Today’s Special: Totto Spicy Ramen, Totto Ramen, New York
So you know that ramen is a big deal, right? Especially here in New York. Like, almost as big a deal as pizza. Wellllll maybe at this exact culinary moment in time, perhaps bigger than pizza. With ramen burgers causing crazy lines and ramen master Ivan Orkin opening up some slurp shops, everyone wants broth-stained shirts.
Even me. It’s taken a while, but I’m into it. Especially the styles with lighter broths. Or without any broth! (Future post in the works…) I don’t shy away from fat (More butter, please?), but I do shy away from tonkotsu style ramen, which is probably the most popular. Tonkotsu broth is known for its creamy richness; richness that can only come when you simmer bones for a long long time, and they render out all their fatty, collagen, gelatinous goodness. For me, it’s too much, but for the vast majority of ramen lovers, it’s heaven.
Transcendent ramen for me has been the rich chicken broth of Totto Ramen. The bird just produces a slightly leaner broth than the pig, and I’m down with that. And I like mine spicy, with the additions of a nitamago egg, some corn, and seasoned avocado. You can’t see the springy noodles in this shot, but believe me, they are there, soaking up the magical broth and waiting for me to dig around and lift so that I can slurp, slurp, slurp. Just talk to my silk blouse. She’s not very happy.
Oh, and for those of you who only know ramen from instant packages? Get off that bus and try to find the real thing!
Oh oh: Cream and Sugar turns five today! FIVE. Thank you for reading.
Totto Ramen
366 West 52nd St or 464 West 51st St, New York
Image courtesy of southbrooklynpost.com
The internet is a great source for all things foodie, and we’re constantly bookmarking, starring, and emailing intriguing recipes, food porn, and inspiration. Here’s a selection of clippings we think are worth checking out.
Salty honey pie. You had me at salt.
More salty-sweet goodness: chocolate chip bars with a pretzel crust.
When I think of wild rice, I think of casseroles with mushy broccoli that seemed to be on everyone’s table years ago. Bad broccoli memories aside, this casserole brings on waves of nostalgia and seems perfect for a cold winter’s night.
I always thought those miniature pasta shapes were for soup only. Turns out you can make the ultimate bowl of comfort pasta with them as well.
The food of Andrew Carmellini’s that I tried at The Dutch in NYC was pretty outstanding. Thus, I’m sure these biscuits with honey butter are indeed some of the best you’ll ever try.
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Images courtesy of www.thekitchn.com
The internet is a great source for all things foodie, and we’re constantly bookmarking, starring, and emailing intriguing recipes, food porn, and inspiration. Here’s a selection of clippings we think are worth checking out.
Um. Braised french onion chicken with gruyere. Enough said.
It’s as good a time as any to start using up those berries you froze. To honour my love of Friday Night Lights, I suggest you make this Texas-style blueberry cobbler. Clear eyes, full hearts…
Did the whipped cream you brought for your pumpkin pie to the potluck deflate? Try this method next time.
Post-Thanksgiving is not a time for giving things up. That’s what January is for. Keep your engine revving with this out of control dark chocolate and salted caramel layer cake.
Dim sum at home—pork or veggie steamed buns.
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I know that this is one horribly overdue post. I mean, this dinner was from my Christmas holidays. I’m sorry. It’s just that every time I thought about this meal, I got really hungry. You see, this was the best of my chicken leftover dinners. By a long shot. I was the cliche of “I can’t believe I actually pulled off something so delicious!” I even agreed with the recipe’s creator that it WAS an easy recipe.
Shortly before Christmas, I had watched one of Jamie Oliver’s many holiday specials. This particular episode had a recipe for using your leftover turkey in a pot pie with leeks and puff pastry. I had the leftover poultry, but for this to be a solo supper, I wasn’t going to make an entire pie and then eat it that way for the next five nights (the bane of single dining, in my opinion). What I could do, and what you can see I did do, was make an individual pot pie by topping my filling with a biscuit. I love puff pastry. I love biscuits more. The end.
Dining companion: Misfits (Have you watched this yet? You must! You really really must.)
Chicken and Leek Pot Pie
Serves 1.
Filling
Adapted from Jamie Oliver
1 slice of 1/4-inch thick pancetta, chopped
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
3/4 cup pulled/shredded cooked chicken
~1 teaspoon olive oil
~1 teaspoon butter
2 leeks, white part finely chopped
1/2 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 tablespoon cream
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Put your pancetta in a pan over medium heat and add thyme. Add olive oil and butter and let it saute for a few minutes. Add the leeks and saute them for about 3 minutes. Add a pinch of salt and pepper then cover, turn the heat down to low and let them cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring every 5 to 10 minutes to make sure they don’t stick.
When your leeks are soft, add the chicken and stir. Add the flour, mix it in well and then pour in stock and stir again. Add the cream, then turn the heat up to high and bring everything to a boil. Season more to taste. Turn the heat off. Pour the mixture through a sieve over a bowl to catch the gravy.
Biscuit top
Adapted from Canadian Living
6 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons grated cheese, something flavourful like an aged cheddar or pecorino romano
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon cold butter, cubed
2 1/2 tablespoons milk
Mix together flour, baking powder, cheese and salt ; cut in butter with your fingers until crumbly and the butter is the size of peas. Drizzle in milk and mix with hands until a soft sticky dough forms. Turn out onto a floured surface. Knead 10 times or until smooth.
Place chicken filling into a buttered individual gratin or large ramekin. Pat biscuit to fit on top.
Bake on rimmed baking sheet in preheated oven until biscuits are golden and no longer doughy on bottom, will depend on size of biscuit but around 20 minutes. Keep watch.
Unmold/remove pie from dish and pour reheated gravy over top.
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Few things warm you up the way a bowl of chicken noodle soup does on a winter’s night. So, with leftover chicken, time and a craving for the sense of being in hot, sticky Ho Chi Minh City (instead of cold, clammy Vancouver) on my side, pho ga it would be. Yes, while not as popular or ubiquitous as the bovine-centric pho bo, pho with chicken (ga) does exist and can serve as a nice deviation from your everyday chicken noodle soup.
I do know that a good pho relies heavily on a good broth. And it’s with my broth that I must insert the “faux.” For ease and quickness, I passed over the grilling (or broiling) of bones and vegetables and simply infused some of the chicken broth I had made with necessary aromatics. Missing out on some rich smokiness wasn’t so bad when faced with a bowl that smells heavily of cinnamon, cardamom and star anise. I took cues from both Mark Bittman’s Hanoi Noodle Soup in How to Cook Everything and the pho recipe I learned at the Red Bridge Cooking School in Hoi An, Vietnam.
Dining companion: Misfits
Easy Pho Ga
2.5 cups chicken broth
1 star anise
1/2-inch chunk of ginger, peeled
1 cinnamon stick
1 cardamom pod
1 clove of garlic, sliced lengthwise in half
salt and pepper
rice noodles (the ones that look like linguine, not rice vermicelli), enough for one
shredded, cooked chicken, about 1/2 a cup
fresh cilantro
pickled onions and chilies (same recipe as here, just with a chopped Thai chili added)
lime wedges
chili sauce
Add spices, garlic and ginger to broth in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then turn heat to low and simmer for an hour.
Cook noodles according to package directions. The most common method is to soak noodles for 20 minutes in hot water, then drain. Place in soup bowl.
Once broth is ready, strain out aromatics and then add salt and pepper to taste. Add chicken to broth to warm up.
Pour broth (there may be extra) and chicken over noodles in bowl. Top with onions, chilies and fresh cilantro. Serve lime wedges and chili sauce on the side.
I resisted for a long time, but now I freely admit to enjoying Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. I still can’t stand Guy Fieri, his overuse of stupid phrases, his flip-flop jokes and the constant trips back to the mid-90s. The endless shots of too much are often too much, but I can’t stop. It’s become a guilty pleasure. Too much butter, too much cheese, too much meat. A double bacon cheeseburger contained within two grilled cheese sandwiches? I’m sure that’s been featured on at least three episodes. I’m all for supporting the small and local and enjoy that the show focuses on that. But the American excess steals the show. Is it the post-recession moment that causes us to turn to such TV trash? The mountains of meat and cheese and fries and BBQ that can all be had for only $4.99?
While I may view it as the Food Network equivalent of reading tabloid magazines, my eyes feasted on the Christmas marathon. Visual indigestion led to inspiration. A cilantro-jalapeno pesto from a tailgating episode. Because I was going to be putting it on a sandwich with cheese, I ended up making more of a Provençal pistou — a loose pesto without cheese and pine nuts. As the flavours I wanted were present, I didn’t mind the lack of body. Matched with pickled onions, roasted red peppers, provolone, fresh ciabatta and roasted chicken, it made my first round of leftovers totally… money.
Dining companion: Misfits (A good chunk of my holidays were spent watching the first two seasons of this British series.)
Cilantro-jalapeno pistou
2 handfuls of cilantro
1/2 jalapeno, sliced (remove seeds and ribs if you want less heat)
1 clove of garlic
a few tablespoons of olive oil
In either a food processor or with a mortar and pestle, crush the cilantro, jalapeno and garlic together. Slowly add the oil until it all comes together. Continue adding oil until you reach a pesto-like consistency. You can also make it thicker or thinner with less or more oil. Cover remaining with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
Quick pickled onions
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
3/4 cup white vinegar
3/4 cup white sugar
Stir sugar in vinegar until it dissolves. Add onions, cover with plastic wrap and let sit for at least 2 hours. They will keep for a few days.
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That’s her. Slightly mangled from my prodding and turning and perhaps not as brown as I would have hoped, but that’s her. My first roast chicken. A Christmas holidays project that fed me five nights and gave me a ton of flavourful stock.
It should come as no surprise to regular readers that I was very happy to receive Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything as a Christmas present this year. I’m an avid reader of his Minimalist column in the New York Times, can happily watch his Minimalist videos like a regular television show and have been known to blog his recipes. I thought I would venture into meat territory because it could give me some interesting leftover options (read: blog posts). And yes, I ventured this way despite my unease with flesh. Mark’s Simple Roast Chicken it would be.
Having never roasted anything more complicated than a turkey breast roast, my nerves quelled a little with the simplicity of the recipe and that it would only take about an hour. What I love about Mark’s style is that he makes everything seem exceedingly simple and flexible. The lack of rigidity in his recipes leads me to believe that even I could successfully roast a chicken.
As soon as the gentleman behind the meat counter gave me my little girl, I clued into why roasting my own chicken wasn’t something I did or was going to do regularly: cost. She was free-range organic and did feed me five dinners, but her same-sized rotisserie’d siblings were a few dollars less and didn’t come with the prep and cook time. Nevermind. She was a project and a challenge, which I completed.
Mark’s quick method is to hit your chicken with high heat initially and then turn your oven down to a standard roasting temp once the skin is browned. His trick for keeping the breast meat moist is to lay the chicken breast side down for a good chunk of the cooking time. I don’t think my oven actually reached the 500 degrees needed for the blast of heat, but I was satisfied enough with the colour and texture of the skin, as well as the moistness of the meat. I probably will return to using pre-roasted chicken for ease, but there is something to be said for fresh roasted flesh straight from the oven. Served with a simple green salad and some french bread with butter, merry post-Christmas to me.
Simple Roast Chicken
From How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
1 whole (3- to 4-pound) chicken, rinsed and patted dry with paper towels
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons chopped herbs (rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage or a mix) or 1 teaspoon dried
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
Place the chicken breast side down on a rack in a roasting pan. Begin roasting. Mix together the oil, herbs, salt and pepper.
After the chicken has roasted for about 20 minutes, spoon some of the oil mixture over it, then turn the bird breast side up. Baste again, then again after 7 or 8 minutes. The breast should be beginning to brown. Roast a few more minutes if not. Turn the heat down to 325 degrees, baste and continue roasting until a thermometer inserted into the thigh reads 160 to 165 degrees. Roasting time will be about an hour.
Before removing the chicken from the pan, tip the pan to let the juices from the bird’s cavity flow into the pan. If they are red, cook another 5 minutes.
Rest for 5 minutes before carving. Serve with pan juices if desired.
Simple Chicken Stock
1 chicken carcass
1 onion, sliced in half
2 carrots, halved
2 celery ribs, halved
1 bay leaf
Strip all meat from roast chicken carcass and refrigerate or freeze for later use. Take all remaining chicken bones and parts, onion, carrots, celery and bay leaf and place in a large stock pot. Cover completely with water. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a low simmer and partially cover. Simmer for 90 minutes to 3 hours. Strain broth. You can add salt and pepper or wait until the stock’s next use. Refrigerate or freeze into usable portions. Refrigerated stock will remain fresh about 3 days.
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At the last book club meeting I hosted, we were discussing a book that took place partly in Cambodia. And for my purposes, Cambodia is close enough to Vietnam to make a culinary cheat leap when deciding what to make for snacks. The book does mention a character often eating a baguette sandwich… which of course is Vietnamese banh mi by any other name. So really, I wasn’t cheating all that much. And when I found the perfect recipe for a banh mi mise en place, the menu was shaping up perfectly.
While the chicken was well flavoured from the marinade, the standout ingredients were the pickled carrots and fresh bread. I kept to the recipe closely with the exception of the onions, daikon, lime (a member’s allergy caused me to use lemon), and the salad. I marinated the carrots for about 6 hours and everyone raved about them. I placed a special order at Cobs for the small baguettes. They were all chewy, golden goodness.
Unexpectedly, banh (loosely, bread/cake) became another theme of the evening. While walking aimlessly one night in Hue, I decided to try a sweet I had seen a few times in display cases. Simply labelled “banana cake,” it had the look of an upside-down cake; caramelized bananas atop a moist, white cake. The flavour, however, was more like a bread pudding. When I started searching for a recipe, I found that the cake I had tasted and had wanted to make for book club was called banh chuoi nuong.
Like any good bread pudding recipe, eggs and milk make over stale bread. And like many good dessert recipes from tropical climates, coconut and banana have leading roles.
After a few bites, you immediately understand why banh is such a widely used prefix in Vietnamese cooking. Everything it touches turns delicious.
Banh Chuoi Nuong
8 bananas
2 day-old/stale French loaves (not baguettes)
2 eggs
1.25 cups sugar
2 cups milk
2 cups coconut milk
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon vanilla
0.5 teaspoon cinnamon
Slice bananas and mix with flour, 0.25 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons of the butter, and cinnamon. Beat eggs with the remaining cup of sugar. Then add coconut milk, milk, vanilla, and remaining butter. Remove crusts from bread. Slice into 0.5-inch slices. Grease a 9-inch glass pie plate. Quickly dip the bread slices in the egg mixture and lay the slices into the bottom of pan to create the first layer. Squish bread down as much as you can. Add half of the banana slices. Repeat bread layer, squishing down again. Finish off with the rest of the banana slices. You may have leftover bread and banana slices. Bake at 350 degrees F until golden, about 45 minutes.
Let cool completely. Serve at room temperature. A scoop of vanilla ice cream wouldn’t hurt it.
For those of you who know me, I apologize that since vacationing in Vietnam, the only post I’ve done about it concerns fruit.
Amazing fruit, mind you, but fruit nonetheless.
Every time I think about doing a post, I start to miss being there. And as Edmonton’s winter still seems to be leaving its trace, remembering moments in tropical heat makes my current discontent all the more worse. As we cannot stop mentioning the longer Alberta days, I thought our obsession with the sun would twin nicely with posts on Vietnam. And as the days are just going to get shorter again (too) soon, I should get in while the getting’s good. Like Kramer and Newman with the Mackinaw peaches.
I don’t have to go much into why a foodie would want to go to Vietnam. Culinary stars such as Tony Bourdain and Dorie Greenspan have made recent journeys to taste the vast landscape of Vietnamese cuisine. More sweet in the South, more bitter in the North. City air that is as heavy with the smells of rice and cilantro as it is with scooter exhaust. The best baguettes I’ve had outside of France. Right now I’m craving a deep-fried pumpkin flower stuffed with catfish that I had while in the Mekong Delta. *sigh*
Green papaya salad with shrimp, Mango Rooms, Hoi An
Green papaya and green mango salads quickly became an obsession. Few things seemed more perfect on a hot afternoon than a cold salad of crunchy fruit in a salty dressing.
Green papaya salad, Hoa Sua School, Hanoi
Hoa Sua School
KOTO
Banana flower salad, KOTO, Hanoi
I also became a fan of the banana flower salad. Having a slightly chewy texture and a mild flavour, the flowers paired well with the other fruit. I even had a hand at making my own while taking a class at the Red Bridge Cooking School in Hoi An. Rather than eating the salad with chopsticks alone, you can break off pieces of grilled sesame rice paper and put mouthfuls on top.
Banana flower salad, Red Bridge Cooking School, Hoi An
The salads were what I wanted most when I came home. An inspired bowl of cold-spicy and salty-sweet to offset the persistence of dry radiator air. Something that would be kind to my waistline after one too many baguettes and cones of “young rice” ice cream. For a quick fix, I headed to Lucky 97 to get some ingredients to go with the rotisserie chicken I had at home.
With the exception of the dressing, I didn’t really follow a recipe. For two girls who were to stay in and paint their nails, I bought two mangos and one green papaya. Purple basil, cilantro, and mint. Shredded carrots. One diced chili. Scallions. Sesame seeds. The chicken. A super simple dressing c/o Red Bridge: juice of one lime, 1 teaspoon of fish sauce, 1 garlic clove crushed, and 1 tablespoon of sugar.
It was too cold for a cold beer, but that’s what was then needed.
And as they say in Vietnam: Yo!
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Like Sugar, I’m a big fan of green curries. A green curry with chicken is a standard for me when eating out. The other one is basil chicken. The flavour is not as complex or as rich as a curry, but the spice of the chilies and the sweetness of the basil is a winning combination. Add an appetizer and some steamed rice, and Cream is in Thai heaven.
Essentially just a stir fry, there’s not a lot to fret about regarding ingredients or technique when making basil chicken. Googling a recipe results in the Thai names of Gai Pad Krapow or Pad Krapow Gai. Both paths will end in deliciousness I think. As I waded through results, I found that a more authentic recipe calls for holy basil, which is apparently hard to find. The real deal is not made with the expected purple-stemmed Thai basil. A few sites recommended using a mix of mint and Thai basil as a substitution. So, I did just that.
It’s not a dish with many vegetables, but as the restaurant versions I prefer always have bell peppers, I required one of those, and I added green beans for good measure. It also seems to be more authentic to use ground chicken. The reason for this being that more surface area of the chicken gets hit with the few but strong flavours. So, if you’re using breast (like me), make sure to dice it quite small.
The aromas that fill the house when the ingredients hit the hot pan are intoxicating. Add the perfume of a pot of jasmine rice and the sun of a long Alberta day, and Thai heaven is in fact your own home.
Thai Basil Chicken
Makes enough for two.
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2-5 chilies, finely chopped (I used 3 small Thai red chilies and the heat was a tolerable medium)
2 shallots, finely sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
About 2 handfuls of green beans, trimmed and chopped to about 1.5 inches in length
1 red pepper, sliced
2 chicken breasts, diced
2.5 tablespoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
About 1 cup Thai basil leaves
About 0.5 cup mint leaves
1 lime
Cooked jasmine rice
1. Heat oil over high heat in wok or frying pan. When the oil starts to smoke, add the chilies, shallots, and garlic and stir fry for about 30 seconds, until golden.
2. Add the beans and red pepper and fry until tender-crisp, about 4 minutes.
3. Add the chicken and stir fry until cooked, about 5 minutes, depending on size of dice.
4. Add the fish sauce and sugar, stir to coat.
5. Reduce heat to medium and add the herbs. Stir fry until wilted. Remove from heat.
Serve with lime wedges and atop jasmine rice.
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