foodie nyc

Soft Shell Crab, Corn Shoot and Lovage Salad

I ran into the wonders of corn shoots at the Union Square market recently.    The explosive sweetness of corn, along with a mild hint of anise, are packed into these seemingly innocuous, yellow salad greens.    The corn shoots appear innocent enough, but their intense flavors completely shocked and overwhelmed me. 

I recently picked up a lovage plant, as I've always loved the fresh celery flavor of the herb I first tasted years ago while working in the kitchen at 11 Madison Park.  I envisioned dressing the corn shoots with a fruity olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice and some of the chopped lovage leaves. 

Considering the intense flavor of this little salad, I immediately began thinking of pairing these flavors with a meaty fish like scallops, but then noticed the first soft shell crabs I'd seen in quite some time.   I can't pass up soft shell crab, so I paired the corn shoot salad with a crispy soft shell crab seared in olive oil, garlic and finished with a squeeze of lemon.  (I rarely enjoy soft shell crab with a thick batter coating.  Pan searing allows a very crispy texture, without masking the crab with a thick crust).

The crispy and subtly sweet crab is a great match for the herbal, sweet and explosive flavors of the corn shoot lovage salad.    Every bite made me thankful for the wonders of Spring that will be in my kitchen for the next few weeks.

Related:   My Technique/Recipe for Seared Soft Shell Crab

Top (Executive) Chef

Long time readers have read my detailed thoughts about the unfortunate state of food programming that has slightly tormented me over the past few years.  (You can find my long rants on the Food Network here.)

One of the bright spots in the food television world has been Top Chef.    After season two, I was not only hooked on the show, but I thanked the culinary gods for finally putting food programming on the air that was somewhat entertaining.

Thankfully, my feelings for Top Chef have not changed much as we head into the thick of Season 4.   I still think the show has retained much of its heart and soul and continues to be at the top of my must see TV list.   

But.   

Yeah, but.

What could I possibly criticize about  the current state of Top Chef, considering it's must see TV and it's probably at its peak of popularity?

In a nutshell, I think the move to almost exclusively cast executive/sous/line cooks from high-end restaurants across the country has resulted in a homogeneous set of cooking styles and techniques on the show, resulting in Quickfire and Elimination challenges that serve up dishes from contestants that are all coming from the same perspective - that of the the two-four star, big city restaurant chef.

Let's take a step back.

There's no doubt that the quality of chefs across the board needed an upgrading from Season One.     At some point, it became clear to the viewer that the cute but slightly unpolished contestants with untraditional experiences (caterers, sommeliers, etc) were never going to win the top prize.   And as the seasons have gone on, contestants like Stephen from Season 1 have been slowly weeded out for the likes of high-end restaurant chefs from the culinary capitals of the country.   Sure, maybe  one or two folks with untraditional cooking experience have trickled into the pool (Betty was billed  as more of a caterer in Season 2, as was Micah in Season 3), but they proved to be either total hacks or inconsistent,  further pushing the producers of Season 4 down the path toward selecting candidates from the traditional restaurant pool.

My issue with this approach is based on an observation I've made as a passionate restaurant diner eating and living in NYC for the past ten years.    The high end dining  world  in a  city like NYC has created a restaurant formula upon which all of the current contestants from Top Chef are born and raised.   With all of these chefs coming from the same cooking and food culture, they all have similar philosophies, techniques and ideas.   Their food all has the same polish.   Their plating looks the same across the board.    The dishes that are being churned out each and every episode look very familiar to me.      Why? Because I have seen them all before.    Every Friday and Saturday night while eating out in New York City.

From a food perspective, I'd like to see a seasoned cook with untraditional experience in the mix as well.    Speaking from my own perspective, I can tell you that because I don't have traditional restaurant experience, I would most likely be cooking dishes that seemed a bit different from the rest of the restaurant chef contestants.  Why? I lead a different life from a line cook in a high end restaurant, for starters.   I have the time to travel.  Time to hit all the restaurants that could provide me with a new spark and a new inspiration.   Therefore, I think it would be hard to pin down what kind of food I'd crank out in a Top Chef atmosphere, because that's how I've trained myself to think and cook over the past ten years.   Like any person in any walk of life, untraditional  experiences lead to unique perspectives and talents, which is a philosophy I think Top Chef is currently lacking. 

This is not meant to read like an ad for me to be on Top Chef.   Rather, it makes me wonder what would happen to the level of culinary and entertainment excitement if the producers of Top Chef looked deeper into the culinary community of this country for high quality talent that could present a unique perspective. 

Imagine if an underdog won a Top Chef, or made it to the finale.  Imagine the home cook/caterer/food writer/unheralded cafe owner/Mexican taco truck owner/five room country bed and breakfast owner knocking off a sous chef from Le Cirque?  Imagine an underdog similar to Michael from Season 2 pulling out a stunning upset?  Imagine the buzz and excitement that would follow something like that.   Beyond cooking and food, there would be a whole human interest, underdog story that could give the show the potential to continue being fresh and exciting a few years down the road.

The question that immediately follows is...could this even happen?  I think the answer is definitely yes, it could.   It would be a long shot, but those rare occasions when long shots become reality are the types of TV moments we all crave.    You saw the Giants win the Super Bowl this year, right?

Clearly the producers of the show would have to give a thorough effort to make sure these wild card contestants could compete on a quality level.   Not only would the producers need to comb the country for this untraditional talent, but they'd also have to probably put them through a bunch of technique and cooking try-outs in order to feel confident these wild cards wouldn't take down the quality of the food on the show.   

My solution to all this would be to have one or two wild card cooks with non-traditional experience on the show each season.  In order to maintain quality, Top Chef should hold a nation wide search for non-restaurant chefs.  They would then invite a list of non-restaurant cooks and chefs to a week long competition and put them through demanding challenges as they'd encounter on the show.  After tasting their food over time and seeing them in battle, the judges would select two wild card contestants that they think can and will compete on a level of quality of the restaurant chefs.   

As of now, I worry that the current Top Chef formula of having restaurant chefs battle year after year will lead to one of my favorite shows becoming a bit predictable and generic.   

Hopefully, one of these seasons, a true wild card will emerge and shake things up a bit.

Ham Hock Brussel Sprouts, Rosemary, Toasted Sesame

Before brussel spouts became a trendy menu item in restaurants last year, I wasn't sure how I felt about them.  They seemed a bit one dimensional in flavor, and I didn't consider them an ideal flavor receptor beyond the obvious bacon and pork partner. 

But then the brussel sprout menu trend exposed me to the complex flavors brussel sprouts reveal when they are briefly pan seared and develop a slightly caramelized exterior.  The pan sear adds a depth of flavor that takes them to another level, in my opinion.   

The trick with adding this cooking method to the preparation of sprouts is avoiding the loss of their green color and nutrients (ick..i just pictured this random know-it-all out there smirking at this nutrient comment.  Stop smirking, know-it-all.  And don't send me any more colored graphs about how healthy brussel sprouts are.  Charts + food =  nerdy).   Recently, I decided to cook the spouts in boiling salted water until about 3/4 of the way cooked.  After draining them, they went into a pan with hot oil to develop the sear I love so much.

I'd be willing to wager that 75% of the brussel sprouts that appear on menus involve some type of pork item.    Bacon and pancetta are the obvious choices (and completely delicious, of course).    There's also the added benefit of rendering the bacon and pancetta until crisp, then searing the sprouts in the pork fat. 

But on this given day, I was serving a ham hock soup that you've most likely read about.    OK, ok.   I will not try and deceive you about my hidden intentions of this post.   I really want you to make smoked ham hock stock.    And as an added benefit, I want you to realize that you'll be able to use the tender,  fall-off-the-bone meat from the ham hock stock as an ingredient for another dish.   

I simply chopped the ham hock meat and added it to the pan after searing the sprouts in oil.   To bring out the earthiness of the sprouts, I finished them with a drizzle of toasted sesame seed oil, which I thought turned out to be an excellent flavor combo.   Chopped rosemary and squeeze of lemon rounded out the flavors.

Now go and make a ham hock stock brussel sprouts before the winter gloom fades.

Peanut Butter Dulce and Pork Belly? You Had Me At Hello!

As you may recall, I  asked you to send me your favorite dishes you've recent cooked at home.   As a prize for the winning selection, I'm giving away a free seat to my upcoming Foodie NYC tasting on 3/30.   

I received many interesting and delicious dishes, so this choice was very difficult to make.   Thanks to all of you that sent in your entries!   

But, in a sense, the winner came down to the fact that I may have drooled on my keyboard when I saw Chicken Fried Gourmet's Peanut Butter Dulce De Leche paired with Pork Belly.    Not only did the pairing completely intrigue me,  but the utter deliciousness of Michael's dish speaks for itself.

From the words of Michael himself, via his blog Chicken Fried Gourmet:

I wanted to do something different with the Peanut Butter Dulce De Leche (surprise) and not follow the usual theme of making a dessert.....My first thought was pork belly. The inspiration came from Sam Mason's Tailor, where he does a miso-butterscotch pork belly. As you can tell from previous posts this is one of my favorite meats to prepare recently. I wanted to do just simple flavors with the PBDDL so there is really not a lot of things going on with this dish other than the usual accompaniments.

I started by marinating the pork belly in a mixture of PBDDL, bourbon, fresh garlic and olive oil. I then vacuum sealed it and put it in the fridge for 3 days. From the start the dish was made to be of smaller proportion. Originally we were going to have this on Saturday night with friends where we all made two small dishes. It would sort of be like Tapas but not Spanish themed. Everything was on track till Louisiana’s crazy weather sidelined two of the couples with flu like symptoms. Since I had already spent so much time on the dish I decided to just go ahead and make it the main course.

I wanted to have as few ingredients as possible in order for the PBDDL flavor to come through. I settled on some micro arugula dressed in balsamic dressing with crushed peanuts to top it off. I added a “paint” of the PBDDL under the belly and added 3 drops of balsamic syrup to cut the sweetness of the PBDDL. All day Friday I kept obsessing on if I should add a “base” to the dish..... The 2^nd idea, and the one I went with, was a sweet potato ice cream. It follows a basic ice cream recipe but I add two roasted sweet potatoes then strain before making the custard. Looking back I would have added more sweet potatoes for a more pronounced flavor. It was still good though.

This dish was a hit.   It was filling but not to the point where you felt like you had to save up to go see your cardiologist.   The ice cream played well with the sweetnees of the PBDDL and the savoriness of the pork belly.

To thank Michael for this delicious bit of inspiration, he'll be receiving a complimentary seat to the Foodie NYC 3/30 tasting event. 

Be sure to check out Chicken Fried Gourmet for more pictures of the winning dish here.

Thanks to all those who participated and congrats, Michael.

Rosemary, Ginger, Smoked Paprika Bloody Mary

As certain people in my life know, I'm a little obsessed with the Bloody Mary. 

I always seem to wake on a weekend morning with a crazy desire for the perfect Bloody.  Sure, it's about the flavor.   But it also symbolizes the the celebratory, unburdened sense of freedom I associate with a weekend morning.    

My Bloody partner in crime and I are fascinated with how inconsistent the classic Bloody Mary tastes from bartender to bartender.    Sure, food and drinks are always subjective, but doesn't the classic Bloody always have the same qualities in common?  It's crazy that maybe 4 out of 5 Bloodies we consume don't exhibit all the traits we crave.

What makes the perfect Bloodie for me?  First, there's the balance between vodka and tomato juice.   Many Bloodies I get are overly watery - the tomato flavor just doesn't come through.   After that, it's all about the ingredients in the mix.    I recently caught my Bloody partner in crime looking through the side of the glass, evaluating the ratio of horseradish, cracked pepper and such within the liquid.  Sometimes you can tell if it's going to be a good Bloody just by looking at it.   

Finally, the  balance of flavors comes next.   The squeeze of citrus, the multiple levels of spiciness (pepper, chili, horseradish, etc) and intangibles like freshness (fresh horseradish makes a huge difference, of course) are certainly factors.

So, considering all this, I felt a bit of pressure when making Bloody Mary's one weekend morning.  Could I live up the standard that I felt so adamantly about?  I hadn't really made a Bloody Mary before, so the pressure was on.

To start things off, I couldn't get my hands on fresh horseradish or Worcester sauce as quickly as I needed to whip up the Bloodies.  To compensate,  I thought about how I could replace the peppery heat of horseradish without substituting with more Tabasco or adding cayenne.   Since the horseradish adds a different sort of heat than a chili, I thought I'd opt for freshly grated ginger.   For a bit of that meaty earthiness that the Worcester normally provides, I broke out the smoked paprika - not enough to overpower the drink, but just a pinch to add a depth of smokiness and complexity.

All I did was grate some fresh ginger on a microplane, which after a few batches (!), ended up being an  essential way to avoid taking big bites of ginger.   The rosemary needs to be be chopped as finely as humanly possible, again to avoid the sometimes unpleasant texture of the herb in the mouth.    A very fine dice of celery was a welcomed bit of freshness in the drink, as was the spicy vinegary kick of Tabasco and the fresh squeeze of lime juice.    The garnish, a wedge of candied ginger, added another welcomed addition of aggressive flavor.

P.S. -  My favorite Bloody Mary these days (actually a Bloody Maria) is at the East Village restaurant Mercadito.  I think its outrageous - cucumber muddled with a smoky, chipotle tomato juice and just the right amount of citrus.  Of course, there's Prune...but sometimes the wait doesn't make sense for me.   

Send me a note or comment on a great Bloody Mary I should try in NYC or Williamsburg, and I'll be sure to tell you what I thought.