dinkyDiner

Pain Perdu Cube Stuffed with Quail Egg

2011-05-14T21:56:00.002-04:00

Seared on all sides, hollowed out, filled with a quail egg, baked and topped with maple bacon marmalade.

Pan Roasted Duck

2011-03-04T08:55:00.001-05:00

Short Ribs with Sweet Potatoes, Beets and Truffle Tremor Cheese

2011-02-19T08:53:00.003-05:00

Putting said orange salt roasted beets to good use.

Orange Salt Roasted Baby Beets

2011-02-19T08:44:00.003-05:00

Here lies several beets encased in a salt, egg white and orange zest insulating shell.
Once baked in its shell, it is cracked open to provide you with your evenly cooked beets scented with orange yet not salty in the least. Combi, Shmombi. But I'd love to have a combi oven don't get me wrong.

Then just pick the beets from the shell, rub the skins off with a towel and slice to see the beauty inside!

Yum!

What did that groundhog say, again?

2011-02-17T08:43:00.005-05:00

I wanted to create a dish that was light enough for the warmer weather we've been enjoying yet I still wanted to hang on to winter, like a confused groundhog. Here I treated striped bass like red meat seasoning it with cracked pepper and pairing it with chantrelles, bacon, onions, potatoes, hollandaiseand lots of thyme.

Super Duper Fresh Striped Bass

2011-02-17T08:42:00.004-05:00

Handsome Fish! OK I'll say it. Sexy Fish!!!!!!

Red Snapper

2011-02-05T12:05:00.002-05:00

This is a app. feature we are running at the restaurant. The dish has pan roasted red snapper, tomato+saffron infused cous cous, orange-fennel "slaw", kalamata tapenade and it is garnished with orange dust, tangerine lace micro greens and a grape tomato.

Fudgesicle, Creamsicle, Beef Carpaccio

2011-01-31T10:52:00.003-05:00

Recently a box came to the kitchen from my old stomping grounds of New Bedford Ma. I opened it to find a few great things, one of which was a small box of chocolate chevre from Southcoast Farms, I gave it a try and it brought me back to the days of sucking on a fudgesicle as a kid and getting all over my face and oshkosh overalls.

I knew i had to use it that night, but how, bouche!

So here it is, I made a mousse of the chevre and an eggless custard flavored with orange and vanilla, and finished it with a slice of Painted Hills beef carpaccio topped with tangerine lace micro greens.

Beet Cake and Smoked Trout

2011-01-17T14:50:00.002-05:00

Beet Cake, Pickled Onions, Baby Arugula, Smoked Trout, Cream Cheese, Truffled Caviar

Very Good Stuff!

Travis does it again!

Beet Curing Salmon

2011-01-14T11:59:00.003-05:00

Admittedly not the best picture, but under the plastic, wrapped in plastic is a nice test piece of wild salmon wrapped in beet and horseradish curing salt w/ sugar. See you in a few days salmon...

Beet Cake : Phase 1

2011-01-14T11:56:00.003-05:00

First attempt at the beet cake recipe I'm working on. It tastes real good but definatly needs tweeking and some flurishes.

Goat Cheese Cheesecake with Beet Shell

2011-01-14T11:49:00.003-05:00

This is goat cheese cheesecake that has been whipped and piped to resemble baby beets. They will later be covered with a beet croquant outer shell... Below is the powder for the beet croquant.

I didn't get the picture of the final product, I couldn't wait to crack it open an see & taste theoutcome. Plan to make more soon, more refined.

Bedside "Library"

2011-01-12T14:06:00.003-05:00

It dawned on me the other day, perhaps these are what are causing my sleepless nights. My bedside table making me feel unrested and slightly obsessed. Not to mention what books I keep hidden in my closet in a steady rotation to the bedside. Hell, you try to get good sleep when you doze off with an elBulli book on your chest slowly crushing you to submission

Tuna Pastrami on Rye

2010-12-15T14:02:00.003-05:00

Here I made some tuna pastrami, which I cured in pastrami spice overnight then seared and very thinly sliced. Under that I placed a rye cracker I made by rolling out fresh rye bread cutting and baking, along with it I put a housemade pickle, pommery mustard and fingerling potato chips!

Pork Belly

2010-11-10T11:03:00.000-05:00

BLT Bouche

2010-11-10T10:59:00.000-05:00

Steak Frites for Fall

2010-11-10T10:51:00.001-05:00

This is an eye of rib-eye with sweet potato frites, brussels and malt vinegar hollandaise finished with fresh grated cinnamon.

2010-11-10T10:49:00.000-05:00

Mini Crab Salad

2010-10-14T09:55:00.003-04:00

Jumbo lump crab meat with heirloom tomato, fennel stem & fronds, marscapone, EVOO, aged balsamic, sea salt and black pepper

Scallop Dish

2010-10-14T09:50:00.002-04:00

Candy Corn

2010-10-14T09:45:00.002-04:00

Corn bread panna cotta with roasted jalapeno and candied corn. Happy Halloween!

Lobster & Grits

2010-10-07T13:34:00.004-04:00

Here is just a dish we do at the restaurant, I needed to take a photo of this one, I thought it looked great.

Duck & Cookie

2010-10-07T13:18:00.003-04:00

This is a bouche of spiced apricot jam with a marcona almond cookie and five spice seared muscovy duck breast, garnished with a little marcona dust. I loved this one. I really need to get a good camera, the camera on my phone can really suck sometimes, I promise that duck was juicy and perfectly cooked.

Pull the Triggerfish

2010-09-29T13:09:00.002-04:00

Bacon and Eggs with Toast

2010-09-29T13:07:00.007-04:00

Waterbugs

2010-09-29T12:59:00.001-04:00

Great Flavor, Ugly Photo, Bad Presentation

2010-09-14T10:35:00.003-04:00

Local Smoked Trout with Goat Cheese Mousse and Honey Walnut Brittle.

Duck Breast with Grilled Fig, Local Honey, and Lavender Custard

2010-09-12T10:47:00.001-04:00

Raw Oyster with Pickled Watermelon Rind

2010-09-12T10:33:00.001-04:00

Muscadine Grapes Are Here!

2010-09-09T11:39:00.005-04:00

Certain things I just love. Muscadine grapes are one, the season just started and I'm pumped. Granted you can't do too much with them but I love just bursting them in my mouth. Their thick skin and seeds make them not alot of fun to work with but I had to use them last night. So I juiced them added some gelatin and whipped it into a sponge to set.

The texture was fantastic and the flavor was perfect. I use it for a bouche I was calling 'wine and cheese'. I used a local raw cows milk farmers cheese to accompany.

Like little tasty soldiers, all lined up!

The final product had the cheese, sponge, marcona almonds, and a little aged balsamic.

Whipped Chorizo Cream

2010-09-08T11:11:00.003-04:00

Well it never pays off to be lazy in the kitchen, or online. I made this bouche about 2 weeks ago and not long after I saw Alex and Aki from Ideas in Food had posted a very similar thing. WOW! Granted it feels good to be in the same mind set as those two, but I just wish I posted that night so I don't feel like a copycat. I desire original thought. Ideas in Food is a great site and I have been following it almost from the beginning. Much respect to Alex and Aki.

Anyways here is my whipped chorizo cream interpretation. It is a chilled sweet corn broth poured tableside with roasted corn and tarragon and the chorizo.

A few days later I made more of the whipped chorizo and used it for a course in a tasting. It was butter poached squid, with creamed corn, Marcona almond dust, fingerling potato chips and tarragon garnish. I wish I got a picture of that one. I'm talking sexy!

Crab with Textures of Watermelon and Cilantro

2010-08-27T11:56:00.003-04:00

The watermelon granita hadn't made it to the plate by the time I took these pictures....it was sexy!

Fennel + Lobster = Yumm! Thats a given anytime.

2010-08-26T11:17:00.003-04:00

This bouche is a peice of Maine lobster tail poached in vanilla butter and served with some sweet citrus fennel marmalade and toasted macadamia dust finished with lime zest.

Smoked Salmon

2010-08-26T11:06:00.002-04:00

House smoked wild salmon with avacado puree, bruleed grapefruit and lavender scented creme fraiche.

Blog

2010-08-26T10:36:00.002-04:00

Why blog? I really don't know. Memories? Thought? Vanity? I think I started this as a personal sounding board and log of past successes and failures. Not to mention future experiments.

Best Sandwich in the World! The Reuben!

2010-08-26T10:30:00.002-04:00

This sandwich is so special to me in so many ways. It has everything for me, plus it has a personal emotional recall in each bite for me. Here I have made two kinds, Nothing special just the basic reuben how I like it. One is regular the other is a double decker for when I really wanna recall some personal memories!

Ready to Eat Donuts!!!

2010-06-29T13:54:00.002-04:00

Cinnamon and Sugar Donuts!!!

Donuts!!

2010-06-29T13:50:00.003-04:00

Local Foods From Farmers Market This Morning

2010-06-29T13:42:00.006-04:00

NC Trout with a ratatouille tart, caramelized red onion coulis, sauteed purple and wax peppers and aged balsamic. Everything on this plate, aside from the balsamic, was purchased this morning from the Farmers Market! It don't get any better than that.

"Land and Sea"

2010-06-11T13:13:00.002-04:00

I call this "Land and Sea" simply because it looks like a fish washed ashore, also because it is salmon paired with some very earthy flavors. It has some salt roasted candy stripped beets, asparagus in two forms, simply cooked in some burre monte and fried strips, also I have some maple "sea" foam and maple granola "beach sand". I then garnished it with a perfect salmon skin crisp! I really love this dish, it might could use some tweeking but the texture and presentation I enjoy.

My inner girl scout

2010-06-10T12:49:00.003-04:00

S'mores!

This has house made marshmellows, graham crackers, graham cracker flan, soft chocolate ganache and graham dust. The marshmellow is bruleed and the flan is smoked under glass for that campfire appeal!

S'mores!

Sea Bass w/ Fennel

2010-06-07T08:57:00.002-04:00

"Scallops 'n' Bacon"

2010-06-07T08:53:00.001-04:00

Surf 'N' Turf

2010-05-24T17:25:00.003-04:00

This is a recent feature dish I did and it sold like crazy! It is a Maine lobster tail poached in vanilla butter and a pan seared flat iron steak as the two main protiens. Along with the protiens I put a smooth parsnip puree, sauteed asparagus and two sauces(peppercorn demi and vanilla-citrus hollandaise).

Thought Process...Coq au Vin

2010-05-06T11:36:00.001-04:00

When I first started this site I planned on keeping ideas I've been thinking about posted here,for memory sake, (no mater if they were good or bad) in hopes that through the thought process I could evolve the thought into a true inspiration for something real. I called these posts Food for Thought, but I accually forgot all about my idea to post these thoughts until I looked over my older posts and I saw the one I did for Coq auVin. So, I started the process. Here is a picture of the cylinders of chicken(without the force meat) after they have been poached.

After I poached it I seared the skin in a pan and basted it with butter and thyme. Made a mushroom ragout, braised some shallots, cooked carrot ribbons and braised slab bacon. The sauce is a demi made from the shallot braising liquid

I really like where this dish is heading, but I'm not happy with it yet. It is still in the thought process...

Triggerfish w/ Bacon

2010-04-26T16:22:00.007-04:00

Here is a dish I enjoyed making. It was a part of a tasting menu I did for a newlywed couple the other day. This dish is full of local food stuff, the fish is from NC waters, and the sweet potatoes and asparagus are from a local farm. I first thinly sliced some applewood smoked bacon from the slab and layered it out onto some plastic wrap, next I layed the fish onto the bacon and covered the two with fresh tarragon leaves. I rolled that sucker tight and poached it in some warm water for about 15 min. I cooled it in an ice bath and began to cut portions.

I pan roasted the fish and bacon, made some chips of the sweet potatoes, cooked the asparagus in some butter, made a red wine shallot gastrique, plated and served.

Goat Cheese Sphere

2010-04-26T16:12:00.003-04:00

Local goat cheese, beet puree, tangerine segment, tarragon and "everything bagel" chip.

Uncle's Fruit Sushi

2010-04-26T14:28:00.003-04:00

I've spoken of a co-worker in here a couple of times and each time it has been the same guy, he is Uncle(not my uncle, not your uncle, I don't even think he is an uncle at all, he is just Uncle), and here is his Fruit sushi, I regret taking the picture so quickly becauce I didn't get his wasabi ice cream in there. That ice cream was good,,, just don't plan on eating a bowl of it anytime soon.

Caesar Salad?

2010-04-26T14:18:00.003-04:00

An amuse bouche of romaine rib, flash fried white anchovy, cracked black pepper, truffle oil and parmigiano reggiano. No more, no less. ......... OK, accually I wish I put more; I want some sort of egg custard on there.

A Lobster at the Farm

2010-04-22T11:49:00.004-04:00

We recently recieved some great local corn, peas, and fingerlings. I couldn't wait to put them to some use. There was a table last night of two of the kitchen's French interns, so I figured now is a good time. I next cracked a lobster tail and poached it in some beurre monte, while I made a quick pea puree, shaved some fingerlings for chips, that I dusted with a little truffle salt and I used a few cobs of corn to make a creamy corn broth that I eventually frothed into an air with the help of some soy lecithin. For good measure I shaved some truffle onto the plate at the table, can't hurt right?

Avacado, Smooth and Creamy

2010-04-21T09:58:00.005-04:00

It was about 10 years ago when a pastry chef I worked with, at the first restaurant I held down a sous chef role, made some avacado ice cream and it was perhaps the best tasting ice cream I had ever tried. Years later I told a Chef I was working under about it as he was preparing for a food competition, we worked on it a bit and he eventually won the competition! Now I wanted to try it again, this time as a warm weather bouche. I paired it with a grapefruit segment, tomato jam and lump crab meat. Damn, I love this ice cream, the fat from the avacado makes it so smooth and creamy! I'm getting fat.

Fun Beef Tartare

2010-04-20T10:26:00.005-04:00

Some love it, some hate it. I love beef tartare, done right, my wife on the other hand would rather not even look at it, whether its done right or done perfect, she don't want it! This version of the classic has Maytag Bleu cheese, water crackers, black pepper and white truffle foam as garnishes. Man, I love this stuff!

I Remember Highlights Magazine, Do you?

2010-04-20T10:09:00.002-04:00

Here are a couple pictures of a beef dish I made not so long ago, Steak Frites. Can you spot the differences??

Lobster Under Veil

2010-04-19T11:36:00.003-04:00

Just a quick description, here is a vanilla butter poached lobster tail, tomato jam, fried arugula, and a veil of saffron gelee.

Watermelon Mimics Tuna

2010-04-19T11:23:00.004-04:00

Here is a case of envy. This watermelon came to me and disclosed his desire to be ahi tuna. I did what I could do. I told the watermelon "this might hurt a little" and I plunged my knife right through him, the screams were deafening. With some squares of his rind in hand, I snuck off to a pot of pickling liquid and put the melon out of his misery. Moments later I pulled the melon out of the liquid and now, in his after life, he became tuna. Holy Hindu reincarnation!! Oh yea, also on the plate is black sesame tahini, fennel fronds, and a quenelle of fennel fluid gel.

I'm Hungry

2010-04-19T11:19:00.002-04:00

Honestly, I can't think of anything better than this when I'm hungry. Yea, that is white american cheese in there, sometimes it's the little things!

Crabby Amuse Bouche

2010-04-19T11:14:00.002-04:00

This is a bouche I did not too long ago. It is lumb crab, champagne vin., melon terrine and aged balsamic

"Spag. & Meatballs"

2010-04-19T10:42:00.003-04:00

This is another familiar dish I tried to rethink in a not so familiar way. First I made a clarification of marinara, it came out perfect, almost as clear as H2O but with all the flavor of the classic sauce! The meatballs are a combo of 3 meats (lamb, beef and bacon) that I hand chopped together, formed and slowly poached in a little of the marinara "water". Next I made a simple Parmigiano Reggiano cracker with a bite of garlic bread. The garlic bread was a cut of fresh Italian bread that was pan fried in extra virgin olive oil giving it an extra crispy exterior and a warm doughy interior, I topped that with a quenelle of roasted garlic puree, red pepper flake and parsley. The "Spag." for this dish was accually pearl pasta or Israeli couscous that was cooked in the marinara "water" impregnating each pearl with the flavor of marinara thus givnig the dish the feel of having a red sauce without a red sauce. I finished the dish by frying the balls in a little olive oil and the assemblyof the dish began! Time to serve.

Richard Fish

2010-04-19T10:37:00.003-04:00

Sometimes you have to use what is on hand. There is nothing attractive about this cut of fish. Friends don't let friends cut salmon.

Idle Hands

2010-04-16T11:46:00.002-04:00

This is a picture of a crap load of stone crab claws I spent all night breaking down for a party. Mind you, the picture isn't the finished product I still had more to go plus I had to crack half the claw to expose the meat for service leaving the pinchers as a handle. they were displayed on a huge ice carving. I honestly enjoyed doing it, until after the party was over and we saw that they had eaten about 10% of what was cracked, at least they paid for all of it!

Just a simple foie plate I liked

2010-04-16T11:33:00.003-04:00

First things first, the picture makes it look like the foie is seared a little too hard, trust me it was done just right. This was a course in a four course meal for a local restaurant group owner. It is very basic but delicious. It consisted of apple "risotto", golden raisin puree and seared foie, also it had cubes brioche(not pictured) fried in a pan of foie fat then dusted with freshly grated cinnamon tableside.

"dink make something weird for my family"

2010-04-16T11:21:00.005-04:00

When a coworker came to me with that statement I wasn't too sure what to make of it. So I looked around and decided on this, single seared ahi tuna, orange dust, marinated edamame, pickled watermelon rind, candied ginger, powdered cilantro, puffed rice, and a watermelon sponge(not pictured; it hadn't made it to the plate yet). I called it tuna with garnishes. I guess it's weird, his family sure as hell thought it was, but they loved it all the same!

Boneless Buffalo Wings

2010-04-16T11:04:00.003-04:00

This was a course on a tasting I did a few months ago. The gentleman who asked for the tasting asked for 6 to 8 courses of familar foods that seem unfamilar. I did my best and I just loved this conception of the classic American favorite! It has two confit chicken wings with the bones carefully removed, a celery salad, cold carrot puree, Maytag bleu cheese foam(not pictured; done tableside), and a sheet of house made buffalo sauce. The sauce sheet was great, they were cricspy at room temp but plyable when introduced to heat. All the latino guys in the kitchen were munching on the spicy left-over crisps!

Farm Fresh Amuse Bouche

2010-04-16T09:57:00.007-04:00

Last night I presented tables with a bouche of vegetables from a local farm including a pureed custard of sweet potato, a creamy broth of sweet corn, and tips from the farm's first pick of asparagus, along with it was a lump of jumbo crab. The vegetables were so good! I just blanched the asparagus, and that was all it needed, great flavor. The corn broth was poured table side and I drank it up throughout the night, very clean and straight-forward. I plan on using more of these veg in the near future.

Ice Cream and A Movie

2010-04-12T11:56:00.005-04:00

It was about five days ago when a co-worker and I worked on some ice cream and the flavor was chosen to be popcorn! I know I like popcorn and I know I like ice cream but would it work together? Damn if it didn't, accually it is perhaps one of my new favorite ice creams. Now onto working it into a feature dessert. I've been sending spoonfuls of it with some caramel to some lucky guests the past few nights before being presented with the bill, with a hugh response. I can't wait to put it together on a plate. (I'm thinking Cracker Jacks)

Me and My Trusty Spoons

2010-04-09T13:41:00.004-04:00

It dawns on me now that I haven't named my spoons yet. They are the only tools I own that I have not marked with a yellow stripe. They are fine the way they are!

Random Old Photos

2010-04-09T13:38:00.004-04:00

These are some random photos from a dinner I did for the Chaine des Rotissuers, in Jan '09.

Food for thought... Coq au Vin

2009-10-15T10:54:00.002-04:00

Recently I have been thinking about Coq au Vin and I was trying to think of a way of refining it without disrupting the flavors tremendously. My thoughts were to remove the skin from the whole chicken in one full piece, pounding out the breast meat, making a confit with one leg and deboning and making a forcemeat with the other leg adding the gizzards, and slab bacon. From there my mind told me to combine the confit leg to the forcemeat, folding it in gently, and twisting it in some plastic wrap into a cylinder. Now I plan on laying out the sheet of skin dusting it with some TG, topping it with the pounded breast meat again dusting with TG and placing the forcemeat in the center and rolling it like a burrito. Time to seal it in a bag with the vacuum sealer and cook it in a bath at 68 degrees Celsius for about an hour and a half. Meanwhile peel fresh cipollini onions and sear them hard on top and bottom then add red wine and thyme and reduce au sec then add chicken demi and braise gently. Also this dish required a mushroom component and I'm think ragout but I do want to think a little harder about this part of the dish ( think morels). Next I want a simple celery root puree as a base for the dish. Once the chicken is out of the water bath it is time to sear the skin to caramelize and crispen it. I picture this dish with a swipe of celery root puree, a small mound of mushrooms, three cipollinis and a single round cut from the chicken cylinder placed onto the mushrooms, finally the plate is sauced with the braising liquid from the cipollinis. This seems like and interesting take on Coq au Vin, but for now it is just food for thought...

Pumpkin on my mind...

2009-10-14T10:29:00.002-04:00

… so I put some on my cutting board, cut and roasted halves of the pumpkin. I sauteed a little sweet onion and celery, and I wanted to add some apple or pear to it but I couldn’t decide which to use until I noticed something called applepear and the choice was made for me. A little pumpkin pie spice and I was off to the races. Some apple cider couldn’t hurt so I began to pour while adding a bit of brown sugar. Time to simmer… Meanwhile I removed the pumpkin from the oven and scooped out the flesh and passed it through a food mill. The puree was then added to the pot and stirred in with some spiced rum and chicken stock. Again time to simmer…And its time for a snack so I toasted the seeds and tossed them with a little cayenne and salt. Spicy and nutty! Later, as I was snacking I got my hands on some maple extract powder and cassia and blended it with creme fraiche. By this time the soup was ready to blend, so I took a final stove top taste test and it was good, not great, nothing a little maple syrup and heavy cream couldn’t fix. Damn I’m good, that was just what it needed! Super tasty. I proudly put the soup into a blender and began to blend…OUCH!!!…never use a blender with hot soup while your head is full with flavor pride. The molten liquids of the blender made a quick break for the nearest exit and latched onto my coat, hand and neck. So I decided to allow the soup to cool and blend later on. Finally the soup was finished and all it needed now was a little garnish, the spicy pumpkin seeds were begging to be a part of this party and the maple spiced creme fraiche was born for the soup. Together they were delightful, otherwise I wouldn’t write about my mishaps with a blender.

A picture is worth a thousand words!

2009-10-14T10:28:00.001-04:00

Ain’t that the truth. which is why I hope to begin to post photos of my food, thoughts, mishaps, and randomness.

It should save anyone from just reading thousands of words.

I’ll do my best to photograph thoughts… It ought to be a breakthrough!

So it begins

2009-10-14T10:27:00.000-04:00

This is what I call “Boredom Control.” From here I’ll be keeping track of the food I create and the life I lead. All in the hopes that the food I create merges with the life I lead.

Dedication. Love. Soul. Peace. Consumption.

dink