Restaurateur Ed Kane on the secret to creating the right ambiance
Restaurant and nightclub entrepreneur Ed Kane started his career close to home, working in his family's neighborhood bar in Boston. After college, he and his brother Joe bought and renovated an old diner – and that was just the beginning.
Kane had a feel for hospitality and an inspired eye for design. His Big Night Entertainment Group now runs 13 venues from top-rated restaurants to spectacular nightclubs and even a high-end bowling alley. One of his latest projects is Boston's Explorateur.
Here are some of Kane's signature recipes:
Icelandic cod
Ingredients
4 each 6oz. portions of Icelandic Cod
1 bulb fennel, green parts removed and chopped in large chunks
1 white onion, peeled and cut into large chunks
2 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
3 stalks celery cut in 1/3rds
3 pounds black mussels, fresh
½ cup white wine (pinot grigio is perfect)
A pinch of saffron
2 cups heavy cream
4 oz. butter
4 oz. dry chorizo, diced small
1 pound marble potatoes, boiled and chilled
Directions
1. In a tall sauce pot on medium heat, melt butter, and add onions, carrots, celery, and fennel. Sweat until fennel is tender. Add mussels and white wine, cover pot and steam until mussels are open. Add cream, and reduce heat to low.
2. Cook for on low heat until remainder of vegetables are soft. Strain liquid and reserve in a small sauce pot. Remove mussel meats and add to the strained cream.
3. Add cooked potatoes to the cream mix. Add the saffron to that cream and mussels mix and keep warm.
4. Season the cod portions with salt and pepper and roast in a 400 degree oven until golden brown.
5. While cod is roasting, split the sauce into 4 shallow bowls, and place cooked cod on top.
Onion soup
Ingredients
2 pounds caramelized onions
3 quarts chicken stock
3 quarts veal stock
1 cup dry sherry
4 each 1.5 oz. slices of provolone cheese
8 each 1.5 oz. slices of gruyere cheese
4 each 1" slices of crusty bread, toasted until golden brown with olive oil, salt and pepper
Directions
1. In a stock pot, heat the dry sherry until all alcohol has been cooked off. Add caramelized onions, and stocks. Reduce by 1/3.
2. Reduce by 1/3. Season with salt and pepper. Ladle soup into onion soup crocks, float toasted bread on top of soup Place 2 slices of gruyere cheese and 1 slice of provolone cheese per crock and melt under a broiler until cheese is crispy and golden brown.
Salad nicoise
Sherry vinaigrette ingredients
1 cup sherry vinegar
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 shallot
2.5 cups vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
Salad ingredients
6 oz. mixed greens
½ pound haricot verts, blanched and shocked
½ pound yellow wax beans, blanched and shocked
¼ cup sliced red onions
2 boiled eggs, cut in half
2 cups boiled marble potatoes, chilled and marinated in sherry vinaigrette (see above)
1 cup nicoise or coquillo olives
12 oz. Yellow Fin tuna, seared very lightly and sliced
Directions
1. For vinaigrette: Combine first 3 ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Slowly emulsify oil into mixture until fully blended, season with salt and pepper..
2. Dress the salad greens with the sherry vinaigrette to your liking and split onto two plates
3. Arrange remaining ingredients on salad, place Tuna on top and serve with some of the sherry vinaigrette on the side.
Fried cauliflower
Ingredients
1 head cauliflower, core removed, cut into bit sized chunks
2 T Calabrian chili paste
4 T olive oil
¼ cup chopped parsley
2 lemons, juiced
1/2 cup pitted Castelvetrano Olives
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup toasted Mediterranean Pine Nuts
Vegetable or canola oil for frying
Tahini dipping sauce ingredients
1 cup tahini
1 cup water
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt to taste
Directions
1. Combine all tahini sauce ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix with a whisk until smooth
2. Combine Calabrian chili paste, olive oil, lemon juice, and parsley, set aside. Fry Cauliflower in batches making sure not to crowd fryer, removed and dry on paper towels.
3. Place cauliflower, olives, and chili dressing in a bowl and mix gently. Season with salt and pepper to taste, garnish with toasted pine nuts.
Loge noir
Ingredients
3 oz. Black Tea Bourbon
1 oz. Black Fig Vodka
1 oz. Cola Syrup
1 oz. Lemon Juice
6 oz. Soda Water
1. Shake everything together but the soda water. Fill tea pot half full with ice and add shaken ingredients. Top with soda. Express lemon peels from lemon into the tea pot.
