Fotocuisine

A few posts back, I documented the three day epic of demi glace. The technique I used was adapted from one of my culinary idols, James Peterson, writing in Saveur magazine. In the same article he provided a handful of sauce recipes using demi glace, including a derivation of the classic pork Sauce Robert, called Sauce Charcutière.

I wanted to try this with some mustard and herb crusted roast pork tenderloin, and man was it a good match. Read to the end for our next giveaway!
Pork and Demi Glace inside…

Congratulations to Jess at Hungry For Seconds for winning our last giveaway! Your San Francisco goodie package will be on its way as soon as I hit the post office! Also, read to the end for another giveaway and a sponsor announcement!

Last week, Central Florida had four hard freezes in six days. Normally, the rest of the county will have a frost and we stay slightly above since we’re close to the water. Not last week — mid-20s even where we were, and there was a skim of slushy ice on our canal.

We’re not used to weather like that, but more than our comfort, I was actually worried about my coconut trees. They usually can’t take a hard freeze, and even though it warmed above freezing in the middle of the day, four freezes a week made it a pretty tough week for them.

We’ve been getting a good harvest of coconuts this last month, even before the freeze. I thought I’d take advantage of them to make a red curry sauce. Christey wanted some skewered shrimp cooked on the grill, and they paired up nicely.

No lime in this coconut…(read more)

(Don’t forget to check out our giveaway at the bottom of our Christmas Dinner post!)

Sauces are my favorite part of cooking, from ketchup to béarnaise. Since I love (and aspire to) French techniques, a good chunk of the sauces out there are based on some form of stock — vegetable stock, chicken, fish, beef, veal, lobster, lamb, duck, and so forth.

Making stock is usually a pretty simple thing to do, but there’s a technique used to take a certain type of stock to the next level of culinary refinement — demi glace.
The journey begins…

Things have been so crazy around here, that we haven’t had time to do our last two posts of the San Francisco trip, but they will be coming soon!

Until then, the holiday spirit suddenly whisked me away this morning, and I decided to make a run to the overcrowded grocery store to make my favorite cookies.

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I tend more toward the savory than the sweet when I cook, but you can’t beat these two words: POM cheesecake.

I wanted to do little mini-bites, and I also wanted to experiment to see if I could incorporate POM pomegranate juice into the cheesecakes themselves instead of just in the sauce. One of the best things about experimenting when cooking is tasting the results!

These would make great appetizers or desserts for a mingling crowd. Since we’re right between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it’s the time for winter school and office parties, and these little minis would go over pretty nicely.
More pics and recipe inside

A couple years ago, Christey and I ate at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon restaurant at the Venetian in Las Vegas. It was the first (and so far only) Keller restaurant we have visited. I had Keller’s gnocchi parisienne, which is a different way of making them from the more common potato or semolina versions. This recipe alone was the reason I bought his Bouchon cookbook, and I’ve since been inspired by several recipes.

Gnocchi parisienne are savory, but made from the more traditionally sweet pâte à choux dough. For the savory version, mustard, cheese, and herbs are added.

For June’s POM Pomegranate recipe, I decided to try to take the pâte à choux gnocchi back toward a sweet direction, and made a dessert gnocci with POM 100% pomegranate juice, served with a pomegranate juice and chocolate ganache.

Dessert inside!

Once again, it is Joust time! Jenn, the Leftover Queen has a monthly Royal Foodie Joust where foodies from all over the world compete using three ingredients. Last month’s winner was Peter from Souvlaki For the Soul who picked these ingredients for this month’s joust:
* Fennel (any part)
* Dairy (in any form)
* Parsley

Definitely a tough one. But, the winners of two out of the last three Jousts were named Peter, so maybe the trend will continue!

For my entry, I seared buffalo cubes with fennel bulb, shiitake mushrooms, and shallots, and covered with a béarnaise made from fennel and parsley instead of the traditional tarragon and chervil. I placed the food on a savory crêpe made with fennel and parsley.

Mosey on in…

This is probably more of a fall or winter recipe, rather than a sunny spring one. But, I was in the mood for duck breast, and duck goes well with fruit. A lot of fruits like orange and cherry are a bit overdone, so I went with apples instead, but cooked them in butter and orange juice for a least a nod to à l’orange. I wanted a rich, rich sauce to be able to hold up to the duck, so I used beef and mushroom stocks with a couple kicks. Wrapped in crepes with some exotic mushrooms and feta, and the richness was definitely on target, and it was tasty.

more recipe and tons of pictures