French Macrons for an Irish Holiday

My friend & coworker, Adam, found a free copy of Cecile Cannone's Macarons cookbook for me recently, so I promised I'd make something and bring it in.

Rumor has it that French macarons are the new pie (which was the new cupcake for a hot-second). I'd never had one, but the technique seemed straightforward enough and the cookies themselves are so interesting looking that I was eager to bake and taste one. The versatility of them (you can fill them with ganache or buttercream or any number of creamy things) reminded me of profiteroles, for which I have a special place in my heart.

Not to be confused with Macaroons (the coconut & egg white cookie that I believe was an American adaptation of the French original), these are sandwich cookies made of almond meal, confectioner's sugar and egg whites, which are then filled. They tend to be tinted in a pyschadelic array of colors.

I ended up with free time this past weekend, and time in the evenings the early part of the week, so that gave me the opportunity to make a batch of macarons over the course of a few days - making the cookies first, then the ganache, then filling them, then dipping them. Since this week was St. Patrick's Day, Dan suggested I tint the cookies green. They ended up looking a little sci-fi, which I don't mind.

Having not had one before, I wasn't sure if I cooked them long enough. I think I actually made most of them a little too big, which resulted in them being a little chewier and more fragile than ideal. I filled them with dark chocolate ganache mixed with peanut butter, then dipped them in melted milk chocolate. The ganache actually broke on me, but I was able to get it to come back together. Despite my concerns, when I took them in to work my coworkers didn't seem to mind at all. My director even came back for seconds! And Adam said they were great, so I did my job.

French Macarons
250 grams almond flour
350 grams confectioner's sugar
1 cup egg white at room temperature
pinch of salt
2 tspn powdered egg whites (if humid)
150 grams superfine granulated sugar
5-7 drops gel paste food coloring (optional)

Line your baking sheets with parchment paper. Blend the almond flour with powdered sugar in a food processor to make a fine powder. Then sift the mixture through a strainer until it's as fine as you can get it. This keeps crumbs from forming on the macaron as they bake.

Using a wire whisk attachment on an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with the salt and the powdered egg whites (if using them). Start slowly and then increase the speed as the whites start to rise. Add the granulated sugar and the food coloring. Beat until the egg whites form stiff peaks and your meringue is firm and shiny.

Pour the beaten egg whites onto your almond flour mixture and gently fold them in using a rubber spatula. Move the spatula from the bottom of the bowl to the edges with one hand, using the other hand to rotate the bowl. Now hit the spatula against the rim of the bowl until the batter falls in a wide ribbon when you raise the spatula. When you can't see any crumbs of almond flour and the mixture is shiny and flowing, you're ready to start piping.

Fit the pastry bag with a number 8 tip and fill with batter. Start by squeezing a small amount of mix onto a parchment lined baking sheet to form a 2.5 inch diameter circle. Be sure to leave an inch of space between macarons so they won't touch when they bake. If the peaks that form on the top of the macarons don't disappear after piping, you could have beaten the mixture a bit more - but a tap of the baking sheet on the counter should remedy the problem.

Let the piped macarons rest for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Bake for 14 minutes. After the first 5 minutes, open the oven door briefly to let the steam out.

Let the macarons cool completely on a rack before taking them off the parchment paper and filling.

Mastering Page 570 of 0375413405

For tonight's Memento supper club, we're going to be making duck sausage. I bought a full duck from Uwajimaya (along with some pork back fat and hog casings), and needed to break it down before I grind it up & make the sausage using our fancy new Kitchenaid food grinder and sausage stuffer attachments. So I did what any self-respecting foodie would do when they have a full duck in front of them and some time to kill: I pulled out Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1, turned to page 570, and followed the steps to bone a duck - a process that removes the main carcass from the bird without damaging the meat or the skin, allowing you to stuff the bird with pate, roast it whole, and cut it into perfect slices. It was made famous in the book and film "Julie & Julia", as it was the last recipe in the book that Julie prepared.

I'm happy to say I did it fairly quickly, and without a single puncture to the skin. The process is simpler than it would seem, and just requires careful attention. My zoology degree may have also come in handy, given my experience with dissections and knowledge of anatomy.

How to Bone a Duck, Turkey, or Chicken

To begin with, cut a deep slit down the back of the bird from the neck to the tail, to expose the backbone.



With a small, sharp knife, its edge always cutting against the bone, scrape and cut the flesh away from the carcass bones down one side of the bird, pulling the flesh away from the carcass with your fingers as you cut.



When you come to the ball joints connecting the wings and the second joints to the carcass, sever them, and continue down the carcass until you reach just the ridge of the breast where the skin and bone meet. Then stop.



Repeat the same operation on the other side of the bird.



By the time you have completed half of this, the carcass frame, dangling legs, wings and skin will appear to be an unrecognizable mass of confusion and you will wonder how in the world any sense can be made of it all. But just continue cutting against the bone, and not slitting any skin, and all will come out as it should.

When you finally arrive at the ridge of the breastbone on the opposite side, stop again.



Then lift the carcass frame and cut very closely against the ridge of the breastbone to free the carcass, but not to slit the thin skin covering the breastbone. Chop off the wings at the elbows, to leave just the upper wing bones attached.



After that, I actually removed the skin and broke the bird down into parts, chopped up for the sausage making to come. But I'm excited to have this skill in my culinary tool box, so to speak, and think it would be a wonderful way to prepare a thanksgiving turkey some year.

Memento Meal - Rustic French Edition

Tonight, Gerald hosted the 2nd round of the 2nd cycle of Memento Meal, choosing a Rustic French theme for our culinary adventure. He and his guest, Diana, kicked things off with a trio of meaty appetizers.



First were fried Frogs Legs that Gerald butchered himself, then soaked in milk before frying.



Next was a rich Venison Liver Pâté with toast, made from a deer Gerald shot himself.



And finally, a Homemade Venison Sausage (from the same deer), paired with a sweet-tart, Cherry-Cranberry Mustard.



Next our guests for his round, Tricia & Josh, served us a delicious plate of artichoke with a Dijon vinaigrette, and a Mushrooms à la Grecque.







For the salad course, David & Carolyn served a reserved by incredibly well balanced and flavorful combination of Arugula, super-ripe Comice Pear, Walnuts, cave-aged French Roquefort, and a Mustard-Walnut Oil dressing.



The first main course was courtesy of James & Marcy, and Dan correctly guessed that it would be Coque au Vin.



James made it from a recipe (below) he acquired from M.F.K. Fisher, combining wing drummettes with fingerling potatoes, carrots and pearl onions in the most amazing broth - so tasty that some of us simply drank it up, while others more delicately sopped it up with bread.



Dan & I provided the second entree course: a Trio of Confit with Homemade Fromage Blanc on Mini-Baguette.



We combined an olive-oil poached fennel & garlic confit with the Fromage Blanc on our homemade herb bread, and the duck and pork confits each on their own with the bread, creating three tiny, decadent sandwiches.



Our mini-baguettes were made using Jim Lahey's No-Knead method, using a recipe from his book, My Bread (copied below). The confits were all from Sensual Preservation - The Art of Confit.



Rounding things out with dessert were Anna & Jason, who made Dulce De Leche topped Cheesecake inside tiny swing-top jars, paired with Apples and Shortbread - which turned out to be perfect for dipping into the cheesecake.



The night was another wonderful time with amazing food and great conversation, and Gerald was, once again, a perfect host. The meal was very balanced and flowed nicely with lighter and heavier options, from dish to delicious dish. Everything had an air of simplicity, yet was robust in flavor and incredibly satisfying. It all would be as welcome on the table in a French Country farmhouse as an upscale French restaurant.

Next up, David & Carolyn will be hosting and have chosen a No-theme Theme - taking Memento back to it's roots and directing focus on the transitions from dish to dish, planned backwards and eaten forwards.

Did I mention I cut my finger open while cutting my baguettes? I'm proud of myself or handling it like a pro - wrapping some saran wrap around it and continuing to work.



No-Knead Small Baguette
3 cups bread flour
1/2 tspn table salt
3/4 tspn sugar
1/4 tspn active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups cool (55-65 degrees F) water
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 tspn coarse sea salt

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, table salt, sugar, and yeast. Add the water and mix until you have a wet, sticky dough. Cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature for 12-18 hours.

When the first rise is complete, generously dust a work surface with flour. Scrape the dough out of the bowl in one piece. Fold the dough over itself 2-3 times and gently shape it into a flattened ball. Brush the surface with olive oil and sprinkle 1/4 tspn of salt on the surface.

Place a tea towel on your work surface and generously dust with flour, wheat bran, or cornmeal. Grently place the dough on the towel, seam side down. If tacky, dust with a little flour. Fold the tea towel loosely over the dough to cover it and place in a warm, draft-free spot to rise for 1-2 hours. The dough is ready when almost doubled. If you gently poke it with your finger, it should hold the impression.

Half an hour before the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 500 degrees F, with the rack in the center. Oil a 13x18 baking sheet (or line with parchment or a silicone mat.)

Cut the dough into quarters. Gently stretch each piece evenly into a stick shape, approximately the length of the pan. Place on the pan, leaving at least 1 inch between the loaves. Brush again with olive oil and sprinkle with remaining salt.

Bake 15-25 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Cool on pan for 5 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer to a rack to cool thoroughly.

Coquette au Vin adapted from MFKF

STEP ONE
3 T butter
12 oz lean salt pork
1 bag frozen pearl onions (because life is too short)
4 oz tiny mushrooms
one nice-sized shallot

Cut the pork into lardons (1/4' in diameter, 1' to 1 1/4" long), and then simmer them in 3 cups water for 5 to 10 minutes. Drain and dry. Using a stainless-steel saute pan, saute them in 1 1/2 T butter until golden but not yet crisp. Remove with slotted spoon to paper towels. Brown the onions in the rendered fat/butter. Meanwhile, melt the rest of the butter in another saute pan. Saute the shallot, stirring, for about a minute. Throw in the mushrooms, and do the same until they glisten, maybe 5 minutes. Kill the heat. When the onions are browned, put them in with the mushrooms.

STEP TWO
12 chicken drummies (wing)
A bottle of hearty red wine
1 cup chicken stock
2 rounded T flour
3 garlic cloves, minced
dried thyme
5 sprigs parsley, tied
a bay leaf
3 oz dried mushrooms

Pre-heat the oven to 350.

Boil the wine until reduced by 1/4. Brown the chicken, in batches if necessary, in the leftover fat of the pork/onion saute pan, adding enough canola oil, if needed, to get you 1/8" of fat. As the chicken is browned, put it in the bottom of a dutch oven. After the chicken is all browned, put the salt pork on top. Sprinkle with the minced garlic, and dried thyme to your taste. Using a wooden spoon, stir the flour into the glazed fat in the saute pan, scraping to loosen any stuck bits. This will form a roux. Stir for a couple minutes, then pour in the reduced wine and the stock. Stir with a whisk over high heat and reduce until slightly thick and smooth. Pour this over the chicken. Push the dried mushrooms and bay leaf under the liquid. Place the parsley on top. Bring to a boil on the stovetop, put on a tight lid, and put in the oven for thirty minutes.
After thirty minutes, remove the parsley and stir in the onions/mushrooms/shallot mixture. Put back in the oven for twenty minutes.

STEP THREE
40 tiny potatoes or cut pieces of potatoes
An equal amount of baby carrots, or roughly chop a bunch of young, thin carrots
Olive oil
dried Fine Herbs or Herbs de Provence
Truffle salt
A sprig of parsley

Boil the potatoes and carrots (seperately) until just tender. Drain. Saute them in the oil. When nicely coated (5 minutes), sprinkle with dried herbs and truffle salt to taste.

To serve, remove the chicken from the pot. Use a slotted spoon to place some of the onion/mushroom/pork mixture into a bowl. Place some of the potato/carrot mixture on top. Place chicken piece on top of this. Ladle gravy over all. Snip a bit of parsley on top.

TGRWT #18 - Profiterole of Blue Cheese Ice Cream with Li Hing Mui Coating, paired with a Blue Cheese Stuffed Umeboshi

After a hiatus since May, TGRWT (They Go Really Well Together) returned this month with a special challenge beyond just the pairing of two surprisingly compatible ingredients.

This round is hosted by Aidan Brooks, a pastry chef working at Restaurante Ferrero in the mountains of Valencia, Spain (Bocairent, specifically, for those more familiar with Spanish geography than I am). Chef Brooks chose Plums and Blue Cheese as the pairing challenge.

And to add to the fun, he's also made this round a competition with some extra rules and the possibility of getting your dish & name on the menu at Restaurante Ferrero - no small honor given that Paco Morales, its head chef, was named Spain's "Chef of the Year 2009" by Madrid Fusión. The restaurant, from what I've read, focuses on simple local flavors, with a touch of techno-technique (think squid ink made into caviar).

The extra rules, for those interested in vying for the win, were to make the dish a dessert that incorporates at least two non-sweet flavors - salty, sour, bitter, umami, pungent or astringent.



Not one to back away from a food challenge (and being more passionate about desserts than anything else, anyway), I knew I had to make time for this challenge. I immediately thought of blue cheese ice cream (as did others). It took a little thinking to come up with the secret ingredient that brings together plum with salty, sweet, sour, and umami flavors, all in one delicious powder: Li Hing Mui.

The name Li Hing Mui means 'traveling plum', and the powder is a concentrated combination of the dried plum with additional ingredients like licorice. I fell in love with it on the rim of my cocktails in Hawai`i, and have since enjoyed it in it's more traditional format of a coating on 'crack seed' (dried plums).



Since I love a small bite dessert that you can pick up and pop in your mouth, I decided a little profiterole would be perfect to deliver the flavors, so the final dish became a profiterole of blue cheese ice cream rolled in li hing mui powder. I hoped that having the powder coating the ball of ice cream would mean the intense flavor of the powder would hit the tongue first, followed by the wash of cold, creamy, savory/sweet blue cheese ice cream.

I decided a second small bite might be fun to go with it, or at least make it less lonely on the plate. Awhile ago, a UK blogger wrote a list of 100 things he thought every omnivore should taste, which included umeboshi - a Japanese pickle (tsukemono) made from the ume fruit. Up to that point, I'd never had one, so I picked up a packet and tried one - and was really struck by the intensity of the multitude of flavors packed in such a little thing. Ume are a fruit in the Prunus family, like plums and apricots, and the pickling method leaves them with a strong salty/sour flavor, plus umami lent by the MSG included in the cure. I pitted some and stuffed them with a little chunk of blue cheese.

After adding the blue cheese to the crème anglaise for the ice cream, both Dan & I tasted it. It had a nice sweet/savory mix and it was easy to see how plums would go well with it. I added the mixture to our ice cream maker, then froze it overnight before forming into balls, freezing again, and finally rolling them in li hing mui powder.



Dan & I sat down to enjoy these two little bites tonight, and talk about what we thought of them. Visually, I was a little disappointed in the plate, given the borderline monochromatic palette (tan, orangish brown, reddish brown). Dan joked that the photos make it look like falafel. I somehow remembered the li hing mui being brighter and more red, which was possibly a memory of the glass rims in Hawai`i, and not the powder we have here at home. At least it covered up the grey-blue-green color of the ice cream!

We started tasting with the profiterole, which we both agreed was imbalanced toward the blue cheese flavor, which overpowered the li hing mui. Had I made smaller balls of ice cream, the flavors might've been at a better ratio. The taste was good, though Dan said the cold blue cheese flavor made him think of salad dressing. He said it still seemed like a dessert, but I think it could've been sweeter, to push it more squarely into that category. A sauce of reduced plum wine (originally in my plan, but cut because it seemed like too much going on) might've done that, and also helped bump up the plum flavor.



The stuffed umeboshi was much more balanced, with the two intense flavors of the cheese and the fruit battling it out in our mouths - with neither side conceding to the other. I ate mine first, then enjoyed watching Dan as the waves of flavor hit him. The sourness stood out most to us both, but there was a lot more going on than that. The flavor definitely started as soon as the umeboshi hit ours tongue, then the blue cheese came out when we began to chew. Ume isn't exactly a plum (despite umeboshi being labeled as 'pickled plum' often), but a close relative - and I liked it's intensity with the blue cheese.

I think the profiterole could be a success with some additional work, but the umeboshi is something I would serve guests as is. I particularly liked that, sitting on the plate, it looked so unassuming and simple - then it explodes in your mouth like a flavor firework.

(For the profiterole, I used a recipe I learned watching Alton Brown's 'Good Eats' on Food Network. The ice cream recipe is based the one included in Michael Ruhlman's Ratio with 5oz of Wisconsin blue cheese added during the heating of the cream & milk. The li hing mui powder I bought at Seattle's Hawai`i General Store, and the umeboshi were picked up at Uwajimaya.)

Hawai'i Day Nine: Father's Day Crepes, Poha Berries, and Pizza

Sundays in Pahoa are Farmers Market day - with a HUGE one popping up along the highway. It features farm grown fruits and veggies (mostly), lots of plants, flea market fare, and a lot of ready to eat foods. After stocking up on berries and fruits and veggies and roots, we took my parents advice and searched out 'the crepe place'.

One year ago, on Father's day last year, my parents and sister stopped at the Maku'u Farmers Market outside Pahoa on their way into Hilo for our wedding. Like everywhere he goes, my Dad found fast friends and a new 'Auntie' amidst the vendors. He has a way about him that is so open and joyful that people gravitate toward him and easily open up and talk with him. It's something I really admire about him - a gift that seems to come so easily to him, and is something I have to work at more than I'd like. He's so easy to talk to, and makes those around him laugh and smile instantly.

While at the market last year, for breakfast, they had crepes that they still rave about to this day. When I called this morning to wish my Dad a happy Father's Day, my folks urged us to get a crepe while at the market. How could I refuse my Dad's suggestion on Father's Day?



So we found the crepe place: a stand run by a soft-spoken woman who makes crepes at record speed, stuffed full of savory or sweet delights. Although the Greek was strongly suggested, we opted for a Polish sausage crepe, which also had cheese, spinach, tomatoes, and a cream sauce inside. It was as delicious as my folks said. So the next time you're in Pahoa on a Sunday, take my Dad's advice and get a crepe at the farmers market. And grab one of the $1 lemonades to wash it down. You'll be glad you did. (Just don't try to take a picture of one - because they give off an angelic glow, at least in the noonday sun).



One of the items we picked up at the market were Poha Berries - also known as Cape Gooseberries. Oddly enough, they're a relative of the tomatillo, and also grow inside a papery pod. They have a sweet/sour taste, with a definite hint of tomato flavor, too, like a sweet/sour cherry tomato. They're spherical, golden in color, and about 1/2 to 1 inch in diameter. When I saw them, I knew just what I wanted to do with them: make breakfast muffins, of course.



It's been a week without my precious breakfast muffins, and I can't go any longer. So when we got home from the market (we also stopped at Malama for some flour and baking powder and other provisions), I got to work making a batch of breakfast muffins featuring poha berries and banana.



Poha berries are traditionally used for jams, in salads, and as a glaze for pork... but I figure if it's a berry, it should be pretty good in a muffin. We'll find out tomorrow morning if they're any good.



Dan's been craving pizza, so for dinner I made one featuring locally grown red onion, garlic, and peppers, plus some prosciutto.



It definitely hit the spot, and kept us satiated while we watched a marathon of Man vs. Food on Travel Channel. One of the episodes was about the 12 egg omelet at Beth's Cafe in Seattle, and when the host said something about putting the EAT in SEATTLE (with those words on the screen), it suddenly hit me that SEATTLE and LET'S EAT are anagrams. Why I never realized this, and why the Bite of Seattle isn't called Let's Eat Seattle, I don't know... but I feel compelled to do something creative with this new found knowledge. Just not sure what yet.



After dinner, we chowed on a few of the 2 lbs of lychee we bought at the market today. It was Dan's first lychee experience, and seemed a good one.



They're a peculiar little fruit, encased in a hard, bumpy red shell that, when opened, reveals a fruit about the size and texture of an eyeball, that tastes like a peeled grape. Like dragonfruit, it's a mild flavor, and would make a good palette cleanser.



(Dan's writing all about our trip over at our other blog, The Dans In Hawai`i, so I'll just stick to writing what I know: food.)

Memento Meal - Iron Chef Asparagus

All of us had such a great time at the inaugural Memento Meal hosted by Jason & Anna last month, that the same group quickly organized, picked a date and a plan for a second round. This time, Jacqui & Gerald hosted, and selected an Iron Chef-esque 'secret ingredient' that we would each be featuring in our dishes: Asparagus.

We all shifted one course forward, putting Dan & I first and Gerald & Jacqui last, and with the challenge of creating an asparagus dessert. But we'll get to that in a minute.



Dan & I kicked things off with a duo of appetizers and a little cocktail to go with them, titled 'The breakfast you wished you had time for'. It included a Cappuccino of Canales Produce Asparagus & Sea Breeze Farm Grass Fed Milk w/ Skagit River Ranch Bacon, a Tall Grass Bakery Crostini w/ Loki Fish Co. Salmon Lox, Sea Breeze Farm Crème Fraîche, & Canales Produce Asparagus Caviar, and a Spicy Bloody Mary w/ Pickled Alm Hill Gardens Asparagus.



Dan was challenged by our Espresso maker, which just doesn't create milk foam like the machines he used at Tully's years ago - but the cappuccino still came out as a the star of our course.



Likewise, I found myself fighting with my goal of 'caviar', as the alginate/asparagus solution that I'd prepped earlier in the day seemed to get thicker, and wouldn't consistently spherify. So after reminding myself to not attach to the idea I had in my head of what I wanted them to be, I ended up with lots of tear shaped 'caviar'.

Upon tasting the crostini, I also realized the 'caviar' gets lost in the flavor bath of lox and cream and the texture of the bread totally overpowered the delicacy of the caviar/tears.



The Bloody Mary, featuring spicy V8 juice augmented with horseradish sauce and Worcestershire sauce, and a home-pickled spicy asparagus spear was also given great compliments. We'll have to bust that out for brunches in the future.



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The second appetizer course was courtesy of Anna & Jason: Delicious inside out sushi featuring asparagus, cucumber, scallion, basil, mint, avocado, chives (some with the flowers still on), and a mayo of tarragon, basil, garlic, parsley and anchovy, and rolled in beautiful, bright orange flying fish roe. It was paired with a citrus soy dipping sauce, seaweed salad, wasabi, pickled ginger, and a glass of Sapporo.

They served it family style, which for me was dangerous - as I couldn't stop eating the amazing sushi! I was incredibly impressed by the inside-out roll technique, which I've tried and failed at in the past. And the fresh, bright flavors of the rolls were so wonderful.



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Next up was Kristin & her friend Dahlia, who presented the epitome of Springtime for the salad course. At it's center was blueberry & rice wine pickled asparagus ribbons, setting on a bed of fruit 'confetti', and topped with blanched asparagus spears. Along with it she served a rhubarb Dry Soda.



The salad had sweetness and some bite (from yellow peppers), and the soda was a wonderful pairing, as it was crisp and not overtly sweet, and really allowed the fruits and asparagus be the star of the course.



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For our first entree course, Marcy & James brought out a beautiful roll of chicken breast, stuffed with pureed asparagus, sun dried tomatoes, grilled asparagus spears, and Gruyere cheese, which we topped with an asparagus white wine gravy. And alongside it was a pickled white asparagus spear.

After two cold, bright courses, their dish took the meal back to a warm place of comfort just as the sun was setting and the temperature began to drop a bit. The roll of chicken breast was beautiful (as you can see), juicy and flavorful. The fact that they used asparagus no less than 5 ways in their dish was truly inspiring.



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David & Carolyn (but mostly Carolyn, apparently) graced us with the second entree course - hand rolled asparagus pasta in brown butter, with asparagus tips and walnuts.



The pasta included grilled asparagus, which was then pureed and mixed with lemon rind. And of course, Carolyn busted out table-side service to grate a HUGE block of Parmesan on our plates.



The pasta was so popular people were asking for seconds, and the brown butter was so precious that I was sent into the kitchen to round up the leftover baguette from our course so we could all make sure to sop up every last rich & delicious drop.



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Finishing off the meal were Gerald & Jacqui, with the self-imposed challenge of an asparagus dessert. I had lots of possibilities churning around in my head of how they might approach that challenge, but didn't even consider the (not one but) TWO preparations they created - nor did I expect they could be so incredibly good or feature asparagus so prominently and so well.



First was asparagus with orange supremes, strawberries, ginger, pepper, honey and orange juice, which was bright and sweet and so tasty. And second was an asparagus, rhubarb, and strawberry cobbler with ice cream and a glaze of reduced asparagus, rhubarb and strawberry juices. It was so good I completely devoured mine before remembering to take pictures, so I had to elbow in on Marcy's dessert to take photos before it disappeared, too.



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Given that Gerald was one of our hosts, we also got the pleasure of beginning the meal with some of his homemade pancetta, and ending it with some homemade chorizo sausage, both of which were stunning. And I think everyone went home with some of his homemade bacon.



While the night wound down, and we all sat around drinking a little more wine (or Grappa, or Scotch), Gerald lit up the chiminea and I brought out the leftover asparagus alginate mixture and the calcium chloride solution, so folks could play around a bit with molecular gastronomy. Anna, in particular, had a lot of fun creating orbs and noodles and building a tiny green sculpture on a piece of baguette, until the sun was gone and we could barely see what we were doing.



I really loved getting a second chance to get together with this group of food lovers. Every time I feel like I get to eat new and amazing things, try some new techinques, share what I've learned and learn from what others share. All the dishes were so flavorful and so good, and I think we all pushed our personal envelopes a bit to try something new. Asparagus was truly the star of the meal, but was presented and adapted in so many ways that none of us were sick of it after 6 courses.

And now that I'm reflecting on the meal as a whole, I realize there were some trends - which is surprising, given that we each only knew what the course directly following us was, and none of the others. Half the courses were Italian in nature (cappuccino of asparagus, the chicken dish, and the pasta), and half of them featured pickled asparagus in some way (spicy pickled asparagus in the Bloody Mary, rice wine pickled asparagus ribbons in the salad, and pickled white asparagus paired with the chicken - and I believe pickle juices in the gravy). So once again, continuity erupted despite the Memento method... or perhaps, as a result of the Memento method. Perhaps if we'd all know what each other were making, the dishes would become more disparate, as we intentionally avoided overlap. Instead, overlap naturally occurred in subtle ways, which turned out wonderfully.