Archive for November, 2009
Lobster Parts
November 21st, 2009
Seeing the parts to work with opens up limitless paths to take.
The greatest question to answer is what will be delicious today?
Posted in
Cocktail Sauce Cavatelli
November 20th, 2009
Restaurant Eloise to close November 29th.
November 19th, 2009
It is with much sadness we are writing to tell everyone who have
supported Eloise in the past sixteen months that we have decided to
close the restaurant as of Monday, November 30th.
We
will continue with normal service through Sunday, November 29th and
would love a chance to say goodbye to any of you who would like to come
in before then.
We thank each of you for your patronage,
enthusiasm and encouragement. We have loved serving you and look
forward to a time when we may meet again.
Fondly,
Eric, Ginevra and the entire Eloise Staff
——-
I cannot begin to express how sad this note makes me. While mega-chef empires grow, the independently-owned restaurants struggle, and many of them are folding.
I have no doubt Eric & Ginevra will be welcomed, appreciated and encouraged to thrive wherever they unfold their knife bags next, but it does not take away the overwhelming sense of discouragement I imagine they feel now.
If you live in Northern California I beg of you to eat the food these two wonderful chefs grow and cook before November 29th.
The Cure
November 18th, 2009
Methocel and the aroma of corked wine often go hand and
hand. This affinity to a terrible aroma and smell has led us to often overlook
it on the shelf of ingredients on hand. Thankfully a fine chain of events has
happened. First, we are putting the finishing touches on our book and therefore
are knee deep in everything. Second of all we still make time to read.
Unfortunately, we were preoccupied when this article on wine, written by Harold
McGee , first came out and had to wait until recently to read of using plastic
wrap to cure corked wine from the adventures of Cooking Issues and
Harold McGee.
The essential quote is here:
“Mr. Waterhouse said that the obnoxious, dank flavor of a “corked” wine,
which usually renders it unusable even in cooking, can be removed by pouring
the wine into a bowl with a sheet of plastic wrap.
“It’s kind of messy, but very effective in just a few minutes,” he said. The
culprit molecule in infected corks, 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, is chemically
similar to polyethylene and sticks to the plastic.”
The idea
mulled in our head because we have certainly poured a number of corked bottles
down the drain.
As we said,
we are doing a lot of writing and cooking. The trigger was the article.
Something about the aroma of corked was bothering me. I was refining our
Methocel recipes. I came across that stupid corked aroma.
Ah ha!!!!!
Let’s see if the old corked aroma plastic wrap trick works with Methocel. I
took our base, wadded up some plastic wrap and mixed the two together. Slowly
it went away. The aroma, that obnoxious taste was no longer there. Methocel
with the addition of the cure is now high up on the list again.
Olive Brined Artichokes
November 15th, 2009
We continue to be amazed at how flavors that we are surrounded with are often overlooked until the right time. As we have been looking to simplify the process of cooking artichokes while accentuating their flavors a jar of olive brine took charge and solved the problem. Green olive brine and artichokes are a match we should have been working with for years and have only just recently experienced. Now we have tasted and there is no looking back.
Smoked Hazelnut Zest
November 14th, 2009
Perfectly Cooked For Us
November 13th, 2009
The term slow cooked has become synonymous with well cooked. We have certainly fallen victim to the curse of wanting to cook slowly because it is the perceived way to get optimum results. Thankfully our book writing is pushing us to expand our boundaries and question our believed approaches. In questioning what we think we know we are able to improve our cooking exponentially.
Most recently we have been able to cook a hot spring egg, not in a microwave, in ten minutes. The results are a cooked white, really the white is cooked and not a translucent membrane. The yolk is viscous and runny. This is the egg we have always wanted to achieve, yet we were stuck in the rut of shared knowledge worn deep by what was believed and spread rather than what was tested.
We have now removed a good amount of time off of our circulators to do list while producing an extremely delicious egg.
2.0 does not always mean better
November 12th, 2009
The second version of something does not mean it is going to be better. We were reworking our smoked pasta recipe and I was committed to the aesthetic of a black dough colored and eventually seasoned with roasted barley. Unfortunately, no matter how I tried the roasted barley and the smoked flour did not get along. The dough is beautiful and as far as aesthetics go 2.0 is the way to go. As for taste 2.0 has to go. No matter the beauty without the taste the dish fails.
Back to the original. It works, it stands the test of time and it is really good. Sometimes the first version is the right version.