Rick Nelsons Kitchen Table Article

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You need to read half of the article before you get to the Cosmos part.

Thanks and come in and join us for the kitchen Table. If you mention the blog and you are dining at the kitchen table we'll make you an extra complementary course.

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/taste/71813977.html?elr=KArksD:aDyaEP:kD:aUbP:P:Q_V_MPQLa7PYDUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

Thanksgiving 2009

We do a big all day menu at Cosmos on Thanksgiving. This year we went "New School" on the Turkey. We broke down the bird in pieces and did the following with the different parts.

Legs: Cured overnight with herbs salt, pepper. Confited them for 5 hours and picked all the meat off the bone and mixed the meat with toasted pistachio, Sauteed onions and sage for stuffing.

wings: Roasted till crispy and served a' naturel.

Carcasses: Roasted of for stock that eventually is turned into gravy

Breast: When butchered we leave the skin from the thigh attached to the breast. We then cut a sliver down the breast meat length wise and stuff that with the confit-pistachio mixture and wrapping the meat and skin all the way around. Now you have skin all the way around the meat and meat all the way around the stuffing. When we cook it the skin will be crispy and all the juices from the meat will stay in the meat, plus the fat from the confited dark meat will melt out in to the breast meat and make it super juicy and flavorful.

Wild Acres Turkey, Pistachio Stuffing, Turkey Leg Confit, Mash potato, Cranberry Compote, Gravy

Shrimp Roll

This whole dish started with a Bloody Mary relish. The relish is made of tomato, celery, red onions and spicy Clamata juice. From there we tried a whole lot of different variations.

We quickly decided that shrimp would be the perfect flavor to go with the relish. We made the shrimp roll by finely chopping up the raw shrimp, and mixing it with lemon zest, pimentone and transglutamines. We then roll the shrimp up real tight in plastic and cook it sous vide at 131.2 degrees for 45 minutes.

We started a new creative process in the Kitchen and the Shrimp roll was the first product of this rule. The idea is that we are always going to keep developing one new dish. This means that the whole kitchen is getting involved in one dish and we'll keep tweaking and experimenting with the dish for two whole weeks before we will serve it. Then once the dish is finalized we'll move on to a new one and continue the process. We hope that by doing this we'll always keep moving forward with new ideas and everyone stays involved.

We kept the flavors fairly basic and the last variation of the dish is...

Shrimp Roll,Compressed Cucumber, Celery Ribbons, Cucumber Rind-Horseradish Froth, Lemon Pudding and Red onion Chips.

Scallop Ceviche'

You might realize by now that we like plyable foods at Cosmos. We recently made a Scallop terrine' by mixing scallops with a little bit of transglutamines and pressing it overnight in a square mold. We then cook the scallop terrine, Sous vide at 131.2 Degrees F. Once cooked and chilled,we then slice the scallop into thin "sheets". Lastly,ceviche' them in fresh lime juice for about 15 minutes. To get that nice lime flavor infused.

When plating, we are able to shape the scallop "sheet" however we want to. It's a real nice way to get the guests wondering where the scallop is and thinking,"How did they do that?"

We are serving this plyable scallop with puffed pork rinds,( which would be an awesome bar snack on it's own), Pomegranate-Galanga root "Spaghetti", and a picante' chorizo mousse.

Scallop Ceviche', Picante' Chorizo Mousse, Puffed Pork Rinds, Pomegranate-Galangaroot "Spaghetti", Cilantro Yogurt, Black Sea Salt, Micro Cilantro

Cosmos Ocean Flavors

This idea began with a chef's table we had not too long ago. The McDonald's were here and we decided to do a deconstructed boulliabase for their menu. Throwing new twists on classic dishes is something we like to do at Cosmos and a boulliabase is the perfect opportunity to present this classical dish in a whole new way.

Although we have a lot going on component wise, it all ties together nicely and still reminds you of the comforting dish while appearing like you've never seen it before. The protiens consist of a seared diver scallop, confit of Halibut, broiled langoustine, and the mussel is cooked in a broth we've called lobster essence. The essence consists of lobster stock that we then beef up with extra fennel, white wine, a touch of orange, and Pernod. We then tie it all together with sous vide baby fennel, preserved tomato, grilled bread, fried fennel fronds, and a saffron aoli.

The result is tastey and comforting like the original, but is presented in a whole new manor. We've used different techniques and ideas to make something we can call our own.

Allspice Torchon

Our F&B director Vinny is always good at making us try all of the tasty finds he comes across in his line of work, and often encourages us to use them in our dishes. He recently found an allspice flavored rum that is like no other spiced rum we've ever tasted. As we all tasted it downstairs in the bar, faces lit up, and everyone seemed to have the same revelation on their faces... foie torchon. From here the plan was set in motion, marinate the foie for a night, wrap it the following day, poach it in the liquor, and hang it tight. Unfortunately this was happening during restaurant week and we marinated the foie for three days. Needless to say our torchon was a little boozy. Logically we decided the foie shouldn't marinate so long, and our second batch spent only one day in the rum resulting in not enough flavor. We've found a happy medium at two days, and are very happy with the finished product. We reduce the poaching liquid afterwords and use it as a binder to coat the edges in a salty toffee when plating also. All in all I'd say it was a success, the allspice and foie marry well together and between the crunchy coating and silky torchon, the texture is nice also.

5th annual SOS Event (share our strength)

Graves 601 Hotel Ballroom:

This is one of the most longed for Charity events in the Twin Cities. We gather about 13 different chefs from around the area that provides a five course tasting menu for ten people. this is a awesome way to show of your restaurant and skills for other chefs but also a very unique experience for the guests. It all takes place on the 5th floor at the Graves 601 Hotel ballroom. Each chef has there own little "kitchen" set up right in front of the Guest so they can see every move.

Cosmos: Chef Hakan Lundberg and Pastry Chef Khanh Tran did their debut at this event this year and they served some seasonal items and some "signature" dishes from cosmos. The event went very smooth and they received standing ovations in the end of the meal. It's a pretty stress full dinner so we did not have much time for snapping allot of pictures but please enjoy what ever we had time for.

Carrot and Ranch

This is a fun little treat, maybe we got inspired by the state fair with this one. We made a cylinder out of a compressed carrot and skewered it on bamboo. We then drizzled ranch mixed with gelatin over top of it so it would be thick enough to stick, but still creamy when you eat it. The garnish is micro broccoli floretts.

Mozzarella Balloon

We have made allot of different variations of our mozzarella balloon. This is the 2009 edition. We stretch fresh mozzarella curd and blow it up with Mizuna butter milk soup. the garnish is roof top Nasturtium, cured Atlantic salmon, beets, saffron and trout roe.

It's a very complicated dish to make so we only serve the dish for Kitchen tables or VIP guests.

Tasting Menu June 2009

Our new tasting menu was so good we wanted to put pictures of each course on here. The first course is a bison carpaccio with a truffled dwarf peach slaw, mini fries, and a pickled beet ribbon. The bison was seasoned and quick seared then sliced nice and thin. These truffled dwarf peaches are tastey no matter what you do to them, and they really make this slaw great. The mini fries are tossed with truffle oil and adds the needed crunch . Then comes the pickled beet ribbon which is probobly the best sheet/ribbon we've ever done. Texture, flavor and color are all spot on. We used our usual ratio of agar then added a pinch of guar gum to give it the perfect elasticity where it will sustain all those twists and turns and not break.

The scallop dish came together really nicely also. It was a fun little trial and error process with imput from a few corners. The peas where a definite, and the pea shoots are so tastey we had to get them on there. Then we got some of these little pearl red onions that when roasted add sweetness to the risotto, and everyone loves a good seared scallop, especially basted with whole butter to give it that extra love. The kicker that makes the dish special is the smoked orange consome. We use a technique where we make our desired broth, add a tiny bit of gelatin, and then freeze the broth over night. The next day we let the broth defrost over cheese cloth and it gains that really nice clarity to make it look like a traditional consome. The consome is poured tableside, providing that little bit of aromatics and a nice complimentary flavor.

For the main course we're doing lamb three ways. We've got a sous vide lamb loin that's seared to order giving it that nice carmelized flavor. Next we have the lamb rib that we confit lightly in chili oil to add a little diversity to the flavor. The third lamb preparation is braised lamb shank cooked in figs, Balsamic and stock. We then pick the shanks, press them into cubes and bread them in pistachio crumbs. These uber tasty little cubes are sauted to order toasting the pistachio. The rest of the components are a fava bean puree, figs rehydrated in the braising liquid from the shanks, and a pistachio semi fredo. The semi fredo was another trial and error component, but the end result was the perfect sweetness to bring everything together. We couldn't have asked for a better outcome on this one either.