Dinner #32 - Cold Winter Night with Some Comfort Food

For this dinner we were able to bring some very close friends as well as some strangers. The night was full of a very fun conversation and incredible comfort food.

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.

To add to the comfort food, I was able to create a personal favorite,  pasta ai frutti di mare. With a little added arrabbiata spice, just to heat up the night.

Another favorite, pumpkin creme brulee.

A lot of smiles, always the best sign for an amazing night! Oh and congratulations to Alonso and Alex on their recent engagement! 

The Menu and Some Additional Pics...

click on the menu to see full size

The menu was catered to be something fun for everyone. One thing that was not mentioned here was the  fact that we created an alternative veggie menu for our friendly vegetarians. The pancetta croquetas were replaced with brown butter sage croquetas (still with fontina cheese). The scallops were replaced with grilled "nopales" (very traditional mexican dish, nopales are cactus) with grilled queso fresco. And the short ribs were replaced with broccoli rabe grilled with olive oil and salt with a homemade veggie broth.
Below are some pics, but many more are to come as well as Tamy's famous post where she will dive into some awesome insight about the night.

CREDIT TO RAUL MANDRU FOR THE PICTURES
THANKS!

Dinner # 30 - Seafood with a View to the Sea, Worth Kitchen Take Miami!

As part of a the plan as newly weds, it was decided that we would be spending the holiday season whose year ends with an even number with the Rofe's and the odds with the Donnelly's. So this past New Years we had the pleasure of not only spending it with Tamy's family, but also to take Worth Kitchen to the amazing apartment of Tamy's sister and brother-in-law.

Being in Miami is always a true pleasure. Not only does Tamy's family live there, but we both spent 3 years living and working there. It feels like being back at home... and so when we decided on the theme, I knew exactly where I was going shopping for the ingredients. A very special market that only very few people know about, but SO many more should know about. Casablanca Fish Market next to the Miami river is an amazing market that puts a new definition to fresh! Even though I already had a menu in mind, just stepping into this place lets the creatives juices flow at 100 miles an hour. Amazing fish, shell fish, mollusks, what ever you are looking for... anyways. If you are ever in Miami or live there, stop by. Highly recommended. 

Lia and Nathan have a beautiful apartment with an amazing kitchen, thank you for letting us come in and make a mess of it!

The Menu:
Appetizer
Cold Chipotle Avocado Soup with Grilled Calamari and Pancetta

Entree:
Butterfly Cut Prawns Cajun Style served with Saffron rice and Fresh Fish Broth sauce

Dessert
Coconut Mango Panna Cotta

Their apartment and kitchen is beautiful, as you can see here.

The avocado soup about to be served to the group.  Made with buttermilk and fresh avocados, very easy to make. The pancetta adds not only flavor but a delicious crunchy texture.

The giant prawns could not have been fresher and wonderful to work with. The special ingredient here was not only the garlic, the butter, the thyme, or the chives, but it was the Old Bay Spice. Amazing with shrimp!

Serving the entree. Lia likes to use this function on her camera where all color is washed away except one. Very fun

The wine was definitely a huge hit during this dinner! Thanks to Nathan for picking it all out. AMAZING!

Dinner #29 - Croquetas, Duck and Chocolate: A Beautiful Combination

It gets very difficult to create these menu's thinking "do all the dishes work together in perfect synchronicity?" Sometimes you just have to let go and go with it, sometimes I just have to trust my gut feeling for what a menu should be. Dinner #29 was a great example of this. When we created the menu, it was very difficult to see how the appetizer worked with the entree and the dessert. But the end product was fantastic. 

I won't bore you with the details, you see I have to write 4 more posts after this one, but I let the menu be kind of dictated with the ingredients this round. I walked into Dickson's Farmhouse in Chelsea market and my eyes landed directly on one piece of meat that I have never seen there before... wild boar pancetta! How do you say no to that. Well maybe its because I am a foodie through and through. But that is where the croquetas were born. Wild boar and goat cheese croquetas.

The duck breasts were right next to the pancetta so that was an easy decision. The dessert was an easy choice seeing as how we had a brazilian chocolate addict. We prepared the Brazilian "brigadeiros" warm  chocolate cakes. 

The croquetas were prepared in the traditional manner. Olive oil and pancetta grease was heated until smoking, 3/4 cups of flour was added and cooked for about 3 minutes. After this, 1.5 cups of warm milk and .5 cups of chicken broth were added and stirred for about 5-7 minutes. The pre-cooked pancetta and the goat cheese was added at the end and stirred for 2 minutes. The mixture was then allowed to sit and cool for about 1 hour and in the fridge for another hour. Then with a greased up hand, the croquetas were rolled out into small balls, dipped in eggs and then in the bread crumbs. Once all were rolled out, they were deep fried. about 2-3 minutes each. 

The duck was presented in two different styles as we had two different seatings for this special edition. One at 8 PM and one at 11 PM. We had a couple of friends that arrived really late after a broadway show. The second picture is how I served them, and personally my favorite.

Frozen "brigadeiros" were added to the cake batter before placed in the oven. Brigadeiros are basically condensed milk with chocolate (whats not to love?).

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... 'nough said.

From Worth Street to NoHo: Dinner for 20 People

December 16th marked an amazing night for Worth Kitchen. It was the first time that we were asked to take the concept outside of our 4 walls and into a brand new space. We had the complete and utter privilege of cooking in the amazing penthouse of Red Car, a well known and very professional post production house dedicated primarily to the advertising industry. It was a very natural fit for us and our guests were mostly all advertising professionals.

We are used to cooking and plating for 8 to 9 people on a weekly basis. Tamy is a huge help when we have these dinners, but the work usually is not so overwhelming. This time around, no amount of prepping could really prepare us for how crazy it is to plate 20 dishes all at the same time and have them served hot. Tamy was not only a huge help, she was indispensable. I am lucky to have found not only a life partner so great as her but such a strong support in the moments when I most need her.

What we both most loved about this dinner is the fact that the Worth Kitchen concept still survives outside of our intimate setting. 20 perfect strangers came together and for one night were great friends. I like to think that great food and wine can spark any type of conversation, and this case was not any different.

Our learnings: 1) Prep, prep, prep! I had everything cut and in containers the night before. The moment I arrived to cook, 70% of the work was already done. This made a huge difference in the final product. 2) At events of 20+ we will need more help, especially for the plating. Feb 3rd, we will need at least 2 additional hands in the kitchen! 3) Always have fun. I think this goes for everything we do and what everybody does. If you can do it with a smile on your face you already won!

The menu:
Amuse Bouche 
Butternut squash & rosemary with honey toasted pinenuts

Appetizer
Fennel salad w/ shallot & champagne vinaigrette, parmesan chips and valencia orange slices

Entree
Braised short ribs with barolo reduction, ricotta polenta & balsamic marinated portobello mushrooms

Dessert
Warm chocolate cake with a vanilla cream injection

Some quick pics...

When All Else Fails... IMPROVISE

One thing that I learned early on with cooking is that not everything always comes out as you expect. I guess you could say that this is a lesson in life... One of the most important parts of dealing with this lesson is the capacity to deal with these changes. I guess you could say this is the capacity to stand up quickly after falling down. Dinner #27 definitely tested my capacity at both.

The dinner was going fantastic, except for one detail. From the get go, the dessert was not coming out. I had to make dulce de leche in order to create a delicious argentine dessert, alfajor. If any of you have ever tried or know how to make dulce de leche, it is a long and tiresome process. One that did not come out to well for me. Regardless, at the end we had some caramel-like substance that tasted good and could be used.  The problem began when creating the actual alfajor. What came out of the oven was a solid 11 x 7 slab of caramel and phylo dough. Least to say it was unpresentable. And so, dinner #27 seemed as it would have no dessert... or would it?

A quick trip to the fridge would confirm that we had no ice cream, no nothing other than a bag of recently bought grapes. Yes, we freeze our grapes because they are delicious. So I threw the grapes into the food processor, added a tiny bit of white wine and viola we had a delicious granita which I then covered with some of the remaining caramel. Dessert was indeed saved at the last moment and improvising saved that dish. The result was delicious.

The menu for the night was:
Appetizer
Causa with avocado and flash fried octopus with chipotle sauce

Entree
Turkey bacon wrapped scallops with cilantro pesto accompanied by a Colombian coconut rice

Dessert
Originally an Alfajor but instead a Grape Gratina with caramel

The causa is a very traditional Peruvian plate made of mashed golden potatoes layered with avocado and some fish, in this case an octopus. The potatoes includes the delicious flavor of the Peruvian aji amarillo.

The coconut rice is traditionally made with burnt coconut meat and milk, however in order to speed up the process, you can also cook the rice with a can of coconut milk and a can of coke! Yes coke, this is actually an ingredient that I use in some other "secret" recipes that I have.

And this was the final product of the dessert. It actually came out very tasty.

A very big and special Thanks to Tripfilms.com and AmyBlogsChow.com for joining us on this special Saturday edition of Worth Kitchen. As always it was a great pleasure!

A Tour of the World... With Part of My Thumb Missing!

So yes, dinner #26 was very fun and all. As Tamy mentioned we were being filmed for a very cool project.  I guess somewhere in between the lights, the camera, the focusing on the characters, the not focusing on the camera crew and producer, cutting up my veggies, is where I lost track of what I was doing and took a knife straight through the upper part of my thumb. Luckily the cut was not as bad as it sounds, and I managed to keep things together (literally) and continue on with the show!

Well, for the show we had a great menu planned and let me remind you that we have had this menu ready for two weeks. This was the dinner that was cancelled at the very last minute due to my family emergency.
The menu was the following:

Phylo stuffed with feta cheese and capers accompanied with tri-color olives and mint sauce

Lamb sausage and eggplant stuffed pasta shell with fresh tomato sauce

Lamb chops with bordelaise-style sauce and mushroom and chipotle risotto

Warm chocolate cake with melted brigadeiro (brazilian chocolate candy)

The picture speak for themselves!

Green Olives, Sun Dried Tomatos & Kalamata Olives

Stuffed phylo with feta and cappers

Lamb sausage and olives stuffed in a large pasta shell

Lamb chops with delicious reduced stock with mushroom & chipotle risotto

Warm chocolate cake stuffed with brigadeiro accompanied by chocolate and vanilla sauce

This was the photo taken seconds after cutting the finger. You can see in the background the blood... luckily no food got contaminated.

Dinner #25 - A Night of Ricotta

December is always a very crazy month and the same definitely applies for Worth Kitchen. In the past two weeks we have had 3 dinners, two of which have been filmed. We are planning our first dinner for 18 people this Thursday at a beautiful loft in SoHo. So our plans do not stop... but lets not get ahead of ourselves. We still need to go back to Thursday December 2nd, our 25th dinner.

The dinner of the ricotta. Delicious dishes, and my first braised short ribs of the winter. This is a dish that will make various repeats in the future.

The menu was the following:
Appetizer
Baked beets and ricotta with rosemary and truffle salt


Entree
Braised short ribs with a merlot and broth reduction on a bed of ricotta polenta

Dessert
Ricotta cheesecake

The baked beet slices with ricotta. A little amount of beet juice was poured on top of the cheese to give it a desired coloring. Experimenting with the presentation is one of the key take aways from these dinners. Sometimes its a hit, sometimes its a miss. You be the judge.

The short ribs were seared before putting them to braise for 4 hours in a chicken broth with leeks, carrots, celery, rosemary and a bottle of merlot. By end of the braise we had a delicious broth that when filtered and reduced to a perfect sauce. The polenta with ricotta was served a long with some chanterelle mushrooms

The ricotta cheesecake was very simple yet indulging. My first cheesecake ever and I think it came  out quite well. It was missing the orange zest, it could have given it an additional flavor bump. But for first time with a cheesecake, I was very pleased. 

After this dinner I had a lot of short ribs and polenta left over. So instead of keeping it around for a personal dinner or lunch, I took the everything to the office and prepared short rib tacos and ricotta cheesecake for anyone that was around. This was officially our first of what could be many more Thursday Left Overs.  Many were feed and all were happy.

From Inception to Execution: Things Never Come Out As Planned... And For That We Are Grateful

Adaptability and patience; these are perhaps the most challenging assets that we as humans have and must develop in our lives. To say that life is always full of surprises is not only an overused cliché but does not even come close to how much anything that is planned could potentially change at a whim. Yet, these changes are what makes life… beautiful.

The real tale of our Thanksgiving is one which we could have never predicted, but the reality was amazing.  In order to properly tell it we must go back to the beginning.  A story which I hinted at in my previous post.

On Saturday November 20^th, some friends which we had recently meet were shooting a pilot for a new show they were just developing. The setting for this episode was going to be a Worth Kitchen dinner. As the apartment was being lit and the cameramen were shooting Tamy and myself prepping the food and the apartment, I received a call from my parents telling me that my grandfather had just passed away. In shock and not knowing what exactly I needed to do next, I continued cooking. It was Tamy and Evita (producer and camerawoman) that took action and started packing up the equipment. It was 7:30 at the time that Evita and Beto (the other cameraman) left and at 11:30 both Tamy and myself were sitting on a plane on our way to Bogota.

Funerals are very sad, and this case was not different. However I do not share this with you guys looking for any condolence, my grandfather was 98 years old and he lived a very rich and full life. He brought us together as a family to wish him a sweet  (bittersweet) farewell. Our trip to Colombia was quick and unexpected, yet an amazing chance to reconnect with family members I have not seen in a while, especially my Grandmother.

There was a very special moment Tamy and I shared with my Grandmother, in the middle of a restaurant surrounded by uncles and cousins. She silently taps our shoulders and tells us “please do not say thank you nor any comments. You are the only ones I have a gift for and I do not want anyone else to know.” She slips a very small package into Tamy’s hand and tells us “This is a very lucky item that used to be my Grandmother’s and I want you to have it for your kitchen.” Its really the small details like this one that can completely change your day, your week, or your perspective.  We now had in our hands an amazing family heirloom that is over 150 years old… passed on to us in one of the sweetest ways possible. A great close to an emotional 4 days in Colombia.

And like that we found ourselves on our next plane heading to Mexico for our very intimate family Thanksgiving. The first of two Thanksgiving dinners that we had planned. Yes, I know, TWO!  And we took it upon ourselves to cook the two dinner’s on Thursday and Friday. You see, my friends from Mexico love the Thanksgiving tradition, not just because of the food, but because it’s a moment where the old high school group of friends, friends who have remained very close since our graduation, can come together and have a great time. Plus, they have been complaining how unfair it is that they have not participated in a Worth Kitchen event, so what better opportunity than this to have a special Thursday AND Friday dinner.

So friends, I present to you the very special Thanksgiving menus and pictures from our traveling roadshow in Mexico.

Dinner #1 Traditional Thanksgiving Menu
Appetizer:
Lima Bean salad with pickled onions & cilantro

Entree:
Italian inspired turkey with rosmeary, basil, & white wine as well as roasted vegetables
(gravy was made from turkey broth, drippings and all roasted veggies blended)
Stuffing - Italian bread stuffing with basil an Parmesan cheese
Mashed potatoes with hazelnut and cinammon
Candied Yams
Green beans with almonds and cilantro

Dessert:
Pecan Pie (store bought... I know but I did not have time to do everything! We arrived at 3:30 AM that day)

Plating the salad... man I love that kitchen!

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.

The appetizer on the table as was set for the dinner. Notice the wine on the top left? Quintessa 1996. So good!

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.

Dinner #2 (On Friday) Thanksgiving a la Mexicana

Appetizer:
Nopales (cactus) salad with red and green tomatoes and fresh cheese on a bed of stuffing souffle

Entree:
Chipotle-honey rubbed turkey with kumquats and rosemary and "chile de arbol" pickled onions
Cilantro Pasta
Green beans with almonds and cilantro (we had a lot of green beans)

Dessert:
Yam (sweet potato) Crème Brulée

The turkey before going into the oven with a close up of the chipotle rub, rosemary and juicy kumquats.

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.

Prepping the dishes as everyone awaits in the table behind me. 

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.

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.

Also missing is a picture of the dessert. They all came out terrible, however, the combination of yams in a crème brulée was definitely delicious and highly recommended for anyone to try.

Over all the Thanksginvings were amazing. And for all of those who donated to the Children's Cancer fund in Mexico, we raised $1,200. A great figure, especially considering all the complications we had leading up to the event. A very special Thank You to all of you who donated, and to all of you who helped us out so much in this project.

Adaptability and Patience is a virtue, but one we should always be thankful for as well.

The Vegetarian Dinner: The Good, The Bad, and The Delicious

It is not very often that I can actually make the link that is made on the title. Its not that I am not the vegetarian type, I am just too in love with all things involving meat and animal fat. I know that half of you reading this just kind of rolled your eyes and thought "eeeww animal fat". However the other half, who is cleaning up your keyboards from thinking or remembering my squash fried in duck fat... I am talking to you. There is something to be said about a well made vegetarian dinner. 100% vegetarian, no fat, not animal broth, no fish, just good 'ol earth grown goodness. If Mario Batali were ever to read this blog, I think he just clicked the back button. However, I think that the results of the challenge was a plate that would even make Batali proud.

Stepping out of your comfort zone is alway, ALWAYS, a good thing. It bring new things that you never thought you were capable of doing. The last time I made a "vegetarian" dinner, I included scallops. I cheated. So a month ago, when we decided to have a veggie only dinner, there would be no cheating. And so it began, the guest were set, the theme was there, all that I needed now was a menu. Inspiration came in various forms. First off, a friend of mine advised me to stay away from the staple vegetarian food; squash, eggplant, and zucchini. Apparently vegetarians are sick and tired of eating the same food when the order a vegetarian sandwich or dinner. Point taken. The same person suggested the use of polenta, the delicious italian starch that is made from dried corn, delicious. The rest of the inspiration came from two places. First, from a gift a past guest of our made, a ver large bag of hibiscus flowers (dried) and second, by strolling through the amazing Greenmarket in Union Square. Have you ever seen a head of romanesque broccoli? Just by seeing it makes you want to try it. The freshest veggies were chosen. Moving from stand to stand, not know what I was going to do, little by little the menu was created:


Pre-Appetizer:
Pan fried Shishinto Peppers with Sea Salt


Appetizer
Flash fried hibiscus flower taco with cream and a green tomato salsa
Fried goat cheese stuffed zucchine blossoms with a chipotle cream

Entree:
Seared baby portobello mushrooms on top of a Grilled polenta with asiago cheese surrounded by a pool of freshly made vegetable broth and steamed romanesque broccoli.

Dessert:
Hibiscus Creme Brulee... SPOILER ALERT... (it failed)

We finally began creating the menus again! Here is the table before everyone arrived. 

The appetizer was very interesting to make. Even though Hibiscus  flowers are hard to come by in the States, it is a very common in Mexico. I left the flowers soaking for 24 hours in water (the water I then used as a hibiscus iced tea, or agua de jamaica as it is know in Mexico). Then I flash fried them in very hot oil for no more than 30 seconds. Once you remove them from the oil and onto a paper towel, salt them immediately. The tortillas are also home made. The zucchini blossoms are from a recipe that I have used in the past with a white wine and flour base.

This plate came out so great not so much due to the cooking, but due to the freshness and amazing flavors of all the ingredients. The polenta was home made (no I did not grind the dried corn, but I did not buy that roll they sell in the supermarket) with rosemary and veggie broth. The mushrooms were sauteed with a little bit of salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar. The vegetable broth was made 12 hours in advance using 6 leeks 2 onions, some garlic, 6 carrots and a lot of rosemary (about 6+ cups of broth).

Its seems as if its Tamy that always takes the pictures because I definitely come out way more than she does. Anyways this was the group just before enjoying the dinner.

Brian was warning of a a rabbit with big pointy teeth! (context)(more context)

Notice that I totally skipped the dessert? Well that because a) the camera ran out of memory space and b) the hibiscus flowers actually cut the cream and what resulted was a flavorful dessert that looked terrible and had very bad texture. But I guess in all experiments you can't alway succeed. Failure is an option and I learned a lot (much more) by failing. Its always fun to have this group of people to try my experiments on!
Thank you all.

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED!