Ashley's Kitchen Blog

The Good Egg

A symbol of fertility and rebirth. It is a near perfect food that can certainly find its way into every meal of the day. The egg is able to perform solo or as a supporting cast member, not to mention it can stand up to every cooking method imaginable. Humble and amazing at the same time. So it seems fitting to hatch our Spring dessert menu with the good egg.

 

                         

Hardin Family Farms provides us with organic eggs every day, they are absolutely fresh and utterly delicious. Once the tops are removed, (very tricky unless you have an egg topper) the shells are cleaned and sterilized, and voila we have nature's perfect container.

 

Milk chocolate pot de créme baked inside the egg shell, nestled in a porcelain egg cup then finished with caramel foam and Maldon sea salt.

Tandra Watkins

Pastry Sous Chef

It's Crawdaddy Time!

One of the restaurant's dearest friends, Lynn Marshall, flew up 100 lbs of Louisiana crawfish today for us to play with. They were a feisty bunch! Thanks Marshall

 

We purged them again, then gave em a quick steam bath

 

I don't think Lee can see with all that steam. 

 

Next we iced them down in a salty ice bath.

 

Then we ate a "few" 

 

Here they are all finished up and ready for picking.

Not my favorite thing to do,but they taste so much better when you do it yourself.

 

(All 100 lbs of the crawfish were killed in the making of this blog.)

I'll have a new crawfish dish on ASAP!

 

Cassidee Dabney

Sunday Brunch...Soft Shell Crabs!!!

  We are entering an new era here at Ashleys. Though we have had softies(what soft shell crabs are refered to up north) for a little while now, we are going to begin serving them at Brunch. Our new preparation has bacon, avacados, black eye peas and a fried egg. I have had quite a few softies in my day, but these are the best flavor/texture I have ever had.

In our religion of cooking we firmly believe in tasting every thing that we create. Which is a dressed up way to say Cassidee and I devoured this very plate in less than thrirty seconds.    

If you have never had a soft shell crab, you should come check out this one.

Matt McClure

Oh what a night!

 

Matt "lost" his iced tea for about an hour...here he is "reunited"..it feels so good...

 

  

Truffle Celery Root Tots for the Filet dish...so good

 

The new foie dish rock! Seared foie with poached quince,toasted sourdough bread and cucumber

The cucumber does a great job of balancing the riches of the foie and the sweetness of the quince

If you've never had this combo...try it

 

Cassidee Dabney

 

 

New Dishes

  Every few weeks (sometimes days) we change a few menu items on the Ashley's dinner menu.

Who doesn't love soft shell crabs and gaint prawns? Here we've paired these two tasty items with braised endive,carmelized grapefruit and basil

Above we have the Rib-eye three ways, Grilled, Country Fried and Braised. Served with Cauiflower Puree, Grilled Romaine and Parm Cream.. 

This is the Nantucket Scallop with Eggplant,Mint and Orange. Both Matt McClure and myself worked in New England and can't get enough of these salty sweet little treats

Cassidee Dabney