Who need's fine dining for a romantic dinner?!

The Table - all set and ready for the first course

I've never been a huge Valentine's Day fan, usually Josh and I just go out and grab something inexpensive (read: Red Lobster or the like) and fast if we do anything at all for the Hallmark holiday. This year however, I decided to try my hand at cooking an elaborate meal. No stranger to homecooking (although usually not as ethnic as previous posts may lead you to believe), I don't usually make appetizers and desserts when I cook a normal dinner. I will admit to the meal being inspired by Gordon Ramsey's cookalong live that aired back in December. I DVR'd it and thought the Steak Diane looked pretty fabulous. So did the appetizer. Not a fan of shrimp though, I decided to alter the angel hair pasta recipe to include spicy Italian sausage and portobello mushrooms. Let me tell you, it worked.

Knowing that I wanted to be able to eat with my husband, I took some time and planned through how/when I would prep things and when to cook them all. Making the dessert ahead of time was obviously a time saver. I decided to make Chocolate Lava Cakes, so I could make them in advance and refrigerate them until baking. I started by melting the chocolate and butter over a pot of simmering water.

Ingredients for Dessert!

Melting the chocolate and butter, yum!

Once the chocolate had melted, I mixed into the egg yolks, vanilla and sugar I had mixed. Then I went to work on the egg whites (this is where a stand mixer would come in handy - someday!). Once stiffened, I folded them into the Chocolate mixture and poured into ramekins that I'd buttered and dusted with sugar. Then I covered them with saran wrap and stuck them in the fridge until I was ready to bake them.

The Chocolate Mixture

Folding in the Egg Whites

Filled and ready to be baked

Once dessert was taken care of, I set the table and relaxed until it was time to start dinner. I began by prepping everything before-hand (this included the dinner ingredients as well). Talk about a time saver. Cooking goes so much faster when you can just throw things in instead of having to chop stuff up as you're going. Since I had decided to alter the recipe to include a spicy sausage, I wanted to white wine that would pair well with it. Kim Crawford's Sauvignon Blanc was a good match.

The raw Ingredients

All prepped and ready for the skillet

I use my Wok for just about everything!

The finished product

It turned out great! Josh even ate the scallions and tomato (for those of you that know him, you know that's a big deal!). The spicy sausage and red chili were balanced by the minerality of the wine, earthiness of the mushrooms and sweetness of the fresh basil. I'll definitely be adding this to the rotation. It was quick and easy to cook, and tasted great!

Everything for Dinner...

The main course consisted of Steak Diane, Herb Roasted Potatoes, Sauteed Asparagus and Sourdough Bread with Cabernet Sauvignon to drink. Once we'd finished eating our pasta, I got started on dinner. The potatoes were the easiest. I just tossed them with Herbs, Salt, Pepper and Olive Oil and placed them in the oven to bake while I was cooking the rest.

Herbs and Potatoes, soon to be roasted

The next thing I did was prep my steaks. I chose four small fillet mignon hoping for some left-overs! I sprinkled them with salt and pepper and rolled them out with a rolling pin to tenderize them. Then I browned them on either side, removed them from the skillet and started on the sauce.

The steak!

Shallots, garlic and mushrooms

The sauce consists of sauteed shallots, garlic and mushrooms in butter. Next you add worcestershire sauce and some Dijon mustard. Then you pour in Brandy and Flambe to burn off the alcohol. I made Josh stand by in case I burned the apartment down, but it was way less dramatic than I thought it would be. After that, a full cup of heavy cream, how can it not taste wonderful? I was also sauteing the asparagus while all this was going on, and heating up a loaf of bread I picked up from the grocery store (someday I'll tackle bread baking).

FLAMBE!!

Steaks, simmering in the Diane sauce.

Finally we could sit down to our meal. Although in all honesty it didn't take that long, and since we'd had the pasta, waiting for the main course wasn't an issue at all. For wine we opened up a bottle of Columbia Crest's Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet Sauvignon. We are HUGE fans of their 2007 Merlot and decided to give the Cab a shot. While we enjoyed it with dinner, it isn't as fabulous as the Merlot. Still, we were pleased with the meal and the wine.

Dinner!

And Wine!!

All that was left, was the dessert. I popped the already prepped cakes into the oven for about 8-10 minutes and they were done! I sprinkled them with powdered sugar and served them with fresh strawberries. Now, who needs to go out to dinner?!? Not us!!!

Dim Sum Saturday

Sui Mai and some regular Dumplings

For my brother John’s 24th Birthday, he picked Dim Sum for the standard family meal. For everyone’s birthday, my mom makes dinner and we do the whole family gathering thing, as I’ve added Josh and John has added Wendy, they’ve gotten larger. My brother wanted everyone to try something new, so he chose Dim Sum. We’d thought about just going out to a restaurant, but decided that it would be a lot more fun to try it ourselves at my parent’s house.

Wendy picked out several recipes of John’s favorites. They included Sui Mai – which are little dumplings that are open on top (like mini baskets). Har Gow – steamed dumplings with delicate almost transparent wrappers. Cheong Fun – Shrimp wrapped in rice noodles, and Wu Gok – Crispy Taro rolls. We also made regular pork dumplings, and of course Spring Rolls.

 

Just two of the fillings Wendy made

I have no idea how long it took her, but Wendy threw together all the fillings at home. There were so many bowls of raw fillings that it seemed impossible to make all of them! I started in on wrapping the Spring Rolls. I was pretty proud of my first attempt at making these. Next time I want to learn how to make the filling as well.

Peeling Wrappers for Spring Rolls

 

Spring Roll Filling - Chicken, carrots, mushrooms, etc.

 

Finished and Ready for Cooking!

While I was doing that, Wendy got the Taro Rolls started. First she cooked up the filling and got the Taro boiling. For those who have never heard of Taro (I never had until the last year or so), it’s sort of like a potato. It’s the root of a large leafed plant. It tastes kind of like a cross between a potato and a sweet potato. It also turns slightly purple when mashed. I will probably start experimenting with these where I’d usually use potatoes for something new and fun. But I digress.

Raw Taro Root (Thanks Wikipedia)

Diced Taro

Once we had the spring rolls made, and John started frying them, we moved on to other things.

Doesn't he look thrilled to be helping?

 I began stuffing the Sui Mai with a combination pork and shrimp filling while my grandma watched. These were incredibly simple as I didn’t have to seal the wrappers. I topped each with a bit of edamame.

Making Sui Mai

Wendy made the wrappers for the Har Gow, filled them and threw together the Cheong Fun (which were super easy, but REALLY good). My mom joined in the fun and started making some standard pork dumplings.

Wendy making Cheong Fun

Cheong Fun after steaming

Making Har Gow wrappers - very sticky

Har Gow - uncooked

Mom making Dumplings

While all this was going on, Wendy was systematically steaming the finished dumplings in the bamboo steaming racks (one of my favorite Christmas gifts!).

Steaming Dumplings

I finished by pinching off bits of mashed Taro (with flour and other things) dough, flattening it, filling it with pre-cooked pork and rolling it into a ball. These were then fried golden. Next time we’ll be adding more salt, as they were a little lacking.

Wu Gok filling

Taro Dough

Wu Gok

I have to say, while it was a LOT of work, it sure beat going to a restaurant. Us girls had a great time together and my mom and I got to learn a few new tricks. It was much more fun spending the time together to make a fabulous birthday lunch for my brother!

A Fine Place to Dine...

This is the first area of the apartment that is more or less complete. Well, for now anyway. The space is smaller than my old dining area, but I like it as much if not more. Instead of the rather crowded, double shelves from before; I used only one shelf and turned it on its side.

The old dining area

Then I hung two IKEA shelves on the wall. IKEA had discontinued the wine glass racks so I had to search elsewhere. Luckily Bed Bath and Beyond had them in stock. They just fit the width of the shelf, so we had to do a little bit of improvising to get them to work properly. I’m happy with the result though. I finally have a home for my wine glasses and assorted other barware. I also used the same sconces that had been in my dining area before, but put placemats behind them to emphasize them on the accented wall. I hadn’t been as happy with my accent wall previously, but with everything in place, I’m really pleased with the outcome.

Finally, my glasses have a place to hang.

I need to add something to the soffett, but have yet to decide what to put there. Possibly some plates, or mirrors. Time will tell.

View from the livingroom

The main thing I’m pleased with is the light fixture.We quickly removed the old one (our old landlord was thrilled with it in place of where the ceiling fan had been. We’ll have to buy something cheap when we move, but I’m okay with that). The placement was a little odd as well. If our table had been put right against the wall, than the fixture would have been directly above the table. However, with the table out where it is, the light was above one of the chairs. It was also too low, I'm not overly tall and managed to hit my head on it, which put it directly in Josh's face.

Reminder, here's the original light

That was nothing that a cheap ceiling hook couldn't fix though. Now it's the height we want, and in the proper location. I found the replacement fixture at Lowe’s for under $60. They had some with 5 – 7 lights, but decided due to the size of the apartment, to keep it smaller. The three lights make a big difference. One light in the old fixture just didn’t cut it. Since we are partially underground, lighting is going to be a big concern of mine. So this is the dining area so far. I have something fun planned for my huge floor to ceiling closet doors, but I need to find bulk magnet sheets first!

The new light, just where we want it.

And all I have are these Damn Nepalese Coins...

Dal-Bhat-Tarkari & Momo’s

So Nepalese coins don’t really have anything to do with this post, but I went to Nepal back in the summer of 2000 and I may admit that the There’s something about Mary line may have had a slight impact on my choosing to go there. While there, I was introduced to some fabulous cuisine that for some reason or another I never tried to re-produce here at home. Possibly because the first time I tried, I found very little on the internet in the way of useable recipes. It may also be because no matter how hard you try, the location is everything. A cup of Chai in my living room will NEVER taste the way it did when on the side of a cloud covered mountain, after having hiked for two hours, we had to stop for the monsoon rain and were treated to little metal cups of chai to warm us up. See, location is hard to reproduce and nothing will live up to that. But at least I could try to make the food.

We started with the dessert, Kheer (or rice pudding). This isn’t the European style of rice pudding, no eggs in other words. It’s simply rice made in milk with a LOT of sugar, cream and spices. We could have eaten it hot, but for convenience sake, made it ahead of time and chilled it for later.

Rachael stirring the Kheer

Kheer- almost done.

Now, anyone that has ever been to Nepal will know that there is one thing impossible to miss, the MoMo. Not sure where the name came from, but it is a delicious steamed dumpling, the kind sold by street vendors and restaurants alike. Unique to Nepal, it is one part of the cuisine that borrows more from the close proximity to China than it does India. While water buffalo meat wasn’t on-hand here in the states (it kinda tastes like beef, only tougher), we made due with a combination of pork and beef.

Momo filling

We cheated slightly and just used wrappers from the local Asian market instead of making them ourselves. I’ll tackle that one next time I think. Rachael and Brandy filled most of them so we could then steam them up.

Momo making teamwork!

Filled, before steaming

Thanks to Wendy’s Christmas gift of a basket steamer, we had no problem steaming them up and Josh and I still have a TON of leftovers as well!

For the main course, there was only one dish to make. Dal Bhat. It is the national dish of Nepal. This rice/lentil combination is eaten at least once a day. Dal is made from lentils and can vary from a soupy consistency to one more in line with porridge. Bhat is simply basmati rice. Tarkari is usually included in the combination as well. Essentially just curried meat and/or vegetables, Tarkari is a large part of Nepalese cuisine. I choose to make chicken Tarkari and add vegetables as well.

Wendy, chopping veggies for Tarkari

Tarkari cooking

Once everything was cooked, we sat down to plates of the rice, lentils and curried chicken. We also made Mango Lassi’s to drink. The yogurt/mango combination was wonderful! Next time I’ll need to add more green chili to the Tarkari though as it wasn’t as spicy as it could have been.

Some of the ingredients I picked up at the Indian Grocery

After dinner, we boiled up a large pot of Chai and enjoyed it with the chilled Kheer. In all, I’d say the foray into Nepali food was a success and will be repeated. After all, what else am I going to do with a whole liter of mustard oil?! Now if only I could remember where I did put those damn Nepalese coins….

Chai, almost ready!

The guys enjoying dessert

Brandy and Rachael

Rachael and I after dinner