Scenes from the garden - June 29, 2011

Pics, pics, pics..... Make sure you scroll the whole way to the end....the tasting menu might be listed.

If there is a nicer, more vibrant garden, I haven't seen it. This is amazing stuff folks. Period.










I'm really excited about this menu....it's really inspired cooking. Check it out.

STARTING THIS THURSDAY!!!

June 30, 2011



Snacks

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Sheppard Mansion Scrapple
Cherry, sorrel, peas, olive oil

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The Sheppard Mansion Garden
Vegetables, lettuces, and flowers picked from our gardens

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Wreckfish
Sweet pepper confit, garden peas, torn bread, chow chow vinaigrette

or

Chesapeake Bay Puffer Fish
Cherries, corn, peas, lovage, fava beans

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Rettland Farms Pork
Tarragon gnocchi, peas, birch

or


Rettland Farms Chicken
Waffle, peach, maple, sherry

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Calotte of Beef
Porcini mushroom, foie gras ‘slaw’, bordelaise

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‘Cheese Sticks’
black truffle coated cheddar cheese curds, Chow chow vinaigrette

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‘York Street Treat’
Black raspberry, pretzel, lemon thyme ice cream

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cookies and candy

Rabbit....and things rabbits eat

So....here's a fun dish. Could have easily been called 'circle of life'.

Here's the inspiration:

I like gardening. I hate things that invade my garden and eat my produce. Rabbits are a frequent visitor to gardens all over this area. SO.....how about a dish using our garden produce, flowers, and lettuces(the things rabbits like to eat) and also including a bit of BBQ rabbit loin because I like to eat rabbits.

This is the point in the post where I have to say if you're squeamish about eating rabbit click away from this post and go check out Disney.com. You don't want to read this and frankly, I don't want you reading it.

Rabbit is delicious. It does not taste like chicken. It tastes like rabbit. Delicious rabbit.

The real star of the show here is the vegetables. The base of the dish is a carrot butter. Followed up by an array of vegetables. Here's a shot of the mise en place.





The rabbit loin is cooked sous vide, marked on the grill and glazed with bbq sauce before plating. The veg are simply warmed in beurre monte before plating.

The showcasing of the vegetables is very important to me. You might look at a plate like these and think 'what's the point of all those leaves and little vegetables?' Well, the point is that every component on the dish either holds hands with the others or provides a boost to another ingredient. Take salad burnet for example. It may just look like something I pulled from the herb garden to make an interesting plate and while it does add a visual appeal, it also acts as a bridge between the carrot puree and the snap peas. Another example is the caramelized onions. Sweet on their own, they provide an additional sweetness to the baby beets and create a bridge between the lemon verbena and the beets allowing the beets to have more impact by the addition of a citrus note. So, yeah, a little bit of thought goes into these dishes.

Speaking of dishes....the plates are very important, too. These plates are made by a great friend of the restaurant, Terry Tessem and really fill out my message of 'Eat Like You Live Here'. Not only is the food sourced locally, the inspiration for the dish is local, but the very plate you're eating it on was produced a few miles from the restaurant. It is a TRUE taste of the area!

Philly gets the Scrapple treatment

I was lucky enough to bring my own version of scrapple to the viewers of NBC10 in Philadelphia today. I had a blast and I think I've turned a few people over from the 'scrapple dark side'. SCRAPPLE AGAINST THE WORLD! Check it out.

View more videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com.

Scenes from a tasting menu....

....I visited the Culinary Garden this morning and picked some amazing little broccoli. Not a whole lot to say about this dish other than it was inspired by this AM trip to where we grow our food!

Scallop, pine nut sauce, Sheppard Mansion Garden broccoli, sherry vinegar, peanut brittle





The garden is really starting to POP right now and our own produce will start inspiring our Tasting Menus.....Do yourself a favor and tuck into one of these menus. There is simply NO BETTER WAY to experience The Sheppard Mansion Experience. R U experienced?