first eggplant

first successful eggplant harvest! this year i abandoned the backyard garden - despite the raised bed, it was doomed by many factors, including a paucity of sun and a presence of a grazing dog. DH cleared some scruffy looking verbenas away from a patch of the south side of our house, outside dixie's territory, and i'm hopeful for some zucchini, tomatoes (upside down), peppers, cucumbers, scarlet runner beans, and squash.

DH made these recipes from the eggplant:
- the "eggplant caviar" was a refreshing alternative to baba ghanoush, which i never seem to have the right ingredients for.
- the hot & sour curried eggplant that won a recent episode of top chef was quite bright (probably from all those limes/lemons) and an outstanding side dish. couldn't quite eat a whole plate of it though and find it a satisfying meal on its own - maybe it was the heat or maybe it was the citrus.

trotter's: The Experience

how does one begin? i suppose the entry is as good a place as any.

here is the view from our seat.

the chefs in action. note the clean white paper in the plating area - placed there to mimic the white tablecloths, so that they can see exactly how the plate will look on the table.

executive chef matt merges. you can tell he's at the top of the hierarchy by his lack of a toque.

i got to plate one of the dishes! i learned that to plate sauces, it works best to hold the spoon near the round part (rather than from the distal end of the handle), and flick your wrist just so.

some shots from the kitchen. they had the cutest little 1-cup size sauce pans - a whole array of them for each sauce for each delicately portioned dish.

here is the array of options for plate toppings.


here is one aisle of the red wine cellar. note the lack of a sharp corner.

the oldest bottle in the cellar is at the bottom of this picture; i think it was 1870? the most expensive is a 1945 bottle at the top of this picture. 35K.

the white wine cellar (one of the aisles).

a bottle rescued from a 1910s shipwreck. valued at a mere $10K.

the studio kitchen where his pbs specials were filmed. (can't figure out where and if i can still view these.)

the sauces inside one of his studio kitchen cabinets. love that you can see them all on this very shallow shelf.

happy anniversary :)

trotter's: The Dessert

Dessert 1. Lychee Sorbet topped with a Green Tea emulsion & Roasted rice. Note the sweet lychee meats under the sorbet.
Paired with a Niagra Grape juice and Adelsheim "Deglace" Pinot Noir 2007.

Dessert 2. Raspberries with honey ice cream sprinkled with honeycomb and sage.

Dessert 3. Late summer apples with caramelized white chocolate ice cream. note the apples prepared 3 ways - the dehydrated thin slice, a chutney sort of thing, and baked? i can't believe i'm already forgetting. i thought i'd remember this forever.

Dessert 4. Arbequina Olive Oil-Chocolate chip parfait with Fraise des Bois. A small amount of olive oil was drizzled on the ice cream! This was my favorite dessert. The chip is a savory sourdough, balanced by the chocolate drizzle.

Dessert 5. Chocolate sorbet with cacao fruit & smoked vanilla.
These last two were paired with Dow's 10-year tawny port.

Petit fours: a raspberry gelee, pepito brittle, and truffle. there was also an almond which was consumed before i remembered to take a picture.

trotter's: The Meal

last week, we had the best meal of our lives. at the kitchen table, we had our own menu chosen for us and presented with perfectly choreographed service. it started with light amuse bouche and became progressively heartier with each course. a symphony in the mouth.

we had 2 sets of beverage pairings that we shared: a wine pairing and a non-alcoholic beverage pairing. when we were in between the non-alcoholic beverage pairings, she poured the "twelve" beverage which was fabulous. created by a group of culinary students in new york, it's a complex mix of savory flavors that seems to enhance every dish. i want a case.

each dish was a constellation of flavors that i would never have associated together, but taken as a whole was an exquisite and surprising explosion for the palate and mind. even more so when paired with the drink. we were particularly impressed with the non-alcoholic beverages - after all, there are professional sommeliers, but who does complex non-alcoholic drinks to pair with food? yet each drink was absolutely amazing. none were cloying, none were too sweet like you might expect from a juice.

1. Presented in a 3 tiered bento box, unlayered at our place. Clockwise from top:
English cucumber with Manila clams & Coriander
Peekytoe crab & smoked salmon terrine in a yuzu gelee
Effingham oyster with sake & relish

Paired with a sparkling pear & rosemary cider, and a Champagne Laurent Perrier "Brut LP" NV.

2. Cold poached cod cheeks with heirloom tomato relish. That thin chip on top is a thinly dehydrated piece of tomato. I think there were 3 different mushrooms.

Paired with Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blank, Russian River 2008.

3. Lemon Verbena Spoon Bread with Honey & Chervil. The sorbet is chamomile. The texture was like cake crumbles, the flavor exquisitely herbal. Not a fan of chamomile by itself but paired with the verbena bread it was fabulous.

Paired with a pineapple & geranium juice! and a Gruner Veltliner Federspiel "Loibner" Knoll, Wachau 2007. The pineapple and geranium matched incredibly well with all the herbal elements of the dishes - the verbena and chamomile in this dish, and the rose in the next.

4. Confit of sockeye salmon topped with a black tea emulsion, sprinkled with rose bits.
Paired with Ginja Shizuku "Divine Droplets" Junmai Daiginjo-shu, Takasago Shuzo, Hakkaido-ken sake.

5. Rabbit Loin with Swan Creek Farm Ricotta, Vidalia Onion Marmalade & Arugula.
This was the one I got to plate so I remember it the best! First I flicked a white ricotta sauce on the plate. Then they placed a fried ricotta stick on the plate. I scooped a chunky vidalia onion marmalade. They placed they tiniest chops - rabbit - on the plate. I drizzled with veal jus and sprinkled with arugula sprouts & flowers.
Paired with Bourgogne Blank Domaine Chevillon 2006.

6. Tempura of Sardine with Plum Consomme and Spanish chorizo. Note that the "chip" on top of the sardine is actually a chorizo mash very thinly spread out and dehydrated/crisped. There was also chorizo diced into tiny bits.
Paired with roasted garlic and cumin "juice"! Not something you'd sip with your morning paper, but absolutely fabulous with the savory dishes. Also a Riesling "Charta" Barth, Rheingau 2005.

7. Suckling Pig with fuzzy melon & kumquat. The skin was a nice block of crunch. 3 preparations: loin, rib, and belly.
Paired with Terlato Family Vineyards Pinot Noir, Russian River 2007.

8. Grilled Cockscomb (!) with ash baked eggplant, green curry & chanterelle mushrooms. The cockscomb was a bit like calamari in texture.
Paired with a smoked seaweed and chervil "juice"! The smokiness enhanced the ash baked eggplant in this dish, and the seaweedness worked well with the next. The wine pairing was a Barbera d'Alba "vigna Martina" Elio Grasso 2005.

9. Japanese Mizutako (baby octopus) with squid ink & rishiri konbu crackers. The smoked seaweed essence paired really well with this dish. The little crispy things sprinkled around the edge were little prawns. I think the foam was seawater foam but we don't recall precisely.
I murmured something to A. about being able to eat the crackers all night long, and almost immediately a plate with two more crackers appeared at my elbow. (just one cracker in this picture - by this time of the evening i had to be reminded to take a picture before i started digging in. not sure if it was because of the wine or because i was dizzy from the sheer spectacle of it all.)
Paired with Etna Rosso "guardiola" Tenuta delle Terre Nere 2007.

10. Crawford Farm Lamb Tongue and Belly with Black Mission Figs & Charred Cinnamon.
This was the only dish that was different for the two of us; mine was served on a bed of crushed pistachios, and his (he had a separate dish because of his nut allergy) had truffle gelees with a crisp made out of mesquite and bean.
The tongue was delicate and tasty. Though I don't think I'll ever eat it again. The lamb belly was possibly one of the best parts of the meal - and I don't even like lamb normally.

Paired with a black tea & fenugreek infused "juice." Also a Bandol "Cuvee Classique" Domaine Tempier 2006.

11. Triple Seared Bison Tenderloin with an Umeboshi emulsion (providing just the meat-tenderizing hint of sourness) & bonito.

Paired with Hourglass "Blueline" Merlot, Napa Valley 2006.

12. Pecorino di Pienza Morchiato with a cracker made with cocoa seed & pequin peppers. on top are the pecorino shavings, on the bottom is a flan-like circle of whey. A lovely transition from savory dishes to the sweet fantasies to come.

Paired with Dios Baco Oloroso. The first sherry that I have actually liked.

I have to put the dessert courses on a separate blog post because there are too many pictures!

in anticipation of The Meal

to prepare for our anniversary dinner at Trotter's, we checked out some of his books from the library - I really had no idea how many cookbooks he had, or what a fantastic work ethic for excellence he has - and DH tried a couple of recipes.

Grilled Duck Breast with Braised Endive, Roasted Apples, and Red Wine Jus. We've never had braised endive, and that jus was just amazing - though I suppose you can't go wrong with port and a good red wine simmered with tasty vegetables. We've been using the leftovers on the occasional steak ever since. (Not that we normally have steak. But we had to step our cuisine up a bit to match the sauce.)

From his book "Kitchen Sessions with Charlie Trotter" - a compilation of improvised recipes from his PBS special. Apparently he never makes the same dish twice, and made all of these dishes on the fly while filming. The title is a reference to the similarity of his cooking style to jazz improv.

Roasted eggplant and potato cannelloni with wilted spinach and cardamom-carrot juice. Wrapped in a thinly sliced potato, nestled in a carrot cumin puree that had been infused with cardamom oil and vanilla oil. Topped with clover and radish sprouts - the recipe called for clover sprouts and onion sprouts. couldn't find the onion sprouts and could only find the sprout mix; something about it had kind of a peppery bite, which might have been the radish ones. still fun though.

This one was from his "Vegetables" cookbook, which we bought when we went to the restaurant and asked to have signed. A little while ago I decided that my peculiar collecting quirk is going to be autographed cookbooks.

These dishes took him all day - and the only help he had was from his dad, whose job it was to entertain boo (his mom and I went to a yarn market all day) but wow it was Fantastic!!!

tomaters

one of my generous friends belongs to a local farm CSA and every year they have a tomato open house, in which you come pick your own tomatoes for an afternoon. apparently there comes a point in the growing season in which there are simply too many tomatoes to harvest in time for a once-weekly share. unfortunately, this year a lot of tomatoes were affected by blight and by blossom end-rot, so they asked each share to try and pick only 20 pounds instead of 40. i can't even imagine what i would do with 40 pounds of tomatoes. so she invited me to share in her wealth, and i couldn't resist! aren't they beautiful?

i picked these from my garden about a week ago. i learned this year that my tomato plants suffer from wilt, so i won't be growing tomatoes again probably anytime soon since that's my sunniest patch and you can't plant tomatoes or anything in the same family in the same area, because the infection resides in the dirt for at least 3-5 years. that explains my mutant eggplant, which grew over 6 feet tall with 2 lone leaves at the top, with every leaf below it wilting off. anyways, these will probably be the only tomatoes that my garden yields this year. so sad.

third tri!

last week katherine and rebecca flew in to do a triathlon!

here we are fixing one of many mini-bike-emergencies the night before. we eventually ended up changing tires on all the bikes and getting to the bike store 15 minutes before closing the night before the tri for a part.


it was rebecca's first triathlon! it was katherine's dozenth or so tri, so she entertained us with juicy stories throughout while we sought air. rebecca was a bit handicapped by using a borrowed mountain bike, but she worked so hard that we could hear the wind whipping through the wheels. my knees have been bothering me ever since i stepped on them funky in virginia, so i'd been seriously ramping down my workouts when i should have been ramping up. it was my first run in a month - but katherine and rebecca were so awesome and walked with me whenever i needed to. despite the mountain bike and the walking, we still finished well under two hours!

we stayed with katherine's mom's cousin and her two daughters so that we wouldn't have to wake up at 3am to drrive in. the night before she treated us to an amazing noodle place - joy yee. pages of pictures of asian noodle dishes. heaven! if i lived near that place i'd be there every week. after the tri we went out for ice cream, where we ordered the kitchen sink - 6 scoops of ice cream with all the fixin's!

her cousin's kids were super cute and sweet - they were hanging out with us the night before, watching us getting ready, and asking all sorts of questions. then they were there cheering us on for the bike and the run. i wish i'd had strong women role models like katherine and rebecca when i was their age :)

herbfarm hits

some years ago we made a new year's resolution for each of us to try at least one new recipe every month. last week DH made a divine meal from our herbfarm cookbook:


lavender rubbed duck with apricot sauce (unable to find lavender in the store, he went to home depot and brought home a plant)

and mushroom bread pudding with marjoram. not so picturesque, but very hearty. perhaps a bit too hearty for a summer meal for just the two of us; it would be great for thanksgiving.

we had dessert leftover from the meal with my brother. it bears repeating because i believe this is one of our all time favorite dessert recipes - so simple, surprising, and refreshing. blueberries and watermelon with basil, drizzled in a simple syrup made with cinnamon sticks (picture above).