Ideas from Cabritos and Cochon

Eating at Cabritos in NYC was a mixed experience. The place is funky and cute but also loud and dark. The wait service was mediocre. The goat was good but such a small serving and only came with some shredded cabbage, a few tortillas, a yogurt sauce (boring) and a chili sauce (too smoky and distracted from the goat). The best thing I had there was the pork belly taco: pork belly BBQ'ed in a tamarind sauce with jicama, radish and mache greens on top. Yum. I must learn how to make this taco.

It was a bit expensive: two drinks, two tacos and the goat came to $60. You can get two 4 course tasting dinners at Cochon (on Passyunk in Philly) for the same price (well, on certain days at least)! When my friend and I went, we got the following:

1. Chicken liver pate with bacon mousse on crostini topped with mache, tiny chopped tomatoes and onions, miniature slices of pickles (genius, btw).

2. Frisee salad with (seemingly deep fried) crispy pork fat, an over easy egg, pork sausages and a yummy dressing. Did it also have potatoes? I can't remember. This would be a perfect breakfast. We thought this was the entree so we were surprised when this came up...

3. Suckling pig topped with mache, tomatoes, frisee, and an aoli sauce over a bed of lentils du Puy. So rich. The aoli might have been too much.

4. Banana chocolate cake with raspberry coulis. The coulis was amazing - almost a pure reduction of raspberries with no added sugar and the cake so light and moist. Neither too chocolately or banana-y.

The tasting menu is changing all the time so I'll definitely have to go back.

Our evening garden

Mascarpone Raspberry Ice Cream

Mascarpone Ice Cream (Makes about 1 1/2 quarts)

2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
16 oz mascarpone
1 cup cream or half & half
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp salt

In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in the mascarpone until the mixture is smooth and airy.
Blend in the cream, milk and salt with a whisk. Refrigerate overnight. Meanwhile make raspberry sauce.
Freeze the mix using an ice cream machine. Pour raspberry sauce in at the very last and swirl around. Pack into a freezable air tight container and let sit in freezer until sufficiently hard.

Raspberry Sauce
1 cup raspberries
1/4 cup sugar

Bring to a boil and simmer 5 mins. Let cool in fridge overnight.