foodie nyc

Charcoal Grilled Lobster, Peaches, Mint

Many summers ago, we went on a camping trip to Maine. My entire goal was to O.D. on lobster. As we only had a campfire grill on hand, I grilled lobster for the first time. I took the tails and split them open through the middle and stuffed them with butter mint, salt and pepper on a picnic table.  Our friends thought I was on crack and had generally low expectations, so I was told afterward. 

When I am an old man without much of a memory, I will always remember that lobster.  The lobster was sweet and fresh, just caught in Maine.  The butter trapped inside the shell had basted the meat as it cooked. Best yet, the outside of the shell was able to protect the meat from a few minutes on very high heat right under the charcoal (and a few minutes on colder part of grill to finish).  The charcoal flavor gently permeated the meat and added an amazing flavor to the lobster.  Mint added a blast of freshness that worked well with butter and sweet lobster.

These pictures were taken just last weekend (click on them for larger images).  It is still one of the favorite ways I prepare lobster.  I make charcoal (forget gas) grilled lobster multiple times a summer. Here, I pair it with my favorite lobster combination in the summer - fresh peaches and avocado with a drizzle of melted butter and lemon juice.  I love how I got just a bit of char on the meat here without overcooking.  This was my portion of the five I made and it was a real treat.  Everyone commented on the amazing flavors charcoal added to the lobster.

Merguez Wonton Tortelloni, Corn, Tomato, Parm

I have been experimenting with grocery store wonton wrappers for a while now.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy making fresh pasta.  But not all of the time, especially if we are just having a casual meal at home.  I treat the wonton wrappers just like fresh pasta - usually with a rich, butter or cheese type condiment (olive oil based sauces work better for me on dried pasta). In my experience, it's best to handle the wonton wrappers as little as possible.  Tortelloni is a very simple technique that requires only a few minor folds.  For a fresh pasta type of dish, this is a relatively easy recipe. The combination of lamb sausage (merguez), fresh summer corn and tomato, and handfuls of parmiggiano reggiano works wonders.

Check out my full recipe over at Gothamist....

Heirloom Tomato Tower

Ok, not a tower really.  More like a stack.  Three colors of heirloom tomatoes are marinated with olive oil, salt, pepper, basil and lemon juice in a single layer in the refrigerator for a few hours.   

The juices that come out of the tomatoes and stay behind in the marinating pan create a flavorful dressing to the salad.

Place a slice of the tomato on the plate, add a thin sliver of radish or maybe cucumber (or corn), a basil leaf, a crumble of goat cheese, a splash of the tomato juices and repeat with multiple stacks of colorful tomatoes. Spoon extra juices around the plate and serve.

Torta del Casar

One of the best dishes I had in Spain was virtually Italian in origin.  A summer truffle risotto was perfectly creamy, a touch moist and loose, with deep mushroom flavors that languished in my mouth for minutes after swallowing.  Right in the middle of the risotto was a pool of melted Torta del Casar cheese from Spain.  A perfect melting cheese with deep flavors that could stand up to the mushroom intensity, it was a cheese I needed to remember.  We stumbled into a cheese shop in Barcelona and I was able to take a picture so I could remember to track it down when I got home.  Here it is.

Dissed in Barcelona

Just back from Barcelona and San Sebastian - sorry for the infrequent posting.  A quick story from our trip regarding Rioja wine.  We had an amazing meal at a restaurant in Barcelona, one of the best meals of our trip.  One of the wines we had chosen, La Rioja Alta Reserve 1998, really impressed us.   Deep oaky flavors, nice tannin, great aging potential at a very affordable price. The next day, we were walking around Barcelona and stumbled into a nice looking wine shop.   We walked around and found this wine in the store for $22 Euros - great compared to the restaurant price. I snatched a bottle to bring back to NYC.  Upon bringing it to the register, the shop owner proceeded to give me a ten minute lecture about how this was an old fashioned Rioja, not made in the modern style.  It was inferior and the old school wine making techniques were an embarrassment to other up and coming Spanish wine regions. He then tried to convince me to select an alternative at the same or lesser price.  I couldn't help thinking that I really enjoyed this wine.  While its interesting to compare wine making styles, if I liked this wine then that's good enough for me. I told him no thanks, and he told me not to hold it up as an example of Spanish wine when I got back to the U.S.  But I will anyway, because it was excellent!

Corn, Jicama, Mint, Pine Nut Salad

Jicama is a perfect summer ingedient.  It's mostly made of water, so it has a refreshing and cooling effect in a salad. Better yet, jicama is a great match with the sweet veggies and fruits of the summer. 

In this salad, I've just taken fresh corn off the cob and mixed it with some matchstick slices of jicama, fresh mint, toasted pine nuts and a squeeze of lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil.  Maybe a few shavings of parm reg or even a soft,fresh goat cheese would be a nice touch. 

Cucumber Ice in Soup

With the virtually unbearable heat making it difficult to turn on the oven, I made this fresh and cold cucumber soup with a dollop of icy cucmber mint ice to garnish.  I topped it off with a crumble of a fresh, tangy goat cheese.   

This dish is a breeze to make.  I just chopped and pureed cucumbers and strained them, leaving me with their juice. After chilling, I added the juice and some chopped mint to my ice cream maker and after 30 minutes, I had a cucumber ice. It's not sweet at all, just the pure flavor of cucumber in another form to add texture to the soup. The soup is literally just the cuke juice with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice.  The goat cheese adds a freshness and creaminess - it's a great match for fresh cucumbers.

Pepper Seared Tuna, Peach Chutney

There was an old Iron Chef peach battle between a Japanese chef and Iron Chef Sakai (it was a chef vs chef battle, with no assistants). I remember this episode vividly because the challenger pressure-cooked a pot a of fresh peaches, beef, and tons of whole and crushed peppercorn.  It was pretty bizarre but I loved the idea of intense crushed peppercorns and sweet, soft concentrated peaches.  The idea of making a peach compote triggered a random flashback to this Iron Chef episode, inspiring a seared peppercorn crusted tuna steak to match with the peach compote.

Check out my recipe via Gothamist.....

Fantastic Sonoma Pinot

We brought back this 2003 Orogeny Pinot from Sonoma a few months ago.  I admittedly didn't have a good grasp on the Sonoma Pinots that rarely make their way into NYC retail shops or that cost an insane price at a fancy restaurant.  We picked this beauty up for $20, after I did some research via Robert Parker about some producers in my price range to look out for on the trip.  I'll be sure to try and track some more down. Here's a list of shops around the country that carry it.