IDEAS IN FOOD

River Cottage Handbooks

A few weeks ago we were in San Francisco and of course we found ourselves wandering into Omnivore Books. While we were there we managed to do some damage to our bank account and one of the things we discovered was that there is a series of River Cottage Handbooks. We bought three: Hedgerow, Veg Patch, and Edible Seashore. As spring slowly starts to emerge we are contemplating the next steps for our kitchen garden, so the first two books seemed particularly appealing. And seafood is a passion of ours and as we begin to move towards warmer weather, lighter meals and bright flavors, the idea of fish becomes infinitely more alluring. The handbooks are chock full of information and have photographs and recipes for inspiration. We highly recommend them. Of course even though most of the links here are to Amazon, (and everyone knows we are big fans of Amazon) we also encourage you to contact your local independent cookbook store, I'm sure they'd be happy to special order them for you.

The Garden Grows

Our lovage returns from its winter rest.

Green Brier Smilax

Looking for more information on this incredible ingredient. It has been tough to research so if you have solid facts please share them.

Ideas in Food @ atelier

Ideas in Food @ atelier

 

Meyer Lemon Ice Cream

whitefish roe, burnt lemon meringue

 

 

Fried Chicken Hearts

dandelion honey-tabasco, coleslaw puree

 

 

Salt Cured Musk Ox

pickled cattails, brown butter mayonnaise, radish

 

 

Surf and Turf

sea urchin, duck tongue, watercress leaves

 

 

Parsnip Soup

young coconut, sweetbread croutons, black olive

 

 

Sweet & Salty

potato and green olive

 

 

Forbidden Congee

duck gizzards, egg yolk

 

 

Squid Rings

pistachio, green papaya, culantro

‘

 

Halibut for Two

chinese celery, potato puree

 

 

Corned Leaf Tripe

cabbages: red, green, fermented

 

 

Shredded Beef Tongue

smoked oatmeal, watercress stems, dr.pepper

 

 

Elk Strip Loin

sunchoke-hazelnut, pickled milk weed pod, green brier

 

 

La Sauvagine

black garlic powder, basil, birch syrup

 

 

Powdered Palm Sugar Ice Cream

citrus salad cells, shaved shortbread

 

 

Chocolate Pudding

sweet cream granita

Buttermilk-Pea Soup

Buttermilk whey and pea solids balance sweet and sour for an excellent introduction to Spring.

Nitro-Shucked Mussels

*and as for nitro-shucked lobsters, Tony Maws at Craigie on Main is happily testing, fine tuning and benefiting from the results.

Mirepoix Juice

Instead of adding vegetables we are juicing them. This step improves braising, sauces and all the steps in between. In our bowl we have the juice of carrots, onions, celery, fennel mixed with tomato paste, soy sauce and red wine.

Nitro-Shucked Clams: upclose

 

*for our initial post on the subject click here.

Omasum: book/bible/leaf tripe

Four days earlier we were sitting in Incanto and being educated on tripe. It turns out there is more than one kind and they all have different textures and appearances. The three most common types of tripe are smooth, honey comb and leaf tripe. Each variety comes from a separate chamber in a cow's stomach. After hearing about the differing varieties and Chris's upcoming plans for them, we found ourselves in our local H-Mart staring at packages of leaf tripe. I don't think we would have paid attention to the individual varieties of tripe had Chris not been so excited about them and openly shared his enthusiasim. We picked up a package of leaf tripe and brought it back to work with. The leaves and their delicate white appearance is stunning and has us both intrigued and enamored. It's nothing like the honeycomb tripe we've worked with in the past. Our goal is to retain the beautiful white leaves while creating something delicious. First step was soaking it in a 5% salt brine, second step is soaking in coconut water. Tomorrow we'll see what happens next.

Linden Blossom

We smelled this incredible essential oil in Mandy's studio. She has an amazing collection of essential oils for chefs and we were unable to visit without purchasing this and several others to work with in our kitchen. It is incredibly floral and screams honey with the slightly musky undertones of an herb garden in full flower. It still sits in its bottle as we discuss where and how we will use it. It will be a beautiful complement to many of springs first green offferings. For now it waits, a bottle of opportunity about to burst into full bloom.

French Fries and a Bit of Cryo-Blanching

In our book we discuss the benefits of cryo-blanching. The smaller the ice crystals the smaller the holes punctured in the ingredient and the finer the texture we ended up with in our results. In some cases we did not need to freeze the ingredients all the way through to appreciate the results of the freezing. In our quest for great French fries we applied our cryo-blanching approach with a calculated goal. We used liquid nitrogen to freeze only the exteriour of our blanched potatoes, making small micro-fissures in the cell walls so that when the fry was fried we would increase the surface area and thus the crispness level. Recently we were able to test this appoach in the wild. The results were outstanding. The potatoes, which we started in cold, salted water, were cooked until tender, cooled, dipped briefly in liquid nitrogen, defrosted and then fried produced the tastiest fries we have yet to cook. It may sound like a long proces but it is relatively easy in practice and produces exponentially higher quality results than the classic technique of peeling and frying twice.

 

In our picture we have nitro-blanched fries on the right next to simply blanched fries. There is a learning curve involved in experimentation but the results are essential in determining whether the ideas are sound. Once we worked out the kinks it produced incredible crisp and delicious fries and that is always worth the effort involved.

Carrot Colors

Spring is...

let the games begin

Incredible Opportunity @ Woodberry Kitchen

This is an incredible opportunity to get a hands on class on pig fabrication. I realize we are late sharing this information, but I believe there are a few slots still open. If you can pull the strings to make it happen this is a huge opportunity to learn.

Gascon Cochon and Charcuterie

A Two Day Workshop presented by Dominique Chapolard and Kate Hill
Hosted by Woodberry Kitchen, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Monday, March 21  2 pm to 9 pm
Tuesday, March 22  9 am to 4 pm

Woodberry Kitchen will provide freshly slaughtered locally sourced whole pig(s) of around 400 lb each, along with work area, cutting boards, and all other ingredients. The class will also have two #22 grinders, and one manual sausage stuffer at it’s disposal. Attendees will be instructed in whole animal seam butchery and the fabrication of traditional Gascon charcuterie.

Day One will commence with Dominique breaking down a whole pig using seam butchery techniques to create market cuts and charcuterie.

Day Two will begin with attendees breaking down 2 pigs with Dominque’s guidance, followed by more charcuterie.

A light meal will be served midway through each session. Dominique and Kate will provide hands on demonstration/instruction each day, along with all recipes.

Cost: $695 per person for both days, including lunch/dinner, recipes, and boning knife.

Call Woodberry Kitchen to Make a Reservation 410 464 8000

Sea Urchin Tortellini

 

The pasta for these oceanic bites is the egg yolk dough from our book with the addition of 20 grams of green yuzu kosho. We blend the yolks, milk, olive oil and kosho together, strain it, and then add it to the flour to make the dough. The filling is a blend of sea urchin, ricotta, yuzu kosho and Parmigano Reggiano. We made a stock of three whole, crushed dungeness crabs and two bottles of white wine. We thickened the resulting liquid with with 0.1% xanthan gum and mounted it with 2 pounds of butter to glaze 30+ portions of pasta. We garnished the tortellini with fresh dungeness crab meat, one perfect tongue of uni and some arugula blossoms. The pasta course turned out to be the hands down favorite and has now been added to our list of go to pasta dishes.

Grilled Fish Bone Oil

One of the tastiest developments which emerged from yesterdays dinner was grilled fish bone oil. The dish began with the aroma of Eureka lemon leaves. We wanted to cure a fish with these leaves and highlight their aroma in the dish. We powdered the leaves with liquid nitrogen and used half of them to flavor a cold infused dashi. The other half was blended with white miso and sake. We wrapped the loins of the Medai in cheese cloth and then applied the lemon leaf miso to cure the fish. The cheese cloth allows the seasoning to gently permeate the fish and still be easily removed. As we looked at the beautiful fish, the bones layed to the side. I decided to use them to create an accent for the fish. We grilled the bones until they were well charred and the oils began to come to the surface. We cut them up and vacuum sealed them with Chardonnay grape seed oil. The bones macerated in the oil for several hours and were then pushed through a fine meshed sieve. The resulting elixir was a grilled fish bone oil. It is one of the tastiest elements we have made in a long time, the essence of grilled fish which we were then able to brush onto the sliced Medai to add depth to its flavor. Cooking is about nuances and we are constantly searching for ways to make things taste just a little bit better. Yesterday was a good day in the kitchen.

March 16, 2011

Scrambled Egg Mousse

Blis brook trout roe ∙ melon ∙ cucumber

MV Nicholas Feuillatte Brut, Chouilly, Champagne

 

Medai

grilled fish bone oil ∙ Eureka lemon leaf ∙ salad burnet

2009 Serge LaLoue Sancerre, Loire Valley

 

Shaved Shrimp

charred jalapeno ∙ bolting cilantro

2008 Lambert Bridge Viogner, Bevill Vineyard, Dry Creek Valley

 

Uni Tortellini

yuzu kosho ∙ Dungeness crab

   2008 Ramey Chardonnay, Russian River Valley

 

Local Black Cod

chicory ∙ squash-banana ∙ watermelon radish

        2008 Dutton Estate Pinot Noir, Karmen Isabella Vineyard, Russian River Valley

 

Sonoma Lamb

loin and tongue ∙ carrot-peanut butter ∙ oxalis

  2007 Rafanelli Cabernet Sauvignon, Dry Creek Valley

 

Cashew Butter Bavaroise

sugared crouton ∙ huckleberry ∙ white chocolate ∙ toffee ice cream

2008 Alvear, Pedro Ximenez, Montilla-Moriles, Spain

 

Egg White Steak

Egg Yolk Sauce

Blended Black Cocoa Miso

Nitro-Shucking

Last month, reading about the recent Modernist Cuisine Dinners, I was struck by the method of opening clams that was mentioned in one description. It said, or at least I remember it to have said, that the clams were opened with the help of liquid nitrogen. Well, that was just a smart idea. We are huge advocates of using liquid nitrogen for everything from cryo-blanching to powdering just about anything. Utilizing this kitchen ingredient to facilitate the opening of raw clams and oysters would be icing on the cake. Unfortunately all the information that I had to go on was that the clams were opened with the help of liquid nitrogen. There were no further details available. As I pondered, various scenarios played out in my mind and were tested in our kitchen.

Our trials led to amazing results. For our method clams and oysters need to be submerged in liquid nitrogen for 10-15 seconds and then allowed to defrost in the refrigerator. As they thaw, they pop open and can be shucked with a spoon. And if you are impatient, just use a spoon to pop the hinge approximately 30 seconds after they come out of the nitrogen. The results of Nitro-Shucking are like nothing I have been able to produce before. The fully intact mollusk is raw and juicy, reminiscent of the pressure opened clams I sampled at The Flemish Primitives last year.

As for how the Modernist Team utilizes liquid nitrogen, I will have to wait and ask them when they return from their world tour.

Black Cocoa-Miso

 

the places we will go

soup

foie gras

sweetbreads

lobster

celery root

onion

black cod

leeks

chicken

mayonnaise

noodles

butter

cure for bacon

 

 

Growth

Pieces

In our world we look at ingredients as pieces to a puzzle. Interesing ingredients can be broken down into their components to create new and equally wonderful new ingredients. Here we have buttermilk whey and English pea solids, both results of our experiments with the centrifuge. Together they make an incredible sauce. As it often happens, this combination is so much more than the sum of its parts.

Interesting Reading

A very cool slideshow over at the New York TImes of some of the amazing photography from Modernist Cuisine, The Art and Science of Cooking.

An interesting Q&A with Amanda Hesser on adapting and writing recipes on Dianne Jacob's site.

The New York Times review of Blood, Bones and Butter.

Colin Sterling's interview with Grant Achatz about Life on the Line and life in general.

David Lebovitz on bergamot.

One great drink.

From the TED blog, Dr. Charles Limb discussing Hip Hop, Creativity and the Brain.

And finally Five Misconceptions About Writing by Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series and other wonderful books.

March Dinner/Classes in Ottawa, Canada

Alex will be in Ottawa doing a guest chef dinner at Atelier Restaurant on March 28 and teaching classes on March 29, 2011. Please contact Atelier Restaurant: 613.321.3537 or [email protected] for reservations.

 

Sous Vide and Controlled Temperature Cooking

Tuesday, March 29, 2011 10am-12pm

Cooking under vacuum at controlled temperatures is one of today’s most popular techniques. This precision approach is an important tool for greater creativity in the kitchen. The key is proper technique. We’ll talk about how to cook safely and go through some examples of cooking times and temperatures for meat, fish and vegetables that work best for us. This class is solid foundation for controlled temperature cooking that will give you the tools to implement it effectively in your kitchen.

 

Activa

Tuesday March 29, 2011, 1pm-3pm

Activa is a game-changer in cooking today. We love the way it allows us to work with proteins by eliminating the use of plastic wrap and butchers twine during cooking and allowing us to create usable portions out of odd cuts and trimmings. We will look at it as a functional ingredient and a catalyst for generating ideas and expanding our horizons in the kitchen. We will demonstrate applications like chicken skin crusted sweetbreads, double cut skirt steaks, fish paves and shrimp sheets. We will also explore its uses in dairy applications from yogurt orbs to ricotta gnocchi.

 

Sea Snails and Peas

The dish came together not because we are great planners. This dish came together because we enjoy cooking, are willing to say yes, and are open to connecting the dots as they appear. The whelks came first. The idea of English pea butter actually came before that, but we did not make it until we had our centrifuge up and running. The pea butter is technique is invented by the Modernist Cuisine team and hopefully is in the book Modernist Cuisine. Even if it's not in there, the idea alone makes owning a centrifuge well worth the investment. And the dashi was a result of having the pea water and our desire to have a vibrant green, umami-rich broth. The peas in the pod are a reminder of haute cuisine, delicate hands and beautiful ingredients. With all of these puzzle pieces in play, it was only a matter of arranging them to our satisfaction to finish the dish.

English Pea Dashi

Thanks to the help of our centrifuge we were able to extract an incredible pea water from a puree of English peas. Truthfully, we could have just juiced a bunch of peas and ended up with an incredible "pea water" but using the centrifuge to separate ingredients into different components allowed us to see the individual and interchangeable potential of the parts.

To make our dashi we used a cold infusion. We vacuum sealed smoked kombu and bonito shavings with the pea water and refrigerated them for an hour. Then we cut the bag open and were delighted to taste the most complex and flavorful dashi we have ever prepared. Looking at the world of dashi and other flavored waters we have a few more immediate ideas to work with, and these are just scratching the surface: coconut water, maple syrup, white asparagus, honeydew melon.

Honeydew Melon Paper

We thinly sliced pieces of honeydew melon and saturated them with an aromatic honeydew gelatin. The slices were then laid out flat and dehydrated. The result is a wafer thin, crunchy honeydew crisp, packed with intense flavor and possessing an incredibly delicate texture. For a first run, we are very excited with the results. As we continue to down this path we will be exploring using gellan and pectin based purees to act as a crisping substrate and flavor medium for delicate fruits and vegetables.

Whelks

Thank you Mr. Anderson for sharing these with us. Ingredients, like ideas, open up numerous delicious pathways.

False Spring

That's what they call this time period, when the air is warming, grass is greening, buds are popping, and the next frost is still just around a hidden corner. True as that may be it behooves us to take a moment to turn our faces to the sun and enjoy. While we're still discussing what to plant this year, last season's rhubarb is returning to growth. Hopefully the garlic we planted last fall will begin to poke through the soil soon as green is the dominant color in our minds. Today we made mint pasta with the extruder, using a puree of mint, basil and parsley, thinned with whole eggs to moisten the semolina. In baker's terms we used a ratio of 33% liquid to flour. It's color was vibrant, with a delicate mint aroma wafting in its wake. The flavor was bright and cool, we ate it simply with butter and pecorino while different flavor combinations danced through our heads. It was a spring tonic, no matter if we are going through a false spring, a flash of exhilaration to push us through the dreary end of winter and into true spring with all of it's slow growing heat and bounty.

Broken Buttermilk

Our first run with our centrifuge allowed us to seperate buttermilk without heat. The result was a tangy spreadable curd and a bright clean whey.

Beef Tendon

Beef tendon is an incredible and often under utilized ingredient in the kitchen. For the dinner in Miami we purchased our tendons from a small Vietnamese store. They were sold frozen and I happlily cleaned out the store's freezer section. Once the tendons thawed, I marinated them with garlic powder, smoked paprika, soy sauce and salt. Then I pressure cooked them for two hours in a stock made from chicken feet, onions and kombu. The resulting tendons were tender and unctuous, the broth stick-to-your lips good.

We enriched the sauce with hot sauce, bean sprouts and culantro (not a typo but a long, leafy herb similar to cilantro), thinly sliced the tendon and topped them with an onsen egg. This was our latest version of Steak and Eggs.