What did you eat last night for dinner?

[SField]

Originally Posted by mm84321

No offense taken. They were a gift for my mother; they aren't exactly my style anyway. I appreciate your input, and I think that learning proper presentation is all a part of the process. What kind of plates would you recommend? Something like these perhaps? http://www.mbswholesale.co.uk/acatalog/Grafitti.html I put a splash of Madeira in the pan after cooking to deglaze, so that might be what you're seeing. But, yes, next time I'll let it rest longer, regardless. Sounds delicious. I'll be sure to try this next time. I'd imagine the color of the purple cauliflower would make for a pleasing presentation.
Something basic like that would be a great start. I might go for something a bit flatter, but those are good. The technique I'm talking about is the famous Robuchon pommes puree in a nut shell. You can do it with squash or sweet potato, or celeriac... it just creates a texture and taste that a machine can't. It works very well with butternut squash, as I saw at Bouchon. Purple potato might be harder to do it with because they're so fibrous.

 

[mm84321]

Originally Posted by impolyt_one

I really like that purple cauliflower in soup; I'll make a white cauliflower soup conventionally and then throw in some frilly parsley when I puree it, and then the purple stuff I'll cut into tiny florets, blanch, and then fold into the soup. It makes for a beautiful floral-esque looking bowl of soup.

I tried the orange variety last week. It lacked moisture, and when roasted, was rather dry. I like purple and white the best.

 

[mm84321]

Originally Posted by SField

Something basic like that would be a great start. I might go for something a bit flatter, but those are good. The technique I'm talking about is the famous Robuchon pommes puree in a nut shell. You can do it with squash or sweet potato, or celeriac... it just creates a texture and taste that a machine can't. It works very well with butternut squash, as I saw at Bouchon.
Well then, I'll have to look for a ricer at Williams-Sonoma this week. I don't even know what to use this food processor for. Not sure what possessed me to buy it in the first place.

 

[impolyt_one]

Those graffiti sets have the potential to be the Glencairn glasses of this thread. Styleforum approved.

 

[impolyt_one]

I forgot to mention that the wine was the Hansel Cuvee Alyce style and it was a phenomenal pinot. One of the better bottles of wine I've had this year. I am going to track some more down and gift it to my mother this summer.

 

[Piobaire]

I'm trying a sous vide experiment today. Instead of seasoning my duck legs over night in the fridge, then rinsing and bagging for sous vide confit, I'm putting a little diced garlic, springs of thyme, salt, and a tablespoon of duck fat in the bag and dropping them in the sous vide. Will report back on results as this will remove a couple steps in sous vide confit if it works well.

 

[NorCal]

 

[Piobaire]

This new method of confit worked perfectly. Matt, are you listening?

 

[itsstillmatt]

Originally Posted by Piobaire

This new method of confit worked perfectly. Matt, are you listening?
Glad to hear. I save my confit, so I think salting them before works better, as there is less water in teh bag, and they can sit a lot longer with me feeling comfortable. Interesting how little fat you really need.

 

[Sterling Gillette]

Fussili with wild garlic pesto and duck breast​

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by iammatt

Glad to hear. I save my confit, so I think salting them before works better, as there is less water in teh bag, and they can sit a lot longer with me feeling comfortable. Interesting how little fat you really need.

I think you are correct and that salting them before gives a better result. I also would really like to try your confit, made the old fashioned way, double fat sealed and left to sit for some time. I'm sure that confit is more flavorful. This experiment, as probably most experiments are, was born out of necessity. I forgot to season the duck Friday night.

However, it turned out a pretty good result so I'll keep it in the arsenal.

 

[itsstillmatt]

Originally Posted by Piobaire

I think you are correct and that salting them before gives a better result. I also would really like to try your confit, made the old fashioned way, double fat sealed and left to sit for some time. I'm sure that confit is more flavorful. This experiment, as probably most experiments are, was born out of necessity. I forgot to season the duck Friday night.

However, it turned out a pretty good result so I'll keep it in the arsenal.
I read somewhere that the fat doesn't contribute much to the outcome, and is just for preservation. Your experiment seems to confirm that. I'm just lazy, so I make a bunch and keep it in the fridge. Cooked that long in a bag at that temp and held at fridge temp, it is pretty much good forever, though I wouldn't advise people to do what I do w/r/t safety standards here.

 

[dhc905]

Did girl and goat. My initial impressions were: A dud on several levels, particularly given the insane hype surrounding this place. Service: 4/10. While they did fold my napkin when I went to the restroom, the waitress basically yelled at my fiance when we ordered 6 items, rather than the "recommended" 9. She then proceeded to write a couple things down when she waivered between two items, insisting that "you'll need both". Food: 5/10. We ended up ordering 10 (9+1) items from the menu ranging from the goat loin to the doughnuts. None struck a cord with me, although none were bad. That said, when an 18-year old boy says "this is good comfort food" you can't consider yourself a haut-cuisine place. Atmosphere: 8/10. The highlight, although the incandescent bulb, old wood, french-barn theme is getting massively overdone. The napkins in the restroom were of middling quality, and I'd say that overall, the napkin-test held true. This is a middling restaurant. Oh yeah, and we didn't finish all the food. Too much. So here's what we ordered: Bread with beer-bacon compote, Roasted Cauliflower (pickled peppers . pine nuts . mint), chickpea fritters ( romesco . hazelnut hummus . sesame . goat feta), squash ravioli ( mushroom raisin ragout . brussels leaves . shroom creme fraiche), shaved Kohlrabi salad (fennel . evalon . toasted sliced almonds . ginger dressing), lamb sausage stuffed calamari (sweet garlic . sweetbread crisp . currant saor), braised beef tongue (masa . beef vinaigrette . salsa verde), Walter's Chicken (yuzu harissa . fried pickles . shaved brussels . grilled naan), Goat Loin, Pomme Frites, and Sesame Semifreddo ( pork fat donuts . sambal pineapple). Nothing was fundamentally exciting about the ingredients, or the preparation. Example of poor execution: Lamb Sausage stuffed calamari. Putting those two together is creative, but the sum of the parts did not equal or exceed just having some good lamb sausage and calamari prepared in a typical way. They took an unnecessarily avant-garde preparation, I assume for the sake of being avant-garde, not because they came up with something amazing. Now that I've had time to digest, I feel compelled to say this place is bogus. They charge $4 for bread with beer-bacon compote. The bread was sold to us as "extra sour" and yet wasn't sour at all, or warmed to a serveable temperature. To me, it appeared to be a nice way of fleecing customers of $4 that they typically would expect from a restaurant of this purported caliber. Select pictures:

Aforementioned calamari with lamb sausage

Chickpea Fritters

Doughnuts and ice cream

The Bar was cool.

I'd eat at Avec a million times before returning here.

 

[SField]

I think that as long you temper your expectations to what Girl and the Goat is... a sort of country bistro, then you won't go in there expecting Charlie Trotters and walk away all pissed off. Stephanie Izzard is a gifted fat chef. She likes crispy, gooey, ***** things and that's what you'll get. I don't know why people go there and think they'll be eating at El Bulli then flip out when that isn't what they get.

It's a slightly more refined version of a neighborhood restaurant, and a pleasant one at that. To call it middling makes me wonder exactly where you dine with regularity. I mean, my fine dining habits are ridiculous even by the standards of some food critics (there was a time when a very significant portion of my discretionary budget went to fine dining,) and even then I'd only be able to coat hangers and the Goat middling with tongue very firmly in cheek with a conspicuous and very self aware eye rolling to go with it.

Seriously dude, are you the critic from Ratatouille?

 

[dhc905]

haha, I know nothing about food. I figured that with glowing reviews by the likes of Kwil, this place was worth the mobs of hipster-adulators it has. My reasoning for the middling title is because imo, it was no better than a 17/30 on the service, food, atmosphere scale. You're totally right that it's SUPPOSED to be just a country take on the neighborhood restaurant, except I found the entire place dissonant on what it was trying to be (country take on the neighborhood restaurant):

1. See comment about bread. WTF. $4 means nothing, it's the fact that they have the audacity to charge for that. This is America, land of the free (bread).

2. Service was bad.