March 1, 2014 Lunch – Duck meat tacos   Dinner – Elaine’s

We started with a bowl of fruit salad and cereal with Greek yogurt and milk for breakfast.

Suzette was going to drive to Santa Rosa but at around 11:30 I received a call from her saying that she had decided against that because Winter Storm Titan was moving east, which would threaten her on her drive to Santa Rosa and she was going home to fix a lunch of duck tacos.  I cut my meeting short and said I would join her for lunch and drove home.

When I arrived she was sautéing the PPI Duck and quail meat from last night’s meal at Joseph’s in Santa Fe and had chopped about a cup of Napa cabbage.  A bag of small corn tortillas was lying on the counter with the container of crema from Pro’s Ranch Market.

We toasted six small corn tortillas on the open gas burner until softened and slightly crisped, yet pliable.  We then laid a small mound of sautéed duck and quail into a couple of warm tortillas and dabbed them with crema and tossed a small pile of cabbage on each.  I drank a glass of PPI Cutler Creeek Cabernet Sauvignon and Suzette drank a dark Indio beer.  The duck tacos were fabulous and so we split the last of the duck meat and ate one more each.  I also heated and ate a quail thigh.

We have discussed going to Elaine’s and since this was the last evening of Restaurant Week we checked to see if Elaine’s was participating.  It was so we made a reservation on Open Table.

At 5:00 we drove to Elaine’s.  When we arrived the restaurant was about 1/3 full and everyone and everything was in high gear.  Elaine’s inhabits a store front at 5303 Central Ave. NE across the street from Scalo, another Steve Paternoster restaurant.  This time he is again joining forces with his former partner in the Provence restaurant, Elaine Blanco, who was at the restaurant tonight. 

Elaine's Restaurant Week Menu was a little populated than Joseph’s with two choices instead of four in the appetizer and entree category and only one dessert, Banana Crème Brulee.  Suzette opted for the Lentil and Crab Soup of the Day and the Spotted Black Pig in miso broth, Brussels sprouts leaves and gremolata.

Gremolata or gremolada is a chopped herb condiment typically made of lemon zest, garlic, and parsley. It is a traditional accompaniment to the Milanese braised veal shank dish ossobuco alla milanese.^[1]

Ingredients[edit]

Gremolata always includes grated lemon peel, but beyond that there is considerable variation. Most, but not all recipes include parsley, mint and garlic; and most include anchovies (especially in Milan itself), and possibly rosemary and sage.^[

After we had ordered the waitress brought us a plate of four small sopapillas with a lovely side of creamed honey butter garnished with bits of fried pancetta.

Sopapillas

 

I chose Tuna Poke for my appetizer, an inventive dish of ½ inch cubes of raw albacore tuna tossed with soy sauce, limu seaweed, chopped chili pepper, toasted  macademia nuts and black and yellow sesame seeds and appetizingly served on a folded banana leaf.  I really liked the idea of using seaweed to make a salad.

Tuna Poke Salad

Suzette chose the soup of the day (lentil and crab meat) from the al a carte menu. It was a very smooth potage.

 

My entrée of Scottish Salmon cooked in the sous vide manner and served on a puddle of bagnacauda sauce (a wonderfully creamy anchovie garlic aioli), and garnished with several steamed asparagus spears, a couple of slices of fresh cucumber and several small mounds of cucumber foam.  A very pleasing mixture of textures and tastes.

I actually sent my salmon back to be heated because it was cold in the center, which I suspect is a problem in sous vide preparation that cooks ingredient to a prescribed temperature, which typically produces a lower final temperature than by applying direct heat sources from a pan, grill or oven.  In the case of this evening’s salmon, after it was cooked sous vide it was then coated with black and white sesame seeds and sautéed a moment or two to give the firm its outside texture and heat the inside.  I suspect that in order to let the meat express its sous vide cooking method fully there is a tendency to not completely heat the internal temperature to anything beyond it pre-set temperature, so it has a tendency to radiate as much heat into the meat.  I understand that the benefit of sous vide is to liberate the fat and protein into a pleasantly homogenous mixture, but I am culturally accustomed to a hot central temperature in my chops, I have not gotten used to a cool center.   To the kitchen’s credit, when I sent the salmon back to be heated they did not overcook the filet.  It returned to my table about five minutes later, hot and yet tender and had not lost its molten redness at the center.  This taught me that sous vide really works.  One can achieve a merger of protein and fat and still sauté the chop to the point that the inside is hot and does not lose its tenderness or semi-glutinous amalgam of protein and fat.

We each ordered a glass of wine.  I ordered a Joel Gott Pinot Gris from Oregon that was delicious and yet had good tannins.  Suzette ordered a Pinot Noir that went well with her pork. 

Suzette did not love her pork dish because it was not pressed or sautéed to the point that the skin crisped as Joseph’s had done it pork belly.  When I tasted the pork, it was decidedly fatty but the fat and meat were so intertwined that they had to be eaten together and the overall effect was pleasant, a similar amalgam of fat and protein, if a little fatty.  The gremolata’s herbaceous character and the lovely slightly salty Miso broth cloaked the fattiness of the pork to some degree. 

Spotted Black Pig

 

 The Banana Crème Brulee for dessert was actually quite good.  The sugar coating on top was deliciously charred but not burned.  The banana crème was flavored with cardamom and the top was garnished with shavings of buttermilk granita (frozen Italian ice) and toasted almond slices.  Overall I liked the dinner, but would still choose Joseph’s over Elaine’s.

Creme Brulee

 

Is it really fair to compare one of Santa Fe’s or even America's best restaurants to one of Albuquerque’s best restaurants?  Especially, when Joseph Wrede has twenty years of experience behind him and his restaurant appears to be fully funded and staffed, while Elaine’s is just starting and appears to have less funding and a smaller kitchen with less kitchen staff.  Although the prices are similar, Elaine’s cannot yet produce a similar overall experience because their overall staffing and funding and perhaps clientele is not similar (fewer folks who have the level of disposable income that populate Joesph's).

 

We spent $150.00 for two at Joseph’s and $116.65 for two at Elaine’s and these were $40.00 three course prix fixe diners served especially for New Mexico Restaurant Week.  If we had ordered the same dishes from the regular al a carte menu, it would have been more expensive.

 

Why spend that much money?  We think it comes down to three things:

 

1.         Service - There is someone cooking for you, serving you and cleaning your dishes and silverware and glasses and the pots and pans used in the kitchen used to prepare the ingredients and washing and ironing the tablecloths and napkins.

 2.        Great ingredients – It is not easy to find and buy in a sufficiently small quantity the ingredients to make a meal for two persons.  We are often challenged to find the freshest local ingredients in our world of supermarkets.  Restaurants can and do spend the time to develop relationships with local growers who produce and provide the fine dining restaurants the best and freshest locally grown ingredients.  Likewise, because restaurants serve many persons in a relatively short period of time, they have the ability to convert large quantities of food into smaller portions.  For example, I never buy whole duck or goose livers, but I love foie gras.  The reason why I never buy duck and goose livers is because they are so expensive (hundreds of dollars) and because they are perishable over time, so that it makes no sense to buy enough to make a loaf of foie gras for just Suzette and me.  But a restaurant can spend hundreds of dollars to buy whole livers and bake the livers with cognac into loaves of foie gras and serve a slice to each of twenty persons for a moderate price.  Elaine’s serves Hudson Valley foie gras with a cranberry marmalade for $22.00 per portion.  You can make smaller individual portions than a whole loaf.  Here is a recipe for a single portion:

Seared Sonoma Foie Gras with Mission Fig and Balsamic Reduction

By John Mitzewich

Seared Sonoma Foie Gras with Mission Fig and Balsamic Reduction

Photo © John Mitzewich

Foie gras, which means "fat liver" is one of the world's great culinary experiences. The flavor and texture is virtually impossible to describe. This extremely expensive product was once only produced in Europe, but there are now several great American sources for foie gras.

Makes 4 Servings of Seared Sonoma Foie Gras

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 quart veal or chicken stock (low-sodium)
• 1/4 cup aged balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp red currant jelly
• 12 small dried mission figs, quartered
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 slices grade "A" foie gras (2 to 3 ounces each)
• 4 slices white bread, crust trimmed, toasted

Preparation:

Add the first 4 ingredients into a saucepan and reduce on medium heat, until only about a cup of liquid remains. The sauce will thicken slightly as it reduces. Be careful not to reduce too far, as the sauce will burn. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm.

Salt and pepper the foie gras slices generously on both sides. Heat a dry skillet on high heat until very, hot (this is key!). Seared the slices for 1-2 minutes per side. The foie gras will brown and should be heated through, but removed before the slices begin to shrink significantly, and lose too much of their fat.

Place the toasted bread on the plate, top with the seared foie gras, and spoon over the sauce. Serve immediately.

3.         Great preparation - Fine restaurants, like Joseph’s and Elaine’s, have great chefs who have worked in the best restaurants and acquired the skills to prepare food in the most modern and pleasing manner and use interesting combinations of these ingredients.  For example, my salmon sous vide was prepared perfectly.  I do not know how to prepare food using the sous vide method and I do not know how to make a pleasing cucumber foam to garnish it with.  The chefs at these restaurants have spent their adult lives honing these unique skills.

It comes down to a very simple statement that I apply to all of our menus.  Why go out to eat unless you can have a dining experience that you cannot replicate at home.  For an example of how easy it is to create a superb dining experience at home, please read tomorrow’s meal description, March 2, 2014.

Bon Appétit