More Pheasant Sausage

1520g pheasant breast
1844g pork belly
1356g pheasant legs, skin removed
840g smoked bacon
120g jack daniels whiskey
120g sauvignon blanc
200g dark raisins
20g sage leaves
15g thyme leaves
4ea cloves garlic
50g apple cider molasses
12g ground black pepper
45g kosher salt

I strive for transparency as much as possible because I believe it leads to progress. So I am disclosing a few of our recipes from the current tasting. Also, its easier to look it up here than sorting through hundreds of pages of notes, prep lists, orders etc.

A recipe from a great chef is like discovering the holy grail. The guinea hen terrine recipe from Jean-Francois Bruel at Daniel Restaurant was one of my first great treasures. The pheasant sausage recipe was based on the ratios for the guinea hen terrine. We changed it further for the Lagunitas event. Since we had no use for 20# of chicken/pheasant livers, we omitted 200g from the recipe. The foie gras went as well for a number of reasons. Sel rose was omitted because we were afraid the pinkish color of a poultry based sausage might be perceived negatively. We cook small test batches of the sausage to fine tune the seasoning, so salt levels vary. This is what we did.

Tiny Lounge does not have a proper meat grinder. We used the attachment for the small kitchenaid stand mixer. In an effort to create a sausage without using it, we first robot couped the meat, all separately. The pork belly we chopped finer and we left the pheasant breast fairly course. The result was a texture more like a burger than a sausage. When we tried to stuff it into casings using the machine, it didn't go through. We ended up having to grind it all anyway which created an incredible texture. This recipe makes about 40 links in the standard size of a bratwurst or italian sausage you would buy in a store.

The cure for the pork belly we cured with a simple 1:1 ratio of salt and sugar for three days. The mixture contains 5% robot couped spices. We don't use a circulator or controlled bath to cook it - its not that necessary or delicate. We keep the pot of water on the stove just under a simmer for 4 hours.

The cider gel recipe was a stroke of luck - we nailed it on the first try. It would otherwise not have appeared on the plate as we had no time to develop a recipe. We used the apple cider at whole foods. The texture is creamy without being too elastic.

500g apple cider
60g sugar
5.5g malic acid
2g agar agar
1.6g gellan gum LT-100

Combine everything is the pot. Rain the agar and lt100 over the top and let them bloom for 5 minutes. Stick blend 30 seconds. Bring to a simmer over high heat. Simmer for about 10 seconds and strain through chinois into prepared container.

We were not as successful when it came to the whiskey glass. The recipe did not retain the whiskey flavor through the process and kept overdrying. Pure-Cote is not an ingredient I particularly like. Tara wanted to make glass so we did. The recipe was:

200g water
300g whiskey, alcohol burned off
77g pure-cote B790
50g sugar

We blended the water sugar and pure-cote in a blender for 10 minutes until it had dissovled by boiling. We stirred in the flamed whiskey later to preserve the flavor without cooking it.

This was a very ambitious menu considering the facility, budget and time frame. One dish that was admittedly unsuccessful was the scallop with white chocolate and chicory. The idea was to highlight the sweetness of the scallop with a rich scallop jus with white chocolate and contrast it with a lean, bitter sorbet made from chicory. The chicory we were using had a bad flavor when infused into the sorbet base. It was not bitter either. Also, the ice cream maker malfunctioned. This was 11PM the night before and we were not about to buy a new machine the next day. We ran to store and picked up a few bunches of young watercress, great peppery bitter flavor. We heated heavy cream over the stove until boiling and added it to a blender for 5 minutes, until it was boiling inside the carafe. We added the raw watercress to puree and blanch simultaneously. We then strain it directly into an icebath. The color was great but somehow most of the bitterness had dissapeared. The next day we whipped the cream and served it over the scallop tartare. Perhaps another herb would have shown through the cream.

The halibut course was neutral. Well conceived and executed but nothing spectacular. We portioned the fish to 60g pieces and lined them a few inches apart in the 2 inch hotel pan. about 45 minutes before serving we poured hot beurre monte over the fish and covered it in plastic wrap. We set the pans in a warm spot over the stove to poach the fish. We made an orange beurre blanc by reducing fresh orange juice and white wine with a little zest. After we mounted it, we spiked it a little gran mariner. The fish was served resting on a creamy endive fondue and garnished with candied orange zest, partially dehydrated orange supreme, fresh orange supreme, mint, cilantro and crispy parsley.