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.