two. ate.

In Japan for more than just a whirlwind 10 days of eating in Tokyo, I trekked out to my friend Soma-san's vacation home in Kiyosato (3 hours west of Tokyo by car). Rather than visit one of the many restaurants in the area which, by the way, resembles California's wine-country, we hit up the local grocery store, a handmade bread shop, sausage store and local brewery for a cookout feast.

Beer and salt and well-traveled chopsticks... (photo by wjc)

After setting up the grill, we paraded out the grillables and proceeded to get our cookout on...

Continue reading "Kiyosato Cookout" »

Posted by wm. christman at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By popular request...a handful of folks were discussing the relative merits of mayonaise (likes and dislikes) and of course I felt compelled to share. It's got a mayonaise base but it's garlic aioli:

- four cloves of garlic
- kosher salt
- two egg yolks
- one cup of olive oil
- dijon mustard
- lemon juice (1/2 lemon)
- room temp water
- white pepper

1. Mince garlic with a pinch of salt and keep chopping until you achieve a paste-like consistency.
2. Add garlic to the egg yolk (which should be in a small-ish bowl) and whisk to break the yolks.
3. *This is the labour intensive part* Start adding the olive oil drop by drop and whisk well after every one...after the yolk starts emulsifying you can add the oil in a thin stream. Keep whisking until all of the oil is incorporated. The mixture should be thick and mayonaise-like.
4. Add a bit of the lemon juice and water to thin. The lemon juice will "whiten" the mixture a bit.
5. Add a small (1/4 tsp) amount of the dijon mustard and white pepper to taste

Posted by wm. christman at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I cannot really believe that it has been two whole months...

Lots of things going on in the household...plus a modicum of cooking adventures. At some point, we have to post details about most of these (and pix too) but for now we have been busy with:

- exploring restaurants in our neighbourhood, namely El Titanic (a very unlikely name for a restaurant) which is a pretty amazing Mexican seafood restaurant.
- continuing to explore the Mexican markets in the area, Los Cuates which has a stunning selection of all things Mexican food-wise including a dynamite fresh salsa/ceviche/sauces bar and equally amazing meat counter.
- cooking everything from a cornmeal crust sea food pizza with a light lobster white sauce as a base, to a salted cod and potato gratin, to another batch of pork rillettes, to a very delicious black bean chiliquiles. Inspiration strikes and we set it off, devour it and then say, "oops, we forgot to take pictures for Two. Ate....". Ah well, it's all about the post-prandial dip, don'tcha know.

BTW, I added all of the older "Mise en Place" blog entires a few week ago. They're all sitting in the "mise en place blog (old)" category. Mise en Place was our first attempt to food-blog and I thought it made sense to include them here...

Posted by wm. christman at 08:42 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

At the end of 2005, we usually host 2-3 dinners for our friends. 2005 was very busy for us and we were frankly a bit burned out and wanted to just relax during the last week of the year. But the urge got the best of us and we hosted our friends Pat and Lizzie, and Mary and Phil for a last dinner of the year bash. It was a "bistro" theme as I have been doing that style (if you can call it that...bistro food is just simple cooking...and therefore, very satisfiying) for most of the year.

Our menu included a few things inspired by our trip to France earlier in the year...especially our appetizers...

Continue reading "Our Apps Finally Hit The Table" »

Posted by wm. christman at 10:24 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

For the 6th year in a row, I have had the honour to be part of the chef's staff at the Poubelle Winter Feed. For those just joining the broadcast, this is our friend Tom's annual Winter dinner party celebrating his birthday. The only twist is that he (and we) cook for a houseful of friends.

This year's affair broke some records and achieved some milestones:
- this was the tenth annual Winter Feed
- we made 20 dishes this year, a new record
- Tom's mom came out to the dinner for the first time (his father, a professor in St. Louis, had to finish up the fall semester back there...)
- Tom turned 40 this year

For me, it was the third time of being the lead sous-chef on the kitchen crew and the second time of having the same crew (Tim, Meriko, Derrick) which made it an even more familiar kitchen. Here's the crew and Tom at the end of the evening...

We fed 38 people, made 50 souffles (more on that in a minute), grilled a whole bunch of quail and all had a rewarding, tiring, foot-numbing good time.

Check out the "Continue reading about..." URL below for some intimate details. Also check out Tom's Butter Pig blog, a set of pictures by LeeAnn and some by Melissa...you can match up the photos to the menu below....ok, onto the details...

Continue reading "Whole Lotta Cheffing... (Poubelle Winter Feed 2005)" »

Posted by wm. christman at 10:40 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)