Keeping the home fires burning

“Do you still cook at home, or do you get sick of it?”

I hear this frequently when I tell people I’m now working at a restaurant about 70 hours a week. I guess it’s like the old saw about the ice cream clerk despising ice cream because he’s around it all the time. For the record, I’d never, ever get sick of ice cream.

And I’m not sick of cooking at home. Granted, I have less time to do it, but it’s still incredibly satisfying to whip up a new meal for wifey and have her critique it. Or to put together a three-course menu for some friends or family.

Last weekend I had the inlaws over for their first meal at my Jersey City table. I think it was pretty good. They’re Italian, so I kept with the Roman theme. For cocktails I made homemade bellinis, courtesy of the Venicians, and served that age-old antipasto of thinly sliced cucumber, cantoloupe balls and prosciutto with a little fresh basil oil.

Then I moved onto a grilled calamari salad with haricot verts (okay, I’ll cut the bullshit; green beans), asparagus strips, fried capers and a white balsamic citronette.

Next came an attempt to reconstruct an item from the restaurant’s menu: an acorn squash soup. I steeped a lobster in boiling water to cook the meat, and sautéed the shells briefly to begin a lobster stock. The stock cooked for a few hours on low heat ‘till it was crazy flavorful. Then I strained it and added to a puree of acorn squash and a little cream. The golden delicious liquid was then poured over sautéed porcini mushrooms, acorn squash cubes, and thinly sliced lobster tail to make the soup.

The entrée was pretty simple: sautéed lemon sole with green-onion-and-ginger oil, and an eggplant coulis. Then store-bought Italian butter cookies (got lazy, as I often do, when it comes to dessert).

By the end of the meal, I realized I had killed about half of one of my now-precious days off cooking, but it was worth it. Unlike some chefs out there, I’m not one of these guys who thinks about food and cooking all the time, but I do like to think about it outside of work. As a cook, you don’t really have to bring work home with you, but it’s nice to practice in your lair and keep the home fires burning.