Dinner at RA

After Dragon.Con we stopped off at a restaurant downtown for a late dinner. I chose a place down the street from where I work called RA, a sushi bar. It has a great theme and layout, and the staff is very friendly, even if not always super attentive. I got a cocktail called a “Dragon Bite” which was very bright and refreshing, but could have used a double shot of Bacardi Dragonberry. S. ordered a Tuna Tataki starter dish of thinly sliced, seared ahi tuna served with an onion soy vinaigrette. Then she ordered a King Crab Roll with king crab mix, cucumber & avocado, rolled & topped with king crab, all served with an Asian pesto sauce which I think was predominately ginger and cilantro. She also had the Salmon Asparagus Roll which had kani kama crab mix, cucumber and asparagus rolled, all topped with raw salmon slices.

I had the house’s signature dish, the Viva Las Vegas Roll, which had kani kama crab and cream cheese rolled in rice and seaweed, lightly battered with tempura, fried and topped with spicy tuna, kani kama crab mix & sliced lotus root chips and finished with a sweet eel sauce and spinach tempura bits. Very good. I also had the Gojira (Godzilla) Roll, which had shrimp tempura, kani kama crab mix, cream cheese and cucumber rolled and topped with spicy tuna and spinach tempura bits served with sriracha & spicy mayo sauce.

The vibe was cool but the music was a bit off the mark. The in house DJ could not seem to settle on a particular decade to play from. Maybe he was trying to make everybody happy. But when you try to make everyone happy… Our server was a hottie, so that forgave the few minor sins we had to put up with, and it was a holiday weekend and a Saturday night. Overall we were very pleased. It is a little on the pricey side, and I’d like to see what the lunch offerings are. But, it is Midtown so expect to dig a little deeper.

The photo is from www.sincerelytrulyscrumptiousxoxo.com because mine turned out too dark and blurred to use.

Comida Sencilla and Happy Birthdays

I almost never stop for lunch during the day at work.  As a result, my prep person almost never stops, either.  I don't make her work through lunch.  I encourage her to take a break (when I remember).  She demures and just keeps working.  The other day I felt guilty because I caught her furitively sneaking bites of a banana while working.  So I took a couple of minutes and knocked together a quick meal for us both.

Since I was working with chicken thighs, I set a couple aside and rubbed them with salt, pepper, garlic and whole grain mustard.  I grabbed some leftover asparagus from the evening before and laid them inside the thighs, along with some shredded Swiss cheese, some shredded Asiago, and a wedge of brie, and rolled them up.  I seasoned with paprika and sea salt and gave it a quick sear in a skillet, then tossed it in the oven to cook through.  While it cooked I boiled some rice and tossed in some diced peppers and scrounged up some pickled onions, olive tapenade and balsamic glaze.  Took about 15 minutes and we had a hearty meal to sustain us through the next few hours of prep.  When I brought her the plate, Dulce laughed and thanked me.  She said it was very good, but she had to add some jalapenos to it.  But, she puts jalapenos on everything, so...  Bottom line: we both cleaned our plates.

Saturday was Mina's birthday.  She's a member of our marketing staff and a real sweetheart.  Off-handedly I said I would make a cake for her.  Saturday night Erika came into the kitchen and asked me when I wanted to bring the cake up to the office.  I must have had that look on my face, because she asked if I had made it.  Of course not, but I told her I was working on it.  Mina would be in at 9pm, she said.  No problem, I said.  Immediately my staff chefs and I began putting together quick cake ideas that could be ready in 1 hour.  I put them to work on an expresso cake that they promptly messed up.  I was going to make them throw it out, but they promised me they could fix it.  Unconvinced, I began my own cake, and the whole situation turned quickly into a chef competition "cake-off".

For my part, I made a chocolate sponge cake that baked up in about 15 minutes, then made a Kahlua-chocolate frosting and a brandy whipped cream.  I cut the sponge cake into three layers, then took a cookie cutter and cut circles into the cake layers and layered the frosting on the layers.  I reassembled the layers and filled the cut circles with brandy whipped cream, then frosted the outside, finishing with dollops of whipped cream on top.  While waiting for the other chefs to finish their bungled cake repair, I made some pink icing and swirled it around the plate, topped with some edible gold glitter, and for good measure set a shot glass of brandy on the side.
The other cake came out after 30 minutes, and the chefs covered it with thick chocolate ganache, layers of sliced strawberries, and more ganache.  We both finished within the hour and I took the cakes up to Mina's office.  When she came in she gleedfully knocked back the shot and cut into my cake first.  Her eyes rolled with decadent delight.  She told me later that both cakes were completely consumed before the night was out.

Lemon Oil Poached Salmon

For this dish I shaved some Meyer lemon peels and black peppercorns into some olive oil and let it set for a day.  The next day I lightly salted my salmon filet, let it set for about 20 minutes, put my probe thermometer into it, then submerged it in the lemon oil and covered it with foil.  I put the small pan with the fish and oil into a double boiler and put it on low heat on the
oven, with the temp alert set at 130F.  Then I cleaned, chopped, and boiled some parsnips, made a quick tomato, caper, mustard relish, sauteed my kale with shallot and cranberries (fresh, not dried), and sweated some blueberries in bourbon-maple syrup.

When the parsnips were tender I creamed them with some cream and the leftover fennel beurre blanc and pureed until very smooth.  I took the blueberries and spooned them over our desserts, which was an eggnog flan.  I caramelized the peeled Myer lemon slices for garnish, and squirted a little juice onto the kale.

This is the look I'm going for on this dish

The temp alert went off at 130F, but the fish carried over to 140F and that was far hotter than I had planned.  Although still moist and flavorful, the salmon was cooked through 100%.  I'm thinking that in order to get the kind of look and texture I want, I need to seep it longer, but not let it go over 100F, and hopefully not carry past 115F-120F.  There was nothing wrong with it, except that it lost it's rich orange orange color, was too flakey to make a good presentation, and had those little white fat spots all over it.  But it was still good. 

The sweetness of the parsnips was offset by the bitterness and sharp tang of the kale and cranberries, and everything was spiced up by the tomato/caper/mustard relish.  The eggnog flan and blueberry/maple topping was just the right dessert, too.  Finished with some Graham's 10 Year Tawney, and it was quite delicious.

New Year's Day Dinner

Began 2013 with a simple yet tasty dinner featuring Steamed Lobster Tail atop Caramelized and Curried Cream-Roasted Fennel, with Sauteed Spinach and Mushrooms, Toasted Corn, and Fennel-Cream Beurre Blanc Sauce.  We had a fair sparkling Moscato to go with it.

Chocolate Strawberry Display

I was asked to make up a chocolate strawberry plate for a bachlorette party at work.  I thought of ways to make it nice and creative, and to really "wow" the ladies and make it special.  I dipped the strawberries and drizzled with white chocolate, then put them on sticks and arranged them in a vase filled with mint and lettuce, with some red grapes and rambutans for garnish.

Not as beautiful as I'd like, but a nice beginner's start.

Reunion Dinner

Our friend Linda came over on Friday night.  We haven't seen her in a long time, and she admits she is just now begining to poke her head out after a couple of years of baby-induced isolation.  We'd planned just a little get together, to let her finally see our house, to catch up, and to enjoy a nice meal.  Dinner was pretty simple, and took me about two hours to put together.  I did all the main work before she arrived so we could concentrate of socializing as I finished a little sauteeing.  Then we were able to sit down and enjoy good food and good company.

I started with a Kabocha Squash Bisque, drizzled with Sage Oil.  I like using kabocha over butternut squash for a couple of reasons.  The flesh, once roasted, seem smoother and finer to me.  It purees perfectly.  It is also less sweet and has a richer, nuttier flavor.  It takes flavors like curry and chili and melds wonderfully.  I made this bisque with just a little butter, cream, coriander, cayenne, and rice wine vinegar.  The sage oil was just crushed sage leaves seeped in warmed olive oil until infused.

Our next course was a miso/sake glazed ahi tuna, seared and sliced over a roll of sushi rice, with a pile of wakame seaweed salad and honey-chili avocado relish.  The relish was super simple:  I diced some avocado, sprinkled with a touch of salt, and drizzled a blend of honey and chili powder, then tossed.  Because of its nature, honey will prevent an avocado from oxidizing the same as lemon juice, and it provides a great alternative flavor.  For fun and flourish I added a rambutan(that spiny-looking thing) to each plate.  The fruit was a nice palate cleanser after the dish.

After that I finished off the sushi grade grilled salmon, dusted with cumin, coriander, chili powder and garlic, and set it atop the creamed leeks, celeriac, and red onions.  I usually match celeriac up with salmon these days, and generally it is pureed, as with mashed potatoes.  But this time I shredded it and creamed it with the leeks and onions.  The results were very pleasing.  I topped the salmon with a spoonfull of heirloom tomato/dijon mustard salsa spiked with a little white balsamic vinegar.

All of that would probably have been enough, but I went one dish farther and did a red wine/balsamic braised short rib (I used a piece of chuck flap, which works excellently for braising).  I sliced some king trumpet mushrooms and braised them in the beef's liquid for about 20 minutes, then reduced and strained the braising liquid to make a sauce.  I oven roasted tiny tri-color potatoes with oil, garlic, and smoked salt, and sauteed a bunch of red swiss chard.  The meat came out fork tender, the potatoes were perfect, the chard provided a nice bitter bite back against the somewhat sweet sauce, and the mushrooms added a beefy complement to the short ribs.  Of course the beef and sauce were very dark, as were the mushrooms and the chard.  Not the best photo, but it tasted darn good, for sure.

We retired to the living room for more catching up and dessert.  A simple yet flavorful Caramel Vanilla Creme Panna Cotta, with Caramelized Seckle Pear and an Amarena Cherry.  I made the caramel sauce for the bottom of the dish, and let it set up in the fridge, but bein impatient I added the panna cotta too soon and it melted and combined.  Still, very good.  A little too stiff, however.  I cut back the gelatin quantity by 1/3 from the recomended amount, because I was making the panna cotta with 36% heavy cream.  It was still a bit too much, since the panna cotta was not as smooth and spoonable as I wanted.  Flavors were all there, anyway.

It is always a joy to cook for friends and to experiment with foods.  I love having dinners like this, for the company and for the chance to play in Jack's Kitchen.

Birthday Dinner

Last weekend I did a very nice dinner/wine tasting for a couple celebrating the wife's birthday.  They had 20 very good friends over and we did a seven course round of small plates with some very nice wines.  Sommelier John Sousa provided great background and notes on the wines.  We started off the evening with a pair of appetizers: Local Grilled Peach Tart with French Chantilly and Savory Sage and Sundried Tomato Cheesecake Bite on Spiced Flatbread; with a Henri Giraud Hommage Grand Cru Brut, a Billecart-Salmon Champagne and a Spottswoode Sauvignon Blanc.

Once all the guests had mingled and caught up, we ushered them into the dining room where we went course by course through our tapas-inspired small plate dinner.  Thas was a great solution to those who wanted to try a great variety of food with the various wines, but not get filled up.  Everyone was able to have just a few bites of great tasting, flavor-packed foods and not be overwhelmed by standard dinner portions.

We started with:

Cardamom Dusted Mango Lhassi Shooter

Followed by:

Baked BBQ Pulled Pork Spring Roll with Firecracker Coleslaw and Candied Peach Bite

And then:
Brandy Braised Stuffed Chicken Thigh with Dried Figs and Apples and Blackberry/Maple Glaze


All served with a 2007 Felsina Fontalloro from Tuscany

Next we served up a lovely Champagne Poached Lobster Claw and Body on a Bed of Fresh Frisse Lettuce, Heart of Palm, Roasted Red Pepper and Mango Slaw with Tarragon Citrus Vinaigrette.  John chose a 2007 Paul Hobbs Chardonnay from Russian River Valley to go with this dish.

Then it was time for the Chimichurri-Rubbed Flat Iron Steak, Asiago Potato Croquettes, Wilted Spinach, and Roasted Red Pepper Coulis.  We did our best to cook the beef to the requested temps, which were everywhere from "red and warm" to "medium well".  Based on the plates that came back empty, I'd say we did a good job.  With this dish they had a very nice 2007 Keenan Cabernet Sauvignon out of Spring Mountain, Napa.

The Sesame-Seared Sashimi Salmon on a Phyllo-Wrapped Cream Cheese Pillow, Orange-Glazed Asparagus, Celeriac Puree was a show-stopper.  Everyone loved the little phyllo cream cheese pillows, and the salmon came out moist and perfect.  The wine was a 2009 Sotor Pinot Noir from Mineral Springs, Oregon.

What kind of birthday party would it be without cake?  We offered some Assorted Chocolate Truffle-Cake Pops, which had rounds of richly flavored truffles stuffed inside moist and yummy cake pops.  I left off the little sticks because I thought it would look tacky.  I made some extra to leave for the kids, who didn't get to come to the party, but they were so popular the guests ate them all.

In the end everyone had a great time, we go lots of compilments on the food and wine, and looks like we are scheduled to do this menu again for a holiday dinner in November.  I can't wait to cook up a few new goodies for them to try.  I have a creme brulee cake pop in mind which ought to be just awesome.

The ladies I got to help with the plating were fantastic and really made the evening go smoothly.  And John's classy and entertaining wine tasting elevated the dinner to an evening I am sure no one will soon forget.  So much fun!



Maggie was having too much fun making cake pops!



Dolores takes plate-up very seriously!