Cooking Basics--Roux

A roux is a base of flour and fat used in sauces and soups as a thickening agent. It has taken me forever to figure out how to make a decent roux. So my first bit of advice is patience. The second is preserverance. The third is to try it out, because being able to throw together a sauce is a life saver when you have no canned sauces on hand.

To make a roux you need:
2 Tbs. Flour
2 Tbs. Unsalted butter
A fork
A sauce pan

First heat the pan over medium heat until it is hot or just begins to smoke. Add two tablespoons flour to the pan and let melt. Be careful to melt the butter and not burn it. Next, add the two tablespoons flour to the melted butter. Using your fork gently mash the two together until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Now, you are ready to add what you would like for a sauce or soup.

It is important to note you need equal parts flour to fat. The recipe may call for the roux to cook a bit longer until it is caramel in color.

Please keep in mind as you are creating your sauce or soup to continually stir the roux to keep the mixture smooth. You also don't want to overcook the roux, which will give the flour a grainy mouth-feel.

For my next recipe, I will post home-made mac and cheese which requires a roux.

Food Block

I haven't written for ages. So I'm just making a quick pit stop to say I've hit a food block. Seriously, I keep eating at all the same places and cooking all the same food. By the way, the taco stand is still cheap and delicious and Tsunami makes great take-out. Help me! Any suggestions for how to get out of my food coma?

An Eastern Weekend

Oh yes, my friends that's what I said. This weekend Ava, Erin and I sampled cuisine from China, Japan and Thailand.

China
First stop on this train: China. Okay, I'll admit this isn't authentic Chinese food, but it's my favorite. Once again, I was feeling lazy and ordered delivery from the Dragon Diner. That wonderfully fabulous restaurant delivered again with egg rolls, fried rice, sweet and sour pork and sesame chicken.

The egg rolls were good, but a little dry. The fried rice was full of flavor with ham, shrimp, carrots and peas with a good helping of teriyaki sauce mixed in. The sweet and sour pork was pretty good, the sauce had a little less sour and more sweet than I anticipated. The big chuncks of pineapple with the deep fried pork bites were a great combination.

My favorite dish is the sesame chicken. It's always excellent from the Dragon. The chicken is tender and full of flavor, deep-fried and coated in sauce .I love this chicken. For $30 it was a great night in with my best friends.

Japan
Next stop: Japan. On Friday night, we went to Sapporo in Downtown. Ava and I love this place, but it was Erin's first visit. We sat at the sushi bar where John was the chef. John actually remembered us from our last visit and once again was friendly and talkative.

I ordered the Montoc roll for $12.95. It was a little much for me. The wasabi tobiko was way more wasabi than I can handle. I like spice, but I can't handle that much heat. Luckily, John had used the tobiko as a garnish across the top of the sushi roll and I was able to scrape it off and enjoy the asparagus and yellowtail.

Ava ordered the Rainbow Roll. This roll had a combination of several fish giving it it's name and color. It must have been delicious because she devoured it in about 20 minutes. And using chopsticks. I am so impressed by her Japanese skills.

Erin ordered the Chef's choice shashimi roll. And for the undecided this is a great option. John created eight rolls using eight different ingredients. There was salmon, shrimp, mackrel and yellowtail along with the other ingredients I couldn't identify or don't remember. It's like a sample tray of sushi.

Thailand
Last stop: Thailand. On Saturday night we were treated to homemade Thai food. Pau made a wonderful meal. It was amazing! I haven't had much Thai before and I have never been impressed, but this meal changed my mind. For the first course we had a chicken coconut soup with big chuncks of carrots and mushrooms. It was very rich and hearty. Pau said it is a traditional winter dish in Thailand.

For the main course we had a very spicy curry with shrimp. Apparently, the shrimp head is a delicacy. It's kind of crunchy and a little bit stringier than I expected. It tests gamier than the rest of the shrimp. Almost like an oyster, it was surprisingly good. It also came from the most giant shrimp I have ever seen in my life.

The curry was very hot. Pau said it was medium high heat. I'm pretty sure I coudn't survive what she would consider hot. It was great flavor, but the heat was nearly overwhelming. I had to have water close at hand.

For dessert we had deep-fried bananas and ice cream. Yum, yum, yummy! Pau used a mixture of flour and water for the breading then rolled the banana in bread crumbs. It tasted like there was honey drizzled on top, as well. It was sweet and delicious.

In three days, we had three great meals three different countries. Each meal was it's own unique experience and I can't wait to eat some more. This weekend, I'm looking forward to another adventure in cuisine. How was your food weekend?

Market Street Grill

Seafood, anyone? Market Street Grill offers a variety of seafood with a menu that is updated daily. Judging from the prices I would say they fly the fish in fresh from California. Judging from the flavor they don't fly it in on Fridays.

Market Street has gone to the effort making the interior of their restaurant as sea-friendly as possible. The white paneling coupled with the dark wood accents makes me think of Boston. They've also put up fake fish with neon back lighting, it's a little different, but fits the place.

I should also note the soft background music wasn't total crap. It wasn't my favorite music, but I remember hearing three songs in a row I actually liked. Pretty amazing for a chain restaurant.

Our waiter was competent. Although, she was friendly I was surprised by the bantering between her and the other wait staff on the floor. I felt like she forgot we were there whenever she commented about how much she had in tips and what a slow day it was to other waiters. Maybe, it's slow because people know they will be treated like they don't exist there. On another note, for some inexplicable reason they had six or so waiters for Friday lunch on a cold snowy day.

The menu is expensive. I would even say more expensive than their quality of food merits. I ordered the crab and artichoke dip as an appetizer for about $10. The dip was very yummy. If you like crab and artichoke it's delicious. It was creamy and hot with a nice bread crumble across the top. If you don't like crab or artichoke you probably won't like it.

They also serve a complimentary loaf of sour dough bread. The bread was nice and crusty. It was sourdough without being too sour. I'm not usually a big fan of sourdough, but this was fantastic! I loved the bread. As did Ava, I think it's safe to say that if we ever go back we will most anticipate the bread.

For our entrees Ava ordered Cajun Seafood Pasta for about $23 and I ordered the Fisherman's Platter for about $20. Both entrees were served with a side salad. The salad essentially ended up being greens, three tomatoes and three slices of onion. Umm...I know it's a side salad, but are the tomatoes supposed to be the side to the salad?

Our entrees soon came looking delicious. The Cajun pasta was supposed to be served with a fettucine pasta, but came with spaghetti pasta instead. The fisherman's platter came with everything deep-fried (how could I resist?) scallops, calamari, halibut and shrimp along with a side of cheesy potatoes. At this point both Ava and I were stuffed.

So I ended up sampling my dish. In the end, calamari is chewy, but good. Scallops are better when they aren't deep-fried, I could deep fry my own shrimp and they would be just as good and the halibut was not the level I expected it to be. But the potatoes were delicious. Not just because I love potatoes either. They were nicely seasoned, covered with cheese and had plenty of parsley to contrast with the cheddar. Seriously, good.

Ava's pasta was a little spicier than she had bargained for, but it looked great. And from her efforts to eat it I'm going to say it was good. Of course, she can let you know in the comments. It had andouille sausage along with the usual scallops and shrimp seafood.

So in all lunch was about $60. Way, way too much for what it was. Even though we ate a ton of food I don't think lunch should ever be that expensive. Luckily, I had a $50 gift card so it only cost me $10. It was definitely worth the ten bucks.

Here's the bottom line. If you go to Market Street Grill, pray for a decent waiter, skip the appetizer and only order entrees. And to save money, ask the nice people you know hook you up with a gift card.

Port O'Call

Port O'Call
75 West 400 South

For New Year's Eve, Ava and I went to Port O'Call in Downtown. It's a great bar that has been recommended by a few different friends. So we went ahead and took the opportunity to see what it was all about before the city demolishes the building.

We arrived early because I was starving and couldn't wait to devour something. The main floor was packed, but we found a nice little table upstairs on the year-round patio. Our waitress was friendly and efficient. We ordered from the regular menu. Ava had the chicken pasta a.k.a Big Ass Pasta and I ordered a cheeseburger and fries a.k.a Classic Port Burger.

The food was delicious. People say hunger is the best sauce and maybe that's true, but fry sauce with beer-battered, fresh-cut fries is AMAZING! The hamburger was served open-faced. I would have liked more cheese. They also didn't serve any mayonnaise on the side or on the bun which I thought was odd, but not a great loss. It was fantastic bar food and totally worth the $7 price.

I also had an Electric Long Island. As I said, "It's just the way I like them not enough alcohol I can taste it, but enough that I can feel it." I also tried a Tequila Sunrise and a Cape Cod. Although, Ava loves Cape Cod I think I'll stick with the Long Island. Again, our waitress was spectacular and brought us refills before we realized we needed them and made sure we were well taken care of.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere at Port. They've done a great job of making it feel like you are at a friend's home. I also noticed that the patrons of Port seemed like a big family. There were a lot of large groups of friends around. For a club it seemed more like a pub. And the bathrooms are clean. In my limited experience of clubs in Salt Lake City that is unique.

I would love to go back to Port, but with a $10 cover charge and cocktails running at about $6 each it ended up being a pricey evening for a poor, starving college student. Luckily, Ava is amazing and paid for dinner and drinks. So I got away with paying only $20 for the cover charge. It was totally worth it.

How was your New Year's Eve?