This past Sunday (1/18/2025) was my second cooking stream of the New Generation of ODG Cooking Streams. When I was trying to come up with a "theme" for the afternoon, I was thinking a lot about those fancy-ass restaurants where they serve you three bites of food on a fucking plate five or six times and, even though you're somehow full, it still doesn't seem to quite justify spending five million dollars just to eat there for two hours while everyone around you looks at you condescendingly because you didn't wear a goddamn tie. Fuck those people.
Anyway, I decided I wanted to figure out a way to do that kind of fun, small plate, presentation-centric food at the house without having to break the bank. My first course, as a direct theft from The Bear, a show I absolutely love, was the mirepoix broth. I started the stream by starting a light stock, which means you don't roast the bones beforehand, using some pork and beef bones. For the mirepoix broth, I finely diced some carrot, celery, and red onion (so not truly a mirepoix, as that would be yellow or, occasionally, white or vidalia onion), then dropped that mix into a bowl. Once the broth was nice, flavorful, and ready for consumption, I poured some over the mirepoix and let it sit for about a minute and a half to let the broth take the edge off the veggies without fully cooking them so there's still some nice crunch in each spoonful.
My second dish was definitely the best of the stream, so, if you try nothing else from this, try this right here. It's an ahi ceviche under a poached egg topped with rosemary leaves with fried sweet potato chips to scoop it all up with. I chopped up some ahi steak and mixed it with some fresh squeezed lime juice and rice vinegar with a little salt and pepper, then let that sit for about 20 minutes. I poached the egg in water with some rice vinegar. I thinly sliced the sweet potato and fried it in canola oil, then, when they were crispy around the edges, I seasoned them with some salt and black pepper. Just scoop some ceviche and egg onto the chip and enjoy. So fucking good.
Next up was some seared ahi on a parsnip mash topped with a gouda crisp. Unfortunately, I decided to try to be cute and use olive oil instead of butter for searing the ahi, then I put way too fucking much in and decided to leave it because fuck it. I made the parsnip mash by cubing and boiling a parsnip, then mashed it with butter, cream, salt, and pepper. The gouda crisp was just some grated gouda that I dropped into a hot pan with a little butter and let it get all golden brown and crispy. Very simple, very tasty, just kind of looked like ass. By the way: reusing a main ingredient, such as ahi, lets you make more small dishes without costing too much. I picked up a pack of six ahi steaks at Kroger for $22 and made all of the stuff in this post/stream with two of them.
Our fourth "menu item" was an ahi wellington served with a turnip velouté. I made the puff pastry (there will be a future post about that...) earlier in the stream so it could cool. I seared the ahi (actually pretty well for this one), then made up some faux-duxelles by mincing baby bella mushrooms and red onion, then sautéing them in butter and white wine. I wrapped the steak in the duxelles, then wrapped all of that in plastic wrap and let it cool in the fridge so that the duxelles held its form around the steak. Once it was solidified, I removed the plastic wrap, covered it all in puff pastry, then baked it at 375 for about twenty minutes. Unfortunately, the fish was a little dried out.
The turnip velouté is a fun and simple sauce that you can also just eat with a fucking spoon like I did after stream. Just make a simple roux (butter and flour), add in some of that broth you've still got simmering on the back burner, plus a turnip puree, then let it all reduce a little and thicken up. It's tasty, it's lovely, it sounds fancy, and it's simple as fuck.
Last, but definitely not least, was a ahi and mushroom ravioli in a tomato basil cream sauce. I made some pasta dough and cut a few circles out, then set those over to the side for a while while I cooked everything else. I minced up some of the ahi, then sautéed that with some of the minced mushroom that was left from the duxelles. I spooned some of that mixture onto two of the dough circles, then laid the other two on top, using a little water to help them stick together. I boiled those ravioli in the broth pot. Easy peasy.
As for the sauce, I melted and browned some butter, then dropped in some peeled, salted, and diced Campari tomatoes and let them simmer for a little while before I added in a few crushed cloves of garlic. A few minutes later, I dropped in some chopped basil and let it all get nice and fragrant together. Finally, I added a little white wine and a bit of cream with salt and pepper. Once it was all integrating some, I dumped the mixture into my food processor and blended it all together. When the ravioli were finished boiling, I finished them in the sauce, then served them up.
Also, I drank a lot of Kraken rum. They should give me money. Or rum. Or both. It was a great time, we took less than four hours, and I ate lots of tasty food. Perfect afternoon. Check out the VOD here.
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