Brioche Recipe

This is the dough we made earlier and will roll out tomorrow: 1/3 cup warm water, .25oz active dry yeast, 4.5 cups AP flour 1/3 cup sugar 2.5 tsp salt 6 large eggs, room temp, 10 ounces butter, cubbed and room temp. Combine the warm water and yeast. Be careful the yeast will die if the water is TOO hot. Meanwhile, sift together the flour, sugar and salt. With the Hobart, and paddle, slowly add egg mix until mixed throughout. Switch to the bread hook and add butter, a 1/3rd at a time. Beating medium speed about 4 minutes in between each batch. After all butter is added, slow to 1st speed and run for another 10 minutes adding enough flour to come into a soft ball. Place in a clean bowl, cover and let rise for three to four hours. Layout onto a flour'd surface and work dough for 5 minutes getting rid of all excess air pockets, and work until smooth and springy to the touch. Again, place in a clean bowl, this time placing in the refrigerator overnight. That brings us to now... Tomorrow we will do as follows: Generously butter 2- 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 loaf pans. Turn the dough out and with floured hands divide the dough in half, shape into rectangles and place into loaf pans. Let dough rise, uncovered until about 1/2" above top of pans which comes to about 3 more hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake in the center oven until weel browned and sounds hollow when tapped on bottom, about 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool on racks.

Fennel

New side dish, Fennel Bulb's. Looks like each bulb is large enough, if not too large. The one we worked with this evening seen above was done into 1/8's but probably could have went into 10. Once trimmed up, root left enough to hold together and all trimmed to be simmilar size they are glazed. Chicken stock, butter, salt, pepper and sugar. Placed in Rondo in an even layer, enough stock to just come up half way. Once the butter and seasoning's have melted into liquid and the stock has reduced by 10 percent, flip over one by one being careful to not damage them. Parchment paper lid, bring stock down by 80 percent, flip one more time. This time, remove the paper lid and reduce the rest of the way while baisting fennel occasionally. Once all liquid has came down to a caramel, pour over a rack and let rest. For the pickup we were placing the 8 pieces in a satuaa with a litle bit of stock and reheating. Arrange nicely on a plate and finish with sea salt, fronds, micro mire poix. Olive oil if dessired. A dozen bulbs cost 16 dollars, working out to 1.33 per order. Adding all other expenses, at 2 dollar per plate, 25% comes to 8 dollars an order which is exactly where we wanted to be.

Tuesday

Veal Breast with Root Vegetables Chocolate Cake with Banana's And, I want to get the hydro lettuce going as the house salad. The source right now is too large, have to find a different one. Hopefully by this weekend. Fine herbs, Lemon Vinaigrette, Red Grapes and Fennel

Banana

Roasted Banana Ice Cream as Prior Post Recipe

Pecan Bread Pudding Recipe

This is the recipe for the previous posted bread pudding. "Rum Soaked Pecan Bread Pudding": 2 qts toasted Cubed Bread(nuetral flavor), 1 qt toasted "Rum Soaked" Pecans, 10 whole EXLARGE Eggs, 1 qt Heavy Cream, 1 cup good quality Maple Syrup, 1 cup Brown Sugar, 1 1/2 cup "Vanilla" Sugar(this is the sugar we store the vanilla beans in), 4 TB AP Flour, 1/2 Vanilla Bean(scraped), 3/4 cup Rehydrated Golden Raisins, 1/2 cup Callebout Bittersweet Chocolate, shaven(we use 74percent) Toast the Pecans and Bread in 375 degree oven until slightly browned. Meanwhile, place Eggs, Cream, Maple Syrup, both Sugars, Vanilla Bean, Raisins and Chocolate in bowl and wisk together. Wisk in Flour, then add toasted Bread and Pecans and let sit for 10 minutes to soak in most of the liquid. Prepare a water bath in oven and cook, uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes or until stiff when shaken. If you are cooking individual ramekins it's a quicker time, where as a hotel pan or roasting pan can take 15 to 20 more minutes. If prepared in large pan, once cooked, let rest for several minutes then cool completly. Once chilled, fold out onto cutting surface and cut into desired shapes. For service, re-heat in 400 degree oven for 4 to 5 minutes until warm and soft throughout. In the restaurant we finish with some shaved Chocolate and fresh Cream.

Ice Cream

It's winter, but we can still make some pretty cool desserts. Today is Roasted Banana and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. Recipe is for a little less than 1 quart finished product. 3-4 Banana's, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces, 1/3 cup Vanilla sugar, 1 TB Butter, 1 1/2 cup Milk, 1/2 Vanilla bean (scraped), 1 1/2 tsp Lemon fresh juice, 1/4 tsp Salt. Place the banana's, butter and sugar plus vanilla bean casing in a satua and roast at 400 degrees until nice, soft and a bit caramelized. You will have to toss them around three to four times durring the cook procedure. Once the banana's are cooked, place in the vita prep making sure to get all the butter and sugar into mixer as well. (remove the vanilla bean casing) Add milk, vanilla bean seeds, lemon, salt and puree until smooth. Chill in refrigerator and spin accordingly.

Soft Chocolate Cakes

For the Motlen Chocolates: 1 1/4 cups bittersweet chocolate (we use callebout) 6 TB good quality butter, again unsalted 1 cup sugar (we use the vanilla sugar) 1 cup AP Flour 6 egg yolk, EXLRGE 6 whole egg, EXLRGE Bring chocolate and butter together in double boil over medium low heat to melt. Sugar, egg yolk and egg whole together and wisk for three minutes. Fold egg mix into chocolate mix, blending well. Fold in with spatula flour until just mixed. Butter and flour or sugar the ramekins, in the restaurant I've been using the exspresso cups because they are the perfect size but more preferable would be a ramekin suited to this application. Once buttered and floured/sugar, fill three quarters full and let rest on counter until ready to be fired. At 425 degrees we were comming out at 6 minutes, but some cases can take up to nine minutes but NO MORE. Depends on how often your oven is opened and how strong it is. Regardless, the chocolate should be cooked about 1/8th inch in from the sides and the middle should still be sticky.

Green Herb Sauce

We had found this recipe a few weeks ago, here it is. The guys wanted to have a herb sauce with the sirloin, this one works well and comes out taisting really good. Veal stock, different herbs, some blanched, some raw and emulsified olive oil.

Desserts from the weekend

It's hard to get good photo's of our desserts, but they came out great this weekend. Bread pudding is from Scott's space out in L.A., the Chocolate is mine from NYC. It's a lava cake, 400 degrees for 6 minutes. Hopefully this week we will figure out the permenant plating for both desserts. The Pecan and Rum infused Bread Pudding is baked in a water bath for 35 minutes at 350. Callebout Chocolate and Pickled Raisins.

Whole Grain Mustard in house (grass fed)

Whole Grain Mustard, in house for FOH: 1 1/2 cups oatmeal stout, 1 1/2 cups mustard seeds (dried), 1 cup Red Wine Vinegar, 1 TB Salt, 1 tsp Sugar, 1 tsp Black Pepper, 1/4 tsp following: Cinnamon, Ground Cloves Ground Nutmeg Ground Ginger Measure out beer. Place in large bain, measure and add red wine vinegar. Add salt, pepper and spices. wisk together and finally add mustard seeds. Age for 1-2 days in office. Puree in robot coux until desired consistency is achieved as the mustard seeds will break down the more you puree, so be careful to not overdue. Also make sure to keep scraping down the sides of mixer as you puree. Remove, season final and package. This recipe makes 3 1/2 cups. This recipe mustard we will use for all FOH requests. For the BOH, for all recipes etc, please use Dijon Mustard from the Large 3kilo's.

Ketchup Recipe (grass fed)

Grass fed Ketchup(recipe makes 3 quarts, Multiply accordingly): 1 28 oz can San Marizano's Style Tomato, Roma, 3 medium yellow spanish onion, rough chopped, 5 clove garlic, smashed, 5 fresh jalapeno, smoked and deseeded, 1/2 cup brown sugar, light prefer, 3 cup cider vinegar, water for conisistency, but usually does not need any, recipe follows... Sautee until clear garlic, onion and jalapeno. Make sure to take seed's out of jalapeno before smoking. Once clear, add sugar and then vinegar, cooking down for a few moments. Add tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Pull of fire and pure with stick blender, transfer to new pot. Bring to simmer again, this time cooking for two to three hours until the desired consistency. Once off fire, season, and cool. Once cold, you can make your adjustments to consistency and seasoning final. Probably for us, we mulitply times 5 which is... 5 cans Tomato, 15 yellow onion, 20 garlic cloves, 20 jalapeno's, 2 cups brown sugar, 13 cups cider vinegar

Hose Made List

List of house mades for week/weekend: Ketchup Mustard Jerkey Bacon Salad Dressings Pickles-cucumber Pickles-red onion Roma Tomato-slow cooked marinated Foccacia Bread Hamburger Buns? Waffle Prep Honey Butter Sage Butter Apple Squash Butter Fruit Jelly and Jams

Side Dish's

A few seasonal side dish's, I have photos to post in a bit. Romensco: Sautee Shallot and Garlic Confit, maybe 2 to 3 pieces. Then add floweretes (raw) and cook for 20 seconds. Finish with Salt, Pepper, 1/2'd cherry tomatoes, julieened smoked red peppers. Kale: Sesame OIl, salt, pepper and dates. Heat the 4 previous and then ad kale, which has been cleaned and cut into desired shapes. Finish with Miso Sauce and sesame seeds. Squash: We are using butternut now but any will do. The sqaush are previously peeled and roasted. To finish dish, using slab bacon, cut a bit into cubes a bit smaller than your squash. When rendered add squash, sage butter and maple syrup. Topping for Roasted Chicken: This is a cold "salad" with maybe only 1 tsp or so added to the top of each dish. Olive Oil, confit garlic, chickpeas, salt, pepper, olives and lemon peel confit. The olives used now are green but any will do, as long as they are seeded and sliced. Cauliflower: Shallot, Chickpea, Caper, salt and pepper, sautted and then add curried roasted cauliflower flowerets and some torn cilantro at the very end. The cauliflower is cooked previously, again, broken into flowerets of desired size, tossed of with oil, curry powder, salt, pepper and sugar. Roast in hot oven for 10 minutes rotating pan until just cooked through. Chicken Spice: Chili Flake, Bay Leaves, Salt and Pepper, Smoked Paprika. Grind seperatly in spice grinder. This spice mix is used to season the 1/2 roasted chicken served durring dinner services.

Caramelized Onions (my recipe)

20 to 25 Yellow spanish onions, peeled and juliened 1/2 lb soft butter 1/2 cup Olive oil Cook the onions in the butter and oil with sugar, salt and pepper slowly for 8 to 10 hours in a heavy bottomed rondo continually stirring with a wodden spoon. Once the onions are the color and consistency you want finish with 2 tsp red wine vinegar or as I prefer, sherry vinegar. Let drain in perferated pan, cool on rack and use accordingly. These can be used for lot's of dishs but mainly used in the breakfast potatoes to be listed here shortly.

Ilena Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Base

12 egg yolks 11 oz sugar 3 cups milk 3 cups cream 2 vanilla beans, scraped. In a double boiler add egg yolks, sugar and milk along with vanilla and wisk until softened and pale in coloer. Cook to 175 degrees wisking the entire time so eggs to not cook beyond. Remove from heat, slowly temper in the cream and cool on ice bath.

Apple Squash Butter

1 gallon of Apple juice reduced to almost syrup consistency. You can add cinnamon, cloves, ect, even a few peppercorns. While reduction is working allow 3 lbs of butter to soften. Place butter into kitchen aid and whip until soft, adding the cooled reduction, sea salt and whatever other ingredients you want to use. This is what we are using as one of the three butters going to all tables right now.

Sweet Biscuts for Brunch

6 cup AP flour, 2 TB Baking powder, 2 TB Sugar, 2 tsp Salt, 3 tsp Vinegar 1 1/2 cups butter 2 cups Milk Sift dry together. Cut in butter. Make well, add vinegar and milk, bring together and then roll out to 1 inch thick. Cut and bake at 430 degrees for 10 to 13 minutes. Do not over mix. Also, once you've add'd your milk and vinear, you may roll into a ball and place in refrigerator for 40 minutes to solidify a bit.

Waffle's

10 eggs 9 cup milk 1 2/3 cup Blended Oil 10 cups AP Flour 5 TB Baking Powder 1 2/3 cup Sugar 1 tsp salt 1/2 vanilla bean scraped. Cook at setting 4.5 for exactly 4 minutes. You must make sure to brush with either clarified butter or non stick of some sort. To make batter: Mix wet ingredients Mix dry ingredients Gently fold in together, DO NOT OVER MIX, the batter should be a bit lumpy. Make fresh before service. The above makes 20 waffles.

Bun Recipe

3 cups warm milk 1 1/2 cup of soft butter 3/4 cup sugar 6 eggs 4 1/2tsp Salt 12 cup AP Flour 5 tsp Instant Dry Yeast Bloom together the warm milk, sugar and yeast. Add egg and softened butter in hobart mixer with dough hook. Slowly add flour and salt and mix for 5 to 8 minutes on low speed. To Cook: Portion into 85 gram buns, 15 per sheet tray (Large). Let rise 1 to 2 hours covered with oiled plastic wrap so that it does not stick. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees and rotate for another 10 until evenly browned again. This is done in our oven number (4). Recipe makes 40 bun's

Focaccia Bread

2oz Instant Dry Yeast 2 1/2 cups warm water (Mix and Bloom for a few minutes) 11 lbs AP Flour 1/3 cup salt 1/4 cup sugar 8 cups water 1 cup honey 1 1/2 cups olive oil We can cut this in 1/2's after being made, 1/2 to be baked today, the other covered in cooler until tomorrow. This recipe will make 2 full sheet trays (4 1/2's) After yeast and water are together, add flour, salt, sugar, the remaining water, honey and finally olive oil. (This recipe is very basic and can have herbs and or any other ingredients added) Once dough is finished in hobart, place out onto the correct amount of sheet trays with parchment paper and olive oil. You will have to press the dough out once or twice while it rises which takes 1 to 2 hours maximum. Before cooking brush or spray with more olive oil, black pepper and sea salt. 475 degree in our oven number (3) for 15 min, then turn for another 15 minutes, and once again until evenly browned on the top. Let cool on racks before cutting.