Recipes | TheToothfish

Childhood Indulgences

By: thetoothfish

26-12-2010

grilled cheese of gouda, white cheddar, tomat-basil soup in background

Underneath my budding love for white tablecloth and palette cleansers, I have a peculiar love for cheese puffs, Cheez-its and, of course, grilled cheese. All three are throwbacks to my childhood and no matter how fancy of a place I will eat in, it’s always the right time for any of these.

For Christmas day lunch, I kept things simple because I don’t operate well in the morning. I reheated a tomato-basil soup I made ahead of time two nights ago and put together a grilled cheese sandwich using gouda and white cheddar.

And now for a brief expose on bread.

A grilled cheese is extremely simple (two ingredients: cheese and bread) and so in order to elevate the sandwich, you must use higher-quality bread and other cheeses besides Kraft singles. For a grilled cheese sandwich, I believe one of the best breads is a rustic italian loaf. Reason being that the bread is not as dense as say, white bread, and so it doesn’t soak up the butter like a sponge. Instead, the rustic italian loaf becomes toasty

Today I had to use a dense bread (English loaf?) because Fresh Market didn’t have anything else. While the sandwich was good, the bread absorbed too much of the grease and butter.

And when you’re cooking the sandwich, I prefer to toast up one side in the pan before throwing it in the oven to let the cheese really get gooey.

Also, the white cheddar / gouda combination didn’t turn out like I wanted it to. Gouda is a particularly grounding and solid cheese. You need a sharper, saltier cheese to counter the gouda and white cheddar just didn’t do it.

Recipe for Tomat-Basil Soup (from Nordstrom)

http://www.food.com/recipe/nordstrom-tomato-basil-soup-58153

Christmas Eve Dinner

By: thetoothfish

25-12-2010

Holidays, Recipes

oven roasted atlantic salmon, bed of caramelized onions

Tomorrow I’ll be joining my uncle and other relatives up in Arkansas for Christmas Dinner so I decided to cook the special holiday meal tonight. I will be honest and say that tonight was bit hectic. A buerre rouge sauce (red wine butter) burned into oblivion and somehow time went by faster than it should have.

Typically, Christmas dinner is a 4 hour, 10 course affair, but since my brother wasn’t able to make it down to Memphis — my brother being a speedy cook with actual restaurant experience. In this scenario, I usually just walk around with a spoon and taste things — I alone held the kitchen. I kept things simple at 3 courses, and although I was a tad slow, I think the food turned out as good as it should have.

risotto croquettes. Needs a garnish for looks. Other than that, tasty.

Appetizer was the traditional risotto croquettes with goat cheese. I made these last year and decided that these would become a family tradition. Basically it combines everything I love into one bite: goat cheese, risotto, fried breadcrumbs and tomato sauce. They are time consuming to make (stayed up until 3am rolling them), but worth the effort.

At the top of this post is the entree. I intended to cook mahi-mahi but since Fresh Market didn’t have any, I ended up buying atlantic salmon, which isn’t exactly one of my favorite fishes. It’s generally too…fishy…but this fish was very fresh and after a run in the oven and stint under the broiler, turned out very well with the sweet onions.

roasted pears, ice cream w. chocolate bourbon sauce

Dessert was roasted pears with vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate bourbon sauce. I should have left the pears in the oven for another 5-8 minutes because they were still tough when I served them. Flavors though were nice, especially the chocolate sauce which was very easy to make.

Recipe for Risotto Croquettes

*Supplement goat cheese and little bit of cream cheese for the other cheeses. Italian bread crumbs are also acceptable. And for the risotto, you can season with salt, pepper, flat-leaf parsley, and parmesan-reggiano cheese.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cheese-Filled-Risotto-Croquettes-with-Tomato-Sauce-243304

Recipe for Oven Roasted Atlantic Salmon w. Caramelized Onions

Salmon Fillets

Salt

Pepper

Lemon Juice (freshly squeezed)

BUTTER

5 Large Onions

Milk

Soak salmon in milk for 5-10 minutes (makes fish less fishy tasting). Mix together melted butter and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. After removing salmon from bath and soaking up milk with paper towel, baste salmon with the butter/lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

Roast in oven at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes (depends on thickness of fillet. Meanwhile, slice onions and caramelize in pan. Remove fish from oven, set oven to broiler (move oven rack to the top) and once when oven is ready, baste fish again in lemon/butter mixture and put into oven for another 3-6 minutes. When the top is nice and crusty (maybe even burnt on some parts), it’s done. Serve fish on bed of onions.

Recipe for Roasted Pears w. Chocolate Bourbon Sauce

http://aveceric.com/recipe-Market-Table-Dinner-Social—Maple-Roasted-Pears-with-Bourbon-Chocolate-Sauce-49.html

Bouncing Off the Walls

By: thetoothfish

21-12-2010

Dessert, Recipes

I always order water at restaurants and rarely drink soft drinks. Maybe a coke to take down some greasy Chinese food. But lo’ and behold last night I had some caffeine. Correction: A LOT of caffeine. Loco Cocao makes cocoa powder with 175 mg of caffeine per 8 oz. It is, as the package states, a “CRAZY AMOUNT of caffeine.” To top it off, threw in a caffeinated marshmallow.

I don’t know how much caffeine I consumed in one cup of hot cocoa + marshmallow but it was enough to make me bounce off the walls. Literally. I was physically climbing walls, trying to learn dance moves to Korean music videos and choreographing kung fu fight scenes. I also attempted to do backflips. On the flip side, I didn’t fall asleep until 5 am. Try this stuff. It’s cRAzY!!!

Links to the powder and marshmallow.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/drinks/e687/?cpg=ogc1&source=google_caffeine&gclid=CPS_-7uv_qUCFS9m7AodszmZpg

http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/candy/e59b/

Recipe: Mac & Cheese ‘a la pretentious’

By: thetoothfish

21-12-2010

Recipes

Served up a nice 5-course meal with two of my friends last night. Most of the dishes made last night have made appearances on this blog before except for this mac and cheese. I’ll chow down a gallon of kraft mac and cheese any day, but every once in a while this childhood dish needs, in the words of Beyonce Knowles, “an up-up-upgrade.”

I’m naming this dish mac & cheese ‘a la pretentious’ because the recipe calls for black truffles, black truffle oil, cave aged cheddar cheese and comte cheese. Also, the first time I had this dish, I was sitting at a table on the roof of a high-rise in San Diego overlooking the city (See here).

I didn’t use black truffles but, as the chef himself says, the truffles are optional. The flavors of this dish are classier and more refined. Comte plus truffle oil lends the dish to a nuttier edge. I suggest adding more aged cheddar cheese and pepper than the recipe calls for.

Macaroni and Cheese Mr. A’s Style

4 servings

5 ounces thinly sliced pancetta

2 cups heavy cream

2 ounces minced fresh black truffles, optional

4 cups cooked elbow pasta, cooled

1 cup shredded Comté or Gruyère cheese

1⁄2 bunch spoon spinach or baby spinach

2 tablespoons black truffle oil, or to taste

1⁄4 cup shredded cave aged cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons bread crumbs

Sauté the pancetta in a sauté pan until crisp. In a saucepan, heat the cream slowly with the pancetta and truffles, if using. Add the cooled pasta and simmer until hot. Add the Comté cheese and stir until melted. Add the spinach. The heat of the mixture will wilt the spinach very quickly. Drizzle in the truffle oil to taste. Place mixture in an ovenproof dish.

Preheat oven to Broil. Top the macaroni and cheese with the cheddar cheese and bread crumbs. Broil until golden, about 2 minutes.

(From chef Stéphane Voitzwinkler of Bertrand at Mr. A’s)

Recipe: Brussels and Shrooms

By: thetoothfish

15-12-2010

Recipes

People tend to dislike brussel sprouts and usually for good reason. The very thought might trigger a relapse back in time when a mother demanded the sprouts be eaten or else. These memories seem fairly common with most hated vegetables. I’m going to throw out an idea though. Maybe the problem wasn’t the brussel sprout or the stalk of broccoli, but maybe — just maybe — the problem was your mom.

It’s very likely her method of preparation was not respectful enough towards the vegetable. If all vegetables are prepared optimally, it seems natural to assume that they would all be good. Optimum preparation, of course, cannot happen every time.

salad of red lettuce & endive w. roasted brussel sprouts, almonds, vinaigrette

Anyway, for those who have already blacklisted a score of vegetables, it’s probably too late for them to be converted, but I, for one, love brussel sprouts. I also love mushrooms. And so tonight was a celebration of both.

Salad of red lettuce, endive and roasted brussel sprouts in a vinaigrette was good. The brussel sprouts were just at the point of burning and were very crisp. Crunchy pecans pair well with brussel sprouts and the light vinaigrette was just light enough. My mistake was accidentally putting 1/2 teaspoon too much salt in the dressing (made the dressing too sharp). Otherwise, a pretty and delicious starter.

thin spaghetti w. sweet sausage in mushroom-tarragon cream sauce

Entree of thin spaghetti with sweet sausage and mushroom-tarragon cream sauce was good as well. I prefer sweet sausage to regular because the latter is saltier than it is tasty. The cream sauce was light and savory. My biggest mistake was not cooking the oyster mushrooms long enough (they were chewy in the pasta).

Ok — so dinner was good tonight, but I have a situation. The cream sauce was a good cream sauce. In fact, most of the cream sauces I’ve made have been good. But I want more than good. Put simply, I want to have a foodgasm over the table. I want the sauce to have depth like the Grand Canyon and longevity like a bonsai tree. Right now, my sauces are substantial but at the same time wispy — there for the moment, gone afterwards.

How do I take these dishes to the next level?

Recipe for Red Lettuce, Endive & Roasted Brussel Sprouts

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Frisee-and-Endive-Salad-with-Warm-Brussels-Sprouts-and-Toasted-Pecans-107362

Recipe for Spaghetti w. Sweet Sausage & Tarragon-Mushroom Cream

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup diced onions

6 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 1/2 pounds crimini mushrooms, sliced

1 cup Chicken Stock

Vermouth (optional)

1 1/4 cups whipping cream

4-5 slithers of tarragon

Butter to add at end

Sweet sausage

Package of thin spaghetti

Add oil to pan, medium-high heat. Throw in two or three pieces of garlic into oil and when they start to fry, add all onions and garlic to pan. After 3-4 minutes & onions are starting to brown slightly, add mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are tender. Pour in a few swishes of vermouth to deglaze pan (optional). Now add chicken stock and let sit for 1-2 minutes. Now add in whipping cream and tarragon. Stir before bringing heat down to low-medium.

Cook sweet sausage as instructed on package (just put it in a frying pan and constantly break the pieces apart). When sausage is done, soak up grease using paper towel. Then pour into cream sauce.

After letting pan simmer for 10 minutes or so, make slurry (water + cornstarch), bring mixture up to a boil and add in slurry while stirring. This will thicken the sauce.

Prepare your pasta (boil, blanch, drain). Take one serving size of pasta and mix it in with sauce. Plate the pasta. Eat.

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— TheToothfish

Childhood Indulgences

Christmas Eve Dinner

Bouncing Off the Walls

Recipe: Mac & Cheese ‘a la pretentious’

Recipe: Brussels and Shrooms

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— TheToothfish

Childhood Indulgences

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Recent Posts

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What I’m Eating, Atlanta

What I’m Eating, Memphis

New York City Spring, 2011

San Diego Summer. 2010

China Summer, 2011

N’awlins, Christmas 2011