Inspired by Thanksgiving menu

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This was the first Chapter11Lab dinner party for a long time.  The table was set for 8 – Fiona did a beautiful job of setting the stage & also pairing the wines for a meal inspired by Thanksgiving.  Each course included a tiny bit of kitchen theatre – my intention was to serve as if the guests were sitting at a Chef’s table by the kitchen, receiving a little entertainment with the meal.

Entree
Hot mushroom infusion
with Bruny Island C2 saffron cheese foam, black truffle & chives

The menu started with the Mushroom infusion – this was prepared in the Vacuum Syphon …
and poured into the serving plate at the table in front of the diner.
– Porcini & chanterelle dried mushrooms, wakame, star anise – prepared in vacuum syphon.
In the centre of the plate is a cheese foam… (this may be seen as sacrilege to do this to such an amazing cheese, but it was stunning)
– Bruny Island C2 saffron cheese prepared to a liquid, poured into whipping siphon, charge and refrigerate.
Cheese foam into centre of plate, add chives & black truffle slithers, pour infusion.

 

Main
Seared Turkey breast with sage butter & cranberry sauce gel
with lemon butter Kale & Sweet potato puree with Bourbon.

For the main course, organic Turkey breast was cooked sous vide with fresh sage & butter.  Once cooked, juices are reserved for serving later.  When ready for service, a pan is brought to high heat, turkey is sprinkled with Cacao Powder and placed into hot pan to sear only.  When ready to plate, cut into thin slices, brush plate with some of the reduced juices (butter & sage), place turkey and then brush with more of the reduced juices.

The cranberry sauce gel:  organic 100% cranberry juice, juice of an orange, cinnamon bark oil, nutmeg oil, dolce sugar, dried cranberries.
Boil-Blend-Bottle-Cool.  Serve next to turkey with a couple of white rum soaked cranberries.

Sweet potato puree with Bourbon reduction:  Sweet potato cooked sous vide with fresh thyme & butter and a little dolce sugar.  While this is cooking reduce some Bourbon to a third of original.  Blend sweet potato and contents of bag with half of bourbon reduction – place into piping bag and seal, keep warm until ready to plate.  When plating, grate some fresh nutmeg over the top.

Lemon butter Kale:  remove woody stems from fresh organic Kale, bag with lemon quarter & butter, cook sous vide; remove from bag and chop finely.  When ready for service, toss in hot pan with some butter (Pepe Saya cultured truffle butter) and a squeeze of lemon.  Serve with fresh cracked pepper.

 

Dessert
Maple glazed Southern Pecan Pie
with Bourbon cream & Peanut butter, Cacao & Maple Syrup Powder.

I’ve used this Southern Pecan Pie recipe many times before, but I wanted to improve on it and I think I succeeded.
My favourite Pâte Sucrée recipe (sweet shortcrust pastry) was used for the base.  Pecan Pie recipe added then baked for 40mins. When cool, 100% organic maple syrup is brushed over top, cover and refrigerate.  Two more coats of maple are brushed over prior to serving.

Bourbon cream:  the other half of the Bourbon reduction from earlier (used in Sweet potato puree), is added to a whipping syphon (pre-service), with vanilla bean and agave syrup.  At service, heavy cream is added to a seemingly empty whipping siphon, which is gassed and shaken and Bourbon cream is served.

PCM – Peanut Butter, Cacao & Maple Syrup:  100% cacao is melted and smooth peanut butter & maple syrup is mixed together.  Some of this is made to a powder and served along side the pie.  The leftover PCM is rolled and refrigerated – prior to service, thin slices are cut and dusted with edible gold powder.  This gold disc is placed atop the pie.

 

digestif
Root Beer Float Cryosicle

This was a lot of fun; the recipe for this is from ChefSteps.  The root beer syrup is made from scratch – sarsaparilla root, sassafras root bark, vanilla bean & wintergreen are the main flavour ingredients, sweetened with dolce sugar and honey.  Root beer syrup & heavy cream are added to a whipping siphon; then prepared in liquid nitrogen and served immediately.

 

In my descriptions above there are a couple of links crediting my sources; but I want to add one more credit – a lot (not all, but most) of the produce I used in my menu are sourced from Organic Food Market in Toowoomba.  Susan & David manage to source and supply a wide variety of wonders, that I love to showcase on a plate.  Thanks !

Please leave your comments, I love to hear what you think.

Jayson

Categories: combination , Emulsification , equipment , Gelification , Thickening , Truffle

Tags: Bruny Island ChefSteps dinner party vacuum syphon