 The now famous croquetas with wild boar and fontina cheese. This was our second run with the croquetas and mastered the recipe. Later we replaced the wild boar with panceta, so good.
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| Another favorite, pumpkin creme brulee. |
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| A lot of smiles, always the best sign for an amazing night! Oh and congratulations to Alonso and Alex on their recent engagement! |
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| Plating the salad... man I love that kitchen! |
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| The turkey just before it was removed from the oven. You might notice a small hole where the rosemary is coming out from, I stuffed it with butter and rosemary for additional flavor and tenderness. |
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| The appetizer on the table as was set for the dinner. Notice the wine on the top left? Quintessa 1996. So good! |
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| And this is what a traditional Thanksgiving plate looks like in the Donnelly Family household. I am pretty sure it is very similar as many home across the States. This one happens to be in Mexico. |
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| The turkey before going into the oven with a close up of the chipotle rub, rosemary and juicy kumquats. |
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| The nopal salad lying on top of the stuffing. If you have never tried cactus before, it is very delicious, highly recommended. Every once in a while you can find them in Chelsea Market, but almost year round in Spanish Harlem markets. |
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| Prepping the dishes as everyone awaits in the table behind me. |
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| And this is my take on a Mexican Thanksgiving. The gravy was made by reducing the juices and drippings from the turkey. The onions have been sitting in vinegar and chile juice for three days, they were SPICY! So good! And yes, the plates definitely added some additional Mexican flavor. |
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| And this was the group of friends for whom we cooked the non-traditional (but what I hope will become a tradition) Thanksgiving. There is one important person missing from this picture due to the fact that he left early (once he saw the tequila being poured), my Dad. He joined us for the entire dinner. |
Things changed a little bit on this Thursday, in preparation for dinner #9. A little bit of role reversal if you will. You see, Tamy has been wanting to participate much more in the prepping stage of each diner. This time around I gave her perhaps the most important role… grocery shopping. It might be a personal thing, but I love buying the food I am going to be working with that night. Its like an artist buying the paint he is going to use on the canvas, its personal. But I trust her with my life, so of course I will trust her with our kitchen. So it was agreed one day before that Tamy was going to try a new location to purchase the food, Chelsea Market. Man was she excited.
That Thursday started like any other. Tamy left to work way before me, a little stressed about her workday and also about her latest responsibilities with the groceries. I was writing up in an email all the grocery list so she could print it out at work, then I got ready to leave. While turning off the lights before taking off, I found a very particular item that Tamy had left behind… her cell phone; this was going to be a problem. I have to be honest, I was considering pulling the plug and going on my own to the market. What if one of the important ingredients was no where to be found? How would she get a hold of me and ask what to do? (she doesn’t even know my phone number without her cell phone) The plan for that night was to cook duck breasts in a wine reduction sauce. Duck is not the easiest meat to find… but I had to be strong and have faith in her capacity to know what to buy. And I did, Tamy went that afternoon to Chelsea Market all by her self, with no cell phone, confident that she would get everything we were looking for.
Meanwhile, I was in the apartment getting ready for her arrival to begin cooking. I made sure the apartment was presentable. So I began to prep the kitchen as much as I could before the food arrived. The counter was squeaky clean, my knives were sharp, the food that we already had in the fridge was out, the onions were cut. Tamy was still no where to be found. I picked up the phone to call her, quickly remembering that her phone was in the room next to me in the same place she had left it that morning. 20 minutes before the guest arrived, Tamy triumphantly walks in with three bags of groceries. I knew at once that there was something wrong. She had that nervous face on. A little smirk, her left lip raises a bit, giving a small sense of false security, but since I know her all to well I knew something was off. And then came the confession…
They were out of duck breast. The key ingredient to the diner was gone. I had a feeling that something was going to happen. But instead, the fine people at Dickson’s Farmhouse Meats recommended we use pork sirloins instead. This came after about 30 minutes of a nervous Tamy explaining to them what the plan for the dish was and the importance of the duck breast. Apparently one of the people at the store said this would probably taste even better than duck. And even though I was very doubtful of that comment at the beginning, I was extremely pleased with the results. Tamy did a great job her first time buying the ingredients for a Thursday diner and definitely a special props is needed for the great service at Dickson’s Farmhouse. The duck will have to wait for another night.
Thursdays at Worth St. http://twitter.com/worthkitchen from Raul Mandru on Vimeo.
This was one of those days. You know the type… struggling to get through the day. In meetings from 9 AM to 5 PM straight non stop. Sometimes wondering what on earth is it that I am really doing here. I know it happens to a lot of you. Sitting through a conference call and all you hear is the voice of Charlie Brown’s teachers “whah whah whah!” People complaining for the sake of complaining; “You’ll ruin the concept.” “We cannot remove that line, it’s the only thing holding that creative idea together!” “This concept is off strategy!” “This strategy is off brand!” “We need the TV spots ready in one week!” This, ladies and gentlemen, is what the ad world has come to. Forget those days when things looked like they did on Mad Men, that show is fiction and so is that life. The glamour of advertising is gone. Creativity through advertising is not necessarily dead but it tinkers on the edge of a long abyss.
Creativity in these modern days has taken on a whole new dimension, or rather it has evolved from what it used to be. The internet gives the inspiring author a place to write and be read, the proliferation of digital cameras allows everyone to become a photographer, and anyone with a computer and a kitchen can become an aspiring chef and restaurateur. And, well, that’s where we come in. Food creation is, in my opinion, still to this day a creative dimension that transforms everyday. People love experiences, and being creative with your food and its presentation is only half of the challenge. The experience in itself needs to be just as creative. You can place a table with 4 chairs around it and call it a restaurant, but the ones that succeed are the ones that have a concept and a solid strategy to them. And to succeed you need to be creative.
Worth Kitchen has been an experiment in creativity for us. Our concept is very straightforward. Through the kitchen and the table we offer you an amazing dinner with completely different people every time in the most intimate of settings, our very own living room. This blog allows us to share the experience with everyone. We have officially set a deadline of 15 dinners to begin working on where we are taking this towards. What is the next level for us? We feel the concept we have built is very fun, and has received a lot of praise. So now, starting dinner #10 tomorrow, we have 6 more dinners to figure out our next steps… and loving every second of it!
Felipe's Rant...
I write this in retrospect of what was a great Thursday. I have not been able to get to it earlier as we had a very busy weekend, but we had a very special Thursday as it was the first time we host one of our parents to Thursday’s at Worth. Our special guests this week were Tamy’s parents, so of course the dinner had to be amazing. The menu was set on Wednesday night, once again at around 11:30 I finished writing the last item on the grocery list. This time, however, instead of visiting my favorite Whole Foods market in TriBeCa, I made my way to perhaps one of the best blocks of food in New York; Bleeker between Leroy & Morton street. In this one block you have the Lobster Place (Seafood Market), Murray’s Cheese, Faicco’s Italian Specialties & Amy’s Bread. This place is amazing. I headed there straight out of work on Thursday… first stop The Lobster Place.
My menu called for some King Prawns, when I got to the store, the vendors looked at me perplexed. I figured it had been a while since someone came in asking for some King Prawns, something which they obviously did not have. So quick change in menu and they recommended for me to take the Blue Shrimp, which arrived this morning straight from the Australian southern shores. Perfect, they looked amazing and had to be very tasty. My plan… poach them in butter!
Next stop, Murray’s cheese to pick up some artichoke hearts that have been sitting in olive oil, parmesan cheese and white truffle infused olive oil. Then to Faicco’s for the risotto, the mascarpone and the cream. Finish it off a the local grocery market (Bleeker Farm) on the corner to get the peas, bananas and everything else that was missing and I was set.
The evening was starting perfectly. I had plenty of time, the menu in itself was very straight forward. The only complicated plate was the dessert which I got out of the way very early in the night. But any good cook will know, the smallest mistake can make or break your plate, and unfortunately I made one of those. My mistake was that I forgot to peel the shrimp before poaching them. It sounds insignificant, but what happened was that the shell stuck to the shrimp and once cooked, made it very difficult to peel. I served the shrimp with shell and only when the guest began trying hard to peel the shrimp did I realize my horrid mistake. It was a bit of a mess. The saving grace was that the shrimp were delicious, the sauce fantastic and the risotto was perfect.
In all honesty I was upset at myself for not thinking the recipe through all the way, but at the end of the day a great lesson was learned. Its how I will continue to improve my technique in cooking and its will only make me better for the future. In this case I was very lucky to have great parents-in-law that only spoke praises of the dishes and the night. For this reason Thursday June 24th was a great night!
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.
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!
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.
It’s absolutely fascinating to see how the creative mind works. I experience it daily at my day job. You see I work at a very large ad agency, and creative ideas are our daily bread. I have the pleasure of working with some amazing creative talent and see how they develop their ideas to execution. My job role does not have any part in the creation process, I work more on the strategic process of defining who we are talking to and making sure that the execution is in line with what the client’s needs are. At the end of the day, it’s very executional and not very creative. However, this all changes when I begin to plan a dinner and the creative process that follows is how my creative mind works. When we embarked on executing this idea of special dinners every Thursday, I made it a clear challenge to myself that I would not be creating dishes that I was very familiar with, but instead taking myself out of my comfort zone and working on anything and everything I could. Which lead to the inspiration for this week.
Our original invitees for the week were two women, one pregnant and with a tight diet and the other a health nut with a vegan heart (but not vegan at all). I decided to create something based on the audience and their dietary needs. So I began with the easiest part, the main plate.
[ENTER STATE OF MIND]
A fish, what fish? But wait Tamy (my wife) hates fish. But she liked the fish we had at our wedding. Sea Bass. Can’t go wrong with a sea bass, but what do with it? Sauce? Garnishes? Yes, Cilantro pasta! Sauce? Hhhmmm (we’re eating Peruvian later tonight so my mind goes directly there) Aji Amarillo. YES an Aji Amarillo sauce with a goat cheese base. Do we need a veggie? How about broccolini with mushrooms? No that’s two greens and a yellow, the color scheme would be totally off and look bad. Do we need a third? No forget it. We have our main dish.
Now for an appetizer…
We started considering something with mushrooms, Tamy suggested stuffed mushrooms, hhmmm doesn’t quite fit with the main dish. There needs to be some connection between one dish and the other. We go through the entire process of creating a dish (which we might use later) of stuffed mushrooms with bacon bits, brie cheese. Sounds delicious but not for this dinner.
Finally I decide to go with a salad, a refreshing salad, yet still one that is unusual. Arugula, mango, papaya, Tamy suggests cucumber (delicious) and an orange/lime ginger dressing. Perfect!
[EXIT STATE OF MIND]
“What about dessert?” she asks. Well, I am nor really the dessert guy. Why? Well because dessert is much more of a science, too much or too little of any ingredient and your soufflé doesn’t rise, your mousse stays liquid, or your tart tastes flat. You see, I am much more the style of cook that puts in what ‘feels’ right, not an exact recipe to the teaspoon (so please follow my recipes as that, they are not exact!). To that note, I would wait until the last minute to see what I was going to do with dessert, but I promise, no cop out by buying ice cream or anything else like that.
So the day arrives and I have added one additional friend to the list of invitees, a former co-worker that just moved into the city, he would make a great addition to the group. What seemed to be a short day at work ended up being a lengthy one followed by a running trip through Whole Foods buying all the ingredients. Long story short, I arrive home at 7:45 guest are arriving at 8 and I have not even begun unpacking the ingredients. Prioritization is of essence, but I work very well under pressure and especially in the kitchen (mind you that the mess I leave behind after cooking, under these circumstances, is huge). So I begin with dessert first as this takes the longest cooking time in the fridge. This is what I prepared:
Coconut/Mango Mousse
1 Mango
1 can of Coconut Milk
2 Egg whites
1/3 cup of heavy whipping cream
1 envelope of gelatin
½ cup of sugar (cane sugar)
Grated ginger (fresh)
Grated lime peel
Combine the coconut milk, the egg whites, whipping cream, ginger and sugar in a bowl and beat well with a hand mix until the mix will begins to foam up. Transfer to a double boiler until it simmers then mix in the gelatin, stir. Pour mix into 6 separate bowls.
Dice mango into small cubes and place in each bowl.
Place bowls in the fridge for approximately 3 hours.
When removing from fridge before serving, grind a little lime peel for color and flavor.
Next up, I took time to begin what I should have done from the beginning, but with the longest plate out of the way, I prepped the main plate and appetizer. Had everything cut up and ready to go so it would be a much easier process on preparing the dishes. I prepared all dishes more or less at the same time, however I held off on cooking the fish until the appetizer was almost finished. So here are the remaining 3 dishes starting with the appetizer:
Arugula Papaya/Cucumber Salad
1 bag of Arugula
2 cups of diced papaya
1 cup of thinly sliced cucumber
Dressing:
1 lemon
½ cup of orange juice
¼ of a cup of olive oil
Honey (to taste)
Grated ginger (fresh)
For the dressing, squeeze the juice out of the lemon and mix all the ingredients together. Please note that the honey is for additional sweetness, I prefer to add approximately two spoonfuls, but this is to taste.
Mix the dressing in with the arugula just before serving. Serve arugula first then add the papaya and cucumber on top.
Now for the main dishes:
Chilean Sea Bass with Aji Amarillo/Goat Cheese sauce
1 Aji Amarillo chile
1 yellow onion
2 cups of dry white wine
3 tablespoons of butter
1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream
1 roll of goat cheese
4 pieces of Chilean sea bass
Sauce:
Place 2 tbs of butter into a small sauce pan, melt then place chopped onions until soft. Add wine and aji and let it reduce for 10 minutes. Add whipping cream and salt and pepper to flavor. Pass mix through food processor or blender, then strain into sauce pan. Melt the goat cheese into the mix. Sauce should look thick.
Fish:
Cook fish on a skillet just before serving. Total cooking time is about 8 to 10 minutes. Melt butter in skillet and place previously salt & peppered fish steak into skillet. Let it cook for 4 minutes then turn. Serve on dish then use sauce as a garnish on top of filet.
Cilantro Pasta
2 cups of chopped cilantro
1 cup of olive oil
2 tablespoons of mustard
2 egg yolks
Linguini/Spaghetti
Place chopped cilantro, mustard, egg yolks, portion of olive oil, salt & pepper into a food processor/blender. Begin to process at slow and slowly pour in the olive oil (should be a hair thin pour) sauce begins to take form and gets thick.
Cook pasta & drain. Replace hot pasta into pot and mix in cilantro sauce (pasta needs to still be hot). Sauce will cook onto the pasta.
As for serving, my personal choice was to serve the fish with a spoonful of sauce on top as well as a spoonful garnish on the side. The pasta was rolled and served on the other side of the fish.
