Update-Photos: Underground Dinner 04.03.09
I must admit this was the first underground dinner I’ve ever hosted. We dined in the dark cellar of Lush on Halsted. I served a spring menu despite the absence of spring. The temp dropped to the high thirties after sundown but I was determined to do some grilling, rain or shine (or sleet).
Between courses, artist Christopher Schneberger shared some of his “supernatural narratives” using film projection and stereophotograpy. It was an amazing 3D affair, complete with 3D glasses and viewmasters.
For the first course, I quartered the tiny quail, then grilled the leg quarters and the deboned breasts which were wrapped in thinly sliced unsmoked pork belly. Before plating, the quail bites were tossed in a glaze made from reduced quail stock and honey. For the final plating, we added grilled oyster mushroom and 2 pestos, one arugula and one basil. The mushrooms were from River Valley Ranch in Burlington, WI and the pestos from Kinnikinnick Farm in Caledonia, IL.
The salad featured a very nice blue cheese from Brunkow cheese of WI, but I think the best part of the salad was the cripsy duck chicharron and digging through the greens to find a warm duck confit center.
For the main course, I served lamb shank which was first braised in white wine, herbs, and demi glace for 3 hours, chilled, then finished on the grill until the outer edges of the meat were crisp. It was magical lamb. The true lamb obsessed, (like myself), didn’t stop at chewing on the bone but proceeded to dig and suck out the delicious marrow hiding in the core. I get my lamb from Mint Creek Farm in Stelle, IL.
The final touch to the spring menu was a Crema Catalana, a custard traditionally served in Spain to celebrate spring. I used farm-fresh eggs from Janey’s farm in Indiana. Creme Catalana is the Spaniard’s protest to crème brulée. It is made with egg yolks, vanilla, sugar, citrus, cinammon, and corn starch. I used meyer lemon and minneola orange zest in the custard and poured it over a fruit base of local strawberries and chokeberry jam from local, wild aronia. I added candied lilac petals which tasted just like spring (if you closed your eyes).
We handed out some caramels after dinner. Here’s the recipe.
