I also made some ginger ice cream because of a request. I followed the recipe I found at epicurious. It worked out very well, though you must like ginger to like the ice cream.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Creamy Experiments
I was busy most of the weekend so I decided to make some crème fraîche while I was away from home. I have decided to use it on a potato pancake (shredded potatoes) topped with smoked salmon, capers, and caviar (lumpfish and salmon roe), and a bit of dill. At the end, it is more like a pizza. It worked out okay, but I think it can be much better if the potato pancakes were crispier. Here is a picture:
I also made some ginger ice cream because of a request. I followed the recipe I found at epicurious. It worked out very well, though you must like ginger to like the ice cream.
I also made some ginger ice cream because of a request. I followed the recipe I found at epicurious. It worked out very well, though you must like ginger to like the ice cream.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Another dinner party
This weekend I hosted another dinner party with a couple of new flavors. If there was a theme it would be Asian flavors and rectangles. I recently read that square/rectangular things look better on round plates (which are all I have)...
For a starter, I made a bean sprout salad with a peanut-coconut vinaigrette, paired with some thin slices of deep fried tofu and hoisin sauce. With coconut I guess it is not "fruitless", but recent experiments seem to show that I can eat a moderate amount of unsweetened coconut. Anyway, I think the vinaigrette needs to be a bit stronger because of the high water content of bean sprouts (which dilutes the flavor somewhat). Still, I think it was not bad. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture. The salad was from the "Cook Like a Chef" show, but the pairing with the tofu was my own idea. The tofu were squares/rectangles.
For the main course, I once again made the broiled sea bass marinated in miso, served with a miso foam. Again, it was great, and this time I pan-seared the skin first to get a somewhat crispier result. I wonder if the best approach is to simply deep-fry the skin peking duck style (as I once saw Morimoto did on Iron Chef America) but that may be hard to manage at home. I also paired it with some bok choy braised in chicken stock, and a ginger-green onion risotto cake. Both the fish and the risotto cake were rectangular. The presentation is way better than the last time I did this in Waterloo, but it still needs a lot of work, I think. I wasn't sure how to put them together without them touching each other too much. Particularly I didn't want the miso sauce to touch the other ingredients, and I was somewhat concerned that the bok choy would ruin the crispy texture of the risotto cake. At the end the taste was great but I am not completely happy with the way the bok choy is not really showing under the cakes (the cakes were too large or the bok choy were too small).
For dessert, I put together the chocolate terrine with a five spice creme anglaise. This time I reduced the amount of egg whites compared to last time and the result was even better: it became a bit denser and has a smoother texture. I also added chili flakes into the chocolate and it worked out well.
So overall, I think it was a pretty good dinner. But there is always room for improvement.
For a starter, I made a bean sprout salad with a peanut-coconut vinaigrette, paired with some thin slices of deep fried tofu and hoisin sauce. With coconut I guess it is not "fruitless", but recent experiments seem to show that I can eat a moderate amount of unsweetened coconut. Anyway, I think the vinaigrette needs to be a bit stronger because of the high water content of bean sprouts (which dilutes the flavor somewhat). Still, I think it was not bad. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture. The salad was from the "Cook Like a Chef" show, but the pairing with the tofu was my own idea. The tofu were squares/rectangles.
For the main course, I once again made the broiled sea bass marinated in miso, served with a miso foam. Again, it was great, and this time I pan-seared the skin first to get a somewhat crispier result. I wonder if the best approach is to simply deep-fry the skin peking duck style (as I once saw Morimoto did on Iron Chef America) but that may be hard to manage at home. I also paired it with some bok choy braised in chicken stock, and a ginger-green onion risotto cake. Both the fish and the risotto cake were rectangular. The presentation is way better than the last time I did this in Waterloo, but it still needs a lot of work, I think. I wasn't sure how to put them together without them touching each other too much. Particularly I didn't want the miso sauce to touch the other ingredients, and I was somewhat concerned that the bok choy would ruin the crispy texture of the risotto cake. At the end the taste was great but I am not completely happy with the way the bok choy is not really showing under the cakes (the cakes were too large or the bok choy were too small).
For dessert, I put together the chocolate terrine with a five spice creme anglaise. This time I reduced the amount of egg whites compared to last time and the result was even better: it became a bit denser and has a smoother texture. I also added chili flakes into the chocolate and it worked out well.
So overall, I think it was a pretty good dinner. But there is always room for improvement.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Chocolate Terrine
I did an experiment last weekend and made chocolate terrine with creme anglaise from Thomas Keller's Bouchon book. I added a bit of twist to the creme anglaise by flavoring it with five spice. The chocolate terrine was extremely rich, but the creme anglaise provided a nice balance. This was garnished with some chopped and whole pistachio nuts.
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