No, I’m not going to overdo this and subject you to fifteen dishes in one post. I was just falling behind, wanted to catch up, and didn’t feel like I needed to detail very dish. So, I’ve picked one dish that I particularly liked the way it turned out, from each of the last three dinner menus. Plus a dessert. Because, dessert.
I was reading a recent issue of Eat Well magazine and there was an interesting article on mascarpone cheese. A lot of how it’s made and how it’s classically used. Well written. And then the piece ended with talking about what some chefs are doing creatively with it. One of them caught my attention. There were no solid details, just Australian chef Bruno Conti of The Hut using mascarpone in place of butter in finishing a carrot and ginger puree risotto accompanied by a prawn tartare. So, I played around with the idea and came up with this, which is now one of my favorite risottos.
I toast the carnaroli rice, dry, the way presented in the Piemonte episode of Tucci’s series, because I like that slight nuttiness that comes out. And, in service, it saves some time, because the rice is already toasted and you can get right to adding stock. I sauteed a little bit of garlic, ají amarillo, and teeny dried shrimp in some olive oil, then added the rice and immediately started adding ladles of shrimp and carrot broth to it. When the risotto was ready, I finished it with a puree I’d made earlier of cooked carrots and ginger blended with mascarpone. Adjusted the seasoning with a little more salt, and that part was ready for serving. Also earlier, I’d made a prawn tartare – finely chopping the prawns and mixing with chopped chives, lemon zest, prickly oil (szechuan peppercorn oil), mirin, and fish sauce. A quenelle of that on top, and leave it for the guests to mix the tartare into the risotto, which, given how finely chopped it is, it cooks from the heat of the risotto.
A riff on the classic tuna causa. The classic layer of chilled mashed potato flavored with lemon juice, olive oil, Peruvian yellow chili, and salt. Topped with a “salad” of fish fumet poached mackerel, chopped and mixed with red onion, celery, rocoto chilies, avocado, black olives, tomato, and cucumber, in our Szechuan mayo (yolk, lime juice, prickly oil, fish sauce, vegetable oil, salt, white pepper).
A simple fish main course of broiled sole (lightly dusted with salt and pepper) served over a salsa llajwa inspired sauce. The classic sauce is a blend of tomato, rocoto chili, and two Andean herbs – huacatay and quirquiña. Here, it’s a sauce of roasted tomato and rocotos blended with toasted cashew nuts and shiso leaves. Served under the fish, which is then topped with lightly pickled red onion (plumes of onion sauteed in olive oil, the finished with rice vinegar, salt, and chopped parsley). Accompanied by olive oil roasted papines and garlic asparagus.
And, finishing off one of the week’s dinners with a throwback to one of the desserts I used to make a lot, and now am not sure why I stopped including it in our rotation. A dark chocolate ganache tart flavored with Chinese five-spice, over a sable crust. Topped with blueberries macerated in the liqueur Punt e Mes. Not quite as good as using Pineral, a local liqueur, but I checked a dozen places around our neighborhood and no one had any.
Apropos of the cover photo above of blueberries used for this dessert… Neighborhood fruit and vegetable stand. Big crate of blueberry packages… now, all of them out of the same shipping crate from the local Argentine producer, but nestled into the crate, one of the packages was from an Israeli producer. No idea how it got there – I find myself wondering if someone wanted a sample of Israeli blueberries and somehow it got packed in the crate, or if maybe a different distributor was trying to sell the store some Israeli blueberries and rather than try the sample, they just stuck the package in with their Argentine ones.
I note, in retrospect, that all four dishes I selected above have little Asian ingredient touches. That’s something I used to do a lot more, particularly in my cooking back in New York, and in the early days here at Casa SaltShaker. Maybe it’s time to return to more of that. It’s the way I cook for us at home a lot, so why not?
