¡Albondigas!

If you already know what it is, you get 10 points! ... And your mom or grandma probably makes it for you ... I don't have a Mexican grandma, but I love albondigas anyway.

Albondigas is literally "meatballs,"although there are two ways in which they can be served. Spanish-style albondigas can be served as a main course or appetizer, typically in a tomato sauce; Mexican albondigas is made with a broth (typically chicken) served with vegetables (carrots, celery, onion). The latter is the one that I am familiar with.

(Is it just me, or is "albondigas" a really fun word to say?)

I used this recipe: Best Albondigas Soup.
A few notes about this recipe:
*It calls for a liberal amount of cilantro (1 cup).
*I think it would be better with even more cilantro.
*Remember the fabulous yellow peppers I used for Sunday's grilled cheeses? I added 1 chopped yellow pepper to the broth. It gives the dish a nice, gentle kick.
*I highly recommend adding rice to the soup (when serving), although it's still awesome without it.
*You can substitute ground turkey (which I did) or "soy balls" in place of the beef and sausage.

Garnish it! The recipe doesn't call for it, but the perfect topper to albondigas includes two things: jack cheese and tortilla strips. And toss in a scoop of guac while you're at it. This greatly increases the yum factor.

Backstory: I finally made this soup after craving it for close to a year. I can't remember the last time I had it before cooking it myself this week, but I know that I've been dying to have some and happy to say it turned out really good. The fresh veggies and herbs give this dish a lot of fresh flavor - but it shouldn't be taken as a light soup. It's actually very hearty and filling.

Nom away!
~Soundtrack for this post provided by Of Montreal and Au Revoir Simone~

Sexy, spicy grilled cheese on squaw (aka Sunday morning breakfast)

Today I made grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast. Grilled cheese is the food that I would choose if I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life (with pickles, of course).

The sandwiches I made today have been dubbed "sexy, spicy grilled cheese on squaw" because I like alliteration. I guess if it were the perfect alliterated sammich it would be Sunday's sexy, spicy swiss on squaw - but I used Muenster instead, because Muenster grilled cheeses are the best.

Squaw bread, in case you've never tried it before, is delicious.

I like to compliment the basic bread & cheese equation with a few additional ingredients; usually it is onions, pickles or pesto. Today I went with some yellow wax peppers and fresh basil. The peppers, which look innocently cheerful in their pale yellow skins, are VERY HOT. These unlikely companions - the peppers and the basil - turned out a stellar sandwich.

I prepped the peppers and basil by dry roasting in a pan on low heat with a teaspoon of olive oil. I used about handful of whole basil leaves and sliced up two yellow peppers. This gets cooked until the peppers are soft.

While the peppers & basil is cooking, I buttered the outsides of the squaw bread with room-temperature butter -- soft enough to spread without tearing the soft bread apart. When the peppers were ready, I put the mix onto the sandwich in an even layer and then cooked it until grilled & gooey. It was so good that I want to make another one. Later ya'll, I hear the kitchen calling.

Recipe Rant

Why are so many recipes written so poorly?

Last night I made eggplant Parmesan for the first time, and there were like a million steps and they were written in the most ridiculous order! At one point it even instructed me to separate the sauce from the tomatoes and set aside, but never gave me a follow-up instruction to do anything with said separated sauce. Is it because the recipe-maker has cooked this dish a million times and they forget to write down the things that are natural

as peeling an orange before you eat it? Rest assured, being as this was my first eggplant (I know, so exciting!) there was a quite a bit of "hmmming" and "uhmmmming" in making sense of the mess of instructions in this muddled recipe. I'm not picking on the recipe though, because this happens with so very many of them!

Needless to say, before I even started, the recipe underwent some modifications. And then some more. Rather than post the little-bit messy, kinda complex process and proceeding results - which were undeniably effing delicious - I'm presenting to you my recipe rant. One day you'll be thumbing through the pages of my cookbook - and I promise you it will make sense!! As for the eggplant parme - stay tuned for round II, when I streamline the process and show ya'll how to make some freaking delicious eggplant! With pix! Wanna come and try it for yourself? Just let me know and we'll set a date! My cooking->your mouth. You know we both want it.

Sanaga-what?

My boyfriend Matt and I went out to Shoga Sushi in North Hollywood last night and ate some tiny little fried crabs as part of our meal. I spotted them in a clear kitchen container on the sushi counter and pointed them out to Matt--maybe about 30 or so tiny little crabs wiggling around in a box. Behind the box of squirmy crabs sat a bright purple octopus, fresh and plump. We ordered 4 rolls, including a Dynamite lobster roll and an Ichiban roll, which was a California roll with salmon and unagi on top--quite delicious. The fish all tasted fresh and every roll was flavorful.

Matt asked the guy sitting next to us at the sushi bar if he'd tried the crabs. He said yes, and that they were good. We were feeling adventurous/hungry, so we ordered the crabs. We thought they'd come before our rolls, but they didn't get to us until we'd finished everything else. The service here was quite slow, the restaurant quite small.

When they arrived, Matt and I were a bit surprised. They were identical to the live ones, except motionless and a little more red. We looked at each other. We looked back at the crabs, hesitant. "How do you eat them?" Matt asked our neighbor. Our neighbor, a friendly man enjoying his sushi alone, had eaten all manner of sushi since we'd arrived at the bar, including some of the bright purple octopus, which was still boldly displayed. He explained that you just put the whole thing in your mouth, body, legs and all.

These tiny little crabs, called Sanagawi, are freshwater river crabs, about double the size of a quarter, and a Japanese favorite. Apparently they're a little hard to find here, which makes sense since I've never seen them before. Some people liken them to thick, sea-infused potato chips.

I stared down at the plate. Legs. Claws. Eyes. Crabby tails. I felt a bit squeamish, but I wasn't ready to back down. Matt ate one, then another.

I watched him crunch the shell and chew. He said it tasted like popcorn. I wanted to try it, but I had to get over the legs & eyes-the wholeness of the little cooked creature. So I finally picked one up and gingerly put it in my mouth. And started chewing. Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch. I haven't finished chewing when I decide I really don't enjoy it. The shell is sharp and scrapes my throat when I swallow. "It's like eating seashells," I say, and follow up my last swallow stating "I'll never eat that again."

Matt eats a couple more and tries to get me to eat another. I protest until he finally takes the last one.

photo by Circa71.

Hi! Welcome!

Hello friends and readers,

Welcome to the 818 Bakehaus blog. I don't why know it took me so long to get this started, but I finally came to a moment of epiphany and realized that food is the one thing that enduringly occupies my brain-space more than any other subject--though there will be talk of other things too. Be prepared to get hungry.

Some of the things you will find here are:

Food Porn

Recipes

Culinary Experimentation

Nachos

Wine & Beer reviews

Dinner Party Announcements!

and more...

Oh yeah, and some of this too:

These foodscapes are by photographer Carl Warner. They're made entirely out of food. He designs everything, cuts it all up, sets up these scenes, and then finally, after all that, takes a picture. I know! I thought it was a painting too! I love you, Carl Warner.