Today will be the first of (hopefully) several posts dedicated to our recent trip to Barcelona! Because we ate so much good food (and some not-so-great food, though nothing terrible), I thought I'd share with you three of the menus in which we partook. There are only pictures from one: we were already gauche enough just by nature of being American, didn't need to add to it by being the weirdos who took pictures of our food. However, I will share those later, because...here's your challenge readers: guess which one was Michelin-starred, and which was made almost entirely from canned food. Seriously!
Menu 1.
Fruit de mer, dressed with vinegar and red pepper
Duo of toasts: salmon, creme fraiche, and honey; cured beef, tomato jam, and yellow cabbage threads
"Pizza" topped with white sardines and picked vegetables
Black caviar with olive tapanade, creme fraiche, and croutons
Cheese trio with preserved lychee, candied chestnuts, and assorted pepper knots, flatbread, olive toast
Menu 2.
Blanched, spiced almonds; pimento and anchovy-stuff fresh olives; romanesco breadsticks
Shooter of sea salt, maple syrup, cream, and cava foam
Toasted bread and tomato salad with tomato sorbet and salt
Traditional garlic soup with white anchovy, croutons, marcona almonds, and grapes
Foie gras on cheddar cracker with chives and a toasted brown sugar glaze
Red mullet with creamy basil rice
Veal tenderloin in a foie-mushroom demi-glace, caramelized onions and black truffle napoleon OR roast suckling pig with an apple-squash puree
Cheese with marmalade tuille
White chocolate crumble and lemon poprocks topped with a lime sorbet and yuzu sabayon
Warm salted chocolate mousse with olive oil and bread crumbs
Menu 3.
Foie gras with apple and vanilla on a thin cracker
Cream of chestnut soup with chestnut puree and morels
Cracker with saffron-onion jam and mussels
Flatfish in a sopressata sauce with snow peas
Roast suckling pig on a banana puree with white beans
Raspberry sorbet with strawberry foam and freeze-dried raspberry crumbles
Trio of milk chocolate truffle, brownie with cardamom ice cream, and chocolate ganache pyramid
Mmmm...let the guesses begin!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Dinner a past night: Thai-Coconut Bouillabaisse
After a brief (okay, longer than brief...things are crazy now that school has started and the new fiscal year has begun, gimme a break!) hiatus, we're back. I'll start with a review of Thai-coconut bouillabaisse, which I made for Pat's bday week.
This was another solid meh. It was fine, but not exciting. There are certain ethnic dishes that CL just does not do well. Thai is one of them...Indian is another. The only real changes I made to the dish were no red bell pepper (again, the cost!), all mussels instead of mussels and clams, and catfish instead of halibut.
First. I hate cooking mussels. I bought a bag of them, keeping them cool and moist and using them within 1.5 days of purchase. Guess how many were still alive at the time of cooking? 20%. Freaking one in five. In addition to most being smelly and dead, there were also not an insignificant number with cracked or shattered shells. You know that "fool me once" expression? I've been suckered in by these little guys probably 4 or 5 times. Which I suppose makes me a gargantuan moron. Sigh.
Second. The last part of the recipe says to remove the pot from heat, cover and let stand 5 minutes to cook the shrimp and fish. Yeah, right. My shrimp were still all but raw after this little exercise. I ended up putting the whole thing back on low heat for about 10 minutes, at which point Pat was starting to give me hungry eyes, so I served it. I still think they were a little undercooked.
Third. The flavors were fine, but somehow never bold enough. I think I used twice the red curry paste called for, and I still think the whole soup was really blah.
Minor victory--the catfish worked really well in the dish, and I actually think it was the best part. Also, I had planned on putting in rice noodles, but when I opened up the pantry I realized I didn't have any. I think these may have really helped this weak dish.
Hoping to end my "meh" streak of CL recipes soon. Feel free to offer suggestions!
This was another solid meh. It was fine, but not exciting. There are certain ethnic dishes that CL just does not do well. Thai is one of them...Indian is another. The only real changes I made to the dish were no red bell pepper (again, the cost!), all mussels instead of mussels and clams, and catfish instead of halibut.
First. I hate cooking mussels. I bought a bag of them, keeping them cool and moist and using them within 1.5 days of purchase. Guess how many were still alive at the time of cooking? 20%. Freaking one in five. In addition to most being smelly and dead, there were also not an insignificant number with cracked or shattered shells. You know that "fool me once" expression? I've been suckered in by these little guys probably 4 or 5 times. Which I suppose makes me a gargantuan moron. Sigh.
Second. The last part of the recipe says to remove the pot from heat, cover and let stand 5 minutes to cook the shrimp and fish. Yeah, right. My shrimp were still all but raw after this little exercise. I ended up putting the whole thing back on low heat for about 10 minutes, at which point Pat was starting to give me hungry eyes, so I served it. I still think they were a little undercooked.
Third. The flavors were fine, but somehow never bold enough. I think I used twice the red curry paste called for, and I still think the whole soup was really blah.
Minor victory--the catfish worked really well in the dish, and I actually think it was the best part. Also, I had planned on putting in rice noodles, but when I opened up the pantry I realized I didn't have any. I think these may have really helped this weak dish.
Hoping to end my "meh" streak of CL recipes soon. Feel free to offer suggestions!
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