7 course dinner

We did a seven course tasting menu last week for some friends of the owner. I wanted to show some of the highlights from the dinner. We had a lot of fun with this. These first 3 pictures are of the beet root carpaccio with aged balsamic, Greek extra virgin olive oil, mint and radish.
We did a pasta course of Carbonara. Housemade spaghetti, roasted tomato, Meadow Creek Dairy mountaineer, applewood smoked bacon and quail egg.

I got a chance here to work with 2 cool new items to me. Yellow Tail hamachi and Grains of paradise. We seared the hamachi for sashimi and served it with julienne salsify root and orange butter emulsion.

Here we have Cavendish Farms quail stuffed with housemade port, current sausage; black current jus and puffed quinoa.





Like an idiot I forgot to get a picture of our dessert. It was more or less fair food or everything you want from the South in a desert. We made graham cracker grit cakes with sugar and honey and battered and deep fried. We topped the hot grit cake with banana ice cream and sweet tea caramel. Can't beleive I forgot the picture.

A lot to catch up on

It's been too long so I thought I'd just roll a bunch of blogs into one. It's hard to think of where to start as we have been up to a lot in these past few weeks. Spring time has come as well as local produce. It almost makes your head spin. So much produce rolling in and what to do with it all. It's a good problem to have.

Why by a thermal circulator when you can have a Johnski!!!

So many chefs today focus on sous vide cooking and cooking at the right tempurature in order to yield a steak that is 99% med rare and 1% well done. This was a steak on a party of 60 we had one saturday night. John, my sous chef, grilled probably about 35 filets to medium. This was one extra one and had sat for a good 20 minutes after the party before we cut into it. It is pictures like this that makes me up in the air about how so many chefs are begining to use so much equipment to get results like we have above. Proper cooking, using methods proven to give standardized desired results, is almost always as good as any machine. So get yourself a Johnski. He also slices, dices, chops, and gets mad a staff meal!

Of course John always does a great job but we can't let his head get too big. So the front of house sent back a joke ticket. I had no idea and as I called the ticket John looked at me and said "I think I quit."

New Dishes

We have come up with a lot of new menu items. Here they are and we should have these on the menu for a little while longer.

Here we are looking at our new pheasant. It is a provencal style sauce with tomatoes, fennel, olives, roasted peppers, and fresh herbs de provence(we use thyme, parsley, majoram, and lavender). We serve the pheasent with artichoke hearts and grilled polenta.



Here we have a boneless lamb loin. Grilled and served with a lavender-port jus, arugala, asaragus, fava beans, red peppers and roasted tomatoes. This is like lamb over a warm salad.


These are the soft shell crabs we got in for one weekend. The season is so short and we had so few. Here is what we came up with. We battered the crabs in kadafi dough (shredded phyllo) and deep fried them. We served the crabs with arugula, and pommery mustard vinagrette. The brioche and quail egg we made like a tiger's eye, aka toad in a whole. The quail egg tiger's eye is a small tribute to my late grandma who used to make me tiger's eyes in tomato soup.

We finally changed our scallop dish. We pan sear the scallops and serve them over a puree of cauliflower and sauteed spinach. We made a gremolata and used brown butter solids to reinforce the brown butter in the plate. A tarragon-basil emulsion, more brown butter and candied lemon finish off what I think is a great dish.

Some random pics

Exactly as the title says.
This is John making roasted garlic and mushroom butter. It looks really cool on the plate having 2 different colored butters.






Suck it Sergio!!! Winslow is funny!
Jeff stealing the Tryon truck.
Nicely seared salmon. Courtesy of cisco.

Keep Moving Forward

"Keep Moving Forward" is a quote from one of my sons favorite movies "Meet The Robinsons." It really is a great movie and one I don't mind watching 10 times in a row. But the line keep moving forward relates to an inventor who get excited every time he has a failed invention. So often we come up with dishes and I look at it and think somethings not right. More often than not it has to do with plating. Do we keep it high and tight, spread through out the plate etc. And often I get frustrated with myself for not being able to get the plate the way I want it to look. I was so frustrated the other night I hucked a spoon across the kitchen because I couldn't get my chicken to stay on top of the vegetables. I was also in the weeds and I didn't through the spoon at anyone just a wall. At the end of the shift I thought about keep moving forward. If you don't get the desired result keep moving forward. So I did and completly revamped our pan roasted chicken. I am much happier the dish. We are always refining, improving and revamping in the kitchen to make sure we are putting out our best.

Here is our new pan roasted chicken breast. We use Tanglewood Farms free range chicken from Winston-Salem. Leek and gruyere bread pudding, sugar snap beans, roasted garlic veloute and tomato fondue. It was a big hit this weekend.


We have been getting some fantastic NC coastal shrimp for about 3 weeks. They are super sweet. I have always been a fan of paella since I traveled to Spain when I was younger. We took the paella idea and revamped it slightly. We cook the shrimp sous vide in lemon, thyme and butter. The shells, and heads when we can get them, go to stock for the risotto. We serve the shrimp over a saffron,shitake, and chorizo risotto and top it with basil oil. I can't by enough shrimp to keep up with the demand.
Here are some shots of the guys and the pass this weekend.
Things to work on/new ideas

• Update dessert menu
• Floating Islands- on a caramleized white chocolate anglaise
• Death by chocolate- chocolate marquis, white chocolate and raspberry jelly, mexican chocolate pot de creme
• Cane Creek Braised pork shoulder- deconstructed NC barbecue, spaetzle au gratin and braised red cabbage
• Salmon, orzo salad, farmers market sorrel.
• Foam amuse bouches
  
• Hot Foie Torchon.
• Get to the Farmers Market- produce is starting to hit
• We need to get ECOS on Board
  

New Menu Layout

We have been making some changes in our menu style and layout and we have been really happy. Less is more is the theory. We have been running a two page menu with one side highlighting specials. We now only have one menu which we are printing on a regular basis, and changing pretty often so try and keep up. This allows us more flexability with what's in season. We can change on a dime if need be and we are having a blast with it. This week we are looking at 2 new items going on.

First is a wild stripped bass bouillabaisse broken down. We are going to grill the bass and serve it with a slightly spicy bouillabaisse sauce, rouille croquette, and french bean salad. I
ll try and get picture up soon.

The other is Braised Cane Creek Farms pork butt with spaetzle au gratin, braised red cabbage, and spiced cider gastrique A big twist on Alsatian food and NC barbecue.

We have also been getting amazing NC coastal shrimp fresh!!!. It's been a long time since I have worked with shrimp this good. We are cooking the shrimp sous vide with butter, lemon and thyme and putting it over a spin off of paella. A saffron-chorizo risotto with shitakes, and topping it with basil oil.

Trefethen Wine Dinner

We are offering a wine dinner featuring Trefethen Wines on Wednesday March 18. The menu i posted below and should be a blast. We have pulled a few items from the Truffle Fest menu so those of you who can't make it to Asheville the weekend before won't feel left out.

AZURE GRILLE

Trefethen Wine Dinner

March 18, 2009

Reception, 6 – 7 pm, First Course, 7 pm

All wines from the Trefethen family vineyards

in the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley

Trefethen’s Southeast Regional Manager, John Harrington,

will be here to present the wines

Reception

Gougeres with chived goat cheese

2007 Dry Riesling

First course

Smoked Salmon with sherry dressed shaved asparagus

2006 Chardonnay

Second Course

Merlot risotto with pancetta, grana padano and micro basil

2005 Merlot

Entrée

Pheasant en Crépinette, Pheasant Sausage, Chestnut Jus

2005 Cabernet Sauvignon

Dessert

Ile Flottante

Floating Island, Raspberry Mousse,

Caramelized White Chocolate Custard and Almond Tuile

2007 Late Harvest Riesling

National Truffle Fest Part 2

The First Annual North American Truffle Festival is coming up in a few short weeks. Tickets are still available. I wanted to post the menu for our wine dinner we will be cooking the first Thursday of the event. Each chef is cooking 4-5 course to be paired with wine and each meal is for roughly 12 people, so tickets for this event are going fast. Here is what we have decided to cook. Remember this is a truffle driven event so get ready to eat some truffle.

Amuse Bouche

Tuna Crudo, Litchi-Green Tea Gelee, Telicherry Pepper

First Course

Chicken and Foraged Mushroom Consommé Royal, and Shaved Truffle

Second Course

Diver Scallops, Risotto, Shaved Truffle, Sorrel and Verjus

Third Course

Pheasant en Crépinette, Pheasant Sausage, and Chestnut Jus

Fourth Course

Ile Flottante

Floating Island, Raspberry Mousse, Caramelized White Chocolate Custard and Almond Tuile

Valentine's Day

Valentines day is right around the corner. I thought I'd post the menu.

Amuse Bouche

Dark chocolate dipped Hazelnut with Fleur de Sel

Soup

Lobster Bisque

with house made crème fraiche

Salad

Rocket ArugulaGreens,

Raspberry-Vanilla vinaigrette, sweet pickled fennel,

whipped Saint Andre cheese and toasted almonds

Appetizers

Grana Padano Crusted Asparagus

with Garland Farms Shaved Truffle

Crispy Fried NC Oysters

with bacon-tomato ragout and fresh shaved horseradish

Entrees

Chateaubriand For Two

Served with sauce Béarnaise, Roaring Forties Cream,

Sauce Bordelaise and roasted fingerling potatoes

Lavender Dusted Wild Striped Bass

with sorrel cream and braised baby spinach

Berkshire Pork Osso Bucco

Creamy Guilford County Grits, bourbon jus

and bacon-thyme Brussels Sprouts

Dessert

Banana Split For Two

Roasted and bruleed banana, banana gelato, raspberry sorbeto,

bing cherry compote, chocolate ganache and almond brittle tuile

New Year's Eve 2008

I wanted to post our New Year's Eve Menu. We are offering a 4 course menu for $55 a person. Reservations are filling up some make yours' early. Feel free to contact me through the Blog with any questions.

Amuse Bouche
Beluga Caviar, Caramelized White Chocolate

First Course
Chicken and Wild Mushroom Consommé Royal
Truffled Custard and Garland Farms Shaved Truffle
Or
House Made Salmon Gravlax Salad
Arugula, Pommery Mustard, Red Onion, Dill, and Crème Fraiche

Second Course
Caprese Terrine
Overnight Tomatoes, Chapel Hill Creamery Mozzarella, Basil, and Reggio Emilia 100 Year Balsamic
Or
Scallop Coquille St. Jacques
Chantrelles and Grana Padano

Third Course
Prime Ribeye Filet Wellington
Truffled Mousse Pate, Spinach, Puff Pastry, Tellicherry Peppercorn and Brandy
Or
Atlantic Day Boat Grouper
Sweet Potato Crust, Raspberry Compote, Japanese Forbidden Rice,
Haricot Vert
Or
Pan Roasted Pheasant
Calvados, Mascarpone Polenta, Creamed Watercress
Or
Butternut Squash Ravioli
Caramelized Shallot, Sherry-Cider Broth, Beech Mushrooms and
Green Apple Reduction

Fourth Course
Chocolate and Hazelnut Tart
Mascarpone, Grand Marnier Syrup, and Candied Orange
Or
Caramelized White Chocolate and Key Lime Parfait

Fall Menu

We have been running a lot of special items which are sooon to appear on our Fall Menu. Coq au Vin, butternut squash risotto, etc. The new menu begins this wednsday. I'll post the final version here.

Tart Tatin and the Economy

I haven't posted in a while, but we have a new dessert menu and one of the things we keep looking at is how to keep up with the fears of the economy. Se we came up with a small version of a tart tatin. I love apples in fall, I love deep rich caramel, and I love hot cinnamon. It works. Here is our petite tart tatin.

Farm/Wine Dinner Menu

Here Is the menu for our wine Dinner. Specific Details can be found on the restaurants website.

First Course

Lobster Ceviche, pickled jalapeno, Mango gelee, and avocado mousse

Second Course

Beet Root “Carpaccio”, Valdeon cheese, watercress, and Cane Creek Farms Ossabaw Bacon

Third Course

Miso Braised Cane Creek Farms Ossabaw pork belly, pickled watermelon, and daikon salad

Fourth Course

Braeburn Farms grass fed short rib ravioli, Fava beans, wild mushroom ragout and cabernet reduction

Fifth Course

Roasted Local figs and cinnamon marscapone

Summer Menu

Our summer menu comes out today. You can check out the update on our website. We have been really busy getting ready for the new menu. I will post some pictures soon. Sorry for being away for so long.