eGullet Foodblog: ScottyBoy (2011)

[ScottyBoy]

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

Edited September 21, 2011 by ScottyBoy (log)

[johnnyd]

This blog is the bomb, SB. Really enjoying your cheffing, markets and repasts at cool local spots. I wish I had the knees to be by your side doing it too.

Tokyo Fish prices look pretty decent. Curious about the East Coast Halibut because they run around here in Spring. Yours must be from off Labrador or somewhere.

Hold on while I dig out my monster Maine scallop pic...

[kayb]

I was really excited to share my world with you guys when I was asked to blog.

It's a marvelous world and a marvelous blog! Makes me want to visit SF.

[djyee100]

I've passed Wood Tavern a bunch of times, but never eaten there. Now I will have to go.

Scottyboy, thanks for a great blog.

[ScottyBoy]

Thank you all, The post after cooking dinner at my friend's house tonight will be fun!

Yes. Go to Wood Tavern.

[ScottyBoy]

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

Edited September 22, 2011 by ScottyBoy (log)

[weinoo]

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

Looks like that darn short rib.

Is your house in the Oakland hills?

[ScottyBoy]

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.

Edited September 22, 2011 by ScottyBoy (log)

[ScottyBoy]

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.

Edited September 22, 2011 by ScottyBoy (log)

[Shelby]

My husband is not going to be happy with you or me because I now must order prawns to be shipped here to Kansas. Those look so fresh.

[ScottyBoy]

Regarding Pig Skin... did they mention what sauce it is simmered in? Based on the hue, it looks like it might be tomatillo, arbol, garlic to me. Your thoughts on the flavor, as well as texture? Do you think other Egulleteers might enjoy them?

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...

[ScottyBoy]

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.

Edited September 22, 2011 by ScottyBoy (log)

[ScottyBoy]

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.

Edited September 23, 2011 by ScottyBoy (log)

[heidih]

Beautiful prawns. I have gotten them once in a blue moon locally and in Morro Bay - always out of a tank and referred to as Santa Barbara spot prawns. Perhaps it was just my luck but they were packed with roe. Yours?

Is the chocolate bar your signature dessert?

[Peter the eater]

Regarding Pig Skin... did they mention what sauce it is simmered in? Based on the hue, it looks like it might be tomatillo, arbol, garlic to me. Your thoughts on the flavor, as well as texture? Do you think other Egulleteers might enjoy them?

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...

I missed it too. I went back and saw the meat with lemon, radish, pickle and herbs fully expecting a brittle taco shell made from pig skin, I suppose because of your chicken chips earlier. I'm getting an idea for that sack of pigs ears in my freezer . . .

[ScottyBoy]

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!

Edited September 23, 2011 by ScottyBoy (log)

[heidih]

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!

I was equally perplexed and without internet access at the time. I just went ahead and steamed them but the roe got lost and mushy. Perhaps a raw prep with the roe would have been better to preserve the itty bitty brilliant almost red eggs. They appeared to be mounded with abandon on the underside of each prawn. Maybe someone with experience can clue us in.

[_john]

Shrimp and lobster roe can be dried to make something similar to bottarga. it can also be fermented with salt and sake to make a type of shiokara. it is good mixed into the batter for fried shrimp as well. it turns from green to red when heated.

[Blether]

You can pretty much use the roe along with the tail meat - eat both raw; grill and eat; use in pasta sauce, stir fry etc.. It can be hell of a fiddly to separate from the legs, and lately I've used it along with the discarded carcasses - as I've said often enough, to infuse into oil or butter (rather than in a fumet). As I've said before, good for prawn mayo.

I suspect you could do the kind of things that are done with cod roe or mullet roe, should you ever have enough of it.

Over here there's a chap who's squeezed the tomalley out of the heads and mixed it with the roe - bitter flavour adjusted with small amounts of mirin, soy & salt - as a dressing for the meat.

Edited September 23, 2011 by Blether (log)

[Mjx]

Those are some beautiful prawns. Makes me crazy that it is so difficult to get them fresh here, even though it's a port town... you're really lucky!

. . . It can be hell of a fiddly to separate from the legs. . . .

An espresso spoon makes it pretty easy; I remove the roe with a spoon, then use it as a garnish.

[_john]

if you pour boiling water from a kettle over the eggs and then shock them in ice water it is easier to separate them. then place them on a tamis and press them through to separate them into single eggs. store them in sea water.

[MelissaH]

Yeah I've ridden a track bike for 9 years, just got the road bike 2 years ago. I use the track bike if the grocery ride is within 10 miles. Aside from heavy grocery trips it's my "daily driver".

I'm just glad to know I'm not the only fixie rider out there!

MelissaH

[Shelby]

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.

Sure. Rub it in.

[Shelby]

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!

I was equally perplexed and without internet access at the time. I just went ahead and steamed them but the roe got lost and mushy. Perhaps a raw prep with the roe would have been better to preserve the itty bitty brilliant almost red eggs. They appeared to be mounded with abandon on the underside of each prawn. Maybe someone with experience can clue us in.

I did a pasta dish with the shrimp and I just put all of that beautiful roe on top --without cooking it. It was SO good.

I found a picture

Edited September 23, 2011 by Shelby (log)

[judiu]

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!

I was equally perplexed and without internet access at the time. I just went ahead and steamed them but the roe got lost and mushy. Perhaps a raw prep with the roe would have been better to preserve the itty bitty brilliant almost red eggs. They appeared to be mounded with abandon on the underside of each prawn. Maybe someone with experience can clue us in.

I did a pasta dish with the shrimp and I just put all of that beautiful roe on top --without cooking it. It was SO good.

I found a picture

OH, MY!