Octopus Terrine

octopus terrine
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

I had bought a pair if frozen octopi the last time I was at the fish store, The act of freezing the octopus actually makes it more tender after cooking. Defrosted the octopus in the fridge over a couple of days and tried to decide what to make. I was going to make it for escabeche with capers, olives, onion and peppers, or a traditional galician way but decided instead to make a terrine that either way if it fell apart or had leftovers I could still make into escabeche.



defrosted octopi

I set a pot of water to boil, with no salt (it's supposed to make the octopus more chewy) a couple of bay leaves, peppercorns, and a penny (traditionaly octopus is cooked in a copper pot which gives it a darker color.)



I then dunked the octopus into the water 3 times letting the water come back to a boil after each dunk.



We shot a bit of a ponderous video of the whole process

terrine of octopus from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

As you can see we cooked potato in the same water after the octopus was done. The octopus was seasoned and placed in the terrine with plastic wrap, and unmolded the next day.



My son says it looks like a fossil. We served up the potato with pimenton



and served it all up



Served with some olive oil and some sea salt on the side. Turned out very tasty and makes a cool presentation.

Stunt Foodways

Interesing new site I intend to contribute to from the guy who brought us
My Empire of Dirt: How One Man Turned His Big-City Backyard into a Farm
A Website with a dedication to the fair and honest treatment of ugly and ungainly food, a fondness for feeding unruly crowds, and a commitment to cooking hard and well beyond your pay-grade.
Stunt Foodways
Check it out.
Up already some goat butchery.

One Egg Tortilla de Patata... Ostrich Egg

ostrich obligatory pacman
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

I received an ostrich egg for my birthday.



It was an odd but extremely funny gift and of course presented a bit of a challenge as to what to do with it. I was very wary of going too straight forward, ie scrambled or fried egg as I wasn't sure if it would taste just like a chicken egg. I chose to make a one egg tortilla de patata. A quintissential spanish dish served in homes and bars around the country.
Basically it is cooked potato, onion and garlic salt and pepper set in egg. I added some chopped chorizo, and pancetta as well as a tsp of pimenton.
The first job was to open the egg. The family threw out reccomendations, hole saw, screwdriver, mallet, but we ended up scoring the top with a saw and cracking it open with a wooden pestle.





The egg cracked presented the contents still safely hidden behind a thick membrane (amniotic sac) which I cut into and then poured the egg into a large glass bowl. My wife about lost her lunch at that moment as the egg gurgled, squashed and slithered out of it's shell. I will post video at the end of the post cause it's not a very appetizing moment. Having said that she did take my daughter and go out to dinner instead of waiting for the tortilla. The white and yolk are very intermingled with an orangy color, It smelled sweet, almost with a hint of vanilla, strange but pleasant.
Ok then I was on my own from here. I peeled 4 yukon gold potatoes 2 onions and 6 cloves of garlic and diced them. I sauteed them in olive oil some chorizo and a tsp of pimenton.



and pancetta



I sauteed it till it was almost done, the potato still had a bit of crunch but barely. I seasoned this with salt and pepper.

I initially thought I could cook all this in my large cast iron skillet, but the side isn't very high... and I had a ton of egg. I decided to transfer it all to the oven and use my relatively new clay pot from La Tienda.
I put the empty cazuela in the oven and preheated the oven to 350. When both the oven and cazuela were at 350 I added another bit of olive oil to the pot, half the potato, the now scrambled egg and the rest of the potato.



I then increased the temp to 400 and cooked for 10 min. At 10 minutes I mixed the ingredients which were partially set and cooked for another 10 minutes. After the total 20 min it was set so I switched to low broil for 4 minutes till it looked like this.



I flipped it onto a serving platter (the tortilla is 12 inches in diameter)



I summoned some pac-man vibe with a slice





It tasted great, very close to a chicken egg, no longer sweetly fragrant as it was before but with a nice pimenton aroma. Clearly have a bunch left over for breakfast and some snacks.


The egg cracking video is below, sorry if it is gross

ostrich egg open from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

Fideua

done fideua
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

Fideua is the pasta based alternative to a paella. cooked in a very similar manner either with thick or thin short noodles. This one has chorizo, pork and butter beans. The stock was made from beef bones.

The ingredients



Butter beans about 3/4 cup
small chorizo sausage (from La Tienda)
Pork Shank meat
grated fresh tomato and garlic



Pimenton
short thin dry noodles (I think I may have bought this at Olio)
Preparation
Heat olive oil in your pan, and sautee the ingredients step wise



The meats



the grated tomato and garlic



The beans and some sofrito



2 tablespoons of pimenton went in sautee for 30 sec then
I then added the beef stock and seasoned with salt to taste



I did not measure the liquid but filled the pan to just underneath the handle rivets, then once the liquid began to boil, I added a single line of pasta across the diameter of the pan till the pasta was about a centimeter above the water line. Then mix to distribute.
15-20 minutes later it was done and looked like this





The noodles are a much different texture than a regular rice paella, crispy on the bottom, creamy in the center and firm on the top. The butter beans were a good choice here adding a nice sweetness and crunch.

Grilled lamb with eggplant and green beans

lamb.1
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

My daughter fell in love with some rack of lamb we had on vacation and wanted to try and make it. The one she had eaten came with a demiglace sauce so we tried that too. We first marinated two frenched racks of lamb. The marinade we made in the blender out of the following:
6 large figs
2 sprigs of rosemary
4 cloves of garlic
¼ cup of olive oil
2 tablespoons of apple juice
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1 tsp of salt
4 black peppercorns
1 tsp of capers
1 tsp of Dijon mustard
We coated the racks and let them sit overnight in the fridge.



The next day we started the sauce with some beef soup bones that we bought at the SOJ market. We painted them in tomato paste.



and roasted them on the grill (but it can be done in the oven, just it's summer and all...) till well browned.



In a stock pot we covered the bones in water, added some carrots, half an onion, a head of garlic, and a bay leaf. Brought it to a boil, skimmed the foam and then turned to a simmer for 45 min.

For the demiglace sauce we reduced one bottle of red wine, 2 cups of beef stock and 2 cups of chicken stock all down to one cup of liquid. (Kind of interesting effect of causing it to hard boil when a skewer touches the bottom of the pan)



The sauce was then finished with a tablespoon of butter, salt and pepper to taste, a little honey to balance the acid.

For sides we roasted some eggplants (SOJ market) with oregano, salt, pepper, olive oil and whole heads of garlic



and we steamed some green beans (Also SOJ)



The lamb was grilled to medium rare



and cut into two rib pieces for serving





It turned out very good particularly the lamb with crusty edges and pink center. The fig can be just tasted in the marinade. The sauce took forever but was incredibly rich and meaty tasting. We had fun start to finish with probably one of the more complicated meals my daughter has cooked with me from sauce to meat, and two sides we made everything together. And enjoyed it!



Go cook with your kids!

T-bone Tagliata and Salad (Rachel Ray recipe)

salted T-bone
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

My wife saw this recipe on Rachel Ray's TV show and wanted to make it. She typically (well actually rarely) takes control of the kitchen, so it was exciting to watch.

The whole recipe is here
T-bone Taglita


The steaks where grilled with a rosemary, garlic, salt and olive oil marinade



Garlic was roasted



The salad and bacon where put together, by the way the salad dressing is great, (Tricia typically doesn't like mustard/mayo/ketchup but this combination was great)



We cooked everyting on the grill. The chopped potato



and the T-bones which I cleaned off the bone and sliced for the table



The meal was great. Not only as it was incredibly tasty, the salad, the meat the seasoning everything perfect, but also my wife gained some culinary confidence, which is great.

Eating Out - Pescados China Street

EAT
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

The boy and I recovered nicely from our visits to Stuzzi and Acacia, and headed to Pescados on China Street. The original on Midlothian has been a favorite of mine since the first time I went there. Having grown up in Puerto Rico, I am generally loathe to try dishes I grew up with anywhere else, but at Pescados those dishes shine.

We drove up and parked and was immediately alerted that I had parked in a high risk of towing area by a man who identified himself as the owner. I left the boy and moved the car. On my return the boy was on a first name basis with the owner of Pescados.

We took a seat and waited for a table, all the time the staff where incredibly nice and pleasant (maybe cause the boy was tight with the owner). The restaurant was full with again a good mix, many older couples and groups of couples where finishing up dinner (around 8pm) and younger couples and groups where filtering in. Several women from my neighborhood came in and said hi.

Eventually we were seated and we ordered some appetizers, the conch fritters and some ceviche.
The ceviche was mixed, squid, scalop, shrimp and fish



It was served with Yucha chips. I love ceviche, I make it and have had it across the caribbean, and this was very good, but not the best I've ever had. The conch fritters were also very good.



A nice taste of the ocean without the sauce overwhelming them.
For entrees I went with the whole fried fish, which I will say, I never order without some trepidation. In PR I can get whole fried fish on the beach from a gazillion places, always fresh always perfect. In Richmond not so much... unless the place is called Pescados. I have had this three times, now at both locations and each time it has matched or exceeded my expectations.



Crispy in all the right places, garlicky and moist flesh. Perfect in my opinion.
The boy ordered the halibut with yucha



The fish was again perfectly cooked, the yucha in tomato sauce was outstanding. I don't know if it requires growing up eating these foods as comfort foods to appreciate how great they are, but trust me this yucha dish is as good as I have ever had.

for dessert the boy had the chocolate tart, which he liked,



I thought it was good but certainly not the highlight of my meal.
I ordered the avocado tart, which I had had before and liked



It is tangy, like a key lime pie, but creamier with the avocado.
We laughed it up during dinner, compared dishes and overall had a great time. As we were leaving we were met by a loud, "Hey Dante (the boy) how was dinner?" from the owner, the boy exclaimed his approval as the owner bade him (not me) goodnight. We had a great time excellent food in a very comfortable setting. I was very impressed with how comfortable they made us, especially the boy, who felt like a rockstar.