Today I return with tales from our second dinner, and what has to be the most ambitious meal I’ve ever cooked, which is really saying a lot. 10 people, 8 courses. I think dessert was time stamped around 11:30 and we had just one casualty: a humble celeriac agnolotti that just never really came together. RIP celeriac agnolotti.
First bite? You guessed it. Bread and butter, baby. Playing the hits is a great way to appease your guests as you furiously restart your wifi connection because the sous vide circulator you bought last year needs the internet to turn on for some reason and said internet is on the fritz just as the early-comers arrive.
The bread here is all Steph, based off a Tartine recipe with Koji rice. The combination has me thinking about using koji, probably along with a dairy culture, to add some funk to the next batch of butter I churn up. Mmm, funk.
Oh shit, now it’s palate cleanser time! Oysters (little Sweetwaters™ from Hog Island that took me 30 minutes to open) with an herbal granita (blended seedless cukes, meyer lemon juice and zest, some thai basil, and purple nasturtiums, froze in a sheet tray, and fluffed with a fork when I remembered).
The third dish of the night was carta di musica with cultured butter and cured trout roe, inspired by an old April Bloomfield dish at the John Dory and a trip to Sardinia way back when. We baked the semolina crackers–also known as pane carasau–on the Baking Steel, brushed with *our* butter, and topped with the roe, which I cured earlier that day in a quick 10 minute brine with sea salt. It was my first time working with McFarland Springs Trout roe. 10/10, would cure again.
A really smooth soup always has a place at my table and in my heart. This one featured a bunch of roasted heirloom squashes from the market (baby butternut from Tierra Farms and two other I’m blanking on. In my defense, the farmer I bought them from was also extremely high) cooked down with cider, blended with a dashi made from the roasted skins and some mendocino konbu, and fortified with some miso and cider lees. The garnish was a kumquat kosho I made earlier this year for a bit of citrusy heat.
I followed that crowd favorite with a dish that, er, challenged some Western palates: chawanmushi, a steamed Japanese egg custard with dashi. We’re still a bit light on serving dishes, so I made do with some old terra cotta yogurt cups I bought in France years ago. How rustic. We served the custard at room temperature with sea urchin from Bodega Bay, and garnished with Asian pear, dashi vinegar, and more of those nasturtiums.
Ooh! Beets and yogurt was technically an off-menu item. The beets were roasted and then dehydrated for four hours, then glazed in beet juice, rose geranium vinegar, and a bit of butter. Served over a house-cultured yogurt (used Skyr culture to mixed effect) and garnished with fig leaf oil.
Next up, wifi issues finally in the rear mirror, it was time for that chicken ballotine (french for tube of poultry!). I used the ChefSteps Buffalo Bill technique of removing the skin in one piece, removing the breasts and rolling them in the skin with a dusting of transglutaminase, an enzyme that binds proteins together. Fun fact, I had tried to order it from Amazon to no avail. I ended up calling the fine folks at Commis, the fanciest restaurant near my apartment, and convincing the kitchen to let me “borrow” a couple of tablespoons. Sure enough, like any good Michelin-starred neighbor would do, they came through in the clutch. Shouts to them.
I cooked the ballotines/roulades sous vide at 65 C, then fried to order and sliced into half moons. Served with braised radicchio, a quince mostarda, and a chicken jus. Pretty nice dish!
The final savory course was a “grilled” black cod collar, marinated in shio koji. And by grilled, I mean cooked under my anemic broiler as I cursed the industrial designers at GE. I had some time to think and reflected on my 7am drive through the pier of Fisherman’s Wharf, dodging seagulls and crab pots, to pick up all my order at TwoXSea. I picked up some black cod roe because why not for a bottarga experiment. More on that in a later post.
For dessert, we baked and chilled a persimmon pudding, then sliced into tranches and griddled in butter. Served with a simple whipped cream.