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Sautéed Calamari Salad with Tomatoes and Avocado

June 3, 2013

We haven’t had much time to try out new recipes lately but being in Paris, where we go to the the outdoor market twice a week and see so many fresh and appetizing things, has inspired us to try some new recipes. Today we purchased some lovely calamaris at the market and Dusty found a recipe that inspired us to make something similar

1 kilo calamari (approximately 2.2 pounds)
1/2 cup olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Dash chili flakes
1/2 bunch parsley, minced and divided
1 avocado, diced
1 tomato, diced
1 lemon, zested and juiced
2 tablespoons red onion, minced
1 bunch roquette or arugula lettuce, cleaned
Salt and pepper, to taste

First, clean calamari. We learned how to clean calamari last summer using this video and this video. We pull the back fins off as well as clean the skin off. Slice the cleaned squid bodies into rings about 1/2 inch thick. Clean the spiders and place prepared squid in a bowl with a lid. Calamaris come in different sizes but we ended up with about 26 small calamaris.

Add olive oil, 1/2 parsely, garlic, chile, lemon juice and zest to the squid and mix. Cover and refrigerate for at lease one hour.

Preheat a sauté pan over high heat. Pour cold squid mixture into pan and spread out. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, let it sit searing for two minutes. Stir a couple of times and let it sit for another two minutes. Stir again. By this time the calamari should be getting crusty. If not, stir again and keep cooking. You want to pan-roast the calamari until it is browned but not burned. Note: Our calamaris weren’t getting crusty so we disposed of some of the liquid in the pan so it would brown a little more.

When calamari is about done, add the diced avocado, tomato and red onion to the pan. Remove from heat. Place a handful of roquette or arugula on each plate and top with calamari. We used roquette because it’s one of my favorites and inexpensive. This dish serves 4 as an appetizer or 2 for dinner.

No Comments | Posted in: Food | Tagged with: Calamari, Food, Recipe
Le Chateaubriand

June 14, 2012

Le Chateaubriand is one of the cool places to go if you’re a foodie in Paris, at least that’s what we’ve read and what some of our foodie friends say. Dusty was able to get us reservations last night and the chef, Iñaki Aizpitarte, was did a superb job. The word we came up with to describe the food was “interesting”. Dinner was unique, even for a bid city where there are an abundant number of creative chefs. They served a prix-fixe menu and we selected to have the wine pairings to match. We had several amuse-bouches along with our courses, including two desserts.

The staff was very friendly. We were shown our menu and given an excellent description of each dish. The dishes had an interesting combination of ingredients that somehow went well together. There were a couple of times that we had no idea what something was, even after asking our waiter. Our wine pairings, I do believe, made the dishes so much more. They paired well with the dishes and were very much like the dishes, interesting.

Dusty’s favorite dish was the green one. It was describe as “risotto of samphire”. I had no idea what samphire was but Dusty did a little researching and found out that there are two different kinds, we had marsh samphire. Marsh samphire has “vibrant green stalks, similar to baby asparagus, with a distinctively crisp and salty taste”. The dish was most definitely salty. The green stuff on top tasted like seaweed but other than that, I have now idea what the green liquid was or how it was even made. Many of the other dishes were much the same, we knew what one or two ingredients were but couldn’t tell you any more than that. My favorite dish was the second dessert, which was a caramelized egg yolk on a cookie. The cookie reminded me of a macaroon but when we tasted it alone it was almost like cotton candy, both in taste and texture. You were supposed to eat it in one bit and it was amazing!

Amuse-bouches

top left: fish broth; top right: risotto of samphire; bottom left: cod, mushrooms & asparagus; bottom right: lady lamb 6 ways with a shredded white vegetable and mascarpone cheese (or something similar to it)

top left: fluffy whipped marshmallow or cheese with berries; top right: caramelized egg yolk on cookie;
bottom left: seeds on melon; bottom right: people standing in line when we left

No Comments | Posted in: Food, France, Paris | Tagged with: Food, France, Paris
Frenchie

June 6, 2012

One of the differences between our trip last summer in Lyon and this summer in Paris is the food. For many reasons, the food for us has been different. I’d say it’s because of one or more of the following reasons 1) Paris has more food options, 2) we feel more comfortable going to restaurants, 3) we’re here a week longer giving us more time to schedule dinners, 4) we’re better acquainted with the food scene, and 5) we have a working iPhone (that has a map, making it easier to find places).

Dusty has been researching the Paris food scene for months and has a lengthy list of places we need to eat. They range from a food truck (which we ate at today) to some of the highly rated restaurants in the world. Some you must make reservations for months in advance and others you can’t even make reservations for but must stand in line with other food-loving patrons (while drinking wine to keep you busy).

We’ve went to several restaurants since we’ve arrived including a couple in London but here’s one of my favorites so far. Gregory Marchand is the chef and owner of Frenchie, a small place with just a few tables that serves a three course prix fix. Here’s a picture of the window to the kitchen and a picture of me sitting by the window. We had a perfect seat that enabled us to see the entire place including what was happening in the kitchen window. The window spot also allowed us to see and hear people trying to get a table, making it even more special that we were one of the lucky ones (and confirming how much we loved the food).

left: Dusty’s lamb dish; right: My amazing fish dish

right: Dusty’s carrot cake for dessert and my rhubarb tart

1 Comment | Posted in: Food, Paris | Tagged with: Food, Frenchie, Paris
El Bulli Menu at Next Restaurant

April 14, 2012

A little over a year ago Dusty and I took a trip to Chicago as a little retreat. We were able to get a reservation for dinner at Grant Achatz’s Alinea. After a mind blowing experience we discovered that Grant Achatz was opening another restaurant called Next with a new concept that many would say couldn’t be done. Every three months Next changes it’s menu and essentially opens as an entirely different restaurant. The first menu was ‘Paris: 1906’ and included some classical French foods served at the Tour d’Argent in Paris for more than 200 years. Some of the dishes included whole lobes of foie gras baked in brioche, clear turtle soup with Madeira, duck pressed and sauced with its own blood and marrow. The next two themes were ‘Thailand’, and ‘Childhood’.

In February, Next transformed into ‘A Tribute to el Bulli’. El Bulli was a gastronomic destination in Spain and served its final mean in July 2011. Reservations to Next, as you can probably guess, are really difficult to get but Dusty was very persistant or lucky and was able to get reservations at the chef’s table for this 28 course adventure. Here are a few pictures from our food journey!

No Comments | Posted in: Food | Tagged with: Chicago, Food, Next
Dinner at Bret’s Table

April 12, 2012

Last weekend we were in Minneapolis visiting Dusty’s dad, Dean and stepmom, Julie before I get overly busy with the end of the semester and Dusty gets inundated with last minute details for Big Omaha. Dean and Julie have some good friends, Bret and Jon who we have become close with, in part because they love food just as much as we do (if not more). Bret recently traveled to France and lead a culinary tour around the country, including Provence, where they went to the former home of Julia Child. He also runs private events and classes in the Minneapolis area as well as in his home.

It just happens that this past weekend Bret and Jon were having some friends over for a little day of cooking, eating, and drinking, and we got the privilege to attend. We got some excellent culinary lessons from Bret (who is an excellent teacher by the way) and then ate the beautiful masterpieces we had created. One of our prep jobs was to be in charge of choosing the wines to pair with each dish and I must say we did an excellent job. Minneapolis had this great wine shop, France 44, that had an excellent selection of French wines.

Here’s a look at the menu we prepared:

Aperitifs
Anchovy Tapenade with Crackers
Kir Royal (a popular French cocktail made with creme de cassis–black currant liqueur topped up with champagne)

Plat
Cuisses Poulet farci avec la saucisse avec jus (Stuffed Chicken Thighs)
Pomme de terre parisienne (Parisian Potatoes)
Steamed small carrots

Salad Vert
Fromage

Dessert
Tartelettes au chocolat individuels avec des framboises et crème à la pistache (Individual Chocolate Tarts with Raspberries and Pistachio Cream)

No Comments | Posted in: Family, Food, Fun Times | Tagged with: Cooking Class, Family, Food, Wine
Dante Cooking Class

April 11, 2012

Dusty and I really enjoy food and wine! We absolutely love eating at Dante Ristorante and Pizzeria. Nick, chef and owner, is brilliant and Andy, wine director, has so much energy and passion for not only Italian wine but all wine. The entire staff at Dante’s is the best. If you live in Omaha and haven’t eaten there you need to. Dusty likes to say that it’s a phenomenal pasta place disguised as a pizza shop. Seriously, the pizza is the best in town (Pitch being a close second) but the pasta and green salads are the hidden gem. All of their pasta, dough, mozzarella, and most everything else is made fresh in house. Most everything (if not everything) is locally grown and raised.

Dante’s started offering wine dinners a few month ago that Dusty and I started attending. It’s a great reason to try excellent food and wine and to learn how everything pairs together. For months Nick and Andy have been talking about hosting a cooking class where guests can do a little Italian cooking and end the night with a great dinner. A few weeks ago we were lucky enough to be able to attend and had an absolutely wonderful time. They closed down the restaurant for the night and we were able to go to four different food stations and two different beverage stations to learn about wines, beers, making fresh pasta, making neapolitan pizza, homemade sausage, and breaking down poultry and fish. I learned and did so many interesting things. It was a great date night out with Dusty. I can’t wait to do it again.

No Comments | Posted in: Food, Fun Times, Omaha Night Out | Tagged with: Cooking Class, Dante Pizzeria, Food, Wine