Ever since seeing Ratatouille about a week and a half ago I’ve been in full on cooking mode. The day after seeing the movie we had our sausage BBQ where we cooked at least seven different kinds of sausage (the duck, duck liver and pork from Dean & Deluca and the lamb and sage from the Union Square Farmer’s Market being the favorites.) After the BBQ I had a couple of friends suggest to me that I should throw another dinner party, something I had not really wanted to do during the summer. The appetite reducing heat and the fact that most people have plans on summer weekends were two factors contributing to my apprehension. However, my enthusiasm for eating and cooking won out and I decided to press on.

My challenge now is to create some dishes that incorporate summer ingredients and be light enough so that guests don’t feel gross after a big meal. Here are a couple of pictures of things I’ve made in the last week that I might or might not use later on.

Seared Sockeye Salmon with crispy Bluefoot mushrooms, milk braised baby zucchini, microgreens and truffle oil. This was a fairly simple dish and tasted good (mostly thanks to the quality of the salmon) but not great. I thought the Bluefoot mushrooms were a nice accompaniment and microgreens always make a plate look nice but the braised baby zucchini was a pretty big miscalculation on my part. I thought braising it in milk would give it a creamy flavor to go with the creamy texture of the salmon but instead the zucchini was just plain bad. I will never braise baby zucchini's in milk ever again. I liked the dish (minus the zucchini) but its not one I would serve if I was trying to impress people.

Crispy soft shell crabs with fennel apple salad, fennel pollen, sweet and sour pickled ramps and sweet and sour reduction. This was the first time I had ever cooked a soft shell crab. It was really easy to do and pretty fantastic tasting. I love the flavor of crab and the contrast of the crispy shell to the soft interior is amazing. I was happy with the fennel apple combination although I might lightly pickle the fennel to ease the texture a little. I also really enjoyed the pickled ramps (which I was excited to even be able to use in something) and the sauce that resulted from using the pickling liquid. If i served this as part of a menu i would probably count on two people splitting one crab and serving them on a platter. I'm still not completely sure how to plate soft shell crabs but I'm sure I'll figure it out.


Tuna Sashimi with pickled jalapeno, Chilean Carica and black Hawaiian sea salt. I liked some of the aspects of this dish but thought that they didn't really come together as a whole. I liked the Carica, a fruit that I found while perusing the jarred luxury items at Murray's Cheeses. It has the flavor profile of a peach crossed with a pineapple and a texture that's a cross between a canned peach and a poached pear. I just thought it didn't pair particularly well with the tuna. I also love to use sea salt with fish as well as peppers--I feel that the salt brings out the flavors of the fish while the heat from the peppers gets the mouth watering. The jalapenos were probably a little too distinct and didn't mesh well with the tuna, I think they probably need to be involved with more complex preparation involving a whiter fish so that they don't dominate as much.





Lamb loin chops with yellow bean, sugar snaps, golden raisins topped with a salad of mint, summer savory and lemon thyme. I sauteed the yellow beans and sugar snaps and then added the golden raisins and tossed the mixture with hot pepper flakes and parmigiano reggiano. The salad was simply shredded herbs briefly sauteed in butter to make them crispy. The lamb chop was simply crusted in salt and pepper and seared (because I have no grill.) I was pleased with the flavors of the dish and i thought that the spiciness of the vegetables brought out some of the flavor of the lamb and the herb salad helped cool down the spice a little (the mint) and complimented the lamb chop texturally. Sadly the price of lamb chops keeps me from buying 16 again to cook for people but I'll store this one in the memory bank.

There are also a couple of other things that I made on Sunday night but in the interests of your time, I'll write about them later.

Apple Salad

Ever since having the Migliorelli Farm apple salad with peanuts, lychee gelee and bacon at Momofuku Ssam Bar, I've wanted to make an apple salad myself. Apple salad is really a great concept, its light crisp and refreshing and when you add bacon the smokey pigginess of it really brings the apples to a whole different level, really elevating their tart acidic qualities. In honor of Momofuku I have created my own apple salad which I intend on serving to guests in a couple of weeks. I kept the same ingredients more or less but changed them to make them a bit more my own.

I kept the bacon and the apples and instead of using peanuts I decided to use pine nuts which I toasted/sauteed in the fat left over from cooking the bacon. Also instead of using a sweet lychee gelee, I decided to use a hot pepper jelly that I bought at the Union Square farmer's market. I thought it would be nice to get some spice in the dish to create a contrast to the apples. I plan on serving this dish with a German Riesling.

More dishes

Lamb chops with rosemary and port wine cherry sauce. I've been trying to make cherry crusted lamb chops for a while (I thought cherries and lamb would taste nice together with the sweetness of the cherries adding a level brightness to the lamb) and have never been successful. This time instead of trying to crust the lamb chop I decided I would make a sauce. It was basically port wine, cherries cinnamon and black peppercorns boiled until the port was reduced by a lot and the cherries were soft. I think adding cinnamon, cherries and black pepper, all scents and tastes and scents that are present in wine to a sweeter port would sort of make a super wine sauce that could stand up to but not overpower the meat. Not pictured here are the parsnip shavings I burnt and was unable to serve. I won't forget them in the oven next time. This dish in this form is a definite keeper for the next dinner. I also had a lot of fun splattering the plates.

Beef short ribs over a pea, potato and basil puree with roasted carrots and Japanese turnips. While short ribs always taste spectacular its really quite challenging for me to make them look good. I don't think I centered them well enough on the puree and the chopped chives don't do a great job of masking the brownness of the ribs. I think the way to go for next time might be to serve these in a bowl with the braising juices and whatever else I decide to pair them with. The potato basil pea puree was really nice and a little less of a hassle than making the faro rissoto I made last time.


This is a slice of apple crumb cake with Calvados ice cream and toasted almonds. I wanted to make a dessert that I could prepare ahead of time and assemble when needed so I thought of this. I was also looking for a reason to drink an apple ice wine I bought at the farmer's market. This recipe (minus the calvados ice cream)is actually one of my mom's that she used to make for me as I was growing up. I jazzed up the crumb cake a little by adding star anise and tossing the apples in calvados before baking. I think next time I make this I'll try to lattice the plate with star anise caramel. The cake was also a good excuse to try and make calvados ice cream, something, oddly enough, that I had been thinking of making for some time.

Some dishes

I thought it would be fun to put up pictures of things I intend on making (in some form) for my next dinner and try to explain why or how I came up with each dish. In the next couple of days I'll do some commenting on dishes i made this past Saturday.


Ceviche of Sea Trout with cilantro lime puree, charred and pickled jalapeno, red onion and tomato. I've been on a Spanish food kick lately and have been experimenting with ceviche. I thought the ceviche I made at the last dinner was a little too complicated and I wanted to clean this one up. I chose Sea Trout only because it was what the farmer's market people told me was the freshest fish they had and I pretty much listen to everything they tell me about their fish. The cilantro lime puree came about because I really love the flavor of cilantro and its too pasty if you puree it by itself. The tomato and onion are for color and a little bit of contrast, and the pickled Jalapeno was an idea I got from a dish at Momofuku Noodle bar. I really love how the heat from the jalapeno gets the taste buds going and helps them appreciate the fresh fish.


Flounder with asparagus, ramps, morels and a morel coulis. I've wanted to try using morels for a while but have been turned off by the price. Fresh morels are generally only around in late spring and dried ones are about 20-30 dollars for not very many morels. Nonetheless I've pressed on...I actually got the motivation for this dish from Tom Colichio's cookbook, Think Like a Chef. He has a chapter on trilogies and the spring trilogy focuses on ways to combine morels ramps and asparagus. I might try to think of something better than simply sauteing the morels, ramps, ramps and asparagus but I'm happy with the morel coulis that I made with no directions whatsoever (pat on the back.) I used sherry, butter, shallots, reconstituted dried morels and the left over water from reconstituting the dried morels. I think the sherry butter and shallots all help bring out the morel flavor and focus and concentrate it. I will definitely make this dish in a couple of weeks if i can still find ramps.