Roasted Citrus Edamame - Inspired by the Scraps Dinner at Ramen Tastuya

I had this dish (pictured below) by Chefs Tim Dornon from Uchiko, Tatsu Aikawa of Ramen Tatsuya, and Paul Qui from East Side Kings.  I loved it so much that I decided to make a version of it.   It had a great roastiness/charred flavor and just a kick of spice. There was a great tang in the dish, which I created with meyer lemon.  So put together some ingredients and tried to approximate the flavors.  Here's my version. 
Ingredients:

• 1 bag of frozen edamame (I used a 16 oz bag)
• 1 swig of sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons of oil.  Canola is best for higher heat.
• Juice of one meyer lemon.
• Spices to taste.  I used red pepper flakes, but you could use togarashi spice.
• Pinch of salt.
• Optional: Chopped onion or garlic

Heat up oil (I actually used extra virgin olive oil because I didn't have canola) in a skillet.  Once piping hot, carefully add the frozen edamame to the skillet.  Stir like crazy.  You want to make sure that you toss the edamame every 30 seconds or so they don't burn.  You do want them to get a little roasty, but not burned.  Add in chopped onion or garlic if you like.  Cook until the the onions are start to become translucent.  Add the spices and the lemon juice.  Drizzle with the swig of sesame oil.  Give the edamame a quick stir, and it is ready to serve!

Rock Your Taco at @AustinFoodWine

The Saturday night event was the Rock Your Taco Celebrity event.  Eight chefs made tacos for the masses, that were judged by a panel consisting of Gail Simmons, Andrew Zimmern, and FOOD & WINE Magazine publisher Christina Grdovic.  The Rock Your Taco Champion of 2012 was Uchiko Austin as chosen by the panel.  However, there were some other really tasty tacos.  It would have been difficult to chose a favorite!  I think for this post, pictures are worth 1000 words. 


We arrived on the scene to see Chef Rene Ortiz giving Chef Tim Love a helping hand with meat roasting. 

Chef Morimoto was one HARD working chef.  I barely saw him leave the station behind the tent during service. 

And here's the Morimoto taco. 

And another shot of the Morimoto taco. 

And Morimoto signed my badge.  *sigh*

Michelle Berstein's sweet bread tacos were quite tasty I must say. 

Marcus Samuelsson's curry tacos with pate was really flavorful and inspiring.  I'm thinking more about Indian/Middle Eastern and Mexican food fusion after this one.

Chef Sarah Grueneberg flambes her shrimp tacos with Ouzo! Those are indeed flames.  I did find the shrimp tacos to be intensely and wonderfully spicy.  I like things really, really spicy.

Here's the winning Uchiko taco. 

Marcus Samuelsson's taco on the left and Tim Love's taco on the right. 

Laura Sawicki's desserts.  I only ate three. 

Beyond Measure, Beyond Words: A peek behind the scenes of @TEDxAustin2012

I just finished an amazing 6 month long experience.  I after it was all said and done, I spent about 175 hours over the 6 months working on the experience called TEDxAustin.  I was the xLunch producer, and I produced every aspect of the food experience. I did not get to partake in the full experience, but working on the experience was just as amazing.  I can say that I'm even more rich.

Photo by John M. P. Knox @windaddict

I did hear bits and pieces of the talks.  I heard a quote from @JCourt about preemptive love, " Violence unmakes the world. Preemptive love remakes the world." I was overwhelmed with the feeling of preemptive love.  My friends who participated in the lunch concept preemptively showed me love.  They dedicated their time and their craft to something I was doing without question. Thank you, friends. Thank you for showing me that preemptive love.

I did sit down for Penny's talk. I met Penny about 4 years ago at a food blogger's pot luck at her house.  I absolutely love her, and the idea of that we should live I'm the moment.  Our lives are made up of all these small moments.  See them. Live in them. Cherish them.  I got to meet Penny's father, and I stole a hug.

Penny's talk was thoughtfully placed right before lunch.  This year's lunch showcased some of the top chefs in Austin with deep roots in the food community.  There were several goals for the lunch 1. Create an interactive food experience to drive engagements 2. Serve fantastically creative dishes 3. Highlight the leaders in our food community and 4. showcase locally sourced foods.

Paper dress. photo by John M. P. Knox @windaddict

I was told that it would be a difficult task, but nonetheless, I took it on.  I won't go into the logistics of pulling off this feat. From table settings to sourcing the food locally, this was nothing short of a miracle. I tweeted earlier that week that I was in the car with 100 chickens.  I didn't tweet that they were all being delivered to the restaurants and were already dead.

TEDxAustin cake balls by Austin Cake Ball.

I had several people say that I did the impossible.  And they are right.  I did what was impossible to do on my own. With the preemptive love, it was very possible.

I must tip my hat to Rebecca Scofield at Whole Foods for putting in so much time into this endeavor.  She is nothing short of amazing by bringing in Johnson's Backyard and Vital Farms.  My  chefs wowed me with their creativity and presented a fantastic menu.  David Norman of Easy Tiger started the day with showing people how to knead dough during breakfast, which tied into breaking bread over lunch with friends.  The Natural Epicurean  brought an A team staff to support our event.  The staff was sharper than their knives.

A big thank you to the restaurants and chefs:

• BC Tavern / Wink: Matt Taylor  @BCTavern @WinkRestaurant
• Carillon at the AT&T Executive Center: Josh Watkins, Chris Andrews, and Brad Turner  @CarillonAustin
• Fino/ Asti: Jason Donoho, Scott Kaplan, and Carlos Sachital @Fino_Austin @ASTI_Trattoria
• Lenoir Austin: Todd Duplechan, Jessica Maher @Lenoir_Austin
• Swift's Attic: Mat Clouser, Zack Northcutt, Callie Speer @SwiftsAttic
• Uchi/Uchiko: Philly Speer, Tim Dornon, and Dustin Harvey @UchikoAustin  @UchiAustin

And our food partners:

• Austin Cake Ball @AustinCakeBall
• Kohana Coffee:  @KohanaCoffee
• Easy Tiger David Norman @EasyTigerATX
• Natural Epicurean
• Sugar Mama's Bakeshop @SugarMamas
• Whole Foods  @WholeFoodsATX
• Zhi Tea @ZhiTea

Photo by John M. P. Knox @windaddict.  This was a view from inside the black box.  I loved the design that Jeff Sharpe and Chris Czichos made.  I want them to do that to my house.
In case you were wondering about the menus:

BC Tavern/Wink  -  Broccoli, Bleu cheese mac / Braised chicken (cachatorrie style)/ roasted carrots and spinach

Carillon   - Chicken Roulades, Bacon, Espellete, sherry emulsion / Texmati rice,dried apricots, almonds, celery, black pepper syrup / Carrots, caraway, molasses, pork jus gastrique

Fino/Asti   - Smoked Vital Farms Chicken & Spinach Morcilla Blanca / Carrot Purée / Broccoli Slaw & Egg Yolk Bottarga

Lenoir  -  The Chicken or the Egg - Chicken pot-au-feu with egg ravoili
Swift's Attic  -  Roasted Chicken Bahn Mi / Broccoli Kimchee Spinach / Quick pickle salad
Uchi/Uchiko  - Vital farms chicken, sweet short grain rice, candied pork belly, crispy garlic / Pickled carrots, pickled broccoli /s pinach oshitaki

It must also be mentioned that just a few weeks ago, Chef Scott Kaplan of Fino was attacked and seriously injured.  While I am sad to see something like that happen, I was thrilled to see that he decided to come out to play at TEDxAustin. You can view Chef Scott's fundraiser here. 

The speakers and sponsors dinner.

Working as the xLunch producer, I got to meet some other incredible people, in very unexpected places.  The staff at the Austin Music Hall,  Pascal's catering, and Premiere Party were fantastic to work with.  They went over and beyond with helping with the set up and loading.  We also had group of volunteers from Accenture who were amazing. I couldn't believe how focused they were. I'd love to have them at any event.

The TEDxAustin 2012 copywriting, design, and production logistics were handled by an extraordinary team.  A big thanks goes to Kristin Bender, Leah Kaminsky, and Lisa Cogliati.  Also, Jeff Sharpe and Chris Czichos did all of the design, layout, and building to create the stunning environment at TEDxAustin 2012.  It was drop dead gorgeous.

Close up of the panels. 

And lastly, I had the experience of working closely with Shawna Butler.  I must have called or texted her at least once a day during the last few weeks of production.  This woman is insightful, efficient, focused, and I'm guessing that the final singing experience was her doing.  Craig Hella Johnson lead a choir in being.  We announced our being by singing.  We sang to announce our being.  And our being was Beyond Measure.

The Uni Crab Special @UchikoAustin Makes You Want to do Really Bad Things

My Christmas present came early this year - a Canon Powershot 95 from the ever thoughtful @Windaddict.  My previous camera was a Fuji Film FinepixZ90 that had seen much rough abuse over the last four years or so.  It had tumbled down 6th street during a cartwheel and round off Halloween, and it has also taken a tumble down more than one flights of stairs.  Needless to say, it has been handed to someone else who really needs a camera, and can probably take care of it through intensive care. 

To take part in America Express's Small Business Saturday (both @Windaddict and myself got $25 each), we started at Macho Taco, watched Puss in Boots at Alamo Drafthouse, and rounded out the night with dinner at Uchiko.  Uchiko, with its visually appealing food and low lighting, makes photography fun and challenging.

We arrived during social hour, which meant we got to partake in snacks before dinner.  This is the ham and eggs.  I hadn't messed with the camera yet. I just pulled it out and shot in auto mode.  Keep in mind that there's almost no light where we were sitting. 


The beef tongue is one of my favorite nigiris at Uchiko.  At this point, I still hadn't messed with any of the settings yet. 


A gift from the kitchen: uni crab special.  Trumpet mushrooms, uni, mitsuba, apefel cuvee, and crab are smothered with a lobster sauce.  It wasn't a bisque, but close. 


The server poured the sauce all over different ingredients leaving it a visually interesting dish. 


If you aren't a seafood fan, you might not like this dish.  If you grew up on the coast, love seafood like your first born child, and love unami more than life itself; you'll love this dish.  The combination of sweet seafood, meaty mushrooms, intense seafood flavors with pungent uni powder is amazing.  I still can't find the right words to describe the dish, but I'll try.  *My description is also Chef Tyson Cole approved.  This dish is so rich and sinful you'll feel like you're fornicating in a church.  If you don't know what fornicating in a church is like, I would recommend this dish.  And if you decide to try it (the fornicating), please don't get caught and clean up after yourself. 


As you can see, I really loved this dish.  I mean REALLY loved it. 


This was the sabavichie.  It was completely different from the uni crab in style, but lovely all the same.  I remember it tasting like a mashup of thai flavors and cevichie, but honestly I didn't eat that much of it.  I was still licking the plate of the uni crab. 


My favorite dish at Uchiko used to be the truffled congee.  It inspired me to make a macaron with a similar flavor profile of lemon, togarashi spice, and truffle.  Then the truffled congee went away, and I was sad. This tamago congee was a good replacement.  This congee has slow scrambled egg, black truffle, and koshi hikari.


The slow cooked scrambled egg in congee had a comfort food element for me that reminded me of that flashback scene in Ratatouille, except the Asian version.  I grew up eating plain congee, called mwua in Taiwanese or shee fan in Mandarin.  No, I didn't use proper pin yin.  Really upscale comfort food is really good.


I found a piece of egg!


This was the dessert special of lemon gelato, pistachio soil, and beet puree.  That's black pepper on the meringue pieces.  This dessert has also inspired me to make another macaron flavor out of it.  Black pepper, lemon, pistachio, and beets. 


This was the perfect way to end a Small Business Saturday. 

#IACP Austin 2011 - Great food, New Connections, and Entertaining Seminars

You might have seem the blur.  The blur of a bunch of chef coats running through town a few weeks ago.  That was the International Association of Culinary Professionals.  While the conference has come and gone, the effect that some of the speakers have still stay with us.  I didn't get to attend many of the sessions as I was on the host committee, but here's a few of my highlights from the conference. 1. Photos from Three Hot Chefs.  I think I don't need words to describe this.  Beautifully vibrant dishes. Look at that color! Tyson Cole and staff do some plating. Chef Brad from Public NY. Chef Philly and Chef Paul from Uchiko.  2. Denise Vivaldo's late night session on food styling was absolutely hilarious.  My goodness, that woman was hilarious.  Her presentation of information kept the crowd roaring well past midnight.  Also, she brought her attendees milk and Oreo cookies.  My favorite line from her was "that showing the ends of pasta was a scandal."  3. Penny De Los Santos and Daniel Klein gave a wonderful morning session on how to craft a story.  The take away message was to be transparent and get to know your subject.  Be vulnerable and authentic.  And once you really fall in love with your subject, the photos or videos will come.  Penny had a room full of attendees crying at 9 am when she told her story about following a woman make barbacoa. Yes, the story was that good.  And I can't retell it because I'll just butcher it.  4. Kathy Kasey's "It's Better to be Bitter" inspired me to think more about bitters in my cooking.  I know 10000x more about bitters now, and I'm pretty excited that we had vodka and bourbon at 10 am.  My favorite bitters concoction was ginger ale, ice, bourbon, and two types (I used the chocolate mole bitters).  Two really important things I learned about cocktails were 1. how to properly smell bitters and 2. how to flame an orange peel.  To properly smell a bitter, put a few drops in your hands, clap, and then inhale your hands.  To flame an orange peel, the make sure you warm the orange with the flame first, and then spritz the oil (squeeze the peel) over the flame.  Rub the peel around the rim of the glass.  Ya know, for research. My favorite bitters of the day. Setting things (orange peels) on fire is always fun.  5. The Opening reception event was pretty amazing.  Even if I did get bitten by a monkey.  Literally.  No joke.  Picture of the evil critter below. It was someone's pet.  It was not part of the IACP.

Sustainable Food Center's Spring Bounty Dinner 2011

Spring is in the air, and fresh veggies are are hitting dinner tables.  I can not wait to see what spring crops bring.  The Sustainable Food Center Chef's Series was an awesome event to check out what spring veggies and meats are available.  Thank you so much to SFC, Giant Noise, La Condesa, and the Chefs for having me out for dinner.  Before we get started, I have to show off my Scan-gauge with some readouts from the Chevy Cruze Eco.  MPG is instantaneous miles per gallon.  It says 0.0 because I was stopped.  However, on my drive from my home to downtown Austin and parking, was 45.3 city driving.  Not too bad considering the Chevy Cruze Eco Automatic is rated 26 city driving. 

YAY!  This car performed better for me city driving than highway driving.


The first course wasn't started with a beer, but this is pretty awesome to have just sitting on a table.  This was Independence Brewery's Stash IPA.  Wanna firkkin?


Foreign and Domestic's Richardson Farms Pork liver custard waiting to be plated.  I was pretty hungry by the time 5pm rolled around, and staring at food did not help.  I nearly passed out from hunger be the time the food started rolling.


I caught Chef Paul Qui from Uchiko in the back preparing for dinner service.


Chef Zack Northcutt from Haddington's and Chef David Bull from Congress Austin chopping onions and grill red romaine.  I'm unsure how they aren't crying from the onions.  I wear goggles when I chop onions.


The first course is from Chef Ned Elliott from Foreign and Domestic.  It is Richardson Farms pork liver custard with piquillo syrup, natsturtium salsa, and sherry caramel.  The flavor combination was utterly fantastic, and the texture of the custard was incredibly smooth.  If you're a lover of the liver, this is the dish for you.  If you're not a liver lover, you  might not be so thrilled.  While I loved the dish, I thought that the La Spinetta Moscato made the pairing overly sweet.  I think a dry champagne would have paired better with the texture and sweetness of this dish.


The next dish is from Chef Paul Qui from Uchiko.  Spring onion dashi, squash blossoms, baby zucchini, baby carrots, on top of a goats' milk ricotta.  I think that's goats' because there should be more than one goats' milk to make the cheese.  Coming back onto the subject at hand, this dish was literally spring in a bowl.  The flavors was so light, fresh, subtle, and clean that it made me feel like my body was healing itself, Wolverine style.  Also the presentation of this dish was fantastic. The colors were simply gorgeous.


This dish is the Milago farms soft egg, elephant garlic puree, and pancetta shitake vinaigrette danube from Chef Bryce Gilmore of Barely Swine and the ever popular Odd Duck Farm to Trailer.  I must say that Chef Bryce has got that soft egg thing going on.  It is one of my favorites at the trailer, and this dish aimed to please.  The yolk of this egg was perfectly cook, congealed but not runny.  On top of the garlic puree (that was not the least bit pungent) with a bite of crunchy pancetta, #win.  Paired with Lagunitas Little Sumpin Ale, it was a perfect balance for cutting the rich heavy fats and the sweetness of the pancetta.  Double #win.


Chef Shawn Cirkiel of Parkside served up Sloan Farms rabbit, green garlic, pecans, glazed spring carrots, and a red wine sauce.  Is this dish beautiful or what?  This dish just looks so pretty with that pink carrot.


Next up was grilled Lockhart quail, grilled red romaine, candied orange, and cardamon yogurt by Chef David Bull from Congress Austin. The quail was out of this world. Chef David brined it in citrus for 24 hours, and that will be the next method I use when I cook poultry.  It was sweet, juicy, and de-boned (except the leg bone which made for a nice handle).  The sweet quail, tart orange, and subtly spiced yogurt was fantastic.
 

Chef Zack Northcutt of Haddington's can make a mean meal.  This Windy Ranch osso bucco served over polenta was so mean is made me cry and wish that my ancestors were Italian.  But they are not, even though I don't have Italian roots, this osso bucco made me feel like I was at home (even if I never ate it at home).  I'm pretty sure my mom doesn't even know what it is.  In any case, the osso bucco was meaty in texture, juicy with flavor (just the right amount of fat), and perfect with the Independence Brewing Stash IPA.  It had just the right amount of hop flavor to go against this beefy dish. I hope this gets added to the Haddington's menu on in the wintertime.  I would be shoveling it in my mouth like it was going out of style.


This drink is the Del Maguey Crema de Mezcal with Honey Liqueur, cream, and house-made Froberg Farm strawberry soda.  I loved this drink's creamy texture and strong liqueur flavor though it was just a tad sweet. 

Dessert by Chef Laura Sawacki at La Condesa was Soncrest Farms smoked egg parfait, marcona almond, Oakhill Farms strawberrry, pickled mustard seed, and smoked sea salt.  To someone who doesn't know Chef Laura's style, that might sound a bit daunting and completely unconventional.  Let me tell you straight up that Laura is not traditional, but she is downright amazing.  This dessert paired sour, sweet, spicy, smoke with creamy, sticky, cold, and crunchy into something fantastic that words cannot describe.  I have to hand it to Austin pastry chefs.  They can get downright creative and pull off crazy concoctions.

Thank you again to SFC, Giant Noise, La Condesa, and the Chefs for having me over for dinner.  And Happy Birthday to Chef Rene Ortiz!