Squid Ink and Lingcod

ENGAGEMENT DINNER! We had the opportunity to celebrate our good friend's engagement by spearing a fish and cooking them dinner! I've wanted to incorporate some new techniques into my cooking and I got to go all out on this meal after planning each dish for almost a week! Menu Below. If you'd like any of the below recipes, please let me know.















Here was the menu:
Appetizer: Candied Bacon Bits, Seared Scallop, Melted Brie, Charred Jalapeno and Crispy Garlic on Brown Butter Fried Bread with Truffle Oil Drizzle
Salad: Tomato, Caper, Avocado and Basil Salad with Balsamic Vinegar Pearls and a Black Coral Tuile
Main Course: Fresh Speared Lingcod over Squid Ink Beluga Lentils and Herbed Ranch on Seared Endive
Dessert: Deconstructed S'mores with Engagement Ring Graham Cracker Cookie

Wow! Those look almost too good to eat...

Looks mighty delicious  :smt0078 Thanks for the pictures Eric.

My pleasure!

I cook almost as often as I dive for fish, but I feel like I might overload the fishing forum with fish food. If needed, I can dial it back. I just enjoy sharing the fruits of our labor!

That looks so good!

... but I feel like I might overload the fishing forum with fish food. If needed, I can dial it back. I just enjoy sharing the fruits of our labor!

Not a problem, AFAIC. We're always looking for recipes to try at my house...

I actually came into this thread thinking to myself oooo sweet another recipie, I hope he keeps this up!

They're a little fancier than what I would plate for myself at home, but they're artwork and super cool man.

I actually came into this thread thinking to myself oooo sweet another recipie, I hope he keeps this up!

They're a little fancier than what I would plate for myself at home, but they're artwork and super cool man.

This is by far the fanciest meal I've attempted. I had enough interest on social media that I decided to type up my recipe for this meal and linked to any recipes I used and added it below. The appetizer is pretty simple and amazingly tasty but the lingcod was the simplest part of the whole meal and the beluga lentils were everyone's favorite part of the dish. I highly encourage you to try the recipe (don't worry about the sous vide fish... just do the fish in a pan) https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/oh-so-simple-sous-vide-cod-with-jet-black-puree-and-seared-endive

The appetizer is pretty easy but it's all about timing and pan heat. First start by ripping bacon up into the size you want, then put them on a cooking rack (not a tray) over some tinfoil. Cover the topside with brown sugar and put in the oven at 425 for about 20 minutes or until the bacon is clearly cooked and the sugar melted. While it's in the oven, put a fair amount of butter in a pan and add baguette slices until they brown in each side (butter will brown during this process which I think adds to the flavor of this appetizer), now here is the timing part. While the bread cooks, add a few thin slices of garlic and let it cook until browned on both sides (I used a mandolin to slice mine super thin). In the same pan, add some high heat oil, crank up the heat to maximum and drop your scallop in to hard sear it on both sides, keeping the middle raw (only if the oysters are fresh from the ocean, otherwise cook through). Drop the head to medium after the scallops and garlic are done, and add slices if brie cheese (I take the rind off of all but one side because it can be over powering and bitter). only keep the brie on the pan long enough to start to melt and immediately take it off and add it next to the scallop on top of the fried bread. slice a couple pieces of jalapeno (however you think looks cool) and then either hold them over an open flame, or use a torch (what I do) to blacken the skin. Your bacon should be about done, remove it, put everything on the bread and sprinkle some coarse salt (I use Hawaiian black salt). Once you put it on the plate, drizzle some truffle oil over the whole thing and immediately serve.

Salad: Multi-colored Tomatoes (halved and tossed with olive oil), Capers, dill, fresh oregano and basil with Avocado Balls and Balsamic Vinegar Pearls. The pearls were a little time consuming – make sure to follow the below recipe closely and make sure the agar agar doesn't clump together. They were a highlight of the entire meal - Everyone was pumped on them. The tuile was pretty difficult to figure out having never made it before. It took me 6 tries to get the right ratio of batter to depth of canola oil in the pan. Put 1 part flour to 9 parts water (make at least 2 cups total of batter), heat the oil (1 or 2mm deep in pan) and then pour an amount of batter in. It looks like sludge at first, but then starts to crisp up. Keep it crisping until the edges are matte and starting to lift from the pan. I'd recommend finding a recipe on line somewhere maybe they have more protips to help.
Here is the Vinegar Pearl recipe:
2-3 cups olive oil
2/3 cup balsamic vinegar
2 grams agar-agar
3 cups water
Pour olive oil into a pint glass or medium carafe and place into the freezer for 30 minutes.
Heat the balsamic vinegar in a saucepan over medium heat and add agar-agar. Bring to a boil while stirring constantly then immediately remove from heat.
Remove oil from the freezer.
Using a syringe or pipette, draw up the balsamic mixture and begin to slowly drop into the cold olive oil.
Using a spoon, transfer the balsamic pearls to a bowl filled with the water. Give it a good stir to rinse the pearls of the oil. Serve over tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil.

The Lingcod is just cooked in the same pan as the scallops. I coarse chop some garlic and add it to a pan with olive oil. The fillets were already marinating in olive oil, pepper and italian herbs. Let the garlic warm up in the oil before adding the fillets. I cook the fillets with a lid on the pan over medium high heat. just before they are cooked through, I flip it over and cook the other side for 1 minute or less. The recipe for the endive and lentils is https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/oh-so-simple-sous-vide-cod-with-jet-black-puree-and-seared-endive . Originally it was supposed to be halibut so I could sous vide it, but I didn't find one so I shot a decent lingcod instead.

The desert was the most fun part to get creative with. fresh raspberry sauce: 1.5lbs of fresh raspberries, 1/4 cup sugar, juice from 1/2 lemon, 1 tbsp water. Combine raspberries, sugar, water, and lemon juice in a saucepan over medium heat; cook and stir until raspberries break down, sugar dissolves, and sauce is heated. Remove from heat and press sauce through a fine-mesh strainer to remove seeds. Cool to room temperature, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until chilled, at least 45 minutes. The only bummer was I wanted to spin the syrup into the bowl to make a really cool effect, but it was too runny to stick and stay so if you want, you might try thickening it up. The graham cracker cookie: think ahead of time what shape you want to make because it comes out of the oven hot and malleable but only for about 30 seconds before it cools and hardens. recipe for the cookies is https://www.food.com/recipe/graham-cracker-tuiles-323732 Get some chocolate (I used milk but dark is good too) and microwave it until it melts (don't over cook or it tastes bad - mic it for like 15 sec at a time and stir it each time). Have your serving bowl in the fridge already cooled down, then add raspberry sauce, a dollop of ice cream (I used vanilla bean), then take a spoon and dip it into the chocolate, let it start to fall back into the bowl and once it's running off the spoon in thin strands, twirl the spoon over the ice cream. The chocolate will harden quickly. add your cookie and some crushed macadamia nuts. use metal tongs to grab a marshmellow and hold it high above a flame (don't let it burn, you just want to warm it up) then put it on a spoon and torch the sides (or roast it using a flame if you don't have a torch) then drop it on the plate. serve quickly.

Bon apetite!