Menu Flashcards
Prelude Components
– Kanpachi Nigiri
– Sage Hill Ranch Garden Greens
– Spanish Anchovies / Potato Rosti
– Chicken Liver Churro
PRELUDE: Kanpachi Nigiri
– Fish is diced, then cured in sake & soy
– Sitting on DASHI MERINGUE (egg white, dashi kombu, soy, vinegar)
– Garnished with shiso leaf, yuzu mayo, fresh wasabi, and shiso flower
PRELUDE: Dashi Meringue
– Egg White
– Dashi
– Soy
– Vinegar
Dashi: kombu dashi (veg)
PRELUDE: Sage Hill Ranch Gardens
A “no till” farm in Escondido. Very focused on being “human-scale,” no/low petroleum, soil health, all that good shit.
– they say “a half acre” but that really doesn’t seem right
PRELUDE: Sage Hill Ranch Garden Greens
– Puffed cracker dough (flour milk, yeast, salt)
– filled with “garden pesto” (goat cheese, marscapone, parmesan , almond, nettles, basil, olive oil, sun-dried tomato, picholine olives)
– topped with greens, banyuls vinegar, and parsley powder
PRELUDE: Ingredients in the puffed cracker
flour, milk, yeast, salt
PRELUDE: Leaves in the “salad”
– marigold leaves (bitter, citrus)
– Nasturtium (peppery)
– amaranth (spinach-like, sweet, hearty)
– blood sorrel (tangy, lemony)
PRELUDE: Sage Hill Ranch – “garden pesto”
– goat cheese
– marscapone
– parmesan
– almond
– nettles
– basil
– olive oil
– sun-dried tomato
– picholine olives (particularly delicate olive)
PRELUDE: Spanish Anchovies w/ Crispy Potato Rosti
– Potato Rosti (shredded potato bound with clarified butter)
– Garnished with wild arugula, arugula mayo, lemon jam, lemon zest, and EVOO
PRELUDE: Chicken Liver Churro
– Feuille de brick (a Tunisian version of phyllo dough that’s thicker and less fragile)
– rolled in cinnamon sugar and filled with chicken liver mousse
– topped with “bitter chocolate” (cocoa nib puree = cream, egg, cornstarch, cocoa)
PRELUDE: “Bitter Chocolate” on Churro
Cocoa Nib Puree
– cream
– egg
– cornstarch
– cocoa
1st course: Kanpachi Sashimi – spiel
Our first seasonal composition of the evening is our Kanpachi Sashimi.
A rose of lightly salt-cured Kanpachi, petaled with fresh kiwi and preserved hosui pears, and finished with a pichuberry ponzu.
Chef recommends working from the outside in, unfurling the rose layer by layer from the outside in, allowing the brightness of the ponzu to flavor each bite.
– Kanpachi = Japanese Amberjack
– lightly salt cured, sliced and served raw
– Preserved hosui asian pears,
– kiwi
– pichuberries (a.k.a. cape gooseberries, from South America)
– pickled myoga (a delicate type of japanese ginger)
– preserved ginger
– brushed with ginger oil, fresh citrus zest
– shiso flowers and leaves
– Ponzu sauce, black soy, yuzu, lemon juice, ginger, xanthan, vegetable dashi, mirin, fermented pichuberry juice, ginger oil
SASHIMI: “Lightly cured kanpachi rose”
A rose of
– kanpachi
– preserved hosui pears
– kiwi
– pickled myoga (a delicate type of japanese ginger)
– preserved ginger
– brushed with ginger oil, fresh citrus zest
SASHIMI: Sauce
Pichuberry and Ponzu sauce
– Pichuberry = “cape gooseberries”, yellow with sheath, from South America
– Sweet and tart, like a star fruit and a tomato cross
Ponzu
– Fermented pichuberry juice
– Yuzu
– lemon juice
– Black soy sauce
– ginger
– ginger oil
– Vegetable dashi
– mirin
– Xanthan gum
2nd: Shellfish Chawanmushi – spiel
– “Chawan” means “tea bowl” in Japanese, borrowed from the Chinese in the 13th century.
It’s a silky dashi and egg mixture, steamed in cup, over which is Hokkaido scallops lightly warmed in garlic oil, Bafun Uni, also from Hokkaido. Broccoli, bok choy, and celtuce contributes a playful textural component, and chef recommends to dive your spoon to the bottom of the chawan for each bite, so experience the textures in harmony.
CHAWAN: What is the uni called, what makes Hokkaido uni special
Bafun Uni
– rich, creamy, and sweet flavor, with slight brine
– texture melts in your mouth
As opposed to SB uni
– a bit brinier, and a bit tougher
Ocean temperatures in Hokkaido average about 15 degrees colder in the winter months
CHAWAN: What the fuck is Celtuce
An asian lettuce, with a broccoli-like stalk. Gives a firmer texture to the dish.
CHAWAN: Crab stock in the Chawanmushi
Crab stock
Thickened with “kuzu”
Kuzu is the starch from the Kudzu plant, which is a semi-woody vine that can grow up to a foot a day
– root can be cooked like a potato
– known as “mile-a-minute” or “the vine that ate the south”
–introduced to Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876, where it was touted as ornamental
– 1930s to 1950s, promoted as a tool for soil erosion control, planted in abundance throughout the south
– looks like a blanket of green
CHAWAN: What makes Hokkaido scallops special
Hokkaido is the big island north of the Japanese mainland, less than 30 miles south of Russian island of Sakhalin – between 41st and 45th 43rd parallel, think Vermont
Water is colder
Sweet and rich, with a delicate and buttery texture
CAVIAR: What’s Koshihikari rice?
A premium variety of Japanese Short Grain rice.
– It was developed in Japan after WWII.
– Cross bread of Nourin No . 1 with Nourin No. 22, originally to find a better resistance to “rice blast”
– Registered with Japanese Ministry of Agriculture in 1956.
– Short, plump, a high starch content makes them sticky without dissolving into greul.
CAVIAR: Rice Seasoning on the Caviar?
– rice vinegar
– mirin (sweet rice wine)
– shio koji (japanese seasoning made from fermented rice, salt, and water)
The enzymes in shio koji help break down proteins and starches, making meats and vegetables more tender and flavorful.
CAVIAR: Sabayon
Applewood smoked
– smoked clarified butter
–egg yolks
–smoked soy sauce
Sabayon’s are usually sweet, made of egg yoks, alcohol, and/or stock
CAVIAR: What is uni brushed with
unagi sauce
– soy, sugar, cornstarch
CAVIAR: rice “pearls”
“ARARE”
Arare are usually bite sized japanese rice crackers, usually flavored with soy, and these are those reimagined as tiny pearls, to give a playful texture and pleasant crunch to the dish.
CRISPS
“Chips and Dip”
Kennebec potato chips, dusted in malt vinegar powder, with a toasted dill and burnt onion dip.
Finishing here is a pickle cornichon, topped with sweet and sour cornichon relish, chives, and dill pollen.
Chef advises you to enjoy as much of the chips and dip as you like, and for the cornichon to be your final bite of this little interlude.
CRISPS: Types of potatoes in the crisps.
– Kennebec potatoes
– thin skin
– medium starch
– very low moisture a
– uniquely good for frying.
CRISPS: WTF is a “Kennebec”
Kennebec is a river in Maine
– 170 miles long
– potato was bred and selected by the Presque Isle Station in Maine in 1948
CRISPS: How are crisps treated
– Fried, and dusted with malt vinegar powder
CRISPS: Dip on the crisps
“Toasted Dill and burnt onion dip.”
Dip made from
– dill-infused mayonaise
– dijon
– cornichon pickling liquid
– creme fraiche
– dusted with burnt onion powder and dried dill powder
CRISPS: Cornichon on crisps
pickled cornichon
– topped with sweet and sour cornichon relish
– chives
– fresh dill
– dill pollen.
4th: Splendid Alfonsino
Golden Eye snapper – Kinmedai, from Japan
Cooked “matsukasa-yaki,” style,with crispy scales (hot oil poured over scales)
“flavors of summer” TBD
Sourdough Bread
– Garden green butter with tarragon, thyme, rosemary, and ramp
– Goat’s milk butter
– Central Milling with 100% dark Northern Spring Wheat – high protein, volcanic soils of PNW
– Tehachapi Grain Project Red Fife Flour (heirloom grain, warm, nutty flavor, notes of cinnamon)
– Spelt flour
