Kitchen Stadium

Russian Lunch For Misha!

2009-07-26T22:13:00.000-07:00

I finally found a bento box for Misha and had no bloody clue as what to throw in there. I'm mildly tempted to throw in a Nationality Tour for a theme. So, I decided to start with Russia. (That seems so much more random when I think about it.)

For starters, I was going to purchase these two sandwich cutters from Williams Sonoma; they're in the shape of a heart and dinosaur. I thought for Russia, heart would work better. (As his nickname is Russian--I call him Misha and Mishka, depending. Russia doesn't seem so random now, eh?)

So, I'd start with answering "What is a Russian Sandwich?" and got this article. Mmmm, бутерброд! (Buterbrod for people who can't read Cyrillic.) I then remembered our culture viewing in Russian class, and how for morning, everyone ate bread plus butter plus hard-boiled eggs/ham/caviar/fish/sausage/cheese. Misha doesn't like fish, and I don't think he'll eat their eggs either.

So, the sandwich? Can't have greenies. He's a carnivore, not an omnivore. (Weirdo.) So, the bread would be Russian black bread, provided by Smitten Kitchen. Then, I'd let him cheese taste Edam cheese, and if he'd like that, we'd move on. If not, some havarti, swiss, and gouda. Maybe some Tilsit cheese. (That's a mild joke, it's sometimes labelled as havarti.)

To stay in line with the бутерброд feeling, I'd say to add in some salami and sausage. So far, the only thing I could say for sure is this Kiev dry salami. Other than that, I'd love to taste test. Particularly that hunter sausage. D:

I would -love- to throw in some saurkraut as well. I love saurkraut, and frankly, that's quite Russian. (About west of Germany is when the love of pickling seems to stop.) I would probably mix it in with this recipe of Russian dressing from copykat:

1 1/2 C. Mayonnaise
1/2 C. sour cream
2/3 C. chili sauce (this is a condiment typically sold near cocktail sauce)
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. minced dill pickle
1 Tbsp. minced green pepper
2 Tbsp. minced green onion
4 tsp. fine grated fresh horseradish or drained bottled horseradish
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. Tobasco
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 Tbsp. minced parsley

Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Blend until thoroughly mixed, but do not over blend. Refrigerate in a covered jar until serving time. Stir before using.

However that wouldn't fly from the Misha crowd-lines. (Frankly, once properly drained and mixed into a dressing, saurkraut is delicious. It's not messy and quite awesome.)

For the appetizer/side addition would probably be something like potato salad. And not that weak-ass stuff we get in America. Well chopped -good- potato salad. Or варе́ники (varenki), a variation of pierogi, or пельмени (pelmeni). This would probably beef-based.

For dessert? Blini, are obvious choices, as are some kasha fruit dishes, pirozhki, honey cake or honey mousse.

To drink, compot. Or if actually non-alcoholic (as seen by the American government), kvass. (I don't know what it tastes like exactly.)

-- As usual with these things, I get caught up and style more to my tastes...

Snackie Lunches

2009-06-12T15:18:00.000-07:00

Misha doesn't eat many full meals a day. When he gets a job (with this economy, it's impossible to find one), I want to make him lunch, but they'd have to miniature. To me, this will be GREAT fun. Sort of like tiny bento-styled lunches that are cute, because it's also tiny, but also tasty! And it could just be a dessert style or not! So, here's a list of things I want to buy to help make the lunches. If I go to a one-day for Otakon, I'll search around then too.

Sandwich Cutters, 50-Piece Set
Dino Cutter, W&S
Heart Cutter, W&S
Veggie Cutter, Bento (These would be to not cut veggies, but other things, like to form designs and pretty stuff.)

Blue Bear Bento --It's... Sadly cutesy-happy. I think this would be HILARIOUS.

Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting and Raspberry Filling

2009-05-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

I must say that this was absolutely delicious. Also, there's no great photos of it in the process of making. You get the beginning and end result. Whoops.

It was admittedly a box cake (Pillsbury Classic Yellow). The only 'problem' during the mixing was that we didn't have vegetable oil. My step-brother, a baker, said to use extra virgin olive oil. Which worked absolutely fine. Later on, my step-sister told me that she always uses butter, never oil, but that the traditional substitute for veggie oil is applesauce, and that it works wonderfully.

The frosting I used came from Smitten Kitchen's, however we had trouble with it being too thin. I would suggest that if you use her recipe and find that it's still thin, throw in about a cup of powdered sugar.

The raspberry filling was wonderful, although it was my step-sister who made it, not me. (I'm afraid of making sauce, although apparently not of making frosting--chocolate just seems more natural to work with.)

For some reason, over the night, half the bag of raspberries disappeared. I'm certain someone ate them, but are afraid of confessing. My dad had to go out and purchase more.

Also, I swear that the filling looks like some thing exploded in a goop of blood and gore and bone fragments. It just looks like meaty pulp. I find that mesmerizing. (Although I'm sure that now a bunch of people won't eat the cake anymore.)

(It was delicious, I swear.)

We ate the cake. That's what's left. Kiwii frosted it and cut strawberry slices in a sort of floral pattern. This was a group effort cake, obviously.

Heart-Shaped Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

2009-05-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

The recipe was taken from tWtCC.

As you can see, I didn't mix the batter just enough (there's a small brown blob on the there). So, yea, everyone? Mix your batter more than I did. It looks like some of these hearts had myocardial infarctions.

Overall, we enjoyed them. The batter was very nice. I really liked the brown, but then I added the red.

And I was absolutely enjoying how much dye I put it. To me, red velvet cake should be RED. This was also done during the end of January. I was unable to make anything on Valentine's Day, but I wanted to do these.

The problem, however, is that whoopie pie batter is CAKE, not cookie. I had some odd notion that I'd be able use cookie cutters. I also turned out to be wrong.

It was a pain. What I did was trace the outline of the heart by using the edge of the (now useless) cookie cutter with batter, then dolloped the batter on and formed it with spoons and knives. In the end, they turned out wonderfully, but just not as simple as I planned.

Which you can see them in the background. I always, always, use parchment paper. It is a GODSEND. No mess! No cleaning up the pans!

I did not use the frosting from tWtCC, but just normal whoopie pie filling. I'm so tired of cream cheese frosting. Our family NEVER uses any other frosting other than cream cheese. Let's just say that even though cream cheese is better with red velvet, I was glad not to use it. The only problem is that we found it way too sweet. Misha (my boyfriend) and my dad both thought that next time, less sugar!

This is the second time I've made whoopie pies, actually. I originally did so years ago (when I was like 14) and accidentally dumped loads of fake almond extract into the frosting. Which I stupidly never tasted until I assembled all the whoopie pies. The batter was delicious, however!

List of recipes/food I want to make

2009-05-01T22:47:00.000-07:00

Mousse
Grilled Cheese
Porridge (Read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and they ate каша or kasha, which is Russian buckwheat porridge.)
Muffins (I'd like to try these.)
Chocolate Orange Sticks (blood oranges and normal.)
Russian black bread (From Smitten Kitchen.)
Chicken Pesto and Risotto (from Cook (almost) anything at least once.)
Falafel (From Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once: carrot falafel.)
Blue Cheese Scones (Taken from C(a)AALO.)
Tortillas (For Michael, so he can make tacos.)
Lobster (Do you know how much I miss lobster? We used to have it once every year. Maybe I should try prawns? I hate crabs. Should try eel and calamari as well!)
Lamb Stew (Just like my Latin teacher used to make for International Day.)
Chicken and Apricot (Latin class reminded me of one of the dishes someone served for a project.)
Spicy Chili (The red to emphasize spice.)
Veal Rolls (C(a)AALO)

This post from Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once made me think of an idea--dessert tasting platter. Small tarts, spoon-size creme brulee, mini cakes, chocolate orange sticks.

Chocolates and New

2009-02-15T17:44:00.001-08:00

Originally this was to be about a cooking-oriented story I was writing. I didn't have time, so it sort of died. Therefore, the first few posts, which I'll do something with eventually, will continue to sit there, and instead, the purpose of this blog will be now about food in general.

GODIVA White Chocolates:

The box I bought was of white chocolate (Misha likes them). There were two of these. I didn't like them. They're Raspberry Cashew Caramel Clusters.

And, really? Maybe I don't like clusters. (Misha doesn't like nuts, especially whole, so he didn't eat them). I tried some of their other raspberry chocolates latter on, thinking I'd hate it, but I didn't. So, that's not the problem here. The second one I had was a lot better, but still. I don't like it.

The raspberry star was DELICIOUS. It was very tart, which I like. Most fruit chocolates I hate, because they're too sweet.

(I'll write more, but I haven't eaten them all yet. I don't want to eat them all at ONCE, so uh... I'll continue this post later.)

The Fifth One

2008-07-17T21:30:00.000-07:00

I have found out exactly what happens during the College Years. There are the Four (three guys and a girl) who own the Club restaurants were all friends; this I knew already. However there was a fifth member of their group; an aspiring young lady. She is the backbone of their friendship. She was the one who brought their astounding talents together to attempt to create the greatest restaurant in, at least, the nation. They were working on a name, they liked the idea of Club M (she had this design for it, the colours, the layout, the uniforms). It would be this giant plethora of delicious food and great dining. Then, she died. This I knew already, that she has to, but I didn't know why or how. I figured as either an accident or a suicide. Something related to cooking in some way, specifically how she dies, but maybe not why. However, she has an idol, relatively like Jeremy Savarin, she was devoted to this man's work. He was one of the huge celebrity chefs hitting the top of the peak of great food. He was very busy and always had a lot new, innovative ideas. He was the one who got her into cooking and she was going to dedicate her restaurant to him. She wanted create something he would love. The dean at the culinary school she went to recognized her talents, and as a graduation was close (the Five were all in the same classes and year, they would graduate together), he convinced the chef to visit the school as a guest. She was a teacher's pet, essentially, but, in a way, she sort of earned her rights to this. On the day of the visit, she was going to have a personal dinner with the dean and her idol chef. After the dinner, she was to share her idol her ideas. She had left her book (of ideas) in the restaurant, and as a gentleman, her idol retrieved it for her. As he was crossing the street back from the restaurant, he gets hit by a car, and dies. It's an instantaneous death. In despair, as graduation gets closer and the thought of opening this restaurant with her friends and fellow co-workers draws nearer, she can't stand it. She believes she killed her idol, the man who was the sole reason she was even doing this. The day before graduation, she kills herself. (I do not know how yet.) Afterwards, the group cannot work together. The Fifth was their backbone, and without her, they are in need of a leader. In hatred to each other for what happened and in love for what their friend did, they attempt to create the perfect Club M. An obsession from an obsession. They wish to honor the death of their late friend, and want to create what she would have truly wanted. She had several idea logs, of various re-writes of Club M. She never knew which one she loved more but revolved around them all. One week, she'd work on one idea, then for the next month, another. Each one based on various influences from her friends and her idol. They each take one of the logs, the one based from each of them. (She had five logs, one for each of the Four and one for the idol chef--which was the one he was holding when he died, and therefore was 'unusable', as it was covered in blood and eventually destroyed before she killed herself.) They go their separate ways, and attack and sabotage each other as they try to fulfill their friends dream.

Battle Summer Preview

2007-08-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

Dan Yeo, a fellow sous chef who works at Club Mistral, ran up to me as I was walking across the parking lot to the restaurant. Head chef and owner of Club Mistral, Michiba Yoshida called everyone in early. At the moment, the prep chefs were probably finishing up and taking a break. Dan Yeo is always hyper but for him to run out like this, it means one thing.

"Savarin! Hey!" He reached me and stooped, panting. Dan Yeo has asthma. I waited for him to get ahold of himself.

"Savarin..." He looked up. "Today is a SPECIAL day! Wanna know why?" I nodded and he gave me his 'why can't you be more engergetic' look.

"We have the new menus!!"

"Danyo, you helped make the menu. I made a part in it, even Wineshlud helped." Dan Yeo looked contemptously for a moment.

"You don't know what our menus are! Yoshida-san, Wineshlud, me... We all have menus you don't know about!"

He continued to glare when I noticed that he had a folder in his hand.

"What is that?" I pointed to his hand.

"I am NOT telling you!"

"What? HEY! Don't walk away!" I ran forward to catch up with him. He took notice and ran towards the restaurant.

"AH! DANYO! HEY! I'm sorry! Come on! Tell me what's in the folder! Danyo, come on!" I pleaded as I raced after him.

Dan Yeo reached the restaurant first and had to stop, due to his asthma. I ran in and stopped in front of him. Panting, he held the folder to his chest. His panting lessened and I reached forward to grab the folder.

"SAVARIN!" The harshness of the voice startled me and I tripped forward.

I was ready to shout back at the guy who yelled, but then I saw him standing there in his tremendous fury. Michiba Yoshida was standing in the kitchen doorway, a knife in each hand.

"S-sorry sir!" I walked towards him. I opened my mouth to say explain when the knife in his left hand rushed up to meet my throat. I did not say anything but kept my eye on his arm.

"Savarin, Dan Yeo has asthma. Today is an important day. We need every one to do their best."

"Yes, the new menus are in and-"

"SILENCE! The new menu is in, yes. That is not the reason why I called you in early." I was about to ask what when he went on, "A prep chef. We have a new prep chef."

That news perked me up, I liked new chefs. I liked sharing new information and recieving new techniques in turn.

"Kishi Ecko!" Yoshida-san called into the kitchen. A teenager walked out of the kitchen.

"Yes, Yoshida-san?" He said.

"This man, Jeremy Savarin, is the third sous chef here. While a good chef, beware of him outside the kitchen."

"Why, sir?"

"Savarin is an idiot when he is not dealing with food."

"Yoshida-san..." I said. He looked at me, allowing me to speak. "Can you possibly... Your knife, you see..."

He looked at the knife and let his hand down. I exhaled. He arched his eyebrows and shoved Kishi forward into the kitchen and followed.
...

This is the first part of Battle Summer.

Dan Yeo's nickname is Danyo. Nobody calls him Dan. Some call him Dan Yeo and others call him Danyo.

Yoshida-san is harsh but he is well-meaning. He is a rather sweet and soft man deep down, but he is most harsh on Savarin. The reason why he raised his left-hand is that he IS left-handed. He is ambidexterous because chefs need to use their right-hand for making certain cuts. He has a special set of left-handed knives. He makes the strong cuts with his left and finer cuts with his right. So for him to raise his knife with his left-hand, it's a pretty big threat! There's only two times he'd do that, to make Savarin serious or to truly threaten someone he completely despises.

Kitchen Stadium: Battle Season

2007-08-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is a large reference to Iron Chef.

OK, it's taken me a while, but I've finally got it. It pretty much took me a big (and awesome) idea to set me along and start THIS project. It's a story, four stories really, and it's called Kitchen Stadium. It's a four-part story about chefs. There are four sides - Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. Staying with the Iron Chef theme, I made them 'battles'. Each side is centred around a chef, following the same story. It's a lot like books that have more than one character and each chapter is a different character. However with this, it's not set up that way. They are four seperate 'books'. I don't think of them books because I'm still unsure how big this story really is (I didn't know that it would HAVE to be four stories until now).

The four stories revolve around Michiba Yoshida, Kishi Ecko, Jeremy Savarin and the College Years. I don't know who is the main character for the College Years or if it is just 3rd person. Michiba Yoshida-san is the main chef for Battle Fall. Kishi Ecko is the main chef for Battle Spring. Jeremy Savarin is the main chef for Battle Summer. The College Years is the group for Battle Winter. The only story, or battle, that is somewhat spoiler filled is the winter battle. The reason for that is because it's the backstory for Yoshida and the other owners of the Clubs. It isn't major, it's basically the entire reason why there are four clubs and that they are all fighting.

There are four restaurants and they are competing against each other (due to something in their college years, they were the four best chefs and friends). Yoshida-san runs Club Mistral. Charles Sabateour runs Club Martel. Dina Toul runs Club Marin. Marius d'Azur runs Club Marseille. All four of them want to be recognised as the best chef. They are trying for a 5-star. First one to 5-star and they win. They all have the same uniform, pretty much, except for the colours. Colours depend on the Club. Club Mistral has dark blue (not navy) and Club Marseille has light blue.

While Yoshida-san is deep into the bickering, Kishi Ecko and Jeremy Savarin (well, and the rest of his crew) care to help him, but don't make it their main concern. Savarin worships Yutake Ishinabe (the 1st French Chef from Iron Chef, he's the least well-known and runs a restaurant called Queen Alice in Yokohama, Japan) and Iron Chef. He, like Yoshida-san, believes for artistic food, along with taste. Kishi Ecko has a wonderful talent for colour and presentation but he's green ('He's a leek!' as Dan Yeo, a sous chef for Mistral, would say).

I think that's all? I hope that is. HAHA. This story has about fifty levels of complexity. The theme of France, Iron Chef and Four/Death is rampant through all of this. A lot of it is a weird stroke of chance... but then some of it IS planned, then chance steps in.