W92 Kitchen -- Surf & Turf

Our weekly dinners at the W92 Kitchen started as an excuse to hone my skills. My friend, also a line cook, and I discovered that we really enjoyed cooking together. We had worked in the same kitchen and always talked about cooking on our days off. The only problem: we never had the same days off. And, when we did, we were both too exhausted to plan anything besides order Chinese take-out.

Cooking for friends and family is different than cooking for service at a fine dining restaurant. First of all, it's enjoyable. You can play music. Drink wine. Test out different ingredients. Goof around. It's cooking with love. And, in some ways, it's cooking to impress. After all, I want to prove to Daniel that every penny that we spent on culinary school was worth it.

This week, we started off by shopping at the Chelsea Market. We bought a whole artic char, squid, shrimp, and scallops at the Lobster Place. We stocked up on produce and spent the entire afternoon in the kitchen. The result was a three-course meal -- plus fancy desserts provided by Judy! -- that we both were proud to show off.

Artic char rolled in cucumber with sliced radish, snow peas, fresh strawberries, lime zest and a chilled lime-corn soup. Oh, and, we garnished the fish with edible flower petals -- pansies to be precise.

Arial view of the artic char rolls

Homemade tomato sauce with fresh seafood and toasted olive bread. Our play on cioppino.

This is cool. Home-made ravioli filled with short ribs and summer truffles (yum!) garnished with parsnip puree, glazed carrots and artichokes. The pink slices of rare beef completed this decadent main course.

Pastries courtesy of Judy -- (aka Epicerie Boulud)