Recipes: Channel 9 - CBS - 9am NEWS at 9

If you watched me on the local DC affiliate of CBS this morning and are looking for the Valentine-Inspired Recipes I prepared - I have pasted them all below in the link:

Orange Scented Dark Chocolate Truffles

Raspberry Champagne Gelees

Goat Cheese, Grape & Pistachio Truffles

Mascarpone Stuffed Dates

Please if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at info/at/finediningsolutions.com or visit my business website for more information at www.finediningsolutions.com.

Thanks for Watching!

Mascarpone Stuffed Dates: Previous Post
http://finediningsolutions.blogspot.com/2005/11/recipe-mascarpone-stuffed-dates.html

Goat Cheese, Grape & Pistachio Truffles

• 4 oz. Goat Cheese
• 2 Tablespoons of Crème
• Salt and Pepper
• 6 Green Seedless Grapes
• 1/2 cup Shelled Pistachios, Medium Grind

Place grapes and pistachios near bowl. Put goat cheese in bowl. Add cream, salt and pepper and combine. Using hands mold grape in goat cheese and roll in pistachios. Set on display plate or tupperware

Raspberry Champagne Gelees:

• 1 Small Box of Raspberry Flavored Jello
• 3 Packages of Gelatin
  
• 1/2 cup Champagne (to substitute for 1/2 cup of water in jello recipe)
• Whipped Cream
• Raspberries

Put jello mix in bowl. Heat 2 cups water and pour into bowl. Whisk. Add 3 gelatin packets. Whisk. Add 1/2 cup champagne. Add 1/2 cup cold water. Ladle into small sheet tray and refrigerate. Cut mold and lay on serving platter. Spray with whipped cream and top with raspberry.

Orange Scented Dark Chocolate Truffles
Ingredients:

• 8 oz. Dark Chocolate
• 4 oz. Heavy Cream
• Zest of 1 Orange
• 1/4 c. Coco Powder

Combine cream and orange zest and bring to boil; Remove from heat and let steep about 20 minutes. Chop chocolate and place in medium sized bowl (make sure it is non-reactive if metal).

Bring cream-orange zest mixture to a boil again, then remove from heat and pour over chocolate through a fine sieve (to remove orange zest), add grand mariner to mixture and let sit for 3-4 minutes; whisk until chocolate and milk is completely emulsified; let chocolate cool to room temperature, then place in refrigerator for 1 hour until ganache (chocolate-crème mixture) is set. Sieve coco powder into shallow, sided dish and set aside. Make an ice bath in a small bowl and set aside. Place some parchment paper in a shallow, wide tupperware and set aside. Remove ganache from fridge; Dip your hands in the ice bath for 3-4 seconds to chill your hands, then remove and pat them completely dry on a towel. Using your hands, immediately remove about 2 T. of ganache and roll into an even ball, drop in coco power; carefully shake coco powder dish – to roll truffle around the dish of coco power – evenly coated. Carefully remove from coco powder and place in parchment coated tupperware. Continue with remaining truffles. Place truffles in freezer for about 15 minutes, then remove from freezer to cover with parchment, seal with tupperware and place in fridge until service.

To Serve: Remove from fridge and leave in Tupperware about 30 minute before you plan to enjoy. Place on small dessert plate to share and enjoy.

Recipe: Carribean Salad with Mango Pineapple Garnish

Carribean Salad with Mango Pineapple Garnish

A little bell pepper, green papaya, cilantro...what could be more refreshing. Toss it with some mache, top it with a grilled chicken breast and you have a very filling, very healthy dinner.

• 1/4 cup of chopped bell pepper (a little red, a little orange)
• 1 Jalapeno, seeded and brunoise
• 1/2 cup chopped jicama
• 1/4 cup loosely packed sprigs of cilantro
• 1 tablespoon of slivered green onions
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 Tablespoon of canola oil
• 1/4 cup silvered carrots
• butter lettuce

Garnish:

• 3 Tablespoons of chopped mango
• 4 Tablespoons of pineapple chunks
• Extra jalapeno if you like

1. Prepare salad ingredients and combine.
2. Prepare garnish ingredients and combine.
3. Serve salad a top butter lettuce. Garnish with 'garnish'.
   
   

Restaurant Review: Inde Bleu

If you haven't been to IndeBleu yet, you really ought to go. A fushion of Indian and French cuisine - it can be a nice meal. I visited recently and haven't been in almost a year - the restaurant only being open 13 months. The menu has significantly changed since my first visit, there used to be twice as much to choose from with a focus on first and second courses.

Now the menu is half the size, and half of it, is price-frix. It has also lost its intensive focus on marrying french style with Indian flavors. Now the indian side seems more like an accent - not necessarily even in every dish. Disappointing.

It is still quite a deal though, only $65 for 4 courses - so you can save your money for the 10% DC city tax you have to pay. A side note on the tax - when IndeBleu brings you your bill, it actually outlines what you got, then on a separate line says IRS Bullsh*t. Someone ought to let them know it IS NOT THE IRS - it is the Bullsh*t District of Columbia.

The first time I went to IndeBleu the entrees were quite disappointing and the appetizers had so much to offer. This meal was completely flipped. The entree made the trip worth it - otherwise I would say - save your money and visit this restaurant during restaurant week.

Here are some pic's that were noteworthy dishes:

Pomegranate Glazed Duck breast over Sweet Red Wine Braised Cabbage and a few Potato Gnocchis (actually 4 on my plate).

Lobster and Foie Gras Tortellini - could have been so impressive! But I only found 1 brunoise of foie in 1 of 3 tortellini's and then put about 2 cups of pea veloute in bowl, so I had to suck the sauce off the tortellini's just to get a taste of what they were.

Their signature dessert. Spagetti n Meatballs: They run saffron ice cream through a potato ricer and serve it next to mascerated ladyfingers.

Recipe: Starfruit & Pineapple Salad with Ginger Pineapple Vinaigrette

Starfruit & Pineapple Salad with Ginger-Pineapple Vinaigrette
Utilize the exotic fruits that are coming up from South America - fruit is always in season somewhere in the world and we are lucky enough to live near a whole foods that provides us with this stuff!
There is no acid (lemon juice, vinegar) in this vinaigrette, because there is enough acid in the pineapple juice and the pineapple chunks to take the place of it.

• 1 Medium Sized Star Fruit
• 1 Cup of Chopped Pineapple
• Danelion Greens
• Watercress
• 1 Tablespoon of Minced Ginger
• 1 Cup of Pineapple Juice (Not from a can - get a good bottle of juice with pineapple in it)
• 6 Tablespoons of Evoo (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

1. Place pineapple juice in pot and bring to a boil. Let boil until reduced at least by 3/4, creating a syrup'y - sauce consistancy. Remove from heat and let cool.
2. Chop ginger and add to cooled pineapple syrup.
3. Whisk in extra virgin olive oil to pineapple syrup and your vinaigrette is done.
4. Slice starfruit and combine with pineapple chunks.
5. Clean Dandelion greens and watercress and combine.
6. Toss greens and fruit in vinaigrette and serve.