Summer is in full swing in Portland and Chef Michael is hip deep in local products.  Pictured above is an Oregon dungeness crab salad with avocado coulis, heirloom tomato, frisee salad and toasted brioche.  The fresh picked crab meat is folded together with house made creme fraiche, fine herbs, lemon zest and juice, and shallots.  Perched atop a genourous dollop of silky pureed avocado and topped with thin slices of local tomato, this dish is a showcase of light summery fare.  Another top-selling dish recently is Chef’s compressed melon salad.  Using Ten-01’s vacuum sealer, we compress local watermelon, cantaloupe, and honey dew into intense little juicy morsels.  The salad is served with  petite mixed greens, boquerones anchovies, and red onion aigre doux.

The early evening light was hitting this dish so perfectly as it hit the pass, I had to snap a photo.  The crispy veal sweetbread with carrot butter would stand well enough on its own, but Chef Hanaghan won’t ask it to.  Tender beech mushrooms, perfectly blanched asparagus are both glazed with butter before being topped with a quivering sunny side up quail egg. Nothing says delicious to me more than warm egg yolk oozing all over everything.  Pictured below is one of the most stylish and elegant executions of decadence that I have personally witnessed.   Wild Chinook Salmon tartare mixed with extra virgin olive oil, finely minced shallots and chives  blanket a silky portion of foie gras mousse piped onto a house made lavash cracker.  Sprinkled with Maldon sea salt and micro arugula, this dish is a real testament to Chef’s respect for ingredients and clean, proper technique.

Some new ideas flowing in the pastry kitchen at Ten-01.  Having recently obtained the invaluable tome Frozen Desserts by Francisco Migoya, I have been dying to try out his praline gateau, pictured above.  A praline crust topped with a layer of frangipane, then a rich mascarpone and praline mousse.  It’s finished with a shiny caramel glaze and a sprinkle of Maldon’s sea salt. Served with a creamy strawberry ice cream, this dessert evokes summer without being light, satisfies without being too heavy.  Pictured below is what I believe will be the final incarnation of our chocolate bombe dessert; a milk chocolate mousse with a banana caramel core.  Glazed with tempered chocolate and served with a brown butter creme anglaise, is decadent richness speaks for itself.  As good as these desserts look, I’m anxious to get my hands on some local summer produce; bring on the berries!!

Pictured here is Chef Michael Hanaghan’s special spring risotto, featuring fiddlehead ferns, nettles, and morels.  The creamy mound of carnaroli rice sits atop a thin layer of ginger carrot butter.  Perched on top is  a fresh  Alaskan Yellow Eye Rock Fish, baby carrots fresh shaved grana padano. Hungry yet?   How about something sweet to finish your meal? Take this glazed apple cake with walnut ice cream and sage caramel.  It’s simple, rustic goodness speaks to the comfort food lover in all of us, so c’mon in and enjoy!

That’s right, house made andouille sausage, creamy polenta, sauteed savoy cabbage and sunny side up egg.  The perfect snack to enjoy with a frosty beer on a rainy afternoon.  Chef grinds, stuffs, and smokes this sausage all in house; the whole restaurant is blanketed in a rich effluent smoke, and heads turn yearning.  Pictured below is a little taste of what Chef can do for a special event, in this case a during a dinner to benefit Morrison Children’s  Hospital,  held in our private dining room.  A citrus fennel salad with braised baby fennel, dungeness crab salad, piquillo pepper bavaroise and pickled red onions.  As I helped plate this course, I was really excited to see all the components come together, a delicate and crisp balance of bright flavors.

Pictured above is Chef Michael Hannaghan’s glazed Carlton Farms pork shoulder with toasted farro, pickled vegetables, pork tongue pastrami and red wine vinegar pan sauce.  I love the presentation here.  Pork shoulder is typically served shredded because of  its falling-apart tender texture, but Chef Mike creates a much cleaner look through the use of caul fat. The shoulder is cooked sous vide, chilled thoroughly, then portioned into perfect cubes.  The meat is then wrapped in the caul fat so that it will hold together when warmed and glazed at the pick up.  This dish is amazingly good, a great showcase of local pork.  Below is one of my latest dessert creations, the chocolate bomb.  I use a flour-less chocolate cake which has been cored, filled with salted caramel and then glazed with tempered milk chocolate.  Served with blood orange ice cream, it’s decadent richness speaks for itself.

In a continued exploration of Chef Mike Hanaghan’s ever rotating seasonal menu, we have crispy veal sweetbreads with glazed butternut squash agnolotti with aged black garlic, ginger, and meyer lemon vinaigrette.  This great starter features pasta created by chefs at our sister restaurant, Tabla.  Our new herb roasted chicken dish includes a  puff pastry tart filled with caramelized onions, celery root, mizuna greens, emmental cheese, and is sauced with french onion soup jus.   This dish is feature in our monthly newsletter; which you can sign up for on our main page, just follow the “join our mailing list” link.

This grilled sturgeon dish is so bright and vibrant, it’s visual aspects eclipsed only by its wafting smell, it’s balanced savory essence.  I caught the fish once, smoking away on the grill; flame kissed and juices spattering it spoke to me.  Forgive  the romantic overtures, but when I’m around grilled fish, it reminds me of summer; warm afternoons and breezy evenings.  This preparation of sturgeon is paired with roasted golden beets, broccoli raab, mizzuna, pistachio and a horseradish vinaigrette.  On the same night Chef Michael offered a veal and chicken liver pate, and our pantry cook was almost buried with orders all night.  Between that and the new braised romaine salad with prosciutto and poached egg we all were jumping in and shucking oysters and helping him plate up.

Pork rules. The other white meat has been one of my favorites since I was a kid, and not just because of bacon, the king of smoked cured meats.  I love loin, chop and cheek alike.  Trotters, jowl and snout as well top my list of tasty treats.  Our latest pork dish at ten01 has solidified pig as prince of palatable protein, as champion of choice cuts for carnivores.  Here we have our friend the pig plated in two preparations; luscious loin and beautiful belly, both handled with care to cater to your tongue’s taste for pig.  The loin is brined and then painstakingly wrapped in bacon, lightly poached, then portioned and seared to serve.  The belly is cured, seared, cooked sous vide, then rendered before it is portioned and glazed at pick up.  The rendering/basting portion of this preparation is food porn at it’s finest.  The smell of thyme and garlic grabs me, guides me over.  The clacking sound of spoon on metal mingling with the sizzling sounds of succulent fat call to me, soon I’m standing near with glazed eyes and smacking lips.  As if all this weren’t enough, these two mouthwatering meats are masterfully mounded onto waiting warmed plates with caramelized apples, turnips and red wine braised cabbage and then drizzled with honey vanilla gastrique. A dish like this takes a lot of careful preparation and practiced technique.  Below the video are some recipes which will hopefully inspire the artisan chef in you.  The cure recipe is used to flavor and tenderize the pork belly before it is rendered and then cooked at a low temperature.  It would also work to cure duck legs before doing a confit. The brine recipe is used to for a similar purpose with the pork loin.  Two techniques as building blocks in a truly outstanding dish.

Pork Belly Cure. by Sous Chef Eric Suniga

6 each star anise

4 each cinnamon stick

8 tsp black pepper

4 tsp coriander

2 tsp fennel

1 tsp clove

1 cup sea salt

4 tsp ginger

2 tsp garlic

1.  Butcher the protein you are going to cure.

2.  Place all the above ingredients into a food processor and process to a fine powder.

3.  Place the meat into a container and pack in the cure.  The meat should be totally covered with the cure.  Cover and refrigerate for twelve hours.

4.  Remove the meat from the cure and rinse it off with cold water.  Remove all cure.  Pat the meat dry. Proceed with cooking.  In the case of our pork belly, this means rendering then vacuum bagging with duck fat and aromatics.  The bellies are cooked in an immersion circulator for twelve hours at 82 degrees Celsius.

Brine for Pork Loin by Chef Micheal Hanaghan

3 Liters water

1/2 cup of kosher salt

3 grams clove

3 grams star anise

1 bunch rosemary

3 ea cinnamon stick

1/2 cup honey

1 knob of peeled fresh ginger

1.  Place all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil.

2.  Thoroughly chill the brine before using it.  This is a good time to butcher your pork loins.

3.  Add the meat to the brine and cover and refrigerate for four hours.  This is enough brine to completely submerge four pork loins.

4.  After four hours, remove the loins from the brine.  Discard the liquid, do not reuse.

5.  Pat the loins dry and lightly season with salt and pepper before bacon wrapping, poaching, and searing.

This is our house smoked beef carpaccio.  The thinly sliced beef is topped with a simple salad of frisee, blanched celery, and horseradish custard.  Served with a black pepper lavash cracker; it’s the perfect first course, or maybe to snack on at the bar.  Pictured below is ten-01’s roast chicken.  The bird is brined, seasoned, and roasted at high heat for a rich caramelized skin with tender, juicy flesh.  The truffle and butternut squash risotto and act as a sponge for those savory juices.