This has been on our fave list for a while. We go there for birthdays, anniversaries, and any other time we want to celebrate some occasion, even if it’s just going to dinner with friends we haven’t been out with for some time. Honestly we’d probably go more often, but as much as I like to cook and as frugal as we can be about our food (not to mention how challenging it is for someone like me with my allergies to go out to eat), we choose to save it for certain days of the year.
Josephine’s is not an inexpensive place, but it’s not outrageous either. As with most things, you get what you pay for, and at this restaurant you’re paying for quality, local ingredients, nice atmosphere and great service. The food is always changing depending on the season and the chef really knows how to make ordinary food taste extraordinary. I happen to prefer this spot because the chef also is not afraid to push the envelope. Greensboro isn’t exactly a culinary capital, which makes this a great place for folks who like to try new things. For instance, on the menu last night were fois gras and bone marrow—two dishes that most folks aren’t willing to give a chance.
Last night we split the fois gras and bone marrow appetizer. The fois is so luscious and fatty, packing so much flavor in such a little package. The bone marrow is spoonable and luxurious. The dish comes with crustini, but who would want to ruin a good marrow by spreading it on bread…not me! These two are served with thinly sliced poached pear and a dried fruit compote. This provides just enough acidity to cut the fattiness of the fois and marrow, but it’s not too sweet to be overpowering for an appetizer.
Korey and I both ordered the duck breast, his medium rare and mine rare, of course. For those of you who are unfamiliar with duck breast, it should be served as close to rare as you can stand to really appreciate the quality of the meat. Plus, there’s the added bonus that rarer meats are more easily digested—always a good tip to remember if you’re digestion is somewhat compromised as mine is. His duck was served with an arugula salad, hard boiled quail egg, white beans and fingerling potatoes (the last two items are obviously not Paleo, but when it’s fine dining there’s only a sprinkling so he just ate around them). The plate was drizzled with a blueberry gastrique. I had to change my order, of course, and had the chef prepare wilted greens and roasted radishes to nestle around my duck. Let me tell you, as always I didn’t miss the “regular” side dishes that are paired with the duck! The skin was perfectly crisped and because the breast was rare, the integrity of the duck remained in all of its wonderfulness. I couldn’t eat it all, although I truly wanted to! Delicious.
Okay, I’m about to start talking dirty. By “dirty” I mean I am about to use language that I normally do not use in spoken or written form. Keep in mind it was Korey’s birthday and since he eats cleanly 90% of the time, I can overlook one mishap. After he had devoured his entire dinner (and that was one large breast!), he wanted one of their house-made desserts. He chose the peach cobbler with Homeland Creamery vanilla ice cream. Homeland Creamery is a local business, only a few miles as a crow flies away from our little house. I suppose this made it an acceptable choice to him! That type of thing doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest, thank goodness. They say, though, that folks like me who have fructose malabsorption that the thought of sugar tends to make one feel queasy…that’d be my response to desserts.
We truly enjoyed our dinner in all of its fabulousness. In fact, Korey had actually ordered a melon gazpacho to only find out that it was so popular that they had ran out before we got there! Because of this, I’ve decided to try and make one for him to go alongside of his dinner tonight…his actual birthday dinner!
Before I get into tonight’s eats, let me fill you in on his birthday breakfast. See, Korey’s pretty typical for breakfast. He usually looks at it as fuel and doesn’t stray far from his usual path of a few scrambled eggs, a little ham or turkey and some sliced avocado if it’s here at the house. Even on the weekends, this is usually what I throw together for him before we start our morning chores and grocery haul. We had two lone tomatoes sitting, perfectly ripe on the front porch rail. I also had a little leftover barbeque that Korey had been eating off of a couple nights this week. So, what did I do? I sliced off the tops of the tomatoes, scooped out the innards, leaving little tomato cups. In a bowl I cracked an egg and whisked it up. I chopped the bbq into small pieces and added it to the egg. After drizzling a little coconut oil into the tomatoes and seasoning with a little sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, I divided the egg/bbq mixture into the tomatoes. Lastly, I mixed together a little almond flour and coconut oil, making somewhat of a crumble. The tomatoes were full and then some! I topped them with the crumble and poured the residual egg from the bowl on top to help with the browning process. For presentation’s sake, each tomato went into its own decorative ramekin, and I put them in a 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes (it takes a while to get the eggs cooked through).
I heart pretty ramekins!
By this time, Korey had gotten out of bed (since I let him sleep in) and he had no idea what I had concocted. He was so surprised and thrilled to have something new that I hadn’t made for him before. He LOVED them! So I was one happy wife!
After breakfast we lounged around for a bit. I worked out and then he worked out and then we had our snacks together. I had my usual sardines and cucumber lettuce wraps. I threw together a plate of sliced ham, baby carrots and sunbutter for him. While we snacked we watched Alton Brown discuss beets and all of their culinary greatness. As usual, Alton spikes an interest in Korey to go and do whatever he’s done with whatever ingredient as soon as he can get his hands on it. Today, as I mentioned, it was beets. So, we finished up, got cleaned up and went to town to buy beets.
That leads me to what I have planned for tonight. I already said I’d be giving melon gazpacho a whirl, so I’ve got a fresh cantaloupe, a bag of tomatoes out of the garden, and a few other things that I’ll list in the recipe later. I’m also going to steam the beets, slice them thinly on my mandolin, and drizzle them with some extra virgin olive oil and organic balsamic…maybe some crumbled feta and coarsely ground black pepper as well. For the meat, I’m making a HUGE grass-fed hamburger steak (from Little Creek Ranch) with caramelized onions and a red wine reduction. I think he will be very pleased! It’ll be the best 27th birthday meal he’s ever had!
It was almost too pretty to eat!
There's an 8 ounce hamburger steak under there somewhere!
Melon Gazpacho
Eight to 10 red tomatoes, seeded
2-3 cloves of garlic
One cantaloupe
One small, sweet onion
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Sea salt
Pepper
Cut the melon in half
and discard the seeds. Scoop the flesh
into a large bowl. Cut the tomatoes into small pieces and mix in the bowl with
the melon. I try to keep mainly the
flesh without all of the watery parts and seeds. Add the raw garlic cloves and the onion,
roughly diced. Use a blender to process the mix until it has the consistency of
a thick soup. Pour in the olive oil to taste. A liberal splash is best. Add a
dash of balsamic vinegar, no more than a large tablespoon. Add salt and pepper
and blend it all through one more time. You can eat the soup with this rough
texture or sieve it for a smoother finish. Keep in the fridge for at least an
hour before you eat it. I served mine
with a few pinches of shaved coconut and fresh parsley leaves for some fun and
texture. (A little coconut never hurt
anyone!). I hope you like this fresh
summer starter. I know Korey did!
No comments:
Post a Comment