Ginger Soy Chicken (7/19)

The LA Times does a piece in its weekly Food section in which readers ask for recipes from their favorite restaurant dishes. The Times will get the recipe from the chef and adapt it for a home kitchen. I decided to make the ginger soy chicken wings from the Beacon restaurant, which sounded all right but looked amazing! Unfortunately I felt the recipe adaptation was flawed. I followed it according to the directions but they turned out horribly salty, and some ingredients were never used because they didn't write anything about them in the recipe itself. It was ok, though, and I might try it again if I feel like deep-frying.



Mes ingrédients


Combine the chicken broth, mirin, sake, soy sauce, sugar and ginger in a medium, heavy-bottom saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to simmer and cook until the sauce is reduced to 1 cup. Remove from heat and reserve.



Heat a deep fryer up to 350 degrees F, or a large saucepan with enough oil to come 3 inches up the side.


Season the wings (legs in my case) with salt and pepper, then dredge in cornstarch.


Fry a couple at a time until cooked through, about 8 minutes.


Drain on a rack or towel until all the pieces have been fried. Make sure you get the oil back to temperature before you put more chicken in! It drops a lot when you first start the fry.


After frying all the chicken, bring the reserved sauce to a boil and add the wings, stirring to coat. Cook the chicken until the sauce reduces to a thick glaze.


Remove from heat and toss with sesame seeds. Serve immediately.


If I were to try this recipe again I might add some honey or check carefully the amount of soy sauce I'm using. Also, the recipe calls for butter but doesn't say when you should use it--I'm assuming you add it when you bring the sauce back to a boil, before adding the wings. Hope you have better luck with it! Also, if you're firing up the deep fryer it's really hard not to go crazy and start throwing in other things--Joe Joe's, onions, socks. Be careful.

Ginger soy chicken wings
Adapted from Beacon restaurant

Serves 4 to 6, appetizer portions

Soy-ginger glaze
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup mirin
1/4 cup sake
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon finely chopped ginger

1. Combine the chicken broth, mirin, sake, soy sauce, sugar and ginger
in a medium, heavy-bottom saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring
occasionally.
2. Reduce the heat to simmer and cook until the sauce is reduced to 1
cup. Remove from heat and reserve.

Chicken wings and assembly
Vegetable oil for frying
12 whole chicken wings (about 2 pounds), separated at the joints and
wing tips removed (save for stock or another use)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 cup soy-ginger glaze
1/2 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds for garnish

1. Fill a large, heavy-bottom saucepan with enough oil to come 3
inches up the side. Heat the oil until a thermometer inserted reads
350 degrees.
2. Season the wings with the salt and pepper, then dredge with the
cornstarch. Fry the wings, a few at a time, until lightly golden and
cooked through, about 8 minutes. Drain the wings on a rack.
3. When all the wings are fried, heat a wok or heavy sauté pan over
high heat. Add the reserved ginger-soy sauce and bring to a boil, then
add the wings, stirring to coat. Cook the wings in the sauce, stirring
constantly, until the sauce reduces enough that it coats the wings in
a thick, syrupy glaze.
4. Remove from the heat and toss the wings with the sesame seeds.
Serve immediately.

Chocolate Anise Biscotti (7/18)

I made this recipe once a few years ago and just decided to revisit it. Honestly I don't even like licorice but the anise offsets the chocolate well. A coworker told me he doesn't ever like biscotti but he loved this. Ya burnt!




I got this recipe for chocolate anise cookies from Giada de Laurentiis. The hardest part is waiting for the cookies to cool long enough for me to cut them into pieces and bake again (hence the name "biscotti"/twice baked).

In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt


In a separate bowl (or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment) cream together butter and sugar


Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each egg.


Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined.


Add the anise seed and mix well, then add chocolate chips.




Plop dough onto a lined baking sheet


and form by hand into a log roughly 16" x 3"


Bake in preheated 350F oven for 30 min. until lightly golden


Mine looked like this when it came out


Allow to cool at least 30 minutes before cutting. Using a serrated knife, cut the log into 1/2-inch- to 3/4-inch-thick slices. A helpful tip is to lightly spritz the log with water, just to soften the top enough for you to slice without crumbling too much.




Arrange slices cut side up on baking sheet and bake until light golden, ~15 min.


In the end my cookies were still slightly soft in the center, which is what everyone at work commented on--unlike store-bought biscotti, these cookies taste very fresh and distinctive. I'll bet they'd be great with coarsely chopped almonds, too. Hope you enjoy!

Chocolate Anise Biscotti
from Giada de Laurentiis

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon ground anise seed
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line a heavy large baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar and butter in a large bowl to blend. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time. Add the flour mixture and beat just until blended. Add the ground anise seed and mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Form the dough into a 16-inch-long, 3-inch-wide log. Transfer the log to the prepared baking sheet. Bake until light golden, about 30 minutes. Cool 30 minutes.

Place the log on the cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut the log on a diagonal into 1/2- to 3/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange the cookies cut side down on the baking sheet. Bake the cookies until pale golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a rack and cool completely.

La Rondine and Daikokuya 6/28

Photo by Robert Millard/LA Opera

Switched a shift to work 7a-3 so I could get off early enough to go to the opera that night. Originally it was supposed to have been me, Sarah, Graham and Graham's lady, but complications arose when Sarah missed a flight back from Seattle and plans got muddled. I called in Tony and after work, picked up Graham and Vanessa and drove to Santa Monica to pick up Tony. Unfortunately there was traffic (on a Saturday! bla) from the 10 in SM to downtown, but we arrived about 10 minutes late and were seated soon afterward. What with our being seated in the orchestra

[Edit: It's now early October. I'll finish this post for posterity's sake.]

What? Seated in the orchestra? Yeah fantastic seats...assigned to us. They were not the ones we were sitting in, though. Awkwardness ensued when I tried to reclaim our rightful seats, but whatever. La Rondine was beautiful, it was Vanessa's first opera and it was generally acclaimed.

After that we went (as is tradition now, I guess) to Daikokuya. I didn't want to hype it up too much so we stood around silently for the 45 minutes or so until we were seated. Then another twenty before we ate. And oh, was it worth it. The broth had never been so thick, the egg never so flavorful. It was a great meal among friends and the night ended with general goodwill toward the world.

Unfortunately, this was the weekend everything went down. Tony moved out of Lauren's the week after, I think, and I haven't spoken to him since.

DON'T...

Party at David Moss's 6/26

Got off work at 11 and thought defiantly, "that's not going to stop me!" Drove up to Santa Monica after a little convincing, though, and met up with friends at David Moss's house. He's come back from Japan after a year of study there, and it was good to see him again, albeit somewhat awkward. Anyway, spent most of the night talking with Lauren and Chris. Met some dude named Jake who went to high school with them (but didn't know them), and hilarity ensued when it was discovered that he complemented Chris perfectly. Chris happens to be an amazing storyteller, and it turns out Jake was an ideal listener! He was engrossed, animated, and full of questions for Chris, it was so funny and cute. That was the highlight of the night, watching Chris recount crazy EMT stories and Jake listen open-mouthed, interrupting with, "so have you ever seen a person die in front of you??" Moderately morbid but mostly mirthful.

Went back to Lauren's afterward (I came back late because I stopped at Randy's...oh blissful glazed doughnut) and attempted to watch some Frontier House, but ended up just falling asleep. Ah well, a fun night with some new company.

And if you care to know, an update on the bite situation: I took matters into my own hands the next day and left a fan blowing over me the whole night. Awoke with no new bug bites and a day later found a dead mosquito near the fan site (www.ilovemosquitoes.com). Vengeance is mine! Almost bought a net at REI a couple of days later but will see. I will probably have to catch West Nile before I cave.

DON'T...

First day of summer

Seven recorded bug bites within the last twelve hours. All bright red, swollen and throbbing. Welcome to summer! Also, lots of sirens and sounds of a helicopter flying around. Welcome to Long Beach!

Edit: Make that eight.
Edit: It's almost 5am. It's not funny any more. I literally count twenty-three bug bites on my body; at least I think it's 23 but I honestly keep losing count. I am on the verge of tears and one foot is pulsating with pain. I don't know how to make it go away and there's no one to talk to. God, this is horrible.
Edit: 6/22 6pm. Cleaning room and killed a mosquito FILLED with my blood. Revenge! Meanwhile, keep finding bites all over body. Last count was around thirty. Look like am suffering from plague. Not looking forward to sleeping again tonight.

DON'T...

Magic Mountain 6/19

Went to Magic Mountain! For the first time in probably 5 years? Last time I went was with Lauren when I won tickets for this KROQ event, after park hours. It was fun, but only a few hours and none of those new rides had been built. For whatever godforsaken reason we chose yesterday, a Thursday in mid-June in Valencia, to go. Invited Lily and chose Lauren's coworker Ray to be our fourth so we were even, and had a pretty good day.

It was fun--we started by gathering everyone together and buying snackies from Trader Joe's, then Lily drove us out. The drive was not bad at all (thankfully), and Lauren's extremely generous aunt Julie who lives out there offered to give us a ride to the park so we could skip the FIFTEEN DOLLAR parking (even Disneyland's--which is COVERED--is cheaper!). Julie's also sweet son David (who's going to be a senior next year! eek!) gave us TWO FREE TICKETS! So with a coupon we ended up paying $15 each to get into the park. David ended up driving us--the first time we've seen him behind the wheel. It was one of the scarier rides of the day. Sneaked food in by our Wile E. ways because they don't allow outside food! Which is ridiculous. (Speaking of Looney Tunes, the characters who formerly dominated many parts of the park were rarely mentioned or seen, except for a glimpse of Speedy Gonzalez at one point.)



We managed to get on only seven rides during the ten hours we were there, but they were all great. The worst things were the oppressive heat--thank God we live by the beach--and the appalling rate of breakdowns of rides. Here's the order:

1. Viper
2. X2 (not really)
3. Tatsu
4. Deja Vu (not really)
5. Ninja
6. Goliath
7. Superman
8. Batman
9. X2

We strolled into Viper and waited about 5 minutes before we got to go on, not at all a bad start. The scary thing was that the last time Lauren and I had been there, what with the park being empty, we rode Viper 12 times in a row. After today's ride we were both shaky and stunned that such a feat was possible. We had forgotten or ignored how fast and terrifying that ride was! Or maybe we've just gotten soft from years of having Space Mountain be our biggest thrill. Definitely made us reconsider what to expect from the day, though.

After that I convinced everyone that riding X2 (we got there around 1pm) earlier would be better than when the park got more crowded as the day went on, so waited in that line for an hour before it was announced that the ride had broken down indefinitely. Like a great deal of the people around us we promptly ditched that line.

Luckily, we waited about the same amount of time for Tatsu and were actually within boarding distance of the ride when we were informed it was also experiencing technical difficulties. Our resolve strengthened, we stubbornly stayed and waited about 20 minutes before they began rerunning. I just felt bad for those who were strapped in and hanging in wait for that long! When we eventually got on, Ray (who had been psyching himself out) was tinkered over his harness much longer than the rest of us. The ride operators were pushing down hard on his harness, trying to get it to do God knows what, without a word and finally seeming to walk away with a "that'll do." The fact that we were suspended from above with nary a net between us and the hard concrete made their concern that much more terrifying, and subsequently turned the ride into the most rewarding, I felt, of the day. Since I legitimately wondered if we might be dropped out and plunged to our deaths ("I regret nothing!") the ride was intoxicatingly scary.

A jaunt over to the ill-publicized and empty line for Deja Vu followed...followed by a thirty-minute wait also near boarding while waiting for THAT ride to be fixed of whatever its problem was. Lauren and I theorized that only the new rides, built in a frenzy amidst rumors of the park closing, were constructed shoddily and attributed the possibly cheap engineering to the rate of breakdowns, as our first ride on the dependable Viper had gone on without a hitch. We finally decided to leave that line and go eat.

I decided to lead the gang to the Laughing Dragon Pizza Company, which I remember as a youth as not bad. On the way we passed Ninja, the virtues and excitement of which I'd been extolling to our group, and Ray suggested we pop in before eating. What a great idea! Although running from the entrance right to a seat was exciting it was a little sad to see a great ride that used to have lines going down the hill be so empty. I'm extremely gratified the ride was as good as I remember it, a sturdy and fast swing around the park.

Found the restaurant closed (like a lot of other stuff that day...too expensive to keep open? In peak theme park season?) and directed everyone to the area with the pseudo food court by some of the kids rides like Buccaneer, the big swinging pirate ship. Lily was very excited to go on that before we found it too was closed. Ate corn dogs and grossly undercooked fries and wandered over to Goliath, which became my favorite ride soon after it was built (sorry, Ninja and Colossus). Solidly exciting, and got some good air time as the lap bar at its lowest setting (either that or it was faulty) was still too high for me and I had a bit of room to be lifted up. Woo!

Discovering that Superman was in fact running and most of us had only been on it once with little recollection of it, we headed back over to Samurai Summit and spent a good 30 minutes in line for that. Lily was trying really hard to opt out of riding (something no one had done all day), due to some unexplained aversion. We insisted she accompany us and she fearfully relented. She was really freaked out about that ride! We got in and waited a full five minutes trying to figure out someone's lap bar sitch, because apparently they all need to be locked into place at a certain spot ("the lowest setting possible," the operator kept insisting) in order for the ride to go. Eventually one heavyset man needed to get off the ride, but that still didn't fix it! After an annoyingly long delay (during which Lily was psyching herself out even more) the 15-second ride started and ended. Not too worth the wait, but the nice "Arctic chill" in line was neat, Lily understood her fear was a bit unfounded and Lauren and I realized why the ride isn't that memorable.

Found similar "old-school" line situations at Batman. It seems like the hype for all the new rides have left classics open for the taking, and we thoroughly enjoyed running through Gotham City's sewers and back alleys to board immediately. (Note: throughout the day our Disney pedigree left us finding the park's condition appalling, as bins overflowed, trash rattled around on the ground and we wandered through some really badly lit, scary places. It seemed like the job of keeping Gotham City looking decrepit and run-down was maybe the easiest in the park.) Oh, Batman! There's nothing like sitting right down and swinging your legs away. Scarier than I remembered, but so were most of the rides.

By that time it was nigh on 9:30 and Ray was getting antsy, mentioning something about a midnight tattoo appointment. I managed to convince everyone, jaded as they were, to try to ride X2 just once. Got in that line and made it all the way to our scary-looking train and proceeded to ride one of the best of the night. Besides the line having very obnoxious, loud "interactive" markers of big-screen televisions and speakers blasting "Are you a Type A...or a TYPE X??", it was definitely worth the line--twice, as it were. I decided that having to wait through the line twice and finally going at the very end of the night made the ride that much more worthwhile and enjoyable. The spins were all very smooth and controlled, unlike the washing machine movements I'd imagined, and falling headfirst was truly scary. The biggest regret was that the ride is 30 seconds long, if that! Pretty disappointing. However, a great way to end the night.

Got picked up by Julie soon after and listened to show tunes the whole way home. Funny, even though we were farther from Anaheim than ever we still kept the habit of singing a few good Disney tunes. At the end of the day our careful preparation had paid off in the lacks of sunburns and dehydration all around. The new rides are quite exciting but the constant rate of breakdowns make the payoff less than desirable. The old rides don't fail to deliver. All in all, a very exciting and fun reprieve from the normal Disney routine and a perfect reminder of how lucky we are NOT to live in Valencia.

Disneyland 6/9-10 Recap

Got off work Monday the 9th at 7 and went to Disneyland with Lily. Since we got there after 9 (right when the fireworks were starting) we snagged primo parking right by the tram. Had the clam chowder in a sourdough breadbowl at Try Our Gumbo. It's been so long and it was DELICIOUS. We totally saved our leftover bread plugs and ate them later, haha. I managed to switch shifts at work so I could have Tuesday free, so the next day Lauren and Lily both headed over and we went again!

We decided to start at DCA because Lauren hadn't been on Tower of Terror yet, so we screamed ourselves through that a couple of times. Met up with Tross at California Screamin' and trekked to THPOE after that.



This time I remembered to print out the Indiana Jones explorer map and decoder card that they issued to promote the Indy 4 movie and we spent a fun 15 minutes in Adventureland finding the clues that were "hidden" there. Later we did use the decoder card in line for Indy, but it was moving quickly at all the wrong parts and we could only translate bits and pieces. Space Mountain has been really lacking lately; even very late at night when the ride should be its fastest it legitimately feels slow at points, the kind of "wait, are we moving?" slow. It's really disappointing--I'm sure too many people complained about the old speed. =[

Showed up to moderately empty Cafe Orleans (our enthusiastically received discovery as a cheap alternative to the Blue Bayou) hungry and tired, where they said they weren't taking any more reservations for the night. So we did the natural thing--called Disney Dining and booked reservations there (what a surprise! There were openings) for a half-hour later. Went on Big Thunder, came back and ate a delicious dinner. I opted for a full bowl of the gumbo this time, Lily was saving her appetite for Lee's later and Lauren and Tross split a Monte Cristo, with an order of pommes frites for the table. One good thing was that Lauren had brought tons of snackies to the park, so we had been munching all day and were able to eat the whole meal (stretching our stomachs out, she says).

The parks were pretty crowded for a Tuesday; then again, it's June. We decided to go those days because having the cheapest annual pass, these are the only days available to us for the rest of June all the way through August (July is blocked out completely). I'm glad we didn't go for the more expensive passes anyway--who wants to go on a Friday when the place is ridiculously packed?

Oh! A scary thing happened: Lily and I took Lauren into the Star Tours shop to show her the build-a-lightsaber station. As is the case in most Disneyland crowds, we got separated and all I noticed was that I started coughing. Not for any definitive reason, I wasn't choking or thirsty or sick, it was just a hacking cough that I got. Then I noticed that EVERYONE--I mean, dozens of people--around me was also coughing their lungs out too! And I got really freaked out. If I had been the one not coughing in this place it wouldn't have bothered me that much, but the whole place was full of coughers who all seemed to have inhaled the same thing. So I left the place and went outside, where Lauren, Lily and Tross were--Lily had started coughing there and Lauren had felt her nostrils burning! It was so odd, and for no discernible reason. We hightailed it out of Tomorrowland and the northrax attack.

Besides the biological weapons, screaming children and pushy crowds, the double Disneyland detour was wonderful. I will be happy to wait until August, when I hope the crowds will have cleared up some. Tonight I'm supposed to go shooting with Chris (this time actual gun shooting, not the shooting with cameras that I say all the time and people joke about), which we were supposed to have done yesterday before it got too late. Justin's in too; let's hope it actually works out. After all, today I was supposed to go hiking. Crossing my fingers for plans that don't fall through!