TGRWT 19 Tomato and Black Tea announcement

While we're still expecting the news from Trig, the announcement for the next round of TGRWT is already out!

Pablo, from Medellitin is our host this time and his choice of ingredients are: Tomato and Black Tea. His words are the best to say what this is all about:

But, maybe, just maybe, you can use this to get your creative juices going, and find your way back into your poor, neglected kitchen. I wanted to choose common ingredients that were familiar, seasonal and could still be exciting for people to riff on. I also wanted to choose things that would let our vegetarian/vegan friends contribute.

So there we have it... Let's cook!

Mexican menu in the works

Mexican Independence Day is just around the corner. So we're taking a shot at making our first multi-course menu for the whole restaurant. We're thinking of doing a 5 course menu, details about service are still to be decided. Heck, the whole menu is still to be decided. But here's a sneak peek:

Griddled Jalapeño Panela

Watermelon

Arúgula

Roasted Pumpkin seeds

Margarita Serrano Vinaigrette

Green Pozole

Chicken Confit

Radish Salad

Bacon fat plancha Shrimp

Frijoles Puercos

Cotija Frico

Chipotle

Braised Short Rib

Nixtamal Gnocchi

Corn Purée

Colorado Chile Sauce

Vanilla Panna Cotta

Tamarind Gel

Peanut Praline Sauce

Coffee Ice

I'm still working on this. When it's done, I'll try to re-post here and at the restaurant's blog.

P.S. A note of credit: Thanks to the Ideas in food twitter feed for the gnocchi.

TGRWT #18: Plum and Blue cheese.

So as I'd announced previously, TGRWT #18 is being hosted this time by Aidan Brooks. As usual, I had a bunch of ideas as to what to do in this round. But thanks to the extra push by Mr. Brooks, I decided to tackle dessert.

I had ideas swimming around for a while, but it wasn't until I received a dinner invitation that the planning process really got started. The ingredient list was there: Plums (Pluots), Blue Cheese, some nut and something bacon.

We have an awesome bread puveyor that had brought over some samples of pecan bread. Since it wasn't quite fresh (Frozen) I decided to use it to make French Toast. This made me think of adding spices to the mix, but since we were going to taste this with Sparkling Riesling Icewine, I decided to skip on them. I also refrained from making a candied bacon crisp and opted to make Bacon fat Pecans (just like making butter pecans). Finally, I had to skip on adding some blue cheese crumbs because I didn't have the time.

For the pluots, I used part of them fresh and made a gastrique-like sauce with the rest. I didn't cook it too long to keep the wonderful flavor of the plum.

Here's what it ended up looking like:

Pecan Bread French Toast, Danish Blue Ice Cream, Pluots fresh and gastrique, Bacon Fat Pecans

Taste wise, the flavors were pretty much spot on as I had imagined. I had thought that the Ice Cream could be too sweet and overpowering, but it when placed in the context of the whole dish, it was balanced out with the sweet tartness of the gastrique. I would've liked a bit more presence of the salty element (pecans or the crumble, perhaps). While the dessert was pretty good on it's own. The Pilliteri ended up being even sweeter and overpowered the whole dish. Still it was a very good way to end our sunday Meal.

Morelia Tour

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Earlier this year, my wife and I took off to Morelia for a weekend. We had a great time visiting that beautiful city. Michoacan is an amazing state full of incredible places and lots of very interesting food. Pictures of the sights are on our Facebook, but I got all the ones of the Food.

Particularly memorable were the all the sorts of tamales: Corundas, Uchepos and Wheat tamal as well as the awesome Black Zapote Sorbet.

TGRWT #18: Plum and Blue cheese.

It's back! Although I don't know why I get so excited seeing how I am really a terrible blogger and I've participated in little of these awesome events. Still, they're tons of fun and it helps getting the thinking hats on. Sooo...

As we all surely know by now, TGRWT is a blogging event created by Marin Lersch over at Khymos. Using the principle of aroma pairing, we're challenged to create dishes incorporating ingredients that are seemingly an odd match, but that should go well together because of common aroma compounds.

This round is being hosted by Aidan Brooks. To make things even more fun, Aidan is challenging us to go the extra mile with an optional competition. Be sure to scroll all the way down when you read his post to get the scoop!

My only regret is that I didn't get to see good Pluots this year...

What people want.

While creating the dessert section of our menu, my two principles were to try to be true to the ingredients of the Mediterranean region, and to be different to what everyone else is doing (Thanks to the restaurant Chains, stuff like Hot Apple Pie and Brownie, both a la mode is everyewhere). It was a matter of testing, but we finally settled on the following choices:

Our version of Manchego and Membrillo: Olive Oil and Quince Paste Cake, Young Manchego, Artisanal Quince Paste.

Goat Cheese Flan, Orange Sauce, Dates, Pistacchio Crumble

Yoghurt Panna Cotta, Honey Stewed Peaches

Lavender Chocolate Mousse, Apple Granité, Apple Rollup

Citrus Espuma, Citrus Caramel, Pistacchio Joconde, Chamomille Gel

Pear Tarte Tatin, Port Wine Sorbet.

For our lunch menu, we also added a Black Pepper Ice Cream, Strawberry ALmond Chutney and Crumble.

After a mere four months of operation, changes are due. There will be a new dessert and we're getting our Ice Creams outsourced and getting rid of the Port Sorbet (Mainly because of production issues). Our new dessert has been conceived by listening to what people want. Unfortunately, people want what every other place in town is offering: Brownie A la Mode.

Since this is business, after all, we're making them the darned thing. But not quite. The brownie part is being replaced with a Almond and Cocoa Financier. We're buying a wonderful Burnt Caramel Ice Cream to go with it, and finishing the dessert with some Candied Orange Peel.

It will be available sometime this week.

Microwave Crisping

Foodplayer Linda's last post on crispy asparagus sparked an interest into making crispy vegetables with a different technique than that used in pastry (simple syrup + oven). Two things stand out for me in her experiment, apart from the obvious, exciting result: first, finding a better way to use our microwave oven, and second, the fact that replicating the technique seems doable within almost any kitchen.

After asking her about other experiments with other vegetables, she let me know that she has gotten good results out of mushrooms and she's got a list of others to try. We have a dish at the restaurant that, while it sells like crazy, I've always felt that it needs something to give it a bit more of a visual impact. So the thought of crisping zucchini came to mind.

I took some zucchini bits left over from some prep and since it was too short to slice lengthwise, sliced it into rounds. Prepped my salted water and blanched them. I laid the zucchini rounds on paper towels and transfered to parchment. In comes snag #1. The dehydration process. Our oven's lowest temp setting is 220°F. So instead of the 30 minutes at 100°F they were there for 15 minutes. Snag #2 came from a huge human error. I was pulled into a meeting and couldn't keep watch over my experiment. When I came out of the meeting I found my rounds perhaps a bit too dry or they were too thinly sliced as many were sticking to the parchment or too fragile to handle.

Still I managed to get some into the microwave. Before I had my zucchini ready, I microwaved some of our soft apple glass with pretty decent results. Testing on the glass allowed me to notice that perhaps tossing stuff into the microwave at full power wasn't too wise. Plinio advised to reduce power. Which led to a bunch of trial and error tests to get the right power and time. It also reminded me of David Arnold's microwave power woes and to think about how the oven being non-linear could affect the result.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel like finishing pastry's mise en place with my testing and I didn't quite like my zucchini slices. So results obtained so far are mixed. Initially it feels like a wafer. It's paper thin and somewhat crispy. Once inside the mouth it loses the texture and becomes chewy. Taste, however, is very good. Although I'm thinking of seasoning them slightly. Perhaps with curry...