Last Minute Adjustments.....

Allot of stuff goes into changing a menu , from calling purveyors all over to match prices and estimated availability on any of hundreds of ingredients to ..the actual making of a menu .. In other months I've had almost everything done two weeks before the date of the menu change this menu a bit different i never had so many ideas to run down and with my sous chef on vacation and me hands on in the kitchen it has been difficult ... But thanks to Carrie Our functions coordinator we pulled it off ...And all menu's were printed .... I'm slowly weeding out the old stuff and prepping some of the new stuff....here are two dishes that are echos of dishes on the spring menu ...not all of the spring stuff if in yet.......so i made them with slight improvisation..

Veal rib chop ( our menu we have a two bone Berkshier pork chop) cocoa roasted cauliflower risotto , caramelized onion & fig jam , port chocolate reduction , organic cocoa nibs... A dish that marries the sweet and the savory . in an exciting and uncommon way.

Roasted Red Snapper , sun dried tomato pesto , potato and roasted shitake hash ( the new menu has bacon sweet potato pancakes , kalamata and sun dried tomato jam and spinach saffron crema ) with a few Taylor Bay scallops lightly opened in garlic wine sauce.... this is a very tasty dish ...sort of Mediterranean..light and perfect for spring..

Busy boy

I been working around the clock and straight through my day off... so i apologize for the lack in posts this week .... however as my menu is slowly coming together i will have a ton of pictures in the next couple of days

Beef Cheek Raviolo

mini king trumpets , shiatake , aged pecorino , buerre rouge , fresh thyme ....delicious!

Finnan Haddie Stew.. The Lost Chronicles

This is my take on the classic Finnan Haddie Stew , I used house smoked salt cod , and smoked trout , simple aromatics and Yukon potatoes . I served it with colcannon croquettes , filled with shredded corned beef , crisp Irish bacon , cabbage , and creamed potatoes ... i almost made a brandade . .. but i did not want to take away from the colcannon ... i wanted to resemble chowder and clam cakes ... on ST. Patrick's day it was served with a whisky cream ... and the stew was Frenched table side ... There is gonna be a ton of work to do in the next couple of weeks and i can't wait to share it all... Evey one is real excited about the new menu changes ..today i was exploring adding a "snacks" section to the bottom of our popular tapas menu... featuring authentic tapas like anchovies , sardines , marcona almonds , and such .. I finished our 2009 Easter menu witch will consist of a unique and exciting brunch menu then a dinner menu that will be posted on the website in the next couple of days..

ST. PATRICK'S DAY FESTIVITIES...

Real Deal Shepard's pie ... Lamb , peas , bone marrow , ramps , fluffy potato , and lamb jus

And good ol' Don Mcfinnagan Mckoolagain .... making a surprise appearance with his luck o the Irish sticker... Everyone was in high spirits , and we were allot busier for lunch than we thought we would be..Next year will be marketed stronger in the hopes to do 150 plus covers for the day..

Black & Tan ,,, And Beige.

One of the desserts were doing on St. Patrick's day is a play on a black and tan ... here we have a milk chocolate mousse , and caramel mouse , and its topped with whipped Guinness... the beer foam has no dairy on it at all .... the taste is something like a Werthers original ..

Surfin and Turfin AGAIN..

Wolf Neck Farms Sirloin Club Steak , Cocoa Roasted Cauliflower Risotto , Grilled King Oyster Mushrooms , Caramelized Jumbo Sea Scallop , Lemon Roasted Shad Roe , Cauliflower Chips , Bolivian Cocoa Nibs , Port Chocolate sauce .... Not the normal surf and turf , but what is normal...
the king oyster mushrooms were amazing .. the shad roe tasted close to fresh seared yellow fin tuna ...the cocoa cauliflower risotto was very creamy with a faint taste of cocoa on the finish....
An overall nice special for a saturday service...

Corned Beef , cabbage , and shamrocks ...

The restaurant was slow tonight, Friday the 13Th set in... lol ...when it's slow which is never good i have a habit of being super particular ...i try to give the diner the full treatment..if i find out it's your first visit , I'll send out an amuse or a pallet cleanser or pre dessert. what ever i can do to get you to come back.. tonight although we had minimal covers we had customers opening our kitchen door to thank us on the way out ....So with the spring menu starting to put itself together trying what could work and what might not.. i still managed to put together a solid St. Patty's day menu .. Now I'll be honest with you out of all the holidays ...St.Patty's is the one i have the least experience with... I have maybe done two... both of which went great but I'm always unsure ...Anywho this being my first St. Patty's day at the Crane Brook and having an IRISH owner , I wanted to impress every one so i drafted up 9 dishes from starters to dessert and i did my homework , studying traditional Irish fare...so its a real fun menu...from finnan haddie to soda bread pudding.. And the star is my take on traditional Irish American corn beef dinner... i through some grilled black pudding , corned beef braised cabbage , yellow mustard and whisky glazed corned beef , boiled new fingerlings and a lucky shamrock...

Taylor Bay Scallop Ceviche

Mango , Aji Amarillio , Moro Blood Orange , Meyer Lemon , Lime .. served in its shell .... perfect for spring and summer...

Double Stuffed Quahogs.

Whats more New England than Quahogs ?? Well a lot of things , but there pretty darn New Englandish ( is that a word) . Being incapable to stick to the norm EVER... I roll out my Quahog ...by the way for those that are not to familiar with quahogs there basically jumbo full grown littleneck clams.. they are real hard to shuck and very easy to turn into something that could bounce off the ground for twenty minutes with one throw...Having worked in restaurants from near to far over the years I've observed hundreds of methods , some past down generation to generation . Everybody has a take on this classic... Mine is a bit advanced than most..But more than manageable.. I don't look at a stuffed quahog the way you might ..i see a cooking vessel instead of a "stuffie" ..The stuffing is made with chorizo,onion,celery,minced quahogs and there juice, chopped scallops , jalapeno , yuzu, lemongrass, ginger and garlic.. .lemongrass infused cream , Ritz cracker,Graham cracker, panko. multigrain bread, oregano, butter and chives...the bottom of the shells are stuffed with fresh scallop , lobster knuckle , king crab., and yuzu butter.. I then pack the stuffing on top to lock the bottom and put them in a 375 degree oven for 12 minutes the quahog heats up and steams the scallop and shellfish below ..serve with clarified yuzu butter..these will be on our bar tapas menu as well as in house starter option..

Lamb Reuben..

Ive been on a pickling and corning kick for the past few weeks , so this post kinda just rolls with what has been going on...I knew back in December that come spring i was gonna due a corned lamb dish ... Now the contents of the final product is a true example of how a chefs mind works... I due sometimes over think recipes and ideas , but i do so to push my brain to think of every alternate path an idea could lead down and dismiss what i find at the time to be impractical..so I think lamb in spring i think strawberry and Rhubarb .. why??? i don't know why . .. when i think Corned lamb = i think corned beef witch makes me think of cabbage and Reuben sandwiches... so i wanted to find away to mimic the flavors of a Reuben sandwich and still bring in the strawberry and rhubarb on subtle savory notes.. the lamb is corned for 48 hours,rinsed ,dried and rubbed with pastrami spices... instead of sauerkraut i made a rhubarb kraut , a little sweeter then cabbage but with all the same attributes its served on top of a Gruyere potato cake,with rye crisps and the sauce is a strawberry & cornichon "thousand island"
every element of this dish is stella on its own and when put together .... its a Reuben!!

Apple Crisssssp!

Tahitian Vanilla Ice Cream , Oatmeal Cookie Crumble , Grand Marnier Caramel

Smoked Tartare of Wagyu Beef & New Bedford Sea Scallop...

This barely cooked scallop although big in appearance is actual fanned with avocado..a little spritz of sudachi, ginger pulp and pink peppercorn skins.It rests on a tartare of wagyu top sirloin with tart apple and Persian cucumber.. the sauce is a sweet and spicy nori mustard....

it is smoked with hickory schichimi sawdust and wrapped with plastic wrap ..i.e a bit Richard Blais i know ...but original none the less..the smoke barely penetrates the dish..but imparts an aroma that lingers in the nostrils elevating the flavor profiles from bite to bite...
a side from being a nice alternative to hot smoking one single item..it is also a whimsy form of diner interaction the smoke pours out at them for 1 second then its gone..other diners are intrigued ..The one thing i wish i had done was put something pickled. Other than that it was a solid dish...

Video star..

Comfort Food..

Japanese Chicken and Rice soup, ..Miso,Edamame, Kombu Dashi, Shimichi Togarashi, Nuoc Chamm , kaffir, lemongrass, ginger, wild fungus , and a shot of Roasted rice Vinegar.. Just what the medicine man ordered.

fOAMS.

I started messing with foams about 5 years ago.. Since then it went from a "look what i can do "
type thing , to a national trend that seemed to kill itself because every chef foamed everything..
I am a firm believer that foams have a place in the modern kitchen.. Foam or emulsions have been done European kitchens for a century or so.. the only difference is today we have the know how to make it easier...Before you would have to infuse dairy , heat it and let it cool overnight ...the cooling process was not just to let the flavor intensify it was to let the natural oxygen in the liquid to decrease ..so when you whip the mixture the following day it would poof and stay a bit more stable.... Today we have countless ways of making foams .. Depending on the size of the bubbles we see fit for a dish , and the intention of the foams purpose i.e do we want the foam to melt over a certain part of a dish . Do we want the diner to be able to lift the foam and be able to feel the bubbles pop in there mouth..... on an episode of Bizarre foods Andrew Zimmern went to Pierre Gagnier's flagship restaurant in Paris, Pierre gave Andrew a strawberry effervescent foam that almost made him cry . My guess he either used freeze dried strawberry's mixed with a bit of baking soda whipped with a combination of versawhip , Xanthan , and sucrose or perhaps he has Rotavap and drew some of the strawberries essential oils to infuse.. .In our kitchen there is a plethora of chemicals for on the whim foams the foam above is just a simple foam of sweet milk foamed with a little Xanthan , and pectin ...