David's Opus Ten

As has become our tradition, my best friend and I took each other out to dinner for Christmas. We decided to try David's Opus Ten, which is a tiny tasting room inside David's restaurant on Monument Square in Portland. We've been to David's restaurant several times and have always loved it....the food is always very well prepared and they have great cocktails. I also like the service there--it is usually friendly and just the right amount of attentive for me. 

Because we went on a weekend night, there was a nice course tasting menu (on the weeknights it is seven courses). I decided to also have the wine pairing. It was a LOT of food and a LOT of alcohol and completely worth it (except dessert).

My vegetarian friend was slightly off put (I imagine) by this tableside presentation. 

The amuse bouche was a few slices of imported Serrano ham, some aged Roquefort cheese, some warmed cured olives, and some flatbread that was cranberry and pistachio (I think). It was served with either a Madeira wine or a modified Manhattan that had apple brandy and a tea infusion (which I chose). 

I didn't like the olives (big surprise, too salty) but everything else was delicious. The cheese was maybe a touch too aged, it lost a little of its tang but it was quite delicious. The ham, cheese, and Manhattan went together extremely well.

The first actual course was a mushroom gratin with a Madeira cream shooter. The wine was Lustau, Fino Sherry, Solera Reserva.

Mushrooms are usually the very definition of umami. This was no exception. This dish was buttery and earthy and flavorful. The puff pastry was still crunchy and had Parmesan cheese in it. The shooter had a rich creamy texture with a foamy top. It was buttery and creamy and so, so savory. The wine was a beautiful pairing. 

Next was a scallop with fig, apricot, and bacon paired with Trimbach Riesling, Alsace. 

Typically I do not like Rieslings but even I have to admit this was a nice pairing. The wine cut the buttery, rich texture of the scallop and the fattiness of the bacon. The fig reduction was sweet and flavorful; the apricot puree was light, fresh, and acidic. This was, again, a beautiful, balanced, flavorful treat. Maybe my favorite of the night?

After the scallop, we had a butter poached lobster with vanilla bean buerre monte, caramelized onion, apple and potato hash, with a Tablas Creek Patelin de Tablas Blanc.

I believe I have had butter poached lobster with vanilla before somewhere but I cannot remember exactly where. This was a small claw and a piece of lobster tail. It's hard to screw up lobster but David's did it justice--it wasn't too overdone. It was delicate and flavorful and maybe 30 seconds overcooked and just on the tough side a tiny bit but I think that is really splitting hairs. It was lovely. 

The next dish was a quail egg ravioli with butternut squash, brussel sprouts, pistachio, and a brown butter nage that was poured over tableside with a Newton Claret.

I heard the cook talking about this dish and he said they poach the quail egg for about 30 seconds before they put it into the ravioli, then they undercook the ravioli just a bit, so that when the brown butter is poured over the dish at the table, everything is cooked perfectly and the warm egg yolk finishes the sauce when you cut into it. This was brilliant and just exactly what they intended. I particularly liked the brussel sprout leaves in the bottom of the dish. They were a little smokey and that added a lot of depth here.

After that we had a pomegranate and basil sorbet. At the table they poured some house-made pear infused vodka over it. It was lovely and delicious but I cannot figure out how to get the photo to rotate correctly on Blogger. :-)

The next course was a half quail with a foie gras medallion on foie gras butter toast with a grilled pear gastrique. It was served with clos du bois de Menge, Gigondas. 

I admit that I feel very guilty about how much I love foie gras. It's just so rich and delicious and savory and yummy....and with pear gastrique? Even better. The quail was cooked perfectly as well.

The next course for me was a carved lamb rack, braised leg, with white bean puree, kale, and oven roasted tomato served with Napa Cellars Syrah.

When I was a kid, I didn't like lamb. It was too meaty and tough and rubbery. I realize now that it was just not cooked perfectly. This lamb was cooked absolutely perfectly. You can see that it was juicy and just pink all the way through, the white bean puree was flavorful. I even liked the kale and I normally do not like kale. 

The last official course was an apple tart tatin with cheddar, As walnuts, and bourbon ice cream.

As delicious and perfect as the entire meal was, this was as bad. This was really bad. I love dessert. I live for it. This was really terrible. There was more cheddar than apple. The tatin crust was too thin and tasteless. The ice cream was so salty that it was inedible--not just for me but also for my friend who loves the salty sweet combo. Neither of us had more than one bite of this (and I spit mine out). It was served with a calvados that was too strong to drink alone--I don't know how it would have gone with the dessert.

After this we were given a plate with mint chocolate chip truffles, caramel nut bark, and a rose petal biscuit.

I obviously forgot to take a picture before we began eating all of this but these were all very good. I was particularly happy with the biscuit because it was very mild but very buttery and crunch. I had Coffee by Design coffee with this and that was delicious. 

Dinner and the service were really fantastic until the very end. Though our coats were taken at the beginning of the meal, we found them hanging over a stair railing on our way out instead of brought to us. Dessert was a huge disappointment after how fantastic everything else was. You could tell that a lot of love and care were put into each course but unfortunately, dessert seemed like a thrown together afterthought.

I'm not sure if I will ever have to try the Opus Ten experience again because it seems like the menu doesn't change all that much from season to season; however, I do love David's and I'll definitely be meeting up with my friend again for dinner and drinks--we'll probably just go somewhere else for dessert. 

Amazing dinner....

Last week, I was lucky enough to get the chance to meet some friends at the White Barn Inn in Kennebunk, ME for a fantastic dinner. If you ever get the chance to go here and you like food that takes a lot of prep and care and technique, do not miss it. This is not homey comfort food; this is not exactly molecular gastronomy, it's lots of technique, time, and consideration of ingredients.

Before dinner, I had a great cocktail. I wish I could remember what was in it. All I can remember is that it had St. Germain. It was sort of fruity but not too sweet. It was lovely. 

When it came to dinner, one of my companions and I decided to go with the tasting menu--it's hard to resist a tasting menu! Please forgive the pictures, they were taken with my phone, which is a Droid Bionic, and sucks at pictures. 

Dinner began with an amuse bouche of smoked salmon with caper jelly. Typically I hate capers but this jelly was not salty like capers can be. This bite of food was smokey, maybe a tad too dry, and fresh tasting at the same time.

 Next was a salmon carpaccio with mustard sauce and more capers. This salmon was light and fresh. The mustard was bright and brought out the salmon. I didn't eat the capers in this dish, nor did I eat the fig on top because I don't like figs and I was dining with someone who LOVES figs, so I gave it to her. There was a small fried onion on top that was very yummy.

 The next dish was a butter poached, smoked lobster. I think there was tomato and mint puree underneath. both the purees were very mild. The smoke was actually a lot more aggressive than I expected but it really made the lobster shine.The lobster was perfectly cooked, moist and lovely. In my mind though, lobster needs nothing. I usually eat it with just butter but this was nice and much better than most lobster dishes you get in restaurants because all the flavors were mild.

 This next dish was one that I was most looking forward to; maple-glazed pork belly with mushroom and cauliflower with cauliflower puree. It was good--the sauce was really delicious and complex, the puree was amazing. The pork belly was the most disappointing thing of the evening. It wasn't fatty like pork belly should be, and it was dry. How do you make pork belly, which is essentially super thick bacon, dry? I don't know but they managed to accomplish it in this dish. It had great flavor but was ultimately unsatisfying because the pork belly was so dried out.

 The next dish that was served......maybe after the biggest disappointment (that was still delicious) was the biggest happy surprise of the meal. A duo of fois gras. I know I'm not supposed to like fois gras but, friends, I love pate. I just love it. I've never had fois gras before, I may never again, but I will not forget how delicious this duo was. On the left was a bit of fois gras rolled in toasted pistachios. Such a delicious complement to one another. The right was a seared slap on a brioche toast. Oh, my oh my oh my. This was rich, flavorful, heavy, fatty, and amazing.

 The next dish was a coddled egg on top of oyster mushrooms. This dish had a very complex flavor but it was not for me. The texture was sort of foamy and the temperature was a little too cool...I'm not sure I can explain but I didn't like this dish and gave it to a friend. I just couldn't eat it.

The next course was a sherry vinegar ice cream with a fig roll. I guess I forgot to take a picture of it. It was very interesting. It had quite a strong vinegar flavor but for some reason I liked it. Maybe because it cut the fatty feeling in my mouth from the last few courses.

The main course of this meal was an absolutely amazing tenderloin with a Marsala cafe au lait sauce. It had a lot of morel mushrooms. It was perhaps one of the top 5 dishes I've ever tasted in my life. The beef was fork tender and the sauce and the meat were so rich and flavorful and delicious and wonderful and amazing. There aren't enough words. There were a few slices of roasted potato on the plate but the beef and the morels with the sauce were the highlight of this dish. So wonderful.

 Then, we had a selection of cheeses. I can't remember what we had but there was a mix of goat, sheep, and cow's milk cheeses. We had many gorgonzola varieties and one that was a very strong brie flavor. Yum.

After I didn't think I could possibly eat another bite, dessert began. First, we had an almond souffle with cherries and I think it was an almond ice cream. This was a perfect souffle--warm, light, sweet but not too sweet. Lots of vanilla. Yummy.

 Typically, when I order dessert, I order chocolate. I don't want almonds and cherries. So I was thrilled when this appeared on my table--chocolate mousse with salted caramel nut topping. Please note--it was not TOO salty. Hooray! Chocolate for dessert!

 Can you believe this meal wasn't over yet???? After we were all disgustingly (but happily) full, they brought us this tray of candies. Raspberry jellies, passion fruit truffles in white chocolate, lemon marshmallows, and dark chocolate mints. There were some salted caramels too. I didn't get to try those but all the other things were so good. Seriously, White Barn Inn should consider opening a candy shop.

This was such an amazing meal. I cannot wait to go back and I am SO glad I live only about an hour from this place. Thank you, White Barn Inn for an unforgettable meal!

Bhluebarb crumble pie

Because I have family in Maine and I am generally spoiled by that family, I almost always have a lot of frozen blueberries in my freezer. Real, Maine blueberries; not those large and mostly tasteless things that come from Jersey and CA. Tiny, healthy, sweet, hand-winnowed, Maine blueberries. I throw a handful in things here and there; the Greek yogurt smoothie (no recipe but post coming sometime) and almost anything baked with fruit in my house gets at least a hint of blueberry.

My favorite flavor of pie is strawberry rhubarb. In this part of the world, the rhubarb is ready some weeks before the strawberries. As soon as it's ready, though, I start craving rhubarb in SOMETHING. I was thinking about making a rhubarb compote so that I could throw a spoonful into things here and there, and then it came to me....a spoonful rhubarb, a handful of blueberries....I HAVE blueberries: why not put them together?

Last year I made a blueberry rhubarb crumble that was DELISH. It actually had rhubarb, blackberries, and blueberries in it. It was quite yummy. This post is a marriage of all of those ideas: What happens when rhubarb meets blueberries meets pie meets crumble?

Let's start at the bottom: pie crust. I'll admit, my favorite pie crust is the America's Test Kitchen Vodka pie crust. I don't make it. I buy pie crust. I am lazy. I use it for the bottom.

Filling:
3 cups rhubarb
3 cups blueberries (MAINE blueberries)
3/4 cup brown sugar
sprinkle of cinnamon
Some generous spoons of tapioca (whatever the box says)

NOTE: About the cinnamon. If you just use a sprinkle, all it does is take that biting tart away from the rhubarb and you won't taste it unless you are about cinnamon like I am about salt. Omit it if you are anti-cinnamon in any way.

Topping: I understand that a traditional New England fruit pie has a crust top. I like a crumble:
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
6 tbsp unsalted butter
optional: handful of chopped nuts

Assembly is as you would imagine: throw the bottom crust in a pie plate, bake it for 10-12 minutes, pull it out, add the filling (already mixed together), spread on the topping (already mixed together), bake at 400 degrees for 30-45 minutes until the crumble is all melty and cooked and brown and gorgeous, like this:

When you cut it open, it will be blue and not too saucy, like this:

I tried this two ways; once, with Ben and Jerry's Liz Lemon Greek frozen yogurt, once, with whipped cream from a can. I think ideally this would be best with fresh, slightly sweetened whipped cream. I generally don't whip cream just for myself but I wish I had for this pie!

Various pumpkin beers

Saranac: Exactly like Pumpkinhead.

Post Road Pumpkin Ale: Super, super bitter. I dumped it.

Unita Brewing: Punk'n pumpkin spiced ale: Watery. No discernible spices detected.  Almost a creamy texture. Slightly bitter.

Cisco Brewing: Pumple Drunkin: What does this name mean? Very orange, quite bitter, crisp.

Dogfish Brewing: Pumpkin Ale: Yum. Quite scrumptious. 

My distaste for food tv, summarized.

This is a particularly good article that pretty clearly states why I don't watch much food tv anymore. People are always surprised when I say that I don't watch the Food Network or the Cooking Channel. Here's why.

I'd much rather watch old reruns of Julia Child before some screaming sexpot who has more makeup on than a drag queen. You know who you are.