Fridgg: What's For Dinner?

Banana Drink

When I was a little girl, there were exactly two things that happened when bananas got very ripe in our household.

Quite often, my mother made banana bread using our trusty bread machine. Even now, that’s my very favorite banana bread.

But every once in a while, usually on a hot summer day after we had been running around outside for hours, my dad pulled out the blender and whipped up a batch of cold, refreshing, banana drink.

Dad tossed all the ingredients in our old, trusty blender – a few spotted, nearly black bananas; a handful of ice cubes from the tray in the freezer; a big scoop of carob powder that had to be scraped off the solidified block in the container; a dollop of vanilla extract. He filled the blender with milk almost up to the very top, and then covered it before turning the appliance on.

The loud, sharp sound of the blades cutting through the cubes of ice filled the air, and us three kids would watch the banana drink swirl in the blender as we eagerly waited for it to be ready.

“Taste test!”

The three of us would gather around, waiting for Dad to pour us each a mug full of cold banana drink. “Taste test, taste test!” When we were older we might not have always stood in the kitchen and watch him make the banana drink, but when we heard him call for taste testers, we would all make our way out to the kitchen to get a mug of the beloved smoothie.

Ingredients

• 3-4 very ripe bananas
• 3-4 ice cubes
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• milk

Cooking Directions

1. Put the bananas, ice cubes, cocoa powder, and vanilla in a blender. Fill the remainder of the blender with milk, leaving a few inches of space at the top.
2. Blend until smooth. If desired, top with whipped cream and/or ground cinnamon.
3. Enjoy!

Japanese Marinated Cucumber

I love simplicity. And I really love when simple dishes are fantastic.

These marinated cucumbers… I’ve been eating them as long as I can remember. My mom has always made them, and I believe she got the recipe from my grandmother (and I wouldn’t be surprised if she got the recipe form her mother, who grew up in Japan).

They’re so good with rice and fish. And so easy to make!

(In the picture, they were drizzled with a sweet mustard sauce, inspired by the one found on Steamy Kitchen. That recipe that I used can be found on Sushi Day.

Ingredients

• cucumber
• 1/8 cup rice vinegar
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1/8 cup water

Cooking Directions

1. Slice the cucumber very thinly (I use a mandoline).
2. Mix the rice vinegar, sugar, and water. Marinate the cucumbers in this mixture for at least four hours.
3. Discard the marinade, and enjoy the cucumbers!

Pork Belly

Pork belly.

I couldn’t tell you the first time I had it, because I don’t remember.

Son’s family eats it, boiled and with a shrimp fish sauce. I’ve learned to love it.

But that pork belly is not this pork belly. No, this is more comparable to the type of pork belly that you get in a hot steaming bowl of green curry ramen, on a dark, cold, rainy night, in the part of Tokyo that tourists don’t often frequent.

Or in the center of a fluffy steamed bun bought at a food stall in the basement of a department store, after spending a day photographing snow monkeys in snowy Nagano.

At least, that’s what I associate it with.

The point is, I discovered in Japan that not only do I like pork belly… when done right, I LOVE it. (After all, it is the same cut of meat that bacon’s made from, so what’s not to love?)

Obviously, I had to learn how to make it someday.

When I saw the recipe in Momofuku (I really cannot rave enough about that book. But I won’t post every recipe from the book here, as much as I want to cook every recipe there… you’re going to have to go out and buy it yourself. ~_^), I knew I had to make it. We went out and got a nice, big, beautiful slab of pork belly just a few days later.

A note: two lbs of pork belly (or three, if you follow the recipe), can look like a lot. But, alas, it shrinks while cooking! So don’t worry that it will be too much. I promise there’s absolutely no way you’ll have any problem finishing it all up. Most definitely not. ^_^

Another note: As is, this is amazingly good. But next time, we’re planning on adding a tablespoon or so of five-spice or togarashi (we haven’t decided which yet) to the sugar/salt rub. We sprinkled some on after the fact, and it adds additional depth to the flavor of the pork belly.

Pork belly, from Momofuku.

(Edit: since posting this recipe, I’ve changed the ratios that I use, so I’ve updated the recipe to reflect that. The original recipe calls for 1/4 cup each of sugar and salt. These days I double the sugar, halve the salt (it was WAY too salty), and add the five spice at Son’s request.)

Ingredients

• 2 lbs pork belly, skin removed
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/8 cup salt
• 1 tbsp five spice

Cooking Directions

1. Mix the salt and sugar; rub onto the pork belly. Refrigerate for 6-24 hours, discard any juices.
2. Preheat oven to 450°F.
3. Roast pork belly in a close-fitting roasting pan for 1 hour, basting with the rendered fat at 30 minutes.
4. Turn the heat down to 250°F, cook for about 1 more hour.
5. To get clean slices, it’s recommended to refrigerate the meat before slicing it. But if you’re impatient like me, just go for it.
6. Enjoy! Best served with a salad or other fresh vegetables, and a starch like rice or bread.

Chocolate Ganache

I first met Jen Yu in person at IFBC, a couple of months ago. That woman is pure awesomeness… and I may have been just a wee bit star-struck when not only did she know who I am, but she invited me to go out for sushi after the first night with her and a couple of other bloggers.

Okay, so I had quite a few moments at IFBC where I was star-struck, meeting the food bloggers I’ve read for years.

Anyways.

At BlogHer Food, I got to hang out with Jen again quite a bit. (I ♥ her.) On our way to go eat dim sum with Anita and Shauna (we were ditching the BlogHer Food lunch for some awesome dim sum), she mentioned that she was going to be in LA a few weeks later.

“Really? When?” I looked hopeful. “I would love to hang out, if you have time.”

“Oh sweetie,” her expression was apologetic. “We have a lot of old friends who will be upset if they don’t get to see us, so we’re going to be really busy.” (She and her husband used to live in Southern California before they moved to Colorado.) Then she grinned. “But if I have time we definitely will.”

I completely understood, and wouldn’t have blamed her one bit had I not gotten to see her when she visited LA. I was expecting that she wouldn’t have time – like I said, Jen is incredibly awesome, and it’s no surprise that a lot of people wanted to see her. Everyone adores her.

So you can probably imagine my delight when I got an email from Todd and Diane: “Jen Yu is in town! we were thinking of having a little gathering at our studio, a little intimate evening to hang with some good peeps.”

(When I saw the email I gasped, then darted out to the living room where Son was sitting. I must have looked like a little girl at Christmas. “Can we please, please, please go? Jen’s going to be in town and I’d really like to see her. Please?” He said yes. I was so excited.)

I asked if I could bring anything, and Todd and Diane requested that I bring something for dessert.

I immediately got performance anxiety.

(Does that ever happen to any of you? You’re invited to dinner or a potluck or something with a bunch of foodies, and immediately there’s the worry – Am I going to be good enough? Are they going to like my food? What if it’s not ‘gourmet’ enough for them? Oh gosh, what if they hate it? Yeah, I get that all the time.)

But a couple of days later, we were off to dinner with Jen, Todd, Diane, Rene, and Melissa.

Now, I raved about them two years ago, when we were invited to a food blogger dinner party at their house, but Todd and Diane really are the most fantastic hosts, and incredible people. I’m honored to be able to call them my friends.

As usual, the food was so good. They started us off with this ridiculously addictive sweet onion dip, alongside some fresh cherry tomatoes from their garden, fresh passion fruit juice, and rambutans. I can never, ever make that dip at home, as much as I’d love to… because I would eat the entire batch all by myself. It’s so freakin’ good.

Once everyone had arrived, we started on dinner. A fresh salad with sliced apples and pomegranate seeds started us off, and I think Todd made apple sidecars (?) for those who wanted them (neither Son nor I drink, so we didn’t have any).

Then Diane dished out some delicious one-pot chicken and ohmygosh-to-die-for potatoes au gratin. I have a huge weakness for cheesy potato-y things. Oh man. So good.

Just based on the food, it was already a great meal. But what made it a really fantastic get-together were the people there. There were a good number of instances throughout dinner where we were all giggling uncontrollably at something or another. It was a really great evening.

And then… it was time for dessert.

(This is the part where I got very self-conscious.)

I made cupcakes! I used this recipe for yellow cake cupcakes, and really liked it. It’s going to be my go-to yellow cake recipe now – light as air and wonderfully moist, I loved them (and they seemed to have been received well.)

For the frosting, I made a buttercream first… but I’ve never been a huge fan of buttercream frostings. I tossed that, and instead made my default frosting recipe – a ganache that my mom has been making for years. (I have no idea where she got the recipe from.)

Success! Everyone seemed to enjoy the cupcakes, and I caught Diane sneaking some of the extra ganache that had dripped into the container I had used to transport the cupcakes.

It was great getting to see everyone again!

I used this recipe for the yellow cake base of the cupcakes. This ganache recipe is certainly from somewhere… but I haven’t the faintest idea where. My mother has been using it for as long as I can remember, and she emailed me the recipe a few years ago.

Ingredients

• 1 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp hot water
• 1 cup sifted powdered sugar

Cooking Directions

1. Melt the chocolate and butter together. Immediately mix in the water and powdered sugar.
2. Mix until smooth. Pour over the cake. If you want it to be less runny when you pour it over the cake, then wait a few minutes first. It will set (eventually) at room temperature, or you can stick it in the fridge to get it to set quicker.

Kimchi, Bacon, and Fried Egg Sandwich

I like sandwiches.

I didn’t so much, growing up.

Cold, boring, lunchtime sandwiches just never did it for me. My mom tried peanut-butter and jelly (I never liked that combination, until I discovered what a difference toasted bread could make), luncheon meats (by lunch the bread would start to get soggy from the mayonnaise, and when I was younger I wouldn’t touch vegetables with a ten-foot pole), tuna salad (better, but again with the problem of soggy sandwiches… not to mention having tuna breath for the rest of the day), egg omelette (I recall this trend lasting for a while, but still, as good as it was, egg just isn’t quite as appetizing once it’s cold and has been sitting around for four hours.)

My poor parents. We were such picky kids, growing up.

But recently, that’s begun to change, as I grew up and realized there were so many other options of things one could put in a sandwich. Like… avocado! And bacon! And tsukemono (Japanese pickled vegetables)! And I have a particular weakness for banh mi.

Not to mention, there’s a gigantic difference between a sandwich that has sat around for four or more hours, between the time you’ve made it in the morning, and the time you actually get to eat it at school or work, and a sandwich that you get to eat the moment it’s ready. It’s like two completely different meals – one that can only be described as ‘meh’, and one that makes you want another sandwich because the first was so good.

So, despite being a food blogger, there come times when I don’t have much food in my apartment. And I’ll admit, some of those times I just make a bowl of cereal or ramen, rather than try to piece together a meal from whatever random things I have laying around. Especially when I’m starving, but I’m the only one home so it just doesn’t feel worth it to actually cook something.

But sometimes I do actually want a good meal, and that’s where this sandwich comes in. It’s made up of things that we almost always have in our fridge – bacon, eggs, kimchi, and bread. The first time I tried it I wasn’t completely sure how it would turn out… but it’s perfect. (The first few times I made it, Son wasn’t at home, and I teased him with pictures of my creation. I’m such a brat, sometimes.) It’s become my go-to sandwich combination.

Ingredients

• 1 croissant
• 3 slices bacon
• 1 egg
• kimchi
• mayonnaise

Cooking Directions

1. Fry the bacon until crispy. Remove from the pan.
2. Fry the egg in the bacon fat, until the white part is solid.
3. Slice the croissant in half; spread mayonnaise on one side.
4. Make a sandwich with the bacon on the bottom, then the kimchi, and the fried egg on top.
5. Enjoy! Once you break the yolk, mop it up with the sandwich. Delicious.