Until then, stimulate your palate Tuesday through Thursday beginning this week. We are offering three courses from our regular menu for $30. A first, main and dessert for $30. Our Monday night prix fixe menus are so popular, we thought you all would appreciate it during the week too.

We look forward to seeing you during Restaurant Week ‘10, and throughout February.
Erik

We now have the next harvest of Mitra’s Clabber fed Chickens, and these are fatter and more beautiful than the past. We will be doing a few of our composed clabber bird plates, or you can always call 24 hours in advance for a whole roast bird with garniture.

Wild game birds, (some still with shot in their flesh) like wood pigeon and red leg partridge from Scotland are on our plates, with traditional accoutrements like Bubble and Squeak, and bread sauce.

Pheasants from the Mid-West (they do pheasant right) are being served with heirloom squashes from Matt, and a whole Veal Calf from Longfellow’s Creamery was reduced to beautiful cuts in minutes. Longfellow’s Creamery is providing us with delicious cheese and some great cream. I made a small batch of table butter this week.

Soon enough, look forward to our Choucroute Garni. We have a whole bunch of Matt’s cabbage on a cure, which will be ready in a few weeks. Scallops are still delicious, and Maine Shrimp season is almost upon us.

Veal blanquette and Coq au Vin blanc are coming…tripe soup is working hard, and Matsutakes are adorning requested vegetarian plates, as well as Veal Sweetbreads. (For the vegetarians and vegans out there, come on in! I have been loving the challenge of cooking Vegan.)

Stephen has a great Autumnal drink list, and our Wines by the glass program has been a huge hit.

Many, many more things are popping up on our menu every day. (I change the menu daily, so please don’t use the menu on the website as a reference.)

I hope to see you all in soon!
Erik

Karen, you are amazing!!!!

I may have misspelled your last name….was it Snider or Snyder?

Some are raised on a small farm and fed nice clabber and whey. They also eat whatever else they want. Those are the birds I serve at Evangeline.

Black truffles prosper during the winter months. They always have, they always will. When it is summer here, it is winter in Australia. There is a gentleman in Australia who, for almost 35 years, has tried to cultivate a black perigord-style truffle. He has succeeded, as has Tom in Tennessee. Tom harvests them during our winter months. They both have dedicated their whole lives to the truffle. These truffles are better than anything I have eaten in France…..harvested when I ask for them to be harvested. They don’t pass through two or three (or up to 10) sets of hands before I put them on a plate. Heidi at Vervacious brings the equal.

Perfectly roasted clabber fed chicken + freshly dug black truffles = simply amazing.

Next time you roast a chicken, REALLY roast a chicken. Forget the butter, thyme, lemon, parsley, ginger, basting, tweaking the temperature, EVOO, marinating, curry powder, paprika, stuffing, blah blah blah. Don’t open the oven door, don’t baste it. A proper chicken doesn’t need to be basted. Learn how to truss it correctly. The skin should crisp and the juice should simmer right under it. You can actually see the natural juices lazily bubbling away. Leave the butter out of the equation unless you have a sub-par bird. A nice chicken doesn’t need all of that stuff. Especially curry powder. Salt and pepper, a nice raw bird, high heat and twine. Roast it until it is juicy and done. Let it rest, turn it over and eat the oysters and pope’s nose first. The thighs and legs next, then the wings and shoulder blades. If it is a good bird, you can actually eat the breasts. That’s what we do at home. If it is a bad bird, make chicken salad. And we try to refrain from the chicken salad.

If you are lucky enough to secure some fresh black truffles, simply shave them over the rested bird. Once it is carved, shave again. But never….I repeat NEVER use a black truffle from a jar or a can for this. It is like using canned snails over fresh. Who does that? Saturated in brine and dirt. Rubbery and flat.
And remember, NFDB.