What's on your plate today?

A friend at work, who also is a home cook, bought a subscription to Master Class and gave me the "get one free" portion of it. I've watched a few lessons from Chef Thomas Keller, who owns and operates the French Laundry restaurant. I've watched a few lessons and it's incredible to watch a master at work. I used his recipe for branzino and substituted it for striped bass that the wife found at the international grocery store. It took five red peppers to make the vinaigrette, but the results were worth it.

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Salt-baked striped bass with fennel and red pepper vinaigrette.
 
Nihon_Ni said:
A friend at work, who also is a home cook, bought a subscription to Master Class and gave me the "get one free" portion of it. I've watched a few lessons from Chef Thomas Keller, who owns and operates the French Laundry restaurant. I've watched a few lessons and it's incredible to watch a master at work. I used his recipe for branzino and substituted it for striped bass that the wife found at the international grocery store. It took five red peppers to make the vinaigrette, but the results were worth it.

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Salt-baked striped bass with fennel and red pepper vinaigrette.
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How is this guy not on iron chef yet?????
 
Today I made Quail Eggs Benedict as part of my study in eggs. Puff pastry crouton, prosciutto chips, poached quail eggs, and standard Hollandaise sauce. It was...interesting. It was a lot of work for not much food. I had way too much ham on each one, and making them into crispy chips brought out the saltiness, and it overpowered the delicateness of the quail eggs. Removing half the ham made them much better, but I wouldn't go through the effort of making these again.

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I actually enjoy the trial and error nature of cooking. Sometimes, like this dish, it doesn't turn out the way I had envisioned. Most times I make changes and try again, but not this one.

However, with the leftover puff pastry, I made an impromptu raspberry jelly roll, which was delicious! That one, I will be making again. :)
 
That looks great! I love salmon, but the wife tires of it easily. I cooked it about 2 months ago, it will probably be 2 more months before she's ready for it again. I might have to cheat on her!!
 
Nihon_Ni said:
That looks great! I love salmon, but the wife tires of it easily. I cooked it about 2 months ago, it will probably be 2 more months before she's ready for it again. I might have to cheat on her!!
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It's my favorite fish, and since I'm mostly pescatarian, I have it usually at least twice a week. Usually it just gets a sprinkle of Montreal seasoning, but I decided to try a teriyaki glaze this time and liked it.

~Boar
 
The Black Cloud said:
I love salmon. It's my favorite fish. I've never thought of using Montreal on it. Usually I would use either a teriyaki type sauce or bake it with onions, lemon, and dill.
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It's good that way, but I like a simple presentation, generally. Salmon doesn't need a lot for me to love it.

Speaking of food, though, I've been doing a lot of DoorDash during the shutdown, mostly Asian. Tonight I got an order of Thai shrimp fried rice with basil from a new place, and it was excellent, but on a whim I added something called a "Chasu Pork Bun" to the order. Based on a Google Image search (a lot of DoorDash menus don't have photos) I was expecting something along the lines of a bao---a big stuffed Chinese steamed dumpling.

What I got was this amazing little sandwich thing that was like a steamed dumpling pancake folded taco style over really good pork, with a slice of cucumber, some lettuce, and an AMAZING sauce---sweet, spicy, and thick. It was a total flavor bomb and the most perfect combo of tastes and textures I've encountered in quite some time. Asian street food nirvana!

My next order from them I think I'm just getting a half dozen or so of THOSE. I'll take pics!

~Boar
 
Years ago, my buddy sent me a recipe for a garlic dipping paste, similar to the beloved paste sold by a small chain of Armenian chicken joints local to LA called Zankou. I kept the recipe knowing at some point I'd want to try to make it. Yesterday was the day. Pretty simple to make. Holy eff is this stuff potent and I have a whole tub of it. My GF is gonna hate me for the next month or so.
photos.app.goo.gl

New item by Jeff Krueger

photos.app.goo.gl photos.app.goo.gl

If you like garlic (and I mean, you *really* gotta love garlic), give this recipe a shot.
www.kcet.org

Recipe: Lebanese Garlic Sauce (Toum)

If you've been to Zankou Chicken or one of the many other Lebanese and Armenian restaurants in Los Angeles, you're likely familiar with this fluffy, creamy garlic sauce.
www.kcet.org www.kcet.org
 
There've been a few threads going around Twitter lately regarding Low Country Boils, mostly because someone unearthed a photo of a completely unseasoned one from somewhere. If you're on Twitter, you know that's all it takes. 😂

Twitter Rules: Every day, Twitter will pick someone to drag mercilessly. Never be that person!

Anyway, I don't do boils often, because it's more of a party dish & I'm usually just cooking for one here, but I do, as it happens have a boil pot for one, with the full depth strainer insert, so . . . what the heck. I was in the mood.

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So easy to do, too. Zatarain's, water, whatever you're boiling, and about 30 minutes or so of time, little less. It's all in the spicing (use more than the package says!) and the sequencing (potatoes first, shrimp last). I use frozen easy-peel raw shrimp because the timing is so easy with them: let the pot return to a furious boil for ONE minute, then pull it off the heat. They're done.

~Boar
 
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