Casa Mono

Whenever I’m at Casa Mono, I’m reminded of how much courage it takes for a restauarant critic to eat here, particularly if he or she isn’t a fan of organ meats. It was reviewed in early 2004, barely two months after it had opened by none other than Marian Burros, then acting restaurant critic for the New York Times.

Not quite known for her prose, Ms. Burros gave the restaurant a two star rating, which was [and is] a decent grade for what is essentially a tapas bar. Casa Mono is the brainchild of Chef Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich. Together with Babbo, Lupa, Otto, Esca, The Spotted Pig and now Del Posto, it seems as if New York City is poised to become the cornerstone in the empire of the Brothers B.

Piquillo peppers stuffed with oxtails braised in red wine.

Tripe with garbanzos and morcilla sausage.

Brussel sprouts a la plancha.

Codfish croquettes with orange aioli.

Bread pudding, vanilla ice cream, dulce de leche, macerated raisins.

Casa Mono is located at 52 Irving Place (East 17th Street) in Gramercy.

Discussion on eGullet can be viewed here. A thread on Mouthfulsfood is here. No offense to Ms. Burros, but I much prefer Adam Platt’s review.

Dinner, 29 July 2007

Hmmm, it’s been a while since I’ve posted dinner pix on this here website thingy.

Clockwise from top left:  1/2 lb. no-nitrate bacon from Citarella’s, eggs, black pepper, 2 peeled cloves of garlic, grated Parm-Reg cheese and dried fusilli.  Most carbonara recipes call for spaghetti or linguini, but fusilli is what I had on hand.  If you really want to go the authentic route, you should get guanciale or better yet, a hunk of pancetta.

This is not the most photogenic dish. In fact, it could easily be the poster child for “white food”. This recipe calls for two cloves of garlic which, cooked gently in bacon fat, subtly flavors the sauce base and adds an interesting twist.

Voila.  Add a glass of red wine and you’re good to go.

Discussion on eGullet can be seen here.

A Hearth Retrospective

Spiked Luis Rivera cocktail: Navarro Gewurztraminer grape juice, rum, citrus fruits, mint.

2004 Kabinett Riesling

Copper River salmon, market radishes, squash, sugar snap peas, gros sel.

Pan seared rouget, opal basil, yellow pepper puree, zucchini, peppers

Roasted sweetbreads, chantrelles, sweet corn, sweet corn puree

Seared scallops, heirloom tomatoes, mint, zucchini, sucrine, black olives

2006 Kir-Yianni, Noussa, Greece

Left: roasted beet salad with mache, Gorgonzola and hazelnuts.

Right: Amuse bouche glasses filled with chilled cucumber soup.

Pappardelle, rabbit, tomato concasse, fava beans

1998 Terricci, Tuscany, Italy

Chilled pea soup with peekytoe crab, lemon and croutons.

Pork three ways.

Clockwise from top left: pork tenderloin, crispy pork belly, pork sausage. Served with honshimeji mushrooms and zucchini.

Olive-oil poached halibut, clams, fennel, watercress, caperberries

Roasted sturgeon, Rancho Gordo beans, bacon, smoked garlic and sage

Almond cherry trifle.

Previous dinners at Hearth can be seen here and here.

Discussion on eGullet can be seen here. A thread on Mouthfulsfood can be viewed here.

Hearth is located at 403 East 12th Street (corner 1st Avenue), in the East Village.

Gordon Ramsay at The London

The ultimate in inevitability has happened, at least amongst foodies in the New York restaurant scene.

Chef Gordon Ramsay, more famously known in London, England, where he operates his three-star Michelin restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, has opened a 45-seat establishment in midtown Manhattan with four-star ambition. Whether he’ll get that rating remains to be seen.

New York is a tough town when it comes to (heretofore unknown) chefs seeking to wow what must be one of the most jaded sets of foodies the world has ever known. Veterans will recall the brouhaha surrounding one of Chef Ramsay’s contemporaries, Alain Ducasse, also of Michelin three-star fame when he opened his New York outpost, Alain Ducasse New York at the Essex House in 2001. Not long after, ADNY garnered a fourth star but as recently as a year ago, was reduced to mere three-star status. The earth quaked. The sun wept.

Mr. Ramsay is certainly ambitious, although perhaps a touch foolhardy. He’s one of the biggest names in the restaurant world but I’m not certain he’ll be able to mold New Yorkers in his image. Sneakers are discouraged, taking photographs of food at his restaurant is practically verboten and one is almost tempted to sit with perfect posture when dining at the London.

New York has FIVE four-star restaurants as of this writing: Daniel, Jean Georges, Le Bernardin, Masa and Per Se. Many attempt to reach that rarefied stratosphere, yet few succeed. These early prognoses don’t bode well.

Time will tell whether Mr. Ramsay adds one more feather in his cap or ends up falling flat on his face.

Update: My blog stats tell me that there’s been an upswing in the number of users accessing this post from BBC America. Interested readers might also wish to peruse this thread on Mouthfulsfood.

Dinner, 23 October 2006

Zucchini Soup

Clockwise from top left: unsalted Danish butter; two zucchini, diced; two ribs celery (leaves and stalks), chopped; one onion, diced; 1 T. chopped fresh marjoram; 1 T. chopped fresh thyme; sour cream; 2 cups homemade chicken stock.

Onions sauteed in butter, roughly 4-5 minutes or until they change color.

Combine vegetables and herbs; drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil; sweat covered over medium-low heat, roughly 7 to 8 minutes or until zucchini has softened.

Add chicken stock. Canned is fine, but I prefer homemade because you have quality control.

For those of you who want to make your own chicken stock, a good resource is the eGullet Culinary Institute or eGCI. Here is the eGCI course on stockmaking and sauces.

Bring to a gentle simmer, about 3-4 minutes. Cool slightly.

Working in batches, puree in a blender and transfer to a pot. Add sour cream and light cream and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Adjust seasoning.

The recipe I originally learned calls for a bechamel sauce composed of unsalted butter, 2 T. flour and 1 cup scalding milk, then combined with the stock. The sauce is used as a thickening agent. If you want to make this version, make a basic roux with the butter and flour, then add milk a little at a time, stirring constantly. Stir in broth, then combine with vegetables in a blender and proceed as above. Omit the sour cream and light cream. I prefer this version shown here, however.

Voila.

* * *

Scallops and Frisee Salad

1 pat unsalted butter, melted.

Sear scallops over medium-high heat, on both sides, roughly 2 to 3 minutes; transfer.

Half a shallot, minced and 1 T. capers, sauteed in pan drippings. Cook until shallots are golden brown; transfer.

Deglaze pan with 1/4 c. fresh squeezed orange juice. Whisk in 1 T. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces. Reduce over medium-high heat or until juice has thickened to a glaze, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Assembly: Plate frisee, scallops and shallot garnish; drizzle with orange reduction, garnish with chopped herbs and serve immediately.

This recipe makes 2 appetizer servings or 1 entree.

For those of you who want to see the pix in all their gigantic and luscious glory, click on the photo bar on the right hand side of your screen.

Molecular Gastronomy

Foodies all over the world know about El Bulli and the revolution in cuisine that it spawned.

To the rest of us, here’s a short crash course.

El Bulli is a restaurant located in Roses, on the Costa Brava, in Catalonia, Spain. Although it has been around since the early 1960’s, today it is associated with Ferran Adrià, one of the best chefs in the world and currently ranked No. 2 according to the European Restaurant Ranking.

Adrià pioneered the culinary genre of “molecular gastronomy“, a type of cuisine that features the application of science to culinary practice and more generally, to gastronomical phenomena. Proponents of the genre include Heston Blumenthal at The Fat Duck (Berkshire, England), Grant Achatz at Alinea (Chicago), Jose Andrés at Minibar (Washington, D.C.) and Richard Blais at One Midtown Kitchen (Atlanta). In New York, Chef Wylie Dufresne is Adrià’s local disciple at wd-50.

This Sunday, I’ll be having dinner at wd-50 for the first time. I’ve been dreaming of coming here for the past year or so but I’ve never gotten around to doing it. Its food reinvented for the 21st century. I’m quivering in anticipation. (To those of you who aren’t foodies, its almost as exciting as sex.)

Click here for a Q&A conducted with Chef Adrià on eGullet in December 2004.

In the meantime, here are some pix from El Bulli’s photo archives that are representative of the genre.  Think of it as a teaser of things to come.

Parmesan cheese, lemon, macaroon, baby strawberries

Soy angel hair pasta, sesame, miso, wasabi sweets

Pea jelly, banana, lime ice cream

Pink grapefruit soup, tarragon, savory black sesame praline

Pumpkin gnocchi, pumpkin seed oil

New Orleans Journal

The first pic is that of the New Orleans skyline on 3 September 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The second is the city today. — from this article in today’s New York Times.

Witness New Orleans reborn; a phoenix rising out of the destruction wrought by nature. Its people live on the edge daily, struggling to recreate, struggling to overcome a broad array of obstacles that inspire them to be more resolute than ever before.

As in pre-Katrina New Orleans, food remains the rallying point that binds the people of the city together. Black, white, Cajun, Creole, rich and poor: people from all walks of life have pitched in to rebuild, reclaim and in the process, to instill a little bit of hope in everyone around them.

Later this month marks the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Witness the season of hope, the season of rebirth; New Orleans like never before.

Here is a thread on eGullet, detailing a scholarship created under the auspices of The eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters.  The scholarship, which was established in September 2005, continues to provide funding for displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina to attend culinary school.

Click here to visit the Southern Foodways Alliance, a member-supported organization of more than 500 chefs, academics, writers and eaters, whose mission is to promote, document and help celebrate the wonderful diversity of cuisines found in the American South.  Upcoming events this fall include a series of symposia held by the SFA and the McIlhenny Company on 30 August, 12 October and 29 November 2006 in New Orleans, New York and San Francisco on the respective dates above.  The symposia are dedicated to the extraordinary food culture and peoples’ memories to be found within the Crescent City, past and present.

Here are a series of blog posts on Jason’s site that document his and his wife’s visit to New Orleans, seven months in the aftermath of Katrina.  Of particular interest is Jason and Rachel’s visit to Casamento’s where they ran into Leah Chase, the grand doyenne of Creole cuisine in New Orleans. Mrs. Chase is the chef and owner of Dooky Chase Restaurant, one of New Orleans’ famed eateries, right up there with institutions such as Brennan’s and Commander’s Palace. Mrs. Chase is also mentioned in this poignant article in the NYTimes Dining In/Dining Out section.