Family & Friends Gather

This past Thursday we finally served our first actual reservation. It had been set about a month ago and we were both very proud to have received it. So of course we planned out the dinner very carefully. And in case you were curious who these mysterious guest were, well, yes they are my parents, but the point is still valid! Tamy’s parents experienced the Worth St Kitchen a month ago and now my parents were the ones that made the trip to New York. Along with my parents we had a great family friend that flew in from Miami and my uncle and his girlfriend that came in all the way from Brooklyn (Park Slope!).

If any of you readers were in New York or even in the Northeast you would have noticed that it was HOT last week. But not like “oh my god, it’s the middle of summer, boy its hot.” NO it was “HOLY CRAP I CAN’T WALK ANOTHER BLOCK WITHOUT LOSING ANOTHER LITER OF SWEAT!” Might not be the nicest picture you would like to have before reading some succulent recipes, but I needed to set the mood. Considering the heat, we needed to serve something fresh as an appetizer. And thanks to our Greek friend that introduced us to watermelon and feta cheese we had the perfect appetizer.

As for the main course, the choice was to try out a meat we have not used as of yet, we went with lamb. But not the traditional lamb chops, instead lamb loins were the cut of choice. We served these with a mint cream sauce accompanied with edamame mashed potatoes and beet chips. The chips made the difference in the decoration of the plate.

The dinner was fantastic. The wine was by far the best we have had as of yet on a Thursday (may this be officially a competition to all guest, who can bring the best wine) two Italian Super Tuscan and two Argentine Pinto Noirs (not known for their Pinots but definitely worth a try).

Enjoy the recipes:

Watermelon & Feta Cheese Salad
1 mini watermelon
1 cup of feta cheese (block not crumbled)
1 cup of chopped mint leaves

The process is very easy, all you have to do is mix the above ingredients together. For presentation sake, what I did was dice the watermelon into 1/2 inch thick slices and the feta cheese sliced thinly. Then began to stack them, watermelon, feta, mint and repeat. Sprinkle some mint on top.

Edamame Mashed Potatoes
4 Idaho Potatoes
2 cups of steamed edamame beans
6 tb spoons of butter
2 cups of soy milk

Peel the potatoes cut into big slices and place into boiling water (salted). Boil for about 10 minutes, or until potatoes are soft. Drain and return into pot and set heat medium. Stir in the butter until melted. with a masher begin to press the potatoes. Slowly stir in the soy milk, one great tip to creamy potatoes is to stir in the milk hot, so heat the milk for about 1 minute in the microwave. Then add the edamame and begin to mash together. For best results process the potatoes/edamame in a food processor for about 5 minutes or until smooth. Add more milk and butter if you want more creamy. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Seared Lamb Loins w/ Mint Cream
6 1.5 inch thick lamb loins
1 cup of chopped mint
2 cups of white wine
1/2 of heavy whipping cream
2 shallots
2 tb spoons of butter

The cream is very straight forward. Chop the shallots and place into hot sauce pan with melted butter. Cook for 2 minutes add the wine and let reduce for a 10 minutes. Transfer mixture to a food processor and add the mint and the cream. Mix until very finely shopped. Add salt and pepper to taste.
For lamb, pre heat over to 400. Salt and pepper the loins and quickly sear them, one minute on each side. Place in oven for about 10 minutes until medium.
To serve sprinkle the cream lightly over the meat. Lamb is very intense in flavor, so you do not want to drown it with too much sauce.

Ginger and Mint Crème Brûlée
2 cups of whipping cream
1/2 cup of sugar
4 tb spoons of freshly chopped ginger
1 vanilla bean
1/2 cup of chopped mint
5 large egg yolks

In a double boiler, begin to mix the first 6 ingredients. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and try to scoop out the beans and place both into the mix. Stir occasionally for about 10 minutes until mix begins to simmer. Strain into large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl mix the 5 egg yolks and begin to fold in eggs into mixture. Once you have the final mixture separate into 6 small serving dishes (small bowls) and place cooking pan. Fill pan with water until half way up dishes and bake at 350° for about 35 minutes. Remove from oven and chill in fridge until just before serving. When serving, remove from fridge and sprinkle sugar over the top. If you have a kitchen torch, begin to burn the sugar on the top to make the hard layer. If you do not have a torch, do not worry, broil all in the oven for about 3 to 4 minutes until the top gets toasty. Cool with water in the pan again and serve.

The Healthier Side of Life

What an awesome time. Sometimes it is really fun to write in retrospect, why? Well because before every dinner I am always running. Always with the adrenaline levels high, yet the stress levels are low. The adventure begins the moment I step out of work. The dash to the market (usually Whole Foods, but after today I think Chelsea Market is by far the best place to go in New York City for crazy ingredients), running through the aisles to grab all the ingredients as quickly as I can. I always have a list written, ALWAYS, if not I will get distracted in the amazing truffle oil or the fresh sea bass or what not. I need to focus, this place is the closest thing to a playground that I have had since I was 6 years old. Veggies, check, fruit, check, meats or seafood check. Do I need some saffron butter? No, but at that gives me some amazing ideas for the future! Regardless, the point is I never have enough time to write in real time before the dinner. The moment we close the door after our last guest has left there is an immediate rush of "Wow, what a fantastic success!" And that is the energy we use to communicate with. So again... What an awesome night.

Challenges are always fun. And every week we receive people with different dietary needs or restrictions. Its part of our plan to adapt to others instead of other adapting to our food. At the end of the day I prefer for everyone to enjoy their dinners rather than leave a plate half full of food. So this time around, when I heard we had a vegetarian coming, I decided to have the appetizer dedicated to her needs, and it wasn't a salad. That morning while running, I had a crazy inspiration to make a ceviche, but instead of your regular ceviche I would make a veggie ceviche. In my head it made sense, now it just needed to execute it well.

As for the main dish, I wasn't going to sacrifice the protein for everyone, but I wasn't going to let our vegetarian suffer either. So I made a delicious zucchini pasta (imagine the zucchini cut jullien style, mimicking a linguini) as a side (main dish for our vegetarian) with turkey-bacon wrapped scallops. Imagine this combined with some amazing champagne, malbec and great friends, the perfect combination for a great night.

Now for all of you reading this, and I really hope there are a lot of you reading this. Please let me know what you think about the recipes. If you try them out, let me know how they went. I would love your feedback. We finally fixed the feedback options below, so you can leave it as anonymous if you would like. Oh, and by the way, thanks for reading!

Here are the recipes:

Veggie Ceviche

2 green tomatos

10 baby corns

1 red onion

1 white pear

1 cup of edamame beans

6 limes squeezed

1/2 cup of fresh orange juice.

3 tb spoons of fresh cut cilantro

3 tb spoons of fresh thyme

3 tb spoons of fresh rosemary

The preparation of this is quite simple, the only real trick is in you mastery with the knife. All ingredients must be sliced very very thin, to the degree in which its almost transparent. Nothing is cooked, steamed, or baked, thats what the citric acids of the lime and orange are for. Begin by placing the lime juice and the orange juice in a mixing bowl. Then cut the red onion as thins as you can place it into the juice mix. After that, cut and mix the rest of the veggies as thin as you can and mix it with the onions. The baby carrots might be more difficult to slice, so try to at least cut in half. The edamame beans is the only veggie that you have to steam, but after steaming cool quickly by rinsing through ice cold water. Split the edamame in half (can be done easily by hand). Once all veggies are mixed in, add the chopped cilantro, thyme and rosemary. Let the mix sit in a fridge for about an hour, this will allow the lime juice and orange juice to seep into the veggies.

Zucchini Pasta

1 green zucchini

1 yellow zucchini

1 lemongrass

3 servings of spaghetti (about half of a box)

Salt

water

Another very simple dish to prepare where the most important part of the preparation is the actual cutting of the veggie. Cut the zucchinis jullien style (into long thin straw like pieces) and steam for about 4 minutes in salted water with the lemongrass (cut in half longwise).

Cook the past in boiling water with salt (do not worry about adding a lot of salt, this will flavor the pasta) to al dente.

Mix the zucchinis and the pasta together. To serve, twist the pasta with a large serving fork onto the plate and make sure the zucchini (which will be soft and flexible) is wrapped around to give it the feeling of additional pasta.

You may see this plate, a pasta with no additional sauce as bland, but the taste all lies in the preparation of each ingredient. You will end up with a very flavorful combination.

Turkey bacon wrapped Scallops

18 Scallops

9 pieces of turkey bacon

3 tb spoons of fresh thyme

3 tb spoons of fresh rosemary

1 cup of orange juice

4 tb spoons of butter

4 tb spoons of olive oil

1 shallot

3 tb spoons of aged balsamic (about 12 to 15 years)

For the sauce, chop the shallot up and place it into a sauce pan with half of the butter melted. Add a pinch of salt then the orange juice with the olive oil. Let the mix reduce a bit. Very simple, but the olive oil and the oranje juice should create a great flavorful mix.

For the scallops, cut the bacon in half lengthwise (most turkey bacon is very wide) and wrap each scallop with the raw bacon. Put a toothpick through the bacon and the scallop. Heat up the skillet and place the butter to melt. Salt each scallop with a small pinch of sea salt and a mix of rosemary and thyme. Place the scallops in the hot skillet salted face down and repeat mixture on the other side. Cook each side for about 5 minutes (bacon will cook through, do not worry).

When serving the scallops, be sure to remove the toothpicks (thats what I am actually doing in the picture above). Sprinkle the orange sauce on each scallop and the aged balsamic after that. Sprinkle some on the empty plate for decoration purpose.

Learning from your mistakes... (the recipes)

One thing that we both have realized is that without repeating recipes, it will become very difficult to perfect any one. At the end of the day practice does make perfect, and without the continuous repetition of a specific dish, it will be lacking the set of "signature" dishes. Regardless, one thing that I am putting to practice over and over is technique and creativeness, two things that are extremely important in the kitchen. Through making mistakes you can learn more technique and creativeness than imaginable. Be grateful for the mistakes you make, they will make you a better person, in whatever it is you do in life.

And now for the recipes of the night. Overall... delicious.

Seared artichoke hearts

8 artichoke hearts

4 garlic cloves

2 tb spoons of olive oil

1 tb spoons of pepperocini (dried & flaked)

salt & pepper to taste
¼ cup of parmesan cheese

You can purchase artichoke hearts already cooked, the best ones are the ones that are in olive oil. However, you can cook them yourself by boiling the artichokes for about 30 minutes then cleaning the artichoke hearts. (you can do this a day before and then leave the hearts floating in olive oil).

Warm up a pan with the olive oil. Cut the garlic into thin slices and toast in the oil. Add the pepperocini to allow the taste to be released. Add the artichoke hearts cut in half and sear for a few minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

When serving place the cheese on top of the artichokes for added flavor.

Green Pea White Truffle Risotto

2 cups of Arborio rice

3 cups of chicken broth

½ cup of white wine
2 tb spoons of butter

1 cup of parmesan cheese
2 shallots
1 cup of green peas (steamed)

3 tb spoons of white truffle oil

¼ cup of heavy whipping cream

Chop the shallots into small pieces. Heat the butter in a pot at medium high heat. Add the shallots and get them nice and soft. Then add the rice and stir into the butter. Make sure you cover all the rice and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the wine and ½ cup of the broth and a pinch of salt. Stir continuously as the liquid is absorbed into the rice. Continue to add the broth ½ cup at a time. The risotto will become creamy as it continues to cook. Make sure to try it to make sure it is ready. Add the cream, peas and truffle oil; stir in. Add the cheese before serving and make sure it melts into the rice.

New Orleans style Poached Shrimp

12-15 large shrimp (peeled)

½ cup of butter (2 sticks)

2 tb spoons of Old Bay Seasoning (secret ingredient)

2 tb spoons of Paprika

4 cloves of garlic chopped

Melt the butter in a pan and stir in the garlic and the seasonings. Let the butter mix heat up and allow some time for the flavors to fully be released. Add the shrimp to the mix and allow about 5-7 minuts for the shrimp to be fully cooked (poached). Serve with a spoonful of the sauce on top for full flavor.

Mascarpone Chocolate Mousse with Bananas

This recipe was taken directly from the cook book of Harry Sasson, a fantastic Colombian chef.

After a sweet victory, the celebration!

The dinner was, once again, a huge success! For me it has been a great exercise to work the creative mind as well as practice in the kitchen. Every week gets better and better, and this time I really feel as if I am coming into my own.

Let me cut to the chase and share with you what I consider delicious yet very easy to do recipes. Please enjoy and PLEASE leave comments if you want to share anything or give feedback.

Tuna Tartar

1 tuna filet
¼ cup of fresh mint chopped
¼ cup of diced watermelon
½ lime (squeezed juice)
3 tb spoons of soy sauce
3 tb spoons of sesame oil
4 tb spoons of toasted sesame seed

This recipe is very simple. Cut the tuna into small pieces and mix all the ingredients with the exception of the toasted sesame seeds. The plate is ready to serve, or you could let it sit in the fridge for 30. Add sesame seeds at the moment of serving.

Salmon Tartar

1 salmon filet (3/4 lb)
4 tb spoons of sesame oil
4 tb spoons of soy sauce

Cut salmon into small thin slices. Add sauces and mix together Very simple.

Esquite

1 bag of frozen corn (or 3 fresh corn on the cobs)
¼ cup of mayonnaise
½ cup of queso fresco shredded
¼ cup of grated parmesan cheese
2 tb spoons of lime juice
2 tb spoons of chili powder

If cooking frozen corn, cook per the instructions on the package (most likely boil salt ½ cup of salted water add corn and cook for 5 minutes). Place corn kennels in a mixing bowl add mayonnaise & lime juice and mix together. Mix in both types of cheese and serve. Add chili powder on top.

Chipotle Quinoa with Asparagus and Avocado

1 cup of quinoa
12 chopped asparagus
1 avocado chopped
2 cups of chicken broth
1 chipotle chili with adobe sauce
½ yellow onion
½ cup of heavy cream
½ cup of white wine
2 tb of butter

Previous to cooking the quinoa, rinse the quinoa thoroughly with water. Once clean, place quinoa in the pot under medium heat, add some salt and pepper. Begin by adding ¾ of a cup of chicken broth into quinoa and let it absorb the liquid. Continue to add more broth until the quinoa has slowly risen and absorbed all the liquid. Approximately 20 minutes.

Prepare the sauce separately, with melted butter and onions in a saucepan. Then add the chopped chipotle chili into the mix and stir. Add the wine and 5 minutes later the cream. Sauce might be a bit spicy, but remember it is going to be added to all the quinoa. Pour sauce into the quinoa and stir it in.

Cut the asparagus into small pieces and cook in a pan with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Once cooked (5 mn) add to quinoa. Add the avocado and mix all together. Quinoa is the ready to serve.

Scallops with Cilantro sauce

20 large sea scallops
1 tb butter
1 cup of finely chopped cilantro
¼ cup of olive oil
1 garlic clove
2 tb spoons of mustard
4 tb spoons of heavy cream

Sauce:
Add cilantro, olive oil, garlic, mustard and cream into a food processor and sop it all up nicely. Cilantro will feel a bit chunky, that is the way you want to present it. Once all ingredients are properly mixed, pass to saucepan and cook lightly for 2 minutes just before serving.

To prepare the scallops, salt and pepper them before cooking. Melt butter in skillet then add all scallops. They should take about 3 minutes to cook on each side with a medium high flame. Serve scallops and then add sauce on top of each one, drizzling a bit around the plate for more presence.

A Touch of Mexico

Wow! This week came with a rush. We found ourselves on Wednesday night almost 10:30 and we still didn’t have a complete menu. Time definitely flies when you are doing something you love. Between this project and the World Cup, time has become an abstract notion which its existence to me is non-reality. Unfortunately, to the outside world, time is still very much a reality and this is how we find ourselves on Wednesday trying to create a menu for the three new visitors that will join us the next day.

We actually already had one dish in mind, due to the fact that we had half of a tuna fillet left over from the night before along with some watermelon and mint. Now we had to retrofit a theme into this plate and create from the vastness of our imagination two new plates that would connect perfectly. Luckily the idea came roaring out from Tamy’s creative mind. Seeing as how the next day Mexico played a very important game against France, why not dedicate a night to the country that has given both of us so much. However, we had to be very careful because if Mexico lost the idea of a Mexican centric menu would be lost in defeat. So what we created was a menu focused primarily on seafood but with a touch of Mexican.

Every plate we created had something that would tie it to Mexico, a certain subtlety within the dish. Obviously we had to check before hand what level of spicy our friends would tolerate, but the menu was coming together with ease and flow. The first dish would be a tuna and a salmon tartar garnished with an esquite (Mexican corn dish). The main dish, scallops with a cilantro sauce and a special quinoa. The dessert was one that Tamy would create.

As the reality of time began to fade once again we had a final menu set in stone, all we needed now was a beautiful performance from Mexico the next day and a win!

The thread that holds everything together...

Finding a theme for any great dinner is the most important yet probably the hardest thing to do. You do not want your plates to feel random or disconnected, however making something overtly obvious is probably not your best bet either (after all this isn’t Iron Chef!). Subtlety is always the best way to go. Whether it’s a taste, and ingredient, or even a smell, keeping your foods linked is key to creating an outstanding meal.

This is a great transition to this weeks dinner. We usually try to create a theme based on the people that we have invited. This time around we had planned to have an Ecuadorian couple and her sister, which was visiting. Well with such an obvious theme, one would think that Ecuadorian food would be the continuous link, however, as mentioned above, the obvious isn’t really the best way to go. First off, I am not too sure what is the most typical Ecuadorian food, and with 3 Ecuadorians, why give them something familiar? Better serve something new and different. So with that ruled out from the get go, what would this weeks dinner be based on?

There you see me, on Wednesday night going through my collection of cooking books (not to use the recipes, but for inspiration), Alain Ducasse has some amazing books, and I will tackle his cooking soon enough, just not this week. Gaston Acurio from Peru has some amazing dishes, and his books are inspiring but I feel that last weeks use of aji amarillo would seem as if I am overdoing it on the Peruvian food. Nothing was working. I had 7 books laid out in front of me, and inspiration came through one treasure of a book from Villegas Editores called Sabor + Color (Maria Villegas). Skimming through it, I came upon a recipe for a very common dish, tuna tartar. But it was the use of the fruit that really struck a cord, and like that I found my theme for the night… fruit! The use of fruit in Latin America is very prominent so why not create dishes that revolved around fruit.

At once Tamy and I started brainstorming ideas. She had told me once of a rice with fruit that she ate in India and never ever saw again. Immediately I thought I could use the amazing Indian spices that I have and create a curry. Done a delicious Indian curry with her rice with fruit. For appetizer, a salad with aged balsamic caramelized figs and a fresh strawberry vinaigrette. It was amazing how the ideas started to roll out the second I knew what that one connection was. Our menu was set in stone and ready to go.

That very same night I got going on grinding various spices, that were brought to me from a friend and my mother’s trip to India, together to create my version of an Indian curry. Now, I do not pretend to know an authentic recipe for Indian curry, nor is the one that I will provide you with pretend to be authentic. This is just my take on a classic. So, I took a mix of spices, some of which I knew and recognized, others I had no idea what they were or called (please see picture). Placed them in my version of a mortar, a coffee cup, and began grinding them with my makeshift pestle, a caipirinha fruit masher. After about 20 minutes of grinding and a tired arm, I ended up with the red powder that I was expecting and set it aside for the night.

With the grocery list ready to go, we were set for a goodnight rest.