When life gives you a bag full of kumquats, you can’t make lemonade, but you can make marmalade. This latest batch of marmalade had tons of kumquats, a blood orange or two, and a few slices of grapefruit.
the ‘meat’ of the marmalade all chopped up and ready to be cooked
cooking down the marmalade with some cardamom and cloves
filling up the sterilized jars
tada! Now all we need is some bread to spread this on.
Living in Los Angeles, I don’t usually think of a winter wonderland as one where everything is in differing shades of white, but that color was definitely the theme to our dinner at Kajitsu last week. It’s rare that a vegan restaurant earns Michelin stars and its even rarer that we get a reservation at that type of restaurant, so when we were in New York and the restaurant had an opening, we seized the opportunity.
Kajitsu is a tiny restaurant at the bottom of a couple of stairs that’s easy to overlook. Its interior contains a handful of small tables and an L-shaped bar that seats eight. On the wall behind the bar is a small vase with a single flower. It’s Japanese minimalism at its best.
We ordered the Hana set menu ($70) which upon closer inspection featured dishes consisting of a lot of white-colored things: yuba, white miso, cauliflower, mountain yam, radish, and more. Since Kajitsu is shojin restaurant, we didn’t have to ask any questions about animal products in things.
First impressions are important and in this area Kajitsu did not disappoint. Our first dish was steamed purple top turnip and awa-fu tempura with a warm ankake sauce. The sauce was creamy and savory, while the awa-fu was satisfyingly chewy.
The dish that came next showcased the meticulous knife skills of the chef. Under a piece of leek cut into a cone was a tiny radish cut into a delicate flower. The truffle pieces went really well with the delightful lemon snow. Even though I love truffles, what I was really looking forward to in this dish was the yuba. As soon as I saw it on the menu, I started thinking back to the tender, soft sheets of yuba we had while staying at a ryokan in Japan. Unfortunately, Kajitsu’s version couldn’t stand up to that and what we got instead was something one step above what we could get at the store.
Our salad dish was the most thoughtful and exact salad I had ever had. It was surprising how many flavors and textures could fit into that small bowl. There were micro greens, sprouts, a soy sauce gelee type thing, apple vinaigrette, and a spicy finish.
The noodle dish consisted of flat, house-made udon in a white sesame and cabbage stew. The udon had such a smooth mouthfeel that I could have sworn they were rice noodles. Regrettably, they were a little too overdone for my tastes and some of my pieces stuck together. The broth was a hit though and Will probably would have slurped up the bowl the broth came in if the waitress hadn’t taken away.
While we were eating the noodle dish, we had been watching a chef prepare the pickles for the rice dish. The pickles were made earlier in-house, but it still took her at least ten minutes to carefully portion out each type of pickle into a small dish. Watching her work on the pickle presentation convinced me that one needed to be extremely detail-oriented to work at Kajitsu.
When the rice dish with pickles arrived, they did not disappoint. The rice was perfectly cooked and seasoned. The house-made pickles were appetizing. The phyllo dough nori was different but good. This was probably one of the best bowls of rice I’d ever had at a restaurant.
I was afraid that I was too full for dessert when the single mochi on a plate came around, but it was so delightful I managed to eat all of it. It helped that the azuki and kabocha filling was just the right sweetness for me.
To finish the meal, we were served small candies from Kyoto with a warm bowl of matcha. The green bitterness of the tea went well with the sweet candies and left a satisfying end to the entire meal.
Kajitsu
414 E 9th St New York, NY 10009
Between 1st Ave. & Ave. A
For New Years Eve, Will and I went to my parents and cooked dinner. His contribution was a traditional New Years dumpling called money bags. Here’s what he has to say about it:
I just got this cookbook for Christmas, and decided to adapt this recipe (which usually is made with pork) for dinner, in honor of the New Year. I omitted the shrimp, replaced the pork with wheat gluten, and added some extra oil and seasoning to replace the salt and fat that would otherwise be in the filling. The recipe called for 3 cups of sweet-potato starch, which I think must be a typo.
New Year Money Bags (Jin Yuan Bao)?
Adapted from Cooking From China’s Fujian Province by Jacqueline M. Newman.
Ingredients:
8 dried Chinese style shittake mushrooms, soaked stems down, stems removed.
8 oz wheat gluten or other meat substitute (I used ‘mian chang’ — wheat gluten intestine, and mine was made with some soy as well).
4 scallions, green and white parts
4 cloves garlic, or 2 cloves of garlic and 2 stalks fresh garlic if available
4 slices fresh ginger, peeled
1/2 C fresh cilantro, with some stems, washed and dried salted mustard stem or other salted Chinese vegetable
4 tsp regular soy sauce
4 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp vegetable oil
4 tsp Fujian / Fukien rice wine (probably can substitute Shaoxing if not available) pinch or two of salt
1/8 tsp white pepper pinch vegetarian bouillon or seasoning (optional)
3 Tbsp sweet-potato flour (note: this is not the same as potato flour / potato starch, though you could probably sub potato starch or cornstarch)
1 package square wonton wrappers (eggless if you’re trying to make vegan)
1 egg, beaten, ener-g egg replacer or corn / potato starch mixed with water vegetable oil, for frying.
Directions:
Wring out the wheat gluten and shittakes so that they’ll soak up as much of the liquids as possible.
Finely mince the mushrooms, wheat gluten, scallions, garlic / fresh garlic stalks, ginger, and cilantro. Chop the salted vegetable a little more coarsely. Mix together.
Mix the wet ingredients along with the salt, white pepper, and vegetarian boullion or seasoning.
Add the sweet-potato flour and wet ingredients to the mushroom / wheat gluten mixture, and combine. Let set for a little for the liquid ingredients to get absorbed.
The recipe’s directions for folding the pouches are pretty unhelpful. I mostly just followed my father-in-law, but this is one of those times where a picture is worth 1000 words. Basically like a normal wonton, but you try not to leave much space in the middle, and you push the points down and square off the ends to try and form roughly an “ingot” shape. Use the egg or water / starch slurry to seal.
Deep-fry in vegetable oil until golden and crispy, and let drain on a rack. Serve with any kind of dipping sauce (we had a simple sauce with lemon, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and sugar, but I bet a thick sweet / sour type sauce or Chinese mustard would be good too).
Will and I went to a great play called Chinglish while we were in New York. It’s about miscommunication and the complicated situations it can cause. What really attracted me to the show was that both English and Mandarin was spoken. While it helps to be bilingual when watching the play, there are surtitles on stage for those who only speak English. It also helps that the play runs under 2 hours including intermission, for people like me who tend to get itchy-butt 90 minutes in.
The story starts with a businessman, Daniel, who goes to a small city in China’s midwest. He doesn’t know a word of Chinese, so he meets up with a “business consultant” British guy who speaks pretty good mandarin. Stephen Pucci, who plays the consultant, has great Mandarin-speaking skills, as well as a decent Beijing-opera-style singing voice which makes for some hilarious scenes. Wacky hijinks follow as the Daniel tries to get the Chinese government to sign a contract with his company.
The dialog, especially the mis-communication issues reminded me of some nights at my parents’ dinner table while they were trying to talk to Will. It was funny in a that’s-so-true sort of way. Another cool thing about the play was the set design. The scene changes are done live, with the set and furniture moving in and out on tracks while rhythmic music plays. Who knew one could get so excited about a scene change.
There was a Q&A session after the show. One member of the audience started crying tears of joy (I hope that’s what it was!) when he was remarking about how far Asian-American actors have come. It was touching, but also awkward.
I highly recommend the show, even if it doesn’t come with a slightly-awkward, Q&A session afterward.
I was channeling a dong bei noodle master’s energy this afternoon because I was overcome with the spirit to make some noodles. For the dough, I winged it, but it’s roughly:
I stirred the salt into the warm water till it dissolved, then slowly poured it into my mountain of flour, kneading it as I went. When most of the water was incorporated, I started to really knead the dough. It was a nice mid-afternoon stress release. I highly recommend it as a break from work. After kneading for about 10 minutes, the dough should be mostly smooth. Stick it in a ziplock bag and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
When you’re ready to cut the noodles, generously flour a flat surface and your rolling pin. Cut the mound of dough in two and work with one half at a time. I did a combination of rolling flat and folding to get the noodles thin enough. When they got to my preferred thinness, I rolled it into a tube and sliced it into noodles. Sprinkle the noodles with flour, toss them a little, and set them aside while the water boils.
The broth for this noodle soup was made from a mishmash of leftovers in the fridge: baby bok choy, wood ear mushroom, dried shiitake, leeks, and some preserved bamboo shoots. After adding a sprinkling of white pepper at the end, it turned out to be a tasty broth that wasn’t so strong it overpowered my freshly made noodles.
The noodles were a cinch to cook since they were fresh. I don’t think it took longer than 5 minutes for them to fully cook in boiling water.
Not bad for a last-minute, gotta-clear-the-fridge meal.
Latkes have a special place in my heart because it was one of the first things Will cooked for me. Plus, they’re deep fried potatoes and how can I not love that? We usually have a Chanukah party sometime in December, but because it falls so late this year and people get more busy the closer it gets to Christmas, we decided to skip it. But that doesn’t mean we have to skip the latkes!
Chanukah Latkes with Christmas Beer
The next night, our friend Yuko invited us over to watch Top Chef. This evolved into grabbing dinner, which then evolved into a taco party. Freshly made tortillas and home-made filling made this party a success! The food was so good, I completely forgot to build a food-porn plate under her excellent kitchen lighting and just stuffed my face instead. Top Chef is always better when watched on a full stomach and sipping an armanac side car.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. It’s probably one of my favorite holidays of the year because my family gets together and we have great food and there’s no pressure of getting presents like there is at Christmas. Instead of turkey, my parents ordered a roast duck and brined chicken from Sam Woo and cooked up a bunch of sides. It was extra veggie-friendly this year with the following vegetarian dishes: wild rice with butternut squash, spaghetti squash gratin, yamaimo and avocado salad, kale salad, veggie kidney and basil, roast potatoes, braised and baked tofu, vegetarian duck, and some pickled onions and home-pickled greens to whet the appetite.
This morning, I made a persimmon upside-down cake since we had a bag of persimmons from my parents and I had just watched Barefoot Contessa make some sort of upside down apple cake.
I sliced up some persimmon and spread them out in a cake pan and poured over a lightly cooked caramel sauce. In hindsight, I should have added less water to the caramel and let it brown more. It was more watery than syrupy.
For the cake part, I mostly used this vegan cupcake recipe but put in less sugar, left out the coconut extract, and put in some extra holiday spices (cinnamon and nutmeg). I also didn’t have cider vinegar, so I made do with the pomegranate drinking vinegar in the fridge.
It was okay and not so bad as a first try and mostly winging it, but next time, I’ll put even less sugar and caramelize the sugar more. The cake part was a little too moist for my taste, but tasted better after sitting for a few hours and drying out.
