Hello, everyone.
Chef Paul special ordered gorgeous farm-raised sturgeon from California, which came in whole Thursday afternoon and is beautiful. We'll have it Friday and maybe Saturday, depending on how much of it is sold on Friday. Paul boned out the beautiful, freshly caught 25-lb fish and broke it into filets suitable for grilling. Then he made a vinaigrette with Marcona almonds and apricots and red onions that is such a perfect balance of flavors and textures that it could stand alone, even if it weren't going on top of a gorgeous fish.
This farm-raised sturgeon is a real treat because we have sworn off the wild-caught sturgeon (and the caviars they produce) from the Caspian because overfishing is threatening the species. Wild sturgeon is worth preserving, in more ways than one. Fossil remains of sturgeon varieties dating to prehistoric times have been found along the coast of the Baltic and elsewhere. As far back as 2400 BC, Egyptians and Phoenicians were salting and pickling sturgeon eggs to last through wars, famines and long sea voyages. Bas-reliefs at the Necropolis near the Sakkara Pyramid show fishermen gutting sturgeon and removing the eggs. Sturgeon live about 150 years and start bearing eggs only after they are 6 to 20 years old. Because of the time needed to reach egg-bearing age and because the fish is killed to collect the caviar, sturgeon are especially vulnerable to overfishing.
We are expecting a delivery of North American wapiti elk Friday.
We're not sure how big the racks will be, but if they are a moderate size, we'll do them as chops. If the racks are too big, we'll do it as strip loin. Wapiti are the oldest North American breed of elk. The word comes from Shawnee for "white rump" referring to pale patches on the animals' posteriors. Among deer, they are second in size only to the moose, rich in flavor and low in cholesterol.
After having a trainee pound veal cutlets all afternoon, Paul is ready to put his mother Sophie's famous veal scallopine cooked in cream and lemon back on the menu this week.
With the veal came a very small batch of veal kidneys which Paul plans to add to the "hidden menu" for the weekend. He flambées them in Cognac and finishes them with cream, and they are heavenly. If you want them this weekend, it would be prudent to call ahead and reserve them.
Speaking of flambées and inspirations from his mother, Paul plans to serve shrimp flambéed in Pernod and finished with cream this weekend.
To the recipe he learned at Sophie's side, he has added finely chopped fennel to the sauce, intensifying the aroma of the Pernod.
Souschef Mark D. Graham has revolutionized the vegetarian option on our menu. Each week (and sometimes two or three times a week) he comes up with spectacular combinations that have inspired dedicated carnivores to go veggie. Cheryl asked him how he makes a vegetarian meal for Americans, many of whom were raised to believe that a 6- to 52-ounce portion of flesh constitutes dinner (starch and veg optional).
"The philosophy comes out of my experience working in California, where I was spoiled with amazing produce year round," Mark said. "I grew a respect and appreciation for the balance of vegetables of grains and pasta and vegetables, and the ways in which you can make a healthy and satisfying dish without using animal flesh."
The key is to ignore the meat-eating chef's impulse to make a vegetarian request a pile of sautéed vegetable piled on the starch of the day, and experiment with the millions of ways that have developed in thousands of cultures to prepare, serve and apply heat (or not) to foodstuffs. He and Paul have both dabbled with the raw food movement.
Paul does it as a challenge - he was once asked to do a seven-course raw tasting menu - on Valentine's Day no less - and applied every cell in his brain to make it a spectacular experience. Mark toys with "raw" cooking for a couple of reasons. He's interested in the idea that nutrients and vitamins are more potent if you don't break them down with heat, and because it is another way to make the vegetarian ingredients of a sampler varied in texture, flavor, color and personality.
"You can cook a vegetable in every way that you can cook an animal - braising, grilling, baking, roasting, confiting, et cetera," Mark said. "Don't think about the dishes as needing meat to sustain or legitimize them."
This weekend's sampler will feature a golden chanterelle mushroom and sweet corn blini with arugula, avocado and cherry tomatoes; grilled fennel and mandarin oranges and asparagus strudel.
Some time late next week, Paul expects to get a shipment of Silky Chickens and Chukar Partridges from Bella Bella Gourmet Foods, which represents a group of farms in Sullivan County that grows heirloom breeds. Silky chickens, also spelled Silkie, are rare among poultry breeds because both their skins and bones are black (the only other black skinned chicken is the Ayam Cemani breed from Indonesia.) Silkys also have five toes on each foot, whereas most chickens have four.
In China, where Silkies originated at least seven centuries ago, it is believed that Silky meat can help with diseases of the liver and kidneys. They contain natural hormones, blue pigment, and amino acids which can increase blood cells and hemoglobin, and many use it to aid with women's health relating to pregnancy and child bearing. A sizable industry now flourishes in China marketing products based on black colored foods and herbs, with these factories manufacturing pills which include the meat of the Silkie mixed with many herbal combinations.
Paul has had the opportunity to cook Silky only once before and found the meat especially sweet and rich and tender and "really chickeny."
Chukar partridges are similar in size to pheasant but have a slightly nuttier flavor than both quail and pheasant. They are a member of the genus Alectoris, and are mostly gray all over with a black band from the eyes, down to below the neck. They also have several black bars on the flanks. Native to Asia, they were introduced to the scrubby brush lands of the western United States in the early 20th century.
Pat Sheldon finished harvesting Wednesday morning for the Saratoga Farmers Market and shot an email off to Paul offering to set aside some of the first-of-the-season sugar snap peas for him in case he wasn't standing in line when the open bell rang at 3 p.m.
mange tout snap peas, delectable, very tender
People are always telling Cheryl that she should turn the weekly newsletters into a book, if not one about food and wine and the restaurant, at least one about the adventures of Nico and Léo. There will be time for that later, but she has at least been trying to take the nearly five years worth of newsletters archived online and put them in a word processing document. Unfortunately, we have discovered that one of issues got lost in cyberspace. If there is anyone out there who doesn't clean out his email box regularly, we'd love to get our hands on a copy of the July 28, 2006, newsletter. We don't know what it was about, but we'd love to have the complete record.
The Pink Plate Special this coming week will be cod, confited with bacon fat, featuring potatoes, onions, cream, garlic and fresh cod.
Because of the addition of fresh cod, it is not a traditional Provençal brandade, but something like a brandade and yet entirely new.
The Pink Plate is a weekly prix fixe special we offer on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. For $30 per person, you get your choice of soup or salad, the featured entree, two selections from our cheese board or one of a couple of featured desserts and coffee, tea or espresso.
Our Sunday Jazz brunch this week with pianist Cole Broderick will feature an oyster po' boy with celery root remoulade and a side salad ($14); chicken breast Florentine with Dijon cream sauce and herb roasted potatoes ($14); beef tenderloin with Gorgonzola sauce and herb-roasted potatoes ($16); and corn-flake crusted French toast with a choice of bacon or sausage ($12). Appetizer specials include steamed Rhode Island Littleneck clams ($12); a salad of Sunset Hill Farm greens tossed in a red wine vinaigrette ($7) and soup of the day ($8).
The brunch specials run from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The complete menu,
offered from 7 to 2 p.m., includes a Continental assortment of
muffins, pastries, fruit, yogurt, frittata etcetera for $9;
omelettes ($9 to $11); pancakes du jour ($9); the All in One, which includes 2 eggs any style, homefries, toast and sausage or bacon ($10); waffles with sweet cream butter and local maple syrup ($10); and Irish steel- cut oatmeal ($8).
Jazz pianist Cole Broderick plays from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Live Piano Jazz
Jazz pianist Cole Broderick plays the baby grand Tuesday through
Friday night, and during Sunday brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
(barring special events that preclude live music.)
Cost: No cover charge
Tasting menus
Chef's Choice seven-course tasting menu available each night. The
menus are designed based on the best and most creative dishes Chef Paul K. Parker is serving each evening. We will pair wines for you at an additional charge or you can order from our extensive wine list.
Cost: $75 per person for seven courses, plus tax and tip. Everyone at the table must partake in the tasting menu.
If you're feeling less impromptu, you can call ahead to arrange a
special tasting menu with the number of courses and wine pairings
designed to suit your capacity, dietary restrictions and budget.
Tasting menus arranged in advance will be printed on commemorative
vellum scrolls personalized with the name of the host or the reason
for the event.
Cost: $50 to $200, depending on the number of courses and the wines
selected; available for two to 75 guests. Call Cheryl to make
arrangements 518.583.3538
The Pink Plate Special
offered Monday, June 25, Tuesday, June 26, Wednesday, June 27 and Thursday, June 28.
$30 per person
includes your choice of soup or salad, a special entree, selected
desserts or a cheese course and coffee, tea or espresso.
This week's special entree:
fcod, confited with bacon fat, featuring potatoes, onions, cream, garlic and fresh cod
Notes on Nico and Léo: We live half in the country and half right on the main highway, so our porch time is a strange amalgam of watching traffic and communing with wildlife. Toads like to sit on our doorstep and catch the flying insects attracted by our porch lights, so the children have become quite blasé about the big warty creatures. Other things crawl, strut and scamper across the porch, (and sometimes through the oft-open front door) including wild turkeys and pheasants. Monday we were waiting for a crew to finish repaving the road right in front of our driveway so we could leave, when a snake slithered across the porch. Paul told Nico to leave it alone as it wasn't hurting anyone. A few minutes later, he noticed that the snake had slipped behind a cabinet on the porch and grabbed a toad by the midsection. We four watched in fascination as the tiny snake maneuvered the struggling frog until it's huge head disappeared into the snake's hinged jaw. The snake expanded like a balloon and laboriously drew the whole toad into its slender gullet, with only the feet sticking out. Cheryl and Paul looked at each other wide- eyed, suddenly aware that the children might be tramautized by this close-up view of the food chain. Léo was all smiles, pointing and cawing "Frog! Frog!" Nico, who had been running to play with a toy then running back to check on the action, asked diffidently: "Is it dead yet?"
As little Léo, who is not quite one and a half, develops a mind of her own, every mealtime has become a battlefield. She eats voraciously and with great variety, but finishes quite abruptly and decisively. We met a group of friends for lunch at a little restaurant in Lenox called Napa Monday, and she sampled squash ravioli, crab cakes, a variety of vegetables and some turkey. The friends were quite impressed with her table manners until she suddenly took a ravioli, squeezed it in her fist and slapped it down hard on the table. Mom and Dad have come to recognize this as "Game Over" and immediately confiscated all plates in her vicinity. She shrieked in the crowded restaurant, reaching for the plates and demanding "Mine!" Mom gave her another morsel, which she grabbed and tossed across the room. Then she begged for more. Mom tried putting food directly in her mouth, which she accepted readily, then fished it out of her mouth and chucked it across the table at her brother's head. We know from home experience that when she is not hungry she will efficiently clear every piece of food on the table in this manner and then subject the dishes to the same treatment, so Paul gobbled his last bite and grabbed both kids for a walk down the sidewalk while Mom cleaned up the restaurant and paid the check.
Léo found a swim diaper in a tote bag and was trying with great determination to put it on over her regular diaper. Paul thought this meant she needed a diaper change, and didn't realize the pink diapers were for swimming, so he effected the swap. Léo, whose communication skills run to monosyllables, promptly ran to her mother, held up her skirt and demanded, "Beach."
We did take the kids to the beach Monday afternoon, then stopped on the way home to buy one of those little quickset kiddy pools. Cheryl was on the porch trying to get the sand off everyone before we went into the house, while Nico studied the picture on the box of three pretty children splashing in the pool with a swimsuit model sitting on the grass next to them, watching them adoringly.
"This pool is for three people?" Nico asked. "That's me, and that's Léo and that's Liza. And that's you Mommy, back when you had a comb."
If we didn't know that Nico can hear the refrigerator door open at a thousand paces, we'd swear there is something wrong with his hearing.
He seems to interpret everything we say incorrectly. We suspect he's simply playing with language in rather sophisticated ways. The other day he wanted to help (the kind of help that puts both children under foot while you're trying to cook dinner and results in something being broken or Mommy slicing her thumb while trying to keep the children's hands out of danger.) In an effort to keep him busy, Cheryl removed all the sharp and fragile items from the sink, filled it with soapy water and told Nico he could stand on a chair and wash the dishes.
"Okay," he said happily, settling down cross-legged in the middle of the floor. "I'll help you watch the dishes."
The Parker family
at Chez Sophie
518.583.3538
