That Which Is Old Becomes New Again
It’s no secret that chefs recycle dishes they have done in the past, most times those dishes will be tweaked to make them better, make them more seasonal, or just because they work really well. The Lobster Tacos I’ve brought to the restaurant are a version of the ones I used to do a couple of years ago. This asparagus salad though, is exactly the way I created it more than 12 years ago. The only exception I make to the original recipe is the use of local asparagus.
Asparagus is one of the cool-season vegetables that does well in Colorado as long as we avoid that early spring snow. Local asparagus usually becomes available right around Easter at the earliest and is in full swing through May. Other vegetables that do well in the cool Colorado spring are horseradish, rhubarb and shallots. While asparagus is available year round from Mexico, Peru and California, it’s hard to beat asparagus grown just up the road.
Asparagus was easily one of the first vegetables I enjoyed as a kid. My mom would blanch it quickly so it was still crisp and drench it in butter and salt, so much butter in fact that a greasy chin was part of the fun. It is one of the most versatile vegetables being that the preparations are endless. A chef friend of mine candies asparagus tips to serve over sweetbreads and lemon risotto, yeah, it’s awesome. Save for the tremendous odor it imparts to urine, asparagus could be the perfect vegetable.
One of the beauties of asparagus is the simplicity and speed with which it can be prepared. The asparagus for this salad can just as easily be blanched but I like the slight bitterness the charred asparagus adds to citrus and goat cheese. This dish is extremely easy to prepare and could easily be used as the garnish to a simple piece of grilled fish.
Serves 4
- 1 # Colorado asparagus (if it’s not from Colorado, the recipe should still work)
- 2 blood oranges, segmented and juiced
- ½ cup filberts, toasted and chopped
- ½ cup tarragon leaves, fresh
- 4 oz. olive oil + 1 oz for grilling
- 4 oz. goat cheese
- Fleur de Sel to finish
- Cracked Black Pepper to finish
- Brush the asparagus with the 1 oz. of olive oil and grill just until the asparagus begins to soften, about 2 minutes.
- Portion the asparagus over 4 plates.
- Garnish each of the four plates with the remaining ingredients as they are listed.
- Serve immediately.
Sacrifice is defined as ‘the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.’ We make sacrifices every day, both large and small. Lately, I’ve had to sacrifice my family for the sake of this new restaurant, my daughters aren’t very happy with me. I’ve also sacrificed friends, meetups, twitter for the most part, this blog obviously, and most importantly, sleep. I tell myself it’s all for the greater good of establishing this restaurant, which I believe in wholeheartedly. It’s been awhile since I could put my stamp on something that has this big of a spotlight on it.
But this week marks a slight return to normalcy. The management and staff is in place and well trained, the menu, while not perfect, only needs a few minor tweaks here and there before I am completely happy with it and thus, ready to change it. And while I still don’t have any days off on the schedule for another month, I at least have time to start working on this site in my big, fancy new kitchen.
The first post from the restaurant kitchen is a dish that has quickly become the early favorite for the ‘signature’ dish of this kitchen. This is actually a dish I created at a restaurant back in 2008, but no one paid attention to that restaurant. It’s a simple appetizer that carries a lot of punch you can do at home.
This dish features, along with the Maine lobster sautéed in butter, a rich and tart tomatillo sauce that can be used on any seafood, poultry or grilled pork dish. You must try this with a glass of Pinot Gris.
First, make the Tomatillo Sauce…
2 lbs tomatillos, rinsed and quartered
1 oz olive oil
1 large yellow onion, rough chopped
5 garlic cloves, smashed
2 poblano chiles
¼ cup cilantro chiffonade
Juice of 1 lime
kosher salt to taste
1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat a medium size sauce pot on high heat.
3. Add the olive oil to the pot.
4. Gently add the tomatillos, onions, garlic and poblanos.
5. Cook on high, stirring frequently, until the onions start to color and the tomatillos begin to release their liquid (you’ll notice water begin to pool at the bottom of the pot).
6. place the pot in the oven and cook for 30 minutes.
7. Remove the pot from the oven and puree the tomatillo mixture in a blender or with a buerre mixer.
8. Add the cilantro and lime juice.
9. Season to taste with kosher salt.
10. Serve warm or cool immediately to be reheated for serving at a later time.
For the Lobster Tacos…
6 oz lobster meat, chopped
1 Tbs butter
1 cup romaine, chiffonade
4 corn tortillas
1 cup corn oil
1. Heat the oil on medium heat for blanching the tortillas.
2. In a sauté pan, melt the butter over medium heat.
3. Add the lobster and cook just until the lobster warms up.
4. Dip each tortilla in the hot corn oil for 2 seconds and remove to towel to drain. This step helps the tortillas roll into a nice shape and keeps the tortilla from drying out and becoming crumbly.
5. Once the tortillas have drained sufficiently, fill each tortilla with lobster and romaine chiffonade.
6. Roll the tortillas and place on a plate in the Tomatillo Sauce.
Garnish with…
Charred Tomato Salsa
Lime Crema
2 tomatoes, charred
½ large yellow onion
1 jalapeno pepper
½ cup cilantro, loosely packed
juice of 1 lime
1 oz olive oil
1 Tbs kosher salt
You can char the tomatoes on a grill or broil in your oven. We use a torch in the kitchen. The idea is to blacken the skin without ‘cooking’ the tomato when it becomes soft and loses its tart vibrancy. Core the tomatoes and rough chop them. We use a food processor in the kitchen to gently pulse the tomatoes, onions, peppers and cilantro to a wet but chunky consistency. Remove from the processor, to a mixing bowl and add the remaining ingredients. The salsa, as with most things, tastes better on the 2nd day but is still flavorful once it has been made.
For the lime crema, you can use sour cream or make your own crème fraiche. We use crème fraiche at the restaurant seasoned with a little lime juice, ancho puree and salt.
For a final garnish, we finish the tacos with a tangle of fine dried chile thread.
From the moment I took the job opening up this steakhouse, I knew I was going to purchase an immersion circulator. While I never took any interest in molecular gastronomy, sous vide cooking was something that I valued as a cooking method. Sous Vide applications use actual foodstuffs, not that the ingredients in molecular gastronomy are not natural, but you don’t see them sitting on the shelf of your local grocer.
Sous vide, meaning “under vacuum” is a method of cooking by which items are cooked in vacuum packed bags for long periods of time in water baths at extremely low and precise temperatures.
The main argument against using sous vide methods is that it takes the skill out of cooking. The fact that you can hold a piece of meat at a perfect 138 degree medium rare for a few hours feels, to some, like cheating, much like boil in a bag cooking would. But as Thomas Keller points out, to truly get the most out of sous vide cooking, you need to understand the other methods that you will need to finish your item, i.e. searing, grilling, caramelizing and so on.
In the research I had done, I had read about the benefits of cooking vegetables, sub-prime meats and seafood. There are several blogs and a few cookbooks on the subject, the most well know being Under Pressure by Thomas Keller. Many of the sites mentioned ribs at various lengths of time, 24 hours and 48 hours, but it seemed 72 hours was the general consensus for fall off the bone, meltingly tender ribs.
This recipe, for the most part, will be difficult to produce for the majority of home cooks. The equipment that is required isn’t cheap, although there are less expensive, do-it-yourself options.
To start, we used two slabs of St. Louis ribs that had been squared off, larger ribs, more meat, and convenient eating size. After a quick rinse we brined the ribs for 24 hours. This is the same brine I use for all my pork and poultry…
3 qt. water, room temp
1 bottle white wine
1 lb brown sugar
1 cup kosher salt
Combine all the ingredients and mix until the salt has dissolved. Place the ribs in the brine and cover, refrigerate for 24 hours. Remove the ribs from the brine and rinse in cold water; pat dry.
Determine if the ribs need to be cut depending upon the size or your vacuum bags. Rub with your favorite dry rub and seal tightly. Make sure the ribs are not touching in the bag, this way you will have better heat contact over the whole slab. Place in the refrigerator.
Set your water bath and heat to 144.5° F (144° to 149° is a good range). Once you have reached the proper temperature, place the ribs in the water and leave for 72 hours. Over the course of the 72 hours, you will need to add water to your bath to keep the fill at the desired level as evaporation cannot be avoided.
After 3 days, remove the ribs from the bags, brush with BBQ sauce and finish on the grill or in the oven.
During our experiment, I wish I would have used a little more rub, I went very light and the ribs did not pick up much of that flavor, though the wine and brown sugar from the brine were evident.
The texture of the ribs was amazing, as was the fact that there was virtually no shrinkage in the meat. The bones pulled out clean and if I had wanted, I could have removed each bone individually and served a boneless slab of ribs. The only thing missing was that char you get from cooking the ribs in more conventional methods, thus the need to finish in the oven or grill. A little smoke flavor would have been good too. I think next time, in between the brining and the cooking, I will smoke the ribs for an hour before sealing in the cryovac.
I think this would be difficult to pull off at the restaurant on a consistent basis unless I had several circulators going constantly. I do have an Alto-Sham low heat slow cooker I am going to do the ribs in and I think it would be fun to do a side by side.
People always tell my wife she is so lucky to be married to a chef. They seem to think I throw together high end meals nightly, that we eat like kings. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Not because I don’t want to, but there is a huge difference between cooking in a professional kitchen and your home kitchen.
That being said, I do cook at home. The meals are simpler, and while I have to do my own dishes, my 4 year old gets to help, which is actually more entertaining than helpful, but still worth it. I don’t have all the cool toys and equipment I have in my professional kitchen, but I wouldn’t want to try cooking at home without these items.
Citrus Juicer Nothing brightens a dish or a component of a dish quite like fresh lemon juice. I use lemon juice much the same way I use salt, to enhance the flavor of a dish, therefore, I go through a lot of lemon juice. You can also buy one of the upright, lever arm presses. They do a great job extracting as much juice as possible but are a little bulkier to handle and store.
Buerre Mixer Pureeing is an essential part of my repertoire. I really don’t use butter or cream for sauces because I want my food lighter. I prefer to use reductions, juices and purees. A good quality buerre mixer (hand blender) keeps me from having to clean extra dishes like a blender, plus it’s mobile, I can go from pot to pot with it.
Chinois Thomas Keller may have said it first, but it’s something every chef worth his salt already knew. EVERYTHING gets passed through a chinois, a fine mesh strainer that will remove the tiniest of particles from your soup/sauce/whatever. I use it for everything from stocks to hollandaise and everywhere in-between. They are not cheap, but well worth the price if quality is your first concern.
Wooden Spoon I use wooden spoons for a couple of reasons. First being I like the feel of it in my hand. It’s easier to handle rapidly than a large metal spoon and the second reason is it does much less damage to your cookware. There is also something ‘organic’ about using a wooden spoon.
High Temp Rubber Spatula Chefs hate to waste anything, a flexible rubber spatula lets you squeeze that one last portion of sauce out of your pan or bowl.
Digital Scale If you write down your recipes or cook from recipes, a digital scale is the most accurate way to portion your ingredients. Much more accurate than volume measurement, it will take some getting used to but definitely a must have for me in all my kitchens.
Mortar and Pestle As convenient as a spice/coffee grinder is, they are difficult to keep clean and invariably it’s easy to contaminate spices with remnants from your grinder. A mortar and pestle allows you to pulverize your spices with less heat to affect the oils in your spices, it’s easy to clean and is great for herbs as well.
Ricer (Food Mill) Not just for potatoes, a ricer is great for making smooth purees out of tomatoes, squash, and other tender vegetables whether for use in a soup, sauce or even on their own.
These items definitely are not necessary, but they do make the job a little easier. I would guess I use at least 4 of the 8 for every meal I cook at home. What are the ‘must haves’ in your kitchen?
Do you own a slow cooker or crock pot? I do, at least now I do. I got one for Christmas, to be fair, ‘took’ it is probably a little more accurate. The wife, on one of her many Christmas shopping adventures came home with one meant to be a gift for someone else. I asked if it was for me and she said no. Once I hit her with my patented ‘what about me!?!’ look, I knew I was getting it. Yes, men can play women too, at least that is my impression, if I am wrong, then many thanks to the women who let us think that.
One pot meals, every culture has one and every mother knows one, every mother but mine. I assume that’s why, after 25 years of cooking professionally, I had never owned a crock pot. I knew what they were, I knew what they did, I knew how comforting the end result was. Yet I never had a meal tied to my childhood that told me I needed to own one, for that, I am comfortable blaming my mother.
In the 90’s, I shacked up with a girl from Santa Fe, she was all about the crock pot. It didn’t matter if it was winter or summer, she had something going. It was always good, and while I don’t remember the many dishes she made with it, I remember the posole. Posole is a staple of New Mexican cuisine and on most every dinner table at Christmas. Originating from across the border, ‘Pozole’ is dried corn cooked with meat (usually pork), chiles, herbs and spices. It is great as a side dish and also as a meal of it’s own, I have always enjoyed it during colder months.
I never got the recipe from ‘the girl from Santa Fe’, I wish I had now that I look back on it, it didn’t exactly end well, if you know what I mean. But considering I’m pretty swell in a kitchen, I put this little recipe together, inspired by snow and some seriously cold weather here in Denver.
½# pork butt, trimmed and cubed ½” x ½”
1 oz. olive oil
1 cup yellow onion, diced
6 oz. fresh tomatillo, peeled and diced
½ oz. fresh garlic, minced
3 Anaheim chiles, deseeded and diced
1 cup red chile sauce
~6 oz. dried new mexico red chiles
~water
1 qt stock or water, preferably chicken/turkey
12 oz posole/dried hominy, rinsed
2 Tbs. fresh oregano, chopped
Kosher salt
Method:
1. Start with the red chile sauce, remove the stems and seeds from the red chiles.
2. Place in a small pot with just enough water so the chiles start to float.
3. Place the chiles on high heat and boil for 30 minutes or until the chiles become tender.
4. Strain the chiles off while making sure to reserve the liquid.
5. Place the chiles in a blender and puree with just enough of the reserved liquid till smooth.
6. In a heavy bottom sauce pan, heat the oil and brown the pork over medium high heat.
7. Add the garlic and onions and cook till translucent.
8. Put the pork in your slow cooker.
9. Add the tomatillo, Anaheim chiles, posole, stock and chile sauce.
10. With the lid on securely, cook on low (a slow simmer) for 7 hours.
11. If you need to add a little liquid during the cooking process or at the end, a little water is fine.
12. Add the oregano and season to taste with kosher salt.
13. Garnish with shredded cabbage, Queso Asadero and serve with warm tortillas.
For all you GF’ers, guess what? Yes, this is gluten free. It’s funny how much more I think about that now, a year ago, I would never have mentioned that.
Buen Apetito!
I’ve never really had any strong traditions during the holidays. I like turkey on Thanksgiving, fireworks on the 4th are great and a nice glass of bubbly on New Year’s Eve is does make the night feel a little bit more special. But if I didn’t have any of these things, it would still be a holiday, wouldn’t it?
My wife, on the other hand, has very strong holiday traditions, especially around Christmas. Christmas in Germany is a big deal for families and for my wifes family in particular. Now that she lives here in the US, she is keen to keep up these traditions with our own family. Some I am not so excited about, like German Christmas cookies and celebrating Christmas the night of Christmas Eve. When Christmas morning rolls around, and all packages are open and celebrating has been concluded, I feel like some of the air has been taken out of the day.
But then there are some I really like, such as Christkindl markets and Glühwein. Glühwein is a warm German beverage made from red wine and treated with spices during colder months. There are many different versions of this mulled wine and many different cultures offer there own twist. As long as the weather isn’t too horrible, the markets are a great way to spend time with family and friends drinking Glühwein while traipsing through the trinket shops.
This year, we weren’t able to get to the markets for various reasons, but I missed the Glühwein, so I thought I would just make some at home. The addition of other liqueurs such as a Schnapps or brandy is common if you’re looking for a little more of a kick 
You can make this recipe ahead of time, chill it and reheat when you are ready to serve, although it’s much nicer to drink while the house is filled the warming aromas of the clove and cinnamon.
Recipe:
3 bottles red wine
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
5 whole cloves
Zest of 2 oranges
2 cinnamon sticks
1 vanilla bean, split (optional)
Method:
1. Combine all ingredients in a medium size sauce pan.
2. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.
3. Simmer for 5 minutes, longer if you want to lower the alcohol content.
4. Remove fro heat and steep for 15-20 minutes.
5. Strain and serve or chill for serving later.
…just a fancy way to say French Onion Soup.
French Onion Soup
Anybody who knows me knows I don’t put a great deal of stock in culinary schools. I’ve earned the right to think that way. I graduated from arguably one of the finest in the world. I’ve also had students from my alma mater and dozens of other culinary programs from, yes, around the world. It’s not that I disagree with the programs as much as I do the ideology that students are being trained to be chefs. I’ve yet to see a chef, diploma in hand, on graduation day from any program.
What I will say for culinary schools, in my own personal experience, is that they expose you to so many things that pertain to real kitchens, but it’s up to the student to put the time in to learn and develop these things in the real world.
As an example, when I graduated culinary school, I made my stocks the way I learned in school, the classic preparation of one of the fonds de cuisine. As I’ve developed my own style over the years, I’ve adapted my stocks to reflect what I feel enhances my food. I use much less herbs and mirepoix in my stocks now, sometimes none at all. I want my stocks to be supremely neutral and concentrated, so I leave them longer on the heat to extract and reduce as much as possible. What I’ve been able to do with my stocks comes from understanding the classical method of preparation.
While I’ve adapted many of the stocks I make to fit my own tastes, there are times when classical methods are the only way to create a particular result. A beautifully simple French onion soup is one of those times when I make my white veal stock as I did in culinary school, and I’m glad I was paying attention.
French Onion soup is one of those dishes that can amaze you with rich robust flavor from a few simple, but unexciting ingredients. To do this soup well, you need to master one of the most basic cooking techniques, caramelization. Caramelization is the act of cooking sugar (or sucrose) to a brown color, enhancing sweetness and giving your ingredient a slight roasted/nutty flavor. This process is what gives the soup it’s rich color and depth of flavor. French onion soup does take some patience but the results are worth it.
French Onion Soup
When making French onion, it’s important, as I mentioned above, to use a well made veal stock. You can find a good recipe here or email me and I will give you mine. You may substitute chicken or beef, as long as they are unsalted.
French Onion Soup
2 qts. White veal stock
3# yellow onion, julienned
1 ½ cups sherry
2 oz. corn oil
2Tbs. fresh thyme leaves
Kosher Salt
Method:
1. In a heavy bottomed Stock Pot, heat the corn oil over high heat until you begin to see wisps of smoke.
2. Carefully place the onions in the pot and reduce the heat to medium high.
3. From here, you’re going to caramelize your onions rather slowly.
4. To do this properly, allow the onions to rest about a minute on the flame undisturbed.
5. Stir the onions, bringing the onions from the bottom to the top, allowing new onions to set on the bottom of the pot. It will take some time doing this to get the onions caramelized enough to give the soup a deep onion flavor.
6. In the following photo, this is roughly how the onions should progress over med-medium high heat.
7. When the onions have reached a dark stage, roughly the color of milk chocolate, deglaze with the sherry.
8. Reduce the sherry by half and add the veal stock.
9. Add the thyme and simmer 45-60 minutes.
10. Remove from heat, season with salt and white pepper (this is one of the few places white pepper actually enhances a dish).
To plate (optional)
1 large toast point made from a baguette
1 thick slice gruyere
Lady Apples, I Hope
There are some things you never outgrow, loves that are with you from childhood. Anything from Star Wars action figures to a warm ocean breeze. One of my life long loves has been apples.
I grew up in Chester County, about 30 miles west of Philadelphia, the mushroom capital of Pennsylvania. As well as being one of the wealthiest counties on the east side, down the mainline to Philadelphia, it also boasts nearly 170,000 acres of agriculture and farmland. We lived next to an expansive orchard that grew peaches, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, corn, all varieties of squash and several types of apples.
We would spend summers and fall traipsing and playing throughout the orchard and surrounding forest area. There was no Playstations, no Xbox, no one went to the mall unless your parents dragged you, we spent every moment of sun during summer vacation in and around Highland Orchards, building forts, riding bikes and playing baseball. When we were done or taking a break before moving onto something else, we’d hit up the orchard for whatever was available, this all depended upon how far west we had wandered.
Lady apples look large in 4 year old hands.
As a kid, I was raised on applesauce, when I could chew, it was apples from the grocery store. Usually mom brought home the red delicious, and as much as I loved those apples, it was nothing compared to the first mutsu apple I pulled off a tree during one of those excursions. It was huge, a bright pale green-yellow skin. It was warm but crunched like potato chips, was sweeter than it was tart, poured juice down my chin, and ruined me to store bought apples forever. I can still remember how big that apple looked in my 11 year old hand.
We have an apple tree in the backyard of our house, I’ve never payed much attention to it, I’ve only just recently discovered that it might be lady apples it produces. This year has given us a warm fall for Colorado. It’s still in the 70’s in the first week of November, not really odd for Colorado, but not quite the norm. This little tree has exploded this year with beautiful red and golden streaked fruit. Sweeter than it has been any other year, also much larger. We took a warm Saturday afternoon and began collecting apples from our tree.
We’ve harvested maybe half the tree, hope to get the rest this week, before it cools down too fast. So far we’ve already made applesauce, a spiffed up version with star anise and white wine. This morning we had apple pancakes for breakfast. I’m trying to figure out if I have a means for pressing a cider with what remains on the tree. Worst case is a 24 inch buerre mixer, a bucket and a box of cheesecloth.
Lady Apples on the tree in late afternoon, autumn sun.
I’ve never had a green thumb. I plant herbs every year, I buy tomato pots, citrus trees, pepper plants and it’s usually only a matter of weeks before I’m throwing them out or starting over. But that tree in the back yard made all these beautiful little apples with nary so much as a word of encouragement from me, I wonder what it could do if I paid a little more attention. Then again, I wonder what I might do to it if I paid a little more attention.
Lately, I always feel guilty when someone asks me about my site. I’ve been unable to post recently due to a various set of circumstances and I feel if they get on the site, they’ll be staring at the same article for a month. But fear no more, I am here with a new recipe this week. Not to mention the first post for the HideAway Steakhouse page (look to your right, no, I mean on the screen) which will act as my journal from construction through opening. I also have a new photo post coming from a shoot last week with a new restaurant here in town, Zi Cuisine. Also looking forward to an upcoming shoot at Opus this month. As you can see, things are busy and I’m hoping I won’t take as long between posts this time.
Scallops (derived from the French word for shell, escalope) are one of those things that seem to intimidate the average cook. It’s not hard to turn scallops into rubbery chunks of fishy tasting gobs of protein. Conversely, it’s not hard to cook perfectly seared scallops either.
The trick to cooking scallops, like all other fish, is to leave it alone. The average cook in your average restaurant wants to shake the life out of anything put into a hot sauté pan. While this is completely acceptable for a plethora of lettuces and vegetables, it doesn’t do well with meat and seafood.
“But Chef, it will stick to the pan otherwise.”
I teach all my staff to place your proteins, such as scallops, in a very hot pan and then…walk away. Don’t touch it, don’t move it, don’t shake it, and don’t even look at it too long. The idea is to let the heat of the pan caramelize the flesh, which in turn keeps the flesh from sticking to the pan. Once the item has caramelized it releases from the pan.
This is a classy yet simple dish you can do for friends and family. The cauliflower puree can be made ahead of time and reheated when needed.
A word about using frozen scallops… Frozen scallops will, when heated, release most of the liquid which keeps them tender. The process of freezing scallops, or any other protein for that matter, causes the damage to the cell holding the moisture inside the muscle. As the water freezes, it expands, bursting those cells and making it impossible to hold the moisture at high temperatures. While this won’t affect the flavor as severely, using frozen scallops will tend to yield a rubbery or chewy scallop.
Pan Seared Scallops with Cauliflower Puree and Warm Mushroom Salad
Serves 4
16 large, fresh scallops
Corn oil
5 oz onions, diced
3 oz carrots, diced
3 oz celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 lb cauliflower, rough chopped
1 lb potato, large diced
6-7 cups stock/water
1 cup heavy cream
2 oz butter
1 tsp. thyme leaves, picked
Kosher salt
1. In a sauce pot on a med-low flame, melt the butter.
2. Add the onions, carrots and celery and cook over low heat until the carrots soften and onions become translucent taking care not to let any of the vegetables brown.
3. Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute.
4. Add the potato and cauliflower.
5. Add the stock/water.
6. Cover and bring to a boil.
7. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered until the potatoes are tender, about 25 minutes.
8. Drain the cauliflower and vegetables, making sure to save the cooking liquid.
9. Puree cauliflower and vegetables in a blender using just enough of the cooking liquid to allow the vegetables to puree.
10. Strain through a cheesecloth or china cap.
11. Add Cream and thyme.
12. Season with kosher salt.
13. Hold warm for the scallops.
For the scallops:
1. Brush a large sauté pan with corn oil, just enough to create a thin film on the bottom of the pan.
2. Heat pan over high heat just until you begin to see wisps of smoke from the oil.
3. Season the scallops with salt and place carefully into hot pan.
4. Allow the scallops to sear on one side, untouched and without shaking the pan, for 2-3 minutes, or until you can see the scallops caramelizing where the edge of the scallops meets the pan.
5. Flip the scallops and do the same on the other side.
6. Scallops should be medium rare to medium when served.
For the mushrooms salad:
1 cup oyster mushrooms, rough chopped
1 cup portabello mushrooms, degilled and diced
2 oz corn oil
1 tsp shallots, minced
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 oz aged red wine vinegar
½ cup parsley leaves
1. In a sauté pan on medium low, add the corn oil, shallots and garlic.
2. Cook for 20 seconds and add the mushrooms.
3. Mushrooms will absorb much of the oil, continue cooking until mushrooms begin to release their liquid.
4. Add the vinegar and remove from heat.
5. Add the parsley leaves and season with salt.
To plate:
Place 3-4 oz of cauliflower puree in the center of your plate.
Arrange 4 scallops closely in the sauce.
Spoon the warm mushroom salad over the scallops and serve.
(Discliamer: I have always wanted to maintain this site as an ad free website. It is something I do out of love so I have no issues with the cost of maintenance. My endorsement of any products is based solely on my own opinion. Furthermore, I have never been compensated for using this or any product on my site, I plan to keep it that way.)
Some of the things I’ve heard spoken in my dining room, by seemingly normal people, have run the gamut from funny to downright offensive. A few examples, I’m not making these up, ask any chef friends you have and they will have heard the same, if not similar, one liners.
“Can I get that burger without the bun and some extra fries instead? I’m on Atkins”
“I’ll just have a coke. You think the chef would mind heating up this Big Mac for me?”
“What kind of water do you use to make ice?”
“Can I get that bottle of wine half off? I know how much it costs at the liquor store.”
“I’m allergic to shellfish so I’ll just have the scallops.”
And for the first time in the late 90′s I heard “Is there gluten in that?”
I had no idea why she cared, I really at that point had no idea period. I asked for the server for more information. “She says she is allergic to flour.” was the response. I’d heard of some odd allergies, shallots, garlic, onions, fish, shellfish, soy, nuts, but this was the first time I’d ever heard flour. I prepared her dish sans flour and went about my life. It wasn’t long before I had the same request. Gluten allergy, no flour and no processed foods. I did a little homework and found out that these individuals had Celiac disease.
Celiac disease was not life threatening as far as I could tell, but was capable of causing severe discomfort in those affected were they to consume products containing gluten. Over time it became a more common request. Today, menus have GF (Gluten-Free) sections, there are GF cookbooks and GF blogs, one of the better ones being elanaspantry.com. It has become a business within a business with an ever growing following, mainly because testing for gluten sensitivity has become increasingly easier. Even so, only 1 in 10 afflicted with Celiac disease is aware of it.
For chefs, GF cooking is relatively simple. Avoid flours and processed foods to compose your dishes. This is a much more difficult proposition for pastry chefs and bakers who live and die by the scale. As a chef, all I had to offer Celiacs was fresh fruit for desserts. I wanted to find something else. I purchased specialty flours and began working on something suitable for Celiacs to be able to have for dessert. I spent a week failing miserably. I bought pre-made mixes that, while attractive, tasted like beach sand. I gave up, I wasn’t a pastry chef so I was comfortable that I could do my part for Celiacs. I’ve done that for the last 8 years, went out of my way for the occasionally afflicted guests, it’s the least I could do while munching on Ciabbatta, pasta and chocolate chip cookie dough.
Earlier this year I met a man, Jared, who was making and selling his own GF dry mixes. I remember those mixes from the late 90′s and how horrid they were. I was skeptical but he seemed like a genuine enough guy so I had to try for myself. All I can say is, GF has come a long way. I made golden raspberry pancakes and these ancho-pecan brownies.
To be honest, the taste wasn’t the same, but it wasn’t that far off either. The original mixes I had tried were bitter, dry and had an odor of leather. Jared’s brownies were moist, chocolatey and far better than I would have imagined. If I had eaten them without knowing what they were, I may not have even noticed they were gluten free. I added 3 tsp. of ancho chile powder and a 1/2 cup of pecans to the recipe but followed the instructions otherwise.
The name of Jared’s company is Lillabee. You can find some info on his site for obtaining his mixes if you’re a local of Colorado, if not, maybe he’ll mail it to you.
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