Santa Barbera Wine Dinner

First course: Faygo Red poached Lobster with carbonated Asian Pear and Garlic Mango Relish.

Second Course: Foie Gras with Bacon Gelee, Pinenut Brulee and Bacon Salad.

Third Course: Pink Peppercorn Tuna, Spiced Crackers, Whipped Beets.

Forth Course: Gooseberry stuffed Breast of Veal with Dandelion Greens.

Fifth Course: Table Smoked Lamb with Parsnip puree and Morel Bearnaise.

Sixth Course: Macerated Fruit, Sourpatch Ice Cream.

Crepes

I've been running "BBQ Chicken Crepes" on the menu for a couple months now. I am yet to be happy with the final dish though. Every tweak brings me closer.

the addition of a goat cheese cracker has helped, but to be honest with you it was supposed to be a goat cheese puff. It's close, I can tell it wants to puff but.....it won't.

My patience has never been a virtue though.

The BBQ sauce is an Asian BBQ sauce that I was taught when I was 17 and it's something I'll never forget. It's a great sauce that can fit in almost anywhere and It was taught to me at a time when I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I still remember the day it was taught to me. I tasted the final outcome of it and realized how incredible cooking was. How (what seemed to be) random ingredients treated with appropriate care and love and technique could be combined to make amazing things. I also had a girlfriend that actually knew the name and number of the only Chinese place in our "Mon valley" and she knew to order General Tso's. It was an opening to a new world to me. And this sauce reminds me of that. I still use the same approach to it, kinda, the technique looking back on it doesn't really make sense, but it still works.

Matt Baer had a great idea though, (concerning crepes) I'm gonna wait until we can work on it, but it will be new and unique...as far as we know. You'll probably be the firsts to find out.

Sake Dinner, coursed out by posts.

I honestly can't remember whose idea this was. At some point someone said "why not do a Sake Dinner?"

"Hell yeah!, I love Sake." Was probably my response, unless I had the idea part of course, in which case I was thinking..."I love Sake, that should be one of our dinner focus points".

Into the dinner, First course

Truffled Crab and Avocado Roll, with Pickled cucumber, Cucumber Pickle, Soy syrup, Avocado puree.

Served with: Heated Shirayuki Sake

Very early sake dinner menu

Sake Dinner
緣故晚餐
Green Gables
綠色山牆
February 8th 2008

Crab and Avocado
Truffle Sticky Rice
螃蟹和鮞梨
served with Warm Sake

Black and Blue Beef
Wasabi Mashers
黑和藍色牛肉
served with Sake Bloody Mary

Scallop Sashimi
Saffron Tomato and Lemon Grass
扇貝生魚片
Sparkling Cucumber Saketini

Lobster, Foie and Bananas
Tempura and Curry
龍蝦、肝臟和香蕉
Rihaku Nigori, Junmai

Tuna tartar
Watermelon
金槍魚齒垢
Yuki no Bosha, Junmai Ginjo

Yuzu-Ginger lime pie
Candied Tobikko
中國石灰餅
Asian Pear Sake-Rita

This dinner should be a lot of fun.

Beef Chain Confit part 2

My favorite blog Ideas in food have played around with Cheese Mosaics enough to inspire many others. Myself included. I think everyone that reads their blog owes them a lot of "Thanks", they create and share so much with thee entire world to look at and they do it for free.

My approach to this technique is a rolled version. Re-applying the combination of Chocolate and Blue Cheese. In addition to a much better use of the beef chain confit from several posts ago.

The beef chain is reheated in mole and placed on some poached and fried fingerling potatoes, topped with arugula tossed in Maple mustard dressing. Pinenut relish and Walnut crumble accent the chocolate, blue cheese and salty-ness of the confit.

Zach's Dinner

Hot Dog Sushi with soy ketchup, wasabi mustard and soy drizzle.

Rice Crispy fried shimp salad with pop rocks to make it talk.
Third course (not pictured) was StarBurst Candy Cane dusted Scallops on Old Bay risotto with Creamy Cream soda foam.
Prime Rib Poached strip steak with Goat Cheese creamed cous cous.


Fried and BBQd Venison stuffed chicken (Sweet Baby Rays)
Blue Cheese brownie with Thyme Chocolate and Grenadine.

It's always fun to cook for your employees. When there's time to really have fun with what they're going to be eating that night. You get to insert some of their favorite
food items in some not so familiar ways.

New Scallop App.

Curry Pears and Raisins with Cipollinis, Pine nut Relish, Spice Cake and Orange Julius Foam

"Popcorn Shrimp"

The Following six dishes are from the California Wine Dinner that took place on July 26th.
I split up the individual courses to work with "Blogger/Blogspot".com

First Course:
Popcorn Shrimp with Truffled English Pea Puree, Jasmine Mango and Tomatocolada.

Honey Pressed Cantaloupe, Goat Cheese Marshmallow and Macadamia Broth

My favorite dish of the night. The cantaloupe was compressed with red pepper flakes and honey, the goat cheese marshmallow where highlighted with white hot pans brought out into the dinning room and "Jet Puffed" marshmallows place into them, to create the smell of roasted Mallow.

"California Roll"

This dish made it to the plate with all it's components about three seconds before this picture was taken.

The idea was, obviously, a California Roll. But, I wanted to present it in a different way.

Sushi Rice, Kraut pickled Nori, Wasabi-Sesame Lump Crab, Cucumber Foam, Tobikko Vinaigrette, and Crispy Avocado.

It worked.

Chicken and Waffles.......but with Duck

So, in going with the California theme, I really wanted to play around with Roscoes Chicken and Waffles.
At first it was going to be a "waffle" breaded cube of maple braised chicken, that would then be fried. But, after speaking to someone who really wanted to come to this wine dinner and have duck....I switched some things around.


The Waffle (if you can see it) is almost 80% Duck breast. Roasted duck skin that was steeped in to the milk that would be added to the Waffle mixture.


Cubes of Agar Agar jelled maple duck confit, Pan roasted duck breast and a Maple Butter sauce.

Walnut Fried Brie

Using the Yogurt consomme,

Along with Bacon Crackers.

Just damn tasty.

Yogurt Consomme

With inspiration (over a couple years) from Alex and Aki and their website Ideas in Food I wanted

to work on a Maple Consomme. I am in Maple country.

All the flavors that were to be addressed on the plate where as follow: Fried Brie, Maple, Strawberry, Horseradish and Bacon. Very southern, but hey, fried fat in fat with more fat flavor added? How can you resist? Something simple that can be put out in a timely manner and be shared by a table.

Strawberries, Horseradish and Brie have been a long time favorite of mine. I was also trying to figure out some way to incorporate this combo into the plate as well.

When it came time to construct the Maple Consomme, I didn't know where to start with it. What would I be clarifying? Stuck. I looked back at Ideas In Food to their Balsamic Consomme, the pureeing of items helped me.

As all my mise en place lay around me, at various ends of the kitchen, the ingredients came together a little differently in my head. It all ended up together.

And when I reached in the cooler for some more berries, I was looking at two "Fruit on the Bottom" Dannon yogurts. Why not use the protein in the yogurt to clarify my fruit stock?

It's deep in color and flavor. You know there is yogurt in there somewhere, and the mouthfeel is really something. There is a creaminess that coats your mouth that you just wouldn't expect.

So, maybe cheese based consomme? Curds?

Fig Tuille

With Smoked Chocolate, Ancho Tuna, Chocolate Broth and Masa Meringue

Scallops

Braised Fennel, Fennel Foam, Anise Basil

Shrimp Torchon

With Beets and Horseradish Tomatoes

Twice cooked Squab

Squab Supreme, Poached in Foie Fat then Pan Roasted.

Truffled White Aparagus salad, Onion cracker, Soy Caramel.

Lamb with carrots

Carrot butter, carrot cylinders, Sorrel.

Short Rib Confit

Salsify, Popcorn Shoots, Wasabi Raisins.

Scallops with Fennel and Root Beer