A Monk's Kettle Inspiration

Main Course

This dinner was inspired by "Unique Eats," a TV show on the Food Network. The menu comes from Monk's Kettle in San Francisco. This is the first time I cooked without recipes, and I wasn't very impressed with my abilities. The pork chops were brined in beer and apple cider then grilled. The sauce consisted of beer, mustard, and chicken stock, and simmered for the day. Potato cakes were just homemade mashed potatoes with chives and cheddar cheese, coated with panko, then fried in a little oil. The Brussels sprouts were steamed for a few minutes then sauteed with butter, bacon, and shallots.

Appetizer
I wanted to make fried green tomatoes, however local stores do not offer green tomatoes. I went with zucchini instead, and it turned out all right. The sauce was another story. I was unsuccessful in getting it to thicken and ended up just using ranch.







and Finally...
Dessert was a homemade peach ice cream with a praline sauce courtesy of the Neely's (Food Network). The peach ice cream wasn't very sweet. I did like the praline; of course, praline is just pecans and Karo.







My Thoughts
I was disappointed in the overall taste and presentation of the meal. Some items were good individually but when brought together it lack greatness. I was really looking forward to a delicious dinner. It felt like it was coming together wonderfully while I was cooking, but at the end it all started falling apart. To much was going on; I forgot to make the dipping sauce, I was trying to cook 3 different things in one pan, and the ice cream maker was malfunctioning. Anything higher than a 6 is overrating because it tasted like any other weeknight dinner.

Brazilian influenced.

So, I was back in the barrel as the chef du-jour for this week and decided to take inspiration from a Churascuria (brazilian steak house) that i had visited in Beverly Hills a couple weeks ago during the LA Poker Classic - Fogo de Chao.

The concept at this place is simple, you eat until you cant walk! What better idea to model a chef night on?

Well, ok so i DID decide to take it down a notch and just go with some dishes inspired by what i found there as opposed to their "stuff ya to the gills" method.

I started off with a rather simple salad, arugula and baby spinach tossed with a very good balsamic vinaigrette I garnished the salad with tomato and orange slices and served it over red kale and let the crew work on that while i finished dialing in my entree and main sides. (keep em busy so they dont see you sweat!)


I should interrupt here and throw in a little note about Sandy and his uncanny ability to finish a dish faster than any human ive ever met, by the time i got my own salad to the table Sandy's plate consisted of nothing more than an empty orange rind so im fairly certain he enjoyed it, although i have to assume anyone that can eat that fast cant be able to actually taste what he devours. ( i'll take his word that it was good! ;) )


Next up was the combined main course which consisted of a hearty soup/stew of potato's spicy sausage, green onions, sour cream, portabella mushrooms, fontina and cheddar cheeses garnished with fresh chives. I dont have a recipe for this as it was largely made up on the spot and based loosely on a creamy baked potato soup i found online. I thought i came out fantastic
and worked nicely for a chef night as i put it together around noon and let it slow cook in the crock pot most of the day adding the cream and cheeses about 20 mins prior to serving. Maggie seemed to really enjoy the soup and hopefully the remains will provide her with a tasty lunch for the rest of the week.

Along with soup i served bacon wrapped filet mignon and marinated chicken medallions on skewers, personally the chicken marinade i used, i didnt really like but the filet was literally to die for. literally - if it was me and you and the last filet... well... Gladiator comes to mind.












These were served with Pao de Queijo (brazlian cheese puffs) that are made using yucca starch / manioc root. (yah... lets just say the ingredients arent exactly easy to find in Ridgecrest)

These are just a very simple yet delicious parmesan cheese puff. mine came out fairly heavy and i think too dense, having never made them before im fairly certain i made them too big and they were unable to cook and rise thoroughly into the light airy concoctions i enjoyed previously, the flavor however was spot on, so i think my guests were able to get the idea i was shooting for.

For desert, we enjoyed a cupcake TV dinner that Maggie and Olivia made, this was really pretty creative (see the pic) they made some tasty banana cupcakes and decorated them to look like the components of an old fashioned TV Dinner, chicken leg, mashed potatoes w butter and gravy, and the good old diced carrots and peas everyone remembers... they used colored icing and a myriad of candy and caramel to pull off the illusion.

To grade this meal, i guess id give myself a 7 or a 7.5. everything came out pretty close to what i was shooting for, while there were a few shortcomings, its kind of expected when you make something you've never cooked before and your frame of reference for a flavor profile is in your head. But i will let my fellow diners and bloggers do the actual grading.

Thanks for reading!

Brian