As far as the plating of this dish goes, I totally ripped off Daniel Humm, the Chef of Eleven Madison Park and author of it's cookbook. Soups are one of the tougher things to make interesting when plating. It is one area where I definitely draw on outside sources for inspiration. If you have the cookbook check out the pea soup dish in the beginning to see where I'm coming from.
A velouté is a sauce or soup made by thickening a stock through the use of a roux. Chicken stock is the traditional one used. Using this specific cooking application results in a smooth velvety texture. I chose the vegetarian route here using juiced asparagus. I sauteed some garlic and onion in butter, tossed in some flour, stirring to make my roux and then whisking in the asparagus juice. Once the liquid thickened up I strained it to remove any of the solids.
You can't really see it from the photo but there is a slow-poached egg hidden under the soup. This egg was cooked in it's shell in a water bath held at 145 degrees for 50 minutes.
Laid across the glass is a tuille made from ground dried porcini mushrooms. Sitting on the tuille are mini asparagus tops and wild foraged garlic seeds and fronds. The diners were instructed to crush the tuille into the soup, split open the egg and mix everything together.
Product:
Asparagus - Culton Organics
Wild Garlic - Happy Cat Farms
Pastured Egg - Mountain View Poultry Farm
A velouté is a sauce or soup made by thickening a stock through the use of a roux. Chicken stock is the traditional one used. Using this specific cooking application results in a smooth velvety texture. I chose the vegetarian route here using juiced asparagus. I sauteed some garlic and onion in butter, tossed in some flour, stirring to make my roux and then whisking in the asparagus juice. Once the liquid thickened up I strained it to remove any of the solids.
You can't really see it from the photo but there is a slow-poached egg hidden under the soup. This egg was cooked in it's shell in a water bath held at 145 degrees for 50 minutes.
Laid across the glass is a tuille made from ground dried porcini mushrooms. Sitting on the tuille are mini asparagus tops and wild foraged garlic seeds and fronds. The diners were instructed to crush the tuille into the soup, split open the egg and mix everything together.
Product:
Asparagus - Culton Organics
Wild Garlic - Happy Cat Farms
Pastured Egg - Mountain View Poultry Farm