Orange Maple Dark Chocolate Granola

Saw some granola at Whole Foods, and decided to make my own. I think that baking on a Silpat seemed to decrease the crispiness of the granola. Perhaps not letting them cool overnight would work better too, e.g. only letting them cool to room temp, then immediately putting into an airtight container.

- 2 cups rolled oats
- 2 cups puffed rice cereal
- 1/2 cup silvered almonds
- 1/2 cup cranberries
- 1/2 cup chopped dates
- zest from 1 orange

- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup apple juice
- 1/4 brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger

- coarsely chopped Hachez "Cocoa d'arriba" blackberry dark chocolate bar with bits of blackberries

1. Mix together dry ingredients.
2. Zest 1 orange directly into bowl.
3. Stir together liquid ingredients over low heat, until dissolved.
4. Pour liquid into dry ingredients, contents should clump together.
5. Spread on Silpat, bake ~ 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees F.
6. Remove from Silpat, stir granola around, transfer to cookie sheet, bake for about 8-10 minutes, or until slightly crisp.
7. Let cool
   
8. Add coarsely chopped dark chocolate.
9. Enjoy with yogurt or milk.
   

The addition of orange zest really brightened the flavor.

Thomas Keller's Braised Boneless Short Rib with Picked Vegetables, Persillade

I served the short rib with oven roasted cherry tomatoes, rice wine vinegar pickled baby whole carrots, and potatoes. Also topped with a persillade. Thomas Keller's boeuf bourguignon comprises 2 components; a red wine reduction, and the meat itself. The red wine reduction is prepared semi-independently of the meat, so as not to sully the meat with bits and pieces of dross vegetables. The actual vegetables to be served with the meat are prepared separately. The red wine reduction makes a beautiful sauce.


Momofuku Pickled Vegetables

- 1 cup hot water
- 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
- 6 Tbsp sugar
- 2-3 tsp salt
- vegetable/fruit of choice

1. Mix all ingredients together. Make sure sugar dissolves.
   
2. Add to glass jar.
3. Add vegetable of choice; I used baby whole carrots with stems still attached.
4. Let sit for 1 week for best results.

Persillade

- 4 cloves garlic
- Parsley (leaves only)

1. Finely mince garlic and parsley.
2. Mix together, add to boneless ribs.
   

Potatoes

- Potatoes, quartered
- water
- Salt/pepper/bay leaf/basil

1. Wash and quarter potatoes (depending on size).
2. Add to pot of water (with salt added into water).
3. Also sprinkle pot with pepper, bay leaf, basil.
4. Bring to a boil, then let simmer 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are softened.
5. Serve with protein.

Oven Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

- Cherry tomatoes
- Olive oil
- Salt/pepper

1. Cut cherry tomatoes in half.
2. Lay on silpat; brush with olive oil, sprinkled with salt/pepper.
3. Bake at 400 degrees F for about 15-20 minutes, or until slightly charred.
4. Serve with meat.

Braised Boneless Short Rib

- Boneless short ribs (why pay extra for the bones, haha?)
- 2 lbs Yellow onions (leave skin on)
- 1 leek
- 1 lb mushrooms
- 8 cloves smashed whole garlic (leave skin on)
- Turkey bacon (less fat)
- 1 bottle red wine
- cheesecloth
- parchment paper

1. Using turkey bacon, render out fat in 8 qt. pot.
2. Reserve bacon and save for other uses (see if anyone else wants it).
3. Salt and pepper sides of short ribs.
4. Sear all sides in bacon fat.
5. Remove.
6. Add diced leeks, onions (coarsely cut with skin on), garlic (smashed), carrots into pot, which now has bacon fat and short rib drippings.
7. Add basil, thyme, salt, pepper.
8. Add 1 bottle red wine.
9. Cook together for 45 minutes.
10. Create a cheesecloth nest over red wine reduction, lay short ribs on top.
11. Add beef stock until top of beef is covered.
12. Cover with parchment paper lid having circular hole cut out of center.
13. Put into oven at 325 degrees F, bake 2 hours.
14. Remove short ribs from cheesecloth nest.
15. Strain the braising liquid and discard used vegetables.
16. Reduce braising liquid by about 3/4.
17. Cook side vegetables separately (keeps their colors nice and bright, preserves their flavors).
18. Serve short ribs with braising liquid reduction, vegetables.

The reduced sauce turned out pretty well.

Chilled Corn Soup with Mint Chiffonade, Served with a Black Pepper Parmesan Crisp; Minted Pea Puree and Seared Sea Scallop

Adding the juice from one lime really helped to brighten the flavor of the soup. Best served chilled, with a parmesan crisp.

Chilled Corn Soup

- 5 ears of yellow corn
- Several stalks of green onions
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 x 15 oz. can light coconut milk
- 1 lime
- salt/pepper
- light cream

1. Shuck ears of corn. Microwave (which I find helps to bring out the sweetness) on high for ~ 2.333 minutes/ear. So if you have 3 ears in a pot, microwave for 7 minutes total.
   
2. Slice kernels off microwaved corn with knife.
3. In separate pot, add butter, and sautee diced garlic cloves and green onions.
4. Then add corn kernels; cook until tender.
5. Then add coconut milk; bring to a boil, then let simmer 5-10 minutes.
6. Blend in food processor, add water as needed to slightly liquefy.
7. Scrape through a fine mesh strainer/tamis/chinois, in order to get a silky smooth texture.
8. Add juice from 1 lime.
9. Add salt/pepper to taste.
10. Refrigerate; mixture will thicken. Add light cream as needed before serving to achieve desired consistency.
11. Serve with mint chiffonade and parmesan crisp.

Black Pepper Parmesan Crisp

- Grated parmesan-reggiano
- 1/4 Tbsp flour
- pepper

1. Taking several small handfuls of grated parmesan, add flour and 1/4 tsp black pepper. Go easy on the pepper; a little pepper goes a long way here.
2. Form flat mounds on silpat, bake at 375 degrees F for about 10 minutes, or until browned.
3. Let cool on silpat for a few minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.

Mint Pea Puree

- 1 bag frozen English peas
- Mint leaves
- Light cream
- Salt/pepper

1. In a pot of water, add in peas and mint leaves. Bring to a boil, then let simmer 10-15 minutes.
2. Blend in food processor. Add water as needed to achieve a slightly liquid consistency.
3. Scrape through a fine mesh strainer/tamis/chinois, in order to get a silky smooth texture.
4. Add salt/pepper.
5. Add light cream as needed.

Seared Scallop

- Ideally, purchase dry scallops from Whole Foods (which don't have the milky white liquid)
- Olive oil

1. Add olive oil to pan.
2. Salt/pepper scallops (omitting salt/pepper doesn't hurt either; I found the scallops to be perfectly tasty even without the salt/pepper).
3. Let oil get hot enough so that wisps of smoke emanate from the pan.
4. Sear scallops for 2 minutes on the first side, about 1.5 minutes on the second side. My scallops were about an inch thick; don't crowd the pan (avoid steaming), and do not move the scallops while searing.
5. After searing both sides, let rest a few minutes. Middle should ideally be translucent.

Assemble ensemble dish with all parts. I thought the scallop was seared very well.

This picture shows the parmesan crips a little better.

White Wine Poached Pear Frangipane Tartlette with Lemon Sour-Cream Ice Cream

Great flavor, and tangy richness from the sour cream.

Lemon Sour-Cream Ice Cream

- 8 oz sour cream
- 8 fl oz heavy cream
- 1 lemon
- zest from 1 lemon
- 1/4 cup sugar
- honey
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Mix together sour cream, heavy cream, vanilla extract, and sugar.
2. Zest lemon directly into cream mixture.
3. In separate bowl, squeeze juice from 1 lemon. Mix to taste with honey.
4. Add to cream mixture.
5. Chill.
6. Add to gelato machine/ice cream maker.

Pate Sucree "Unshrinkable Tart Dough"

- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 large egg, slightly beaten
- 1 stick + 1 Tbsp cold butter

1. Using a stand mixer (or food processor), mix dry ingredients together.
2. Then add in butter, cut into small chunks. Mix until it resembles coarse meal.
3. Add in egg, slightly beaten. Dough will come together.
4. Chill in refrigerator for 1/2 hour before using.
5. Place into tart pan; pierce with fork.
6. Freeze for 1 hour (this is the unshrinkable part). Don't need pie weights!
7. Cover with buttered aluminum foil, pressing against the crust. (optional)
8. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Frangipane

- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 stick softened butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 Tbsp AP Flour
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 2 large eggs

1. Mix together, adding in almond extract and eggs last.
2. Add into tart shell.

White Wine Poached Pears

- Pears of choice; I use miniature Forelle Pears when making tartlettes.
- White wine
- Lemon juice from 2 lemons
- Sugar/honey

1. Make poaching liquid by adding white wine, lemon juice, sugar/honey.
2. Halve the pears, remove stems and cores.
3. Add to poaching liquid, and cook until soft.
4. Remove, dry pears.
5. Slice, and lay on frangipane filling in tart/tartlette.

Serve with lemon sour cream ice cream! Unfortunately, I zested the limes and lemons too early for the picture, and they dried out somewhat. Otherwise, everything was quite tasty.

Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon

I used this handy guide for determining the amount of time to grill.

http://howtocookasteak.com/forums/index.php?topic=9

For best results, I wrapped each piece of filet with a strip of bacon, then tied the bacon with butcher's twine. Then salt/pepper before grilling, and I grilled to a fine medium. Delicious!

I used turkey bacon, for slightly healthier results.

Silver Dollar Sourdough Pancakes

Made these mini pancakes with mousse rings, and of course, my ubiquitous blueberry maple sauce.