Flock Together

The only sense of normalcy I have seem to achieve thus far has been found in the kitchen, my security blanket I suppose. While there is no doubt that it is my comfort zone, the mindset that I find in this new kitchen is one of exploration. The menu that I am writing of in this post is properly named "Of a Feather", and no it does not taste like chicken… actually the roasted chicken skin sauce did taste very much like chicken. I must admit I was a bit apprehensive when thinking of ways to involve fowl into desserts. There are always eggs and feather look-alike garnishes (hardly my thing). I wanted to evoke more out of the two desserts than just product usage and proper technique. I wanted the diner to have to stop, look at the damn dessert, and think HA! Whether we take them there through whimsy, humor, nostalgia, the "wow factor" or an overwhelming sense of Yum, it is our job as chefs to entertain our guests. Their palates, eyes, nose, memories, imagination, sense of adventure and always keep them smiling.
The ways that I have tried to do that in this menu speak for themselves. This theme was fun and tasty and a few chuckles heard in the dining room during pre-dessert helped me out a little in the search for normalcy and comfort. I find myself remembering that chefs need the guests as much as they need us. Not only for business sake, but to share in the sheer enjoyment of food.
I hope you enjoy.

Bread: Our pastry cook chance has taken full reign of the bread, and his skills are developing quickly. The culmination of his efforts last week came in a wood fire oven baked sourdough that could be sold at any fine bakery and they would be as proud to serve it as we were. To me the most amazing thing about this bread was the ability to tame two different extreme variables, wild yeast and fire. It is not a 450 degree electric controlled oven with instant yeast and Con-Agra flour! Its wood, fire, stone, water, flour, salt, and whatever yeast he could coax into joining the party.


Amuse: While pastries is not exactly responsible for the execution of the amuse, we did get a chance to lend a hand in some of the "vessels".


Candy Cap Mushroom Macaroon with Chicken liver Mousse and Summer Savory (the macaroons where made with duck egg whites)





Foie Gras "PB&J", Foie Gras Terrine, Strawberry-Rose Geranium Gelee, Hazelnut Butter and Brioche







The smallest loaf of brioche I have made to date.

Pre Dessert: Another interesting turn in this menu was how to incorporate fowl into the desserts without just using eggs. I have made a good number of desserts in brown egg shells, and while it was a delicious, amazing, fun to eat, and yes Chef (you know who you are) near perfect dessert, I wasn't looking forward to going down that route. Then Ron came into the pastry area and dropped of a bag of perfect little egg molds, within minutes Chris mentioned that apricots were coming into season, and a dish was made.


Apricot Coulis Dome

Mint Chocolate Bavarian with "Yolks"

Mint Chocolate Bavarian with Apricot Coulis, Corsican Mint, Apricot Poached in Whey-
Butterscotch

The butterscotch we made with whey (from the cheeses that we made here at the restaurant) was one of my favorite things about this dish. It was like dulce de leche meets a 1930's soda fountain… Latin influenced soda fountain, hmm????



Dessert: Just having moved to the area I was only slightly aware of the quality of the berries during this time of year… it's unreal. Raspberry, Strawberry(I used 4 different types on this menu), Saskatoon Berry, Golden Raspberry, Boysenberry, Tayberry, Blackberry, Blueberry, Red Currant, White Currant, Black Currant, Logan Berry. I wanted to use them all, but what should I do to highlight these berries, what can I do to make them better?
I took a step back, and decided to do nothing at all. Nightly the berries were portioned and placed into a warmer at 130 degrees and left for 20 minutes or until they reached warm water balloon doneness. Part of me just wanted to serve the berries and nothing else, they were that amazing. When we opened the warmer to remove the berries I heard on more than one occasion "it smells like a Pop-Tart out of the toaster," I'm not going to argue.

The warmed berries were served with duck egg yolk and lemon verbena ice cream, duck fat crumble, and flowering Chervil.

Small Treats:
Rosemary Chocolate Biscotti, Frosted White Currant, Milk Chocolate-Sorrel Ganache (more to come on this combo next menu) , Sage Hazelnut Sandies and Raspberry Sancho Pate de Fruit

Time to Cook

When I arrived at The Herbfarm the "Summer Sketchbook" menu was already in place and running strong. A three week menu highlighting what the area and our farm has to offer for the early weeks of summer. And while many of the area residents were referring to this time as "June-uary" (quite cold here for the month of June), there was still some fine produce to be had from our farm and the area. Cherries were already in full stride, as were strawberries and some of our farm's currents. Raspberries were seeing their first bits of menu face time by the end of the month, and that's where this dish came from.

Bee Balm & Raspberry Chip Sorbet with Raspberry-Sancho Elixir
This was the pre dessert for our last week of the menu, and one I thought brought a bit of fun to the table. The sorbet itself was a verjus base with honey as one of its sugars, and was infused with bee balm leaves (from our garden). For the Raspberry "chip"…



Whole Raspberries where frozen.















And then crushed individually, by hand breaking them along their natural segment lines.













We then kept the segments frozen and folded them into the spun sorbet. With both components
frozen we were able tokeep the "chips" from streaking the sorbet.








The remainder of the raspberries were passed through a tamis, seasoned with salt and sugar, and the consistency adjusted with a sancho (again from a bush right outside our back door) infused syrup. We served the elixir warm, and with the cooling effect that the sancho brought to drink it ended up being quite interesting.

Post 18 Wheeled Georgian Debacle

Five weeks have gone by from my last post, five long life changing weeks. If any of you have ever moved long distance I'm sure you know of the "long weeks" I am speaking of. Packing up years worth of belongings, memories, keepsakes, and sometimes just plain junk is always exhausting. Then a man comes to your door, tosses your things around, makes a lot of phone calls to "his boss", packs up all of your things (the whole time telling you, "it's all very heavy"), and then charges you double. I have moved long distance before, but for some reason I do not recall it being so insane. That said we are now residents of Bothell, Washington, and for the first time in our lives we live where we can see mountains… anytime we want.

More to come very soon about desserts, that is after all why all of this started. I will say this for now… I knew I was excited to come to The Herbfarm, but it is already far beyond that.

More Sugar To Come…