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| Leg o' Lamb, Oven Ready |
It doesn't take much to get me onto a good roll on writing tons of good menu items. I have notebooks filled with menu ideas and recipes. I got onto one of these rolls a few weeks ago and just had so many different things hit me all the same time. I really shocked myself at how wide ranging of a menu I was able to write. A ton of different flavor profiles and cuisines, Latin influences, French influences, Asian influences. It was probably one of the best menus I have written; it was balanced and had a few curve balls thrown in there too. Items designed to be sold for two and served table side; that is one of the things that I love to do, its not done very much and not done well even less. Its not just easier for the kitchen to put out but it creates a buzz in the dining room, creates conversations amongst the tables not just the guests at the table that ordered it. Everyone turns to see, "OHH, whats that over there!" When you have a good server who is able to execute it well, it makes it that much better. Its a very old fashioned thing to do, very French, but there is definitely a way to do it with out it being so pretentious. It puts a lot pressure on the server to it well and to take the pretense out of it, to continue to connect with the guest and to do it with their own personality. I like a lot of the old fashioned things, whole roasted lamb legs, whole chickens or cotes de boeuf, dover sole, etc. I'll have to come back to this again, I'm getting away from where I wanted to go with this post.
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| Smoked Shrimp with Watermelon, Feta, Mint and Balsamic Syrup |
So, onto the food. One of my favorites out this past menu was Smoked Shrimp with Watermelon, Feta, Mint and a Balsamic Syrup. This was one of the most simple but complex dishes that was on the menu. It needed everything to be as close to perfect as possible. I took the shrimp out of the shell and cleaned them, but left the tail on for presentation purposes. I used the feta from Mt. Vikos, a small producer from Cyprus, very creamy, sharp, salty feta; and a watermelon that was surprisingly ripe and sweet for being this early in the year. The mint and balsamic syrup really played nicely to give both a bright, lighter component and a sweetness that really helped take the dish over the edge. I smoked the shrimp over a combination of hickory hardwood and rosemary and thyme. It was a little too smoky then I had originally wanted but in the end it came out perfect, any less and it would have been lost. The smoke was great with the salt and bite of the feta, the sweetness and freshness of the watermelon and mint, with a syrupy sweet and sour note of the balsamic syrup. I was super proud of this dish, great for the summer. It is really easily replicated for the house as well, just grill the shrimp, stove top cast iron works for those in apartments.
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| Coq au Vin Blanc |
The second dish I want to highlight is a little bit of a different, lighter take on a classic that I love when its done really well, Coq au Vin Blanc. Originally this dish is done with an older male chicken; tough, full of connective tissue but crucially fat and flavor! I have always seen this done with red wine and a heavy veal stock sauce. Making really only good for the fall and winter. I love the flavor of chicken when it has been cooked with a ton of white wine so I took this to cooking it with white wine and a white chicken stock. The best coq au vins are made after the chicken had marinated in the mire poix and the red wine that you are going to braise the chicken in. I didn't do this, I don't think that it diminished the final product, but I don't think that it would have hurt. I rendered all most of the fat from the chicken skin in a warm pot, no color, then pulled the pieces out of the pan and sweat the mire poix, added the chicken back in with the veggies, deglazed with white wine. I used a terrible chardonnay out of a box; something with out a lot of oak and more a sweet citrus note would do nicely. This is when I added in my white chicken stock, for those following along at home, use the Kitchen Basics No Sodium Chicken Broth for yours. Enough to cover the chicken well, brought this to a boil and then reduced down to a very low simmer. You are going to need more stock then if you were using a veal stock along with your chicken stock because the chicken just doesn't have the thickening power of the veal. Cook until the chicken is soft, tender and almost falling off the bone. I don't like to cook it so that it is falling off the bone completely because you need to finish the sauce and the garnish, if you take it too far in the beginning you lose all texture in the final product. After you remove the chicken, strain the sauce, and return to the same pot you cooked the chicken in, and reduce until it almost coats the back of spoon, add a touch of cream for a little fat and creamyness. Reheat the chicken in the sauce and serve! I served this with pearl onions, baby carrots and fingerling potatoes, but this will go great with pretty much everything, from a very traditional mushroom, bacon, and onion garnish to snow peas, parsnips, spaghetti squash, etc.
