leftovers...

i realized i had some dinners i've cooked over the past few weeks that i haven't posted anywhere. they weren't necessarily planned or done for a special occasion, but i recall them being extremely tasty and if you're gonna have a food blog, you might as well post to it! if anything, it's a reminder that marcela and i actually do eat well, even if it seems like we haven't had a real grocery shopping adventure in a long time!

i am not gonna really describe these as i don't recall what i was thinking or what the conceptual thought process was. that does bring up something, even if i don't totally create a concept, i always try and make some sense out of what i plan. i really have an amazing amount of respect for true chefs out there. it's hard enough to plan something out for one dinner, but night after night of expectant guests...wow. sooo cool. if i didn't know anything about architecture, i might say cooking is the most bad ass profession out there!!!

so, without further ado...

filet mignon w/ chocolate wine sauce on string beans



bacon wrapped scallops over pepper rings

introduction to fall

so my parents came out to help with moving mami into her new house, for big dave and i to play some golf, and of course, for another entry to the cooking blog. i was able to finally get them to watch an episode of top chef for some inspiration. now it may have appeared that my dad was doing some heavy meditation for our dish, i think he really was just catching up on some much needed rest!!!

so, 7 days before the official turn of the season, we decided to go for some heavier fall flavors. however, i really like the concept of serving an amuse bouche and though it's somewhat supposed to prepare you for what's for dinner, i figured i'm no executive chef and with the proper dinner guest arrival libation, i wouldn't have to worry about anyone voting me off!! i poached a slice of salmon in some chicken bouillon, celery, onions, and basil and then whipped up a cucumber soup to serve in the brand new demitasse cups my parents bought for marcela. the best thing about this is that it was my mom's idea and she said she got it from reading this blog!! so, even if nobody out there really cares to read this, i can always count on my mom to constantly care about me...i love you mom.




for dinner we took and braised our short ribs for 4 hours in a onion and pepper bath. we eventually finished them off on the grill. ideally we'd have braised them a couple hours longer and grilled them a few minutes less, but as mentioned before, we're no executive chefs...yet! then we used some baby red potatoes and prepared a twice baked potato with them. the final product was braised short ribs with grilled peppers and twice-baked baby red potatoes.



for dessert my dad whipped up his mix-master qualifying brandy alexander...



regardless of how this actually turned out, i sure do love cooking with my dad. i hope we can take what we learned from this dinner and really use it to take this "hobby" to the next level.

memory

hey david, you STILL haven't posted. i know it's not that big of a deal, but i cooked this dinner a ways back and it was all about remembering the first (and only) dinner we've cooked together (post college) that has revealance to our shared passion. maybe this will inspire you. maybe it won't. i don't hold you accountable either way. all i'm trying to show is that i'm really happy we love cooking and share this passion!!!

cena di cinque

Finally I am getting around posting the wonderful dinner that Logan and I concocted on July 21, 2007. Sheila and I had spent nearly all of June in Italy, and I was dying to try some “stolen” ideas with Logan and Marcela. We had spent several days in Tuscany, a few in Rome, two on the coast in Cinque Terra and three lovely days in the Lake Como region (I strongly recommend that for all Italian visitors!!) I was struck by the lack of tomato gravies in the North of Italy, as that is what is usually associated with Italian cooking in my experience here, Stateside. We started the meal with proscuitto wrapped cantaloupe. That was offered everywhere we went and was always delicious and a very light starter. If you can, the Tuscan cantaloupe (it has the stripes on the sides, we called muskmelon growing up in Nebraska) is juicier and sweeter, and compliments the proscuitto better.




Logan then served one homemade ravioli, stuffed with mushroom and Muenster over a roasted tomato slice. We had meant for that to be a one bite starter, but the roasted tomato didn’t cooperate.




Having finished the antipasto portion of our evening, we next served al dente orzo, which had been cooked with minced fresh sage and basil, plus slices of dehydrated tomato. We stirred in parmesan and asiago cheese just before serving.




This was followed by the secundo, which in this case was a veal saltimbocca served over wilted spinach and accompanied by grilled eggplant, zucchini and red onion. Since I am not sure how to spell saltimbocca, had to concoct that recipe from my memory of the taste of a saltimbocca sauce that I had in Spolenta. The key to all such sauces I have had is the hint of lemon. I had pan fried the veal, then recaptured the meat juice with dry Vermouth and cream, added some minced basil and reduced it over low heat. (I think that I could have spent another 30 minutes on the reduction to develop a more creamy sauce.)




Our dessert was a late harvest zinfandel (Tobin James “Liquid Love”) served in small martini glasses to allow dipping of biscotti’s in the wine. That is a traditional dessert of Cinque Terra, and normally uses a sweet Italian wine (the name of which escapes me, but like late harvest zins, it is an 18% alcohol wine, and the secret is to dunk the cookie, not swig the wine!)




We pared the antipasto courses and the primo and secundo with a Chianti Classico. It led to a full evening, with great conversation and sharing. I can hardly wait for our next foray. I’m dying to try a Thai peanut sauce and something that uses Logan’s wasabi dressing for meat. Hopefully the next event will occur soon!

posting to post

okay, so i'm not all that impressed with the presentation of this meal, or my effort to create a nice presentation. oh how an unlimited budget at sur la table would do me...

anyway, this dish started at the meat counter at vons. i saw these gigantic fresh halibut steaks and remembered how as a kid, halibut was the only fish i'd come close to eating. as i grew up, i learned that halibut was actually a pretty bland tasting fish. however, the great thing about halibut was it's ability to bring together, and enhance, all the accompanying flavors of the dish. so, with that in mind, i decided i'd throw together some kind of "flavorful" halibut plate!

now to be honest, i am still just a rookie in the cooking field. i haven't mastered my tastes or honed down wine pairings. i basically just try recipes and/or flavors i like. this dish was definitely an experiment in this realm. marcela really, really likes eggplant and my parents returned from italy in june exhilarated about their experience as well as their eggplant encounter. so, that was the next ingredient. i've been reading a lot about the use of mint with eggplant so i made a mint yogurt dressing for some grilled, sliced eggplant. with the help of marcela's friend, brenda the culinary educated chef from new england, i put together a tomato ragout side. then, to top off the "bland" halibut, i simply drizzled it with a basil coulis. this dinner was actually very, very, very tasty, but my presentation was, at best, dismal. i really would like to buy a bunch of plates, utensils, serving platters, shooters, picks, saucers, porcelain demitasse's, you get the picture. but, for now, i'll relax and enjoy the fact that i've been blessed with the opportunity to purchase 2" bland halibut steaks!!!

nectarines

so it's hot now. june was awesome this year. normally we get may gray and june gloom, but this year was different. may was gray, but june was awesome. unfortunately for me, i planned on studying for another ARE throughout the supposed gloom. i can't tell you enough how hard it is to postpone a libation and fine dinner for something quick that facilitates stickin' your nose back in the books.

this past friday was the test day. beyond an earlier than usual happy hour beefeaters martini, i had plans to cook something fun, delicious, and commemorative of the time. pork is such a good meat to mix with fruit. most of the time one sees apples paired with pork, but with an abundance of summer fruits in our socal markets, i decided i'd try something else. the dinner was a pork chop with nectarine relish. grill a pork chop to your desired temperature. then, slice a nectarine in half and grill it til you have some marks. mix into a bowl with a little honey, balsamic vinegar, diced pine nuts, and some basil. i made a chipotle corn salad to go with this which was just roasted corn, sour cream, scallions, and diced chipotle peppers. i think the tastes went well together. a little zest vs. pretty much super sweet. we also drank a sauvignon blanc with this meal....

date night

(my apologies, this is being written 6 days after the fact...)

graduations, company, and commitments has led to a 5 week hiatus from "date night" for marcela and i. so, this past friday being void of any plans, we took advantage. the night began with a couple beers at a new TI (tenant improvement) bar I designed that had finally opened. There, we came up with a grocery list that would take care of our "normal" dinners and lunches for the next week. All that was left was deciding what we should cook that night for dinner. without any strong opinions from either side, i told marcela to head to the store while i researched my books and notes.

having had one of just about everything in the past week, and feeling awfully lethargic and "heavy", i decided we needed to have something light, something more vegan than carniverous, and whatever meat to be used, better have come from the sea! voila...a recipe for asparagus & oyster mushroom fricassee!!! now it didn't call for any kind of seafood, but i thought some pan-seared scallops would go nicely. unfortunately, as you'll see in the picture, the scallops were on the small size, and ended up a bit more braised than seared. however, this meal was fantastic. in fact, i ended up licking my plate because i couldn't get enough of the sauce. what do you think eric ripert would have to say about that!!! anyway, the recipe was pretty simple, i blanched a bunch of sliced asaragus for a couple minutes before refreshing in an icebath. then, i sauteed some [very] coarsely chopped and seasoned oyster mushrooms in some butter until they began to crisp. after they gained a little color, i added some chopped shallots and sauteed for another couple minutes. next, i added about a 1/4c white wine and let it marinate and reduce down to a couple tablespoons. after it had properly reduced, i added roughly the same amount of heavy cream and stirred until thick, then right before serving, i stirred in some chopped chives, parsley, and tarragon and then served. you can prepare the scallops anyway you'd like, i simply added some cumin and ground coriander to ours. we paired it with a bottle of cameron hughes, lot 25 sparkling wine.