My favorite sushi restaurant in San Diego, Ki Sushi

Kind of a different post today, I wanted to tell you about my favorite sushi restaurant I've found in San Diego. It's called Ki Sushi and they have an awesome Happy Hour, from 4-6 PM Monday-Friday and 12-5 PM on Saturday and Sunday. My favorite thing to order on the Happy Hour menu was the Tempura Spicy Tuna Roll and I usually also ordered the Pork Gyoza on the appetizer menu. The restaurant is relatively small, but I never had to wait for a table even during Happy Hour.

I posted the address below and I recommend you try to go here if you can.

Penne Rustica and tasty wine!

So my birthday was yesterday and my boyfriend and I went wine-tasting and I collected 3 lovely bottles of wine as my birthday presents. They are from this amazing winery in Temecula, CA called South Coast Winery, and if you ever have the chance to visit and taste their wine, do it! Every wine you taste is amazing and flavorful and you can taste the actual flavor notes they claim they have. None of the wines taste anything like each other and they have hundreds of awards lining the tasting room's walls. Anyways here's a photo of the 3 wines I got...

From left: Cabernet Rose, Gewürztraminer, and Ruby Cuvee

So for dinner tonight, I'm making Penne Rustica, a re-creation of the dish they serve at Romano's Macaroni Grill. I took out the shrimp that's normally in this dish because I don't really care for it and neither does my boyfriend. But, feel free to add it if you like it. Oh yeah, and here's a funny picture of me cooking in my pajama's : )

Here's the recipe adapted from Top Secret Recipes.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cooking Time: 45 min | Difficulty: Easy | Serves: 4

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp Butter
2 Tbsp Minced Garlic
3 Tbsp Marsala Wine (I just used the wine we were drinking for dinner)
2 cups Heavy Cream
1 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
½ cup Milk
½ cup Chicken Broth
1 Tbsp Cornstarch
1 Tbsp Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard
2 tsp Minced Fresh Rosemary
½ tsp Salt
½ tsp Minced Fresh Thyme
¼ tsp Ground Cayenne Pepper
1 pound Penne Rigate Pasta, cooked
12 medium Shrimp, peeled and deveined (optional)
2 Skinless Chicken Breast Fillets
½ cup (about 2 ounces) Thick-Sliced Smoked Prosciutto, chopped
Topping
3 Tbsp Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 ½ tsp Paprika

Directions:

1. Preheat barbecue grill to high.

2. Prepare gratinata sauce by melting 3 tablespoons of butter in a medium saucepan over medium/low heat. Add garlic and sweat it for about 5 minutes. Be sure the garlic doesn't brown. Add the marsala wine and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients for the sauce and whisk well until smooth. Bring mixture to a simmer and keep it there for 10 minutes or until it's thick. Cover sauce and remove it from the heat.

3. Cook pasta following directions on the package (7 to 9 minutes in boiling water). You want the pasta tender, but not mushy (al dente). Strain pasta and set it aside when it's done.

4. Pound the thick end of your chicken breasts a bit with a kitchen mallet to make them a uniform thickness. Rub chicken with olive oil, then sprinkle on a bit of salt and pepper. Spear the shrimp on skewers (6 per skewer should work fine), then rub them with oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

5. Grill chicken for 5 to 6 minutes per side. Grill shrimp for 2 minutes per side. When chicken is done, slice each breast into strips.

6. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Build each dish in a large, shallow baking dish. Or you can use a 9-inch glass or ceramic pie plate. Load 3 cups of pasta into each baking dish. Add one-quarter of the chicken, 3 shrimp and 2 tablespoons of prosciutto onto each serving. Spoon ¾ of a cup of gratinata sauce on each serving and toss to coat. Combine 3 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese with 1 ½ teaspoons paprika, then sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of this mixture over the top of each serving. Bake the dishes for 10 to 12 minutes, or until tops begin to brown. Serve.

Chocolate Covered Mac and Cheese

One of my favorite blogs, The Food in my Beard, makes some of the most interesting combinations of ingredients in his posts. I love to see what he's created each week, and this recipe was one of them. I knew I had to try this new version of mac and cheese as soon as I saw it. The only problem I have is that he doesn't really post a recipe with measurements, but a guideline of ingredients. I'll do my best to attach the measurements to this recipe.

Here's the recipe adapted from The Food in my Beard.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cooking Time: 15 min | Difficulty: Easy | Serves: 2

Ingredients:

2 Poblano Peppers, roasted and chopped into small bits
8 ounces (1 cup) Chihuahua Cheese, shredded
8 ounces (1 cup) Jack Cheese, shredded
85% Dark Chocolate, shavings, enough to top 2 servings
4 slices Bacon, chopped
2 Tbsp Butter
4 Tbsp Flour
3 cups Whole Milk
2-2 oz. servings of Cooked Pasta (any kind will work, but macaroni is the traditional shape)

Directions:

1. Roast 2 poblanos (this can be done in the oven or over a gas burner. Roast the pepper until it turns black and then put the peppers into a plastic bag. Let sit while you cook the rest of this recipe, and when finished, use a paper towel to rub off the black bits on the pepper). 

2. Shred 8 oz each chihuahua and jack cheese. With a knife, crumble up some 85% dark chocolate.

3. Start with 4 slices of chopped bacon. Cook till crisp and remove from the pan. There should be about 2 tablespoons of bacon fat in the pan. Add 2 tablespoons butter to that and then add 4 tbsp flour and whisk till smooth. Cook 3 minutes till it starts to brown slightly. Add 3 cups whole milk. Bring to an almost simmer. Whisk in 8 oz each shredded jack and chihuahua cheese. Once smooth, add the cooked pasta and poblanos.

Kake Udon

This was one of the most time intensive and weird-ingredient laden recipes I have thus far cooked. It was delicious, but I warn you, there are some strange ingredients that can only be found at a Japanese market. I even tried my hand at hand-making the udon noodles another night, but they turned out horribly, and I suggest you just buy the noodles if you are already making the broth from scratch. Also, I don't suggest you try making the dashi. I did, and it just delayed dinner time by about an hour. Just buy it from the Japanese market.

Here's the recipe adapted from the La Fuji Mama blog.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cooking Time: 15 min | Difficulty: Easy | Serves: 4

Ingredients:

4-2 oz. servings of store bought Udon noodles
1 cup Water
2 cups Soy Sauce
1 ½ cups Mirin
2 Tbsp Granulated Sugar
1.8 ounces Katsuobushi (Dried Fish Flakes)
6 ¾ cups Dashi (don't try making this, it takes forever. Just do the store-bought version)

Finely Sliced Scallions, to taste
Shichimi Togarashi Or Chili Powder, to taste (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large pot, combine the water, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low, and add the katsuobushi. When the mixture comes to a boil again, turn off the heat and let the mixture stand for 2 minutes. Then strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve, or a sieve lined with a double layer of cheesecloth, and discard the katsuobushi.

2. Separate the udon noodles into 4 separate deep bowls.

3. Add the dashi to the mixture in the pot and heat over high heat. When the mixture comes to a boil, turn the heat off and pour it over the udon noodles. Sprinkle with scallions and shichimi togarashi, to taste and serve.