Anatomy of a Dinner Party

[hathor]

Vin santo.

I use it as a garnish for roasted meats, lamb, game, duck, roast fish. I haven't tried it on vegetables, but you could probably go with something like a pureed root. It just adds that bit of a citrus note that can brighten a dish.

oh. Only my mother and Aunt Stella call me Judy. But since I'm sucking up to you for dessert, you can call me Jude.

[Vadouvan]

Only my mother and Aunt Stella call me Judy

Aunt Stella sounds like someone I should be afraid of....

Especially with you tempestous Italian chicks......

While we were chit chatting, I made a dish to go with your spicy orange dust.....

Chilled Tomato Soup

Butter Poached Lobster

Planeta Olive Oil

Orange Dust

How's that for quick thinking and plating.....

Edited July 28, 2006 by Vadouvan (log)

[shacke]

Bananarama

What a pictorial. That seems to answer the question I'd say.

insert supplicatory kowtowing smiley here .....

Evan

[Vadouvan]

Rest of the food

Foie Gras

served with....

89 Zind Humbrecht VT

and

2000 Climens

Pork Belly

served with..

and

90 Hermitage

BEEF

served with..

Haut Brion was the best overall......Pichon with croquette.

[Vadouvan]

oops and I forgot the toast to good friends before dinner.....

and there you have it.

Fantastic wine, good enough food and a smashing time had by all.

[KatieLoeb]

Gorgeous!!! You're killing me with the wine pairings too. Very nice...

I too, am seeking the sucking up smiley.

[percyn]

....

Here is the tied, marinated wagyu tri-tip just before sous-vida-loca....

Vadouvan, great thread !! What was the tri-tip marinated in? Any special recipe for the gazpacho?

Hope you will continue to post your creative ideas.

Cheers

Percy

[philadining]

Wow, looks like an awesome meal, if you'd only had a little cheese to serve with that St Julien...

[hathor]

Only my mother and Aunt Stella call me Judy

Aunt Stella sounds like someone I should be afraid of....

Especially with you tempestous Italian chicks......

While we were chit chatting, I made a dish to go with your spicy orange dust.....

Chilled Tomato Soup

Butter Poached Lobster

Planeta Olive Oil

Orange Dust

How's that for quick thinking and plating.....

←

I say, 'BRAVO'. That works perfectly!

[Jeff L]

Rest of the food

Foie Gras

served with....

89 Zind Humbrecht VT

and

2000 Climens

Pork Belly

served with..

and

90 Hermitage

BEEF

served with..

Haut Brion was the best overall......Pichon with croquette.

←

Seriously V, how does one become your friend? The pics are stunning and the wines, well you know

[Vadouvan]

Saturday July 29

What to eat tonite .....?

Hathor's discussion of pairing her spicy orange powder with pureed vegetables is brilliant, just have to find a way to tie it all together with some dish.

I went back to this thread...

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=86937

I think spicy orange dust would be delicious tied into a slow roasted salmon.

After bouncing around town from the Italian Market to Reading Terminal to Whole Foods, Whole Foods had the best King Salmon but it was insanely overpriced.

As luck would have it however, I had a friend driving into town today from Manhattan so I scored some fish from Citarella on 6th Ave.

After using the cure in the Copper River thread....

I got this.....

Wild Pacific King Salmon

The fish as you see is amazingly fresh and incredibly vivid in color.

Though conventional wisdom is to reflect contrast in color plating food, I decided to do carrot puree.

Carrots work with orange.

Orange works with Meat

Salmon works with Lemon.

The citrus elements should tie it all together..........hopefully.

I intend to use some braised oxtail meat and jus in the dish.

I envision a...

Slow Roasted Salmon

Braised Oxtail

Orange Scented Carrot Puree

Sherry Vinagar jus.

Pretty straightfoward and not too heavy for a hot day.

Here is the fish after curing...

We shall see how the dish works out tonite....

It's only a 1 course dinner....

[Vadouvan]

Update.....

Loooooking goooood....

Hierloom Carrots "Chantenay" peeled, chopped, cooked sous vide 90C till soft.

Transferred to thermonix, heated with carrot juice, pureed with butter, 1 drop of orange (steam extracted) essential oil.

Flavor adjusted with salt, mirin, rice wine vinegar.

Almost the same color as the feesh......

[Vadouvan]

Flavor adjusted with salt, mirin, rice wine vinegar.

Daniel Boulud is quoted as saying...."the difference between a good chef and a great chef is the seasoning palate"

Seasoning is the biggest culprit in well intended ambitious dishes these days, here is a tip for all cooks home or otherwise.....

"Liquid seasoning for minute flavor adjustment"

Squeeze bottles.

1. Rice wine vinegar.

2. 30 degree simple syrup.

3 Highly concentrated salt solution.

Most F'd up dishes (assuming texture and temp is correct) suffer from sweet salt or acid deficiencies.

At the end of most purees or liquid mediums (sauces dressings ect ect.) I adjust flavor with 1 drop of liquid from the squeeze bottles (if needed).

It's a great way to make micro adjustments without waiting for salt or sugar to dissolve.

1 drop......and PING! (the sound submarines make when they are looking for other submarines).......

How many times have I seen people adding kosher salt to mashed potatoes and tasting it immediately or in less than 45 seconds and declaring it needs more salt when the salt hasnt even dissolved yet.......

Philadelphia is underrated, i just dont understand why all the great meat and produce here gets shipped away......

One other great thing about this city for serious cooks is.......while we dont have the depth of restaurants and celeb chefs as other cities.....

We do and they dont have......the serious cooks best friend....

http://www.monell.org/

Edited July 29, 2006 by Vadouvan (log)

[Vadouvan]

Dinner was simple but tasty. I think the dish works, salmon was just barely meduim rare.

Untimately served with oxtail and russian porcinis.

Without porcini for mushroom allergy girl...

and

Ultimately, we chose red wines, twin Torbrecks from the Barossa valley and a Molly Dooker "Enchanted Path".

Torbrecks rocked.......The Factor is 100% Shiraz and The Descendant is 92%Shiraz,8% Viogner.........very odd....but solid wines to go with the fish and oxtail.

Molly Dooker was young but interesting, Parker seems to like it.

Read more on thier sites.....

http://www.torbreck.com/default.asp

http://www.mollydookerwines.com.au/index.html

Ok Diann...what's next ?

[Diann]

Ok Diann...what's next ?

←

Allrighty V...

What about an education in simple deliciousness? Things you can make when your dinner was a disappointment, or you're starving and want something to eat right now?

Or a seminar on dinner parties 101 (the beginner version)?

Danke!

[Vadouvan]

Simple deliciousness ?

How about some Ideas, what do you want to learn to make.....

Give up a few examples......

[percyn]

V,

How about a "realtime" question on what to make to dinner tonight?

Usable from the fridge (not frozen):

- Prime NY strip

- Lamb Chops

- Skirt steak

From yesterday's trip to the West Chester farmer's market:

- Silver king corn

- Lancaster yellow tomatoes (wanted to try the gazpacho upthread)

- Sweet onions

Also have the usual pantry staples...garlic, onion, herbs, trumpet mushrooms, truffles, etc.

Any ideas on what a mediocre home cook can make?

[philadining]

You're killing me Percy: "the usual pantry staples... trumpet mushrooms, truffles, etc."

But I'll concur with D and P, it would be interesting to know about some dishes that can be really dramatic, but made without long multi-stage prep, exotic gear, or special skills. What do we need to make something quick and good?

Are there vital pantry supplies, and if so, where in Philly can we find them? Or are there techniques (like your salmon cure) that aren't all that complicated, but give great results?

[shacke]

But I'll concur with D and P, it would be interesting to know about some dishes that can be really dramatic, but made without long multi-stage prep, exotic gear, or special skills. What do we need to make something quick and good?

Allow me to second that suggestion, PhilA. With emphasis on locally available ingredients, being able to efficiently transform what is at your local whole foods or market beyond the after work weekday basic techniques would be awesome.

ie beyond the ubiquitous 9-5'er ....

chicken ---> bake it

fish ----> grill it

steak ----> broil it

vegetables ---->steam it

starch ----> boil it

Evan

Edited July 30, 2006 by shacke (log)

[johnder]

to quote the great Wayne Campbell...

"We're not worthy! We're not worthy! Schwing!"

Man this is awesome.

[docsconz]

Wow, get tied up for a few days and look at all I have to catch up with!

[Vadouvan]

Percy, apologies....

I just read your question, probably a bit late to add any suggestions at this point but I get the point of the larger question. This thread wasnt devised to turn everyone into a professional cook, it more to illustrate the thought process and mechanics involved in concieving dishes.

But I'll concur with D and P, it would be interesting to know about some dishes that can be really dramatic, but made without long multi-stage prep, exotic gear, or special skills. What do we need to make something quick and good?

Are there vital pantry supplies, and if so, where in Philly can we find them? Or are there techniques (like your salmon cure) that aren't all that complicated, but give great results?

Great question uncle phil, in fact I have absolutely no professional obligations for the next 9 days and I shall walk around philly and come up with some simple stuff starting tommorow.

I love the question of pantry staples, this is key because if one can put together a list of "basics" you should have for baseline deliciousness, it simply leaves picking up your proteins and a few veggies for a tasty dinner......

"We're not worthy! We're not worthy! Schwing!"

Man this is awesome.

John, Thanks, its not about any one person, it's about food, the more people know the better.

Consider it another phalanx of soldiers in the war against mediocrity.

Information is free, knowledge should be too, the more we are inspired by each other, the better we all eat.....

[Vadouvan]

Speaking of Inspiration.....

Here is an example of how everyone benefits.

There is probably no 48hr period when I am not on the phone at some point with Alex Talbot.

A brilliantly inspirational friend, within a 10 minute phone conversation, the seeds of 20 ideas could be sown, shuffled into the notebooks to be attempted later......

Some even spark old thoughts that have been forgotten and never executed....

Case and point :

Alex Talbot and Aki Kamozawa created ....

http://ideasinfood.typepad.com/

Recently he posted a topic called "My friend the freezer" inspired by.....

http://phatduck.blogspot.com/2006/07/perfecting-purees.html

I have always thought about intensely flavored fruit or vegetable consomme's, perhaps served cold as a pure essence of the base flavor.

Purees were too thick, juices couldnt be clarified without a centrifuge ......?

I just forgot about it.

So taking Alex's spark......

I simply pureed 2 peeled seedless cucumbers and 1 ripe green fleshed melon yesterday, buzzed in a pinch of wasabi and froze it overnight....solid.

Today I popped it out of it's tupperware, placed the frozen block in a chinois lined with fine kitchen muslin and let it melt undisturbed.

The result was a bright vivid green but clear liquid bursting with the taste of melon and cucumber.

Simply garnished with some chilled fresh crabmeat, basil oil and some young basil, it made an excellent light cold summer soup for a 98 degree day.

Cold Cucumber Melon Soup.

Delicious with Gruner Veltliner..

The more we share, the better we all eat......

[wkl]

so vadouvan,

when do you use vadouvan?

any preferred sources?

can you comment on the '93 chambolle upthread.hit or miss year, but some vignerons did quite well. ampeau pommard comes to mind.

cheers.

[johnder]

"We're not worthy! We're not worthy! Schwing!"

Man this is awesome.

John, Thanks, its not about any one person, it's about food, the more people know the better.

Consider it another phalanx of soldiers in the war against mediocrity.

Information is free, knowledge should be too, the more we are inspired by each other, the better we all eat.....

←

Thanks V,

I agree -- sharing knowledge is awesome and I (and others) really appreciate your time and dedication that you are spending uploading and documenting all your work. It has definately inspired me.

I find myself anxiously awaiting the next post with more info to cram into my grey matter.

Cheers

John