ENTREMETIER: EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

Tonight, we're at the vegetarian station. We're supposed to come up with two dishes. I worked on one over this weekend that we'll make tonight, a Chilly Mozzarella Caprese with Focaccia and Olive Tampenade. I need to start moving forward with a menu for my final project so I have to make dishes and then figure out what the theme is because I haven't been able to think of a theme yet. Right now I'm thinking it might be "Everything Old is New Again," but ask me tomorrow and that might change. Tonight's Chilly Caprese is a tomato sorbet on top of a mozzarella cream. Hopefully the storeroom will have mozzarella and marscapone or else I'm in trouble...

More after class on the jump...

PREAMBLE:

We'd been on Entremetier before during Level Three and I'd help cook but I hadn't come up with a dish. But now, working on dishes for the menu that is my final project, I had a dish I wanted to try out in the restaurant. What better way to see if you're on the right track than to name it and see if anyone orders it. At some point I'll post about the process I went through this weekend to come up with the dish and the inspiration behind it but right now, let me just take you through what we did tonight.

DISH: Chilled Caprese, a Tomato Ice with Homemade Ricotta, Fresh Mozarella and Tomato Brunoise with Sweet-Spicy Tomato Jam and Black Olive Tapinade Crostini

RECIPE:

Ricotta *6
500 ML Milk (a little less than 2¼ Cups)
½ Teaspoon Citric Acid
Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Heavy Cream

Tomato Ice
1 Large Can Peeled Tomatoes With Basil
Juice of One Lemon
3 Tablespoons Salt
Freshly Ground Pepper

Black Olive Tapinade
6 Cloves Garlic
1/3 Cup Capers
1¾ Cup Pitted Black Nicoise Olives
1 Teaspoon Fresh Thyme
Juice of ½ Lemon
1 Tablespoon Pepper
¾ Cup Olive Oil

Garnish
2 Beefsteak Tomatoes, Emondees (boiled 12-15 seconds), Peeled & Sliced
Fresh Mozzarella
1 Baguette, Sliced and Lightly Toasted
Microgreens
2 Tomatoes, Emondees and Cut Brunoise (Small Squares)
1 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
12 Basil Leaves (fried in vegetable oil)
Vegetable Oil
Lemon Zest
Freshly Ground Pepper
Fleur De Sel

Procedure:
RICOTTA Mix 500 ML milk (slightly less than 2¼ cups), ½ teaspoon citric acid and ½ teaspoon salt and simmer over heat until the temperature reaches 195°F, stirring. The milk will start to coagulate. Shut off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes then pour it into a chinois lined with cheesecloth. You'll be left with ricotta in the cheesecloth. Add a drop of heavy cream to make it creamy.

TOMATO ICE Using a 35 oz can of can of peeled tomatoes, portion out about ¾ contents and blend with juice of one lemon, 3 tablespoons salt and freshly ground pepper. Strain to make sure there are no seeds then process in ice cream machine.

TAPENADE In a food processor, blend 6 cloves garlic, 1/3 cup capers, 1¾ cup pitted black Nicoise olives, 1 teaspoon fresh tyhyme, juice of ½ lemon, 1 tablespoon pepper, ¾ cup olive oil.

FOR SERVICE Spread two pieces of crostini with the tapenade and place at one end of the plate.

At the far other end of the plate, place microgreens and on top of them, a slice of fresh mozzarella. Sprinkle a few pieces of tomato brunoise on top of fresh mozzarella and on top a few drops of spicy tomato jam.

In between, place one slice of tomato and sprinkle a few grains of salt on it. Spoon fresh ricotta atop tomato, sprinkle lemon zest and freshly ground pepper atop it. Place scoop of tomato sorbet on top of ricotta, spoon 1 tablespoon olive oil on top of sorbet and place fried basil leaf on top as garnish.

BREAKDOWN: I wanted to start from scratch for the sorbet, using fresh tomatoes, chopped and blended with some chopped onion and lemon juice but Chef suggested I use tomato juice instead. I used a recipe I'd tried over the weekend and subsituted the fresh tomatoes with tomato juice. After processing it through the machine I was really disappointed. It tasted like ketchup sorbet. Guh. It would be pushing things to start from scratch with fresh tomatoes so I got a can of peeled tomatoes from the storeroom, blended them with lemon juice and salt, freshly ground pepper, skipped the simple syrup and put the mixture through the machine. Fresh tomatoes would have been best but this was much better, a savory ice.

I'd planned on making a homemade focaccia but we opted for the crostini (sliced baguette, slightly toasted) not thinking we'd have enough time. The focaccia would have been better but hey, sometimes you can't do everything.

I'd also planned on doing a mozzarella mixed with marscapone as the base for the sorbet (I'd tried it at home) but Chef suggested the homemade ricotta instead. I'm glad I learned how to do the homemade ricotta. Next time I'd make it slightly creamier. Overall I was really pleased with the dish.

When we showed it to Chef, she said it was a beautiful dish, something that she could see being on the menu at Craft. We got about 7 orders for the dish which is more than I've seen for many Entremetier dishes. We all felt pretty good about it.

PREAMBLE: But all that work only resulted in one dish. The second dish we'd have to come up with on the fly. Jane suggested a pasta paired with oyster mushrooms that the storeroom whiteboard was asking that the restaurant use. We'd acquired the fresh mozzarella the same way for the recipe above. While we didn't get the oyster mushrooms (we got regular ones somehow) the end result was very tasty. The mushrooms are a nice substitute for meat, they have their own distinctive flavors and can have a texture that works as a subsitute for it as well.

DISH: Mushroom and Tarragon Tagliatelle

RECIPE:

Pasta
Semolina Flour
Eggs
Water
Olive Oil

Mushrooms
20 Mushrooms, Sliced
Butter
Tarragon
Parsley
Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper

GARNISH
Romano or Parmesan Cheese, Shaved

PASTA

MUSHROOMS Slice the mushrooms and gently saute them until they start to shrink in some butter, salt and pepper. Set aside.

FOR SERVICE Cook the pasta for about 2-3 minutes. In a pan add a tablespoon of butter, salt, pepper, lemon zest, tarragon and parsley along with a few tablespoons of the sauteed mushrooms. Add pasta and a little pasta water to the mushrooms and toss, cooking gently until most of the pasta water cooks away. Serve in a plate with garnish and a little shaved cheese.

BREAKDOWN: This was a tasty dish and we got about 5 orders for it from the restaurant. It was fairly popular amongst the students as well. For such a simple dish it's delicious, hearty yet light enough to be summer fare.

Tonight was a good feeling-- I think I've found the first dish for my final project. Now to get the dishes and materials on which to plate them and with which to shoot them.

A few last notes, in the ven of fusion cooking we did tonight, Jane brought in a fusion cookbook that was really interesting. It's something I'd like to pick up at some point, "Blue Ginger," by Les Huynh. We also discussed another variation of the Chilled Caprese, a Frozen Caprese with Basil, Tomato and Ricotta or Mozzarella ice cream.

So that's it for Level Three. I'll be going in early to class on Wednesday to set up the final for Level Four students. That night we'll have a lecture on wine and next Friday we'll be in Level Four, discovering which groups we'll be in and who our new chefs are. I'll miss the Level Four students that will be graduting. While it took a little while to become friends with them it will be strange for them to have moved on. The new Level Three students will be joining us soon. There has been some ruckus in the Level Two kitchens so it might get interesting.