The Dinner - Today

The nerves have settled somewhat; especially since I started prepping food this morning. I find time in the kitchen to be zen-ish; soothing (albeit stressful getting everything done & remembering not to forget anything).
Looking at the $/time-investment ratio this doesn't really pay all that well. But hey - it's great fun.

Incidentally - this was the week that the hot water heater decides to go on the blink (dead). I've been doing the hand-washing for dishes using hot water from the electric kettle. The repairman showed up today and the (repaired) tank will have heated up at just about the time I leave the house this afternoon to go to the gig. Ya gotta smile.

Too Many Posts in One Day

I'm frantically messing around in the kitchen and taking breaks to write posts about it. Oddly enough it seems more productive to be blogging and cooking at the same time. Blogging gives me breaks from cooking and cooking gives me something to blog about.
Synergy.
That, and nervous energy.
It's midnight:30 and I'm in the kitchen peeling vegetables. I should go to bed instead.
Actually, a wee whisky would go down okay right about now.

Kitchen Explosion

No, not really. It only looks like the kitchen exploded. In mid recipe-testing / hacking around (and making dinner too) I thought I'd commemorate The Dinner preparation with this photo.

Butterflies in the stomach; tomorrow's the big day. But I figure I'm ready.
Well... I hope I'm ready.

Morcilla Tart; Black Pudding; Blood Sausage

Yup, lots of people would pass on this one too. These are little Morcilla Tarts. Made from boudin / black pudding / blood sausage - - plus a little apple and cinnamon.

Open up a Morcilla (use the onion version; not the ones with pimiento); remove the skin (which is actually a pig intestine. Fry it up for about 5 minutes; use no added fat because it's got loads of its own. Chop up an apple; brunoisse . Take one part diced apple to two parts of sausage; add a dash of cinnamon. Blend really well but you still want to see some slivery pieces of apple. I used a sort of mini cuisinart that came with a Braun Stick Mixer (which are wonderful toys for the kitchen and a good Christmas gift).
Put the resulting muck into tiny tart shells and top with ground roasted pine nuts.

Sort of like a meatmeat tart - but different.

This, by the way, is post the only place on the entire web where the phrase "morcilla tart" occurs.

Anchovy Toasts

Anchovy Toast
Originally uploaded by willsong.

For The Dinner one of the appetizers is little toasts with (left) red pepper foam, (right) quark (a sort of creamy cheese), topped with a sliver of roasted red pepper and an anchovy.

Pretty creative - and very Mediterranean.

Lots of people seem to not like anchovies but here in Spain they're very popular.

The Dinner - Stuff

The thing about this Personal Cheffing business is that it's not just cooking; there's a whole lot of just plain work; like lugging all this stuff up to the client's apartment; who happens to live in an area with parking conditions somewhat more difficult than midtown Manhattan.


Bottom to top: a case of wine, my knife case, a box of stuff (non food items), red cutting board, food cooler, and my decorative chef's toque. Not pictured: the suitcase for the pots & pans I have to take along.

I hope there's an elevator.

Le Cordon Bleu - Class Photo

I was browsing through my recipes from culinary school, prepping for The Dinner and came across the class photo. Here it is; just for laughs. One of these handsome people is me. Location: the student hall of Le Cordon Bleu Academy of Culinarty Arts - Paris, August 2005.

Dinner for Eight

The client's accepted the proposal - which amounts to lots of appetizers, a really serious steak of the very very best quality (I have a wholesale restaraunt supplier), a ton of wine, and a bunch of other interesting eatables.

The way this works is that as a Personal Chef I cook the menu in their kitchen (it's something along the lines of in-home catering); doing everything from the planning and shopping to washing up the final dishes. This is going for $54 per person (8 people). Sounds like a real good deal. For them it beats the price of an equivalent dinner in a restaurant all to h*l*.

Now, I have to actually do the work --- bah. Planning is easy; it's execution that's difficult.

A Dinner Menu

I'm proposing something simple and vaguely SpanishMediterraneanFrench style but not super luxe.

8 people, plated, table service, with the host & guests helping to retrieve from the kitchen.

Wines

A wine flight. All from the bodega Enate in the region of Somontaño . A Chardonnay, a young red, a 'regular' red and then a Reserva red for the main meat course.

Appetizers

• Morcilla tarts (bite size; black sausage)
• Anchovies with Roasted Red Pepper foam on toasts
• Onion Spanish Tortilla (basically just an egg and onion spanish omelette)

Salad

• Rocket (arugula) with grated Foie and Raspberry Vinaigrette (wish I could get dandelions instead)

Intermezzo - a sip of lemon ice something or other

Main

• Entrecote (serious quality steaks) in a Madeira Sauce (French style)
• Rice with Mushrooms (it's mushroom hunting season here; I'll use Bomba type rice [round rice kernels])
• Glazed Vegetables Julienne (carrots, turnip, leeks maybe)

Dessert

• Chocolate Mousse

That Was Supposed to be a Draft

Oops. Sorry about that. Someday the risotto post may reappear. After I actually make some.

Dinner Party for Eight: Professional Cheffing

The trouble with being a chef (cook) is that occasionally people ask you to actually perform as a chef - professionally.  It's easy when being a chef more or less amounts to exercising it as hobby or when working in a restaurant in a kitchen with a bunch of other cooks; but I find gigs as a private chef somewhat intimidating.  It comes from a  lack of confidence I suppose.  And going it alone.

So.. an acquaintance (the friend of a friend sort) needs a dinner for 8 (or maybe it'll be 6 or 10) at his place.  This entails preparing a menu, pricing, negotiating, testing a couple of recipes, buying (food & wine), pre-preparing a bunch of things, schlepping a load of stuff to his apartment in Madrid (where there's no free parking spots for miles), cooking in someone else's kitchen and serving the results.  Not to mention clean-up and schlepping things back home.

But hey! It's paid work so there is an up-side.

Nanaimo Bars: Before and After

This, by the way, is the Nanaimo Bar (which I have written about previously). A famous Canadian treat (on the Pacific coast).

Here's the before photo.



And this is the after picture:


Cookie, nuts, cocao, coconut bottom; vanilla creamy icing center; dark chocolate top.

Lots of chocolate, sugar and butter; the ideal holiday treat.

Recipe to follow.

Mauviel Copper Double Boiler

I was actually doing some cooking today! Well, sort of, Nanaimo Bars (the whole story to follow later - they're actually a type of fridge-bar).

Step 1 is to melt butter, sugar and cocoa in the microwave or a double boiler. I'm lucky enough to have been gifted this Mauviel copper double boiler and I just love having a reason to pull it
out.

Isn't it just plain pretty? All brass and copper and porcelain just like stuff back in the (good) old days. Quality. Weighs a ton too.

Quality comes with a price though. Amazon has these listed at $257 ouch (I mean... each) [list price is about $360]. Mine was bought (for me) in Paris, back before the price of copper rose and the dollar dropped; for substantially less.

Spice Shop

photo credit:

I'm still checking out the photo collection.

This is the 1st food-oriented pic from the trip to Egypt. A spice shop. Approximately 89% of these spices travelled home with me.

This was not in a real touristy area. It's just a regular shop for regular people on a regular street. No self serve; a fellow behind a counter. You wait your turn (while talking to the neighbors who are waiting as well); then chat with the shopkeeper (who is your neighbor too) about what you want.
It takes a while to get the shopping done but there's more people, more community, involved. maybe not such a bad thing.

Snow in Vancouver and Kelowna Too

Looks like the Pacific Northwest is having fun today. Hi to more of the gang.

These are (probably) live webcam shots of 1) Vancouver & 2) Kelowna - who are also enjoying (?) snow.
Lougheed

Big White