sunday supper club: 03.25.12

i decided to play off of trafton’s recent menu @ presidio to see how his seed ideas would grow in a completely different kitchen. results below.

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smoked new zealand salmon
dark rye toasts, house crème fraîche, pickled red onion and serrano

roast medjool dates
gorgonzola, duck bacon

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peas ‘n’ carrots
chilled ginger carrot soup, mint pea purée, butter crouton

long island hake
artichoke asparagus barigoule, wild arugula, pan roasted fingerlings

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cheese plate
jean-louis raw milk cheddar, brie de meaux, guava paste, candied pecans

lessons learned/reinforced: hake is no substitute for halibut. storing pickled red onions with grilled serrano chilies is a good idea. straining your soup multiple times is a good idea. artichokes are beautiful, beautiful vegetables.

sunday supper club: 01.22.12

i got a pretty late start on this one, which is never a good idea. rule #1 for myself: reserving plentiful prep-time is non-optional. i’m fooling myself when i think i can crank out anything other than “rustic” food with only an afternoon of prep.

apart from this spanish-inspired surf and turf plate which somehow found an interesting balance, there was nothing on the menu that i was completely happy with. the brandade was good, but there was nothing that elevated it past dip-status. the veg-fruit mosaic, ripped from blue hill, was not an exciting plate. the thickened apple vinaigrette dotting the plate was tasty and brought everything together, but the underlying mosaic did not pop; each ingredient failed to speak for itself which is the point of such an elemental dish. the tarte tatin was a total fail in execution. the caramel did some real funky stuff that has never happened to me before, and i was too demoralized at that point to remedy or redo. we ended up eating an ugly mess of puffed pastry, apples, sugar-butter?, and ice cream. yummm

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brandade de morue
sourdough toast points

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fall farm mosaic
carrot, beet, pear, watermelon radish, fennel, thickened apple red wine vinaigrette

surf and turf: part dos
crisped chicken thighs, braised baby octopus, tomato and smoked paprika braised black garbanzos

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tarte tatin
vanilla ice cream, failure

Contra @ Presidio

Dinner for 16, minus dessert. Wish I had pictures:

I (Snacks)

toasts w/ artichoke tapenade, breakfast radish

crostini w/ asparagus, ricotta salata, preserved lemon, mint

roasted dates w/ parm & thyme

smoked salmon on rye w/ house crème fraiche, poppy seed, pickled red onion

II

Roasted carrot soup w/ vadouvan and carrot chip

III

Roasted halibut w/ barigoule of baby artichokes, sunchokes, and preserved lemon

Duck Prosciutto…. or Speck?

I finally got the chance to check out the Fatted Calf in Hayes Valley over the weekend. They’ve got plenty of weird stuff that is right up my alley, but I went for the Liberty Farms’ duck breast with an easy curing project in mind – duck prosciutto.

I’m adapting Ruhlman‘s recipe from Charcuterie which involves a straight salt cure overnight then a week or so to air dry. My girlfriend refused to let me hang it in her closet, so I’ll need to find a nice cool spot in the new apartment for it to cure. Depending on how it turns out, I might smoke it after to make it my version of a duck speck.