Chef at Home

Archive for August, 2009

We literally stumbled across this ingredient at the Trenton Farmers Market. Actually, Aki saw it out of the corner of her eye and brought it to my attention. The aroma is intense, like oregano amplified to the 100th degree. The taste is crisp, cool, slightly bitter, and not nearly as intense as the aroma. It is oregano as a gentle ingredient. The succulent nature of the leaf with its juicy explosion makes it especially intriguing because we have never worked with an herb like this. To further add interest is its plethora of identities: Indian Borage, Mexican Thyme and Cuban Oregano. We have an array of exciting descriptions to utilize depending upon the final dish, its preparation, and presentation.

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We have been exploring mason jar cookery again. During our classes at Le Sanctuaire, we demonstrated the benefits of using a chamber vacuum machine and a mason jar to create miniature vacuum chamber to infuse pickles and marinades into fruits and vegetables. The demonstration led to the revisiting of cooking in a jar. When we were in Colorado we used to cook eggs in small jars and serve them at breakfast like a baked egg. We did not have a chamber vacuum machine out west so we just seasoned the eggs, sealed the jar and cooked the eggs at a low temperature. The evolving egg dish was wonderful. Over time we forgot about the dish. It may be time to return to that delicious preparation. Since then we have acquired a chamber machine and explored using the vacuum of the chamber to marinate tomatoes and other vegetables. What we did not do was apply controlled heat. Today we were looking at the ideas which were sparked out west, twice, and what we previously could and had not tried. We filled mason jars with maitake mushrooms, ginger, basil and soy sauce. We will be cooking at a variety of temperatures: 60, 70 and 83 degrees C, to taste and feel the results of mushroom cookery in a vacuum at lower temperatures What is also exciting about this approach is the mushrooms and in the future other vegetables will be able to retain their natural shape rather than being crushed by a bag.

Stay tuned for taste and texture results…

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Tomato water, from blended tomato, has transparency and the freshness of the fruit, just picked from the vine. It is like a clear stock and can be used in many ways, from being served as it is or mixed into more elaborated preparation. Its flavor just stands up well. 

Our amuse bouche are usually a single ingredient with very few garnishes. A clean note to start the meal with saltiness or spiciness. For this one, we set the tomato water and pour it into the bottom part of the spherical dome mold. We scoop out the center of the gelee to place in it a tiny peeled tomato. The top part of the mold is placed over and the tomato is encapsulated in its own water. Heirloom tomato seeds and a light cocktail sauce flavored with wasabi, garnish the tomato. Salt and olive oil are the final touches.

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A great result of the Mangalista pig dinner is that we were able to refine our honey ham ice cream. In the setting of the dinner it was served as part of the dessert course with Cracker Jack cracklin’s and pineapple upside down cake. Of course ham ice cream has its place in courses other than dessert. In a recent twist on the traditional we paired the honey ham ice cream with yellow watermelon and oxalis: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and even some umami.

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* The Following Material Is for Parents of Small Children Only and Otherwise Incomprehensible if Not Offensive to Others

Picking on the Food Network has become too easy. It’s low hanging fruit.
So … this week, at least, I thought I’d look at another network. One I actually watch. And these days, when I’m home, the majority of my TV watching time is spent sitting on the living room floor watching Nick Jr. and Noggin. I take an interest in my child’s viewing habits. For all my earlier promises to myself that I’d limit her TV watching time to like–half an hour a day–that has been a hard policy to enforce. Denying a 2 year old when her lip starts to tremble and her face crumples, a look of utter betrayal in her eyes as she implores me: “Da Da? I want Backyardigans!” has proven to be too much for me.
It’s edumacational anyways, right?

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Sometimes it’s the small innovations that make my day. Normally I reheat pizza in a skillet for a crisp bottom and melted cheese. This method works well if you don’t want to turn on the oven and if you don’t mind the fact that the top of the crust remains a bit soggy. Tonight I needed to reheat pizza for two so I pulled out the griddle. Unfortunately without the high sides to help keep the heat in the cheese wasn’t melting. As I stared at the slices, trying to melt the cheese through the force of my mind I had an epiphany. I could simply flip the pizza over. The crust would brown and the cheese would not only melt, it would become crispy and caramelized like a frico making the leftover pizza into something possibly better than the real thing. It worked perfectly and I crunched and chewed happily wondering why on earth I never thought of doing that before.

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The idea for a dish does not always come to you complete. It does sometimes, but not very often. It requires time, thought and usually several experiments. When Emilaino decide to make the pita bread, no one was sure about the what the results would be. All of the kitchen team liked it, and this means the pita is now a serious candidate for more thought to be finalized. 

We decide to fill the pitas with a soft filling to balance the crispiness and dryness of the bread. We first need to make a hole to insert the filling. Knives were not doing the job properly, so we used the drill with natural stone. Smoked eggplant turned out to be the best match. The eggplants are peeled, diced and seasoned with lemon juice and sea salt. Then they are steamed and lightly cold smoked to reinforce the natural spiciness of the eggplant. It is seasoned with olive oil with fresh parsley and placed in a piping bag. The pita are filled to order. 

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In today’s New York Times food section Harold McGee has written an indispensable article on preserving the quality of fresh berries in their natural state. We have often seen berries deteriorate before our eyes and were not smart enough to ask the question, how can we stop this? Harold was and shares his experiences and studies in this important article. Now we have a great technique to not only wash but preserve fresh berries for our extended enjoyment.

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