with Adam Baird
source: https://chefsinsight.com/adam-baird/

Habit Surf 'n Turf (1st half)
Parmesan crusted char ‘slider' w/ caramelized onions, bacon, gorgonzola & smoky catsup + duck fat fries

Serves 4
  • Slider (see below)
  • Parmesan sourdough “buns” (see below)
  • Garnish (see below)
  • Smokey catsup (see below)
  • Duck fat fries (see below)
  1. Season the slider meat and place onto Char broiler/grill or in a sauté pan. Cook to desired temperature. Break each piece of bacon in half, warm onions. Top the patty with bacon halves and then with 2 tbsp. warmed caramelized onions and 1 tbsp. crumbled bleu cheese. Place under broiler 10 seconds.
  2. Drizzle a film of hot oil onto a hot griddle or griddle pan 350 °F or sauté pan (med high). Place the small toast rounds cheese size down and do not touch, allow the cheese to develop a golden crust 1-2 minutes, use spatula to check, flip toast and toast 30 seconds on the non-cheese side. Hold warm.
  3. Drizzle 1/2 oz. of smoky catsup on the non-cheese toasted rounds and spread. Make burger by placing burger and garnish onto the bottom and top with second round. Cheese side out.
  4. Heat fryer to 360 °F. Cook fries until golden brown. In a bowl add in truffle oil and lemon zest, stir mixture. Drain fries well, add fries into bowl with oil and toss well , until shiny and add truffle salt and toss again. Serve in a paper lined fry holder.

Slider

  • 1 lb. ground beef, 80/20
  • 1/2 small red onion, peeled and finely minced
  • 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp. A-1 Sauce
  • Salt, pepper, garlic salt to taste
  1. In a bowl combine all ingredients and using hands squeeze and blend meat to incorporate seasoning. Mixing tip: Allow meat to sit at room temp 15 minutes, also combine all ingredients in bowl first except meat and whisk to blend all items, then add meat and mix.
  2. Taste tip: pin. 1/2 oz. of well mixed meat and cook in a pan on both sides until cooked through. Check the taste and adjust as needed.
  3. Make 4 slider patties and shape with hands. You can use a scale to get 4 oz. patties or a 4 oz. ice cream scoop. Refrigerate until use.

Parmesan sourdough “buns”

  • 4 ea. large 5 in. sourdough loaf slices, cut into 2 in. rounds
  • 1/2 stick butter, unsalted, softened
  • 1/2 c. parmesan reggiano cheese, grated
  1. Using a small biscuit cutter 3 in. round, punch out 2 rounds from each slice for 8 total mini buns
  2. Brush each round with soft butter using a spatula, careful not to tear rounds. Spread the grated parmesan onto a half sheet tray, press one side of the round onto cheese to create a crust. Reserve in sealed container.

Garnish (caramelized onions, crisp bacon & bleu cheese crumble)

  • 1 ea. white onion, medium sized, halved and sliced into thin slices
  • 4 ea. bacon slices, cooked crisp, reserve bacon fat
  • 2 tbsp. bacon fat, reserved from above
  • 4 tbsp. bleu cheese crumbles
  1. Heat a sauté pan on medium, add in bacon fat and sliced onions, increase heat slightly to medium high, cook turning until lightly brown, 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, reduce heat to medium and cook until deeply browned turning as needed, 20 minutes. Scrape into a plastic container and reserve.

Smokey catsup

Makes 1 cup, more than needed
  • 3/4 c. catsup
  • 1/4 c. brown sugar, dark
  • 2 ea. chipotle in adobe sauce (canned chipotle)
  • 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp. cumin, toasted and ground
  • 1/2 tsp. black pepper, fresh ground
  1. Combine all items into a heavy bottomed pot. Using a wire whisk, heat item bringing up to a boil and whisk. Turn off and remove from heat, cool 10 minutes and using a rubber spatula scrape into a bar blender, puree on high and smooth. Place into a plastic squeeze bottle.

Duck fat fries

  • 2-3 ea. large whole potatoes, Russet or Kennebec
  • Small fryer with duck fat or un-hydrogenated soy bean or canola oil
  • Black truffle sea salt
  • White truffle oil
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  1. Peel potatoes and rinse. Working quickly square off potatoes and cut into 1 in. planks, cut these planks into 1/2 in. french fries. Submerge in cold water.
  2. Heat the fryer or oil to 300 F. Rinse potatoes and drain well. Place the fries into fryer and gently shake the basket.
  3. Cook until fries are just turning lightly browned, drain well and lay fries out across a 1/2 sheet tray. Allow fries to cool to room temp and place tray into freezer, 1 hour minimum.

Habit Surf 'n Turf (2nd half)
Cold smoked sashimi albacore & mango salsa in tempura avocado shell w/ charred tomato ceviche vinaigrette, cilantro pudding & spicy cholula essence

Serves 4
  • Albacore and Mango Salsa (see below)
  • Tempura avocado (see below)
  • Avocado pasta chips (see below)
  • Ceviche “vinaigrette” (see below)
  • Cilantro pudding (see below)
  • Spicy Cholula essense (see below)
  1. To Fry: drain and dry avocado, toss in flour, add to the tempura batter and submerge, Using a fork pick up the avocado and slide into 360 °F fryer, repeat and fry until lightly browned 45 seconds. Drain.
  2. Place a 2 oz circle of ceviche vinaigrette onto plate. Stir the albacore mixture place a mounded spoon into the avocado cup. Place the cup onto the center of the vinaigrette. Place 2 fried avocado chips into each side of the albacore mixture.
  3. Using squeeze bottle place 3 dots of cilantro pudding around dressing and drizzle the Cholula syrup over and around.

Albacore and mango salsa

  • 1 ea. lemon, lime and orange; zest removed & juiced, strained & combined
  • 2 tbsp. sugar
  • 1 tbsp. garlic, finely minced
  • 1 tbsp. Cholula hot sauce
  • 1 tsp red chile flake
  • 1 tsp ancho chile powder
  • 1 tsp Spanish smoked paprika, sweet
  • 1/2 small red onion, peeled and finely minced
  • 1/4 c. Clamato tomato juice
  • 1/4 c. tomato puree
  • 1 tbsp. pickled jalapeno, diced
  • 1 ea. mango, ripe, peeled, medium diced
  • 1 ea. tomato medium, seeded and diced medium
  • 2 tbsp. green onions, thinly sliced
  • 1 bunch cilantro
  • 1 lb. albacore, bloodline removed, sashimi quality, diced in 1/2 in. cubes
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  1. Zest citrus, place into SS bowl and juice citrus and strain juice into same bowl.
  2. Add sugar and whisk until sugar dissolves and is shiny. Add in garlic, all spices and onion. Allow onions to sit and pickle 5 minutes.
  3. Add in all ingredients except albacore. Mix and refrigerate until 30 minutes before serving, albacore reserved separately.
  4. 30 minutes before service, add in albacore so that it “cooks”, mix well. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap tightly and using a hand smoking gun (wood of preference) place smoking gun tube into bowl, fill bowl with smoke. Let sit 10 minutes, fill bowl again with smoke. Place over an ice bowl and reserve for plating.

Tempura avocado

  • 2 ea. avocado 48 count or medium sized
  • 2 ea. eggs
  • 2 c. ice cold water
  • 1.5 c. AP flour
  • 1/2 c. corn starch
  1. Cut avocados in half, remove seed. Scoop out each half using a soup spoon. Place avocado onto cutting board. Cut off 1/4 in. from each end, place trimmings into bowl and toss with lime juice. Trim the bottom of avocado just slightly to flatten. There will be 4 “cups” that sit flat with seed hole facing up.
  2. Place avocado cups into ice water until service to prevent oxidation.
  3. Tempura batter: In a bowl whisk together eggs and water until combined, add in all flour and using a pair of chop sticks, stab the batter stirring as little as possible until a lumpy batter forms. Mixture should not be smooth.

Avocado pasta chips

  • Reserved avocado trimmings from above, tossed in lime juice
  • 2 egg yolks + 1 whole egg
  • 1/2 c. + additional AP flour
  • 1 tsp. salt
  1. Place trimmings immediately in small food processor, add in eggs and puree until smooth, add in flour and salt and pulse to form a smooth dough, add flour as needed. Remove and wrap and allow to rest 30 minutes.
  2. Lightly flour the work surface, unwrap dough, cut dough in half. Roll out dough in the shape of a rectangle until very thin, 1/8 inch. Cut dough into tortilla “chips.”
  3. Fry chips in batches at 350 °F until crisp and season with salt.

Ceviche “vinaigrette”

  • 2 ea tomatoes, medium, charred, seeded
  • 3 ea. garlic cloves, sliced thinly
  • 1/4 c. canola oil
  • 1/2 tsp. cumin powder
  • 1 tbsp. sugar
  • 1 tbsp. cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp. hot sauce
  • 1/4 c. Clamato
  • 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
  • 1 tbsp. lime juice
  • 1 tsp. xanthan gum
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  1. Halve tomatoes and de-seed. Place under a broiler skin side up and broil until blackened, or use a blow torch on all sides of tomatoes to char. Place tomatoes, oil and sliced garlic into a 300 °F oven and roast 20 minutes. Allow to cool to warm and scrape into a bar blender.
  2. Add all remaining ingredients except xanthan gum into blender. Pulse and puree until smooth, add gum into the vortex or center as blender is running and blend on high 30 seconds to thicken.

Cilantro pudding

  • 2 ea bunches cilantro, blanched
  • 1/4 c. spring water
  • 1 tbsp. sugar
  • Zest of 1 lime and juice
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 tsp. xanthan gum
  1. Blanche cilantro in boiling salted water for 7-10 seconds until bright green, drain and dip into ice water to cool completely. Drain cilantro, and squeeze into balls to remove water. Using a very sharp knife rough chop cilantro and place into a bar blender.
  2. All ingredients except gum, puree until smooth, if needed add water at 1 tbsp. at a time to get smooth puree. Add gum into vortex and allow 30 seconds to thicken, strain into a squeeze bottle and refrigerate.

Spicy Cholula essense

  • 1/4 c. lime juice
  • Zest of 1 lime
  • 1/4 c. spring water
  • 1/4 c. Cholula hot sauce
  • 2 tbsp. honey
  • 1 tbsp. Sugar
  • Salt and black pepper
  1. Combine all ingredients into a non-stick pan, bring up to a rapid boil, simmer until a syrup forms that drizzles of a spoon in a thin ribbon. Season and pour into a plastic squeeze bottle. Cool completely and syrup will thicken.