Fork & Spoon

Seared scallop, cocoa nib brittle, coconut cream, jicama salad, chocolate mint.

As I hinted in my Austin Food & Wine post, I left Chef David Bull's cooking demonstration impressed, inspired and eager to recreate the dish he prepared in the demonstration: Seared scallop with cocoa nib brittle, coconut cream, jicama salad and chocolate mint. I took notes during the presentation, and did my best to reproduce the dish from memory. I was pleased with the results - I believed that I came close to the dish that Chef Bull had designed.  This was confirmed a few days later: Congress tweeted a link to the recipe, and my version was quite close to the real thing, with only a few minor differences. 

Austin Food & Wine Festival

I went to the 1st annual Austin Food & Wine Festival this past weekend and had a wonderful time. There were some issues, no doubt, but I'll leave the criticism to the critics. Unfortunately, many of the photos that I took ended up being worthless, but I'll share what I have. Here are the highlights from the weekend.

Chilled Garden Pea Soup with Buttermilk Snow & Prosciutto

Another crack at a recipe from Eleven Madison Park, and unfortunately another disappointment. The soup itself is a puree of scallions, English peas, olive oil, buttermilk, water and mint that is passed through a fine mesh sieve for a silky smooth texture. Despite following the simple recipe to a T, I found the final product watery and unpleasant to eat.

The flavors were there: the spring peas were very fresh, the buttermilk snow (which is essentially a buttermilk granita) brought it's typical buttermilk twang, and the prosciutto crisps (a time-saving deviation from the actual recipe) added a nice meaty, salty crunch. All that said, the soup itself was not rich at all and had no mouth feel.

Easily fixable next time around, I just will cut back on the amount of water added to the puree. If I had to guess what went wrong, I'd say that the English peas that Eleven Madison Park has access to must be more substantial than the ones I picked up at Central Market.

Hit up the Facebook page to see the rest of the photos.

Patience

The name of this blog comes from my wife, who introduced me to the phrase "Fork and Spoon," as a workplace appropriate swear substitute for ... well, you can figure it out. I used the phrase for the name of the blog mostly because it was a something personal that tied into food, but also because cooking can be frustrating at times, and does occasionally lead to swearing. Although, I can't say that I tend use the workplace-appropriate version. 

For me, cooking can be frustrating, and lead to swearing, because it's one of the few things that I'm passionate enough about to warrant such a reaction. Ideally, I'd like every meal I cook to be perfect, unfortunately things don't always turn out that way. This was one of those times. 

Teaser, Pt. 2

Another entry in a project I'm working on. Hit up facebook for the rest of the photos.  More to come.

Quail, Brussels Sprouts, Sunchokes & Dates

My most recent addition to the cookbook collection was Eleven Madison Park (which, by the way, is a total steal for $26 on amazon.com). For those who are unfamiliar, Eleven Madison Park is one of the top 50 restaurants in the world and one of a handful of restaurants in New York City to receive both three Michelin stars and four stars from the New York Times. And though I've never have had the privilege of dining at Eleven Madison Park, I can see why it deserves all the praise it gets, if the cookbook is any indication. Quite simply, this cookbook is stunning. At first glance, the thing that struck me most was the creativity in plating of every dish. A quick google search, and you'll see what I mean.

KRWAH-SAHN!

Baking on a Saturday morning, ahhhhh.

This was my first attempt at a croissant, so the shape wasn't quite right. They don't really resemble a crescent at all. That said, they were buttery, flaky and delicious, so I'm going to go ahead and ignore the shape and give myself a pat on the back. Pulled from Momofuku Milk Bar's cookbook, these mustard flavored croissants are filled with turkey, swiss and a dollop of mayo. One of these made a great lunch. Two made an even better lunch. Nap time!

Hit up facebook to see the rest of the photos.

I believe they call it a teaser.

Just wanted to share a few pictures from a project that I'm working on. Hit up my facebook page for the rest of the photos.

Braised Short Ribs, Mustard 3 Ways

The idea for this dish came together from a variety of sources. My sister gave me the new Voltaggio brothers' cookbook Volt ink. for Christmas. It's quite possibly the least practical cookbook I've ever seen - there is hardly a recipe in there that the average home cook could prepare. I'd venture to guess that 80+ percent of the recipes require an immersion circulator. That said, there is a lot to learn from the organization of the cookbook. It's divided into sections highlighting families of ingredients that naturally pair well together. For example, the nightshade family, containing tomatoes, bell peppers and eggplant.

After getting back from visiting my family, I received a gigantic bunch of mustard greens in the next Farmhouse Delivery bin, along with a daikon radish - both members of the mustard family. Turning back to Volt ink., there was a recipe that extolled the virtues of combining beef, beer, cheese and mustard. This recipe used kohlrabi as well, but I decided to make the combination work with the daikon radish. 

I turned to the Momofuku cookbook for ideas on how to prepare the daikon, and lo and behold, there was a recipe that paired a dashi braised daikon with short ribs. I decided to use the daikon and the garnishes from Momofuku (pickled mustard seeds, pickled carrot, and a green onion), but pair them with a beer braised short rib, a mustard sauce made from the braising liquid, mustard greens braised with chile and garlic and a smoked cheddar cheese. 

Pesto Arancini Stuffed with Mozzarella

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, filled with friends, family and delicious food. My Christmas certainly complied with the last of those three things, mostly thanks to the wonderful fried items seen above. I gorged myself on these before dinner, and as a result, when it came time to tackle the main course, I was not a member of the clean plate club. Which was a bit of a shame, because the rest of the meal - leg of lamb roasted with rosemary, garlic, sage and thyme, fresh papradelle with salsa di pomodoro, and rapini - was delicious as well. Still, I have no regrets that I ate four arancini before dinner, they were just that good.