People often ask me how I come up with ideas for our 'Dinners.' So in this blog I will share with you, at least in part, my thought processes on creating the following menu:
Egg-rolls Almondine
Wild Mushroom Ravioli
With Carmen Sauce
Haricot soup with Chevre Crème
Smoked Rock Cornish Hen
over Mixed green Salade
with Balsamic Chevre Dressing
Mango-Blackraspberry-Lemon Glace’
Veal Scallops with Shirred eggs
with Traviata Sauce
Spinach and Sweet Red Pepper Souffle
Chocolate Surprise Popovers
With Crème Fraiche
The truth is that most of the time I focus around a specific theme or even just an entree and build from there. In this case I had some nice veal scallops and started from there. No real theme, but a 'sort-of' theme eventually crept in -- Sauces.
Once I had chosen the veal scallops as the centerpiece I just let my imagination go -- I had shirred eggs on the brain, so that seemed like a nice 'topping' for the veal and I decided I would create my own "Traviata" sauce, since my wife and I are going to the opera "La Traviata" in a week. The sauce idea started with a Lemon base (ala Veal Piccata) but I wanted to vary that a bit. For grins I looked up "Traviata Sauce" on the web and came up with a restaurant -- 'La Traviata' in Long Beach -- and they had a sauce with green peppercorns, mustard and brandy. This twisted my head in a slightly different direction so I ended up with -- Lemon, Chardonnay, Green onions, Mustard, and, of course, butter. The spinach souffle came about because I had some nice fresh spinach and some roasted red peppers I had frozen and wanted to use. I also diecided that I would skip the carbs for the main course and though I was, in a sense, doubling up on the eggs, the individual souffle dishes finished off the plate nicely (and handsomely, I might add -- the 'red' of the peppers made a nice change to the traditional spinach souffle look).
The rest of the dinner flowed from there. Usually I get ideas, check local stores for what looks good, and dream up courses. In this case what came next on the menu was the Wild Mushroom Ravioli, which I had wanted to create for awhile, and the sauce for those became a browned butter (ala Roux) saffron menage. The name 'Carmen Sauce' alludes to Spanish Saffron.
The Smoked Rock Cornish Game Hen salad was chosen mostly because one my guests didn't eat seafood, so while I would have traditionally had a fish or seafood course, I decided to smoke several hens and thus three of the courses grew in my head from that thought: the salad, the navy bean soup (stock used boned carcasses of smoked hens), and the egg rolls. The sauces/dressing for these I thought up as I went: Salad dressing for Hen breasts became a balsamic vinagrette with Chevre; bean soup -- a chevre creme (yummy! and a great match BTW); and egg rolls -- pepper jelly-lemon sauce with toasted almonds sprinkled on-top(pepper jelly is something I originally came across in New Orleans served with boudin blanc -- sausages). Note: the egg rolls contained the non-breast meat of the Smoked Hens, veggies (spinach, cucumber, green onions).
The palate-cleanser, also a tradition in many of my dinners, started with some ripe mango I had frozen, and for a change of pace I added homemade blackraspberry puree, lemon, and berry vodka.
I wanted a light dessert and popovers are always a favorite, so I made James Beard's recipe, added cinnamon and sugar, and tossed a square of Giardelli's caramel chocolate in the center of each just before popping into the oven. The creme fraiche I made from scratch and whipped it, sweetened it, and added a touch of pure vanilla.
And to be perfectly honest, all of this grew in my head over the period of about a week. The final touches taking place as I was actually preparing the food.
The rest, as they say, is now history and part of our waistlines.
Best,
Joe Koob
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Florida Dinner IV -- Love Those Dessert Souffles
To finish this Florida Dinner Blog I need to run through the side dishes and then wax eloquently (hopefully) about dessert souffles.
I had a fair amount of leftover (cooked, but not sauced) angel hair pasta, so I decided to rejuvenate this and serve with a light olive oil-basel-garlic sauce. One of the best ways to rejuvenate cooked pasta, in my opinion,is to boil some water, toss the pasta in, shut the burner off, let it sit about one minute, drain pasta and toss with sauce -- voila.
Basel Olive Oil Sauce
I used a light Italian Olive oil -- a few tbls to taste
several knife-smushed Garlic cloves
Chopped Fresh Basel -- medium chop
Heat olive oil on medium heat with garlic cloves for a couple of minutes, toss in chopped basel, stir, turn off heat within a minute, and toss the pasta with the sauce. BTW remove the garlic gloves! Simple and delicious. This is one of those circumstances where the quality of the Olive Oil does make a difference!
Sugar peas with scallions and Baby Portabellas
Half pound or so of handpicked sugar peas (see note)
One bunch of chopped scallions cut into one inch pieces
Baby portabellas (eight ounces) sliced
Garlic
Note: I am one of those dastardly people who pick sugar peas one at a time out of the bin because I am very picky about what I get. I like firm, fresh, GREEN (not faded) pea pods. It does take some time to get all I want, but to me it is worth it and I don't have to toss out a bunch of them when I get to preparing them.
Peas: I trim both ends, wash, and saute over medium heat with several smushed garlic cloves for several minutes. Add scallions and portabellas more or less at the same time and continue to saute. After five minutes or so total time pick out the garlic cloves and add some herbs if you wish. Serve with salmon and pasta.
Strawberry Souffles: preheat oven to 350
Okay, one person has asked me how to make good souffles, so I'll go into more detail this time. I find it actually quite easy with only a few caveats to success. First: I have never made a "Classic" souffle by putting buttered parchment paper or whatever around the souffle dish so that when you remove from oven and remove the paper you have a sort of mushroom effect. I just use a buttered souffle dish or in this case a casserole as I did not have a souffle dish at hand and use enough egg whites to make a nice pouffy effect when it is taken from the oven. This particular souffle turned out magnificently -- a beautiful browned crown. Which of course, collapsed shortly after placing on the table-- sorry folks that's what souffles do --no way to prevent it
Ingredients:
about six or seven Eggs, separated (depends on size of your dish)
1/2 to 2/3 cup Granulated Sugar
few tablespoons of Powdered Sugar
cup to cup and a half of Milk
1/2 cup or so of Strawberry Jam
couple of tablespoons of Butter (salted)
tablespoon or so of Flour
Cream of Tartar (optional), about 3/4 teaspoon
Note the irreverence for the amounts -- very little is sacred in cooking or baking. Sugar to taste, etc. Create!
Butter souffle dish throughly. You can also dust it with a few tablespoons of powdered sugar to help it release more and to add to sweetness.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in medium-sized saucepan on medium heat. Heat milk either on the stove or in microwave to just below simmering. Stir flour into butter (use about one tbls flour to 1 cup of milk) when it is incorporated pour hot milk into mixture and raise heat to medium-high so the sauce thickens -- whisk as needed. Add sugar a quarter cup at a time until dissolved and then add strawberry jam and whisk until incorporated. Turn to low or warm and whip up the egg whites.
Egg whites: This is one of those crucial steps. I think maybe some people's souffles fail because they either overwhip or underwhip the egg whites. Basically most recipes call for the egg whites to be whipped to 'soft peaks'. So what does this mean? Essentially what you are looking for is a puffy, cloudlike appearance to the top of the egg whites in the bowl. I use a handmixer (though I have done this by hand with a whisk, but you need really good wrists!) and I not only have the mixer on high but I move it around in the bowl, in both directions and up and down, to make sure ALL the egg whites are getting whipped. You can add cream of tartar at this point or when folding into the eggs. It can help the souffle stay puffy a bit longer (stabilizes the egg whites).
ALSO, if you are not familiar with whipping egg whites, you can't let any yolk into the mix or they won't whip properly. Now, another way to tell if you have whipped your egg whites enough is to take the bowl by the handle and turn it upside down. If they stay in the bowl, you're there. If they fall out, OOPS! Well, that's how we learn. Be brave!
You can 'overwhip' egg whites, too. That is indicated by a dry, grainy appearance. If you have nice puffy, unrunny, cloud-like egg whites, you should be good.
These can sit for a few minutes while you finish the sauce, but not forever -- after ten minutes or so they will start to go backward, in a sense.
Turn heat back up on sauce to medium-low. Add a few (3 or 4) of the egg yolks while stirring constantly with wooden spoon to help thicken the sauce more. You can add all of them, but that's getting pretty rich for my blood -- literally. Remove from heat after fully incorporated.
Now, it doesn't matter which way you do this, but it is very important to do this next process properly as well. Add about 1/4 of the egg whites to the sauce (or you can add the sauce to 1/4 of the egg whites), FOLD with spatula or wooden spoon, over and over until well incorporated(lots of incorporation in this recipe!)This lightens up the sauce and makes it far easier to fold in the rest of the egg whites GENTLY for the souffle -- IMPORTANT! Then fold in the remaining egg whites as gently as possible until fairly well mixed. It doesn't have to be perfectly mixed together. If you over mix or over-fold at this point your souffle won't rise so well. Gently spoon souffle mixture into souffle bowl and pop into oven. Cook for about 30-40 minutes until golden brown on top and well-puffed.
NOTE: Believe it or not it is not usually disastrous to open the oven door and peek at your masterpiece, just don't open it really wide and let a bunch of heat escape. I have done it dozens of times without ill effect, but it is better if you have an oven light and can peak (Peek!) through the glass window.
Remove from oven to great acclaim and quickly sprinkle top with powdered sugar -- I do it through a fine sieve.
Godiva Martinis
Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
Vanilla Vodka
Heavy Cream
All this is according to taste and how strong you want your drinks. 1/3, 1/3, and 1/3will work well. Blend, shake with ice, pour into martini glasses.
Hint: I once made this 'hot' or warm and added a chocolate triffle to the center of the glass -- served as a dessert in and of itself. Yum.
Hope you've enjoyed the Florida Dinner Blog.
Good eating!
Joe Koob
I had a fair amount of leftover (cooked, but not sauced) angel hair pasta, so I decided to rejuvenate this and serve with a light olive oil-basel-garlic sauce. One of the best ways to rejuvenate cooked pasta, in my opinion,is to boil some water, toss the pasta in, shut the burner off, let it sit about one minute, drain pasta and toss with sauce -- voila.
Basel Olive Oil Sauce
I used a light Italian Olive oil -- a few tbls to taste
several knife-smushed Garlic cloves
Chopped Fresh Basel -- medium chop
Heat olive oil on medium heat with garlic cloves for a couple of minutes, toss in chopped basel, stir, turn off heat within a minute, and toss the pasta with the sauce. BTW remove the garlic gloves! Simple and delicious. This is one of those circumstances where the quality of the Olive Oil does make a difference!
Sugar peas with scallions and Baby Portabellas
Half pound or so of handpicked sugar peas (see note)
One bunch of chopped scallions cut into one inch pieces
Baby portabellas (eight ounces) sliced
Garlic
Note: I am one of those dastardly people who pick sugar peas one at a time out of the bin because I am very picky about what I get. I like firm, fresh, GREEN (not faded) pea pods. It does take some time to get all I want, but to me it is worth it and I don't have to toss out a bunch of them when I get to preparing them.
Peas: I trim both ends, wash, and saute over medium heat with several smushed garlic cloves for several minutes. Add scallions and portabellas more or less at the same time and continue to saute. After five minutes or so total time pick out the garlic cloves and add some herbs if you wish. Serve with salmon and pasta.
Strawberry Souffles: preheat oven to 350
Okay, one person has asked me how to make good souffles, so I'll go into more detail this time. I find it actually quite easy with only a few caveats to success. First: I have never made a "Classic" souffle by putting buttered parchment paper or whatever around the souffle dish so that when you remove from oven and remove the paper you have a sort of mushroom effect. I just use a buttered souffle dish or in this case a casserole as I did not have a souffle dish at hand and use enough egg whites to make a nice pouffy effect when it is taken from the oven. This particular souffle turned out magnificently -- a beautiful browned crown. Which of course, collapsed shortly after placing on the table-- sorry folks that's what souffles do --no way to prevent it
Ingredients:
about six or seven Eggs, separated (depends on size of your dish)
1/2 to 2/3 cup Granulated Sugar
few tablespoons of Powdered Sugar
cup to cup and a half of Milk
1/2 cup or so of Strawberry Jam
couple of tablespoons of Butter (salted)
tablespoon or so of Flour
Cream of Tartar (optional), about 3/4 teaspoon
Note the irreverence for the amounts -- very little is sacred in cooking or baking. Sugar to taste, etc. Create!
Butter souffle dish throughly. You can also dust it with a few tablespoons of powdered sugar to help it release more and to add to sweetness.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in medium-sized saucepan on medium heat. Heat milk either on the stove or in microwave to just below simmering. Stir flour into butter (use about one tbls flour to 1 cup of milk) when it is incorporated pour hot milk into mixture and raise heat to medium-high so the sauce thickens -- whisk as needed. Add sugar a quarter cup at a time until dissolved and then add strawberry jam and whisk until incorporated. Turn to low or warm and whip up the egg whites.
Egg whites: This is one of those crucial steps. I think maybe some people's souffles fail because they either overwhip or underwhip the egg whites. Basically most recipes call for the egg whites to be whipped to 'soft peaks'. So what does this mean? Essentially what you are looking for is a puffy, cloudlike appearance to the top of the egg whites in the bowl. I use a handmixer (though I have done this by hand with a whisk, but you need really good wrists!) and I not only have the mixer on high but I move it around in the bowl, in both directions and up and down, to make sure ALL the egg whites are getting whipped. You can add cream of tartar at this point or when folding into the eggs. It can help the souffle stay puffy a bit longer (stabilizes the egg whites).
ALSO, if you are not familiar with whipping egg whites, you can't let any yolk into the mix or they won't whip properly. Now, another way to tell if you have whipped your egg whites enough is to take the bowl by the handle and turn it upside down. If they stay in the bowl, you're there. If they fall out, OOPS! Well, that's how we learn. Be brave!
You can 'overwhip' egg whites, too. That is indicated by a dry, grainy appearance. If you have nice puffy, unrunny, cloud-like egg whites, you should be good.
These can sit for a few minutes while you finish the sauce, but not forever -- after ten minutes or so they will start to go backward, in a sense.
Turn heat back up on sauce to medium-low. Add a few (3 or 4) of the egg yolks while stirring constantly with wooden spoon to help thicken the sauce more. You can add all of them, but that's getting pretty rich for my blood -- literally. Remove from heat after fully incorporated.
Now, it doesn't matter which way you do this, but it is very important to do this next process properly as well. Add about 1/4 of the egg whites to the sauce (or you can add the sauce to 1/4 of the egg whites), FOLD with spatula or wooden spoon, over and over until well incorporated(lots of incorporation in this recipe!)This lightens up the sauce and makes it far easier to fold in the rest of the egg whites GENTLY for the souffle -- IMPORTANT! Then fold in the remaining egg whites as gently as possible until fairly well mixed. It doesn't have to be perfectly mixed together. If you over mix or over-fold at this point your souffle won't rise so well. Gently spoon souffle mixture into souffle bowl and pop into oven. Cook for about 30-40 minutes until golden brown on top and well-puffed.
NOTE: Believe it or not it is not usually disastrous to open the oven door and peek at your masterpiece, just don't open it really wide and let a bunch of heat escape. I have done it dozens of times without ill effect, but it is better if you have an oven light and can peak (Peek!) through the glass window.
Remove from oven to great acclaim and quickly sprinkle top with powdered sugar -- I do it through a fine sieve.
Godiva Martinis
Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
Vanilla Vodka
Heavy Cream
All this is according to taste and how strong you want your drinks. 1/3, 1/3, and 1/3will work well. Blend, shake with ice, pour into martini glasses.
Hint: I once made this 'hot' or warm and added a chocolate triffle to the center of the glass -- served as a dessert in and of itself. Yum.
Hope you've enjoyed the Florida Dinner Blog.
Good eating!
Joe Koob
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