Hug a Farmer - The French Laundry Garden

 

Although I didn't get a chance to meet a farmer in Toronto or up north I have visited a phenomenal world renown garden in the small town of Yountville, California.

 It was the garden for the 3 michelin starred restaurant, The French Laundry. Placed right across the street from the restaurant, the garden is about 3 acres and is tended to daily by a gardening staff lead by a farmer named Tucker Taylor. 

 

 

Unfortunately Tucker Taylor wasn't working the day I visited the garden but before my trip to California I knew I was going to visit the French Laundry and knew of Tucker Taylor. Farming is not just a job for him, he's really incredibly passionate about it. 

The French Laundry garden is something he is definitely proud of. It is incredibly neat and organized to a tee; even the chicken coop is incredibly clean I think it's even cleaner than my bedroom.

The garden across the street from the restaurant was thought of by Thomas Keller to provide local sustainable produce to his restaurants in Yountville which is Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery, Ad Hoc, and of course the famed French Laundry. 

It provides microgreens, seasonal vegetables, fresh eggs, herbs, any produce you could possibly think of. Taylor is very consciencious of how much water they use for the plants and the use of the sun and some greenhouses for vegetables that need more heat and sunlight. Everything in the garden is organic. 

They do support buying local and sustainable foods because it costs the restaurant less money to buy produce as they grow it across the street but also by doing so they help the economy of Yountville. 

It is amazing how passionate Taylor is about gardening. He gets so excited to tend to his plants because they really are alive and need love and care. It is something to be excited for when you see the fruits or rather in this situation the vegetables of him and his team's labour. A farmers job is just as important as a chefs. 

The farmer helps care and tend to the vegetable's growth. It is up to the chef to determine a way to cook the vegetable to highlight it's flavours and ensure that vegetable wasn't killed in vain and it was used wisely.

Eat well,

K.M.W.

 

Cooking Game : Red Wine Braised Rabbit

For this assignment I chose to buy rabbit. I was interested in cooking a venison loin or a wild boar ribs or something of that nature considering the flavour would be oustanding because a wild animal eats anything out there in the wild. The animals we typically eat are cooped up in  barns and fed food pellets. I chose a rabbit because it is readily available and also I have not cooked it before. I purchased the whole rabbit at Sanagan's Meat Locker located in Kensington market. One whole rabbit cost around $26 and I wanted to ensure none of it went to waste. I looked upon youtube to find a good video to show me how to take a part a rabbit and I did. I used everything including the rabbit's organs.

 I kept the head and some of the bones as I did not want to waste anything. I roasted the head and bones in a pan and cooked a mirepoix and made a jus for the roasted rabbit. I was aiming for a recipe that involved keeping the pieces of rabbit as a whole. It is such a delicate animal that I don't want to do a typical rabbit fricasse where the poor animal is really shredded to pieces. 

I found a recipe that caught my attention: Red Wine Braised Rabbit. I floured the rabbit pieces, seared it in oil, then cooked it with roasted garlic, sage, rosemary, and of course red wine. You cook it for about 45 minujtes then another 30 minutes uncovered in the oven. It was an interesting flavour. I have to admit I was hesitant on trying rabbit but then I thought about Gollum in Lord of the Rings and when he ate that roasted rabbit how delicious it looked. I was expecting the flavours to be a bit weird and they were. The texture as cliché as it sounds tasted a lot like chicken. You definitely need to braise rabbit because when you think of the animal… the animal is constantly moving using its whole body hind legs and front legs. If I were to re-do this recipe I would probably brine the rabbit and then fry it. I thought the crispy beautifully coloured skin dissipated in the braise and you couldn't really taste it. I served the rabbit with some crispy roasted potatoes, roasted butternut squash with thyme, feta, and maple syrup and rabbit jus. 

Eat Well.

K.M.W.