Seattle Cooking Club

TK Round Up

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Kelli

After two months of attempting quite a smattering of Thomas Keller delights, it was time for the actual event. Great ladies, great conversation GREAT food. Summer plans took quite a few people out, but we still had enough to make me feel bloated for two days.

For those of you were were unable to make it, here is what you missed:

Green Bean and Potato Salad With Mission Figs and Prosciutto

Smoked Salmon Crisps

Leek Bread Pudding

Corn on the Cob with Lime Salt

Roast Chicken

I’m not sure I could have eaten any more…. Except for dessert of course.

Cherry Pie

Blueberry Cobbler

I love a good dessert table…

And a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Posted in Event | 1 Comment

Oh My, Cherry Pie

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Kelli

First of all, I am no pie maker. Secondly, growing up, I never liked cherry pie. So this doesn’t seem like a likely candidate to serve to the neighborhood ladies that were coming over for wine and pie night…(I only knew two of the seven) Bold move- but sometimes you have to trust that a fabulous chef can make even a no cherry eating non-pie maker look like a baker. Fingers crossed.

seven cups of cherries- that’s a lot of cherries and a lot of pits. I got the hand held XO Cherry pitter to help. I love it.

Two of the cups go in the blender and get pureed and poured in a medium sauce pan with sugar. This simmers for about a half hour.

When it’s done, mix with a slurry and some vanilla and the rest of the cherries- pitted, but whole.

Pie shells at this point should have been chilled and ready to go- no pictures of that because it’s a touch boring…

Fill the pie shell with your mix and revel at how lovely it is.

Then impress yourself with your top pie crust and pop it in the oven.

After about 40 minutes your house will smell amazing and your pie will look something like this:

Now, what I can tell you is that I cut this into eight large slices and served them to seven ladies. There was not a scrap left on anyone’s plates. THREE of them admitted that they didn’t think they liked cherry pie- so apparently I was in good company. Seems we just don’t like canned filling.

I would love to show you how beautiful it looks on a plate next to a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but where I may be brave enough to serve cherry pie to people I don’t know, I’m not brave enough to take pictures of my fork in mixed company.

This is the sad piece that was left- that I ate for breakfast in the morning.

Worth the effort- and I will say that this is by far my most successful pie attempt. The crust is AMAZING. Super flaky and delicious.

This recipe is from Ad Hoc at Home

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Pecan-Walnut Bars

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Kelli

From Ad Hoc at Home

We have been out of town so much I haven’t had the occasion to cook anything in a long time. A weekday picnic potluck provides such opportunity.

This has a delicious crust and a pecan pie type of a filling.

Now, in typical Kelli fashion, I overflowed the pan so this sugary, caramel mess got under my crust and I was pretty sure I would never get these bars out of the pan.

Once it comes out of the oven it goes into the freezer until ready to cut and serve.

I was dead wrong about it not coming out of the pan. If it came off the bottom of my oven so easily I would be in good shape.

These were really good and I’ll be making them again- but as a note, this is pictured as one serving. The recipe says that it makes eight large bars. No doubt they are large. I think it makes 32 bars.

I didn’t try it with ice cream… but I want to.

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Brioche

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Kelli

After buying Brioche on numerous occasions for recipes and feeling guilty for spending so much money on bread, I decided that I needed to try to make my own.

It takes two days- but isn’t tricky. The recipe in French Laundry makes two loaves.

loaf one: lovely, a thing of beauty and perfection.

Loaf two… oops. Didn’t butter the pan well enough I suppose.

But look how lovely it looks. I guess the good news is I now have an excuse to make lots of croutons- and I won’t feel guilty eating about half the loaf like this:

PS. If you wonder why brioche is so tasty, look at the recipe. The butter content alone is enough to make me weep.

Posted in Kitchen Diaries, Staple | Leave a comment

Chilled Asparagus with Vinaigrette and Eggs Mimosa

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Kelli

Asperges en Vinaigrette et Oeufs Mimosa

What did I say about always looking for new ways to serve asparagus? Always on the hunt.

This dish starts with cooking the asparagus in water and plunging into an ice bath- nothing new. What is new, is he has you bundle the asparagus before you cook it- like this:

There is no explanation as to why- and I saw no benefit. Can someone tell me why? If not- I won’t do that again.

Once you trim the asparagus so they are all the same length, you blend the extra ends to make a coulis (not pictured)

The other weird part of this recipe is it calls for ten hard boiled egg yolks.

Now, I like hard boiled eggs at much as the next person, but that could have easily been cut in half. The yolks are finely chopped or grated.

The plate is finished with Coulis on the bottom, Asparagus on top. Sprinkled with the egg and some sliced radish with a house vinaigrette.

It does make for an impressive starter. Very pretty plate.

A bonus is that everything can be prepared in advance without much fuss. Plating is a snap.

And the angels beam in delight.

This is from Bouchon.

Posted in Appetizer, Salad, Vegetable | Leave a comment

Strawberry Sorbet Shortcakes

Posted on June 17, 2012 by carolheigh

This recipe can be found in The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller. We started with the biscuits and I was fortunate to have a helper who wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.

The finished product.

These berries were delicious, but I’m excited to try it with local berries when they are ready for picking.

Next, the berries are blended and strained twice to ensure all the seeds are removed.

Mix with sugar and honey and into the ice-cream maker it goes!

In the bottom of the bowl goes a little sweetened creme fraiche sauce.

TA-DA!

Delicious!

Posted in dessert, Kitchen Diaries | 3 Comments

“Linguine” with White Clam Sauce

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Kelli

This would be our second small plate of the evening… and it turned out to be everybody’s favorite.

Soak some clams in water. Scrub to remove any sand.

I made these noodles. Probably won’t do that next time. They stuck together when they dried and were sort of a pain. They were good- but a pain. May be if I would have dried them flat instead of in the nest…

The clams get cooked with shallots, garlic, thyme, a bay leaf, and white wine.

Remove them as they open.

The clam juices / wine gets strained and mixed with butter and parsley. A lot of butter. No wonder the sauce was so good.

Half the sauce goes on the linguini, half mixed with the shucked clams.

Take a small part of the linguini and twirl. Place in each open shell and top with a bit of the clam mixture.

They get nestled on some oven warmed rock salt and whole spices. It smells great, looks great, and helps to keep the clams warm on the table.

As I said, these were everyone’s favorite for the evening. This is really saying something since none of us consider ourselves “seafood people” who knew.

Must be the butter.

I will make this again. No question. I wish I could make a whole bowl of it, but I think the butter ratio may take a year off my life.

This recipe is in the French Laundry Cookbook.

Posted in Appetizer, Kitchen Diaries, Seafood | 1 Comment

Cod Brandade with Tomato Confit and Fried Sage

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Kelli

Beignets de Brandade de Morue au Confit de Tomatoes et Sauge Frite

This recipe caught my eye the first time I was flipping through this book. The photo in the book looks so fabulous and my love of all things fried made it a necessary evil. It was all a matter of time.

Like most of Keller’s dishes this dish requires some prep work.

Check, Check, and Check.

I had some kitchen helpers for an evening of small plates. This was our start. Meet cousin Geri. She was sport enough to take on the final prep of what we affectionally called, “cod balls.”

Cod is rehydrated and mixed with riced potatoes, garlic, olive oil some spices.

The mix is formed into small balls and then dipped in batter and fried.

Our first batch was a bit sketchy.

It’s hard to tell in this photo, but this ball has no innards. It seems all of the cod escaped into the depths of the fryer. At this point we are not confident in our first dish.

But we needn’t worry! The next batch was much better.

Our only issue was that they kept getting stuck to the bottom of the basket. Not sure how to fix that. We lost the bottom of our balls. That sounds awkward.

On the plate though, it didn’t matter.

They just sit on top of the tomato confit and get a bit of fried sage on top.

THESE were good. Crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy in the middle. Like fish and chips combined in a fancy sphere.

I may make these again- particularly if I have some extra cod to use. They weren’t too difficult since all of the extra components were already prepared. Plus, Geri did all the work.

Recipe can be found in the Bouchon Cookbook or here.

Posted in Appetizer, Kitchen Diaries, Seafood | Leave a comment

Salted Cod

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Kelli

Picked up some Cod at the market the other day.

Love to hear the fish mongers call and repeat,

“Pound of Cod Fillet”

“Pound of Cod Fillet“

Good fun. It’s the little things. Watch out for flying fish.

We took our fillet home and went to salting it.

Take about an inch of Kosher Salt in a bowl just the size of your fish. Nest it right on top.

Pour more Kosher Salt on top until it is covered.

Cover and pop in the fridge for about four days. It’s got to dry out.

After four days it looks something like this.

Voila! You have salted cod. This will store in the freezer for quite some time, but I’ll be using this shortly… tune in!

Posted in Kitchen Diaries, Seafood | 1 Comment

Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwich

Posted on June 12, 2012 by carolheigh

Is there anything better than a grilled cheese sandwich? Well there is nothing better than a Thomas Keller grilled cheese. Recently I have tried three of his recipes and my favorite is the one I am eating at the time. It doesn’t hurt that he starts with thick slices of Brioche. I really need to learn to make this since it is rather expensive to buy. I joke about my $10.oo grilled cheese being worth every penny. The most recent sandwich is found in Thomas Keller Bouchon and the sandwich is topped with a fried egg and mornay sauce.

What better side for a grilled cheese than a large order of homemade fries? The secret to the fries is to double fry them. The recipe 1/4 inch fries but next next time I would make them a bit larger.