This post was inspired by my review in the survey requested by Momofuko after our meal there. The restaurant is in the Cosmopolitan Hotel. I gave it four out of five starts for overall experience, three for ambience, 5 for service, and four for the food, which was a tad generous. If I had the option to give it a 3.5 I would have.
Here is what I wrote: “Server Danielle was terrific. I like the dining room and it is very pretty. The views of the city-scape were stunning. It was just too loud for my tastes. The food was pretty good, not great. The sauce on the Bronzini was too heavy for such a light, white fish. While it was tasty, it overwhelmed the fish. I like a simpler sauce for this wonderful fish. The endive salad was absolutely fabulous. Sunchokes good, not great, grilled lamb chops good, not great.
As I wrote the review I couldn’t help but recall the number of times and quality of the whole grilled Bronzini we had during our six-night stay in Riccione on the Adriatic “Riviera” in Italy, summer of 2018. Riccione is about 10 miles south of Rimini. We went there after five nights in Rome to hang out and relax, like part of a long vacation should be, especially if you are in between Rome for five nights and Florence for four nights – both intense city experiences.
We had the Bronzini at least twice while in Riccione. The notion that we were in a seaside resort probably created the perception that the fish was fresher, local. But it’s how it was prepared that made the difference. It definitely tasted grilled, lightly charred, and it certainly didn’t have much sauce on it. In fact I don’t remember anything more than a drizzle of olive oil, salt, and a squeeze or two of lemon. Let the fish shine! And it did. Indeed it did.
Momofuko is a really good restaurant and worth going if you are in Las Vegas. Better yet, make a point of visiting a seaside resort on the Adriatic and order the Bronzini. You won’t be disappointed.
There’s a restaurant here in Marin County called Bacon. It’s probably not the only one in the U.S. I attended a conference once on Amelia Island off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, and must have been assigned one of the last available hotel rooms because I was right next to the kitchen. And every morning I woke up to the aroma of bacon cooking. I did not mind.
After I bought a house I hired a gardener to keep the property clean. We have something of a wild garden and plants grow profusely. We also have big trees, lots of them. Oaks, a Tri-Colored Beech, Dogwoods. We had a Persimmon tree but it died of old age. It was about 100. After a while Fernando and I became friendly enough for me to ask him if his wife made green chile. It’s my favorite Mexican dish. He told me no, his wife did not make green chile pork, but his mother did. I handed him a $20 and asked if he could bring me a serving of green chile the next time he came to clean up my property. He did, and this routine kept up for about a year. But then I let the gardening crew go, figuring I had better start doing more physical work myself to stay fit. That’s when I decided it was time to make green chile at home.
It’s not that daunting of a dish. You just need the right
tools. Namely, a big ass Le Creuset. I’ve written about Le Creuset earlier in
this blog. I have about 12 of the vessels in various shapes and sizes. This is
the big boy at work, my 9-quart pot. I have a 6-quart version in blue that is
excellent for roasting a 3-4 pound chicken with halved onions and whole
carrots. I’ll make green chile, aka “pulled pork” with the 6-quarter Le Creuset
or even my 5-quart (in orange!) pot if the pork shoulder and butt I buy is only
three or four pounds. But when the chunk of meat is seven+ pounds, I need the
big boy.
The second key to making this dish is having enough fresh,
rough-chopped garlic on hand, and two, not one, yellow onion.
The third key to green chile – for the flavor profile I like, is a good amount of dried Mexican oregano. I added almost a half of couple to the fried onions and garlic. But first you brown the meat. Set the oven at 450, added a third of a cup of vegetable oil to the bottom of the pot and sprinkle that with either chile powder or cayenne pepper, the latter of which I did with this dish. Make sure the meat is dried off before putting it fat-side down on top of the oil and cayenne. Season the top of the pork shoulder with copious amounts of ground cumin, black pepper and garlic powder before placing it in the oven to roast, for about 40 minutes.
After the meat browns, extract the meat from the pot and put
it on a large platter. This is no easy task, as the meat is huge and you don’t
want to pierce it. I used a large metal spoon and large metal spatula to get
the meat out of the pot. Turn the oven down to 325. Then cook the onions and
garlic. Once the onions soften, I added two or three pasilla peppers and one
diced jalapeno or fresno chile – whichever I have on hand. I also add smoked
paprika as this phase of the cooking.
Once the vegetables are mixed well together, add the meat
back to the pot and pour any juices from the platter on top of the meat. Add
two cups of chicken stock, put the lid on tight and put the Le Creuset in the
oven. After 90 minutes or so, turn the oven down to 200 and let it cook another
90 minutes. The meat will be fork tender.
We’ll normally have a meal when this dish is done. Just take
a flour tortilla, smear a little chile-mayo on the bottom, a handful of
arugula, some shredded meat with juices on top of that, plus a very light
serving of grated cheddar cheese to enjoy a soft-shell taco.
The rest of the meat, vegetables and juices I pack in
multiple containers, one of which I freeze and is mostly just the meat. That
meat will come in handy a couple of weekends from now when I invite friends
over for Cubano Sandwiches. That’s the pulled pork in the Cubanos.
The container I pack with most of the peppers will be a
dinner in a few nights, with sticky white rice and a side of chayote squash and
carrots boiled and finished in a little bit of butter. A big and hearty
Zinfandel pairs well with this meal.
Normally when you opt to cook with boneless skinless chicken breasts, you are training for a triathlon or body building contest (or the guy that played Tarzan in the 2016 remake) in which you are eating super lean meats and steamed broccoli to get that “six pack” for Abs. The other reason to eat the breast without the merits of bone or skin is speed and flexibility in flavor profile. Well I adapted one of Mark Bitman’s recipes (from How to Cook Everything) into one transformative quick meal that featured one of the most harmonious ingredient combinations I can ever recall.
But first, the cooking vessel. If you don’t have a 4-quart Le Creuset Brazer with lid, you must buy one (these also make great wedding gifts).
This is the 4-quart brazer with lid on:
You can fry, saute, braze with lid on or make a killer
“Grilled or Broiled Chicken Cutlets with Honey and Cumin,” as I did. Bitman
called for grilling or broiling the chicken but I thought #1, firing up the
grill is not worth the effort for boneless/skinless breasts, #2 it seemed that
the great liquids and flavors in the recipe could get lost by basting etc. and
#3 I could better control the done-ness of the chicken by cooking it on the
stovetop in a deep skillet. Nobody likes dried breast, especially me (a
lifelong dark meat guy). While I never did put the lid on to make this dish
(thus, it wasn’t truly brazed) the depth of the skillet was great for handling
the meat and the sauce without making a mess of the stovetop.
Other than changing the cooking method, I used peanut oil
instead of olive oil (peanut oil can handle higher heat to brown the chicken), sake
instead of dry sherry, white wine or orange juice, and I also added some
vegetable stock, plus I added a 1.5-inch thick cut of butter from a
quarter-pound section at the end of the cooking which gave the sauce a silky
texture. Butter makes everything better, anyway.
Two halves of a boneless skinless breast
3 Tbls Peanut oil
Half cup sake
Quarter cup vegetable stock
3 Tbls honey
1.5 Tbls ground cumin
1 teaspoon minced garlic
Salt and pepper
3 Tbls butter
Steps: Heat the skilled and just before putting
the chicken in add the peanut oil.
Brown chicken 3 minutes a side and then remove
Add sake, scrap brown bits off bottom of pan (on
medium high heat)
Add minced garlic, honey and cumin – stir and
cook for a minute or two
Cut the breasts in half (making four pieces)
Add veggie stock – cook on medium high heat two
more minutes when some of the liquid starts to evaporate, add the chicken to
the liquid and lower heat to simmer, cooking for 2 minutes.
Add the butter, stir the chicken and sauce
gently and constantly for about a minute then turn off heat.
Let stand for 2-3 minutes, then turn the chicken
pieces over and stir the sauce again.
Let stand for 2 minutes and serve.
We had this dish with sticky white rice and steamed
broccoli. Fantastic!
