Chef at Home

Archive for December, 2009

Some words of wisdom from Hugh MacLeod about why closing your eyes and making the leap can
sometimes be better than thinking too much. A little knowledge is a good thing, too much can result in paralysis. Having been victims of over-thinking ourselves, this post was a timely reminder of why sometimes you’ve just got to take chance and trust your instincts for survival.

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The snow peas are trimmed into rectangles and then brined for ten minutes. The wet peas are vacuum sealed and then blanched sous vide. The result is an intensely flavored snow pea, ready to be worked with. To complete the dish we add both young and old pecorino cheeses, a drizzle of green olive oil and some black pepper. The dish is void of traditional acidity, although the olive oil and the aged cheese point up the flavors in the dish in lieu of an actual acid.

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We have been working on a number of dishes featuring XO sauce and butter. A simple dish we prepared was clams cooked in an XO butter sauce. The pot of clams was delicious and the broth screamed for the crusty bread we had waiting in the oven. The XO butter sauce would work equally well with mussels and in the spring asparagus and peas.

Once we had the idea and taste of XO sauce paired with butter and clams in the brain we began working on a few more refined presentations. The first dish out of the gate used the XO butter and clams to create a sauce for creamed spinach agnolotti encased in preserved lemon pasta. A few young spinach leaves and a knob of sweet butter completed the dish. To serve and present the dish we looked to the shell of the Geoduck which works as a wonderful bowl and ties in nicely with the clam theme.

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We have been working on a number of dishes featuring XO sauce and butter. A simple dish we prepared was clams cooked in an XO butter sauce. The pot of clams was delicious and the broth screamed for the crusty bread we had waiting in the oven. The XO butter sauce would work equally well with mussels and in the spring asparagus and peas.

Once we had the idea and taste of XO sauce paired with butter and clams in the brain we began working on a few more refined presentations. The first dish out of the gate used the XO butter and clams to create a sauce for creamed spinach agnolotti encased in preserved lemon pasta. A few young spinach leaves and a knob of sweet butter completed the dish. To serve and present the dish we looked to the shell of the Geoduck which works as a wonderful bowl and ties in nicely with the clam theme.

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With the aroma of mulled cider in the kitchen and an open bag of red hot candies on the counter it seemed only logical to marry the ideas. Really we are only making a simple mulled wine, however in using the red hot candies we gained a deeper flavor than that of using cinnamon and sweet spices. The stock is simple: red wine, red hots, water and salt. The flavor and color are amazing. The initial idea was to use it to poach quince and apples. After tasting the finished product I think we can do much more. This base stock can now be tweaked and enhanced with other flavors to fine tune individual dishes and component elements.

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Looking at the individual fibers in a lobster claw got us wondering about how we were flavoring the meat. We have always taken the whole claws and warmed and seasoned the  from the outside in with butter or some other tasty flavoring agent. Take a close look at the skin holding the filaments of the lobster claw together. If we changed our approach and put the flavoring on the inside of the claw it would melt and wind its way between the filaments. Amazing what a closer look at what we are cooking shows us.

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Instead of the traditional cinnamon sugar used for rolling snickerdoodles we decided to grind up red hot candies and use them as our coating. The result was a spicy, hot pink snickerdoodle, perfect for the Christmas cookie tray. They may not be for everyone although we think they are delicious. Happy Holidays everyone! Wishing you a magical Christmas night.

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We found some great monkfish at the store and new that it could play a role in our 7 fishes dinner. I cleaned up the loins and wrapped them in cheesecloth. The cheesecloth wrapping allows us to marinate and even cook the fish in a thick paste and then remove the fish cleanly for serving.

I am back on my pepperoni kick and with that comes pepperoni miso. We blended white miso with pepperoni, olive oil, honey, soy sauce and coffee. We poured this mixture into a vacuum bag and added the loins. We sealed the bag shut and then let the fish marinate for four hours. Once the fish was marinated, we cooked it in the bag in the marinade/paste for forty five minutes at 55°C. When the fish came out of the bag we unwraped the cloth and the loins of monkfish are perfumed with the seasoning mixture with their natural color and structure intact. The meaty monkfish flakes along its seams and is deliciously rich with the melding of spiced pork and sweetened miso.

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After being away for over two weeks I feel like I have missed some of the holiday festivities. Really, I have missed my time for the unchecked consumption of eggnog both spiked and lightly spiked. Today I went shopping to fill a refrigerator which has felt hopelessly abandoned while we were away. I returned with a quart of eggnog and a plethora of other groceries. I try and buy only a quart of eggnog per shopping mission so that I may buy eggnog whenever the mood strikes, which is often with The Tran-Siberian Orchestra blaring out of the speakers in the green jeep.

Tonight, after dinner, I felt like puttering. What is not a better stepping stone than eggnog? Before we left for Hawaii, in case the sunset photographs did not fill in the blanks, Aki made eggnog french toast. It was delicious and made from frugality. We were just about out of eggnog and had a half a loaf of challah left. She made a delicious breakfast which when topped with some of Steve’s maple syrup and our homemade butter proved to be much more than the frugal effort I began describing.

Aki’s frugality sparked my gluttony. I made a quick mix of eggnog and eggs, sweetened with some extra maple syrup and then poured over a full loaf of cut challah. I packed the mixture into a loaf pan and have let the mix absorb and mellow overnight. I suppose I should have spiked the mix, although I would like Amaya to try the dish as well. Tomorrow morning I will start the coffee and turn on the oven. Eventually I will slip our eggnog bread pudding into the oven and then dash to the store for the heavy cream I should have bought had I planned this dish out. Nothing, well except for rum ice cream, would be better with the breakfast bread pudding.

And if you are against all of this preparation, brew a pot of coffee, stir in a a healthy dose of eggnog and top it with a fine float of rum.

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