Most of the time when I’m thinking of a new dish to create I usually start with an ingredient.
When the focus is on one ingredient I get to build around that ingredient instead of focusing on one dish as a whole. This forces me to think about other ingredients that can work with my main ingredient. I get to dive deeper and ask myself “Ok what works with this ingredient and how can I make it work with all the other ingredients without jeopardizing the flavor. This forces creativity even when I’m feeling stuck on ideas. The ingredients that I focused on today was blood oranges and Roman cauliflower. I will be posting the final outcome after this post.
I’ve always found blood oranges fascinating because of their unique flavor. Rich, complex, deep in flavor, beautiful in color, sweet and tart with a just enough bitterness that makes it perfect for sauces and cocktails alike. It’s beautiful appearance and adds a level of sophistication to most cocktails if made properly.
My next ingredient of focus was the roman cauliflower. A beautiful vegetable with its logarithmic spiral shape. It truly looks like a vegetable from another planet. Upon first glance, I thought that surely it was made from some type of modern, fractal genetically modified engineering but it’s not. It’s been grown in Italy since the 16th century. How does it taste? Subtle Nuttiness. A bit like broccoli and cauliflower mixed with a crunchy texture.
Although I’ve never liked cauliflower this one is the exception. I decided to create a nice hot Béchamel sauce to compliment my space cauliflower.
You can view the final dish here at: http://www.chefjimmythomas.com/featured/scallops-and-blood-orange-sauce/
It’s beautiful appearance and adds a level of sophistication to most cocktails if made properly.
