A Quadruple celebration - 2/13/2021

Table set up Celebration menu Birthday Platting /Behind the scene

Celebration Menu

Because of the Chinese New Year, I decided to go with an Asian theme for the food and I selected to serve Japanese dishes from Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.  I have been to his restaurant in New York and also to the one in Napa Valley and I also watch him compete on Iron Chef America.  He is such a creative chef,  I really like his food, and let's hope I will pay him justice.

For tonight, I prepared 2 appetizers duo followed by 5 dishes, and 3 desserts.

I usually have 14 to 16 people over for Valentine but because of Covid, I am having a much smaller group.

Ha, Phu, Huyen, Me, Hoa, Mark, Alice, Maily, and Tuan

 

A quick selfie with everyone before starting our meal!

 

Course #1: Appetizer duo: Foie gras negiri and Foie gras torchon, mostarda, toasted brioche.

On the left is a toasted brioche with foie gras torchon topped with homemade mostarda.

On the right is a foie gras Negiri brushed with soy, sugar, and mirin sauce.

 

Omg, I served this dish a few times and every single time, I hear ooh, aah, how delicious it is.

It is the perfect balance between the rice and the richness of the foie gras, the perfect umami.

 

Close look at the Foie gras duo.

 

Phu also brought a bottle Sauternes for the foie gras.  Sake is for the next course.

 

Course #2: 2nd appetizer duo:

Salmon gravalax on toasted bread, crème fraiche, caviar and uni pasta topped with caviar

Huyen and Phu were able to get Russian caviar from a great source and I am incorporating caviar into 2 dishes.

 

Salmon gravlax on a toasted bread, crème fraiche and caviar.

Can't go wrong with caviar....

 

Very generous with the caviar.

Close look at the dish.

 

We all love the Uni Pasta and it is even better with a doll up of caviar to elevate the dish to a new height.

Uni pasta is a creation of Eric Ripert from Le Bernadin, a 3 Michelin star restaurant in New York.  He specialized in seafood and this dish does not disappoint.

 

Close look at the dish.

The pasta with the Uni sauce is creamy, rich, and so tasty add with the saltiness of the caviar and it is a marriage in heaven.

 

Course #2: Salmon, Tuna, Hamachi pizza

The is one of Chef Morimoto most popular dishes.  A fast pizza to make by pan seared a flour tortilla that is brushed is eel sauce and then topped with salmon, hamachi, and tuna.

A sprinkling of vibrant vegetables (olive, tomatoes, red onion, jalapeno) and a tangy aioli is used to topped the pizza.

 

Beautiful presentation and it is also delicious.

 

 

Close look at the pizza.

Click on LINK to see preparation

 

Course #4: tuna tartare with 5 multicolor condiments

This is one of Chef Morimoto signature dish.  He does not give us out the recipe so I trying to duplicate more of less what he uses.
This is a fairly easy recipe to make but you have to start with a good tuna.  Morimoto used Toro but I was not able to find any so I used the best tuna I can buy,


To eat it, you will need to scrape the tuna and then mix and match with all the condiments.  The taste is really incredible!

 

Chopped tuna on ice.

 

The 5 condiments I used are chopped ginger, whipped crème fraiche, Tsukudani (boiled seaweed), wasabi mixed with avocado, and wakame Chazuke.

Basically, you a mixture of acidity/sweetness from the ginger, the richness of the crème fraiche, the saltiness of the seaweed, the creaminess of the avocado with a bit of wasabi to wake up your senses, and a bit of crunchiness from the wakame.

 

Course #5: Shrimp Masala with whipped crème fraiche

The shrimps are marinated is a special Masala mix and then sautéed with fresh vegetables.
The whipped crème fraiche is to dipped the spicy shrimps to cool down your palette.

 

What we liked about this marinate is the curry is not overwhelming, there is only a right amount of curry and the spiciness is well balanced.

 

Course #6: Phu's steak and egg

Phu is famous for his steaks so today he is bringing a cut we never had before: the rib eye caps.

The rib eye caps are pan seared and they rest for a bit before they are sliced.

The steaks are really delicious.  We have 3 platters but forgot to take a picture when it just came out of the kitchen.

 

The eggs are sous vide for 1 hour at 135 degrees and then served.  They came out very creamy and unctuous which is perfect to dipped the steak in.

 

Note: we were so full so I had to cut the crispy duck with port reduction. I'll make sure to make room for this dish in one of my future dinner so our guests will know what it is.

 

NEXT.... Birthday

 

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