Dinner On the Farm

This weekend, I had the opportunity to cook dinner for some of the farmers at my local market on their farm. Check them out at Nami Moon Farms. They have the best eggs, and I've got to know them a bit over the past few years. We'd been talking about doing a dinner on their farm for a while, and finally made it happen last Sunday night. It was the first major tasting meal that I've cooked away from home. There are a whole lot more logistical issues to deal with when you have to pack up all your prep, drive an hour away, and walk into a kitchen you've never seen with only an hour and a half before service. Luckily, there were no major disasters (I warned them ahead that I'm not a professional, only vaguely know what I'm doing, and this would be experimental). In addition to the chickens, ducks, turkeys, and guinea hens with the aforementioned eggs, they raise pigs, and some produce. I wanted to feature products from the farm, but didn't hold that so sacred that I didn't veer off from time to time. I brought a full arsenal of toys with me. 2 Circulators, 3 Siphons, a Searzall, and 2 coolers of vacuum packed pre-prepped product ready to finish.

Here's the menu. 11 Courses. A few ChefSteps classics, a couple tributes to dishes I had in Copenhagen, a dish inspired by @wade elkins , and my take on a classic Wylie Dufresne dish that first got me interested in modern cooking techniques some 10 years ago.

Course 1: Gin & Juice

It never hurts to start off with a cocktail. Here was a granita of Pinot Noir and Concord Grape juice (sorry @HammeredChef DEFINITELY does NOT work at ChefSteps), topped with Watermelon compressed with Gin and Elderberry Cordial and Carbonated Grapes. A couple edible flowers to make it all 'laid back'.

Course 2: Real Egg aka American Toast

I love this dish. Such a great way to feature eggs from the farm.

Course 3: Beet Brûlée

I've made this before. Beets vacuum infused with coffee, then roasted, dusted with sugar and hit with the Searzall to caramelize. Topped with Balsamic Caviar and Creme Fraiche.

Course 4: Chicken Liver Pâté

Homemade naturally leavened Sourdough, topped with honey and salt. The Chicken Livers were from the farm.

Course 5: Corn Chowder

Popcorn Pudding, Caramelized Onion, Bacon End Lardons (from the farm), Roasted Potato Batons, and sous vide Sweet Corn in a pressure cooker corn husk tea. Slight misstep here. I'd had the circulators at 65C and 75C for the egg course. It took forever for it to get from 75c to 85c for the veggies #Wheresmyjoule?

Course 6: Carrots

I stole this from Relae. Goddamn it's good. Even when I make it. Carrots were scrubbed and unpeeled, bagged with garlic, brown butter, rosemary, thyme, and tarragon. Served family style. To prevent any double dipping fiascos, everyone got their own dish of foamed Hollandaise with Cured Egg Yolk grated over top (more farm eggs!).

Course 7: Courgette

I stole this from 108 with a few modifications. Summer Squash (Farm Product!), cooked sous vide and dipped in scallion ash. In an Montamore cheese sauce with Nasturtium Peatals and Balsam Fir Oil (must have been applied after this picture).

Course 8: Pork Heart

Taco Time! inspired by @wade elkins (Thanks!). Nasturtium Leaf topped with Pork Heart (farm product), Tamarind BBQ, Chipotles, and Smoked Pineapple. There's basically no info available on cooking pork heart. I cooked @62C for 12 hours, then gave a quick sear. Turned out delicious, but I'd go a bit lower temp next time. I was worried about this. I'd never cooked pork heart (I don't think I've ever even had pork heart), and it wasn't until the moment of service when I got to taste it. Good stuff.

Course 9: Tongue n' Cheek

Pork Tongue(farm product) and Pork Cheek(farm product) given the ChefSteps Pastrami Treatment. Served with Tomato infused Tomatoes (Farm product), Arugula brushed with Anchovy paste (Was going to be shrimp paste, but there was a guest with a shellfish allergy) and seared, and F#cking Fried Mayonnaise! In other words, BLT. This was a tribute to wd~50's pickled beef tongue with fried mayonnaise. I've wanted to try fried mayonnaise for over 10 years, so why not attempt it for the first time in someone else's house with a bunch of people you've never met looking on? Came out great. The tongue was super flavorful and the pork cheek just melted in your mouth. This made me happy.

Course 10: Lemon and Black Sesame

Lemon Curd (Hidden Farm Product - Eggs!) with a Black Sesame Microwave Sponge Cake, Burnt Almond Miso Butterscotch, and Semi-aerated chocolate. My chamber vac released pressure before it fully set, and it collapsed on me. Next time I'll do it in a jar.

Course 11: Unreal Egg

Callback to course 2. This time with Passionfruit and Lemongrass. Apparently I didn't get any pictures.

A couple other behind the scenes shots:

Packed up car.

Prepped Product

Dueling Circulators (Really wishing I had my Joule for this one)

All-in-all, it felt pretty successful, despite thinking I was in way over my head on a few occasions. I'd appreciate any thoughts on the menu, plating, etc from folks here.

Find more posts tagged with

What’s for Dinner

Comments

fisher23

Nice job, really nice!

Ken_137064

Congratulations...a might impressive undertaking!

Can I get your recipe for the coffee infused beets?
I struggle with up and down water temps all the time while changing from protein to veg etc. I use a 4-6 cup scoop and either add boiling water or cold water ...sometimes even ice to bring my bath up or down quickly to my desired immersion temp. Works for me!

Nice Job Brian!

douglas_bd

For the beets, I just slice about 1-1.5 cm thick, bag and add coffee. It tends to work best with a strong brew, so cold brew is my preferred. I do this in the morning, then reserve in the fridge. At service, I roast the beets in the oven, though I think cooking partway sous vide (say 10-12 minutes at 90C) with the coffee in the bag, then finishing in the oven would be a good step. Dry and dust the surface with some extra fine sugar, than hit with a torch to caramelize. Add some whipped creme fraiche to the top (I was all out of siphons, so I just applied a couple dabs from a ziplock for this go). Finish with a spoonful of balsamic caviar.

Balsamic caviar is 100g Balsamic vinegar, 1.5g agar. Put a tall narrow container of a neutral oil in the freezer for at least 30 minutes until it's nice and chilled. Bring balsamic and agar to a boil. Drop the balsamic from a syringe into the chilled oil. It will create spheres and solidify as they drop through the cold oil. Collect spheres and reserve for service.

Optionally for the beets, you can bury them in coffee beans and roast in the oven, but this takes a lot of coffee beans (Bonus...maybe? you can drink beet flavored coffee for a week!). The Coi book does this with carrots.

HammeredChef_DEFINITELY_does_NOT_work_at_22134

Beautiful!

tshewman

This is inspiring!!!! Awesome!

artstype

Wow, awesome, Brian!!!!

Ken_137064

Thanks Brian, I've gotta try this

maxkapelus

Looks great!

Jack_Mayer_85396

Wow Brian, fantastic job! I bet your friends were impressed and got a great meal.

Mike_Kisiel_129680

Great job. I'm impressed.🍽

matthewmicahhall

Amazing work, Brian. One technical question for you -- what was your procedure for curing the egg yolks? I've seen recipes that specify various ratios of salt and sugar, pure salt, and at least one that includes a post-cure smoke. I haven't tried it myself yet -- just curious to learn about your thoughts (and anyone else) on curing egg yolks, which sounds delicious.

douglas_bd

This was my first go at that. I used 2 parts salt, 1 part sugar. Covered the yolks in the dry brine and left them in the fridge for a week. After a week, I rinsed them off and into the dehydrator for about 12 hours, flipping them once about halfway through. It seemed to work well.

matthewmicahhall

Thanks!

ipreferale

Excellent post and fantastic great use of eggs and all of the Farmers Market products. If you could elaborate on the proportions that went in the bag with the carrots and if the carrots are to be served warm, room temp or chilled, I would appreciate it.

douglas_bd

Carrots were served warm right out of the bath. Cooked at 90 C for about 20-25 minutes. They should still have just a bit of crunch to them. I didn't measure anything here, but there were about 10 carrots per bag, 2 cloves of garlic, a knob of butter, a spoonful of brown butter solids, 2 sprigs of rosemary and roughly equal tarragon, and maybe 8 thyme sprigs. Super aromatic.

ipreferale

Much thanks!