culinary pimpin

[donkbee]

everything you make looks so amazing. I think I'll fly to Chicago just so I can attend one of your dinners, I hope that's ok.

[boost]

everything you make looks so amazing. I think I'll fly to Chicago just so I can attend one of your dinners, I hope that's ok.

ha, that would be epic.

[triumphant cracker]

i think i cooked to sauce a little too much, thats why it's brown and not white.?

[flomo]

i think i cooked to sauce a little too much, thats why it's brown and not white.?

just comparing pics, it looks like your chicken is darker which would make the sauce darker.

[flomo]

oh yeah, BUMP for pics to be uploaded.

i'm still waiting boost.

[boost]

oh snap. Lemme upload a few. Here's three of the four courses from the winter tasting menu. I don't really have a good picture of the salad so I'd rather just omit posting a pic at all. It was just frisee, warm bacon leek vinaigrette, apple, chestnuts, celery, lardons, and Cambozola cheese.



bouiliabase- shellfish saffron broth, lobster, scallop, grouper, oversized brioche crouton, rouille espuma



pork duo- pork wellington, braised belly, parsnip dauphinois, glazed carrots, brazed prunes, taglieatelle of cabbage, pickled plums, Moroccan flavors



parfait- pumpkin, candied pumpkin seeds, white chocolate lace, cognac sage creme anglaise

[kfaess]

WOW this thread is so so amazing.

You guys are clearly bosses in da kitchen

[boost]

btw, any of you guys been to the taste of chicago? If not, well its one of the greatest culinary experiences in the world.

LOL, what a culinary noob. I still like to go there because, for some strange reason, I am fascinated by large crowds, but I have no interest in eating the food. Its gernally not very good restaurants that attend and then there's the food safety issue what with everything being cooked in outdoor kitchens in a temporary tent city.

[MSG85]

LOL, what a culinary noob. I still like to go there because, for some strange reason, I am fascinated by large crowds, but I have no interest in eating the food. Its gernally not very good restaurants that attend and then there's the food safety issue what with everything being cooked in outdoor kitchens in a temporary tent city.

You still like beefs and Chi-town pizza right?

[boost]

You still like beefs and Chi-town pizza right?

Ya, idk, I feel a lot differently about food now than I did even a year ago, much less four or five years ago. Heavy greasy food just tends to make me feel so shitty. So ya, I try to avoid this stuff as much as possible.

[MSG85]

Ya, idk, I feel a lot differently about food now than I did even a year ago, much less four or five years ago. Heavy greasy food just tends to make me feel so shitty. So ya, I try to avoid this stuff as much as possible.

Yea, I think I'm at roughly the same point you were when you posted that, except I'm not going to go to culinary school. But as a Floridian who can't find a proper beef (let alone pizza) within driving distance, these have become my home cooking ideal...

And therefore, I'm becoming a fat ass by doing so. Well, it's not actually that extreme, but all the same...

Anyway, we have lots of fresh fruits and seafood down here, and I have been progressively incorporating these into my cooking... I'm not sure what I"m asking at this point other than, do you know of any good food blogs?

[boost]

There are tons of great food blogs.. however the ones I gravitate towards tend to be more for the professional cook or at least a very very serious hobbyist.

[MSG85]

Pretend it's 2004 and you are suggesting a website to go to to learn the basics of pre-flop play, what cooking websites would be similar to FTR in this regard?

[flomo]

Great Pics!!!!!!!!!!
Thank You.
pork duo looks fantastic!



i splash around in a few of the forums at this site.
eG Forums

[boost]

Ya, I don't post or even lurk on egullet really, but I hear its not a bad place. I mostly post on LTHForums, a chicago based foodie forum. And even then not that frequently.

[donkbee]

pork duo looks fantastic!

QFT!

[flomo]

Crispy puffed rice being cooked to top cauliflower


Soy sesame wings

Wings. Roasted cauliflower with Vietnamese vinaigrette, switched cauliflower for the brussel sprouts in recipe below.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts Recipe at Epicurious.com

[donkbee]

mmm that looks sooooo good

[Lukie]

this has to be one of the more underrated threads ever made

[triumphant cracker]

just comparing pics, it looks like your chicken is darker which would make the sauce darker.

as in i over cooked it? probably. i made it again a little while ago. and the sauce came out the same..dark. so idk.

[jyms]

I figured I would post this here even though it's not quite up to the pimpin' par as flomo and boost.

It's a cauliflower and cheese pizza crust w/mushroom and diced tomato. Pretty much zero countable carbs

[rong]

Nearly all the vegetables in this thread seem to look limp and pathetic. Do yanks have a tendancy to overcook veg or is it just a lack of freshly grown stuff? Or is you veg great and the pic is a poor representation?

[mbiz]

Nearly all the vegetables in this thread seem to look limp and pathetic. Do yanks have a tendancy to overcook veg or is it just a lack of freshly grown stuff? Or is you veg great and the pic is a poor representation?

Its cos they're american

[boost]

Order Details:

CodeItemQtyPriceTotalvitamixvitaprep-3hp-0002Vita-Mix Vita Prep - 3 HP, 64 oz - 1005
1$495.00$495.00 Sub Total: $495.00 Tax: $0.00 Shipping: $20.82 Grand Total: $515.82

[givememyleg]

I figured I would post this here even though it's not quite up to the pimpin' par as flomo and boost.

It's a cauliflower and cheese pizza crust w/mushroom and diced tomato. Pretty much zero countable carbs

damn son, send some over.

[donkbee]

Order Details:

CodeItemQtyPriceTotalvitamixvitaprep-3hp-0002Vita-Mix Vita Prep - 3 HP, 64 oz - 1005
1$495.00$495.00 Sub Total: $495.00 Tax: $0.00 Shipping: $20.82 Grand Total: $515.82

[boost]

ya, it should get here in time for my spring break, so I'm looking forward to playing with it

[Chelle]

Bumping the fuck out of this thread.

Please, for the love of all that is amazing tasting food, post more.
This is like food porn, and I want MORE.

[Deanglow]

this is my fav thread on the internet

[boost]

fuck, our weather sucks, but I love chicago!

btw, any of you guys been to the taste of chicago? If not, well its one of the greatest culinary experiences in the world.

loltasteofchicago. I still like to go sometimes because summer time in Chicago is amazing and whatnot, but calling it a great culinary experience is just so laughable.

my step mom is also chinese... she would eat kimchee all the time, that shit is gross.

And uhh.. thanks xianti.. I guess?

I laughed mockingly at renton for his ignorance and aversion to Kimche, then I scroll down a few posts and, this. Lol2007me

My god this is my favorite thread on FTR by far. I really wish had some more motivation to make some shit that looks/tastes as good as this

And of course, the best for last..

ha, I had forgotten about this. This was for my final practical in baking and pastry. Everyone else was doing super by the book classic shit.

this is my fav thread on the internet

Maybe I'll post some pics from the last few years.

[jyms]

I made what I call inside out cabbage rolls yesterday but didn't take any pics. It's basically cabbage roll ingredients with the cabbage chopped instead of rolled. So much easier and less soggy so it tastes fresher.

Although I'm sure what I cook on a daily doesn't fit the pimpin thread so well.

[NightGizmo]

loltasteofchicago. I still like to go sometimes because summer time in Chicago is amazing and whatnot, but calling it a great culinary experience is just so laughable.

You're better off going to the smaller neighborhood festivals, you'll get a much better taste of Chicago's restaurants. Plus, it won't be so jammed full of overweight lazy people that definitely shouldn't be stuffing their face with fried food, pizza, and cheesecake-on-a-stick.

Also, the neighborhood fests often have themes besides food -- art, wine, Guiness and oysters, etc. The Wells Street Art Festival is my favorite, but that's probably just proximity -- I lived in Old Town for over 10 years.

[boost]

You're better off going to the smaller neighborhood festivals, you'll get a much better taste of Chicago's restaurants. Plus, it won't be so jammed full of overweight lazy people that definitely shouldn't be stuffing their face with fried food, pizza, and cheesecake-on-a-stick.

Also, the neighborhood fests often have themes besides food -- art, wine, Guiness and oysters, etc. The Wells Street Art Festival is my favorite, but that's probably just proximity -- I lived in Old Town for over 10 years.

Yeah, the ethnic/neighborhood fests are where it's at. The crowds tend to be a bit less like crowds at Walmart, and the food is def better.

[surviva316]

Hopefully the culinary gods of this thread deem this worthy a bump, but I made a 4-course meal as part of my Christmas present to my family. During the even itself, I was so fuckin stressed that I forgot to take a picture of all the platings and such, but I took pictures of the prep over the course of the week.

First Course

A Spanish blue cheese with fruity and tangy notes w/ an Apricot brandy reduced to a syrup with plums and cloves

A mild Italian cow's milk cheese /w roasted italian long hots and roasted garlic

A sharp goat's milk cheese w/ olive tepenade

Served with white wine, olives and a shitton of crostinis, of course.

Second Course

Kielbasa and Pickled Cabbage
Kielbasa with the apricot brandy, plum and clove reduction on top, on a bed of apples simmered with white wine and cinnamon w/ cabbage pickled in apple cider vinegar, citrus juices and red pepper flakes (wanted to do morcilla, but I decided to cut cost where possible)

Served with a Roasted Stone Fruit Soda (/w apricot brandy for the drinkers)

Third Course

Chicken and Garbanzo White Wine Curry
Drizzled with mint yogurt, topped with mint marinated in lemon and lime juice (wanted to do lamb instead of chicken and bergomot oil instead of citrus juices, but again, costs; used store-bought curry powder, but I really wanna start getting into making my own curry spices)

Served with a Moroccan Iced Tea
Green tea, citrus-marinated mint, simple syrup /w Triple Sec for the drinkers (yeah, again, costs haha)

Fourth Course

Rice Pudding capped with Ameretto Dulce de Leche
Served with Ameretto for drinkers

[surviva316]

Pics aren't great, but here they are:

Brandy being reduced with plums and cloves:

This with the blue cheese is what came out the best. The reduction itself could not have been better, and I just got lucky with the pairing because I was just going by the description on the label. Surprisingly enough, it's what got the least amount of compliments out of the first course? People's brains melted over the mix of simplicity and deliciousness that is olive tepenade.

Roasted long hots with roasted garlic:

Went over surprisingly well, even among people who don't usually like spicy.

Olive Tepenade before adding capers:


Second course was my best plating, but I forgot to take pictures. I did take a couple pictures of the cabbage being pickled, but that's like taking pictures of grass growing.

Here's the fruit about to get roasted with a bunch of brown sugar for the soda:


Here's the citrus-marinated mint and mint yogurt that were central to the third course:

This plating was a disaster (the leaves obviously wilted when they were marinating, and I used too thick of a pastry squirter thing for the yogurt (always forget what they're called) because the mint leaves got stuck in smaller settings. But it turned out surprisingly delicious. I love curries but I'd had nothing but failed experiments with getting citrus + mint + curry to work together until this dinner. I'll take a flavor win and a plating loss over the reverse any day of the week.

Rice pudding plating went well, thanks to the fact that it was easy as fuck. No pic, though, so instead here's a boring picture of the ameretto ducle de leche before it went in the crock pot:

Apparently I filled it too high so the excess ameretto wasn't able to separate from the dulce de leche. It made it all the more delicious, though it did mean that me and a couple of other people were being a LITTLE fast and loose with our sobriety.

Oh and condensed milk is fucking delicious, so I couldn't stand to waste all the sticky bits that my spatula couldn't get from the edges of the container, so I made literally the best chai tea I've ever had in my life.


How did I do? Feel free to tell me how retarded all of the concepts are, boost. I like learning new things.

EDITED for ridiculous pic sizes.

[boost]

Some use of certain techniques seems ill advised, but it's awesome that you're going for it. I'm sure everyone was more than satisfied with their meal.

Care to give us a menu though? You talked about what worked abd what didn't, but for example, I have no clue what the protein in the curry was, what style of curry it was, etc.. also, have a dedicated photographer next time... Doing the cooking and taking pics is a bit much, so I can't fault you for bad and or missing ones.

[surviva316]

Not sure if you saw my preceding post had a menu. The curry was garlic, white whine, chicken, garbanzos, green/orange/yellow bell peppers, onions, store-bought curry powder , mint yogurt, citrus-marinated mint leaves, lemon wedge and lime wedge.

I had my misgivings about each of the courses (except for the dessert, which was basic), but this one I had the most misgivings about. 1) The curry - My next goal in my cooking life is to get into making my own curries, and maybe dabble in some indian/cambodian/etc type dishes. I'm not there, so I went with store-bought what-have-yous, though I did try to use my best judgement on what what-have-you it was.

2) I wanted to incorporate the citrus flavors/smells without it causing problems with the dairy, which is why I did the marinated mint leaves and did the wedges. I'm not sure if marinating the mint leaves makes sense, but again, this was my compromise for not using bergomot oil, which obviously wouldn't have wilted the mint and would've been easier to cleanly separate from the yogurt.

3) Went with chicken for sake of costs. I was originally planning lamb, but that wouldn't have gone well with this type of dish anyway. Seafood seems weird for this type of composition. Not sure. Maybe having the excuse of cost allowed me to go with a safe choice that worked well.

Anyway, yeah it was all family so everyone was pretty blown away. Obviously not the best gauge for how well it actually went, though haha.

[WillburForce]

If you want to make your own curry powers, get yourself a cheap coffee grinder. Then you can roast or pan fry spices, give them a grind and store. They'll last a good few weeks.

Whenever I serve curries I always make a raita style yogurt side:

Thick Yogurt (Greek style is good), mint, cucumber, lime, olive oil, salt.

Make sure you deseed the cucumber or it will turn the dip watery. Add the mint right before serving to stop it wilting.

[boost]

Surviva, where do you live?

Curries: There are really good blends, pastes and powders. The reason I asked where you live, is because if you are in almost any sizable urban area in North America or Europe, you should be able to find a good Indian grocer and a good Thai or Vietnamese grocer. This is where you'll find the goods. I am lucky to have dozens and dozens of ethnic grocers where I live, as well as a dedicated spice shop that has several locations. But you should be able to find some stuff locally, if not, go online.

The mint leaves... Well, here's the thing, you can add citrus (acid) to dairy. Classic french sauces are almost always finished with cream for body and lemon for brightness. Just stir as you're adding it, this way you won't have high concentrations of acid coming into contact with dairy, which can cause the sauce's pH, in that spot, to increase enough to break. But, even if this weren't the case, marinating the leaves and then adding them to the sauce is the same as just adding the acid. Hell, it may be worse, since it is now harder to disperse. However, I offer a caveat-- I am not knowledgeable about all styles of cuisine, and where something and it's results may be empirically wrong according to French cuisine, it may be the way it's done and the results desirable in another cuisine.

And yeah, sorry, I was on my phone when I responded, so I didn't see your previous post. The menu is.. well.. all over the place! Ha. I think it's cool that you're getting your creative juices flowing, but Kielbasa and (what seems to be) Moroccan tagine are odd menu mates. Especially since both dishes seem fairly heavy. Menu planning takes a lot of practice, trial and error. If you've got a future menu in the works and you'd like some input, def pm me. I love menu planning-- I get giddy when I do it.

Oh, and cheese is not an appetizer. You typically want to move from more delicate flavors for more pungent flavors as your menu progresses. This isn't a hard fast rule, but it is the reason that cheese is traditionally a final course, served in lieu of desert. Ok, off my cheese-as-an-app pet peeve soap box.

[WillburForce]

Just had a long weekend with the gf on the Kent coast. Lots of amazing produce - picked these up from a local market. Pigeon Pie!



5 x pigeons prepped and ready for stock and pie filling.



Pigeon Pie - we served it with mashed swede and potato and some tender stem. Lots of gravy and a bottle of Pinot. Mmmmmmmm

[TeUnit]

thats some fine looking grub, thread should have a warning dont view if hungery

[Savy]

What's Pigeon like? Never had it myself and always been intrigued.

[boost]

Pigeon is a bit like a small duck. That's pretty much the best way to describe small game birds to someone who's never had them. If you have had other small game birds before, it would be closer to quail than guinea hen. On menus (in the states at least) they are often referred to as "squab." American's are pretty squimish about food, and eating something by the same name as what they refer to as "flying rats" would scare a lot of them off.

[Galapogos]

Definitely scared me off. I always thought pigeon pie was one of those names a dish has that doesn't actual have the named ingredient in it. Now I'm afraid to learn more about spotted dick.

[boost]

Meh.. there is nothing inherently gross about pigeons. If you saw one in the woods, you'd probably call it a dove. They aren't sourcing them from under that dingy train viaduct, they're raised on a farm just like chickens.

[WillburForce]

These are Wood Pigeons - wild game in the UK, so not farmed. Locals go out on shoots then sell them to local farm shops or on markets. As Boost said, like duck, but they're no where near as fatty. Seriously delicious and dirt cheap. I bought 5 for £7 ($6?). You can serve them pink - they are awesome in a salad.

I've got some in the freezer, plus some wild rabbits. This weekend I've got some friends over (after cooking on van all day...), so gonna do some sort of bad-ass game pie. I love Autumn!

[WillburForce]

[surviva316]

So I'm planning my annual dinner that I host for some people as a Christmas present. Planning the menu now, and since Boost said last time that he gets his gibblies off on helping people plan menus, I might as well talk about what I have in mind while it's still well in the future (probably Spring; hurray for spreading out the financial burden of Christmas!).

It's a bit all over the place again (especially the 3rd course, which isn't even self-consistent), but it's for loved ones who aren't necessarily foodies, so I'm trying to balance good popular fun with proper cuisine theory.

The dinner theme is A Very Special Old Pals Dinner (hahaha, I'm so punny). First course is a salad with apple cognac vinaigrette. Not totally sure yet what greens will be good with it and such, but I'm thinking of doing shaved manchego and the dressing will be something like cognac vinegar, apple, garlic and herbs.

Second course will be a Tapas al Xerez assortment. Blue-cheese-stuffed figs wrapped in {market cured meat} topped with fig and sherry reduction. Sweet Potato tempura with orange and sherry reduction. {Market small-game bird; probably duck} with a sherry cherry compote.

Third course will be (this is where I will probably make Boost upset, haha) fried catfish in a sherry cream sauce served with greens in two styles. Spinach in a garlic lime butter and bitter kale (sauteed with chiles, garlic, stock and red wine vinegar).

Fourth course will be cheese. Griddled market goat cheese (hopefully something with a rind; we used to do a miti cana at the restaurant that was awesome) with orange and sherry reduction. Cave aged goat cheese with plum, clove, and apricot brandy reduction.

Lambast away!

[surviva316]

Oh, and in other cooking news, I have been trying my hand at Near East dishes as promised. Homemade curry paste is not nearly as intimidating as I made it seem. Sure there are a bunch of spices, and at first it's tough to nail down which supplies what part of the flavor palette (I still don't really know what fenugreek does), but you get used to it quickly. And, at least in my experience, it wasn't as much of a trial and error period as it is for other cuisines I learned--it might not be the best curry ever made by man, but they all tasted good.

It's come at a good time because I've started to get into saving scraps to make stocks lately, so I've made a lot of curry soups and stews, which I tend to make heavier on ginger, cumin and chiles. I've been making things like coconut curries and amok, which I make heavier in cinnamon and ginger and add sugar to taste. I'd like to do more exploring with cardamon-heavy curry dishes, but the cardamon I have now is ground grocery store crap. I was tempted to ask for cardamon pods for christmas, but could you think of a lamer gift!

So that's what's going on in my culinary life at the moment. I highly recommend stock-making to the other hobbyists out there. Buying whole chicken and the boney/fatty pork and beef parts and such are much cheaper by the pound, and you can make delicious food that lasts you a week with meat and veggie scraps that you'd otherwise throw away. Soups/stews/rice dishes are like blank canvases that are very fun to work with; you get a good white or dark stock, and you can do anything with it.

[boost]

First post: yeah, it's a bit all over the place, but you've heard what I have to say on that, and it's up to you to find your way. Some styles are very eclectic, some are more "focused".. just gotta keep refining, and that's most of the fun in it, imo.

Second post: right on. Constantly pushing yourself to explore the depths of the "from scratch" canyon is ever rewarding. I love making stock, and I always feel more compelled to cook when I have some on hand.

[a500lbgorilla]

boost, I need your help.

I've got to make a potatoes dish for xmas eve. I want to do something with sweet potatoes like a sweet potatoe mash or something else with not-white potatoes (the reds and purples). Any ideas?

[boost]

I don't know your ability, or equipment available, so yeah, mashed would be my go to suggestion.

You can go traditional, ginger/cinnamon/nutmeg/butter/honey or brown sugar, or you could fuck with their heads and hit them with some curry/yogurt/toasted cumin seeds/garlic/honey/mint

Either way, for mashing, I prefer to roast my sweet potatoes halved with seasonings/sugars on the open half. Scoop out the meat, discard the skin, add more of whatever as needed (something like garlic will need to be roasted/sauteed/whatever first obv), and if using dairy/fresh herbs add after mashing.

Be sure to appropriately salt. Whenever people think "sweet" they forget salt for some reason.

Lemme know if you'd like help in a different direction, or if you want me to elaborate on anything.

[a500lbgorilla]

Gonna do a tester run today. Basically gonna season them, bake em, scoop em and mash em.

[boost]

Post pictures. Everyone likes pictures.

[a500lbgorilla]

This shit ain't pinterest, son!

[a500lbgorilla]

The first bite before I scooped 'em out was godly with the caramelized top. After I mashed them up, they tasted like hot sweet potato. I added some butter and brown sugar but I don't think they did much to change the basic flavor. I'll probably do the same come show time. That first bite was incredible though.

[boost]

Either pack more on top next time, or caramelize extra brown sugar in butter on the store top and mix it in to taste.

[a500lbgorilla]

Caramelized brown sugar butter sounds boss as hell. I'll just pack more on the open halves next time and go with whatever comes out. I don't want to overpower their normal flavor and the taste of just hot mashed up sweet potatoes wouldn't be a let down.

[flomo]

Kimchi

[kingnat]

Kimchi

Kimchi is my favorite food and it's not even close. I eat it all the time, and started making it as well!

I love preparing dishes with it for people who've never tried it too. So so delicious.

[surviva316]

So I'm planning my annual dinner that I host for some people as a Christmas present.

This year's dinner went very well. Much better than last year. We had several more people this year, and the Tapas course was a bit ambitious from an expoing standpoint, so the plating was nothing worth taking pictures of, but the food was executed very well.

For the first course, I did frisee, romaine and spinach mix with sour apple, dry-aged gouda and sherry vinegar. That's it. I tasted it early in the day to see what I wanted to do with the sherry vinegar, but the bitterness was so well balanced by the sweet + sour of the apple, the salty and savory of the cheese and the sherry's own acidity that I felt the need to do nothing with it. The mistake I made with this course is that I grated the cheese over the salad, whereas I should have shaved it to assure that my guests could get a piece of it in every bite. The balance was too delicate to trust that I could grate enough cheese evenly enough to get that effect. Plus, part of what makes the Beemster XO so great is its firm texture and I completely fucked that. Oh well, it was still great.

Second course, I did the sweet potato tempura in disks. Julienne woulda been much easier to present beautifully, but I thought 1/4" disks would be much better for flavor. The blood orange sherry reduction was runny, which didn't help presentation either, but I'll be damned if it wasn't delicious. Apparently tempura's super-god-damned-easy.

I did seared duck (first time I had to mess with cooking meat at different temperatures, which complicated this course a bit too) on a bed of sweet potato puree, topped with sherry cherry compote. I should have sliced the cherries in half so they could rest on the duck nicely, and I planned on expoing them with strips of orange rind, but yeah, time was an issue and sending things out hot and flavorable trumped plating. Maybe I should hire staff for next year, ha.

The last tapa in this course was figs stuffed with stilton, wrapped in bacon, topped with a fig and sherry demi. Again, if I had more time, I woulda done a bed of semi-wilted frisee to both contain the juices and give the plate a richer color palette, but NO TIME! Anyway, all things told, this was maybe my best single plate of food I've made in my hobbying history. I was worried a plate of sherry reductions, compotes and demis would be a little monochromatic--and maybe from a strict culinary theory perspective it was--but I was pleased with the results nonetheless.

My sherry cream sauce for the main course was exactly on point. I sweated onions with butter, salt and chilli peppers, then added sherry then cream and finished with paprika. Seems simple enough, but it had perfect results. I breaded the catfish in breadcrumbs and brown sugar, fried them, and added the sauce. I did the greens as outlined above, and the bitter kale was a complete facepalm. It was good enough on its own, but it had no business whatsoever being on that plate. The lime butter spinach came out very flavorful and whatever juices ran off from the fish actually went quite well with it. If I were to do it again, I'd cut out the kale and just do use the spinach as a bed for the fish, which would make for a 1000000% better plating anyway.

Fourth course was easy. This was my first time searing cheese, much less one that wasn't made for frying, but it was perfectly easy: griddle, butter, high heat, slap em' on there, once cheese starts melting, slide spatula under in one swift movement and flip on cheese tray seared-side up. Topped with the blood orange sherry reduction I'd already used earlier in that meal and through some crostinis on the tray and sent it out. I also did stilton with a plum, clove and apricot brandy reduction with crostinis. This was a reprise from my favorite part of last year's dinner, so I was disappointed that I left the reduction too runny. Again, I was rushing some things.

For next year, I'm thinking of doing Three Styles in Three Styles. Again, with a theme like that, it probably won't be all that cohesive, haha. I'm thinking First Course might be Eggplant in three styles: Eggplant and Yogurt Dip /w mint, rose water, lemon, garlic, salt; Baba Ganoush; Eggplant Tempura /w truffle honey. Second Course could maybe be bass because that's nice and flexible. I could do a coconut curry or an amok or something; something with some sort of demi or some other sweet something-or-other; and then maybe blackened sea bass. I could do complementary starches with each one. Early thoughts are pasta in a chili rosemary crema, wasabi potato salad, rice and fruit salad, goat cheese mashed potatoes, creamy risotto. I don't know, I have a ton of time.

There are a ton of ways to do desert in 3 styles: custards, chocolates, pastries, honestly anything. My fiance is thinking maybe she wants to bring in her first year as wife by being pastry chef for the dinner. She does a lot of work for a present for my family without getting much of the credit, so it's a good way to share the spotlight. Let's see what she's got!

Anyway, that's my biannual Wall of Text report on my hobby cheffing. You may all return to not giving a fuck.

[surviva316]

Oh, and with my recent success with cream-based sauces, I'd like to get into savory pies.