Getting paid to cook

So besides eating... and eating... what have I been doing all these months since returning to New York? Well, I've been freelancing as a personal assistant, helping out a handful of clients with errands and tasks that they are too busy to deal with. It's interesting work, and gives me an opportunity to do a wide variety of things. Some of it is very boring, like taking bags of clothing to consignment shops. Other times, it's slightly nerve-wracking (I had to transport over $25,000 in jewelry once). The most fun I have though, is when I get to cook.

A couple of my clients are, like many New Yorkers, too busy to cook themselves. Instead of eating out every night, I've been making healthy home-cooked meals for them. The challenge though, is that they are all on diets, and I have to stay away from a lot of ingredients that I like to use (butter, bacon, cream, etc) to flavor my food. Low-fat, low-dairy, low-carb! Also, I have to keep in mind that the client may not eat a particular dish for 2-3 days, so I have to make things that will re-heat/keep well. With these guidelines in mind, here is what I made today.

First up is a salad, dressed lightly with just lemon juice, salt, dill, and olive
oil. This is a picture of the salad before I added some shredded chicken;
artichoke hearts, tomatoes, chickpeas, and radishes add textural depth.

Soups are great; they keep well in the fridge and taste even better after
a day or two. This one starts off with lots of veggies. I first simmered
some asparagus stems (the woody part that you usually throw away) in
chicken stock. I strained that out, and then added collard greens, onions,
diced asparagus, and the leftover chickpeas from the salad. The chickpeas
may seem like an odd addition, but there's a method to the madness!

I puréed the soup! What looked like an odd veggie assortment becomes
a beautiful bright green soup. Normally, I would put a splash of cream
(or some cheese) to make this a richer dish. This is where the chickpeas
come in, to keep it healthy. It helps add a... heavier mouth-feel to the soup,
keeping it from tasting thin and watery. To finish it off, I spiced this up with
a dash of paprika and some curry powder, giving the soup some warmth.

Finally, I made an asparagus, portabello, and chicken fritatta. I'm
actually not sure how well eggs re-heat, but the client liked it the last
time I made this, and requested it again. I lightly sautéed the ingredients,
added an egg mixture (I did use milk here, to lighten up the heavy eggs),
and put the whole pan in the oven for about 8 minutes to set up.

Close-up of the finished products. I lightly seared the asparagus tips and
added it to the finished soup; makes it look pretty!

All the dishes, nicely proportioned and ready to eat!

Stuffing our faces

Every once in a while, I abandon my philosophy about good food and eating well. Usually, this happens when I'm really hungry, and feel like being easy on my wallet. When this happens, quantity trumps quality... and where is that better embodied than at an All You Can Eat restaurant?

I've been searching for a decent AYCE sushi for quite some time now in NY. Real estate is expensive here! Yesterday, Jon and I headed deeeeeeep into Brooklyn to try out a place that got decent reviews online. It was called Sake, located in Bensonhurst (there's ANOTHER Chinatown in Brooklyn??). For $12.95 a person, we received little sheets of paper to mark down all the sushi and Japanese appetizers we could fit into our stomachs.

Eating frenzy! Hand rolls, basic maki rolls, and sushi pieces were available, made to order.

Hot (fried) appetizers were also available to order. Clockwise from top left: crab wontons, spring rolls, fried
calamari, sweet potato tempura. These were quite filling... probably not the smartest thing to eat.

Definitely not high grade sushi by any means, but this fulfilled a craving. The place was popular, with people coming in even at 2pm. Turnover must be pretty high; the fish was fairly fresh and tasty. Dinner AYCE is also available for $5 more... looked like there were about a dozen extra maki roll options and more hot appetizers available. Looks like we've found our go-to place (it's also along our subway line, about 6 more stops deeper into Brooklyn). Whoo hoo!

Experimenting in the kitchen: Thai papaya salad

Ever since I've returned from my summer trip, hardly a week goes by without me developing a craving for Thai food. The variety and abundance of cheap, quick food are now a fond memory, and so I decided to put my own spin today on one of my favorite Thai dishes.

Som Tam is a green shredded papaya salad, traditionally pounded in a mortar with various other herbs and spices. Can I create a similar dish? Let's try!

To start: a green papaya. Since it's mango season right now, I also
grabbed a slightly under-ripe mango to add to the salad.

Everything had to be cut into slivers. Unfortunately I don't have a
mandolin, so had to do all this by hand. 

To the papaya and mango, I added lime zest, along with a dressing
made with sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, vinegar, and chili sauce.
Traditionally, little tiny dried shrimp and peanuts would be added to the
salad too. I didn't have those, but threw in some cilantro and mint leaves,
which added a lovely aroma to the entire dish.

I let the veggies sit in the dressing a bit,
so the flavors would meld together. Then
I added some poached chicken to make
this a complete meal.

While not exactly what I had in Thailand, this is a really fresh and light salad. I can see myself making this a lot as the weather gets warmer!

My favorite noodles

Lest I sound disparaging towards the city of New York, I feel like I should highlight one of its culinary treasures. So I present, my favorite bowl of noodles:

Chiu-chow style fish ball noodle soup. $4 after tax.

Granted, I have many bowls of favorite noodle soup (a good pho or ramen is always welcome in my book!), but if I were to choose one, it would be this. This Chiu-chow rendition of the popular Cantonese soup has a few small but important variations. The ho-fun noodles are fresh and firm - cut into thick slurpable strips. This is suspended in a meaty broth, augmented with scallions, chunks of minced pork, and delicious morsels of pickled vegetables. The fish balls are springy with a great texture. A quick dash of white pepper is sprinkled on top, and this deliciousness is ready to eat!

But that's not all! This establishment also makes its own yummy chili oil:

Spicy but so good!

This chili oil is comprised of not only chili peppers, but also sesame seeds, crushed peanuts, and minced dried shrimp! This lends a spicy and almost... umami taste to the oil. It is so good over the fish balls.

While this is especially exquisite to eat during the winter months, I find that the craving for this bowl of noodles is sure to occur year-round!

Rice crepes

Ah. Warmer temperatures in New York always signal a hankering to venture outside for some food. Like bears after a winter of hibernation, hungry New Yorkers flock to food carts and trucks scattered around town. The other day, I bought a warm, steamy container of rice crepes from a vendor in Chinatown.

New York Rice crepes

The rice crepes were warm from the steamer, its texture smooth. Little bursts of extra savoriness came from the scallions and dried shrimp dotted throughout. The combination of sweet soy and peanut sauce gave the rice crepes a flavorful nutty aroma. As a bonus, I also got some fish balls as an accompaniment. For $1.75, this was a satisfying and filling lunch.

I definitely finished my quick meal with a smile on my face, but these rice crepes made me wish for some others that I had, halfway around the world.

HK Rice crepes

Mmm. There is no comparison; the rice crepes from Hong Kong are superior, especially in texture. While the NY rice crepes bordered on soft-going-on-gummy, the HK rice crepes were silken, each one providing a bouncy toothsome chew. I loved the sprinkle of sesame seeds on top, and at a mere 75 cents USD for a small serving of 4 crepe ribbons (or $1.25 for 8, I think), this was an eminently affordable snack.

Of course, I feel very lucky to even have rice crepes so readily available nearby. But isn't it great that we live in a world where we can have so many comparisons? And... aren't you hungry now? :)