Cover vegetables with a lid. Or, cut parchment paper in a circle to cover the pan. Then cut a hole in the middle of the parchment paper. Cover vegetables with the parchment paper lid. Cook until tender.

For serving:
Place each fillet in a shallow bowl. Ladle broth around each fillet. Garnish with carrots, Daikon and scallions.

Print recipe

Other courses in my Menu Project:

Course 1: Banchan of stir-fried anchovies, seasoned cucumbers and kimchi

Course 2: Bulgogi Bibimbap (Korean marinated beef with vegetables over rice
Course 4: Kalbi jjim (Korean short rib stew)

Tournage: Carving vegetable bullets

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 20:05:00 +0000

Tournage isn't something I do every day i.e. carve carrots, Daikon radish and potatoes into vegetable bullets. At the time, I was testing the Korean short rib stew recipe for my Menu Project at school. Tournage is the French technique for turning vegetables into similar shapes for even cooking and elegant presentation. It had been a pain learning the technique. You had to cut a vegetable to a manageable size, hold the vegetable wedge in one hand and turn it as you cut outward curves into the flesh. Hopefully, you'd be left with a rounded post with seven sides. Your dominant hand would become gnarled from holding a paring knife so tightly, and you'd have difficulty opening and closing your hand. After carving 24 little torpedoes, I felt pretty proud of myself. And yet, I don't think I will ever do that again.

Editor's pick on food52!

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 22:40:00 +0000

Hi!

My Korean short rib stew with dried jujubes and chestnuts was named as one of the "Editor's picks" on food52.com! I entered the recipe for the site's Short Ribs contest. I wasn't a finalist, but it's still an honor!

Check it out!

http://www.food52.com/blog/1584_editors_picks_short_ribs

- Jenny

Fire a steak!

noreply@blogger.com (Hummingbird Appetite) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:07:00 +0000

Hangar steak with pommes darphin, cauliflower-bone marrow puree and cucumber ribbons

The heat from the burner pinched my face.

I seared three hangar steaks. The oil sputtered as I turned the steaks to brown all sides. I put the steaks in the oven. The ones on the left and the middle of the sizzle platter would be medium rare---five minutes in the oven. The one on the right would be medium---seven minutes. I seared three more steaks and placed them in the oven. I tried to imprint in my mind: the one on the right would be medium well, nine minutes; the other two would be medium, seven minutes.

My group had switched to Saucier, the meat station, at L’Ecole, The French Culinary Institute’s restaurant. Mark and Alejandro were gone for this class. But Chef S let Henry fill in because he had worked at the Saucier station the last four classes.

The general rule was three minutes for rare and then an increase of two minutes for any temperature above that. But because Christopher and I kept opening and closing the oven, I usually had to cook the steaks longer.

After several minutes, I pulled three steaks out and poked them. They were too soft. I put them back in the oven. When they were done, I put them on the racks above me. The goal was to have steaks for all pending orders resting on racks before the expediter called for them. Then I could reheat the steaks in the oven and Henry could plate the dish.

Level 6 students who were one level higher than we were cooked duck breasts and pork chops. My classmate Christopher was responsible for the rabbit terrine. Shredded rabbit had been placed in a mold lined with strips of bacon. While Christopher just had to reheat a terrine, a grilled scallion and a potato fennel cake for an order, I had to make sure each steak was at the right level of doneness, as well as heat up a fried potato cake wedge, swipe the plate with cauliflower-bone marrow puree and warm through cucumber ribbons.

The expediter, a chef who was in charge of orders for the first time, flitted back and forth between our station and the front of the kitchen. Yelling “Order!” let me know I needed to get steaks ready and resting on a rack. Yelling “Fire!” meant I needed to reheat the steaks and plate them.

I noticed the expediter had crossed out a steak and a rabbit terrine for Table 9, meaning the order was “fired.” But I didn’t remember him saying “Fire.” I turned to Christopher and asked if he was cooking an order for Table 9.

“Yeah,” Christopher said, but he looked unsure.

I put a medium rare steak with a fried potato cake in the oven anyway. I placed a round plate in the oven to warm up. Hot food needed a hot plate. I warmed up cucumber ribbons on the flattop until the nob of butter in the pan melted.

“Jenny, I need the steak,” Henry said who had to slice it.

I took out the steak and gave it to him.

“That’s a good looking steak,” he said as he sliced it open.

I took the plate out of the oven and made an arc of cauliflower-bone marrow puree. I handed the scalding hot plate to Henry who placed the sliced steak on it. I ladled sauce over the steak and Henry dropped the cucumber ribbons on top.

More steak orders came in like an avalanche.

I opened and banged the oven shut as I reheated steaks. I grabbed two pans and seared more steaks. Holding a towel, I gripped a sizzle platter and felt the shock of severe heat through my third finger, making my left arm drop all the way to the floor.

“Ow!” I said and swore silently.

“Are you all right?” Christopher asked.

“Yeah,” I said, dashing to the sink to stick my finger under cold water. I ran back to my station.

My finger ached as I handed over more steaks to Henry to plate. A blister formed quickly on the tip of my finger.

I looked at the board. Some steak orders were crossed out, but I hadn’t heard the expediter fire anything. I shoved more steaks in the oven.

“Jenny, this steak isn’t even cooked,” Henry said after he sliced open one I had given him.

I put it back in the oven and handed him another steak to plate.

“Sauce. I need sauce,” Henry said.

I spun around, took the sauce container out of the hot water bath and ladled the rich sauce over the steak. Henry plopped the cucumber ribbons on it. We plated the other steak.

The expediter called out orders, but even Chef R, the instructor for Level 6 students, was getting confused. He went to the front to double-check.

He came back and said, “Fire two steaks medium and three medium-rare.”

Henry and I plated the two medium steaks that went with the duck and pork from Chef R’s Level 6 station.

Chef R showed up again, saying, “Just worry about the three medium-rare. We took one of the mediums for a later order.”

Turning to the board, Chef R said and pointed, “That order doesn’t exist. He (the expediter) forgot to wipe it off.”

“He’s kind of mixing and matching,” Chef R said under his breath.

The expediter came to our station and fired more orders. He looked tense, his eyebrows scrunched up. He rested his hands on his hips and exhaled. Looking chagrinned, he leaned forward and shook my elbow, giving me a wan, apologetic smile.

I looked at Henry with a puzzled WTF? look.

I grabbed more pans and seared more steaks. Heat from the burners pressed against my face, getting hotter and hotter and hotter. I bent down to open the stove, feeling more heat smother my face. I put more steaks in and took other steaks out. I poked the steaks, swiped cauliflower puree on plates and ladled sauce.

When the last order went up, I felt relieved.

“You did good, considering it was your first time and that guy was a total ---” said Henry, who glared at the front of the room. “You just have to watch your temperatures.”

I nodded and smiled, feeling a small glow of pride.

Rabbit terrine with grilled scallion and potato fennel cake