haddingtons menu & drink tasting

A big Thank You to Cat and Paula at Crave for inviting Meggie and me to the new menu tasting last night at Haddingtons, which showcased the offerings from their new Executive Chef James Corwell. We had a great time and got to meet and converse with a lot of nice people (all food and beer geeks of course). Check out the menu below.

I want to throw out a big kudos to the servers and bartenders of the evening (especially the bartenders). They were seriously work horses behind that bar, serving up those classic cocktails with absolute precision. The classics demand a lot of attention, like burning the zest of an orange just for aromatic purposes.

The first drink I had was the Moscow Mule, which is made with vodka and a house made ginger beer. Meggie had a glass of their house made ginger beer by itself. It was actually quite refreshing, and their ginger beer wasn't too overpowering like some can be.

Moscow Mule

Our first appetizer of the evening was the Gougere. It was OK. I didn't get a lot of Parmesan flavor, but the black pepper was really evident.  I guess I was expecting a little more saltiness from the Parmesan.

Gougere

While I was at the bar waiting for a drink, Meggie got to try the fried green tomatoes with the chili soy dipping sauce. I didn't get to try it, but she said it was one of her favorites of the evening.

It was worth it though, because I came back with a tall glass of an Avery White Rascall, yum.

Next up was their Agua Fresca. This was an unbelievably refreshing little tease of a drink.

Agua Fresca

This tuna tartare appetizer was nice and light but very flavorful. However, Meggie and I both agreed that the cucumber was a little too thick, and eventually overpowered the delicateness of the tuna.

Tuna Tartare

The next two tastings were my favorites of the evening. First is the Jellied Duck Consomme. Surprisingly, the melon wasn't crunchy, but still gave a nice contrasting texture to the duck. I love sweet and salty combinations, and this one delivered.

Jellied Duck Consomme

This little lamb, who I will now name George, was placed in between what I described as a crispy cream puff. One of my favorites of the night.

Lamb Merguez

The Foie Gras meatball was OK. Not a lot of texture, but the little sour cherry on top gave some nice contrast in flavors.

The Duck Liver Mousse was really nice. We both loved it, especially with the little apple salad on top.

Duck & Foie Gras Meatball

Duck Liver Mousse

 

I ended the evening with their Milk Punch, which apparently is brought at the end of the meal for every Haddington's patron.

Milk Punch

farmer's market tomatoes - gazpacho

Remember the 10 pounds of San Marzano tomatoes we got at the Barton Creek Farmer's Market from Johnson's Backyard Garden? Well BBQ sauce wasn't the only thing that was made from them.

One of my favorite fresh dishes to make during the summer is a cold Spanish soup called gazpacho. If you're not familiar with gazpacho, it's basically a cold tomato based soup, typically made with cucumbers, olive oil, and other vegetables and spices. Sometimes, balsamic vinegar is used for a little added 'zing.' In this version, instead of using balsamic vinegar I decided to reduce a dark Belgian ale down to a glaze. Now, my version of gazpacho is pureed down pretty well, but still fairly chunky (almost like a salsa). The great thing about gazpacho though is you can do it to your own heart's desire. You can make it soupy, chunky, tomato-y, rustic, etc.... It doesn't matter since you're the cook. Play around with it and see how you like it!

Here's what you'll need to make a tasty bowl of gazpacho.

 - 2 to 3 pounds of tomatoes
 - 2 small cucumbers
 - 1 red bell pepper
 - 1/2 red onion
 - Reduced Belgian ale or balsamic vinegar
 - Serranos/Jalepenos (use according to your spice level)
 - 1 or 2 garlic cloves
 - Olive oil
 - Fresh lemon

First, bring a pan of the Belgian strong ale to a boil. For this recipe, I used a Maredsous Bruin.
Once it comes to a boil, let it reduce until it's only a couple tablespoons. It will look like a glaze.
Set the beer glaze aside.

Next, bring a pot of water to a boil.
While the water is coming up to a boil, cut an 'X' into the top of each tomato (like so). The reason for doing this? We're going to be boiling the tomatoes for a bit, and when you do this, the skin peels right off.
At this time, get a large bowl filled with water and ice for an 'ice bath.'

Once the water is at a rolling boil, add around 5 to 6 tomatoes at a time.

Keep the tomatoes in the boiling water for around 30 seconds, just until the tops are softened. We don't want to cook the tomatoes here.
Once they're done, transfer them to the ice water to stop the cooking process.

When they're cooled off, peel off the skins and transfer to a bowl. I used a salad spinner bowl so the juices would be caught at the bottom of the bowl.

At this time, just let the tomatoes cool down while we cut up the vegetables.
Peel the skin off the cucumbers, spoon the seeds out, then do a rough chop.

Dice up a red bell pepper.

Dice up 1/2 of a red onion.

Dice up jalepenos/serranos.
Now, all of the components are ready for the food processor.
Add the tomatoes, cucumbers and garlic cloves to the food processor first.
Puree until desired consistency is reached.
Now add the rest of the vegetables to the food processor with the tomatoes and cucumbers.
Do a really quick pulse to mix everything together.
Take off the food processor.
Add the reduced beer glaze, a little drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Mix with a spoon and refrigerate covered for at least two hours.

For presentation, add the finished gazpacho to a glass or bowl. Top with a drizzle of olive oil and zest a little bit of lemon on top too. Top with basil or cilantro, and a swirl of the lemon skin.

farmer's market tomatoes - bbq sauce

Farmer's markets truly are the best places to get inspiration on what to cook. Just recently, Johnson's Backyard Garden had a bulk sale on tomatoes, 50% off orders of 10 pound boxes to be exact. In fact, they're still having the sale on their plum tomatoes so if you want some, get them now since they go fast. I went ahead and got 10 pounds of their San Marzano tomatoes, which are really good tomatoes for sauces since there are less seeds and they have a thicker skin, providing even more tomato flavor.

OK, so now I have 10 pounds of tomatoes, what do I do with them? Meggie and I went to the Barton Creek Farmer's Market to pick up the tomatoes and anything else we could find. Well this is what we found.

Red Pepper

Cucumbers

Onions, serranos and jalepenos

San Marzano tomatoes

With all of these ingredients, I decided to make not one, not two, but three different things. Fresh salsa, slow roasted tomato BBQ sauce, and gazpacho. For this post, I'll focus on the BBQ sauce.

I looked in my pantry to make sure I had my favorite ingredients for a homemade BBQ sauce.

What you will need for a batch of homemade BBQ sauce is:

 - 2 to 3 lbs of tomatoes
 - Onion
 - Chicken stock
 - Tomato paste
 - Apple cider vinegar
 - Brown sugar
 - Honey
 - Worcestershire sauce
 - Molasses
 - Paprika
 - Chile powder
 - Cayenne pepper

Since we're slow roasting the tomatoes for this sauce, set the oven to 250 degrees.
Cut the tomatoes in half and set them on a baking sheet, skin side up.
Add olive oil, salt and pepper
The tomatoes will take around 2.5 hours, and should look like this when taken out of the oven

At this point, the tomatoes are still hot so let them cool before taking the skin off.
While the tomatoes are cooling, dice up one small onion.
Add the diced onions to some oil in a pot and cook over medium heat until soft and translucent.

This is a good time to start taking the skin off the tomatoes.
Since we slow roasted them, the skin should come off easily.
If you happen to be making a homemade stock or sauce by means of reduction, place skins in the liquid to add an extra layer of flavor, then you're not wasting anything. Otherwise, just discard skins.
Place tomatoes in the pot with the onions. Make sure to add the leftover liquid on the baking sheet.
Add all other ingredients to the pot with the tomatoes and onions.
Everything is to taste. I like my BBQ sauce sweet and spicy, so I add a lot of brown sugar, molasses, honey, and cayenne pepper.
Add a little chicken stock for reduction purposes.
Add a couple tablespoons of tomato paste for thickening purposes.
Add a tablespoon or so of the paprika and chile powder.
Add a few dashes of the Worcestershire sauce.
Stir everything together and over medium-low heat and simmer the sauce for up to three hours.
After three hours, the sauce should look something like this.

At this point, use a hand blender or add small batches of the liquid to a blender and blend the sauce to a smooth consistency.

This BBQ sauce is great on anything. Chicken, brisket, grilled veggies, napkins, socks, etc.... Also, as you can see, it's very easy to make.

If you don't have time for all of this, you can still make a quick BBQ sauce. Just forgo the slow roasting and only simmer the sauce for 30 minutes. You won't get the depth of flavor you get from slow roasting and simmering, but you'll still have a damn good homemade BBQ sauce on your hands.

I hope you enjoy!