Alexander's & Incanto

yoga has consumed my life and the final season of lost is back! enough excuses, here are highlights from the last month and a half...

Alexander's Steakhouse
5 Reasons why you should go:

ONE: Complementary items: glass of champagne (they brought over champagne before I even opened the menu), white tuna amuse bouche (pictured), and watermelon shooters

TWO: hamachi shooters (a million different flavors explode in your mouth) and seared scallops. for a steakhouse, their seafood was superb!

THREE: ginormous portions!

FOUR: complementary dessert

FIVE: humongo complementary cotton candy (almost as big as my head)

LASTLY: they give you cotton candy for cryin' out loud! i sure enjoyed it :)

Incanto

Chris Cosentino, the very lovable co-star of chefs vs. city,  just happens to be the executive chef of Incanto. i think it's pretty apparent that i'm addicted to the food network and although i did not expect him to be working that night, you can imagine my glee when i SAW HIM IN THE KITCHEN! 

throughout dinner, i was plotting the best way to ask for a picture without looking like a groupie. i knew i would be kicking myself later for not going for it, so i did!

i told him how much we LOVED chefs vs. city and he said he was leaving to tape the second season the next day. i'm so glad i got to meet him! oh! and the food! he prepared this appetizer i think.

Hamachi with tobiko, grapefruit and mandarin oranges. delish! and the mandarin oranges were frozen so it added a very interesting texture.

Dessert was heavenly, Lavendar panna cotta! unfortunately, no pictures because i dove right in and before i knew it, it was all gone! it wasn't even my dessert!

scallops

i've been eating a lot of meat lately. with my best friend's wedding coming up in 3 days, i should probably eat something light and healthy for dinner so i can fit into my bridesmaid dress. plus my landlord looks like he could lose a few... totally kidding, you need to gain 20!

i decided on an old standby - Orzo with cherry tomatoes & spinach chiffonade (recipe below). takes 10 minutes to make and it's healthy & delish! but what to top it with? not meat. don't want to deal with fish. scallops would be perf! meaty yet light and succulent. ::: drool :::

don't be fooled by my newfound passion for scallops. until very recently, i would let the scallop & vegetable dish pass me by on a lazy susan without a second glance. at that point, i had only tried scallops two ways, dried in jook (see "sook" post for definition) or in aforementioned scallop & vegetable dish most commonly found at cantonese restaurants. then one glorious day, i decided to give non-chinese scallops a whirl at the fabulous bonarda restaurant and my life was forever changed. so now, scallops are probably my favorite seafood to cook. there's hardly any prep time and they cook so quickly! i could go on and on but, i digress...

i decided to do a quick pan sear but this started to look like a weight watchers menu item (not so delish), i needed to give it a little boost...

here's what I ended up with:

Orzo with cherry tomatoes & spinach chiffonade 

topped with seared scallops and a drizzle of lemon caper butter sauce

Orzo with Cherry Tomatoes & Spinach Chiffonade

• start with a pot of boiling water and add a pinch of salt. add the orzo and let it cook for 9 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
• while the pasta is cooking, cut the cherry tomatoes in half and place into a large serving bowl. cut the spinach into long strips by stacking them neatly and rolling the leaves. then cut across to make long strips and place into the same serving bowl. 
• by this time the orzo should be al dente, drain the pasta and pour the hot pasta into the serving bowl, add salt & pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. 
• mix everything together and squeeze a quarter of a lemon over everything. this really brightens up the dish and brings out the flavors or each ingredient.

Seared Scallops with Lemon Caper Butter Sauce

• rinse the scallops under cold water, pat dry with a paper towel and set aside. 
• pour 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil & 1 tbsp into a frying pan and turn the heat on high. while the pan is getting hot, season the scallops with a sprinkle of salt & pepper. 
• once the pan begins to sizzle (don't let it burn), place the scallops into the pan and dont touch it for 1.5 minutes, then flip and sear the other side for 1.5 minutes. set the scallops onto a serving plate and turn the heat to low. 
• to make the sauce, add 1 tbsp of butter, 1 tbsp of capers, and a sprinkle of salt & pepper to the pan. whisk the ingredients in the pan until the sauce slightly thickens. add a squeeze of lemon juice and whisk for a few more seconds. remove the pan from the heat and use a spoon to drizzle the sauce over the scallops.
  

sook

i'm in the mood for soup. no, wait, i want rice. hmmm, but i really want soup. and i want it to be hearty...

i sliced some sausages, chopped half an onion and browned it in a pot since i knew i'd be making soup (i'm a huge fan of one pot meals). i poured in chicken stock and waited (impatiently) for it to boil. once the soup came to a boil, i added in the wild rice and let it simmer for half an hour, stirring occasionally.

i turned the heat back to medium-high and added jasmine rice to the pot (i like to use both types of rice together to create different textures) along with sliced celery. once the soup came to a boil, i turned the heat down and let it simmer for 15 minutes. just as i started to serve the soup i realized, "i don't want soup anymore, i want jook!" but my soup was too soupy so i threw the lid on a hoped that the rice would absorb more of the liquid.

30 minutes later...
it wasn't exactly jook, but it wasn't exactly soup. it was soupy jook, SOOK!

my sook


real jook (source: wikipedia)


jook facts

• commonly referred to as congee or porridge
• typically eaten for breakfast in china
• after a quick check on wikipedia, i found out that there are 19 different countries that make some variation of jook
• my favorite is soft, white fish jook

spinach

in my everlasting quest to be healthy & economical, i bought an economy-sized tub of pre-washed spinach last week. not one to let good food go to waste, i started thinking about what to make for dinner. it was 8am, i hadn't even had breakfast and i was already planning for dinner. oh well, it's chilly out so soup and salad it is!

i took an inventory of what ingredients i already had for my soup and salad and quickly jotted down the missing ingredients to give to will before he left for work:
- cherry tomatoes
- sliced almonds (for salads)
- 1 can of crushed tomatoes

here's what he came back with:
- grape tomatoes (close enough)
- honey roasted sliced almonds (i wanted unflavored, but i suppose this will be a sweet & savory salad)
- 1 huge can of crushed tomatoes

it turned out great!

bon appetit!


spinach salad with warm bacon dressing
Ingredients: spinach, grape tomatoes, boiled egg, bacon, bleu cheese, & honey roasted sliced almonds

fry the bacon in a pan, once crispy, set aside on a paper towel. take the remaining bacon fat and pour 2 tbsp into a small saucepan. over low heat, add lemon juice, 1 tbsp dijon mustard, salt & pepper, and whisk until thickens.

remove from heat and add a few handfuls of spinach into the saucepan and lightly toss until coated. add spinach to a bowl and top with sliced tomatoes, eggs, bacon, crumbled blue cheese & almonds. serve immediately.


spinach soup
Ingredients: chicken stock, chicken apple sausage, farfalle pasta, crushed tomatoes & spinach

brown the sausage in a large pot. once sausage has been browned, set aside to cool. over high heat, add 1 part chicken stock to 2 parts water and let the liquid come to a boil. add the farfalle pasta and cook until al dente. while the pasta is cooking, slice the sausage into thin rounds and add to the pot along with the crushed tomatoes. let the soup come to a boil again and add a few handfuls of spinach. once the spinach has wilted, the soup is then ready to be served. top with a sprinkle of parmesan and green onions.

spinach facts:

• rich source of vitamins c & a
• loaded with flavonoid that functions as antioxidant and anti-cancer agent
• makes my teeth feel rough (why is that?)