I never said I was good at this blog thing. It turns out that you actually have to post things up every once in a while. Who knew? Well, I guess I should catch-up with what I’ve been doing at Cafe Juanita. I’ve had a couple things go on the menu since I last posted about the tomato sorbetto.
I thought about just including everything I’ve done so far in this one post. However, as I wrote it, the post got longer and longer. So instead I’ve decided to break it up into installments. So this is the first installment of What’s Sean Been Up To? The others will follow in a few days (or weeks or whenever I remember that I have a blog).
First, I have to give credit to Star Chefs for the photo below. They came out to the restaurant a couple weeks ago to sample our food as part of the 2009 Rising Stars Seattle selection process. I nabbed these photos off their website. Hopefully, she doesn’t mind! Anyway, on with the first of my desserts.
Gianduja Parfait with Ennis Hazelnut Crespelle, Bergamot Pumpkin Butter, Honey Caramel, and a Hazelnut Drop
Gianduja Parfait, Ennis Hazelnut Crespelle, Bergamot Pumpkin Butter, Honey Caramel and a Hazelnut Drop
The gianduja parfait is made by melting gianduja, adding bloomed gelatin, folding in a portion of lightly whipped cream, and then folding in all at once a pate a bombe and the remaining whipped cream. The hazelnut crespelle is ground toasted hazelnuts, flour, sugar, milk, and eggs. The sauce on the plate is a honey caramel and is made from… honey. The nut drop is a hazelnut that has been stuck with a toothpick, then dipped in caramelized fondant and glucose syrup, and then hung upside down to allow a long spike of caramel to form/harden. The spike is snipped to length and the toothpick is (obviously) removed from the nut. Finally, what you don’t see is the bergamot-scented pumpkin butter that fills the crespelle. It is a mixture of pureed roasted pumpkin, grated butternut squash cooked in cream, sugar, vanilla, honey, hazelnut butter, bergamot olive oil, orange zest, and a little salt and cayenne pepper. I absolutely love hazelnuts, so I’m a pretty big fan of this dessert.
So that’s it for this installment. Stay tuned for Blue Cheese… in a dessert?
Wow! That sounds and looks fantastic. This is the kind of dessert I really appreciate ordering at a restaurant. There are so many complexities involved in the way you create it that the flavors and textures become an adventure. I think my birthday dinner will be at Cafe Juanita this year. As a birthday dinner I might just decide to have five desserts rather than bother with appetizers and and an entree. I am looking forward to seeing what else you have been up to!