Shalmanese

Finally got all the images off of my camera, here is the massive image dump: Pan Seared Coho Salmon, Orange Beurre Blanc, Pan fried Acorn Squash Risotto Cake, Steamed Broccoli: I told a friend who was staying over, "Man, I need to flame some shit" so the orange beurre blanc was cointreu, butter and shallots and worked fantastically with the salmon. Young's Chocolate Stout Beer Braised Beef: I love this dish and it's a staple in my repetoire now. Only 5 ingredients are used, beef, beer, carrots, salt, sugar. But the depth and richness of flavour is out of this world. Curry roasted chicken, curried potatoes and a chickpea salad: Greek Marinated Cornish Game Hen, Tzatziki Sauce and Tumeric Roasted Cauliflower Chilli with lots of sides, Queso, Avocado, Cilantro, Spring Onion and Sour Cream So I managed to get access to some insanely marbled meat: And I made it into a Spicy Beef & Broccoli: The best part, the meat came from the middle of a chuck roast that was $1.99 on sale at the local supermarket. Score! The flavour was so beefy yet tender at the same time. This is me showing off some knife cuts with my new Gyuto: Flank Steak, Avocado & Pineapple Salsa, Grilled Red Onions, Corn Chips, Queso and Sour Cream: Pork Chop with Rhubarb & Apple Compote, Steamed Asparagus and Potatoes with a Red Wine Mustard Sauce: I still maintain that bone-in pork chops just don't work. Still, the rhubarb compote, generously spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg as well as flavoured with some blood orange juice and zest went fantastically with the pork was was great on yogurt the next day as well. Asparagus & Bacon Quiche: And finally, were the dishes from Cache Dinner Club run by the wonderful Ling where I helped cook last night: Grilled cotecchino and Chianti mustard on crostini: Five-spice pork belly, scallion purée with housemade flaky sesame biscuits: Port-braised pork trotters with roasted shallots on creamed cauliflower and a fried sage leaf garnish: Valrhona chocolate ganache tart with pecans and caramel with bacon brittle powder:

I've heard it makes very average, generic beers. Better to go to a local bottleshop and get the full setup.

The recent Cooking with wine myth thread demonstrated that the whole "never cook with a wine you wouldn't drink" is a rule that is largely false. I never subscribed to it but it was always something I was mildly reluctant to tell people since it went against the food "rule" they had heard so many times. I thought it would be a good idea for people to talk about other food "rules" that they personally don't believe in. I'll start with: Organic food tastes better. For the most part, organic foods don't taste all that different to to conventional foods. Freshness and quality seem to be a much better guide for what I buy. Products vary from batch to batch depending on a whole host of factors and I don't think I've ever had any organic produce that was clearly better than a good batch of conventional produce. The more natural/less refined the food, the better. I have absolutely no problem tweaking my food with MSG, white sugar or any other "refined" product if it will improve the taste. Sometimes, I want that purity of flavor without distraction. Microwaves are useless for everything. I love using the microwave for lots of different tasks. Not only is it great for heating leftovers, I use it for steaming veggies, reducing down balsamic vinegar and other liquids, melting butter, melting chocolate and lots of other things. Not only is it convenient because you don't have to use a pot, you also reduce waste for small amounts of food and I think it actually makes a superior product most of the time. Buy the best ingredients you can afford, treat them simply. I don't completely disagree with this one but I think it's overstated a lot. Oftentimes, the generic supermarket produce work well for me. There's a skill as well in coaxing flavour out of cheap, slightly sub par ingredients and for dishes like braises or stews, there's often so many different flavours, all the subtlety is lost and cheap ingredients work just as well. You need to follow the recipe and measure everything when baking. Maybe I'm somewhat blessed when it comes to baking but I've been doing everything the wrong way, I measure casually, if at all, throw in impromptu substitutions and tweaks and go by feel rather than by recipe. Even so, my food always comes out great. A bunch of food safety stuff. I'm a bit more casual about food safety than what all the textbooks say. I'll keep raw meats away from everything else and be a bit more careful around raw chicken but I'll often leave foods out overnight or have meat defrosting a room temperature for an hour or two. Millions of people have done it routinely for thousands of years, nothing bad has happened to me yet. I am much more careful when I'm serving other people though.

I had a wonderful opportunity to "stage" at Cache tonight for their "pig out" meal. The dinner started off with a wonderful appetizer of Grilled cotecchino and Chianti mustard on crostini as well as the signature Cache cocktail. The cotecchino is from Salumi and I told Lorna it tasted like really good spam which kinda made her unhappy. Oh well, I loved it with the Chianti mustard. Just Chianti wine and whole grain mustard but it's an amazing sauce and definitely one I'm stealing (with tribute of course). Next up was Five-spice pork belly, scallion purée with housemade flaky sesame biscuits. I loved the burn of the szechuan peppercorn in this dish and it was just a really rich, satisfying combination with the scallion puree. The main course was Port-braised pork trotters with roasted shallots on creamed cauliflower and a fried sage leaf garnish. The cauliflower paired off so well with the pork, a nice creamy texture like mashed potatoes but with that extra grassy note that lent it sophistication. Finally, for dessert, was their Valrhona chocolate ganache tart with pecans and caramel with bacon brittle powder. We joked that this was probably the healthiest bacon you'll ever eat since any trace of fat had to be removed to keep the brittle brittle. The bacon added that touch of salt that gave a lot of complexity to this dish and the 10 year old madeira it was served with was a fantastic pairing. Finally, there were the chocolate chip cookies Lorna serves at the end of every meal although I didn't try any of those this time. Both times I've been, the food has been wonderfully exciting and the execution flawless. Seeing the entire operation from the back of house was definitely a fun experience and, as a starving grad student, one much easier on the pocketbook .

My secret is a pinch of cornstarch in the hot chocolate. It gives it that thick mouthfeel, like cream which makes is seem so much richer and full bodied.

I have to say, after attending an eGullet potluck, I think I'm completely spoiled for any other.

So I decided to check out Alebrije today. Walk in at 7:45 on a Friday night and there's a grand total of 8 people in the entire restaurant, not a promising sign. Wasn't in the mood for choosing so I just had the waiter order his favorite dish for me, some kind of pork chop with grilled onions. I have to say, the execution was slightly off but the concept was stunning. The flavours were bold and bright and well balanced and very tasty. However, the salsa was under salted, the vegetables were under salted, the onions were undercooked and the pork was over cooked. There was just that lack of finesse and technique to bring the dish together but it was still undeniably a solid dish. For $12, I thought it was a fantastically good meal. It seems like this is a restaurant that could be great if given enough time to mature. Sadly, I doubt that's going to happen. The space they're in now guarentee's that they'll be virtually unknown and it looks like they're going to die a quiet death fairly soon which is a pity because it's the kind of place I could envision growing to love. It made me extra sad to walk by jalisco on the way home and find it packed even though it serves a pale imitation of real mexican food. Sally, give it another chance, hopefully you'll find that it's now much better than before because I really would like that place to survive.

Whenever I brown chicken thighs for a dish, I always find it a good idea to save the browned chicken skin as an attractive garnish for the final dish. Hopefully, one day I will be able to test out this idea, possibly after chaining myself to the radiator 3 rooms away to stop me from scarfing down the entire batch.

You can't just create a great food city from scratch. Where's the audience that's going to sustain all of this? People might be willing to go out of their way to el bulli but almost all of the other great food places have been at the cross roads of commerce, Paris, London, NY.

What about blowtorches? It seems that would deliver even more concentrated heat than the mightiest broiler.

Marsala is fortified, it should keep fine for cooking purposes for quite a few months.

Wow, is there a recipe for that?

I'm always perpetually sceptical by the "never cook what you wouldn't drink with" crowd. I've tried cooking with expensive wines and I've tried cooking with $2 chuck and, frankly, they both seem to work about equally as well. I trust my palate more than any guide.

Discovering that Japanese Panko is actually not made from bread but instead via specialised drum machines and is thus, impossible to reproduce at home has quelled my inner food snob and I now just buy the damn things like every other sane cook.

I've seen that place, didn't know it was new. I guess I should check it out, menu sounded fairly interesting at least. There's another cuban place up 15th which I've heard good things about.

Interesting, where did you get it from Abra? My secret ingredients are a little bit more ordinary. A pinch of sugar, a little bit of MSG, some anchovies, a shot of sambal chilli paste.

I got this tip from Sara Moulton and it works great. Bake off a couple of extra baked potatoes the night before and chill them overnight. They make up the perfect textured hash.

That's a formidable foursome. I like the versatile items, ones which could show up in any course, savory or sweet. Choosing the four is almost as fun as cooking them. The papaya is huge like a football. Those pecans look very enticing in their lustrous red shell. I'll post some pictures tonight. ← Well, duck is so versatile it can be paired with almost anything which leads to lots of interesting possibilities. Duck with Papaya Salsa? Duck with Braised Endives? Duck with Spicy Radish Relish? Who knows.

What is it about japanese knives that doesn't make them require steeling? As far as I know, steeling is not to sharpen a knife and not meant to be a replacement for it. Instead, it's to uncurl the bent edge that arises from chopping. Why would a japanese knife be any different in this regard. I guess while I'm at it, does anyone know any good sources for sharpening stones? Theres a place in the city but the stones are around $50 which is again, IMHO, too much to pay for a stone. edit: I got a 210mm Ryusen Gyuto.

I would pick duck, endives, papayas and radishes.

Also, trout for $30 a kilo? Couscous for $3 a kilo cooked? Currants for $25 a kilo? I'm not saying these numbers are wrong but they seem overinflated in my book especially since he's getting it wholesale. Can anyone justify these as sane food prices for a restaurant?

I've known those only as glass noodles. They're commonly served in cold noodle soup in Northern China.

This is my standard recipe as well with the addition of a few cloves of garlic. I just made it last night except I threw in some fresh chunked pineapple as well. I can't get enough of it.

One way I love cooking steaks that's a little bit different is to give them a nice sear on the outside but let them remain essentially raw in the middle. Rest them well and then slice them into thin slices across the grain and get a cast iron pan smoking hot. Drop them in 10 seconds on one side, flip, 10 seconds on the other, into a dipping sauce and then straight into your mouth. The meat gets cooked all the way through to well done but because the time is so short, it's still moist and flavorful. You have to eat standing in your kitchen and it smokes up the house but it's so good it's worth it.

I suggested to Lorna that she should post up the previous menus but they're not exactly hurting for publicity as it is, their next "We're trying to kill you dinner" sold out in 2 hours! As I said to Lorna, my current operating theory is that they're planning to kill all of Seattle, 12 people at a time.