Dinner! 2011

[ScottyBoy]

A few from the other night.

Potato puree, edible soil, heirloom carrots, beets and watermelon radish.

Butter poached rock shrimp, avocado, tomato gelee, meyer lemon and arugula.

Pumpkin pasta

12 hour pork belly, pomegranate-sherry glaze and parsnip.

[pastameshugana]

A few from the other night.

...showoff!

Beautiful work, ScottyBoy

[Genkinaonna]

Ok, everyone to Scotty's for dinner tomorrow!

[nickrey]

It was a national holiday here. Cornish pasties, using yesterday's beef stock:

- beef chuck, spuds, onion, swede, salt, pepper, some of the beef dripping from the stock as well as some of the stock itself. 50/50 butter & dripping for the shortcrust.

I used 600g of beef (a pound and an ounce or two) and came out with eight of them, each about 8" on the long edge: baked for an hour, 190C raised to 210C for the last twenty minutes (so 200C next time).

I love Cornish pasties and those look really good Blether.

[Keith_W]

Beautiful effort Scottyboy! I had a look at your blog ... no wonder your food looks so good, you are a chef! Puts us home cooks to shame

Blether I love the crumbly pastry on your Cornish pasty. It looks perfect. Mind sharing the recipe?

[heidih]

ScottyBoy-

Of course the vegetables are lovely. Was there pumpkin in the pasta or just as a light sauce? How was the avocado done? The tomato gellee is like stained glass- stellar visual. Ok, ok - last question - the rock shrimp - are these the ones that are so so hard to peel? Were they sourced peeled and frozen raw? I love the firm more "lobstery" texture and flavor.

[Blether]

Thanks, Nick, Dejah & Keith.

The pastry worked out pretty much like the top crust on my mince pie here, though the ingredients and equipment were partly different.

I had 600g meat, so made pastry with 600g of flour. In keeping with the pasty tradition, a heavier flour using 5 parts 11% gluten bread flour and 1 part cake flour, by weight.

- set a plastic bag, edges turned back, in the mixing bowl on the digital scale and zero the scale

- weigh the flour into the bag, remove bagged flour to fridge till cold (a couple of hours) (no room for that bowl in the fridge yesterday)

- return cold flour to (not chilled ) bowl, add 2tsp salt, mix

- now add fats. Zero the scale and add soft beef fat skimmed from chilled beef stock, about 75g. Toss to coat with flour. Add harder fat collected from beef bone roasting to total 150g, toss again.

- add 150g butter in 1-2tsp pieces cut with a knife from the chilled block held over the bowl, toss again.

- cut fats in, not with crossed knives this time but with the new pastry knife - (looks like this one, about JPY800 / 10 bucks special order at Tokyu Hands), till no fat pieces bigger than a pea. That knife really cuts down on the work.

- mix ice cubes and tap water in a bowl, add ice water to dough, sprinkling, a few tbsp at a time, then a tbsp at a time, forking in at each turn till the dough will come together into one piece with light hands (don't squeeze it).

- chill (at least an hour for a lump this size) in the same plastic bag

- cut into equal-size pieces, roll each & form

- use plenty of flour for rolling out. I think the softer beef fat is what was gumming up the rolling pin and board this time, so that it turned into plenty flour, plus. I just scraped the board and pin down with the palette knife in between.

- beaten egg to seal and coat

Otherwise, the base recipe I picked up is this one, but making 8 pieces rather than the 16 it would suggest, and baking longer and lower: (1) chuck, not rump and (2) crimped pastry edges in a 220C oven for 45 minutes ? I don't think so, and (3) the size difference, of course. Also using a few more tablespoons of the soft beef fat and some of the beef stock, to moisten and enrich the filling.

Edited November 4, 2011 by Blether (log)

[ScottyBoy]

Well thanks all!

I figured this would be the spot to add the dishes I do for my professional dinners as well as what I'm cooking for myself...

I would love to get my hands on one of those pasties right now...eating my 3rd turkey sandwich of the day.

[Jmahl]

Little bivalves in Quito Ecuador - can't take credit for them but they were so good.

[ScottyBoy]

You're killing me! So fresh and so good!

[ChrisTaylor]

Chicken parmigana. A higher quality version of the Australian pub favourite.

[threestars]

I love the Empanada oh I mean the Cornish pasties!

[Blether]

So that's what an empanada is.

[ChrisTaylor]

You're an artist, ScottyBoy. This isn't just the booze talking. I swear. The plate is your canvas. Those dishes are of the standard I've seen presented in some of Australia's very best restaurants. They're of the standard I've seen in some of the most picturesque cookbooks--Keller, Bras--in my collection. Would love to sit down for one of those meals.

[Keith_W]

Thanks Blether for the recipe I will give this a go soon!

Anyway, tonight I made a confit ocean trout as per Tetsuya Wakuda, but using techniques I learnt from Modernist Cuisine. The confit was made in a sous-vide bath at 50C, and cooked for 30 minutes until a probe thermometer registered 45C in the thickest part of the trout.

The trout in the SV controlled EVOO confit bath.

One of the trout fell on the floor as I was transferring it from the bath ... d'oh! But you can see how moist and voluptuous it is!

Here it is plated with a home-made cucumber and shallot pickle, parsley oil, and tobiko. The coating on the trout is a 1:1 mixture of wakame and nori, chopped up in a food processor. The garnish is fried trout skin.

This would have been a technically difficult dish if I tried to execute it as recommended by Tetsuya Wakuda. But with the magic of my SV controller, it was brainless and easy! The dish was utterly delicious and so refined - my wife was impressed. That's all that matters.

[Blether]

The trout looks & sounds really delicious.

[Mjx]

Today's grey sky and perpetual spatter of rain suggested braised venison, puree of red lentils and hokkaido squash, and black lentils:

[ScottyBoy]

Chris - You're making me blush over here in California...

That trout looks awesome, what a perfectly moist center! And I really love fish skin!

[nikkib]

Mjx that venison looks like a great big hug on a plate - comfort food at it's finest! Wow

[dcarch]

Dejah – I love beef tendons. Your ground turkey dish sounds very delicious, and healthy too.

Blether – Wow! Amazing Cornish pasties.

Rico – I like the way you serve lobster risotto, simple but graceful.

Kayb – Every thing is grilled to perfection on that burger plate.

Scottyboy – Overwhelmingly elegant plate design. Very much recalls the art of Ikebana.

Jmahl – Wonderful clams.

Keith_W – great plating for the salmon dish

Mjx - lovely braised venison.

-------------------------------------------------------------- - -

The freak snow storm here in NY knocked down trees, power has been out here for many days.

Halloween was basically cancelled. No street lights. No trick or treaters,

Still trying to keep up with the Halloween spirit, t’is the season for strange foods:

Indian bitter melon, sautéed in tomato sauce

Octopus in pepper bacon sauce with pickled pacaya encurtida.

Roasted pepper with tilapia.

Home made bread

dcarch

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Little bivalves in Quito Ecuador - can't take credit for them but they were so good.

OMG, Jmahl! Conchas! Those are super tasty, and as far as I've been able glean they're Mangrove Oysters.

[Dejah]

Look delicous, beautiful, AND entertainig, dcarch! Will have to reference these next Halloween.

[Anna N]

....

Still trying to keep up with the Halloween spirit, t’is the season for strange foods:

....

Can I buy just 10% of your amazing imagination and plating ability? FABULOUS.

[ScottyBoy]

HAHA! Having fun over there dcarch?

ScottyBoy-

Of course the vegetables are lovely. Was there pumpkin in the pasta or just as a light sauce? How was the avocado done? The tomato gellee is like stained glass- stellar visual. Ok, ok - last question - the rock shrimp - are these the ones that are so so hard to peel? Were they sourced peeled and frozen raw? I love the firm more "lobstery" texture and flavor.

Dehydrated pumpkin was ground up and added to the noodles. Then a reduced chicken stock, pureed pumpkin and cream for the sauce.

Avocado in the blender with just water and salt. A pinch of citric acid to keep it green.

The client asked for rock shrimp so I went out of my "hyper local" thing and bought from my purveyor frozen/peeled. I really love the lobster texture too. Also a great price point from what I would spend on lobster for 12... SV at 115 for 30 minutes in butter, they are sooo good.

[djyee100]

HAHA! Having fun over there dcarch?

Omigod. He carved teeth into a roasted pepper.

LOL. I liked the ghost octopus too.