The Fried Rice

As easy as it seems to cook, it’s hard to find really good Fried Rice (a.k.a. “Flied Lice”). Here is my version:

1) Cook Jasmine rice for 20-minutes, then let cool off for 10.

2) Mix Dijon mustard, Hunan sauce and Soy sauce into a thick, spicy and dark brown sauce.

3) Fry eggs (one per person) just like you would making scrambled eggs.Chop and scrape. Chop and scrape.

4) Fry bacon, onions, hangersteak, sausages ot whatever you find in the fridge. Anything goes. This is a leftover dish.

5) Mix the rice with 1/2 of the sauce in a wok. Stir. Add the scrambled eggs. Stir.

6) Finally add all other ingredients. Stir.

Serve the Fried Rice directly from the wok with the rest of the sauce as a side for the guests that enjoys hotter food. This dish takes about 30-minutes all-in-all and is very inexpensive and super tasty. As long as the rice is properly steamed, the sauce hot and the eggs scrambled it’s hard to fail.

Foie Gras Silliness

Go Mayor Richard M. Daley!

In Preperations for the New Year

Celebrations in any shape or form means friends, food and drinks. But not necessarily in that order. I therefore ventured down to the Ferry Building yesterday to acquire some goodies for the weekend: skirt steak, chicken liver, hangersteak, duck fat, Gabietou and Morbier cheeses. The Missus and I kicked off the weekend by enjoying a bottle of Villa Antinori, the Gabietou cheese and the skirt steak (w/ mushroom sauce and jasmine rice). The latter rather unconventional but one has to be able to experiment.

Since we had some leftover rice I decided to continue my quest for the perfect fried rice for today’s lunch. Fried rice is a brilliant leftover dish, just grab some rice, an egg or two and use what you have in the fridge. It could be sausages, spring onions, steak, mushrooms et cetera. You obviously need olive oil, soy sauce, freshly grounded peppar and kosher salt. For the hotter audience I recommend some spicey hunan sauce.

1. Heat up the wok and fry one egg per person (scramled egg style) in a mix of butter and olive oil.
2. Throw in a few different well chopped ingredients of your choice (I use mushrooms and spring onions) and saute w/ the scrambled eggs.
3. Last but not least, drop all the leftover rice into the wok and stir. Add peppar, salt, sauce sauce and hunan sauce. Let it all fry together for a few minutes and then serve au naturelle or with some creme fraiche or sour creme.

This dish takes 5-10 minutes to make, is dirt cheap and most importantly – delish!

The Thanksgiving Dinner

Dungeon Crab Mousse

Marinated Poulet with Rösti

Carrot Cake

Calvados

Wine is Good for the Heart and the Mind

How could I let this fabolous news slide:

“Red wine might work to protect the brain from damage after a stroke and drinking a couple of glasses a day might provide that protection ahead of time, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.”

“Red wine has been suggested for the heart. Here what we show is its special effect in stroke and pre-treatment,” Dore said. “It suggests that prophylactic use of wine could work.”

“The amount of wine that must be consumed in order to reap the benefits of the compound will vary depending on a person’s weight and the concentration of resveratrol in the wine. But Dore said it will likely work out to about two glasses a day.”

Another Italian That Impress

The 2004 Ruggeri Corsini Barbera d’Alba ($13.99) is a delightful wine to accompany a nice crab pasta or a hot creamy tomato sauce. “From the husband and wife team of Nicola Argamante and Loredana Addari. Small production and super values! This young red offers a grapey nose, intense and yet delicate offering raspberry and violet notes. On the palate this wine is quite dry, full bodied and with plenty of acidity though tannins are soft and fully integrated. Enjoy with just about any sort of Italian-inspired food!”

Just Another Simple Dish

The Missus and I headed down to our local wine store to find some new wines yesterday. It’s not our favorite store but the owner is cool (often liquored up w/ a big red nose) and they do have a few finds. Yesterday we discovered a surprisingly good Dolcetto D’Alba 2003 from Mauro Molino ($13.95). It’s a very soft, well-spoken and fairly round red wine. Quaffable to say the least.

But back to the key subject. The Missus is out and I decided to experiment with my Chicken Curry. Usually I use some mushrooms, butter and curry and heat that up in a wok. When hot enough I add the chicken pieces, salt and pepper. Once bronzed I add thyme and cream. But today I decided to spice it up and added our favorite Hunan sauce. Man, did that give the whole dish a kick. Serve with Jasmine rice. Takes 20 minutes to make, is very tasty and inexpensive. Bon Appetite!

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A Few New Wine Recommendations

We have tried two new red wines that we like:

• 2003 St Hilarie, Haut-Medoc: “Deep gravely soil along with a clayey-chalky subsoil provides this value-priced Bordeaux red with plenty of stuffing, especially in the ripe, precocious vintage of 2003. The blend is 50% cabernet sauvignon, 45% merlot and 5% cabernet franc, vinified in stainless steel and aged for one year in oak (1/3 new each year). A fantastic wine to have on hand for strip sirloin on the grill, steak fajitas or burgers.” $14.99
• 2004 Sesta di Sopra Rosso di Montalcino: “Intense ruby red color with an aroma of fresh fruit with toasty vanilla notes. Elegant, austere body. This wine was matured in French oak barriques and aged in bottle for three months before release.” $19.99

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Perin's Thai Sole

I just have to share our newly invented dinner dish: Perin’s Thai Sole. It was just fab and the quickest (5-10 minutes) gourmet meal I’ve ever made.

2 Soles per person

Heavy Whipping Cream

Cous-Cous

Lime Juice

Fresh Basil

Green Curry Paste (Thai Kitchen)

Pepper

Salt

Olive Oil

1. Mix the curry with the cream and add pepper, basil, lime juice and salt in a pan. Let it cook for a few minutes on low heat.

2. Heat up water and add salt and olive oil in another pan. Add the cous-cous when heated. Take off the stove and let rest for 5 minutes.

3. Add the sole to the curry cream and let cook for about 3 minutes with the cover on.

4. Serve together (I made a cylinder of the cous-cous and added the sole on the side). Enjoy!

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The Porsche of Chef Knife Leather Rolls

This is the coolest knife roll I’ve ever seen. It belongs to chef Eric Ripert and was featured in NYT ’s Sunday Magazine a few weeks ago.

Eric Ripert, Le Bernardin – ‘‘I think knives deserve to be carried in style,’’ Ripert says. When leaving the restaurant or venturing beyond New York, he tucks his leather-and-suede knife roll, made by an Italian craftsman more than a decade ago, under his arm. In it you’ll find his Japanese MAC knives, a honing steel, a truffle slicer and a trussing needle. Portability is important, so Ripert limits his batterie de cuisine to knives. ‘‘I’m not MacGyver,’’ he says.