Week 2 Osmosis

Chef Frederic changes the menu weekly, all but the foie and the chocolates. So, 5 of the 7 change. The menu above is slightly wrong. I took a picture of it and then realized I needed to help them with some spelling errors; a word that we don’t recognize as food in English – “shell” should actually be “clam”; and they forgot to change the cherry vanilla dessert to the melon soup with fresh peach, a melon ball, melocotón and cherry gelatina (peach and cherry gelatin – but not like we think of jello; this square melts/dissolves when it hits your tongue), piña (pineapple) compote, fresh thyme, and lime-basil sorbet with a baked apple chip on top. Of course, it’s difficult to make a perfect English menu when your first language is Catalan or Castellaño. So, I’m glad I can help!

At any rate, below are some pics from this week’s delicious menu.

The razor clams (navajas) on top of roasted red pepper cream, olive oil, pineapple and micro greens:

The skate over a tomato-rosemary fondue (very French), and topped with fried squash blossoms, squash, and tomato water foam:

Here’s me making the foam out of tomato water:

They do a very French preparation with the tomatoes. They make an “x” on the bottom of the tomatoes, then throw them in boiling water for 30 seconds, then shock them in an ice bath. This loosens the skin so you can peel them starting at the “x”. Then, we squeeze the seeds and juice out of them through a metal chinois (china cap, as they call it), and then finally, we use what is left, sans peel, to make the tomato fondue. So, the only thing wasted is the skin.

The cuttlefish (sepia) rice topped with shrimp and cuttlefish coral (roe) aioli:

This dish is very Catalonia for many reasons. Of course, there is always a rice dish on the menu. And, it’s usually “muddy.” Conner found the term I was looking for to describe all of the rice dishes I’ve tasted in Catalonia. They are pretty fishy and it’s because the cooks/chefs use the roe and the livers and other inside parts of fish and shellfish we, in the U.S., might normally remove to give the dish a “cleaner” flavor. But, these things give the dish a depth of character that people from Catalonia love. I’m not used to it and I’m not a fishy-fish kind of girl, so I don’t love any of the rice dishes I’ve been fed, including the paellas. They all have the fish “insides” as a basis for them. Besides that part, I love the flavor combination of roasted fresh pears and sepia together. I never would have thought of putting those together. We peeled and roasted pears in the oven on some low temp for slightly under 2 hours, so they still had some form but they were definitely caramelized.

Here are the sepia and the sepia coral as the bases for the dish:

We use the heads and the shells of the shrimp to make stock, and here is the red shrimp stock on the stove:

Next course… filet mignon of ox, topped with baby carrots and setas (mushrooms) over a Jamaican pepper sauce:

And, primero postre (first dessert prior to the chocolate course) – the melon soup dish I described above:

It’s beautiful and refreshing. The best part is the lime-basil ice cream mixed with the melon soup. Wow!

And, because I’m so in love with even the family meals at Osmosis, here’s a pic of yesterday’s family meal: an empanada stuffed with tuna, green olives, hard boiled eggs, roasted red peppers, and zucchini, alongside a beautiful salad dressed with spicy olive oil. A few flakes of maldon sea salt and balsamic on my salad… sencilla y deliciosa!

One more thing I love about the food at Osmosis…. the bread. Although they don’t make it, they get exquisite, crusty bread and then they put it in the oven until you can hear it crackle inside. Frederic made me put the loaf up to my ear so I understood when to take the bread out of the oven. Love it!

Buen provecho!