(I lied - I used the Test Kitchen ingredient for more than one recipe...) When you have ten habanero peppers at home and you realize that its strength of spiciness really makes it difficult to use more than one for any recipe, you start using it in just about everything. I found a neat use for it as part of a hummus that is tasting with a kick in your face. Try it out with some chips or pita!

Step 1: Ingredients (yields 2 cups)

• 1/3 cup tahini
• 1/2 tsp cumin, ground
• 1/2 bulb (~5 cloves) raw garlic, crushed
• 1 bulb (~10 cloves) roasted garlic
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large lemon, juice only
• 1 orange habanero pepper, seeded and sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, roasted
• 2 cans (15 oz.) garbanzo beans, rinsed

Step 2: Prepping the ingredients
The longest part of making this hummus is actually getting some of the raw ingredients to their proper level of usage. I had opened up my bulb-to-be-roasted of garlic and drizzled on olive oil before popping it into the oven for about 45 minutes (and went off to do something else of course). Roast your red bell pepper thoroughly to get the right sweetness into your hummus and remember to peel off the skin. The crushing of garlic was the most arduous tasks of them all since I was grating them through my Microplane. Remember for habanero peppers that you need to put on protective gloves when handling so as not to burn your skin.

Step 3: Finishing
After prepwork, the easiest part is next. Place all ingredients into a food processor and make smooth! Enjoy!

If you remember last Tuesday, you'll recall that I had posted my debut announcement for this "Test Kitchen" concept I would be trying out. Basically, I'll reveal an ingredient and work off of your suggestions on what to make with it (suggestions collected on Facebook). The inaugural test kitchen ingredient was the orange habanero pepper. A daunting thing to work with but even more daunting was the technique I chose to go with; so, not only did I learn how to work with this new ingredient, I also learned how to can! The jelly came out well so I hope you enjoy this recipe that was modified from this link here!

Step 1: Ingredients (yields 3 half-pint jars)

• 1 large orange bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 2 tbsps powdered pectin
• 3 cups white sugar
• 3 orange habanero peppers

Step 2: Prepping equipment and ingredients
I have never canned/jarred before and was really thinking of not doing it BUT the price was right, so I bought myself the equipment. The important thing with canning is sterilization - follow manufacturer's guidelines for preparing your jars and lids (usually simmer jars in a large stockpot and lids & rings in another). For ingredients, chop up your bell pepper finely. When handling habanero peppers, it is highly recommended to use gloves. For this recipe, you don't need to if you are careful with your hand placement. I just cut off the tops of the peppers. You may choose to just cut slits into the peppers. The purpose is to expose the pepper oils into the jelly.


Step 3: Cooking
In a large saucepan, bring all ingredients to a full rolling boil over a medium-high heat. You'll start to noticing the mixture becoming more jelly-like. Continue the boiling for another 5 minutes or so, making sure to keep stirring to avoid burning.



Step 4: Finishing
Remove the saucepan from the heat and discard habanero peppers. Pour the jelly into your sterilized jars (with a funnel) and leave 1/4" headspace. Wipe rims cleanly and put on lids & rings tight enough to allow no water to seep back in. Place jars back into your stockpot or canner and boil in water for 10 minutes. Using tongs, remove to a rack to cool and set. Jelly setting may take up to 24 hours.


This week's Test Kitchen ingredient: lentils (comment on Facebook/Twitter!)


Photography by Duc Duong.

18315 Brookhurst St, Unit 1, Fountain Valley, CA 92708
Pricing - $/$$ | Dining - Casual | Cuisine - Japanese
http://www.shinsengumigroup.com

First of all, make sure you know which side of the restaurant you are entering as there is the ramen side and the robata side. Secondly, remember that ramen is good for cold weather...so, so good. It was a gloomy day when I decided that it was ramen or pho time. Duc agreed to ramen so we went off to Shin-Sen-Gumi, a place I remembered not liking when I was in high school but had only been to once. I wanted to give it another shot since I didn't trust my high school palate and because so many people rave about it.


The wait was quite long, over half an hour. However, that's usually a testament to a restaurant right? I saw that seating inside was very limited too. Luckily, they have a paper that you can fill out with your preferences prior to being seated. The add-ons came in separated bowls for our use as pleased. Awesome.


Duc got his with the add-on of egg, wontons, and a poached egg. The broth was ordered with a thicker amount of soup oil and the noodles regular sized. You could actually really taste the difference in thickness between his and mine. Craziness! It lent to a much richer mouth-feel.


We're here to talk about my own bowl though because that's where my subjective commenting would come best into play. I got the regular sized noodles at a "firm" texture, egg (a little salty but good), wood-ear mushroom (terrible alone but great in the broth!), and bamboo (looooove bamboo). The broth was very clean and savory which allowed me to better enjoy the other elements of it all. I was so glad to see that it was not salty like other restaurants' ramen that I've had nor was it overly oily. My mouth felt clean afterward instead of greasy - hoorah. I enjoyed the fresh ingredients in my bowl as well as the rich, warm broth. Right on, Shin-Sen-Gumi!

Photography by Duc Duong.

To promote their opening of their larger retail location at The Camp in Costa Mesa, Blackmarket Bakery featured a fall open house at their current Irvine location where people could come for free and sample some small treats. What an exciting event too seeing as their very own Chef Rachel Klemek took home the Golden Pastry Chef award at this year's Golden Foodie Awards!


They had their "Powered by Butter" cycle outside with its charming baking utensils and a pop-up tent with delicious foods. Inside the small store front itself was a bustling group of people snatching up treats for themselves and others; the products inside were all so tempting and as Duc saw while snapping pictures, photogenic to boot!


Outside, under the tent, a tasty variety was laid out for us lucky people who decided to drop by this open-to-the-public event. An entire berry cobbler was spooned onto plates (so tart and sweet at the same time!), mini honey pumpkin tarts with toasted marshmallow on top were beautifully plated (if you love pumpkin, you would love this tart!), and a bowl of caramel almond popcorn quickly dug into. Other delicious morsels included mini old-school coconut haystacks (chewy and very coconut-y), cheese and shallot brioche pieces (the best sample piece - we had several), and a caramel apple tart (the feel-good homey taste of apple pie!). Seeing as the bread was our favorite bit of it all, we're really excited for the retail location as they should be able to bake more breads through that one!


Of course you can't walk away without buying something, so I snagged a cabernet brownie, made with wine flour! It was their "special preserve" variety which meant that we were treated to dried currants and cherries. A rich brownie with tartness from the fruit, this was certainly a well-balanced dessert. I'd love to try the others!


The food was fun to photograph but taking home that brownie allowed me to play around with Duc's camera and the dessert. I thought I'd whip up a little design tribute (full design does not include the MAAF logo of course) to our delicious bite and let you know that Blackmarket Bakery's retail location in Costa Mesa still needs some help. If you're interested in being a supporter of their bakery, check out their Kickstarter campaign by clicking here and helping them get their oven! You don't want to miss out on their delectable bread after all!

Photography by Duc Duong and Minerva Thai.

I believe it was my older brother Conan (yeah, the Thai siblings have interesting names!) who introduced my family to the whole Mexican grilled corn concept but I surprisingly have yet to try his out. However, I did have a bowl of this delicious goodness from Taco Maria a while back and because of Duc's love for corn, we went out to buy the ingredients for it. So while we didn't grill the corn ourselves due to lack of facilities, we did manage to put together a darn good dish if you ask me. It was gobbled up very, very quickly and made without much effort!

Step 1: Ingredients (yields 4 servings)

• green onions, chopped
• 1/4 cup grated queso cotija
• 1 tbsp garlic salt
• 1 lime, wedged
• 2 tsps chili powder
• 2 tsps paprika
• 2 tbsps butter, unsalted
• 4 cups kernel corn, sweet

Step 2: Prepping the ingredients
If using whole corn, remove kernels from husk. Add to a skillet and heat for 2 minutes before adding in butter and garlic salt. Chop green onions and slice your lime accordingly. In a separate bowl, mix together chili powder and paprika.

Step 3: Finishing
When serving, plate the corn before adding the cotija, green onion, and paprika-chili mixture on top. Squeeze lime wedge over if desired.

A highly indulgent evening was had last night as 30+ people gathered at The District in Tustin for a media preview of JT Schmid's Bigger, Badder Asser Burger. We knew that we were in for a crazy meal when we were invited - the flyer itself boasted a 12-inch bun sandwiching a 4 lb. patty, lettuce, tomatoes, onion, Cheddar cheese, pickles, and roasted corn mayo. BUT GUESS WHAT? The flyer was wrong because the patty was actually six whopping pounds. Yeah, six. That landed us a burger between 9 and 10 pounds of stomach-packing goodness. Wow.


So the description is actually just the base style for the Badder Asser Burger. You can get it served to you in the multitude of ways they have their regular-sized burgers. Out first for the evening were the Cowboy Style and the Turkey. Later on, they had brought out the Jalapeno Turkey and the regular. My favorite was the Cowboy Style for its well-fried jumbo onion rings, twelve slices of bacon, Bleu cheese, and overall awesomeness. The Turkey was definitely for those a little bit more health-conscious as the leaner meat was accompanied by so many fresh veggies! A great surprise was how they managed to get such a huge slab of meat to taste like a burger and not a meatloaf - I think I saw that the patty was sliced in some areas to cook thoroughly. I could be wrong though, just an observation!


Appetizers lined a table in the back even though the burgers were plenty of food in themselves. They had their Hawaiian coconut shrimp (jumbo! shrimp covered in freshly shaved coconut and deep-fried in vegetable oil alongside orange marmalade) which were notably large and juicy. The assortment of flatbread was impressive - the five varieties were the margherita (pizza sauce, shredded Mozzarella, roma tomatoes, fresh Mozzarella, and basil), wild mushroom (mushroom cream sauce, shredded Mozzarella, Shiitake mushroom, Portobello mushroom, white button mushroom, and basil), prosciutto ham (pesto, prosciutto ham, shredded Mozzarella, goat cheese, grilled onion, basil), roasted pear and Bleu cheese (balsamic glaze, shredded Mozzarella, sliced red pear, Bleu cheese crumble, grilled onion, sage, and pecans), and sausage (pizza sauce, Italian sausage, shredded Mozzarella, basil, and Parmesan cheese). My personal favorite was the roasted pear one for the sweetness mixed with crunchy from the pecans while Duc's was the sausage for its salty, savoriness.


BUT WAIT! There's more. The jalapeno mac & cheese was one of my favorites for the night for its "diced grilled chicken, diced tomatoes, bacon, and raditori pasta in a creamy ale sauce made from housemade beer and Jack, Cheddar, and Pepper Jack cheeses." I loved the non-traditional pasta combined with the spicy flavors of the jalapeno. The tomatoes brought some burst of relief from any heat so they all worked well together. Also out was their meatball sandwich (five Angus beef meatballs, garlic, tomatoes, housemade marinara sauce, and grated Parmesan on a brioche bun), a packed Italian meal. Their sides consisted of Brewery Fries (beer battered, steak fry style), Chips & Dips (potato chips to order), and Lots of Taters. We actually liked all of the sides but especially enjoyed the tater tots for their perfect crunchiness. There was also a full tray of their Italian meatballs, the same thick morsels as the ones in the sandwich.


Let's not forget about the other main feature for the evening though! Though wine was available, they were releasing their new stout - the JT Imperial Stout! As Duc said, "Well played, good sir." It was pleasant to see even the non-stout drinkers around us give an appreciative nod to the well-crafted brew. A very black and robust stout, this 8% ABV brew is aged in French Oak (our cheers to the brewmaster Gil Chacon for this attention to detail!) and features a very rich profile. Though it was still a fairly dark stout, the bitterness didn't seem to deter others from draining their cups - let's credit that to a sweet malt. As stout fans, we had several. I agree with Duc; well done.


Without much delay, the desserts were dished out on the same appetizer table which had been cleared without our awareness. That's what we get for being preoccupied with staring at our full spread of food. Considering that they had a wide array of desserts to choose from to serve, I think they definitely had the two of us in mind because the three choices hit upon just about our favorite things. The Pineapple Sorbet was served in an actual half shell of the pineapple itself; smooth and sweet, the sorbetto cleansed our palate without shocking us awake with citrus. I had maybe two bites before Duc devoured the whole thing. Then there was their extremely popular Dream Bomba, peanut butter gelato concealing a heart of caramel and coated in milk chocolate with a peanut butter drizzle. Does that sound decadent enough? I can't even describe exactly how amazing this mound of rich, peanut butter overloading goodness was but Duc's rapid consumption of one and a half of these before my half portion is tribute enough to its power. I took immediately to the Black Forrest cake (chocolate sponge cake surrounding a layer of chocolate and Chantilly cream with Amarena cherries studded inside and separated by a white sponge cake, all topped with cocoa powder and a chocolate ribbon) because of its lightness and inclusion of cherry. The cocoa powder helped too in the impression of airiness.


A delicious and pants-tightening evening, the night was spent amidst much food and good company. My thanks go out to Pam from the OC Restaurant Association for making this happen, Jason Schmid for speaking with us and being the man behind the food, and the staff for being so swift and courteous. I heard rumors that a burger challenge event would be happening for the Badder Asser Burger so stay tuned for the news! (Random fun fact: they actually started off with an eight-pound burger but it just seemed too thick to keep on.) For more pictures, please "like" and check out the Facebook fan page.

Photography by Duc Duong. More photos available on Facebook.

I was so tempted to just call the category "Test Kitchen Tuesdays" because it rolls off the tongue but I didn't want to marry myself to that idea in case I can't hold up my end of the commitment. So, leeway was had and a day of the week wasn't confirmed. HOWEVER, this does not mean I will become a slacker - I am merely just making sure should life get in the way, I am not held liable.

Anywho, I've had this idea in my mind for a while now that I should do a test kitchen day! I wanted to do one for whenever I got my own place but so far, I'm not sure when that will be. However, I realized that delaying this creative thought for the sole excuse of not having my own kitchen was silly so I'll move on with it. TEST KITCHEN is a personal challenge. Here's how it is going to work:

1. I will pick an ingredient I haven't cooked with before (or a concept I haven't used an ingredient for before)
2. I'll post a picture of it up on Facebook and Twitter (you have to like/follow me!) on a Tuesday
3. You will have until Thursday to shout out ideas
4. I'll get cooking/creating before the next Tuesday
5. A Tuesday post goes up on the dish made & a new ingredient revealed

Like I said, I'm not 100% committed that it will be on a Tuesday but the week turnaround time is my goal. It'll be a way for you to shout out ideas on dishes you want to see made and a way to force myself to get creative and learn more (and post up recipes for you on a regular basis, hah). What do you say? 

This week's Test Kitchen ingredient: orange habanero chile peppers (comment on Facebook/Twitter!)

Inspired to cook the dish after watching it made at a recent cooking demo presented by Slow Food OC, Duc and I took to the supermarket to gather ingredients for a healthy dish. Theirs was a one-pot quinoa kale dish that we created similarly but with just a few adjustments of our own. I know I haven't been posting recipes lately but stayed tuned for tomorrow's announcement post about a cool idea I had to encourage more of these kinds of posts! Also, this was my first foray into using Duc's camera to take pictures of my food, and I daresay that some of the pictures came out very well!

Step 1: Ingredients (yields 4-6 servings)

• salt, to taste
• oil, for pan
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 bunch kale, chopped
• 1 small lime, juice only
• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups kernel corn, white

Step 2: Prepping the ingredients
The first thing you want to do is start your quinoa as it can take a little while to cook thoroughly. Bring your chicken broth to a boil and add in your quinoa. If later on you find that there wasn't enough liquid, you can add water. Cover the pot and move onto your vegetables. Chop and slice as needed!

Step 3: Cooking the vegetables
In a large skillet, heat oil before adding your diced red onions. Cook for a few minutes before adding in the red pepper. You want to bring the onions to a point when they turn translucent. Add in your sliced garlic and paprika. Stir for another minute or two before turning off the heat. In your pot with the quinoa, add in your kale. Let cook for approximately 5 minutes before adding in the corn and removing the lid.


Step 4: Finishing
Stir together the contents of the pot. You will know when the quinoa is done when the little "tails" inside spring out. The kale will soften but taste a piece if you want to see what texture it's at. Mix in the contents from the skillet and squirt on the lime juice. Add more paprika if desired. Serve hot or cold - either way, enjoy!