I started production of house made butters today.
The first one is brown butter butter. I just finished pressing it to get out the excess water in this picture .
I love brown butter, the smell and the taste is one of my favorites. It came out great; I’m pretty excited about it.
Time to see how many different types of butter I can come up with.
This was an amuse we did the other day, its foie, p-nut butter and jelly. One of my favorite combinations.
It’s been extremely busy around here lately. Last week was restaurant week in DC and we got crushed everyday. Now I am working overtime trying to catch up on my paperwork and everything else.
I realized I never shared the end results for our cured duck battle (see previous post). They both came out decent.
Mine didn’t pick up any of the smoke flavor but it tasted good. My cooks came out nice but the same thing happened, it didn’t pick up much of the flavors he was working with. So back to the drawing board on the curing of meats.
We did a special five course tasting menu for New Year’s Eve. It was our first time doing a tasting menu for service (other then private parties) and it went very well.
Our first course: a braised veal cheek ravioli with seared tuna, chanterelle and black trumpet mushrooms.
Second course: yellowtail king fish crudo style with pickled watermelon radish, sorrel and an almond cream.
Next course: seared Hudson Valley foie with caramelized white chocolate and blood orange.
And then good ol’ surf and turf: this was Painted Hills beef tenderloin with a Maine lobster tail, silky potatoes, roasted root veg, a beurre blanc and a veal jus.
Our final course was a chocolate napoleon with white and dark chocolate mousse.
Over all we were not as busy as I would have liked but I know the ones that did come in were extremely happy with the menu so it worked out well.
Hope everyone has a good new year!
This is the start of my eggnog infused bourbon. This is a genius technique on how to clarify liquor. I learned this when I was at ICC in NY, I took eggnog and mixed it with bourbon, then froze it with nitro and then hung it in the freezer. Liquor only freezes with nitro so when you hang it in the freezer and the liquor comes back down to the freezers temperature it drips down with all the favors of what you used (in my case eggnog) and leaves everything else frozen.
The stage is set – Cafe Dupont kitchen
Weapon of choice – 4 Duck breasts each
We had some left over duck breast from a recent special menu. One of my cooks challenged me to a duck ham battle. I couldn’t refuse a good challenge so the battle was on.
We each started with 4 duck breasts. He is using the traditional method of curing with salt and sugar (photo below), and I am going a little more modern with a smoked powder, TCM and thyme cure (photo above).
I will change out my cure after 24 hrs, start again with a fresh cure and repeat for 2 days. Then I will let it hang for 3 weeks. He is curing his duck for 1 day and hanging it for 8 days.
We will see how they come out. This could be the start of some interesting curing projects for our restaurant.
Stay tuned for battle cured duck results….
Tonight we had a VIP dinner for several concierge from other D.C. hotels. The Ritz, Mandarin Hotel, etc.
We prepared a 5 course dinner for them which included several dishes from my upcoming winter menu. It was a good opportunity to test out my new menu items.
Starting off – an allium (the onion family) bisque. A nest of braised leeks, garlic chips and an onion bisque. I wasn’t able to get a picture of the completed dish because it was finished table side.
The next course was a Foie pate with apple puree, walnut powder, buttermilk pancakes and maple syrup. I think that’s all I need to say about this one.
This was a request from our hotel concierge; Shrimp ‘n Grits. One of my favorite things on my fall menu. Shrimp on a bed of stone ground grits, confit onions and peppers, and chorizo cream.
This was the last savory dish we did. I almost forgot to photograph this one but caught it just as it was leaving the kitchen. A duck breast with cranberries, sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts. This one came out really nice.
Our final course – an apple cobbler with cinnamon roll ice cream. That was one of my favorite things that the pastry chef at McCradys made; cinnamon roll ice cream. It’s pretty awesome.
Tonight we did an event called Taste of Dupont. It is similar to the Taste of DC but smaller, confined to the Dupont Circle neighborhood.
14 restaurants participated. Guests walked around to each of the different restaurants, tried what they were serving and then moved onto the next. Finally, they cast their vote for the Dupont Chef of the Year.
We served the ever famous liquid center ravioli. This one is a butternut squash filled ravioli served with a seared diver scallop, brown butter foam and maple syrup.
As I was in the process of making 200 ravioli (on a hand crank machine), I began to wonder why I chose this dish. It sure sounded good when I submitted it to the event promoters! In the end it was worth it, it all came together nicely. Maybe I’ll be the next…
Dupont Chef of the Year!
Last night we cooked and served a private dinner for the cast and crew of The Real Housewives of DC. I only had time to take a couple pics of what we did.
This is one of the starters; a corn and crab bisque with the soup poured table side. I wasn’t able to get a pic of it with the soup, but it was a bight yellow corn soup with a hint of smokiness.
This was my play on Shrimp Cocktail. I made shrimp ribbons and then tied them in knots. The cocktail sauce is a clarified gel, then a horseradish powder, a dash of old bay, and a tomato and horseradish paper.
Next, here is our take on steak and eggs. NY strip steak, with fingerling potato, caramelized onion puree, and a bacon hollandaise.
I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of the chicken dish, it was similar to a chicken roulade. I butterflied the breast, deboned the leg and thigh then glued them together and sous vide it. We served it with a bean and bacon ragu.
I don’t know when the episode will air but I will post it just as soon as I find out.
bluechef PING ISLAND STRIKE IDEAS IN FOOD chadzilla