This past weekend I wanted to thank my boyfriend Steve for helping me out so much as I'm recovering from a back injury. I planned a full menu for an super-nice dinner, and, as I'm prone to do, I tried something I'd never done before with almost every dish. The meal began with an amuse-bouche.
For those who don't know, an amuse-bouche is a tiny, bite-sized hors d’œuvre meant to "amuse" your taste buds. I've only had a few... all at nicer restaurants and all at the beginning of the meal. I thought it would be fun to come up with one for the meal I was planning for Steve.
Since the menu was kinda-sorta trending towards rustic Italian fare, I wanted to make sure some classic Italian flavors were in the amuse. I also wanted it to be stylish, and a bit creative. After lots of thinking, list-making, sketch-drawing and so forth, I finally decided upon my components: tomato cream, basil gelée, shaved parmigiano-reggiano, and basil leaf. Here's a photo of the end result:
Pretty swanky, no? Haha.. actually, coming up with what I wanted to do was a lot harder than making the actual dish. I took rich, red tomatoes and blended them with heavy whipping cream and a touch of seasoning for the tomato cream, which I poured carefully into a Chinese soup spoon. I made the basil gelée with blanched fresh basil and agar-agar jelly, with a touch of dry vermouth. Once it was set, I used a melon-baller to make the little globe and gently placed it on the cream (Steve actually thought this might be a grape when he had the amuse, due to the light texture). I simply arranged a shaving of parmigiano-reggiano cheese and the smallest basil leaf on top of the gelée and my piece was complete!
Have you ever tried making an amuse-bouche? Or do you have a favorite that you've tried in a restaurant?
Wow, that looks fantastic! Very swanky :) It's perfect, it looks straight out of a gourmet book!
ReplyDeleteAww.. thanks so much, OhayoBento!
ReplyDeleteThat looks so great. I can totally see something like that in a four-star restaurant.
ReplyDeleteVery classy looking amuse bouche! I normally don't frequent the super fancy restaurants that serve them and I've certainly never attempted it at home but it kinda looks like fun.
ReplyDeleteHow flattering, Lisa.. thanks!!
ReplyDeleteAnd Marisa, you should try it! It really was fun more than anything else.. Although I did spend WAY too much time thinking about such a small simple thing before I made it. ^_^
What a timely post! My boyfriend and I **finally** got around to using our new amuse bouche spoons a couple of nights ago...although we weren't nearly as fancy (each spoon had a gnocchi with a different sauce), it was such a fun way to get ready for dinner.
ReplyDeleteSounds cool! It really is fun, isn't it? Great minds... ^_^
ReplyDeleteElegant and gorgeous, edible art! Keep up the inspiring creative projects, they are awesome!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic idea! Sounds yummy :)
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