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A Simple Pleasure

 Sometimes the simple pleasures are the best. I had one of those simple pleasures for breakfast using all locally made ingredients. I used Michael London's Fire Bread from Mrs. London's in Saratoga, N.Y., smeared it with pumpkin butter from Albert and Pat Sheldon's Sheldon Farms in Salem, N.Y., and layered it with fromage blanc from Eliza Porter's Homestead Artisans farm in Argyle, N.Y. All the ingredients were top notch. The combination was simple, but perfect. The bread provided a nice earthy base, the pumpkin butter some flavor and gentle sweetness and the cheese just the right tang and creaminess to pull it all together. Having purchased all the ingredients, it was eminently simple to put together, however, on further reflection, adding in the care, skill and work that went into producing those products, perhaps it wasn't so simple after all.

Taste of the Week - March 22nd-28th

Last week, my Taste of the Week was a version of a classic shrimp cocktail as interpreted by my brother, Greg. It was a particularly excellent example of a dish that I grew up with and still love. I received a comment on that post from Cristina Potters, who writes the excellent award-winning blog, Mexico Cooks!. She suggested that I try a recipe for a Mexican shrimp cocktail that she had posted on her blog and which she considers "the best in Mexico." The recipe comes from Rosario Reyes Estrada who employs this recipe (and others) at her small food booth El Ostión Feliz (the Happy Oyster) in  Guadalajara's Tianguis del Sol market.

Last night was a perfect opportunity to try the recipe as my wife and I were hosts to another couple for dinner. We opened the dinner with a Mexican theme. I made some Meyer Lemon Margaritas with fresh Meyer lemon juice, Cointreau and Gran Centenario Plata Tequila. The glasses were rimmed with red beet salt (obtained from roasting beets on a bed of Kosher salt). My wife made some killer guacamole and I made the cocteles de camarónes  using the recipe Cristina sent me - more or less.

Since I am far from Mexico, I made a few minor adaptations. I used U20 wild Gulf shrimp (previously frozen) rather than the presumably fresh U25's that Sra. Estrada likely uses. Otherwise, I followed the recipe as closely as I could.

I used enough water to cover the ingredients then brought that to a simmer before adding the shell-on shrimp. Watching the shrimp closely, I scooped them out as they were ready and put them into an ice bath. Once they cooled, I peeled them and put the shells back into the broth to simmer further while reserving the shrimp in the refrigerator. After straining the broth, I blended in the tomato using a hand blender.

 

Since I had a lot of broth I wasn't sure how much I was supposed to add to the ketchup. The recipe was a little sketchy on this. I added a little bit at a time until I could taste some influence of the broth without the sauce becoming too thin. I also added a fair amount of lime juice. At this point, the sauce itself was rather mild. I toyed with the idea of adding some of the Cholula, but I wasn't sure how much of an effect the minced serrano would provide.

In the meantime, I chopped the rest of the ingredients, substituting a delicious locally grown hydroponic hothouse tomato from Shushan, N.Y. for the Roma tomato called for in the recipe, and layered them in the ice cream glasses as directed along with the shrimp and the sauce. It was delicious!

This is a wonderful recipe, but when I make this again, I would do a few things slightly differently. Rather than layering the chopped ingredients in the glasses, I would add them to the sauce along with the shrimp and mix them so the flavors are more even and I can adjust the overall heat level. I would then place the shrimp and combined sauce in the glasses and garnish with additional cilantro and lime wedges.

This is a wonderful shrimp cocktail that, like my brother's, I would gladly eat any time. The flavors and textures are full and balanced. Combining the ingredients of each recipe with the toothsome shrimp allows them to reach synergistic levels. In each case, the context of the meal served to strengthen the appeal of that particular version. Similar, but different both are worthy Tastes of the Week!

Shola

Shola Olunloyo is one of the most talented and creative cooks that I know (and I know a few). He is equally adept at cutting edge technique and traditional. One of the most memorable meals of my life was at Studio Kitchen, his now legendary private supper club that he had in Philadelphia. He has also become well known as a blogger and food photographer. After being down for a while for re-tooling, his blog has returned along with an all-new and simply gorgeous website. The blog and the website are amongst the very best food and cooking sites on the internet. I have not seen better.

Back in February I had the pleasure of a brief visit with Shola at his new studio in Philadelphia. Along with a kick-ass cooking area with all the toys and a pantry to match, this Studio Kitchen has about as incredible a view of Philly as one could imagine.

With Shola and the recent move of Alex Talbot and Aki Kamozawa to Buck's County in addition to its other culinary attractions, Philadelphia has become a major draw for me personally and should be for anyone seriously interested in food that is creative, beautiful and delicious!

some of Shola's incredible pantry

I eagerly await Shola's future projects.

Cultural Evolution

The food set on the tables was all very familiar. It should have been, as I had been eating it in one form or another all my life. Meat in the gravy (Italian sausage, bracciole, and meatballs), macaroni, stuffed mushrooms, ricotta, fresh mozzarella, sharp provolone, sausage bread, shrimp cocktail and pork tenderloin all filled the serving areas to overflowing. The better part of my immediate family including my siblings, my wife, one of my sons and nieces and nephews were present as were a few family friends. We were gathered at the home of my brother and his wife to celebrate the birthdays of another brother and a niece.

The food was familiar and delicious, all dishes that we had grown up with. The bracciole was melt-in-your-mouth, the sausages appropriately spiced, the meatballs firm and tasty. The shrimp cocktail I already discussed in another post.  Everything satisfied, even though my brother made the tenderloin untraditionally spicy.

The food that was typical Sunday dinner fare while growing up. Our parents, as first generation Italian-Americans, raised us with many of the culinary traditions brought over by their grandparents and parents from Italy. Some modifications of tradition were made necessary by what was available in Brooklyn rather than in Palermo or Naples, but for the most part, the food adhered closely to what they had been used to.

My parents were older when I was born and their extended families were already quite large. My father was third oldest in a family of fourteen children and my mother in the middle of eight. Getting together with their families for major holidays and celebrations was always a priority and a major undertaking, especially when my grandparents were alive. These gatherings always centered around food, especially traditional celebratory dishes. Christmas Eve at my paternal grandparents' home featured the Sicilian specialty Pasta con le Sarde  (pasta with sardines and fennel) amongst other dishes.This was never a favorite at the time of the younger second generation children and simpler dishes were made for us. The adults reveled in the pasta along with other dishes that seemed exotic to us then. At other times, lasagna was the special meal and my mother's was second to none.

  In my home we ate a lot of Italian-American food, at least three or four nights per week, which was less than the seven nights per week that my parents and their siblings ate it while they were growing up. Sundays were days for meat in the gravy or Fusilli with chopped meat sauce , roast chicken, stuffed artichokes and mushrooms and perhaps even some cannoli or other Italian pastries for dessert. During the week, we would eat traditional foods such as chevrilade, a skinny sausage wound into a coil and held together by skewers, cooked either on the grill or in a pan depending on the season; pastas such as mafalde with ricotta, cavatelli with broccoli or peas and pastine. Interspersed with these Italian-American dishes were more typically American items like hamburgers, fried chicken, pork chops or grilled steaks. Fridays were generally reserved for simpler vegetarian or seafood dishes such as spaghetti with a marinara sauce or linguine with white clam sauce and perhaps a piece of simply prepared fish. Celebrations such as birthdays, were usually more involved than either weekdays or typical Sundays. For my birthday, my mother would prepare my favorite dish, the labor intensive perciatelli (or buccatini) with crab sauce. She would spend hours stuffing the freshly killed crabs with a mixture of herbs, breadcrumbs and yes, grated pecorino, before tying the crabs back together with butcher's twine and letting them slowly simmer in the tomato sauce for hours on end. Most of these dishes were taken for granted as we were growing up and why not? All of the special ingredients or preparations such as ravioli, Italian bread, fresh mozzarella, a variety of seafood, sausages, cheeses, vegetables, pastries, cakes and cookies were all readily available in the numerous Italian-American markets and specialty shops present in our part of Brooklyn.

As we got older, we  became acclimated to other cuisines and cultures beyond what we grew up as we all fanned out from our native Brooklyn.  As a result of our diaspora, we have been slowly losing touch with a number of our culinary traditions. As the generation of my parents taste for the food of their parents began to include a taste for the food of their own homeland, the tastes of their children expanded even more, further diluting the memories of the cooking of earlier generations. This dilution was abetted by increasing difficulty in locating and finding quality traditional products. Though a number fortunately still remain, many of the specialty purveyors also left the original neighborhoods, some closing up shop entirely while others spread out throughout the suburbs and sometimes beyond.

At the celebration dinner at my brother's house in southwestern New Jersey, most of the specialty items were brought via special trips to the Italian specialty shops that remained in Brooklyn and Staten Island. On the all too rare occasions I find myself in Brooklyn or in the Bronx at Arthur Avenue, I make a point of loading up on the items I just can't seem to find anywhere else (at least not with the same qualities). In Brooklyn a stop on Court Street to visit Esposito's Pork Store, Court Pastry and Ferdinando's Foccacceria are mandatory. I come out loaded up with meats, pastas and cheeses as well as cookies, breads and pastries.

Now with the internet and the knowledge of sources where I live, I can do reasonably well finding many specialty items while some others I can make myself. Still, product availability is nothing like it was when I was growing up. For example, I can't get live blue crabs where I live (at least not  reliably and affordably). I can get Italian pastries and fresh mozzarella, but not as good as from Court Street.

A curious thing has happened over the generations. Instead of the more elaborate and exotic (to us) dishes that festooned the celebrations of our parents and grandparents, the comfort food of Sundays and even some weekday fare has come to serve as  celebration food amongst my generation, especially when we gather together. That doesn't always hold when we celebrate apart or amongst our individual families. Those celebrations, though they often contain dishes from our youth, just as frequently offer other, newer dishes without traditional underpinnings (at least not traditional to my family). I expect (hope) that my own children will retain some of the Italian-American culinary heritage to which they have been exposed, though I also expect that those traditions will become further diluted for their children and so on.

A Sure Sign of Spring

The days are warmer, the nights still chilly. It is early spring in the North Country, perfect conditions for the annual rite of maple sugaring. My neighbor, Chris St. Andrews and his family, have been sugaring for a number of years with a complete sugar shack set up on their property. Tapped into maples on their property as well as that of willing neighbors, they produce maple syrup for themselves and to share. Seeing the steam rise from the shack is one of the surest signs of spring.

A full bucket of maple sap


The evaporator


The final stage


A steamy room


Final filtration


Bottling

Taste of the Week - March 15-21, 2009

This week's top taste is not something new. In fact, it is something I have had numerous times before, so much so, that it fits squarely in the realm of comfort food for me, even if it is not an everyday indulgence. I am speaking of a "continental" classic - the Shrimp Cocktail!

When I was growing up, a shrimp cocktail was always such a treat. I even liked the old Sau-Sea pre-made shrimp cocktails that came in little glasses that our family saved to use as juice glasses. The best, however, even better than any restaurant's, were those made by my father, Dr. Lawrence Sconzo. While the shrimp is the centerpiece of the dish and the quality is of utmost importance, the key to a great shrimp cocktail is the cocktail sauce. My father, who did not skimp on the horseradish made a great one. In my family, that tradition fell to my brother, Gregory, who has always done a stellar job, so much so that for family gatherings and celebrations, he has always been entrusted "to bring the shrimp."

At a family celebration last Sunday at the home of my brother Greg and his wife, Grace, he once again made his shrimp cocktail. While it has always been excellent, this particular time was off the charts, as good as any I have ever had. Yes, the shrimp were excellent,of good size,  perfectly cooked and flavorful. The sauce, however, was superlative, with a great bite from the horseradish, but with enough underlying complexity to keep it from being just a one or two-note ditty.

The cocktail sauce recipe per Gregory Louis Sconzo:

1 16oz jar of Heinz ketchup, 1 jar of  gold's hot horseradish 6 oz.  1 fresh lemon , 4 stalks of celery chopped to a minced  mode, 3 splashes of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce. All ingredients to be mixed in the order shown. Keep sauce chilled untill use.

A good shrimp cocktail will always be a treat to me. This was a great one.

Blog Find: Playing with Fire and Water

Foodplayerlinda describes herself as "a freelance chef  in Connecticut." She has a beautiful and informative blog called Playing with Fire and Water. Her latest post is entitled Cultured Butter. The post is particularly informative including the science behind and instructions for making one's own butter. She also asks  good questions. It is a post worth reading and a blog worth following!

Why don't more restaurants make their own butter? Why aren't there more artisanal producers? Why don't I make it?  All one needs is a good source of heavy cream. Hmmm. Battenville Valley Creamery anyone?

Do you make your own butter? Ifso, please share your experience.

Le Bernardin 2009 - The Desserts

My friend, John Curtas, the pre-eminent food critic, journalist and attorney from Las Vegas has stated in his superb blog on Las Vegas dining called Eating Las Vegas that "Vegas has the deepest collection of pastry talent in the country." No doubt that Las Vegas has an abundance of top-notch pastry talent, but I still maintain that New York City remains the epicenter of the US restaurant creative pastry renaissance with such incredible talents amongst others as Alex Stupak of WD-50, Pichet Ong of P*Ong (unfortunately closing this weekend, another casualty of the economy), Sam Mason of Tailor, Robert Truitt of Corton, Johnny Iuzzini of Jean-Georges and not least, Michael Laiskonis of Le Bernardin.

Laiskonis, who maintains a fantastic blog chronicling his work in the pastry kitchen of Le Bernardin, has as strong a reputation for creative and delicious desserts as as any restaurant pastry chef in this country. Our dessert experience this past weekend did nothing to dispel that reputation. Since we are acquainted and he knew that we were there, he sent us a few additional desserts to try beyond the two on the tasting menu. Fortunately, we still had time to enjoy them thanks to the early reservation and the late theater curtain.

The table received seven different desserts. For each of the two principle dessert courses, the ladies were each served one dessert and the men another with yet another placed in the center of the table to share. Between the two courses, each diner was served Laiskonis' signature EGG. Our sommelier, Rocky, paired beverages with the desserts. Descriptions of the  desserts are from Chef Laiskonis. obtained via email after I returned home.

For the first round, the gentlemen received:

PANNA COTTA

 

"The cylinder of panna cotta is comprised of Greek yogurt and heavy cream, with vanilla and a touch of citrus. It's topped with pomegranate pearls (pomegranate juice, with a bit of raspberry as well, cooked with agar agar and dropped into cold oil), candied orange peel, and mint. Alongside are a pomegranate sorbet, lemon cream, and a simple broken-up streusel."

This dessert was totally satisfying. I love Greek yogurt and the balance of flavors was superb. The pomegranate added nice color balance while the flavor remained suitably muted. This was paired with Castelnau de Suduiraut, Sauternes 2001. This is the second label of Ch. Suduiraut. It possessed good flavor and botrytised depth, though it lacked some of the acid structure of its big brother.

While the ladies had:
 
YUZU

"The yuzu parfait begins as a conventional yuzu 'curd' which is then lightened with whipped cream and set with gelatin, followed by a spray of white chocolate. A green tea biscuit serves as a base for green tea ice cream, and a 'false' meringue made up of yuzu, water, sugar, and versawhip (a soy protein that emulates the whipping characteristics of egg white). A thin conventional meringue and a ginger caramel finish the plate."

Yuzu and green tea were the predominant flavors of this spectacularly delicious Asian inspired dessert. While these are no longer novel flavors to most NY palates, they were handled deftly. This was my second favorite of the desserts and ironically as it was not served to me, but to my wife in the first round, I unfortunately neglected to photograph it. This was paired with Torrontez Sparkling -Deseado Familia Schroeder, Patagonia. The wine, reminiscent of an Italian Spumante worked nicely.

The table received:
 
CHESTNUT

 

"A frozen chestnut parfait set upon a rum soaked chestnut biscuit, alongside a chestnut wafer and coconut sorbet, offset by a touch of lemon and mandarin."

Though I liked it, this was perhaps my least favorite of the desserts, perhaps because I enjoyed the other two sent alongside it more or more likely because I could not attack it with abandon. Our friends, however, found it to be one of their favorites. In comparison to the other two desserts, the flavors were more muted with a greater balance towards the sweet.

In between the two rounds, we each received an:

EGG

  
"I began doing the Egg back at Tribute in Detroit some 8 years ago now. It started with the purchase of the egg topper, an impulse buy that I didn't really have an intended use for. I hit upon the combination of flavors and textures that make up the Egg almost immediately; it's the one dish I don't think I've ever found necessary to change or tweak.
 
Starting with the whole, raw egg: the top is removed, the egg emptied out (used, of course, in other preparations), and the inner membrane carefully removed. The shells are then returned to the cardboard container and filled half-way with a milk chocolate custard. The eggs are then placed in a water bath, covered, and then baked (or rather, steamed) until set. Upon firing, the eggs get a layer of liquid caramel, a caramel foam (caramel creme anglaise in a nitrous canister), then a touch of maple and a pinch of Maldon salt.
 
Here's a link to my first ever blog post, which on one hand introduced the Egg to many, yet on the other, was a way to put it aside and 'move on':
 
http://michaellaiskonis.typepad.com/main/2008/01/the-egg.html"

Elegant, complex, yet visually simple, this dessert was a true stunner, winning on every level. It was one of the best variations on an Arpege egg that I have ever had.  I was afraid as the waiter described it, that it might be too sweet, but It was just right! Here the pairing was a beer, Westmawe Dubbel Trappist Ale, an inspired choice that helped round out the dessert's sweetness without fighting it.

For the next round, everyone was served Late Harvest Tokaji, Oremus, 2001. Not as unctuous as the luscious tokaijis of multiple puttonyos or eszencias, it was nonetheless delicious and a nice addition to the chocolate based desserts. To which, the gentlemen received:

HAZELNUT

 
"This is one of my favorites on the menu, not just for the flavors presented, but also because it demonstrates how a bit of re-engineering through 'science-based' cooking can simply make things better (as opposed to merely making something 'avant-garde'!).
 
The gianduja parfait itself is based on a traditional pate a bombe method, where a whole lot of sugar is cooked and poured into whipped eggs to provide structure and volume. We've altered the base by using a method that reduces the sugar to a fraction of the original, which produces the same mousse, but allows us to actually taste the chocolate and hazelnut.
 
The brown butter ice cream, too, used to be made with massive quantities of whole browned butter. It tasted fine, but it always walked a textural tightrope, in that such a high fat content quickly turns disastrous in an ice cream machine. I was shown a technique some time ago that utilizes the milk solids in heavy cream rather butter (pound per pound, cream has twice the amount of solids- the stuff that tastes good when browned); the cream is slowly reduced until the solids precipitate out of the fat and brown, thus leaving clarified butter and the extracted browned milk solids. These solids can then be introduced into the ice cream without the extra fat, maintaining more textural integrity.
 
Without a true 'molecular' approach (which I see as simply having an understanding of your ingredients and what happens to them when you cook, rather than describing a cooking 'style'), I don't think we would have stumbled upon these and other improvements!
 
Anyway, the remainder of the dish includes a praline cream, roasted hazelnuts in honey, and caramelized banana."

Simply put, the dish worked. I don't believe that I can add anything more to what Chef Laiskonis wrote.

The ladies received:

CHOCOLATE SWEET POTATO

 
"We're phasing this one out as we head into Spring. Built around a dark chocolate cream (set with small amounts of agar agar and gelatin), the sweet potato enters in the form of a sorbet, pearls (produced in the same manner as the pomegranate), and a fried garnish. We also incorporate a pistachio powder (pistachio paste and maltodextrin), grated jaggery, and vanilla-infused salt."

Another fine dessert, I appreciate its seasonality.

The shared dessert:

 
CHOCOLATE PEANUT

 
"This is my chicken- the dessert that kind of has to stay put on the menu while I'm free to explore other ideas with the remaining dishes.
 
A chocolate tart shell is filled with chopped salted peanuts and a layer of caramel, followed by a dark chocolate ganache. It's accented with a lemon puree (what all the kids refer to as a 'fluid gel' these days), candied lemon, peel, a peanut butter powder, and a praline citrus sorbet: hazelnut and almond praline paste lightened with orange and lemon. And as a friend and fellow chef-blogger mentioned recently, peanuts need a little love these days!"

This dessert had a strong comfort level to it. Chocolate and peanuts have become such a classic combination and deservedly so.

Lastly, we finished with an espresso and mignardises.

They were from 7 O'clock going clockwise:

BEIGNET
 
"This is a simple fried pate a choux that's filled with a vanilla cream, then dusted with a bit of sugar and Saigon cinnamon."

CARAMELIZED WHITE CHOCOLATE
 
"A dark chocolate shell is filled with a caramelized white chocolate cream; essentially, we roast the white chocolate in order to brown the sugars and milk solids. The result flavor is reminiscent of dulce de leche. We finish this with some chopped pistachio and a few flakes of Maldon salt."

PAIN DE GENES
 
"This is a pistachio version of the traditional French pain de genes. It's soaked in a Pernod syrup, set on to a rectangle of white chocolate, then topped with a lemon cream, candied orange peel, and a piece of caramelized almond."
 
CACAO TRUFFLE
 
"This is a dark chocolate ganache that also contains a special Ecuadorian cacao liqueur that a friend brings me every so often."

We were quite satisfied, sated but not bloated. I looked forward to the walk back to my hotel and then on to the theater.

Though it had been some time since I last visited Le Bernardin, that time has treated the restaurant kindly. Ripert and his staff have not rested on their laurels. If anything, I found the restaurant to be even better than it was in the 90's and it was wonderful then. One thing that did not go un-noticed was that with the possible exception of cod (I don't know if the cod on the menu was the endangered Atlantic or the more abundant Pacific), the seafood was all rated as sustainable. Even had the food been only half as wonderful, the meal would have been laudable just for this.  As with Rick Moonen in Las Vegas, it is heartening to see such high quality, well prepared food coming from a sustainable larder. It shows that few, if any sacrifices in degustation need to be made even at the highest levels.

Yes, Mr. Curtas, Las Vegas has great pastry chefs and perhaps for its overall population, it may even have the greatest concentration of top-notch pastry chefs anywhere, but I still believe, offering Michael Laiskonis as evidence, that NYC remains the capitol of restaurant pastry in the U.S.

Le Bernardin 2009 - The Savories

 

I remember very well the first time I dined at Le Bernardin. It was in the early to mid '90s. I was in NYC with my wife to attend a medical meeting and it was the first time that we had been on our own to a restaurant of its caliber dealing primarily with seafood. It was a revelation! Even though it was before I indulged in photographing my meals, I still remember very well my main course and the wine. I had monkfish for the very first time. It was prepared with cabbage and bacon. All the flavors were deep and melded perfectly. It was unlike any fish dish that I had ever had. This was also the first time that I had ever had a wine from Zind-Humbrecht, the famous Alsace winery. Though I am unsure of the vintage, the wine was a Gewurztraminer from the Goldert vineyard. It too was a revelation. My wife and I had been back a couple of times since, but inexplicably, it has been over ten years since we had last dined there.

Well, given that the restaurant is in NYC and we do not live there, perhaps it isn't so inexplicable upon further thought. With so many new and exciting restaurants always opening up over the past ten years and with relatively infrequent visits to NYC, we haven't been to any restaurant frequently. There is always someplace new to try. Indeed, there are quite a few restaurants waiting patiently on my list of places to eat and not all are that new. There are also plenty of restaurants that I really, really want to return to. In any case, the opportunity to return to Le Bernardin could not have been better than this past Saturday night when my wife and I were joined by another couple prior to attending the HBO live broadcast of Will Ferrell's Your Welcome America: A Final night with George W. Bush. The fact that the show was being shown live allowed us to dine at Le Bernardin and do the restaurant justice since the show started at 9PM and not the usual Broadway curtain of 8PM. No abbreviated meal for us!

We arrived at the reserved time of 5:15PM to find our friends there and waiting for us with drinks in hand. My wife and I started with champagne and pomegranate cocktails. We were seated at our table and perused our menus. Choosing was not easy, with so many attractive options on the prix fixe, but ultimately we agreed to go for the Chef's Tasting Menu with split wine pairings.

We quickly received an amuse of lightly cooked Maine shrimp in what appeared to be a tomato cream emulsion. The shrimp were plump and flavorful and were nicely complimented by the sauce.

The next dish was a SALMON-CAVIAR, which consisted of thinly pounded smoked salmon carpaccio, toasted brioche (underneath) and Osetra caviar (never did get the source) in a presentation that might have been constructed by Georgia O'Keeffe. I was afraid that he caviar might overwhelm the salmon, but I needn't have worried. Paired with Kasumi Tsuru, Yamahai Ginjo, Hyogo Sake, the overall effect was winning and elegant. We were off to a lovely start.

MACKEREL, a dish made up of seared Spanish mackerel, with a Parmesan crisp, basil sprouts and sun-dried tomatoes  sprinkled with black olive oil was sensational combining the best of the Mediterranean in a few luscious bites. The fish was not in the least bit overpowering. It was paired with the lovely Spanish Godello- Viña Godeval, Valdeorras 2007, a wine I have enjoyed a number of times, though I had not previously sampled this vintage.

CALAMARI. Sautéed calamari filled with sweet prawns and shiitake mushroom served with a calamari consommé and paired with Chablis, Champs Royaux - William Fevre 2007, delighted with textural contrast in addition to deep flavor. The tentacles were crisp fried while the bodies were stuffed. The squid had a lightly grilled flavor. The Chablis made a good pairing though it was oakier and less minerally than I tend to prefer in a Chablis.

LOBSTER. Baked lobster with leeks  and sauce Gribiche, was ironically to my wife and I the least successful dish of the evening, which by no  means indicates that it was in any way bad. While I enjoyed the lobster, which was cooked quite lightly, I found the leeks to be too stringy and strongly flavored for the lobster. I would have preferred the dish without them. The wines made a leap to pigmentation with this course as a red, new to me, Blaufränkisch "Brandkrafften" Wenzel, Neusiedlersee-Hügelland, Austria 2002, took to the stage. This wine helped overcome the leeks and as unintuitive and new to me as it was, I found it to be a successful pairing.

ESCOLAR. White tuna poached in extra virgin olive oil, served with sea beans, potato crisps and a light red wine Béarnaise, this was again paired with a red as would be expected in a progression from the previous wine. The wine, a silky Nuits Saint-George, Vielles Vignes, Daniel Rion 2003, worked beautifully with the flavorful, melt-in-your-mouth texture of the fish, balancing well with the sauce.

BLACK BASS. A perfectly crisped skin defined this light dish of black bass with braised celery and an extraordinarily umami filled Iberico ham- green peppercorn sauce. Parsnip custard was served on the side. The principle plate was truly extraordinary with a balance of flavor, texture and viscosity that worked seamlessly, especially with the Rioja, Reserva Viña Ardanza, La Rioja Alta 2000 it was paired with. A bit of age on the wine was just right. The dish combined delicacy with power in a way that I would not have expected. It was a tour de force and a suitable way to end the savory portion of the meal.

More than ten years may have past, but it was readily apparent to me that Eric Ripert still has it. Though I have long since come to encounter a number of restaurants serving fish and seafood in an elegant and refined manner, it is clear that Le Bernardin remains amongst the very best.

A Lovely Evening in NYC

This past Saturday my wife and I drove down to NYC to take advantage of a package that we bought at a charity auction to benefit the Adirondack Theater Festival, a great summer festival centered in Glens Falls, N.Y. The festival  is a hotbed of contemporary theater and frequently uses Broadway talent for its productions. It was founded by Martha Banta and David Turner. The package consisted of two tickets to the HBO live airing of Will Ferrell's Your Welcome America. A Final Night with George W. Bush and a hotel. My wife and I were actually the runner-up bidders and did not win the original pair of tickets, but a second package was produced and offered to us for the price of the winning bid. We jumped on it.

Although not quite spring yet by the calendar, Saturday proved to be a beautiful early spring-like day with sunshine and mild temperatures, which made the drive down from upstate particularly pleasant. We made it to our hotel, The Muse on 46th St. in time to change before walking over to our 5:15PM reservation at Le Bernardin, a restaurant that we hadn't been to in over ten years. We met the toop bidders of the original package who had outbid us in heated but friendly bidding and sat down to dinner.

I will delve into this special dinner more deeply in a separate post. With the show not scheduled to start until 9PM, the early dining time afforded us plenty of time to take full advantage of the restaurant's offerings, which we did. The short of it is that we had a superb, well-paced dinner having chosen the Chef's Tasting Menu with split wine pairings and finished in time to quickly stop back at the hotel, drop the camera off and change clothes.

As my wife and I were heading to the lobby, our elevator stopped a level below ours, where a friendly, slightly older gentleman stepped on. He inquired if we were going to the theater. We responded that we were and asked the same of him. He replied affirmatively and asked what we were going to see. At 8:30PM, most Broadway shows would have already started, so I was not surprised when after responding "Will Ferrell", he concurred and introduced himself as Lee Ferrell, Will's father, adding, "I hope that you are not fans of George W. Bush!," warning us of the onslaught to come. We laughed and said that, no, we were not fans and that we were, however, big fans of his son. We continued to have a pleasant conversation until we parted ways to get to the theater located two blocks away.

Once at the theater, we picked up our tickets and sat down next to our friends, slightly disappointed that the seats we had were located towards the rear of the orchestra underneath the balcony. Nevertheless, we had a good view of the stage and enjoyed the people watching while waiting for the show to begin. Surprisingly, I only saw one celebrity that I recognized in the audience and that was Spike Lee. Given that this show was the next to last of the run and was being shown live on HBO, I expected a more recognizable crowd, but I suppose that we were not the only auction high bidders that night!

Needless to say, as fans of Will Ferrell and non-fans of W., we enjoyed the irreverent and topical show (dvr'ed at home for repeat watching). The show was over right at !0:30PM. Our friends split, but it was still early. My wife and I decided to go out for cocktails, so we headed downtown to visit one of our favorite places, Tailor. We said hello to the ever affable Sam Mason in the kitchen then went downstairs for some drinks. The bar was hopping, but we managed to score a table. I was hoping that the "Mushroom Margarita" would be on the menu. That is a margarita using huitlacoche infused mezcal, that I had the last time I was at Tailor this past spring. It was sensational then, but it was not on Saturday night's menu. In lieu of that I had a "Cornbread Old Fashioned" with corn-bread infused bourbon, honey and bitters. The cornbread was subtle, but the drink was satisfying. My wife had a "Raspberry Whip" with The Shining inspired red rum, lemonjuice, egg whites and licorice. That too was a tasty cocktail. I originally feared that it would be too sweet for my palate, but it wasn't. We followed with some "solid" cocktails that included "margarita" marshmallows, "white russian" cereal and "milk" and "absinthe" gummy bears. The gummies were our favorite of the trio.

We finished our evening with a walk through SoHo before hailing a cab back up to the hotel to get ready for another day, fully realizing that the ability to have evenings like this is one of the things that makes NYC so special.

Taste of the week - March 8-14th, 2009

This was a week of quality over quantity. I really only had two days this week that contained worthy possibilities for this award, but on those two days, there were plenty of outstanding  candidates. The first day was that of the Slow Food dinner at Chez Sophie. Any of those dishes could have qualified, but the lamb kidneys remain the most memorable taste of that evening for me. A couple of great cocktails at Tailor in NYC last night were worthy of consideration too. However, with a Chef's tasting at the NY Times 4 star and Michelin 3 star restaurant, Le Bernardin, thrown into the mix, the likelihood of something from that meal not garnering this award was low. Indeed, the odds were fulfilled this week, as dinner at Le Bernardin (post to come in detail) was truly outstanding. The dishes were so good that it is nearly impossible to pick only one, so I won't. I will pick two - one from Eric Ripert's savory part of the meal and one from Michael Laiskonis' dessert portion.

Seared Spanish Mackerel; Parmesan Crisp and Sun-Dried Tomato; Black Olive Oil

Somehow, somewhere mackerel got a reputation as being a very "fishy" fish, very strong and overpowering. Wherever that reputation came from, it wasn't due to this dish. Mackerel is a relatively oily fish and that can in lesser hands result in an extremely strong and sometimes off-putting flavor. The flavor of the fish was clearly there, though it was not overly strong and certainly not off-putting. The blend of Mediterranean flavors proved to be a bit of magic when added to the flavor and texture of this "barely touched" fish. It was my favorite savory dish out of a meal of extraordinary savory dishes.

EGG

A signature dish of Michael Laiskonis, the pastry chef at Le Bernardin, EGG was simply marvelous and fully deserving of such a designation. According to Chef Laiskonis, "Starting with the whole, raw egg: the top is removed, the egg emptied out (used, of course, in other preparations), and the inner membrane carefully removed. The shells are then returned to the cardboard container and filled half-way with a milk chocolate custard. The eggs are then placed in a water bath, covered, and then baked (or rather, steamed) until set. Upon firing, the eggs get a layer of liquid caramel, a caramel foam (caramel creme anglaise in a nitrous canister), then a touch of maple and a pinch of Maldon salt." This dish was the subject of Chef laiskonis' very first blog post. It has withstood the test of time very, very well.

Life's Spontaneous Pleasures

For a wonderful report of spontaneity and the pleasures life has to offer see this report from Trainee Chef and blogger, Aidan Brooks from one of my favorite parts of the world.

A Unique Perspective on Madrid Fusión

In the brand new, first ever edition of The Atlantic magazine's new online Food Section, there is a piece by Chef Grant Achatz of Alinea regarding his changing attitudes towards participating in culinary congresses like Madrid Fusión. It is well worth reading as is the rest of the magazine. Corby Kummer is the editor. Oh, by the way, I am proud to say that the photo with the Achatz piece is mine, taken at this year's Madrid Fusión. More on that to come (hopefully before the next MF starts).

Chez Sophie Slowly

The third in our Slow Food Saratoga monthly dinner series was held on Wednesday evening March 8th at the venerable and lovely Chez Sophie  restaurant in Saratoga Springs. Chef owner Paul Parker (son of the original Chez Sophie chef, the beloved Sophie Parker) and his kitchen crew provided our convivium with an amazing meal at an unbelievable price while his wife, Cheryl Clark and her front-of-the-house team made everyone comfortable and welcome within the restaurant's elegant space.

Our largest event yet, over 50 people attended this dinner, many coming to one of our events for the first time along with quite a few repeat attendees. To provide additional atmosphere, pianist Cole Broderick even came in on what would have been his day off.

For a member price of $35 per person inclusive of tax and tip, Paul and Cheryl pulled out all the stops. The evening started off with a cocktail hour giving attendees a chance to mingle and relax before heading to the dining tables. Over drinks and wine (at additional cost), people made new friends and caught up with old ones while sampling  some first class hors d'ouvres including:

wonderful mini crabcakes, full of delectable crabmeat with a crispy crust that only superficially resembled tater tots,


elegant escargot in pastry that proved quite popular,


scrumptious fresh sardines in white wine,


and terrific pate on toast with gherkins and mustard.

I enjoyed my hors d'ouvres with a well-made Negroni, the best I've had since a perfect one at Bartollotta's in las Vegas in December.

The guests took to the tables in several waves so as to not overwhelm the kitchen. The appetizer course, braised leeks and mushrooms á la Grecque, were ideal. Light and full of flavor, they made a nice segue into the main course after the bountiful hors d'ouvres.

I took advantage of the wine discount by buying a nicely valued 2003 l'Ostal Caze from the Languedoc, (an even greater value after the discount) to share with our table. A second bottle proved to be corked upon opening, but was replaced without a hitch.

Each guest was able to choose from 4 main courses, that included:

Wanabea Farm rabbit fricasée,


steamed fish (en papillote) with herbs, white wine and butter,


and mixed grill of Elihu Farm lamb.

I had the lamb, which comes from a local farm that sells at the Saratoga Farmers Market. The mixed grill consisted of succulent, mild kidneys, a braise and grilled Morrocan scente riblets. Aside from the braise bein a bit salty to my taste, the flavors were outstanding. Serve alongside the meat were wonderful pommes purée, tender asparagus(hinting at spring around the corner) and baby carrots. I did not taste the other dishes, including a vegetarian "megadarra" of lentils, rice, caramelized onions, cumin and lemon (unphotographed as all around me were confirmed carnivores), though everyone seemed to be pleased with their selections. Usually at something like this I tend to wish that I had ordered whatever my wife or someone else at the table did, however, I was quite pleased with my selection on this night and spared no envy for my neighbors plates.

Dessert consiste of a genoise au grand marnier, which I enjoyed for its rich elegance and the fact that it was just sweet enough without venturing into a cloying realm.

The only hitch of the evening came at the end as the restaurant's computers had difficulty handling the special billing arrangements of the evening, backing up departures for a time. Nevertheless, the evening proved to be a resounding success as the attendees were treated to a remarkable meal at an even more remarkable value becoming acquainted and re-acquainted with this worthy restaurant in the process.

Principe de Viana - Navarran Elegance in Madrid

I limited my top restaurant meals in January to three. Had I added a fourth and I easily could have, it would have been the august 45 year old Principe de Viana in Madrid. Set up as a meal for the foreign press and presenters after the first day of Madrid Fusión, we were treated to a set menu.

 I arrived with my friend, Gerry Dawes, to find the restaurant quite crowded with not quite enough seats for everyone in the main dining room. Undaunted, Esmeralda Capel, one of the principals of the Congress herded a few of us (enough to fill a table) back down the stairs to a room with a bar just off the entrance. So after nibbling on some wonderful Jamon Iberico de Bellota from Pedroches  upstairs, I joined Esmeralda, Gerry, David Chang,  Kevin Pemoulie, Oscar Caballero and a few others at the downstairs table. Not that there would have been anything wrong had I or any of us stayed upstairs, but having our own little table  off in its own private room was kind of fun.

Hors D'ouvres passed around along with the Pedroches ham included sinful croquetas, some with clams and others with jamón and veal. Croquetas are one of the most wonderful forms of Spanish comfort food that I can think of, hot, crisp on the outside and unctuous on the inside, all the while packed with flavor. These were extremely fine examples. I had never before had them with clams. I could have happily eaten just those all evening. In fact, I am getting hungry thinking about them now!

 

croquetas

The region of Navarra is well known for a number of vegetables, two significant ones being cardoons and artichokes. Our first plated dish was a combination of cardoons, artichokes and marrow. The creamy sauce hid the marrow well, while it was festooned with tasty lardons. The overall dish was wonderful, offering perfectly cooked vegetables that held on to their individual personalities while blending together into a seamless whole.

cardoons, artichokes and marrow

The next dish was another standout. This, a pil-pil de pimientos del cristal con bacalao y yema de huevo, incorporated the vibrant pepper flavors and color with the gelatinous consistency of the pil-pil derived from the cod's special make-up in a clearly Basque dish. The egg yolk added additional depth and color.

 

pil-pil de pimientos del cristal con bacalao y yema de huevo

The main course, monita de cerdo rellena de carrillera or pig's foot stuffed with veal cheek, was a delightfully delicious and satisfying dish that tasted much better than it looked. It wasn't a bad looking dish.

 

monita de cerdo rellena de carrillera

The dinner was sponsored by the Navarran winery, Bodegas Julian Chivite. Various wines of theirs were paired with the various courses. We started with a crisp chardonnay, Colección 125 from 2006, moved on to a lovely garnacha rosado from the same Colección but from the 2005 vintage before progressing to their superb Pago de Arinzano from 2001. We finished with a dessert wine, their Colección 125 Vendimia Tardía Moscato from 2006. The wines paired very well with the food that we were served, neither standing above the food nor limiting it. They played like good food wines should.

Dessert consisted of some traditional Navarran specialties including crema frita, canutillo y mascarpone with mandarine. The fried cream was cinnaomony and decadent. The cornet (canutillo) reminded me a little of a cannolo, although the cream filling was decidedly different.

 

crema frita, canutillo y mascarpone with mandarine

The food was excellent, the wines lovely, the place elegant and the company superb. This was the end of a great first day at Madrid Fusión 2009.

Old World Service in the Main Dining Room

 

David Chang, Kevin Pemoulie, Gerry Dawes and Oscar Caballero

 

Our private dining room

Principe de Viana

Manuel de Falla, 5. (Madrid) Tel: 914 571 549.

Two Peruvian Giants at Madrid Fusión

Two giants of the Peruvian (and international) restaurant scene were present at Madrid Fusión. To the left is Arturo Rubio, owner of the spectacular restaurant Huaca Pucllana, located on the site of ancient pre-Incan ruins in Lima. To the right is Gaston Acurio, owner of the famous Limeño restaurant Astrid y Gaston that has evolved into a number of restaurants of the same name in various parts of the world (I ate at the madrid branch last year) as well as a number of other restaurants known on a global scale including the La Mar cebicherías.

Madrid Fusión - Day One - Gastrobotanicals

It is sometimes difficult to find an emphasis on vegetables and fruit when dining in Spain, but when one does find it as I did with the cooking of Paco Morales at Senzone, it is often extraordinary. A rapidly ascending chef, who has made a name for himself via his innovative and successful use of vegetables and fruits is Rodrigo de la Calle, chef of an eponymous restaurant in Aranjuez, Madrid (no website available). A disciple of Andoni Luis Aduriz as well as Martin Berasategui and Quique Dacosta, de la Calle was selected as the 2009 winner of the Revelation Chef award at Madrid Fusión representing the chef considered to have made the most rapid ascent over the previous year.

De la Calle made his presentation along with the culinary gastrobotanist Santiago Orts, with whom de la Calle is collaborating on a famous palm orchard called "El Huerto del Cura" or "The Garden of the Priest" in the town of Elche near Alicante in eastern Spain. Orts described his role as a gastrobotanist looking at old and forgotten plants and fruits for new culinary uses. De la Calle has become his partner in this search with Orts providing the material for de la Calle to work with.

 

Santiago Orts

The first part of the presentation focused on the wide variety of citrus fruits available , especially in Spain, where they are cultivating quite a few of them at the Huerto del Cura, including Buddha's Hand Citrus, Kumquats Finger Limes amongst many others. They are searching for not only interesting fruit that they can work with, but flowers as well, including a variety of citrus flowers selected specifically for their culinary potential.

De la Calle crafted a dish, "Citric Oyster Essence" in which he paired a large Galician oyster with "citric sea foam" made with citron, fingerlime "caviar", calamondin oranges and orange blossoms. While not present in his written recipe, for his presentation de la Calle also added a base of  ice plant leaves, another botanical element with which he and Orts collaborate on.

 

 

 

finger lime

 

 

"Citric Oyster Essence"

The collaboration between Orts and de la Calle has included a lot of work with dates. De la Calle described the various stages, the unripe kimri, the fibrous, astringent and crunchy khalal, the soft, ripe rutab and the sun-dried and ripe tamar. De la Calle uses each of these in different ways in his cooking as he also uses different cultivars. For his demonstration, de la Calle used a variety of dates as well as a number of different plants and vegetables to create a Warm Scallop Salad with Desert Vegetables and Fresh Dates. Ironically, I do not recall him actually using scallops during the demo. My photo shows all the other elements but that. Then again, he wasn't demonstrating how to use scallops!

 

Salad with Desert Vegetables and Fresh Dates

With a strong reputation as a meat and starch cuisine, de la Calle's and Orts presentation along with those that preceded it on the day, have shown that any effort to characterize the nation's cuisine as such, is at best superficial. Vegetables and fruits are alive and well in Spain.

Taste of the Week - March 1-7, 2009

March has come in with a number of tasty treats including some great comfort food items like perfect chicken cutlets and some nice dishes from a dinner with friends that we hosted including a Spanish influenced velouté of broccoli and cauliflower with pimentón, Sicilian tomato paste, olive oil, grated Manchego and aged sherry vinegar served with an oven-crisped slice of Joselito Jamón Iberico de Bellota. On the beverage side, a refreshing blood orange mimosa made with I.O. (Italian Organics) Organic Sicilian Blood Orange Juice and two 1990 vintage Rhone wines, the Chateau des Tours Vacqueyras Réserve and the Domaine La Bouissiere Gigondas were all delightful. Many weeks any of these would have been my taste of the week, but this week they were up against something truly special and not often found (at least not by me) in the U.S. A good friend recently gave us a whole Panbriacone from the Tuscan bakery Bonci. This vin santo soaked cake is simply divine. We served it plain, but it would also be nice with a simple ice cream, a soft goat cheese or even foie gras.

Slow Food Saratoga Region

Some may be aware that I am the current President and a Co-founder along with my son, L.J. who is currently attending Dartmouth College, of the now one year old Saratoga (N.Y.) Region convivium of Slow Food USA. We are committed to supporting food that is "good, clean and fair," whether local (preferably) or from elsewhere. We have the good fortune of living in an area of high quality food with many wonderful artisanal farms and producers. To keep it that way and to make it even better, they need our support, especially in these extremely trying economic times. I am happy to say that the convivium, thanks to member Beth Dellarocco, now has its own website and blog, from which to keep track of and participate in our activities. In addition to the links within this post, I have added a link to the blog in my sidebar.

If you reside in the Saratoga Region of N.Y. or are visiting, please join us as we partake of and support the agricultural and culinary firmament of this wonderful area. Details of upcoming events will be available on that blog.