Yotam Ottolenghi is a chef, restauranteur and multi award and James Beard awarding winning cook book author. When you come across one of his recipes you can surely learn something and or taste something incredible. I came across Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe for Soba Noodles with Ginger Broth and Crunchy Ginger. I read the recipe and I thought that sounds really good but don’t feel like soup or noodles today (It’s really toasty hot in Phoenix). I figured out how to do his recipe as a vegetable. So that is what this is…..and it came out really delicious! portion size is difficult to judge. I used one medium to small cabbage. For me that is around four side servings.
Ingredients for around 4 side servings
12 Tablespoons olive oil (split into 8 and 4 Tablespoons)
1 Tablespoon red chili flakes
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
60 grams peeled and grated ginger (around 6 Tablespoons)
2 shallots -peeled and fine chopped
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1 Tablespoon white sesame seeds
1 Tablespoon black sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cabbage (I used a medium/small one) Cut into 1 1/2-2inch pieces
1 heaping Tablespoon vegetable soup base
1 lime – just the fresh squeezed juice
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
2 Tablespoons reserved chili oil
Directions
Make the chili oil. – Add 8 tablespoons of oil to a large skillet and heat over medium heat. Place the red chili flakes and the paprika in a small heatproof bowl. When the oil is hot but not smoking add the oil to the small heatproof bowl. Set this to the side to let the flavors infuse. (2 Tablespoons need to be reserved for making the cabbage)
Set oven to 450 degrees F.
Make the cabbage (or if you are taking your time it might be better for you to do the ginger crisp next so you aren’t doing two things at once). – In a large mixing bowl combine the soup base, lime juice, soy sauce, granulated garlic, powdered ginger and reserved chili oil. Mix well. Add the cabbage and mix well. Spread out on a sheet pan and roast in the oven till slightly charred. (ovens do differ but in my oven this took around 22 minutes. Remove from oven when done. Use a slotted spoon so the cabbage is dryer.
Make the ginger crisp. – Add 4 Tablespoons oil to the same skillet that you just used. Heat on medium high. Once hot turn the heat down to medium. Add the ginger and the shallots. Stir often till nicely browned and starting to crisp (10-15 minutes). Add the panko, sesame seeds, and salt. Cook around 6 minutes more till nicely toasted. Transfer to a bowl and set to the side.
Combine and serve. Cabbage gets topped with ginger crisp. Sprinkle with chili oil as desired.
Spiced Cabbage with Ginger Crisp and Chili Oil
ENJOY!
A Special THANKS to Yotam Ottolenghi for sharing his Forking Amazing recipe for Soba Noodles with Ginger Broth and Crunchy Ginger so I could come up with what I made.
******UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS******Coma Sushi & Izakaya is located in North Glendale in a strip mall off of Bell Road behind a gas station and another business. They offer drinks, sushi, various rolls, the usual fair and some really nice sounding dinners like king salmon, surf & turf, lamb chops, Berkshire pork and Chilean sea bass.
Here’s the front.
They have the sign on the side of the restaurant that is on N 51st Avenue.
Inside by the sushi bar
Here is the rest of the dining area.
The soju (clear distilled Korean alcoholic beverage) comes in only citrus and peach here.
We didn’t eat enough lunch today and both of us we famished so we came early and took advantage of the great happy hour menu here. Everything we got (even the soju H.H.$7.50) was happy hour priced.
My favorite plate was the salmon new style salad. (H.H. $10.)
The salmon tasted fresh and clean and went well with the fine spiral cut vegetables (cabbage and I think radish) in a yuzu dressing adorned with slices of kiwi and sesame seeds. It’s light and refreshing and goes together well.
chicken karaage with sweet chili sauce (H.H.$5)
gyoza (H.H.$4)
yellowtail nigiri (H.H.$4.50) salmon nigiri (H.H$4.) tuna nigiri (H.H.$4.50) and a spicy tuna roll (and it is H.H.$5.50).
I noticed that they season under the fish …(not everyone does).
*******UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS******
That was a little taste of Coma sushi in Glendale AZ
I haven’t found a website or Facebook page for Coma Sushi & Izakaya.
Bobby Q Restaurant is la BBQ restaurant located in Phoenix Arizona and also does have a location in Mesa and a smaller location in the Biltmore area of Phoenix. The original Phoenix location is very unique with mature plantings and very large old trees seldom seen in Phoenix. The old building has character and rustic charm of yesteryear. According to Opentable Bobby Q is one of the best 30 BBQ restaurants in the country.
Patiobar areainside looking in by hostess desk
The above dining room isn’t always used and a wall rolls down to close it off.
This place is enormous.
Oh and they sell some souvenirs.
They start you off with complimentary Johnny cakes and soft creamy butter and the rest is up to you.
We shared some of the Q Rolls appetizer.
They are pastry wrapped around the signature 16 hour BBQ beef brisket served with a BBQ sauce and a chipotle ranch dressing.
Each Q roll is very large and is PACKED with lots of tender smoky brisket.
Today my husband got a two meat plate of BBQ sausage and BBQ pork with BBQ beans and macaroni and cheese.
I got the Bob’s salad.
It’s a humble rotisserie chicken salad adorned with some apples, walnuts, cranberries and goat cheese tied together by dijon vinaigrette.
On a past visit I did try the salmon.
I remember that I thought that the salmon was better here from Bobby Q than the more expensive seafood chain restaurant nearby across the highway and it cost around $10. less at Bobby Q.
Once at lunch my husband had the three meat lunch plate.
I tried the BBQ chicken sandwich with peacan slaw as my side.
The apple pie here might be like something a neighbor or a relative might serve you.
They always send you off with bag of complimentary PIPING HOT thank Q doughnuts.
Here is DELICIOUS Sazon Spiced Acorn Squash with Cilantro Chimichurri. You can buy Sazon (General Spanish and or Mexican Seasoning Salt) but here we mix our own because we already have the spices. These flavors annatto, garlic, cumin, and coriander are delicious on acorn squash and the cilantro chimichurri just elevates it even more. Acorn squash do differ greatly in size. The one squash I used was large for an acorn squash. For me it makes 4 smaller side servings.
Ingredients for around 4 side servings
1 large acorn squash – washed well, cut in half (stem to tip) seeds and seed membranes removed and then cut into one inch slices
1/2 teaspoon mild chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground annatto
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 1/2 oz cilantro leaves and fine stems – chopped
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
5 garlic cloves – ground to paste
1 small-medium onion (around 6 oz) chopped
2 small hot peppers – chopped (I used chili de arbols)
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
optional – 2oz roasted salted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) for finishing
optional pickled red onions for serving
Directions
Set oven to 475 F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper
In a small mixing bowl combine the chili powder, annatto, granulated garlic, cumin, coriander, black pepper, salt, canola oil, and apple cider vinegar. Set squash slices in a single layer on parchment lined baking sheet. Paint the contents of the small bowl on the squash on both sides. Use up the whole mixture. Put the squash pan on an upper middle rack for 15 minutes. Flip the squash pieces over and cook another 15 minutes or until squash looks slightly charred.
While the squash is cooking make the cilantro chimichurri.
Blend together the cilantro, oregano, garlic, onion, hot peppers, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.
SERVE squash with the chimichurri. Add optional roasted salted pepitas and pickled red onions if desired.
Sazon Spiced Acorn Squash with Cilantro Chimichurri
There is always something New, Weird, Different, Limited, and Special Edition out there in the wonderful world of food. We just never know WTFork we’ll see these days.
Up above is……
DIFFERENT and maybe NEW to stores – Cheesecake Factory famous brown bread. It looks like squishy bread. I wonder if it’s made with cheese cake cheese?
DIFFERENT and maybe NEW – Egglife southwest style egg white wraps……I’m thinking that these wraps might be thin omelets in a package that they are selling as wraps?
They also come in Italian Flavored. I was going to try a pack but they were a day from expired so I moved on.
DIFFERENT – Egglife Italian egg white wraps… Look at the top of package. It no flour so isn’t this a Forking omelet? I guess nobody would buy thin omelets in a package….But any dumb bunny would buy a wrap.
NEW – Pillsbury soft baked cookies in peanut butter with chocolatey drizzle, chocolate chip, and sugar with drizzled icing. If you enjoy the pillsbury ready to bake cookie dough than hopefully you will like these cookies that are ready to eat.
NEW and possibly WEIRD – Sun-Maid Bites in P.B. & J., Birthday Cake, and S’Mores…This seems very strange to me…Raisins just don’t go into certain things….I doubt anyone really wants them in birthday cake……
DIFFERENT – Food should taste good sweet potato tortilla chips. It says best chip for any dip on the bag. Who knows…maybe it is?
DIFFERENT – WinCo Kettle cooked smoked gouda flavored potato chips with “OTHER” natural flavors. ?????Smoked gouda flavor with OTHER flavors?????? Other can be ANY FORKING THING………Old shoe, road kill, cat vomit, cow farts…….
DIFFERENT and maybe NEW – Lay’s kettle cooked potato chips in flaming hot limon flavor????? I like lemon and I like hot….????????
DIFFERENT possibly WEIRD and maybe NEW – Good Health(?) Monster Shaped Veggie Chips. They look like cartoon teeth to me.???? Whatever
DIFFERENT and WEIRD – WinCo prime rib and horseradish naturally and artificially flavored potato chips. I have a beef about that I noticed that there isn’t any beef in these chips so how can they be prime rib flavored???????
DIFFERENT – WinCo chili lime potato chips….Well at least they are natural flavored like they should be so they are worthy of a try.
NEW – Mt. Olive Pickle Salsa in mild, medium, and hot. For when you always wished that pickles and salsa were mixed together.
NEW – Mt. Olive real dill pickle juicers…..For when you simply want to be pickled…I guess…..
DIFFERENT and maybe NEW – Post DUNKIN cereal in caramel macchiato made with DUNKIN Coffee……..It sounds like a beverage that is not for kids……Don’t know if many adults will buy this????
DIFFERENT and maybe NEW – Post DUNKIN mocha latte cereal made with DUNKIN coffee. Maybe this is an alternate buzz????? I would never eat this…
NEW and possibly LIMITED EDITION – Kellogg’s Together with Pride Cereal……??????????? This can have so many meanings…….
DIFFERENT and maybe NEW – General Mills cinnamon toast chocolate churros cereal. This one sounds tasty but the churro cartoon guys look more like macaronis.
NEW or is it OLD??????…General Mills Golden Grahams but of the Retro Recipe made with real honey….I’d be afraid to eat this. It might be cereal leftover from the 80’s or the 70’s that they dug up and decided to sell as retro.
LIMITED EDITION – General Mills Chocolate/Strawberry Cheerios. This one sounded delicious until I read the box that reads…….with “OTHER” natural flavors….That can be very scary. Other natural flavors could be nasty….
NEW – Duke’s Mayonnaise in Habanero Garlic, Fire Roasted Red Pepper, Cucumber Dill, and Bacon and Tomato………I FORKING Know that these sauces are mayonnaise based but when they add all those flavors to the mayonnaise it isn’t really mayonnaise anymore and is either dip or a dressing…….Isn’t it?
NEW – Sun Maid pure milk chocolate and peanut nutter covered raisins???? Might be good? Sounds better than birthday cake flavored …….any who-
NEW – Jet Puffed Bites – Marshmallows covered in sprinkles as Birthday cake, Chocolate covered and Chocolate mint covered…50/50……Might be good?
NEW Limited Time Only Available at Safeway…..Rockin Nut Road M&M’s…….My husband picked them up for me……….They taste sort of like peanut M&M’s that are an off batch…..Very similar but with an added OFF taste. My husband won’t eat them so I have to toss the bag out.
LIMITED EDITION – KitKat in fruity cereal flavor…..IDK? Some KitKats are good and some are not good…..I think if I wanted FORKING Fruity Cereal…I’d eat cereal and not a fruity cereal flavored KitKat….Well that’s just me….You might differ.
NEW – Drizzilicious – S’Mores mini rice cakes with dark chocolate drizzle….might be good! I bought the other flavor and it was good!
NEW – Drizzilicious – mini rice cakes with cinnamon swirl white chocolate drizzle…These surprised me….They really are good and only 90 calories for almost half the bag or 21 mini rice cakes.
DIFFERENT and possibly NEW – Ben & Jerry’s Justice Remix’d ice cream. It’s Cinnamon and chocolate ice creams with cinnamon bun dough and spicy fudge brownies. I think this ice cream would be so much better if they mixed in fresh baked cinnamon buns instead of raw cinnamon bun dough. I think raw cinnamon bun dough sounds HORRIBLE….LISTEN WORLD !!!!!! NOBODY FORKING EATS RAW CINNAMON BUN DOUGH. Someone must have been on drugs to think up this flavor.
There is always a New or Limited Edition Oreo Cookie.
LIMITED EDITION – Nabisco Oreo Cookies with THREE layers of cream AND popping candy…..so you can do banging farts that come out striped.
LIMITED EDITION – NBA Dy-Nasty….opps..my bad…….I mean Dynasty Oreos. Same old flavor. They just look different.
That was the New, Weird, Different, Limited and Special Edition Foods out there for June 2021. Who knows WTFork I’ll come across next month?
I got the idea in my head that romesco sauce made with roasted Anaheim peppers would be delicious and it is. Romesco sauce is a Spanish sauce that often is used on fish. It is usually made from roasted red peppers, tomatoes, almonds, sometimes thicken with bread and a few other ingredients. It’s a delicious easy sauce to make. Servings are difficult to judge because I don’t know if you are using only a little or a lot. This makes a good 4 servings.
Ingredients for around 4 servings.
6 small roasted Anaheim peppers – peeled, stems removed, seeds removed, chopped (my 6 small peppers were 200ml in my measuring cup)
3 garlic cloves – fine chopped
1/4 cup roasted salted almonds
1 Tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 lemon – the fresh squeezed juice
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
sea salt – to taste
ground black pepper to taste
Directions
Blend.
Anaheim Romesco Sauce Anaheim Romesco Sauce
I used it with smoked paprika roasted cauliflower, pickled onions and crisp apples.
Taco Boys is located in south Phoenix Arizona. They serve tacos al carbon. That translates to meat over fire. It’s actually mesquite charcoal fire.
Here is part of the actual grill inside Taco Boys
They keep bags of the mesquite charcoal under the counter that you order at.
They offer carne asada, pollo (chicken), tripe, cabeza (beef cheek), pastor (pork), barbacoa (beef). You pick well packed street sized tacos in either four or corn tortillas. They also offer vampiros (grilled crispy with cheese), burros, and quesadillas.
This isn’t a fancy place but you come for the food. You can see that they don’t have a cocktail bar here. Beverages offered are sodas, horchata (Mexican rice/milk cinnamon), beers, micheladas (Mexican beer cocktails), and bottled water.
Most of the seating is indoors but a few outside tables are on the side of the building by the parking lot.
A few tables are also to the left side of the front door.
It can get busy in a second here.
You order and try to find a table. They ask you to pay when you are done.
While you are waiting you can make a plate of toppings and sauces for your tacos.
Our order is ready.
Between us we tried all the tacos except for tripe. Everything is good and nothing lacks flavor or is dry so that is a win!
Here are the beef tacos that they offer.
Upper left is barbacoa. It’s flavored nicely and is tender and very succulent. It’s something like a stewed beef cube…
Upper right is the cabeza (beef cheek) This one is very tender with nice developed flavor.
Lower beef taco is the carne asada. It’s tender enough and does have a nice mesquite flavor to it. It is a very good taco.
The flour tortilla tacos are grilled to sort of crispy.
The corn tortilla tacos are best suited for the saucy meats and double shelled like in Mexico.
We were surprised that the Mexican Style beans are spicy and very soupy today. They lack whole beans today. They might have chorizo in them.
Superstition Meadery is a award wining producer of ancient honey wine called mead. The original location is in Prescott Arizona and they have a location in downtown Phoenix Arizona. The Phoenix location also offers chef crafted food parings of sharing boards, small plates and large plates. Parking is easy because they have their own parking lot.
They have the fanciest bike racks that I have ever seen.
When the weather is nice you can bring your furry best friend or friends on the patio.
The patio is much larger than the view I got. It goes down the whole side of the building.
Inside it looks like this.
At the end of the bar are big bottles of mead and maybe some ciders.
I’m not sure if I ever had mead before…..
We decided to share the flight of 12 for $24. (subject to change)
My favorite was the one called lemonade in retrograde. It was bright, refreshing and had a nice lemon zing and wasn’t too sweet. My least favorite was the one called Tahitian Honeymoon made with Tahitian Vanilla bean mead aged in oak…..
There were many sharing boards, small plates and large plates to pick from.
We started out by sharing the piri piri chicken small plate and the warm cannellini bean salad.
The piri piri chicken is spicy chicken breast covered with crushed peanuts and served with some sliced grilled baguette bread.
The warm cannellini bean salad is made up of beans, farro, spinach, Thai basil, and wood roasted onion dressing.
Our main was the gorgonzola & herbed butter skirt steak. Today it came with wood roasted shitshito peppers, radicchio (Italian chicory), mushrooms and arugula.
I thought we were done but the desert of the day sounded too interesting to turn down.
It was blondies with chocolate nibs with Marion berry mead sauce, caramel and whipped cream.
I thought we were done.
But I was wrong again.
They gave us complimentary cookies with the bill.
Everything was delicious and detailed nicely. Service was very attentive and helpful.
This is an outstanding recipe that I found in the internet by chef Ivan Tisdall-Downs for Broccoli Stalk with Confit Egg and Blue Cheese Recipe. This recipe has a lot of steps to it but nothing is too hard to do. I did change only a few things but maybe not enough to take any credit for this recipe. I wanted my broccoli cooked instead of raw so that was one change. I thought the broccoli puree needed chives so I added that. Instead of making blue cheese dressing I just added blue cheese because the creamy extra rich broccoli puree was enough richness for me. I also didn’t have kale so I substituted cabbage and crisped it up in the microwave but I do have to admit that when you use kale like YOU SHOULD that the kale crisp will turn out tastier than my microwaved crisp cabbage. Still even with the slight changes I made this is an exceptional recipe that taste FORKING AMAZING. I do note that this recipe is A LOT OF WORK for only 4 servings…..You make this recipe when you want to make something very special. This recipe is in metric. One thing that isn’t very clear when you read the recipe is how much broccoli to use. I used two very large heads of broccoli for the whole recipe.
Ingredients for 4 servings
4 egg yolks – confit eggs
250ml neutral oil – confit eggs
500g onions – finely sliced – onion jam
75g demerara sugar – onion jam
75ml cider vinegar – onion jam
50ml water – onion jam
1 dash vegetable oil – onion jam
285g broccoli washed and fine chopped – broccoli puree
200ml heavy cream – broccoli puree
100ml whole milk – broccoli puree
77g unsalted butter – broccoli puree
1g baking soda – broccoli puree
1 pinch sea salt – broccoli puree
2 Tablespoons chives – fine chopped – broccoli puree
115g blue cheese crumbled
1 bunch of kale (I used a small head of cabbage that I microwaved the leaves crisp but I do note that crispy kale chips would indeed be better)
1 Tbsp neutral oil – kale chips
1Tbsp sugar – kale chips
1 Tbsp salt – kale chips
180g flour (this batter recipe made maybe twice as much as I needed) tempura radish
1 Tablespoon baking powder – tempura radish
250ml ice water – tempura radish
1 pinch sea salt – tempura radish
12 radishes – tempura radish
neutral oil for frying – tempura radish
2 broccoli stalks only – broccoli stalks
1 teaspoon honey – broccoli stalks
10ml apple cider vinegar – broccoli stalks
1 knob butter – broccoli stalks
sea salt to taste – broccoli stalks
remaining broccoli cut in manageable pieces for eating
Directions
Make the confit eggs. Set sous vide to 63C and carefully add yolks to a small dish and cover the yolks with oil for around an hour. If you don’t have a sous vide you will slightly over cook the eggs in the oven. Confit eggs on the oven should be done at around 150 degrees F for around 30 minutes…Good LucK.
Make the onion jam. Put a sauce pan on medium heat. Add oil and when it’s hot add the onions and cook till soft and golden. Add sugar and cook till sugar turns to caramel and then deglaze with the vinegar. Add water and cook till jam consistency.
Make broccoli puree. Melt butter in the pan and add the milk and cream. Take off heat and add the baking soda. This mixture with the broccoli gets blended till as smooth as possible. Add chives and blend some more. Add seasoning to taste.
Set your oven to 400 degrees F or 200C. Make the kale chips. Spread leaves on baking sheet and drizzle with oil. Set another tray on the top of the kale and cook it for 5 minutes. Then season with the salt and sugar. (I note that I didn’t do this step and just microwaved cabbage leaves in a lightly non stick sprayed microwavable safe bowl for 5 minutes on one side. Blotted leaves dry and turned them over and around another 5 minutes and they were crispy…They do burn easy and I did accidentally burn some)
Peel the broccoli stalks. Slice in half long ways and boil for 8 minutes (I added sea salt and cut in chunks) Then shook in ice water.
Either set up a fryer with oil to 180C or a pot on the stove with neutral oil for frying at around medium heat. Make batter. Flour, pinch salt and ice water till smooth. Batter up those radishes and fry till golden. Drain on cooling rack…Or pan lined with paper towels. Season with salt.
Get a sauce pan with a knob of butter and cook till butter turns brown on medium high heat. Add the broccoli stalks and cook till caramelized. Add the honey cook around 2 minutes and deglaze with vinegar.
While you are doing the broccoli stalks blanch broccoli crown tops in salted water till tender crisp (around 3 minutes and then shock in ice water. Season with salt and pepper.
Put this all together and sprinkle with blue cheese.
Broccoli Three Ways with Confit Egg, Onion Jam, Blue Cheese, Crispy Cabbage and Tempura Radish
When I served this with dinner mine looked more like this.
This REALLY IS a FORKING AWSOME RECIPE!
A SPECIAL THANKS!!!!!!! To Chef Ivan Tisdall-Downs for his FORKING AMAZING Recipe so I could make this.
I came across a recipe for a Maharashtra Indian Style chicken recipe from Milk Street Magazine that I want to try sometime. I read that this type of Indian style is always very deeply flavored. I had plenty of grilled and sous vide meats prepared and only had boring cauliflower around so I figured out on how to convert this recipe for cauliflower. I didn’t make it with the creamy yogurt that this dish should contain…Instead I changed it up a little more and put jack cheese and the sauce on my roasted cauliflower and it was MIGHTY FORKING TASTY and DELICIOUS. This comes out very hot but not too hot if you eat at South Indian Restaurants. My husband said that this taste just like it came from a very good Indian Restaurant. I think this sauce makes around 6 servings. I used it on cauliflower at least 4 times and on grilled chicken twice….maybe I used it more I forget? I wanted to write down how I made it before I forget how the heck I made it.
Ingredients for 6 (or more) servings
1 – 14 oz can Italian diced tomatoes
1 large onion fine chopped
1 Tablespoon canola oil
8 cloves garlic – fine chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (fresh is better but I didn’t have any)
1 1/2 Tablespoons paprika
1 1/2 Tablespoons cayenne pepper (We thought that this was delicious but you might want to use less)
1 teaspoon sea salt
3 Tablespoons cumin seeds (you need a spice grinder to grind them but these don’t go in to the end)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves (some tender stems ok)
Directions
In a sauce pot and medium high heat add the oil. When hot add the onions and cook until clear. Now add the tomatoes. Stir occasionally. Now add garlic, ginger, paprika, cayenne, and salt. Bring to simmer. Cook until you are satisfied with the way the tomatoes taste.Before you are finished add the ground cumin seeds. Finish your dish with fresh cilantro leaves.
Sorry I didn’t get a better picture for you.
Spicy HOT Delicious Indian Style Red Sauce
This is pretty simple but very delicious. Would be a great for Indian pizza too!
A special THANKS to Milk Street Magazine for this inspiration.
