Wednesday, July 29, 2009

It's all about the food.

So here it is, the first post. Are you as nervous as I am? Of course you aren't. You are just reading, *I* am the one putting myself on the [blog]spot for all the world to see. Well I guess I should start off talking a little about me, though I do realize I am not food, I am a chef, so that is vaguely about food, right?

I am Joshua, a chef by trade with about 17 years of experience in the food industry. At some point I will post a bio about me, but that can wait until there are enough of you that seem to care. That will give me a good long time to avoid writing it. SO now, on to the food.

I made a simple enough dinner tonight. An arugula salad, with shallots, toasted walnuts, assorted cherry tomatoes and seared yellow fin tuna. I had about 30 minutes until my wife would be ready for dinner, so I started by making the dressing. I used one part blended (5050 EVOO and canola) one part champagne vinegar added to the blender with a spoonful of mustard to create the emulsion. Once I had that I added some salt, pepper, parsley, shallot, and oregano. Simple enough right? Then I went on to the tuna. My spice cupboard is almost bare and I did not have any of the things I normally use to crust fish, so I got out the other half of the shallot from the dressing, some more oregano, and parsley and started mincing it all together. Once it was super fine, I added a handful of kosher salt (yes a handful, do you have a problem with that?) and continued mincing the herb mixture with the salt. I dried this mixture out in the toaster oven a little, but would prefer to do that on the counter over night if I had the time. I put a stainless pan on HIGH heat and then went back to the salt. I crusted my fish with the herb and shallot salt and then only once that was done and the pan was VERY hot, I dropped a few tablespoons of canola oil in the pan and added the fish before my oil could scorch. after only about 30 seconds on each side, I removed the fish to a cooling rack and slipped it in the freezer.

I cleaned up the pan, as well as the cutting board and the plate I crusted my fish on. Then I went on to the other salad stuffs. I halved a few cherry tomatoes and toasted a handful of walnuts. As the walnuts cooled I very VERY thinly sliced up another shallot and tossed it in a bowl with some baby arugula, and a small amount of the dressing and mixed that all up thoroughly. I plated that on a chilled dinner plate, topped with the tomatoes, walnuts and 5 or 6 ounces of tuna, also thinly sliced. I drizzled some of the dressing along the tuna for show, and then to the table.

During dinner I decided that I wanted to start blogging about food. Not just the huge dinners at fancy restaurants, but the dinners at home, the recipe parties, the cook-book-club meetings, fast food, my thoughts on food stamps, and just anything I have to say on food. Then I realized I should have taken pictures of my salad. Maybe next time.

That's it for now. My goal is to blog once a week, my dream is once a day, reality might be once a month. We will see.


-Joshua
Enjoy your food, no matter what it is, be thankful for it, and share it with others.