Try them as a flight or order one by itself

Knowing how to make stock is the foundation of what makes a good sauce. A little bad humor for you, how many cooks does it take to make a stock? Now here is where most say one, but the correct answer is EVERYONE. So if you have six cooks, it takes six, 20 cooks it takes 20. As you will see it can be a long process. So lets get into it.

Let’s start with picking the right bones. The best bones for stock are bones from younger animals, such as veal bones. Younger bones are higher in collagen, which breaks down and turns into the “jello” as Cosby would say. This gelatin gives the stock body and coats your mouth. Start by blanching the 15lbs veal bones, one at a time, to remove all the excess blood. Now lay your bones on roasting pans, one layer per pan. Roast bones in a pre-heated oven at 250 degrees for 8 to 9 hours. Check the bones occasionally, turning to ensure even browning. Once your bones are fully caramelized and looking all sexy like on the outside, pull them from the oven and toss them into a stockpot, reserving some of the fat. Fill the pot with cold water and ice. The colder the temperature of the stock at the start, the clearer it will be in the end.

Take your roasting pan from the bones and deglaze it with water. Deglazing means to add a liquid to a hot pan that contains either bones or meat. Now with the reserved fat from the bones, sauté your mirepoix (50% onions, 25% carrots, 25% celery). For 15 lbs of bones you will need 2 lbs of mirepoix. Cut into large dice, I repeat LARGE DICE (3/4in x 3/4in x 3/4in) at the smallest and cook until caramelized evenly all over. Brush your mirepoix with 8oz of tomato paste and cook for another 10min. In a cheesecloth or coffee filter, wrap the parsley stems, peppercorns, thyme, bay leaf, and a few pieces of clove and tie it off, this is called a sachet. Toss it into your pot with your caramelized mirepoix. A sachet is not always needed when making stock because we are going to strain everything at least twice before we are all said and done.

Once you have all the bones and mirepoix in your pot and it’s on the heat, you are going to wait until the proteins start to coagulate and a layer of scum forms on top of the water. You’ll then want to turn the heat down so you have a light simmer and begin to skim off scum and fat. The French term “Mijoter” means to create a convection current by putting the pot on only half of the heat. This will cause the scum and fat to move to one side of the pot. The bones need to cook for about 8 hours, while periodically skimming.

After the 8 hours, the stock is to be strained, tasted and analyzed to meet stock criteria. Body: the stock should have weight to it so when you taste it doesn’t taste like water. Aroma: how does it smell, Veal stock should have a sudden roasted meat smell with a aromatic back round, color: how clear is it, you should be able to see bottom of your container. Once you check the criteria and your stock meets all three, you are good to strain trough a chinois (fine mesh strainer). If your stock is lacking body, reduce it down a little more. For more aroma, add more mirepiox and/or aromatics (thyme, peppercorns, etc.). If your stock isn’t clear enough, well that’s an issue for another day but it usual means that the temperature was off at some point in the process.

Now that we have our stock strained and in a clean container, the stock needs to brought down in temperature to around 40 degrees within two hours to keep it out of the temperature danger zone. Once your stock is cool, if done right should look like Bill Cosby’s meat jello. 15lbs of bones should yield you around 2 gallons of stock and it can be keep for up to 2 weeks when covered and stored properly in the fridge.

I want to send a big thank you to those who attended our Fortaleza Tequila Dinner, I also would like to thank the fine people at Destileria La Fortaleza. Their hard work really made this dinner a success.

Fortaleza came to our restaurant not too long ago to share their story of how they make this tequila. Chef Patrick and I listened and tasted this wonderful Blanco, Reposado, and Añejo at 8:00 in the morning! Here is that story.
Fortaleza Tequila has been produced and bottled on a family owned estate in Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico for more than 125 years. In Mexico, Fortaleza is known as Tequila Los Abuelos. The family has been using the traditional processes of 100% stone milled agave since the beginning. The family estate farms lay in a valley 4,000 feet above sea level, at the base of Volcan de Tequila. Here is where the blue agave grows for seven to eight years at a time.

After the long wait, the amazing eight-foot tall blue agave is harvested and cooked in the same brick oven the family used 125 years ago. The agave is stone-milled with the volcanic rock of Volcan de Tequila. The volcano stands at 9,560 feet tall. Each bottle is hand blown in Tonala, Jalisco and the corks are hand made by the same workers that harvest the agave. So each bottle has its own story and its own art work on each bottle.

Los Abuelos Blanco is distilled and stored in stainless steel tanks. For tequila drinkers Blancos tell you where the tequila is coming from. You can taste the earth, sweet agave and citrus. The bottle also has a drawing of the distillery.
The Reposado, YES, my personal favorite. The Reposado is aged in oak barrels for 6-9 months. They use recycled oak barrels from Jim Beam (which I thought was interesting). This is my favorite tequila because I enjoy the body the oak gives the tequila. It makes me think warm and toasty. This bottle has a drawing of Tahona (volcanic stone mill) with a horse pulling it, the way the family has been doing it for years.
The Añejo is aged in oak barrels for 2-3 years so it takes on a deeper oak color and rich flavor. This bottle has a drawing of the estate and fields of agave.

The food for this dinner was fun, I have been drinking different tequilas with my family for years. Tequila is nearly the only drink my father will ever order when dining out. I was excited to pair food and play with tequila for the first time in the kitchen.
We are now cooking rather than drinking.

I really like the drunken salmon crudo. The fattiness of the salmon and avocado is great with the tequila, the salmon was quickly crude in the Reposado tequila and paired with the blue corn tuile for some crunch to get your palate excited about Margarita Mimosa with orange and agave nectar a special drink made by Steve for the dinner.

Our first course was a Cilantro Crepe with squab. The idea was to look like and tasty little enchilada which would take us to Mexico. One of the things I do when I cook is look at the idea of something an enchilada and recreate it using my French technique. A cilantro crepe in place of a tortilla, squab or in French “pigeon” two ways braised leg meat and Spanish blue cheese in the crepe and the breast pan seared. The sauce was made from the squab stock and the braising jus from the legs.

For the second course, I was excited to work with Barracuda. Because of the devastating earthquake in Chile it prevented the delivery of Barracuda. (Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Chile.) The dish was still tasty however and paired well the Reposado. The Olivetti baked John Dory was nice with olive oil, citrus broth, and lite tooth the confit onion, peppers and orzo.

I was most impressed with the Broken Arrow Ranch Achiote Venison Saddle. The dish was melt-in-your-mouth tender. The crunch of pear and a well-balanced sauce blended of sweet and bitter followed with earthiness of the beet greens. But I must bring you back to the saddle it was the most tender peace of venison I have ever had and the Achiote really helped to bring out the dark red color of the meat. The Añejo was a perfect pick to pair the rich dish.

Ahhh, dessert. The Marjoleine dates and Heath Bar pear with pistachio. Well let’s just say I am a sucker for pistachio anything at dessert time. Then we added chocolate…voilà!

The dinner was excellent and the tasty tequila told us a story. To Fortaleza, thank you for a wonder evening that was full of knowledge. I hope to do this again. Please view the pictures of the dinner and leave any comments you wish.

Remember to check out to check the schedule for our next pairing dinner at Twenty/20/ Grill & Wine Bar. Merci and bonne soiree.

- Chef Haas

As current Junior Sous Chef for the Twenty/20 Grill & Wine Bar. I try to keep food simple and speak to classical French technique with a chip on one shoulder. I try not to say I create anything new, but rather rearrange classical ideas and add my love into the food. Then see what happens. Sometimes I get the “throw backs” and other times a bit more adventurous…either way I enjoy the heat of a oven on my face, the smell of shallots and garlic and sound that meat makes when it put in smoking hot pan. For those who are wondering Mercredi nuit means Wednesday night in English, hump day, you know that day in the middle of the week that seems so hard to get through some times. Well lucky for you, Mercredi nuit is the night for good food, good company, and a good drink to help you push through the rest of the week. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy my food and thoughts.

Over the years, I have read tons of culinary books. Some of the chefs that I have had a big influence on me and how I cook are Marco Pierre White, Eric Ripert, and Thomas Keller. They are similar chefs but they have their distinct differences. Refinement, an alteration that improves something (food) to make it more sophisticated, depth of flavor, making every bite exploded in your month. A quote from an eighteenth-century food writer Brillat-Ssavarin, “To know how to eat well, one must first know how to wait”.