Savoury Corn Panna Cotta

This is a great little appetizer for the summer while corn is in season. Corn panna cotta on the bottom with avocado wrapped shrimp corn salad, and sauteed corn. I steeped the corn kernels with milk and cream and blended and strained the mixture for the base and mixed it with gelatin to set. The salad was just cooked corn and chopped shrimp tossed with a light dressing and a bit of tabasco. Smoked maldon salt to garnish.

Quick(er) Beef Bourgignon and Yam Fries!

Last night, I was craving some beef stew so I invited my sister over for dinner 'cause you can't really eat stew by yourself. Beef bourgignon is my favourite but I didn't have much time to fuss over it and I hadn't bought the meat the day before so I didn't marinate it in red wine like I normally do. This wasn't bad though. It's a good, quick throw together type of dish and it just needs some time in the oven so you can deal with other things.

I thought the dinner needed some sort of appetizer to snack on and since we both love ordering yam fries whenever we go out, I decided to give it a try. Mind you, it was my first time deep-frying at home so I was a little scared that I would start a fire but it wasn't as scary as it seemed. I actually fried it twice. The first time just till the yams were cooked through and starting to brown, and the second time at a slightly higher temperature to brown and crisp. I do suggest cutting the yam "batonnets" slightly thinner though as they will be more crispy. All in all, they turned out pretty well and not at all greasy. I served it with some garlic parsley mayo on the side and it was a done deal.

Beef Bourgignon
2 lbs beef chuck, cut to 3/4 " cubes
2 carrots, sliced on a diagonal
2 celery sticks, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
1/2 cup red wine (preferably burgundy)
4 tbsp flour
200 ml beef stock

- Heat a medium saucepan on high with vegetable oil and brown all the meat. (Do in batches if necessary) Remove meat and saute all the vegetable except the garlic. Add garlic once onions begin to turn translucent. Stir for 1 minute and add the red wine, stirring the bottom of the pot to scrape up the browned bits. Reduce the liquid till half and add the flour, stirring to coat everything. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Add back the meat and bring to boil and place in a 400 degree fahrenheit oven for 1 1/2 -2 hrs.