Contemporary Caesar Salad

The Caesar salad dates back to the 1920's when restauranteur Caesar Cardini faced a dinner rush that wiped out all of his mise en place.  The resourceful Mr. Cardini hobbled together some coddled eggs, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce and whole leaves of romaine lettuce.  For added flair, Mr. Cardini prepared the dressing table side, tossed the leaves, and presented a salad to be eaten with the fingers.

For this presentation Texas toast is used to make a ring to bind the leaves of romaine.  The ring is brushed with roasted garlic oil and seasoned with salt and pepper before toasting in the oven.  Leaves of romaine are layered end to tip and wrapped tightly in plastic wrap.  The wrapped romaine is sliced in four inch lengths and placed upright in the ring before the plastic wrap is removed.  Caesar dressing can be either tossed with the leaves before wrapping or drizzled over the leaves after they are in the crouton.

A Parmesan crisp tops the salad with a garnish of white anchovy, grape tomatoes and Lucky Leaf Gardens micro greens.

Twice Cooked Scallop with Celeriac Puree, Apple-Bacon Butter Sauce

 

Aki Kamozawa and Alexander Talbot at Ideas in Food have created the perfect scallop recipe, it appears in their book by the same name that was released last year.

For this dish I used U-10 (unit of measurement indicated there are under 10 per pound) dry-packed sea scallops.   I removed the "foot" from the scallop and reserved it for use in the reduction for the butter sauce.  The scallops were brined for ten minutes in a 5% sea salt-water solution, so for every 20 grams of water you will add 1 gram of sea salt.  The quick brine adds flavor and slightly firms the scallops.

The scallops were then removed from the brine and laid end-to-end and wrapped in plastic wrap just as a terrine would be, creating a log shape.  This gives the scallops a great shape and results in the scallops having more height and uniformity in the final product.  The "logs" of wrapped scallops were then placed in cryovac bags and cooked in the immersion circulator at 122 degrees for thirty minutes.  Once they came out of the water they were placed in an ice bath to cool.  At this point  they can be reserved for service and held for several days in cryovac.

After removing from the cryovac bag the scallops need to be dried thoroughly before searing...excess moisture will create a barrier of steam between the pan and the scallop, preventing then from browning as desired.  After drying the scallops were seasoned with freshly ground white pepper, seared quickly in a cast iron skilllet, basted with browned butter and finished with a couple flecks of sea salt.

The twice cooked scallops were served with a puree of celery root and an apple-bacon butter sauce, then garnished with Lucky Leaf Garden's pea tendrils.

The finished product was absolutely outstanding...the scallops were tender and moist, the flavor was concentrated from the sous vide process, and the quick sear gave it outstanding color and texture.

Prime CAB New York Strip, Saint Andres Triple Cream Potatoes, Hearty Ragout of Winter Vegetables and Braised Beef

In the middle of winter it's nice to sit down comfort food like this every once in a while.  For this dish I used Prime CAB New York Strip that was prepared sous vide, triple cream brie mashed potatoes and a hearty ragout of asparagus, mushrooms, pearl onions and the trim from the strip loin.

The New York Strip was portioned, then placed in cryovac with whole butter, kosher salt, freshly ground toasted black  pepper, crushed garlic, sliced shallot, fresh thyme and rosemary.  The steaks were cooked at 125 degrees for thirty minutes and then chilled in an ice bath.  To serve, the steaks were re-heated in a cast iron skillet in a 1600 degree broiler to give them a nice crust.  They rested for several minutes after coming out of the broiler before slicing so the juices could re-distribute.  The strip was then sliced and finished with coarse ground sea salt.

The ragout was made by caramelizing pearl onions in clarified butter, then removing them from the pan.  The mushrooms were then sauteed on high heat.  Both are seasoned individually while cooking.  The onions were then added back to the pan with the mushrooms, along with the cooked, diced and chilled braised beef.  Everything was sauteed briefly before the pan was deglazed with sherry.  Once the sherry reduced almost completely, the pan was again deglazed with fortified veal stock and was allowed to reduce by half.  The sauce should reduce far enough to thicken to the point that it can suspend fat.  Once the sauce was thickened, the asparagus was added and allowed to heat through before the ragout was finished with a touch of heavy cream and several drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice.  It was then seasoned to taste again with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

The potatoes were made by folding St. Andres triple cream brie to warm, freshly riced russet potatoes.  The triple cream cream adds an incredible buttery flavor and the rind adds a slight tartness that is needed to cut through the richness of the dish.

The plate is finished with Lucky Leaf Garden's deli mix, a blend of micro broccoli and mustard greens whose flavor together resembles fresh horseradish.

Duck Fat Poached Pork Shoulder with Bacon and Apple Foam, Celery Root Puree, Beluga Lentils, Crispy Mushrooms

For this dish pork shoulder was braised for six hours while completely submerged in duck fat. The shoulder was portioned after chilling down completely. For service it was seasoned and seared, then glazed with fortified veal stock before going into a low oven to gently reheat. It was glazed a couple more times with veal stock while in the oven to add color and deep, rich flavor.

The apple-bacon foam was a reduction of apple cider, bacon, white wine, peppercorns and heavy cream that was strained and finished with sherry vinegar. It was foamed using an NO2 charger and spooned over the shoulder.

The "broken" truffle vinaigrette which dressed the arugula added some much needed acidity to cut through the richness of the dish. It was made using sherry vinegar, truffle juice, lemon juice, freshly minced shallot, salad oil, kosher salt and freshly ground toasted black pepper.

Smoked Salad of Duck, Pistachio, Beet and Microgreens with White Balsamic and Pear Vinaigrette Foam

This was a very different kind of salad, inspired by a course that Chef David Quintana from Kobe's Kreations made for a pop-up dinner at the Atherton Mill and Market here in Charlotte.

The salad consists of hot smoked duck ham, ground pistachio, beet powder, various microgreens including Lucky Leaf amaranth and micro beet and a white balsamic and pear foam. Everything was packed into a Weck canning jar, smoked and then sealed until opened by our guests at the table. The smoke wafted out after opening and the salad had a great smoky flavor.

I like Weck jars as opposed to others because of the quality...they are just heavier and more sturdy than anything else. I actually dropped one jar in the kitchen without it breaking!

Weck has been around for over a hundred years and helped proliferate the canning movement that was so popular by the time I watched my grandmother can summer vegetables in her kitchen.

To apply the smoke I used the newly redesigned Smoking Gun from Polyscience. The smoking gun is available for about $100 and comes with a couple samples of wood chips including hickory and apple wood (used for this salad). The new design of the gun is far superior to the previous iteration, which had a wooden reservoir for the chips that eventually would deteriorate. The screens are also much easier to access and clean on this model.