Carrot Custard

The Sierra Mar garden is starting to blossom!  In addition to an array of flowers and budding trees, the root vegetables we planted last month are ready to harvest.  These tiny onions, carrots and turnips are barely the size of spring peas, but full of flavor.

Recently, I've been working on a carrot custard with caramelized honey and cumin.  I'm serving it with pea-tendril goat cheese, young nettles and tiny garden roots.

John Dory

Many years ago, while I was still attending New England Culinary Institute, I worked with Kent Rathbun when he was opening Abacus in Dallas.  Each day there would be an array of new and exciting ingredients from around the world.  I distinctly remember going into the fish walk-in and seeing a few dozen John Dory on ice.  The fish are unmistakable, but at the time they might as well have been aliens because I had never seen anything like them; Long spiny dorsal fins, smooth jaundiced- silver skin, protruding cheek bones and a large black patch in the middle of each side.   While the fish were impressive to look at they were a terror to clean, and as a young cook I would frequently stab myself with the sharp spines protruding from the fins, leaving my hand throbbing in pain.  Despite the painful learning experience- John Dory remains one of my favorite fish.  The flesh is firm, but still delicate, with a sweet-briny flavor.  Also known as St. Pierre, it is said to have gotten its distinct thumb-print pattern from the hands of St. Peter- an unlikely story given that the fish is found off the coast of Africa and Australia- but not the Sea of Galilee.

This week we got an unexpected surprise when we fileted the John Dory; perfect orange roe sacks.  We are in the process of curing and drying the roe to make a version of Bottarga, a dried fish roe from Sardinia.

Geoduck

When Chef Laiskonis agreed to do the guest chef dinner and demo a few weeks ago, I expected to have some challenging ingredients on my shopping list.  Hydrocolloids - check; Six different types of chocolate - check; Buddha Hand Fruit - check; Geoduck Clams! - Couldn't find them anywhere.  I started with my three main fish purveyors and none of them had any luck sourcing them.  I tried a
couple of fed-ex companies and only came up with farm raised Geoducks from Baja which wouldn't do.  In a last effort I asked one of my friends to stop by an Asian live seafood market in the South Bay.  Sure enough they had a few giant geoducks sitting in an aerated tank.  For the precious price of
$30 per pound he bought me four.

Geoducks are prized in many parts of Asia, fetching upwards of a hundred dollars per pound for prime specimens.  Their appeal is a crisp texture, clean-sweet flavor and an appearance that can only be described as surreally phallic.  We have a similar species of Clam that lives in the brackish waters of the Elkhorn Slough called Horseneck Clams.  At low tide you can see the clams squirting water along the slough banks, then rapidly digging themselves into the sand with any hit of danger. Unfortunately I don't believe these are commercially available, but would love to get a fishing license and try to catch a few.

I wish I could have gone to the live market in person last week, but unfortunately we were all too busy to take a morning off.  It is always inspiring to think about the number of ingredients that are available when you take the time to find them.  In the next couple of weeks I want to take my sous chefs, Willy and Jacob, on a culinary tour of the ethnic markets in the Bay Area, in search of new and exciting ingredients.

Pacific Coast Truffles

The Oregon Black Truffle Season is underway.  As much as I hate to say it, I’m not the kind of chef that gets excited over truffles.  Sure they are incredibly aromatic and offer an earthiness that is unique and mysterious, but I no longer find them special.  You can now find “truffles” everywhere from your corner hamburger restaurant to fine-dining restaurants around the world.  Whether it is in the form of butter, oil or fresh shavings, truffles take on a variety of shapes and aromas.  The quality and value of a truffle is based on the species, origin, size and ripeness.  With some Italian truffles selling for thousands of dollars per pound, counterfeits are as common as fake Louis Vuittons and similarly priced.  Many of these lesser quality imposters are collected in China where they are harvested prematurely using large rakes.  The species is less aromatic to begin with and when harvested early, smell like little more than damp cardboard.  In the Pacific Northwest, ranging from just North of San Francisco to Vancouver, there has been a growing interest in native truffles, which can be found primarily below Douglas Fir trees.  A few hobbyists and entrepreneurs have trained dogs to find truffles at their peak ripeness, resulting in a truffle with an intense aroma reminiscent of its European cousins with a distinctly Pacific Coast quality.  Unfortunately these truffles are difficult to find outside of the areas where they are found.  This week the forager we work with had a few golf ball-sized tubers that we quickly snatched up.  I hope to get a few more deliveries before the season ends in April.

Robbins Island Wagyu

This week we tried a new Wagyu Beef from Robbins Island in Tasmania.  Similar to the Wagyu that we use from Lone Mountain Ranch, the herd on Robbins Island is 100% Wagyu from Japanese genetics.  The difference is that the Robbins Island Wagyu is completely Grass Fed and is influenced by the coastal environment.  Despite not being grain-finished, the ribeye we received had incredible marbling (BMS 7-9) and the flavor was quite mild with only a hint of the pastoral-gaminess often found in grass-fed animals.  During the grazing season the cows are herded to new pastures across a shallow tidal channel.

Tonight are serving the Robbins Island Ribeye crusted in exotic peppercorns (tellicherry, Balinese and cubeb pepper that have been ground in the mortar with black onion seeds, trumpet mushrooms, smoked salt and freeze-dried raisins.  I serve the beef with a hedgehog mushroom puree and spring onion confit.

Chef Jacob put together a beautiful braised pork belly dish using apple blossoms from the garden, green apple puree, charred spring onion and apple-lees from our freshly bottled cider. 

Michael Laiskonis Pastry Chef Dinner

We just finished a wonderful weekend at Post Ranch with visiting Chef, Michael Laiskonis.  Chef Laiskonis was the pastry chef at Le Bernadin in New York for eight years and is now the creative director for the Institute for Culinary Education in NYC.  He is an immensely talented chef with an impressive knowledge of modern techniques and an aptitude for teaching. 

On Saturday evening our Pastry Chef, Yulanda Santos and Chef Laiskonis, collaborated on an intimate eight course dinner featuring Chocolate, Citrus and Spice.  The event, held at the Hawthorne Gallery quickly sold out.  Dominique did an incredible job with wine pairings for the evening.  The chefs prepared several savory courses including: a ceviche of geoduck clam, oxtail consommé, roasted duck, sea scallops with caramelized white chocolate and a wild radish salad.  These were followed by a progression of intricately crafted pastries, displaying each chef’s artistic talents and personal style.  The dinner attracted people from all over Northern California, including Ron Mendoza (Pastry Chef at Aubergine) and Levi Mezick (Chef at 1833).

Sunday afternoon we presented a cooking demo with Chef Laiskonis at the MEarth Habitat at Carmel Middleschool.  The habitat is a non-profit classroom and garden that teaches children about food, ecology and sustainable living.  The new LED certified classroom was the perfect space for the demonstration, with large windows overlooking the Carmel foothills and school gardens.  Some of the proceeds from the event went to help fund the program.  The demo was open to the public, but Chef Laiskonis’ presentation was certainly geared for food professionals, with a good amount of time being spent of blending hydrocolloids and using contemporary pastry techniques.  Fortunately a majority of the attendees for the sold out event were trained pastry chefs.  We were honored to have several local chefs including: Ben Spungin of Bernardus, Ron Mendoza and Justin Cogley both of Aubergine, Quinn Thompson from La Bicyclette and a number of chefs from the Bay Area.  Chef’s Warehouse generously donated the chocolates used in the event.  It was great to see so much community support for the MEarth Habitat and our visiting chef series.

It was a fun and rewarding weekend, one we hope will be the first of many such events.  We are busy putting together our list of chef invitations – so if there is someone you would like to see invited, please leave us a comment below.