It's what's for dinner...

[Wolfie]

What's on the menu tonight where you are?

It's been a long week (is it really only Wednesday?). I'm thinking of treating myself this evening. Herb roasted duck sitting atop wasabi mashed potatoes with a balsamic and sherry demi-glace lightly drizzled upon it?

I'm undecided, as prawns could be easily substituted and I believe they'd go well with the potato ... probably a splash of a Hidalgo Palo and butter with a dusting of fresh herbs to top. A very gentle hollandaise (if gentle can be applied to such a thing) might go nicely for a richer flavour but I'm worried it'll stomp all over everything if I'm not careful.

 

[insight]

I don't mess with duck too much but when I do I usually do smoked Peking duck. Your dish sounds delicious! How do you do up the wasabi mashed potatoes?

 

[Wolfie]

I should give credit for the inspiration to Chef Kerry Spears, formerly of Cascadia Restaurant in Belltown, Seattle, WA (which unfortunately, was recently sold...*sigh*) as he first introduced me to the idea of wasabi and potatoes in a slightly different form.


I like to go with a rough mash, adding a couple of red potatoes to the batch of about 4 russetts simply because a little texture sets nicely with me.

I do a gentle boil until the russetts are tender and hit it with a hand masher before adding a quarter cup of butter and just enough heavy cream to bring it to the texture I like and finish it off with salt and just a touch of prepared wasabi to taste. I usually start with about a teaspoon and go from there. It's not so much that I get punched in the face (sometimes it's nice, but usually not what I'm looking for from it) but enough that there's a nice clean tint to the potatoes in the eyes and on the tongue.

I've tried it a number of different ways, including with the addition of fresh and/or roasted garlic but I found that the wasabi itself (minus any heat) actually has a very fragile flavour. Until I tried this, I never realized how easily garlic walks all over it and roasted garlic also adds a "dirty" appearance to the potatoes.


Incidentally, this goes excellently with an Alpine Martini, which I owe entirely to Chef Spears and can't take credit in any way for. I first had this at Cascadia and fell in love with it as my favourite of the non traditional martini. He had posted the recipe on the restaurant web site and I see that he's since posted it to foodnetwork.com. It's very simply a sorbet made of douglas fir, floating in a glass of vodka:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giadas-...cipe/index.html

 

[joselastra]

some jerk (skin and boneless) chicken thighs over the grill with apple wood chips smoking in there as well, some grilled white jersey corn and an herb saladwith goat cheese and a light viniagrette. yummy, I cannot wait!!!!

 

[khari]

Wolfie, It all sounds delicious. I'm going to have to try the wasabi mashed potatoes.

 

[LarianLeQuella]

As I love wasabi, this is going on my list for this weekend!

 

[Wolfie]

I did a spicy shredded chicken chili this evening, with a garlic and cheese focaccia. I would have taken pictures for you but I ated it up. nom.