Hey all - I know I said I was gonna get back on the regs with the blogging - and I didn't. But I like, mean it this time. Tell you what, I'll just continue to blog whenever something, you know, happens.
I spent this past week in LA for the first time! Folks told me I'd either love it or hate it, and I'm proud to say that I fall firmly in the former category. To the point where I'm very seriously thinking that 2018 will be the year of West-Coast-Babish. So look out.
While visiting, I had the opportunity to cook for a lovely young couple that have been extremely generous patrons of my Patreon campaign for 6 months now, earning them a private meal cooked by yours truly. In true Babish fashion, I decided to make almost exclusively dishes that I had never even tried before, with ingredients I had never used. Nervous for more than a few reasons, I headed to their beautiful home around 4PM, and got down to work.
My hosts were kind enough to loosen me up with some brown stuff the moment I walked in the door, a selection of which the husband had carefully curated. A few sips of courage juice later, I began working on a meal loosely inspired by Hannibal - six courses of Japanese-Italian fusion, again, a facet of cuisine I have never once attempted. The pressure was on. Luckily, this couple and their assembled friends made me feel immediately at home while I began churning out the first few courses.
First up was some blistered shishito peppers with lemon zest, parmesan, Maldon salt, and goat cheese whipped with more lemon. Trendy, I know, but I'm a sucker for these little guys.
Next up, a hamachi crudo with citrus vinaigrette, blood orange, basil, and black sesame.
Time to get a little bolder - sesame-crusted seared tuna belly with (purposely) burnt tomatoes, balsamic cream, oregano oil, and Maldon salt. This was kind of a play on Sicilian-style tuna.
First main course - bucatini in a matsutake and chantrelle cream sauce with parmesan, basil, and another one of our burnt tomato friends just for fun.
Two pasta courses? You bet your ass. Bucatini in a champagne-sea urchin sauce with caviar and uni sashimi.
Kinda hard to see, but dessert was some lemon-poppyseed poundcake filled with matcha cannoli cream, topped with strawberries. The original idea was to make straight-up cannoli, but I left the shells at my airbnb! One of the dinner guests came to my rescue with a lovely poundcake.
All-in-all, a massively successful/productive/enlightening week. I'm super-grateful to my very generous dinner hosts, and look forward to seeing them in the near future - 'cause I'll be back. A lot.