Amuse Bouche – Calve’s Tongue, Cardoon Gratinee, Nisa Cheese, Nicoise Olives

The latest in the ‘No Amuse Leaves Without a Cardoon’ series. The calve’s tongue was slow cooked in water with a mirepoix and herbs for about 1.5 hours, peeled and then diced. The Nisa cheese is a sheep’s milk cheese we are currently featuring on our cheese presentation. The perfection of this Portugese cheese from Artisinal (big bummer they just got booted from coming to Chicago) is that the sheep are actually fed from cardoon thistle. A little of this semi-firm cheese grated atop the creamed cardoons – prepared in the same fashion as the amuse yesterday (I swear though they were made fresh today!) – offers the perfect acidity. Nicoise olives offers additional salinity and I began the dish conceptually with the olives and cardoons.