Prix Fixe

Rabbit Three Ways

Rabbit Three Ways - Team WCI

Video: Gnocchi with Thomas Keller

Hat tip to the Amateur Gourmet for posting this. As you'll learn I'm a big fan of Thomas Keller. This was posted at AG today, and I couldn't resist posting it here. Oh, voting for Foodie Fight #8 came out today, the winner wasn't me. So please enjoy some Thomas Keller.

Foodie Fight: Battle Eggplant and White Wine

This is my second go around for Foodie Fights, funny thing is my last battle was FF #4. So four battles have passed, and I'm sure Nick and the gang got tired of seeing my name every week so the most likely pulled my name just to get me off their back (I'm kidding guys).

Anyways as the title reads, Battle Eggplant and White Wine. The last time I did anything with eggplant was back in Culinary School during Skills II where we pan fried it - plain and simple. I lamented on twitter as to what I should do, most of the answers came back either Eggplant Parm or Babaganoush. I've made both, but didn't want to go with the obvious.

So I started to pull out all my inspirational tools - James Beard, Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz and Escoffier. One sauce I learned at Carlyle during my externship was Chef Jake's take on Sauce Bretonne that he serves with olive oil poached shell fish. Really amazing slow cooked onions and carrots in butter though the original #30 is a bit different and to be used exclusively with Hericot verts.

So I'm going to riff on a riff, and play with some of the ingredients that one might find in Eggplant Parm. You know, Eggplant, tomato, cheese. You get the idea right?

In homage to Auguste Escoffier, we'll call this #3992 - It's the number for a eggplant recipe in Escoffier's Le Guide Culinare. Or if you don't like the idea of attaching a #, you can call it "Deconstructed" Eggplant Parm, to the extreme.

Here's the completed plated dish, recipes to follow.

Now I know what your thinking, how in the Sam hell is that Eggplant Parm, deconstructed or otherwise? The components are there trust me. You've got the tomatoes in the form of marinated cherry tomato's, and I know when I actually do a tomato sauce, I put both onions and carrot (for sweetness) and sometimes mount with a little butter just before it's ready for dinner. The parm comes in the form of a delicate and crisp Parmesan tuile. Longest part of this dish, is the sauce - but you can cook for as long or somewhat short as you like.

Lets get into the nuts and bolts.

Marinated Cherry Tomatoes

5 or 6 Cherry Tomatoes, quartered
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
White Balsamic Vineger
Dried Oregano
Salt
Pepper

Put cut tomatoes into a container, add in olive oil and vinegar - just enough to cover. Add oregano, salt and pepper to taste, store in the fridge. This can be done up to a day or so in advance, the longer it sits in the marinade the better the taste.

Sauce "Bretonne" #30 

2 White Onions, Julienne
4 Carrots, Julienne
1 Leek, Julienned
8 oz Butter, unsalted
6 oz Chicken Stock
4 oz White Wine
Salt
White Pepper

1. Sweat the veggies in butter. Start of with a bit to get it going, and then slowly add as they sweat. You don't want any color at all, so low and slow. I did mine for about two hours.

2. After you've got a good sauce going, add white wine and chicken stock. If you still have butter to incorporate go for it.

3. Season to taste. It'll be done when all the veggies are nice and soft.

For the eggplant itself, it was easy. Slice your eggplant to about a quarter inch, I used a small cookie cutter to get the nice rounds. This also allows you to skip peeling the damn thing from the get go. Slice enough for at least two per plate. Salt and set aside to let some of the moisture leech out of the eggplant. After they're dried out a bit time to bread them. Standard breading procedure applies - dry/wet/dry. I went with flour seasoned with salt, pepper and a little herbs de provance. I also seasoned the panko bread crumbs with salt and pepper, and a little parm I had left over from making the tuile.

Get a good amount of oil in a high sided pan, and quickly fry up your eggplant. Don't leave it in too long or your going to be treated to burnt crap. They should be in the oil long enough, to turn a nice golden brown, once you've fried both sides. Now set them aside and drain on a paper towel.

To make the tuiles, just microplane some Parmesan cheese, you'll need enough to make one tuile per dish. So about half a small wedge. You need just enough to pile onto a no stick cookie sheet, in small little rounds. Don't pile the cheese to high for it's going to melt funky and you'll have to start over.

Throw the pan in a 350 degree oven, keep a close eye on them to they're bubbly and melting. Pull them out they'll continue to cook a bit but that's ok. If you start to smell cooked cheese, you going to late - and you're going to have to start over, we all know what a pain in the ass that is. My problem was that while doing other things I was snacking on the parm, hence only five. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of back up if I wasn't happy. Though I did run a test tuile that I burnt the crap out of.

I'm very proud of this dish, and know that by far and away it's better than my last entry into Foodie Fights. Though I liked that salad, I really think this dish is solid from top to bottom. The vinegar in the marinade helps cut through some of the richness of the sauce. The chicken stock and white wine are key in the sauce, and elevate the flavor to creamy goodness.

So please vote for my dish! Though I do ask that you look over all the contestants entries and make the best informed decision you can. But again, any vote helps.

Once the voting is open, I'll throw up the poll so you can vote here, or over at Foodie Fights.

Lake Oswego Food & Wine Fest

I'm going to make this brief, as I should be getting ready for work.

I'll be down at the Lake Oswego Food and Wine Fest today, grilling up Truffle Burgers and more for Celebrate Catering. So if you're in the Portland Metro area, or anywhere near Lake O I highly suggest you come and say hi! There's a good group of vintners and food - hence, food and wine fest. It started as of 12n today and will go on until about 8p this evening. It's nice day to hang out in a park, eat some great food and drink some great local wines.

So clear some time in your busy schedule and come down and have some fun, like a friend of mine says: "Eat, Drink and be merry - for tomorrow is Monday.."

No truer words have been spoken, or in this case written.

Here's a list of the vintners on hand for today's festivities:

Capitello Wines

Naked Wines

Ankeny Vineyard

Terra Vina Wines

David Hill Winery

Zenas Wines

Zerba Cellars

Oswego Hills Winery

Hip Chicks Do Wine

Duck Pond Cellars

SéJourné Wines

Ribera Vineyards

VX Vineyards

Eola Hills Winery

Sol Et Soleil Cellars

Apolloni Vineyards

Quailhurst Vineyard Estate

Valley View Winery

Arcane Cellars

Paschal Winery

Methven Family Vineyards

FPF: Foie

Scallop, torchon of foie gras w/ peas, carrots and fava's

Foodie Fight...Ocho

I have once again been tapped to take place in Foodie Fight #8. As some of you may recall I basically kicked of this blog with the Water Melon & Red Pepper Flake battle - which needless to say I had my butt handed to me in quick fashion, while still picking up some great reviews. From the day the results came out, I've been looking for redemption (sorta, but makes good drama right?).

So what have I gotten myself into?

This time, it's Eggplant and White Wine. Excuse me, why don't you throw me something in my wheel house? While I haven't cook with eggpant all that often, in fact the last time I cooked eggplant was in International Cuisine Class - while I was still attending school. Used in a lot of Mediterranean cuisine, there's all kinds of slam dunks when it comes to eggplant - why do the obvious?

I've gotten some ideas, cracked some books open. And looking for that riff. Inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes (matter of fact this is subject of a future post). But once you get the *bing* moment when that lightbulb goes off in your head you mind starts racing and the creative process flows. Of course now, being as late as it is (or early depending on your time zone) sleeping is going to be a pain in the ass.  But I enjoy these kind of moments, and as these things come to me you can bet your ass I'm putting them down into my 'bible'. I'm already wearing out the spine on my moleskine. I love those things I have way to many to count.

What was I talking about?

Foodie Fight 8, I'm matched up against 5 other bloggers. Head over to Foodie Fights and check out the competition. I'll publish an actual list of the participating blogs here in a future post, this should be a lot fun. So I wish all the competitors good luck! All the dishes will be posted on Foodie Fights on Tuesday and that's when voting is open. When I get the code for the poll, I'll make sure to put it here.

Music and Food

For a while now I've been thinking about the two, both separate and together. I frequently listen to music when I'm in my home kitchens, both my externship site Carlyle and now with Celebrate Catering - we listen to music in the kitchen. It keeps us going, and is better than listening to the bellowing of the hoods going full bore. Even in school, select classes - some played music some didn't, oh and for the love of god don't whistle.

Most often than not I'm even listening to music while blogging. Music is and was a big part of my life for so long, for 13 years I worked in and around music. I was even a Music Director for a while, so I actually got to pick the music we played and didn't play - and the ensuing arguments with record label reps about why a certain song isn't getting enough "spins" (plays on the air). I wasn't one to be afraid to tell them if the music they sent me sucked or not. I figure why sugar coat it, when you know a record isn't coming anywhere the studio.

Now lets flash forward 13 years, now I'm involved with food, my other passion. Music and radio has always been first - but really it's all interchangeable as far as I'm concerned. I also think you can have duel passions, both fires matching in flame. While I'm completely focused, music and it's role in food started to creep back into my mind - and has been residing there for a while now.

Music evokes emotional and mental responses.

Think about it, you here a song and most often than not some memory is associated with it. The same goes for food, bring the same kinds of responses - emotional, mental and really physical responses. I know music and food pairing isn't something new, but there has to be something than be done different - not just piped in music.

Now I know there are some of you out there, and by some I mean a butt load - who prefer to dine in silence. Just the company of the person sitting across the table from you. I understand, but what if the music and the food were paired in a why that wasn't totally intrusive - just a soundtrack to your meal. Every good movie has a 'soundtrack' - why couldn't you have the same with a meal.

Think about it.

You hear a particular song not only is going to take you back, but your going to say something like "God this song was playing when we ate at ....and had that great..." do you see what I'm getting at here? I mean you could even take it a step farther. Just like a tasting menu, each 'soundtrack' if you will is tailored to not only the meal but the customer as well?

Yes people, welcome to my brain - and this is how it works. This will be something I'll be working on a lot, not only developing say a 8 course tasting, but the soundtrack to which to accompany it. I don't expect it to come easy for sure, maybe something clicks and then blam...roadblock. The way music and food are the same is really eye opening. Just like a good meal of flavors intertwining, you need the same with music the notes, lyrics, rhythm.

It's sitting there, waiting. Just need to reach out and grab it. 

FPF: Asian inspired appetizer

*FPF stands for Food Porn Fridays!

Seared Scallop with Asian BBQ sauce w/ green bean and shitake salad dressed with a Asian Vinaigrette. This was for Introduction to Garde Manger.

Crap I need (or at least want..)

Sorry it's been a few in between posts, hate it when RL reaches up and grabs you by the neck and try's to power bomb you through a table. Anyways, I was just thinking about things that I really need to add to my home kitchen arsenal - for things that I want to do and experiment with. This list is in no particular order.

1. Pasta Roller
2. Ice Cream Machine
3. CO2 Whip Cream Dispenser
4. Stock Pot (I have one, it's just small and crappy)
5. Immersion Blender (I broke my other one..)

That's all I can think of for the moment, though there are a ton of cookbooks and what not that I need to pick up. Not all of the books I pick up do I do cooking out of, well that's not true. I just got the Alinea cookbook and it might be a while before I attempt to do anything out of it, but it's there for inspiration just like my "A Day At elBulli" book. I really should do a review of that one soon. I've also got a few things in the pipeline - stay tuned...

Way's to irritate a chef part II

I hadn't plan on re-visiting this topic so soon, but a comment in the last post led me to where we are now. More way's to piss off a chef, we've already talked about being a customer and what will grate on a chef's final nerves. Now lets go back behind the swinging door into the kitchen. If you're in the industry, you know these as well. This comes from Chef Rico, who found my blog through Foodbuzz.com.

The ways are numerous - show up late, work too slow, screw up the product, disagree with the chef, be sloppy, work sloppy/dirty, make lots of stupid mistakes and the list goes on and on...

Some of those do seem obvious right? Not so much, just in school alone I never got why people would show up late, uniform all crapped up - or just not show up at all? You've paid all this money to go to a culinary school only to screw away the money but either not showing up or showing up late and still not giving a rats behind. Maybe I'm old, but when I was in school (which really wasn't all that long ago) not only was I there to learn but I treated it like a job. Show up on time (if not a bit early), uniform clean and ready to go - follow instruction. Anyways you get the idea.

The clean one is another biggie. When I started school, I was horrible at keeping my station clean - but after working with some great people - reading about Chefs like Thomas Keller who strives for perfection when it comes to his food, and his kitchen. Cleaner you work, the happier chef is going to be - and trust me they notice when you're working spotless, and they really notice when you've got a ton of crap all over your station and they can't tell where your at, not to mention you can get lost too.

It doesn't matter if your in the weeds up to your eyeballs, you still need to keep you station absolutely clean or it'll all go to hell in a hand-basket. If you have any pet peeves, things that irritate you go ahead and leave them in the comments or drop me an email. I have feeling this is going take on a life of it's own.