This is a salad, invented in the town (Lyon) that lends it's name, that when executed properly comes very close to perfection. It is a staple on any respectable French bistro's menu and my all-time favorite. I am known to put an egg on top of almost anything, whether it actually needs it or not. I have a hard time holding back. But this salad is a prime example of a dish where the egg makes sense.

This is a really simple dish to make but also a really simple dish to mess up. Every ingredient has to be in harmony with the others. It would be very American to pile this thing with bacon but that's all that you would taste. And as an egg fanatic I could get a little crazy and use two resulting in more of an egg yolk salad. So restraint is a good word to remember when building this salad.

I start by slow-poaching the eggs. I leave them in the shell and cook them in a water bath which is held at 145 degrees for 50 minutes. I cool them quickly in ice water and refrigerate them until ready to use. They will be good for a few days. Just before plating I sit the eggs in hot tap water for a couple of minutes before gently cracking them open to reveal a perfectly poached egg that retains it's eggy shape.

The frisee is dressed with olive oil and champagne vinegar, seasoned with salt and pepper and placed alongside the egg. Restraint is again used here as too much vinegar will overwhelm the salad.

I cook off the bacon lardons (my own bacon, of course) til brown and crispy. They are placed on a paper towel to absorb some of the grease and then plated on and around the frisee.

I finished the dish with brioche crumbs which were made by lightly toasting the brioche before gently crumbling it between my fingers.


Product:
Pastured Hen Egg - Mountain View Poultry
Organic Frisee Lettuce - Weaver's Way
Free-roaming heritage breed pork belly for bacon - Stryker Farms
Brioche Bread - Wild flour bakery

I've been making this dish for a few years now, ever since I began making my own kimchi from scratch. It was one of my first attempts to utilize kimchi as something other than a side dish, "Bành Chân". It just made perfect sense to me right away. Shrimp, like most other proteins, is a great match with kimchi. And simply pureeing it leaves you with something that looks exactly like a traditional cocktail sauce but with a far superior flavor. I'm rather surprised, especially with the growing popularity of Korean food, that I haven't seen this being done anywhere else.

So like I said I simply pureed the kimchi with a stick blender adding a little soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and mirin for added flavor and liquid. Just like the kimchi this sauce will keep for a while in your fridge. It is equally amazing with raw oysters as well.

Most people will poach or steam their shrimp when making shrimp cocktail. I always cook mine in a hot pan with oil. Cooking with this method gives you some caramelization to the shrimp which means more flavor. I chill them thoroughly before they are served.

I grated the turnip with a microplane and placed some on top of the kimchi puree. And I garnished with lemon verbena to replace the classic lemon wedge mostly because I still have a bunch of it growing in my garden and I thought it looked nice.

I plated this dish in two different ways; one in the more traditional manner and the other on a more composed looking plate. I was bored.

Product:
Gulf Tiger Shrimp - Ippolito's
Hakurei Turnip - Weaver's Way
Lemon Verbena - My Garden

This wouldn't be much of a blog about cooking if I didn't take time to honor the one Holiday focused almost completely on eating. But like most other posts on here I couldn't go the standard route. I couldn't just roast a turkey, make some sides and throw it on a plate. Not that I won't be doing this very thing today. It just doesn't make for good blogging. So this is my contribution to Thanksgiving. The one day a year that we all gorge ourselves on food and booze giving thanks for not being poor and starving.

I made the veloute by roasting turkey bones in the oven before adding them to a pot containing turkey stock, celery, onions, garlic, leeks, black pepper, bay leaf, star anise, juniper berry, celery root and some sherry vinegar. I cooked all of this on low heat for about 3 hours extracting as much flavor as possible. I then strained out all of the solids and returned the stock to the stove and reduced it for another hour at high heat. While the stock reduced I whipped together some soft butter and flour into a paste. Was the stock was reduced to my liking I added the paste and whisked for 20 minutes to make a velvety smooth soup, or "veloute".

I seasoned the chicken skin with salt and pepper and placed it between two baking sheets. I roasted it in the oven at 375 degrees for an hour. This process results in a thick crunchy turkey skin chip.

The gnocchi is Parisian style made by whisking flour into hot milk and butter followed by eggs. I also added a puree of celery root to mine to mimic the flavor of stuffing. This concoction is called a "pate a choux" or "choux pastry". The pastry was cooled and then placed into a piping bag. It was squeezed out of the bag over a pot of boiling salted water and cut into pieces with a knife as it came out. I boiled the gnocchi for a couple of minutes and then strained them. I finished them by pan frying them in butter to brown them.

The cranberry beans, carrots and onions were all cooked in turkey stock and apple cider. The beans were cooked first for 3 hours. I added the onions and carrots after this and cooked them for a few minutes. I finished the dish with some pea shoots, celery leaves and some of the fat drippings from the turkey skin.

Product:
Organic Cranberry Beans - Culton Organics
Organic Bleached Celery - Culton Organics
Celery Root - Blooming Glen
Organic Cippolini Onions - Culton Organics
Organic Pea Shoots - Queen's Farm

I love incorporating edible flowers into my dishes. It's a great way to make a plate more visibly appealing with a big splash of vivid color. But I always make sure that it makes sense before I put them on the plate. Flowers have unique flavors that must be utilized just like any other food. A flower could make a dish look really nice but if it doesn't add anything to the dish, or if it's flavor is overwhelmed by the other components than there is no point in having put it there in the first place. I think a lot of us have experienced this in some restaurants that are trying to hard, usually with a whole violet blossom thrown awkwardly on the side of the plate.

This is a very simple and straightforward salad showcasing some beautifully tender baby kale. All types of kale can be eaten raw but the adult varieties are usually better after having some heat put to them to break them down a bit. Baby kale is better suited, in my opinion, when eaten raw. It isn't as tough and fibrous as full-grown kale.

The only thing that isn't completely raw on this plate is the cranberry mustardo. The black radish was sliced thinly and the kale and flowers were just arranged nicely on the plate. I made the mustardo by cooking organic cranberries in cane vinegar, bourbon, sugar, salt, onion and garlic. After the berries burst open and softened I blended everything together, strained and the chilled it. I used the mustard in lieu of a vinaigrette. It added a sweet and acidic counterpoint to the bitter radish and nasturtium flowers. 

Product:
Organic Black Radish - Culton Organics
Organic Saffron Crocus - Culton Organics
Organic Baby Kale - Weaver's Way
Organic Nasturtium Flowers - My Garden

This is farm-raised salmon from Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. This is not, however, your typical cheap horribly raised variety that you would buy at the supermarket. This is "craft-raised" sustainable fish. You can check out the producer and their story HERE. This is the grass-fed beef of salmon which are allowed to grow without being filled with hormones, taking around 4 years to come up to a marketable weight. These are happy salmon that command a higher, and well-deserved price.

I coated the salmon filet with a mixture of salt, pepper and grated lemon rind and allowed it to cure overnight in the fridge. I removed it and wiped the cure off before slicing it thinly.

I sliced the radishes into thin rounds and left them as-is. I cut ribbons out of the other watermelon radishes and covered them with a mixture of water, salt and whey from yogurt. I allowed them to ferment for 2 weeks in the fridge.

I sliced of some pieces of the persimmon and plated them. I scooped the insides out of 2 persimmons that I had ripened for 2 weeks. I blended them with salt, pepper, olive oil and rice-wine vinegar to make a very thick vinaigrette.

I whisked softened butter with tapioca maltodextrin to make the powder. And the buttermilk was just spooned onto the plate. I garnished with some radish tops.

Product:
Skuna Bay Craft-Raised Salmon - Ippolito's Seafood
Black, Green and Watermelon (Raw)  Radish - Culton Organics
Organic Fuyu Persimmon - Culton Organics
Watermelon Radish (fermented) - Blooming Glen
Grass-fed cultured buttermilk - Maplehofe Dairy

I really enjoy the combination of beets and goat cheese, even though it's incredibly over done, popping up on menus all over the place. But I still use it anyway, challenging myself to do something different with it outside of the typical salad. So when I got some Saffron, grown in Lancaster County, PA,  from my friend and mad-scientist of a farmer Tom I decided to incorporate it here. Up until a week ago when I thought of Saffron I pictured hot arid landscapes in Spain and Morocco. But apparently there is a long history of saffron production in the US. And while I thought it grew in the summer, it is actually harvested in the fall. Seeing as saffron is a big cash crop commanding upwards of $100 an ounce I am very surprised that there isn't more being produced in the US. Forget energy independence, here's to independence from foreign saffron.

I made the custard by slowly heating goat cheese, goat milk, saffron threads and lemon verbena in a sauce pan. In a metal bowl I whipped an egg yolk with some sugar and salt. I slowly began adding the liquid to the egg, tempering it so the egg didn't cook. Once the custard thickened up I poured it into a large ramekin and chilled it through before spooning it onto the plate.

I roasted the beets, covered in a 350 degree oven for about an hour until a knife passed easily through. I chilled them and peeled them before punching out little rounds. I used the juice leftover from roasting, mixed with a little olive oil, as the sauce.

And as you can see I garnished with fennel fronds, saffron crocus petals, mint and lemon verbena.


Product:
Pastured Goat Cheese - Cranberry Creek Farm
Organic Beets - Weaver's Way
Organic Saffron and Fennel - Culton Organics
Organic Mint & Verbena - My Garden
Organic Baby Fennel Fronds - Culton Organics
Organic Mint and Lemon Verbena - My Garden

If you've been to a wedding in the last 30 years or so there is an 85% chance that, while there,  a young man or woman approached you during the cocktail hour holding a silver tray loaded up with scallops that were wrapped in bacon. And if you're at all like me, you probably ate your weight in them within that hour. It's one of those classic combinations that has lasted for so long because it works so damn well. The salty smoke of the bacon is a perfect match for the intense sweetness of the scallop. I decided to use that lovely marriage of flavors in a much different take on that wedding reception staple that will never die.

The first step was to make the broth. You may already know this but I do not buy bacon, I make my own. And whenever I make bacon and then slice it I am left with random end pieces, trimmings and chunks of skin. I always save these as they are a perfect addition to braises and stews or in this case a soup. I finely diced a whole leek and sauteed it in butter for about ten minutes until they were very tender. I added about a half a pound of diced bacon bits, cooking them for another 15 minutes or so to release as much fat as possible. I added a tablespoon of sherry vinegar and a teaspoon of soy sauce. After the sherry and soy mostly evaporated I added a quart of chicken stock. I cooked this slowly for about 3 hours to allow a lot of flavor to develop. Once finished I strained out all of the solids and then restrained the liquid through cheese clothe to clarify it.

I put a ladle-full of the broth into a saute pan along with a knob of butter and placed it over a low burner. I added the carrots, leek hearts and fennel root and covered the pan. After a few minutes I added the cauliflower and sprouts and cooked them til they were fork tender.

I patted the scallops dry and seasoned them on both sides with salt and pepper. Remember to always buy "dry-pack" scallops which have not been treated with the chemical solution that wet-pack have been subjected too. They are well worth the extra price and if you're searing them, they are the only kind that will work. I poured some grape-seed oil in a pan and when it was ripping hot I laid in the scallops searing them to a golden brown, a few minutes per side. I garnished the dish with some fennel fronds and Brussels sprout leaves.

Product:
Sea Scallops - Ippolito's
Organic Brussels Sprouts - Culton Organics
Organic Romanesco Cauliflower - Culton Organics
Organic Baby Fennel - Culton Organics
Baby Carrots and Leeks - Blooming Glen

Dark meat always takes longer to cook than the white meat does. When you are cooking a whole bird that leaves you with a dilemma. How to cook all parts of the chicken to the same temperature. I've read about and tried lots of different methods from putting ice packs on the white meat parts of the bird while its coming up to room temperature to using foil in order to direct or lock in heat. My solution to this age-old problem is far simpler than these. I cook the bird until the breast meat registers about 155 degrees. I remove it from the oven and let it rest before carving the breast meat off and eating it. I rip the legs and thighs off and return them to the oven to finish cooking. The dark meat can take more punishment from the heat giving you, if done well, an almost fried-chicken-like texture and crunch to the skin. Problem solved.

I kept this dish really simple. I tossed the kale into a steamer basket and sprinkled a bunch of salt all over it. As the kale steamed the salt melted and covered all of the leaves seasoning them perfectly. And while the chicken was cooking I thinly sliced the red cabbage and sauteed it in olive oil. Once it become softer and a little caramelized I braised it in red wine until it was completely tender and the liquid reduced quite a bit. The cabbage and wine reduction acted as the sauce with a sweet and sour hit of flavor.

Product:
Free-range Pastured Chicken - Mountain View Poultry
Sustainably-grown Kale - 3 Springs
Organic Red Cabbage - Culton Organics

These are not the type of oysters that live in the water. They are actually part of the chicken. Specifically the part where the thigh connects to the backbone. At this point you will find a small piece of dark meat, that when removed, resembles an oyster. It is probably the most flavorful and texturally interesting part of the chicken. The oysters are very often overlooked and not eaten. The French have a saying about them that translates to "the fool leaves it there".

The oysters can be removed from the chicken when it is raw or after it is cooked depending on how you want to use them. I roasted a whole chicken and removed these afterwards. Since they lay under the bird when it is being roasted they are continually bathed in fat and juice leaving them amazingly tender. I finished them just before serving by gently heating them in melted butter.

The oysters lay on a bed of butter braised baby fennel. I finely sliced the fennel into very thin strips and cooked it in butter for about thirty minutes until it was translucent and tender. I used some of the fennel fronds to garnish the oysters as well. And I spooned some of the melted butter over them.

A mignonette is a sauce which is traditionally made with red wine, red wine vinegar, shallots and black pepper. It is almost always served alongside raw oysters (the kind from the ocean). This less "saucy" version incorporates sliced watermelon radish along with the usual suspects. 



Product:
Free-range Pastured Chicken - Mountain View Poultry
Organic Baby Fennel - Culton Organics
Watermelon Radish - Blooming Glen Farms

There is a type of pepper grown in the Basque Region of France that is so unique and so important to it's people that it is protected under AOC law. This means that it's name "Piment D'Espelette", meaning simply "Pepper of  Espelette", my not be used anywhere else except for this small area of the world. The Basque people use this pepper in place of black pepper in many dishes and it is used to rub the famous Bayonne Hams. The pepper I used in this dish, and that you will probably be seeing a lot of, was not grown in France. It was grown in Silver Spring, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The seeds are the very same as the one's planted in Espelette though. And it's flavor is almost exactly as it's famous French relative, smoky with almost a hint of dark cocoa powder to it.

These Halibut cheeks came from a fish which was caught with a rod and reel by a fisherman on board the fishing vessel F/V Kristina in the Pacific waters of Alaska. So if they ever happen to come by this post this is a big shout-out to them. I lightly covered the cheeks with salt and let them marinate in the fridge for about 2 hours. I removed them and rinsed them. I slow-poached them in butter for roughly 12 minutes til they were cooked through. I removed and drained them on paper towels before dusting them with the ground chili powder.

The whole peppers had been hung and air dried when I bought them. I dried them further in a very low oven with the door partially opened which drew out more of their flavor and aroma. Once cooled I ran them through a spice grinder to pulverize them into a powder.

To make the cauliflower remoulade I started out by oven roasted some cheddar cauliflower. I cut it into small pieces and combined it with oil, salt, saffron, whole eggs and crushed garlic. I mixed it with a stick blender to make a mayonnaise. To finish it I folded in chopped shallot and pickled purple cauliflower.

The root vegetables were all sliced thinly with a mandolin. They were all fried in individual batches and lightly seasoned with salt.

Product:
Sustainable Alaskan Halibut Cheeks - Otolith Seafood, Caught aboard the F/V Kristina
Organic Cheddar and Purple Cauliflower - Culton Organics
Organic Garlic - Culton Organics
Organic Beaurogard Sweet Potato - Culton Organics
Organic Jerusalem Artichoke (Sunchoke) - Culton Organics
Organic Red and Purple Fingerling Potatoes - Happy Cat Farm
Organic Yellow Beets - Weaver's Way Farm
Organic "Piment D'Argent Fontaine" - Culton Organics