What happened in Vegas

Emily and I went to Vegas last weekend on rather short notice. We had been meaning to go there to visit friends and see the sights before everybody I knew scattered around the country. We also wanted to check out a restaurant or two, see a show, and get some pictures of the strip. Sally got us some really good seats for Mystère (it helps to know people).

When we got in Friday, after going to the office, we went to a nearby mexican place, Viva Michoacan, to have a late lunch. That night we went to Bouchon, which was very disappointing. Since we had a late lunch, we weren't very hungry and ordered the petit plateau. The oysters were good, but everything else was badly overcooked (shrimp, mussels, and lobster). Friends whose taste I trust do like the place, so maybe they were just having an off night. I remember liking the food there when I lived in Vegas, but that was a few years ago.

Saturday we went to a Cuban restaurant (Cool Place cuban cafe), which was quite good. I wanted to see if their Tequila Chicken was as good as I remembered and get more data so I could reproduce the dish. That night, we went to Mesa Grill. We split three appetizers, so we could get a variety of dishes. My favorite was a tuna tartar dish with a habanero sauce. Emily liked the Queso Fundido best (chèvre was involved), and the quesadilla was also good, but I would have made a few changes. After that, we went to see Mystère. A good friend, Sally, got us excellent seats, right up front. And the show was very good, as usual. (We refuse to go to musicals in Vegas - they tend to cut half of the material out of them.)

For lunch Sunday, we went to Mon Ami Gabi. There was a wait for the patio, and we were hungry, so we ate inside. I didn't expect much from previous experience. I almost got the croque monsieur (one of my favorites), but decided to try the steak sandwich after grilling the waiter (pun intended) - the meat was medium rare, as promised, but it seemed to lack flavor, was under-seasoned, and the jus was unimpressive (pale yellow with little flavor).

Sunday night, we had Easter dinner with the Macy's and Jamie. It was a lot of fun, steak for all and kids running around looking for easter eggs.

On Monday, we finished up our sightseeing. We went to Supermex for lunch, another lunchtime hangout from my days in Vegas. This place inspired my chile verde, and I wanted to try theirs again. It was good and the meat was very tender, but I prefer mine. (I don't think they used any tomatillos - even though they have a nice tomatillo salsa, they didn't roast the peppers, the sauce was thinner, and there was less of it.)

Vegas was never my thing, although I've said that it isn't bad to visit occasionally. It was a good trip, but I don't think I'll be heading back that way. Many of my friends are leaving, we've already got our pictures - and, given the state of the restaurants, there really isn't anything there for me. Perhaps we'll head back up to Oregon or visit Billy in San Diego next.

French Laundry

Last night Emily and I dined at French Laundry with Rob and Traci. It was definitely the best meal I've ever had, and probably the best I will have. The company was great, the service was excellent, and food was perfect.

The reservations were for 5:30 pm, we arrived on time and left around 9:15 pm. By the end of the meal, the first few courses were a pleasant memory. (And, consequently, this will be a long post.)

	The Menu
	They started us off with gougeres and their famous salmon ice cream cones. (Salmon on top, crème fraîche inside and a savory cone.)
	The first course was "Oysters and Pearls," a Sabayon of Pearl Tapioca and Point Reyes Oysters and White Sturgeon Caviar.
	Then some cute loaves bread were delivered, with two different styles of butter. (And butter baked inside.) They made sure to inform us that the breads were all from the Bouchon Bakery down the street. (Emily has some pictures of that, too.)
	For the salad course, most of us got a salad of glazed sunchokes and navel orange suprêmes. (Emily's was served without pine nuts.) I opted for the foie gras dish, which came with an assortment of sea salts and brioche.
	For the first fish coarse, we had a choice between a sea urchin dish and a Japanese Suzuki (some kind of sea bass, I believe). Both were excellent. The "gratin" under the sea urchin was one of the best sauces of the meal, and the clear ginger sauce around the peas was also amazing. I'd love to have the recipes for both, maybe if I wrote the chef...
	The second fish course was a main lobster tail, poached in butter, with an asparagus/serrano ham "omelette" (more of a roulade) and a tarragon coulis.
	The first meat course was milk-fed chicken, with a truffled sauce inside, swiss chard, and Michigan cherries. The meat was very tender and flavorful; the cherries were perfect.
	Emily got an off-the-menu duck dish, which was also quite good, but I didn't quite catch the full description.
	For the second meat course, we had a choice between a lamb and beef dish. The lamb dish had to be ordered for two, so both couples got it. It included three different cuts of lamb, artichoke, a "garlic pudding," and a rosemary jus. I think the reddish lump was the garlic pudding, but it had a lovely roasted red pepper taste that made more of an impression than the garlic.
	The cheese course had a washed-rind cow's milk cheese. The flavor kinda reminded me of Italian Fontina. It was accompanied by poached onions and some greens.
	The first dessert course was a rhubarb sorbet.
	Emily got a mango sherbet on something resembling angel food cake for her first dessert course. (Again, it was off the menu, so I'm not exactly sure what it contained.)
	We had a perfect espresso. The cup was narrow and tall, which caused a nice, thick layer of crema on top.
	For the second dessert course, I had a green tea and white chocolate dish with a passion fruit jelly and a passion fruit foam. The foam was quite amazing, the flavor way more intense than I'd expected. Emily had the Baked Alaska with coconut ice cream, persian lime, pound cake, and compressed pineapple.
	"Mignardises" - French for assault by desserts. The ladies were given a small Tahitian vanilla crème brûlée, the gentlemen got a meyer lemon pot de crème. Then they gave us roasted macadamia nuts coated in chocolate, and a orange tuile.
	Then they came around with a tray of truffles. About six varieties, we were encouraged to choose whatever we wanted, but were so full that we only went with 2-3. (I chose coffee and banana ones, the others were caramel, praline, peanut butter, and raspberry.)
	Finally they gave us some shortbread as a parting gift.
	And, the laundry bill...

Braised Oxtail

One last fancy dinner before Emily is spoiled for good (we're going to French Laundry tonight). For this one I use Zuni Cafés braised oxtail recipe, my parmesan mashed potatoes, and some glazed baby carrots (per Keller's instructions for glazing vegetables). The inspiration for this meal was the carrots - I've seen pictures of baby carrots prepared this way, saw some in the farmer's market, and had to try it. There is a little bit of a disconnect between the potatoes (homey) and the carrots (fussy/cheffy). Turned potatoes would have matched better visually, but Emily wanted my mashed ones, and the cheese goes well with the rest of the dish anyway.

Onglet à la bordelaise (avec pommes frites!)

Once again, I made Thomas Keller's "bavette" recipe. This time I used onglet ("hanger steak") instead of skirt steak, cooked it for a little longer in both the browning stage and the oven stage, used a shallot and red wine marinade, and prepared the sauce à la minute. The fries turned out better this time. Most of them were perfectly done and crisp, and I was enjoyed them without ketchup.

(This would also be nice with a mixed green salad in lieu of fries.)

Roughly, the recipe is:

Cook a half cup or so of malbec (red wine) in a pan. Light it on fire and let the alcohol burn off. Add some minced shallots, a squeeze of lemon, and a good pinch of salt. Put it in a zip lock and cool in the freezer. Season the steak, add it to the bag, and put it in the fridge for at least a few hours.

Within an hour or two of dinner time, cut the fries from russet potatoes. Rinse them well, and blanch them in 320 degree vegetable oil for about 5 minutes. (They should be golden brown, no darker.)

Take out the steak, dry it off and let it warm to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Heat a couple of tablespoons of light olive oil in a cast iron skillet on medium heat. Add a tablespoon of butter and melt. Add the meat and brown, a couple of minutes per side, basting the meat with the butter/oil after you flip it. (Cook a bit longer for onglet, I flipped it a couple of times.)

Remove the meat to a small baking dish and cook 3-4 thinly sliced shallots in the same pan for a minute or two, then add a couple more tablespoons of butter, some thyme, and cook for a few more minutes to caramelize the shallots. Spoon the shallots on top of the meat and place it in the oven for 5-8 minutes.

Warm plates for serving.

Deglaze the skillet with a little of the red wine, reduce. Add some chicken or veal broth and reduce a little. Adjust the seasoning. This is your sauce, keep it warm somewhere.

Cook the fries at 375 degrees for a couple of minutes, remove to a drying rack and salt immediately.

Slice the meat against the grain. Plate next to the fries with shallots and sauce spooned on top of the meat.

Catch up

It's been almost a month since my last post. I'm still cooking, but I've been too busy with life and work to post.

Since then I've made a Spanish version of Chicken Paprika (I added red bell pepper and chorizo), which wasn't bad, but reminded me a lot of the Murgh Korma.

I used a Bobby Flay recipe for a skirt steak roulade with fontina, prosciutto, and basil. It was good, but it ended up a little rare in the middle. I reprized this with a beef tenderloin and italian fontina. It turned out really well, and the cheese itself was also quite good - it was melty at room temperature and had a strong flavor that reminded me of blue cheese - definitely a good match for beef, I'll have to try it on a burger someday.

In the variations on a theme department, I made a shrimp version of my Larb Gai recipe twice while Emily was away - because I was too lazy to pick up chicken, and we made Moules Marinière with clams once because Sun Fat was out of mussels (due to weather).

More recently, I made a shrimp chowder from a recipe in the most recent issue of Saveur - it was quite easy and tasty.

Finally, while Emily was working last night I made a modified version of a Gordon Ramsey recipe. I boned out a chicken thigh and leg (bask in my mad knife skillz) and rolled it around a mixture of italian sausage, basil, and currants (he called for parsley, egg, and pistachios). Then I wrapped it in leftover prosciutto (in place of bacon), wrapped it in tin foil, and poached it for 25 min. I refrigerated it to let it set, fried in a pan, and put into a 170 degree oven to rest. I made a pan sauce with dry vermouth (in place of marsala), sherry vinegar, and homemade chicken stock and made a parmesan risotto to go with it.

Profiteroles

I finally got around to making cream puffs last night. I used Thomas Keller's recipe for the Pâtes à Choux. The dough came together rather easily, although it was a novel process for me. The tough part was piping the dough onto a baking pan, I ended up with more dough on my hands than on the pan. I'll have to dig up some instructions for using a piping bag.

I wanted a custard filling (Keller used ice cream), so I made up a batch of pot de crème, put one of them into a piping bag, and injected it into the cream puffs. I topped them with chocolate ganache.

I also made my largest batch of chicken stock this weekend, I wanted to use up all of the leftover chicken in the fridge, and ended up with at least 6 qt of stock.

Superbowl Sunday

We had a bit of an impromptu get-together for the Superbowl last Sunday. While my cassoulet was cooking, Emily and I tried to go the palace of fine arts to take some pictures. We figured it wouldn't be very crowded during the game. It turned out that a record-breaking ship was coming into port and there was no parking to be found in the area. So we returned home and joined Dan and Carmen to watch a bit of the game.

Carmen was making a turkey meatloaf in her slow cooker, so I brought down the cassoulet and made some mashed potatoes to round out the meal.

"Cassoulet"
Perhaps not a proper cassoulet, this was inspired by the classic french recipe and made from ingredients that I had on hand.

1 lb dried barlotti beans.
2 sprigs thyme
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 onion, large dice
1 smoked ham hock, cut in 2" thick chunks
a couple of strips of bacon, diced
a bit of duck confit (I used two winglets)
1 litre of duck broth
a bit of parmesan rind (optional)

Rinse the beans and pick out any sketchy ones.

In a dutch oven on medium heat, cook the bacon in a little bit of oil, until crispy. Brown the cut edges of the ham hock. Add the onions and cook for 5 minutes or so to soften them up and brown them a little. Add the broth, thyme, parmesan, and beans and simmer for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally. Add water or broth as necessary to cover. About an hour or so into the simmering, add the duck confit.

Once the ham is falling apart and the beans are done, fish out the ham hock and duck, chop up the meat. Fish out the parmesan rind and thyme and discard.

At this point one should strain the beans and layer half the beans, the meat, and the rest of the beans and enough of the liquid to cover. I just stirred in the chopped up meat. I also cooked a bockwurst and hot dog in a bit of duck fat and cut it into 1" thick slices, but forgot to add it. (I remembered later, but Carmen doesn't eat veal.)

Put the dutch oven, uncovered in a 250 degree oven for a 3-6 hours. Every hour or so, gently break the crust that forms with a wooden spoon, so that wet beans come to the top. Add liquid as necessary. Leave a crust on top when it's time to serve. Bring the pot to the table and break the crust at the table.

At any point during the slow cooking, you can cool the pot and refrigerate it overnight. Bring it up to room temperature and cook it once again in the oven until it heats through and a crust is formed.

Oh and the stew/soup is quite tasty before the oven stage, so feel free to cut it short if you're in a hurry. (You can probably use roast or raw chicken in place of the duck and substitute chicken broth for duck if it's not available to you.)