Rings and Things...

Soooooooooooooo... Aubrey's 30th birthday was on the 30th this month. It just so happens that my mom's birthday is also on the 30th of July. It also happens that I asked Aubrey to marry me on her birthday, and she ACTUALLY AGREED to do so! (Muhahahahahahaaa!!!) I'm pretty sure I made at least two women happy by doing this.. and hundreds of other ones very sad.

I prepared a little birthday dinner for my lady and a few of our friends. It is no coincidence that I used "rings" as a theme for most of these dishes. Here are some of the courses that were served.

The first course here looks kind of like an egg. It's actually a lightly broiled scallop that I cut into the shape of a ring and stuffed with fresh sea urchin roe. (lightly marinaded in Ponzu) It's sitting on top of a cracker that I made from egg-roll wrapper and a Japanese spice blend. On top are some pea shoots (which were live about 10 minutes before I made this) and some red pepper strands.

This is a broiled Kona Kampachi fillet. It's glazed with miso, lime and honey. Underneath are some radishes which were tossed with a little rice wine vinegar. I wanted to keep this pretty clean and simple.


I thought some barbecue would make a nice bridge between these Japanese-inspired courses and some more American stuff. One of our favorite ways to eat pulled pork is with blue cheese and pickles... I have a little play on that here. Basically its a shot of barbecue consomme, 2 ribs, a pickle and some billy goat blue. The ribs were especially spicy and glazed with my barbecue sauce. Just before serving I drizzled them with a little New Zealand clover honey.


The barbecue consomme was made by simmering about a year of saved up frozen shoulder bones from my pulled pork biz. Then I used pulled pork, onion, celery and egg-whites to make a raft for the clearing of this stock. This stuff is was solid jelly when cooled in my fridge. Pretty cool.

Here is a little open-faced sammy. It's a ring of toasted rye topped with corned beef, melted provolone, frisse and a corn aioli.


This one is pretty much a salad. Proscuitto-wrapped pea shoots, a slice of heirloom tomato, an heirloom tomato-water gelee, shavings of garrotxa cheese and a drizzle of 30 year balsamic.


Beet and confit. A ring of roasted golden beet. Topped with 12 hour duck confit, herbs, lemon zest and micro-greens. Fresh goat cheese and beet powder to the left.

Prime, Dry aged NY strip. Charred red onions marinated in sherry vinegar. The green sauce is a kind of a smooth version of chimichurri. It's basil, parsley, oregeno, sherry vin, lemon juice and olive oil. In retrospect I think i would have plated that sauce differently but fuck it... It was yummy.

There was another course I didn't get a pic of. Smoked corn gnocchi with basil-brown-butter and a quail egg.

So that's it pretty much. Little din-din on a Wednesday. Special thanks to everyone who contributed to an awesome night.

S U M H