Bobby really delivers two more winners with his Bulgur Salad and Tandoori Spiced Chicken Breasts with Grilled Tomato Jam and Herbed Yogurt. The bulgur salad packed a punch with the acidity of lime juice and the brightness of the serrano chile; the grilled tomato jam with balsamic vinegar and saffron took an ordinary dish to above-ordinary levels. The only real flaws were ones of my own making:

• Use canola oil or a good (but not extra virgin) olive oil! The olive oil should not impart much flavor to the dish.
• Store the dressing in a separate bottle and apply as necessary. Do not drizzle all the dressing over the bulgur salad or you will turn a fluffy bulgur salad with crisp fresh veggies into a soggy mess.
• I doubled the tandoori spices, which turned out to be a mistake. Way too much for 4 lbs of chicken!

The Crab

3 live Santa Barbara Rock crabs from Quality Seafood
2 12 oz bottles of Red Stripe Jamaican lager
2 12 oz bottles of hot water
12 oz white vinegar
Penzey’s Shrimp and Crab Boil
Old Bay Seasoning

1. Fill the yellow stockpot with ice, layer a bit of plastic on top, then drop in the bag of live crabs. Put the lid on but leave it slightly ajar so the crabs can breathe.
2. In the red stock pot, place the steam basket upside-down and add lager, water, vinegar, and crab boil spices. Cover and bring to a boil.

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Gale Grand has a decadent recipe for Peanut Butter Pie. I made 1.5x the original recipe for both the filling and the crust, but added my own twist with a thin layer of ganache—and not just any ganache either, but a dark chocolate espresso ganache. The flavor was spectacular! The nutty crust and intense chocolate-espresso were the perfect complements to the creamy peanut-butter filling.

For an interesting variation, try Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake or Chocolate Espresso Peanut Butter Bars, the latter with a cream-free peanut butter spread similar to Alton Brown’s peanut butter pie filling.

The Crust

The crust tastes similar to nutter butter, but with a crunchier crumbly texture and better flavor. Perfect. Chocolate lovers: resist the urge to replace the graham crackers with a chocolate crumb. The chocolate will come later and in style.

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Il Grano’s very intriguing white peach gazpacho caught my eye in this article from the Squid Ink. Thusly inspired I set out to make my own creation.

The Base:
1 medium-small white peach
1.25 medium-small heirloom tomatoes*
1 shallot
2.5 tsps of sherry vinegar
salt
a bare hint of cinnamon

The Emulsion:
tarragon, the leaves of several stalks
2 small chile peppers, mystery variety**
olive oil

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Normally I prefer the pure ungarnished taste of a good artisan bread, but today I was in the mood for something with a bit more verve. So I whipped up this spread from my pantry:

¹/₄-¹/₈ red onion, finely diced
¹/₂ fresh heirloom tomato, chopped
2 sprigs of fresh basil, leaves only, chopped fine
1 clove of peeled garlic, through the garlic press
1-2 oz fresh mozzarella, chopped
capers
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt
pepper

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Gourmet calls this Pork Chops Saltimbocca. After reading Wikipedia’s entry on Saltimbocca, I’m not convinced this dish is true to it’s heritage, but hey—I’ll give Gina Enriquez the benefit of the doubt.

To make a long story short, I wasn’t impressed with this dish. It’s a downright shame because the Fontina and the prosciutto were excellent quality and freshness; they were both bought late yesterday afternoon at the lovely Giuliano’s Delicatessen and Bakery. The cheese, which I’ve never sampled before today, was soft, creamy, and rich. The prosciutto was sliced paper-thin and neither too moist nor too dry. Unfortunately, the sage was not at peak freshness, and the pork chops were garden-variety Albertsons bone-in thick cut. Still, one would think that putting these four ingredients together would not be so underwhelming. But before I criticize the recipe, let me offer a few critical remarks about my own technique.

1. With so few ingredients, it's crucial to obtain high quality materials. So next time spring for quality pork chops from a good butcher. Oh—and don't forget the really fresh sage!
2. Despite oversearing one side, the pork inside was cooked perfectly.

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I discovered a recipe from Emeril which brought back fond memories of thin sliced beef from KTA in a soy sauce marinade. (The butchers eventually stopped offering the thin slicing service; it’s a time-consuming process to keep the meat and knife sufficiently cold. Continue reading for more commentary on this subject.) I’m not sure I would call the recipe “Korean.” It sounds more like an American bastard child of grilled thin sliced beef teriyaki over sticky white rice and ground pork lettuce wraps with crunchy rice noodles.

Anyway, the only part of the dish I made word-for-word was the chile sauce. For the marinade, I just threw the ingredients together with a “Oh that looks about right.”

A few helpful hints for next time:

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My first attempt at Peter Reinhart’s rye meteil was a slight disappointment. The crumb was too dense. The crust wasn’t perfectly golden brown, crisp and chewy. The flavor was definitely an improvement over active-dry yeast bread, but the wild yeast probably could have used a bit more maturation. Finally, the single free standing loaf was huge, oblong and unsymmetrical (due to a mishap during transfer of the bread to the oven); in short, it was an unwieldy beast.

But one never becomes a baker without a second attempt (and a third and a fourth…), so I resolved the second time to make a few adjustments.

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Emeril Lagasse’s Best Ever Coconut Cream Pie made with Alton Brown’s homemade coconut milk and a Whole Foods Whole Wheat Crust. Absolutely scrumptious. A few remarks about the procedure:

1. The shredded meat of two coconuts was sufficient for my purposes (see No. 3).
2. Eight ounces of fresh coconut meat, one cup of whole milk, and one cup of coconut "juice"—the water inside the coconut—made just slightly less than 1.5 cups of coconut milk. (Yes, I know, it's not exactly Alton Brown's recipe—but hey, Alton Brown's recipe isn't exactly traditional either.) Next time use 9 oz of shredded coconut and 2.25 cups milk-water.
3. Cheesecloth works great when it's time to squeeze out the milk. Also, I didn't toss the leftover coconut from the milk process, but included it in the pie (one cup). I'm not sure if using fresh coconut would make much difference, but if I get a third coconut next time, I should toss the used coconut and use fresh flakes.
4. A video on YouTube suggests exposing the coconut to an open flame keeps the brown skin attached to the shell.

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2 poblano chiles
2 anaheim chiles
4 sesame seed buns
4 slices of provolone cheese
1.32 lbs 82% lean ground beef formed into 4 patties, with a small indentation in the middle of each patty
kosher salt
garlic powder
onion powder
fresh black pepper

The Procedure:

1. Season the patties with salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder to taste.

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