Grilled Chicken and Fried Okra

Busy times call for simple dishes and this is exactly what this dish is.  The grilled chicken was an add on for the planned fried okra and it worked perfectly.

 Here's everything you need for the entire dish.  Olive oil, pepper, salt, corn meal, chicken and okra.

I seasoned the chicken breast with some salt and pepper and got it ready to go on the grill.

While the chicken was on the grill I sliced the okra and then coated it in some of the cornmeal and it went into some oil in a pan.

It took about 10 minutes but this is what the okra looked like when it was completed.

The completed plate.  Again, simple but very delicious.

Alinea at Home: Matsutake, Pine Nut, Mastic, Rosemary

Ugh, has it really been a month since my last post.  I really kind of suck at this blogging thing.  So we're coming up on a year since I started working my way through the Alinea cookbook which  is just insane.  This project thus far has really stretched me as a cook and for that I'm thankful.  I never thought I would have been able to successfully pull of some of the dishes I have.  Naturally, things aren't the same working out of my home kitchen when compared to how they would turn out in the Alinea kitchen.  But the bottom line is that I'm having fun and I'm making truly amazing food at the same time.

This dish is basically the quintessential fall dish (yes I know it's not quite fall yet), but the flavors are pure September or October.

 The first step was to make the gels that I used as sort of a garnish.  The first gel was rosemary gel.  I steeped a rosemary sprig in some boiling water.  Once the rosemary had steeped, I took the water and mixed it with some sugar and brought it to a boil.. Once the mixture was at a boil a pinch of low acyl gellan gum went in.  It's basically powdered gelatin. 

 I buzzed the whole mixture in a blender for a bit and poured into a little casserole pan to let it set.  This is what it looked like at the end.

The second gel I made was a sherry vinegar version.  Same process as the rosemary, just without the herbs.

I next made the mastic cream.  This included heavy cream, water, sugar, eggs, and mastic. Mastic is a resin that is derived from trees, typically pines, not that disimilar from the the amber that they got the dinosaur DNA from in Jurassic Park.  The whole mixture was combined in a little sauce pan and then cooled in an icebath until slightly solidified and chilled.

The next step in the process of this dish was the mushroom caramel.  Sounds revolting, I know, but it was actually pretty delicious.  This part of the dish includes pureed matsutake mushrooms, heavy cream, low acyl gellan gum, sugar, glucose and butter.

The mushroom puree and cream went into a sautee pan for a few minutes until slightly thickened.

Once the cream was complete the sugar and glucose went into another pan and I cooked it down until it turned to caramel which can bee seen below.

This is the completed caramel with the mushroom and cream mixture mixed in.

The final major component of the dish was the cake.  This portion of this dish includes, sugar, eggs, butter, baking powder, glucose, pureed mushrooms, water and cake flour.

The cake ingredients were whisked together in a mixer until thoroughly combined.

I moved the cake mixture into a steamer to cook for about 10 minutes.  This picture actually also includes the rosemary and sherry vinegar gels which steamed along with the cakes for the last few minutes.

The final plate.  I was a little frustrated by how the mastic cream didn't set up.  But wow was this really good.  In making this dish, not only did I find out that mushroom and caramel tastes pretty good together, I actually paired this dish with a French Riesling which you wouldn't think since mushrooms are generally paired with red wine.  Both were outstanding.

Alinea at Home: Idiazabal, Blis Maple Syrup, Smoked Salt

Well I'm back on the train with regards to the Alinea cookbook.  This is one I had to put off and put off because my local grocery store ran out of tapioca flour the week I wanted to buy it and it took at least 2 weeks for them to get it back in stock.  Then once I had it, life got in the way.  But I pulled it off tonight and here is the evidence.

The ingredients for the dough.  Water, olive oil, salt, tapioca flour and idiazabal cheese.  Idiazabal is a spanish sheep's milk cheese.  That is delicious on it's own, but really delicious treated this way.

So all of the ingredients except for the oil were combined to form a dough and once complete the dough was formed between two sheets of plastic wrap to get ready for steaming.

Once the dough was complete it went into a steamer for 25 minutes.  This was the completed dough.

Once the dough had steamed I was ready for the final plating.  The final plating included maple syrup and smoked salt from Blis and powdered maple syrup.

I cut the dough into strips and then fried it in some olive oil.  This pic is the strips as they start the frying process.

Here are the completed crackers.

And the final plate.  I loved this dish, it was crunchy, crispy and flavorful. I paired the dish with a Spanish red wine from the Navarra region of the country.  I don't know a lot about wines but it's only natural to present a dish who's primary ingredient is a cheese from Navarra with a wine from Navarra. 

Pork Chops with Blackberry Zinfandel sauce and Baby Carrots

Honestly, since I saw this dish in the Cuisine magazine I've been drooling over it and looking forward to making it.  Tonight was that night, and whoa baby did it ever live up to the hype. 

So this is everything you need for the pork chop and sauce.  It looks like a lot, I know, however, this is really simple since everything is basically ready to go as is.  The only cutting and chopping required is the onion (which should actually be a shallot).

The next step was the carrots and mint gremolata.  this is also really simple, butter, salt pepper, carrots, mint, brown sugar and lemon.

So the pork chop got seasoned with chili powder, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper.

Once seasoned I seared it off in a bit of olive oil until the spice mixture started to caramelize a bit.

This is what it looked like after searing and spending some time in the oven to finish cooking.

Once the pork was done, I sauteed off the onion in some of the leftover oil.

Once the onions were done, a bit of California Zinfandel, chicken broth and whole blackberries went into deglaze the pan.

I let the whole, wine, blackberry and broth mixture reduce for a few minutes and then added some fresh blackberries to it and then cut small amounts of butter in until it reached my desired thickness.

So, no picture but the first step for the carrots were to parboil them in some water.  Once partially cook, I sauteed them in some butter until cooked through.

Once cooked through the carrots were tossed with the gremolata mix of mint, lemon zest, salt, pepper and brown sugar.

And here is the final plate.  Good lord I wish I had put some greens on the plate, but holy holy crap was this so good.  I loved every bite.

Grilled Lamb Chops with Red Wine Vinaigrette

So two posts in two days, I'm so proud of myself.  Tonight was grilled lamb chops that were served with a concentrated red wine vinaigrette.

So the first step for this dish was to marinate the lamb chops.  The marinated included olive oil, rosemary, and garlic.  The whole mixture was combined and I marinated for about 2 hours, though the recipe called for 4-6 hours.  With a marinade like this I understand the amount of time required, but I live by myself and I work like 45-50 hours a week.  So I simply don't have the time for that. 

So now that the lamb was in the marinade I finished the vinaigrette.  The ziploc container holds a bottle of rioja wine that I reduced from a whole bottle to about a quarter cup.  Given my growing propensity to drink wines the idea of reducing a whole bottle to that little liquid is a bit off putting but as long as you get a moderately priced bottle its ok. The other ingredients include salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, olive oil, dijon mustard and honey.

The vinaigrette ingredients outside of the olive oil were combined in a food processor.  Then once they had spun for a bit I started to add the olive oil until it had reached the desired consistency. The picture above was the final product of the sauce.

Once the lamb came out of the marinade I grilled it off.  This is what it looked like after it was done cooking.  I'll be honest, I ended up over cooking it.  Lamb should be served medium rare and I missed that outside of the very inside of the bones.  I'll be honest, when it comes to meat, that might be my biggest flaw.  Too often I end up over cooking it.

The final plate, nothing too fancy here, please ignore the fact that I served it on a paper plate.

Pan Roasted Cornish Game Hen with Corn Succotash

Good lord has it really been a month since my last post. I know I say this every time I go on some sort of unintended hiatus, but holy crap does time fly.  I'm so sorry my dear reader, the last month has been an absolute whirlwind.  I had a wedding with my girlfriend, I was on vacation from Saturday to Saturday, then I had this little 30th birthday party thing.  Ugh, I'm actually admitting to the world that I'm 30 years old, I kind of hate myself right now.

Anyway, I have done some cooking over the past month, but at times its been few and far between which makes this a perfect time to hit another reboot button.  So here we go, this dish was out of Cuisine Magazine, a pretty simple dish provided you have a small bit of planning leading up to it.

We started tonight with the has.  This included butter olive oil, corn, basil, cream, red pepper, snow peas, zucchini, yellow squash and thyme.

The first step for the succotash was frying off some garlic in a mixture of garlic and olive oil.

Once the garlic was ready I added little slices of yellow squash, zucchini, and snow peas and sauteed them off for a few minutes.

Once the veggies were done, cream, red pepper, basil and thyme went into the pan and reduced until I was ready to serve.

Here is the completed has, which of course was delicious.

Now time to get started on the chicken portion of the evening.  Here we have a cornish game hen, salt pepper and olive oil.

The chicken was split and that seared in the olive oil until cooked through.  I can never get enough of that beautiful sear on the skin that in my opinion can only be obtained with a gas stove.

Final plating.  Not the most beautiful thing in the world but man did it taste good.