Dinner 11: New House, New Kitchen, New Outlook

Well, maybe a readoption of an old outlook.  I'm simultaneously gaining and losing steam.  On one hand, I just planned and executed a FIVE course menu from TFLC.  Five courses!  And it wasn't even that hard (well, obviously this was due in part to the menu).  I yearn to spend more time in the kitchen, learning, cooking.  At the same time, i'm becoming less confident in my ability to do this.  By this, I mean make it through The French Laundry.   I've made it just shy of halfway (48% to be exact!), but, well, whole lambs are crazy.  And pigs heads and feet are gross.  Obviously, making it through The French Laundry will be the biggest challenge of the Keller collection (well, not sure how Under Pressure is, but Bouchon and Ad Hoc are both pretty simple after TFLC).  Does this mean that i'm going to spend my next decade cooking Keller for my friends, family, and co-workers?  I'm just not sure.

Musings aside, my five course menu for dinner!

Canape - white truffle oil-infused custards with black truffle ragout
First Course - tasting of potatoes with black truffle
Entree - Venison Chops with pan-roasted butternut squash
Cheese course - Perail de brebis with frisee aux lardons
Dessert - ile flottante

Dinner #7: Alls Caught Up Again!

With the end of my sixth dinner, i'm pretty much back to real time.  Or something close to it (like a month behind instead of two...)  So maybe i'll be able to offer something memorable and witty about each of the dishes.  Or maybe this blog will continue to be about pretty pictures and vague instructions... your call :)

With that, coming up for dinner #7:

Blini-fest 2011!  aka 'how to wipe out three recipes at once'
Salad of haricots vert, tomato, and chive
Citrus marinated salmon with oranges, beluga caviar, and pea shoots
"Coffee and Donuts"

Dinner 6: Branching into the Unknown

The menu for dinner 6:

"Oysters and Pearls"
Ashed Chevreax with roasted beets
"Peas and Carrots"
"Salad du Printemps"

Seeing this written... my first thought is, wow, I put together a menu with lots of quotes.  It is also a menu of things that i'm not crazy about (see, e.g., lobster, oysters, caviar - although that is growing on me, and fennel).  And each of these things are spread out between each of the dishes... so we will see if there are any that I love.  Or even like.

(I admit, I obviously know the answers to all of these as I write this, since I made this dinner about a month ago.  The result: a mixed bag.)

Dinner #5 - 20% DONE!

Dinner #5 marks the 16-20th recipes that I will have completed (ok, have completed... and actually a while ago.  And i've done dinner #6.  I'm a little behind in blogging, with losing my computer for a week, and generally being an associate life and impossible research projects that have no answers and take an entire week.  Harumph.).

I don't know why 20% feels like a big milestone, but it does.  I think it has something to do with the obsessive way I stare at the "percentage completion" whilst on the treadmill... as I tell myself 'keep going keep going.'

But, I don't feel that way about this at all, I swear.  It's more like 'I can't wait to see eat what's next!'

The menu:

Shrimp with Avocado Salsa
Fava Bean Agnolotti
Pan-Roasted Jumbo Scallops with Morel Mushrooms and Asparagus Puree
"Candied Apple"

A Moment of Silence

My mac, with all of my pretty food pictures, crashed.  Crashed hard, like the hard drive died.  *A moment of silence for all of the lost photos, documents, planning, and music*

 Mac is currently sitting at the apple store, awaiting a new boot drive... so no new posts until he's back.  And some of those posts may or may not have pictures, depending on what we are able to recover from the drive (i'm decent about backing stuff up, but I haven't backed any of my French Laundry pictures, boo).

In the meantime, I had another dinner on Saturday, and i'm really zipping through the book.  20% down!  And, really more like 25%, considering that the blini will all be done at once.  Yippee, I might actually do this!

Dinner 4: Its on...

Actually, i'm writing this after we had dinner, so technically its over, but i'll be writing about it during the coming week.

It's funny, i'm starting to internally think about these dinners in 'Friends' titles.  As in, 'The One where I almost set the kitchen on fire.'  This dinner will be known as 'The One with the Ravioli.'  Note the intentional capitalization.

In other internal musings, i'm noticing that this is actually getting easier.  I don't know if i'm just becoming a more skilled cook, or if I just happened to pick an easy menu, or if i'm getting better at reading all of the directions ahead of time (unlikely given my two spur of the moment grocery store trips)... but its losing the freak-out aspect before I do unfamiliar things.  Now its more like 'Oh, i've kind done something like that, no biggie.'  Hopefully that will carry over to the pigs head.

Now, the menu!

Canape - English Pea Soup with Truffle Oil and a Parmesan Crisp
First - Sweet Potato Agnolotti with Sage Cream
Entree - Pan roasted striped bass with artichoke ravioli and a bunch of other stuff (I don't actually have TFL beside me as i'm writing this)
Dessert - Chocolate Veloute with Cinnamon Stick Ice Cream

I've drooled over the last item ever since I first picked up the book.  This dinner kind of got rearranged into a going away dinner for a friend who decided to pack everything away, quit her job, and move to Italy (my response: 'Congratulations, its all so very Eat Pray Love of you.'  And utter jealousy.)  With the rearranging, I decided that the most spectacular looking and sounding dessert was in order.  And ohmygod it was so good.  More on that soon! 

Dinner #4 - Its going to happen someday...

The problem with this time of year is birthdays.  Birthdays, and birthday parties, it seems like every single weekend from now until... i'm not sure when (late April-ish - I guess summer lovin' is real).  Which makes it a lot harder to have a *few*,  as opposed to a ton, of people over for dinner.

So, expect a little delay in the next dinner party over here at project dinner party.  BUT I will be posting some things i've been making as weekday-when-I-have-lots-of-time/Sunday dinners from Ad Hoc.  I'll also be posting some essentials - veal stock is currently simmering away on my stove.

And, in case you're curious, next up for dinner:

Starter: Blini-fest!  In which I make all blini recipes at once
First: Chestnut Agnolotti
My first meat dish: Pot au Feu
Dessert: "Candied Apple"

A challenging menu, but large portions can be done ahead of time.  AND I have a slow period coming up at work (at least, that's how it seems), so i'll have time for tons of weeknight prep.  My prelim date for this insane menu is March 12th... hopefully I can squeeze it in between birthdays!

Dinner #3: Things Heat Up

Brandon is pushing me to try and cook the whole book in a year. In addition to being very un-original, I think the idea of this is insane. But, humoring him, I've charted out a year's worth of four course meals. In an excel spreadsheet, of course. Balanced to have the appropriate amount of pre-prep and a la minute prep. And delicious-sounding food with scarier food (ie if you eat oysters and soft-shell crabs, you get rewarded with chocolate molten cake and cinnamon ice cream). And purely pescatarian meals for my pescatarian friend. I've also charted out seasonal ingredients, special internet ordering, and super expensive items that may require a little savings/grocery scrimping. Because that's how I roll.

So, next up:

- parmigiano-reggiano crisps with goat cheese mousee

- Tomato tart with nicoise tapenade (while tomatoes aren't in season, we had a little hot spell here, so I'm hoping tomatoes are good… and this requires tapenade, which I am never making again if I can help it, so I wanted to make it while my first batch of tapenade was still good).

- black sea bass with arrowroot spinach, parsnip puree, and vanilla saffron sauce

- chocolate cake with red beets

Beet Juice and (almost) Tapenade

Friday night. Plan was to make the tapenade, croutons, and beet juice. I did not manage to do any of these successfully.

First, the beet juice: I ran down to my mother in law's house to juice the beets.


(I love how pretty peeled beets are, with the swirly pattern)

She is impatient and insisted I must be doing something wrong or that the beets should be cooked because it was taking FOR-E-VER to juice them. She microwaved them. They juiced quickly, but only gave me half of the juice I needed. Oh, well, I figured I'd just reduce that slightly less and not add quite as much butter to the glaze the next day.

Second, the tapenade: I went to take out the special nicoise olives I had actually found at Whole Foods (LOVE the olive bar!) But… they were no where to be seen. I realized that, after my disastrous toddler-trip on Wednesday, that I didn't really recall seeing them when I put the groceries away. Whole Foods was closing in 10 minutes and takes 15 minutes to get to. So, I guess the tapenade would wait. (in hindsight, I'm glad this happened – because I may have uninvited Friday night then if I had discovered how much I hate deboning anchovies).

After this, I lost all motivation to do anything, so I crashed in front of the tv with Brandon. He got up to get a drink, so I asked him to swirl the reducing beets. Which, by the way, have NO "suggested" time for how long it should take to reduce them. I then promptly forgot about them for another hour, ran over to check on them, and found… a small pile of sludge-like beet "glaze." Whoops.

Resources: well, I think we all know this is a big fail... no salt-packed anchovies to be found, and left Nicoise olives at Whole Foods!

Calm before the Storm

Good news for me: there is not nearly as many pre-prep oils, glazes, etc. Bad news: this means that there will be a lot more work for me the actual day of. I've been swamped with work, plus Brandon has been gone almost every night this week, so preparation has been harder. Its impossible to go to the store with a sleeping toddler when there is no parent to stay home. And going to the store with a wanting-to-go-to-sleep toddler, like I did today, was terrible. Terrible. We'll see how this goes.

Dinner #2: Redux

Well, I realized that I can't find salsify anywhere in San Diego right now. And that I need veal stock for "surf and turf" and that I don't have any yet. Nor do I have any way of prepping any... before this next weekend. Because that's when i'm doing a second dinner party. Crazy.

After changing my mind approximately 2 billion and 10 times, I finally decided on Butter Poached Maine Lobster with leks, pommes maxim, and red beet essence. I also decided on a fourth course - the "Salad Nicoise." Now... on to prep!

Dinner #2

We have a menu for our next dinner!

Starter: "bacon and eggs" – poached quail egg and bacon

Main: "surf and turf" – monkfish and oxtail

Dessert: lemon sabayon pine-nut tart with mascarpone cheese

I still haven't decided if i'll do a fourth course. The starter and dessert can both be prepped well ahead of time, so this won't be too stressful of a menu. But on the other hand, i'm going to be SUPER busy throughout the month, so I don't know if i'll have time to plan, shop for, and prepare more than this. We'll see.

And I'm scared of poached eggs. Not really cooking them, i'm sure that will be fine. Eating them. But I'm going to try one. I think.

Note two: where on earth am I going to find salsify in San Diego?

On the Road

The first dinner party is in the works! My general goal is to host two of these a month, we'll see how that goes. I've chose the first menu – picking recipes that are seemingly a bit less complicated.

Seemingly. But finding all of the ingredients has been the most ridiculous thing. Fruitwood smoked salmon? No where in any local stores, even the fancy-schmancy Whole Foods in La Jolla. Near impossible to find on the internet (and the company recommended in the book doesn't seem to be working for me). I got excited when I found someone who sells smoked salmon fillets in the farmer's market, but when I asked what kind of wood was used for smoking, she said it was 'heat processed.' 'Ok,' I said, 'then how does it get the 'smoked' flavor in that makes it 'smoked salmon'?' 'Its heat processed with a little brown sugar and no artificial additives' she repeated. I think she doesn't know what she is talking about, so I discarded that potential idea. So, long story short, I'm going to be sure and include resources for all of the recipes – in hopes that others that try and make it don't spend hours looking for things!

And in other French Laundry prep, I've "discovered" the local restaurant supply store. Best. Thing. Ever. And one day when I'm in LA, I'm going to go to the Culver City one, which I'm sure will be the Bestest thing ever.

The menu:

Starter: "cornets"

Cheese course: Whipped Brie de Meaux en fuillete

"Main" (really a "first" course in the book): Fruitwood Smoked Salmon with Gnocchi

Dessert: Cream of Walnut Soup