Chef at Home

Archive for October, 2009

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I'll admit it, I was skeptical. Although Ad Hoc should be the most me of all the Thomas Keller books I still raised my eyebrows when Alex expressed his enthusiasm for it. During Jonathan Benno's reign Per Se was my favorite restaurant for a splurge. Could TK, the master of fine dining, really do down home? This book is the real thing. We paid for it ourselves, as we do with most (but not all) of the books that we've actually loved, and I'd happily spend the money again to share it with someone I thought would appreciate it. When we happen to find ourselves in Napa Valley again I'll look forward to knocking on their doors and experiencing it all for myself.
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The popover is not just a vehicle for cheese, despite what I may have wanted to believe. This morning Aki insisted on making popovers, oh what a hardship for me, and furthermore she insisted they were to have no cheese. Really, no cheese I thought? I begrudgingly accepted this horrific compromise.

 

It is a good thing too. First of all, I saved myself from having to apologize for not believing. Secondly, a number of new ideas blossomed by following her lead. Aki's no cheese policy for the popovers left them as blank slates for sweet cream butter and Kitty's strawberry jam. My first bite of this combination had me asking why popovers have been missing from my breakfast table for my whole life. While I slathered, chewed and smiled, ideas began to blossom. The first was to dig out some creme fraiche and Steve's caviar. What a wonderful vehicle the popover would become. The next was to expand on Wylie's idea of filling gougeres with aerated scrambled eggs and make a wonderful breakfast surprise. What other goodies have we overlooked and perhaps not thought enough about?

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Beef strip loin bathed in whey and about to go into the cvap for a spell. Our next step is to begin work on an interesting curd to go with the beef.
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With the chill in the air, an actual frost last night, the aroma of poached fruit is needed to help warm the house and the soul. The aroma of poached quince is a marriage of apples and pears with tropical undertones hooked up to an aroma amplifier. The one caveat is that in the time it takes to cook quince the finished fruit has given its aroma to kitchen and the fruit is lacking. We have sought to help the aroma permeate the fruit by cooking it with aromatics which remind us of the fruit. The plan is to supplement the aroma of the quince in order to keep it intact for the eating process.

 

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As the cold air creeps through our bones, veal shanks and pork shoulders dance through our heads. There is something special about a family style course in a meal. It is more the perception and feeling of something prepared in a larger form which is then  broken down and served for a group of people.

 

We are lucky enough to cook for specific groups and numbers of people and continue to evolve our own preparations and presentations. In a workshop on Saturday we refined and shared the process for a skirt steak roast crusted with bacon. The roast is cooked sous vide  and then finished in a cast iron skillet to crisp the bacon and add some crusty bits to the exterior of the steak.

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We were cooking a birthday dinner and sought to bring what was on our mind to the plate. The dish was steamed cod with smoked peanut pumpkin puree and garlicky spinach. The goal was delicious and straightforward. What was missing was the sauce. 

 

We are captivated by table-side sauce, not for fanfare, rather for the application of seasoning at the last possible moment so that the aesthetic both on the palate and with the eyes is not compromised. The dish ate wonderfully as it was, however, we believe a refined sauce with a distinct voice would elevate the dish from straightforward to unforgettable.

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We have taken our whole fruit cookery a step further. Now we are cold smoking gala apples in their skins, then vacuum sealing them and cooking them for an hour at 84 degrees C. The result is a smoked apple with a firm texture and the beautiful pinkish hue. The rose color sparked a visual connection to our crab apple crisps and a dish was born. We took our twice cooked scallop approach, really in this case just cooked once at 50 degrees C, then chilled and topped with a salad of smoked apples, red ribbon sorrel and crab apple crisps. The scallops and apples are seasoned with salt and lemon oil. The dish is clean, bright and refreshing. The smoked apples are not a far reach from the more common bacon and scallop combination. 

 

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I’ll admit it, I was skeptical. Although Ad Hoc should be the most me of all the Thomas Keller books I still raised my eyebrows when Alex expressed his enthusiasm for it. During Jonathan Benno’s reign Per Se was my favorite restaurant for a splurge. Could TK, the master of fine dining, really do down home? This book is the real thing. We paid for it ourselves, as we do with most (but not all) of the books that we’ve actually loved, and I’d happily spend the money again to share it with someone I thought would appreciate it. When we happen to find ourselves in Napa Valley again I’ll look forward to knocking on their doors and experiencing it all for myself.

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place i call home
someone in california i've never met
person whose words stay with me, tucked safe, all day. following me like faeries, inquisitive, flirtatious, firey, expansive, temptive.
i have always had a crush on you, red headed girl
city i used to live in and live in again but you're a different city now
red bicycle
fellow who knows and has always known and may always know but who i'll never kiss
farmer and keeper of land and dogs and swimming hole i know as well as my body
Yorkshire girl collecting evidence, wearing pink shoes and being a fierce friend for 20 years this october
co-pastry chef one and also two
treehouse i left behind
succulents
family i've come to know who speak a hundred languages and live where the Eurostar takes a turn
i have a crush on you
s.s. you know who you are. you have a different name and so do i. you write long letters and aren't afraid of my words.
i have a crush on you chocolatey spicy deep taste of freshly roasted ground and espresso'd and hot milked coffee
Bonsoy soy milk
pastry chef camaraderie
Mentoring
inspiring
Neal's Yard Paddy & Rob whom i've never met but whose voices i drink once a week
i have a crush on you
girl with music at her fingertips and an Unlikely name
married bois and that one from Canada who makes me blush when we play Bridge
and you
silver haired LA boyfox who conjured and pulled me here, upon his lifeboat, and fed me delicious cakes and could see my path even when i can't because my eyes are muddy
azo. always i will love you. always i will be seen by you. always i will believe you'll come back down to earth
cb. you are big and bigger and also i remember when your father threw the salad out the window. i will visit that bench in central park and remember our first kiss.
i have a crush on you number four because you're orange and,     well… so there.
bw. because i will never be able to tell you. your brother is a close second because he's so much you, and yet completely opposite.
yes, i know you think it's silly but i have a crush on you aj and your pink tie and practical nature and mostly i love that you give gm what he never would have taken from anyone else. not even me.
i have big long-standing crushes on you euro boys in shepherd's bush who have made me rabbit stew and the best aubergine i have ever had. i love your open open hearts
i have a crush on you hp because you have allowed me to reach in and pull out gently what was there always.
rgl. you are brave in ways you may never realize.
db, of course.
aw who used to be ab with the longest double word score name. you have known me since before i could look back at the person in the mirror
i have a crush on you
ok. your grace stunned me when i walked into your kitchen. i will never be the chef i was before i met you. i know something else now because of you. i know another side of integrity and sharing. and no matter how scared the people i work with are in my future, i will remember how you shared and opened all your doors to me. even though you knew very well what i was doing there.
and you mr x. thank you for being my ally and for teaching me about why Hobarts are the best stand mixers in the world.
i have a crush on you dl from Israel with your scratchy tough exterior and bold tone. you're straight and you'll never see my eyes but i see you. and felt honoured to be on your team.
i have a crush on you ah and tmp because you have years yet to know your power behind the stove. i hope i get to see you tear that cocoon apart and stand as tall as your dna made you.
i have a crush on you too d. spratt and not just for your surname! you knew my name and said it aloud. you saw me and placed me there, even though you don't know it.
i have a crush on you: my Bridge game. because i get to conjure everything my mother taught me, but have the time to learn now.
roy. your camp is infectious. your love of baking is physical, literal, body. it is not about fame but about the alchemy of butter meeting flour and marrying inexplicably, tenderly. your humour is silly but when it comes to the kitchen you swim seamlessly with moving tide and undertow alike.
i have a crush on you new york city, to whom i am about to return. to whom i am indebted to for pages and libraries of adventures, original crushes, heartbreaks, delicious tastes and bitter grief.
i might even have a crush on you u n c e r t a i n t y
because you continue to teach me to put one foot in front of the other even though the horizon is obscured, let alone any forest.
i have a crush on you
life.
even though i never thought i'd say that.
you give unrelentlessly,
everything.
and i have a choice
to pick it up, fold it carefully, and hold it close
if i so choose.
i have a crush on you
heart.
because you remind me i am who i have always been and no amount of hardening
will make you wooden.
will stop you from beating
and having crushes
on you.

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