Scallop "Sausage"

12/13-12/19:  It's been a very crazy week at J. Gilbert's in Glastonbury!  Holiday lunches were very hectic and very little time was left for tasting menu recipe development.  However, Brian & I were able to perfect the scallop "sausage" that we tested a couple of weeks ago.  We made a very straight forward scallop mousseline (scallops, egg white, cream, fresh bread crumb & chervil) this time around as we wanted the final product to taste and look like a scallop yet seasoned from within. This process alters the flavor of scallop very minimally but drastically changes the texture.  The resulting texture is much more light & airy, very nice...or Friggin' delicious.   

Brian forming the mousseline in plastic wrap, while just happening to "flex" as the camera flashes

the mousseline being comprised mostly of scallop is a tacky mixture and forming it in plastic wrap requires

lubrication of the plastic and delicate hands

Below: a formed scallop mousseline sausage ready to be "tied off"

Poaching of the mousseline:

the sausages are poached at 165 degrees for about 15 minutes to an internal temperature of 145 degrees

the cooked sausages are then immediately chilled in an ice bath to prevent overcooking

The following day the scallop mousseline sausages are ready for use/testing

amuse bouche that Brian "monoblanco" presented in an Asian spoon:

seared scallop mousseline with mushroom veloute, celeriac & micro mustard greens

My Christmas inspired offering:

seared scallop mousseline, salsa verde, pickled red pepper & smoked sea salt

Also we made doughnuts again for the crew on Sunday, this time with a proper glaze. 

The shiny ones were perfect, the others were a bit heavy on the glaze, I think we need a glaze curtain to perfect this, but there's no way thats in the budget.



Gravlax

Gravlax is cured salmon.  The curing process draws moisture from the protein structure of the fish and denatures the proteins, thus "cooking" the fish.  A typical cure consists of salt, sugar, herbs & spices and usually in the case of gravlax, a small amount of alcohol.  The salt draws the moisture out and the rest is there to impart flavor, the alcohol allows for maximizing flavor transfer with specific regards to the herbs.  The result of a proper gravlax is wonderful texture with excellent seasoning and perfect moisture.  Our gravlax takes 72 hours to complete.  Ken started this Atlantic Salmon in the cure on Tuesday night (12/07/10).  By Friday evening the cured salmon was perfect, I removed the salmon from the cure, rinsed it thoroughly and dried it...Done, ready for applications in recipes.

Saturday Night 12/11/10

House Cured Atlantic Salmon Amuse Bouche

roasted beets, cucumber crema, pickled onion & garlic-dill tuile

Below:  Mise En Place for Cured Salmon Amuse Bouche





My wife was in for dinner on Saturday Night with 2 of her employees, below are the amuse bouche for her table

Amuse Bouche

Over the past few days we were able test a couple of amuse bouche ideas. 

I was able to put this together on Saturday night  

Gougere:  Gruyere cheese filled choux pastry

 creamy lobster broth, smoked sea salt & chive oil

Brian & I worked on this on Monday afternoon.  Visually we got what we were looking for, however, we fell short in the flavor category.  The scallop sausage needs to be tweaked, this one didn't have a clean enough flavor, next week we will retest with a more delicate mousseline which will showcase the Natural Georges Bank Scallop.

 Scallop Sausage, red pepper emulsion & micro mustard greens with fleur de sel

Saturday Morning Donuts!

French Crullers:  On Saturday morning I was working on an amuse bouche and had extra pate a choux.

 What can I do with that?  Make some friggin donuts, that's what. 

This guy needs a haircut!

When making "choux" donuts the batter must be piped onto parchment before being dropped into the fryer.

The only issues that I came up against is that I could only drop 3 donuts into the fryer at a time, I'm limited to

1 fryer.  By the time I got to working the on the next 3 the previous batch had been eaten; mostly by Ken and Maria.  I made about 2 dozen.

We just simply dusted the donuts with powdered sugar, as this was a spur of the moment idea.  These donuts would have been ridiculous if I'd made a proper glaze.  Perhaps next Saturday.



Soup Course?

For the past few weeks myself, Brian & Ken have been working on/testing some soups & amuse bouche.  I'm playing with the idea of expanding the wine tasting format to a Chefs Tasting Menu format.  Each Monday afternoon we've been taking on projects and tasting our results.  The idea behind the soups is to maximize the true flavor of the ingredient.  Simple soups with minimal ingredients to draw out a concentrated flavor of the predominant ingredient.  Below is a carrot soup with candied ginger.  The carrot soup contains 6 ingredients =>  carrot, orange zest & juice, vegetable oil, salt & water.

The candied ginger I made by simmering fresh slices of ginger in simple syrup and then slowly drying them in a convection oven at about 250 degrees.  The end result was a very nice crunch with a little sweetness (like candy) on the front end and a concentrated ginger kick in the back.  We're careful to add only a very small amount as garnish to complement the soup, not overpower it.  The soups that we're testing are being designed for service in espresso cups with demitasse spoons, the intent is for a little to go a long way, and this is why flavor concentration is our focus.   

Kenneth Cardini (above)

Brian "monoblanco" Warmingham (below)



Root Beer "Caviar"

I just found a photo of my first test with spherification;  root beer "caviar".  In this test the chemical aftertaste was terrible, due to the fact that at the time we didn't have a scale that read into tenths of a gram.  Too much sodium alginate in the root beer base or too much calcium chloride in the setting bath will cause this, as I later was able to determine.  We've now got the proper scales and a bit more "know how".  My original testing was really simply "flying by the seat of my pants".  I had no idea what I was doing.  In the 10 months since these tests I've done a lot of research and I'm confident future trials will yield far superior results in the flavor category.

Spherification

Spherical Mango:  this is a photo of a test that I began working on last February in prepartion for this past years Tasting Menus.  I experimented with both larger spheres and also "caviar".  In the below example I got the look exactly right, the large spheres look like egg yolk, beautiful.  The problem here was the taste, It was very watered down, not nearly as concentated as desired.  In the tests that I ran last year, flavor was the obstacle that I was not able to overcome.  My first test of spherification was actually on rootbeer and the final product looked good but had a horendous chemical aftertaste.  I never got the testing phase finished and produced a proper product and so the technique never made it onto any of the tasting menus.  This is a technique that my team and I will work towards perfecting in the coming months, I'll keep you posted.