As you can see there were 8 courses on the menu so I started to delegate. My friend Dottie was responsible for the Cranberry Sorbet and my wfie Therese was responsible for the Sticky Toffee Pudding. Everything else I created from scratch! To make things more challenging one person in the party is vegan and myself as well so I had to modify a couple of recipes for us.
The first dish was the chilled chicken and prosciutto aspic. I'm generally not a big fan of aspic but I wanted to take a childhood dish that I enjoy and transform it. I used enjoy eating boiled white chicken as a child and I used to make it a lot before I turned vegan. It is basically a slow cooked boiled chicken normally served with green onion and ginger sauce. I wanted to take those elements and make an aspic. I sous vide fresh chicken thighs at 145 degrees for about an hour. Chilled and sliced the thighs in a bowl with prosciutto. I served these with the traditional green onion and ginger sauce. Can we say yum! The intensity of the flavor was amazing!
I also added chopped salted boiled duck egg on the side. It was a bit too salty and I would probably have only use the whites next time. The micro greens on top gave it a nice color and I could have used cilantro instead.
The second dish was the pancetta cassoulet soup w/ duck confit. Both of these elements were quite new to me and fun experiments. For the duck confit I brined the duck for 3 hours and then sous vide the duck in rendered duck fat for 10 hours at 176 degrees. The end result is one of the most tender and moist duck confit you can imagine. I used a Home Depot blow torch to sear the outside.
I made a white bean cassoulet using roasted carcasses from 2 turkeys that I deep fried earlier in the day for my work office. I started first with cooking down chopped leeks, onions, and added pancetta. Everything tastes better with pancetta similar to bacon! Then I added the white beans, broth and let it simmer for about 1-2 hours. Turned out to be great comfort food for the winter!
We also found some incredible rosemary rustic bread that I drizzled with rosemary and garlic infused olive oil as a side dish to the soup. If you noticed I topped the soup with the duck confit.
The next dish that I made was the crispy duck breast sous vide w/ organic spring mix. I'm really putting my sous vide machine to good use. I didn't brine the duck breast time but I wish I did. It still turned out wonderful! I seasoned the duck breast with salt, pepper, and a little of cajun spice. I sous vide the duck breast for 3 hours at 129 degrees. I then remove the duck breast from the bag and then seared it on high heat on a pan. We created bowls made with asiago and parmasean cheese, added organic greens, sliced duck breast and drizzled with a rasberry vinaigrette dressing.
If you're like me the best part of the duck breast is the skin! Oh wait, I'm vegan -- I have to be careful not to go over to the dark side again :)
The next dish is the ground ostrich slider. I had ostrich meat many moon again and I remembered how tender the meat was. I thought about taking something simple like a burger and transforming it into something for a tasting dish and yet elegant. Since ostrich meat is so lean I decided to add bleu cheese directly into the patty before frying them. This turned out to be one of the top favorites for many of the guests! It was simple but yet very tasty! I decided to use sweet potato fries just to be more healthy and for the color on the dish. My sister suggested carmelized onion to top the burger and an aioli dipping sauce for the fries. Okay, I cheated and had a tiny bite to verify that it was edible :)
The ostrich was cooked medium rare to keep the meat moist. These sliders were an addiction for many. At this point we needed to rest a bit since there were 4 more dishes to go!
To be continued....
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