For the specialty ingredients this week, we had rhubarb, white asparagus, figs, spinach wonton wrappers, sunchokes (a.k.a. Jerusalem artichokes), ramps, chocolate mint, and... crawfish.
From these, Chef came up with the following menu....
Amuse: Rhubarb compote sushi
Bread: Sage & Brie Buttermilk Biscuit
Soup: White Asparagus Soup
Salad: Spring Greens with fresh figs and goat cheese mousse
Pasta: Spinach Wonton
Entree: Crawfish & Shrimp with Creamy Polenta
Dessert: Pineapple Confit & Angel Food Cake en Papillote
I redid the chalkboard...
Just some interesting info on the specialty ingredients. I didn't know sunchokes can be made into liquors.
Our Chef playing with crawfish finger puppet. She wanted to use the heads as garnish on the entree.
Amuse: Rhubarb compote sushi in soy wrapper and curry granola. The first time it was made, the rice was way too soggy--it was almost mush. I told the guy making it to cook the rice on the dry side--that way, it'll soak up the vinegar without getting mushy. He did it right the second time around. Although even with the rice done correctly, I still didn't like it. The combination of the vinegar from the rice and the tang from the rhubarb made this dish too sour.
Bread: Sage & Brie Cheese Buttermilk Biscuits, served with fig and molasses butter. It had good flavor, nice and cheesy; the sage added an herbal element to it. It was a bit too salty though.
Soup: White Asparagus Soup, with smoked pea shoot foam, rhubarb compote and rhubarb chips. The pea shoots were smoked in a stovetop smoker, pureed with milk and strained. The milk was foamed to order. I didn't care for the foam, but the soup itself tasted delicious!
Salad: Spring Greens with fresh figs, tangerine, and wild rice crouton. Tossed in citrus vinaigrette. The croutons are Wild Rice & Cranberry Quickbread sliced very thinly, then baked at a low temp until crisp. They were quite delicious, so I tried making them at home with the leftover wild rice. I sprinkled sugar on mine. It wasn't bad, but the quickbread recipe may need some tweaking; it contains no butter or eggs, just buttermilk, and the bread turned out pretty dense. The salad itself, however, was delicious.
Pasta: Spinach Wonton with Coconut-saffron foam, crispy pancetta, grilled ramp, and roasted sunchokes. The ravioli-like wonton had zucchini, ricotta, mozzarella, and Meyer lemon filling. To be honest, the only things I liked about this plate were the ramp and the sunchokes. The wontons were too soggy (we had several people point that out) and the fillings were bland.
Entree: Shrimp & Crawfish with creamy polenta, sauteed mushrooms, and chorizo. Served with nut-free pesto (hominy was used instead of the traditional pine nuts). There are several versions of polenta, but they are normally made from cornmeal. Restaurants often serve polenta as patties that are pan fried. Not too many people like it that way--it's too doughy and gummy almost. But this creamy version was much better. We used a 'cheese stock' to cook the polenta. The cheese stock is made by adding cheese rinds to the stock. Any cheese can be used; we used Parmesan, Gruyere, Seahive Cheddar (a local brand of artisan cheese), and blue cheese (possible Cambozola). I think the restaurants serve the pan-fried version because it's easier and the polenta can be made ahead of time--the creamy kind must be cooked slowly on the stove for several hours.
Dessert: Pineapple Compote & Angel Food Cake en papilliote, Pomegranate and Seville Orange-Lemon Sorbet, and pistachio biscotti. The brown 'dirt' is citrus ash, made by first roasting the citrus rinds til black, then pulverizing it. The compote was delicious, but the Seville Orange sorbet was too bitter and sour.
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