by Chef Jacob on October 17, 2009
by Chef Jacob on October 6, 2009
In the last post we said “Goodbye To Summer”. Now it’s time to say “Hello To Fall,” and introduce you to some of this season’s new dishes.
Pictured left is the most popular entree on the new fall menu. In fact, the first 3 nights of the new menu I couldn’t keep it in stock; word of mouth has traveled very fast with this one.
The duck breast is pan roasted skin side down to maintain a crispy skin. It’s served on top of a butternut squash and sage ravioli, mixed vegetable medley, and is topped with a Carmel-Pecan Glaze.
Above is our newest salmon dish. The salmon is pan roasted and sauced with a carrot-ginger beurre blanc. On the right side of the plate is a root vegetable gratan with layers of purple potatoes, parsnip, carrots, caramelized onions, cauliflower and russet potatoes. The gratan is held together with a shallot-goat cheese cream sauce and slow baked for two hours. The end result is a phenomenal accompaniment to the salmon.
The final entree for this post is our Braised Beef Shortrib, a warm and comforting dish perfect for those cold Lake Tahoe nights that seem to be coming early this year. The shortrib is slow braised in a mixture of mirin, veal stock and duck stock for about 6 hours. Each rib is individually glazed to order with a braising liquid reduction, and is served with red bell pepper pommes puree, heirloom baby carrots and garnished with crispy leeks.
You can check out the new fall menu in its entirety here.
by Chef Jacob on September 26, 2009
As summer slowly rolls to a close and we find ourselves switching our menu over to fall flavors, here is a final farewell to some of the more colorful dishes we served this season at Fredrick’s.
“Cali’s Best”
This sushi roll was designed as a play on the ubiquitous California Roll, but with a few tweaks to really showcase some of California’s best loved ingredients. The Roll was filled with dungenous crab, cucumber, avocado, and topped with thin slices of strawberry and wasabi Tobiko. The plate was sauced with a mirin-strawberry emulsion.
“Tropic Thunder”
The Tropic Thunder was this summer’s vegetarian/vegan sushi roll. In the center were strips of pineapple, jicama, avocado, cucumber, strawberry and mango. It was rolled in sesame seeds and topped with cantaloupe “caviar.” The caviar was made using a technique called “ionic spherification” with fresh cantaloupe juice, Sodium Alginate, and a Calcium Chloride Bath. The finished product is a small sphere with a liquid center that very closely resembles trout row.
“Melon Mint Gazpacho”
The Melon Mint Gazpacho was a chilled, refreshing soup that was accentuated with classical flavor pairings to really celebrate the melons of summer. The broth was mixed with mint simple syrup and served with frozen melon balls, blackberries and togarashi. If you’d like to see the method used for making this dish, you can check out this video.
The Mirin Braised Shortrib was our answer to serving a braised dish in the summer time. Usually only reserved for colder months, we lightened up the dish by first braising the shortrib in a mixture of mirin and duck stock and then served it over a chunk of seared watermelon. A “hard sear” on the watermelon changes the flavor profile immensely, making it much more savory, almost like a piece of meat itself. To round out the plate we added a Honeydew-Macademia Nut Pesto, pickled watermelon rind and fresh arugula.
The final farewell goes to our Pan Roasted Salmon. Served with a roasted vegetable ratatouille and garlic thyme emulsion, this dish ended up being the top selling entree all summer long. I’ll definitely miss this dish, but with the Fall menu in full swing starting Tuesday, we’ll have all sorts of new favorites to miss once winter rolls around.
Goodbye Summer, we’ll see you next year. Be sure to come into Fredrick’s next weak to sample the new fall menu, and stay tuned for more pictures, posts and recipes.
by Chef Jacob on September 16, 2009
Heirloom Tomato Salad Served Summer '09 at Fredricks Fusion Bistro
One of my favorite ingredients to work with during the summer has to be Heirloom Tomatoes. No summer menu is complete without a generous sprinkling of heirlooms throughout, and a featured dish is a must.
Many different types of heirloom tomatoes are currently on the market, direct descendants of “old school” strains before they were crossbred into uniformed, tasteless, mass-produced tomatoes that you find in today’s super markets.
The heirloom salad that we serve at Fredrick’s is a playful twist on the ever-traditional Caprese. Our version at the restaurant still uses sliced tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, but is then garnished with fried basil, balsamic reduction and de-hydrated olive oil; not to mention one of my all time favorite sauces, the Vierge.
So here are the recipes and how to bring it all together in the comfort of your own home. [click to continue…]
by Chef Jacob on August 10, 2009
As a chef, there’s a certain pleasure in taking simple dishes that people can relate to and turning it into something special.
After all, what could be more old school yet soul satisfying as “coffee and doughnuts?” It’s a flavor structure made in heaven, and this signature dessert pays homage to the simpler things in life; just because something is good doesn’t necessarily relegate it to the category of “complex.”
So here is my “not-so-secret” beignet recipe that I’ve been tweaking for the last couple of years. It’s served with a Buttered Mocha Emulsion as a dipping sauce to bring the whole coffee and doughnuts theme together.
Doughnut Batter – “Cinnamon Sugar Beignets”
- 600g Milk, 2%
- 225g Butter
- 385g Flour, All Purpose
- 5g Salt, Kosher
- 8 Eggs, Whole
- 1 Tbl Spoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tbl Spoon Baking Powder
- 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
- Combine milk and butter in a sauce pot and bring to a boil (careful, it will boil over quickly once it starts to simmer). [click to continue…]
