First Dinner (Theme: French Bistro)

The first dinner went great. Here are the photos...

Mussels and Pate with a French Baguette

Course 1 (Light/was Course 2 but since it was hot, we started with this first):

Louis Roederer Champagne paired with the Mussels.

Mussels with slices of bread to soak up the sauce.

Pate with bread awaits.

Mussels.

A toast to friends and food...and wine (and champagne)...and...

Pate. Some of us love pate too much.

Seared Scallops in a Lemon Butter Sauce over Belgian Endives

Course 2 (Light/was Course 1):

Scallops.

Wine Pairing: Side Yard Rielsing

Excellent colors.

Herbed Steak Frites in a Mustard-Wine Sauce

Course 3 (Main):

Fries served on top.

Wine Pairing: James Cole Malbec.

Fries on the side.

Lemon Tart (Sabayon method) with a Blood Orange Sorbet and Candied Orange Peels

Course 4 (Dessert):

The whole tart! Looks very French!

Fabulicious tart with sorbet.

Inniskillin Sparkling Ice Wine paired with dessert.

An excellent way to end the dinner!

Coquilles St. Jacques à la Fondue d'Endives: You Complete Me!

Lemon Butter Seared Scallops on a bed of Endives.

We originally went to Whole Foods to get a few scallops. We got four large ones to make this dish, but then Lee’s brother, Chen, mentioned that we should get the Japanese scallops at Trader Joe’s, since they were sweeter. So we sashimi’d the WF scallops, and got TJ’s scallops for our trial run.

We only bought one endive, so we cut it up smaller than the recipe had indicated. Lee cooked up the endives, and seared the scallops, while I prepared the lemon butter sauce.

Plating the three elements (endives, scallops, and sauce) was fairly easy. I put some swipes of sauce on the sides for presentation (Kirk stepped it up on that steak photo!!), and sprinkled the chives on.

Each element had its distinct flavor. The endives were a little bitter and crisp, the scallops were soft in the center with a crusted edge, and the sauce was lemony, buttery, creamy, and lightly seasoned. But when the contrasting parts came together (you have to eat all the pieces together Tim/Lee, not separately!!), they balanced out and complemented one another. I really liked this dish when put together. It's very simple yet complex in taste.

Endives cooking.

Endives laid to rest.

Searing the scallops.

Starting the sauce with fresh-squeezed lemon juice.

Voila! Plated and ready for a photo.

Coquilles St. Jacques à la Fondue d'Endives et Moules Mariniere: Lessons Learned

We celebrated Kirk's birthday last weekend up in Calistoga, and this weekend down in Mountain View, so had fallen behind on our homework!

As a result, tonight we decided to double up on our assignments and dined on bread, butter, and both of the bivalve courses: Coquilles St. Jacques à la Fondue d'Endives and Moules Mariniere.

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Moules Mariniere

• Selecting/Storing the Shellfish. Going into Ranch 99, we were prepared to follow some of the standard selection tips on the Web as well as request all live ones per Agnes' post, but they only sold them in bunches of purple, mesh bags that were on ice, so we took our chances - I would say about 20% of them were DOA. Also, I believe they were probably farmed, as we didn't need to clean or debeard them all that much. We had originally been planning on cooking them Saturday evening, but that didn't happen so we ended up storing them in a bowl near the bottom of the refrigerator, covering the bowl in a damp towel.
  
• Missing Minutes. Like Andrew & Yurah, we found that three minutes wasn't enough time to cook the mussels fully, especially over low heat, and we were working with a halved recipe (2 lbs.)...now if only we had read their post prior to preparing this! ;) If we were to do this again, we'd likely cook them for a longer period of time, or at least until a majority of the shells opened up fully. We had halved the sauce preparation as well, so I might just go ahead and prepare the entire portion next time so that the mussels were fully immersed.
  
• Superb Sauce! The sauce was easy to prepare and really delicious paired with bread, which we made sure to stock up on, thanks to previous posts.
  

Coquilles St. Jacques à la Fondue d'Endives

• Scallop Selection & Shortcuts. Unlike the mussels, you can select your sea scallops at Ranch 99. When buying, we just tried to make sure the fishmonger didn't pick any that looked brownish. We read a tip online that also said not to pick ones that looked stark white (vs. creamy white) because they may have been soaked in water to increase weight - I'm not sure if there's any weight to that or not. Generally, you would look for firm texture, a mild sweet odor, and fresh, moist sheen. We found the rest of the greens and the crème fraîche at Whole Foods. We were contemplating trying the homemade crème fraîche recipe, but will probably save that for another day.
• Straightforward & Quick. Not too much to say about the prep., it was pretty straightforward and the result was delicious! I wish I had tried one of the scallops prior to saucing, for comparison's sake.
• Endive Evaluation. I can't recall trying this dish before, so I don't have a baseline as to what the endives should have tasted like. Texturally, ours was nicely cooked with a slight, bitter undertone which I liked and found added some complexity to the dish. I've read recipes where it appears the endives are first blanched, then caramelized, which might be an interesting variation for a Round II experiment.

Next up...Steak au Poivre with Herbed Frites!

Coquilles St. Jacques à la Fondue d'Endives - Starter

Scallops and endives is a classic bistro pairing. A glass of Sancerre Blanc, Jurançon, or Sauvignon Blanc makes an excellent accompaniment.

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup (4 oz/125 g) butter, cut into 1/4-inch (6-mm) slices
4 Belgian endives, trimmed, halved lengthwise, and sliced crosswise
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
12 sea scallops
Juice of 1/2 fresh lemon
1 tablespoon crème fraîche
1/2 bunch chives, chopped, for garnish

Crème fraîche:
Crème fraîche can be found in specialty food stores and some grocery stores. To make crème fraîche at home, mix 2 cups (16 fl oz/500 ml) heavy cream with 2 tablespoons buttermilk in a mdeium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature overnight or until fairly thick. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. The cream can be kept in the refrigerator for several days.

Preparation:
In a large sauté pan or skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat and add the endives. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and sauté gently for 5 minutes, or until the endives are tender; set aside.

Season the scallops with salth and pepper to taste. In a large sauté pan or skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter over medium-high heat and sauté the scallops for 2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.

In a small, heavy saucepan, bring the lemon juice to a boil and whisk in the 1/2 cup (4 oz /125 g) butter one piece at a time. Remove from heat, whisk in the crème fraîche, and season lightly with salt and pepper.

To serve, divide the endive slices among 4 shallow soup bowls or dinner plates. Arrange 5 scallops on top of each serving. Spoon the lemon butter over, sprinkle with the chopped chives, and serve immediately.


Recipe from:
Chez Diane
25, rue Servandoni
75006 Paris