Saturday, January 30, 2010

Tickets for La Porte Brune #2 are available!!


Ahhh, La Porte Brune #1 is in the books and it felt GOOD!!!

We have our date for our 2nd dinner and we have our location secured and all I got to say is WOW! I have wanted to do a dinner here since I moved here! So on Saturday March 13th in Walla Walla, we will again fling open the doors, to you the Culinary Under-grounders!

For those that did not attend the inaugural dinner, you now have a chance to hop on board this culinary train and become part of the “Underground”! Judging from the reaction of at the first dinner, these dinners will fill up very quickly!
We are only taking the first 40 that sign up! Our space for dinner #1 limited our number; we do not have that problem for this dinner! The cost of the dinner includes a champagne greeting, at least 5 courses of food and wine and your gratuity. All you need to do is show up and have a great evening! This dinner will be $95 per person

So those that have done this before bear with me as I explain how to sign up:
1. Go to www.laportebrune.com
2. Go to the menu page
3. Use the Paypal button on the side of the page to purchase your “door passes”
4. Add your name, party size and where you live to the menu page in the comment box.

The menu and wine pairings should be up in the next week or so. I feel like maybe some poaching, braising and sous vide and some great wine in your future!

Then as you some of you know, a few days prior to the dinner you will receive an email with the address. For those making travel plans, it is in Walla Walla. We look forward to again seeing everyone soon!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

La Porte Brune Dinner #1 Wrap Up

Well the first dinner is in the books, what a great event. I don't have much to say other then I think that the food and wine pairings worked great, all the dishes came out as planned and the wines were all drinking great. Sounds like the '08 Domaine Servin 1er Cru Chablis and the Yuzu Cured Salmon and the '07 Palacious Petalos with the Hoisin Pork Belly claimed the best pairing of the night award, though the other dishes/wines seemed to have fans! The setting looked beautiful and the sold out crowd loved the intimacy. Enough rambling here is the menu and then a bunch of photo's.

Celeriac Veloute with House Cured Duck Prosciutto and Parmesan Foam
Pierre Morlet, Brut NV

Yuzu Cured Wild Pacific Coho Salmon with Micro Greens, Lemon Confit and Fried Capers
2008 Domaine Servin, Chablis 1er Cru, Montee De Tonnerre

24-hour Thundering Hooves Pork Belly Steamed Buns with Pickled Cucumber, Shallots and a Hoisin Glaze
2007 Palacios, Bierzo, Petalos

Moulard Duck Leg Confit with Chestnut Spaetzle and “Bourguignon” Sauce
2007 Domaine Remi Jobard, Bourgogne Passetoutgrain

Roasted Pineapple Carpaccio with Salted Caramel Ice Cream
2006 Domaine Gardies, Muscat de Rivesaltes, Flor

Looking forward to March 13th, La Porte Brune's 2nd Underground Dinner!




















Monday, January 18, 2010

Puff Pastry de-mystified!

I think that tackling making puff pastry at home probably is one of the more daunting doughs that exists for most people. This dough is actually quite easy and outside of requiring a time commitment, can be made quite easily. When I needed some Zen time at the restaurant, this is usually were I turned. Following are the ingredients that you will need:

500 grams AP Flour
2 tsp Salt
275ml Cold Water
125 grams Butter, melted
350 grams Buerrage ( butter block)

First step is weigh out all of your ingredients and have ready to roll. You can combine the flour and salt.


Next lay out a piece of plastic wrap and place your Buerrage butter on top, and cover with another piece of wrap. It is best to use as large of pieces of butter as possible, ie; cut down a 1 lb block to get your 350 grams as this step will work better. Next take a rolling pin and beat the butter down into a rectangle about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick by about 4-5 inches wide by 6-7 inches long. Yo will need to flip it over several times to keep it even, beating on the sides to keep it square. Place this into the refrigerator to firm up.
Next you need to mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, make a bowl with your flour/salt and add the water, using a fork, mix in the sides a little at a time until you have mixed in all 275 ml's of the water, next add the melted butter and stir this in as well. At this point you will have a slightly wet dough, knead for a few minutes until it comes together, then form into a rectangle about the same size as the butter. Put this in the refrigerator and let this firm up as well. Usually at least 1 hour is required but overnight is fine too.



After your dough is firm, remove and place on a lightly floured work space. Roll out the corners, as shown, leaving a hump of dough in the middle. The flaps should be big enough to cover the buerrage.


Add your buerrage on top of the hump and press down slightly. Now you are ready to start the layering process. Fold over the flaps, with doing the ones that are across from each other, so top and bottom and left and right. Make sure you brush the flour off each time you fold up a flap.





Now you are going to turn the dough so that the last flap you folded over, would open like a book, if you opened it. At this point, use your rolling pin to square up the dough.
Using your rolling pin, press down up and down the dough to spread the dough and butter out. Then begin rolling out your dough, adding flour to the work surface if needed, and keeping the sides very square. Roll the dough out until it is at least the length of your pin or longer.


Next starting at either the top or bottom, fold the dough in so that it would be 3 equal pieces. Always brushing off the flour.


Re-orient your dough, so that it opens like a book and repeat the roll out process. Re-fold the dough again. Then wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight. The butter at this point has become very soft and needs to firm up, or else it will start melting too much into the dough. When firm, remove and orient the dough, so it opens like a book and repeat the process 2 more times. At this point you are done and have successfully made your dough! Cut off what you need and freeze the rest. This dough freezes quite well.

Wines from the Weekend


So this weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to try some pretty cool wines at a couple different places. First at the Ranier Club in Seattle, I had Andrew Will 2000 Sorella out of a 18 liter. Pretty cool, presentation, I have a photo of the bottle, but there is some incriminating evidence attached to the photo, so you will just have to take my word! This wine still had ton's of fruit and great color, the tannin and acid worked together perfectly.

Secondly, I did a dinner at a private residence in Seattle and we had quite a line up.
1999 Dom
2007 Dusted Valley Old Vine Chardonnay
2002 Matthews Red Wine
2004 Napa Valley Reserve (Harlan Private Label)
1999 Harlan 1.5 liter
1987 Groth 1.5 liter
2006 Dusted Valley Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
2006 Colgin Syrah
1990 Matthews Port

Unbelievably not a clunker in the bunch, they all were amazing! I probably won't ever get to try some of these wines again so am thankful that I had the oppurtunity!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Chicken Cordon Bleu


There has been a recent resurgence in Chicken Cutlet dishes. It has got me thinking about living and going to high school in Heidelberg, Germany, where Chicken Cordon Bleu was one of my fav dishes and was something I now make often when I am hungry and in the mood for some comfort food! So nothing fancy just good simple food for this post! This is a really easy recipe and can be made quite quickly.
You want to start with fresh chicken breasts and slice them in half, so that you have to equal pieces.


The lay out some plastic wrap and place the breasts on it, cover with another layer of wrap and pound until it is thin, not mush.

Season each piece and brush each piece with Dijon Mustard

At this point you can add your favorite meat and cheese, we had some Beechers Jack and some sliced Black Forest Ham, layer on top of one of the breasts then place the other piece, dijon side down, on top.

Next set up the holy trinity of frying, flour, eggs and bread crumbs. Season the flour and bread crumbs with salt and pepper, and whisk the eggs. Carefully coat the chicken with the flour, shaking off the extra, then coat with the egg, making sure that the piece is wet with the egg, next coat in the bread crumbs, then place on a sheet pan to set up for a minute .


In a large Saute pan, add about 1/4 canola oil, and heat on med high, when hot carefully add the chicken and cook on each side about 4-6 minutes, or until golden brown.

Remove and place on paper towels, season with salt and serve and eat!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Menu and Wine Pairings for La Porte Brune Dinner #1


Here is the menu with the wine pairings( in italics) for the 1st La Porte Brune Underground Dinner on January 23rd. We will have photo's of the event and recipes for some of the various dishes. This dinner has sold out, but we will be posting information very soon on La Porte Brune's 2nd Underground Dinner! La Porte Brune

Celeriac Veloute with House Cured Magret Duck Prosciutto and Parmesan Foam

Pierre Morlet, Brut NV

Yuzu Cured Wild Pacific Salmon with Baby Greens, Lemon Confit and Fried Capers

2008 Domaine Servin, Chablis 1er Cru, Montee De Tonnerre

24-hour Pork Belly Steamed Buns with Pickled Cucumber, Shallots and a Hoisin Glaze

2007 Palacios, Bierzo, Petalos

Moulard Duck Leg Confit with Chestnut Spaetzle and “Bourguignon” Sauce

2007 Domaine Remi Jobard, Bourgogne Passetoutgrain

Roasted Pineapple Mille Feuille with Salted Caramel Ice Cream

2006 Domaine Gardies, Muscat de Rivesaltes, Flor