Ingredients:
- 1 Package of udon, with soup base
- Sliced nappa cabbage
- 1/2 lb chicken breast, cut into small slices
- 1 or 2 eggs
- Optional fixings: dumplings, seaweed, japanese fish cakes, whatever that makes your heart content
Preparation
Bring the recommended amount of water and soup base powder to a boil in a small/medium pot. Throw in the nappa cabbage and chicken, then wait till the water boils. You can also add in the ubon in the previous step, but it might make the noodle too soggy. I usually wait a couple of minutes before putting the udon noodles in.
Since addition of extra ingredients tend to lowe the temperature, wait until the water boils again once all the fixings and noddles are in the pot. Quickly beat two eggs and pour it slowly into the center of the pot, thus creating the infamous “cloudy egg” effect like Chinese egg drop soup.
Personal review from dining at Taranta during the 2006 Restaurant Week in Boston. Taken from their website, Taranta is the result of a marriage between Southern Italian Cuisine and Peruvian Cuisine
So, on the plate for the Platinum Chef:
Pan Roasted Mussels - Fresh PEI mussels with Sicilian Marsala, Pancetta Abruzzese and Balsamic roasted shallots.
My $0.02: What a wonderful appetizer! Maybe it was restaurant week and they’re trying to advertise themselves, but they definitely weren’t stingy on the amount of mussels given to each one of us.
Cancha Corn Crusted Tilapia - Cancha corn crusted tilapia filet served with friend garganzo beans, baby spinach, marinated red onions and buttermilk aji amarillo sauce
My $0.02: Wasn’t too crazy about this dish, which was served with a mildly tangy buttermilk sauce. The description did not mention that the tilapia fillet would be fried. I think that a true fish aficionado would agree with me that frying removes the true essence/taste of the fish. Apart from the fish itself, the combination of marinated onions and baby spinach looked and tasted great.
Somebody ordered the Gnocchi Di Yucca Can Ragu D’Agnello, and that was quite good.
Hazelnut Mousse - Hazelnut mousse with dulce de leche
My $0.02: Star of the night! The ‘light’ texture of the mousse was surprising given the richness of flavor. A must!
Ingredients
- RAW Shrimp, 26-30 per pound size
- Skewers, soaked in water to prevent burning prior to grilling
- Green & Red Bell Peppers, cut to 3/4″ pieces
- Pinapple Chunks, canned w/ juice
- Soy Sauce
- Celery Salt
- Garlic Salt
- Pepper
Preparation & Cooking
Remove shell and clean shrimp, set aside to drain dry. Chop red & green bell peppers to 1″ x 0.5″ pieces. Drain pinapple chunks but save the pinapple juice for grilling sauce. Carefully, place a mix-and-match combo of shrimp, bell peppers pieces, and pinapple chunks onto the skewers.
Preheat grill to 350 degrees C. Place skewers on a not too shallow dish and sprinkle some celery salt, garlic salt, and pepper onto the surface of the prepared skewers. Then, combine pinapple juice with soy sauce and brush the mixture onto the surface of the shrimp and bell peppers. Use a moderate amount of sauce mixture.
Place skewers onto the grill and cook for about 2-3 minues on each side, or until the shrimp turns pink. Remove from grill and serve immediately.
This stuff is good. I picked up a Sam Adams Brewmaster’s Collection today and had one of the Black Lagers, it was awesome. As described on the packaging:
Smooth and malty with a deep roast character and dry finish.
Well said Sam, well said!
Looking for an alternative to the standard lemonade? Well, Santa Cruz Organic Limeade is the answer. This not-too-sweet, all natural juice refreshment is perfect for the summer months. I love it.
For more information, visit Santa Cruz Organic’s website.
This is one of my fallback recipes. It’s a very healthy and tasty meal when you’re too busy to cook anything else.
Cajun Fish
- Fillets of any type of white fish (haddock and tilapia are my fav)
- Cajun Seasoning (e.g. Old Bay)
- Olive Oil
Rinse the surface of the fish fillets prior to cooing, pat dry with paper towel. Sprinkle on a moderate amount of cajun seasoning on either side of the fish. Heat a little bit of olive oil in a frying pan and wait until the frying pan is thoroughly hot. Place the fillets onto the frying pan and pan fry for about 2 min on both sides, until golden brown. Be sure not to overcook or else it’ll take on the texture of rubber.
Tip: Sometimes one side of the fish fillet is skin, that’s good. When pan frying, pan-fry the fillet so the skin side is up for about 80% of the total cooking time. The skin will help keep the moisture in.
Asparagus
- Asparagus (discard the bottom portion by snapping asparagus with hands)
- Chicken Broth
Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a medium saucepan, drop in asparagus. Cook until tender with a little bit of snap remain. You can usually test this by poking a fork into the asparagus and it goes through pretty easily and the asparagus taking on a bright green color. Again, don’t overcook.
Ingredients
Tabula Rasa Pizza Crust (from Trader Joe’s)
Slices of Ham
Can of Pinapple Tidbits
Can of Tomatoe Sauce (w/ Italian Herbs)
Bag of Lite 3 Cheese Blend
Olive Oil
Preparation & Cooking
Going with the packaging of the pizza crust, I preheated the oven to 450 degrees. First, lightly brush some olive oil on the perimeter of the pizza crust. This will provide some nice browning on the outer crust when baking. Next spread the tomatoe sauce evenly in the center of the crust, the amount you use totally depends on personal preference. Then, sprinkle cheese as to cover the tomatoe sauce. Add shredded ham & pinapple bits to the pizza and bake at 425 degrees for 11 minutes.
Notes
- Instead of using ham and pinapple, use any toppings you prefer. Like blue cheese and lamb meat??
- From previous experience, you can also use Pillsbury’s pizza crust for a thinner crust Hawaiian pizza. The pizza crust used above didn’t really go well with the suggested toppings, too salty?
Greek Corner, Mass Ave in Cambridge (map)
Greek Corner, located on Mass Ave a few blocks North of Davis Square, is a decent place to dine when you’re in the mood for some Lamb meat wrapped in a soft, warm pita bread.
This is gonna be short since it’s past my bedtime, :). My roommate, a neighbor, and myself went to Greek Corner (map) tonight. If you have company with you, definitely try the Sampler Plate which consists of a variety of authetic Greek dishes. Also, each of us ordered the Corner Gyro to go with our sample appetizer. Definitely enough to fill all of our tummies. The only downside was that the food was a bit on the salty side.
After our defeat in a softball game yesterday, some Highrockers and I went to Cafe Belo in Allston. Being my first time, I thought it was an awesome pay-by-the-pound Brazillian food joint.
For $5.50 per lb (I put away about 1.35 lbs worth of food) you get to choose already-made side/main dishes from a buffet-like station. But don’t fill up on these items, the real gems are the meats that’s being roasted on their oven. You can choose from chicken wrapped in bacon, perfectly seasoned beef, and other saliva inducing meats. What a treat!
They even provide a few cooking tips for your personal cooking needs. Look for different locations and directions on their website.