Not on My Watch

Sometimes things don't always work out the way that you expect.

There are those times when even I would admit that I've had a "thin" idea that wasn't well thought out, or I couldn't find the ingredients that I wanted, and then there's this week, when I had a beautiful idea that I couldn't execute due to an outside factor.

I really wanted to offer a classic way of baking fish with a wonderful miso marinade made with the white variety of the soybean paste blended with mirin, or sweet rice cooking wine, rice vinegar, ginger and a touch of sesame oil. The mixture is then spread over fillets of fish and broiled or, in my case, baked in a high temperature convection oven until it caramelizes slightly, using orange slices as a barrier between the pan and the fish to prevent it from burning while also imparting a hint of citrus flavor that really pairs well with the miso glaze.

As a little playful nod to the Japanese influence of the miso fish I thought I would use the most abundantly available summer vegetable - zucchini - in an unusual way by finely cutting it into log, thin strips resembling noodles and sauteing them in oil, garlic and Walla Walla onions until soft.

For the sauce I really wanted to emphasize a spicy ginger note within a puree made by first slowly cooking it with whole cloves of garlic and chopped scallions. I added a touch of the Indian spice garam masala to give it a little dynamic since it plays well with the same types of ingredients that are found in both cuisines. I simmered this base with carrots until they're ultra soft, giving me a silky smooth puree once whirled in the blender.

The problem with all of this is that when I placed my fish order for true cod fillets with an unnamed company, I knew right away that something was wrong with it. Not only was it whole fish instead of fillets, I was immediately suspicious of it's quality, but it wasn't until I setup my "demo" plate used for this photo and to ensure the validity of the dish that I was sure that I was given garbage due to the taste and texture of the fish. I could tell that it was probably frozen and thawed a couple of times, and I was assured by my rep that it "wasn't representative of the type of product" that they sell, and blah, blah, blah.

The good news? I will have fresh, local line caught true cod available for the rest of the week. The bad news? No one had the special Tuesday night. I guess there's a first time for everything!

This year, instead of a reoccurring entree special of a sliced heirloom tomato plate I thought that this time it would be more interesting to offer it as a cocktail!

I used a mixed case of heirloom tomatoes from California (sorry locavores; tomato season was evidently canceled this year in the PNW) to make separately colored purees so I could use them to create a layered effect. Last week I started an infusion just for this by mixing 100 proof vodka with chopped celery and freshly cracked black peppercorns which ended up replacing our usual bloody Mary spice blend because it allows the fresh flavor of the tomatoes to shine through yet has enough spice to keep it complex enough.

And just for giggles I used pink Hawaiian sea salt to rim the glass, which gets its color by being rich in trace minerals and is traditionally used to cleanse, bless tools and in healing rituals.

I garnished it with a chipotle-pickled carrot that we use to accent all of our bloody Marys!!

Fortunately the rest of them looked a lot less like cotton candy than this one!!

With Love,

Cheffrey

I Know a Good Idea When I Steal It!

That was the motto of Chef Phil Delaplane, my culinary instructor in the Fish Kitchen class at the Culinary Institute of America that still rings in my ears thirteen years later, probably because it is one of the most practical bits of advice that I have ever received.

I'm constantly on the search for inspiration and it can be found in even the most surprising places. In his book about my favorite dining experience, Alinea, chef Grant Achatz describes the inspiration of a dish at his 3 Michelin starred restaurant (the highest possible, and most notable in the world) came from a rootbeer float at an A&W fast food chain during his move from Napa Valley, CA to Chicago, IL. Since reading that passage I try to never discounted a good idea. Luckily for me, insight is everywhere!

I initially wanted to pair the melon salad from a few weeks ago with a nicely prepared chicken confit before I realized how much better the cured salmon would go with it, so on the back burner it went until last week when I ordered my favorite Lao dish from Savatdee, a Thai and Laos restaurant in my neighborhood. It's a salad with prawns, lettuce, mint, cilantro, vegetables and a wonderful spicy coriander dressing. Like most Thai places the spiciness is based on a star system, and like In the Bowl a one star is more like two at other restaurants. My first experience was one of those where it was sooooo spicy but I couldn't stop eating it.

So I set out to create my own version, but this story first began last Friday, believe it or not.

The initial reason to confit - or cook in fat - anything was for preservation and was a speciality of southwestern France, but nowadays we do it for flavor. I do a basic version on the menu with duck legs, but I wanted to find a more common ground by using chicken, so late Friday night I dredged bone-in, skin on chicken thighs in a mixture of kosher salt, crushed juniper berries, coriander seeds, pickling spice and other little touches and allowed them to cure overnight where I slowly poached them in a combination of duck fat, bacon fat and extra virgin olive oil so that no one flavor would dominate.

I chilled the chicken in the same fat that it cooked in and stored it in the refrigerator over the weekend to allow for all of the flavors to mingle. To finish the thighs once ordered I heat a nonstick pan and place two of them skin side down and place in my hot oven without flipping them over, which heats them through and crisps the skin into something so light, crisp and tender it's astounding!!

While the meat heats up I first prepare a cold salad with green and yellow wax beans that I had steamed (never boil!!) and sliced into little diamond shapes that I then tossed in a dressing inspired from Savatdee made by muddling garlic cloves (yes, just like a cocktail; I didn't have a mortar and pestle on hand so I used a metal shaker and metal muddler so that the flavors wouldn't linger into your mojito) with sugar, freshly toasted and ground coriander and cardamom, fish sauce, chili flake, lime juice and scallions. I tossed the beans with the dressing and freshly chopped mint and cilantro to order so that nothing would discolor from the acid in the dressing.

For the sauce I revived a favorite from last year where I cut the corn kernels from the cob, made a stock with the leftover cobs, cooled the stock and used it to puree the fresh kernels into a liquid and then strained it. I brought the resulting liquid to boil once the dish was ready to assemble, yielding a silky smooth "pudding" that is simply thickened by the natural starch in the corn and is as fresh tasting as can be!

To be honest, after years of creating my own cocktails the sangria specials from last month came to me very easily, which only made me happier when they sold very well. This allowed me time to come up with a new drink without the usual pressure to get it done in time.

Some of the best flavors that summer has to offer comes in the form of herbs, and there is nothing that can liven up and create an intriguing cocktail better than a vibrant, local herb.

Rosemary grows readily here in the PNW, and while undoubtedly distinct, it is just as diverse. I used some leftover stems whose leaves were used to season our potato sides at brunch in order to flavor a simple syrup by steeping them in it over the weekend. I used this syrup to slightly sweeten cucumber vodka and club soda over ice, creating an intense yet light summer cooler!!


With Love,

Cheffrey

Chilin' Out

Now that we're in the heart of summer, I feel like there is no better time than now to offer up one of my favorite cold entrees: gazpacho!

To be honest (and a little bit egotistical) I was never really a fan of gazpacho until I started making my own. Most restaurants serve a generic variety, banking on the freshness of the season to outweigh creativity. I'm all for allowing the ingredients to shine, but why not use a little poetic license while you're at it?

I've already made two unique versions myself, like the Yellow Watermelon Gazpacho and Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho, both of which had beautiful preparations of tuna. I obviously feel that seafood is the best protein for it, so why stop now?

I was originally going to have a dish with a minute amount of the pricey Dungeness crab, but after talking to my fishmonger I found out that a lot of restaurants are cutting their Dungeness dishes with Pacific Rock Crab, a close cousin, so I thought that it was best to offer a lesser known crab for less money.

This year's gazpacho is made with fresh tomatillos, a relative to tomatoes but more closely related to the gooseberry. I slowly cooked onions and garlic in extra virgin olive oil with a touch of ground cumin, which I cooled completely before pureeing with the husked, raw tomatillos and a splash of Worcestershire sauce and a few sprigs of basil.

I tossed the crabmeat in the usual accoutrements of brunoise (tiny dice) seedless cucumbers, red and orange bell peppers, red gooseberries, red onions that I soaked in ice water to mellow their bite and a touch of deseeded jalapenos for a little tingle on the tongue.

I needed a buffer between the acidic tomatillos and the sweetness of the crabmeat and the vegetable/gooseberry salad and I felt that there was no better addition than several slices of ripe, creamy avocado for you to stir in at will.

For my final sangria offering this year I went with a variation of what originally inspired this string of wine punch drink specials, as well as a tribute to one of our new popular menu items.

Since it's introduction on the menu a few months ago my Taleggio cheese sandwich with a Mirin poached pear (and optional bacon) has really taken off, so I drew from that for this one.

I started this month of sangrias with an apple sangria topped with brandy and hard apple cider which reminded me about a delicious pear brandy from Clear Creek Distillery that is full of pear flavor that I felt could hold up to an infusion of fresh ginger for several weeks along with a gallon of white wine with the same blissful fate.

I diced my coveted pears and allowed them to soak in the ginger-pear brandy and a little simple syrup to create a refreshing white sangria that you won't find anywhere!!

With Love,

Cheffrey

P.S. - For those of you who are interested; How do I celibrate my birthday?? With a pig roast, of course!! Check out my birthday party pics here.

One for Me

Another year has passed and now I find myself facing yet another birthday Wednesday. This year I decided to create a special for me, though I'm sure that you guys will like it too!!

I have been mulling over the idea of offering a pork belly entree as a special for a long time, but with the popularity of my medium-sized pork belly plate that adorns both brunch and dinner menus I had to make sure that it was pretty damn good to compete with that dish. So I took my time developing it - making sure that each component was in harmony with the other. Finally, when I felt that it was right I realized that I was just in time to debut this beauty during my own birthday week.

Normally, as is the case with the pork belly dish on the menu, I like to just use quality ingredients without too much fuss and allow them to shine, but here I used the same belly from Carlton Farms but instead of adding just enough water to keep the meat moist until it releases it's own juices and slowly cooks in them, I had to inject as much flavor into the belly to make it stand apart so I drowned two slabs in apple cider along with herbs and aromatics and slowly stewed them in the oven for over four hours until perfectly cooked and infused with the apple. I pressed the two bellies under weights while still hot and allowed them to cool in the fridge that way so that they would have an even thickness from end to end and be firm when heated, not wobbly.

I clarified the resulting liquid that's full of apple and pork flavor like a consomme' with a process called a "raft" which consisted of finely chopped onions and carrots, bay leaves, egg whites and their crushed shells. Once the liquid is boiling I float the vegetable and egg mixture on top and allow it to simmer for an hour which collects all of the impurities in the broth, leaving it crystal clear.

To balance that subtle sweetness left from the apple cider I chose to finely chop some local mustard greens that have a lot of body and some bitterness to them; one of my favorite greens for exactly that reason. I saute them in a little butter, onions and garlic just until wilted.

As accompaniments I first cooked cut pieces of carrots in chicken stock that I had simmered with a ton of fresh ginger and thyme so that it would infuse the flavor into the carrot. Then I added a taste of summer by dropping in several fresh red and black currants for their tartness and texture. I finished the dish with a spoonful of yellow and black mustard seeds that I reconstituted in hot apple cider which added a lot more to the dish than just aesthetics. How much?? Come and see for yourself!!

For some reason, whenever I think of my birthday I think of when I was young. It's probably because when you're a kid there's something so special, so magical about that day. It's like the world is about to stop just for you.

When I was a kid, we had a cherry tree on the side of our house that I always considered was mine. I guess that it was because it always gave fruit right around my birthday. Back then, cherry was my favorite flavor of candy (now it's apple...) and I would pick cherries by the bucketful and eat myself sick.

So to bring together that taste of young with a taste of something a little bit mature I made a cherry sangria by soaking freshly pitted cherries in brandy, pure cherry juice and just enough simple syrup to draw out some of the flavor from the fresh fruit. Finished with cold Burgundy wine it had the perfect balance of fruit, wine and punch!!!

With Love,

Cheffrey

Oh, Yeah!

As promised, I am continuing my month of sangria with another off-beat take on the summer cooler.

This time I'm getting closer to the more literal translation of sangria, which comes from the root word "blood", but this time I only get as close as a rose'.

I'm actually a fan of rose'. It gets a bad rap. It's a white wine that has sat on the grape skins long enough to acquire a little color and maybe a bit of flavor. It is usually served chilled as a refreshing summer beverage, which lead me to this variation.

I macerated sliced, fresh strawberries in simple syrup and aged brandy for several hours before combining it with a crisp rose' from our wine chiller.

Looks a lot like the Kool Aid Man, doesn't it??

~~~   ~~~   ~~~

I'm really enjoying creating interesting cold dishes right now. Not only is there a plethora of fantastic ingredients to choose from that warrant cold preparations, but I've found that people lean towards lighter fare in the summer months. Who am I to argue?

I have been working on this idea for a while now where I could cure salmon a pair it with a fresh melon salad, just like the classic prosciutto pairing.

I wanted to create an interesting cure for the salmon, so I juiced fresh apricots to use in place of sugar in a typical gravelax recipe along with a touch of coriander seeds. I wrapped the fillets and let sit over the weekend to allow all of the subtle flavors to absorb.

Though cantelope is the most common combination with prosciutto, I felt that it wasn't necessary to chose just one melon, and with the addition of honeydew I would not only get a new color but added texture as well. I tossed in a pinch of fresh pea shoots for a touch of summer freshness and chopped chervil for the great way that its licorice flavor favors the sweet melon as well.

With the salt in the salmon cure and the juice in the melon I really didn't need a "dressing" per se, but I wanted something to finish the dish - to tie it all together. So, over the last few weeks I have been steeping dried mission figs in aged balsamic vinegar until their flavors mingled, giving a sauce that has body, depth and complexity.


On a final note, we are hosting our third year at Farestart's Guest Chefs on the Waterfront tomorrow, so if you're looking for me, I'll be on Pier 66 ;).

With Love,

Cheffrey

A Month of Somedays

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July - I know I did!

Usually, my specials are a specifically composed dish that, at least in my mind, couldn't be made any other way, but throughout the brainstorming process I have these little ideas that sit around waiting to be picked up someday. I refer back to them when I need inspiration, but it can take some time for one of these good ideas to finally surface, and even when I find a good fit I can't use them right away because there are more factors to offering a good dish than just a good idea. 

Like next week, when I will be out of the kitchen on Wednesday because we will be serving our deviled eggs at our booth at Farestart's Guest Chefs on the Waterfront and when I'm away I want everything to go smoothly, and while the staff has the regular menu down, I don't want to trip them up with an overly complicated special. 

And then there was a braised pork belly idea that by the time the vendor had delivered the meat, I cooked, cooled and portioned it, it wouldn't be ready until Wednesday. That would only work when I schedule it ahead of time.

So in the end I had to compromise, but by no means settle.

I had a little idea of a seasonal jam made with rhubarb and red wine, and initially I felt that it would be awesome paired with lamb, which tripped me up because I have to be very creative with my cooking techniques in order to use an economical cut to keep within our price point, and I haven't yet been able to follow through with the thought, so I went instead with the breasts of Cornish game hen, which I have used with rhubarb before, but this time I feel like my experience with it has allowed me to make it even better this by not adding too much wine to the rhubarb allowing for its natural liquid to leach out and not having to cook it down a lot.

Since I started brewing my own beer at home (which I would love to do for the restaurant but would be a WHOLE other licensing beast to wrestle) I have felt like I really underutilize the great flavor value of grains, and though I'm not ready to cook with interesting ingredients like chocolate barley, I feel like I could find a place for it sometime in the fall. In the meantime I went with the more common pearled barley.

Pearled barley is a grain processed by polishing it in order to remove the bran, helping it from being too chewy once cooked. I simmered it in a rich, seasoned chicken stock and allowed it to cook in the liquid, further absorbing the flavor. Once ordered I sauteed it in butter, onions and garlic, local baby spinach, and the leg meat that I poached in the chicken stock to both fortify it and keep the meat juicy.

For some reason July has become synonymous to sangria for me, probably because it is one of the hottest months of the year and exactly why sangria was invented in the first place. So I decided to exclusively dedicate this month's drink specials to variations of the refreshing wine punch.

This week is inspired by my favorite ingredient for sangria: the apple. I love the way it absorbs the flavors and retain its crunch. Since I wanted to use Granny Smith apples, my personal favorite for their crisp flavor, I started this sangria tribute with the unofficial white variety.

I started early by dicing the apples and slicing some oranges so that they would have plenty of time to macerate in brandy and simple syrup, leaving a reason to actually eat the fruit - little explosions of flavor and liquor.

To top it off and add even more of the apple flavor I finish the glass with a couple of ounces of Hornsby's Crisp Apple Cider that retains more of that bright flavor without too much sweetness.

 


We're off to a great start!!

With Love,

Cheffrey

Just Peachy!

In the past I have tried to space out my specials that contained similar ingredients to keep each week new and different, but for the last two years the summer's treats have been delayed by about a month due to weather, and when that happens good ideas fall by the wayside, never to return if I put them off.

When I have leftover fruit like the peaches from last week's special I usually either cook it down or freeze it to be used for brunch smoothies, but they were so flavorful that I had to use them again. So since I had to cook them in order to keep them I went with a sweet and tangy barbecue sauce made by quickly cooking the whole peaches in water and shocking them in ice water so I could peel the tannic skin before blending the sweet flesh with spices, soy sauce, Worcestershire, brown sugar, maple syrup and cider vinegar. To meld all of the flavors I threw it all in a pot and brought the sauce just to a simmer and allowed it to slowly cool.

I debated on adding chipotle - smoked jalapenos - to the sauce for spiciness to balance out the sweetness, but then I thought "what better way than to add that heat in the form of a dry rub on a steak?". Not only do dry rubs add flavor, but also what is called "bark", the charred crust that embodies great barbecue. I made mine with salt, brown sugar, chipotle powder, cumin, coriander and Chinese 5-spice.

Instead of some cut of meat that needs a long, slow cooking that's typical of barbecue, I went with something more indicative of summer, like a steak. Initially I wanted to use a flat iron steak due to it's flavor and consistent size and shape, but when I got to the store they were out, so I went with the next best thing - flank steak.

Flank steak comes from the region of the cow just below the strip loin and behind hanger and skirt steaks, so it's among great, flavorful cuts like the flat iron. The problem is that it's not always the same thickness or width, which only means more work for me and nothing to you!

To bring all of the flavors together and balance the dish to a zen-like perfection I made use of some local, organic dandelion greens for their fresh, vibrant and bitter attributes.

What???

Yes, like what grows in your yard, and, no, not at all like what grows in your yard.

I used to serve a wonderful dandelion greens salad with a honey-shallot vinaigrette at a previous restaurant that at some point I want to revive, but for this dish I wanted to lightly saute them in butter, onion and garlic until just wilted to act as a bed for the steak and a barrier for the sauce so that you, the diner can combine as much or as little of each flavor components as you wish.

As much as I love coming up with new ideas for both dinner and drink specials, it's refreshing when one of our own steps up to help with the creativity.

A couple of weeks ago one of our servers, Justin, and I were talking about what we could do for a drink special, and we bounced around the idea of using pineapple in a margarita, which led to infusing chopped pineapple into tequila over time as well as muddling it to get it on both fronts, and a joint idea was born.

Two weeks later the tequila was ready, and once strained, it was added to muddled fresh pineapple pieces and lime wedges with a splash of sweet and sour mix, yielding a powerful concoction of fresh flavors with high octane!!

With Love,

Cheffrey

Shining Bright

Summer is here again!

As the calender brings the longest day of sunlight for the year I felt it necessary to create two specials that will each be as bright and vibrant as the summer sun.

Inspired by one of my early influences, Ming Tsai, I have been wanting to implement his spin on the classic dish steak au poivre, or peppercorn steak, where he uses all five peppercorns to encrust a filet of beef: white, black and green with their cousins the pink and Schezuan varieties. But due to the season I wanted to see it on a nice Ahi tuna steak which can hold up to the spice of the peppercorns just as well as filet mignon. I pressed each piece into the coarsely ground peppercorns and seared them in a hot pan just enough to toast the crust while keeping the fish a vibrant rare.

Being the first day of summer it was only natural for me to offer a chilled entree, so I thought about what would pair well with the peppercorns and I came up with a beautiful combination of shaved fennel, English cucumbers, pea shoots and the big kicker - sliced peaches. This fresh salad sparkles with harmony, especially with the subtle addition of toasted celery seed and flaky Maldon sea salt to finish it.

Finally, I needed a sauce, so I took a note from a special in the past and elevated it. I steamed yellow bell peppers, peeled them and simmered the flesh in heavy cream before blending and straining the sauce, chilling it and pouring it into a whipped cream canister which creates a silky smooth mousse that's full of flavor and is as light as air.

The other half of my summer celebration specials is a complex combination of ingredients that add up to one simple word: refreshing!

After my introduction to Aperol when using it for a drink special a few weeks ago I realized its infinite potential in the realm of refreshing cocktails. This time, instead of showing how well it could enhance other flavors I wanted to use fresh ingredients to bring out the aperitif's subtle nuance of flavors.

We start first by muddling fresh grapefruit and lemon with ice, which draws out the essential oils from their skins. Then we pour on the Aperol, vodka, fresh grapefruit juice, orange bitters and a splash of St. Germain elderflower liqueur to add that unmistakable floral flavor that makes you think that you're sitting in a flower patch and not in a restaurant on Broadway!

With Love,

Cheffrey