49 Inspired by Oregon From:   drwo@woteki.com Subject: inspired by Oregon Date: August 6, 2003 5:55:35 PM EDT To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Reply-To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info All: I mentioned a few days ago some of the wonderful meals we had at the Pinot Noir Festival. One in particular was prepared by Chef Kaspar featuring a Cold Trio of Seafoods Salad and a Braised Rabbit dish. This past weekend I decided to try to duplicate theses dishes, at least in my own way. I believe I mentioned that the salad had 3 delicious preparations, all served cold: salmon and baby shrimp salad, smoked sturgeon and a simply grilled shrimp. What I didn’t mention is that the dish was held together visually by a clutch of bright green leaf lettuce leaves held standing upright, as if growing out of the plate, by a cucumber wrapped around their stalk ends. The seafoods were arranged around the lettuce display. I thought I might have a problem obtaining at my local market the specific seafoods Chef Kaspar used, particularly the smoked sturgeon. However, whereas the three seafoods Chef Kaspar chose offered a delightful variety of tastes and textures, there is no reason I had to use them specifically. I thought I would substitute smoked trout for the sturgeon and perhaps I wouldn’t be able to get the baby shrimp. I was right about the shrimp but I couldn’t find the trout either. So I substituted sliced fresh figs for smoked sturgeon! Yes, I know, but they were delicious in this dish and suggestive of how you can vary the dish endlessly. A bigger problem in this dish would be the cucumber foundation for the lettuce tower. In Chef Kaspar’s dish there was no visible means for how the long, thin slices of cucumber were made to remain tightly wrapped around the lettuce bunches to keep them standing upright. See my recipe for my solution. The braised rabbit dish was more straightforward to duplicate, after all it’s “just another braised dish”. But it’s very, very delicious. And even though braised, it’s appealing in this warm weather because it’s made using rabbit. And the vegetables I used (after Kaspar) provide lots of bright summer colors to appeal to the eye. Serve this rabbit dish with -- what else? – Oregon Pinots. Enjoy!! Your Oregon correspondent and wine imbibing friend, Tom summerBraisedRabbit.doc