Sunday Funday

Another full day in the kitchen, completed cooking down the chicken stock to it's final state before being  used in the poached chicken dish, and got the duck stock cooked. 

With all the stocks being cooked, I went stupidly simple for my own dinner today, corn dogs.  This corn dog recipe with from Alton Brown's Good Eats 2:  The Middle Years.  Also of note, I told you in my first post that I would be sharing my failures here along with successes.  Unfortunately, the batter for the corn dogs was not thick enough and what I actually ended up with were simply deep fried hot dogs.  But is a deep fried hot dog ever a bad thing, I don't think so.

Either way, on to the pictures

The top picture is the chicken stock going back into the pan with more onions, leeks, carrots and spices along with the dark meat of the chicken.  The bottom picture is what was left after 3 hours with the veggies and another 30-45 minutes with just the liquid.

Now time for the duck stock, the first picture is two duck carcasses, onions, leeks, carrots and some spices.  The second picture is the final product after about 8 hours on the heat.  The stock will go into a duck jus which will be worked into another sauce for the duck dish of Paris 1906.

This is the mise en place for the corn dogs.  We've got buttermilk, a onion and jalapeno mix, creamed corn a flour mixture and of course the star, the hot dogs.

The prepped dogs ready to go for a bath in 375 degree oil.

And the not so pretty pay off.  Oh well, it was greasy deliciousness. 

Busy Saturday

Today was a very busy day in the kitchen.  I started prepping the broths for Paris 1906 and season tickets for Next went on sale.  After 12 hours of refreshing facebook I missed on the season tickets, but overall I had fun.

Today I made the pork stock and chicken stock necessary for a couple of the courses for Paris 1906.  This is a picture of the stocks as they started cooking.

Then for dinner I made a red chili crusted filet mignon with mushroom sauce

The mise.

Mushroom sauce cooking.

Cooked steak,  this was the biggest failure of the night.  While the steak was cooked perfectly, as you can see none of the chiles stuck to the meat.

The completed meal.  Overall very tasty, was very frustrated that the chiles didn't stick.

Rye Stuffed Pork Chops

Despite the fact that I probably should have been working, I went a bit more elaborate tonight.  This recipe is also from Cuisine Magazine's February 2005 issue. 

Everybody knows that pork and apples are natural combination, and that's what is going on here.  A stuffing with rye breadcrumbs, onions, celery, dried apples and thyme, which is then put inside of pork chops that are seared off on the stove and finished in the oven.  All of that is served with an apple juice sauce.  Here are the results. 

The mise en place, which in a recipe that is fairly complicated is very important.

Rye bread crumbs in the pan being toasted off.

Finished breadcrumbs.

Here are the rest of the stuffing ingredients in the pan.

Here is the completed stuffing.

The main attraction.  Pork chops are seasoned simply with salt and pepper.  The key with stuffing pork chops is to make a small slice in the side and then move the tip of the knife on the inside creating a small pocket.  You also want to make sure that you put enough stuffing in to make it an actual stuffed pork chop but not so much that it bulges out and won't sit flat in the pan or on the plate.

The cooked chops.  They were seared in a pan with olive oil for about three minutes per side then roasted in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

The finished product.  The plate is garnished with a bit of fresh thyme and some of the left over stuffing.

Prosciutto and Havarti Panini

So today was a crazy day so I went simple, a prosciutto and havarti panini sandwich.  This recipe is from Cuisine Magazine's February 2005 issue.

Here's my mise for today, butter, dijon mustard, havarti cheese, prosciutto ham, beaten eggs mixed with parmesan cheese, chives and milk and sourdough bread.

Eggs in the non-stick pan for the omlet portion of the sandwich.

Here's the completed omlet.  This got cut in half and one half was placed on each of the sandwiches.

Here's the assembled sandwiches ready to go in the pan.  The outside of each side was coated with a bit of the butter.

And here is the final product.  I actually pressed the sandwiches by putting another pan on top and weighing it down with a can.  In an ideal world, that other pan would have been hot so both sides cooked at the same time, but I just used a cold pan and flipped the sandwich when it was time.

Overall, this was a great simple recipe to be made on a busy day when you don't have much time.

Butternut Squash Soup

I'm a big believer in mise en place (everything in its place), it saves you time and hassles once you start cooking.  For my mise, I go down each and every recipe I'm going to make and everything I can prep ahead I do.  That way I have it at my fingertips when it's time to go into the pan.  So that's how I'm going to start each post, with a picture of my mise.

Here we have shallots, butter, butternut squash, the reserved seeds and pulp from the squash, heavy cream and brown sugar.

Here is the prepped squash ready to go into a 425 degree oven until it's cooked.  I've simply seasoned it with oil, salt and pepper.

The squash after about an hour in the oven at 425.

The shallots go into the butter along with the reserved pulp.  The toasted seeds and shallots provide body to the soup.

 The completed toasted seeds and shallots

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The pureed squash in the pan ready for the addition of the cream, brown sugar and final seasonings.

Finished product, garnished with some fresh cream, a cilantro leaf and a touch of ground nutmeg.

This is a recipe I got from Cooking at Home with America's Test Kitchen.  Overall, very very simple to make and the results were outstanding.  If you want the recipe just ask me and I can send it to you.  I'll admit I tweaked it a bit by roasting the squash rather than steaming.  Personally, I think roasting tastes so much better.

Welcome

I just want to take this to welcome everyone to my blog.  What I hope to do here is document my successes and failures in my culinary adventures. 

Starting a food blog is something I've thought about doing for a while, but when I found out about Next Restaurant's ebooks I was sold.

Next Restaurant in Chicago is my newest food obsession.  Next is a new concept in restaurants in that they don't take reservations, the sell tickets and in how they do their menus.  They do a single menu for a 12 week run and then they move onto the next concept.

The restaurant opened in April 2011, with their Paris 1906 menu inspired by Escoffier, a chef widely considered the father of modern gastronomy.  During the development of the menu, the restaurant documented their tests and recipes and at the conclusion of the menu released those recipes in an ebook.

Since I have a better chance of winning the lottery than ever dining at Next, I've decided that I'm going to take the ebooks and make the menus at home. 

My initial thought was that my first post on here would document the whole menu making process but having a chance to look through everything that is involved made me realize that prepping for this is going to be a several week process.  Here is the menu I'm planning.

Hours d'Oueveres
Turtle Soup
Sunchoke Soup
Dover Sole with Crawfish Mousse
Poached Chicken and Cucumbers
Seared lamb loin, fried sweetbreads and butter sauce
Roasted Duck and Red Wine Sauce
Salad
Coffee Pastry and Rum Ice Cream
Chocolate Souffle
Mignardises (Mixed Desert)


I hope you enjoy this place as much I'll enjoy writing it.