Photogenic Menu, Take Two

I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised that this food blog has decidedly influenced my culinary habits. It was originally conceived as a record of some of the meals I have cooked, supplemented with reflections about the recipes, the preparation, or the end result of these meals. But, the writing of (food) history does indeed shape (food) history itself. It seems I spent several years of graduate school fighting my way through Foucault, Barthes, and Benjamin to learn what a few months of blogging on a free website has taught me.

Here's how it happens: I'll avoid cooking well-loved meals if I've already posted them here. Sometimes I'll choose to cook a recipe because I want to write about a certain ingredient (like squid), or a certain technique (like bread-baking). I'll opt for recipes that promise photogenic results (as blended vegetable soups always do), while I'll steer clear of monochromatic gravy-like dishes even if I'm really craving beef bourguignon or chicken thighs braised in wine (although a sentimental dish has sometimes managed to make the cut). I've been known to add a little garnish to a blog-destined dish that otherwise would have been served free of such stuff. I make my reality with the report of that reality in mind. My present experience is shaped by what will have been.

Here's how technology plays its part in the construction of (food) history: Since I usually try to serve novel and attractive dishes at dinner parties, these events are good for blog posts. Yet very few photographs from the dinner party kitchen have appeared on these pages. The reason? First of all, I forget to take a picture because I am chatting away with the guests, or in a rush to get quickly-cooling food to the table. If I do remember to take a picture, I don't have the patience to take a good one. My camera, you see, leaves something to be desired in the food photography realm (namely, a new camera...for Christmas...hint, hint...anyone?). I have to take many, many photos before I feel confident that I've gotten a satisfactory one. Then, this confidence often fails me. Canon has insisted that my camera is working properly and hinted that perhaps I do not know how to take a picture. While I have not completely ruled out this possibility--the user guide is long and not terribly easy to comprehend--I prefer to fault the little machine for my photos of spotty quality than give up my dreams of an SLR digital camera.

While I've managed to capture some decent photos of food that I've prepared, I routinely relegate fuzzy pictures to a sad, but very full, file folder in my computer hard drive. The posts that never made it. Food blog limbo. Sure, I could make the photogenic dish again and be sure to get a good shot, but cooking the same thing for two different groups of guests makes me feel gloomy. There are just too many recipes out there to spend time rehashing them for one good picture.

But I did it anyway. Well, not exactly, but close enough to make me feel the need to confess. I've been doing a good bit of entertaining lately. Wining and dining guests, I've found, are good strategies for making and keeping friends. Since Patrick and I became strangers in this strange land, we've been making good use of my amenableness to cooking and his colleagues' willingness to come try what I've cooked up. I put together a menu for a recent dinner party that I was sure would please my guests and pose nicely for the blogging camera. First course: sunflower sprout and yellow roasted beet salad. Second course: shrimp cakes with chili-lime cream sauce. Dessert: caramel chocolate walnut tart. It all turned out nicely: good to look at and good to eat. I spent a minute or so in the kitchen snapping photos of each course before carrying the plates to the table. Things were going well. This meal would make a nice post on my blog. The beginnings of a few paragraphs about beets were taking shape in my head as I said goodbye to our dining companions.

It wasn't until the following afternoon that I learned of my camera's betrayal. Not a single photo turned out. Each one was blurry or dark or sliced across by a shadow. Despairing, I gave up on the whole meal. But when the following weekend offered up the chance for another dinner party, I started to think about that beet salad and those shrimp cakes again. Now, I wouldn't have done what I did if, the first time around, these dishes had proved too much a hassle for dinner party fare, or had received only lukewarm praise. But I can't deny the fact that I did it primarily for the pictures. Yes, I served beet salad and shrimp cakes to my unsuspecting guests for the pictures.

Yellow beets were not to be found, and while the red ones tasted just about as good, they weren't as nice for the pictures. I also substituted watercress for the sunflower sprouts this time around. It's hard to go wrong with a beet salad. The toasted sunflower seeds add a nice little crunch to this one, and the lemon-shallot dressing is robust enough that you don't even miss the cheese (goat, feta, ricotta salata) that usually appears with roasted beets on salad plates. Since we had eaten left-over caramel chocolate walnut tart for several days after the initial dinner party, I couldn't quite bear to make another one. And, the most recent copy of Cook's llustrated featured a recipe for chocolate pots de creme that I couldn't pass up. I've done other chocolate pots de creme and coffee pots de creme and caramel pots de creme, but, let me tell you, this recipe trumps them all: dizzying-rich chocolate flavor, smooth as velvet, and requires no water-bath baking. It's a real dinner party winner. Oh yeah, and it looks good in pictures.


Beet and Watercress Salad with Toasted Sunflower Seeds
Serves 4.


2 1/2 pounds medium beets
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
large bunch of watercress, stemmed, washed, and dried

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Trim beets, leaving about an inch of stems attached. Wrap beets in groups of three or so in aluminum foil and roast on a baking sheet in the oven until tender, 40-45 minutes. Carefully unwrap beets and let cool just enough to handle.
3. While roasting beets, toast sunflower seeds in a small baking dish, shaking occasionally, until golden, 8-10 minutes. Watch them because they'll burn really fast.
4. Whisk together shallot, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and sugar in a small bowl, then add oil in a stream while whisking.
5. When beets are cool enough to handle, trim off stems, and slip off the skins. Cut beets into thin slices and gently toss with 3 tablespoons of the dressing in a bowl. Dressed beets can be covered and refrigerated 1 day ahead.
6. Toss watercress in remaining dressing in another bowl. Arrange beets on plates, top with watercress, and sprinkle with sunflower seeds. Add a few twists of ground pepper.

Shrimp Cakes with Chili-Lime Cream Sauce
adapted from Bon Appetit September 2005, original recipe from Sansei Seafood restaurant and Sushi Bar, Maui.
Serves 4 as main course.


1 pound uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 large egg
2 scallions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
1/2 teaspoon chili-garlic sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
a few grindings fresh pepper
2 cups panko, divided (Japanese breadcrumbs)
2 tablespoons peanut oil
Chili-Lime Cream sauce (recipe follows)
chopped scallions for garnish

1. Chop up shrimp into very small pieces. The original recipe called for the use of a food processor, but I think that this would make the shrimp too finely chopped. You want your cakes to have small chunk of shrimp in them. I find that putting the shrimp in a bowl and then running through them with a pair of kitchen shears works best for me. Put chopped shrimp in medium bowl. Add egg, green onion, lemon juice, mustard, cilantro, hot pepper sauce, salt, and pepper. Mix. Then, stir in 1 cup of the panko.
2. Form mixture into 8 cakes. They will be about three inches in diameter. Roll cakes in remaining one cup of panko. Transfer them to a wax-paper-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. You can do this up to four hours ahead.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons peanut oil in a heavy large skillet over medium heat. Fry cakes until cooked through and golden brown on both sides, about 6 minutes.
4. Divide Chili-Lime Cream Sauce among 4 plates. Place 2 shrimp cakes on each, garnish with chopped scallions, and serve.

Chili-Lime Cream Sauce
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon chopped peeled fresh ginger
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1/3 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons chili-garlic sauce
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Combine first 4 ingredients in a heavy small saucepan. Boil over high heat until reduced by half, 3-5 minutes. Add cream and boil until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Mix in chili-garlic sauce. Add butter one piece at a time, whisking just until melted before adding next piece.


Chocolate Pots de Creme
Serves 6. From Cook's Illustrated, November and December 2006


8 ounces 70 percent bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
5 large egg yolks
5 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup half-and-half
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso mixed with 1 tablespoon water

Whipped Cream and Cocoa Powder

1. Place chocolate in medium heat-proof bowl. Set a fine-mesh strainer over bowl and set aside.
2. Whisk yolks, sugar, and salt in a bowl until combined; then whisk in cream and half-and-half. Pour mixture into a medium saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, and scraping bottom of pot with wooden spoon until thickened. When the custard clings to the back of your spoon and registers a temperature of 175 to 180 degrees, it's done. This will take 8-12 minutes. Do not let the custard come to a simmer.
3. Pour custard through mesh strainer over chocolate. Let mixture stand to melt for about 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth, whisk in vanilla and espresso. Divide mixture among 6 ramekins. Gently tap ramekins against the counter to remove air bubbles.
4. Cool pots de creme to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until chilled, at least 4 hours or up to 72 hours. Before serving, let pots de creme stand at room temperature for 20-30 minutes.
5. Top each ramekin with a bit of whipped cream (I added just a bit of sugar and vanilla to mine), and dust with cocoa powder.