Lunch feature 3.09.10

Grilled BC Albacore Tuna
Poached Festers Farms Egg
Fondant Potato
Beans and Tomatoes
Roasted Eggplant Puree

I started the month of September with a special very loosely based on the Nicoise salad. For the most part everything was from the valley, minus the tuna and the potato.

The Albacore tuna is deemed to be Ocean Wise by the Vancouver aquarium. I, personally am a little bit skeptical about just how "renewable" this tuna really is but I am certain that it has not, like its cousin the blue fin or ahi tuna, reached the Peltier rating of Sea Panda just yet. That being said, I think the program it self is great. Anyhow, I grilled it.

The egg was simply poached soft so that it would act as a sauce on the plate. Beautiful eggs with great colored yolks from a local farmer.

The potatoes were confited in roasted garlic and tomato oils and then pan fried all super crisy like to order.

The beans were pre-blanched and then tossed with tomatoes, some herbs & lemon olive oil.

The roasted eggplant puree was simply roasted eggplants pureed with some lemon juice and olive oil.

Very simple flavors that are bound to work well together. I always feel a little bit bad every time I use tuna, but I love it so much, plus if their numbers drop all of a sudden I can always pass the blame over to the Ocean Wise people.

Welcome to September everyone,

Sean Peltier

Dinner feature 20/08/10

The last feature I did was Pan seared Snapper, Eggplant flan, tomato xvoo emulsion, pickled watermelon rind and watermelon tarragon salad.

I like to make flans, however, I find that when I make a flan I can't always get the texture right. So I asked for some help from a co-worker (Jeff) and they turned out lovely. The color wasn't awesome but I fixed that by making a bright lovely cold sauce out of tomatoes, salt, shallots, garlic and extra virgin olive oil.
The pickled watermelon was made by Jeff, it was very tasty and had hints of anise and cinnamon, because of this I kept most of the other components very subtle in flavor (not to say there was a lack of it) I just didn't want to over complicate the dish or the flavors involved. The tarragon was picked an hour before service (we have a herb garden) and the tomatoes eggplant and watermelon are local and organic. All and all I'd say it went pretty well.
Next time I think I would try and add an extra egg to the flan and a little more eggplant puree and lemon juice to give it a little extra something.