Iron Chef Millman V
You know the drill:
Prelude: Latkes three ways: – topped with goat cheese, melted leeks and smoked salmon – topped with pea and roast garlic puree and roast lemon salsa – topped with persimmon and apple puree and sushi ginger
Soup: a duo of soups: – roast olive and garlic – roast red pepper and carrot – served together with a dollop of herb pesto
Crudo: thin-sliced hamachi topped with slivers of jalapeno, green lemon-infused olive oil, and sea salt
Salad: fennel and apple salad with tarragon and a lemon and olive oil dressing
Pasta: ricotta and swiss chard malfatti (like giant gnocchi) with sage brown butter sauce served over a bed of butternut squash pureed with mandarin orange-infused olive oil
Main: broiled arctic char dusted with ground porcini mushroom and fennel seed, served atop an oven-roasted tomato and a bed of white beans and wild mushrooms
Dessert I: crema fritta, deep-fried breaded cream
Dessert II: Rosemary lemon olive oil cake
Menus from years one, two, three and four also available.
This year we also had a signature cocktail – the maghreb martini. Gin, vermouth and preserved lemon brine, garnished with a wedge of preserved lemon. Color was a bit yellow; I think the brand of preserved lemons I used had saffron in the brine. But the flavor worked wonderfully, and paired very nicely with the latkes.
In fact, this is the first year that I can recall that really every course worked. The only hiccup was that the first batch of malfatti dissolved upon hitting the water. I had formed them in advance and frozen them, but I’ve done that before successfully, so I think either they didn’t have enough flour (I don’t think that was the problem) or the ricotta and chard between them retained too much water (I suspect this was the problem). Anyway, I heated up another pot of water, defrosted another batch quickly and re-formed them (you twirl the dough in a wine glass with a bit of flour to make the football shapes), and the second batch came out fine if a little bit late to the party. But other than that hitch, everything came off well and everything worked, in terms of flavor and presentation. If I had to pick standouts, I’d choose the soup duo, the fish, and the crema fritta.
I really enjoy doing this. I don’t entirely know why. It’s in part because I love to be the entertainer, the provider, the host; I like showing off, but I also like making people happy. And it’s in part because I love to eat. But it’s in part because cooking is one of the very few activities I engage in where I really use my hands. I don’t play a sport; I don’t paint or do woodworking or futz around with motorcycles. But I do cook. And when I cook, I still use my brain, but I use it differently, and I don’t feel so much as if I’m living in it, more like it is living in the world. Which is a very good and too-rare feeling with me.
And it seems to work for my guests.
As always, recipes available upon request – and please, don’t be afraid to email me and pester me if I fail to post something in response to a comment. Sometimes I don’t notice that a new comment has been posted; I can be bad that way. My email is available on the “About” page of the site.
Why wasn’t I invited? ;o) Sounds delicious. Where do you typically get your inspiration? Did you create these recipes yourself or find hidden gems in various places on the internet?
— Laura D · Dec 30, 11:13 AM · #
Most are at least based on recipes. So: latkes I make every year; no recipe. The apple-persimmon compote was a recipe, as was the roast lemon salsa and the pea purée, but the oombination and the idea of serving on latkes was my invention. The soups were inspired by recipes but heavily modified by me. The crudo was inspired by something I ate in a restaurant. The slad is an old standby, originally from a recipe. The malfatti is from a recipe; serving over a butternut squash purée was my idea. The fish was from a recipe start to finish. The fried cream was kind of a melding of two recipes because the first one didn’t work (flour and milk were clearly in wrong proportions) but the second was unnecessarily complicated, so I combined. The cake was a recipe.
Coming up with the menu is a great deal of fun. A guest described the meal as “Oulipian.” Made my evening.
— Noah Millman · Dec 30, 01:17 PM · #
Laura stole my thunder. Can I pay to be included next year?
— dghart · Dec 30, 03:02 PM · #
Your guests sound very interesting. I wish I could have come just for the conversation
— Chopper · Dec 30, 03:11 PM · #
What is Oulipian? Congratulations on another exhaustive list of recipes. Your brain is multifaceted. Yes, living in the world is preferable to just observing it for most people. It takes a special vocation to be cloistered. Nothing wrong with not being an eremite. If you want to use your hands without cooking a fabulous meal, take up a musical instrument. For being in the world, use some of your time to volunteer your services. You could be a docent at the Natural History Museum or teach reading at your local elementary school, or both. I would not worry about those who were not invited. You invite the whole world to try your recipes. That’s enough.
— LDM · Dec 31, 12:23 AM · #
Oulipian: from OuLiPo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulipo
— Noah Millman · Dec 31, 03:00 PM · #
That all sounds delicious!
— Ethan C. · Dec 31, 05:00 PM · #
Should we email you for the soup recipes? I love good soups. The fish sounds like something I make already, but you can never have too many good soup recipes. The crema fritta sounds a little heavy after such a meal. Am I wrong or did you do a delayed serving?
Steve
— steve · Jan 1, 12:52 AM · #
I have long said I admire cooking and comedy above all other art forms because it is the most difficult for one’s audience to fake their reactions convincingly.
— David Ryan · Jan 2, 01:10 AM · #
Steve: soup recipes as requested below. This course was one that I pretty much made up whole cloth, though I did do a little internet browsing for inspiration. The combination of the two soups was really nice – the red pepper and carrot soup is sweet while the olive and garlic soup is salty, so when you put the two together you get that great sweet-salt combo.
I may not remember my quantities exactly right – just warning you. And I worry I’ve left an ingredient or two out (for example, I don’t recall adding cayenne to the pepper soup, but I might have). The goal is to get the two soups fairly close in consistency before serving. You can always adjust the consistency of either soup by adding more stock.
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Soup #1: Roast Red Pepper Soup
Ingredients
5 red bell peppers
olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 large carrots, coarsely chopped
a few garlic cloves, chopped
fresh thyme
white pepper corns
1/2 cup dry sherry
4 cups stock (chicken or vegetable)
1. Roast the peppers until blackened on the outside. Put in a paper bag to cool. When cool, remove, peel, seed and chop.
2. In a soup pot, saute the onions and carrots in olive oil until the onions are soft and the carrots have begun to soften. Add the garlic and saute a further 2 minutes.
3. Tie a few springs of thyme and the white peppercorns into a bouquet garni. Add to the pot with the sherry and stock, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, add chopped peppers, and simmer at least 1/2 hour.
4. Remove bouquet garni and puree soup with a hand blender.
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Soup #2: Roast Olive and Garlic Soup
Ingredients
2 heads garlic
olive oil
2 cups large pitted green olives
3 tbs flour
4 cups stock (chicken or vegetable)
1/2 cup dry sherry
white pepper
1 cup heavy cream
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Slice off the tops of the heads of garlic, place in aluminum foil generously doused with olive oil. Wrap in foil to make an oil-tight package, and roast in the oven about 45 minutes. Remove and cool. Squeeze garlic cloves out and reserve. Strain oil and reserve.
2. While the garlic is roasting, soak olives in water for 1/2 hour, changing water halfway through soak. Drain, and roast in the oven, turning once or twice, until the olives are brown on all sides. Cool and chop olives coarsely.
3. Measure 3 tbs of reserved oil from the roast garlic (add additional oil if you don’t have 3 tbs reserved). Heat oil in a soup pot. Add flour to make a roux (add additional flour if needed to get the proper consistency). Cook 3-5 minutes on medium heat – do not brown.
4. Whisk in broth bit by bit, being sure to scrape up all the roux from the bottom of the pot, until all the roux is blended. Add sherry, chopped olives, roast garlic, and white pepper to taste. Continue to whisk until soup begins to thicken. Simmer for 1/2 hour, stirring periodically.
5. Puree soup with a hand blender. Add cream and heat through.
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Condiment: Herb Pesto
Ingredients
2 tbs pine nuts
1 cup of various fresh herbs (I used a mix of sage, tarragon, parsley, fennel fronds, and thyme)
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
zest of 1 lemon
1 clove garlic (optional – the fresh garlic flavor will be very strong)
salt
white pepper
olive oil
1. Toast pine nuts until just golden.
2. Combine with herbs, cheese, lemon zest, garlic (if using), salt and pepper in food processor. Add olive oil in a stream as processor blends until pesto achieves desired consistency.
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To Serve:
Decant each soup into a pitcher or measuring cup. Holding a pitcher or measuring cup in each hand, pour equal amounts of soup into the bowl simultaneously from opposite sides so that the bowl fills from both ends, half with each soup. If you’re more dextrous than I am, you can spin the bowl to make a yin-yang pattern. Drop a dollop of peso in the center of each bowl, and serve.
— Noah Millman · Jan 2, 02:53 AM · #
THanks Noah. Wife surprised me and liked the pepper soup better and she is a salt addict.
Steve
— steve · Jan 5, 03:08 AM · #
Way to channel your inner Martha Stewart. Tell me there were fresh flowers on the table and dozens of votives in assorted glass jars, and we’ll just know you’re one and the same person.
— Jeffrey C · Jan 8, 01:34 PM · #
That’s the “flow state”, and it’s the basis for all mystical, spiritual experience. Known triggers include large attentive crowds, rhythmic music, athletic or physical activities, and highly focused skill use. Frontal lobe deactivation results in a profound sense of “oneness” with one’s surroundings. Congratulations on finding your own path to flow.
— Chet · Jan 9, 01:07 AM · #