This post is going to be short and sweet. Honestly, I could care less for football. All I care about are the WINGS!! I don’t even know how to play the damn game. Back in high school, my lacrosse coach would dedicate a day to tag football. All I did was run in one direct to catch the ball. Couldn’t understand downs for the life of me. I’ve given up on learning.

WINGS. WINGS GALORE!!! If I had a deep frier, I’d totally try these out. Maybe I’ll attempt them in my saute pan. In any case, the following recipes are from Chef Floyd Cardoz winner of Bravo’s Top Chef Masters and Executive Chef and Partner of North End Grill in Battery Park. For anyone familiar with the restaurant scene in NYC, Chef Cardoz used to also head up Tabla with Danny Meyer. Legit resume.

Creamy Buffalo Wings
(makes 24 wings)

• 8 teaspoons Tabasco brand Buffalo Style Hot Sauce
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4  cup mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon horseradish
• 1  teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• Vegetable oil or canola oil
• 2 dozen chicken wings
• 1/4 cup Wondra flour or rice flour

You should also check out:

• Cheddar and onion smashed burgers
• Faux cappuccino (coffee with glorified whipping)
• Panko-peppered chicken
• Vicky & William’s delicious dumplings
• Guest appearance: Cooking with Rachel

Last night, Angela invited us over to her place for dinner. Her places reeks of sleek and simplicity. Hidden away in Exchange Place in Jersey City, it’s one of the few buildings where inhabitants enjoy marble kitchen islands, square bathroom sinks with a curving rectangular sprout, and floor to ceiling windows. It’s in short, AWESOME.

Yeah, they ended up looking like sliders…

We settled on a simple recipe that we found at FOOD&WINE. The original recipe called for 30% fat, but we could barely find 20% fat at our local ShopRite. Needless to say, 20% is more than enough. The pan was dripping with grease by the time we finished cooking the burgers.

These burgers, like Angela’s apartment, are simple but full of flavor. If you season the burgers well enough, there’s no need for any condiment. The caramelized onions, for me, were the main star, adding some sweetness and depth to the burgers.

One thing that freaked me out about the ground beef at ShopRite. While the on the outside, the meat was beautifully pink, when we started mixing the meat, we found that the inside was brown. Upon further investigation, we found out that the brown comes from a lack of oxygen. While some sites touted the brown as being perfectly normal, the FDA noted that if all of the meat in the package has turned gray or brown, it may be beginning to spoil. Note to self- don’t buy ShopRite’s ground beef next time.Don’t worry, we’re still all alive… For now.

The burgers were a hit. The 20% fat content surely helped the juiciness, but handling the meat as little as possible helps just as much, if not more. Unless if you’re mixing extra ingredients into the meat, try to touch it as little as possible.

Instead of just using solely cheddar cheese, we also used some monterrey pepperjack for that extra spicy kick. I’d like to think that we were quite generous on the cheese. We also made a side of mac-n-cheese, so the three of us consumed two blocks of cheese. Goodness gracious.

And to wash it all down? A lovely bottle of gerwurtz, which provided a bit of the carbonation that your traditional beer would have paired so well. I think our cholesterol skyrocketed by 20 points maybe?

You should also check out:

• Superbowl wing recipes (from a Top Chef!)
• Faux cappuccino (coffee with glorified whipping)
• Panko-peppered chicken
• Vicky & William’s delicious dumplings
• Guest appearance: Cooking with Rachel

Something strange is going on. It’s late October. The trees are confused. Why are their hues of red, orange, green and yellow speckled with white dots?

Could it be… snow?!

I have no idea what is going on, but I don’t like it one bit. SNOW IN OCTOBER?!

It looks like a cappuccino once the cream mixes in but it’s not!

It’s 35 degrees F outside. I’m not sure how the snow is sticking, but it is. That means, sans heating, our house is roughly 56 degrees F. You know its bad when I take out the socks. I hate socks.

Given that I can’t quite wear gloves and be completely functional, I decided to make some coffee.

Awhile back, Peet’s Coffee sent me two bags of coffee through Foodbuzz’s Tastemakers program. I decided to crack out the Café Domingo, named after Peet’s third café on Domingo Avenue in Berkeley, California (opened in 1980).  Peet’s describes the coffee as “a smooth and balanced medium roast with hints of toffee sweetness and a clean, crisp finish.” I concur.

From personal experience, the drip brew naturally times the drip in such a way that it takes around 6 minutes. The water temperature should be around 200 degrees F. I mean, most of us don’t really measure the temperature of the water, so what I do is let the water sit for a bit under 10 minutes after it boils before pouring it into the drip.

And by taste, the drip brew method produces a much better cup of coffee than you conventional $20 coffee maker from Target. It’s also cheaper (paper filters + funnel). Booya.

For the whipping, you can change it up by adding cinnamon instead of chocolate or even espresso powder. Check this link for some more flavors.

You should also check out:

• Banana-stuffed french toast with streusel topping
• Quick baked eggs and potatoes
• Crêpes with sweet yogurt and raspberry
• A Chinese inspired breakfast burrito
• Strawberry flapjacks with Kodiak Cakes

There are few things foods in life I love more than cheese.

Let’s see… theres-

1. Ice cream
2. Cake
3. Ice cream cake

I think you get the drift…

The idea for this recipe came about when I realized I had a warehouse of chicken breasts stored in my freezer. Since we didn’t have time to defrost them, we shocked the chicken in warm water (I know, I don’t think you’re supposed to do that but it worked!). Within 20 minutes, we had room temperature chicken breasts.

There were also only a few ingredients left in the house- panko and pecorino romano cheese. Given that the panko and pecorino combination can do no wrong, we decided to give this a try. Along the way, we dumped in a ton of pepper.

In retrospect, we should have gone a bit easier on the pepper. At the time, it didn’t look like we added much. In fact, we probably consumed a whole Brita pitcher of water following the meal. But don’t get me wrong- the chicken was delicious, but the pepper left our mouths burning with thirst. So, we modified the recipe with the perfect balance. Note how the recipe calls for only 3 tablespoons? Well I think we might have dumped in at least half a cup of pepper. Don’t make the same mistake.

Prep time for this is roughly 30-45 minutes, depending on how quick you are. The baking process is what takes up the most time. While it’s baking, you can boil some pasta. We found that a simple pesto sauce on some angel hair with a squeeze of lemon did the trick.

You should also check out:

• Superbowl wing recipes (from a Top Chef!)
• Cheddar and onion smashed burgers
• Faux cappuccino (coffee with glorified whipping)
• Vicky & William’s delicious dumplings
• Guest appearance: Cooking with Rachel

A few weeks ago, a local church did a reverse offering (yeah, they even made national headlines!). They passed a bucket around and everyone withdrew an envelope. In that envelope was either a $10, $20, or $50 bill. The goal was to invest that “seed” money to help the town of Manville recover from Hurricane Irene. A kid who I tutor decided to use his money to register for a 5k and solicit donations from family and friends. His six year old brother used his money to buy blank cardstock and make Christmas cards to sell. Vicky and Will decided to host a “How to make dumplings” session and charge a modest tuition fee. You have to admit, all of these ideas are pretty darn awesome.

Overall, we had a blast. Someone else used their money to buy Sangria for the event and after the tutorial, we all gathered around to make 500+ dumplings for the volunteer event on October 22. These dumplings will be feeding those volunteers. 500 may sound like an obscene number, but with five-six people working on the task, it really didn’t take as long as you’d think.

If you like what you see here or are feeling that stir of generosity within you, please donate to the cause! All proceeds will be donated to the effort of your choosing! And if you’re wondering, yes, your donations are tax deductible. Plus, help spread the word by sharing this blog post. All ad revenue this month will be going towards the cause too!

There are several tips and comments I took away from the class:

• I’ve been holding a cutting knife wrong my whole life. Isn’t that sad? And I’m supposed to know what I’m doing since I run this blog. Anyway, observe the photo above. See how Will’s (he’s a righty) thumb grips the left side of the handle while his index finger protrudes to the blade? The rest of his fingers are wrapped tightly around the handle. This gives you a solid grip with enough force to chop vegetables.
• When chopping vegetables, you want to think ‘LIGHT’ AND ‘DELICATE.’ Don’t smash the living daylights out of the cabbage or chives. Gorden Ramsey has an awesome video on how you should ‘respect’ herbs rather than bruise them like most of us do. Here’s Gordon’s video on how to chop herbs. He features the “baahhh-sil.”
• When chopping herbs or vegetables, you want to tuck your fingers inwards. This means your front three nails are doing a face-plant (sorry, that was wrong; from Mr. William himself: “Your Ring and Middle finger hold the food, typically with the nails for grip.  The thumb and last 2 fingers hold the food together on the sides.  The knife sits against the either the knuckle or the flat part of the finger above the first knuckle.” ) Gordon also gives a brief 101 on this point in that video.
• When using chives, try to get chive flowers. Not only do they have the flower tips (which you can definitely chop up and include in your mix) but they have round and swirling stems. Compared to regular flat chives, these are more fragrant.
• To get those beautiful folds in the dumplings, scroll down in to the recipe for the technique.

The one main observation that left me baffled was the combination of Napa cabbage and chives in this recipe. My mother, who is Taiwanese, always separates the two vegetables so it was interesting that this recipe incorporated both. I had a quick bite of a dumpling, which tasted great, but my question to you guys out there is- Is there a difference between Taiwanese dumplings and Cantonese dumplings? I also asked a coworker, whose family is from Taiwan, and she said that she never saw both in the same recipe. I tried to do some digging on the web but didn’t find much. There was an Epicurious recipe that incorporated both, but most other recipes had either one or the other.

So without further ado, here’s the recipe!

Vicky & William’s Delicious Dumplings
(Makes roughly 20-25)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 1/4 pound Napa cabbage (3-4 leaves)
• 1/4 pound chive flowers (a small bundle)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/4 teaspoon soy sauce
• Package of dumpling wrappers from the Asian store
  (If you’re feeling adventurous, you can also make your own wrappers from scratch. All you need is all-purpose flour and water! Here’s a previous blog post explaining the process with step-by-step photos!)

Recipe:

Dice the Napa cabbage and chives very finely. When I say finely, I mean they should be 1cm by 1cm. Then, mix the ground pork and diced cabbage and chives in a bowl. Make sure the pork and vegetables are evenly distributed. Season the mixture with salt, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Remember not to knead but rather mix well.

Folding technique:

(Set aside a small cup of water)

Take a wrapper and place it flat on the palm of your hand. Then, spoon a generous portion of the mix onto the middle of the wrapper. Be sure you don’t put too much or else you won’t be able to seal it. Dip your index finger into the water and coat the rim of the wrapper with the water. It should look like the photo below.

Now, it’s time to seal and fold the dumpling. Carefully bring the bottom end of the wrapper to the top so that you get a semi-circle. This is where it gets a bit tricky. Because there’s water on the wrapper, the dough will stick to each other if you’re not careful and you won’t be able to get those perfectly folded designs. To prevent that, you want to insert your index finger between the two wrappers. Ultimately, you’re thumb should be facing towards you, the index finger should be in between the wrapper, and your middle finger should be supporting the wrapper on the other side. Think about pointing your index and middle finger to the left (if you’re a righty) with your thumb pinching the index finger.

After, you want to deftly make creases from the left to the right side. It’s like folding paper when you were a kid to make “springs.”  The folds are only on one side of the dumpling. Notice how the backside of the dumplings look plain but the front side, if you observe closely, has folds. Make sure you seal the dumpling tightly or else it’ll leak when you cook it.

Cooking the dumplings:

Boiling: Add enough in a pot for dumplings to move freely. After the water comes to a rolling boil, season the water with salt. Then, add enough frozen dumplings to not crowd the pot. Stir gently to ensure the dumplings don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. You’ll want to cook them for about 10-15 minutes. Typically, when the dumplings rise, that’s when you know it’s done. The skins in the dumplings should be pulled close to the filling and the filling should be firm to touch. To be completely sure, open one dumpling to sample.

Frying: (Um, everything tastes better fried!) Use a non-stick frying pan over a medium flame and coat the pan with oil. Add the frozen dumplings but leave room between each so that they don’t touch one another as they cook. Add 1/2 cup of water and cover. Check the pan every 5 minutes to see if the water is dry. If so, lower the flame slightly and add more water and cover. Continue this for 20 minutes or when dumplings are cooked. When they’re done, leave them uncovered and cook off the remaining water. This will help them develop a slight crust on the bottom of the dumplings.

Well that was easy!

You should also check out:

• Superbowl wing recipes (from a Top Chef!)
• Cheddar and onion smashed burgers
• Faux cappuccino (coffee with glorified whipping)
• Panko-peppered chicken
• Guest appearance: Cooking with Rachel