16 April 2010

April 6-April 15

Sweet Corn Panna Cotta:
I made this as an appetizer at school.  The light sweetness of the corn panna cotta is contrasted by a spicy fresh kim chee and the salty bitterness of a kalamata tapenade.  I was looking for a sauce and found frangipane and chervil crème fraîche next to each other in the cooler: inspiration.  Painted on to the plate, it adds a slight grassiness and enhances the sweet taste of the the panna cotta.
  • Corn Panna Cotta: I found these as leftovers
  • Kim Chee: Salted brunoise of zucchini, carrot, candied orange peel with paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, cumin
  • Tapenade: Brunoise of kalamatas, anchovies, capers
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Banana Ice Cream:
This is a pretty simple and delicious dessert that we certainly didn't invent.  Bananas are frozen then blended to ice cream consistency.  Here we added in and then topped them with chocolate sauce.  Below that are two attempted desserts that were not terribly appetizing (one was the same banana ice cream with bananas that were way too old and icy, viz. use rather fresh ones; the other was just too acidic and boring).

  • Bananas, chocolate sauce
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  • Left: really old freezer bananas, cocoa powder, chunky peanut butter
  • Right: yogurt, brownie crumbs
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Surf and Turf:
As usual, dinner was dictated by what we had in the refrigerator.  Available proteins: strip steak and shrimp.  Add in brussel sprouts and seaweed (actually, we forgot to add the latter), and you get surf and turf.  I also worked out a new pasta recipe for this (ratio is 3 eggs:19 oz bread flour) to get a stiffer dough than I usually make.  I also used the dehydrator to slightly tighten up pasta sheets in order to form them into shapes a little more easily.  The result: lovely bows, firm shapes, dry storage capability and al dente product.  Jeremy also used a court bouillon to poach the shrimp and steam the steak, infusing a huge amount of flavor.

  • Court bouillon: red wine, water, achiote verde, garlic, paprika
  • Sauce: leftover parsley gravy, sun-dried tomato mustard, golden syrup,  yogurt, chives
  • Pasta rolled out with chives, brussel sprouts, shrimp, strip steak
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Biscuits with Parsley and Sausage Gravy:


  • Gravy: parsley, Grazziano's sausage, cream, gorgonzola
  • Biscuits
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Sautéed Brussel Sprouts:
  • Sauce: gravy from the biscuits above, butter
  • Sautéed brussel sprouts, tomato, yogurt
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Chicken Truffle Sausages with Red Lentils and Broccoli Stalk:
Jeremy made this chicken forcemeat at school.  There was extra so it made it's way home with us.
  • Sausages: Chicken thigh/leg meat, cream tarragon, truffle oil
  • Broccoli: Sautéed in chili oil with mirin, soy sauce, parsley, and red chili flakes
  • Red lentils, yogurt, parsley
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Carrot Lady:
Jeremy carved this at work the other day.  The bust and legs are held together with a skewer dowel.
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06 April 2010

Introducing: Commentary

Green Curry with Asparagus and Chevre Mashed Potatoes:
This was a quick curry I made using leftover frozen curry paste and some leftovers from Easter dinner at Mom & Dad's.  As it turns out, green curry and chevre go very nicely together.  I'm envisioning working the curry into the mashed potatoes next time.
  • Curry: coconut milk, fish sauce, cream, curry paste (cilantro, lemongrass, galangal, serranos......); leftover kebabs from Mom
  • Grilled asaparagus, leftover garlic mashed potatoes with chevre
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BLT:
Basic BLT but with plain yogurt in place of mayonnaise because making mayo seemed like too much work.  Yogurt makes an excellent substitute.
  • White bread, bacon, lettuce, tomato and yogurt.
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Cornish Wings:
Jeremy had a ton of these wings left over from breaking down hens at school.  The obvious next step: buffalo wings.
  • Wings from Cornish game hens
  • Truffle butter, Frank's hot sauce, honey and scallions
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Hibiscus cooler:
One of my favorite summer beverages, a hibiscus cooler, gains some extra ailment opposition with the addition of vitamin C.  Plus it just tastes wonderfully sparkly and delicious.  

The hibiscus cooler is a floral sweet/sour beverage with an intense ruby hue and a huge depth of flavor.  It has a basic volume ratio of about 2:1:8 (dried hibiscus:sweetener:boiling water).  Add additional components as desired and steep until room temperature, then strain.  Serve hot or cold.  Note: hibiscus color is anthocyanatic, so stains can be removed with boiling water.
  • Hibiscus flowers, sucanat, vanilla bean
  • Emergen-C
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Tuna Salad:
Inspired by a lack of protein in the house, we shared one egg and a can of tuna.  The tuna lost quite a bit of the moisture and acquired some nice caramelization by being sautéed.  The egg, soft-boiled then rolled in hot reduced soy sauce, is a delicious addition.
  • Salad: Yogurt, canned tuna sautéed in ancho oil, capers, cilantro, celery
  • Sides/Garnish: brocolli, lettuce, hash brown, soy sauce-caramelized medium-cooked egg
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S'more:
Out of our late night snack wishes came this smore.  First we were eating frozen dinner roll thawed in the microwave.  Then we cooked thawed dinner roll dough in the microwave on low power to see what would happen: a slightly dense dinner roll.  Finally, when later that night we were wishing we had graham crackers to make s'mores, we thawed another two rolls in the microwave, rolled them out and covered them in the remains of some old brownies then pan-fried them to make a crispy sweet foil for the dark chocolate and stale marshmallows to be microwaved within.  This is a keeper.
  • Ghirardelli 86% Dark chocolate and stale marshmallows
  • Frozen dinner roll dough thawed, rolled, coated in pulverized brownie crumbs and pan-fried in butter
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Ranch Gelatin:
We ordered a pizza and much to our chagrin realized we had no yogurt to mix with powdered ranch for dipping.  We considered going to the store but laziness kept us at home.  First we considered coconut milk, then tahini and a few other things in between, and finally we settled upon making a ranch milk-based gelatin for dipping.  The gel set beautifully and we used an immersion blender to adjust the consistency to a salad-dressing viscosity.  Unfortunately, the gelatin melted upon touching the hot pizza so the experiment was only partially successful--but it held nicely later on room temperature pizza.  Ranch gelatin has definite potential.
  • Powdered ranch mix, milk, gelatin
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Rich cheese rind soup:
Old cheese rinds are the base for this soup.
  • Cheese rinds, chicken glace, celery, carrot, and dried gremolata (lemon zest, roasted garlic, basil)
  • Garnish: Cilantro, scallions, yogurt
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Two Snacks:
Just a couple of snacks using up leftovers.
  • Sweet potato starch noodles with seaweed
  • Garnish: chèvre, carrots, tomato-pepper sauce
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  • Basic crepe, chevre, tomato-pepper sauce
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