Two Helmets Cooking

Spice wine poached beef tenderloin, braised short rib, rye berries, rye, pickled sultanas

2012-01-26T12:26:00.002-05:00

A belated post of x-mas food (course 4)

Spice wine poached beef tenderloin

Bring red wine, stock, and winter mulling spices to a simmer. When fragrant, poach a tied tenderloin until barely mid-rare (c. 130F). Remove from the liquid, cool, and reserve. Reserve the poaching liquid.

Braised short rib

Marinate the ribs in oil and whole warm spices. Braise as usual, using stock, glace, and reserved spiced wine poaching liquid, until tender. Strain liquid and pour off excess grease and reserve.

Rye berries

Boil rye berries until tender in the reserved braising liquid. Reduce the excess liquid and return to the berries.

Pickled sultanas

Dissolve sugar in simmering vinegar. Pour atop sultanas, cover, and reserve, allowing time for the sultanas to re-hydrate.

Assembly

Sear the reserved tenderloin, and bring to medium, basting in butter and aromatics. Garnish meats with reserved components, carrot puree, rye bread tuille, and wilted tatsoi.

Cod, potato puree, candied kumquat, cippolini, meyer lemon, suncoke chip

2011-12-26T09:07:00.005-05:00

Course 3 from x-mas dinner...

Candied kumquat: Begin with a solution of ~ 20% sugar; bring kumquats to a boil in a solution, then drain and shock immediately. Bring to a boil repeatedly, gradually increasing the sugar concentration and shocking each time. Cool in final syrup and reserve.

Meyer lemon puree: Robocoup cored meyer lemons (with rind), season with salt and sugar. Reserve.

Potato puree: Blend cream and butter with 50/50 mix of yellow and russet potatoes. Reserve.

Sunchoke chip: Thinly slice sunchokes. Blanch in 250 F oil, cool, then refry at 350 until golden. Cool and reserve in airtight container.

Assembly: Sear the cod and cippolini, basting with butter and garlic. Garnish with reserved components and parsley leaves.

"BBQ" scallop, coconut milk, lemongrass, ginger beads, arame

2011-12-25T02:08:00.006-05:00

From x-mas dinner

Coconut milk and lemongrass infusion: Sweat onion and garlic in oil, then add the coconut milk. Hold just below the simmer, adding lemon grass. Season with tomato puree, soy sauce, and powdered ginger. Pass and reserve.

Ginger beads: Bring water, sugar, and roughly chopped ginger to a boil. Cool and shear in sodium alginate. Make spheres in a calcium chloride bath and reserve.

Arame: Revive dried arame in water. Dress with rice vinegar, mirin and honey. Reserve.

Scallop and assembly: Make a rub from smoked pimenton, cayenne, coriander, sumac, salt, and flour. Coat the scallops in the rub, sear, then baste with butter and garlic. Garnish with reserved components.

Kings Hawaiian Bread Pudding, Rum Gel, Nutmeg Ice Cream

2011-11-26T14:04:00.002-05:00

Sorta like egg nog...

Rum Fluid Gel: Rum and agar agar are combined with sugar and allowed to set. After firm, process in robot coup until a gel is achieved.

Nutmeg Ice Cream: Infuse standard base with nutmeg, spin, reserve.

Bread Pudding: Remove and reserve the crust from 3/4# of Kings Hawaiian bread. Cube and allow to dry slightly. To six eggs add 1.5 cups each of milk and cream to create the royale. Flavor with almond and rum extract. Mix the royale and bread together and bake at 350 F until barely set (about 45 minutes). Sear the reserved crusts, toast, and process into crumbs.

Assembly: Arrange elements on plate. Garnish with bread crumbs, nutmeg, and cranberry compote.

Roast cod, fried brandade, purees of parsley and meyer lemon, artichoke

2011-11-25T11:01:00.005-05:00

Last year I started getting into using seafood at Thanksgiving based on readings of primary texts. This year I incorporated salt cod into the dish, as I suspect that our friends in Plymouth must have supplanted the fresh cod they caught with that which was stored for later use.

Parsley Puree: Blanch parsley leaves for about two minutes, until tender but still bright green. Shock in ice water, drain, and transfer to blender. Blend, adding a few ice cubes if puree is too thick. Pass, and reserve.

Meyer Lemon Puree: Quarter lemons and remove pips and core. Puree in blender, adding simple syrup to facilitate the process and to add sweetness. Season with salt. Pass, and reserve.

Fried Brandade: Soak the salt cod in fresh water, changing the water occasionally. Refresh the water again and bring to a simmer for five minutes, until the fish is flakey. Drain; flake the fish removing any bones and skin. Work a bit of baked potato into the fish, then work in cream and olive oil until the brandade is achieved. Cool. Add some chopped parsley and roll into a torchon using plastic (below). Freeze. Portion into slices, then dredge in flour, egg and bread crumbs. Reserve frozen.

Artichoke: Clean the artichokes. Poach in oil with aromatics, cool, and reserve.

Assembly: Gently color fresh cod in pan. Add butter, thyme, and garlic and baste. Add the artichoke hearts and finish in the oven. Deep fry the frozen brandade croquettes in 350 F oil. Drain. Arrange components on the plate, finishing with the meyer lemon and parsley purees.

The torchon of brandade:

Beet soil trompe l'oeil: geophagia edition

2011-08-22T15:27:00.004-04:00

Working on yet another iteration of the avant-pop project known as Tactile Dinner...if you want to donate to the cause or check out the next performance click on over to our indiegogo page.

Here's the first draft on a soil dish. Beets are finely grated, mixed with black coloring, and dehydrated until it reaches a (surprising) loam-like consistency. Puffed millet help mimic potting soil (picture below). In the picture above, the photo-realism is kicked up by the addition of nigella seeds and a sprinkling of leek ash.

Poached pluots

2011-08-02T23:04:00.004-04:00

Poached Pluots: Blanch the pluots in rapidly boiling water for 5 seconds. Shock and slide off skins. Arrange in a single layer in a shallow sauce pan. Add water, sugar, vanilla bean, and cube of candied ginger for a poaching liquid. Poach just under the simmer until tender. Remove pluots and cool to room temperature. Reserve liquid.

Pluot ginger glaze: Reduce pluot poaching liquid at rapid boil by 2/3 to 3/4 with additional candied ginger. Cool...this will set from the pectin. Reheat for application.

Spiced walnut: Toast walnut pieces. Glaze in butter, sugar, and cinnamon/cardamom/warm spices.

Raspberry coulis: Bring berries, scant water, and sugar to a boil. Puree and strain through chinois.

Assembly: Glaze the room temperature pluots with reheated glaze. Arrange on bed of walnuts. Garnish with gingered-mascarpone, sliced candied ginger, raspberry coulis, and lemon verbena.

Summer Gazpacho and herb garnishes

2011-08-02T22:46:00.004-04:00

Nothing really new to write about a classic summer gazpacho...but the plated garnishes always look so nice. Pics from a client's house this evening...always also like discovering cool plates that add unexpected appeal.

And skin your tomatoes damn it.

Corn preparations, pommes noisette, and chili duxelle

2011-07-20T23:58:00.003-04:00

Evocative of elote, but as an entree.

Corn fry bread: Infuse milk by bringing to simmer with corn, cobs, and husks. Prepare a quick bread with cornmeal, flour, corn infused milk, baking powder and soda, and oil. Pour batter into preheated, oiled pans at 450. Bake until springy, and reserve warm.

Chili duxelle: Remove seeds from cubanelle and poblano peppers and cut into julienne. Blanch in milk, then rinse. Saute in clarified butter until tender and allow to cool. On the cutting board, work into duxelle. Season the result with powdered chipotle. Reserve warm.

Pickled jalapeno: Thinly slice jalapeno into coins. Bring to the simmer a quick pickling liquid of cider vinegar, water, cloves, allspice, and juniper. Remove from heat, adding jalapeno. Cool and reserve.

Creamed corn: Sweat onions in butter. Add corn, then add 50/50 of corn meal and flour. To the roux, add corn infused milk. Sugar if necessary. Cook until the corn is tender and the flour cooked.

Assembly: Arrange components on plate. Garnish with pommes noisette, grilled corn, rough chopped corn nuts, and cilantro. Drizzle with clarified butter.

Rabbit loin galantine, sour cherry gastrique

2011-07-08T19:59:00.004-04:00

Not very inventive, but still tasty.

Rabbit galantine: Remove the loins from the rabbit and reserve. Bone out and remove skin and sinew from the hind quarters. Process into a mousse with cream, salt, pepper, allspice, anise, and cloves. Shape the mousse around loins with plastic. Poach gently in stock, to about 130. Cool and reserve.

Sour cherry gastrique: Bring sour cherries, spiced rum, madeira, and small knob of butter to a boil. Flame and cook through. Puree, then pass through a chinoise. Reduce liquid with sugar and red wine vinegar. Cool and reserve.

Assembly: Garnished with purslane, maldon, thyme, and rosemary.

Spring onions and ham

2011-07-04T03:23:00.004-04:00

Impromptu dish for some friends: thyme/balsamic roasted spring onions, shallot fondue, pickled pearl onions, crispy "funions", proscuitto, and balsamic reduction. Finished with a bit of lemon oil.

Nettles, scapes, beets, and carrots: spring vegetarian entree

2011-05-25T21:01:00.004-04:00

Some of the best veggies that spring has to offer...

Nettle puree: Saute stinging nettles and garlics scapes until tender. Shock with vegetable stock, puree, touch with xanthan (to prevent synthesis) and pass. Reserve warm.

Pickled baby beets: Bring baby beets to a simmer in a pickling liquid of water, cider and malt vinegar, sugar, allspice, garlic, clove, juniper berries, and anise. Simmer until tender, covering with parchment during process.

Roasted baby carrots and spring onion: Wrap loosely in foil with oil and a clove. Roast until tender. Reserve warm.

Sauteed scape tops: Sautee the tops of scapes in oil. Add stock and monte a beurre.

Assembly: Arrange the vegetables on a warm plate, taking care to open the onion leaves. Garnish the onion with thyme, the carrots with mint, and the beets with lemon verbena.

halibut, black trumpets, carrot consomme

2011-05-23T02:08:00.006-04:00

Carrot consomme: Bring carrot trim and stock to simmer with some ginger. Clarify with a raft of egg whites and pass through chinois and cheese cloth.

Nettle puree: Saute nettles with baby leeks. Shock pan, then puree with stock and pass.

Halibut: Lightly sear in pan with oil. Drain, and baste with butter and aromatics.

Black trumpet mushrooms: Sear in hot pan with some oil. Finish with a little butter.

Assembly: Nettle puree in the bottom of the dish. Break the halibut into pieces and compose atop the puree. Arrange the mushrooms. Garnish with mizuna and lemon verbena. Pour the consomme tableside.

fendu

2011-05-21T17:36:00.006-04:00

Water, flour, yeast. Click to enlarge...it's worth it.

Bread obsessed these days; time to return to cooking proper.

Fluid Gel Sushi

2011-05-13T23:23:00.004-04:00

With all necessary deference to Heston, this concept was super fun to come up with. Following Heston, I've dyed several fluid gels to the same color--allowing various delights to masquerade as unidentified tastes. This is a draft for Banished?Productions upcoming Tactile Food Cart. Tactile is a project I've been involved with for a few years now--and have previously posted on.

Concept here was to do several milk-based infusions, then turn them in to fluid gels.

Method (h/t Martin Lersch for the double hydrocolloid ratio):

370 g milk infusion

4 g agar (1.1%)

0.70 g xanthan gum

Infuse the milk with various flavors over low flame. I'm being intentionally vague here to appease my Tactile producers, but if you look at the picture and title of this post, it gives you a good idea of what i've been up to these days. Blend in the agar and xanthan and bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking often. Strain into a deli, then cool.

Once cool, transfer the resulting jelly into a food processor. Blend until a smooth fluid gel is achieved, adding food dye as needed for your application. The fluid gel is stable and can be stored chilled.

Tartine Bread

2011-05-02T17:43:00.003-04:00

Following along with Tartine Bread...have had the starter going for about a month, and this is the second bake...it's starting to get there!

Why the Local Food Movement Can Suck: Is Dupont Circle Farmer's Market Staying Local...after it sold out?

2011-04-20T10:14:00.010-04:00

UPDATE/NOTE: I've slightly altered the title of this post from "Is Dupont Circle Farmer's Market Staying Local...and selling out?" to "Is Dupont Circle Farmer's Market Staying Local...after it sold out?"

I'm generally a non-ideological supporter of local foods: while I don't necessarily think local foods make the best moral or economic sense, they are often the best products available.

There are, of course, instances when the best products available come from somewhere else. Fish, foie, citrus and tropical fruits, and cheese are easy examples. And, apparently, so it goes with mushrooms. It was recently revealed that Ferial Welsh (aka, the mushroom lady) has been selling mushrooms of unknown provenance at the Freshfarm Markets in Dupont and Penn Quarter.

This revelation has only come to light because Welsh's foraged offerings--the morels, bluefoots, maitake that I have enjoyed for years--suddenly went missing. At the market I overheard her talking about the situation. Next, I found the full details on Chowhound.

It seems that Freshfarm management recently deemed many of Welsh's offerings verboten because the foraged mushrooms are likely sourced from the Pacific Northwest. I suppose you can't fault the market for being true to its stance on local food...except for the fact that Welsh's operation already occupies a gray area of the market's ethical posture. Because Welsh purchases her mushrooms from wholesalers in Pennsylvania, her operation already violates the producer-only set out by Freshfarm. So what gives? Why enforce some rules and not others...on the very same vendor?

According to management, an exception was made years ago, "because mushrooms are a prized and desirable product." Call me cynical, but to me the situation smacks of a management that was willing to bend the rules when Freshfarm was an upstart: Build a mushroom stand, and they will come. But now that the enterprise is doing so well that the crowds have necessitated taking over another block, it doesn't matter if we screw the mushroom lady of the very products that fetch her the best price.

The following (via SandyCat on Chowhound) is Freshfarm's response regarding the future of the market's mushrooms.

"Hi Sandy,

Thanks for your email. You ask a good question that deserves a bit of a longer explanation.

As you may know, the mission of our markets is to support agriculture in the Chesapeake Bay Region, as such we only allow crops that are grown in the Chesapeake Bay Region to be sold at our markets. Our markets are also producer-only which means that the farmer/producer must be growing or making what they sell. The Mushroom Stand at Dupont is a long standing exception to the producer-only requirement, because mushrooms are a prized and desirable product. These mushrooms are not grown by the owner of The Mushroom Stand, but are sourced from two farms in Pennsylvania, Mother Earth Mushrooms and Phillips Mushroom Farm. Phillips Mushroom Farm is also a distributor for wild harvested and cultivated mushrooms from around the world. Recently, we noticed that The Mushroom Stand had mushrooms at market that were not grown at Phillips or Mother Earth, including hedgehog and blue foot mushrooms. Conversations with Phillips Mushroom Farm revealed that these mushrooms were from the Pacific Northwest. Phillips distributes many wild mushroom varieties, however, even with those such as morels that can grow locally, they work primarily with foragers in the Pacific Northwest. When The Mushroom Stand picks up their mushrooms from Phillips Mushroom Farm it is very difficult for them to trace the origin of the mushrooms. It became a reoccurring problem that we were seeing out of region mushrooms at The Mushroom Stand, and in order to maintain our markets as local food only markets, we decided, along with the owner of The Mushroom Stand, that it would be best if they were to bring only mushrooms that were grown at Phillips Mushroom Farm or Mother Earth Mushrooms. This unfortunately excludes morels.

While we are committed to providing customers with a diverse and quality products, we are also very committed to ensuring that our markets uphold our central mission of supporting regional agriculture and food production. We have nothing against wild-foraged foods, and in fact, we have some other farmers who do forage morels and ramps from their own land and will be bringing them to market. In fact, Spring Valley Farm and Orchard had ramps last week.

I hope that helps answer your question.
Best,
Laura"

Early Spring Dinner: Cobia, Clams, Lamb

2011-04-09T15:34:00.008-04:00

Did a little multi course shindig last Thursday...nice way to celebrate the return of fresh green things to the market.

Pommes noisette, creme fraiche, roe, dill

Cobia, clams, smoked veloute, bacon skin, favas, parsley-fumet froth, roe

(pairing: Gatao Vinho Verde)

Bacon skin - Freeze slab of bacon overnight. Grate with microplane onto a sillpat. Place a piece of parchment over meat and roll thinly. Dehydrate.

Fish Fumet - Lightly color turbot bones and onions in stock pot. Deglaze with white wine, add water, peppercorns, and head of garlic. Hold just below the simmer for about an hour. Pass through chinois and cheesecloth. Reserve.

Smoked Veloute - Milk-poach spring garlic in a small saucepan. To a portion of the reserved fumet, add smoked clams and tarragon. Bring to a simmer. Whisk in a white roux (ratio of about 1:10). Add a little of the poaching milk. Continue to simmer, removing the tarragon after some time and stirring frequently. When starchiness is gone, pass through chinois and reserve.

Parsley-Fumet Froth - Blanch and shock parsley. Add drained parsley to cooled fumet and puree. Pass result through chinois and cheesecloth. Add soy lecithin and allow to rest and hydrate.

Assembly: Bring veloute to temp and place in vessel for table side. Season the cobia, then sear on presentation side over medium heat. Turn and finish in oven until medium rare. In a deep pan heat oil, then add the clams, white wine, and tarragon. Cover and cook until clams open, finishing with butter (discard cooking liquid). Heat and froth the parsley-fumet.

Garnish the fish and clams with blanched favas, bacon skin, roe, parsley leaves, and dill. Spoon froth on fish. Pour veloute table side.

Lavender glazed lamb, lemon-mint shortbread, milk poached spring garlic and potatoes, english peas, balsamic

(pairing: Southampton Cuvee des Fleurs...a rosewater beer)

Lamb - Marinate lamb rib chops with rosemary and garlic for 12 hours. Prepare a lavender honey. Soak hickory chips in water for 30 minutes before grilling. Prepare a charcoal grill.

Lemon-mint shortbread - Prepare a 1-2-3 cookie dough with vanilla sugar, butter, and flour. Add a pinch of salt, the zest of a lemon, and finely chopped mint. Bake, cool, and reserve.

Milk-poached potatoes and garlic - Cut thick slices from a potato, then cut into cylinders with cookie round. Poach in milk with cleaned spring garlic and reserve.

Assembly: Toss the soaked hickory chips onto the embers. Brush the lamb with lavender honey and grill 1-2 minutes per side, covering each time to enhance smoking. Brush with lavender honey again, and allow to rest.

Crumble the shortbread and mix with chiffonade of mint. Scatter on plate with peas. Remove lamb from bone and place atop shortbread. Garnish with balsamic reduction, potatoes and garlic, lavender leaves and arugula flowers.

Elderflower-aloe granite, ginger, watermelon

(this is an homage to Will's dish, with the addition of booze and garnishes)

Mix sweetened aloe drink with shot of St. Germain. Freeze in #6 pan. Scrape and garnish with a dime of watermelon, matchstick of watermelon rind, and candied ginger.

Panko fried abalone, cilantro-horseradish gremolata, red pepper foam

2011-03-17T15:15:00.005-04:00

Final entry of the abalone series. I used this preparation as the first dish of the abalone dinner, followed by the sake steamed abalone, and then a final course of heritage pork brined with asian spices, braised mustard greens, soy glazed yam, fried lemon, and crystallized ginger.

Cilantro-Horseradish Gremolata

Combine cilantro, grated horseradish, and lemon zest. Reserve. A nice touch would be some botarga. (The gremolata looks slightly bruised...alas I was in a rush and my cilantro was a little tired at this point.)

Red Pepper Foam

Rough chop a red pepper and bring to a simmer with heavy cream. When the pepper is tender, the cream is then blended and passed. Shear in soy lecithin for added stability. Reserve warm.

Fried Abalone

Start with sake braised abalone. Slice each abalone thinly into rounds. Dredge in flour, egg, then panko. Deep fry for 30-45 seconds at 350. Season and drain.

Assembly

Neatly stack the abalone and dust with gremolata. Foam red pepper cream in shallow container, skim foam from top and spoon around abalone.

Sake braised abalone with spring onion-ginger dashi

2011-03-17T14:38:00.007-04:00

Entry two of three of the abalone series. I decided to braise all the abalone and then do two preparations after the braising. To start, the abalone were cleaned (pictures below): take out of shell, remove viscera including the liver, and scrub away any black film. Clean and boil the shells briefly.

Sake Braised Abalone

Place cleaned abalone into a cold braising liquid of sake, mirin, water, salt, ginger, and kombu. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat to poaching simmer and remove the kombu. Braise between 2 and 6 hours, depending on size of abalone, until tender. Discard ginger, cool and reserve.

Spring onion-ginger dashi

Bring cooled braising liquid to boil over medium heat with bonito flakes. Once this mixture comes to a boil, strain out bonito flakes. Bring to simmer. Add a brunoise of daikon and a stalk of lemongrass. Hold warm.

Sake steamed with Wakame

To the bottom of the steamer add sake and water. Line the tray with rehydrated wakame. Place abalone atop the wakame. Steam over high heat for 10 minutes. Place abalone shells into steamer for last 2 minutes.

Assembly

Remove the lemongrass from the dashi and add finely sliced spring onion. Dish into sake cups. Season the wakame and arrange as base of serving piece. Slice the abalone and return to their shells, then place shells atop wakame. Spoon extra dashi over abalone. The abalone can also be dipped into the dashi cups as diners eat.

Unprocessed abalone, dorsal and ventral views

Abalone out of shells (dorsal side up, with viscera and liver showing)

Cleaned abalone (dorsal and ventral views, and cleaned shells)

Abalone

2011-03-14T00:03:00.004-04:00

Just got these...we had an extra shipment at the restaurant and so I bought a few. Won't get to them until Tuesday, but should be fun. California abalone from the vicinity of San Diego.

Updates:

Sake Braised Abalone

Panko Fried Abalone

sunchoke with accompaniments: fancy fast food edition

2011-01-19T22:32:00.003-05:00

This is from a couple weeks ago, but sunchokes will be around for a while. Idea here was a veggie entree that recalls that big-box restaurant classic: spinach artichoke dip.

Wild rice

Simmer rice in water, stock, and knob of butter for about 50 minutes, until tender. Reserve warm.

Roasted garlic cream

Roast garlic in an oven until tender and paste like. Bring equal parts half-and-half and cream to a simmer with a clove of raw garlic. Add the roasted garlic. Allow to simmer gently for a few minutes. Puree and pass through a chinois. Reserve warm.

Roasted sunchokes

Toss uncleaned sunchokes in oil and thyme. Roast in foil at 400F until tender. Reserve warm.

Crispy bread batons

Fashion batons from a sturdy loaf of bread. Pan fry with butter, garlic and thyme. Cool on wire rack.

Assembly

Quickly saute spinach. Place a layer of rice on the plate, then top with spinach. On top of this place a smashed roasted sunchoke. Garnish with parmesan shavings, batons, and reserved garlic cream.

How to make butter: Photo essay

2011-01-15T16:29:00.005-05:00

Spent the afternoon makings some compound butters. Today was devoted to fresh cream butters...and all were salted. Then to the salted base, lavender, vanilla, and chipotle-pimenton compounds were created. I also have some cream and buttermilk culture living together for a cultured butter attempt tomorrow.

The process is pretty straight forward--as any source book well tell you, the butter making process begins with over-whipping cream. Doing this damages the globule membranes within the cream, releasing milkfats which then clump together to form butter.

Whipping cream

Just beyond stiff peaks...note the deepening yellow

Butter seeds beginning to form, yellowing continues

Buttermilk is released

Buttermilk is drained off and reserved. The seeds are washed several times under water.

The butter is worked on a board to improve texture and release remaining buttermilk.

Salt and compounds are added (here chipotle and pimenton)

Working continues until desired texture (here with vanilla bean).

Clockwise from left: vanilla, lavender, chipotle-pimenton

Vegetarian banh mi

2011-01-07T15:01:00.005-05:00

Lots of talk about 2011 as the year of the vegetable. I've been a bit behind in my veggie posts...so I suppose this will be a kick to do more (and continue to wonder when my former employer will try to cash in and relaunch).

Of course, 2010 was a banner year for banh mi here in DC. So here's a little combo of past and present to ring in the new year.

Vegetable banh mi

Roasted red pepper

Roast pepper on open flame until blackened. Remove skin, cool, and reserve.

Marinated tofu

Drain extra firm tofu and allow to rest on paper lined colander for 1-2 hours. For the marinade, combine (in ascending order) fish sauce, mirin, honey, chili oil, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and soy. To this mixture, add hot peppers, scallions, and ginger. Marinate the tofu for 6 hours.

Quick pickled cucumber

Combine a small portion of sugar to mirin and rice vinegar. Add a touch of fish sauce. Turn cucumber on a spiral slicer or julienne into thin strips and add to pickling liquid. Allow to sit 10 minutes. Reserve.

To assemble

Butter or oil baguette and lightly grill. Assemble reserved components. Garnish with purslane and basil (pictured above with opal).

Pork belly, burdock, farro, cured butternut squash

2010-12-03T18:18:00.004-05:00

Tasting two from the pre-Turkey courses of Thanksgiving.

Crispy Braised Pork Belly

The pork belly was braised using the same method I used for the Delta's event a couple weeks back. The asian spices bring a nice warmth for winter. After the braising, I had time to compress this belly under the weight of some bricks.

"Cured" butternut squash

Make a quick rub of brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Spread over planks of raw butternut squash and allow to sit at least for 12 hours.

Pickled burdock

Clean and cut the burdock quickly, placing immediately thereafter in water. I did small coins and a julienne. Soak the burdock for about 30 minutes in cold water (I left in the sink with a small drip to keep the water fresh). During the development of this recipe, Will had the good idea of using buckwheat honey as the sweetening agent. I subbed in some German dark forrest honey I had on hand, which, like buckwheat honey, has a strong molasses quality to it. Bring the honey with some cider vinegar and a little water to a simmer, and add the erstwhile soaked burdock. Gently simmer for 30-45 minutes and reserve warm.

Farro

Simmer farrow in water for 45 minutes or until tender.

Mizuna

Submerge the mizuna leaves in ice water for 30 minutes before service.

Assembly

Sear the compressed belly until crispy and portion. Serve on the farrow. Shave and roll the squash. Garnish with the squash, burdock, and mizuna. I added a bite-sized lady apple that I seared in the pork pan, too.