Culinary Demonstration – Kevin Dundon – Raglan Road™ Irish Pub and Restaurant, Downtown Disney – Epcot International Food & Wine Festival 2012

Culinary Demonstration – Kevin Dundon – Raglan Road™ Irish Pub and Restaurant, Downtown Disney

(plus a lot of other famous chef stuff including Dunbroddy House in Ireland, we so want to visit there)

October 2, 2012

Amy Meddins (wine), John Ekin (host), Chef Kevin Dundon (fabulous cook), and Sharon (helpful assistant)

This is the third year that we’ve made it a point to see Kevin Dundon (2010 and 2011), this year Kate and Calvin were able to come with us and enjoy it too! Amy Meddins was also the wine presenter at last year’s Culinary Demonstration, and snooping around on the internet shows that she frequently handles the wine presentations for events at Raglan Road when Kevin is cooking.

Wine

Amy Meddins – Diageo Chateau & Estate, Acacia Vineyards Chardonnay, Carneros

• The Carneros region is near the Sonoma Valley in California
• This wine, Acacia, is 100% Chardonnay grapes, very full bodied
• Goes well with seafood
• Nose: nora detects a tiny bit of acid and kate says it smells like Chardonnay
• Taste: following on kate’s comment, nora thinks it tastes like Chardonnay
  • Can you tell that nora and kate are not Chardonnay fans?

Acacia Vineyards Chardonnay

Menu

Coquille St. Jacque’s

(this is Kevin’s take on a classic recipe, he likes to place emphasis on nostalgia and memories; when he first became a chef, he made this dish a lot – Kevin is a very enthusiastic, funny, and engaging chef; we’ve tried to intersperse our notes where they make the most sense relative to the recipes since Kevin ACTUALLY COOKED!)

(BTW: this dish is slated to be on the tasting menu at the Culinary Adventure on October 3rd; we thought about attending, but we haven’t found those events to be our cup of tea… Raglan Road Culinary Adventure 2010)

Coquille St Jacque’s is basically scallops with a béchamel sauce with cheese (a.k.a. mornay sauce), so we start with the scallops

Coquille St. Jacque’s

Recipes

Scallops

• 1 lb very fresh scallops, cleaned
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 tsp oil
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp butter, chilled
• 16 oz fresh mashed potato, hot (use a potato ricer or a screw sieve to get great potatoes; and remember the Irish take their mashed potatoes very seriously)
• fresh micro greens

1. pat the scallops dry; season with salt and pepper
2. oil the scallops, not the pan; place in sauté pan being careful to not overcrowd
3. all to sear and caramelize fully on one side, about 1 minute; carefully turn the scallops
4. allow to cook for 30 more seconds, remove from flame and deglaze pan with lemon juice; add butter and melt to glaze
5. put mashed potatoes in serving vessel (it could be a scallop shell, it could be a bowl, whatever) – he suggests piping the potatoes for  better presentation, nora suggests that you make a well with the potatoes so that the scallops and sauce have a little place to rest
6. carefully place 2 scallops into dish and carefully spoon some sauce over the top and around the scallops
7. garnish with micro greens

• Kevin made a foam with the sauce – tip: don’t shoot the foam directly onto the plate, put it in a bowl and then spoon it out

St Jacques Sauce

(note: Kevin didn’t make this… He made something else. He also had the kindness to tell us that we couldn’t follow along using the recipe because he changed his mind!)

• 6 tbs butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 thyme sprig
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 oz smoked bacon, chunked
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tbs flour
• ½ c dry white wine
• ½ c vegetable or mild fish stock or hot water
• 1 c heavy cream
• ½ lb Dubliner cheese, grated

1. sweat the onion in butter; add thyme, bay leaf, and bacon; season with salt and pepper
2. whisk in flour to make a blonde roux; add wine to deglaze, whisk to combine
3. add stock; season with salt and pepper; stir and bring to a simmer
4. cook for 3 minutes and add heavy cream; stir and bring to a boil
5. lower to a simmer and slowly add grated cheese, whisking to emulsify
6. remove from heat and strain; keep warm until ready to use

What Kevin actually used to make the sauce…

• diced granny smith apples
• diced shallot
• flour
• milk
• cream
• apple liqueur (Pucker green apple)
• apple juice
• Dubliner cheese
• salt and pepper

Perfectly cooked scallops, creamy mashed potato, and cheesy cream sauce – what could be wrong with that?

Our impressions of the food…

• GREAT mashed potatoes
• GREAT cheese sauce
• GREAT scallops (definitely not overcooked, how he achieved that with the prep kitchen at the Festival Center is a feat in and of itself)
• Overall, this was really good and nora would definitely eat it if it’s on the dinner menu at Raglan Road
• The wine? The wine paired well with the food & we don’t like Chardonnay as a rule. The fat and salt in this dish really helped the Chardonnay.

What was this year’s surprise? Well, last year it was the Dunbroddy Kiss (here), and the year before it was Bread & Butter Pudding (here) … This year, in keeping with the theme of nostalgia and happy memories, it was Cherries Jubilee. Cherries Jubilee was created in 1897 for Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. Kevin ate it for the first time (he was 7 years old) when on a trip to South Africa. He remembers lashings of brandy in the dessert and they had Steak Dianne for dinner before the Cherries Jubilee for dessert.

Cherries Jubilee with Cherry Ice Cream

Got to have a close up of the extra…