The feature this weekend is Pacific Northwest steamed Blue Mussels, halibut fumet, smoked onions, confit potatoes, green tomato chutney and saffron aioli.
This dish is a spin of a popular French dish called Moules-frites. The name Moules-frites means mussels and potatoes and hen served in most restaurants, it will include a serving of mussels with fries on the side. What Chef John has done is taken it to another level. He's integrated the potatoes into the mussel dish to create a French stew. It is a beautiful dish that full of the complimentary flavors you yearn for with mussels - white wine, lemon and garlic.
Let's talk through the components of the dish. The mussels are fresh from the Oregon coast. Freshness when it comes to season is critical for any dish. The halibut fumet is a really interested component. Chef John used Halibut bones from our previous special to make a fumet. A fumet is a concentrated stock that are used in the dish to add more complexity to flavor profile. The confit potatoes are golden potatoes cooked with duck fat. The smoked onions are a replacement for the typical bacon used in this dish. We wanted to make this change because bacon gets overused and by doing this it makes the dish pescatarian.
To pair with the entree, our pastry chef Katie Blevins, has created a summer fruit galette as a dessert. The galette comes with peach and raspberry preserves, a thyme butter brushed pastry and honey yogurt frozen mousse. The dessert is also something you'd commonly find on the menus in France. The peaches came from a local orchard and the raspberries came from just outside of Grants Pass. The house-made honey yogurt frozen mousse is a perfect compliment to the sweet and crunchy pastry.
What was the inspiration for this dish? First off, we let the seasonality and availability of fresh ingredients drive what we put on the menu. Secondly, Chef John worked at a highly rated French restaurant called Bouchon earlier in his career and fell in love with the dish.
Bon Appétit,
The Lindsay