A little French bistro at L&O's

I celebrate my birthday with my friends up at Lydiah and Oskar's home in the Finger Lakes. Oskar, with his business partner Fred, is a vintner, and they produce the most wonderful, drinkable wine in the world, dry riesling.

This year, we had a cook-off against Tom Johnson of Milo Vineyard and his fabulous friends!

We served them:

Roasted peanut salad (served Indian street food-style in newspaper cones)
Zucchini carpaccio with champagne grapes and feta
Chopped salad
Mushroom anticuchos over wasabi-chive cauliflower mash
Watermelon-lime popsicle palate cleansers
Beef rendang and uppama
Sweet corn gelato with blueberry-elderflower coulis and oatmeal cookies

And cases and cases of '09 dry Wiemer riesling!


A little French bistro at L&O's

Cook-off at Milo Vineyard

Cook-off at Milo Vineyard

Mushroom anticuchos

Mushroom anticuchos

To make these, I simmered rice vinegar and sugar until reduced to a syrup, then added soy sauce, aji paste, chestnut paste, and wine and reduced by half. (You could substitute miso for the chestnut paste and mussel broth or clam juice for the wine.)

I seasoned the cleaned mushrooms with salt and pepper, then poured the hot marinade over and let the mushrooms soak up the marinade for a few hours.

We grilled the mushrooms (about four minutes per side) on bamboo skewers. While the mushrooms were grilling, I heated and further reduced the marinade. We removed the mushrooms from the skewers and placed them atop the wasabi-chive cauliflower mash, then poured the hot marinade over the mushrooms as a sauce.

Sweet corn gelato

It went fast.

Uppama

Uppama

Uppama is a South Indian breakfast dish that can be made with coarse semolina, pearl tapioca, rice flakes, or vermicelli. You can toss in all kinds of vegetables. At home my family makes it with diced carrots, peas, green beans, but I also like it with black-eyed peas, asparagus, soaked and chopped kokum ka phul, chopped kale... Really, choose your own adventure!

It goes well with chutney. My favorite chutney pairing for uppama is red bell pepper chutney or ginger chutney.

1 1/2 cups coarse semolina ("sooji"), rice flakes ("poha"), pearl tapioca ("sabudana") or vermicelli ("sev")
1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons brown mustard seeds
1 stalk curry leaves
1 1/2 tablespoons cumin seeds
3/4 cup salted peanuts, coarsely crushed, or tuvar dal
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
1 Serrano chili, minced
1 1/2 tablespoon finely chopped and peeled fresh ginger
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup sliced spinach (or other veggie)
3 tablespoons thinly shredded cilantro
1 lime, juiced
Salt

[If using tapioca, put the grain in a bowl and wash in several changes of cold water from the tap until the water loses its murkiness and remains clear and soak in fresh cold water to cover 8 hours. Drain in a sieve and spread on a tray laid with a paper towel. Refrigerate the drained tapioca at least 1 hour.]

Heat the oil in an 8-quart pot over moderately high heat until shimmering and add the mustard seeds. When the seeds being to pop, which will be almost immediately, add the curry leaves and cumin seeds and stir.

Add the peanuts/dal, shallots, serrano, ginger and increase the heat to high. Cook the mixture, stirring, for 1 minute.

Stir in the butter and when melted, add the grain and salt to taste. Cook until grain is heated through (3-4 minutes). Add the veggies and continue to cook until the grain turns transparent. Unless you're using the pre-soaked tapioca, pour 3/4 to 1 cup boiling water in, bring to boil, then turn off the heat, cover, and let the grain absorb the liquid and steam.

Just before serving, stir the lime and cilantro into the pilaf and season with salt.

Wasabi-chive cauliflower mash

Wasabi-chive cauliflower mash

Put a head of trimmed and roughly chopped cauliflower into the smallest pot it will entirely fit in and cover it with water. Salt generously. Bring to boil over high heat, then reduce to medium heat and cook until the cauliflower is so tender it is mash-able.

Drain away the water, add olive oil, 2 bunches chopped chives, salt, and a few tablespoons wasabi to taste, and mash together with the cauliflower using a potato masher.

Beef rendang

Simmering the rendang

This recipe came to us via Floyd Cardoz, formerly the chef at Tabla and a good friend of Wiemer/Milo Vineyards cook-off star Sudhir Kandula.

10 pieces short ribs
Salt, to taste
1/4 cup sliced lemon grass
1 knob ginger, minced
1/2 cup minced shallots
1 Serrano chili
1 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoons coriander
One 2 inch piece of Pasilla de Oaxaca
1/2 teaspoons turmeric
1/8 teaspoons cayenne
2 tablespoons canola oil
3 inches Indian cinnamon
5 cloves
6 cups veal stock
6 cloves garlic
1 inch galangal sliced into coins
4 lime leaves
2 pandan leaves
4 cups coconut milk
4 cups chicken stock
4 cups water
1 teaspoons tamarind paste
1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 sprigs rosemary
1 Thai chili
1/2 cup fried minced shallots 2 sticks lemon grass leaned and lightly crushed
1/2 cup ground cashews

1. Pre heat oven to 400 degrees at convection setting.
2. Season the short ribs with salt and let stand for 10-15 minutes. Reduce heat in oven to 325.
3. Combine the sliced lemon grass, minced ginger, sliced shallots and Serrano chili in a food processor and processor till finely chopped.
4. Grind the cumin, coriander and the Pasilla de Oaxaca in a spice grinder to a fine powder and combine with the turmeric and the cayenne.
5. Place seasoned short ribs in oven and sear until golden brown. Approximately 15 minutes.
6. In a large stew pot add the canola oil and the ground shallot mix and cook over moderate heat stirring for 15 minutes until paste get slightly colored and releases some oil.
7. Add the cinnamon, cloves and ground spice and cook for 2-4 minutes. Add short ribs and all the other ingredients (except cashews) and bring up to a boil.
8. Place the pot with a lid in the oven and continue to cook until fork tender.
9. Cool down in liquid.
10. Next day remove form liquid and trim short ribs of any fat and gristle.
11. Reduce the brasage until thick.
12. Add the cashews stir. Place the short ribs in the pan and put into a 325 degree oven and cook. Letting the liquid reduce slowly. Baste the short ribs every 5 minutes.
13. The liquid will reduce and form a glaze on meat. At this time to the fat will start to separate.
14. Pull out the cinnamon, cloves, galangal and lemon grass.
15. Plate and top with cashews.

Roasted peanut salad

Roasted peanut salad is a very easy, satisfying, high protein, vegetarian, tasty snack!

Finely dice a red onion into a large bowl, then squeeze the juice of 1 lime over the red onion. Top with 1/2 a bunch of finely chopped fresh cilantro.
Take 1 lb. raw Spanish peanuts and either pan roast them or roast them under your broiler until they darken and the peanut oils release and give your whole kitchen a peanut smell. Be careful not to burn them.
Toss the hot roasted peanuts with the red onion, lime juice, cilantro, and added salt and red chilli powder to taste.

Chopped salad

Chopped salad
Originally uploaded by aarthib