2013 - Q1

Finally starting to catch up. Not a bad haul to start 2013 with a one year old running around the house.

THE LOBSTER LADY - Great lobster rolls from one of the first food trucks I've had in Phoenix.  That scene in Phoenix (and in general) is becoming more popular.

THE MIM CAFE - Surprisingly, the MIM (Musical Instruments Museum) Cafe had some really great food. They have a changing menu and often source locally.

SEARED PORK BELLY - First attempt at making this at home.  Ran out of time to brine, ran out of time to marinate, ran out of time to braise.  All things considered, it actually was pretty good.  But now I know better for next time.

VEGAS - OK, not really a food discussion, but it was our annual Vegas trip.  Although there was good eats, this was just ridiculous.  That's right, we had our own private mancave to watch all the first round games, complete with open bar, open buffet (lots of meat to share), and our own private attendants.  Hard to believe but there's a fourth TV to the right.  

   

MIU'S CUISINE - If you've heard people say the best Chinese food can be found in a location that looks a little scary, this is a perfect example of that.

CHOU'S KITCHEN - Perfect example, part II.

BRAISED LAMB SHANKS W/ GNOCCHI - Better than the pork belly.

2012: The finale...

I missed a lot of pictures towards the end of 2012.  Binkley's was the biggest miss of mine...man what an experience there.  Oh well, still got a lot of great things to share.

CAFE BINK - Kevin and Amy Binkley's casual cafe.  Fantastic food here as well.

BLD - Meh.  It was a restaurant with food.  Nothing terrible, but nothing great either.

HOMEMADE PAPPARDELLE WITH CLAMS AND MUSHROOM SHALLOT RAGU - Fairly simply but I was pretty proud of myself for this one.

ZUR KATE - Man I love German food.  Fantastisch!

NOCA - They keep running through chefs but Eliot Wexler keeps the awesome grub churning out.

 

 

BINKLEY"S - They are for real here.  No pics, but here was the agenda for the evening (it seems too simple to just call it their menu).  THIS is how you close out a year!

Bacon infused Donut
Okra blossom with chili jelly
Brioche and rosemary sourdough
Red wine currants and brown butter
Parsnip soup with chili oil
Mini sandwiches
Flash frozen Arnold Palmer
Lemon salted honeydew
Charred pepper andouille sausage
Chicken liver mousse with pistachio butter and apricot jam
Curried poached pear*
Salmon carpaccio*
Truffle egg yolk with bacon
Seared Foie gras*
Pork belly*
Mango sphere (yolk)
Halibut*
Monkfish*
Guava juice with key like soda
Lamb*
5 spice Duck*
Milk, dark, hazelnut chocolate shooter in mint consume
Disappearing ouzo
Mini Soufflé
Peaches and cream*
Sweet potato pie*
Chocolate macaroons

Gnudi

Gnudi is something that I'd heard of but never tried. Many describe it as ravioli without the pasta. It is a dumpling with an extremely tender, smooth skin surrounding a rich, cheesy filling. It seems counter-intuitive to say that this isn't a time-consuming dish to prepare even though it takes 3 days to make.

Start by beating ricotta in a mixing bowl with salt, pepper, a small amount of half and half, and a drizzle of olive oil. My ricotta was a bit on the wet side, so I did a quick drain before mixing.

To form the skin on the gnudi, the ricotta dumplings are submerged in semolina flour. Put a thin layer of semolina on the bottom of a container, and drop balls of the ricotta mixture over the flour, making sure that they do not touch. Cover the ricotta with more semolina until completely covered. This will sit covered in the fridge for 2 days. After 2 days, some of the semolina is remove to expose the gnudi to the air, and is allowed to sit another day uncovered.

Its a good time to mention that this is a bit of an overdue post. I actually made these back in early August, back when fava beans were still in season. I served the gnudi with a fava/pea puree. To make the puree, I had fresh fava beans that I blanched, shocked in ice water, and peeled. I blended the favas and peas with a touch of half and half, nutmeg, raspberry vinegar, and salt and pepper. I also added a touch of honey to balance out the vinegar. It looks like I missed a picture of the sauce, which you'll see in the photo of the final dish.

After the gnudi had a few days in the fridge to develop a skin, they were removed. The gnudi were removed from the semolina and cooked gently in a pot of water. I was careful not to boil these as I didn't want them to fall apart.

The gnudi were removed from the cooking water and plated with the fava/pea puree, Parmesan, and a touch of olive oil. These dumplings are delicious, and difficult to put into words. They are extremely light, with a near ethereal skin holding the ricotta together. However, once the skin is breached, it exposes a rich, molten cheese filling. They really do seem like ravioli without skin. The dumplings are a bit of a blank canvas flavor-wise, so the pea puree was able to shine without dominating the ricotta. I will definitely make these again, but will try to make the ricotta balls a bit smaller and more uniform.

Modernist Macaroni and Cheese

The Modernist Cuisine Cookbook was one of the biggest cookbooks released in recent history. One of the more popular recipes from it is the Modernist Mac and Cheese. Instead of making a cheese sauce from a roux-base, the modern cheese sauce uses an emulsifier and a thickening additive. This allows for two things: more intense cheese flavor without the sauce breaking, and the ability to perfectly melt all types of cheese, even aged, hard cheeses. The cheese sauce begins by warming water and wheat beer (I used Hefeweizen).

I used three different cheeses for this recipe: a pungent, mature white cheddar, a slightly softer, nutty Dutch Robusto, and an extremely nutty, hard 5-year aged Gouda. I also used sodium citrate as the emulsifier to have a perfectly melted and creamy sauce, and iota carrageenan to thicken the sauce.

As you can see, even the hard, non-melting aged gouda melts thoroughly. The carrageenan thickens the sauce nicely as well.

The most delicious block of Velveeta cheese ever.

Boil the noodles until just before al dente. I used cellentani, a corkscrew-shaped, ridged pasta.

Per the recipe, you refrigerate/freeze the cheese so that you can grate it into the final sauce. I forgot to freeze it, so I just cut it into small pieces and it was fine.

With the residual water in the pan, the cheese sauce coats the noodles beautifully. Most of my water evaporated while the noodles cooked, so I found that I needed to add a fair amount of water to achieve the right texture.

We had the pasta with a simple salad. We found this to be more of a side dish, rather than having a full bowl of it. The cheese is very intense, much cheesier than any other mac and cheese that I've had. I think I would use a more typical, sharper cheddar next time, as all three cheese were quite nutty. Others have frozen the cheese for lengths of time without negative effects, so it can make for an incredibly easy dinner. We will definitely be making this in the future.