mouth-gasm

Hardly ever do you get so bombarded with umami that your tongue wants to run away with your fork but that happened with each and every nibble from these polenta, king oyster mushroom, white beech mushroom and early pea napoleons.



These already delicious stacks of delight were treated like little emperors with a generous drizzle of daRosario truffle oil.



I saw mouths doing back flips.



I sauteed the mushrooms and the polenta in a small dab of the truffle butter and once they got a little color on them I quickly tossed in the peas only to warm them up a little. I make polenta then put it in a pan to cool and then cut it with a ring mold, in case you were wondering.




Alternate layers of mushroom, julienned peas and polenta till its as tall as you want it, drizzle the truffle oil then guard your plate because you will not want to share this with anyone.

Oil

You can have any kind of oil now; grapeseed, walnut, truffle, avocado - it seems like the list goes on and on and it only circles back to start over again, but what do you you cook with? Depending on what you are trying to do oils can enhance that situation. Chips. we made chips and we used canola oil then corn oil and found vegetable oil to be the cleanest heat resistant oil to go with. ( I have used peanut oil before but too many have allergies and even though peanut oil can heat the highest it has a bad rap)

Isnt rap like your criminal record and rep like your street cred?

Yucca chips





peel, slice, soak and fry.



Voila, chips.

Seasoned with your choice:

drizzle with your favorite flavored oil

sea salt or kosher salt

various vinegars

any seasoned salt available or any of
those powdered packaged flavors
for tacos or salad dressings...like
ranch or buffalo -for example.

parmesean or any other dry grateable cheese.

nutritional yeast or brewers yeast

invent your own.

good-better

You know whats coming dont you? How do you make something that is normally really good into something that is even better? Truffle oil. I am obviously so psyched to be able to pour this stuff on everything I am surprised I havent put it in my bath.



Steak sandwich - Crunchy, fresh baguette filled with oven roasted beef tenderloin drizzled with the coup de gras - white truffle oil, roma grape tomatoes, julienned spring peas, white irish cheddar then melt it under the broiler. This was a sandwich that even the kid thought was out of this galaxy.

who's your lamby

Equally as we have arrived separate we will leave - that's just the way it is. We are in an existential existence all together, we are a philosophical contradiction.



Dont forget about my guest post at MarxFoods its all about the butter.



This is a wonderful Spanish red. The Condesa de Leganza Crianza 2001 is 100% Tempranillo from Spain. The color is a deep garnet red with purple undertones. The nose is a give-away: it’s going to be good! It is complex with a hint of licorice. In the mouth it feels voluptuous, round, and velvety smooth with an expressive ripe fruit, subtle yet structured tannins, and a perfect degree of dryness. The finish lingers at the back of the throat with hints of pine-sap. This wine really benefited from decanting and grew tastier with every breathing moment - delicious! I have to tell you that this red woke up considerably with the lamb chops, its bright fruitiness was a perfect accompaniment to the gaminess and rich fat.



The flavor of lamb takes me right back to my childhood in New Mexico and it has the power to do it with the very first bite. We raised sheep and typically had around 20 or so most of the time along with a milk cow and a milk goat and about as many chickens. Simple farm life is so different than life in NYC - I can tell you that much right now and I like them both the same.



Lamb chops with wild mushroom polenta and truffle oil surrounded by a mixed green salad looks complex, tasted more complex but came together in a heartbeat.



Wild mushroom polenta with oyster mushrooms, winecaps, blewits a little thyme and truffle oil created a delicate yet substantial balance. I would love to have this meal once a week - it was that good.



I forgot to mention that I won some cookies. Yup thats right it says it right here.

I like Risotto - it should be my middle name.

I think the one thing that I eat as much of as I eat eggs would have to be rice. I like rice. I have liked rice since I was a kid and as a kid I liked it simple with butter, salt and pepper - the fluffier the better, even as a kid I was very particular that the rice was not blown out or mushy. Then I got into brown rice and the wild rices and as time went on I eventually moved into risottos. Now to be honest risottos had all the mushy qualities I didnt like in rice so I had to learn to like risottos and learn I did. Now I make them all the time, for me or for anyone that asks.

I was fortunate to do a mushroom trade with my friend Addison from the lovely small town of Pojoaque, in the great state of New Mexico recently. I sent him a little dried mix of what I have (heavy on the winecaps) and he sent me a little dried mix of what he had (heavy on the king boletes) and can I tell you that I totally scored! See those bad boys - those are fresh - he sent me some of those all sliced up and dried just for me - I cant wait to be there next week and get some fresh ones of my own.

I rehydrated a nice handful and ended up with a couple of cups of broth so naturally a risotto was in order and not any risotto I might add, this risotto has my new passion and my seemingly never ending supply of squash blossoms and king bolete mushrooms and to max it out just a teeny tiny bit more - a little drizzle of truffle oil - yup I upped the ante. The mushrooms are so earthy and flavorful, the blossoms are so delicate and light, and the unctuousness of the truffle oil smoothed out all the rough edges. In case you are wondering, sometimes I make the risotto a little loose and sometimes I make it a little tight - this one is tight.

I am also making another risotto for a party tonight. This risotto will have some of my signature squash blossoms and it will also have some scarlet runner bean blossoms, see the cute little red flowers, those are going to go into a stunning risotto that I will have to show you later. Dont forget Battle Sandwich - the stakes are high entries are due no later than August 23rd.

Flatout Flatbread bread is #FlatoutGood

There is a new bread in town and its name is Flatout Flatbread, you can find it at Walmart. When I was asked to be a Flatout Flatbread Blog Ambassador I jumped at the chance. Who wouldn't want to have a chance to get creative with a brand new product? Well you know me, always the over achiever I had to make 3 (three) different pizzas. Tomato, spinach and Gouda cheese with truffle oil on the plain Flatout Flatbread. Grilled chicken, Monterey Jack and American cheeses with green onion on the spicy italian Flatout Flatbread and, shrimp, tomato and spinach with Gouda, American and Monterey Jack cheeses on the spicy italian Flatout Flatbread. All of them were excellent.

Flatout Thin Crust Grilled Shrimp 
with Tomatoes & Spinach Pizza

Preheat grill with a pizza stone to at least 500F*

1 Flatout Thin Crust Flatbread in Spicy Italian
4 Grilled shrimp peeled and cut in half lengthwise
8 Thin slices of fresh tomato
10 Fresh spinach leaves torn in half
1/2 cup  grated Gouda, American and Monterey Jack cheeses mixed
1 TBS extra virgin olive oil

On a pizza peel place one Flatout Flatbread. Spread olive oil evenly over uncooked Flatout Flatbread. Place the 8 tomato slices staggered over entire length of the flatbread, put the spinach leaves on top of the tomato, put the cheese on top of the spinach and stagger the sliced shrimp on top of everything. Slide pizza off peel and on to the preheated pizza stone on the grill. Bake for 2-3 minutes. Quickly remove and let sit 30 seconds or so and then slice into 2-3 inch squares and enjoy.

*Same method can be used in the oven.


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Checkout Facebook for flatout recipes and all kinds of other goodies.

Disclaimer: I was comensated and given product to do this post - all opinions expressed are my own.

deduce to seduce

Certainly these are not the most expensive Bordeaux you could possibly find but who can argue with a Grand Cru St. Emilion? I posted a little piece on Valentines and thought I would follow up with a little bit more - some of what I may be up to.



A little wine tasting of a 2003, a 2004, a 2005 and a 2006 - all from a different Chateaux so this wine tasting isnt so much to enhance my education as much as it is to see if there are any subtle differences in the vintage. (read- drink four wines) Will I taste more sunshine, more rain - will the mood come through? Will I be seduced or be the seducer?




There will be Burrata. This cheese is so deliciously delicious the only way to know how it tastes is to taste it - I could describe it but I would not even come close.



Cant taste cheese with out a Crottin. Then there is also a Morbier - when I run out of favorites Morbier is always ready to step up. Another Pont l' Eveque (I bought three and ate two- this is the survivor) and a Gorgonzola dolce - when I have to pick one favorite with a gun to my head then it would have to be Gorgonzola dolce (all this will be documented when this is actually consumed)



There will also be chocolates and truffle butter, truffle oil and truffle honey (you can easily seduce with anything truffle and you will not be let down). While I am not the typical "valentines" kind of guy I simply cannot resist an opportunity to indulge in the flavors of the day! What will you be up to?

I am a truffle-a-holic

Confession time: I cant stop eating the truffle stuff and the last thing I needed to do was taste the truffle honey.



It wont be long before I take my hard earned money and spend 60 bucks on a tiny little nugget of fresh truffle - I can see that on the horizon.



Pan grilled chicken breast seasoned with sea salt and olive oil over a bed of mashed sweet potatoes and watercress that is dressed with lime and salt - and once again some drizzles of truffle honey because it goes so well with everything!

petes zuh

"When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all."

Edward O. Wilson

Thats how I feel about pizza. It is something like 8 pizzas later and its time to move on and even though we have hardly scratched the pizza surface we were all over that crust, buahahahaha. I blind baked a few with just a little olive oil and/or garlic, rosemary, or a dab of marinara to fashion into pizzas another time when we are not so burnt out on them. The one you see here is white eggplant, truffle oil, chevre, mozzarella and garlic. A year ago we were doing this, and I'll tell ya some truffled egg toast sounds good right about now.

Punk'd

I just got punked by blogger. I am a first draft kind of guy so to type all of my most profound thoughts and then have them disappear is not my thing.

Any way these are a few of my favorite things. Things that I use often and then not at all but things I like to have around. Besides my knives, and I have several, these are my little helpers. One day I will post on my knives, some people may have more some may have better but mine are mine and sharp as hell. I even have a ghurka that i am trying to find a kitchen application for. My ghurka has a nice leather sheath and two cute little cheese knives that I guess you use to stab with if the beheading doesnt work out.

Coconut milk, both dried and liquid. The dry is nice to sprinkle on things to give them some exotic umpf. Braggs when soy and salt just isnt the right flavor.

Flax seed oil to give glisten and smoothness to shakes or dairy based soups. Acidopholus when I over indulge and I "lose" all my enzymes.

Molina vanilla because it is good and not too pricey and I can use it in everything from coffee to cologne. New Mexican saffron, also cheap but nice enough to use gobs of, and my coup de gras (sp)

Truffle Oil, I use it on pizza, eggs, mashed potatoes -anything that I want to give a special flavor blast to.

So thats about it...if I think of more-and there are- I will post.

carpaccio

No this isnt an opera or an Italian painting even though its named after a painter. Carpaccio has a mixed history, some claim it was invented at Harrys Bar in Venice and others claim it was invented in Milan at Savini Restaurant in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele.

According to Arrigo Cipriani, the present-day owner of Harry's Bar, Carpaccio was invented at Harry's Bar in Venice, where it was first served to the countess Amalia Nani Mocenigo in 1950 when she informed the bar's owner that her doctor had recommended she eat only raw meat. It consisted of thin slices of raw beef dressed with a mustard sauce.

The dish was named Carpaccio by Giuseppe Cipriani, the bar's former owner, in reference to the Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio, because the colors of the dish reminded him of paintings by Carpaccio.

According to another story of the genesis of this famous dish, it was born at the Savini Restaurant in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan. A wealthy lady, who was an everyday customer, was indeed told by her doctor to eat only raw meat. Unfortunately, at the time, it was not socially acceptable that a lady of her status would order "raw meat" at the most elegant restaurant in the city. It was the waiter who suggested her to use a different name for it. Apparently a painting by Carpaccio was hanging on the wall at the Savini at the time, and the waiter suggested Carpaccio as the "code name" for the dish, so she would not be embarrassed when ordering it. (wikipedia) I dont care who invented it I am glad they did! I made my carpaccio with some thin slices of beef, romano cheese, watercress, lime juice, a lemony watercress mayonnaise, himalayan pink salt, fresh ground mixed pepper, white truffle oil and extra virgin olive oil.