How To Cook Toston Sandwich

I am so proud he was the winner in the Comfort Foods episode of Ultimate Recipe Showdown, a new Food Network cooking competition where regular cooks, just like you and me, compete to see who has the Ultimate recipe in a series of categories.
And why I could be proud of Iván specifically? He’s Boricua (another word for Puerto Rican, derived from Borinquen, the original indigenous name of Puerto Rico) and he won with his Boricua Plantain Sandwich. It’s not vegetarian, but it did remind me of a sandwich my friend Tania taught me how to make a few years back. I was so surprised to see use TOSTONES as the “bread” for the sandwich, something I had only seen Tania do.
Tostones (which are also called patacones in South America) are twice fried mashed green plantains. Tostones are a staple in Puerto Rican cooking and for people trying to “get away from the carbs” are a great bread substitution in this sandwich. But less carbs does not mean less fat – I did tell you these are TWICE FRIED, no?
Let me give you the play by play to making my vegetarian version of the Tostón Sandwich.
Toston Sandwich
1 green plantain, peeled
2 small strips of firm tofu – you can definitely used extra firm here, but never the silken kind
1/4 onion, sliced
Garlic Salt
1/4 cup Tamari Sauce
Ketchup
Canola Oil for frying
1. Take the tofu pieces and press them in between 2-3 good paper towels or napkins (I use Bounty) to drain away most of the liquid. I place then in between 2 small baking sheets and weigh using something heavy. I change the paper towel at least once. meanwhile…
2. Peel the green plantain. Remember that green plantains, just like green bananas, have a sap (mancha). Remember to oil the knife you’re using to peel the plantain so the sap does not adhere to the knife. Follow the method I showed you for the green bananas here.
3. In a medium skillet, heat about 1 cup of canola oil over medium high heat. Just make sure the skillet is wide enough that will fit your plantain. If your plantain is on the small side, by all means, use a smaller skillet. You need enough oil to cover the plantains halfway, more or less.
4. Cut the plantain in half lengthwise, making two long halves.
5. Make sure the oil is hot enough. Rachael Ray taught me to dip the end of a wooden spoon into the oil. If the oil bubbles around the spoon, the oil is ready. I love this tip.
6. Fry the plantain halves for about 5 minutes. What you’re looking for is to cook the plantain, add some color to it, but without getting it crispy.
7. Take the partially fried plantain halves out of the oil and using either two heavy plates or two small baking sheets, smash them flat. If using baking sheet, place a kitchen towel on top so the heat does not transfer to your hand. Keep the oil in the hot stove, you will use it again. Sorry I don’t have a picture of this, but I was by myself making this and I could not smash and photograph at the same time. This is the already-smashed plantain…
8. After smashing the plantains, re-immerse the smashed plantain halves in the hot oil to finish frying.
 I have also made this with fried white cheese instead of the tamari-marinated tofu. It tastes delicious!!! If you fry the tostones in hot enough oil and drain them, they will be crunchy, but not oily.
I had not done this sandwich in a long time… so I thank Iván and the Ultimate Recipe Showdown for reminding me. And even it’s not vegetarian, you can taste an adaptation of Iván’s sandwich at your local TGIFriday’s restaurant. They’re made with sweet ripe plantains, which is a different “ball game”, but still you can come out and support my fellow Boricua!

Perfect Pie Crust Recipe

My mom and I have a tradition that every Thanksgiving Eve, we bake pies together for the next day. How fortunate that just last month, I found a recipe for perfect pie crust while making a chicken pot pie. This dough was beautiful: pliant, easy to work with, and with all the best qualities of both butter (rich flavor) and shortening (flakiness and holding its shape). This makes 2 pie crusts.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Perfect Pie Crust
1/2 c. vegetable shortening
1/2 c. cold unsalted butter
3 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 c. ice water
Mix the shortening, butter and salt into the flour with a pastry blender until very crumbly. Add water until the dough comes together into a ball. Cover dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour, or as long as 24 hours.
When ready to make pie, roll the dough out on a floured surface until it fits your pie pan. Fold in half, then in half again, and transfer to the pie pan. Now unfold it. Do the same with the top crust, tucking the extra dough under and crimping the edges. Bake as indicated in your pie recipe.

How To Cook Aunt Eliane’s Whole Potatoes Sautéed in Butter

A lot of Ecuadorian dishes have potatoes as a side dish, sometimes the potatoes are boiled, fried, mashed, in patties, you name it, one of my favorite potato sides is when the potatoes are roasted and cooked alongside a meat dish, however this can’t always be done, especially when you aren’t cooking a meat dish or the dish doesn’t allow the potatoes to be cooked with it. I like boiled potatoes, but I always feel like they’re missing something, even if they’re served with a sauce, so last summer we were visiting Nico’s aunt Eliane in Provence and she was making potatoes as a side for a wonderful meal she made (my mouth is watering), she boiled them first and then sautéed them with butter until they had a nice golden brown color, they were so good, so now whenever I have a dish that usually has plain boring boiled potatoes as a side I sauté the potatoes in butter until they are browned, leave it up to the French to turn something boring into something delicious. The way I see it this is a compromise, maybe not as healthy as plain boiled potatoes, but tasty enough without being completely fried (don’t get me started on homemade fried potatoes – I give into that weakness about every six months).
Ingredients:
10 Yukon gold potatoes, washed
Water for boiling potatoes
4 tbs butter
Salt to taste
Preparation:
Boil the potatoes until tender, let cool down and peel the potatoes
Heat the butter in a large sauté pan and add the potatoes, cook until well browned on all sides.
Sprinkle with salt and serve.

Spring Vegetable Rolls Recipe

INGREDIENTS
FOR THE PANCAKES:
Flour 1 cup
Milk 2 cups
Soda-bi-carbonate A pinch
Oil 2 tsps.
Oil for shallow frying
Salt ½ tsp.
FOR THE STUFFING:
French beans 50 gms.
Carrots 50 gms.
Cabbage 100 gms.
Bean sprouts 100 gms.
Onions(finely chopped) 2 nos.
Capsicum(thinely sliced) 2 nos.
Soya sauce 1 tsp.
White pepper ½ tsp.
Sugar ½ tsp.
Ajinomoto ½ tsp.
Oil 3 tbsps.
Salt and pepper to taste
METHOD
For making the Pancakes:
1. Sift salt and flour. Add milk gradually, beating well
to make a smooth thin batter for the pancakes.
2. Add soda-bi-carbonate and mix well.
3. Heat a non stick pan. Pour a little batter on it and
tilt the pan so that batter spreads evenly.
4. Remove when the under side is cooked. Do not cook
the other side.
5. Make the remaining pancake in the same way and keep
it in a napkin one on top of the other.
To Prepare The Filling:
1. Cut the vegetables(except beansprouts) into thin long stripes.
2. Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add onions, sprouts
and vegetables and stir fry for 5 minutes.
3. Add ajinomoto, salt, pepper and sugar and
fry for further 3 minutes.
4. Add soya sauce and mix well.
Assembling:
1. Take the pancake and place little filling on the
cooked side, at one end which is nearest to you.
2. Fold the left side and then the right side.
Holding the sides, roll upwards. Seal the edges with
cornflour paste, made by dissolving 1 tsp.
of cornflour in 1 tsp. ofwater.
3. Heat some oil in a pan and shallow fry the rolls
on all sides till golden brown.
4. Drain on a paper napkin and cut diagonally
into 1 inches pieces.
5. Serve hot with chili-garlic sauce.

Chinese Food Bak Chang Recipe

We’ve finally reached the third installment in the Bak Chang series and today, I will feature our family Bak Chang recipe. Now, this recipe is definitely not for beginners as a considerable amount of skill and estimation on ingredients are required. You see, with home-cooked food, we don’t measure ingredients using measuring spoons or cups. Rather, it’s a lot to do with estimation or what the locals call “agak-agak” (“estimate”). So, this recipe is a guide for you so that you roughly know what ingredients go into the Bak Chang and how is is prepared and cooked.
This Bak Chang recipe is quite close to the Nyonya Bak Chang especially in the taste department. It is probably world’s apart from Cantonese Bak Chang which tends to be a bit on the saltish side and contains bigger chunks of ingredients. Those who are fond of eating saltish Bak Changs might find this not suited to their palate because our Bak Chang recipe is sweet and saltish with a slight emphasis on the former. Nevertheless, for those who are craving for a slightly sweetish Bak Chang, this might be the recipe you are looking for. In this recipe, we are looking at making approximately 25 Bak Changs depending on how you wrap the Bak Chang.
Ingredients
1 kg glutinous rice (washed, pre-soaked for 4 to 6 hours and drained)
1 kg pork (lean pork from the fore thigh, cut into small cubes not more than 1cm sides)
300 grammes dried winter melon (cut into small cubes not more than 1cm sides)
250 grammes dried prawns (rinsed and pounded)
15 pieces chinese dried mushroom (pre-soaked till soft and cut into cubes not more than 1 cm sides)
8 shallots (sliced thinly)
1 bulb garlic (chopped)
60 pieces Bak Chang bamboo leaves (washed thoroughly and boiled for 15 minutes to soften)
5 tablespoons cooking oil
10 pieces pandan leaves (knotted)
Reed or Banana stem reed to tie
Seasoning
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons dark soya sauce
4 tablespoons coriander powder (ketumbar)
Liberal dashes of white pepper powder
Method
Heat 2 tablespoons cooking oil in wok and fry 1/2 the garlic and shallots till aromatic. Add glutinous rice, 1 tablespoon of dark soya sauce, 1 tablespoon of ketumbar and 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper powder. Stir well. Remove and leave to cool.
Heat up 3 tablespoons of cooking oil in wok and fry the other half of garlic and shallots till aromatic. Add dried prawns and stir till aromatic. Next, add mushrooms and pork. Stir well followed by adding of winter melon and seasoning to taste. Stir till even and pork is cooked. Set aside to cool.
Wrap the Bak Changs. Bring to boil a large pot of water and throw in the pandan leaves. Boil Bak Chang for 3 hours completely submerged and covered. For best results, use a charcoal stove. For quick cooking, use a pressure cooker and boil for approximately 45 minutes on pressure and 15 minutes standing.

Enjoy The Stuffed French Toast

My mom’s friend, Anita made this stuffed french toast for my bridal brunch when I got married. I’ve had the recipe for a while but have just never gotten around to making it. This past weekend my bible study had a surprise brunch for one of our friends and I thought I would make this. Everyone immediately asked for the recipe! It was so delicious!! This is definitely great for a brunch because you make it the night before and then bake it the morning of.
Ingredients:
16 ounces loaf French Bread (18 slices)
8 oz. cream cheese (1/4 inch slices) (use fat free if desired)
3 oz. additional cream cheese (1/4 inch slices) (use fat free if desired)
12 large eggs
2 cups milk
1/3 cup maple syrup
dash of cinnamon
1 tbsp. sugar
Directions:
Line greased 13×9 baking dish with 1/2 of bread slices, top with cream cheese slices and rest of bread. Combine the rest of ingredients, pour over the bread. Cover and chill for 8 hours.
Let stand at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes prior to baking.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, lightly covering with foil after the first 20 minutes.
Serve with additional syrup to pour over top of individual slices.

New York Style Pizza

New York pizza is my favorite style of pizza. Sure, I love me a neo-Neapolitan, sit-down-with-a-fork-and-knife on occasion, and grilled pizzas are fantastic in the summer. Even chewy, Roman-style pizza bianca has its place. But the pizza I find myself most often craving is of the simple, by-the-slice, medium-thin, crusty and lightly chewy style.
Luckily for us, it's also the variety that seems most easily adaptable to the home kitchen. Unlike, say Neapolitan pies which require wood-burning, 1000°F ovens (or at the very least a reasonable workaround), the modern* New York pie is baked in gas ovens that don't often go north of 500 to 550°F or so—a temperature range not out of the pale of even the most bog-standard home oven fitted with a pizza stone.
So what is it that makes a New York pizza unique?
First of all, it's the sauce. It's an emphatically tomato-ey sauce with a balanced sweetness and acidity and the barest hint of herbs and alliums. I tackled this sauce in a previous Pizza Lab post (the secret is a mix of butter and olive oil, using whole tomatoes, dried oregano, a couple of halved onions that get removed, and a slow simmer on the stovetop). No problem.
Next, it's the cheese. Unlike a Neapolitan, which uses fresh mozzarella, New York-style pizza uses grated, dry mozzarella—the kind you can get sliced on a meatball sub or wrapped in cryovac blocks near the milk. It's applied sparingly so that it melts into a loose matrix that mingles with the sauce underneath, browning ever so slightly in the heat of the oven. The top of a New York-style pie should look mottled with red, white, and brown, definitely not a solid expanse of white melted cheese. With a couple pies under your belt, you'll quickly discover two things about the cheese: it must be full-fat mozzarella (the part skim or low-fat stuff just doesn't stretch right), and you must grate it yourself. No matter how much you are tempted, do not buy pre-shredded cheese. Shredded cheese is coated with a dusting of potato or cornstarch intended to keep it from clumping. What it ends up doing is preventing it from melting properly. Your cheese will not acquire the requisite goo-factor. I've found that the best way to get good cheese for pizza at the supermarket is to go to the deli counter and ask them to cut you a pound or so straight off the slicing block in one chunk. Grated on the large holes of a box grater, it's perfect for the job.
Here's a problem I used to have: the cheese would overbrown and burn before the crust was done cooking. This happen to anyone else? I don't know if it's because professional pizza ovens have different convection patterns or some other sort of thermodynamic oddities going on, but the only solution I've found is to grate the cheese onto a plate, then pop it in the freezer for 15 minutes before applying it. This slows down its cooking just enough so that the crust can catch up before the cheese starts to burn.
The final factor that makes a great New York pizza—and this is the real key—is the crust. This is what separates the men from the boys. The New York slices from the Sbarros. The true Ray's from the hordes of imitators.**
Let's take a closer look, shall we?
Thicker than a Neapolitan crust but thinner than a pan pizza, a New York crust starts with a crisp, well-browned bottom layer about 2 millimeters thick. It must be sturdy enough that a single slice slightly bent lengthwise down the center will cantilever out straight under its own support, not requiring the eater to prop the tip with a second hand. There's nothing worse than walking out on the street with a slice, having the tip sag down, and the cheese slip off into a greasy puddle on the sidewalk. Even thinking about it makes my eyes well up.
The crust has to be sturdy enough, but—and this is important—just sturdy enough. Crunchy, tough, or cracker-like are not adjectives that can ever accurately describe a great New York pizza. The slice must crackle and give gently as you fold it, never crack or split.

Food And Wine Harvest Holiday in Le Marche, Italy

If you call yourself a "foodie," pig lover, wine-o, tartufaio, gourmet or gourmand this culinary holiday is for you! Vegetarians seek refuge elsewhere because for five nights in October it's a carnivore's delight in the foothills of the Apennine Mountains of Central Italy. This fall savor the slow food & experience Italian farm life first hand with this unique holiday at La Tavola Marche (Organic Farm, Inn & Cooking School) for mushroom hunting, pig butchering, sausage making, chicken slaughtering & butchering with hands-on cooking classes incorporating the fresh butchered meats and a fabulous wine tour & tasting. The first night you are welcomed to the 300 year old stone farmhouse with the rich smells of a slow roasting fire escaping through the kitchen door, a feast to be remembered with each of the five courses paired with local Marche wines and topped with truffles.At La Tavola Marche you know where your food comes from; vegetables fresh picked from the garden, eggs from the hens, truffles foraged from the hills and fresh meat from our free-range chickens or the next door neighbor. Spend the morning with our local butcher in Urbania for a demonstration on butchering, follow the process, identifying and trimming different cuts of pork, learning the best cooking technique for each cut well as a range of basic butchery skills. Learn the basics of the aging process, how to make salami, cured meats and sausages. Back at the farmhouse we will stuff our own sausages to grill over the open fire for dinner! After a day of meat, relax the following day by sampling the best family-run vineyards of Le Marche with a full day wine tour & tasting. Later in the week hike into the woods to forage for mushrooms then get down & dirty; slaughter & butcher our free range chickens incorporating it into cooking class for classic stock, stews & roasts.Includes: Five nights accommodations, welcome five course feast, two full day cooking classes, wine tour & transportation, mushroom hunt, butchering class, breakfast daily, three lunches, four dinners, evening snack, wine with meals, heating, all taxes. Price based on double occupancy. Special discounted rate for group of 4 or more.
WINE TOUR:
Enjoy a half-day private guided wine tasting & tour with lunch by an Italian wine expert of the best family-run, most characteristic vineyards of Le Marche. You will have the chance to visit a cheese factory, honey producer, an oil mill, wineries and of course taste all those products.
SLOW FOOD:
The night of your arrival devour our five-course feast, prepared with fresh truffles and fresh ingredients from our garden, each course paired with wine from a local Marche vineyard.
FARM LIFE:
From collecting eggs from the hens to slaughtering the chickens for winter it is all part of life on the farm. Visit our local butcher for a morning lesson in chartucerie and butchering with lunch at a local Osteria after. Take a walk into the woods foraging for wild mushrooms.
COOKING CLASS:
Using the fresh butchered meats Chef Jason will teach you how to make the fundamentals from soups & stocks to slow roasting & braising.