Pigs in Palm Springs, Southern Style BBQ

Tiajuana

Cooking With Charlie Trotter

 

Matt Bolus, Charlie Trotter

We Are Back

Opening a restaurant will oddly enough take up so much of your time. Then, the next thing you know, four months have passed and not a single new thought or image has been put up on the blog. It is a new year now with a new schedule and lots of images and information to get out there.

Development of the Restaurant

Here are a few quick pictures of what has taken place in that last two weeks.  We have gone from a building site to a quick forming restaurant.  Paint, wall treatments, equipment, all of it is going in.  The floors are being worked on and should be done tomorrow.

Paint in the bathrooms.

 

Wall treatments from the reclaimed hard wood floors.

 

New dish washing room.

 

New hood and hot line equipment.

 

New stove and range.

 

Finally a day of moving equipment is over.

 

– matt bolus

Another New Dish, Monkfish

Thanks to the three Dave’s in my life, my father Dave Bolus who supported my decision to attend culinary school (yes my mother also supported me but her name fortunately is not Dave), Dave Blagden who gave me a job at the fishmongers in London, and Dave Szem my fishmonger now i have come up with an entree dish for the opening menu. 

Monkfish Entree

This is a combination of all that I know and love about fish and summer.  It starts off with monkfish that has been brined in a citrus simple syrup.  I then wrap the fish in roasted red peppers and then wrap it again in thinly shaved prosciutto.  The fish parcels are then pan seared, basted, and then finished with a touch of orange juice, butter, and fresh thyme. 

Finished Pan Searing

The fish will be served with oven roasted fingerling potatoes that have been tossed with salt, pepper, and chopped parsley, and finally topped with a summer melon tapenade.  The tapenade I make in the traditional fashion with olives, anchovies (in this dish I will use Spanish Bocarones) and then I add a mix of chopped summer melon and some of the remaining citrus simple syrup and olive oil.  The combination creates a dish that is rich in taste and texture while still being lite on the pallet and stomach.

– matt bolus

First Eggplant of The Season

First Eggplant

My first eggplant is now growing strong, with many more blooms on the plants. 

Future Eggplant

The rain we have had lately seems to have sent the plants into overdrive.  What is in store for these beautiful purple vegetables?  Well first is going to have to a the freshest eggplant Parmesan one has ever dreamed of.  Second will be the brilliant vegetable tort that Kelly does so well.  And finally, the rest will be roasted and canned in preparation for baba ganoush, the ever so delightful Middle Eastern dish that calls for roasted peppers (also from the garden) and great olive oil.

– matt bolus

A New Dish for The Menu

Here is a brief encounter of what you will soon find at Red Sky.  This is an apetizer on the new menu and a dish I did for a local T.V. news show called Lowcountry Live.  The first image is of an oven roasted garlic bulb which I pureed for the dish.  The second image is the final dish.  The dish is a pan seared hanger steak with roasted garlic puree, red wine jus, and crispy sweet potatoes.

Oven Roasted Garlic

 

Hanger Steak Apetizer

– matt bolus

The Ghetto Gourmet

This is a site I just found.  Actually Kelly found it after reading an article about it on the New York Times website.  It has to do with people hosting dinners in random places (i.e. apartments, homes, barns, etc) asking their guest to provide a donation in order to cover the costs of the food.  These events sound wonderful and will be something I will be looking for not only locally but when I travel as well.  I have not had the largest amount of time to go through the site but have already seen dinners of this type being served in Paris, France.  Sounds like a perfectly good reason to go to Paris to me…..

– matt bolus

Doing The Right Thing

I know this particular post has nothing to do with food but I had to post in anyway simply because it made me feel good about what Kelly and I had done.  Kelly and I had taken the dogs on a walk last night and upon returning to the house we were greated by the oddest chirping sound.  I dismissed it to be a hungry baby bird somewhere in the tree above.  Kelly on the other hand swore it was coming from the flower bed and had to go look.  I am so glad she did.  What she discovered was a baby squirrel that was (what we were later told) no more that 7 days old.  The little guy had apperently been thrown from the nest and was crying out for his mother.  We immediatly researched what to do (thank God for the internet) and found out that we should leave it right where we found it to see if the mother would return for it.  So we took the baby squirrel back out side (yes we had already brought him inside in an atempt to warm him up a bit and rid him of the pestering ants that were all over him) and set him back by the tree.  Hours later our little man was still crying out with no mother in sight.  So I called my mother who is veternary technitian to ask how to care for him.  She informed me that we would have to feed him karo syrup or Pedialite every two hours throughout the night and keep him warm with a heating pad.  She had her doubts about his chances but wished us well.  Off to the store I went to purchase the proper goods and up all night we stayed.  Luckily after several emails and phone calls we got connected with a lady just up the road who takes in baby squirrels to raise until they can be released.  We took him over there this morning and got a treat when we were able to play with seven other babies that had be given to her recently.  Shem, as he has now been named, is going to be professional cared for and of course checked in on by us from time to time.  Below are pictures of Shem and his new family.

Shem finally sleeping

 

New sister for Shem

 

A new brother for Shem

 

– matt bolus