Pastry Day at the Connoley's

[Rob] With our rare time off we both enjoy our different hobbies. Mine is pastries. Last night I made three winners:

Rose Panna Cotta with Rose Syrup (you can see in the pic that I didn't scimp on the vanilla).








Chestnut Olive Oil Cake with Fleur de Sel Caramel Cake and a 70% Chocolate Glaze.

What's interesting about this cake is that often times in high altitude our cakes turn our dry. This (and the previously posted cake) were super moist and light.












And finally, Lemon Rosemary Gateau-ettes. Lemon Rosemary Pastry Crust filled with Rosemary pastry cream - very yummy.

Alinea: More Complete Account, The End

[Tyler] The last course, and finally we got a chef's whisk -- one of Chef Achatz's signature serving contraptions. This was an upside-down whisk, stuck into a metal base, and used to hold a ball of gooey yumminess. The ball was meyer lemon, surrounded by caramel, stuck on a cinnamon stick and then deep-fried. Thanks to the preparation, the cinnamon released it's scent, infusing the dish.

We took the sticks out of the whisk, and ate the caramel like a lollypop.

And that was it.

Alinea: More Complete Account, Part 14

[Tyler] I call this course the S&M Course. The serving contraption was a long metal rod held at an angle by a heavy base, and pointing up at us like a thin robot . . . well . . . appendage. My first thought was that it might put an eye out if we weren't careful. To make matters worse, the server said, "This is intended to be eaten without your hands. Just lean forward and bite it off."

We leaned down and chomped the caked, and I was immediately impressed with the sensation of tiny little needles stabbing the roof of my mouth. The spun muscovado sugar tasted nice, but hurt. Really.

I was so taken by the crystalline spears puncturing my palate that I didn't even notice the licorice, anise, and orange flavors mentioned in the menu entry for this course. All-in-all, a mildly intriguing idea but not my cup of tea, kind of like S&M.

"And the chocolate course," said the server, "because every meal should have some chocolate." This was an extra-smooth chocolate ganache, served with passion fruit. I think it had a soy foam and lime flavors to accent the passion fruit.

One of the things we learned on this trip is that ganache can and should be very smooth. If you've never made a real ganache, it's a lot of work, and to find one as smooth as this one was pretty impressive. The chocolate tart we had at Vanille Pâtisserie also had a beautifully-smooth ganache in it. Thanks to these two experiences, Rob has a new idea of the perfection he wants to shoot for.

Alinea: More Complete Account, Part 13

[Tyler] This was the ice cream, or perhaps sorbet, course. The rectangular item was orange ice cream, but the most amazing flavor on the plate was the olive oil ice cream on the left. It was a little dab of whipped and frozen olive oil, with sugar and lots of vanilla (the gray color is from the vanilla seeds).

Our server said this was her favorite, and I can see why. Frozen olive oil sounds gross, but because of the kind of fat that's in olives, it doesn't get that stick-to-the-roof of your mouth texture that some cold fats do. Instead it was simply a nice, not-too-sweet, subtly nutty ice cream. It was also a good compliment to the orange. Think about how good orange-infused olive oil is, and you have a hint of how well they pair.

This was Rob's favorite dessert course. The white thing is a long ribbon of coconut, twisting in and out of the other elements on the plate. I don't really remember what all was in this dessert It actually seemed to me like too much was going on, and I couldn't concentrate on the different elements -- which is funny, because that's always my main complaint about Rob's desserts. "Focus on one element. Why do you have to throw in the kitchen sink?"

However, I do remember the grilled kiwi slices tucked under the coconut on the left-hand side. Grilling kiwi really brings out it's flavor, in case you ever want to try it at home.

Alinea: Plus One

[Tyler] "This next course is technically contraband," the sommelier said as he brought it to the table. "We're not allowed to sell it, but there's nothing that says we can't give it away."

It was, of course, foie gras, recently outlawed in the city of Chicago. And that's why I say our meal was "twenty four courses, plus one." They gave a course away.

The foie gras was surrounded by a delicate meringue. It looked a little like one of those horrible divinity candies everyone's mother used to make at Christmas. But the flavor was subtleness itself, and the texture was light and cloudlike. I've never really liked the fatty, ickiness of foie gras. But this I enjoyed thoroughly.

One more thing: If I was going to feel guilty about this meal, there was more obscenity than just the foie gras -- and, yes, I do feel a little guilty. :-)

Alinea: More Complete Account, Part 12

As far as I know, this was the only course with a title: Hot Potato, Cold Potato. The soup was a vichyssoise (cold potato soup), and the bowl had a tiny hole on the side. Through the hole, they had placed a pin and skewered things on it. The big ball was a piece of hot potato topped with black truffle. I think the smaller items were a little piece of butter, and perhaps a cube of cheese, along with a baby herb. To eat this course, we had to first remove the pin, dropping the hot items into the cold soup. Of course, anything with potato, truffle, and butter is a-okay with me.

One thing I wonder about is how they got the pin to stand at attention -- it stuck up at about a thirty degree angle. The bowl doesn't seem thick enough to hold the pin steady, and the bit of pin outside the bowl wasn't weighted in any way.

This was our last savory course -- bison encased in savory granola. I don't know what the sauces were, or what the foam was. I think the long, green things were pieces of chive.

There was something about the texture of this course that didn't appeal to me. It almost tasted like the bison was ground, and the granola was heavy on the oats. The whole effect wasn't bad, but a little bland.

Alinea: More Complete Account, Part 11

"In preparation for your next course," our server said, "I need to know if you're both comfortable using chopsticks." Of course, we both were.

This is where the rosemary centerpiece came into play. The course was three variations on lamb, served on a very hot brick (after we finished eating the course, I lightly touched the brick out of curiosity and burned my finger). According to our server, the lamb was precooked, and the brick was used only for the sizzling effect and to release the rosemary's fragrance. They put the rosemary in the hole at the back, and used the rosemary's stand as our chopstick rest -- nice touch. The heated rosemary immediately let off a strong fragrance, which infused the course.

I don't remember what the three variations were, but we ate them front-to-back. The back one was sweet, perhaps a plum jelly or jam, and the two front ones were more savory. The menu says this course contained date. I think that was in the center medallion, but maybe it was used in all three.

Incidentally, Rob's been working with Suzi at Art & Conversation to create a dish similar to this. She made him some special bricks with herb holes that he could heat to high temperatures and serve with meat. His first experiment was going to be bison and rosemary fragrance. Great minds think alike.

Thanks to Alinea, we now know that we need to precook the meat. Rob was planning to try to sear it on the brick. I think this would also be good with ahi tuna, but we haven't figured out what herb to serve with it. Perhaps something Asian, like anise.