• Hi Guest - Come check out all of the new CP Merch Shop! Now you can support CigarPass buy purchasing hats, apparel, and more...
    Click here to visit! here...

What's on your plate today?

For Christmas we decided to take on two different cooking challenges. The first was to recreate a menu from La Bernardin. We decided to go for the four course Prix Fixe with items previously on the menu.

First course: Salmon-Caviar Croque-Monsieur. I bought the best smokes salmon I could find and good quality caviar, but not was Eric serves at the restaurant. Even so, it was hands down, the most flavorful single thing I have ever made. It's basically a high end grilled cheese sandwich: Grilled white bread with smoked salmon, caviar, Gruyère cheese, with chives and cured lemon rind (which took a year to make, but worth it!).

2021-12-26 17.48.46.jpg

Second course: Shrimp, Tomato and Basil Pizza. Toasted Philo topped with tomato confit, shrimp and basil. Tasty but very time consuming for two portions.

2021-12-26 17.52.10.jpg

Third course: Red Snapper and cepes in port reduction. I couldn't find cepes mushrooms, so I used baby portabellas instead. The port sauce broke when I mounted it with butter, and I couldn't get it emulsified again. The fish could have used two more minutes of cooking on the skin side, but I wasn't keeping track of time very well.

2021-12-26 17.52.30.jpg

So all three of the above recipes were in one of Eric Ripert's cookbooks, but my book didn't have any desserts. Mrs Nihon settled on Black Sesame Cherry Dessert - Black Sesame Panna Cotta and Pain de Genes, Sour Cherry Sphere, Shiso, & Mandarin Sorbet. We decided to simplify it a bit, and replace the yuzu merengue with simple whipped cream, and replace the shiso leaf with mint. She spent a good bit of the afternoon learning how to make a chocolate biscuit and black sesame panna cotta. I made the sour cherry spheres using a reverse spherification technique and Mrs Nihon did the rest: biscuits, sorbet, and panna cotta. It was a really great dessert!

2021-12-26 17.52.48.jpg

It took all afternoon to create but it was a really fun challenge.
 
Yule proper I was too tired to cook so I went with Gumbo, Round Two which, like next day chili, was fantastic. But the next day, having bought all the stuff after all, it was spice-baked smoked ham, bacon wrapped asparagus, and my ACCURATELY NAMED World's Best Scalloped Potatoes---good thing I used the smaller Corning Ware dish because I went back for seconds and ate them ALL.

Hey, it's like once or twice a year I make them. I can splurge.

FHk5xrtXEAgyOPF.jpeg

~Boar
 
Wife and I went to our daughters for Christmas dinner and I was in charge of the app’s.View attachment 50561
I bet Unc is invited to all the gatherings! 😍

C54AD16E-CB94-431B-9D22-7164825B2345.jpeg
Comfort food more or less tonight for the family. An outstanding filet from this local farm I keep going on about. The meat from this place is amazing! Made some fresh cooked carrots and a 50/50 potato and cauliflower mash to go with it.
 
Top