IDEAS IN FOOD: 30 entries from June 2014

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30 entries from June 2014

The Details

In creating our new space we are faced with the challenge of getting everything in place, retooling dysfunctional systems, trouble shooting the unexpected, and getting the answers solved. All while facing a continued influx of new questions. There are times when I just want the project done. I cannot think of the details, the finer points, the big picture. The weight of everything bears down and the desire to get rid of obstacles is enormous. These are the times you need to be thankful that you surrounded yourself with stronger, smarter, more passionate people. They are able to carry the weight, present options to problems, and find nuances to brighten ideas. The details are essential to the development. Without them we are lost.

Years Past

June 30, 2012

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 30, 2014 at 08:21 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chili Dogs and Fries

Outside our local Home Depot I came across a fantastic hot dog cart. The buns are griddled, the chili is spicy and bean laden. The American cheese was white and melted beneath the chili forming a gooey cheese sauce. The fries were textured and super crispy. While the meal was a quick pick me up, it had me thinking of variations on the combination. Whether it is adding fries right to the chili cheese dog or Poutine-ifying the fries by slicing the dogs into the chili and topping with a melted American cheese sauce.

Years Past

June 29, 2012

June 29, 2010

June 29, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 29, 2014 at 05:08 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

What Are You Looking For and What Do You See

Years Past

June 28, 2012

June 28, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 28, 2014 at 01:48 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Flour in Advance

It is interesting how ideas and techniques become bonded to certain applications. For instance we bread eggplant for frying in advance so the crumbs stick but we don't think about flouring soft shell crabs in advance. Instead we remove them from their marinade and dredge them to order. This is pretty stupid. It slows down cooking, makes our hands all gummy in starch and doesn't produce a better result. Actually we found that flouring soft shell crabs and fried chicken in advance allows the starches to hydrate. Then when we fry, the starches gelantinize and crisp up wonderfully. We found the pre-floured softies to be as crispy as their a la minute floured counterparts. Made to order is not always better, sometimes its better to work through the whole process and see what's happening and discover what is possible.

Years Past

June 27, 2012

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 27, 2014 at 08:19 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (3)

Marla Spivak

A clear and fascinating discussion about why bees are disappearing and why we should all care

by Dr. Maria Spivak via Ted.

Years Past

June 26, 2012

June 26, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 26, 2014 at 04:45 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Summer Treasure

We were thrilled to stumble across New Hampshire strawberries and tomatoes from Spring Ledge Farm in New London, NH. These were unexpected treasures. Sweet and savory fruits can be used interchangeably depending on the desired results from bolognese to sorbet. Changing your perspective allows for delicious innovations.

Years Past

June 25, 2012

June 25, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 25, 2014 at 04:21 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Strawberry Shortcake, Reinvented at Serious Eats

We have started a new column over at Serious Eats. We are taking a look at our favorite dishes, taking their essence for inspiration, adding our insights, and reinventing the original. We are playing with food in order to extract maximum flavor and create something deliciously different and familiar, all at the same time. Our first project was strawberry shortcake. We re-imagined the biscuit, amped up the strawberries, and clarified the flavor of the cream. Take a look at the reasoning and recipes over at Serious Eats.

Ideas in Food vs. Strawberry Shortcake: Reinventing the Biscuit

Ideas in Food vs. Strawberry Shortcake: Reinventing the Berries

Ideas in Food vs. Strawberry Shortcake: Reconsidering the Cream

Strawberry Shortcake on Steroids

Ginger Lemongrass Choux Pastry

Strawberry Pudding and Macerated Strawberries with Strawberry Sugar

Cool and Refreshing Buttermilk Granita

Years Past

June 24, 2012

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 24, 2014 at 07:46 AM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Frightened by Food

I am always amazed at how creepy and scary food icons are. Something that is meant to lure us in is actually pushing us away.

Years Past

June 23, 2012

June 23, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 23, 2014 at 05:14 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Strawberry Oat Bars

These are the easiest bars in the world. Take your favorite oatmeal streusel recipe and make it in a food processor. Take out half while the streusel is still sandy and reserve. Pulse the rest until it forms a soft, pliable dough that can be pressed into the bottom of a buttered 9-by-13 baking dish. Once the bottom layer is in the pan slice up a quart of fresh strawberries (preferably organic). Toss them with a tablespoon of cornstarch, 1/2 tablespoon of tapioca starch, and the juice of a lemon, and then scatter them over the bottom crust. Sprinkle the sandy streusel over the top and bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes, until the top streusel is golden brown and everything is cooked through. Let them cool to room temperature, slice, and serve. Improvisation at it's best.

Years Past

June 22, 2012

June 22, 2006

June 22, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 22, 2014 at 06:47 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (2)

Simple Indulgence

We toasted the bagels, smothered them with scallion cream cheese, draped them with smoked salmon, and adorned them with wafer thin shavings of fresh jalapeno. What's yours?

Years Past

June 21, 2012

June 21, 2006

June 21, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 21, 2014 at 08:47 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (2)

Guacamole Pizza

I had been wanting to make an avocado pizza. Finally my mind and our preparations aligned. We topped a pizza with simple tomato sauce, chunks of mozzarella, and dollops of guacamole (in the style of ricotta on a white pizza). The pie cooked up beautifully and ate well. Interestingly it left me craving not a guacamole pie, but an avocado pie. Thin slices of creamy fruit, lightly blistered from the heat of the oven, with its fat glistening on each piece, seasoned with coarse salt, and topped with grated cheese. I wish we had begun with the simple version instead of the more complex. A lesson worth learning again.

Years Past

June 20, 2012

June 20, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 20, 2014 at 08:36 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Starting Point: Broccoli and Cheese

By having a point of reference we can begin to tell a story.

Years Past

June 19, 2012

June 19, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 19, 2014 at 05:02 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Broth Dressing

We have been working with broth. We keep a fair amount of it in our freezer. Whenever we roast chicken we save the leftover skin and bones and pressure cook them with water the next day. Sometimes we use a lot of broth and sometimes the supply grows in the freezer.

The other night we cooked macaroni. Besides the pot of boiling water was a deep sided sauteuse with broth. We transferred the al dente pasta to the shallow pool of hot broth and let it finish cooking, stirring constantly so that the macaroni would absorb the liquid evenly. When the broth became a glaze, we folded in cheese. Shortly thereafter we were eating a luscious, meaty macaroni and cheese. The noodles had a silky texture and a nice chew. We used substantially less cheese than we normally do and still the noodles were intensely cheesy. The rich flavor of the broth deepened the natural flavor of the cheese.

With temperatures in the nineties, today we decided to make pasta salad. Too often the dressing of choice is a heavy mayo-based mixture that soaks into the noodles leaving them dry and somewhat sticky. We decided to further explore the use of broth. Aki cooked the noodles until they were al dente. Then she rinsed them briefly in cool water and put them in a bowl. She added a generous amount of just warmed broth to the noodles and stirred them together. The noodles slowly absorbed the broth, sucking in the flavor. When the noodles were heavily saturated, knowing they would eventually pull in all of the liquid, she folded in a dollop of Duke's mayonnaise. She folded in the cold braised chicken that had been cooked in the broth, seasoned the mixture, and chilled it for a couple of hours, stirring it occasionally. About 2 hours before dinner she added seasoned, peeled, bite-sized chunks of cucumber, yellow pepper, and orange pepper. The pasta salad was amazing. It was silky and rich. It was evenly and lightly dressed. It was packed with flavor and had a resilient texture. A summertime staple has been upgraded.

Years Past

June 18, 2012

June 18, 2006

June 18, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 18, 2014 at 07:20 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Transplanting

Moving is tough. No matter how positive an experience you want it to be it's a major change in life. These past few weeks wrapping things up here in PA have taught us that it's not about what you take or what you leave behind, it's about how you grow and develop in a new environment. We're still in the process of saying goodbye to a place that is very dear to us, as we look towards a new beginning. We can only hope that our transplanting will allow us to develop strong roots and flourish in a new home.

Years Past

June 17, 2012

June 17, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 17, 2014 at 06:49 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Size and Shape

Gluten Free Dinner Rolls

The life of a cookbook author is full of interesting questions. Is a dinner roll still a dinner roll if you bake it in a muffin tin? Traditionally you used muffin tins for muffins and cupcakes; nowadays muffin tins are used for everything from hash brown nests filled with baked eggs to individual meatloaves and lasagnas. So if you take bread dough and bake it in a muffin tin does it automatically become a muffin just because it looks like one? It's a sticky question because they are both bread products though in texture and in composition they are distinctly different. We decided that a roll is a roll because of the dough and not because of the baking vessel. But still, it made us think about how often things are based on appearance rather than what's inside.

Years Past

June 16, 2007

June 16, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 16, 2014 at 06:43 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes | Permalink | Comments (0)

Frosting and the Hair Dryer

We were working on a chocolate cake. The frosting is super thick and chocolatey. The texture goes from spreadable to set rather quickly. We were photographing the frosting process and this became something of an issue. As the frosting stiffened, I wondered if a hair dryer set on medium would allow us to gently warm it back to a spreadable state. It worked better than I hoped. I heated the frosting, stirred it, and warmed it some more. It took a few passes of the hair dryer to make the frosting spreadable again. In the end it was as good as new, perfect for finishing the cake. The hair dryer also proved itself to be a useful tool for a late addition of decorative chocolate rosettes.

Years Past

June 15, 2012

June 15, 2006

June 15, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 15, 2014 at 05:26 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (1)

Egg on the Chicken

A few weeks ago we went to Percy Street BBQ after a stop at the Sunday Philadelphia farmers market. We ordered brisket covered cheese fries and an asparagus salad to start. The BBQ fries were awesome and have had me craving them almost daily since crushing them that day. The asparagus salad was a "chef's greatest hits" plate. It had mustard dressed asparagus, farmers cheese, a soft boiled egg, and crispy chicken skins. As we attacked our "healthy" option I grabbed a chicken skin and topped it with a half of a soft boiled egg. This was one incredible bite. One we need to work on replicating again and again. So we can perfect it, of course. And let's not be afraid to improve on the original: from smoking the skins to marinating the eggs in BBQ sauce.

Years Past

June 14, 2012

June 14, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 14, 2014 at 04:53 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chocolate Cake

What do you think of when someone says "chocolate cake"? I tend to think of something like the picture above, layers of moist cake and rich frosting, chocolate on chocolate. (This beauty if from our upcoming gluten free cookbook, so sadly you'll have to wait for the recipe.) It's luscious and totally indulgent. I'm not really one for afternoon sweets because I hate the idea of ruining my dinner, but sometimes you just need some cake. Especially towards the end of the week, everyone is tired and ready for the weekend, but some afternoons you know there's still a significant amount of work to be done. So instead of pushing through when my brain is sluggish and I'm not at my best, I take a break. I set a timer so I know it's only a finite amount of time and then I take a quick nap or settle at the table with a slice of cake. It means I'll have to work a little bit later but in the end the work I do will be much better. A little indulgence goes a long way towards re-charging my mental batteries and this cake is so worth it.

Years Past

June 13, 2012

June 13, 2008

June 13, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 13, 2014 at 04:17 PM in At the Table, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Line Things Up

It is important to take the time to line up ideas, ingredients, systems, flavors, thoughts, you name it. It allows us to take a clear look at what we have on hand. With everything lined up we can move the pieces of the puzzles around and look to create.

Years Past

June 12, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 12, 2014 at 07:37 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Make it Thin to Make it Thick

We found some good looking boneless chuck short ribs at the store. But they were not that thick. We could have easily bonded them together to make double, triple, or even more thick short ribs. Instead we pounded them flatter, rolled them, and tied them into logs. The end result was reminiscent in shape to the aromatic braised short rib we used to cook at Clio years ago. But this time we were rolling slices of short ribs rather than full rib plates. Once they were tied it was time for cooking. While we did not brine them, a flavorful endeavor, we did cook most of them at 57°C for 24 hours.

We pressure cooked the remaining rolled short ribs for 45 minutes. Then we tasted the two styles side by side. It was fun to compare the differences between short ribs cooked to medium and their somewhat more traditionally prepared, tender, gelatinous counterparts. In both cases the thickness of the rolled meat added to the enjoyment of the meat.

Looking over the pictures it has us questioning what it would be like to explore the uses of flattened short ribs, both cooked and raw. Chicken fried braised short ribs are the start of the conversation.

Years Past

June 11, 2012

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 11, 2014 at 07:25 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sorrel and Strawberries

We decided to play with the iconic flavor combination of strawberries and rhubarb but we wanted to change things up. We substituted sorrel, a family member, for the the rhubarb. We seasoned the mixture with olive oil and salt. A rough mixing released some strawberry juices to dress the sorrel. The flavors blended as a savory condiment. While we ate it on its own, the salad would work well with fish, meat, additional vegetables, and cheese.

Years Past

June 10, 2012

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 10, 2014 at 08:03 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Freeze Dried Strawberry Ice Cream

Everyone has seen freeze dried ice cream a.k.a astronaut ice cream. We thought, why not make ice cream with freeze dried fruits? We can focus and intensify flavor without adding additional water and there is no need to cook the fruit. We started today. We used freeze dried strawberries and buttermilk to flavor our base. The strawberry flavor is vivid. The buttermilk is clean and tangy. The addition of guar gum will thicken the base and give it a slightly chewy texture without adding egg yolks. The base will rest for 4 hours giving the the flavors a chance to to meld and the guar gum time to fully hydrate. Then it's churning time.

Freeze Dried Strawberry Ice Cream

56 grams freeze dried strawberries

965 grams buttermilk

180 grams sugar

4.5 grams fine sea salt

1.4 grams guar gum

300 grams heavy cream

Put the freeze dried strawberries, buttermilk, sugar and salt into a blender. Turn the blender on low and increase the speed to high. Puree the mixture until smooth, about 1 minute. Reduce the speed to low and sprinkle in the guar gum. Increase the speed to high and puree the mixture for 30 seconds. Turn the blender off and add the cream. Turn the speed up to medium and puree for 10 seconds to blend in the cream. Strain the base and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up 12. Freeze the base in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

Years Past

June 9, 2012

June 9, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 09, 2014 at 04:57 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (1)

How to find and do work you love

...by Scott Dinsmore via TEDxGoldenGatePark (2D)

Years Past

June 8, 2012

June 8, 2006

June 8, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 08, 2014 at 05:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Soaked in Alcohol

One of the great things about using the Arcobaleno AEX18 is the bronze dies. They are functional and beautiful. The trick is figuring out the best way to store them. They come out of the pasta machine filled with dough. You have to store them in liquid so it doesn't harden into cement because the next time you use the die the old dough gets pushed out and discarded. If it solidifies then you've got problems.

We started out storing our dies in 1 cup deli containers submerged in water. We have hard water so we began to have issues with discoloration. Then we switched to vinegar and some of the dies started turning blue, probably due to the fact bronze is an alloy made primarily of copper. Recently we taught a workshop to a doctor who mentioned that he cleaned his equipment with pure alcohol. He suggested that this might be a good solution for what to store our dies in. A few bottles of Everclear later and we have to agree that soaking our dies in alcohol is the best solution thus far.

Years Past

June 7, 2012

June 7, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 07, 2014 at 06:34 PM in Approach to Cooking, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (1)

Partnership

It's all about ratios. You know it's working when you agree more often than you want to kill each other. And as long as you can laugh about everything later.

Years Past

June 6, 2012

June 6, 2008

June 6, 2007

June 6, 2006

June 6, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 06, 2014 at 06:00 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, Beyond the Kitchen Doors | Permalink | Comments (3)

Smoked Bench Flour

We smoke everything we can get our hands on, at least once. Smoked flour has been in our pantry for years. We've used it in pasta, pizza, bread, and salt crusts. What we had not thought of doing, until recently, was to use it as bench flour. We put a small amount of smoked flour in our pizza dough. It rounds out the flavor and adds a savory quality to the finished pies. We discovered this while writing Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work. We were making pizzas and had smoked flour on hand, so I used it to dust the dough as I stretched it. The smoked flour seemed to add a more pronounced smoky flavor to the pizzas. It was as though the wood oven was constantly in full burn as they baked. The flavor was present without being overwhelming, nicely contrasting the tomato sauce and toppings. The pizzas were delicious. The idea of using smoked flour as a finishing layer is one worth exploring further.

Years Past

June 5, 2012

June 5, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 05, 2014 at 05:24 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

Strawberry Milk

As is often the case, we were working on another project when we stumbled across something delicious and unexpected. Some leftover strawberry powdered sugar reminded me of Strawberry Nesquik. I took it and added 15%, by weight, to a glass of milk. I stirred it in and it mostly dissolved. But I needed a little more force to incorporate the remnants. I poured the milk into a quart deli container, put the lid on, and shook it furiously. Then I poured the frothy strawberry milk into a glass. The strawberries thickened the milk, the sugar sweetened the milk, and the results were stupendous. I had an icy cold, creamy, fruity, floral glass of strawberry milk, better than any I'd ever tasted before. Amaya will be thrilled with her new beverage.

Strawberry Sugar

28 grams freeze dried strawberries

100 grams powdered sugar

Put the strawberries and sugar into a dry blender. Put the lid on and turn the blender on low. Increase the speed to high to fully pulverize the strawberries into a fine flour. Store the strawberry sugar in a zip top bag or air-tight container. It will keep indefinitely at room temperature.

Years Past

June 4, 2012

June 4, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 04, 2014 at 04:41 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost

Years Past

June 3, 2012

June 3, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 03, 2014 at 05:58 PM in Balancing Tastes, Beyond the Kitchen Doors | Permalink | Comments (0)

Aromatic Veal

In our next installment we explored the idea of aromatics in low temperature cooking. We seasoned a 3-bone veal rack with salt and soy sauce. We set it on a pan and surrounded it with garlic tops, ginger, lemongrass, and lovage. We poured rose wine into the bottom of the pan and cooked it for 3 hours at 57°C in the CVap. The kitchen smelled amazing. When it finished cooking, we patted it dry, and then seared it in melted butter. Afterwards we strained the aromatic cooking liquid into the hot skillet, reduced it to a glaze, and poured it over the resting meat. The veal was juicy, infused with aromatic goodness, and the syrupy glaze reinforced the flavors with rich, caramelized notes.

Years Past

June 2, 2012

June 2, 2008

June 2, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Posted on June 02, 2014 at 01:53 PM in Approach to Cooking, Balancing Tastes, CULINARY EVOLUTIONS | Permalink | Comments (0)

A La Minute Injections

We were looking to make a more flavorful veal chop. We tried a new approach. We strained the braising liquid from our veal breast. We cooled it and heavily injected it into a 2 bone veal rib chop. Then we cooked the chop in the CVap at 57°C / 135°F for 3 hours. We removed the chop from the CVap and patted it dry. Then we roasted it in a cast iron skillet in a 345°C / 650°F wood burning oven to brown the outside. We let it rest and then carved it. The meat was juicy and full of the braising liquid. It was some of the tastiest veal we have eaten.

We cooled the leftover veal. The injection sights became obvious and somewhat unsightly though the meat was still delicious. The ability to focus and concentrate seasoning is incredible. If it becomes part of the process we are in for some delicious results. The key is cooking and eating a la minute.

Years Past

June 1, 2012

June 1, 2006

June 1, 2005

Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work

Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook