Brussel Sprout Salad

Needs recipie: Lightly blanched Brussel Sprouts tossed in a lemon vinaigrette with dried blue berries, bacon, almonds, and Manchego cheese. A couple years ago we did do a shaved Brussel Sprout salad with a lemon vinaigrette, almonds and golden raisins that had been re hydrated in white wine. The main difference in the salads is that the second ones Brussel Sprouts are not cooked, rather sliced very thinly on the mandolin. I want to come up with (builds) for both. Quantites of every ingredient. Im thinking a meyer lemon or cured lemon dressing (vinaigrette).

Chicken Pot Pie for comida (family meal) / Pie crust recipe

Makes 4: 9 inch double pie crusts 10 cups all purpose flour, 4 tsp salt, 40 ounces unsalted butter (cold and cubbed), 20 TB cold h2o (1.25 cups), Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter and cut it into the flour mix making sure that the butter is no larger than a small pea. Add the water a 1/3rd at a time being careful to not overmix. The dough should just stick together when pressed together between fingers. Knead the dough on a floured surface just enough to bring everything together. Do not over mix. Divide the dough into 2 pieces one for the top and one for the bottom. Keep in mimd bottom dough will need to be slightly larger than the top. So about 40 to 60 percent ratios rather than just a 50 percent seperation. Wrap tightly amd chill for at least 1 hour, up to a day. Bring the dough out of refrigeration and come to almost room temperature. On a floured surface roll the dough out into desired shapes at 1/8th of an inch. Place the bottoms in their desired baking dishs and refrigerate 1 hour. Filling recipe(will make enough to do 4 (9-10inch pie molds)(24 portions); 4 cups red skinned potatoes cut into 1/2" pieces, 5 cups carrots peeled and on diagonal cut into 1/2" pieces, 50 white pearl onions or use whats in house thats similar, 5 cups celery cut on the diagonal into 1/2 inch pieces, 12 bay leaves, 70 black peppercorns, 8 cups shredded cooked chicken. Bechamel sauce for chicken pot pie (for original bechamel recipe see preceeding page's. 12TB (6 ounces) unsalted butter, 12TB all purpose flour, 12 cups whole milk, 3 to 4 tsp salt to taste, fresh ground black pepper to taste, 4TB finely chopped parsley, 2 tsp thyme sprigs, pinch of cayenne, 4 eggs beaten. Procedure: Once the doughs are done and ready place the carrots, onions and potatoes in sepperate sauce pans covered with water and then add bay, peppercorns and thyme to each pot. Bring to a simmer and cook until just tender about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain the vegetables and remove aromatics. Chill on a large sheet tray. In another pot bring water to a boil and have a seperated ice bath. Blanch the celery, cool amd them add to the tray of vegetables. Melt the butter in a medium rondo over medium heat. Wisk in the flour and cook for 2 to 3 minutes adjusting heat to not brown. Whisk in the milk and lower the heat. Cook, wisking often until sauce has reduced to about 8-9 cups. 30 to 40 minutes. Oven set at 375 degrees. Push the bechamel through a chinoise and season with the salt, pepper, parsley, thyme and cayenne. Remove the doughs from refrigeration. Scatter the chicken and vegetables into the bottom molds. Pour the bechamel over them. Beat the eggs to make egg wash and lightly brush the perimeter of the bottom pan with egg wash. Place the top pieces on and press down along the edges trimming off any excess. Brush the top with egg wash as well and cut a small vent in the center to release steam. Bake till golden brown, about 50 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes minimum before cutting into wedges.

Kona Kampachi

This fish is very similar in many ways to hamachi which is one of my favorite fish to eat crudo or sushi style. The Kona's are just a bit more rare, and are a glorified super charged yellow tail that comes off the coast of Hawaii. Things I love about both are that you are able to utilize the entire fish. Even the collar. At Momo in NYC we would grill the collars and serve with a couple different dipping sauces. Everything else is broken into filet or tartar. This is one of the Kona's that were flown in for a party we just did.

bechamel sauce

INGREDIENTS 3 tablespoons unsalted butter. 1/4 cup finely chopped onion. 1/4 cup all-purpose flour. 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt. 4 cups whole milk. Fresh nutmeg root micro planed to taste(1 TB minimum). DIRECTIONS In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium. Add onion and cook until softened, about 6 minutes. Add flour and salt; cook, stirring frequently, until mixture is pale golden, has a slightly nutty aroma, and is the texture of cooked oatmeal, about 5 minutes. Whisking constantly, pour in 2 cups milk; add 2 more cups milk and whisk until smooth. Cook mixture, stirring constantly along the bottom of pan, until boiling, about 7 minutes. Add nutmeg to taste. Reduce heat to low. Simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens and does not feel grainy when a very small amount is rubbed between two fingers, about 10 minutes. Pass through a chinoise, Re season to taste. Chill and lable. Good for 3 days shelf life maximum.

raw fish bar

So this is what we set up every day for our raw fish and seafood bar out front by our aquarium and front grill where all whole fish is prepared and cooked to order. King crab, turbot, dover sole, snappers, black bass, sea scallops in the shell, octopus, bronzino (loup de mer) etc.. The restaurant really can work 1 of 2 ways. First the guest can come in and be seated with the a la cart menu and order as most restaurants do. Secondly the guest can be set and have a drink then be led up to the display and choose which fish they want. The fish is weighed and then handed over to the butcher who cleans the fish and then to the cook to be grilled. This all happens in front od the guest. The whole fish is grilled, de boned and served with a zuchinni flower vinaigrette. t

Sea Scallops (live east coast divers)

So we have posted in the past and some what recently about doing dish's with fresh sea scallops. Including our sashimi scallop dish. These are what we get in exactly every other day from our east coast fish purveyors. These are basically a u 10 once shucked and cleaned. So as you can see there is a lot more to a scallop than most people know. They have a rim of very small tentacle like spores all along the upper and bottom front opening of the shell that when submerged is able to tell them whats around for food and danger. They have a very large stomach and digestive tract and many have a lot of foreign objects as sand and such. The most interesting thing to me is that the scallop grows so much through out its life as does its shell. The reason being is that contrary to most peoples belief scallops do not just sit still. They propel their way through the water using the mussel (scallop) to inhale and then push out water to move the scallops along the bottom of the body of water they are living in. Anyways here are a few shots for those newbies...

sea urchin pana cotta

I do not know why but i have always found this to be interesting. Even going to Picholine for a stint to learn their recipe that was done with a lobster gelle and i believe sea beans at the time. Though it could have been something else as i don't think sea beans were quite the rage they have become. I do remember they used 3 different sea weeds that i was able to finally source but at this time id have to look it up again. There was a green, yellow and maybe red. Looking back into the blog and notes i am sure its there somewhere. But moving on, this is the recipe i did today and failed pretty badly. So will make some adjustments from the following: For urchin puree: 200 gram uni roe( up from 100, there was just no flavor base), 3 TB soy sauce, 1 TB mirin, 3 TB sake, 1/4 cup water and salt to taste. Should make exactly 1 and 1/2 cup s puree. For the panna cotta: 8 sheets gelatin, (up from 4 or as original recipe asked for 2 TB and 2 tsp gelatin. Converting to sheets equals 1 package equals 1 TB equals 3 sheets. Or as 1 sheet gelatin approximately equals 1 tsp.) as the original did not set up as I had hoped not was it going to be able to be manipulated from its shell that it sets in. We used dixie cups today for tests just cutting 3/4s of the top off and very lightly oiling them with canola or grape seed oil. Also tried it in the uni sheets, but again the mix was to loose. So we are doubling to 8 sheets next try. 3/4 cup cool water 3/4 cup milk, 3 and 3/4 cup cream. (Add the water to the gelatin and let soften. Meanwhile bring the milk to a boil and let cool down on table. Wisk the gelatin into the warm milk followed by the cream and then 1.5 cups of the urchin puree). Season to taste with salt and yuzu juice. (Original recipe does not call for the yuzu but it needs it) Place mix into containers and let sit overnight. And hoping the next day when we walk into the kitchen first thing we are greeted with are some very cool pana cotta's. Also my original recipe went with some sliced red Fresno chili on top whic I dont think we will do. But possibly this: sea urchin foam: 100 grams sea urchin, 3 TB soy sauce, 3 TB sake, 1 TB mirin, 1/4 cup water and 1/8 tsp salt to taste, Lecithin, 1/8 tsp Xantham gum. The original recipe calls for the above first 6 to be pureed then weighed out. Multiply by .008 to get Lecithin amount and then finally add the Xantham. This will probably take a few tries to get down but its headed in a good direction. Will see what happens when we get back into the kitchen on Wednesday. ......

strawberry dessert

It takes a lot of effort and people to serve and prepare this level of food. Just a few shots to show you just one course for a party of 14.

braised sunchokes

We have done this recipe many times through out the years. Since we had some extra laying around i wanted to document the actual procedure for cooking them. We start with bacon and mire poix diced first, sweating it down with no color. Add the peeled sunchokes and roast them just a few moments to take of some off the chill. Then white wine is reduced to 2 percent, cover with white chicken stock and a parchment lid. Cook 20 to 40 minutes till 70 percent done. Let cool in their liquid and then dice. Save liquid and dispose of vegetables and aromatics.

Friday night service shots

We also did a private tasting for 23 people in one of our 3 pdr's. Jenn took point and make some kick ass food. These are a few of the courses and their construction needed.

Lamb tartar from the saddle with rye bread and a seared duck with ramps and morel.

people at work...

There are a lot of us, maybe 40 kitchen staff alone. I spend a lot of time with everyone but more so with these...