IDEAS IN FOOD

Momofuku

We met my mother for lunch yesterday.  Mom is a free spirit from Japan.  Having said this, the fact that she has lived in New York City for well over thirty years has done nothing to alter that inner core of Japanese that is so much a part of her personality.  Since Alex was still under the weather (and in total denial about this fact, he's back in bed today), we decided that ramen would be perfect.  It is warm, soothing, comforting, and one of all of our favorite foods.  Alex and I had been to Momofuku last year and we thought that Mom would enjoy it.  She is something of a ramen connoisseur so were curious to see how she would like the place.

We arrive at about 11:40 AM and the restaurant was not yet open.  Alex stuck his head inside and discovered that it did not open until twelve.  Fortunately it was a gorgeous day and we went for a walk around the neighborhood.  When we returned it was a couple of minutes before noon and there was another couple waiting outside.  The staff was still setting up and it wasn't until five minutes after twelve that the closed sign was whisked off of the door.  Oddly, no one opened the door to invite the waiting parties in, they just removed the sign and disappeared, leaving the couple in front of us to hesitate briefly before actually entering.

For those who have never been to Momofuku, it is a ramen joint with a long counter in the back, bordering the cooking area so that diners can watch the action.  There are windows are along the front and there are parallel counters in the open space.  The front section always receives better service because the servers must walk through this area to get to the counter seats.  She cannot reach them by going behind the counter because that's where the cooks work.   As a result, she (yesterday it was a she) often gets waylaid before making it to the diners seated at the counter.  My recommendation is that if you are in a hurry sit by the windows.  The food is often served to you by the cooks but if you need drinks or to place an order or get a check, you may be sitting at the counter for quite some time.

The cook in front of us was not very friendly.  Alex asked him what he recommended and the guy kind of shrugged and said he had no idea what we liked, hesitated and the suggested the Momofuku ramen to his mise en place.  Then he put his head down and became very busy wiping his cutting board, obviously hoping that we wouldn't try to speak to him again.  He seemed to be the guy in charge, although he was not the actual Chef, but he seemed so uncomfortable dealing with people over the course of our lunch, that I felt kind of bad for him. 

Anyway, unsurprisingly we ordered a lot of food.  We had the steamed buns, which were good but needed more sauce.  There were crispy pig tails which were rich and chewy, nicely braised with a thick brown sauce, they were tasty, albeit slightly bland and definitely not crispy.  The brussel sprouts were a highlight, extremely small sprouts which were split in half, sauteed with country ham and served with kimchee puree.  These were nutty and a bit sweet, slightly overcooked, meltingly soft and blackened around the edges.  The braised pig belly was unctuous and under seasoned.  I didn't try the chicken wings although Mom seemed to enjoy them, but the special of the day was Salt and Pepper Sweet Maine Shrimp.  Salt and Pepper shrimp is one of my favorite dishes,  I love the contrast of the highly seasoned, crunchy shrimp skins with the tender succulent flesh.  In this case, there was no fryer so the shrimp, which were overflowing the pan, were sauteed.  The shrimp were under seasoned, served with the heads on and no directions as to how to consume them.  We ate them with the skins but the party next to us went through some debate before finally taking off the heads and peeling the shrimp.  The skins were soft enough to eat but the dish was lacking it's essence.  One of the main attributes of the seasonal sweet Maine shrimp is that they are stuffed with roe and sold with the heads on.  The idea of them deep fried with a salt and pepper coating was evocative.  They would so delicate and crunchy, and you could eat the whole thing.   The reality was good but not amazing, not really the same dish at all.  The shrimp were fresh and still had that wonderful sweet flavor.  As soon as I can get my hands on some of these shrimp I know exactly what to do with them this year.  Although they do make an amazing risotto, with stock from the heads, just barely thickened with the roe and topped with the seared pink shrimp and freshly sliced scallions.  Crispy salt and pepper shrimp with a spicy sauce  and fresh lettuce leaves will be the perfect starter.  Perhaps we can procure a bunch and do a menu.

Finally we had ramen, actually Mom & Alex had ramen and I had the Shanghai noodles.  We were all pretty full at this point and that was good thing.  As Mom and I waited outside while Alex settled the bill she turned to me and said "The ramen were AWFUL.  Everything else was good but the ramen were terrible"  In her opinion the noodles had been seriously overcooked.  She had tasted all three noodle dishes and deemed mine the best but none of them actually good.  The shanghai noodles were thick and much more difficult to overcook.  My broth was also the richest and most suitable to winter, laden with tender pork neck, a slow cooked egg, a bit of bok choy and sweet bamboo.  It needed some balancing brightness and acidity but I thought it was still a pretty decent bowl of noodles.

I actually forgot to pull out the little camera, we're not used to traveling with one.  We'll try to remember it next time.  Please bear in mind that this is not a review, it is just a recounting of our experience yesterday.  Last year we didn't write very much about our dining experiences because we are both tough critics and because we aren't reviewers.  This year we are going to share more of our experiences with the caveat that they are not reviews, they are just our experiences.  Please take them with a grain of salt and enjoy.

Arrival

We arrived in NYC late on Saturday.  We had arranged for the last couple of posts to be published while we were traveling so there wouldn't be gap, we really try to make sure that we post something every day but...well, you know how it goes, the best laid plans of mice and men...  Sunday morning Alex woke up sick as dog, by midafternoon I had a borderline migraine and the internet was not cooperating with me at all.  I couldn't get the connection to work no matter what I tried.  Thirty six hours in a car with two dogs and a cat can drain the life out of you and I guess our bodies were telling us both we needed a day of recovery.  But it's a brand new day, we'e feeling fine and we've worked out our internet issues.  We just wanted to post a brief note to keep eveyone apprised of the situation and we'll be back later on today with more food!

Melon Noodles

In an attempt to find function in the form of melon confit, I thinly sliced the melon into wide noodles.  The bright clean flavor of the melon triggered thoughts of salads, while the noodles themselves directed me towards pad thai.  Well, we married both ideas with a melon noodle salad with scallion, lime, Key West Pink shrimp, smoked cashews and a few drops of our smoke and fire hot sauce.  The dish eats like pad thai with individual noodles and bites with a variety of flavors and is refreshing like a salad.

Streusel Cheesecake

Having grown up in New York City, cheesecake has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.  In my youth it was an integral part of dining out.  Dinner at those famous steakhouses, depending upon the season, ended with either strawberries and cream or cheesecake.  Trips to the theater were anticipated as much for the pleasure of the show as for the pleasure of stopping at Lindy’s for a slice of cheesecake beforehand.  During my years in high school, Baby Watson cheesecakes were a staple in the refrigerator at home, the perfect panacea to high school’s myriad woes.  I was always a purist.  I liked my cheesecake straight.  No goopy fruit sauces to mar the rich creamy perfection.  Sour cream cheesecakes were my favorite, the soft tanginess against my tongue contrasting with the sweet grainy crust.  To my mind, a simple piece of cheesecake is one of life’s perfect pleasures.

Let me clarify that statement.  The cheesecake needs to fall into the category of a New York Cheesecake in order to qualify as a perfect food.  I have no truck with light fluffy confections masquerading as cheesecake and as far as I'm concerned, ricotta cheesecakes don't even belong on the same playing field.  They lack the texture and flavor that are the heart of any real cheesecake.    As I’ve matured, my cheesecakes have become lighter and silkier but they are still based upon tradition, cream cheese and sour cream.  I have to admit that I have had a few great cheesecakes accented with chocolate or nuts but unless the fruit is achingly fresh and only very lightly macerated, with minimal embellishments, I’ll still take my cheesecake straight, thank you very much.

As I began baking cheesecakes at home and in professional kitchens I realized that not only are there a million variations on my favorite simple dessert, but that the crust can be something of a problem.  It always seemed to stick to the pan and get left behind as the slice was lifted on to the plate.  It’s not pretty enough to scrape up and add to your presentation, so many cakes were served naked, sans crust to balance out the flavors.  Fact is the crust is a necessity.   It is an integral part of the cheesecake experience and not to be eliminated.  I needed to find a way to make it more user friendly.  The simple solution was put it on top of the cake.  I began experimenting with a streusel cheesecake.  The crumb topping might fall off but it can be scooped up and added to the plate.  It has a wonderful crunchy, sandy texture to contrast the suave smoothness of the cake and depending upon my mood and my cake, I can season it with anything from sweet spices to nuts or chocolate and it would still pair beautifully with the cake beneath it.

Streusel Cheesecake

1 1/2 cups AP Flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 ounces melted sweet butter

Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking soda in a bowl.  Whisk to blend thoroughly.  Add butter and stir to moisten and form coarse crumbs.  Set aside for later.

24 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
24 ounces sour cream (room temperature)
3 eggs (room temperature)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350ºF, 300ºF convection
Wrap an 8” cake circle or spring for pan with foil and place on a parchment lined sheet tray.

Using a blender, whip together cream cheese, eggs, sugar and salt until well blended.  Add sour cream and blend briefly to homogenize.  Pour into prepared cake pan and rap the sheet tray sharply on the counter a few times to release air bubbles.  Place in preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Add streusel topping to cake and continue to bake an additional 15-25 minutes until cake is wobbly but not solid in the center (like jello).  Cool at room temperature for 30 minutes and refrigerate for at least four hours before serving.

Pistachio and Burnt Caramel and Tandoori Banana

As the snow blankets the mountains, I can say that now because we actually got a slight dumping of snow yesterday, our tinkering in the kitchen continues.  We have worked out two interesting components for dishes, though integrating them into a final composition has proved to be a stumbling block.  The first, is a Sicilian pistachio and burnt caramel puree.  It is really that simple.  We pureed the pistachios with a good pinch of salt and burnt caramel essence.  (An ingredient in our pantry inspired by the work of Recchiuti chocolates)  When the puree was smooth, we strained it.  I wanted to use it as a liquid center for chocolate pate, served with ancho cherries.  The dishes first rendition fell short in the chocolate pate department.  After this failure, I began thinking about making a hot chocolate pate with the pistachio-burnt caramel center.  We shall see.

The second ingredient in motion is tandoori spiced banana.  We flavored yogurt with cardamom, smoked paprika, curry powder, ginger, and cinnamon.  We used the flavored yogurt to marinate bananas which we then slowly cooked.  When the bananas were done cooking the flavors has married and we had a banana which we could use in either sweet or savory preparations.  Unfortunately, as I began working with the banana in different textures: scrambled, pureed, fried, tempura, griddled, I ran out of banana.  I am still unsure where and how this ingredient will be incorporated, though I know it will.

Assembling Ideas

Where did the concept of twelve courses, which actually ended up being thirteen, for a menu come from?  We approach food with methodical spontaneity.  In doing so, we have filtered our thoughts on an ideal meal and arranged a twelve, perhaps slightly more, course approach to a great meal.  Sure, not everyone is going to cook twelve courses.  The progression and evolution of ingredients and techniques  in such a menu  focuses  the cook and diner upon not just the food but the entire experience.  We have only occasionally had the opportunity to serve a menu which involves all twelve plus courses.  That is alright, because as we continue to cook and work with food and people we are able to polish our approach. 

In fact, as we continue to learn, we are able to fine tune the methods which first helped us structure this approach to a meal.  In order to share our ideas broken down in the format of Twelve Courses I am linking to another writeboard.  The document is about double spaced pages, progressing from an amuse bouche to  the farewell mignardise.  Here is the Twelve Course Notebook. The password is twelve.

Preparation

Walking in the woods with the dogs is definitely something that I will miss while we are in New York for the next couple of months.  It's such a peaceful part of my day, well... except when we run into some mule deer or a herd of elk or a porcupine.  But even when there's a bit of drama on the walk I always return refreshed and rosy cheeked with very happy beasties.  Other things I will miss are access to our pantry and kitchen equipment, amazing sunrises and sunsets, our library and DVD collection, and all of the menus and artwork that are framed upon our walls.  But it is a temporary exile and one we are looking forward to with great anticipation.

This week has been tough.  Things are very slow at work and knowing that escape is so close makes the moments tick by even more slowly.  We are reorganizing the house and weeding through all of the magazines and articles that we didn't have time to read this past year.  The wine room has been inventoried and locked up for the duration.  I'll spend the day before we leave feverishly cleaning the house so that it will be a nice welcome home when we return in April.  I know that there will be mice in residence when we get back, it's unavoidable in the country.  But Lucky will be on his game after months in the city and they will stand no chance against our little tiger.

We're slowly compiling our list of restaurants, bookstores and marketplaces to visit back east.  We've even invested in a very discreet  little point and shoot camera so we can document our adventures for the blog.  I am absolutely determined to make it to the giant Japanese supermarket in NJ this year.  No excuses about the traffic will be tolerated.  I have a (subjective) list of the best used bookstores in the city and cannot wait to see what treasures we can unearth in them.  I know that Alex loves to wander through all of the chocolate shops and we can spend hours in the Mac store in Soho.   Can't forget about the wine stores, I cannot wait to be able to meander through the enormous wine stores in New York and browse to my heart's content.  JB Prince, Korin, Broadway Pan Handler, lots of shopping to do.  It should be an interesting trip.  We're still trying to put something together to meet some of our readers but a viable kitchen for entertaining may be in short supply.  Perhaps we could just meet somewhere to eat & drink & share ideas.  We''ll also be entertaining travel agents & hopefully some members of the press.  Lots to do, and that's just the culinary aspect.  The best part of all is that when we return we'll be refreshed and ready to tackle a new season in Colorado.

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2005 Food Blog Awards

We'd like to take a moment to congratulate all of the winners of this year's awards.  We'd also like to thank all of the people involved in the awards for taking the time to make this happen.  Finally we would like to send a very special thank you to all of the people that voted for us.  We may not have won an award but the knowlege that so many people are enjoying our blog makes all of our efforts seem worthwhile.

Celery

I am the lucky recipient of much of Aki's cooking.  I can walk into the kitchen and she will hand me partially prepared ingredients or a list of what is cooking and what approach she is taking with the ingredients.  She does not always have an end in mind for these ingredients, she is just cooking how and what she wants.  I am then handed the baton and begin to integrate her culinary insights and endeavors into a variety of dishes.  Over the weekend Aki braised celery.  Celery is not an ingredient that gets much acclaim, though everywhere you look its influence is seen.  Think about it.  From soup to deviled eggs to Victor, celery is there.  Aki took this simple ingredient and cooked it with green Chartreuse and salt.  The herbal notes of the Chartreuse brighten the flavor of the melting and tender celery.  The amazing flavor and texture of the celery sparked a scallop dish which married a salad of the braised celery with a stew of preserved strawberries, celery leaves and scallions.  We accented the braised celery with vanilla salt and the dish was done.

A Few Questions About Wine

Earlier this month when Alan and Barbara were out here, we had the first informal meeting of their trip over at their house.  After the meeting was over, Alan pulled out a bottle of 1983 Petrus for us to drink as we caught up on what had been happening for the last few months.  It was a very good wine but it was not quite the experience that I had been expecting.  Alan took one look at the wine in the glass and said that the wine had already peaked and was heading downhill.  He advised me to mark down the rest of the 1983 Petrus because it wasn't going to last much longer.  His deduction was based upon the fact that the rim had faded to a burnt orange color.  In his many years of wine drinking and collecting (more years than I've been alive), this occurence had always signalled a deterioration in the quality of the wine.  I have not been able to drink as many older wines as I'd like so I can't accurately confirm or deny his opinions.  Although I have tasted older wines that had not yet faded to orange at the rim which were much more vibrant and balanced than this particular bottle of Petrus.  But is that like comparing apples and oranges, to make a judgment call based solely upon the appearance of the rim?  The conversation did led to some other thoughts on wine.

Over the years when Alex and I have come across a bottle that we especially enjoyed we would buy a case or a six pack of the wine to put away.  This way we could enjoy the wine's evolution over a period of years.  In my experience the quality and character of wines in a case can vary widely.  For example, when I worked at Sherry Lehmann I received a case of Gruaud-Larose.  The bottles in the case ranged from flabby and jammy to lean and refined.  It was like drinking two entirely different wines except that they came packaged in the same wooden case.  Generally speaking no two wines in a case are exactly alike and that is part of the wine's allure.  I mentioned this when Alan suggested marking down all of the Petrus because I didn't necessarily believe that because one bottle was past it's peak, that the rest of them were as well.  After all, the wines in the KG cellar weren't even from the same case and the storage conditions are slightly better at the Guest House.

When I worked at the wine store the accepted theory on flawed wines was that they tended to occur in batches.  So, if one bottle was returned the odds were that the entire case was off.  In fact, when bottles were returned the distributors were informed so that they could red flag a particular wine and let the retail outlets know that there could be issues with that particular wine.  If you follow the theory and you buy a case of wine, if the first bottle is flawed you may want to return the rest.  Now, I am either a glutton for punishment or an eternal optimist because last year we bought a case of wine from a winery as one of our house wines (at home) and the first bottle was flawed.  We tossed it and moved on.  The second bottle was fine.  The third and fourth bottles were corked.  The fifth and sixth bottles were good, the seventh, eigth and ninth were corked.  At this point I didn't want to call the winery because I felt kind of silly for opening all these bottles over a period of months.  A smart person would have just cut their losses and returned the wine several bottles earlier.   Two of the remaining three bottles were good and after much debate I sat down and e-mailed the winery about my experience.  I did not ask for a refund or replacement, I just wanted to let them know what happened.  The winery actually replaced the entire case which I felt was above and beyond the call of duty although I certainly appreciated the gesture.  The question remains, if you buy in quantity and do not open the wine for months or years, what do you do if the first bottle is corked?

Speaking of flawed wines, corkage has been less of an issue in Colorado than secondary refermentation.  I have opened more sparkling wines that were meant to be still here in Colorado than anywhere else in my life.  It's a terrible thing to see a vibrant luscious wine metamorposize into something fizzy and devoid of flavor.  It makes me think that the altitude is a factor but I haven't been able to get any confirmation on that either way.  I enjoy unfiltered wines and it's a calculated risk but I can't help but wonder if the problem is as widespread at sea level?

So, if anyone out there has some insight we'd love to hear it.  In spite of our responsibilities in the wine room and developing the wine list, I don't get to taste as often as I'd like.  Wine is an ever-changing landscape and I always seem to be slightly behind on my homework.  It's one of those topics where I know I know I've forgotten more than I'll ever remember.   It is fascinating subject though, one of the few that you can study and experience at the same time.  Perhaps the constant questions are just part of it's intoxication.

Pointing with Flavor

We finished our short rib discussion yesterday without a finished dish.  Since we have guests arriving today we needed to assemble a variety of dishes for this evenings menu, one of which will feature the olive brined short ribs.  We have spent some time working on the delivery of flavor, from a quick hit to the subtle development of flavors as a dish progresses.  Short ribs are rich, decadent and can be heavy.  In preparing a short rib dish we sought out ingredients with their own clarity in order to achieve balance.  We made a ginger flavor strip to add spice and floral components to the dish, while our melon confit added a refreshing juicy crispness.  We married the clean and rich flavors components with a miso butterscotch sauce, tying burnt caramel with salty, fatty and a touch of acid.  The dish works because the flavors all work to elevate one another.

Curds and Whey

I have wanted to serve curds and whey together as a dish for some time.  These two basic elements of cheese making have  inspired an aesthetic which until today I had yet to execute.  I took some time this morning to clear my head in the 7 degree air, crunching through the remnants of snow on the ground while watching our dogs truly enjoy life.

The walk must have done something, or at least just gotten my thoughts on a new path.  The cheddar dashi I made the other day was delicious, and the dish we first assembled was tasty but it did not do justice to the broth.  When I returned to the kitchen after the morning walk I was handed a pale green puree.  Aki, frugal as always had made a broccoli stem puree.  Now the ball was in my court, make it work.

Well, the leap from broccoli to cheese was not difficult nor was it long in the making.  With the combination in my mind, I began to think about floating broccoli stem gnocchi in the cheddar dashi.  As I began assembling the gnocchi my thoughts of curds and whey popped into my head.  Bingo!  So, I made warm broccoli curds instead of gnocchi and poured the cheddar dashi at the table.  Dots of cheddar oil punctuate the dashi and the silky broccoli curds round out the dish.

A Short Rib Discussion

I was recently asked about braising short ribs.  We have not had short ribs on our menu for a while, so I had to refer to my notes, more like an assemblage of random thoughts and ideas, to find a time and temperature for the braising procedure.  Well, my notes stated to cook the boneless short ribs for twenty four hours at 67 degrees C.  Alright, I responded quickly with my answer.  My answer was met with another question involving the braising of meats, Alain Ducasse, his variety of recipes and the substantially lower temperature  (58 degrees C)and extended time (72 hours) as written in his recipes.  I responded with the important temperature of the melting point of collagen (71.1 degrees C) and that I did not think such a low temperature would yield melting short ribs.  Tender, yes but still too toothsome for my tastes.  I noted that our temperature was lower than the aforementioned collagen melting point, though I felt the fact that we brined the meat and also the low temperature of the water bath would allow for enzymatic and protein denaturing to take place.  I then solidified my own thoughts by returning to Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking, a great resource and one which helps clarify our cooking procedures. 

Yet, somehow I wondered, what did Ducasse know that I did not?  So, I emailed Harold McGee for an answer to my quandary.  I am awaiting a response.  Meanwhile, I figured I might as well test my notes again, I could have made a mistake.  We brined our short ribs in olive brine, it seems I am not quite over olives yet.  We glued them together with activa and then braised them per my notes at 67 degrees C for 24 hours. 

The result was melting and toothsome short ribs with a rosy pink interior.  In our kitchen we do not have the luxury to braise something for 72 hours.  Though, if I can be educated on the exponential benefit of a 72 hour braise, I will happily sing another tune.

Dried Blue Cheese

In an attempt to integrate blue cheese into a variety of dishes, I needed to find a different medium in which to distribute the cheese and its flavors.  Yesterday, I began drying out Fourme d' Ambert.  This morning I was able to grind it into a fine powder.  The dried cheese retains the flavor profile of Fourme d' Ambert while being light, delicate and easily dispersible.  Today we paired it with twice cooked scallop, chanterelle mushrooms preserved in maple vinegar and cranberry-fermented black bean puree.  The dried cheese acts as a focused seasoning for the ingredients in the dish, allowing the diner to apply various amounts depending on the bite.

Cheddar Dashi

When we were on Martha's Vineyard we made a Parmesan broth to enrich risotto.  The broth itself was the brain child of Marco Canora of Hearth restaurant.  The broth was made with a dark chicken stock infused with Parmesan rinds, reduced, clarified and then enriched with more Parmesan and butter.  The clarification removed any unwanted sediment and particles from the broth and allowed us to have an intense and clean slate to which the additional ingredients would heighten the Parmesan flavor and the impact on the palate.

I was recently reminded of this broth while talking to Wylie at wd-50 who was clever enough to make a Swiss cheese consomme to serve with braised pork belly and sauerkraut spaetzle.  While this conversation took place several months ago, it was only today that I was finally able to digest and filter these two interesting cheese enhanced broths and come up with our own.

I enjoy dashi.  I think my affinity is due to its lightness and rich savory qualities.  When I think about broths these days I look towards dashi first and consomme second.  Well, I was able to marry the two while making Keen's cheddar dashi.  We made a broth with kombu and keens cheddar.  We strained the broth and let it chill.  The cheddar fat solidified on the top of the broth.  The fat was an exciting by product of making cheddar dashi.  I was able to reserve the fat and integrate it into the final dish.  Back to the dashi.  I then adjusted the seasoning of the broth with soy sauce and banyuls vinegar.  After the broth was balanced I clarified the dashi, strained it and added a bit more vinegar and salt.  The broth was done.  We served the cheddar dashi with a rock shrimp roulade, apple-celery root condiment, olive pearls and Keen's cheddar oil.

Riced Scallop

We were ricing potatoes and I had some  scallops on hand as well.  The image of riced potatoes sparked the thought of putting the scallops in the ricer as well.  The raw scallop becomes finely minced while retaining the shape of riced potatoes.  The nooks and crannies of the riced scallop provide space for various garnishes.  Today we accented the scallop with minced ginger and sake cured roe.  The dish was completed with tofu crackers and sweet and sour squash juice.

About Credit and the Meaning of Perception

I have been staring at a brick wall.  This wall has been a huge obstacle and an Achilles heel for too long.  I am talking about the need for recognition.  I cook for feedback, ideally positive, although I learn from the negative as well.  It can be summed up quickly, the ideal response is a satisfied smile from the person eating my creations.  Yet, in cooking and developing dishes over the years, I have yearned for more.  I have wanted some sort of credit for the work I do.  I search for peer recognition, the satisfaction that comes from knowing that other chefs and cooks understand and respect what I do.  And what is funny is that when I get caught up in the search, I forget about that smile on the guests' faces and the reason why I became a Chef. 

We are estalished in a small place.  We have the luxury of interacting with all of our guests.  In fact, we have always favored and searched out small venues for our cooking.   This quest has led us to more and more remote places.  It has been our experience that the more isolated the resort, the more emphasis is placed upon the food.  The interaction between chef and guest is one of trust and faith.  In an area when the guest is a willing captive (because there is literally no where else for them to go), an intimate relationship can be forged and new heights of culinary satisfaction can be achieved.

As I continue to grow and hopefully mature as a person and as a chef I have days where my gut is checked.   We promote the concept that ideas are free.  That is how we cook, teach and expand our horizons.  In recent months, individuals have reached out to us via our website and asked for recipes, concepts, explanations and sources.  Now here is where it gets interesting.  We have been happy to share all of our thoughts with others.  And yet, in sharing I usually add the caveat that we would appreciate a bit of recognition for being the source.  My ego, yes, an apparently fragile ego, requested to be acknowledged for sharing ideas, supposedly free ideas.  Yes, we spend time and energy working out details.  So what, someone else will do the same for other concepts and their ideas will spark our ideas.  We don't always mention the source of every idea that we write about and we have no reason to expect others to either.

People have often asked about why no one knows about Aki and myself and our culinary gymnastics.  The more people asked the more frustrated I became, not realizing that the questions mean that people are finding us.  Slowly but surely they are finding their way to our food.  In choosing this intimate  and isolated location as our stage we knew that it would take longer to be discovered.  That was our original decision.  We could have placed ourselves in a larger, more urban setting.  We chose small.   We chose relationships and freedom over easy recognition.  We chose to walk our own path rather than climb someone else's ladder.  As a result it's counterproductive to belly-ache about it now.  We are lucky to have this website as a medium for sharing ideas.  Does this mean I no longer want credit for our thoughts and work?  No, it just means that now I understand that the questions themselves, the requests for information, are already an acknowlegement of what we do here.  National recognition would be nice but it's not necessary.   The respect I was looking for already exists, I just needed to open my eyes to see it.   So, to everyone who has asked us for ideas and information and received a bill of credit, I apologize.  Please tear up that bill.

Now how did I come to this epiphany today?  I think I was ready, but I will share my sparks.  The first came from a book I was given, The Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander.  I was stuck at the garage this morning, getting our car serviced and had several moments to read.  An opening to a chapter caught my eye.  I will quote it here and hopefully avoid the copyright authorities.

A shoe factory sends two marketing scouts to a region of Africa to study the prospects for expanding business.  One sends back a telegram saying
SITUATION HOPELESS STOP NO ONE WEARS SHOES
The other writes back triumphantly,
GLORIOUS BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY STOP THEY HAVE NO SHOES

The second spark came later in the day when I was reading the Church of the Customer Blog where they posted Why the Steelers beat Indy.

Both these insights are comedic and pointed.  They were not directly about credit, recognition or cooking.  Yet, within their framework lies an essential fact.  It is how you look at the picture.  That is how we have been successful with our cooking and in our lives.  It just took a couple of new style fables to open my eyes.

Bananarama

Over the holidays we had a quite a few interesting guests.  One that stands out in my mind was a lady who came in with a group to celebrate a birthday.  It was a party of eight and it didn’t seem as though they were the kind of people who normally eat out at fine dining restaurants.  This is an observation, not a condemnation.  They were very excited to be with us but seemed somewhat uncomfortable in their surroundings.  We did our best to set them at ease and to ensure that they would enjoy their evening.  Once they were finally settled, one of the ladies turned to the server and asked for a bar book.  She was offered a cocktail list and firmly refused it.  “No, no, I want one of those books that lists all of the different drinks in it.”  Flummoxed, the server went to retrieve a book of cocktails from behind the bar.  She presented it to the lady who proceeded to sit there perusing the book while her companions looked over the wine list.  Eventually she called the server over and ordered a slightly unusual fruity cocktail. 

“Let me find out if we can make that for you.”  The now slightly panicked server came back into the kitchen with the book checking to make sure Alex was out of earshot.  I looked up from the dishes I was plating.

Sharply, “What are you doing with that book?”

“Um, the guest requested it.  She wanted to choose her own drink.”

“Did you offer her the list?”

“Of course I did.  She wanted an actual BOOK.  I couldn’t talk her out of it.”

“So, what did she order?  Do you need me to make something?”

“She ordered a Bananarama!”

“A what?”

“A Bananarama!  I’ve never even heard of a Bananarama.  And we don’t have the ingredients, I mean, I’ve never even heard of a Bananarama!”

“Okay, when I finish these plates I’ll go out to the bar and talk to her.  I’m sure we can come up with something.”

“She’s not at the bar.”

“She’s not at the bar?  Where is she?”

“At The Table.”  Slowly,  “She wants her Bananarama with her dinner.”

“With her dinner?”

“Yes.”

At this moment Alex walks in from the dining room.  “What’s with Table 2?  And why is there a bar book in here?”

I turned to the server, “Go find out her second choice.”  The server fled.  Alex had a minor meltdown, which thankfully no one heard.  The customer had White Russians with her tasting menu.  It didn’t matter.  She wasn’t there for the food.  She was there for the opportunity to order a very expensive, specially made cocktail.  We obliged her to the best of our abilities at the moment.  Why?  Because this is a Service Industry and that’s just one of the many services we offer.  We may not always like it but we always have to find a way to make it work.

Bananarama
As long as you’re making this, you might want to garnish the glass with vanilla or lime salt and a wheel of banana.

1 oz crème de bananas
1/2 oz orange liqueur
1 dash bitters
1 oz light cream

Pour the crème de bananas, orange liqueur, bitters and light cream into a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice cubes. Shake vigorously, strain into a martini glass, and serve.

Braised Brazil Nuts

Today we took the time to braise Brazil nuts.  We had an intense truffle broth which we used to cover the nuts and cook them until they were meltingly tender.  As the nuts cooked, the broth reduced and covered the nuts in an intense truffle glaze.  We then served these truffle infused nuts with a hot spring egg and dried cheddar cheese.  The interesting aspect of this dish is the large size of the nuts which in their braised state creates a sensuous mouth feel and a great means for sharing flavors, in this case that of the black truffle.

Good and Bad Joined as One

I have been sitting on a really interesting product for about a week now.  The product is Film Loop.  It is a program of sorts which allows you to assemble pictures, add comments ideas and more and send them to individuals, groups and even eventually link to them on a website.  I found out about Film Loop from Guy Kawasaki.  Anyway, the program is still in pre-beta form, whatever that means and still it is quite amazing.  I had all these plans of showing the evolution of our cooking and even just the ability to share multiple photos in one easy sharable piece.  Similarly, if the maker of the loop updates or changes it everyone who has access to that loop gets updated the next time they have it launched and are on line.  Also, depending on the loop, others can update and alter the work.  Amazing.

Think about sending someone your entire food extravaganza, or a proposed menu in photography or even twelve great sunsets.  What food and more evolve as it streams through pictures.  Brilliant.

The hook, they have embedded advertising into the zoom feature of the pictures.  My balloon deflates.  So, I email and ask about getting rid of the advertisements.  The answer, no go, the ads keep the program free for all.  But, I would pay to keep it ad free.  Think about that.  I want to share ideas, give them away and am willing to pay someone to make sure the advertisements are not there.  What has the world come to?

Anyway, perhaps since the program is still pre-beta they will work out a different system for the future.  Well, since it is pre-beta, and they give it away, and it still is amazing I figured it needed to be shared.  So, go to film loop and check it out.  Oh, and if anyone is interested in receiving our Film Loop, Food in Motion, (with stupid advertisements embedded in the program) email us and we will get you in the loop.  You will have to install film loop on your computer, not a bad thing, just not perfect yet.

Chocolate Caramel Cashew Balls

Butterballs are one of my mother’s favorite cookies.  Growing up we would travel to Pittsburgh to visit my Aunt Marie’s family for many of the major holidays.  My mother wasn’t always able to come with us but Aunt Lucy (my Aunt Marie’s mother) would always make a special package of butterballs just for Mom that we would carry home with us.  They were the most disappointing cookies of my childhood.  Their primary ingredient is walnuts, my least favorite nut as a child.  The cookies themselves were so tempting.  They were these small rounded cookies that were rolled in powdered sugar.  They looked like delicious little snowballs but I was always disappointed when I popped one in my mouth.  They were soft and crumbly, buttery and redolent of…walnuts.  There was no escaping the in your face nut factor which was the reason why my mother and others adored them.  I usually ended up discreetly (if there were guests around) spitting the cookie out.  It took years but eventually I stopped trying them.

After Aunt Lucy passed away I took it upon myself to bake the holiday cookies in New York.  Another of the Aunts gave me the recipe for the butterballs and I made them with great success.  Or so I’m told, I still refused to eat them myself.  Immediately after the holidays I managed to lose the recipe.  The next year, not wanting to admit that I had lost that and other cookie recipes that had been passed on the previous year, I turned to Betty Crocker.  There I found a remarkably similar recipe for Mexican Wedding Cookies that called for pecans.  I substituted walnuts for the pecans and baked them off.  Lo and behold, Mexican wedding cookies were exactly the same thing as Butterballs, just with a different nut. 

I recently saw a photo of Mexican Wedding cookies and it made me think of Butterballs.  I had always wanted to enjoy them and it suddenly occurred to me that I could.  I could make them with cashews, a nut I actually enjoy and create cookie to satisfy myself.  So, this snowy afternoon with the AFC game playing in the background I made new improved Butterballs.  Then while the first batch was in the oven I realized that I had some French fleur de sel caramels and part of a ScharffenBerger chocolate bar in the house.  Since I couldn’t resist gilding the lily, I quickly chopped them up and folded them into the dough to create chocolate caramel cashew cookies.  The caramel melted and oozed a bit so that the outside pieces were crunchy while the inner pieces were chewy.  Paired with the slightly floral bitterness of the chocolate, they balanced the crispy, crumbly flavors of the buttery cashew cookies.  Rest assured, when I tasted these, I didn’t spit them out.

Chocolate Caramel Cashew Balls

This is a food processor recipe because when I cook at home I like things to be as easy as possible with as little clean up as possible.

1 1/2 cups cashew pieces
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
8 ounces sweet butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons rum or vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
1/2 cup chopped salted caramels
1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350ºF In a food processor pulse the nuts and 1/4 cup of powdered sugar to coarse crumbs.  Add the flour and salt and pulse to blend.  Empty the flour mixture into a bowl and wipe out the food processor.  Add the butter and 3/4 cup powdered sugar to the bowl and process until light and creamy looking.  Add rum (I used Meyers) and process briefly to blend.  Return the flour mixture to the food processor and pulse until it comes together as a crumbly bowl.  Turn the dough out into the bowl originally used for the flour mixture and fold in the chocolate and caramel by hand. 

Form teaspoons of the dough into slightly flattened balls and place them on a cookie sheet about an inch and a half apart. 

Bake for 12-14 minutes rotating after six minutes.  Larger cookies may take longer to bake. 

Let the cookies cool and then roll them in a bowl with the remaining 1 cup of powdered sugar till they look like snowballs.  If you like your cookies less sweet, you can eliminate this final dusting.

Upcoming Change of Scenery

I can usually tell when Alex is going to have a good day in the kitchen.  The signs have nothing to do with the validity of his ideas or the ingredients he’s playing with.  I can tell whether or not he is going to succeed by his state of mind when he starts cooking.  On a good day he is focused and intent.  He has an idea in his head and he is absolutely convinced that he can make it happen.  The little storm cloud that normally travels above his head is absent and he is actually smiling and rubbing his hands together as he weighs and measures.  (I know I make him sound somewhat curmudgeonly but in the kitchen he kind of is.)  On these days I know that something great is going to be created.  It may not always be the dish that he intended to create but something unique and delicious is always the end result.

The same can probably be said for me although I cannot necessarily predict at the beginning of any given day, which way my tide will turn. Some things are just easier to see in others.  There are countless stories about how a cook’s emotions can transfigure the foods they create.  Anyone who’s ever spent time at the stove can attest to that.  The mind is an incredibly powerful thing.  We’ve both been known to eject each other from the kitchen when things get sticky.  If one us turns to the other and says “Why don’t you go take the dogs for a walk?”  It’s code for “Get the hell out of here, you’re making me crazy.”   Lately we’ve both been having a tough time in the kitchen.  Not that the food has been bad, it’s just been somewhat uninspired.  The limited audience during the slow season has been problematic as the lack of challenge makes us somewhat sluggish and edgy.   We’ve been bumbling around trying to find some real inspiration.  Cooking for the blog can be very satisfying but it’s not always enough.  There’s nothing like a dining room full of people and the hum of a busy kitchen.

This week the owners are in town and we haven’t actually spent much time cooking.  We have spent a significant amount of time brainstorming and planning for the year ahead.  One of the positive outcomes of these meetings is that we will be spending February in NYC instead of waiting until April.  This will allow us to use the slow season to our advantage.  By taking our vacation earlier, we are getting out of Pagosa sooner, which is a huge bonus for Alex and I.  Frankly, we really need the change of scenery.  This will also allow us to more efficiently utilize our time out East because we can spend the period between our vacation and the cruise promoting Keyah Grande.  While we are in NYC we are going to try to coordinate some sales calls with our marketing team and do some entertaining of prospective clients, travel agents and media.  This allows us to bring a taste of Keyah Grande to people who may not be willing or able to travel West without more information.  We’re excited about going back East to eat, drink, shop and cook.  It will give us a necessary transfusion of creativity and excitement to get our juices flowing again.  Thank goodness for that.

So, we are going to spend the next couple of weeks getting ready for our trip back East.  We always have a tentative list of restaurants in our heads, old favorites and new destinations, but we’re always open to suggestions.  We’ll be based out of Queens for most of February and part of March and that’s a lot of opportunities to eat out.  Who knows, perhaps we’ll even meet a few of our readers along the way.

Compact Flavors

It is important to keep flavors focused.  If not, dishes can get out of hand quickly.  Even when we are trying to layer flavors our good intentions can become overwhelming at times.  In our continued attempts for self improvement we put together a couple of dishes which layer, balance and play flavors off one another. 

What I found most promising in these dishes is that we were able to keep the flavors and tastes compact.  These dishes are tasty and are able to avoid culinary gymnastics.  The first dish is a quail parcel wrapped in romaine lettuce and accompanied by honey mustard, lemon seasoned jalapeno and chocolate salt.  The other dish is another creme caramel featuring lovage, smoked cashews and olive caramel played off fourme d' ambert sprinkled with ground cashews and olives.  A few nuggets of pickled celery root punctuate the dish.

A Tangle of Watercress

Watercress is a hit or miss vegetable.  We do not see it much out here, so when we see it in peak condition, we buy it, cook it, eat it and even occasionally serve it to guests.  Watercress sparks memories.  First of all, it reminds me of the first meal we usually eat when we get back to New York, Chinese take out.  We order our basics, Peking duck, fried dumplings, spare ribs and watercress with garlic.  Funny thing is we rarely see or eat watercress other than with Chinese food.  Sure, we have used the micro variety on occasion and even payed homage to grand preparations where watercress is a puree, sauce or veloute.  In our hands, years ago, we made a watercress soup which we served with slow cooked salmon and sweet Maine shrimp.  The soup was tasty, albeit served three hours late--that is another story from our days catering where we had to travel through a snow storm to Connecticut.  Yet, in retrospect and now with several more years of knowledge I believe watercress should be served simply, with a whisper of garlic and drops of olive oil, sitting on the plate similar to how it grows, as a tangle of watercress.

The Fog Lifts

This morning we were able to lift the fog which has recently clouded some of the development in our recent dishes.  We worked on two quail dishes, one which featured our carrot caramel and the other which integrated pear-parsnip sheets. 

The quail parcels are slow cooked at 53.5 degrees for thirty minutes, then crisped on the griddle.  The first dish  featured oatmeal made with granola, an interesting concept which adds a fair amount of toasty notes, spices and dried fruits and nuts.  Our ancho glazed cherries add a piquant note to the dish and the carrot-miso caramel adds a fruity sweetness.

In the second dish the quail is paired with smoked applesauce, pear-parsnip sheets and chocolate salt.  The fun in this dish is pear-parsnip sheet seasoned with chocolate salt.  Very simple, not much going on and yet striking.

One more dish of note combined the carrot caramel with our pear-parsnip base.  In this dish we assembled a warm creme caramel which we topped with sake cured steelhead trout roe and epazote.  A spoonful of Armando Manni's olive oil completes the dish.

Carrot Caramel

Carrots are an on again off again ingredient in our kitchen.  I guess today they are on.  Today I put together a carrot caramel balanced with miso and rice vinegar.  My initial thought for the caramel was to use it in a marinade for black cod and other fish.  I plan on doing that in the near future, though while I was working with the caramel itself I began to think of other uses such as with our pear-parsnip creme caramel and served alongside our chocolate roll ups.  For now we are working out the finer points of various dishes, though I thought the concept of the carrot caramel would spark numerous thoughts.

Let's Not Forget the Chocolate

A year has almost gone by since we first started with vanilla salt.  I was reminiscing about the discovery last night and jumped to thoughts about chocolate.  What if?  I came in this morning and melted down some 70% chocolate and mixed it with Maldon salt.  It worked, and what a great flavor profile as well.  Certainly there is the salinity delivered in the light flakiness of the Maldon salt with the bitter and sweet almost fermented notes of the chocolate.  We now have a new base to integrate into our cuisine.

The Pleasure of Wine

We spent the morning doing wine inventory.  You don’t realize how cold the wine room is until you've spent a few hours there.  A special thank you to Shanda who came in to help out.  Alex tends to get cranky on inventory days.   Fortunately he doesn't really let it rip when there are witnesses around.  We were able to get the bulk of the counting done without him; we just pulled him in towards the end to move cases around.  Those wooden cases are pretty but they weigh a TON.  Most of our 2000 Bordeaux is still in it's original wooden cases (old terminology from my days at Sherry Lehmann) and we check each one to make sure that no little mice have pried them open and absconded with any bottles.  Not that it has happened yet but the fact that everyone knows how thorough we are doesn’t hurt the cause.

One of the nice things about doing inventory is the memories that arise from the bottles.  Each wine tells a story and many of them remind me of stories of my own.  The Italians remind me of Martha's Vineyard where I had my first opportunity to create a wine list at an Italian restaurant and certain California wines take me back to our honeymoon in Napa.   Now there are so many memories that an overview of the wine room is a stroll through my personal history.

Tonight we opened a bottle of 2002 Bonny Doon Le Cigare Volant.  It's a blended red wine based upon the varietals of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and grown and produced in California.  It’s a big red, rich on the palate, firm tannins, high in alcohol, loaded with fruit and oak and relatively inexpensive.   As Alex opened the bottle he was immediately taken back to a dinner in the Hudson Valley several years ago with me and my mom and some very poorly cooked shad roe. It's not his favorite memory (because of the food) although he did enjoy the wine and the company that evening.   On the other hand Bonny Doon wines always remind me of culinary school and a table service instructor who was huge fan of the Rhone Ranger.  Each of her first year classes was lectured on the beauty of the dry rosé with the Vin Gris de Cigare held up as the perfect example of a warm weather quaffing wine.  The flying saucer on the inside of the label was an added bonus.

As I slowly savor my glass of wine this evening, more memories float to the surface, spanning different varietals and vintages of Bonny Doon.  I'm surprised to realize that it has been years since I've sipped one of Randall Grahm's wines.  I can't be sorry about that though, because the time lapse just makes tonight's experience that much more enjoyable.  There are too many wines in the world to drink the same thing every day, but revisiting an old friend from time to time is never a bad thing.

The Economy of Scale

Today I spent time in the kitchen brining lamb belly and working on a new quail dish.  My quiet time in the kitchen lets me think through ideas and contemplate life.  Our kitchen staff is small, Aki and myself.  The good thing about small is that both of us have our hands, palates and minds involved in everything in the kitchen and linked to the dining room.   We create dishes based on concepts and designed around execution.  By this I mean the prep work which goes into the creation of the dish as well as  the final plating of the dish which may be be intricate but must also be accurately and rapidly assembled.

Our resources are limited only by our creativity.  For example, we may serve marinated and grilled semi-boneless quail as a component of a salad for lunch.  The quail is full flavored, charred and tasty.  The presentation and preparation of the quail is simple, an ideal dish for a country lunch.  Today, I broke down the quail and then reassembled them as a small parcels.  The process took some time and I only made six parcels, six quails worth.  The parcels are now marinating overnight.  Tomorrow we will begin working on dishes utilizing these quail packages. 

What whacked me on the head was that quail are tiny and take just about the same amount of time to manipulate as a squab or duck.  If I made squab parcels I would have generated twelve portions from six squab and if I used duck the amount of portions produced would have been twenty four.  Sure, breaking down the larger birds would have taken a bit more time, but not nearly as much as working with twenty four quail.  Quail, duck, and squab taste differently and are very different birds.   Understanding the application of each within a dish and a menu is essential.  In our hands, a quail is best left semi-boneless and grilled, while squabs and ducks lend themselves to more elaborate preparations.  It important to understand the economy of scale in order to be able to perform and execute at an elevated level.

Conundrum

Recently, we have been approached to put advertisements on our blog in return for some monetary compensation.  That compensation comes as a result of individuals buying products through the portal on our site.  This does not make sense to me on many different levels.  After all, we are Ideas In Food, not ideas in advertising.  We have taken an enormous amount of time and effort to provide a medium in which we can openly share our ideas.  Why would we bastardize our work for the possibility of making a few dollars?  If we were to integrate advertising into our website what would that do to our credibility? 

And yet, there still exists the financial temptation.  How to sustain a website based on the continued development of ideas?  This is a question that has plagued us in recent months.  As our readership expands so does our visibility.  That is a good thing.  Yet, in order to continue to take chances, catalogue results and integrate technology we are faced with financial obstacles.  I have always believed that ideas are free.  Still, I spend thousands of dollars on cookbooks, tools, ingredients and dining experiences in order to constantly expose myself to different ideas, which in turn often spark new thoughts and concepts that we are able to develop and share.

Still, we have heard the stories, --possibly and most likely just fairy tales--of websites that are financially successful via the integration of advertisements and tip jars. I guess I understand the tip jar concept, though it can be frustrating at a pizza joint, a bakery, a local coffee shop and a website.

I have contemplated repackaging the tip jar and calling it a donation box or idea funding.  Sure, why not put out a hat and see if anyone chooses to contribute.  But, right now, that thought feels as though it belongs in the box of dumb ass ideas, a completely different box than my stupid one.

Where does that leave us?  We are always looking ahead for new ways to challenge and excite in the kitchen.  We continue to search for ways to make our ideas more accessible and to collaborate with other like-minded individuals.  The goal is to turn the process of searching for and sharing culinary knowledge into a profitable career.  One day we will figure out a way to make that happen.  For now, it is all still a work in progress where there are always more questions than answers.

Fried Fish

A friend of ours dropped us a line yesterday because he wanted to talk chocolate.  He was cooking a menu for an up and coming chocolate bar and was working on the savory side chocolate tasting menu.  Through the back and forth of ideas he has come up with some truly unique dishes while also helping inspire some new dishes for us.  The first dish inspired by thinking chocolate is grouper tempura.  We dust the fish in cocoa powder seasoned with smoked paprika and curry powder, then into a tempura batter and a golden fry.  Since we were thinking chocolate and fried fish I drew upon our banana guacamole.  We accented the dish with some epazote leaves and some chocolate salt on the side.  I am looking forward to fleshing out several other chocolate dishes in the coming days.

Pineapple Chicken

As the day progressed, I was able to digest and analyze our original dish with chicken and pineapple.  I know that the chicken in roast chicken brine is tasty  and the pineapple infused with onion and curry leaf is delicious.  This afternoon I was able to strip the dish down to its base elements and then integrate a few supporting ingredients.  I added just two: young sage leaves to continue the savory flavor of the pineapple and chorizo puree to unite the flavors in the dish. 

Lovage, Cashew and Smoked Vinegar

Today I came in searching for alternative preparations for our roast chicken brined chicken.  I began working on a dish which married the silky chicken with pineapple confit.  The pineapple is infused with curry leaves and sweet onions.  Well, the initial tastes of the dish were excellent, though aesthetically I had many issues.  The dish is shelved.

The next dish came together much more cohesively.  I started with our smoked vinegar, which I wanted as an integral component of the dish.  I really enjoy the flavor of smoked vinegar, yet at times I have difficulty integrating it smoothly and cleanly into dishes.  Today I whipped the vinegar which allows the diner to adjust the amount of flavoring with each bite.  So, I had the chicken and the smoked vinegar.  My mind jumped to buffalo wings, which led to celery, a more intense flavor would be lovage which is nicely countered by peanut butter, or in my case cashews.  I now had another element for the dish, lovage-cashew puree.  I then wanted a bit of crunch and substance for the dish.  I drew upon our juniper pickled celery root for this element.  And that, is the dish. 

What was interesting for me was how smoothly the dish came together and how tasty lovage-cashew puree is.

Baking With Passion

This afternoon there was a book waiting for me in the mailbox.  It was Baker & Spice, Baking with Passion by Dan Lepard & Richard Whittington.    I opened it up for a brief scan to determine place in the list of books to  be read and an hour later I had finished it.  ( I read pretty quickly)  The history of the bakery and introduction to ingredients are tantalizing and evocative.  Admittedly I'm at a point where I can scan through the more technical sections just to see if there is any new information or perspectives because I have a pretty firm grasp of the standard information and techniques.  It's not a huge tome, there are only 160 pages.  Measurements are in grams and in ounces although they do not guarantee the conversions are perfect.  The book begins with breads, which are separated into those that use wild yeasts and those that use commercial yeasts.  It has some beautiful step by step photographs on handling the dough and encompasses recipes for both sweet and savory leanings.  The remainder of the book showcases cakes, cookies and pastries.  The photos make you want to run into the kitchen and pull out the sugar, butter and flour and dive in.  Everything looks so beautiful that you can almost feel yourself sinking your teeth into the chocolate caramel tart or licking the crumbs of puff pastry and cream from the chestnut mille feuilles off of your fingertips.  The best part?  I got this book for $4.79+shipping on Alibris.  As I write this the cheapest used book is now $5.44 with new copies beginning at $11.93.  At prices like these, if you love to bake or just to read about baking, you should get this book.  Even with the shipping, it's definitely worth it.

Imparting Flavor

The chicken in roast chicken brine pointed out an extremely important concept in adding flavor to ingredients.  The grouper brined in with roast chicken flavors had an incredible taste, rich and decadent, while the chicken tasted more like chicken.  The meat was silky and smooth and it had the incredible flavor of roast chicken.  And that is why we brine.  To multiply the flavor in ingredients while also adding complimentary flavors.  The natural richness of cheddar cheese with its cutting acidity is another natural flavoring agent.  I am going to begin work on an apple and cheddar brine for pork.  Before last week, I created most brines to season ingredients and also help preserve a visual aesthetic.  Now, my approach to a brine is to look for what incredible flavors should be married.

In order to highlight the texture and flavor of the chicken, we served it simply with a sprinkling of Armando Manni's olive oil, Maldon sea salt, buddha's hand puree and a symphony of herbs.

2005 Food Blog Awards Nomination

We've been nominated in two categories for the 2005 Food Blog Awards!  Kate over at The Accidental Hedonist is hosting the awards and at the risk of sounding immodest, we are truly pleased and gratified by our nominations in the categories of Best Blog by a Chef and Best Group Food Blog.  The competition was fierce and it was a huge honor to be shortlisted in two different categories.  Several of our favorite blogs are on the ballot as well as several more that we have yet to become acquainted with.  So, we are taking a moment to encourage all of our readers to visit the ballot and perhaps discover some great new voices in the Food Section of the Blogosphere.  Here is a list  of the categories and nominees with links to all of their sites so that you can make an educated selection.  Of course we'd love to win, and we'd love to have your votes.  But even if you don't vote for us, we encourage everyone to cast a vote.  Blogging can be a tough road.  We do it for love not for money and because we have a common desire to share experiences and information.  A little bit of appreciation goes a long way in our world so please cast a vote and let someone know that you're glad they take the time to put themselves out there. 

Congratulations to all of the other nominees and the best of luck to us all!

Roast Chicken Brine

I am extremely happy with our first results using roast chicken brine.  I made the brine by caramelizing chicken wings and then deglazing the pan with vermouth.  I added some soy sauce and the broth I made from the rest of a chicken carcass.  I then added sage, marjoram and savory to the brine, a splash of agave syrup and some salt and Crystal hot sauce.  After I chilled the brine, I added a grouper loin to half and covered chicken parts with the rest.  I let the brine infuse for 24 hours, then drained and dried the fish and chicken and began cooking.  Today I slow cooked the grouper loin and served it with fresh pasta sheets, sea bean puree and chanterelle mushrooms.  I did not need to add any additional seasoning to the fish because the roast chicken brine salted and rounded out the flavors of the fish.  Later I will be working on the chicken dishes.

Crunch'nMunch

So, not that long ago I wrote a post that told the shameful story of my Aunt who wouldn't share her toffee or her Crunch'nMunch.  She swears that the bit about the toffee isn't true (it so is) although she does admit to hoarding the FiddleFaddle and Crunch'nMunch.  Anyway, today is my birthday and I received a special package from Federal Express.  Crunch'nMunch from Aunt Marie.  And I said she didn't share.  Thanks Auntie!

We do have guests at the moment but they fortuitously decided to go out for dinner tonight.  I had a tough day but Alex is making me a special birthday feast of hors d'oeuvres for dinner.  There is shrimp cocktail with Kitty's special sauce, bacon and jalapeño wrapped chicken thighs with celery sticks and blue cheese (they didn't have organic chicken wings), stuffed mushrooms, pico de gallo and fried Camembert.  There was actually more to the menu but since there are only two of us eating, and large quantities of each item,  I edited a bit.  Happily waiting on ice is one of my favorite champagnes, Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle  “La Cuvée".  It's a champagne blended from three different vintage years and this one has been in our cellar for quite some time.  I love a bit of age on my bubbles.  It makes them taste so much better.  Fine champagne, my favorite dining companion, a special menu, my favorite movie (Armaggedon) with no griping, and Crunch'nMunch for dessert.   Happy Birthday to me!

Crispy Skin

As I mentioned earlier, I have been working on a wolf in sheep's clothing.  Actually, it is a fish loin in a chicken skin.  Well, I finally got it.  We slow cook the fish and then are able to crisp the skin on our griddle for the ultimate crispy skinned fish.  Today we have it paired with our grape-chipotle sauce, smoked cashew and sea bean condiment, chanterelle mushrooms and marjoram.  Today is a good day.

Failure, Thoughts and Good Tastes

It has been an interesting day in the kitchen.  I spent my morning cleaning up several mistakes.  I was unable to achieve a proper balance of ingredients which in turn turned good ideas into a pile of pots and pans.  By 9:30 I had regrouped and began the exercise of making roast chicken brine.  In the process, I came up with several interesting ideas which I hope will come to fruition.  First, I plan to use the roast chicken brine not only for chicken but also fish.  While I was thinking about brining fish with the flavor of roast chicken I also am trying to crust fish with chicken skin.  I am not sure if this will work out, but it could be interesting. 

While I allowed these preparations to infuse and come together, I began work on a winter dish to take the chill out of ones bones.  I combined our lamb sweetbreads and belly with lime pickle sauerkraut, coconut milk spaetzle and savory.  The fun aspect of this dish is the lime pickle sauerkraut which is drained sauerkraut warmed in a puree of lime pickle caramel.  While I am happy with the initial results, I definitely see potential in exploring and polishing a true sauerkraut which incorporates lime pickle.

Cherries and Chocolate

It has taken a fair amount of failure for me to finally realize this dish.  Chocolate and cherries are not a new combination, in fact many would consider it ordinary.  Fortunately for me ordinary is good.  We began with our lamb sweetbreads, which we coated with a hot glaze flavored with cocoa, smoked paprika and floral spices.  Once the glaze was set, we were able to reheat the sweetbreads to order with the glaze retaining its structure while the sweetbreads became hot within.  As the sweetbreads warmed in the oven,  we arranged the accompaniments.  At first, I wanted to marry the cocoa sweetbreads with our cranberry-fermented black bean condiment.  Yet, in tasting the combination, the cranberry and black bean clashed with the spiced cocoa.  I returned to our pantry and pulled out the ancho-cherry puree and glazed cherries.  The cherry puree was more balanced and smoother on the palate, a near perfect match to the sweetbreads.  I then sought out texture for the dish.  I drew upon our candied corn for texture and a sweet salinity.  Finally, some epazote added some intense herbal notes to the final dish.

The Maple Menu Revealed

First of all, we want to thank everyone who submitted ideas, recipes and photographs for the maple menu.  Thank you for sharing.  It has been very exciting for us to digest all these dishes and assemble a cohesive menu.  We have taken several liberties in the ordering of the dishes to create a balanced and explosive menu.  We have also attached the the individuals name associated with their dish.  We would ask that if your dish was selected, please email us with your contact information so that we can mail off your syrup.  Enough with the formalities, onto the menu.

                                                                                Maple Syrup Menu
                                                                                    January 1, 2006

                                                                            Banana-Buttermilk Flan
                                                                      smoked maple, bacon, tarragon
                                                                                            (Mike)

                                                                                Smoked Mackerel
                                                            avocado, maple-hoisin, lemon vinaigrette
                                                                                 (Maxime Lachance)

                                                                Isle Flotant de Brunch Americain
                                              candy cap mushroom anglaise, pancetta, poured maple
                                                                                     (Sam Breach)

                                                                        Maple Curry Carrot Soup
                                                              toasted almond, pomegranate seeds
                                                                                    (Joe DeSalazar)

                                                                             Foie Gras Torchon
                                                  silver dollar apple pancakes, cold butter, hot maple
                                                                                     (Breen Shea)

                                                                         Roasted Squash Risotto
                                          mascarpone, brown butter-maple sauce, shaved white truffle
                                                                                (Noam Ben-Ami)

                                                                            Seared Diver Scallop
                                            golden char roe, tahitian vanilla maple cream, scallion salad
                                                                                    (John Wallace)

                                                                      Gin-Maple Cured Sturgeon
                                                       cold smoke, apple-turnip relish, lovage puree
                                                                                 (Patrick Sheerin)

                                                                Ginger-Maple Braised Pork Belly
                                             smoked carrot-kabocha puree, young celery, black vinegar
                                                                                     (Terraron)

                                                                           Roasted Leg of Lamb
                                                     maple flavored greek yogurt, mint, grilled lime
                                                                                (Jennifer Woelk)

                                                                        Amber Blue Cheesecake
                                                    port poached pears, maple caramel, rosemary
                                                                                  (Joan Olkowki)

                                                                                 French Toast
                                crumbled sausage, blueberry pancake ice cream, sage-maple syrup
                                                                                (Nathan Gray)

                                                                             Sugar on Snow
    tableside presentation of hot syrup poured on a bed of fresh snow served with miniature dill pickles
                                                                            (Andrew Tepper)

Congratulations to everyone, you have helped broaden our horizons.  Speaking of broadening horizons, Joan Olkowki deserves the best in show bottle of syrup.  The variety of dishes she submitted was spectacular, even preparing tofu like hot foie gras with a sesame crust and peaches. 

We look forward to hearing from the winners.

We'd also like to take a moment to thank all of our readers.  We appreciate all of your comments and e-mails and we really enjoying sharing ideas with all of you.  It's the audience that makes the blog worthwhile.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  WE WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY AND HEALTHY YEAR FILLED WITH FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND GREAT FOOD AND WINE!

Cheers,
Aki & Alex

What's in Your Brine?

A crystal clear morning sparked a pointing idea.  What if we made a brine for ingredients that was truly remarkable?  What do I mean?  Well, what if we brined chicken with a roast chicken brine?  What if a pork brine incorporated cracklings and bacon?  We have brined ingredients with numerous flavoring agents from herbs and spices to soy sauce and molasses.  Yet, I had not thought about brines which would truly impart a meaningful flavor profile.  Similarly, we have wrapped fish in prosciutto and stuffed them with lemon, onion, roasted tomato and herbs.  Again, what if we brined the fish with these flavors?  We have used fresh spruce tips and juniper branches in our cooking.  Now if we integrated these flavors into the brine for sweetbreads and lamb, think about the explosive full flavors we could capture.

And what is even more exciting is that to integrate these flavors and adopt the technique in our cooking is simple.  We can fry chicken skins and use them for the roast chicken brine or make a broth with prosciutto ends for the prosciutto brine.  We can even use existing brines to compliment flavors.  What if we made the roast chicken brine with green olive brine as the compliment?

The possibilities just increased dramatically, now it is our job to integrate them into our cooking.

Cook Smartly

Everyday I think about how and why I cook.  Stripped down to the core, it is to make the guest smile.  Sure, the food has to be great, the ambiance is important and many other factors also come into play.  Yet, without the smile, I have failed.  And here in lies the rub, I should be smiling too.

So, how to cook smartly?  For me, it is a delicate balance of refinement and approachability.  I must also have a solid reason for the purpose of assembling a dish.  The second part is not an absolute, for many times a dish evolves from the assemblage of failures and missteps in other projects.  That is alright in my book, as long as at the end the dish draws that smile. 

Similarly, I am intrigued and inspired by the process of cooking.  Sure, there are right ways and wrong ways to prepare ingredients, and sometimes there is just a different way.  I have become less fearful of using the different way and that has opened many doors.  I think that is important in cooking smartly.  Just because something is different or does not make sense at the moment does not mean it is wrong.  What is wrong, is simply to dismiss thoughts because they are not easily assimilated.  I cannot count the amount of times I first faced a project and it was almost shelved because I refused to see the different approach.

That is what I have learned.