About flavor

Char 4, per se alumnus winos, 3/2/09

2009-03-04T10:33:00.007-05:00

Winter Dinner, 2/22/09

2009-02-23T21:55:00.008-05:00

On a cold winter evening, Jane and I had a cozy dinner with our neighbors, Grant and Tamara.

We started with a bagna cauda, radishes, and sourdough bread.

Sunchoke soup with Nantucket Bay Scallops and tarragon.

Jane grinds on some soup.

Workin'

Fun with parsley oil. Need to pick up a small squeeze bottle--it would make this easier and tighter.

Arctic char, lentils de puy, broccoli rabe, wild mushrooms, parsley oil.

Salad of fennel, radicchio di treviso, arugula, nicoise olives, and winter citrus.

Coffee pot de creme.

Grant, animated.

Tamara

Jane get tea service going.

The crew.

What we drank: Chateau Varennes, Savennières, 2003.

P.Hansen-J.Wu, Dinner, 1/10/09

2009-01-12T21:23:00.036-05:00

Persimmon season is fall/early winter. Two varieties, Fuyu and Hachiya (pictured), can be found in abundance in Chinatown. Fuyus, shaped like flattened globes and gold-orange in color, remain firm when ripe. In contrast, Hachiyas are orange-red in color and acorn-shaped. They are mushy-soft when ripe and are similar in flavor to, Cachi, the Italian persimmon that I fell in love with when working in Venice. The problem is that Hachiyas are picked hard and can take up to three weeks to fully ripen. In order to speed up the ripening process, I tried out a new technique: freeze the persimmon for 24 hours and then thaw in the fridge. The slow freezing/thawing worked and the persimmon became mushy soft, ready to use. My theory is that in slow freezing, ice crystals form, which rupture the cell walls, in effect, tenderizing the fruit.

Jane's Mom, Rhys, kindly gave me Cecilia Chiang's book "The Seventh Daughter." In it is a recipe for dessert soup made from a puree of walnuts and dried dates. It inspired me to make a savory walnut soup. Here, I make the base for the soup by sweating shallots in EVO with a sprig of thyme. Once the shallots were soft, I added dry sherry and cooked it sec.

I toasted walnuts in the oven and added them to the base of shallots and thyme. Then I added chicken stock to cover and simmered until the walnuts became soft. Puree, pass, adjust with sherry vinegar, and, voila, walnut soup. The walnut flavor was really intense, perhaps, too intense. I alway seek to emphatically emphasize the featured ingredient in my recipes. In this case, I feel that the walnut flavor can be diluted and still shine through as the star player. In the future, there are two adjustments that I'd like to try. First, I'd like to start by rendering bacon and then sweating the shallots in the bacon fat. Additionally, I want to add peeled, diced, yukon gold potato to the toasted walnuts and chicken stock. I'm confident that these changes, made in the correct proportions, will make the soup's flavor rounder without compromising its essential walnut essence.

Live Maine sea urchins. I have to send a huge shout out to Michael Vernon of Lobster Place, and formerly my chef/mentor at Geisha, for getting me these impeccable urchins.

Urchins are beautiful. When you handle them wear gloves. I made the mistake of using my bare-hands and received a nasty irritating rash for my indiscression. It was later pointed out to me that sea urchin spines are toxic.

Full fridge, still life. One of the challenges of preparing restaurant-style food at home is the lack of fridge space for all the mise en place.

Right after New Years, I saw eels at the fish counter at Citarella and realized that they must have been ordered with the Italian "Feast of the Seven Fishes" in mind. On Christmas and New Years it is traditional for Italians and Italian-Americans to consume eel. But, those Citarella eels were dead and I figured, correctly, that I could find live eels in Chinatown. I found these two eels at the new Hong Kong Market on Hester St and they were swimming vigorously in a clean tank with a flock of their brothers and sisters. I had the fish monger kill the eels, which he did unskillfully, as evidenced by the large cuts behind the eels heads. I would have gone for the throat and made a small cut so as not to disturb the loin meat.

Eels are scary looking creatures. I had irrational feelings of dread as I confronted this eel on my board. Perhaps it was the smell. It wasn't fishy or "off," but rather strong, musky, and fear-inducing. I'm proud of my self for finding the gumption to go ahead and cut and get the job done.

Filleting eel is just like filleting any other round fish. It helps if you nail the eel to the cutting board with a nail through the eye. I didn't do this, however, and got it done.

Eel fillets have lots of little bones. I got out the tweezer and tried to pull them out. No can do. And then I looked at the eel recipe in TK's "Under Pressure." They leave the bones in and if it's okay with them, the kings of fussy food, it's okay with me.

I wasn't happy with the uneven portioning. Most of this had to do with the hack-like way in which the fishmonger killed the eels. He made some big cuts into the loin when he gutted them, which made it impossible to portion evenly. Oh well, lesson learned. Next time, I'm really going to buck up and kill the eels with my own hands and do the job with some precision. Another lesson learned was to braised the eels with the skin on. It helps the fillets to retain a nicer shape. The eel proved to be really meaty and held up to long, long cooking. My reasoning for the 4 hour cooking time was to try and soften, or ideally, dissolve the tiny bones.

Eel sauce. I braised the eels in my mom's "red" broth. It contains pigs feet (blanched and washed), water, ginger, garlic, star anise, cinnamon stick, cloves, soy, and sugar. After braising, I cleaned the sauce by passing it until nothing remained in the passet, and then thickened with small amount of corn starch slurry.

I pureed the persimmon pulp with sugar and lemon juice. Then I froze the puree in fleximolds for 2 hours. This was paired with a granita made from celery juice and lemon segment dice. Celery-persimmon is an unusual combination that tastes great. I first combined the ingredients in Venice as an accompaniment to a Branzino crudo and it's become a fall/winter Wu signature.

Use scissors to carefully cut away the "mouth" on the bottom side of the urchin. Then scoop out the gonads, the culinary delicacy, and discard the remaining black viscera. Rinse the gonads, or uni in Japanese, in cold water.

Clean sea urchin gonads. Also known as uni. These were delicious.

Patrick rolling doufu (soybean sheets) knots. Patrick's cuisine draws on his cooking experiences in China and, throughout, Southeast Asia.

Finished knot to be braised and served with shimp, pomelo, shallots, and cilantro.

Peeling shrimp.

Stove are lit up.

Jane always come up huge during these dinner parties -- special touches like hand written menus and parting gifts for the guests.

Impromptu smoker for frankinscense. Frankinscense is an aromatic resin obtained from trees of the genus Boswellia. It used in incense as well as in perfumes. The resin has been a valuable trading commodity on the Arabian peninsula for over 5000 years. Spices, their trade and history, are a major source of inspiration for Patrick's cuisine.

Patrick felt frankinscense would pair well with a fatty fish, like hamachi. Here he cold smokes hamachi with a "tear" of frankinscense.

Waggaman, first to arrive, is put to work picking tarragon plouches.

L'eau de haricot. I cooked borlotti beans, like I would for a pasta e fagioli, with carrot, onion, celery, garlic, leek, and a lot of rosemary. Maybe would have been better to call the dish: Acqua del fagiolo. After gelatin filtration, we were left with this clean, complex full-flavored, amber-clear liquid.

Contemplation.

Tasty.

A la minute prep. Patrick was dans le merde and we diced the hamachi to order.

The smoking did not transfer the flavor of the resin to the fish. In the future, under less hectic conditions, a longer smoke might produce better results. In a last minute improvisation, Patrick grates frankinscense directly onto the hamachi.

Hamachi, passionfruit, tarragon, frankinscense.

Plating uni.

Maine sea urchin, romaine, radicchio, green apple, yuzu-scented dashi. Amazing, seasonal product with a few carefully chosen embellishments. This is my kind of food.

Marked with a pin.

Periwinkles, tamarind, pepper, salt, lime. This was a winner. The tamarind sauce for the periwinkles was delicious. As was the "street food" pepper, salt, lime paste dipping sauce (2/3 coarse mignonette pepper, 1/3 kosher salt, juice of 1 lime).

Pinning periwinkles.

Mike and Sheala.

Grinding.

Nice conversation.

Popping persimmon out of the fleximolds.

Frozen persimmon, celery granita, lemon. I used this sweet-savory course as a mid meal, palate cleanser, representing a division between the small plates and the larger courses.

Grinding.

Sauteing shrimp. They were perfectly cooked, and I'm a hard critic.

Sweethearts (grease spots on camera lens).

Workin'

Doufu knot, shrimp, pomelo, shallot, cilantro

Grinding

Grinding.

The crew: Sheala Hansen, JP Howley, Mike Waggaman, Patrick Hansen, Jane D'Arensbourg.

Workin'. Here I "velvet" flounder. Coat slices of fish with beaten egg white and a mixutre of corn starch, water, and vegetable oil. Then poach/fry at 250 degrees. This is a Chinese cooking technique that can also be applied to chicken and beef.

Walnut soup, velveted Long Island flounder, parsnip, brussels, cranberries (sloppy presentation). The seasonal accompaniments all worked: parnsip contributed sweetness and earthiness; the brussels were earthy/funky; the cranberries, rehydrated in a light orange syrup, provided sweetness, and much needed acidity.

Grinding.

Star Anise-Braised eel, watercress, soy sprouts, mint, scallions, frisee. This was yummy comfort food (and the bones weren't really noticeable).

Listening to the Eel schpiel before tucking in.

Black sesame, jackfruit, wolfberries, osmanthus.

Patrick prepares the Gong Fu tea service. This elaborate ceremony, provided dramatic theater at the table, and immense pleasure on the palate. It was super refreshing after a long meal.

Pouring the water.

Pouring the steeped tea into the serving pot.

I'm doing the itsy bitsy spider.

Tea ready to be served.

Patrick serves the tea using wooden tweezers. The tea is meant to be drunk in three sips.

Mike and Sheala.

Poached quince, cream, cardamom syrup, pumpernickle croutons.

Still life: Liquids

The line up.

Some great cremant de Jura made by Stephan Tissot. Also a nice German Riesling and a pinot blanc from Alsace.

Some nice reds from France: 1. a syrah/granache blend and 2. a somethin/sumthin and 3. G-Spot, a Pinot from the Loire. I was unable to take good mental wine notes by this point.

We finished up with a really nice Vin Santo and then made St. Germain digestifs.

Winter Dinner Party, 12/7/08

2008-12-08T22:18:00.033-05:00

Consomme of celery branch, toasted barley water, and black truffle was the first dish that I got onto the per se menu. We ran it as a veg set off the canape station. I decided that I wanted to recreate the dish at home for a dinner party. It's pretty involved and, in retrospect, it's not a dish to prepare at home -- too complicated and time-consuming. The flavor combination of celery-truffle-barley just popped into my head. It may sound odd, but, trust me, it is delicious. The technique for clarification is called gelatin filtration. Take any strained liquid and add a small amount of gelatin. Freeze the liquid plus gelatin and allow the ice block to thaw over several layers of cheese cloth, in a refigerator. The gelatin forms long strands that attract the fat molecules that make the liquid opaque. Water freezes around these strands. When the block is thawed, the water drips through the flavor particles trapped in the strands of gelatin. The resulting water is flavored and clear. This equals consomme.

In a dry casserole, I toasted the faro (a substitute for barley). This brought out the deeper nutty flavor that I was looking for.

I added water to the toasted faro and simmered until the liquid reduced by two-thirds.

Juicing celery with the machine that Martin and Tracy gave us when they moved to London. Thanks, mates! By the way, juicing the celery makes an incredibly loud, abrasive sound -- high pitched ferocity, like a band saw, ripping through a fat shin bone.

3.5 parts celery juice to 1 part toasted faro water to 0.5 parts black truffle juice. If I had unlimited resources, I'd up the proportion of black truffle juice to 1 part, but, yo, each can is $85.

Mix all the liquids together, plus the melted gelatin.

Pop the whole sucker in the freezer and make a celery/black truffle juice/toasted faro water ice block.

LeBernardin style shrimp stock. Saute whole shrimp. Sweat shallots (I skipped them) and add lots of tomato paste. Add fumet or water to cover. Simmer. Buzz everything and pass several times. It's pretty decadent to use whole shrimp just for stock, but, hell, the flavor is just great.

I pureed cleaned shrimp with salt, flamed-out madiera, and cream. Then I passed the puree through a tamis. This is a huge pain in the ass (imagine the cleaning involved).

I piped the mousse onto the sole fillets. The top one is wonky because I was trying to pipe with one hand and take a photo with the other. Couldn't quite multitask well enough. The other two look quite sweet, though.

A completed sole bullet. That looks dope. They were wrapped in two layers of plastic. This is a fussy thing to do. Poach at 140 degrees F.

The ice block. I set up three layers of cheescloth over a perforated 4-inch half-hotel pan, set up over a 6-inch half hotel pan. I plunked the block onto the cheesecloth and, nervously, waited.

Supreming grapefruit for a tart. Winter is peak citrus season.

One to one grapefruit juice and sugar, equals poaching liquid.

I poured the boiling grapefruit syrup over the supremes.

Jane presses the shortbread dough into the tart mold.

Getting that dough up in there.

Chopping cashews.

Roasting delicata squash. I should have covered them with aluminum foil so that they steam-roasted. Instead, I dry-roasted them uncovered. The result, was just that, dry. What to do? I had to get some moisture back into the squash and, improvised a chinese "red cook" broth: water, star anise, ginger, soy, sugar. Then I simmered the unintentionally dehydrated delicata planks in the broth until it nearly evaporated and turned into a glaze. Topped with toasted cashew crumble, the red-cook-glazed delicata squash turned out to be pretty darn tasty.

Jane meticulously picks celery leaves.

Mise en place.

The block melted very slowly. I doubted that I would have enough consomme by dinner. Merde.

I made a sabayon. In a medium metal bowl, I whisked together 2 eggs and 2 yolks, plus 1/4 of a cup of sugar. I put the bowl over a medium pot filled with 1 inch of simmering water. Then, I whisked until the eggs became foamy. Then incrementally I added 1 cup lemon juice + grapefruit poaching liquid, while continuing to whisk vigorously. I turned off the heat when sabayon tightened up to the point where I could see the bottom of the bowl with each pass. Then I whiksed in 6 tablespoons of cold butter, one tablespoon at a time. In total it was close to 20 minutes of whisking. Over the years, I developed quite a set of whisking muscles, making O+P every day for five months.

Pouring the sabayon into the cooked tart shell.

Jane shingled the poached grapefruit segments on to the set sabayon.

She lines it all up very beautifully.

Sauteed Maine Diver Scallop in Saor. Saor is a Venetian, sweet and sour marinade. It was used to preserve vegetables and fish for long ocean voyages. My version of saor contained red wine vinegar, water, sugar, diced red onion, capers, and currants.

Workin'.

Consomme garnish. Celery branch baton, dice of celery root, faro, and poached quail egg. I forgot Jane's beautiful celery leaves. Someone shoot me. Damn.

Soup was poured table side. Look at the consomme -- it's amber-clear! I love the way this soup tastes.

Tempuraing hen of the woods mushrooms. I was pissed because the tempura batter got soggy right away. What's up Nobu? I used his recipe because I didn't have my recipe mole skine on hand. Big mistake.

Poached sole with shrimp mousseline, tempura hen of the woods mushroom, sunchoke puree, and shellfish emulsion.

"Red cooked" delicata squash, cashew nuts and a salad of arugula, treviso radicchio, and frisee.

The whole tart, ready to be sliced up.

Dessert. The custard was runny. Either the sabayon was not cooked enough or the moisture from the grapefruit segments seeped into the custard, loosening it. Also, next time around, I want more tartness. This one was too sweet for my taste. Pretty photo, though.

The crew: Heather White, Nelson Loskamp, Jen and Jimmy Vellano, Jane.

Jim was cracking us up with his stories. He always does.

Aftermath, still life.

What we drank. This was the most ambitious, techinically difficult home-cooked meal I've ever done. Because the food was high-concept, my expectation were also very high. I made some mistakes and it bugs the heck out of me. That said, the guests were thrilled and, in the end, that's all that matters.

Dinner at Tamara and Grant's, 12/6/08

2008-12-08T21:32:00.003-05:00

Jane and I were invited to dinner at Grant and Tamara's cozy nest in Williamsburg. It was a lovely evening, filled with good food, conversation, and vibes.

Potato, bean, onion, and garlic casserole with a side of Broccoli Rabe. This really hit the spot and I had three helpings.

Jane and Grant about to grind on.

Grant gets blinded by the camera's flash mid-sentence.

Tamara happily improvises an apple crisp -- it contained apples (I think they were Macintoshes), flour, butter, sugar, oats, and craisins. It was delicioso!

Fall Dinner, 11/16/08

2008-11-25T22:41:00.013-05:00

On a mild Friday in November, Jane and I went on a foraging mission through Union Square Greenmarket.

The English carrot guy sells his peelers and entertains.

The kohlrabi looks beautiful. Mental note for a near-future dinner party.

I love mustard greens because of their sharp flavor.

Scone on the run. Jane needs her breakfast.

Probably, the last of the season concord grapes. Glad to have found them!

Sunchokes. They cause flatulence in some people, but I say the flavor is worth it.

Potato season is here!

Sprouts on the stalk are alien-like.

Jane picks brussel sprouts.

Moo radishes!

Northery Spy Apples. I was told that they are great for baking.

Delicata squash. They are sweet like butternut, but more delicate in flavor and texture. Bryan Hunt, made Jane and I an amazing green salad with Delicata when we visited him at Insieme last year.

Assorted winter squash. Might be nice to bake the little pumpkins and fill them with soup.

Back home, I got started, meezing dinner. First, I popped corn. On the stove, I sweated shallots and garlic. Once translucent, I added chicken stock.

Combine popped corn, shallots, garlic, and chicken stock in the vita. Puree, pass, and, viola, popcorn soup.

I blanched the quail eggs for 2 minutes and shocked them in ice water. Supposedly, heavily salting the blanching water helps with the peeling later. I gave it a try and it seemed to work because peeling the eggs wasn't too big of a headache. I pané a l’ anglaised the eggs (flour, milk[beaten eggs traditionally], breadcrumbs).

Poached, breaded quail eggs, ready to fried on the pick.

The concord grapes had seeds. Also, the skin was tough. What to do? I cut petals around the the seeds. Then peeled the skin from the petals. But, the grape pulp has no color. All the purple pigment is in the skin. So, I pushed the grape trimmings, skin and the pulp surrounding the seeds, through a passet. That liquid, acidified with a touch with lemon juice, combined with the clean pulp petals made a delicious garnish for the cured hamachi.

Slicing cured hamachi with a buffalo-antler-handle nenox sujihiki.

Sauteed Northern Spy apples for the turnover filling.

Guests are here; it's go time. Pamela, Paul, Amber, and Michael joined Jane and I for a lovely dinner. Amuse bouche: Poached, fried quail egg with porchini and white truffle.

Workin'.

Cured hamachi, concord grape, moo radish, radish tops.

Popcorn soup, curly mustard salad with smoked salmon.

Big smile, happy diners: the Wambers!

Big-time art power around the table, getting ready to tuck into the soup.

Mid-service, stove-top still life.

Sauteed cod, brussel sprouts, and sunchokes.

Apple turnovers and vanilla icecream. Hey, what can I say -- I like rustic desserts.

Jane and Pamela connect.

Luminous Jane.

A toast! Forgot to record exact tasting notes but remember that we drank a Movia Ribolla, a delicious Sekt, and various French pinot noirs.

Weber is a saint. He helps with the dishes and clean up.

Aftermath, still life. Dinner finished, we piled into a car and made our way to Broadway East for dancing fun!

breakfast with mom, mer, and jane, 11/2/08

2008-11-02T19:18:00.016-05:00

Whoa! Dynasty, on Hester and Elizabeth, has been reincarnated into Hong Kong Supermarket. This is THE place in NY to shop for Asian dry goods.

I stopped by Aqua Best, on Grand and Forsyth, to buy live blue crabs.

Picking out she-crabs.

Crabs by the bushel.

Jane peels shrimp.

1000 year old egg. Duck or chicken eggs are coated in a clay-like plaster of red earth, garden lime, salt, wood ash, and tea for about 100 days. I want to do this at my restaurant.

The white becomes black and the yolk becomes green. Looks weird, but tastes great.

I washed the rice until the water ran clear. This is the first step in making rice porridge.

Next, I blitzed one 1000 year old egg in the vita.

I mixed the 1000 year old egg puree with two tablespoons of soy sauce and added this marinade to the uncooked rice.

The rice marinated for 30 minutes.

Delicata squash

I scooped the seeds and sprinkled each half with salt and olive oil. On the pick up, I broiled them for about 6 minutes, until the flesh became golden brown.

Steamed Chinese egg custard.

When the custard started to set, I added chopped shrimp and garlic chives.

Mise en place for my chili crabs: lemon grass, garlic, ginger, scallion, shallots. and chili pepper.

Mom washed and boiled the crabs.

After a little instruction, Mer made the scallion pancakes.

Roll out a circle of dough.
Dough = 2 cups all purpose flour + 1 cup boiling water (easy, huh)

Brush dough with sesame oil and then sprinkle with sliced scallions.

Roll the circle of dough into a tube.

Roll the tube into a sprial, like a snail. Finally, flatten the snail into circle. The scallion pancake is finished and ready to be cooked.

Mom browned the scallion pancaked on the griddle.

Jane peeled 1000 year old eggs and then cut them into wedges to garnish the rice porridge.

Chili crabs.

Our breakfast spread.

Condiments for the rice porridge: pickled greens, pickled mustard, 1000 year old eggs, red cooked pork belly.

Grinding.

More grinding.

This is some of my favorite comfort food.

Movia tasting with Aleš Kristančič, 10/21/08

2008-10-21T20:50:00.026-04:00

It was a crisp, clear day in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This was the view from the back of DOC wineshop. Inside, Slovenian vintner-artisan Aleš Kristančič (Ale-sh Kristan-chech) presided over an unforgettable tasting of his Movia wines.

Five of us, Natalie, David, Spero, Kylie, and I, sat down around a wooden table as Aleš poured the first wine, Movia Ribolla 2006, and began to speak urgently about his life and his passion for the wines that he makes. What follows are sound bites from my recollections of the six-hour tasting.

- Aleš told us that when he was a young boy he begged his father to take him on a trip to the city to sell Movia wines. His father relented and said yes, which made Aleš happy because he got to skip school. At the same time, hearing the story, I could tell that already at that young age Aleš was passionate about wine and proud to be in a winemaking family.

- importance of wild yeast because it is a direct flavor additive; industrial yeasts add flavors that aren’t supposed to be there – for example, bananas.
- pruning old vines concentrates sugars and flavors in remaining grapes.
- pruning young vines causes them to dig deeper into the soil with their roots.
- winemakers should grow the grapes that are indigenous or have historical precident.

- capri menthol cigarettes compliment the minty nose of Movia Savignon Blanc, 2006.
- barrels for Lunar, the wine made from clusters of whole Ribolla grapes, are built to imitate grapes with the wood to wine ratio equal to that of skin and pulp.

- Aleš has huge hands with thick fingers – the hands of a farmer. As a child, when at the table with other kids, he would keep his farmer hands under the table because he was embarrassed. Later in life, when working in the vineyards, Aleš stained his hands black, doing what he does -- laboring in dirt, growing grapes, making wine. Scrubbing with soap cleaned his hands and removed odors, but the black stains remained. While in a police station, Aleš was required to give his fingerprints and, therefore, had to remove the stains from his hands. Since soap was not working, he washed his hands with bleach, which removed the stains and is demonstrative of Aleš’ toughness.

- swirling wine captures the energy of the surrounding air/enrivonment.
- let nature speak.
- man cannot control nature.

- fast growing varietals have long distance between buds; vice versa for slow growing varietals
- Aleš believes there should be a new way of judging wine. Rather than a 100 point scale, a photo is taken of the winedrinker’s face a moment after tasting wine.

- young grape leaves are active and filled with sugars; therefore, they are preyed upon by fungus, mold, insects.
- older grape leaves are inactive and do not contain sugars and serve mainly as umbrellas.

- grapes are ready to be harvested when the seed is mature and ready to propogate.
- wine is fun and needn't be overintellectualized.
- biodynamic wines don't get you drunk nor hung over.
- microscope slide of Movia wine will show minerals, organisms; these are islands with people smoking marlboros and partying.
- the living matter in Movia wine coats the alcohol like a film of oil and helps to prevent you from getting hammered.
- taking pleasure in an activity that is theoretically harmful to the human body, like smoking, only is harmful if no pleasure is taken in the activity.

- adds must (freshly pressed grape juice that contains the skins, seeds, and stems) to wine to induce secondary fermentation in his sparkling wine, Puro.
- Movia pino grigio vines are 90 years old
- grapes are planted according to the natural topography of the vineyard (rather than bulldozing hills to create evenly spaced grids of vines, something Aleš thinks is stupid)

Aleš opens Puro, his un-disgorged sparkling wine. This rose is made from %100 pino nero wine bottled with the addition of some reserved pino nero must. I love this method because it is all natural -- rather than add liqueur de tirage (sugar solution and yeast), Aleš adds, must, grape juice that contains sugars and yeasts. In the bottle the yeast eats the sugar and creates carbon dioxide, bubbles. Once all the sugar is consumed, the yeast dies becoming lees, which imparts flavor to the wine over time. In a radical move, the Puro lees are left in the bottle, rather than disgorged in the winery.

The bottle was upside down and on ice for close to four hours before being opened. This froze the lees in the tip of the bottle. Aleš uncorked Puro in a pitcher of water, disgorging the frozen plug, readying the wine for drinking.

Spero, the painter, with direction from Aleš, portrays God, wine, rainbows, Marlboros and tsak.

This tasting was so fun that I thought about it for days afterwards. I am a believer in what Movia wines stand for.

chicken and waffles, 10/19/08

2008-10-20T09:20:00.010-04:00

Jane and I hosted Sunday brunch. The cast included Stephanie, David Norris, and Nisa. We devoured some fried chicken and waffles.

Chicken legs and thighs dredged in flour, beaten egg, and bread crumbs.

Jane stirs Adluh Brother's Stone Milled Grits. These course grits, from Columbia South Carolina, are so good!

Frying in cast iron. It's the way to go.

Workin'.

Golden-brown catfish.

Amuse bouche: Frisee fritatta with pimenton aioli.

Amuse Bouche: Sunchoke Soup.

Fried chicken, waffles, adluh bro. grits, blis maple syrup, gravy.

Fried catfish, waffles, adluh bros. grits, blis maple syrup.

Grinding.

David grubs. He does not like when his wet grits touch his crispy waffles and chicken. This is discerning.

Jane savors.

It was a nice easy Sunday morning/afternoon, helped along with bellinis.

cousin brunch, 10/18/08

2008-10-19T19:46:00.015-04:00

The cousins and babies came over for brunch. Having everyone over at our house was a lot more fun than being stressed out in a restaurant.

Sunchokes are in season and one of my favorite vegtables.

Because of their irregular shape, peeling sunchokes is time consuming. It's worth it, though, to unlock their sweet, nutty, earthy flavor.

Making sunchoke soup. Saute the peeled sunchokes until they are caramelized. Add onions, sweat. Cover with chicken or vegetable stock and simmer until chokes are tender. Puree, pass, and finish with heavy cream or 1/2 & 1/2.

Making a frisee frittata. I love frisee because it has a bitter bite. It's good in a frittata.

The finished fritatta. You gotta have eggs at brunch.

The spread:
- Sunchoke soup
- Bagels and lox
- Frisee frittata with pimenton aioli
- Arugula salad dressed with old balsamico and olio verde EVO
- Waffles with macerated strawberries and Blis maple syrup
- Crepes filled with nutella and bananas

Grinding.

Lillian and Maddy.

Samson gets started on his PhD. It makes sense that Mom is a psychologist.

Sarah has a quiet moment to eat (Sammy is off with Mike, exploring the bedroom).

Still life of the bar area.

Victor feeds Maddy smoked salmon, which she happily devours. The girl likes to eat!

Maddy and Samson at play on the living room floor.

Sammy hams it up, again!

Rough-housing with Sammy.

dinner at chez howley-hansen, 10/12/08

2008-10-14T19:43:00.016-04:00

The outside of Chez Howley-Hansen.

JP recently built this table. The top is two particle board floor tiles and the legs are made from scaffolding struts. Function as aesthetic is my favorite design.

Chez Howley-Hansen is filled with JP's paintings.

Before dinner, JP and I headed up to the roof to play some guitar. It was a crisp, October evening.

Will Oldham

Devendra Banhart

Jane arrives.

Domesticity.

Appetizer plate: jamon serrano, apples, sliced baguette, kewpie-mustard (inspired by Dave Chang at Ssam Bar). The Berkshire Ham was eaten already.

Holy baguette portrait.

Workin'.

More workin'.

Grinding.

Sea bass and mixed lettuce salad.

JP's station.

Gnocchi.

Absinthe was chosen as the degustif.

Burn the sugar.

Pour the absinthe over the sugar.

Enjoy!

game day, 10/13/08

2008-10-14T19:09:00.014-04:00

Mike Waggaman and I have tradition of eating good grub and watching sporting events. I do the cooking and Mike hosts and takes care of the drinks. It's called "Game Day." In the past we've eaten wagyu burgers, roasted chicken, pan-fried fish, Portugese stew, and many other hearty dishes. This time around, we grubbed soft tacos with skirt steak, chipotle salsa, tomatillo-jalepeno salsa, refried beans, and Mexican rice. We washed it down with a cascade of Pacificos.

I generally drink Latin beers and, in this case, light, refreshing Pacifico is a perfect match for the carne asada tacos and spicy salas.

Broiling skirt steak. I love skirt steak because it has so much flavor. The steaks were marinated in minced onions and garlic plus ground cumin, coriander, paprika, cayenne for 24 hours. Grilling is the best, but we're in Chinatown and that's not an option. Besides, any direct heat technique that give some char works for skirt steak. Make sure to slice against grain!

Some serious grub.
To make the tomatillo salsa:
- Husk and wash 8 tomatillos
- Stem, wash, and split 4 jalapenos, lengthwise.
- Peel, slice 1/4 onion.
- Season tomatillos, jalepenos, and onion with salt and EVO.
- Wrap in aluminum foil and roast/steam in a 450 degree oven for 45 minutes.
- Puree the everything, plus a handful of washed cilantro, in a food processor

To make the chipole salsa:
- Wash 1 container of grape tomatoes. Season with salt and EVO and roast in a saute pan in a 450 degree oven for 45 minutes with on can of chipotle peppers.
- Puree in a food processor.

Taco garnish:
- chopped lettuce
- avocado
- lime

Grinding.

Doing damage.

Jock is the new hipster.

blue hill at stone barns, 10/2/08

2008-10-07T10:39:00.020-04:00

Elizabeth, Brian, Jane and I had a magical evening at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York. Before, our sumptuous, five-hour-long meal, we took a self-guided tour of some of the Stone Barn's green houses and vegetable gardens. The following are some photos of our explorations in a locavore's paradise.

We rented a zip car to make the 45 minute trip to Pocantico Hills from Brooklyn.

The Blue Hill at Stone Barns logo contains a naturalistic portrait of a cow. Comforting and bucolic.

The animals raised on the property have much land to graze on and roam freely.

We arrived around 5:30pm, two hours before our reservation. That gave us time to explore the property.

Jane peers into the vegetable garden.

Stone Barns has a welcoming atmosphere. We entered green houses, filled with vegetables and herbs. There was a rubber chicken-head mask on a broom.

Sorrell, one of my favorite herbs.

Mustard Greens.

Early evening autumnal light illuminates beautiful vegetables.

Jane's greenhouse self-portrait.

Greenhouse portrait of the ladies.

Greenhouse portrait of the gentlemen in suits.

Stone Barnes is predicated on the ideals of sustainability, locality, and seasonality.

A floppy-eared rabbit in a hutch. Cute.

The light really was amazing on that early evening.

Entering the courtyard of Stone Barns restaurant.

A last minute cell phone call before we entered the restaurant and gave ourselves over to an epicurian fantasy.

What I can recall of what we ate that evening:
1. purple cauliflower, cheddar cauliflower, baby carrots, radishes on a fence
2. last of the season's green beans with their flowers
3. parm crackers with herbs
4. baloney, coppa, pate and chocolate
5. face bacon
6. smoked kale, sage-potato chips
7. veal bone and sturgeon caviar
8. farro crisps, ricotta, carrot salt, arugula salt
9. fairy eggplant, sesame seeds and bacon
10a. red beet, golden beet, mixed greens, pickled plums
10b. sashimi of blue fish, apples, radishes, sturgeon caviar
11. green gazpacho, red tomato sorbet, hazelnuts
12. poached-fried egg, chicken of the woods mushrooms
13. raw and poached celtuse, yogurt foam, nut puree
14. artichoke tortellini, pomodoro
15a. bass, zucchini, raisins, curry sauce
15b. lamb shoulder, eggplant puree
16. cheese course: goat x 2, gouda x 2, seckle pair X 2, honey comb
17a. chocolate cake, currants and raspberries
17b. figs, honey, walnut icecream
18. lemon verbena tea, anise hyssop tea, darjeeling, pineapple sage
19. yogurt marshmallow, sesame chocolate
20. concord grapes, figs, raspberries on a fence

What we drank. I can't remember the producers or the vintage of the wine:
1a. Non-alcoholic Gerwurtztraminer
1b. Elderflower
1c. Ramp martini
1d. Concord
2. Chassagne Montrachet
3. Vouvray
4. Margaux

Rustic Dinner, 9/28/08

2008-10-05T23:58:00.007-04:00

It was Sunday evening and there was a Autumn chill in the air. JP, Sheala, Patrick, and Mike joined Jane and I for a low key dinner.

Cooking pasta.

Shells with zucchini, smoked salmon, arugula, and a roasted tomato sauce.

Grinding.

Kale soup with potatoes, parsnips, carrots, and, in some cases, bacon and pulled pork jowls.

The soup was served with toasted focaccia.

We moved into the living room and drank some off-dry wine.

The temp gun makes and appearance!

What we drank.

early fall green market dinner, 9/21/08

2008-09-25T10:05:00.059-04:00

Elizabeth Beer and Brian Janusiak graciously invited a group of friends over to their Brooklyn home for a lovely early Fall dinner. I wrote a menu based on greenmarket produce.

Union Square Green Market, a huge source of inspiration.

The produce in the photo says, "ratatouille!"

Like many, many New Yorkers, Jane and I prefer local and organic when we can.

Sorrel is one of my favorite herbs -- it's acidic, tasting of lemon and grass.

I bought close to three pounds!

Jane forages yellow wax beans.

I love September, when hierloom tomatoes are in full swing.

Lots of potatoes.

Cranberry (Borlotti) beans, fresh limas, fresh edamame.

Pork jowls.

Picking sorrel.

Pickin' limas.

Where my commis at?

Braised short ribs and pork jowls.

Blanched haricots verts.

Removing the leaves from the stems of cavalo nero (tuscan black kale). I mince the stems finely and saute them in EVO. Then, separately, I sweat hacher onion and add the torn leaves and braise them with little water.

How not to make sorrel soup. Sorrel turns puke brown when blanched. Don't do this. Instead, make a bright green sorrel soup, starting with a potage parmentier (potato and leek soup) base. Cool it and then, in the blender, add raw, washed sorrel leaves. The results won't look like dirty dish water.

The potatoes, a mix of Austrian Fingerlings and Yellow Finns, were cooked in their jackets until easily pierced by a knife. After the potatoes cooled they were peeled and put through the "ricer," a food mill-like tool.

Nuala smashes some potatoes.

Orla gets in on the action!

Combining potatoes, flour, egg yolks, and salt into a dough.

Dividing the dough into managable pieces, which will later be rolled into gnocchi.

Orla rolls gnocchi like a pro! Seriously, impressive.

Elizabeth and Orla cranking out gnocchi.

Beautiful gnocchi.

The chefs taste their work.

Chopping the short rib and pork jowl meat before adding it to a roasted tomato sauce.

Meticulous by nature and precise through training, Jane sorts greenmarket berries for the trifle dessert.

Plating trifles with Orla.

Jane and I rocking a service.

Workin'.

Plates coming together.

I love the colors.

We started with some finger food: Sheep's milk ricotta with rosemary, thyme, good EVO, salt and pepper. This was served with grilled country bread.

Sorrel soup with heirloom tomatoes and American caviar.

Salad of haricots verts, yellow wax beans, cranberry beans, fresh limas, fresh edamame, olive oil poached tuna, and old balsamico.

Gnocchi, cavalo nero, beef and pork ragu.

This was an international crew: Euridice and Thomas hoped over from Berlin; Renee and Josh flew from San Francisco; Maggie and Susana rode in from the East Village.

Happy diners.

Dessert was a berry trifle made with whipped Ronny Brook Farms cream. With this course, we drank a Brachetto.

Grinding.

Everyone housed the dessert.

Elizabeth and Susana polishing off the trife.

Jane and Renee share a moment.

Brian raids his stash for a digestif. He's got a lot of really interesting brown liquor.

Hudson's baby bourbon. It's made from 100% corn and it tastes young and fresh. To me it was like chewing on corn shoots, sweet, light, a little grassy. Very easy drinking.

Maggie and Susana sniff the juice and contemplate the possibilities.

Wow. Brian has a bottle from Barrel 1, of LeNell's special brew. This is very rare. There was a lot going on in that glass: tar, tobacco, stewed dark fruits, hints of coconut. It's special stuff that you could sip and ponder for hours.

Renee plays with Lola the cat.

Bourbons and rye whiskeys that we tasted.

The wine that we drank:
1. Gavi, Nuova Abbazia di Vallechiara, 2006
-- crisp with minerality, paired with the ricotta and the sorrel soup
2. Barbera d'Asti, Ronco Malo, Bera Figli, 2005
-- with an acidic backbone, this lighter red had spicy notes and the
versatiltiy to pair with the bean salad as well as the gnocchi dish
3. Rosa Regale Brachetto, Brachetto, 2007
-- this bubble off-dry was beautiful with the berry trifle

Barter Dinner III, 5/22/08

2008-09-14T22:39:00.000-04:00

Eric helped us, once again, with his IT skills and we had him and Andrew Zipern over for barter dinner III.

Prepping asparagus.

Jane picks tarragon.

Sauces in the making.

Eric montes the truffle beurre blanc. After three barter dinners, the man has acquired some finesse in the kitchen!

Amuse Bouche: Lobster Arancini on a "Bubble" Plate by Jane D'Arensbourg.

To accompany the arancini, we drank a Muralhas de Monaco, Vinho Verde, Branco. It was lightly effervescent with lively acidity and green fruits on the nose and palate. I got really into Vinho Verde last summer, buying $4 Gazela all the time. The Muralhas de Monaco is a bit fancier, but at $10 a great value that went nicely with the food.

Andrew is an enthusiastic foodie and fun to cook for.

Blissed out diners make the chef feel really good inside. It's why I do what I do.

Plating the first course.

Fluke sashimi with buttermilk-yuzu vinny, cucumbers, grapes, and chives. This one was inspired by Bruni's description of Dave Chang's fluke dish served at Momofuko Ko, which is inspired by the buttermilk-fluke dish served by Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

Table-side service.

Corn soup with crab salad, asparagus, and fines herbs. Sorry about using-off-season corn. It won't happen again.

Saucing the first fish course.

Sauteed shrimp, okra, do-pi, pineapple, lardon, and gumbo sauce.

Eric and Andrew are hyer-connected tech-heads. Here they are twittering.

Kitchen action.

Steamed fluke with yellow garlic chives, truffle beurre blanc, and scallions. We drank a 2006 Domaine de Veilloux, Cheverny. It is a blend of Gamay and Pinot Noir. With medium body and a mix of bright fruit, earthy aromas, and delicate tannins, it paired really nicely with this dish.

Jane about to get her grind on.

Jane's banana puddin' dessert went really well with the Rielsling, which was recommended by Spero over at DOC.

green market dinner, 9/9/08

2008-09-10T09:34:00.000-04:00

I love the late summer, early fall. Produce is abundant and the cooler evenings are conducive to fuller, richer dishes for increased appetites. A recent foraging mission found Union Square Green Market's stalls bountiful with berries, stone fruits, heirloom tomatoes, leafy greens, legumes, and on and on. Jane and I, nibbling on a raspberry-orange muffin, gleefully foraged 1/2 a pound of husk cherries (aka cape gooseberries), 1 pound of red grapes, 1/2 pound of black berries, 1/2 pound of padron peppers, 1 pound of green beans, 4 heads of dark red leaf lettuce, 6 ears of corn, and 1&1/2 pound assorted hierloom tomatoes. This was our dinner, happily shared with Molly and Brad McDonald.

Sheets of pasta drying. Pasta is 8oz of all purpose flour, 6 yolks, 1 whole egg, 1&1/2 teaspoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon milk, pinch of salt.

Mixing the filling for the cheese cake: 24oz. cream cheese, 2/3 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons all purpose flour, 1/4 cup half and half, 3 eggs.

The crust for the cheese cake is 3/4 stick of butter, 1/2 cup light brown sugar, 3/4 cup all purpose flour, 1/2 cup finely chopped blanched almonds.

Dicing Spanish Mackerel for tartare. This is one of my favorite fish to eat raw. The flesh is richly flavored and luxuriously textured. It can stand up to assertive flavors like chili, wasabi, and ginger. I had some kizami wasabi, the chopped stems and leaves of the wasabi plant, hanging out in my freezer and decided to mix it into the tartare along with small dice of red grape, lime supreme, husk cherry, and assorted hierloom tomatoes.

Toasted hazelnuts, chopped, added to Handlmaier's hausmachersenf (sweet German mustard), sherry vinegar, hazelnut oil, and canola oil became a dressing for a salad of green beans and dark red leaf lettuce.

Padron peppers, hierloom tomatoes, husk cherries.

Glazing pearl onions.

Most padron peppers are mild and sweet. Perversely, one out of ten is spicy hot. Since Padron peppers are native to Northern Spain, I was surprised and stoked to see them at the green market!

Blistering padron peppers.

Green beans.

"Frenched" green beans.

Plating the mackerel tartare.

Spanish mackerel tartare with gooseberries, red grapes, heirloom tomatoes, lime, kizme wasabi, and Jane's homegrown arugula.

Molly, relaxed, happy, and about to get her grind on!

Salad of green beans, dark red leaf lettuce with a hazelnut vinny.

Cutting the tag to order.

Fresh tag with soubise, glazed red pearl onions, roasted corn, blistered padron peppers, and parsley. I will make this again.

Down the hatch.

Mid-dinner still life.

Brad sniffs the Joly Coulee de Serrant, 2003. This was an immensely interesting wine, with complex aromas and a myriad of flavors on the palate. Some of the things that we smelled and tasted were nuts, honey, amaretto, marzipane, vanilla, coconut, white flowers, clove, apple sauce, dried apricot.

Jane contemplates life and the Joly.

Cheescake with minted black berries.

Brad's double-wide-second-helping. He housed it, no prob.

What we drank. It was a very civilized, delightful evening.

road trip, 7/4/08

2008-09-07T11:14:00.000-04:00

Jane and I continued our tradition of road-tripping on July 4th weekend. We rented a car in Wilmington, Delaware and drove south through Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, until we reached our destination, Columbia, South Carolina. Along the way, we tasted some fine American regional cooking.

As we drove through Baltimore, at around 10am, we made a spontaneous decision to stop for crab cakes. I saw the exit for Camden Yards and pulled off of the highway into downtown Baltimore, near the Harbor. We stopped for gas and asked a local where we might find a delectable crab cake. The answer was Lexington Market located a convenient two blocks away.

Once in Lexington Market, we made our way through a myriad of stalls, selling fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, and prepared foods, until we found our fix -- Faidley's Seafood. With it's own little courtyard, Faidley's has a raw bar, a fresh seafood counter, an open kitchen, and a dining area with a few counter tops for standing patrons.

We ordered two deviled eggs, two backfin crabcakes, one softshell crab sandwich, and two teas. The deviled eggs were sweet, made in a Southern style. After this amuse bouche, we tucked into the crab cakes. Exceptionally light and fluffy, yielding easily to the plastic fork, these crabcakes were delicious and not over-adorned, tasting fully of sweet, fresh, oceanic crab. The softy in the sandwich was battered lightly in a breadcrumb crust, which allowed the essential crab flavors to shine through, instead of being overshadowed by the bready flavor of a thick coating.

The next pit stop was in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Following the advice of a couple of gas station employees/BBQ enthusiasts, we decided to visit Gardner's.

This is what Jane ordered: Fried Fish Platter with a side of yams, coleslaw, and hush puppies.

Grinding

Barbecue Platter: Pulled pork seasoned with vinegar sauce, black eyed peas, fries, collard greens, and hushpuppies.

This is Eastern North Carolina style barbecue, which means that the choice of meat is pork, as opposed to beef. After cooking, the pork is pulled and seasoned with a peppery vinegar sauce. As a fatty meat aficionado, I thought that the pork was too lean and therefore a bit dry. Still, though, I was a happy camper because it tasted pretty darn good and I stuffed it down.

Barbecue enthusiast.

In Columbia, Jane's father Russell and his wife Becky treated us to a lunch at a college-type pub. I got a pulled pork sandwich dressed in a sweet and smoky tomato-based sauce, served with fries and a pickle.

On the way back from Columbia, we stopped in Mt. Airy, North Carolina, Andy Griffith's hometown, and the setting for the Andy Griffith Show. This is definition small town America. Just outside of town we pulled over for lunch. I had a Barbecue Sandwich with sides of black eyed peas, collards, and hush puppies.

The 'cue was Western NC style: pulled pork dressed with a tomato-based, sweet and smoky sauce. I put the platter away with gusto.

Jane's plate is in the foreground. She had crab cakes with mac and cheese, slaw, and corn bread.

We each got tea, her's unsweetened and mine sweetened. Jane eats a fried cornmeal dumpling called a hushpuppy. Really, by the end of the trip we were burned out on fried foods and craved something like sushi and sashimi.

12/3/06, the hare, "la lepre"

2008-09-04T17:40:00.000-04:00

Paolo, Al Covo's chef de cuisine, has a passion for hunting. During the weekends, in the wilds near his home, east of Venice, in the region of Friuli, with the assistance of his hounds, he catches a variety of game, including pheasant, deer, and hare. Often, these wild animals found there way into the Al Covo staff meals.

On a cold wintry day, Paolo brought in a big 'ol hare, weighing something close to 5 pounds. The huge hare was skinned and gutted (cooks, Maria and Rocco, are comfortable with the fact that death is a prerequisite to the pleasures of eating meat, an association, most Americans are uncomfortable with and to a large degree unaware of) and, after aging for three days butchered into thighs, legs, shoulders, loins, head. Paolo held up a piece of the deeply red flesh and inhaled. He motioned for me to do the same. The initial bouquet, exactly like really fresh grass feed beef, was followed by an intense finish -- sourish, metallic, lingering in the area where the roof of your mouth meets the back of your throat, exactly the place you punch to make yourself gag. We marinated the hare in red wine with onions, celery, carrots, rosemary, cinnamon and braised it for a couple of hours.

Buon appetito. Sauvage is the best way to describe the flavor of Mr. Hare. His flesh had the offalesque, slightly metallic, wild flavor that cultivated animals lack. With a side of soft polenta, this was a satisfying meal, warming us on a cold, damp, December evening in Venice.

reddings, 8/22/08

2008-08-27T00:29:00.000-04:00

Ann Redding and Matt Danzer are old friends from per se. They opened a gourmet market called Reddings on Shelter Island.

Reddings, 184 North Ferry Road, is in a prime location, near the ferry and adjacent to the water. The weathered wooden shingles and green-striped awning contribute to the store's welcoming charm.

No neon or plastic here. Reddings logo is painted directly on the window, giving the store a time-honored, old-school feel.

Ann, the cashier, working in one of her numerous guises: pastry chef, prep-cook, barista, general manager, buyer, janitor, accountant. She does not like it when I take photos of her and has been working 18-plus-hour days for six months.

Matt, the shop clerk, in one of his many roles: chef, prep-cook, general manager, meat butcher, fish butcher, buyer, pot washer, accountant.

A few of their prepared food items.

Our picnic supplied by Reddings.

Jane munches on a tuna sandwich.

Potato Salad

Grinding.

Jane and I at Wade's beach. We ate a Reddings peanut butter and jelly sandwich there as a snack.

Day 2: We stopped in to Reddings to gather provisions. Ann, the barista, made us some lattes.

Reddings was busy, busy the entire time we were there. Look at that line!

These are Ann's cupcakes. They have developed a following. A few moments after this photo was taken a lady customer bought all of the cupcakes as well as the chocolate covered strawberries. Watch your back Magnolia.

Matt working here as a bagger. He also makes a mean lobster roll.

Alain Ducasse trained Chef Nicolas "Nico" Cantrel lending a hand at Reddings.

Enjoying pain au chocolat with a latte, sitting in a vintage Parisian folding chair that was fabricated in Morocco. The chairs are one of many nice design touches at Reddings, including a large hanging meat hook, vintage light fixtures, and reclaimed wooden counters and tables bought in Pennsylvania Amish country.

Jane and I visited Crescent Beach, where we had another picnic with provisions procured from Reddings.

Jane's scuplture.

I read out loud from Secret Ingredients, a compilation of food writing from The New Yorker. I also wore a purple hat.

Reddings crab cake. It was delicious.

Reddings lentil salad with proscuitto on a baguette.

Grinding.

Mmmm.

Ann and Matt. Their vision and success are an inspiration to me.

Boating in the Peconic Bay, 8/21/08

2008-08-25T21:56:00.000-04:00

Jen and Jim are old friends from per se. During the summer, they spend almost every weekend on their boat, the Poissonier. On a glorious weekend in late August, Jane and I joined them for a few days of nautical fun.

The Poissonier. Incidentally, Jen, Jim and I all once held the title, Chef de Partie Poissonier, up at the mall food court in the sky scraper.

We arrived at the marina in Jamesport late Thursday evening. White wine spritzes were promptly mixed.

Earlier in the day, I fixed some things for a picnic dinner. By the time we got to the boat we were ravenous and, immediately, tucked into pasta salad.

Mise en place for the pasta salad: roasted tomatoes, sauteed salmon, zucchini, rigatoni.

Oh what a treat! Jim procured some potted foie, which was served on grainy croutons with fig jam and ghetto salt.

In the galley, working it.

Corn cake with salad of romaine and watercress.

Grinding.

After a comfortable sleep in the cozy cabin, Jen and Jane enjoying breakfast: eggs and brioche.

Scrambled eggs with Grandma's garlic chives. We've been doing this a lot, but it is that time of year.

Jim gets down on a pain au chocolat. When he was in cooking school, Le Cordon Bleu Paris, he made pain au chocolat during class one day. He brought home fifteen and ended up eating them all for dinner!

And we are off! This is Jen and Jane on the foredeck as we cruised to a sand bar near Shelter Island. The water was especially calm, almost glassy, and very beautiful blue. The sun shone. The air smelled of salt. It was glorious. Note: Riding on the foredeck when the boat is going at high speeds is dangerous and should be avoided. I learned this the hard way and was nearly tossed off the boat at 35 miles per hour.

Captain Jim.

Our wake as we hit 35 mph.

Shelter Island in the distance.

Jane and I on the sand bar. It was a mollusk cemetery covered in shells. The shells combined with thousands of pebbles and rocks, washed ashore from recent storms, made walking perilous. Better to float in the shallow water and harvest oysters. The oysters were everywhere and we collected more than a dozen.

Reentering the boat with our shellfish booty.

Anchored by the sandbar and chilling out.

Famished from exertion, we rode to Claudio's in Greenport for lunch.

Fried bay scallops, fried oysters, fried clams, french fries, raw clams, steamers with drawn butter. Very satisfying.

Cruising back to Jamesport.

We docked and headed out on the North Fork to Shinn Winery.

We tasted several wines: bubbly made in the methode champanoise; "first fruit" savignon blanc and semillon; "coalescence" sauvignon blanc, semillon, viognier, and chardonnay; rose; wild boar doe; and a bigger red made from bordeaux varietals. It was fun.

The vines.

This is Josie. We played catch with her while we tasted wine, until the owner told us to stop. Cool dog. Not so cool guy.

Beckett. She was the other vineyard dog. Cute puppie.

We returned to the boat for a snack. The oysters were chilled and ready to eat. Jen shucked and later stabbed herself.

Jimmy took over the shucking.

These guys were really delicious -- juicy, briny, super fresh.

I got some bruscetta going.

Foie and Frog Hollow Peaches; Goat Cheese and Local Tomatoes

Chowing! After more exertion, we headed out to dinner at the Frisky Oyster, which turned out to be surprisingly good.

barolo dinner, 2/18/08

2008-08-20T10:53:00.000-04:00

My buddy Jason Wagner is an ace sommelier. He and Melissa invited Jane and I over to share a magnum bottle of Cannubi Barolo by Marchesi di Barolo, 2000. Jason and I collaborated on a winter menu to compliment this amazing bottle of wine.

The gracious hosts: Melissa and Jason.

Tar and roses: yellowtail tuna with fennel, celery, and aged balsamico.

Bagna cauda with sweet carrots, la ratte potatoes, tokyo turnips, red radishes and celery.

Grinding.

Zuppa di Fagioli di Lamon con Cavalo Nero. Don't be fooled because it looks like hell. The beans are very, very special -- grown in volcanic soil in the Veneto. If it's brown, hot, and tasty; it's my kind of food.

Whole roasted branzino stuffed with lemons and Tuscan fennel pollen.

Poached halibut with braised bamboo shoots, wood's ear fungus, scallions, and xiao xing broth.

Bone marrow risotto.

Jamming.

Jane and the "Pigs."

vietnamese lunch, 6/2/08

2008-08-16T22:30:00.001-04:00

On a recent visit to Los Angeles, we had a serious eating day. It started with chilaquiles at a sweet Mexican joint in East Los Angeles and continued on to a lunch feast at a Vietnamese restaurant. The cast, Angela, Paul, Jane, and I, had a great time and ended up feeling very full.

Enjoying chilaquiles. Perfect hang-over food.

Seven courses of beef. Wow.

Seafood noodles.

Shrimp on sugarcane.

late summer dinner, 8/12/08

2008-08-16T10:48:00.000-04:00

On a recent trip upstate, Jane and I found ourselves in Grand Central Station with a few minutes to kill. We ambled into O & Co, an olive oil store, where we tasted several delicious infused oils. I particularly liked the bergamot oil, which inspired the following dinner party. For a while, I have wanted to combine bergamot with skate. They finally came together on a Monday night in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with a great cast of characters: Stephanie Moo-Young, David Norris, Sandy Lee, Jane D'Arensbourg, Jonathan Wu, and the king of last minute, Eric Forman.

Butchering skate.

Fuzzy melon.

Reducing pomegranate juice.

We started by opening a bottle of Joseph Landron Muscadet Sevre et Maine Amphibolite Nature, 2007. It was a great apertif and segued nicely to the first course.

Dinner begins: island creek oysters with pineapple vinegar and nori. David brought over a minerally Didier Dagueneau Blanc Fumé de Pouilly, which went nicely with the oysters. I forgot the vintage of the wine, but it had some age.

Scrambled eggs with smoked mackerel and garlic chives from Grandma's garden. This was served with buttered brioche. With this dish we drank a bottle of Boisson-Vadot Bourgone 2005. Eggs and chardonnay made a good match.

Poaching skate wings.

Plating skate. Taking the temperature with the laser.

Poached skate with seabeans, kumquats, bacon lardon, fuzzy melon, bergamot oil, and pomegranate reduction. We drank a red sancerre with this dish: Francois Crochet, Sancerre, Millesime, 2005. This was a tough pairing because there were a lot of flavors going on. It worked, though!

Workin'

Entree salad: Mixed lettuces, frisee, radicchio, lychee, soy sprouts, sauteed shrimp with avocado dressing. This was paired with Condrieu "Les Terrases du palat" 2005.

Jane's peach and champagne gelee. This was washed down with a bottle of Prosecco. I can't remember the maker, but it was surprisingly delicious.

This was a fun crew. We ate and talked and drank. After dinner we made some white wine spritzes with aperol and lime. The bitter liquor Frenet Branca also made an appearance. This put me over the top. And from the looks of it, everyone else too.

Fun with the temp gun

94 degree vein.

Eric demonstrates his gumby-yoga arm action. It became a theme for the night. The temp gun remained popular as well.

The night descended into oblivion, illuminated along the way with bike lights.

jorg koopmann dinner, 4/1/08

2008-08-10T23:21:00.000-04:00

I met Jorg Koopmann in Venice. He is a photographer based in Munich, Germany and has a unique and cool sense of style. Jorg, unexpectedly, visited NYC, and we had him over for dinner. This was a self service menu: bagna cauda, followed by hot pot.

Bagna cauda

Seafood hot pot.

dinner with viv and mike, 7/1/08

2008-08-10T22:40:00.001-04:00

This was a special day because Jane and I bought a new air conditioner. Without the AC, entertaining was becoming unbearable because of the oppressive heat in our apartment. To usher in the new age of climate control, we had Viv and Mike over for dinner. It was a low key affair and a great deal of fun.

Cold, soft tofu with wolfberries, orange segments, pine nuts, arugula, soy, and sesame oil

Loup de mer with Moroccan stew, asparagus, and cous cous.

Tucking in!

Dessert was a chocolate mousse.

Mmmm.

the cub comes to town, 7/14/07

2008-08-07T18:48:00.001-04:00

My buddie Shane Baird is an extremely talented cook. We worked together in Brest, France at Restaurant La Fleur de Sel in 2003. Being American stages in a foreign kitchen bonded us and we have remained friends ever since. I have had great respect for Shane from day one at LFDS when he was working two stations with extreme skill and precision. I thought he was one of the French guys. He was 19 years old then and has always been the young blood in the kitchen. Thus, his nickmame: the Cub. He came to town and we collaborated on a nice little dinner.

Mackerel tartare with snowpea and radish salad with a Korean chili vinaigrette

Cooking shrimp with the shell on results in a flavorful, moist product. The problem is that leaving the shell on makes it difficult for the diner to eat. To get around the problem, Shane used combination of techniques. He cut the shell along the shrimp's back, but left the shell attached on the belly side. He then removed the vein, seasoned with salt and pepper, and inserted a basil leaf.

Making a pineapple gastrique and picking up dishes in a cramped Chinatown kitchen

Basil shrimp with grilled pineapple and gastrique

The usual suspects.

Diver scallop, corn puree, and nori

Happy guests.

Branzino with red amaranth, quinoa, and dashi

The "Shane" salad, where he treats avocado like dairy, using it to make a creamy dressing that coated the greens

This was a rather civilized dinner party.

barter dinner I, 6/10/07

2008-08-07T18:19:00.000-04:00

Through my cousin, Tara, I heard of Eric Forman's IT prowess. I was having problems with my itunes and have no computer skills. As a result, I proposed a barter with Eric: I would cook dinner for him and he would fix my itunes. A deal was made and this is the resultant dinner:

Jane is an ace plater.

Gazpacho consomme with watermelon, cucumber, tomatoes, and marjoram.

Pour the soup table side.

Softshell crab salad.

Eric is introduced to mache.

south indian dinner / the "grape" incident 8/6/07

2008-07-31T20:02:00.000-04:00

In August of 2006, I visited South India with my family. On this amazing trip, we toured Chennai, Mysore, Bangalore, Kerla/Allepy, and Kanyakumari. We ate lots of delicious foods including, poori, dhosai, paratha, gobi manchuri and an assortment of chutneys, my favorite of which was daal-coconut-ginger-chile. One year later, I set off to Jackson Heights, with my buddy and fellow cook, Chung Chow of per se, to source some ingredients to make some South Indian dishes for a dinner party.

Foraging in Jackson Heights, Queens, we found some interesting products like fresh curry leaves and angled luffa.

I drank a glass of spirulina seaweed mixed with water to give me strength for a long cooking day.

Chung made a potato filling for the dhosai. Here he toasts black mustard seeds.

Braised chicken wings with angled luffa

We fit nine people into my tiny Chinatown apartment. It was a lively crowd and the atmosphere raucous.

Salad of kirby cucumbers and watermelon.

This was the famous "grape" incident. We held a contest to see who could fit the most grapes in one's mouth.

Chung stuffs grapes in his mouth.

Michel tried the speed technique and the grapes flew out as fast as the went in.

Dave Guay won without breaking a sweat. We lost count, but it is certain that he got over twenty five grapes into his gaping maw!

barter dinner II, 8/30/07

2008-07-31T14:41:00.000-04:00

Barter dinner II with Eric Forman took place in my tiny Chinatown apartment during a sweltering summer night in August. Eric, an artist and IT wizard, made repairs to my ibook. In return, I cooked him dinner. Some friends joined in on the action and things got wild as the night marched on!

Tomatoes and tarragon

Corn soup with smoked sturgeon salad and fines herbs

Part of my end of the barter was to teach Eric some moves in the kitchen. During this dinner party he learned how to saute fish and to butter out a sauce.

Crispy skin branzino with sunchokes, spinach, and soy-ginger emulsion

We ate and talked and drank.

The remnants of dessert: chocolate pain perdue, peanut crumble, and some other stuff.

after dinner began the song and dance

still life: "it's over"