Thanksgiving dinner

House salad with honey mustard vinaigrette



Cheese gourgeres appetizers stuffed with maple bacon, pickled onions and wild greens.



Hand made ravioli filled with leeks and mascarpone. Finished with a little brown butter and herbs.



rosemary chicken



Rosemary chick with sage mashed potatoes. French beans and portebella mushroom on the side.

Lemon Chive Steak

steak, originally uploaded by aznkey.

I didn't think that short ribs would make a good steak but it turned out pretty well. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Seared in a hot pan ~3 mins/side. Finished with chives, butter and lemon.

Cool steak before cutting to keep it juicy.

Veggie Wrap Up

veggie, originally uploaded by aznkey.

Oh yes a completely vegetarian meal. Some french beans sauteed with garlic seasoned with soy and fish sauce(gives it an extra kick i think) and some portobella with just salt and pepper. Ate this with some warm tortillas

currynoodle

currynoodle, originally uploaded by aznkey.

I probably went a little to far with this one. The flavor was too complex.. errr convoluted. Not sure what type of curry to call this... perhaps yellow. The base was yellow curry powder. I also added a little bit of red curry paste to make it spicier. Plus.... coconut milk, tomato( i was thinking tiki masala) and cream. The coconut and tomato was probably a bad idea. It tasted ok, just a little confusing. The portabella mushroom actually went pretty well with the curry.

Mushroom and curry= good combo

2chicks

2chicks, originally uploaded by aznkey.

A hainan chicken derivative served with two sauces.

The chicken breast was simmered in water with garlic for about 15 minute and then drained. The broth was used to cook the rice instead of water. It broth didn't have enough fat to make the rice "tasty" so i toasted some minced garlic in some olive oil and added that to the rice while cooking.

Sauces
Sweet soy out of the bottle
Ginger- a tbs of minced ginger and scallion with hot oil and soy.
and some carrots and pickled cucumbers

mashed potatoes

mashed potatoes, originally uploaded by aznkey.

The best mashed potatoes I have ever made and perhaps had. The texture is so smooth and rich that just melts in your mouth, leaving behind the aroma of sage and butter.

Zuni buttermilk mashed potato

Yukon Gold potatoes about 7 small ones
3 tbs heavy cream(hot)
3 tbs buttermilk, I substituted this with milk and 1/3 ts vinegar(room temp)
Salt
2 tbs butter
4 sage leaves chopped

1. Cut the potatoes into 1.5 inch chunks. Placed them into a pot and cover with cold water. Salt the water with about 1 tbs salt or until you can taste it. Bring to boil and cook for 5-8 minutes until soft.
2. Drain and mash the potatoes. I did this with a strainer and a wooden spoon. I think you get a much smoother produced than just trying to smash it in a bowl. Work fast cause you want to keep your potatoes warm.
3. Whip the potatoes with cream and milk. Chopsticks works!
4. Add sage and butter. If the mashed potato is not very warm you might want to heat up the butter before mixing.
5. Salt to taste and serve while still warm.

Layered Fruit Concoction

Layer Fruit Concoction, originally uploaded by aznkey.

Inspired by Pierre Herme's layered dessert in a cup.
From the top down
mango
whipped cream
jack fruit
________ everything from here on was under a coconut milk
mochi
pastry cream
strawberries
jack fruit

Taste: Starting from the top, the mangos and jack fruit paired very nicely with the whipped cream. The next layer of chewy mochi gave the dessert an interesting texture. The placement of the strawberries under the mochi turned out to be a very good idea. After going through the top layers the dessert was getting a little too sweet. Having the tart strawberries next refreshed the palette for the remaining portion of the dessert.

Notes: First time making mochi, it was a little too chewy. Needs more water.
Adjusted recipe
7 tbs mochi powder
6-7 tbs water
1.5 tbs sugar

Cold Sesame noodles

Cold Sesame noodles, originally uploaded by aznkey.

A quick and delicious meal in 20 minutes.

Handful of dried chinese noodles cooked el dente
shreaded carrots and scallion
3 tbs Sesame paste
1 tbs sesame oil
4 tbs peanut butter( skippy!)
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs white wine vinegar
1/4 cup water

Combine ingredients in a small pot and heat it up to help incorporate the ingredients. Ingredients amounts are really ball park and should be adjust by tasting. Serve over noodles. Top with carrots and scallion.

Notes: A very nice quick meal Add some cucumbers and cold shredded chicken to boot.

Congee with condiments

Congee with condiments, originally uploaded by aznkey.

A very chinese or perhaps asian dinner. The gluten and bamboo shoots was out of a can so no notes on that.

Scallion eggs
Another favorite of mine, i love eggs. My dad would make this with shrimp and my grandma would use ground pork, both excellent with rice. Here's the basics

eggs
scallion 1/egg
1 ts fish sauce/egg
1 ts sugar/ egg

Combine all your ingredients in a bowl and beat until the eggs look semi homogenous.

In a very hot pan, add enough oil to coat the bottom( adding more oil helps give the eggs a nice golden color when you fry it) Cook until the bottom is a nice golden color and flip.

Notes: If you have alot of eggs and the pan is small you'll have to push the sides in while cooking to allow the remaining raw eggs to cook. Also turn down the heat after you add the eggs so you don't burn them.

The squash stew in kelp and bonito broth was pretty good, add more soy next time maybe some salt

Cheese Puffs

Cheese Puffs, originally uploaded by aznkey.

Took some of the choux dough to make these savory little guys. They turned out better than i expected.

About 1 cup choux
1 tbs chives
1.5 tbs parmesan cheese
1 tbs emmentaler cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Notes: Best if still warm but still good the next day.

strawberry eclair

strawberry eclair, originally uploaded by aznkey.

Raspberry eclair, originally uploaded by aznkey.

I had a dream the other day about eating sweets so viola. Cream puffs are by far my most familiar dessert to make and with great results. These bad boys are made from a classic pate a choux dough and filled with vanilla pastry cream. I topped it off with some hazelnut and berries.

Due to the lack of baking equipment i have avoided desserts ever since i moved to school. I was surprise of how well my make shift tools worked. No stainless steel bowls and pans, rubber spatulas, no wisk, no mixers and no piping bags=( Say hello to bowls, spoons, chopsticks and ziplock bags! The zip lock actually worked really well and in some cases better than a piping bag.

Notes: Oven quality make such a hugh difference in baking. The oven here is much better than the one at home, golden brown shells without burning=)

Gnocchi with butternut squash and shiitake

Gnocchi with butternut squash and shiitake, originally uploaded by aznkey.

Another recipe from Keller's book Bouchon. It looks very visually appealing but the taste was dissapointment. The gnocchi texture was too heavy and mushy. I am not sure what went wrong. Maybe it was because I did not have a mixer, maybe i didn't add enough eggs, maybe it supposed have a texture like that... I have never had gnocchi so i don't know. This was always my first time experimenting with butternut squash. It's sweet orange flesh closely resembles deep fried pumpkin.

Note to self: test frozen batch of gnocchi later to see if texture changes.

Potato Salad

Potato Salad, originally uploaded by aznkey.

I bought some of the "good" (small pretentious potatoes in a small bag) potatoes for my beef stew so I did a taste test with this salad. As marketed the potatoes were very rich and creamy.

Boeuf bourguignon-braised beef with red wine

Boeuf bourguignon-braised beef with red wine, originally uploaded by aznkey.

My first attempt at making stuff out of Thomas Keller’s book: Bouchon. This hearty looking stew seemed perfect for the cold weather.

My first impression of the dish was not too great when I considered the amount of time it took me to make it. My friend thought it was great but I found the red wine to be too tart and slightly bitter, overpowering broth. The meat itself however turned out great. It was melt in your mouth tender and very juicy.

Revisiting the leftover stew 3 days later was a pleasant surprise. Keller was not kidding when he suggest letting the stew sit in the fridge for 1-3 before serving. The developed broth was much more delicate compared to it the days before. The aroma of the red wine was still there but I could no long taste bitter tartness. Another note, I do not recommend doing this, even though I reheated my stew in the microwave the meat was still super tender and juicy.

Recipe can be found in Thomas Keller’s Bouchon
A daunting ingredients list, but most of the items are not expensive

Red wine
Onions
Carrots
Leek
Shallots
Mushrooms
Thyme
Bay leave
Black peppercorn
Parsley
Garlic
Short ribs
Canola oil
Beef stock
Potatoes
Baby carrots
Pear onions