New Orleans Day 1

So, unsurprisingly, I absolutely adored New Orleans. So much so that I am now daydreaming about living there, even if just for a few months, so I can have more time to eat! drink! listen to jazz! gaze at the architecture! 

As J said, the city has soul. It comes through in so many ways, and in our brief stay there we absorbed as much of it as we could.

The title of this post is a bit of a misnomer as we didn't arrive until almost 8pm. So really, it's Evening 1, and it consisted of:

The Sazerac Bar @ The Roosevelt Hotel
123 Baronne St
New Orleans, LA 70112

New Orleans is famed for its cocktails and we dove right in, taking a cab straight to the Sazerac Bar where we could down celebratory Ramos Gin Fizzes. Back in the day, they used to have a line of barmen who would each give the cocktail a hearty shake so that it was frothy and showy - now you can sit in elegant armchairs while waiters whisk drinks to your side and the dramatics are a bit more muted, but still - it is a perfectly made drink that makes you happy to be alive.

Also due to weird flight times, we'd had an afternoon lunch/dinner so weren't in need of real food, but as usual I couldn't resist trying at least one thing, so I settled on the dish called "Heirloom Tomato". The waiter noted that it wasn't exactly a salad, which was appreciated as what came out was amazingly done, but definitively NOT a salad.

Afterwards, we decided a walk through the French Quarter would be a good way of getting a tiny introduction to the city, so we followed Bourbon Street back towards our apartment.* Let's be clear, a lot of Bourbon Street is my idea of hell, but I was still glad to see it in all of its tawdry desperate glory. And there are still some gems to be found, one being Fritzel's (733 Bourbon Street, New Orleans, LA 70116) where we popped in to see a jazz band entertain a mixed crowd that was loving every note played.

* Speaking of our apartment, Air BnB was the best option for us by far since we needed two bedrooms. We stayed in the Muse Suite in the Treme neighborhood (picture at top of post). The owners were helpful and thoughtful and the apartment beat every luxury hotel I've ever stayed in (jacuzzi bath, amazing shower that could have fit four people inside, master bedroom and closets the size of my London flat, etc.) and it was within walking distance of the French Quarter and some damn good fried chicken. Highly recommend.

No Knead Bread

I can't believe I'm writing about this six years after the recipe was first published, but that is just how long it's taken me to get my planning cap on. And of course, like everyone who's done it has said, it's so easy once you figure out what time of day to start the thing, and when you'll be able to finish it.

Because I tend to use weights now when I bake (no messy measuring out cups of flour, just dump straight into mixing bowl!) I'm writing down the recipe using weights. However, for the smaller ingredients (yeast and salt) I find it easier to use teaspoon measurements as I'm not always confident that my scale will tell me exactly when I've measured out a single teensy tiny gram of something.

Original recipe is here. Guidance on some improvements and tweaking is here.

No Knead Bread
From the great Mark Bittman, who adapted it from Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bread

Ingredients


430 grams of flour
345 grams of water
1 gram of yeast  (1/4 tsp)
8 grams of salt (1 1/4 tsp)

Method

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add the water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. [Note: I did this and it totally stuck to my towel, even with a lot of flour. So I'd try parchment paper next time, I think.] Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450F / 235C. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Banana Raisin Loaf

Second recipe involving raisins. Unfortunately this one also involves bananas (my nemesis!) so it all went to A and his coworkers. But they liked it, so that's a good sign right? (Aside from the one guy at his workplace who also doesn't like bananas, who said it was too banana-ey. I hear you, man.)

Banana Raisin Loaf
Adapted from Allrecipes

Ingredients

110g (4 oz) butter
80g (4 oz) sugar (reduced from 110g)
2 eggs
4 bananas (could leave one for end so less mashed)
225g (8 oz) self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
140g (5 oz) raisins

Method

1. Cream together the butter and sugar.

2. Add the eggs and beat well.

3. Add 3 of the bananas and beat well to mash them in. Chop up one banana into chunks, add and stir to mix. 

4. Sift and fold in the flour, bicarb, cinnamon and raisins.

5. Bake in a greased and lined loaf tin for 45 minutes at 180 C / Gas 4.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

A rummage through the cupboards revealed a large bag of sultanas that A's brother left with us. I'm not a huge raisin fan, but if you cover them with, say, a cookie, they're pretty damn good. So that's what I did. Thankfully when I Googled "oatmeal raisin cookies" the first thing that popped up was the glorious Smitten Kitchen website, so fate declared that I make them, since Deb Perelman is never wrong.

Oatmeal Raisin CookiesAdapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces, or 115 grams) butter, softened
2/3 cup (125 grams) light brown sugar, packed (I used demerara, which gave each cookie a little sugary crunch that I liked)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (SK says 1/2 but why not amp up the vanilla?)
3/4 cup (95 grams) all-purpose flour (I had self-raising on hand)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (SK says 1/2 but everyone loved the cinnamonny goodness)
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 cups (120 grams) rolled oats
3/4 cup (120 grams) raisins

Method

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the oats and raisins.

Chill the dough for a bit in the fridge and then scoop it, but heat oven to 350°F (175°C) before you scoop the cookies, so that it’s fully heated when you’re ready to put them in.

The cookies should be two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake them for 12 minutes (your baking time will vary, depending on your oven and how cold the cookies were going in but that's how long it took me), taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.

El Naranjo

85 Rainey St.
Austin, TX 78701

It's been a long time since I've lived in Austin. While I've been able to get back almost every year, a whirlwind trip doesn't quite hack it in terms of keeping up with all the changes that have happened. One big development is Rainey Street, where a lot of food trucks popped up, and some of the more successful ones opened brick-and-mortar locations in what used to be houses. Since J and his wife were in town and wanted to visit El Naranjo, my mom and I joined them there for lunch. It serves more traditionally Mexican fare (as opposed to Tex-Mex, with its additions of cheese and sour cream to almost every dish). I was blown away by some of the flavors - I had the tacos de pescado - achiote marinated fish, shredded cabbage, salsa mexicana on corn tortillas, but my favorite dish was probably my mom's - the tacos dorados (a mix of chicken and potatoes) served with avocado green salsa, cream and crumbled queso fresco. Not a bum dish in the bunch though - my brother's enmoladas de pollo had a wonderfully deep mole sauce and his wife's pork tacos were fabulous as well. The best part is that we were all completely satisfied but not overly stuffed and weighed down - this is one of the few meals I ate out where I came away feeling moderately healthy afterwards! It will definitely make it onto my rotation of places to visit while I'm visiting home.

The County Line BBQ

5204 Ranch Road 2222
Austin, TX 78731

I ate what can only be described as an astonishing amount of terrific food while on my holidays in the US. Much of it was my mom's amazing cooking, but there was also a fair amount of pigging out at some of my favorite restaurants. I managed three meals at my most adored Chinese restaurant, Tien Jin, and also covered off Tex-Mex at Chuy's, Texas martinis at Trudy's, and last but not least, BBQ at The County Line. A's mom joined us in Texas for the first time this year, and while she is usually a vegetarian, she made a little exception in order to dig into some pork ribs. Thank goodness they were worth it - tender, with just enough pull so they didn't fall right off the bones, and accompanied by some incredibly honey wheat bread. A and I still love brisket more than any other form of Texas BBQ, so thankfully our five meat plate came with that, which beat the turkey and sausage hands down. This is a great place to bring guests - it's a nice atmosphere and doesn't require waiting in line for ridiculous amounts of time like some places. Texas, I miss you already.

Tonkotsu

63 Dean Street  
London 
W1D 4QG

PG13 (as opposed to PGTips) had a birthday that needed to be celebrated, so off we went to have some pints and stuff ourselves with ramen. There's been a recent surge in ramen restaurants - we picked Tonkotsu as it seemed to be popular and it was conveniently located for both of us. Ordering was easy, aside from a slight indecisiveness over whether to get chicken karaage or gyoza. Gyoza it was (next time it will be chicken karaage), which was nice and crispy on the bottom, though I personally prefer my homemade ones, except for the fact that they take a lot of effort to make. On to choosing ramen - we both went for the namesake tonkotsu. What came out was a soul warming bowl of goodness with the most delightfully soft-boiled egg floating in it. The picture above does no justice whatsoever. I am getting warm just thinking about this bowl of noodles with its porky essence.