September 26, 2009 - Nathan's version of Surf and Turf

First the surf: The grocery store had these petite Canadian lobster tails so I bought first and decided what to make later. Had heard many times how good the Keller-style butter poached lobster is so wanted to try something like that. Went off of an online version of a recipe from the French Laundry cookbook.

I had lobster stock in the freezer so thawed and reduced 3 cups of that to 1, then added cream and simmered down a bit more. Essentially making lobster bisque. Cooked the orzo until done and then added to cream with chives and mascarpone cheese.

Lobster was poached in a beurre monte which you make by whisking cold butter into just a bit of boiling water to create an emulsion. Time for cooking the raw lobster tails is 8 minutes and they were perfect. Not to blow my own horn but this was the best lobster I have ever had. It is obviously some of the recipe but I think the petite tails are just very tender as well.

Wine was a Pouilly-Fuisse. On to the turf:

Grass-fed tenderloin rubbed with salt and pepper and left to stand for an hour. This was seared in cast iron and then finished in the oven. I thawed some demi-glace I had in the freezer and as the steak rested de-glazed the pan with red wine and port then added some demi-glace and reduced for the brown sauce. This was accompanied by sauteed brussel sprouts and parsnip puree.

Wine was a Spanish Old Vine Garnacha which went extremely well. Was very complementary without being overpowering or under-represented.

September 20, 2009 - Duo of Curry

Some leftover coconut milk and the seafood roadshow at Costco inspired this dinner.

Shrimp curry is an Indian style curry with the shrimp marinated in a Madras style curry powder then cooked in coconut milk.

The Scallop dish is seared scallops served over top of a Thai Green Chili with anaheim peppers and asparagus. Topping it off is a little bit of chilled pickled radish.

A Riesling or Gewurtztraminer would have been great with this but since I currrently have 100 bottles of red wine and no white in the house the accompaniment was a Stella Artois.

September 15, 2009 - Golden Beet Asparugus Salad, Grilled Steak and Veggies

Was looking for recipes involving golden beets (again that I had to use up!) and came across a recipe that used them with an asparagus salad. The recipe had rounds of beets served so I stole the idea of shaved or thinly sliced asparagus and decided to trim the beets as cubes.

Sauces are dotted around the plate: a balsamic reduction and a mayo diluted with lemon juice.

The salad course was definitely the more aesthetic of the plates. Took all the trimmings from the beets and made a beet "ceviche", sauteed brussel sprouts and some grilled cherry tomatoes. To finish off the plate was a piece of USDA Prime New York strip with a blue cheese butter to finish it off.

Wine was a 2004 Priorat (Spain).

September 14, 2009 - Seared Tuna and Cantonese Style Snapper

Appetizer course started out with a couple of small tuna steaks marinated in soy sauce, sake and sesame oil. These are just seared in a cast iron pan and then I serve them with Mache (little hat over the "a"). I got introduced to this nutty green by my friend Martin Trudelle. I usually just toss it in a bit of rice wine vinegar, oil and sugar. It is definitely the go-to green accompaniment for tuna. Only seem to be able to get it at Whole Foods.

A Daiginjo sake waits to be sipped in the background.

Also found NZ pink snapper at Whole Foods and decided to go for the Cantonese Style steamed fish. This is one of my favorite preps for a mild white fish. Steamed with some ginger and then covered in ginger-infused soy, cilantro and green onions (soaked in ice water to make it curly).

I had eggplant in the fridge to use up so lightly salted this up and stir-fryed it in spicy Szechuan red bean sauce.

Farmer's Market Bounty

Colors of all the veggies in this pic are great!

September 9, 2009 - Fresh Tomato and Chicken Pasta with Blue Cheese Bacon Salad

This was another quick, week-night creation based on what was available at the time. Had some organic cherry tomatoes and a bunch of fresh basil from the farmers market that I based this around. Was just going to do a simple basil, tomato, garlic, olive oil dressing for the pasta but decided to get some protein by shredding some roasted chicken breast in as well. This is actually very similar to a pasta on the menu at Bloom that I often order for lunch sans pine nuts.

Also had some beautiful curly leaf green lettuce from the market. It reminded me of the lettuce in these salads in Munich at these lunch places we used to go to. They would always have some type of creamy dressing with them. I have a recipe somewhere for a dressing that is chipotle and adobo sauce/lime/yogurt/sour cream and maple syrup. I substituted Red Hot for the chipotle since I didn't feel like opening up a whole can of chipotles and honey for the maple syrup because I didn't feel like going out to the garage to get the pipe wrench to get the lid off of the maple syrup can. Laziness is the mother of invention... Added some bacon and crumbled blue cheese and was off to the races.

Wine was one of the house specials right now: Grenache from Barossa Valley

September 7, 2009 - Seared Scallops and Pasta with Greens

I will start out by saying that I wasn't terribly impressed by how this meal came together. That said it ended up being very tasty. I was suspect of it right until the end. The best way to describe this is you look in the fridge and take out everything that needs used up and figure out what to do with it. I used a pre-mix citrus and lavender spice rub on the scallops and I got the idea for the pasta from a Bon Apetit article about Kale (instead I used fresh beet greens). I really wanted capellini or angel hair for the pasta but didn't have any so only had whole-grain rotini which I don't really enjoy with a light style sauce.

So after all that complaining everything was actually very tasty. Parmigiano took the pasta over the top and I did a light tomato ceviche to balance the scallops. As for the wine...I am embarassed to say that I didn't have any or don't remember :-(.

Retro! - Chinese 5 Spice Salmon over Julienned Vegetables

This has been a standard for a while. It is actually a pretty quick meal if you are good on a mandolin (and not the musical variety!). The flavor of the Chinese 5 spice is great on the salmon even though you wouldn't think it. I think making your own Five Spice would be the best scenario but in a pinch the store bought stuff will do.

I have julienned these vegetables without a mandolin many times and it is painstakingly tedious! Especially since they reduce to nothing when cooked. Veggies are carrots, leeks and zucchini that are sweated in butter and then with a bit of white wine poured over to finish them off in the oven.

Wine accompaniment on this occasion is a Georges duBouef Beaujolias Villages (slightly chilled).

Retro! - Blackened Halibut and Andouille Sausage Cornbread Stuffing

Had extra halibut to use up from a previous meal and also had some spicy cajun sausage from the farmers market so that is where this pairing came from.

I have a spice mix called Bonedust from the Sticks and Stones cookbook I used for the blackening seasoning. I just melt butter on a plate, dredge the fish in butter and then in the spice and add it to the smoking cast iron pan. I really need to do this outdoors or get a proper fan hood though!

To add a little coolness to the spice of the blackened fish I seed then dice some tomatoes (i think I actually smashed the dice tomatoes with a pestle as well) then add dill, lime juice and some chili sauce to make a tomato salsa.

The stuffing recipe is derived from a Paul Prudhomme recipe that my dad did with his Turducken at Xmas last year. I modify a little bit to use fresh baked cornbread rather than dry bread crumbs. The interesting thing I have learned from Prudhomme's recipes is that he always uses the concept of layering the vegetables. This means that you may split the veggies up into 2 or 3 and add them at different times so you have 2 or 3 different levels of cookedness and flavors.

Wines served were a Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc from Chile and an Alfredo Roca Pinot Noir from Mendoza Argentina.

Sept 6, 2009 - Smoked Brisket and Louisiana Gumbo

I didn't take pictures of these unfortunately. Just hard to make a slab of meat and a bowl of stew look exotic.

Smoked a beef brisket for 5.5 hours using Pecan and Cherry wood. Made a dry rub beforehand that sat on the meat for about 4 hours. Sliced the meat thinly across the grain and then tossed in a sauce made from the pan drippings, ketchup and another bbq sauce I had made.

The okra at the farmers market looked too good to pass up so I decided to make gumbo. I also remembered that I had some Pork Tasso (smoked pork from Louisiana) in the freezer so this ended up being a chicken and pork tasso gumbo. I did the roux to a reddish brown to start since I prefer it this way rather than black, then added the cajun trinity (celery, onions, green peppers) and sauteed, then the chicken, okra, pork, chicken stock and a bottle of amber beer. Used a locally made Caribbean hot sauce for kick (www.pagochea.com) and added file powder to thicken things up.

In hindsight I should have taken pics anyway!

Retro! - Chopped Salad & Grilled Halibut with Mustard Sauce

There are a few pics I have from recent meals (last two weeks) that I thought I would put up here as well.

Chopped Salad: Taken from a recipe found in Edible Hawaiian Islands magazine while on vacation in Kauai. An anything-goes fresh vegetable salad from a Spanish restuaurant called Barracuda(?) in Hanalei. Basically you take anything that is fresh and chop it up fine and toss it with dressing. Very crispy things you blanch slightly. Bought the rings for forming the salad online from Sur La Table.

The halibut is plain and simple: salt, pepper and olive oil then fish meets hot cast iron skillet. The mustard sauce is inspired from a recipe in The French Laundry Cookbook and taken from carolcookseller's blog French Laundry at Home. The veggies are chosen to make the plate colorful more than anything else. Kind of stop light colors with the red, yellow and green I guess. Asparagus has a shaving of parmigiano reggiano on top.

Maiden Post - Trio of Salmon

Thought about doing this blog for a while but am just getting around to it. Guess I thought tonight's dinner was worthy enough to start documenting now! Haven't quite decided on format and content quite yet. May elaborate on where I got ideas from and influences in deciding what dishes I cooked.

Here is tonight's meal:

Trio of Salmon: Salmon and Summer Melon Ceviche with Thai Red Curry Paste and Coconut Milk, Tequila spiked, Alder Smoked Salmon on Shaved Fennel with Fennel/Chive cream cheese, Pan seared Salmon on Pesto-whipped Potatoes, Heirloom Tomato side salad

Wine: Coppola Diamond Label Chardonnay

Details:

Ceviche: I had a summer melon leftover in the fridge and had a side of Wild Coho Salmon. Had an idea for some kind of ribbons of melon salad so started looking around and saw a recipe for ceviche. I did a Fijian style ceviche back in Calgary with coconut milk so had the idea to use coconut milk and thai red chili to add to the flavor. This turned out to be one of the best ceviches I have had. Marinated (cooked) the salmon in a fairly small dice for about 2 hours then drained and added a bit of fresh lime back in.

Smoked Salmon: Based off of a recipe I have done many times but liked the idea of crispy raw fennel underneath and adding a bit of zest, with lime juice, fennel fronds and chives, to the cream cheese.

Pan-seared salmon: The Westin Westminster used to have a King Salmon dish served with pesto gnocchi (I think) and a yellow tomato salad. Using these flavors I decided to add pesto to whipped potatoes and serve the yellow salad on the side due to the size of plate I picked. When doing my whipped potatoes I always thinly slice the potato and then steam/boil in vegetable and chicken stock for extra flavor. You can use a lot less butter and cream doing this.