Day 185: An Old Dog Learns New Tricks!

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that I absolutely suck at plating.  It's a bummer because normally my food is quite good but you'd never know it by looking at it.

Last week I went through my blog photo album with a friend, who offered up some keen observations about the differences between my plates from the ones eaten at restaurants:

1.  Restaurants often slice the protein into large chunks, which they then stack

2.  Sauces or other ingredients are offered drizzled or sprinkled about the plate

Tonight I incorporated both strategies into my dish and voila!  One of my best plated dishes yet!!

As you can see, our meal featured seared tuna.  All I did was pat it dry, season it on both sides with S&P, and lay it down in hot olive oil in a stainless steel pan.  After a few minutes, I used tongs to pick the steaks up and turn them over.  Remember - proteins like tuna, chicken, and pork chops will always let you know when they are ready for flipping.  They should lift easily from the pan.  If they don't they aren't ready and you shouldn't force them.  If you do, you risk losing a good chunk of them as part stays with the pan when the rest gets forced out.

Once the tuna was ready, you can see that I followed the first part of my friend's advice and cut it into two pieces, which I stacked.  Beautiful.

The bok choy side dish I prepared was based on a Gourmet recipe that I tweaked:

1 lb. bok choy, trimmed and cut horizontally into 1/2 inch slices

1 orange (or red or yellow) bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 T low sodium soy sauce

1 T fish sauce

2 T water

1 T unsalted butter

2 T canola oil

Heat canola oil on medium-high flame until hot.  Add bok choy and pepper and saute for 3 minutes.

Mix soy sauce, fish sauce, and water in a small bowl.  Add the mixture and the butter to the vegetables and saute for another 5 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the veggies and continue to fast simmer the sauce until reduced to half.  Pour sauce over veggies when it's at the desired consistency.

I'll be honest - my husband did not care for the sauce at all.  So, he doused it in hot sauce and then everything seemed to be okay.  I, on the other hand, quite liked it.  Try it and decide for yourself.

Once the side was done and plated, I followed my friend's second piece of advice and scattered toasted sesame seeds about the food and the plate.  They added some visual pizzazz and tasted great, too.  Sesame seeds are good but are even better once toasted - just sprinkle them into a pan, place over medium-low heat, and watch carefully and toss often.

As you can see, I am open to advice and can learn from my mistakes so please feel free to leave any plating or other related topics as a comment!

Day 184: It's Pronounced KEEN-wah

Quinoa has been all the rage for the past year or two.  This protein packed whole grain is totally up my nutritional alley but oddly enough, I had never given it a taste until tonight.

I get the feeling that quinoa doesn't offer up much flavor of its own but that its tastiness depends on how and with what it is prepared.  Luckily, I found a really good recipe on Epicurious.com and my quinoa dish was infused with lots of yummy fresh lime juice and tossed with black beans and tiny, sweet pear tomatoes.  If you try the recipe yourself, note that I replaced the butter with olive oil and skipped the vegetable oil.  This increased the healthfulness of the dish while not decreasing the delish factor.

Our other side dish was fresh spinach, sauteed in butter with freshly minced oregano and half a sliced shallot.

I mention our main course last because frankly, it wasn't all that.  We had purchased a whole whack of limes recently and I was looking for a way to use them and so I prepared tequila lime chicken.  What saved this recipe was that I soaked the chicken in only half of the marinade and reduced the other half into a sauce that added a ton of extra flavor when drizzled over the dish.

So that was our dinner - the highs and the lows.  And while this is not 365 Days of LUNCH, I do want to mention Michael Chiarello's new restaurant "Bottega" in Yountville.  We had an absolutely lovely and memorable lunch there today.  If you find yourself in wine country, I highly recommend you give it a try for lunch or dinner.

Well, I'm halfway through this blog project now and am looking forward to another 181 days of good food ahead!!

Day 183: Add It To The List Of Things I Want to Bathe In

Things I'd like to bathe in:

1. The black truffle honey that Nectar drizzles over chunks of parmesan cheese

2. Pacific Catch's soy wasabi vinaigrette

3. Heitz Ink Grade Port

And the newest entry:

4. Bistro Aix's tomato fennel bouillabase broth

We've been to Bistro Aix many, many times and yet somehow, I never ordered the bouillabase.  That all changed tonight and I know for sure that it'll be tough for me to ever order anything else from now on.  It was TO DIE FOR and I can't help but mourn for all of those nights that I ordered other delicious, but not quite AS delicious dishes.

After my mesclun salad appetizer, the bouillabase arrived.  A large pice of halibut sat in the center of the bowl, surrounded by clams, calamari, chunks of potato, and garlicky croutons.  All of this sat in the most amazing broth.  I couldn't help but mop it up with some focaccia from the bread basket later on in the meal.

I really have to give props to my husband for choosing the perfect wine tonight - a 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon from Bartholomew Park Winery in Sonoma.  I cannot even describe the beauty I experienced by eating following up a bite of bouillabase with a sip of the wine.  I thought I might have died and gone to heaven. 

If you have a recipe for bouillabase, please share.  I think I may want to give it a shot at home.

Day 182: Third & Fourth Wheels

Friends of ours from the East Coast have been in the Bay Area this week and today was their 10th wedding anniversary.  Since I had attended that wedding so many years ago, I thought it appropriate to suggest that we all celebrate their anniversary together.

As always, our dinner at Capannina was delightful.  You may recall that my husband and I spent Christmas Eve at this restaurant.  That night, my husband and I shared two appetizers - a beet salad with goat cheese and spicy prawns stacked high with polenta cakes.  Those prawns were so good that I had to have them again tonight.

For my entree, I chose linguini with clams and zucchini.  This dish was so simple and yet so delicious.

And of course, because we were celebrating an anniversary, we just had to take advantage of Capannina's amazing dessert menu.  The four of us shared three desserts:  a warm chocolate cake with hazelnut gelato, profiteroles with chocolate and caramel dipping sauces (my personal fave), and tiramisu.  

What a meal!  We'll have to invite ourselves to help celebrate friends' events more often!

Day 181: Have Hangover. Need Beef.

On a hang over scale of 1-10, 10 being death, I woke up at a 6 today and it was a long, slow recovery.  Days like these call for hearty meals.

I had every intention of making a light and healthy meal for my first 2009 dinner entry.  But I got to the butcher and new knew that fish and chicken wouldn't do.  I needed beef!!

My husband took care of grilling up the NY strip steaks I purchased.  He simply seasoned them with S&P and grilled them to medium rare and they were juicy, tender, and so delicious.  Just what the hang over ordered tonight.

The side dish was roasted brussels sprouts and pancetta with garlic.  The recipe came from Epicurious.com and I found them tasty but not spectacular.  They did the trick, though, and went well with the steak.  I feel better already!!