Halibut Steak Poached in Coconut Milk with Coconut Milk Foam, Garlic Sautéed Asparagus and Mushrooms, Roasted Red Peppers and Potatoes Pan Fried in Duck Fat Paired with 2010 Barboursville Vineyards Virginia Chardonnay

Cooking and creating great meals is an endless challenge with infinite possibilities.  There is always something to learn and explore.  For quite some time I have wanted to conquer culinary foams.  This week I found both the inspiration and the magic ingredient to make it happen.  While spending New Year’s with good friends who are also foodies and wine lovers, Beth mentioned a recent experience with foam she enjoyed – oysters with celery foam.  The idea of celery flavors mixing with the salty sweetness of oysters sounded like a winner to me, so I dedicated my efforts to overcoming the foam challenge.

The key to making culinary foam is lecithin.  I began my search in the local grocery stores – bust.  I moved on to the culinary specialty stores – nada.  I concluded I would have to go to the web and order it.  However, once I started my search I found that lecithin is a common dietary supplement found in health food stores and vitamin shops like GNC.  Bingo!  I jumped on the metro, went to the nearest GNC (conveniently located next to my favorite cigar store) and picked up a big canister of lecithin granules for $11 – enough to satisfy my culinary curiosity for the next year or so.

The process of making foam is pretty simple – take a cup or two of the juice or other liquid you want to use as a foam, add a tablespoon of lecithin granules and hit it with a submersion blender until it foams.  Spoon off the foam and add it to your dish – quick and easy.

Now that you have the ingredients and the process, we can back up and ask the question “why?”  The beauty of culinary foams is the ability to add a layer of flavor without changing the structure of the dish – much like a sauce, but without the addition of butter and lengthy reduction.  The result is pure flavor, and much lighter than traditional sauces. 

The oysters with celery foam is a good example.  Oysters and a celery stick doesn’t work well – the oyster slides to the floor.  You could try grating or shredding the celery, but it still does not work.  By running celery through a juicer, foaming it, and adding a dollop to the oyster, you achieve something visually appealing, does not detract from the essence of the oyster, and adds an interesting layer of flavor while not affecting your experience of oyster structure.

The same holds true for the entre – while poaching fish in coconut milk adds a hint of flavor, the coconut milk foam adds a distinctive layer of flavor to the dish.  With the rich buttery flavors of the halibut steak and coconut milk, I chose the 2010 Barboursville Vineyards Virginia Chardonnay for our pairing.  Fermented in stainless steel, this Chardonnay is nicely acidic, refreshingly crisp and features flavors of apple, pear and bright citrus.  The acidity and citrus formed an elegant balance with the richness of the fish and coconut as well as the rich flavors of the potatoes fried in duck fat. 

At $11, the 2010 Barboursville Vineyards Virginia Chardonnay is an exceptional value and holds great promise for a broad range of pairings.

Recipes

Oysters on the Half Shell with Celery Foam

Easy stuff.  Run 5 or six stalks of celery through a juicer to produce about one cup of celery juice.  Add 1 tablespoon of lecithin granules and blend with an immersion blender until foam forms.  Shuck your oysters leaving the belly in the deep side of the shell and spoon a dollop of celery foam.

Halibut Steak Poached in Coconut Milk with Coconut Foam

Ingredients

• 3 cans coconut milk
• 1 1/2 pound halibut steak
• 3-4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon lecithin granules

Preparation

1. Reserve 1 cup of coconut milk for foam and pour remainder in a pan just larger than your halibut steak.  Bring to boil over medium-high heat.
2. Reduce heat and add halibut fillets, cooking for about 10 minutes turning the halibut at the 5 minute mark.
3. Just before finished, season with salt and pepper.
4. Add lecithin granules to the reserved coconut milk and blend for about 30 seconds or until foam forms. Spoon foam over halibut and serve immediately.

Vegetables

Added to the halibut steak, I sautéed asparagus and mushrooms with minced garlic.  For additional color and flavor I halved two red peppers and put them under a broiler until the skin was charred.  After removing from the broiler, cover the peppers with a towel to let them steam.  Peel the skins (very easy after charring and steaming), slice into long thin strips, place in a shallow bowl with three thinly sliced garlic cloves, drizzle with olive oil, and season to taste.  Toss.  Do this process early to let the peppers marinade.

Finally, I pan fried thinly sliced potatoes in garlic and duck fat.  Just reach in the freezer and pull out your container of duck fat next to the ice-cream (no duck fat?  Shame.)  Just before tender and turning brown, add a healthy portion of finely chopped parsley and season to taste.

In vino veritas, buen provecho.

Craig

Broiled Oysters Paired with 2009 Mayo Family Winery Emma's Vineyard Napa Valley Unwooded Sauvignon Blanc

This pairing was inspired by two recent events.  The first was the Old Ebbitt Grill annual Oyster Riot, and the second a visit to Senart’s Oyster & Chop House on Barracks Row in Washington DC.  In the last month, I have consumed more Oysters than I normally slurp down over the course of several years.  What have I been thinking?  I love oysters!

I attended the Oyster Riot with a group of friends that made for a wonderful evening.  Not only is this event a celebration of oysters, it features the top wines from an international competition of oyster and wine pairing – right up my alley.  Unsurprisingly, the wines were dominated by Sauvignon Blanc – a pairing that virtually guarantees success.  The real surprise was the variety of flavors represented by oysters harvested up and down the East and West coasts of the U.S. and Canada.  I had no idea there was such a diversity of flavor from the humble oyster.

The three dimensions on which the flavors varied were salinity, sweetness, and earthiness – in order of prominence.  The oyster riot features stands of oysters each labeled with the location they were harvested making comparisons easy and quite enjoyable.  The first two dimensions of flavor were easily distinguishable – salinity and relative sweetness jumped out immediately.  More subtle was the component of earthiness – a mushroom-like flavor that was particularly noticeable in the Rhode Island oysters.  Coincidentally, the Rhode Island oysters were my favorite closely followed by a selection from British Colombia.

More recently, Chef Sue, Golf Buddy Steve, Formerly of Austin Dawn and I visited Senart’s Oyster & Chop House following an exciting victory of the New England Patriots over the Washington Redskins.  I am a fan of both teams, but was happy the game was close and the Pats came out on top.  I instantly targeted the broiled oysters on the menu to cap off a great day – and what a good choice they were.  I also came to the conclusion “hey, I can make these!”  My approach to preparing the broiled oysters is directly inspired by the expert preparation at Senart’s Oyster & Chop House and is a near relative to Oysters Rockefeller.

Sauvignon Blanc is a classic pairing for Oysters.  The 2009 Mayo Family Winery Emma's Vineyard Napa Valley Unwooded Sauvignon Blanc is no exception.  The great folks at Mayo Family Winery recognize this holy marriage as well - as they state on the bottle “Serve this crisp, fruity, elegant wine alongside oysters on the half shell…”

Notes from the winemaker:

“Emma's Vineyard in Napa Valley is the source of Sauvignon Blanc grapes that always possess a citrus character we love so much and you will too. This wine has always been one of our most popular bottlings for its expressive and refreshing qualities. The 2009 vintage is made from the oldest Sauvignon Blanc vines on the property and delivers stone fruit notes, a fresh palate presence and hints of grapefruit and lemon. Perfect for the last warm days of the year.”

So why do Sauvignon Blanc and oysters work so well together?  The answer is that not all Sauvignon Blancs work well. To achieve a well balanced pairing, seek out a Sauvignon Blanc that features fruit that is not over ripened and sweet.  A light bodied, crisp, grassy, Sauvignon Blanc with healthy acidity and minerality will echo the flavors in the oyster while offering a balancing level of acidity much like the wedge of lime we often add.  A joyous experience – precisely accomplished by the 2009 Mayo Family Winery Emma's Vineyard Napa Valley Unwooded Sauvignon Blanc.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 12 fresh oysters in the shell
• 6 ounce package of baby spinach cleaned and dried
• Gruyere cheese
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 strips bacon
• White caviar
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation

1. Halve the bacon lengthwise then cut into one inch lengths.
2. Render bacon in a large skillet over medium low heat. Do not allow the bacon to crisp. Remove bacon and set aside. Finely dice when cooled.
3. In same skillet with remaining bacon fat, add minced garlic and sauté until just browning.
4. Add spinach, wilt, and sauté. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and reserve.
5. Clean the oysters under cold water and scrub with a brush to remove whatever may be left clinging to the shell.
6. Shuck the oysters with an oyster knife and a oyster glove or knife glove. Shucking oysters can be a challenge until you find the little opening near the hinge. Insert the knife, and twist to open. Using an oyster knife and a oyster shucking glove is important to keeping you from the emergency room and unwanted stitches. Retain the oyster in the deep side of the shell.
7. Assemble the oysters by placing a small bed of spinach in the bottom of the shell, add the oyster, then a one inch square sliver of gruyere cheese and top with diced bacon from step 2.
8. Place under a broiler for five minutes or until cheese melts. For those of you who do not like the slimy texture of oysters, no fear. The broiling process takes care of this.
9. Remove from broiler top with caviar and serve with a wedge of lemon.

In vino veritas, buen provecho.

Craig