Fork & Spoon

Celery Root Risotto

Quick, little post on technique for this "risotto". There are actually no grains of rice in this risotto, however, Arborio rice is an ingredient in the recipe. The Arborio rice is cooked until mushy and then drained. The drained starchy liquid is reserved, and the celery root is cooked until tender therein. This "risotto" is then finished with butter, mascarpone and Tarentaise cheese. The plated dish is finished with ribbons of shaved celery, celery leaves, and crushed Amaretti cookies.

Couple notes: Fun technique, using the starch from the Arborio rice to create a rice-less risotto. Makes me wonder other variations of this dish are possible. Sweet potato, perhaps? Second, this dish was a nice exercise in knife work. Cutting 2 cups of celery root in a one-eighth inch dice was time consuming, but good practice on some basic knife skills. Finally, I really like the use of Amaretti cookies as garnish in this dish, they brought a nice crunch to the plate and a surprising flavor. 

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Fried Chicken with Potato-Cucumber Salad

Went back to I <3 NY for this blog post; I'm really enjoying this cookbook. This recipe is a little out-of-season; it's essentially a dressed-up version of the summertime classic that is fried chicken with potato salad. But the siren song of fried chicken reeled me in, and I'm glad it did.

Whole Roasted Cauliflower

Received a plethora of cookbooks for Christmas, which spurred me to get back posting again, especially recipes that feature techniques that are new to me. My favorite cookbook so far from the bunch is Humm & Guidara's I <3 NY.

Cooking Planit

Just wanted to let everyone know that my recipe that I contributed to the Austin Food Blogger Alliance Cookbook, Smoked Salmon Hush Puppies with Green Peppercorn Tartar Sauce, is a featured recipe on Cooking Planit! Check it out!

Oh-Oh's

Made these for a friend's birthday a while back, just now getting around to posting about them. These are "Oh-Oh's", Thomas Keller's version of a Hostess' Ho-Ho. It's a chocolate biscuit rolled around sweetened vanilla whipped cream, then dipped in dark pâte à glacier (fancy magic shell, basically). These were challenging to make. It took a few times to get it right, and even then they weren't perfect, as the chocolate coating went on a bit thick. Nonetheless, they were delicious.

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Austin Bakes for West

Just wanted to throw a quick post up to tell everyone to come out and support the Austin Bakes for West bake sale tomorrow, May the 4th. I have donated the white cheddar, bacon and chive scones you see above, as well as a couple dozen oatmeal raisin cookies, both recipes from the Bouchon Bakery cookbook. My goodies will be sold at Foreign & Domestic, 306 E. 53rd Street, but if you can't make it to that location, please come out and support the bake sale at one of the seven other locations throughout Austin, which are listed on Austin Bakes' website. All funds raised at the sale will go directly to AmeriCares for disaster relief work in West, Texas.

Bouchon Bakery's Cookies

Been on a baking streak since getting the Bouchon Bakery cookbook. Currently have some loose dreams of cooking my way through the whole thing, but that will probably result in me and my friends all weighing 400 pounds. I did, however, manage to make the four kinds of standard cookies in Bouchon Bakery: oatmeal raisin, oatmeal pecan, chocolate chunk and chip, and double chocolate chunk and chip. Between the 4 varieties of cookies, I made 7 dozen, and as a result, I started to understand the technique that goes into making the perfect cookie. 

Spiced Ricotta Fritters with Maple Syrup

Made these ricotta fritters recently, not knowing exactly what to classify them as. SPQR refers to them as "contemporary antipasto", and they contain cayenne pepper, fennel pollen and curry powder, so I anticipated them to be a starter with a touch of sweetness. After making them however, I'd put them firmly in the dessert category. A modern dessert - not too sweet, with some savory notes. Whatever you classify them as, they're delicious.

Ricotta Ravioli with Cavolo Nero and Fontina

The next of my new cookbooks is SPQR: Modern Italian Food and Wine. The first recipe I chose to make from it really jumped out at me - Ricotta and Quail Egg Ravioli. For starters, I've always wanted to make ravioli filled with an egg yolk. It seems like a fun challenge. Working gently with the dough so as to keep the delicate yolk intact. Cooking the ravioli just enough so that when pierced with a fork, the warm liquid yolk spills across the plate. But also, a photo of the ravioli adorned the cover of the book. Can't go wrong making the recipe that was chosen to represent the book.

Rose Finn potatoes, poached egg, Maitake mushrooms.

Picked up a few new cookbooks this past week, including Beginnings by Chris Cosentino. This dish was the first recipe from the book that I tried, though I had to make a substitution due to availability (Where are the black truffles, Whole Foods?). The book's description of the dish said something along the lines of 'when the ingredients are this good, the keep the recipe simple'. I couldn't agree more. 

Buttery Rose Finn potatoes are boiled until tender, then briefly sauteéd in butter and sprinkled with chives and sea salt. They are then topped with thyme-roasted Maitake mushrooms and a poached farm-fresh egg. A great winter snack. Or in my case, eat a double portion for lunch. 

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