IDEAS IN FOOD

Morimoto

We recently received a copy of Morimoto: the New Art of Japanese cooking.  Back when we first discovered the original Iron Chef, Morimoto was Aki's favorite. His innovative and outlandish American stylings were the perfect foil to the more traditional Chefs Chen and Sakai. We never did make it to either of his restaurants in Philly or in New York. We were sorely tempted and yet, neither of us wanted to be disappointed. The high prices and extreme hype made the actual experience almost impossible to live up to. On the other hand, we couldn't resist the lure of a cookbook. This one appears to have the depth and flavors expected from Morimoto.  We have only begun to scratch the surface of the content and are already quite pleased with the information held within the pages and the ideas which have sprung forth from randomly flipping and skimming through the book. 

Alex has now settled down and begon to read the book cover to cover, an approach he takes with most cookbooks.  He is looking forward to discovering what new techniques  we will be exposed to and what other idea paths we will travel down, inspired by Masaharu Morimoto.

Baskets

Sometimes it takes looking at the end result first.  We needed a better method for keeping our scallop gnocchi out of the circulator and these baskets just kind of showed up.  I was looking for a grate of sorts to separate the gnocchi in the water bath.  Instead of finding the grate, I found three pasta baskets which actually allow us to cook and chill smaller amounts of scallop or other protein gnocchi in the water bath.  As we cut the gnocchi into the water the baskets allow for the gnocchi to poach while confining them in the small batches we are cooking them in.  This way we have better control of the cooking process and a more efficient process as well.

An Insiders View

It is high time I shared the insiders view of opening a restaurant.  I certainly wish I could say it is ours.  Since I cannot I can only happily share the link to Eggbeater where Shuna is candidly sharing the ups, downs, queries and celebrations in being a part of a new restaurant opening in the San Francisco area.  It is a bit vague where and what the restaurant is though if you step beyond this series of posts on opening a restaurant and dive into some of Shuna's writing you can begging to imagine the restaurant.  And if your imagination is wrong, oh well, the posts will have enabled you to think and dive into someone else's kitchen.

Mini Me

The biggest problem I have encountered with using a Vita-Mix blender is its size.  When we have wanted to make small amounts of herb purees or sauces the product being processed would end up lost in the bottom of the blender jar.  Similarly, we are not often making large amounts of anything, so a small jar on the powerful Vita-Mix base is perfect for many of our applications. 

And now we have found one.  I guess it has been around for some time, though the half size blender jar has eluded my search.  Recently, we saw evidence of its existence when we had a brief tour of The French Laundry kitchen.  The visual evidence of the jar sparked my quest to source it our.  And funnily enough, we found it at a Costco in Montana.  Now we must see if my theory of a smaller jar being beneficial to our cooking is true.  Time and lots of cooking will tell. 

On the Half Shell

There is something beautiful about an oyster. It has been gently washed and examined. A sharp knife has danced across its lips, separating the halves neatly and easily. The top has been carelessly discarded by the shucker. A smooth sliding motion separates the muscle from its white heart and it is carefully placed in its bed of seaweed and ice with its companions. When the platter arrives before me, I pick up the first specimen and gently lift it , cradling the rough exterior , weathered by sea and sand, against my fingertips. It smells of  salt water and seaweed, and I linger over the scent for both pleasure and self defense. It's soft interior is exposed, delicate and quivering in the humid air. It is elegant, glossy, a mosaic of soft grays and browns, swimming in it's clear, briny juice. I bring the cup to my lips and drink, savoring the cold liquid and tenderly sucking the flesh from the bone. It is silken against my palate, salt washing over my tongue, as it slides through my mouth, collapsing slowly beneath my teeth, as I chew and swallow. My eyes are wide open and my senses hum with sudden vitality, as the oyster slowly disappears, leaving nothing but the ocean breeze echoing through my senses. They are both stimulant and sedative. I am relaxed and yet hyper-sensitive, as though looking through a fun house mirror. Details are magnified. It is a private moment in a public domain as I savor the fleeting sensations. I rest for a moment. Then, ever so slowly, I reach for another.

Like Ships Passing in the Night

Picture this, a reunion lunch on a Monday in Manhattan. A woman and her husband are meeting her mother  after several months absence. They are meeting for a late lunch and so do not make a reservation. The restaurant is open straight through till dinner and is usually easy to get into after 1pm. The couple arrives first and are greeted by three hosts at the front door.  The restaurant is clearing out after the lunch rush and while not empty, is certainly nowhere near full. The couple lets the hosts know that they are waiting for her mother, she's Japanese, and then settle down at an outside table to peruse the menu and wait, and wait, and wait. The woman calls her mother's cell phone repeatedly but there is no answer. Several people check in with the table and they politely decline to order food as they are still waiting for the third member of their party. An hour later they are slightly peeved,  getting concerned, and starving. They order food for themselves and their absent family member in the hopes that she will eventually arrive. Another hour later they have finished their food and are contemplating going by her apartment, as there's still no answer at home or on the cell phone, to make sure everything is okay. They ask for a check and he makes a quick bathroom run. As he returns from the bathroom he sees the absent family member finishing up a solitary lunch at the bar. She is cranky and concerned and frustrated with her afternoon. Upon her slightly late arrival, she checked in at the host stand looking for her daughter and son in law and was told they must not be there yet. Somehow during the two-plus hours that they were there, no one from the hosts to the server to the sommelier/manager type person, who served wine and commiserated about the possible causes for the delay, made the connection between the solo woman at the bar looking for a couple and the couple on the patio waiting for a lady. Nobody was actually at fault, per se, still three afternoons were basically ruined by circumstances. This just reinforces my belief in the importance of pro-active customer service.  Yes, they all should have looked for each other a bit harder and she forgot her cell phone, but it was almost comical to see the light bulbs going off over people's heads as they saw the two groups find each other. (She was sitting almost beside the host stand.) Sometimes the obvious is not so easy to find.

New Paints

We finally unpacked an assortment of oils and vinegars from O Olive Oil.  We received this collection of new flavors  as a gift from the company, an unexpected thank you for the work we do here on the website,  while we were in Montana and decided to wait until we returned to New York to unpack these treasures.  We have always enjoyed their products, from the olive oils to the tomato powder and everything in between. While we are quite excited to work with all of these oils and vinegars, there is one which struck a chord.  It is an olive oil made by pressing olives, limes and jalapenos together.  I cannot wait to drizzle that oil on some raw fish or just cooked shrimp.  I can only imagine it tossed with fresh pasta and some smashed baby tomatoes.  If there was an oil with my name on it, this would be it.  Perhaps I can convince them to make a small batch with both charred and fresh jalapenos, that would be the ultimate.

The Setting Sun

I have been lucky enough to have the time to watch both the sun rise and set.  That is not easy, particularly in our business, and yet I cannot tell you how inspirational it is to watch the natural evolution of light.  I cannot point to exact moments of inspiration, though I know that in being exposed to light, color contrasts, unfiltered noise I come away with new thoughts on food, life and what is possible.

Inside other peoples kitchens

Food and Wine magazine has started recording a series of short videos with chefs, exploring new techniques, ideas, approaches, ingredients and evolutions.  I find it fascinating being exposed to other chefs kitchens and approaches to food from the inside, their kitchens, rather than just the end results, what is on the plate.  I recommend taking a few moments and just watching the videos.  Then watch them again and realize that in just two viewings how many ideas now bounce about your head.  And I am not saying to just replicate what is seen.  Use the videos as sparks, benchmarks, starting lines for ideas.  That is what is amazing.  How much we can learn from each other when we can look inside other peoples kichens.

*Thanks to Sean for the heads up.

Cocktails and the Beach

At the beach cocktail hour starts a little earlier and lasts a bit longer than the traditional hour.  Also, without an ice maker on hand we are more apt to indulge in crisp and cool white wine rather than searching for ice or waiting for cubes to freeze.  Also, boat drinks are much more fun when someone else makes them.  In all seriousness, a glass of wine, golden sunlight and sea air need only one more thing.  Jalapenos.  It appears I am riding the jalapeno train again and happily spreading the gospel of the bacon wrapped cheese stuffed jalapeno.  Last night I was in charge of preparing the jalapenos.  I was also in charge of shopping for the jalapenos, bacon and the cream cheese.  I under bought on the cream cheese end.  That is not a good thing, especially if you are trying to get in good with your wife, I went out for chowder while she went out fishing.  Whoops.  And so I sheepishly looked up from the kitchen counter and asked what about cheddar or mozzarella cheese in the rest of the stuffed peppers.  After a short debate we settled on the mozzarella.  And am I glad we did.  The mozzarella added a stringy chewy texture the peppers where the cream cheese provided a creamy tangy counterpoint to the heat.  Having two kinds of cheese, in there own peppers, makes for a truly great cocktail hour.  The Artesa chardonnay also proved to fit the situation just right. 

While I still need to head to Newport to make up for my chowder folly, I think the vast quantities of stuffed peppers helped out just a bit.  I know the rest of those present enjoyed them for all that I was left with was a pile of toothpicks, some empty wine bottles and a stack of used napkins.  Now that is a good cocktail hour and, who's counting?

Solaire Grill

The Solaire Grill is the newest edition to our kitchen.  Aki found it and did the research on the grill and it seemed to be a perfect fit for us: small, compact, easy to clean, lightweight and powerful.  We have just started working with the grill and so far the results stand up to the research.   We started by grilling some corn which charred  beautifully.   A perfect side dish to some pulled pork and sea air.  We have plans to conduct further tests, chefs have to eat, and we are looking forward what we will be able to grill.  If Aki would just catch a fish we could  work on our grilled fish tests.   If she gets skunked again I'll be forced to move onto lobster tests. 

You Looking at Me

Jalapeno Fritters

Timing and coincidence are often combined and observed as inspiration.  Over the summer we have been lucky enough to enjoy more than our share of bacon wrapped, cream cheese stuffed jalapenos.  These torturously addictive snacks have broken beyond their snack food place in our diet.  Aki has taken these delights and used them to top a pizza.  I have wanted to wrap a shrimp in with the jalapeño and cream cheese, an idea, which has yet to come to fruition.

Finally, after a phone call with our friend Doron about fritters, particularly Reuben fritters, it dawned on me.  Why not make bacon wrapped, creamed cheese stuffed jalapeno fritters?  And so we did.  We broiled the jalapenos first for the roasted charred flavor and then scraped out the seeds.  We chopped up some bacon and salt pork and cooked it down till it was just softer than crispy and then we added some diced onion (not in the original combination, though a welcome addition) which we cooked till tender in the pork fat.  When the onions were tender we added the charred jalapenos, which we had roughly chopped.  When this base mixture was complete, we drained off the excess fat and let it cool.  Once the base, which has many more uses than just fritters: pasta sauce, in a zucchini and tomato gratin, as a relish for pan roasted lobster, was cool we folded in cream cheese.

Once the base was finished, Aki added some flour and egg and a Harpoon IPA.  It took a bit of tweaking on her part, and the batter came together and fried up beautifully.  The crispy golden fritter exterior gave way to the cream cheese laden center with spikes of jalapeno, bacon and onion.  While with the original each stuffed jalapeno was a gamble with how hot or not it was, these fritters provide that cautionary hesitation with each addictive bite.

We’ve Got a Golden Ticket

That is how I felt when I received an email from Star Chefs.  I had the faintest internet access as I sat on a couch looking out at the crashing waves, with a cool and happily overcast, day.  We were finally able to relax a bit after wrestling with our book boxes and diving into our wine boxes, which needed more attention than I first anticipated. Lets just say there was quite a bit of bleach involved in cleaning parts of the basement and leave it at that. We are by no means done with the salvage operation, although things are back on hold for the rest of the week.

It turns out that the golden ticket came about by taking a chance.  Aki found the Pacojet recipe contest on Star Chefs and thought we should enter.  After all, a winning recipe in exchange for a free Pacojet seemed like a match made in heaven, throw in a free ticket to the International Chef's Congress, and it definitely seemed worth sending in an entry. I was game and we debated which pacotized ice cream recipe to enter:  pumpernickel, sourdough, apple crisp?  We ended up with grilled potato.  The ice cream came about by accident like much of what we do.  Accidents are good.  Capturing accidents and utilizing their results is truly special.

And so, grilled potato ice cream comes out of our recipe vault, yes we have a vault, and will be making an appearance at the Star Chefs International Chefs Conference.  We entered the recipe to win a Pacojet, a piece of culinary machinery which I have used on again and off again, depending upon whether or not we had one in the kitchen. I have coveted one for our personal batterie de cuisine for years. The Pacojet is in short, a controlled engine, which can shave pretty much anything, such as a potato ice cream base, and make it creamy, silky and smooth. The genius of the system is that the final product will encompass the essence of a frozen potato puree with a beautiful charred grilled flavor, without any of the gumminess of overworked mashed potatoes.  The contest chooses three finalists in two categories, savory and sweet, who will compete at the Chef’s Conference.  What is equally exciting is the fact that we will now be going to the conference and we’ll be able to share the experience with all of you. 

There is an unbelievable amount of talent attending this conference and it will be a pleasure to see what ideas we will be exposed to and what concepts will act as a catalyst for new thoughts and culinary explorations.  We look forward to meeting anyone attending and hopefully a few people will get a chance to eat some Grilled Potato Ice Cream and maybe, just maybe, we’ll be taking home a Paco Jet.

New Light

Sometimes it takes waking up a bit early to catch some morning light.

The Importance of Books

We collect books.  I fancy mainly cookbooks, Aki will collect anything from cookbooks to home improvement to mysteries and science fiction paperbacks.  Books provide an escape.  They provide a point of reference.  In our line of work they are often a resource.  Last week I heard about the tornado in Brooklyn, the closing of subways and the soaking of Marie's basement.  I was concerned when I heard that the roads and sewer systems flooded.  I was more concerned when I heard the basement of the house had been filled with over a foot of water.  While there seems to be no major structural damage to the house,  the basement, our temporary storage facility had been ravaged.  What do a couple of chefs store?  Books.  Well, books and wine  and a few other odds and ends.  However, the wine is stored in styrofoam packaging and it has its own protective barrier, a glass bottle, so I am a bit less concerned about it.  The first priority is the library.  The paper books are stored in cardboard boxes.  Paper and water do not mix well.  Wet cardboard boxes filled with books in a hot and humid NYC become giant petri dishes for fungus.

Today we discovered that a good portion, although not all, of our books have become home to large amounts of mold.  In going through the mildewed boxes I traveled down memory lane.  A container of all our Ducasse cookbooks, the complete collection, now decorated in fuzzy colors, reminded me seeing La Riviera d' Alain Ducasse for the first time and then being able to score a copy at  Books for Cooks when I traveled to London to cook for a bit.  That was also where I picked up my El Bulli El Sabor del Mediteráneo, currently out of print.  Books do not only provide recipes, inspirations, ideas, benchmarks and points of reference, they provide memories.  Each book is a remembrance of where and when we bought it and what was happening while the book was read. The information between the two covers is important. The recollections associated with any tome in our library is what makes each and every volume special. Books themselves are (mostly) replaceable, the memories are priceless.

Tomato and Mozzarella

Tomatoes and mozzarella go together.  Japanese dressing, well not at first thought, though it really ties the already compatible into a gustatory bond.  We made another single tomato terrine, I cannot wait till I have a rainbow of tomatoes on hand to see what colors and flavors we can press together.  Yet, for this first assemblage of ingredients the results were formidable.  In seasoning the tomato fillets we used an aged balsamic vinegar, Tasmanian pepper and salt.  The Tasmanian peppers flavor characteristics imparted the flavor of basil into a tomato which had not even crossed basil's path.

We then rolled out some buffalo mozzarella and cut it into a square.  The rolling of the mozzarella broke down its structure so that is resembled a silken tofu rather than a dense mozzarella.  We then dressed the terrine and the mozzarella with a blend of olive oil, sesame oil, soy-ginger juice and Blis Elixir.  Finally we topped the dish with young dill and parsley leaves.

Upon further contemplation, I believe a variety of tomatoes in the terrine will add to the dish.  Similarly I think a few shaved jalapenos and sliced scallions will really make the tomato and mozzarella flavors pop.  And one other thought on the subject, some beautiful tuna or hamachi would not be all that bad integrated into the dish as a whole.  Of course, for now the dish stands, well digests.

Pearls of Onion and Burger Dreams

We have used a lot more onion in our cooking this summer, save for a few allium free events.  Onions, good, sweet, heady, biting and clean add a tremendous amount of character to the simplest of dishes.  Our remote location has certainly caused me to crave the cooking of others.  I miss the smell of the ocean mingling with the aroma of a burger grilling and the sweet smell of tomatoes and onions sliced and lined up on a platter ready to compliment the burger and my vision of a summer evening.  One of the most difficult aspects in eating that burger or using onion in cooking is finding the right balance.  Today we fine tuned a means in which we are able to at least break down the onion and tame its rougher edges so that the diner can integrate as much or as little onion as they desire in the dish.  We made pearls of onion.  The pearls are actually a blend of onion and Parmesan since we cooked the onions in Parmesan broth.  That blend worked well in the dish since I was mimicking a grilled burger with cheese.  Instead of a burger,  we used griddled shortribs.  As for the tomato we decided to cut it into fillets, salt them, stack them and then compress them into a thick tomato terrine.  Thankfully we thought of this tomato compression before the end of tomato season for I see many great evolutions with this technique on tomatoes.  A few leaves of celery finished the dish.

The pearls of onion allow the diner to take bites of shortib with varying amounts of onion.  Similarly, the dense tomato mirrors the firm yet melting texture of the shortrib.  I suppose we could have brought the element of griddled bread into the dish, though really that might just be overkill.

Tomato Heart

How do you show someone you love them?  You have a heart shaped tomato grown and then hold it up for the world to see.  Well, that's my story and I'm sticking too it.

Musk Melon and Cucumber Terrine

I have been wanting to make a melon terrine for some time.  Yet, I wanted it to retain the raw nature of the fruit.  Similarly, I was unsure of how to cut and shape the melon for stacking.  Then, it dawned on me.  While most terrines are stacked, I could lay mine out flat or mostly flat.  I took a quarter of a musk melon which I had previously compressed.  I then sliced the melon from top to bottom.  I then put sliced of cucumber between the melon slices and used skewers to hold the slices in place.  I then re-compressed the melon and cucumber slices.  After an hour, I opened the bag, trimmed the terrine horizontally and then cut slices to serve.  Now this first terrine is remarkable to me because it presents a whole new approach to layering, stacking and terrine making.  I am now just beginning to think of the possibilities.

We served the melon-cucumber terrine with marmalade marinated squab, sweet and sour cabbage puree, sheep sorrel and coffee oil vinaigrette.

Halibut and a Few Misguided Dishes

We received some incredible halibut from our local fish guy Travis at Montana Fish Company.  We had an event where we needed a simple, recognizable fish, which could stand the heat of a buffet line.  This fish did more than stand the heat, it was incredible.  The fish was firm, moist, juicy and it did not turn dry or tough.  We steamed the fish with some white soy sauce, yuzu juice and a splash of wine and water.  This steaming liquid, really more of a shallow poach helped present the halibut in all its glory. 

What is even more exciting is that after the event we had a portion of halibut left over, which in turn gave us the opportunity to work on some new dishes.  We started off this morning working with the halibut, smoked balsamic vinegar, sorrel leaves and pumpernickel noodles.  The ideas were sound the dish not so much.  Time to try again.  We opted to use some grated elements to pair with the roasted and then steamed fish.  The grated elements were passionfruit, olive and ramp.  While that base mixture is delicious it did not unite well with either cooking method of halibut.  In fact, our banana-tamarind puree could not save that dish.

And so it took some slowing down and thinking about the pristine quality of the fish and its vibrant clarity too help us focus on a final dish.  We pounded the halibut thin and then cut it into a rectangle.  The halibut was then brushed with coffee oil and seasoned with flakes of Maldon salt.  We topped the seasoned fish with leaves of Silver Buckle sorrel and accented it with Minus 8 vinegar.  While the evolution from chaffing dish to final dish spread the span of less than 24 hours, the process and frustration in not being able to coax out something worthwhile much more quickly is difficult.  Then again, 24 hours is not that long, unless you are me where an hour can yield 10 failures and seem like an eternity.

Garbage

I happened to be outside taking photographs this morning when one of the grounds-keepers came by to pick up the trash.  I had a plate full of stone fruit, gorgeous golden light spilling across the deck, and everything seemed right with the world. Suddenly the air was filled with the sound of banging trash cans and muttered curses. A huge wave of negative energy washed through the area. Although I was close enough to hear what was happening, I couldn't actually see what was transpiring behind the wooden slats separating me from the garbage area. Normally I would offer to help, in this case the cursing was of such a virulent nature that it seemed prudent to keep my distance.  He finally loaded up his truck and left. I went back to snapping photos and promptly put the incident out of my head.

Later on I made a trip out to the trash area with a load. I quickly discovered the source of that young man's frustration. There had been some recent rain and as a result there were a couple of inches of water in the garbage cans. No doubt he was splattered with dirt water as he hefted out the bags. I would have felt sorry for him if he hadn't left the water in the cans so that the guy on duty tomorrow could have the same pleasant experience.  It's his last day so he knew that he wouldn't be picking up the trash again.  So I tipped the trash-free containers over the drain by the entrance to the trash area and emptied out the water before putting my bag in a can.  It was not a difficult thing to do.  Being pro-active is easy. Leaving the makings of a mess for someone else, that's garbage.

Arugula Soup

Arugula and banana are not much like peas and carrots, yet they match up equally well.  We were working on a late summer soup which would act as a medium to present our grains of scallop.  Arugula is in abundance right now and by coincidence, we happened to have a supply of ripe bananas on hand.  Looking at the bananas and thinking about arugula made me pause and then taste the two together.  The grassy, spicy, and slightly bitter notes of the arugula are tamed by the sweet, almost creamy richness of the banana.  And so the idea of the soup was born.  I decided to roast some of the bananas to caramelize the juice. Next I blanched the arugula. Finally I combined the juice from the roasted banana with the arugula and some roasted banana consomme and pureed them to a light, silky broth. Voilà, we had banana-arugula soup. As you can see by the photo, we paired the soup with the grains of scallop and finished the dish with a few drops of pecan oil. It created an interplay of flavors that washed over the palate changing from sweet to bitter to spicy to nutty over the course of one bite. It was a simple combination that resulted in a complex mouthful of texture and flavors.

and as a ravioli?

And so in working further with the pumpernickel dough we found that it matured overnight.  We wrapped it tightly and let it rest at room temperature overnight.  The result was a darker dough with more pronounced, developed and rounded aromas of pumpernickel.  The dough was also a bit more silky and soft, so we figured why not try to use it to make some ravioli.  We rolled the dough and filled it with a mixture of minced shrimp, dill, tabasco and cream cheese.  The ravioli came together well.  The dough was soft and silky while still retaining a texture which could stand up to the filling.  We served the ravioli with an arugula puree and a salad of cultivated weeds, shaved young onions and shaved pecorino. 

We are still planning on a pastrami or corned beef filled ravioli.  Which, while writing begs the question, can we make pasta flavored like meat?  We used our prosciutto puree to make prosciutto cavatelli.  The results were good, though we kind of let the idea stop there.  What if we pressure cooked pastrami and pureed it into a smooth paste.  That paste should work quite well as the base for another cavatelli.  As far as integrating the pastrami into the dough for noodles or ravioli skins, that will take a bit more thinking and tinkering, though I have a few thoughts bouncing about.

Tuna Wranglers

We happened to catch the first episode of Tuna Wranglers on the Discovery Channel the other night. It's a two-part series, chronicling the adventures of blue-fin tuna farming off the coast Australia, complete with shark-wrestling in the pens. It's was entertaining and informative. For anyone who wants to learn more about where their fish comes from, you should definitely check it out.

Coffee Oil

Fanny from Le Sanctuaire said we had to try this. I am glad we listened.  The coffee oil is clear, well more yellow than clear with the taste of how coffee smells.  It is a blend of great olive oil and the essence of coffee.  The clarity and intensity of the oil has sparked many ideas from simply drizzled on raw hamachi to the base for a broken vinaigrette to serve with game.  Really, with a new ingredient on hand we are only scratching the surface.

Frog Hollow Farm

We love these guys, truly we do. The first time I ever heard the name Frog Hollow Farm was way back, maybe even in high school when a family friend gave us a Christmas gift which consisted of a three pack of their peach conserves.  It was delicious, spread on chewy toast with a hint of butter. It was like eating a bit of summer in the dead of winter and they made the early morning coffee ritual something special. Somehow you never know which of those unexpected presents will make a lasting impact, that's the beauty of gift giving. Sometimes a present can be much more than you think it is.

Fast forward ten years or so. We ordered the fruit from Frog Hollow occasionally in Colorado. It was expensive and shipping was tough. Given the slow start at the hotel, it was hard to justify the price of the fruit. On the other hand, this summer we've been working on a private ranch where the owners love fruit. So Frog Hollow stone fruit has been with us all season. We began with the cherries and continued through the season with apricots, pluots, peaches and nectarines. The fruit arrives in these pretty boxes, each piece wrapped in tissue paper and in it's own little bed. They arrive slightly under-ripe, but a day or two on the counter is all it takes to sweeten and soften these blushing beauties. These are the kind of nectarines that spurt juice when you sink your teeth into them. We always serve them with napkins because you will make a mess, and the fruit will drip down your chin if you're not careful. That's the beauty of ripe stone fruits after all.

I won't kid you, these peaches are pricey. With shipping, it comes out to about $2 per piece. I will say that there were times this summer when the fruit was the most talked about item on the menu. People from all over the country raved about it. We were even teased that the fruit eclipsed the composed dishes. We just smiled and offered them another piece. After all, the true art of being a good chef is procuring great ingredients. As summer cycles towards fall and we get ready to pack our bags and head back East, we urge you to treat yourself and someone you love. Order some peaches or Asian pears from Frog Hollow. The taste of summer is fleeting and utterly delicious.

No, Not Shoe Laces

In response to the commentary on the visual aesthetics of our pumpernickel noodles, we integrated them into a dish.  The noodles are paired with sockeye salmon and a blend of grated olives, pistachios and chives.  The aroma and taste of the pumpernickel pairs quite well with the bites of salmon.  And while the dish is designed to highlight the noodles, the grated condiment is the star of the dish.  The interplay between the olives, pistachios and chives really works well with the rich dense fish and the earthy pumpernickel noodles.

Pork Belly Tater Tots

When you see the same thing over and over again it can be redundant and tiresome until the point when repetition makes you look at the same thing with a different view point.  I have seen more than my share of tater tots this summer.  Tater tots are fine.  They are crispy on the outside and warm and steamy on the inside.  They are the Pringles of the frozen baked potato products. 

Until today.  I have been struggling with serving pork belly.  Perhaps it is our audience, perhaps it is just that I wanted to streamline how it gets from plate to mouth, perhaps it just all this exposure to tater tots.  Whatever the spark, the resulting inspiration was pork belly tater tots.  We punched out little tots of braised pork belly and then coated them with potato flakes.  While traditionally tater tots are baked, we opted to fry ours.  The result was a beautifully crispy potato exterior with a molten fatty and meaty interior full of porcine and spiced flavors, the result of several days in brine and a nice long and slow braise.

We played around with plating the pork belly tater tots with quince-green olive sauce, dandelion greens and shave purple peppers.  The components come together, though this is not the end for these tots.  And furthermore, does pork belly need to be the filling for the tots?  Lobster or braised short ribs would be equally delightful surrounded with potato flakes and served in the tot form.  However, the key is the tot.  The break though was the pork belly as the tot.  The rest, well that will be an evolution.

Pumpernickel Noodles: in the raw

It took a walk with the dog to solve the pumpernickel pasta problem.  I had the basic principles in place though that distinct aroma and color, pumpernickel's signature was escaping me.  Then, as easily as one foot goes in front of the next the answer appeared.  Cocoa. 

We now have pumpernickel noodles which not only smell the part, they have the distinct color and taste of fresh baked pumpernickel.  The dishes are in the works, with more ideas churning, evolving and being fine tuned... I really think a lobster and pastrami ravioli inside this dough would be quite remarkable.

Scallop Rice

While reading El Bulli 2003/2004  I noted a bit of visual gimmickry in a dish which used diced cuttlefish as rice to which a slice of cuttlefish was laid on top and the entire assemblage resembled a perfect bite of cuttlefish sushi.  Bingo.  Instead of dicing the cuttlefish we could make a puree bound with activa.  The resulting puree could then be extruded into a hot water bath to set a long noodle.  The long noodles could then be cut on a bias to resemble in appearance and texture cooked rice.  From the initial idea of cuttlefish rice, I jumped to scallop rice since we have scallops on hand.  This morning I set about seeing if the idea was sound.  I made the puree, extruded it and cut it into rice shaped pieces.  The cut scallop really does resemble rice.  In the future I may use a slightly smaller pastry tip so that we can make a basmati style rice instead of the thicker short grained rice of scallops we made today.

With the scallop rice on hand, now we need to figure out what the heck we are going to do with it.  Some initial ideas are: scallop rice and peas, scallop paella, dirty scallop rice, fried scallop rice, scallop risotto. 

Back to the kitchen.

Pumpernickel Noodles

I continue to crave the earthy heady flavor and aroma of pumpernickel bread and its close cousin marble rye.  While we have taken a few steps in integrating their flavors into our dishes, the hot weather has caused a bit of a roadblock.  Until today.  In the summertime Aki often makes me chilled noodles with shaved jalapenos, torn nori, scallion and poached and chilled shrimp.  These delicate noodles are both refreshing in their coolness and satisfying with their tastes and textures.  It dawned on me as I daydreamed of pumpernickel and its flavors and these summer noodles that all I needed to do is make pumpernickel noodles.  Now I am back in the kitchen working on pasta recipes which integrate all the flavors and nuances of pumpernickel in a thin, firm and delicate noodle.  And when the weather cools down I can foresee plenty of hot preparations with these pumpernickel noodles from pumpernickel noodles with pastrami consomme and razor clams to slow cooked sea trout with pumpernickel noodles and watercress ravigote.  For now I need to get the pasta dough right otherwise the ideas are merely left blowing in the wind.

Ranch Cavatelli Dressing and Various Tangents

Little did we know that when we focused in on ranch dressing for Taste3 that we would be haunted by the stuff all summer long. Ranch dressing is ubiquitous in Montana. Fried chicken and french fries arrive on the table, not with a bottle of ketchup, but with a side of ranch. Pizza is also served with ranch dressing on the side.  In the employee dining room last evening we watched a gentleman put a layer of ranch dressing on top of his pasta. It was a beautiful, simple penne baked with sausage, smoked tomato and mozzarella cheese...and  finished with ranch dressing. Now we've seen everything.

Fact is, ranch dressing can be really tasty stuff.  In fact, spiked with some Tabasco sauce it makes a beautiful accompaniment to pressure fried chicken, causing us to wonder what fried chicken that had been marinated in a buttermilk based ranch dressing would taste like.  The only pasta (besides those ranch gnocchi)  we've ever eaten with ranch was pasta salad, and a mighty tasty salad it was. What if we made a pasta dough seasoned with ranch dressing?  We could make a ranch cavatelli.  Imagine that served with sauteed scallops or shrimp, a ragout of seasonal vegetables or even underneath a smoked chicken breast.  Alex jumped from cavatelli to pappardelle and Aki chimed in with traditional potato gnocchi seasoned with the dry ingredients from ranch dressing, including powdered buttermilk. 

When the shoe fits, wear it.  Ranch is not the only dressing which we can use as a seasoning agent.  As a teenager, a family friend prided himself on his famous marinated steaks. The meat was incredibly flavorful and Aki always suspected that his secret ingredient was bottled Italian salad dressing. We must confess that we have recently used Paul Newman's Salad Dressing  as both a marinade and a poaching medium for chicken and turkey. Since the Paul Newman's is a favorite of the people we're working for, we extrapolated that old idea and the results were delicious.  Really, some of the tastiest chicken we've eaten in recent times.  Who would have thought?  We can probably get more fragrant spices and ingredients and make our own.  We'll travel that route when we get back to NYC, although for the moment, the Newman's dressing as a marinade for proteins, vegetables, and various cold salads is yielding wonderful results.

Tangents, we often go off on tangents.  These random associations and avalanches of ideas are what allow us to occasionally discover something interesting and exciting. Something as simple as a salad dressing can often lead us to a new pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

Fried Carrots

We have spent a fair amount of time working with our pressure cooker.  In trying to get the right time for cooking vegetables we have ended up with more than our share of vegetable purees.  Though as we narrowed our window for root vegetable cookery, we came across an interesting result.  We cooked round, unpeeled carrots in a spiced broth for eight minutes.  Once the pressure released naturally we used a towel to rub the skins off the carrots.  The resulting carrots were delicious, fragrant and tender.  Really tender.  They were like a carrot puree held in the shape of carrots.  What can we do with these?  Sure, we could make a really tasty carrot puree.  Yet, I wanted to show off the carrots texture, flavor and shape.  We needed something to carry the carrots.  I opted for a beer batter, though a tempura would be equally exciting. 

Of course we needed something to serve with the fried carrots, a dipping sauce of sorts.  Several days earlier, our resident accomplice in the kitchen had brought the idea of a smoked onion mayonnaise.  I had never thought, tasted or seen a smoked onion mayo.  And as soon as he mentioned the sauce it struck a flavor combination that had to be delicious.  To make the mayonnaise we smoked several onions and then pressured cooked them till they were melting.  We then pureed these onions with an egg yolk and added a touch of mustard, olive oil and a spoonful of roasted garlic to round out the flavors.  A splash of lemon juice and a pinch of cayenne finished the smoked onion mayonnaise.

With the batter and carrots in front of us and the mayonnaise sitting in the wings, we set about frying. 

Brief tangent, skip if you want to continue with the food.

Frying foods is interesting.  There are many ways one can go about frying and I have yet to find one which really makes sense.  My main  issue with frying is the mess and clean up.  Fryers, commercial and home models are full of nooks and crannies which need to be cleaned often.  And cleaning fryers is not high on my list of things I like.  Frying in a pot on the stove works, though temperature control can be an issue.  Yet, since our adoption of a laser thermometer checking oil temperatures in a pot has not then included cleaning a candy thermometer which we used to attach to the side of the pot to monitor oil temperatures.  So, now I just need to watch the pot and flame to keep everything frying properly.  And when the frying is done, I just let the oil cool and strain it back into its original bottle.  Then I only have one pot without nooks and crannies to clean.  While I write this about frying and lack of desire to have to clean hard to reach places I have begun to wonder why no one has assembled or come up with a frying system which is modeled after the pot fryer with the temperature control of the industrial and home model fry machines.  In fact, I bet the use of induction technology with a large insert might be the right path to follow.   Of course, that is a whole other story and today the focus is on fried carrots.

We heated up our pot of oil on the stove and dusted the carrots lightly with cornstarch.  Again, I drew upon Aki's shake and bake style for coating foods.  We placed the carrots and cornstarch in a bag and did a gentle shake (remember the carrots are really tender) then dipped them into the beer batter.  The frying had begun.  As the battered carrots hit the oil a crisp shell formed, protecting the tender interior while also providing structure to the carrots.  When the carrots were good and crisp we removed them from the oil, seasoned them with some salt and then started dipping into the smoked onion mayonnaise.  They were good.  Really good.  Hot as well.  If you are looking for a crisp and snappy carrot, this is not the dish or approach.  We had crisp batter, melting carrot and cool and creamy smokey onion mayonnaise.  We served these as an hors d' oeuvre though they would also be a great accompaniment to dish or even a course on there own.  I would sit down to a plate of these.  And we do not have to just use carrots.  Beets, turnips, baby fennel, artichokes and much more  all would benefit from this pressure tenderizing and deep frying.  Imagination is our only limitation.

Rhubarb and Vadouvan

In looking at what I like with rhubarb I find a theme of strong bold flavors: miso, horseradish, fermented black bean and most recently vadouvan.  We macerated rhubarb with agave nectar, salt and a healthy dose of vadouvan, a spice blend similar in nature to curry powder though with large bits of fermented garlic and onion in the mix.  Once the flavors married and the rhubarb leached out a fair amount of liquid we cooked it down into a puree.  The resulting puree captured the base essence of the vadouvan while keeping the essential sweet, sour and vegetal tastes of the rhubarb.  We then set about gelling the puree so that we could serve hot cubes or rectangles of just set rhubarb-vadouvan.  With the help of both high and low acyl gellan we were able to set the puree such that it could be cut evenly and then heated in individual blocks.  While today we paired the puree with a braised lamb shank and fresh onions, we have plans of using it with crispy skinned trout as well as with foie gras or sweetbreads.

Just Peachy

Summertime can be quite inspiring with all the juicy fruits and vegetables available at our fingertips.  Our salad of peaches and tomatoes is accented with whipped roasted banana and pine needle powder.  In the past we have used the roasted banana consomme to marinate tomatoes so its use in whipped form is merely a variation on a theme. 

The pine and the peaches, well that came from walking in the woods slurping on a peach.  Ideas can be messy.

A Tip Of the Hat...

to Ratha Tepp, over at Food and Wine. She graciously included us in her list of favorite chef blogs. Thank you Ratha! It's always nice to feel appreciated. Thanks to Sean for bringing it to our attention.

Ice Cream Thoughts

I had the pleasure of reading Harold McGee's article  on ice cream in the New York Times today.  His article helps demystify the means in which someone could make chewy ice cream.  We have tried with limited success to replicate Turkish chewy ice cream.  However, with the information garnered from the article and a few notes on Harold's website, we have new options and paths to travel.