Playing With My Food!

More Winter Menu Development

Lance Barto — 2009-01-21T23:28:48-08:00

Aaron and I had an opportunity to sit down and get some good work on the new menu done today. Emphasis for the menu is on ingredients that may not be the most expensive, but that are well taken care of, and presented simply. We plan on using several new techniques (some involving chemicals, food science, etc..), but not allowing those techniques to overcome the flavors of the food.

We have been talking for a while now about transitioning away from our weekly specials and beginning to offer tasting menus as the other option to the a la carte menu. I think it's going to happen this menu (technically the week after the menu rolls out, so we make sure to have that under our hands). We would also make each course of the tasting menu available individually, though the better deal would be to order the whole menu. We're thinking four courses, forty five dollars, wine pairings in the twenty dollar range potentially (don't quote me on any of the prices).

I think this will be an excellent creative outlet for both chef and I, as well as driving sales to the restaurant.

All this being said, it was an exciting day at the restaurant today!

Sunday's Menu!

Lance Barto — 2009-01-19T14:41:04-08:00

Well I unfortunately am still camera-less in Colorado, so I don't have any pictures to share, but I can describe Yesterday's tasting menu to you. This week I wanted a very straight forward, but delicious menu.

Salad - The salad was Asian inspired, arugula, red pepper, red onion, edamame, basil, mint, all tossed in a green curry vinaigrette. Straight forward but delicious.

Soup - This soup was meant to warm your bones. Du Puy lentils, with bacon simmered in chicken stock with carrots, onions, and celery.

Pasta - I had some Chilean sea bass scraps and an excess of pork, and really wanted to cook Paella, though I could not bring myself to make a traditional Paella if I could not do it correctly, and a lack of Paella pans was the obstacle. I decided if I made a Paella inspired pasta, perhaps that would do the trick. We started by grinding pork loin and making chorizo, cumin-jacked and heavily salted, Chili Flakes, Smoked Paprika, and Achiote paste to round it out with some spice. Next was the pasta, Thomas Keller's pasta dough recipe hit with a touch of semolina, some extra olive oil, some salt and a little bit of saffron, rolled out and cut into linguine. The sea bass, chorizo, diced red bell peppers, tomatoes, white onions were sauteed, deglazed with clam juice white wine, and lemon juice. In went the fresh noodles and a pad of butter, garnished with chive.

Fish - We got in some beautiful whole red snapper with the hopes of serving them as whole fish, but alas, they were too large to be cost effective. We took the sides of and served them en papillote. Each filet was topped with fresh thyme leaves, orange zest, salt, white pepper, shaved fennel, lemon wheels, and butter. Served besides the fish was orange cous cous, buttered baby carrots, and lime-parsley oil.

Meat - This was an extension of the dish that we served last Sunday. There was pork loin rubbed with cardamom and canola oil, salt, and fresh ground black pepper. The pork was vacuum sealed and sous-vide at one hundred and thirty five degress farenheit. To serve the pork was Seared Crispy and warmed through. It sat atop a pile of Michel Richard's 'Potato Risotto' that I had mounted with a little butter and Parmesan. The 'sauce' was a pistachio puree made from gently cooking pistachios in milk, draining, and pureeing them with as little of the milk they were cooked in as possible, a little oil was used to smooth out the emulsion, and it was seasoned with sea salt and white pepper. The dish was finished with a touch of fried arugula, Riesling demi-glace, and some smoked sea salt.

Dessert - I know a bit less about this than the other courses, because this is the only one we didn't create, as we buy our desserts from the wonderful DBar (who we share our building with). It was a layered Chocolate cake atop raspberry coulis, served with none other than a large glass of ice cold milk in a frozen glass. To quote Lisa Bailey (our pastry chef, owner of the DBar) "Keep it simple!"

Apologies again for a lack of imagery, but look for some new photos soon! (I hope)
I have also become an author for the blog on the Strings Website. Look for additional posts and videos over there at Strings' Blog.

Winter Menu Brainstorm

Lance Barto — 2009-01-10T12:14:48-08:00

When beginning to write a new menu chef and I usually start with a very rough list of ingredients, techniques, and flavor combinations we'd like to use, here's my half of the list for the winter menu. Chef and I came up with several ideas that matched exactly, even after preparing our lists separate from each other. Great minds.....

Winter-

GrapeFruit                       Potato Risotto
Wilted Mustard Greens            00 Pasta
Sunchokes                          Tortellini
Rutabaga                                Chicken + A new way of Egg.
Beets & Greens                      Polenta Napolean
Pear                                       Foam
Apple                              Reverse Spherification (yogurt?)
Corn Bread                               Sage
Pork - Entree                          Micro Mirepoix
SweetBreads - App                   Pork Belly - App
Currant - Foie - PopRocks       Fennel + En Pappiotte
Meyer Lemon                      Chestnuts
Quinces                                    Squab
Rhubarb                                   Quail
hard Squashs
Egg Custard of some sorts.
Cabbage
Celeriac
Oysters
Mussels
Clams
Kale
Foraged Mushrooms
Sweet Potatoes
Shallots
Goat Cheese + Onions
Seafood + Sea Foam
Heirloom Carrots
Turbot
halibut
Head on Prawns
MonkFish
Fennel

Cameras!

Lance Barto — 2009-01-06T15:25:47-08:00

It's been a few since my last post. I had taken some pictures of our NYE menu (which went over great, and some of the dishes turned out to be real winners) but alas the camera they were taken on was left out and stolen/lost. It's very disappointing that the Camera (actually two of them) are gone, but it happens.

On a more positive note, I get to go shopping for a new camera! Some of the dishes from the NYE menu provided some excellent inspiration for the upcoming winter menu. Chef and I are going to start work on it this week, and hopefully it will be finished by middle of next week, check back to see some of our ideas! (and hopefully some higher quality pictures of the development of those ideas)

Sunday, December 28 Tasting

Lance Barto — 2008-12-29T00:09:57-08:00

Welcome all! I hope you've all had a happy holiday so far, and look forward to the upcoming New Year. I know I do, though it's scary how fast it's gone by. Well enough small talk, on to the food. These are some pictures from the tasting menu this Sunday; Not my most adventurous or ambitious menu, but solid at least. I apologize, I once again, have managed to let the elusive line cook Lewis put up over twenty pasta courses without managing to get a picture, next week. I promise. Let me know what you think.

P.S. - You'll have to bare with me as I learn how to better photograph food.

Rocket Arugula, Tawny Port Vinaigrette, Toasted Walnuts, Maytag Bleu Cheese, Caramelized Bosc Pear, Chives

Roasted Pumpkin Bisque, Togarashi, Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, Brunoised Fresh Pear, Yogurt Sphere, Chive

Here's a close-up of one of the Yogurt Spheres. Pretty Successful for my first attempt at reverse-spherification. This is garnished with Chive (someone needs to confiscate the chives from me), Smoked Sea Salt, and Espelette.

Pepita Encrusted Rocky Mountain Trout, Saffron Cous Cous, Haricots Verts, Red Pepper Coulis, Fried Basil Leaf

Hickory Grilled Beef Tenderloin, Creamy Parmesan Polenta, Balsamic Glazed Shallots, Oven Roasted Tomatoes, Smoked Sea Salt, Chives (seriously need to be taken out of my reach), Red Wine Demi-Glace

Tiramisu Parfait: House-made Biscotti soaked in Espresso and Kahlua, Whipped Mascarpone, Chocolate Sauce, Fresh Berry Melange (apologies to Lisa Bailey, my photography isn't doing you justice on this one)

Merry Christmas!

Lance Barto — 2008-12-26T14:13:21-08:00

Christmas Eve at Strings Restaurant brings many traditions, for both the staff and Guests. This was my first Christmas at the restaurant and I got to enjoy the festivities, including the annual staff meal. We had Roasted New York Loins, Roasted Pork Loin, Rosemary Roasted Red Potatoes, Horseradish Cream, Au jus, Mixed Greens Salad with Champaigne vinaigrette, and Strawberry Vanilla Cake topped with Chantilly. WIsh I would've had a camera to take some pictures. It was nice to sit down with the entire staff (from the whole building, D-bar included), eat, drink, and be merry, really taking time to enjoy what Christmas is all about. Here's wishing a happy holidays to everybody reading!

P.S. Keep your eyes out for a post sunday night, recapping the Sunday tasting menu.

Sunday, December 21 Tasting

Lance Barto — 2008-12-24T00:50:15-08:00

Lucky You! Two posts, one day! Here are a few dishes from our most recent Sunday tasting menu.

Butternut Squash Bisque, Crispy Arugula, Togarashi

Deconstructed Salmon Corn Chowder; Pan Seared Atlantic Salmon, Corn Puree,
Warm Corn Salsa (it's under the foam, I promise), Corn-Milk Foam, Bacon "Cup,"
Chive, Espelette

Milk Chocolate Savarin, Raspberries 3 ways; Powdered, Coulis, and Fresh, Chocolate Dentelle, White Chocolate Ice Cream, Caramelized Cocoa nibs (Care of Lisa Bailey of the D-bar, also our Pastry Chef)

I wasn't able to get pictures of the pasta or meat course, won't happen again!

The Béarnaise Egg.

Lance Barto — 2008-12-24T00:16:45-08:00

On Sunday I spent some time working on our "Béarnaise Egg" for the New Years Eve Menu. I even ended up having some marginal success, off to a good starting point, now just a matter of refining the process and polishing each step.
The Basic Breakdown is hard boil your eggs, preferably arranged standing elongated side up, and shock them in ice water. Peel the eggs as you would a normal hard boiled egg. Cut off the bottom quarter inch so the egg has a base to stand on. Cut off the top one inch of the egg (which is hopefully through the top third of the yolk). Hollow out the yolk, plus a little bit beyond the natural pocket to allow for extra sauce. Make a Béarnaise that has been stabilized with a touch of dijon and/or mayonaisse. Measure the Volume of Sauce and disolve enough gelatin to set it medium-hard (about 1.25-1.5 sheets per cup, bloomed in ice water first of course). Fill the egg 'vessel' with the sauce to just below the rim. Dissolve 2 sheets of gelatin into one quarter cup of water (after blooming) and paint the gelatin on as you would use a glue stick. Put the egg's top back on and set in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Once set the top should be firmly attached to the bottom, with no sauce leaking, if there is a leak, you can reapply a little bit more of the gelatin "paint" and reset. Carefully dredge the egg in seasoned flour, and then coat in tempura, drop into a 300 degree deep fryer until the crust is golden brown, and the inside is warm, but not hot (I can't remember exactly how long, but I'm thinking ninety seconds or so). Be careful as not to overheat the egg and 'break' the sauce inside (I unfortunately got a final picture of one that had been overheated, update tomorrow, promise). Let the Egg rest thirty seconds and plate, once broken into you should see a pool of your wonderful Béarnaise Sauce spill out. We are serving this with our Filet course on NYE, but it is good enough to be eaten by itself. Here's some pictures of the process.

Strings - New Years Menu

Lance Barto — 2008-12-20T00:54:45-08:00

New Years Eve

Aaron (Whitcomb, Executive Chef) and I have finished writing the New Years Eve Menu and it is posted on the Strings Website. The menu is fun and whimsical playing on many New Years Menu Staples, Oysters, Lobster, Filet Mignon, Caviar, as well as the option to "Take your entree to the Beach or Farm" for a little bit of surf and turf. We decided to distribute the menus complete with chef's notes to add a note of personality, as well as to add some insight to the creative process that we took to arrive at the menu we did. I'm so excited for this event, the menu is as much ambitious for us as it is playful, and should provide a great experience for both our diners as well as us cooks! Recipe Development starts tomorrow before service. Keep your eyes open for several updates in the coming week and a half as we develop the recipes and executions of our ideas!

Welcome!

Lance Barto — 2008-12-16T19:28:25-08:00

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog, Playing With My Food. This is where you'll see me well....playing with my food. My name is Lance Barto and I am a sous chef at Strings Restaurant in Denver, CO, here on the blog you'll see my own experiments both inside and outside of the restaurant, along with some of the better meals I eat. Thank you for stopping by and I hope to hear from you soon!