For my birthday, I bought myself a book entitled 'The Flavor Bible'.
I read reviews about it and thought it may be an interesting investment in aiding this journey I'm on. Let me tell you, since the book arrived, I have used it everyday. It's an exciting resource to have around when trying to figure out what foods pair well or what spices/herbs will enhance your meal/dessert. As a result of this (and continuing on my quest to develop a greater relationship with food), here are some things that have made my palate nearly have an orgasm:
- Fresh strawberries drizzled with Balsamic Vinegar and topped with fresh ground black pepper
- Fresh Blueberries, mascerated in pure maple syrup and fresh lemon zest
- Fresh cherries, stuffed with chocolate covered almonds
- Peaches drizzled with honey and fresh ginger
- Fresh green beans, steamed with sliced ginger
- Barbequed pork chops with a rub of garlic granules, ground ginger and coarse sea salt
- Chicken broth with sweet potato and mushroom, flavored with cilantro, a bay leaf and cayenne pepper
- Fresh mango and banana tossed with lime zest in lime juice
Those are the main ones I can think of off the top of my head - but the fact of the matter is, every day is becoming more exciting. I am actually looking forward to my next meal because the creative possibilites are so exciting. You can see from the small list that I put up that 'fresh' seems to come up quite a bit and that makes a tremendous difference in creating exciting flavors. I have found that I go to the market down the street more frequently, simply to get fresh produce more often. And I only go back when I've used up everything I bought from the time before. So I've noticed a great deal less in waste, if any at all (whether it's throwing out packaging or left-overs that are growing, etc.)
I also found out recently that Uncommon Ground has a Farmer's Market on Friday nights and I was able to go to it this last week. It was incredibly exciting - not just for the fresh, local produce. I came across a booth run by Katherine Anne who sells chocolates and caramels, using local and organic ingredients. The thing that I found so fascinating (that I would really love to do more with my baking) is that she doesn't use corn syrup. If she needs an inverted sugar, say for her caramels, she uses honey. And the difference in flavor is outstanding. I ended up buying 2 of each caramel she had there.
Another fantastic thing about the Farmers Market at Uncommon Ground was the fact that you could freely tour the roof-top garden they had. It is an incredible operation and somewhat unbelievable that so much produce could be made in a big city. Uncommon Ground has always been one of my favorite places to eat, but I have a whole new level of respect for what they do.
I think I may be becoming a hippie... Granted, I would never wear tie-dye and I don't smoke weed, but the idea of supporting local business, and buying fresh, local, organic product is becoming a way of life for me - I once viewed it all as a culinary fad, but I have now jumped on board. Yay, I once was lost, but now am found.
But back to pastry - I've been alerted my Mothra that the new menu will be going up at the end of July, so that made my internal alarms go off in panic and I've been kicking the menu writing into high gear. I'm posting an incredibly, painfully rough draft here with the ideas that I've come up. I'm doing this because I intend on showing Mothra my outline wither tomorrow or the next day and I think it'd be interesting to post what she loves, hates and what suggestions she has to vamp it up a bit. I think it'll give you a better idea of what I do, how this creative process works and I think it'll be great to look back on. So, without further delay, here is the very rough draft:
Main Desserts
Cherry Cornmeal upside-down cake
Peach-Blueberry Cobbler
Blueberry Trifle
Mixed Berry Cobbler
Plum or Peach Tatin Cake
Pavolva with Fresh Seasonal Fruit
Cherry Chocolate Almond Tart
Poached Pear Tart
Plum Tart
Summer Rice Pudding
-Light Rice Pudding with fruit coulis
Local Cheese and Fruit Platter
Chicago “Boston”
-variation on the Boston Cream Pie
Ice Creams/Sorbets
Cucumber-Mint Sorbet
Tri-Melon Sorbet
-Layered with different flavors (cantelope, watermelon, honey dew)
Noyaux (Cherry Pit) Ice Cream
Yogurt & Honey Raspberry Ice Cream
Black Forest Ice Cream
-Vanilla with dark chocolate swirl and crushed cherries
Cotton Candy Ice Cream
Sundae Ice Cream
-Vanilla Ice Cream swirled with caramel and chocolate sauce, chunks of brownie, maraschino cherries
Pies
Raspberry-Cilantro with Honey Crumble
Melba
-Peach and Raspberry Pie, served with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Fresh Cherry Pie
Peach Pie (Fresh peaches mixed with honey on bottom layer with a Almond/Marscapone/Whipped Cream Topping)
Pear-Anise Pie
Specialty Drink
Virgin Mint Bellini
Peach nectar, sugar, lemon, mint, sparkling water
Blueberry Ginger-Ale
I'll keep you posted on what happens here in the next few days. Wish me luck!
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