Pork Chop with Tomato-Herb Sauce

Hello Everyone!

I am back to blogging after I have graduated from UCLA with a degree in BS in civil engineering. Man ... my senior year was one hell of a trip. Rocket propulsion class ... woot woot I want to be a rocket scientist.

Anyways, after finishing my last research paper, I decided to cook up some pork chops because that is one of my favorite cuts of meat ever. This herby pork is healthy and really delicious!

Pork Chock with Tomato-Herb Sauce

Ingredients
2 tbsp unsalted butter room temperature(yum fattiness)
2 cloves Garlic (minced)
1 tbsp Marjoram (fresh and chopped)
1 tbsp Parsley (fresh and chopped)
1 cup Cherry tomatoes
2 Pork chops
Salt and pepper
Corn Starch

Directionals of tons of prepwork (not really)
1. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half
2. Finely chop the herbs and garlic
3. Use a fork to mix in butter and herbs and garlic
3. Punch pork chops and sprinkle corn starch all over the pork chops
4. Salt and pepper pork chops

Cooking Directions
1. Add about 1 tbsp of the herb butter in a pan
2. Wait for butter to heat up and add the pork chop
3. Brown pork chop on both sides for about 4 minutes on each side on low medium heat
4. Add tomatoes to the pan and stir until juices run out of the tomatoes
5. Add remaining butter in the pan.
6. Plate pork and tomatoes
7. Optionally use a blow torch to char the tomatoes.

Enjoy this !!

Turnip Cake with Ginger Sour Cream

Just as I thought this quarter at UCLA was going to be easy ... BAM I'm piled with homework and projects again. Man the quarter system came at me really fast ><. Anyways, despite how much work I have, I still have my food club in my tiny apartment. This week, my club ordered a Community Supported Agriculture box from South Central Farms. I will show you one of the dishes I came up with. I got my inspiration from potato cakes and used a little bit of my creativity to make the flavors work xD. Turnip Cake with Ginger Sour Cream

Ingredients for Turnip Cakes
2 Turnips
1/4 cup Flour
1/2 cup Bread crumbs
1 tsp Five Spice Powder
1 tsp Sesame oil
2 tsp Soy Sauce
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Green onion

Prep work and cooking
1. Dice turnips into tiny pieces.
2. Place turnips in a steamer to steam until soft (10-15 minutes)
3. Meanwhile, slice green onions and measure out ingredients.
4. Remove turnips from the steam and place on a very fine sieve to sqeeze out any water and form a paste-like puree.
5. Place turnip in a bowl and add remaining ingredients.
6. Mix well.
7. Form the the mixture into a cake (like crab-cakes)
8. Fry the turnip cakes (2-3 minutes on each side) to get a nice golden crisp on each side.

Ingredients for Ginger Sour Cream
1/4 cup Sour cream
1/2 inch peeled Ginger
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cardamon
Cilantro (optional)

Directions
1. Finely dice the ginger
2. Mix everything together

Enjoy this vegetarian friendly dish. It tastes crispy on the outside and very soft on the inside. You can serve it with sriracha.

Here's another lovely picture of the finished product!

Maverick Grits from S.N.O.B

O wow ... I haven't touched this blog in awhile. Well, it is the start of a new year! I will be blogging whenever possible. Grad school apps have been quite a pain, but I have been going through them decently.

During the break, my sister, Jennifer, made these awesome grits and shrimp etc. stuff when I came over to her condo. When grits come to mind, I think of breakfast, sweetness with brown sugar and raisins.

On a side note ... COOKING RAGE!! THEY DO NOT HAVE OLD FASHION GRITS IN WESTWOOD!! WHOLE FOODS ... NONE, TRADER JOES ... NONE, RALPHS ... Instant Crap!

I guess polenta, cream of rice from Whole Foods, or instant grits work just as well...
Maverick Grits from S.N.O.B

Ingredients
Grits of not really grits for my case:
4 cups Water
3 tbs Unsalted butter, divided
1 cup Stone-ground grits (polenta, cream of rice, instant grits workish)
3/4 cup Heavy cream

Topping:
2 tbs Unsalted butter, divided
1/4 lb Country ham (1/4 cup)
3 Italian Sauages
20 medium Shrimp
1 tsp Cajun spice blend (recipe below)
1/4 cup Green onion
2 Garlic cloves
2 Vine tomatoes
1 tbs Vermouth

Cajun Spice Blend
2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Garlic powder
2.5 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Ground black pepper

1 tsp Onion powder
1 tsp Cayenne pepper
1 tsp Dried oregano
1 tsp Thyme powder
2 teaspoons salt

Directions for Cajun spice mix:
1. Mix it all together!

Prep work for the main dish
1. Dice ham and place in a container
2. Slice green onions
3. Seed and dice fresh tomatoes
4. Mince garlic
5. Slice sausages into 1/4 in thick rounds
6. Peel and devein shrimp

Directions for cooking the grits!
1. Boil water and add grits
2. Stir until all the grits are incorporated
3. Add butter and cream and cook until desired consistency (Depending on what type of grain your cooking it can take from 3 minutes to 40 minutes)
4. Keep warm until you finish cooking the toppings!

Directions for cooking the topping!
1. Melt 1 tbs of butter in a pan.
2. Add sausages and cook until cooked
3. Add shrimp and cook until almost done (1-3 minutes)
4. Add garlic and Cajun spice blend and cook for 30 seconds
5. Add tomatoes, green onion, and vermouth and cook for 1 minutes.
6. Serve topping over grits.

Enjoy the new year!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ah... Seems like I haven't touched this in awhile ><. Well, it's because I have been busy with mainly school and a food club I started in my tiny apartment. Usually, I would be updating http://foodatucla.blogspot.com, but even I don't have time for that.

Anyways... Last week, my club made pumpkin desserts, and I thought to share with my readers (if any are left) my cheesecake recipe.

This cheesecake is not an ordinary cheesecake. It is extremely light, airy, and fluffy.

Pumpkin Cheesecake


Ingredients for Filling
4 slabs of Cream Cheese (room temperature)
3 egg whites
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup Milk or Cream (depends on how healthy you want to be)
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Pumpkin Puree
2 teaspoons Ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon Allspice
1 teaspoon Ground ginger
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Ingredients for Crust
1 package of Graham crackers
1 tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp Allspice
½ tsp Ground ginger
1 tbs Dark brown sugar
3/4 stick butter (room temperature)

Prep work Crust
1. Preheat oven 325F
2. Make sure butter is softened
3. Crush graham crackers coarsely
4. Line Bottom of springform pan with parchment paper
5. Mix all the dry ingredients together
6. Add dry ingredients and butter on the bottom of the pan evenly
to form the crust
7. Prepare a large and deep dish for a water bath by filling it with
water.
8. Line bottom of the springform pan

Prep work Filling
1. Beat egg whites until soft peaks
2. In a mixing bowl with paddle attachment, add the cream cheese
and whip on low speed for 3 minutes
3. Add egg yolks, milk, sugar and mix for 1 minute until everything
evenly incorporated in the mix
4. Slowly add the flour, allspice, ground ginger while mixing on low
5. Add vanilla extract and pumpkin puree and mix for about 2
minutes or until evenly incorporated. (Don’t forget to scrap the
edges of the bowl while your mixing).
6. Gently fold in egg whites.
7. Gently zig zag pour the batter into the springform pan.
8. Place pan in the water bath
9. Stick the cheesecake in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour
30 minutes.
10. Allow the cheesecake to sit in the oven for 30 minutes before
putting it in the fridge.

La Vecchia Cucina: A review

My food club ventured out to Santa Monica for DineLA for our weekly meeting on Fridays. It was decided by vote that we would go to La Vecchia Cucina. The menu looked great on the DineLA website! Seafood, lobster, filet mignon, and tiramisu ... what's not to like about this restaurant.

The restaurant contains an open kitchen, where you can see Chef Mollica working away at his dishes and managing his staff. With a dark lit environment, large bar space, and many tables, La Vecchia is a great place for a social gathering. Everyone in the restaurant was happily chatting loudly, sipping on wine and cocktails.

The wine list is quite extensive, ranging from California wines from Nappa Valley to Italy. Because most of the dishes were seafood, the waiter recommended a bottle of 2008 Salviano Orvieto Classico (a white wine).

As for the food, our group ordered everything from the DineLA menu so that we can sample each dish.

The appetizers were perhaps one of the best dishes of the evening. The chef utilized one of the freshest mozzarella and tomatoes for a salad that I've ever tasted. In addition, balsamic vinegar that accompanied the salad was especially fragrant and tasteful. As for the seafood salad, consisting of calamari, lobster, shrimp, and green beans with a lemon dressing, it amazed my taste buds with a perfect amount of acidity and oil. The last appetizer on the menu was a spinach ravioli with pomodoro sauce. The ravioli was pretty decent and well seasoned, while the pomodoro sauce's texture and sweetness provided uniqueness to the dish.

Unfortunately, the entrees were not as exciting and tasteful as the appetizers. The three choices were lobster and asparagus pasta tossed in light white wine pomodoro sauce, sea bass with lemon oil herb sauce, and lastly, filet mignon with a port wine reduction sauce.

I'll start with the lobster pasta. This is perhaps on par with the pasta I ate at Covel Dining Hall... too salty and some of the pasta was undercooked. In addition, the pomodoro sauce was definitely not like the pomodoro sauce I tasted from the appetizers. Furthermore, parts of the asparagus were unpeeled, thus leaving a horrible texture in my mouth. The only thing I can find right about the dish was the lobster tail and other lobster bits. Unfortunately, I do not return dishes to the kitchen because that would be wasteful, but if I was Gordon Ramsey, I would have spat it out and lobbed the dish into the open kitchen's trash.

On the other hand, the sea bass was mediocre. One of my friends had to send it back to the kitchen after an initial bite and trade it for filet mignon. The reason? The sea bass was overcooked and the sauce had enough acidity to put in a hole in your tongue. Aside from that mishap, the sauce had a nice herby flavor and the mashed potatoes and spinach were quite delicious, but those are only side dishes and not the main attraction.

Lastly, the filet mignon. Is there anything that can go wrong with this dish? The other two were already two strikes. The third one means its out. Unfortunately, the filet mignon was a home run. Perhaps one of the best steaks I've ever tasted. The outside was nicely seared, leaving the inside medium rare. The port wine reduction sauce was an additional key to making this dish successful. The flavors were sweet, savory, and brilliant. I later asked the chef for the recipe. The key is in the homemade veal stock.

Now onto the desserts. Who doesn't like desserts? I guess no one dislikes desserts. The restaurant offered tiramisu, an espresso shot with vanilla gelato, and molten cake. I will skip the vanilla gelato and espresso shot because, well, it tasted like how it would sound ... pretty normal. The tiramisu was not too sweet and the coco powder did not overpower the overall cake. The lady fingers and mascarpone cream tasted like I was eating clouds. The chocolate molten cake was also brilliant. The hot cake had a perfect level of sweetness and provided a texture to die for.

Overall, I would give this restaurant a 6.5 / 10, where 10 is a 3 Michelin star restaurant, 5 as some place like the Cheesecake Factory, and 1 as a sushi place with fish that has gone rancid.

Unfortunately, no one brought a camera :(. No pictures : (

Steak with Pomegranate Sauce

Guess what everyone?? Classes have started, and damn, is everything busy these days. On the other hand, I have unofficially started a club called Food at UCLA. Check out the blog: foodatucla.blogspot.com. So far, I'm trying to keep the number of members down because my apartment is sooo small. Until the club can be an official club, it will be limited to 20 members :(.

To celebrate classes, I have made steak with pomegranate sauce. I never knew pomegranate can be used for so many things. It goes so well with the steak by bringing out the flavor of the meat through the sweet and sour taste.

Before I start, people have been asking me how I can tell how done my steak is. Well, I tell them to poke it. If it is very squishy like a sponge, then it is still raw and probably cold on the inside. If it is like the feeling of poking your cheeks, then it should be medium rare to medium. If it is like pushing into a thing of clay, your steak is definitely well done or overcooked. It is all based on experience.

Wine pairing: This goes well with a Syrah

Steak with Pomegranate Sauce

Ingredients
1 lb Ribeye steak
1 cup Pomegranate juice like POM
1/2 Orange
2 tbs White sugar
1/4 cup Golden brown sugar
2 Shallots
1 Bay leaf
1 tsp Orange zest
salt

Prep and Cooking the sauce
1. Slice the shallots thinly
2. Bring pomegranate juice to a boil
3. Squeeze the juice from 1/2 orange into the pomegranate juice
4. Add both sugars into the pan and stir around making sure the bottom doesn't burn
5. Add bay leaf, shallots, and orange zest into the pan
6.Stir until reduced in half.

Cooking the steak
1. Heat a oil in a pan on high heat
2. Sear steak on both sides for 30 seconds each side
3. Turn over and turn heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 4 minutes
4. Turn over, cover, and cook for 4 minutes
5. It should be about medium to medium-rare, so take the steak and slice it into strips
6. Plate and drizzle sauce over the steak strips.

Rib-eye Steak with Cheese Butter and Walla Walla Onion Rings

I have returned to America to find rib-eye on sale at Ralphs. Oh boy, I miss a big ole American steak. My recent trip to Taiwan has lacked a huge juicy steak. I've only had petite sized sirloins from Australia. Though I have to say, Australian beef is quite delicious.

To my surprise, I had two issues of bon appetit magazine welcoming me back from Taiwan. The front page of the September issue had a rib-eye steak with blue cheese, which sounds so amazing and fatty goodness. Also, this recipe had onion rings, which are one of my favorite food items.

Blue cheese has always been to mysterious. It has a crumbly texture and sharp taste that makes people like it or not.

Rib-eye Steak with Cheese Butter and Walla Walla Onion Rings
Courtesy of Bon Appetit Magazine September 2010


Ingredients for the steak and blue cheese butter
1 lb Rib-eye steak
1 tbs Garlic powder
1 tbs Thyme powder
1 tbs Salt
1 tbs Ground pepper
3 tbs Unsalted butter
3 tbs Blue cheese
1 tbs Paprika

Prep work
1. Let butter and cheese set at room temperature
2. Mix the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and thyme powder.
3. Lightly sprinkle the mixture on both sides of the steak.
4. Mix the blue cheese and butter with the paprika.

Walla Walla Onion Rings

Ingredients
1 large Sweet onion
1 cup Cake flour
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
3/4 bottle Beer, about 3/4 cup (I used Blue Moon)
2 tbs Vodka

Prep work
1. Mix the cake flour, salt, and baking powder.
2. Add the vodka and beer and mix until pancake batter consistency. (add more beer if too thick).
3. Let the batter sit in the fridge up to a day.
4. Cut the onion into thick slices.
5. Dip the onion rings into the batter.

You can multi-task and cook both at the same time. Start on the steak first, then after 2 minutes you can start on the onion rings too.

Cooking the beef
1. Heat up the pan and add oil of choice
2. Sear both sides of the steak for 30 seconds each.
3. Turn on medium-low and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side for medium rare.
4. Put a tablespoon of the butter cheese on top of the steak and allow it to melt.

Cooking the onion rings
1. Heat up a lot of oil.
2. Shake off excess batter.
3. Gently drop the onion rings into the oil.
4. Fry until golden.
5. Place paper towels on a plate to soak up the oil.

Enjoy. The onion rings taste so good like tempura onions. The steak is also delicious with buttery cheesy goodness. School is in session!