Rabbit action

I have not done a rabbit terrine since cooking school, so I decided to try another one.
This was somewhat frustrating for me for some reason. I think the main reason was I kind of just wanted to do a quick terrine, but with rabbit it's best to make a farce, wrap it in the loin and skin and poach it, so it's a bit more of a production.
I started out De-boning the rabbit which was fairly easy as I have done this before. The farce as well was pretty simple (lemon verbena, orange rind, pork fat, rabbit meat and fat, seasoning, all grind-ed up).
The hard part came getting the farce into a tight meat log (as sean calls it), he had to help me several times with that, I just couldn't seem to get it quite tight enough. Because it took me so long, and I was over frustrated I left it over night and decided to come back to it the next day.














I was feeling better about it and pounded out the rabbit terrine pretty quick at this point. I wrapped the farce in the loin and skin, wrapped it in cheesecloth (tightly) and poached it in rabbit stock and pork stock.














I brought the terrine up to 147 degrees and let it cool completely in the liquid, the result was pretty good. Next time I will be adding a bit more seasoning and a bit more lemon verbena.
All and all good learning day(s).

Lunch feature 07.08.10 pt.1

Crispy pork belly
Grilled poor man's brioche
Sauteed cabbage & onion
Stone fruit chutney
Prawn bisque, mayo & oil

The summer of pork continues with another champion of swine.Who loves an open face crispy pork belly sandwich? I do, you do, we all do.

The pork bellies were braised, then pressed and cooled. Then the were cut to size an pan roasted until crisp. The belly sat on top of some stone fruit chutney(thanks to Shannon's handy work), which sat on top of some cabbage and onions, which sat on top of some grilled poor man's brioche.

This is where the prawn comes in. A bisque is on the plate, which will get all soaked up by the bread. There is an oil made from the prawn shells that is garnishing the bisque. With that same oil I made a mayo that is garnishing the top of the pork belly.

This was one hell of a sandwich, I know that I'll be making this one again sometime.

Sean Peltier.

Helping out is a nice thing to do!

This is one of the first dinner features that I have put together all year. Being a lunch cook and all, I rarely get to play around with the dinner feature. However, Shannon is by herself on hot side on Wednesday and Thursday so sometimes she has a lot of mise en place to get ready for dinner service. As a result, the dinner feature can become a real murder item to your day.

I happen to love Shannon and I also happen to love cooking, so, what better way to spend some spare time than cooking a special to make life a little easier on the one I love.

I saw that there was ten Cornish Game Hens in the cooler when I arrived back to work from our days off and I have been dieing to learn the Villa de Lupo chicken dish that Jon and my friend and old mentor James have cooked so many times in their past. No better opportunity will arise than this. So, after a quick rundown on the process from Jon, I was off to the races. Since it's not my recipe and since it is still on the villa menu I will not go spreading the word on how to do it. It was basically done how I thought it would be, but, Jon did have a few very helpful hints on how to make it work a lot better.

Basically what you end up with is the breast meat in the center, the leg meat around that and the skin wrapped around the whole thing with the leg bone sticking out. Half a bird in one nice little package. Beautiful. Thanks to Jon for the tips and thanks to what is know called Lupo restaurant in Vancouver.

To go along with this stunning piece of poultry I did one of my all time favorites. Pommes Anna. Thinly sliced potatoes which are placed around in a circle in a hot pan with a bit of oil. Layers of potato are stacked up and then, once crispy on one side, is flipped to make crispy on the other side. Finish it in the oven and then serve. Crispy outside soft inside, so good.
Also, I smoked the bones from the Game Hens and then roasted them to make a jus. Turned out really well. For some acidity Shannon made a really nice berry gastrique. A few fresh berries and summer squash to finish it off.

Gotta love it. If you have any other cool ways to serve half a bird let me know.

Sean

My first try at bagels

So I finally decided to try bagels. What was really interesting and not funny ha ha but funny peculiar was that bagels are not very challenging at all. So why? Why oh why do we buy these insulting mass produced bagels for 4 dollars a bag full of ingredients I have never heard of and call them bagels?
I assure you my friend, that they are not in fact bagels.

step one:
wrap my head around the idea that bagels can be made by hand at home and not cause my day off to become yet another day of work.


This is a pic of my little Bro Michael kneading his first bagel dough. He is 15 years young. When I was 15 I never knew you could get a bagel that didn't come from a plastic bag.




Bagel dough being weighed to be cut into balls to be shaped.


Sean our bagel "guru" teaching Michael how to roll out bagel dough into those familiar shapes we all know and love.



here are the little ones ready to go in the fridge over night to be boiled and baked in the morning






bagels boiling. I boil mine for 3 minutes so they are extra chewy.


Post Boil, Post seeded, and Pre oven stage.


Here they are. The finished product.

I must say that I am very happy that I took the bagel plunge. I will never...I repeat! NEVER! Never buy bagels from a super market as long as i live. I do not mind buying them from a local baker, but good luck! How many times have you walked into a bakery and actually seen a bagel like the ones above, and trust me I am not bragging. I didn't do much, it's all in the method, in the dough. Trust your dough!
Bagel maker 5000 out!

Halibut Feature

For my dinner feature on Wednesday July 7th:
I ran Pan seared Haida Gwaii Halibut
Morel mushroom, local pea and truffle risotto
Pea and mint Nage
It came out quite nice once I got help with the plating and such (from Sean).
At first I put preserved lemon in the risotto but I gave a taste test to a colleague and he mentioned that the preserved lemon and the truffle oil canceled each other out, being that they are two very strong, very distinct flavors. So I omitted the preserved lemon and the pea came out a lot better, as well as the truffle oil. Also, I found with using truffle oil not to use too much as it is quite powerful, not to mention costly.
All and all I was quite happy with it, and since we did not sell out me thinks I will run it again tonight.

Rabbit: Not To Hip To Become Square

Charcuterie( from chair 'flesh' and cuit 'cooked').

Something that we have on the menu at work is a tasting of charcuterie. Cooked and cured meats. Such as; bacon, sausage, terrines, pates, ballonties, gallantines etc. Basically cured and cooked meats, that are generally eaten cold but that isn't a rule by any means.

We always have a daily terrine on our charcuterie plate to go along with Jon's stunning salamis and such. Usually Jon takes care of all of this. However, sometimes, when time permits, I like to have fun with meat as well. I wish I could get to it more often, but that's alright. Just watching how Jon can pump this stuff out with the greatest of ease is really quite something to behold.

I had two nice rabbits to make a lovely terrine out of. The process to get from rabbit to terrine is not all that hard once you learn how to de-bone the animal. To do this properly, one must get all the bones out without doing any ripping or cutting of the skin.

This is accomplished by cutting along the spine and working along the skeleton until the whole damn thing can be removed. From there the leg meat is ground into a farce, the livers are soaked overnight in milk or in this case buttermilk to draw out any excess blood and impurities. The liver is then removed from the buttermilk and diced. Then added to the farce meat along with some pork lardo, cherries and other seasonings. The terrine mold is lined with the rabbit skin, then farce is layered on the bottom, followed by the loin and then more farce. The skin is then folded over top. The whole deal is wrapped in plastic wrap and cooked in a water bath to a temperature of 150degrees. Because of the liver it is important to cook the terrine to that temperature. The terrine is then rested until cool and stored until needed. Presto chango, square rabbit. Delicious.

A little tip Shannon and I found out while in one of the large markets in Barcelona. When buying rabbits in a market, only buy the ones with heads attached. I asked why all the rabbits were hanging fur and all attached. I was told that because rabbit and cat look almost exactly the same skinned and even more alike with the heads removed, mongers always leave the head on. If they don't...your probably eating cute little "Mittens".