IDEAS IN FOOD

Old Bay Mashed Potatoes

To begin with I need to locate some Old Bay.  I think the kids have some in the lower kitchen.  After I get my hands on it the dish should come together.  I have been fretting, yes I fret and often, over the combination of the striped bass cheek and the roasted rib eye cap.  I needed something to unite them, a reason for them to come together.  The concept of surf and turf is fine though without some underlying reasonable approach the concept is trite at best.  I was not in the mood for trite and needed solid footing to stand on.

Today was hot, really hot.  We stopped by a local fish market, (give or take a two plus hour drive) and signs for soft shell crabs had me thinking of the ocean which led to crab boils and oysters which led to Old Bay mayonnaise which I used to make at Park Avenue Cafe which in turn bounced about in my brain and surfaced as the idea of Old Bay mashed potatoes.  These potatoes will be made with a base of Old Bay reduction, onions, vermouth and Old Bay will be cooked down together and then folded into mashed potatoes.  These will then be enriched with some butter and creme fraiche.  The base will be put through a tammis and I, no we will have Old Bay mashed potatoes to serve with roasted rib eye cap and crispy striped bass cheek.  A quick saute of pea tendrils should round out the dish.

We shall taste the results soon.

Why Not Sorbet?

We have really enjoyed pairing ice creams with caviar.  The model allows us to think of a base flavor or idea and translate it into ice cream.  The ice cream flavor or spark often is driven by the caviar we are going to serve.  Recently we received the Tequila and Habanero roe Steve (of Blis Caviar ) cured for us.  This caviar, cured steelhead trout roe, is a symphony of flavors.  The roe, the creaminess, the salt, the heat, the sweet heady peppery acid of the tequila come together into what I believe is his most complex and compelling combination.

The trick with this roe is what to serve it with.  At first my mind bunted.  I made a new batch of grilled potato ice cream using fingerling potatoes.  The ice cream is rich and decadent, just not suited for being served in the summer.  We were talking about an upcoming dinner and during the discussion I tasted a mango sorbet prepared by the third member of our kitchen team.  The flavor screamed mango and since my mind was on roe the two united in more ways than one.  I ran to the walk in and tasted the roe in conjunction with the sorbet.  A match, a tasty match. 

We also broke through a wall with this one.  Why was I strictly looking at ice cream to pair with the roe?  There is a whole world of sorbets which we can now fit into our model.  In fact, perhaps the model will evolve in the process.  Next up is peach sorbet with the smoked steelhead trout roe and a ruby grapefruit sorbet with the sake roe.  It truly is exciting when the dam breaks and the ideas flow.

Fish Parts

It is funny when I can start a story with the phrase back in the day.  And yet I can.  Today I was talking about our time on the Vineyard, Martha's that is, and the vast quantities of striped bass we cleaned and cooked.  Back in the day we used plenty of twine to keep parts together and skin intact.  Today we used activa to help us.  Though, back in the day I had fewer ideas.  I remember lusting after bass cheeks and cooking them en papillote with heirloom tomatoes and chicken fond jus.  These tasty morsels, four available each day were sent out to VIP customers or to tables where we made a mistake and needed to buy a grace period.

Now in looking at the fish we see more.  We also are able to do a bit more.  We use the tail to make a shank which will serve two.(Thanks to Thomas Keller for the idea.)  And there is more.  Once you start looking at a fish differently new cuts and preparations appear.  Sure, there is the bass chop, (I have cooked plenty of swordfish chops thanks to David Burke's creative outlook on food, yes I do believe the chop of fish is his discovery) and the aforementioned shank of fish. 

From these two creative benchmarks I wondered about saddles of fish.  From the saddle we can look at fish ribs.  We served halibut ribs, glazed like pork ribs to a number of guests when we were in Maine.  If a fish has ribs, it must then have a brisket somewhere.  Similarly with a brisket present the fish must certainly have a belly.  And what can we do with that belly and brisket?  We brined the brisket section of the fish today and will slow cook it tomorrow.  I am hoping to get a small section of melting and rich striped bass brisket which we can pair with the roasted loin.  Of course we could make corned bass as well, just another idea.  The belly can be cured like bacon or pancetta and then shaved thin.  We could also braise it in the style of pork belly.  Tomorrow will tell what direction we will take.  We did opt to make a shank of striped bass from the fish.  The fish can cook slowly on the bone and then be lacquered to create a bone gnawing finger licking dish.

The fish loins themselves have been wrapped in skin on three sides to allow for more crispy skin to fish ratio.  We have hopes of using the EVO to roast the loins.  Oh yes, and we still have the cheeks.  I want to pair them with roasted ribeye cap, a decadent and tasty look at surf and turf.

Right now we have a bunch of parts, we shall see what we can assemble.

Front River Trout

We are fortunate enough to have both a backyard and a front river.  What is a front river?  Well, if a river is right out your front door it is a front river.  And we are lucky enough to have guests that like to fish that front river and bring us home beautiful fresh trout.  Then, it is up to us to figure out what to do with these gifts from the clear waters.  Yesterday and today we worked with ten beautiful trout.  We started filleting the trout in our second cooking class.  We then worked with another culinary cohort to clean the trout and then reassemble the pieces.  I say pieces because cleaning trout for the first time in a cooking class can lead to a few errant knife strokes.  And that is alright, especially with activa on hand.  We reassembled the fish and then used thinly rolled sourdough bread to crust the fish.  This is not something knew to our repertoire, though using the pasta machine to roll the bread to an exact thickness was a new step in our process.  Similarly, we used to use a paste of flour, egg yolk and heavy cream to adhere the bread to the fish.  (Thanks to Gray Kunz)  And today, I had the idea of mixing a nut butter with egg white to create a glue of sorts.  Alright, the dish in progress was a version of Trout Almondine.  The dish inspired the technique.  Either way, it worked quite well.  In fact, I plan to see what else can be glue.  Though, that is another path to travel.

After the bread was pressed in place we brushed it with melted butte and seasoned it with salt.  That way, we could take the fish and lay it on the EVO and begin a fine griddling of the bread and a slow cooking of the fish.  I think our approach to to getting a perfectly griddled toast crust is directly influenced by our work with our co-horts who happen to cook for the staff and are following my obsession with producing the perfect breakfast sandwich.  Lets face it, a great breakfast sandwich makes six thirty in the morning seem just fine.  Hence, the approach to griddled bread and the story of front river trout.

Griddle Cooked

Today we unleashed the power of the EVO.  This outdoor griddle, cooking vehicle, plancha for the home/professional chef, is quite a nice toy to have in ones culinary arsenal.  We have one to work with and we finally got it dusted off and fired up.  Let me tell you, it can cook and cook well.  It is one giant griddle.  I should have used it this morning for the pancakes I was barely able to cook.  That is another story though the long and the short of it is it took way too long to cook way too few orders of delicate corn-cottage cheese pancakes.  Thankfully our guests were patient or just not super hungry this morning.  Either way, I crossed the finish line, just not first. 

Back to the super griddle.  We used it at lunch to cook scallops, sixteen orders, forty of them all at once.  Not bad.  Actually, quite good.  So, the EVO can cook scallops.  Now we need to figure out what else we can do with it.

Today's lunch consisted of the seared scallops, tea smoked apricots stuffed with goat cheese (something we learned about in our cooking class today) along with compressed melon and shaved romaine lettuce.

The Chicken, now what?

We have started some work on a variety of chicken dishes.  It was much easier to generate the parts than it has been to polish dishes and refine our thoughts.  The easiest piece to work with was an old preparation which we used to do in the days before we had a stash of activa.  We used to bone chickens and pound the thigh meat to a uniform thickness.  We wrapped the pounded thigh around the chicken breast and then used twine, yes twine, to tie the skin around the bundle.  If I remember correctly we added some seasoned butter into the chicken parcel and then roasted them in the oven until they were crispy on the outside and buttery and juicy inside.

Let me say that after roasting the parcels, the twine kind of cooks into the chicken skin and is a bit difficult to remove.  Hence, our decision to file the dish as one which is good, sometimes great, though with a few drawbacks.

That is the back story.  The reason why, as I noted, with the help of activa, I was able to find a rock to stand on.  We followed the same basic approach in assembling our new chicken parcel, though here we used activa to bind the parts together.  We poached the parcel sous vide and then finished roasting it in the oven.  We paired the chicken with some roasted beets, young marjoram and Blis Elixer.  The flavors come together.  The chicken is quite tasty.  I could eat it again and again.  Still, I have hesitations.  First of all, I have a lot of other parts to work with.  Secondly, I know there is something better out there.

Will I find it?  Today begins the search.

Where I Stand

Much like people, businesses have their own personalities. They tend to reflect the philosophies of those at the the top and can range from very tightly regimented and organized, to the loose and carefree. There are successful examples of the full spectrum of management styles and as the world evolves many new styles are appearing almost daily. Our generation is witnessing a full scale change in the way people view the work environment and their own work ethic. Our peers saw an increase in self-owned businesses and entrepreneurship. We grew up in the hey-day of the IPOs and absorbed the concept that smart choices, sacrifice, and hard work, in that order, will earn you millions of dollars if you're willing to pay the price. These days most of us aren't willing to sacrifice everything to the almighty dollar, although the option still exists. We learned that school is not always the answer and that student loans eventually have to be paid off, no matter what your real world salary turns out to be. The last ten years have shown us that credit is so important.  Credit card debt has been the downfall of more than one acquaintance over the years. We saw that you can't have it all, no matter what people tell you.  If you spend all of your time at work your family life will suffer whether you're willing to acknowledge it or not. All those years without sick days or vacations or personal health days will never come back. So they had better be worth it.

We are very lucky in that we were exposed to both the old school style of hard work and hard knocks and the newer so-called "Me Generation". We saw what happened when people slaved away for years and then watched their pensions evaporate in a plume of embezzlement and bad management. In the culinary world we have seen the transition from a system of apprenticeship to a much shorter system of schooling. The debate rages on endlessly as to which system produces the better cooks. We still believe it's not the system, it's the individual. The cream always rises no matter where you leave it to set. We do our best to evaluate a chef on his or her talents and execution, rather than on their pedigree and PR. Almost certainly unconscious preconceptions and partialities color our views, and we do our best to judge on actual merit whenever possible. The older we get the more we understand how important our own life experiences have been in shaping our own culinary efforts.

Recently I've been working through some issues with management styles. I've been asking a lot of questions that aren't always appreciated. This is not because I don't understand what is being asked of me. I ask questions because I want to understand why I am asked to do things that I may not comprehend fully or agree with. Truthfully this is not always a positive characteristic in an employee and I can try to be more sensitive to that. I've been blessed to work for a series of businesses that never minded my asking why, because my understanding allowed me to do my job more appropriately and more efficiently. I can fulfill my duties better if I understand the reason behind a request because that will tell me what the real priorities are. Sometimes a job description includes everything except polishing door knobs and there's no way to know which tasks are the important ones until you dive in. Sometimes a job is more than what's listed in the job description. Sometimes it's not. Life is a lot easier when you know exactly where you stand.

Life...

Sometimes the Chickens say it best. We're rolling with it today.

3 Services

The first time I saw an ingredient served in multiple services (outside a whole roast duck normally presented in two) was at the now closed Cello in Manhattan.  Laurent Tourondel  presented a lobster in three services as one option at this mostly seafood restaurant.  Truly, I cannot tell you how much inspiration and excitement I gained from dining there and after spending a day in the kitchen.  That was many years ago and still, a number of the approaches to food that I experienced there continue to influence our cuisine today.

The concept of an ingredient in three services is exciting.  It forces you to look at an ingredient and find a number of applications from the whole.  Similarly, we get to use small and obscure parts of a base ingredient within the three services.

We have approached rib-eye in three services on several occasions and we will be using the rib-eye tomorrow as the core for an improvisational cooking class.  Yet, we also have some guests who do not eat beef.  We needed to come up with another ingredient which we could present in three services.  While we have taken apart and reassembled chickens before, we have yet to present them as a menu on their own, served in three services.  So, we figured this was as good a time as any to serve a chicken in three services.  Of course, right now all we have is parts.  The class tomorrow will dictate the final dishes.

Horseradish Braised Artichokes

One of the questions that we have been asked recently is why are you making everything clear.  My first response is because we can, though looking closer at what we are doing we have a certain number of bases on hand free of impurities and taint which we can then build upon.  While the canvas may not be blank, it is already prepared to start painting upon.

I started with our horseradish-buttermilk consomme.  I have tired of the robotic approach to cooking artichokes.  We have cooked artichokes for years starting with vegetables in an herbal and spiced aromatic oil and then adding white wine, lemon and water.  The herbs may change, the wine may differ, though at days end the artichokes always tasted the same.  They tasted like braised artichokes.  And that is good, because if the artichokes tasted like tuna we would have a problem.  Or would we?  We often pair tuna, good canned tuna, with artichokes.  Why not make a canned tuna broth to marry the flavors from the beginning?  No, we have yet to make the tuna consomme, though as I write, the flavors of tuna salad would be a great cooking medium.  Hmmm.

Alright, I have gone off track again.  Horseradish and artichokes.  Why not?  The earthy flavors blend, the tang and heat work well, the buttermilk adds more tang and mouthfeel to the consomme.  (Also, we have used whipped horseradish as a condiment for artichoke soup, why not bring the two closer together?)   I cleaned the baby artichokes and put them into a pot with the horseradish consomme.  I placed a cartouche on top and turned the flame to low.  I let the artichokes and horseradish cook and in doing so find a balance between them.  When the artichokes were cooked, we let them cool naturally and then let them marinate for a few more days in their cuisson.

We now have a great staple addition to our pantry.  And what becomes of the resulting artichoke-horseradish broth?  Time and inspiration will tell.

Ice Cream Sandwiches

It's summertime and this year I've rediscovered an old childhood favorite, the ice cream sandwich. I hadn't eaten one in years and when Alex ran out of a store one day and handed them out to those of us waiting in the car, I was transfixed. We got them in for the ranch staff to snack on and I've eaten an embarrassing number of them so far this season. They just make me feel good. I'm not talking about a new fangled home made version. I'm talking about the classic. Chocolate wafer cookie outside, shaped into a rectangle and softened into a cake-y delight by it's close contact with the ice cream. The filling, a simple vanilla flavored frozen confection, whipped light and melting rapidly upon the tongue. There's something about the sensation of sinking your teeth through soft, slightly sticky layers of chocolate and cold creamy vanilla that brings back the smell of hot pavement and cool ocean breezes, memories of long bike rides under a blazing sky and evenings spent capturing fireflies and then letting them go when they tickled the palms of my hands. We rarely went in for glass jars of trapped insects in my neighborhood. Half the magic was in the capture and the other half was watching them float free afterwards. There's a certain freedom in letting things go. There's also a special joy in rediscovery, stumbling across old friends and finding that years may have passed but somehow relationships remain the same.

Foie Gras Butter

My foie gras croissant both sparked ideas and proved comedic for those in our kitchen.  The dough did not turn out quite right, though it did turn out to be quite tasty.

The foie gras we used for this experiment in what is possible is labeled as foie gras butter.  It is the trim pieces of foie gras generated when individual portions of foie gras are cut and sold pre-packaged.  The butter is the trim, the left over, the pieces which just do not fit.  These pieces fit perfectly in our puzzle.  We soak the trim in salted milk, remove any large veins and then put the butter through a tammis to remove all the micro veins and impurities.  The result looks like riced potatoes.  We then season the cleaned foie gras and then beat it with a spatula (in large batches we use the paddle attachment on our mixer) to create a smooth base.  It now looks and acts like beaten butter.

And now we begin.  Our foie gras butter is now a butter of foie gras.  While my croissant dough did not yield the results I was looking for I now have  a model with which to work.  Also, there are many butter based doughs in our repertoire which I plan to work with  to see if using foie gras in lieu of butter will create a savory base.  Imagine foie gras brioche with foie gras.  What about a foie gras streusel on top of a summer fruit tart.  Foie gras crostada in miniature or foie gras pate brise and sucre all have possibilities.

Ben's Rabbit

Here is  roulade of rabbit accompanied with nasturtium leaves, honeydew melon, arugula leaves, toasted curry powder and a lemon vinaigrette.  The dish was sparked by Ben who wanted to work on boning rabbits.

Ben performed the task of boning the rabbit, Lorraine interjected with some seasoning advice (curry please).  A bit of  activa kept the rabbit together.

The vegetables provided grassy notes to compliment the lean yet succulent rabbit.

Bananas Foster

Our roasted banana consomme finished its clarification process this morning.  The essence, as some would call it, speaks of caramelized bananas.  That is a good thing since the base was made with just bananas.  Sure, we added water to make the broth and a pinch of salt to pique the flavors, though the key is the slowly caramelized bananas.

Upon tasting the finished consomme my mind jumped to Bananas Foster.  The quick jump might be because we served a more traditional version of the dessert last night.  The presentation is certainly inspired by the new  double walled bodum glasses  we just got.  I can see at least twenty dishes benefiting from being served in these glasses and the first was a cocktail of Bananas Foster.  Yes, we spiked the consomme with some tasty rum.

Foie Gras Croissant

When you have never done something before and you have no preconceived notions of the outcome you can approach a task with a relative sense of freedom.  I have never made croissants before.  One of the reasons is the labor involved in making them.  Then I came across a simple and relatively straight forward recipe for croissants in Eric Kayser's Sweet and Savory Tarts.  The simplicity of the recipe started my mental wheels rolling and I began to think about croissants.  Then, my mind jumped and I thought about exchanging the butter for foie gras.  That would be neat.  And so I did.  However, my inexperience with making croissant dough led to a few hurdles in the dough process.  Yet, a little patience and my time tested perseverance yielded the resulting dough.  It is now resting in the refrigerator, waiting to become traditional croissants and then hopefully sparking a multitude of ideas.

Comfort Food...

can be anything at all shared with a friend. That is someone who listens to you and understands where you're coming from. The world is not always a place for dreamers and idealists. The right companion can make it feel as though it is. Bread and water with someone who loves you will always taste better than caviar and champagne at a lonely table. Comfort food can be anything that feeds the soul, anything that makes your world a brighter, happier place. It may  not always be visible, but it's always within your grasp.

Onion Comb

Onion comb happened by accident.  Actually, there were several accidents involved in making onion comb.  Onion water has become a new staple in our kitchen.  We take onions, some salt, some water and a touch of agave and pressure cook them for five minutes.  We then separate the onions from the water.  The onions we cook down into a marmalade.  The water is used like stock.  It brought a nice sweet vegetal note to our pea soup and it would be great for poaching chicken.  I also thought about making it into a jelly and also wondered if I could whip it and make it crispy like the yogurt crisps.  I set about the process of making onion crisps, except I was short one ingredient from my base recipe.  Oh well, I'm sure one ingredient does not make that much of a difference.  Turns out it does.  I made the base and began whipping it.  I was working on this side project while Aki was getting many of the dishes together for the days meals.  I continued to whip, Aki continued to cook and low and behold, my hand mixer went flying across the kitchen. 

I knew Aki wanted to get the projects on hand taken care of, yet I really wanted to see if I could make puffed onions.  Turns out, she was not that interested in puffed onions at the time and while the mixer convulsed on high power on the floor I glared at her and said "you did that on purpose" and she said "no I didn't, you are just projecting."  In any case, I realized that my onion project was taking a bit more time than it should and that no matter how much I whipped I was not going to get the result I was looking for from my onion base.  So, in an act of defeat, I took the semi whipped onion mixture and placed it in metal frames in the dehydrator and hoped for the best.  Besides, I had some actual cooking to do. 

I opened the dehydrator this morning to a pleasurable surprise.  No, my crisps did not magically appear. However, I had a new result.  The onion mixture did dry and retain some of its lightness.  The result is very comb like.  Quite similar to whipped nougat, though savory.  And now begins the fun part.  What else can we make into a comb:  strawberry, coffee, truffle, cherry, almond, foie gras, oyster?  Now is where we get to take our mistakes and grow from them.  As a side note, if a hand blender starts convulsing on the floor turn it off quickly it creates a horrible mess.

Tea Smoked Duck

To be honest I hate grease.  I particularly hate the fact that in cooking grease splatters and then clings to surfaces from stove tops, to ventilation hoods to inside ovens.  I go to great lengths to avoid the creation of grease and the inevitable splattering which in turn means in depth cleaning.  Actually, it may not be that I do not like grease, I just like cleaning less.  In looking at means and methods to cook more cleanly we have come across some exciting dishes and approaches to food.

We had plans to serve a tea smoked duck with a crispy skin for our Chinese inspired dinner.  I had partially broken down the ducks and used the legs for another preparation.  We left the breasts and skin on the ducks and brushed them with a mixture of soy, honey and water and hung them in the walk in to dry.  While the ducks were drying, I began to think about the execution of this dish, particularly the roasting of the duck, the crisping of the skin, the infusion of smoke and the means in which we could serve this dish without overcooking the duck. 

Time to rethink.  Number one, limit the grease factor.  I removed the skin from the duck, blanched it in water and then pressed and dried the skin in a 250 degree oven for about an our.  I had nice crispy seasoned skin without the grease splatter.  Number two, smoke the duck.  We blended rice, sugar and two teas, cinnamon and a black and currant, and placed this mixture into a foil package in our smoker box.  We then cold smoked the duck breasts for about twenty minutes with this aromatic tea smoke.  We then chilled the breasts down and placed them in bags with butter and cooked them for just over an hour.  The result was a tender, smoked and meaty duck with crispy skin and a small amount of grease. 

Well, almost.  I forgot about the sauteed gai lan we were serving with the duck.  We heated the reserved duck fat from rendering the skin in a saute pan and quickly "stir fried" the gai lan.  That darn grease got me.  Oh well, the gai lan was quite tasty cooked in duck fat and well worth the cleaning in the end.  Also, now I have a new project, to saute without splattering grease. 

The final dish was topped with a sauce made with horseradish-buttermilk consomme, soy-ginger juice and butter.  All in all many lessons were learned and the final approach to duck has now been integrated into our repertoire.

Clear Cappucino, an idea is born

How do you generate ideas?  Ask people.  We have been working on more clear broths, from Parmesan to apricot-yuzu.  And still, I know there are more opportunities underneath rocks I have yet to look under.  Just yesterday I asked Lorraine what should we try to make clear?  What is not clear that would benefit from some clarification?  It took awhile for her to come up with an idea.  I am not sure if she was stumped or just searching for the winning idea.  Either way, the end result is all that matters.  As the day came to a close she spouted the idea: clear coffee.  I was intrigued though not quite sold.  Coffee is relatively clear anyway, though the idea sparked more thoughts.  Clear coffee became the catalyst.  Clear coffee is not a huge leap.  What would be the next step? 

In our remote home a cappuccino is non-existent.  I guess that is why my mind jumped right to cappuccinos.  I voiced my thought and Lorraine went along with the concept.  Of course if we are not drinking cappuccinos, how the heck are we going to make a clear one?

Cuisinart CPC-600

I'm going to take a moment here to rave about the Cuisinart CPC-600 . We've been working with it for about a month. Anyone who reads this site knows that we love pressure cookers. The Cuisinart is like the Mac-Daddy of all pressure cookers. It's easy to use, easy to clean and it's Quiet. Amazing because the standard pressure cooker makes a lot of noise. That screeching, whining sound is the reason why many people don't use their little machines. We too have tormented by the noise, and still pressed on because the results were worth it. The CPC's sleek design looks good on our counter top. The non-stick interior is very pretty and has cup measures marked along the interior. It has settings for searing and browning, the requisite high and low pressure options, and it will keep things warm when they've finished cooking. These things are all just gravy. The real power of this baby is it's lack of noise.  It makes the high price tag ($149) seem reasonable to us. We just love it.

What is Inside

When you have enough apricots on hand you start thinking about utilizing the often overlooked and constantly discarded kernel.  The kernel is the sweet and bitter inside of the apricot pit.  I was first exposed to the edible nature of the apricot kernel during a meal at Union Pacific.  I do not remember the meal in its entirety, though the fact that I was eating the inside of an apricot pit stuck in my mind. 

Last evening we made an apricot and yogurt panna cotta to serve for desert.  Early in the week, I had saved a number of apricot pits and removed the kernels for some use.  I lightly pickled the kernel and had them waiting in the wings to be utilized.  While we were putting the finishing touches on the panna cotta we were looking for some balancing and contrasting flavors to the sweet, tangy and floral notes of the base.  I reached for tiny leaves of young and spicy arugula.  They accented the panna cotta nicely.  I forgot about the preserved apricot kernels until the last dish left the kitchen. 

Today, I had the opportunity to finish the dish as it should have been.  Sometimes we forget to use what is inside.  At least I had the chance to revisit and finalize the dish. Apricots, used to their full potential.

Melon Salad

Tamarind and raspberry vinegar come together to pique the flavors of this melon salad.  The other fun accent in this dish is a gomasio of green Szechuan peppercorns.  These two elements are tamed or accent, depending on how you look at it, by the compressed melon.

This dish was part of a family style Chinese influenced menu we cooked this evening.  No, not really a Chinese influenced dish, though its element tied into the whole.

Pea Soup for the Soul

We served this soup last night for dinner.  Well, almost this soup.  Today, after thinking more, digesting, we added some pistachio oil.  It turned tasty soup into a bowl of soup you can not put down.  How do I know that?  Aki would not put the bowl down.  The soup had evolved.  A simple addition altered the entire dish.

Everyday I am amazed at what subtle differences can do.  It is the subtle differences which make it worth while.  Would the guests have noted the difference?  I am not sure.  However, if we are not willing to try and improve and polish and find a better way, what are we doing?

Oh yeah, the soup: Sweet pea, made with pressure cooked onion water, morel and elf mushrooms, yellow and green pea shoots and pistachio oil.  I wonder, would a pea and pistachio crisp really unite the dish?  Time will tell.

Is Chivalry Dead?

A guy and a girl are sharing a house. She lives on one side, he lives on the other and they share the front and back porches. They work together and are casual friends. She comes home from work one day to find a dead bird on the porch, closer to her side than his. She is tired and is dismayed by the small corpse on her doorstep. She goes knocking on her neighbor's door to see if he has a broom and hopefully, will help her get rid of the bird.

"You have a broom in your closet. You have a dustpan." He responds. "It's for the bird right? You can use your broom to get rid of it."

She leaves, and as she's going to get her broom she realizes that he's already seen the dead bird and simply left it there for her.

She goes back, "You saw the bird? And you just left it there???"

"Well yeah, it's under your window. Your window, your problem."

Is chivalry dead? The story made me wonder. I know that women have demanded equal rights, but we still appreciate good manners. My husband has them.  He has never left any small corpses for me to clean up, and with our cat there have been many offerings left outside our door. It's not that I can't handle it, I've always had hunting cats, it's just something unpleasant that he automatically takes care of so that I don't have to. He opens doors for me and carries the heavy packages. I always offer to do my share and more often than not he declines my assistance. These are small gestures that resonate because they show that he cares. Although I must admit, he does them for everyone because he's a good man. He understands the subtle requests for assistance cloaked in innocuous questions by people who don't want to impose on his good graces. He understands that it's not easy for people to ask for help. So he usually pitches right in without forcing them to make the request. It's good manners and it's a nice thing to do for other people. What happened above, well he's usually a very nice guy. It's just that sometimes people don't want to be bothered with helping someone else. People no longer seem to remember that they may need help someday too.

Olive Oil Jelly Sheet

We found a fun use for our olive oil jelly.  We made it into a thin sheet which we were able to spike with herbs.  We then sliced the sheet into a square and used it to drape grape-olives and pickled cucumber squares, the condiment for the soup.  The soup is then poured table side, covering part of the condiment and leaving a bit of the exposed jelly and the condiment underneath showing.

The soup base is pressure cooked garlic, Marcona almonds and white grapes.  The grape-olives are marinated in green olive brine.  The cucumber squares are pickled in honey vinegar.  We topped the olive oil jelly with grated Marcona almonds.  We debated the addition of shrimp to this dish, though its clarity of flavor points to our KISS theory.

The Pursuit of Power

Kitchens are tight spaces where people work closely together. The hours are long and you are forced to become close to those you work with. Sometimes, too close. There's a certain amount of machismo in many kitchens. The attitude, which was rather famously and accurately depicted in Kitchen Confidential, tends to be one of toughen up or get out, for better or for worse. We've all worked in these kinds of places (kitchens or not) at one time or another. Thankfully these types of workplaces are on the wane and most modern businesses are much more user-friendly to both male and female employees. Still the mentality of needing to be tough to survive, especially in this business prevails. It's can be hard physical labor.  It demands mental agility and stamina to make it through the long, busy hours of prep and service. It can break down spirits and it can make people stronger. As in any profession, the key is picking the right situation to help you grow and move farther along your desired path to becoming a Chef.

Some times it can be hard to determine what actually constitutes harassment. Women are often accused of being too sensitive to the bawdy conversations and harsh attitudes that can prevail in the heat of a kitchen. Friendliness is often misconstrued as sexual intent. That type if situation can go both ways. Friends will stand close and whisper or sling a casual arm around another person's shoulder.  That's perceived as a reasonable or even a welcome action. Someone else will see this happening and think that they can do the same thing. If you're not as close to that second person, the same actions may not be acceptable, but it's hard to explain the difference in your response. Small issues morph quickly in tight quarters and so people are extra careful, either to not step on toes or to stomp extra hard with a big "just kidding smile", according to their natures.

When things like this happen, male or female, you are left with a dilemma. How to respond to the unwelcome invasion of your personal space? I'm very fortunate in that I am married and I do work with my husband, so advances are rare. When I was younger, this was not always the case. In many situations I would be repulsed by subtle body brushes, suggestive comments, or outright overtures. It was always difficult to decide how to respond. In those close conditions, making an enemy can make the workday seem interminable. There are many subtle forms of sabotage that can be employed to slowly hound someone out of the kitchen. It never seemed in my best interests to come forward and make a big deal out of these situations. It always seemed as though it would just make things worse. Silent suffering seemed to be the way to go.

I was saddened to realize recently that things haven't changed very much. People, men and women, are still hesitant to come forward when they feel that subtle pressure from someone they work with. The smartest offenders are careful not to cross those invisible lines or do anything concrete that one can point a finger at. Interestingly, as i grew older I realized that this type of subtle aggression is simply about power. It's the way that certain people have learned to maneuver to get what they want. Although it may manifest itself as sexual harassment, it's not about any physical chemistry. It's about domination. It's about someone trying to use you to get what they want.

Over the years I've grown less afraid to challenge people. I'm learning to stand up for myself and defend my personal space and my right to be. Still, when I see situations unfolding or hear stories, I can relate to them. I understand that feeling of frustration and helplessness, that desire to lash out and define boundaries, and the fear that the repercussions will be worse than the suffering that you're currently undergoing. Today I say fight back. I say stand your ground.  I say define your boundaries and own your space. It won't e easy, in fact it will probably be incredibly difficult to do. Still, I believe it's better to suffer for  your right to be, than to suffer because you're afraid to be. People shouldn't be able to gain their power at your expense. It's important to remember that you have power of your own.

Close Proximity

A dish of tuna and ono tartare served with a goat cheese crisp, clear horseradish-buttermilk and shiso leaves. 

The dish came about by the proximity of ingredients on hand in our kitchen.  I was working on whipped crispy goat cheese, though at the time did not feel like whipping the base so I just dried it instead.  We have had similar results drying our crispy yogurt base and its conceptual cousin crispy mastic water.  I knew we would get a delicate crisp of goat cheese, though without the light airy texture of the whipped counterpart.  What we would do with it was still up for grabs.

The element of clear horseradish-buttermilk is a relatively new staple in our pantry.   While we had previously used the broth as a poaching medium for both veal and artichokes we had yet to use it in its pristine and clear form.  The tuna and ono were on hand, looking beautiful and calling for a simple clear preparation and presentation.  So we  brought these base elements together.  The final accent for the dish is young leaves of shiso.

Sometimes it is good to be...

Lemon Spaetzle

We have made some more Meyer Lemon puree and I was looking for other uses for this condiment.  The first thing that came to mind was to flavor spaetzle.  Our cooking has taken us into the world of whole grains.  We are using flours and ground legumes that we just had not picked up before.  Flour is just convenient, easy, and it works.  What is exciting is we are now gaining experience with a whole new arsenal of ingredients.

I began work on a new spaetzle recipe.  As I started compiling ingredients I remembered the Meyer lemon puree and how I had wanted to use it in spaetzle.  I blended graham flour with sorghum flour and used a bit of milk and an egg blended with a hefty amount of lemon puree to make the dough base.  As I was working the dough, more like a batter, I noticed I just did not have the elastic nature of my past spaetzles.  I needed to integrate a bit of gluten into the dough to bring things together.  I reached for some high gluten flour.  As I said, it is convenient, easy and it works.  Yet, the main components of the dough were the graham flour and the lemon puree.

The resulting spaetzle was tender and redolent of lemon.  The texture had a bit of snap without a long chew.  I was happy in that the spaetzle sauteed nicely getting crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.  We served the spaetzle with Petrale sole and sauteed gai lan.  The spaetzle brought both texture, floral notes and acidity to the final dish, complementing the gai lan and piquing the flavor of the fish.

Olive Oil Jelly

Oil jellies have been off my mind for a number of years.  The problem is that I could not for the life of me figure out a way to gel oil.  In fact, I still have not figured out how to gel oil in a clear state.  Yet, actually we have if you can accept the fact that we have taken a few liberties to get to the end result.

My thought process was triggered by two of our previous broths: brown butter and white truffle.  Both broths, really consommes, were based on high fat products, butter and oil.  Both high fat ingredients infused the water base of our broths.  Now that is interesting.  Something high in fat, all fat can become clear and then easily jelled.  It is frustrating that it took me so long to see past the end of my nose.  The good news is I was finally able to see.  And so I set about making an olive oil flavored broth which I could then clarify and eventually gel.

And it worked.  The broth has the nose and flavor of the oil without the oil.  We now have a clear broth of olive oil in the refrigerator which, come tomorrow morning  will have turned into a clear olive oil jelly.  Of course now we need to figure out what the heck we are going to do with the broth and jelly.  I guess one reason for the lack of a list of ideas for olive oil jelly is that I did not think I would actually get to the end.  Some thoughts are to drape and dollop with the jelly while the broth can be a sauce or a whipped topping.  These ideas are merely based on out past endeavors.  We shall see where we actually end up.

Similarly, with the advent of olive oil jelly the doors are now wide open to all other kinds of oil jellies from walnut to pistachio to the myriad of ideas I have yet to stumble upon.

Clear Passionfruit in Three Thousand Words

You Make My Head Spin

For anyone else who actually watched Rockstar Supernova last year, you may recognize this as the title to an original song by Lukas, the winner of the competition and the new lead singer of Supernova. Geeky I know, what can I say? We actually watched that show. We never got around to listening to the finished album, but the competition was actually quite entertaining. The perfect thing for decompressing after long hours in the kitchen. Anyway, I didn't remember the lyrics of the song until I looked it up for this post. After the day we had I could only hear the chorus spinning through my brain.

You make my head spin
You make my head spin
Why? Why do you?
You make my head spin
You make my head spin
Why? Why?

What makes my head spin? Seemingly endless meetings. I felt as though I didn't get a bloody thing done today. Truly. I hate going to meetings. I'd much rather send someone else and stay in the kitchen and cook. Unfortunately that is not always an option.

Tomorrow will be better, dang it. I'll make sure of it.

A Montana Morning

Reason enough to wake up inspired.

Striped Marlin

I have now edited this post to correctly reflect the fish we were brought and used in the dish below.  It was not Blue Marlin as I remembered, rather Striped Marlin.  I guess I need to turn up my hearing aid.

Back to Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway.  (The reference to Hemingway ties into the story of the old man's search for the Blue Marlin, apparently now the reference is of little use.)   A new fish guy stopped by and brought some tantalizing pieces of fish to try and tempt us and to convince us to try some of his fish.  The first piece of fish we cut into was sashimi grade Striped Marlin.  Honestly, I do not remember eating Marlin before and certainly not sashimi grade.  Really, I do not know much about the true gradings of fish.  I know fresh.  I know mouth feel.  I can taste and see fat and sinew respectively.  Their flavor and textures tell me what I need to know about their quality.

The fish was good.  No, it was more than good.  It had a clean flavor with a firm and buttery texture.  Think of cold butter without the guilt factor.  The fish sparked ideas.  That does not always happen.

Today we sliced the fish into small stamp sized pieces and dressed it with soy sauce, walnut oil and yuzu juice.  We added diced snap peas and nasturtium leaves for sweetness and spice.  Finally a sprinkling of candied walnuts added texture and a hidden surprise to the components.

With an initial offering like this one, I plan to see what else is up this fish guy's sleeve.

What Can Be?

Something that is often overlooked is the second and third steps.  The first step, that is monumental.  The second and third steps are in many peoples minds just putting one foot in front of the other.  However, in looking closer at a process or a dish the second or third steps are the evolution.  We began with the idea of soaking vegetables in a salt and sugar solution and then either vacuum sealing them or vacuum sealing and freezing them.   Sean took the second step, he tried using the juice of said fruit or vegetable in the bag to make the vegetable or fruit taste more like itself. 

The next step is not using the vegetable itself, rather using other flavoring agents.  I can point directly at the moment I thought of using other flavors to infuse our cryo blanched vegetables.  I received an email from Wylie who was asking about whether we had tried using the appropriate vegetable juices in our process.  I began typing saying that we had not though Sean had grabbed the baton and was running with it.  Bingo, that was the moment.  Sean was making vegetables more than the sum of their parts.  What if we used other liquid flavoring agents?  I suggested prosciutto broth with asparagus and fermented black bean with snap peas.  That was the moment. 

I soon received an email back.  He and his team had the same thought and had produced asparagus in Parmesan consomme and snap peas in bacon broth with great successes.  These are the second and third steps I am talking about.  It starts with an idea and then the question what can be?

We just finished a dish of white asparagus vacuum sealed in clam broth.  We skipped the freezing step in the process because we wanted to highlight the sweet crisp texture and flavor of the asparagus.  Upon releasing the vacuum from the bag we reserved the clam-asparagus broth and blended it with some Meyer lemon juice and pistachio oil to create a delicate vinaigrette.  We then sliced the asparagus and dressed it in its own vinaigrette.  We paired the crisp asparagus with tender lump crab meat dressed in ranch dressing.  The dish was finished with leaves of arugula. 

We were quite happy with our fourth step.

Quick Noodles

We used a julienne vegetable peeler to make cucumber noodles.  We then seasoned them lightly and applied a bit of vacuum pressure.  The pale green cucumber became a dark kermit green in under a minute.  The noodles  were crisp and juicy, vibrant and alive and ready to use.  These quick noodles went from idea to execution in a flash. 

Sahale Snacks

We met Josh and Ed on the French Laundry tour at Taste3 this past May. We started chatting and Josh wove a tale of two friends climbing Mt. Rainier who were fed up with the terrible snacks that were available to take with them. They decided to make a better snack themselves. Their products are natural, organic and unusual. They were also in our gift bag for the event. Frankly we probably wouldn't have gotten around to trying the snacks if we hadn't met the creators ourselves. We did a lot of editing in order to meet the airport weight minimums and many of the "gifts" went by the wayside when we departed Napa Valley. In this case we were sufficiently intrigued to take a taste. Honestly my first bite was ambiguous. I wasn't sure if I liked their nuts or not. They were a bit sticky and chewy and not at their best a week and many miles later. After ten minutes had gone by, the bag was empty and I was looking around for more. I did like them, a lot. The flavor combinations are exotic, unusual and addictive. The Ksar has been my favorite thus far, pistachios, pepitas, sesame seeds, figs, honey and harissa are an incredibly seductive combination. We got in a box of samples for the owners here to try and were given a quick thumbs up to stock the cabins with them. They are full of bright flavors and contrasting textures, crunchy and crispy, sweet, spicy, and deeply savory. They are the perfect snack for my day off without a kitchen because they taste great and I don't have to make them myself.

Hearts of Palm in Bacon Broth

We have wrapped numerous ingredients in bacon.  The initial pairing of bacon with led us to the idea of bacon broth and using it as a cooking medium.  Initially we stuck to cooking meats in the bacon broth.  Well, like many things, that approach was silly and needed to be amended.  As we approach many processes we go with what arrives.  Well, hearts of palm arrived.  Well, we cooked hearts of palm.  We cooked the hearts of palm in the bacon broth for two hours at 83 degrees Celsius.  The broth infused the palm and the palm infused the broth.  Of course now that we have the poached hearts of palm on hand we need to figure out what we are going to do with them.

How to Defuse a Flash in the Pan?

Years ago, at the restaurant where I met Alex, there was this other cook named N. N had been working there for a couple of months before I began and he seemed to flit in and out of the kitchen. I didn't even realize that he was supposed to be a full time cook in the beginning because he wasn't around very much.  He usually worked the middle spot on the line, supporting Grill and Saute. He seemed to operate on this special plane that I simply couldn't comprehend, one with many days off and seemingly few responsibilities. There were rumors that he got the job as a favor to someone or another. He seemed somewhat clumsy but I was too caught up in learning my own station to pay him much attention. That is until a couple of months later when he started working garde manger.

At this particular restaurant, garde manger produced the cold apps and cold garnishes, and plated all of the desserts. It was a two person station in a small area and the partner cooks needed to work together well. N. was a slightly heavy set Nordic type, blond, blue eyed and well over six feet tall. He tended to move slowly and own the space where he was standing. On the nights we worked together I would have to do laps around our station to get to mise en place because I could run around the table faster than he would move to get out of my way. There were moments when we found common ground and could share a smile or a brief conversation. Most of the time though we made quite a pair, the small Asian woman and the large Nordic male snapping and snarling at each other all evening long. I thought he was sloppy and lazy and slow, he probably thought I was a bossy, know it all bitch. We were stuck in this spinning canoe unable to  to synchronize our paddles.

My perception was that he had more experience than I did, because he normally worked on the line. I couldn't understand why he moved so slowly and seemed so disorganized.  Even our plates reflected our differences. My plates tended to be much tighter and daintier than his. We quickly realized that we would have to divide up tables rather than plates because otherwise the discrepancies would be glaring. Yet somehow Chef never pointed out the differences. He would comment on our plates individually. He would occasionally tell us to shut the hell up and stop fighting, although he never  said a word (that I know of) to either of us about the fact that our plating styles were so different. This only fueled my fire because how could we figure out who was doing it correctly if Chef never  commented either way? Whenever I worked with any of the other guys our plates tended to match up much more closely. Eventually N. was moved off garde manger and soon after that he left the kitchen entirely.

Recently I was reminded of this old partnership. I've been witnessing something similar, although not exactly the same.  It brings back all of those unpleasant memories. We all want to get along with the people we work with and it's just not always possible. There are many skaters in the world. They build themselves up by telling everyone how much work they do while close inspection shows the water flowing in through the holes in their canoes. We've all worked with these kinds of people, whether it be in kitchens or out. We've all silently cursed as we cleaned up their messes or bailed out their canoes, while they earnestly explained all of their hard work to whoever happens to be in charge. Often their propaganda is believed, at least in the beginning. All you want to do is shine a spotlight to expose the rickety structure behind their extravagant showpieces.  There's no way to do so gracefully. You just have to wait for things to crumble on their own. Or not. I feel that I've been singularly unhelpful lately, trying to counsel someone on how to deal with this kind of situation. I just didn't have any good answers. So I'm appealing to all of you, any advice out there for dealing with Grand Masters of the flash in the pan? Has anyone ever resolved a situation with someone like this successfully? Any and all responses will be greatly appreciated.