A la Carte Kitchen Week 4

Here is our A la Carte Kitchen Week 4 Menu

Bread: Red Wine-Walnut Bread
Soup: Watercress & Bacon
Salad: Grilled Caesar
Pasta: Greek Orzo with Tomato Confit
Entree: Savory Bread Pudding
Dessert: Taste & Textures of Chocolate

Not too many odd ingredients this week, other than the black garlic. It's fermented until the skin is brown and the meat is totally black. It smells really strong, but tastes really sweet, almost like braised shiitake.

Today I helped up front, doing some final training for the other FOH members. We had a party of 25 people, so we ended up helping out instead of training.

Amuse: Rhubarb Compote and Brie Tart. In phyllo tart shells with caramelized onions and fig vinegar. Didn't get a chance to taste this one, Chef kind of winged the amuse for this week, so this was a last-minute thing.

Bread: Red-Wine Bread (Left) and Gluten-free Brazilian Cheese puff (Right). The red wine bread had a subtle red wine flavor, and went well with the Brie, balck garlic, maple syrup and balsamic butter. Several people didn't show up for the Wednesday night, so Chef pulled me to the BOH to help. I made the cheese puffs; they contain tapioca flour, which makes them really chewy, almost like mochi. For the accompaniment, I made some sun-dried tomato & basil butter to go with it.

Soup: Watercress & Bacon Soup. The green puree is the watercress, the foam is bacon foam, and the yellow puree is dried pear. The actual soup is clear broth with watercress, chicken, and vegetable stock.

Salad: Grilled Caesar. Romaine lettuce brushed with olive oil, then grilled. The 'dressing' is Caesar dressing set with gelatin, cubed, breaded, and deep-fried. Served with roasted artichokes and local goat cheese.

Pasta: Greek Orzo with Tomato Confit. The orzo is tossed with sorrel-basil pesto, olives, green peas, then topped with gremolata and feta cheese. The one on the right is the gluten-free version--we used forbidden rice instead of the orzo. I took the leftovers home and made Om-pasta (kinda like om-rice, except with the orzo instead) for my parents.

Entree: Savory Bread Pudding. With 4 different kinds of cheese and herbs. Served with sauteed wild mushrooms and apple-rhubarb sauce. It was good, but really rich and heavy. I took the mushrooms home, and used half of it in Mushroom pasta. Mom took the other half and made Mushroom rice.

Dessert: Mocha Porter Cake, Frozen Citrus-Vanilla Pudding, Carbonated Orange Curd. Served in flower pot for that spring look. The cake was really moist and delicious, with good, but not overpowering, flavor of beer.