Cooking From the Heart...

On a whim and a thought, and there it became. A group was in last night for dinner. They were having a great time sipping some nice old vintage they brought in of CdP...enjoying tastes of artisan cheeses~ Aged Rupert from Vermont, Cabecous Feuilles Chevre, Cirrus from Mt. Townsend, Spanish Manchego and aged French Bleu...next up...a foie gras, a few beet salads and greens...then, they all went for the Copper River Salmon..in this case, cooked low and slow sous vide with olive oil, then seared and placed atop a English pea pancake, peas, braised spring onions, grilled king trumpet mushrooms and a juiced pea-herb nage. So, I then took it upon myself to send them out a little "snack" of tastes that I had procured that day in hopes of a special guest...I took the copper river salmon bellies, which are rich, fatty and beautiful, threaded them onto skewers, then seasoned with a spice rub known to the crue as "duck rub"(cardamom, juniper, coriander, pepper, salt, brown sugar), and grilled on hot plancha grill. I then took a handful of fresh rabbit kidneys, seasoned them, sautéed them in brown butter adding shallots, herbs, banyuls vinegar and mugolio pine bud syrup, finished with a touch of butter in the pan and seasoned. Next, sautéed some fresh wild morel mushrooms, warmed some diced beets with meyer lemon olive oil and laid that on top of baby arugula. Strew the kidneys over top and cross hatched the skewers over the whole dish. Lastly, I took the pan juices and drizzled over the salmon, kidneys and morels. mmmmm...rich and satisfying! The licked the plate clean! What's next for these adventuresome eaters....we will soon see.