IDEAS IN FOOD: 31 entries from August 2013

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31 entries from August 2013

Steak and Mushrooms

We seasoned our steaks with a healthy dose of sea salt. We refrigerated them on racks for 24 hours. Then we cooked them in the Egg. We moved the meat on and off the grill to control the heat and ensure uniform cooking. When the steaks were just shy of rare we transferred them to the bed of seared mushrooms and basil, massaged butter all over them, and let them rest. Just before dinnertime we put them back on the grill to finish cooking them to a warm medium rare. Meanwhile we set the pan of mushrooms in the oven to warm. Once the steaks were finished we let them rest again on the bed of warm mushrooms. The juices dripped down and the flavors mingled. We set the steaks on the dinner plates and then spooned the juicy ragout over the tops. As we sat down to eat it was clear that everything had come together in harmony. This time it was steak but the technique lends itself to fish and chops, burgers and sausages paired with mushrooms, grilled squash, roasted asparagus or beans. Use it anytime you want to blend protein and vegetables in order to highlight their combined flavors.

Years Past

August 31, 2012

August 31, 2011

August 31, 2010

August 31, 2009

August 31, 2008

August 31, 2007

August 31, 2006

August 31, 2005

Posted on August 31, 2013 at 06:35 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (1)

A Flat

...of blackberries gets the gears turning. When you have abundance the possibilities are endless.

Years Past

August 30, 2012

August 30, 2011

Posted on August 30, 2013 at 09:05 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS, Ingredients, INSPIRATIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Life on the Creative Edge

A TED Talk by Julie Taymor.

Years Past

August 29, 2012

August 29, 2005

Posted on August 29, 2013 at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Potato Chip Soup and Ice Cream

The usefulness of ingredients is important. The ability to use them is up to the cook. One of our talents is being able to think outside the box when it comes to ingredients and find new uses for established items. Potato flakes and non-fat milk powder are staples in our kitchen. In Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work we made potato chip noodles. In Maximum Flavor, we have fined tuned BBQ potato chip gnocchi. Both recipes use potato flakes. These dehydrated potatoes replicate the flavor of potato chips. Think about it, potato chips are deep fried to remove interior moisture and make them crunchy and to caramelize the outside. Potato flakes are halfway there.

There seems to be a fear of using potato flakes in the kitchen. This stems from the idea of cheating in the kitchen. Oddly it does not seem to apply to non-fat milk powder in spite of the horror stories about it. As a kid a friend of mine drank only reconstituted dried milk, which to my mind was the stuff of nightmares. It tended to separate in the glass and had a gritty, chalky consistency. Thankfully I was able to get past the memories and discover usefulness in the ingredient. And to be frank, great mashed potato flakes (the ones that are 100% potato) make great mashed potatoes, in an instant.

These two recipes utilize potato flakes and non-fat milk powder. They allow the idea of a potato chip with the clarity of the potato flavor to come through. Take them for a spin and then make them your own.

Potato Chip Soup

200 grams potato flakes

225 grams whole butter

200 grams nonfat milk solids

10.5 grams salt

1500 grams water

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F

Put the potato flakes on a parchment lined baking pan. Bake the potato flakes in the preheated oven until they are a dark golden brown, about 18-20 minutes. Meanwhile set a medium pot over medium heat. Add the butter let it melt. Add the milk solids and stir them to completely coat them in the melted fat. Continue to cook the milk solids, stirring slowly until they become a dark caramel color, about 10 minutes. Add the toasted potato flakes and water and transfer to a covered container. Refrigerate for several hours to allow the potato flakes to fully hydrate. Puree in a blender until silky smooth, about 1 minute. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, discarding the solids. The soup can be heated and served immediately or stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Alternatively you can heat up the soup and transfer it to an iSi canister, charge it with NO2 and dispense it directly into bowls as a light, airy version of itself. The soup base easily absorbs additional seasonings like dry rub, cheddar cheese, sour cream and chives, or whatever else is needed to accommodate your own potato chip craving.

Potato Chip Ice Cream

1000 grams potato chip soup (recipe above)

260 grams half and half

160 grams dark agave nectar

108 grams (6 large) egg yolks

3 grams salt

Pre-heat a circulating water bath to 82.5°C

Put the potato chip soup, half and half, agave nectar, egg yolks and salt in a blender. Puree the ingredients together until smooth and homogeneous, about 15 seconds. Transfer the contents to a vacuum bag and seal. Cook in the circulating water bath for 30 minutes. Remove from the water bath and immediately shake well to combine the custard and then transfer to an ice bath to cool completely. Let the ice cream base rest in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours then churn in an ice cream machine or freeze in Pacojet canisters and spin.

Years Past

August 28, 2012

August 28, 2005

Posted on August 28, 2013 at 09:49 AM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (1)

Caramelized Orange

When we worked on the Train Yourself to Be a Better Cook piece, for Food & Wine a number of ideas didn't fit into the article. One was a caramelized lemon vinaigrette. We caramelized sugar on lemons and then squeezed the juice. That was the catalyst, yes we know it's been done before, but you never know when an idea will catch a spark. Since then we having been dipping different fruits in sugar, bruleeing them, and juicing them. The increased depth of flavor elevates them to another level. And they can be twisted in many different directions running the gamut from sweet to savory. We've yet to find a fruit that doesn't taste better with a little burnt sugar.

Years Past

August 27, 2012

Posted on August 27, 2013 at 06:24 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mayonnaise Marinade

We heard of the mass following of PCC (Parmesan Crusted Chicken for those not in the know). It uses a mixture of Hellmann's mayonnaise and Parmesan cheese as the glue to adhere seasoned breadcrumbs onto boneless chicken breasts. Doesn't seem quite right, avoiding the fatty chicken skin by using fatty mayonnaise, but, who am I to judge? I love mayonnaise. The idea of using mayonnaise as a flavorful binder is intriguing. And why should chicken have all the fun? We put mayonnaise, mustard, brown sugar, pickle juice, balsamic vinegar and cayenne in a bowl. We mixed them together and slathered the mixture onto thick cut strip steaks. We let the meat marinate for 4 hours. Then we grilled the steaks, turning them regularly to a beautiful medium rare to medium, depending on the diner. The results were amazing. The flavors of the marinade penetrated the meat. The mixture itself remained stuck to the outside layer during the cooking process and crusted on the outside. Knowing that mayonnaise is a blend of oil, eggs and seasonings opens the door to all of the flavorful possibilities.

Years Past

August 26, 2012

August 26, 2011

August 26, 2008

Posted on August 26, 2013 at 05:37 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Haricot Verts

We saw these gorgeous haricot verts at one of the local farmers markets. They are slimmer than my pinkie and barely as long as my fingers. They were so fresh and crisp that we were snacking on them right out of the bag on the way home. Because of our background training our first thought was to trim, blanch and shock. But that seemed wasteful somehow. Yes the firm little tips needed to go but the delicate tails were no hardship to nibble. These beans were so delicate and small that blanching felt unnecessary. They could be seared in a hot skillet or wok and ready to eat in seconds. Or we could cut them into bites sized pieces and marinate them in a chunky roasted almond-miso vinaigrette, allowing the acid and a little time in the fridge to do the cooking for us. Their inherent sweetness made us think of braising. Giving them long slow cook in flavorful liquid or olive oil enriched with garlic and herbs would soften them into meltingly tender bites. This might fly in the face of modern cooking methods but it would produce surprisingly flavorful beans. We could skewer them and let them get slightly charred and smoky on a hot grill and then toss them in a warm bacon vinaigrette. Decisions, decisions, sometimes choosing a method is the hardest part of dinner.

Years Past:

August 25, 2012

Posted on August 25, 2013 at 06:06 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (1)

Boston Cream Pie

Boston Cream Pie, it's a fabulous name for a cake. It evokes visions of sponge cake or doughnuts, bursting with custard and dripping with chocolate glaze. It's a cake I've long hungered to make. So when a family birthday came up and a Boston Cream Pie was requested I was all over it. I was researching sponge cake recipes and decided to go for broke, making one enriched with butter so it was slightly less light and hopefully slightly more delicious. Then I debated pastry cream or pudding, leaning heavily towards the pudding camp until Alex pointed out that many pastry creams are actually made with cornstarch or tapioca so the two ideas were actually interchangeable. Problem solved. I converted the burnt sugar pudding from our first book into a vanilla pudding thickened with a combination of cornstarch and tapioca pudding. Finally I made a bittersweet chocolate ganache to pour over the top. We added a few extra layers of custard and cake but the ganache is so intense that it should all balance out. Next time we'll take the time to make the cake layers gluten free so we can use the recipe for our next book.

Years Past

August 24, 2012

August 24, 2011

Posted on August 24, 2013 at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cow Peas

We first worked with crowder peas doing a dinner with Sean at McCrady's. Recently we came across them at the Wrightstown farmers market. They were labeled field peas. They looked so familiar, I thought they might be the delicious crowder peas we worked with years ago. Using the internet to identify them, I believe we purchased Knuckle Purplehull Southern Peas. They were time consuming to peel though our, and when I say our I mean Aki's, efforts were rewarded. The peas were tender and had a clean green flavor. We cooked them with a light soffrito enriched with canned tomatoes and BBQ sauce. The peas matched well with the bold flavors. They became tender and creamy as they cooked. The grassy notes softened and a delicate sweetness came through. It was exciting to discover them at our local market and we can't wait to see what we can pair them with next.

Years Past

August 23, 2012

August 23, 2005

Posted on August 23, 2013 at 06:22 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sea Bean ...

If we look at sea beans and then think about how we like to cook things from the sea and the various kinds of beans, many ideas begin to blossom:

sea bean salsa verde

tartar sauce/ gribiche

sea bean butter

sea bean hummus

sea bean salt

buttermilk poached sea beans

sea bean ranch dip/dressing

sea bean butter

minestrone with sea bean

sea bean bread

sea bean chili

sea bean soup/consomme

sea bean salad

baked sea beans

sea bean-potato puree

fried sea beans

tomatoes dressed with sea bean vinaigrette

sea bean seasoned haricot vert

sesame sea bean buns for a a filet o' fish sandwich

Years Past

August 22, 2012

August 22, 2011

Posted on August 22, 2013 at 07:09 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (2)

What's Inside?

The gelatinous, fatty prize. Butter without the churning. Bone marrow takes the application of heat to break down. If it's not treated carefully it can melt away. We spoon it on toast or broil it under a bed of buttery, herbed bread crumbs. The bones can be roasted on a bed of onions or grilled alongside steaks on the barbie. It happily absorbs many flavors from smoke to bourbon. It can be blended with crumbs and seasonings and used to top almost anything, like clams casino or butterflied shrimp. It adds luxury to bearnaise sauce and mystery to hot vinaigrettes. Bone marrow is one of those secret ingredients that disappears into a dish and makes it exponentially better.

Years Past

August 21, 2013

August 21, 2011

Posted on August 21, 2013 at 03:57 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes | Permalink | Comments (1)

Pepperoni-Buttermilk and Cooking Beans

We like to eat fresh beans that are cooked until they are super soft and tender. We were first introduced to the idea of “overcooked” beans by Marco Canora. He showed us how to braise romano, wax, and runner beans in a blond soffrito with tomatoes and aromatics. The slow cooking process and what it did for the beans was revelatory. The memory continues to inspire us. We found lima beans at the Doylestown farmers market. I wanted to braise them. But I was not in the mood for tomatoes and onions. I like the idea of creamed corn and creamed spinach, so creamed lima beans were an easy leap. Except cooking in cream didn’t excite me. I am still smitten with buttermilk. So we looked at our bullet proof beurre monte as the base. We like to pair meat and beans together and everyone knows pepperoni is another fetish of mine so we added it to the mix. We used our blend of gum Arabic and xanthan gums to keep the mixture heat stable. Then we added the beans and simmered them over low heat for over an hour. The buttermilk briefly curdled and then came back together. The mixture thickened as the water evaporated from the pot. We did not peel the second skin from the lima beans. Instead we let gentle heat break them down. The end result was a stew of creamy lima beans flavored with pepperoni. The beans were fresh and flavorful. They easily held their own against the pepperoni. Everything came together beautifully. We ate them straight from the pot with a couple of spoons.

Pepperoni Buttermilk

500 grams buttermilk

100 grams pepperoni cut into slices

2.5 grams gum Arabic

0.75 grams xanthan gum

Put the buttermilk and pepperoni into a blender and turn on low. Increase the speed to high and puree the mixture until it is smooth, about 45 seconds. Turn the blender down to low and sprinkle in the gum Arabic and xanthan gum. Increase the speed to high and blend for 30 seconds, until the powders have been completely absorbed. Turn the blender off and strain the pepperoni buttermilk through a fine mesh strainer. Use a small ladle or the back of a spoon to press on the solids and force all of the buttermilk liquid through the strainer. Use immediately or reserve the pepperoni buttermilk in a covered container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

*The pepperoni buttermilk is heat stable. This does not mean you can leave it on the stove and forget about it. We use it to gently cook fresh beans, to enrich dried beans and as a sauce for seafood. When we cook with the pepperoni buttermilk it appears to curdle a bit during the initial heating. But continuing to cook it down as we did with the beans, whisking in a splash of cold water, or putting back into a blender will bring the sauce back together.

Years Past

August 20, 2012

Posted on August 20, 2013 at 08:58 AM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Food Is Love

Given the opportunity everyone has something profound to share.

Chef James Syhabout on food, relationships, and terroir via Do Lectures.

Years Past

August 19, 2012

August 19, 2011

Posted on August 19, 2013 at 07:26 PM in INSPIRATIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wicked

We took a bottle of green chartreuse and cold reduced it. The rotary evaporator allows us to remove the unwanted alcohol. The herbal aromas concentrate. So does the sweetness. This essence of chartreuse is a leap forward from the one we cooked on the stove and paired with artichokes. This green elixir has us brimming with ideas: from glazing beets and lobster to macerating fresh berries and even revisiting our chartreuse ice cream without the hot notes of the high proof liqueur.

Years Past

August 18, 2012

August 18, 2011

August 18, 2010

August 18, 2009

August 18, 2008

August 18, 2007

August 18 2006

August 18, 2005

Posted on August 18, 2013 at 06:02 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (1)

On a Bed Of...

We love roasting chicken on vegetables. Tonight we decided to pair thighs with potatoes. We blanched the spuds with garlic cloves. When they were tender we drained them and mixed them with some bone marrow roasted onions. The whole chicken is resting on a bed of broccoli that was dressed with bacon fat. The idea was to roast them together until the chicken was crisp and the broccoli was meltingly tender. The trick is that you have to move things around and stir the broccoli so that it all cooks evenly. When we put the chicken in the oven the dome temperature was reading 500°F. As it roasted the fat rendered from the skin into the vegetables. As it rested the juices soaked in. Smoke permeated everything during the cooking process. In the end it was a case of the whole being much more than the sum of its parts. Chicken and vegetables, coming together to make our best dinner to date.

Years Past

August 17, 2012

August 17, 2011

Posted on August 17, 2013 at 08:28 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tiny Tomatoes

We picked these tomato gumballs. We chose to pick them because they caught Amaya's eyes. She wanted to taste the tomatoes on the vine. We let her. The tomatoes were sweet and bursting. Amaya's interest led to a full on quest to harvest a quart of tomato candy. Being open to seeing the world through someone else's eyes allowed us to discover what we were overlooking.

Years Past:

August 16, 2012

August 16, 2011

Posted on August 16, 2013 at 08:01 PM in Approach to Cooking, Beyond the Kitchen Doors, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Taste and Tenderness

I've been thinking about steak lately. Maybe because the weather is cooling and grilling is much more appealing to me in the fall. I remember when I first began to cook professionally, I always thought of myself as a meat cook. I loved the grill, adding the charcoal, playing with the different hot spots, having different pieces of meat and fish at varying degrees of doneness spread out in front of me. It was fun and it required a zen-like concentration to keep track of everything, no matter how fast the tickets were flying. I never understood the attitude that the grill station was boring. For me it was way better than juggling pans over on saute.

Meat temperatures have become a very subjective thing. People know exactly how they like their meat but they don't always know the proper terminology. If you look at charts of meat cooking temperatures from 20-30 years ago through today you will notice that the temperatures vary by 5-10°F depending on the author. It's this variation that can make a meat cook a little crazy. Plenty of people are convinced they like their meat medium rare (red and warm in the center fading to pink as it moves toward the edge of the meat) when in fact they actually prefer medium (pink and juicy all the way through). In one restaurant we finally had the servers ask people to describe how they enjoyed their meat instead of taking a temperature and found that diners were much happier with the results this way.

Many people think that how you cook steak is just about color and juiciness. It's so much more than that. Tenderness is a huge factor. Rare meat is chewy. Medium rare, while still retaining it's texture has softened considerably. Medium is arguably the point where tenderness and juiciness intersect, before the meat begins to dry out. Medium well has a noticeably drier texture and the strands of the muscle become more visible, an effect that continues as you move into well done territory. In a similar manner juiciness changes as you cook the meat. Rare meat is still cool in the center. It's chewy because the fats haven't completely melted and the muscle fibers are still tightly woven together. As a result the meat is drier and less giving against your teeth, with the fat and juices slowly melting into your mouth as you chew. Medium rare is warm throughout and the juices are lightly flowing. The muscle fibers have softened and each bite breaks apart much more quickly, releasing still more juice and flavor into your mouth. Medium meat is very juicy, so much so that you actually lose a significant percentage to the plate as you cut the meat. Much of fat has rendered out, loosening the muscle fibers so that the strands are easily broken apart. This results in meat that barely needs a steak knife and the cut pieces are usually swiped through the juices on the plate making them seems juicier than they actually are. Medium well is drier and while it has the reputation for being flavorless it simply has a different flavor. In some ways it can taste even more beefy due to the loss of fat and moisture. Medium well is more about the flavor of the char that builds up on the outside of the steak paired with the ropy texture of meat.

Speaking of the char, as we all know, that is so important. Otherwise we would just steam the steaks or serve them straight out of a sous vide bag. The difference between grilling and sauteeing meat is the crust. A cast iron skillet yields a totally different effect than a grill or a wood burning oven. For some people that crust is the holy grail. It's not so much about the texture of the meat on the inside it's the salty, crunchy goodness on the outside and that well cooked texture that matters most. While many of us will happily nick the crusty, well done pieces off a roast we don't think of steak in those terms. Our personal prejudices often say that steak must be juicy and pink. Think about this, a nicely cooked well done steak is like a giant piece off the top of the roast. You can argue that steak is too expensive to be treated that way but the person who loves well done meat will never agree. That's the beauty of food and there is room for everyone at our table.

Years Past

August 15, 2012

August 15, 2011

August 15, 2010

August 15, 2009

August 15, 2008

August 15, 2007

August 15, 2006

August 15, 2005

Posted on August 15, 2013 at 07:40 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (3)

Perfectly Distressed

Years Past

August 14, 2012

August 14, 2011

August 14, 2010

August 14, 2009

August 14, 2008

August 14, 2007

August 14, 2006

August 14, 2005

Posted on August 14, 2013 at 08:27 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Willfull Blindness

Margaret Heffernan explains why we all have it sometimes and why it's important to take off the blinders.

Years Past

August 13, 2012

August 13, 2011

Posted on August 13, 2013 at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reach for It

It's what we do with things when we have to struggle a bit that really showcases who we are.

Years Past:

August 12, 2011

Posted on August 12, 2013 at 07:38 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Huggable

"Good food makes you want to stand up and give someone a hug."

-Kevin Nashan

Yesterday Kevin picked us up from the St. Louis Media Forum so we could get another taste of the local cuisine while we were in town. We stopped by Sump Coffee where I got to taste the complex and slightly acidic glory of their Kyoto coffee. Then he took us over to his place, Sidney Street Cafe, and gave us a tour. It's a beautiful place that makes you want to curl into a seat with a nice glass of wine and settle in for a great meal. Amaya's not quite ready for fine dining dinners yet but we thoroughly enjoyed seeing the front and back of the house. Kevin showed us everything from the vegetable beds in the parking lot to the salumi hanging in the cellar. It gave us something to anticipate the next time we come back.

After that we headed over to Bogarts, a barbecue institution. As we passed by looking for parking we could see the line snaking out the front door and down the block. No matter, we found a spot and joined the queue. As we neared the front door Chef Skip Steele wandered out to check the line. He came over to see Kevin as we entered the building. They chatted amiably while Amaya entertained herself looking at all the people as she soaked in the atmosphere. Shortly thereafter we were handed cups and shooed towards a table where Skip and his wife treated us to one of the best barbecue meals we've ever had. We happily ate until we couldn't possibly fit in one bite more. Kevin boxed up the leftovers to take back to the restaurant. Meanwhile Amaya slipped a rainbow colored Bogart's t-shirt over her dress and twirled in circles in front of the restaurant window.

Kevin uttered the memorable words above as we were finishing up our meal and it struck me immediately. A great meal served by warm hearted and generous souls makes you feel as though you've already been hugged and you have an overwhelming need to share the love. All of our meals in St. Louis have felt like that, delicious food served by and shared with truly wonderful people.

Years Past:

August 11, 2011

August 11, 2008

Posted on August 11, 2013 at 04:41 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (1)

St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake

While teaching the workshop yesterday I mentioned that we had never tasted St. Louis gooey butter cake before and was hoping to find it on this trip. Kimberly heard the want in my voice. She quickly made some phone calls. This morning our new friend Chuck, her husband, made a special trip to a Russell's. He swung by the Food Media Forum and delivered the still warm cake. Eating our first gooey butter cake put me into sugar overload. It was everything I expected it to be and more. Smooth and creamy, it was a blanket of sugary goodness on a soft, shortbread-like crust. After a little time to digest I was filled with ideas. The tang of the filling and its luxurious mouthfeel would make for an incredible ice cream, perhaps pureed into a custard base as the sweetener. And since we were on the ice cream path, why not make it a soft serve flavor? And since we are in St. Louis after all, why not take a page out of the Ted Drewes playbook and turn this local specialty into a concrete? Start with a coffee custard and mix in chunks of gooey butter cake. The ideas just keep on rolling.

Years Past:

August 10, 2012

August 10, 2011

August 10, 2009

Posted on August 10, 2013 at 05:35 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (2)

Crumbs versus Croutons

I've never been a fan of croutons. Especially popular when I was a kid at places like Beefsteak Charlie's salad bar (anyone else remember the chopped chicken liver and all you can eat shrimp?) they have become a seemingly automatic topping on salads everywhere. I never understood the allure. Commercially produced croutons are especially daunting with their stale flavor and dredging of dried herbs. To be fair I have tasted a few delicious, freshly made croutons but their large size always seemed to pull focus from the main event, the vegetables.

Last night we had dinner at Pastaria in St. Louis. I have a thing for kale salads right now so ordering the shaved kale with anchovy dressing was automatic. It was a riff of the classic Caesar with extra anchovy in the dressing. The salad was gorgeous, topped with a generous scattering of crispy bread crumbs. Their added texture and flavor made the salad. They slipped through the crevices and adhered to the resilient green leaves, interspersed with creamy shreds of parmesan cheese and the slightly salty, pungent dressing. So good I know we'll be playing with this one at home, perhaps with Caesar-flavored crumbs to top a bright fish salad or crispy cornbread crumbs for green tomato salad. It was one dish in a truly great meal. Now we just have to get Gerard and Adam to open one in PA.

Years Past

August 9, 2013

Posted on August 09, 2013 at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bourbon Butter Process

We started with our bourbon butter parts. We planned to culture the butter for 24 hours. Due to cooler temperatures we let it go another 12 hours. Then we refrigerated the cultured cream. We churned it in the food processor. Then we soaked roasted corn husks in the buttermilk and wrapped them around the butter. We vacuum sealed the husks in place. We let the butter infuse for several days. We cut the bag open to taste the butter when my patience caved.The butter is sweet and tangy. The aromatic vanilla notes from the bourbon permeate the butter. The roasted husks blend with the smoky notes of the bourbon essence. The only thing missing was some coarse salt and roasted corn.

Years Past

Posted on August 08, 2013 at 05:04 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hand Cut Penne

We extruded large ropes of rigate. We used dies 78 and 79 for the Arcobaleno AEX18. We let the ropes air dry on the pasta trays for several hours. Then we hand cut the ropes into penne. The results are worth the effort.

Years Past

August 7, 2012

Posted on August 07, 2013 at 08:03 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (2)

Herve Mons St. Nuage

We love the Herme Mons camembert so when we saw this triple creme at Whole Foods it was a no-brainer to pick it up. This cheese is something special. It was perfectly ripe without even a hint of ammonia, meltingly soft and tender, with a range of textures. It was ever so softly ripe and pungent in a way that we wish we could find more cheeses. This St. Nuage was an absolute pleasure to eat. We served it to a group of discerning palates (i.e. chefs) on pizza night and they seemed equally happy to taste it with crackers and sliced local peaches. And again on a pizza paired with roasted onions, bacon, and arugula. It was everything we love in a cheese, smooth, creamy, subtle and assertive all in one delicious bite. If we can secure more and hold ourselves in check we will explore using it in a ravioli filling and to make ice cream.

Years Past

August 6, 2012

Posted on August 06, 2013 at 07:49 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (3)

Charred Cabbage Rice

We started with charred cabbage. We added cold brewed dashi. And rice. The rice was the vehicle for flavors. It tamed the bitterness and heady aroma from the cabbage. The subtle dashi delicately filled in the flavor blanks.

Years Past

August 5, 2012

Posted on August 05, 2013 at 09:38 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pick Your Own

It was a gorgeous morning and we knew we needed to find something to do outside. The answer was easy, a visit to Solebury Orchards, one of our favorite local spots. We were lucky because in addition to cherry tomatoes there were blueberries and blackberries ripe for the picking. And in the farm market we also discovered fragrant peaches and nectarines. It was a good haul for everyone involved. Amaya discovered the joys of super sweet tomatoes eaten straight off the vine and watching butterflies gather nectar from the wildflowers. Days like these are what summertime is all about.

Years Past

August 4, 2012

Posted on August 04, 2013 at 06:49 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, Beyond the Kitchen Doors, INSPIRATIONS | Permalink | Comments (2)

Corn Husk Bourbon

With the bounty of corn comes the added bonus of corn husks. They are a surplus of flavor to be harnessed. We are working with our roasted corn husks again. Today we stuffed them into a clean bottle. We poured 750ml of bourbon over them and now are waiting for the flavors to meld. If I wasn't feeling overly patient we could use our pressure chamber to expedite the infusion process. Sometimes we like to try things the old fashioned way. We'll see how long my patience holds out.

Years Past

August 3, 2012

Posted on August 03, 2013 at 03:49 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Heirloom Tomatoes

There's something appealing about big, ripe heirloom tomatoes. Their skins are smooth and silky as you hold them in your hands, their weight and firmness just hinting at the pleasures within. Streaks of color blossom and fade across their surface. Their stem ends are large and misshapen, sometimes carving brown lines deep into the flesh. In the heat of full summer there's nothing I like better than a few moments alone in a cool room with sunlight bouncing off the windows. In front of me a pinch of truffle salt and a scattering of herb salt sit alongside a fat, juicy tomato. In blissful solitude I lift it to my lips, pausing to savor it's delicate earthy aroma, before sinking my teeth into the tender flesh. Juices run down my chin and the rough salt tingles against my tongue as I savor one of summer's very fleeting indulgences.

Years Past

August 2, 2012

Posted on August 02, 2013 at 07:05 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (1)

Charred Cabbage

In college we played the game "can we fry this?" Now we are playing "can we char this?" Flavor-wise there's a subtle difference between burning and charring. Burnt food has that bitter undertone that ruins the flavor of something you expect to be perfectly cooked. Purposeful charring deepens that burn into something that creates a flavor of its own. It has an odd richness to it and while the bitterness is still there, it is somehow tempered by the deep flavors that develop during the prolonged application of heat. We put a head of Savoy cabbage into our blistering hot wood fired oven and deliberately charred the exterior. Because a head of cabbage is very dense, the insides covered a full range of textures. The blistered exterior flaked and blackened and there was a clear demarcation line between the inner and outer layers. The beauty of this process is that it now allows us to bring everything together. More to come...

Years Past

August 1, 2012

August 1, 2009

Posted on August 01, 2013 at 07:35 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (3)