Today’s quick and easy weeknight dinner is actually a guest post from Lou from Code Like Zell. Lou cooks a lot and this is one of his favorite meals. I contributed to this dinner by giving Lou a little dill from my growing Aerogarden! Lou took the pictures and didn’t get a chance to take a shot of all of the ingredients, but luckily did shots of individual ingredients. Here we go!
Ingredients:
A couple of salmon fillets
Goat Milk Yogurt (or sour cream if you’re feeling decadent)
A couple of sprigs of dill
English cucumbers (varies based on how much salmon and goat milk yogurt you use)
Lemon (or white vinegar)
Butter
First, make the sauce (so all of the ingredients can get to know each other while the salmon is baking). Cut up the English cucumber into bite sized pieces:
Then add enough dill to cover the English cucumbers (also, it depends on how much you actually like dill – you don’t have to overdo it):
Next, the yogurt (Lou, like me, is a huge fan of Trader Joe’s):
Add enough yogurt to cover the English cucumbers and dill and stir:
Set the yogurt cucumber dill sauce aside – it’s time to get the salmon ready!
Set the salmon fillets on aluminum foil, place a couple pieces of butter on the salmon (along with dill if you’re a fan) and squeeze a little lemon on the fish:
Wrap up the salmon in the aluminum foil:
And place it in a preheated 400 degree oven and let the salmon bake for about 15 minutes (the salmon will flake easily once it’s done). Place the salmon fillet on a plate and cover it with sauce:
I re-fed the Aerogarden with more nutrients so hopefully more basil will sprout up (there wasn’t enough basil to even get a pesto started, so I froze the basil that was ready to be picked and have been waiting patiently for more to grow):
The pesky mint is growing again and I’ve been contemplating whether or not I should just take the pod out altogether (don’t worry, I haven’t done anything yet). The dill was used (see this week’s quick and easy weeknight dinner) and the thyme will probably be used for my New York Thanksgiving!
Two weeks ago, Blake and I went to the Museum of Natural History to learn about the magic of pickling. One of the speakers, Bob McClure, brought lots of pickle samples from his company, McClure’s Pickles:
The pickled-curried sauerkraut was my favorite:
Blake really liked the cajun pickles from the Pickle People:
And Steve, from Guss’ Pickles, was a crowd favorite:
Steve was heavy handed when he gave me some pickles to try:
I ate more pickles than I’ve ever eaten in my entire life and also had the opportunity to try out my new Sony Handycam:
Sony gave me a Handycam because I’m starting to do more videos, but this video is definitely my first attempt at using my new camcorder. The lighting isn’t great and we didn’t have a tripod and it definitely doesn’t look like HD quality. On the plus side, the camera is tiny and fits into my purse very easily so I’ve been able to take it with me everywhere. Now I need to 1. buy a tripod, 2. look into microphones, and 3. work on making more videos!
Last Sunday, I organized a little get together at Momofuku Bo Ssam for their bo ssam dinner (which means “enclosed” or “wrapped” in Korean). For $200, you get a huge pork butt, a dozen oysters, lettuce, rice, and dipping sauces (pureed kim chee, kim chee bits, ginger scallion sauce, and Korean red sauce, ssam jiang). The pork butt feeds 6-10 people so I invited 9 people to the pork butt party (and two babies, Faire and Cantor).
The restaurant was really packed for a Sunday night – lots of people eating at the bar and the small tables around the restaurant and two other tables were doing the bo ssam (you sign up for the bo ssam online). Some pictures of the dinner guests and then lots of pictures of bo ssam!
Joe and Justin behind some lettuce and sauces for the bo ssam:
Cantor, Dan, Bethany, and Faire waiting for the bo ssam to arrive:
Cantor was ready to eat as soon as he arrived:
David, me, Ariel, and Audrey right before the bo ssam arrived:
Possibly the cutest picture of David and Faire (although this picture from the cupcake party is a close second):
Okay, onto the bo ssam! Our reservation was for 6:30, but we didn’t get our bo ssam for another 30 – 45 minutes (a problem we had when we went to the fried chicken dinner as well) Obviously it’s to get you to order more drinks, food, etc, but we were there for ONE REASON AND ONE REASON ONLY…the gigantic pork butt:
The first wrap you make is supposed to use the oyster (and no sauce):
The waiter also explained that everyone should get some skin because it’s honey glazed, crispy, and really delicious.
My first wrap:
Our entire table:
Joe explains how to wrap the pork butt:
And me enjoying my wrap:
The pork butt was really delicious, especially with an oyster and a little bite of rice. Everyone was able to eat about 3-4 wraps (depending on how much meat you grabbed with the tongs) but I don’t think it was enough for everyone to be full. Everything was a little salty (the pork butt was definitely very salty and so was the homemade kimchee) but I think that’s to be expected in David Cheng cooking (every experience I’ve had with his cooking, even sweets, have been too salty for my taste buds). After we demolished the pork butt, David and I almost wanted to order another because we were still hungry, but I don’t think they would’ve let us because they were definitely rushing us out of the restaurant (even though we ate pretty quickly). I thought dinner was pretty fantastic, but I also think it was somewhat pricey (around $30/pp) and you get a much better value at the fried chicken dinner down the street. I’d definitely return to the restaurant to order a la carte (I hadn’t been back since 2007 when they were only serving burritos), but I think the bo ssam is a little to pricey for what you get and although delicious, I think you can get a better deal in Chinatown.
Last week, my friend, Remy, flew in from Europe to wine and dine his friends from the city. Well, he was here on vacation, but he’s very interested in fine dining and made reservations at many of New York’s best restaurants and invited his friends along for the ride. Luckily, Remy asked me for some recommendations for restaurants (the only places I recommended to Remy that he hadn’t visited were Minetta Tavern, DBGB, and Per Se’s Salon, and Sushi Yasuda). He asked if I wanted to tag along for Sushi Yasuda (his treat) – how could I resist?
Remy had just visited Jewel Bako earlier in the week and thought very highly of it; when I visited, I didn’t think it was that great and didn’t even bother writing a review (someday, I will find those pictures and actually write one). As we walked up 43rd Street, the stench of fish was almost unbearable and I was really afraid that Sushi Yasuda wasn’t going to meet Remy’s expectations, but as soon as we walked in, the smell disappeared and we had an incredible meal.
We started the evening by sharing one tasting; the sushi chef asked if we had any dietary restrictions (none) and what kind of fish we liked (tuna) – basically, we were in his hands the entire night. Each piece of fish was silky and literally melted in my mouth. Today, I’ll do a picture post for one of my favorite restaurants in New York.
Each piece of fish has the perfect amount of soy sauce added to it and there’s no need to dip any more (unless the sushi chef tells you to). The wasabi is also much lighter tasting since it’s freshly grated.
A fresh seaweed salad with a toasted sesame dressing:
Pickled vegetables:
More delicious fish:
Have you ever had a scallop with sea salt on a little mound of perfectly made sushi rice?:
Or a large hunk of sea urchin with sea salt:
Or smooth and creamy eel:
It was my first time trying clam prepared with sushi rice:
Delicious Spanish mackerel:
Different types of clams on a bed of chirashi (the textures of the clams, seaweed, and roe was pretty amazing):
Another seaweed salad:
And the perfect way to end a perfect meal – green tea ice cream:
Thank you, Remy, for treating me to an amazing meal. I hope you had an enjoyable time in New York and please come visit again very soon!
