foodie nyc

Cravings: Black Cod with Acacia Honey

(Ed note:  This is a new series I'll be writing on this site, called Cravings.)

One of the best dishes I've had so far in 2006 was at BLT Fish, in the fancy upstairs restaurant. 

I generally believe that of the two times of I have eaten upstairs and the 5 times I have eaten downstairs at BLT, I have had some of the freshest fish a person can enjoy in NYC on a given night.  The fancy dining room upstairs features a Black Cod, which is marinated in Acacia honey and vinegar, then roasted in the oven to achieve a slightly caramelized exterior, brilliantly accentuating the luscious, moist piece of cod that flakes into chunky, juicy pieces.  The  exterior of the cod is earthy, a touch sweet with just a slight background of acidity.  The caramelized texture of the roasted honey works to highlight the freshness of the pristine fish.  I need to learn to make a dish like this....this is A+ material.

Why I Can't Write Restaurant Criticism

I'm been trying to muster the energy to write another Restaurant Notebook post.  Considering I've  been saying that to myself for months, I decided to stop pretending to like writing about my restaurant experiences. I just don't. 

It's not that I don't have anything to report.  I went to Blackbird and Topolobampo in Chicago last week, which was one of the best back-to-back dinner nights I've had recently.  In the past month, I've had one of the best meals I've had this year at 11 Madison Park, felt painfully underwhelmed at Gramercy Tavern, bummed and craved a trip to Babbo after an expensive night at Del Posto, all followed by some exciting hits and misses at WD50.....and it keeps going. 

This would surprise everyone who knows me, since I an generally discussing restaurants frequently.  I get plenty of requests for recommendations, which is never a problem as I generally have a list of five places where I want to dine on a particular night.  (I can't believe I just typed 'dined' .  My bad.). 

I firmly believe this site should feature nice food photos and, to be honest, snapping pictures of food during an amazing meal is simply a low priority for me. My favorite meals and experiences are just that - experiences.  Delicious, thoughtful, creatively prepared food paired with a heady wine are moments to charish. On top of that is the amazing, fun and interesting company I'm usually lucky to have.   A camera at the table seems totally out of place to me.

Not to mention, I generally don't think random photos of restaurant food does a chef and kitchen team the justice their creations deserve. Poorly lit food photos from restaurants rarely convey any of the appeal we experience.  Plus, there are plenty of other sites I read frequently that do this much better than I ever would.  Let's be real - if I read, let alone write - another blog post about Robuchon NYC I'm going to barf on my keyboard (no offensive to any of you that have  - I am commenting on the redundecy of reading the latest and greatest reviews  that all come out at once - right at the opening).

Instead, I'll start to write about dishes or tastes I've had recently that leave me longing for them days or weeks later.  This series will be called, lamely, Cravings.  I hope to do them regularly, as I expect that documenting these dishes and tastes will inspire some of my future cooking.  And maybe interesting for you to read (did you catch that italic on maybe? Good, just checking.). 

(Oh.  Sorry.  Above is a picture of Catherine Chiarella.  She is a little food lover in the making.  During one of the days at the villa in Umbria, I remember watching Catherine devour a very ripe Umbrian peach as a stream of juices ran down her cheeks.  When she finally removed herself from the peach and looked up at me, I asked her if she loved food. She smiled at me and gave me a resounding, mouth-full-of-peach, yes. I love the very small piece of pasta she is rolling in this picture.....too funny. Also, a photo of me wishing someone would give me a wine refill at a tasting in Chianti.  I know, I know....I just ooze class.)

Coconut Poached Lobster, Peach, Avocado, Pluot, Ginger Oil

When I feel the need to spoil myself, I start thinking about ribeye, lobster, and/or an amazing bottle of wine.

I had the Sunday blues recently and decided lobster could be an effective, if not temporary, cure.  I wanted a rich lobster experience, but I also wanted to weave in the summer fruits I've been focusing on lately.   I prepared the lobster in a style that I've outlined for you before on this site.  I briefly boiled the lobster, removed it from the shells, then poached it in coconut milk.  The richness and flavor of the coconut permeates the lobster meat, yet it does not overwhelm the lobster at all.  I chose to perch the lobster on layers of raw peach, avocado and pluot (a plum/apricot hybrid).  I gave each layer of fruit a splash of the coconut poaching liquid, a squeeze of lemon and a touch of salt and pepper.  I finished the lobster salad with another spoonful of the coconut poaching liquid, a squeeze of lemon, then garnished the plate with a ginger oil I made a while ago. 

Lobster can be a chore to prepare, but with minimal effort needed for the accompaniments, this dish made my Sunday blues disappear pretty quickly. 

Seared Duck Breast with Blueberry Shells

My impromtu series featuring fresh fruit pastas winds down today with my initial inspiration - the blueberry pasta Ann featured on her blog, Chicken in Every Granny Cart.  The blueberry seemed like an excellent fruit for a pasta dish - for some reason the blueberry has a savory, fruity flavor but also a touch of tartness and acidity.  I was also intrigued not only by the history of blueberry pasta that Ann details,  but coincidentally a friend told me about a blueberry pasta he tried recently at an Italian restaurant in the East Village (I will ask him for the name and post in the comments...sorry!).  Despite what you see sometimes on this site, I enjoy creating dishes based on time tested ingredient combinations and techniques, so I felt reassured in experimenting with blueberry pasta.

As I've detailed in my previous fruit pasta posts, my objective was to keep the flavor of the fruit as the focus.  Ann made her blueberry pasta with red wine, but I just decided to puree the fresh blueberries to a smooth consistency, along with a stream of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  I strained the blueberry puree through a chinois to make sure all the little stems were removed. I made my pasta as I normally would (al dente in boiling, well salted water), but then combined the pasta with the the blueberry puree that was warming in pan.  Sorry, don't have a detailed amount of blueberry per serving, but I recall using just over a 1/2 pint of blueberries for 1/2 lb of pasta shells. 

For my tastes, a natural combination for the blueberry pasta was something with a gamey flavor.  A crispy skinned, rich duck breast was an excellent combination for the blueberry pasta. You could fold in some parmigino reggiano (which i did) and some herbs (mint? chive?) as garnish, with fine results.   I hope I've convinced you to give a fruit pasta a try this summer....let me know if you have!

Pork Au Poivre, Cherry Pasta

After recently reading about a blueberry pasta via Chicken in Every Granny Cart, I've been experimenting with fruit based pasta for the last few weeks.  I know.  The idea of a fruit pasta makes your eyebrows scrunch together and, let me guess, your eyes are now squinting.... and maybe you're even wrinkling your nose in skepticism. 

I've seen it before.

But then I serve the fruit pastas I've made...and...they're a hit.  You may have seen the recipe for peach penne I made recently.  That inspired continued experimentation, this time with cherries.  My goal was to have a small bite of pasta explode with fresh cherry flavor, while avoiding an overly reduced cherry/syrupy pasta. Ick. To compliment the cherry pasta, I went with a boldly flavor meat.  I chose a lean pork loin, but decided to coat the pork in crushed black peppercorns to add a bold, spicy flavor to balance the fruity pasta.

The key to making this cherry pasta is to create a puree of the fresh fruit.  Remove the pits and the stems from the cherries, then puree them in a food processor with a touch of olive oil, a pinch of salt and some ground pepper.  After cooking the pasta as you normally would, place a conservative amount of the cherry puree into a pan on low heat.  Add the pasta to the puree and coat.  You want to generously coat the pasta but too much of the fruit puree will turn this idea into a mess. I used 1/4 lb cherries for about a touch under 1/2 lb of farfalline pasta. As in any pasta dish, the cherries are a condiment for the pasta, not a sauce. Start conservatively in terms of how much fruit you add to the pasta, you can always add more...just keep folding the puree in as you go. I finished the pasta with some parmigiano reggiano and a bit of mint.  More fruit pastas to come, I'm sure....

Sage Sorbet, Crispy Black Cod

While I was in Tuscany recently, I was taken on daily food and wine adventures with Bernie and Cristina from Shopping Safaris Tuscany.  Jo-Ann from Active Gourmet Getaways was the kind and thoughtful person who led me to Bernie and Cristina.  Much more on them in the future - no doubt you'll see plenty of posts about some of the amazing experiences I had in and around Chianti soon enough.

One of the outings they took me on was a morning of cooking in the kitchen of Ristorante Il Battibecco, an excellent restaurant in a town called Impruneta, right outside of Florence.  I had been cooking in a very traditional restaurant kitchen during my time in Tuscany, but this experience was very different.  The chef, Dante Del Bravo, gave classic Tuscan dishes a creative, modern twist.  One of the vivid memories I had of the few hours I spent there was a random taste of a sage sorbet the chef had us sample from his freezer.  All I can recall about it was the deep, earthy expression of sage captured in a simple, refreshing bite.

On a humid night in NYC, I remembered this sage sorbet and thought I'd experiment.  I decided the sorbet would not be very sweet, which then led me toward pairing it with fish.  Black cod was looking very fresh in the market and I went from there.  I decided to make a crispy crust for the cod, allowing a crispy texture to contrast with the moist flesh and the icy sage.  The key to the sorbet is to show restraint with the sage - it can really overwhelm the sorbet and whatever you pair with it.  I personally couldn't imagine it for dessert, even if much sweeter.  While I would certainly recommend this dish, I will definitely experiment with a raw crudo-esque preparation to accompany the sage sorbet - tuna, hamachi and salmon come to mind.   A very rough outline of my measurements for the sage sorbet follows the jump.

Strawberry, Mango, Chevre, Avocado, Balsamic

As you know, I become obsessed with certain ingredients and techniques over the course of a season.  This summer, it's been the combination of fruit and cheese as a light, satisfying first course at home.  This summer has also been about fruit with pasta, a theme you'll be seeing here over the course of the next week or so.

This salad couldn't be easier to prepare.  I sliced some ripe strawberries and fanned them across the bottom of a ring mold.  I piled a rich, tangy, grassy, creamy chevre from France on the strawberries as the next layer in the mold.  Then came a few slices of a juicy, dripping mango, followed by a thick, generous slice of a creamy avocado.  A bit more of the of strawberry garnishes the top, along with plenty of course ground pepper for a bit of spice and texture.  A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a high quality, 20 year old balsamic from Modena round out the dish. 

ILSL August 2006: Summery Pasta Salads

Welcome back for another edition of I Loathe Sandra Lee.    Here's how all this started, for those new to game.

Sandra Lee is hack, we all know that.

 

But at least we can put her unfortunate recipes featuring processed food to good use.

This month's theme is pasta salads.  Semi-Processed Sandra wisely guides us to use canned pineapple and a tub of sour cream as key ingredients for a summer pasta salad.  In protest of this horrendous, unwholesome approach to cooking, we've decided to create our own versions of a summer pasta salad without canned food or processed crap. 

The result - colorful, healthy, vibrant, creative pasta salads that utilize the seasonal summer ingredients we all love. 

Ann from A Chicken in Every Granny Cart

Pasta Salad with Grape Tomatoes, Basil, Asagio, Blue Cheese and Capers

Ann created a colorful pasta salad for lunch after being reminded how loathsome Sandra Lee can be on the Food Network. Sure, there are times when it's easier to call delivery.  But as Ann says, it's easy to be inspired by Sandra.  No cans, no tubs o' sour cream.  Just what looks and sounds like a flavorful, delicious pasta salad.  Blue cheese and capers sound like a great combo, Ann!

For my recipe, I decided to experiment with fresh fruit, inspired by Sandy's canned pineapple debacle. I created a recipe for Peach Penne with Corn, Jalapeno and Scallions. 

I think the essence of peaches can work well with a pasta salad, mainly because I think they can provide a fresh, sweet accent to a pasta salad without overwhelming the dish with sweetness.  I created a puree from the fresh peaches and folded it into the pasta.  The crunchy corn adds texture to the dish, while the jalapeno adds a spicy zip that balances the fresh fruit.  Scallions add much needed color but their gentle onion flavor rings through and rounds out the dish nicely. 

See below for my full recipe.....and down with Sandra Lee!