fun with extracts

i'll be honest, we've been cheating a little bit, but damn we're having a good time! we've been using a lot of natural extracts when cooking meat sous vide. the first inspiration was the caramelized chicken thigh terrine we featured at the wine conclave. made by using caramel oil to coat chicken thighs, since then other successful expirements include: duck breast cooked with bitter orange extract, @ 50c for two hours, the rabbit bacon, previously mentioned in the whole animal post, we salted the bellies for twelve hours, then misted the rinsed meat with mesquite oil and transglutaminase, then stacked one on another to form a slab, then cooked for another twelve hours @ 67c. the featured photo is another flavor of the chicken thigh terrine. this time using pine oil, again transglutaminase is sprinkled on the thighs, formed into a terrine mold, and cooked @ 62c for six hours, we then seared the slices of the terrine, and paired the crispy thigh with a ragout of pine braised pine nuts, and the first morels of the season!

rabbits

this spring sunday supper goes whole beast, offering an a la carte menu of small plates. kicking off march 21 with rabbits from big creek farm in rogersville, tn. followed by riverview farms pigs on march 28, easter sunday lamb dinner, then fowl ( i am still in search of a local source for whole birds, any info would be appreciated). below is the preliminary menu for the rabbit supper.

rabbit consomme
parsley root royale, rabbit confit agnolotti

rabbit bacon & eggs
slow poached local egg, brioche

brunswick stew
hominy, sea island red peas, tomato

potted hare
roasted kidneys, rhubarb mostarda, pickled ramp

roasted saddle
heirloom carrot, english peas, tokyo turnip

hind quarter
fermented red cabbage, trumpet royale mushoom

mortadella

mortadella is an emulsified sausage, essentially bologna, the city of origin, in emelia-romagna, made by grinding meat into a paste, and emulsifying fat, also garnished with diced pork fat! we serve the mortadella as one of our meats @ $4, garnished with toasted pistachios and green olives. we use fresh hams for mortadella and shoulders for salami, due to the fat distribution of each. lean meat and fat are ground separately, the lean meat is then pureed in the food processor. fat, ice, and dry milk are slowly added. we make 12 -14 pounds at a time, in small batches, then stuff the sausage into a large beef casing and poach @ 65 c .

wine conclave

wine conclave 1.30.2010

here's the menu we served at montaluce's wine conclave, each course paired with our wines. lunch went well, hopefully we made some friends! i borrowed a few photos from flickr, thankfully our guest were better photographers than me. a special thanks to all that attended.



chicken liver mousse: house made pickles, lavosh
montaluce chardonnay, 2008


smoked sunburst farms trout: boiled peanuts, fennel, meyer lemon, sweet tea
montaluce risata, 2008






coppa di testa: cabbage, apple, mustard
montaluce merlot, 2008




caramelized chicken thighs: baby carrot, cipollini, celery leaf, jus
montaluce cabernet, 2008









butternut squash cup custard: maple gel, oat crumble, whipped buttermilk

montaluce viognier, 2008

valentine's day weekend 2/13-2/14

1st course:
cauliflower soup
almond, white chocolate

arugula salad
butternut squash, pork belly, sherry vinaigrette

lamb sweet breads
watermelon radish, smoked apple, mitake mushroom

2nd course:
beef confit
cipollini onion, creamed leeks, pickled pearl onions, lobster jus

sunburst farms trout
sea island red peas, baby carrot, young mustard

berkshire pork shank
carolina gold rice grits, brussels sprout leaves, huckleberry

3rd course:
butternut squash cup custard
maple gelee, oat crumble, buttermilk

apple & whiskey fried pie
ice cream,caramel

new year's eve dinner

the pass
overly ambitious

chicken liver mousse
we cured the livers overnight in salt, sugar, tcm, and aromatics, then passed through a tammis and poached @65 for an hour. then whipped with butter. really nice!

arugula and pea shoots
the pea shoots came from our garden, the last of the year. tossed with arugula, white truffle vinaigrette, finished with quince, manchego, and oregon white truffles, which were nice for the $$$

black cod
the cod was beautiful from the coast of washington state, c/o foods in season. garnished with braised cucumber, boiled peanuts, lobster emulsion, and hackleback

cauliflower & white chocolate soup

this is a nice soup, we found the perfect balance of cauliflower and white chocolate, then charged the soup to enhance the mouth feel. the crumble is made with smoked marcona almonds and mace. the stems are compressed with olive oil and vanilla.