Kimchi Tuna Noodles

My take on a NY Times recipe.

Kimchi Tuna Noodles

serves 2

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup cabbage kimchi, including juice
• 1 package udon noodles
• 1 tablespoon unseasoned rice wine vinegar, plus more to taste (or lemon or lime juice or fish sauce)
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil, plus more to taste
• 1 5oz can tuna, drained
• 1/2 c chopped onion
• 1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced into less than 1/4-inch-thick matchsticks
• 1/2 c chopped cilantro
•  Red-pepper flakes, gochugaru or sambal oelek (optional)
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds or furikake (optional)

PREPARATION

1. Place a colander over a medium bowl and drain the kimchi. 
2. Boil water, cook udon.
3. Coarsely chop the kimchi.
4. To bowl with the kimchi juice, add the rice wine vinegar and sesame oil; stir to combine. 
5. Stir in the tuna, breaking up the tuna into large chunks.
6. Add the rest of the ingredients, and stir to combine. Because each batch of kimchi tastes different, it’s important to taste and adjust seasonings. If it needs more tang, add more rice wine vinegar. If it’s too intense, add more oil or even mayonnaise. If you want it spicier, add red-pepper flakes, gochugaru or sambal.
7. Serve room temp or cold with a sprinkle of sesame seeds, if desired. 

It keeps in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, if it lasts that long.

The Glutton Tastes Downtown Houston

Houston has great eatin'.
My limitations were:

1. Be within walking distance of the hotel. 
2. Satisfy food cravings.

Yelp helped me find some:

I also took advantage of the Hotel ICON's inhouse restaurant, Line & Lariat. A lot.

Here's a gluttony breakdown, day by day [long post]:

Thursday 

Afternoon Tea

Cold brewing teas in my bathroom. (Hibiscus and PG Tips. They both cold brew well).

The hotel only had Keurigs and offered no Black Tea, only one pod of Green Tea.

Which I brewed but didn't drink.

And I didn't have foil to MacGyver refills with my own tea.

Next time, I'm bringing a kettle. Because I woke up WAY earlier than 6am, when they offered the complementary caffeine buffet. Which was awesome, BTW.

 Dinner

Line & Lariat: 

Roasted Brussels Sprouts (had leftovers for later)

Rolls (ditto)

Chile (so delicious that I had it again on Sunday)

Research (important Gluttony activity)

Breakfast looks promising (from Room Service menu).

Friday

Breakfast (and Lunch) at Line & Lariat

My spot. This is where I sat every time I ate in the dining area.

10% discount for artists! Woohoo!

Migas. Did not disappoint.

Made soft tacos for later with the beans and tortillas. (Very necessary).

The waitress gave me a superior Chipotle Salsa, which I poured onto my leftovers.

Midday Sweet
I craved a scone. I got Tres Leches from Treacherous Leches.

OMG!

I made it last all day.

Dinner [I didn't have dinner?]

Saturday

Breakfast
I craved a country breakfast, specifically grits and eggs.
After much Yelping (and a lot of delicious sounding places are closed during the weekend in downtown) I settled on Toasters Cafe. Walking over there was lovely -- I'll post pix in another post.

Surprise! Mexican Coffee with Cinnamon! This when I simply asked for coffee.

 [pulled from their online menu] Shrimp & Grits

Large Pan Fried Shrimp, Andouille Sausage, Onions and Peppers in a Spicy Tomato Based Sauce over Savory Grits and topped with a Fried Egg served with a Biscuit. [WAIT!!!! Where's the biscuit????]

No matter, this was super delicious. I took the toast ToGo, but never ate it. A biscuit would have been more useful.

Midday Sweet.
I was still craving that scone.
On my way back from Toasters, I stopped at (very busy) Boomtown Coffee Main Street Cafe.
No scones (sad face).
Got Cinnamon Cake instead upon advice from a "regular" waiting in the line in front of me.
It complemented the free Hotel Icon Caffeine Buffet coffee, but was no scone.
[No photo]

Dinner at 9:30pm

Behold the long awaited sad salad.

Sad because I ordered it at 7:30.
I couldn't order room service (room phone dead) so I got an art fair helper to spell me and I ordered this from the bar.
"Do you want this sent up to your room so you don't have to wait for it?"

"Sure."

I blithely go upstairs.

Work the fair until 9pm.

No salad appears.

Back down to the bar.

"Where's my salad?"

"What? You never got it? I went on break and told them..."

Gets salad from kitchen.

Is given no additional tip.

I take it upstairs exactly as you see it here.

The salad itself was yummy.

Not getting it when expected was brutal.

Sunday

Breakfast (and Lunch)

Mas inhouse Migas.

It worked on Friday and I didn't want another Sad Salad situation.

Embellished with Pico de Gallo

Dinner
Got a ToGo cup of Chili from the bar (waited for it). So good! (no photo)

Monday

Breakfast (and Lunch and Later)
La Calle Tacos

Chilaquiles [huge portion that I carted to the airport but couldn't finish].

Esquite (Elote off the cob). So good. Packed into checked bag so Severo could taste it.

Yep. Good eats in Houston!

Linking with
Catherine's #sharealllinkup
Shelbee's Spread the Kindness

Super Delicious Shrimp

This is a one-pan dish that we love!

Super Delicious Shrimp
serves 4 -- makes a great leftover!

Ingredients:

• 3/4 lb Shrimp, peeled and deveined (about 3 dozen medium)

• 1/4 tsp saffron threads

• 2tb olive oil
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 14oz can Rotel or other tomato/chile mix
• 2 chipotle peppers (the canned in adobo sauce kind), chopped fine
• 1/2c white wine

Method:

1. Soak saffron in 1/4 c water
2. Saute onions and garlic in olive oil in a skillet
3. Add saffron, Rotel, chipotles, wine -- let simmer for 5 minutes
4. Add shrimp, simmer until shrimp is opaque/cooked

We like to serve it over rice.

Glutton Weekend

It all started Friday night. I got home late and it smelled funky in the house.
Oh yeah! The ramps from my cousin had arrived! Woohoo! 
They were quarantined in the patio fridge for the night.

Saturday:

Unwrapping the ramp (wild leek, wild onion) goodness

Chopped and sprinkled over a plain scrambled egg

 Next, dealing with a bag of blood oranges languishing in the veg drawer:

So pretty!

Marmalade. Recipe here.

Severo had Sunday off. Yay!

I had to deploy the roasting chile aroma alarm to wake him up.

Homemade Migas! I made the beans too.

 We were amply fortified to face shopping the Mar Vista Farmers' Market

What makes Severo cheery? A well-placed typo!

Gorgeous onions. Didn't get.

 There were lots of pinatas displayed in the booths.

Photo op!

Strawberries on his mind.

Do we get Gaviotas?

or Albions?

 Which is better?

We preferred the Albions in a bite by bite test.
So juicy and sweet.

We Went To NoHo and Ate

It was a Glutton get together with Guest Glutton Kim.
Kim was in town for business meetings. Severo Yelped our dinner choice. I got us organized! We were ALL hungry!

Dinner: Tacos Manzano, 11160 Burbank Blvd.North Hollywood, California 91601

King Glutton surveys his domain. All is well in the kingdom.
(Did not get closeups of his Tripas Taco or Chicken Mole Oaxaqueno)

Tlayuda with two meats: Chorizo and Carnitas

For me, Chile Relleno -- delicious!

Quesedilla with Carnitas. Kim was content.

Dessert: Republic of Pie, 11118 Magnolia Blvd, North Hollywood, CA, 91601

What did we get?

You'll have to go over to the Dessert Safari to find out!

Gluttony y Glotonería

It was a night of food y música with Dez -- dinner at Ms. B's M & M's Soul Food on Manchester

 then Café Tacvba y Los Tigres del Norte en El Forum. 

Food first:

I got the Catfish (REALLY good), Dez got the Baked Chicken. 

There were sides, I didn't take a picture. 

We split the awesome Peach Cobbler. 

After walking my leftover catfish to a very secret free parking spot, we went over to The Forum.

We surveyed El Merch

Gorras de beisbol y Tigres

Baratijas

I know I'm going to regret not getting that embroidered edge key chain

Best of all, and take note of this my musician friends, 

¡Los Sharpies!

Nice markup, right? Or is that markerup - haha.

Café Tacvba opened and wow were they a visual and sonic feast!

Their hats and fringe glowed in the dark!

I sense a SpyGirl sketch of Rubén coming soon. 

Here's a silent stop motion video showing the fringe in action:

¡Fantástico! 

 I have no photos of Los Tigres del Norte. Perhaps I was too transfixed by the spectacle. There was video, sometimes the usual live feed and sometimes prerecorded performances of the same song but at another venue (confusing!). They wore shiny jackets and leather pants with thin metal tubing over the knees (strange!). The vocals started sounding just a little bit weird then ¡BAM! the power went out. For a few seconds, the entire venue was dark -- except for the light from everyones' phones (disturbing!). The percussionists kept playing (troupers!). Gradually the power restored, and a backing track revealed itself by repeatedly playing the finale "muchas gracias" over and over (oops!).
Behind me lurked La Caterwalla. She very enthusiastically sang along, WAY off key. She also had a bad sense of personal space and managed to crowd me, despite the chair between us. Hit by her fan, check. Hit in head, check. At least she didn't throw her drink at me! ¡Ay, señora!

[Pardon any bad Spanish. I was using el Google for translations].

Linked up with Shelbee's On the Edge of the Week Linkup

Fig Jam

Severo brings home reject figs from his day job as a produce pro at a local grocery store. I've always liked dried figs, but fresh figs I still avoid. (Is it a texture thing?) Fig jam is a nice half-way point and it tastes great on yogurt.

My starting point was the Fig Preserves recipe in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, ed Judi Kingry & Lauren Devine ISBN 978-0-7788-0131-3 Their version is too labor intensive (it's for fruit kept whole) and calls for perfect firm fruit.

Here's my version:

Fig Jam

Ingredients

8c whole figs

8c boiling water

2-2/3c sugar

1 whole lemon, seeded and chopped

Using a glass or stainless steel bowl, cover the whole figs with boiling water

Let stand for 15 minutes

Drain the figs in a colander placed over another bowl -- SAVE THE WATER*

Pour 1/2 the water into a saucepan. Add sugar and chopped lemon.

Boil hard, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes

Meanwhile, coarsely chop figs

Add figs to pot, bring back to full boil, boil until mixture reaches 240º

Pour into jars

Freeze or process in canner

*About that extra fig water -- drink the rest! It's good for you!

Corn Griddlecakes Recipe

We had some fresh grilled corn leftovers, and I got a hankering for my Dad's Corn Griddlecakes.

"I'll have what she's having." 

Working our way backwards, here they are cooking:

It took me a while to find the recipe. The last place I looked was in my Grandmother's Fannie Farmer.
Yes!

(He called them fritters. They're not those round ball, doughy, deep fried fritters though).

Corn Griddlecakes
1 can creamed corn or 1 cup fresh corn (1 ear)
2 eggs
blend in blender until merged

add
6 TB flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp nutmeg
milk as needed while blending -- you'll be pouring it onto skillet

fry in butter, bacon grease, or coconut oil

serve with maple syrup

(made 13 3" diameter cakes my last batch)