Brian Wubbena's latest blog entry:

Aug 17, 2010

Scallops: Heaven in a Shell

I love sea scallops. If our sales are any indication, most of you do, too. In my opinion, they are the perfect embodiment of all that is right with the seafood genre. Light, meaty, sweet, buttery, delicious.

One of the most satisfying things you can do while cooking is to perfect the perfect sear on one side. The golden brown bits just give an already flawless gift from nature an added dimension. 

The best way to cook scallops if you ask me, is to melt whole artery-clogging butter in a pan about an inch and a half deep. In a separate sauté pan, using very little oil or clarified butter, sear one side of salt and peppered scallop until it is golden brown and crusty. Remove the scallop from the heat. Turn the heat on high and bring your pan filled with butter to a boil. Turn of the heat, drop the scallops in on the uncooked side and allow the scallop to rest in the hot butter for one minute. Remove the scallop, save the butter for a later scallopy butter fix and squeeze fresh lemon right over the top. Delicioso!

Of course, that method wouldn’t work unless you used perfectly harvested, untreated, plump, juicy, fresh scallops. This, of course brings us to the topic at hand: Viking Village in New Jersey.

We have been using Viking Village scallops for the past couple of years based on the recommendation of our seafood procurer and fakir, Mike Intondi of Syosset Seafood. If you had any idea how difficult it is becoming to find high-quality,natural, fresh seafood, you’d know why I refer to him as a fakir. The man works magic for us on a daily basis. I was getting tired of getting giant, overblown scallops that expelled tons of whitish liquid and shrank while cooking. Mike explained to me that these scallops were chemically treated to enable them to soak up more water weight. Gross, gross, gross. I guess that explains the gelatinous texture and tortured appearance. I’m thinking we’ll pass on that from here on out. Luckily, not everyone on the planet is out to poison us all in the name of a few extra dollars and that, my friends, is the charm of the aforementioned Viking Village.

This small facility in New Jersey has been harvesting and selling the best scallops on the market for many moons now. The fishery itself opened up in 1920 with a focus on lobstering. Over the years, scallops, due to their abundance in the area, became the focal point. I had the opportunity to visit Viking Village a few months ago. Over the years of working with the scallops that they produce, I’d developed kind of an expectation of a quaint, romantic sort of old timey place devoid of high-tech gadgetry and science labs. I was not disappointed. This place is old school. Boats pull up to the dock, unload the payload, inspect for anything even remotely flawed and pack. That’s it. No special injections. No frothy baths. Plain and simple the way it should be. This fishery and this village has built a long lasting reputation for quality and they protect it fiercely. Each scallop is shucked by hand. Each shucked scallop is inspected by hand. Each scallop is packed by hand. Just knowing how much care and respect for the animal itself goes into this operation makes it taste better as far as I’m concerned.

One of the founding fathers of Viking Village is a man named Captain John Larson, Jr. The Larsons are still fishing there. How cool is that? The fishing license that John Larson, Jr. applied for decades ago is being passed down through the family. In fact, our current batch of scallops in the restaurant are brought to us from the Grand Larson III. It is an honor to me, to have been able to meet the people behind this fishery and to feature these terrific scallops on our menus. I encourage you to look them up at www.vikingvillage.net to learn more. Do yourself a favor and, if you are a scallop lover, seek these scallops out and cook them at home or come on over and we’ll cook them for you at Truluck’s. either way, I promise you you’ll be more than impressed by the smell, texture and taste. Here is a quick home recipe and a couple more pictures to hopefully get you salivating.

Sea Scallops, Sweet Pea Sauce and Summer Sauté

Sweet pea sauce: 1 cup frozen peas at room temperature 1 cup double turkey stock ¼ tsp sea salt ¼ tsp finely ground black pepper 2 tbsp Jane Valley sweet cream butter 82% 2 tbsp crème fraiche squeeze of Meyer lemon juice Bring the turkey stock to a boil. Place peas in a blender with seasoning. Pour hot stock over the peas and puree on high. Slowly add butter and crème fraiche. Adjust flavor with lemon juice.

Vegetable Sauté:

This recipe contains a high quality Spanish ham. If you are like me, pork is not the other white meat. It is the only white meat. Should you want to omit the ham, feel free.

• ½ oz of Iberico Ham

• 1 clove crushed garlic

• 2 oz fresh fava beans

• 2 oz fresh chanterelle mushrooms

• 2 oz fresh sugar snap peas

• 2 oz peeled white asparagus, cut on the bias

• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

• 2 tsp high-quality sherry vinegar

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Squeeze of Meyer lemon

Blanch vegetables in salted boiling water until just done. Shock in an ice water bath. Drain the ice and water when vegetables are cold. In a sauté pan, cook the ham on high heat until the fat is rendered and the meat becomes crispy. Sweat the garlic in the fat and add the remaining vegetables. Deglaze the pan with sherry vinegar, season with salt and pepper and finish with a squeeze of Meyer lemon.

Sea Scallops:

6 each Viking Village sea scallops seasoned with salt and pepper 30 minutes prior to cooking 1 tbsp olive oil salt and pepper to taste 8 oz whole butter In a small sauté pan, melt enough butter to be covered one inch deep. Turn off the heat. In another sauté pan, heat olive oil until it becomes very fragrant. Add the scallops and cook without moving the scallops until the edges on the bottom begin to lift up and the scallop cleanly comes away from the pan easily. This will ensure that you have a great sear. Remove the scallops from the heat. Turn on the pan with the butter and bring the butter to a boil. Turn off the heat, drop the scallops into the butter with the uncooked side down. Allow to rest for one minute and plate.

 

 

 

 

Next time, we’ll walk you through a special March of Dimes auction dinner than I’m doing on August 21 at the breathtaking home of Tom and Deb Feo in Austin, TX. Here is the menu. Wish us luck. Yikes!!

Southern Dandy

Hendrick’s Mint Julep with Cucumber and Firefly Arnold Palmer Meet ‘n’ Greet: vanilla spiced pecans, BBQ Gulf shrimp lollipops with spicy drawn butter and 24 hour Strube Ranch Wagyu brisket tacos

Louisiana soft-shell crawfish B(boudin)LT with homemade pimento cheese on savory French toast

Salad of heirloom tomato, field peas, “On Pure Ground” goat cheese, and Benton’s bacon (which is clearly the best bacon on planet Earth) with Vidalia onion vinaigrette

Shot of split pea soup and cornbread dippin’ stick

Fredericksburg peach bellini

Heartbrand Akaushi NY strip with a lobster tamale, poached local duck egg, blue crab mac ‘n’ cheese pie

Bourbon pecan pie with melted chocolate and buttermilk ice cream, summer strawberry milkshakes and brown butter cake with salted caramel and roasted plums

Jun 16, 2010

A Taste of Spain

Hello. Thanks for checking in again. This time around, we’re going to shift gears just a bit and focus on a recent dinner that I did in Addison, Texas with my lovely and talented assistant, chef Daniel Kievit. For the past two years, Truluck’s has participated in the Hail Caesar Salad Competition in Dallas. This is a long-running event that attracts an enormous amount of people. It’s tons of fun and the proceeds go towards numerous educational outreach programs, so while noshing on some pretty scrumptious food, you can feel good about yourself. Last year, the silent auction included a wine dinner for eight people featuring yours truly and wine pairings from Truluck’s Wine Guru Dave Mattern and his big, juicy, grape-addled brain. On Saturday, June 5th, I had the pleasure of cooking this dinner.

Lacquered Pork Belly with Spanish Tortilla.

I’m not sure why, but I’ve been reading a lot about Spanish cooking lately. Admittedly, it’s an odd departure from my usual Vietnam obsession. When I got the notice that we would need to create a special menu, I immediately thought that a Spanish menu would be fun and a wee bit challenging. I’ve always like events where you do something a little uncomfortable knowing that success will make you a hero and failure will result in eternal shame and co-worker taunting. I think that we did a pretty bang-up job and was awfully proud of the food we served that night. Here are the pictures of the courses we served along with menu descriptions and what may or may not be an interesting/amusing side note here and there.

First up, we did a sangria reception. I’m sure that there are some things out there that beat an ice cold glass of house-made sangria on a hot, summer Texas day but, honestly, I can’t imagine what it might be. For the food we did three appetizers.

Lacquered Pork Belly with Spanish Tortilla. We cooked the pork belly for about 24 hours and glazed it with a syrup made from sherry and local honey. A Spanish tortilla is kind of like a frittata or omelet with egg, cheese, corn tortillas, potatoes and onion. Imagine an omelet that tastes like chicken tortilla soup.

Next up, Watermelon Ceviche of red snapper, razor clams, gooseneck barnacles and shrimp.

We made a “terrine” of watermelon, cucumber, blue crab and red snapper, seasoned it with a vinaigrette and molded it with a small amount of gelatin. We also had to resort to using a cream cheese box to mold it and I don’t mind telling you I was sweating bullets worrying about whether or not it would turn out. We also used gooseneck barnacles on this dish. These little guys are actually crabs that are only available in Spain and cost somewhere around a gazillion dollars to import. Delicious. If you ever get the chance to try them, pony up the dough. It’s worth it. Last but not least, Maine Lobster Tacos...

Yes I know that Maine isn’t in Spain but it’s Maine lobster and it’s good. What more do you want? Fresh flour tortillas, cheese, fresh corn tortillas, lettuce, pickled bird peppers and a creamy huacatay sauce. This sauce is made from, wait for it, huacatay which is supposed to taste like mint and marigold whatever that means. It tasted kind of like artichoke and goat cheese to me which is a-ok in my book.

The first seated course was a White Gazpacho Shot with heirloom tomatoes, Laughing Bird Shrimp (see previous blog entry) and toasted almonds.

White gazpacho is made from almonds, sherry vinegar, bread and roasted garlic. It’s creamy without being heavy and one of my favorite soups. If you ask me to write a menu for you and I can shoehorn it in, odds are you’re going to be eating it.

Ah, the controversial dish of the evening. I knew that if this worked out, we’d be good for the rest of the night. I was sick to my stomach the night before thinking about it. Without further delay, behold the dreaded octopus.

Char-grilled Pulpo (Spanish for “octopus”) served with crusty bread, marrow demi glace and saffron aioli sounded like a terrific idea when putting the menu together. I had the hair-brained idea to do a bone-marrow flan with it on my drive to Dallas. It worked and it was delicious but I’m pretty sure Danny and I were glad to have it over and done with.

With that out of the way, it was time for some “not so traditional” paella of bomba rice, roasted monkfish, morcilla, smoked duck, king crab and langostinos. Usually paella is full of chorizo, mussels, chicken, and the like. These are all great ingredients but I though it might to be interesting to use my favorite proteins in a dish this simple. Morcilla is almost like a Spanish boudin and the langostinos are the sweetest, most tender, most succulent lobster in the world. Bomba rice can absorb 50% more liquid than other rices and stay firm, so it is perfect for rice dishes that really need to pack a punch in the flavor department. We finished this dish with a pungent, powerful sauce made from olives and anchovy.

I love this salad. It seems so weird and you would never think that the flavors would work, but man, it is fantastic.

We use a Dallas-area farm called “On Pure Ground” for our goat cheese. They are sticklers for quality, kind to the animals, family-owned and operated and artists in the field of all things goat cheese related. I encourage you to look them up at www.onpureground.com. You can’t find a higher quality of tuna than we use and Texas peaches are awesome plain and simple. This salad is a chilled salad of “On Pure Ground” Texas Twister goat cheese, Hawaiian tuna, Texas peaches, blackberries and summer tomato. We threw in a little cilantro and avocado for fun. The dressing is a splash of Golden Mountain soy sauce (the best soy sauce available by leaps and bounds in my humble opinion) and a Vietnamese sweet fish sauce called Nuoc Mam An Lien.

I was probably a tad over-ambitious with the amount of food, but I really wanted to try to give our guests a little taste of a lot of different things. So, here’s the entrée: 24-Hour Strube Farms Wagyu Brisket, Cabrales smashed potatoes, white asparagus escabeche, mojo and fire-roasted piquillo cream. Strube Farms is a local ranch that focuses exclusively on Wagyu or American Kobe beef. It is the best Wagyu that I have ever seen by far. I rubbed this brisket with a spice blend called ras el hanout and cooked it sous vide for 24 hours. After that, the brisket was pulled apart like pulled pork, mixed with shallots, herbs, garlic and demi glace. It was then reformed into a cylinder. After the meat is allowed to chill, you can slice it. The result is something that looks like a center-cut filet, tastes super meaty like a brisket and falls apart the second a fork touches it. No knife needed.

Last and certainly not least, dos postres: sweet corn pound cake, caramelized pineapple, avocado mousse and mexican chocolate cheesecake, torched cherries, burnt sugar and pistachio brittle.

Danny and his pastry chef Ngoc worked long and hard on these desserts, and it shows. I was blown away. These two really went above and beyond the call of duty.

So, thanks for sticking through the longest blog in the world. Hopefully you found something interesting here. Next time, we'll focus on the fishing community of Viking Village--the finest scallop producer in the country.

Cheers,

Brian

May 24, 2010

The Beauty of Squid: My Visit to Top Catch Seafood.

I recently paid a visit to the internationally acclaimed Top Catch Seafood in Brooklyn, New York. Believe me, it was more than worth the trip.

 

 

 

Truluck's purchases its squid from Top Catch, and that's a big reason why our calamari is the freshest, most flavorful anywhere. Year after year, Top Catch receives a 97 rating from the FDA for the facility's impeccable cleanliness and sanitation standards, as well as the superior freshness of their seafood.

I've always thought squid got a bad rap. They're featured in sci-fi horror movies and generally regarded as a creepy critter of the sea. To me, they possess a unique beauty, with their shimmering translucent bodies, their distinctive "flower," and their penetrating stare.

The master craftsmen at Top Catch educated me in the delicate art of removing the squid's teeth, beak and skin prior to preparation. I also learned first-hand the singular power of the squid's ink sac–one false move and you're coated in enough black ink to pen a novel.

Well, I hope this account will inspire you to rethink your preconceptions about the fair squid, and I invite you to Truluck's to sample the remarkable calamari from Top Catch anytime.

Very best,

Brian

Apr 02, 2010

The Lollapalooza of Seafood.

Hello again. Thanks for taking the time to read the second installment of my blog. Today, we’ll take a break from “Foods I Like” and focus on my trip to the 2010 Boston Seafood Show.

This mind-bending event is the largest seafood convention in North America, and takes place in March each year. Part of my job is to attend every year and meet owners, fisherman, processors, sustainability experts and a variety of other weirdos who all share one common thing: an obsession with seafood. 

This year, I met an excellent cast of characters and secured some phenomenal fish to bring to Truluck’s. I thought I’d walk you through the good, the bad and the downright ugly from the show’s opening day. Surprising as it may seem, not every attendee is focused on high-quality seafood. There are literally tons of products on display that you wouldn’t feed to your mortal enemy. In particular, India, China and the Philippine Islands featured many items that were frightening and gag-inducing. On a quick side note, my beloved Vietnam featured beautiful and pristine seafood that did me proud. Without further ado, wrap your mind around this:

Exhibit a) The mystery fish. I don’t know what it is and believe me, I don’t want to know.

Exhibit b) Behold the horror. Like a tentacled, ribbed, slimy Lovecraftian nightmare, the sea cucumber perches on the ice ready to spring on unsuspecting victims.

Exhibit c) The ugly. This fish is delicious and of great quality, but man, the monkfish is one grotesque brute of the sea.

Now, for the good. I had the opportunity to meet the two founders of Top Catch Seafood in Brooklyn, New York. These guys are responsible for the amazing high-quality calamari that we now feature at Truluck’s. If you like squid and haven’t tried this, you owe it to yourself to give it a whirl. This calamari is naturally tender. You don’t have to soak it in buttermilk so it actually tastes like seafood. It is all-natural, domestic squid that has never been treated or soaked in chemicals–which is all too rare these days. We serve ours with a sweet, light chili sauce and nice crisp vegetables. I love the fact that you can taste the squid.

Salt and pepper calamari.

I also spent some quality time with our salmon guys. Brendan, the owner, is a bona fide genius. They pick the best salmon from the best farms in Scotland. He also runs a smallish smoked salmon label called St. James. It is beyond delicious and, if left to my own devices, I could eat a whole side of their hot smoked salmon by myself. A couple of years ago, I visited St. James in the Scottish boonies. It is awesome to see the care they put into their product. These guys mean business and you can really taste the difference in quality. As a mildly interesting side note, they have a scotch distillery next to their facility. They use the wood from the barrels that the scotch is aged in to smoke the fish. I dare you to find a better smoked salmon.

St. James.

The barrels.

I’ve purposefully excluded the pictures of Scots laughing at me because, even though I’ve been cutting fish professionally for years, my skills couldn’t even come close to comparing.

These are the guys from St. James with our fish guy, Mike Intondi, who is a legend in his own right. We’ll discuss him at a later date. Brendan (on the left) is the owner and being around him is like watching a Guy Ritchie movie on fast forward. He’s a Scot who does tons of business in Miami. Draw your own conclusions. I have a ton of respect for the work that these gentlemen do. I appreciate you taking a moment to read about the show. It’s something near and dear to my heart and I look forward to it every year. In my next blog, I’ll be showing you the Top Catch fishery in Brooklyn and going on the scallop boats in Viking Village.

Until then, take care.

Brian

Feb 19, 2010

Food I Like, Part One

Hi. I’m Brian Wubbena, Director of Culinary Operations at Truluck’s. I am also an enormous food nerd, condiment hoarder and all-around fan of most things culinary-related, with a few notable exceptions such as the infamous sea cucumber. My intention is to offer a blog on a variety of topics related to food. This installment will hopefully be a recurring theme, and is entitled “Food I Like, Part One.”

First, a confession: I really don’t care for shrimp. The frozen, over-processed little nuggets of vulgar-tasting “shrimp” that are usually served in restaurants or readily available in stores is the stuff of nightmares as far as I’m concerned. I have memories of my mom cleaning tons of shrimp while sitting on the kitchen floor. The thought of the bowl of discarded shrimp veins next to her makes me gag even now.

Then a few months ago I was introduced to a product that completely and utterly changed my mind: Laughing Bird Shrimp. The name Laughing Bird Shrimp makes you want to try it out regardless of your tastes. It’s just a cool name. The name comes from the Laughing Bird Keys in Belize, which are named after the laughing gull. I’m fairly certain that nothing unappealing has ever come from there. These little guys are white Caribbean shrimp that have never been frozen. Ever. You can tell. They are plump, firm and grayish black when you get them. When you cook them, they turn bright red and are sweet and pleasantly shrimpy.

I’m not exaggerating to say that I’ve consumed ten pounds or more in the past two months. They are unbelievable. I’m lucky enough to have a fish supplier who is happy to provide me with my own personal stock. That’s a good thing because, like a spouse or close friend, I miss these little shrimp when they aren’t around. I have literally dreamt about them. I could tell you tons of stuff about the health benefits, organic vegetarian feed and the fact that the World Worldlife Fund called this operation the “future of aquaculture” and would be happy to if anyone is interested. For now I’ll just tell you these shrimp are amazingly, mind-bendingly fantastic. Whether you use them in gumbo, in Vietnamese noodle dishes (have I mentioned my obsession with all things Vietnamese?), in a scampi or on a BLT with bacon fat mayo, pimento cheese and Benton’s Bacon (see next post), Laughing Bird Shrimp are without a doubt the most delicious shrimp I have ever met.

For more information on the utterly transcendent Laughing Bird Shrimp, visit www.cleanseas.com.au. In the next couple of weeks I’ll be showing a couple new ingredients and combining them for a recipe. In the meantime, behold the shrimp in all its glory! I made this in about four minutes at home and it is as good as it gets. I keep a jar at home stuffed with olive oil, garlic cloves and Meyer lemon. It is the perfect jump-off for any seafood dish.

 

• 1 tbsp olive oil (from above mentioned jar) 

• 3 garlic cloves, crushed (from above mentioned jar) 

• 1 lb. Laughing Bird Shrimp

• .25 tsp sea salt

• .25 tsp Old Bay

• 1 tbsp whole butter

• 1 tsp chives, chopped

Heat up the oil. Drop in the garlic. Sauté until you can smell it and add everything else. Cook for 1 minute, turn off heat and allow shrimp to sit in the pan for two minutes. Eat immediately. I’m sure you’ll love it as much as I do. Be sure to ask for Laughing Bird Shrimp at your local grocer or fish market.

Thanks for reading. See you next time,

Brian