Sexy Food

Another week has gone by and while the restaurant construction is resuming from the recent building inspections and weather, I'm continuing the process of thinking about the style and direction of the food. I'd hate to be associated or even cast with or as one particular genre. So I've decided that I'll put a few twists on dishes that are comforting, regional, and draw from my background.

I'm displaying this picture of a small app dish that I did a while back that might be something to expand on with the new place.

Cumin Oil Poached Colossal Shrimp with Crab Cake, Pickled Green Tomato, Cumin-Cilantro Beurre Blanc.

Cumin Oil
real easy to make

4 TB of Cumin
2 cups of good olive oil

>in a medium size saute pan add the ground cumin and turn on the range to around a medium heat. Flip the cumin in regular intervals to make sure that you have even toasting and so it doesn't burn. I would say that you'd want to do this for around 10 minutes or so. You will get a extremely fragrant and vibrantly colored product if you continue to flip in regular intervals.
>remove the cumin from the heat and add the olive oil to the pan with the cumin, put the pan back on the flame or range but turn the heat down to low.
>using a thermometer, monitor the heat of the oil and cumin mixture until it reaches 300 degrees...(you'll of course need to make sure that you get a true reading by angling the thermometer to where it measures the oil and not the bottom of the pan)
>kill the flame or turn off the range and let the oil/cumin mixture steep for at least 5 to 6 hours. The longer you let it go. The more rich the flavor and vibrant the color. You could let it go for a whole day if you wanted.
>to finish, find yourself a squirt bottle(like a ketchup bottle or the like) and a funnel that fits into the opening on the neck of the bottle. Put the funnel in and place a coffee filter inside the funnel. Slowly pour the oil mixture until it all completely passes through the filter. A little bit at a time.

If you store the oil out of direct sunlight and in a cool place, you should be a be able to keep it for up to a month. You go much longer and it might get a little rancid on you. Use it to garnish grilled steak or use to it poach stuff like shrimp in.

I should note that if you are going to do the latter you'll need to control the temperature in order to make sure that the shrimp doesn't fry when you place it in the oil. Maintaining a temperature of around 250 degrees will take care of that. It will cook nice and steady and be extremely tender. You also will create a much lower smoke point for the oil by making it a compound/flavored oil so be careful you don't want a fire on your hands.

I've got the recipe in this old post if you want to know the beurre blanc method.