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Proscuitto Wrapped Pork Tenderloin with Madeira Sauce

Richard Browne — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:19:35 GMT

This was cribbed from a Gordon Ramsey's "Chef" book, fantastic guide to how to cook things simply but to perfection. Conceptually not much in his book is hard, but execution is everything - and it's why he has multiple Michelin stars and I don't!

This is actually fairly simple though, and for me is all about the madeira sauce.

2 shallots

2 tbsp olive oil

1 bay leaf

2 thyme sprigs

1 garlic clove peeled

meat trimmings (trimming the tenderloin to make it uniform should yield enough)

250ml Madeira

150ml Port

500ml chicken stock

Large spoon of demi glace ; or 250ml veal stock

salt and black pepper

Oil in the pan add the shallots, garlic and herbs and sweat for 5 minutes until the shallots are softened. Add the meat trimmings and brown. Deglaze the pan with the madeira and port and let bubble until reduced by two thirds. Add the chicken stock and veal stock/demi glace. Reduce again by two thirds until the mixture becomes slightly syrupy. Pour into a bowl through a sieve, do so again through cheesecloth if you're more particular.

For the pork, layer strips of proscuitto so that the slightly overlap the length of the tenderloin. Salt and pepper the outside of the pork, place it on the end of the proscuitto and roll it up. The proscuitto is best left out of the fridge for ten minutes or so in order for the fat to soften, it will stick better to itself as you close it.

Heat an iron skillet with a touch of olive oil until close to smoking then place the wrapped pork, seal down into the pan. Turn every two minutes to brown the outside, then throw it in the oven until a thermometer reads 161f in the middle. Take out and rest.

The morel mushrooms, put in a bowl of warm water for ten to fiffteen minutes, swirling occasionally to get the grit and dirt out. Pat dry. Add them to a hot pan with a tbsp of butter. Season and saute on medium high heat for 3-4 minutes, transfer to a warm plate and keep warm.

The radishes were boiled in water for about 7 minutes, cooled quickly in an ice bath then reheated before service with a bit of butter and seasoning until heated through.

Spinach, steam and drain.

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms with Spicy Avocado Sauce

Richard Browne — Thu, 19 May 2011 17:51:02 GMT

This one came to me on the way home last night when I recalled that my wife had a couple of large portabellla mushrooms in the fridge. Pretty dead simple too.

For the Crab Stuffing

8oz crab meat (preferably jumbo lump)

1 egg beaten

2 slices of brown bread (crusts removed)

1 tbsp chopped parsely

1 tbsp dijon mustard

1 tsp worchestershire sauce

2 tbsp mayonnaise

Dash of Old Bay seasoning

Salt and pepper

Other stuff

Panko Breadcrumbs

Two portabella mushrooms

Beat the egg, pinch the bread in to it in little bits, then add all the rest of the ingredients leaving it to soak up a bit before flaking the crab in last. Stir it up and refrigerate for 10 minutes or so.

Grab the two portabella mushrooms, take the stems off and fill with the crab mix. Bake in a 375f oven for about 20 minutes. Top with the panko, swtich from bake to low broil and crisp the top a bit.

Spicy Avocado Sauce

Half an Avocado

1 tsp srichacha

1 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tbsp lime juice

1/4 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup milk

Throw everything but the milk in a mini-prep and puree, then add the milk and blend until smooth. Done.

Vegetarian Pasta Bake

Richard Browne — Thu, 19 May 2011 17:28:16 GMT

So with my wife on a bit of a health kick the family has gone all vegetarian. Sunday night I made a nice puttanesca pasta, cooked lots of pasta and made a lot of base sauce so we could do this in the week, it was a bit of a stretch for me ; hell ask me to pull something out with a solid protein base and usually I can do it, tell me all I have is some veggies . . . ARGH! But hey, it worked!

Pasta Sauce

Two cans 32oz San Marzano Tomatoes whole peeled (often use fresh romas but couldn't be bothered to peel them!)

Four cloves garlic

Two large springs of thyme

Half an onion or 2 shallots (Chopped)

Olive Oil

1/4 Cup Red Wine

Two of three decent sized shitake mushrooms\

Salt and Pepper to season

Really, really easy. Preheat the oven to 375f, bit of olive oil in an iron skillet, throw everything in, leave it to roast for an hour. Give it a stir every once in a while to submerged the top tomatoes back into the juices. When it's done, smelling fantastic, pull the thyme out, throw it all in a blender and give it a whizz. Taste it a bit and then season.

Pasta Bake

Suitable amount of fusilli or penne pasta (cooked to al dente)

Pasta Sauce

Log of Goats Cheese

Two large carrots (cut relatively thin)

Two zucchini (cut slightly thicker)

Two spaghetti squash

Handful of sliced crimini mushrooms

Gated Parmesan

Panko or Breadcrumbs

Really how much of what you put in is up to the dish you have (size wise) and what veg you fancy. Japanese eggplant would work great, the above is just what happened to be in our organic delivery box this week.

Wipe the dish with a splash of olive oil, then add a layer of pasta sauce. Put a layer of pasta on top, then a layer of your veg. Sprinkle some chunks of goat cheese across the dish. Add a second layer of pasta then top with more sauce and grate parmesan on top. Cover with foil and bake in a 375f oven for about 45 minutes to an hour (I pulled the foil off and checked the veg with a knife to ensure it's done).

Remove the foil, top with the breadcrumbs and a few more sprinkles of parmesan then whack the oven over from bake to low broil and let the top crisp.

Roasted Vegetable Salad

Richard Browne — Mon, 09 May 2011 21:28:00 GMT

This is a nice little one, somewhat adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe. Works well as a side salad of as a meal in itself.

Really the choice of vegetables is up to you, carrots are a bit of a must if you ask me, this variation had asparagus, italian eggplant and zucchini done on the bbq outside, as well as carrots, radishes and some crimini mushrooms done in the oven. Most important piece is the rub :

Two Cloves of Garlic

1/2 tsp coriander (powdered)

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp chilli powder

pinch of salt and pepper

1 tsp thyme ; chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Smash the garlic and stick in a pestle and mortar ; throw in the spices, salt, pepper and thyme and a dash of the olive oil - bash the hell out of it until it's a nice paste. Then slowly add the rest of the olive oil and red wine vinegar. Alter the recipe whichever way your taste buds tend to go in terms of quantity.

Heat an oven to 400 degrees. Steam the carrots to par cook them, same with the asparagus if doing in the oven. Basically you want partially cooked veg. When tenderish, chuck them on a baking sheet lined with foil and smother them in the rub. If you're doing the zucchini / eggplant outside, smother it cold then throw it on the BBQ (I use a grilling basket to help here btw).

1 Orange

1 Lemon

Slice them in half, stick them on the baking sheet too. Stick it all in the oven for about 25 minutes, tossing every now and again. Meanwhile - croutons. . .

Baguette of some flavor ; ciabatta works great.

Slice it at an angle, or slice into cubes depending on your preference. Stick it in a bowl with some olive oil, salt and pepper and toss to coat. Throw it onto a sheet and into a 350 oven (you can get away with sticking it in the oven below the veg but watch it carefully) and bake for 6 minutes or so ; come back and toss it round every now and then to even the cooking.

Grab a bowl throw some arugula in the bottom them when the veg come out dump them on the arugula and toss. This wilts the arugula nicely. Throw the croutons in too. Grab a pair of tongs and make the dressing :

Juice of the Orange

Juice of the Lemon

2-3 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar

Salt

Pepper

Using the tongs squeeze the juices of the citrus into a bowl ; whisk up the other ingredients, coat the salad, toss and serve.

Crab Louie Salad

Richard Browne — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:50:00 GMT

Bought some nice lump crab on Sunday to do some tapas with but never got around to it ; our weekly Abundant Harvest organic delivery came in (http://www.abundantharvestorganics.com/) with the years first fava beans so it seemed only right to use them in a nice salad.

The crab :

1lb Jumbo Lump (shelled)

Top with a bit of the dressing and mix to taste.

For the dressing :

1/2 Cup Mayo

1 1/2 Tbsp Ketchup

1/2 Tbsp Sweet Pickle

1/2 Tbsp Lemon Juice

1/2 Garlic Clove (minced)

1/2 tsp Tabasco

1/2 tsp Worchestershire Sauce

1/4 tsp Sweet Smoked Paprika

1/4 tsp Chilli Powder

2-3 Large Black Olives (finely chopped)

Salt and Pepper

Throw all that in a bowl, whisk it up, let it sit for 15-30 mins.

The Salad :

Romaine Lettuce (or preferred)

Roma Tomatoes

Two boiled eggs (bring to a slow boil, shut off the heat, cover for ten minutes - ice bath - perfect)

Asparagus (steam for five to seven minutes - ice bath)

Fava Beans (shell main bean, put in salted boiling water for two minutes - ice bath - shell inner bean)

Two Radishes (sliced)

Fresh Morels on Focaccia with Caramelized Jam

Richard Browne — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:02:00 GMT

Walked into Whole Foods on Sunday and was startled to see fresh morels in their produce section. I've actually NEVER seen fresh morels in my neck of the woods, the only time I've managed to buy them before was in Birmingham, Alabama this time last year - did a delightful pasta with them then. This time I really wanted to highlight the morels so I did them as plain as can be. I did want a depth of flavor to go with them though, so I made a little buttery goodness for the focaccia underneath.

One shallot (finely chopped)

One clove garlic (finely chopped)

One sprig thyme (leaves pulled and chopped)

3 tbsp butter

1/4 cup sherry

1/4 cup chicken stock

Fleur De Sel

Black Pepper

Stick 1 tbsp butter in the pan, get it nice and hot then throw in the shallot and start to sweat it. After a minute or so throw in the garlic wait for that aroma to fill the room then throw in the thyme for a minute. When it smells like heaven add the sherry and chicken stock and reduce, reduce, reduce until you basically have a paste of unbelievable goodness. Allow to cool / chill.

Slice the focaccia, stick it in a toaster and partially toast top and bottom. Take the jam out of the fridge mix it with another 1 tbsp butter, a pinch of fleur de sel and black pepper and spread on the top of the focaccia. Don't be tight, lavish it on! Put the bread on a pan and stick it under a broiler for about three minutes so the crunch comes to the top of the bread and that caramelized goodness seeps into the bread.

Morels ; sliced, in a pan, 1 tbsp butter, fleur de sel on top with a crack of black pepper, heat over medium high heat for a couple of minutes. Serve on the bread with a touch of parsley on top.

Shrimp Heaven

Richard Browne — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 15:29:00 GMT

One of the most simple dishes you'll ever put together and one of the tastiest ; takes no time at all and is ridiculously indulgent. I tend to do this by eye so adjust the ginger and garlic ratio to how you like it, but basically it's just this :

2 tbsp Ghee (or 2 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp olive oil) + 1 tbsp butter to finish

1-2 tbsp Ginger, finely diced

1-2 tbsp Garlic, finely diced (about six cloves)

Bunch of Cilantro (Parsley also works and makes it all a bit more French) finely chopped

1/2 Cup of White Wine (plus 1/2 bottle for the chef)

1/2 Cup of Chicken Stock

1lb Shrimp (up to you if P&D, so,somtimes I just devein, sometimes I peel for easy eating!)

1/2 (at least) French Baguette

Ghee in pan, get it hot over medium high heat, throw the ginger in for a minute or two, then throw the garlic in ; wait until it's nice and fragrant then throw the shrimp in. Stir it up, turn the shrimp over after a minute or so, when they're nearly cooked through throw the white wine in, then the chicken stock - bring to a nice boil, throw in half the cilantro. Stir it up for a minute then remove the shrimp to the serving bowl. Continue to reduce the sauce, throw in the extra tbsp of butter, whisk it in, reduce till thickened a bit then throw it all on top of the shrimp. Top with the rest of the cilantro.

Half the baguette ; chuck it in a 350f oven for five minutes, slice, in a bowl, use to mop up that sauce!

Orzo Salad with asparagus, salmon and a dill vinaigrette

Richard Browne — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:43:00 GMT

Nice one this and super super easy.

Orzo pasta

Fillet of salmon

asparagus

dill (1 tbsp)

juice of two lemons (3 tbsp)

feta cheese crumbled (1/3 cup)

olive oil (2 tsps)

salt

white pepper

Cook up the orzo, leave it to one side chuck a wee bit of olive oil on it and mix it up to stop it sticking. For the salmon, heat a skillet with about 1/4 inch of water in the bottom. Bring it to a simmer, dust the salmon on both sides with salt and white pepper and put it in the pan. Let it cook from the bottom up, add more water if required. It's a wonderful way to cook salmon, keeps it insanely moist ; when it's warm to the touch on top you're done. Meanwhile chop the asparagus into two inch chunks and steam till al dente.

In a bowl put the dill, feta, lemon juice, olive oil and touch of salt and pepper and whisk it all up. Throw in the orzo, chop the salmon into bite size chunks, put that in along with the aspargus, mix it up serve with a touch more feta and dill on top. Fab.

As a bonus addition toast up some pine nuts and throw them on top. Additional crunch and great flavor.

Ah that old gnocci ragu . .

Richard Browne — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:37:00 GMT

It's not changed much from the first time.

bacon/pancetta

mirepoix (1 onion chopped, half as much carrots and celery)

Handfull of cherry tomatoes (sliced in half)

1/2 lb ground pork

1/2 lb ground beef

tomato paste (1/2 can to a can depending on your tomatoeyness)

white wine (1/4 cup)

chicken stock (1/2 cup add more to simmer longer)

shitake mushrooms

regular sliced mushrooms

ground nutmeg

salt and pepper

Fry the pancetta ; get a nice bit of fat in the pan then throw in the mirepoix and the tomatoes. Tomatoes cooked in bacon fat are super super tasty! In a separate pan brown the beef and the pork together. I started doing this as it's easier to manage the fat run off, use a slotted spoon to transfer the meat into the pan with the pancetta/mirepoix mix and it makes life far easier than having to try and scoop the fat out of that pan with everything in!

With all that done, throw in the tomato paste, mix it up and get some browning on that. Deglaze with white wine and let the wine cook off, throw in the chicken stock, season and add ground nutmeg, then throw in the mushrooms and let it all simmer away.

It's been too long! Some recent dinners.

Richard Browne — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:18:00 GMT

Monday night ; a kick ass turkey burger done on the BBQ along with toasted foccacia bread and a caprese salad.

1lb ground turkey

half an apple ; small dice

celery ; small dice

large shitake mushroom ; small dice

two sage leaves ; small dice

mixed herbs

salt

pepper

teaspoon of sriracha sauce ; or more to taste!

A liitle potato Hors D'oeuvres

Richard Browne — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:53:00 GMT

Amy's been wanting me to try this for some time and I finally got around to it the other night, basically it's a stuffed potato hors d'oeuvres that was jolly tasty. What you stuff it with is really up to you, but the basic starter point is the potato. Top and tail them to give them a nice flat surface to work with then using a melon baller core the potato to leave a hollow shell. Dump them into boiling water for 10 or so minutes, checking with a sharp knife to check their doneness. When finished with that coat them in olive oil and throw them into a 400f oven for ten minutes to give them a crisp and then (assuming your filling is cold) let cool.

In this case my filling was a bit of salmon tartare. Minced shallots, chopped smoked salmon, chopped capers, in one bowl. Creme fraiche and a tea spoon of lemon into another bowl - whisk the creme fraiche until you get some stiff peaks then mix the salmon mixture in with the creme fraiche. Top with a touch of cavier, a little chive and serve with a nice chilled savignon blanc.

La Fenêtre Wine Dinner at Grace Restaurant

Richard Browne — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:11:00 GMT

Where to start with La Fenêtre? Let's see, a year or so after my wife and I had our first girl Zoe my parents came over to stay and volunteered to babysit while my wife and I went out on one of our first real date nights post baby ; after painstaking research we selected Sona on La Cienega Blvd. David Myers was a chef that Amy had been following for a while and the menu just looked fantastic. Off we trotted and had one of the best meals ever (David's tasting menu was spectacular, the service was entirely out of this World - and still is today) ; a tasting menu with wine pairings - mostly for me, but Amy had a taste of each. The sommelier that night was a chap by the name of Josh Klapper, he came over and introduced himself and chatted about the fabulous wines that the restaurant was serving. Josh was an amazingly friendly and likable chap and during the course of the meal we got talking more and he let us into his deep, dark secret - he was now making his own wines and asked if we'd like to try his first Pinot. With no further ado on such a magical night Josh brought his Pinot out and frankly it was remarkable. I gave him my contact details there and then and asked for him to email me when I could buy a case. We've remained friends ever since, his wines have gone on to get better and better and today he's making great wines at excellent prices across a range of blends. You can find out more here.

Fast forwarded some four years and Josh sent us a note to say that he'd partnered up with Grace

Restaurant and its fabulous chef Neal Fraser for a wine tasting evening. Well we didn't need much persuasion to find a babysitter for that event, and fortunately my mother-in-law was in town from Alabama too so off we set for a nice set dinner and some fabulous wine. What Chef Fraser had prepared for us was a light (note this Fabio Viviani) five course tasting menu, each course set to highlight Josh's wine that the fantastic Waitstaff kept topped up most of the night on our table.

It started off with a little Amuse Bouche ; a toast point with a sphere of fois pate to accompany Josh's latest A COTE Chardonnay (literally straight from the barrel). Beautifully presented, seasoned, taste was perfect.

To follow, King Crab, toasted cous cous with summer truffles, this time with Josh's more complete 2007 and 2004 Bien Nacido Vineyard Chardonnarys. The crab was lovely, paired with the cous cous and the Chardonnay (and I'm not a huge Chardonnay fan) it all came together beautifully.

The next dish was definitely the most ambitious of the night, not just in terms of preparation but for my wife. The concept of eating rabbit was a stretch for her, but not only did she do so 'gamely' (sorry, had to) but it turned out to be the biggest success of the night by far for both of us. Bacon wrapped saddle of rabbit, anson mills polenta, pea tendrils, thyme infused game stock - the rabbit was stuffed beautiful with sausage meat (we think!) that held the flavors together like perfection. I'm not sure Amy will let me cook rabbit, but she won't mind eating Neal Fraser's again! Josh's 2007 Calmant Creek Vineyard Pinot Noir and 2007 Le Bon Climate Vineyard Pinot Noir added to the enjoyment.

The final course of the evening was a Grilled New York Steak with white carrot puree, summer corn and violet mustard. Again the presentation of the dish was delightful, it was three bites of perfectly cooked steak with the white carrot puree standing out beautifully. As a bit of a parsnip puree maker in the past we had to do a bit of pondering at first - perhaps it was the coloration that led to it but we were convinced it was parsnip at first. Ah, the things the eyes will tell you and the mind will wander to. Josh's 2007 La Fenêtre "Alisos Vineyard" Syrah and 2006 La Fenêtre "Elevage Reserve" Syrah set off the steak and the mustard combination especially well.

This fabulous meal was brought to a close with a little Hazelnut Camembert Twinkie, bayleaf creme fraiche ice cream (yes, seriously, and it was amazing) with some port soaked plums. Again the creativity and whimsy of the chef came through, it was a wonderfully light and elegant finish to the meal, married to a 2007 A Cote Red Blend.

Overall the meal was a delight, in fact our only complaint (in inverse proportions to Cafe Firenze) was that perhaps there wasn't quite enough on each plate to fill us up. Personally I think the fact that I left wanting more was a good thing, I think we will certainly return to Grace again and see what Neal Fraser's tasting menu is like in its full glory.

Roasted Tomato Soup

Richard Browne — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:44:00 GMT

Did this chilled as a lunchtime snack for my wonderful Mother-in-Law when she came to visit recently, slight adaptation from a Gordon Ramsey recipe in the Times. Works perfectly well piping hot on a cold night too ; in fact there's two preparations (noted below).

Soup
2lbs-3lbs ripe tomatos, halved
2 onions, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, halved
small handful thyme sprigs, leaves removed
3 tbls olive oil
salt
pepper
4 cups chicken stock
1 tsp bakers sugar

Garnish
Handful of Basil
Small Mozarella Balls

Goat Cheese Crostini
French Bread
Goat Cheese
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

Grab an iron skillet, throw the olive oil in and into a pre-heated 425f oven. When it's nice and toasty, throw in the tomatoes, onions, garlic and thyme - and toss to coat in oil . . . .carefully. Sprinkle the sugar over the top to hasten caramelizing it, leave it in there for 25-35 minutes, stirring once or twice as you go.

Meanwhile in a pan on the stove, bring the chicken stock to a boil, remove the tomato mixture from the oven into a saucepan on the stove, and then pour the chicken stock from its pan over the tomato mix. Simmer for five to ten minutes. Strain the stock back into its original pan, move the tomato mix to a food processor and blitz it. Gradually then add back to the stock through the funnel until the mixture is nice and creamy (you might not need all the stock).

Here you have two choices. If you want a thick, hearty wintery soup - serve as is. For a more refined, thinner soup - especially if serving chilled - strain the soup back through a sieve again to just get the soup to a beautiful smooth texture.

Take your basil, roll the leaves up and thinly slice for a nice chiffonade. Pour the soup into bowls, place mozarella balls, and top with basil.

For the accompanying crostini ; slice the bread on a bias, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, throw it on a baking tray in the oven at 375f for five to ten minutes. When it's nice and crisp pull it out and spread the goat cheese on. It highlights the tomato soup beautifully.

Halibut with Ginger Sauce, Whipped Yam, Radish and Lobster "Truffles"

Richard Browne — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:36:00 GMT

Had to put this up quickly before I forgot, something I dreamed up upon walking into Whole Foods last night with my kids that went on to be one of my wife's favorite dishes ever! That can't be bad. Walking up to the fish counter I had a brief chat with the chap behind the counter - "what's freshest and best?" ; "the halibut and the salmon, both beautiful" he replied. Even though I just did Halibut last week I couldn't resist - Salmon's a lovely fish but it is all too fishy at times. Earlier in the day I'd bought some ginger on a whim, so I picked up a cippolini onion (they were out of shallots - no, seriously) and some creme fraiche and here's what I did. . .

Sauce
1 thumb of ginger (finely diced)
1 shallot / cippolini (finely diced)
1 clove garlic (finely diced)
250ml chicken stock
250ml white wine
2 knobs Butter
1 tbls Creme Fraiche

Put the butter in a pan, when bubbling throw in the onion and start to soften. After a couple of minutes throw in the garlic and the ginger and let the aroma start to come out. Add the chicken stock and wine and reduce, reduce, reduce. When you've less than a quarter cup left in the pan, strain out the solids, return to a clean pan and whisk in the Creme Fraiche while on the heat to reduce further. You're looking for a coat the back of a spoon consistency, to aid in achieving this get a second knob of butter, roll it with a little flour and whisk that in to finish.

Whipped Yams
2 or 3 yams - (depending on size, depending on needs) cut into half inch cubes
300ml chicken stock (or enough to cover the yams in the pan)
1 knob butter
1 tbls Creme Fraiche
salt
pepper

Chuck yams in pan ; cover with chicken stock, heat on medium high until the yams drain all the chicken stock in the pan and are nicely softened. Mash with the back of a fork or a potato masher, whisk in the butter and creme fraiche. Season.

Radishes
Four radishes
Butter
Olive Oil

Easy as pie, just heat the oil and butter in a skillet in a 400f oven, when nice and hot throw the washed radishes into the pan for twenty minutes or so, occasionally jiggling them to give a nice crisp coating all round.

Halibut
0.25lb halibut filet per person
salt
pepper
butter
olive oil

Heat an oven to 400f. Heat the olive oil and butter in a non-stick oven proof pan, when hot season the halibut with salt and pepper and place it in the pan skin side up. After a couple of minutes flip the filets to reveal lovely and brown top - throw the pan in the oven for ten minutes or until the fish is translucent.

Plate the whipped yams using a goose neck, halbut on top. The lobster "truffles" are just lobster mushrooms sliced thinly and sauteed in a pan with some butter. They're in season, couldn't resist! Put them on top, ladle the sauce over ; slice the radishes and lay around the plate. I could've and probably should've kept it at that, but I saw some lovely brocolini at the store and added that as a little bit of green. Mum says it's good for yer!

Caprese Salad, chicken and tomato 'consomme'

Richard Browne — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:28:00 GMT

So having returned from a week in China (more on that later) I walked into the kitchen only to be assaulted by a plethora of beautifully ripe tomatoes from our little garden ; the girls had done a magnificent job of cultivating them while I'd been gone! Large ripe tomatoes always get me thinking about one thing - caprese salad. I think it was getting hooked on Caprese paninis from Bristol Farms a few years back that did it - and me, someone who for most of my life wouldn't touch a tomato for one second. But put together with a bit of basil and fresh mozarella - drizzle olive oil and balsamic over it and heaven.

The chicken breast was just cooked as usual, the 'consomme' was just a whole heap of goodness ; four tomatoes cut into small chunks, two sprigs of thyme, two cloves of garlic, three shallots cut up into quarters - all just thrown into a saucepan with water and a bit of wine and reduced, reduced, reduced. Then strained through a small sieve. Finally i just threw it in a skillet that I cooked some brown beech mushrooms and small yellow tomatoes for presentation, reduced it some more and lobbed in a knob of butter. It was delicious, good enough for a soup on its own one day ; perhaps chilled even . . .

Coffee Crusted New York Strip with fingerling potatoes, spinach and kohlrabi bacon puree ; kick ass coffee sauce.

Richard Browne — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:57:00 GMT

A little interesting dish for a Sunday night ; after a long tiring few days I figured I make something that would see us through the evening, and what better than a caffeine laced dish! Have to say I was already half way through preparing the dish when my wife through in a bit of a curve ball, the old garden outside has just flourished a load of Kohlrabi, I turned round half way through preparation to see one sitting on my chopping board. Hmm, not sure what to make of that I thought!

As usual the dish started with the sauce. Kick ass sauces don't HAVE to take days to prepare, but I do find it helps. I actually started the base of the sauce on Saturday - it was clean out the vegetable drawers of the fridge time so I rummaged through and started making a stock. I love using brown mushrooms as presentation pieces, as it happens they come in packs with long stalks and the original fungal base - makes GREAT stock material. Had some baby bellas that were looking worse for wear too - so those go in, celery, carrots, onions, leeks, parsley - pretty much anything that's going to add flavor to the water. Add some peppercorns and bay leaves, fill up the pot with water, add a good shaking of red wine vinegar (I like a bit of acid to my stock base) and a touch of red wine and boil away. After an hour or so you're left with a wonderfully deep base for any sauce.

Sauce
1 cup instant espresso (after adding water, obviously - plus add 1/3 tsp chili powder for the kick and a tsp sugar)
2 cups stock
Half bottle of red wine

Stick that lot in a pan and bring to a boil - then reduce, reduce, reduce. When you're down to about a cup or less you should have a nice final product to finish with.

Kohlrabi Puree
Half a head of Kohlrabi
2 slices bacon
2 shitaki mushrooms
1/2 a shallot
1/2 clove garlic
1/2 cup chicken stock

For the Kohlrabi I simply chopped half of it up into a medium dice and then through it in a pan with half a cup of chicken stock (or until just covered). Simmer until the chicken stock disappears and then through it into the mini-prep (told you I loved it). While it's doing its thing get a sauté pan and add a couple of rashers of bacon (sliced into 1/4 inch squares), half a shallot, some garlic and a couple of shitaki mushrooms. Get the bacon fairly crisp before adding the rest of the ingredients. When cooked through add that to the mini-prep, blitz, add a touch of cream and you're golden.

The fingerling potatoes simple as they come, simply half, steam for four minutes to par cook them then roast for twenty minutes in peanut oil, turning once. Sunday being Sunday, SoCal being nearly 100 degrees I actually did this on the barbecue in an iron skillet. Throw a few shitakis on top of the potatoes for a nice finishing piece to the dish.

Lastly the steak. Beautiful piece of dry aged New York strip which I coated in an espresso rub from Surfas (http://www.surfasonline.com/) - so that's kind of cheating I know - but basically it's sugar, salt, pepper, espresso powder, onion, paprika and cayenne. Can't be that hard to recreate can it? Coat the meat for at least half an hour to an hour at room temperature to allow it to start working on the meat. Stick it on the bbq or pan fry in a skillet for a few minutes either side to get that nice crisp coat then stick in a 400f oven for five-ten mins (depending on your done less liking) or move off the flame on the bbq.

While you let the steak rest on the cutting board it's time for final prep. I had some figs left over which always make a beautiful presentation piece as well as adding a ton of flavor - chop a few in half along with some halved cherry tomatoes. Heat up a non-stick pan on the stove and put them in cut side down. Give them a good sizzle then turn them over for another minute or so then pull off to a reserve plate. If you leave a tomato or two in the pan more's the better, it adds to the sauce flavor even more. With the pan still hot pour a cup or so of your now reduced sauce into the pan and simmer down to a nice consistency - chuck a knob of butter in at the end to add some gloss. While that's working, steam up some spinach (seriously this is the easiest thing on the planet these days - buy baby spinach bag from grocery store, snip off corner, throw in microwave for a minute and a half! Healthy and tasty. Slice your now rested steak and begin plating.

Fingerling potatoes down - check, spinach on top, check, sliced steak ; scallop out some of the kohlrabi puree for the side, lay down the figs and tomatoes, add a roasted shitaki on top and lay some of that sauce over the top. Sorted.

And yes, that's some pea puree on the other side of the plate. Had it left over, can't waste that!

Miso Marinated Seabass, pea puree, bean and asparagus salad with balsamic reduction

Richard Browne — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:47:00 GMT

Had some friends of our over for a nice little afternoon of fun on Sunday, started with a crostini topped with herb goat cheese and beets and followed with this new version of a recipe I've been doing for a while. Summer being summer, and Southern California being hot, I wanted to keep the meal fairly light. The miso sea bass is extremely rich as well so I wanted to ensure what accompanied it was nice and light. No pictures I'm afraid, I was being a bit too much of a good host to interrupt proceedings, which is a shame as I even 'painted on' the reduction with a brush.

The sea bass is super simple, just a marinade of yellow miso, sake, mirin and a touch of sugar.

Marinade
1 cup mirin
3/4 cup yellow miso
1/2 cup of sake
1/4 cup (or less) fine granulated sugar

Whisk it all together in a bowl and place the sea bass in for five to six hours. Yes, you have to actually remember you're cooking this tonight in the morning - and fish being fish also remember that you'll need to head to the fishmonger or grocery store when you wake up - or it's just not going to work!

Once you've done that, whack it in the fridge and look - you have the whole day to do something fun! Head to the Mall ; lunch at a diner, fishing on the lake, swimming . . . . really the World is your oyster. Awesome. Oh, anyway.

Pea puree - done a thousand times, useful in so many instances I'm now finding. It made a nice pairing under the sea bass this time around :

Pea Puree
2 cup frozen peas - cooked (I microwave them for two minutes or so)
10 large mint leaves
salt
pepper (both to taste)
olive oil

Throw the first four things into a mini-prep Cuisinart (I love my mini-prep), opening occasionally to scrape down the sides. When nicely pureed start drizzling the olive oil through the top of the mini-prep until you find a nice consistency - it shouldn't be a sauce, it should remain solid - but honestly it's all a matter of taste so I'm not dictating.

The asparagus / bean salad is a lovely little accompaniment on the side, taken from a recent Gourmet magazine I believe.

Asparagus/Bean Salad
1 sweet onion (play with the amount depending on how much bean/asparagus you're going to use)
1 tbls red wine vinegar
1 tbls Dijon mustard (grainy recommended)
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbls olive oil
1/3 cup flat leaf parsley
1lb-2lbs green beans / asparagus

Finely chop the sweet onion and put it into a bowl, add the red wine vinegar and mustard, whisk together and let sit for at least ten minutes. Meanwhile have a saucepan on a nice boil and add the beans to blanch for four minutes or so ; remove to an ice bath (or just cold water if you're not THAT bothered) ; blanch the asparagus for about two minutes and repeat the bath. Ice baths shock the vegetable to stop the cooking process as instantly as possible - i actually don't have ice around that much and find the cold water works almost as well - both should help retain the color of the vegetables nice and bright. Drain the vegetables on paper towels - meanwhile whisk the olive oil and parsley into the now marinaded onion mix, then toss the asparagus and beans in the mixture.

The balsamic reduction isn't a necessity to the dish at all, I just liked it from a presentation standpoint.

Balsamic Reduction
1/2 bottle red wine
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup chicken stock

Boil it down to nothing - and I mean nothing. It'll end up like paint - which is why you can drizzle a tad on top and around the fish, but mostly just paint it onto the plate for a pretentious piece of "flair".

Speaking of the fish - you might want to cook that round about now. Course the nice thing about this dish is that the assembly is all very easy and because the sides are cold you don't have to panic about getting everything on the plate at once while hot. Heat the oven to 400f, remove the fillets from the marinade (and sadly discard all that goodness) and place them on a lightly oiled piece of foil on a baking sheet. Throw them in the oven for approximately ten minutes or until the fish is looking translucent - remove the fish, switch the oven to broil and when the broilers blazing stick them back under for a couple of minutes. The sugar in the marinade will have left a lovely caramelizing goodness that the broiling will add.

While cooking you can spoon a decent heap of pea puree onto one side of the plate and flatten out slightly, and on the other side a nice heaping of salad. Paint reduction wherever your creative nature takes you! When the fish is done, remove and place down onto the pea puree. Now as a courtesy to our guests I like to remove the skin of the seabass (after marinating and cooking it peels off easy as pie) but the choice to do that is yours!

Cafe Firenze

Richard Browne — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:12:00 GMT

Moorpark, home of, well, now you come to mention it, not a great deal. Culinary wise it's claim to fame up until recently was it being home to the Secret Garden, a restaurant that got mauled by Gordon Ramsey on Kitchen Nightmares. But a year or two ago a new restaurant opened its doors in Moorpark and started getting some quite good reviews - Cafe Firenze. I ate there for lunch not long after it had opened and had to say the food was good, the service was goddam awful. The food took ages to arrive, the appetizer didn't appear at all (well it did after prompting and AFTER our main courses arrived) but the atmosphere of the place was good and you could tell that the kitchen was capable of producing quality food.

Some time later the Executive Chef of said restaurant sprang to fame as the most charismatic member of the Top Chef New York series - Fabio Viviani did not win the competition but he certainly won a legion of fans (most of them probably female) for both his down to Earth Tuscan cooking and his wit and charm. This was my first visit back to Firenze since the Top Chef phenomenon, but I had heard many stories of how absolutely packed the place has become since Top Chef started and on an early Thursday evening that certainly proved to be the case (interestingly I had tried to get in several months earlier for an early dinner on a weekend - it was easier to get into Ramsey at the London!).

Amy and I arrived to sit at the Chef's Table and sample the seven course tasting menu. I thought this meant sitting at the kitchen counter, apparently not. However the restaurant was very obliging and moved us to the kitchen counter to sample the menu with a view. As it happens two members of the Firenze cook staff we have ties to through friends - pasta chef for the night Richard and John Paolone, the co-Executive Chef and Fabio's right arm. Have to say both were in fine form and it was very impressive to see the pace and fluidity that John could expedite - especially when there's a party of forty seven sitting on the patio. Never have I seen food come and go so efficiently and without fuss as when John stood at the pass.

Our first course arrived swiftly, a beautiful piece of imported mozzarella on which sat some oven roasted thinly sliced zucchini finished with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic. Very simple, nicely presented it was a great starter for the meal ahead. From there we moved on to a pasta, butternut squash filled ravioli with a lovely sage and cream butter sauce, crispy sage and a finishing pepper. The portion was a perfect size, just a few bites and continued the meal nicely.

The highlight dish of the night followed, a beef carpaccio made from the finest fillet, with a spherical olive, rocket and parmesan. It was perfectly balanced, the addition of the olive was inspired as was the form in which they'd made basically an olive sauce and repackaged it back into the original olive 'shell'. Creatively it was the highlight, taste wise it left us wanting to lick the plate clean! The spherical olive was especially cute, it was something that Fabio did on Top Chef to win a round last year - basically a little touch of molecular gastromeny in Moorpark, via Spain and El Bulli of course. Basically it's an olive puree then reformed using calcium chloride and sodium alginate, very cute and actually incredibly tasty.

Now the trouble with tasting menus is at some point you usually start getting full, whether it was that factor or the denseness of the course that follows, the experience started to wane. A large shrimp wrapped in pancetta sat on a bed of polenta with parmesan was overly salty and rather featureless. There was nothing inspiring about it in the slightest, though the overall taste was good. Similarly followed a beautiful piece of sea bass on pumpkin mash and a brown butter sauce. There was a similarity to these dishes starting to form, starch underneath protein on top. The fish was beautifully cooked, the brown butter sauce rather burnt. Finally we came to a beautiful piece of fillet mignon, again wonderfully cooked, sitting on a bed of potato truffle mash with gorgonzola sauce. Nothing was inherently wrong with any of these dishes per se, they just seemed to lack the finesse one would expect of a tasting menu - even in a Tuscan styled restaurant. Each dish was delicious in its own right, the preparation cannot be faulted but a lighter touch was definitely needed over seven courses and that was lacking in these dishes. By the end of it I was groaning.

The evening ended with course number seven, definitely a course of redemption. Just when I thought I couldn't eat another thing along came a beautifully simple plate - olive oil cake with a blueberry compote and a beautiful panna cotta with strawberries and balsamic. Simple, small and each bite was just wonderful. I really didn't think I could eat another bite, but I ate the whole thing!

Really the only other note I have that tends toward the negative side was the wine pairing that I chose to have for the food. I can't say that anything really was wrong with it, they went with the food well, but the choices of wine were fairly mundane and familiar. I always thought that the joy of a pairing was to find exciting new wines you hadn't tried that tested the palette, there was none of that going on here - cruelly I commented to my wife that I questioned whether the Sommelier spent his afternoons at Vons. That was harsh!

Overall - well Firenze has come a long way from its somewhat stuttered start, the fame that Fabio has achieved through Top Chef seems to have been well channeled into what looks like an extremely well run restaurant turning out quality food and, from looking at the main courses coming through the pass, in big portions and very efficiently. I'd absolutely recommend it for an evening out, it certainly has quality that is hard to find in this neck of the San Fernando Valley.

Fire and Ice

Richard Browne — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:58:00 GMT

Pretentious continued!! So after Friday's simple duck dish I moved on to another "use what we've got" recipe. My wife and kids have managed to cultivate the most amazing little 'market garden' as my Mum likes to call it.

One of our most successful and plentiful bounties has been beans. Yellow, green and purple varieties, growing like there's no tomorrow! So had to do something with beans before Zoe, the eldest, eats them all straight off the bush! I still had some beets (also from the garden) left over from the night before so I replicated that again and made a little bean salad with asparagus. Simple as could possibly be, just blanched the vegetables then sliced on a bias, tossed them with minced shallots and olive oil and hey presto, beautiful fresh dish.

To accompany it I wanted do something hot (i.e. the fire) - so I went back to a classic sauce - dice some tomatoes, add two cloves of garlic, thyme, glug of olive oil, glug of red wine and throw all of it in an iron skillet and into a 400f oven to roast it for about 45 minutes. Normally if I'm doing Italian I'll just put this sauce straight onto pasta, but for this I wanted something a little more refined. So I pushed it through a chinois (or sieve) into a small pan and then add a touch of rooster sauce to add the heat and swirl around a touch of butter to add a smooth finish. What was the sauce for I hear you cry!

First of all I sliced and panfried some chorizo, put that aside and in its fat then sauteed some scallops and shrimp. Sliced them both in half, plated along with the chorizo and then add the now hot tomato based sauce. Quite yummy when served with a nice cooling rose.

Ramsey? At the London? Actually not . . .

Richard Browne — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:55:00 GMT

So turns out, much to my chagrin, that I still have yet to take my wife to an ACTUAL Gordon Ramsey restaurant. Found out last week that we must have eaten at the London in West Hollywood a couple of days after he sold it! Technically, therefore, I guess I still owe her a trip to London - the city that is - so we can experience his food for real!