Restaurant Review: Banana Leaf (Malaysian and Thai cuisine)

Banana Leaf - lunch on September 5, 2013, 3.5 stars on yelp

One of the standby restaurants a couple of friends and I like to go to for lunch is Banana Leaf, a Malaysian/Thai restaurant near our old office.  We all work at different companies from each other now but we still like to get together for lunch every so often and Banana Leaf is "our" place to go. It could probably be considered a medium-sized restaurant with both indoor and outdoor seating but if you don't get here until noon on a weekday, forget about trying to get a table quickly.  The best time to arrive is no later than 11:45 and even then you might have to wait but it should only be for 5-10 minutes.  Any later and it would probably be a 20-30 minute wait and who has that kind of time during the week?

Spicy clear soup served with each entree

We always get the roti appetizer and it's just fried flaky goodness, puffy, more airy and less substantial than naan but similarly tasty.  I made roti when I was in culinary school and, similar to a croissant, it's endless rounds of turning, pressing, turning, pressing until you have infinitesimally thin, multiple layers of dough that will puff and rise as it's fried. It comes with a dipping sauce but I'm a plain eater so I consume roti on its own.

Roti appetizer

The other must-get dish for me is - no surprise - the pad thai.  Banana Leaf's pad thai can be ordered mild, medium-spicy or make-your-eyes-water spicy.  I get medium-spicy at the most and even that sometimes has a little too much of a bite for me.  But it's good.  Their pad thai also comes with bean sprouts and squid so I always order it without either.  Last time I went, they omitted the bean sprouts correctly but somehow interpreted my "no squid" request as "all squid" so I didn't even get the chicken or shrimp but just all squid.  I'm not the type to complain about the food just because of one mistake and I was there more for the company of my friends so I let it slide and didn't say anything to the waiter but just picked out the squid. This time around, I made the same request of no bean sprouts/no squid and they got the no-squid part right but unfortunately left plenty of bean sprouts in both my dish and one of my friends' order as she also didn't want bean sprouts.  She and I both ended up picking out the bean sprouts in our dish rather than sending our orders back because we're not the fussy, complaining types. And if you think it's a pain to pick out bean sprouts from very similar-looking noodles, you'd be right.

Pad Thai - medium spicy

I wasn't mad about it but since this was the second time in a row they'd gotten my order wrong, I did feel compelled to (politely) let our waiter know both pad thais came out incorrectly with bean sprouts.  He apologized and said he'd let the manager know.  I didn't think it was a big deal and didn't give it another thought but shortly after the manager did come over to our table, apologized personally for the "kitchen mistake" and said he would give us a free dessert.  We didn't think that was necessary but it was nice of him.  And true to his word, he brought us a fried banana dessert with mango ice cream that was actually pretty good - I love fried bananas.

Fried Bananas with Mango Ice Cream

I have to applaud it as a smart move on the manager's part.  We didn't ask for (or expect) a refund on the incorrectly prepared dishes but he still made a nice gesture that made a positive impression and left us with an experience that encouraged repeat business.  The food cost of the dessert was cheaper than comping us a free meal so it was a good financial move as well as a good customer relations one. Not to mention if we hadn't had that dessert before, it was a good one to sample in case we'd want to get it again on a return visit.  Plus I also like that he didn't set a precedent that anyone could complain about their meal just to get it comp'd.  Restaurants have to be smart about staying in business but also be good to their customers without spending needlessly and that was a great way to do it.

Corn Crisps

Corn Crisps - made September 2, 2013 from Key Ingredient

I honestly don't know what made me try this recipe.  Maybe because it was corn and it was supposed to be crispy (as the name would have you presume) so I was imagining the corn version of hash browns (for the record, I love hash browns).  So it sounded like a good idea.

Unfortunately, they didn't quite pan out that way.  This was more like cumin pancakes with corn kernels.  Okay, they weren't as unappetizing as that sounds, especially if you like cumin. Plus it was partly my fault because I didn't deep fry them or use very much oil at all so they never did get crisp.  But what really killed it for me was the cumin.  I discovered I don't like cumin and even a 1/2 teaspoon of cumin for a small batch is 3/8 teaspoon too much. Oh well, I guess it's good to try something new, even if I didn't end up liking it.  At least now I know.

1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional
1 large egg
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups canned or frozen corn, thawed if frozen
1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
canola or vegetable oil

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, cumin, sugar, and cayenne. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, and butter.
2. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry until they are just blended. Fold in the corn and scallions. 
3. Pour oil in large nonstick skillet [until it come up 1/4 inch on the sides] and heat over medium-high heat until the oil is shimmering. For each crisp, drop a slightly rounded tablespoon of batter into the oil. Fry them in batches over medium-high heat until they are golden, about 2 to 3 minutes. 
4. Transfer the crisps to a paper towel-lined sheet pan; sprinkle with a little salt if desired.

Thick and Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Thick and Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough September 11, 2013, recipe adapted from Averie Cooks

Just like I always associate my friend Todd with chocolate chip cookies, i.e. every time I meet up with Todd, I test out a new chocolate chip cookie recipe on him, my friend Rick is all about oatmeal chocolate chip as his favorite cookie. So I feel free to test out new recipes of his favorite cookie on him whenever we meet.  It helps that we're in agreement that oatmeal cookies should not have raisins but chocolate chips instead.  It also helps that, according to Rick, there's no wrong way to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  So how can I not use him as a taste tester for that kind of cookie?

Rick was going to be in town and threw together a dinner of our former colleagues so it was a perfect time to test out a new recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. It saves me the bother of posting a picture of them on my facebook page, tagging him in the picture and captioning it with "bummer, look what I made that you're not here to eat."  I know, I'm mean like that. Don't worry, Rick gives back as good as he gets, including blatantly volunteering me to bake for everyone at the dinner when he was asking who could attend.  Good thing it was something I was going to do anyway....

Unlike with chocolate chip cookies, I don't really have any favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookie go-to recipes.  There are a few I liked when I made them and even 1 or 2 that stand out but nothing that says, "these are IT". So I experiment with new recipes without compunction.  However, there is a blog I like going to when I want good cookies that don't spread, taste good and are easy to make.  Not to mention chock full of drool-worthy pictures and that's Averie's blog (click on link above in title). I chose this one for the Rick taste test and it's another keeper.  As advertised, the cookies stay thick and don't spread a lot in baking and the cinnamon and the chocolate chips pair well together.  The edges aren't crisp once the cookies cool but the entire cookie is soft and chewy. It's possible they stay moist and soft as the days go by but I wouldn't know.  I gave them away at our dinner the day after I made them and a couple of people, including Rick, ate them in front of me after dinner so chances were high they weren't going to find out how long the cookies stay moist either.

1 large egg, room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups whole rolled old-fashioned oats (not quick cook)
2 teaspoons+ ground cinnamon, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt, optional and to taste
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons bread flour (or, 1 cup minus two tablespoons)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (or more if desired)

1. To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter, egg, brown sugar, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed to cream ingredients until very light and fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes. Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the oats, cinnamon, baking soda, optional salt, and beat to incorporate, about 1 minute. Add the flour and beat to just incorporate, about 30 seconds. Add the chocolate chips and beat momentarily to incorporate. Transfer mixture to an airtight container or cover mixing bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate dough for at least two hours, up to 5 days. If you're going to chill these cookies longer than a couple of hours, portion into dough into golf-sized cookie balls first then freeze.  Do not bake these cookies with dough that has not been properly chilled because they will spread.
2. Preheat oven to 350F, line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. Place dough balls on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (maximum of 8 per sheet). Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until edges are set and tops have just set, even if slightly undercooked in the center, as cookies will firm up as they cool. It's a little tricky to judge doneness because of all the oats, but I suggest the lower end of the baking range and baking for 10 minutes for soft and chewy cookies. For crunchier cookies, extend baking time by 1 to 2 minutes, but take care not to overbake or they will be hard.
3. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Alternatively, unbaked dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.

Baking for Zoe

If you've followed my blog for awhile, you might remember last year when my friend Maria's daughter, Zoe, passed away from Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, just 5 days after her 16th birthday. I don't think of Zoe as having "lost" her battle to cancer as there's nothing remotely about losing in this girl.  She won hearts and minds from those around her with her courage and strength and inspired so many with her faith and grace.  Zoe's legacy lives on in those who love her and keep her spirit alive.  Two manifestations of that are the Zoe Inciong Memorial Scholarship and the Zoe Means Life Scholarship.  The first is awarded to scholar athletes like Zoe was (she played two sports and ended her sophomore year with a 4.39 GPA even during her treatments) and the second is awarded to students who face medical challenges like she did.  Funding for the scholarships come from fundraisers and community donations.  Now in its second year, I'm privileged to contribute in some small way to a bake sale being held this Saturday, September 21, at the Dan Oden Swim Complex in Union City, CA as part of the Second Annual Zoe Inciong Memorial Tournament for the water polo team Zoe was once a part of.

I will be posting recipes for all of these baked goods pictured below (although I'm quite behind on posts so please be patient with me) but I wanted to give a preview of what I made for the bake sale and urge anyone in the area to stop by and support the team and Zoe's scholarships.  The event starts at 8 am and admission for anyone over 12 is only $5.  There will be a silent auction with items donated from community businesses and members as well as a raffle and the bake sale with proceeds going to fund Zoe's scholarship awards.

I've been making cookie dough every night this week and took the afternoon off from work today to bake them off and make a few brownies/bar cookies.  I actually had plans to make even more brownies and a lemon bar but I ran out of time and steam.  But here's what I did come up with:

Mississippi Mud Brownies

Peanut Butter Cookies with Peanut Butter Cups

Quadruple Chocolate Cookies

Frosted Sugar Cookies

Milk Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Soft Pudding Monster Cookies

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

Soft & Thick Snickerdoodles

Red Velvet Oreo Truffle Brownies

M&M Frosted Brownies

White Chocolate Macadamia Bars

Turtle Cookies

Turtle Cookies - made September 4, 2013 from Rock Recipes

I had a failure moment with these cookies.  When I first saw the picture on Rock Recipes, my brain processed the cookie as being a thumbprint cookie.  You know, make a crater in the center of the chocolate dough ball, bake then fill said crater with caramel and drizzle with chocolate.  After all, I've made Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies that were classic turtle cookies before.  So that's what I expected these to be.

The dough was a little soft so I chilled it briefly before I portioned it into dough balls, rolled the balls in chopped, toasted almonds then made a crater in the center of each one for the "thumbprint".  I froze them once they were properly cratered and stored them in my freezer until I needed to bake them.

Above is what went into the oven and below is what came out.  Eek. They spread like any typical cookie and there was no hint of any crater-like impression.  In fact, they even puffed up in the middle like any drop cookie.  Okay then, these are not thumbprint cookies.  I went back to the original recipe to see if I had done anything wrong. I had deliberately left out pushing a piece of caramel in the middle before baking because I didn't want the caramel to get hard and had planned to fill the (non-existent) crater with melted caramel after baking. Other than that, I'd followed the recipe pretty faithfully. Near as I can tell, I was just operating under the wrong assumption.  They're Turtle Cookies all right, just not thumbprint cookies.  My bad.

Fortunately, they were still good turtle cookies, chocolaty from the "good" cocoa and chewy because I underbaked them slightly. Since they were already chocolate cookies with nuts on the outside, I turtle-ized the first batch by spreading some chocolate ganache (leftover from the Chocolate Turtle Cake) on top then adding some salted caramel over them. I thought they were pretty good, despite my prejudice about nuts in cookies.

I baked off the rest of the cookies for work at a later time and for one batch (not pictured), I put a Rolo in the crater of the unbaked cookie, hoping it would melt and flow like the caramel on Rock Recipes' blog as it baked.  Um, not so much.  The Rolo melted and sank liked the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz when you threw a bucket of water over her; in other words, it melted around the edges and the middle just flattened down because the bottom had melted but it was a bit blobby.  Not impressive.  To hide the imperfection, I used up the rest of my ganache to cover up the melted Rolo blobs and sprinkled mini chocolate chips on top.  A little baking sleight of hand there.  And it seemed to have worked because this is another recipe where I had 2 people stop by my office to thank me and tell me the cookies were good, one person email me asking for the recipe, a 4th coworker emailed me to let me know this may have been her most favorite of all the treats I've brought in and another thank you note left by the vanishing platter of cookies. I already had the pics from the first batch of Turtle Cookies so I didn't think to take a picture of the Rolo version but maybe I should have. I didn't realize they'd be such a big hit at work.

Always nice to be appreciated :)

I've posted the original recipe as is below in case anyone wants to make Turtle Cookies that are thumbprint-less.

The naked version

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup very good quality cocoa (I used Pernigotti)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans (I used chopped toasted almonds)
3 dozen individually wrapped caramel candies

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium sized bowl whisk together flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and combine thoroughly.
4. Add the flour mixture to the sweetened butter. Mix only enough to incorporate flour. Do not overmix. Fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Roll into 1 inch balls and dunk one half of the ball into the chopped pecans.
6. Place on parchment lined baking sheet 3 inches apart with the side dunked in pecans facing upward. Press down slightly. Gently push one caramel candy half way into the center of each cookie ball. (see #9 below)
7. Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees F. Do not over bake or cookies will be brittle.
8. Cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool thoroughly. 
9. If you want to make something closer to my version, do not bake the cookies with the caramel candies.  Instead, bake the cookies as is then, once cool, drizzle with melted chocolate and caramel.  Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips or more chopped toasted nuts if desired.

Baked Parmesan Paprika Chicken

Baked Parmesan Paprika Chicken - made September 2, 2013 from Pia Recipes

Time for the occasional, obligatory savory dish just to cut through some of the sugar I generally post. I've been very lazy about cooking lately and even lazier about searching for easy-to-make dishes.  Fortunately, I keep a pin board with easy cooking recipes that I can always fall back on and see if any leap out at me.

I had chicken tenderloins in my freezer and, shockingly, the rest of the ingredients needed for this dish so it was a no-brainer to try out this recipe.  I don't think I ended up using enough chicken though as I only used one pack of the tenderloins which was probably the equivalent of 2 chicken breasts.  The amount of coating was just right for the pack but I think I ended up with too much butter.  Because my tenderloin pieces were smaller than chicken breasts, I didn't bake it as long as the recipe directed, maybe for 45 minutes?  The coating will get crisp as you bake the chicken but with the abundance of butter, it does get soggy later on. Nevertheless, this was a simple, easy dish to make and fed me for 4 meals.  Can't ask for more than that.

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons milk
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 cup butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat a shallow baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Combine flour, parmesan, paprika, salt, and pepper in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and milk. Dip the chicken in the egg, then dredge in the flour mixture. Place in the baking dish, and pour the melted butter evenly over the chicken.
3. Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cheese has browned, and the chicken has cooked.

Bakery Review: Beard Papa

Beard Papa - visited September 6, 2013

I feel funny calling Beard Papa a "bakery" since I usually view bakeries as places that offer a full line of different baked goods and Beard Papa doesn't.  But that's what they call themselves so I'll stick with their nomenclature.  Although they have a few different bakery items for sale, they are predominantly all about cream puffs. They don't fit my definition of a mom and pop small business as they're actually an international company out of Japan with multiple stores in 15 countries but they franchise and franchise owners are small business owners.

The franchise in Cupertino, CA is conveniently located right next to J.T. McHart's Pizza so almost every time after I get pizza, I stop off at the Beard Papa's next door for a cream puff.  I'm not actually a big cream puff fan and don't love them enough to make a special trip for them but since they're right next door and I can't seem to break my habit of wanting something sweet to top off lunch (or dinner), Beard Papa's is extremely convenient.

The inside of the store looks deceptively small but they manage to utilize the space efficiently with baker's racks of cream puffs, display cases of sodas, juices and bottled water and even a bookcase.  There's limited seating with a counter height table and tall chairs but I think most people take their cream puffs to go.

The cream puffs appear to be baked in the store if the picture below shows working ovens (as opposed to just warmers).  Cream puffs are made from pate a choux dough which is essentially flour, butter, water and eggs cooked on the stovetop then piped into mounds and baked until they're puffed up, hollow and dry on the inside.  You can start them at high heat to get the initial rise to maximum puff (similar to popovers) but it's important to lower the oven temperature later and bake them at a low temperature so the inside has time to dry out while the outside doesn't get too brown.  

Once filled, cream puffs have a very short shelf life and should always be refrigerated if you're not going to consume them immediately.  Their filling is typically comprised of dairy ingredients like - you guessed it - cream which will spoil quickly if not refrigerated.  Beard Papa offers several different varieties of both cream puff flavors and custard fillings and they put together your cream puff only when you order it.

For this particular trip, I got the dulce de leche with chocolate custard.  Once you have a cream puff in hand, it's best to eat it right away.  Not just because you're (or I'm) greedy for sugar but because the shell is crisp to start with but will soon become soggy from the filling the longer you wait.

At Beard Papa's in Cupertino, each cream puff is $2.60 which is a pretty good price for dessert. Cream puffs are messy to eat so arm yourself with napkins and/or wipes.  They're worth the mess.

Inside the Dulce de Leche Cream Puff