Spur-of-the-Moment Porchetta Dinner at Bouquet

My Friday dinner at Bouquet Restaurant and Wine Bar was a last-minute impulse spurred by spotting photos on its facebook page of porchetta being prepped for evening service. I'd been fortunate to taste Chef Stephen Williams' porchetta once before, thanks to my new farmer friend Tricia Houston of Napoleon Ridge Farm + Nature Center, who arranged for me to attend an unforgettable pig tasting dinner there featuring one of her animals. A quick call to Bouquet confirmed they could fit me in at 6:30. So I turned the car around and sped to Covington.

Bouquet's menu always embraces the season and spotlights the best local produce, proteins, and other products Chef Williams can lay his hands on. For my first course, I was intrigued by the inclusion of blackberries in this tomato salad with julienned snow peas and shaved sheep's milk cheese, dressed in a basil-flecked mignonette. I am SO going to put blackberries together with tomatoes at home after tasting this combination.

"That salad is all Tricia," the chef told me when he stopped by my table, referring to the produce bursting with summer flavor. The one component from another source was the cheese. As soon as I read the menu description of it as "Kentucky sheep's milk cheese," I had to ask my server if it was from Good Shepherd Cheese. Sure enough. I met the owners of Good Shepherd last fall, who laid claim to making the only sheep's milk cheese in Kentucky, so I figured it had to be from them. I knew they were trying to expand into the Northern Kentucky market, and am delighted to see their cheese featured at Bouquet. When a couple at a table next to me raised the same question, I was even happier to know word about Good Shepherd is spreading.

Although my dinner reservation was impromptu, there was nothing last-minute about the porchetta main course. The Napoleon Ridge pork belly was stuffed with dijon, garlic, thyme, rosemary, and lemon zest, tied into a tight roll, then cooked sous-vide for 12-14 hours.

Chef Williams served a slice of the fatty, herby porchetta roll on a bed of peaches and carrots (a little too al dente for me) with tarragon, drizzled the plate with blackberry preserves, and topped the dish with one of my favorites – stuffed squash blossoms. These blossoms were filled with mascarpone, roasted mushrooms, and more blackberry preserves.

A great combination, and I liked the medium-sized portion for a dish that remains as rich as porchetta. Still, I hesitated when it came to ordering dessert. I considered sticking with a simple scoop of one of Bouquet's house-made ice creams, which never disappoint. But the "Jar Pie," a peach cobbler of sorts, sounded tempting.

I finally chose the rum cake. And was glad I did.

I got a scoop of Bouquet's house-made ice cream (vanilla) after all, sitting on a miniature rum cake. But the star of the course was this mango froth over strawberries, with pistachios and a chiffonade of mint.

I asked Chef Williams how long he thought he'd have that porchetta, and he anticipated that what he's prepped will last through part of Saturday night's service. He has more Napoleon Ridge pork belly to work with and will likely start the two-day prep process with it next Tuesday. There's a possibility he'll offer this special in future as well, depending on, er, whether he can lay his hands on more pork belly.

You can find Tricia Houston, who also supplied the squash blossoms and peaches for Bouquet's porchetta, at the Covington Farmers Market Saturdays selling produce, eggs, sausages, and sometimes pork from her farm and others. She also operates a hidden gem called the Napoleon Ridge Grocery and Deli (just past where I-71 splits from I-75 toward Louisville). Keep an eye on the deli's daily specials via facebook and drool. Or better yet, stop by.

Meanwhile, even if you're not the porkavore I am, at Bouquet you'll find delicious and thoughtfully conceived dishes – including vegetarian options – that highlight spectacular seasonal ingredients, as well as great wines (and beers) and a knowledgeable and welcoming front-of-house staff. Seize a bit of summer on a plate and get yourself to Bouquet!

A Very Eggy Thanksgiving

Despite a couple of kind offers, I chose to stay home and dine solo this Thanksgiving, in the company of my favorite kitty. Freed from the responsibility of cooking for other people’s palates, my menu options were so wide open it took a while to figure out what to fix. One of the multitude of holiday cooking shows I’ve watched recently mentioned that although turkey may not have been served at the first Thanksgiving in Massachusetts, lobster and venison likely were. Aha! A starting point. I had a couple of lobster shells left from the recent sale at Lobsta Bakes of Maine, and I could pull a package of venison out of my freezer.

For my Autumn Seafood Stew, I made lobster stock with a chunked onion, the stalks and part of a bulb of fennel, four evacuated corn cobs, a healthy handful of fresh sage, and two lobster shells. I filled the pot with almost enough cold water to cover, then half a bottle of white wine. Trouble was, that was a lot of water and the lobster shells themselves didn’t give off much flavor. Next time I’ll try to remember to add some fish trimmings (or do what I did today to tweak the leftovers – I bought some lobster stock from Kevin at Lobsta Bakes – he has more fish trimmings and lobster shells to work with than I could ever hope to). Last night I took about a third of the stock, added clam juice, fennel seed, celery seed, and dried chipotle pepper and reduced it significantly, then added the other half bottle of wine and reduced some more, until it finally started to taste like something.

I fried a couple slices of Eckerlin’s double-smoked bacon, sautéed fennel, onion, garlic, and corn in the renderings, then quickly cooked some oysters. Part of this mélange went on my dinner plate and the rest, along with shrimp, lobster, and roasted red pepper, went into the reduced stock to which I added a bit of cream and brandy – a definite boost to my rather weak stock.

For my meat course, I went with an old favorite, venison carpaccio, which, I am thankful to say, went in a delicious new direction this time. First I thin-sliced a couple of these butterflied steaks.

I had in mind to do a little taste-testing with my carpaccio, so, using the corn as a colorful divider, on half the venison I used fleur de sel and Banyuls vinegar from Le Bon Vivant, along with some Meyer lemon and blood orange olive oils I’ve been hoarding since my trip to California last year. On the other half I tried three products from Stuarto’s Olive Oil Company I came across on my Wednesday night trip to Lexington: wild mushroom and sage infused olive oil, espresso salt, and espresso balsamic.

I will have much more to say about the magnificent dinner/cooking class I attended at Azur Wednesday night. For now I will mention that Azur chef Jeremy Ashby used Stuarto’s products in several of the evening’s dishes, and Stuarto’s owner Stuart Utgaard was on hand to talk about his products and offer some for sale. The first time I happened onto chef Ashby was at the Incredible Food Show in Lexington in October, and during his demo there he raved about one of Stuarto’s olive oils that he described as being an excellent all-purpose finishing oil. It was not available either at the food show or on Wednesday at Azur, but I had a moment to ask the chef for a recommendation. When I told him I planned to make venison carpaccio for Thanksgiving, he suggested the wild mushroom and sage oil (which I purchased), and then his eyes lit up. They weren’t among the products Stuart brought that evening, but Jeremy went into his kitchen and came back with these samples of Stuarto’s espresso salt and espresso Balsamic. Thank you, Jeremy! I would never have thought to mix espresso flavors with my tried and true carpaccio, but these were amazing, giving the dish a whole new dimension and depth!

I topped the seasoned venison with capers, sliced garlic, and, in place of my usual parmesan, shards of sheep’s milk cheese from another KY Proud company, Good Shepherd Cheese.

This dish made me so happy I didn’t think twice about not having turkey for Thanksgiving :)

It just wouldn't be right to have a holiday dinner without dessert, and I came up with one that entailed hardly any work. Last weekend at Jean-Paul's Paradiso, I picked up some house-made pumpkin sorbet.

I love chocolate with pumpkin, so I made some ganache. If you’ve never made your own ganache before, what are you waiting for? It is dead simple even if you, like me, are no pastry chef. Just chop some chocolate (Joy of Cooking says 8 oz.).

Bring some cream to a boil (Joy of Cooking says 3/4 cup).

Remove the cream from the heat and stir in the chocolate. That’s all there is to it (although I like to add a splash of Grand Marnier to mine). It keeps well in the fridge, and a few seconds in the microwave will return it to a creamy consistency. Don't let the fancy-sounding French name intimidate you – this recipe is almost impossible to mess up.

I drizzled a little ganache on the pumpkin sorbet.

Because it was a holiday, I added some toasted pecans. And then, my best idea of the evening hit me: I added a bit of that espresso salt from Stuarto's! What a magnificent match with the chocolate!

So there you have it, how I holiday cook when left to my own devices. And I enjoyed every moment of solo, stress-free self-indulgence. Of course I missed being with family and friends. But this just wasn’t the year for it. I’m still in overly protective mode since Scout returned from his 2-1/2 week walkabout and didn’t want to go off and leave him for the long weekend. But I am happy to report he has bounced back from his ordeal – so much so that today he went outside for the first time in a week. You can bring the kitty indoors, but Scout is one kitty you just can’t take the outdoors out of.

Thankfully, he came back in too.

Wishing you all the best of holiday weekends, and if you’re out shopping, please shop local and handmade.

xoxo, eggy