Fourth Courses

Pan Roasted Venison
 Pan Roasted Venison Loin
Fondant Potatoes ~ Sauteed Summer Squashes
Vintage Port Reduction

 

Searing venison in clarified butter
tossing in aromats
and deglazing with cognac
is an amazingly elegant direction to go in
with this incredibly robust meaty game.

Serving these medallions alongside texturally creamy herbed potatoes,
and a zesty relish of summer squashes, red onions,
and peppers topped with
the yolk of a quail egg;
it seems only benefiting
to place them all together
on a deep rich buttery vintage port reduction, doesn’t it?
The spicy crisp of the black pepper tuile adds a refined excitement as well as
a trellis for the pea shoot.

Squab

 

 Roasted Breast of Squab
Cheese Fondant ~ Melted Onions ~ Fig Chutney
Crispy Leg ~ Forbidden Fried Rice
Fig Gastrique ~ Vanilla Froth

 

 

 

In small Swiss villages throughout the Canton of Valais generations have been passed a recipe for a pie that includes Alpine bacon, leeks, onions, pears, apples, local melty raclette, and potatoes baked together in a golden pastry. History suggests that this savory pastry was conceived in the mid 1800’s due to a cholera outbreak when many did not venture into the streets, but instead ate what they had. I would be satisfied today if my pantry was stocked with these house cured / grown / raised simple luxuries, and in two weeks time will be  feasting on their version of this with a glass of chilled Fendant.

I am continually fascinated with gastronomy, and how certain events have come to shape a cuisine of a particular region, and influence tradition.
With our basic need for survival, our minds, and our ability to adapt;
something as haunting as this epidemic can pass
and a pie is what remains.

 

Obviously some substitutions have been used to create my version of this tart. Forbidden fried rice with its sesame smokiness is loosely spooned on the fig gastrique and crispy squab leg is sprinkled on melted onions and a fig pear chutney. These are all forming a base for vanilla pate brisee and the crispy warm melting cheese fondant.
When placing the roasted sliced breast of squab a top this loosely structured tart and spooning on some vanilla froth I sometimes think about the sacrifices people endure to sustain themselves and the amazing flavors that are created.