Archives Under "tentop" (RSS)
Supfast: Third Course; Biscuits & Gravy
12 June 2011 | breakfast, creative presentation of the week, tentop | No Responses
This was hands down my favorite course at tentop’s Supfast. A play on the old breakfast staple, this was kind of a North African version. I knew from the outset I wanted to do a lamb merguez sausage, because it’s fucking delicious. The biscuits I knew I would make with lard, because I had scored a bunch from Tails & Trotters. We added cornmeal and scallions to make it more savory. The rest of the flavors came into play during discussions with my Sous, Michael. We ended up with a pea and mint salad, bound with yogurt, and a preserved lemon granita. When we were putting this on the plate, I had this moment, this split second where I thought, “Oh, fuck, this is a hot mess; there is way too much shit going on,” but it wasn’t. It was about the most well received dish of the night.
Since this was the entree, I wanted the meat part of it to be more substantial that it would be as just a gravy. To that end I par cooked the sausage in a cryo-vac bag in the combi-oven. I cut out some nice patties and then made the gravy out of all the trim. When the gravy was done I chilled it thoroughly before puree-ing it in one of KitchenCru’s blenders, which I am now convinced have dirtbike engines. Not only did it puree the meaty gravy silky smooth, it heated the cold mass to steaming hot. When we picked up the dish, I browned the patties in a skillet.
Lamb Merguez
4 pounds boneless lamb shoulder, diced
1 pound pork fatback, diced (see note)
3 tablespoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
1 1/2 cups diced roasted red peppers
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons minced fresh oregano
1/4 cup red wine, chilled
1/4 cup ice water
20 feet natural sheep or hog casings, soaked in water (optional)
1. Combine lamb, fatback, salt, sugar, red pepper flakes, garlic, roasted red peppers, black pepper, paprika and oregano. Toss to distribute seasonings. Cover and refrigerate until ready to grind.
2. Grind the mixture through a small die into a bowl resting in ice.
3. Add wine and water to the meat mixture. Mix with paddle attachment or a sturdy spoon until the mixture develops a uniform, sticky appearance, about 1 minute.
4. Cook a small portion of the sausage in a sauté pan. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.
5. Stuff sausage into casings, and twist into 10-inch links. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate or freeze links until ready to cook. Or, cook the sausage in a pan, then make a gravy or pasta sauce,
6. Sauté, roast or grill the sausages until cooked through.
Lard Biscuits
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup corn meal
1/2 bunch scallions sliced
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup lard
2 cups buttermilk
1. Cut fat into dry ingredients, add scallions and toss together.
2. Add buttermilk and mix until just combined. Wrap dough and chill thoroughly. Cut into desired shapes and bake until GBD, about 12 minutes at 375.
Lemon Granita
freshly squeezed juice of 8 lemons
3 3/4 cups of sugar
3 3/4 cups of water
3 tablespoons of grated lemon peel (zest - just the yellow)
diced preserved lemon to taste
Preparation:
Combine the sugar and water in a bowl and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in lemon juice and zest. Pour into large pans or pyrex dishes and place in the freezer. After 20 minutes, take it out of the freezer and, using a fork, scrape the bottom and stir the ice chips with the liquid. Freeze. Repeat every 20 minutes until there is no liquid left, and use the fork to break it up into small chunks.
Tentop presents “Supfast” - Part 2 or, Eggs: I Fucking Love ‘Em
31 May 2011 | breakfast, delicious, eggs, faithful readers, nomnomnomnom, recipe, tentop | No Responses
Anyone who has eaten with me, or cooked with me for that matter, has more than likely heard me spout off about my love of eggs, specifically warm egg yolk. Faithful readers know that warm egg yolk is hands down my favorite flavor in the whole culinary world. It adds richness, a silky smooth fattiness to almost any dish. I eat sunny side up eggs almost every morning, I have for years. If I have a late night and wake up at two in the afternoon, I still want to eat eggs before anything else that day. In addition to it’s unparalleled flavor, the egg holds a special place in my heart for it’s many useful properties. Thickening, leavening, emulsifying to name a few. Eggs are also one of those ethereal ingredients that you don’t always realize are there, but would know something was missing if they weren’t. The incredible, edible egg also has the the ability to put one in the hospital, if you happen to be my good friend Eric who is allergic.
Anyway, when we set out to create our SupFast menu for tentop, we took great care not to inundate our menu with eggs, which are an integral part of any breakfast as far as I’m concerned. Our solution was an egg trio, using quail eggs; which contain all the deliciousness at a third of the size. We had what we called Huevos Benedictos, a Spanish version of the classic brunch item. I started with a rich brioche recipe from one of my new favorite cookbooks, The Modern Cafe by Francisco Migoya. This dough has so much butter in it, it took almost 30 minutes beating on it with the dough hook before it started to develop any gluten. We topped these toasted rounds with serrano and a sunny side quail egg, then sauce charon made with Viridian Farms espelette powder. The second egg on the plate was a “scotch.” I use quotes because we skipped the whole packing the soft boiled egg in sausage bit, and just breaded and deep fried it. We did this for two reasons. One, the whole idea came for trying this egg from a bi-product of another dish we did for Satan’s Feast. The angry allium dish had fried pepperoni on it, small rounds which we cut from bigger slices. We fried up the trimmings for a snack and found we had made these perfect little pedestals, ideal for cradling a little egg. Secondly, to “lighten” what was shaping up to be a rich dish, and one with a meaty pedestal to boot, we skipped the sausage. Also, after having soft boiled and peeled 24 quail eggs to get 16, I wasn’t about to risk losing more by smooshing meat around ‘em. A little gremolata (under the egg) helped soak up the warm yolk as well as add a nice vegetal note. Lastly, behold the noble omelet. I originally suggested to my co-chef Michael that we do an egg white version, and before I had finished the sentence he had this look on his face that said “fuck that.” And he was right. Egg white omelets are bullshit. So we went in the opposite direction, and used all yolks for these little babies. Inside was Mt. Townsend New Moon Jack cheese and Viridian Farms asparagus. I created a sauce by browning butter, then adding a little salt and champagne vinegar. In my pastry mind’s eye I felt I could give the sauce a little body with a few sheets of gelatin, which worked, kind of. I had to remove almost all of the fat (clarified butter) from the sauce before I noticed any real thickening. It was a smooth, intense sauce. Garnish was for a little crunch, form of…fricco! For the brunch we did a similar dish, minus the “scotch.”
Sauce Charon
2 egg yolks
Juice from 1 lemon
1 1/2 cups clarified butter
1/4 cup tomato paste, warm
Pimente d’Espilette to taste
salt to taste
warm water to adjust consistency
1. Warm clarified butter to body temperature.
2. Whisk egg yolk, lemon juice, and a little warm water until mixture is light and frothy.
3. Using an immersion blender, blend mixture continuously while drizzling in the warm butter. I do this in a six pan or a small bain marie insert. I like to put these above a stove or oven to warm them before I start the sauce.
4. Adjust consistency with warm water through the butter adding process. The sauce should have a loose mayonnaise look.
5. When all the butter is added, add the warm tomato paste, espilette powder, and season with salt to taste. Serve ASAP, keep warm.
Tentop presents “Supfast” - Part 1.
25 May 2011 | creative presentation of the week, delicious, faithful readers, recipe, tentop | 2 Responses
This rather innocuous looking dish was a showcase in decadence and a personal milestone for me as a Chef. The first course in tentop’s latest dinner “Supfast,” we this called Duck in a Blanket. We rolled foie gras torchon into a thin pancake and served it with a maple gastrique and crushed hazelnut brittle. This dish marked a milepost for me on a long and winding road: making foie torchon from start to finish without a Chef lording over me. And I must say, faithful readers; when all was said and done: Nailed it. I followed the recipe in The French Laundry cookbook, and I had my lovely and talented girlfriend Ingrid help me with the rolling and poaching, and then the re-rolling and hanging. The next step of the process however, I learned from Chef Eric Suniga during his brief stint as Ten-01 Sous. After the torchon was hung for a few days, I brought it up to room temperature passed it through a tamis, then piped the soft and supple liver into an acetate lined mold. This last step is truly the move in foie gras handling. Firstly, any veins that you missed in the initial cleaning of the lobe is removed, and any oxidation or discoloring from blood is mixed in; you get a nice, rosy pink color. Finally, you can mold it really into any shape, I did a variety of log shapes once I had what I needed for service of the skinnys.
The dish was super successful, we wrapped the frozen little foie sticks into a hot thin pancake; which warmed the fatty liver to a perfect temp for eating in a few seconds. The idea was to dip into the gastrique first, then into the hazelnut brittle, and then into your mouth. A great start to what proved to be an amazing meal. We did a similar menu for a brunch over the weekend, the foie in this case a key component of a dish simply called “pancakes.”
Hazelnut Brittle
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 cups roasted unsalted hazelnuts, sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Few drops vanilla
Directions
Put a large pot or kettle over a medium heat. Add sugar, water, and corn syrup and bring to a boil.
When mixture comes to a boil, add butter.
Cook to 260 degrees F on a candy thermometer without stirring and add the sliced hazelnuts
Bring mixture to 300 degrees F and stir in salt, baking soda and vanilla.
Pour mixture onto a greased baking sheet and spread out and allow to cool.
Ten Top.
22 April 2011 | chef, delicious, faithful readers, jack yoss, jeff, tentop | 4 Responses
As faithful readers know, I’ve cooked my whole working life. In my seventeen years of kitchen work, I’ve only had one job that wasn’t food related; driving a horse carriage in Vail. I still hesitate to call myself a Chef, as it is a moniker for which I hold much respect. Even though I’ve had the word in my title as pastry chef for a few years now, Chef with a capital “c” is something else altogether. Jack Yoss is a Chef. Compared to him I will always be a cook. Semantics aside, the gods have somehow seen fit to land me in a Chef role of sorts, and I couldn’t be happier. As Chef jobs go, this one is breezy. It’s an invite only pop up restaurant for ten people, hence the name. The counter at Kitchen Cru was just begging for this model, and why shouldn’t it be me who answers the call. I was able to convince Michael, the owner of KitchenCru and my employer to try. Him being far from a slouch in the kitchen, a very experienced home cook, in fact, he came on board as co-chef. TenTop was born. We had very keen ideas from the beginning about what this would be; very small; very exclusive, the two of us having fun with food and friends. The idea to implement a Twitter/Facebook update blackout came to us very early, my friend and mentor Adam Berger having suggested it. Make this a true experience, one that didn’t need validation from the internet. Any blogging, tweeting or Facebooking that took place would happen on our end, before and after the event.
Our first dinner was Satan’s Feast, a heavy metal themed dinner. I wanted to make it fun and have an element of another driving force in my life: music. The menu descriptions were cryptic, as I tried to make them sound as metal as possible. I played some Instrametal like Pelican and Animals as Leaders during the dinner which at a lower volume seemed quite nice to eat to. Our first course was a freshly shucked oyster, because what is more metal than eating something that was alive only moments before? Second was my favorite dish of the evening, poached leeks with and Arrabbiata vinaigrette and duchess potato garnished with fried pepperoni. A last minute course we put together before the entree turned out to be the most metal of all, chicken heart dipped in agro dulce served on a duplex nail with a shot of grappa. Our entree was a fra diavolo surf & turf sandwich with some chioggia beet chips. Served on a house made pullman loaf, this sando was something to behold. It didn’t eat as well as I hoped, it ended up being a little cumbersome. The flavors were spot on though, hell of decadent. For dessert, I looked to make pastry metal by using the most brutal ingredient of all, blood. A pig’s blood custard with lemon sherbet, smoked pickled cherries, and blood caramel. This was a successful dish, the flavor of pig’s blood goes quite well with cocoa, the panna cotta’s other main flavoring ingredient. A subtle coppery earthiness and a slightly viscous texture created a nice complexity.
All in all, our first dinner was a huge success. In the near future I’m going to be bringing in some buddies of mine, fellow cooks and sous Chef’s who want to unleash their own food on the public, but don’t have a venue because they work in another chef’s kitchen. Also, you’ll see plenty of these dinners blogged about here with pictures and recipes, a la mrjeffmccarthy.com. For now you can download the recipes here. Check out all the photos for this event on my Flickr page. Follow TenTop on twitter @tentopcru, or check out the facebook page.
Landing at KitchenCru.
21 April 2011 | jeff, kitchencru, news, tentop | 14 Responses
When Ten-01 closed, I knew I was at a crossroads. Being a pastry chef at a fancy restaurant was fun and exciting for a lot of reasons, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized: being a Chef sucks. Sure you’ve heard it all before; the hours are long, the work monotonous and sometimes dangerous and almost never glorious. The part of it that I find fun is the creative element, the incubation of idea to fully realized dish. After that, it all was kind of annoying to me. The repetition of production and plating, and in spite of myself, always having to come up with a new dessert. I knew I needed a change, I just wasn’t sure what that change would be. Over the past few months I’d been picking up shifts at my favorite restaurant in town, Tabla. Producing desserts as needed and working the line a few nights a week was a blast. I worked just enough hours to keep me sane and just few enough to continue receiving unemployment. I came up with the idea for Your Mom’s and that has filled me with an excitement I haven’t felt in a long time. If I could get Your Mom’s off the ground (heh) I’d really have something. A few weeks later, I heard through the Ten-01 grape vine about a new commissary kitchen opening up in the park blocks. The proprietor had purchased a bunch of the used equipment from Ten-01 when it closed, and the industrious Teddy Rupert had delivered it. He brought back tales of endless stainless steel in a cavernous kitchen, steam jacketed kettles, combi-ovens, the list went on and on, his eyes glazed over in a recollection that was no doubt bordering the pornographic. He asked me if I knew anyone that might be interested in managing the place, as the owner was searching. Know anyone, I thought; hell I’m interested.
When I met Michael Madigan, he wasn’t what I expected. I’m not sure what I expected, but he wasn’t it. The more we talked, the more we both were aware of a certain simpatico. The KitchenCru project excited me. It was hard not to get excited, Michael had an infectious enthusiasm that almost immediately swept me up. Here was an amazingly beautiful, brand new, state of the art kitchen. The guy who built it a lover of all things food and kitchen, a true patron of the culinary arts. The job he was looking to fill played to all my strengths: kitchen logistics to describe it simply. If only I could convince him to let me continue doing the Tabla desserts and to pursue Your Mom’s (heh,) this would be the perfect job. He didn’t need much convincing. He had factored in that kitchen use would be a perk of the position. He wanted his kitchen manager to be cooking, to be using all of the brand new equipment. Everything seemed to fit right in there, like a complex puzzle putting itself together. On top of all this, the type of clients this beautiful kitchen was attracting, there was a huge opportunity for me to learn from a diverse mix of cooks and Chefs, as well as impart my 15 plus years experience to others. It all makes sense to me, I thought, so I signed on.
About a month later, things have changed yet again. Working at KitchenCru has dared me to dream. Dared me determine what it is exactly that i want to do with my life. Doing the Tabla dessert menu and delivering it a few times a week turned out to be a huge pain in the ass, and spread me a litter thinner than I wanted. When it comes down to it, I want to experiment with food, and write about it. I started to dream up an idea of how to use the Kitchen Cru space to achieve this…Enter TenTop. A ten seat pop up restaurant at the KitchenCru counter. But that’s another blog post isn’t it?
