December 26, 2010

Its a blizzard! I am snowed in, and for the first time in forever, have the time to post on my foodblog. Its going to be pictures, lots of pictures, from now on, taking off from what had become my habit of posting pictures of almost all of my creations on Facebook.

First, we have Christmas Eve tapas:



And here we have the making of my version of Thai green curry with beef and thai aubergines.

First, the assembled ingredients:



Then, there is the mis en place:



And then the finished dish. Where I stray from tradition is that instead of slicing the beef into thin strips, which would of course be cooked well through in the curry sauce, instead, I cut the beef into much larger pieces, almost small steaks, and pan sear them in the wok prior to cooking the curry and aubergines and other vegetables, then I put them back in the sauce just before serving, so that they remain medium-rare, this was really good.



Tonight, truly, we are snowed in, there is a blizzard going on, we may get as much as 20 inches of snow tonight, so I will be making up something with what I have on hand. I had some frozen pacific cod, from Costco, not the greatest stuff, but, I have had an idea for a preparation that will overcome its shorcomings, I am salting it, and plan to use it in a recipe that would call for salt-cod, maybe a brandade de morue, or, in my new Thomas Keller book, Bouchon (a Christmas gift) there is a picture of some kinf of deep-fried salt-cod fritter that looked interesting. Fresh cod can be "salted," and attains a texture very similar to properly soaked genuine salt cod, in just a few hours, so I started that procedure this afternoon, you just lay the cod fillets in a bed of salt and cover with more salt.

I will follow up later, with pictures.