September Prix Fixe

As you can see by the first course selections in the menu, I figured out what I wanted to do with the pork cheeks.  I decided to use the largest of the three different cuts for this application.  Based on an idea from Brian, we are going to use the smaller pieces to make a pork cheek tasso.  Has a nice ring doesn't it?  More on that when we get to it.

September Prix Fixe -

Our Favorite Top Chef

Our good friend Erika Davis will be representing J-Ville (Among other things) in the inaugural season of Top Chef: Just Desserts.  Tune into Bravo for the premier, tomorrow night at 11pm after the Top Chef finale.  Good luck Erika!l

International Chef's Congress

One week from this moment, Chef Jon and I will be in the Big Apple for some much needed R&D time at the Fifth Annual International Chef's Congress. Joining us will be Chef Perry Kenney and Chef Marcos Fernandez.  Hopefully we will be able to post from the road like we did last year. 

Pork Cheeks

Pork cheeks.  Ah, the possibilities.  What direction should I take?  Our cheeks arrived today from Eden Farms.  At first glance they seemed to be an assortment of different sizes and various miscuts.  After cleaning them, however, I discovered that there seems to be three distinctly different cuts.  The largest of them is clearly the cheek itself.  The other two, must have to be removed separately.  The question at this point is: How do I get all of the elements of the cheek in one dish?  Maybe I don't need to.

Smokey Mary

Since we can't seem to get through a menu without smoking something, we decided to add some smokey love to our Bloody Mary mix for this week's cocktail special.

Confit of Lamb

For last week's prix fixe menu, we featured a confit of lamb shank. We went about it as if we were making duck confit. Expectations were a little mixed amongst the chefs, I'll be honest.

We covered the lamb in a generous amount of a herb salt cure, then vacuum sealed them to get the best distribution of the resulting brine.

After 24 hours, the cure was rinsed and the lamb shanks were seared and placed in a 200 degree bath of ....what else?....Duck fat!  They took a little longer than expected, but the results were delicious.  A little salty, but delicious still.  We have reserved the shanks that didn't sell for another use.   Hmmm....