Archives for August 2008
Ouch.
31 August 2008 | Ten 01, news | No Responses
Scalding hot lamb fat..That’ll Getcha…Sorry Chef!!
Caramel Mousse Cake.
27 August 2008 | Ten 01, creative presentation of the week, custard, delicious, plated dessert | No Responses
I ran this dessert as a special last weekend and it sold pretty well. With milk chocolate sauce and hazelnut praline, it looked sharp and tasted delicious. The chocolate base is Tony’s truffle sponge, almost a brownie but with egg whites folded in. The central crunchy layer was a caramel candy filling, which I augmented with a little milk chocolate and feuilletine. The mousse was a new recipe, one I found on Cuisine French. The recipe caught my eye because it assumed a certain level of knowledge and technique. For example, step three in the recipe states “prepare a custard with the milk, sugar, constarch, and egg yolks.” That’s my kind of recipe. The praline garnish, I’m embarrassed to say, is isomalt. This synthetic sugar always makes me feel like a cheater, a corner-cutter and a hack. It is a beautiful garnish however, so I guess it’s OK. I learned how to make those over ten years ago now. Hmph….I’m getting old. Meanwhile, it’s business as usual at the restaurant, things have been picking up. The Oregoinian released an excellent review of us last week, and we’ve been seeing increasing numbers. I couldn’t find the review online…even without mention of the desserts-it was a good one. 
Pork Confit…Kind Of.
20 August 2008 | delicious, eating, pig | No Responses
I guess we were really braising, in duck fat, since the meat had already been brined and roasted. Left-over pork loin rejuvenated into a barbeque sandwich. I had some duck fat in the fridge, so I brought it to a boil on the stove and threw in the pork. We covered it, and in a 210 F oven it cooked for 4 hours. The resulting meat was tender and flaky and tore up easily for sauce slathering and sando assembly. The sandwiches provided no photo opportunities as they were quickly munched down by the hungry inhabitants of our household. Jaybill was available to pose with his barbeque sauce, which was delicious. I used some of Chef’s chorizo vinaigrette to make a paste with mayonnaise, we spread that on the toasted buns. The tastiest morsel of the meal was found on the side of the dutch oven we used. An incomprehensible ducky-pork flavored paste stuck to the inside rim. It was like eating candy.
Hamburger Heaven.
13 August 2008 | Ten 01, creative presentation of the week, delicious, eating, food | No Responses
It’s a Chorizo burger, actually. People who don’t enjoy this are stupid. Tomato bacon jam, pickled shallots and fried hen egg. The Chorizo sausage has a good spice, and egg yolk melting all over everything is a fucking mouthgasm. Easily takes this month’s Creative Presentation of the Week. Created one night for staff by line cook Mark, we knew it was a keeper. Sitting tall on the bar menu this burger is the best thing you ever tasted. I recommend dipping each bite into srirachanaise, and washing it all down with cold whiskey. Man, we’ve been putting out good food. Peep this Squab. Seared and served with crab-zucchini salad and Hollandaise? Yes, Please! How about an english pea crepe to sop up that sauce? Delicious!!
Now That’s a Cake.
10 August 2008 | Ten 01, cake, dessert | 2 Responses
I’ve been mentally putting this cake together for two months. When I finally attached the last rose, and stepped back, taking it all in…I was quite pleased with myself. After 12 or so hours total prep time over 4 days, the thing looked pretty damn sharp. I could hardly remember all the baking and prepping of the fillings and the 6 a.m. rolling of the fondant. It all seemed like a dream now. At service time, I pulled off the lace so the newlyweds could get the first slice. It felt like foreplay as the thin black fabric fell away. Watching the bride and groom grin and cut into it and stuff each-others faces, I knew I had a silly smile, too. I waited in the the crowd with a sharp blade. Foreplay was almost over. And you know what that means. This was the first cake that I’ve made that I also got to cut and serve, and while intimidating at first was easy and fun to do so. There was a certain bent appeal to spending so much time to get this perfect, then just wheeling over and hacking it apart. In spite of the fondant, I knew also this cake tasted great. Two of the layers were Grand Marnier soaked chocolate sponge with chocolate mousse. One was lemon pound cake with lemon pastry cream, and finally a vanilla sponge with vanilla pastry cream. With sticky hands I plopped piece after piece onto to an endless line of plates being rotated in front of me. As I cut it, the servers ran pre-sliced chocolate truffle cakes from the back. 200 people were caked in about fifteen minutes. The rest of the food we put out for the party was really nice as well. From sushi to prime rib, they ate it all. It was a good day. Days like this remind me why I love this business, why I have no problem with the long-hours and sometimes less than ideal conditions. We came, we cooked, and it was good. That’s F&B, baby.
My New Baby.
6 August 2008 | news, photoshop | 3 Responses
After months of waiting, my manager finally let me have iPhone. I love this baby. A tricorder sized computer, mp3 player, movie player, and tracking device. A balls-deep, bad ass little piece of hardware. Sure, sure it’s way more phone than I’ll ever need, but to me, that’s half the point! Expensive? So, what! Just some more dollars towards , the singularity and human augmentation. Seriously, I’m O.K. with it. If I had the ability to Borg myself out I would. Optical readouts and enhanced performance, biosoft learning environments, and bionic arms and shit? Sign me up!! I guess I got a little off topic there but this phone has possibilities. The available applications are beaucoup. I’m already reading the New York Times on the shitter, and the full sized touch pad keyboard has got me texting with 3G Of giggerram. It makes beautiful music. I don’t know how it does what it does, and I don’t much care. It is the most intuitive phone I have ever used. Within 15 minutes of owning it, I was tracking myself on Google Maps. I was reading webcomics. I was making light saber noises while I whirled it around.
Buy Me A 40oz for My Blogday.
4 August 2008 | news | No Responses
Today marks one year that I’ve been writing this blog. From humble beginnings mrjeffmccarthy.com has soared into the blogosphere, with faithful readers in 29 countries and over 400 average monthly visits. Maintaining this blog has helped me get jobs, learn Photoshop, improve my writing skills, and become an international superstar. Well that last bit is an exaggeration but you get the idea. I’d like to thank everyone for reading, the comments and celebrity visits have been highly enjoyable. The feedback, copious. Special thanks goes out to Jaybill for making this site possible, the guy created a monster. A hairy, sarcastic, irreverent, sometimes foul-smelling monster. For the next year I’ve got big plans. Guest writers, an expanded recipe section, finishing Butterhead and of course, more genius. Lots more genius. For anyone that wasn’t aware my blogday was today, never fear!! Mrjeffmccarthy.com will be accepting 40 oz’s all week!!
