百變千層 - "Mille Feuille"

This was an interesting bakery item I saw at Taipan Bakery. At first glance it reminded me of the awesome Mille Feuille we had at Morimoto, but it actually looks more like crepes.

Layer upon layer of thin crepe slices with cream in between, and cubes of honeydew melon sandwiched between every 5 or so layers. The crepe slices were fluffy and light, but the piece as a whole lacked flavor. The crepes, melons, and cream were not sweet at all...wish they had used strawberries or something rather than honeydew, or syrup or chocolate in between the crepe layers.

Smashed Potato Cake

So I finally got around to making the Smashed Potato Cake! Saw Paula Deen make it on FoodNetwork last week, and wanted to try it out. What's not to like? Yukon Gold Potatoes, panko, bacon, garlic, scallions, cheddar cheese, butter!

It was somewhat time-consuming to make, since I had to boil the potatoes, mash them, then mix in the rest of the ingredients and then panfry it. But it was worth it!


Potatoes mashed with ingredients mixed in. We only panfried half the batch, which already made like 10 cakes! Saving the other half for another time.


In the process of being panfried.


Done!


Served with lasagna from last time...the lasagna was a little too burnt. Cooking is fun! I've got my brother & mom helping me...I like it when I don't really have to do the dishes. Just cook!

My first Lasagna

Thanks Iman for sending me this recipe! The lasagna was definitely a lot of work, but it was worth it! I made the sauce on Friday but didn't get around to putting the pasta together until tonight. In any case, the recipe suggested letting the sauce sit overnight makes it better. The recipe called for ground beef, sweet italian sausage, tomato sauce, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, parsley...and ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese (which we couldn't find at the supermarket and got the Italian blend of cheese instead).

The sauce was good enough to be saved for regular pasta! But since we soaked the entire box (20) of lasagna pasta rather than just the 12 the recipe wanted, I ended using all the sauce and cheese to make 2 batches of lasagna. My version had 3 layers of the noodle with 4 noodle per layer, rather than the 2 layers of 6 noodles. Nonetheless, turned out great!


Before putting the lasagna into the oven...actually the picture above is the smaller version which I had frozen away for future consumption. The bigger batch looked the same though.


The big batch of lasagna out of the oven! It smelled authentic, and definitely better than most of the lasagnas I've had at supposedly authentic Italian places!


Smaller piece of lasagna served with Texas Toast. Surprisingly, my mom liked it as well! I can't wait to make this again when Meanie comes back! I could get bitter if people criticize my cooking...i.e. if they say it's too salty, I'll tell them to make it next time then. Kind of bad habit, but I am defensive about my creations!

粥之家 - Congee Village

Went to Chinatown with my family today, and went to Congee Village for lunch. The food was, as always, great! Surprisingly, we ordered just enough that we didn't have to pack anything to go!


We ordered the 粥之家桑拿蝦 (Congee Village Sauna Shrimp). They brought out the aluminum pot with heated stones and drunken live shrimp. After putting the shrimp in the pot for several minutes, they were ready to eat!


It was cool watching the shrimp cook at the table!


The slight wine flavor gave the shrimp an extra sweetness, and the soy sauce they provided was great as well.


腐乳炒水蕹/白管通菜 (Water Spinach stir-fried with preserved tofu) Rather than regular water spinach, these had the white stems. The slight preserved tofu gave the veggies just enough flavor.


勝瓜肉碎浸魚肚 (Fish maw soaked in Loofah and ground meat). English description/name doesn't sound appetizing at all, but the flavor was very refreshing. There were also small pieces of 酸菜/picked veggies in the soup, to balance out the slight fishy taste of the fish maw.


Soup ladled out into a small bowl.


豉油王生煎豆腐 (Tofu pan-fried in soy sauce). This is a staple-dish we always order every time we go to Congee Village. The tofu is extremely soft, the crust is slightly crispy from being pan-fried, and the slightly sweet soy sauce made this dish very eat to eat!


海珊骨 (Pork ribs with shrimp sauce) For some reason, these ribs are smaller than I last remembered! Nonetheless, the taste was still just as good.


鐵板沙爹牛肉 (Sizzling satay beef). This dish came out after we finished all the other dishes...most likely because they forgot about it until we asked them where it is. This looked very very similar to the Pepper Steak with Onions we serve at the shop...the satay flavor was very light, couldn't taste it unless we scoop the sauce from the plate. There were also small chunchs of pineapple in the dish, which didn't really add to the flavor either.

Mignon

Since CulinAriane was fully booked, we went to Mignon Saturday night instead. It's a cozy little steakhouse located in Rutherford about five minutes off Rt. 3. Parking was a killer, and our 8:30 reservation was delayed until a little after 9PM. The decor was nice, decent lighting at the tables, but overall lighting wasn't too bright. The tin-colored ceiling was extremely high, and there were wooden Chinese doors/screens that looked like they were from the Qing dynasty or something.

While we were waiting for our table to be ready, we saw several similar entrées come out of the kitchen, where there was this 3-inch thick steak and the waiter cuts it at the table. I asked the waiter what that dish was, and it's the Porterhouse. The six of us decided to order one of those, plus a bunch of sides and desserts.

They provided us the multi-grain bread with butter and filet tartare. Since the four of us who got there first were too hungry, we ate both plates of bread before the other two got there. They were late because their car broke down, and had to get a ride back home to drive another car.



The filet tartare was definitely different. It was slightly seasoned, and went very well with the soft butter!


We also ordered the Pecan-crusted Lamb Chops appetizer rather than the entrée since I don't eat lamb. Can't really comment on that dish since I didn't try it.


The top dish is the Scalloped Potatoes with Cheddar Cheese. The sliced potatoes were awesome! I didn't care much for the cheese, but that was the only scalloped-potato they had. It was a hit! The bottom dish is the garlic mashed potatoes. You could probably tell that those were slightly too dry.


More side dishes. French string beans with toasted pine nuts, sautéed spinach with garlic and white wine, and complimentary onion strings. The pine nuts were great! I wish they were bigger, there was a slight nutty sweetness to it. The spinach had a bit too much wine, but it was still good. Onion strings reminded me of the French's Onions I make green bean casserole with, which of course means they were good!


After we saw how big the first set of sides were, we decided to order some more. Even though the menu said sides were family style, I don't think they were even enough for one person! Here is a picture of the asparagus. By the time that came out I had already finished the entrée, so I didn't try that one either.


Charlene's Baked Potatoes. The potatoes came out with the fixins on the side, and the waitress asked what she'd like on them. It started as butter....then salt & pepper....bacon...cheese....green onions. Ended up getting all the fixins!


Charlene also ordered a House Salad. Picture came out kinda fuzzy due to the lack of flash.


The Salmon entrée served on top of some potato sticks and salad. Salmon was nice and crispy!


Our own star of the show! Porterhouse Steak! The menu description was: "A monster cut of USDA Prime beef capable of serving two or more people" Capable indeed!


Even though the steak was so thick, the doneness of the steak was right on the money!


A closeup of the piece of Porterhouse I had on my plate. Juicy!





We each ordered coffee, tea, and cappuccino after the entrée. Here's a picture of two cappuccinos. The frothy milk on the top was so light, and gave the drink a nice finish.


Charlene wanted to hand-model with the cappuccinos...except she was also making a facial expression too, so I took a picture of her with the drinks as well.



Time for dessert! Pictured above is the crème brûlée. Definitely better than Passioné's because it didn't get charred to the point of bitterness.


Chocolate crème brûlée! A nice change of flavor, but I think I still prefer the original more.


Banana Foster. Flambée bananas with ice cream and (I think) chocolate pudding. We ordered 2 of these, the waiter brought over a shot of liquor, and Mike took it. He asked if it was Bacardi 151, and it was! As for the bananas, it was just the right amount of sweetness, but wish it was a little softer.


After Mike took the shot of Bicardi 151, he did the honors of blowing out the flames on the bananas.


Warm Apple Crisp. The apples here were a tad bit too sweet, but the crisps were surely crispy! The roll on top was great as well!

Cauliflower au Gratin

Last Saturday my mom bought a whole case (12 heads!) of cauliflower, so we had to start eating them. The next day, I've decided to make Cauliflower au Gratin. Searching for recipes online returned several versions, some of which called for sour cream. I've never cooked with sour cream before...not even in cheesecake, or in mashed potatoes, so I developed a habit of staying away from it as an ingredient in a recipe. Maybe one of these days I'll gather enough courage to cook with it...who knows.

We had this dish at Pierre's before. Too bad we never got to go back there for a meal before they closed down permanently. The first time I went to Pierre's was way back in Sophomore year of high school for a French field trip. The food was delicious, but we didn't know where it was or how to go back there. It wasn't until about SEVEN years later did Charlene tell me the address, and we finally went back there for brunch. The place was nice and cozy, their weekend brunch featured either roast beef brisket, lamb, or turkey...depending on what they had that day. We usually had the beef, since turkey is too dry, and I don't eat lamb. Aside from the meat, they always had a variety of salads both cold and warm, salmon, mashed pototoes, and the theme of this blog: cauliflower au gratin!

My version didn't turn out quite as nicely as Pierre's, mainly because there were a lot liquid in the baking dish even after the cheese and sauce turned brown in the oven. Next time, I'll need to boil the cauliflower way ahead of time, to give it enough time to dry. The flavor was good (not too salty!), I used salt, pepper, butter, flour, milk and nutmeg.

Passioné

This week is the first annual Montclair Restaurant Week! Pretty much copying off of the Restaurant Weeks at NYC and Philly, the restaurant offer a Prix Fixe menu. At first we were going to make a reservation for CulinAriane, Ariane was a competitor on this season's TopChef on Bravo. Unfortunately, their website said hours were Wed.-Sat 5:30-10pm, and the phone was busy, so we didn't get to go. Rescheduling that for this Saturday!

Our second choice was Passioné, which was not a bad choice at all!

The menu at first didn't seem like it has a huge selection, but that's usually how prix fixe works, choose one from each course. It's a little hard to read the top...basically First Course had a choice of Butternut Squash bisque, salad, Gnocchi, and Escargot. Entrée choices were short ribs, chicken breast, pork medallions, and skate wing. Dessert choices consisted of Crème Brûleé, bread pudding, butterscotch creme, chocolate souffle, and cheese.


Before the meal started, we got Foccacia bread with herb infused oil. The bread was cold, had a somewhat crispy crust, but the inside was soft!


We also got to sample the chef's amuse. Caramelized onions on top of bread. The onions were thinly shreded, had an awesome sweetness!


Parisian Gnocchi.
Jacky's Gnocchi was very soft and tender with a hint of potato and cheese. The roasted beets on top gave the dish a red color. The caramelized shallot and Chevre cream gave this first course a nice finish. I didn't order this because it had peas...lol.


Escargot en vol au vent.
There was a supplemental charge for the escargot, but I'm not sure I'm very fond of it. My first taste of the sauce was too salty...maybe it's from the olives. The puff pastry balanced the saltyness a tiny bit. The escargots were decent sized all nestled within the pastry.


My main entrée: Bordeaux Braised Beef Short Ribs, garlic whipped potatoes with horseradish-shive yogurt. Once again, my first bite was also salty. It gradually became less salty, and the yogurt was an interesting addition. I would've liked the pototoes to be creamier, but it was still good. The short ribs were awesomely tender, the meat just falls apart!


Three of us ordered the Pan Roasted Skate Wing, pommes puree, buerre noir with caper and cornichon...I remember watching a cooking competition so I knew what a Skate Wing was, but I don't think others did. The fish was tender, didn't smell fishy, and had a nice balance of flavor...it seems like I'm the only one who orders salty food?


Jacky ordered the Crème Brûlée for dessert. The caramelized sugar on top was a little too burnt for my taste, but the custard underneath was nice and "eggy" just how I like it!


Doughnut and Banana Bread Pudding
Came with coffee crunch ice cream as well, which was very crunchy. The pudding was just the right texture, and didn't come out too sweet.


Charlene ordered the Chocolate Souflé that came with iced decaf vanilla latte and toasted almond ice cream. She wanted to order a cup of the latte and a pink of the ice cream! The souflé was nice and soft, the aroma was just amazing.

Overall Passioné was a good experience; I would go back. Portion sizes were decent, and the Restaurant Week pricing were very reasonable for a French restaurant. If I had to rank it, it would be only a tiny bit below Verjus. Reason being the dishes I ordered were a bit too salty, plus, Verjus inspires me to make my own dishes at home!