May 9, 2010 - Trio of Seafood Courses

May 2, 2010

April 18, 2010 - Black Cod with Duo of Sauces and Cherry Tomato, Boconcini Salad

April 17, 2010 - Pasta AND Risotto in the same meal??!!

April 10, 2010 - Belgian Comfort Food

Apiril 10, 2009 - My New Summer Go-to Salad

April 6, 2010 - Day 4 of Easter Weekend Gorging

April 5, 2010 - Day 3 of Easter Weekend Gorging

April 4, 2010 - Day 2 of Easter Weekend Gorging

This was the official Easter dinner with family and friends. I need to make sure the bottles of wine are in the picture so I can remember what we have had! I only remember that we started off this first course with a Premier Cru Champagne.

First Course: Sous-vide scallops with Grapefruit Beurre Blanc, Grapefruit, Fennel and Arugula Salad

Description pretty much tells it all but this was delicious!

Second Course: Black Cod, Spinach and Parsnips with Saffron-Vanilla Sauce

This is from a French Laundry cookbook recipe. The saffron-vanilla sauce was an entirely unique flavor combination with the two most expensive ingredients in the world (needed to figure out how to get truffles in here!). This sauce was a "lick-the-plate" type of sauce!

Third Course: Braised Short Rib Linguini with Gremolata

A very time consuming endeavor considering that the short ribs are braised for 6-8 hours, then the sauce made before going over pasta. I was toying with the idea of doing this as ravioli but then figured I didn't need to add making ravioli by hand for the first time to the other complexity of dinner. With the gremolata this is almost like the pasta version of osso bucco.

Fourth Course: Duck Confit with Pomegranate Ancho Chili Sauce, Sous Vide Carrots and 3 Colors of Roasted Sweet Potato

I actually did Thomas Keller's duck confit recipe here and I liked the way it turned out since it limited the amount of salt by the weight of the duck. I found that this came out less salty than other variations. The sous vide carrots were a lot of work considering that they tasted like...carrots. I have done the pomegranate ancho sauce before and I loved it with the duck. It gets a bit of smoky raisiny flavor from the dried chiles and the pomegranate caramel balances out the heat with the sweetness. Used a circle cutter and roasted the different colors of the sweet potatoes.

Fifth Course: French Bakery Sampler Platter

Our friends asked what we wanted from the French bakery for dessert and I requested eclairs. We got much more as can be witnessed by the photos and believe it or not we ate it all...

April 3, 2010 - Day 1 of Easter Weekend Gorging

My parents came down for Easter weekend and I definitely took advantage of the extra competent kitchen hands of my dad. And so starts the weekend of gorging...

Course #1: Vietnamese squid salad

Another trial with the calamari steaks. I actually think they came out a lot better this time and the salad had the type of textures that were missing from the previous one. Chinese cabbage and blanched snow peas accompanied the squid.

Course #2: Eggplant Parmigian

This was like a mini appetizer version of eggplant parmigian with a quick made fresh tomato sauce and some arugula salad.

Course #3: Pan Roasted Halibut with Tomato Sauce and Corn Ragout

Just used some of the extra tomato sauce on the halibut and then cooked the corn with some of my homemade bacon, chorizo and cilantro. I don't know if this is a real ragout or not but it sounded good.

Course #4: Lamb Chops with Quick Pickled Vegetables

Marinated the lamb chops with garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper and grilled them so my standard prep. The quick pickled veggies are a combo of celery, carrots and radish (I used daikon) that are marinated with warm vinegar, salt and sugar with coriander seed. These end up being crispy and refreshing to accompany red meat.

March 13, 2009 - 3 courses of seafood and a NM add-on

Thankfully the camera tags when you took pictures otherwise I would have no clue which meals and pics go together to put up in my "procrasti-blog". At least I am keeping up taking the pictures!

First course: Hamachi sashimi with pickled jalapeno peppers and Ponzu sauce

I can't get enough of this as the peppers just add a bit of crunch and spice to the sashimi. These are also topped with a little grated daikon radish. Luckily Wholefoods is getting a couple different cuts of sashimi grade fish in so I didn't fully waste money on the Yanigaba knife.

Second Course: Thai Chili Squid Salad

My first foray with calamari steaks. They are so cheap and the texture is great...IF (big if) they are not over cooked. I was experimenting with cooking time so as not to overcook I would blanch quickly in boiling water and then plunge into ice water. 2 min is about the cumulative time. I also cut these with "scales" like Morimoto shows in his book.

Third Course: Teryaki Glazed Sea Bass over wilted Spinach

I did the sea bass sous vide to begin with and brought it to a temp of 125F. The plan was to finish it off quick in the cast iron pan while making the glaze but it was too close to being finished so the fish fell apart. Mental not to drop temp to 120ish next time so it finishes in the pan and stays together.

Fourth Course: Blue Corn Chile Rellenos and Some Cut of Beef

I didn't even realize that this was part of this meal. Too much food! I wasn't that impressed with the texture of the blue cornmeal on the outside of the rellenos but the overall flavor was nice. Stuffed with cheese from Oaxaca and chorizo sausage if I remember correctly. I have no idea what the beef is here.