Shepherd's Pie for 1

Nom Nom Nom.

Here's a shot of my second helping of my delicious homemade shepherd's pie with a glimpse of part of my 5head. so really, its' a shot of a 2head?

Super!

I know i have totally been MIA. mainly cause i'm super lazy. I mean i made super amazing slow cooked ribs yesterday that turned out amazing and i just ate them. the whole rack. myself. without blogging about it. maybe it's laziness? or maybe i am ashamed that i ate a whole rack by myself?..... NAH. it's laziness.

Anyway, today i got the urge to make some shepherd's pie, i had a bunch of little yukon golds sitting and probably rotting away, and i'm feeling for some comfort food, and this hit the spot.

Here's a quick recipe for people who dont follow recipes (IE ME), basically

1. cooked the potatoes til tender, mashed with grated cheese, butter and milk, and more cheese

2. sauteed ground beef, i like adding paprika to everything, salt and peppered it, onion and garlic seasoned it.

3. added chopped shallots to beef. layered in casserole when done
4. sauteed chopped carrots, layered
5. sauteed peas and layered
6.sauteed corn and layered
7. poured gravy over everything
8. layered the potato mash and baked at 400 til i thought it was ready for me to eat.

9. Eat. for dinner. for lunch. for dinner. til done.

haha. i am the worst at instructions. but it was sooo good. i used packaged gravy, i am not above packaged gravy.

Bone Sucking Delicious Jamaican OxTail Stew

I was GONNA stay home today, cause for the 2nd time, the A/C guys were gonna come fix the leak in the A/C. and for the 2nd time, that fell through.  So what a bitch, coming in to work for a few hours, (we have summer hours), and then going back home. I wasn't even going to go… But!!! Thank the food-gods that I did! Cause my awesome friend and coworker, Maria, left me a container of her home made jamaican oxtail stew on my desk.

Marvel at the glistening gelatinous supple meat.  If you're a fan of sucking meat off the bone (like I am, myself, thank you very much!), then you'll love oxtail!  Which I think is really just cow tail.

I've only had Oxtail soup, like the chinese kind, so this was a first for me!

Maria's end result was delicious!!!! I say was cause I ate it all up in 5 minutes. Its now just bones at my desk. 

Here's her recipe for Jamaican Oxtail Stew:

"Before preparing everything I washed the oxtail in lemon juice (you can do either lemon (bottled juice) or vinegar)

Everything was cut is small to medium pieces….

2 pounds of Oxtail 

6 cloves of garlic

2 large onions

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

1 spoon of pepper

1/2 spoon of salt

Soya (this is to make it dark, you do this but don't put too much salt)

1 scotch bennet pepper

1 sprig fresh thyme

Carrots

In order for it to be tender I cooked it for 5 hours. The first 1.5 hour I cooked it in a pressure pot with 2 cups of water the rest of 3.5 hours I put on a crock pot in threw it in the oven and added 3 cups of water)

I pretty much follow this recipe, but I didn't follow everything.

http://www.negril-tour-guide.com/jamaican-oxtail-recipe-stew-in-a-crockpot.html"

Wow! Fall off the bone deliciousness! 

Thank you so much Maria!!!! xxx

Ava Food - Persian Grocery Store and my 3rd kinda kebab on my kebab terror! (@ sheppard & willowdale ?)

Ava Food

193 Sheppard Avenue East

647-347-7065

This place must be newer, cause i just googled it and nothing came up, and the google maps shows something else. But this is on my way home, and on my way home, i see this big giant posters of... KEBAB, which basically means i gotta go.

It's a persian market and i'm not familiar with persian markets and food except i like eating prepared stuff.

you can buy bulk raisins and nuts and crystalized rock candy, in bulk and packaged on a stick, which is supercool cause i only ever see them in science gift shops and overpriced candy shops, but you can buy a box for like 4-5 bucks.

whoa check out how huge these flat breads are!

very delicious looking sweets section

part of their deli section

part of their cooked foods section

and the reason why i was even there, the kebabs.  I got #9, which was the veal kebab and the ground beef, i guess koobideh everywhere else.  It's a dollar more expensive than Taftan (though give the biggest portions so far), and 2 more than Tah Deeg, @ yonge and finch. 

So this was my kebab, it was super delicious, and i also love take out containers in sturdy plastic, but kinda felt a lil gypped, as i think this is the smallest portioned one.  However, delicious as ever.

you get a choice of side salad or pop.

Here's a shot of the Sumac that i forgot to put @ Tah Deeg, remember, sumac is that lemony sour crunchy spicy thing.  Its actually really really good.  At Taftan, there's a bunch of sauces you can put on, and it's more like a lemony liquid, so i guess this is the powdered flavour version of it?  Who knows, but its really good.

Anyway, this is another kebab run! I am addicted for sure!

Tah Deeg (Khorak Sara) @ Yonge and Finch, another Kebab on my kebab quest!

TAH Deeg

5525 Yonge St. South of Finch on Yonge

416-225-1688

416-562-0138

one of the flyers they have, not actual menu

So, i have only recently discovered the AWESOMENESS (and apparently healthiness), of kebabs!

The first stop i made was at Taftan Kebab and i was in love... i had it like 3 times in a week.  It was threatening thundershowers and i still flip flopped over...and it totally did thundershower...

I've been doing this Sheppard to Finch walk back on Yonge for awhile now, one weekend i was peering into the window and checking out the menu, and was like, ok, i'll come check out out some time, when the owner chased after us (ok walked briskly behind us to get something at the korean store next door) was like hey! dont you like ********* food? i cant remember what he said. And i was like, oh YESSS!!!! i'll come back! i promise! and i did.

here's the inside of it, its pretty small, its like a small persian grocery mart.

here's the chef griller grilling away, he took off his glasses for my shot. hehe.

The owner came over and was like, here's a free appy, on the house!  It's a yogurt with shallots he says. thick thick yogurt with salty bits, was interesting. gonna save this to sauce my meats!

He also gave me this Sumac powder, i'm not too familiar with it, he said to put it on the meat.  I looked it up, its a greek/middle eastern spice, used as a rub on meats, and has a sour lemon taste. oh! also its like bright red and really crunchy. i totally forgot to use it after taking this picture.

So here it is. I got the number 4. which... i forgot what it was, but consisted of barb beef, and koobideh, which is a ground beef kebab. there were also these yellow rice cakes, he said usually they make it with chicken but today, it was rice and egg and saffron.  Also! i finally found out what the butter was for.... you pour it on everything.  kind of an no brainer if i actually think about it.

At $11.99, this portion was smaller than the $12.99 at Taftan, where  you get a larger piece of meat.  But the koobideh was super moist and juicy and flavourful.  You also get a salad at Taftan which i missed, but instead you get these rice cakes here.  Ever since i got horrible service at Utopia Cafe last week (update soon!), i have been all about good service, like the exceptional service we got at Sassafraz in Yorkville this weekend.  The owner was SUPER NICE, super friendly, and really happy that i was trying his food out, brought me stuff to try. He was like, how did you find out about kebab!?!  Even the guy who was dining in earlier, him and the chef was like, how is your food? are you liking it? and he gave a thumbs up and they were like giddy schoolgirls.  It's stuff like that that's cool, when people are just happy to make food for people to enjoy. When we went to pay, the pop was gratis, a special he says.

The portions may be smaller. but the heart of a restaurant is the ppl behind it, and their hearts are huge!!! Such nice people. 

There he is! the owner standing behind the til! Go give him a visit! Tell him you found out about it on some girl's blog who came and took pictures.  maybe he'll give you a free pop! haha.

Test Kitchen: Gyutang ... tasty cow tongue by me!

TA DA!!!!. ok here is a disclaimer. below i am going to show pictures of a cow tongue. if you find that gross. i totally understand. i thought it was super gross, but since i love the cow as an animal that keeps on giving, i have today, learned to embrace all the seemingly yucky parts on a wholly delicious animal.

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raw beef tongue alert!!!!

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     So if you know me, i am a completely random bizarre person.  I was eating my frozen grapes at work today, and offering some to my coworker, and somehow ended up comparing defrosted grapes as something soft and slimy and asked her if she ever had beef tongue... and then the seed was planted... and i had to have it.  Went to Sunny Supermarket @ Finch and Leslie for some azn meats, and picked the smallest and "normal" coloured one i could find.  The other ones were HUGE and spotted with black and blue... i was horrified. This tongue cost a lil over $5.00 bucks. which is a STEAL since when i go out to izakayas in Toronto, a measly 8-10 slices set me back over $5.00. JACKPOT.

     I honestly had no idea what to do with it once i got it, but luckily my FATHER (not my actual father), Jowett Yu, HEAD CHEF OF SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA'S MS. G's (ha ha name dropper), dropped me some hints on how to cook this sucker.

TIPS FROM CHEF JOWETT: how to make gyutang/cow tongue

where do i even start?

braise it for hour. or blanch quickly, peel the skin off, thinly slice, then grill

how do i make gyutang?

bring a pot of water to boil, lower the tongue, blanch for 30 sec, then take out. peel the skin back on where the palate used to be. chill in the frige till cool, then thinly slice. the best part to eat is where it was once attached to the back of the throat at the base.... more fatty

what do i do? just salt it?

yes. grilled with just salt. dipping sauce is like ponzu soy, or if u likle korean style, salt sesame oil b pepper

So i followed the instructions. the fast one cause i really wanted to try it. Blanched it for 30 seconds. it totally changed the colour right away to white. hmmmm i wonder if that would happen if i boiled my own tongue.... anyway,  the tongue skin didnt rip. tried another 30 seconds. tongue skin totally stuck on. I guess i gotsa chop it off the old fashion way...

halfway through slowly and painstakingly sawing the thick skin off. i was like. this thing's got ankle socks on! or more accurately, white wedges? this photo cracks me up.

omg so i finally get all the outter tongue off... and stuck it in the freezer so it would be easier to cut. I would have liked to have kept it in longer, and will next time, cause it was a bitch to cut. 

Here's a few slices i managed to cut up. I eventually cut up everything, super hard to cut it thinly.  My roommate, who is russian, preferred to have hers thicker.

And here it is! my first batch of Gyutang, complete with lemon and ponzu dipping sauce.  There was waaayyy more from where that came from.  it was so easy too!  seriously, if i were to sell my beef tongue, the street value would be like.... 50 bucks! i swear! what a rip off. from now on, i'm cooking my own tongue.

AAA grade Roast gets AAA+ grade

So Sunday I went to Costco and decided to pick up a nice roast since my roommate finally got a replacement... well, toaster oven for the oven that never was at the apartment... and it`s been a while since i`d had the pleasure of oven cooking so how else to celebrate than to cook a nice, juicy, fat ass piece of cow.   

picked up a nice 3 pound roast, AAA canadian grade umm, something, it was the tier right after prime rib, sirloin perhaps, not sure, but it was tender.  i did it my mom`s way, sticking lil cloves of garlic all over it after piercing a slit through, and made a rub of freshly ground pepper (LOVE my mortar), salt, paprika, onion powder, and italian seasoning... basically the only seasonings i have right now.. haha. gave it a nice oil massage and slapped on that rub on that baby, and threw it in the STUPID ASS TOASTER OVEN.

and after many button pushings (i should show you the horror that is this toaster oven, there is no temp, just `fav temps for fav foods` and you go up and down in time and temp from that.... but out came my hellraiser roast! haha. dont you see it? 

Ah and it was time to cut the cow. my friend jimmy came over to help me eat this 3 pounder, which we worked out to be 48 ounces of meat... though looks like a quarter of that is pure fat. it was pretty delicious though i must say, parts of it were rare, since the TOASTER OVEN IS A PIECE OF SHIT, and i dont have a proper roasting pan, and some bits were kinda rare, but, it was super fresh, so... beef tataki! I am so stuffed right now....

I also put in some potatoes but since the toaster oven cooked at the speed of a rock race.... stupid. TOASTER OVEN.

and there you go. 3 measly slices of leftovers for lunch tomorrow. haha.