Iron Chef Millman
To celebrate the festival of fried foods known as Hanukkah, we had a few friends over last night for a dinner party. The theme: eight days, eight friends, eight courses. Each course containing a singularly seasonally appropriate ingredient: olive oil.
Herewith the menu:
- Appetizer: potato latkes three-ways: with matjes herring and shiso leaf; with apple-ginger compote and hot pepper preserve; with creme fraiche and trout roe
- Soup: salsify soup with mushroom-leek kreplach and truffle oil
- Salad: fennel and arugula salad with preserved lemon and white anchovies
- Primo: risotto with gorgonzola and red pears, garnished with fried sage and an olive oil ice cube
- Intermezzo: apple and celery granita topped with wasabi and olive oil and garnished with a gooseberry
- Secondo: tuna steak poached in olive oil and fritto misto of endive and broccoli rabe
- Cheese: array of Spanish and French cheeses served with a variety of olive oils, Marcona almonds, and dried fruit
- Dessert: orange, almond and olive oil cake with olive oil ice cream
Recipes available as always upon request.
This is a joke, right?
— matt · Dec 9, 11:40 PM · #
wow
— Arthur Millman · Dec 10, 12:01 AM · #
I joke about many things, Matt. But joke about cooking? Never!
— Noah Millman · Dec 10, 12:37 AM · #
I would like the risotto recipe, please.
— Yossi Gurvitz · Dec 10, 04:08 PM · #
My pleasure, Yossi.
The night before, fill an ice-cube tray with a flavorful olive oil, and freeze overnight. If you can find a tray of small cubes, that’s preferable; you don’t want the dish to be smothered in olive oil. Ideally, each cube is about 1 tbs of oil.
Heat a saucepan full of vegetable broth (I like to use Imagine’s “no chicken” stock when I don’t have the time or inclination to make my own: http://www.imaginefoods.com/products/product/1572.php). Keep the broth warm over a very low flame; you will be using it bit by bit as you cook the risotto. How much broth you’ll wind up needing varies; have 8 cups available, though you might only use 6.
Mince 1 large onion, 2-3 cloves of garlic, and about 2 tbs of fresh sage. Saute the onion in a heavy pot in a generous mix of olive oil and butter. When the onion has softened and is translucent, but not brown, add the garlic and sage and saute over a medium flame for 2 more minutes.
Add 2 cups of arborio rice. Cook over medium flame until rice becomes opaque, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 1 cup of robust dry white wine, and cook, stirring occasionally, until all the liquid is absorbed. Add 1 ladle full of the hot broth, and cook, stirring occasionally, until this liquid is absorbed. Repeat until the rice is to the desired doneness – the texture should be firm but not crunchy, and the rice grains should be individuated but should have a creamy outer layer.
Core and dice 2 ripe red pears; do not remove the skins. Slice 4 ounces of gorgonzola into strips or cubes.
Heat olive oil in a skillet to just short of smoking. Drop a bunch of whole sage leaves into the skillet, and fry for about 1 minute. Remove to a paper towel-covered plate.
When the risotto is at the desired consistency, add the pears and gorgonzola, and heat until the pears are warmed through.
Serve in bowls, garnished with the fried sage leaves and an olive oil ice cube. As a main course, this probably serves 4-6; I served it as one of eight courses, and it served 8 in the portion size I used, and would have served 12 if I needed it to.
(My honest opinion: the fried sage didn’t add that much, but the olive oil ice cube was worth the planning.)
— Noah Millman · Dec 10, 06:05 PM · #
Is olive oil ice cream something you can buy at a store? Or did you whip it up yourself?
— Camassia · Dec 11, 01:14 AM · #
Whipped it up myself, thank-you. Best ice cream I ever made, in my own opinion – though, to be fair, there’s not a long list of comparables.
— Noah Millman · Dec 11, 04:19 AM · #
I had the good fortune to sample the olive oil ice cream and, quite unexpectedly, found it absolutely delicious. I’m ready to go back for any leftovers! (Are there any?) Bravo!
— Anne Millman · Dec 11, 05:48 AM · #
Wow. Thanks!
— Yossi Gurvitz · Dec 11, 03:15 PM · #