Yogurt-Marinated Chicken Kebabs with Red Onion Sambal and Watercress

Unless you're a vegetarian, I'm fairly certain that everyone out there can use another chicken recipe.  I know that I can always use another easy chicken recipe.  I know that I have made yogurt-marinated chicken before, so it's not necessarily a completely groundbreaking thing.  But I love the Yogurt-Marinated Chicken Kebabs with Aleppo Pepper so much that I couldn't resist trying out a new recipe.  Marinating the chicken in yogurt makes the chicken so moist and gives it such wonderful flavor.  I wish we had a grill on which to cook this chicken, or that we had cooked it in the grill pan to give it some nice char.  We broiled it in our toaster oven (which is nowhere near strong enough to give the chicken any char at all) because our actual broiler is terrifying and so small that the chicken would have been so close to the heating element that it would have burnt to a cinder long before it cooked through.  I wish that we had added some more spice to the marinade to just bring another level of flavor.  Or perhaps added a few extra spices - some garam masala might have been nice.  The flavor of the garlic, scallions and lime is very delicate and gently perfumes the chicken.  I probably like the Yogurt-Marinated Chicken Kebabs with Aleppo Pepper a little better than these kebabs because the flavors in that dish are a little more pronounced.  I'm definitely glad that we made the sambal with the chicken because it gave some nice heat and another level of more assertive flavor that balanced the more subtle flavors of the chicken.  I wish it had a little more heat, but our serranos just weren't that hot.  But the sambal still had really nice flavor from the lime juice and shallots (and a hint of slowly building heat).  As for the watercress salad, I thought it was a really nice counterpoint to the kebabs.  It was bright and refreshing (and really simple to make), and I think you could serve it with lamb kebabs or any other really meaty dish.  Actually, I think you could serve it on top of a lamb and feta burger and that would be phenomenal as well.

Recipes after the jump!

Warm Tofu with Spicy Garlic Sauce and Korean Cucumber Salad

I have been meaning to try out this recipe for awhile.  It wasn't exciting enough to make the list of "must try" recipes, but I bookmarked it a year or two ago for a nebulous future (vegetarian) dinner.  It was something along the lines of an experiment because we have never cooked soft tofu before.  Somehow we always pick out recipes that call for firm tofu.  And this recipe seemed so perfectly simple that it was hard to resist.  Who doesn't love the idea of throwing something in a pot and forgetting about it for awhile?  And by awhile, I mean 5-10 minutes.  According to the recipe you can keep the tofu warm in the simmering water over very low heat for up to 4 hours, so if you wanted to forget it for a few hours, that is an option too.  Either way, simmering the tofu gave it a really nice texture.  I expected it to make the tofu softer and mushier, but instead it seemed to firm it up a little.  It was still definitely soft tofu, but it almost felt like it retained its shape a little better than soft tofu generally does due to the bath in simmering water.  You drizzle the spicy garlic sauce over the warm tofu and voila.  The spicy garlic sauce is really potent and it gave the tofu a lot more flavor than I expected, especially considering the tofu was simply simmered in water without any seasonings.  There wasn't even any salt in there.  Actually, I found the sauce to be a little too salty - perhaps I should have used a low sodium soy sauce or simply cut back on the amount of soy sauce a little.  We did leave the sauce out on the counter for a few hours, which might very well have contributed to the overall saltiness.  Oops.  Our bad.  But it was a very satisfying vegetarian main course.  We served the tofu with a Korean cucumber salad that we found in our cookbook Korean Kitchen and some white rice.  The cucumber salad was nice and fresh and spicy, all at the same time.  It was a really nice side for the tofu and I think it would be a nice accompaniment to any Korean meal.

Recipes after the jump!

Hot-and-Sour Prawn Soup (Tom Yum Kung) and Thai Asparagus

There are soups that take forever to cook and then there are soups that come together very quickly, and are so tasty that you would think they took ages.  This soup is one of those soups that comes together in the blink of an eye and yet tastes like you have been simmering the broth all day.  It's sour, spicy, a little funky and a lot delicious.  It's not the best version of tom yum soup I have ever tasted, but it is definitely better than the versions they serve at most neighborhood Thai restaurants.  And it was so easy (and quick) to make!  As for the asparagus, we had already made a variation on the recipe with some haricots verts, so we knew that we liked the flavors.  But since we had some asparagus in the fridge and no real ideas on how to cook it, we thought it was a good opportunity to try out the same recipe as it was written (well, we modified it a little bit, but at least we used the correct vegetable this time).  As with the green beans, the asparagus came together very quickly and easily and tasted pretty good.  I'm not sure whether I liked the green beans or the asparagus better, but part of me thinks that the green beans might have been just a smidge better.  Maybe it's because we have asparagus all the time so the green beans were a nice change from our usual.  Or maybe it's because they were just better.  I'm not really sure.  Regardless of which vegetable is better, the meal was a very nice one that came together quickly and was quite tasty.

Recipes after the jump!

Rhubarb and Strawberry Compote with Fresh Mint

Rhubarb was one of the ingredients I had never experienced until I moved to NYC.  My first spring in NYC I noticed that it was on restaurant menus everywhere.  In the past few years I have made a few dishes with rhubarb (like this Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Cardamom and Nutmeg) and I have a few others, including a cake, that I would like to try.  This compote served with vanilla ice cream was the dessert I served with our ribs, coleslaw and cornbread.  It was delicious with the vanilla ice cream.  I loved the slightly tart rhubarb with the strawberries and the fresh mint.  I think the fresh mint is what really made it.  If you like things a little less sweet, I would cut back on the sugar a little.  But a really nice dessert.  I think the compote would work really well on top of some angel food cake or Belgian waffles.  And I'm considering eating it tomorrow for breakfast on top of some Greek yogurt, because why the heck not?

Recipe after the jump!

Cayenne Cinnamon Baby Back Ribs with Maple Glaze, Spicy Coleslaw and Buttermilk Cornbread

 

A friend came over for dinner this weekend and we decided to make ribs.  We went back and forth for almost an hour trying to decide what to make for dinner - we started with Thai and Indian cuisine and somehow ended up with ribs.  We couldn't think of anything that would be relatively easy to make and wouldn't require too much attention or effort.  Then Alex remembered that I had sent him a recipe from Steamy Kitchen for some baby back ribs about a month ago.  It seemed like a good option because we could just throw it in the oven and go hang out.  Good call hon.  As sides for the ribs we threw together some spicy coleslaw and buttermilk cornbread.  Rather than using one of the recipes that we have made in the past for cornbread (and there have been a few), I decided to try something new.  I wanted a plain, but moist cornbread to go with the ribs and coleslaw.  While puttering around on the internet for some inspiration for the cornbread, I  found a buttermilk cornbread recipe on Allrecipes with some of the strangest directions I have ever seen.  So I decided to go ahead and make it because that's just the way I roll.  We also made dessert, but I will post about that later.

According to Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen, there are two camps when it comes to ribs - those who want the meat to be fall off the bone tender, and those who want a little "bite" and "chew" to their ribs.  Alex is decidedly in the second camp.  These ribs are as well.  I tend to like my ribs a little on the more tender side - I don't need the meat to fall right off the bone, but I don't really want any resistance in the meat when I go to bite it off the bone.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, I liked the ribs, thought they were interesting (if a little sweet), but I would probably cook them low and slow next time for a much longer period of time so that they get a little more tender.  I would probably also cut down on the amount of brown sugar slightly since the maple glaze gives the ribs plenty of sweetness.  Considering this was our first attempt at making baby back ribs, I think it went really well.  As far as the spicy coleslaw went, it was vinegary and spicy.  I tend to not like coleslaws that are mayonnaise-based, so I decided to make an apple cider vinegar-based dressing and add just a tiny bit of mayo for creaminess.  If I had thought about it I might have cut back on the vinegar a little bit and maybe added some lime juice.  I also would have adjusted the seasonings.  I saw some recipes for sweet and spicy coleslaw that I might try out next time.  And as for the cornbread, I really enjoyed it.  It was on the sweet side, but I thought that it was really nice.  I might cut back on the amount of sugar just a little bit and throw in some frozen (or fresh) corn for texture and go with it.  The cornbread turned out nice and moist and is a nice basic recipe that you could add a variety of ingredients and flavors to.  I have been considering making a white cheddar, poblano pepper cornbread for awhile and this might be the perfect base recipe to use for that experiment.  I thought it was a really nice summery meal - sweet and spicy ribs, spicy coleslaw and sweet buttermilk cornbread.  It's like a backyard barbeque, in the safety of our NYC apartment.

Recipes after the jump!

Black Market Bistro

 

Back in high school my best friend's family introduced me to a restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland called Black's Bar and Kitchen.  I loved it so much I took my family and we have been going there ever since.  Sometime when I was in college (or not too long after I graduated), the owners of Black's opened up two additional restaurants in Maryland and DC - Black Market Bistro and Black Salt.  For Father's Day I decided to take my parents to Black Market for dinner.  The last time we went there was back in 2005-2006, before I moved to NYC and I wanted to see if it was as good as I remembered.  The last time we went, the dish I remembered loving the most was their New Orleans style shrimp and grits.  I had never heard of shrimp and grits before I went to UNC, but I love them now.  And man did Black Market make an awesome version.  It was just as good as I remembered - creamy, cheesy corn and cheddar grits topped with perfectly cooked and seasoned shrimp and some sauteed veggies.  I couldn't tell if the greens were collards, or something else, but they were nice.  My dad ordered the seared sea scallops special and my mom ordered the Addie's Mussels.  They each had gazpacho for their starter and I tried the wax bean salad (also a special).  Everything we ordered was perfectly cooked and seasoned - the mussels were tender, the shrimp was flavorful and the scallops were meaty and sweet.  I absolutely love this restaurant.  The food is so good - homey, but ten thousand times better than anything you could ever make at home, unless you were a four star chef.  I loved it.  I would kill for a restaurant like that here in NYC.

More pictures after the jump!

Quinoa Cakes

I feel like blog posts about these quinoa cakes have been storming the internet recently, so I'm not going to write a super detailed post, when you could find one here, here or here.  And the more I saw about the quinoa cakes the more interested I was in making them.  I came to the conclusion thatAlex and I should explore some healthy recipes now that it's summer and all, and what could be more healthy than quinoa?  I really enjoyed the texture of the cakes - you got a nice crispy exterior and a nice soft interior.  And I thought they tasted nice and were very satisfying.  However, I think that these cakes would be even better if there was some sort of sauce.  Something to give them a little more flavor and moisture.  I saw people putting fried and poached eggs on top of their quinoa cakes and that sounds like a nice option, but we had scrambled eggs for breakfast and there are already 4 eggs in these bad boys, so I just wasn't feeling the whole egg on top routine.  We served the quinoa cakes with this sugar snap pea salad for a nice healthy lunch.

Recipe after the jump!