Thursday, August 6, 2009

Zucchini Challenge: Disastrous Plating Failure

While drunk in a Manhattan bar after a trip to the Guggenheim, Erin and I were discussing the challenge. Here's what we came up with. Tuna tartare with chopped vinegar soaked zucchini topped with a poached (because I wasn't sure about raw) quail egg. The plate is rimmed with tonkatsu sauce and dollops of spicy kewpie mayonnaise and garnished with zuchinni peel (as per Kyle's bitching). I have never been able to plate dishes for my life so trust that it tasted better than it looked. Erin agreed.I started with fresh sushi grade tuna I had gotten at the asian market on rt 18. I badgered the hell out of the guy because neither of us could find a common language but eventually we agreed it was in fact fresh sushi grade tuna and that we are both fans of giving thumbs up. I guess we all speak the international language of The Fonz.Here is the chopped zucchini sitting in vinegar. I did that just for some extra taste. We then rinsed the zucchini and incorporated it with the tuna.I couldn't get the water spinning fast enough so the eggs poached a little wispy but they were still good. Not quite as good as a raw egg yolk sitting on your tartare but I wasn't 100% sure about these quail eggs so I didn't want to chance it.Erin spent most of the time snacking on these spicy wasabi crackers and cherry tomatoes I picked up at the asian grocery while getting the tuna. I eventually convinced her to chop up some zucchini and tomatos together for a cracker topping. Here's her rebuttal to my dish. She incorporated leftover tuna. It was miles better than what I made.She also topped these suckers off with some spicy kewpie mayonnaise leftover from my dish. These little bastards were increadible. Perfect spice to match the coolness of the zucchini and the tuna. I think she beat me. Not afraid to admit it.

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