@menuinprogress

I finally got around to setting up a Twitter account for Menu In Progress. I'm primarily planning on using it as a way to follow foodie folks and businesses that use Twitter instead of or in addition to blogging.

I also think it will be a good way to share the odd tasty picture that didn't quite warrant its own blog post.

So, if you are so inclined, you can find us over at @menuinprogress.

Sugar Snap Pea and Daikon Radish Flower Salad

As winter turns to spring, we've been enjoying a very nice salad that has a foot in both seasons.

We planted daikon radishes last November, and now they are nice and big. As a bonus, when we harvest them they have beautiful flowers that have an intense, radish taste.

On the spring side, our sugar snap peas are producing like crazy at the moment. No chance of them going to waste, though - we can't get enough of them.

The peas and the radish flowers combined make for a salad that is as pretty as it is tasty.



A little bit of vinaigrette - not too much - is the only other ingredient.

Simplicity in a bowl.

Huevos Salseados

Huevos Salseados are eggs served with sauce left over from a guisado (stew). I'm not sure how widely used the term is - we first came across it at Super Cocina, a fantastic home-style Mexican restaurant we are fortunate to have here in San Diego. While their main business is serving a variety of guisados for lunch and dinner, for breakfast they will take the sauce from any of the stews and serve it with eggs.

It is a great idea, and something we like to do at home as well. The dish above is using leftover Pork Chile Verde. This is what it looked like when we had it for dinner the first time:



This morning we did Huevos Salseados with some Cochinita Pibil we had leftover from a dinner party:



And we've also been know to do something similar with leftover curry - in this case, Khima:



Any saucy, stewy dish that was good the first time around is likely to be even better for breakfast with some eggs.

Favorite Cookbooks

Since we've done a number of cookbook posts now, I figured that I would put together a little index page for the sidebar. This is that index page.

As I'm sure is the case with most foodies, we have a lot of cookbooks. The picture above shows a cross-section of just a couple of the shelves we have devoted to this obsession. We thought it might be fun to highlight some of our favorite cookbooks and recipes from them that we like.

Holiday Food - Mario Batali Italian celebrity chef and über-restaurateur Mario Batali has quite a few cookbooks out these days. This one is probably our favorite. A collection of recipes traditionally served during Christmas and New Year, it isn't a very large cookbook but there are some real gems in it.

Mexico One Plate at a Time - Rick Bayless Bayless is one of the more prominent voices heralding the delicious diversity of regional Mexican cuisine. All of his cookbooks are good, but this one, designed as a companion cookbook to his PBS series of the same name, is the one we use most frequently.

Charcuterie - Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn A great starting point for anyone looking to take a step into the wonderful world of cured meats. And trust me - you do want to take a step into the wonderful world of cured meats. Warning, though, this hobby can easily become an obsession.

The Balthazar Cookbook The signature cookbook of the famous Manhattan restaurant. We've never been to the restaurant, but we love the book. In particular, we love it for its selection of excellently detailed recipes for delicious fish dishes.

Garden Upgraded!

All new gardeners at the Pacific Beach Community Garden are initially given a half-sized plot. As you can see on the right of the picture above, ours is pretty full.

What to do about it? Annex the plot next to us, of course!

The timing was perfect, since the garden just got a load of compost in. We've turned the soil in the new plot, mixed in compost, and now we're ready to get planting.

It will be great to have the extra space as we start ramping up toward summer.

The Balthazar Cookbook

The Balthazar Cookbook is perhaps our single favorite cookbook for fish recipes. Named after the well-respected restaurant in Manhattan, it is certainly not specifically about fish, but for us it is those dishes that really shine.

It also happens to be one of the best written cookbooks we have. By that I don't mean it is full of witty banter (not that I am at all averse to color commentary in a cookbook), but rather that the recipes themselves are superbly detailed and easy to follow. Not the hurriedly mal-adapted and underspecified instructions you often get in a restaurant cookbook.

When making fish dishes from these recipes and others, we do not generally worry about using the precise fish specified. Instead, we use what we can get locally that fits the style of the dish.

Favorite Recipes:

Cod Mitonnée This was our first go-to dish from the book. The rich broth is what makes it - reduced until it is very intense, full of flavor and reminiscent of a French onion soup. It is like getting a soup and a main course all in one.

Roasted Halibut with Crushed Potatoes, Almonds and Tomatoes A dish we keep coming back to. There is something super-satisfying about the way the potatoes, tomatoes and almonds taste together and how they accent a perfectly cooked piece of fish.

Cod and Cockles with Parsley As tasty as it is beautiful. The intense green from the parsley dominates visually, but doesn't overpower the other flavors.

Black Bass with Caramelized Onions and Corn The sweetness of the corn and caramelized onion is wonderful. We are looking forward to corn season to again be able to make this dish with freshly-picked corn. Maybe from our own garden, this year?

Braised Short Ribs Just to prove that there are non-fish dishes in the book. Short ribs may be a bit cliché these days the way they seem to be strewn across most every restaurant menu. This is for a reason, though - they are fantastic. They also make for a very good short rib pot pie...

Hot-Smoked Chicken

While "Low and Slow" may be the rule when it comes to us using our smoker, every rule has its exceptions. We sometimes use it more like a standard barbecue, but with smoke as an added bonus.

Hot-smoking chicken is one of our favorite applications of this technique. The smoking takes less than a couple of hours, so as long as you've prepped your chicken ahead of time you can smoke it and eat it for dinner all in one evening.

We put a spice rub (see the recipe at the end of the post) on the bird either the night before or the morning of smoking. While it is better with more time, it still works fine even if you only do it a few hours before you want to start smoking the bird.



Fire up the smoker to about 300°F and place a foil covered empty water pan into the cooker as a drip tray. Put on smoke wood (pecan and mesquite are nice), and smoke the chicken at 300-330°F for 60-75 minutes or until the temperature of the breast meat is just over 160°F.



The result is tender and juicy, lightly smoky and packs a flavor punch and some heat from the spice rub.



Definitely a great way to enjoy a chicken. If you've been neglecting your smoker, this is an easy way to get yourself back into the groove.

Spicy Chicken Rub

You can make any quantity: if you use teaspoons you'll get about 1/3 cup (enough for about 2 chickens). Use tablespoons and you'll end up with a little less than 1 cup.

Ingredients:

3 parts New Mexican Red Chile Powder (substitute Ancho if needed)
3 parts Mexican Oregano
2 parts Paprika
2 parts Cumin
2 parts Dried Parsley
1 part Garlic Powder
1/2 part Cayenne
1 part Kosher Salt

Mix everything except the salt together. Grind in a spice grinder until the parsley and oregano are chopped very finely. Add the salt and mix thoroughly.

Hot Smoked Chicken

Season the bird either the night before or the morning of smoking. To butterfly your chicken, simply use some kitchen shears to cut down each side of the back bone and remove it. Then turn the bird over and press on the breast bone to flatten it.

Ingredients:

1 4-5 pound Chicken, butterflied
2-3 tablespoons Spicy Chicken Rub
Kosher salt
Smoke woods such as hickory, pecan, alder or mesquite

Sprinkle kosher salt evenly over the bird, on all sides (use about 1/2 teaspoon per pound). Lay the bird on a tray, skin side down and sprinkle with some of the spice rub. Turn the bird over, skin side up and sprinkle a generous portion of spice rub evenly on the skin. Store the chicken in the refrigerator, uncovered until ready to smoke.

Heat the smoker to about 300°F, add smoke wood to the fire, and place bird on the grill (use an empty water pan covered with foil as a drip tray). Smoke at 300-330°F for 60-75 minutes or until the internal temperature of the breast reaches about 160-163°F. Remove from smoker and let rest 15 minutes before carving.