An Update Finally - Part III - Class Update

Class has been pretty good. I have to admit that, although I totally addicted to sugar and baking, the pastry module of school wass my least favorite semester we've had. I think perhaps its because I prefer the no frills baked goods to fancy pastries. The plating part of pastry was fun, but in general the pastry classes had a lot of down time and I wasn't wowed by most of the desserts we made. There were a lot of nights that we only made components of future dishes and no whole desserts. At the end of the module, we plated a series of desserts using some of the components we had made (including biscotti, sorbet, ice cream, puff pastry, and pie crusts). On the other nights, once we put what we were making in the oven, we'd all stand around looking at each other with an unspoken "now what?" look on our faces. In other words, everyone in the class was rather relieved when we finished with pastry late December. We did plate a series of very beautiful looking desserts:

Milk Chocolate Panna Cotta with a berry sauce, creme anglaise, whipped cream & biscotti

Banana Upside Down Cake with (melted) caramel ice cream and caramel decoration

Apple Tarte Tatin with cinnamon ice cream and caramel sauce

Lemon Meringue Tart

Chocolate Pastry Cream in Puff Pastry with berry sauce and whipped cream

An Update Finally - Part II (Christmas Feasts)

So this year, we tried a few new recipes over the Christmas holiday. A lot of them were big successes. I decided to share my three favorites with you all.

On Christmas, we made a crown roast of pork. I brined the pork in cider, water, salt and a little bit of sugar overnight and then pretty much followed the recipe for the rest of it. I really loved this, as did my dad. The stuffing needed a good deal more broth than was called for and I did cook some of it separately from the pork. I also cooked the onions with a bit more butter than the recipe called for because I love buttery onions. The only thing was that the sauce ended up pretty salty so I added a lot more broth and some water and let it reduce to dilute some of the salt. I think part of the problem was that the broth I used had a good deal of salt in it to begin with. So I'd be careful and make sure you taste the sauce as you're cooking it to make sure the seasoning is correct.

The Crowning Glory of the Christmas Table

The other fabulous addition that we'll likely make again and well we even made twice during the christmas week was pureed carrot and parsnips. This was such a simple side and it was really delicious.

My other favorite dish of the week was the salt crusted baked salmon. I can't even begin to describe how moist this fish was. Mom got an 8lb salmon that was caught the morning she bought it. Cooking the fish this way was really cool. I would definitely like to make fish this way again.

I seasoned the inside of the fish with some toasted spices (I actually would try different spices next time as I don't love coriander). As the fish bakes, the salt mixture hardens. Once the fish reached the required temperature for doneness, I took it out of the oven and then with the handle of a sharpening steel I smashed the crust. It took a good deal of force to break through the crust. The cool thing is that the salt took a good deal of the salmon bones out. This was a huge hit with the family. With the leftovers we made some fantastic salmon cakes as well.

Whole salmon baked in Salt

Both of these entree recipes and the parsnip and carrot puree are worthy of special occasions. They certainly made our holidays tastier!

An update...Finally (Part I - Marea)

I know, I know. I haven't posted in forever. It's not that I haven't wanted to, but it's just I've had a crazy few months. But now I have time to sit down and write all about the wonderful food that has filled these months! I promise that this series of updates will make the wait worthwhile. I'll start with the dinner we had for Karen's birthday in December.

We settled on Marea for her birthday. Ummm...go, go now. Everything was wonderful. It'll come as no shock to you that my sister, her husband, and I did the tasting menu. The tasting menu consists of four courses. For the first, you can choose crudo, oysters, or an antipasto. I had a mackeral crudo with butternut squash caponata and pine nuts. The thinly slice medallions of fish was so fresh and the caponata added a really nice sweetness to the naturally briny fish. My sister had the oysters (a total of six comes with the serving so she decided that she would have one of each on the menu). These oysters were so amazing that I've tried to convince a few different friends that we should take our chances for a spot at the bar just to get them. But truthfully, the most amazing thing about the oysters was that when they cleared our plates from this course they brought this little white circle on a plate. The three of us were extremely puzzled, until another waiter came over and poured hot water on top of the circle and viola. It magically grew into a cloth wet-nap for Karen to wipe her hands. Mo just kept repeating now that's class, as I sat there with my mouth open in awe as childhood memories of those little pills that became shapes flashed through my head. But don't let me get sidetracked, because the hands-down winner on this course was the lobster with burrata, eggplant, and basil. Delicately soft bites of lobster with silky burrata...worth every dollar of the $6 supplement for this dish.

The next course at Marea was the handmade pasta course. All of the pastas were extremely flavorful but had this nice, simple feeling. More importantly, each pasta had unique flavors that you wouldn't run into at your typical Italian restaurant. I had fusilli with a red sauce, octopus and bone marrow, Karen choose the rigatoni with shrimp, and Mo had the pasta with sausage and cheese. For the final savory course, we each had a different fish dish. Karen had the branzino that was cooked so perfectly and melted with buttery goodness in your mouth. I had the scallops with a chestnut ragu and porcini mushrooms. I loved the chestnut sauce with the scallops and the earthiness that the mushrooms added to the dish.

Sometimes, when a restaurant is this good, I worry that the dessert is not going to live up to the rest. Luckily, this is not the case at all at Marea. We had the Gianduja, the apple raisin bread pudding, and the pear tart. I think my favorite was the Gianduja, because I love the hazelnut chocolate combination. But, each of these desserts deserves a taste, or two, or three. After the desserts were cleared, they brought a plate of housemade truffles that were some of the best chocolates I've had in a very long time.

Since I went in December, I've been trying to come up with reasons to go back. I'm sure it won't be long before I come up with a good one. Like the oysters or the lobster with burrata or the truffles.

Feel free to help me out with a good excuse.