Whats up DOC

D.O.C. wine bar is my new favorite Italian spot located on 88 North 7th Street @ the corner of Wythe. It is my Inoteca of Brooklyn and a new family dinner spot. The cute waitress took our order with her authentic Italian accent and it turns out she is from one of the most beautiful places, Sardinia. Its nicely decorated and cozy, not at all what you would expect from looking at the building that it is in. They have a new spacious back room to accommodate large parties. We ordered everything family style.







the orecchiette special with eggplant and fontina cheese. So good we ordered two!



The house charcuterie plate





The have a selection of delicious paninis


This is my absolute favorite. White anchovy crostini . Its unreal, with lots of lemon and super salty. The perfect partner for a glass of red or white wine.


The delicious house cheese plate. This is the cheese plate for one , so I cant imagine what the cheese plate for two looks like.

Its so close to Artists& Fleas. You can pick me up after work for a glass of wine! yums.


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nom-nom-gone

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dumps.

I love food. Food tastes good.

This new years weekend was filled with so much cooking and so much eating. It was pretty amazing and so much fun. My friend Kat bought dumpling (wonton) wrappers so I decided to wing it and make vegetarian ones. You can buy packages of these at any Asian market and probably even bigger grocery stores like whole foods.



I gathered all the veggie friendly ingredients I could muster from the kitchen.
I steamed some broccoli and chopped it really fine .
I dressed it in a little soy and added 3 cloves of minced fresh garlic.
I also chopped a generous amount of fresh ginger.
If I had it I would have added some scallion and some firm tofu. Better luck next time.
The consistency was too watery for the filling so I added a cracked egg to bind it and some panko crumbs to soak up some moisture giving it the right texture.
Then all you do is crack an egg in a separate bowl and dip your finger in the whisked egg.
You trace the inside circular edges of the wrapper and plop the filling in the middle.
Then fold it in half making tiny half moons and seal the edges.








Make sure you get all the air out. We boiled them afterwards. The way I learned to tell when they are done is "when they look ready". Its true. They get a little translucent and float but they just look right. They are so easy I'm going to make different variations and just freeze them so I have dumplings for every rainy day!




They shrink up a little bit. Serve with sriracha and dumpling sauce ( soy sauce with a little bit of vinegar and hot pepper flakes)



Yum.






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Macaron, Macaroon

Happy Holidaze!





This Christmas I got my craft on with Alia and made homemade stockings( Noah helped too). One of the things I stuffed them with is homemade Chocolate Macaroons! My dad is gluten free so these were the perfect cookie to gift him. This was my first attempt at them so they weren't as uniform as I wanted them to be but I learned a lot about their consistency and how to get them right for the future...

Preheat oven to 350º F

Chocolate Macaron Batter

2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup powdered almonds (pulverized aka almond flour)
6 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa
4 large egg whites at room temperature
10 tablespoons granulated sugar

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper

In a small bowl mix together the powdered sugar with the almond powder so it isn't all lumpy. I lump you.



In a bigger bowl use an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they begin to rise and start to peak. While whipping, beat in the granulated sugar until very stiff and firm. Don't be afraid to go all the way to 7 on the mixer. It gives you a great hand massagie. It takes about 2 minutes.

Then you fold the dry ingredients, slowly adding the dry mixture with on of those rubber spatulas. When the mixture is just smooth stop folding and scrape the batter into a large zip lock or if you are profesh a pastry bag.



Make small circles and try to be even. This batter really takes to the shape that you pour.

Bake them for about 15 and remove from baking sheet. A good trick I tried is to actually pour cold water under the wax paper. It helps them come off nice and easy.

Make any kind of filling you want. I kept it simple. I just made a vanilla cream frosting with a stick of butter some powdered sugar whipping cream and vanilly. I winged it to taste.




Let cookies cool and then make sandwiches.













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nom nom nom

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guide to saucin'

(Artichoke Pizza drenched in hot sauce!)



I truly love spicy food. I am so into Thai curries, tasty hot Indian dishes, and Mexican food drowning in some sort of green sauce. Sauce is amazing, especially when spicy. I tend to be the person who douses my food in delicious hot sauce. In college, like most schools, the food was so meh that I used to carry a pocket sized Tapatío in my purse. I believe that the varietals of hot sauces compliment certain foods. There is nothing worse than going to a restaurant and asking for hot sauce and the server brings you tabasco. I believe they should respond with we don't have hot sauce but we have Tabasco because it really is a category all on its own. Now I love Tabasco but its' Tabasco... nah what im sayin' .


One of my favorite mexican hot sauces, Cholula, makes the perfect breakfast hot sauce. Bless it's lil wooden top. It goes great on your eggy wegs in the morning, along with the potatoes, and any sort of veggie breakfast side dish. Im sure meat lovers would'nt be mad at Cholula if it grazed a bacon strip or two. It is also really good spicing up your hummus. MMM.. hummus. They have different flavors if you want to mix it up. I'm a sucker for traditional but the garlic one is good too!


El Yucateco hot sauces I'd say is a more traditional hot sauce jam. It can get really spicy with out compromising flavor. You will find it most likely decorating the tables of a good mexican joint. I once received the gift of a four pack of these from a friend after she traveled in mexico and I finished all four bottles. Yum.


Frank's Redhot is perfect for you wing lovers. I believe it is also a great hot sauce to go on mac and cheese or to soak your french fries with. I'm even going to go out on a limb and speculate that Foodswings, the vegan fast food eatery , uses Frank's on there mock chicken wings. That's why they taste so good.
Texas Pete's hot sauce would be the number two hot sauce for wings. It would be "they didnt have Frank's Redhot" hot sauce. I'm not mad at it , its perfectly good and I would use it without batting an eyelash.


Valentina makes the perfect Michelada. It's not too vinegary for your booze and the chillies are spot on to gulp up with a Pacifico, Tecate, Modelo especial or Corona depending on your preference (I ranked them in order according my preference).


Bufalo' hot sauce is muy bien. I love going to Lupes on 6th ave to enjoy their delicious burritos and soak it up in the tall familiar slender bottle of jalepeno Bufalo' hot sauce. It's distinctive neon coloring makes me think that is is giving my stomach lining a great big hug when I digest it. The dark rich smokey chipotle made by them is one of my favorites as well.


Sriracha is one condiment that is always in my fridge. Personally I think it goes good on everything, but it is especially complimentary to dumplings, noodle soups, rices, pizza, basically anything starchy. The cock sauce is assumed to be made in Asia but actually reigns from California. Its named after Si Racha a town in Thailand and was marketed towards Asian Americans becoming a staple in most Asian American restaurants. You used to only be able to pick it up in Ktown or Chinatown but not most grocery stores and even bodegas carry it. Sriracha 4 life!



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An Choi

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I had a delicious dinner at An Choi. I haven't been there in a while because I'm a taco monger and Barrio Chino is so close by. I think the last time I ate at An Choi it was when Asia Dog was set up in the back space.

The chef sent over a bowl of shrimp chips which we decided made excellent vehicles for sriracha.
For starters everyone enjoyed the fried chicken lollipops while I tried the (Salmon) Goi Cuon.


I had the Catfish Bun with a glass of Cava. I married it with more sriracha which was the perfect meal for the chilly night. I cant wait for more warm fall meals!

Broccoli, Tomato, and Cheddar Quiche!

I made a nice little quiche this Saturday. It made the house all toasty and smell delicious. I love quiche and am now full of quiche! Its a super simple meal and more importantly tastes pretty damn good.


Its really great to make it in a glass pie pan if you have one handy. My mom gave me her old glass pie pan so it is my favorite quiche maker. She happens to also be my favorite quiche maker. She is a super wonderful lady, but perhaps in some eyes not the best cook on this current planet. With this in mind note that it is very hard to mess up quiche. Anyone can do it and and you can put what ever you want in it.

I stuck to the classic Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche. I even through some cherry tomatoes in there just to mix it up.

Here is how you do:

You lightly grease the bottom of the pan and set the oven to 350º.

Grate about 1 cup of cheddar and put it aside. In a bowl whisk 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1 cup of flour, and 2 cups of milk, a few shakes of salt and black pepper. I minced 2 garlic cloves for some extra flavor. Cut and rinse broccoli florets and sliced cherry tomatoes. As many as you like, you're the boss.


Mix Cheese into soupy mixture, pour in pan and place in your veggies .


Bake for about 35 minutes. Until golden brown. You should see a crust form at the bottom of pan. That is the best part. I like mine to brown a little longer cause I like anything crunchy and crisp. Serve with a hand full of arugula and accessorize with everyones favorite breakfast hot sauce. Yums.


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