Pan-Seared Sable with a Carrot Miso Puree & Olive Citrus Salad

Compared to the scallop dish, this fish preparation is much quicker and the flavors really pop in your mouth. Plus it is really healthy. Black Cod or Sable or Butterfish is not a true cod but its one of the most delicious fishes I have ever tasted when fresh. This is because of all the Omega-3 fatty acids in it.

Miso is one of the healthiest foods you can eat and is an essential part of the macrobiotic diet. If your local grocery does not carry it ask them to or buy it online. I’ll tout more pro-miso propaganda in upcoming recipes. Enjoy.

Fish:
1.5 Lbs Halibut or Sable/Black Cod (serves 3 or 4 small portions)
Oil
Salt & Pepper

Puree:
1 Carrot
1 ½ Tbls of Blonde Miso
½ Tbls Tamari or Soy sauce to taste
1 Tspn Sesame Oil

Salad:
Arugula
½ Cup Pitted Kalamata Olives, chopped coarsely
1 Orange, supreme

Citrus Dressing:
3 Tbls Orange Juice
2 Tbls Lemon Juice
1/8 Cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

Procedure:

Carrot Puree
1. Bring salted water to a boil. Add the carrot and cook until tender.
2. In a food processor or blender, add the carrot, miso, sesame oil and soy sauce. Puree. I added some of the water that I boiled the carrot in to make the puree more viscous. I added a drop or two more of the sesame oil as well. Trust your palate here and it get it to where you think it tastes good. Miso is a powerful flavoring agent so be careful if you add more of this. Set aside the puree and keep warm.

Salad
1. Dice up the olives and reserve.
2. Supreme the orange. Follow the link for a demonstration. Reserve.
3. Wash the arugula. Dry and reserve.
4. Dressing: Add the citrus to a mixing bowl and in a slow steady stream whisk in the olive oil. Add 2 large pinches of salt and taste. Salt enhances the citrus flavor so don’t be afraid of adding more salt to develop a stronger citrus flavor. Add pepper to your taste.
5. Add the olives & oranges to the arugula but do NOT dress yet.

Fish
1. Rinse the fish and pat dry. Leave the skin on. With a sharp knife make 3 scouring slices across the skin. This is important because the fish will contract into a horseshoe when you apply heat and it will cook unevenly.
2. Bring vegetable oil to almost smoking point. There should be a heat-haze coming off the pan. Season the top and bottom of the fish and place in the pan. Beware of spitting oil.
3. The fish is going to contract a little so with a flat spatula apply pressure to the top of the fish for appx. 30 seconds. Lower the flame to medium. As the fish cooks you will notice that the rawness gives way to a cooked white color that creeps up to the top of the fish. Once that cooked-white color is ¾ the way up the fish, flip it. The skin should be a beautiful brown not burnt. If it did burn don’t worry the fish isn’t ruined.
4. Cook the fish on the flipped side for 30 seconds. No longer.

Assembly
1. If you have a helper, once the fish is halfway done have the helper dress the salad and warm up the carrot puree either in a microwave or in a skillet.
2. Place the dressed salad on a plate, the fish on top and spread the carrot/miso on top of the fish. Devour.

Mixology Pt. 1

Lillet has recently regained popularity in the New York bartending scene probably because of "Casino Royale". Its featured at "PDT" a speakeasy-esque bar in a N'awlins incarnation, "Marlow & Sons" as the 'White Manhattan' and similar cocktail venues. Inspired by the resurgence of an apertif wine as a mixer here are a few cocktails you can whip up with ease. The count measure refers to a one second pour out of the spout of the nozzled pour device that you may have noticed on the top of all liqour bottles at your nearest watering hole. If you don't have one of these nifty devices, one fluid ounce equals a one second count.


The French Connection

4 Count on Lillet Blanc
3 Count on Ketel One Vodka
2 Count on Cointreau
3 Tbls of Pom Pomegranate Juice
½ Lemon Squeezed
3 Mint Leaves

1. Combine all the ingredients in a martini shaker with ice and do the “White Man Shuffle” with more voracity than these two could ever muster. Strain. Voile!

Gettin’ Lillet’d

4 count on Lillet Blanc
2 count on Ketel
2 count on Cointreau
½ Lemon Squeezed
½ Orange Squeezed

1. Indulge in the previous step.

A brief word on Beets

“The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious…The beet is a melancholy vegetable, the one most willing to suffer. You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip…” -Tom Robbins, “Jitterbug Perfume”

Nutritionally there are few veggies as good for you as the beet. Beets are high in Folate, which is necessary for the production and maintenance of new cells. They are also loaded with Vitamin C, dietary fiber and antioxidants. The beet is also high in betaine which is a nutrient that plays an important role in the health of the cardiovascular system. The beet because of these reasons has been described as a ‘panacea’ which plays a part in the secret to immortality in “Jitterbug Perfume”. Eat the beet.

Beet Gratin

This dish was a challenge. I wanted a dish to appeal to anyone who has celiac or is required to be on a gluten and dairy free diet. Gluten and dairy free meals are hard to come by and even harder to make well. Coming from a French culinary background I don’t feel the need to expound on their indulgent use of cream, butter and cheese. Whenever a dish wasn’t tasty enough, the “French Fix” was employed; a heavy wallop of butter and or cream into any soup, sauce, risotto, polenta etc. It was effective but there are other ways of coaxing out good flavors from food than just adding fat. Thus my Beet Gratin.

1 Bunch of Large Beets (3 pieces) or 2 Bunches of Small (6 Pieces)
450 Ml Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice
1 Nub of Ginger appx 1” in diameter
¼ cup of Onions, diced fine
1/2 Cup Whole Almonds
4 Tbls of Tahini
1 Cup Vegetable Stock*
1 Tbls Lemon juice
½ Tspn sriracha
Salt & Pepper to taste

*Vegetable Stock

Vitamins B & C are water soluble, which means that when you boil/steam vegetables as a cooking method you lose the nutrients thus the reason to eat them. Steaming is better but you still lose the vitamins. Vitamins are quicker to absorb into your body in a liquid fashion anyway so save the water that you cook all vegetables in. Boiling beets for this recipe? Reserve some of the juices (careful of the dirt). Boiling carrots for a puree? Or steaming broccoli? Save it all add a bay leaf, ½ Tbls of whole peppercorns and ½ Tbls of Coriander seeds boil it again for 20 minutes and use it to add depth to a soup or stir fry. Freeze it for a later use.

Procedure:
1. Boil beets in salted water until a knife pierces them easily (about 30 minutes depending on the size of the beet).
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
3. While the beets are boiling, dice up the ginger and onion fine and place in a skillet on med-high heat with orange juice. Reduce by half.
4. Add vegetable stock and reduce that by half.
5. Toast the almonds in a skillet without any oil. Allow them to cool in a bowl. Add a bit of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss so it coats them evenly. Chop and set aside.
6. Once the vegetable/orange/ginger mixture is reduced, place it in a blender with tahini and lemon juice. Be mindful when blending hot liquids.
7. Run the beets under cold water when they are finished to stop the cooking. When they are cool enough to handle, slice into ½ cm rounds or thereabouts. Layer them in a small baking pan (I used an 8x8 pan). After the first layer is set, drizzle the tahini/orange mixture over the beets. Continue this procedure one more time or until there are 2 or 3 layers depending on the amount of beets you have.
8. Bake for 20 minutes and top the gratin with the chopped almonds.

Shrimp with Steel Cut Irish Oats and a Saffron Beurre Blanc

Were you one of those people this year that bought John McCann’s Irish Oatmeal around St Patty’s day to feel more Irish? You know the one in the steel can that looks like mother antiquity herself birthed it? I wasn’t. I was the person who bought it LAST year and still have not used it all because the three times I followed the ‘Irish Porridge’ instructions on the back I was duped by marketing and a nostalgia that wasn’t even mine. I was raised with ‘Cream of Wheat’ and Honey Nut Cheerios.
I am currently in the midst of Operation Clear-Out-the-Cupboard. An effort to use victuals in there that I rarely, if ever, use. The first assassination; John McCann. The great thing about 100% Whole grain oats, besides being good for you (lots of Fiber, protein, iron and high in B-Viatmins) is the amount of sticky starch they give off when cooked properly. For oats, this characteristic gives a velevety mouth feel without the butter and cream. There is cheese and yogurt in this recipe, but it is in very small amounts and you could leave these out if need be.
Porridge is pretty poor tasting without the addition of lots of maple syrup, sugar or some other flavoring agent. This recipe takes these oats away from breakfast altogether and uses it in a savory application (My Irish grandmother would refuse it on principle).

Shrimp

1 Bag of Uncooked, Frozen U/10 Shrimp
Vegetable Oil
Butter

Saffron Beurre Blanc

½ Shallot, diced
100 ml Rice Vinegar
300 ml White Wine
1 Bay Leaf
2 ¾ Sticks of butter, cubed
3 Pinches of Saffron

Oats

3 Tbls Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Bay leaves
1 Cup McCann’s Steel Cut Irish Oats
4 Tbls Cup Rice Vinegar
1 Generous Pinch of Saffron
1/2 Tbls Sriracha
Salt, to taste
2 Rstd Red Peppers, diced
1/2 Cup Greek Fage Yogurt
1/2 Cup Goat Cheese
Cheese Rinds (Optional)
Scallions, sliced thin

Procedure:

1. Oats: Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add Olive Oil and bay leaves. Pour in 1 cup of Steel Cut Oats. Continue at a rolling boil until the water begins to thicken. Once the water is viscous, adjust the flame and continue at a low simmer for 15-20 minutes. If you have leftover cheese rinds you can add them now. After 8 minutes of simmering you’ll need to keep an eye on the oats because they will stick to the bottom if you don’t stir frequently. Think of it as a risotto, the more you stir the more starch is let off and the more velevety it will feel in your mouth.
2. While the oats are cooking add the pinch of saffron to warm water and let soak for 5 minutes. Dice up red peppers and slice the scallions.
3. Once the oats are thickened and most of the water has reduced, you have in front of you Porridge or Gruel. Take the oats off the heat and add vinegar, sriracha, yogurt, cheese, peppers, scallions and salt if needed. Taste and adjust. Set aside and keep warm.
4. Beurre Blanc: Add saffron to warm water and let soak. Place shallots, vinegar, bay leaf and wine into a skillet and reduce. Once the mixture has reduced to nearly a syrup, take skillet off the heat and whisk in the cold butter a little at a time. Add saffron and continue to whisk until everything is incorporated. Strain through a fine mesh sieve. Keep warm. If you want, you can add the shallots to the oats.
5. Shrimp: I bought one frozen bag of uncooked shelled U/10 Shrimp which means 10 per pound at Trader Joes for this dish, use what your supermarket has. Sub scallops for shrimp if the scallops are fresher. Devein and shell your shrimp. Keep the shells. Heat a skillet with 1 Tbls of butter and 1 tbls of veg oil. Saute shrimp with the shells. Shrimp cook quickly so this should be no longer than 5 minutes or so depending on how thick your shrimp are. Remove shrimp and shells separately. As long as your butter/oil mixture is not burned incorporate this into the beurre blanc.
6. Reheat oats, plate shrimp and drizzle the beurre blanc around your masterpiece.

Homemade Hazelnut Extract

I am one of many believers that anything homemade is better than what you can buy in the store. Purchasing extracts has always annoyed me. Vanilla extract is to blame for this. Its one of the more expensive foodstuffs you can have in your cabinet. Obviously Vanilla is rare so I understand the price and I would rather use fresh vanilla pods for ice cream rather than make an extract out of them, however, a little vanilla goes a long way if you have it. Nut extracts too don’t come cheap either and are much harder to find in the average supermarket Perusing an out of print ice cream book I found a recipe to make your own extract. I thought it was interesting but didn’t take the book out because I said to myself “I’ll just find this again on the internet”. I couldn’t. I spent about 10 minutes digging on the web and gave up. I ended up going back to the culinary library at the French Culinary Institute and copied it down. This is adapted from J & C Dueker’s “The Old Fashioned Homemade Ice Cream Cookbook”. The only changes I made were to toast the nuts first before I soaked them in Brandy and to chop them. Most people have a stock of cheap brandy somewhere in the back of their liquor cabinet which they hide and use for holiday/party punches, break it out for this recipe.

½ Cup Hazelnuts*, skinless
1 Cup Brandy

Procedure:

1. Pour hazelnuts into a skillet and toast. This should take about 5-7 minutes. They should be lightly browned not burned. If there are burned nuts don’t add them to the brandy. Once cooled, chop them coarsely.
2. Place in a jar or bottle and cover tightly. Allow at least a month before using. Dueker recommends subbing 2 Tbls of homemade extract for 1 Teaspoon commercial when using for baking or ice cream. I think you can add less but I’ll let you know once the extract is finished.

*If you do this for vanilla use a half pod per cup of brandy and do not toast. Slice it in half and scrape the insides. Combine everything in a jar.

Seared Scallops atop Piquillo Pepper Coulis with Cilantro Lime Sauce

Ingredients:

1 Lbs Scallops
½ Onion
5 Piquillo Peppers or 2 Roasted Red Peppers
1 ½ Cloves Garlic
2 Pinches of Salt
1 Tbls Butter
Salt & Pepper
Thick palmful of Cilantro, stems and leaves
½ cup Fage Greek Yogurt or Sour Cream
Juice of 1 Lime

Procedure:

1. Finely dice up the onion, garlic and peppers.
2. Coulis: Heat butter up in a skillet with low-med heat and add the onions. Cover pan for 10 minutes. Uncover and add salt. Sweat for 3 minutes. Add garlic and peppers. Sweat for 5 more minutes. If at this point there is remaining liquid from the onions and peppers increase the heat slightly and watch carefully until there is no more liquid left in the skillet. Reserve and keep warm.
3. Creamy Cilantro: Greek yogurt is probably the healthiest option but heavy cream can be subbed and it’s great. In a blender add the cilantro, lime, 2 pinches of salt and yogurt and blend. The consistency should be thick and it will taste tart and sour; this serves to cut the buttery flavor of the coulis and scallops. Add more cilantro or yogurt if needed. Taste and adjust seasoning. Keep chilled.
4. To Serve: Heat up a skillet and add 2 tbls of butter on med heat. Once melted and beginning to bubble or pop add the scallops slowly one at a time. The pan will cool down quickly if you add them all at once and the scallops will not brown as evenly. Sear the scallops until golden brown on the bottom, appx 5-8 minutes depending on heat. Reheat the coulis and add to the plates. Place the scallops on top and drip the creamy cilantro on top.

Composed Salads

Composed Salads

Every night at Sfoglia NYC there is an Antipasti Della Casa comprised of 3 different items, 2 are usually composed salads and it’s a great item to share. We used to make a plate of composed salads at FCI as well and they were fun, great to snack on plus it’s an easy way to experiment with new flavor profiles. The salads below could work individually as appetizers, side dishes or served with a protein. A good combo could be the cauliflower salad underneath a piece of seared halibut or cod with an olive tapenade or the radish salad underneath bacon wrapped scallops. The apple, rosemary, parmesan combination was the brainchild of my brilliant gourmand gal one morning when we made crepes. It is an awesome combo and could easily be the star of any dessert tart or ice cream flavor (minus the celery and olive oil). It’s also a super refreshing salad.

½ Head of Cauliflower
Olive Oil
Salt
¾ Cup Whole Almonds
¾ Cup Kalamata Olives, pitted
3 sprigs of Thyme
1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon
Salt & Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Break off florets of cauliflower and place in a bowl. Drizzle enough oil to lightly coat the florets, add 2 pinches of salt and toss in a mixing bowl. Roast for 15 minutes. When finished place in a bowl.
3. While the cauliflower is roasting add 1 tsp of olive oil to a skillet. Heat for a minute and add the almonds. Add 2 pinches of salt. Coat evenly and heat until the skin starts to pop from the almonds or until they are a darker brown. Place in a bowl, add a pinch of black pepper and allow to cool.
4. Dice up the thyme, olives and almonds (once cool) and juice the lemon if you are using fresh. Combine the olives and almonds with the cauliflower.
5. Vinaigrette: Add the lemon and thyme to a bowl. In a slow steady, stream add 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil and whisk. Add some salt and pepper. Taste and adjust. Taste and adjust.
6. Mix everything up and serve.

3 Radishes
Bacon, 2 crispy strips
1/3 cup Almonds, toasted
1/3 cup Cranberries, diced coarsely
Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette

1. Cook the bacon until crispy. Lay on a plate with a paper towel to soak up the grease. Let cool.
2. Prepare the almonds as described in the above procedure
3. Dice up the cranberries, radishes and bacon.
4. Combine all ingredients with ginger vinaigrette (Store bought is fine, the Paul Newman’s is good but I prefer the Japanese orangey looking ones, Annie’s has a good one and Makoto). Taste and adjust.

1 Macintosh Apple
1 Stalk of celery, peeled
Parmesan Cheese
1/8 tsp fresh Rosemary (1/4 if you are using dried)
Lemon or Lime
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1. Peel the apple. Use a melon-baller to get rounds and drizzle a enough lemon juice to coat (this prevents the apples from turning brown for an extended period of time). Reserve.
2. Rinse and peel the celery stalk. Slice very thin.
3. Vinaigrette: finely chop enough rosemary to yield a generous 1/8 tsp. Add to lemon or lime and whisk in olive oil in a slow and steady fashion.
4. Combine all the ingredients together and dust with parmesan cheese.