ScottyBoy

Very hot cast iron, plenty of oil, only one side browned, flipped and quickly basted. Total cooking time should be 90 seconds for scallops this size. I have cooked so many scallops on the line I just have it down. Pan = hot hot hot

Oh boy, thunder storms in the East Bay tomorrow, it's going to be a fun time shopping on the bicycle Inspired by a dish I had at Commis on Friday. This is why I need to go out to eat "my kind of food" a little more often. Diver scallops, puree of fresh english peas and parsnip, I frothed up some fresh juiced carrots with a little olive oil, some frisse, sea beans, pea shoots and then some pickled mustard seeds for people to run into for a little mustard pop.

Oh mama, it's lunch time for me and I WANT!

Oh and just to clarify when I say "longer cooking times" I mean anything over an hour.

Yes yes yes to carrot soup. I grew up on massive amounts of carrot juice and it's one of my comfort foods! I've got the vision of a hawk

I love how you are making the most out of a nice hunk of special tuna. Giving it the respect it deserves from the fact that your friend gifted it to you! So many awesome presentations over a wide range of textures and flavors!

I have eaten raw squid off the boat down durring the season in Monterey Bay, CA. It was very sweet, slight bit of chew but that's pretty obvious. They have to be younger squid because of the chance of parasites. I've found though that longer cooking times and leaving in acid for ceviche for too long takes it mealy and chalky... I prefer the traditional way of very hot and fast cooking to ceviche or raw. I'm sure others will start to chime in with their experiences, good luck!

Percyn - this is an offer I might have to take you up on haha! Prawn - L'Enclume looks amazing! That's the kind of cuisine I strive to make. Since leaving the line I have to really stay up to date with new styles and techniques through books, blogs and going out to eat more... Looks like I've got the green light to extend my blog into Tuesday! Fitting this into days when I have all day dedicated to a dinner has been challenging. I have a good amount of back logged stuff I'm going to post and some new dishes of the stuff I've been working on. First off Berkeley bowl. I've been in a Berkeley Bowl since I was very young. They have since moved out of the old location and opened 2 new ones. I will try to make it to the brand new one tomorrow, it's beautiful! I have posted where I get my sea food (Tokyo Fish) and my meats (Golden Gate Meat Co. and Marin Sun Farms) so i wanted to highlight the giant produce section here. Between here and Monterey Market I don't visit any farmer's markets. The same exact farms supply to these stores on a daily basis so you can pick up the same seasonal produce all day, every day!

Percyn- They actually take a more traditional route with cooking that piece of lamb. The whole bone in saddle is roasted, you can watch them carve them throughout service. It was perfectly cooked and I can really appreciate the skill it takes to do that. I have followed Studio Kitchen and really hope to experience it some time! Thanks again all!

MY Commis dinner tonight. First and still the only Michelin Star in Oakland. Cute little amuse similar to the "rock" they did at Mugaritz. But this one tastes just like a Cheez-it. (Delicious) Bread and butter made in house. Soft egg yolk, onion cream, dates, oats and chives. (signature main amuse, very good) Dry farmed tomatoes, tomato ice, fresh cheese and pickled shallots. (creamy cheese, rich salted tomato and the cold shaved tomato ice, awesome) Poached gulf shrimp, diakon, carrot juice and purslane. (The sweet elements of shrimp, basil and carrot played off the diakon and purslane, great) Petrale sole, fennel bulb and pollen, potato and verbena cream. (Perfectly warmed sole from Fort Brag and the anise scents, tastes and the verbena in the cream. Very balanced and very good) Lamb loin and tender, sunchokes, chantrelles, grass and pistachio (Perfectly cooked lamb, earthy, rich, grassy...yum) Melon and raspberry chiffon, white corn ice cream (Perfect ice cream, compressed water melon and perfect raspberries....it was great.) Tangerine gelee The Txakoli I had durring the meal. I prefer to just sip on a nice palette cleansing wine while I eat.

Ah, great to see another local commenting. As for Brown Sugar, I've only ever ordered the chicken and waffles for the 3 times I'v been...

Zachary's pizza. My favorite pizza in the whole wide world! They don't say deep dish, they call it "stuffed", I think it is out of respect for the original deep dish out there in the east. This one is pepperoni, spinach and mushroom. Key for me personally I think is the sauce, hearty chunks of tomato with a heavy hand of fresh oregano.

My closer friends are all big foodies and accomplished home cooks. They like that I "test" out dishes and things on them

Some shots of Market Hall in Berkeley. Inside is a wine shop, pasta shop and prepared foods counter, cheese shop and my favorite, Marin Sun Farms. I buy a good deal of their product, worked out a deal to get 40% if I mention them durring my dinners.

Heidi - My friend chris had mentioned that some of them were packed with roe but wasn't sure what he would do with it. We had the discussion while we were cooking. What applications would you use shrimp roe for, never worked with it. Very curious! Yup, that's my signature desert, the secrets of making it are revealed!

Yeah picture of good sous vide results never get old! Here's some kobe top sirloin I did for a dinner last night.

Building "The candy bar" Chocolate brick 1.3g agar agar powder 1 sheet gold gelatine 260g 66% Valrhona chocolate 500ml heavy cream Heat everything but the chocolate until steaming. Combine with chocolate in a mixing bowl and whisk until smooth. Pour into silicone molds and freeze. Caramel 250ml heavy cream 100g butter 12g salt 300g superfine sugar Heat cream, butter and salt in a pot to melt and set aside. Cook the sugar in a deep pot until golden/amber. Carefully whisk in the butter-cream mixture in batches and then let cool to room temperature. Strawberry ice cream 50g dehydrated strawberries 250ml whole milk 125ml heavy cream 150g sugar Diced fresh strawberries (I never measure, it's just however many are growing outside) Simmer everything but the fresh berries for 30 minutes, blend and strain through a fine strainer. Chill over night then freeze in your ice cream machine, adding the diced berries in the last minutes of freezing. The peanut powder was explained in a previous post. So you just pop a chocolate bar out of the mold onto the plate you will be serving and let it come to room temperature. It will have the texture of pudding but be in brick form. Sauce with salted caramel and dust with powder. Lay a little mound of powder where the ice cream will go so that it doesn't slide around on the plate.

Shelby, they were flopping around in the sink when he brought them Of course sucking the heads of the grilled batch was the best thing ever. Sorry if this blog is a little random and all over the place but I'm juggling work along with it.

Whoops, missed this one. It seems to me to be a tomatillo, vinegar and chili sauce. The flavor was awesome and I am a fan of textures that that. It was similar to a long simmered tendon in a great bowl of Pho...

Dinner last night. Jesse grilled the squab, Chris brought the spot prawns and grilled some/boiled some and I brought along the kobe sirloin and short rib dish. One picture of the test piece of kobe I did for 8 hours and then the sliced is when I settled on 12 hours. It was really, really good. After shocking the short rib I reduced the bag juices and ruby port.

Kinda at the bottom of the hills... The dish above was that 72 hour short rib, the bag juices and port reduced, parsnip and english pea puree, farro, pumpkin seeds and a 147 degree farm egg.

Little preview of the dinner my friends and I cooked tonight before I go to sleep.

Thank you all, The post after cooking dinner at my friend's house tonight will be fun! Yes. Go to Wood Tavern.

It was dinner last night. But Lunch today was... Home Room Mac + Cheese restaurant. "Classic Mac" and their house beer.

Oh I agree with the baking thing for sure. Everything for me is kind of a general idea of the ingredients used and what the dish should taste like before I start it.