Grilled Opah with Summer Vegetable Ratatouille and Caper Aioli
Opah is a large round fish, often found on Hawaiian menus. It is caught in warm water and sold like tuna. The flesh is firm in texture, pink before cooking and white after. Order it from such specialty stores as Whole Foods, Tony’s Meats and Specialty Foods or area fish markets. Serves 6.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat grill and deep fryer to 400. Season fish and eggplant slices with olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss diced eggplant in a small bowl with flour.
Grill fish about 3-4 minutes on each side and the eggplant slices 1-2 minutes per side. Deep fry diced eggplant and drain on paper towels. Season with salt and pepper. Deep-fry the basil leaves until crisp, about 1 minute.
To serve, place one slice of grilled eggplant in the center of each plate. Fold the fried eggplant into the ratatouille, then top the grilled eggplant with about 1/2 cup of the ratatouille. Top with another slice of grilled eggplant. Top the second slice with the opah and put a dollop of caper aoili on the fish. Place one fried basil leaf into the caper aioli and drizzle the plate with basil oil.
Basil Oil
Ingredients
Directions
Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Have a small bowl of ice water ready. Place the basil and parsley in the boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain and plunge into ice bath. Drain, place blanched herbs in the blender with the olive oil and purée. Let rest overnight and strain a double thickness of cheesecloth.
Ratatouille
Ingredients
Directions
Place olive oil in a large sauté pan over high heat. Add leek and red onion, reduce the heat, cover and sweat the vegetables 8-10 minutes until tender. Add garlic and cook another 2 minutes. Add zucchini and yellow squash and cook until tender, 10-12 minutes. Add diced tomatoes and cook 5 minutes. Just before serving, add basil, chile flakes, and butter. Season with salt and pepper.
Aioli
Makes 1 cup.
Ingredients
Directions
Place the garlic, egg yolks, Dijon mustard and lemon juice in the bowl of a food processor. Purée until a pale yellow in color. With the food processor running, slowly add oil in a thin stream. The aioli should be the consistency of thin mayonnaise. Stir minced capers into aioli and refrigerate until ready to serve. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Wine ideas: Mizuna’s Chris Gregory knows the power of a little sweetness in a wine: “The palate loves sugar; food loves sugar. If we can just get over the idea that sweetness is bad in wines…” then we could really get into the pairing he’s suggested: Siblings Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc from Leeuwin Estate in Western Australia. “There’s no actual residual sugar in the wine – just the slight natural sweetness of Semillon, a citrus-grass flavor.” Other Australian Semillon-sauvignon blanc blends would work, or, as an alternative, Gregory suggests Oregon pinot gris. -Tara Q. Thomas
Potato Wrapped Oysters Rockefeller Style with Wilted Spinach, Beurre Blanc and Osetra Caviar
From “Mizuna” by Frank Bonanno and Jill Zeh Richter. Unless you just want to shuck the oysters yourself, any good meat/fishmarket will shuck fresh oysters for you and give you the shells. This recipe serves 4.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat deep fryer to 400. Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Using a mandoline, thinly slice the potatoes lengthwise. Place the potato slices in boiling water and blanch 60 seconds. Immediately transfer the potatoes into a bowl of ice water mixed with lemon juice.
Blanch spinach for 30 seconds, drain and shock in ice water.
Shuck oysters, reserving meat and shells separately. Refrigerate oysters until ready to use. Wash and dry 16 oyster shells. Spread rock salt evenly over base of a large serving plate. Arrange oyster shells in rock salt.
Make beurre blanc and keep it warm (see recipe below).
Melt butter in a sauté pan over high heat. Add the cream and reduce it slightly. Fold in spinach and parmesan cheese, and season with salt and pepper. Distribute spinach evenly in each oyster shell.
Wrap a potato slice around each oyster and secure with a toothpick.
Place half the potato-wrapped oysters in a fry basket and submerge in the hot oil. Cook until potatoes are crispy, about 3-5 minutes. Remove potato-wrapped oysters from the oil, let drain, season with salt and pepper, then place on top of spinach in oyster shell. Fry remaining oysters.
To serve, pour 1 tablespoon beurre blanc over each oyster. Top with 1/4 teaspoon of caviar.
Beurre Blanc
Ingredients
Directions
Place peppercorns, shallot, white wine and white wine vinegar in a small saucepot. Place over high heat and reduce until the pan is almost dry. When there is about one tablespoon of liquid left in the pan, add the cream and let that reduce slightly, be careful not to let the cream burn. Reduce heat to low and start whisking in the butter, one cube at a time until all the butter is incorporated. Add salt and pepper to taste. Then add lemon juice to taste. The sauce will thin slightly, but keep it over low heat and it should thicken back up. Strain and keep warm until ready to use.
Wine ideas: “When you’re dealing with oysters – especially with caviar – you want bubbles,” says Chris Gregory, general manager and wine director for Mizuna. He suggests a Brut – a dry style – such as Gruet from New Mexico, or the classic, Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Champagne. -Tara Q. Thomas
Veal Sweetbread Saltimbocca with Spinach Orzo Salad and Sage-Veal Reduction
Saltimbocca, translated from Italian, means “jump mouth,” because the dish is so good it almost jumps into your mouth. Saltimbocca is traditionally made from thin slices of veal, but we have altered it slightly by using sweetbreads. We pressed them into a thin layer, then finished them traditionally with sage, aged prosciutto, butter and white wine. Veal stock reduction is available at specialty stores such as Williams-Sonoma, Sur La Table, Tony’s and Whole Foods. Serves 4.
Ingredients
Directions
Place the sweetbreads in a small non-reactive container and cover them with milk. Let them soak for 12 hours, then drain the milk. Cover the sweetbreads with fresh milk and let them soak another 12 hours. Drain.
Place onion, celery and carrots in a small pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, then add the sweetbreads. DO NOT BOIL. Cook for 8 minutes. Drain the sweetbreads and place side by side in an even layer on a baking sheet, between 2 layers of plastic wrap. Top with another baking sheet and place something heavy on top of it to press the sweetbreads into a flat even layer. Leave overnight, refrigerated.
Cut the sweetbreads into 4 equal squares. Cut prosciutto slices in half lengthwise and wrap around sweetbread square and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Veal Stock
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place bones in a large baking dish and roast for 1 hour turning once or twice until evenly browned on all sides. Combine the onions, leeks, celery, carrots and tomato paste in a bowl and stir to coat vegetables evenly. Add mixture to bones and roast another 30-45 minutes until browned. Deglaze roasting pan with red wine. Be sure to scrape up all the brown bits from the pan.
Transfer the contents of the roasting pan to a large stock pot and place on the stove over high heat. Add bay leaves, peppercorns and enough cold water to cover the bones, and let it come to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 8 hours. Periodically skim the foam from the top. Strain and reserve the bone mixture and stock separately. Again cover the bones with cold water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 8 hours. Strain, discard the bones and vegetables. Combine the 2 stocks and reduce by two-thirds. To make demi-glace, continue to reduce the stock by half.
To make sage-veal reduction, add sage chiffonade to 2 cups of veal stock in a small pot. Bring to a simmer; reduce liquid by half. Keep warm until ready to serve.
Spinach Orzo Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a small sauté pan over high heat. Place sage leaves in oil and fry until crisp, about 1 minute. Remove sage leaves from the oil with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Add shallots to the same pan, cover and sweat 2-3 minutes. Don’t let them caramelize. Add orzo, spinach, butter, salt and pepper.
Meanwhile in another small sauté pan, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Place the proscuitto-wrapped sweetbreads in the pan and sear them lightly on each side, 1-2 minutes.
To serve, place a 3-inch ring mold in the center of the serving plate. Spoon 1/4 of the orzo mixture into each mold, pat down and remove the mold. Place one sweetbread on top of the orzo mixture and spoon the sage-veal reduction over the top. Garnish with fried sage leaves.
Wine ideas: Mizuna’s wine director Chris Gregory points out that sweetbreads tend to take up the flavor of whatever they are cooked with, so in the case of saltimbocca, he’d take the cue from the dishes origins – Italy. “These are rich but not over the top, so you don’t want anything as big as a Barolo, but instead a Barbaresco or even a Rosso di Montalcino like the Col di Collosorbo 2003,” a sangiovese-based wine from Tuscany. -Tara Q. Thomas
Blood Orange and Red Onion Salad
Serves 4
Ingredients
Directions
In a small bowl, combine shallots, vinegar, oil and sugar. Whisk to incorporate the ingredients evenly. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Cut the top and bottom of blood oranges. Slice off the outside peel and the outer membrane of the orange. Cut the oranges into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Arrange 2-3 slices on each of the four salad plates. Place a frisée half on top of the blood oranges. Top the frisée with a few slices of red onion. Drizzle the salad with 1-2 tablespoons of the dressing. Distribute the pecorino and pine nuts evenly among the servings. Drizzle each plate with a little basil oil.
Wine ideas: “”This is an Old World-style dish,” Chris Gregory mused as he thought about what wine to pair with it, “so I’m thinking Spain, France, Italy – white wine.” A Soave from Italy’s Veneto would do the trick, but Gregory had other plans for it: “It could be fun to match this dish with an Alsace pinot gris: It’ll have just enough sweetness to complement the sugar of the orange and the onion,” as well as the acidity to stand up to it all. Zind-Humbrecht is the king of Alsace whites; also look for Trimbach and Schoffit. -Tara Q. Thomas
Colorado Cherry Clafouti with Chocolate Sauce and Whipped Cream
The Western Slope of Colorado is known for growing great fruit. Mizuna uses as many of them as it can. Serves 8.
Ingredients
Clafouti:
Directions
Preheat oven to 400.
Butter an 8-inch fluted pie dish. Cut cherries in half and remove the pits. Place them flat side down in pie dish in an even layer. Place eggs in bowl of an electric mixer and beat on low speed with the whisk attachment until they are pale yellow. With mixer still running, add sugar in a thin stream, then beat 1 minute more. Repeat, adding melted butter. Add flour all at once and mix briefly, just to combine. Add milk in a thin stream and whisk until smooth. Gently pour batter over cherries, being careful not to disturb them. Place dish in oven and bake 30-40 minutes until set. Let cool, then sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cut into 8 pieces.
To serve, drizzle each plate with chocolate sauce. Place one slice of clafouti on each dessert plate, on its side. Garnish with a dollop of whipped cream, a couple of cherries and a sprig of mint.
Wine ideas: “To find a happy medium with fruit and chocolate, there are two ways to go,” says Chris Gregory of Mizuna. “With fruit, any noble-rot wine,” he says, referring to wines like Sauternes that have been with grapes affected by botrytis, a rot that dehydrates the grapes, concentrating their sugars and adding a smoky flavor to the wines. As for chocolate? “Chocolate and Madeira were made for each other.” Gregory’s pick is Blandy’s 15- year-old Malmsey – “It’s sweet but it doesn’t make your teeth ache like some Tawny Ports.” If your only exposure to Madeira has been the stuff you cook with, then trust him on this one: Madeira is delicious. -Tara Q. Thomas
Chocolate Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Place the chocolate and cream in a sauce pan over medium low heat and stir until the chocolate melts. Cool to room temperature and pour into a squeeze tube.
Whipped Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Place all of the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until thickened. Do not overmix.
Macaroni and Cheese Butter-Poached Maine Lobster with Creamy Lobster Broth and Mascarpone-Enriched Orzo
“We serve so much lobster at the restaurant that creating new lobster dishes is always an exciting challenge. I used to do an actual gratin with lobster and macaroni, but now I use orzo with mascarpone, the lobster on top, and Parmesan crisps-an echo of the crisp texture of a traditional gratin dish. The coral oil rings the orzo for bright color, and I finish the plate with chopped coral. This is an enormously satisfying dish to eat,” says cehf Thomas Keller. This is the original reicpe from Keller’s “The French Laundry Cookbook,” on which the Mizuna dish is based. Makes 6 servings.
Ingredients
Directions
Place the lobster broth in a saucepan and bring it to a simmer. Reduce the broth to a sauce consistency; you should have about 1 to 1 1/4 cups. Set aside in the pan.
Cook the orzo in boiling lightly salted water until just tender. Drain the cooked pasta in a strainer and rinse under cold water. Shake the strainer to remove excess water and add the orzo to the lobster broth.
To complete: If the lobster pieces have been refrigerated, bring them to room temperature.
Heat the orzo and lobster broth to a simmer. Add the mascarpone and season with salt to taste. Let simmer for a minute, then remove the pan from the heat and keep warm.
Meanwhile, place the lobster pieces in one layer in a large saucepan. Pour in the beurre monté; the lobster should almost be covered. Heat gently to warm the lobster.
Stir the chives into the orzo. Pipe a circle of coral oil in the center of each serving dish. Place about 1/3 cup of orzo in the center of the oil, allowing it to spread the oil out into a larger circle. Arrange a piece of lobster tail and a claw in the center of the orzo and top each serving with a Parmesan crisp.
Preparing the Beurre Monté
A little bit of water helps with the emlsion process: Whether you emulsity 4 tablespoons (2 ounces) or 1 pound of butter, just a tablespoon of water will do. Any amount of beurre monté can be made using the following method. Read the particular recipe through to determine the total amount of beurre monté you will need.
Bring the water to a boil in an appropriate-size saucepan. Reduce the heat to low and begin whisking the chunks of butter into the water, bit by bit, to emulsify. Once you have established the emulsion, you can continue to add pieces of butter until you have the quantity of beurre monté that you need (we make 20 pounds at a time). It is important to keep the level of heat gentle and consistent in order to maintain the emulsification. Make the beurre monté close to the time it will be used and keep it in a warm place. If you have extra beurre monté, it can be refrigerated and then reheated to use as melted butter or clarified.
Though we are enamored of beurre monté and use it all day in our kitchens, when a recipe calls for only one tablespoon or two, you can substitute whole butter.
Creamy Maine Lobster Broth
Ingredients
Lobsters and cream is a luxurious combination, intensified here in the form of a canapé soup. I froth the broth before serving it.
When you are preparing lobsters, save the bodies to make this broth (freeze them if need be for future use). This is a very rich soup, best served in small portions. Try espresso cups.
Heat the oil in a large rondeau, or deep straight-sided braising pan. Add the lobster shells and sear over medium-high heat for 1 to 2 minutes per side, until they turn red. (If your pot is not big enough to accomplish this easily, do it in two batches.) Add the tomatoes, carrots, and tarragon, cover the shells and vegetables with water, and bring to a boil. Skim off any impurities that rise to the top. Reduce the heat and simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Strain the stock through a large strainer, smashing the lobster bodies with a wooden spoon to extract all the liquid, and then strain again through a finer strainer (or the same, lined with cheesecloth) into a clean saucepan.
Return the strained stock to the stove and simmer until it is reduced to 1 cup. Add the heavy cream, return to a simmer, and cook, skimming occasionally, until the broth is reduced to 2 cups. Strain through a chinois into a container, discarding any solids remaining in the strainer. Cover and refrigerate the broth for several hours to chill, or for up to 3 days.
To complete: Place the cold broth in a heavy saucepan and whisk vigorously over medium heat as you reheat it. The broth will froth as you whisk in air, à la cappuccino. Pour the hot broth into demitasse cups, using a spoon to hold back the froth, then top with the froth.
Makes 6 to 8 servings (2 cups)
Coral Oil
Ingredients
Coral oil can be made with fresh lobster roe, or the roe can be accumulated over a period of time and kept frozen until you have enough to make the oil.
Place the lobster coral in a blender and blend for 20 to 30 seconds, or until smooth. With the machine running on low speed, drizzle in the hot oil. Increase to high speed and continue to blend for about 15 to 20 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides occasionally. The oil will continue to heat in the blender from friction and will take on a red-orange color (the coral will remain dark). The longer you run the blender, the more color the oil will take on, but be careful not to damage the blender by overheating it.
Strain the oil by pouring it through a cheesecloth-lined fine-mesh sieve into a container. Cover the oil and store it in the refrigerator.
Makes about 1/4 to 1/3 cup
Parmesan Crisps
These crisps can be made in any size, but it’s important to use freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. These are easy and have many uses-serve them with salads or soups, or use them to hold the goat cheese mousse (see page 000)-but be sure to make extra, because you’ll want to eat a few while you’re making them.
Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat (see Sources, page 000).
Sprinkle about 2 teaspoons of the cheese in one corner of the Silpat.
Use your fingers to spread the cheese into a 2-inch circle. Repeat with the remaining cheese; you should have about 12 rounds.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are golden brown. Use a small spatula to transfer them to paper towels. They will still be soft when they are removed but will stiffen as they cool. Store the crisps in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
Makes about twelve 2-inch crisps
