Healdsburg’s Jordan Vineyard & Winery is known for its wines, its excellent culinary programs and its merry focus on the joy of picnicking. Here, the winery’s chef Jesse Mallgren — who used to helm the Michelin-starred Madrona Manor (now The Madrona) in Healdsburg — shares a recipe for a chilled bisque using that most springtime of ingredients, green garlic.
If green garlic is not in season at your grocery, Mallgren suggests substituting a 50/50 mix of scallions and leeks. Similarly, if caviar isn’t something you normally have in your cupboard, you might try using raw, sliced scallops or roasted green garlic — chopped and used to garnish the bisque. Or, just skip it entirely: “It’s good even without the caviar or anything else,” says Mallgren.
Chilled Green Garlic Bisque
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup Jordan Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 medium yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup green garlic bottoms, washed and thinly sliced
3 cups cream
1/4 cup green garlic tops, blanched then shocked in ice, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon crème fraîche
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1 ounce Jordan Chef’s Reserve Caviar
DIRECTIONS
On low heat, cook onions and green garlic bottoms in saucepan with salt until soft. Add the cream to the pan and gently warm, then add the green garlic tops. Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend on high until smooth. Strain through a chinois sieve into a bowl. Adjust seasoning as preferred. Then, chill the soup until cold.
Chill four serving bowls. In the bottom of each bowl, add crème fraîche in a small pile. Top the crème fraîche with caviar, then sprinkle the almonds around the caviar. Pour the chilled soup around the caviar. Serve immediately and enjoy with a glass of Jordan Chardonnay.
— Courtesy of Chef Jesse Mallgren of Jordan Vineyard & Winery
