New Designs at Redbubble

Not only do I write about food and take photos of food, I use those photos to create fabric designs. The four below are some of my latest designs and can be found on everything from travel mugs to duvet covers and more. I particularly like them on scarves, tote bags, and sofa pillows.

Check out the links below every photo to see my whole line, sold by Redbubble.com.

Good Morning

Koreatown

Little Italy

Taco Tuesday

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Where There's Smoke, There's Probably BBQ

We finally got our asses to Smoke. We'd been meaning to for quite a while, but it seemed that every time getting there was a possibility, the restaurant would receive a great review in some local publication. We knew they'd be swamped with customers for at least a week or two afterward; they definitely sold out of things on a regular basis. We didn't want our hearts set on trying something they'd be out of, so we waited. And then, on a random Tuesday, we went.

Smoke is a "modern American bbq restaurant" which means they have crap like chickpeas that have no place in my life (I am allergic to them). It's a vegetarian-friendly place, believe it or not, serving grilled smoked tofu and fried green tomatoes as well as those chickpeas. We tried the tomatoes, which were coated in a thick yet light and crisp batter and came with a side of Tabasco remoulade. There were a couple of pickle spears in there, too, but somehow they didn't taste particularly pickle-y. At first, I thought they were just oddly shaped tomato slices. Tasty nonetheless.

We also tried the "Boss Dawg." No dogs were harmed during the making of this sandwich, but at least a couple of pigs met their maker. With pulled pork, house-cured bacon, cheddar, slaw, crispy onions, jalapeno-bacon glaze, and pickles, this beast seemed like it should be sloppy, but it was not. We passed it back and forth between us, taking bites of the smoky, meaty, goodness, and dropped nary a bit of it. I really enjoyed the combination of flavors and textures, and while the meat was delicious, the crispy onions really made it. The pickles, too, had an impact. Definitely one of the best sandwiches I have eaten in a long time.

We also ordered the KFC wings, which are smoked, fried, coated in a Korean bbq sauce, and garnished with cilantro and sesame seeds. A cup of tasty five-spice pickled veg came on the side. I had mixed emotions about the wings. They had good textures--meaty, firm, not sloppy, not too much sauce--but the flavors of hickory smoke and Korean bbq got in each other's way. That's just my opinion, so YMMV. I plan on going back and trying the pork belly served with the same sauce and see if that works any better for me.

There are lots of other things I want to try, too, like the pit sandwich, the tofu, the bacon wrapped dates, the "righteous" mac and cheese, pretty much everything we haven't already tried (except the chickpeas). I love me some old school Andy Nelson's, but there's definitely a place for new style bbq in my stomach as well.

Smoke
574 Cranbrook Rd
Cockeysville, MD 21030
(410) 891-8515



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Pork, Kimchi, & Dr. Pepper. Or, How to Take an Idea and Make It Your Own.

Yum yum - don't those look delicious?  And they were. The general recipe for these ribs came from Bryan Voltaggio's new book, Home: Recipes to Cook with Family and Friends. It's a very nice book with lots of interesting and not overly-complicated recipes (quite a change from the very chef-fy VOLT ink, his book with brother Michael). This recipe is so simple, in fact, there are only five ingredients: pork spareribs, kimchi, Dr Pepper, ketchup, and scallions.

The recipe is written for a pressure cooker, but since not everyone has one of those hanging around the house, there are also directions for baking the ribs. Rather than the 15 mins for a pressure cooker, oven cooking takes 3 hours at 300°F. For both versions, the ribs, soda, and kimchi are dumped into the cooking vessel. Simple, right?

The recipe's instructions are pretty simple, too. Once the ribs are cooked, the cooking liquid is poured off, the kimchi reserved and kept warm in a separate pot. The liquid should be cooked down with the addition of 1/4 cup of ketchup, to make a glaze. The ribs are then browned on a grill, glazed with the sauce, and served with the kimchi on the side. Easy, peasy. Except....

I don't know how much liquid comes off of the ribs in a pressure cooker, but the oven method produces well over a quart of various pork juices and fat. And I didn't even use the recommended amount of kimchi. The recipe calls for two 30-ounce jars. That's 3 3/4 POUNDS of kimchi. My supermarket had only two 16-ounce jars; I thought that was plenty. There's no mention of salt in the recipe; I'm guessing the massive amount of kimchi was going to supply that element, so I salted the ribs before cooking them. Now what to do with all of that liquid, which tasted nice and porky, with a light cabbag-y element that reminded me of my Polish grandmother's cooking. I decided to keep a cup of it, which I defatted with ice cubes. I didn't think a mere 1/4 cup of ketchup would make much impact, so I upped it to 1/2 cup, added a bit more Dr Pepper, plus 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, and, because the kimchi is a Korean thing, a heaping tablespoon of gochujang. I also tossed in an entire bunch of scallions, chopped. After this sauce boiled for a few minutes to a nice thick consistency, I gave the scallions a whiz with a hand blender to make a chunky sauce redolent of meat, sweet, and heat.

Rather than firing up our charcoal grill for about 10 minutes of cooking, I put the ribs under the broiler, instead. Browned them on both sides first, then brushed them with my sauce for a final broil. The result was pretty delicious. There was no obviously Korean flavoring to them, despite the kimchi and gochujang. Perhaps if I had added a bit of sesame oil and a bunch of garlic to the sauce, but I didn't want to risk burning the oil during broiling. Yuck. The cooked kimchi itself had lost a lot of its oomph, but was still tasty. I had been slightly skeptical that the ribs would come out with much flavor at all, being that they hadn't been dry-rubbed the day before, but they had absorbed a good deal of the kimchi's garlic flavor.

I think that if I make this recipe again, I'd do it with baby backs, which are far less-fatty and easier to work with, since they are so much smaller and don't require any trimming. I'd use my tried-and-true Alton Brown method of dry-rubbing and foil-wrapping the ribs the day before, except instead of a dry rub, I'd puree the kimchi with some of the Dr Pepper to make a paste and allow the ribs to marinate in that overnight before adding more soda for the final cooking. Will let you know how that goes if and when it happens.

In the meantime, I have to figure out what to do with a pint of leftover cooked kimchi.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Be One Korean BBQ

We are carnivores, so we love us some Korean BBQ. We've been going to Honey Pig, which we like a lot, but sometimes we don't want to get on the beltway and eat in another county. So we looked to Baltimore City for a solution. There's a Koreatown of sorts in Station North around Maryland Ave/21st Street with several notable restaurants like Nak Won, Nam Kang, and Joung Kak. We decided to skip the tried and true and try the new-ish BeOne, in the little shopping center on Maryland between 20th and 21st. And with that we found our new favorite Korean BBQ joint.

We went for a few kinds of meat including bulgogi and pork neck. The bulgogi was scrumptious, tender and lightly fatty, with lots of sweet and garlicky flavor. The pork neck was a completely different animal (obviously), unseasoned and chewy. It's not for everyone.

We also had a pork and squid combo, and boneless kalbi (short rib). Squid gets a little tough on the grill, so again, it's not for everyone.

We also had the dolsot bibimbop (the one in the hot stone bowl) and couldn't resist the seafood pancake. And while we enjoyed the bulgogi the most of the BBQ items, the pancake was the best thing on the table. Huge, packed full of octopus, and super crispy, we couldn't stop eating it. Of course, we're all pigs and managed to eat pretty much everything on the table, including most of the large bowl of tofu soup, the eggs, and all of the various bowls of pickles and whatnot (panchan) that comes with. Among the panchan dishes we enjoyed the most was a rather horseradishy kimchi, and thin strips of fish cake in a spicy sauce. Hell, it was all good.

Service was pretty good, too, but the place wasn't at all busy on that particular Saturday afternoon, so YMMV. Be One didn't have the hustle-bustle that Honey Pig has, so we felt a bit more relaxed while we enjoyed our food. So, to sum up - food great, service pretty good, and we didn't have to drive to Howard County. Win. Win. Win.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Korean Baby Back Ribs

Believe it or not, I think baby back ribs are one of the easiest and tastiest things to prepare for a weekend dinner. Note that I did not use the words "fastest" or "quickest"--the process is rather time-consuming. However, the actual work is pretty simple. Normally I'll put together a dry rub (or get Mr Minx to do it) and apply it to the ribs the night before. The next day, the ribs get a dose of moisture in the form of juice or even soda and spend several hours lounging in a slow oven. Once the meat is fork tender, it gets slathered in sauce for a trip under the broiler.

I find slightly charred barbecue sauce to be a delightful scent. Someone needs to make a candle. But not Yankee Candle.

Oven braised bbq ribs are a perfect lazy weekend dish. As long as I don't make a lot of sides, it affords me free time to catch up on my reading or knitting or whatever. (Napping, too.) And two giant racks of ribs for two people means a week's worth of leftovers. Or two dinners for us plus enough left over to bribe my brother into watching the dog while we head off to a media event in Frederick.

I was feeling in a Korean food mood (as often happens) so I designed the dry rub and sauce with that in mind. To my palate, Korean food is all about sweet, garlic, and heat. The dry rub includes all three elements in the form of brown sugar, garlic powder, and kochukaru, or Korean red pepper flakes. The sauce also incorporates those flavors, plus the tang of rice vinegar and the toasty mustiness of sesame oil.

I put some jarred kimchi into the sauce because we had it. (It's available in the refrigerated produce section of Giant and other supermarkets, believe it or not.) If you don't want to invest in a jar, then just add another garlic clove and some chopped scallions to the sauce.

I make ribs fairly often, and I think this is my favorite version to date.

Oven-Baked Baby Backs with Korean Flavors

For rub:
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons kochukaru (Korean pepper flakes)
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder

For sauce:
1/2 onion, diced
1/4 cup kimchi, chopped (or 1 clove of garlic and 3 whole scallions)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 heaping teaspoon grated fresh ginger
6 heaping tablespoons brown sugar
2 heaping tablespoons gochujang
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon unseasoned rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

For ribs:
2 racks baby back ribs, 6-7 lbs total weight
1/2 cup apple juice

To make the rub: Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Reserve three tablespoons for glaze.

Remove the thin membrane that covers the concave side of each rack of ribs. You can do this by grasping one end with a paper towel and pulling. If you're lucky, it'll come off in one sheet. (Like this.)

Place a sheet of aluminum foil on a large rimmed baking sheet and set close by.

Tear two large sheets of heavy-duty aluminum foil, each large enough to hold one of the racks, with several inches of overhang on all four sides. Place the foil sheets, one on top of the other, on the counter in front of you, horizontally. Place one rack of ribs on the top sheet; coat the top and bottom of the ribs with half of the rub, pressing it into the meat. Take the top and bottom edges of the foil and bring them together over the ribs like a tent. Fold the edges together and roll them down towards the meat to make a package. Roll the open sides of the package up toward the center to seal all sides. Your package should look like this. Repeat with other rack of ribs. Place both wrapped packages on the prepared baking sheet.

Refrigerate ribs for 6 hours or overnight.

To make the sauce: Cook the onion over medium heat in a bit of oil and pinch of salt for about 10 minutes, or until soft. Add the kimchi, garlic, and ginger. Stir to combine and let cook for an additional couple of minutes. Add the brown sugar, gochujang, soy, and rice vinegar. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Let sauce thicken a bit, then remove from the heat and stir in the sesame oil. Use an immersion blender to make a mostly smooth sauce. Place sauce into a covered container and refrigerate until ready to use.

To cook the ribs: Preheat oven to 250°F.

Remove ribs from the fridge. Gently unroll one short end on each foil package. Pour a quarter cup of apple juice into each, and re-roll the ends. Keeping the packets on the rimmed baking sheet, put the whole thing into the oven.

Cook 1 1/2 - 2 hours, until meat is fork tender.

Remove tray from oven and turn on the broiler. Gently unroll one end of each package and pour out the liquid. (Carefully - it will be very hot!) Place the ribs on a foil-lined baking sheet and brush the top side liberally with the glaze. Broil for 5-8 minutes, until sauce is bubbling and charred in spots. Remove meat from broiler, brush with more glaze, and repeat broiling.

Serves 6-8



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Honey Pig

After hearing about the greatness of Honey Pig's Korean bbq, we finally made a pilgrimage on a cloudy Friday afternoon. As soon as we were seated, someone rushed over with dishes of banchan, the little plates of pickles and such one normally gets in a Korean restaurant. Unlike some other places, Honey Pig's selection isn't particularly large, but it hits all the necessary garlick-y/tart/fishy/sweet notes.

As soon as we placed our order for bulgogi and pork belly, another server brought the raw goods to the table. Yet another person dumped the pork belly onto the grill and came back occasionally to turn the meat and rearrange it to optimize cooking. 

Soon everything was cooked, including a side dish of kimchi and beansprouts, and we were able to dig in. 

Both meats were tender and flavorful, possibly the best I've tasted (not that I have that much experience with Korean bbq, but I've eaten it here and there). The seafood pancake, or haemul pajeon, that we ordered as an appetizer came to the table during the Cooking of the Meat. We dug into the pancake's piping hot crispiness immediately. It was full of chewy bits of squid and scallions, and we devoured it.

Everything at Honey Pig was seriously delicious, except maybe the neon yellow lemonade, which was super sweet and artificial tasting. Next time, we'll stick to water. And we'll try other meats, the dumplings, and perhaps one of the soups or a bibimbap.

Honey Pig
10045 Baltimore National Pike
Ellicott City, MD 21042
(410) 696-2426




Posted on Minxeats.com.

Korean-style BBQ Chicken Wraps

Most of my Internet surfing these days revolves around my favorite topic: food. I read food blogs, recipe sites, search for recipe contests, etc. On most days, I try to look through the food photos at Photograzing, an offshoot of Serious Eats, for inspiration for my home cooking. One day, I was struck by photos of a vivid red Korean-style preparation called Pineapple Dak Bulgogi, which uses pineapple as a tenderizing agent in the marinade. The creator not only ate his bulgogi on rice, he also did interesting cross-cultural things like use it as a filling for burritos and tacos.

After reading the recipe, I determined that I wanted to try it but only after an issue was resolved.

Korean cooks use Asian pear in their bulgogi marinades for tenderizing, but adding sweetness is just as an important role for the fruit. And while its juice is somewhat acidic, its tenderizing ability is nothing compared to a protein-digesting enzyme like the bromelain found in pineapple. Left in contact with bromelain for more than a short time, meat proteins can break down and get unpleasantly mushy - I know this from experience. (Never marinate shrimp in pineapple juice for more time than it takes to read this sentence - tears may ensue.) The Pineapple Duk Bulgogi recipe calls for a half hour of marination, and if you've got such control of your time, then that's probably fine, but suppose you get an urgent phone call, or have to leave the house for any length of time? Sadly, your chicken will probably be ruined.

And face it, chicken doesn't need tenderizing. The original recipe calls for breast meat, which cooks very quickly. My solution to the problem: take the pineapple out of the marinade. Another change: because I'm not a fan of the BSCB (boneless skinless chicken breast), I used thighs because they are more flavorful and don't suffer when overcooked.

As for the pineapple, I did use it, but in a different component of the dish - as a sweet relish with some herbs from our garden.

Because I liked the idea of a bulgogi burrito, I wrapped my chicken in a whole-wheat flatbread along with the pineapple relish and some really fast kimchee (faster and less-powerfully garlicky than the one I made last month). The flavors went together beautifully, with the brightness and herbiness of the pineapple cutting some of the heat from the chicken, and the kimchi just making it all more flavorful.

Korean-style BBQ Chicken Wraps with Pineapple Relish and Quick and Dirty Kimchi

Korean-style BBQ Chicken
1/2 cup gochujang (Korean hot pepper bean paste)
3 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely minced
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
3 green onions, both white and green parts chopped
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs, thinly sliced

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients except chicken, stirring well to dissolve sugar. Add chicken. Cover and refrigerate at least one hour and up to overnight.

When ready to cook, pour everything into a hot sauté pan and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Turn heat down to medium, cover, and cook until chicken is cooked through, 15-20 minutes. If  you use chicken breasts, cut the cooking time by about half.

Pineapple Relish
1 cup fresh pineapple, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon sugar
6-10 basil leaves, depending on the type and size of basil you use (I used Thai)
6 large mint leaves
finely grated zest of half a lime

Over medium-high heat, sauté pineapple in butter and sugar until fruit begins to brown slightly. Remove to a bowl and toss with mint, basil, and lime zest. Serve warm.

Quick and Dirty Kimchi
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Korean pepper flakes
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon agave syrup
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1.5 cups shredded cabbage

Combine first five ingredients. Add cabbage and stir to coat. Refrigerate for an hour or more to allow flavors to develop.

To assemble:

Flatbreads, tortillas, or lavash
Korean BBQ chicken
Pineapple Relish
Quick Kimchi

Place chicken, relish, and kimchi on one end of the wrapper of your choice. Roll up and eat. Makes 4-6, depending on the size of your wrapper.

Korean BBQ

There's a widely-held stereotype that Asians drive badly; anyone who's been in the parking lot of a Korean grocery store will not refute that. Inside, the story is pretty much the same; get out of the way, or you will be run down by a shopping cart - or a person. DH and I were meeting our friend LaRaine to try out Shin Chon Gardens, in Lotte Plaza, and decided to head out early and do a little grocery shopping before dinner. The Lotte mart was small, extremely crowded, and lacking the amazing array of Asian foods we were used to at the much more-interesting Han Ah Reum. We bought a few basics - fish sauce, rice noodles, baby bok choy - and beat a hasty retreat from that madhouse.

If you read the Baltimore Sun review linked to the restaurant name above, you'll see that the service is good and that the staff speaks excellent English. Weeelll...they must have had some major turnover between then and now, because the service was abysmal and the English was just as bad. The food, however, was pretty good.

We went specifically for the barbecue, so requested to sit at one of the special tables with a grill in the center of it. LaRaine and I ordered the bul goki (thin slices of marinated beef ) and pork belly, and also pa jeon (a large pancake studded with seafood and scallions) for the table. Hubby tried the dolsot bibimbap.

In a few minutes, food started to arrive and was placed on the table higgledy-piggledy. Rain and I sat across from each other at one end of the rectangular table with a square grill taking up the center. The location of the grill left little room for the many dishes that normally accompany a Korean meal, and our waitress chose to put most of them in the small space nearest to my end of the table, including Neal's miso soup. There were also two small trays bearing whole cloves of garlic and sliced chiles plus a blob of bean paste; a basket of romaine lettuce leaves; a bowl of thinly sliced scallion greens; small saucers of something that tasted like sesame oil with salt and pepper in it; about eight small dishes containing the panchan, (the vegetables and whatnot that always accompany a Korean meal); two small lidded metal bowls containing rice; a squeeze bottle of kochujang; a saucer of sauce for the pa jeon; and two small casseroles, one containing a beefy soup and the other with steamed egg. We were confused about the casseroles; were they sides for the bbq? If so, why one soup in one bowl for two orders? Double-dipping really isn't a problem for Raine and I - we've shared enough communal Chinese meals in which we've picked up food with chopsticks that had already been in our respective mouths. But still - weird.

A waitron silently brought our meat, cutting the beef with scissors, and placed it on the grill in front of Neal, never indicating what we should do next. Do we cook the meat? Will they come by and tend it? It turned out to be a bit of both. When I decided the beef was probably burning on one side, I started turning it with my chopsticks, and Neal did the same for the pork, since he was the only one of us who could reach it. His bibimbap arrived, prettily arranged with bits of vegetable and an egg yolk, and he dug in, famished, while LaRaine and I busied ourselves with the beef and the pork, the steamed egg and the soup.

I love Korean panchan. The variety of flavors and colors is a delight to the eyes and the tastebuds. At our late, lamented favorite, Purim Oak, the panchan was generous and refilled regularly. At Shin Chon, once the dishes were placed on the table, we were left for dead. There were some tasty things - the omelette-type things with zucchini, the spicy cucumber, the marinated radish - but nothing was special, and I missed my sigeumchi-namul (a spinach preparation).

As we were scraping up the last bits of now-burned meat from the grill, our pa jeon arrived - big as a pizza, and crowded with 2" long pieces of scallion greens and nuggets of squid and small shrimp. It was crispy, greasy, and brown on the outside, and chewy on the inside. The accompanying soy and sesame sauce was too salty, but the pancake itself was delicious, a festival of textures and flavors.

After stuffing ourselves silly, I needed more water, but I couldn't get the attention of any of the waitrons floating by. The one for our section seemed to have disappeared completely, and the others just ignored us. Finally, one came to set the table behind us and I collared her on the way past (she made the fatal mistake of looking our way). I got my water, and eventually, the check came. We did not tip as well as we ordinarily might have, but now that I think of it, the waitron still got almost 15%.

Hmpfh.

I don't think this is the place we'll race to when we have a jones for Korean. But it was worth a shot, and for the most part, we enjoyed the food.