Father's Day, Animal Style

A couple of weeks ago, my fantastic friends Ian and Shelley had me over to their house to make In-N-Out Double-Double, Animal-Style Burgers. The double-double has two patties and two slices of cheese, and animal style means that instead of an onion slice, you get a schmear of chopped onions caramelized to jelly texture, pickles, and the beef patties are topped with mustard before they're fried.

Even though In-N-Out finally came to Texas, I hadn't had an In-N-Out burger since 2007 in Las Vegas, and I hadn't eaten a California In-N-Out burger since the early 1990s. Wow, I'm getting old! But we followed a very scientific approach to recreate the burgers, spending hours caramelizing the onions, making a homemade sauce, weighing the beef and forming the patties, and so forth. I'm not sure if it was because I know how much love went into those burgers or because I had gotten hungry waiting to taste the final product, but those hamburgers were fantastic! No way can the In-N-Out burger be better than this homemade one.

Later that evening and the next couple of days, I still couldn't get the burger out of my mind. So I decided we needed to make them at my house for Father's Day.

I got up early Sunday morning and chopped onions, four big ones to be exact. I think I'm building up my resistance to onions. It used to be when I chopped onions that I cried like I'd just broken up with my first boyfriend. Now I cry like the old spinster I am, two tears and "I'll find another guy, er, onion." The chopped onions need to cook for a couple of hours to get the nice caramelization that you want. I should have started with a smaller dice and cooked the onions a little more slowly. They cooked down to a fraction of their original size as they should, but the texture was not quite right. Later that morning, I was standing by Katie and she said, "You smell like onions." Oops. Didn't have a chance to wash the onion scent out of my hair before church.




Next I made the special burger sauce with mayonnaise, ketchup, sweet relish, vinegar, and sugar. I formed the patties in the afternoon not long before we were going to eat. As for the beef, this part is important, you must use very fatty chuck steak. The guide we followed suggested the equivalent of 60/40 lean to fat. I asked them to grind it for me at United. Another important part of the process is to use a good old cast iron pan to grill on. At Ian and Shelley's and on Father's Day, we used a well-seasoned 10" Wagner Ware skillet that worked beautifully. I can't remember exactly how I inherited that piece, but thank you, thank you to my benefactor.

Place the patties in the skillet, and then squeeze a teaspoon or two of mustard on top. After you flip them, top patties with a slice of that old favorite, yellow American cheese, which bubbles and melts superbly.



The dads at the table got triple-triple burgers instead of double-double. We had fries and vanilla malts on the side, so this meal was not to be taken lightly!



After dinner, I think everyone except for Nancy and me took a nap. Nancy and I were playing and dancing to music. I said the beef made me strong. I don't know what happened to those others who were beaten by the beef.

Recipe here.

Boston Cream Pie, No, Cake!

I bugged Katie to tell me what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday party. She perused one of my cake cookbooks, Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes, and chose Boston Cream Pie.

Boston Cream Pie and the famous Parker House rolls were invented at the Parker House Hotel in Boston, which has a plaque by their front door declaring it the longest continuously operating hotel in the United States. I passed it on the street last fall when I visited Boston.



Here's the thing about Boston Cream Pie - it isn't a pie at all. This made for some funny conversations on the phone with Mom when we were talking about party plans.

Mom: So do you want to bring the pie out to my house to serve?
Kimberly: You mean the cake?
Mom: Oh, I thought you were making a pie.
Kimberly: No, I'm making a cake. A Boston Cream Pie.
Mom: So you are making a pie?
Kimberly: No, a cake.



This particular version of the Boston Cream Pie had three layers of vanilla chiffon cake with vanilla custard filling, topped by a thick bittersweet chocolate ganache. Chiffon cake is somewhat similar to angel food cake, but it uses oil and egg yolks so it is more moist than angel food.

For dinner, we met at Abuelo's where Nancy hit the salsa pretty hard all night.



Then back to my house for birthday cake/pie.



The cake was pretty good. I think the chiffon cake recipe needs some tweaks. It was a little too dry. And the best part of a cream pie is the cream, so the custard to cake ratio needs to be increased. The chocolate was a tad too bitter for my taste. I think everyone liked it pretty well. Nancy had no problems diving in.



I love living so close to my family. One of my favorite things to do is spend time with Katie and her little family. I couldn't ask for better siblings. I love them so much. As we've all gotten older, I'm most glad that we've become the best of friends. Happy birthday, Katie!

My New Favorite Restaurant

I wrote about my new favorite dessert, so why not continue the theme of superlatives and talk about my new favorite restaurant?

I went to Austin for a week in April - a week that was full of culinary delights. Perhaps there are bad restaurants in Austin, but I never find them. The highlight of my food explorations was Uchi, which serves "modern Japanese fare" - sushi, if that's not disparaging it. I dined with my favorite foodie friends, and we tried a variety of things on the menu. Each dish was presented exquisitely, and the waitstaff was extremely courteous and helpful in explaining what the dishes were and giving recommendations.

The first plate brought to the table was the Brie Ringo Tempura, fried Brie with apple chutney and crisps.



Right off the bat, I knew we were in for a treat. I am a huge fan of Brie. Frying it as they did gave it a crispy shell, which when bitten into, had a crunch that gave way to liquified Brie. It paired perfectly with the sweet apples. We also tried some Tempura Japanese Pumpkin. It came with a side of broth for dipping and was so fantastic that we ordered a second round.

Next we had the Maguro Sashimi and goat cheese with cracked pepper, fuji apple and pumpkin seed oil.



The chef, Tyson Cole, uses a lot of apples in his dishes. I love apples, so you won't get any complaints from me. As with the Brie, the goat cheese balanced the apples perfectly. I'm no expert on sashimi, but this tuna was fantastic. The pumpkin oil provided a nice undertone to everything.

We tried several sushi rolls. As you guessed, all were sensational. The Mustang roll - fresh water eel, avocado, yellow tail, and golden flying fish roe - was probably my favorite. I always look for eel on sushi menus. Yum! The Hakujin - fresh salmon and grilled asparagus, rolled in warm tempura flakes - was also very good. The Spider - soft­shell crab, flying fish roe, english cucumber and white soybean paper - was my least favorite, because I don't like soft shell crab.

The Zero Sen - yellow tail with avocado, crispy shal­lots, yuzu kosho, golden roe and cilantro - was my favorite roll after the Mustang.



Avocado works so well in sushi rolls. I wonder if the Japanese have really adopted it or if that's a Southwest/American phenomenon.

Another aspect of Uchi that made our night fantastic was the ambiance of the restaurant. The décor was eye-catching without being distracting. Lots of gorgeous wallpaper and lights, the latter creating bands of light across our faces and making us look like film noir stars.



I read the menu umpteen times, trying to decide between the multitude of choices. They have a daily menu, so I doubt that even the regulars ever make it through all the dishes.

Perhaps you're like me and have incredibly low expectations for desserts at Asian restaurants. Actually, I would definitely say that I have low expectations for desserts at most restaurants period. Most of them are on par with frozen grocery store desserts. The desserts at Uchi are not of that variety. I can assure you that their desserts are as well-executed as the dinner courses.

We tried three desserts: Jizake Crème Caramel with Brown Butter Sorbet & Ginger Consommé, Lemon Gelato with Sicilian Pistachios and White Balsamic, and the Peanut Butter Semi Freddo with Apple-Miso Sorbet & Ringo Crisps.



In a single dish, the peanut butter semi-freddo showcased everything that Uchi does well: beautiful presentation, interesting textures, flavor combinations that test your powers of deduction to ascertain their source... I don't remember the last time I dined and had the same reaction to a dish that I did with the apple-miso sorbet. My first reaction was that I really liked it. Then I kept trying to decide what gave the sorbet the underlying salty and savory flavor. The stuff was addictive. We re-read the menu which reminded us that the sorbet had apples and miso. The miso tickled our Umami sense and effected pleasant surprise. Desserts are so much better when they incorporate other sensations in addition to sweetness.

I was very excited when it was announced a few weeks after we ate at Uchi that Tyson Cole won the James Beard Award for Best Chef of the Southwest 2011. I suppose you have to be a true food nerd to care about the James Beard awards, since no one seemed to know what they were when I talked about them, but they've been called the Oscars of the food world.

A very well-deserved win for Mr. Cole. I can't wait to visit Uchi again.

See pictures of everything we ate: Uchi Photo Set.

My New Favorite Dessert

Pavlovas are my new favorite dessert. They're a cinch to whip up - though they have to bake for awhile. You can top them with whatever fruits you want. They use leftover egg whites. No butter or oil, so they're low fat (not low calorie, but still). Win-win-win.



I've found a couple of good recipes. This Gale Gand recipe takes less cooking time. Ina Garten's recipe takes longer in the oven, but the result is a creamier white than Gale's recipe. I decided that my favorite method is to use Ina's recipe, but sub 1 tablespoon of raspberry vinegar for the teaspoon of white wine vinegar called for.



The outside of the pavlova develops a crisp shell in the oven, but the inside is gooey and sweet like a toasted marshmallow. When served with a slightly tart fruit like raspberries or kiwis, the combination is just perfect!

No-Bake Cookie Cake

A dear friend and coworker had a birthday this week, and so I wanted to make a birthday dessert for her. I pressed her for details on what her favorite birthday cake was as a child. She told me that her mom always made her no-bake cookies. "She thought she was giving me something halfway nutritious, since they have peanut butter and oatmeal."

I got this wacky idea to make a no-bake cookie cake for her. I admit that I was inspired by a news story I read about Prince William's groom's cake, Prince William chooses wedding cake made of cookies.

I decided to make No Bake Cookie batter and then press it into round cake pans. I selected this Chocolate Peanut-Butter No Bake Cookie recipe and made three batches. I lined 8", 6", and 4" cake pans (one of each size) with parchment paper and sprayed the sides with Pam. I poured/spread the batter into the pans, pressing down on it to fill the whole pan evenly and even out the top. After the layers set, I stacked them and put Reese's cups and birthday candles on top of the layers.



The cake was a hit. Certainly one of the easiest birthday cakes I've ever made. The next day I spotted a recipe for the Royal No-Bake Cake - Chocolate Biscuit Cake. Make one at home to try if you're like me and your invite to the Royal Wedding got lost in the mail.

Heat Resistant

I decided to spend a rare Saturday at home doing some things around the house. I started organizing laundry into piles, then decided to go through clothes I haven't worn in awhile to find clothes I could donate. After holding up the third pair of jeans that were now skinny jeans that won't fit me anytime soon, I decided to abandon that project and eat a cupcake.



My niece Nancy Kay makes the best faces! The whole family went to Abuelo's for dinner a few weeks ago. Fourteen-month old Nancy saw all of us eating chips and salsa and wanted in on the action. She started grabbing chips out of the basket and dipping them in the salsa. At first, she got so little salsa on the chips that it wasn't hot, but she started putting more on the chip, so that when she put it to her mouth, she made a horrible, pained expression. This caused me to laugh hysterically, which in turn caused her to get more chips and salsa, and keep eating it and making agonized faces. Before long she was dipping her whole hand in the salsa bowl, while I laughed, and her parents scowled at me.

A few months before that, Nancy demonstrated that my house is not childproof, if there was ever any question. I am child and husband-free, and so I don't worry about keeping breakables out of reach.

One Sunday after church, Katie, Porter, and Nancy came over. As usual, Nancy started looking around for things to play with. First, magazines, then earrings, then a metal bolt. Then she got hold of a tiny bottle of Dave's Insanity Hot Sauce. The bottle had a screw top lid - no way she could get that open!

Anyone familiar with Murphy's Law would have forecasted otherwise, and the next time I turned around, Nancy had the bottle open and was licking the lid.

Tears and screaming soon followed. Katie and I took her to the sink to wash her hands. We gave her ice to suck on. Her nose started to run. She had red splotches around her mouth. It was terrible.

Lessons learned: my house is not childproof and an extra smart and stubborn 11 month old is perfectly capable of opening a screwtop bottle. Also, Nancy is pretty heat resistant.

French Fridays Twofer

I fell impossibly behind with my French Fridays with Dorie project. For the most part, I've made the recipes each week, but I haven't taken the time to get lots of photographs or blog about the results.

To play catchup, I'll tell you about these two Around My French Table recipes I made in January: Michel Rostang’s Double Chocolate Mousse Cake and Chicken B'Stilla.

First, the chocolate mousse cake: a fairly basic mousse recipe, which is divided in half, then you pile half into a springform pan and bake it. After it comes out of the oven, you put the rest of the mousse on top and chill it. Different method, right? And I didn't have the greatest results.



I thought the mousse tasted great before baking. While it was baking, I started to smell something burning, and though I cooked it several minutes less than the recipe directed, the mousse had burned. I tried to cut off the burned parts, and then I piled the remaining mousse on top and chilled it. When it came time to serve, I dusted it with three varieties of cocoa powder, for some color contrast.



I had high hopes for this one after reading the ingredients list and doing a preliminary taste test on the mousse, but the finished product was mediocre. I would rather have served the mousse as it was before baking.

I had much better success with the Chicken B'Stilla. You start with chicken thighs marinated in garlic and spices, then boiled in broth, then shred the meat after it's so tender it's falling off the bone. The chicken is mixed with onions, lemon, eggs, honey, pepper, and chopped herbs and served in a filo dough pie topped with cinnamon and sugar. Very beautiful and delicious!

San Diego Extraordinary Desserts

You know what was as good as the food and mild winter weather in San Diego? The desserts. Check out the flavor selection at Pappalecco: Stracciatella, Pappalecco, Nutella, Arancia, Fragola, Nocciola, Cioccolato Fondente, Banana, Cioccolato, Pistacchio, Mocha, Vaniglia, Coco, Limon.



I tried Arancia and Pappalecco. Arancia was a blood orange sorbetto, and their house flavor, Pappalecco, was a chocolate amaretto gelato with chocolate amaretti folded in. Amazing!



As soon as I found out I was going to San Diego, I knew I'd have to make a pilgrimage to Extraordinary Desserts. They have some of the most beautiful desserts I've ever seen. Their display case was filled with beautiful cakes, pavlovas, shortcakes - all adorned with ribbons, fruit, gold leaf, flowers, etc.



Luckily I was able to convince a couple of liberry buddies to accompany me, which was good because I got to sample more desserts. One of my friends tried the Gianduia Cake that I'd ordered last time and tried to recreate. I have to brag and say that I've mastered it. Mine tasted as good as the original. Another friend ordered the Truffe Framboise, described as "Fresh raspberries and kirsch moistened chocolate cake layers are surrounded by bittersweet Valrhona chocolate mousse, with fresh raspberries bursting inside and out."



I opted for the Passion Fruit Ricotta Torte, an anti-chocolate option. "Ricotta cake layers, soaked with passion fruit juice and layered with passion fruit whipped cream, kiwis, strawberries and bananas. A tropical explosion!" It was lighter than my friends' rich chocolate desserts, and the tartness of the kiwi and passion fruit was just right.



And the last thing I ate before getting on the plane home was the Coppa Croccante at Chocolat Cremerie. More gelato, this time Pistachio, Hazelnut, & Coconut, topped with amaretto cookies and fresh whipped cream. The gelato bars could give Extraordinary Desserts some good competition.

San Diego Foodie Tourism

I went to San Diego for a few days for a liberry conference. It felt like a loooonnnngg trip since I didn't have my best liberry foodie buddies with me. I passed the downtime scoping out restaurants. I feel like I hit every eatery within walking distance, and some that weren't. How else would I spend my time? Reading books?

Some of the highlights:

Breakfast is served.

Peanut Butter and Banana Stuffed French Toast at Cafe 222. How could that be bad? I've since been on a peanut butter + banana bender, eating sandwiches made with that combination every day for lunch. Truthfully, when I tried this I thought what would make it even better would be to mix peanut butter with with some cream cheese, and go heavier on the peanut butter filling. I intend to test this hypothesis soon. At The Mission, I ate Chicken apple sausage, with crispy rosemary potatoes, grilled rosemary bread, and eggs. I do love rosemary!

Eating my own weight in seafood.

I heard Ted Danson speak at the conference. He was there to plug his book about saving the world's oceans. The main things I remember about that were that he said "literally" in every other sentence and that he said not to eat swordfish or tuna or other things I probably want to eat. So immediately following his session, I ate the best sushi roll I've ever tasted at Taka Sushi, that said with the caveat that I haven't eaten that much sushi, but I do like it. The special battera roll has fresh tuna, shrimp, crab, seaweed, rice, and orange caviar, then it's topped with black caviar and green onion. I went to The Fish Market the night before, where a friend and I tried Mesquite-grilled Ginger Lime Prawns with Cilantro Sauce, Swordfish with Roasted Vegetables and Parsley Potatoes, and Seabass with Roasted Vegetables and Cole Slaw. Take that, Ted Danson.

Mashed Potatoes on Pizza?!?

At Basic Pizza, they serve New Haven-style pizza, whatever that means. I understand the difference between Chicago and New York-style, but beyond that, I probably couldn't tell the difference. I opted to try the White Pie with Mozzarella, Mashed Potato, and Bacon. That's right, mashed potatoes. The pizza was heavier on grease and salt than taste. Nice place, tho.

Old Town San Diego Mexican Food

I went to Casa Guadalajara in Old Town, which had some remarkable fish tacos. I also tried Carne Asada Tacos with Chile Colorado Sauce, because I'm a glutton. I think the waiter even felt it was his conscientious duty to tell me that I ordered too much food for one person, but I proceeded anyway. Hey, I made two meals out of it. I also got horchata and they had some chips and salsa to munch on that were very good. I also thought the pictures I took here were some of the prettiest food pictures I've ever taken. They kind of put my point and shoot camera pics above to shame.

The desserts I tried will get a separate post. You didn't think I'd skip dessert, did you?

Gnocchi a la Parisienne for Two

Gnocchi. A word that's hard to spell or pronounce correctly. And if you asked me, hard to make at home correctly, too.

I recently started dating someone new, and I usually worry about how long I need to date someone before revealing the full brunt of my cooking and food obsessions. First dates usually consist of me interviewing the guy about food tastes and preferences, favorite restaurants, food allergies, etc. Maybe I'm the only person who sees picky eating habits as a bigger barrier than old relationship baggage, divergent political views, or whatever the deal breakers are these days.

I wondered how I was going to explain why I was spending a couple of hours on a weeknight after a long day at work on a random recipe to New Guy, who probably had never eaten or even heard of gnocchi. I invited him over for dinner, but I didn't get home until 7:30, then I needed to clean the kitchen workspace, and do some prep for the recipe.

Me: Are you okay with a really late dinner? Or should I make you something quick?
Him: Dinner won't be at 10 o'clock, will it?
Me: Uh, hem, hah, stammer...

Plus dinner was gnocchi, but he didn't complain. I used Dorie's recipe, which is incredibly similar to pâte à choux. Surprisingly there are no potatoes in this gnocchi. You boil the gnocchi, then top it with a bechamel sauce and cheese and bake it.

I didn't have great luck with this recipe. My bechamel was too thick; my gnocchi were crazy shapes and sizes. I blame New Guy for distracting me. (Sappy!) I even forgot to season the bechamel with salt, pepper, and nutmeg before putting it in the dish. Luckily, New Guy is super helpful in the kitchen. He stirred the bechamel and grated cheese for me.



I scaled the recipe for 6 down to make it for 2 people instead. And guess what time dinner was served? 10 o'clock.



This recipe got some mixed reviews from us. The bechamel was never quite right, even after baking. The dish as a whole felt really heavy. Come on, it's eggs, milk, and cheese! But I think with some added herbs, maybe vegetables, it could shine more.

Moral of the story: even if your recipe's not a winner, eat dinner with one.