Thursday, October 6, 2016

Dinner Menu Changes 10/5/2016



Fettucini Nero
The fettucini is made with a cocoa dough (00 flour, durum flour, cocoa powder, eggs, and egg yolks). It is tossed with a wild boar ragu made from boar shoulder, mirepoix, red wine, stock, juniper, cinnamon, fennel, black pepper, and bay leaf. The pasta is finished with butter, parmesan, pecorino, and lemon juice.
Allergies: Gluten, Dairy*


Campanelle
Campanelle (bells in Italian) is a cone shaped extruded pasta made from (00, Durum, and Semolina). The sauce is made from garlic, white wine, stock, broccoli rabe, and 'Nduja Povera (a homage to the classic calabrian dry cured salumi, ours is made from prosciutto, and speck, ground a paddled with calabrian chili, harissa, oregano, lemon zest, and black pepper).The dish is finished with butter parmesan and pecorino.
Allergies: Gluten*, Dairy*

Fresh Pork Coppa
The coppa is the neck muscle of the pig, it is similar to a pork loin but slightly less tender and significantly more flavorful. We're portioning this as an 8 oz chop. The coppa is seared on both sides, basted with butter and then cooked in the oven. It is served with a hazelnut puree (hazelnuts, and water), beluga lentils (mirepoix, lentils, olive oil, stock), grilled radicchio (lemon juice and olive oil), roasted grapes in a pork jus (super reduced pork stock), pickled husk cherries, and a hazelnut crumble.
Allergies: Dairy* Nuts*

Pan Roasted Quail
The quail is brined, and then pan roasted, basted with butter, garlic, and thyme. It is served with a semolina porridge (semolina flour that has been flicked with water to form little balls, it is then dried overnight and cooked to order in chicken stock, with toasted sunflower seeds. essentially a semolina polenta). Also on the plate is seared cabbage, roasted cippolini onions, and a sauce made from vin santo, chicken stock, orange segments, preserved orange, and black pepper.
Allergies: Gluten*, Dairy*

Roasted Fingerling Sweet Potatoes
Fingerling sweet potatoes are cooked in water with lemon and olive oil, then to order they are charred in the pizza oven, finished with greek yogurt (yogurt, water, salt, lime zest), za'atar (a middle eastern spice blend), maldon salt, and pomegranate molasses.
Allergies: Dairy*

Tuscan Kale
The kale is blanched in salted water, then sauteed with garlic, chili flake, walnuts, white wine, and stock. Garnished with ricotta salata.
Allergies: Dairy* Nuts*

Funghi Pizza
The pizza has a prosciutto cream base (prosciutto cooked in milk and blended with sour cream), roasted hen of the woods and oyster mushrooms, fontina cheese, and roasted garlic, finished with a sunny side up egg, oregano, parmesan, salt and oil.



Mortadella
Produced by Fra'Mani in Berkeley California, this is a very classic Bolognian style mortadella. Meat from the leg and belly are ground with warming spices, then paddled with black peppercorns and fat from the jowl of the pig. The meat is then stuffed into a casing, and lightly smoked.

Finnochiona
Produced by Olympia Provisions in Portland Oregon, this is a classic tuscan style dry cured salumi made with pork leg meat and back fat, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, and fennel seed, stuffed into an all natural casing and hung to cure for about 8 weeks.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Compacted Menu Descriptions

Thanks, Emma!

New Menu Items 9/15/2016

Chorizo Iberico de Bellota
Iberico di Bellota pork, coming from the pata negra (black foot) pigs, of spain is considered to be some of the best pork in the world. The phrase de bellota indicates that these pigs have been fed a diet of acorns, giving the pork a unique flavor and a delicate texture. Not all iberico pork is acorn fed and the de Bellota is considered to be the best of the best. This is a very simple and classic sausage, pork, pork fat, pimenton, garlic, salt, and pepper. This sausage is nitrate free. 

Mazzafegati
This is a classic umbrian style offal sausage, the name indicates the use of liver (fegato) however other offal cuts can also be used. We will be using primarily pork liver but sometimes kidneys as well. The offal is mixed with pork, pork fat, red wine, and red wine vinegar, cocoa powder, roasted shallots, thyme, cloves, and nutmeg. The ground meat is then mixed with prunes poached in red wine, and toasted pine nuts, stuffed into a beef casing and cooked. To serve it is hand cut, garnished with salt, oil, and fennel pollen. 

Bonne Bouche
From vermont creamery bonne bouche is an ash rubbed goat cheese with a geotricium rind. Aged for about 1 month its very oozy around the rind with a Cakey interior. Creamy and citrusy this a delicious and classic goat cheese.  

Saturday, September 10, 2016

2015 Château d'Or et de Gueules "Les Cimels" Rosé

2015 Château d'Or et de Gueules  "Les Cimels" Rosé $11/$44

Where: Costieres de Nimes, Southern Rhone
Who: Diane De Puymorin
What: mourvèdre (40 %), cinsault (40 %), syrah (10 %), grenache (10 %)
Tastes like: A delicate pink robe complemented by a nose of great finesse; notes of citrus, fruit and flowers give it a nice complexity. Long and round on the palate, its finish features notes of citrus. - See more at: http://domaineselect.com/product/rose-les-cimels/#sthash.LD0EzDBc.dpuf
What to pair with:  Late summer foods, tomatoes, corn, seafood

Notes on the winemaker

After finishing a degree in Agronomy, the talented and passionate Diane de Puymorin set out to slowly elevate the image of Costières de Nimes, the southernmost appellation in the Rhône Valley. Believing the soils to have the pedigree to make great wines, she bought the Domaine in 1998 and changed the name to Château d’Or et de Gueules, a reference to the Puymorin family crest. She has since become a passionate advocate for terroir distinction within the appellation, and has recently proposed changes to the INAO to gain recognition for the soils around St. Gilles on her labels. With the help of her husband, Mathieu Chatain and their five daughters, she creates charming, spicy reds, as well as vibrant rosés and whites.
Diane farms 50 hectares to the southwest of the old Roman city of Nimes. In between St. Gilles and Générac, not far from the salt marshes of the Camargue and the Mediterranean, the climate here is optimal for creating balanced wines. The vineyards are planted to Syrah, Grenache, Carignan, Mourvèdre, Cinsault, Chardonnay, Grenache Blanc, Roussanne and Rolle destined for several different cuvées of reds, rosés, and whites. Southern and southeastern sun exposure ensures full ripeness of the grapes, diurnal temperature shifts keep the grapes cool, and the presence of the Mistral protects the natural acidity of the grapes and wards off pestilence and rot. The soils are composed of galets roulés, a similar rounded limestone alluvial gravel that is also found in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, insulating the roots from extreme temperature fluctuations. After years of implementing sustainable farming in the vineyards, Diane has recently become certified in organic farming. She prunes rigorously to limit yields, pulls leaves to create circulation between clusters, and plows to aerate the soils—a necessary part of organic farming.
The Costières de Nîmes consists of some 12,000 hectares under vine, of which only 4,500 are designated as AOC Costières de Nîmes. It is one of the few appellations of this size to have no distinction of terroirs through premiers crus let alone lieux-dits. Diane is currently spearheading an initiative with the INAO to designate an appellation extension of St. Gilles to her vineyards as well as other areas in the southeastern part of the appellation that share her soils. Once known for its excellent Mourvèdre, the designation would require a minimum percentage of the varietal to blends from this area as well as restricted yields. While the change requires two years of study before an INAO ruling, Diane’s passion and stewardship has already brought awareness to the quality terroirs of the appellation and helped elevate its standing in the marketplace.
At Château d’Or et de Gueules, sustainability is a comprehensive ethic that is infused into the vineyards, cellars and even shipping. She is one of the rare producers to be carbon neutral; she powers her winery entirely with solar energy and uses recyclable packaging and water-based inks on bottles and boxes.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

New Menu Items 9/7/2016

Lazy Lady Goat Cheese
Lazy Lady Farms of Westfield vermont is a totally off the grid (producing all their own power) farmstead creamery, located near the Canadian border. Cheesemaker Laini Fondilier raises her herd of goats and makes a selection of goat cheeses that can change on a weekly basis. We'll be bringing in a variety of these cheeses (all pasteurized goats milk in the 1-2 month age range) but with subtle differences in rind, shape ect. It should be really fun to see the variety of products from this skilled cheese maker. 

Ashbrook 
Made by Spring Brook Farms in Reading VT. Spring brook farms is a non profit organization that runs summer programs for urban kids to teach them about farming and food pathways. They started their dairy as a way to help pay for the program and have begun producing some great cheeses. Ashbrook is a morbier style cheese (washed rind alpine, with an ash layer in the middle, traditionally this ash was used to protect the morning cheese from flies, allowing cheese makers to milk their cows twice in a day and make larger wheels of cheese). Made with raw cows milk Ashbrook is washed with a saltwater brine and aged for three months. 

Fritzenhaus Gruyere
This is a small production gruyere, and one of the only ones still produced 100% start to finish within the Gruyere AOP (local grass fed cows (within 4 km of the dairy), provide milk that cooked, set and aged within the region). Many larger producers either buy milk from other regions of switzerland or age the cheese within the region for the minimum number of months before shipping it off to a larger aging facility to finish. Gruyere is a cooked curd cheese, meaning the curdled milk is reheated, expelling additional whey and air. The cheese is then set, brined, and then aged fro 18-24 months. This is a big but subtle cheese with lots of complexities, nutty, earthy, and rich.

Local Arugula Salad
Little Leaf Farms arugual greens are mixed with frisee and then dressed with a smashed citrus vinaigrette (lemon segments, and orange segments, broken into pieces and mixed with brunoise shallots, lemon juice, pistachio oil, olive oil, lemon zest, orange zest, salt, and pepper). The dressed greens are plated on top of a parmesan crema, and garnished with bresaola (cured beef), shaved parmesan, pistachios, a pistachio and roasted garlic crisp (pistachio and garlic foccacia, shaved thin and toasted with olive oil and salt), and saba (also known as vin cotto, a cooked syrup made from grape must). 

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

New Polenta Spin Rosso

Polenta Spin Rosso
Slow Poached Egg, Cranberry Beans, Chanterelle Mushrooms
This is a really cool polenta brought to us by Anson Mills in Columbia SC. Spin Rosso means red point or red thorn in Italian and refers to the pointy shape of the kernels of this red corn. This polenta is traditional to Val Sugana, a valley in the Trentino region of northern Italy. The exterior bran of the corn is red, but the interior is yellow, resulting in a classic deep yellow polenta with red flecks throughout. the Polenta is cooked in water, then finished with olio verde and parmesan cheese. Also on the plate is a slow poached egg (cooked at 64 degrees celsius for 1 hour), braised Cranberry Beans (onions, garlic, olive oil, stock, and sage), and a mix of local beans (haricot vert, dragon's tongue, and wax beans, although the selection will change. The beans will be prepared braised, blanched, and raw). Tossed with the cranberry beans are chanterelle mushrooms (poached in white wine, white wine vinegar, marsala wine, orange zest, garlic, bay leaf, shallots). Finishing the plate are shaved raw beans tossed with local arugula, heriloom cherry tomatoes, and a sunflower and arugula pesto (sunflower seeds, benne seeds, arugula, basil, olive oil, honey and pecorino). The plate is garnished with parmesan cheese, sea salt, and olio verde.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

New Lunch Items 8/10/2016

Sandwiches

Pork Belly BLT
Heirloom Tomatoes, Gem Lettuce, Fines Herbs Aioli
Pork bellly is seasoned with salt, brown sugar, paprika, fennel pollen, coriander. Cooked in combi for 9 hours, then seared. Heirloom tomatoes, gem lettuce. Fine Herbes aioli (eggs, garlic, oil, salt, parsley, tarragon, chives.)
Allergies: Gluten*


SP Meatball
San Marzano Tomato, Ricotta, Basil, Olio Verde
Meatballs from dinner menu, san marzano tomato sauce (tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, basil.) Ricotta mixed with salt, pepper, and cloumage (fresh farm style cheese). Parmesan cheese, basil and olio verde finish.
Allergies: Gluten, dairy (can’t be done without either)

Salads

Panzanella Salad
Heirloom Tomatoes, Parmesan Crema, Market Cucumbers, Tomato Vinaigrette
Panzanella is a classic italian salad including fresh heirloom tomatoes, local cucumbers, shaved celery, shaved fennel all tossed in a tomato vinaigrette (tomatoes, preserved tomato juice, olive oil). Also includes torn and grilled Iggy’s baguette that is coated in tomato vinaigrette. It is garnished with basil, celery hearts and parmesan crema  (buttermilk, parmesan, and olio verde).
Allergies: Gluten, dairy (can be done without either but loses a lot of it’s character.)

Boards

Farmstead Board
Bûcheron, Pecorino, Roquefort, Honey, Almonds