White miso, yellowfin tuna in olive oil, red pepper flakes, capers and their brine, lemon juice and zest, garlic powder.
We’re working on a few new interpretations of old classic dishes. Vitello Tonnato is one that Alex grew up with and he still loves it because “it’s just darned tasty.” We started the discussion this morning when he asked me what I thought was the inherent flaw in Vitello Tonnato. Unfortunately, the problem with asking a leading question is that your audience doesn’t always follow your lead. After I compiled a laundry list of things that I’ve seen go wrong with the dish, I still hadn’t named his target. “Think about the texture. It’s never completely smooth because without a homogenizer the pureed tuna is always a little bit grainy.” This hadn’t occurred to me because in my mind it was one of the inherent characteristics of the sauce, but once I considered the idea of a super light, almost satiny tonnato sauce, I was in. It goes without saying that since I thought of a creamy sauce, Alex was thinking clear consommé. I pictured a rosy loin of veal, poached in the sauce, chilled, and sliced paper thin. He was picturing a clear vitello tonnato stock that he would use to poach veal tongue. The instant he said tonnato stock, I thought of dashi because really that is simply a tuna stock, and we were off to the races. A trip to Whole Foods yielded veal shanks and hip instead of loin and tongue. The list above illustrates the first step in the process. Evolutions will continue tomorrow morning and hopefully, at the end of the day, we’ll have great results to share with all of you.
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