Chef

Since this is a 9 course Chef's menu I decided to greet our guests with a nice cold Margarita (Mesa Grill's recipe). I only have a few mushrooms turnovers as appetizer just in case someone needed some food before consuming alcohol. The main idea is to save the appetite for the 9 course to come...

The first dish is a Hamachi Carpaccio with Piquillo pepper.

The recipe called for Piquillo. I had no idea how a Piquillo taste like so I went to at least 3 stores before finding a jar (imported from Spain) that's why it is difficult to find. When I finally got the jar, I opened it up and to me the Piquillo tasted pretty much like a roasted bell peppers... If I knew that I would gladly substitute it with Roasted bell peppers because they are much easier to find.

The second dish is a chilled Salmon Tartare served with a blend of root chips such as sweet potato and Taro. I got this recipe from Bobby Flay's book "Mesa Grill". Basically, the sauce is made with Dijon, mustard, green scallions, olive oil, salt and pepper. It is a very simple dish to prepare.

Frog's legs au beurre et persillade.

The frog's leg has a mild taste but the garlic, butter and persillade really give the frog's legs a good burst of flavor.

Escargots de Bourgogne are great with a good loaf of bread dipped in this delicious butter, garlic, parsley sauce.

Fried Soft Shelled crab with spicy tomato sauce.

This dish is so good when the crabs are still piping hot. The spicy tomato sauce compliment really well this dish.

Pan seared Scallops served with Peas risotto.

Anyway, since the dish was planned for and already prep, I served the dish 2 days later. Hoa and Kevin were nicely surprised to have a gourmet dish on regular Monday. We usually eat very simply on weekdays and we usually go on a semi diet so we can eat more on the weekend with our friends.