Prompted by an impatient Milo, we had cut open an unripe honeydew the other day. Not wanting to waste it, I cut it up and put it all in jars of kimchi juice (one had some olive brine in it too) to make quick pickles. We had some duck breasts in the freezer, so I plopped one in the water bath at 52˚ C for an hour, then seared it up to crisp the skin. Wanting to make a good sauce from our immediate surroundings, I mashed the last of the blackberries with some shiso, brown rice syrup, and a little reduced riesling and then strained it.
Here's a hungry Chris eyeing the duck with impure intent. We served the duck on the pickled melon, with the sauce on top, after we ate the custards. I also made more spicy green beans, this time with just-cured Asian-flavored guanciale; I made four jowls, but gave one a different cure with five-spice, ginger, cardamom, bay, and togarashi. It doesn't suck, in fact so much that it's an open question whether it even gets to dry before we use it all.
John "only" had Thackrey's wine at the studio, so we were forced to drink a 2000 and 2002 Aquila, followed by a 2005 Orion and another 2005 Orion. It was tough, but we choked it all down. I'm insanely jealous that they are going to be barrel-tasting all his new wines next week at his place. After we finished this simple repast, they went back to work and I shot some video of it for Billy. Then Sirkka showed up with some serious after-snacks from Elephant. Another rough day at the office.
3 comments:
Yeah. Um. Sounds like a hard life.
Thanks so much for the curry response! I'll see if I can produce some less sucky curry using your suggestions.
Pretty custard. Was it perfectly smooth? Overly spicy? Sounds great as a kind of 'tweener course in a multi-course meal...
Jen: I hope it works out.
Hank: They were super-smooth and just spicy enough. It was a rehearsal for something I'm planning later on this fall.
Post a Comment