Leena Eats, Gourmet Communication ... Food, Travel, Gastronomy

LeenaEats
LeenaEats

Leena Eats: Just kidding…NOW I’m back! And with dinner party photos!

Leena Eats: Just kidding...NOW Im back! And with dinner party photos!

DUDE. You guys. I made this. For reals. Lovin the Momofuku Milkbar cookbook right now!

So. I said I was back, and clearly, I lied. What I actually meant is, hi, see you again in four months or so. Leena Eats: Just kidding...NOW Im back! And with dinner party photos!

I spent from mid-June through early October studying my ass off for a little test called the GRE, because I decided hey, wouldn’t it be fun to get a doctorate and research food and culture for a living? It paid off, because I didn’t completely fail the math, and I did ok in the verbal and kick-ass in the essay section. BUT. It also meant no brain energy was left at the end of day to cook, let alone blog about food. Or exercise. Or eat well.

But I did occasionally bust out some winners, the cake above included. That bad-ass monstrosity was a chocolate chip cake layered with passion fruit curd, chocolate crumbles, and coffee buttercream frosting from the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook.

More after the jump!

Read the rest of this entry »

December 12th, 2012
Posted in Appetizers, Leena Cooks, Leena Eats, Mains, Meat, Parties, Pork, Sorbet, Soup/Salad, The Gastronomical Leena, Vegetables | 4 Comments »

Leena Cooks: Ruth Reichl’s Mushroom Soup

Leena Cooks: Ruth Reichls Mushroom Soup

A little Berkeley, a little mushroom--the perfect compliment to a chilly winter day!

Let me be crystal clear here–Ruth Reichl is my Tom Cruise, my Justin Timberlake, my Barbara Streisand. Very few people make me lose my shit. Ruth is one.

She is the godmother of modern food writing who lived in the Bay area for part of her life (like me!), loved the world of food and writing about it (like me!), and was the last editor of the iconic Gourmet Magazine before it closed down (one day!).

The fact is, while there are millions of food writers today in the world, it is difficult to find good examples of food writing career paths for people just starting in the field. Especially just ten years ago, when I was first starting. I immersed myself in the world of Ruth Reichl’s stories of a life filled with food, each accompanied by a recipe from that time. I literally and figuratively ate it up!

More story, food porn and the recipe after the jump!

Read the rest of this entry »

February 8th, 2012
Tags: ,
Posted in Leena Cooks, Recipes, Soup/Salad, Vegetables | Comments Off

Leena Cooks: Andra’s Killer Veggie Chili

Leena Cooks: Andras Killer Veggie Chili

A meaty, hearty, delicious vegetarian chili. Who knew?

For a majority of my life, vegetarian chili has always meant one thing to me: a bunch of beans with some spices cooked in water. Every vegetarian chili I had eaten had been variations on that theme.

At my annual chili cookoff, my world was rocked. I was overwhelmed with a plethora of kick-ass vegetarian chili. More than just beans and water, that is for damn sure. The winner of the event was made by my friend Andra, and she made a hearty chili made richer with the addition of soy chorizo.

I had to get my hands on a recipe that made me actually want to eat vegetarian, so here it is. The recipe and heaps of food porn and tips after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

January 18th, 2012
Tags: ,
Posted in chili, Leena Cooks, Recipes, Vegetables | 1 Comment »

Leena Cooks: Baby Veggie Curry!

Leena Cooks: Baby Veggie Curry!

Curry=smile. Good to know.

SOOOOO remember all of the blood, sweat and tears I put into those last couple of batches of baby food? Not only did Ella basically reject the sweet potato/spinach mix after a few days of eating it, but then the extra freezer door was accidentally left open, and all of her food, both liked and unliked, melted.

FML.

So. Back to the drawing board, and bonus–I get to make food she might actually eat. This time, I decided to make it and feed it to her directly before freezing and saving it all, just in case she hated it. Based on food in my fridge, I decided to try a baby veggie curry. Ella seems to like the curry powder when I add it to her turkey dinner or different vegetables, so I wanted to take it to next level.

The recipe and food porn after the jump!

Read the rest of this entry »

December 28th, 2011
Tags:
Posted in Baby food, Leena Cooks, Recipes, Vegetables | Comments Off

Leena Cooks: Food Porn Daily: The Cookbook’s Chorizo Bistro Salad!

Leena Cooks: Food Porn Daily: The Cookbooks Chorizo Bistro Salad!

Chorizo and caramelized mushroom bistro salad with poached egg from Food Porn Daily: The Cookbook

I am not really one to follow a recipe. I always start off with the best intentions to, but soon I realize I am missing an ingredient or have a better ingredient/idea/method in mind than the author of the recipe, and all hell breaks out. Sure, I may end up with a delicious dish, but who knows what mysterious, tasty delights the actual recipe held?

So when my gal Amanda over at Food Porn Daily published her first cookbook, I figured once, JUST ONCE, I could try to follow a recipe. I picked her chorizo bistro salad with caramelized crimini mushrooms, poached eggs and sherry vinaigrette…and I pretty much followed her entire recipe, save for some avocado I threw in at the last moment (old habits die hard…and avocados rock).

Read the rest of this entry »

January 10th, 2011
Tags: ,
Posted in Leena Cooks, Main, Mains, Meat, Pork, Soup/Salad, Vegetables | Comments Off

Leena Cooks (repeat) Jackie’s Thai Shrimp Curry with CSA Produce!

Leena Cooks (repeat) Jackies Thai Shrimp Curry with CSA Produce!

The remains of a most delicious Thai shrimp curry.

I know, I know. I am just as bummed about the death of Michael Jackson as all of you are. The media is already commenting on how much money he left, the custody of his children, but I believe there are more pressing matters at hand. Like wtf ever happened to Bubbles the Chimp?!

Who gets custody of that little bundle of diaper-wearing, banana-eating joy? It is almost too much to take. So what better way to drown my celebrity death sorrows than a spicy curry dish? I really wish I would have taken a proper photo of this curry, because hot damn if it isn’t the best new dish I’ve made in my kitchen in a year. A gigantic, cruise-ship sized thank you goes out to my two gastro gal pals, Jackie (who created the recipe) and Cari (who posted about it on her blog so I could steal the recipe!).

Read the rest of this entry »

December 27th, 2010
Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Leena Cooks, Mains, Vegetables | 1 Comment »

Leena Eats: Gather in Berkeley

Leena Eats: Gather in Berkeley

The vegan charcuterie platter at Gather in Berkeley.

Leena Eats: Gather in Berkeley

The list of vegan charcuterie served that day at Gather in Berkeley. I really like the mushroom tartare.

Gather is a “new American” style restaurant in Berkeley, California that dabbles a bit in vegetarian and vegan foods, as well as food for meat lovers, so when my parents came into town (one is a vegetarian, the other a meat lover), I knew we had to try it out.

We started with the vegan charcuterie, an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one, but surprisingly delicious. I really liked the mushroom tartare (front and center in the top photo) and the carpaccio of heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers and “tonatto” sauce (a play on an Italian tuna sauce). I wouldn’t say they could replace meat on a regular basis in my life, but I definitely did not miss meat while eating them.

More food porn after the jump!

Leena Eats: Gather in Berkeley

Gather restaurant in Berkeley.

Read the rest of this entry »

November 17th, 2010
Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Berkeley, California, Leena Eats, Vegan, Vegetables | Comments Off

Leena Cooks n Cans: Spicy Dill Pickled Asparagus

Leena Cooks n Cans: Spicy Dill Pickled Asparagus

From stalk to can: my kick-ass spicy dill pickled asparagus, canned, of course.

While other bloggers have been posting about cooking the perfect asparagus soup or asparagus risotto, I must admit I prefer to enjoy the green veg a different way–by turning them into pickles and canning them. This allows me to enjoy them year round, and is a great excuse to eat more pickles!

Plus I’m totally being patriotic. Did you know that pickles helped Columbus’s crew travel the ocean without getting scurvy so they could discover America?

Did you also know I am totally the sort of person to look up a historical excuse for eating more of my favorite food?!

Good. I just want you to know who you’re dealing with here.

Read the rest of this entry »

June 7th, 2010
Posted in Canning, Leena Cooks, Vegetables | Comments Off

Leena Cooks: Vegetarian! Potato Curry with Yogurt Gravy and 3 chutneys

Leena Cooks: Vegetarian! Potato Curry with Yogurt Gravy and 3 chutneys
My potato, carrot and kohlrabi curry with yogurt gravy. 100% vegetarian!

If you are familiar with me, you know I loves me some bacon. Which is why it comes as just as much of a surprise to me as it is to you that my husband and I decided to eat vegetarian once a week for the entire year in an effort to get healthy. I literally don’t know how to make food taste delicious without bacon fat, so this will be a challenge, but hopefully a fun one. Recently, one of my Indian aunts told me about a web site that homesick Indians turn to when they want to know how to make vegetarian cuisine from home: Manjula’s Kitchen. Not only is the name awesome (my own grandmother’s name was Manjula), it offers a wide array of Indian vegetarian dishes from scratch. For our first week, I went with a potato curry with yogurt gravy that I supplemented with my own carrots and kohlrabi. No pork was hurt in the making of this meal. More food porn and the recipe after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »

January 18th, 2010
Posted in Leena Cooks, Vegetables | 6 Comments »

Leena Cooks: Crispy Garlic Kale and Roasted Bacon-Brussels Sprouts

Leena Cooks: Crispy Garlic Kale and Roasted Bacon Brussels Sprouts
Crispy Roasted Kale with garlic and olive oil.

Look! I cooked! And it didn’t suck! I also love exclamation marks!!! No more cooking rut for me, and I have one cooking method and one vegetable to thank: roasting and bacon. For some reason, kale and brussels sprouts, two veggies I already love, taste even better when you roast them. They get all crispy and brown in a most delicious way. Not quite sure why, but my current theory is that there are tiny elves of yumminess that live in the oven, and whenever something green enters, they moonwalk to Michael Jackson’s The Way You Make Me Feel, creating a chain reaction that ends in crispy brown veggies. Or maybe it’s just a bit of the old Maillard reaction at work. (I think it is the elves) (And in my head, they look like that Indian Oompa Loompa in the latest Willy Wonka movie) Read the rest of this entry »

March 31st, 2009
Posted in Leena Cooks, Vegetables | Comments Off

Tomato Confit: Leena rocks the shit out of a bag of tomatoes

Tomato Confit: Leena rocks the shit out of a bag of tomatoes
the makings of tomato confit: a big pan of kick-ass

So I got a big ass bag of tomatoes from my CSA last week, the last of summer’s finest in a wide range of shapes, sizes, colors and varieties. What’s a lady to do with a big ass bag of summer tomatoes? The way I saw it, my only real options were: *eat a caprese salad at every meal for the next week *throw them at the cat *make a pan of kick-ass Basil makes me gassy and the cat is wicked fast, so really, the decision was already made for me. Read the rest of this entry »

March 31st, 2009
Posted in Leena Cooks, Vegetables | 2 Comments »

Buttery Zucchini Goodness

Buttery Zucchini Goodness

With spring just around the corner, I?ve been keen to start working a wider variety of vegetables into our diet. We?ve been rocking the corn and carrots pretty hard lately, so a slight change was more than welcome. Read the rest of this entry »

January 11th, 2008
Posted in Leena Cooks, Vegetables | 6 Comments »

About | Site Map | Privacy Policy | Contact | 2010 LeenaEats.com

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.