Rough Draft of my Menu for Restaurant Operations

This is Rough Draft of my Menu for Restaurant Operations to be submitted next Friday in class.

LA MIA CASA
Vegan friendly menu

The antipasto:

“Mock” Caprese Salad

The primo:

Green Onion & Wild Mushroom Risotto

The secondo:

Choose one:

Grilled Salmon

Chicken Picata

Pan Seared Marinated Tofu

The contorno:

Sautéed Brussel Sprouts

Oven Roasted Baby Beets & Fennel

Seasoned Cauliflower

The dolce:

 Grapefruit Compari Sorbetto 

with White Chocolate Craisin Biscotti

Traditional Shepherd's Pie (STLCC-Culinary)

Traditional Shepherd's Pie as cooked at STLCC Culinary Program:

SHEPARD’S PIE

Yield: 6

INGREDIENTS:

            15 oz               Lamb stock (or light beef stock)

            1 oz                 Dried wild mushrooms

            1 ½ lb              New red potatoes, cut into medium dice

            4 ea                  Garlic clove, minced

            8 oz                 Sweet butter

            2 oz                 Heavy cream

            1 oz                 Scallion, finely chopped

            1 ½ tblsp         Parsley, chopped

            To taste           Salt and black pepper

            4 oz                 Onion, medium dice

            6 oz                 Button mushrooms, sliced

            1 ½ lb              Ground lamb

            1 oz                 All-purpose flour

            4 oz                 Dry sherry

            1 tsp                Dried thyme

`           15 oz               Corn kernels

           

METHOD:

1. Bring the lamb stock to a boil and add the wild mushrooms.  Remove from heat and let rest.
2. Place the potatoes and garlic in a large saucepan and cover with water.  Bring to a boil.  Cook until the potatoes are tender, remove from the heat, and mash until smooth.
3. Stir into the mashed potatoes, one third of the butter, heavy cream, green onions, and parsley.  Mix until the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.  Reserve.
4. Heat half the remaining butter in a sauté pan over medium-high heat and sauté the onions and button mushrooms for 3-4 minutes until the onions become translucent.
5. Add the ground lamb and continue to cook until it is browned.
6. Strain the wild mushrooms from the stock and finely chopped.  Reserve the stock and mushrooms until needed.
7. Sprinkle the flour over the lamb mixture and stir until incorporated,
8. Cook while stirring over medium heat for 3 minutes.
9. Add the sherry and the reserved wild mushrooms and stock.
10. Continue to cook over medium heat, stirring, until the mixture thickens slightly.
11. Add the thyme.  Season with salt and pepper.
12. Melt the remaining butter in another sauté pan over medium heat and add the corn kernels.  Sauté the corn for approximately 5 minutes or until tender.  Season.
13. Spoon the lamb mixture into a slightly greased baking dish and spread mixture evenly on the bottom of the dish.
14. Spread the sautéed corn kernels over the lamb.
15. Spread the potatoes over the corn kernels.  Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until lightly browned on top.

Compound Butter

 Started with about 1 stick of softened butter (unsalted), half a small shallot (minced), small handful of Sun-dried Tomato (minced), about the same amount of bacon ♥ slices> (minced), 2 TB Blue Cheese, 14 stalks of parsley (de-stemmed & minced), 4 stalks of Green Onion (sliced thins or minced) and salt/pepper to taste.

Compound Butter

(French: "Beurre composé")

Compound Butter's bring additional flavor and moisture (causing a pleasant, mouth feel and taste), they can be made fairly simple using butter and what ever flavors you wish.  Simplist of Compound Butters can be as simple as Butter, Garlic, Parsley, and Salt/Pepper to taste, this goes well when eating a lot of Italian type dishes and when making Garlic Bread!

Most people use Compound Butters on meats or to season vegetables, when using add at the time just before you take them off the heat source or when you are plating them up and they should always be room temp so that they melt.  (Do not want a cold piece of butter on your beautiful food! Unless you are serving something cold?)  The potential for different flavor combinations and concoctions is limitless, what are you serving?  Steak, Fish, Lamb, Pork, Asparagus, Green Beans (haricots verts), Baked Potato???

What will you use?  Butter (unsalted), Parsley, Garlic, Shallots, Onions, Ginger, Tomatoes, Wine, Cilantro, Basil... I think you get the picture!!!

This Compound Butter was just something I threw together in anticipation of a nicely grilled Rib Eye Steak!  It about tripled in size to a regular stick of butter.

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Menu of my father's birthday Dinner

Menu of my father's birthday Dinner

By Skip Graden in Multiple Sclerosis and Diet 

The menu was: Grilled Salmon, Green Onion Risotto, Grilled Asparagus, Sweet Corn, a fresh salad with Pinot Noir Vinagrette, and seedless Watermelon. 

Now someone asked me for the recipe for the Green Onion Risotto and also the one for my Pinot Noir Vinaigrette...

I did not really keep to anyone recipe but here was my responses to that question:

This is the recipe that I used for the risotto; (had my son make it while I did other task for the meal and watched over his shoulder.) 

Also added a touch of Shallot and a pinch of Garlic along with finish with a palmful of fresh chopped parsley for additional color. (hope you are able to translate that, as I did not measure them.)

If I were plating this for anyone other than my family the risotto would have been used as a bed for the salmon and asparagus.

Ingredients

4 cups (or more) low-salt chicken broth

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter

1 bunch green onions, (white parts finely chopped, green parts thinly sliced)

1 cup arborio or medium-grain rice

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons mascarpone cheese or whipping cream (we used Philidelphia Cream Cheese - a little less than 20% of it with a teaaspoon of whole milk)

1 teaspoon finely grated orange peel

Preparation

Bring broth to simmer in medium saucepan over medium heat.

Reduce heat to low and keep warm.

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat.

Add chopped green onions and cook untilsoft, stirring often, about 6 minutes.

Stir in rice.

Add wine; cook until almost all liquid is absorbed, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes.

Add 4 cups broth, 1 cup at a time, cooking until almost all broth is absorbed before adding more,stirring frequently, until rice is tender but stillfirm, about 20 minutes.

Stir in sliced green onions, Parmesan, mascarpone, and orange peel.

Add more broth by 1/4cupfuls as needed if dry.

Season with salt and pepper.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Green-Onion-Risotto-233936

Pinot Noir Vinaigrette

I used the general rule of thumb as you can see on Wikipedia:

"Vinaigrette generally consists of 3 parts of oil to 1 part of vinegar whisked into an emulsion. Salt and pepper are often added. Herbs and shallots are added, especially when it is used as a sauce for cooked vegetables, grains, and the like. Sometimes mustard is used as an emulsifier."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinaigrette

I used a combination of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Vegetable Oil as my mother dislikes the taste of Olive Oil. (I know she is crazy!)

Wine to make up the acid part, along with squeezing a half lemon and orange, plus the orange zest.

Sea Salt & Fresh ground black pepper to taste.

Garlic & Shallots minced along with some green onion.

A dash of minced Dill. (freeze dried)

A teaspoon of light Agave.

A touch of liquid smoke.

and finished it off with a touch of the fresh parsley again. (minced)

I made about 2 cups...

Used it to marinade the Salmon, Asparagus, and as a salad dressing.

Redskin Mashed Potatoes

Today at work, had a customer asking about how to make mashed potatoes.  These were the potatoes we served at the restaurant where I was GM.

Redskin Mashed Potatoes


5 pounds Redskin Potatoes, quartered or halved
2 sticks Unsalted Butter, softened room temp
1 cup Whipping Cream, warmed (more if needed)
1/3 cup Green Onion, small dice, loosely packed
1 tsp Sea Salt
1/2 tsp White Pepper, fresh ground
1/2 Cup Sour Cream (optional)

1. Quarter the potatoes and place in a large pot with salted water and bring to a boil. Boil for about 25 minutes or until fork tender. Drain the potatoes and dry on a sheet pan in a 350 F oven for about 10 minutes to remove any moisture from water.
2. Return the potatoes to the pot they were boiled in and place over low heat. Begin to mash the potatoes and add the butter, and then the cream little by little until you reach the desired consistency you wish to have.
3. Fold in the Green Onion and sauteed Garlic if desired.
4. Adjust Salt & Pepper to taste.
5. Finish with Sour Cream. (optional)
6. Serve or hold hot until ready for service.
   

Prepare ahead: You can prepare the day ahead and reheat slowly over low heat adding whole milk or more cream slowly to keep them from being too firm and stiff.

Variations:  You can add, cream cheese instead of sour cream or grated parmesan cheese when finishing by folding in, even a sharp cheddar could be used.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Buffalo Chicken Salad

1 Rotisserie Chicken
6 Hard Boiled Eggs
2 Stalks of Celery (Small Dice)
½ Cup Shredded Carrot (optional)
1 Large Bunch of Green Onion (chopped)
1 Cup Mayo or Miracle Whip (if preferred)
½ Bottle Sweet Baby Ray’s Buffalo Chicken Sauce
1/8 Cup Blue Cheese Dressing
1/8 Cup Sweet Relish (optional)

Boil Eggs and debone Chicken, discarding all bones and shredding chicken into bite sized pieces. Dice celery and chop green onion. Place into a large bowl and measure out mayo, buffalo sauce, and blue cheese dressing. Stir well and refrigerate at least one hour until serving, may hold up to 7 days. Serve on Croissants, Kaiser, or Whole Wheat Rolls, garnish with Lettuce.