Beach Party

 

Seafood Charcuterie Plate

Salmon Rillettes. Smoke Mussels. Smoked Trout. Smoked Sturgeon. Caviar on Citrus Peel. Bread crumb beach sand. Cucumber. Fried Cucumber Peel. Zest. Frisee. Cold Pressed Olive Oil. Finishing Salt.

I got shit for the presentation but it was fun and I think the birthday part people liked it. I was also going to blast it with some pear foam to emulate beach foam but the plates were too small and cramped with shit. Was fun to waste time on.

Also apparently my ideas for Chicken Nougats and Foiectopus have been done.

Turkey Consomme and Breakfast

Made a benedict poutine style. Sweet potatoe and russet hashbrowns. Hollandaise with cheese and super reduced turkey stock that I clarified into consomme. I wanted a bordelaise consistency but it just made a broth in the bottom. The stock I cooked for 2 days. Made a remiage and added it back to the original stock. It caremlized very deep. I saved some consomme for another dish. Maybe get some black trumpets or matsutake and slice a couple fresh with some green onions or something. Pretty good.

Xgiving Shit

SANS PHOTOS

highlights

Turkey Roulades *done with the drumstick which was a sinu nightmare. Filled with kale and chevre.

Soft Pretzel Bread Pudding/Stuffing - Mustard Custard to coat the Pretzel. Mirepoix and Walnuts.

Turkey 1.
Brined and roasted whole.
 Steamed first and then in the oven for a couple of hours. Did not take long at all.

Turkey 2. Gifted to me from my Chef.

Carved off the boobs and legs.

Made stock out of the carcass and neck. I skimmed really well and cooked it down pretty far. Nice gold color and really clear. I was going to clarify into consomme but its pretty much there already.

Turkey sandos this week.

The bag of innards was good.

I will try and see if I can source Turkey liver. Its pretty decent size and fucking delicious seared in butter flour and whiskey. A little mustard into the jus.

Ok back to being ignored in real life.

West Coast Again

 Went to Little bird for lunch right after getting off the Bolt Bus.  It was a few blocks from the stop.

I couldn't get a reservation at Le Pigeon this week so it was cool to check out this spot.

Definately a bigger place. More laid back menu. I had a charcuterie board and soup. The prix fix wasnt as awesome as the sister place and it was too early in the day to crush a huge meal. I did find an awesome French liquer ala Chartreuse from Provence.

 Thyme flavored herbal drink. I highly enjoy it and will be on my list of favorites along with Strega, Suze and the like.

Hit Bunk Bar later that night before seeing Dave Attell at Helium.

 

Solid sandos. Pork Belly Cubano. Pulled Pork with Apple Slaw. Meatball Sub. I would definately get them in rotation.

x

Had some Pok Pok in Northeast.

I got a game hen salad. It was okay but I think this is a hype spot. Kind of money for Thai street food and for some reason getting sticky rice in a plastic bag seemed stupid to me indoors. Pretty good but I would rather get cheap Vietnamese or Thai. The Pok Pok Noi has a smaller menu so maybe the others might be a little more exciting.

Watched a line all night out side of The Know.

Salt and Straw.

Ice cream apparently has some gnarly flavors ala marrow and foie gras.

We drank a while after the show and the line finally dissipated.

They had flights so I got 4 flavors. Laphroig flavored sherbert, Blood Pudding, Pear and Blue Cheese and Arbequina Olive Oil.

I was hoping the flavors of all would be a little more bold and exciting. The pear was rather chunky but I liked the combo. The blood pudding was kind of more of a chili spiced chocolate tasting. The Laphroig but too suttle and I didnt even remember what the olive oil was until after I checked the menu.

Pretty cool place but I think its another hype spot. Humphrey Slocumbe is superior to me and I will validate that in SF this week.

Zucchini Boat and Ricotta Time

 

Turned that gigantic heman zucchini in to a boat with pilaf. Had mirepoix, ground lamb, paprika and topped with feta. Luckily a band came to town to feed it to.

 Ricotta. Need bigger containers to strain the whey off.

 Couldnt wait. Garden tomato and african basil.

Poached Salmon and Caper Cranberry Rice

Cooked some rice in sweated onions, capers, and dried cranberries. I used brown long grain rice so it had almost a wild rice texture. Pretty cool sweet and sour pilaf kind of deal. Good with fish. Salmon was poached in a puree made of blanched tomato, lettuce, fennel, and onion with a splash of raspberry vinegar. There was some brunoise fennel and radish in the liquid I was going to use to garnish but I left it out. I reserved the food matter from the vegetable base for the poaching liquid and made a salsa verde kind of thing with it. Added some chili and vinegar and seasoned it to be a salsa. That will be for something else soon. Sauce is yogurt with mustard, honey and dried dill flower. Garden tomatoes and pickled red onion. Fennel frond and purslane garnish. Salmon skin chips.

Tomato Season

Heirloom Tomato Salad.

Carbon Oil. Raspberry Vinegar. Smoked Eggplant Salt. Scotch Bonnett.

Shaved Blue Cheese on the Bottom.

Breffast

 What happens when I don't get schedule for work.

Breffast.

 

Scrambled Egg on Succotash of Fennel and Corn.

On Smoked Tomato Vinaigrette with Grape Vinegar. Basque Blue Cheese.

Smoker JR

 Boredom Experiment.

Carrot poached in Carrot Juice and Raspberry Vinegar w Thyme.

Served with Smoked Tomato Vinaigrette and Smoked Eggplant Puree.

 

Pickling Red Onions in the Raspberry Vinegar and I am making Carbon Oil (Infusing burned wood chip embers with oil)

More boredom to come.

Impromptu Pomerol and more.

 

New restaurant open in Fremont.

Named after a region in France.

They got a wood burning grill indoors and it smells like a campfire. Bar is small but has some cool stuff. 

Grilled Octopus with Aioli.

Chilled Tomato Soup with Foie Crouton. 

Pork Dish with Fingerlings cooked in Goose Fat.

 Carrot cake with Poached Peaches and Sesame Tuilles. Lemon and Cardamom Glaze.


Also had an epiphany, albeit a stupid one....

Cake Pie

It doesnt even sound terribly good to me but I think the idea is funny and I would put in on a menu as a joke.

But of course...

 It exists in many forms already and I plan on trying it.

Cheeziebeef and the Vegetable Bounty

 Garden bounty. Basil

 Charred baby leek, heirloom potato boiled and fried in butter. Poached egg. Aioli. Basil Flower. Mozzarella.

 My new Zucchini Baby

 Heirloom Eggplant

 Black Tomato.

i made some CHEEZIE BEEF today

i saw it on a menu at some family diner in OAK PARK outside of chicago on the way to a frank lloyd wright house.

i took burgers from work and cut em up.
caramelized onions and garlic and tyme. put some water in it and make a jus.

added leftover beechers cheese from a party at work.

kinda like burgery stroganoff without noodles.
then put it on a pan grilled kaiser roll with shaved brussels sprouts cooked in cream and butter with mustard. than some garden tomato and basque blue cheese.

made a succotash of corn. fennel, shallot and tomato.