Thanksgiving Day Poussin

My favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner is the mixture of stuffing, cranberry sauce, and gravy. You can keep the turkey. That is the inspiration for this dish....................

Poussin cooked under a brick with sausage stuffing, yam, chanterelle mushroom, cranberry, and pan gravy

Heart of Palm and Beet Salad

This salad sells like crazy!

The beets are roasted in the wood fired oven in a salt shell. I use the trim from the HOP and the juice from segmenting the satsumas to make the panna cotta. The paint is just a puree of whole satsumas, a little pinch of xanthum, and olive oil.

The close ups and skyline shots of this dish are my favorite. The last pic is from a higher elevation that mimics a guests visual angle.



Family Style Food

For a change of pace I did some family style platters for this weeks photo shoot.

Soy Braised Chicken, Cabbage, Shitakes with Rice

Roasted Sand Sole and Broccolini

Sunchoke Salad with Apples, Radish, Brown Butter and Hazelnut Vin

Pacific Sea Slug (Snail)

I use a local seafood purveyor who personally drives to the docks and meets his fishermen as they come in. He picks out the nicest line caught fish and that's what he sells. From time to time he will also pick up all sorts of interesting by-catch like this sea slug (also called sea snail, but has no shell).

I took the pics below with my phone after I lightly poached them. In their raw form they look like a mass of gelatinnous slime.

Its a little counter intuitive compared to land snails but the tube like mouth part is delicious while the foot is horribly chewy. They are tasty enough that I would consider serving them in the right situation..................

 

Duck w/ Roasted Carrots

Did a tasting for some media people. This is a Iphone picture of the duck dish I served.

Seared duck breast, heirloom carrots roasted in duck fat, roasted shallot puree, cocoa nib granola, dandelion shoots. The jus (not pictured) had cocoa powder and banyuls vin in it. I like the dish because of it's simplicity and the balance of bitterness, sweetness, and wood roasted flavors

Products on my Mind

I can now get Sea Grapes fresh from the Mendocino Coast six days a week. Clipped down into little clusters they are beautiful to see and have a great briny explosion when bitten into. Great cold, but not so good when hot.

Its Matsutaki Season! Possibly my favorite mushroom! Its also Chicken of the Wood season (not pictured)! Not my favorite mushroom!

pictures by Alan Yatagai www.asyphotography.com

Sole "Bagna Cauda"

Bagna Cauda traditionally is Anchovies, Garlic, Olive Oil, and Butter or Cream....................... I've been trying to think of any other traditional preparations that use olive oil and dairy together.

 

 

pictures by Alan Yatagai www.asyphotography.com

Lamb w/ Late Summer Mediteranean Vegetables

The squash, eggplants, and legumes available at the ferry building farmers market in August inspired this dish.

The lamb loin is grilled over wood. The crispy ball is made from lamb necks and mixing the braised meat and vegetables.

The 1st time I made the pepper paint with red bell peppers, but then I started using ripe basque peppers from Happy Quail Farm. The flavor was much more intense.

The eggplant planks are salted then seared and provide a good platform for the veggies and the St. Benoit Creamery yogurt cheese. I also started wrapping them in foil and throwing them in the wood fire oven overnight to make the smokey puree that I think is the key to the dish.

 

 

 

pictures by Alan Yatagai www.asyphotography.com

Foie Gras Terrine

I recently did some passed canapes for the Champagne welcome of a very exclusive tasting event of California cult wines. One of them was this foie gras terrine glazed with truffle creme fraiche. Since the new foie ban only prohibits the sale of foie we used the remaining product to provide our regular guests with this complimentary dish.

The diffused lighting Alan used is really nice with the pastel colors and the translucence of the celery and white pomegranate


pictures by Alan Yatagai www.asyphotography.com

Suckling Pig Butchery

pictures by Alan Yatagai www.asyphotography.com

I LOVE BIRDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heirloom Breed Chickens
skin is stuffed with black truffle lardo puree

                                                  
                                                              Partridge










pictures by Alan Yatagai www.asyphotography.com

Hamachi Sashimi

I love the color of freshly cured hamachi. The fatty fish can be a little cloying if paired with the wrong garnish. Here I use green tomato carpaccio for a light acidity. A sour Flemish ale gelee has a slightly bitter and drying effect on the palate. The pickled mustard seeds and the multiseed crumble are good textural contrast to the fish.

pictures by Alan Yatagai www.asyphotography.com

Smoke Cured Halibut Bones

I have started hanging my Halibut bones above the wood fire grill for a couple days until they are dry and golden. When used to make stock they give a very rich and interesting flavor reminiscent of bonito flakes. Plus they make great hood ornaments.

Roasted Squab A-Frame

Squab is currently my favorite meat. These are local birds from Beck's Farm which is located close to Modesto, CA. I like roasting them like this because you get good flavor from the bones. It is very important to baste the inside of the cavity well and allow time for resting so that you get an even cook on the breast.

Since the legs are so much tougher, I poach them separately at 70 degrees Celsius before crisping them in a pan on the pick-up.

The puree on the bottom of the plate is a gel made from freshly juiced apples, a touch of ginger, 1.2% agar, and finished with a few drops of douglas fir essential oil


pictures by Alan Yatagai www.asyphotography.com



Chicharrones

As promised....................... Pig Ear Chicharrones

We were going for a much more dramatic effect with this shoot.

Alan used a black backround to contrast with the white table and bowls. It also had a striking effect on the color of the cracklins.



On the 2nd photo the woven mat under the plate worked well with the simplicity. However, I did not like it as much when we photographed a composed plate with more elements as it became distracting to the eye.  

 

pictures by Alan Yatagai www.asyphotography.com

Pig Ear Terrine

Alan photographed these in diffused sunlight...........................................

 

I am excited for the chicharrones that are in my future.................................................






pictures by Alan Yatagai www.asyphotography.com

 

 Local White Sea Bass 'Panzanella'

 

This is the 1st composed plate Alan and I shot. He brought a light filter and shot outside using diffused sunlight. We like the softness and warmth that this lighting gave the light colors.

The bass was line caught the day before off of Santa Cruz, The baby Lettuces are from Ecopia Farms. Other ingredients are smoked char roe from Mikuni Wild Harvest, heirloom tomatoes, pickled red pearl onions, rye bread croutons, cucumber tourne, braised baby radish, yellow tomato coulis, and aged balsamic

Alan and I share many goals in our collaboration including gaining a better understanding of what makes a good food picture. With that in mind we also shot a version of this dish using a portion of poached and skinless bass.

The texture of the top of the fish came out too smooth to photograph well. When we do poached fish in the future we will experiment with different lighting styles and/or topping the fish with something like vegetables or pan'or for textural contrast.

pictures by Alan Yatagai www.asyphotography.com

After a long hiatus from blogging due to life, I am going to make another run at it............

I will be working with a local professional photographer on a regular basis. His name is Alan Yatagai. You can see his work and get his contact information from his website www.asyphotography.com .