New Year's: Spending time with family

For New Year's Eve, we're spending time with family instead of watching the ball drop in Times Square. It's been a while since my brothers and I have all been home for my mom's birthday, which is today. (Happy Birthday, mom!)

We ate Kalbi Jjim, or Korean short rib stew for dinner. We also had rice cake soup for lunch, which is a traditional Korean meal on New Year's Day.



It's just nice to be sitting in a room watching Up, an animated movie about an older gentleman who finally fulfills the adventure he and his wife always wanted to do.

Happy New Year!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I remember eating rhubarb for the first time at a friend's house when I was a kid. My friend's mother made strawberry rhubarb pie and I liked the sweet-tart flavor. My mother-in-law made strawberry rhubarb pie for my brother-in-law because he likes really tart desserts. He took some pie home.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Adapted from Farmer’s Journal Country Cookbook
Edited by Nell B. Nichols

Pastry for 2-crust pie (Use Celebrity Chef Ina Garten's recipe)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup flour
2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries
2 cups (1” in pieces) fresh or frozen rhubarb
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon sugar

Combine 1 ¼ cups sugar, salt and flour.

Arrange half of strawberries and rhubarb in pastry-lined 9-inch pie pan. Sprinkle with half of sugar mixture. Repeat with remaining fruit and sugar mixture dot with butter.

Adjust top crust and flute edges. Brush top of pie with cold water and sprinkle on 1 tablespoon sugar. Cut vents.

Bake in hot oven at 425 degrees F 40 to 50 minutes or until rhubarb is tender and crust is browned.



My mother-in-law rolls dough between two parchment paper sheets, so the dough doesn't stick to the counter. I do the same thing at culinary school, except I use industrial-grade plastic wrap that's very wide.


She easily placed the dough over the pie pan.

Christmas dinner

Stuffed with prime rib, cheesy potatoes, roasted asparagus and biscuits.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

- Jenny Lee-Adrian

Christmas Eve Eve

Matt mentioned to his mother he really missed chicken fried steak on the East Coast, so she made it for Christmas Eve Eve dinner. We're in the Midwest visiting family.

My mother-in-law breaded the tenderized beef patties with flour, salt, pepper and garlic powder and then fried them. She buttered carrots and added cinnamon and brown sugar. She also made mashed potatoes and coleslaw. I made the drop biscuits.

We're going to be eating a lot this Christmas.

Bulgogi Bibimbap (Beef with vegetables, rice and egg)

Bibimbap, a Korean dish with meat and vegetables arranged in a bowl, reminds me of a Nicoise salad. Each component is seasoned separately and artfully put on a plate.

I made Bulgogi Bibimbap, or bibimbap with Korean marinated beef, for the second course of my Menu Project that's due in January. The project is a requirement for Level 5 in the Classic Culinary Arts Program at The French Culinary Institute. (I only have one more level to go before I graduate in March.)

Bibimbap is normally served in super hot earthen bowls, like this photo shows here. It's a pretty filling meal. I decided to downsize the dish since I created a six-course meal.

The full menu includes:

Banchan of stir-fried anchovies, seasoned cucumbers and cabbage kimchi
Bulgogi Bibimbap
Porgie in Kimchi Bacon Broth
Kalbi Jjim, Korean short rib stew
Duck stuffed with sweet rice and jujubes
Cinnamon tea with sliced Fuyu persimmons

Bibimbap is usually served with sesame oil and kochujang, or Korean red pepper paste that's been seasoned with sesame oil and sugar.

The best part of eating bibimbap is messing it up.

Bulgogi Bibimbap

Serves 4

For the bulgogi, or Korean marinated beef:

1 pound chuck beef

Marinade

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup sugar

2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1 teaspoon ginger, peeled and minced

Vegetable components:

2 carrots or 10.5 ounces, peeled, julienne

10.5 ounces Daikon radish, peeled, julienne

7 ounces shiitake mushrooms, sliced, stems removed

5 ounces radish sprouts

vegetable oil

4 cups short-grain rice

6 cups water

4 large eggs

salt

freshly ground pepper

Served on the side:

sesame oil to taste

Seasoned kochujang

5 tablespoons kochujang or Korean red pepper paste

sesame oil to taste

sugar to taste

Variations: You can use pork or fish. You could also add zucchini, bean sprouts, and spinach.

Rinse rice three times. Make rice in a rice cooker. If cooking on the stovetop, combine rice and water in a pot. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and cover. Simmer for about 15-17 minutes. Take off heat. Let sit for about five minutes. Fluff rice with a fork.

Cut the beef into thin slices. Mix together soy sauce, sugar, garlic and ginger. Marinate the beef for at least 45 minutes or for about 3 hours. Set aside and make the other components.

Season julienned Daikon radish with salt. Refrigerate the Daikon and let the Daikon disgorge in a strainer.

For the carrots, add a tablespoon of vegetable oil to a saute pan. Arrange the julienned carrots in a single layer in the pan. Add water until it reaches halfway up the carrots. Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the carrots. Cover and cook until carrots are tender. Set aside.

Saute mushrooms in vegetable oil. Season with salt and black pepper. Set aside.

Clean radish sprouts. Cut off roots and seeds.

Cook the marinated beef in a saute pan. Cut the beef into thin strips. Set aside.

Fry eggs sunny-side up. Season with salt and pepper. Take a 3-inch mold and cut a circle around the yolk (optional).

To serve, spoon and press equal portions of rice in shallow bowls. Arrange beef, carrots, Daikon radish, radish sprouts and shiitake mushrooms over the rice like sunrays, repeating twice so that one side of bibimbap mirrors the other. Place one egg in the center of each bowl.

To season the kochujang, add sesame oil and sugar to taste until the mixture reaches a balance of hot and sweet that you like.

Serve bibimbap with sesame oil and the kochujang sauce on the side. To eat, mix everything together. 

Print recipe

Banchan of stir-fried anchovies, cucumbers and kimchi

Banchan of stir-fried anchovies (left), seasoned cucumbers (right) and kimchi (back row).

When I was a little kid, I used to call anchovies "little fishies." I didn't know the real name back then, but I loved popping the tiny fish in my mouth and eating it with rice. Thinking of my mom's kitchen, I wanted to incorporate anchovies in my Level 5 Menu Project, a requirement at The French Culinary Institute. We have to create a menu for eight people and turn in a portfolio in January. We don't necessarily have to serve the dishes to eight guests, but we need to make sure the recipes work. 

I wanted to apply the classical French cooking techniques I've learned so far to Korean food, the cuisine I grew up with. Designing the menu made me even more passionate about cooking Korean cuisine. For the past few months, I've constantly flipped through Korean cookbooks, thinking about what I could make next.

I've always enjoyed banchan at Korean restaurants, but I never made my own at home. Banchan are side dishes that are traditionally served in small bowls at the beginning of a Korean meal. You could be served different types of seasoned vegetables, fish and kimchi. Sometimes a restaurant presents 12 banchan dishes. But for my menu, I just wanted three dishes: something fried, something cool on the tongue and something spicy.

Banchan of Fried Anchovies, Seasoned Cucumbers and Napa Cabbage Kimchi

Fried Anchovies
58 g or 2 ounces dried, small anchovies
15 ml or 1 tablespoon soy sauce
30 ml or 2 tablespoons water
30 g or 2 tablespoons honey
kochukaru or Korean red pepper powder to taste
vegetable oil
Mix soy sauce, water and honey and set aside. Saute anchovies in vegetable oil until they start to pop. Pour sauce over anchovies. Add kochukaru to taste. Serve in small bowls.

Seasoned cucumbers
2 kirby cucumbers, sliced thin
30 ml or 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
5 ml or 1 teaspoon sesame oil start, more to taste
salt to taste
freshly ground pepper to taste
Mix cucumbers, rice vinegar, sesame oil, salt and pepper. Serve in small bowls.

Napa cabbage kimchi
Makes about 4-5 quarts

3 medium Napa cabbage
6 tablespoons or 36 g kochukaru (fine Korean red pepper powder)
12 cloves garlic, peeled
3 teaspoons or 15 g fresh ginger, peeled; (just cut 3 round slices off a ginger root)
1/4 medium yellow onion
⅜ cup or 90 g salted shrimp
½ cup or 150 ml water, plus more if needed
kosher salt or sea salt
1 bunch scallions, cut into 2-inch lengths

Turn each Napa cabbage upside down. Make an incision through the core and then pry open the cabbage with your hands. Cut each cabbage half cross-wise in two-inch widths. Wash the cabbage in a sink filled with water. Spin dry. In a large bowl, drop handfuls of cabbage in one layer. Sprinkle salt over the layer. Add more cabbage and sprinkle more salt. Disgorge overnight. Keep in the refrigerator.

Meanwhile, make the kimchi sauce. Mix kochukaru, garlic, ginger, onion and salted shrimp in a blender. Add the water and mix. The sauce should look like bright red sludge. Cover and refrigerate.

In the morning, taste the cabbage. It should taste salty. Rinse the cabbage of excess salt. Rinse again if you think the cabbage is too salty. Drain for about 15 minutes. Cut the scallions and set aside.

Take out your kimchi sauce and taste it. Adjust seasoning. Then mix the sauce, scallions and cabbage in a large bowl with gloved hands. Pack the kimchi in glass jars or stainless steel containers. Pour in any excess sauce to cover the kimchi. (Add more water if needed to cover the kimchi.) If there's space in the jar, lay plastic wrap right over the kimchi. Then tightly seal the containers with more plastic wrap. Store kimchi containers in a dark place at room temperature for 24-48 hours before placing in the refrigerator. After four days, check on the kimchi and taste. (You can eat the kimchi right after you make it, but I prefer it to ferment longer.)

Variations:
Add julienned carrots, watercress, mustard greens and Korean chives.
Others use Korean anchovy sauce instead of salted shrimp.

A couple notes:
*Kochukaru is pronounced goh-chu kah-roo with a rolled "r." Korean red pepper powder varies in spiciness.
*Salted shrimp is pretty stinky. When you buy a jar, it may leak. That's why I transfer the salted shrimp into a glass jar and stick it in the freezer.

Print recipe

Asian Latino Buffet

Chinese roast duck with cucumbers, scallions and Hoisin sauce in pancakes

The digital clock above me read 7:45 p.m. I took a short breath. I was still assembling pancakes with roast duck and cucumbers when we had until 8:25 to get all our food out there for the buffet. I put the tray of duck pancakes in the oven to warm up.

Planning the Dec. 8 buffet was one of the requirements for Level 4 in the Classic Culinary Arts program at The French Culinary Institute.

Over two weeks, five classmates and I (second from right) prepared dishes we picked for our Asian-Latino themed buffet. Students, teachers and staff came down to the kitchen to have a taste.


Somehow we managed to get the stews in sternos and the banh mi sandwiches on platters.


Chef V ordered eight ducks, and I roasted all eight of them. I used a Chinese roast duck recipe from Saveur magazine as a guide, and the ducks came out really well.


Phil assembled many pork rillete and head cheese banh mi sandwiches on huge platters. The sandwiches were so popular, Phil had to make more.


Kathryn made the Tom Yam soup and served it in spoons. "I heard people say they wanted more," she said.


Gillian made summer rolls with shrimp and basil served with Hoisin-peanut sauce. The rolls went pretty fast.


I really like Zak Pelaccio's Crispy Pork Belly and Pickled Watermelon salad at Fatty Crab. So I took his recipe and turned it into an amuse bouche. It's sweet. It's salty. It's sour. And people kept eating them.



The banana leaves were filled with branzino fish, sticky rice and a spicy marinade. "It's like getting a present," said Phil, who made the dish.


I made the cabbage kimchi three weeks before the buffet because I like kimchi that's really wilted and fermented. By the time I served it, the kimchi had the right texture and taste.


Elena made a Peruvian dish called Causa de Camarones, which are molded layers of shrimp, avocado and mashed potatoes flavored with aji peppers.


Elena served this wonderfully dense coconut flan.


Gillian's tea-braised lamb stew was amazing. She used Ming Tsai's Five-Spice Chile Rub recipe that calls for lapsang souchang tea leaves to flavor the lamb. 



Gillian made mango lassi and I made Korean cinnamon tea.

After I took a break to eat, Christopher told me, "Jenny, I've been eating all this spicy food and I pick up your tea, hoping it's refreshing. But my mouth burns even more."

Earlier in the week, I had simmered cinnamon sticks and ginger in a pot for an hour to make the tea. I added sugar and a pinch of salt. Then I chilled it. The spiciness of the tea had intensified over time.

"It tastes exactly like a red hot," Vicki said, referring to the little red candy.



Jeremiah made stir-fried mushrooms with noodles.


Kathryn made mango sticky rice.

On an Uptown train going home, Christopher said,  "After a while, everything started to taste the same because I tried all this food. The mango sticky rice was the last thing I ate. I just remember thinking, 'Wow. This mango is amazing.'"

He concluded you didn't have to work so hard to make each dish taste great when a ripe mango could be more than enough.

I pulled out the plastic quart container I had stuffed with mango sticky rice. I didn't have a chance to try the dessert until now. I ate a few pieces of mango. Christopher was right. The fruit was delicious.

"Can I have some?" Christopher asked.

I nodded. He picked up a chunk of mango with his fingers. We munched in silence, enjoying the plush sweetness of the mango.

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To see more photos, go to my Flickr page.

DessertTruck Works tasting

I could taste the imprint of bacon in the custard sauce that had been poured over the chocolate bread pudding. I liked the savory touch in something that was so sweet. I had never tried the famous chocolate bread pudding of DessertTruck Works that was declared the winner on Throwdown with Bobby Flay in 2009.

I went along with The French Culinary Institute's "Dessert Club" to DessertTruck Works to try all the sweet treats on Dec. 3. In 2007, FCI alum Jerome Chang and Chris Chen, a Columbia Business School MBA graduate, created DessertTruck with the goal of bringing gourmet desserts to the public in a mobile kitchen. This year, Chang opened the pastry shop/cafe at 6 Clinton St. in New York City. Besides bread pudding, the menu offers molten chocolate cake, donut holes, pavlova, honey rosemary ice cream, macarons and other delectables.

You can head over to The French Culinary Institute's blog The Hot Plate to read the rest of the post.