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Delicious Date Recipes

Julie Ellard

At the Coronado Ferry Landing, we walk the few blocks to the park, where my sous-chef has set up a makeshift kitchen. A table is decorated in divine Valentine style. A bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne awaits us; the table is lit by hanging lanterns. After a toast, we enjoy fresh-baked bread and herb-infused olive oil. The delicious dishes—which I made last night—arrive in timely sequence: salad with Chino’s speckled baby romaine lettuce, shaved Midnight Moon goat gouda, golden raspberries, sprouted pepitas, red raspberry–and–truffle vinaigrette. Roasted root-vegetable soup with caramelized baby-carrot purée, fresh ground anise and beet crisp. Chilean sea bass with a ginger orange–rhubarb sauce, and mint on a papadam crisp with fresh pea shoot garnish. Thyme-and-garlic–crusted lamb chop with sour cherry–port balsamic reduction, roasted-garlic mashed acorn squash, sautéed baby rainbow chard with caramelized shallots. And finally, vanilla-bean gelato in a martini glass.

To prepare for all this, I roast the vegetables for the soup—fennel, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, rutabaga, onions and garlic—which later are added to sautéing leeks, combined with chicken stock and puréed with sea salt and fresh ground pepper. I caramelize the Chino Farms baby carrots, then purée them with a touch of the soup and add ground toasted fennel. I fry the bright-red beet chips and toast the crispy papadam crackers. The rhubarb sauce for the fish can be made ahead—it entails sautéing the rhubarb with orange juice, ginger and honey until it’s soft enough to push through a sieve and then adding it to the caramelizing onions, cinnamon and diced tomatoes (add the mint and orange segments at the time of service). I marinate the lamb in olive oil, thyme and garlic, and set it aside. The cherries stew with port wine, balsamic vinegar and chicken stock for a syrupy sauce to drizzle over the lamb. I purée the roasted acorn squash with olive oil, sea salt and ground pepper, and prep the chard so it’s ready to be flash-sautéed right before dinner. The raspberries, truffle oil, olive oil, shallots, lemon juice and white balsamic are thrown into the blender to make delicious raspberry-truffle vinaigrette for the salad.

Antonio Friscia

2 dozen Kumamoto oysters on the half-shell champagne vinegar for mignonette

finely diced shallots (pulled from garden), divided use
Carnaroli rice
truffle salt (from www.salttraders.com)
2 8-ounce lobster tails
dry white Italian wine
lobster stock (made or bought)
mirepoix (carrots, celery and onion, roughly chopped)
chopped Italian parsley
sea salt (from www.salttraders.com)
cracked black pepper
extra-virgin olive oil
finely diced garlic (pulled from garden)
white and green asparagus (from Whole Foods)
sherry wine
plugra butter
white truffles from Alba (can substitute Urbani porcini mushrooms)
lobster oil
amaranth flower for garnish

Chuao spicy Maya chocolate Brunello, Dom Perginon, Greco di Tufo and Brachetto wines (found at Third Corner Wine Shop in Ocean Beach)

Sauté the shallots and rice, seasoned with truffle salt, for five minutes. While the rice is sautéing, clean the lobster tails and set aside. Then deglaze the risotto with a dry white Italian wine, preferably something similar to Greco di Tufo. Continue cooking the risotto with lobster stock made from lobster shells, mirepoix and herbs. Season the lobster tails with salt and pepper, and sauté them with the olive oil, garlic and shallots. Slice the white and green asparagus on a bias cut. Turn the lobster tails and add the asparagus to the sauce. Deglaze with cream sherry and add plugra sweet butter. Finish the sauce with salt and pepper and set aside. Slice some white truffles and add to the risotto; stir and finish with a little more butter. Place a 4-ounce portion of risotto in the center of the plate and top it with the lobster tail and sautéed asparagus. Finish the dish with a few more sliced white truffles, lobster-oil drizzle on the plate and a freshly picked firestick—a delicate amaranth flower.

Jesse Frost

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots, minced
¼ cup minced Serrano ham
2 cloves of garlic
¼ cup grated Manchego cheese
1 bag fresh spinach
sea salt, to taste
pepper
2 egg yolks
pinch of saffron
¼ cup cooking sherry
1 dozen fresh oysters (I prefer Pacific Orchard oysters from British Columbia)
1 ounce Osetra caviar
1 lemon (juice only)

In a large sauté pan, slowly sauté the minced shallots, ham and garlic in the olive oil. When cooked, add the cheese and spinach and continue to sauté until spinach is wilted and liquid is almost gone. Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat. Prepare the sabayon by whisking the egg yolks, saffron and sherry wine over a double boiler until it has a ribbon consistency. Shuck the fresh oysters (be careful to remove any shell fragments). Spoon spinach mixture on top of the oysters and cover with sabayon. Place in a preheated broiler and cook until the oysters are bubbling and sabayon is slightly browned. Remove from the oven, top the oysters with the caviar and a squeeze of lemon, and serve immediately. Enjoy with champagne.

Matt Rimel

To eat: poached eggs with California avocados and steak tomatoes, with an assortment of fresh organic bread and grilled apple-smoked bacon. To drink: freshly squeezed orange juice for mango-papaya-orange-banana smoothies and French pressed coffee. (Serve in bed.)

Jason Shaeffer

Raw oysters on the half-shell topped with caviar and avocado, served with champagne. Purée of artichoke soup with black truffle and Parmesan; serve with a glass of Sancerre. Pan-roasted bass with wilted spinach, roasted potatoes and caviar butter sauce; serve with a glass of Pinot Gris. Chocolate soufflé with raspberries; serve with port.

Isabel Cruz

To eat: jumbo scallops with roasted tomato and a saffron sauce with caper and garlic (capers and shallots). Blue cheese–walnut salad. Chipotle lime char-grilled rib-eye with chunky organic corn salsa and a side of roasted red potatoes. For dessert, Mexican chocolate croissant bread pudding with fresh organic strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. To drink: Bodegas Trapiche Iscay from Argentina (50 percent Malbec and 50 percent Merlot) and Billecart-Salmon Rose Champagne from France.

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