Cape Fear Cuisine

Red Wine Sauce

Easy

Take two bottles of decent wine, 6 peppercorns, 2 sprigs fresh thyme, and 3 tablespoons of honey. Simmer down to 1 cup. Whisk in 3 tablespoons of butter. Done. And use a decent wine...no boxed stuff!

Martinique Spice Blend

A spice blend from the book I am working on. Take the time to make this spice mix. The aroma will take you on a voyage to the Caribbean.

 

MARTINIQUE

Use with roast chicken, scallops, yellowfin tuna, or wahoo. Mango salsa would be a great compliment.

 

Galley Pantry

1 nutmeg, grated

3T dried ginger

3/4t white peppercorns, ground

½t vanilla seeds (or dried pods, ground)

1T toasted sesame seeds, ground

1T sea salt

 

Combine all ingredients and stow in a mason jar. Use within one week.

So long oyster season, can't wait until next year

Here is my all time favorite dipping sauce for steamed local oysters, it's the best

HORSERADISH TABASCO BUTTER 

Also use wiTh steamed or fried clams or boiled shrimp

 4T unsalted butter, softened

 2T drained horseradish

 1T green Tabasco

 1/4T lemon zest

 1T lemon juice

 1/4 t smoked paprika

 sea sat 

Whisk all ingredients together and serve. Enjoy.

Perfect egg

What I'm working on now is the perfect egg. It's easy, just cover a farm egg (in the shell) with smoked jalapeno powder (chipotle) for 24 hours. Since the shell is porous it will infuse the egg and gently flavor it. (Thanks IIF) Then put in a pot of 90 degree water for 45 minutes. Crack egg and let any uncooked egg white drain for a few minutes. Serve on buttered grits with smoked sea salt and pepper. And some shad roe if you happen to have some!!!!!

Warning: May need to get up a little earlier if planning to use for breakfast.

Harvest Moon Chocolate Chess Pie

Chocolate Chess Pie

Funny how recipes evolve in a restaurant kitchen, what started as a traditional southern chess pie, actually ended up a pure bitter sweet chocolate tart. I would put it up to Michel Bras/Jean Georges Vongerichten Molten Chocolate Cake/Coulant any day. You can garnish it with anything from muscovado whipped cream to a candied bacon ice cream (yes salty bacon with chocolate, two of my favorite things) or seasonal fruits. Be sure to follow recipe and technique closely.

First

1/2lb unsalted butter/ 8oz unsweetened chocolate                                                                     

+melt butter and chocolate in double boiler and whisk together.

Then

2cups light brown sugar/ 1cup sugar/ 2TB flour/ 1tea salt/ 4 eggs/ 1/2cup milk/ 1TB vanilla      

+combine all ingredients in large bowl. Fold chocolate/butter mixture into rest of ingredients. Chill. Batter should set fudge like or firm. Batter will keep in refrigerator up to one week. You can use this batter like cookie dough, use what you need now and save the rest for next time. Now, like I said before these tarts are very sticky and fragile when warm. So, we use ring molds with foil covering the bottom. You could also put batter in a pie shell, (I think it takes away from the tart) or use empty cans with top and bottom removed. Buy ring molds, they are so mush easier and have millions of uses. We use a 3 inch mold but any size under 4 inches will do, it just varies the cooking time a little.

Set oven to 350. Cover one side of ring mold with foil to create bottom. Spray the molds with pan release and then fill with batter. It depends on what size mold you are using, but you want batter to come up 1 inch from bottom. Bake for 18 minutes, they should be just under done. Now chill, to ease in removing from ring molds. Once cool, use a dull knife to remove and keep refrigerated until ready to use.

When ready to serve, plate each tart individually and microwave each until warmed through. About 20 seconds. Serve with garnish and repeat with other tarts. Like I said, they a hard to work with when they are warm. Don't think that doing each to order is too bad, we use to sell 30-40 in a night!