Recap of the 2009 Puyallup Fair

I apologize for not getting this up earlier, but as promised here is a recap of our 2009 Puyallup Fair food eating extravaganza! This year Pert bailed on us, so unfortunately we couldn’t eat as much as we usually do. We’re taking applications for anyone who wants to replace Pert. The only criteria is that you come to the Fair hungry. Anyhow here’s a recap of the festivities:

First meal: fleischkuechle aka a deep fried meat turnover. The greasy, salty, flaky meat pocket was a great way to start off the day.

Emi’s close up shot of that greasy deliciousness

My Myer’s Walla Walla Sweet Onion Cheeseburger. This is a historic photo because it will probably be my last of these burgers. With how easy it is to get Walla Walla sweet onions and the fact that I eat them throughout the summer a $6 cheeseburger with onions is just not worth the space it takes up in my stomach. I gotta prioritize. Also note the Marines waterbottle I won for doing pull-ups. It was my pre-meal calorie burner to help me fit more in my stomach, but it didn't really help much.

Emi’s sweet and juicy corn on the cob

Delicious Darigold chocolate milk as a mid-Fair refreshment. Tasted like rich, sweet melted chocolate soft serve, I had about 5 samples.

Candid of Emi who broke from the plan and bought a corn dog! You can get a corn dog anywhere and yes she regretted eating it. The curly fries were great, but they became a soggy mess while we waited in line for that corn dog.

Boom, this is where we started to slow down

mmm, mmm good... Young Life BBQ Beef Brisket burger, was delicious. Not the same though without Pert there to enjoy one with me. After eating this I had no room left in my stomach.

We ended the day with a baker’s dozen of Fisher Fair Scones to take home to enjoy while we watched UW get beat by Stanford, boo. In general it was a fun trip, but also a reality check that I can't eat like I used to. This year we didn’t even have room for the turkey leg or the elephant year! Well there’s always next year.

-Kyle

Experimenting with the Tomatillo

Ever since moving up to Richmond Beach we’ve been fortunate to live so close to Central Market which is my new favorite place to go grocery shopping. Central Market has helped expand both Emi and my culinary expertise and has provided us with many delicious and affordable meals over the past few years. For those of you not familiar with Central Market it’s basically an affordable Metropolitan Market or Whole Foods. It has everything I’m looking for in a specialty grocer without the high cost. Emi loves checking out their impressive cheese section before we have people over for parties. The people working there are always very helpful and have given us some great recommendations. I also love Central Market’s homemade, fresh tortillas, amazing frozen pizza dough, and their produce.

In their produce section they always have a great variety of quality fresh fruits and vegetables. I’ve been trying to branch out and try new fruits and vegetables. Recently I stumbled upon the tomatillo. Many of us have had tomatillo salsa at Mexican restaurants, but probably few of us have actually tried cooking with the tomatillo. It’s a pretty cool fruit that looks like a green tomato. There is a difference in flavor and the tomatillo is surrounded by a paper-like husk.

Tomatillos at Central Market

Unhusked and husked tomatillos

I recently made a Bobby Flay recipe from Boy Meets Grill: Shredded Chicken and Tomatillo Tacos with Queso Fresco, that I wanted to share with everyone.

It was really fun and easy to make and I was happy because I was able to utilize my grill.

What you’ll need:

• 6 tomatillos, husked, washed, and grilled until blackened
• 1 serrano chili, grilled until blackened
• Olive oil
• ½ small red onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 C chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 lime, juiced
• 2 T honey
• 1 ½ C shredded rotisserie chicken (I prefer to use only the skinless breast meat)
• 8 blue corn tortillas (I used freshly made whole grain tortillas from Central Market)
• 1 C crumbled queso fresco

Directions:

• Preheat the grill to medium. Blacken the tomatillos and Serrano on the grill. Add the blackened tomatillos and Serrano to a small sauté pan and briefly sauté in a little olive oil on the grates of the grill.
• Place the tomatillos, Serrano, onion, garlic, cilantro, lime juice, and honey in a blender and blend until smooth. Place the tomatillo mixture in a large sauté pan and place on the grates of the grill. Bring the mixture to a simmer, add the chicken, and heat through.
• Place the tortillas on the grill, and grill for 20 seconds on each side. Spoon the chicken mixture into the tortillas and top with a few tablespoons of queso fresco. Fold the tortillas in half serve immediately.

Grilling the tomatillos and serrano on the grill

The completed shredded chicken and tomatillo sauce

Our guinea pig Pert eating the Shredded Chicken and Tomatillo Tacos with Queso Fresco and Emi’s homemade pico de gallo

This meal is really easy to make and I like how the recipe utilizes the grill for both blackening the tomatillos, but also for heating the rest of the mixture. The tomatillo sauce came out great and was tart, yet sweet with a great spicy after taste. The queso fresco was my favorite part of the meal. This awesome cheese will definitely be going on every taco I make from now on.

-Kyle

My favorite summertime pastime: BBQ'ing

The great weather we’ve had all summer has inspired me to barbecue more often. I love to barbecue and especially with charcoal. Propane is quick, efficient, and easy, but it's not as fun as barbecuing with charcoal.

This summer I bought the Weber Performer Grill to replace our old gas grill that died on us. Also this grill is on sale right now at Crate and Barrel. http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=500&f=27181&q=barbecu&fromLocation=Search&DIMID=400001&SearchPage=1

If you’re looking for a new barbecue I highly recommend this one. I know two other people who own the same one and both love it. They also sell it in black at both Home Depot and Fred Meyer.

I love to barbecue with charcoal because of the flavor it gives the food and also because it makes cooking more fun. With charcoal you regulate the heat by opening or closing the vents to let in more oxygen to either heat up the BBQ or cool it down. Also there are a lot of fun little tricks you can try out with a charcoal grill that would be more difficult with a gas grill.

The drawbacks to cooking with charcoal are that it takes longer to start up, it’s messier, and regulating the heat can be difficult (but easy once you’ve done it a few times). What I love about my grill is that it has a propane starter so you don’t need any lighter fluid; which ruins the flavor of your food anyway.

Throw the briquettes into the baskets and light up the propane flame with a push of a button. When the briquettes are lit up and hot turn off the propane, empty the baskets and get to cooking.

I’ve tried out a lot of new recipes this summer using this barbecue and will be posting up some of my favorite recipes in the coming weeks.

- Kyle

Fresh Edamame

When sushi became mainstream and more people got exposed to Japanese food, edamame (soy beans) became the new chips and salsa at many restaurants. My mom and dad decided to grow soy beans for the past two years in their backyard, and just about the only thing that makes me happy at the end of summer (besides the start of Husky football season—especially when we upset the #3 team in the nation!) is picking the beans and boiling them up for an absolutely delicious and healthy appetizer. You can find edamame in the freezer aisle of most grocery stores, but there is nothing like a fresh batch picked from the garden! They are sweeter and need less salt to get that juicy, nutty flavor people love. It takes all summer and several plants to produce a crop worth the time/effort, but the results are divine.

Here are some tips for getting the best flavor out of edamame, even if you have to have the frozen kind!

1. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil, do not salt the water. Unlike pasta, you do not want to start with salted water, this can make the beans harden and not get as plump as you want them.

2. Once boiling, throw in your beans and stir. You know the beans are done when one of the pods pops out a bean.

3. When the beans are cooked (about 3-5 minutes), toss in plenty of coarse salt to the boiling water so the water is well flavored. It will also infuse the beans with flavor.

4. Drain the beans and then quickly transfer the colander with beans back over the pot you boiled the beans in. Save the little bit of water that drips from the beans while you let them cool for about a minute.

5. Transfer beans to a bowl and sprinkle a couple of pinches of kosher or rock salt over the beans, toss, then add a couple more pinches over the top. Pour the bean water from step #4 over the top. Enjoy with a beer or green tea!

Kyle’s Cookbook: Fresh Homemade Pesto

I love pesto and eat it regularly. Instant pesto is easy and convenient to make, however the cost of buying the instant packets can add up. Usually in the summer I make an effort to make my own fresh pesto to freeze for the remainder of the year.

A few weeks ago Emi and I visited my grandparents and during our visit they gave us a whole bag of fresh basil. With fresh, organic basil running about $3-5 for a small package this was a great deal for the price of free!

Emi and I love basil and have even grown a little of our own in our backyard, but we go through it so quickly that we never have enough to make pesto. We add basil to everything from fresh mozzarella, to pizza, and pastas. It’s really easy to grow and adds great flavor to anything you cook it with.

Nothing is better than fresh pesto especially when compared to the freeze dried, instant stuff and this is actually more economical as well.

Fresh basil before adding in the pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, and Parmesan

The finished product

What you will need:

2 cups fresh basil leaves, washed, and packed

½ C freshly grated Parmesan Reggiano or Romano cheese

½ C extra virgin olive oil

1/3 C pine nuts (you can buy them in bulk at Top Foods or in small packages at most grocery stores)

3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine the basil with the pine nuts in the food processor, pulse a few times. Add the garlic and pulse a few times more.
2. Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

This should make about 1 cup of pesto. I found this recipe on simplyrecipes.com. It was really easy to make, but a little messy. The website recommends that you do not add the cheese to the pesto if you plan on freezing it because the cheese does not freeze well. Instead add the Parmesan cheese once you've thawed out the pesto. The best way to store the pesto is by freezing it in an ice cube tray and then popping them out into a freezer Ziplock bag for storage.

Now what to do with the pesto? I posted two recipes in the comments section for anyone interested in trying out two of my favorites: Pesto Chicken Linguine and Pesto Oven Fried Chicken.

-Kyle

Grandma Miyo

On July 29 of this year, someone very special to me passed away: my surrogate grandmother, Miyo Shintaku. I met Miyo in 1999, when my parents and I moved to Seattle and started attending Blaine Memorial UMC. When my last grandparent passed away in 2005, Miyo told me she would be happy to be my surrogate grandma. Over the years we spent many Sundays after church eating dim sum, having her over to watch the Seahawks game, and my most cherished memory is having her be my “grandma” figure at our wedding last year.

Miyo’s life was honored at a beautiful service on August 18, and there were two consistent remarks made about Miyo: her love for others (she was a total social butterfly) and her love for food. She was a woman I could relate to!

She was best known for her work in the kitchen. In fact, one of my favorite memories was when she came to Hawaii with my family and me for Christmas in 2005. We had a large family reunion at my family farm in Oahu, and she spent the whole time slaving away in the kitchen to prepare the food for the special occasion. My father is usually the dictator of the kitchen, but Miyo kept shooing him away and taking over the dishes. The food turned out great, and I know that Miyo was happy to spend her vacation in her comfort zone: cooking in the kitchen.

This is a photo of Miyo saying "let me cook!" to my mom who is taking the pic!

One other memory I will always cherish is when she took Kyle, my parents and me out for a nice dinner at Ciao Bella, a small and delicious Italian restaurant in the U District. We had such a fun night and stuffed ourselves with the special of the night: wild boar, as well as my personal favorite dish, penne regatta. Kyle also wants me to note that their bolognese pasta is superb. After the service last Wednesday, we went back to Ciao Bella in honor of Miyo. I know she would have liked that.

After our delicious and memorable meal at Ciao Bella

I’m not sure if this was a secret recipe, but I thought I’d share with you one of my favorite recipes she would make: sesame green beans. I hope you might be able to try it sometime (it is great for picnics or potlucks), and will think of my Grandma Miyo.

Ingredients:

1 lb Fresh Green Beans
3 tsp sugar
3 Tbs soy sauce
3 tsp toasted sesame seeds

Boil green beans in salted water until cooked, but still a bright green. Drain and chill. In a small pan, combine sugar, soy sauce and sesame seeds and cook until sugar dissolves. Let cool and then pour over green beans. This dish is good for several days, and actually gets better with time because the beans absorb the sauce—this is what makes it such a great picnic side dish or hiking snack.

Kyle's Kraves: Caspar's A Taste of the South

A couple weeks ago Emi’s Dad and I took the dogs for a hike up Little Mt Si in North Bend. After the 4.5 mile trek and a late start it was 3pm and we were starving. The whole last mile of the hike we talked about how we wanted to try Caspar’s BBQ. Caspar's is located just north of Lake City Way. I'll be honest, their food is decent, but not amazing; I would recommend Jones BBQ or Dixie BBQ over Caspar’s. However the reason I’m posting about Caspar's is because of their amazing beignets.

I was skeptical at first, but Emi's Dad said I had to try them. We ordered a dozen to bring back to share with Emi’s Mom who insisted we bring them back for her. I’m not necessarily a big dessert or sweets fan, but these were great! For anyone who hasn’t had beignets before the best way to describe them is fluffy, sweet, bite sized elephant ear that melts in your mouth. They are fried and coated in powdered sugar and cinnamon. When you bite into them they literally just melt into sweet goodness in your mouth. They are very light and not as rich as a funnel cake. If you ever want a nice treat or need to pick up a good dessert to bring to a party drop by Caspar’s and get some of their hot beignets. Also their sweet tea is really good too.

-Kyle