Sunday, May 10, 2009

Cheese Post 2 of 12 (plus some other stuff)

Asparagus and goat cheese omelette with breakfast radishes w/goat cheese and salt. There's plenty out there on how to make omelettes, and I didn't do anything atypical (my post on the subject here), so there's not too much to say about it. I roasted the asparagus in a 400 oven before adding it to the cooking omelette.

The radishes with goat cheese seemed like a logical step from the classic radishes with sweet butter and salt. Not sure that these will replace the ubiquitous combination any time soon, but it's a nice alternative. Seasoned with a good dose of salt, the radish is a great vehicle for ingesting more cheese.

The sources for the asparagus and radishes are in this post. Eggs from Plum Creek.

The goat cheese was courtesy of Ile de France. It's a good chevre. Lake Erie's and Mackenzie's are better, but if they weren't available and I really had my heart set on making something with a fresh chevre this would do. It seems to be available everywhere, and there's something to be said about being able to get a decent cheese for a reasonable price at most any supermarket.

Millgate Farm grass fed flat iron with cheesy mashed potatoes. (Here are what I think are two good looks at the flat iron--1 and 2.) The sauce is sloppy because, in addition to my limited kitchen skill set, I am also forgetful. After making a nice reduction with shallots, pork stock, and butter and putting it on the plate, I realized that there were some juices from the resting steaks. So I just threw that jus on top. The "sauce(s)" was good.

The potatoes are farmers market Yukon Golds mixed with butter and lots of parmesan cheese. Could have used a touch of cream to loosen them up, but it wasn't worth a trip to the store. I'm really liking the parmesan and potatoes.

Millgate has what I think is some of the best grass fed in the area. The pictured steak was cooked simply--just seared well and left to hold in a 160 oven. A nice rare/med rare. Side note: Want to get your server injured by a grill cook? Ask for a steak cooked to an in-between temp. Works particularly well at places that use colored toothpick-like things to indicate doneness.

And this year's soft shelled crab sandwich. Wok fried in grape seed oil after being coated in flour mixed with Old Bay, salt, and pepper. The tartar-like sauce is some quick and easy mayo mixed with chopped gherkins and shallots. I was heavy handed with the dijon and lemon juice too. Crab from Kate's Fish, of course.

And that concluded this threefer.

2 comments:

smokeseed said...

Soft shell looks Deelishussssss.Mmmmmm.

The CFT said...

I expect nothing less in Chitown.