TRIO OF CREAMS

The idea of a soup trio comes from Casa Santo Domingo’s hotel restaurant in the colonial town of Antigua, in Guatemala. It was one of the most memorable ways to start a dinner I’ve ever experienced. When I hear the word Trio, I think of the classic jazz formation: piano, bass, and drums. How does that translate into food?

This is a first course of three small, shallow cups of lettuce-based creamy soups, each with its own little island of garnish.

You will need: 

- Butter, Romaine, Oak Leaf lettuces.

- Leeks, white and pale green parts only

- Unsalted butter

- Salt & pepper

- All-purpose flower

- Heavy cream

- Chicken stock

- Dry white wine

- Bay leaf

- Yellow onion

- Shallots

- Poire aquavit

- Celery

- Brioche

- Smoked trout roe

- De-salted salt cod

- Garlic

- Parsley

- Mint leaves

- Panko breadcrumbs

- Eggs

- Potatoes

- Small round slices of firm toast.

- Fleur de sel

Method:

Prepare the garnish islands (can be made in advance):

Pickle finely chopped shallots and mint leaves with a little Poire for at least 2 hours.

Shred salt cod, mix with mashed potatoes, parsley, salt, pepper, dip in beaten eggs, roll in Panko flour, bake until golden.

Set a miniature mountain of trout roe on a small round toast. Keep it on a plate over a thin layer of olive oil. That will help it stay afloat. Do the same to the other two mounds of garnish.

Prepare the base:

Melt butter in a heavy pan.

Caramelize thin slices of onions and leeks in low heat. Add celery. Add a little salt.

Once onions and leeks are caramelized, add lettuces and turn down heat to very low.

Just before vegetable juices dry completely, turn up heat and add white wine, letting it evaporate. Add chicken stock, bay leaf, two garlic cloves, black pepper, let it boil, then turn down heat and simmer for a while. Remove bay leaf and garlic. Mix in a blender until smooth, and return to pan. Turn heat down very low, add heavy cream. If you need to thicken it, add a little flour dissolved in warm water.

Assemble the dish:

Pour lettuce cream into small, shallow bowls. Place toast topped with garnish over each bowl. Sprinkle a tiny layer of fleur de sel over everything. Serve with a basket of slightly toasted brioches. 

ICED GREEN BATIDA & LETTUCE FLIGHTS

You will need:

- Three of four lettuce leaves, each of a different variety.

- Butter lettuce.

- Ice cold, good vodka (I like Kettle One.)

- Lime.

- Limoncello.

- Different salt varieties (I like fleur de sel, smoked salt, and black hymalaian.) See more options here: https://www.wideopeneats.com/12-different-types-salt-use/

Method:

Experiment with salt and lettuce combinations. I suggest stronger-tasting salts (like smoked) with blander kinds of leaves, such as Iceberg. Salts with delicate flavors (fleur de sel, for example) go better with tastier greens like Friseé.

Put a small pile of salt on each leaf, and squeeze a few lime drops over it.

Liquify leaves of Butter lettuce with two shots of vodka, a pinch of salt, a good squeeze of lime and 1 oz. of Limoncello.

                                                                                            

BLTP

You will need:

Peasant crusty bread, cut in 1 1/2” thick slices.

The best, ripest, juiciest tomatoes you can get.

Sweet, ripe persimmons, any variety you’re lucky to find.

Very thick cut bacon.

Leaves of lettuce; Romaine, Red leaf, Boston, Bibb, whatever you can get that’s really fresh. Fell free to sacrifice variety for freshness.

Method:

Wash, dry, and expose lettuce leaves to oven flames until very slightly charred and soft. Let cool.

Slice tomatoes and persimmons. Roast them in a pre-heated 450 oven until slightly charred and caramelized but still solid. Mix them all in a pot and stew for a few minutes.

Cut the bacon in 1/2 inch cubes and fry them in a cast iron pan until brown and crispy.

Toast the bread slices in the cast iron pan, using the bacon fat.

Assemble the open-faced sandwich:
Spread the tomato/persimmon stew on toasted bread slices.

Lay the lettuce leaves in layers, overlapping each other, using the color variations for a mosaic effect.

Scatter the lardons over the lettuce.

BLACK LEAF SASHIMI LIBRETTO

You will need:

·Squid ink

·Iceberg or Bibb lettuce

·Sashimi quality, paper-thin slices of raw tuna and salmon

·Dry Sake

·Chives

·Rice

·Soy sauce

·Ground dry ginger

·Sesame oil

·Salt and pepper

Special equipment:

·A sewing needle (thick enough to thread a chive through)

·A thick book.

Method:

Make the sauce first to give it time to cool down. Boil 1 1/2 cups of water mixed with 1/2 cup sake, add 1 cup rice. Return to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until the rice is very soft and the liquid is greatly reduced, about 25 minutes. Cool slightly.Transfer the mixture to a blender and puree, in batches if necessary, until smooth. The consistency should be similar to a pourable sauce; add more water as needed. Season with salt, pepper, 1 tsp. ground ginger, 3 drops sesame oil, 2 tbsp soy sauce. Adjust to your liking. Refrigerate.

In 2 cups of water, add a few drops of squid ink (enough to turn the water black, but not murky, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 2 tbsp. sake. Warm the mixture gently in a small pan. When it starts to simmer, turn it off to cool.

Cut the lettuce into 2.5” squares - 5 squares per each person.

Immerse the lettuce squares in the warm squid bath for 1 min. Make sure both sides of the squares are separated from each other and completely immersed.

After 1 min., remove the squares and blot them gently, removing as much liquid as you can. They should have darkened considerably - you will have to experiment with different concentrations of the squid ink to get the desired color. 

Spread the squares inside the pages of the book or a leaf press, protected by parchment paper on both sides. Put as much weight as you can over the book and let it rest for at least half hour.

Cut the fish in four 2.5” squares per person, two salmon and two tuna.

Assemble the dish: build a stack of alternating squares of lettuce, salmon, lettuce, tuna, and so on. Thread a chive through the needle and “stitch” the square in one of the sides, forming a libretto. Create 6” diameter puddles of rice sauce in the middle of each plate and set one stack on top of each. 

SEASON ONE: LETTUCE!

Welcome to Caviar for a day! Each season will feature exclusive and sophisticated, yet approachable, recipes where the key ingredient is as humble as, well, an egg. 

The series starts with 13 delicious recipes including amouse-bouches, appetizers, salads, entrees, and desserts.

LETTUCE MENU

(recipes will follow soon)

BLACK LEAF SASHIMI LIBRETTO

Libretto of squid-tinted lettuce between slices of raw tuna and salmon, 

stitched with scallions, ginger soy cream sauce.

BLTP

Open-faced lettuce medley, grilled lardons, on country grilled bread 

spread with lightly stewed heirloom tomato and persimmon.

THE SALAD

Little gem salad with edible flowers, radicchio crisps, citrus-bacon

 dressing and chickpea flour croutons

TRIO OF CREAMS

Trio of lettuce cream lagoons, each made with a different variety (Bibb, Romaine, Oak Leaf) surrounding its own island: cod cake, smoked trout caviar, and poire-pickled shallots. Basket of warm toasted brioche.

FRESH GREEN BATIDA & FLIGHTS

Shot of iced lettuce batida with vodka, accompanied with 

lettuce flights enhanced with salt varieties.

AMUSE-BOUCHE

Pressed, oven dried lettuce strips deep-fried with Spanish jamón fat, 

served with reduced plum sauce for dipping

MEAT AND POTATOES

Braised lettuce, potato, truffle puré with wood-grilled protein of the day.

INTERMISSION

Lettuce and citrus sorbet

GO GOAT

Lettuce cups with curried goat, crunchy lettuce/endive chutney, red pepper polenta croutons.

DESSERTS

-Iced grapefruit pellet over a fluffy donut crepe, lettuce-honey warm sauce.

-Dark chocolate-covered romaine ribs with paçoca.

-Medley of reduced green and red leaf lettuce teas with assorted sweet and salty biscuits.

-Lettuce fennel liqueur.