Surf n Turf

I knew going into this cooking project that these meals aren't exactly diet friendly. However, I truly underestimated the challenge it presented for my (New Year) resolution to lose weight. For the past week, I have been snacking on left over foie gras with generous chunks of brioche bread. Add a little jam, and you've got a concoction that is slightly fattier and sweeter than a large brownie. I've considered just tossing the leftover yummies, but at $60/lb, that seemed pretty darn wasteful - guess I'll just have to suck it up until it's all gone!

This week, we had some interesting experiences getting our hands on veal cheeks and sea urchin. Colin called just about every meat market and grocery store in the immediate Chicago area, and the only place that had them was....Chicago Game and Gourmet! Luckily, they had just one last package left - but it was 10 lbs of veal cheeks! The demand for these cheeks is so high at Chicago restaurants that most places can't keep them in stock. Also, cattle suppliers have recently started selling whole heads instead of cheek cutlets - and there was no way we were going to buy 4 baby cow heads.  So despite the fact that we only needed 1.5 lbs of veal, we got the 10 lb package. I found out that this cut of meat is capable of being incredibly tender and flavorful. Its gelatinous nature makes terrific sauces with little effort or starches. In fact, they're so delicious and versatile, we'll probably finish them off by the end of the week. 

 

Getting sea urchins proved to be

difficult too. Colin ordered them from Dirk's, and they were due to arrive last Thursday. However, Dirk's California supplier met some harsh weather and he had to turn to an alternative source from Maine to deliver some by Friday (Saturday was cooking day). Now I've actually never had sea urchin before, but Dirk said that instead of the big black ones from California, we would be getting the smaller green ones from Maine. Fine by me. Friday comes, and Chicago gets hit with horizontal snow, and I end up loitering around Dirk's store for about 3 hours, waiting for his shipment to arrive. Finally, in the late afternoon, after I'd given up and gone home, Dirk calls me with good new. I rush to the store to snatch up my precious sea urchins before anyone else can get at them, and Dirk was kind enough to show me how to prepare them. The recipe calls for sea urchin "tongues", which is just a euphemism for their genitalia; regardless, they were delicious, and I slurped up a couple at the store. Just like oysters :)

This week, since I thought the portions were going to be a little small, I also made some French bread (pictures below). It was perfect for soaking up the truffle sauce. I got the Madeira from Wine Discount Center on Elston St., and it is our new favorite place for special wines. They have a very large selection of fine wines and spirits at very reasonable prices. In fact, I got a second bottle of Madeira just to sip on, and 2 bottles of white burgundies for the meal, all for around $100.

Black Truffle Braised Veal Cheeks with Parsnip - this recipe is the last of a series of 4 that features black truffle as the main flavoring ingredient. I'm guessing that Chef Humm serves all 4 plates at one time, but I couldn't imagine making all 4 recipes for one meal. This one took about 4 hours of active cooking, and also a 24 hour marinade (which is the reason I made this on Saturday and not on Friday as originally planned....poor planning/reading meant I skipped over the marinade part at first)

Marinade veal cheeks with carrots, celery, onion, thyme, bay leaf, and red wine for 24 hours.

Drain and reserve veggies.

Simmer wine fluid, and skim off "impurities" i.e. gross solid stuff.

Close up of gross stuff.

Pat cheeks dry, and season with salt.

Quickly sear on both sides.

Sweat reserved veggies for 10 minutes.

Add a dab of tomato paste, and cook for 3 more minutes.

Deglaze with wine fluid, and reduce volume by half.

Add Veal Jus (I just used a mixture of beef and chicken broth to save time),

Return veal cheeks to pan.

Braise in 275 F oven for 2 hours.

Parsnip and Truffle - dice one large parsnip. If you've never had one before, it kind of tastes like a carrot.

Cook in salted water for 2 minutes.

Throw in ice water to stop cooking....you don't want to end up with mushy parsnip cubes.

Dice black truffles, then prepare salt and butter.

Add everything together with some chicken stock, and heat until warned through.

Truffle Jus - Mince shallots, prepare butter, thyme, and Madeira.

Sweat minced shallots and truffles.

Add Madeira, reduce by half.

Add Veal Jus (see before), thyme, and truffle juice, and reduce until 2 cups remain.

Parsnip Puree (aka Potato Puree) - In the spirit of not reading recipes carefully, I totally skipped out on the Parsnip Puree until just before plating. I had run out of parsnips, so I substituted with fingerling potatoes. Not ideal, but still delicious. Dice parsnips, and sweat in half a stick of butter.

Drain, then boil until tender. Add half-and-half and salt.

Puree until smooth.

Voila! Sorry about the shadow.

Sea Urchin and Green Apple - I didn't understand why the recipe says it serves 32, so I consolidated it into 4 portions. It was only when we began to eat did I realize how rich it was.....we barely made a dent in our servings.

My version of Lobster Stock - using shells. EMP calls for lobster meat, which I couldn't justify using for stock.

More improvisations for lobster stock - turned out delicious! The touch of Cognac adds so much depth.

Juice a few Granny Smith apples.

Strain and chill. I recommend doing this last, because the juice turns from this beautiful green to a brownish yellow.....still tasty, just not very attractive.

Prepare gelatin sheets by "blooming" in cold water.

Squeeze some tomatoes, then strain for juice

Sweat shallots.

Add sea urchin tongues for 1 minute.

Deglaze with Cognac, and reduce until pan is almost try (careful not to burn anything)

Add tomato juice, and reduce. Then add lobster stock, and reduce until it is 1.5 cups.

Swirl in cream and crème fraîche. Simmer without bubbles.

Season with salt, lime juice, and cayenne pepper.

Add drained gelatin sheets to mixture.

Pour into cups. I used regular glasses - but as I mentioned before, I probably should have used shot glasses instead. Refrigerate.

After 30 minutes of chilling, top with 3 sea urchin tongues each.

Add gelatin to apple juice.

Pour a bit of juice carefully in each cup. I think I put too much in. The EMP picture wasn't a very good guide for what it should look like in the end. Chill for a several hours until set.

Garnish.

French Bread - epicurious.com. This is my favorite bread recipe ever.

Mix 4 cups flour, 1 2/3 cups water, 1 packet foamed yeast, 1.5 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon vinegar in food processor until dough forms. Let rise twice.

Perfect, effortless dough!

Divide into 2, then roll out each into a long rectangle. Pinch together the long sides into a center seam. Place this face down.

Brush all sides with olive oil, then let rise for 30 minutes.

Bake with a pan of water underneath at 450 F for 30 minutes.

Perfect addition to any meal!

Tasting Notes:
The veal cheeks were scrumptious, especially paired with black truffle. I really liked my potato puree, but would like to see how it goes with a parsnip puree. It was a pretty easy recipe for how good it was. We had a few extra veal cheeks (since it technically serves 8) and was glad we didn't invite 8 people. The bread helped fill us up - this recipe alone is definitely not entrée sized.

The sea urchin had great flavor - it was very balance between too seafoody and too creamy. I wasn't a huge fan of the apple juice addition, but I should really wait to judge this recipe when I make it again in the right proportions and serving size. Overall, another successful week!

Our first guests

After a loooong hiatus from this project, we're back on track with the Winter season recipes. We fell off the bandwagon partly because of Christmas travel chaos, and then between traveling and general busy-ness, cooking was sidelined for the last month and a half. But now we're back in business!

This week I made 2 recipes for our dinner. After looking through the Winter recipes, for some reason I thought they were less involved than the Fall recipes, and thought that doing 2 at a time will 1. make up for lost time last month and 2. push the challenge up a notch. So for the next 4 weeks, for the most part I will be pairing an h'or d’œuvre with an entrée. This week, I'm going easy with some Gougères (cheese puffs) to start, and roasted chicken stuffed with truffles and foie gras....you would have to try REALLY hard to make those things taste bad.

Getting foie gras in Chicago isn't easy - especially the fresh, never frozen kind.

Even after the city repealed the foie gras ban a few years ago, most grocery stores just don't have the demand to keep any significant amount in supply (I needed 2 lbs). My usual go-to, Whole Foods, lectured me on how badly geese are treated when I asked them if they had any in stock. Talk about preaching to the wrong audience. I ended up finally finding foie gras yesterday, thanks to some quick research by the Chief Procurement Officer, on the South Side at Chicago Game and Gourmet. The directions led me to a sketchy brick warehouse building surrounded by an abandoned playground and projects. After walking around the building a few times, I couldn't for the life of me find a store front. Finally I got scared and called the company, and I was directed through an unmarked door. I thought the place would look like a grocery store or a butcher's shop, but was instead greeted by a roomful of office workers dressed in business casual, selling meat from their phones and computers. I asked them if I could take a look at the back where I assume they store all their meat and produce, and some mob boss look-a-like quickly said no and told me to wait by the door while they prepared my foie gras order. Apparently they usually just supply restaurants with their meat orders, and don't get many walk-ins like me. I didn't care what they did in their spare time.....I got my foie gras in time for the 24 hour marinade process!

24 hr marinade for foie gras included pink curing salt, Madeira, cognac, white pepper, salt and sugar. I had to remove all the veins and membranes from the liver with tweezers, as was recommended in the book...not fun.

We invited Grace and Peden to dinner because I was making so much food, so I thought it was time to share the bounty of this incredible experience. Having four people meant I had to cut all the recipes in half (except the Gougères, which I knew would disappear like peanuts regardless of how many I made). The chicken recipe called for some pretty expensive items - foie gras was $65/lb, and we couldn't even afford any fresh truffles (~$200/truffle!!!!!) Colin ended up getting a huge bag of desiccated truffles online, which I reconstituted with hot water.
Obviously, it wasn't as fragrant or delicious as fresh truffles, but when a recipe calls for multiple cups of that stuff, I really couldn't afford to care - it was still $300. I tried to fortify the reconstituted truffles with tiny amounts of white truffle oil in certain steps, and I think in the end, because of the sheer amount of truffles used in this recipe, everything worked out beautifully.

Oh, and I was wrong about Winter being easy - I was on my feet from 9am until 6pm, actively cooking, with a short break to walk Chaya and shower in the middle. Good thing I had so many delicious ingredients to "taste" the whole time! Colin got me a Canon Rebel DSLR for Christmas for this project, so behold the improved photography!

Gougères 

Combine egg mixture into cooked dough a little at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Put into pastry (ziplock) bag.

Pipe onto baking sheet (I piped them too big), sprinkle each with shredded Gruyère and sea salt. Bake for 12-14 minutes at 425

I forgot to take pictures of final product because they were SO DELICIOUS.

Chicken Roasted with Truffles and Leeks

I did the steps a little out of order because I had to wait a hour for the truffles to puff up. It all worked out in the end.

                                                 Vin Jaune Sabayon

Reduce vin jaune in saucepan, then add gelatin sheets.

Combine reduced vin jaune with eggs and melted butter.

Pour mixture into whipped cream canister (yay finally got to use it!)

Close up of this beautiful gadget

                                                    Brioche Stuffing

Make crumbs.

Combine brioche crumbs with butter, foie gras, and chopped truffles.

Season with salt. Put into piping bag for later.

Clean bowl with leftover brioche, and eat.

                                              Marble Potato Confit

Roast mini potatoes with split head of garlic, thyme, and tons of olive oil for 1.5 hrs at 275 F, covered. This is my new go-to way to make roasted potatoes....so delicious!

Once cooled, remove potatoes and peel them. It wasn't as tedious as it sounds, although it was still a pain in the ass. Strain and reserve olive oil, and return potatoes to it until ready to plate.

Chop shallots and truffles.

Sweat shallots, then add truffles and thyme. Deglaze vin jaune, and reduce until almost dry.

Add cream and Chicken Jus (I cheated and used store-bought chicken broth). Simmer for 15 minutes, then cover and steep for 30 minutes.

Add in crème fraîche, salt and cayenne pepper.

                                                      Braised Leeks

Clean and trim 4 leeks. Boil for 15 minutes, then put into ice bath.

Cut leeks on a bias, then slice down the center, stopping 1 inch of roots. Fan out. Chop some truffles for later.

 Roasted Chicken

Separate skin from breast and leg. Pipe Brioche Stuffing under skin, distribute evenly. Season cavity, then stuff with pricked lemon, peeled garlic, and thyme. Butter and salt the outside of the bird, then truss the chicken with twine. I skipped the refrigeration step - it didn't seem like the stuffing was going anywhere.

  Meanwhile......                                 Truffle Jus

Mince truffles and shallots. Sweat until tender.

Add Madeira, and reduce by half.

Add black truffle juice, Chicken Jus, and thyme. Simmer until 1 cup remains.

Render fat from a little foie gras.

Add rendered fat to pan.

An hour before serving, place Vin Jaune Sabayon in immersion circulator at 145 F. I half expected the nitrogen cartridge to explode.....

                                                  Chicken Fricassee

Dice white part of leek.

Shred leg meat from chickens into bite-sized chunks.

Briefly boil leeks, then cool.

Chop truffles and parsley.

Add 2 tablespoons of Vin Jaune Cream Sauce (and throw the rest away....) to butter in pan. Add meat and leeks. Season with salt and add truffles and parsley. Right before serving, fold in Vin Jaune Sabayon (from a super hot whipped cream canister). Can I say how much of a waste it was to make so much Vin Jaune Cream Sauce, and then only use 2 measly tablespoons??

To Finish:                                      Breast Enhancement

This is how chicken breasts look once they have been carved off the body.

This is the new and improved tailored breast for plating.

Reheat

Glaze Braised Leeks in butter and truffles.

Reheat Marble Potato Confit in Chicken Stock, then glaze with butter.

                                                               Voila!

Notice how in the original picture, the Chicken Fricassee is nowhere to be found. Maybe it wasn't pretty enough for the picture? I was also confused about how their leek is so long....the recipe clearly said to trim to 3.5 inch pieces.

Tasting notes:
The common consensus between the 4 of us is: absolutely delicious. I was never a fan of chicken breast until now....stuffing with foie gras and truffles is the way to go! My gougères never really puffed up  - I think I piped them too big - but who cares, they still tasted so good. I have so much foie gras left over...what a great problem to have!