Seared Chilean Sea Bass with Parsnip Puree, 3 mushrooms, Watermelon Radish, and Mushroom Gravy

To start, I roasted the parsnips in the oven at 350, with 1 cup of chicken stock in the bottom of the pan to keep them from drying out. Once cooked, I pureed them in the Vita-Prep and and added butter, cream, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

Then I roasted the mushrooms (mitayke, black trumpet, morel), after tossing them in oil, salt, pepper, and a bit of the leftover melted butter from the parsnip puree.

For the morel mushrooms (I bought them dried at Whole Foods, because I had never used dried mushrooms before, and morels are very difficult to find fresh in stores). To rehydrate the mushrooms, I submerged them in water right after it had been brought up to a boil and then taken off the stove. They sat, covered, for about half hour. I then roasted the morels with the other mushrooms. The resulting liquid is a "mushroom tea" of sorts, and I used it as the base for the gravy, along with a standard rue and mushrooms blended in.

The fish was just seared in the pan until almost cooked through and then basted with plenty of butter (technique can be seen here, demonstrated with scallops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37IGmU1oXFQ)


Here's another view of the plate:

Braised Short Rib with Cilantro Chimmichuri Yogurt, jalapeño semolina cake, chorizo, and queso fresco

Braised short ribs are awesome, and I love making them.This time, I decided I was going to braise the short ribs with Jameson and red wine (and beef stock). I seared the short ribs in a saute pan on high heat, and then added the Jameson (about 1.5 cups) and let the alcohol flambé until it burned off. Then I turned the heat down very low. 

In the meantime, I had another pot going on the stove where I was reinforcing the beef stock with more vegetables that would go in the braise. I sauteed carrots, celery, onion, and garlic in the pan before adding spices (corriander seed, mustard seed, black peppercorns), bay leaves, then I added the majority of a 750ml Bottle of red wine (had to leave a little of it to drink...) and let it come up to a boil and let the alcohol cook off. Then I added beef stock to the mixture and let it boil. I poured the stock into the pan with the short ribs and Jameson. Then I covered it and put it in the oven at 250 degrees for a bit more than 3 hours.

Once removed from the liquid, trim the short ribs off the bone and trim off any cartilage. Reduce the liquid until it coats the back of a spoon, taste and season accordingly.

I also experimented with savory semolina cakes, adding in the spicy jalapeño. I first whipped egg whites in the mixer until they formed soft peaks, then began adding the rest of my ingredients, the result was a very porous, light and fluffy muffin of sorts. I draped the half muffin with chorizo and queso fresco.

The orange sauce on the plate is a chipotle yogurt, made from blending chipotle peppers, adobo, vinegar, sugar, chile paste, chili powder, salt, and greek yogurt together. It was very spicy.

The Green sauce on the plate is a variation on a chimmichuri sauce. I blended cilantro, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, parsley, and spicy peppers, salt and pepper in the Vita-Prep, and the once it was pureed, I added in yogurt until it reached the desired consistency.

Here is another view of the plate, before the glaze was put on the plate (which I did with a brush)