Taco Asylum - Costa Mesa, Orange County, California

When we are in Orange County visiting grandparents and friends, we LOVE to eat at Taco Asylum.  This eatery cleverly taps into cuisines from all over the world to bring customers tasty fillings such as ghost chili pork, short ribs, duck with brie, pork belly with hash browns, and wild mushroom.  The tortillas used to house these delights are like none I've ever had before; they are something of a tortilla-flatbread hybrid and are simply delicious.  Sweet Pea and Little Man like to eat the tortillas by themselves filled with little non-spicy selections of meat from our tacos.  You can order the tacos a la carte, in a flight (so that you can sample different kinds), or with Israeli couscous and lentils.  I always stuff myself silly at this place because I can never decide which taco I want, so I eat too many.  Which one is the best?  The meats are often in different marinades, so it's hard to have a "favorite," but I have never been disappointed with the pork belly, no matter what they've put with it.

Avocado & Salad Pasta

We will often come across an evening when I just don't feel like breaking out the saute pans or chopping up a lot of different ingredients.  For such times, or when I just want to whip up a quick lunch, I will turn to this fantastic idea from Giada De Laurentiis.  She takes avocado and arugula and zaps it all together in the food processor with some other tidbits.  Since I feel the need to cut corners with every recipe, I've taken her idea and omitted a few things.  I'll often just serve it by itself or sometimes I'll pair it with sauteed scallops, chicken or fish.

Avocado & Salad Pasta (aka Green Spaghetti)

adapted from Giada De Laurentiis'  Linguine with Avocado and Arugula Pesto

Ingredients

• 1 pound linguine pasta
• 2 medium avocados, halved, peeled, and seeded (about 12 ounces total)
• 1/2 - 3/4 bag of supermarket salad (50/50 Mix or Spring Mix work well)
• Juice from 1 lemon
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup grated Parmesan (4 ounces)

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and reserve about 1 cup of the pasta water. Place in a serving bowl.

Using a spoon, scoop out the flesh from the avocados and place in a food processor. Add the salad, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and cheese. Blend until smooth.

Pour the pesto over the pasta and toss together. Add some pasta water if you need to loosen the sauce. 

Homemade Granola - Perfect for Breakfast, Recess or After School

This looks like a whole lot of granola, but you'd be surprised how quickly we go through this pan.  I cut it into bars for the kids to eat at school (wrapped in foil), sprinkle it on top of yogurt for afternoon munching and serve it with milk in the morning for breakfast.  When I'm feeling peckish during dinner prep, I will often just put some in a little bowl and pick at it.  I thought that the kids wouldn't be able to distinguish it from supermarket granola, but they actually request it frequently!

Homemade Granola
largely inspired by Ina Garten's recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
• 2 cups sliced almonds
• 1/2 cup toasted wheat germ (or raw wheat germ toasted in a frying pan)
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup chopped dried fruit (cranberries or blueberries are great)
• couple of handfuls of chocolate covered seeds or chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8 by 12-inch baking dish and line it with parchment paper.

Toss the oatmeal and almonds together on a sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned.  If you are using raw wheat germ, you may want to toast the wheat germ at this time.  Spread it out onto a nonstick frying pan and toast it on medium-high heat, gently swirling the pan occasionally for a few minutes until the wheat germ seems darker.  

Put the browned oatmeal and almonds into a large mixing bowl and stir in the wheat germ.  

Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees F. 

Place the butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir for a minute, then pour over the toasted oatmeal mixture. Add the dried fruit and stir well.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Wet your fingers and press the mixture evenly into the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until light golden brown. Cool for at least 2 to 3 hours before cutting into squares or bars. Serve at room temperature.  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Calzone - The Glorified Pizza Pocket

I have had a checkered past with homemade pizza dough.  Following Alice Waters' recipe, I would often find myself elbow deep in sticky stuff and swearing in the kitchen as the phone would ring at that precise moment.

One thing I came to realize was this - even if a recipe says that you may use all purpose flour, do not do it!!!  It is a lie.  In the world of pizza dough, AP Flour is, to quote Principal Edward Rooney, "a first class ticket to nowhere."  Bread flour is the answer.  Bread flour will prevent the sticky mess.  Bread flour will provide a dough that obediently rolls up and becomes a cute little ball from which one can craft pizzas or calzones.

So for pizza dough, I now enjoy using Lorraine Pascal's recipe:

• 250g/9oz strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp fast-action dried yeast
• 125–145ml/4½–5fl oz warm water
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for oiling and drizzling

1. Mix the flour, salt and yeast together in a large bowl and make a well in the middle. In a jug, mix the water and oil together, then pour the liquid into the well of the flour mixture and mix to make a soft but not sticky dough.
   
   
2. Knead for 10 minutes by hand on a lightly floured work surface or for five minutes in an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Bring the dough together to a smooth flat ball and place in a well-oiled bowl.  Cover loosely with a damp kitchen cloth or paper towel and store in a warm place for about 30 minutes.

You can put anything into a calzone, but last night I threw together a mixture of:

frozen spinach, thawed and drained
ricotta cheese
mozzarella cheese
1 egg
freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.

After rolling out the dough, I spooned a little leftover spaghetti sauce onto the disc and then put some of the mixture on top.  Then I folded the whole thing on a piece of parchment paper (very important, otherwise your dough will stick to the baking sheet).  Naturally it would be better if you used a pizza stone, but your movers might have misplaced this item and perhaps you haven't had a chance to visit the Crate & Barrel outlet yet.  Maybe you are waiting for school to start so that you can go to the store child-free.

Bake for 20 minutes, then check.  I like to put on little silicone mittens and flip the calzone over so that the other side gets nicely browned, too.  Bake for another 5-8 minutes if doing this, or until the other side is golden brown.

More Relocation and Chocolate - Whole Wheat Brownies

A fun aspect about moving is that one uncovers things that she didn't know she had.  I managed to find a few back issues of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food as I was organizing my cookbooks.  After thumbing through them, I came across this recipe for Whole Wheat Brownies.  "Hmmm...this looks like the perfect way to break into that enormous 500 gram chocolate bar I bought last week!"

The recipe offers many reasons to pause.  Whole wheat flour?  Applesauce?  Less than 1 stick of butter?  What kind of brownies are these going to be, anyway?  Well, it turns out that they're actually really yummy!  They're moist and fluffy.  Though they're not super fudgy in texture, the chocolate flavor really sings out.  I even skipped the chocolate chunks on top that the recipe includes because I do not particularly enjoy chocolate chips in brownies, and the delights were still chocolate-y enough!  Now I can serve them to my kids and enjoy the fact that there's some whole grain goodness in there.  Yes, that's right, I made them because of the kids.  Naturally I had to try them first to make sure that they passed muster...

Relocation...and Chocolate!

So Perficious Eats has relocated!  Yes, our tour in the United Kingdom was up, so now we're in San Diego.  Sorry I won't be able to provide you the scoop on as many European delights as before, but I am determined to uncover all of the delicious treats that San Diego has to offer.  As a Southern California native we naturally had to reacquaint ourselves with the usual spots like In N Out and Din Tai Fung, but surely there are other treasures to discover!

One such place is Chuao, a San Diego-based chocolate piece of heaven owned by Venezuelan-born brothers Michael and Richard Antonorsi.  This shop sells delicious chocolates (truffles, hot chocolate powders, potato chips, you name it) along with coffee and gelato.  You can even get affogato, that awesome combination of espresso and gelato together.  The coffee and gelato are both locally-sourced from San Diegan vendors.  The staff who work there are extremely friendly and eager to sell you their products.  Why do I have a feeling that I will be going there all the time?  They need to have some kind of Chocoholic Card for frequent shoppers like myself.

Springtime Treats - Macaroons!

 One of my favorite springtime treats is the macaroon.  These delights are not necessarily seasonal, but I have always found their pastel prettiness to coincide nicely with daffodils, chocolate bunnies and pink ribbons. 

    

    Now these are kind of tricky to make the first time out.  The good news is that even if they are a little deformed, few people will turn them down.  So a few tips to help you:  

1.  Do not use a tiny little oven where the heating element is only 2 inches away from the macaroons.  You may burn the darlings and cause your kitchen to fill with smoke.  And your smoke alarm might go off.  (I may have had some personal experience with this). 

2.  Try using an oven with a window so you can check your progress and hopefully avoid the debacle from #1. 

3.  You will probably have to break out the scale to measure the ingredients:

125g/4½oz confectioner's sugar 

125g/4½oz ground almonds (may have to hit up a gourmet store for this)

2 tbsp water

110g/4oz granulated sugar

your favorite ganache, buttercream, or whipped cream for filling

optional:  your favorite food coloring and decorations

 

1.    Preheat the oven to 170/C/325F/Gas 5 and line a large baking tray with baking paper.

2.    Put the icing sugar, ground almonds and 40g/1½oz egg whites together in a large bowl and mix to a paste.

3.    Put the water and caster sugar in a small pan and heat gently to melt the sugar, then turn up the heat and boil until the mixture starts to go syrupy and thickens - I don’t use a thermometer but if you prefer to use one, it should read 115C/239F at this stage.

4.    Whisk the remaining 50g/2oz egg whites in a small bowl until medium-stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed from the bowl, then pour in the sugar syrup, whisking until the mixture becomes stiff and shiny. For coloured macaroons, add a few drops of food colouring. Tip this meringue mixture into the almond paste mixture and stir gently until the becomes stiff and shiny again.

5.    Spoon into the piping bag. Pipe a little mixture under each corner of the baking paper to stop it sliding around. With the bag held vertically, pipe 4cm/1½in flat circles onto the lined tray, about 2cm/¾in apart, twisting the bag after each one. The mixture should be quite loose to give a smooth finish. The piping will leave a small ‘tip’ on each circle so, when they’re all piped, give the tray 2–3 slams on a flat surface to flatten them. At this stage, sprinkle with desiccated coconut if you want.

6.   Leave to stand for 30 minutes to form a skin then bake in the oven for 12–15 minutes with the door slightly ajar until firm. Remove from the oven, lift the paper off the baking tray and leave the macaroons to cool on the paper. When cool, sandwich the macaroons together with filling.

recipe from Lorraine Pascal, BBC Good Food's Baking Made Easy