The past few days we’ve had summer-like temperatures here in New York and we ate outside on our tiny balcony for the first time this year. I made Shrimp Pad Thai and one of my favorite summer drinks, Thai Iced Tea.
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Pad Thai Noodles – With Step-by-Step Pictures
Pad Thai is certainly among the most popular Thai dishes and it’s always been a favorite of mine. However, making this dish is actually a lot harder than it seems. As part of our new business venture, my husband and I have been making different versions of Pad Thai for the last few weeks. After much testing, tweaking, and of course eating, I think we came up with a pretty good take on this classic Thai stir-fry (he’s been to Thailand several times and agrees).
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Brioche Bread Pudding with Strawberries
This past weekend was filled with good food, friends and beer. The highlight was a homebrew tour in Brooklyn. After the tour we stopped by our friends’ Kate and Michael’s cute new cafe Little Zelda. They only opened a few weeks ago and have been getting great reviews already! It was closing time so we got to take some bread home and I happily decided on a loaf of brioche. I baked what I thought was best for this rich and buttery French bread, one of my husband’s favorite desserts, bread pudding.
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Tomato Ramp Pasta with Chicken
This weekend I’ve been eating ramps for breakfast, lunch, dinner or whenever I felt like having a snack. So here’s a quick pasta dish I made using my leftover 10-minute tomato sauce from the other day and about seven stalks of ramps. Feel free to mix in your preferred sauce or pasta. I used a small shaped pasta but spaghetti or linguini will work just was well.
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Ramp Pancakes – A Take on Chinese Scallion Pancakes
Ramps (or wild leeks) are finally here! One of my favorite seasonal vegetables, they’re only available for a few weeks a year. Ramps are a delicious cross between garlic, onions and leeks. Here in NYC, you know they’ve arrived when chefs all over the city add ramp dishes onto their menus. I love coming up with different ways to incorporate them into my cooking. I’ve been craving Chinese scallion pancakes, so I decided to make a version using ramps. I found the perfect scallion pancake recipe on my friend Diana’s blog.
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10-Minute Spicy Tomato Sauce
Quick and easy pasta dishes are usually what I make when I want something simple or don’t feel like going out to eat. I typically simmer my pasta sauces for hours, but this particular recipe is my go-to if I need a quick tomato sauce. It only takes about 10 minutes to make, not bad for a delicious pasta sauce!
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Filipino Bistek – Beef Marinated in Soy Sauce and Kumquat Juice
Bistek, derived from the Spanish word bistec meaning beef steak, is a Filipino dish my mom typically made on the weekends. She would thinly slice a lean piece of beef and then marinate overnight with a mixture of soy sauce, garlic, black pepper and calamansi, a citrus fruit indigenous to the Philippines. Since calamansi is hard to come by, I used the juice from a few kumquats I had left over from my kumquat pomegranate cocktail. The sour fruit acts as a meat tenderizer along with adding a hint of citrus flavor.
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