Inedible Garnishes: 2010/07

22 July 2010

Dinner and Drinks

Post-meal Amuse-Bouche

Homemade yogurt, Maytag blue cheese, sweet corn

Cucumber Hors d'Oeuvres
Not the best of all appetizers--it was just a touch too sweet and missing something, although I'm not sure what.

The crackers were wonderful, though. I used the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking crackerbread recipe for them, with poppy seeds, black sesame seeds, sweet basil seeds, and sumac.

Yogurt mixed with plum sauce, cucumber, cholula
Crackers: various flours, olive oil, water, poppy seeds, black sesame seeds, sweet basil seeds, and sumac

Hummus and Homemade Crackers
Definitely the better appetizer of the two, this hummus was very tasty.

Chickpeas, garlic, tahini, lemon juice, water, sumac, blackening spice, curry powder
Crackers: various flours, olive oil, water, poppy seeds, black sesame seeds, sweet basil seeds, and sumac

Pomegranate Old Fashioned
I replaced the sugar in an old fashioned with pomegranate molasses. Very repeatable.

Pomegranate molasses, bitters, orange, cherries, Maker's Mark

Potatoes and Strip Steak
I'm not totally sure what all Jeremy put in here, but it was quite nice. The beans and potatoes are fresh from our friend's garden.

Strip trim, potatoes, sweet corn, salsa verde, ...?

Sumac Sweet Corn
Sweet corn and sumac are good together.

Sweet corn, sumac, lime

Quesadillas, Canapés, Strip Loin, More Bao

Jarlsberg Quesadilla with Asparagus Soup
We've come into a fair amount of cheese lately and have made a few quesadillas. This was a pretty basic one with some leftover asparagus soup. One of the most exciting parts of the quesadilla has been enjoying it with homemade yogurt. It is the perfect tangy alternative to other dips like sour cream.

Quesadilla: Panchero's tortilla, jarlsberg, white onion, salsa verde, cholula
Soup: Asparagus, chicken stock, cream
Garnish: Radish, carrot, homemade yogurt

Quesadilla
Another quesadilla, but with more fillings.

Quesadilla: Panchero's tortilla, various cheeses, white onion (raw and caramelized), strip loin trim, salsa verde, cholula

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
Joy of Cooking provided the basis for this recipe, but it required additional salt.

Breakfast: Cafés Crèmes with Bread and Jam
A little breakfast that reminded me of France. The delicious pomegranate blueberry jam came from friends of ours.

Blended Blaiquiries
We acquired a coupon for $2 off ice, and even though we didn't really have room for it in our freezer, I insisted on buying some to make smoothies and drinks and so forth. Half fit in the freezer and half went into a cooler.

We've been enjoying daiquiries pretty frequently lately (made with cachaça--yum), and I found blackberries on sale so these were just your basic daiquiri + blackberries, blended with ice and then strained (the seeds make it rather unenjoyable).

Lime juice, cachaça, simple syrup, blackberries, ice

Strip Tortas

Hot: Caramelized onions, strip loin trim, potatoes, Penzey's northwoods seasoning, cumin
Cold: Cabbage, yogurt, radish, salsa verde, cholula

Banana Ice Cream
I'm still loving how easy and delicious this is--not to mention how healthy it is as well.

Blended frozen banana, port wine reduction, blueberries, PB chips

Strip Loin Helper
This was such a wonderfully homey, satisfying meal. Jeremy and I independently thought it looked like Hamburger Helper in the pan. It was also a bit like Beef Stroganoff. The taste was not completely different, but it was far more satisfying.

Salad: Garden greens, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, rapeseed oil
Hot stuff: Fresh pasta (eggs, flour, salt), strip steak, salsa verde, yogurt, cumin

Schichimi Togarashi Steak with Tahini Salad

Salad: Garden greens, tahini, soy sauce, sun-dried tomato Newman's Own dressing
Steak: Schichimi Togarashi, strip steak

Shiitake Butter on Strip Steak
Basic steak with some tasty butter.

Butter: Roasted garlic, shiitakes, lemon juice, chives, tarragon

Black and White Party
Jeremy cooking=delicious food. After we recently catered a gourmet meal, we have been wanting scallops and finally bought some for ourselves. Everything here is pretty simple in regards to ingredients, although the steak was blackened.

Strip steak with blackening spice, scallops, maytag blue cheese, garden greens tossed in a light vinaigrette

Canapé Snack
Worth repeating.

Multi-grain cracker, yogurt, salsa verde, port reduction

Snippets of a Gourmet Catering
We had the chance to plan and execute a meal for some master sommeliers and other important food and wine critics last week. We did a seven-course meal plus hors d'oeuvres and almost everything went very well--pretty amazing, especially since we had to do table service in addition to cooking.

I hoped to photograph everything, but it was too hectic. Here are the few photos I managed to snap:

Shiitake Bread Pudding-Stuffed Quails with Enoki Mushrooms and Sumac Potatoes

The quails in preparation

Coffee Avocado Mousse

Ahi Appetizers
This is one of our favorite snacks, but ahi tuna can be expensive so we don't make it too frequently.

I was studying hard for my certified sommelier exam at the time (check out all of the books), and Jeremy surprised me with a plate full of these wonderful snacks.

Multi-grain cracker (Breton is what we use), cream cheese, raw small dice ahi tuna, soy sauce, basil chiffonade

Chicken Thigh
Simply sautéed and served with some sauces and spicy cabbage.

Cabbage: Spinach, cabbage, red wine, sambal oelek
Garnish: Salsa verde yogurt, queso fresco

Return to Brioches Chinoises
Our attempts are bringing us much closer. Here I followed Maki's recipe for bao dough, which turned out much closer. I used half cake flour, half AP, but next time I'll use all cake flour. I even made some bunny buns! I've been wanting to do so for several years now--since I first saw that post.

In any case, we are getting pretty close, but I think it will take another try or two before we have it down. We also made some tasty hors d'oeuvres with the filling and yogurt on crackers (second image).

One other thing: we used cabbage leaves to steam the buns on, and the long, slow-steamed cabbage was one of the most delicious parts of this meal. All of the bitterness was gone and a lovely light sweetness dominated. We just sliced it and tossed it with some sambal oelek and rice wine vinegar.

Filling: pork shoulder, shiitakes, dried shrimp, fish sauce, cabbage, sesame oil, leek, scallion, soy sauce, oyster sauce
Dough: See here
Dipping Sauce: Yogurt, 1000 island, ...?

Chicken Taco Bar
For another of my study nights, Jeremy cooked up these tacos. He is the best! I love tacos.

Raw: Cabbage, lime, scallions,
Other: Salsa verde, roasted jalapeños, homemade yogurt
Filling: Chicken, onions, some sort of seasoning that neither of us can remember

01 July 2010

Brioches Chinoises, Macarons and More

Brioches Chinoises

So, as I mentioned in the last post, "brioches chinoises" (a particularly fluffy and delicious version of bao--Chinese steamed dumplings) have long been one of my favorite things to eat in Paris. Jeremy was perhaps even more excited about them than I when I introduced him earlier this month. We took a few back to our apartment and did our best to figure out everything that was in them because, while they may only be 80 centines a piece in Paris, Paris is a long way from Iowa.

Today was our first attempt at recreating them at home. Our dough and the dough:filling ratio (we got a little greedy) definitely need some work, but we consider our first attempt a success because the filling came out nearly perfect. You can't see it in the photo, but we also pan-fried the bottoms of the buns after steaming to create a crisp bottom crust.

Filling: pork shoulder, shiitakes, dried shrimp, fish sauce, cabbage, sesame oil, leek, scallion, soy sauce, oyster sauce
Dough: mushroom/shrimp soaking liquid, AP flour, sesame oil, sugar, yeast

Macarons (au Café et Pandanais)
The other thing that I have been really wanting to make since Paris is macarons. I have never made them before, although I have always wished to do so. My first try were the pandan ones (in green). They did not come out too badly, but I think the batter was a bit thin and it did not help that I dropped all of the cookies on the floor. The second batch was much closer to the real thing, with the batter being just a touch thick.

Macarons are a tricky thing to master, but they are very very tasty. I'm currently craving durian macarons.

Macaraon au Café: Cookie (Almond flour, egg whites, sugar, instant coffee, vanilla bean) and Coffee French Buttercream (Butter, Sugar, Eggs, Instant Coffee
Macaron Pandanais: Cookie (Almond flour, egg whites, sugar, pandan extract) and chocolate caramel sauce

Attempt #2: Beautiful and delicious

Attempt #1: Fell on the floor...but still tasty

Fresh Greens and Chicken with Hot Mushroom Vinaigrette
We love getting fresh garden vegetables and are lucky to have a friend who likes to share them. Salads are entirely different with fresh greens.

Here I used some duck fat to cook the chicken, deglazed my pan with red wine and used those ingredients as the basis for a vinaigrette which I fattened up with some of the shiitake cream sauce we have frozen. It wilted the greens slightly and accompanied the chicken beautifully. Bean sprouts provided a crisp cold crunch even amongst the wilted greens

Vinaigrette: Duck fat, red wine, shiitake cream sauce, rice wine vinegar, lime juice, s/p

Sumac Omelette

Granola and Yogurt
I've recently been getting back into making yogurt, which could not be much easier than with the premium dehydrator I have. Yogurt and granola is one of Jeremy's favorite breakfasts, and because it is so quick we eat it often.

Yogurt: Milk, yogurt
Granola: Oats, almonds, cherries, maple syrup, brown rice syrup...

Snack: Bread with Chèvre and Chalula

Shiitake Miso
I discovered that avocado is pretty good in miso.

Broth: Dashi, miso, shiitake soaking liquid
Garnish: Shiitakes, Soy sauce-coated boiled egg, cilantro, avocado, beet greens

Egg Salad Sandwich
Using up old eggs. I don't really remember what I threw in this.

Sushi Rice Bowl
This goes along with the miso above: kind of a use of the leftovers. My favorite part of this was probably the salsa verde. Salsa verde + sushi rice = tasty.

Rice: nishiki, rice wine vinegar, simple syrup
Garnish: Shiitakes, Soy sauce-coated boiled egg, cilantro, avocado, salsa verde

Tossed Salad with Sausage
I am not totally sure what kind of sausage this is, but the thin, bias-cut slices worked well for topping a salad with a medium-bodied dressing. I've been playing with such dressings lately, here using tahini, with good results.

Salad: spring lettuce, bean sprouts, shiitakes
Dressing: Tahini, lime juice, lemon juice, rice wine vinegar, grapeseed oil, s/p

Salsa Negra Pork Tacos!
Oh my; these are the most delicious thing we've made lately. We made these for Jeremy's family.

This goes back to the pork competition entry we came up with a few months ago but in taco form. We also threw some of the salsa negra in with the salsa verde, giving it a deep structural complexity.

Meat: Pork spare ribs (pressure-cooker braised), salsa negra (anchos, garlic, piloncillo, grapeseed oil), fish sauce
Et cetera: Corn tortillas, queso fresco, tomatoes, salsa verde (tomatillos, poblanos, jalapenos, fish sauce, cilantro, salsa negra), onion, cilantro, lime

Pandan Cherry Tarts with Key Lime Curd
Jeremy's grandmother lives in the same town as us and has a cherry tree that is fruiting right now. We spent one morning over there and collected just over five gallons of cherries. We've consumed some of them straight or with granola and in smoothies, but we still have four frozen gallons for later.

On Sunday we went to a wine club meeting and I decided to make little tarts with the cherries and with some key limes I picked up on the cheap at our local Mexican market. Pandan cherry is one of the best combinations.

Crust: Flour, butter, salt
Key Lime Curd: Key limes, egg yolks, sugar, butter, pandan leaves
Cherries: Cherries, pandan leaves, pandan extract, cornstarch, sugar

This is our refrigerator with large containers of cherries on each shelf, and some of the free-run juice.

Tomato Soup with Cream and Grilled Cheese
I picked up this recipe from my friend Nic, and I crave it frequently. It's quite simple: roast tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic, etc. in a hot oven until juicy in then purée. This time I decided to focus primarily on tomatoes with just a poblano and an onion in the mix. I also pressed it twice through a strainer, yielding a very smooth soup. These are photos from two meals, one with just corn tortilla and one with grilled cheese.

Soup: Tomatoes, poblano, white onion
Garnish: Cream, Salsa Verde
Sandwiches: Whole wheat French bread, Jarlsberg, chèvre

Spicy Cube Steak
I've been trying to find Japanese seven spice (Schichimi Togarashi) without ordering it online to save some money. I finally found a large bag in Paris. I am quite pleased! It works well for adding some light spice while still having some other floral and peppery components.

Egg with Mystery Pasta
This pasta was ridiculously tasty--lemony and creamy--but unfortunately Jeremy cannot remember what ingredients he used. Damn! It would have gone well with mussels. I paired it with a map of Pouilly-Fuissé since we did not have a bottle available to drink.