Sports and Porn

19/365

German Sausage - LA Farm

Went to Chef Stephan Richter’s (Top Chef Season 5 contestant) restaurant in Santa Monica.  I was pretty stoked to see him pretty much walking around the restaurant talking to his patrons.  Real hospitality.  

To focus on the food, I figured I would go with something warm and hearty so I went for the sausage (hold your innuendos, please).  The mashed potatoes were fluffy pillows, the sauce acidic, the onions crunchy.  Simple food done right is the way, the truth, and the life.  

14/365

Churros

Tell you the truth, I had trouble with the dish at first as I tried to figure out how to make the sugar stick to the item.  Turns out, much like a doughnut, you have to drain the oil off the fryer then it’s guaranteed to stay there.  

RECIPE:

12/365

Wedge Salad

Funny story about lettuce.  I remember one day at Manhattan Country Club (the place where I got my six month experience before CIA), a server asked me if I had iceberg lettuce.  I remember briefly walking in that day seeing something that resembled that, so I grabbed it and made a salad only to be told by the same person that it was cabbage, not lettuce.

This goes to prove Miles (the GM), that I knew jack shit back then, and still do now even with a degree from the CIA.

RECIPE:

1 Iceberg Lettuce

Blue Cheese Dressing - 

• 1 C Mayo
• 1/2 C Sour Cream
• 1.5 C Blue Cheese
• Milk, as needed.
• Salt and Pepper

- Blend together mayo, sour cream and blue cheese.  Add milk as needed to find your consistency.  Salt and pepper to your preferred taste.  Be careful though, cheese is already salty as it is.

Bacon - Rachael Ray made a recipe for prepackaged bacon strips…

Halved Cherry Tomatoes 

Balsamic Reduction - Balsamic vinegar reduced to nappe consistency.

Blue Cheese Crumbles

7/365

Saltado De Mariscos

My mom took me to a Peruvian food place today called “El Pollo Inka”.  She recommended me to order an item called “Saltado de Mariscos” which was a combination of Sauteed Seafood (squid, shrimp, scallops) and french fries served with rice.  Unusual, yes.  Delicious, yes.  I’m happy with that.

5/365

Blue Chip Nachos

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Blue Corn Tortillas - Cut them into fifths, or approximately bite sized nacho pieces.  Deep fry in 350 degree fryer until crispy.  Store in airtight container.

Jalapeno Olive Tapenade - Olives, Garlic, Parsley, Oil, Jalapeno, Salt and Pepper in the food processor.  As for ratios, I would say a cup of pitted olives to a teaspoon of garlic.  As for spice, remove the seeds if you don’t want it and keep it if you do.

Guacamole - Avocado, White Onion, Cilantro, Tomato, Salt/Pepper.  

The fun part about salsas and guacamole when making it is that I have Mexicans by my side who make it.  They have a sixth sense in making this stuff good that they don’t use recipes.  I simply tell them to keep the yield low.  Seriously.

If you want to follow a simple guideline for guacamole, I always go for taste and texture:  For example, I like more cilantro and tomato with less onion on mine.  Tomatoes give it a textural crunch and cilantro just has  that beautiful flavor to it that totally makes that difference.

Flat Corn Tortillas - Fry some corn tortillas whole, same concept when you’re making tortilla chips, except leave them whole. During dish construction, saute mushrooms, beef and/or chicken.  Put toppings on tortilla, add pepper jack cheese and let it melt in salamander.  After heating in the salamander, make a tortilla sandwich of sorts, top with Chipotle Crema (Pureed Chipotles plus yogurt/sour cream) and then the blue chips.

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I might change up the plating back from pre-opening day.  What say you?

3/365

French Onion Soup

Basic fundamentals here.  The ratio for your onion soup should be 1 lb of caramelized onions to 1/2 gallon of stock/liquid.  It is better this way as you get a supposed equal part of broth to onion when you are eating it.  Caramelizing your onions is fairly easy:  grab oil and a wide vessel as you would need the surface area to lay out the onions to get the desired result.  

As for the cruton, grab a baguette and cut it in a bias.  Put some butter and Gruyere Cheese on top and let it melt.  Others put the plate in the oven and let the cheese melt there, but I don’t play that game since I don’t know whether or not ours can hold up to the heat.

Garnish with chopped parsley or don’t garnish it at all.  Your choice.

2/365

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Ribeye, Grilled Vegetable Medley, Polenta, Onion Frites, Pinot Noir Reduction

Ribeye:  Season with salt and pepper, cook to desired temperature.

Grilled Vegetable Medley:  Slice carrots, zucchini and yellow squash in a bias.  Cut ends off asparagus, pinky sized.  Season with oil, salt and pepper and grill.

Polenta:  The usual polenta ratio depends on how you want it to come out texturally.  For hard polenta, do a 3 to 1 ratio whereas for soft and creamy polenta, do 4 to 1.  I used milk as a liquid to cook mine.  Usually, do something flavorful when you’re doing pilafs and starches.  Add parmesan cheese and parsley (or any herbs you want).  Cook until not gritty, 30 to 45 minutes.

Onion Frites:  Cut onions into 1/8 or 1/4 in slices.  Separate and marinate in buttermilk or cream, as this removes the sulfuric elements in the onion.  Remove from milk marinade and coat in tempura flour.  Put in deep fryer until golden brown at 350 degrees.

Pinot Noir Reduction: Use one bottle of Pinot Noir and let it reduce until syrupy.  Some might add sugar to cheat a bit (such as Jose, according to the initial recipe packet) so it becomes thicker and more syrupy faster but I believe you lose the properties of the wine when they do that.

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I have two weeks left at Establishment and I intend to doing some good in every single one before I leave.  For today, I made a three course Prix-Fixe menu for Valentine’s Day.  The only problem is that I only sold one.  It matters to me somewhat, but I also can’t help it if people are not coming in or made reservations somewhere else.

Other than that, the day went by really oddly quickly.

1/365

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Baby Back Ribs

1/2 Rack Ribs, Spicy-Sweet BBQ Sauce, Crosscut Potato Chips

Me, Gus, Arik and John decided to have a mini-reunion of sorts and have Persian food. The place is called Flame Restaurant in Westwood. If you’re not geographically familiar, it’s in the same vicinity as UCLA.  Since we didn’t have a clue about the food, we had Arik order for us.

Some notes/observations:

1. Their flavor profiles are primarily sweet and sour.

2. I noticed that there was some similarity between Indian and Persian food. the bread type thing similar to Naan, the stews which one of them was similar to Dal.

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Menu:

Kahsk-E-Bademjan - Fried Eggplant mixed with whey flavored with sauteed garlic and mint.

Fesenjon - Fried walnut-pomegranate sauce mixed with boiled chicken.  

Tadig Combination - Rice crust with two stews (in our case, Sabzi and Ghemeh*).

Chicken and Beef  Kabobs 

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The rice with the kabobs was amazing.  I should have taken it home!

If you haven’t yet, go to twitter and check out #kitchenpetpeeves.  Have a hearty laugh, relive some memories and maybe it might pursue you to get a twitter and share your own.