Pan Seared Duck Breast with Tomato Salad

Saturday's quick and light dinner. I found some beautiful heirloom tomato at the neighborhood farmer's market and paired the salad with a crispy skin seared duck breast. The sauce for the duck was a red grape and white wine reduction with lemon zest, butter, salt and black pepper.

Heirloom tomato with queso Cotija dressed with olive oil.

Pan seared duck breast with grape and wine reduction.

Pan Seared Pork Loin Chops

I wanted an easy dinner with lots of meat last night so brined a couple of pork loin chops for about an hour then pan seared them after rinsing the chops, patting them dry and putting on a simple dry rub.

Dry rub:
- Sea salt
- Cumin ground in mortar
- Cayenne
- Brown sugar
- Garlic powder

Chops are seared and fresh sage and garlic cloves were roasted in same pan. Served with Dijon and horseradish.

Provençal Fish Soup and Steamed Mussels

This soup was adapted from a clip I watched with Raymond Blanc doing a Provençal peasant fish soup. I didn't have the different kinds of fish he used as it is impossible to find variety of small whole fish in the States unless you live next to a fishing port with independent fishermen. It's a shame that people in this country haven't developed the palate for a wider variety of seafood than what the big supermarkets push at them like tuna, salmon, snapper, etc. There is so much out in the oceans that are tasty and more sustainable than what most people in this country consider as seafood. Anyway, I digress (because I can't stand learned ignorance when it comes to food).

Sweating down celery, onion, tomato, fennel, garlic.

Fish trimmings from a monkfish and tomato paste added along with reduced dry white wine.

Water added to cover ingredients and simmered for 20-25 minutes.

Bones are removed then soup is liquified in blender then strained through a fine sieve. Garnished with parsley chiffonade.

Mussels are steamed in white wine with garlic and black pepper then garnished with parsley chiffonade.

Classic Brioche with Lots of Butter

This was my second attempt at making brioche. I used a recipe from the King Arthur Flour website that can be found here.

For once, I followed the instructions exactly and it turned out beautifully.

Preferment or sponge for dough.

Dough after all flour has been incorporated and rested in refrigerator overnight.

Dough just out of plastic tub.

Shaping dough. 

Dough shaped and rolled into a log and placed in pullman pan. I baked it with cover on until the last ten minutes so that the top would brown but not burn.

Brioche loaf just out of oven. You can tell how much butter is in dough due to sheen on surface.

Buttery brioche loaf just sliced.

Korean Stir Fried Noodles with Chicken and Kimchi

This was a quick dinner. I had leftover cold Korean sweet potato starch noodles from the other night so I quickly marinated some dark chicken meat in gochujang, red miso, sesame oil and salt that was stir fried along with some crimini mushrooms, onion, then the noodles. The noodles had been dressed with soy sauce, gochujang and sesame oil previously so it only needed to be stir fried enough to be warmed. The garnishes were scallions, cilantro and Korean radish kimchi.

Vietnamese Cabbage Salad with Poached Pork and Shrimp

This is a variant of a very popular and common Vietnamese salad with poached chicken (goi ga). I swapped out chicken for slow poached pork and shrimp cooked in liquid of water, soy sauce, fish sauce, cider vinegar, bay, star anise, garlic and chile de arbol. The veggies in the salad are red cabbage, poached shiitake, Vietnamese coriander, mint, pickled carrot, Thai chile, pickled onion and cilantro. It was served with toasted sesame and dried shrimp rice cracker (not shown).

A Spanish Themed Meal

Prepping for gazpacho.

Spicy cucumber gazpacho with garlic thyme croutons.

Galician style octopus marinated in garlic infused Spanish olive oil and pimento. Dressed with Meyer lemon juice at serving.

Korean BBQ Pork and Cold Noodles

Korean daikon, bean sprout and dried anchovy kimchi.

Cold Korean noodles dressed with soy and sesame oil, topped with kimchi.

Pan grilling marinated pork. 

Turmeric Noodle Soup Two Ways

With egg yolk, Thai basil, fried shallot chips, hoisin and sriracha.

With poached pork shoulder, Thai basil, shiso, fresh chile, green onion and fried shallot chips.