Dinner #3: Chocolate Cakes with Red Beet Ice Cream and Toasted Walnut Sauce

So, you know how I almost set my kitchen on fire?  These made up for that.

Quick recap, since the recipe has been strewn about:

(1) Making beet juice in a Vitamix looks like I murdered someone

(2) Beet ice cream is pretty at all stages (and, might I add, a great Valentine's food, if you are going with a red theme)

(3) I love chocolate, especially when in comes in the form of flourless chocolate cake

(4) Beet chips are surprisingly delicious

(5) It takes forever to reduce poaching liquid to 2/3 a cup for toasted walnut sauce, but the resulting candied walnuts look yummy.

And, now that we have recapped:

I had finished all of the thirty-billion parts that go into this dessert.  All that was left to be done was un-molding the cakes.  I put a little warm water in the bottom of a pan (at least, I think this is what I did - i'm a lightweight, so i'm pretty toasty three glass of wine in).  I won't say they unmolded "easily," but they came out pretty well.

I (mostly) dropped each cake into a small circle of toasted walnut sauce.  Around the chocolate cake, I stacked a few beet chips, a scoop of beet ice cream, a couple of walnuts.  Then I sprinkled the tops of the beet chips with a little powdered sugar.

The result:

I would have taken more pictures, but the vultures were circling.  The verdict?  Unabashed love.  By male and female alike, even my chocolate-hating husband (ok, ok, he doesn't really hate chocolate, but he's not a fan).  I was practically shoved into the kitchen when I said that I had more cakes, ice cream, chips, and walnuts.  Rather than attempt to plate more, I just brought each of the dishes out and let people scoop out more.  I considered licking my plate.  The sauce, the bittersweet cake, the not-too-sweet beet ice cream, which was like gelato in texture, it all just came together so well.  I'm drooling thinking of it now.

I didn't even have to ask what the best dish of the night was.  Hands down, chocolate cake and beets are my new favorite weird-flavor combination.

Black Sea Bass with Sweet Parsnips, Arrowleaf Spinach, and Vanilla-Saffron Sauce

This is the dish that I dread talking about.  Honestly, even with little snafus and mis-reads, everything has gone really well.  Until this dish.  This was a disaster.  I mean, it tasted amazing.  But I almost BURNED THE HOUSE DOWN.  Yeah, I mean that literally.   And that always takes away from any success in how it tasted.

So, when I was piping the cheese, I also heated my reserved mussel stock, tossed in saffron threads and a vanilla pod, and began reducing.  It didn't take too long to get down to a glaze - maybe 30-45 minutes.  I whisked in a bunch of butter.  I COULD NOT get that damn sauce to emulsify correctly - I could tell the pan was too hot, but I had it on the very lowest setting, so I didn't know what was going on.  I later realized that the oven was on and blowing the hot air on the backside of the saucepan, making it BURNING hot, so that's probably why it wouldn't combine right.  Anyways, yeah, broken sauce.

Next up: spinach balls!

Basically I just heated up some zest, wilted the spinach, then separated into 6 portions.  I squeezed the little portions into balls using cheesecloth.  The only hard thing about the whole process was that Brandon was trying to make little man dinner at the same time, and kept running into me holding my burning-ass-hot cheesecloth-filled spinach that was waiting to be squeezed.  And I was in a hurry so that the spinach wouldn't overcook.  Suffice to say, my hands hurt a bit after these.  But the balls were pretty!

Next: parsnip puree

I've never had a parsnip before.  Pureed like this was simply... phenomenal.  I could have eaten this puree all night, especially with the little drizzle of the vanilla-saffron sauce.

First I cut everything into roughly even parts.  Then simmer in cream.  Can't go wrong with that!  Except, somehow I thought they were done before they really were, and scraping the parsnip pieces through the tamis wasn't working, so I had to put them back in the reserved cream to cook more, then back to trying to scrape through the tamis... not so great.  I finally go this done, even if I did end up needing to use the teensiest bit of butter/cream to reconstitute.  Oh, yeah, and did I mention how yummy it was?  Yum.  Yum.

Finally... The. Fish.

I should have known that, with all of the trouble from earlier, something was going to go wrong.  It did.  In so many ways.

First, I portioned out the pieces.  I know they aren't the same size, but they are all pretty close to the same weight.  Then I scraped, over and over and over, to get ALL moisture out of the skin.

When I was done, these things did not have a shred of moisture left.  I was going to successfully crisp the skin, I convinced myself.

I heated up the oil.  I even remembered to dust the skin with a little flour.  I put the first piece of fish in.

It stuck like a mo-fo.  

There was a lot of unhappy swearing.  I tried another.  It stuck too.  (my hand is starting to burn typing this)

So, the fish was cooked and "kissed" appropriately... except not a scrap of skin remained on any of the first three fillets.

I put them on a paper towel lined plate, which I left on the burner next to where I was desperately trying to figure out a way to get the skin to stay.

"Do I smell... burning... hmm???" was my next thought.  I looked over - the paper towel was burning up around my fish.  I grabbed the plate and tried to blow it out.  Yeah, that didn't work.  F*F*F*F*F*F*F!!!  I looked around the kitchen trying to figure out how to not set off the damned smoke alarms and wake angry toddler up.  Sink, water, carefully trying to pick up the fillets so they don't get wet, except they are still burning hot from oil.  I get the fire out, go to put the plate back on the counter, then its on fire again. WTF???  I get that out, realize my other fish is overcooking, grab the spatula and try to pry it up (because the fish skin is sticking again, of course), and manage to splash BURNING HOT OIL all over my left wrist.  More yelping, cold water, trying to get the fish out of the pan.  [sidenote: and a couple of them were real burns, even with ointment on them I still have 3-4 real angry spots that still hurt]

And the best part: after this is over, I look into our dining room... and everyone is still yapping away, completely oblivious to the fact that I just almost set the kitchen on fire.  Its amazing what a couple of glasses of wine can do. 

In my last batch I got ONE piece of fish that actually retained some skin.  So you bet your ass that's the one i'm showing a picture of!

Plated: Broken sauce, not-creamy parsnip puree, and mangled fish skin

Dinner #3: Parmesan Crisps with Goat Cheese Mousse and Heirloom Tomato Tart with Nicoise Olive Tapenade and Mixed Field Greens

First, I have to comment... even though taking pictures while cooking is a giant pain, i'm so glad I do.  Because even though I made this dinner less than a week ago (I mean, I just ate the leftover piece of fish tonight for dinner, for crying out loud) -- I have already forgotten about how things went.  But, a picture really is worth a thousand words, at least for reminding me about the zillion things I screwed up here.


Beet Chips


First up for my "afternoon prep" (yeah, no real break again) were the beet chips.  The idea of a beet chip kind of scares me.  I mean, it sounds like someone is trying to really stretch my husband's theory that "anything tastes good deep fried" to the limits.  Except, they are delicious.


First, I sliced the beets as thinly as I could on my mandoline.








Then I tossed them in a little flour and threw them in the deep fryer in small batches.



When I took them out, I sprinkled with a little salt.  I need to say it again: delicious!  I ate about 5, then remembered they were supposed to be for dessert.  One thing I had a little bit of a hard time with was Keller's instruction that the chip would sink when all the moisture was gone.  I had one batch that seemed overcooked after I let them go that long.  After tasting one, I determined they were burnt (aside - I discovered this solely because my dog tried to yank the paper towel down to eat some, and after a chip had fallen on the floor, I determined it was ok to eat juuuustt one more.  Amazingly, Bandit managed to knock ALL of the burnt ones and NONE of the ok ones on the floor - the first time he's ever done me a favor by being a bad dog!)

Mussel Stock


By far the easiest thing in the book.  NO CHOPPING REQUIRED!  And it took like 5 minutes (well, except that debearding the mussel thing - another 'internet lookup' stop).



Basically I just threw all of the ingredients in a big pan... except, I realized I had put the WHOLE bottle of wine in the pot when I only needed a cup.  My thirty-millionth screw up of the day (except... still doesn't compare to what comes later!).  I don't think it was a big deal, because I had like 40 mussels rather than the 18 specified.

After the mussels opened, I checked all to make sure I had gotten all beards out (hadn't with a few, so I just chucked them).  Next I set aside a cup of 'winish-stock' for the vanilla sauce. and then stuck them in the fridge to serve later with the sauce gribiche.

Parmesan Crisps with Goat Cheese Mousse

I made the crisps and the goat cheese mousse earlier... so all I had to do was pipe in the cheese.  So simple.  And they were tasty.  Not my favorite canape so far (honestly, probably my least favorite of the three), but at least they were easy to prep ahead of time.



Heirloom Tomato Tart with Nicoise Olive Tapenade, Mixed Field Green, and Basil Viniagrette


I had already made puff pastry rounds, roasted tomatoes, and the olive tapenade, so this was another 'toss things together' dish.

First, I sliced some tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme.. then realized the cold tomatoes weren't supposed to have thyme.  My bad, oh well.



Next I put the roasted tomatoes on the puff rounds, and stuck in the oven to bake for about 35 minutes:

Before:



After:




Finally, I tossed some vinegar in with the basil puree I had quickly made early that am, and tossed with some mixed baby greens.

The finished dish:

When I set the plate down, one guest remarked that it looked just like a fancy mini-pizza, which was pretty funny since Keller says its his "more elegant" version of pizza.  Everyone said it was tasty; I have to take their word for it since I had one tiny bit with roasted tomatoes because of my allergy... then ate salad and puff pastry.  Which was still pretty yummy.

Parmesan Crisps, Candied Walnuts, Chocolate Cakes, and How My Memory Has Fallen Apart

I used to have a fabulous memory. Then I had a baby. He is the best sleeper in the world - to bed at 7-7:30, he doesn't get up until 7 the next morning. And if he does wake up... he turns on music from his little soother and sucks him thumb until he goes back to sleep. So, sleep deprivation is not an issue. But since having a baby, 15 months ago, my memory just does not work anymore. Behold:

I wake up at 8 am, with a "work-hangover" -- the crappy feeling after a crappy day. I suddenly realize I forgot to get ramekins and I only have 5 of them, which is not enough for everyone. I also remember that I need to make real basil vinaigrette base. And that the fish Brandon got for my isn't going to work, so I need to hunt down some other fish (but the inadequate fish did make a delightful dinner on Sunday). So we run out: breakfast, Bed Bath and Beyond, Point Loma Seafoods (which has no skin-on bass, which really turns out to be irrelevant -- MORE FORESHADOWING!), calls to every market around, settle on Chilean Sea Bass from Whole Foods, run to Whole Foods. And yes, I am aware Chilean Sea Bass is not even related to Black Sea Bass, but I knew it would work. And all by 12!

So: i'm supposed to start cooking at noon. Except I have about two hours of additional prep that I need to do... hmmm.

First up: Parm Crisps.

I'm nervous. I accidentally grate a nail into the cheese while using the microplane (and if you ate at my house and are reading this: don't worry, I found it and picked it out). Tablespoon into round molds:

I cook them. They don't brown. When I have decided they are hopefully near brown enough, and the first batch has cooled sufficiently, I gingerly lower one into an egg carton. IT WORKS! Not quite right, but they aren't breaking. I actually reheat one that got too hard, forget about it, run over and find: a perfect crisp, that slides into the perfect tulip-shape in the egg carton. This gives me the confidence to really shove them in there, rather than lay them gingerly over the top.

Something in my life works, thank goodness.

The 6 ounces of cheese makes 50% more than I need, but I figure that's ok in case I have another "cornet incident" during the afternoon.

Item 2: Candied Walnuts

I (quickly) made poaching liquid, tossed in the walnuts... and waited and waited and waited. Seriously, I think it took 6 hours to get from this for the freaking liquid to reduce.

Eventually it did, and I spread the walnuts on a sheet to bake.  Another 40 minutes:

They looked pretty. Taste was a little blah. Not crispy enough for me. But... i'll chalk that up to user error.

Item 3: Chocolate Cakes

Another item that TFL@home didn't have turn out so well (I believe "potting soil" was the analogy to the cake).

Heat up chocolate and butter, yummy:

Overwhipped the cream, whoops, whisked eggs and sugar over heat, then folded in the chocolate and the over-whipped cream.

Then into the prepared ramekins:

And into the oven!

They smelled delicious and looked even tastier. At least in the ramekins.

Resources: Trader Joe's is the best and cheapest place to get Valhrona chocolate and cooking wine.
Cheese: my favorite friendly Venissimo shop!

Friday, funday

When I make these dinners, I go through each recipe and figure out what I can make ahead, and how far ahead. I generally try to do a couple of things each evening during the week, so that I can have a less hectic day on Saturday (or at least give myself time for the inevitable emergencies).

For Friday, I plan on making the parmesan crisps and candied walnuts. I have found another blog of someone cooking there way through TFL - called The French Laundry @ Home - and she has scared me about the parm crisps and my likelihood of doing it right. I'm feeling pretty good at this point, since i'm actually AHEAD of my prep schedule (having pushed the roasted tomatoes up a day).

But then a crazy work thing happens, I don't get home until 9:30pm, and after an incredibly stressful 14 hour day (that caused me to miss a work happy hour, blasphemy for an associate), I just can't bring myself to make a parm crisp. And I had this (prescient) feeling that the candied walnuts were going to take a lot longer than I planned on being up, so that was not a good thing to start.

So, yeah... this is why I build in extra time on Saturdays. And the reason why the anal planners of the world, with their checklists and lists and alternate lists, really have a leg up on everyone :)

A Stunning Admission

Up for the Thursday night before dinner: basil oil, sauce gribiche, and some roasted tomatoes.

First, basil oil: blanch, add oil, puree. Sounds so simple, yet takes so long to clean up. Never once stop to check the book to see if you REALLY need basil oil, or instead, like the dumbass you are, wrote "basil oil" when charting out what to do when and really meant "the beginning part of basil vinaigrette." Realize this just after cleaning up when checking the checklist against recipes.

But, whatever, now I had basil oil puree in my freezer, just waiting for straining whenever I really need basil oil.

Item #2 on the list: Sauce Gribiche, for the mussels that I will FORGET TO SERVE on Saturday night. Whoops, a little foreshadowing there.

Sauce Gribiche basically should be a test on how well you mince. Because I felt like I minced thirty things for this damned sauce.

And then I got to the hard boiled egg. I don't like them, I have never made one in my life, so I am forced to google how to make one. I google it, I watch instructional videos, I cook one. I break open the egg after a sufficient cooling period. Uncooked egg white flows everywhere, so I hard boil a second. I only needed half of it, so I put a little salt and pepper on it... and fed it to my husband.

Sometimes its nice to have a human garbage disposal for a husband.

Item three: Roasted Tomatoes

Easiest thing ever. Slice a tomato into thirds, drizzle olive oil, sprinkle thyme, salt pepper. Roast for an hour. Looks delicious (even before cooking), right?

I wouldn't know, since i'm allergic to tomatoes. Which blows during this project, since at least 20% of the recipes have a tomato component.

So, I don't read directions, I can't hard boil an egg properly, and i'm allergic to tomatoes, thus I will not get to enjoy the second course with everyone. You can pick your "stunning admission" (although I think its obvious - what crazy chic thinks she can cook her way through TFL when she can't HARDBOIL an EGG!!!). I know.

Beets Beets Everywhere!

Juicing the beets last time didn't really go so smoothly. Either time. This time, I was racking my brains for a new way to juice them (that did not involve buying a juicer). A co-worker was raving on and on about her new Vitamix... and I totally got it in my head I could borrow it (not being personally in possession of a $650 blender) and that the Vitamix would successfully juice beets for beet ice cream.

And you know what: it did. Even better than I could have imagined.

So, I needed two cups of beet juice. I truly underestimated the magic of the Vitamix and bought tons and tons of beets, just to make sure I had enough. I peeled and quartered three of them ("just to see how it works," I told myself), tossed a couple of quarters in with a tablespoon of water (since I didn't want to overhead the mixer in the first few second). I held my breathe and flipped the switch.

And had straight-up beet juice roughly 2 seconds later.

The thing is in-freakin-credible. I tossed in more and more and had all the beet juice I needed (and then some) in less than two minutes. Which was mostly spent turning it on and off to look and see if it was really still working.

The one downside was that I had to separate the juice and pulp using some cheesecloth. It wasn't very hard and it didn't take very long, but it looked like I may have murdered someone in my kitchen afterwards:

After straining, I put the beet juice in a pan to reduce, then in the fridge to chill.

Then I tossed my pulp in with some cream, more cream, and some milk (whole milk, of course, since my toddler needs all the fat he can get, and I rarely if ever touch milk) to "infuse" the cream.

Isn't that the prettiest color? After bringing to a boil and sitting for 30 minutes, I strained it.

More pretty colors:

After straining, I made the custard base for the ice cream:

Super simple: separate more eggs than you ever want to lay you hands on, whip them with some sugar,



Then temper the egg-mixture with the cream mixture and cook it until it thickens. Then in the fridge over night. Pretty simple, in the grand scheme of things.

Fast forwarding to the next day, I combined the reduced beet juice with the custard,

Then tossed it in my brand-new ice cream maker, and tada! Beet ice cream.

I've decided that beets should be the official food of Valentine's day, with the way they cover the gambit from blood-red to pretty pink!

Puff Pastry

First up for the next dinner: puff pastry for the tomato tart. Luckily i've made it before, and knew it was going to take a while because of the wait time, so I "scheduled" this in for a Sunday evening. And you know what? It was even easier than the last time I made it! (and I got an extra special snack treat out of it :)

Basically you mix the dough, mostly by hand, until its combined:

Then you take a giant portion of butter (a POUND!) and a little flour, and smack the crap out of it until its malleable. Imagining a hated-partner's face is optional, but may help if you start to run out of steam before the butter is soft enough.

Then your hands are too messy to take pictures of all of the next steps, but it goes something like this: roll out little triangles, stick the malleable butter block in the middle, fold it up like a package, and roll that bad boy out.

Eventually you'll have the appropriate sized square and fold it up to let it "rest" in the fridge. Because it must be exhausted after all the work.

After doing this a couple of times, I decided it was probably best to roll an appropriate sized piece and cut out the rounds rightnow, rather than waiting. It was a good call.

And the best part... after cutting rounds, there are scraps just aching to be cooked and eaten! So I rolled out the dough, but it into strips, sprinkled some cheese on them (because, really, we know that the butter needed a little cheese accompaniment), and baked for a while.


And you know what? They were delicious. Honestly comparing them to the other puff pastry i've made (from Sherry Yard's book The Secrets of Baking), the other pastry was better - flakier and a little more moist. But this was still pretty tasty, and surprisingly easy for something that took about 4 hours of time.