SSC Cold as Ice Edition: Fresh & Fruity Dishes Best Served Cold!

Summer. It's great right? Lounging on the beach, basking in cool breeze, hanging out on your deck, grilling in the afternoon, sitting in your beautiful air conditioned, well ventilated apartment with a sweater on...You have all of those things right? You do? Well, screw you. I don't.

In light of the fact that most of us don't live near beaches, have fancy decks, air conditioning and up to code ventilation, I'm taking the helm this week to bring to you SSC: Cold As Ice Edition. An array of dishes, best served cold. This stuff is also is great to prep the night before and perfect to bring to an outdoor meal, provided you can find a place that isn't private property or littered with hypodermic needles.

Hey, it might feel like an oven in your apartment, but at lest you won't have to turn yours on! Enjoy!




Edamame, Corn & Black Bean Salad
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 1/2 cups cooked shelled edamame
1 cups cooked corn (I just used the frozen kind)
1 cup black beans (I used canned...make sure to drain)
1/2 cup red bell peppers, diced
1/2 cup cilantro

In a small saucepan, combine vinegars, sugar, cumin and garlic. Heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.

Place edamame, corn, black beans and red pepper in a medium bowl. Pour vinegar mixture over vegetables. Stir. Refrigerate 2-4 hours. Stir in cilantro before serving.




Chicken Curry Salad
This fan favorite has a pretty simple recipe but everyone always freaks over its EXTREME AWESOMENESS. This is also a great recipe if you have a bunch of leftover chicken. You're welcome.





1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup low fat vanilla yogurt
2 tsp curry powder
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1/3 cup dried sweetened coconut
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1 large onion, diced
pinch of salt
pinch of cayenne pepper

lettuce
sandwich wraps (Spinach is my favorite but multigrain or white works great too.)

Combine all ingredients (sans the actual wraps & lettuce...obviously). Chill 3-5 hrs or overnight. Serve in wraps with lettuce. You will not be disappointed.




Hawaiian Salad/ Ambrosia
This is not even remotely close to an actual salad, which is probably why it is so damn delicious...

1 bag of mini marshmallows
1/2 pint sour cream
1 large can of fruit cocktail, drained
1 medium can of pineapple


Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Refrigerate 5-6 hours or overnight.




Pretty Much the Best Strawberry Shortcake Ever
This is an amazing recipe that my mom used to make after we went strawberry picking every summer. It's a modified Fanny Farmer recipe and it's always been one of my absolute favorites!





Sponge Cake
4 eggs
1 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tbsp cold water
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup sugar

2 8-inch layer cake pans

Whipped cream & Strawberries
1 pint heavy whipping cream
Sugar to taste
1lb strawberries, washed and halved


Pre-heat oven to 350.

Separate egg whites from egg yolks into 2 separate bowls. In yet another bowl sift flour, baking powder and salt. Beat egg whites until they stand in soft peaks. Beat in 1/4 of the sugar.

Without washing the beater, beat the egg yolks until thick and lemon colored. Then beat in vanilla, water, lemon juice and the remainder of the sugar.

Pour yolk mixture into the whites and fold together until well blended. Fold in flour mixture. Spray pans with cooking spray. Pour into pans.

Bake 25-30 minutes. (To test, press lightly with finger. If the cake is done it will spring back.)
Let cool.


Whipped Cream
Pour cream into a large bowl. Start whipping. Gradually add sugar to taste. I really have no idea how much I use. Maybe a half a cup? I dunno. Beat until it stands in soft peaks.

Construction
After cake has thoroughly cooled spread whipped cream on top of one cake. Place sliced strawberries on top. Place unfrosted cake on top of that. Spread whipped cream and place strawberries on top of that. You have now made a delicious cake. Hooray!





Booze Pairings!

Domain Houchart Provence Rosé 2010whole foods, $10
Rosé gets a bad rap, and this is because of that trashy little Miss White Zin, Beringer to be exact, trouncing around with her fakery, misleading impressible drinkers into thinking that she is a real pink wine. It's a dye job, people!

Rosé is the perfect summer wine. I eagerly await the summers through the brutally cold New England winter for this wonderful style of wine to at last be seasonally appropriate. Boy, was I happy when Sanity Supper Club member Jen plopped a bottle of Houchart rosé on the table to enjoy with our fresh and fruity summer meal.

This particular wine blogger gets rather spoiled working in a fine wine shop, and sometimes forgets about some really great mass produced wines, this being one of them. This light and bright rosé has a good amount of acidity balanced out by a creamy texture. It went perfectly with everything from the lightly savory summer salad, but had strong enough fruit flavors to hold up to the spicy curry wraps, and delicate enough to compliment the strawberry shortcake dessert.

You can find this wine a most Wholefoods with a wine section. It only runs about 10 bucks a bottle, so it wont break the bank. I am thinking of going out to buy a case myself...(as I sit and write this on my work computer,).

P.S. If you like Beringer white zin, by all means drink it. I am of the opinion that you should drink what you like. When it comes to having a good time with your friends, your drink choice is never wrong!



Margaritas!
(This is a basic recipe but you can tinker with it to make your own)

lime wedges
coarse salt
1/4 cup fresh lime juice,(about 1 large lime)
1/4 cup agave tequila
1/4 cup orange liqueur
1/2 cup coarsely cracked ice cubes




Rub the rims of 2 martini glasses with a lime wedge, then dip the rims in a dish of course salt. Refrigerate the glasses if desired.

In a shaker, combine the lime juice, tequila, and orange liqueur. Add ice and shake 10 to 15 seconds, then strain into the prepared glasses.



















Your chef for the evening; A mini shortcake with raspberries for our favorite SSC member with an unfortunate strawberry allergy; the best toothpick holder ever














The ladies!; The spread!















Shea gets serious; Quickly disappearing deliciousness; Jen! Wraps! Yum!




Cheers!
Christa & Phoebe




About Christa
Christa is a comedian, artist and graphic designer living in Boston. Because most of her family is fresh off the boat, she knows a thing or two about traditional European cooking and baking, provided that the recipes are in English (Thanks a lot, crappy American school system!). She also has a vast knowledge of fancy-smancy beers made by smelly hippies. Although she has no food credits to speak of, generally speaking everything she makes is considered to be "damn good." Check out her other blog Shameless Pomp and Circumstance if you feel like it!

SCC's Japanese Home Cooking Edition: Land of the Rising Sarah

Hello friends! Here's some new and daring info! Did you know that Japan produces something besides electronics and anime porn of girls with cat ears? (Here's looking at you, everyone I went to college with...) It does! Specifically, my awesome friend Sarah! She got here when she was 18 and since then has TAKEN AMERICA BY STORM. By that I mean, we are friends and she cooks crazy awesome. Usually, when you think about Japanese food, you think of sushi, but Sarah, authentic Japanese person™ decided to take things a different route.





For her Supper Club, Sarah cooked every day Japanese style comfort food, the type of thing that mothers usually cook for their kids and families. Think of it as the Japanese version of meatloaf or mac and cheese, (except, ya know way more awesome because it's Japanese and by nature they do everything better than us,). Anyway, it was totally different than what I thought was usually served in a Japanese household, but as always, it was nothing short of being delicious!



Japanese Potato Salad

5 potatoes
rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp of sugar
canola oil
Persian or Japanese cucumber
carrots
1/2 an onion
Japanese mayo

Steam or boil the potatoes until soft. While potatoes are being cooked, make french dressing by mixing rice wine vinegar with canola oil and some sugar. For every 3 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar, use 2 tablespoons of canola oil. Taste the dressing and make sure it is not overly sweet.

Whisk the dressing together. Remove the skin of the potatoes and mash them while hot.
Add the dressing in it while it is hot and mix with some black pepper and salt. Slice cucumber and sprinkle with salt. Let it sit for a little bit and then squeeze out the excess moisture.

Thickly slice the carrots and put it in the microwave with some water to soften it up so it is not crunchy. Thinly slice the onions and soak it and rinse the onion to remove overly onion-y flavor. Add the cucumber slices, carrot slices and onion slices to the potato/dressing mixture. Mix all together. Add 1/2 cup of Japanese mayo. You can add more or less mayonnaise depending on your taste. Keep refrigerated.


Chicken Katsu

chicken breast tenders
oil for frying
flour
Japanese panko
egg
milk



Take pieces of chicken tender, dredge in flour, then in beaten egg mixed with a little bit of milk and then finally in the panko. Make sure you pat the chicken in the panko so the panko sticks firmly to the chicken.

Heat oil (canola or vegetable works). To see if temperature is high enough, throw a piece of panko crumb and if it starts sizzling the oil is hot enough. Deep fry chicken pieces until they are golden brown. Serve with tonkatsu sauce (You can make your own tonkatsu sauce by mixing ketchup with worcestire sauce 1 to 1 ratio).


Beef Curry

veal bone (1 medium size)
beef chunks (they sell it as "stew" meat, but you can use any meat for curry)
2 onions
garlic
2 carrots
2 potatoes
Japanese curry roux blocks (You can find them here: http://www.asianfoodgrocer.com)


Roast veal bone in a shallow roasting pan in the oven for about 20-30 minutes. While it is being browned, saute sliced onions and minced garlic together until the onions are caramelized. Transfer into a deep pot. Brown the beef separately and add to the pot. Once the veal bone is roasted, also add that to the pot. Follow the instructions on the curry pack to see how much water to put in. I put in about 1.5 Liters.

Put a lid on the pot and let it stew for as long as possible. I stewed mine for close to 3 hours. Once in a while, remove the scum that has accumulated at the surface of the pot. After you are done stewing the meat with the veal bones, remove the veal bones and add the potatoes and carrot. Stew for another 30 minutes. When potatoes are soft, turn off the heat, add the curry blocks and mix. Turn the heat back on for a little and serve hot with rice.




Christa's Waffle Ice Cream Sandwiches
I came up with the idea for these after I made waaay too many waffles and had no idea what to do with them. Admittedly, they have nothing to do with Japanese food, but they were awesome, so I feel like I get a pass.


an even # of mini waffles
(I made these using a mini waffle pan and used a
buttermilk waffle recipe, but you can use Bisquick,
or if you're really lazy, just buy a bunch of the frozen
pre-made mini waffles.)
maple ice cream
dark chocolate







Wait for waffles to cool. Melt chocolate and drizzle over waffles. Refrigerate until chocolate is hard (about an hour).

Put about 2 tbsps of ice cream on half of the waffles. Top with the remaining waffles. Wrap each one in foil and/or plastic wrap and freeze for about an hour or until you are ready to serve. Bam! Waffle sandwiches!



Booze Pairings!

Choya Umeshu Plum Wine
I am not into sweet wine, but when it comes to Japanese food, especially when it comes to Sarah's spicy Japanese curry, it is a must!

Choya Plum wine is probably the easiest brand to find at your local liquor store. It is lightly sweet with great plum, apricot and peach flavors. It has a good mouth feel, a nice coat but not too thick. I highly recommend taking the label's advice and enjoying it on the rocks or mixed with a dry sparkling wine.

This wine goes very well with any spicy Asian food but works as a dessert in itself. It also comes with nice little booze soaked plums right in the bottle to munch on when you're done!


Asahi Beer
The most popular beer in Japan! Super dry and refreshing, this beer goes great with spicy food and complements the acidity of the Japanese style mashed potatoes perfectly. In my opinion, beer is the best alcohol pairing for curry, and this one sure did the job!


Sake!
This particular booze blogger has convinced herself that she is allergic to sake, but when you make this for your crew you should definitely go out and get some! Kampai !!!














Chicks/chicken; Frying, frying, frying; I have mad chopstick skillz












Wine is classier out of plastic cups; Mochi!












This has nothing to do with SSC but Sarah has the coolest nails ever; General deliciousness!


Cheers!
Christa, Phoebe and Sarah





About Sarah
Sarah grew up in Tokyo, Japan and went to International and American schools her whole life. She finished her undergrad in Northern California and is currently working towards her masters in Gastronomy at BU. She received her culinary certificate through BU last fall. She is very passionate about food and she goes by the "live to eat" mentality. Most of all, she loves to cook Japanese comfort food!