Hi Everyone! Happy Mother's Day! Hope you all had a great week, hopefully you enjoyed the Cinco de Mayo celebrations, and are ready for a new week of great food. We haven't been getting a great response on the weekly flights so far, so I think we will take a break and try again in a few weeks or so.
The soup this week is Turkey Vegetable, this is broth based with loads of vegetables and potatoes.
The appetizer is a Bleu Cheese and Walnut-Stuffed Pear. a poached pear is scooped out and filled with Danish Bleu and finely ground walnuts. the sweetness of the pear and the saltiness of the cheese is really nice. This is served warm, and drizzled with Balsamic vinegar.
The Cheese this week is Port Wine Derby. This marbled cheese from England has vivid
steaks of port wine laced over pale creamy curds. the flavor is a bit sweet but not overpowering. This will be served with a slice of chicken liver, brandy and sage paté
from Elevation Meats here in Colorado. Elevation is a great homegrown company, with it's founder Chad Nelan getting his start at Tony's Market before taking off on his own. I really like their meats, and especially enjoy serving Colorado products. A nice crusty french bread accompanies this.
At Dinner we have Bronzed Redfish. Redfish is a member of the Drum family, abounding in the Gulf of Mexico. Redfish is flaky and mild, good for many different styles of cooking. If you are looking for a definition for Bronzed, don't bother. It's a term I picked up years ago and it has no culinary meaning beyond me. With much respect to Chef Paul Prudhomme-creator of Blackened Redfish, a dish so popular that Redfish was overfished for many years- I've never been a fan of blackening something as delicate as fish. To do it correctly involves a heavy hand with seasoning, a scorching hot dry pan, lots of noxious smoke and the result is, well, blackened. To Bronze, we take a much lighter hand with the seasoning, place the redfish in a hot pan with butter, and gently sauté it. Much nicer, don't you think? Anyway, we make a classic French Beurre Blanc-style sauce with crawfish meat and a touch of Pernod, and serve this with grilled mushrooms and stone-
ground mascarpone cheese grits. Yum.
We have Grilled Ribeye Steak this week at dinner, with bleu cheese butter, roasted broccoli, and twice baked potato. Ribeye is a great cut of meat, but is a little fatty, so please be aware. I personally like it that way, and recommend it medium rare with a glass of Decoy Cabernet that I happen to know Lora has stashed away. Ask her, she'll share.
We have Grilled Cornish Game Hen, served with a Mojo sauce. Cornish hens are really just very small chickens with a very rich flavor. Connecticut farmers cross-bred the standard Cornish chicken with a White Plymouth Rock hen and a Malayan fighting cock in the 1950s. The result, dubbed the Cornish Game Hen, matures quickly, developing particularly large breasts and fatty skin. This will go well with the Mojo, we make it with orange juice, lime juice, lots of garlic, cumin, and olive oil. We are serving this one with soft, sweet plantains, and crispy fried avocados. These hens are small enough that we are serving half a bird so if you like white and dark meat equally, you're in luck.
The vegetarian special is a Crispy Seitan and Red Rice Bowl. Seitan is the protein from wheat. Basically, you take a big ball of dough, and you knead it underwater. The carbohydrate is water-soluble and washes away; what is left can be shaped, marinated and baked or fried as needed. The flavor is nutty but bland, which is why we add ginger, garlic and soy before frying crisp. Red Rice is a very nutritious variety from the Himalayas that holds up well to bold flavors. Fresh fiddlehead ferns and miso broth make this one a light special for what will hopefully be a warm spring week.
For a pasta this week, we are serving Shrimp Scampi. we have done this many times and it is still a favorite. plump shrimp are sauteed in garlic, butter, wine, and tomatoes, with more butter and still more garlic and then served over pasta with a slice of garlic bread and fresh herbs.
For nightly specials, look out for the carved, Cherrywood-smoked Pork Chops, the Crispy Grouper Cheeks, Seared Beef Sirloin and Corned Beef with Cabbage.
At Lunch we have Pepper Jack Cheese Burger with Tarragon Mayonnaise, Salmon Wellington, Grilled Veal Skirt steak, Pine Nut-crusted Chicken, Teriyaki Ribs and Barbecued Chicken.
By the way, the bees are doing pretty well. Four of the six are thriving, two are needing some TLC. One of the hives in particular had queen cells all over it, which means that swarming is imminent, so be on the lookout for that. They have realized that even though I am wearing a full bee suit and veil, if they wriggle deep into my shoes they can find holes in my socks, so that's something new they've learned.
Anyway, I hope you all have a great week, I look forward to seeing many of you at the Culinary Corner on Monday at 10 am in the Dad Clark BAr.
Thanks!
