soaking tripe for dessert

The Deception Exception

I love to play with the eye. It can most often be our biggest deceiver in expectations. We have also trained ourselves to rely on it way too much. The dining experience would be a lot different if the diner were blindfolded, or even had their dinner presented to them with no menu and no description as to what they are eating. Being comfortable with familiarity only makes sense, but why not trust a chef? Omakase in Japanese restaurants translates to "it's up to you" (the "you" referring to the chef). Most likely, we wouldn't be able to understand the chef composing on the spot, so we just accept and hopefully enjoy.

The dish above is a very simple setting of watermelon radish with arugula tossed in olive oil and fig white balsamic. I love how the radish, thinly sliced, resembles a well-marbled piece of high quality beef. It'd be great to make a carpaccio of said radish with kobe or wagyu looking identical and never being sure of which you're going to bite in to. Surprise is an element of progression in contemporary cuisine. Let us never be prepared.

Chorizo Stock

This should bode well in cooking mollusks, poaching fish and adding to a basic pomodoro (which is currently simmering). I love extracting those spicy, smoky, meaty flavors to enhance seafood and vegetables that can handle it. Just thinking about the way clams pair greatly with bacon and how lovely this would bring familiar flavors in toying with paella. I hope to use it a lot very soon!

Surf on Turf

Kingfish.Chickpeas.Radish.Carrot.Mustard.Pumpkin Seed
Sauteed Kingfish

Chickpea Puree

Braised Carrots

Truffled Watermelon Radish

Braised Mustard Seed

Pumpkin-Seed Coffee Powder

Fallbruary aka Warming Global

Squash.Shiitake.Pumpkin Seed.Hazelnut.Bacon
Butternut Squash Soup

Braised Shiitake Mushrooms

Cilantro-Bacon Vinaigrette

Pumpkin Seed Powder

Micro Oregano Leaves

Toasted Hazelnuts

Has anyone noticed the seasons are happening later and later every year? Maybe Al Gore has a point, everyone. Global warming might cause the seasons to completely swap in the far future. Not saying that Al Gore said that, I'm just piecing together some observation. With this theory in mind, my culinary receptors are longing for fall. It could also be that in Miami, fall does not exist. No one is raking up fallen palm tree leaves for suburban children to dive into. Rather, they sweep water off of porches and their children are forced to play with quivering mulatto canines. It's more Rottweilerian than Rockwellian.

Alas, one of the most beautiful things about food is that it can transcend your home's stubborn climate and give you access to flavors in seasonal and cultural representation. Global warming is exactly what food does. It warms our bodies while giving us a global tour of agriculture and resources.

The shiitakes were braised with fig marmalade, chipotle, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper, soy sauce, fig vinegar and a couple throws of chicken stock.

The soup was made with roasted butternut squash (simply, with olive oil and thyme) then skinned and roughly cubed added to some sauteing ginger (lots of ginger!) and onion. Covered with chicken stock and water, brought to a simmer and thrown in the blender with couple pats of butter and salt to taste.

Toasted pumpkin seeds & hazelnuts. Grounded the pumpkin seeds to fine powder and chopped the hazelnut interiors.

Vinaigrette: bacon, cilantro, garlic: all diced with fig vinegar and olive oil.

Topped with picked oregano leaves.

Really a quite simple dish, it just takes a little care. You can make the mushrooms and squash soup at the same time, essentially. The point was basically to make a very simple squash soup and put all of the bold, intense flavors into the mushrooms, so it sort of pops in the middle. The pumpkin and hazelnut are for texture and familiar flavor. The acidity of vinaigrette with smokiness of bacon and freshness of oregano and cilantro round out the whole dish to achieve a "well-balanced fall"

Salmon,Watermelon Radish.Hass Avocado Puree.Peach.Braised Mustard Seed.Cranberry.Jalapeno

Mass A Peel aka TGI Freaky Friday's

before
after

I was peeling potatoes to make silky pommes puree (apple & potato). Reserved the skins and baked them @ 275F for about 10-15 minutes. They curled up and made these wonderfully crispy potato skin....chips...crackers....leper batons? I actually planned on frying them and was just simply baking them at low heat to dry them out for premium frying. However, I lost track and this is the result. It's healthier too. This would be great to throw in a coffee grinder and make potato skin powder. Give TGI Fridays a run for it's...creativity?

Or just to fuck with such a franchise, make a dish of fried pork skins with potato skin powder, whipped roasted scallion puree and candied jalapeno or a jalapeno sambal. Something like that.

I might be able to market these in a vacuum-sealed bag and flavor them accordingly. A healthier potato chip would be exactly designed for those who drink Diet Coke, Sprite Zero and are fooled into thinking that Lipton Green Tea actually contains antioxidants.

I love potato skins. Dried and crispy versions should not go unnoticed. I've been also craving to dehydrate and grind random items into powder.

And I will...

Roasted Butternut Squash Gnocchi

Roasted 1/2 a squash (1.5 hours) and 2 potatoes (1 hour) in the skin with no seasoning at 375F

Once cool enough to handle, peeled and pushed potato through a food mill (or through a sieve or ricer)

Scooped out the flesh of the squash into the same bowl with potato

Replaced 1/3 of standard gnocchi recipe's potato measurement with the squash

flour, 1 beaten egg, parmesan, nutmeg and salt were added and kneaded into a dough (adding flour as necessary considering the squash will make the dough a bit limp)

Once kneaded to a pliable dough, rolled out into a fairly thin log on a floured work surface and cut 1 in. pieces.

Tossed those pieces into a bowl of flour to coat evenly.

Boiled in salted water 3-4 minutes.

The rest is up to you.

To test out my recipe, I browned butter over medium heat and added a few whole leaves of sage to crisp them up. Added salt and pepper. Tossed a few gnocchi in the pan. It faired pretty well. Actually, it fared pretty well.

mehhh...

Potato-Crusted Haddock . Bosc Pear . Golden Beets . Cranberry Red Wine Reduction

I have to be honest. This dish was...okay. Actually, it was good, but I wasn't too excited. This is another exercise in using what I have in my fridge. For that, it's not so bad. But as a conceptual dish, there's nothing special or apparently cohesive going on. Looks nice, though. There was even some mishaps with the fish. I had shingled the potato slices (dipped in brown butter and flour, which smells fantastic!) over one side of the haddock (skinless) fillet. I let it rest in the fridge for 1/2 hour to sort of cement itself to the fillet. Upon flipping, I realized that I did not let it sear long enough on potato side for it to set. Shingles went flying like a mild hurricane just passed through my fry pan. I was able to rearrange them afterwards, but it's not what I wanted. Premature flipping calls for a do over.

Anyways, my point is for readers to not be fooled by what I post. I will never post something just because it looks pretty. It has to have flavor. In this case there was flavor, just not the right flavor I was looking for.

Trust me to be honest with you. I had another shingled fillet leftover and I just cooked it about 10 minutes ago. Simple, with some sliced Shiitakes tossed in soy sauce and lemon. The fish was more successful in flipping, but a bit more black than golden.

Whatever, I feel like I'm rambling.

Moral: flavor is more important than presentation

Eye vs Mouth

There are a lot of factors involved in eating. Our brains associate with color, aroma, aesthetic and texture way before we even taste anything. What do you think this post is about? What are the dishes and ingredients above? What if you gave the diner a preconception of the dish and completely turn your taste buds against the rest of your receptive triggers resulting in a battle of the senses. Your eyes see one thing, nose smells another and tongue tastes something completely different. Would this be unpleasant? Will it give the adventurous eater a boner or the universal palette of an eyebrow-raising gourmand another eyebrow to raise?

I believe the second picture gives it away, but the focused ingredient above is mushroom.

King Oyster Mushrooms, to be precise. I dethroned these from a local Asian grocery, at an affordable price, mind you.

Upon wielding my chef's sword to these tree trunk mushrooms, I noticed an extreme resemblance to a friendly mollusk.

Keep in mind, this is a mushroom that's named after an oyster, looks like a scallop, and tastes meaty.

Above is Espresso-crusted King Oyster Mushroom with Caramelized Onions, Celery, Garlic-Red Wine Reduction, Lemon and Shaved raw King Oyster Mushrooms as well.

It's not my ideal dish for this discovery, but it's in the making.

What can I do to best compliment the mushroom and make it the centerpiece?