Amuse-Bouche!

I've been pretty stressed lately- two shoots, an edit for charity, several deadlines, etc. So how do I unwind? Cooking for three hours! Last night we decided to open a bottle of nice rosé wine and eat a slow four course appetizer-style dinner. I'd cook in half hour increments and then break and we'd eat, rinse and repeat.

Lots of quality ingredients from the deli, farmer's market, etc.

1- grapes, fontina, parmesan, and fresh mozzarella (easy starter)

2- wafers made from crisped parmesan topped with heirloom tomatoes, chives, and tarragon

3- kale and scallion "negimaki." like a sushi roll, but using thinly sliced, marinated filet mignon as the wrap, grilled

4- seared ahí tuna smothered in lime-cilantro soy sauce and jalapeños (too late in the meal for good light for the picture)

Mmmmm. Kara and I both loved the whole meal. Props to her ever-improving tastebuds.

It All Led to This...

DUCK SUSHI

This was fun because a lot of this dish came from experience rather than instructions.

The nigiri sushi (the ones that aren't rolls, recipe vaguely from Nobu) embody what I love about Japanese food- delicate and light, but incredibly complex. Besides the duck and sushi rice, there's wasabi, umeboshi (pickled plum sauce, extremely bizarre taste on a Western tongue), daikon (huge Japanese radish) and red chili paste, grated ginger, coriander stems, lime zest, and a drizzle of a soy-honey sauce. Yeah... and I still swear it's light. Best part is, I'm familiar with all the ingredients and had most in my pantry.

The rolls, both inside-out and regular, include duck, scallions, and hoisin sauce.

The seaweed salad is wakame seaweed tossed in soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, etc.

The duck was seasoned with Chinese 5 spice which I use all the time, but also, a new one to me- Japanese 7 spice. Japanese 7 spice is like red pepper, but includes stuff like orange rind and sesame seeds. Chinese 5 spice is sweeter, with things like anise and cloves. I need to invent American Ten  ELEVEN Spice. 

Okay, done. I hope this culinary log was fun and not obnoxious. I have no more cooking plans at the moment, and Kara's about to come home, but I'm sure you'll see more at some point…

X

The last supper:

Just the nigiri:

Duck a l'Orange

Okay, this string of foodie emails will stop soon. Kara will be home and I care about her much more than cooking, so I'll quit this. In the meantime, here's a classic dish that I think has reaffirmed all my prior suspicions that duck is the best meat ever. This dish was very good, but it's really that duck is so incredibly awesome. I'll take duck over lobster and butter any day. Yeah, I said that.

So… I have one more duck breast in my fridge and one last supper to cook. Smirk. Stay tuned...

Venison Three Ways

Bought an expensive cut of venison while Kara's gone (she won't eat it) and decided to stretch it out by preparing it differently each night. The first was the best, though I didn't cook the thick cut of meat perfectly until the last one.

My own words in the dorky one-sentence reviews of the original recipe names.

Grilled Venison with Braised Red Cabbage and Mashed Potatoes

Plays off the sugar and vinegar treatment of the cabbage with a sweet oniony gravy, balanced by the potatoes and meat.

Venison Medallions with Wilted Spinach Salad

Overnight marination in red wine, lentils, and spinach highlight the rustic quality of the meat.

Grilled Venison Medallions with Wild Mushroom Tomato Bordelaise

Mushrooms slow cooked in red wine and beef broth bring out the venison's earthiness.

Indian Food

So Kara's out of town and I tried to think of something to make that she'd never eat...

Ground Lamb Kofto Kebabs with Pomegranate Glaze, Indian-Spiced Crispy Mashed Potatoes and Persian Cucumber Raita!

Fun to play with unusual ingredients and just about every gadget in my kitchen. Not hard to make, but this was the hardest dish I've ever had to photograph and (hopefully) make look appetizing. I even posted a review for the recipe suggesting meatball shapes instead of this traditional kofto kebab that looks, um... not quite right to my Western eyes. It was really good though.

 

 

Rustic

Pictures of a tasty dinner I had fun cooking yesterday. An Italian casserole that requires spending several hours loving your ingredients, using lots of techniques and finally tearing it up and combining it with your hands so every bite is a different flavor combination. Roasted tomatoes and eggplant, rigatoni, ricotta, tons of fried garlic, and fresh herbs from the garden. Served it with a super simple, but very tasty non-breaded chicken Parmesan and salad.

In Your Face, Fracture!

You can crack my clavicle and thwart my thumb, but you can't cripple my cuisine!

Tuna Ceviche

Ahi Tuna in lime juice with red onion, avocado, and cilantro.

Wild Mushroom Bruschetta

Shiitake and cremini mushrooms marinated with rosemary and garlic on fresh grilled bread, topped with mozzarella.

Gingered Salmon with Corn and Watercress

Salmon with pickled ginger stuffed into slits, crisped in the pan, then roasted. Served on a bed of watercress and grilled corn, in a light vinaigrette, and drizzled with a balsamic reduction.

Crisp Butter Cookies

Mostly butter, some sugar and flour, and a hint of vanilla. Not pictured- they just look like cookies, but mmmm... they taste like cookies, too.

Okay, that exhausted me and probably added a week to my recovery, but it sure tasted good!

 

Memorial Day Menu 2011

Fun day of grilling:

Scallop Nachos

Grilled scallops on roasted tortilla triangles with lime-guacamole, topped with grilled jalapeño-cilantro pesto

Cuban Tacos

Grilled pork tenderloin, marinated in hand-squeezed orange juice, wrapped in smoked ham and Swiss cheese with pickled jalapeños, then grilled again in a corn tortilla, and topped with grilled red pepper relish

Mexican Grilled Veggies

A skewer of red onion, bell pepper, Mexican squash, and mushrooms in a chili-cumin rub, grilled and splashed with lime

* I wanted to use blue corn tortillas for pretty much everything, but I couldn't find them, so I did half white and half yellow.

A Lesson in Subtlety

First food email of the year! Yep, first day back home, I cooked from TWO of the new cook books I was given for Christmas (Tom Valenti's One Pot Meals and Ina Garten's How Easy is That?). I handed them to Kara and told her to pretend they were menus and she picked a great combo that tasted amazing. (The pic is sub-par because I usually use the sun to light my food all pretty and the sun is set by dinner time at this time of year... and I wanted to EAT.)

Anyway, these are two recipes that utilize simple but specific techniques to create very complex flavors. I learned a lot. I'd call this "buttery shrimp with shitake mushrooms and tomato" served over "garlicky Parmesan spaghetti" This was a new way of cooking pasta for me (relying heavily on the cooking water for the sauce), and the shrimp recipe was simple but ended in a rare perfect balance of flavors. If it sounds at all interesting, hit me up for the recipes.

I hope this is the last time I type this, but... last time... Happy new year.