ideas and recipes beginning. ..

Harissa Honey Honey seasoned with harissa, with duck, pork. So its sweet but spicey at the end. Keep the harissa to a minimum. Red Wine and Brown Butter Vinaigrette What weve done to accomplish this for the time being is to reduce a bottle of red wine vinegar until its syrup concistency. Place on plate where sauce would go, then meanwhile make some brown butter, seasoned with a little lemon juice. Pour the brown butter over the reduction. So in fact we are not making an actual combined, emulsified sauce but rather two seperated ones. My goal is to figure out how to emulsify the two together and have an actual "vinaigrette". Though I dont know how thats going to happen with the butter being melted and seperated/broken to begin with. Study of Winter Vegetables This is a dish we are doing now with the kobasha/acorn squash gnocchi. Winter root vegetables and even some fruit are cut(diced), seasoned appropriately and roasted. Right now we have pear, parsnip, sweet potato, rutabaga, brussel sprouts etc. For pickup, the gnocchi are dropped into boiling water, the vegetables sautéed. Once gnocchi are cooked through they are added to the vegetables. Using a long rectangle plate place a bit of parsnip puree on the plate, place and arrange the vegetables and gnocchi on top, going the length of the plate. I best describe the plating as trying to make the plate look like a small garden. Once the veg and gnocchi are arranged accordingly, we place fried brussel sprout leaves and as a sauce reduce some parsnip puree cooking liquid, the cream they were cooked in and finish with that. Garnish accordingly. This can be a very beautiful plate if done correctly, is an outstanding vegetarian dish.