What kind of sides?

ok i want to make pasta w/ sausage and red sauce tonight. the sauce is from a jar but i just got back from the market with chicken sausage, onion, mushroom, garlic, red wine. what order should i saute these? i wasnt sure if i should do sausage first or veg first.

should i start them right now (3pm where i am) and just let it simmer until i eat likely 7pmish?

p.s i also have frozen broccoli

Why not just search the specific side dish on Food Network? I'm sure whatever is coming in a bag can be made pretty easily from fresh ingredients. I'd like to offer some examples, but my sides are ******edly simple. Usually consisting of a vegetable or two, and maybe some salt and pepper.

In a skillet, heat some olive oil, and add the garlic and saute until you can smell it but dont burn it, add onions and saute until clear, add sausage and brown. remove sausage and add red wine (scape the bottom of the pan) and then add the shrooms, let reduce for a bit until shrooms are soft, and then add the sauce, stir it all round, add sausage back in and let simmer until dinner.

ended up doing something similiar. browned sausage first in olive oil, pulled that. threw in gahlic, onion and mushroom. then added sauce, wine, sausage and a bit of water.

should this be simmering covered or uncovered?

covered typically, depends on how thick you like the sauce though. you want to do the onion/garlic first typically so it infuses with the oil, and adds a layer to everything else

Working on a plated dessert with the flavor profile of chocolate + almond + cherry + bleu cheese. This is a "rough draft" of sorts: almond sponge, chocolate sauce, cherry chantilly, bleu cheese.



The flavors are great and I especially like the cake, which is moist and dense and has a nice almond flavor (it's a David Lebovitz recipe). I went a little crazy with the chocolate sauce, there's way too much on the plate. I'm not real big on temperature contrast, but I think maybe the cherry chantilly would be better as a frozen mousse/parfait type thing. I don't have an ice cream maker at home, otherwise I would've made cherry ice cream.

One thing that's definitely missing though, is textural contrast, I'm not sure how to accomplish that, any ideas?

Ron, looks amazing. I get the blue cheese, but I'm just having a hard time imagining how that would taste.

What if you did a chocolate tuille or something like that?

It's a PITA for me to temper and do chocolate garnishes at home. I don't have a microwave or a marble slab to work on.

Ron, do you have the recipe for the almond cake...it looks great?

Some kind of candied nuts seems like a natural for the textural element, but maybe that's too obvious.

Blue cheese almond brittle. Make it happen Ron.

I think the candied nuts or blue cheese nut brittle idea are great. candied nuts is a classic pairing with cheese. The only issue is that it might fight a bit with the cherry flavor and possibly dominate it especially since its likely going on top of the cherry chantilly.

You could have the same flavors but maybe in a different form. Blue cheese almond brittle, chocolate chantilly/ chilled chocolate mousse, almond cake, cherries cooked in port or brandy. The alchohol element and the cherries in pseudo whole form would marry a bit better with the cheese flavor and if you happen to soak the cake in a bit of the same booze, would add an additional level of cohesiveness.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/06...d-cake-recipe/

I subbed 150g of almond butter and 75g extra sugar instead of the almond paste, and 1 less egg.

was the substitution due to almond paste being harder to acquire or is it due to a technical reason?

I thought of almond brittle, but I generally don't like brittles because they just get stuck in your teeth and end up being too sweet and strong usually.

I like the way you're thinking with the cherries. A couple months ago when fresh cherries were in season, I made the same almond cake with cooked cherries in red wine, and it was great.

at first I was thinking like a cheese tuille but the problem with that is 1. I'm not sure you can get blue cheese in to that form like you can with say parmesan so you might have to mix

2. People might not be able to get over associating cheese tuilles with savory dishes.

Another idea would be some kind of meringue as a base and your textural contrast, then a sauce or ganache between the meringue and cake.

It's because I don't really ever use almond paste, but I use almond butter for lots of things, so I always have almond butter around, but never almond paste. Almond paste is just almond butter + sugar so it's an easy substitution.

Cool, thanks.

yeah bleu cheese is not an easy thing to manipulate in shape. Plus I kinda want the cheese to be easily identifiable on the plate, so in case someone is apprehensive about it, they can try a little, and avoid it if they don't like it.

This guy knows what he is talkin' about.

This is 100% correct - you are layering flavors here - the garlic and the onion flavor the oil, which then takes on flavor from the other ingredients.

Eric Ripert's show is on Hulu!

http://www.hulu.com/avec-eric

S2 E3 is awesome: Ripert goes to a lardo factory in Italy, then makes a bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin with peas, and Michael Laiskonis (pastry chef at Le Bernadin) makes roasted bruleed figs with bacon ice cream.

What's up everybody, huge fan of this thread, some real talent going on there. I drool all over the keyboards here looking at some of this stuff. Was hoping you guys can help me out.

I'm going to Seattle this weekend to visit some friends (I've never been, any travel advice?) I was planning on doing some cooking for them either Friday or Saturday night. Me + presumably 2 ladies, unless they bring friends, and one of them is a prospect, so I wanna do this legit.

Basically I want to whip up a 3-4 course meal, consisting of mainly appetizer type things to munch on while we drink some wine or whatever. Then a nice light main course thats substantial enough to drink on. I'm very keen on Mexican food, but I literally love all foods so it doesn't matter. Not many insights to their tastes.

Any tips? I'm decent in the kitchen but would prefer to keep it simpleish. Also, any tips on cocktail pairings with the food would be awesome too. I'm assuming I'll have access to quality ingredients in an area like Seattle.

Thanks and keep doing what yall do!

If you want to keep it light and simple I'd go with a couple seafood courses. I'm assuming Seattle will have some great fish choices so head to the market and see what looks fresh and work around whatever fresh ingredients you can find. Probably something like a shellfish for appetizer, and then some type of fish fillets or even a whole fish preparation for the main course

I concur with the seafood idea as it would showcase the local produce.

If you are thinking Mexican food, perhaps start with a ceviche of some sort. Its easy, showcases local produce, and can be made ahead of time.

Since you are thinking more appetizer type foods, I would maybe do some tapas style dishes. Seattle is home to Salumi, the boutique Italian cured meat producer owned by Mario Batali's family. Buy a few different versions of prosciuttos/salamis, add some olives/marinated peppers/artichoke hearts, some interesting cheeses, and you have another dish that doesn't take so much time.

http://www.salumicuredmeats.com/

Going along the Spanish tapas theme, if the other diners are adventurous and you can find fresh octopus, I would perhaps make a octopus, chorizo, and potato stew. Another possibility is a classic tortilla de patatas, aka Spanish omelette/frittata. I would suggest a paella except you would have to buy a paella pan and thats annoying if you don't live in Seattle.

Since you are cooking in somebody else's kitchen, you would typically prefer to not make a mess, use a lot of cookware as after cooking you would prefer to socialize instead of washing cookware. Its awkward to leave it lying around since its not your place. You also leave a better impression on your hygiene if you don't have a ton of dirty cookware lying around should the prospect jump in the kitchen. You also want to minimize cooking time to maximize socializing time so try to stick to dishes that don't require a lot of pampering.