John Dory, Corn, Barley

Corn Broth

I get my corn from the farmers market its local, sweet and delicious. Midwest bi-color corn is the best in my opinion. I start by shucking the corn removing all the green and hair from the kernels. Cut off all the kernels from the cob and scrape the cob with the back of your knife getting everything off. Place the corn cobs in a stock pot and cover with ice, bring it to a simmer and simmer for one hour. Let the corn stock steep for another hour and then strain. Put the cobs on a roasting rack and dry them out, you can use them to smoke, I use them to smoke bacon and it’s very good. Meanwhile in a pot slowly cook the corn kernels in butter with very low heat. After the corn cooks and starts to look dry cover with the corn stock cook it down to a glaze and repeat two more times.  Blend the glazed corn in a Vitamix slowly adding stock, adjust the seasoning and acid, to the desired thickness. Blend on high for about 8 to 10 minutes to work the starch and the broth will become silky. Strain thru a chinois, cool and reheat when needed. The broth will be sweet, buttery and silky with a good mouth feel that goes great with just about anything.

John Dory

Caramelized Barley

Smoked Huitlacoche

Pop Corn

Upland Cress

Corn Broth

Crab, Smoke, Textures

Lemon Air

 On this “duo” dish, we used the same flavors on both sides but if different forms. Only the crab cake side got the smoke to give it a little twist and the guest like the presentation and the puff of smoke at the table. 

To make and air it is pretty simple to do but gives your dish a nice pop of flavor and visual appeal. I use versa whip to get and nonfat liquid to whip in to an air. For the base of the lemon air its lemon juice, lemon zest, limoncello, white verjus, sugar and a touch of salt. Bring that up to a simmer and then cool to room temperature in the pot.  Add some fresh lemon juice to give it a fresh lemon flavor then chinois the liquid. In a mixing bowl put 220g of base, 3g of versa, and 1g of xanthan gum and whip it for 3 minutes on high, it will become a dense air let it sit for another 3 minutes and it will become lighter in texture. You can rewhip the already whipped base to if need be.

Crab Salad

Lemon Puree

Cucumber

Tomato Powder

Fried Avocado

Basil Blossoms

Citrus Marigolds

Crab Cake

Basil Powder

Marinated Cucumber

Heirloom Tomato Seeds

Pressed Avocado

Lemon Air

Opal Basil

Smoke

 

Hen, Tomato, Olive

                                                                                    Tomatoes
At the World of Whirlpool we grow some of your vegetables, herbs and eatable flowers in our 18 rooftop garden boxes. We grow tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, asparagus, eggplant, herbs  anything you think of we grow. The list is way too long to list them all. The cherry tomatoes are awesome this year, sweet as sugar and bright red and yellow. For this dish we made tomato powder, tomato pesto and simple but delicious marinated tomatoes. For the tomato powder we took the tomato peelings, from the cherry tomatoes and some whole tomatoes, put them in our dehydrator over night at 140*F until the tomatoes dried out. Then we put them in a coffee grinder and ground them until it turned into powder and seasoned it with salt and alittle bit of pepper. The powder has a soft tomato flavor that is sweet and a touch salty. The way I make the tomato pesto is by blanching the cherry tomatoes, peel and reserve for the powder. Then toss the tomatoes with finely chopped shallots, shaved garlic, lemon juice, parsley, thyme, olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper and dry the tomatoes out until they look like sun dried tomatoes. Then I make the pesto the traditional way, but  I fold in chiffonade basil into the mixture. For the marinated cherry tomatoes, I peel them and marinate them in minus 8 vinegar, shallots, Dijon, parsley and olive oil. I usually marinate the tomatoes for about an hour before service. Before I plate the marinated tomatoes and season them with Maldon salt and cracked black pepper.

Hen Breast

Marinated Tomato

Tomato Powder

Tomato Pesto

Potato Terrine

Bacon and Roasted Garlic Cous Cous

Broccoli

Olive Crumbs

Olive Oil

Upland Cress