Food Pr0n!

[Wizzard419]

I don't care who gets hit as long as someone is standing there.

[Wizzard419]

Time for another recap...

Braised short ribs



Wassail



French 75 (forgive the glass, it was from a secret santa at the office last year)



Orange Chipotle Pork Tenderloin wiht Pico, Mango Pineapple salsa, Guac, and Black beans.



A Blizzard, there was also a subway breeze but I forgot to photograph it.



Creamed horseradish and cream corn.



Spinach Gratin



Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes



Prime Rib



Spiked coffee and a replica of the Sachertorte



Pride of the Crowns salad



Pollo Frito (Italian style fried chicken where it's marinated in lemon and cooked in olive oil) and "Speedy Pan Rolls"




Blood Oranges and Satsumas, the insides of the blood oranges never get past small flecks and patches of blood red because they don't get cold enough here. There are still about 3-4 times as many left on the tree, so I should be free of sucuvy for a while and have enough marmalade to last till the end of time.



Finally, my first attempt at making Cafe Brulot, because coffee and alcohol aren't exciting until you set it on fire and then make a fountain of flames using the orange peel. Then, to top it off you take a picture of it with your free hand!

[Amy]

Impressive collection of fruit off your tree there Wizzard! I'm confused as to what we are looking at in the last photo ~ what is the wormy looking thing? Is that the orange peel? And what exactly, is in the Wassail?!

[Wizzard419]

That is the blood orange peel and the points of light on it are cloves. What you do is heat the cognac up (I was making a small batch and don't have the requisite bowl) with various spices (in this I had some cinnamon stick, clove, and vanilla bean), when the alcohol starts to reach the vapor point you unlid take a ladel full and light it, then pour it down the orange peel so that it sparks up the pan/bowl, then repeat the pour a few tims till the clove starts to catch fire and put it all out with a pot of coffee.

Wassail is an old world/pagan beverage served during the winter (hence the song "Here we go a wassailing"), people would combine ale, fortified wine (in this case madera), spices from the new world (cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg), and roasted crab apples (to symbolize fertility) and place it in a large bowl that would be shared. Or just put in in a tankard and punch anyone trying to take your stuff. It is a less sweet version of mulled wine I would say.

If carolers came to your door (long ago) you would want to have it ready or they would pretty much raid your property and take what they darn well please.

[Amy]

That is the blood orange peel and the points of light on it are cloves. What you do is heat the cognac up (I was making a small batch and don't have the requisite bowl) with various spices (in this I had some cinnamon stick, clove, and vanilla bean), when the alcohol starts to reach the vapor point you unlid take a ladel full and light it, then pour it down the orange peel so that it sparks up the pan/bowl, then repeat the pour a few tims till the clove starts to catch fire and put it all out with a pot of coffee.

Wassail is an old world/pagan beverage served during the winter (hence the song "Here we go a wassailing"), people would combine ale, fortified wine (in this case madera), spices from the new world (cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg), and roasted crab apples (to symbolize fertility) and place it in a large bowl that would be shared. Or just put in in a tankard and punch anyone trying to take your stuff. It is a less sweet version of mulled wine I would say.

If carolers came to your door (long ago) you would want to have it ready or they would pretty much raid your property and take what they darn well please.

I like the drink that you light on fire! The other drink, wassail, sounds yucky but it looks pretty

[Wizzard419]

Yeah Wassail is a seriously aquired taste, which is why you don't see it anymore and now see mulled wine/cider.

[Amy]

Yeah Wassail is a seriously aquired taste, which is why you don't see it anymore and now see mulled wine/cider.

I'm sure this is a silly question, but, did you make yours from scratch? And what is the little pointy thing on top? It looks like a meringue crust (or the top of a pencil?!)

[Wizzard419]

Oh that is the stem of the sugar roasted crab apple, it makes it easier to eat. The foam is mostly from the beer but you can get super foamy if you use egg whites.

[Mousekedude]

Orange Chipotle Pork Tenderloin wiht Pico, Mango Pineapple salsa, Guac, and Black beans.

You had me at "Orange Chipotle Pork Tenderloin".......
I'm still drooling....

[Wizzard419]

It's actually quite easy to make, I can post a recipie if you want. You're still in a place warm enough to grill right?

[Wizzard419]

Ok now for another recap.

As I noted in another thread, part of my vacation was spent playing video games and making marmalade.

So here we have Tarocco Blood Orange and Improved Meyer Lemon marmalde with vanilla bean (saw a few that called for it) and irish whiskey (the place I would go for tea on weekends in London always added it to their's). I didn't have anything to put it on at the time so I just had to put some in a dish for the picture.



As you might notice, it's not terribly blood red. That has to due with the climate being so awesome here that it doesn't get cold enough to activate the pigment (still gets the raspberry flavor) and the species doesn't get as red as the ones you may see in the supermarket.

But it did get cold enough to finally give the flame blush to a few oranges.



and some heavy pigmentation within (I had a redder one earlier but I didn't have a camera with me so it was eaten without documentation )



You might be asking, "What are you going to do with 128 blood oranges?"

Well, I don't know yet but here is a blood orange polenta upside-down cake.



and sillyness I remember from Disney magazine, now go eat Mickey's brains.



There is also an orange stinger cocktail that I forgot to photograph (aptly named because the room will start to spin after about 5 of them)

I'm not sure why I made this for the new year's party, but they are gelee of vodka and tonic (using agar agar because I like how it sets up vs powdered bone slime) also known as "Fancy jell-o shooters".



Here is some osso bucco, mashed potatos, and green beans (not photgraphed was the toast and heriloom tomato jam for the marrow eaters)



This lemon chicken and brocoli risotto was really good considering that I normally only really like fire grilled chicken.



The tri-tip stroganoff was also another shocker, the butcher gave me a free tri-tip but it was pouring rain and grilling was out so I looked up what else I could do with it and tried this.

[Amy]

and sillyness I remember from Disney magazine, now go eat Mickey's brains.

Awwww, that is cute!
And the chicken looks tasty!

[Mousekedude]

Dude, I'll take that recipe (the pork...).
And may I ask, how do you find the time for all this cooking? Are you really a chef at a gourmet restaurant, or what?

[Wizzard419]

I will get you that rec. tomorrow.

I have time because I work at home most days, I only go into the office for meetings and when I feel like throwing stuff at my drones. The stuff I do allows me that freedom so I can eat better. In reality, once you have the skill from practice you would be surprised at how little active time is required.

One of the best set of tools I actually have in the kitchen is the ipad (or any tablet for that matter), a simple aluminum stand, and a silicone keyboard (and the camera kit). Connect it to the home network and use a reader app and you never need to deal with cuttings, cards, paper books, etc. Plus edits are easy since you just edit the html file.

For example, I used a low fire to cook the marmalade, from start to finish it took about 3 hours. About 10 minutes was slicing up the fruit and measuring, probably a combined 10 minutes of stiring, and the rest was playing Alan Wake until I could no longer be alone in the dark.

Most good cooking takes time, but it doesn't actually require you stand over a stove or do anything active. Once you can get the skill and comfort you pretty much can figure out what you can and can't do with your free time.

[mindflipper]

I nominate Wiz to be the official Subsonic Gourmet chef! Maybe he could post some of the recipes for pics he posted?