Elmer Fudd and the Demise of Bugs and Daffy

So the other day I found a young spring rabbit when shopping at my local Whole Foods (it's a particularly good one....except no bar...) and had the inspiration to do a game themed dinner (not like I don't usually....I mean, this blog is living proof!). When presenting the menu to my father, he immediately quoted Elmer Fudd, referencing the fact that I was indeed grilling up Bugs and Daffy...now we finally know what happened to our beloved Looney Toons celebrities. I charred them.

To be honest, I don't even know what we started with. It involved cheese, fish, olives, and other things. But I was too concerned with my game. Rabbit is notoriously difficult to cook, and I had only SEEN it been done before....and that one time, I was the one who cleaned the freshly shot animal right before we threw it on the grill. Needless to say, I was a little out of my comfort zone.

I had a HUGE D'Artagnan duck breast frozen away, so I pulled that out for one course. One full breat is the equivalent of two personal portions. I'm feeding three people...and not just any people...MY people....so not nearly enough. I decided the rabbit and duck would be an excellent comparison of game styles while just enough food. I threw the duck into a ziploc to marinate with half a bottle of red wine, a little port, a shit ton of thyme and rosemary sprigs, salt, pepper, and fennel sprouts. I threw the whole rabbit in a marinade of olive oil, fresh lemon wheels, parsley stocks, garlic, and white wine. All to seep overnight.

For the duck, I  paired it with a winter vegetable mash. That means you sautee fennel, leeks, shallots, onions and boil potatoes and parsnips. Blend them to a puree with heavy cream, black truffle oil (fancy, I know!) with lots of salt and pepper. It's divine. For the meat, I removed the duck from the marinade (but did not clean it at all) and sear it at an extremely high temperature on the fatty side down. After just a few minutes, place it in the oven to finish cooking and cook to temperature. NEVER turn the duck on the meat side down. Just don't do it. All of my chef friends forbid it and have put the fear of "chef" into me. Now you know. To plate, I sliced the medium rare breast over a bed of the mash, and topped with a homemade rosemary/port/cranberry sauce. You could top it with a blackberry sauce, blueberry sauce, raspberry sauce, currant sauce. Anything of the variety would work. Was delicious. Moving on.

For the rabbit, I decided to grill it. Risky, I know, but I didn't want to stew it. Or roast it. I think I was just having a testosterone fueled moment. So how do you prevent lean meat from overcooking on the grill?! You wrap it in herb butter and pancetta and glaze it with honey. I did the whole rabbit, rather than sectioning it first. The large majority of that decision was laziness. But regardless, I threw a large piece of aluminum foil down on the grill and place the pancetta honey glazed animal down on it and let it smoke. I carved it just before plating and served the bunny joints over a salad of roasted wild mushrooms and pearl onions tossed in herbs and fresh lemon juice.

The rabbit was my favorite of the evening because it was delicious! So moist and delicate and so easy to overcook. I watched it like a stalker follows their long lost imaginary love but it was worth it. It was the dish that I definitely will claim the most pride in its turnout.

To finish, I plated pistachio and coconut macaroons with candied pears and hazelnut gelato. Was great! Light and nutty, not too sweet. Even the pears weren't overkill on the sweetness.

I am in the middle of my Thanksgiving planning extravaganza. The two dinners I absolutely demand dictatorship of are Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's the Irish in me really....I love a good bit of tradition. But I am an untraditional traditionalist...so I'm doing an Italian themed Thanksgiving. I spent the day on the very cold beach collecting shells for plating and table settings, which luckily the weather warmed up for. Also made all of my fresh pastas, gastriques, and other sauces in advance this evening. Can't wait for all the pieces to come into focus on Thursday!

Until next time...be thankful!!!!!

Bon appetit!

My Parents' Favorite Lamb

For my first weekend in back in the New York City metro area, I made a pistachio crusted, proscuitto wrapped rack of lamb, served over a pomegranate couscous cake and pan seared swiss chard, finally garnished with a proscuitto rosette. My parents went as far to say it was the best they ever had...which might be a stretch, but it was pretty damn good!!!

Before the meal, we started with a crab cake starter, briefly seared over blanched asparagus with a drizzle of olive oil. Very yummy, very easy, perfect to tide over the hungry masses :)

For the paste and pesto for the lamb, I put a handful of pistachios (deshelled, unsalted), thyme, rosemary, oregano, garlic, olive oil and a dash of honey in a food processor and blended until it became a thick paste. Seperate half of the paste all over the trimmed lamb (on the meat!!!!), wrap in proscuitto, and rub more of the paste on top of the proscuitto. Set aside the remaining half of the paste for later. It is extremely important to trim the lamb before rubbing it in the pesto, because you want to make sure all the flavor gets into the meat and isn't blocked by membranes or excess fatty layers.

(Trimming off excess fat and membrane)

(Sooo much goodness!)

(Prepped lamb)

I heated the oven to 375 and cooked the lamb until between 130 and 140 F on the meat thermometer. Depending on whether you're on a bake, convection bake, and your oven in general, this timing can vary. This brings the lamb to a perfect medium rare (ideal temperature for tender, juicy lamb).

Once out of the oven, allow the rack to sit covered between 10-15 minutes. The procuitto will be crispy on the outside, and depending on the style of meat, may stick better or worse to the meat. In this case, the proscuitto was so crispy that it fell off, so I crumbled in and placed it on top of the sauteed chard.

To plate, I used a cookie cutter to shape couscous tossed with pomegranates firmly into a cake shape on the plate. With the leftover pesto paste, I added more olive oil to allow it to become more of a pesto sauce. Using a spoon, I dragged a streak of the sauce around the outside edge of the plate, opposite the cake. I topped the cake with a handful of the sauteed swiss chard (in garlic and pomegranate seeds) and sprinkled the crumbled proscuitto that had wrapped the lamb. I laid the lamb 'popsicles' in a fan on top of everything, and finally rolled a proscuitto rosette for garnish.

I served the lamb with a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape-a big, jammy, gamey, intense Rhone wine which paired with the gamey and herbacious notes of the dish.

Finally, I finished the meal with a selection of cheeses, raspberry and balsalmic vinegar. I chose a five year aged gouda, a roquefort style blue and a goat milk blue called Persille (made with parsley).

Until next time, eat right, drink well, and laugh at dirty jokes. 

Old Wines, New Ventures

So I've been dormant for a while, enveloped by a last minute move that I paid all too little attention to as I tried to squeeze out every party in my last days. Was great fun (a lot of pictures of me posing on top of my friends' bars), but I'm getting some lovely down time in my temporary lodgings in New York City.

I moved up here very short notice-my lease was up...why not right?! I was planning on going to the International Culinary Center in Soho, starting in January, and figured I would just start working and piddle away at looking for apartments until then ................................................................................... .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................and then there was Napa.

My school worked out a full ride...if I shipped out to the California campus in the San Francisco Bay area. Good thing I was still in boxes!

While I play the waiting game for my 3000 mile move west for the winter, I've pretty much kept my head buried in my somm textbooks and hands busy over the stove. The one thing that I love about shacking up with my parents is that they lend me full control of the evening mealtime menu. I have a lot to update on this little journal of mine....

Regardless, I wanted to talk about my most memorable wine tasting experience in this post, since I have spent so much time studying it over the last couple of weeks. I'd like to bring wine a little bit more to the forefront in this blog, as I continue to learn more and more about it as a technical trade.

My absolute favorite thing about wine, and the reason why I am so passionate about it, is the people behind the wine. Whether it be the winemaker, the person who gifts it to you, that somm that serves it to you, or the person you're sharing it with. These particular bottles, which to this day are in the top...let's say seven (if I REALLY had to order them) that I've had in my lifetime. My friend Rocky (short for Rakesh), came up to my bar with a somm friend of mine Will for Will's 28th birthday. As a gift, he brought a bottle of 1986 Lynch Bages Pauillac Bordeaux. The cork crumbled when we pulled it out (thankfully not back into the bottle), and we chose not to decant it. Now this particular bottle was, hands down, the best I have ever tasted. As Rocky described it, the wine was reminiscent of an extremely delicious pencil shaving (hilarious, but so true).

There is a certain harmony and finesse that you get from drinking a bottle this old. The flavors have had enough time to truly blend, creating a wine that reveals new layers of flavor with every sip. As is typical with my friends, this was so delicious we decided we needed  more.

We walked across the street to my sister restaurant to raid our reserve cellar, and picked out a 1996 Pauillac Bordeaux and a 2006 Cote Rotie Delas (Rhone). It was fascinating to do a mini vertical tasting with the Pauillacs, and the Cote Rotie Delas was truly divine as well.

It is always an exceptional experience to drink wine this fine with people who are truly interested and passionate about what they are tasting. This not only was an evening of some of the finest wines I've tasted, but also a giddy, almost child like evening of eagerness, curiosity, and respect. 

I'll leave it at that, and be back soon with more food!!!

Eat well, drink well, and live vibrantly ;)