Monday, November 12, 2012

Really?


Apparently, there are two types of restaurant customers in this world. The people who order 9 course tasting menus, and the people who don't eat meat, bananas, grapefruits, melons, peppers, and onions........ wtf

Pumpkin





Pumpkin Bavarian
Brown Butter / Espresso churro / Strega / Mascarpone Sorbet

Ok,  I love pumpkin spiced coffee..... So having said that, I had to create a dessert that embraces pumpkin and coffee. The main flavors of the dessert are pumpkin, espresso, Strega, and mascarpone. To me pumpkins are one of the most "New England" ingredients and espresso, obviously, very italian. So being an Italian-New Englander, I naturally love the two. We are in between Halloween and Thanksgiving so it is now the height of pumpkin season. I truly love pumpkins but I didn't want to cop out and just roast them and puree them. I wanted to showcase the pumpkin first and foremost. We get beautiful CT sugar pumpkins and I decided to sous-vide them in a spiced brown butter-brown sugar liquid. I cook the raw pumpkin at 187 degrees F for 40 minutes. I then dice some of the pumpkin and puree the rest with the brown butter liquid. I wanted to serve actual pumpkin pieces on the plate to ensure the diner that we utilize beautiful local pumpkins and not a canned pumpkin puree. The puree is transformed into a dense mousse, or a bavarian, the barely spiced puree is also warmed slightly and dolloped onto the plate, and the base of the dish is a torched milk meringue. I wanted to replicate the foam on a cappuccino for example, so instead of frothed milk, I made a frothy milk meringue. I then wanted to create an espresso component that was crispy but at the same time can be served warm. I settled on a churro, which has a natural organic look, that ties in nicely with the overall concept of the dish.

The churro is a pate a choux made with espresso and milk instead of water. It has a nice bittersweet flavor with nice toasted milk / caramel notes. The mascarpone sorbet provides creaminess to dish without being overpowering. The sorbet also works better than an ice cream because the mascarpone flavor isn't lost with the rest of the components. The sorbet essentially just tastes like sweetened mascarpone that is very soft when frozen. The Strega or "witch" liquor is an interesting blend of herbs and aromatics that produce a very funky aperitif. The anise and herbaceous flavors of the liquor bring out the earthy pumpkin flavor and bittersweet flavors of the coffee and mascarpone. It was also a perfect fit in that a. its italian and b. it means witch! And pumpkins and witches surely go hand and hand.








Strega!




Sunday, November 11, 2012

Mignardises

Here are just some shots of the various "mignardises" that we serve at ON20. 


Frozen Red Velvet Cake (Red Velvet Ice Cream coated in cream cheese "frosting" and red velvet crumbs)
Mango-Tonka Bean Creamsicles

Pumpkin-Brioche Beignets


Pumpkin-Spiced Peanut Butter Cups
Raspberry-Beet Popsicles
Lemon Italian Ice with pine nut and rosemary
Pumpkin Spiced Peanut Butter Cups
Various Buttercrunch
Mango-Tonka Bean Creamsicles in the making
Lemongrass-Sesame Tartlets

Sunflower

 "Elements of Sunflower"
Sunchoke Mousse / Sunflower Seeds / Wattleseed / Mascarpone / Acacia Honey Sorbet

I wanted to create a dessert focusing on a flower, yet using every element of the product. The dish has multiple components but focuses on sunflowers and acacia flowers. The main component is a mousse made from sunchokes. Sunchokes are the root of a type of sunflower and also go by the name Jerusalem Artichoke. The sunchokes are sous-vided with brown butter and muscovado sugar, and are then pureed and used as the base for the mousse. The mousse has sweet yet earthy notes. The sunflower seeds are cooked in honey and sunflower oil. They are well salted and add a savory component.The two sauces are mascarpone and wattleseed. Wattleseed is an interesting product and is actually the seed of acacia flowers. We were able to obtain some of the ground wattleseed from Australia. The seeds are roasted and then ground and the flavor is similar to chicory root or coffee. The wattleseed adds a nice bitterness to the dish that is balanced by the sweet mascarpone. The sorbet is made with acacia honey. The sorbet is very subtle but heightens the floral notes of the dish. It is not pictured, but the dish is then garnished with buttery-herbal sunflower sprouts and marigolds. With the plating, I wanted to try to recreate the colors of mums. The themes are flowers and fall so I wanted to represent the colors of fall by using brown, orange, and gold components.