Sunday Dinner – July 27th, 2008
Cold Service

So after weeks of fighting the oppressive heat that my kitchen was able to create this July we decided that the best thing to do (instead of baking, braising, or sautéing with all of our burners on high) was to gave in and cook a meal based entirely around cold and room temperature dishes. Although this accomplished the goal of reducing the amount of BTUs being unnecessarily dumped into the room, the idea itself created a stress on our meager home refrigeration equipment and our ability to prepare everything on the day of service so our guests could watch, participate and learn as we constructed dinner. Note to those of you who were not at this meal: do not attempt to make and serve ice cream, granita, gelée and aspic in the same day without a serious amount of cold- a very serious amount.

This meal was the first in which ideas that we set out to accomplish were unable to be executed, but these failures led to what I can easily describe as my favorite moments in a kitchen this year. As with most meals, dinner was around dusk but preparation started mid-day; and on this particular Sunday we had a great group of people show up early to get dirty and participate in creating that night’s meal. Our hope was to shut off all burners by 18:00 and get the room nice and cool by dinner. This lofty goal was attained, but as dinner started we noticed that the large white box in the room that was supposed to be making our food cold was doing a “poor” job at best.

Its lack of coolness presented the greatest challenge to our pot lickies aspic, which at 15 minutes before plating still refused to get solid. So we took our problem to the room and to the 18 guests and chefs. Over wine and carbonated beverages, we turned a broken aspic into a beautiful pan sauce to dress the pâté.

I say this was one of my favorite moments in a kitchen because it accomplished everything that we hoped to have happen with our cooking: to get our guests to not be passive participants in a meal but active members of a dining experience, with a vested interest in everything that happens and to take ownership of the food they eat. This was no longer just a meal we were presenting to them; this was a meal they created with us throughout the day and together we were able to overcome the problems that our less than ideal conditions created.

Menu
Peach Gazpacho – White peach and mint gazpacho, finished with balsamic pickled strawberries and lime purée

Insalata Caprese – Buffula mozzarella, roasted tomato gelée, with basil oil and balsamic syrup

Wild Mushroom Brulée – Maitake and gorgonzola custard with pancetta brulée

Pâté En Croute – southern style pork pate with collard green pot lickies aspic wrapped in puff pastry

Raisin Granita – Raisin, Ancho and Serrano Ham Granita topped with candied Serrano chilies

Honey and White Pepper Ice Cream – locatelli and black Cypriote salt

Menu created with Daniel Castaño and Mark Low.
Cooks: Andrew Rosenberg, Daniel Castaño and Mark Low

Peach Gazpacho – White peach and mint gazpacho, finished with balsamic pickled strawberries and lime purée
I have never been a fan of gazpacho. I used to work next to a very well respected and critically acclaimed Mexican restaurant which had their gazpacho mentioned in every article or review but even its elegancy escaped me. Until one equally hot afternoon in July where peaches became the new shellfish and a frozen peach soup was born to help cure the heat. This is an evolution of that dish which garners nice compliments every time we serve it but still has not completely sold me on the idea these types of cold soups.

The addition of pickled fruit really helped to brighten the dish and give it better balance. With something like this the refreshing quality is what is important and I think the next time we take a stab at this I would like to see it equally as spicy as it is acidic. Giving the spice balance a little kick might also step up the cooling factor as well.

Insalata Caprese – Buffula mozzarella, roasted tomato gelée, with basil oil and balsamic syrup
This was just a reinterpretation of the classic Italian dish that will become a fixture on my table over the next month as this summer’s tomatoes come into season. Here we just replaced the fresh tomatoes with a concentrated roasted tomato gelée, hoping to create a smooth uniform mouth feel that would be able to sit in unison with the creamy density of the mozzarella. The flavors and textures were almost perfect and Mark’s superb knife skills saved the gelée which like the aspic refused to completely set.

Wild Mushroom Brulée – Maitake and gorgonzola custard with pancetta brulée
This was my favorite adventure of the night. Being a fan of Italian cooking I frequently enjoy room temperature dishes that you might see served cold or hot. This savory dish was something that I am happy to say was delightful at any temperature.

I know you can say “add bacon and blue cheese to anything and you pretty much have a winner,” but the consistency and creaminess of the savory custard was just delightful and the crack of the spoon on the pancetta was just as satisfying as breaking through a crust of turbinado sugar.

Pancetta Crackers

Pâté En Croute – southern style pork pate with collard green pot lickies aspic wrapped in puff pastry
In hopes of fusing southern pork flavors with a French preparation,this very standard pork shoulder and offal dish was designed to be our entrée in this meal. This, of all the dishes we have ever attempted to serve, was wrought with the most difficultly and failure, but was one of our greatest accomplishments.

• The pork protested the attack of the food processor
• The puff pastry cracked and refused to hold the aspic
• The aspic rejected the cold and did not set

But the dish was a success of flavor and texture and we accomplished it as a group.

Raisin Granita – Raisin, Ancho and Serrano Ham Granita topped with candied Serrano chilies

With six courses of cold food, two deserts are only to be expected if not demanded, but not wanting to give into our sweet tooth too easily we tried a semi-savory Granita. This was based on a simple Serrano Ham stock which we clarified the night before and added raisined fruit and peppers to flavor the dish until the sweet caramelized flavors overtook the rich creaminess of the pork. The candied chilies gave just a kick of spice that reminded your palate that you had not completely been given desert yet.

Honey and White Pepper Ice Cream – Locatelli Cheese and black Cypriote salt
This dish was dreamt up one night, many months ago with my friend Danielle over a glass of wine and a lifestyle and food magazine. As Ms. Florio flipped through the pages we talked about dessert, my aversion to it, and her quickly growing mastery of ice cream and granita making. At some point we got to talking about the ridiculous flavors of ice creams that we had been seeing around the city and how it seems as if people were trying to out silly one another. Not to be outdone we started on a verbal journey of nonsense that produced a long list of ice cream ridiculousness that we decided we had to try. This dish was the one I felt was the strongest and I believe was inspired by a brand of perfume that was either advertised in said lifestyle and food magazine or that was being worn at the time by Ms. Florio.

Locatelli cheese was added for its amazing salt and MSG levels, with the smoky flavor of the volcanic black Cypriote salt adding a touch of savory into the otherwise light and sweet dish. The white pepper gave each bite a touch of kick which you attempted to satisfy with the next bite of sweetness only to be placed at the beginning of the circle again. The slice of cheese was the savory ending to the brutal cycle of spice and sweet and left the cold meal finished.

Sunday  July 20th – A riotous celebration of Colombian Independence Day

In deference to my very good friend and cooking partner Daniel (Colombian), we unknowingly celebrated Colombian Independence day on July 20th. I say unknowingly because the day was completely chosen at random. We had been speaking emphatically about cooking an entire meal of Central and South American inspired food. It was to come after pasta, seeing that we are both extremely influenced by Italian cooking (my nationality, Daniel’s passion and professional expertise) yet before a group of cold dishes that we hoped would give us relief from the oppressive heat of that wonderful July afternoon and the amplification that the kitchen so amiably added to it.

We selected a date at random, we sat down with friends; made a menu, and invited guests; only to realize when a very polite and amazingly gracious lady friend of ours came in gave us a big hug and exclaimed “Happy Independence Daniel!” Only for him to stare at her mouth agape and not being able to properly process what was said. Then to immediately try to play it off like it was planned and then to fail so miserably that he had started laughing so hard that he had to stop standing. History one of his best subjects, obviously.

Menu

Ceviche de Ostion
Muestra de Tortillas
Arepa Flor Pepiada de Pato
Ropa Vieja en Bloque
Empanada de Chocolate con Queso

Menu written with Daniel Castaño and Mark Low
Cooked with the gracious help of Daniel, Ashley LeBlanc and Nora Sherman (sorry if I was grump, it was the heat, I swear)

All photos by: Nora Sherman © 2008 www.noraleah.com

Ceviche de Ostion
Scallop Ceviche with heart of palm salad cilantro pesto (that ended up tasting amazing like avocado) and a poblano crema. The slight orange color of the scallops comes from some delightful and very inexpensive achiote chili, the unbelievable firmness of the avocado comes from their reluctance to get ripe even after many days in a brown paper bag, with me insulting them in three languages.

Muestra de Tortillas
This was a lovely trio of tortillas, with a butter poached lobster guacamole, a tomato caviar ceviche and a yucca and bacon sofritto with green mango glaze (that was made by Daniel’s grandmother for him to have on Colombian Independence day to think of home. Wow we felt terrible.)

Arepa Flor Pepiada de Pato
This in its normal form is a very traditional arepa served with stewed pulled chicken, sometimes potatoes and a couple of slices of avocado. We traded the chicken for duck and the avocados for avocados; Daniel made the areapas, I candied chilis and made them transparent. Salt roasted potatoes with just a little side dish in case you like potato on your pepiada, like that amazing little place on Havemeyer and the Williamsburg Bridge.

Ropa Vieja en Bloque
The structure and content of this can clearly be seen here. The meat was slowly braised with sweet and spicy chilis Cuban style, the plantains were fried, the cheese was not the melting kind and the crust, well the crust is really where the love went to in this dish. The crust on this is a caramelized shell of rice, which in Colombia is called pega (I am sure it has a different name in your Central or South American country that sounds similar) and it is the best type of rice preparation in the world. Sweet and crunchy, it made perfect foil for the softness of the stuffing. Eventually we doused this in a black bean sauce more cheese and a touch of crema but you will be left to imagine what that was like.

Empanada de Chocolate con Queso
These empanadas were the affectionate accomplishment of many nights spent listening to Ween. We stuffed them with fontina cheese and Mexican chocolate, which fought dangerous well in the savory dough. That battle spilled into your mouth with equal ferocity and was only tamed when dipped into the banana and sage custard.

A little guava sashimi for a soft texture on the palate and a touch of unadulterated sweetness and everyone was happy and full.

Sunday Dinner July 13th, 2008 – Pasta

I would like to make something clear for those of you who do not know me personally yet; I am Italian. This is not a crucial or super interesting fact about me, but it does lend reasoning and purpose to some of my more eccentric actions. It explains things like; my predilection for serious, non-ironic facial hair, driving manual transmission cars ludicrously fast when I am alone on dark roads at night, having my friends in the kitchen with me getting dirty while telling lies and giggling. Most importantly I think that it might make explaining why we attempted to make seven courses of pasts in the middle of July a little easier.

As with most of these Sunday meal pretty much everything we set out to accomplish we had never done before and that seemed to lend an interesting sense of accomplishment to each course and each non-failure that was well received by those of you who didn’t have to leave early to see an amazing hip hop show. At the end of the whole day we managed an amazing six of the seven courses, letting the Cantaloupe linguine die quickly after the mid meal smoke break and people were mentioning a bit of a sated feeling that was overcoming them.

Here was the menu we attempted:

1. Pea and Carrot Raviolo in consommé freddo
2. Maguro with soy glaze and toasted sesame seeds
3. Smoked Avocado and crab pansotti, Lime beurre blanc
4. Pesto trenette nest with slow poached egg and hot savory whipped cream
5. Mole pappardelle with duck ragu
6. Cantaloupe linguine with white chocolate ganache (abandoned in favor of Mark’s dangerously good whisky sauce, {see below})
7. Whisky and hazelnut manicotti

Menu written with Daniel and Mark
Cooked with Daniel, Mark and Cathy
Without Kristen it would have been impossible.
Thank you all so much.

All photos by: Cathy Erway © 2008 http://noteatingoutinny.com/

Pea and Carrot Raviolo in Consommé Freddo
This dish started, as most on this menu did, at Roberta’s Pizzeria in Flatbush, while Carlo brought out plate after plate of deliciousness and we struggled to obtain beverages. The idea here was to take a standard dish that had absolutely nothing to do with pasta and make it into, well I guess make it into pasta. As obvious as that sounds for this meal it was not as simple as it would seem because most people smarter and more creative than we had already done amazing things with this concept.

So we forgot about it and wrote the rest of the menu and go painfully stuck on this idea of making a cold consommé, and the words ROAST BEEF. Not sure how or why but those two things yielded a desire to make roast beef with peas and carrots. To realize this dream we made carrot ravioli by juice pounds of carrots and reducing the fragrant juice to a syrup and added that to the pasta. Stuffed them with a very soft and fluffy sweet pea and ricotta filling and cooked them very quickly in beef stock. Mark made a shallot and beef stock and we clarified it properly first thing and then dropped it into a salt ice bath to get it super cold. The warm ravioli were then served in the cold broth with a chilled pea greens salad, seen here in great quantity.

Maguro with Soy Glaze and Toasted Sesame Seeds
I am on of those people who firmly believe that marco polo stole pasta when he returned from china in 15th century and that we should appreciate Asian noodles in the same light as Italian noodles.  Here we tried to build a dish that would in flavor resemble just a Maguro sushi presentation but instead of sticky sushi rice we opted for hand rolled wasabi udon noodles. The soy glaze was reduced, sweetened and then thickened and it was amazingly clingy.

Smoked Avocado and Crab Pansotti, Lime Beurre Blanc
Pansotti is a name for triangle shaped stuff pasta from the northern part of Italy. I happen to think the word would sound better with an A or E in the middle of it (ie panasotti or panesotti) but that is not my decision to make, as I no longer invent words for the Italian language.

The smoked avocado and crab stuffing was amazing polarizing, clearly defining the people in the room who enjoyed smoked food and those who didn’t. I happen to enjoy smoked foods, which is a very good reason why this dish made it on to the menu in this form, so I was delighted by the earthy fattiness of the avocado played against the sweet crab meat.

Lime juice was reduce into a syrup and mounted with a delicious amount of butter with a handful of shallots and jalapeños to really brighten up the density that was added by the pasta shell. All and all, if you don’t like smoked food you wouldn’t order this; if you do then it was, from most accounts a pretty strong success.

Pesto Trenette Nest with Slow Poached Egg and Hot Savory Whipped Cream
Trenette is another very specific type of long thin pasta that is traditionally served with a pesto sauce. Instead of serving it with a pesto sauce here with added the pesto directly to the pasta and fried them into little nests. Slow poached a quail egg to 63C topped them with a touch of hot whipped cream that was flavored with mushrooms and sweet onions. The idea was that the runny yolk and the cream would form a sauce and the tasty pasta bits would lend texture to the egg and the whole dish. Hot whipped cream being technically impossible without help from science we progress through this batch of sauce with varied results as we attempted a few different hydrocolloids to get us a nice set of soft peaks. End results were sufficient and the sauce was tasty and had a light but slightly dense mouth feel, but more work needs to be done and maybe a little bit of proper research.

Mole Pappardelle with Duck Ragu
Here we infused the mole sauce directly into the pasta so that the dish could be served dry with just a nice clean pile of braised duck on top. The duck was braised in a broth with the full list of ingredients that would be found in a typical mole sauce. Once painfully soft and delicate it was shredded and the braising liquid was reduced into a glaze and the duck was tossed with this.

A mole sauce was made and then chilled and folded directly in with the eggs when making the pasta, which was then kneaded with a combination of mole powder and flour until it was nice and smooth. Topped with a touch of crema and some cilantro, allowed the light spice of the dried peppers to be felt in both the noodle and the meat and allowed the sauce less dish to stay soft and prevent it from sticking.

I am very proud of the flavors of this dish and of the mole duck in general.

Whisky and Hazelnut Manicotti
Manicotti is a specialty of mine, in so much as it is the first pasta I learned how to make and it is only one from which my recipe originates directly in my family and not a combination of family and professional interactions.

The crepes were made neutral and stuffed with a sweet mascarpone cream. The plate had a touch of dulce de leche on it and the crepe was place on top, covered with Mexican chocolate, toasted hazelnuts and amazing whisky syrup that was unbelievably amazing.

This dish turned out to be small enough to be thought of a light way to end a meal and very well balanced between sweet and savory and was favored by most everyone.

Peaches are the new shellfish

At least they were on Sunday July 6th, when the purveyors at the Fulton fish market told us that there was no way that the shellfish we wanted to cook would still be alive come Sunday afternoon. Then they proceed to tell you not to eat any seafood anywhere in NYC, unless it is frozen, dried or canned on Sunday because it most definitely is a week old. So the Creole style seafood boil/bake was quickly converted into a peach smorgasbord.

Since this wasn’t a proper sit down dinner, it got good and messy; real messy. We ate, drank and danced our way into another Monday morning much longer than many expected and in between we succeeded in sweating our asses off while accomplishing a few feats that were though silly/impossible by the naysayers.

Some of the less dangerous attempts we made were a beautiful Tomato and Peach Salad (this was the impetuous for the whole switch to peaches by QV), a sous vide pork loin with crisp kale and confitted baby onions, cous cous with peaches, nuts and love and stuff squash blossoms. (These fine gentlemen are seen double teaming the blossoms)

Some of the more dangerous dishes were involved pickling peaches in all sorts of diabolical ways. In one form the results were pickled then caramelized peaches and burrata, and yes it was delightful.

© 2008 Cassidy DuHon www.duhonphotography.com

I am convinced that sous viding is the best way of cooking meat. Thomas Keller and Nathan M, both have books coming out on the subject in the next year and they are both worth purchasing as the two 4kg pork loins that we cooked to 53C were perfect. A quick blast in the deep fryer to give them a nice maillard crust and gentle slice and we were off to the races.

The big debate for the night was whether or not to trim the fat off the back of the loins before they were seared and sous vide since the heat and time wouldn’t be high/long enough to properly make it dissolve. Here you can see the nice fat cap that was said to be delicious by one or more foreigners who were in attendance.

Here we are in final dressing.

Wine reduction, onions, kale, copper platter and an amp that I had to drive to pick up in Elmira when I was living in Boston, in a Cadillac that was quickly letting me know that its final days were upon us. Table cloth by the genus

This was the star of the night.

These peach halves were poached in a pickling broth based on balsamic vinegar and a ton of sugar. They were spiced with Baliesian long peppers, cloves (just one I am sorry), garlic, red onions and a wee touch of coriander and dill. The flesh held the sweetness well and the bright spice and acid from the pickling made the peaches balanced well. They were then super chilled just before freezing and then caramelized with clarified butter (I know gratuitous) by Parcé to create a nice crisp on the round top. The pickling liquid was reduced by 70% (which subsequently burned the eyes of everyone in the kitchen for the better part of an hour) and then emulsified with xanthan gum to give it a nice stickiness. The burrata was slightly warmed and torn apart, throw in the center and sprinkled with basil. Easily delightful, and worth trying for those of you who are afraid to pickle sweet things give this a shot.

Sunday June 22^nd, 2008

This adventure into displaced products came together in very little time thanks to the amazing amount of traffic that day. Most of this meal was and exploration of infusing flavors into water and condensing that flavor into the service.

Menu

Savory Coconut Fritters

Housemade Tortellini in Brodo

Cauliflower Steak, Sweet Pea Puree

Smoked Lamb and Tagliatelle Salad

Meringues

This menu was written & executed with Mark Low and we were very excited and blessed to have the amazing Betsy Balog from Osteria La Spiga working with us and captaining the pastry duties for the evening. Special thanks would also like to be paid Sunny Bang, the new executive chef at The Williamsburg Café and good friend, who was one of the inspirations for the Cauliflower Steak that we cooked this night. Please try his version of this dish when the restaurant opens on July 4^th.

These beautiful photos were taken by Cassidy DuHon

Savory Coconut Fritters

The rice fritters were made risotto style, softened with a lemongrass and ginger stock and folded with diced shrimp. They were rolled into balls and coated with panko and coconut before being fried. The whole shrimp were dusted with a Thai spice blend and served with rocket. The rocket was dressed with a yuzu and sriracha and was thickened a little and left for people to dip the balls in.

Housemade Tortellini in Brodo

Saying house made is a little unnecessary and redundant, but everyone in the house chipped in a helped with this.

This was my attempt at try to recreate a classic Italian dish with a different flavor structure.

The tortellini were made with smoked flour and eggs and stuffed with a black eyed pea and sheep’s milk cheese puree. The broth was a sweetened Serrano ham stock and it was topped with sautéed chiffonade of collard greens that had been spiced with hot sauce. I think that the bent flavor structure was very successful and it remind some of the people at dinner and I that black eyed peas are fantastic.

Cauliflower Steak, Sweet Pea Puree

I believe this dish was originated with Charlie Trotter, but that is just hersay because I have never seen his recipe or really know anything about how he prepared, or served dish other to say that peas were originally broccoli.

That being said the dish was further filtered through the mind of my friend Sunny Bang as accompaniment for Brook Trout at The Williamsburg Café. To me though the idea of having the cauliflower be the center of attention and main purpose of the dish really was missing from both preparations.

To give the cauliflower a soft center texture it was  sous vided in with some seasoning and then give it a crisp outer texture it was finished in a pan with clarified oregano butter. The Pea puree was made with frozen (their density and flavor is perfect for pureeing and reducing) and fresh sugar snap peas, onion and cooked in a sweet basil stock. The little bit of red pepper was give as color contrast and to give  fresh crisp taste and texture to the dish.

Smoked Lamb and Tagliatelle Salad

This although it doesn’t seem like with the lamb chop was not the entrée, it was a salad course for after the cauliflower.

The lamb was smoked with apple wood and oregano and then sous vided with butter and herbs to 52C. It was then finished with the same Oregano butted to lightly caramelize the outside.

The Tagliatelle was not pasta but actually long strips of cucumber, daikon and omelet noodles cut into thin strips. I unpeeled the vegetables in the Japanese style of Katsuramuki and then cut them into long noodles. The omelets were made with a touch of cream and smoked salt and cooked super thin and then chilled. The salad was dressed with a cherry tomato and oregano vinaigrette.

Meringues

Here Betsy presents her hazelnut and chocolate meringue topped with fresh whip cream and strawberries. It was light, fluffy and amazingly simple to make but difficult to eat without getting at least a little messy. Thank you again for coming buy on your vacation to cook in my kitchen.

Dinner on Sunday June 15^th, 2008

This was the first attempt at proper service here in the lab and it seemed to work out spectacularly.

Menu:

Savory Pasty

Bouef Roulade de canard et de champignons

Fennel Smoked Sole

Cheese Puff

Cheese

Coffee and Cigarettes

This menu was written & executed with Mark Low and would have not been possible without help from The Genus and Tom

Photos By Missy Sue http://forkthis.blogspot.com

To be honest when we thought of this dish we were going to make doughnuts and it would have been amazing, then we forgot that doughnut dough has to sit overnight and it was already 3pm on Sunday so we embraced my Italian roots and made some zeppoli. If we are still on this honesty tip then you should also know that when I made the powdered salt, I used MSG coated salt. I am not sorry.

“You can’t sit at the table if you aren’t going to bring nothing to it.”

Blackberry Beret

Bouef Roulade de canard et de champignons – We unpeeled this beef tenderloin and stuffed it up with braised duck and softened wild mushrooms. It was then confitted in duck fat and finished in the deep fryer to give it that tasty browning. Served with Curried Sweet mashed Potatoes and Crisp Kale, and some of the delightful duck, cabernet and blackberry demi-glace

We originally had planned on wrapping it in duck skin but we ended up not having enough to wrap up the 3 of them so instead of leaving some people envious we scrapped the whole idea and ate the skin after everyone left while cleaning up.

Todd normally is in charge of protecting the meat products that are left out on the counter during prep from the straying fingers of the cooks. He might not look it but is super vicious.

Fennel Smoked Sole Filet w/Raw Mustard Greens, Tomato Caviar topped with Wasabi Tobiko, Chive Flowers (they actually taste great and last for a least a week in the fridge) dressed with Lemon and Olive Oil. This is a part of the ever evolving green menu and was extremely well balanced.

Someone with two X chromosomes said it was the best thing she had ever eaten, I told her I thought that was just her being hyperbolic and she told me to go to hell because it was good, take that interaction for what you will.

Fennel Pollen Dust

Unexplainable, but know this. It was lost and then found in michele’s bedroom which was the last place any of would have thought to look.

Cheese Course (Instrumentally orchastrated with Julie at Formaggio South End) – Pierre Robert a Triple Cream Delight with an aged goat cheese Leonora, which is named after a friend of mine, or at least i am pretty postive it is, with a soft vegetable ash. Strawberries are cheap and tasty; candied walnuts are a total pain in the ass to make, buy them other people are better at making them then you, well most likely, unless you are one of those people who are really good at making them, but then I would assume you would have to be deficient in some other area like non-sticky fingers.

Coffee Granita with Whipped Cream – This was thought about while reminiscing with Cortney about Sicily and was built by Danielle. Thank you both for your inspiration and construction.

Cigarettes were in bowls and were smoke after in proper fashion