1. popcorn
popcorn with a lime juice, jalepeno, cumin, tequila, and butter dressing. served with prosecco.
2. soup
MC cream of mushroom soup with porcini powder, pistachios, and dill. this soup had an intense earthy mushroom flavor.
3. pasta
sea food carbonara with gluten-free pasta nera sauteed with a yolk-black tea wash and with crispy pancetta and salmon, and topped with salmon roe, parmigiano reggiano, and basil.
the gluten free pasta flour recipe;
300 g brown rice flour
200 g modified tapioca starch (expandex)
10 g methylcellulose
190 g liquid (2 eggs with black tea)
squid ink
i made the pasta about 6 hours before dinner. it took longer than i expected to cook. i used the philips pasta maker-extruder. next time i will make the pasta just before cooking it. with the auto extruder, you can have 1 lb of pasta ready in 15 minutes with little mess.
4. vegetable
CS carrots and perfect yolk. the color of the rainbow carrots were very intense after coming out of the water bath. i substituted carrot greens with the hazelnut crumble and pea shoots for the greens.
i had the water bath on the counter top. the guests were fascinated by the setup and the yolks in the olive oil bath. they had doubts that the yolk would be cooked.
i could not keep the small container with the oil and yolks level as the buoyancy of the small container tilted it, even after putting lots of tape trying to hold it down. there were six yolks for six of us. i ended breaking two yolks when removing them. i was over-confident and should have put more yolks than needed at the beginning.
i forgot to include the lacto-fermented carrot pickles and a drop of sriracha on the yolk in this dish. i need to have a master sheet with all the dishes and components taped on my refrigerator door so i won't forget anything.
5. fish
mussels and seared sea scallop in a celery, parsley, shallot, garlic and wine broth. rosemary focaccia (00 flour) for dunking. when we cooked the mussels we cooked them in what we thought was the best tasting white wine we had that evening. after all, it's their last drink on earth.
6. salad
CS savory ice cream salad ('farm and garden' from the spring tasting menu) with the inclusion of pumpernickle croutons and ginger kombucha foam air. i really liked this. it was sweet, salty, savory, sour, slightly bitter, soft, and crunchy. the flavor combination and the ice cream was not something you would expect from a salad but a totally enjoyable small bite.
good thing this was a small salad as some of the guests were starting to feel full at this point.
7. dessert
marinated cantaloupe balls in a lime juice, ginger, and white wine broth and served with carbonated raspberries, dehydrated banana, mint, and chamomile sorbet. the paired drink was a pisco sour cocktail. this dessert was light, sweet, sour, sizzly, slightly pungent, and very bright.
some of the guests remarked that the pisco sour was strong. they were from chile. i used peruvian pisco which is stronger than the chilean counterpart. after the guests left i drank all the remaining pisco sour in the shaker. it's hard just to have one pisco :-).
the entire dinner lasted 4 hours and 45 minutes and an uncounted amount of hours to prep.
