may ragout of morels, garden shoots and greens

Potatos and broth: 2 small finger potato peeled 1 cup chicken stock 1 xlove garlic 1 bay leaf Cut potatos into quarters. Combine potatos, stock, garlic and bay leaf. Simmer gently until potatos are tender. Drain potatoes and set aside. Reserve cooking liquid as well. For the morels 3 cups fresh morel 1 TB butter 1 shallot finely diced salt 1/2 CUP Madeira 1 and 1/2 cup cream Clean morels. Trim bottoms and split large ones length wise. Melt butter and add shallots cooking till clean. Add morels and season. Cook 3 to 4 minutes until soft. Add the wine and 1 cup cream. then potatoes. Cook until cream coats back of wooden spoon. If becomes to thick adjust with some of the potato water. Garnish 20 small radish halved lengthwise 1 cup pea shoots 1 cup baby spinach leaves 8 to 10 sorrel leaves You can use asparagus tops or anything to give a bit of texture. Ladle the morel ragout into serving pots or bowls. Top with radishs, shoots and greens. Serve.

Gratin of peas, tarragon and pistachio

1 cup cream 2 cup shucked peas Salt 1 TB butter 2 Tb chop shallot 3/4 reisling 1/3 cup shelled pistachio(toasted and salted) 1/4 cup chopped tarragon Pea shoots for garnish Whip half the cream to soft peaks and refrigerate. Blanch the peas for 2 minutes and shock. Drain. Melt butter and add shallots until translucent. Add reisling and reduce by 1/3rd. Add remaining cream and cook until reduced enough to cover the back of a wooden spoon. Add peas and pistachios and bring to a boil. Gently fold in whip cream and place in serving container. Brown under broiler until golden. Place a few pea shoots right on top along with remaining herbs.

Sole in crisped couscous with water cress, ginger and asparagus (broth).

2 TB butter 2 Medium onion sliced thin 1/ cup peeled rough chop raw ginger 1 dozen large asparagus, stalks removed. 3/4 lb water cress, plus 1/2 cup leaves for garnish 4 cup light chicken stock Salt sugar and cayenne to taste. Melt butter and add onion and ginger. Cook until onions are translucent. Add the asparagus bottoms saving the tops for garnish. Also the 3/4 cup water cress and stock. Season with salt and sugar and cook for 20 minutes. Strain and re adjust seasoning. Keep warm. For the sole: 4- 6 oz sole filet 1/2 cup quick cooking cous cous 2 TB grape seed oil 1 TB butter and salt to taste. Pre heat oven to 300. Trim filet so that you have 2 straight edges. Roll each fillet starting with thicker end first going to the thin end. Like rolling carpet and secure with a tooth pick. Dip one end into the cous cous. Heat the oil medium high and add the filet cous cous side down. Cook until golden brown about 3 minute's. Turn the fish and cook the other aide as well. Transfer to oven for about 3 minutes. Topping: asparagus tops from above 15 small shrimp 2 TB grape seed or olive oil 1/4 cup peeled thinly sliced ginger 1 shallot finely chopped salt and pepper Snip off asparagus florets and set aside. Slice the stems into 1/2 inch lengths. Blanch and shock both asparagus tops and bottoms. Heat oil and toss in shrimp with ginger. After 1 minute add the shallots and asparagus. Cook until shrimp is pink about 2 minute.

Rose champagne emulsification broth

One of the last broths. 2 TB fine diced shallots 1 and 1/2 cups pink champagne 3 TB butter Kosher salt too taste Pinch sugar Cayenne pepper Lemon juiced as needed. 1/4 cup chive Combine champagne and shallots and cook to reduced by 3/4ths. Lower to simmer and wisk in butter. Season with salt, cayenne and sugar. Balance with lemon juice and right before serving hit with bur mixer. Add chives last. Best with steamed or whole delicate fish.

tomato, fennel broth

2 TB extra virgin olive oil 1 cup chopped fennel bulbs, saving the fennel fronds 1 TB fennel seeds 2 TB pernord 2 cups light chicken stock Kosher salt Fresh ground white pepper Pinch cayenne pinch sugar 1 lemon , 1/2 zested and juiced, and half sectioned. 2 TB finely diced tomato Heat olive oil and add fennel, cook 3 to 4 minutes. Add fennel seeds and lightly toast. Deglaze with half Pernord. Add stock once liquor is burned away and simmer 20 minutes. Strain through chinoise return to heat and season with cayenne and sugar/ salt. Add the remaining Pernord, lemon juice, sections and zest. Just before serving add the tomato. Garnish with the inner fennel fronds.

white wine and lemon honey broth

Great garnished with chervil basil or chives. 1 TB butter 1/4 cup fine mince shallot 1/2 cup finely diced butternut squash 1 cup dry white wine 2 TB honey 3 tsp lemon juice Kosher salt Fresh white pepper Melt butter over high heat. Add shallots and cook until golden. Add squash, wine, honey and lemon. Adjust with lemon and salt.

C Chicago Dining Room

New restaurant this weekend. Had a great weekend. Our Sunchoke soup is off, king crab is on as mentioned prior

king crab bisque

We changed our Sunchoke broth today. Now we are still doing a table side pour with a garnish in a bowl. Còrn, roasted red peppers and fresh cilantro tossed with olive oil. A line of corn salad is placed in bowl with a line of espellette next to. 3 brioche croutons are placed on top and some crab meat heated in bur monte is placed on croutons to finish. We can also do the crab meat mixed into the corn mix if we dont want to place on top of the crutons. I will have the recipe for the bisque asap as we are still developing it daily. But these are the photos....

Kale and Quinoa Salad

uni pasta

We use uni in several dish's right now including this one. It's off our hot line, a cavatelli pasta that is tossed in a warm uni butter emulsification. The uni we get in right now from the east and west coast is all wild. So the consistency is not always there. So what we are doing for now is taking the uni out and puree ing it in the vita prep. Meanwhile we have unsalted butter softening. Once the butter is soft we place in a robot coux ans run it for a few minutes. Once all the butter is smooth we add (at a 2 to 1 ratio) the puree uni. Once this butter is made it can be frozen for up to a week. For the pasta we have a nice cavatelli we get from one of our European import companies. For the pickup: Bring a large pot of water that has been salted to a boil. While the water is coming up place an equal amount of water and white wine in a pot and reduce. Once the right consistency wisk in the cold uni butter being carefully to not break the sauce. Add chives and a touch of lemon and espelette pepper. Strain off pasta and add to the sauce. Gently toss the pasta and sauce together and taste. Place in a warm bowl. Sturgeon caviar and sea grapes once finished.

sea beans

These are wonderful additions to salads or any dish you want to give some more saltiness and or texture. We get a shipment in every week and use almost all by the time next weeks comes around. These and the sea grapes are used in our sabayon and uni pasta dish. The sea beans are not near as delicate as the sea grapes. They have an incredible crunch and saltiness to them.

Sea urchins

These are the east coast sea urchins we received. Once we clean them and remove the roe we have the spines cut down and then run through the dish. Once they are cleaned we use them as vessel's for the urchin royale. We use some of the roe for the yuzu royale base and the others for sea urchin butter. The butter we use for the urchin Cavalli garnished with caviar and sea beans. The east coast variety are significantly smaller then the west coast uni but as weather is so bad out west they can not get into the water to harvest them. Which is essentialy done the same way as scallops. But with even more care. These are east coast urchins same as the other urchins we got in a few posts ago. Difference in water temperature, depth and diet effects the color and size/shape. Just as the white salmon comes from fish who have not been eating crill or shrimp the urchins are the same way. The dark black ones are from further up the east coast past Massachusetts into Maine. These green ones are a little more delicate and they come from further down the east coast into Virginia.

3 more weeks...

...till we open. Next week we begin private parties and friends / family. This post does not have to do with food but, it is in relation to the restaurant itself. We focus so much on the evolution and development of the kitchen that sometimes i forget that the FOH is doing the same. In fact they are still finishing the decour out front. So thought it might be nice to track their progress as well as ours. This came in last week, took 22 guys and 2 fork lifts just to get it off the delivery truck. This aquarium is going against one of our walls nearest the kitchen. I can not wait to see this thing in action. Some tv shows are even dedicated solely to aquarium custom production. This is one of those. Its about 24 feet long and is above ground 4 feet.