October 16, 2009 - Halibut Cheeks with Champagne Cream Sauce, L'Atelier Potatoes and Spinach

Went down to Marczyk's gourmet market today. They had a nice selection of stuff although a tad pricey. http://marczykfinefoods.com/ They also have a wine shop attached to it which couldn't be left untouched! I went down at my friend Omar's advice since they sell bulk rendered duck fat and it is such a pain to make yourself. It definitely extends the process of buying whole ducks another couple of hours. I walked out with a pretty random bunch of ingredients but one of those was Halibut cheeks. I have never cooked these before but have had cod cheeks from the East Coast before.

My inspiration for this dish was a meal I had at the Hotel Uniq (http://www.hotelunique.com.br/)in Sao Paulo, Brazil at the rooftop restaurant called Skye. The dish was a white fish (halibut I think) over pureed potatoes with a champagne caviar sauce.

This was supposed to be the first of a two-course dinner but after seeing how many halibut cheeks I had and how rich I knew this would be it was the main event. The halibut cheeks were just rubbed with salt and pepper, dredged in flour and then pan-fried. The "L'Atelier" potatoes are dubbed so because of the Joel Robuchon restaurant's potatoes that are served in min Le Creuset dutch ovens. I have been to this restaurant at the MGM in Vegas several times and I am sure there is more butter than potatoes in their version. To make mine I boiled some Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled while hot and then forced these through a strainer to mash them. You are supposed to use a tamis (which I don't have) so after the extensive hand cramping from using a spoon and a strainer I had 75% of the potato through. I then warmed through on medium adding butter and heavy cream. This was definitely not a low-cal dish but man are they tasty.

The champagne sauce was supposed to have caviar but...I live in Colorado. Hence no caviar today. Sauteed shallots, add champagne, reduce, add chicken stock, reduce, add cream reduce, mount with cold butter and then add chives. C'est magnifique! I was going to add lemon juice and in hindsight it would have added some nice acidity because of the richness of everything. The spinach was just steamed and rolled in a sushi mat to squeeze out excess water.

This may be one of the richest dishes I have had in ages but was still very delicious and decadent. The Spanish Cava went nice but didn't break through the richness of the dish. I also tried two white Cotes-du-Rhones and an Albarino and one of the Rhone whites was the clear winner for complimenting the dish. The halibut cheeks are bizarre in that they almost have the stringy texture of king crab and the richness of lobster. Not a bad deal IMO for the same price as normal halibut!

October 10, 2009- Moroccan Lamb Sirloin, Couscous, Carrots and Fingerling Potatoes

I found some nice lamb sirloin steaks and I tend to get reasonably complacent when it comes to lamb: olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic. Tough to beat. Instead I thought I would do a Moroccan flair to it since I have never made my own Moroccan hot sauce (Harissa).

Lamb is marinated in a spice mix that consisted of cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cloves, cardamom seeds and salt and pepper all roasted and ground.

The Harissa was a subset of that spice mix but with garlic and chili peppers mixed in. I am sure there is something else but I am a week late posting this.

The couscous is pretty straightforward and just has some chopped almonds, parsely and zante currants mixed in. I plated the harissa on top of the couscous since it looked a little too much like an oil storage container in the cylinder without any garnish.

I slightly steamed the carrots and then sautéed with Moroccan spice and a touch of honey. The fingerling potatoes are just roasted. They kind of look like the leftover sausages from a Holiday Inn Express breakfast buffet in the pictures but oh well.

I need to remember to include the wine bottle in the pics so I can remember what we had! I think we ended up having a Ribera del Duero Crianza but do not remember the bodega. This entire meal was a very welcome change to the traditional lamb I usually do and the carrots were probably the surprise winner as far as a keeper.

September 28, 2009 - Arrachera con Tres Salsas y Chiles en Nogada

Arrachera con Tres Salsas:

Arrachera is marinated skirt steak. I marinated it with lime juice, cumin, salt and olive oil and grilled it on the BBQ. The salsa verde is tomatillos, green chiles and cilantro. Salsa rojo is reduced pureed tomatoes and onion with some cumin, paprika and coriander. Crema is creme fraiche with a little lime juice.

Chiles en Nogada:

This is the recipe from Mexico: The Beautiful Cookbook. I have had this dish in Mexico City at Los Girasoles and found it too sweet because it had raisins in the meat mixture so I left them out. The recipe takes roasted poblano peppers that is then stuff with a meat mixture containing pork loin, apple, peach, pear and spices. The stuffed peppers are then dipped in whipped egg whites and pan fried.

Wine pairing: Austrian Gruner-Veltliner

The sauce is a walnut sauce where the walnuts are soaked in milk and then pureed with some creme fraiche. Topping it all off are pomegranate seeds and parsley. This dish has some of the most interesting flavor combinations I have ever had in Mexican cooking. The dish was created to also have the colors of the Mexican flag. There is a story behind the creation of this but I don't feel like looking it up right now.

September 27, 2009 - Lobster Bisque, "Traffic Light" Tomato Salad, Braised Pork Bellies

Lobster Bisque with Roasted Corn, Truffle Oil and Smoked Paprika:

I had tons of the lobster stock left so the bisque was pretty quick and easy to do. Roasted corn seems to be paired with lobster quite often as I would assume the sweetness in complementary to the rich flavor of lobster. I was actually hoping that I could get the corn to float on top but it just sank to the bottom so I served a little on the side entirely for the purposes of the picture.

"Traffic Light" Heirloom Tomato Salad:

I love the visual look of this. There only seems to be a couple months that I can get heirloom tomatoes and I always try to do this in late summer. The tomatoes have olive oil and balsamic reduction, fleur de sel and ground pepper. I wanted to do a basil infused oil but didn't have basil and couldn't be bothered to go to the store.

Braised Pork Belly with Braised Red Cabbage and Sunchoke Puree:

The pork belly was cured for an hour with salt and then braised in a liquid that had a touch of asian flair with ginger and star anise. I then let it cool in the liquid, strained and reduced the liquid and quick seared the fat to crisp it up. The red cabbage was marinated in red wine and then cooked with the wine and a bit of the pork liquid until it carmelized. Sunchokes aka jerusalem artichokes are the tubers of sunflowers and oddly enough...taste like artichoke.