The latest lamb shank set from Chef Mike includes a winter bean cassoulet, tomato concasse, and red wine reduction and crispy shallot rings.  The combination creates a paradigm of comfort food; the braised shank glistens atop the savory stew of beans.  Another top seller is our charred octopus; with sofrito, parsley oil, and niçoise olive-lemon gremolata.  Our Sous Chef Eric Suniga is regularly seen in the midst of the rather involved process of this dish, the butchery and cooking of the cephalopod being an hours long process.  Coupled with the popularity of this item at our hopping happy hour, Eric seems to always have a batch in the works.

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.

Chef Michael Hanaghan and Sous  Eric Suniga are in the house, and with over fifteen years combined  cooking for Thomas Keller, our kitchen is putting out some truly world class  food.  Over the past month I’ve seen some once in a lifetime dishes, but its the food we serve everyday.  Chef Mike brings some serious experience to the table; his rock-like presence in the kitchen inspires us all to be stronger, to cook better.  With Sous Eric as his right hand and a crew of seasoned cooks, our kitchen hums.  It steams along on a rail of solid technique and utmost respect for ingredients and the craft of cooking.  Heads are down and plates are up, the floor staff literally running to keep up, blurs of black-clad bodies bussing and marking the next course.  The floor buzzes, the servers and guests are busily chatting over butter poached lobster, fine wine and caramelized blue cheese.  This 09 holiday season Ten-01 rocked. Patrons pounced; the place was packed, holiday shoppers and bar-hoppers feeding on show-stopper fresh food and laughing.  The kitchen is killing it.  The bar draws you in.  The room is jaw drop beautiful.  The knowledgeable staff is pouring the perfect wine or selected spirit.  All the pieces are in place.  2010 is going to be a good year.

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.

On Wednesday November 18th, ten-01 hosted a benefit for the local Martinotti family  Over two hundred and fifty bottles of world class wine were opened for one hundred lucky people in a four hour period.   The wines came from the cellar of a prolific wine collector; the late Armand Martinotti. All the proceeds from this once in a life time event went to benefit his family.  Among the vintages poured by our attentive staff were impressive to say the least, ranging from 1842 to 1996!  Grand Crus and first growths from the world’s top wine producers wowed patrons and servers alike, Erica even opened a bottle of ‘78 Tualatin Estate, bottled only five years after the winery opened!  Click here to see the entire list of truly amazing wines opened at ten-01 on this special night.

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.

A week or so ago I created a wedding cake for a special wedding reception we held in our mezzanine.  It was fun to bake and fill the cake;  ice it with buttercream and enrobe it in fondant. The vanilla genoise was soaked in a vanilla syrup, the filling was a lemon zest pastry cream. The best part though, was personalizing it with piped tempered chocolate notes and symbols.  It was a simple and elegant cake, striking at the end of a long table in our upstairs dining area.  I sliced and plated the cake in the kitchen, it was served with a whiskey caramel.

Commence salivation at this seared Idaho Rainbow Trout with clam chowder sauce.  The creamy sauce with bacon and clams is topped with pearl onions, sunchokes, fingerling potatoes, wilted spinach and romanesco.  Behold! The holy grail of comfort food; the Lamb Shank, revisited.  Here this cut is braised for twelve hours, and basted with brown butter at pick up.  Perched on a bed of melted brussel sprouts, chiffonade radicchio, pickled pomegranate seeds, and caramelized parsley root; it tantalizes.  A pomegranate lamb jous completes its  savory decadence.

“McCarthy, pastry!!”   I kill the heat on my ice cream base and move it to the back of the stove.   It’s time to do the job.    I quickly peruse the ticket; the order for pastries suddenly sliding up and out as another ticket is sent behind it.  Dropping fritters first I return from the fryer to burn brulees, sauce plates and ready garnishes. Soon servers are standing near, fidgeting, waiting.  Everything coming together in a flurry, nothing taking more than a few minutes to plate up.   Plating is  a small fragment of what I do here at the restaurant, mostly it’s massive amounts of prep work, occasionally supplying the hot-side with gougeres or vol au vents. I’m also kept quite busy with preparing the dessert menu for our sister restaurant, Tabla.  Chef Anthony and I dream up some sweets, I implement them, he and his crew plate them.  When I’m not doing that, I’m probably creating chocolates and confections for our mignardes.  I also somehow find time to write on this blog now and again.  Occasionally, I get lucky enough to work an off-site catering event.  Even more infrequently, I get special orders for cakes and such.  Weeks and months fly by fast in the food biz, here I am rounding the bend on two years at Ten-01. It’s easy to be here, with our great crew and amazing space.  The subtle sounds of sweets slipping to plates sing softly; a treble tingling over a tune of searing seafood, game, or beef.  The fritters; fried now, tumble out their steaming decrescendo, delighting guests; warming them before they head into the lamp-lit night.