The Best Meal I've Ever Cooked: Part Two

This time, minus the bitterness at NBC. Because they were nice enough to start running new episodes of Scrubs again, thus making my Thursday nights a little bit more complete.

If you haven't yet, check out my account of the first part of the meal, and also Alyse's recap, which gives detail by delicious detail. (Also, shout out to Alyse, who is now PUBLISHED!)

So when I last left you, we had finished an amuse bouche and the first set of courses. Next up was the main course. The first was a white truffle shrimp fondue with an herb risotto. This one, I must admit, was not an original. It came straight from Rocco DiSpirito's Flavor, which has been my most reliable source for recipes that are so good they don't need to be altered at all. In fact, the recipe is right here, in its totality. Here's my presentation:



So I can only take credit for the execution, but not the concept of the combination of the truffle, risotto, fresh herbs, shrimp, and perfectly seasoned tomato fondue. But the second of the two main courses was a horseradish crusted rack of lamb that has shown some development in the very pages of this blog. The pairing of a horseradish crust with the robust flavor of a perfectly medium rare prime rib gave me the idea to try it with lamb. The cherry gastrique was on the money the first time, but I wanted to make sure to season the lamb a bit more this time around--thus, a dry rub of fresh cumin, coriander, kosher salt, paprika, cayenne, and black pepper. I also knew I wanted to lighten up the dish as a whole; a contrast of baby arugula tossed in lemon juice and black pepper would give the dish a fresh, bitter element. And finally, I added the sauteed langoustines to give a sweet, exotic flavor. A treat, if you will, for a bunch of people that had probably never had langoustines. That being said--not really an essential part of the dish. Also, what is it about hipsters and pictures of food? Scott managed to take a better picture of this dish than any I've taken of my food over the course of the last year. Clearly I need a new strategy. Observe.

Scott:


Me:


And finally, what would a good meal be without dessert? I decided to pair up some puff pastry (profiteroles, if you're french or pretentious) with coffee ice cream and a bailey's irish cream chocolate sauce. I love the idea of mixing traditional after dinner drinks (bailey's and coffee) with traditional after dinner desserts (ice cream, chocolate, and puff pastry). Warm and cold, rich and fresh, it couldn't have turned out better.


And remember that failed pineapple creme brulee from a few weeks back? I decided to ignore the cookbooks and cook it until I felt like it was done. The end result? Perfection. And brulee torches are still awesome.


Thanks to everyone for coming and making this a fantastic success! I may just try this idea again one day after all....

The Best Meal I've Ever Cooked: Part 1 or "Screw you, NBC, I didn't want to be on your show anyway"

Three loads in the dishwasher and I'm STILL not done cleaning from Sunday night. Such is the result of Restaurant Weekend, a three-day cooking extravaganza that started with a stock and finished with a blow torch at the dinner table.

How does life get any better than this?

6 different dish options plus an amuse bouche--not to mention the fact that each of these were among the most complicated dishes I've ever attempted. 6 guests, plus me and the indispensable Alyse.

Twice. Welcome to Restaurant Weekend.

Alyse beat me to the punch on the full recap of the process behind each of the dishes, so I'll refer you to her most thorough of descriptions for the nitty gritty. She My post will focus instead on the inspiration behind each dish. Because for me, Restaurant Weekend started long before I actually got to work on each dish. The menu was the result of literally weeks of brainstorming, influence from existing recipes, experimentation, and a search for balance. And so we come to the menu.

First up was the amuse bouche. Alyse hit this nail on the head--my idea for the whole meal was a meal of contrasts in texture, flavor, nature. And the amuse bouche was to be that idea condensed into a couple of bites. I have to admit, I had never prepared nor eaten foie gras, so this recipe was a bit blind going in. I knew only that it was supposed to have the richness of the bone marrow I tried a few months ago. So I wanted a thick, crispy bread...almost like an oversized crouton...to balance the creaminess of the foie gras. To balance the richness, a fresh grape chutney of quartered white and red grapes, mustard seed, veal stock, port, and red onion. And to bring out the full flavor of the amuse, some orange and lemon zest and alderwood smoked sea salt.

Next up, the first two courses. I was particularly excited about the saffron scented parsnip soup with the butternut squash coulis. Since we ended up with no vegetarians, I decided the parsnip soup should get a chicken stock base. And I knew I was making a risotto later--I'd need lots of chicken stock for two days of meals. Only one good option.

I was going to make my own chicken stock.

We kept this one simple. I brought and quartered a whole chicken, used my trusty cleaver to split the bones into 2 inch long pieces, and simmered the bones away for a few hours while reserving the chicken meat for my own devious dinner purposes (nothing special, just some nuggets and and pan-roasted chicken breast). Later I added a white mirepoix of onion, celery, and parsnip along with some black peppercorns, salt, and bay leaves. An hour later, I strained the whole mixture and voila...enough chicken stock for the whole weekend.

The stock made its appearance in the parsnip soup after I had sauteed some shallots, carrots, and celery until they were soft. With this soup I thought a contrast in colors between the white, creamy parsnip and the rich, dark orange butternut squash would be both visually delightful and interesting the palette. And while the carrots and saffron made the parsnip soup a bit more orange than I had hoped, decreasing my color contrast, the taste was fantastic. Well balanced and velvet-smooth (the result of pushing the soup through my chinois), I wouldn't have changed much of anything about this satisfying, hearty soup.


The rest of the table got a composed salad of duck confit, escarole, butter lettuce, poached pear, dried cranberries, and toasted sunflower seeds. This salad was designed to be the very pinnacle of balance. The bitter escarole was balanced with the fresh, crispy butter lettuce. The poached pear balanced the rich, fatty duck confit. And the crunch sunflower seeds balanced the fruity explosion of the dried cranberries on the tongue. And they were all brought together by this genius honey-champagne vinaigrette that Alyse made that I'd like to take a bath in.


Part 2 will come in the next couple of days and will walk you through the deliciously complex main courses and the desserts. Stay tuned!

Practice Makes Perfect?

With restaurant weekend quickly approaching, it seemed only appropriate to give the whole thing a quick dry run...with some minor tweaks to keep it interesting. See, Lisa won't be able to make either seating so I thought I'd try experimenting on her to see if it was only my ego that thought I could make three courses worth paying $30 for. Unfortunately, I was so stuffy I had completely lost my sense of smell, so I really had to rely on Lisa for guidance with this one.

After hearing Alyse talk of her honey-champagne vinaigrette, I figured it was a match made in heaven for salad featuring duck confit. I picked up some escarole and endive from Wegman's, tossed it in the vinaigrette, and added toasted sunflower seeds and a few dashes of dried cranberry. I simply rewarmed the duck confit in bacon fat on the stovetop and included some pear I had poached in sherry and a bit of sugar. Solid, except the bitter+bitter idea on the greens was a bit overwhelming. For restaurant weekend, I'll use butter lettuce instead of endive. The honey-champagne vinaigrette was FREAKING AWESOME. Oh, and Lisa brought a camera so we have pictures!


Next up was a pan roasted rack of lamb with homemade gnocchi, sauteed langoustines, and a truffled cream sauce. The centerpiece of this dish? Not the lamb, gnocchi, not even the langoustines....the truffled cream sauce. Which, of course, you need a sense of smell to enjoy. So I have no idea how this dish turned out (though I will say I was unsatisfied with the presentation and disappointed that I overcooked the lamb). Lisa said it was good, but she could have been lying. This dish had a lot going on, and I think the overall quality struggled. Clearly something to work on when I'm prepping 7 different dishes for a total of 6 people. Yikes.


Finally, the pineapple creme brulee. Very good thing I tried this ahead of time, because I completely failed at getting the brulee to set. I have ideas for next time that should do me a bit better, but Lisa got treated to something that was more like creme pudding than brulee. On the bright side? The browning torch is the coolest thing I have ever owned.

The general recipes have been brainstormed for the weekend, the slots have been filled, and the menu choices have been made. Check out the final ish:

Amuse bouche of Foie Gras and Grape Chutney

Course 1: Salad of Duck Confit with Sherry Poached Pear and Honey-champagne Vinaigrette or Saffron Scented Parsnip Soup with Butternut Squash Coulis

Course 2: Horseradish Crusted Rack of Lamb with baby argula, sauteed langoustines, and cherry gastrique or White Truffle Risotto with Gulf Shrimp Fondue

Course 3: Pineapple Creme Brulee or Profiteroles with Coffee Ice Cream and Bailey's Irish Cream Chocolate Sauce

So if you were attending, what would you order?