Chef at Home

Archive for July, 2009

Often times words, visions and actuality differ.

What did you envision?

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Why do cherries and cheesecake go hand and hand? Every cliche has roots
in true flavor pairing. The smooth, rich, slightly bland, vanilla
scented flavor of the cheesecake can be nicely balanced by sweet, meaty
cherries with their subtle tang. We’re talking fresh cherries, not the
fluorescent cherry topping so ubiquitous in a certain style of
restaurant. Frankly they just taste good together, each subtly
enhancing the other. We have enjoyed lightening cheesecake in the style
of our blown up brie and paired with cherries the texture is pure
dynamite.

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If you want to know what I'm doing right now, just about every day, for hours upon overlapped hours at a time; I'm working. Restaurant schedules, otherwise known as ROTA's in London, are quite a bit different than they are in the US. Most restaurants have 1 shift per day– it is a day. Lunch & Dinner is what you work, if you work that day. Especially in Michelin rated restaurants.

My job is a little more human. If you work from morning to morning it's considered 2 shifts and it's called a 'double.' But we don't work them every day. In fact most of us only work 1 double a week, with a cap on 7 shifts.

But tomorrow I go in for a double which will be followed by a double, so I won't re-surface until my 'lie in' on Saturday. And then I work Saturday night.

But I wanted to pass something on to you.

A bread I'm obsessed with making/perfecting.

Heidi, over at the inimitable 101 Cookbooks, has kindly passed on a recipe from the new (anyone wanna send me one?) Big Sur Bakery Cookbook. It's called Hide Bread and you'll have to read her post, or better yet the cookbook, to know why it's called that.

All I know is that it's one helluva bread, and you don't even need yeast or a mixer to make it! Two bowls, a floury surface, a knife and an oven. Check.

Here in England the flour is really different than it is in the States, so I've been tweaking and toying and teasing this fine bread bun into healthful submission, a wee bit at a time. Know this before anything else: flour is REALLY absorbent here. If you think you need more moisture to feed this thirsty beast, you do. Do not keep cakes and muffins and cookies and bread away from the hydration they crave.

If you do, you will be left with a crumbly mess, a baked good worthy of nothing more than a smudge of forgiveness, something to drown under cream or custard; or is in the case with bread: Breadcrumbs.

This bread, this resource, is a keeper. It is an amazing bread toasted. It keeps, wrapped after cooling down completely, for 3-5 days on your kitchen counter. It's great sliced for eating and cubed for croutons. I love it with butter and marmalade, but it's also great at room temperature & naked.

I'm serious when I say I have a fixation on getting it just so. And now I have a kitchen to do it in.

As one word of 'warning': sunflower seeds, when baked, put out some sort of plant-chemical and they turn seriously green inside the bread. Do Not Be Alarmed– this is natural and normal and it is not mold.

Until I recover from my four shifts, my two doubles, my deep immersion into the land of breakfast-brunch-lunch-and-dinner, retail baked goods, new & improved plated desserts and bread basket baking, I bid you farewell.

Please consider making this bread. And if you do– tell us all your results, yeah?

Cheers, thanks. Ta.

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Chef A and Chef T are both part of the same restaurant group. Chef A calls Chef T looking for a helping hand.

Chef A: Dude, I’m in a pinch and looking for some Activa. Can you spare some RM and YG?

Chef T: RM and YG, I don’t think I have any of those. I only use the new stuff. It works for pretty much anything.

Chef A: The new stuff?

Chef T: Yeah, Activa FU, haven’t you heard about it?

Chef A: No, FU huh? And it works for everything?

Chef T: Everything I’ve ever needed it for.

4 hours later. Chef A calls back.

Chef A: You a–h—! It took me four hours to figure that out…

New is not always better, a lightly fictionalized account of a true story.

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The transfer of flavor is always exciting. We encapsulated yogurt in a.5% gellan bath and then soaked the kidney shaped capsules in clarified grapefruit juice. Since I was doing a variety of consommeés for the various classes I tried out a number of agar ratios. In my trials I became happy with .25% to produce an exceptionally clear liquid with an optimum yield. Since we were soaking our encapsulations in consommeé the skin remained visually transparent. Another idea which blossomed from looking at the white bean looking yogurt was encapsulating a white bean purée and marinating it in chorizo water to produce the tenderest white bean around.

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Today we realized we can impart all kinds of aromas into foods, liquids and dishes. Seeing the hose attachment designed for directing aroma proved the spark. Here we are infusing vodka with cinnamon. We also made black pepper infused whipped tomato. We are just beginning and with oysters on the brain I see some great potential.

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I came across these cool mini raclette melters on my travels through the Ferry building. Thankfully I snapped a picture because when I went back the next day they were sold out. At least we know the maker so we can locate the machines and have raclette on a more regular basis.

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devil's food cake
crunchy buckwheat
amedei milk chocolate cream
chocolate-almond-buckwheat dacquoise
hot fudge sauce
dark chocolate granita
milk chocolate-cocoa nib-crunchy buckwheat-maldon salt 'candy'
        –plated on a plate

crunchy buckwheat is buckwheat groats simmered in oil until toasted
'candy' is made by melting cocoa butter & chocolate, rolling between layers of parchment & chilling
dacquoise is not a true dacquoise because I've added buckwheat flour as well as crunchy buckwheat, but it still has that light but unleavened quality indicative of an egg white cake

spicy thai coconut soup sorbet
cilantro (fresh coriander)-kalamansi lime-cucumber-thai basil soup
mango slivers, diced jicama, cherries, nectarines, watermelon triangles
        — plated in a bowl

coconut sorbet is infused with galangal, ginger, green & red chillies, fresh & dried coriander, mustard seeds, basil, and dessicated coconut, then mounted with coconut milk
dessert is inspired by highlighting summer fruits & veg in gazpacho

ginger jelly
forbidden black & sticky rice
coconut cream
coconut caramel
fried sticky rice, two ways, sprinkled with amchur-salt-sugar
fresh dice pineapple
        –plated in a glass

ginger jelly has a kick from a long infusion/boil
forbidden black rice has one of the most amazing flavors & colours of any ingredient i've come accross. it's purple and black & blue mixed. while it is not 'sticky,' it works well with a sticky rice because both have their own distinct personalities
sticky rice is fried after it is cooked and sheeted single layer. it is also fried after sheeting much finer between two pieces of lightly oiled parchment, left to dry on stove & fried. the former method created little crunchy bits, the latter creates a rice 'cracker,' —- light and aerated, like a puff

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