White Truffle Oil Infused Custards with Black Truffle Ragout

I have admired the picture of the completed custards over and over.  I've contemplated cutting the shells, how pretty the standing chive chip would be, how delicious double-truffle custard would be.

Well, at least I got one of those right.

Let's start with the eggshells.  I bought an egg cutter (against all instinct, because I thought I would be terrible at cutting eggshells).  The stupid, stupid thing did not work (what a waste of $10!)  But, I was right about the eggshells: I AM terrible at cutting them.

(and let us not even mention the number I broke.  Luckily, I needed a lot of eggs for the dinner overall).

I knew the chive chips would be a challenge.  I mean, i'm making chips out of potatoes squished together!

First, I prepped the sheets - two silpats, clarified butter, salt.  Hint: don't put a ton of salt.  The chips may have been pretty, but they were kind of like eating a salt lick.

I peeled the potato, cut it into a band-aid shape, sliced it thin on the mandoline.  I laid a chive between two slices, and baked on low low heat.

The recipe said they were supposed to take 20 minutes.  Um, more like an HOUR before they were golden brown and crisp-like - they never got crisp like a real chip, but at the least they were cooked.  Some of this may have been me, since I did confuse the instructions and think that I needed to sandwich those between two cookie sheets.  They were delicious, once I got past the salt lick thing.

Finally, a couple of hours before people were due, I made the custard.  It was actually simple.  There were only like four things in it - how could it not be??

I warmed the milk and cream to just under a boil, turned the blender on, and poured it in.  Yes, turned the blender on THEN poured it in.  I have to admit, I was scared - visions of scalding milk flying in my direction.  But Thomas Keller said turning it on first would actually STOP splashing, and who am I to argue with TK?  Unsurprisingly, he was right.

So, where was I?  Oh yeah, milk/cream, blending, then I added a couple of eggs, salt, pepper, and (at the very end) white truffle oil.  As i've said so many times, i'm not a huge fan of the smell of white truffle oil, so it didn't smell heavenly.  Pour it into a spouted measuring cup, into the egg shells, which went into a big glass pan that I filled 2/3rds of the way with water.  Baked for about an hour, perfect custards!

Finally, right before serving, I reduced some truffle-infused stock, a dash of vinegar, some truffles, and some brunoise.  Beautiful stuff.

The finished dish:

The chip is standing!  At least it did for a minute - it quickly wilted in the sauce/custard.  Eating it... well, lets just say this is the 'playfulness' in this meal.  I served them in these shotglasses (sake glasses?) I found when unpacking hubby's old high school pottery he made that had been boxed up for at least a decade.  Innocent high school times, i'm sure.  And to go with pottery shotglasses?  Baby spoons.  The only thing I could find that actually fit into the eggshells.  Well, I found one espresso spoon, which husband used, because he said there was 'absolutely no way' he was eating off a baby spoon.  Marked contrast to one male guest who told us about how he used to eat baby bananas and HIDE THE JARS and how eating off a baby spoon brought back memories.  Hilarious things that come out when you have co-workers over for dinner.

I think the fact that I talked about the container and spoon for so long tells how I felt about the custard.  I mean, it wasn't bad.  But it wasn't my favorite.  I was disappointed, after admiring the picture for so long.  With so few disappointments so far, though, it only seems fitting that something wouldn't be the most amazing thing ever.

Gazpacho

The disaster that was the verjus sorbet was also the last of many dinners that I would have at my old house.  I knew this because... well, because the dinner was at the end of June, we were supposed to close on our new house in early July, and packing becomes ever more complicated as one builds a massive kitchen arsenal.  I decided that I couldn't leave my French Laundry dinner party project on such a well, utter failure, note, so I decided to squeeze a couple of recipes in (with the intention of bringing them over to big family gatherings).  The easy ones... like gazpacho!

Seriously, if you are looking for the easiest recipe to start The French Laundry Cookbook with, this is it.  There isn't even any cooking involved.  Well, unless you count the balsamic glaze, but I had some in my fridge, so no cooking!

The mis:

Basically, you cut everything up, put some tomato juice and vinegar in, and let it stew overnight.

The next day, I tossed the mix (minus the thyme) into my trusty vitamix....

And blended!

Now, wasn't that easy!  (pictured without balsamic glaze - I was waiting for it to warm up still)

Now, those of you that have paid attention might question how I ate this, since i'm allergic to tomatoes.  In truth, I only had a tiny sip.  I would have liked to drink/eat the entire serving.... but my body wouldn't have appreciated it, so I abstained.  The tiny sip was enough to realize the complexity of flavors, and that this would be a fantastically refreshing soup on a warm day.  So, to recap: hot day, feeling lazy, make gazpacho! 

Blini-fest 2011

My seventh dinner accomplished a pretty awesome milestone: with knocking out like six recipes in one meal, I am over one-third through the book.  And one third is almost half, and half means 'its all downhill from here' and... and (its a slippery slope, counting percentages.  Just like 'adjusting your budget' for kitchen remodeling)

The starter, blini-fest 2011!  Three recipes in one!  And all were actually pretty easy.

First up, Blini with Bottarga de-something-or-the-other and Confit of Tomato.  Not only was this amazingly delicious for something that was fairly easy to do, it was the first time i've really REALLY been sad about my tomato allergy/temped to eat it and suffer the consequences in years.

Tomatoes, pre-confit:

After blanching and peeling those beautiful tomatoes, I cut them into "petals," sprinkled with olive oil, salt, and put a thyme sprig on each, and stuck them in the oven for a bit.

I did not take pictures when they came out.... but they were peerrrty.  And smelled like all kinds of awesome.

After making roasted tomatoes, I made the real confit - basically, the chopped up tomatoes with some stock, a little more spices, and some more oil.

Chopped finely, it turned into the tastiest confit ever.

Oh, and with the inside pulp from the tomatoes, I rinsed it, squished it, chopped it into pieces, and spread on a cookie sheet.  I set the oven for its very lowest temperature - 175 - and propped the door open....

And after 4 attempts at this (each one ending up in severely burnt tomato, instead of "gently dehydrated tomato") - I had tomato powder!

Eggplant "Caviar" and Roasted Peppers
So, the tomato confit was easy... but I think the roasted peppers were even easier!

 
Chopped in half, spread a little olive oil:

And... that was pretty much it.  Except that I peeled the peppers after they came out of the oven, which was cake.

To make the actual "roasted peppers" part of the topping: 

Chopped red peppers, more stock, salt, and I was done!  (I don't know why the chives are there, I might have just had them sitting around)

Eggplant "caviar" was also pretty simple - just score some eggplant, sprinkle with salt:

Squish to get the icky juices out:



Roasted and scraped (at which point I realized I had way way less eggplant than I was supposed to).

This "drained" again overnight, except I got like 5 drops of bitter nastiness juice stuff out.  Possibly the fault of teacloth instead of cheesecake?

After this drained overnight, I threw it into the food processor:

So, remember how I said I didn't have enough eggplant?  I didn't.  AND THEN, knowing/forgetting this, I kept the other proportions (on mustard, oil, garlic) the same.  The eggplant was more like 'garlic' caviar.  Not that I minded this (no one else complained either).  But i'm fairly sure it wasn't quite the right texture.  Fail one for blini-fest. 

Blini: Obviously, the big missing part is the actual vessel for scooping the yummy sauces into your mouth!

I started by boiling some potatoes...

Then scraping them through a tamis.

To make the actual batter, I added some eggs, flour, creme fraiche, and those potatoes

And "whisked" them together.  I don't know how many people have tried to whisk potatoes... but i'm telling you: Chef Keller must have uncommon, superman strength.  Because my arms were killing me after like 2 minutes.

After surgery to reattach my arms, little spoonfuls of potato mix led to blini!

The final product:

Roasted Peppers with Eggplant Caviar

Confit (below the blini) with grated fish-stuff.

The tomato one was the hands-down favorite, even with the weird grated fishy stuff. I really really really wanted to eat the confit, but I wisely abstained. Everyone else enjoyed it immensely. All in all, this was a time-consuming canape in that you had to be around (since I won't leave my house with my stove on), but it didn't really take a lot of actual time. The blini are very "sensitive" to temperature, so it doesn't seem like something that would hold well. Because of this, I don't see it making it into a permanent repertoire list. But... I still have a few canapes left to make, so we'll see!

"Oysters and Pearls"

Subtitled: Now I can say i've tried oysters, and I still don't like them.

Like so many other people, i've always just looked at oysters and have been squicked out.  I don't like things that are slimy, i'm not a huge fan of 'briney,' so i've always just assumed I wouldn't like them.  So this was the big test.  Oh, and i've never had caviar either - but I have picked it off of lots of things - but for some reason i'm not as scared of it (probably because I know that it basically tastes like salty fish, and I like fish now, so i'm not as concerned as I am about the oysters).

And you know what?  I can now say for sure: I do not like oysters.  Which is unfortunate given that there are like three oyster dishes left.  Luckily, I LOVE shucking oysters, so I don't think i'll mind making the remaining dishes all that much.  I know this probably makes me weird, but wedging the knife under and that 'pop' was somehow gratifying.

And if I haven't scared everyone away by thinking I am some kind of knife-obsessed freak... here is 'oysters and pearls'!

First, I shucked the oysters.  I did not get nearly as much oyster juice as I should have.  I just discovered last week, however, that my oysters were miniature compared to other oysters (my husband and his friend actually ordered oysters voluntarily at a restaurant!).  So maybe you need bigger oysters to get more juice?  I don't really know, all I know was that I ended up just adding a smidge less juice to the oyster infused cream.



Next, I started soaking the tapioca in milk.  If you are in a hurry, do this first.  I wasn't - in fact, I was really trying to delay things - so I waited a bit.

The tapioca mis:

While the tapioca was soaking, I "infused" some cream with oyster juice.  I had a couple of extra oysters, so I just went ahead and tossed those in (to make up for having less oyster juice), along with the oyster "trimmings."

Then it was time to cook the tapioca!  I basically just combined the oyster-cream with the tapioca pearls.  I have never made tapioca before, so it was really cool watching the tapioca pearls puff up as they cooked.

A closer look:


Simultaneously while cooking the tapioca, I whisked the eggs for the sabayon, and warmed them over a pan of hot water, whisking all the while.



At the same time, I whipped some cream in my mixer (which everyone has seen plenty of times, so you don't need to see it again here).

When the eggs were warm, the tapioca was thickend, and the cream was whipped (which I actually managed to time so that they all happened at exactly. the. same. time - success!), I combined (along with the creme fraiche and pepper) and poured into my mini ramekins.  I think it actually looked like it was supposed to!

Right before serving, I warmed the ramekins in the oven while making the sauce.  The butter-laden sauce (along with some super-reduced vermouth, warmed oyster, and chives).  I spooned the oysters over the top, along with some butter-sauce, and a tiny scoop of caviar (not osetra - i'm not feeling that flush these days - but I did get some good paddleback caviar which the internet swore was a great replacement for osetra).

All done!

I guess I should have started this blog by commenting on my victi... um, guests.  One person couldn't make it at the last minute, so we invited my brother in law and his fiancee, who are both simultaneously the pickiest and least adventuresome eaters in the world.  I questions husband about this invite (no, really, it would have been fine to have only five people)... but he thought it would be good for the picky eaters.  I'm not sure why he thought this, but he did, and he invited them anyways.

So, with that background, I had high hopes the butter sauce would hide the taste of oyster.  It did not.  I believe I heard gagging as they actually tried the caviar/oysters (in fact, I think BIL had never even tried tapioca!).  I get it, because I felt that way a little too.  I mean, it even LOOKS like someone blew a snot wad onto the dish before I served it (whoops, I think I wasn't supposed to mention that...).  At least I did like the tapioca and caviar, although they were incredibly rich.  Husband, and his other two friends all liked oysters and raved about it, so I really think this is a personal-preference type of dish.  Or maybe they are just better at being polite than I am!

Shrimp with Avocado Salsa

This has got to be the easiest thing in TFLC to make. At the very least, in the top 5. But taste? Mm. Its ok. Not bad, for sure, but not fantastic.

Because it was so easy, there was absolutely no prep in the days leading up to dinner. Love. (Especially since the dessert was all-prep all the time).

First, in the morning, I prepared the court boullion.Basically just simmered water and aromatics, including my first bouquet garni!, and then added a ton of acid.

Check out the bouquet garni!

Next I tossed the shrimp in, and cooked for literally a minute.  Which was just enough time for me to wash my hands, take a picture, and put the camera back down.

Then I put the shrimp in bowl, covered in stock, and into the fridge it went! For future reference, I would not recommend putting the stock over the shrimp until it cooled a bit. I had a feeling it would keep cooking the shrimp, and they would be overcooked… and I was right. While cooling/chilling in the fridge, the ends of the beautiful, beautiful shrimp turned to icky mush. Not positive that was from overcooking – it could be the acid – but it was unappetizing, to say the least. (I ended up cutting the mushy ends off on all of the shrimp, a call I debated about but was glad to have done).

Right before serving, since I know my avocados (and their propensity to brown), I prepared the salsa.

I got lucky, and somehow manipulated my avocado into being absolutely perfect – soft enough to taste ripe, but firm enough to make a very fine dice (I won't go so far as to call it minced, even though it was supposed to be) and to stay that way, rather than turning into guacamole.


Then I speared each of the shrimp on a fork (using literally every fork I had in my house)

And spooned on some of the salsa and a tomato diamond.  Pretty, no?

Taste-wise, it was ok. The Avo salsa was amazing. I brought out some stale chips and everyone scarfed down the leftovers… the salsa totally made up for the gross chips. The shrimp was just lacking for me though. It was really bland, despite the high acid content of the court. It could have used a little more salt too (I'll call that user-error).

A survey produced mixed results, but nobody was like 'this is the best thing ever.' At the very least, everyone agreed it was an attractive (and for me, easy) appetizer, something that LOOKED really impressive. I can totally see myself bringing these to a party. That is, in my dreams, where I'm not too lazy/exhausted to just 'whip up' something like this while simultaneously getting dressed and made-up and trying to feed cranky toddler dinner.

I love my dreams.