Eric

Eric is one of our new "hires" this week. He has been helping me out a lot with production and just an overall organization of the space.

Stripped Bass West Coast

I've never seen "west coast" stripped bass before. Usually we used wild strippers from the east coast anywhere from the carolinas up to boston. This fish was flown into us from one of chef's purveyors out west. Very similar to a east coast fish internally, the flesh is a bit more thick and the head is much more conservative, probably half the size of the ones back east. Will be our special tomorrow night.

B.londe Shallot Marmalade

We do a similar thing at tavern and made me remeber this recipee for a very good shallot addition to a fish or even meat.
4 quarts diced shallots
1 quart lean veal scrap
3 quart Light veal stock
1/2 cup sherry vinegar
1 bottle of sweet dessert wine
1/2 bottle dry white wine
1/2 cup sugar
1 medium rondo
kuzu to thicken
bouqet garni

Almond Cloud and Broth recipes for (Halibut)

For the "cloud":
Sautee shallots with fresh fine herbs. (I do not remeber the fine herb but this is what the recipe says, assuming it will work with out the herbs)
Once soft add champagne and reduce to "sec". Add a fresh fish fumet and reduce to 10 percent. Add cream and reduce by 1/2 and finish with fresh almond oil, season.
For the broth:
8 Tablespoons fresh butter
1 cup fresh almonds, dried
2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp flour
8 cups milk
Salt and Pepper
Cayenne to finish?

Ginger Emulsion (used for raw or seared hamachi)

In a heavy bottomed pan place 3 tablespoons ketchup and cook slowly until dried out. Add 1 tsp balsamic and reduce. Then add 1 tsp of soy sauce and also reduce.
Wisk in 1/2 lb fresh butter and 1/3 to 1/2 cup fresh tomato water. Finish with fresh ginger juice for flavor. Keep in a warm spot as this is an emulsion and will break at to much of a low or high temerature.

Mushroom Puree and Sauce for Salmon

First for the puree:
Wash and dry 5 quarts of dried morel mushrooms then soak for 1 hour.
Strain and save liquid.
Sweat 1/2 quart sliced shallots with some garlic. Add mushrooms and sautee for 3 minutes.
Add 1/4 cup sherry wine and cook until dry. Add 1 quart mushroom stock, 2 quarts Morel stock, salt and pepper.
Finish with hot heavy cream.
Place all in vita prep and blend until smooth. Gradually add a neautral flavored oil and move cream for consistency. The puree should look like a paint.
For the sauce:
Heat puree in a very heavy bottom pan and add milk as needed, finish with mushroom oil, preferably morel oil. Will foam at the right consistency for a morel "cappuccino" or froth.

Jerk Marinate/Cure

Another version of "wings", I really like the momofuku ones, but these are good as well. The chicken wings need to stay for at least two days before being grilled. They could also be cooked a la plancha. All ingredients are "dried" except the scallions and Habanera. This recipe is a bit spicy for me, I would leave out half the Habanera Peppers and maybe cut back the Cayenne as well.
1 TB Allspice
1 Cook Spoons Thyme
1 Cook Spoons Cayenne
1 TB Black Pepper
1 TB Ground Sage
1 TB Ground Nutmeg
1 TB Ground Cinnamon
2 Fluid Oz Granulated Garlic
3 Fluid Oz Sugar
8 Fluid Oz Olive Oil
4 Fluid Oz Soy Sauce
12 Fluid Oz White Vinegar
1 PT Orange Juice Fresh
2 Oz Franks Hot Sauce
3 Limes Juiced
6 Habanera Peppers Chopped almost to a mince
1 Bunch Green Onions or Scallions Sliced Thin
16 Fluid Oz H6ney
8 Fluid Oz Molasses
( A cooks spoon is similar to about 1/6 cup of an ingredient )

Days at work

Right now, working as the early sous chef, my main responsibilities are sauces, stocks, daily special, and keeping an eye on all the production that starts early morning and goes into the evenings. Durring the day there is usually at least 2 to 3guys doing nothing but prep work. Octavio is one of them, he kind of runs the show.

Fritter Recipe (NEW)

4 Apples Peeled and Diced Small
3 Cups AP Flour
1/2 Cup Sugar
4 TBS Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
2 tsp Cinamonn
8 FL OZ Buttermilk
2 FL OZ Apple Juice
3 Fresh Eggs Whipped

Make sure to mix the wet and dry ingredient seperatly and keep the diced apples seperate from both.
Fold the wet mix into the dry mix being careful to not overwork. Very delicatly fold in the diced apples.
Fry at 325 degrees for 3 to 6 minutes.
It is also very important to make the "fritters" the correct size, not to large. If they are they will not cook properly. I've been using a tablespoon and that works fine. Once the fritter has come together in the fryer, use a screen to hold them down until they are crispy. Drain onto paper towels, season and serve immediatly.
This recipie will work with any "main" ingredient, pears, onions, etc,. Just substitute the diced apples and juice accordingly.

Link

The recipes for the two previous dish's I am still looking for, but I did find a link to these dish's and few others from The Mott a few falls ago.

http://www.examiner.com/ny-in-new-york/brian-bieler-s-food-at-the-mottpicture#slide=8142251

Found new dish's

These are a few dish's of mine that I just found photo's of that do not want to forget about. Ricotta Gnoocchi with crunchy leeks, tomato concasse, bacon and sweet corn. Also, Coriander Crusted Lamb with cucumber, lemon and greek yoghurt. The first, the gnocchi was a seasonal change from my regular gnocchi with artichokes. In the fall we had changed it to be served in a sort of corn puree infused with bacon and tomato water. Also, the crispy leeks were nice on top, leeks julienned and tossed in corn starch and flash fried. The coriander crusted Lamb was served with the greek yoghurt Fage. These were from my fall menu, 2009.

Pork Misen Place

For the new menu we are running a pork "porterhouse". The misen place will be a brined pork chop served with Apple "Fritters" and Apple "Demi". Make sure to not brine the pork for more than four hours with this recipie as it is quite strong. The fritter idea is a cool one, this recipe works but we will be making some changes soon because it can use some improvments. Be careful to not overwork the dough and fold in the chopped apples as you prep them, do not place the apples in water before hand because it will result in to much liquid in the recipe. For the sauce, I am doing the following:
4 shallots, peeled and sliced thin
4 apples, peeled and cut into half moons that are about 1/2 inch thick
1 cup of good quality brandy
1 cupe of good quality applce cider
1 quart of medium pork stock
1/2 TB of our veal "demi"
In a rondo, melt several tablespoons of good quality unsalted butter. Add the shallots and cook, avoiding any color until they are tender. Add the apples, cook for several more minutes to warm everything up. Add the brandy, being careful to do this off the fire, and burn off all the alcohol (about 3 minutes) and reduce to almost "sec". Add the cider and reduce to "sec", add the pork stock and demi and reduce to desired consistency.
The sauce really needs to be made every day, right before service so that there is still a little bit of texture to all the ingredients. Day 2 from the walkin is mush.

Octopus Day 2

After a night of marinating in the walkin, the octopus was ready to cook when I came in this morning. After removing the octopus from the marinade making sure to remove all the peppercorns and such, I placed them in a rondo with a nice bottle of red wine, a light fish fumet, fennel, onion, celery and fresh bay leaf. They were cooked for maybe an hour, until almost tender and then removed from the heat, left in container they cooked in and placed in the refrigerator. I left them in the "nage" so that they would, as they cooled, collect as much mositure and flavor as possible. Once they were cooled, we portioned them, and were ready to use them with our salsa. Fingerling potatoes that were blanched first and then roasted in the pan, piqiullo red peppers, a bit of salad greens and the two main ingredients were all gently sauteed in the pan until warmed. They were then placed in a bowl that had just a bit of the salsa on the bottom allready. Next time I do this dish it would be nice to think about the other misen place just a bit more.

Salsa Verde

I have always liked the idea of putting these two things together, Salsa Verde and Octopus. We had some tomatillas in the walkin so we decided to run them as a special. Several way to cook the tomatillas, but we roasted them after peeling off the husks, halving them and seasoning with salt pepper and olive oil. We then roasted them in the oven until tender. I think it would be nice to grill them one time with the husks still on, would give the sauce more "body". Once they were roasted and cooled a bit, using the robot coup, pulsing being careful to not over work the salsa, we added some garlic confit, fresh yellow onion, cilantro, salt, pepper and some freshly grilled jalapenos. I took out the seeds on the peppers so that they wouldnt overpower everything else.
The salsa was beautiful and taistes amazing. Also, to note, the sauce gets better if it has time to sit for a day or two to bring all the flavors together.

Where I live and Work, for now...

This is my street (Michigan Ave) where I both live and work. My apartment is right beside the Chicago Tribune building and about 4 blocks away from where I work.

Pizza Course

Sweet Onion Pissaladiere (Crispy Crust Nicoise Pizza with Texas Sweet Onions, Olives, Roasted Plum Tomatoes and White Anchovies). I liked this pizza a lot and thought it was a good idea to use the nice french white anchovies we recieved.

Veal Sweetbreads

Its been so long since I have cooked sweetbreads, this is the recipe that John gave me at Compass years ago. We rinsed them for several hours in cool water(until clear), then placed in a rondo with chicken stock, mire poix and dry spices. Bring to a simmer for 10 to 20 minutes until they are about 70 percent done, drained and then pressed for several hours until set and solid. We then cleaned the membranes off of them and fried them for the Lobster and Sweetbread course chef is running right now.

Octopus Prep

I always order octopus (and foie gras) anytime i see them on a menu.
These are some baby octopus we got into the restaurant today. I cleaned them and then marinated in olive oil, a light Burgandy (about 90 percent oil to 10 percent wine) bay leaves, peppercorns, thyme, parsley, and fleur de sel. Tomorrow we will make our dinner special with these. I want to do them with a salsa verde and fingerling potatoes.

New Kitchen

This is "Taverns" kitchen, both back and front. We also have a back room for storage and 3 seperate walkins. The restaurant, and kitchen are huge! Definitly a big change from those of NYC, all the kitchens I've seen so far here and four to five times the size. Tavern's got a great location, right on Michigan Avenue in the loop, right across the street is Millineum Park. Reminds me a lot of the upper west side in some ways.