use real butter

My energy levels have been wildly sinusoidal this week. After seven weeks of nuking my boob, my radiation treatment seems to have finally caught up with me. I held out for quite a long time, so I’m pretty happy that radiation wasn’t worse. I have sporadic pain which isn’t so bad, and then there is the sudden fatigue which comes on in seconds with no warning. That is more annoying than anything else and it has been forcing me to take full advantage of any time I am feeling good and alert.

The downside of feeling good was yesterday afternoon when I left radiation… I went to Whole Paycheck Foods to have a look at their seafood counter. I should have realized I was setting myself up. I was high energy and the brain began to think of things to eat this weekend. Yummy, delicious, wonderful things to eat. Since we were at Whole Foods, let’s make that yummy, delicious, wonderful, expensive things to eat.

How about those scallops.
Anything else, ma’am?
And some shrimp.
What else can I get for you?
I like that wild Yakutat Sockeye salmon…

Then I saw the Chilean sea bass. Ever since I began shopping for seafood, Chilean sea bass has been a no-no in my book. Don’t buy. It’s overfished. But I knew that Whole Foods had been carrying Chilean sea bass for the past year or more and they wouldn’t do this unless it checked out with their requirement for offering sustainable seafood to customers. In fact, they get their Chilean sea bass from a supplier who is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council. I went for it. I had never prepared Chilean sea bass and probably had it once or twice over a decade ago. I know people balk at the cost of say, organic beef tenderloin from Whole Foods, but they ought to step over to the fish counter some time if they want to get their panties in a wad. The total on my grocery bill would have been more fitting for a receipt of 20 items rather than 6, but the seafood is worth it.

just a little bit of lemon

How to prepare the sea bass? I grew up eating seafood, lots and lots of fantastic seafood (the state tourism board likes to say Virginia is for lovers, but I like to think it is for seafood lovers). My favorite way to eat fish is obviously raw, as in sushi and sashimi. My second favorite way to eat fish is cooked simply. That means no crazy sauces or heavy marinades. I actually enjoy tasting the fish itself because fresh fish carries the show all on its own. When I unwrapped the fish at home, it smelled like seawater - fresh seawater. Bonus. I like a little lemon with my fish - not too much. So I let the sea bass sit in some lemon for about 20 minutes. Enough to accent the fish, but not enough to taste like lemon or to start cooking the flesh.

salt, pepper, olive oil

I patted the fillet dry and sprinkled some salt, freshly ground pepper, and olive oil over it. Tossed it into my fish basket and set it upon the grill where the veggies were already hanging out. My greatest nightmare when it comes to cooking seafood is that I will screw it up because seafood is delicate and really ass expensive around here. I’d much rather undercook it (which is easy to remedy) than overcook it (which I believe is a felony).

lookin’ good: crispy edges, juicy flesh

Eight minutes in total was just right for us. The edges browned so nicely. When Jeremy flipped the fish on the grill, the juices poured out onto the flame and caught fire. Fat. Delicious, lovely fat. That’s why the sea bass is so amazingly tender and full of flavor. It has a juicy flake more akin to grouper and an almost buttery taste. Oooooh hooo hooo!!! Let the love affair begin. I feel as if a new door has been opened for me, and behind that door is a sexay piece of Chilean sea bass.

the star of a grilled dinner

Grilled Chilean Sea Bass

1 pound Chilean sea bass, fillet
1 lemon, juice of
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
2 tbsp olive oil

Set the fish in a container with the lemon juice for ten minutes. Flip the fish and let sit for another ten minutes. Pat the fillet dry and rub with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Place fillet in an oiled fish basket and grill on high heat for about 4 minutes. Flip the fish and grill for another 3 minutes (depends on thickness of the fish). Serve immediately.

One of our favorite meals in Boulder is Community Night at The Kitchen. It’s a brilliant concept and so much fun. Every Monday night at 7 pm, diners who have signed up for Comm Night arrive and sit at a long table in the center of the dining room. There are usually 2 dozen people and reservations need to be made a few weeks in advance. No one knows what the menu is. You don’t order the food. The chef decides that day. When everyone is seated and has ordered drinks, the courses begin to parade out. Usually there will be three or four plates of one course passed around the table. You dine family style. It’s a social setting and you usually wind up chatting with your neighbors and getting to know other folks. You know… “community”. But more than just the community - people are there to sample some pretty amazing fare. All told, there will be anywhere from 9 to 13 different dishes that pass under your nose by the end of the evening. The best advice I can offer anyone going to Community Night: wear an elastic waistband.

a neighboring cocktail

mixed olives to start: picholine and niçoise

I made a reservation for Comm Night so my ILs could experience it this past Monday. It was our (mine and Jeremy’s) fourth time - we absolutely love it. And while Comm Night is just about my favorite meal to have in Boulder, it is also my least favorite to shoot. Even in summer, Comm Night doesn’t begin until 7 pm and the lighting inside the dining room of The Kitchen suuuuucks. I understand that some food bloggers have rules about not using flash, yadda yadda and yadda. Whatev. Shooting at The Kitchen is a pickle, but Comm Night is so bloody amazing that I always want to capture it.

chicken and pork pâté with cornichons and mustard

prosciutto with cheeses, apple slices, and candied almonds

Restaurant shooting is probably the most stressful part of food photography that I encounter. Not only is it generally more technically difficult, but the social circumstances can make it awkward if not impossible. But I love to photograph what we eat in restaurants because it’s different, it’s (sometimes) plated, and it usually looks good. Most of my dear friends Don’t Touch their plates when they are set down at the table. They even turn the best side of the plate to face my camera. I suppose that is a sad statement about me… and it also means my friends are pretty frakking awesome.

flatbread with duck confit, corn, onion, and chèvre

tazmanian salmon belly wtih corn salad and sautéed greens

Most people don’t photograph what they are eating in restaurants, so when I want to shoot my food, I am already doing something out of the norm. There are three groups I consider: 1) my party 2) the restaurant and 3) other diners - not necessarily in that order! I generally don’t shoot if the people I’m with are going to be annoyed or offended. I typically okay it with the restaurant if I’m using flash (more on that below) and I also politely check with fellow diners around me if using flash. Amazingly, some of the fellow Comm Night guests have gotten into it and offered to hold a plate for me or search around for the prettiest presentation. I have never had anyone tell me “no” except a cupcakery in Pasadena who refused to let me photograph their cupcakes (which was odd because I bought 10 of the damn things and took them outside to photograph and by the way - they were pretty mediocre for the price I paid). If anyone tells me no - I refrain, period. Oddly enough, on some occasions when I’ve asked other diners if my flash will disrupt their meal, they reply no, then smile, then ask me if I’m Kylie Kwong. What a hoot.

grilled calamari in red pepper peppronata and diced tomato

farm greens with apples and gorgonzola

Ideally, when I shoot in a restaurant, I will be seated by a window where good natural light is available and there is no need for anything but my camera and a steady hand. Ideally. Life, as we know it, is rarely ideal. I shoot with the Nikon D200 because all of the smaller cameras are either on the fritz, out to pasture, or full of pictures of national and international telescope facilities (don’t ask). Shooting with the D200 is a pain in the ass. Why? It is big and heavy. Plop one of two huge lenses on it and you get Bigger and Heavier. As light diminishes (which it always does in the restaurants), shutter speed slows down and well - you need a table-top tripod. I can hand hold my shots down to about 1/8 of a second with decent results and then we enter the realm of pain where it’s too much trouble to bring out the tripod, but the potential for camera-shake increases and risks tanking the shot (see the cocktail shot - 1/6 sec). I don’t tweak my ISO. It stays on the lowest setting *always*. I’ve tested a handful of smaller tripods and the only one that doesn’t buckle under the weight of my camera/lens is the gorillapod zoom. Don’t get too excited though, the G-pod zoom barely handles the configuration and most of the time I have to steady the tripod with my hand to pull off exposures anywhere from 1/8 to 1 second. Oy!

roast pork tenderloin with potatoes, carrots, celery, fennel, onion

creamy polenta with grilled onions

When the tripod doesn’t cut it, it’s time to bring out the flash (and put tripod away). When I cross the line to flash photography, things become more complicated on several fronts. First off - I am now infringing on the ambiance and dining experience of the people around me. That’s why I ask first. Again, no one has EVER had a problem with it so far. One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of the people dining at the finer establishments are there for celebratory reasons and they wind up taking a lot of photos for the occasion and use… flash. I’ve even taken photos for some folks. For some reason, if you are taking snappies of the whole gang at Grandma’s 75th birthday, you don’t need to ask permission of the other diners to use your flash, but if you want to shoot some sexy prosciutto at your table, it is enough to get some folks’ panties in a wad (according to comments on a few food blogs).

Secondly, there is more equipment involved: external flash and diffuser. I lug all of this junk in a compact photo bag which I try to tuck under my table or seat. Juggling photography gear is a nightmare for me - just not what I want to be dealing with at dinner. I usually set up, take a quick shot (just one when using flash), disassemble, put away. This got particularly awkward at Comm Night because my ILs were probably wondering what sort of freak married into their family 11 years ago… The place was so dark though that just trying to focus (manually, always manually) on the edge of the chocolate cake was nigh impossible. Toward the end of the meal, people around us forgot that I was shooting and tucked into the plates straight away. At that point, I did my best guess, fired one shot, and accepted whatever would come of it. There is no time to spend more than 1 second setting up and taking the shot. Maybe if the world were full of food photogs it might be different, but it isn’t. Wow, that’s a neat concept - a world full of food photogs. I’d love it.

chocolate nemesis cake (flourless chocolate cake)

yogurt panna cotta with raspberries and blackberries

The dinner was fantastic as always. The Kitchen NEVER disappoints me as food goes. And even though the photos were less than satisfactory, they at least convey how much and how varied the food was. Would I be happier to leave the camera at home and just enjoy the meal? I don’t think so. Sharing food is such a part of my daily life that I would be sad not to drag everyone along and tell them what a great meal this was. Plus I have this documentation problem (I document and archive just about everything). At least Jeremy puts up with me and even holds the flash or hands me a lens to switch out when necessary. Anyway, I just thought I’d share the consistently toughest meal for me to shoot in Boulder (logistically) for the curious.

Funny how just a few weeks ago some of my bloggy buds were all, “Dooode, you are blogging daily and I can’t keep up witchyoo, yo!” And I’m all like, “Laydeeeez, I’m on another steroid dose for my side-effects and I can’t sleep, so I just keep a bloggin’!” Okay, well that ended abruptly this past weekend because I replaced blogging with doing everything else. Seriously though, we were just entertaining my ILs this weekend. Still, I’m breaking it down into a few posts since they involve… FOOD!

Last year, Jeremy’s folks were out to visit us about a week before I got my diagnosis. It was also the weekend of MIL’s bday. I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday and she replied she’d like to bake a cake with me! MIL likes to bake and I had just completed a pastry skills course that summer at the culinary school (my reward for defending my PhD dissertation), so she wanted to try one of the recipes I had learned. We made a lovely Lemon Mousseline Torte. Thing is… FIL is a chocolate fiend. Not just that he likes chocolate, but he won’t touch anything else if there *isn’t* chocolate in it. Okay, that isn’t entirely true. If it is a hunk of meat… perhaps FIL should meet Mr. SGCC - aka Caveman, Susan? :)

let’s start with some chocolate cookie crumbs

press a nice chocolate cookie base

On this visit, MIL mentioned that she’d like to bake together again. Sounded great except it’s been hot here lately. Oven, heat, summer - gah! While I flipped through the course notebook, I came upon the “frozen desserts” segment of the class. Ah ha! I really wanted to make some bombes, but the professional grade molds I need (yes, I *need* them, damn it!) wouldn’t ship in time for us to use. I had a good alternative though, and it wouldn’t require much oven time at all.

chopped chocolate stirred into the custard

The recipe in class was a white chocolate espresso semifreddo, but I altered it to a chocolate espresso semifreddo because 1) I hate white chocolate and 2) FIL eats chocolate chocolate, not that white crap. On Sunday morning, I left the house really early to hike out to a point for shooting (nature… with a camera). A little later, Jeremy took his folks on a short hike while I returned home and began the mise en place for the semifreddo.

mascarpone and cream lend to a lovely texture

I think in the course of my food blogging, I have settled into a pattern of how I cook or bake. That is to say, I actually prepare food with the photography in mind, with the photography planned into the steps as if it were part of the recipe. Second nature, by now. It becomes painfully obvious how not normal that is when I prepare food with other people because they aren’t used to it. Funny that. I felt so bad asking MIL to not add the chocolate yet, to please hold the spatula still for a second, to wait until I could angle the reflector… MIL is an incredibly good sport about it. When I tried this with my grandmother last fall, she gave me these hilarious frowns that read, “Crazy American-born Chinese Granddaughter!”

combine chocolate and mascarpone

The dessert has three main components that wind up as one semifreddo. That’s weird for me. If I make three separate components, I usually expect to see those components in the final product (like cake, ganache, mousse, for instance). I altered the recipe somewhat because I think making Italian meringue is messy and a pain in the butt compared to Swiss meringue. I swapped out the white chocolate for semi-sweet chocolate (Valrhona 64%), replaced the Italian meringue with the Swiss meringue, and used instant espresso powder instead of brewing my own espresso.

folding meringue into the chocolate and mascarpone mixture

The semifreddo presents well. The texture is smooth and rich, but refreshingly cool which I find perfect for summer months. There is a tanginess to the flavor imparted by the mascarpone, but it isn’t as overt as what cream cheese would have contributed. Everyone who has a slice seems to love it. I could go either way. I find that the recipe is more effort than one would expect for such a simple looking dessert. Still, it’s a winner and my ILs really enjoyed it.

let thaw for ten minutes before serving

Chocolate Espresso Semifreddo

1 3/4 cups chocolate cookie crumbs
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

3 oz espresso
4 large eggs separated
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp dark rum
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped fine
16 oz mascarpone cheese
2 oz heavy cream

Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Mix cookie crumbs and butter together. Press crust into the springform pan and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven (turn oven off). When cool, line the sides of the pan with a 3-inch wide parchment strip along the inside edge.

Over a double boiler, whisk together the yolks and 2 tablespoons of th sugar until it is pale yellow and thick. It should ribbon. Lift whisk out of the bowl to incorporate air into the mixture. Add espresso, rum, and vanilla. Place over simmering water and cook, vigorously whisking until liquid coats the back of a spoon and the mixture is thick and foamy. Remove from heat and add the finely chopped chocolate. Stir until melted and continue stirring until cooled. In separate bowl, stir together the mascarpone and cream until soft and smooth. Do not overstir. Place egg whites and 1/3 cup sugar in kitchenaid mixing bowl. Gently whisk together over a simmering water bath until 145°F is reached. Remove from bath and set the bowl on the kitchenaid with the balloon whip attachment. Whip on medium high until stiff peaks form. Reduce speed to medium and mix until the bowl is cool to the touch (cooler than your hand). Fold the mascarpone mixture into the chocolate mixture until there are no streaks left. Fold 1/4 of the meringue (sacrifice) into the chocolate-mascarpone mixture. Fold in the remaining meringue in three parts - don’t overmix or the volume will reduce!

Spread the mixture over the baked crust in the pan. Tightly cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4 hours. When ready to serve, loosen and remove the sides of the pan. Remove the parchment paper strip. Serve cold and cut slices with a warm, dry knife.