Cooking

So one of the hobbies/interests that I have is making tasty food. I've been a bit disconnected from this aspect in my life for the past several years. While on the mission I didn't have opportunity to cook (I'm not complaining). When I got home I found that with a job I had enough money to eat at a restaurants often, so I indulged (to say the least). One of the things I was most looking forward to in the new home was to reconnect with my love of cooking. It's one of the few art forms that you can connect to with all of your senses. So I've been going all out on kitchen gadgets and supplies. Even the very decision on the house was based in no small part on the prospect of a fancy kitchen.

Since I've been in only a month it's gone as follows...for the first couple of weeks I didn't do anything in the kitchen. I was too busy, didn't have chairs, didn't have this, didn't have that. Sure I'd make a bowl of soup or a sandwich, but nothing too fancy. About a week ago I finally started to feel settled enough that I could sit back and enjoy the house. I broke out some of my cookbooks and started looking for recipes to tackle. I'm a little rusty to say the least. After reading Anthony Bourdain's "A Cook's Tour", I began to really admire chef Thomas Keller. I researched him a bit and my ears would perk up whenever he was mentioned in the press. I tried to eat at Bouchon in Las Vegas but was thwarted by the time of day. I bought a couple of his cookbooks (absolutely beautiful) two years ago but was absolutely intimidated by...everything. He referred to tools to which I didn't have access, he required ingredients of which I had never even heard. But now I was armed with the tools, a better knowledge of ingredients (thanks The Internet) and was ready to take on some of his easier recipes.

Tuesday Night, Flat Iron steak...I never cook steaks inside. Never. But the pictures made it look so tasty, I thought I could get all the ingredients, I was hungry and I needed to at least start trying to justify all my kitchen purchases. I got a list and headed out to the store. This ended up being an exercise in compromises. No Flat Iron steaks at the store, Rib Eye will have to do. Couldn't find fresh Rosemary or Shallots. Mushrooms and green onions will have to work. So armed with enough stuff that even if it went bad, I could still at least get some nourishment I headed home. I was really interested in trying his technique of frying a steak. I got everything out and organized. The steak was lightly seasoned, the vegetables were chopped and ready to go, the oil was hot and in the fry pan. I dropped the steak into the fry pan and was met with an immediate and satisfying sizzle. Some steam went up in the air and we were off and running. About 10 seconds into the fry, my entire house went insane. The smoke detector's had picked up what I was doing and went nuts. I realized I had forgotten to turn on the fan in the hood, so I got that going then I ran from the steak and grabbed a chair to get at the closest smoke detector. I was punching it trying to pull it off ceiling, pressing test buttons, crying. I could make it shriek faster but not quit. I was just about to grab some wire cutters when I decided to try holding down the "test" button for a few seconds. This seemed to reset the system. I went back to the steak and flipped it over. My train of thought was completely dashed. I had no idea how much time I had spent working on the alarms. I had no idea what the meat was doing. It didn't look or smell burnt. I drained the fat and threw in the vegetables and some butter. It was actually looking like a decent little meal. I pulled the steak out of the fry pan and put it into the oven. After a few minutes I pulled it out and plated everything. Btw, the steak had some herb infused butter on it...so tasty. I cut into it, hoping it wouldn't be too overdone and quite the opposite. It was very rare, a bit too rare even for my tastes. Apparently the smoke alarm incident hadn't taken half an hour like I thought and was more like 15 seconds. So after some additional oven time I got the meat to where I wanted it and had quite a lovely little meal.

Day 2, Lemon Sabyon Tart with pine nut crust and honeyed mascarpone cheese. Although this is one of Chef Keller's easier recipes, it was still intimidating to me, who is not learned in the ways of dessert. I had been lusting over this dish for a couple of years now. I love lemon desserts and a fancy lemon dish seemed almost too much to bear. I finally had everything I needed to make this and I was going to give it a go. After the smoke alarm fiasco, I was confident that I would at worst just ruin the food and not the house. This went much smoother there was only one small miscalculation on the capacity of the food processor that I was able to get around by using an additional bowl. I think after all was said and done I used everything in my kitchen. It was and still looks like an absolute disaster. But the tart turned out. It was so lemony good. The flavors were all very familiar, but just a touch sophisticated. The sabayon was creamy, smooth, and full of lemony flavor. The crust was buttery and crumbled just right, like a great cookie. But it wasn't so sweet as to make an attempt at stealing the show, nor was it so dense as to be detraction. The honeyed mascarpone was light and fresh and added an amazing balance to the acid in the sabayon. I couldn't have been more pleased with how it.

After all has been said and done, I'm really pleased with how it all went. Smoke alarms and all. And I've got a couple pieces of tart left over that have my name all over them. Yum. Call me let's cook something tasty.

Long picture free post...sorry 'bout that.