Spice a Dish With Love

“Dining with one’s friends and beloved family is certainly one of life’s primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal." ~Julia Child

This was a long time coming.  346 days, to be exact.  I had waited those out painstakingly, squandering my culinary creativity for this one day. 

Pat and I met on November 6th, 2010.  I was jet-lagged (I had been in San Fran all week) and wired for a night out  After 10 years of having the same friend (shout-out to Amanda Bankert), our lives finally, and rather unexpectedly, converged.  Four days later we had our first date, and there was no looking back.  Over the last year we have embarked on so many fantastic journeys and shared so many fantastic experiences.  Except one.  We haven't celebrated each other's birthday. 

Yeah, I know, kind of weird.  And, to be honest, looking back, it does feel like one thing has sort of been missing from our relationship.  Pat was born on October 22nd, and I on October 31st.  And when you consider the timeline of our relationship, it's almost funny how narrowly we missed our birthdays.  When I consider that, it sends me off on some philosophical tangent where I get all cerebral about fate, and timing and parallel experiences, blah blah blah.  All I know is that we've celebrated every major holiday, vacations, friends & family milestones, 4 (yeah, freakin' FOUR) weddings, new jobs, new homes, personal accomplishments, births of babies, *breathe* but not...one another.  We haven't gotten to celebrate us.  I have been excited for that opportunity for almost as long as we've been together.

So, 346 days later, I got what I had been waiting for.  Pat's birthday!  I could finally unleash myself, and cook for him, the meal I'd been quietly crafting at the back of my brain and inside a tiny pocket of my heart for an entire year. 

There is no better culinary muse than Love (I believe this might be true for everything in Life; there is nothing better than Love).  With Patrick and our wonderful relationship as inspiration, I was driven, no...compelled, to lay on his plate the manifestation of everything I feel: my heart come to life.  I was brimming with ideas, and was in a tournament with myself to arrive at the perfect meal.  Cooking is, to me, as much a form of self-expression, as any other art form.  I cannot paint, I cannot write music, I cannot dance, I am in no way an artist of any kind (and I'm ok with that).  But I can cook.  Food is a palate I know well.  And I had finally been handed an occasion in which to unfurl my creative wings, and just soar.  

When I finally got into the kitchen on Saturday (already a few glasses of wine down, and of course, more waiting in the wings), I was so ready to create this, I was literally tingling with excitement (or, maybe that was the wine?)!  I got all my ingredients laid out on the counter, and looking at all of it, I suddenly felt the way a conductor does when he stands in front of his orchestra, or a painter in front of their canvas.  And, as I stood there basking in my creative glory, I could feel that this experience would be different.  For, sitting in my audience, just through the doorway, feet kicked up, ice cold beer in his hand, relaxing and comfortable, was my inspiration.  I raised the chef's knife, and commenced my symphony, my culinary cabaret.

Patrick's Birthday Menu

*Butter Lettuce Salad with Apples, Walnuts & Blue Cheese
*Black Pepper Crusted New York Strip & a Pinot Noir Reduction
*Crispy-Smashed Roasted Potatoes with Horseradish Cream
*Roasted Wild Mushrooms with Thyme
*Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake with Vanilla Gelato
*Freixenet Extra Brut Champagne

There is nothing better than a peak-of-the-season apple.  Butter lettuce is such a luscious leaf, and blue cheese is rich and spicy, that the salad just screams for the crisp tartness of the apple.  Finished with a bitey dijon vinaigrette, and a sprinkling of chopped walnuts, its flavor and texture are complete.

I took a leap with the steak.  Never before in my life have I prepared steak this way.  But, I have a kick-ass copper bottomed stainless saute pan, and so I knew as long as I got that puppy screaming hot, I'd be fine.  I had the most beautiful New York Strips from Whole Foods, I mean they were just gorgeously marbled.  Rubbed the tiniest bit of olive oil over the steaks and then patted in a nice thick layer of fresh ground black pepper, layed them in there, and resisted, with every fiber of my being, flipping them too early, even though I was pretty sure the smoke alarm was going to start blaring at any moment.  The black pepper didn't have any burnt flavor, and they were cooked just perfectly to a medium.  At plating, I bathed them in a Pinot Noir reduction that I had scented with garlic & fresh thyme, it soaked into the steaks and gave them just the slightest bumb of deep flavor.

The potatoes were so easy, though they did take a long time to cook; about an hour in total.  I steamed whole red bliss potatoes, then used the bottom of a heavy drinking glass to just smash them down into discs.  After smashing, I drizzled them generously with good olive oil, and baked them at 450 until the edges got crispy, grating a bit of parmesan over them about half way through.  A dollop of a sour cream with horseradish and chive finished these little gems; they were brown and crunchy on the edges and nice and silky smooth in the middle.

Steak + mushrooms is a classic combo and I wanted to mimmick that in some way, without just the standard sauteed sliced variety.  At the store, I picked up really gorgeous shitakes and creminis, fresh from Kennet Square (mushroom capital of the world).  Large slices, tossed simply in good olive oil, fresh thyme, salt & black pepper, I roasted them also at 450, and I wasn't expecting quite how delicious they would turn out.  The shitakes got browner and toothsome, in a really wonderful way, and the creminis deepened their earthy, heady flavor.  A positively sublime partner to the steak, there's a reason this pairing works.

Pat does not like cake.  And to be honest, I'm not a cake or cupcake fiend myself.  I don't really get the whole craze right now; quite frankly I'd just prefer a cup of the icing, cake be damned.  But, Patrick looooves cookie cake.  You know, those mass-produced discs found covered in whipped icing in the store bakery department.  And I was determined to show him that there was something elevated beyond that.  Using the Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, I changed nothing about the ingredient proportions, and simply baked it in a 9x13 pan, until the top of the whole thing looked like cookies do when they're ready; all told, probably about 20 min.  I hid the cake away so he wouldn't see it, and surprised him with 26 candles and champagne (Freixenet is my favorite).

This was, without a doubt, the best meal I have ever cooked.  Every single second of conceptualizing and executing it was born out of what I felt in the very depths of my bones: a deep and beautiful fondness for a very special man.  And the more I reflect on it, I realize it was also the perfect representation of my style of cooking, and of our relationship:  traditional roots & foundations, with shades of whimsy, modernity, and a whoooole lotta Love.

Buon Appetito!