Sole with Buerre Blanc

Laura had to practice her sauce making skills, and we made Buerre Blanc with pan-fried sole. Not much to say, nor did we do anything particular spectacular. But it was good.

Dinner

It's been a very long time since we hosted a fancy dinner.
For the first course, we wanted to try making panko crusted poached eggs that we had at Catch (Calgary). We decided to pair it with home made potato gnocchi, porcini and oyster mushrooms, and a little bit of truffle oil. The pairing worked brilliantly.

After the first course we served a tomato cucumber sorbet. For some reason my ice cream machine didn't work very well making the sorbet, and there were chunks of ice after trying to do it manually. The flavor was pretty good, but the texture needed work.
For the main course, it was roasted halibut marinated in miso-mirin, served on top of stewed daikon and in a chicken ginger consomme. We used chicken consomme because Laura needs to practice it for her weekly classes. It was my first time cooking halibut, and it was slightly overcooked despite pulling it out of the oven before what the recipe says. Maybe the fish pieces are not as thick...overall, the ginger consomme, the slight sweetness/bitterness of daikon, balanced well with the miso-mirin marinate.
The dessert was a chocolate terrine (from Thomas Keller's Bouchon book) with minor modification. We served it on a warm orange (zest only...not quite fruitless) creme Anglaise and garnished with toasted macadamia nuts. The warm orange creme Anglaise was a nice touch that balanced the rich chocolate terrine.
Overall, it was an adventurous dinner with a number of things that we have not tried making before. At the end the combinations worked but there was definitely room for improvement. Next time...

Oxtail ragout

It has been a very very long time since my last update. Not that we haven't been cooking, just that we have been too lazy to take pictures and blog about it...
I got some good oxtails from the Farmer's market, and I decided to make an oxtail ragout (braised in red wine, tomato paste, juniper berries, and the usual stuff). The meat was shredded and the ragout is served on a bed of pasta. Garnish was a little bit of gremolata.


This was my first time cooking oxtail but the result was excellent. Once again the plating needs work, but it was a "family style" meal...

Chinese New Year

Haven't updated my blog for a while. I made a few dishes to celebrate Chinese New Year.

A few appetizers. Shrimps in a ketchup sauce.


Drunken chicken:


Green onion cakes:

I made three "main dishes". The first one is roasted pork (with crispy skin) and some shrimp crackers.


Abalone, mushrooms, and lettuce:


Eggplant in a garlic vinegar sauce:


"E-mein": a type of noodle that has been fried first, and then it is stir-fried with Chinese mushrooms and oyster sauce. One of my favorite.


For dessert, a Chinese crepe with lotus seed paste (traditionally it's with red bean paste but my other half doesn't like that...):


Overall, a good meal and lots of fun. Not much "finesse" in the cooking, but still the flavors were good.