Chicken Fried Gourmet

Little Owl's Meatball Sliders

In the September 2007 issue of Bon Appetit they have a section devoted to Small Restaurants, Big Ideas. One of the first recipes they feature is the Meatball Sliders from the Little Owl in the West Village. You can find the recipe here on Epicurious' website.

                  

I first learned about Chef Joey Campanaro via the NYC foodie blogs like Gothamist, Eater and Grub Street and even saw him participate in a food network special, which he won, dealing with turkey for an "alternative" take on Thanksgiving.

His restaurant, The Little Owl, is a huge hit in NYC.

This recipe seemed pretty straight forward and easy, so I decided to make it for one of our Sunday evening dinners. Instead of the arugula it calls for, I substituted baby spinach lightly dressed with a little olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. I followed the rest of the recipe exactly as described except of course for the onions in the sauce. I also ran out of fresh parsley for the meatballs this time around.

What I really like about this recipe, aside from the fact that it is pretty easy to make, is the addition of fennel seeds to the tomato sauce,. It really adds a different layer of flavor to the sauce. If I were to make any changes to this I would probably rub a freshly cut garlic clove over the cut rolls after bringing them out from the broiler. BTW the rolls are just some basic yeasty dinner rolls I bought at Wal- Mart, very tasty surprisingly.I would have to say that this recipe is a must add to anyone's collection. It could be an appetizer, a hearty meal or a perfect tailgating dish for a late October, early November LSU football game.

Oh and if anyone has noticed the quality of the pictures improving, I'l have to credit some killer tips from Matt over at Matt Bites and my lovely wife Ann whose hobby is photography as well.

Sweet Potato Marshmallow with Duck Confit

One of my daily foodblog reads is Chadzilla. Chad is a chef at major beach front resort in the greater Miami area but he is a Louisiana boy at heart. While looking through his photo galleries a couple of months ago I came across a picture of a beet root marshmallow. This got me thinking what else I could do with a savory marshmallow and what flavors may or may not work. My first thought was sweet potato. I started looking around the internet for different marshmallow recipes and came across one that I thought would work out well at this SITE. 

My first experiment with homemade marshmallows did not work out well at all. I thought, mistakenly, that a mixture of sweet potato powder and sweet potato puree would work well but it does not. Once the marshmallows set up the puree rose to the top and sat on top of the marshmallow like a piece of jello. Two weeks ago I decided that I would just use the sweet potato powder instead of the mixture of powder and puree.

To make the powder I peeled and thinly sliced on a mandoline about 6 sweet potatoes. I then dried the sliced sweet potatoes in the oven till they were very crispy. I put these in a food processor till crumbled and then finely ground them in a coffee bean grinder till a powder formed. Following the recipe I chose to add about half of the sweet potato powder a little at a time while mixing the marshmallows( I also added a little bit more salt than the recipe called for to tone down the sweetness). This seemed to work out pretty well as the mixture started to take on the color of the potato. This part of the recipe was extremely sticky. Once I put the mixture in a pan to set up I had to boil the mixing bowl in a larger bowl just to get the left over marshmallow mixture off the sides.

Once the marshmallows were set up, I cut them into small squares and dusted them with a mixture of the leftover sweet potato powder and salt and pepper.

Now the whole reason I made these were to use in a dish for a family meal. I took some shredded duck confit and topped the marshmallow with it. I then added a blue cheese foam sauce and drizzled the whole dish with a sauce of reduced cane syrup, rosemary and chicken stock.

At first when I was describing the dish, some of my family were a little skeptical but everyone seemed to enjoy it very much. I have had some of my friends and co-workers try just the marshmallows and so far no has complained……..at least to my face.

Now what else would go well with a marshmallow ?

Tomato gelee with basil oil and frozen mozzarella

A couple of weeks ago I was at home by myself and got bored since I was not cooking dinner for anybody. I had some tomatoes from my garden that I needed to use up before they went bad so I had an idea. If you are a regular reader of this site then you know that recently I have been interested in molecular gastronomy and different ways to play around with food.

When we were in Dallas back in April we went the newly opened Central Market in Grapevine. This store is like a foodie lover’s paradise. I think I have spent more money on food at grocery stores in Dallas than I would have on anything else. This particular store actually has a salt bar where you can pick different kinds and quantities of a vast variety of salt. While I was browsing the aisles I came across agar agar. It is a form of gelatin and I had seen the name thrown around on different blogs that referenced molecular gastronomy.

On this particular night I decided I would make a tomato gelatin or gelee as some would say. I pureed all the tomatoes with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper. Once pureed I passed the tomatoes through a fine strainer almost to the consistency of tomato water, I then incorporated this with the agar agar and followed the directions on the back of the box. I placed in the fridge overnight to set.

At this point I really had no idea how I was going to incorporate this into a dish. I started thinking of different flavor combinations that go well with tomato and I finally settled on a classic – Tomato, Basil & Mozzarella. I then started thinking of ways to twist the other components and “shape” them to the idea of the tomato gelee’.

For the basil I settled on making a very intense basil oil. I used a whole package of basil bought at the store (about 12oz) since the basil in my garden is purple and just would not work with this dish. I pureed the basil with regular olive oil and let it steep for a day or so then strained the oil to give it a cleaner look.

For the mozzarella I was sort of at a crossroads till I thought of freezing it. I sliced fresh mozzarella into about ¼ inch slices and froze them. Once frozen I chopped them up in a food processor (be warned this is extremely LOUD), after this I added them to a coffee grinder and ground them up to the consistency of crumbs. I placed these spread on a plate and put them back in the freezer till use.

To plate all I did was “try” to cut the tomato gelee into equal size squares about the size of a large marshmallow ( which btw is my next food experiment). I placed three on a plate and topped each off with the frozen mozzarella crumbles and drizzled the basil oil around each.

My wife, Ann, loved them although she was a little hesitant at first. I knew she would , as soon as I pick tomatoes from the garden she immediately starts snacking on them. The only thing I will probably do different next time is dry out some tomato slices and put them through the coffee grinder so I can sprinkle just a tad bit more tomato flavor over the dish. You could also substitute the mozzarella with Feta and the basil oil with a reduced good quality balsamic vinegar.