We drove to
Santa Fe around 4:00 and arrived at Joseph’s of Santa Fe at 5:15. I said hello to Joseph, who was seated working on paper work at a
small desk at the end of the bar and asked him for a copy of the Italian Cloud
cake recipe. He was kind enough to fetch
the recipe and make a copy of it for me and tell me that it was important to
leave the cake in the oven to let it cure for 45 minutes after the twenty minute baking time
and to collar the spring-form pan with parchment or waxed paper.
I was not
very hungry because I had eaten a large lunch of last night's PPI salmon cooked in the PPI
cream sauce with the PPI penne pasta heated with chopped up four or five stalks of asparagus from last night for lunch, but Suzette was hungry and
she is the rabbit fan and the reason for going to Joseph's and Santa Fe, since we were celebrating her winnig two free tickets to tonight's Lucinda Williams concert at the Lensic Theater for being the ninth caller on Santa Fe radio station 94.1 FM.
We had
selected Joseph’s for dinner after seeing an ad in the last issue of Local
Flavor that indicated that the current menu featured Rabbit Lasagna as an
entrée, so when we were shown to our table at 5:30, had already tentatively
selected the rabbit lasagna. Then I saw
an interesting appetizer, a Triple layered Trifle of lobster panna cotta, a
mango liquid gel and foie gras Ganache with thyme lemon foam for $24.00 and a
warm salad with a date and bacon dressing ($10.00), so, we decided to split one
each of the trifle, the salad, the rabbit lasagna and a dessert and instructed
our waiter to serve the courses in that order.
I apologize
for any lack of detail in this article.
I can not find the menus for the meal and dessert that I made my notes
on and Joseph’s website does not have the menu we were served from, so I am
piecing this review together from memory.
After making
our food selections we studied the wine menu decided and a special wine list
for that evening brought to us by our waiter.
We discussed the wine with the waiter and finally decided upon a 2013 Rosso Dei Dardi Italian red from the special wine list that was being offered that evening, that he
recommended, a bottle of Italian red
wine that was made with 90% Nebbiola and 10% Barbera grapes from the Piedmont
region. When we tasted it its flavor was
surprisingly like Pinot Noir; light and clean tasting, probably because the
small amount of Barbera grape rounded out the Nebbiola grape's usually weak tasting
back end ($51.00).
Soon after
we wine was poured, we were each brought teaspoons and instructed by our waiter
to dig straight down to our spoon to capture all three ingredients and a bit of
foam on the spoon to taste all the three ingredients and the foam
together. Then in another few minutes of
anticipation and the serving of some of the best tasting warm small dinner
rolls and compounded butter I have tasted in a long time, a waiter brought a small
oblong salad sized dish contained a 12 ounce glass filled with layers from
bottom to top of the three elements, a creamy foie gras mousse on the bottom, a
mango and lemon gel and perhaps grapefruit juice gelatin in the middle and a
lobster panna cotta topped with a bit of airy thyme and lemon foam and had a
mound of thyme and lemon foam beside the glass.
This appetizer is the closest one I have found in New Mexico to a
dish involving the new technological cooking techniques that are becoming more
accessible in fine dining restaurants these days. The foam had a distinct flavor of lemon with
a residual thyme flavor, so it was right on.
When a spoonful of the appetizer was taken together as instructed, one
tasted the four texture all as once, creamy ganache of foie gras, a slippery
texture of the gelatin with a strong tropical citrus and mango flavor, the
slightly stiffer panna cotta texture with the lobster flavor and the squishy
melt in your mouth texture of the foam, but with a distinctly lemony/thyme flavor;
a real food treat for a foodie.
There must have been lots of foodies around us
because we saw several more of the triple trifle being served while we ate our
dinner. I tried spreading the triffle on
pieces of warm roll spread with the compound butter and without bread and both
ways produced unforgettable mixtures of textures and flavors.
The salad
was served next. Suzette was unimpressed
with it because it used the current mixed organic greens we buy at Costco for
$3.99/lb., which at this time of the year contains a large amount of radicchio
of which she is not fond of. I suspect
the decision was made in the kitchen to serve the salad warm. Like a wilted
bacon salad, due to the large amount of radicchio spinach in the current mix. I liked the sautéed radicchio, but must admit
that the rest of the salad mix was a bit wilted from sautéing, especially the
light fresh spring arugula in the mix. I
was really impressed with the date and bacon dressing. Our waiter described the preparation of the
dish.
 |
| notice the wilted arugula |
First, the
bacon was pureed and mixed with chopped dates and then sautéed in a sauce pan
with olive oil and a bit of balsamic vinegar.
Then some feta cheese is added and finally the greens, simple fast and
to my taste very delicious; a great strategy for preparing tough winter salad
ingredients.
Unfortunately, we at that
transition point between winter and spring and this technique tended to wilt
the tender young spring greens, like arugula, a bit more than I would have
liked, although that is inevitable when using such a mix.
Actually one of the best parts of the meal were the lovely warm rolls served with the herb compound butter. We really enjoyed them and asked for several refills of our bread basket as the meal progressed and we enjoyed them the first three courses. One of the indicators that a restaurant if really good are the small things that are usually thrown in like bread and butter. In this meal the fresh baked warm rolls with the creamy herb filled butter could not have been better and made the meal a success for me.
After the wine glasses were filled, the rabbit lasagna with wild mushrooms entrée arrived in a plate with a deep well area in the middle. We were brought large soup spoons and as we ladled spoons full of lasagna onto our plates, we immediately realized that it did not have any discernible layers of lasagna. In fact we did not see any large pieces of the house made lasagna our waiter told us was in the dish. As Suzette, our resident rabbit expert, so aptly observed, “It is really more like a rabbit ragout.” Our water admitted that the wait staff has suggested that the lasagna be made thicker and there were bits of lasagna floating around in the mostly vegetable and rabbit stew. The least appealing part of the dish to me was the overly acidic flavor. It tasted to me like fresh tomatoes had been sautéed in balsamic vinegar and added to the ragout, which overwhelmed the other ingredients and flavors except for the bits of carrot, that I liked very much, but I did not like the fact that every time I took a bite I got a rather harsh acidic flavor. Also the wild mushrooms seemed to be mostly fresh lobster mushrooms from Ta Lin, which is not a wild or exotic mushroom in my world. So we both judged the rabbit lasagna to be less than wonderful.
After the wine glasses were filled, the rabbit lasagna with wild mushrooms entrée arrived in a plate with a deep well area in the middle. We were brought large soup spoons and as we ladled spoons full of lasagna onto our plates, we immediately realized that it did not have any discernible layers of lasagna. In fact we did not see any large pieces of the house made lasagna our waiter told us was in the dish. As Suzette, our resident rabbit expert, so aptly observed, “It is really more like a rabbit ragout.” Our water admitted that the wait staff has suggested that the lasagna be made thicker and there were bits of lasagna floating around in the mostly vegetable and rabbit stew. The least appealing part of the dish to me was the overly acidic flavor. It tasted to me like fresh tomatoes had been sautéed in balsamic vinegar and added to the ragout, which overwhelmed the other ingredients and flavors except for the bits of carrot, that I liked very much, but I did not like the fact that every time I took a bite I got a rather harsh acidic flavor. Also the wild mushrooms seemed to be mostly fresh lobster mushrooms from Ta Lin, which is not a wild or exotic mushroom in my world. So we both judged the rabbit lasagna to be less than wonderful.
 |
| Rabbit Lasagna |
 |
| the inside of the rabbit lasagna after ladling it apart |
After dinner
our waiter brought a dessert menu. There
were lots of interesting choices, perhaps too many. We passed on the Italian Cloud Cake since we
now had the recipe and Joseph’s baking instructions in hand. Suzette was attracted to the Butterscotch Pudding
with caramel sauce and sea salt, which the waiter recommended as his favorite,
while admitting that he was a butterscotch fan.
I wanted to try something with chocolate and the waiter recommended
Wrede’s German Chocolate cake with Caramel Tamari Duck fat ice cream. I did not want something with a lot of cake,
but I forgot to ask that question and ordered the Warm Bittersweet Bistro Cake
with Chantilly Cream.
We finished
dinner around 7:15 and drove to the Lensic for the Lucinda Williams concert,
which was excellent. He band of a lead
guitarist, bass guitarist and percussionist was rally superb. We enjoyed a
wonderful musical experience.
Finally at
11:30 we drove to Amy’s to have a cup of tea and spend the night.
 |
| Lucinda playing with her band |
Bon Appétit
No comments:
Post a Comment