Mocha Panna Cotta

And finally, the closing post on our dinner party…Mocha Panna Cotta

Although it looks pretty good, I have to admit that we haven’t quite perfected the dish. We of course attempted it the nerdy way, with a Panna Cotta recipe from the Modernist Cuisine at Home book.  After three tries, it still hasn’t set properly…. but the flavors are all there!

Happily, we got a chance to delve into some of our favorite pantry items to complete the dish. On top of the Panna Cotta we poured a touch of Woodinville Whiskey’s Barrel-Aged Maple Syrup. (As a Vermonter, whose family has been making maple syrup her whole life, I consider myself something of an expert on the subject and this absolutely makes the cut). For the final touch, we sprinkled on some Espresso Salt (A delectable item which we came across while killing some time in Portsmouth New Hampshire. Every flavor at The Salt Cellar was pretty amazing, but I think the Espresso was my favorite).

Check out these previous posts to view the other courses from our dinner party:

Fried Goat Cheese

Chilled Tomato Soup

The other courses

Chef Steps 200-hour Beef

Although this is the last post for this specific dinner party, there are many creations to come. Please follow the blog to keep up with our culinary adventures!

 

 

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A Chef Steps Inspired Dinner Party

For the last week I’ve been posting a great deal about a dinner party we had the other weekend. You may be wondering why I’ve been making such a deal over this particular gathering, after all, we cook for friends all the time. Well I’m happy to finally post the star dish of the night; Chef Steps 200-hour beef (or Pastrami Plate).

Although cooking this ourselves would have been pretty nifty, what makes this dish extra special is that the great crew at Chef Steps actually did all the work for us. We were lucky enough to take part in an experiment for Chef Steps. We stopped by their offices in Pike Place Market (such a cool space, full of awesome people!), picked up a box of vacuum sealed prepared foods and brought it home. The kit included instructions on how to finish off each piece and then plate it…leading to the most beautifully presented dish we have yet to create. A huge thank you to Chef Steps for helping us serve such a high-quality dish in our own home.

Check out these previous posts to view the other courses from our dinner party:

Fried Goat Cheese

Chilled Tomato Soup

The other courses

Next up, the final course; Mocha Panna Cotta!

 

 

 

The Other Courses

For today’s post, I present you two of our fabulous courses from last week’s dinner party: Fried Vegetables and Tuna Bruschetta.

For the fried vegetable dish we took oyster mushrooms, zucchini, and goat cheese stuffed zucchini blossoms, coated in panko and fried them. Served with a Peanut Soy Sauce.

The Tuna Bruschetta was made by one of our guests. I don’t have the inside track on what was in it, as he arrived with is mostly prepared, but I can tell you that it was delicious!

Check out these previous posts to view the other courses from our dinner party:

Fried Goat Cheese

Chilled Tomato Soup

Next up, the reason for this elaborate dinner party; Chef Steps Pastrami Plate. With a twist!

Chilled Tomato Soup

If you’ve been keeping up with the blog, you’ll know that last week the Husband and I hosted a dinner party. In my previous post, I showed a preview of the meal, with our Fried Goat Cheese bites. This week, I have another course to share;  Chef Step’s Chilled Tomato Soup. Happily this Chilled Tomato Soup is was quite easy to make and simply delicious.

Keep reading to see a few images of our process. For the original recipe, head on over to Chef Steps.

We created this dish with farmer’s market tomatos, garlic, shallots and some homegrown basil (sadly, our own tomato plant has yet to produce a significant harvest). We then placed the mixture in a vacuum-sealed bag, sous vide for 10 minutes and then blended. Voila! Chilled tomato soup.

Although the soup was quite good on it’s own, the addition of basil oil made it shine. For this dish we made the basil oil suggested in the Chef Steps Chilled Tomato soup recipe, which involved blanching the basil, mixing with oil and pureeing it. However, next time we’d prefer to infuse oil with basil flavor, rather than make this mix. How would we do this? Another Chef steps recipe of course!

I’ll be posting the remaining four dishes from this meal shortly (I promise!). If you missed last week’s preview, check out my previous post on Fried Goat Cheese bites.  And be sure to follow the blog if you want to see more of our culinary adventures!

Fried Goat Cheese

Last weekend we had a few friends over for a tapas party. We served six courses and spent all day shopping for ingredients, prepping and photographing. Over the course of the next week I hope to share all the dishes with you, but I thought I’d start with our pre-dessert course (which just might have been my favorite….save a special guest appearance I’ll be posting on soon); fried goat cheese.

These fried goat cheese bites were incredibly easy to make and absolutely delicious. We simply molded some goat cheese into balls, coated them with corn starch, egg and panko and fried them.

We then paired these little bites of goodness with some homemade sauces from friends. We had a plum chutney and a caramel vanilla pear jam. The perfect blend of salty, sweet, creamy and crunchy.

I’ll be posting more from the meal shortly. So stay tuned!

Wandering the Botanical Gardens :: Volume III

Wandering the Botanical Gardens :: Volume I

Wandering the Botanical Gardents :: Volume II

Thai for two

Instead of working in my own kitchen last week, I headed to a friend’s house to collaborate on a project. We picked up a few dishes from a local Thai restaurant and went to work styling a delicious looking spread. Here are a few images from our “Thai for two” shoot.

We had a coconut soup, curry and of course spring rolls! Thank you to Thian Thai for providing us with these great dishes.