James Chef Cody - Four Star Catering Simplified: Four Course Plated Menus

Chef Cody is the Executive Chef of Manhattan Catering LLC formerly out of Southern California wherehe had had one of the top personal chef services inthe area.
Chef Cody is a four star world traveled chef and has been certified with the United States Personal Chef Association for the past 10 years.
He graduated from Bay View HS in Milwaukee andwent on to graduated from Milwaukee Area Technical College as a culinary apprentice for The Grenadiers Restaurant of Milwaukee. The Grenadiers was a James Beard Award winning restaurant with anEnglish Pub, Italian Room, French Room and German Room.

After leaving Milwaukee in 1982 Chef Cody went on to travel the world doing culinary internships inFrance, Italy, and Germany to name a few. In 1996he met his lovely wife Linda.
We thought we would compile a cookbook featuringour clients most requested dishes. Here is volume 1. Enjoy!

3 U16 shrimp
2 oz micro greens per portion
Lemongrass, 1 stalk per portion
lemon per portion
2 bulbs of roasted garlic
2 oz sherry
2 tbsp olive oil
2 large shallots diced
1 green pepper diced
4 cups water
Directions:
Peel and devein the Shrimp. Save shells.
Make a stock of the shrimp shells
Brown the shells off with the sherry until all sherry is evaporated. Add olive oil to pan. Add Shallots,green peppers, and woody halves of stems of lemon grass, after they soften, add 4 cups of water, bringto a slow simmer and reduce by 2/3.
Drain the stock then add pureed roasted garlic tothicken.
Take smaller end of approximately 4 inch height of lemon grass stems, double skewer the raw shrimpon the lemon grass stem to make half moons. Now grill shrimp until center is pink

Follow this by standing cooked shrimp skewer inlemon half placed in the bottom of a flat soup bowl,pour lemon grass reduction over the top of theshrimp tower and sprinkle micro greens aroundbase of lemon half. Serve immediately.

Smoked Salmon Display garnished with Diced Tomatoes, Red Onions and CapersTo serve four

1 lb Side of Salmon
2 lemons sliced
6 oz capers
6 oz diced red onions
6 oz diced tomatoes
2 stalks of lemon grass
Salt and pepper to taste used on salmon prior tosmoking.
Smoker
Apple wood for smoking

To smoke the salmon fire up the wood slowly. Oncethe wood is smoking and the flame is out place lemon grass in smoker, along with side of salmon. Cover smoker tightly with aluminum foil. Cook salmon till it is 120 degrees or medium rare. Refrigerate salmon and plate next day.

Plate salmon on tray, surround with slices of lemon,diced tomatoes, diced red onions and capers. Serve with crostinis

Seared Tuna Tataki
over Tropical Jicama Slaw dressed with a Lime and Cilantro Vinaigrettegarnished with Green & Black Peppercorns

12 oz seared sushi grade tuna
1 jicama julienned thinly on mandolin green pepper, thinly julienned red pepper, thinly julienned red onion, thinly julienned
2 oz lime juice
2 oz rice vinegar
4 oz sesame oil
2-3 sprigs of cilantro finely chopped
16 oz soy sauce
cup sugar
cracked green peppercorns
cracked black peppercorns

Instructions: Roll tuna in cracked black and greenpeppercorns then sear it in a very hot cast iron panwithout oil. let cool slightly, then slice thinly.Refrigerate till needed.
Dressing for Jicama Slaw

Stir vigorously with whisk till combined well.
2 oz lime juice
2 oz rice vinegar
4 oz sesame oil
2-3 sprigs of cilantro finely chopped

In a sauce pan reduce soy sauce and sugar to a syrup consistency. Cool. Put in squeeze bottle to drizzle on top of the tuna after plating

To plate
Place jicama slaw in center of plate. Place tuna in atriangle form across top. Sprinkle with green andblack pepper corns. Drizzle soy sauce and sugar reduction over top of tuna

Blue Crab Salad with Avocado, Pink Grapefruit, Watercress, and Cilantro Aioli DrizzleTo serve four

8 oz. blue crab
1 Avocado diced
4 oz diced red onion
pink grapefruit, sectioned
1/2 pint of watercress
Salt and cracked black pepper to taste cup chopped cilantro leaves
3 egg yolks
9 oz olive oil
3 oz red wine vinegar

Instructions
Remove any skeleton bones from blue crab meat.Incorporate sectioned pink grapefruit, finely diced avocado and diced red onion

Aioli:
Take cilantro and egg yolks and put in a cylindricalcontainer, burr mix till emulsified, drizzle in oil, thenred wine vinegar, salt and cracked black pepper totaste
Put dressing in squeeze bottle

To serve: place blue crab salad mixture in center of plate, pinch watercress over the top and drizzle withcilantro aioli covering whole plate.

Mixed Fish Seviche with Lime and CilantroServed with Fried Root Vegetable Chips and Fried Plantains
To serve four

8 oz assorted seafood and shellfish.
2 limes
2 tbsp cilantro chopped
1 tbsp roma tomato finely diced
1 tbsp red onion, finely diced
1 small carrot
1 small beet
1 small sweet potato
1 turnip
1 plantain
12 oz cornstarch
Parsley
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions; combine lime juice, onion, cilantro, tomato in a glass or plastic bowl (Do not use metal)Add seafood mixture; marinate for 4 hrs minimum before serving to allow seafood to process.Root Vegetable Chips and Fried Plantains 1 small carrot
1 small beet
1 small sweet potato
1 turnip
1 plantain
12 oz cornstarch
Parsley, chopped fine
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Peel all root vegetables,slice thinly on mandolin,place in salted ice water

Preheat deep fryer to 375 degrees, Towel dry vegetables then submerge into deep fryer untilcrisp. Lightly salt after they come out of the fryer.