Potential Gold

Happy Birthday, Dad...Here's some Sushi!!!

For my dad's 60th birthday we decided to make a sushi night. We went to where our favorite local sushi chef goes to buy their fish in downtown LA and bought really fresh salmon, tuna and albacore. We bought plenty of fish and we were preparing to feed 80 people sushi! 

Here are some pictures of the prep work that was done in preparing the fish for tonight's sushi. 

Here are some of the pictures from the sushi that night. Amongst the rolls were:

Spicy tuna, Philadelphia, Salmon, Albacore, Tuna and some Aji...

Lemongrass Thai Restaurant - Tarzana

Welcome to Lemongrass - I Loved The Flower On The Tip Of My Straw...

Crispy Fried Springrolls - Just OK - Great Dipping Sauce

Soup - My Father's FAVE - Tom Yum something - He Asks For It The Way He Gets It In Thailand
 It's Good

Mom's Stuffed Cabbage

I remember growing up how much simpler this dish was (at least at my house).  When I was a kid, stuffed cabbage was just rice and sometimes meat, mixed with rice and rolled into blanched or even raw cabbage leaves, then simmered or braised in a tomato broth for a few hours.

These days, my mom tries to out-do herself and we start seeing really crazy variations on a classic.  On this last occurrence, my mom mixed in dried cherries, pine nuts and other dried fruit and nut combos and in my opinion it just didn't work out. 

Now, I'm not saying it was inedible or nasty, because it wasn't, I'm just saying that sometimes you just wanna have that memory come back and when you get excited, rush over and find dried fruits and nuts is something as simple as stuffed cabbage...

You know where that was going.  In the end, its mom and its always delicious.  Right!?!

Beef Tenderloin Butts at Lake Isabella

This becomes my job at all the social outings although R has shown some interest in learning the right way to peel the silverskin off of the tenderloin.  His skills are promising!

What do you eat on your camping trips?  And how many of your friends bring along air mattresses these days?!?!(is that still considered camping???)

Friday Night Bites

Friday nights are always fun.  Often times it is spent with my family and friends.  The food is always great and there is always a great mood to the evening. 

On this particular Friday night, Limor & I decided to host.  We haven't hosted yet and it was a good challenge.  There were fourteen guests confirmed and by the time it was over, I think a few more trickled in.

We started to prep on Wednesday for a Friday night meal.  The menu consisted of:

• Tuna Carpaccio alla CIA for anyone who's been to Caterina...
• Arugula & Mixed Green Salad with Cherry Tomatoes
• Ossobuco served with Risotto alla Milanese
• Chicken Cacciatore served with Roasted Pearl Barley
• Grilled Vegetables
• Misc. Cakes, Fruit Salad and other sweets

Overall I thought the dinner was a success.  Both the proteins came out very well.  The risotto had a few 'al dente' spots to it which I blame on the availability of proper cooking tools (I didn't use the right pot - too lazy to clean it). 

Everyone loved everything and the shocker for me was that almost everyone loved and ate the tuna.  Even Limor's grandfather enjoyed it and I wouldn't expect him to eat raw tuna!

Some didn't eat it though, but their portions were scarfed down by my mom...

Simple Food

Some days I just feel like cooking normal, homie, easy food.

Above are some photos of:

- Turkey Meat Balls seasoned with cumin and turmeric.
- Imported Italian Tomato with Ground Turkey and Fresh Basil

Family Meal - Update

Today was the first day of the Fall menu at Chapter 8.  We added some nice things to the menu, mostly apps and sides, as those are what change most with this Steakhouse menu.

On my grill, we did add some game to the mix.  I know (hope) that I will get a chance to play with some Venison, Boar, Elk as well as Squab and Pheasant. 

My family meal plan has been going well.  Today was just some boring, last minute Penne with Tomato sauce because of time limitations (new menu and all) - but these deep-fried Sysco chicken fingers were a smash hit (with all the barbacks at least!).

Family meal can be lots of fun although our Friday Curry Day doesn't compare at all to Chez Pim's fun at Manresa!

What did you cook for family?!?

Family Meal - Update

Recently added family meals include:

Aussie Mark's famous curry.  Always made on Curry Day Friday, last week was BEEF with potatoes and snow peas.  I can recall the mixture of herbs and spices as being Chili Powder, Paprika, Cumin, Tumeric, Oregano, Cayenne and Fennel Seed.  Very tasty!

Family Meal

This last weeks menu:

One day was Enchiladas...made with beef tenderloin trim, corn tortillas, jalapenos, red onion, cheese, and a #10 can of gifted enchilada sauce.


The Enchiladas were not bad at all.  Mind you they weren't rolled up in tortillas, I just deep fried the corn tortillas and shredded them into the whole mixture; it was quick and easy and tasty too.

One of the days was Chicken Fingers.  Usually, we use the chix fingers when we aren't cutting meat that day - no beef trim = no beef family meal.

With my chicken fingers I like to make a Tabasco-Ranch or a 'Sriracha'-Ranch dipping sauce although others in the kitchen like Cholula a lot more.

And finally, my favorite for the week, was a quick stir fry that I again used the beef tenderloin scraps for.  This one took a bit longer to prepare because I cut all the scraps into tiny pieces of meat, but still worth the time and energy for my fellow workers.

So, GGS to start (ginger, garlic, scallion) - then the beef gets nice and dark, pull the beef out, add the carrots and celery, then a bit of rice wine, a bit of soya and a bit of honey.  I added some 'Sriracha' for heat and flavor.  That was it.

A new Category

Ciao Tutti,

I finally found a way to get myself back on track with the blog.  Since I have been back from Italy, sure, there have been some cool food moments, but nothing I felt worth blabbing about...till now.

How cool would it be to let you in on what we eat (what I usually make) for family meal at the restaurant.  So, I know it isn't always, or even likely, gourmet, but it is real life kitchen and real life food...family style.

Here's the beginning:

Coming back from the weekend I found a whole Prime rib - ready for the taking.  I cut it up to bite size pieces and found some red onion and broccoli that would add enough body to get people through the long night...we are open for seven hours of service!

I sweated the onions, added the beef and in a separate pot, blanched and shocked the broccoli.

The end result was something like this...

Sure, it isnt the most appealing thing in the world, but it is much more then one may find at any other restaurant around...the servers all drool over family meal...commenting on how they never ate family meal till working at this restaurant, etc. etc.  (maybe they're all fibbing!!!)

That night I made some tomatoe sauce that I would use the next day with some penne.

I took two #10s of tomatoes, some sweated onion, some Kurobuta pork trim, some Grana rinds, two cloves of garlic and about seven hours of slow cooking for the sauce.

End result was...

The garlic bread was made with 'older then fresh' hamburger buns, some grated cheese, rubbed garlic and olive oil.   At the end, some basil went into the sauce as well.

So, I hope you enjoyed our family meal...more to come soon!