Fiddlehead Gumbo

Ever had a poorly prepared fiddlehead?  If you ended up with a slimy mouthful of starch you did.  This starch was the reason I never understood why people went so crazy over fiddleheads.  Almost every time I ordered a dish with fiddleheads they had slimy character.  Then I moved to Portland, Oregon.  The land of the fiddleheads.  It was in Portland where I learned that when cooked properly a fiddlehead has a really crisp, green taste.  It tastes like a perfect spring day. 

So one day not too long ago, I was thinking about all the goo in fiddleheads and it made me think of okra.  When cooked in a certain manner okra also has that same starchy, slimy texture...but okra's starch is put to good use in such dishes as gumbo.  The starch helps to create a rich and thick broth.  Could we use fiddleheads in the same manner?  It turns out you can.  Last night we prepared a stone crab and halibut gumbo using fiddleheads in place of okra.  It was a huge success and I am now toying with the idea of a plat du jour-Valley Spring Gumbo, made with only items from the pioneer valley...

Anniversary

Today my wife and I are celebrating our fourth anniversary, so I am going to leave you with a picture and go back to celebrating...

BLG's BLG

When we were designing our monthly changing menu, we wanted to have one staple.  One item to carry from month to month, something that we could perfect into something really special.  We thought about a steak dish, then a fish, maybe a vegetarian entree, alas we settled on a burger.  At one point we almost called our burger "The Local Burger" because it sufficiently was a complete local burger.  I'm really happy we didn't.  We did have a customer in the other day that called it the real local burger.  I thanked him and politely corrected him, the original local burger.  We like to call it our BLG or Burger Les Gras.

What makes our burger so popular?  We use the best beef in the valley for starters.  We use River Rock Farms beef.  They dry-age their beef which gives it rich and decadent "beefy" flavor.  A bit pricey but well worth every penny.  We like to use a mixture of chuck and sirloin, and depending on the time of year we throw in some short rib and brisket.  It is important that we create a good balance in the meat especially because we serve half-pound burgers.  When cooked medium-rare I want the burger to be really rich and satisfying but not greasy or dry.  This took quite a bit of testing, but believe me no one complained.  Before we grind the meat we give it a bath in red wine, herbs, pepper and garlic.  Getting the timing on this also took some trial and error,  too long and the meat became soggy, too short and it doesn't build enough flavor.  After it soaks for the perfect amount of time, we drain it and grind it using a nice coarse grind.  In order to distribute the fat properly, we grind it a few times, mixing well between each pass.  Then we mix it by hand, chill it down and form it into perfect half-pound patties.

Now we are ready for the brioche.  We use a mixture of AP flour from Vermont and soft wheat flour from the Valley.  Brioche is an egg, milk and butter bread so naturally we use Mapleline Farm milk, local eggs (source depends on season) and some of our fresh churned butter (made with Mapleline cream).  We finish them with a little sesame seed and viola, the perfect local bun.

True to our fashion, the toppings change with the season.  Right now we are using an awesome cheese from Old Plymouth in Vermont and some delicious caramelized onions.  We always serve our burger with a healthy side of hand-cut frites (made from local potatoes when available) and our mildly addictive house aioli.  An awesome burger if I don't say so myself, my mouth is actually watering while writing this.  Maybe I need some a BLG love, that is what I say when I want my burger...

Writing Recipes

Oftentimes as a chef you get asked to write a recipe for something, maybe the newspaper or blog or in the case of tonight, a cookbook.  No matter what the recipe may be for it always becomes an obscenely tedious task for me.  I always remember back to my days at Daniel in the prep room.  While my eyes were busy preparing the mise for that evening's service, one eye was always careful to watch one of the Chef's de Cuisine prepare the plates for one of Daniel' cookbooks or articles or whatever it may have been at the time.  How absolutely perfect everything needed to be (and was).  It was refreshing in the sense that there was no fake ketchup or shellac for shine, but daunting in the sense that there needed be such perfection.  Watching him slice and sauce and plate was beautiful, a symphony and he was the conductor.  That is how much thought went into the picture, now imagine the writing of the recipe. 

When writing a recipe I don't write it for myself.  I think of every person I know, the ones who cook very well and the ones who can't make toast.  If I can orchestrate a recipe that both can follow I have done my job.  Unfortunately, this takes drafting and testing...and another draft and another test...and hopefully just one more round...then I have a written recipe I can stand behind.  What?  Now you want a picture?  You thought writing the recipe was tedious, now you want me to give you a picture of what I want you to see?  It's going to be a long night...

Family Style

I had a chance to hang out with a few of my staff members away from the restaurant tonight and it was fun.  I love that we have a "family" at the restaurant.  That is something that turned me on about the restaurant industry to begin with.  Life is too important and too short to go through without good people around you and when you spend as much time at work as I do, the people at work are just as important as your close friends.  We have a great staff and hopefully we make them feel appreciated.  In some ways they are more than just staff, and that is the only way I would want it...

Rock Shrimp

Hands down my favorite shrimp, no doubt about it.  Rock shrimp are an Atlantic shrimp that have extremely hard shells, very much like a lobster.  Isn't it always the case that the harder something is to break into, the better it tastes?  Artichokes, check.  Nuts of all kinds, check.  Sea urchins, check.  These are no different.  Rock shrimp not only have the best texture of all shrimps but are also perfectly sweet...very much like lobsters, like spiny lobsters more so than Maine.  While I could eat these like popcorn all day long, if I had to make a dinner with them I would put them in a pasta with loads of lemon, wild ramps and just a little jalapeno.  Almost a scampi, but cooked so much more gently.  If I happened to have a really nice olive oil around, maybe some bottarga, I would be in for a something truly manificent.  If all I had was some pasta, rock shrimp, a lemon and a nice crisp bottle of white wine...I would be just as happy.  I can't wait to feature them next week in our rock shrimp salad, assuming there are any left after tonight's feast...

Easter

Today is Easter and I didn't make a ham.  Needless to say, I am pretty disappointed in myself (we won't even talk about what my wife thinks of this).  There really is no excuse for forgetting ham.  It is easily the most delicious part of any celebration.  Why else do you see ham at almost every holiday meal?  Well, any christian based holiday at least.  Chef rule #37: any chance you can eat or cook ham, DO IT!  No exceptions to chef rules, they are written for a reason.  What is my punishment?  So severe,  now I have to miss a weeks worth of leftover ham sandwiches and split pea and ham soup.  What a depressing way to start the week, hamless...