July 21, 2020
Time for a Black Cat Farm Dinner! The setting is truly amazing and the food matches the setting. There is nothing like dining where the dinner is grown!
Here’s the view to the north west. Down the hill is where the wheat and some of the vegetables are grown. Further down, next to the creek, where the cool mountain air from four mile canyon flows down the mountain is a micro climate which is perfect for salad greens.
We start with sourdough made from white wheat raised on the farm - wow! Really neat full bodied bread. It’s dipped in the dish in the middle, which is olive oil with Garlic, thyme rosemary At the left are olives, turnips and broccoli in a marinade
Just because we’re at the farm doesn’t mean the amenities are missing! Here’s a wonderful wine from Ott, their CHÂTEAU ROMASSAN
AOC BANDOL Rosé. This is a remarkable, full bodied Rosé just bursting with fruit and citrus.
Next is a real surprising dish. Pork Rillets, squash blossom with prosciutto and chili hummus with in house potato chips .
The Rillets are like a very light fresh braunschweiger
Squash blossoms are fried in a tempura batter, just a hint of squash there and Black Cat’s amazing prosciutto. The hummus was the surprise, since we don’t usually like hummus, but this was different! The green chili hummus has the chili front and center, really nice! The potato chips are amazingly fresh, light and crispy, nothing like you’ve ever had before.
The third course is pork belly with green beans, roasted onions, fresh kimchi - really neat. Bright and fresh and nice. The cabbage was just lightly pickled and complemented the earthiness of the pork belly perfectly. The green beans were picked today and came in hot from the sun. They had to be immediately put in the cooler!
The fourth course is three dishes:
Roasted lamb and jus on cauliflower purée at the top right.
Carrots, broccoli and cauliflower at the top left
Beets, peas and tomatoes at bottom center.
These farm dinners are big!
The lamb is amazingly tender, juicy and perfect! This was sliced lamb on a bed of shredded lamb, much like shredded beef brisket and the shredded lamb was definitely the show stealer. The jus is deep and rich. The roast carrots were young and still had a bit of crunch. The peas were really crisp and played well with the tomatoes.
Dessert was two dishes. This one is chantilly cream with carrot cake. The chantilly cream is a very simple dish, just heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks with a bit of sugar and vanilla. It was a perfect counter part to the carrot cake.
This is cherries and chocolate truffles, herb infusion. Wow, cherries improved! Not quite sure what herbs were used, but they actually made the cherries more celebratory!