Chicken Fried Gourmet

Cocoa Crusted Flat Iron Steak, french fry "onion rings",rosemary olive oil pudding with other stuff.....

This is what we had for Father's Day last weekend. I had the butcher at Kroger slice a Flat Iron steak thinly and then I combined it with Activa, rolled it up then marinated it with a mixture of cocoa, worchestire, garlic, olive oil and a few other things. I made french fry "onion rings" a rosemary olive oil pudding inspired by the Alinea cookbook and a reduced beef stock red wine jus. For an appetizer I made the Mango Soy Bonito dish from the Alinea cookbook as well. Since it calls for a piece of equipment that is obviously out of my range for purchasing - an Anti-Griddle- I improvised and used a sheet pan on top of a piece of dry ice. With the leftover dry ice I just threw it in the pool....cool...smoke :) The frozen mango puree is topped with soy sauce pudding and shaved/dried bonito ( I skipped the sesame oil). This was a really interesting flavor combination and one I would like to experiment with other flavors. For dessert we had fresh watermelon topped with tomato sorbet, reduced balsamic vinegar and a basil sweet syrup.

Alinea Cookbook - Blackberry Tobacco Cream Smoked Salt

I pretty much read thru the Alinea Cookbook on a daily basis. Not only are the recipes creative and challenging but they also stimulate you to think of food in different ways. Yesterday I decided to try the Blackberry and Tobacco cream recipe in the book. It is meant to be a bridge between a savory entree course and a dessert. Its one of the more straight forward and simpler recipes in the book. Some other food bloggers out there are attempting to recreate ALL the recipes from the book and Martin at Alineaphile seems to be going pretty strong on it.

                  

This was an interesting "one bite" dish, nobody could really put their finger on that extra taste till I told them it was the tobacco infused cream and then there was that "aha" moment. The recipe called for bee balm but I was unable to find any ( hello this is Shreveport after all ) so it did say you could substitute mint instead. After sampling quality controla few I found the mint to be pretty overpowering so I used only a tiny little sliver on each. The recipe also called for Danish smoked salt but I had some Alderwood Smoked Sea Salt that I had gotten from the salt bar at Central Market in Dallas (best place in the world for food for this area). The smoked salt was pretty strong as well so I mixed it with some Maldon Sea Salt to tone it down a little. This is a recipe that I will need to play around with and use as a bridge for one of my dinners soon.

                  

Dinner party with friends - Pork belly Scallops Chorizo Miso Caramel cheese smoked chocolate

So does the title of this post have you wondering how in the heck all these things go together? Well they do and they don't, let me explain.

The Monday before Christmas we had a dinner party with some friends. We have been planning this for it seems like months trying to coordinate everyone's schedules and a location. I have been thinking about the menu for some time as well while constantly tweaking the recipes, coming up with new ideas and dishes and generally second guessing myself the whole time.

There were a few dishes that either did not make it on the final menu because of time constraints, amount of prep or just the fact that they did not work during execution.

Back in October my wife bought me the Alinea cookbook by Grant Achatz. This is no ordinary cookbook by any means, it is also not for everybody. It can be a source of inspiration and frustration ( in a good way) at the same time. I find myself reading it on a daily basis as it stimulates my food way of thinking and leads to new ideas. I have tried a few of the easier recipes in the book with mixed success. One of the great thing as about this cookbook project is that Grant Achatz and his partner in Alinea, Nick Kokonas, have added a companion website, Alinea-Mosaic, where some recipes are posted as well as a forum where you can share ideas, ask the chefs questions as well as interact with others who are enjoying this "not just a cookbook".

The way I cook is to constantly try to find new ideas, new ways of cooking something,and to always try to push myself to make restaurant caliber/quality meals in my home kitchen. I consider myself a pretty ambitious home cook and am actually working on a few projects that should push me into the professional cooking arena but not tied down to the usual culinary career.

For this dinner I decided to use some stand by recipes with a little tweaking, some new ones that were safe and some that were just out of my league at the moment.

The menu as planned follows:

Miso Caramel Apples coated with crushed Wasabi Peas ( this idea I got from Chef Jonathan MacDonald formerly of SnackBar in Philadelphia and currently at Pub & Kitchen)

"Cheese Crackers" ala Alinea.... oh so good but messy this time.

Chorizo crusted Scallops with Granny Smith Apples, Micro Cilantro and Manchego Cheese broth - this is one where I have seen components of this dish go together and I combined it with flavors I thought would work well as well as new techniques ( broth). The chorizo is frozen then shaved on a microplane over the scallop once cooked.

Peanut Butter Bourbon Pork Belly with Sweet Potato,Bourbon Gel, Peanuts, Micro Arugula & Balsamic.

Pineapple Bacon "bite" ala Alinea - this dish did not work out for multiple reasons, the biggest is that I do not have the right equipment :( I tried to improvise and make a pineapple "caviar" and serve it over the bacon powder but I used to much sodium alginate and it was too "gelly" if that makes sense. You can go HERE to see someone else who had better success with it. I am going to keep trying on this one.

For dessert I made a chocolate ganache with gelatin that just did not set up right. It was difficult to cut and tended to spread too easy. It was tasty just not what I expected,maybe more gelatin next time. I served it it with smoked oreo crumble which is basically just the chocolate wafers scraped clean of the creme and cold smoked then put through a food processor. I have made this before but this time they cooked a little too long and had a burnt smell to them. I served this with a  blackberry cabernet sauce that was thickened with Ultra Tex3 to give it some body but without taking away from the natural taste of the blackberry. I sprinkled some Maldon Sea Salt on top of the chocolate. This dish did not photograph well at all,maybe next time.

I had a few more ideas for this dinner but time and resources did just not permit them to happen. I was okay with this meal but not impressed. I tend to be my own worst critic and everyone else loved the meal, or so they said ;)

Overall I felt good about the dinner to a point and had a great time with our friends who we have not seen in awhile, I am btw especially proud of the Chorizo & Scallop dish. There are some tweaks to be made to how I did things and I will definitely try and refine some of the dishes that just did not work out. I don't know..... what do you think of it, any questions ?

On a side note there are two people ( that I am aware of) that are cooking their way through the Alinea book. Much too ambitious for myself but I commend them for it - Martin at Alineaphile and Carol at Alinea at Home.

                   

Sneak peek - Pork Belly - Peanut Butter - Arugula - Peanuts - Sweet Potato - Bourbon Gel

                    

Thanksgiving and Pumpkin "Pie" Marshmallows

This year for Thanksgiving we decided to keep it simple and low key. Our dinner consisted of Ann and I and our three children. We stuck to the basics with small twists and had a somewhat simple holiday meal. We had  a simple Roast Turkey,three mushroom & wild rice stuffing,balsamic potato salad, fresh cranberry and orange sauce, canned cranberry sauce, turkey "extras" gravy and finally green beans with almonds. The only thing I really went out on a limb was with the Pumpkin "pie" dish.

I made a pumpkin pie marshmallow using THIS recipe and paired it with graham cracker crumbs sauteed in butter and sugar with a whipped cream sauce. I tried toasting/melting the marshmallows but it looked more like a creme brulee topping. All in all, it was a good meal and even though we did not have a lot of family present we had the ones that mattered most.

                           

Dinner party with my wife's department

My wife, Ann, hosted a company party for her department at our house about a week ago. I was “volunteered” to cook so I set about to make up a cocktail style menu with my usual twist on ingredients and techniques.

I wanted to make food that was out of the ordinary that would make people stop and think. I was limited to a certain budget and actually came in well under the approved amount. The dinner was set for a Sunday night ( why, I do not know) so we used pretty much the whole weekend to get our house together and prep all the ingredients.

For the longest time we have been meaning to get curtains for our living room and dining room, this seemed like as good a time as any. We (Ann really) also recovered our dining room chairs. The whole weekend seemed like a blur and Sunday evening came quick. There were so many things that we wanted to do to the house that were left undone. We had a whole bag of new towels and bath rags sitting in our office that never made it to the bathroom .

The evening was a success as far as I know, everyone liked the food and seemed to have a good time. As much as I hate all the hours Ann puts in,the company she works for has a good group of people working there and I always have a good time at their functions(especially when I am not catering them ;)

The menu is as follows :

Rosemary and Black Pepper Popcorn (not pictured)

Miso Caramel Apples with Wasabi Peas

Pickled Grapes

Meatball Sliders with micro arugula

Yellow Tomato Gazpacho with pappadums crostini

Caesar Salad with Asiago Cheese

Nutella "sponge" with sea salt and parmesan cheese

Parmesan Ice Cream with Nutella Powder - I was scared that this dish would be looked at sceptically, it was a hit:)

Passion Fruit Marshmallow

Crawfish Cheesecake

Chicken & Grits "Waffles" with Sweet Potato and Rosemary Cane Syrup

Sometimes I like to cook the same things over and over and routinely change up one of the ingredients either by presentation, preparation or texture. I had wanted to do something with chicken and grits and thought I had the idea perfected. Instead of just making a pile of cheesy grits I would turn them into Grit Waffles. Crazy you say? Yes but the idea sounded really tasty, crispy on the outside but with cheesy gooey grits inside.

They sell chicken and waffles so why not make an “upscale” if you will version. I started by making the grits as usual – one part milk to one part chicken stock, add grits, cook ,add cheddar cheese and butter, salt and pepper to taste. For the chicken I chose boneless skinless breasts and marinated them with a mixture of beer, creole mustard, worchestire sauce, garlic, and cayenne pepper. I seared these on a flat top till cooked through.

Sauce wise I went with sweet potato. I juiced about three sweet potatoes and added this to about a cup of milk, crushed garlic and simmered for about 30 minutes. I strained the garlic out before serving. Why juice the sweet potatoes? No particular reason other than I had not done it before and I thought it would give me a lighter cleaner sauce. It did.

I had one sweet potato left over so for a different texture I peeled and cut it into chunks about half the size of a piece of dice. I seared these on the flat top as well with a little salt and pepper.

To cut the richness of the whole dish, I took about a ½ cup of cane syrup and heated it on the stove with about 5 sprigs of rosemary, a shot of worchestire and garlic. I probably heated it too much as when it hit the plate it immediately firmed up like a piece of caramel candy. It still served its purpose though.

Back to the “grit” waffles, they did not work out like I thought they would. Next time I think I will just incorporate a mixture of the finished grits with a waffle batter mixture.

To finish plating the dish I added a “streak” of creole mustard, added a scoop of cheesy grits, the chicken, some sweet potato bits, topped it with sweet potato cream and drizzled the rosemary cane syrup over everything.

For dessert, and please keep an open mind here, I took some french bread slices and toasted them. I then smeared these with Nutella, sprinkled some Maldon Sea Salt and topped with shredded fresh parmesan cheese. It just works......

4th of July with Peach BBQ Ribs, Fried Pickles, Black Bean Garlic Chicken Wings, Fireworks and Family

For the 4^th of July we kind of kept it low key. We joined our neighbors down the street for simple BBQ (Grilling for the BBQ purists) and fireworks. I had some baby back ribs in the freezer so the 4^th holiday would be as good as anytime to cook them.

I wanted to go with a peach based marinade and sauce for the ribs and was trying to find a peach based iced tea to incorporate into the marinade as well as the sauce. For convenience sake I just needed a bottled version but everywhere I went they were sold in packs of 12 or not at all. For a flavor I had never tried before and the fact that I do not drink tea I chose to go with another method. I marinated the ribs in peach nectar, bourbon, garlic and chicken stock. I made a quick BBQ sauce with peach nectar, bourbon, ketchup, red wine vinegar,honey and brown sugar. I added the usual seasonings and reduced it down to a sauce like consistency.

Other dishes I decided to make were Grilled Chicken wings with a black bean garlic sauce ( black bean garlic sauce from a Chinese market, honey, siracha, soy sauce and rice wine vinegar), a corn dish I saw on StarChefs.com and fried pickles with a bacon ranch sauce( I saw this item on Graham Elliot Bowle's new Chicago Restaurant menu).

Usually during holiday events like this I am cooking most of the day and do not get to relax, this day was different. Most of these items could be prepped and pre-cooked ahead of time so it left me more time for having fun and hanging out (plus more time to relax and enjoy beverages of the adult nature).

We lucked out and the forecasted rain never came our way so it turned out to be a good night for fireworks. The only downside of the night was when ,in my sheer stupidity, I attempted to light several sparklers at once in turn burning my thumb and index finger. Yes only I could get injured, not by real fireworks, but by sparklers. Oh and at one point, one of the kids accidentally knocked over several lit fireworks causing everybody to run for cover – I wish I could have gotten a picture of that,it was funny afterwords.

How did you spend your 4^th?

Patton ave Block party with Pork belly and Mini-Burgers

This past weekend our street had its annual Block Party. We moved in here about two months before Ethan was born and he is now four years old. Over this time we have never been able to make it to one of these parties for one reason or another. This year was different. At first we started to get worried because usually we receive a flyer about a week before but eventually one made its way to our door.

For this party, you are asked to bring whatever it is you want to eat plus stuff to share. They say grills will be provided but I, like most people, prefer to grill on their own. You can also chip in $10 and get some crawfish as well. I am not sure where they got them but there is a place at the edge of our neighborhood in an old gas station that sells them. On a windy day, even though I can no longer eat crawfish(long story), the smell in the air is intoxicating.

I wanted to do something that would show off my culinary skills a well as be approachable and finger food. I decided on pork belly (surprise) with ancho bacon bbq sauce and a play on corn on the cob. I also cooked mini burgers from a recipe I found HERE that is basically 50% sirloin and 50% untrimmed brisket. People, go out and buy a meat grinder, you will N E V E R buy ground meat again. Trust me on this.

For the play on the corn on the cob, I pureed fresh and grilled corn with garlic, butter and heavy cream. I strained this mixture, seasoned it then put it in a ISI foamer. It is the consistency of a very light whip cream with all the taste of corn on the cob. It was served on spoons. The picture I had to do at home does not look appetizing - I know but it tasted damn good.

Some of the pictures had to be recreated at home due to a number of factors - lack of table space, getting dark, the amount of beer consumed etc......

Anyway my two neighbors on our end of the street brought their grills as well. They both cooked chicken and it was great. I did not get a picture of the chicken that Teddy made (SORRY) but it was really good as were the stuffed mushrooms.

The rest of the offerings are pretty self explanatory from the pictures.

All in all we had a great time and made some new friends, I look forward to future get togethers and hope I am not labeled the "freak down the street who does weird things with his food" :)

Easter 2008 : Figgy Ham, carrots and pasilla, watermelon Oysters

Last year for Easter I experimented with some molecular gastronomy techniques I was just learning. This year I decided to rely on old favorites as well as trying new recipes, but nothing too out there.

You would think that living in the South you would be able to find rabbit meat pretty easy, well guess what - you cannot. For the past two years every time I visit this one store (who btw has great mexican ingredients) I see a whole cut up rabbit in their freezer section. Well knowing my luck, when I decide to go buy some two weeks before Easter they are out. I called the meat market manager and he said he has had trouble getting it lately. Is there a run on rabbit meat I do not know about???

I started calling around some places and you would not believe the responses I got. One place I called which bills itself as an upscale meat market basically thought I was speaking a foreign language( this is the same place I asked about duck confit and they were clueless). Another "meat market" I called was highly offended that I even asked for rabbit. They then proceeded to tell , before I even asked, "and no I do not know where you can get some". Excuse me, do you think those cows or chickens go gracefully? They sure as hell aren't lining up screaming "pick me,pick me" like you did in elementary school when the teacher asked the one question you knew.

Well to make a long story somewhat short I was unable to find rabbit. I did have one more option I was thinking of but the few people who I asked said it would be completely wrong to go to PETCO and asked for the "fat" rabbits. The dish I had wanted to do was a beer braised rabbit leg over fava beans and garlic aioli. It would have been good but oh well - maybe next year.

So without further suspense :) here is the menu that I settled on for Easter 2008

Carrot and Pasilla Soup shooters - two ways

Grilled Oysters with Watermelon Foam

Ancho Fig glazed Ham sandwiches with fig jam, garlic aioli and buttermilk biscuits(that did not rise)

Chocolate mousse with candied Kumquats and whipped cream

I did make some sauteed fava beans but they did not turn out so well :(

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