Jump to content

chickenfriedgourmet

participating member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    71

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by chickenfriedgourmet

    Pretzel ice cream

    in Pastry & Baking

    Posted

    I have made pretzel ice cream before inspired by Sam Mason and used Snyders Pretzels as well. I steeped them in the cream, then took half of the cream pureed with pretzels, strained and added back to the base. Turned out very well and pretzly :)

    Single Shrimp Amuse Bouche

    in Cooking

    Posted · Edited by chickenfriedgourmet (log)

    Being a single shrimp and launching your meal, it probably needs a bit of a wow factor.

    Christine Manfield gave a recipe in "The Cook's Book" for noodle-wrapped deep-fried shrimp.

    Prepare the shrimp by peeling but leaving on tail section (as a handle).

    Basically you take fresh thin egg noodles, boil them for two minutes and then wrap them around the pre-seasoned shrimp. This is then deep fried for 3 minutes at 350 degrees.

    The outcome is visually appealing, has a bit of crunch outside and the firm shrimp texture inside.

    Serve it with some sweet chili sauce for an Asian touch or, probably more appropriate to your menu and guests, with a sauce Andelouse (ie. cocktail sauce) for a more conventional touch.

    How about Shrimp wrapped in a spanish ham with a thin slice of apple and manchego cheese skewered over the glass of champagne....trust me it should go together http://www.foodpairing.be/FoodPairable.aspx?f=Champagne you could juice a granny smith apple and marinate the shrimp in it, grill with salt and pepper, wrap in ham and place a thinly sliced piece of manchego cheese around it, skewer and serve

    Single Shrimp Amuse Bouche

    in Cooking

    Posted · Edited by chickenfriedgourmet (log)

    Looks like a pretty classic menu so I might suggest starting with a Shrimp Bisque-a different take on the "perfect shrimp" dish but one that is warm, satisfying and fits within your menu.  And it's probably a surprise to a lot of guests these days to see soup served at a meal-harkens back to the days when soups were more a part of home menus.  And shrimp bisque is delicious with champagne.

    I make a somewhat complicated recipe that involves cooking shrimp shells with vegetables, deglazing with brandy and then slow simmering with tomato paste and shrimp stock.  There are a couple of stages of straining and a final thickening with butter and flour, but the results are worth it. 

    If you don't want to go to all that trouble, Whole Foods usually sells shrimp bisque.  You could garnish the soup with a poached shrimp and serve with buttered toast points and flutes of champagne.

    I do have the perfect service for this idea. I have a bronze patina tree with birds holding small 2 oz cups with tea lights under as warmers. I've done a similar lobster bisque with saffron added.

    You could serve the bisque in shot glasses as well with the shrimp skewered on top.

    You could also make some cheesy grits, spread them in a hotel pan till cool and set up. Cut out in rounds with a biscuit cutter and sear in a pan on both sides till crispy. Serve the shrimp on top with a tomato like relish or a sauce of rosemary, worchestire, veal stock and garlic.....just a thought ;)

    Creating Tasting Menus

    in Cooking

    Posted

    I will be doing the same thing in the next couple of months as well, so I look forward to how yours goes. For meat I would go with pork belly, you can cook it ahead of time and just sear it off before dinner.

    McCrady's

    in Southeast: Dining

    Posted · Edited by chickenfriedgourmet (log)

    I am sorry you had that type of experience. I have never been but have been following Sean's progress on his blog and we were originally scheduled for the Blais dinner but Mother Nature changed our plans. I would have to guess that maybe it was just an off night. From what I have seen and read I feel that Sean is one of the few in the country who are redefining the whole farm to table. He and his crew have their own farm, pigs etc and he is truly interested in preserving the southern type of food AND flavor with a twist. I would say give it a second chance, I am stll waiting for the 1st chance :)

    I visited Mcrady's this weekend for the first time and had the ten course tasting menu. I must say that I had huge expectations for as much press it has received and I am sure that Sean is a very talented chef. However I must say that after spending over $250pp and spending a week seeing the fall menus in NYC it left a lot to be desired.

    The standouts were the porks head terrine and the new sweet breads dish. Other than that the first three "courses" were amuse' like- tiny and lacking a punch, the wreck fish was uniformly overcooked (in a c-vap!)- all seven of us commented the same, the short ribs were nice- again lacking umph! The local-seasonal peach- it was the end of September and there hasn't been a peach grown in South Carolina in the last six weeks. The final chocolate dish did have a great flavor. The Foie however was the biggest flop- Again all of us agreed that the foie was over salted and the peanut butter and jelly were just a little off- not working together. This is a dish that Sean is known for I hope we just got an off night version.

    I and my six compadres love food- We are all in the business of either food (2 chef's present) or wine. My comments are in the hope of posssibly reminding all of the Chef's of the world that tasting menus might really be like Marco Pierre White said " chef's wanking off". There is a sense that in an effort to show our talents we loose focus. There is certainly talent in the kitchen. I just wish I had seen it 10 times instead of twice and for more than 4 oz.'s total of food. Maybe real courses is the way to eat here, maybe tasting menus isn't the way really to get the chef's message. However, you shouldn't sell it if you can't deliver it. Maybe focus back on food is the key instead of technology, farming, animal husbandry, publicity etc. We are Chef's to focus on our food.

    In the end I probably won't make it a goal to return like I had to share with my good friends that night. I certainly know there is great food possible from that kitchen- We just didn't see much of it.

    The other aspects of the evening were all excellent; the restaurant- beautiful, the service- well executed, wine selections- of our eight there were only a couple of misses and we made them not the wine steward.

    Charleston has some wonderful restaurants- I went feeling as though this was the place to take my friends, I left wishing we had spent our $1600 elsewhere.

    McCrady's

    in Southeast: Dining

    Posted · Edited by chickenfriedgourmet (log)

    Those pics are awesome :) We were originally supposed to go but alas Life got in the way. Thanks for sharing :biggrin:

    This is a lil bit premature as we have about ten more "studio"images to upload, but I just saw your post about the Richard Blais dinner at McCradys.  We were lucky enough to shoot this event as well! Can you please check out some of our photos and post some feedback on this site? It would mean a lot to get some good foodie perspectives.

    http://charlestonfood.smugmug.com/gallery/5862567_8NWBi

    There's a dinner tonight in Charleston with Sean Brock and Richard Blais.  Had I known, I would've tried to get tickets.  Anyone go?

    http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/gyrobas...ntent?oid=50706

    Cooking with Duck Fat: The Topic

    in Cooking

    Posted

    By the looks of that picture, you just smeared the fat around it, then grilled it? Does the fat really help in flavor? I'd assume it would render right off from the very hot grill...

    Unless you're using it as a fat barrier..but then again a strip steak shouldn't need it...

    Curious, curious

    Jim

    Edit: Didn't see the post above me. A lot of times people don't use lard anymore because of the particular animal scent/aroma left behind from the fat, which gets transfered to the baked goods. Though it's mostly preference.

    I was looking more for the flavor to transfer, in my blog post I mentioned trying tenderloin next. we'll see what happens :)

    Specialty grocery stores in Dallas

    in Texas: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    Thanks for all the recommendations. We took a short day trip yesterday to Dallas and were able to go to most of what we had planned. I found Super H on Denton rd, very cool store but unlike others who have commented on it it definitely had a fishy smell like most asian markets. It was easy to look past that though with the amount of choices and wide selection of products they carried.

    Did not have a chance to go to Fiesta Mart although I think I passed one on Ross ave on the way to Jimmys. As to Jimmys I guess I was under the impression they carried a wider selection of meat.

    Central Market on Lover's Lane - we lucked out that they were freshly roasting some Hatch green chiles - other than that and scoring some black mission figs I did not find what I was looking for. Kevin, where do you find the jarred piquillo peppers?

    Whole Foods on Preston - picked up a few things, nothing special though. They don't seem to have as wide of a selection as in the past.

    Euro Deli - Bulgarian Feta and Lutenica

    I even went by Cafe Madrid but their "market" seemed to be non-existent.

    It was a good trip and even though I could not find all that I needed the selections were far superior than anything I could find where I live :)

    realized my misconception of Jimmys....I had read about Rudolphs Meat market on Elm st and that is what I confused Jimmy's with :)

    Specialty grocery stores in Dallas

    in Texas: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    Thanks for all the recommendations. We took a short day trip yesterday to Dallas and were able to go to most of what we had planned. I found Super H on Denton rd, very cool store but unlike others who have commented on it it definitely had a fishy smell like most asian markets. It was easy to look past that though with the amount of choices and wide selection of products they carried.

    Did not have a chance to go to Fiesta Mart although I think I passed one on Ross ave on the way to Jimmys. As to Jimmys I guess I was under the impression they carried a wider selection of meat.

    Central Market on Lover's Lane - we lucked out that they were freshly roasting some Hatch green chiles - other than that and scoring some black mission figs I did not find what I was looking for. Kevin, where do you find the jarred piquillo peppers?

    Whole Foods on Preston - picked up a few things, nothing special though. They don't seem to have as wide of a selection as in the past.

    Euro Deli - Bulgarian Feta and Lutenica

    I even went by Cafe Madrid but their "market" seemed to be non-existent.

    It was a good trip and even though I could not find all that I needed the selections were far superior than anything I could find where I live :)

    Specialty grocery stores in Dallas

    in Texas: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    If you can tell us what part of the Dallas area you will be staying in, and what types of markets you are interested in, we may be more able to point you in some more specific helpful directions.

    we will kind of be all over. we most likely will go to the CM in Southlake as well as Whole Foods on Preston and will try to go to one of the Fiesta Mart locations as well as that asian store mentioned above.

×
×
  • Create New...