Michael White’s Ai Fiori for Valentine’s Day Part Deux

Michael White is one of those “celebrity” chefs that I have long heard about but never tried.  Enter Ai Fiori, Michael White’s newest restaurant, centered around pasta, that happens to be just a few blocks from the apartment (400 5th Avenue, between 36th and 37th Streets, in the Setai Hotel).  We were looking for another lovely dinner to surround Valentine’s Day to compliment our meal the weekend before at Annisa (since I was away on business on the actual day), and Ai Fiori couldn’t have been more perfect.

We went for an early dinner and found ourselves alone (but not for long) in the tastefully decorated 2nd floor restaurant.

Even the table settings were quite lovely.  A waiter confused our table with the one next door and accidentally delivered us glasses of champagne.  I wasn’t sure if it was free (for Valentine’s Day) so there was some confusion.  We sent the champagne back to the table that ordered it, but our waiter wound up bringing us a glass each, on the house, for the confusion.  A lovely touch.

The crusty, soft, warm bread came out with delicious salted butter and well flavored olive oil.

Our amuse bouche was small shot of a fruity smoothie.  I cannot remember if this was mango or passion fruit, but it was a nice way to start the meal.

We chose to do the prix fixe of 4 courses (cominciare / pasta or risotto / pesce or carne / dolce) for $89.

Mike chose to start with the Animelle which was crispy sweetbreads, pomme purée, truffle vinaigrette, and pancetta. It was delicious, delicate, and just the right amount of crisp. It was a $5 supplement charge, and well worth it.

I chose the Mare e Monte (which, sadly, does not currently appear to be on the menu).  This had a $15 supplemental charge… but hey, it was Valentine’s Day!

This was diver scallops, celery root, black truffles, bone marrow, and thyme.

It was rich in all the right ways with complex flavors and sprigs of green to spring it up a bit.  It was decadent and fantastic.

For our pasta/risotto course, Mike chose the risotto with riso acquarello, duck confit, and hen of the woods mushrooms. This was a perfect blend of flavors. Very rich but not at all heavy.

I went with the Agnolotti, which was braised veal parcels, butternut squash, and black truffle sugo.

These were just perfect.  Great meaty flavor inside and the pasta was just thin enough to hold it together.  The bay leaf on top was crisped and slightly sweetened, and tasted great when broken up into the pasta and squash puree. Mmmm mmmm.

For our carne/pesce course, Mike chose the Agnello, which was rack of lamb en crepinette, panisse, romanesco, and parmesan.  This was simply perfect. The lamb was cooked as well as you can cook a lamb and each piece on this dish was simply delicious, especially the sauce on the lamb.

I chose the Astice, which was butter poached Nova Scotia lobster, root vegetable fondant, and chateau chalon sauce.  I always struggle when deciding to order lobster, as no matter how good it is, I never find it as good as the lobster pounds in Maine (I’m spoiled rotten… I know), but this one was right up there. All the pieces that came with it just added to a fantastic dish.

Onto dolce!  Mike chose the Tartaletta which was dark chocolate, red grape, caramelized sherry, and walnut gelato.  I loved this dish, and the grape tasted like a fantastic grape jelly.  It all went together perfectly.

I chose to go with the Buddino di Limone with hazelnut praline, toasted meringue, espresso gelee, and cinnamon gelato. I was impressed by how architecturally it was belt, with a sheet of caramelized sugar balanced on top of the meringue peaks.

This was a perfect dessert with great, original flavors.  Really impressive.

And then out came the petite fours! They were stunningly beautiful…

… and very, very tasty.  I especially liked this jelly thing… though I have no idea what it was. 🙂

I knew we were in for a treat when we finally decided to try a Michael White restaurant, but this was out of this world.  I was so impressed by every bite at Ai Fiori, from start to finish.  It’s also very hard to find food this good, with a well-known chef, on a tasting menu with 4 courses for less than $100 (yes… I know that’s crazy…)  I really loved everything we tried and find it very hard to ignore the fact that this restaurant is so close to home. I just want to go again and again.  I definitely want to go back for breakfast, and also try White’s other restaurants (Marea, Alto, Convivio, Osteria Morini and recently expanding to Bernardsville, NJ and many other locations coming soon).

Total Nom Points: 8.5 out of 10

Gigino Wagner Park

My great aunt is one of the most fabulous people you could ever meet.  She is well over 90, has an impressive shoe collection, could out-bake anyone I’ve ever met, and tells stories in a way that makes you feel like you lived them.  She is loved by every single person that meets her.  And then she got even cooler… she joined a dance class.  I was honored and overjoyed to see her perform with her troupe in Battery Park City with the family one weekday night.  After the show and our long Jewish goodbye, we tromped through a torrential rain storm down the block to the first restaurant we saw: Gigino Wagner Park (20 Battery Park… pretty much at the bottom tip of Manhattan).

It’s in a beautiful space on the water with a view of the Statue of Liberty, however, you’ll have to take my word for it since the rain was so dreadful that a picture was impossible.

We all ordered some delicious sounding Italian food, including gnocchi with a simple tomato sauce (their usual sauce was pepper ridden).

The gnocchi was pretty good… but I’ve definitely had better.

I had the same sauce (due to the same problem) over pappardelle.  Again… good… but not great.

The rest of the family ordered items like the mushroom risotto…

And the pasta primavera.

Honestly, everything was just average.  The space could have lent itself to being a gem in Manhattan, but it wasn’t really anything special.  The pastas were all priced between $15 to $20, which seemed pretty over priced for food I’ve had at any run of the mill Italian restaurant for half the price.  I’m curious what their brunch is like, but I wouldn’t return for dinner.

Total Nom Points: 5 out of 10

Mike’s birthday dinner- Part 1: My kitchen

When I realized I had the day of Mike’s birthday off, I decided that it would become a cooking extravaganza.  I asked him what menu he wanted and he selected something with lamb, a risotto, our infamous brussel sprouts, and homemade chocolate peanut butter CUPS for dessert.

After seeing that the price of lamb on Fresh Direct was absolutely outrageous ($45 for a single piece?! WTF?) I went with the lamb shoulder chop.  It was billed as being just as flavorful and juicy as its more expensive counterparts.  I looked around for recipes for a while and didn’t come up with anything that really jumped out at me.  I picked up a Bon Appetit magazine randomly at the hair salon that morning and, there it was… “Lamb Chops with Pomegranate and Dried Figs.”  Done.  Went to the gourmet food store and had problems finding pomegranate marmalade, so I went with a pomegranate jam instead and hoped for the best.

I decided to go with a mushroom risotto to compliment the other strong flavors and found a recipe that sounded good (see below).  It was a bitch to keep stirring while putting everything else together, but I’ve determined that constant stirring of risotto isn’t necessary after the first few additions of liquid.  Just gotta go back to it often.

This time I wound up making the brussel sprouts with small diced pancetta.  It produced more pancetta grease to brown the brussel sprouts in, however, I missed those big bites of pancetta when we were eating it later.  Next time, I’ll go half big dice half little dice.

The plate came together very well, and all the flavors played nicely against each other.

Dessert is where I started to get creative.  I made the chocolate peanut butter cups in much the same way I make my chocolate peanut butter bars.  I cut cupcake cups in half and then melted down some milk chocolate to fill in the bottom of the cups.  I would take the individual cups out into my hand and spread the chocolate up the sides of the cup to the edge.  To my surprise, it stayed, forming a perfect bowl in the center.  I put these in the fridge to harden.  I then whipped up some peanut butter filling.  For 12 individual cups, I had plenty of filling by combining 1 cup of peanut butter with 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, 2 TBsp butter, and about 1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs.   I filled these into the hardened chocolate cups then tamped it down on the counter to get a perfectly even surface.  I then melted down some more chocolate and poured this over the peanut butter filling and smoothed it over to the edges.  Back in the fridge and 20 minutes later I had perfect little homemade reeses. It was SO easy and looked so good.  The paper was a wee bit hard to peel off (next time I’ll look for stiffer ones) but it all comes off and tastes so good.  I may give these as little gifts this holiday season.

(Making the cup bottoms)

(Filling the cups with peanut butter than putting on the top layer of chocolate)

This was so easy, in fact, that I felt as though I hadn’t done quite enough for Mike’s birthday.  The back of the chocolate morsels box had a recipe for “brownies that are more like fudge” so I decided to make some bigger peanut butter cups too.  I mixed up a smaller proportion of the brownie mixture and put it into 2 popover pans.  Baked these up and, while they were in the oven, got to making some peanut butter mousse (recipe below).  Once it was all done and the brownies cooled, I cut out the center of the top of the popover in a cone shape and then filled the inside with the peanut butter mousse.  Topped each one with an unwrapped peanut butter cup and v’oila:

(brownies cooked in popover pans)

(one with the center cut out for filling)

(folding together the peanut butter and whipped cream)

What was interesting about the mousse is that it was nice and fluffy and creamy the night I made it, but after refrigerating the leftovers, it definitely thickened and became more the consistency of soft fudge.  Delicious either way! Especially when mixed with some vanilla ice cream!

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RECIPES
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Lamb Chops with Fig and Pomegranate Relish

Ingredients

·      2/3 cup pomegranate seeds

·      1/4 cup diced dried Calimyrna figs

·      1 teaspoon chopped fresh mint

·      1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

·      1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses

·      5 teaspoons olive oil, divided

·      1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds, lightly crushed, divided

·      2 5-ounce lamb loin chops or shoulder blade chops

Directions

1.              Mix pomegranate seeds (I omitted), diced figs, fresh mint, balsamic vinegar (good quality), and pomegranate molasses (or jam!) with 3 teaspoons oil, and 1/4 teaspoon cumin in small bowl.

2.               Sprinkle lamb with remaining 1/4 teaspoon cumin, salt, and pepper.

3.               Heat 2 teaspoons oil in medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

4.               Add lamb; cook to desired doneness, about 5 minutes per side for medium.

5.              Top with relish and serve.

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Gourmet Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients: (I halved this and it was still enough for 3 meals for the 2 of us)

·       6 cups chicken broth, divided

·       3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

·       1 pound portobello mushrooms, thinly sliced

·       1 pound white mushrooms, thinly sliced

·       2 shallots, diced

·       1 1/2 cups Arborio rice

·       1/2 cup dry white wine

·       sea salt to taste

·       freshly ground black pepper to taste

·       3 tablespoons finely chopped chives

·       4 tablespoons butter

·       1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, warm the broth over low heat.

2. Warm 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the mushrooms, and cook until soft, about 3 minutes. Remove mushrooms and their liquid, and set aside.

3. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to skillet, and stir in the shallots. Cook 1 minute. Add rice, stirring to coat with oil, about 2 minutes. When the rice has taken on a pale, golden color, pour in wine, stirring constantly until the wine is fully absorbed. Add 1/2 cup broth to the rice, and stir until the broth is absorbed. Continue adding broth 1/2 cup at a time, stirring continuously, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is al dente, about 15 to 20 minutes.

4. Remove from heat, and stir in mushrooms with their liquid, butter, chives, and parmesan. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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Peanut Butter Mousse

Ingredients

·       1 cup creamy peanut butter

·       8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature

·       1 cup powdered sugar

·       1 tablespoon vanilla extract

·       1 cup chilled whipping cream

Directions

1. Using electric mixer, beat peanut butter and cream cheese in large bowl to blend.
2. Add powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons vanilla extract and beat until well blended.
3. Using clean dry beaters, beat 2 cups whipping cream in medium bowl until stiff peaks form
4. Fold gently into peanut butter mixture in 4 additions