Dinner on Sunday June 15^th, 2008

This was the first attempt at proper service here in the lab and it seemed to work out spectacularly.

Menu:

Savory Pasty

Bouef Roulade de canard et de champignons

Fennel Smoked Sole

Cheese Puff

Cheese

Coffee and Cigarettes

This menu was written & executed with Mark Low and would have not been possible without help from The Genus and Tom

Photos By Missy Sue http://forkthis.blogspot.com

To be honest when we thought of this dish we were going to make doughnuts and it would have been amazing, then we forgot that doughnut dough has to sit overnight and it was already 3pm on Sunday so we embraced my Italian roots and made some zeppoli. If we are still on this honesty tip then you should also know that when I made the powdered salt, I used MSG coated salt. I am not sorry.

“You can’t sit at the table if you aren’t going to bring nothing to it.”

Blackberry Beret

Bouef Roulade de canard et de champignons – We unpeeled this beef tenderloin and stuffed it up with braised duck and softened wild mushrooms. It was then confitted in duck fat and finished in the deep fryer to give it that tasty browning. Served with Curried Sweet mashed Potatoes and Crisp Kale, and some of the delightful duck, cabernet and blackberry demi-glace

We originally had planned on wrapping it in duck skin but we ended up not having enough to wrap up the 3 of them so instead of leaving some people envious we scrapped the whole idea and ate the skin after everyone left while cleaning up.

Todd normally is in charge of protecting the meat products that are left out on the counter during prep from the straying fingers of the cooks. He might not look it but is super vicious.

Fennel Smoked Sole Filet w/Raw Mustard Greens, Tomato Caviar topped with Wasabi Tobiko, Chive Flowers (they actually taste great and last for a least a week in the fridge) dressed with Lemon and Olive Oil. This is a part of the ever evolving green menu and was extremely well balanced.

Someone with two X chromosomes said it was the best thing she had ever eaten, I told her I thought that was just her being hyperbolic and she told me to go to hell because it was good, take that interaction for what you will.

Fennel Pollen Dust

Unexplainable, but know this. It was lost and then found in michele’s bedroom which was the last place any of would have thought to look.

Cheese Course (Instrumentally orchastrated with Julie at Formaggio South End) – Pierre Robert a Triple Cream Delight with an aged goat cheese Leonora, which is named after a friend of mine, or at least i am pretty postive it is, with a soft vegetable ash. Strawberries are cheap and tasty; candied walnuts are a total pain in the ass to make, buy them other people are better at making them then you, well most likely, unless you are one of those people who are really good at making them, but then I would assume you would have to be deficient in some other area like non-sticky fingers.

Coffee Granita with Whipped Cream – This was thought about while reminiscing with Cortney about Sicily and was built by Danielle. Thank you both for your inspiration and construction.

Cigarettes were in bowls and were smoke after in proper fashion

Two weekends ago we roasted a pig in my backyard. As much as that sentence stands alone on its own I haven’t fully prepared myself to talk about the nonsense that was that magical event. I am on the other hand ready to speak about these little treats we made after being awake for 36 hours.

I have recently discovered that I love fermented eggs, especially this Chinese variety that glisten in the light and have the most amazing pine flowers. I could be wrong but I am pretty sure the way they make these is by packing them in pot ash and burying them in the ground for 40 days. I am pretty sure that you can make your own my creating a very alkaline water solution somewhere near 5% salt, 5% lye. I am also sure that using lye only requires about 5-7 days but only makes the eggs transparent brown with green yolks instead of this magical black with blue yolk. The final thing that I am positive of is that you have to use duck or quail eggs, chicken eggs definitely don’t work for some reason. This being said I will let you know about turkey, pheasants and any other foul eggs I can in addition to any edible reptile eggs I can get my hands on.

This first batch was cut into eights and piled on a pile of pickled vegetables and topped with friend shallots. Those onions were sharp with vinegar and spice that did an amazing job of offsetting the “egg jelly” flavor of the whites and the crunchy shallots played perfect foil to the creamy rotting of the yolks. A touch of aged soy and scallions rounded it all off nicely. Rotting food can be good.

Thank you Janis for the eggs, thank you Sunny for the drunken pickling, thank you Evan for getting really close to food you are about to eat with a camera.

Poached Scrambled duck eggs folded with homemade ricotta, olive oil, lemon zest, dirty Sicilian sea salt, black pepper and chives.

At first this idea was thrown out because it seemed silly by people of less creative fortitude then myself. Then they realized that it was really a fantastic way of dealing with our obvious excess of duck eggs and homemade ricotta.

Problem solved.

Canard L’orange sanguine

Skin was almost perfect but the glaze was delightful. James made a blood orange jelly that refused to act like a jam but was easily converted in an amazing glaze. It was then thickened with some heat and then spice up with a few poblanos and a kiss of a departing Columbian. Paired perfectly with the bread pudding.

A start at perfecting the richest types of raviolo.

These larger ravioli were stuffed with homemade ricotta, spinach and pecorino with a slow poached pheasant egg placed in the center. Sautéed ramps in raw cream butter and then crisped the raviolo before glazing them with a duck buerre blanc. Pheasant yolk invading the buerre blanc was the end goal of this whole sauce and shaved Locatelli on top was specifically to add a touch of salt.

This seems to be getting pretty close to the most decadent pasta I can make. I guess I need to preface that by saying that, it is the most decadent  pasta I can make without proper cream, bacon or duck fat. I guess.