Christmas at the Café

It's Christmas time in Alex's Cafe. To get you into the spirit, I have two treats. The worlds best gluten free cookies and an creamy delight of a drink I call Bog.

Bog with The World's Best Gluten Free Cookies

Bog

My Wife laughs at me when I drink these but I'll take it as long as I can drink this at Christmas time to take the edge off.

Baileys & Cream Liquor (or a cheaper counterfeit version)

Egg nog

Whipped cream (optional)

Pour into glass. Ratios depend on your taste.
Top with whipped cream.

Enjoy.

World's Best Gluten Free Cookies

There are many ways that these cookies can be made. I like to have them more cake-like, but, with a slight adjustment,  you can make them chewy and flatter.

1/2 Stick of butter

1/3 cup of vegetable oil

1 Teaspoon of vanilla

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup of sugar.

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1/4 cup of flaxx flour (for cake-like cookies) 1/2 cup for chewy and flatter cookies

1 3/4 cup of brown rice flour (for cake-like cookies) 1 cup for chewy and flatter cookies

1/2 cup of chopped nuts (or more)

1/2 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips (or more)

1/2 cup dried fruit (optional)

Peheat oven to 350˚

Soften the butter in a microwave and use electric mixer to blend with vegetable oil, vanilla  and egg.

Mix in baking soda and salt.

Mix in sugars

Hand stir in the flours

Hand stir in the chocolate chips and any other enhancements.

Drop rounded teaspoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet, at least 2" apart.

Bake until light brown for no more than 8 minutes  (or to your preferred texture) 

Cool slightly before removing them from cookie sheet and place on cooling rack or in your mouth if you're impatient.

Enjoy, A

Breakfast Sushi with Sake Mimosas

Some things seem like a good idea at the time. Breakfast Sushi was one of those things I was thinking about for years. The original concept was actually going to be called: "Redneck Sushi"because I wanted to make a low-brow version of sushi. Instead of raw fish, this was going to have ingredients like Spam™, KFC™ and grits. I modified this into Breakfast Sushi. Instead of using rice, I used grits. The filling is eggs prepared omelet style (minus the cheese) and some cooked sausage. All ingredients were wrapped in seaweed. In retrospect, bacon would have been a better filling as well as sticking to rice instead of grits. It wasn't that it was horrible, it was just weird. Out of the 4 tasters, 1 spat it out and the other 3 ate it but thought 1 was enough. The drink of choice was a sake mimosa. One part Sake, one part fresh squeezed orange juice. This I would actually make again. the only complaint I have for this one is that it seem to pack too much of a wallop for so early in the morning. Perhaps under the right setting with the right dish, this could be salvaged.

Enjoy, A

BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE, EVER!

Okay, best chocolate cake, ever is a bold statement. But, I have to say, I've made this cake three different times, screwed up at different points while making it and yet, it's always been a big hit. Even after left in the refrigerator for a week, getting egg yolks into the egg whites, over-cooking and forgetting to line the spring-form pan with wax paper for easy removal. The best thing about this cake is that it looks like it's going to be heavy and dense but it's actually light and airy. It's fun to see the expressions on your guests' faces when they take a bite and realize this.

The only prerequisite I will suggest to you before making this cake, is to have some experience making a souffle. A souffle, to me is the essential dish that separates cooks from chefs. If you can't make a souffle, then this dish may be a little foreign to you. If you have, then all you have to think about is that this is a chocolate souffle that's fallen. The most important thing I have found when making souffles is that you have to have everything laid out and ready to go. There is no time to be fumbling around the kitchen looking for an ingredient. Timing is everything! Scared yet? Good.

There is an orange sauce that you are supposed to make with this. But It really doesn't add anything to the flavor. Matter of fact, I found it kind of distracting. Instead, I suggest whipped cream, preferably some that you whip up yourself with some heavy cream and a little sugar.

Chocolate Cloud Cake

Ingredients:

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter. That's right, two freaking sticks!

9 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

6 eggs

2/3 cup of sugar

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Cream of tartar (optional). Some say this stuff keeps your eggs fluffy.

Supplies:

Two large bowls

Electric beater

Oven proof pan to hold water

Springform pan. This will not work without one of these pans.

1) Put a roasting pan, 1/2 full of water in the bottom third of the oven. This keeps moisture in the cake. Preheat oven 325ºF.

2) Butter the sprngform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Butter the paper. The best way I have found to line the bottom is: Take off the bottom, lay it onto the paper and draw around the edge like a stencil. Cut out this shape and it gives a perfect fit to the bottom of the pan. Put pan back together before using (duh).

3) Slowly and lowly melt the butter and chocolate together in a heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring. Remove from heat.

4) Separate the eggs and whites into two large bowls. I found the best way to separate eggs is in your (clean) hands. passing the liquid, back and forth between hands and letting the whites slip between your fingers.

5) Beat together the yolks, 1/3 cup of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

6) Clean the beaters

7) In other bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of cream of tartar (optional) until the eggs hold soft peaks. Gradually ad rest of sugar, beating until the whites hold stiff peaks.

8) Stir the warm chocolate into the bowl of egg yolk mix. Stir until well combined.

9) Stir 1/4 of the whipped egg whites into the chocolate egg mix until it's lightens.

10) Gradually FOLD, not stir the rest of the egg whites into the mix. Gently but thoroughly. Folding is a major part of keeping air in a souffle. It's done just like it's read.

11) Pour the batter into the springform pan and bake in the middle of the oven (do not put the sringform pan into the pan of water. I don't know why they had these in the original directions I read but it must have happened at least once.

12) Bake for at about 1 hour. Cake is done when a wooden tester skewer comes out with cumbs instead of liquid. Cracks will form on the top of cake. Do not panic. it's doing it's thing.

13) When done. Take out of oven and cool for 10 minutes. The cake will fall. Again, do not panic.

14) Run a thin knife around the cake's edge. Remove the sides of the pan (couldn't do that in a regular cake pan, eh?)

15) Let it cool for 30 minutes.

16) Turn cake over onto a plate. Remove the pan bottom and the parchment paper.Place another plate onto the (now, top) and flip it back over. The second plate will be your serving plate so you may want to make it fancy.

The cake can now be served with whipped cream, or wrapped in Saran Wrap™ and eaten later in the day, or place in the fridge, in Tupper Ware™ and served the next day (bring to room temperature.

Enjoy, A

Birthday Bistro Bash

For my wife's birthday, I was put in charge of making the birthday dinner. Of course there was no way in hell I was going to make meatballs and spaghetti for this special occasion. After all, for Christmas, I was given two restaurant hardcore porn cook books: Alinea by grant Achatz and Ad Hoc from Thomas Keller of French Laundry fame (another cookbook I also have). I thought about the menu for about a week, planning the starters to the desert. Even the wine list. Desert was done by my mother-in-law and was to be a delicious chocolate cheesecake. I paired it with a nice Port.

Whenever you do a fancy meal, the experts always say the same thing. For every fancy thing, you better have 2 simple things. Considering I wanted to to a 7 course meal (including desert) I would need 2 fancy things and by fancy I meant those dishes that kill your kitchen and take the entire day. To me, working on these is very invigorating and really sharpens the culinary brain. Even if it fails you can always say: "What did they expect, this is a French Laundry dish that usually cost $400."

Here was the final Menu, some recipes are provided:

Alex's Café Birthday dinner

Delle Venezie Pinot Grigio 2009

Pomme Frites (French fries) with Aioli

Clam on Nasturtium Leaf with Nasturtium Soup and Shallot Marmalade

Haricot Vert (Green Bean) Salad

Cline Ancient Vine Zinfandel 2008

Parmesan Crisp with Goat Cheese Mousse

Mint Sorbet

Salmon with Mushrooms

Wellington Criolla Port

Chocolate cheesecake (Desert by Jackie Kinney)

Breakdown:

Delle Venezie Pinot Grigio 2009: I found this gigantic blue bottle at Tra

der Joe's that screamed birthday dinner all over it. Luckly it was good, not great but it did pair well with salads and in in this case the h

ome made

Pomme Frites (French fries) with Aioli.

To make good crispy fries remember to:

1) fry them

2)drain

3) Fry them again

AIoli

Lots of crushed garlic

olive oil

salt and pepper

lemon juice

1 egg

Mix together, salt and pepper to taste.

Clam on Nasturtium Leaf with Nasturtium Soup and Shallot Marmalade:

This was kitchen killer #1. This dish came from Alinea. A restaurant in Chicago, famous for blending food science and sometimes, science fiction into a meal. There were at least 5 items to be made which were put onto a fork: Shallot marmalade, lemon pudding, clam, nasturtium leaf and flower, sitting over a bowl of nasturtium soup. Luckily we have lots of nasturtium around our house. The fork part took at least 4 hours for what would end up being just one bite!!! The soup was a total palate freak-out (to put it in G rated terms. At Alinea, they actually create their own dishes and silverware, just to highlight the dishes. I obviously didn't do that.

Haricot Vert (green bean) Salad:

My own invention and a simple one:

Blanched, cut up green beans

Salad greens

Gorgunzola cheese

Olive oil, infused with garlic and rosemary

mix

I chose a bottle of Cline Ancient Vine Zinfandel 2008 to ease the meal into the heavier dishes. Cline is one of my top 5 wineries in Northern California if only because the staff is so friendly and the grounds are pretty.

Parmesan Crisp with Goat Cheese Mousse

This was a simple/hard recipe from the French Laundry.

The goat cheese mousse was whipped goat cheese and

cream with herbs. the Parmesan crisp were just baked mounds of shredded cheese. The hard part was forming the cooling cheese into little cone shapes which were filled with the cheese. I used egg cartons to let them form. The only regret I had about this dish is: Eat them within 15 minutes of creation! I found them a little chewy after sitting around too much, I felt this was a clunker in the meal.

Mint Sorbet

A palette cleanser. For the kid's sake, I heat the wine to remove the alcohol. I also didn't use an ice cream maker, I just froze it and crushed it with a fork occasionally.

Mint Sorbet


1 packed cup chopped mint leaves
2 cups water

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

¼ cup sweet white wine

1/2 cup lemon juice

In medium saucepan over medium heat, bring the chopped mint, water, and sugar to a simmer. Cover the pan, lower the heat slightly, and cook for about 3 minutes, until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and cool the mixture to room temperature. Stir in the white wine and lemon juice. Chill the mixture for 2 hours. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Salmon with Mushrooms

This was a home run. I don't think I took a very good photo of it, but trust me, it was restaurant level.

I had made this many times and is one of my wife's favorites. the original name was Salmon with Chanterelles. Chanterelles are $20

per pound mushrooms. I did it that way once and noticed no great improvement over oyster or even Shitake mushrooms. This time I used oyster mushrooms and I made the 1/2 cup of fish stock from scratch.

Fish stock:

Fish parts

Thyme

Put fish and thyme in pan, cover with water. Simmer until water taste, well, like fish stock!

Salmon with Oyster Mushrooms

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/2 pound Oyster mushrooms, wiped clean and

halved

4 salmon filets (not frozen)

1/2 cup of white wine (use the one you're going to drink, later

1/2 cup of fish stock

1 small shallot,

peeled (duh) and chopped fine

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup of heavy

cream

1/2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard

Salt and fresh

ly ground

pepper

1 teaspoon of chopped, fresh chervil (or dry is fine)

Melt the butter in a large skillet with a tight fitting lid. Add the mushrooms and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes or until they start to "sweat".

Remove the pan and reserve the mushrooms and juice separately. If, for some reason, you didn't get any juice from cooking the mushrooms, you can ad a little water to the pan and reserve that.

Place the salmon in the pan, making sure you don't have any overlap.

Pour the wine and stock over the fish (the liquid should about 3/4 of the fish. Cover with the chopped shallots and the mushroom juice.

Cover the pan with the lid and place over moderate heat for about 4 minutes. The salmon should be starting to cook but you do not want to cook it all the way. Put the rare salmon into a warmed oven. By the time you finish the rest of the meal, that thing will be perfectly cooked.

Return the pan to moderate heat and add the mushrooms. Cook uncovered for about 5 minuted or until the liquid is reduced by half.

Stir in the lemon juice, cream and mustard and cook until it's thick

Season with salt and pepper to your taste

Add chervil

Place the salmon on a platter, cover with sauce and mushrooms, garnish with chervil if desired.

Enjoy

Chocolate Cheese Cake by Chef Jackie, served with

Wellington Criolla Port

Wellington Criolla Port. Another favorite winery and one of the few in the States that I've seen make port.*

The guest enjoyed the meal, even the kids liked it and if you can get a kid to get pass meatballs and spaghetti, that's the ultimate compliment.

* This winery got bought out and is long gone. 😟

Cheers, Alex