IDEAS IN FOOD

Beet Greens

As I was leaving the store I was given a simple recipe for beet greens.  The reason for the suggestion was that the bunch of beets I had just bought had a lively top of the often discarded greens.  The women at the checkout counter casually instructed me on how to prepare them: wash gently and then saute in olive oil with a bit of garlic and crushed red pepper. She informed me that I would love them.  Funny thing, because I was buying the beets for the beets.  I had no plans for the greens.  In fact, I was anticipating cutting them off and getting started on my beet project.  Her little nudge, a gentle coaxing of thought sparked a new idea. (Go figure, whenever I suggest that we use the beet greens he rolls his eyes and ignores me.)

How could we sharpen the preparation and presentation of beet greens?  I cut the greens into little rounds.  With the trimming done, we made a light brine flavored with garlic, salt and red pepper flakes and then soaked the greens for five minutes.  We removed them and then vacuum sealed the rounds while they were still damp.  The vacuum sealing infused the flavors into the greens and compressed the vegetable so that it took on a cooked appearance while remaining essentially raw.

The rounds of beet greens are full of flavor and now may be integrated into a dish at the last moment to retain their bright, crisp and clean flavors. Sometimes it takes the suggestion of a stranger for an idea to take root.

Under Cover

The arrival of packages, presents, and written mail from a loved one all arrive with a sense of discovery.  What is inside?  What kind of surprise awaits me?  The anticipation is wonderful, it heightens the senses and has the body on edge with excitement.  The sensation of receiving a gift is wonderful and if we could capture that first moment of anticipation which accompanies a positive surprise, then we would be able to heighten the reception of a dish and its ingredients.

One method of stirring anticipation is to hide a dish with a cloche.  Another, which currently has my fancy, is to tuck ingredients under a blanket or sheet of sorts.  With the evolution of our Fruit Glue, we are able to assemble sheets of vegetables which may then be heated and draped on top of other ingredients, gently disguising the bounty beneath.

A recent dish we were quite happy with used a zucchini sheet to cover a hot spring egg.  The diner sees a round of round zucchini slices garnished with basil with something softly bulging underneath.  What lies hidden is a soft, pliable egg resting in a nest of grated cheese scattered with leaves of spicy basil from our garden. As the diner's spoon or fork presses into the dish, the bounty is revealed and the dish comes into its own. It's a simple technique with very pleasing results.

Cabot Cloth Bound Cheddar

As a graduate of NECI, ever so long ago, I left school with a definite bias for Vermont products. We spent two years working with them and to this day I am still partial to King Arthur Flour, the butter, fromage blanc and creme fraiche from the Vermont Butter and Cheese Company, a myriad range of locally produced cheeses, and more recently we developed our relationship with Diane and her amazing butter at Animal Farm. Cabot cheddars and butter have always been staple in my home kitchen, still it wasn’t until recently that I revisited the Cabot Cloth Bound Cheddar.

When I found out that I was pregnant, one of the first things that was given to me was a list of foods that are now taboo. (We won’t get into the entire list here. Suffice it to say that I was slightly awestruck by the number of foods that were suddenly forbidden to me. It made me wonder what it is that pregnant women do eat and how safe my regular eating habits actually are.) The dietitian stressed the need to avoid cheeses from other countries. She told me to stick to American made cheeses because they were either pasteurized or aged and safe for me to eat. As a die hard cheese lover this edict gave me pause. No more French Muenster or Epoisses? No more creamy Robiolas or gooey Brie de Meaux? And then I had a epiphany. Instead of focusing on the cheeses I couldn’t eat I would savor the cheeses that I could. This was an opportunity to explore American cheeses that I hadn’t yet tried and to reacquaint myself with old favorites that I hadn’t had in a while. After all, there were far more good cheeses produced in the world than I could possibly eat on a regular basis. Temporary boundaries could be a good thing if I used them to focus in on cheeses that I might otherwise be missing out on.

Enter the Cabot Cloth Bound Cheddar. Let me begin by noting that this is not an inexpensive cheese. This cheese was inspired by a return to traditional cheese making and as such is expensive to produce. It was created as a joint venture between Cabot Creamery and Jasper Hill Farm. The cheese is created at Cabot. The 38-pound wheels made with pasteurized milk from Holstein cows that is injected with a proprietary blend of cultures, traditionally hooped and bound in cloth before being sent over to jasper Hill Farm for cave aging. At Jasper Hill Farm the cheeses are coated in lard and placed on spruce boards in an underground cellar where they are aged for between ten and eighteen months.

The cheese itself is utterly delicious. It has developed a slightly dry, firm, yet creamy texture, with a fragrant, grassy aroma and a color reminiscent of a white sand beach on a sunny afternoon. It has the complexity of an aged cheese without any of the bitter aftertaste that sometimes occurs when cheeses are a bit too old. It is nutty and buttery, with caramel undertones. The flavors are sweet, sharp, and smooth. According to Alex it’s as if the flavor profiles of a big, spicy, earthy Syrah and smooth, fruity Merlot got together and had a child that was made of cheese. I say that it’s delicious eaten out of hand and also complements some of Spring’s finest produce beautifully. A little goes a long way because the cheese is just that good.

Classes in San Francisco, June 14-15, 2008

We will be doing four classes over one weekend at Le Sanctuaire in San Francisco. Each class will be two and a half hours long, including a Q&A session at the end of each demonstration.

The classes are:

Exploring Methocel
Methocel is an extremely versatile hydrocolloid that comes in many different varieties. It is most notable for the characteristic of being liquid at cooler temperatures and gelling at higher temperatures. This class will explore some of our favorite types of Methocel and demonstrate a myriad range of applications from reheat-able hollandaise to warm custards and hot sabayons.

Pectin
Many people are familiar with high methoxyl pectin, which is often used in home canning to create jams and jellies. In this workshop we will be discussing low-methoxyl pectin and amidated low methoxyl pectin and their various innovative culinary applications.

Activa
Activa is a proprietary brand of transglutaminase, an enzyme which allows for the cross linking of proteins. We will be discussing and demonstrating the use of Activa RM and Activa YG and how they can improve texture and flavor while increasing efficiency in a restaurant setting.

Carageenan
Carageenan is derived from red seaweed and is very useful as a vegetarian hydrocolloid. It comes in three varieties, iota, kappa, and lambda, which can be used in different combinations to achieve a variety of sols and gels. We will be focusing on iota and kappa and utilizing their different characteristics in various culinary preparations.

The classes are $125 per session for one, $100/session to attend two or more classes. The exact time slots for each class will be available shortly, there will be two classes each day, one at 10am and one at 1:30pm. For more information or to make a reservation, please contact Le Sanctuaire directly at (415)986-4216.

Soft Shell Crabs in May

This is without question, one of the best soft shell dishes that we've ever created. It is incredibly simple, a cleaned soft shell, gently sauteed in butter paired with a terrine of yellow watermelon and honeydew and finished with wood sorrel leaves. The crabs were just set so the flesh was tender and the insides were creamy and juicy. Pair that with the unusually sweet (for this time of year) flavor of the melons and the bright lemony flavor of the wood sorrel and nothing else was needed. Every so often a few beautiful ingredients come together and all a chef needs to do is step back and let them shine. This was definitely one of those moments.

The Best Pizza in Connecticut...

The key is getting an invite to one of the four yearly firings of the sexiest, most over the top pizza ovens we have come to see, touch and experience.  Thanks to Tony and Kim for opening the doors to the inner sanctum of pizza.

Raspberries

A bowl of ideas.   

Buttermilk, Rhubarb, and Lovage

The combination of these three ingredients somehow manages to be both envigorating and comforting.  The lovage adds a bright note of herbal bitterness dissolving on the tongue from a soft powder into a rich decadent lovage oil.  The buttermilk is set in the form of an orb and textured like a soft panna cotta.  The tart rhubarb cubes are marinated and compressed in their own lightly sweetened juices.  The residual liquid from the marinated rhubarb is whipped into light bubbles to dress the ingredients and to bring them together.

The organization of these ingredients and their placement in a menu is transitional.  This dish carries us from cheese to chocolate.  In our minds this is the natural progression of the end of a tasting menu: cheese to fruit to chocolate.  We've basically eliminated the mignardises from our repertoire as in our experience most people are too full to truly enjoy them. They can be wonderful little bites, but if there is no appetite for them they become simply the platform for a tummy ache. Instead we end our meal with chocolate and hopefully send our guests home with pleasantly full bellies and happy memories of an evening well spent.

Gorgonzola Cremifacto

Last week Alex was wandering through the aisles at Whole Foods. He was actually picking up some last minute items for a dinner we were catering. One of the things that was not on his list was cheese, as we already had a pretty cool one that we were planning to feature. This being Alex though, he was unable to resist the siren call of the cheese department and ambled over there to take a look at what they had in stock.  Our cheese course changed the instant he came across the Gorgonzola Cremifacto.

This savory blue cheese was so rich and runny that they spooned it into a deli container instead of wrapping it up in paper or plastic. The texture was incredibly luxurious. It was silky and elastic, melting slowly on the palate. The flavor of the cheese was assertive without being overly aggressive, with an earthy tang that lingered long after the cheese itself was just a memory.

Gorgonzola is an Italian cheese that is produced in Piedmont and Lombardy. It is a blue veined cheese made from cow's milk. There are different varieties, the most common being the Piccante Gorgonzola or Gorgonzola Naturale and the Gorgonzola Dolce. The Dolce is a softer, sweeter cheese, with a higher fat content and a creamy texture. The Piccante is a firmer cheese. It is aged for a minimum of three months and often for much longer. It is much sharper and spicier in flavor with a chalky, crumbly texture. The Gorgonzola Cremifacto seems to be more in the style of a Dolce. It is enriched with heavy cream and aged for three months to produce the lovely, runny cheese that we so enjoyed last week.

We served it with strawberries that were compressed with a touch of smoked balsamic, some sliced chives and a bit more vinegar on the plate. The sweetness of the fruit and the lightly smoked acid of the vinegar provided a beautiful counterpoint to this luscious cheese.

Milk Aeration

I finally made the transition from milk puree to a milk puree leavened with nitrous oxide, a milk foam.  Is the connection important?  We believe so.  We are now able to make lighter and more flavorful purees from almost any ingredient.  Our connection of ideas is not ground breaking, rather it breaks new ground for us.  We have made plenty of fluid gels with both agar agar-locust bean gum and gellan blends.  Yet, our goal was always a pliable puree rather than a foam.  Since we had a preconceived idea of our end goal we were blinded to other possibilities.  Thankfully today we shed the blinders and expanded our horizons. Try it and see how it works for you.

Brining Morels

One of the pleasures of ship board travel for me is the library. On these extended trips it doesn't make sense to carry the number of books I need to keep myself happily occupied and so I rely on the shipboard selection for my reading pleasure. During this past cruise I picked up Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Having never read any of her other books, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed her family's story. It was an engaging read that really made me think about food in new ways.

One of her stories is about foraging for morels. She mentions in the book that the foragers in her area recommended that she give the mushrooms a brief soak in salt water before cooking. That made me stop and think. Against conventional wisdom, Alex and I always wash our mushrooms. We believe that worms and dirt are not a happy addition to any plate and find that a warm water rinse (or three) followed by air drying on a rack has beneficial effects on almost all wild mushrooms. The salt water soak was something else entirely. I shared that particular passage with Alex and he was equally intrigued. We decided to try it the next time we got our hands on some morels.

As luck would have it, just a few days after we returned to New York we purchased some beautiful morels from Tyler's traveling van and had the opportunity to put the salt water bath to the test. Barbara was somewhat vague as to her particular method for soaking the morels. We decided that a ten minute soak in a 2% brine would extract any critters from the various nooks and crannies with the added benefit of seasoning the mushrooms during the process. We soaked them for ten minutes with the occasional swish and stir, gave them a quick rinse, patted them dry, and cooked them gently in just olive oil until they were just tender. No additional salt was needed.

How did they taste? They were seasoned throughout with a nice depth of flavor. They seemed somehow earthier and mushroom-ier than their more traditionally cleaned counterparts. The simple cooking in olive oil made them very versatile. We actually finished them with a vaudovan consomme, although there were any number of other paths available to us. We think that brining morels definitely works. We'll have to experiment with other mushrooms and see if they do equally well.

In Their Jackets

What if we cooked our twice cooked potatoes while they were still in their jackets?  Theoretically the moisture inside the potatoes should be enough to gelatinize the starch.  Since the potatoes would be whole, there would be no need to rinse off damaged starch cells during the cooling process.  The idea was interesting, we needed to see if it was sound.

We set about cooking fingerling potatoes (all the same size) in 65 degree Celsius water for one hour, then iced them down so they were completely cool, and then cooked them beginning in cold water until they were tender.  Once the potatoes were cooked through we pressed them through a ricer.  The skins remained in the ricer and the rich, steamy flesh emerged ready to be embellished.  We cooled these twice cooked potatoes down and then used them to make fingerling potato puree.

The results were amazing.  The potatoes had a more potatoe-y flavor, the nutty nature of the skins seemed to permeate the flesh.  The starch was gelatininzed so the resulting puree was creamy and decadent without any starchy build up.  This small evolution in how we looked at the process of potato cookery actually streamlined the preparation process while allowing us to enhance the flavor in our potato puree.

Our next thoughts were about trying this approach with larger russet potatoes for our flourless potato gnocchi. We were actually able to test this idea yesterday and taste the results this morning after an intense culinary workshop with Tony Maws and his enthusiastic team at the Craigie Street Bistrot.  (We will actually be talking further about this workshop since Tony is happy to let us share the experience.)  As it turned out, Tony has been cooking potatoes in their jacket for twice cooked potatoes for about three years now.  It was great to see we were looking at food from different angles to reach the same end goal of delicious.  Tony's words on cooking potatoes in their jackets: "it just made sense, and that way we do not waste flavor and allow the potatoes to become water logged."  Our thoughts exactly, just a few years later.

The potato gnocchi made from the twice cooked, unpeeled potatoes were unbelievable, the texture was simply amazing, a definite improvement on what we had previously thought to be pretty darned great.  Now that is why we cook: to learn, to break through old achievements, and work with people who push us to continue to improve, refine and perfect.

Smoked Water

Not everything needs to go in the smoker.  In looking at green vegetables, we have wanted to smoke them and have hesitated because of the possible side effects of the process. We were not sure if the heat, yes there is still some heat in cold smoking, would affect the color of the vegetables.  Mind you we did not actually try to smoke broccoli or asparagus so we cannot answer that question definitively as of yet.  Now that we are without a smoker on hand, we look for other ways to add smoke to ingredients.  We have used wood shavings to make miniature smokers and burned rice with tea and dried fruits to generate smoke.  We also have used powdered smoke in dry applications like spice rubs and pasta doughs.  Until now we had not tried using the smoke powder in moist environments.  Well, except for the smoked eggs.  In fact, we should have already made the leap to making smoked water for cooking.  Apparently we are a bit behind.

To make smoked water for cooking we add 2 percent salt and .15 percent smoke powder to water which we then use to blanch vegetables.  The first ingredient we cooked using this medium was fiddlehead ferns.  The smoke and salt permeated the ferns giving a depth of flavor which was balanced and not overly assertive.  The process of cooking in smoked water or other liquid mediums allows for a greater control in the adding the flavor of smoke to ingredients.  It also allows us to control the cooking process of the vegetables and other ingredients and become a bit more exact and refined in our ability to prepare food with a smoked flavor.

Woodberry Kitchen

On Monday, June 2, we will be cooking a nine(ish) course dinner down at Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore with Spike Gjerde and his team.  We met Spike through our cooking classes and were introduced to his passionate approach to cooking.  In fact, his mindset is contagious.  When he asked if we would be interested in cooking a dinner with him the only possible answer was yes.  We had to ask one favor: if he would allow us into his fold of local purveyors and providers.  He was more than willing and he just sent us a list of ingredients from his tried and true list of suppliers.  The list will be the inspiration, the starting point for the dinner menu.  Now begins the conversation, the development of ideas and the refinement of thoughts.  There are seats available for this dinner, so if you are in the area give Woodberry Kitchen a call to grab a seat.

Yes, we will share the initial list.  These are Spike's notes to us:

WK current sourcing

Asparagus…should be plentiful through mid-June, comes ungraded from the farm so we    get everything from pencil-thin to jumbo.
Strawberries…just starting, should be abundant for several weeks
Rhubarb…I know you love it… We are getting beautiful rhubarb from several farms
Stinging nettles…good now but wrapping up as they start to flower
Ramps…about finished
Dandelion…good now, and should continue, including red-stemmed and catalogna    puntarelle
Spinach…we get young flat leaf from one farm and over-wintered old school stem    spinach from another
Arugula…still mostly hot house (“baby”)
Chard…beautiful young chard from PA. Bunched (mature) chard soon
Spring garlic…scallion-like young hard neck
Leeks…are looking good
Most herbs…have you ever worked with stevia? We also get lovage from my dad.
Mushrooms…organic royal trumpet, beech, and crimini, and we found a couple of morels
    in the park…
Jerusalem artichokes…are about the only root we have right now, except for…
Sassafras…neolithic Dr. Pepper from a farmer with a back hoe and too much time on his    hands

Rockfish (striped bass to you)…limited right now, small fish (5 to 8 lb) should be    available soon
Oysters…we get them from growers all over the Chesapeake, from sweet to mildly briny
Soft crabs…direct from John Walton in Tilgman Island…we can usually get them, but    we never know what size
Chesapeake Bay crab meat…the season is off to a rocky start, but should be available…
Shrimp…we get incredible fresh head on shrimp three times a week from Marvesta    shrimp farm in Easton. Size somewhat limited right now, but we can ask them to    grow us some big ones…
Fluke…caught near Ocean City…mediums are 1-2 lb
Also nice littleneck clams from one of our oyster guys…

Beef…local, pastured, natural beef from Roseda, hung for 3 weeks and delivered fresh to    us,  including hanger, skirt, flat iron, chuck, rib-eye, strip, & tenderloin
Bison…they only slaughter once a month so it is usually frozen
Chicken, eggs, pork…all of it, in any quantity, from local farms, maybe suckling pig?
Lamb…limited slaughter, so they build up product over several weeks in freezer
Dairy…grass fed milk and cream from PA

Drinks of all kinds will be paired with the menu.

May 17, 2008

The list shaped itself up into a tasty menu.  The winner of the evening was the softshell crab, the buttermilk dish was a close second.  For me, I was ecstatic about the gonzo zucchini. 

Parsnip Ice Cream
sake cured steelhead roe, lilac, nigella puree

Island Creek Oyster
grapefruit-yogurt consomme, olive oil

Crispy Chicken
spring and black garlic

Onsen Egg
prima donna gouda, gonzo zucchini,
opal basil

Braised Morel Mushrooms
vadouvan broth, stinging nettles

Rainbow Trout
fava beans, Cabot cloth bound cheddar

Softshell Crab
wood sorrel, melon terrine

Duck
ramp leaves, cherry mustard, tender turnips

Pork Belly Chop
fingerling potato puree, fiddlehead ferns

Gorgonzola Cremifacto
strawberries, smoked balsamic vinegar, tarragon

Buttermilk
lovage, rhubarb

Chocolate
tangerine

The Pleasures and Difficulties with Lists

ramps
stinging nettles
wild garlic
young garlic
black garlic
rainbow trout
chicken
duck breast
pork belly chops
parsnip ice cream
nigella puree
morels
fava beans
wood sorrel
rhubarb
fingerling potatoes
turnips
sake cured steelhead roe
fiddleheads
small shallots
goat cheese sheets
pullet eggs

We are in the middle of preparing a 12 course dinner and this is our list.  We have yet to visit the fish store, so the list will grow.  We have a number of ideas and directions where we may take these ingredients, although at the moment the list provides stimulus for thought.  We may mentally arrange and combine ingredients, thinking about tastes and textures, editing and re-writing.  These are the benefits of a list.  They allow you to see the elements and allow our own experiences and the tastes of the ingredients dictate the direction of our assemblage. 

The difficulty of the list is making cuts.  What will not be used?  What idea needs refinement?  What did not come together the way it was imagined?  How may we get to the essence of an idea?  Where are we going with these ingredients?


Still, without these eliminations, these difficult and necessary edits, the list would grow uncontrollably and there would be utter chaos and confusion in our cooking.

An Orb

I was struck by this beautifully shaped salt sphere while we were walking through the farmers market the other day.  I had not seen perfectly round pieces of salt before.  We have worked with blocks and chunks, though there is just something about a perfectly round piece of salt that appeals to my senses.  My first thought for the salt sphere was to use it for a striking presentation of salt grated table side.  I hope other people are equally excited about perfect shapes created from irregularly shaped objects and ingredients.  A round ball of salt is unexpected.  I like that.

While our first idea is interesting, I am wondering about other uses.  Actually, Aki's first idea was not to buy a round piece of salt when an irregular shaped block would do.  She wondered what the point was in having a perfectly shaped piece if I was just going to file it down into something irregular in the process of its use. That is why I am looking for other ways to utilize this orb of Himalayan salt.

Unsurprisingly I was less enamored by the sphere. I found the jagged chunks on the table with their craggy edges and irregular veins more appealing than the smoothly polished orb. Certainly there is room for both kinds of salt in our pantry. On this day I was more struck by Alex's pleasure and fascination than I was by the salt itself. I'm sure he'll find a way to put it to good use.

Lilacs, Parsnips and Allium

With the trees and flowers in full bloom there is a bounty of olfactory inspiration all around.  The aroma of lilacs continues to turn my head as I walk around our neighborhood.  In fact, the green market today was redolent with the fragrances of lilac and allium.  With all the bounty available, it is no wonder then that we returned home with bags of wild garlic, young garlic, ramps, chives and shallots.  I was also fixated on the aroma of the beautiful lilacs we smelled and then saw at various flower vendors around the park.

My first question about lilacs was about their edibility.  If these star perfumers were inedible I would need to rethink my ideas.  As it turned out lilacs are edible and their flowers are often candied and used in wine making.  While the lilac flowers do contain a touch of bitterness, the overall scent is sweet and enticing.  The lilac's aroma immediately had me thinking of parsnips.  The heady sweetness of parsnips seemed to be an ideal partner to the floral notes of the lilac.  With the seasonal proximity of the young allium and the lilacs and their arrival in our kitchen today, the three elements came together.  Sort of.

We choose to use a puree of nigella seeds as a complex onion note in our combination of ingredients.  The lilac provided aroma to the dish.  The reason our dish needed an aroma boost was because we were serving it cold, ice cream cold.  We paired the aroma of the fresh lilacs with a parsnip ice cream and the nigella seed puree.  We added a single lilac blossom since its overall role was to perfume the dish and to tie the other two ingredients together. It is an impromptu and tasty expression of a gorgeous spring morning.

Lunch at Wd-50

If you were afraid to go down to Clinton Street after dark, fear no more.  Wylie is serving lunch.  From the on-line menu it appears he is weaving a few creations from the past into his repertoire of new and evolving dishes.  I cannot wait to pop in during daylight hours, truly my favorite time to dine.

Creative Think

Do you know A Whack on the Side of the Head?

Just recently I found out that Roger von Oech has revised this ground breaking work and also he has a blog which acts as an open voice and interactive companion piece to the ideas in the book and a continued look at creativity and ways to spark, breakthrough, understand, appreciate and uncover new thoughts.

What is equally exciting is that the "whacks" resonate differently with individuals.  The use of approachable stories and often taken for granted questions and their assumed answers helps to clear the path to an oasis of creative thinking.

Here is the post which motivated me to write this morning.

Nigella Sativa

Otherwise known as kalonji or black onion seeds, these tiny beauties are the product of a flowering herb plant that is native to southwest Asia. The seeds and oil from this plant are often utilized in homeopathic medicine to treat a wide range of ailments from indigestion and intestinal disorders to muscle aches, skin inflammations and dandruff. The seeds are triangular in shape and pungent in aroma with a savory, slightly bitter flavor that is reminiscent of dehydrated onions.

Here we have pressure cooked them for fifty minutes to tenderize them and remove some of their bitter backbone.  The result of the pressure cooking produced a tender seed which still has its bold  allium flavor along with notes of pine and citrus.  The tenderized version of Nigella Sativa opens up a number of possibilities from flavoring breads to making making a puree to using in a relish of grapefruit and celery leaves.

Time and a few tests will begin to allow us to uncover a few more thoughts and uses.

Eating Noodles in Tokyo

 



















 































 

 

Lunch in Kodiak

After an incredible lunch of King crab legs, fish and chips and chowder we came across another local inhabitant of Kodiak, dining alfresco.

Smoked French Fries

Why have we not tried smoking French fries?  We go through a number of steps to improve the texture, why have we forgotten about the enhancement and exploration of flavor?  Time to fire up the smoker.  Actually, it is time to purchase a smoker, unfortunately I have not reached the end of the Pacojet moratorium.  Perhaps I will get all Magyver-like and see what we can put together.

Anyway you look at it, we need to start eating smoked French fries.  Since we are talking about the world of fried and smoked foods, what about smoked onion rings, tater tots and even calamari? It is a good thing we will be back in our kitchen soon.

Understanding An Ingredient

It took a refreshing hike in the Alaskan woods this morning for me to realize that often times we do not fully understand ingredients and their actual potential.  We were walking and I was grabbing leaves and branches, squeezing needles and leaves, inhaling the fragrant perfume of the forest floor mingling with the evergreen essential oils still fresh on my fingertips.  I reached for a spruce branch and it pricked my finger, which prompted me to take a closer look.  The spruce branch itself was mature with strong, pointed needles.  The tips of the branches were covered with small buds, which seemed to be wrapped in a rough papery skin.  When I picked one and peeled it, a Kermit the Frog green bud was exposed.  Inside this protective coating was a tiny, delicate spruce bud.  The minute needles were tender with a subtle clean spruce flavor.  The lemony notes of the spruce were also apparent and the tannins, which are so often dominant in spruce tips, were tamed.  I suddenly realized that in many of our uses and applications of spruce we have been using slightly older tips, which while fragrant and much easier to deal with than mature needles, were not ideal for being served on their own.  The discovery of the spruce bud was an awakening for my palate and for my imagination.

What else have we been using without understanding the true potential of what was cradled in the palms of our hands?

Multiples

I was particularly intrigued by the idea of multiples in the piece on Nathan Myhrvold, written by Malcolm Gladwell.  The idea that several individuals could come up with the same idea almost simultaneously is remarkable.  I was also interested in facts behind the difference between a genius and a smart innovator.  Theoretically the distinction is the quantity of ideas produced and executed.  The genius shares breakthrough ideas with many individuals.  What this means is the genius mind may come up with thirty or more brilliant breakthroughs while thirty innovators will each come up with one great idea each. 

Being either a genius or an innovative thinker is a remarkable achievement.

The article continued on to detail the concept that artistic genius does not occur in multiples.  What does this mean?  It may actually solve the answer between what is an art and what is a craft, particularly in the field of food.  While I believe an aesthetic, even an artistic approach to food is essential, the fact remains that the science behind the ingredients, their interactions, and the new cooking techniques that are appearing in kitchens all across the globe almost simultaneously point to the fact that food is more scientific than we thought.  We are not writing concertos nor painting or sculpting original pieces.  We are working with food, an organic substance that behaves in accordance to scientific principles.  That means the combination and development of dishes is not the completely original forum we like to think it is.  Yet, the individual arrangement and presentation of these ideas may be where the true creative process lies.  In fact, based on these insights it is the balance of flavors and the presentation of food that may distinguish a chef craftsmen from a chef artist.  Now that is interesting.

Interchangeable Parts

The movement of ingredients in a dish, a menu, or even in a fluid concept is exciting.  To us the idea of interchangeable parts is really quite compelling.  Once a framework is formulated or perhaps a technique is adjusted to calibrate the act of exchanging one ingredient for another to create either a completely new dish or a modification of an existing one you have created a real tool to work with.  This is the result of viewing the world with a flexible eye and an understanding of the benefits of change.

The concept that one or two or even three ingredients or ideas may easily substituted for one another may seem frightening to some and to others it can be equally exhilarating.  While working aboard the ship we are often faced with substitutions.  It is not easy to run out to the store or even order an ingredient for the next day’s demonstration.  Even with months of preparation, if an ingredient is not available when a ship is in port, that ingredient will not make it on board and into a class or demonstration.

What question starts the conversation?  It can be water or stock, what will be the best aromatics to complement the main component, what the best cooking technique is, or why something is not normally done?  These queries and many more like them allow us to break down walls of stagnant thought and return to our constant quest to refine tasty food.  The use of interchangeable parts in cooking is essential for our evolutions.  We believe a greater understanding of the concept that looking at the parts of a working mechanism from a different angle often allows for a break through and an “ah ha” moment which might have previously been overlooked.

Ideas and Taste

Often times it is the stories that matter.  Today we came across two interesting stories in the New Yorker.  The first is written by Malcolm Gladwell about our friend, Nathan Myhrvold.  The piece looks into ideas.  The other piece is about Grant Achatz, his creativity and the invaluable power of taste.

Both pieces are worth reading and certainly sparks for plenty of ideas and inspiration.




Nathan's Story

Grant's Profile

King Crab: in three services

King Crab Salad
Serves 4

2 avocados
3g salt
10g yuzu juice
1g cayenne

400g picked King Crab meat
100g soft boiled egg
20g olive oil
10g argan oil
25g yuzu juice
3g salt
10g minced chives

30g of cilantro stems cut into 2cm lengths
pinch of salt
2g olive oil
2g yuzu juice


Cut the avocados in half, remove the pit and the skin.  Cut the avocados into large chunks and place in a bowl.  Season them with the salt, yuzu juice, and cayenne.  Take a one twenty centimeter square of plastic wrap and lay it flat on the counter.  Take one fourth of the avocado and place in the center of the plastic.  Top with another sheet of plastic and then using a rolling pin or meat mallet, smash the avocado flat into a 2mm thick sheet.  Place on a sheet pan to keep flat and place in the freezer.  Repeat three more times in order to produce four avocado sheets.

Pick through the crabmeat to make sure there are no shells.  Puree the egg, olive oil, argan oil, yuzu juice and salt in a blender to a smooth puree.  Mix the mixture with the crab to coat evenly.  Fold in the chives.  Divide the crab into four equal parts.  Wrap each part in a piece of plastic wrap, forming a ball of crab salad.

Remove the avocado sheets from the freezer.  Use a large ring mold or bread and butter plate to cut the avocado into a large circle.  Place the avocado in the center of a plate.  Unwrap the crab salad and place in the center of the avocado sheet.  Mix the cilantro stems with the oil, yuzu juice and salt.  Place a pile of stems on top of each crab sphere.


 
King Crab Tail Tempura
Serves 4

Tempura Batter
250g cold club soda
250g flour
18g egg yolk

Whisk the egg yolk and the club soda.  Roughly incorporate the flour.  The mixture may have a few clumps.

King Crab Salad

4 King crab tails
Tempura Batter
One pot filled half way with canola oil for frying
50g kimchee
50g mayonnaise
4 small ripe tomatoes
8 slices of cooked bacon
10g chives
10g minced tarragon
2 heads of frisée

Remove the shell from the crab tails and reserve the meat.  Puree the kimchee and the mayonnaise to make a smooth puree.  Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water for ten seconds, then place in an ice bath to cool.  When the tomatoes are cold, remove the stem and peel off the skin.  Season the exterior of the tomatoes with salt and a light dusting of cayenne.  Set aside at room temperature to marinate.  Clean the heads of frisée.  Using a pair of scissors remove the dark green ends of the frisée.  Cut the stem off the frisée and then separate the frisée leaves.  Rinse in ice water and then spin dry in a salad spinner. Chop the cooked bacon into small pieces.  Dip the crab tails in the tempura batter and fry until crispy.  Remove to a cooling wrack lined with paper towels to absorb any extra oil. Mix the bacon with the chives and tarragon.  Dress the frisée with half of the kimchee mayonnaise.  Add the bacon and herb mixture. 

Place a spoonful of the kimchee mayonnaise in the center of each plate.  Place a tomato on top of the puree.  Top with a nest of the frisée salad and then lean the crab tail next to the salad.


 
Surf and Turf
King Crab and Foie Gras


Walnuts

200g Madiera wine
200g dry Sherry wine
200g Port wine
10g soy sauce
10g red wine vinegar
20g agave nectar
100g toasted chopped walnuts

Combine all the ingredients except the walnuts in a pot and slowly simmer to reduce to one fourth its volume.  The mixture will be sticky and syrupy.  Add the walnuts and stir.  The mixture will resemble wet walnuts.

Butternut Squash Puree
250g butternut squash, peeled and cute into chunks
250g butternut squash juice or water
50g maple syrup
10g lime pickle
2g salt

Cook all ingredients together until the squash is tender and falling apart.  Puree in a blender until smooth.  Strain the mixture and reserve.

King Crab and Foie Gras

4 extra large king crab leg sections
4 pieces of nori seaweed
4 pieces of fresh foie gras each weighing 85g
20g minced chives
one fresh lime

Remove the shell and any interior cartilage from the crab leg sections.  Wrap each crab leg in a piece of nori.  Brush the seam end of the nori with water to allow the nori to stick and seal the seam. Trim the nori so that it just covers the crab ends.  Season the foie gras with salt and sear the pieces in a hot dry skillet.  When a crust forms, flip the foie gras and baste the foie with its own fat.  When the foie gras begins to get tender and is still firm to the touch, remove it from the pan and set aside on a warm plate to rest.  Add the nori wrapped crab to the pan and sauté in the rendered foie fat to warm the crabmeat.  When the crabmeat is heated through, remove from the pan.  Place a spoonful of the squash puree in the center of each of four plates.  Place the seared foie gras on the puree and then top with a spoonful of the wet walnuts.  Lay the crab leg next to the foie and sprinkle with the chives.  Squeeze fresh lime juice on both the crab and the foie gras.

Fruit Glue

While the idea of gluing fruit together may sound novel, it was pointed out that the process is nothing more than an extrapolation of a fruit terrine.  Still, we find that the ability to layer fruits and vegetables together is really exciting.  Especially when we look beyond using just gelatin, which is the traditional bonding agent in fruit terrines and only effective at cold temperatures.  Instead, we were inspired by the synergy of hydrocolloids.  The first combination of ingredients we played with utilized the gel which occurs when alginate is introduced to a calcium.  The product, which acted as the catalyst for our ideas, was designed for gluing meat pieces into uniform blocks, cylinders and whole new structures.  The product consists of two components, one a sodium alginate and one a calcium lactate.  While the idea of using these two ingredients to bind proteins was interesting we were more excited by its other possibilities: binding fruits and vegetables.

We tested the theory of using the combination of these two ingredients to glue planks of melon together.  The adhesive worked and the results were a beautiful terrine.  Then, we heated the melon terrine.  It held, the glue kept the pieces of melon together through the cooking process.  As it turns out the reaction between alginate and calcium is thermo-irreversible.  (In fact, we already knew this, though we did not pay it much attention in the beginning.  Remember to pay attention to all the details throughout the process of any experiment, as it will only save you time and effort.)  We were thrilled with the results and equally full of dismay.  The dismay was generated because at that moment we were reliant on a proprietary blend of alginate and calcium to create our bonds. Obviously the next step would have to be to create our own blend.  While we began thinking about the alginate-calcium reaction it dawned on me that we should try using LM pectin and calcium.  We know the reaction forms a thermo-irreversible gel.  Also, to our taste, pectin and calcium seem to form more palate friendly gels.  The release of flavor is cleaner and more forward, while the gel itself is delicate and soft.

With both the alginate and pectin ideas to work with we set about a few tests.  I also dropped an email to Wylie to ask for his thoughts and help in testing our ideas.

I began with what we had in our kitchen, sodium alginate and calcium lactate/gluconate.  At times I am my own worst enemy.  I was starting to conduct tests with an unknown alginate and a blend of calcium sources, where I did not know the blending ratios.  Thankfully my attempt at using these ingredients as glue failed and the failure was a whack to the side of my head.  With failure leading the race I set about getting several varieties of sodium alginate, to create a firm strong gel and a medium firm gel.  We also needed pure calcium sources and we looked towards calcium lactate and gluconate.  We felt both varieties would be necessary depending on our applications.

Since I was waiting on alginate and the calcium arrived first, I started working with the pectin.  In order to answer a number of our pectin questions I gave Ted at CP Kelco a call.  Thankfully Ted was locked out of his car and had time to discuss our ideas and approaches.  Once Ted answered a few of our questions, we set about applying the idea of fruit glue to pectin.  Along the way we had a few flops, although each failure was successively closer to the desired end result.  We were also lucky to have Wylie testing out his versions in his kitchen and sharing the process, this way we only had to make half as many test runs on our own.

It turns out that both pectin and alginate form bonds which will hold fruit together and which are thermo-irreversible.  We found the alginate bond to be a bit more gel like and slightly stronger than that of the pectin.  Yet, the pectin gel is seamless and the flavor of the gel itself is tasty and has great mouth feel when and if you realize it is there.

As it turns out, the approach to both using the alginate and pectin is quite similar.  It seems that the calcium reaction would be at the root of the similarities.  To begin with, we make fruit solutions with .5% calcium lactate or gluconate.  The choice of one over the other is based on taste.  The reason for making a flavored solution is to boost the taste of the final gel.  Once the solution is made, we vacuum seal the fruit to be glued in the calcium solution.  This impregnates the fruit with calcium.  It takes about five minutes for the calcium to be absorbed by the fruit, after which time we open the vacuum bag and pat the fruit dry.  For a LM pectin application we dissolve 3% pectin in water at 95ºC to hydrate it and then cool it down.  Once the pectin is cooled, we brush it on one piece of the calcium infused fruit and lay another piece on top.  Then we vacuum seal the fruit to compress it together and let is rest in the refrigerator overnight.  The following morning when we cut open the bag, we will find that the fruit has been sealed together with a pectin gel.  In the case of the alginate we dust the calcium soaked fruit with sodium alginate and vacuum seal the fruit together.  There is enough moisture in the fruit to hydrate the alginate and allow the reaction of calcium and alginate to occur.  Once again we let the fruit rest overnight to allow the bond to fully occur.

We are simply at the beginning of what we consider to be a ground breaking idea.  While the initial outlook may be just an extension of a fruit terrine we believe the integration of pectin and sodium alginate as bonding agents for fruits and vegetables is truly remarkable and the possibilities are endless.

Currently we are also working with these ideas in pureed fruits and vegetables to see what is possible.  Time and our imaginations will see what we come up with next.

Leek Sheets

Leek sheets are a relatively new addition to our repertoire.  Leeks themselves come and go in our kitchen like many other ingredients and inspirations.  The use and preparation of the leek sheets came about several days before our departure.  In our previous work with leeks we braised them, sautéed them, diced them, cut them into rounds, melted them, made terrines with them and occasionally assembled a bouquet garni.

Still, we did not look at the many layers and rings of a leek as individual items until the other day.  I was cleaning some large specimens for a leek salad, which never reached fruition.  Instead, I became side tracked by unfurling large sheets of leek from each long, rounded bulb.  I set about carefully removing each layer and then rinsing them in cold water.  I seasoned them lightly with salt and then vacuum sealed the sheets so they lay flat and were compressed down.  I then set them in an 83 degree Celsius water bath to cook for one hour.  When the time was up I chilled the luminous green sheets and then opened the bag to check the results.  Each sheet of leek was tender, while still retaining it’s shape and intense flavor with the added benefit of a soft melting texture in the mouth.

While our first use of the leek sheet involved pairing it with a shrimp sheet and some rhubarb, the actual applications of being able to drape the allium are just beginning to present themselves.  A slow cooked egg hidden beneath a veil of tender leeks would be delicious, as would a fricassee of oysters and their mushrooms.  The sheets can also be used as a nest of sorts in which to cradle succulent baby squid or crisp-tender slices lamb neck. These uses and integrations are merely scratches on the surface of possibilities for the incredibly flexible leek.

*we have a picture though our connection is proving to be difficult

Ramps

One of the benefits of being here on the ship is that I was able to escape the unfurling of Spring in New York. As much as I enjoy the changing of the seasons and the sudden saturation of color and explosion of life that fills the landscape around our home in Forest Hills, the pollen is enough to kill you. Those with allergies know that this is only a slight exaggeration.  The week before I left was notable for both it’s warm weather and high pollen count. It was beautiful and painful all at the same time.

Some of the things that I am very sorry to be missing while away are the first ramps of the season. Ramps or Allium Tricoccum, are also known as wild leeks, ramson, and ail de bois. They appear in the springtime in deciduous forest areas from South Carolina to Canada and as far west as Missouri and Minnesota. West Virginia in particular is known for its celebration of this seasonal delicacy. Ramps grow in patches in cool shady areas with moist soil that is rich in organic materials. They begin to appear in late March and can be found through the end of May. By June the flowers have bloomed, leaving the seeds to appear on the leafless stalks. That is the end of wild leeks until the following season.

Ramps resemble scallions in that they have a white bulb at the bottom of the stalk although the green leaves are long, oval, and almost silky, with pointed ends, often with reddish streaks along their hearts. They have a strong flavor, a hybrid of onion and garlic, leaning heavily toward the garlic. They are edible from the tips of their leaves to their fleshy bulbous bottoms.  Ramps are often considered a spring tonic for their strong flavor and infusion of minerals and nutrients at the end of a long winter.  In the South they are often served at home fried up with potatoes or scrambled with eggs, while in restaurants around the country they may be found in a multitude of guises: pickled and served with fried oysters or soft shell crabs, blanched and sautéed in risottos and pastas, or simply seared and tucked up beside roasted morels and grilled lamb chops.

Ramps have long been a favorite of ours.  I’ve spent hours bent over crates of them in professional kitchens, meticulously cleaning and pickling them so that we could preserve their bounty for the months ahead.  It’s a common practice and a beneficial one. There’s nothing quite like a great pickled ramp. We also love them fresh, simply grilled or sautéed so that the green are slightly crisp and the bulbs are tender and toothsome. The flavor is like nothing else. Creamed into a soup garnished with fresh lumps of crab meat or fried with potatoes and served alongside a thick steak, ramps are a revelation. My mouth waters just thinking of what we could do with them. I can only hope that there are some left in the market when we get back to New York. They’re one of the last seasonal specialties and all the more precious for that fact.