Duck Liver Crostini Tuscane with Spicy Cucumber Salad

Pre post warning, portions of the prep of this dish are not very appetizing looking. 

To start this dish, the ingredients for the liver mixture were sauteed off in a pan.  This included chicken livers (duck livers again are very hard to source unless buying whole ducks) capers, onions, anchovies and red pepper flakes. 

This is the not so appetizing picture.  The ingredients that were sauteed got pureed and ready to go on grilled bread.

Once the liver pate was made I made the side salad which was cucumbers, olive oil red wine vinggar sugar and red pepper flakes. 

Then final plate.  The cucumber salad was delicious, the chicken liver crostini didn't do much for me. 

Broccoli Rabe Crostini wth Crotonese and Black Pepper Oregano Oil

So I'm a bit behind on these posts from Mario Batali's book.  I have cooked a few things from the book over the past several months I just haven't posted them.  Well here's one of them.

This is the only photo I took of this dish.  Broccoli Rabe is very difficult to find in grocery stores around here so I'm pretty sure I used kale instead.  The kale was boiled until tender and then tossed with garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and oregano.  I grilled off the bread and put the kale mixture on top and topped with thinly sliced fontina cheese.  Again the Crotonese cheese is nearly impossible to find so I used another sheep's milk cheese.  Then once the crostini is assembled it was drizled with an oregano, black pepper and oil concoction.  This made a wonderful side dish for my meal this particular evening. 

Next: Hollywood

With every new menu concept the people at Next are challenging themselves.  Sometimes within the strictest box they can find such as The French Laundry menu from October 28, 1996.  Sometimes it's within a specific style of food such as Ancient Rome or Modern Chinese.  Other times they challenge themselves with a complete abstract idea such as Childhood or with the current iteration, Hollywood. 

With this menu the chefs wanted to be inspired by the movies.  Some of the courses were the chef's recreations of dishes made famous within movies and sometimes the courses were inspired by the movie as a whole.

The initial table setting, had a script written as though the restaurant was a scene in a movie. 

The opening course was inspired by the iconic "Gone with the Wind"  this is a film reel used as a plate with a single bite of caviar, champagne gel and an edible paper with the word "damn" on it.  The word is from the famous line from the movie "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."

No movie experience is complete with out popcorn.  This is a fancified version of it.  Popcorn that is dusted with fennel pollen and anise seed and then there is an ear of roasted baby corn wrapped in guanciale and topped with celery and meyer lemon hollandaise.  Simply amazing.

The next three bites were inspired by the lunch scene in "The Breakfast Club"  The drink was actually a watermelon gazpacho that was drizzled with Allison's pixie stick, in this case it was an oil concoction.  The sushi looking bite is inspired by Claire bringing sushi to the lunch.  The restaurant made a morel mushroom nigiri.  Then finally, the crustless sandwich made famous by Brian.  The restaurant took this up a notch.  The bread is actually aerated cheese and the inside is the classic BLT.

Next we go back to the all time classics with "The Wizard of Oz" and a dish inspired by the yellow brick road.  The sauce is a golden raisin sauce with Amarillo for a little bit of spice then topped with roasted romanseco and broccoli and a few small pieces of white anchovies and a smoked yogurt sauce.  Another home run from Jenner Tomaska and his team.

Notice that we had our first scene change.  The black table cloth was removed to show the table top covered in red foil.  The two bites that followed were inspired by "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."  The restaurant bough actual portholes for a real ship and plated the first bite which was a scallop cracker topped with passion fruit and other sea vegetation. The second course is a roasted octopus fermented black bean, pear, peanuts and oregano foam.

We move back into more modern movies with this one inspired by the mosquito trapped in amber used to fill in the dna of the dinosaurs in "Jurrasic Park"  This rye bread topped with a madeira gel.  This bite was ok, some of the flavors were a little off putting.

The next few bites were perfect for the inner nerd in all of us.  This is the "Star Wars" course.  The plate were toy guns that were painted to look like Han Solo's blaster, and I shit you not these guns made noises if you pulled the trigger.  Needless to say lots of half drunken photos were taken of my other dining companions posing with the guns.  Anyway, Jabba the Hut's favorite food in the movie is frogs.  The course is a fried frog fritter served on a nasturtium leaf.  The whole things is edible similar to a taco.  I loved loved loved this dish.

"Blade Runner" time.  The plate is an LED light that changed colors periodically.  On the servicing dish is home made ramen wrapped around roasted duck.  What an incredible bite, absolutely delicious.

The second and final scene change.  The foil was ripped away to reveal a table top wrapped in movie posters and then sealed.  Each table had different posters, ours had Clueless, Godzilla and several others. 

The next bite takes us from "Blade Runner" into a kids movie "Ratatouille"  As cliched as this course is, the team at Next would be remiss if they hadn't done it.  It's a ratatouille served on a tomato biyaldi whieh uses a metal mouse trap as a a plate.  This dish was a delicious as it was cute.

And we bounce right back into the not exactly family friendly realm with "The Godfather"  The course was a savory cannoli with a picture of a gun underneath evoking the line "Leave the gun, take the cannoli."

This course wasn't a specific movie, but a genre, horror.  The left side of the plate was smoked pork neck which tasted like the best pulled pork you've ever had.  The second component was spherified beet juice that was covered in edible silver leaf that when your pierced it acted like blood.  This was a crowd favorite of the night.  Everyone at the table loved it.  I'd definitely rank it as one of the better dishes I've had in my 17 trips to Next.

The next course was inspired by the Big Kahuna Burger from "Pulp Fiction."  The onion ring was made out of heart of palm.  The beef portion on the inside was cherry smoked and roasted A-5 Wagyu Beef braised in hawaiian flavors and wrapped in shiso and dressed with sesame seeds.  A-5 wagyu is the creme de la creme of beef in the world going for well over $100/pound retail. 

Next always employs a transitional course to get you from the last and heaviest savory course into the deserts.  This course was inspired by "Honey I Shrunk the Kids"  In addition to the actual plate they bring out a magnify glass that looks exactly like the Pixar logo.  The actual food was chamomile, foie gras and freeze dried strawberries.

The first desert was from "Marie Antoinette"  There were entirely too many components to remember on this dish but there was cotton candy involved.

The final bites were "Mary Poppins" and a spoonful of sugar which involved a vintage absinthe spoon and fernet, tons of black licorice flavors.  The chocolates include inspirations from "Forest Gump" life is like a box of chocolates.  The chocolates themselves drew inspiration from "Some Like it Hot"  "The Goonies"  and "The Nutty Professor" 

Next always does a great job, but the whimsy and playfulness of this menu really put it over the top.  I can not wait to head back in October for the primo menu of the year and the World's 50 Best menu which will be collaborations with a number of the chefs with restaurants on the World's 50 Best list.  It's going to be epic. 

Next: Ancient Rome

So here we go, my sixth year of Next.  I can't believe that it's been that long, in fact by complete happenstance this meal was five years to the day from my first meal there back in 2012. 

The theme for this meal was Ancient Rome with dishes inspired by the writings of Apicius and Roman cook that published his receipes in the 4th or 5th century AD. 

The initial plate setting, with some components of the first course as well as the opening cocktail for the second course.

There was a big tableside production of this and the waiter indicated that it was their chemistry experiment.  This started out with a concoction of red cabbage juice which apparently is a good natural indicator of acids and bases.  Red cabbage is naturally acidic which is why it's purple.  The liquid was filtered through the rose petals, cinnamon and other items you see in the middle of the first picture.  These items act as a filter and remove a lot of the acidity in the cabbage.  Then a mixture of mead, armagnac and several other things are added and you get this;

The first two savory courses were salads two ways.  On the right is a prepared salad of honey, cabbage, apple and grape.  On the right is a raw salad of baby radish and other herbs with a melon vinaigrette.  Two very solid bites to get the meal going.

The next two bites.  On the wheat stalk is an oyster suspended in a pomegranate aspic over a thin little pancake.  The other dish is a mussel rillette with safron and lardo.  They oyster was delicious sweet and interesting.  The mussel was flat, gritty and nasty.

The fifth course was presented in a pile of rose petals.  This is a rose petal pastry almost with a puree of white asparagus and rosemary inside.  Another very fantastic early bite.

Now it was time to really have some fun.  In the bowl is a puree of beets and thyme.  Suspended over the bowl on the sword, yes I said sword, is a chunk of black truffle wrapped in crispy chicken skin.  Once this is on the table another waiter comes out and pours in a charred beet consomme.  We ate the black truffle first and then drank the soup out of the bowl.  An absolute homerun of a dish.

This was a dish that highlighted Roman preservation techniques.  The protein of the dish is a pickled striped bass served with a smoked mascarpone cheese, this was topped with crispy chick peas, fried enoki mushrooms and chickpea foam.  This was a very good dish with lots of fun textures.

This was by far the biggest "trick" of the night.  They brought out this smoking hot clay pot that had coals, wheat and some other stuff in it with a dough ball.  This was then covered and they baked bread table side to be served along a later course.

We now enter a dish that highlights Roman oppulance.  On the left is a poached prawn tail that is layered with thinly sliced olives.  On the right is a shrimp flavored creme fraiche topped with greens and walnuts.  The prawn tail was amazing, the salad was good but nothing incredibly memorable.

This course is pickled red cabbage leaves, over top of a foam (possibly butternut squash) served over top of leeks.  Again, not a ton memorable about this course except that it was highly acidic in a very good way since I do love vinegar.

At this point the bread was cooked and they cut it using the string it was wrapped in.  It was seasoned with beef fat, poppy seeds and fennel seeds.

One of the best plates of the night and probably the best tasting dish.  This is a pan roasted half quail that was lovingly stuffed with all of the innards of the bird.  This was served over lovage which is an herbaceous plant similar to parsley. 

I believe this dish was designed to mimick foraging.  This is a perfectly cooked piece of venison and then the plate is sprinkled with chestnuts.  Love love love venison so naturally I loved this dish.

This was the final savory course that was centered around oxtail.  Oxtail is one of those proteins that I don't cook nearly enough.  It's unique enough to satisfy the foodie in me, when cooked right it has the texture of pot roast but has so much more flavor, and it's easy to cook and cheap.  What's not to love.  This one was served with turnips, horseradish and nasturtium as garnish and served in a hot bowl of aromatic salt that included cinnamon and cloves.  This was a very nice was to end the meal.

Meals like this always include a transitional course to take you from the last usually very heavy final savory course to desert.  This version is artichoke, Carob and citrus.  I don't have much thought on how this one tasted, but I do remember reading a blurb online that artichoke was chosen for this dish because some of the natural things in artichoke act as natural palate cleansers

The first of two deserts, this is goat cheese, honey and fennel.

The final few bites of the night in another ode to how Romans feasted.  No we did not eat this entire bowl.  In the foreground is an apricot taffy.  On top of the apple in the background is an apple semifreddo and in the the that you can't really sea is a hazelnut bite.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this meal, though I will say that at times I had a hard time hearing the staff describe the dishes which is why some of my descriptions were a bit short.  But overall, a very solid way to start the year out.  I will be back in July for the Hollywood theme in which the restaurant will take inspiration from food scenes in the movies.  Can't wait. 

Linguica and Red ONion Marmalade Crostini

As part of the first chapter of this book there are a lot of recipes for various crostinis and bruschettas.  Based on my research there is very little difference between the two so I tend to treat them the same.  Basically grilled or toasted bread with whatever toppings that you like. 

This particular one has a linguica sausages and red onion marmalade. 

Linguica is a spicy Portugese sausage that tends to be very difficult to come by in the various meat markets locally, so I decided to make my own. 

The sausage is a mixture of pork butt, paprika, garlic, salt, red wine, sugar, white and black pepper, oregano and cayenne pepper.  I ground all the ingredients together in the grinder attachment to my kitchenaid and then stuffed it into a natural hog casing I bough off of amazon.  From there I smoked it gently on my smoker to impart a bit of extra flavor.

The red onion marmalade included red onions, naturally, port wine, sugar  which reduced down until it was basically a chunky syrup.

From there I grilled up the sausage over direct heat to cook the sausage through and then toasted up the bread as well.  The bread was coated with the red onion and then topped with sausage slices and plated. 

Overall, this dish was good, but I will say that the sausage ended up a little dry for my tastes.  I'm not sure if the sausage was cooked more than I thought when I smoked them, but its hard to tell.

Stuffed Olives

The first chapter of this book is all appetizers and sharable plates so everything I'm making are side dishes, but it doesn't make them any less delicious.  For this one I pan seared off a pork chop as the main part of dinner and then fried up these stuffed olives for the side. 

Overall a very simple dish, large olives that I pitted and then stuffed with a sweet Italian Sausage.  The olives were then battered with flour egg and bread crumbs and then deep fried.

These were a great side dish but would also be an awesome bar snack.