Wednesday, March 18, 2009

St. Paddy's Day, and a celebration of meat...

Hello all my few faithful,

I hope all is grand in all of your little slices of heaven. St. Paddy's, like any other day, is not a day of rest. I got the call to do a small(4-5) person, high end dinner, and I made all attempts to rise to the occasion. I was told they like meat, were carnivores as it were, and that I should make the menu as such. So without further ado, here is the menu, and after I will discuss some points of it-

Brookside Inn Event
March 17, 2009

Passed Hors D’ouevres- Pork cheek rillettes on a Yukon gold potato chip with a five-dry chile mayonnaise


Amuse Bouche- caramelized shallot and Oregon Black truffle brulee with a toasted brown sugar crust

Starter- Panseared Buffalo slider on soft Rosemary lavosh with baby greens, concasse of tomato and a roasted garlic aioli

Pasta- local mushrooms with hand-made pasta, white wine and cream, aged Reggiano Parmesan

Main – Confit of duck leg, roasted breast of duck with a maple-rosemary-juniper baste, sweet potato puree, white wine braised spinach

Intermezzo- Tomato sorbet with baby greens, crispy Carlton farms bacon and a savory black pepper biscuit

Dessert- Vanilla bean soufflé with a raspberry-dark chocolate sauce

Cheese- local selection of cheeses

So there you have it, and to break it down by course, here we goooooo...
Hors D'oeuvres- The pork was braised in red wine with onions, rosemary, and chicken stock. They were cooled, pounded out, pressed into molds, and warm braising liquid was poured over them, then cooled. unmolded, they were then sliced and put atop the chip with the mayonnaise.
Amuse- a custard of caramelized shallots, and black truffle that was pureed with the cream and eggs made for a very savory and rich custard that was complemented by some fine local Pinot Noir.
Slider- Buffalo from L Bar T Ranch in Forest Grove, OR was mixed with a small portion of ground Carlton Farms Pork cheek, seasoned, and served on homemade rosemary foccacia and aioli. It was a perfect complement to the rich, oaky Archery Summit Pinot Noir it was served with.
Pasta- Fortified with duck stock, the wild mushrooms used were- Hedgehogs, hon shemigi, king trumpet and hen of the woods. as a bit of a bonus, I added a bit of panseared sweetbreads to the top. Very tasty. This went with a lighter Pinot from Stevenson-Barrie.
Duck- locally raised duck was used, a much leaner duck than typical farm raised ducks. Two of the four diners said that they don't eat duck or sweet potatoes, but nevertheless they cleared their plates.
Sorbet- The intermezzo was off the top of my head. I wanted to make something that would make me smile, as well as something that would make the guests question the course, then ultimately taste it and be pleasantly surprised. It worked quite well. They had never had anything like it, and they loved it. I curled the raw bacon around the handle of a wooden spoon, so after it baked in the oven, it held it's spiral shape. The biscuit was actually a shortbread that I infused black pepper into, and the sorbet was grape tomatoes, a touch of mayonnaise and stiff peaked egg whites, hand stirred.
Dessert- very straight forward, very traditional.
Cheeses- three of four were Oregonian, and one was California. aaawwwwwww.... it's sooo good.
So there you have it, yummy yummy. I still had time afterwards to go to a small house party, have my alotted amount of Corned beef, Guinness, and a bit of a tipple of Power's.
So as always, I look forward to comments, concerns(with this menu, probably mostly cholesterol related concerns, and just whatever else you would like to comment on.
take care all,
Quinn

1 comment:

trebloc said...

It tastes.....i don't know....kinda ..Funny.